Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.

[Alastor15243]

19 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

You're right about them coming to the conclusion after Klimt's apologies. But Eirika phrased it in a better way instead of taking a more accusatory tone like Innes did. 

But that doesn't accomplish anything, was my point. It doesn't change the outcome of the scene in any way. Which was why I didn't accept it as a point against my claims that Eirika has often has little impact on the course of her story.

 

EDIT: Off-topic, but I don't want to double-post. During the reverse recruitment run I mentioned earlier, I wound up discovering that according to FE6, the Fire Emblem is indeed stored at the Shrine of Seals, as Zephiel mentions "return"ing it there. That... actually, I take issue with how that impacts the logic of the stories of both FE6 and FE7, though not enough to affect my ratings, really. I just thought I'd mention it since it just came up.

Edited June 4, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Icelerate]

17 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

But that doesn't accomplish anything, was my point. It doesn't change the outcome of the scene in any way. Which was why I didn't accept it as a point against my claims that Eirika has often has little impact on the course of her story.

Don't know, I think saving Innes and Klimt in the same chapter isn't the same as doing little in the story. Klimt fleeing to Frelia and requesting their aid forced the Carcino rebels out of the Carcino where Eirika could finish them off near Jehanna. 

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Icelerate said:

Don't know, I think saving Innes and Klimt in the same chapter isn't the same as doing little in the story. Klimt fleeing to Frelia and requesting their aid forced the Carcino rebels out of the Carcino where Eirika could finish them off near Jehanna. 

You were citing what she specifically did in that cutscene as an example of her being proactive and relevant to the plot, I'm merely saying that isn't true. I get that, as the game says, she's the one giving orders in battle, and thus is responsible for Klimt's rescue, but like with Corrin, and unlike with Ephraim, the cutscenes outside of gameplay cause something of a disconnect between that and how we see these characters behave.

[Icelerate]

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

You were citing what she specifically did in that cutscene as an example of her being proactive and relevant to the plot, I'm merely saying that isn't true. I get that, as the game says, she's the one giving orders in battle, and thus is responsible for Klimt's rescue, but like with Corrin, and unlike with Ephraim, the cutscenes outside of gameplay cause something of a disconnect between that and how we see these characters behave.

I didn't notice a disconnect, as soon as Eirika heard the news that Carcino had rebelled, she deduced that Innes is in danger before the message even came and urgently came to his aid.

Spoiler

Seth:
“We were careless. We should have seen this coming. Carcino’s a young and ambitious nation ruled by power-hungry merchants. And Grado grows more powerful with every passing day. So it’s no surprise Carcino’s merchant lords would throw in with Grado now.”

Eirika:
“Wait! Prince Innes… Prince Innes was to pass through Carcino on his way to Jehanna… If Carcino has betrayed us, then he ran headlong into enemy territory…”

(Frelian messenger flies up on her pegasus)

Messenger:
“Princess Eirika! I bring dire tidings!”

Eirika:
“I know you… You were a messenger riding with Prince Innes.”

Messenger:
“Yes, and I have news of him. Prince Innes is in danger! Carcino’s merchant army struck and cut through half our men. The prince is trapped in a siege. He has no means of escape, and–“

Eirika:
“No more! I understand. Return to Frelia and deliver your message!”

Messenger:
“What of Prince Innes?”

Eirika:
“Leave him to us. The prince’s troubles should burden you no more. We will see him to safety.”

 

You can argue we don't see Eirika extensively plan and strategize to great detail, but that applies to all FE games other than Tellius and Three Houses and maybe a few others that I didn't play. 

When Seth tells her that Innes is about to be overrun, Eirika says that is obvious and proactively engages the enemy.

Spoiler

Eirika:
“Prince Innes!”

Seth:
“Princess Eirika, the prince is surrounded by the mercenary armies of Carcino. He looks vastly outnumbered. I doubt he can hold out much longer.”

Eirika:
“I can see that. Let’s hurry!”

 

I do agree that the FE7's story has better presentation than FE8's including the lords. 

Edited June 4, 2020 by Icelerate

[Alastor15243]

3 hours ago, Icelerate said:

I didn't notice a disconnect, as soon as Eirika heard the news that Carcino had rebelled, she deduced that Innes is in danger before the message even came and urgently came to his aid.

  Reveal hidden contents

Seth:
“We were careless. We should have seen this coming. Carcino’s a young and ambitious nation ruled by power-hungry merchants. And Grado grows more powerful with every passing day. So it’s no surprise Carcino’s merchant lords would throw in with Grado now.”

Eirika:
“Wait! Prince Innes… Prince Innes was to pass through Carcino on his way to Jehanna… If Carcino has betrayed us, then he ran headlong into enemy territory…”

(Frelian messenger flies up on her pegasus)

Messenger:
“Princess Eirika! I bring dire tidings!”

Eirika:
“I know you… You were a messenger riding with Prince Innes.”

Messenger:
“Yes, and I have news of him. Prince Innes is in danger! Carcino’s merchant army struck and cut through half our men. The prince is trapped in a siege. He has no means of escape, and–“

Eirika:
“No more! I understand. Return to Frelia and deliver your message!”

Messenger:
“What of Prince Innes?”

Eirika:
“Leave him to us. The prince’s troubles should burden you no more. We will see him to safety.”

 

You can argue we don't see Eirika extensively plan and strategize to great detail, but that applies to all FE games other than Tellius and Three Houses and maybe a few others that I didn't play. 

When Seth tells her that Innes is about to be overrun, Eirika says that is obvious and proactively engages the enemy.

  Reveal hidden contents

Eirika:
“Prince Innes!”

Seth:
“Princess Eirika, the prince is surrounded by the mercenary armies of Carcino. He looks vastly outnumbered. I doubt he can hold out much longer.”

Eirika:
“I can see that. Let’s hurry!”

 

Yes, that particular moment stuck out to me at the time as being an exception. I was very disappointed when she started backsliding into a more passive role once Innes entered the picture.

[Icelerate]

19 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yes, that particular moment stuck out to me at the time as being an exception. I was very disappointed when she started backsliding into a more passive role once Innes entered the picture.

BTW, I also agree with many of your points such as it being a shame we don't see Renais in ruins before reaching the castle. Thracia does a much better job at showing just how much in ruins the country was in. 

I would add a chapter with a bunch of bandits and monsters in some village en route to the palace of Renais. 

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

BTW, I also agree with many of your points such as it being a shame we don't see Renais in ruins before reaching the castle. Thracia does a much better job at showing just how much in ruins the country was in. 

I would add a chapter with a bunch of bandits and monsters in some village en route to the palace of Renais. 

Yeah, something like that would've been great.

[Koops]

Oh boy.

Next up is... Eirika chapter 18. And we all know what scene it contains...

