At what point in time are the Emblems taken from?

[indigoasis]

With the release of (presumably) the last of the Emblems with Chrobin and Veronica, there's a question I've had lingering on my mind for a while that's only been reinforced with Veronica's paralogue. Just when in the world are these characters from?

Some Emblems are a bit more obvious than others (thanks Sigurd), but others throw me for a loop. In Veronica's case, she initially acts like she's from Book I of Heroes, but she's dressed up in her getup from Book VI. Now, I haven't gone and seen all of her various dialogues with other characters, but how she's introduced makes it seem like she's backpedaling to her initial depictions, which kinda contradicts her Legendary appearance (unless I'm reading too deeply into things and her current truce with Askr is a ploy of some kind).

Do you think it's possible to pinpoint a time that these characters come from? Or are the Emblems meant to be just a general representation of the heroes of the past?

[Acacia Sgt]

20 minutes ago, indigoasis said:

Or are the Emblems meant to be just a general representation of the heroes of the past?

This.

Emblems are more like the Einherjar of Awakening/Fates. Facsimiles of the characters, but not the characters themselves. This is even spelled out in the final chapter.

[indigoasis]

4 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

This.

Emblems are more like the Einherjar of Awakening/Fates. Facsimiles of the characters, but not the characters themselves. This is even spelled out in the final chapter.

Ah, okay. That makes sense.

Admittedly, I, uh... haven't beaten the game yet, but now I feel dumb for not realizing this sooner. Thanks for the clarification.

[Xylaugheon Daily]

Yeah, they did not put that kind of care into this game.

[Solaris998]

3 hours ago, indigoasis said:

With the release of (presumably) the last of the Emblems with Chrobin and Veronica, there's a question I've had lingering on my mind for a while that's only been reinforced with Veronica's paralogue. Just when in the world are these characters from?

Some Emblems are a bit more obvious than others (thanks Sigurd), but others throw me for a loop. In Veronica's case, she initially acts like she's from Book I of Heroes, but she's dressed up in her getup from Book VI. Now, I haven't gone and seen all of her various dialogues with other characters, but how she's introduced makes it seem like she's backpedaling to her initial depictions, which kinda contradicts her Legendary appearance (unless I'm reading too deeply into things and her current truce with Askr is a ploy of some kind).

Do you think it's possible to pinpoint a time that these characters come from? Or are the Emblems meant to be just a general representation of the heroes of the past?

Veronica is a weird case because all evidence seems to suggest that they originally had Emblem Veronica as her Book 1 design before changing to her Legendary appearance at relatively the last minute because L!Veronica didn't exist not long ago. As you said the characterization is off for this design and she doesn't have Enclosing Dark as an Engage Weapon despite her Emblem holding it during battle.

[DefyingFates]

1 hour ago, Solaris998 said:

Veronica is a weird case because all evidence seems to suggest that they originally had Emblem Veronica as her Book 1 design before changing to her Legendary appearance at relatively the last minute because L!Veronica didn't exist not long ago. As you said the characterization is off for this design and she doesn't have Enclosing Dark as an Engage Weapon despite her Emblem holding it during battle.

I came here to say this exact same thing, thank you! She still acts like her og!self (i.e. pre-character development) so it really feels like the design switch was a last-second decision for brand synergy or something since L!Veronica is her default look now (same goes for the weird lack of Enclosing Dark). I guess we can always just say this is a L!Veronica from a world where Book VI played out in a way that left her still at odds with Askr?

That said, it was funny seeing her and Alear race to enslave the other and while I haven't seen many of her Bond Conversations yet, I do wonder if we'll get her perspective on the war with Askr.

I thought every other Emblem was from the end of their story though, with the obvious exception of the House Leaders.

[indigoasis]

8 hours ago, Solaris998 said:

Veronica is a weird case because all evidence seems to suggest that they originally had Emblem Veronica as her Book 1 design before changing to her Legendary appearance at relatively the last minute because L!Veronica didn't exist not long ago. As you said the characterization is off for this design and she doesn't have Enclosing Dark as an Engage Weapon despite her Emblem holding it during battle.

7 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

I came here to say this exact same thing, thank you! She still acts like her og!self (i.e. pre-character development) so it really feels like the design switch was a last-second decision for brand synergy or something since L!Veronica is her default look now (same goes for the weird lack of Enclosing Dark). I guess we can always just say this is a L!Veronica from a world where Book VI played out in a way that left her still at odds with Askr?

If the idea that Engage was completed a while before it actually released is true, then it might make sense that what we see of Veronica character-wise is from before Book VI even existed. A last-second change wouldn't be too farfetched, especially if Emblems are meant to be like Einherjar or a representation of their "truest" selves (or just brand synergy, like DefyingFates mentioned).

I think OG!Veronica states at one point in Heroes, "I'll never join you," so even then, we'll probably never get a playable OG!Veronica in a Fire Emblem game, lol.

[Seazas]

Veronica's taken from up to Book 5. Her ability confirms it and she has writing that entertains any character development she got before Book 6 sealed the deal.

[DefyingFates]

2 hours ago, indigoasis said:

If the idea that Engage was completed a while before it actually released is true, then it might make sense that what we see of Veronica character-wise is from before Book VI even existed.

Also what I was thinking. Swapping out her model and remixing Embla's theme would be relatively easy compared to redoing all of her dialogue to match her Book VI self - which makes me think the FEH team doesn't really talk to the other parts of IS very much, since you'd think L!Veronica's characterization would have been hammered out a year or so in advance too.

[Jotari]

8 hours ago, indigoasis said:

If the idea that Engage was completed a while before it actually released is true, then it might make sense that what we see of Veronica character-wise is from before Book VI even existed. A last-second change wouldn't be too farfetched, especially if Emblems are meant to be like Einherjar or a representation of their "truest" selves (or just brand synergy, like DefyingFates mentioned).

I think OG!Veronica states at one point in Heroes, "I'll never join you," so even then, we'll probably never get a playable OG!Veronica in a Fire Emblem game, lol.

Kind of makes it even more scummy that they're selling us these bonus Emblems instead of just including them in the game. I should at least hope this wave 2 and 3 DLC wasn't completed until recently. But given how little time has passed since release of the game and the release of the DLC, they probably have been finished for months if not years. Either that or they can make bonus Emblems really quickly and easily.

[Acacia Sgt]

6 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Kind of makes it even more scummy that they're selling us these bonus Emblems instead of just including them in the game. I should at least hope this wave 2 and 3 DLC wasn't completed until recently. But given how little time has passed since release of the game and the release of the DLC, they probably have been finished for months if not years. Either that or they can make bonus Emblems really quickly and easily.

Well, even if they could be made in advance, if they were still made outside the budget scope of the base game (as it's not cheap to make all those models, paying the VA's, etc), then they still need to charge for it separately to recover the cost.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Acacia Sgt