Which Fire Emblem game would you like adapted to a movie/TV show?

[𝐍𝐲𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐥]

Due to the success of the Mario Movie a Fire Emblem movie/TV show is fairly possible, due to there being so many different Fire Emblem games the possibilities are endless. Which specific game would you want adapted to a movie or TV show? In my opinion, a TV series based on Sigurd's, Marth's and Alm's games would be most enticing and interesting in my opinion. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by 𝙇𝙤𝙠𝙞

[Fabulously Olivier]

I see a few great possibilities here.

 

Dark, political, Game of Thrones esque narrative - Geneology or Three Houses

 

Dark fantasy in the vein of Netflix Castlevania - Sacred Stones or Awakening

 

High fantasy epic - Path of Radiance

 

I don't view Illumination as adequate for any Fire Emblem adaptation. Mayyyybe some of the more lighthearted fair like Marth's games, TMS, or Engage, but I think even those would come off as low quality and confused under them.

Edited April 25, 2023 by Fabulously Olivier

[Fire Emblem Fan]

The Blazing Blade as a series. If I could be more specific, then I'd specifically be very interested in Lyn's tale, the "prologue" to the main story. That would make a really good 15-episode series.

[lenticular]

Possibly an unpopular opinion here, but none of them. Fire Emblem stories are structured to fit around the confines of a game, and I don't think they'd be particularly suited to other media. Adaptations would be possible, for sure, but they'd have to be extensive to the point that they'd basically be telling a new story that was loosely based on an existing one. I don't think that a faithful retelling would work. And either way, it just isn't something that excites me. 

[NotYourKindOfPeople]

Fire Emblem is nowhere near popular for a Hollywood adaptation but an anime might be possible. I'd love to see a proper adaptation of the Marth games or the Tellius series. 

[Zapp Branniglenn]

2 hours ago, lenticular said:

Possibly an unpopular opinion here, but none of them. Fire Emblem stories are structured to fit around the confines of a game, and I don't think they'd be particularly suited to other media. Adaptations would be possible, for sure, but they'd have to be extensive to the point that they'd basically be telling a new story that was loosely based on an existing one. I don't think that a faithful retelling would work. And either way, it just isn't something that excites me.

How about an original story that was written first for that format?

That's my answer, anyway. New setting, characters, and lore. We Fire Emblem fans are already onboard with the idea that these games take place in separate worlds with different lore and mechanics. But the amount of characters in individual games spans far beyond a typically sized cast list for film or tv. An original story gets to write as many characters as it needs - one to represent every series-staple class perhaps? And with no "cuts" to the roster. And wouldn't it be annoying to have discussions about how well they adapted Sumia, Kieran, or Felicia? With a new cast, our preconceptions of what these characters should be would be left at the door. Also, if it's live action (as it should be, imo), we won't have to see attractive young actors show up in gross colored wigs just because of "source material".

There are not many key ingredients to a fire emblem story. A sword lord, a macguffin called the fire emblem, a little girl that turns into a dragon. And if it ends up being bad? Well, then the idea of switching to doing adaptations isn't tainted forever. Low risk, low-concept compared to other fantasy settings. If anything, a Fire Emblem film's toughest obstacle is seeming challenging ENOUGH to pursue. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Use the Falchion]

Either original or Three Houses. Both anime.

To me, Three Houses has the most potential for multiple seasons, spin-offs, and overall engagement (heh). You can either do the different routes as one to two seasons each or combine a few of them into one main route and then do the others as OVAs or movies. (My personal choice is the latter, but that's just me.) You've got a lot of built-in character development with some filler in terms of the paralogues if needed, and you can appeal to multiple audiences due to the school and war settings. 

[lenticular]

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

How about an original story that was written first for that format?

That could work, but if it's an original story, I'm not sure what the point is of slapping the name "Fire Emblem" on it rather than just letting it stand alone as Generic Medieval Fantasy #637. Well, I guess that the point would be marketing and name recognition, but that's hardly worth getting excited over. Like, it might be good or it might be terrible, but the quality would have nothing to do with how "Fire Emblem" it was and everything to do with the telent of the writer, director, actors, and other people involved.

