#I never played the older fire emblem games...

[taffywabbit]

me: i wish someone other than intsys would make a good tactical RPG with Fire Emblem-style gameplay for me to enjoy

studio: look we made a cool new tactical RPG that fans of strategy games like Fire Emblem will enjoy

me: is the gameplay Final Fantasy Tactics or Advance Wars

studio: it's a good tactical RPG ma'am. fans of strategy games like Fire Emblem will enjoy it :)

me: *plays 20 minutes of it*

(it's FF Tactics or Advance Wars)

[youofthelight]

Lowkey...I'm starting to think...sending Jagen as Marth's decoy...wasn't the smartest move...💀

[romance-of-three-memes]

Everyone nowadays talk about Fire Emblem Three Houses like it's the defining entry of the series and a lot of people act like it's the best thing that's ever happen to it but honestly? If you're trying to get into Fire Emblem as a series it's one of the worst places to start. It deviates a lot from the gameplay of other entries and that's fine, even if I'm kind of sick of the super specialized school taking over video games after it got super popular in anime last decade.

I mean, I love Three Houses (yes, it does take a lot of inspiration from Romance of the Three Kingdoms and yes, the faction that's the most like Wu is my favorite, but I swear that's coincidence because I wasn't even thinking about that when I first played it). But it's a terrible place to start, especially since I've seen a lot of people only play Three Houses and show no interest in playing anything else in the series, which yes, is also fine, I hate weird video game elitists and the Fire Emblem fandom can be one of the worst I've ever seen in that regard, what I mean is that a lot of new fans seem to go 'neat that was fun, I'm satisfied :)' instead of 'yeah I want more of this!' when their only exposure is Three Houses.

Anyway I have three recommendations on where to start, it's a series with seventeen main entries and who knows how many spin-offs so that can be pretty intimidating to newcomers, but most of them are one-off settings, like each game introduces a new world and new characters so you don't have to worry about playing most of them in order. All three of the games I'm mentioning are one-offs.

It kind of depends on what you're looking for most. Do you want something you can easily access on a modern console and is a much better representation of the series' gameplay and difficulty than Three Houses or my other suggestions (there's a lot of variance in that)? Then honestly, Engage is the place to go. People love to shit talk Engage and they did it before the game even released because of Intsys' lackluster marketing, and it was released right after Three Houses, people were always going to be extremely harsh on its direct predecessor. Hell, I wasn't even sure about it and put it off for a month or so when it came out, but now that I've played it I love it a lot. Lol sometimes I think I like it better than Three Houses. Also your player avatar can marry everyone regardless of gender, something which is brand new in a series that's had marriage mechanics for a good while now. Back in MY DAY if we wanted that we had to install MODS or settle for a small handful of characters, if even that, Awakening didn't have any of that despite literally no one in that army being straight (no, not even Virion, who multiple people on this website have picked fights with me about).

Anyway if you want something that's nowadays a little harder to access but is still pretty modern, and if you want a fairly easy entry into the series in terms of gameplay difficulty, I suggest Awakening, which is my personal favorite in the whole series (even if in retrospect it's hilariously busted in terms of game mechanics and it's Cisheteronormativity on Steroids, but don't worry, we have very extensive mods for that and they're easier to install than ever!)

I haven't quite finished Sacred Stones yet but I also think it would be a good place to start if you want something pretty straight-forward and retro and you think you can handle getting emulators to work, because a lot of legit physical copies of older Fire Emblem games are insanely expensive. Like +$200 USD expensive. This game is also similar to other older titles in that it lacks a player avatar (which most modern titles have) as well as casual mode, which is an option you can choose where if a playable character falls in battle, they'll be usable in the next battle. They'll never die unless it's scripted in the game's plot. In 'classic mode', which is all you have in most older FE games, once a character's HP hits 0, they're gone for good. You can't use them anymore because they literally die. I mean... You CAN just 'save scum', that's what most of us do, but still. There's been so much elitist griping about casual mode vs classic mode over the years but it's died down a lot from at its peak when Awakening was the newest entry, Christ people would NOT stop bitching about Awakening having casual mode, or just about Awakening in general, despite the fact that it literally saved the series, helped make it one of Nintendo's 'bigger' IPs in the west, and is the only reason we have everything that came after that. So there you go.

[forestsagess]

Hello! I got introduced to Cycle by my older sisters because of my obsession with Fire Emblem, (I only recently finished Awakening!) and safe to say I enjoyed every single moment! The way Robin acted kept me coming back for more! We refer to her as a goblin(lovingly 🩵) because of how she can be sometimes. I have a lot of screenshots of my favourite moments,(mostly of Chrom and Robin 🥰) and I regularly send them to my sisters because of how cute/funny they can be! I actually almost got in trouble in class because of how hard I was laughing!! I really hope you're doing well, I know how stressful burnout/life can be. I only recently finished chapter 62 and I felt so sad that I had reached it. But whether or not you continue writing, I'll be there to support as much as I can! I guess I should ask a question lol. How have you been holding up? And favourite FE game? Please stay safe!!

(Gosh I hope this isn't too old, my deepest apologies if it is)

Hi! Thank you for the lovely message. That's really neat you've enjoyed the story as a family :) Make sure to pass along my thanks to your sisters as well! And, I can't help but really love that Robin's nickname is "Goblin." I'm sure Frederick would agree with you.

I am doing my best to get back into writing again. Terrible cliffhanger I left the last chapter on. Life, as well as the plot getting bonkers hard to manage, definitely forced me to stop for my own good. I never did stop thinking about it though. If I leave a personal project I've started unfinished, it never stops floating in my brain. With a little restructuring fo my writing process, I'm hoping to really get this moving along again.

Otherwise, life is manageable. Sometimes, that's the best place it can be. I'm making lemonade, as they say! Discount, watered-down lemonade, but lemonade all the same.

Favorite FE game? Ouch, hard to say. They're all pretty unique in different ways I've enjoyed them. It used to be a toss-up between The Blazing Blade and Awakening, but Three Houses resonated with me too. I can definitively say those are my top 3, but I'd have to play them all again to point out my favorite.

[terarria-sunflower]

very un-fire emblem, but since ao3 is down here's some L death note headcanons I was debating posting, hopefully they will benefit the masses in this time of hardship

L and how he thinks about romance:

(tw for slight sexual references and short icky behavior from an unnamed non-canon character but no non con, could be dub con)

- he had a couple puppy loves when he was a kid that he fell way too deep into and had break his heart. he just had trouble understanding the natural flow of relationships, and his standing with others who expected him to keep up with them, so he kept getting left behind

- he's obviously bisexual

- and i think he had a brief thing with another boy when he was an early teen and living at the orphanage

- probably the kind of thing where he felt like he had found his soul mate, and they spent lots of time together trying to make up for how starved for love their lives had been at Whammy's, and then eventually the other boy started to become disgusted with the system, and with L because he was so integral to it the older he got, and neither of them understood any of that, and the other boy broke up with him very unkindly and vanished all in the span of about a week

- L is a little wiser to what was going on behind the scenes now, but even if he had the full explanation, the pain was just so acute, and echoed his recurring experience with abandonment so that thinking about it just solidifies a belief that he's unlovable

- i think when he got into his later teens at the orphanage and started to have a bit of freedom to wander around unsupervised, he also had a brief relationship with an American girl who was on vacation in the area

- and by brief i mean the literal one week that she was in Britain

- she was a bit older than him, almost enough to be icky and certainly old enough to know better than to play with an obviously vulnerable young boy

- she was bored and on vacation so she decided to use him, and again he was totally smitten, poor thing was still just so desperate for companionship that he didn't question a good thing

- he is a genius, but his emotional intelligence just developed slowly cause of trauma:/

- she manipulated him into being physical with her the day before she went home in an alley near the orphanage. they didn't have penetrative sex but they got pretty well acquainted

- she left him immediately after and didn't come back to say goodbye.

- that experience was where his trust allowance ran out, and a few years later after he and Watari began moving around the world, the time and the physical separation from where he grew up helped him understand not to blame himself

- it's actually really lucky that he became a career law enforcer, because it gave him the needed exposure to how much other people straight up suck, and saved him from a lifetime of self-hatred

- his theme is really being self sustainable

- he doesn't have any qualms about his personal worth

- but he also doesn't think he's good enough for other people, so he's learned to live totally without them

- Watari is the exception, because L knows that their relationship is based on Watari needing him for his talent, and he can know quantifiably that he's good enough for that

- i think romance is something he craves even if the lack of it doesn't torture him, but he is truly and literally waiting for the stars to align in the person he chooses; it's something he will never take a risk on again (cough why I'm anti-Lawlight although no disrespect to the ship or it's shippers at all it's just not for me!)

- attraction is easy! he just doesn't trust it a bit.

- his end-game would have to be someone who's known him and Watari for quite a while, who Watari likes, and who has stayed around long enough that their only possible motivation for wanting him can be- well, wanting him

- but once he's found the right one, and he's safe with them, I think he'd be eager to participate in surprisingly traditional romantic gestures, and a good communicator.

- he's awkward as we know, but when comfortable with the person he loves, i think that awkwardness turns into endearing, just non-current mannerisms. like, he's a big kiss his partner's hand kinda guy, which isn't that weird or outdated really but he does it with the intent and reverence with which a knight kisses the hand of a court lady, and he does it because he's gathered his most complete pictures of romance from books and from old movies that i'm sure Watari has made him watch

- 10/10, perfect baby angel of a man, the geneva war crimes are a part of him and I'VE decided they're funny

[princessmacedon]

{ happy anniversary!

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. Template courtesy of Neffi! 💕

Name: Red, more commonly nicknamed Reddo

Pronouns: they/them preferred, she/he OK!

