#FE Engage critical

[currantlee]

A friend of mine said something earlier that made me realize that it’s not Three Houses that ruined Fire Emblem for me. Well, at least not specifically.

I really feel like Fire Emblem Heroes has changed the way those games are made. It’s way more player-pandering-focused nowadays. Not saying that this didn’t exist before at all (Fates has gained some notoriety over this), but it feels so different… Before Heroes, I got the sense that the world and characters exist without me and my avatar, and I just got to be a part of that. Yes, even with Fates, which is part of why I still love it. I didn’t feel required for these worlds and characters to exist, and that was exciting. I got to be included in something that I was then able to explore and think about.

But since Heroes? It feels like Fire Emblem’s worldbuilding doesn’t just include me and my avatar, it revolves around me and my avatar. Big difference. Three Houses was the first FE game with this philosophy that it doesn’t give me a world that exists for me to discover and characters I can get to know, but rather that all of it exists because of me, around me, not separate from me.

I don’t like that. I like engaging with stuff other people created rather than stuff that was created for whoever someone assumes I am. I find that challenging, inspiring and therefore joy-sparking in the best way possible. There is nothing challenging or inspiring about Fire Emblem’s new design approach to me.

That being said, Three Houses still sucks ass.

[marchioness-of-the-flowers]

What makes Fire Emblem Engage’s designs hurt more is the “summonable past characters/persona” element.

You get these Genshin Impact/Xenoblade looking characters and you put them next to these iconic Fire Emblem designs like Ike and Lucina, and I can’t help but think

Why not design them like Fire Emblem characters in the first place?

[latenitewaffles]

I'm feeling relatively positive about Fire Emblem Engage HOWEVER the utter disregard Intelligence Systems has for the antagonists of the series is kind of ridiculous? Like the antagonists should've had Emblem rings for the villains from the past games. Medeus, Jedah, Manfroy, Veld, Idunn, Sonia, Lyon, Black Knight, Ashera, Grima (Robin and Morgan?), Garon/Anankos and Thales would have been a perfect set to compliment the Hero rings and they could still have the weird corruption thing because Jedah and Grima have that ability too.

[rubywolf0201]

Hard agree on Diamant. He was my favourite the moment I saw him in the announcement trailer for Engage with Timerra coming in the second becuz how she reminded me of Claude (though sadly story-wise she wasn’t present for the most part but I still like her nonetheless).

I came around to Alfred and Ivy once I played the full game (Ivy moreso becuz I too am an anxious wreck IRL) and it’s prolly the first FE game where I liked all 4 Lords lol.

Also, for the Engage nobles I think there are some reasons why I think their respective parents are single:

- Alfred and Céline's dad died at a pretty young age due to an hereditary illness. (Alfred's sadly got the same going on)

- Diamant and Alcryst's mum went into hiding (Saphir and Alcryst's B Support more or less confirms that)

- Ivy and Hortensia have different mum's because of Elusia having a concubine court going on. Hortensia's mum died whereas we can presume Ivy's mum is alive at some point but later died unknown to Ivy becuz of being sacrificed to Sombron.

- Timerra and Fogado’s dad are stated to be out exploring our elsewhere within Solm.

P.S. For the record, I feel like Elusia's concubine court thing they have going on is a little out of place becuz of how it offered very little explaination regarding why Hyancith did that. I think a better narrative would’ve been that Ivy's mum died and Hyancith just got remarried to Hortensia’s mum.

I’ve been wondering tho and it’s gonna be different from the usual asks…

What made you really like the Fates (both Hoshido and Nohr) royals and how can the Engage royals (Firene, Brodia, Elusia and Solm) could take cues from them?

This is actually a really good question and I kind of had to mull it over (also I wanted to wait until I got to my computer lol). Because honestly some of the Engage nobles do what some of the Fates nobles did, but out of the main nobles, the only one who I felt really made an impression was Diamant (and that's just not because I was desperate for someone to simp over XD). The other nobles ended up outshining their older siblings and honestly I feel have more impact like the Fates siblings do.