1 hour ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

There are not many key ingredients to a fire emblem story. A sword lord, a macguffin called the fire emblem, a little girl that turns into a dragon.

I don't really think that having a little girl who turns into a dragon is central to Fire Emblem. It's common in the series, sure, but at this point, the last game to actually have one was Awakening (unless there's someone in the Engage DLC, which I don't have).

[Original Alear]

47 minutes ago, lenticular said:

I don't really think that having a little girl who turns into a dragon is central to Fire Emblem. It's common in the series, sure, but at this point, the last game to actually have one was Awakening (unless there's someone in the Engage DLC, which I don't have).

I dunno if her existence is canon, but Khanna exists in Fates.

[lenticular]

13 minutes ago, Original Alear said:

I dunno if her existence is canon, but Khanna exists in Fates.

Oh, true. I've only ever played female Corrin so I always think of Kana as male, but that's a fair point. Still nobody in Shadows of Valentia, Three Houses or Engage though, unless I'm missing someone else. (And to forestall potential comments: yes, Flayn, Sothis and Veyle all exist, but we don't actually see any of them as dragons.)

[vanguard333]

If Movie: Shadow Dragon

Shadow Dragon began the series and its plot is thin enough and its side characters are irrelevant enough that it could be made into a movie, albeit likely a three-part movie like The Lord of the Rings. The main villain of the first movie would be Jiol of Gra, the main villain of the second movie would be the mage dragon in charge of Altea Castle, and the final film would have Camus, Michalis, Gharnef and Medeus.

 

If TV Series: Path of Radiance

Any earlier than the Tellius games and the plot is too thin, any later and the plot is too stuffed with optional chapters & branching paths. Path of Radiance would be the easiest to adapt into a TV series. It also still has the most refined plot (and best plot overall) of any FE game.

I'll admit a bit of bias since Path of Radiance is my favourite FE game, but even disregarding that, I honestly think that Path of Radiance is the best option. Even the fact that the Tellius games were an acclaimed flop is counterbalanced by the popularity of Ike.

In this case, I would ideally want to see it be an anime; live-action has its merits, but the strengths of animation would be better-suited to a Fire Emblem adaptation. As for who should animate it, I think A-1 Pictures would likely do a good job, given that they have experience with fantasy war animated series in the form of Record of Grancrest War and 86 (examples of both below):

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

 

Edited April 27, 2023 by vanguard333

[NotYourKindOfPeople]

Here is an idea. I'd love to see a movie on Anri, which can basically act as a prequel to all of Fire Emblem. They will have creative freedom to do whatever they want, while remaining connected to Marth's story.

[AnonymousSpeed]

As much as I revile it, I unironically think Heroes is the best candidate for a motion picture adaptation, be that for TV, the big screen, or an online service. Every other Fire Emblem game is at least partly defined by the player's agency over who lives and dies, who carries the team and who is dead weight. It's a personal experience, and can't really be captured in traditional narrative means. Heroes has no permadeath really, campaign where you develop relationships with your units*, and it's got a wacky 4kids dub of a battle shounen on Saturday morning premise.

However, since I revile heroes, an adaptation of backstories or side-stories, which is financially far less feasible and ultimately more niche and obscure than practical even from an artistic standpoint, would be good instead.

*- I know Heroes has single-player events and chapters, but they are qualitatively very different from your standard 20+ chapter FE game.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

On 4/25/2023 at 3:29 PM, lenticular said:

That could work, but if it's an original story, I'm not sure what the point is of slapping the name "Fire Emblem" on it rather than just letting it stand alone as Generic Medieval Fantasy #637. Well, I guess that the point would be marketing and name recognition, but that's hardly worth getting excited over.

Do you get excited about new, non-remake, non-sequel Fire Emblem games? It's kind of like that isn't it?

Quote

Like, it might be good or it might be terrible, but the quality would have nothing to do with how "Fire Emblem" it was and everything to do with the telent of the writer, director, actors, and other people involved.

That is...a lot like the sort of argument I would be making for the idea. Just say all of that, but with a positive inflection lol. A movie that non-fans can appreciate for just being a good film and fans can appreciate for being a good showcase of what "Fire Emblem" means. An adaptation presents barriers to both audiences. Non-fans feel like they need to do their homework by playing the game first, while fans come in with their own, not-imagined ideas of what the story should be.

