screenshot Ike's FE Megathread {15.5}

[sirmola]

no

"no, chapter 5 isn't over", or "no, i won't kill her"

[Parrhesia]

"no, chapter 5 isn't over", or "no, i won't kill her"

No.

[Integrity]

"no, chapter 5 isn't over", or "no, i won't kill her"

correct!

Here's to hoping Sylvia doesn't screw Ced over.

literally nothing can screw ced over man, i've done lewyn/sylvia before

largely because ced is fury's son, not sylvia's

Edited June 11, 2016 by Integrity

[Katie]

I'll admit, I was originally gonna vote for Lewyn/Sylvia just so I could see you try and train Corple to promotion so he could use Forseti, but by the time I voted people had pretty much made their minds up about killing Sylvia off. Of course, you didn't even get Forseti this time.

[Integrity]

it's actually not hard at all to train corp hole up if you think about inheritance at all (return staff, buddy), doubly so if you have anything of a patty to feed him some cash. he's basically aideen, and i chunked aideen from 12 to 19 in a chapter when i decided i wanted her promoted.

it takes turns, but i'm not exactly going high octane all over the place

[Integrity]

Let’s kill it, guys. Chapter 5 is going to be two posts; this one is going to be the main update, covering the plot and gameplay and showing off how everyone performed in the end, and the next one forthcoming in a day or three is going to tackle all the hella optional conversations in this chapter and wrap up their individual threads. Might do a little debriefing in the next one, recap what the first generation’s story did well and what it did poorly, might save that for the end of the second generation. After that will be another essay post, pure words for you about translations, probably even with citations. Damn. After that, three updates hence, we’ll start the second generation.

Excelsior!

Nothing at all to talk about in the map text today. All it gives us is a brief overview of the shit we’re going to face this chapter, which does lead to a second screenshot.

They’re all kind of lined up in the places they’ll be when we kill them! :D

Moving on, we finally get to see Sigurd’s Dad. He’s kind of cool, for the seven lines that have been written for him. This is one, there’s one if he dies en route to you, there’s one if you skip him because you’re a douchebag (hilarious, btw), and there’s four he actually speaks to Sigurd.

This guy on the left is Slaydar. That’s actually his name. He has no other traits besides the fact that his name is Slaydar, making him one of the better characters in Genealogy’s first generation. Dad’s carrying the Tyrfing to you and Langobalt sends Slaydar out to slay him before he can do it. Correctly, Langobalt is pretty worried about you getting the sword, since it’s a total doozy.

Which means I won’t be using it, natch.

Chalphy’s are the Green and Dozel’s are the Grey Knights, for the curious. German colors rule, you can probably pick all the major ones out if you speak no German whatsoever thanks to English.

Anyway, here we finally get to something happening that’s almost good. Langobalt sends Andre out with the Beige Knights to kill Sigurd and everyone else. He shows him the most respect, as the man of the hour, until his back is turned.

Then, for the first time in Genealogy, we get to see some animosity among the enemies! Langobalt is ambitious, sure, but he’s actually portrayed here as not a total cockbag, unlike Reptor and Manfroy and Shagall and etc. It’s not going to stop us from killing him, hell, but it’s a good touch to finally show that an unambiguous villain does have a line he wishes weren’t crossed. Besides this guy, Genealogy’s villains are all either modestly well-done villains with actual depth (Arvis, Travant, nobody else) or totally evil shitbags who basically everybody they’re not paying directly totally hates (everybody else but Langobalt.) Hell, in the case of Macbeth (the guy who was paying Beowulf and Voltz) even the guys he was paying hated him. Langobalt is still a total weasel, and he’s definitely not ever portrayed as remorseful for a bunch of evil shit he did over the course of the game – hell, he’s hardly even three-dimensional – but an inkling of a third generation shines through here. More of this would have given Genealogy the depth it sorely lacks.

Game time’s almost start. Dad’s on the way, Sigurd doesn’t know who this guy is, only that Langobalt wants him dead. His first strike will decide the battle.

Now we come to one of the conversations that completely destroys Genealogy’s tension, in my opinion. This little beauty pops after you sally forth from the castle and is a brief conversation between Arvis and King Grannvale, largely. King Grannvale is dying of Ambiguity (it might have been established as heartbreak from his son dying to Sigurd’s dad) and Arvis is staying by his side.

Here’s the thing, though: King Grannvale sent Claude to suss out the truth of who killed his son. King Grannvale has his suspicions that maybe his best friend and that guy’s great kid who’s done nothing but help him his whole life didn’t actually kill his son. Arvis decides to just, well, here’s the text.

Alvis: “Your Majesty. Please, I’ll explain once more. Lord Vylon assassinated the prince with the help of Lord Ring of Jungby. Duke Leptor and Duke Langobalt both witnessed the entire horrible spectacle! The prince learned of their plot to usurp the throne, and that cost him his life. Sir Sigurd is also without a doubt involved in the conspiracy. Why else would he harbour the prince of a hostile country? Isaac no less. These are clearly acts of treason against the kingdom. The late Prince Kurth is also now a father-in-law to me… And for my beloved princess, Diadora, I must put an end to Sigurd’s path of destruction! If Lord Langobalt cannot successfully subdue the rebels, Velthomer’s fire knights, the Roten Ritter, will stop Sigurd’s rebel army in their tracks!”

(Velthomer’s the Red Knights.)

Explaining how King Grannvale has been deceived by the evilmen this entire time in such bold detail is kind of a dicey move for two reasons. First, the writers are relying on their skill to make the conspiracy believable to us, the readers – or at least make it such that we could see it being believable in King Grannvale’s position. Second, dumping speeches like this at the reader is very often a bad thing, especially when you’re giving essentially repeated information. None of this is news to us.

Meanwhile, the plot just doesn’t hold up if we assume the king has anything of a brain. The two people in charge of the court happened to witness the assassination of the prince, to say nothing of the follow-up work that happened in Isaach, and was murdered by two people who have shown, in one case, nothing but the utmost loyalty, and nothing at all in the other case. I’m not sure Ring ever actually shows up on screen. Past that, Sigurd having Shanan with him has been a thing for the last four years, since before even the whole murdering people started, he’s not kept it a secret, and no demands have been levied at us from either Grannvale or Isaach to return him immediately – this, however, singularly, stands as proof that Sigurd (and Quan, helping selflessly, and Eldigan, in prison) is complicit in treason.

What’s going on? Once again, narrative control, the domain of the villains. The villains have the power, evidently, to control the entire flow of information to the king. Hell, they could have been lying about everything this whole time (I mean, they have been) and he wouldn’t have picked up on it. Problem is, adding all this information just cements that the villains have an unbelievable amount of power, which calls into question (even more) why the plot had to be so roundabout. This is one of those things that’s better left shadowy (there’s a conspiracy, that’s why the king doesn’t trust us) and not laid out in plain English for us to read. More information isn’t always better! You can undermine your own plot by thinking it through too thoroughly.

Getting past that, Deirdre pops up. We’re reminded that she shows up under really shady circumstances (she doesn’t remember anything at all, but hell, she gives off Vibes of Naga) and that she’s got the blood we need to stop Loptyr, which I talked enough about. That said, why has the Naga bloodline stayed limited to single people too? You’d think that the good guys would have been breeding as much as possible to keep the Naga blood rolling, especially if they’re going to keep the evil guys from having extra kids with a pinky-promise. I don’t remember anything in the agreement that said it was bilateral. Hell, Kurth even died “childless” as far as anyone knew, which would have been a big red flag that the world was totally fucked if the Loptyrmen had managed to not die out.

Plus, if she had a son wouldn’t he only have minor Naga blood? Hell, shouldn’t she only have minor Naga blood, being a daughter of a major Naga man? Tsk.

Dad is comically weak, since he’s actually dying. You’re on a really tight timeline for actually recruiting him – chapter 2’s chicanery done really well, in other words.

Dad has four lines, and perishes shortly. He gives us a broken sword.

Which, if you’re playing along, the game automatically equips for you. Don’t overextend Sigurd too much, broken weapons really suck.

Goodbye, Dad. I’m glad we got to meet you.

