#archanea meta

[iturbide]

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with fans filling in the mistakes left by IS, just that I feel Awakening's writers treated the game as a stand-alone story.

In a lot of ways I'm pretty sure they did! From a Doylist standpoint, Awakening was intended to be the swan song of Fire Emblem as a series: they dropped in a lot of references, callbacks, and homages to earlier games as a send-off and goodbye to the fans of the series in what was intended to be its curtain call. I can't possibly say how much of it was intentionally placed and how much was included just as a nice treat for those who were familiar with older games.

But also I think that there's something beautiful about the effort fans have put into making sense of Awakening in the context of a larger timeline. It's a level of dedication and care that speaks volumes for how much they love the series as a whole, and it feels...dismissive, to me, to say "there's nothing wrong" with doing it, like it discounts just how much work fans have done, on their own time, to do all of this, and often enough make it available for other fans who share the same interest.

[randomnameless]

Three houses get more representation in heroes because its popular ?

I guess?

My issue isn't with how popular or loved Fodlan is, but what FEH was supposed to be.

With FE Cipher, even if Fates and Awakening were very popular, we still had entire sets featuring FE6 characters. Ditto for FE4/5/8 (tfw a Bael got its own card).

CYL is a popularity contest, that much I understand.

And yet, I also understand FEH is supposed to be a celebration of the franchise itself - bla bla FEH is a main game because Vero is a paid DLC in Engage bla but would anyone really pay 60 bucks to play book 1 and 6 about Vero's story? Really ? If this is a main game , then the first warriors game is one too lol - so why are the same 3 games over represented ?

In Cipher, we had a Fates set, then a Jugdral set (featuring CIpher OCs?), then an Archanea set, then an awakening set, then a Valentia one, etc etc.

But if they follow the current FEH, it'd be one fodlan set, one thracia set, one fodlan set, one awakening set, one fodlan set, one tellius set, one fodlan set, one elibe set, one fodlan set etc.

I really get how popular units/games will always sell and the fan favourites are always represented, I played through 2 Tales gacha games lol, Links had basically a bajillion of Leons and Yuris while poor Caius barely existed, and Rowen never got a premium unit!

CYL is a fan event - for sure - but beyond CYL, it's just FEH that tires me - it's not a celebration of the FE series anymore, it's just a cashgrab to take money from some fans using their current obsession (Fateswakening in Year1-2, Fodlan now) so while it never concerned me in the first few years, I dgaf and moved on, wondering if the units I like would ever get a thing (and they did! Saias was released for free lol) but now with the state of powercreep the game has?

You have to roll for units, to get their skills and fodder them to units you care about, and even then, they might not be able to clean PVE content - I like when things are challenging, sure, but the last Seer's Snare was a cruel wake-up : even with the newest shiny skills and whatnot, Caineghis cannot compete with duo!Anna. P!Naesala has the WTA against them? Who gives a fig, he dies on initiation.

Hegemongard was just a prelude to what FEH would become lol - even if, with investment, old units could still put up a fight against her, but you had to get dedicated team to counter her.

Now? With a team with W!Mitris, L!Alear and A!Elincia? Good luck tanking anything lol - sure, Tina is a godsend and I find if hilarious how this random nobody from FE5 is supposed to counter the crazed current meta, but it's the same issue - sell ridiculous units, and sell ridiculous counters.

It's the essence of a gacha game.

Maybe the next A!Caineghis or maybe a L!Caineghis will make the character relevant again - at least if you want to play and use him, but... as far as FEH is concerned, no one gaf about Cain, so he might have gotten a refine and yet he'll not get another unit. Forgive him in you want to play PVE content - or roll for new premium units and field him as a cute mascot.

[gascon-en-exil]

What do you consider the best FE games in terms of gameplay?

Bearing in mind that my parameters for what constitutes good FE gameplay are very different from those of pretty much anyone else who talks about this online:

Replayability and completionist goals like support logs are very much a part of gameplay even if most people disregard them.

Fun unintentional metas

Notably, these are the only games that I can fully enjoy even without cheating (not that they wouldn't be even more fun with cheating).

FE16: 100% completion, I have a playlist all about it, and alongside my favorite ships it's the best thing to have come out of this game in my opinion.

FE10: The game forcing stat points on level ups (at least +1 in combat, +3 with BEXP) as well as the battle save feature makes it feasible for units to cap all stats without grinding or using a bunch of stats boosters...which is good since they're finite here. It's also a lot of fun for draft runs with all the army switching.

Better with cheating, good replay value

FE4 rises above the other Kaga games by virtue of its eugenics babies, which really add to the replay value as you try out different combinations. There's also, unexpectedly, a charming smallness to its overall limited inventory and fewer chapters.

Not a ton of replay, but more interesting gameplay than below (esp. with cheating)

Basically what it says. None of them have universal support logs so that concern isn't there, but they can be fun to replay with different characters. FE5 especially though needs cheating, because I'm not a masochist.

Whoever designed the GBA support system should be ashamed

...Yeah. Good games, but the grind is miserable especially in FE7. Also, FE7's ranking system is awful and annoying although I can't fault it for that as it originated back in the Jugdral games.

Postgame is just a grindfest, but at least it's fun getting there

To this day I still haven't finished all the supports and bond conversations, mostly because I lost interest. There's just too much to collect or achieve postgame and almost no incentive to do so. As many have said though, the gameplay is fun and dynamic - yes, even on Normal.

Play it once (or play the remake) and that'll do it

FE6 would be up with the other GBA games if it had a support log, but since it doesn't there's no reason to get supports aside from the stat boosts. The Archanea games and Gaiden all feel small and outdated now, and there's not much point to going back to them. I ranked the DS remakes below the originals because while they're more up to date they also have more annoying features, like unlocking paralogues in FE11 or Kris in FE12.

Oh my God how did the support log get *worse*!? (Apotheosis meta is alright at least)

Grinding out every variable parent-child support line is a nightmare, and there's no sense of accomplishment because they're so repetitive. The gameplay is dull as anything, and while this is a game for min-maxing that will require lots of grinding. At least Apotheosis exists as a goal for that.

See Awakening, but somehow even worse except for the maps

(Note that this is FE14 in its entirety, not just Revelation - no idea why so many of these tier list makers break up the routes of Fates as if they were separate games)

Much less completionist-friendly than FE13; the support log is even bigger with even more variable parent-child lines, growths are lower and it's harder to level infinitely, and there's no serious postgame content to work toward. The maps are fun and I appreciate what they were going for with Phoenix mode even if no one else does, but there's a reason I haven't come back to this game in years and it has nothing whatsoever to do with moral outrage or nitpicking over plot holes.

[aurheatum]

@iyusiia

Headcanon prompt / open

Despite clearly drawing inspiration from FE4 and its divinities, godliness in 3h is explicitly linked to motherhood in Fodlan (differing from Naga's depictions in both Archanea and Jugdral).

Sothis is above all the land's progenitor goddess - the emphasis on her femininity and maternal side explicit in the text that shows up in the Fodlan magic circle.

Image: the localized text (right) and a new translation (left) using the exact romanization and wording that shows up in-game whenever white or black magic is cast. Source.

Rhea wants her mother, the Goddess, back; this is the reasoning behind much of what happens in Three Houses, including Byleth's own origin. But does Rhea want to be a god, herself? Much less a mother?

