Cymbalina's Revenge

I'm pretty sure it's a deliberate way of indicating a commodity. An actual warhorse like the "destrier" Fernand mentions in FE15 isn't a cart horse or a plough animal any more than you'd hitch a Thoroughbred up to a plough. It's kind of an understated point in FE5 in particular, where almost no one in Leif's starting party has a horse because they're the local warlord and a bunch of peasants-- except Finn. Everybody knows Finn's a knight just by looking at him and they refer to him as such. How do they know? Dude's got a warhorse and a weapon meant for skewering people on horseback. Random peasants don't. Stealing horses in-game is a great idea though.

This. Lukas is way too comfortable with collateral damage. Clive's too emotional and it leads to indecision and military failures. Lukas is too cold-blooded and willing to embrace "end justifies the means" way of executing a war. If Clive were an actual pragmatist he wouldn't need to lean so heavily on Lukas, and Lukas frankly needs someone reining him in-- check out their minor disagreement over Fear Mountain if you haven't already. Clive offers the route that he thinks might be safest, Lukas advocates for an assault that risks high casualties but would bring good PR. As Fire Emblem's teen-prodigy army commanders go frankly I find the way Alm was handled to be pretty compelling. I guess it would be more realistic to have the teenager in charge of an army over his head and floundering, but that's what a Thracia 776 remake is for.

Leif is also 15. But yes, if Prologue Marth is 14 the way he was for the fall of Altea in FE3, then he'd be the youngest.

Yeah, Lukas appears to want the emotional validation that you see in many senior knight/junior knight supports through FE and Clive is just... not good for that sort of thing. He's getting what he needs out of their relationship and that Lukas isn't getting reciprocation isn't on his radar. Small wonder Forsyth ends up as Clive's deputy in the long run.

I think Lukas is a gift of a character and I don't know which camp I fall into of the "Why Lukas Is That Way" theories I've seen (child abuse vs sociopathy vs ASD) but I do want to point out that his retreat quote is something along the lines of "Was I too ambitious?" which struck me as weird when I got it mid-battle because ambition didn't, at the time, seem to be his hallmark. Still doesn't, really. As far as manipulation goes... despite his own emotional disconnect he's able to handle other people with surprising deftness whether it's Alm & the other villagers (I agree 110% with your reading of the Royal Sword scene) or his suggestion that Alm proceed with a "good-hearted" invasion to gather public support in Rigel that's bound to have collateral damage but hey, just a suggestion. It's not malicious manipulation by any means, but there are things about his way of handling people that are... interesting. Also one (value-neutral) trait of the sociopath is seeking out stimulation... and Lukas is the one who looks to the prospect of killing a god with a little smile on his face and the thought it might be, well, stimulating. I don't know that the interpretation can be ruled out. But then again, FE's had some pretty spectacular misfires when it comes to characters with mental illness or forms of neurodivergence and Lukas may not precisely map to anything but he's a hell of a lot more interesting to me than someone like Noire, whose presentation made me cringe. (Not saying it's not OK to like Noire but I personally don't.)

Exactly. Quan and Ethlyn are dead. Lachesis is MIA. At the beginning of the game Leif thinks that his pretend-sister Selphina and everyone who supported them in Alster is dead, plus he lost track of his BFF and ALSO believes his real big sister is dead. Adding Eyvel's corpse to the pile doesn't really do anything other than permanently deep-six a mature, competent, and esteemed female character (already not the most common thing) to give the hero extra grief when he's already wallowing in it. I agree that Behalla's impact is somewhat weakened when you count up the number of Gen1 characters who actually escaped the inferno but I don't see fridging Eyvel as a good counterbalance to it.

Lex x Tailtiu

Yeah, this. Check her stats, promote her, and check again to make sure your Silence user can take her on. I had to use the MCG ring to neutralize her my last PT.

Patty-- adorable design, adorable characterization, can actually fight with the right father. Rennac-- love his characterization too much to care about anything else. Anna -- FE13 waifu bias but honestly she was pretty cool. Gaius wasn't bad, though.

