Chrom is a bad king/leader

[Marusu]

This has been bothering me ever since I finished the game, that Chrom is oblivious to how much the future inhabitants of his country would suffer with Grima running around. He seems to only care about The Avatar/Robin, COMPLETELY ignoring what the future country would have to go through the same disaster he and Lucina's group had to go through.

I'm not saying that Chrom should just throw The Avatar/Robin to Grima to kill him and not care, but he should stop being so selfish and think about the hundreds of people who would die due to his actions.

[Skynstein]

Why didn't you choose the other option, then? Avatar sacrifices himself, erases Grima from the world, and there's still a happy ending.

[Marusu]

Why didn't you choose the other option, then? Avatar sacrifices himself, erases Grima from the world, and there's still a happy ending.

I did... I'm just talking about his behavior.

[Anacybele]

I agree with Malebolganone, but there's also another thing we need to think about here. Chrom definitely wasn't raised to rule since his sister took the throne when he was still a CHILD. I'm not surprised he's an idiot with his decisions sometimes. Elincia started out the same way in the Tellius games. And if she can improve, which she did start to, then Chrom can too, I'm sure.

He may have a boring personality, but still. xP

[Sunwoo]

Chrom suffers from not-so-good writing syndrome, honestly. I'm astounded how he didn't bother with Plegia's affairs at all after Gangrel was defeated, to the point of not knowing who its king was until two years later when he needed their money. And the whole "the life of one is nothing compared to thousands of others" thing that seems to only apply to people he doesn't like.

[Vashiane]

... What bothers me is that he left the country that had recently lost its leader for god knows how long to run around Valm playing peacekeeper and have no one to watch over Ylisse OR Plegia during that time period.

Ninjaed and explained better. Dammit, Sangyul, why are you so awesome?

Edited December 29, 2013 by Vashiane

[Czar_Yoshi]

I agree with Malebolganone, but there's also another thing we need to think about here. Chrom definitely wasn't raised to rule since his sister took the throne when he was still a CHILD. I'm not surprised he's an idiot with his decisions sometimes. Elincia started out the same way in the Tellius games. And if she can improve, which she did start to, then Chrom can too, I'm sure.

He may have a boring personality, but still. xP

Not to mention that the guy who did end up raising him was a treacherous coward who let him run around as part of a two-man army.

[Skynstein]

Well Chrom doesn't really have an excuse for not knowing who Validar is. Although, in his defense, if someone told him Validar was the new king of Plegia, he wouldn't guess it just by name. Also, the war took a very heavy toll on Plegia, so it makes sense that they weren't very threatening until the events of Valm.

[Sunwoo]

Well Chrom doesn't really have an excuse for not knowing who Validar is. Although, in his defense, if someone told him Validar was the new king of Plegia, he wouldn't guess it just by name. Also, the war took a very heavy toll on Plegia, so it makes sense that they weren't very threatening until the events of Valm.

I agree that he wouldn't know Validar by name. But isn't it reasonable for him to meet with Plegia at least once during the timeskip to make sure they're not doing any funny stuff? Meet their new king to make sure he's trustworthy? Plegia was a defeated country and wouldn't have had much room to argue.

In Radiant Dawn, Elincia's bad decisions came back to bite her in the butt. I don't see Chrom getting bitten in the butt by his bad decisions to the same degree.

[LuxSpes]

I agree that he wouldn't know Validar by name. But isn't it reasonable for him to meet with Plegia at least once during the timeskip to make sure they're not doing any funny stuff? Meet their new king to make sure he's trustworthy? Plegia was a defeated country and wouldn't have had much room to argue.

In Radiant Dawn, Elincia's bad decisions came back to bite her in the butt. I don't see Chrom getting bitten in the butt by his bad decisions to the same degree.

Oh my god.

Even though the game showed us how these bad decisions came back to haunt her, I made the mistake couple of weeks back of reading Queen of Sorrow, a AU fanfic where the Greil Mercenaries don't make it in time to save Lucia. Then it goes downhill from there. I'm replaying RD right now and I can't get this horrible fanfic out of my head. (Don't get me wrong, I found it well written. But the ending is just so demoralizing)

OT: It's been said a lot of time that the plot of this game is week and even though I love this game a lot, I admit that there is really a lot of plot holes. The only explanation possible was that Chrom was still to depressed about Emmeryn's death to assume her position(thus why he was still Prince Chrom and not Exalt) and left the responsibility to a delegate while he remained the head of the military force(or at the very least of the sheperds).

[FrostyFireMage]

The developers really didn't give two shits about the story.

Or they did but chose to create a world where logic doesn't apply.

