#((celica is an outlier))

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

The FE fandom is unfairly criticized for their treatment of main women leads because not enough people factor in how sexist the writing is. Edelgard would get less hate if she was held more accountable. Micaiah would get less hate if she didn't get written out of the final part and awful blood-pact device. Celica and Erika would get less hate if the writers didn't hand them the idiot ball. Female leads are often awful units compared to male counterparts. The male leads always upstage the female ones or are written overall better bc they were unconcerned with making them a sellable waifu. There's definitely sexist people in the fandom, and male characters everywhere get cut more slack, and I'm not denying an element of sexism in all of this, but holding the writers accountable something that needs to get brought up more.

Edelgard is held accountable and punished for her actions by literally dying in 3 out of the 4 routes. Like the Agarthans are not blamed for what Edelgard did. She takes complete responsibility and suffers the consequences for starting a war.

Erika giving the Sacred Stone to Formortis because she believes Lyon, an extremely skilled healer and magic user who has been studying the stones will get rid of him through using it is a smarter decision than Ephraim attempting to kill THE DEMON KING ALL BY HIMSELF. Like at least Erika's plan made sense and could have worked if Lyon was able to resist Formortis. People who call Erika stupid for her scene while not doing the same for Ephraim's are hypocritical in this regard.

While SOV is quite sexist in how so many of the women are damseled, Celica sacrificing herself for Mila makes complete sense and is not rooted in sexism because at that point in the game most people believe that they still need the gods to survive and a single human life is worth less than the life of a god. Celica trusted Jedah because to her that was her only choice. What is sexist is her having to be repeatedly saved by men while nothing similar happens to Alm.

I admit I'm being extremely nitpicky with this point, but Erika and Celica both act completely in character when they make their mistakes and therefore are not Idiot Balled. Idiot Balling is when a character acts uncharacteristically stupid and out of character to serve the plot.

Idk about the specifics with Micaiah in Radiant Dawn but yeah it sucks how Ike takes most of the spotlight from both her and Elincia :/

The only female lead that is a substantially worse unit than her male counterpart is Erika. She is an outlier that should not be counted. Celica, Micaiah and Elincia all have utility that Alm and Ike Lack while Edelgard is literally just as good of a frontliner as Dimitri. And Lyn is just as weak as Eliwood.

Character writing is subjective.

You are severely overestimating the importance of waifus and underestimating the importance of husbandos to the franchise. Straight and Bi women play Fire Emblem too.

Also characters who have depth tend to be more popular regardless of their gender. It is profitable to have waifus with layers.

I am not denying that sexism was and somewhat still is a thing in the writing and gameplay of this series; However, the fandom is just as guilty in how female characters are treated - perhaps more guilty in the newest two games where these issues rarely rear their ugly head in the story and the gameplay. The fandom should be held accountable too instead shifting most of the blame on the writers.

Anyway if you read all of this, have a heavenly creature i found recently <3

[rwby-encrusted-blog]

LORE DUMP TIME!

'AEBMO' Stands for An Extension of Magazines, Barrels, and Ourselves, Coming from Ruby's "Weapons are an Extension of ourselves" and Extended Magazines and Barrels, modifications for guns.

The Process of a weapon becoming a person is called 'Awakening,' beginning with the weapon being able to communicate to it's 'Wielder,' the one who pours their Aura into said weapon; that which cares and handle the weapon the most.

After the initial 'Awakening' it will generally take some time for the weapon to 'Form,' actually gain the ability to go between being a weapon and a humanoid - the outliers for how long it may take for a weapon to Awaken and Form is determined entirely by the emotional state of the Wielder - Crescent Rose both Awakened and Formed within the span of a few seconds, while Myrtenaster Awakened several months before she Formed, and was only able to Form while Weiss was fighting the Arma Gigas.

The Humanoid Form of a Weapon is determined by it's physical state as a weapon and Vice versa, while also Drawing elements from from it's Wielder.

After enough damage a Weapon will Form back into it's weapon form, and if damaged enough (Note the difference between Disassembly and Damage) Will be put in a Dormant state, unable to communicate in any way, and will stay that way until repaired, unless they become damaged beyond repair - say Melted into a puddle- in which case they cannot be saved.

Singular Weapons/Shields usually are about the same age as their Wielders, Notable exceptions being Crocea Mors, as He's 80 years old as a weapon, so He's pretty old compared to the rest of the cast, and Weapons that combine and break apart, such as Midnight, are often younger, Midnight also being an exception of sorts as She's a genuine child, young and innocent.

