The next FE Lord: What would you want him or her to be like?

[Roy: Marquess of Pherae]

I think a lord with poor combat experience and young with a divine power with awesome growth rates would be kinda neat. Maybe have the game reference repeatedly that he is just a child, but hint that he has great potential. And then have a lord of the opposite gender in a different country who is a natural born prodigy with mediocre growths. They meet and stuff happens.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Well, FE basically did give us an example of that scenario in Leif...

Thracia 776 remake plz?

Its at times like these, i wish my Thracia 776 patch wasnt ass. I didnt really play FE5 sadly. |:/

[Integrity]

Maybe not 15, but you guys have heard of Joan of Arc and Alexander the Great, right? Teenage military leaders have happened in history, especially in the time period Fire Emblem supposedly is based on.

i'm way more versed in alexander than joan, but you're talking about incredibly exceptional people here. like, ridiculously. chrom and eliwood and hector and any one fe lord you want to name don't combine to the force of personality that was alexander the great.

EDIT: also from the little i do know about joan she was killed at like twenty for being literally satan, so yeah there's not much to compare here between joan of arc and roy, prince-marquess pherae.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Integrity

[IceBrand]

Any lord that's over 20 is fine for me. No more teenagers doing everything anime crap. Maybe some facial hair on the male Lord too. Also a female Lord would be a nice change of place too.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Ace Gamer

[BBM]

She was executed on charges of heresy in an incredibly partisan and illegal trial when she got captured by pro-English people, because she said she received visions from Michael (the archangel) to support Charles VII; calling her "literally Satan" makes her out to be evil or something.

That being said, her ability to lead her army came from the fact that the French were badly losing before she stepped in, combined with the several "miraculous" military campaigns she ran. She was the type of messianic figure that occurs very rarely- Micaiah is based rather heavily on her, I guess, but none of the other lords have had those particular traits.

And Micaiah technically is older anyways so.

[Magical CC]

So, basically, all you guys want is a 30 years old blond hair negro axe user homosexual lord?

Edited July 30, 2014 by Char

[Chloe Neo]

apologies to any admin who check this topic as I shouldn't have anything about manaketes on this topic

Edited July 30, 2014 by Serah Farron

[Roivann]

So, basically, all you guys want is a 30 years old blond hair negro axe user homosexual lord?

That'd be actually badass. Seriously.

[Alertcircuit]

So, basically, all you guys want is a 30 years old blond hair negro axe user homosexual lord?

Don't forget female.

Wow, we really do basically want Flavia.

[Refa]

I don't think Flavia's gay, though.

[Irysa]

The funny thing is, I can see IS doing every single one of those for a Lord except the Negro part.

Not that I think they're racist or anything, but the kind of tradition FE is stooped in always assigns characters of colour to be the foreigners, or people you encounter whilst in foreign lands.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Irysa

[Integrity]

calling her "literally Satan" makes her out to be evil or something.

the implication was "on charges of being literally satan" - i didn't mean to impart any of my own feelings onto it, just humorously spin what little i know up

[Cymbalina's Revenge]

i'm way more versed in alexander than joan, but you're talking about incredibly exceptional people here. like, ridiculously. chrom and eliwood and hector and any one fe lord you want to name don't combine to the force of personality that was alexander the great.

EDIT: also from the little i do know about joan she was killed at like twenty for being literally satan, so yeah there's not much to compare here between joan of arc and roy, prince-marquess pherae.

Yeah, but plenty of other competent/brilliant teenaged generals can be found in history. Case in point: Edward of York and his much-younger brother Richard of Gloucester, successful generals in the Wars of the Roses, aka Kings Edward IV and Richard III (yes, THAT one). Both of them were winning decisive victories aged 18-19, though in the company of older, experienced men (see: Warwick the Kingmaker). There's your Lord-and-Jagen dynamic right there, in just one chapter of one kingdom's history. Roy's continent-spanning success at age 15 may be stretching it, but the Chroms and Ephraims and Seliphs of Fire Emblem aren't that far off-base.

