#but also corrine is so fucking evil and i would say one of the best written villains in fiction

[5eraphim]

so what was up with that swan bed?/ the chateau lore drabble

soooo one thing about me, is i love a literary reference, and i love writing characters as odes to others in stories

the swan bed- isn't really something subtle, as (well as far as i know anyway) there's really only one story with a swan bed in it, that story being flowers in the attic (in corrine foxworth's bedroom) which I used as inspiration/set dressing for this piece.

in the chateau the bed is beautiful and lush, but is where reader is forced to suffer the excruciating pain of feeding the vampires. in flowers in the attic, corrine's bed is seen as where the "sin"/main conflict of the book comes from. i don't want to spoil anything about the book, but if you know literally anything about FITA, you probably know what i mean. (and is obvi mirrored late on in the book via the dusty, abandoned mattress in the attic later in the book)

but i also kinda used corrine as an inspiration for Spy, as someone who was once humane and caring- only to metamorphize into someone selfish and cruel by the end of the story. (not to say Spy was ever self-less, but he was at least human before he was vampire, and i wanted to have the implication he's only so vicious bc he's been living as a vampire for so long- and can't see his reader as a person anymore. reader is a recourse and a captive- but not human, not anything like Spy himself, like how corrine doesn't even see her own children as family by the end of the book, they're nothing but a liability.

corrine has always been one of my favorite villains in fiction, and really is one of the best utilizations of fairy-tale tropes subverted by FITA. at the start of the book she's like a fair, beautiful and kind-hearted princess, faithful to her husband and loves her family more than anything in the world. But during the events of the story she becomes the villain after returning to living with her mother (who is meant to be like a wicked witch/evil step-mother character, someone who is ugly inside and out contrasts corrine who is beautiful on the outside and REPULSIVE on the inside.)

corrine and spy aren't really all that similar characters all things considered, but i wanted to write them motivated by their shared vices here (selfishness/greed/possessiveness/callousness) and have some fun writing Spy at his worst, and trying to examine how he would be if he were to go all in on the materialistic vanity so common in vampires. corrine motivated by these vices would go on to betray her family (no spoilers but JESUS this lady is evil) and Spy would trick/coerce Engie into "overdoing it" while feeding- knowing he's too new to feeding from humans to have the self-control to stop himself.

[some-ghoul]

GAMEPLAY: Engage > Fates > Awakening > 3H.

Engage emblem rings are really neat and the weapon triangle meaning something again is rad plus it removes pair ups. Which is really fun as far as a gameplay mechanic for strategizing. Having little skills and focusing hard on weapon triangles and where you need units positioned it ACTUALLY made me think which is saying a lot with usual fire emblem games being a, ok I'll send in a nuke and they will fix it (3H and Awakening had bad problems with this).

Fates class system and weapon differences, god and conquests map design?? Plus the unique weapons they added in next to the different types of class seals you could to min max and make an astra general was always fun.

Awakening had fun but repetitive. Having a good amount of skills to mess around with but once whenever you had galeforce why have anything else? Pair ups were very neat and a nice addition but they did kind of make it easier because why wouldn't you pair units up that way?

3H being able to change to ANY class and almost everyone being a Swiss army knife with what weapons they could use sorta took away from the actual strategy from it since you could throw in Byleth and any unit you spoon fed exp to for perfect class stats and wipe the floor with everyone. Battalions were also kind of busted too. Neat that there was a NG+ mode though and I did appreciate that. Overall though I turn my brain off and the game goes on.

STORY: Awakening > Engage ≥ 3H > Fates.

I might be biased for all my hours burnt into Awakening but I genuinely really like the story of it and the time travel thing is really cool! If you don't romance Lucina or Chrom though it does kinda lessen the character growth Lucina goes through. But it has a lot of neat subtle call backs to the previous series, I just wish there was more from the shadowy figure that was Chrom's evil war loving father. Wallhart was rad and I want more antagonists like him that are unapologetic about who they are. Overall, really neat and the xenologue with Lucina's timeline is really good and still chokes me up at times.

Engage is basic, but Dragon Quest basic. Once you get into it and are set into the journey it is enjoyable legitimately. As far as the story goes sure it's generic but overall it flows pretty well. Also I legit like Alear as the protagonist everyone loves since it makes sense due to them being dragon Jesus. There are some... Generic and cheesy bits every now and then but cliche can be fun! Overall pretty solid and enjoyable.

3H is very complex, and that's a good thing and a bad thing. If the different routes were done in a way to where they were written equally and well it would be really neat! Unfortunately it feels very unfinished at worst and poorly written at best whenever you come in plot contrivances. HOWEVER it has the fucking dark souls problem where all the interesting things in the world and nation is hidden away in walls of texts in the library. I really liked it at times but I know it's not that great unfortunately.

Oh god fates. I like fates genuinely and I would even say it's one of my favorite fire emblem games but oof, the story hurts in every path. You would think with revelation it would tidy up the mess that is conquest and birthright but it doesn't. It keeps you in the dark on a lot and it boils down to Corrin going, "Nah fam, trust me." And people LITERALLY TURN AGAINST THEIR COUNTRY FOR THE PROTAG WITH THEIR DOGS AIRING OUT!! The concept of Hoshido and Nohr fighting is really interesting of Nohr being a country that is in dire need of good land and resources and having to go to war for it but when you have Garon the evil king who ONLY DOES EVIL THINGS I cannot bring myself to view as 'complex writing'. Oh god and Valla, fucking Valla. Scarlet is doomed to die and Gunther will betray you no matter what. I hate the plot goddamn.

CHARACTERS: 3H > Engage ≥ Awakening > Fates.

I think the reason why 3H has stayed so high up on everyone's list of good fire emblem games is because the characters in the game are very VERY complex. Honestly I can't think of any student cast that falls flat and I don't care about whenever I go through their supports. I do think the Blue Lions and Black Eagles get the best written characters but goddamn if the Golden Deer aren't super charming! The different ideologies and writing for characters motivations are pretty compelling at points. I can't think of a support that actually makes me skip through or be bored with it. I love these characters and their motives. I want to see them interact more and it is what kept me so I'm ested. The lords are also really neat and I think 3 Hopes does a fantastic job of helping their problem in Houses because Edelgard goes from fascist to freedom fighter ina fucking heartbeat I'm that one. Even when opposed she seems like a person with genuine good intentions. I could go on forever about it. Hopes also made me like Byleth more than how much I didn't care for the silent emotionless protag, but Shez was also a very fun breath of fresh air too and especially with that cast!

Engage has a very colorful almost too designed approach with their characters, which I have mixed feelings on, but characters being a troupe and ALSO being interesting with almost any cast member is a good time! I'll be honest, I kinda hated Engage at first then I had supports with Alfred and met Yunaka. It got me hooked, then I did emblem bond conversations and it was fantastic to see old characters fully voiced and revisited. Especially since the more straight edged ones (Ike and Soren) are most of the time absolutely hating being around such unhinged people. The main cast of characters are very fun and their tropes are fun to be played off except I don't really care for the chef man who wants to just eat rocks. The lords are fun and Celine with her interactions to Fogado/ Best Boy Alcryst are really great and show that there is genuine care put into the characters writing. Oh god, Alear also brings a wonderful fresh take on the insert protag and I genuinely like them as a protag in this one everyone loves. And Alear plays it really fucking well! Being just likable, trusting, and sweet to folks because it's in their nature only to have other interactions completely disgusted by people actually worshipping them and what lengths they go too! It's a great bit! Engage is good, cheesy at times but the characters are fun.

Awakening characters are pretty one not and troupey but are still written in a very good way at times. Lucina and Robin are great. I also really like Tiki dialogue too it's great to have her back. The paralogues for dlc units were also good (minus Priam)! They kinda knew folks liked these characters and wanted to do more with them so they brought them back into the game. The child unit supports are phenomenal though. Owain is dumb and I fucking love him same with Inigo. And depending on who the father is their supports with them are even better with how they console/chastise their child in those dialogues because it's a reflection of them too! Again I'm kinda biased about awakening though so that's my take.

Awakening characters are one note, get kind of old after a minute, and the only good Corrin sibling dialogues are with his Nohrian siblings because they actually know him. Leo, Xander, Camilla, and Elise legitimately have good supports with their sibling and it's neat. However they literally rescues 6 Awakening characters for the massive roster and it shows. They don't really change and the only redeeming interactions for really good character convos are the ones in the paralogues with just the kids. Which, again, ripped from Awakening.

I've only played 4 FE games. How would you rank them amongst each other?

You can base it off of story, gameplay, whatever. Mine is mostly story with a bit of gameplay/format elements. Lemme know if you have any questions!

[someobscurereference]

For one: whenever the concept of the Nohrians meeting the young trio comes up, my first thoughts are 1) Inigo being cripplingly shy and terrified of Xander 2) Severa being Extremely Unreasonable and Aggressive especially toward Camilla and 3) Owain gravitating toward Elise because she's reminiscent of his mother, because he's a mama's boy who probably lost his mom very recently and that's pretty fucked up!!

That being said, I'm screaming at the idea of Owain gravitating toward Elise because mother, Xander because cool sword, and Camilla because cool armor, and Not Trusting Leo because he's a Dark Mage and Dark Mage Means Plegia Means Grima Means Evil (almost always) and Leo being so upset about it. It turns the tables entirely, where Odin was originally the one who thought both Leo and Niles were so cool and they thought he was a weirdo idiot until he proved himself, now he thinks they're creepy and Evil and have to work for his trust. And I will always love the Nohrians realizing the trio were Fucked Up Kids and the idea of them watching the three of them take down a faceless with Brutal efficiency because of how much more dangerous Risen were...I'm so into this. AND!! The trio fucking hating each other!! They're so used to them being Best Friends and Inseparable and understanding each other on a whole different wavelength. And now? Sev and Inigo aren't very kind toward Owain's dramatics, Sev and Owain are Bothered by Inigo's flirtations, and Severa is just so harsh with both of them (and most people). Of all the people they could be stuck with, they would Not choose each other. I'm rambling but I'm so into it I'm so so into it. One of the previous asks you linked spoke a lot about Inigo, but if you could talk a bit more about Severa and Owain? Especially if their adult selves were involved with their lieges and partner retainers and how different the dynamic is now and the way they each react when realizing the trio went through something so clearly screwed up and beyond even what they've seen

(prev ask) Ayyy, glad you got a kick out of all of that, lol. And yes!! Leo Trio origins reversed!! With Niles and Leo being the ones who have to prove themselves to Owain instead of the other way around. And the Trio not getting along!! They're 100% there to save each other when they think they're in mortal danger, but as soon as they realize they're not in Plegia? Don't touch me, don't breath on me, don't look in my direction, any of you. Owain & Inigo can't be alone in a room together or else they'll scuffle, Severa stomps away whenever Inigo tries to compliment her, nobody wants to talk to Owain, etc.

Also sure! I spoke a lot about Inigo in that last ask because I wanted to be clear about what I meant with the shyness thing, but for Severa & Owain...

I don't know if they would have been in romance with their lieges before this! I obviously ship the royals & their retainers, but I don't ever see the appeal of that dynamic in deaging fics? I get the idea of like "oh, this is a new side of my partner I've never seen before," but the deaging part is such a huge part of the plot that I don't really see the benefit to that dynamic in these types of fics.

But just in general! The friendship/platonic shift!

I mentioned before about Camilla trying to dote on little Severa but struggling because Severa rejects her So Hard, lol. In general she'd want to dote on Severa because of her personality and how Severa is a tiny version of her beloved retainer, but the more it becomes clear that Severa has issues (especially re: family, which is a major reason Camilla feels the need to dote on Corrin), the more she wants to spend time with her and make some happy memories with her. Which makes Severa's rejection of this attention even stronger bc who the hell are you to presume you know her? And also you're not her big sister/mom/whoever.

Eventually, I almost feel like Camilla would?? I don't want to say "give up," but eventually you're going to get more flies with honey than vinegar. By which I mean the less Camilla tries to push the relationship, the more open Severa might be to spending time with her. But I'm not sure Camilla would get to this point within the timeframe of the Trio being deaged! I think this would take many days or perhaps even weeks to figure out. If the Trio return to normal before this, I think Camilla might feel different (Hard to say how... maybe guilty??) about the way her Selena dotes on her and wants her attention all the time vs little Severa rejecting her. But!! If the Trio stay deaged for a while and Camilla learns to stop pushing the relationship, Severa may slowly grow to approach Camilla on her own and may then be open to being doted upon once they understand each other more (bc she canonically wants all the foods and fun stuff Camilla is offering; she just wants it from someone she trusts. And primarily from her parents ((see: awakening supports w/ parents)), but they're not here).

tl;dr Camilla would have to go against her doting instincts if she wanted Severa to get comfortable with her. Otherwise Severa would avoid her/take advantage of the things Camilla is offering while not wanting to be near her very much.

Re: Beruka!

Unlike Camilla, who has a lot of sad and sympathetic feelings for Severa, Beruka really leaves feelings out of it. Which is probably to her benefit in this scenario, as she's approaching Severa's trauma's from a logical (perhaps even detachedly relatable) standpoint rather than sympathetic. She's more direct than Camilla, so Severa might be a little more comfortable with her, just because she knows what to expect.

Severa, for her part, may even seek Beruka out once she knows they're partners because (1) she wants to know what sort of person her future partner is and (2) she wants to prove that she's the better retainer than Beruka. Which of course she can't do because (a) Beruka would never compare them like that, nor Camilla and (b) Severa is younger, more hotheaded, and less skilled than her older self, so anything she tries to prove now, she'll probably fail at and will blame on her older self having more experience. This competetive spirit may start as an inferiority complex thing, but with Beruka never really fanning the flames, Severa may eventually calm down about it and just feel more driven to get better on her own/respect Beruka as her partner (sort of like her Cynthia Supports in Awakening, though a little different).

Leo & Owain, I already talked about. Owain will immediately take note of the fact that Leo & Niles are his future lord & partner, which he is very curious about, but once Xander, Camilla, & the other very cool people with melee weapons come into the picture, he's very drawn to them, which makes Leo jealous, lol. Leo dedicates himself to "solving" the deaging issue, using this as an excuse so he doesn't have to spend time around Owain and get compared to his "cooler" siblings. HOWEVER, joke's on him bc the fact he's avoiding Owain means Owain doesn't get the chance to quiz him even more and tell him about how cool Brynhilder is. When this finally happens, Leo feels incredibly foolish for trying to show off for Owain & avoid him in turns. Owain, meanwhile, may or may not have ever picked upon on the fact Leo was feeling weird about him at all (although he will admit he felt nervous around Leo at first bc Pelgian Mage Memories and had to take time to get over that).