I don't think so. She states at the end of SS "I wished desperately to be held in my mother's arms once more", very clearly placing herself in the role of child when it comes to Sothis (funny, she can only admit to this when she knows it is no longer possible).

Here's a much harder, question, then, is Rhea a mother despite her own wants? Let's dig in!

As her new FEH unit aptly puts (in both her Japanese and English title for it) Rhea is quite literally the matriarch of the entire Seiros religion. Even if it is, as hinted, based on what the Sothis religion looked like while the goddess was still alive it was created by Seiros, named after her, and has been strictly guided by the same archbishop for a millennia now.

She is also the creator of twelve living beings or vessels - ending with Sitri (and this is not to mention her altered golems, all named after people dear to her). Textually, there is no doubt that as a creator to one who "loved as a human" and someone who, to use an alternate translation of Sothis' magical circle, was indeed "a creature who possessed a heart", Rhea is a mother, even going so far as to say that is exactly how Sitri viewed her.

It is telling though, isn't it, the way she phrases it? While she acknowledges she was a mother figure to Sitri, and even admits to affection toward her* -- nowhere does she ever say she considers Sitri her daughter.

She would never truly be able to admit that, after all; to be a mother is simply not something Rhea can ever comphrehend because it would put her as equal to her mother ("I have only ever been acting as your proxy" she tells Byleth when still convinced they will awaken as Sothis).

And yet, despite it all, she has indeed become one in her single-minded pursuit to bring the dead back to life.

Post canon would she ever be able to come to terms with all this? That's a little bit out of the range of my portrayal I have to say, but probably only in her endings where she goes to live with Catherine in Zanado and actually has time time to unpack all of the lies she's told both the world and herself.

*I want to add that, in her own weird, winding Nabatean way, I do think Rhea at least considered Sitri to be family or special. I went into this more in another meta but never added what really sets it apart to me: the reason she gave Sitri a private open casket burial and preserved her body, in my opinion, is because this is something she never could do for the rest of her family (tfw ur either a pebble or sword). It is one of the highest forms of love an eternally grieving woman like Rhea can give.

[markoftheasphodel]

This is FE12 Michalis, though. The one who got to shove his middle finger in Marth’s face and get Macedon all to himself, threw both his sisters in a convent despite their reason for angst being alive, and then ran off to conquer another continent because he learned nothing.

Only if you let Minerva save his sorry ass. I wouldn’t.

[burr-ell]

God I'll never not be salty about how WASTED the lore/worldbuilding is in 3H.

Sothis is literally an interdimensional draco-god of unknown origins who can bend time to her will and create (the Nabateans) and restore life, which is what made her comatose after the war with the Agarthans

The setting of Fodlan is a vaguely "medieval" country built upon the bones of an advanced magi-tech civilization (Shambahla and the Holy Tomb being nuclear bunkers with the Holy Tomb also maybe having missile EMP???), this is a Fantasy Post-Apocalypse.

Said previous civilization (Agartha) literally nuked the world back to the Dark Ages and had a nuclear winter (the Flood aptly named Despair) because they were a bunch of teched out super-racists

The Heroes Relics twitch implying some form of horrific sentience

The Slitherers being revealed to just be ancient humans and how humanity's hatred & greed is the root of Fodlan's problems, both old and new

And that's just the tip of the iceberg! 3H really went and said "hey NEVERMIND all that you should only care about [checks notes] Edelgard's War" The absolute. Buffoonery...

gods i knooOOOOWWWWWWWW

I've actually yelled before about how interested I am in Agarthan and Nabatean lore. Like, "Romance of the World's Perdition" was a good start, but I need MORE from you Intsys:

In the land of Thinis, where the old gods are said to live, the False God has awakened. Its looming, heteromorphic vessel was resurrected to sink the world to the depths of the ocean. It will bring extinction to all children of men, and salvation to all beasts of the land, sky, and sea. For the children of men who spilled too much of the blood of life, it promises only cruel retribution.

The False God must be defeated before the world sinks into a watery grave. To this end, the children of men have erected pillars of light upon the land. Thinis, Malum, Septen, and Llium were utterly destroyed. Those lands have vanished from this world. Yet even still, the False God stands. And soon, a flood aptly named Despair will drown this world.

The children of men fled to the depths of the earth, beyond the sight of the False God, beyond the embrace of the sacred sun, and beyond the reach of the waters of Despair. They swore a fervent oath of revenge against the surface world, ruled by beasts, and against their tormentor, the False God.

Like. What's the deal with Thinis? Was that the original name of Zanado/Garreg Mach? What are Malum, Septen, and Llium? I did once do some research and find these name origins on a forum somewhere:

Septen: Septentrional means "of the north", also used for stars of the Big Dipper Thinis: Capital of the first Egyptian Dynasties Malum: Latin for "bad" Llium: Could be Illium/Ilion, the old name for the City of Troy i.e. the Trojans

All the Greek/Egyptian names, plus "Sothis" being the Hellenization of "Sopdet", which we know they know is Sirius because the theme that plays during conversations about Sothis is called "Gazing at Sirius". Is Sirius the Blue Sea Star? WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN.

Like you said, they really took all that and went "we will not elaborate but here have gap moe crab waifu war instead". Claude is too hot to avoid this lore, Intsys. And he hungers.

[notcatherinemorland]

i had like an Idea in class today but the only thing running thru my mind is how i can shove that idea directly up the arse of my fire emblem Thoughts to create this frankenstein of legitimate literature analysis and anime chess which i have decided is my new brand. all my interests now have to pick a side. literature analysis or anime chess, and then will be sent through a sausage grinder to create... something

[fayesdiary]

(I mean I'm always down to hear a Rudolf roast but) I'd love to hear your thoughts on Grima! I loved the commentary/headcanons you've posted on them before

Well let's get the most important thing out of the way:

Now that we're done with Rudolf until hopefully April 16th, we can talk about Grima!

First of all, if you like my Grima stuff: please do yourself a favor and check @iturbide's blog. Like right now.

Take a deep dive into their #grima tag because that's how I feel into the rabbit hole into the first place. Seriously, you won't regret it.

...why do I feel like I'm making a sales pitch?

So, Grima is a very peculiar case among not just Fire Emblem villains, but FE characters in general, because most of what we know about them comes from games they're not directly relevant to, featuring into Echoes' postgame as the secret boss (the first one in the series if I'm not mistaken!) and in Heroes as... well.

If you take only Awakening into account, their motivation is a standard one, although more apocalyptic than the typical FE villain, but they're one of the few ones to actually succeed in their goals!

Granted, Grima won only in an alternate timeline, but still.

And don't even get me started on their design, it's unlike anything else in Fire Emblem, it's just screaming bringer of the apocalypse and if anything else, they look like a Kirby final boss!

Which brings me to everything about the finale which just *chef's kiss* perfection. Even more epic when you consider the meta commentary about Awakening being supposed to be the last Fire Emblem.

But what makes Grima so interesting for me is everything we learn about them in future titles, with Echoes giving them the most intriguing villain backstory (with the implication that rumors of their existence led Duma to destroy Thabes and get exiled to Valentia, thus kickstarting Echoes itself in a very indirect way) and Heroes delving relatively deep into their thoughts and motivation beyond the "Muhahaha I'm evil" that Awakening led you to believe.

