If you could change one thing

[NekoKnight]

I saw this topic on r/Fire Emblem one day and thought I’d bring it here.

If you could change one thing about any of the Fire Emblem stories, what would it be? This isn’t a general “complain about the story” thread. You can fix ONE thing so make it count! This is a discussion of the plots, so expect some spoilers.

For me, I would change…

[spoiler=Radiant Dawn] There are no more blood pacts. I was always irritated by how contrived they were and how anyone could be stupid enough to sign one. The worst one is the one Pellius and Michaiah are bound to, which forces them to support Begnion.

The change: Michaiah liberates the Daein capital and Begnion’s occupation force is effectively defeated. Michaiah acknowledges that their victory will be short lived because they won’t be able to stand up to the full Begnion army. Lekain, not finding it worth it to spend more resources on occupying Daein offers Michaiah a deal. She can support Begnion in their coming war and be rewarded with full autonomy, or they can get reconquered. Michaiah doesn’t want to help Lekain but knows this is the best way to restore Daein’s sovereignty and keep her friends safe.

[spoiler=Fates] There is no ‘behind the scenes’ villain and Garon is the main antagonist. Making Garon a puppet to the true villain makes him a terrible antagonist. Not only is he mustache twirlingly evil, but any moral dilemma of the Nohr siblings turning on him is made null by Garon literally being a monster.

The change: The game will now be closer to the original premise. Hoshido is a verdant and peaceful country and Nohr is a destitute and militaristic country. Garon is a brutal but well-meaning leader who wants to conquer Hoshido for its resources. Hoshido is a typical Fire Emblem story but Nohr is about weighing justice and duty to one’s country. It eventually turns into rebellion and reform.

[spoiler=Blazing Sword]

There is probably some storyline I’d like to tweak but for now I’m quite satisfied.

The one change I’d make is for Ninian to live a longer life if married to Eliwood. I know they have Sword of Seals to conform to but it feels like a real dick move to pair Ninian with Eliwood when she would have lived a long and happy life with Nils.

So what would you change?

Edited February 2, 2016 by NekoKnight

[Magical Glace]

In FE10, I'd explain further who a blood pact affects, rather than remove them outright. I think it really shows how... innocent and naive Pelleas is, and I don't want to remove that. Just some explanation on what the qualifications for being affected by the curse. (Could it be anyone who had the unfortunate luck as to be in the country at the time? Could it be anyone who considers Daein home, regardless of where they're living currently? Could it be anyone who happened to be born in Daein? Etc...)

In FE6, it would be nice if the information dump in Ch 24 is spread throughout the game instead. Maybe during the Gaidens, since those are required to reach Ch 24 in the first place.

In the games with Avatars, I'd remove them and replace them with a set appearance character with more room for a defined personality and not getting worshipped by everyone.

[Zerosabers]

All these are proof I shouldn't be a writer.

[spoiler=FE2,6,7,8,13,14]

FE2: It's now in English so I can read it.

FE6: Lyn appears if you go to Sacea.

FE7: Eliwood uses Lances and the legendary weapons get reshuffled so everyone can use one.

FE8: Lyon isn't fully possessed so the Demon King never resurrects.

FE13: The story plays out as told by Lucina (world ending ect.) only instead of time travel, she manages to get the fully powered Falchion and slay Grima.

FE14: The 3rd route you join forces with the Invisible Kingdom and fight to conquer both Kingdoms. You still kill big bad dragon at the end though since he'd probably kill you later if you didn't.

[maybe]

[spoiler=Blazing Sword]

There is probably some storyline I’d like to tweak but for now I’m quite satisfied.

