Retainer Assignments

[NekoKnight]

I've heard it mentioned before that making so many of the cast into retainers was a mistake because it limits the scope of how characters can be recruited and where they come from. So, if you had to choose only one retainer and reassign the others to different roles, what would you do? This is how I'd break it down.

[spoiler= All Routes]

Kamui

Retainer - Silas: Your childhood friend who will follow you regardless of your route choice.

Others - Flora, Jacob and Gunter are castle staff that aren't specifically beholden to you, although they are still close. They can probably be recruited later, regardless of route. Felicia is cut because she's redundant with Flora.

Azura

Retainer - Kaze: Azura's bodyguard as much as he is there to prevent her from escaping, although he's quite amiable about it.

Others - N/A

[spoiler=Nohr]

Xander

Retainer - Laslow: Xander's right hand man who has a respectable image but can help his lord relax at times. No relation to his Awakening counterpart.

Others - Pieri: A noble arrested and awaiting her execution for her murdering her maids. She's freed from jail to aid in the war effort because Nohr needs every soldier it can get.

Camilla

Retainer - Beruka: A cold-hearted assassin and fellow dracoknight. She represents Camilla's more ruthless side and carries out secret killings for her.

Others - Selena: Mercenary looking to find a profit from the increased tensions between Nohr and Hoshido. Probably in league with Charlotte.

Leo

Retainer - Niles: Former thief recruited by Leo to better understand the darker side of Nohrian society and reflects his pragmatic nature.

Others - Odin: Dramatic dark mage recruited from Nohr's royal mage academy. Probably studied under Iago for a time.

Elise

Retainer - Elfie: Elise's sworn protector and Nohr's most noteworthy knight. She does even lift.

Others - Arthur: A wandering, justice seeking fighter who aids local villages from bandits. He joins the war effort as a more permanent solution to Nohr's poverty.

[spoiler=Hoshido]

Ryoma

Retainer - Saizo: Like Giffca (PoR) before him, he's the shadowy bodyguard to his master. He remains vigilant of enemies, both from Nohr and Hoshido.

Others - Kagero: Another ninja in service to the royal family (she probably answers to Yukimura) whose specialty is infiltration and espionage.

Hinoka (why is this so hard to choose a 'good' retainer?)

Retainer - Setsuna: An adept hunter (if not clumsy in most other regards). She reflects her master's division between fighting competency and other life skills.

Others - Asama: A formally reclusive monk that has grown disillusioned to his faith and wants to follow other pursuits.

Takumi

Retainer - Oboro: Raised to 'noble' status for defending a prince of Hoshido from bandits (yes, even Hoshido has those). She's secretly infatuated with Takumi.

Others - Hinata: A ronin who is seeking new master. His detachment from formal employment has led to a more carefree disposition.

Sakura

Retainer - Hana: Noble-born samurai assigned to protect Hoshido's youngest princess. They are of a similar age and grew up close to each other.

Others - Tsubaki: Another noble-born warrior who Sakura was promised to for marriage when she comes of age. He fights in the Pegasus Corps under Reina.

[Etrurian emperor]

I don't really agree with that view on the retainers. Some of them aren't quite up to snuff but I appreciate what things team Takumi or team Camilla bring about in their lord.

But I do think more interesting ways of recruitment could have been used.

Peri for instance could start out as an enemy out to kill Corrin for fun and needs to be talked with by Corrin or one of the royals to point out that he is actually Xanders brother.

Team Takumi could start out as enemies too. Fake Izama could have convinced them Corrin is invading his land in birthright. In revelations Takumi is captured by Zola so he could force his retainers to fight for him because of it.

In revelation you get to fight team Camilla. A way to handle this would be that Camilla joins your party after she's defeated and her retainers need to be talked to with Camilla for them to join.

Saizo might need some motivation for joining Corrin. Perhaps Corrin would have to kill a set number of Nohrian enemies for Saizo to fight for him. Kagero is captured in all routes so they could handle her recruitment like they do Forrest, she's locked up and the enemy is going to kill her if you're not fast enough.