For some reason here there’s a mighty massive gulf between your two battles. In fact, a major problem with chapter 5’s design as a whole is that there’s a hell of a lot of dead space between things. There’s literally nothing, not even terrain features, between Slaydar and Andre, and you can get a screencap of the whole distance between them just barely. You have to walk through a bunch of desert, about six turns worth of full movement under no pressure with no terrain features, to take Phinora. After that, you have to walk through about ten more turns of mostly nothing to get to the skirmish with Reptor. This map could have been condensed about 25% and lost absolutely nothing.

The Beige Knights are a bit of a chore to deal with. Every one of them’s got a Hero Bow. Genealogy’s problem in later maps is starting to rear its head, and it will a few more times this chapter before going away until about chapter 10. In later chapters, Genealogy has a problem where enemies just power creep to stupid levels. Granted, it’s a problem in a whole lot of tactical-type games like this, but once you get to the Beige Ritter who all have Hero Bows, it ends up just being stupid to deal with. If you want to eliminate any large chunk of them on an enemy phase, you need to have one dude who’s capable of tanking/dodging twenty attacks, and can do modest damage at 2-range. Lewyn fits this with Forseti, since he power creeps to stupid levels, but I’m not using that shit.

Fuck yous.

Fuck yous all.

Fun think about this screenshot – there’s a Pretty Great Canadian cop drama that I’d recommend to anyone who likes that kind of thing called Flashpoint. Their code call for the sniper to take his kill shot to end a situation they can’t defuse is Scorpio. Every time I read this I like to imagine he’s calling to his invisible sniper somewhere to cap the person who killed him. It’s the most characterization Andre will ever get.

Langobalt can also be kind of a bitch to-

Seriously? Big Shield is in full swing this chapter. Savor it.

Four shots were blocked or missed.

That didn’t deter Jamke, he just kept reloading and firing and eventually killed him. Charge is a hilarious skill.

I did check the map, they’re right on the border. This is probably close to where Prince Kurth was-

Wait a minute. Wasn’t Kurth assassinated like two years ago? What’s Dad been doing that whole time, bleeding?? This just occurred to me while I was typing. One never thinks about it, since it’s only been like three chapters, but that’s two whole years of game time. Genealogy doesn’t have much of a handle on time.

Anyway, Shanan and Oifaye, two good and cool child characters in a series that has chiefly bad child characters, make Sigurd see that sending the actual prince of Isaach to protect Seliph in Isaach is probably a good idea, rather than lugging the prince of Isaach to the capital of Grannvale. This is actually a good conversation, with good narrative flow. I’m leaving it here because I like to give as much praise as I can.

[spoiler=i have no nits to pick about this one, honestly] Oifey: “Sir, that sure wasn’t an easy one.”

Sigurd: “Yeah. And that was just Grandbell’s standing army. Things are only going to get worse. Oifey, I need a favour of you.”

Oifey: “Sure. What is it?”

Sigurd: “Isaacian territory is just northeast of Lubeck, right? Langobalt’s oldest son, Dannan, has been stationed in Isaac ever since their defeat. But I’m willing to bet his authority hasn’t reached the outskirts of Isaac. So…”

Oifey: “Just a second! Are you suggesting I leave you all and head for safety!? Forget it! I’m not leaving your side, sir! I’m here till the end!”

Sigurd: “Oifey, I hate to impose on you, but please understand my situation. I don’t want to lose Celice. He is not even two yet. But I can’t fight and take care of him. Oifey, please. I want you to take Celice and go to where it’s safe. You are the only one who I can feasibly count on to do this.”

Oifey: “…Alright, I’ll do it. …I’ll guard him with my life. But you have to promise me something. When this war is over you must promise to come get us. Otherwise, I’m not leaving.”

Sigurd: “Of course. I promise. I’ll come for you.”

Oifey: “Okay.”

Shanan: “Hold on a second! Diadora put me in charge of protectin’ Celice! And I’m not handin’ him over to Oifey or anyone until she says it’s okay!”

Sigurd: “Shanan, come on… I know how you feel. I’m not any happier than you are about Diadora not being around, but this is for the best.”

Shanan: “Forget it! It’s my job! Besides, Isaacians hate you guys. You send Oifey by himself and he’ll be in big trouble! I’m the prince of Isaac. I can protect him better than anyone. Besides, I promised I would.”

Oifey: “Sir, I would be a bit more at ease if Shanan came along. I know you don’t want to get him involved in this. He is still pretty young. But he can hold his own. His presence would add a level of safety I can’t provide in Isaac.”

Sigurd: “Hm… …Alright. Shanan, watch over Celice, okay?”

Shanan: “You got it! I’m gonna get even tougher, you’ll see. No one’ll lay a hand on him! And I’ll tell him all about Diadora, too!”

Oifey: “We’ll be off then. Sir, please take care. I’ll be praying for our victory.”

Sigurd: “Thanks, Oifey. Stay well.”

Oifey: “Will do!”

Unlike Sigurd, Quan and Ethlyn are Bad Parents.

They brought an actual child with them to go to war in the desert. What the fuck, dudes?

Predictably, Travant’s right behind them. This scene has some timing issues, I reckon – Travant shows up as soon as Quan stops talking to come kill him. The game doesn’t let you savor the thought of useful reinforcements, it just drops Travant on you. The scale of the map also works against the drama – there’s no way for you to think you can make it to them in time. It’s like the Silesian man on the border, dutifully standing guard so you’re forced to watch even though you could go save Silesia; the scene would have much more impact if you thought the first time you could make it and really couldn’t.

This ain’t Travant’s fault, though. He’s still cool. Fuck off, Word, I said ain’t and I meant ain’t, not isn’t. Ain’t’s a word no matter how much you rage against the dying of the light.

Hyenas are Specta’s favorite animal, so she’s a Thracian. Good to know!

Divide and conquer, buddy. Now that I think about it, Quan and Ethlyn are really incompetent overall, between bring your daughter to work day, splitting the military clean in two (and getting murdered), not using the family’s holy weapon for like three chapters… I don’t think they do anything good in the narrative at all, but I don’t feel like checking my entire notes file to make sure of that.

More important plot things happen; we’re finally getting Arvis at his first generational peak here. Text dump!

[spoiler=x reptor] Alvis: “Lord Langobalt was killed, was he?”

Leptor: “Alvis! Now are we going to do!? You’re the one who said Sigurd wouldn’t pose any problems! You KNEW Langobalt and I sent most of our military off with our sons to subdue other areas. You’ve explicitly gone against your word!”

Alvis: “Lord Leptor, calm down a second. I already have Velthomer troops positioned in the Yied Desert. And Thracia’s mercenaries should be here shortly. Leptor, as long as you and I engage our armies together, the rebels WILL fall.”

Leptor: “Alvis, you better be right this time. You can have the throne for all I care. But you best not forget about us once you become king.”

Alvis: “Don’t worry. When this war is finished, your family will take Agustria. And the Dozel family will take Isaac. Rest assured. Those countries are rightfully yours.”

Leptor: “Well, alright then. We’ll take on the rebels with all we’ve got.”

Exposition here is correctly done unlike earlier by Arvis, which was just prefaced with “let me explain again…” Reptor is getting pretty agitated that we’re not dead yet, as he should be, and Arvis is soothing him. It’s good. Reptor leaves.

Genealogy can’t let things stay good, though, so Manfroy arrives.

[spoiler=x manfroy] Manfroy: “Hmhmhm… Lord Alvis, I see things are proceeding smoothly.”

Alvis: “Manfroy? How many times have I told you not to show yourself around here!? All members of your Lopt Sect must stay completely hidden until I’ve taken power!”

Manfroy: “Yes. You’re too weak to admit our presence, and you let that greedy Leptor and Langobalt run all over you! The original plan was to dispose of those two once they proved useless and work through their sons instead!”

Alvis: “Hmph… Manfroy, I’ll say this once and only once, so listen good. I haven’t the slightest intention of rebuilding your Lopt Empire. I have no problem with your Lopt Sect existing, but I’m not leaving the world in the hands of the Dark Lord. You follow!? I don’t care if I have the Lopt Clan’s blood in me. I have Saint Maira’s blood and he fought for the good of the people. The Fire God Fala is also one of my ancestors. I will use my power to create a world which is free of prejudice. One where all peoples can live without fear of repression! Of course, Sigurd knows way too much. Consider him a sacrifice to the greater good.”