I still stand by my opinion that while she did do a big oopsie, it wasn't something that was done lightly, nor was it's something that makes her the dumbest lord at all.

I think I'll be going into it with more detail when you actually express your opinions on it.

[Boomhauer007]

19 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Incidentally, I thought I'd ask, just for the hell of it: how would you guys rank these first 7 games I've ranked so far?

Never having played 1, 2, or 3...(and only recently beating 4 and 5)

Difficulty: 6/5/7/4

Ironman (blind): 4/7/6/5

Usability: 7/6/5/4

Depth: 5/4/7/6

Balance: 6/5/7/4

Pacing: 5/7/6/4

Writing: 4/5/6/7

Music: 5/4/7/6

Presentation: 7/6/5/4

Replayability: 7/6/5/4

Overall: 5/7/6/4

I made no attempt to be objective or think too hard. I like all of 5/6/7 quite a bit, some of the ranks are close and could flip flop but overall is pretty set. I really disliked playing 4, probably 3rd to the bottom of the series to me which seems to be an unpopular opinion, but the story was pretty good so that's nice. 

Also ch 19 and 20 of sacred stones are big prime candidates for warp skipping.

Edited June 4, 2020 by Boomhauer007
Balance numbers were mixed up

[Eltosian Kadath]

6 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

What I find most odd is that you put FE6 at the top in terms of balance and ironmannability; how come? Because I think it fails miserably on both those accounts...

FE6 hits most of my boxes for what I think of as a good ironman. It is difficult enough that characters might die, and with one of the most robust casts in the series, making it easy to replace a majority of the cast. I find the funnest part of ironmans is when someone unexpected has to fill in, and truly shines. As for balance I started by thinking about how to break all the games, FE4 has the horse Holsety, and has been fairly conclusively shown anyone can solo gen1; FE7 is all about a good mounted unit with a handaxe/javelin; FE5 has the overwhelming power of staves, but you still need some combat monsters to power through as well; whereas FE6 breaks more piecemeal, Rutger can break bosses, but has severe limitations beyond that (like the worst 1-2 range available), beasts like Perceval and Milady can tank and one range well, but 1-2 range is bad enough to keep that from dominating like in FE7, and while mages have good 1-2 they can't tank well enough to break things too much (nostanking gets close, but the high single hit damage of late game threats can put those with the ability to use it into 1 shot range, and the level of investment needed to avoid that would require far more resources than needed to break the other games).

 

4 hours ago, Icelerate said:

Aspirations for the future? 

  Hide contents

Eirika:
“These are the ancient weapons of our ancestors–the weapons of heroes. They were enshrined generations ago, to be used only by the king… and only in times of dire need. Such an awful power they possess, and yet we need them to restore peace. I’ve seen enough of the horrors of war, but I can’t turn my back on it. If we merely turn our eyes away, we surrender our world to atrocity. And so, I must fight. I’ll do whatever I must do to bring back the peace we once knew.”

Is this really all there is, the most immediate goal of ending the war she is the extent of her aspiration for the future? Nothing about how she wants to change, or who she wants to become?

 

4 hours ago, Icelerate said:

Self doubts?

  Hide contents

Eirika:
“L’Arachel. I… What should I do? Lyon was one of my dearest friends… I feel so helpless. There’s nothing I can do to help him…”

Fair enough.

 

4 hours ago, Icelerate said:

Emotion regarding the loss of loved ones? 

  Hide contents

Eirika:
“I know you mean well, Your Majesty. However, I have lost my father, and my twin brother is in peril. My brother, he is a part of me… I cannot rest here in peace while he risks his life.”

 

Are we reading the same words? I have seen more emotion expressed by a stone. I was curious enough to wonder if this disconnect comes from some visual change you are remembering from the scene, but it doesn't, Eirika maintains her neutral/happy face the whole time.

 

4 hours ago, Icelerate said:

The irony sure is strong with this one. Where have I made any bombastic over the top disparagement of better characters in this thread?

Quote

But to say Eirika shows little emotion, personality and is too passive in the story seems rather preposterous. 

...

I've seen far more from her than Roy and Seliph, for example. 

Try to find ways to build up Eirika's character all you like, but don't tear down other characters to do it, especially without evidence, or advocate. I quoted the ending of your comment for a reason, but clearly the distance (especially after reading quotes) was too great to truly link these together.

 

4 hours ago, Icelerate said:

I hate it when someone IRL accuses me of something without evidence, let alone a nobody like you, so I want clear proof of what you accuse of me is true. If anything, you are projecting your own emotions onto me.

...sigh

If you are going to criticize me, criticize my opinions, my actions, or my words, don't attack what you imagine my character to be.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Are we reading the same words? I have seen more emotion expressed by a stone. I was curious enough to wonder if this disconnect comes from some visual change you are remembering from the scene, but it doesn't, Eirika maintains her neutral/happy face the whole time.

Yeah, there's this... weird disconnect with a lot of her lines. She talks like that so often, with this bizarrely clinical tone. That combined with her incredibly blank facial expression makes it hard to hear much emotion in her lines, no matter what the subject matter is.

[Icelerate]

5 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Is this really all there is, the most immediate goal of ending the war she is the extent of her aspiration for the future? Nothing about how she wants to change, or who she wants to become?

 

Are you shifting the goal post? She wants to become the rightful Queen of Renais and to rebuild the country. Furthermore, she wants to change to be able to accept sorrow.

Spoiler

Eirika:
“I know, I know. Such things would be– I cannot wish for such things. No matter how it hurts, or rather because it hurts, we must learn to accept sorrow. We must take it into our hearts and tame our grief…”

Ironic how you quoted the same thing in favour of Seliph but when I quote something more in depth for Eirika, you retort how it's not enough. 

Spoiler

Celice:
“That’s exactly how I feel. I just want to respect our father’s dying wishes and return peace to the land. Do join us, Prince Leaf.”

Compare that to Eirika who says the same but with much more charisma. 

Spoiler

Eirika:
“These are the ancient weapons of our ancestors–the weapons of heroes. They were enshrined generations ago, to be used only by the king… and only in times of dire need. Such an awful power they possess, and yet we need them to restore peace. I’ve seen enough of the horrors of war, but I can’t turn my back on it. If we merely turn our eyes away, we surrender our world to atrocity. And so, I must fight. I’ll do whatever I must do to bring back the peace we once knew.”

 

Quote

Are we reading the same words? I have seen more emotion expressed by a stone. I was curious enough to wonder if this disconnect comes from some visual change you are remembering from the scene, but it doesn't, Eirika maintains her neutral/happy face the whole time.

Apparently not. I haven't seen emotion expressed by a stone, do tell me where I can find such a stone. Does this stone express more emotion than Seliph too? Actions speak louder than words. The fact her father died and a similar fate awaited Ephraim made Eirika steel herself for her journey. If she didn't feel anything or was happy, why bother? 

