Official Forging Bonds Discussion Thread

[DefyingFates]

Hopefully this thread sees regular use.

We get Forging Bonds with each new banner but so far any discussion of them is scattered among the thread for the banner itself. I thought it'd be nice to have a separate thread for the Forging Bonds themselves, since some of them tell noteworthy stories in their own right. I guess the only rule we need is not to post unmarked spoilers for the first week after an FB starts, does that sound fair or is that too long?

Anyway, I quite liked this current Forging Bonds. Robin's story was pretty basic, but I quite liked Soren's and especially Gullveig's. I really didn't expect to like her's so much, and with the main story already being written I'm glad the Forging Bonds did something with her instead.

Personally I'd rank the specific character conversations something like this: Gullveig > Soren > Corrin > Robin.

For more detailed thoughts:

General Story:

Spoiler

As I said above, this is a completely different Askr that got destroyed by Gullveig, so Sharena and Kiran decide to summon a Gullveig of their own after advice from Soren and Robin (and a bunch of other tacticians). She immediately runs off but gets a pep talk from Corrin about how it sucks that she has to fight herself but maybe they can figure out a peaceful option, which leads her to reversing time to before the world's native Gullveig attacked. Not much, but the premise was nice to see and Corrin & Gullveig is a friendship I'd like to see come up again in the future.

Robin:

Spoiler

Again, his was pretty basic. We see him pull an "all according to keikaku" in C but the rest of it is being spooked by the Grimas and Chrom giving him a pep talk. I swear, as of this year Nintendo has really gone hard on the gay energy around those two, which makes you wonder where Lucina and Morgan came from...

Corrin:

Spoiler

She got Fjorm'd, but I think I like this version. The two relate over being stuck between warring kingdoms and the process of building bridges between them. We also get a follow up to Laegjarn coming back from the dead in Fire and Ice: she's running Muspell now and Laevateinn is now her aide/ assistant.

Soren:

Spoiler

You'd think he'd be kinder to his own younger self, but I liked that speech he gave him at the end. Soren himself doesn't do much in this story until then, but that moment still stood out to me.

Gullveig:

Spoiler

She gets the shortest scenes, just as in the web event, but she's all about self-reflection and acknowledging the baggage she's carrying around after all their loops. There's even a flashback to the "have a child with me" moment so I'm glad the writers are able to laugh at themselves. Given how miserable she is, I like that her S Support ends up being a sequel to the main story and her being summoned a second time (presumably under happier circumstances).

So... yeah! What did you all think of this batch of Bond Conversations? They're not peak storytelling by any means, but did you like them at least?

Edited August 18, 2023 by DefyingFates

[ARMADS!!!]

Cool, it sounds great to have a thread for FBs because I have some dificulty in keeping up with the lore that they bring. Is there gonna be a new thread for every new New Heroes banner or it's always gonna be this one for all of them?

[DefyingFates]

20 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Cool, it sounds great to have a thread for FBs because I have some dificulty in keeping up with the lore that they bring. Is there gonna be a new thread for every new New Heroes banner or it's always gonna be this one for all of them?

I figured this could be a master thread for all of them, but if people think it makes more sense to have multiple then I'm fine with that too. The Tempest Trials get a thread per iteration after all, though those also include discussion of the maps and rewards, so there's that to consider as well...

[ARMADS!!!]

26 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

I figured this could be a master thread for all of them, but if people think it makes more sense to have multiple then I'm fine with that too. The Tempest Trials get a thread per iteration after all, though those also include discussion of the maps and rewards, so there's that to consider as well...

Yeah, I personally think it's better to have just one discussion for them all too, so we could have the whole thing in just one place (unless for some reason there's a BUNCH of post here per FB because then it'd flood the thread a lot, in this case maybe it'd be better to have more) but I my preference is not very strong either way (I can't think of very strong arguments for either side as if there were more threads we could always link the previous ones on the newer ones), it's not like there's any rush to decide it now.

 I still haven't seen this month's FBs but as soon as I do I'll come back here and post about my thoughts on it, I've seen several people vaguely talking about how some of them are very good and I'm itching to see it myself.