Manfroy: “Hohoho… I assume that greater good includes Diadora as well! Lord Alvis, you’re afraid, aren’t you. Afraid her memories may be restored!”

Alvis: “Enough, Manfroy! We-are-in-love. And no one’s going to get in our way!”

Manfroy: “Hmhmhm… Well, the two of you need to get busy and bear a son. That child is certain to become a magnificent king! Heeheehee…”

While Manfroy is garbage, Arvis is good, and the overall balance of this scene is fairly good. One of the things I’ve said about Genealogy’s villains repeatedly and as recently as about two thousand words ago is that only two of them are good: Arvis and Travant. The reason they’re the only two good ones is because they’re portrayed as antagonistic mostly in that they’re in opposition to us. Other villains have cartoon villain plans (Loptyr sect) or literally pillage their own lands and murder people at random (everybody else), but Arvis here honestly has good goals. He’s getting rid of us because his scheme (badly written as it was) took it that way, and he’ll toss Sigurd aside for that gain.

This scene also introduces some ambiguity, a thing Genealogy isn’t very fond of, that I think is cleared up in the second generation but I don’t have my notes ready for that yet – Arvis knows Deirdre is Sigurd’s, but it doesn’t seem like he knows about her Loptyr blood, so it’s not like he’s trying to raise the Antichrist or anything. He just wants to build a world that doesn’t suck – an admirable and relatable goal in a world that sucks as hard as Jugdral does. He knows about his own blood, but since he was the product of an affair between His Dad and Cigyun, who disappeared, he probably thinks he’s the only one with the blood, so he’s going to honor the Maira Pact.

I mean, he actually isn’t, since they have twins, something that you’d think the Maira Pact would consider, but hell. He tried.

Manfroy only exists in this scene to be smug and hint about how he actually orchestrated everything in this game, which he actually did. Manfroy is an awful character.

Meteor people wake up now. They hurt.

Another problem with this map’s design is identical to a problem I have with chapter 4’s bridge, just to a lesser degree. All of these meteor dudes are positioned on hills such that nobody but Fury can ever attack them. If you thought to hork Deirdre’s Silence staff, you can deal with three of them strategically and temporarily. If you have Sleep, one. Much like how in chapter 4 only Dew can unlock that bridge, but unlike it in that that person’s involvement is obvious and hitting you out of nowhere, you’re given a problem that can only be solved by one person in your team, in a game that touts permadeath as a feature. This is one of the reasons Casual Mode was the best innovation Fire Emblem ever made; permadeath has never actually worked as anything besides “if anyone dies, reset”, and that goes doubly for a game with these problems where you have One Unit who’s even capable of dealing with it.

Easy fix in this case, though: just move them so you can swing an archer to some point to snipe them. Don’t make it the easiest point, just anywhere at all. This guy should be shootable from the south, but the next one could need Jamke to swing east to get them, out of the way if you want to get rid of them instead of just tanking it.

Spoilers: she doesn’t do a very good job, being oneshot and all.

Quan dodges like four more attacks.

Told you this guy would be back! His name’s Magorn now.

Travant’s entire motivation here, which we’ll explore later, is to snipe Quan so he can grab Leinster after its king is gone. As I recall, he’s doing this because his corner of Thracia is a total shithole, and Quan’s is a verdant paradise more or less; his motivations are pretty sound. Once again, he’s only antagonistic because he’s in opposition to us. Dude’s people are starving, he needs a place for them to eat and mercenary work only works as long as the world sucks.

Magorn offers to kill Altenna, which is pretty amazing, but Travant takes her home. I’ll verify this later, but I think he’s explicitly a pretty good dad to her, too. He’s not an evil dude, he’s just a dude born in a really shitty place who wants to make it not suck.

Mmm. Phinora put up no resistance.

Quan’s dead. Not sure who found out, but villages have a weird mix of information in this game. Some of them just found out that Langobart occupied that one castle, one of them doesn’t change her dialogue to “we’re being raided help” after Langobart is long dead. This dude happens to know Quan died last turn.

Aida isn’t much of anything. Arvis fucks her at some point to make Saias for Thracia, though. Don’t know when.

Genealogy doesn’t like ambiguity. As soon as he’s gone, Aida can’t help but laugh about how he’s going to die.

Anyway, remember when I was bitching earlier about enemy power creep in the case of a whole squad with Hero Bows, a thing we can only ever get one of? Magorn’s entire squad has Slayers, proto-Horseslayers. This is actually pretty cool and thematic – Travant knew Quan’s entire regiment was on horses, so all he brought was hard counters. Good going on his part. On the other hand, bear in mind that our only axe user, the logical counter to lances, is on a horse. Which is slayable. He’s two-shot by these in my file, you can reasonably have him three-shot instead. All of your foot units, who are not slayable, are sword users, who will melt in front of them; bow users, who will not counter attack them; or mages, who have the durability to fight one enemy. Except Lewyn, obviously, with Forseti, continuing to be the worst design.

Much like the Hero Bow squad, unless you wipe these guys out in one turn somebody is going to die, because they have too much movement and canto. This is where Genealogy’s FORMATION FIGHT mechanic I praised a lot several chapters ago breaks down, when you’re fighting large groups of highly mobile units with strong weapons. Doesn’t matter if their stats suck, they two-shot Lex at 40 hit and you can’t set up a line such that they can’t gang up on somebody due to the terrain. It’s not insurmountable, obviously, I surmounted it on my second or third formation setup, but it it’s not good design.

Something I don’t think I’ve groused about before is the downfall of the Arena. Sometimes there are levels of enemy that are just Total Fuckers for certain units to deal with, and it holds them back. Anyone who’s played Genealogy will remember The Swordmaster Level in almost every chapter’s arena, which about a third of your melee units will be stuck on, in addition to probably all of your mages. There’s also just, occasionally, the first or second enemy will be an armor knight, totally walling a low damage unit from getting through. Enemies with effective weaponry are the worst offenders. Adding onto this, the units that get stuck at certain point in the Arena are typically the ones that need the help from the Arena, and the units who are snowballing kill the problematic enemies just fine. Typically, sure, but it's still annoying. It turns the Arena later into a win-more mechanic, rather than a catch-up mechanic.

Anyway, dead space. We’re being peppered by meteors periodically this whole time.

They turn friendly after you engage Reptor, but lol if you think that means I’m leaving any alive to turn friendly.

Reptor’s squad engages from surprisingly far out. They also typically put their healer in front. Reptor is not a tactician.

Aida calls Scorpio and the snipers would begin their sniping if I hadn’t killed them all. Aida herself fires one shot, which misses.

Things go, uh, this way.

Except the last dude who could shoot Jamke hits and kills him. Motherfucker.

Anyway, one turn back and a reset later, the wave is largely handled. Killing Reptor will make everybody else vanish, which can be good or bad depending on how you feel about farming experience. I don’t care too much at this point.

Reptor himself is the epitome of What Genealogy’s Design Does Wrong.

In particular, he one-shots many of your units from full health. At 100% accuracy. With Big Shield, just for an added layer of fuck you. Tyrfing does a pretty good job neutralizing him and his squad, but I forgot to repair it like a total dope.

Fortunately, Jamke at full health can tank one shot from him in my file, so I just saved at the start of the turn and prayed for a crit on one of his attacks. He crit. Shit’s good.

Forseti can also deal with Reptor pretty well. Beyond those two and a huge man with big criticals, you have basically no options for even fighting him. And even those he’ll occasionally just negate with Big Shield, the worst mechanic.

Following this, Jamke returns home to sell his Killer Bow so Briggid can buy it and pass it to Faval, because I’m not losing that motherfucker to inheritance.

We’re at the Famous Twist of Genealogy now. The Famous Twist is a good attempt to get things done differently, but it drops the ball in a few ways.

Sigurd’s kind of dopey, granted, but he buys straight into all of this. Arvis, betrothed to the king’s daughter and basically regent to the throne, was being outmatched by these two dopes and needed Sigurd to kill them, she tells him. He’s always believed in Sigurd’s innocence. Sigurd’s on board with all this, even after Claude told him straight up that Arvis wasn’t really feeling his side of things. Once again, the characters’ trains of thought don’t update; Sigurd ought to believe Arvis was with him in chapter 0, but a lot has happened since chapter 0 and Sigurd has all the reason in the world to be hesitant about Grannvale as a whole, which he absolutely isn’t.