Quote

Try to find ways to build up Eirika's character all you like, but don't tear down other characters to do it, especially without evidence, or advocate. I quoted the ending of your comment for a reason, but clearly the distance (especially after reading quotes) was too great to truly link these together.

Thanks master, I really needed your permission to find ways to build up Eirika's character. So finding Eirika's character more interesting than Roy and Seliph is being over the top bombastic? So what isn't over the top bombastic? 

40 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

...sigh

If you are going to criticize me, criticize my opinions, my actions, or my words, don't attack what you imagine my character to be.

I defended myself against your accusation of being over the top dramatic. When I said you are a nobody, I was being blunt. What I was saying is that compared to my family and IRL friends, you are a nobody to me so I don't really have any reason to allow you to disparage me by hurling false accusations. 

[Eltosian Kadath]

8 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

Are you shifting the goal post?

8 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

Ironic how you quoted the same thing in favour of Seliph but when I quote something more in depth for Eirika, you retort how it's not enough. 

I set the goal posts for myself further than your rebuttal assumed. That is what I was pointing out.

Spoiler

Quote

Celice:
“Yuria, I’m sure you’ll be sad with Levin gone, but don’t you worry. I’ll keep you safe till he gets back. Actually, I’m not all that strong yet… But you’ll see! I’ll be strong enough to protect everybody here someday! And then I can save all the people from the empire! I’ll be strong someday… just like my father was.”

 

Yuria:
“Celice…”

Spoiler

...

Celice:
“My father was loved and trusted by so many. I just hope I can live up to that.”

 

Quotes from first post. Seliph wants to become like the man he admires most, his father. To go a bit further an important part of the Seliph quote you re-quoted that you miss is that the peace Seliph wants is more than just a return to the status quo. The age of peace Seliph dreams of was never part of his or his father's lifetime, it was a dream Sigurd's death left unfulfilled, and is a task that doesn't end with the war the game portrays. The peace Eirika wants is explicitly

Quote

Eirika:
“These are the ancient weapons of our ancestors–the weapons of heroes. They were enshrined generations ago, to be used only by the king… and only in times of dire need. Such an awful power they possess, and yet we need them to restore peace. I’ve seen enough of the horrors of war, but I can’t turn my back on it. If we merely turn our eyes away, we surrender our world to atrocity. And so, I must fight. I’ll do whatever I must do to bring back the peace we once knew.”

the norm, a default that returns with victory. Additionally the newer translation expresses Seliph's sentiment with far more charm.

 

41 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

She wants to become the rightful Queen of Renais

I can't find anything to support this idea. Is there some quote from the text that I am missing?

Although I can find some support from the text to idea that she wants to rebuild Renais. That is somewhat undercut by how poorly the game displays Renais's destruction, and it being a direct response to war they are immediately facing.

 

1 hour ago, Icelerate said:

Furthermore, she wants to change to be able to accept sorrow.

Which falls incredibly flat because that is how she has always dealt with sorrow and grief. Every time something tragic that might elicit an emotional response comes around she puts on a brave face and just accepts it, and has it so thuroughly tamed that she doesn't need to express it.

 

35 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

Actions speak louder than words. The fact her father died and a similar fate awaited Ephraim made Eirika steel herself for her journey. If she didn't feel anything or was happy, why bother? 

And her actions have nothing to do with the death of her father. All we are shown is that she wants to follow after her perfect brother, whom never needed saving at all. If steeling herself to rescue Ephraim is what they were trying for, the game failed to convey that. If that is what they wanted, they needed to find some way to lower her emotionless veil to let us get a glimpse of what is beneath. For example

Spoiler

Quote

Oyfaye : Well then, Lord Celice, I’ll be making toward Chalphy.

 

 

 

Celice : Eh!? Why, Oyfaye!? I still need you! I thought you’d always stay beside me!

 

 

 

Oyfaye : No, my lord. It’s time that you find your own road and walk it with pride. And so, I’ll be protecting dukedome of Chalphy in your stead.

 

 

 

Celice : Chalphy...I, I understand. Your words are right as always, Oyfaye. Since I’m not inheriting the family home, there’s no one else with Chalphy’s bloodline but you. I can’t leave it just like that...no matter how much it hurts.

 

 

 

Oyfaye : Please be at ease, my lord. I shall be protecting you from my place at Chalphy, myself.

 

 

 

Celice : Oyfaye. For me, who’d never known my own father, you’re the closest thing to one that I’ve got. You taught me everything I know about tactics, chivalry, honor, and kindness...I can’t find words enough to say how much I thank you...

 

 

 

Oyfaye : Lord Celice, I, too, am in great debt to your father. Lord Sigurd took me in when I was left alone, orphaned, and even took care of me like his own brother. And even then...I wasn’t there with him to the last, to see with my own eyes...I’m such a fool.

 

 

 

Celice : Oyfaye...don’t cry...it’s because of me, it’s all because of me...

 

 

 

Oyfaye : Yes, sir...please excuse me for my behavior...well then, Lord Celice, please...

 

 

 

Celice : Mmm, you take care of yourself too, Oyfaye.

 

 

 

 

Notice the emotional outburst that shows us Seliph's real feeling, and the stuttering reluctance, to show the strain of steeling himself for the goodbye he never wanted to occur. There are  other ways they could have portrayed a character that has an emotional response to their father's death, but needed to steel themselves for the actions she was about to take, for example, by giving her a moment to bond with her brother over their father's death after the "rescue". We didn't get any of those.

 

1 hour ago, Icelerate said:

So finding Eirika's character more interesting than Roy and Seliph is being over the top bombastic? So what isn't over the top bombastic? 

Look at the two parts of your quote I used when clarifying.

 

Quote

But to say Eirika shows little emotion, personality and is too passive in the story seems rather preposterous. 

Quote

I've seen far more from her than Roy and Seliph, for example. 

You are equating Roy and Seliph as having less than the little emotion, personality, and passivity that you already claim is preposterous, and didn't even pretend that any arguement to defend Roy or Seliph existed. In other contexts it wouldn't be bombastic, but you set this into a context were it is.

 

10 hours ago, Icelerate said:

I defended myself against your accusation of being over the top dramatic. When I said you are a nobody, I was being blunt. What I was saying is that compared to my family and IRL friends, you are a nobody to me so I don't really have any reason to allow you to disparage me by hurling false accusations. 

All I did was defend a character you attacked with the same passion and vigor you have used to defend Eirika.

[Alastor15243]

12 hours ago, Icelerate said:

She wants to become the rightful Queen of Renais and to rebuild the country.

 

18 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I can't find anything to support this idea. Is there some quote from the text that I am missing?

Although I can find some support from the text to idea that she wants to rebuild Renais. That is somewhat undercut by how poorly the game displays Renais's destruction, and it being a direct response to war they are immediately facing.