Also they have in hindsight SO MANY connections with both Archanea and Valentia in ways you wouldn't expect (and if they add Jugdral to the mix with the eventual remakes I'm gonna scream), which makes Grima the most fan character for me to theorycraft on, albeit slightly indirectly!

Anyway yeah, I don't talk about Grima that much but I love them a lot

[arcstral]

Soooo... I have a meta question, if that's alright: what is your view on Archanea's perception of the afterlife? Or rather, what happens to souls after death. Do they believe in heaven, or an underworld? That there isn't anything at all, perhaps? :0

               Of course, Nat, as always thanks so much for the interest! This is an interesting and somewhat difficult topic to explore for Archanea because of how so little evidence exists in the actual Archanean games. I believe there are more direct references to heaven or heaven within the Valentia sister games but for Archanea, there aren’t many. The closest we get to an image or perception of the afterlife is rooted in the sequel FE13: Awakening, and more specifically, in the words of Tiki during the Future Past xenologue.

Tiki 1:   Don't worry, Lucina. I'll always be watching over you. Just as the Hero-King and your father continue to do so. I may be out of reach, but I will always be close.

Tiki 2:   And I know you will. May we one day meet again, Lucina. There will always be a place for the Twelve Heroes at Naga's side.

              Here, Tiki clearly infers the existence of an afterlife through two different lines, not only in the poetic sense but also in a spiritual one. She reassures Lucina that her deceased ancestor Marth and father Chrom will both oversee her safety, and upon their finals words to one another, remarks that they too will one day ‘meet again’ presumably in the same afterlife. Tiki also brings to attention that Lucina and the future children would become a communion of welcomed heroes if they should ever pass on, securing their places at the deceased goddess’ side.

               In essence, just and heroic souls like Marth, Chrom, and the future children are granted a place in ‘heaven’. There isn’t, however, any information on what presumably happens to the souls of the damned or if there is even an underworld at all. One point of interest is that Archanea itself is a very Greco-Roman inspired continent particularly with names like Marth/Mars, Cornelius, Marcelus, Altea, Macedon, etc. I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that there is a hell, like in real-life mythos, to accompany the more clarified existence of heaven.

               Over all, seeing as the Archanean religion of Nagaism is still dominant in Ylisse approximately 1,000+ years after the civilization fell to obscurity, and Tiki herself is one of the longest living relics of Archanea herself, I think it’s safe to assume that her words are an accurate reflection of what the Archaneans believed during their time. Relevantly, we can also refer to the uncanny resemblance that Marth’s situation bears to the divine warrior of mythos who ascended to heaven after his deeds. 

               ‘Hero-King’ is an epithet that survived through Marth’s admirers for two vast millennia, as the moniker of the man who twice slew Medeus, reformed the Fire Emblem, and unified the continent in a prosperous age of peace. It’s obvious that Marth is honored as a deific hero long after his passing, but it’s also more than that.

“I prayed to the Hero-King for a small part of the strength he used to save the world.”

               The fact that Lucina prays for strength��to Marth but not the First Exalt for me is rather telling. If anything, there’s reason for her to pray to the more recent forefather, but she chooses Marth specifically. Prayers, in any case, are something that most would reserve to the omnipotent manner of gods, or those perceived with the ability to lend their aid from the heavens. There is an actual goddess and a prophet in her image that could serve this purpose far better, after all. But Marth, having lived as the epitome of heroism during his time, likely forewent the need to be divine and became a subject of prayer by his virtues alone.

               Shortly, he’s the true example of the nameless divine warrior in Archanean legend. A man who wielded the shield and blade of light, then was essentially elevated to sainthood after he passed on to the next life.

[crystalelemental]

While I can understand that, honestly hearing that it used to be common options that could dominate the meta, I kinda get why they stopped it cold. In a gacha, that is absolutely terrible for business, and it amazes me how long they’ve been trying to compensate for Reinhardt’s domination. Honestly, it’s probably better than the 5* options are the overpowered ones, and commons don’t quite keep up but can still be good. The bigger problem is, as you say, the units that feel virtually impossible to counter without highly specific options. Like oh good, NFU and Windsweep is a thing now, even color advantage and DC doesn’t do shit, unless you also use Null C-Disrupt, which is super niche. Oh good, built in damage reduction, all stats +5, Omni smoke and seal and pulse smoke, and 25% of attack as true damage because balance. Oh, 80% dual phase damage reduction and gravity effect and NFU on a flying archer, sounds fair. The top threats being rare is appropriate, we’ve just gone way too far into unstoppable territory.

But I still maintain the only reason to play this game at any point is the characters rather than the gameplay, and the limited options and heavy Fates/Awakening/Archanea focus would’ve made it intolerable to me early on. The roster needed to expand to be interesting.

[sireneia]

♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕!!

( get to know the rper )

Send me a ♕ for me to describe favorite rp character of someone else’s.

ah, True Positivity Hours!! while i can just ramble about like. characters in general i’ll go for specific portrayals tho i’ll try not to clog up notifs by trying to avoid @-ing them 

@/cavaliant’s diarmuid is a joy unto this earth. i can’t sing this muse enough praises honestly. the amount of thought dusk has put into him. diarmuid is often a character people say has no personality whatsoever but dusk really does go into the lines we get, reads between them, and looks at things from a scope beyond just “what does this character say” and thinks about what his relationships say about him, his actions, etc. i live for looking at character development beyond the words explicitly shared, and i now stan diarmuid so thanks dusk LMAO. i just think it’s interesting to see this charming boy and his tendency to be nice to people, what it means to him and the self-sacrifice he goes by burying his feelings, etc. really gives me a newfound appreciation for his scenes.

@/hamartio’s hector takes you through the evolution of a character throughout time. you feel the boisterousness that means well in hector’s teenage years to the way he mellows out and how that’s a direct consequence of fatherhood and him rising up to the plate as the new marquess. it’s always cool to see, and equinox has fantastic metas on hector’s growth and what taking armads means for the lord and his motivations for doing so. this is a man who so deeply cares for others, even if it means accepting a curse, and i love every time equinox talks about it and explores it! also equinox really does take a great look at fatal flaws and tragic heroes which is [chef’s kiss]

@/drakslay’s marth is extremely fun to read! as someone who doesn’t know much about the archanea games, ( i promise everyone i’ve got fe11 and will pick it up again at some point LIKE I REALLY WANT TO... ) it’s super compelling to read their posts despite my lack of knowledge! soji’s got a way to take even looking at a hypothetical beach marth alt as interesting by tying it back to the archanea games’ worldbuilding and plot! that’s so cool!! i also think marth’s dialogue in soji’s posts is so charming?? from what i know about how marth speaks, it really captures his voice. i already do enjoy marth from what little i saw of him in fe11, and i look forward to liking him more and more!

