[Fixed weapon ranks in Fire Emblem.]

to be fair, I'm sure promoted units would have at minimum like C rank for their primary weapon, so I don't think this would be an issue

and it'd make Donnel suck more

I would think it would make Donnel better. Part of the problem with Donnel is that he takes too long to build weapon rank. But if a reclassed Donnel would immediately have the same weapon rank as Vaike or Gregor, he's suddenly a lot better since he no longer has to work his way up from E.

[Making archers better]

Technically, Virion's base stats aren't that bad when you factor in that he has an Iron Bow to begin with while most other units are still using Bronze weapons.

[Let's Talk Skill Systems]

I liked how you learned new skills in Awakening by levelling up. Something like that, please.

[Gentleman, Ladies. Define the difference between]

I don't know about where you're from, but in at least some circles in the U.S., and as far as I can tell, in not an insignificant number of other conservative places in the world, the insult often accompanies wishing harm on somebody, or justifications for harm done to somebody. "What a slut, I hope you get raped," "they were a slut, they deserved [an unpleasant experience they had]," and so on. By "dehumanizing," I mean that many times, I have seen/heard the word used to, in effect, claim that somebody was a lower class of being than a normal person, and was less deserving of the same considerations and benefits that are (hopefully) afforded to all other human beings, everything else being equal.

If "slut" is dehumanising, then so is every other insult in the english language, because they're all also used in that way.

I've seen the word used too frequently and freely to, when I hear it, think "the person must have done something wrong to be called that." I've heard people recount that the possible threat of being called a slut, and the poor treatment they feared would follow from those around them, scared them into silence or inaction, even in situations where what they had done or were just thinking of doing involved no infidelity whatsoever. That brand of control through language has gone beyond "fearing the consequences of doing something bad," like, say, how I'd be liable to be called a monster if I tortured or admitted to wanting to torture somebody, or of being called a racist if I wore a Klan getup in public, and goes into the realm of "oh god I hope some asshole doesn't come along and try to ruin me today," over something like somebody's sex life that doesn't even necessarily hurt anybody.

You cannot seriously be claiming that people are more afraid of being called sluts than being called racists or torturers.

[Gentleman, Ladies. Define the difference between]

I'm way too used to seeing somebody being called a slut, just as part of an attempt to smear their reputation with minimal effort, and people can be way too quick to spread the label, even when sex with multiple people (or, in many cases, even one person) isn't actually involved for the person in question. It's a dehumanizing, often controlling (or attempting to be), and disproportionately gendered insult.

How is "slut" a dehumanising insult? If anything, I would take it as one of the most humanizing insults, because it's almost never used to describe animals, or animal behavior. In fact, I think it would be a little bit weird to use it to describe an animal...

I don't see how being a controlling word is bad, either. There's nothing wrong with using words to express disapproval of certain forms or modes of behavior.

If you're unhappy with the way that the word "slut" is usually used to describe women, then why don't you take action by using it to describe men?

[Why do people play games better when they're low on health?]

They don't, you're just more likely to notice when you survive for a long time on a sliver of health.

[FE6 improvement hack?]

Why improve FE6 when it's already so good?

[What are you hoping WON'T be in the next FE? Or wouldn't be against being removed?]

which final bosses HAVE actually moved?

I can think of Ashnard, and that's it

Idoun and Fomortiis both move.

[On the distinctions and roles of characters+classes.]

About archers, you're definitely right that they are best at player phase chipping (obviously, since they have virtually no enemy phase). Consequently, their usefulness varies game to game. Which wouldn't be a problem if they changed the class or map layout to fix this but with FE13's enemy phase heavy maps vs something like FE12 where archers are more useful, it is the consistency of the archer class (little to no evolution throughout the series besides the occasional mounted version) that makes them inconsistent (in the sense that if the class stays the same game to game but the enemy density changes, archers' effectiveness as a class is going to vary).

Even in a game like FE12, archers only have good EXP income against certain enemy types that they ORKO. That is to say, that even in games where their particular "niche" is useful, they still don't have stable experience gain because that niche doesn't give a lot of experience unless the game is stuffed with flying units. Take Leonardo vs Edward. Both are useful in their earlygame chapters, both are going to be used at every available opportunity; but the path of least resistance is to give kills to Edward instead of Leonardo. Even though they're equally "useful", that's not reflected in their EXP gain because Edward is better suited to finishing enemies off and Leonardo is better suited to weakening.

[On the distinctions and roles of characters+classes.]

The thing about archers is that they're best used for player phase chipping: a role that is useful, but gives little in the way of experience. Personally, I think the whole experience system should be completely revised.

[Hey, it's Vykan12 (re-introduction & apologies)]

Hello again. I'm glad to hear you sorted out your real-life problems... and I hope that SF doesn't turn into a problem again for you. You don't have to apologise for leaving.

