You are tasked with adapting a Fire Emblem story of your choice into another medium, with one stipulation, three characters playable in the game must be killed off at some point. Who and when do you choose?

[Jotari]

Permadeath is a funny thing in Fire Emblem. Officially, it's a narrative wherein anyone can die. But, in the rare times Fire Emblem had done sequels, it's kind of been assumed that no one ever died in the canon story (unless the Book 1 characters who didn't show up in Book 2 were meant to be assumed dead, killed in the previous war). This doesn't necessarily have to be the case if Fire Emblem is adapted into another medium. In fact, compared to adapting a lot of other stories, Fire Emblem actually encourages a lot of freedom as to when characters can be killed off. Not only is permadeath baked into the core gameplay, but the large casts means that if you were trying to faithfully adapt it, killing off some characters would serve to make room for others, in addition to all the other reasons you might want to kill off a fictional character (establishing tension and danger, motivating another character, concluding the killed characters own arc in a satisfying way etc). In addition, as an adaptation, it brings a certain degree of uncertainty and new material to a fan familiar with the original work.

So, I task you to imagine adapting a Fire Emblem arc of your choice in to a tv show/movie/manga/book whatever, select three characters from the playable roster to be killed off and the chapters/story event in which they're killed and why you made that particular choice (which antagonist actually kills them would probably be relevant too).

In a post like this usually the OP would go first and have some examples, but honestly, I got nothing. I'm just curious to see what other people will say. I did see someone point out once that Arran dying during the story of Mystery of the Emblem is a more narratively satisfying conclusion to his arc than him actually surviving the game due to him wasting away to a vague terminal illness.

[Acacia Sgt]

Part joke choice, Three Houses, since playable characters die already there by default (hey, you never said playable character that joined the party!).

Or Blazing Blade, with Ninian being a freebie... since hey, nothing is said they can't revive later!

Or Genealogy, since... well, you know.

Okay, but seriously... uh... to be honest, I kinda dislike this kind of practice.

Not exactly a philosophy I can agree for the most part. NPC's already got the "dies for drama" aspect covered, so why would I want to kill off the playable cast?

Still, if I were to actually do it, if only forced due to mandate, then...

...

I'll get you back on this.

[Nauriam]

I would go with Sacred Stones.

First, I would kill off Ross while he and Garcia are defending their village. It would set the tone for the adaptation early on, and I feel it's kinda the obvious one. While it's awesome to have Ross become a berzerker in-game, that doesn't make any sense in any other medium.

I would also kill off Forde (not because I hate him. I'm a Forde apologist). I think Forde's presence in Franz' life is one of the better written support chains in the game, and if there was a side plot where Franz is learning about his parents from Forde, just for Forde to die before telling Franz everything he wants to know it would create a really fascinating arc for Franz as a character. I think Forde dying is also something a lot of players probably experience

Finally, I would actually kill Ephraim. Lots of people point to him being a Gary Stu, which does not make a good protagonist, but it does make a good mentor for Erika, and would really elevate the character arc she goes on anyway. I'm envisioning Ephraim dying at or soon after Lyon destroys the sacred stone Erika gives him. This will cause Erika to re-evaluate who Lyon really is at that time, and cause her to have to face her grief of losing Lyon alone while also dealing with the grief of losing Ephraim. While in the games she is slowly working through that grief meanwhile Ephraim can move the plot forward to try to kill Lyon.

[Eltosian Kadath]

I am going to give you two answers for Thracia 776, one for if I have to keep it to exactly three, and a more interesting option for if I can kill off a few more

Lets start with the more interesting option, if I could kill off more than 3, I would keep it to 5 deaths, the deaths that get revived into the dead lords come end game, that way they could make a dramatic return at the very end for as much heart rending trauma. I would probably fudge things a little as well, let Dagdar die during the failed attack on Alster (instead of skipping 8x, which is the normal way he returns as a dread lord), Lifis dying in a last stand in the same battle, using his thieving skills to jam up a great castle gate to give the others time to escape after the canonical death of Dryas. I must admit I am tempted to make that battle even more of a blood bath, but I am restraining myself for the interesting concept. Galzus would die in a dramatic duel with his daughter, her only learning the horrifying truth with his dying breath. I would fudge 24x as well into more of a solo mission with Sara sneaking in with the Kia staff, only for the pair be ambushed by her grandfather Manfloy and Veld moments after reviving Eyvel, with it a little ambiguous whether or not Sara died to explain her healthier looking completion of the set.