Niles is a little hard to consider because I actually think?? He'd be good with young/immature folk when he's genuinely trying to be? (See: Niles's interactions with Elise & Nina). However, he can also be quite cruel to people who don't really deserve it (See: Mozu C & B supports) despite having a motto of only insulting "people who deserve it," (Peri Support). So!! I think Niles's interactions with Owain ultimately come down to how well he respects Odin/how good their relationship was. If they were besties when Odin gets deaged, then I don't think Niles will purposely try to make Owain feel bad, though a lot of what he says with metaphors & double meanings will probably go over Owain's head anyway. I also don't know if he'd purposely go digging for information or not?? Depending on how much he feels asking would be a betrayal to Odin's trust vs his own curiosity and all the hints Owain doesn't realize not to drop?? I think Owain would really determine what Niles does or doesn't learn about him. They have the potential to have a really good talk where Owain talks about his parents' deaths and the struggles he & the kids are going through and Niels talking about his own life on the streets. (BTW, despite Owain literally going through a war & both parent death, I think he might think Niles has the worse situation bc he's never known parental love at all, which baffles Niles).

Similar to Leo, I think Owain would be really cautious around Niles at first, both because he's an intimidating sort and because he takes cues from how everyone acts around Niles too. But!! Also just like Leo, if his future self trusted them, obviously that means something, right? So he'd approach Niles a bit more after a few days of settling in.

Niles & Owain's interactions are really hard to imagine because they depend on so many factors that I haven't decided upon! But hopefully the other ones make sense, lol

Thanks for asking!

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 6: Dicklips has a Point

Chapter 5: Mother

After a few days in Hoshido, Corrin is finally getting used to the massive emotional baggage that is her backstory. Mikoto invites Corrin to sit on the Hoshidan throne, which is infused with the magic of the First Dragons and destroys magic that alters the body or mind. Mikoto hopes that it will allow Corrin to regain her memories. Before Corrin can sit on the throne and become king of the Westeros or whatever, Mikoto’s strategist Yukimura enters. He looks like a nerd, but I suppose that’s better than being a steampunk MCR cover band dropout like Iago.

The Hoshidan siblings enter and Mikoto tells Corrin that they’re having a ceremony to quash spy rumors and formally reintroduce Corrin into the family. We’re properly introduced to Corrin’s other brother, Takumi. He’s assigned to show Corrin around town and is grumpy about it, because his defining character trait is being a dick. As Takumi and the princesses leave, Ryoma muses that he feels uneasy and predicts that something bad will happen soon.

The gang tours a Hoshidan marketplace. It’s so vibrant, and colorful, and full of life. I haven’t been talking much about this game’s music because I’m not a music guy, but I love the upbeat theme they use for this scene. It feels like something out of Okami and matches Hoshido’s idealized feudal Japan aesthetic perfectly.

Corrin points out that Shirasagi is way better than the Nohrian fort she was held prisoner in for years. Takumi rants that he doesn’t trust Corrin, saying Just don’t get too comfortable…SISTER. I know he’s supposed to come across as a dick, but he has a point. Corrin’s an enemy soldier who invaded Hoshido and killed a dozen people less than a week ago. It doesn’t matter that they share DNA, Corrin should be treated with suspicion.

Takumi also acts suspicious to Azura and says she can’t call him by his first name, which is dumb. What’s she supposed to do, call him Dicklips? Corrin points out that Dicklips is being an idiot and Dicklips tells her to shut up. And really, he is being an idiot. Either hate Corrin for growing up in Nohr, or hate Azura for having Nohrian DNA. Either nature matters, or nurture matters. You can’t have it both ways.

Then again, Azura and Corrin will totally join Nohr and try to destroy Hoshido if we chose the conquest path, so maybe Dicklips has a point.

Corrin tells Sakura that she’s friends with a girl around Sakura’s age, presumably Elise. If the coin flip had gone the other way and I was playing as boy Corrin, Sakura would have asked if Elise is Corrin’s girlfriend. And that’s ridiculous. Can you imagine, Corrin dating their teenage sister? That’s messed up. Good thing that isn’t a thing that happens in this game.

We go to the plaza for the festival. Side note, all shots of Corrin and Mikoto in the festival are positioned so that Corrin’s face is covered by something, like a man wearing an oversized hat, for instance. This is because Corrin is customizable and that means the game can’t show their face. They can show the clearly male body model, but not their face. Awakening had Robin wear a hood to get around this problem, but who needs fashion choices when you can just censor the main character’s face like it’s Austin Powers’s mojo.

While Corrin’s standing next to Mikoto, a weird ghost man wearing a hood walks to the front of the crowd and holds out his arm. Red smoke starts coming off Ganglari and an eye opens up on its hilt, because it is very clearly a cursed sword. Ganglari flies over to the man and he stabs it into the ground, creating a massive purple explosion ball. The sword explodes and Mikoto jumps in front of Corrin to shield her from the shrapnel. As she dies, Mikoto asks Corrin if she’s okay.

Fire Emblem has a lot of dead parent scenes, and I honestly think this is the best. Marcella Lentz-Pope’s scream when Mikoto dies is phenomenal. Mikoto begging Corrin to be alright and dying with a smile on her face is beautiful.

Ryoma cuts down the hooded man but his cloak just falls to the ground, leaving no body. Corrin screams, her hair glowing and her eyes white, physically holding back the pain as waves of energy burst from her body. In a moment, Corrin is gone. In her place is a dragon.

I really like Corrin’s dragon form. It looks so inhuman, more like a machine than a traditional dragon. It really gets across that Corrin has completely lost any semblance of humanity she had as she falls into this pit of despair.

The level proper starts up as an army of dark mages and mercenaries storm into the ruined plaza. Their leader is the ghostly man from before. Interestingly, he’s a swordmaster, a Hoshidan exclusive class that he shares with Ryoma. This level adds Sakura and Azura to our team and gives Corrin an absolutely monstrous boost to her stats, fitting for her rage dragon form.

Sakura

Corrin’s shy, gentle Hoshidan younger sister. She’s a Shrine Maiden (Cleric) and wields healing staves. Her personal skill lowers the damage taken by nearby allies. Her design is fine; I don’t really have any thoughts on it. She seems to be going for this “cute shy healer” personality, which isn’t bad, but Fire Emblem has done it a dozen times before.

Azura

Azura is our Dancer...I mean, Songstress. She sucks at fighting, but allows other units to attack twice, which is really helpful in battle. Her personal skill heals nearby allies at the start of their turns. Her design, despite its bright colors, does a good job conveying how calm and mysterious she is. Azura is an enigma. She clearly knows more than she lets on, but currently seems content to just follow Corrin around.

All of the mercenaries in this chapter wield special, dragon killing swords, which would be a problem, if Corrin didn’t have as much defense as the rest of the party put together. This chapter boils down to letting dragon Corrin smash everyone while Sakura, Azura, and Kaze provide support. Ryoma attempts to take on the ghost man, but is defeated. Then Corrin fucking stomps his translucent ass and saves the day.

Corrin continues rampaging and Azura begins singing LITAA. Her necklace, the one from the title screen, starts glowing. Ryoma runs in to protect Azura, but Azura blasts him away with a pillar of water, which is a thing that she can do apparently.

Dragon Corrin freaks out at the music and slashes Azura across the chest. Azura keeps singing and Corrin attempts to strangle her to death. Azura tells Corrin, Kill me if you want, but do it as yourself, which is a fantastic line that shakes Corrin out of her madness.

Corrin turns back into a human and has a flashback of Garon’s murdering Sumeragi and kidnapping her. Garon says You are my child now and grabs baby Corrin, which is so creepy its comical.

Corrin apologizes to Azura, saying she’s disgusted with herself. Ryoma explains that both royal families have dragon blood, the Nohrians from the Dusk Dragon and the Hoshidans from the Dawn Dragon. Corrin looks out over the destroyed town, a town full of innocent people destroyed by Nohr.

Ryoma points out that, because Garon gave Corrin an evil bomb sword, everything must have been his plan. Cool plan, by the way. Let’s see if I have it straight:

1: Give Corrin a bomb sword.

2: Have her commit an act of war.

3: Have Hans try to murder Corrin.

4: Hope he fails.

5: Hope the Hoshidans bring Corrin to their Queen, instead of imprisoning her for being an enemy soldier.

6: Have ghost soldiers invade Hoshido and take the sword from Corrin.

6: Cursed sword explodes, killing Mikoto and destroying her mind control barrier.

I mean, sure, there are probably simpler ways to kill Mikoto, ways that don’t involve praying that Hans fucks up and fails to kill Corrin. Garon could have, I don’t know, had the ghost soldiers kill Mikoto. Maybe their existence is tied to Ganglari, but that’s never actually stated, and the fact that they stick around and kill people after Ganglari explodes makes that questionable.

You know how, at the end of Naruto, Kishimoto had the villains reveal that they were behind every bad thing that happened in the series, and how it didn’t make sense and was dumb and convoluted? I’m getting Naruto vibes from this chapter.

Takumi blames Corrin for Mikoto’s death. And I mean, he has a point. Corrin’s the one who brought the clearly cursed sword her war criminal father gave her with her. Azura tells Takumi that it’s fine if he doesn’t trust her, but it's wrong for him to distrust Corrin, because Corrin is his blood. And that’s fucking stupid. Fire Emblem is filled with characters with evil relatives. Soren, Guinivere, Edelgard, Robin, the list goes on. Shit, there are evil blood relatives within this game.

Corrin suggests leaving and Yukimura tells her that Mikoto wouldn’t have wanted that and that Mikoyo knew she would die soon. He also mentions that there may be darker forces than Garon at work. Yukimura also points us towards a statue destroyed in the blast, a statue containing Yato, a diving golden sword that is said to be the key to peace. Yato flies up and over to Corrin.

Kaze runs in and reports a massive Nohrian force assembles at the border and the family marches off to war, with Ryoma declaring that he will not show any mercy. Corrin decides to follow Ryoma, in hopes of stopping the war. Azura tells Corrin to calm down, because getting into a fight could cause her to lose control and turn into a dragon again. Spoiler alert, this is literally the only chapter where Corrin loses control, because screw interesting characterization.

Azura gives Corrin her necklace, which turns out to be a dragonstone. Dragonstones and manaketes, people who can turn into dragons, are not new to Fire Emblem. Manaketes are normally uncomfortably young girls. Corrin is the first and currently the only manakete main lord. What’s more, Corrin is unique in their ability to wield both swords and dragonstones. It fits with the duality motif.

The necklace allows Corrin to control her dragon form, which is a bit of a disappointment. Corrin losing control and destroying stuff in this animalistic rage was really interesting characterization that is never seen after this chapter.

Azura decides to follow Corrin, because Corrin makes her feel safe. Apparently.

This chapter was really, really, good. Mikoto’s death was heartbreaking and Corrin going apeshit was some really strong character work. I forgot how absolutely terrifying Corrin’s transformation scene is. That said, this chapter hammers the final nail in the coffin for this story being morally grey. There is absolutely no reason to side with Nohr after this chapter, except for loyalty to the Nohrian royals.

At the start of the next chapter, we’ll choose our side in this war. And, not to tip my hand, but I don’t exactly think it’ll be a hard choice.

[rughydrangea]

Do I have a chapter due on Friday? Yes! (And do I have to teach and grade and moderate a discussion, the reading for which I have not yet done, before then? Also yes! Fuck everything!) And did I finish the new season of The Crown in two days? Unfortunately...

This show is so weird. Fantastically acted. (People. Wake up. Tobias Menzies is INCREDIBLE and deserves award attention! Though his performance really does make you regret the two seasons we spent with Matt Smith, an actor I like, whose take on the role was ‘smug’ and literally nothing else.) Episodic in a way that I contend is a huge problem for British TV in general (I have thoughts about this!). Fucking sumptuous. And, increasingly, weirdly uncomfortable, as we get into recent history. 

But this season may be its best? I love the first season because it was our introduction to a young woman who was fucking destroyed by an inhumane institution (abolish the monarchy and make these losers get jobs! I am an American and perhaps my position here is predictable, but yeah, monarchy is fucking stupid, toss them overboard!), and Claire Foy was so incredible at showing how this person became walled up into a monument, and just bit by bit lost her humanity. But this season has the twin focus of Thatcher and Diana, which it really needed.

I will be honest here. I was born in 1990. My first memory of knowing who Diana was came at some point after she died. I do not remember her dying, and it could have been months or years later that I came to be conscious of who she was--but she never existed to me except as a person who had died. The genuine personal tragedy of her death aside, British royalty simply meant nothing to my family. My parents are both Americans and journalists, people who were concerned with real news, not what a bunch of rich inbred foreigners got up to. I don’t care if it’s mean to call them that, they are literally sheltering a sex criminal, so truly fuck them (Charles, if you want to prove to us that you hate Andrew as much as reports indicate you do, send him over here to US federal prosecutors!). Which is to say, I have no real pre-conceptions of Diana here. And Emma Corrin is, it turns out, a star. She’s incredible. I wouldn’t say that I fell in love with the character, per se--she’s a child, at first, she’s so blank. But you see the way she gets swallowed up by this absolutely evil family, and all you can do is pity her, and admire her for what she was able to build out of that pain. 

As for Charles... yikes. I’ve seen people saying that this season exposes what an asshole he is, and on the one hand, absolutely, he comes across terribly. But if I were the real Charles I would be sending cash money to Josh O’Connor for making me seem a) human and b) handsome. This Charles sucks--but he’s so ruined himself that all he can do is ruin other people, and that goes right straight back to the way that his mother and father ruined him. The problem isn’t individuals (except Andrew! though like if I were Edward I would also be annoyed at how this season portrays me as an asshole twit. I mean, I’ll trust that it’s accurate, but nobody was thinking about Edward and Peter Morgan just aimed straight at him and honestly, I’m all for it! Though there was also the scene where Edward calls Charles ‘cunty’ which was fucking incredible), it’s this whole fucked grotesque mockery of sovereignty and humanity.

I guess this is why I don’t understand people who dismiss this show as royalist pablum. If you watch the show--these people suck! And yeah, specific things about the show are NOT GOOD (I will never get over the time we devoted a whole s2 episode to Edward VIII being a goddamn motherfucking Nazi and then in s3 we had to deal with Charles whining that poor Edward was just such a fucking BRILLIANT INDIVIDUALIST, like, were I Charles, that’s when I would have filed the libel lawsuit!), but I would argue that it’s less about fetishizing power as such than the myriad ways that people manage to come together to fetishize power, and the things and people they’re willing to sacrifice to maintain this bullshit ideal. Peter Morgan, like many writers who clearly has nobody to tell him ‘no! fuck off!’ frequently gets carried away (I did love the s4 finale’s reminder that it doesn’t matter how lowborn you are, you are absolutely capable of fucking the working class over to your heart’s content and that’s girl power!), but I do think that the kernel at the heart of this show hates the monarchy, and is committed to showing how it destroys everyone involved in it (and I think Margaret is probably the best example of that--a truly independent spirit whose life was ruined by these people over and over again but who can’t decouple herself from the institution because she doesn’t understand how to exist without it).

So, uh, yeah. I watched the new season of The Crown! British friends, I’m so sorry your tax money pays for these twits/criminals to live! But also Boris Johnson may be a bigger problem for y’all, frankly. 