Weapon Pairs, Such as Ember and Celica, or Storm and Flower tend to be smaller than their peers, and, well, are pairs, one for each weapon in the set.

You got 15 knives? Congrats on the 15 new people relying on you.

The Personality of the Awakened are determined by the Needs and Wants of the Wielder, often contrasting or Exaggerating the qualities of the Wielder.

Myrtenaster is Flirtatious and Easygoing compared to the Uptight Weiss, while Hush is both Crueler and More Cunning than Neo. Hush also speaks in Southern Drawl.

Weapons and Wielders can break away from each other, if the Wielder chooses to Separate from the Weapon, or if the Wielder Dies. The Weapon cannot 'Live' without a Wielder, and requires someone to share Aura with it to survive.

Prosthetics, in most every case, Cannot Awaken, the sole exception Being Yang with Celica, as Celica came before the arm, was implanted in the arm, and was reAwakened, as Yang believed it to still be Celica, not just her arm. This does mean that when Celica Forms, Yang loses her arm.

Awakening is a VERY Recent phenomenon, only beginning to occur at most a few months before Ruby stops Torchwick, and no one can determine the cause of it, but most everyone is grateful for it.

...

Huh.

I wonder when Penny woke up?

[silvers-smuttery]

Mercury x Yang fankid

Yang and Mercury got busy and sired three very healthy children. From left to right:

Janus Xiao Long

The eldest kid and only son of the household. He acts cool and serious, not often talking and rather reading a book or training in silence, but he does know how to party and have a good time. He fights with a katana similar to his grandmother, and he even inherited her Semblance of portals too. Despite that, he has no real affection towards Raven.

Pluto Xiao Long

First daughter of the household and a bit of an outlier, as she is much more timid than either of her parents. Often lost in her thoughts, she appreciates having time for her own, but also loves her family. Her semblance lets her astral project.

Mars Xiao Long

Youngest daughter, so far, and the one taking after Yang most, though to the extreme. Very rowdy and loud, Mars is often the first to rush into battle without thinking. A brawler using both her arms and legs, her semblance allows her to shoot out short-ranged energy blasts similar to Ember Celica, but with her Aura instead.

Personal headcanon:

The Xiao Long family likes to travel around dangerous places, even with the children being children. Yang and Mercury can protect them. It's like family vacation to them.

They travel around as Huntsmen and Huntresses and Mercinaries, taking on jobs wherever they go and working as a family to beat down whatever monster or bandits they happen to come across.

Really, the only time they are not travelling is when Yang is pregnant, as frequently as that occurs. And they are not done after just three. Though they slowed down a bit after Janus got accepted into Beacon.

None of the children were planned, but none were accidents either. Yang and Mercury just fuck like rabbits and without protection and welcome any result that comes.

[higaneion]

toa anniversary munday.

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Name: mirae

Pronouns: she/her but idm anything

Birthday (no year): oct. 11

Where are you from? What is your time zone? est

Roleplay experience: however long i've known annie (since i was 14ish)

Got any pets? two cats two dogs :)

Favorite time of year: autumn, the outfit layering is peak and the weather is so good (when it is true autumn)

Some interests and things you like: fashion, reading, video games when i have the extra time

Some funfacts & trivia about you:

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? aa/dgs/dr has me in its clutches, professor layton/ghost trick may be next (really cheesed by the logical puzzle/crime solving games), jrpgs

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: recently i've been a big fan of poison and ghost & piplup but cyndaquil and growlithe have been giving it a run for its money recently

How did you get into Fire Emblem? i saw nat's celica pfp and thought it was georgia from hm:tot then went from there

What Fire Emblem games have you played? none!! for a large majority of my experience - though i have actually played sov, 3houses, and started engage

First Fire Emblem game: fire emblem echoes: shadows of valentia (soft smile)

Favorite Fire Emblem game: fe7: blazing blade

Any Fire Emblem crushes? raven and berkut are the main ones i'm thinking of rn...

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? n/a

Favorite Fire Emblem class: have always been a big fan of wyvern riders and archers, but mages have a soft spot in my heart

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? i'm pretty squishy so probably a mage, but given my personality probably a cleric?

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? i think by personality and maybe status... GD

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with? i don't know what all emblems are there but... i'd like lyn

How did you find TOA? through jae and nat's [sfx of a large truck passing by] if u know, u know.