Birthday (no year): December 28th

Where are you from? What is your time zone? moved to kentucky when I was young, and for sake of ease i use EST (TOAST)! i live near a timezone line, so i get to be flexible like that >vo)v HAHA

How long is your roleplay experience? with a few on and off breaks, roughly 15 years? i forgot about a period of my life where i 'moderated' (read: was the most active user on) a warrior cats RP site; my first foray into rp proper was in pokemon rp on tumblr, my first muse was lyra but i didnt have an internet name until i picked up and settled into writing (you'll never guess who)

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? kind of half answered this above oops, but with warrior cats i genuinely dont remember? i probably just googled warrior cats and wound up there HAHA. for pokemon...... honestly probably the same thing

How were you introduced to TOA? key had mentioned it to me in passing a few times, so i knew she was there, but it wasn't until my friend zyra mentioned it to me and suggested we write macedon siblings together again that i actually joined, hahaha

Do you have any pets? i do! i adopted a ?? year old dog from the shelter about six years ago, so now he's x+6 years old :] pretty sure he's some kind of border collie mix, but not certain! his name is tobin, but he'll answer as long as you say 'ob'. he's a sillyhead

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) it used to be winter because i love the snow! but as i get older and more harrowed by weather conditions, i appreciate how normal and not-trying-to-kill-me autum is HAHA

What is your IRL occupation? (finger guns) figuring it out

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? drawing was my first love! i like reading, especially comics, and writing; i like video games and immersing myself in stories, and have passing interests in things that i don't commit to trying out (like resin, charms, etc etc)

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? FFXIV, mainly; genshin impact and hsr; various farming-ish sims (story of seasons + old harvest moon, stardew valley, rune factory, currently fields of mistria); to a lesser extent dragon age, ace attorney, various VNs / otome / rhythm games, pokemon until roughly scarlet/violet era and then my wallet couldnt keep up with it HSDFSGVSD

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: as a kid it waffled between fire / dark, but not sure i have a dead set favorite type anymore. favorite pokemon still lucario and appletun for sure though!

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! (Optional bonus challenge: if you filled this out last year, try not to repeat what you said back then!) - i love christmas and thinking about gift giving! when i was in school my christmas spreadsheet hit like, 50 names HAHA nooooo way do i have that energy anymore, though - i'm reasonably fond of baking and also reasonably terrible at it! something always goes wrong but usually (usually) stuff comes out pretty tasty in the end. except for that time i set my oven on fire

How did you get into Fire Emblem? my friends were talking about how much fun they were having with the new game at the time, awakening! it looked fun so i decided to try it out

What Fire Emblem games have you played? - Beaten: Genealogy, Blazing Blade (FE7 if youre like me and still cant remember which one is which), Shadow Dragon & New Mystery, Awakening, Fates (Conquest + Birthright), Three Houses (Blue Lions) - Started: Binding Blade (FE6), Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance (FE9), Fates (Revelation), Shadows of Valentia, Three Houses (Black Eagles & Golden Deer), Engage

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: Awakening -- still Awakening! possibly tied with 3H, though. i really enjoy games where i can peacefully level grind

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! vaguely ordered, it's: Wolf, Maria, Cordelia, Seliph, Katarina...? if you think you're seeing a trend you're probably right, hahaha ^^ writing a character is an expression of love for me, so inevitably my muses climb higher and higher on my list over time

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! the clearest one i can remember is wolf, because when i was playing fe11 i was passively using him because he was pretty, and then he got 7 crits in a row and i was like :pika:

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳i'm weak toward green haired women AHSJASFDSF but actual game crushes, hmm... not sure!

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: chrom -> still chrom! - Fates: takumi -> hmm... silas or flora? - Three Houses: dimitri -> still dimitri, except now he's duking it out with yuri - Engage: i have the ring in my pocket as we speak, suffering from the burden of choice... probably diamant though?

Favorite Fire Emblem class? whatever class my blorbos thrive in

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? in all likelihood i'm a villager with just absolutely baffling AI. not entirely stupid, but you cant in good conscience say it's smart either HAHA as a playable unit though, i might be a recruit-type? i could do well if you help me grow, otherwise i'm just this scruffy shitty thing tucked into your pocket. middling-high skill growth, paper defense, and you wish you knew what my speed growth was because i don't (probably fast as a mage but realistically NOT as anything physical)

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? (Black Eagles, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, Church of Seiros, Those Who Slither in the Dark, unaffiliated civilian, other - for example Almyran) my heart says blue lions, but if i'm just some guy (unaffiliated civilian) i won't be surprised

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? - Boons: Reason - Banes: Authority, Gauntlets - Budding Talent: Flying

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? (Firene, the Kingdom of Abundance; Brodia, the Kingdom of Might; Elusia, the Kingdom of Knowledge; Solm, the Queendom of Freedom; Lythos, the holy land of the Divine Dragon; Gradlon, the desolate land of the Fell Dragon) hmm... probably either Firene or Lythos! i'm too much of a weenie to be from brodia HAHA

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?) toah, like noah! to all my xiv gamers out there this definitely applies to job shorthands too. durg. dirk. whum blum sidge. rurpur and rogg...

Current TOA muses: Maria & Katarina

Past TOA muses? Cordelia my beloved

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Maria! unless something unprecedented happens, i don't see that changing. writing her, her want and determination to love and find wonder in the world, to spread and be joy -- it just puts me in a good place! it's really, genuinely helped me a lot, even if her extroversion is exhausting to my introvert ass sometimes HAHA

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) uhhh... i definitely tend toward characters who are in some regard defined by a form of love or strong emotion, romantic though it need not be -- people who have some sort of powerful, aching tenderness in their heart. i've not really done as much as i've wanted in terms of bringing that out of them, but it's definitely something that draws me in to a character in the first place!

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? ooh, there are lots of characters i like who have a brusque edge or manner, who might be harsh or cold... i wish i could do that! i'd like to try, i think. and also the funny, energetic, boisterous types -- i love to see them and be around them, but i definitely can't pull it off hahaha

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) it's been a while since i've gone all in on this kind of scene, but i love emotional scenes and heart-to-hearts -- the sort of thing where you're communicating your feelings with everything you have and trying to reach someone else! i usually rein myself in well shy of that though, hahaha. i worry a lot about getting too lost in the sauce and derailing a conversation/thread, or making it all about what my muse/what they want to communicate.

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? for katarina, i'd love for her to make some friends! she's her own worst enemy in this regard, separating herself from friends/friendships whether consciously or subconsciously. for maria... well, i'd love for her to have a real heart to heart with someone!

Favorite TOA-related memories? to this day i miss and adore annie's frederick! his dynamic with my cordelia at the time was so much fun to write and to talk about and we had such thoughts for how their relationship would evolve -- it's one of the most interesting and endearing relationships i've had the pleasure of writing! on a sillier note, i often think about leif hauling ass after kanoesa's lewyn HAHA

Present or past tense? it used to be past tense, but i think toa's successfully converted me to defaulting to present hahaha ^^;; consciously at least, i try to match whatever my partner does!

Normal size text, small text, no preference? it doesn't matter to me, but i do hate fighting tumblr to keep all of the small text small.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 the wolf app/blog i've been refining on and off for the better part of three years is no secret HAHA, but i've seriously contemplated writing a few other characters! radd and boucheron, to name a couple. i get super attached to my characters though, so it's a bit tricky

[ulircursed]

TOA Aniversary Munday

From Neffi!

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: eri

Pronouns: she/her

Birthday (no year): 9/30

Where are you from? What is your time zone? Taiwan! GMT+8, currently 12 hours ahead of TOAST. Good news: the apocalypse hasn't hit the future yet!

How long is your roleplay experience? Probably around 10+ years at this point, unless running around as Pokemon on the playground counts, in which case more like 20 years ahaha

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? I'm reasonably certain Fire Emblem was my first foray into tumblr RP, and Emmeryn was my first muse! There was a little indie community that I joined back then, though I haven't kept in contact with them

How were you introduced to TOA? I don't really remember, but all I know is that I lurked around the masterlist around the time of L&K but didn't pluck up the courage to join until nearly a year later when I saw there was a Reyson (shoutout to birdie!)

Do you have any pets? Nope! Moved around too much as a kid and current living situation doesn't support having one. Closest I got was sharing an apartment with my roommate's floofy cat for two years in college; his name's Chester and he was super adorable. I'd like to have a dog someday though!

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) WINTERRRR I am a human furnace and summer is suffering. Every spring I start counting down the days to the next winter ahaha

What is your IRL occupation? I work at the counseling department in a junior college!

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? Learning languages, singing, obscure fun facts and watching Youtube video essays

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Used to be a big Pokemon person but I stopped playing the mainline games by Gen VII (not for lack of interest! RL circumstances changed around that time and I just never got back into the habit of buying those games); nowadays I play a few mobile games daily but that's about it

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Water; too many, but if I had to name just one I will probably say Rufflet

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! The first fun fact is that the moment I get asked questions like this I immediately go Brain Empty and this is why I rarely fill out toa monthly feedback forms dakfjslfj uhhhh my favorite color is blue! I joined an archery club in grad school (two years ago) to understand what shooting a bow feels like. I love swimming but haven't been to a pool for maybe like 9 years now. I really like going to zoos.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? My older brother introduced my younger brother and me to Japanese FE4 when we were kids, when we knew absolutely no Japanese and just messed around the first map and never beat it. I properly started playing when I was in high school, with FE7 being the first game I beat! I normally count my official FE gaming journey as starting with 7 in high school :'D

What Fire Emblem games have you played? All the mainline ones except 1-3 and Echoes (I'm...... working on it)

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: FE7; FE3H

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! You can't do this to me man. UHHH ok Lucius is my very most favorite FE character. Andrei needs to be here. I lump the Heron sibs as one unit for questions like this. Tibarn. Sylvain. There are probably a dozen more but

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! HONESTLY Andrei thanks to the Oosawa manga. His arc changed my brain chemistry permanently

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 I don't think I've really crushed on fictional characters before ahaha

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Chrom I think; uhhhh Lon'qu or Cherche?? - Fates: Silas I think???; I'm currently partway through a Birthright playthrough and I seem geared to S support with Jakob so him - Three Houses: Dimitri; started my first and only Myleth run a few months back and I'll probably go with Miss Thea :flushed: - Engage: None; man I don't know

Favorite Fire Emblem class? Bishop

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? I think I could be a War Cleric wielding a giant hammer. If you don't go to bed on time I will forcibly join your army and make you

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Blue Lions I guess!