[emblemxeno]

Xander Support Science Rebuttal/Review + How Mediocre Localization Could Change A Character (2/2)

Continuing From My Last Post (You can find my first post here with all of the links and citations referenced there also being applicable here)

This was originally gonna be three parts, but cutting down the rest of what I had, I don’t think I would have enough for three so instead you get a big second post. Please enjoy, and leave comments/asks one what you liked and what I could do do better in the future.

Continuation 

-At 20:57, Ghast talks about Xander’s final showdown in BR chapter 26, “Despite already establishing that Xander had his doubts about Garon and his way of doing things, calling his siblings naive is hilariously rich coming from someone who routinely overreacts and disrespects his own family members for making inarguable claims about Garon” Xander doesn’t say that in the original script. He instead says:

Xander: I see...So you deceived Camilla and Leo like that? However, that will not work on me. As the First Prince of the Kingdom of Nohr, I cannot allow those who threaten the Kingdom to exist. No matter what others may say, now...I will defeat Corrin. 

Nothing to indicate Xander disrespecting his siblings by insulting them, it’s simply a matter of defending his country.

-Ghast then goes on to also mention how Xander defended Garon and told Leo to shut up in Rev chapter 14. To that, notice the difference in the conversation between JP and the localization.

-

JP version, english patch 

Leo: ...Hey, Xander. We should help fight, too. Even if we become enemies of Nohr, just like Corrin…

Xander: What?! Don’t say such stupid things!! 

Leo: !!

Xander: Understand? We have our pride as the Nohrian royal children. No matter what happens, Father… He won’t let anyone betray this country. Remember this fact.

Leo: ...Sorry.

Xander: ...If you understand, then it’s okay. From here on out... There are things that we must do for Nohr. Corrin and them will meet at the Bottomless Canyon, when the skies over Nohr and Hoshido switch. Until then... Gather all of the trustworthy troops you can find.

Leo: ...Brother? What on earth are you…?

Localization

Leo: Xander, I’m not certain we should be fighting the Hoshidan forces. Even if it means becoming enemies of Nohr…

Xander: Enough of this foolishness!

Leo: !!

Xander: Listen. We are noble princes of Nohr--loyal sons to King Garon. No matter what… We cannot betray Father or this kingdom. Remember that.

Leo: I apologize for my words, Brother.

Xander: No need to apologize, so long as you understand. You and I must do all we can to protect Nohr. Corrin told where and when to meet him/her. We need to be at the Bottomless Canyon on the day the skies change. We have until then to gather our most trusted soldiers.

Leo: What are you planning to do, Xander?

-

The JP version has Xander shift his perspective, because this is the point where he realizes Garon is not the man he used to be. When he tells Leo to “shut up” in the JP script, it’s because Leo mentioned betraying Nohr not anything to do with their father. The conversation goes onto paint Garon as a tyrant by saying “He won’t let anyone betray this country” placing the blame unto his father for being an asshole, rather than having Noblesse oblige towards BOTH Garon and the Kingdom. The localization makes this conversation worse by having Xander still vehemently defend Garon when it was supposed to subtly communicate that it won’t be the case anymore. It also makes Xander look like more of a dick than he actually is.

Line Changes

-At 22:15, he goes onto the Conquest chapter 27 line where Xander says Corrin will be punished like any other traitor if they are leading the Nohr family into a trap to do them harm. He also says that Xander believes that Corrin is leading them into a Hoshidan ambush, but I don’t know where he got that from? He says nothing about Hoshido, he only says if Corrin’s actually trying to harm their family. And again, this is another case of localization making Xander seem more harsh than he is. The original line was:

“Xander:..I understand. You’re the one who has led and fought with us the whole time. That’s why...I believe you. I believe in your words. But, if what you say turns out to be a lie...We will determine you as an enemy, and our entire army will turn against you. Prepare yourself for that.” 

Nothing as threatening as the localized version, because Xander isn’t actually like that.

Xander’s Denial/Trust Issues

-Ghast goes on “While Corrin’s claim would be hard to swallow, without any context, Garon’s been a bloodthirsty monster the entire game (talks about Garon being evil and Xander witnessing it)...Xander even later says the war was pointless and that his real father, would never have started a meaningless war like the one they just fought in, showing that he knew from the start that what he was doing was wrong. So why would he threaten Corrin like that for suggesting disposing of Garon”?

Because, at that point, he was still in denial of Garon possibly being bad, clinging onto hope that his father would return to the way he was. As I mentioned earlier, it takes seeing Garon as a literal monster to finally push Xander over the edge, but it’s also why he and the other Nohr siblings are hesitant to fight against Slime Monster Dad, because they felt the exact same way due to how they grew up. 

Following up, he says, “Why would he not trust Corrin, when at that point of the game they chose to return to Nohr and fight with them and they probably have an A support which shows he’s been doubting Garon for years” 1) As stated before, the support wasn’t translated well, he’s not actually the type to stand up to Garon even if he had his doubts unless you have some very definitive proof and 2) 9 times out of 10, Supports don’t affect the story in any meaningful way. At best it affects whether you can not have someone unrecruit themselves, or in 3H in order to get the CF route. I can just as easily have Corrin not support Xander at all.

Further on, Ghast says “Even after Garon being a complete dickbag, and Corrin showing unquestionable loyalty the entire game, Xander still trusts Garon more” No, he doesn’t. It’s not trust, it’s fear. He’s afraid of his father. He visibly recoils whenever Garon barks orders at him, he says that as a kid he was more scared of his father than any ghost in the Boo Camp DLC. Xander is fully aware of Garon’s atrocities and how awful he is, but he defends him because protecting Garon is synonymous with protecting his Kingdom and family, and because he’s in deep denial of Garon’s behavior due to growing up in a destructive environment, AND because he’s utterly terrified of him. It’s a complex way of thinking, and something that has shaped Xander up to that point.

Logic vs. Emotion

-He goes back to BR chapter 26 at with 25:17 “He doesn’t even take a moment to think things through and ask himself why all of his siblings have stopped fighting Corrin already, he doesn’t consider Leo and Camilla’s feelings at all, completely dismisses Elise’s plight, and instead blindly fights for Garon to win the war...Xander’s reaction to Elise’s final dying plea in his arms that he’s responsible for, to get him to listen finally is to continue fighting Corrin. Xander’s hubris has blinded him from seeing why Camilla and Leo could see reason, he pushed his agenda so far that he literally killed his own sister. At this point, Xander has absolutely nothing but his annoying patriotism to his country and his blind obsessiveness with pleasing Daddy Dearest, so instead of finally beginning to see the light, Xander instead spits on Elise’s dying wish, and forces Corrin to fight him, despite literally being told not to do it.”

Ghast’s incessant desire for Xander to have no personality except considering others feelings and be a pragmatist is what drags down this analysis the most for me. Besides already ignoring literally everything that was changed in the localization, as well as the more-than-implied undertones of an abusive/destructive childhood, he is under the impression that after killing his own sister, there should only be one reaction to it, to join Corrin and fight Garon. Completely disregarding the darkest part about Xander, his suicidal desires, most of which are delved into his Nyx support. You can’t get this support in BR obviously, and that route is where he is pushed to his limits and is suffering the most on the inside; when he kills Elise everything inside of him breaks and he thinks the only way to atone is to die, hence why he triggers a Suicide-by-Cop by forcing Corrin to fight him. This is reflected in gameplay where his stats are lowered and he doesn’t move, showing that he’s holding back and wanting Corrin to finish him off.

Ghast goes on to say “What were the writers hoping to achieve by making Xander completely disregard his little sister’s sacrifice and to continue fighting with absolutely no resolve or reason to fight? He couldn’t do anything else? Really?”

Uh, yeah. Really. At least that’s what Xander believed. Being suicidal does that to people. Context of the moment and not thinking rationally can really fuck someone up depending on what happens. It is an issue the audience can have, where doing the smart thing is obvious, and it’s bad writing when the character doesn’t do it, but 1) characters aren’t robots dictated solely by logic and 2) characters that always do the right/smart thing can get pretty boring, at least to me. It’s also why I enjoy Corrin as a protagonist and why Takumi and Leo work extremely well as Corrin’s foils.

-He then goes onto critique Xander claiming he didn’t have a choice like his other siblings, because of his responsibility as Crown Prince, saying that at that point, Leo, Camilla and Elise had left the war so what did he have left to fight for. And to that I say, he had the rest of Nohr to fight for, literally a bunch of innocents that he needs to protect. Meanwhile, his retainers are probably bleeding out, whoops.

-30:28 “Now Elise is dead. Her courageous sacrifice goes ignored by Xander, and the only possible reasoning behind his decision to continue was to keep fighting for Garon and Nohr” or, y’know, because of those not so subtle suicidal tendencies of his that were just triggered by him killing his sister, leading him wanting to be killed?

“But therein lies another problem, Xander’s responsibility is to his people, not to a megalomaniac king undeserving of his loyalty” Denial, fear, and a harmful way of thinking can do that to someone.

-Ghast actually acknowledges Xander’s suicide by cop thing with his stats and says it was supposed to be tragic but it’s not because he thinks Xander’s line of letting his feelings overrule my duty is baffling because “...he suppressed his real feelings because of his duty, there’s no instance where Xander’s emotions get in the way of doing what he should do as Crown Prince, someone who is to strive for the well being of his people” Chapter 2 he spares Kaze and Rinkah, and in chapter 3 he and the other siblings rescue Corrin despite not being ordered to. This is him doing what his feelings told him to do in spite of what consequence it might have for his country in the future. Not to mention a lot of his actions in Conquest have him do things based on emotion and feelings even if it might have ended the war sooner not to.

-34:55, “So guess what? He knew. He knew Camilla left for a good reason, he knew Leo was right to suspect Garon, he agreed with what Elise wanted the entire time, and he knew Corrin was right, but most importantly he doesn’t believe in Garon anymore. So what does he have left? His people. But how, Xander? How are you going to lead your people to the peaceful future you just admitted to always wanting as Crown Prince if you go ahead and throw your life away? So let me answer your question. Is that justice? No Xander, it’s karma, you colossal tool”.

People aren’t allowed to have feelings and who cares if he was suicidal and wanted his life to end because he felt like he didn’t deserve to live anymore, and most likely felt his people deserved better than him, yadda yadda. Again, it’s this desire to rope Xander into this box of not having a character besides being receptive to other people that makes this analysis worse. Because he’s ignoring intrinsic facets of Xander’s personality. Traits that really can’t be ignored when understanding the greater context of the siblings, Nohr, and the game as a whole. Unfortunately, said traits were also bogged down a bit by a bad localization.

35:37-”If this was support Xander he wouldn’t have done all of this and he would’ve made all the right choices” I don’t agree, for aforementioned reasons that I don’t wish to repeat again.

35:56 ”And if he can’t negotiate peace, Xander should bravely face his father like he said he did in the past and do the right thing for the countrymen he so devoutly serves. Stand up to the guy.” Basically the entire argument is based on one line that was never in the original script and therefore never intended to be something the audience would think. Xander never stood up to Garon directly before, the only real instance of that happening is chapter 27 of Conquest, where he finds his father is a literal monster. Any other time he tries, he recoils in fear. Even his line in CQ chapter 9 where Corrin might be executed for getting help from Elise and Xander says “Father, kill me or kill no one. That is all there is to it” isn’t in the JP script, it was literally just ellipses instead.

The Second Video: Xander’s Supposed Hypocrisy

The second video goes onto more story Xander and supports Xander stuff, once again closing Xander off into a box of just being selfless and being completely receptive.

-At 4:25 he says instead of letting the war be over quicker by letting Zola execute the Hoshidan royals Xander commits treason against his own army and people by destroying Zola’s company in chapter 18. Ghast makes this out as Xander being self fulfilling and not for the welfare of his people at all, despite this completely going against Ghast’s apparent need for Xander to consider his families’ feelings and wishes, and saving the Hoshido royals would what Corrin would want. I really don’t know what Ghast really wants from Xander sometimes.

-From 6:01 to 7:12, Ghast criticizes Xander’s way of doing things as hypocritical. “Xander acts like Garon (declaring treachery and using violence to get his way) to make sure the war is won in an honorable way”. Never mind the fact that since Xander is thinking about the future of Nohr, and he doesn’t want his country to be seen as deceptive cowards, and the fact standing by and letting a person like Kotaro do what he wants, despite being a greedy politician who destroyed a whole country in the past and can easily stab Nohr in the back later.

Further on, at 10:05, “It’s not enough to be a good person, you have to stand up to people doing bad things” ...that’s literally what he does against Zola though? Besides the aforementioned planned execution, there’s also the fact that Zola is committing a crime by instigating conflict in a neutral territory, why would taking him out be a bad thing.

Justice Is An Illusion

-At 11:00, he goes on to criticize Xander’s Justice Is An Illusion speech in CQ 24, specifically the line “If we allow evil men to let their vision take precedence over our own, we all lose. Remember that, and find solace in it” He says this is hypocritical of Xander to say, as Xander had done nothing to stand up for his own vision of peace in the face of evil men at point. This is despite the fact that, as we know by now, Xander isn’t the type of person to stand up and directly fight back against his father, because of fear and denial. So despite it looking cowardly, it’s consistent with how his portrayal was supposed to be, which the localization fumbled on.

Also, the line that Ghast criticizes? Guess which line isn’t in the JP script. Actually the speech is a lot longer in the localization than the JP version, like twice as long:

The localized speech:

Corrin: ...Xander, what do we--?

Xander: I know. I don’t like this plan any more than you do. But we must stay strong. If we falter now, the whole world will pay the price. Corrin… Camilla told me you once asked her where justice lies.

Corrin: Yes. She didn’t have any more answers than I did.

Xander: Little prince/princess… The sad truth is that justice is an illusion. A child’s fairy tale. There is no light path that always leads to good, nor dark path that leads to evil. To believe that--to see the world in black and white--is missing half the picture. All that matters are the choices we make--especially the hard ones.

Corrin: But this? It’s too much…

Xander: Letting innocents die is a tragedy, but so is letting the chance for peace slip away. This is war. There is no such thing as a clean win when lives are on the line. Instead of clinging to a false sense of justice, hold strong to something true… The desire to do what you know is right and to protect the ones you love… And the ambition to see your vision of a peaceful future through to the end. If we allow evil men to let their vision take precedence over our own, we all lose. Remember that, and find solace in it.

Corrin: You’re right, Xander. I know in my heart that you’re right. Gods, give me strength...

The JP Speech:

Corrin: ...Xander. I…

Xander: I know. You do not truly agree with these methods. ...Corrin. Before this, you… I heard from Camilla that you asked where justice is found. 

Corrin: Yes…

Xander: ...Things like justice, do not exist. This is war. In this world, there is no right or wrong way of being. There is only… Ambition and desire. Along with the expectations of the people who follow those emotions. You’d do well to remember that.

Corrin: …

-

I was surprised to see it was so short, so I double checked on a playthrough of the untranslated version to make sure it wasn’t a mess up with the patch, and it’s not. It’s actually that short.