@/sacredseals’s narcian is something to truly commend. how tf did nora get me to feel things about this man I DON’T KNOW HOW THIS HAPPENED !!! except sike i in fact know exactly how it happened. nora’s narration and metas ( whether they’re posted publicly or not ) really dive deep into the nitty-gritty of little details in fe6 we’re given and expand them in such cool ways, and it really makes me surprisingly soft for this villain that you’re intended to despise and find pathetic. also, nora’s voice for narcian’s dialogue is so fun and colorful to read! nora u may not have english as ur first language but you are KILLING it!!!

and then i give a shout out to YOUR lucina! i think you capture her voice really well in the threads and dash commentary posts i’ve gotten to see, but i also adore how you weave in the tempest trials plot line in as well. as someone who is still following heroes content and also someone who thinks the verse itself has plenty of potential, it’s great to see someone else also explore that direction and keep it as a consistent part of her character! i know some people might think the plots of the tt+ are kinda contrived, but legit masked marth is interesting to watch: there’s real stakes, she interacts with so many characters canonically, and she has to weigh what should and shouldn’t be said as a time-traveler. she knows all these people, and what a character does with that knowledge is always intriguing to see.

[fellspirited-blog]

ooc; Gaiden meta! Talk to me about the HP-cost of magic. ;O

↪ 「 gaiden meta topics | always accepting tbh 」

oυт oғ cнαrαcтer // valentia is unique in the fact that its magic-users don’t rely on any physical weapon but rather do a rather risky trade -- health for a spell, whether offensive or supportive (sans nosferatu, of course)

no one’s quite sure how it came into popular use, but it’s the standard. cliff’s own grandmother had been a rather powerful mage herself before she sealed away her magic, most likely when she started raising a family.

the idea behind it is based around the sibling gods’ belief that you must experience both sides of something: strength with bravery, plenty with kindness -- sacrifices. you must give up something ( security in order to properly wield strength, selfishness in order to be blessed with plenty ) in order to be given a product, and it embedded itself into mages and clerics across the continent. 

additionally, there’s a property of conservation here: you cannot make something out of nothing. the magic, thus, is created out of the health you pay for it. the stronger the spell, the more you must degenerate.

cliff, at first, is surprised to find out the precise pain he suffers by trying to fight in battle. he’s afraid to learn new spells, caught between whether he wants to be stronger and more useful to his team or whether to play it safe. it’s not surprising to look his way after a battle and to see how exhausted and frail he looks.

it’s because of his exposure to his trade that he finds himself being extra courteous and kind to healers in particular. at first he took them for granted as kind souls, but when he realized that they have to suffer in order to provide aid and how easy it is for a non-magic user to not notice, he became extremely grateful.

[sireneia-a]

💕 if you are not overwhelmed, i’ve played every game but i’m least familiar with marth’s (it’s been Awhile for archanea lol...)

+*. muse recs from games you haven’t played.

I SUGGEST TO YOU: CAEDA ( FE1/3/11/12 ) !

based on your two muses and a lil bit on the fact you were considering miranda ( your tastes would widen my horizons… but i feel like loving a character doesn’t always mean being able to / wanting to write them, so i didn’t want to base off too much ) i ended up thinking i should strive for a female character who is a bit tomboyish and lends herself well to interactions. she’s probably someone that you might need to fight a lil to defend in the fandom unfortunately… but she’s lovely nevertheless and has a fun, interesting personality to think about in a light-hearted or serious way! a gal for the fun times and the pondering metas alike.

caeda is the princess of talys and the childhood friend of marth. she has a big heart but she is not guileless. if anything, it is a mixture of her sweetness and her intelligence that makes her so good at convincing others to join her side of a conflict, and she is an invaluable asset to marth’s goals as a result. she is strong and protective of those she cares about, and she’s not above using her cunning to help get her ahead in life.

[gascon-en-exil]

I know you don't ship m/f but if you had to choose the most interesting/entertaining one for each FE installment, what would you pick?

Archanea: Are there even options here? The whole Camus/Nyna/Hardin disaster is easily the most developed overall and also the most narratively impactful.

Valentia: Alm/Celica carries the emotional core of the game, and there's still not much competition. Faye -> Alm and Conrad/Celica incest subtext are good for a few laughs though. They only added two playable characters to the remake, and those were who we got?

Jugdral: Poor Lachesis. I don't ship her with Finn and am fine with Beowolf being Diarmuid's father and possibly Nanna's as well, but no matter how you slice it FE's original brother-loving teenage girl has it rough. Her/Eldigan then, since even after his death his shadow still looms large over all her subsequent romantic entanglements - and then in Gen 2 they get eulogized as star-crossed lovers.

Elibe: Similar to the Archanea example, Hellene/Desmond/his mistress eventually sets up the plot of an entire game and leads to some entertainingly awful family dynamics all around (to say nothing of one of FE7's most difficult chapters).

Magvel: Bi, twincestuous OT3 of Eirika/Ephraim/Lyon. But seriously, L'Arachel/anyone is funny enough to count. Let's go with her/Innes, even though her Ephraim and Joshua supports are even funnier (because they've both got more gay stuff going on than Innes does).

Tellius: Micaiah/Sothe, which is both a solid relationship and a source of frustration for antis because "I married my surrogate son/brother" isn't a good look for a duology that they otherwise seem to love (likely without having played - these games' final word on race and racial politics aren't exactly the most progressive ever).

Ylisse: Ugh, I have no idea. 90% of this game bores me to tears, and the remaining 10% is pretty much just Apotheosis meta. Let's go with m!Robin/Lucina for being gutsy enough to go as hard in canon as other Avatar/lord pairings despite the obvious generation gap.

Nohrshido: Subaki/Selena, solely for the entertainment value of Severa giving birth to a clone of her own mother.

Fódlan: I appreciate Claude and Hilda in CF as nods to Quan and Ethlyn's deaths in FE4, but there's nothing indicating they're actually together there. Claudeleth, I suppose, because of how blatantly he uses the self-insert and how this is followed through on by making this Claude's best ending, politically speaking.

[needlekind]

power like mine: some meta hollering about Tiki

what is friendship, if not this

rosia here came back almost thirty minutes later and i was still going

tiki is one of my all-time faves and one of the first characters my friends, especially my non-fire-emblem friends, associate with me—young tiki was my first fire emblem and first sewn cosplay! i had four different people @ me at once when she was announced as an assist in smash. i love her so much. so obviously i had a WHOLE LOT OF WORDS TO SAY about my best lady over here, and now i am condensing them for all you lovely folks

this post will assume knowledge of fire emblem: awakening without offering any explicit spoilers! it also will not contain any plot spoilers for fire emblem: shadow dragon or fire emblem: new mystery of the emblem, but will discuss tiki’s backstory, and a couple things you can reasonably expect to happen by virtue of playing a 90s jrpg! while not image heavy, there are a chunk of them interspersed throughout.

LET’S TALK ABOUT WHY I LOVE THIS LADY SO MUCH

first, let’s go over Young Tiki’s appearance in the Archanea games, since most people are likely more familiar with her appearance in Awakening. it alludes to some parts of her backstory, as do her various quotes in Heroes (which, alongside Warriors, is likely where most people are familiar with Young Tiki), but let’s just get all our bases covered!