Yeah, uh... it's been a while since I've played beyond this point, but so far, she's said nothing about becoming queen. Hell, when Ephraim asked her to rule in his stead, she reacted negatively, considering him irresponsible:

Ephraim:
“A great king? I honestly have no idea what that means. Eirika should succeed the throne. I would be happy simply taking my lance and traveling the land as a mercenary.”

Eirika:
“Ephraim, that is nothing but foolish, irresponsible romanticism! Do you realize how much your words would fill Father’s heart with grief?”

And unless Renais is a place where twin siblings rule as king and queen (Which I have a vague idea of being the case in their "paired" ending), the idea of Eirika ruling doesn't seem likely. And more importantly, she has never once shown any interest in it, always talking about how she's going to support her brother, the king.

 

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Koops]

Much as I love Eirika and would like to defend her I will agree that she's never declared anything about becoming queen. She HAS however made claims that she desperately wants to rebuild Renais (Which eventually she fulfills). Heck, Ephraim ends up becoming the King himself anyway, despite the fact that Eirika's title is "Restoration Queen".

In terms of the Eirika vs Seliph argument I do think that objectively speaking Seliph does a better job at conveying his emotion and desires for a peaceful world, which is heavily backed up by the fact that the backstory to his own adventure is so well done, so the resolve is very visible. Buuuuuuuuuuut ultimately whether you like him or Eirika more just boils down to personal preference, imo. I still consider Eirika my favorite lord in spite of all this, mind you, but it's true that her portrayal is not perfect.

[Alastor15243]

Sacred Stones Day 30: Chapter 18EIR

Alright, as promised, before we start...

It's Eirika's Storytime!

Let's read her support with Forde!

…

...Okay, uh, question.

Why does Forde say Eirika's midriff is exposed? That's the belly button area, which Eirika is very clearly covering up, both in her sprites and the official artwork. I can only assume he's referring to her thighs, which are decidedly not the midriff.

...Unless midriff is some medieval euphemism for thighs.

...Much like thigh is a biblical euphemism for penis.

But yeah, uh... Eirika just... casually pretends she's about to flash Forde her panties. If indeed panties were what women wore under their skirts back then. That, uh... I really don't know what to think about that. That just comes completely out of left field for me, and I don't know what it says about her. I mean, it's not like this is peace time and she's allowed to be more relaxed than usual. This conversation mandatorily takes place in the middle of a battle. By all rights she should be behaving this easygoing in several story scenes if that's normal for her to do in the situations this can happen in.

Anyway, when she defends her choice to wear a short skirt to battle, she talks about how she prefers the “freedom of movement” of wearing a skirt and... okay, to a degree, that's totally fair. She's a light infantry fighter who wants to focus more on freedom of movement than defense, which means limited armor. And if you're not wearing any armor in that area either way, you're not really improving your survivability all that much if you switch out that skirt for pants or something. This isn't a chainmail bikini situation or anything, as far as I can tell from what little I've gleaned watching Shadiversity and Skallagrim and Scholagladiatoria.

I didn't expect the topic of fanservicey, impractical outfits to come up this early in the marathon though. But I suppose it has, so... I guess I'll talk about it, even though I'm likely going to have to repeat myself later. But I think it's good to establish my opinion now, in case something changes my mind.

Given the numerous other breaks from reality involved here, fanservicey outfits don't bother me all that much in Fire Emblem, as long as three conditions are met:

1: The utility of proper armor never becomes a crucial plot point that attention must be called to, and/or the character wearing the fanservicey outfit isn't the type to be wearing practical proper armor in the first place (dancer, mage, shapeshifter, etc.).

2: The character knows what they're wearing, and enjoys, or at least is apathetic to, wearing it. Put another way, the artist isn't just imposing an outfit upon a character that someone with their personality would never knowingly choose to wear.

3: It's an impressive kind of sexy, where the sexiness doesn't detract from how cool they look. I realize this is far more of a matter of opinion, but I think everyone can agree that while which is which isn't the same for everyone, there are indeed kinds of sexy outfits that we find cool, and other kinds of sexy outfits we see as degrading to the characters wearing them.

So Camilla's armor, while ridiculous in many ways, doesn't annoy me nearly as much as the ass windows casually slapped onto the armor of every female Nohrian knight and cavalier, regardless of said characters' actual personalities. Those are probably the worst fanservice in the entire franchise's history, because they make characters look ridiculous for the sake of an out-of-place, not-even-cohesive panty shot, like a butt flap in armor that's otherwise normal, and almost none of the female cast, probably not even Camilla or Charlotte, would actually enjoy wearing armor like that. And while the female Nohr noble outfit isn't exactly a great fit for Corrin's personality, so I have gripes there, it's still a really cool-looking outfit. I love the design of it, and the swimsuit shape of the core armor itself, combined with that badass shirt collar, reminds me of some kind of retro supervillainess.

And if someone rhetorically asked me how I'd feel if the male Nohr noble outfit had those thigh, armpit and cleavage windows too, well, first of all, I really don't like that argument, because male and female fashion in general is drastically different, you don't get the same increases in aesthetics by exposing the same parts of the body, and I think the people who make that argument and draw those ridiculously comical pictures of “equally-sexualized” male characters in order to make a point... know full well that they aren't conjuring an image that even they find appealing. Second of all, sure. Gladly. I would genuinely be happier in a universe where both Corrins showed off their thighs and cleavage than in a universe where neither did, because I don't think Male Corrin's character design can hold a candle to Female Corrin's to begin with, and let's be honest: chances are pretty damned good that you don't think it can either. The fandom has been pretty dang united on this point.

But actually, in all seriousness, I think that if they designed the male Nohr noble outfit so that it drew influence from some kind of old-school vampire sex god, with armor opening to resemble an unbuttoned shirt to push forward with the visuals of that badass collar, and did away with those massive pieces of armor by his thighs that make him still look like he's wearing bikini-plate stockings, personally I think that could be a massive improvement to aesthetics. Though obviously I'd have to see it in action to be sure.

Male Nohr noble's armor honestly looks like an afterthought to me, like they designed the female outfit first and then just copy-pasted it onto Male Corrin before getting rid of all the sex appeal features that wouldn't look good on him without adding anything unique or interesting in exchange. I mean, if that isn't exactly what happened, then explain to me why he still isn't wearing any armor on his crotch.

But that's enough about Fates for now. Let's keep reading.

So, one thing that jumped out at me is that Eirika doesn't take any issue whatsoever with Forde telling her to “leave the fighting to us soldiers”, and talking about riding into a hail of arrows for her sake. She just laughs and says “why, thank you, sir knight!”

I can interpret this in a couple different ways:

1: She laughed because while she hates people fighting and dying to keep her alive, she finds his zeal charming and is humoring him.

2: She laughed because Forde was joking, or being deliberately hammy for her amusement, and it worked, and she then proceeded to play along.