Xander’s Honor

-At 14:22 he says Xander “Carelessly violates his code of conduct by dirtying his hands and by betraying his father and Nohr” What exactly does Ghast want, because Xander goes against Garon like he wanted, and allows his vision to hold precedence like he wanted (even though the line was a Treehouse add-on), yet this is apparently a bad thing because it’s contradictory to what he does later, when in the context of the situation, he literally can’t do anything because it would mean going against half the army as well as any Hoshidan forces. Xander says justice doesn’t really exist, because even when they did things like take out Zola and Kotaro for their scheming, who’s to say that was the most just decision, because as Ghast himself said, letting them do their thing could’ve ended the war faster. But on the other side of things, where would the justice be in letting people like that do what they want? That’s what Xander ultimately means when he says there’s no justice, further complemented by saying there is only ambition and desire; it was Xander’s ambition and desire to do what he thought was right, justice or not.

-At 16:03 to the end, Ghast concludes the video by saying that Support Xander and Story Xander may as well be different people. But the thing is, they’re not. Xander is in deep denial of his father being evil because he’s still latching on to what few good things there were about him, and Garon is what Xander is scared of the most. Xander’s multifaceted personality makes him out to be selfless and caring on the inside, whilst appearing intimidating, but none of this was intentionally cultivated, it’s just the way he grew up, and being a natural introvert, he’d rather not change how people perceive him because he’d rather not cause anyone trouble. And having a drive to do things for others, he also has personal issues and sentiments which influence his actions, such as suicidal desires and difficulty controlling and expressing his emotions.

This is shown really well, but mostly only in the original script. The grievous inconsistencies are a result of the localization adding in lines that contradict what was originally supposed to be conveyed. Apparently he stands up against Garon frequently, he fights for justice against evil men, and he doesn’t let his emotions rule over his logic. But none of that is actually true.

Conclusion

In general, I don’t really like either video because Ghast imposes what kind of character Xander should be like and doesn’t acknowledge (or outright dismisses as stupid) a lot of what could influence him. The final driving point is that it’s simply baffling that there’s no acknowledgement whatsoever of Xander’s story inconsistencies being possibly a result of bad localization (which they are) when Fates had one of the most controversial localization seasons in the past few years. Granted, yes, people were more up in arms about problematic content, the skinship, and name changes, but not many seem to recognize that maybe that it also extends to the script in general altering character personalities? It’s even more confusing considering Ghast’s main videos are about story and character analysis, yet doesn’t really seem to ever bring up how localization and translation can alter the script, thereby affecting the player’s reading of the plot.

Overall, what’s done has been done, most people see Xander as two (or three) different people because of Fates’ bad writing and not because messages possibly being misconstrued. I would like to say, that saying Xander was ruined was not the best choice of words, as even with mediocre translation, he’s still a fantastic character and not all of what makes him the way he is was lost.

It’s just I feel like we could’ve gotten better.

Anyway, thanks to all who read through this. Play Fates, it’s a good game, even though I think Treehouse fumbled a lot of it.

[fakeyellow]

Fabian and MC’s daughter grows up and discovers her mother’s secret. (F!Hunter x MC - The Royal Masquerade)

As far as Corinna can remember, her mother has never been anything less than the perfect, consummate queen.

When she wears her crown, she exudes a dignity and strength that her opponents can only bow down to. Songs are composed of Queen Adria’s poise and elegance, portraits made of her distinctive beauty.

But Corinna likes her mother best when her crown is off, when she no longer has to play a role in front of countless nobility and she is free to relax amongst their small, close-knit family.

—

Like most other children her age, Corinna thinks the world of her parents and she can’t think of two people more in love with each other than her parents.

Sure, they don’t have a lot of times for just the three of them- usually her godmother Hunter is also with them as is Aunt Kayden during her visits to the capital.

Sure, they might not kiss in private and they sleep in separate bedrooms but that’s just what kings and queens do, right?

After all, Corinna can hear the fond affection in her parent’s voices when they call each other by their name and they do nice things for each other and they both tell her that they love Corinna and that’s what love is, isn’t it?

Once, Corinna poses this question innocently to her godmother, who for some reason blushes before turning solemn and saying,

“It is a kind of love.”

Corinna doesn’t think much of this until one day when Corinna is 14 and she sees her mother and her godmother kiss.

—

Corinna runs away from the scene and her mind is racing as she tries to reconcile the image of what she has just seen with what she has thought to be true her entire life.

Her godmother is just her mother’s best friend and her parents love each other… right?

There’s no way her godmother would try to come in between her parents and ruin their marriage; she’s not evil!

Corrine thinks back to her childhood and remembers the Hunter who always caught her in a fierce hug and twirled her around. She remembers the Hunter who always found time for her despite her never-ending responsibilities as High Chancellor.

Corinna can’t help but begin to cry as she remembers the kiss she has just seen; how could her godmother do this to her father? How could Hunter do this to her?

But once the initial shock and tears die down, Corinna reflects on other past memories:

All of the stolen touches and gazes shared between her mother and Hunter before they noticed Corinna’s eyes on them.

All the times Corinna had caught them whispering to each other.

All the late night meetings they’d had over what Corinna had thought to be matters of state.

By the time Hunter finds her, Corinna has worked herself into a rage at the two of them for having betrayed her father.

And then Hunter begins to speak gently, explaining everything, and Corinna can’t do anything but listen as she learns about one of the most cunning and secretive plots of Cordonian history.

But at the end when Hunter falls silent, Corinna finds that she’s still angry.

“Aren’t you angry at her?!” Corinna finally bursts out at her godmother, “Mother chose the crown over you, she’s why you had to hide your love this entire time. She couldn’t give up the throne for you and so she married Father and had me… How can you still love her?”

Although Hunter flinches at the brutal candor of Corinna’s words, Corinna stares at her expectantly, waiting for an answer.

“Because your mother is one of the strongest woman I know,” Hunter finally admits, an unreadable expression on her face, “she wouldn’t be the woman I love if she had done anything else.”

Later, Corinna’s parents sit down to talk with her together and they explain how this doesn’t change anything. They all still love Corinna and that is the most important thing.

Time moves on and things seem to return to normal.

But Corinna cannot quite bring herself to forgive her mother for the pain she’s caused everyone all for the sake of her ambition.

—

Years pass and although Fabian is one of Cordonia’s most loved kings, he is an artist at heart. When Fabian is sure that his daughter is ready, when Corinna is as prepared as she can be, he abdicates the throne so that she may ascend.

Even though she’s prepared for this role her entire life, Corinna is overcome with the heavy weight of responsibility that is placed on her shoulders just as the crown is placed on her head.

And she starts to understand.

Thousands of lives hinge on her every word, her every action, her every decision. A single wrong move can start wars and famines, devastating her country.

But at the same time, she can do so much and there is nothing she would not do for her people who have entrusted their lives in her hands.

As she rules, Corinna marvels at everything her mother managed to achieve as queen; while her father was a champion of the arts, her mother brought about sweeping reforms in education. increasing literacy rates and opening up civil servant examinations to the common people.

—

A year passes since her coronation and Corinna slowly but surely settles into her role as Queen of Cordonia.

Her mother has taken on the position of dowager queen with as much grace as she had the title of queen. She is impeccably put together and yet Corinna can see how the years have worn away at her.

Her chestnut hair is run through with slight streaks of silver now, the corners of her eyes wrinkled.

The years have also marked themselves on her godmother as well; while she still acts as Corinna’s High Chancellor, it seems to take more out of her than it used to.

Although Corinna’s parents no longer reign, they are still public figures that Hunter’s relationship with Adria must be kept secret.

Corinna’s relationship with her mother never recovered completely after the revelation of her secret love affair but Corinna cannot help but notice how having to hide their love for thirty years has finally taken its toll.

When once, Corinna hadn’t been able to stop seeing the secretive little signs of love passed between her godmother and mother, Corinna does not see them interact much with each other anymore.

Even as they act unaffected on the surface, Corinna can see how their relationship has become strained from years of hiding and how they both suffer from this.

And so Corinna does the kindest thing she can.

“Chancellor,” Corinna greets.

Although taken aback by the sudden formality of Corinna’s tone, Hunter takes it in stride and gracefully curtsies, “Your Majesty.”

“How is Lady Leonora Beaumont’s training going?”

“She is a fast learner, your majesty,” Hunter replies.

“Would you say she is ready to take your place?”

Hunter pauses in shocks but finally answers, “Yes… Although I would ask what brought upon this sudden line of questioning.”

“You have given enough years of your life to Cordonia,” Corinna says, staring directly at her godmother until finally, a spark of understanding lights in Hunter’s eyes.

“Thank you Corinna,” Hunter says warmly.

—

Corinna’s mother walks regally into her parlor, and even though Corinna is now the Queen, she still feels like a small child in her mother’s commanding presence.

“Mother,” Corinna begins, “I do believe it is time for you to retire to the country side.”

Adria raises her eyebrow in a single motion.

“Your guidance has been invaluable to me but it is time for me to be independent. As such, I’ve also appointed a new High Chancellor onto my Council.”

“Oh?” Adria says, before understanding hits her and she breathes out, “Oh.”

Her mother’s eyes glisten with tears before her arms are suddenly around Corinna in a warm embrace that Corinna melts into.

Her mother pulls back, soaking in Corinna’s appearance as she lovingly cupping both of Corinna’s cheeks.

“You are the best of us,” Adria whispers and places a kiss on Corinna’s forehead, “I love you so much.”

And then for the first time in Corinna’s life, she sees her mother bunch up her skirts and run delightedly to be with the woman she loves.

—

A/N: Although it was a little rushed and there were a few unresolved storylines, I really liked the ending to the Royal Masquerade. I truly did not see what was coming with Lord Fierro’s declaration/Fabian’s introduction and the decision MC was forced to make between her lover and her crown was fucking amazing. 

I ultimately chose to have the bittersweet ending of MC marrying Fabian to keep the crown while still being with Hunter secretively. And upon their discussion in the chapter, I couldn’t stop thinking about if MC decided to have a single child with Fabian to secure an heir for the throne. (I put more thought/time into this than I should have have lolol rip)

Just in case it wasn’t clear, Adria is the MC of TRM while Corinna is MC’s daughter.

Some other things I imagined but couldn’t fit into the story:

- Corinna grows up loved and wanting for nothing, but her parents still make sure to keep her grounded. She lives in the luxuries of the palace but her childhood winters are also spent in the Rosario estate, her days often spent visiting her grandmother so she isn’t only surrounded by nobles. 

- Aunt Kayden isn’t really her aunt like Aunt Annelyse is but she’s close enough to them that they’re family. Corinna treasures each time Kayden returns to the capital from her travels, bringing back exotic gifts and magic and most importantly, herself.

[cvrsedbody]

🔥🔥🔥🔥

fire emblem would be so much better if the actual story writers put some thought into their antagonists more often instead of just rocking with the same old “possessed by evil dragon” shtick. Berkut is honestly the best antagonist i can think of in recent years because he actually had interesting justification and sympathetic traits. 

Also, Fates sucks as a whole but it has some really great characters. In addition, Birthright’s story is overall boring and extremely pointless. The choice of going to Hoshido because of your blood relation is completely nullified because as soon as you decide you want to marry one of the royals it turns out you arent even actually related (doesnt mean its not still weird) and the fact that throughout conquest corrin is constantly bitching and moaning about whether or not they made the right choice is so fucking annoying and frustrating and the way that they are just so chill with betraying the family that raised them in birthright is really aggravating.

ALSO also I think its kinda inch arresting how nohr was lichrally starving while hoshido lived in excess and refused to help Nohr at all despite being the Good Kingdom and thats just never addressed as A Thing. I also think we should have seen more about Garon’s descent into madness because it’s mentioned he used to be an actually good king (it’s if you talk to one of the random villagers during a battle. The old man says he hopes Garon learns to rule with compassion again or smth) so fates was really just a lot of missed opportunities

[crystalelemental]

FE Fates Replay - Part 1

Introductory segment, starring the better cast!

I did keep to the plan and am running Female Corrin.  I gave her the light purple hair.  It looks surprisingly nice on her.  Everything else was kinda standard.  I thought about alternate hair styles, but honestly her default looks the best.  I will say that I think the grids they use are stupid, though.  They list girly as one of the qualities in expression types, but one of the options furthest on that slider just had her eyes closed all the time like Brock, so I’m not sure that’s...girly, exactly.  My boon/bane layout is Clever/Unlucky, which translates to big magic but no luck.  Luck should always be your bane, kids.  I do find it annoying that they replaced the obvious descriptions with these new terms.  It’s not hard to figure out what’s what, but I know the stats and their associations.  If you’re new to the series, you might have no idea what Robust is.  Is that HP or Defense?  If it weren’t for keeping them all in the same order, I wouldn’t know.  It’s a similar thing to changing up class names; it’s really kinda pointless and only serves to confuse.  My subclass was Samurai, because I like the idea of Vantage and Swordfaire, which I feel is harder to find on her through the castles than all the other really good options.  Also I already have cards with Renewal and Luna, and it’s not gonna be hard to find Aegis/Pavise, so these two seemed like more interesting options.  With character creation out of the way, let’s get started!

The prologue is mostly just the now-standard in medias res tutorial.  Only, they had you side with the Hoshidans, because they’re totally not trying to sway your judgment here.  There’s not much to comment on, but I will note this, because it’s interesting: every time the Hoshidans talk about Nohr, the words “scum” and “filth” seem to come up every time.  They seem completely incapable of referring to the Nohrians as anything else.  Also, it’s absolutely hysterical to me that Xander nearly one-shots Ryoma, and Ryoma needs to activate Astra just to make an attempt at keeping up with damage output.  I think we all know who the better brother is here.

Chapter 1 is another simple tutorial, this time with Xander.  Not gonna lie, it might be Heroes influence, but I like Xander.  He’s nice.  He’s tough on Corrin, but is invested in helping her improve as a warrior to escape the fortress and be able to go out like she’s wanted.  He’s a good brother.  Who I thought was older, but may not be.  Unclear.  The other siblings are okay.  Camilla hasn’t really done a lot, Elise is just adorable, and Leo also hasn’t done much but prove that he’s kind of a klutz who’s like “there’s more to being strong than just slapping hunks of iron together!”  We also get a brief introduction to Flora and Felicia, who are pretty fun.  Nothing substantial on them yet.

Chapter 2 is a bit more interesting.  You finally meet the dad, Garon, who is a transparent villain that’s really not interesting at all.  He gives Corrin a suspicious sword, and tells her to kill off their prisoners from Hoshido.  The map itself...honestly is still mostly tutorial, this time for weapon triangle matchups.  It even gives you free healing in the center of the stage.  It’s more about developing small tactics and seeing how the different weapon types match up now.  I still don’t care for tomes being lumped in with swords and having a universal weakness.  I greatly prefer magic being outside the weapon triangle, and having its own matchups.  Still pissy about that...  Anyway, Corrin refuses to kill defeated prisoners, and Garon orders Xander to take care of it, so he gets involved.  Leo’s quick thinking keeps everyone out of trouble, and lets the prisoners, Kaze and Rinkah, survive.  Honestly, I do kinda like Leo after this map.  I forgot how clever he can actually be at times.  The whole family being against their father’s orders to kill the defenseless is also nice, though it makes you wonder about Garon himself, you know?  I know he used to be a good king, and suddenly changed, but like...when did the change happen, anyway?  How long was the family raised by good king Garon, and how did they not notice the drastic and immediate shift?  Corrin’s pretty nice here too.  Callie made a good observation for the series as a whole: “For a lot of these stories about kingdoms, the focus is on who’s in power, but the Fire Emblem lords tend to be way more concerned about how to help their people, and it’s really nice.”  I would agree, and Corrin does keep this trait.  She’s very concerned about establishing peace again after the war, and wants citizens on both sides to be safe.  Corrin’s alright.