Tiki is the daughter of Naga, who is more or less just Literally God—just by virtue of sheer power, Naga, though not necessarily worshiped as a god just yet, is ruler of the powerful divine dragon tribe, and exalted and revered by humans alike even in ancient times. Naga dies ("dies"—ascends to godhood or an immaterial plane or whatever due to being TOO STRONG) very shortly after Tiki is born, a thousand years before Marth’s time, and on their* way, Naga puts Tiki to sleep, because the thing about dragons and Manaketes is that they are too fucking powerful, and their power will eventually drive them insane and turn them into feral beasts, which is why Manaketes are even a thing: by putting their power away into Dragonstones and taking on human forms, Manaketes can keep themselves stable, whereas if they lived life as dragons, they'd inevitably lose their mind completely and become monsters, no different than wild beasts.

* while Naga is portrayed as a woman in Awakening, and it’s commonly accepted as far as I know that their title “divine dragon king” is just a mistranslation due to nonspecific gender pronouns in Japanese, there is old Archanea-era official art which portrays Naga as male, so I personally like to think Naga is whatever the fuck they want to be and they just sort of decided to shit out a child of their own accord at some point, but that’s neither here nor there

Because Naga is, as previously established, so incredibly powerful, their daughter, Tiki, is, of course, fucking INSANELY bullshit powerful—and, of course, since she’s a newborn, she has absolutely no control over those powers. If she were to degenerate, she would effortlessly destroy the entire continent. Naga loves humanity too deeply to risk such a thing, so, as previously established, they put Tiki into a magic slumber to prevent this from happening.

She spends a thousand years in this sort of stasis, having constant nightmares about becoming a monster and hurting humans without having any control over it. She is woken up for brief periods of time at infrequent intervals so she can be comforted and/or fed by Gotoh (who i’ve complained about before, he’s just what if dumbledore was even WORSE because he’s SO MUCH MORE POWERFUL), Xane (who i absolutely adore but will not be mentioning again), and/or Bantu.

she certainly has some amount of awareness about her existence, even in sleep, because she can, of course, talk and has a basic level of cognizance—one day, after a thousand years of sleep, Tiki asks Bantu (she affectionately calls him Ban-Ban) where vegetables come from, and Bantu, taking pity on her, makes the decision to bring her out of the temple. and Tiki, who has spent a fucking millennium all alone having these terrible traumatic dreams, goes out into the world for the first time and she is immediately like I Wanna Do A Friendship

and boy howdy does she!!! Tiki spends basically the entire Archanea games effortlessly endearing herself to absolutely everybody—Archanea only has a few supports, but when you look at her Heroes quotes and see how eager and excitable she is, and you see how quickly she makes friends with the Warriors cast, it isn’t hard to extrapolate how beloved she must have been as part of Marth’s army. within a few seconds of meeting him, Tiki calls Marth, prince of Altea and leader of the Archanean resistance forces, “Mar-Mar,” and he is really only briefly shocked by the whole thing before realizing that she’s too cute. he can’t say no to her. she attaches herself to absolutely everyone, especially Mar-Mar, and all she wants to do is play and hang out and be pals with people! she spent so long in isolation but instead of dwelling on it, she really quickly jumps at the chance to make things happy and fun!

FE11/12 are sparse on supports, like i said, but she does have this really cute exchange with Bantu i want to highlight:

Bantu: Tiki, my child. Tiki: Oh, Ban-Ban! Bantu: Are you having a fun time with everyone? Tiki: Yes! I'm having so, so much fun! Bantu: Ooh, that's good to hear. It's very important you're having fun. Tiki: Oh, but... Bantu: Hmm? Is something the matter, child? Tiki: A while I ago, I, umm...I broke Mar-Mar's precious mirror...... Bantu: Oh dear...That's a bad thing you did. Tiki: Yes. I did something bad... Bantu: So, what did you do after that, child? Tiki: Oh...Mmm. I told him. I said "I'm sorry" to Mar-Mar. Bantu: ...And then, Prince Marth forgave you. Tiki: ...Yes.

and i love this so much because this happened, like...days ago. but she is so CONSUMED BY GUILT over her mistake that she’s just BRINGING IT UP UNPROMPTED, DAYS AFTER THE FACT, DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT'S BEEN ADDRESSED AND FORGIVEN!! she’s a good girl! she’s a sweet kid! but she also gets loud and impulsive and a little bratty sometimes: in her A support with Bantu, he tells her he’s going to leave her when the war is over to help other Manaketes across the continent. she gets terribly upset, and he redirects her:

Bantu: It isn't like we'll be apart forever. That's right. I'm sure I'll be back when you're a bit taller. Tiki: Huh...How tall? Bantu: Hmm? I guess...about my height. Tiki: Okay...Then, I'll transform and become bigger right now. Bantu: W-wait, Tiki! Tiki: ...Sorry, I lied.

my other favorite support of hers is with Navarre in Warriors, who is precisely as good at friendship as he looks—

Tiki: Hiya, Navarre! I heard you don't like to fight girls? Is that true? Navarre: Who told you tha-- ...Ah, Caeda. Tiki: So, I'm a girl... But what about my dragon form? Would you fight dragon Tiki? Navarre: Ridiculous. Tiki: But I'm curious. If dragon Tiki attacked, what would you do? Navarre: Unimportant. I only fight strong opponents. Tiki: So you'd fight me, because I'm super strong as a dragon. Navarre: You, strong? You're just a child. A rather conceited child... I have faced death time and time again, but never succumbed to his cold grasp. You have no such experience. Even as a dragon, you'd be no match. Tiki: Oohhh! I don't really wanna fight, but you're making me angry! Navarre: Just forget about it, Tiki. Tiki: I can't! I won't! You and me! Right here, right now!

"no, i won’t fight you in your dragon form because i don't fight anyone weaker than me” “WOW? WOW???? THAT WAS JUST A HYPOTHETICAL BUT NOW I ACTUALLY WANT TO FIGHT YOU FOR REAL. PUT UP YOUR DUKES BUDDY”

young tiki is peak Sassy Lost Child, but then not even four lines of dialogues later she’s distracted from her righteous fury because Navarre goes "i'm not going to fight you because you're precious to Marth" and Tiki goes OH!! SO IF I'M MARTH'S FRIEND AND YOU'RE MARTH'S FRIEND THAT MEANS WE'RE FRIENDS

and Navarre is like oh my fucking god

Navarre: That's not how it works, but... Believe what you want. Tiki: Teehee, yay! I'm so glad to be one of your dear friends, Nar-Nar! Navarre: Ugh... I'm leaving.

so she is just Like This all this time. at the time she’s recruited in FE11, she only has twelve years of human memories, so she’s treated like a child, and she acts like it, for the most part! but one thing that really gets me—and it gets overshadowed very often, because she's mostly like!! let's stay together forever!!! i love you so much i love all my friends!!!!! i love the beach because the ocean is big enough for ALL my friends to play with!!!!!! one of her character select quotes for her legendary version in Heroes is just "i love you all!!" she's SO cute—but one of legendary Tiki's dialogue quotes is "I heard someone say that I'm going to live much, much longer than everyone else... How much longer, do you think?"

they shelter her in this way, a little; she says she heard someone say that—when Tiki insists on her maturity, like in her Warriors supports with Corrin, it’s often in a humorously indignant way, but the fact is, by the end of FE12 she’s been a soldier in an army in two wars. none of it hits her sunshiney disposition, but the fact is, Tiki is aware of her own mortality or lack thereof, or, more importantly, her friends’ mortality—but she doesn’t seem to really know what to do with or about it.