But here's why I think the Fates siblings stood out more: Because they were YOUR siblings. These were all characters who had pretty strong intros: The Nohrian siblings were all shown to be close to you and each other, and you get a sense of family right off the bat. You care about them so quickly because it's pretty clear that they care about you.

So what about the Hoshidan siblings? Well, despite the fact that they've been separated from you, they ALSO had pretty strong intros that showed they never stopped thinking about you or loving you when you disappeared.

And in each path, they're very clearly prominent in the story instead of just... talking without any kind of personality influencing what's going on. I've only played Birthright and Revelations, but in the case of Revelations, it's pretty clear that the Fates siblings get to be their own characters instead of just accessories to Alear's story. Your whole goal is trying to convince them to follow you; recruiting Ryoma and Xander takes time with how stubborn the both of them are (And it's pretty clear that it takes time for them to even trust each other, let alone form a bond like they do at the end of the game), but it's pretty influential to the story and they continue to play a role in aiding you (especially when it comes to Valla and having to face Sumeragi in battle).

I think Firene and Solm are actually the weakest of the kingdoms, because it's "Save mom and move on", while Brodia and Elusia actually have the more decent development to the story: Morion is used as bait to lure you in and THAT'S what causes the reveal of Sombron, the death of Hyacinth, and the loss of all your rings. Big key points in both the Brodian brothers' story and the Elusian sisters' story, especially when Hortensia goes through that major character arc of coping with her grief and doing what's right.

So for the Engage nobles, I think if Solm and Firene actually TRULY came back to be a part of the plot, maybe we'd get to see more decent characterization from Timerra and Alfred (and even more lore added to the already nicely developed Celine and Fogado). Diamant's already in a good position with how important getting Morion back is to the story, though Ivy could use a little more... something. Maybe more distrust of the other royals would be good for her character, since Elusia is constantly invaded by Brodia. Make her cold with the other royals and constantly disagreeing with everything they say, so that she has to work towards trusting others.

[midgardianqueenreturns]

Do people realize they can criticize Engage without insulting the fans as dumbasses who lack critical thinking and the creators as lazy hacks who put no heart, thought, and effort into the game? Like, this isn’t asking you to like it or call it good, there are plenty of bad properties that were made from the heart with earnest effort but still failed. Someone can like a something you dislike without being a moron with no standards who is lying to themself.

[utahimeazura]

thinking about them again...

[wenja45]

How Edelgard is so unlikable and why she is a failure

At this point post Three Houses launch everyone with a brain recognises that Edelgard is nothing but a villain and a failure as a character. Despite what the Edelcultists say about Edelgard being the most popular character from Three Houses using her CYL "win" as evidence it was only because of bots that she managed to "win" but the factual truth is she is the most hated character in not only Three Houses but in the entirety of Fire Emblem history I mean she has single handedly created the worst discourse in FE history and it's her only legacy now which is just pathetic.

Now then onto what makes Edelgard very unlikable she started a pointless war in Houses and Hopes despite in Hopes having every opportunity to change Fodlan peacefully, lies about the Church, history and the missiles all to declare a pointless war against the Church, was wrong about the Church, commits genocide against a near extinct species of Dragon people, specist against Nabeteans, racist towards Petra and Brigid, works with the Agathians who are basically dubstep facists who have shown chaos, complicit in Jeralt's murder then wines and makes fun of Byleth who is in mourning, involved in Remire incident, force conscription and forced demonic beast transformation on ordinary citizens, arrogant to a fault, a horrible and incompetent leader, her reforms lead to nothing but another and same status quo, mocks Dimitri with King of Delusion, burns Bernie alive for little gain, sacrifices her citizens to be meat shields, Edelcultists and lastly kills countless people with no remorse.