I saw this movie recently, Dungeons and Dragons something something thieves. Name doesn't matter because it's not an adaptation of anything. There are hundreds of official DnD campaigns/modules that could potentially be adapted into a film script, but they chose to pen an original one. I can't speak to why they arrived at this decision, but the film ended up being very good. Well written, well shot with a blend of practical and CG effects, actors are having fun. And it focuses on concepts, creatures, and settings from the DnD universe that did not become standard-fare in other fantasy franchises. Our party is made up of actual classes and races. The magic and magical artifacts adhere to rules from the DnD guidebook. There's an owlbear. And there's a badass paladin that reminds you of the sort of babysitter NPC a dungeonmaster makes to keep the party from screwing up a tricky quest. Then he leaves when that stage of the quest is over. God that's relatable.

This is the approach Fire Emblem can take. Lock down the key elements of what makes Fire Emblem. Write a great story that's intended to be a film. And then work out how one is going to complement the other at every step.

[lenticular]

29 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

Do you get excited about new, non-remake, non-sequel Fire Emblem games? It's kind of like that isn't it?

A little bit? But with a new Fire Emblem game, I know a lot about what its gameplay will be like. Yeah, there's variation between games, but the same core game mechanics are always going to be there. And I like those core mechanics. So I know, with a pretty high degree of confidence, that even if I hate the story, there'll still be enough gameplay that I like for me to be reasonably positive about it overall.

As a closer analogy, imagine that Nintendo and IS announced that they were making a new game, that was a traditional turn-based JRPG comparable to classic Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, that it was going to be promoted as part of the Fire Emblem series, and would feature an entirely new cast and setting. In that case, I wouldn't be particularly excited either. I might keep half an eye on it to see if it turned out to be good, but not much beyond that. Without having either a familiar story or familiar gameplay, it just isn't that exciting to me.

41 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

That is...a lot like the sort of argument I would be making for the idea. Just say all of that, but with a positive inflection lol.

Honestly, that probably sums this up pretty well. I suspect you're just keener on adaptations in general than I am. Different strokes for different folks, and all that.

44 minutes ago, Zapp Branniglenn said:

I saw this movie recently, Dungeons and Dragons something something thieves. Name doesn't matter because it's not an adaptation of anything. There are hundreds of official DnD campaigns/modules that could potentially be adapted into a film script, but they chose to pen an original one. I can't speak to why they arrived at this decision, but the film ended up being very good. Well written, well shot with a blend of practical and CG effects, actors are having fun. And it focuses on concepts, creatures, and settings from the DnD universe that did not become standard-fare in other fantasy franchises. Our party is made up of actual classes and races. The magic and magical artifacts adhere to rules from the DnD guidebook. There's an owlbear. And there's a badass paladin that reminds you of the sort of babysitter NPC a dungeonmaster makes to keep the party from screwing up a tricky quest. Then he leaves when that stage of the quest is over. God that's relatable.

Yeah, this is a good example from my perspective as well. I like D&D. I have about 20 D&D books sitting on a shelf just across the room from me. In terms of engagement with the source material, I'm pretty much exactly the target audience. And yet, my reaction when I heard that there was going to be a D&D movie was basically "...so what?" with a side of "wasn't the last one really terrible?" Because the things that I like about D&D are not the things that could go into a movie. Now, as it happens, multiple of my friends have said that it's actually a really good movie, so I will probably get around to seeing it eventually when it finally filters down onto streaming services. But that doesn't take away from the fact that I wasn't excited by it at all, and that if I do watch it, it won't be because it was D&D.

[SnowFire]

Agree with others that doing something Fire Emblem-y that was still a new story is probably the way to go.  I guess it's not what was asked, but given that a lot of the "appeal" / uniqueness of Fire Emblem is in its integration with the gameplay, going into new territory would make a lot of sense.  (Notably, Fates & Three Houses have the issue that the whole "choice" aspect doesn't work in a non-interactive medium, unless your series is such a smashing success you convince the production studio to make the series three separate times each.)  That said, I think there's other concerns that would need to be resolved first - is it live action or animated?  Low budget or high budget?  Aimed at a Japanese audience or an international one?  An open-ended television show, a tv miniseries, or a movie?