After we’ve seen Eldigan walk into this same situation and get murdered, we still walk in and don’t put up a fight as Arvis slaughters us. Nobody’s got any reservations. Claude even knows he’s going to die here, doesn’t voice it. Maybe he’s playing the long con!

We walk past a pack of dudes who could take everybody we took in the previous chapter, but we believe that Arvis couldn’t handle those two dudes without our help, even though all these dudes are in his pocket.

At this point, Sigurd doesn’t even suspect Arvis has done anything – a thing which Arvis could use to his advantage. No need to kill all of them in a really dicey move that, by rights, we shouldn’t even walk into. Granted, Deirdre’s a problem in this – but really all that means is that there’s no politics behind this, we’re all just being murdered over a woman. Classic motives, honestly.

Past this, we’ve been told repeatedly that Arvis is kind of against us. Repeatedly. Even when Sigurd wasn’t directly involved, the player gets way too much foreshadowing that Arvis is going to do away with us. Like, for instance, fifteen minutes ago, when Arvis agrees with Manfroy that we’re a sacrifice for the greater good. There’s no way to be following along the story, reading everything, and not suspect that Arvis is going to pull something on you here.

It’s an unfortunate victim of Genealogy’s lack of subtlety; Arvis’s betrayal could have come out of nowhere here if the writing had followed the trend of chapters < 3. Hell, without Reptor delivering the entire evil plot, the only thing to tease that Arvis is going to murder you is chapter 5’s shitty foreshadowing. Cut some of that, and this would be a huge gut punch. Seriously, it’s two or maybe three conversations worth of slight rework to make this a great moment.

Despite all these mad words, the moment still does its job pretty well. It’s bold. You know Arvis is doing something, but you don’t know the magnitude of it. I could see going into this chapter thinking he was going to pull Sigurd into prison, you get a perspective swap, break him out of prison – hell, maybe Sigurd even dies and you have to avenge him. His betrayal’s inevitable, but you might not get the full impact of it.

But it isn’t. You all die. It’s bungled, sure, but it’s still a pretty solid punch to you.

It’s the ultimate flexion of the villains having all of the narrative power; they just decide to delete your whole party and there’s nothing you can do about it, because you don’t have any power and you never actually did.

fin.

[spoiler=units debriefing]Let’s talk about my mans. You’ll finally get to see their stats and stuff. I’ll provide some commentary on how good they are IMO in case anyone’s playing from home or thinking to do so.

Sigurd – 78 kills

Sigurd is one of the best, to be honest. If you’re playing from home and want to be a total fucker, feed him Ayra’s Hero Sword in chapter 3 and just laugh once it gets to 50 kills. You can solo basically the whole generation with him and a little healing support. Fun shit.

Noish – 19 kills

I’m not so sold on this guy. Good dad, he kinda sucks. I did my best to feed him the civilians in C4 to try to drag his stupid ass up to pass a little bit of stats down to his kids, but oh well. You use him for mild cavalry support and to kill the hell out of low health stuff, his utility is mostly as a dad.

Alec – 14 kills

Behold, the power of the C4 civilians. Five fewer kills, 9 fewer levels. Alec’s like Noish but he’s a little more reliable as a unit and a little bit less good of a dad. You can tell by his inventory I stopped using him, probably sometime around chapter 3.

Ardan – 15 kills

he outdid alec lmao

He’s not terrible. If you can truck him to the fighting, which isn’t that big an if, he’s a passable unit. There’s plenty of places he can find some small utility even in a high octane run, and he’s even an alright unit in the Arena to get free levels, unless there’s a mage involved. I gave up using him largely because I lost patience with the first generation as a whole and not because of anything he did. His characterization is unfortunate, behold next update.

Midir – 28 kills

I like Midir. He’s not great, but he’s good for picking at shit like a better javelineer. He ended up unmarried, he’s not a very good dad overall anyway. Midir is my measuring stick for other units in the game, to be honest.

Lewyn – 19 kills

Lewyn is garbage and bad and I don’t like him. Forseti, the book, is just a click to pass by way to get through the rest of the first generation’s problems, and many of the second one’s as well. It’s just not fun. He passes on a bunch of speed to his kids.

Holyn – 6 kills

Holyn is a worse Ayra. If you’re going to use him, hook him up with a slim sword.

Azel – 22 kills

Azel’s pretty bad. His damage is pretty good, his survivability is crap. He gets a horse eventually, which helps him out and makes him a better Midir, but he’s a much worse Midir before then. Given that both lose utility after a certain point, just use the Midir that’s better early rather than banking on the Midir that becomes a better Midir later.

Jamke – 88 kills

Holy fuck.

Claude – I never bought him a weapon

Healer.

Beowulf – 8 kills

He’s basically a slightly better Alec, slightly worse dad than Noish, and largely unremarkable. Use him for extra horse chip utility, you can usually trust him to tank a dude or two. I didn’t use him for anything past some utility in chapter 3.

Lex – 60 kills

Lex is a strong contender for the best general purpose dad in the game. He’s also a pretty great unit – doubly so if you give him Ardan’s Pursuit Ring, which he’ll always have money to get, because he’s a pretty great unit. He’s also your only axe user unless you invest heavily into Raquesis, which has some niche utility in addition to dibs on the Hero Axe. Good Lad.

Dew – 1 kill

bad

Raquesis – 0 kills

If you take her to 20, she promotes to the best class in the game. If you don’t, she’s a much worse Ethlyn. That’s the end of it.

Ayra – 32 kills

Good unit, kills dudes once she walks to them. Her sword lock hurts her really bad since a lot of enemy piles – especially the worst ones you’d want to throw her at – are comprised of bows or lances, which she can’t counter and melts against, respectively. She’s still pretty great, and her kids are definite mainstays in the second generation.

Fury – 34 kills

One upside of FE4’s huge maps is there’s a lot of flier flanker utility, knocking off ballistae or healers, stalling reinforcements, the works. Her daughter will continue this. Fury’s characterization is unfortunate, as covered, but that doesn’t drag her down too much.

Tiltyu – 7 kills

She’s okay. She’s Azel with a better skill set except she arrives three point five chapters later. I ditched her, she’s more work to use than she’s worth despite being modestly if you do.

Sylvia – 0 kills

I don’t know if I ever brought it up, but I had Specta look up the infamous “ever seen a little girl with these before??” and it’s faithfully translated from the original Nihongo in spirit, where she refers to herself as “this sexy me.” I dunno, I figured you should know.

Aideen – 0 kills

Healer.

Briggid – 34 kills

Ichival is really good, otherwise she’s a worse Jamke. Ichival is really good, though.

[Katie]

I wouldn't call Dew bad. He's a great father if you want a kid to have all around great stats, since he has some of the best growths in the entire first generation, and without even having any Holy Blood to boot. Sol and Bargain don't hurt either. He's just really hard to train, because his base strength is terrible.

I think you're gonna love your Larcei and Ulster, since not only do they get Jamke's skillset, they get Astra too for even more OP multihittingness. I think of all their fathers, Jamke gives the best skillset.

[Konnor97]

Plus, if she had a son wouldn’t he only have minor Naga blood? Hell, shouldn’t she only have minor Naga blood, being a daughter of a major Naga man? Tsk.

I don't see why she should only have minor Naga blood because her dad was the major carrier, or why her son would only have minor Naga. Faval inherits Briggid's major Ulir, who got it from her father Ring, Ishtar inherits major Tordo from her father Blume, Altena inherits major Noba from Quan, and if the family tree on this site is correct, then apparently Shanan's aunt and Galzus's mother inherited major Odo from her father Mananan, and Mareeta from Galzus. All of these people get major holy blood from their opposite gendered parent.

If you're talking about Arvis' major Fala/them having minor Loptyr that becomes major Loptyr (like what happens for Julius and Holyn's children with Ayra), then I don't actually have an argument for that. I guess Patty inherits Lewyn's and Claude's major holy blood while Faval inherits the major Ulir, so this shows that if two parents have major holy blood: one kid gets one major blood and another could inherit another type of major holy blood.

So if Arvis and Deirdre only had one kid, that kid could've had pretty much any combination of major Naga/Loptyr/Fala and minor Loptyr/Fala/Naga.