Current TOA muses: lilina

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? gray from sov, and no. LAKGJLA;FJ once i drop characters, they're kind of dead

Have you had any other TOA muses? in order: gray, elincia, mae, tana, l'arachel, rinea, silque, raven, sain, petra, rutger

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards? yes... soft girls, cheery girls, moody bois (though this one has taken a bit of a backseat); plus the occasional outliers like the more stoic ones or cheekier ones

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? after writing lilina for quite a few months, i've been really having fun with the short, snappy interactions that can be a little silly... reliving teen years in a sense...

Favorite TOA-related memory: out of character - any events like watching on rocky horror picture show halloween and karaoke; in character - i really enjoyed more recently the member run event harmonia (blows a kiss to tsu and n)

How do you pronounce TOA? tee-oh-ay

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day in TOA that you’d like to share? [redacted], [redacted], i always think about bringing mareeta or homer because each of them have very fun things to explore especially with the explosion of jugdral muses. i have also toyed with the idea of minerva with a michalis and maria here as well. i've thought about berkut so many times, but.. maybe one day. and many others who just haven't surfaced on the internet.

[verseandrhyme]

😍 — Does your muse have any crushes? If so, who are they? 

Thoughts on Love?

Mitama would argue that she does not have crushes. She has eyes and people around her are attractive. She might praise them, might entertain the idea of something further, but she does not get crushes, that is silly.

Mitama is a liar she is just very laidback about crushes.

Crushes I tend to write her having by default are Shiro, Rhajat and Soleil, though the degree of these vary depending on what's discussed with the mun in question when when have one.

For specific to TOA...I pull out my list of receipts. Celica, our previous Claude, our previous Shiro. Ferdinand is Dragons specific, at present.

There's also a whole list of muns Mitama feels fond about that could lean that way with more interactions/development but don't have any leaning that way at present.

These are all, of course, one-sided with the expectation they'll stay that way unless I've spoken to the mun directly about it.

[anthurak]

I have to wonder if the personal-weapon quality gap between post-colonial-war Solitas & the other kingdoms was ever as pronounced as Atlas' marketing insisted. I mean, none of the Ace-Ops' toys seemed to utterly edge out Crescent Rose/Harbinger/Magnhild/pre-stickybomb Ember Celica in versatility, and many of their widgets (side-eyes Vine, Harriet, Winter & Jimmy himself) seem distinctly *less* flexible.

I mean that's just the whole thing with Atlas, isn't it? So much more flash than actual substance.

Which isn't to say they don't have anything going for them. The problem is that any actual good ideas someone in Atlas might have just gets flaunted and overhyped by their marketing that any actual worth just gets overshadowed.

It's like how the Ace-Ops are genuinely skilled, capable fighters, but were so grossly mismanaged as a team and forcefed their own 'You're the best huntsmen in Atlas!' hype that they wound up getting easily outplayed and trounced by a team they probably outmatched on a one-to-one basis.

I also get the feeling that most of Atas's weapons-tech is something like 90% lab-tested/10% field-tested. A whole lot of simulations and not much actually throwing it into the real world to see how it does. Contrast that with a home-built weapon like Crescent Rose, which I have no doubt was the result of years of development, practice and fine-tuning on Ruby's part. Or a lot of homebuilt huntress weapons in general.

And sure, we do have outliers like Pietro who are genuinely brilliant people with great ideas, but I think Pietro and those like him are simply the exception that proves the rule. I mean, just the way we're introduced to Pietro running what definitely seems to be a free clinic down in Mantle makes it pretty clear he is NOT like the rest of Atlas.

[gascon-en-exil]

The thing though is that for example, Tana is not the only love interest of the lord since L'arachel exists and is much more popular not to mention the subtext with Lyon. Same for Elincia, she was never a proper love interest for Ike and even they subverted tropes and expectations by making Soren the most teased love interest, Elincia doesn't even have a paired ending with him, showing that this pattern is very flawed. The proper canon love interests for lords aka Celica and Deirdre also aren't Pegasus riders and have different role and personalities from Caeda despite some very generic similarities like being kind. That's why people overlook and force some rules when it doesn't exist idk why. The archetype exists for Pegasus riders and other roles but they aren't necessarily the romantic choice for the protagonist, and I think the fandom like to force it unnecessarily. It's quite easy to say that Ingrid is a Caeda (when she is not, other the similarity of possibly riding a Pegasus) or Dedue has Caeda in him ignorig all other aspects of other archetypes that he also fits (he is also not Caeda, he is another trope and thanks god because he has a way more interesting role).