The one change I’d make is for Ninian to live a longer life if married to Eliwood. I know they have Sword of Seals to conform to but it feels like a real dick move to pair Ninian with Eliwood when she would have lived a long and happy life with Nils.

well I mean, it seems like that was the whole point of it. that they loved each other enough to live together for a short life, or to live a long life without the person she loved. i think it's meant to make it so despite having come back from the dead, she still can't really have a happy ending

[MCProductions]

FE12: I'd remove the Avatar altogether, since I feel he has no place in FE12

FE7: I'd have Nils perform a certain lategame move before the final boss unless Eliwood has an A support with Ninian

FE10: I'd remove the entirety of the first two parts, as well as the Blood Pact altogether, and have Daein support Begnion because they are still occupied and are basically being forced too with fear of crueler treatment from Begnion.

FE9: I wouldn't have Ashnard receive the literal plot armor

FE4: I would turn each individual map into several chapters, barring maybe the first one.

FE13: Rewrite Chapter 23, and make it to where you get Tiki MUCH sooner

Edited February 2, 2016 by MCProductions

[Alastor15243]

FE10:

I'd get rid of the idiotic, unnecessary nonsense where the herons actually leave their posts for no good reason to help out in the war they're supposed to be making sure doesn't wake up the "dark god". I'd just have them all be there and just pass out from the power of chaos like they did already once the war got too intense. Choosing to abandon their posts makes everyone seem like they're completely batshit insane.

FE11: I'd make those stupid gaiden chapters not require the deaths of party members to unlock them.

FE12: I'd have Kris just be another member of Marth's army with little to no plot significance after the prologue chapters.

FE13: A very close tie between

Letting us get to know more about Emmeryn's personality before her death

and a total rewrite of Inigo X Nah.

[The DanMan]

FE10:

I'd get rid of the idiotic, unnecessary nonsense where the herons actually leave their posts for no good reason to help out in the war they're supposed to be making sure doesn't wake up the "dark god". I'd just have them all be there and just pass out from the power of chaos like they did already once the war got too intense. Choosing to abandon their posts makes everyone seem like they're completely batshit insane.

FE11: I'd make those stupid gaiden chapters not require the deaths of party members to unlock them.

FE12: I'd have Kris just be another member of Marth's army with little to no plot significance after the prologue chapters.

FE13: A very close tie between

Letting us get to know more about Emmeryn's personality before her death

and a total rewrite of Inigo X Nah.

And not removing the ass pull where Grima revives himself without the Emblem, despite that being Plegia's goal for the whole game up to that point and future Grima being there for most of it?

[OakTree]

FE2

How about giving Rudolph a less stupid motivation?

FE5

Keep Travant a dellusional jerk whose actions only happen to make the lives of his people better.

FE8

Rewrite the entirety of chapter 5x.

That's all i can think of at the moment.

Edited February 2, 2016 by OakTree

[Alastor15243]

FE2: How about giving Rudolph a less stupid motivation?

FE5: Keep Travant a dellusional jerk whose actions only happen to make the lives of his people better.

FE8: Rewrite the entirety of chapter 5x.

That's all i can think of at the moment.

You should really individually spoiler each game so that people who haven't played every single game in the entire series can safely read your comment.

FE10:

As for the blood pacts, I actually like them as a plot device, or at least what they result in, but I agree with Glaceon Mage that they are criminally under-explained and lack a viable logically consistent mechanism or enough rules. If I can come up with anything on the subject I'll post later.

Edited February 2, 2016 by Alastor15243

[NinjaMonkey]

Make the LEA have some story chapters to themselves between 1-E and 4-4.

[Alastor15243]

Make the LEA have some story chapters to themselves between 1-E and 4-4.

LEA?

[secondworld]

Some of these story changes seem awfully gameplay-focused...

[spoiler=Gaiden]A better twist. Literally anything would've been better.

[spoiler=Sacred Stones]Okay so despite my above comment this is also a gameplay change but I would make it for story reasons. Make a FE2-style team split. I'd make it so you pick which lord you follow first and that would decide which story happens(possessed Lyon or not possessed Lyon), and most of the other lord's chapters would be played via gaidens(with some changes). The main reason I'd want this is to show all the important plot developments on-screen instead of just being told that they happened.