FE12 ends with Tiki living her life happily as a part of the palace town. we don’t see Marth’s death; we only hear about it when we first meet her in Awakening. we don’t know what happens in between, either. we miss about 2,000 years of Tiki content. a lot changes in two millennia, of course, but the thing that sticks out to me most is this:

FE11 Young Tiki classic mode death quote: “No...I don't want to be...alone...”

FE13 Adult Tiki classic mode death quote: “I won't have to be alone...anymore...”

geez louise

so: enter Awakening Tiki!

hey not that i don’t LOVE her look, but, like. here’s a question. that’s a REALLY high slit. what do those garters clip onto

anyway

like i said, this post assumes Awakening knowledge, so we’re just going to breeze through where she’s at when we meet her as a quick refresher: by now, Naga worship is the cool new prevalent thing now and, as we’ve discussed, Tiki is the daughter of Literally Just God? so here we have a lady who is one part jesus, one part the oracle at delphi, and one part a deity in her own right. by now, degeneration isn’t so much a concern; Awakening doesn’t address how this happens—Young Tiki is permitted to leave the temple and travel with Marth because he assembles the Fire Emblem, then known as the Shield of Seals; of course, it’s split into the different gems by the time Awakening happens, so it’s likely some combination of her aging and therefore acquiring greater control of her power, and her putting those powers away (i.e. needing to perform her paralogue’s ritual to access any part of them)

anyway, so we have Tiki, thousands of years out from the deaths of her first friends—including Marth, who she calls the best friend she's ever had two thousand years after the fact—and now being worshiped as a prophet and oracle

and Tiki's defined by her loneliness in a lot of ways; keeping herself from being lonely again was the thing that drove her completely while she was still a child after waking up, and, throughout both FE11/12 and Heroes, she expresses a lot of fear of being left alone again, but by Awakening she's sort of...resigned to it? when you recruit her in FE12, she says she’s afraid of falling asleep at all again, that she worries if she closes her eyes they’ll never open, she’ll never see her friends again—meanwhile, Awakening Tiki is the queen of depression naps. she's more jaded, and she even openly speaks disparagingly of humanity, such as in Harvest Scramble:

So this is how the denizens of the Outrealms celebrate. People are scarcely different, whatever realm they inhabit. They pray for bounty, then despair when those prayers go unanswered. At times that despair gives way to war... Alas, festivals are but man placating his gods only to selfishly curse them later.

fuckin. for god's sake, tiki

but she's resigned to the fact that she is on a whole separate level from humans these days, that she's an object to be worshiped, the Voice before herself, and she still serves the role she's been given to its fullest? like, she resents being the Voice, but it brings people peace, so she does it. despite her ruder comments, it’s clear she does have a lot of love for humanity—she must, to do so much work and allow herself to be placed in such a lofty position so far away from them all for their sake

still, it’s made very clear she’s just sort of...accepted her lot in life, even if she has no love for it. again, from Harvest Scramble (all underlining mine):

Tiki: *Sigh* Raise your head, Say'ri. Please? Yes, I'd retired to a position of uninvolved security in my sleep. I merely observed. I intended to never again play a hand in the affairs of others. ...I thought that was best for everyone. Say'ri: And I violated that choice, ran contrary to my lady's wisdom! Tiki: Well, yes. Perhaps you did. My legend was meant to fade, as legends do. To scatter like sand in the wind.

it was around this point that rosia came back from her shower:

note the almost 30 minute time stamp difference

i wasn’t done

anyway

all of this, but she joins Chrom's army because destiny calls or whatever—Grima is an active threat, and she cannot leave the world to be ruined, so she's just kind of like yes all right i guess we're doing this and wipes the sleep out of her eyes and gets right back to it, but it isn’t until she has regular human company again that she realizes how much she missed it! a direct continuation from that last support bit:

Tiki: The choice I described before, to sequester myself away. That was how I felt back then. Back when we first met. But that is not how I feel now. Say'ri: Oh? Then...might I ask your mind now? Tiki: I'm thankful to you, Say'ri. Say'ri: Th-thankful?! ...To me, my lady? Pray, what could you mean? Tiki: Yes, to you. Without your intervention, I'd never have met all these wonderful people. And you've made me see that I am still relevant. That I can still be of use. Even to those resigned to live out their days in hermitage, warm company is a blessing. It was you who reminded me of that, Say'ri.

side note, she is secretly a HUGE goofball and it really only comes out when she's interacting with people on the regular again; she shoves an apple right into Say'ri's mouth mid-sentence and blows raspberries at her because she's being Too Serious and Tiki wants Say'ri to be honest with her and be just a regular FRIEND instead of a servant. i also want to talk about her complete lack of chill real quick, because that’s a DELIGHTFUL aspect of, again, Jesus But A Dragon’s silly personality; we discussed this with her Navarre supports and her solving the problem of not being tall enough for Bantu to stay by threatening to transform on the spot but oh my god do i ever love what a formal affair she makes out of threatening to EAT ANNA

Tiki: Is there aught you would like to tell me, Anna? Anna: You mean other than...um...how AWESOME you are?! Tiki: I hear you charged admission to my speech on the unending power of good. Additionally, it seems you are hawking my signature like a common market trinket. Anna: W-well, common market trinkets usually don't sell for 50 gold a pop! ...R-right? Look, come on! There was DEMAND, Tiki! The people just want to be a part of you! You get to spread your message, they get hope for the future, and I get a little coin! ...Er, or a lot of coin. Tiki: If your actions were so altruistic, there was no need to hide them from me. Yet even now, I see the shame of your deeds writ upon your face. Anna: But wait! Wait! I didn't do it for my own personal gain, I swear! Tiki: Such deceit only compounds your folly. Anna: T-Tiki? Wh-why are you pulling out a Dragonstone?! Tiki: To teach you that deceiving an oracle bears a hefty price. Now still your lying tongue and prepare to be eaten.

other people she threatens to eat: f!Robin, who realizes Tiki will answer questions in her sleep, starts with some history, escalates to ~were you in LOOOOOVE with prince marth~,

Avatar: (Er, Tiki? Hello, can you hear me? I want you to listen very carefully. Remember when you told me about ancient King Marth and how he saved you? Well, I was wondering... Did you love him?) Tiki: ...... Avatar: Hello? (This is odd. Usually she answers right away.) Hey, Tiki? Can you hear me? I'm asking you a question. Were you in love with King Marth? Did you want to marry him? Come on, spit it out! Tiki: Tiki...is not home. Avatar: Hey! What kind of dreamspeak is that?! You're supposed to answer my question! Tiki: *Snort* H-huh?! Whooza wozza?! What's going on?! Avatar: Aw, nuts. I woke her up. Tiki: Avatar? Is there an emergency? Is the camp under attack? Avatar: Er, well... I mean, that is to say... You were...moaning! Yes, that's it. Moaning unhappily in your sleep. I thought you were having some terrible nightmare and decided to wake you up. Tiki: Really? Thanks, Avatar. ...I think it was a nightmare. I vaguely remember being hounded by some awful hag. She wouldn't stop pestering me with personal questions. Avatar: O-oh? F-f-fancy that! What a funny dream! Heh hah! Tiki: *Yaaawn* But I'm still pretty sleepy. You don't mind if I doze off again, do you? Avatar: Oh. No. Of course not. Be my guest. Tiki: Just another forty winks and I'll...be ready...for action... ...... Zzzzzz... Avatar: (Whew! I dodged an arrow there! I couldn't very well tell her I was asking such private questions in her sleep...) Tiki: Zzz... *mumble* Avatar: (She's talking in her sleep again! Let me just bend down here so I can get a good—) Tiki: Avatar...mind your own business...or else. Avatar: WAAAAAAAAARGH! Tiki: Zzzzzz... Oh, and before you leave... fetch a cloak to...lay over me... It's a bit chilly...down here... Zzzzzzzzzzzz... Avatar: Oh! Uh, right. Of course! Whatever you say, Tiki! (Avatar leaves) Tiki: Hee hee... Zzzzzz...