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Axe boon, Reason bane, Riding budding talent

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? Brodia

How do you pronounce TOA? TOE-uh

Current TOA muses: Just me and my bow man for the moment

Past TOA muses? Leanne, Lucius, Altena, Nino

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Leanne was my first! Honestly she always lives in a cozy little corner of my head, so she can be back at any moment if RL permits

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? Nice Girls (gender neutral) who have no quarrel with 99% of the world. As you may be able to see, Andrei does not fit this mold.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? Flirts. They're so much fun to read but I don't think I could flirt my way out of a paper bag irl so I would never know what to write

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? I honestly love fluffy cozy fun friendshippy situations!!! Again, Andrei is not conducive to this. I mean I do also like painful scenes but--

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? that Yngvi AU where Brigid never disappeared because things will still go to shit but the circumstances would be so different. Honestly Brigid doesn't even need to explicitly be there for this to work so if any Gen I Jugdrals ever want to do this then I grip you

Favorite TOA-related memories? So many, but the West Faerghus Croc lives rent free in my brain forever.

Present or past tense? I started off with past tense, but now default to present. When the stars align and I notice my partner using past tense, sometimes I will also switch, but not always.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? Small text, though I am happy to switch for my partner's preference if needed!

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 Waves goodbye to my faceless Glenn delusions honestly thank u new anniversary ruling for saving me from those eternal brainworms

[pryings]

TOA Anniversary Munday

thank you neffi for this template!!!

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: ruaidhrí (said pretty much like the english name rory and if you want to spell it that way that's fine too, ik irish names throw people off)

Pronouns: he/him

Birthday (no year): 25th of october!

Where are you from? What is your time zone? i live in colorado and my timezone is MST

How long is your roleplay experience? i don't know exactly how many years since i sometimes have years where h don't rp but i've been rping on and off since i was 11-12.

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? oh gosh, so ff.net used to have (maybe still has, i literally have not been on that site in ages) these like... forums? and i joined one for elder scrolls rp a little after oblivion came out. i was far and away the youngest one there but everyone was so nice in helping me turn my character into a proper oc with like... backstory, a real personality, etc. after that, i spent a lot of time using it to try and grow my creative writing skills.

How were you introduced to TOA? honestly i just stumbled across it randomly! i had just replayed a few fe games and was looking through some tags and thought it might be fun to try fire emblem rp (i'd done some on indie tumblr back in the day, as well as in an mfrp a little bit, but never fire emblem exclusive rp) so i sent arden to check it out and, well, here we still are.

Do you have any pets? simon (mini poodle), john hancock (tabby cat), and tim & geeb (fluffy black cats)

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) early spring! i also like late fall for its temperature, but i dislike snow/sleet/wet socks so spring is preferable because it's not very snowy here!

What is your IRL occupation? blessedly unemployed (health issues have prevented me from working aha)... i used to work IT though!

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? i like birdwatching, reading academic articles about ancient civilizations, and making espresso drinks

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? currently enjoying bg3 + doing a dragon age replay (in preparation for veilguard). outside current, i really like most single-player rpg type games (esp. with customizable character), stealth games (dishonored favorite), and Identity V is the first asymmetrical horror mobile game developed by NetEase for

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: my favorite pokemon ever is alakazam (and its whole line) i've loved alakazam foreverrrrr! favorite type is steel, though! apart from my psychic baby most of my other favs tend to be steel types

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! oh gosh i'm so bad at fun facts...

- i can put both my feet behind my head but i can't touch my toes - my favorite non-ancient empire to read about is austria-hungary - my cat tim was rescued from Outside

How did you get into Fire Emblem? friend's cool older brother was playing a bunch of the games in a seemingly random order. when i'd hang out at that friend's house sometimes we'd sit and watch. i asked him to lend me some and he did!

What Fire Emblem games have you played? i have now played all of them! (last year when i answered this i hadn't technically played them all, but i'd seen playthroughs and watched let's plays of all of them at the very least)

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: a bad translation of fe4 was first, por is still my favorite—but tbh there's not really one i dislike

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! - KNOLL (promoted to number one he's my special guy) - reyson - canas - ashnard - pandreo

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! QUAN—i have such a distinct memory of seeing him come in but i don't remember my initial thought, only that he would have my heart forever

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 vander. duessel. hardin.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: first was sumia! i don't have a set nowadays because i've done a different one on each playthrough - Fates: first was xander, would probably still do xander if i were to replay - Three Houses: first was seteth, if i replay i'll go for hanneman - Engage: first was pandreo! next time i plan to do ivy though

Favorite Fire Emblem class? i like shapeshifter classes! beasts, dragons, laguz, etc. i just think they're fun to play with

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? oh gosh, i'd be an infantry axe unit probably. middling starting stats but high growths if you really work at making me good (there would be heated debates over whether the necessary time investment would be worth it)

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? black eagles!

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? axe boon, heavy armor bane, budding talent in faith magic (could be classed into an fe:a style war cleric and it would be my suggested goal)

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? i want to say brodia!

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔 toh-ah

Current TOA muses: just knoll <3

Past TOA muses? robin, niles, almedha, reyson, hardin, iago, perceval, lachesis (i think that's all?)

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? my first muse was m!robin and thankfully i am spared any temptation on picking him up as he is currently being written.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) i'm kind of all over the place, aren't i? i like characters where i can poke at hidden depths but ones who aren't too closely guarded. i like characters who are shy, withdrawn, standoffish, guarded, etc. in some way but who open up when spoken to. i don't think this has changed since last year, i've been writing for a long time and kind of know my comfort zone.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? boisterous/loud and over the top characters always challenge me, but i've never really managed to make them work, which is a shame because i tend to enjoy lively characters!

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? (If you filled this out last year, has this changed in any way?) -i love writing threads where setting/scenery is a focus, where i get to sort of use the landscape as a bit more than set-dressing - i enjoy throwing my muse at characters who mistrust him for whatever reason, and like to explore the kind of slow, mutual understanding that comes from two people getting to know one another - i really just like putting him in situations in general, forcing him to socialize—he's a very withdrawn character so any excuse to have him meet new people is very enjoyable

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? nothing specific! i have kind of an arc for him but it's loosely-defined right now

Favorite TOA-related memories? HAPPYLAND WAS SO MUCH FUN. sincerely i loved the interactions he had there <3

Present or past tense? i default to present, but adapt to what my partner prefers on this!

Normal size text, small text, no preference? small text, bolded dialogue. just easier for my eyes to take it in that way.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 oh gosh. i recently had to go down to just one muse because my health is not so good, but i will admit i already have a few delusions. if i can get myself back to a spot where i feel like i can write a second, someone may return.

[calamitaswrath]

Cal Lucia plays Fire Emblem Path of Radiance: Chapter 22

Reinforcements from a guy named Zelgius. What a trustworthy guy, and definitely one that I have never heard any spoilers about.

Soren dropping some thruths again, hm? The game is definitely good about adding a lot of nuance to an otherwise rather standard story.

Hah, another base conversation about characters in-universe playing totally-not-Fire-Emblem. That's actually a pretty cute little thing there.

Base conversation with Sothe, and it turns out he's from Daien. Another interesting bit of nuance for the setting with him actually bringing up the positive points of Ashnard's reign. Not to bring up another comparison to later games, but there's more to him than there is to fellow mad king Gangrel in that regard.

Zelgius staying behind to guard stuff while Ike and the others go do a fight! What could possible go wrong!

Pffft, guess the boss is being over-the-top to counteract the other seriousness going on. The guy is entertaining.

Also an interesting gimmick for the chapter! I'll try not to kill any of these priests, but let's see how well that works out.

. . .Ah, I accidentally left Jill in front of Tomami, forgetting that he'd attack her. Since she had the item that prevents bonus damage from enemies I knew she'd be fine with all the archers (which she all just killed with no trouble), but she also killed him. Oh well, not resetting over that.

Rest of the map went by without much of an issue. I found it hilarious though that upon being attacked, the boss was like "You guys better heal me!". . . only for the priests on either side of him to not do anything.

So, mystery writing on the wall, and somebody who was imprisoned in that room for some time. Okay?

Ohhh, Reyson and Leanne had an older sister! And judging by how his retelling of her story is going. . . that woman was Ike and Mist's mother, wasn't it?

Yup, it was.

Proper voice acting again. Well, at least the voice actress couldn't really fuck up humming a simple tune.

Wasn't Altina a lore character from the distant backstory? I seem to remember something about her being the one to originally wield Ragnell and the Black Knight's sword.

Ahh, so Titania did know Greil's secrets!

Also a nice character moment for her that she demands that Ike tells her who it was that killed Greil.

[falciesystemessays]

Can I make a confession?

I hate thinking about my future.

(I promise this is related to video games.)

It could just be something in my brain.