3: She laughed because she's genuinely enjoying being the object of this chivalry, and likes being treated like a princess.

I can't really work out which one it is, but I'd love to hear other people's interpretations of that reaction. Maybe I'm reading too deeply into it, but I can't help myself, it's one of the most interesting lines out of her in this whole conversation. Also...

Sweet fucking Jesus, that's right, Forde is a painter. I forgot. And he's taken pains to hide that hobby from the fellow troops, but word has gotten out, and he doesn't think he's very good at it, and now I'm having flashbacks to Ignatz and the indistinct, barely-remembered blur I can recall of the two dozen odd support conversations I endured from him in a single playthrough of Three Houses.

I mean... okay, really, this isn't much at all, but aside from that one flashback at Serafew, this is the most human I've seen Eirika allowed to be, though I don't see why she'd be more natural and at ease with Forde than she is with characters in the main story.

Anyway, let's move on.

I wind up promoting Ephraim and L'arachel two levels early each, because they're both badly gonna need the extra movement here, and I only get one shot at this. I also gave last chapter's dragonshield to L'arachel to buff up her defense, so she can do a bit more frontlining with that movement and 1-2 range of hers.

We're sort of low on money, but I sold a couple of my ridiculously high number of spare promotion items, and we're good again. Alright, that should be everything.

Let's go.

I can't help but notice they copy-pasted a line between Eirika and Ephraim.

“Rausten is the spiritual heart of Magvel. They keep the ancient lore. You're their princess. You must know something about the demons of legend.”

While I get that the same plot points happen, and that characters wind up saying most of the same things between routes, having two separate characters with different and even contrasting personalities say the exact same line... yeah, not a fan.

I also notice that... I could've sworn that L'arachel said something different here. I didn't realize she actually just said more. She just flat-out has more dialogue, talking about Saint Latona and how he (I looked it up, they later confirm it's a “he”, even though it isn't said here) managed to fight off the Demon King's possession before it happened, and that if you don't stop him at that stage, you're lost, and there's no way to bring you back.

I find the conspicuous omission of this specific set of lines in Ephraim Route very interesting. For one... that seems to have even more significance to Ephraim's version of Lyon, does it not? Either they felt adding that would have made the reveal that Lyon did “fight off” Fomortiis kind of telegraphed, or they removed it because I was right, and Fomortiis's powers are completely altered in this version of events, this subtle takeover of the consciousness is how Fomortiis normally possesses people in Ephraim!canon, and the stuff L'arachel says here never happened in Ephraim Route's version of history.

Alright. So. At any rate, back to Eirika Route now, this conversation establishes that Eirika has heard the council of her well-informed friends... and is going to ignore it, for emotional reasons she has done an exceedingly poor job of making us understand. Honestly, I feel that Ephraim's reckless decision to charge Lyon had a more effective build-up than this. But I'll have to see the moment itself to be sure.

Also, I notice that L'arachel seems to just assume that Eirika won't be able to emotionally withstand pursuing Lyon, and that she needs to “return” to Rausten Palace (curious choice of words, given that she's never been there yet) to rest. Of course, she says no.

Anyway, this chapter... I can't work out if it's gonna be easier or harder. I have Kyle now, so my mounted army is a bit larger, but the issue is that my Cormag is a much, much worse, due to having inferior speed and likely struggling to double some of these enemies.

...Actually, thankfully, he just barely manages to double some of these Gorgons, so I suppose he should be good. Alright, let's get moving.

I've learned my lesson this time, and Rennac is going on the bench. In her place: Syrene. Solely because having another flier will give me some more options with that initial cliff.

I think I might have been wrong with my impression that some eggs gain health faster than others. I might have made that mistake by initially not realizing that all eggs start with 5 HP and not 0 (which makes sense, since if eggs started with 0 health, how could they be destroyed?). I'll have to keep an eye out though. At any rate, if so, that improves my opinion of this map a good deal.

...Jesus Christ. This map is going so smoothly it's barely even worth commentating. A combination of hindsight and more mounted units seems to have resulted in me making sure not a single fucking egg hatches. The only real hiccup in the plan was when I forgot the boss was just barely covering the range of the gorgon south of her, and Ephraim might have gotten stoned had I not been as lucky. But even then, he wouldn't have been in any immediate danger.

There was also a horseslayer gargoyle who attacked L'arachel, but thankfully he was a good way away from being able to one-shot her, and I wisely chose to keep her out of range of the spiders so that Seth could bait them all and slaughter them with a killing edge.

Alright, so... map over. Flawless victory.

Time for... that scene.

The one we all know is coming, because it's Eirika's most infamous moment as a character.

The moment Fomortiis takes on Lyon's personality and tricks Eirika into just flat-out giving him the Sacred Stone, thinking he can use it to save himself.

What I find interesting is that Ephraim warns Eirika not to go off on her own, despite Ephraim doing the same thing and nobody warning him that it would pretty much be an equally stupid idea.

Also, again, having played both simultaneously, the things you just naturally assume playing Eirika mode are kind of exposed as bizarre. Like, with no changes to dialogue whatsoever, the game just expects you to assume that the sibling you're playing as is the one who's holding the stone of Renais. The decision of who should hold on to it isn't mentioned or foreshadowed beforehand, they just have it, and you find out in passing, just in time for it to wind up in Fomortiis's hands.

First thing that sticks out: Eirika calls out Lyon's name. A person she's been told on good authority is dead. She's not tricked into thinking her hopes were correct. Before so much as a single word from Lyon, just by appearing from a long distance away apparently wearing his non-demonic face, Eirika's absolutely convinced that L'arachel is wrong and that not only is Lyon still alive, but in spite of everything that happened last chapter, he's going to answer her when she calls, and it'll actually be him.

Despite the fact that Fomortiis used Lyon to trap her once before.

This is an extremely irrational, borderline hysterical emotional state the game is trying to sell to us, and while such a mental state is entirely plausible for a human being to be in under the circumstances, my issue here is that the game has done a very poor job of painting Eirika as a character who is capable of being that overwhelmed by her emotions. Between the fall of her castle, the death of her father, being attacked by the walking dead, and hearing rumors that her brother is going to be executed, they've had countless opportunities to establish Eirika as someone who doesn't make smart decisions while in extreme emotional distress. And in a sense, they kinda do in some of those cases, but they go about it entirely the wrong way. There have been times where she's made reckless, borderline suicidal decisions for entirely emotional reasons, but every time it happens, they write her speaking with a tone as if this is a decision she's come to after thorough logical consideration. Always calm. Always stoic.

Which doesn't scream “human nature” so much as it screams “badly-programmed robot”.

Crucially, they haven't really made any effort to make us feel her pain. To make us really, truly feel the reasons why she would risk anything, even gambling one of the last two hopes for humanity on a blatantly obvious trap, just for the tiniest glimmer of a chance to save her best friend.