And Roy comes across as pretty darned mature and intelligent, as Lords go.

[Integrity]

that's a much better counterpoint than alexander the great and not one i knew about

ceded

[Ein]

seriously though

I want the protagonist to be the Lord's most trusted soldier dude who looks like Marcus's age and has to command and protect the Lord because he's just a kid whose dad/parents was/were recently assassinated and they are trying to reclaim their kingdom. Or something like that.

[Anacybele]

seriously though

I want the protagonist to be the Lord's most trusted soldier dude who looks like Marcus's age and has to command and protect the Lord because he's just a kid whose dad/parents was/were recently assassinated and they are trying to reclaim their kingdom. Or something like that.

This sounds like Batman FE style lol. Where the lord is Batman and Alfred is the trusted soldier. :P

[Ϲharlie]

Sounds more like Thracia but with Finn as the central character instead of Leaf.

[Azura]

I just hope that the lord doesn't use swords. I would love the next game to have several lords, and none of them using swords. A trio with Bows, Magic and Lances could be an interesting change.

And for the love of god any female lord(lordess?) better keep her spotlight and not have it fade away.

[Rehab]

One of the reasons why I think it'd be nice to have a choice between different backgrounds for a Fire Emblem protagonist which actually affect how they're treated and act ingame (aside from that it's already gotten so close to happening before) is that there are so many different things different people would like to see in one. Open the floodgates and surf the rise in player engagement to victory imo

[Ownagepuffs]

Sounds more like Thracia but with Finn as the central character instead of Leaf.

I'd die happy if Finn the ultimate bro got his own game. Fuck plot weapons, we got +10 Luck Brave Lances.

[Anacybele]

And for the love of god any female lord(lordess?) better keep her spotlight and not have it fade away.

I agree. This is why I have Azura as the only lord character in my fan story. Although for some chapters, she does sorta lose her spotlight to a couple male leads. However, she gains it back as soon as their missions are complete and Azura resumes complete command of the army. She then leads them towards winning the war and yadda yadda. :P

But during those arcs where she "loses her spotlight" she still plays a big role.

So yeah, a female that doesn't lose her spotlight for the remainder of the game, plz.

Edited July 30, 2014 by Anacybele

[Cymbalina's Revenge]

Sounds more like Thracia but with Finn as the central character instead of Leaf.

That's sure what I was thinking when I read that synopsis. Yo, IS! Make that and I'll buy 200+ copies.

[That Person's Name]

Maybe not 15, but you guys have heard of Joan of Arc and Alexander the Great, right? Teenage military leaders have happened in history, especially in the time period Fire Emblem supposedly is based on.

I agree that Awakening was too lighthearted (I prefer PoR levels of humor) but I don't think the ages of the main lords necessarily need to change. 15-18 isn't totally unrealistic, is all.

I like this argument a lot and have used it before. Whenever someone says something like "oh please, what did YOU do at age 17?"

...uh, absolutely nothing! Just like pretty much everyone else alive today. 80% of my 17/whateverth year was spent sitting in a classroom, doing the least homework possible, playing games, blabbing with frands, and driving around town with my GF. Because I just didn't have anything else to worry about! This is the 21st century, you can't really use that argument and apply it to a different time. In the setting of Fire Emblem, and in centuries past, there have been thousands of people who accomplished WAY more than 99% of people now do in their teenage years, especially if that person was a noble being taught to rule. It's not just Joan of Arc and Alexander, those were just great people in their own right, and ignores many other famous names. Literally every royal teenager in the past had way more experience than your average modern college bro. They didn't laze around and neglect studying because "school sucks" and go smoke weed, they were tutored in and adept at many more things than us before they hit puberty. It bugs me when people assume people have always been useless until their 20s, especially considering 20s/30s was a pretty common age to die in wartime then and yet have had a full life. People develop much more slowly today in our society because it doesn't really demand much other than "what should i do wiff my life" and how to talk to the opposite sex. Back then you had to grow up much faster and this just isn't even seen anymore.