a real highlight is yet another Harvest Scramble quip, when Lucina suggests Tiki wear her childhood outfit for the festival and Tiki

jams herself into the clothing

for a twelve-year-old

Tiki: ...... Lucina: ...... Tiki: ...... Lucina: Tiki. I...I don't really know what to, uh... I'm sorry... Tiki: Yes, well, that's quite enough dress-up for now. Or ever. Lucina: I was so focused on faithfully re-creating the outfit you wore in the past, I... I suppose I failed to anticipate how silly children's clothes would look on an adult. Tiki: Silly? I think that was a far cry from just silly, Lucina. Did you never stop to wonder how I would even fit into clothes that small? Lucina: I'm so, so sorry... Although it WAS you who decided to force your way into them anyway... Tiki: What was that? Lucina: N-nothing! I said nothing...

BUT ALSO

Tiki: Good. Honestly, three millennia alive, and I've never been so humiliated. Lucina: I was just... You've lived in such a different world than us all the time. Even now that you're traveling with us, you seem so distant at times... I'd hoped to help close that distance, but I fear I've done the opposite. For that, I'm truly sorry, Tiki. Tiki: ...... You're wrong about that. Lucina: Come again? Tiki: Yes, the result was...less than ideal. But the fact that you were trying to treat me like a peer, as your equal... You didn't put me on a pedestal or treat me differently than the others. The costume was embarrassing, yes, but on the contrary, I feel...happy. Lucina: You... Really? Tiki: I do. It's...quite liberating. Thank you for that, Lucina. I've forgotten how wonderful human friendships can be, fleeting as they are. I shall endeavor to do what I can to grow closer to the others. And I hope you'll continue to introduce me to new firsts, good and bad alike.

LIKE... HOW CUTE!!!! she's spent SO much time as an object of devotion before anything else that she's kind of forgotten how to be social, and being with Chrom's army reminds her again, and she's really quick to be silly and stupid and sassy about it, and she kind of just relearn hope and optimism in that way, too—a really good example is YET AGAIN present in Harvest Scramble, where like, she's talking to Nowi and she talks about how the dead become stars and that's the afterlife, and she's always seen it all these years as her loved ones being just out of reach, and Nowi's like wow cool!!! it's like they're ALWAYS with you because you can always look up and see them and they see you!!!!!

and Tiki's like

holy shit

three thousand years of existence and this nevER OCCURRED TO ME

i’m gonna segue into talking about her conversations with Nah real quick, too, which are honestly some of her sweetest; Tiki calls Nah “dear” and such in a way she doesn’t with anyone else unless Morgan is her daughter. she’s quick to answer all Nah’s questions, takes a lot of delight in seeing the usually-reserved Nah all sparkly eyed and overjoyed about the harvest festival, and takes her under her wing in a way she doesn’t really with Nowi; Nowi doesn’t particularly care about all her various Manakete lineage, but Nah has so much she wants to know but doesn’t have the resources to figure out. Tiki is very honest with Nah, telling her the truth of her lineage, of immortality and the loneliness that comes with it, will be painful, and she’s frank about how much it’s hurt her in a way she isn’t, always? but i think this quip from their A-support really demonstrates the Big Thing about Tiki and her character growth:

Tiki: ...Hear me, Nah. Remember when I said I had to tell you something difficult? We manaketes are destined to suffer because of our love for humankind. Nah: Destined to...suffer? Tiki: We live for millennia, while humans flicker out like candles. The greatest friendship I ever knew lasted just a few short decades... And when King Marth died, I was left to wander the centuries alone. Nah: ...I see. I have to be prepared to lose everyone I love. Tiki: The dragon blood in your veins curses you to such a fate. Nah: ...Wow. That's...depressing. Tiki: it can be very sad, yes. But it can make you strong as well. You will learn to cherish the memories of those wonderful people you meet. You will make them a part of you so they can give you courage always. Nah: Like a family inside your mind? Tiki: Yes, exactly! You will be able to pass on the memories to your friends' children! And then to their children and to countless generations to come. In this way can you keep them alive through the long march of time. Nah: ...... Tiki: Do you understand? Nah: ...I think so. Tiki: Never allow your fate to dissuade you from living a full, rewarding life, Nah. You must go out into the world and seek out friends. ...Seek out love. And when their end comes, as it will, you must keep them alive forever. You have the gift of near immortality, and you must find a way to share it. And what better time to start than now? Nah, let you and I be friends.

anyway the real thesis statement of this whole thing is: i love Tiki because we get to see her transition from this overly energetic optimistic ball of friendship and sunshine and joy to someone much more jaded and quiet who fills the necessary role of oracle with reluctance. she's defined by her loneliness more than much else and she goes from afraid of it to resigned to it to kind of accepting its inevitability but relearning that joy and optimism to make the most of the time she DOES have and reintegrating herself with human society and friendship, and the juxtaposition of someone who knows she's going to lose everyone she loves again and again and again and again and has accepted and made a sort of sad peace with it, against that same someone deciding to wholeheartedly throw herself into those fleeting friendships and sometimes in the stupidest possible ways, is VERY GOOD

tl;dr I Love A Girl

[markoftheasphodel]

The Blue Lions and the Burden of Tradition

Note: spoilers related to multiple Fire Emblem games including FE1/11, FE2/15, FE3/12, FE5, and FE8 follow.

The classic Fire Emblem plot line is the one sketched out by its first installment, Dark Dragons and the Sword of Light, all the way back in ’90. Young Prince Marth loses homeland in surprise betrayal, mopes in exile, gathers allies, retakes homeland, unites continent, defeats dragon, settles down to become virtuous ruler with love interest at his side. Then Fire Emblem Gaiden offered a counterpoint narrative in which a scrappier hero, village boy Alm, unites half a continent through military prowess before he even finds out he’s the prince, whereupon he too can defeat a big bad monster and settle down with his childhood companion/love interest as his consort. Marth restores order to The Way Things Were, But Better. Alm sweeps away a corrupt order entirely and puts something else in its place. One can be viewed as fundamentally conservative, looking back to an idealized past and trying to recreate it without the old mistakes. The other is revolutionary, but the way the revolution plays out the New Boss has an awful lot in common with the Old Boss (kings, nobles, churches). Any way you slice it the best outcome is a Just Ruler with the blessings of heaven and democracy ain’t in the cards. These two basic narratives have shaped every single installment of Fire Emblem to date. Some lean more heavily on the Marth narrative (Binding Blade), some on the Alm narrative (Path of Radiance), and others combine elements of both— Thracia 776, Sacred Stones, and Awakening all take some of Column A and some of Column B and and achieve strikingly difference outcomes.

