#...i say 'accuse me of' like i was innocent. i was actually looting the corpses of people i'd killed

[crossdressingdeath]

For some reason Abdirak didn't despawn properly when I attacked the goblins, so while I was looting the bodies he came running up to accuse me of theft. I convinced him the thief had definitely been caught and he just... walked past the corpses and out the front door...? The whole situation was very strange.

[fe8meta]

Grado’s Propaganda

Actually, you know something the game doesn’t dwell on enough? The use of propaganda against Eirika and Ephraim. And interestingly, the game seems to imply that only those two got smear-campaigned. The most we hear about Innes is more like awed praise with a tinge of fear, but it’s nothing like Amelia’s perception of the twins and Rennac’s reaction to encountering Ephraim.

Eirika’s Side

Amelia-Eirika recruit convo:

Amelia: I’m a Grado soldier. I’m here to stop the princess of Renais…

Eirika: Huh? You’re with Grado?

Amelia: And you’re Princess Eirika? But the commander said Eirika’s a cruel and merciless fiend…

Eirika: What? No, I’m… …I don’t know what Grado’s officers have been telling you, but… Our two countries are at war, so I suppose they can say what they want.

Glen-Eirika’s convo:

Glen: I come here on the direct orders of the emperor. I’m to bring to justice the rebel army leader who’s been terrorizing Carcino. It’s you, Eirika. They say you’ve been murdering innocents.”

Eirika: What? Wait! What do you mean? I…

Glen: [...] I do not believe revenge could drive a woman like you to such depths. And yet… here you are in Carcino with a small army under your command. And the emperor tells us that you massacred everyone in Port Kiris.

Aias’ dialogue:

Aias (start of chapter): This Princess Eirika supposedly defeated General Glen.

Aias vs. Eirika:

Aias: Ah... So here you are. The princess Eirika. Eirika: Who? Aias: You're not at all what I had expected... I would test the arm that bested Glen.

Ephraim’s Side

Amelia-Ephraim recruit convo:

Amelia: Wha-what are you going to do to me?!

Ephraim: Calm down. As long as you don’t try to stab me, I won’t do a thing to harm you.

Amelia: You lie! You’re a liar! Everyone knows about Prince Ephraim of Renais. He’s a beast who attacks [襲いかかる, can also translate to “swoops down on” or “advances on”] any woman he sees…

Ephraim: …..Right, this has gone far enough. I am not going to hurt you. If you’re scared, throw down your weapon and run away. But…If you’re willing to listen, I’d like to ask for your help. You must realize this whole war is madness, right? Something is wrong in Grado.

Amelia-Franz recruit convo (Ephraim):

Amelia: I… B-but… I’ve heard Prince Ephraim takes female prisoners and uses them as palace slaves. If I surrender, will I be forced to work in the palace, too?

エフラム王子は敵国の女性をつかまえて無理やり後宮に入れてしまうって･･･ (I heard that Prince Ephraim forcibly takes women into his seraglio...) あたしが降伏したらエフラム王子に襲われたりしない？ (If I surrender, will I get assaulted too?”)

Rennac-Ephraim recruit convo:

Rennac: I-I thought so. You’re the one they call the Beast of Renais… I’ve heard tales of how you’ve looted and pillaged your way across the land…

If you accept Rennac’s offer:

Rennac: You..aren’t going to stab me once I’ve taken your money, are you? Once the fighting’s all done, you won’t burn me at the stake or anything? Ephraim: …What rumors are these people spreading about me?

If you decline Rennac’s offer:

Rennac: What? You’re lying now, aren’t you? Rumor has it you’ve stored away so much gold, you groan from its weigh…

The twins initially accept the malicious rumors spread about them as an indication that things are amiss in Grado, and as a natural part of war. On the other side, Gradoans who actually encounter them look at them for 2 seconds and realize “Wait, they’re nothing like the rumors.”

These blatant falsehoods make it hurt all the more when they (Ephraim especially) discover that Lyon is behind the war. At best, Lyon has no knowledge of the propaganda or tried to argue against it to no avail; more realistically he was complicit; at worst he actively contributed.

Eirika gains some relief in the belief that Lyon is the selfsame person and that he, in his own words, was “too weak” to stop this war. Even after she learns that he was actually consumed by the Demon King, she can at least attribute his actions to the Demon King’s manipulations.

There’s a touch of irony that the peaceful Eirika is accused of being a vengeful slaughterer ordering the massacre of civilians... when it turns out to be the once-peaceful Lyon doing it at the Demon King’s behest. Accentuated all the more when she very nearly falls to the same temptation Lyon did in her ending.

Also of interest is that the people who hear the falsehoods about her (Glen and Aias) pretty quickly go “Hmm... Things aren’t adding up here.” Amelia immediately sees from Eirika’s eyes that she hates this whole affair. Glen actually starts to believe the lie (or at least pretends to in order to draw out the truth), though Innes quickly sets things straight by calling him a dumbass. Meanwhile, Aias looks at Eirika and goes “She beat Glen? Big doubt.” (He gives the benefit of the doubt, at least.)

But then again, people who knew Lyon wrote off the rumors that Lyon was at the helm of the war, and look how that ended up. I once asserted that Eirika was probably next in line after Lyon in terms of “best royal to get possessed by Fomortiis”. The possibility she could’ve ended up the way the rumors spoke of is a very interesting train of thought indeed.

In Ephraim’s case, seeing that Lyon has been consumed by the Demon King fuels him with the excuse he wants to pin the malicious rumors on... only to have it pulled from underneath him when Lyon reveals himself to be the “real deal” and claims that the grandiose “Demon King possession” earlier was just an act. Not only that, it comes a chapter after Ephraim defended Lyon’s integrity and emphatically proclaimed that Lyon was not himself.