And these are not ordinary people to begin with either, by the very nature of the fact there is a story about them. Since the story revolves around specific lords whom are thousands of years apart from each other (Chrom/Lucina and Marth) they ARE the incredibly exceptional people, the Alexander's and Augustus' of their respective universes. It's not like they made a story out of the lord right after Marth, and then after him, and then him, just like we don't learn about the guy who came after Alexander (ok it's not really like that but w/e details). Marth IS the Alexander. Chrom IS the historical figure that appears a thousand years later. That's why the story revolves around them. It's the same argument for why the good guys always win, the story was made after them BECAUSE that person was the exceptional 1/1,000,000 genius/hero that did something important, not just some random shmuck who does something great "because they are the main character." It's honestly a revelation more people need to have. All the FE lords since Marth can be assumed to have not done anything significant and the world still makes as much sense as ours because you just don't write about the average lords who lowered taxes or w/e. Hence why there's no book/movie/game about "Ethelred the Unready" and many about Alex and Augustus.

People doing stuff before age 18 is totally realistic, and just because I spent 18 worrying about who to take to prom doesn't mean there haven't been people that have lived more of a life than I will have 18 years from now in that same amount of time. Kids have been military leaders and parents since at least the Romans.

meanwhile i spend a chunk of my life passionately writing something no one will read

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Well, you can't exactly pin all those successes on the young rulers. With history, especially ancient history, it's always tough to tell what was added by the victors afterwards to glorify their child kings/generals. There probably were very important children, but it's hard to determine to what extent they were important. Also, I think in fire emblem it isn't so much that the lords are exceptional, more that the times they live in are unusual. Fire Emblem games always take place during times of massive upheaval in their respective continents (often the resurgence of some power defeated for at least a hundred years.)In Fire Emblem the young lords almost always have experienced advisers, which makes their ability to lead more realistic. The problem with most lords is how they deal with the transition from kid to leader. In most games the lord becomes the undisputed savior of the world, yet they are usually coddled by their adviser until the end. It would be good if there was another lord more like FE9 Ike, who is shown to develop and eventually weans themselves of the need to hear everything from someone else.

[Wander]

Off-topic, but Michiah really is super similar to Joan of Arc, now that I think about it. I'm guessing Joan of Arc didn't wield light magic, though. Maybe.

@Marty

I think that the further you go back in history, the more twisted the facts get, certainly. History has always been written by the victors.

However, I'd argue that we don't know if the unnamed lords would fare as well in the upheaval their games face. It's hard to find examples, but I'd throw out Chrom's father for debate to start. It's not a stretch to think that some of the other hundreds of nonexistent lords were mediocre leaders in comparison to the ones written about. The games usually start with some lord or king related to the protagonist dying/losing, after all; usually in the only conflict they face in their time in a leadership position. I'd say that makes people like Hector extraordinary within their universe.

And I also agree about the progression of the characters from relying on their advisor to weaning themselves off of that crutch. I'd say Ike, Ephraim, and Hector all do this; Ephraim doesn't even really have one to begin with, and I would actually consider him to be a pretty strong example of a self-reliant lord. The tactician in FE7 takes such a backseat to everything that I'm not sure I'd say Hector had much of a crutch, either. Ike relies on Titania, but generally becomes more and more of a confident decision-maker as the game goes on. He still leans on Titania and Soren a bit, but I'm sure historical commanders had advisers they bounced ideas off of as well. Chrom, Eirika, and Roy all do a somewhat poor job of this, in my opinion.

Speaking of Eirika, I can't be the only one that thinks she's one of the more unrealistic lords, right?

/essay over, dunno why I'm going on about this subject so much.