 

If I had to stick to only 3,  the first of which I think I would start with

If you know what I mean. For similar emotional reasons, Glade making a last stand at Tahra, with him holding out just long enough for his best friend Finn, and wife Selphina to reach him. Lastly I guess I would let Othin fall together with the canonical Dryas in the failed Alster, as he is the one most strongly tied to the people the story starts with, to really emphasize the tragedy and loss of this defeat.

I might do more of these some time later with other games, we will see...

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Theater play with Malledus dying when taking the Timeless Palace and Nyna taking his place as Marths premier advisor, Jeigan or any Altean Knights dying during the taking of Altea castle and killing Tiki howeverwhichway you can implement Warp/Tiki/Nagi shenanigans, because gosh it would be funny watching people try to follow what´s happening.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Part joke choice, Three Houses, since playable characters die already there by default (hey, you never said playable character that joined the party!).

Or Blazing Blade, with Ninian being a freebie... since hey, nothing is said they can't revive later!

Or Genealogy, since... well, you know.

Okay, but seriously... uh... to be honest, I kinda dislike this kind of practice.

Not exactly a philosophy I can agree for the most part. NPC's already got the "dies for drama" aspect covered, so why would I want to kill off the playable cast?

Still, if I were to actually do it, if only forced due to mandate, then...

...

I'll get you back on this.

Participation if optional, if only because I lack the godly power to force others to kill fictional characters...yet.

17 minutes ago, Imuabicus der Fertige said:

Theater play with Malledus dying when taking the Timeless Palace and Nyna taking his place as Marths premier advisor

Would the same actor play both Nyna and Malledus? Because that costume designer would deserve all the credit if they can make that work XD

51 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I am going to give you two answers for Thracia 776, one for if I have to keep it to exactly three, and a more interesting option for if I can kill off a few more

Lets start with the more interesting option, if I could kill off more than 3, I would keep it to 5 deaths, the deaths that get revived into the dead lords come end game, that way they could make a dramatic return at the very end for as much heart rending trauma. I would probably fudge things a little as well, let Dagdar die during the failed attack on Alster (instead of skipping 8x, which is the normal way he returns as a dread lord), Lifis dying in a last stand in the same battle, using his thieving skills to jam up a great castle gate to give the others time to escape after the canonical death of Dryas. I must admit I am tempted to make that battle even more of a blood bath, but I am restraining myself for the interesting concept. Galzus would die in a dramatic duel with his daughter, her only learning the horrifying truth with his dying breath. I would fudge 24x as well into more of a solo mission with Sara sneaking in with the Kia staff, only for the pair be ambushed by her grandfather Manfloy and Veld moments after reviving Eyvel, with it a little ambiguous whether or not Sara died to explain her healthier looking completion of the set.

 

If I had to stick to only 3,  the first of which I think I would start with

If you know what I mean. For similar emotional reasons, Glade making a last stand at Tahra, with him holding out just long enough for his best friend Finn, and wife Selphina to reach him. Lastly I guess I would let Othin fall together with the canonical Dryas in the failed Alster, as he is the one most strongly tied to the people the story starts with, to really emphasize the tragedy and loss of this defeat.

I might do more of these some time later with other games, we will see...

Killing off the Deadlord characters is a good idea, though, unfortunately, the game itself kind of backs things into pacing issues with Galzus being recruited so late and Sara being required to revive Eyvel. Course, simply leaving Eyvel stoned is an option too.

[Fabulously Olivier]

In a Path of Radiance adaptation, I'd kill the following characters:

 

* Titania - because it's just obvious, and would carry weight

* Shinon - because giving him a redemption arc culminating in his death and passing the torch to Rolf might make him a more pleasant character.

* Makalov - because Makalov is the worst.

 

In RD, I'm killing off:

* Taureono - for the same reason as Titania, but for the Dawn Brigade.

* Caneighis - to pass the torch to Skrimir

* Meg - because I do it every playthrough anyway.