Take war scenes.  If you're doing live action, war is INCREDIBLY costly to film.  Game of Thrones had an amazingly huge budget for a TV show, and it still had tiny forces and did things like conveniently knock the point of view character out before they can watch the big dramatic battle of the blackwater, and have him merely told about it afterward.  CGI stuff like transformation or dragons is also really expensive in live action - okay for a few scenes in a high budget movie, but not sustainable in low budget or a TV show.  (Netflix's Wednesday had a big budget behind it and a setting with literal werewolves at a school, and the number of times we see a werewolf transform?  Once.  And not for that long, either.)  Flip side, low & medium budget live action can succeed and potentially even be a hit.  Low budget animation might break even in Japan, maybe, but isn't really a thing internationally short of, like, for kids stuff or edgy adult comedy. 

Okay, so that all said, going back to the original question, if we're restricted from just saying "do something new that's Fire Emblemy"...

* Low budget live action: Fire Emblem 7 / Blazing Blade.  It's the FE that is least about a war, so you can just film people standing around and talking a lot.  You can also make it as short or as long as required by the amount of filler included - a movie version might cut to the chase, while a TV version can be as complete as desired.  Throw away most of the PC cast, this is gonna be the Lyn/Eliwood/Hector show.  (And certainly no CGI flying Pegasi!)  But...  restrictions build creativity.  The original Star Wars has a buddy adventure with Luke / Han / Leia at its core, it can work (Marcus can be Obi-Wan and die to prove the bad guys mean business).

* Medium to high budget live action: Path of Radiance.  The same virtues as FE7 - a small core cast, and not much war.  Yeah, there's a war in the background, but you can have a single teaser bit of war in the first episode, and then have a big battle or two as the season finales.  On the downside, the core cast is a little larger - you need to keep most of the Greil Mercs, even if tossing other characters.  You also have the laguz, who can still Mostly Be People Standing Around Talking but with cat ears & Star Trek alien makeup, but will occasionally have moments of brief CGI to show them transforming.  (If your show is an unexpected success, you can consider doing Radiant Dawn as a sequel.)

* Low budget anime: Don't, but, uh pretty much whatever I guess.  Maybe FE Heroes per anonymous speed?  Some of the aspects of that which appeal would still work even in low budget form.

* High budget anime: Also flexible.  I'd bite the bullet on picking a path and do Three Houses, but could be convinced otherwise.  Could also do a Marth saga thing for Japan appeal + lots of flexibility in the characters.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Awakening. Need to hear at least 1 powah of frenship.

6 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

However, since I revile heroes, an adaptation of backstories or side-stories, which is financially far less feasible and ultimately more niche and obscure than practical even from an artistic standpoint, would be good instead.

Miracle of Dahna but from the pov of Loptous:

I lived, bitch

Signed

   Heim-Not-Naga

[Seazas]

I'd be interested in seeing a new story with loose connections and references. I think it'd be funny especially when that'd be more characters for FEH to fill out banners with.

[vanguard333]

On 4/26/2023 at 11:24 PM, SnowFire said:

* Medium to high budget live action: Path of Radiance.  The same virtues as FE7 - a small core cast, and not much war.  Yeah, there's a war in the background, but you can have a single teaser bit of war in the first episode, and then have a big battle or two as the season finales.  On the downside, the core cast is a little larger - you need to keep most of the Greil Mercs, even if tossing other characters. You also have the laguz, who can still Mostly Be People Standing Around Talking but with cat ears & Star Trek alien makeup, but will occasionally have moments of brief CGI to show them transforming.  (If your show is an unexpected success, you can consider doing Radiant Dawn as a sequel.)

How does Path of Radiance not have much war? It's one of the few FE games that is entirely about the war. The second half of the game consists entirely of battles and sieges during the war, and the final chapter is the battle/siege that ends the war. The war is not in the background; the Greil Mercenaries are at the center of it for most of the game.