It could be that, the way school has always led to more school, I'd always felt like my life was being decided for me.

It could be that, as a suicidal trans kid living on a dying rock, I never felt like I had a future.

But I had never in my life considered I would get this far, and at this point I have to grapple with the fact that I'm only getting older.

I need to move out eventually. I need to make a living. And I need to keep myself alive and healthy.

But something in me just hates thinking about that.

Of course, I notice this in the games I play too. I love tactics games like Fire Emblem, but the superficially similar Advance Wars could never grip me. While Fire Emblem gives me all of my chess pieces and makes me use them accordingly, Advance Wars makes me think several turns ahead and choose which units to create. Advance Wars is a much more long-term game, and I can't help but hate that.

I've been thinking for years about the prospect of using games to teach me what I don't know. Surely, if a game can finally make me understand long-term thinking, then I will be fixed. And I hate that framing, "fixed." These issues are very likely caused by ADHD, and the brain is just more complicated than any platitude can solve. But I also know that I do have to start thinking long-term, or I will suffer.

I've always hated brushing my teeth. When I was a kid, I would pretend to brush them to make my mom happy, but I just don't like having to put some stick of goo in my mouth, and even now that I do it regularly it doesn't feel good. I thought things would be okay forever, until I started having dental problems. Any individual day where I don't brush my teeth honestly doesn't make that big of a difference. But these choices in aggregate across years can have disastrous effects.

I started thinking about this as I replayed FTL recently. FTL: Faster Than Light is the first game released by Subset Games. Their second game, Into the Breach, is one of my favorite video games of all time. But crucially, everything I like about Into the Breach was an explicit response to something I didn't like about FTL. FTL has too much randomness, so ITB removes a bunch of randomness. FTL has too much hidden information, so ITB shows you exactly what enemies are going to do next. And in a game of Into the Breach, everything you need to think about is right in front of you. In FTL, you have to think ahead.

There's a few design choices in FTL I chafe against. Upgrading your ship is pretty expensive, and I never know how much it's worth saving up until it's too late. Your ship taking damage is unavoidable, and that damage sticks around between battles. Nearly every action costs some kind of resource that I don't know if I'll get back. It's a game that demands you think about it on a large scale, and after years of trying and failing, I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get good at this game.

Do I just not have the brain for it?

But you know, it's not just lack of understanding that makes me put the short-term first. I've gotten into feuds with my parents about dieting before, as their legitimate concerns about health combined with unchecked fatphobia to leave me feeling like they just wanted control over my body. And while I recognize it's immature, these days I'll often eat something unhealthy on purpose out of spite. Making myself some dumplings, using all the salt and butter I could ever want, feels good, and tastes good too. But it was only today when, at a checkup about hormones, I agreed to weigh myself, and didn't like what I saw.

There are some games that provide delayed gratification. Games like Animal Crossing and Pokemon that use real-world time for game mechanics. In Animal Crossing, it's not enough to simply grow a tree, you have to plant it, and then water it for days. In Pokemon Shining Pearl, you have to wait until Friday to catch a Drifloon. These games treat the passage of time as a game mechanic in itself.

...Or at least, they do in theory. In practice, these games are awash with time travelers, changing the system clock to skip the wait.

I wish I had the answers, but I don't. I don't know how to teach myself this vital skill, and I'm searching still for a game that can help with that. Maybe I'll be the one to make it.

But I guess what I do want to say is that, if you also hate thinking about the future, whether that's in games or in life...

I understand.

[randomkposts]

I remember the starfish

I love Fire Emblem Fates. My favorite is Awakening, but Fates has a special place in my heart for all of its flaws, and plotholes I love to poke at. No malice meant, if I didn't care, I'd probably just leave it alone. Instead it takes up so much brainspace.

So I think I might want to write something a bit more themed another time, but for now I want to write some scattered thoughts.

First, If I were going to change just one thing, I would give Azura ,Kaze as a retainer. And Shura.

Why? It bugs me that she didn't have any retainers, and Corrin has 3 household staff, their teacher, a childhood best friend, and a Ninja, most of whom are willing to follow them even if they defect. That's pretty excessive, that they just have a small- personally loyal fighting force. And Kaze's just hanging around, a trained retainer not assinged to anyone. And really Mikoto, Azura is your niece, you can give her one retainer at least.

Kaze defecting to Nohr to protect his charge makes arguably more sense then his reasons for defecting to Nohr on Corrins behalf.

Azura recruiting Shura as a retainer, fits with the older of the Nohrian sibilings having a criminal retainer. They also have a personal history between them that would be intresting to explore in a support. A support with Ryoma would also be intresting, as Shura states his family used to serve the royal family until his principality was taken over by Mokushu, so learning more about that would be neat.

Speaking of retainers, Despite three Nobrian Siblings havinging a criminal as a retainer, the person with the weirdest retainers is Hinoka, for having the least retainer-like retainers in the game. And Ryoma has 2 ninjas as retainers, which perhaps says some odd things about his diplomatic choices.

Hinoka does her own chores, protects her retainers, and seems to barely know anything about Azama beforehand. Until we learn from her support with Niles in Revelations that Hinoka hired Setsuna for her skill in archery, I was almost convinced she was hired to annoy Takumi.

And yet they are the last retainers sticking around the Hoshidan royals when they are recruited in Revelations.

Hillarious. Baffling. Lends a diffrent weight to Hinokas support with Saizo in this route, not that it wasn't already weird, but there was more cause for suspicion.

Speaking of supports, Sakura takes Corrin's amnesia as a sign that Silas is cursed. Meanwhile, in Birthright Takumi gets mindwhammied and dragon posessed, and Sakura does nothing to try to help. Which to be fair, nither instance lasted long. Who knows if she could have done anything effective, but in the Conquest one she doesn't seem to take note of his dirastically changed attitude as something to worry about, yet was far quicker to diagnose Silas as "something was off. Maybe its cause Silas a stranger, and she doesn't want to see anything wrong with her closest brother, but I wonder what got her attention in the first place to draw that conclusion.

I haven't played Engage, but even without that I am pretty sure Corrin is the most watched avatar we have ever played. Their big sister Camilia and her retainers makes it 3 in a lifetime, as said by Selena/Severa.

"Selena: Lady Camilla! Sorry we got ahead of you. But you should have heard the horrible things Lord/Lady Corrin said to us. Even though we used to watch over them, they don't remember us at all. Sure, we always stuck to the shadows and never introduced ourselves... but still! I could cry right now. Really! I really could!

Beruka: All that time hovering... caring... watching... it was all for naught. They has no heart.

Camilla: Now, now, you two. I'm sure they didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I'm certain they would remember, given more time. You simply must forgive them."

No wonder Corrin is so chill with Ryoma's Ninjas and other people following them around.

A headcanon, Odin/Owain can use dragon Veins. Anankos can hide his brand, but he can't undo that he is decended from the Exalted line of Ylisse, a heritige who also formed a pact which presumably involved drinking dragons blood. (That does seem to be a series consistant for how one gets a stats edge, with consent of the dragon being pretty important in how well they control it. )

He uses it once by accident. Leo did see it, but never confronts him on it. Maybe they might be siblings, but if this is what kept him alive and he's happy with living his life, then Leo isn't going to be the one to tell anyone. One of them may as well be happy.

If I were going to change something about the Fates Kids, I would mess with Shiro. Ryoma never told him until recruitment that he was royalty. So what if Shiro, figuring Ryoma is impotant, but not connecting the dots (as in cannon) comes to the (incorrect) conclusion that he is the next Saizo. And so comes with the Ninja class, alomg with some family drama, lol.

I would also tone down Soleil's supports, and add some depths to the other kids, but ninja Shiro creating some family drama with the retainers is a concept that amuzes me

I'll end it here for now. Might write a second at some point.

[lapinbunwrites]

Artwork one and two by Mawwy Mawwy

Artwork three, four, and five by @vellatra

Title: The Distance Between Us

Rating: Teen and Up, Gen

Warnings: Graphic Descriptions of Violence, Major Character Death

Fandom: Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn

Relationship: Ike & Mist, Mist & Titania, Mist & Rhys

Characters: Ike, Mist, Titania, Rhys

Additional Tags: During War, During Canon, Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Morning

Word Account: 5,155

Ao3 Link

Mist let out a breath, seeing it in the winter air, as she looked at the town in front of her. The town she was in was hustling and bustling and it brought a smile to her face. There were so many people here with their families playing games, eating food, and hanging it. Seeing the families spend time with each other, especially the siblings, made her jealous. She couldn’t even remember the last time her and Ike hung out with each other. The last time Mist could even remember it was before their father had died, but that was over three years ago. This wasn’t going to do, she needed to spend some time with her dear older brother. Whether he likes it or not, she was going to force him to spend some time with her and she knew exactly how to do it.

She slapped her face, reminding herself why she was in the town to begin with. She needed to pick up the ingredients to a certain medicine Rhys had wanted to make. Mist was on a mission, not only for the ingredients, she also wanted to see all the games her and Ike could play together. It was truly amazing to her that, even in the midst of a war, people still found the time to have fun and have a festival. It brought her so much joy to her heart. Maybe more days could be filled like these ones when the war was done.

Mist skipped around town, picking up everything Rhys needed. She felt pretty accomplished being able to hunt down everything he needed, even the rarer things. She wasn’t surprised to see him constantly overworking himself by healing their soldiers.

“Hello Rhys,” Mist greeted him, handing him the ingredients.

“Hello Mist!” Rhys chirped, taking them off of her hands. “I assume your trip into town was a safe one.”

“It was! It was really nice being able to see everyone being so lively,” she said, sitting right next to him to help him out with his patients.