[FE 14 plot]

Just, whatever, take your long-running, multi-million dollar series and do something with it, damn it

Because making high-quality SRPGs isn't something?

[Fun fact I have a knife]

Remember, burglars are like snakes; they're more scared of you than you are of them.

[Dismounting. Yay or Nay]

They still lost stats across the board, mostly 1-3. The Dragon Knights had it the worst since they lose about 5 Defense on dismounting.

I guess it makes sense. A big portion of Dragon Knight power probably comes from the fact they're, y'know, riding a dragon. Take the dragon away, and they're a lot weaker.

Besides, I think that Dragon Knights are usually too strong anyway. Anything that hits them hard is probably a good thing. Even with the big penalties, Dean was still a really strong character.

[Berserker and its unpromoted versions]

I've been thinking about the existence of the Berserker class as available to the player and came to the conclusion that the job's terrain specifics haven't been put to good use in Fire Emblem - especially if we compare it to fliers.

For example, FE6. You get both a Pirate and a Brigand, as well as a prepromote Zerker later on, and they all share two big flaws - 1) their attacks are hard to connect, 2) they are often difficult to carry around. For example, SMs and Zerkers share that tasty 30% crit bonus but when Miledy, your top flier, cannot lift anybody too heavy, you have more of a reason to lift up Rutger for bosskilling fun. There's the whole strategy of dropping one of these on a peak making it highly unlikely that a WK connects a powerful blow, but there are faster ways to dispose of these folks (Nosferatanking and units capable of one-rounding like Percival and Miledy) without slowing you down from fulfilling the chapter objective. Berserker's waterwalk might seem useful in maps like 14x, but even there you can get to the boss much faster (even without a double-warp, or a single warp if you rig turn 1 EP for Roy's survival).

In FE7 you get an actual competent Berserker in Hawkeye, whose 6 move isn't too shabby for a while and he's there whenever you want to not die but little more than that after the desert/Genesis. Dart can become faster and hit harder if raised (chapter 25 seems like the perfect occasion to get him to promotion) but lacks Hawkeye's huge durability, not to mention having accuracy issues against some of the mildest foes around. The terrain bonus means little as you'll probably make use of it once to lure Vaida away from the killer weaponry shop.

Next game, and we have Ross, a character who needs to get out of his rut in order to become a foot unit with superfluous offence. In chapter 12 Eirika, he could peakwalk and get to the spiders before the rest of the party is able to confront said enemies. Dozla can do some of the same tasks with poorer stats (iirc he gets doubled by some foes on that map).

Path of Radiance introduces a lategame joiner in Largo, with less reliable offence than Boyd and noticeable squishiness.

Then we get the DS remakes - any progress there? Darros can turn into a Berserker if you reclass, but makes a poor one, while Barst (and possibly others) would rather go Hero for the extra speed and move to make a difference. In FE12, Pirates get good offence early on and there's that map where you recruit Julian where a Pirate helps out with the DKs. They're also apparently good for combat with 1-2 range and offer a desirable speed growth.

I hear Awakening's top Berserker is a good unit to invest into on the higher difficulties too, mostly because of combat and pair up.

What I'm trying to say with this, Berserkers have barely had a chance to shine so far. If we compare them to Pegs, who cross rivers even more easily, they aren't afraid of arrows and do not take penalties to AS when equipping stronger weapons (in games prior to PoR). It seems that Berserkers' -walk properties could be put to better use by making them available in maps where rivers and mountains could be crossed for efficiency and convenience purposes, like a Jeiganish Zerker carrying a Lord over the river to seize.

Or, an even better idea, you could just use a flier, who has more movement, rather than sacrificing stats on a primary combat unit.

I don't think there's been anything like that in the FE series so far, but maybe there are hacks who construct maps where such tactics are made possible. Regardless, Berserkers' role should become more important than it has been.

Berserkers have historically been ok. I'm not going to say that Ross is good, but he's not dramatically awful. Berserkers are usually hampered mainly by having iffy availability; among Berserkers, Ross is the only one who joins in earlygame and with horrible base stats. Garret, Gonzales, Dart, Dozla, and Largo are all fine, if a little bit on the underpowered side aside from Gonzales who is above average. And obviously it's a very solid reclass choice in FE12 and FE13.

[How should the series become harder?]

There's no way to make it hard without making all characters very similar(Stat and function wise) if any and all combination of characters in any chapter can succeed.

But it's already the case with some Fire Emblems that are hard. I'm sure that any combination of characters can beat most FEs, except like, Lunatic+ on FE13 or Lunatic on FE12 or whatever. If not "any and all", then certainly, the vast majority, and the only ones that fail are ones that specifically go out of the way to use the worst characters possible. And definitely, characters will need to be more similar; but that's probably a good thing in a case like say, Lex and Arden.