Chapter 3, the doofening.  Hans and Iago, the other transparent villain idiots, are introduced.  Xander makes mention of Hans being arrested a few years back, which I guess alludes a bit to time frame for Garon’s transformation.  Law and order was properly upheld until “a few years ago.”  Without a proper scale we can’t say how long that was, but Xander was old enough to be on the job upholding the peace, so I’d assume no more than like...4-5 years, maybe?  Basically, the Nohrian siblings should’ve been old enough to recognize the sudden and drastic change.  Anyway, after your defiance of the king last chapter, you’re given a new mission and told you won’t even need to really fight this time.  Your objective is to scope out an abandoned fort near the Nohr/Hoshido border.  Gunter, Jakob, and Hans will be going with.  Corrin arrives, finds that the fort is filled with Hoshidans, and makes the sensible decision of “whoops, it’s not abandoned, better report this and not engage in needless conflict.”  To which Hans, predictably, runs in and kills a guy, then run into the fray and gets himself killed in like two turns because he’s inept.  Now...hear me out.  This guy’s plan was to kill one soldier, then charge in.  During this, Corrin shouts that Hans is disobeying orders, and acting independently.  In a sensible situation, this should be an easily resolved problem.  Corrin and the others actually following her orders stand back, or accost Hans themselves, and parlay with the Hoshidans, who have no intention fighting.  Instead, you engage them needlessly because Hans ran in.  So...okay, I guess.

You clear out the map, and get an introduction to Saizo and Kagero.  They’re not exactly compelling, beyond Saizo being kinda sexist here?  He dismisses Corrin as just a girl who couldn’t possibly know how to fight, but as soon as Xander shows up is like “Ah, this must be their real commander.”  Fuck you too, buddy.  Camilla’s actually hilarious at this point.  She decimates Saizo’s allies, and Corrin is momentarily taken aback by her usually gentle sister’s ferocity.  Elise is just like “Oh right, you’ve never seen her on the battlefield.  She’s just like this.”  It’s kinda great.  Kagero notifies Saizo that Ryoma is on his way with support, and Xander finally, FINALLY makes the sensible call to just fucking leave.

Oh, but of course it’s not that easy.  Hans is still alive somehow, despite rushing into enemy territory, having no support from us, and getting immediately blasted as he ran toward a heavily fortified post.  He also, somehow, knocks Gunter into the bottomless pit.  Corrin is outraged and demands answers, doing some weird body morphing dragon stuff in the process.  Not gonna lie, I forgot she did this, and it does look pretty cool.  Hans tells her was only doing it under the king’s orders, then he runs off.  Your weird evil sword tries to throw you into the pit as well, somehow, but wait!  Lilith is here, and she’s apparently a baby dragon creature that saves you!  You’re brought to a pocket dimension that the dragons can access, and this is how My Castle is established.  I will bitch endlessly about My Castle soon, I promise.  But for now, we’re just as quickly sent back out to where we warped in, and are immediately knocked out by Rinkah.  Nice.

Overall I’d say there’s nothing too egregious yet.  Chapter 3 is the least sensible, but I’m willing to waive some of the decisions as just pushing the plot along.  The only real hang-up I have is about Garon, who I just feel like should’ve been found out a long time ago.  Like...immediately, perhaps.  The Nohrians presumably had years with their true father, being raised with the moral compass they all have, yet the guy changes overnight and no one really questions it?  It’s a bit far-fetched, even by this series’ standards.  But, I guess we have to get the board set up somehow, or maybe Xander keeping the peace around the kingdom was on his own initiative and not the king’s orders.  Who knows.  Anyway, part 2 will happen eventually.  I’m mostly getting to play when Callie’s bored of the game, so expect some slow progress, but our next update point will be after the Hoshidan tutorial chapters.  Stay tuned.

[nothingneverforever]

The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

I remember sitting through the first episode of this series with my mom, thinking that it wasn't the best option for us to commit to, worrying that it would be a waste of our precious mother-daughter bonding time. The pacing of the first/second episode was too.. American, the emotional expressions too unsubtle, leaving little room for my audience participation, the acting too stilted, and the actors behaving too much like stage thespians .. and because I'd chosen the series after seeing rave reviews online, I remember sitting through the first episode thinking, huh, this is the shit people been losing their minds over?

And then.... suddenly, quickly, it became one of the most deeply affecting and disturbing shows I'd experienced, and thus eventually, one of my favourites. I'm deciding to write this now, about 9 months after I finished the series, because I've just started on The Haunting of Bly Manor, which is described as a "follow-up" series to Hill House. The narratives are not connected, but much of the cast and crew are the same, which is nice because I was so so so so so impressed with the acting of these specific returning actors in Hill House, and after reading a little more into the production process, I've been allowed to understand that the crew is fucking epic and genius as fuck too. I love this series!!!!!

The title of a Youtube video that I love a great deal on this series, by one of my absolute favourite film analysis video essayists, Ladyknightthebrave, is: Stretching Genre - A Haunting of Hill House Video Essay. And maybe this is what I'll talk about first - genre. I've never particularly cared for 'horror' because I'd rather be able to engage with themes and tropes I can relate to in my own life, stories that resemble my own world from my own ever-romantic perspectives. I've always wanted to delve into horror, to appreciate the elaborately designed surfaces as well as be affected in whatever ways by any depth of conversation or concept, but I don't think I've ever been able to achieve any of this. I've tried to enjoy both superficially (i.e. entertainment value) and also more real-ly many horror productions, but always left with a deep sense of meh.  Crimson Peak (which I reviewed here back in 2016) might be the closest I've come to engaging genuinely with anything from this broad genre, but even then I think I liked it more for its kitsch value, its beautiful beautiful beautiful soundtrack, than for the genre-specific parts of the narrative. But I mean, everything makes a film right? The soundtrack and the costumes and the acting are the horror elements in themselves too, I know.

Even then, a lot of the simple reactions I've read for Hill House are ones of surprise, where audiences went in not realizing that a series with the words The Haunting of.. in its title would leave them feeling utterly heartbroken, distraught (sad), emotionally-invested as it were any other drama series. In that Ladyknightthebrave video I mentioned, at multiple points in her essay she says, simply, "hey,... I'm sad" when referencing a particular scene or conversation. And that was, too, my overwhelming reaction to the whole series.... I'm sad!!!!!

Perhaps I should describe the plot a little first.. so the Cranes are a family of 7, mother and father and 5 lovely children: in descending order of age, they are Steve, Shirley, Theo, and twins Luke and Eleanor (Nelly). Here is the official synopsis:

This modern reimagining of the Shirley Jackson novel follows siblings who, as children, grew up in what would go on to become the most famous haunted house in the country.. Now adults, they are forced back together in the face of tragedy and must finally confront the ghosts of their past. Some of those ghosts still lurk in their minds, while others may actually be stalking the shadows of Hill House.

And, from wikipedia, here are some of the notable reviews of the series:

Corrine Corrodus of The Telegraph graded the series with a 5/5 rating, calling it "the most complex and complete horror series of its time." Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com gave unanimous praise to the Netflix adaptation, describing it as "essential viewing," and stated that "[the show] contains some of the most unforgettable horror imagery in film or television in years." David Griffin of IGN gave the series a rating of 9.5 out of 10, calling it "a superb and terrifying family drama," and Paul Tassi of Forbes described it as "absolutely fantastic" and stated that "it may actually be Netflix's best original show ever."

Horror author Stephen King, who holds considerable admiration for Jackson's novel, tweeted about the series, "I don't usually care for this kind of revisionism, but this is great. Close to a work of genius, really. I think Shirley Jackson would approve, but who knows for sure."

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, in interview with The Jerusalem Post said, "My favorite Netflix series, with no competition, is The Haunting of Hill House."

Due to obvious reasons I give zero fucks about what either King or Tarantino might have to say about, uhh, anything on this planet, but YASSSS RETWEET everything above!!! It is essential viewing!!! Indeed the most complex and complete series of its time!!! Unforgettable imagery!!!

Okie so now on to my own original thots... 

My main learning was this: Horror, i.e. the presence of something horrific, for it's characters in the show/story, isn't about feeling frightened or them 'losing their minds' or being driven to questioning their own perceptions of reality or anything like what we've seen in the last 7 decades or so of seeing the genre develop and evolve. In Mike Flanagan's beautiful ode to Shirley Jackson's incredible story, we come to understand that horror is only ever about genuine trauma. I guess, like I talked about earlier, I never really understood what horror's raison d'etre was at all.. like... why?? What is the greater, lasting impact of having audiences shaking in their boots? What is intended by eliciting a gasp or a scream? WHAT IS THE MEANING OF ALL THIS?!

I asked, and I've been asking and asking for years, and finally Hill House provided: Horror is, in fact, about unspeakable pain.. Pain that has no outlet in a world that will only ever be skeptical of such experiences... it's about being genuinely haunted in such a way that you can never dream of stability in your life ever again; it's about developing into a closed-off, maladjusted adult, knowing that your experiences of early life cannot be related to anyone else's in any way, not even that of your siblings. I remember taking away this lesson very early on in the series, possibly midway through the second episode. Because the siblings (Steve, Shirley, Theo, Luke, Nelly) are all utterly flawed and thus 'real' characters, we're able to quickly why they are the ways they are. (Important note: the siblings are not flawed in ways that make them unlikable at all, or unrelatable, or downright unpleasant to watch - this is a flaw that other productions have definitely fallen prey to before in the name of achieving that 'realness' however Hill House judges things so perfectly that we are endeared to their flaws and never put off by them.) Their disparate experiences with Hill House growing up, their subsequent very personal meaning-making journeys (some looking more like denial, some resulting in substance dependency), their different levels of having access to the 'truths' about what went on in that cursed home, all of this meant that the siblings ended up, where we see them in 'current day', being broken adults with a lot of misplaced anger, unprocessed trauma, and resentment toward one another. It is the aloneness in all their experiences that is the true horror, and the horrors were a very personal, existential kind and so there was no room for mutual bonding and sharing until it was too late, until their babiest of baby sisters had lost herself to the pressures calling her ‘home’.

And suddenly, I realised: this is the true evil. Ghosts don't ruin lives by doing a good epic scare here and there or by turning your irises white by revealing some fucking scary shit: ghosts are seriously... so... fucking... evil because they ruin your whole entire lives..!!! Horrifying realities take the form of many different things, even if they all originate from one main source. The Crane siblings, as children, had to deal at once with their mother being predisposed to falling victim to the spirits of the house due to, as hinted, mental health conditions of her own, while also dealing with differently confusing aspects of a house and a home that taunted them by making them feel unsafe and secure all at once. Now I say all this from an.. artistic appreciation pov, because I am myself unconvinced that the 'supernatural' or anything of a spiritual realm influences our daily lives. Which is all the more significant, right? That a ""skeptic"" like myself (although I'm not an insensitive and stubborn over-rationalizing dumb male like Steve is in the show) could suddenly realise the tragic effects on many many vulnerable souls of a world that clutching on to its medical models and objective scientific truths.

From the series' wiki page: The Haunting of Hill House received critical acclaim, particularly for its acting, directing, and production values, with many calling it an "effective ghost story."

So yea... finally I know what that means. Finally I know what effect a ghost story can and should have. Finally I understand the potential of the genre!!! Sigh there is literally SO much I could say about how and why this is the best series in the world but maybe I'll stop here for now..? There would be no end if I were to discuss everything because it's one of those series that has 'easter eggs', in the form of hidden ghosts (visual) lurking in the dark or specific lines that foreshadow something else later on, but I've never really cared much to 'reveal' these things so yea, go forth and enjoy this best show everrrrr :-)

(For example there is a lot of discussion online about how each of the 5 siblings represent the 5 different stages of grief à la Kübler-Ross, with the eldest Steve being in complete denial that there was ever any supernatural presence to explain their experience, Shirley reacting with sheer anger to all around her, Theo bargaining her way through her own internal conflicts, Luke being surrounded by swirling depression fueling his drug dependency, and Nell eventually accepting the so-called inevitable, etc etc etc but this kinda analysis is a little too lowbrow and heavy-handed for me to get into so yea haha)

There is a specific dialogue that I want to reference however on my way out: when Nell's suicide/death is revealed early in the series, Shirley has the difficult talk with her young children about it. And these 2 simple lines umm basically summarize the entire plot:

Shirley's son: Why did she die? Shirley: I don't know.. I'm just so sad that she did

Everyone watching the show would relate to that immediately but also that sentiment rings more and more and more true as the episodes come to reveal what a painfully innocent and giving soul Nell was... :(

So sad !!!!!

----------

Edit: copying below my mom’s initial thoughts after I forced her to read this post hehe, because her words describe a lot of what I think and feel too, and because I want to remember our discussion and reflection forever!

Each of us -  lives scarred at some time – in some private way – religion drowns it, cosmetises – but horror – is the Couch of reflection, reliving and something of a letting it out.  Feeling again the horror/fear/anxiety/pain/aloneness of that  real trauma – but in an shared room, even if only shared with an older, saner, wiser, learning you.

[corrupt-caterpillar]

I honestly hated the game with an extreme passion. I played both birthright and conquest, but not revelations.

Here are some problems that I had with the game:

First and foremost, incest. Now I've read some of the other replies and I honestly don't understand some of your takes. Did some of the other games have incest? Yes. Does that make it ok? No. Saying that "well these games in the franchise also has incest" doesn't make the act fine. If someone is saying that they don't like the incest in this game, then of course that applies to every other FE game with it. It doesn't make the critism any less valid because the other games had it. Furthermore, since we are also talking about FEA and FE3H, while they made have has some incest (I don't think FE3H had any, but just in case) it was not integral to the story. The ENTIRE point of fates is your birth siblings vs your other siblings. If you're like me and really liked one of the siblings (Leo) but also hate incest, well then too fucking bad, you're out of luck. They clearly put the most amount of effort into the siblings so to tell someone who doesn't like incest to just suck it up and choose someone else is fucking stupid. The other characters pale in comparison to some of the siblings.

Conquest makes no sense. Why would your character, who was locked up for ALL their life and was raised by an evil man be so nice? Shouldn't your character, I don't know, pick up some sort of evil ideas. Or, if not, then I don't know how about having a character who kills people they are IN WAR WITH instead of just knocking them unconscious? Like, who in their right mind goes to war and just knocks their enemies unconscious?! They are here KILLING your people and you're just like bonk! sleepy time! Ashdufifh why would they do this?!

Boring supports. I can't remember one support that I actually really liked. In fact, I can't remember any support. I also can't remember most of the characters names because they were just that forgettable. I remember pretty much every single FEA, FEESOV, and FE3H Characters name AND background because they were actually interesting!