“Wonderful!” He smiled, going over to his little desk. He took out a little mortar and pestle to grind up the medicine into a paste. “Was there anything there you got for yourself?”

“No,” she said, slowly wrapping the bandages around the soldier’s arm. “There are a few things that I want to get, but I don’t want to go back there alone.”

“Why’s that,” he asked, handing her the medicine.

Mist took the paste from him and walked over to another patient. She rubbed it all over the man’s arm, allowing it to set before banding him up. “There is this festival taking place there and I want to go with Ike.”

“That’s a wonderful idea!” He chirped again, helping her with her patient. “I bet he would love to go with his beloved younger sister.”

“Are you sure?” Mist asked, starting to feel the crushing loneliness setting in her body. After her father died, it was hard to get Ike to do anything with her and she felt a void take over her body. She felt like crap ever since then and it felt like it was never going to go away. “He has been so busy with war councils, training, and running our mercenary band, he has been all over the place.”

“I’m sure,” he reassured her, patting her head. “He may not be the most emotional man, or the most expressive unless you have meat, but he does care for you. He would do anything for you. I’m sure of it.”

“I want to believe you, I do,” she sighed, placing her hands on her knees. “But it just seems like he’s ignoring me.”

“Mist, go ask your brother or I will,” he glared at her.

“What about everyone here? You need help,” she said, getting up.

“I’ll be fine,” he reassured her, putting his hand on her shoulder to stop her.

“You’ve been at this all day. You need a break,” she reminded him, trying to pry his hand off of her. “I don’t want you to fall over in exhaustion again.”

“I will be fine. I have more healers coming to help me,” he said, pushing her out of the tent. “Now go ask your brother to spend some time with you.”

“Fine, fine,” she said, caving in.

Mist took one deep breath in and exhaled, she knew this was going to be a challenge to find Ike. He was always hard to track down; she knew he could be anywhere in camp. She walked around, and around, and around but he was nowhere to be found. Mist began to feel another void enter her body. It felt heavy, staticy, and it hurt her a lot. Could Rhys be right and that he truly wants to spend time with her? Or was she right and he was just trying to avoid her? The many thoughts that swirled her mind were giving her a headache.

She started to sniff, trying to hold back the tears she didn’t want to cry. She has cried too many tears the past three years and all she wanted to do was laugh, like the people in the town nearby. It hurt her that she couldn’t do that right now, or at all. Her brother was not being kind to her right now, she couldn’t find him at all.

Deciding to give up her search for him, she thought it would be best to go back to helping Rhys. Mist, stopping a few feet away from the medical tent, clutched her stomach. She could feel her stomach begin to burn; maybe coming back was a bad idea. Mist knew that if she didn’t come back with good news, Rhys was going to scold her again and she didn’t want that. She decided the best course of action was just going back to her own tent.

She fell right onto her cot, curling up under her blanket, the warmth was not helping her get rid of the emptiness that she felt throughout her body. Not even the tears that were strolling down her face weren’t helping, and they usually did, if for only a few days. Before she knew it, she was asleep in a groggy haze dream.

Mist could see herself reaching out towards an axe on a cliff, feeling the rain drop against her skin. She recognized that axe, she felt her heart sink when she recognized the person behind the weapon. It was her father. Her heart beat faster, and faster, and faster, trying to catch up with him as he turned his back to her. No matter how far she ran, no matter how fast she went, she could never reach him. Before long, he vanished in thin air, unable to hug him one last time.

Then she felt her body chuck her somewhere else, into a field full of flowers and grass. She could feel the breeze violently move her hair and dress around. Between trying to move her hair out of her face, and looking around, she was able to find Ike standing a few feet in front of her. For only a few seconds she felt a great sense of relief, but it slipped away when he turned around and started to walk away.

He was getting further and further away from her and she couldn’t keep up with him. Mist cried out his name but she was getting no response. By the time she was able to catch up with him, he disappeared, leaving her behind. She could see herself picking up the Ragnell and holding it close to her body as she fell to the ground to cry.

“Mist,” a low voice called out to her, lulling her out of her sleep. “Mist wake up.”

“Ike,” she groggily said, rolling over to her side to face him. “Ike!”

She sprung into his arms, holding tightly as she began to cry.

“Mist, what’s wrong?” Ike asked, wrapping his arms around her body. “What’s wrong?”

“Ike!” She cried out. “I’m so happy you’re alive!”

“Of course I’m alive,” he sighed, pushing her back. He took his hand, wiping the tears off of her face. “I have too many people depending on me to end this war.”

“Including me,” she cried, clutching onto him.

“Mist please,” he groaned, trying to pry her off of him. “If you don’t tell me what’s going on, I can’t help you.”

“It’s-It’s because you won’t spend time with me,” Mist said, slowly breathing. “You’ve been avoiding me lately.”

“I’m sorry Mist,” he sighed, helping her clean up her face. “This is to be expected in a war. It’s not like I don’t want to spend time with you, I have other pressing matters to deal with.”

“Ike,” she softly said, moving away from him. She laid down on her cot, her back facing her brother. “Then go, I will be by myself then.”

“Stop it Mist,” he said, shaking her body.

“If you want to make it up to me, you can take me to the festival that’s happening in the town next to our camp,” she pouted, not even fending him off.

“You know I can’t do that,” he reminded her, stopping what he was doing.

“Then go, I don’t want to spend time with you then,” she said, coldly.

“Fine,” he sighed as he left her tent.

Mist glanced over her shoulder, watching him leave. What a brother she had.

She closed her eyes, hoping that this next dream won’t be the same as the last couple. She was all wrong. It was the same dream she had, Greil and Ike both leaving her.

What was unlike Mist, she avoided Ike whenever she could. It didn’t go unnoticed, most of everyone became concerned about it.

“Mist,” Titania said softly, taking a hold of her arm.

“Yes, Titania?” Mist asked, turning around to face her.

“Is everything alright?” Titania asked, letting go of Mist.

“Yes. Why wouldn’t I be?” Mist asked, curling her lips.

“I’ve noticed that you have been avoiding Ike lately,” Titania sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“I have not,” Mist huffed, trying to storm off.

“You are a bad liar,” Titania said, stopping her.

“I am not!” Mist said, moving her feet, but unable to move anywhere with the second-in-command’s grip held tightly on her.

“You are. You get all huffy when you are hiding something,” Titania rolled her eyes before getting Mist to face her. “What is really going on?”

Mist took one deep breath. She didn’t know how Titania knew saw right through her, but she isn’t surprised. They have known each other for years. Mist looked up into her green eyes before looking at the grass beneath them.

“Mist, it’s okay, I won’t judge this for this,” Titania said, placing her hand on Mist’s chin to look her in the eye.

“It’s, it’s because,” Mist said, beginning to fidget with her clothes. “It’s because Ike won’t go with me to the festival close by. Something to do with being a commander.”

Titania chuckled a little. If she could choose, she would much rather deal with a sibling squabble than dealing with this war. “He’s always been thick headed.”

“He has, and he doesn’t want to spend any time with me,” Mist vented, kicking the grass. “He hasn’t for a while.”

“There is a way to get him to spend time with you,” Titania smirked, putting her hand on her hip.

“What way is that?” Mist gasped, clutching her clothes.

“Beat him in a training match,” Titania said, placing her hand on Mist’s head, and ruffling her hair.

“You know that’s not going to work,” Mist pouted, moving Titania’s hand off of her head. “He is already years ahead of me and he trains relentlessly.”

“If you keep talking like that, you won’t get anywhere,” Titania scoffed, squishing Mist’s face. “Plus you’re not half bad with a sword. You just need some refinement and I can help you with that.”

“Really?!” Mist asked, her voice becoming higher.

“Yes, really,” Titania smiled, releasing her face. “Just meet me in the training grounds in a few hours and we can train for a little bit.”

Mist nodded and watched Titania walk off. She went back to her tent to grab her sword, but was unable to find it. She rushed around camp trying to find it, but with no luck. This was just as frustrating as trying to get her brother to spend time with her. Mist whined a little as she took her training sword instead. Her breath was heavy when she saw Titania stand in the middle of the training grounds, flailing her axe around in the air.

“I’m here,” Mist said, interrupting Titania’s training.

“Hello Mist,” Titania greeted, moving her arm to her side. “Ready to train?”

“Yes, ma’am!” Mist said excitedly.

“First you will need to stretch,” Titania said, ruffling Mist’s hair again.

“Right! I always make sure to have everyone else stretch so it won’t be a good idea if I didn’t,” Mist laughed, getting on the ground.

Once Mist was finished with stretching, Titania showed her how to hold a sword properly. They started with basic techniques, slowly moving to some lighthearted training against each other. They practiced a lot in the day, and a lot more throughout the week. With the amount of training Mist did, she felt confident that she could take on Ike and at least land one blow on him.

“Ike! Ike!” Mist called out.

“What is it Mist?” Ike asked, walking out of his tent.

“I challenge you!” Mist chirped, holding out her training sword.

“What? Why are you acting like Mia all of a sudden?” He asked, moving her sword out of his face.

“No, I’ve just been training a lot,” she smiled, clutching her sword.

“Oh, so you want to train with me now. Are you sure about that? Dad didn’t exactly go easy on me,” Ike smiled, warmth swelling in his heart.

“Yes, but on one condition!” Mist smirked, putting her hands on his arm.

“What would that be?” Ike sighed, as she tugged him.

“If I win, we will go to that festival in town,” she said, unable to make her brother move.

“Mist, I told you I don’t have time for that,” he groaned, feeling her trying to push him.

“If you have time to train, you have time for fun,” she whined, still not being able to budge him.