[tuvarkz]

The two-man army part was wrong. By the start of the game the Shepherds already have as field-deployable members Chrom, Frederick, Lissa, Maribelle, Stahl, Sully, Kellam, Vaike, Miriel. It's just that the three of them had gone in patrol probably.

In the timeskip Chrom probably assumed that most of Plegia's wrongdoings had been guilt of Gangrel, yet with his death and some of who were probably Plegia's military leadership (Campari and Mustafa) there was probably a minor civil war until Validar got himself elected.

[Czar_Yoshi]

In Radiant Dawn, Elincia's bad decisions came back to bite her in the butt. I don't see Chrom getting bitten in the butt by his bad decisions to the same degree.

To be fair, his negligence of Plegia resulted in a maniac coming to power who resurrected Grima and tried to make his best friend kill him.

The two-man army part was wrong. By the start of the game the Shepherds already have as field-deployable members Chrom, Frederick, Lissa, Maribelle, Stahl, Sully, Kellam, Vaike, Miriel. It's just that the three of them had gone in patrol probably.

In the timeskip Chrom probably assumed that most of Plegia's wrongdoings had been guilt of Gangrel, yet with his death and some of who were probably Plegia's military leadership (Campari and Mustafa) there was probably a minor civil war until Validar got himself elected.

And yet when he found Avatar, there were only two fighters in his squad, counting himself. Those other units won't do much good if they're back in Ylisstol. With the kind of weapons they're carrying, most of them don't do much good even after they come (looking at Sully and Stahl here).

If Plegia really had a civil war (not unlikely), that's all the more reason for Chrom to keep an eye on it. Gotta make sure some hostile jerk doesn't come to power. Aversa survived, after all, and Chrom new perfectly well that she was up to no good and alive after the first war.

[ClassyWolf]

I agree with Malebolganone, but there's also another thing we need to think about here. Chrom definitely wasn't raised to rule since his sister took the throne when he was still a CHILD. I'm not surprised he's an idiot with his decisions sometimes. Elincia started out the same way in the Tellius games. And if she can improve, which she did start to, then Chrom can too, I'm sure.

He may have a boring personality, but still. xP

Doesen't he have advisors? like how Elincia has Bastian or Marth has Jagen and Malledus.

[Czar_Yoshi]

He's got Flavia, Basilio, Avatar, and Frederick. Unfortunately the former two try to solve everything with violence, Avatar knows absolutely nothing about politics and Frederick is more of a butler than an adviser. The one real "adviser" he had tried to betray him to Plegia and got roflstomped by a Wyvern in Cht.7.

[RJWalker]

Remember how Ike took money from his own army and tried to give it as aid to the people of Talegra?

Now remember how Chrom, Basilio and Flavia eagerly plunder Plegia's resources to fund their own new campaigns? Their treatment of defeated nations is very disgusting.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Chrom: "Oh no, Plegia is attacking! I should hire some bandits to trash them and not expect to owe them a thing!"

Flavia: "Oh no, our troops are exhausted, and our war chest is empty! But don't worry, Chrom! Plegia, who now has two wars to rebuild from, will be left to pay reparations!"

Basilio: "Oh no, Valm is attacking! Chrom, why don't you lead this fleet of ships we borrowed from Plegia against them? Don't worry, they won't mind if we smash half of them in the coming battle!"

All: "Oh no, Plegia is attacking again! We wonder why they don't like us!"

...Thus goes the entirety of the plot of FE:A.

[FrostyFireMage]

Who cares about morality when you have waifus and husbandos?

[BrightBow]

Of course Chrom would make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Especially unexperienced teenager forced in charge of an entire country.

And with all that power, these mistakes result in death on a great scale. As far as these things go, he is the very same as the likes of Elincia or Leaf.

The problem is that the story never acknowledges that he screwed up. And consequently refuses to allow him to grow from the experience.

Instead it seems to be expected that the players turn a blind eye on what is right in front of them.

Edited December 29, 2013 by BrightBow

[shroudening]

I don't see this as a character fault... the plot is really to blame. He essentially had to choose between saving the world and keeping peace in his own domain. Nearly every other lord in the series either lost their domain or had a superior in charge of it. And since they didn't carry the responsibility of maintaining a kingdom at the same time, they could focus on the hero'ing business.

Lords that lose their kingdoms (for most of the game):

Marth (twice, lol)

Celice

Leaf

Eirika

Ephraim

Elincia (FE9)

Micaiah (Part I)

Lords that aren't in charge of their kingdom (for most of the game):

Sigurd

Roy

Eliwood

Lyn

Hector (up to the first 30 chapters of the game)

Micaiah (Parts II - Endgame)

Lords that are actually in charge of their kingdom for a large chuck of the story:

Chrom

Elincia (FE10)

FE2 is missing because I've yet to play it.

