About the plot.

[Othin]

Wait what the fuck you're right. She starts with Mage skills, but has no option to turn into a Mage. She's a walking contradiction.

And yes I just checked my game to verify all this. Well, there goes that theory.

Edited July 5, 2012 by Othin

[Westbrick]

But... Emelina doesn't even have Miracle?

@me:

Thanks for the heads-up. Pretty embarrassing slip-up!

I've seen on news a suicide "attempt" that involved a knife on the head and the guy surviving. So, yeah, even not counting magic, one can survive that. Add magic, and I don't see why it's such an impossible concept.

You likely won't see specific playable character skills brought up in Awakening's dialogue due to how variable the skill sets of the playable characters are - there are even some support convos where the characters only say that they -started- as x class, due to the possibility of reclassing, but FE has often mentioned gameplay mechanics in dialogue. It's very different from Final Fantasy in that sense.

1) You're confusing "freak accident" with "a person has a magical skill that makes surviving a mortal blow exponentially more likely." And I've never heard of someone surviving a more than twenty-story fall.

2) In FFVII, the characters talk about materia. Growths and stats often change to affect the plot. AI sometimes changes to fit the narrative. It's no different than what goes on in FE. What would be different is if Cloud told Aeris something like, "Don't worry, I've got a Phoenix Down!"

Edited July 6, 2012 by Westbrick

[Othin]

I'M NOT MADE OF PHOENIX DOWNS

[NeonZ]

1) You're confusing "freak accident" with "a person has a magical skill that makes surviving a mortal blow exponentially more likely." And I've never heard of someone surviving a more than twenty-story fall.

Although it turns out Emelina doesn't have it, Miracle is a skill for Clerics/Priests that gives them a chance to survive a fatal blow, I don't see how it's that unlikely or unfitting for the setting, considering how they already have holy powers in other ways. I mean, we know that a goddess statue boosts luck for real in Fire Emblem's world, considering how that has been brought up in conversations in past games.

2) In FFVII, the characters talk about materia. Growths and stats often change to affect the plot. AI sometimes changes to fit the narrative. It's no different than what goes on in FE.

Promotion items have been mentioned by dialog in almost every FE as items that give extra power to the user or reveal their potential, and so has the weapon triangle. You've complained about the Brave Weapons, but I don't think it'd be odd to see magical weapons boosting the user's agility and allowing them to attack twice as fast as usual. Really, I won't be surprised if one of the games actually had some dialog in a village or something mentioning that directly.

What would be different is if Cloud told Aeris something like, "Don't worry, I've got a Phoenix Down!"

No, that's what makes them different. In Final Fantasy, the whole cure and damage system seems to be a gameplay mechanic completely separate from the story, while that's not the case in Fire Emblem, with curing with staffs being part of the story and gameplay deaths counting storywise.

And, really, even comparing different Final Fantasies, there are some huge differences in their approach. FF7 has Aeris one shotted and permanently killed in one attack in a cutscene, something that wouldn't happen gameplay-wise. Meanwhile, FF5 had Galuf walking through several spells and tanking them for a while in both a cutscene and gameplay, right before dying - and the characters actually attempt to use a Phoenix Down afterwards, but it fails - which shows a story/gameplay separation, but in a different way from FF7's.

Edited July 6, 2012 by NeonZ

[Ike of Paris]

Let me get this Straight...

[spoiler= Timeline]

So the Interlude is the bad future where Krom dies. After this all the mother/father pairing go on the run and the kids (at least Loren) are born two years later. Assuming MU regains control, MU goes on the run with them, and no one is aware of what really happened. Eventually, the children go back in time (the parents are all dead) and try to stop whatever went wrong. This time when MU faces Gimle, he/she chooses to die to kill the dragon. In this case, the birth of Mark in the new timeline is negated.

Am I Right?

[Onestep]

Let me get this Straight...

[spoiler= Timeline]

So the Interlude is the bad future where Krom dies. After this all the mother/father pairing go on the run and the kids (at least Loren) are born two years later. Assuming MU regains control, MU goes on the run with them, and no one is aware of what really happened. Eventually, the children go back in time (the parents are all dead) and try to stop whatever went wrong. This time when MU faces Gimle, he/she chooses to die to kill the dragon. In this case, the birth of Mark in the new timeline is negated.

Am I Right?

Maybe. It's unknown how the kids timeline ended, but I suspect it was badly. At the very least, the 'new' timeline (ie the one we're playing) has two endings.

Either MU decides to kil Gimle once and for all, or Krom whacks the bastard back to sleep. Either way, MU lives, but there's a little bit more ambiguity in the MU ending to begin with.