Merric, Lute, Laurent.

Abel / Finn / Forde / Titania /Stahl I love Roderick as a character but Abel is the The Man in FE11 and I like his storyline too. Finn's my favorite "cav" in the series overall-- great availability in two games, good characterization for the SNES era, great weapon, fun as hell to use whether it's Miracle abuse in FE4 or capturing goons in FE5. GBA cavaliers are a likable crew overall but Forde's personality puts him over the top for me. Titania just rocks in every dimension. Stahl's a great guy who knows his limitations and is trying to improve in a plausibly human way. Talks a little too much about food but man, I like him. Plus he was a good unit.

Nope. "Killed" all three of them over the years. Quan and Ethlyn leave as a pair. Finn leaves on his own. That's why there are three different dialogue variants at the beginning of CH4.

Yeah, having Bridget and Taillte appear at, say, turn 20 instead of turn 18 shouldn't hurt them at all when it comes to getting the pairings you want in the long run. Just don't seize Silvail super-early (turn 18 or earlier) and the math won't allow Finn to get Bridget, and she has priority over Taillte anyway. Is it even possible to resurrect Finn in Gen1? He's furloughed to home, not dead if his HP hits 0.

France went through periods of having fairly weak kings who lacked the wealth and power of the lords of Burgundy, Brittany, Anjou, Normandy, Aquitaine, etc. The idea of a lot of very powerful Lords under a nominal king who perceives them all as a threat fits quite a few situations out of French history. But a "kings under a High King" model happened in quite a few places over the centuries, not to mention it's a big part of Irish lore, so it's fine that Agustria and Grannvale have parallels to France and the HRE but don't map 100%.

I would argue Finn/Bridget (and Finn/Taillte) really hurt him less than other pairings in one respect. By the time Bridget and Taillte arrive on the map, you can easily already have a promoted Finn and you don't need to worry overmuch about getting him more kills. If you play the opening phases of the chapter efficiently (not LTC obviously, just seize Silvail by... turn 18?) then Bridget and Finn rack up enough points to get hitched without even be close to one another. If you've had him get the Thunder Sword drop from Jacoban, then BOOM. Sell everything he's got but rings and that sword and Patty is set. Same thing for Taillte except they have to be glued together for at least one turn for her to beat out Bridget. Both are less frustrating than trying to keep him with Raquesis in Ch2 when she has her stupid bodyguards and he really needs the EXP.

"Disturbance in Agustria" is my favorite player-phase map theme in all of Fire Emblem.

If you're dead-set on Lewyn/Tailte and Claude/Sylvia, you COULD do the following: Pair Erin(Fury, whatever) with Azel to pass down his magic talents to Ced or pair her with Noish to make Fee more of a physical unit. On the other hand, Noish can be a fun partner for Ayra because the kids end up with a ton of skills. The poster above is right that you can do anything with Ayra and have it turn out fine. I also think Jamke is a good partner for Ayra because the kids again get crazy skills and Ayra's holy blood makes up for Jamke's bad SKL stats. Raquesis can use someone with Pursuit-- even Alec doesn't do a bad job there. Her kids won't get sword skills from Holyn or Dew because her kids are both mounted units, so just roll with "some guy with Pursuit". Holyn and Dew OTOH work well with Briggid's kids on account of the sword skills. I personally think Holyn/Briggid does the best job but you can experiment. If you're not using Lex for anyone else (Lex/Taillte and Lex/Sylvia are both fun IMO) he can supposedly work with Briggid also, but I've never tried it. Aideen has no skills to pass down, so if you're not pairing her with Claude to give her daughter super-staff ability, you also might also want to give her a guy with Pursuit that you're not pairing with Raquesis. Midayle is easiest and lets Aideen's son inherit a great bow, but if you pair Aideen with Finn then Lana gets a special 5+ MGC boost in Chapter 7 that lets her cap MGC early. Midayle!Lester is easier to use in the early chapters but I've found Finn!Lester better over the long run (he can get a Brave Bow in Ch8) because he died a lot less. The whole thing about "Finn loses his weapons if you pair him" is a non-issue IMO. If you level him up and promote him by the end of Chapter 3, he'll be fine, and you can sell his lances to someone like Erin who'll make better use of them and pass them onto Fee.