Honestly, I think Path of Radiance, or really almost any FE game, would be better off as an anime than as something live-action. Live-action does have its merits, particularly in the area of character drama and in it being easier to just hire a bunch of extras for a TV small army than it is to animate each soldier )though that each is generally outweighed by the cost, as you yourself pointed out), but, overall, I think the strengths of animation would suit a Path of Radiance adaptation better.

Edited April 28, 2023 by vanguard333

[SnowFire]

Of course there's a war going on in the final arcs of FE9, but I'd wager you could avoid that for the first 2/3 of the story, which can easily be made into 4/5 of the story via changing the focus if you want.  (In the books of Game of Thrones, Theon's torture was a minor side note, but having a guy moaning in a dark room is exceptionally cheap to produce, so guess what gets highlighted in the TV version via a shift in focus.)  I just think that making it so that each episode ends in a fun little small arms battle scene, but a cheaper one to produce (think Xena Warrior Princess), can be reasonably true to FE9 - you just make it small unit battles for the escape & Benignon arcs.  During the Daien & reconquest arcs, you have the big battles going on vaguely in the background that Titania tells the audience about, and the part you actually show is Ike and Shinon fighting a  duel or whatever.  Stuff like the monks held hostage mission are pretty easily changed into The Team Plans A Heist type stuff.  More broadly, I don't think you sell the show on EPIC HUGE WAR BATTLES, you sell it on character interaction.  (While attempting to adapt something like Three Houses while skipping the 'war' parts is probably harder thematically.)

[genesis]

Being honest a lot of stories are adapted from older games and books, Witcher, LOTR, Castlevania are from older media but with established fanbases. It just needs someone to take interest, more likely a fan (LOTR and Caatlevania producers were fans of the series), coupled with good writers to do It. 

 

I think Genealogy and Three Houses could easily appeal the audiences nowadays since political dramas are in. Every Fire Emblem has it though Genealogy specially, has similarities of other shows already in popular culture. 

 

I think Elibe games, if fleshed out well, could turn a beautiful gerational story, a bit lighter in tone but with a bittersweet tone. 

 

Sacred Stones could be turned into a great dark fantasy, but they would need good budget for effects in the monsters and magic. 

 

Archanea (Shadows of Valentia and Shadow Dragon) saga as a greek-roman fantasy epic. The last produtions I can think that was big, was Xena, Hercules and Troy, but Xena and Troy was trashy, i'd rather something more serious lol

 

I think Fates could be something more akin Alchemy of Souls with a bit of a darker theme. And It has some good ideas that weren't well implemented on game but without the disjointed format, It can turn great in a TV show with some rewritings and fixings. The cast and setting is interesting actually. 

[vanguard333]

13 hours ago, SnowFire said:

Of course there's a war going on in the final arcs of FE9, but I'd wager you could avoid that for the first 2/3 of the story, which can easily be made into 4/5 of the story via changing the focus if you want.  (In the books of Game of Thrones, Theon's torture was a minor side note, but having a guy moaning in a dark room is exceptionally cheap to produce, so guess what gets highlighted in the TV version via a shift in focus.)  I just think that making it so that each episode ends in a fun little small arms battle scene, but a cheaper one to produce (think Xena Warrior Princess), can be reasonably true to FE9 - you just make it small unit battles for the escape & Benignon arcs.  During the Daien & reconquest arcs, you have the big battles going on vaguely in the background that Titania tells the audience about, and the part you actually show is Ike and Shinon fighting a  duel or whatever.  Stuff like the monks held hostage mission are pretty easily changed into The Team Plans A Heist type stuff.  More broadly, I don't think you sell the show on EPIC HUGE WAR BATTLES, you sell it on character interaction.  (While attempting to adapt something like Three Houses while skipping the 'war' parts is probably harder thematically.)

I strongly disagree. Even in the early chapters, the Greil Mercenaries are generally fleeing from the Daein army, and we are routinely shown them fighting entire divisions of said army. Chapter 5 has them defend their fortress from an entire division of Daein forces, chapter 7 has Petrine flood the room that she and Greil were fighting in with extra soldiers that surround the mercenaries, and chapter 8 has them try to defend against a massive force of Daein soldiers that attack in wave after wave and almost kill the mercenaries through sheer attrition. A lot of the earlier stuff was smaller scale not just because it's a band of mercenaries at the start of the game, but so that, whenever a very large number of enemy soldiers appears on screen, it visually conveys that things are hopeless.