The Blue Lions route of Three Houses offers the latest iteration of that classic Marth narrative, and it proves the deepest, richest, most nuanced look at that storyline to date even if it’s ultimately constrained by its own tropes.

 Its protagonist, Prince Dimitri, is introduced as a polite and courtly young man, the image of a Fire Emblem princeling, and as Part I of Three Houses unfolds the viewer is let into just how much of a Fire Emblem Prince Dimitri is. He’s the last hope of his house and kingdom, an orphan who lost his family under traumatic circumstances, and he’s struggling to maintain his peaceful ideals in the face of his lingering trauma and suppressed rage. As Dimitri receives both character revelation and character development through Part I, he echoes not just Marth but Thracia 776’s Leif and Ephraim from Sacred Stones, and those echoes carry over strongly to Part II of this route.

Likewise, Dimitri’s fellow Blue Lions, initially just another lot of fresh-faced schoolchildren, reveal themselves to be the Three Houses iterations of some classic “archetypes” of Fire Emblem. We have the “steady” traditionalist knight in Ingrid, the more unruly “rowdy” knight in Sylvain, the sullen swordmaster in Felix, the bright-eyed archer in Ashe, the bright-eyed mage in Annette, the demure healer with the convoluted backstory in Mercedes, and the battered old retainer in Gilbert. If you expect your “Christmas Knights” and “Navarre” and “Lena” and whatnot out of a Fire Emblem game, Blue Lions offers the entire set; they’re just a little harder to detect thanks to the open class system and lack of convenient color-coding.

Where the Blue Lions breaks with three-decades-old expectations is in its handling of the resident heavy; Dedue fills a slot on the starting team usually given short shrift (see: Draug, Bors), but in terms of plot and character and— critically— personal value to Dimitri he transcends both the stale Armor Knight niche that his character design nudges him to be and the Devoted Retainer trope that’s gotten a bit weird in recent years. Some recent games presented “devotion” in ways that were kind of twisted yet the games didn’t seem to really acknowledge how off-key it all was; Three Houses takes a full dive into what Dedue’s devotion to Dimitri (and vice-versa!) can encompass, how it’s a double-edged blade that can uplift or utterly destroy. That Dedue manages this while also being saddled with the role of being The Stigmatized Other to the Blue Lions cast is nothing short of remarkable.

Your core Blue Lions party is essentially the conservative wing of the Officers’ Academy. Ingrid may be the most orthodox knight of your house, but ultimately the entire core party is royalist and traditionalist, even when the system they’re holding up has hurt them personally. Annette, Sylvain, and most especially Felix offer some degree of dissent, but ultimately all of them fall in line behind King Dimitri and his unified continent— and in supporting Dimitri, by default they support the Church of Seiros under its new archbishop. This unswerving support of the Church structure on the Blue Lions route is hardly happenstance, as the game is basically waving a flag at the audience to let them know yes, this is indeed the conservative Restorationist faction— un roi une loi une foi. Still, the inner tensions of these loyalists as they play out through supports and in-game chatter— Felix against Ingrid and Dedue and Dimitri, Annette against Gilbert, Sylvain in his asides to Byleth— provide a multifaceted critique of the very concepts of Knighthood and Faith that the franchise has been trying to pull off since at least Thracia 776, whose beats the Lions’ plot structure samples more than once.

The game takes some risks; New Mystery of the Emblem supplied Avatar Kris as a mechanism to keep Marth’s fingerless gloves from getting dirtied by the grunt work of conquering an continent; Three Houses lets Dimitri’s hands get so filthy that his knights and vassals are appalled by it. He regains his moral compass and everyone’s respect after a tragedy that is one of the clearest call-backs to Thracia 776, but in Leif’s case the shock he received was a spur for a naive youth to grow up and look at the larger picture instead of his narrow goals. In Dimitri’s case, he’s got about five years of atrocities to atone for. That said, Thracia 776 arguably had a more realistic resolution to the Lord’s character development, as endgame Leif STILL has some growing-up to do, whereas Dimitri gets markedly better after a couple of conversations despite spending five years in the abyss.

And then we get to the Childhood Friend, one of the moments of the Blue Lions route that strongly evokes Sacred Stones. On this route we learn that Dimitri and antagonist Edelgard shared a fleeting but precious bond in childhood— but whereas antagonist Lyon uses a similar bond to his repeated advantage against the Sacred Stones Lords Eirika and Ephraim, Edelgard doesn’t even make the connection between Dimitri and her own lost childhood friend until he confronts her with the memory. It’s a one-sided bond that fuels Dimitri’s rage and regrets but is essentially irrelevant to Edelgard’s ambitions. The final wordless confrontation between them finally has Edelgard use Dimitri’s nostalgia as a literal weapon against him… and he silently runs her through with his lance for it— far cry from Lyon whispering “C’mon Ephraim, smile like you used to” as he dies in Ephraim’s arms. For a series that has leaned heavily on the trope of “Friendship is Magic” in recent years, it’s interesting to have the idea of the sepia-tinted childhood memory rendered impotent— but then again, the developers were supposedly inspired by Genealogy of the Holy War and the way that events pitted sworn friends and allies against one another.

The grand scope of Genealogy may be more apparent on other routes of Three Houses, but the Blue Lions route is fundamentally more narrow in scope, with this Thracia-like focus on Dimitri’s traumas, Dimitri’s loves and losses, Dimitri’s redemption, Dimitri’s ability to spare enemies and kill former friends. This in turn hobbles the ending of the route, much as Thracia 776 was hobbled by its status as a midquel, a singular if vivid chapter in the overall saga of Jugdral. Alliance and Empire totter, everything falls into Dimitri’s lap, the church is bolstered without any significant onscreen reforms or even onscreen questions on what the hell was going on under Rhea, and everything becomes as it was, but better— one king, one law, one faith (or one major faith with ecumenical tolerance for the rest, per Seteth’s ending), and apparently some reforms for the sake of The People. Dimitri’s going to be fine, and we all just have to have faith in the rest of it.

All in all, it brings to mind that Marth’s most successful game (Mystery of the Emblem), and the GBA game that hewed most strongly to the Marth Narrative (Binding Blade) both had Bad Endings in which the real answers, the true resolution, was never achieved. The Blue Lions route feels at once like a beautiful love letter to the Marth plot-line in all its iterations, in which the elements of its predecessors are revisited to grand effect— and a Bad Ending, a dead-end, an eternity of the curtain abruptly coming down once Marth defeats Hardin or even the hollow “is that all there is” moment of Leif besting Veld. It almost feels like a rebuke to the player for choosing to spend eighty, ninety, one-hundred hours in the company of Dimitri and his traditionalists, for choosing to glory in the multi-layered nostalgia offered by the Blue Lions. Perhaps it’s simply a cue that this is the route to play first, that it’s best to be guided into Fodlan by a familiar set of faces before choosing to open the doors of perception that the Golden Deer or Black Eagles offer. Given how heavily the pre-game marketing hyped the Black Eagles, that seems a bit weird.

I suppose the only way to get answers is to play another 200+ hours of Three Houses….