I think this is it. If there's something major I'm missing, someone please tell me. I'm not sure if order born has anything to do with inheritance, as Ishtar is younger than Ishtore, but she is the one with major Tordo. Corple is the younger one of him and Leen, but he's the one who inherits Lewyn's major Sety if him and Sylvia are paired up.

[Integrity]

I wouldn't call Dew bad.

i would and did

I don't see why she should only have minor Naga blood because her dad was the major carrier, or why her son would only have minor Naga. Faval inherits Briggid's major Ulir, who got it from her father Ring, Ishtar inherits major Tordo from her father Blume, Altena inherits major Noba from Quan, and if the family tree on this site is correct, then apparently Shanan's aunt and Galzus's mother inherited major Odo from her father Mananan, and Mareeta from Galzus. All of these people get major holy blood from their opposite gendered parent.

If you're talking about Arvis' major Fala/them having minor Loptyr that becomes major Loptyr (like what happens for Julius and Holyn's children with Ayra), then I don't actually have an argument for that. I guess Patty inherits Lewyn's and Claude's major holy blood while Faval inherits the major Ulir, so this shows that if two parents have major holy blood: one kid gets one major blood and another could inherit another type of major holy blood.

So if Arvis and Deirdre only had one kid, that kid could've had pretty much any combination of major Naga/Loptyr/Fala and minor Loptyr/Fala/Naga.

I think this is it. If there's something major I'm missing, someone please tell me. I'm not sure if order born has anything to do with inheritance, as Ishtar is younger than Ishtore, but she is the one with major Tordo. Corple is the younger one of him and Leen, but he's the one who inherits Lewyn's major Sety if him and Sylvia are paired up.

see while that's a lot of (not incorrect!) words about it the thing is blood inheritance is really inconsistent if you're equating mechanics to story. the eldest child doesn't always get blood, and the gendered child doesn't always get blood. there's no reason, therefore, that the only son of a major bloodline would not get minor blood, thus ending the bloodline, because major blood cannot be born from minor blood without another minor blood. blood in fe4 makes no fucking sense if you dig at all beneath the very surface, much like fe4's plot in its entirety

Edited June 12, 2016 by Integrity

[Moblin Major General]

^This. Think about if Lex or Azel had Major Neir and Fala (respectively) Holy Blood, or if Tailto had Major Tordo? FE4 Gen 1 would've ended much differently. As Integrity said, however, literally nothing swings in our favor whatsoever, something that doesn't really get better as the series goes on.

[Integrity]

yeah it does though

[Moblin Major General]

yeah it does though

Maybe I exaggerated, my mind was rather fixed on Radiant Dawn Part 3, but that's almost as contrived as Genealogy Gen 1. Evidence to the contrary is probably Binding Blade because Roy leads an army rivalled only by Marth, Corrin, and maybe Robin in size, and beaten only by Kris (I have no qualms about killing some units off in NM because of this).

[General Horace]

Reptor is a totally fine boss, you actually get loads of units that can tank a hit and fight him pretty well if you actually use them (Briggid, Holyn, Jamka, Levin, Noish, Sigurd Titlyu etc), so if he great shields you like a dick you should have a bunch of options (Tiltyu is hilarious if you get her into wrath range beforehand because she'll just oneshot him). He's a big boy with a big weapon, it'd be a letdown if he ran at you with Elthunder or some dumb shit. The only dumb part is hauling their butts through the desert.

He's actually a total joke though because he has shitty res and you can just silence or sleep him.

Edited June 12, 2016 by General Horace

[Integrity]

you can just silence

fuck me

[Psych]

That's true about the arena, but besides people like Noishe and Arden, the people most likely to fall behind in it (Dew, Lachesis, Sylvia, Aideen) don't really need it due to their utility, they just want it for the money.

[TheMoniker]

I think that the silliest part of the whole "Cuan dies too far away from you" thing is the fact that, if you orchestrate things JUUUSSST RIGHT, you can actually have them survive... and doing so makes the game unwinnable. It's weird.

[Specta]

ethlyn for worst mother of the year tho jeez ethlyn

[solrocknroll]

i know that you're ready for Gen II, but do you know if it would be better to play Thracia right now? It works both right now and after Genealogy finishes so either would work.

[Integrity]

Time to wrap this shitshow up and move on to the second generation. Chapter 5 is the culmination of the Genealogy proto-supports; each woman (cept Aideen) gets three conversations with potential marriage partners. Aideens were largely last chapter, except Claude, probably because she couldnt have married him by chapter 4? Who knows, really. Should go without saying, but this update is going to be 100% text. So will the next. Skip ahead a week or so if you want pictures; I know I would if my dumb shit LPer pulled this shit on me.

Before we start, I want to correct something I suggested a few updates ago and reaffirm something I brought up last update. Theres an optional conversation between Sigurd and Claude in chapter 3 if you take the time to walk them together after the Orgahil fight but before you seize:

[spoiler=claude and sigurd] Claude: Sir Sigurd! Finally we can meet up!

Sigurd: Claude! Youre alright! You had us all worried. We heard that you two were attacked by pirates.

Claude: Yes, but thanks to Tiltyus efforts we made it through. That aside, my prayer at Blagi Tower proved to be quite fruitful, Sir Sigurd.

Sigurd: You found out who killed Prince Kurth!?

Claude: Yes. It was all a conspiracy of Lord Leptor. He had Lord Langobalt murder the prince. And then he shrewdly placed the blame on your father.

Sigurd: I knew it!

Claude: Theres more. The death of King Mananan also turned out to be Lord Leptors handiwork. He didnt want the war with Isaac to come to a close, so he secretly killed the king.

Sigurd: Is that right? So this was Leptor right from the start.

Claude: Well, it doesnt seem to be all his doing. Some kind of wicked force is working in his shadow. An evil presence so powerful that even Lord Blagi could not clearly discern it.

Sigurd: Evil presence? Maybe the Dark Sect? Claude! What about my father?

Claude: Well, he is still alive, but seems to be at deaths door

Sigurd: Father Oh no!

Claude: I will hurry back to the capital and inform His Majesty all that I have been revealed. Sir Sigurd, please sit tight for the moment and try to avoid any rash behaviour.

Sigurd: Of course. Claude, please, I beg of you, help my father clear himself of this horrible injustice.

Claude: Its in the Lords hands now, Sir Sigurd.

Sigurd didnt actually figure anything out on his own, Claude just told him everything. And yes, Dad has been actively dying for at least a full year, just to bleed out as soon as he gives us the Tyrfing. Gameplay timing does not match story timing: Genealogy of the Holy War!

Moving on to chapter 5, this is the only place Genealogys characters get reliable characterization some of them, like Beowulf or Dew, have only been involved in a single optional conversation since joining. Noish doesnt even have that; nobody has spoken to him since Sigurd told him to get at it in the prologue. Fury has had a bunch of conversations to reveal a staggering zero personal characteristics, while Sylvia has been in multiple conversations to reveal an extant, but awful and entirely stagnant character. Some, for all my bitching, have actual development and/or characterization. Today well wrap up the first generation with commentary on twenty-eight conversations, consisting of all of the optional ones in chapter 5 and Aideens lover conversations from chapter 4, since otherwise she gets shafted and I didnt talk about them in that chapter. Were going to separate things by woman, since theyre how the conversations are grouped, and Ill try to keep a consistent flow talking about the men as theyre shared. Lets get cracking.

Aideen

The story so far: Aideen hasnt displayed much in the way of actual personality. Shes elegant and kind, and thats about it. Her character is entirely explained with an Anime Girl Archetype. Her conversations up to this point, concentrated in chapter 1 except for recruiting Briggid, display nothing of note except for that she is elegant and kind. Maybe she can get some development here!

Now: I would like for you to read these two conversations in screenshot form, so as to make their impact fully known.

[spoiler=aideen x jamke or midir]

Youll note Aideen is not only the same as shes always been in both conversations, but that both conversations are basically identical. Her third option in the chapter is Azel, and his conversation isnt much better.

[spoiler=aideen x azel] Adean: Azel, be careful out here, okay?

Azel: Yeah, you too, Adean.

Adean: This is so strange. I would never have imagined wed end up together.

Azel: Why? Because Im younger than you?

Adean: No, I dont know Its just strange.