[lenticular]

For Radiant Dawn:

1. Nolan, around about I-2 or I-3. The Dawn Brigade are supposed to be the underdogs who are vastly outnumbered and outpowered, so it wouldn't feel right for them to escape through the early chapters unscathed. As the (seemingly) oldest and most experienced of them, Nolan seems like the obvious casualty, and having him die could really help bring home the gravity of their situation to Edward and Leonardo.
2. Geoffrey, in or shortly after II-3. As a Ludveck fangirl, I want his rebellion to have teeth. The way I'm picturing it, he realises that they've been sent on a wild goose chase and is eager to try to rush to get back to defend Elincia, but this haste leads to carelessness that gets him killed. Would also lead to a rollercoaster of emotions for Elincia as she manages to survive II-E and keep Lucia alive, only to learn afterwards that Geoffrey died.
3. Naesala, in IV-E(1). Partly because the Tower needs to feel actually dangerous, and killing off a laguz royal would manage that. But it would also give him a proper redemption arc. Let him sacrifice himself to save someone else (maybe Tibarn? Or Leanne?) during the fight against Lekain, and then have everyone find the blood pact afterwards.

(The Black Knight is technically playable and would die as well, obviously, but that doesn't really count.)

[Zapp Branniglenn]

In a Sacred Stones Show I'd...

4 hours ago, Nauriam said:

Ross 

Forde

Ephraim.

well yeah actually. But to extrapolate on why

• Ross needs to die not just because he'd be the fastest pick to kick up the stakes, but to add more immediate tension with the Chapter 6 scenario where MORE kids are under threat and Eirika and company are trauma driven to save them. Furthermore, I'm not having Garcia join the party. True to the game, he stays behind to bury his son and goes on a murder hobo quest as Renais is under siege from ghoulies and grados. He shows up later when the Twin lords are reclaiming their homeland. Garcia sort of found himself as the leader of The Resistance offscreen.
• Forde's death being an actualization of Franz' will to fight, sure. But I'll point out that Forde's collection of supports are just about the strongest of any individual character in the series. They show that he's a supportive player in a lot of people's lives for a lot of different reasons. And there's a lot of potential in a moment where someone uncovers one of his landscape paintings - the Renais that he was trying to protect, and vowing to make that picture a reality.
• Ephraim i'm still rolling around in my head over his sister. I'm mostly tempted just because I envision Lyon coming back to his humanity for a brief moment as Ephraim smirks through the dagger in his heart to say "You finally beat me". But on the other hand, this is a story centered on two twin siblings and their troubled best friend. And I do think Ephraim comes out of the GBA game learning that being a valiant warrior that fights on behalf of their country isn't enough. Leadership is about inspiring people to fight at your side. Eirika meanwhile learns comparatively nothing so her death comes at the cost of no one's arc. I'm also really anxious to cut the scene of her giving Lyon the Sacred Stone. So instead of her being duped, she tells Lyon no, gets severely wounded or killed, and the Stone taken.

Also, these aren't deaths, but part of cutting down Sacred Stones' story for an adaptation would definitely mean cutting out the less important characters. Thankfully Sacred Stones' roster is already quite small and most of them serve enough of a purpose to be afforded two or three speaking lines. Lute and Artur, Colm and Neimi gotta go mostly because we need our initial cast to have some time to breath. If we have time and budget for a Garcia episode about his effort to liberate their country we can add these goofballs into the mix. Moulder can go because Natasha fits the Early Game Healer role, and she's far more interesting since she's a Grado native trying to defect. Saleh I'm unsatisfied with and think he just needs to be a lore dump character for a couple scenes. Knoll can be the same deal. Ewan's gotta go. Amelia aint happening. Rennac doesn't work because "I don't wanna be here" is not a personality trait.

[Etrurian emperor]

I'd cheat and pick Genealogy.  Considering how gen 1 ends I'd technically keep my end of the bargain without having to put any work in for it. 

[Nauriam]