“Mist, training is important because we are in a war,” he reminded her, taking a hold of her. “The stronger I can get, the better.”

“So is relaxing,” she said, hitting his leg with her fist. “It won’t mean much if you overwork yourself. You can die that way.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ike sighed, dropping her on the ground. “Fine, I will train with you and if you win, I’ll go with you to the festival.”

Mist laughed, kicking his leg in return for dropping her. She followed behind him as they walked to the training grounds. She held up her sword, positioning herself in a normal myrmidon stance. She smirked as she looked at her brother, who seemed a little impressed with her. It was all she needed to feel the fire igniting in her body. She knew she would be able to beat her brother. She knew all his tricks from watching him train with their father.

She waited as long as she could, hoping her brother would be bull-headed and rushed her first. She dodged his attacks as much as she could, he was unrelenting. It was becoming hard to fend him off, she was unable to even land a blow on him before her sword slipped out of her hands. Mist let out a sigh as she fell to her knees, feeling a pit in her stomach. There were many things she thought of that began to fry her brain.

“I won Mist,” Ike said, reaching his hand down towards her.

Mist swiped his hand away from her, not saying a word.

“Mist, why are you acting like a child?” He whined.

“Why do you care?” She mumbled, turning away from him, and clutching her knees close to her chest. “You haven’t cared before. Why start now?”

Ike pinched the bridge of his nose before walking away. “Whatever. When you are done acting like this, you know where to find me.”

Mist peered over her shoulder, watching him leave. Remembering her dream, she reached out for his arm, stopping him in his tracks.

“Mist?” Ike asked, looking down at her.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” she said, letting go of him.

Mist felt her heart wrench when she watched her brother shake his head and walk away. It was almost as she was being thrusted back into one of her nightmares. The feeling of the breeze in her hair, the smell of the nice flowers, and the grass swaying around her. She only wished it could rain, it was more befitting than her starting to hate such beautiful scenery. Tinted with the somber hues of orange, purple, blue, and white only to be undercutted by the crisp breeze that carried a faint smokiness through the air.

The worst part about this whole ordeal was that Ike is right. He was way too busy with the war, commanding an army, making war plans, confirming war plans with Soren and Titania, carrying out missions and many more things. Why would he have time for her selfish request and going to a festival with her. She knew it was better just to spend time with him the way she has been for the past three years. Her priority, much like her older brother’s, should be ending the war and she needed to be okay with that.

Mist finally got up off the ground, taking her time to get to her tent. Her eyes grew dim when she approached the mess hall that was illuminated by the candles in the midnight sky. The appetite she worked up trying to beat Ike, and crying over him, she lost when she looked at the building. She knew it was a bad idea to go to bed hungry, but she would rather not be near people, especially her own brother. She knew only more heartache was going to creep into her already broken soul.

She wiped the last of her tears off of her face as she entered her tent. Through the heavy heaving, she smushed her body whole into her cot. Mist wishes she could enjoy the nice warmth of her thick blanket, but not with what's been happening lately. She always told herself that a nice warm sleep was deserved after a joyous and kind day, but she didn’t deserve this, especially not after the past week has been going.

She wished her father was alive, he was always able to get Ike to spend time with her. That was so long ago and they were children, it wouldn’t work now. Not with Greil dead and gone. Thinking about her father, she sniffed herself into a deep sleep. Her nightmares didn’t let up, they were just as bad as before. Mist couldn’t believe what she was seeing, the battlefield was covered in fire. She placed her hands over her nose to cover the stench of the decomposing bodies.

Standing before her was Ike. She watched as her arm reached out towards him as he rushed someone. Her eyes began to water when he was struck down, falling into her arms. He was wrapped in her arms, letting out his breath. Her tears falling onto his lifeless body.

Mist twisted and turned, patting the ground around her. She had latched onto something weirdly portioned, something that was hard as a rock. She didn’t care very much, she just held it as tightly as she could. Only after hearing a grumble that followed with the person shaking her off.

“Mist,” Ike grumbled, prying her off of his arm. “Get off of me.”

“Ike,” she murmured, letting go of his arm. “Where…am I?”

“You’re in my tent,” he replied, pushing her away. “Why are you here?”

“I don’t know,” she said, rapidly blinking. “I was in my tent when I fell asleep.”

“I need you to leave,” he sighed, rolling his eyes.

“No!” Mist chirped, attaching herself to his arm again.

“Mist! Stop this!” Ike groaned, trying to pry her off again.

“No! I’m not leaving!” She said, tightening her grip.

“How is your grip so strong?” He asked, giving up. “Why are you acting like this?”

“Not any of your business,” she mumbled.

“It is my business, you’re my little sister,” he said, hitting her on the head with his free hand.

“It doesn’t feel like it is,” she sighed, loosening her grip on him. “You’ve been ignoring me for a while. Ever since dad died, you really haven’t cared.”

“Mist,” Ike softly said, putting his palm on the top of her head.

She let him go and as she began to leave, he held onto her. “Let go of me.”

“No.” He sighed, pulling her closer to him. “I’m sorry Mist, I didn’t mean to make you feel like that.”

“I know,” she pouted, prying his fingers off of her. “I just miss spending time with my brother.”

“I know you do,” he softly said, letting go of her. “How about we go to that festival then?”

“Really?” Mist asked, her face lighting up.

“Yes really,” Ike smiled. “Now go get ready.”

She nodded her head and rushed out of his tent. She quickly cleaned herself up and grabbed a few things before meeting up with her brother again. It was mostly a quiet walk to the next town over. She bounced up and down, letting a little gasp, as she saw the many people that were here. Mist smiled, grabbing Ike’s arm as she dragged him further into the town.

There were so many things that they could do, she couldn’t decide. Luckily for her, her brother already knew what to do. Not that she was surprised that he went straight to eating some meat. She laughed a little, there was nothing new with Ike inhaling his food. Mist looked around, trying to find something they could do together. She was a little surprised there weren’t very many games they could play. The more surprising thing to her was that everything was food related. It was baffling to her that this town was able to have all this food during a war.

She shook her head, trying not to think of the logistics of it. Mist was just happy that people were able to eat and have fun. She turned her attention back to her brother, who was chowing down on some kind of meat dish, with it all over his face. She laughed, handing him a napkin.

“Why haven’t you gotten anything to eat?” Ike asked, taking the napkin.

“I’m not really all that hungry right now,” Mist smiled. “Plus, I need to keep my appetite. It looks like we are at a food festival.”

She laughed even more when she watched her brother’s face light up, wondering why he didn’t decide to come sooner.

“I better finish this then,” he said, inhaling his food.

“You need to chew first!” She gasped. “I don’t need you to choke on your food!”

He nodded, slowing down his chewing.

“Seriously, if I weren’t around, you would be dead by now just eating your food,” she sighed, shaking her head.

“Whatever,” he laughed, finishing up his food. “We better get going.”

Mist nodded as she got up from her seat. She walked with him around the town, looking at all the yummy desserts that they were passing by. She couldn’t choose what to get. There were coffee cakes, cream cheese cakes, coffee eclairs, strawberry shortcakes, chocolate mousse, and so many other things. She was drooling when she stared longingly at the food. Mist could hear her brother laugh.

“If there is something you want to eat, I’ll get it for you,” Ike smiled, patting her head.

“No, no,” she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I still need to make space in my stomach.”

“How are you related to me?” Ike laughed. “I thought you would have a big stomach like me.”

“Thankfully, I’m not you,” Mist teased, turning to face him. “I actually appreciate the food I eat.”

“I appreciate the food I inhale,” he scoffed, playfully hitting her shoulder. “Why do you think I shove it down so fast?”

“If this war doesn’t kill you, you eating will,” she laughed.

“Ah, that would be the life,” Ike smiled. “Let’s keep walking, you want to work up that appetite don’t you?”

Mist nodded, following him around. She smiled as she watched everyone be like her brother, quickly eating their food while they laughed and told stories. It brought her relief that people were still able to have fun right now. If this meant anything, it meant she needed to end this war faster so they could have many more days like this. She shook her head as she looked back up to her brother who had the dopest look on his face. He found a little area where a small group of people were holding a little sword competition. She could tell he was giddy. Mist gestured for him to go over, and without a second thought, Ike rushed over.

She watched her brother have fun beating everyone that fought him. He didn’t even break a sweat when he battled against anyone. Not that she is surprised by it, his training was insane. Everyone was impressed by his skill; they even asked him to give them some pointers on how to train and use their sword. Deep down, it made her so happy that he was actually enjoying himself and being able to relax for once. She could tell he was a lot less stressed than he usually was at camp.

“Hey Mist,” Ike said, stretching his arms.

“You had fun playing with everyone?” She chuckled, walking up to him.

“I did,” he smiled, meeting her half way. “Are you hungry yet? I think I am hungrier than ever right now.”

“I mean you just went up against ten people and helped them train,” she said, poking his face. “You usually get hungry afterwards. I would be concerned if you didn’t.”

“You know me so well,” he agreed, fending off her finger. “But you still haven’t eaten yourself, I’m getting concerned.”

“Yeah, I think I’m getting hungry,” she smiled, persistent on her poking.

“Will stop that,” he groaned a little, grabbing her hand.

“Let’s go around to get something to eat,” she laughed as he let her hand go.

“Onwards,” he gestured for her to lead the way.

She looked around, seeing that the town was starting to wind down a little bit. It also looked like some people were starting to gather around the food stalls. She rushed around, trying to find something that would be filling and she could carry around. She smiled as she came across a stall with nothing but potatoes. She gave the vendor two gold to get twenty mini potato pancakes with a couple of other vegetables.