Let me put it this way: Lyn, Hector, and Eliwood never do anything nearly this stupid, and yet if they had, there's a good chance I would have accepted it without any issue if it were tied to their grief. Because I felt that grief. Blazing Blade did a more than satisfactory job making the pain its characters suffered clear as day. Hell, even with the hardest and most reserved member of the team, Hector... when Oswin's refusal to talk even under threat of death makes Hector finally realize his brother isn't sick, he's dead... you can clearly feel his pain without him needing to shed a single tear.

And none of that was even to inform a fatal mistake they make later. They just did it because that's a natural part of making us relate to a character. Because it's good storytelling.

Hell, they did it so well that I didn't even notice I was wrong! There actually is a stupid, emotional decision one of those characters makes in FE7! Remember when Eliwood lashes out at Queen Hellene just when he's about to get his reward for retrieving the Fire Emblem? We don't give Eliwood shit for that because we feel Eliwood's anger, because we, just like Eliwood, know about all of the emotional turmoil and terror and tragedy, from Nino, from Jaffar, and from her own son, that she is infuriatingly ignorant of. And after all of the familial tragedy we've seen Eliwood go through, yeah, no shit Eliwood's gonna be pissed off watching a mother demonstrate total apathy and ignorance in the face of her son's near-assassination.

With Eirika? We have none of that. Because, again, and this is my number one issue with Eirika's character: She is a character ruled by emotions that we are not allowed to see.

And as I'm watching this conversation unfold, I could totally imagine Fomortiis's emotional manipulation working... on a better character.

Like, okay, here's one line that really showcases my issues here.

“Could the Sacred Stone really do that? Could it heal you?”

Note the choice of punctuation, which, combined with facial animations and the content of a character's lines, is our only window into Eirika's mindset at the moment given the level of tech involved, and the writers know it. And there's no ellipses. No exclamation points. No attempt to indicate she's crying, or desperate, as she listens to the idea of her being able to have Lyon back again. Nothing to indicate she's feeling anything other than complete, calm tranquility as she says those sentences. Nothing to keep this line from being consistent with the lines of a naive, gullible child who is completely heedless of the mortal peril she's in.

“You only pretended to be Lyon... You deceived me.”

YES, EIRIKA, HE DECEIVED YOU. JUST LIKE HE FUCKING TRIED TO DO LAST CHAPTER BEFORE THE SMALL SCRAP OF LYON THAT REMAINED FOUGHT BACK AGAINST BEING USED FOR THAT. HE DID IT AGAIN. WHY ARE YOU FUCKING SURPRISED TO HEAR THIS!?

...And then Fomortiis say he “[loves] how humans look when they're drowning in despair”, and... yeah, Fomortiis, glad you at least can enjoy the emotional drama of this truly expressive character.

Well, at least they gave her a “dead-eyed” sprite too, but... really, did you have to reserve an entire alternate facial expression just for this one scene? Just giving her a sad face for use outside of this one singular specific moment would have gone miles to help her character. Maybe it could even help re-contextualize some of her lines that read as extremely neutral? I dunno, it's a thought.

And then we get what is supposed to be the “payoff” of Eirika's emotional constipation, where Ephraim says she's finally allowed to cry. And apparently that good, long, completely offscreen crying session was a lot of help, because literally immediately after that scene transition, suddenly she's back to her neutral wide-eyed sprite again and talking in a completely detached manner about pursuing Lyon.

...Yeah, to the Eirika fans who are still reading this, first of all, thank you, and second of all, I'm sorry to say I have not been convinced. I don't think there's anything she'll be able to do after this scene to redeem herself in my eyes. I stand by what I said before. Byleth is the only main character in the series I dislike more than her.

But with that... well, it's time to move on.

I have a feeling we'll be done with the main story by the end of next week, and given the state of the poll right now, I've asked my friend to send Path of Radiance back. If it takes too long, or enough people demand it, I'll review the Tower of Valni and Lagdou Ruins maps in a less structured format before the Path of Radiance run starts. Lemme know, guys.

Stay safe, everyone.

Edited June 5, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

20 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

FE6 hits most of my boxes for what I think of as a good ironman. It is difficult enough that characters might die, and with one of the most robust casts in the series, making it easy to replace a majority of the cast. I find the funnest part of ironmans is when someone unexpected has to fill in, and truly shines. As for balance I started by thinking about how to break all the games, FE4 has the horse Holsety, and has been fairly conclusively shown anyone can solo gen1; FE7 is all about a good mounted unit with a handaxe/javelin; FE5 has the overwhelming power of staves, but you still need some combat monsters to power through as well; whereas FE6 breaks more piecemeal, Rutger can break bosses, but has severe limitations beyond that (like the worst 1-2 range available), beasts like Perceval and Milady can tank and one range well, but 1-2 range is bad enough to keep that from dominating like in FE7, and while mages have good 1-2 they can't tank well enough to break things too much (nostanking gets close, but the high single hit damage of late game threats can put those with the ability to use it into 1 shot range, and the level of investment needed to avoid that would require far more resources than needed to break the other games).

From where I'm standing, while it has a lot of characters, the problem is while Fire Emblem does have to account for the possibility that units may have died, which having a lot of characters dopes help with, it means nothing if a good deal of them are really shitty to the point where they struggle to contribute even when they first join, never mind the all-too-likely scenario where they were benched because I had someone else who could do their job and now I need them because that person died. In that case, why in the name of Duma would I try to babysit a replacement unit that probably won't pull their weight for most of the game, if ever, and thus end up being a liability instead of an asset for the sake of filling a deployment slot instead of just continuing to invest in the good units I have left?? The lopsided unit quality is a huge black mark on balance, too, as is the lack of weapon balance (ergo, the fact that accuracy issues limit the usable weapon pool).

TL;DR Binding Blade hits too many sour notes for me to consider it good in either balance or ironmanability imho.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Time for... that scene.

The one we all know is coming, because it's Eirika's most infamous moment as a character.

The moment Fomortiis takes on Lyon's personality and tricks Eirika into just flat-out giving him the Sacred Stone, thinking he can use it to save himself.

What I find interesting is that Ephraim warns Eirika not to go off on her own, despite Ephraim doing the same thing and nobody warning him that it would pretty much be an equally stupid idea.

Also, again, having played both simultaneously, the things you just naturally assume playing Eirika mode are kind of exposed as bizarre. Like, with no changes to dialogue whatsoever, the game just expects you to assume that the sibling you're playing as is the one who's holding the stone of Renais. The decision of who should hold on to it isn't mentioned or foreshadowed beforehand, they just have it, and you find out in passing, just in time for it to wind up in Fomortiis's hands.