8.5/10 for Quan. Great movement, crit bonus with Ethlyn, gives Finn stat boots and a super-lance. Good for setting up kills for others to clean up and can take a fair amount of damage. His holy weapon is fun for the five minutes you get to use it, and then it and he go bye-bye. Too bad he doesn't get it earlier in Chapter 3. Great but not perfect.

6/10. He has Pursuit, Nihil is good for recruiting Ayra and a few other things, and he makes a passable father for some kids thanks to Pursuit and sword inheritance. Alec/Raquesis was perfectly decent, for example. (Yes, the interactions with Sylvia are hilarious.)

This. I like him and enjoy the kids he makes with Ayra, but he's solidly mediocre. 5/10.

Fergus has a character ending which suggests he's not only Beo's kid but is likely a male heir to one of the Manster District kingdoms, which undermines Leif's status as "the last male heir" that he enjoys at the end of FE5. Just that the game made a point of Leif being the last male heir only to go "LOL Fergus" a few minutes later is aggravating. Yeah, Finn not mentioning Altena's survival until the beginning of Ch9 is certainly a gameflow issue, and from a dramatic standpoint it works very well, but from his dialogue with Leif there it's clear he's been holding that information since the battle for Manster (days? weeks? months? dunno) and only tells Leif when Leif asks him what's on his mind. He does not appear to be a "see something, say something" kinda guy unless something pushes him to it, like hearing Eyvel's backstory.

Yeah, well Finn does stuff like that. He could've busted fake!Shanan but didn't even though the fraud was actually hurting the reputation of the real Shanan and the dude was conning Mareeta. He didn't tell Leif about what really happened to Altena until Leif asked. For all we know he recognized Fergus (and for my money Ferg's secret identity is the worst plot twist in FE5) and didn't say anything about THAT either. But in this particular case, he probably didn't want to go there without something resembling proof or even evidence. Say, if Bridget had a holy mark in a visible place, or kept it covered up by her headband, and not!Bridget is walking around with no mark, it's kind of hard to assemble an argument that doesn't sound bonkers. When you're depending on someone else for survival you don't want them thinking you're a) nuts or b) perving on them in some weird oblique way. That Kaga interview in the Treasure artbook hints that something like the Bridget twist was planned for a while, though-- he said something about all the Gen1 Crusaders not necessarily being dead but that they'd been sidelined and couldn't join in the final showdown. Personally, I was meh on Bridget until I found out about the twist and it made me like her far more.

It was intentional. I remember telling him at the time that I kept reading Hawkesy as Hawkesye.

Like I said, Eldigan isn't a pragmatist. The Manster District wasn't stable but having two mature and healthy holy weapons users would've helped it-- the area was only dismantled once its warrior prince was killed and its holy weapon confiscated.

I actually think Eldigan is one of the most understandable "Camus" characters for all of the above. Grannvale already established they could subdue Verdane and hopscotch into Agustria while simultaneously waging a major war in Isaach. Dealing with Chagall's nonsense on its own is one thing, picking between Chagall's misdeeds and this imperial power breathing down your neck is a no-win situation even if Eldigan were a pragmatist and willing to break his vows to the royal family. Which, of course, he isn't. If Eldigan had made a reluctant power grab (or just let Chagall die in Ch 2) I guarantee his reign would've been short-- either Grannvale/Manfroy would murder him outright or they'd manipulate Sigurd into doing it. I agree with the poster who said the only good outcome for Eldigan personally would've been packing up Grainne and Ares and fleeing to Leonster. But that would leave the Austrian people in the soup, so...