Now onto Edelgard being a failure her route is the worst in houses hich has only one cutscene, it's the shortest route, all recruitable units have the worst character development and endings, has the worst dialogue in all of FE history, weaker than Claude and Dimitri, incompetent without the guidance of Byleth, no u, ideals and reforms just lead right back to the status quo so no matter the route Edelgard always loses, has the worst endings, no character development besides from one which is from Azure Gleam in the second half, fails at diplomacy loses to Dimitri in that scene, most hated character in FE and lastly has the emotions and attitude of a sociopath and physcopath put together.

In my opinion Edelgard was better of still locked up underneath Enbarr heck replace Edelgard with Kronya at least with Kronya she has a personality.

[yanderefairyangel]

one xenologue later

And he still acts and sounds ducking evil

[silent-partner-412]

Speaking as somebody who didn’t care for Engage’s story I find so much of the negative discourse surrounding it to be absolutely insufferable honestly… like it truly was NOT that bad, and people don’t have low standards and aren’t being fake or contrarian or whatever just cuz they happened to like it.

And honestly, I could see how somebody with different priorities for a story than me could’ve easily enjoyed the game’s story. I thought it had some fun ideas and good moments, even if I didn’t think it coalesced. It’s definitely not significantly different than most of the stories in the series, which I think I can say with relative confidence cuz I’ve played them all fairly recently.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

well I'll be. there is Obito trash talk happening on my FE dash. -holds hand over heart and makes the most disgusted, offended Lorenz sound, you probably know the sound-

[gghero]

how did we go from Echoes to Three Houses to Engage......... please tell me the future of fire emblem isnt eye bleeding moeblob.....

[theeeveetamer]

Get in, I’m replaying FE engage. Who do I smash?

[rubywolf0201]

Also I would love to see a Paralogue that focuses on Céline and Alfred because gosh dang it I feel bad that Céline got screwed over. Maybe have a Paralogue that focuses on bandits attacking the tea leaves trade port and showcase Céline’s ruthless side more.

Or maybe a Alcryst, Amber and Jade focused Paralogue that has some Brodian nobles oppose Diamant that they want to overthrow him as king and that it’s up to Dia’s retainers and Alcryst to quell the rebellion.

A Hortensia Paralogue where she and Ivy met their disowned half-siblings where the latter want to take revenge on Ivy.

A Fogado Paralogue that helps deal with Corrupted attacking nearby villages.

There’s a lot to unpack about these missed opportunities but it’s saddening to see most of the Paralogues be nostalgia-based.

Sorry to drop in another ask, but playing through 3H again made me realize what Engage is missing: character-focused Paralogues! In 3H, a lot of the character-focused Paralogues helped to give the lesser-known characters a bit of fledging out and having world-building exposition at the same time. (Like the Manuela and Hanneman-focused Paralouge for example or even Shamir and Alois-focused Paralouge for worldbuilding)

Don’t get me wrong! I love Engage for what it is but I felt like majority of its Paralogues seems to focus on callbacks to the older FE games just so you can unlock the max level for the Emblem Rings while we only have three original Paralogues (Jean, Anna and Alear for the Pact Ring) that didn’t focus on worldbuilding and whatnot.

That really was a big part of it. Even when Fates and Awakening’s paralogues were focused on the kids, it was still a good way to see the personalities of the parents (moms in Awakening, dads in Fates). And both Fodlan games had great paralogues, I think even moreso with Hopes; that paralogue in Hopes with the Sreng army, Sylvain’s hopefulness that they could find peace between the two someday, and Matthias, for all his horrible failings as a father, even got some kind of sympathetic light.

The Emblem paralogues should have been done away with. It sounds harsh, but they took the spotlight from these new characters in order to push nostalgia, as if they didn’t have enough faith that the characters of Engage could have carried the game. Have a paralogue where Clanne and Framme need to save their home village to show how much they’ve grown, have one where there’s a street food festival being attacked by Corrupted and Chloe wants to save them as soon as possible so she can get back to eating. Paralogues AFTER a character is recruited.