[George Zimmerman Found Not Guilty]

It was my understanding that "Stand your Ground" was essentially the reason Zimmerman was acquitted.

This issue is still factually up to debate, but I think Zimmerman was the provoker in this case. The fact that he got beat in the fight shouldn't mean much at that point (though, legally speaking, I'm not sure if that's true).

But I'd just be one juror of twelve.

Is it that important whether Zimmerman "provoked" Martin? Surely the only thing that matters is whether Zimmerman had a reasonable fear for his life when he shot and killed Martin.

[Making archers better]

Fair enough. Is that Normal or Hard mode (I presume Hard)? I haven't played RD in a while, but I only played Hard a few times, because of all the fake difficulty it adds, and things seemed fairly reliable on Normal. I guess I also forgot how strong other ranged weapons are in FE10 in general, and forgot it isn't FE:A where things just die.

I'm talking about Hard mode, and "fake difficulty" is preferable to "no difficulty". I have no problem believing that every unit and their mother can ORKO consistently with a 1-2 range weapon on Normal Mode. Well, maybe not Mist.

[What are your favourite classes for each character storywise?]

I like to make Chrom a cavalier, because you can see his amazing butt in cutscenes.

[Making archers better]

Crossbows were laughably weak though. Other classes were ORKOing with their 1-2 range options, Archers were maybe 2-3RHKOing. And Crossbows are more expensive and rarer to buy, and unforgeable. It's not just giving them 1-2 range that'd matter, it's giving them viable 1-2 range. Even if Shortbow has say 70 hit and 1 mt, it'd be better than Crossbows were.

Only a small handful of units in Radiant Dawn can ORKO with 1-2 range options, however. It's surprisingly difficult and is basically something that you have to be using top tier units like Haar, Sothe, or Titania to see. Other than those three, there's also Ike, Swordmasters with a Tempest Blade, Boyd with transfers, maybe a really good Oscar, and a Jill that you gave everything to. There's no character in the game that consistently 1-rounds at 1-2 range forever.

If a theoretical short bow had 1 mt, it would be weaker than crossbows. The Crossbow you get in Chapter 3-P has 28 mt, so it's not until Shinon is promoted that he would do the same amount of damage with this short bow than he would with a crossbow, and obviously there's no potential whatsoever for Leonardo to OHKO Falcoknights or Nolan to OHKO Tigers in their chapters.

[DOMA/Prop 8]

1. married people live longer on average than unmarried people

2. if you have children, a stable nuclear family is more conducive to positive development of the child

3. tax breaks, insurance plans, etc.

4. married people tend to be happier than unmarried people

5. to piss off immature people like you

now i'm not saying that marriage is unilaterally a good idea, but there are certainly plenty of good reasons to get married.

I'm not sure how you get that a stable nuclear family is necessarily better for the child. Nuclear family arrangements are a recent creation of modern society.

[Is Wendy or Amelia Better?]

Amelia is better. Amelia can be trained, can become mounted, and can end up as an actually solid fighter, and has multiple options for her promotions, each widely varied. She can be tough to train at first, but she CAN be trained to become decent, which is the key point. Heck, it's not even certain Amelia is the worst in FE8 (Ewan can be just as difficult to train and it can be argued that Paladin/Great Knight > Sage).

Wendy isn't clearly the worst in FE6, since Sophia exists.

[The Sumia hate is irking me...]

Don't the points "gets galeforce easily" and "flies" include all pegasus knights anyway?

Yep. Both Sumia and Cordelia are overpowered, as is female MU. Cynthia joins too late, so she's not OP. But Sumia is definitely more overpowered than Cordelia, since she joins earlier.

[The Sumia hate is irking me...]

You do?

I'm interested in that second point... care to elaborate?

1. Gets Galeforce easily

2. Flies

3. Has good enough stats to kill most enemy types without difficulty

There's a reason why Galeforce is banned in drafts...

[Nintendo's stance on fan-made content?]

Why are these people upset over this? They are making money off of a game they contributed jack shit to help develop and release. Do they honestly feel they should be allowed to profit off of someone else's hard work? Their movies consist entirely of games they contributed nothing towards and they have the balls to get mad because Nintendo isn't letting them profit off of that? Imagine how pissed off a game developer must be to find they busted their ass to make a game, and someone is making money off of their work by just playing the game with a Dazzle recorder. Seriously,what the hell is wrong with these people?

The problem is that this isn't them just selling the game. This is them "selling" advertising space, on a Let's Play, which does involve some hard work on their part, at least, if you want to have any level of popularity.

Then again, you have some people who act like Nintendo are the new Hitler, for daring to suggest that no, you can't make money off their games, any more than you can make money off of selling Mario t-shirts or Zelda fanfiction. You could pull the same bullshit "but we're advertising your game" card with any of these, but none of them are ok.