Corrin's dragon. No elaboration needed.

I've heard people say that the game was challenging, but how? I played conquest on hard mode and I flew through it. The sibling characters are actually broken. They are so fucking op, it's insane. Do you want to know how I beat conquest? The last level is a defeat the commander one and at that point you have Xander on your team. I legit didn't level up any of my other characters past level 3 (after being upgraded with whatever the little things are called) except for Xander. During the last battle, I sent every single one of my characters down the map where the enemies were. Since they were low levels, the enemies were drawn to them. While the enemies fought and killed them, I sent Xander to the commander and killed him, winning the game. This shouldn't be allowed. A game shouldn't be this broken for me to do this. And for the record, in my past playing of FE games I always trained my characters and tried to build them the best way possible because I actually cared about the games. I cared so little for Fates that I simply didn't do that. I rode on the sibling op train and won with minimal effort.

The game is very unbalanced between Nohr and Hoshido. What I mean by this is that the game clearly depicts Nohr as bad and Hoshido as good. While Nohr is being lead by a horrible person, both sides still did horrible things to each other. The only time I really saw any character defend Nohr was with Xander. He loves his kingdom and knows that war isn't one-sided. Both kingdom's have their faults and have done horrible deeds in the name of war.

The children. The reason for why the children grow up so fast was stupid. Them being there was stupid. Most of them were also super annoying or uninteresting (except my boy Forrest and whatever Takumi's kid's name is, love them both.) And yes, maybe some of the fans wanted them, but if they aren't part of the actual story then don't bend over backwards trying to include them. They should've just not listened and not included them. I doubt this decision would harm the sales of the game.

Repeat characters. They took characters from FEA. They had 3 characters just taken from that game for no reason. Plus the added FEA character look-a-likes for no reason. Make new characters, don't bank on old ones. This just shows their lack of creativity and devotion to the game imo.

I felt no sorrow when killing the other siblings. I cried when I killed Ashe, hell I even cry at the thought of Felix killing Sylvain or vice-versa. The game tried to make you feel bad but it really fell flat.

The cuts scenes weren't as memorable. While they weren't terrible, they also weren't the best. I can remember every single FEA cutscene vividly (I actually know all the words from Emm's death scene), but I don't really remember them for this game. The only two ones that really stick out are conquest's dancing scene and the scene where the mom dies. The others were meh.

I have played through FEA and FE3H (and plan on doing FEESOV once I find my game) several times and enjoyed them each time. I would never play fates again though.

fuck it man. this still pisses me off. fire emblem fates had the pontential to be so great. i see the type of game it could have been. after all these years later. i don’t see it get talked about a lot like the other games do.

so many bad decisions made held it back. i don’t know if it was intelligent systems fault or nintedo’s fault. the obvious awful decision of splitting the routes into different cartridges and dlc. also having one route be harder than the other. only being able to get the “true ending” through said dlc. it’s like they took the wrong lessons from the success of awakening.

the downgrade of the character customization. awakening gave us three different builds for each gender. what the fuck was that all about. not letting us play as a tall female corrin and short male corrin. i get maybe because morgan’s build was so close to the small robin build. YET they completely went out of their way to make the short female corrin build. look very different from kana. like none of it makes any sense to me.

the future children thing made no fucking sense in fates. at least in awakening it did because they had lucina introduce us to that idea. if fates had a character equivalent to lucina then maybe it could have worked. which makes me furious because this time the future children came from the male characters. instead of the female characters in awakening. the female & mlm fanbase got done so dirty. speaking of the supports.

these supports are so fucking bad compared to awakening and three houses. hell, the rest of the series. at least in awakening the characters were talking. even though it was re-used dialogue/battle dialogue. it’s better than just reading text in fates. if you didn’t get the game in japanese. you missed out on the fan service, petting feature. that’s a good portion of the supports not being enjoyable. ALSO there not being a character portrait for when you reach the s rank. what the actual fuck where they thinking. those portraits are for more superior than the character moving like a v-tuber. i haven’t even mentioned the disgustingness of including the siblings on romantic options.

JUST BECAUSE THE CHARACTERS ARE TECHNICALLY NOT RELATED DOES NOT MEAN IT’S NOT INCEST. HOW MANY TIMES DO WE HAVE TO SAY THIS. AGAIN WHAT WERE THEY THINKING. WERE THEY NOT THINKING AT ALL. FOR A COMPANY CALLED INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS. THEY SURE DO LACK SOME.

oh my god and their attempt to add lgbt options is almost as worse. i don’t have a lot to say a out niles. since i think his supports are done well. but i do have some words about rhajat, the tharja clone. her literal name is an anagram of tharja. they were not subtle when they made those characters. what’s worse with is that rhajat is only available if you marry hayato. meaning she takes longer to get. at least with niles you don’t have to wait as long. the whole wlw community was done dirty not just with rhajat. the whole grossness of soleil’s supports. throughout her whole supports she’s shown preference for female characters. i know i shouldn’t rule out the possibility of her being bisexual. yet in her ending it mentions that she seduces young woman and only woman. SO WHY THE FUCK WAS SHE NOT THE OPTION TO BE ABLE TO ROMANCE. EXPLAIN THAT TO ME. the only way she was able to marry male corrin is to basically be drugged. that’s so fucking horrendous. how did that decision make it to the final product.

i’m so glad that fates wasn’t as successful as nintendo wanted it to be. because three houses would have been so much worse for it. i haven’t finished three houses yet but i can already see the improvement. the only thing that’s still bad is the lgbt options. we got better wlw options but at the cost of the mlm options. that’s just fetishization right there. female byleth having more same sex options then male byleth will always piss me off. at first i was put off that the students had s supports. until i saw that there were aduts and 18+ options. and that the supports don’t take place until after the timeskip.

i know this rant was massive but this was years of built up frustration. it was reignited when i started playing three house and rewatching some fates playthroughs. if you read all this thank you and sorry that it was so long.

[pan0ramy]

My Nintendo Switch event predictions!

Wow, first time I’ve made one of these. Hopefully there will be many more to come. :3

So, the Nintendo Switch event is finally happening tonight. And yes, I’m waking up at 4am to see it (although I am off school for the minute due to bad weather, so I might do an all-nighter :D). I’M SO FUCKING HYPED. I haven’t been this excited for Nintendo news since the character reveals for Smash 4, and I wanted to make a post about how I think the event will go down.

Just a note: this will be extremely long! I’ll put gifs and pictures throughout it so it’s not a big wall of text, though. :)

To me, the event will be similar in style to an E3 conference - relying on video clips with talks from important members of staff and game developers (as well as Tatsumi Kimishima himself, hopefully).

The event will have a new trailer for the Switch itself. Afterward, we’ll probably get a little talk on how powerful it is, what it can do, and what makes it so special compared to other mainstream consoles. I doubt this, but there might also be talk of accessories or special editions of the Switch (I’ll come back to this in a minute). Which, in case you’re wondering, I have only seen pictures of the stand, Pro Controller and said special edition. Trying not to spoil myself here.

This is the perfect moment for them to launch into Zelda. Pun not intended, but it’ll be a worldwide (yes, including us here in Europe) launch title. After all the buildup Nintendo has given it, it can’t not be. We might get some news on those new rumoured amiibo, too. I don’t think there’ll be much new gameplay footage considering what we were given at E3, but that special edition from before will be mentioned & shown if it is real. Speaking of which (scroll down further if you don’t want to see it!) here’s the leaked photo of what it’ll supposedly look like:

tHIS IS FUCKING BEAUTIFUL. I really do hope this real, considering the “leaked” console skin looks like somone took the artwork for BOTW and slapped the logo over it.

Speaking of big first-party titles, the new Mario game briefly shown in the reveal trailer will be a late summer/holiday title. I just don’t think it can be launch title, especially considering it looks similar in style to Mario 64 and Galaxy.

Moving on from this, the Switch should definitely have GameCube Virtual Console. As predicted by Laura Kate Dale, it will have a pretty small lineup initially - maybe Smash Melee, Super Mario Sunshine, Luigi’s Mansion, stuff like that - but it will get better over time.

Speaking of Virtual Console? GameBoy will be supported and Mother 3 WILL FINALLY FUCKING HAPPEN. If it does, I will cry with happiness for all those poor people who have waited 10 long, hard years.

Once all the big titles are out of the way, we should start to hear about these enhanced Wii U ports (Splatoon, Super Mario Maker, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Mario Kart 8 have all been rumoured so far, as well as Smash Bros.). HOWEVER, Emily Rogers threw a wrench into the system this morning with this tweet:

This is, without a doubt, Splatoon Switch (I’ll be calling it Splat2n from here on out). The new animations, clothing and hairstyles look so, so good, and I don’t think adding it to a port of the game would do it any justice. Nintendo knows Splat2n will do well, and what better way than to sell Switches than have Zelda and Splat2n at launch? It’d be fucking amazing, that’s for sure.

Mario Kart will definitely get more content though, like new tracks, new characters (including the DLC ones) and the rumoured new battle mode. As for Xenoblade and Mario Maker, I don’t think they’ll add much, if anything at all – just a few graphics and performance upgrades here and there.

So, that’s Nintendo’s lineup – what about all the 3rd parties they’re supposedly working with? This is where we’d get their input for the Switch. Representatives would come out, one by one, and talk about their new games as well as show some footage (whether it’s trailers or actual gameplay – or both!). Ubisoft’ll be there, and they’ll talk about the Mario/Rabbids RPG crossover if it actually exists. Monolith Soft might announce their new project, as well as Retro Games. And finally, I do think we’ll get a short teaser trailer for Beyond Good & Evil 2. Nothing much, just a hype-ish teaser.

In terms of indie games, Nintendo have definitely been fantastic with them over the past while. We’ll definitely get a Yooka-Laylee release date, and maybe some talk of Shovel Knight, but other indie games will be shown in a sizzle reel. Just to get people excited without wasting too much time for those that don’t care.

If there’s anything that we won’t be seeing for quite a while, it’s Smash Switch. If anything, they’ll give a little announcement saying “hey, we’re working on it!”, and that’ll be it. However, I do think we’ll FINALLY get release dates for the Cloud, Corrin & Bayonetta amiibo. I’m 99% certain we won’t get any new character reveals, but if there is, it won’t be a 3rd party character – they should save that for E3. So, if by the minimal chance that a new character is revealed, it’ll be Inkling (or a returning character like Wolf). Maybe they could somehow lump them into the same trailer like they did with Captain Falcon & Robin/Lucina. Although, with Splatoon being Nintendo’s love child of the past few years, I doubt this’ll happen.

Finally, the best way to end it is to give the official release date and price for the Switch. Any games that won’t be available at launch/launch window will give their own respective release dates, but those that will will just say “it’ll be available at launch”. This is the PERFECT way to end the presentation on a high note, and make sure people are talking about it afterwards. As for an actual date prediction? March 24th.

And that’s it! Hopefully some of this will come to fruition, but I can’t say for sure. All I can do now is sit here, cross my fingers, set my alarm and wait in anticipation.

…and maybe scream a lil in the process I dunno

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 7: The Hardest Choice

Chapter 6: The Path Is Yours

We rush into the battlefield from the future vision prologue and find Xander and Ryoma dueling. Xander, after making sure Corrin is okay, announces that Nohr is invading Hoshido to show off their strength. He points out that ending things quickly will prevent unnecessary bloodshed, which is a fair point. But, you know what else would prevent unnecessary bloodshed? Not invading Hoshido.

The two families argue over ownership of Corrin and she is forced to choose a side. Stand with her genetic family and fight to defend Hoshido from violent invaders, or stand with her adoptive family and invade a neighboring country, slaughtering countless civilians in the process. Or play the DLC route. Or go play Super Smash Bros.

And I mean, is this even a choice? Nohr is evil. Like, insanely evil. Ten minutes ago they blew up a marketplace and killed dozens of children. They’re invading Hoshido for shits and giggles and we’re supposed to side with them? Corrin’s supposed to be a good person, why the fuck would she ever join Nohr’s army?

And it’s not like Corrin has any love for Nohr as a country. She spent fifteen years in prison, she doesn’t know the people. Hell, she hates how Nohr looks and feels. Garon murdered her parents, kidnapped her, held her captive, and tried to murder her. Twice.

There is only one reason to join Nohr: love for Xander, Camila, Leo, and Elise. And that’s a relatable reason, standing by your family even if they’re evil. But, it feels cowardly to kill innocent people just because you don’t want to fight your family.

No, not cowardly. Evil. This is a choice between good and evil, with both sides holding up signs saying which they are. And that’s part of the problem with this game. Nohr is so ridiculously evil and Hoshido is so ridiculously good. At this point, we have seen no justification for any evil Nohr does. They’re evil for the point of evil. And even when Hoshido does shady things, like kidnapping Azura or having a mind control barrier, the game glosses over it to avoid having the good guys be morally grey. And let’s be honest, it’s kinda infuriating that Intelligent Systems, a Japanese company, made a game where the most explicitly Japanese kingdom in the franchise is pure good and the European kingdom is cartoonishly evil.

This game tries to paint this as a choice between two families, and that doesn’t work. Painting it as a choice between two families lessens the impact of siding with Nohr to protect your family. Plus, again, the Hoshidans are strangers. Hoshido is not Corrin’s home and the Hoshidan royals are not her family. The only one who was given enough screen time to feel like family was Mikoto, and she’s dead. Maybe it’s a cultural thing, but I really don’t give a shit about Corrin’s blood. I’m not choosing Birthright because I want Corrin to claim her Birthright, I’m choosing it because Nohr is cartoonishly evil.

And here’s the kicker, the ultimate reason to choose Hoshido: Garon tried to murder Corrin. Twice. First with Hans at the bridge, then again with the bomb at the plaza. Choosing Nohr is suicidally stupid. I know Corrin’s naive, but this is just idiotic.

And Corrin doesn’t even bring this up. She doesn’t shout to Xander, “Hans attempted to murder me as we were fleeing the Bottomless Canyon, apparently working under orders from King Garon. I do not feel safe returning to Nohr.”

No, she doesn’t explain jack shit. She lets Xander think she’s betraying him, when in reality she’s just doing the right thing. Corrin is an imbecile and it makes this game painfully dumb.

Birthright Chapter 6: In The White Light

We chose Hoshido. Right away, the chapter title screen changes, going from the mix of white lilies and black roses from earlier chapters to just white lilies. The text boxes also get a new blueish tint. Corrin tells Xander to withdraw his troops and that she’s siding with Hoshido.

Xander says that Corrin must be brainwashed. He reveals that he’s known all along that Garon kidnapped Corrin as a child. Something that he kept from Corrin, because he’s a great older brother. He tells Corrin that they are family, regardless of blood, and that Garon will forgive her. The first one of those is true, but the other is laughable. Has he ever met Garon?

Corrin tells Xander about Garon blowing up the plaza, killing dozens of innocent people, and endangering her life. Corrin calls Garon evil and Xander, apparently ignoring the whole mass murder thing, gets pissed. Corrin asks him to join her and Xander attacks her. Prick.