[wall-maria-around-ba-sing-se]

*translation for non-fire emblem fans who want to participate: “what will the devs do with the Gimmick Grandpa Character who can famously hover at a 90% critical hit rate with unusually easy setup, when it comes to adding him from a mainline game to their mobile gatcha game since he isn’t a popular waifu”

[seangardnerxiv]

Shadow and Maria's Complex Relationship

FOR DISCLOSURE: this thread is going to be discussing the complexities of Shadow and Maria’s relationship based on many different factors. Though I will be including the romantic interpretation (NOT a sexual one – I do not support nor condone sexualizing these two, nor most of the characters in Sonic, as they are almost all minors) as a potential, I will not be arguing to assign a definite label to their relationship – I will, in fact, be doing exactly the opposite (I am also not interested in engaging in shipping discourse over Sonic the Hedgehog characters). I would simply like to disclose that that will be discussed in case the topic upsets you and you would prefer to stop reading now. I accept this post may not be received well by some.

SPOILERS FOR SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS

So I've had to break out my Tumblr for this - my usual haunt is Twitter/Bluesky, but those don't really allow for longform posts. This is also a major departure from my usual FFXIV posting, so apologies to anyone who follows me for that.

Sonic x Shadow Generations recently dropped, alongside the short animations “Dark Beginnings” as well as the (non-canonical) manga “The Jet Black Hedgehog: Shadow the Hedgehog.” With it, discourse surrounding Shadow and Maria’s relationship has kicked up again, largely in two parties – that Shadow and Maria held a sibling relationship, or that Shadow and Maria held romantic feelings for one another (some people have also argued that Shadow is her uncle, or Maria is his mother, but I won’t be discussing those views). There are arguments for both drawn from a variety of sources – I will do my best to present both (if there are others I've missed, please feel free to comment and I will add them).

For siblings:

This Twitter post of artwork for Dark Beginnings has the following alt text: “Shadow and Maria reach out for one another in an infinite abyss (as long-lost siblings would) with the Moon and the Space Colony ARK in the background."

The manual for Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) describes Maria as “like a sister to Shadow.” I have also seen another screenshot of a different manual that states that Shadow as "like a brother to Maria," but I've been unable to find which manual it is. (EDIT: It’s a Prima Games manual, not written by Sega)

Gerald refers to Shadow as “son” during the climax of SxSG.

For romantic:

Maria saying “I love you” in the Japanese version of SxSG uses the kanji “ai shiteru,” whilst her “I love you” in the Japanese version of the manga uses “daisuki.” Whilst it can be used for familial relations, it is apparently very uncommon for both of these to be used outside of romantic intent.

Shiro Maekawa – the original creator of Shadow and Maria – based them (or at least parts of them) off of a romance manga known as “Please Save My Earth” (with Maria sharing the Japanese voice actress for the female lead from the anime), and has frequently supported them together, often retweeting romantic art and posts of Shadow and Maria.

In a recent interview from Sega, Maria touching Shadow’s face in Dark Beginnings was equated to Beauty and the Beast.

For Tanabata – a Japanese festival celebrating the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi, and the separation of them as lovers – Sonic Channel posted artwork of Shadow and Maria reading the story beneath the stars. Sonic Channel has also published fanart for Valentine’s Day relating to Shadow and Maria (although they publish a lot of fanart).

Before I go any further, when the topic of Shadow and Maria in a romantic lens comes up, many of the same criticisms arise that I do not believe are fairly levied – namely accusations regarding their age, species, and familial ties. I would like to address – and debunk – these three before we go any further. Keep in mind while you read these – this is not meant to convince you that their relationship was one thing over another, but only to provide validity to a subjective point of view I feel is unfairly stigmatized.

“It’s incest because Shadow is Maria’s brother/uncle(?).”