Edited January 9, 2017 by Etrurian emperor

[MCProductions]

I've never thought the retainer count was too high, just that some of them shouldn't be retainers due to how they behave or their backstories, tho I suppose I could share my headcanon world reassignments of them because you know, Corrin's role was broken into six separate characters, so retainer reassignments were definitely needed there.

[spoiler=LONG ASS rearrangement]

Felicia/Flora: Flora is no longer a retainer tho Felicia is towards the person who got Corrin's backstory and actually made the choice known from here on out as "Gabriel". Felicia only is however because she lost her memory of her past/why she's actually working for Nohr in the same incident that cost Gabriel his left eye, where she attempted to save him from a stampedeing horse, truthfully focusing ONLY on protecting her village tho she doesn't remember this now, and suffering a concussion in the process costing her her memory. Gabriel was touched by this, not knowing why Felicia was truly helping him, and made her his retainer. Flora never told Felicia about their past however, believing Felicia to have suffered enough, and glad that Felicia at least could find some happiness in their current circumstances, even if she was basically living a lie. Flora remained at most a servant, tho never going beyond that.

Felicia and Flora formally betray Gabriel post Conquest however, as Felicia learns the truth of her past thruout Conquest and Flora's just pissed at Gabriel's seemingly empty promise to her father, tho this anger gets Flora killed thruout the events of Birthright.

Kaze: I'll straight up say it, this one was a pain in the ass to figure for my headcanon world's adaptation for various reasons. As Gabriel made the choice and he was Nohrrin in this sculpturous play, Kaze HAS to be his retainer in my adaptation since Conquest happened FIRST in my headcanon world's events and I refuse to make changes to recruitments. My headcanon world changes many things in each game I adapt, tho I have a rule against changing character recruitments among other things, so Kaze HAD to join in all three routes somehow. His reasoning for joining Nohr remains the same, and he officially becomes Gabriel's retainer in their A support, only for him to quit the job upon marrying Elise as he officially hit noble status thru marriage. Then Birthright and Revelation occur however, and suddenly that pain begins I was talking about before. Unlike Felicia, Flora, and Silas when we get to him, Kaze has no reason to rejoin Hoshido post Conquest. It got to the point where I HAD to axe his recruitment in that route just to make sense, and the only way I could justify this to myself was thru his possible death in Birthright. Since he could remove himself for me, I was able to justify him just not being a thing in Birthright, and he stays fairly the same in Revelation as he did Conquest since Revelation was fairly easy to explain for once.

Jakob: Uhh... I really don't know what to actually say for this dude, since his new backstory is just weird. He's the second child of Sumia and Fredrick, younger brother of Cynthia, and after Ylisse founds Nohr, long story, Marc, younger prince of Ylisse and king of the new kingdom of Nohr formally requests that Joker help out in organizing the Kingdom, and he becomes one of his tacticians for a short while until Marc became a tyrant,Marc was Garon in this scenario btw, at which point he resigned his position as tactician and eventually joins the Hoshidan resistance marrying the F!Corrin of Birthright, the Female Morgan from Awakening, eventually, and he also joins Tiki, Revelation F!Corrin, when Azura finally decides to actually speak up.

Silas: Now this one is fun, for similar reasons to Kaze, but unlike Kaze, it wasn't actually hard to figure up. Initially the retainer of the F!Corrin of Conquest, he eventually marries Felicia during the events of that route. However, Felicia dissapears much to his dismay post Conquest, only to find her fighting for the Hoshidan resistance in Birthright, deciding his lover is more important than his friends in Nohr, which does have a notably negative impact on him thruout Birthright, he joins the Hoshidan resistance. Revelation is unchanged for the most part.

Beruka: Same, tho leaves Camilla's service upon marrying Gabriel.

Oboro is similar to Beruka, tho she marries BR Corrin

Edited January 9, 2017 by MCProductions