To use Game of Thrones as an example, despite the shows huge budget, the first two seasons never once actually showed any armies or divisions in full; there is no equivalent of Path of Radiance's chapters 5, 7 or 8 in terms of scale. Of course, part of that is that Game of Thrones is not a war story; it's a political-intrigue story, but another large part of it is, as you pointed out, budget. Path of Radiance, however, is about the war; the war is front-and-center, and the main protagonist: Ike, becomes the vanguard (pun not intended since the vanguard class only appears in Radiant Dawn) of the war effort.

No one is saying that character isn't the most important part of any potential FE series. But the battles are important as well; any adaptation from an interactive media to a non-interactive media needs to replace the strengths provided by that interactive media with something else. For Path of Radiance the game, the gameplay helped the player accept the idea of only seeing a microcosm of the battles and not the whole thing; an adaptation would have to provide the battles.

[genesis]

On 4/25/2023 at 5:39 PM, Zapp Branniglenn said:

How about an original story that was written first for that format?

That's my answer, anyway. New setting, characters, and lore. We Fire Emblem fans are already onboard with the idea that these games take place in separate worlds with different lore and mechanics. But the amount of characters in individual games spans far beyond a typically sized cast list for film or tv. An original story gets to write as many characters as it needs - one to represent every series-staple class perhaps? And with no "cuts" to the roster. And wouldn't it be annoying to have discussions about how well they adapted Sumia, Kieran, or Felicia? With a new cast, our preconceptions of what these characters should be would be left at the door. Also, if it's live action (as it should be, imo), we won't have to see attractive young actors show up in gross colored wigs just because of "source material".

There are not many key ingredients to a fire emblem story. A sword lord, a macguffin called the fire emblem, a little girl that turns into a dragon. And if it ends up being bad? Well, then the idea of switching to doing adaptations isn't tainted forever. Low risk, low-concept compared to other fantasy settings. If anything, a Fire Emblem film's toughest obstacle is seeming challenging ENOUGH to pursue. 

I think a live action won't have the characters have colourful hairs. It will be realistic. The Nintendo trailer made Lyn blonde and Lucina brunette. Weaboos will dislike but hair coloured cosplays will turn off most of the public 

 

The trailer to have an idea on how some characters could look with realistic hair coloured (its quite cheap and a bit trashy, in a live action hopefully the costumes, effects and hairs will hopefully be better though lol) 

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by genesis

[Jotari]

If they were really willing to give it their all and treat it seriously then Genealogy of the Holy War would make an absolutely fantastic Game of Thrones ripoff. But I wouldn't dare to dream of it happening.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

I remember thinking of an anime adaptation of Sacred Stones. Each episode would have a focal character, while still telling part of the story. So the first episode, "Eirika", could show her relationships - with her brother, father, Tana, and Lyon - while ending on the invasion of the castle, and her flight away with Seth. The "Ross" episode could show a boy who lost his mother while his father was off to war, inspiring him to get stronger, fight gor jis town - and, eventually, join Eirika. The "Selena" episode could show how she found favor in the Emperor's eye and worked up through the ranks, then switch over to her refusal to give Myrrh her Dragonstone back, and eventual death at Ephraim's hands. Not every character would get their own episode, but I think you could tell the whole story - with plenty of new backstory and side information introduced - in about 24 half-hour episodes.

On 4/30/2023 at 3:41 PM, genesis said:

I think a live action won't have the characters have colourful hairs. It will be realistic. The Nintendo trailer made Lyn blonde and Lucina brunette. Weaboos will dislike but hair coloured cosplays will turn off most of the public 

If we don't have a cast of technicolor hairstyles, would that even be recognizably *Fire Emblem* anymore? I don't think see how toning down or removing one of the series' most notable visual cues would help it "stand out" to mainstream audiences, who have a wealth of fantasy narratives at their disposal.