While there were notions of family stated by both Maria and Gerald, Shadow was grown in a tube with alien DNA and has zero blood relation to the Robotnik family. Whilst there are abstract labels of “like a sister” or “sibling coding” that are only ever applied in a meta sense, neither of them define their relationship in such a way within the lens of the universe. And it is not as if the topic never arises - in Shadow Generations, Maria herself likens young Abraham Tower as akin to her little brother, but she makes no such distinction with Shadow.

“Sibling coding” is ultimately a nothing statement, and unless a proper adoption is made, it does not magically turn romantic feelings towards the two involved into incest. Frames of reference are often informed by what young people are familiar with, and they sometimes lack the proper tools to acknowledge that their feelings towards each other are more complex than they first believe - to say that this is something that potentially occurred with Shadow and Maria is not outlandish, and not a concept unique to Sonic as a series.

Similar examples to this include Clive and Jill from Final Fantasy XVI (Jill is accepted into the Rosfield household and raised alongside Clive and his brother, only to later enter a romantic relationship with him as an adult), Nero and Kyrie from Devil May Cry (Nero is fostered by Kyrie's family and considers Kyrie a sister initially, only for her to become his love interest as adults) and Sidon and Yona from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Sidon grows up perceiving Yona as a sister, only to realize his feelings for her are more complex later on). None of these are incestuous relationships, nor is Shadow and Maria’s were it to be romantic.

“It’s bestiality because Shadow is an animal.”

Bestiality is applicable to regular animals that do not hold human sentience of thought, as they are unable to consent to a relationship, like a dog or cat. Shadow is not this, nor are any of the anthropomorphic characters within the Sonic games - were you to change the anthropomorphic animals in Sonic into humans, basically nothing about the series' content would change. All of them are completely sound-minded beings that are essentially just people who look different. Shadow is not Maria’s pet, he is her fully sentient friend that holds the same degree of thought as she does – given that Shadow’s entire arc is about finding his purpose in life, degrading him to simply a lab animal rather than acknowledging he is a person defeats that entire arc (something the manga also touches upon).

A lot of people also cite Sonic and Elise from Sonic ‘06 (namely the scene where Elise kisses the deceased Sonic) as a reason why Shadow and Maria should not be done - while I think it’s valid if you didn’t like watching a human girl kissing Sonic the Hedgehog, I maintain that a good chunk of that disdain stemmed from two major reasons:

Elise was very poorly characterized in her game. She existed to constantly get kidnapped and be saved by Sonic, and so both the relationship and the kiss came off more like pandering than something earned.

Sonic '06 had a bizarrely realistic artstyle for the human characters, whilst all of the animal characters retained their cartoonish appearances. This clash of artstyles looked its worst when Elise kissed Sonic at the game's climax.

Maria, however, does not fall into these pitfalls. She does not exist to be purely a love interest for Shadow - she’s certainly not someone for him to save, as the entire inciting event of Shadow's character is his inability to save her when she saves him.

For a frame of reference, Shadow is more akin to an alien from Star Wars – a setting where humans also exist. It is not bestiality for a Human to hold a relationship with a Twi’lek, as both races are fully anthropomorphic and sentient. On a similar note, Beauty and the Beast is not considered bestiality either, even though the Beast bears obvious animalistic traits. Some people have also entertained the notion of Rouge and Topaz from Sonic X, even though the latter is human. This is all the same principle, and none of it is bestiality.

“It’s creepy because Maria is young.”

Shadow – while said to be ageless – is not an adult, and to imply that he is one is a fundamental misunderstanding of Shadow’s character – whilst there are many instances where he demonstrates maturity on some levels, he has shown much immaturity since his inception in Sonic Adventure 2 (his desire to destroy the world out of revenge for Maria), and his most recent storyline in Generations involves his naïve desire to change Maria and Gerald’s fates (or rather, an initial indifference to what it will bring). Not only that, but his time on the ARK was mired in confusion over the point of his existence – Maria was the one that helped him field through his confusion, and was arguably the more mature one between the two of them. We can safely say that Shadow is not an adult character, nor is he ever presented as one in the lens of the game.