39 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

well yeah actually. But to extrapolate on why

• Ross needs to die not just because he'd be the fastest pick to kick up the stakes, but to add more immediate tension with the Chapter 6 scenario where MORE kids are under threat and Eirika and company are trauma driven to save them. Furthermore, I'm not having Garcia join the party. True to the game, he stays behind to bury his son and goes on a murder hobo quest as Renais is under siege from ghoulies and grados. He shows up later when the Twin lords are reclaiming their homeland. Garcia sort of found himself as the leader of The Resistance offscreen.
• Forde's death being an actualization of Franz' will to fight, sure. But I'll point out that Forde's collection of supports are just about the strongest of any individual character in the series. They show that he's a supportive player in a lot of people's lives for a lot of different reasons. And there's a lot of potential in a moment where someone uncovers one of his landscape paintings - the Renais that he was trying to protect, and vowing to make that picture a reality.
• Ephraim i'm still rolling around in my head over his sister. I'm mostly tempted just because I envision Lyon coming back to his humanity for a brief moment as Ephraim smirks through the dagger in his heart to say "You finally beat me". But on the other hand, this is a story centered on two twin siblings and their troubled best friend. And I do think Ephraim comes out of the GBA game learning that being a valiant warrior that fights on behalf of their country isn't enough. Leadership is about inspiring people to fight at your side. Eirika meanwhile learns comparatively nothing so her death comes at the cost of no one's arc. I'm also really anxious to cut the scene of her giving Lyon the Sacred Stone. So instead of her being duped, she tells Lyon no, gets severely wounded or killed, and the Stone taken.

Awesome analysis. I love how you expanded on the vague ideas I had for Ross and Forde.

When it comes to killing off Ephraim, it's based off a couple assumption that would fundamentally change some themes in the original game. First, in my hypothetical Erika would have to be the un-contested main character for the whole story. We'd be following her from the beginning like the game, but also follow her route after the route split. Second, the story would be turning into more of a bildungsromand for Erika specifically rather than trying to balance the two main character's very different flaws. Definitely less interesting in concept, but may be better for a shorter medium like a TV show and would be more accessible to audiences. Although shows like Avatar the Last Airbender show that people seem to really enjoy parallel character absolution, so maybe I'm wrong.

[Eltosian Kadath]

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

Killing off the Deadlord characters is a good idea, though, unfortunately, the game itself kind of backs things into pacing issues with Galzus being recruited so late and Sara being required to revive Eyvel. Course, simply leaving Eyvel stoned is an option too.

If you frame Eyvel's stoning as her death, then both helps with the end game deaths piling up, and frees up Sara to die elsewhere. I am already fudging Dagdar's dead lord requirements, so if I instead slot Sara's death at the Alster battle, perhaps trying to hold off the monstrous Mjolnir of Blume, where the battle is cut off by Lifis's dramatic closing of the gate, only to ominously foreshadow the dead lords with her grandfather lamenting her decision as he gathers up her remains, then I can move Dagdar's death around to earlier, like the battle of Tahra to emphasize the danger of the Welkenrosen. That spaces out most of the deaths, with the exception of the disastrous tempo changing battle of Alster, which is intentional on my part.

Alternatively you could theoretically kill off Galzus in the Munster escape arc, just after he hand the Shadow Sword possessed Miranda off to Saias for healing, using the scenario that occurs if you miss 4x with Ced showing up to buy time for Leif, and fudging the timing so the two could dramatically clash on the battlefield, but I think the other version of his death works a bit better.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

If you frame Eyvel's stoning as her death, then both helps with the end game deaths piling up, and frees up Sara to die elsewhere. I am already fudging Dagdar's dead lord requirements, so if I instead slot Sara's death at the Alster battle, perhaps trying to hold off the monstrous Mjolnir of Blume, where the battle is cut off by Lifis's dramatic closing of the gate, only to ominously foreshadow the dead lords with her grandfather lamenting her decision as he gathers up her remains, then I can move Dagdar's death around to earlier, like the battle of Tahra to emphasize the danger of the Welkenrosen. That spaces out most of the deaths, with the exception of the disastrous tempo changing battle of Alster, which is intentional on my part.

Alternatively you could theoretically kill off Galzus in the Munster escape arc, just after he hand the Shadow Sword possessed Miranda off to Saias for healing, using the scenario that occurs if you miss 4x with Ced showing up to buy time for Leif, and fudging the timing so the two could dramatically clash on the battlefield, but I think the other version of his death works a bit better.

I don't think Dagda becoming a Deadlords relies on you not going to his mansion. I may very well be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Deadlord check is as simple as "are they in your army?" and that if they die at any point in the story they become Deadlords in the final chapter (not sure what happens if any of them are captured after the prison chapter, maybe enemies don't even capture-escape after the prison chapter because that would make end cards weird too. Though the last paralogues is an escape chapter so it is definitely possible to end the game with characters in an indeterminate captured status).

Edited 5 minutes ago by Jotari