That said, agree that Bylethless Three Houses would focus way more on Dimitri and Dedue's relationship. Dedue would basically fill the role of Byleth, a role that they share in canon. Though who is the other male interest for Dimitri? Felix?

I was referencing Tana and Elincia for being pegasus knights who are also princesses, not for being lord love interests. Sacred Stones is one of the few games to not give any special kind of endorsement for any of its lord pairings, and Elincia also follows in the same tradition of Nyna and Guinivere as a princess helped by a lord but not made (one of) his love interest(s). Lord love interests are too varied for that, even if there are occasional parallels like the ones between Deirdre and Soren. Ingrid works as a blend of Caeda and the serious Christmas knight opposite Sylvain, while Dedue is essentially Draug + Jagen (earlygame tank who falls off later in normal efficient play, only stands out because FE16 lacks a proper Jagen) + Caeda as Dimitri’s primary love interest. The comparisons to Marth’s starting party only even work in the first place for the Lions because they cover so many of those iconic bases, and even then there’s an outlier in Annette as the series’s first plucky female mage is May in Gaiden. Linde is something rather different.

But yes, Felix is the logical second pick for Dimitri’s other male love interest, as they also have a suggestive paired ending and some of Felix’s story dialogue changes if you get the Dimilix supports. Without Byleth there would be more opportunities for Felix to have more story focus, especially surrounding the death of his father and how he deals with Dimitri’s turnaround. There’s a reason Byleth is at the bottom of my least favorite characters list for Three Houses: so many characters get shafted by demands of a centralizing self-insert.

[rigelsprince]

( as promised, here's the start of the barrage :). Besides what the game gives, what is Berkut's view and relationship with Rinea? is there something he looks for in her that no other woman qualifies as his future empress, out of all possible suitors as Rigel's heart throb? )

// go away, uncle, you’re embarrassing

Anyway, I haven’t talked with @royalbluerigelian about most of this yet, so I’m using this as an opportunity to just dump all of my thoughts and then sort through them later.

So how he views Rinea…

I like to think of Berkut as being relatively progressive, as a Rigelian youth, and while I haven’t really talked to any of the other muns about sexism in Rigel yet, the game gives us an unfortunate picture of a mostly masculine country. The only women in the army are either clerics or brainwashed witches, both suggesting that women tend to be relegated to powerless positions in Rigel, and Rinea herself is also reduced to a plot device without agency in-game. I am definitely, 100% willing to buy into the idea that Rigel is a true meritocracy though (like I wrote about a while ago) with women who can hold their own in battle earning positions and respect equal to men, but the bottom line is that SoV doesn’t give us enough to see this.

With that said, in this hypothetical meritocracy, Rinea would be an outlier. She’s the only Rigelian we see without any sort of combat/magic/healing abilities to be used in war, aside from the villager NPCs, and she only becomes capable of fighting after Berkut forces his will on her. In a society where women are viewed as equal in strength/merit to men, and likely desire to display their strength in the same way, Berkut choosing a woman who is clearly nothing like this, and accepting her wholeheartedly anyway (Act 5 notwithstanding), is what I mean when I call him “progressive.” No one would have expected Berkut to propose to a girl like this, likely thinking he would go after some esteemed lady general instead, but what he sees in her is her emotional strength - something that he himself is weak in. Emotional strength, after all, is still a form of strength, but is probably often looked over in Rigel for interfering with “intellectual strength” and rationality. But the few scenes Rinea and Berkut have together does imply that Rinea serves as his voice of reason… when he isn’t completely having a meltdown, that is. One of Berkut’s greatest vices is that he doesn’t listen to anyone outside his own thoughts, so Rinea likely faces quite a challenge getting through to him.

(the rest is under a read more because I ended up writing a lot)

Digression aside, Act 5 shows Berkut rejecting Rinea and forcing her to become what he wants her to be (his Empress in death, a weapon, etc.), rather than yielding to her sense of reason and listening to her desires, which points to some underlying issues. Berkut sees Rinea as being unable to defend herself, which is disgraceful for a Rigelian, and though he parades as if he respects her wishes, will not allow her to say no to him (Act 5 + their memory prism). Of course, Berkut’s behavior in Act 5 is all under the pressure of extreme emotion, but he loses his inhibition and his common sense which tells him to respect Rinea in favor of baser beliefs.