[DefyingFates]

3 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

as if there were more threads we could always link the previous ones on the newer ones)

If each FB generates a lot of discussion I was thinking of maybe adding links to the first post regarding each to that top one, but we'll see I suppose.

3 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

I still haven't seen this month's FBs but as soon as I do I'll come back here and post about my thoughts on it, I've seen several people vaguely talking about how some of them are very good and I'm itching to see it myself.

I look forward to hearing what you think of them! Brave Gullveig made me go from indifferent to quite liking Gullveig between... pretty much everything IS has done for CYL since the Feh Channel for example, and I'm curious to know if others' opinions of her changed as well. Obviously that her outfit isn't as fanservicey helps, but I do genuinely like this take on her personality too.

[vikingsfan92]

I do think they are clearly holding back in this forging bond with Gullveig a bit for future book 7 stuff.  Mainly with how she plans on achieving her goals and the like.  Or even if things like Seior going to Vanehemir like she does in the forging  bonds begimnig is even a good thing.

Maybe not since enemy Gullveig decides to show up to Corrin/Brave Gullveig instead but it might have been simply curious at seeing another version of herself.

Also if there ever is a repeat of harmonics for titles the next heroes harmonic probably would be Gullveig/Corrin. But Xander/Veronica exists so not a huge need for fates/heroes crossovers.

Edited August 19, 2023 by vikingsfan92

[Jotari]

Robin's forging bonds was yet again rethreading the Grima plot line. Okay, yes, it's my favourite aspect of Robin, but come on, it's been overplayed by now. There was more to Awakening than the last five chapters.

[Othin]

The Grima stuff is getting a bit silly, but I did quite like the Chrom/Robin stuff.

Now I want to see some sort of interaction where Fallen Chrom and Fallen Robin M decide to destroy the world together.

[Lemmy]

I wish other Shepards were included in Robin’s support, Chrom should be included too of course. It reminded me how much I dislike amnesia, makes a character more empty.

 

Corrin, I’m biased against this because  I hate the Valla path in terms of plot.

 

Gullveig I liked, pulling her out of the cycle does prevent her from reintegrating and renewing the cycle while another Gullveig is present, it’s an interesting angle for her character.

 

Soren I also liked, showed off kid Soren’s origins and personality growth.

[Mercakete]

I already posted some impressions elsewhere. I'm just here to say that I'm so happy we finally got something of an update on how Nifl and Muspell (but mostly Muspell) are recovering after Book 2.

[Mercakete]

Okay, so I may have finished this FB, almost? (I know, I know, there's almost no time left, but higher priorities have been keeping me busy.) Man, I love Febail's FB! Dude's great, and his concerns, moral dilemma, and honesty about his guilt are so realistic! Loving this one. Man, how did I forget about him from that one time I watched a let's play of FE4 years ago? (I may have answered my own question there...) I should summon for him sometime. Saving orbs right now, but I hope I manage to pull him someday! Great character, imo.

[Mercakete]

Main Story.

Alright, so, I didn't really like Book 4 even though the nightmare realm was gorgeous. I'm not super keen on how the TT+ for the fairies and such is going either, but at least the "dreams vs nothingness" is starting to actually make sense. (Like, a lot of dreams get forgotten when you wake up.) That said, this FB is actually handling the theme extremely well. Have to say, I'm impressed. It probably helps that SoV is actually a very serious-toned game, and man, the nightmares of Sonya and Mycen (hey, they both have y's in their names. Cool.) are super high-stakes/impactful because of it. Also, dang, it's true that the two of them have extreme levels of grit and determination, which I hadn't noticed before. So, actually, this is really going well.

Characters

Sonya (C and B)

Spoiler

I feel bad for Hugh. He's getting picked on a lot here. However, having Sonya focus on trying to save her sisters, and talking to Niime is great.

Mycen (C and B)

Spoiler

Dang there are serious SoV spoilers in this one. XD Mycen's whole thing is extremely integral to it, though, so this was probably the right call. It's nice using him to explain Alm a bit, especially since that actually is a lot of who Mycen is, himself. He's on mission, and Alm is a big part of his mission. So, it doesn't feel like the character is getting overshadowed by someone who isn't even supposed to be the FB focus.

Peony (C and B)

Spoiler

Yep. I knew she'd succeed Freyr in his role as the ruler of dreams.