Azel: Yeah, well, Im pretty shocked myself. To think that youd become my wife. This is like a dream!

Adean: Really? How come? Dont you think we were meant for each other?

Azel: Its just that I always held you in such high regard. The first time I saw you my heart started beating so fast! I was just a kid, too! But ever since that day you were the only one for me.

Adean: Oh, Azel!

Azel: Gosh, I feel so stupid. Oh, I just remembered! Here, this is for you. This is called a Rescue Staff. You can use it to bring someone to you if they need help. Im sure youll find a use for it.

Adean: Azel, Im so happy to be with you! Theres no one in this world Id rather be with.

Theres actually a fair bit of personality leaking through here, but almost all of it is from Azel. Aideens responses are just prompts for him to keep talking. She gets four, though!

[spoiler=aideen x claude] Claude: Adean, this is to be our last battle.

Adean: Yes, thats what everyones saying.

Claude: Here, you should have this. Help our young soldiers with it.

Adean: Oh, this is a Rescue Staff. Why me?

Claude: I have yet to speak a word of this, but you being my wife, well I should probably tell you. This war will end in our defeat. All that is important to us will be lost.

Adean: What!?

Claude: I, too, had a difficult time believing the Lords words when I was at Blagi Tower. But this is how fate will have it. I also will not likely survive. Thats why Im entrusting this staff to you.

Adean: That cant be true! I dont believe any of what youre saying!! Please tell me its not true!

Claude: Adean, theres really nothing to be scared of. My death is really just a new beginning. As life embraces death, that with form is lost, yet something still remains. Theres nothing to fear in death. It is merely a transition to a more perfect form.

Adean: But Claude!

Claude: Just as I am to die, I shall also be reborn. Look, inside of you is a brand new life and I am a part of it. And that is why you must keep living.

Adean: How could you! You tell me to keep living while you

Claude: Adean, I have been blessed to have met you. Forgive me if I have sounded insensitive.

Adean: Claude

Like the Azel one, its a guy talking a lot to Aideen while she provides the right responses to keep them talking. The only conversations where Aideen takes the lead in the game are with Briggid and in some of her chapter 1 conversations with Azel and Ethlyn. Otherwise shes just kind of a reaction, even when shes talking to her own sister:

[spoiler=aideen x briggid] Adean: Briggid, whats wrong?

Briggid: Adean, you heard what Andrei did, didnt you!?

Adean: Yes, he killed our dear father, and Mahnya as well. He must have been possessed by something evil to do such unthinkable things.

Briggid: Well, that doesnt matter cause Im going to kill him! His little killing spree is over. Adean, youre with me on this, arent you?

Adean: Briggid

Briggid: I wish there was another way, but the crimes he has committed weigh heavily on us as well. Look, I may go down for what Im about to do. I just wanted you to understand my reasons.

Adean: Yes, Brigid.

This is even sprinkled in with a little dose of telling, not showing Andre hasnt done anything on camera besides be an evil little fuck, and one of the villains even expressly hates him. Rest in peace, Langobart. This is the only line that suggests that Andre has ever done anything non-evil.

Tiltyu

The story so far: Im happy to admit I was pretty dead wrong about Tiltyu. She does start out pretty bad and reminiscent of Sylvia, but she actually takes a break to grow up after following a not-even-hot dude around for a year, and she holds on to her maturation unlike somebody with green hair Im going to grouse about in a bit. You go, Tiltyu. You fulfilled the bare minimum requirements for character development.

Now: Well, unfortunately, thats it for Tiltyu as far as the first generation goes. Im not even going to paste two of her three conversations here, because theres basically nothing in them except one great line:

Azel: Good. Id have second thoughts about someone whod kill their own dad. You take care of the kids, okay?

Stay classy, Azel. You rule. Tiltyus lines in this conversation, incidentally, consist of one complete sentence (three words) and four elliptical sentence fragments (totaling five words). She speaks in full sentences with Claude, meanwhile, but the conversation is very similar to Aideens, except shes a bit angrier.

Her Lex conversation does have some substance, at least.

[spoiler=tiltyu x lex]Tiltyu: Lex, you just have tfight, dont ya.

Lex: Hey! You get to Silesia where youll be safe.

Tiltyu: Youre so cruel! You want me tgo all alone.

Lex: Hey, everyone in the Freege family is breakin their back lookin for you, girl. And I dont want my kids goin with them or the Dozels. You understand me!?

Tiltyu: Yeah, but

Lex: Look, weve both been dealt a crappy hand. I wish we couldve been together longer. I will cherish every single moment we had.

Tiltyu: Oh, Lex

Lex is good, for all the lines he has in the game. Tiltyu shows some glimmer of her immaturity, being pretty petulant at first but talked down by Lex, but it doesnt feel like her character development was ignored. Besides this, though, Tiltyu had her moment with two Azel conversations in chapters 3 and 4 and that was her entire characterization. Hell, at least her chapter 4 conversation was better than many of the people in this game get.

Ayra

The story so far: Hell yeah, Ayra, the only good character development that women in the first generation get besides Tiltyu. Accounting for Genealogys horrible grasp of time, Ayras had good progression; her recruitment conversation she was a huge dick, she talked to Quan and got a little perspective but was still a dick in chapter 1. Two chapters later, she has a conversation with Lex/Holyn where she shows different sides to each of them based on their history; Ayras big on history, which is supported by her hating us initially. Now, granted, thats at least a year later, probably more (the gap between chapters 1 and 2 is not specified, if I recall) which is a bit strangely long, but its not unbelievable in the company of Sylvias Jealousy and others.

Now: Good news, Ayra continues to be good, but only in one specific combination. Youll recall her conversations with Lex and Holyn, where she had some warming up to do with Lex and the one with Holyn is just like heres this sword wow thanks? That trend continues in chapter 5.

[spoiler=ayra x lex] Ira: Lex, things are coming to a peak, arent they.

Lex: Yep, looks that way. Ira, you are being damn stubborn. Why dont you go back to Isaac?

Ira: Why? Because Im a girl!? Our responsibility to our children is the same in my book.

Lex: Oops you got me. Sorry. But you had the perfect chance to get out. Our kids are only

Ira: Yeah, and thats why well go together, after we finish this war.

Lex: Right right. Cmon, lets go!

Ira: Lex, Im sorry, but this is the only way I know how to be.

Lex: Hahaha! I know. Im just teasin. Thats what I like about you, Ira. I dont know how things are going to turn out, Ira, but Im in for the long haul.

Good conversation. Ayra is still big on history but now she has history with Lex, so shes not going to just be a dick to him. She also dodges a huge anime bullet, in that she stops being a dick to Lex without losing her fierce nature. You all know the trope where the strong female lead sort of just loses her strong fierce will once shes around her man in order to maximize waifu potential. Go Ayra for dodging that. Lex, also, conducts himself pretty similarly to how he does with Tiltyu, but he changes his tactics because he knows cowing Ayra wont work, unlike Tiltyu. What about Holyn? Well, hes the son of the lord of Sophara, and hes known Ayra forever. This comes out of nowhere, and goes as fast as its brought up. It has no pathos whatsoever. Thats it.

Ayra also has the distinction of having an optional conversation with a non-lover of the opposite gender, in this case Sigurd.

[spoiler=ayra x sigurd, otp tbh] Sigurd: Ira!? I thought I told you to go back to Isaac with Shanan.

Ira: Thanks, but it wouldnt be right if I left now. Im finishing this war with you.

Sigurd: Huh? You were entrusted with Shanans protection, but hes in Isaac and youre here!

Ira: Ah, youre talking about the promise to my late brother. My job is finished with Shanan. Hes old enough to look after himself now.

Sigurd: Yeah, but

Ira: I will return to Isaac as soon as this war is finished. And when that day comes, Sir, you too will be able to return to your homeland.

Shes actually moved on from fiercely defending Shanan, to trusting Sigurd with Shanan, to letting him go since hes gotten old enough. Shes gone from hating Sigurd, to fighting with him, to fighting for him. Shes developed by degrees, not all at once and without stepping backwards. Ayras good.

Ayras got one more conversation, but were saving that one.

Fury

The story so far: Just go back to the chapter 4 update.

Now: Nothing has changed.

[spoiler=fury x noish] Fury: Oh, Noish, Ive been looking for you!

Noish: Fury, you alright?