Their relationship also, thanks to very few shared scenes in SoV, appears not entirely healthy. Berkut rarely seems to actually listen to Rinea, and pushes her around as if he’s already made up her mind for her (see: their conversation before the battle at Zofia Castle). While I do believe that this is certainly a part of their relationship, given how self-assured and egotistical Berkut is, I think that in private, he’s a little bit less overbearing. Their memory prism shows that he’s at least willing to listen to her, which seems not to be something Berkut does readily at all (throughout most of SoV, you could pretty much remove Alm/Fernand/Rinea’s dialogue and it wouldn’t make a difference), but out in public, he’s far more distracted by his comrades/the battlefield/etc. This shows that as much as he might love Rinea, she tends to come second to his military duties. His Ultimate Goal is more important to him than she is, and this remains true even to the end. However, they’re both young, and had they the chance to continue their relationship, Rinea probably could have managed to rein him in some.

He treats her like an Empress, certainly, and probably takes every opportunity he can to spoil her. But he just doesn’t listen to what she wants.

I think what really sparked their relationship, and why Berkut prefers Rinea over all the very many possible suitors he has available to him, is that she was not willingly seeking him out. He found her. Immediately, Rinea showed that she was not a girl after him in pursuit of title alone. I also think that she exudes something of a non-judgmental presence, something that the very image-conscientious Berkut appreciates. He can be himself around her, say the things that are on his mind that may be frowned upon by others, and she likely holds a number of his deepest secrets. As the game also shows, he’s not afraid to be emotional around her. In a country like Rigel, where callousness is preferable to emotionality, this is highly important to Berkut, who aims to embody the “Ideal Rigelian” as the country’s next Emperor. But no human can keep their emotions bottled up forever. Twice, at least, he outright cries in front of Rinea.

As I already mentioned, she’s his ideal Empress because of her emotional strength. I think someone in Awakening mentions how Walhart embodies the traits of Alm (Power) without the Love of a Queen (Celica), so I think this dichotomy is pushed as the ideal for the ruler of a country (whether or not I agree with it). Rinea definitely represents the side that excels in matters of the heart, but Berkut’s personality proves to be far too overwhelming in the end.

[markoftheasphodel]

So this analysis of the FE Heroes polling data is both fun and fascinating. One thing they pointed out that I’d missed browsing the rankings was that most FE Games have a Best Guy and Best Girl in the top two slots-- Marth & Caeda for FE1/11, Celica & Alm for FE2, Roy and Lilina for FE6, RenaisTwins for FE8, Ike & Micaiah for FE10. Sometimes the Best Girl is not the “lady” of the game-- Tiki for FE3, Ayra for FE4, Nephenee for FE9-- but the main male Lord usually places... until you get to the 3DS era with Lucina& Th@rj@ topping the polls for FE13 and C@mill@ & F!Corrin for FE14. 

The pre-3DS outliers? Well, in three-Lord FE7, one of the three couldn’t make the top two and that unlucky guy was Eliwood, even though he’s arguably the main Lord. :/

The other outlier is Thracia 776 where the top two slots are both guys and the designated Lady doesn’t crack the top five.

(Nanna did way better for her game than DeeDee and Julia did for theirs, tho.)

[gascon-en-exil]

Now that you've ranked lords by gayness, do you think they match the gayness of their games or are there significant discrepancies?

Generally, yes. The lords are the faces of their respective and as such they do match up with the average level of queer content most of the time, from the quiet subtext of the GBA titles to the less quiet subtext of Tellius to Awakening’s relentless gay jokes and no homo routines to Three Houses offering many different types of queer content that the fandom will fight over ad nauseum until the next major new release comes out and possibly even after that.

The only notable outlier to my mind is Echoes, which uses the romance between its two lords as the backbone of its story and yet mixes in a ton of gay (male) subtext as well as the series’s second explicitly gay character. This is not to bash Alm/Celica as a pairing by the way, only to point out that there’s not a lot of cohesion between them and their various homoerotically-inclined allies. Cohesion in general is kind of an issue here in FE15 though, with all this gay content existing uneasily alongside a bunch of Kaga-era misogyny dialed up to 11 and even the juxtaposition between the furtive desires of the Deliverance guys and out and proud twink Leon not really working on a conceptual level.