Triandra (C and B)

Spoiler

She feels like she's trying to decide what her own opinion on humans is. It's an interesting take. It's also becoming more and more obvious how quiet she is. Like, she's the opposite of outspoken, so her growth is happening more beneath the surface.

And as for accessory items... Dang those oranges look appetizing, and I don't even usually like oranges. They look sweet, tangy, juicy and fresh. Shoot, I want those. Also, Triandra's flower thing is cool.

[Etrurian emperor]

I noticed it last forging bonds already, if not a bit before but I notice they decrease in length quite a bit. Some chains are really short, end abruptly or both. Take Peony's first chain with Sharena. Essentially its just her saying ''I wanna spread dreams!'' and Sharena responding with ''oh that's nice'' before it abruptly ends. 

I'm a bit surprised they never did an Embla forging bonds with team Askr being replaced by Veronica, Bruno, Loki and Xander. It seemed the obvious way to spice things up as well as provide some lore on how embla treats its heroes. Though since they moved away from team Askr being the primary conversation partners of the Heroes that ship has sailed.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I noticed it last forging bonds already, if not a bit before but I notice they decrease in length quite a bit. Some chains are really short, end abruptly or both. Take Peony's first chain with Sharena. Essentially its just her saying ''I wanna spread dreams!'' and Sharena responding with ''oh that's nice'' before it abruptly ends. 

I'm a bit surprised they never did an Embla forging bonds with team Askr being replaced by Veronica, Bruno, Loki and Xander. It seemed the obvious way to spice things up as well as provide some lore on how embla treats its heroes. Though since they moved away from team Askr being the primary conversation partners of the Heroes that ship has sailed.

Well they did do that parallel universe thing with the CYL winners, and they had Eitri and whatshisface being the summoners of the fallen Heroes that one year, so I wouldn't say the ship as sailed, they could still do something like that if they wanted to. It would have been better last book when Embla was still somewhat relevant though.

Edited October 16, 2023 by Jotari

[GrandeRampel]

Mycen's and Sonya's FBs are actually really good, but in different ways.

It's one thing to write a good FB using characters all from the same game and making them reflect and all the things that happened to them in their story/find some resolution. Mustafa's FB with Chrom was like this and was very good, Tine's FB was like this and good, Fee's FB was like this, Gustav's FB was like this, and Mycen's FB is like this and is pretty great actually.

But it's another thing entirely when they make a really good FB featuring characters from entirely different worlds meeting for the first time and forming a bond.

Fallen Dimitri meeting with Nyx was pure genius, as was Midori meeting Eir, Ronan meeting Henriette, and now Sonya meeting Niime.

I will admit that not all FB are very deep and well written, and sometimes they don't need to be (purely comedic FBs are nice sometimes), but wow... when they are done well they are REALLY done well, which makes me happy. And people say the developers have no passion for this game anymore/they only keep going for the money.

Edited October 17, 2023 by GrandeRampel

[Mercakete]

Okay, so I finished the main story of the FB and...that ending felt abrupt. Plus, using nightmarish illusions within a victim's sleep was, well, a nightmare thing. You can't just relabel it "nothingness," IS, especially since it's not nothing. It's exactly the trick Freyja was using. Like, come on. Keep your canon straight.

[DefyingFates]

I really liked Sonya's story and

On 10/17/2023 at 5:58 PM, GrandeRampel said:

But it's another thing entirely when they make a really good FB featuring characters from entirely different worlds meeting for the first time and forming a bond.

this. Finding a link between the morphs and the witches and letting Sonya and Niime bond over them was genius. I was indifferent to Mycen's story and disappointed with Peony's which amounted to... nothing, really. Triandra's was a little better in that regard? I liked how it ended with the dokkalfar deciding to give humans a chance and now I wish we'd gotten a Forging Bonds for Plumeria last month to dig deeper into that, but alas.

9 hours ago, Mercakete said:

It's exactly the trick Freyja was using. Like, come on. Keep your canon straight.

🤣

[Mercakete]

OKAY I was surprised to see

Spoiler

Hrid

in Reinhardt's FB! I didn't think they'd ever write for that guy again. o_0 I'm still getting over my surprise, but dang is it refreshing to see him come back. I thought it would just be the freebie ladies forever. It's nice to see IS tapping other resources.