Side note, the music in this scene is fantastic. It reminds me of the Midmire theme from Awakening and really feels hopeless. Xander beats the shit out of Corrin and Ryoma runs in to save her. The two princes duel, and the battle begins. Also, Jakob shows up.

Ryoma, Hinoka, and Tamuki join Corrin as the two families battle. Interestingly, those three are listed as being part of a different army on the bottom screen, implying that they won’t be around after this battle.

Ryoma

The crown prince of Hoshido. A swordmaster with impeccable strength, skill, and speed. His personal skill, Bushido, makes him fight better when supported by low level units, fitting his honorable Samurai aesthetic. His armor looks cool, but he has crazy, Raditz length hair and this weird horned crown that I dislike. He carries this cool lightning katana called Ranjito. Personality wise, he seems a bit dull. He’s a loyal, protective prince, but at first glance there isn’t much more there.

Hinoka

Corrin’s older sister and a Sky Knight. Her personal skill buffs damage of nearby allies. I kinda like her tomboy haircut and lack of a ridiculously big bust, she looks more like a normal person than most Fates characters. She seems really protective of Corrin and her homeland. Also, I kinda hate her voice.

Takumi

Corrin’s brother, an archer. Who is a prick. A massive prick. He has a massive attack stat for an archer and wields a custom bow that shoots arrows made of light. His design isn’t too interesting, aside from the ponytail that looks weird because it’s cut off by the edge of the screen in his portrait. Personality wise, Takumi is a prick. He’s the best written character in the game, from what I remember. But he’s still a prick.

Also, I suppose I should discuss the Nohrian royals now, because by the time I play Fates my perception will be clouded by the events of Birthright.

Xander

The honorable prince of Nohr. Our protector turned enemy. A Paladin reminiscent of Camus, Selena, and Mustafa from past games, willing to stand by his country even if it is evil. Stat wise, Xander is an absolute tank. His personal skill is called Chivalry, a parallel to Ryoma’s Bushido. It boosts him when fighting enemies with full health. I love Xander’s design, the black and purple with an ascot that makes him look both intimidating and regal, the small black cwon, and that face. He looks like a man tormented by his own actions. I love Xander’s personality, this honorable man who, when forced to choose between his family and his morals, chose the former. He’s actually a good parallel to Corrin, now that I think about it. That said, he is a bit dumb, and trying to kill Corrin was a dick move.

Camila

Ugh. Camila. She’s a new class called Malig Knight, basically a Wyvern Rider with magic abilities. Her personal skill boosts the damage done by allies. Her design...sigh...her design is very, very, very fanservicey, with massive titties and exposed cleavage. Camila is a fanservice character, which is a trend in Fire Emblem that I’m not fond of. Personality wise she’s...creepily obsessed with Corrin, to the point of being kinda incestuous. Ugh. Camila was this game’s breakout character and that’s really disappointing, because she’s probably the worst of the royals in my opinion.

Leo

Leo’s a Dark Knight with a personal skill called Pragmatic that boosts damage against already injured foes. I like how his armor looks; the collar is a bit much, but it’s kinda charming. Also, he looks like he’s Xander’s brother, which is something that they forgot to do with the rest of the royals. Personality wise, he seems to be the only character in this family that isn’t a gigantic moron, which is refreshing. The trick with faking Kaze and Rinkah’s deaths was nefarious, but kind, which is a trait I like in a character.

Elise

The other moe healer little sister, now on horseback. Her personal skill reduces damage done to nearby allies. Design wise, she looks adorable. So adorable that she should not be a soldier and should not have children. I do like the pigtails, although it is weird that they’re both purple and blonde. She’s a bit more forceful in her personality than Sakura, which is good. She’s cute but not boring.

The battle, if you can even call it that, was basically just a quick fight between Ryoma and Xander. After the Nohrians retreat without saying anything, Corrin swears to stand with Hoshido, even though it's the hardest choice she’s ever made. Even though, as we’ve discussed, it isn’t a hard choice at all.

Also, the intro plays again. Nothing is different this time, but it does play again. After that pointless interruption, Lilith shows up again. Remember Lilith? She was important a few chapters ago. And then wasn’t mentioned again until this moment. Lilith takes us into the Astral Plane, introducing us to a new mechanic: My Castle. Which we will get into, next time.

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 14: Groans of Increasing Discomfort

Heading back to the castle, it seems I’ve accumulated a ton of new buildings to buy. I can buy a statue of Mozu which probably costed more than her entire village, a ballista and shuriken launcher to use in castle battles, a bunch of puppets to give me nightmares (they fight for you in castle battles too I guess), a shop to buy new units (both generics and clones of the soldiers I already have), and a hot spring. Because fanservice. You can run into other units in there, everyone is in their underwear and blushing, half of the decisions that were made in this game’s development were solely for the sake of horniness, yada yada yada. I actually tried to leave and the game stopped me, because Sakura was showing up and it’s necessary to get that bath time with the teenage girl. The hot springs does have a use, admittedly, but it won’t become apparent for a few chapters.

Support: Lady Corrin/Reina

C: Corrin sees Reina talking to an old man and asks her about it. Reina explains that he reminds her of her parents, who cut her out of their life when she became a soldier. And also, apparently, don’t give a shit about her being the personal retainer to the goddamn Queen. Actually, wait, hold on. Where the hell was Reina when Mikoto got blown up? You know what? Her parents should be ashamed of her, she’s a terrible bodyguard.

B: Corrin tells Reina she should visit her parents. Which makes sense; Corrin points out that she’s an orphan and wishes for any relationship with a parent, no matter how strained. Reina tells Corrin that she became a soldier because she really, really, really likes killing people. Corrin volunteers to find out how Reina’s parents are doing.

A: Corrin tells Reina that her parents are doing fine. Reina retcons the last conversation by revealing that she became a soldier to protect her family’s peasants. Nowadays, though, it’s all about that murder.

Review: This one was fine. Corrin wanting to help Reina is a nice bit of characterization, but there isn’t much more to say about this one.

Now, you may be wondering why I referred to Corrin as Lady Corrin in the last bit. Reina actually has completely different supports depending on Corrin’s sex. Most characters have identical supports with Corrin, or if not that just minor dialogue changes (For example, Camilla and Laslow, off the top of my head). But characters like Reina, who can only support Corrin, get two conversations. I suppose it’s for the best, considering those characters would otherwise be incredibly out of focus as opposed to merely extremely out of focus.

Support: Lord Corrin/Reina

C: Corrin sees Reina carrying an apron, which weirds him out, because of the whole murder hobo thing.

B: Reina reveals her sheltered noblewoman housewife in training turned soldier backstory and says that the apron was a gift from her parents before they cut her out.

A: Reina says that her parents cried when she became a knight and that she keeps the apron out of gratitude for them.

S: Corrin, off screen, goes back to Hoshido to talk to Reina’s parents. Apparently they’re proud of her. And he asked to marry her, which she accepts, because she cannot imagine life without him. Apparently.

Review: So, these are kinda the same support? I mean, the actual words are different, but they cover the same information. It’s weird that they were split into two conversations. Whatever. The second one is better, because it gives this really fun characterization of Reina being a friendly team mom when she isn’t stabbing people so she can hear them gasp their last breaths. Also, it resolves the plotline. On the other hand, the S-Rank is really mediocre. Reina saying she relies on Corrin daily is ridiculous, given what we’ve seen. Overall, the problem with Reina is that she just has these two conversations. And one with Kanna, I guess, but that one is recycled from other characters. If Reina was a more fleshed out character that interacted with other characters, she might work as a character. But, as it stands, all she has is her recruitment and two mediocre supports.

Support: Hinata/Takumi

C: Hinata kicks down the door to Takumi’s room so he can tell him that he’s going to start a fighting tournament so he can beat people up.

B: Hinata beats people up.

A: Hinata reveals that he’s beating people up to cheer up Takumi, because Takumi looks happy when he cheers him on. I feel like he could have, I don’t know, asked Takumi how to cheer him up in advance instead of just assuming and doing something he said he didn’t want, but whatever. The two bond over Hinata beating people up.

Review: I think this one helped me hone in on why a lot of Fire Emblem supports don’t work. Supports are, by their very nature, just dialogue. So, when you get a support like this, that relies heavily on something happening, it ends up as telling not showing. That’s why the best supports rely on dialogue rather than explain something that happened off screen.

Support: Kagero/Saizo

C: Kagero and Saizo get into an argument over how to train royal guards, with Kagero pointing out that Saizo’s hard as nails “be ready to die for the monarchy” speech just stressed people out. Saizo blames the new recruits for being inexperienced.

B: Saizo endangers the life of his men to succeed on a mission and Kagero calls him out on it. Saizo points out that victory requires sacrifice and war is unforgiving. The two of them point out that they’ve had this exact argument again and again, and it’s the reason they broke up when they were dating.

A: Kagero and Saizo win a big battle together and admit that they work well together.

S: Saizo points out that their relationship failed because they kept trying to change each other and forgot that they loved each other. The two of them decide to give it another shot.

Review: This one has a much more solemn and reserved tone than most supports, which helps it stand out. It isn’t great, but it has a good tone and I actually don’t dislike Saizo and Kagero as a couple. Them being a flawed couple that broke up over their differences, then trying it again after maturing and becoming more rounded people is a lot more realistic than most relationships in this game.

Birthright Chapter 12: Dark Reunion

The gang arrives in Cyrkensia, a city in Nestra, a country that I forgot existed because this is the only part of the game where it is mentioned. Cyrkensia is a popular vacation spot with a big opera house that appeared in the intro.

A kitsune named Kaden goes up to the party and explains that he’s in town to repay a favor to someone. This introduction feels like when you introduce a new player halfway through a D&D campaign and they quickly explain their deal after walking up to the party.

Kaden introduces his friend Layla, who explains that she’s a singer at the opera house, but can’t perform tonight because her mother is dying. Also she’s singing for King Garon, the evil king who is on vacation a week after starting a brutal war. Azura volunteers to perform in Layla’s steed so the party can do some patricide. Now, you may be thinking, did the game do the stupid trope of having Azura and Layla look identical? Surprisingly, no, they didn’t. Everything else about this chapter is so cliche I assumed they would, but they actually remembered Zola has illusion magic that the party never uses. Also, because we helped the person Kaden has to help, he now owes us a favor, and will totally kill dozens of soldiers in a war he doesn’t give a shit about if we ask him to.

Kaden

Kaden is a Kitsune, this game’s equivalent of Laguz or Taguel from past games. He wields a special weapon called a Beast Stone that allows him to fight by turning into a big ass fox. His personal skill heals units who heal him. He’s a glass canon who does extra damage to cavalry, giving him an interesting niche. His human design is fine, but not remarkable. His fox design is cool, especially regarding the blue fire that floats around him; that said, the spikes on the legs are weird. Personality wise, he seems to be a go lucky idiot who stumbled into joining us.

When the party arrives at the opera house, Corrin notices Elise, who looks sad. Azura, who doesn’t look like Layla for the player, goes on stage. Azura sings the only song she knows, the magic one that breaks mind control, which makes Garon...groan in increasing discomfort, which makes me also feel discomforted. Also Azura does a bunch of crazy water magic, which is a bit extra.

Garon orders his troops to capture us, because Zola betrayed us. Gasp. Shocking. Zola does admittedly beg Garon to spare us. Garon kills him for even suggesting it, right in front of his young daughter, because Garon is a cartoon supervillain. Zola dies begging Corrin to forgive him and Garon calls Corrin weak for having sympathy. Takumi threatens to kill Garon, but Corrin points out that they need to leave if they want to live. Which is smart; Garon has ridiculously high stats.

This battle sees our units fighting on boats floating in the opera house, which is a cool setting for a battle. On turn three, some reinforcements arrive. Xander, who’s still pissed about the whole traitor thing. With him are Peri, a cavalier with cotton candy hair, and...is that Inigo? That’s Inigo, from Awakening. That’s fucking Inigo! What is Inigo doing here, and more importantly, why is he working for the very obviously evil bad guys?

There’s a Dragon Vein you can use to freeze all the water, which would make this level easier, if it wasn’t already a broken easy level. To beat this level, you need to get Corrin to a specific spot. Corrin can’t walk on water, so you need to fight through an onslaught of tough enemies. There’s just one problem: Hinoka or Subaki can carry Corrin directly to the end. I fought the enemies, because why not, but I didn’t have to.

I ignored Garon because he’s able to one shot literally every unit in my army, but I did decide to take on team Xander. Side note, I looked up Garon’s battle quote after the fact, and he says this to Corrin: “I may not be your father, but I will slap you down like a child.” I take back everything bad I ever said about Garon.

Peri, as it turns out, is a sadistic sociopath, because Nohr. Inigo...excuse me, Laslow, blushes when we stab him. And Xander steals Inigo’s famous crit quote from the Princess Bride.

Peri and Laslow went down easy, but Xander was almost as bad as Garon. Even with his bonus against cavalry, Kaden only did one point of damage per hit. I had to resort to the classic strategy of throwing disposable soldiers at him until he was weak enough for Corrin to Dragonstone.

This was a great map, with a creative setting, multiple ways to approach it, tough bosses, and an exploit that makes it completely skippable. Still, it’s the only Birthright chapter with a creative goal, so it deserves a little credit.

After escaping the opera house, Xander chases after us, despite being defeated ten seconds earlier. Elise gets in his way, telling him that if he’s going to fight someone, he should fight her. As Corrin runs, Xander warns that it is her destiny to fight him.

After escaping Xander again, Corrin finds Azura collapsed on the ground, exhausted. She’s going to die at the end of the game, isn’t she?

[crystalelemental]

FE Fates Replay - Part 2

“A big focus for Fates was beefing up the storyline, which most agreed didn’t really go anywhere in Awakening. While Awakening was an excellent game to play, I can’t tell you what happened.”

Listen, I’m sincere about wanting to replay Fates with a bit more of an open mind, and a desire to come to appreciate more of the cast and viewing it as its own entity.  But this interview is the one thing I cannot possibly set aside.  Because when you get right down to it?  They drew the comparison themselves.  They wanted us to think “Oh yeah, Awakening sure had a pretty weak story, so making a complex story everyone can enjoy is our goal in Fates!”  They made the comparison themselves, and were so cock-sure that they were convinced Fates was going to blow Awakening’s story out of the water.  So no matter how much I look over Fates on its own merits, I can’t get away from drawing the connections.  And neither should you.  So whenever events like today’s chapters occur, I want you to make that connection.  Think about the moments in Awakening that were designed to evoke similar feelings.  Think about Emmeryn sacrificing herself to stop a war waged by a despot.  Think about Lucina finally getting to meet her father for the first time in her life, and the moment they share.  Think of how much emotional impact Awakening had, and compare it to this.  Because we can never forget: they thought for sure they did a better job.