Chrom definitely shouldn't have become king that early on in the game - it doesn't work well with the story. Realistically, he would be forced to stay on the throne and keep a majority of his soldiers within Ylisse. The game even contradicts itself when Emm says that she cannot leave the capital because her people need her, and then king Chrom does it without any hesitation because there's a larger threat overseas. This would have been fine if Emm was still around keeping the peace internally. Anyway, the plot would have been quite a bit stronger if a) Emm remained alive and in power for a considerably longer amount of time or b) Chrom lost the kingdom for whatever reason and was forced to flee to Valm or elsewhere. Or anything that would temporarily alleviate him of the responsibility to his people (oh oh, turn them into stone!).

Anyway, Chrom's portrayal suggests that he has relatively strong leadership ability and a good heart at the very least. I wouldn't call him a bad leader, just a leader with horrific circumstances, victimized by a plot that has him ruling a kingdom while forcing him to go play hero elsewhere. The plot calls for him to be a hero, which is why he can so easily ignore his responsibilities as king to do whatever the hell he wants.

[Sol Hiryu]

I'm pretty sure nearly half of the game's problems could be summed up as "Chrom being a dumbass and not really ~getting it~".

Awakening's world is really screwed up, especially if all the powers that be all decide to completely ignore a defeated and vengeful country for whatever reason.

[ClassyWolf]

He's got Flavia, Basilio, Avatar, and Frederick. Unfortunately the former two try to solve everything with violence, Avatar knows absolutely nothing about politics and Frederick is more of a butler than an adviser. The one real "adviser" he had tried to betray him to Plegia and got roflstomped by a Wyvern in Cht.7.

Does he even listen to Fredrick? just thought of the prologue, were he warns Chrom not help the person in a robe with grimeal marks and a mark of the grimeal on his hand (why isn't it covered up?)

Flavia, yeah I get your point, after all she is ready to risk the life of the brother of a foreign leader in a battle to the death (wonder how this wouldve gone if Chrom lost and died)

The advisor thing just baffles me because it's not that there aren't character who are portrayed to be intelligent, like Miriel.

[BrightBow]

Does he even listen to Fredrick? just thought of the prologue, were he warns Chrom not help the person in a robe with grimeal marks and a mark of the grimeal on his hand (why isn't it covered up?)

I don't think Frederick had much presence in the story. After a few chapters, he does very little but explaining the situation followed by Chrom declaring the new course of action.

"We've sighted the enemy!" "The enemy is retreating!" That kind of thing. Most of his lines could probably have been done by a generic soldier.

Especially during Valm, he barely gets a line at all due to having to share exposition with Say'ri, Basillo and Flavia.

Edited December 29, 2013 by BrightBow

[Rapier]

This has been bothering me ever since I finished the game, that Chrom is oblivious to how much the future inhabitants of his country would suffer with Grima running around. He seems to only care about The Avatar/Robin, COMPLETELY ignoring what the future country would have to go through the same disaster he and Lucina's group had to go through.

I'm not saying that Chrom should just throw The Avatar/Robin to Grima to kill him and not care, but he should stop being so selfish and think about the hundreds of people who would die due to his actions.

I don't oppose to Chrom's resolution about putting Grima to sleep rather than sacrifice one of his closest friends (or wife). All they need to do afterwads is prevent Grima from awakening, which is surprisingly easier than it looks.

Which brings me to why they just forget about that godly mean dragon until he's close to being awakened. Honestly, why didn't the First Exalt take over Grima's Table and persecute the Grimleal, or just destroy his temple? They show a LOT of tolerance toward insane cultists that are legitimately plotting to destroy the world, and they know how Grima can be deadly (story-wise, because stats-wise... not so much).

[HK Motendra]

I don't oppose to Chrom's resolution about putting Grima to sleep rather than sacrifice one of his closest friends (or wife). All they need to do afterwads is prevent Grima from awakening, which is surprisingly easier than it looks.

Which brings me to why they just forget about that godly mean dragon until he's close to being awakened. Honestly, why didn't the First Exalt take over Grima's Table and persecute the Grimleal, or just destroy his temple? They show a LOT of tolerancne toward insane cultists that are legitimately plotting to destroy the world, and they know how Grima can be deadly (story-wise, because stats-wise... not so much).

If I recall correctly, isn't that what their father did when he was alive? I believe it was Gangrel who brought it up but it was their father's oppression and war against Plegia for worshiping Grima and not Naga that led the Plegians to hate Ylisse so much. The toll of that war ruined both countries until Emm took over