Mist let out a little gasp as she tasted the potato goodness. The butter tied into the wonderful taste of the salt, pepper, and other spices and herbs the person cooked it with. The other vegetables that went with it, helped it so much more. She waved at Ike to come try it along with his other meat dish.

“Taste this,” Mist demanded, shoving the potato into his mouth.

“Mist-” He said as he bit into the little snack. Without a second thought, he grabbed another and another. “This is so good. I think this is better than what Oscar can make.”

“You better hope that he never hears that,” she laughed, handing him another piece. “You know how much he likes hearing your compliments.”

“Do me a favor, never tell him that,” he said, choking on his food.

“Don’t worry, they will never come out of these lips,” she smiled, eating a little more. “Just make sure you tell him you appreciate what he makes.”

“You know I will,” he said, coughing up his food. “Anyway, what do you think is going on over there?”

“I have no idea,” she said, looking back at the people in town. There were even more crowding the stalls. She thought the town was winding down. “We should go see.”

“Right,” Ike nodded, following her.

They then realized that everyone was gathered around certain areas, it was because of a taste testing contest. Mist laughed loudly when she saw Ike was beside himself. He looked like a child in a candy store. When they walked around, she grabbed any dessert she laid eyes on. It broke her heart when she was dragged somewhere else by her brother.

It was unsurprising that he found an area that had taste testing for people making ribs. It was his favorite food after all. She sighed before smiling when Ike handed her different types of ribs. She kept to herself how she really felt about them, she really wasn’t impressed by the taste. It was a bit bland, the sauce wasn’t really helping to cover it up, and the meat was a bit chewy. Mist didn’t mind too much, whatever she had leftover she would give to Ike and it made him so happy.

By the end of the night, she could feel her stomach overflowing with food. She knew she would be able to sleep easy tonight. She could also tell her own brother was getting sleepy from the amount of food he ate. It almost looked like he would fall to the ground and just sleep there.

“Hey Mist,” Ike murmured out, holding onto his sister.

“Yeah?” Mist asked, holding her brother.

“Here, I have this for you,” he smiled, handing her a cup full of chocolate mousse.

“No way!” She gasped, letting go of him to grab the dessert. “When did you get this?”

“When we were at the corner with the ribs,” he said, falling to the ground. “I snuck a way for a few minutes to grab you some. Sorry if the freshness isn’t the greatest.”

“It tastes amazing,” she laughed, bending down to the ground to pat his back. “Thank you.”

“Good,” he smiled, trying to get off the ground.

Mist put his arm around her shoulder, helping him get back to camp and into his tent. He was out as soon as they got back. She rested next to him, and for the first time in weeks, she didn’t have a nightmare when she went to bed.

----------------------------------------------

So I got to participate in @telliusbigbang and got to write for one of my fave dynamics, sibling bonds! I wrote about Ike and Mist trying to bond together but Mist failing most of the time but happy that she was finally able to! She is having a time to say the least. It was also very fun to work with both Vellatra and Mawwy Mawwy who drew the cute art that went with this fic!

[alexissara]

How I'd Make FEH's Seasonal Banners Not Suck

Gacha is evil, it's bad, you shouldn't play it but as a girl with a big of a gambling addiction but see's no value in PNGs it's an outlet for me so I enjoy a few Gacha games for their fix, one of which being FEH. Seasonal banners are the worst banners of every month because their not sparkable without paying the monthly fee they want players to pay. Still imagining a better world where they had non premium spark I want to go over each months theme and if I'd keep it the same or if I'd replace the theme and with what.

January - New Years It's a solid banner theme of holiday banners it's one of two I'd keep. Most people use a calendar that means January is the start of a new year so a banner themed around celebrating it makes sense.

January 2 - Dessert

While the Dessert theme does have an eventual expiration date Fire Emblem does have a nice breath of Dessert cultures throughout the series that I do think is interesting to get a bit more insight into. Eventually this will have to pivot to some other type of cultural background but I do think there is smooth ways to transition into cultures although perhaps they will intersect with the Culture/Tribal banners that happen later in the year. If they really ran out of special cultures I do think they could pivot this to even go modern and explore real world cultures that inspired the characters for more modern designs which could be a fun and exciting ways to engage players.

February - Vday While I enjoy the dead dads theme of The Day Of Devotion banner being little families connecting I do think with FEHs dual heroes that we could do an actually romantic set of banners where it has ships on dates in cute outfits with an all dual hero banner. I think this theme could or could not be game locked but I think the most fun thing is to have a thematic tie between the ships and have it not be game locked so instead be like tragic love, Eternal Love, Childhood Friends To Lovers Rivals To Lovers kinda deals where it explores a different set of dynamics and how they manifested in the series. I'd start with a Childhood Friends To Lovers theme with Alm and Celica, Florina and Lyn, Dimitri and Dedude something like that to have a nice well flavored banner.

March - Replace Easter with Beast AU

This is probably my biggest want for Fire Emblem Heroes, the Easter Theme is not good. What could be amazing though and fix one of FEHs biggest problems is a banner that makes units into Beast Units. FEH has to make a good chunk of it's OCs beasts just so it can put a new stream of beast units into the game and has to use fairly niche characters to fill seasonal rosters all to stay canon complient but I say fuck canon, it's fun to do an AU and it would let popular characters be reimagined. In particular they could easily debut this to a best selling banner of Three Houses AUs. Flying Beast Black Eagle Edelgard, Cavalier Beast Golden Deer Claude, Armor Beast Blue Lion Dimitri, and Infantry Beast Ashen Wolf Yuri. Bam, perfect, that's a top selling banner. You pair Yuri with M Byleth since he is the Ashen demon or Naliah for a canon wolf unit. You make the tempest trail unit Fbyleth as either like a literal Ashen Demon or a dragon.

April - Replace Kids with Futures

It will never set well with me on every single level the kids banner theme. I hate having the kids end up being stronger then the other versions of the character. I hate having kid designs in general cuz it feels weird to use babies to fight in these wars. It's a weird theme that should go. So instead I propose a much better theme of Futures where we see the characters older from their end cards in the game. This is a massive staple of Fire Emblem having characters have some nice little future and why can't we see this. The age range can vary seeing fresh faced adults of the younger characters like a Donel or a Amelia or like proper older versions of some of the more standard ages Fire Emblem lords as they enter their MILF/DILF eras. People would love to see a proper older version of characters they love, especially it could be cute for older titles where you maybe it could be like aged by the amount of years of the game and kinda a growing up with the character kinda deal. Or it could just be a thirsty Mommy Sorry kinda vibe, either way works for me.

May - Replace Brides With cooking banner

Getting ready for the summer rather then a creepy bridal theme we could have a cook out, since Fates cooking has been a staple of Fire Emblem. I think themes like Tea Time could also move to this slot but each year could have a different kind of cooking vibe from like a summer cook out to a master chief vibe to like a cozy married life cooking banner with each capturing a new vibe while not being just the same boring white dress on woman theme.

June - Keep Summer 1

It's fine, I don't care for the fan service but people enjoy it, keep one month of summer banners, it clearly makes money, someone gets excited about it, a lot of people do but it could also be they bring out a lot of fan favorite units and strong pairings.

July - Replace Summer 2

I will give FEH one month of swim suits but one month is all I will give. Swim suits are not inspired, they aren't particularly interesting and we don't need two months of it. The theme that could replace it I think is space for something really fun like a cosplay theme with other Nintendo characters or a modern fashion theme that could be summery but not like just a swim suit. Something out there and exciting and can be a real talking point of the year. Personally I am found of the cosplay/crossover slot existing here.

August - Make Explicitly A Rare Class Theme

This slot might seem random but to me the clear pattern is it's about highlighting a rare class in the series be in rare as if you get 1 per game or rare as in was only in a few games. We have plenty of Fates Birthrights classes but even outside of that we have classes like Summoner that have only ever appeared once or Bandit that have only been playable once that could be a ton of fun to see characters dressed up as and could lead to really fun designs.

September - Keep Culture

The culture/tribal banners that show up in September are fantastic, actually using the lore of Fire Emblem. We have tons of cultures to go through that have shown up in the Fire Emblem series with countries like Sacae, Almyra, Brigid, all briming with a ton of fun potential to bring into banners and have popular characters be there to carry the flag for their country while other characters dive deep into the cultures.

October - Keep Halloween

Halloween is fun, it's fun, it never is samey because Halloween is what you make it, they could mix it up and have FE characters cosplaying Nintendo characters even if they start deciding they wanted to move off spooky stuff but honestly the spooky stuff is all cheesy fun and the banners are not creepy at all so I think they are just good fun.

November - Widen Ninja to be other Japanese inspired classes

I love Ninja Banners, who doesn't they just have good units from popular games and good designs but I do think expanding Ninja to include Samurai and other Hosido classes could widen the general appeal of the units and help them not stagnate but also I like Ninjas so like I feel like it should expand but not as strongly as the others I wanted to change.

December - Replace Xmas With Snowy Cultures

I am Christmas's greatest hater so of course I want this to change but I also think it's just so boring as a theme everyone wearing the same kind of outfit and colors every single year it just isn't fun and I would much rather see an expansion to the worlds cultures like with other cultural banners and a shift to Snowy cultures like Flora's home culture and Florinas.