The rumors about Ephraim have severe implications. Not only do they make him out as a hedonistic molester, he is also labeled a pillager and looter -- despite making a point to avoid villages during his initial “campaign” into Grado as to not draw them into conflict. His eagerness to fight and hone his skills has been morphed into the visage of a man who craves senseless violence and kills for the sake of killing... not unlike a certain man named Valter, who already has some parallels to Ephraim.

So in Chapter 18, Ephraim’s reaction is disbelief. “Wha– Why?! Why would you say such a thing?!” Because in that moment, Lyon has claimed responsibility for every misfortune Ephraim has encountered: resurrecting Vigarde and using his corpse as a puppet to initiate the war, the death of his father and the ruin of his country, Selena’s meaningless death in defense of the crown, Orson’s betrayal and the resurrection of Monica’s corpse, and the slander about him.

Lyon has gone from a kind, caring, studious friend slightly lacking in self-confidence to a ruthless warmonger who has propagated complete slander about a person who he claimed was (and is) his friend... all while insisting he’s the same exact Lyon he’s always been.

Yeah, no, I don’t think so.

[aelaer]

Stephen Other-worldly Adventures - An Interrim

No story dialogue in this one. I just wanted to recount some of the best game moments I've had that won't make it into the story.

In between the Main Questline, I went off to other cities for other adventures because that's the point of the game. Here's some of my favorite moments so far.

1. Stephen's joined the mages' guild ingame because, you know, magic. There's a quest for the guild where you have to find a rogue mage that's killing off travelling merchants by claiming you're a traveling merchant. The innkeeper's wife (your contact) offers to help, and she follows you with someone else to set a trap for the rogue mage.

The first time I did this quest, I found out that she and her companion were actually double crossing me with the rogue mage. It took a couple tries, but with some running and a bit of luck I was able to kill all three of them.

Then I went back to the mages' guild and found out Stephen had been suspended for killing a member. Turns out that she didn't double cross me, but rather that I had mistaken who she was actually targeting and she and her companion were still good guys. And once I attacked them they naturally started defending themselves. Oops.

Not wanting Stephen to be a murderer, I loaded an earlier save point and redid all that. He's now clear of that double homicide charge and all's well.

2. In one town there's an elf who's called crazy by the rest of the town, and the captain of the guard tells you to stay away from him. But he approached Stephen like at midnight (which is odd for this game, as the usual civilian NPCs work during the day, have dinner, then go home to sleep). He asks you to meet in a remote part of town at midnight. If you do so, he then asks you to spy on three people he thinks are watching him.

Spoiler alert: none of the people are watching him, he's just legit crazy. I stalked all of them to prove it. However, if you tell the elf that they are watching him and feed into his delusions, he'll actually mark them down for murder (according to wiki). Stephen, naturally, was not interested in that outcome, and was trying to help the elf see past his delusions to the point of reason.

Sadly by the time you say the third person he suspects is actually innocent, the elf goes crazy, is convinced you're part of the conspiracy, and tries to kill you. The first time I did this, I ran to the guards to get them to stop him. Said guards did so by killing him. Yikes. So I ended up redoing the quest to see if I could get a guard to arrest him for the safety of everyone before he went homicidal. Even after winning the guard captain over, there was no option for this route. So Stephen had to beat him to a pulp until he stopped fighting. I like to think that he made him only unconscious through some Vulcan move and that Stephen reported the attack after. That's what I'm headcanoning anyway.

3. One quest started with a portal into a painting created with a magical paintbrush. It was amazing and also one of the hardest quests ingame so far, and I already have the difficulty set at 40% because I'm not very good at the magic controls yet. But it was awesome and the painter was so happy to be rescued. His wife was so happy to see him too.

4. Accidentally stealing is very hard to avoid. Let me explain. The spacebar is the general "use" button for really any item: opening a door, picking up plants in the wild, looting corpses. Nearly every loose item in the game can be picked up in every building. The problem is, the moment you pick it up, the game immediately counts it as stealing.

So Stephen was following a suspicious person for a quest and the person went to a tavern for a couple in game hours (maybe 5 to 10 minutes of real time). So to make Stephen blend in I had him sit at a table filled with various food items and utensils, using the spacebar on the chair to use it. To select an item to use, you just move your character, whose head really doubles as a cursor, until the item name pops up. Then you press the space bar to use it.

So the suspicious person started leaving so I got ready to leave as well, and to leave the chair I pressed the space bar. Trouble is, I very slightly moved my mouse before doing so and the item lit up to use was a plate on the table.

When Stephen grabbed it, the gasps of shock and horror from the NPCs made it sound like I had just murdered someone. It was hilarious. Poor Stephen has already had to pay accidental theft bounties to avoid jail like 4 times now. To avoid that here, I just went to an earlier save of the game and made sure chair was active before using it.

I just found a mod that makes it a lot harder to accidentally steal, though, so I plan on giving that a go so hopefully poor Stephen can stop being accused of theft for temporarily picking something up (I always put the item back but nooooo wasn't good enough for the game haha).

5. You can sleep in beds to rest in the game. Normally this is to level up. With the mod I got it converts it to xp and turns into rest xp. Anyway, in the mages guild you can choose basically any bed in there to sleep on.

But this doesn't stop the NPCs from joining you in that bed if you select one of "their" beds. And on one occasion, Stephen woke up with a couple.

So yeah, guess he had a threesome.

I hope someone enjoyed reading these shenanigans.