First thing that sticks out: Eirika calls out Lyon's name. A person she's been told on good authority is dead. She's not tricked into thinking her hopes were correct. Before so much as a single word from Lyon, just by appearing from a long distance away apparently wearing his non-demonic face, Eirika's absolutely convinced that L'arachel is wrong and that not only is Lyon still alive, but in spite of everything that happened last chapter, he's going to answer her when she calls, and it'll actually be him.

Despite the fact that Fomortiis used Lyon to trap her once before.

This is an extremely irrational, borderline hysterical emotional state the game is trying to sell to us, and while such a mental state is entirely plausible for a human being to be in under the circumstances, my issue here is that the game has done a very poor job of painting Eirika as a character who is capable of being that overwhelmed by her emotions. Between the fall of her castle, the death of her father, being attacked by the walking dead, and hearing rumors that her brother is going to be executed, they've had countless opportunities to establish Eirika as someone who doesn't make smart decisions while in extreme emotional distress. And in a sense, they kinda do in some of those cases, but they go about it entirely the wrong way. There have been times where she's made reckless, borderline suicidal decisions for entirely emotional reasons, but every time it happens, they write her speaking with a tone as if this is a decision she's come to after thorough logical consideration. Always calm. Always stoic.

Which doesn't scream “human nature” so much as it screams “badly-programmed robot”.

Crucially, they haven't really made any effort to make us feel her pain. To make us really, truly feel the reasons why she would risk anything, even gambling one of the last two hopes for humanity on a blatantly obvious trap, just for the tiniest glimmer of a chance to save her best friend.

Let me put it this way: Lyn, Hector, and Eliwood never do anything nearly this stupid, and yet if they had, there's a good chance I would have accepted it without any issue if it were tied to their grief. Because I felt that grief. Blazing Blade did a more than satisfactory job making the pain its characters suffered clear as day. Hell, even with the hardest and most reserved member of the team, Hector... when Oswin's refusal to talk even under threat of death makes Hector finally realize his brother isn't sick, he's dead... you can clearly feel his pain without him needing to shed a single tear.

And none of that was even to inform a fatal mistake they make later. They just did it because that's a natural part of making us relate to a character. Because it's good storytelling.

Hell, they did it so well that I didn't even notice I was wrong! There actually is a stupid, emotional decision one of those characters makes in FE7! Remember when Eliwood lashes out at Queen Hellene just when he's about to get his reward for retrieving the Fire Emblem? We don't give Eliwood shit for that because we feel Eliwood's anger, because we, just like Eliwood, know about all of the emotional turmoil and terror and tragedy, from Nino, from Jaffar, and from her own son, that she is infuriatingly ignorant of. And after all of the familial tragedy we've seen Eliwood go through, yeah, no shit Eliwood's gonna be pissed off watching a mother demonstrate total apathy and ignorance in the face of her son's near-assassination.

With Eirika? We have none of that. Because, again, and this is my number one issue with Eirika's character: She is a character ruled by emotions that we are not allowed to see.

And as I'm watching this conversation unfold, I could totally imagine Fomortiis's emotional manipulation working... on a better character.

Like, okay, here's one line that really showcases my issues here.

“Could the Sacred Stone really do that? Could it heal you?”

Note the choice of punctuation, which, combined with facial animations and the content of a character's lines, is our only window into Eirika's mindset at the moment given the level of tech involved, and the writers know it. And there's no ellipses. No exclamation points. No attempt to indicate she's crying, or desperate, as she listens to the idea of her being able to have Lyon back again. Nothing to indicate she's feeling anything other than complete, calm tranquility as she says those sentences. Nothing to keep this line from being consistent with the lines of a naive, gullible child who is completely heedless of the mortal peril she's in.

“You only pretended to be Lyon... You deceived me.”

YES, EIRIKA, HE DECEIVED YOU. JUST LIKE HE FUCKING TRIED TO DO LAST CHAPTER BEFORE THE SMALL SCRAP OF LYON THAT REMAINED FOUGHT BACK AGAINST BEING USED FOR THAT. HE DID IT AGAIN. WHY ARE YOU FUCKING SURPRISED TO HEAR THIS!?

...And then Fomortiis say he “[loves] how humans look when they're drowning in despair”, and... yeah, Fomortiis, glad you at least can enjoy the emotional drama of this truly expressive character.

Well, at least they gave her a “dead-eyed” sprite too, but... really, did you have to reserve an entire alternate facial expression just for this one scene? Just giving her a sad face for use outside of this one singular specific moment would have gone miles to help her character. Maybe it could even help re-contextualize some of her lines that read as extremely neutral? I dunno, it's a thought.

And then we get what is supposed to be the “payoff” of Eirika's emotional constipation, where Ephraim says she's finally allowed to cry. And apparently that good, long, completely offscreen crying session was a lot of help, because literally immediately after that scene transition, suddenly she's back to her neutral wide-eyed sprite again and talking in a completely detached manner about pursuing Lyon.

...Yeah, to the Eirika fans who are still reading this, first of all, thank you, and second of all, I'm sorry to say I have not been convinced. I don't think there's anything she'll be able to do after this scene to redeem herself in my eyes. I stand by what I said before.

...And this is why I think Eirika would need a major rewrite for her to even be a decent character.

Edited June 5, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Koops]

You knwo what. I respect your interpretation.

You showed me a clear reason why, while this scene is natural, it makes Eirika look a hell of a lot dumber than she actually is and that it's a bad scene because of it. I actually agree with your point of view, although it does just happen that I see Eirika in a different way.

One thing I will say though is that while I agree it's not the best thing in the world that this game barely has any expressive portraits, you don't need them to convey emotions, per se. Although you also made the same argument for the punctuation... so... I'll stay silent. You win this round. I also hate this scene for entirely different reasons, strangely enough, despite not finding it so bad.

But anyway, I'll take this opportunity to say why I love the Forde X Eirika support so much. It's a support that legit shows Eirika having genuine fun despite everything happening. She's casually joking around with the jokester of the Renais knights. Although it does help a lot that Forde IS my favorite character from this game, no matter how relatively mediocre he is as a unit compared to the other cavs. I guess seeing Eirika develop conversations with him is just such a fun prospect to me.

Anyway, I'm glad we can finally put this chapter to fucking rest.

Edited June 5, 2020 by Koops

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Koops said:

You knwo what. I respect your interpretation.

You showed me a clear reason why, while this scene is natural, it makes Eirika look a hell of a lot dumber than she actually is and that it's a bad scene because of it. I actually agree with your point of view, although it does just happen that I see Eirika in a different way.

One thing I will say though is that while I agree it's not the best thing in the world that this game barely has any expressive portraits, you don't need them to convey emotions, per se. Although you also made the same argument for the punctuation... so... I'll stay silent. You win this round. I also hate this scene for entirely different reasons, strangely enough, despite not finding it so bad.