As the closest thing Sonic likely has to an equal in both body and mind (Sonic holds his own immaturities similar to Shadow), he can likely be placed mentally close to his age of fifteen. This is reinforced by the leaked transcript of Sonic ‘06 that refers to Shadow as 15 (the red squared text in this image).

Maria has no canon age established in game material, but Sonic X lists her as 12. 15 and 12 is the same age gap as Sonic and Amy respectively.

In addition to that, many people have claimed that Shadow is over 50 years old, but this is only true of his chronological existence, not the time he has been conscious and aging. He spent 50 years stuck in cryosleep, and awoke exactly how he was when he was placed in there.

A similar example would be Aang and Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender - Aang was frozen at the age of 12, and awoke 100 years later. Nobody, however, tried to claim that he was 112 years too old to kiss the 14 year old Katara, as Aang was physically and mentally still a 12 year old upon awakening - most people who watched the show were also actively rooting for these two characters to kiss, which they did at the show's finale. It's the same principle regarding Shadow - he is 50 chronologically, not 50 in mind or body.

If we’d like to really get into it, I would point out that nearly every character in the lens of Sonic is in and around Maria’s age range (according to the Sonic Channel). As stated previously, Sonic is 15. Amy is 12, Knuckles is 16, Rouge is 18, Blaze and Silver are 14, etc. Nobody bats an eye at notions of romance between any of these people (not that I’m saying they should inherently).

Romantic intent between minors is not inherently viewed as a bad thing - see the examples of Aang and Katara or Clive and Jill above, or for an in house example, consider the canonical (to Sonic X at least) relationship between the 8 year old Tails and Cosmo - yet for some reason when it comes to Shadow and Maria, a relationship is stigmatized.

To reiterate in the wake of the last point, my discussions of romantic intent ARE NOT SEXUAL IN NATURE. As I acknowledge these are minors, any notions of that are completely off the table, and I do not agree with anyone who would imply their relationship was a sexual one. I want to make that unmistakably clear.

My major takeaway from observing both the Sonic fanbase and those on Sonic Team seems to be that in western circles, Shadow and Maria as siblings is the popular perception, whilst in eastern circles, they are more commonly perceived romantically. But ultimately, Shadow and Maria’s relationship seems to have many contradictory signals that makes it hard to pinpoint a concrete definition, especially in the most recent releases – and I believe that this is fully intentional.

Shiro Maekawa has stated in DMs has stated this regarding their relationship when asked if he saw them as siblings or love interests (translated from Japanese):

“I think they have a special bond that is unique to them that doesn’t fall into either of those categories. Just my personal opinion.”

From the way that the two are written post-Sonic Adventure 2, this appears to be a sentiment that is fully carried forward – their relationship is more nuanced than a canonical label would make it. Maria was the only person who made Shadow feel loved, and Maria unquestionably loved him back. What kind of love that was is up to the viewer, especially given that Maria died when they were both young, before they even had a chance to expand upon their relationship, if that was ever on the table – not that they needed to, given that their bond seems to have transcended both labels. Maria was the only one who acknowledged Shadow as more than an experiment or a weapon, and Shadow was her rock in an environment where she was isolated away from her family and home. Maria was Shadow's person, and still remains that in death.