Fury: Im fine.

Noish: Good. Fury, you be careful. Youre no longer caring for just yourself, you know.

Fury: I hope our kids back in Silesia are doing okay, as well. Im dying to see them again.

Noish: Yep, me too. Lets get this war over with quickly.

Fury: Yes, lets do that. Noish, you be careful, too.

The personality is dripping here. Radiant Dawn has more personable supports than these.

Sylvia

The story so far: Sylvia is an immature anime teenager involved in this awful war.

Now: What did you expect, really? Shes not Tiltyu or anything. Claude continues his trend from Aideen and Tiltyus supports of having exactly zero personality for their conversation while Sylvia clings to him. Her support with Alec, though, is something else.

[spoiler=sylvia x alec] Sylvia: Alec, Ive been lookin all over for ya.

Alec: Sylvia? You cant be out here! Now get on back to the castle, will ya?

Sylvia: But I was gettin all worried bout you.

Alec: Cmon, Sylvia. You gotta start actin a bit more grown up. You are a full-blown mother now.

Sylvia: Dont talk to me like youre my father or somethin! It was all your fault anyway.

Alec: Hey now! I think the, ah willingness on both sides led to our little surprise, dont you?

Sylvia: Yeah, right. Well, hurry back. Leen and I cant live without ya forever. Okay? You gotta promise!

Alec: Yeah, I promise. Ill come for you.

She hasnt learned anything at all. Shes the same kid we recruited in chapter 2, except now shes a mother and its been like three years. You could have Alec get her pregnant in their optional in chapter 2 and put this conversation at the beginning of chapter 3 and nothing would be amiss. And thats Sylvia in a nutshell; none of her conversations have any escalation besides who it is she feels this exact level of love for. Shes totally stagnant.

Lewyn

The story so far: Lewyn cared about nothing at all, he was as anime as Sylvia, and then Mahnya died and his mom nearly did too about two weeks ago. You probably noticed I quietly left his conversations off of the Fury and Sylvia blocks. Why?

Now: [spoiler=lewyn x fury] Fury: So this is it, Levin.

Levin: Yeah. Fury, you keep your promise to me, okay?

Fury: Yes, Im to return immediately to Silesia. I know.

Levin: Look, Im not gonna die out here, and you best not go doin so either!

Fury: Yes. I can promise that! Ive had my childhood dream realised. It would be just horrible to die now! I will always be with you.

Levin: Mothers very anxious to see you again more than she is me!

Fury: Yes. Well, I just hope I can make my new mother-in-law proud.

Lets ignore the fact that Fury shows no personality at all here. Ive had my childhood dream realized, she says, woodenly. Lewyns the focus, and he does a fairly good job of blending his new development (ham-fistedly as it was executed) with his pre-developed personality. Hes kind of serious about this one thing, but he still sounds like Lewyn much like how Lex changes tones between his Tiltyu and Ayra supports while still sounding like Lex. Its good. How about Sylvia?

[spoiler=lewyn x sylvia] Sylvia: Hey, Levin!

Levin: Hey, Sylvia. Whats up?

Sylvia: You still like me?

Levin: Cmon. Give me a break, will you?

Sylvia: Well, do ya?

Levin: Yeah, I like you. Thats why we hooked up.

Sylvia: Good! Thats all I wanted to hear! cause I looooooove you! You are the only one for me Da-la-laa la-la-laa!

Levin: Sylvia! You mind bringin it down a notch?

Nah, its gone. This conversation could be from chapter 2. Lewyn sounds exactly like he did when we recruited him. And for her part, Sylvia starts singing. I dont know what else to say about this conversation, at the tensest moment of the game so far.

So Lewyn can go three ways: either his character development from last chapter sticks around when he marries Fury, his character development is totally ignored when he marries Sylvia, or he marries any one of five other ladies and doesnt speak again in this generation. Its nice to see something done well and badly for one character all at once for a change!

Raquesis

The story so far: I, um, literally dont know? As buildup to this update, Ive been keeping a notes file sorted by character, and my first note about Raquesis is noting what conversations she has in this chapter. I dug back and read her conversations in chapter 2 (the last time she spoke besides with Elidgan) and I reckon the story so far is this triplet of lines:

Lachesis: Where do you get off speaking to me like that!? What I do out here is no business of yours!

Beowulf: Heh heh tough little cookie, aint ya. Remind me a bit of Eltshan.

Lachesis: Wait! You know my brother?

Jobs a good one.

Now: Raquesis supports are a mixed bag. Ones great for probably the wrong reasons, ones bad, and ones bizarrely good. Lets go in that order so we can end on a high note for the poor girl. Which means

[spoiler=raquesis x beowulf] Lachesis: Beowulf

Beowulf: Lachesis, if anything were to happen to me, I want you to go to Lenster. Fin is there with Cuans children. Give him a hand, okay?

Lachesis: How could you say that? When we go, well go together!

Beowulf: Lachesis, Ive got a confession to make.

Lachesis: Hm?

Beowulf: Ive known your true feelings all along.

Lachesis: What!

Beowulf: Take good care of yourself. It was mighty nice while it lasted.

Lachesis: Wait! Beowolf!

Interpretations vary on this. My preferred is that Raquesis wanted to hose Finn all along and Beowulf knew but still decided to nail her on the DL. Ties in pretty nicely with Thracia 776 theories, too. Otherwise, the conversation doesnt have too much substance to it as far as Raquesis own characterization goes, so lets go for, uh, this.

[spoiler=raquesis x dew] Lachesis: Dew, what are you doing here!?

Dew: What gives? I can handle bein here now. Im not the same Dew anymore.

Lachesis: I know. But this next battle isnt going to be like the others! Itll be way out of your league, Dew.

Dew: Everyones been sayin that crap. Im not a kid anymore!

Lachesis: I can definitely vouch for that, Dew. Heheh Especially after what we

Dew: H, hey! Youre gettin red there, girl!

Lachesis: Oh, Dew!

Dew: Lachesis, its been great bein with you. Youre always nice to me.

Lachesis: Same goes to you, Dew.

Dew: Everyones been sayin that crap. Im not a kid anymore!

Lachesis: I can definitely vouch for that, Dew. Heheh Especially after what we

Dew: H, hey! Youre gettin red there, girl!

I rest my case. Just in case any of yall are aspiring writers, dont make your kid characters shout about how theyre not kids, or how theyre not kids anymore. Please. Especially not in this really, really creepy situation where theyre just talking about the cool sex they had. Dew is bad, and it stands out especially with Shanan and Oifaye who are both good and cool kid characters. Bleugh. Lets end this right:

[spoiler=raquesis x noish] Lachesis: Noish, wait!

Noish: Lachesis? Youre still here!? I told you to leave for Lenster.

Lachesis: I sent the kids already, but Im staying to fight.

Noish: Why are you breaking your word with me? The kids need their mother. What if something were to happen to you? And you have King Eltshans child to consider, too.

Lachesis: I dont know where Aless is anymore.

Noish: Well, Sir Sigurd is very concerned about Prince Aless. That boy has lost both of his parents. Aless must mean something to you, as well.

Lachesis: No, its just Ah, nevermind. Look, I am your wife.

Noish: I know you are, and I love you dearly. Dont you ever forget it.

Lachesis: I wont. Sorry.

Holy fuck, Noish actually displayed some personality. He might need to go have that checked. Raquesis displays her same, uh, whatever it was she was displaying in chapter 2. Hell, I dont know. I honestly just cant care enough about Raquesis to form a literary analysis on her character based on the six conversations shes involved in across Genealogy. Somebody else feel free to take a stab at it, but without using any supplementary materials. Hell, fuck it, lets just make this about

EDIT: thanks nephew man

Raquesis' characterisation is that she's naive as hell (except for realising that Chagall is the scum of the earth) and thinks anything involving her brother is perfect. Look at her conversation with Beowulf in Chapter 2 which doesn't make any sense (how did her brother tell Beowulf to check up on her when he's been locked up since the chapter began?) but rather than questioning it she takes him at his word and starts gushing over him as soon as Eldigan is in the picture. In Chapter 3 her conversation with him shows their closeness but then its never touched upon again. Ever.