But anyway, I'll take this opportunity to say why I love the Forde X Eirika support so much. It's a support that legit shows Eirika having genuine fun despite everything happening. She's casually joking around with the jokester of the Renais knights. Although it does help a lot that Forde IS my favorite character from this game, no matter how relatively mediocre he is as a unit compared to the other cavs.

Anyway, I'm glad we can finally put this chapter to fucking rest.

Glad to hear that about my writeup! And I am genuinely curious to hear your thoughts on the scene if you wanna share. You piqued my interest.

[Koops]

Pretty sure it's been said better before by other people but I think that while it's true that the emotions she has aren't quite obvious, I feel like Eirika's decision to give Lyon the stone makes perfect sense. Not only is she seemingly desperate to get Lyon back despite everyone saying that's it's plain impossible, but she's also up against the demon king, who, through his "petty evilness" as you call it, seems to have a knack for toying with people. It's obvious through his dialogue that humans are just ants to him and he has the power to make people look stupid, or make them do things they know is rationally wrong by overwhelming them with emotion. I thought that was evident since the moment he looked into Lyon's soul and proposed to murder the twins in front of him while granting him his conscience just so that he can witness it. It's like a natural ability for him at this point and I just think that ultimately what happened in the scene was completely predictable... and that's why it didn't make me all that mad, because the odds were simply not in Eirika's favor. Although I don't like that they made Ephraim's version look more like it's not his own fault, because it just looks so one-sided and it makes it seem like Ephraim is still perfect and Eirika is to blame for literally everything. The only reason why I actually hate the scene is particularly because of its controversial nature and how anyone just points to it when they wanna defend their argument for "Ephraim and Eirika bad because stone go poof". In your case though you've provided such a thorough explanation that I just can't but agree with your writeup.

Idk if I made much sense but here, that's the gist of it.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Koops said:

Pretty sure it's been said better before by other people but I think that while it's true that the emotions she has aren't quite obvious, I feel like Eirika's decision to give Lyon the stone makes perfect sense. Not only is she seemingly desperate to get Lyon back despite everyone saying that's it's plain impossible, but she's also up against the demon king, who, through his "petty evilness" as you call it, seems to have a knack for toying with people. It's obvious through his dialogue that humans are just ants to him and he has the power to make people look stupid, or make them do things they know is rationally wrong by overwhelming them with emotion. I thought that was evident since the moment he looked into Lyon's soul and proposed to murder the twins in front of him while granting him his conscience just so that he can witness it. It's like a natural ability for him at this point and I just think that ultimately what happened in the scene was completely predictable... and that's why it didn't make me all that mad, because the odds were simply not in Eirika's favor. Although I don't like that they made Ephraim's version look more like it's not his own fault, because it just looks so one-sided and it makes it seem like Ephraim is still perfect and Eirika is to blame for literally everything. The only reason why I actually hate the scene is particularly because of its controversial nature and how anyone just points to it when they wanna defend their argument for "Ephraim and Eirika bad because stone go poof". In your case though you've provided such a thorough explanation that I just can't but agree with your writeup.

Idk if I made much sense but here, that's the gist of it.

Fair enough. Actually I think Fomortiis's pettiness is the most interesting thing about him. Like he's such a connoisseur of human misery that he loves it in all forms, from global to personal. Like a master chef who has as much passion for corn dogs as for filet mignon.

[Interdimensional Observer]

FordexEirika is still Eirika's best for herself I think. Forde does hog the show, and the almost-flashing is out there, but it's something that helps her. She should've stepped out of courtesy more later in the support- a greater insistence at Forde painting her portrait and helping rebuild Renais perhaps.

Although it benefits the Green Goddess more than Sky Blue Solemnity, EirikaxL'Arachel is I'd say her second best support. Innes shows her angry for one line. Eir's worst is Saleh I'd say, the A talk can be seen as a prelude to their ending marriage, and I like the script on the face of it, but the entire support reads "Teacher & Student", not love.

 

On Eirika's ending epithet of "Restoration Queen"- is it a translation error of the Japanese? "Queen" and "princess", according to Google Translate, use the same two Kanji in Japanese, their arrangement is all thats different. Or is Restoration Queen b/c Eirika is co-lord with Restoration King Ephraim, and they felt calling her "Restoration Princess" would be downplaying her importance? IRL, she'd still be a princess.

 

Next chapter is Last Hope, the last challenging map of SS. Where the enemies can hurt like lightsabers. Not to say Chapters 20 and Final are bad. 20 looks cool, but it runs into Gaiden meets Genealogy meets Blazing issues. And Final is fine, just not spectacular or hard Lyon could use more AS.

[Koops]

Those Gorgons in the final chapter tho... Yuck...

Not a fan of those. Better just warp past them should the option be available tbh.

[Benice]

1 hour ago, Koops said:

Pretty sure it's been said better before by other people but I think that while it's true that the emotions she has aren't quite obvious, I feel like Eirika's decision to give Lyon the stone makes perfect sense. Not only is she seemingly desperate to get Lyon back despite everyone saying that's it's plain impossible, but she's also up against the demon king, who, through his "petty evilness" as you call it, seems to have a knack for toying with people. It's obvious through his dialogue that humans are just ants to him and he has the power to make people look stupid, or make them do things they know is rationally wrong by overwhelming them with emotion. I thought that was evident since the moment he looked into Lyon's soul and proposed to murder the twins in front of him while granting him his conscience just so that he can witness it. It's like a natural ability for him at this point and I just think that ultimately what happened in the scene was completely predictable... and that's why it didn't make me all that mad, because the odds were simply not in Eirika's favor. Although I don't like that they made Ephraim's version look more like it's not his own fault, because it just looks so one-sided and it makes it seem like Ephraim is still perfect and Eirika is to blame for literally everything. The only reason why I actually hate the scene is particularly because of its controversial nature and how anyone just points to it when they wanna defend their argument for "Ephraim and Eirika bad because stone go poof". In your case though you've provided such a thorough explanation that I just can't but agree with your writeup.

Idk if I made much sense but here, that's the gist of it.

I'd also like to mention that in her route she sees Lyon in control for a little bit; she thinks that he's not totally gone. I do agree that what she did, while it wasn't rational, was something that a lot of people would do, especially if they had lost their fathers recently; Eirika doesn't really want to lose any more loved ones and neither would I. There are some scenes where Eirika is being unnecessarily dumb in the game, but I don't think that this is one of them.

But I also think that Hector is a terrible character and genealogy's story really isn't that great, so my opinon is probably invalid.

Edited June 5, 2020 by Benice

[Koops]

I think Genealogy's story is good just until the end of Gen 1, after that it's mediocre AND Hector is my least favorite lord in FE7, maybe my least favorite lord overall... wait scratch that Roy exists.

Idk which is true. Do great minds think alike or do just similarly dumb ones also do that.

Edited June 5, 2020 by Koops