To disclose for me personally (in case it was not obvious), I have always interpreted their relationship as romantic - or at least having romantic implications - ever since playing Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Shadow the Hedgehog when I was a kid. I have both a fiancé and a sibling, and the way they treat each other is far more evocative of how I treat the former than the latter (especially in Dark Beginnings – I do not imagine my sibling through a shoujo filter while I wistfully think about cuddling them in a field of flowers). I do not take the awkwardly placed alt text verbiage from the Sonic Twitter account, used to fake-argue with the Wendy’s Twitter account, as gospel for anything, and I think that treating it as a damning disproval is silly. Had she lived, I believed the complex feelings they held would have been identified as romantic down the line. The relationship always just read as too intimately charged for me to perceive as siblings (it still does especially in the wake of seeing how she touches and speaks to him), even before I had a serious relationship. I think that arguing the nitty gritty over Twitter alt text and translations is silly, as all it took for me to takeaway that the relationship was still romantic was to play the game, watch the animations, and read the manga for Shadow Generations - but that's just me.

That said, I will concur that if you are weirded out by romantic notions between the two of them, that is completely understandable, and I would never argue that you should not feel what you feel for yourself. The sibling viewpoint is also wholly valid an interpretation, with or without word from a meta source. Though she had her grandfather and later Abe, she was largely alone on the ARK away from a family that she clearly loved and missed, and it’s not unusual to presume that Shadow filled in the role of a brother for her. I will also acknowledge that many things I have not mentioned - such as Shadow blushing at Maria calling him cool, or her saying "I love you" in general - are not inherently indicative of romantic intent, and can be read as fully platonic interpretations, and I find those that try to state that the romantic interpretation is the objective one just as irritating as those that state the sibling interpretation is the objective.

My intent is only to dispute the idea that romantic interpretations, and the people who hold them, deserve to be scrutinized. The pairing is completely innocent, and the treatment people have received for believing them to be romantic is obscene. Sweeping blanket statements have been made to insult all who do (some going as far as to wish death and harm upon them), all just based on subjective viewpoints held by people who see them platonically. The fact that there is so much discourse surrounding this topic, and that there is evidence enough on both ends to make an argument, means that Sega has intentionally left the relationship up to interpretation - including the romantic take.

Everyone unclutch your pearls.

But with all that said, I will reiterate that this post was not meant to convince anyone of one thing or another, but rather that both interpretations of their relationship are valid, as it is essentially a secret third thing that transcends both labels and is special only to them. Strictly defining their relationship as “siblings” or “love interests” (even as someone who perceives them romantically, I would never want that to be definitively confirmed for this reason) is deconstructing what is perhaps the most nuanced part of a series that does not always tend to be terribly nuanced, and a definition matters far less than acknowledging what Maria means to Shadow in the present – he is who he is because of her, and because of that, he is now living a life for himself. Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) ended in a way that had Shadow let Maria go, and Shadow Generations ends with him carrying her forward with him after accepting her loss. She was, and will always be, the person who loved Shadow - however you define that love is up to you.

Nothing has ever been hard confirmed by Sega, no matter how much either side wants to pretend it has been.

In summary, both points of view regarding Shadow and Maria’s relationship are simultaneously true and not true – it is a matter of interpretation according to the viewer what their feelings towards each other were, yet their relationship in the lens of what it is now after the tragedy of their existence (even before Maria died) is purposefully indefinable, and it should remain that way. Nobody should ever try to say that Shadow and Maria are definitively something - that goes for both points of view. I doubt it will, but I hope this goes towards removing the stigmas towards one of the more nuanced parts of this series, as nuance in Sonic the Hedgehog - frankly - does not come along very often, and it would be nice if that were encouraged rather than smothered.

Thank you for reading.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

whenever people use the "hurr it's nostalgia bait" criticism for engage, I know theirs is an opinion immediately discarded mfers when a game is meant to be CELEBRATORY to the series that built it up to this point (it was originally supposed to release in 2020, on FE's 30th anni)

seriously. from all the neat references in the emblems and gameplay systems, to the meta of alear themselves, and how they are supported by heroes of the past, whilst simultaneously finding themselves as a person, and their own unique place in that long history

as an older fan whose been around since FE7's release, and has always been bothered by the trend of older games being forgotten, especially during the awakening/fates and 3H eras, I was really happy to see some of my old FE favorites be recognized, celebrated, and given their flowers with engage

!