[Etrurian emperor]

I like how Chad and to a lesser extend Lugh helping out in the orphanage being an official part of the Forging Bonds expanded universe. 

[ARMADS!!!]

On 1/10/2024 at 11:18 PM, Mercakete said:

OKAY I was surprised to see

  Hide contents

Hrid

in Reinhardt's FB! I didn't think they'd ever write for that guy again. o_0 I'm still getting over my surprise, but dang is it refreshing to see him come back. I thought it would just be the freebie ladies forever. It's nice to see IS tapping other resources.

Yeah, I liked seeing him too! It was cool seeing some update on his life, I remember a bunch of people questioning if he was supposed to be the king now and stuff like that (figures that his dad is the king then, I don't remember any mention to Fjorm's father, ever, but since her mother is dad and Hríd is not the king, then I think there's no other possibility), also I didn't remember that Ylgr chose to stay in Askr too.

 

 This is one of the only FBs that I managed to play until rank S with most people (except for Safy, I'll just see hers on YouTube because I don't have the patience to keep playing all that), and it was only because I really wanted to see what was inside the box (also, I knew that...

Spoiler

it was gonna have something to do with Gustav since the beggining),

but in the end it was worth it. Also the line in Tina's plot that mentions that

Spoiler

staves can miss on Thracia (and Sharena being weirded out by it)

was priceless.

Edited January 24 by ARMADS!!!

[Midnox]

I wish I could see best girl one day, but hard to expect since she became queen of Muspel after her revival

[ARMADS!!!]

37 minutes ago, Midnox said:

I wish I could see best girl one day, but hard to expect since she became queen of Muspel after her revival

Oh yeah, speaking of this. I wonder if Laevatein was crowned queen of Muspell during the whole year that Laegjarn was dead, or they have a mother alive?(in which case Laegjarn wouldn't be the queen now too) I don't think they ever mentioned who's Surtr wife ir if she's alive or whatever, did they?

[Jotari]

54 minutes ago, ARMADS!!! said:

Oh yeah, speaking of this. I wonder if Laevatein was crowned queen of Muspell during the whole year that Laegjarn was dead, or they have a mother alive?(in which case Laegjarn wouldn't be the queen now too) I don't think they ever mentioned who's Surtr wife ir if she's alive or whatever, did they?

 I feel like you're putting more thought into this than the writers ever had.

[ARMADS!!!]

39 minutes ago, Jotari said:

 I feel like you're putting more thought into this than the writers ever had.

Probably yes, unfortunately... The writing was notably worse on the older books, they simply didn't mention what happened to a lot of problems that arised during the story (it was only in book V that they started to give us a proper "epilogue" explaining what everyone was doing after the events of the book!). I even suspect that it was by luck that they didn't mention Fjorm's father being dead too, because literally every other place (until book V) was left without a ruler (even though they had possible people to rule it).

 

EDIT: One more thing, in relation to the FB's rewards, I was so happy when I saw that Reinhardt's reward were gloves and for some reason I really thought they'd give us actual gloves. But... no, of course it had to be a single glove to be used on the top of your head.

Edited January 25 by ARMADS!!!

[Mercakete]

On 1/23/2024 at 10:44 PM, ARMADS!!! said:

Yeah, I liked seeing him too! It was cool seeing some update on his life, I remember a bunch of people questioning if he was supposed to be the king now and stuff like that (figures that his dad is the king then, I don't remember any mention to Fjorm's father, ever, but since her mother is dad and Hríd is not the king, then I think there's no other possibility), also I didn't remember that Ylgr chose to stay in Askr too.

Yeah, Ylgr wanted to go to the Order. As for the Nifl siblings' parents, both are dead. Nifl was mostly destroyed, so Hrid's been working hard to rebuild it. This FB basically confirmed everything I've been saying every time I read someone asking what happened to Hrid.

Also, sorry to say it, but I forgot how creepy Hrid's smile is. It just looks wider than his face is actually supporting.

The extra bit of Henriette x Gustav lore was adorable too, as always. They're a sweet canon couple. 🙂 I wonder if we'll learn more about Henriette's past in Book 8...