[spoiler=Radiant Dawn]Three-way tie between:

-Better explaining the blood pact or finding a better way to move the plot in the DB vs GM direction.

-Remove the flashback scene where Sephiran mind-wipes Ike and Mist. It creates a huge hole regarding the Black Knight's actions in PoR.

-Let Micaiah also able to get the last hit on Ashera with different cutscenes for before and after, if just to pretend she still has relevance as a main character in part 4 outside of being Yune's vessel. Maybe give her a personal defense-targeting tome to make that feasible.

Actually since I've brought her up, let's make this a four-way tie:

-Make Micaiah actually well-written.

[spoiler=Shadow Dragon]

More. Just, more. The stuff they added was really great but there was just not enough.

[spoiler=Heroes of Light and Shadow]

Give the Avatar the boot. Or an official localization of Shadow Dragon's quality.

[spoiler=Awakening]

Bring back narrations to improve world building or add more chapters flesh out the rushed-feeling story.

I haven't played Fates yet but I already know I still want narrations back.

[Tolvir]

Fire Emblem Awakening

Erase all of the Valm arc. It was unneeded and made no sense. It threw me off so much in the game that it made me stop caring about the story past this point. Replace it with the Future Past story. All of the missions spanning inbetween the war with Plegia and the Grima stuff is replaced with finding out that Grima is trying to be revived, and that the only way to stop him is to have the help of their 2nd gen characters. Start the whole Future past stuff, and have Severa, Brady, Owain, and Morgan be made more significant to the plot of the story, making the children units feel more needed. By the time this part ends, now you have to find Naga's voice. now the player has to find where Tiki is sleeping because she is key to awakening the emblem and stopping Grima. Now Tiki also gets a larger part to the story due to her pretty much being the main conduit of Naga's power on the mortal plane. The rest would be straight forward. Tiki awakens the emblem, similar to what happens endgame in Radiant dawn, she blesses everyone armor and weapons to be able to fight Grima and his main forces, and the fight starts, you win, etc, etc.

[Alastor15243]

And not removing the ass pull where Grima revives himself without the Emblem, despite that being Plegia's goal for the whole game up to that point and future Grima being there for most of it?

Okay, tie between THAT and rewriting Inigo X Nah (I really hate Inigo X Nah).

Edited February 2, 2016 by Alastor15243

[secondworld]

Okay yeah I think the thing DanMan posted ties with my Awakening change too.

[Zerosabers]

And not removing the ass pull where Grima revives himself without the Emblem, despite that being Plegia's goal for the whole game up to that point and future Grima being there for most of it?

It's like Sonic Adventure 2 when Sonic uses chaos control with the fake Emeralds. The fake gems were just less powerful but good enough to resurrect Grima.

That's my explanation at least.

[Alastor15243]

It's like Sonic Adventure 2 when Sonic uses chaos control with the fake Emeralds. The fake gems were just less powerful but good enough to resurrect Grima.

That's my explanation at least.

But the synthetic chaos emerald was designed to be LIKE the real ones and have similar properties and something about wavelength. There's no indication the fake emblem gems have any magical properties at all.

Edited February 2, 2016 by Alastor15243

[The DanMan]

It's like Sonic Adventure 2 when Sonic uses chaos control with the fake Emeralds. The fake gems were just less powerful but good enough to resurrect Grima.

That's my explanation at least.

But the synthetic chaos emeralds were designed to be LIKE the real ones and have similar properties and something about wavelength. There's no indication the fake emblem gems have any magical properties at all.

But he didn't use the fake gems at all. Robin took the Emblem and fake gems off of Validar, then Grima just warps in and uses the Grimleal gathered around the Dragon's Altar to revive himself.

Why on earth didn't they do this when the Shepherds were in Valm, for instance?