She has no more lines until Chapter 5 where her Dew conversation still shows her as being the same naive girl who joined up three chapters ago despite that the fact that her brother's death should've had some kind of effect on her. If she marries Noish she kind of has a spine (although she somehow loses track of Aless how the fuck???) and Beowulf basically implies he was using her for sex and was using her all along even if he developed some feelings for her along the way maybe? So pretty much nothing changes with her throughout.

There were a lot of opportunities to throw in more development for her between Eldigan's death and Chapter 5 but they were all bypassed which is kind of lame. Off the top of my head I can think of:

-"oh god my brother died" after capturing Chagall's castle

-"how did you know my brother beowulf" at basically any time after his death which would've helped give more depth to him as well!

-a talk with basically anyone comforting her about it

-probably an interaction with quan considering he was one of his brother's best friends but they never interact at all in story iirc?

But none of these happens. There were even a couple of different ways that she could've developed (more serious and gloomy, more self-reliant without eldigan, etc) but instead nothing happens. It's pretty lame.

Noish

The story so far:

Noish: Sir Youre not planning on going alone, are you!?

Noish: Excuse me, sir!? We were born into the knighthood and are prepared to die fighting! Wed be a disgrace to let our master perish out there all alone. Were going with you. Alec, youre with me on this, arent you?

Noish: Sir, have you considered leaving someone behind to defend the castle? It would be too risky not to. We would be finished if we lost our base here to the enemy.

Now: Noish showed something resembling personality with Raquesis. Hes a bit controlling, stern, and strong, basically the ideal military dad even today. Its not much, but its something at least. He is, however, involved in the games best conversation:

[spoiler=noish x alec] Alec: Noish, this is it, huh?

Noish: Mmm.

Alec: Hey, uh I just wanna thank you for everything.

Noish: Sure thing. Same goes here, Alec.

Alec: Its been a blast, huh?

Noish: Yep.

Alec: Well, take care then.

Noish: Yep. You too.

Noish might still have more personality than Fury.

Briggid

The story so far: Briggid was involved in like three conversations in chapter 3, but at least she has personality. About as much personality as Aideen, to be fair, being essentially just one of the Stock Anime Female Characters, but something. Shes also dumb as a rock, apparently, but I think thats more poor writing on the part of chapter 3 than Briggids fault. Midir creeps her out.

Midayle: To think theres another one thats even more beautiful. Youre like a dream!

Briggid: I Im leaving!

Seriously, dude. Youre weird.

Now: Well, hell, remember Aideen? Lets bookend this shit.

[spoiler=briggid x midir or jamke]

Its kind of sad that two out of three of her supports revolve around her thinking that her husband only married her because he couldnt get at her twin sister. She also takes a knock that Ayra doesnt really take; shes a fiery warrior with a strong backbone but shes really demure with her husband here in both cases, especially considering her conversation with Aideen at the top of this post and her conversations in chapter 3 a long time ago. Two out of three, man. Fortunately the third is alright:

[spoiler=briggid x alec] Briggid: Alec, were almost to Barhara.

Alec: Yeah. This is our grand return, huh.

Briggid: I wonder if Ill be okay returning to the country I was born in. What is Jungby like?

Alec: Ahh its a beautiful place with loads of beautiful women.

Briggid: Alec! I better not catch you cheating on me!

Alec: No way! Youd kill me if I did! Haha

Briggid: Thats right! Besides, I want to keep you alive now. Your work with me has just begun! And for our children as well I cant let you die!

Alec: Dont worry, Ive got luck on my side. How else could I get such a beautiful bride!

Briggid: Alec

Its good. Its better than her other two; shes actually independently defined, unlike in them, and she talks like Briggid does to Alec rather than what she does with Midir and Jamke, which cant be healthy relationships if thats how she acts, honestly. Too bad you have to marry her to somebody with who she actually has zero connection in previous conversations or plotting whatsoever to see this, unlike Lewyn who can be well or poorly characterized based on which of his obvious choices he marries. Briggids not a great character, but its not really her fault, in some weird way.

Ardan

If youve played Genealogy and ever used this dude, youre probably expecting me to talk about him now. Youll have to wait one more update. Sorry!

So hows it all wrap up?

Been something of a road, hasnt it? Were only seven updates in, this being the eighth, if you think about it, but weve covered a lot of shit. As of the word shit all updates so far, including the initial essay, constitute 31,369 words. Wikipedia says a novel is 40,000 words or more. Go me!

Genealogys characterization is honestly pretty good, if you ignore the people who have literally nothing or next to nothing, like Noish and Beowulf and Holyn. Ayras in particular is surprisingly good considering the year and the genre of the game, and shes not even involved in particularly more conversations than anyone else theyre just oriented towards actual character development rather than being rehashes of the same thing. Hell, Ayra has like five conversations with non-Holyn people and those four together paint a cohesive picture with trackable growth. Its great. Lex is an example of a pretty stagnant character thats still believable; he doesnt really grow much over the course of the game, but hes still fine. The actually bad characters on the hero side are pretty much limited to Sylvia and mostly, but not entirely, Lewyn. The villains are, well, entirely one-dimensional as far as the first generation goes with the exception of Arvis, who still has a ways to go. Lets just sweep them under the rug.

How did all this meet my expectations? Honestly, Im surprised. I remember distinctly disliking Genealogys first generation plot the first time I played it, and my overall impression this time was that its reach exceeded its grasp, but not in such a way that it ruins what it was going for (Conquest). The bits that got my goat the first time got my goat the second time, too, namely Eldigans entire plot, Lewyn and Sylvia, and a general trend of telling, not showing, but most of the other parts were more enjoyable for me on the rewatch. On the other hand, the Loptyr cult controlling things was way more irritating as I dug deeper and figured out how much shit they were smugly controlling and how tiny and new their ancient cult was. Most of the rest of the bad stuff was just silly shit, like how disconnected the gameplay and story timelines were (Dad bleeding out for at least a year, Sylvia not addressing the man between her and Fury for three years) and other minutiae like how, if you think about it, Grannvale went three on one simultaneously before turning around and stomping the other two a year later. And then you.

Overall, the plotting and characterization of the first generation are not the literary masterpiece I was told back when I started the series, definitely not. The characterization is, on aggregate, pretty mediocre. The plotting relies on some really stupid shit like the Maira Pact and a legion of interchangeable one-dimensional villains to kill, but the former things dont tend to make it to the forefront and are left as things for you to ruminate on and realize why the story is dumb.

If they made Genealogy generation 1 into a movie, I would watch it with a few beers and some friends and it would probably vary between mediocre and ironically great except for three actors, one big name and two amateurs, who would steal any scene they were in. The plot would drag the film down the first time I watched it, but the next time Id just watch background details and enjoy the cool violence and it would be pretty enjoyable. Essentially: Kingdom of Heaven.

Now that Ive gotten myself curious, Im going to write down my feelings about the second generation now. I remember the story reaching less far and generally just being less offensive in general while not really accomplishing much of note, and the characters as being entirely lacking in things to comment on with a few exceptions. On the other hand, I didnt get almost any optional content, so who knows! Ill have to call back to this once I compile my second generation notes to see how far off I was.

Essay post next. Look forward to it if you like words, or come back in a week probably for a post with pictures again. Im going to aim to shit the essay out Friday and chapter 6 on Monday, but that depends on how work pans out. Im pretty ahead of shit right now but theres always time for me to waste a few days drinking and forget to keep my edge up.

Edited June 17, 2016 by Integrity

[Integrity]

i know that you're ready for Gen II, but do you know if it would be better to play Thracia right now? It works both right now and after Genealogy finishes so either would work.

nope, even though thracia is written to take place between the generations for the most part it's written in a vastly different style to fe4. i want to finish the critique of fe4 as a whole before i switch gears.

EDIT: the op has a real table of contents now

Edited June 14, 2016 by Integrity

[Specta]

how did i miss the fact that there was a guy named manana

secondarily, all those words ended in my realizing i love noish and that second gen had bad parents

poor second gen

[#!/dev/haru]

Which, if you’re playing along, the game automatically equips for you. Don’t overextend Sigurd too much, broken weapons really suck.

[Integrity]

fair.

[Original Alear]

Rename this topic to Integrity Does Many Fire Emblems...with a Purpose! {etc}

[Psych]

speaking of fe5 i want to see how you talk about Evayle in terms of Briggid and if that's any excuse for her lack of character