[loopingpyre]

So much happened in this session. Started by spamming WIRE messages to the club. Didn't realize there were so many bits of characterization there. Ayana straight up admits to being into girls lol. Aquarium layout was much nicer than the Sun Temple's. Also had a lot of pretty rooms! The fish... Another banger for the OST though not quite as hard hitting as Onboro. Reina Ueda's range is crazy. Kotono getting into a petty name calling contest with Mirei and then doubling down later was what I am here for. I love it when characters choose to suck! Her punching out the guy after saving him was great too. Mirei throwing a tantrum and everything being played a bit less seriously was a nice cooldown after the previous arc. Looks like any big reveals for Kotono are going to have to wait a bit more though. Her character story looks like its moving to the main conflict. Speaking of character eps, there were a lot, especially for Ayana and Eiji. I didn't expect Ayana to be one of the older members. No concrete age but based on her idol career + the years she stayed shut in I'm guessing late twenties to thirties. I wonder if there's anything deeper to the diving into the person's heart or if it's just for emphasis. Still, the idol backstory makes a lot of sense. I wouldn't be surprised if she hated men even without the tragedy of what happened to her friend. I'm curious to see how it will resolve. In one of the eps Aria mentions how it's possible that someone can't just heal and move on and I appreciated the game having a line for it because it shouldn't be like a Fire Emblem support where someone just fixes a problem in three conversations. Ayana sending everyone a letter was great too! I love when more of the cast gets involved beyond the mc and Aria. Also everyone supporting the potential yuri was nice. Now, it tying into Eiji's story was the real woah moment. Not that Eiji needed more suspicion thrown his way, but that kinda confirmed his kidnapping story was bs. And then he casually goes and tries to kill the guy lol. I buy that he's a lawyer (evil) but not so much the guilt being too much for him. Lots of theories as to why he's so mad so we'll see which one is his actual trauma. The other character eps weren't as dramatic. Izuru's eps were about what I expected but its early. Naruko's went in a different direction than I expected but I'm here for it as someone who has struggled with mustering up creativity. Speaking of relatable, Suzuna trying to have lunch with people was cute, though I don't think her trauma was simply isolating herself. Shogo's teased his issue with Thorn again which I don't expect to get any light on anytime soon and Kotaro's has been surprisingly slow moving too. Aria straight up hiding things from Mifue in her ep was a twist though. Aria finally being compelling... I never thought I'd see the day. Mifue being a volleyball player and her weird relationship with food makes me think she's starved herself? Or developed an eating disorder. In battle her outfit has the mask over her mouth too. Brings up some possibly disturbing implications with Kotono (her outfit only changes below the bottom half) and Eiji summoning fire. Now I feel like I should definitely be paying more attention to the designs! Looking forward to the musician hangout portion! Oh and wanted to thank mads for adding commentary to these posts too. Appreciate having a place to ramble on. Apologies for the length!

This sparks joy, yay yay!!

The wire stuff is always super fun and adds all sorts of details you might miss! You can also check WIRE and ask for a recap of where you are with the plot and youll get all sorts of little bits from the rest of the gang about it! It's such a cute mechanic!

Sadistic Queen is a very fun one! I love how the boss theme's piano is so discordinant, it reflects so well on the petulant temper tantrum of a musician.

I think the diving to the heart is just for emphasis, and a reflection on how you are moving towards something deeply personal. You had to work to get that far, sort of thing.

Ayana and Eiji are extremely good additions, I like them adding more adults to the team. I wonder which of the gang you think are underage? The original promotional material for OG Caligula via it's key art pushed Kotono as a Main Heroine, which is the most comedic choice.

Shogo is my favourite of the main gang, for what it's worth.

The Catharsis Effects are always really interesting, from both a visual design standpoint as well as the flower choices. In fact, when they did the anime adaptation and made the Male Protag into a full character, they changed his flowers to fit.

I cant think of much more to comment on right now but make no apologies for the length! Im very happy to hear this!

[siofraturalderp]

I have been without a proper drawing setup for years. I had a laptop that did basic work. During that time I decided to learn basic programming and eventually tried joining a NaNoWriMo Visual Novel game jam. I was playing the Legend of Zelda BotW and TotK games at the time, and my fiancé was playing old Fire Emblem game boy games. After then watching some clips of the Netflix animated adaption of Castlevania (that show ROCKS), I decided to try making an old school visual novel, where the main male character had blue hair and fought against the evil vampire lord to save his pink haired damsel in distress. The game was supposed to be 10-15 minutes long, but due to poor time constraints from working a terrible job, I was never able to enter. All I was able to draw was the version with the blue background over the weeks. I was only home long enough to eat, MAYBE draw for 15 minutes, and fall asleep.

Although I was never able to enter, the idea stuck with me and evolved over the next few years. Once I got a new job and things started looking up, I built a computer and was able to draw again!

This is Blue, the main character of a small comic project I would like to do someday called BlueBird, or Blue Bird… I’m unsure of how to write it out lol. The main character is the color blue, and he likes birds lol. The story starts with him as a kid growing up in a small village who encounters a life altering event, leading him and the gang to fight against the evil vampire lord and his minions. I’m doing these sketches to get me use to drawing again, since I feel like I lost some skills before my online disappearance.

The newest doodles I went with multiple shades of blue and I felt like I got lucky with coloring and drawing him like I imagined. I even tried taking a crack of how he will look as a child. He will be a lighter blue as a kid, but he gets darker with more defined patterns as he gets older. These doodles are to help me get back into drawing, so although rough, these feel great to do!

I’m using the Krita program to draw now, and it’s a really nice program!

[somethingwittyandweird]

What's your favorite game you played this year?

You've activated my “review of my year in gaming” trap card! I was already going to make this post in some form or another, you've just given me the perfect launching point. So, the first thing you should know about asking me for favorites: I never give just one. How could I, when it's been such a banger year of games? (Heads up, this one's going to go long.)

I loved Tears of the Kingdom to death, and it took home my most hours played on Switch. It is a shining example of what devs can do with an extra few months to polish a game. There were so many remarkable moments that testified to how much care and ideas the devs were able to put in. I loved how it used the time since the first game to develop familiar places and characters, adding depth (no pun intended) and also making sure every familiar location had some new twist. The story was a much stronger followup to BotW, and I think this overall has my new favorite ending sequence of anything in the series (I'd love to make a full post sometime about how the final Ganondorf battles just keep getting more spectacular with each new title). I am so, so, so, so normal about this incarnation of Princess Zelda. 

Also in my favorites this year is Fire Emblem Engage, which hit at just the right time to scratch my strategy itch. As a long time FE fan it’s not a surprise I enjoyed this one- though it lost the political intrigue of its predecessor in favor of a more traditional/tropey story, I still had a lot of fun with all its gimmicks and gameplay innovations. Also it is hands-down the most visually appealing game in the franchise, a title previously held by the series’ GBA entries which are masterworks from the peak era of beautiful sprite art. From the incredible crit animations to the spectacle of super attacks to the battle maps which are so beautifully detailed that the game lets you free roam around them after a battle just to appreciate them better. 

I finished the Link’s Awakening remake this year! It was a charming trip back to an older era of Zelda design philosophy and I found it fascinating to compare the ways where the classic puzzles and challenges differ from what the game would be like if it were made today, as well as the places where modern technology allowed for better QoL changes that weren’t in the original. I really enjoyed the music as well, which I find to be a standout among the series still.

Here at the end of the year, I have to give a shout out to Sea of Stars. It has everything you want in an indie darling- very pretty pixel art, very nice music, turn-based battles with timed hits I joke, but Sea of Stars does a great job balancing evoking/paying homage to icons like Chrono Trigger and bringing new gameplay to the JRPG formula. I like its pared-down take on JRPG combat which revamps skills/mana into a much more dynamic resource that’s constantly being spent and regenerated, and I’m a known sucker for character combo attacks which this game has in spades. The later parts of its story are told with a lot of heart, and again I am a known sucker for certain character archetypes. Surprisingly also, I think the movement and exploration is absolutely a standout- not something that’s typically emphasized in the genre. But this game constantly has you hopping across stepping stones, balancing on tightropes, climbing walls and ledges… the emphasis on interesting traversal and verticality is a strength few games like it can boast. 

Before my final pick, I’m including a special section for all the games I didn't play myself but watched my friends play and still want to praise: Hi-Fi Rush, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Mario Bros Wonder, Pizza Tower, the Minish Cap Switch rerelease, and more all came out this year and all of them have brought killer music, excellent gameplay, and stunning visuals that I’ve enjoyed to no end. Anyone considering to pick up any of them would find a quality product without a doubt.

With all that said: I think ultimately it has to be Tunic in the end. Underneath its premise of a Zelda/Souls-like adventure game there is a wealth of secrets that goes as far down as you have the courage to delve. It’s a game built to evoke nostalgia for games that you didn’t understand yet, posing as a game that you watched an older sibling play or a game you could only find a poorly-translated foreign copy of. It obscures everything and teaches you its secrets through context, exploration, and discovering in-game pages of the manual (remember manuals?). It’s a game made for lovers of secrets and puzzles, full of hidden paths and trophies that reward inquisitiveness and observation (and taking paper notes). It was when I saw that it not only has a conlang, but that it gives you the hints you need to fully translate it, that I knew I had to get it myself. It spurred me to screenshot every in-game piece of menu text, then spend evenings cross-referencing it to identify phonemes and construct a key.

The rush I got on completing that key is one of two moments I knew this game was absolutely special. The second standout moment is when the game teaches you its hugest secret, and then invites you to prove your mastery of it by presenting you a huge, multi-part puzzle. But, Tunic does the same thing that one of my other all-time favorites, Outer Wilds, does so well: powerups via knowledge, “unlocking” abilities that you always had, you just didn’t know that you did. The pieces to this puzzle are hidden in plain sight; it’s only when the game tells you what you’re looking for that your understanding shifts, everything clicks, and your eyes are opened to the path you have to follow. I don’t say it lightly, but I consider Tunic to be a one-of-a-kind title, and one that delivers completely on its unique vision. 

In case that brick of text doesn’t make it clear, I love this game. 

I love all of these games.

It's a fine time to be alive.