Edited February 2, 2016 by The DanMan

[Moblin Major General]

[spoiler=Blazing Sword]Have Brendan be the boss of Chapter 25E/27H and have the same goal as E16x/H17x, so that he realizes the Black Fang has gone down a dark path with his marriage to Sonia. He will then be playable and also be the only one able to recruit Nino in 26E/28H.

[spoiler=Shadow Dragon]Have the Samson/Arran recruitments be different, like in 25E/27H, where you get Samson if your foot units have a higher level total, and Arran if your mounted units have a higher total level.

Give unique quotes to bosses when they fight certain PCs, like Lorenz vs Camus, Mannu vs Bantu, Roger vs Kannival, Marth vs Jiol, and even Navarre vs Reynard.

[spoiler=Awakening]Have Gangrel allude to the coming Valm arc in Ch.11, and introduce Validar as the plaintiff in the peace suit, so that Chrom and Robin know that problems with Plegia will not go away.

Making Excellus the boss of Ch.19 as punishment for manipulating the dynasts.

[spoiler=Mystery]Bring back SD Marth, with his better penchant for strategy and depth, who keeps his distance from Kris once he finds out about Hardin's madness, wondering if Hardin is right about Marth becoming a despot instead of Hardin.

[Zerosabers]

But the synthetic chaos emerald was designed to be LIKE the real ones and have similar properties and something about wavelength. There's no indication the fake emblem gems have any magical properties at all.

But he didn't use the fake gems at all. Robin took the Emblem and fake gems off of Validar, then Grima just warps in and uses the Grimleal gathered around the Dragon's Altar to revive himself.

Why on earth didn't they do this when the Shepherds were in Valm, for instance?

It was a joke, I don't actually think that.

[RJWalker]

I would remove Kris from existence.

[Alastor15243]

I would remove Kris from existence.

Eh, my opinion is that gameplaywise a custom unit is too cool an idea to remove entirely, and again, if Kris never existed, I'm not sure we'd ever get the feature in later games where they did it much better.

I would've just axed Kris's ludicrous canon-usurping story relevance and just made Kris another member of Marth's army. This would be my stance on adding a MU to any remake of any of the past games, honestly. Do it, for sure, but don't give change the story around them.

[NinjaMonkey]

LEA?

Laguz Emancipation Army (Vika, Muarim and Tormod).

[Alastor15243]

Actually I've been giving a lot of thought to how Awakening's story could've been improved recently, and I have some other thoughts now.

[spoiler=Fire Emblem Awakening Spoilers]

Frankly I think the main problem with Awakening's story is that the entire plot comprises of making it so that a much more interesting story never happens. A zombie apocalypse Fire Emblem game would've been amazing.

In fact one of my wildest dreams regarding fangames is that somebody demakes Fire Emblem Awakening using some kind of combination of the FE4 and FE5 engines so that the first half is the traditionally shallow story of the first generation, but suddenly it switches completely halfway through after the shit hits all of the fans to focus on the orphaned children and a few other characters (perhaps more children based on the males), but this time it's a brutal game of survival where you have to fight with limited supplies while being constantly outnumbered by hordes of zombies, and you're constantly on the run trying to either assemble the spell to escape back in time or go the Future of Despair route and try to assemble Falchion by journeying across the apocalyptic world.

That would be absolutely awesome, it would be FE4 but with zombies and the interesting experimental elements of FE5. Of course I'm quite sure that will never happen :(

Edited February 6, 2016 by Alastor15243

[Axie]

[spoiler=FE4]focus more on julius and what he used to be without loptyr. nobody wants to see manfroy, give us a character with actual potential. just changing his desth quote to show the original him regaining conscience before dying would have made me happy.

[spoiler=FE7]the black fang should not be an army-sized assassin organization that evolved from some prototype of the greil mercenaries. it really is a nonsensical entity and didn't even need to be.

[spoiler=FE12]make the avatar someone who learns from marth and jagen, instead of their strategic equal. he still gets to butt into scenes but the integrity of marth's character is untouched. s/he could even, you know, actually develop over the course of the game.