Chapter 4 begins to introduce us to the Hoshidan side.  The worse side, if you ask me.  Rinkah and Kaze are solid characters in their own right, but the rest feel lacking.  Ryoma is fine and serious, but he doesn’t really do anything to demonstrate the compassion that Xander has.  He mostly just does the thing all the Hoshidans do, and calls all of Nohr a bunch of scum.  Hinoka is fine, and seems to genuinely care about Corrin, so she’s probably the best of the four so far.  Sakura didn’t do anything too interesting either, and is mostly just there to be the shy younger sister.  Takumi...look, we’ll get to him.

Chapter 4 is focused on showing you what the war is like for the Hoshidans.  The Nohrians seemed to be on the offensive, while Hoshido seems to be trying to manage against weird creatures called Faceless that the Nohrians create to bypass their Passivity Barrier.  See, Hoshido has a barrier created by their mother, which makes anyone passing into it unwilling to fight.  A bit contrived, but fine, I’ll just accept that at face value and move on.  The Faceless, as entities that are without will or purpose, are unaffected by the magic, and are thus the preferred method of attack.  The Faceless, unfortunately, are also without direction, and attack randomly across villages and harm innocents, which Corrin is none too fond of.  The chapter itself is a rescue mission, going to help Sakura and Hinoka, but honestly?  They...kinda had it under control.  If Sakura were able to figure out the concept of “moving away from the bad man,” they wouldn’t even need our help.  Hinoka had that well under control.  Anyway, you get the reunion with them, and everyone in this kingdom refers to you as family and does seem to care, but there’s a lot of emphasis on you being blood related here.  It’s a large focus of who your “proper” family is, and I feel like the appeal to that concept is important for your decision.  Again, more on that later.

Azura’s introduction is nice.  You’re pretty fast friends.  Mikoto attempts to have Corrin sit on the throne of Hoshido to hopefully get her memories back, and again we’re just very focused on getting memories back and proving that they’re the real blood relatives.  It’s honestly about all they focus on.  They’re definitely glad to have Corrin back, I just wish we could move off of it.

Which almost makes Takumi being such an unrelenting prick refreshing.  I’ll admit, I remembered disliking Takumi right away because he was a jerk, but I had forgotten how much of a jerk.  Look, I get it.  Corrin showing up and being the assumed favored child is frustrating for him.  That’s fine.  I was ready for him to be an ass to Corrin.  What I didn’t expect is him being an asshole to Azura, who’s lived with them peacefully for as long as Corrin’s been gone.  Seriously, what is this guy’s damage?  He’s the perfect representation of Hoshido as a whole, I think.  Like I mentioned in part 1 of this replay, every time the Hoshidans reference Nohr, it’s usually with “scum” or “filth” inserted in.  They’re so trained to utterly despise their opponents, to the point Takumi tells someone who’s been living with him as a sister for what is apparently the better portion of a decade that she hasn’t earned the right to say his name.  Seriously, fuck you, Takumi.

Chapter 5.  Here’s where the intro text becomes relevant.  Mikoto has decided to announce for everyone that her long-lost daughter, who was kidnapped by Garon, has returned home.  But oh no!  There was a surprise plot, and this weird magic man used your obvious evil sword to explode the barrier!  Shards of the sword go flying toward you, and Mikoto blocks them with her body, sacrificing her life to protect you!  Corrin is so distraught that she becomes a full-on dragon, in what is honestly a pretty cool transformation scene.  Ryoma rushes in to fight this hooded figure, and the rest of you fight your way to support him.

Pause.  Show of hands, how many of you actually felt something about Mikoto dying?  Because...I sure didn’t.  We’ve known her a grand total of like 10 minutes, and she’s already dead.  The only thing she did was announce that she’s your real mom, try to get your memories back, and die.  This entire sequence is incredibly lacking in any form of emotional impact, which is funny, because they wanted to make a good story with Fates, better than Awakening even!  And yet...Emmeryn’s death, which was designed to evoke similar feelings of loss, hit way harder.  Because we spent time around her.  We got a feeling for how she acts and engages with others, in a way that isn’t just Azura saying she’d like to stay in Hoshido because Mikoto is a peaceful ruler.  Nothing substantial is shown to us through Mikoto’s actions, and despite being your birth mother, Corrin’s memories aren’t back yet.  She has stated time and again that she doesn’t really feel anything about Mikoto, yet when she dies it’s like the biggest tragedy in the world.  Don’t get me wrong, Mikoto sacrificing herself for Corrin is a pretty selfless move that would definitely have upset Corrin, but why is this the event that makes her dragon out and not Gunter’s death?  Gunter has been with her the whole time, and Hans came out of nowhere on what was said to be a peaceful mission and kicked her kindly uncle into the bottomless pit.  Sure, she got some dragon power in that moment, but given the history and connection she must’ve shared with Gunter throughout her life, you’d think that would hit harder than the death of the mother she never knew.

Anyway, following the map itself, Azura trying to calm the raging Corrin, and eventually succeeds, though it takes some effort and Corrin almost kills her in the process.  Everyone else moves on from their mom being dead surprisingly fast, mostly marveling at Corrin’s dragon form, while Takumi has an understandable tantrum and snaps at Corrin and Azura that they should fuck off.  Honestly, earlier dickitude aside, I can actually see where he’s coming from on this one.  Again, it made sense he was mean to Corrin.  How does he know you’re really his sister?  He feels nothing for you the same way Corrin felt nothing for Mikoto, and that makes some sense.  So when your arrival meant that Mikoto died, I can get why he’d be pissed.  And in this moment, at least, I can understand why he’d snap at Azura too.  He’s lashing out at everyone, and is clearly grief-stricken.  So fine, that’s cool.  He’s still an asshole, though.

Chapter 6 ramps up as the Nohrians enter Hoshidan territory after the fall of the barrier, and prepare to make one last push to conquer the kingdom and put an end to the war for good.  Both sides reach out to Corrin, asking her which family she chooses to side with.  That decision...will be made next installment.  Which basically means in a few hours, probably.  I’m in a good headspace to want to keep playing, so I’ll probably do that, but need to take care of some other stuff first.  Which side will I pick?!  Oh man, it’s such a mystery!

[crystalelemental]

FE Fates Replay - part 9

We have finally completed the Conquest route.

From Chapter 22 to the end of the game, it’s a pretty straight-shot.  Your goal is solely to storm Hoshido and take control.  Chapter 22 is against Sakura.  It’s not a particularly challenging map.  The only annoyance is their long-range shuriken ballista, which...boy are those obnoxious.  When you complete the map, Sakura, her retainers, and Yukimura are taken captive, only for Hans, Iago, and Garon to show up and do what they do best: get in the way and insist on killing everyone.  So thanks for that I guess.

Okay, this is going to be recurring, so let’s just get it out the way now: why do the villains here insist on such intense pretense?  Like, we know you’re evil.  Everyone knows.  And you know that we’re trying to spare our enemies.  Like, blatantly trying.  We don’t even hide it.  Except the one time we did and somehow that’s the one we got called out on.  Okay, sure.  Like, what infuriates me the most about Garon, Iago, and Hans isn’t that they’re massacring people and interfering at obnoxious times.  There is the making of good drama there.  It’s that not once does Corrin ever properly play along, and despite that, not once do they ever actually suffer a consequence.  This is the biggest problem with the Conquest route.  Had Corrin adapted better and behaved more like the other siblings, able to turn a blind eye or act cold and disant properly when needed, or had Garon actually ever done anything to punish Corrin’s empathy, maybe these scenes would’ve felt heavy.  Instead, we’re left feeling like every instance of this is a waste of time.  Time and time again, Corrin will act shocked at atrocities her father commands.  Time and time again, Garon will get buttmad about it and Iago will shout some nonsense about being a traitor or whatever the fuck.  Time and time again, no actual consequences will occur.  So why bother?  Why bother having what is effectively the same exact scene played out 10 different times?  We get it, they’re evil, but so ineffectually evil that they’re not going to do anything to Corrin or the main protagonists.  We’ll just make a show of cruelty to the enemy in war, and they’ll say a lot of stuff about being merciless toward their own as well, but it’s never shown or felt.  So just cut the bullshit and either remove these unnecessary scenes, or nut up and show an actual consequence for Corrin.

Chapter 23 is Takumi.  After the last chapter, we’re supposed to feel like we’re backed into a corner and have to kill him, but really, this is the one time I’m on board.  I’ll kill him.  I’ll kill the fuck out of him.  Corrin specifically did, too.  See, it turns out that you can pair Camilla and Corrin up, and have Azura dance Camilla so she can fly to where the archer sniper is.  Corrin in Dragon form takes basically no damage, especially with Camilla’s defense being added in.  Corrin basically took the wall solo while the others handled the nonsense outside.  Must’ve gained like 7 levels this chapter.  Enough that I actually took off her main skill.  The story is mostly to set up Takumi’s continuing temper tantrum, as, despite Corrin making every effort to get him captured and taken away from Garon before he can command an execution, Takumi just keeps shouting about Corrin’s “betrayal” and jumps off the bridge.  No, this does not kill him.  I’m crying also.

Chapter 24 is Hinoka’s turn, and man, this one’s alright.  The map itself is a bit weird, and those Dragon Veins are dangerous.  Normally I’d try to just let Camilla blast through, but they had a lot of flying archers who then got crazy range, so none of that.  Instead, this is another map you have to use your own dragon veins to slow down fliers.  In actuality, all this does is negate the problem Hinoka continuously repeats.  She speeds up fliers and slows down everyone else, but your dragon veins reverse the effect, making everything neutral.  It’s not a bad gimmick.  The story is also, for once, not so bad.  Instead of the usual Garon interruption, you actually get Hinoka to flee, and take her lance as proof of her death.  An attempt at subterfuge was made.  I can respect that.

Oh wait, then Chapter 25 happens, and Iago is immediately like “If she’s dead, why didn’t you bring her head?  The lance doesn’t prove the body’s not moving.”  Which is super accurate, and it’s annoying as shit that the one time Corrin actually tried things, she’s called out on it.  Not that it matters, because Garon hasn’t a single care in the world about it.  Honestly, just...why do we have these scenes?

You then encounter Ryoma, who upon seeing the lance, proves that he’s not as smart as Iago, which was already a really low bar to be setting, and flies into a rage over Corrin killing his sister.  Not too much of a rage, though.  Otherwise, how would you clear the rest of the map?  See, he will actually just sit there, doing nothing, for 25 fucking turns.  And for context, I had cleared the rest of the map in about 14.  Oh, if you open the gates and the others can move?  He still won’t act.  You active the Dragon Vein that turns the high defense and recovery tiles your both on to avoid penalty tiles?  Still won’t move.  Attack him directly?  Still won’t retaliate, until those 25 turns are done.  This was the saddest excuse of a boss fight, and the worst part is, it didn’t have to be.  The defense tiles give so much added defense that both he and Corrin would take single-digit damage, which would be healed automatically by the floor.  Truth be told?  Just have him attack immediately.  Neither side would die, guaranteed.  The only thing that would encourage you to get your ass moving, is the fact that Ryoma has a crit rate and can attack from two spaces.  If he gets that lucky crit, Corrin isn’t going to die outright, but you’re in danger and can’t dawdle.  That would’ve made the map much more tense.  But instead, it’s like a leisurely walk through the halls of Hoshido while Ryoma hangs out picking his nose.  Furiously picking his nose, mind you.  Because of how mad he is that his sister’s dead.  Even though she’s not.

After you win, Corrin is able to tell Ryoma that she didn’t actually kill Hinoka, fuckwit.  Garon then shows up and insists on having Corrin kill Ryoma directly in front of him, so there’s no way to avoid it.  Ryoma then takes it upon himself.  He kills himself right there, and with his dying words leaves things to Corrin.  Now, again...you’d think Garon or Iago would be like “hey, the fuck’s that about?”  But they don’t.  Iago tries to be annoying by pointing out Corrin didn’t do it herself, and Garon’s like “Eh, whatever.” and fucks off.  So if you didn’t care, why didn’t you just do it when you showed up and move on?  Also, Ryoma, buddy, if your plan was to spare Corrin from the evil king she’s stuck working under, maybe you could’ve sold the performance a bit better?  I dunno, shout something about how you’d rather die with honor than die at the hands of your enemies, or something like that?  No, gonna go the route of outing her intentions to undermine the king before going out?  Okay, cool.

Chapter 26 is catharsis that should’ve taken place ages ago.  Finally, FINALLY, Iago and Hans are on their own, and the royal siblings have had enough of their shit.  So you finally get to kill them.  The map itself annoys me.  It’s a lot of really tough enemies behind closed doors that you have to break down.  My problem is...you cannot bait them.  Even if they have range, they won’t attack unless the door is opened.  This is especially dangerous with the mage room on the right.  They deal crazy damage.  Also, Iago is a pain in the ass.  He can use staves without it consuming their uses, and has Enfeeble, Freeze, and Silence.  And when you do get to him, he has a tome with an insane crit rate, so only a handful of units can engage safely.  Fuck you, buddy. By god, fuck you.

This leads to the finale.  Finally, after all this time, Corrin is able to tell the others that Garon isn’t their dad, he’s not even human.  He’s some weird goo monster.  Everyone’s all surprised and doesn’t entirely believe, but are willing to hear Corrin out.  Now...here’s what I have against this.  It plays in to the stupidest parts of the plot, which are mostly revealed in Revelations, where we learn about the kingdom of Valla in more depth.  Basically, if anyone speaks of the hidden kingdom or anything about it, they are transported there immediately and become completely subservient to the dragon god.  Which is already contrived as hell.  And the reason they couldn’t tell anyone about Garon was simply that they’d vanish too.  So instead, their brilliant plan was to invade and conquer Hoshido, and have Garon sit on the throne that displays someone’s core essence.  This would prove he was a good monster, and then they could take him out and restore peace.

Except...you could’ve just taken everyone into Valla.  Azura goes there regularly.  Hell, we followed her there in Chapter 15.  So the others can go, see it for themselves without you having to say a goddamn word, and then return going “Oh shit, our dad’s a goo monster, we should probably fix that.”  Then, actually go the route they hinted at in Chapter 23: have a civil war break out.  Xander leads the charge against a corrupt king, and the soldiers either back him and his way of peace, or stick with the king who wants to genocide Hoshido.  Net innocent casualties: way fewer than you taking over a kingdom for a goo monster that’s out to kill everyone.  Hell, I still hate that the goo monster is a thing at all.  Honestly, if Xander’s virtues were half of what they should be, at some point along the campaign trail, Corrin should only have to mention she thinks Garon’s corrupt and is calling for too much violence.  Again, use that concept of a schism in the ranks to set the stage for a coup mid-campaign.  Xander has directly seen enough to know the atrocities his father carries out.  You shouldn’t need this nonsense about a goo monster for this story to have weight.

But, we got the goo monster, so we have to put it down.  The map’s fairly simple, though the individual rooms are a little scary, and 100% fuck those asshole soldiers with Counter and Magic Counter.  Those are the worst skills the series has ever introduced, and by god I hope that Three Houses doesn’t have them.  Nothing is stupider than some jackoff with a high HP count and nothing else running up to you, hitting you for some damage, and then having your own attacks reflected 100% back at you, killing your unit because their inflated HP stat let them cheat the encounter.  Magic Counter was added this game, and it’s somehow worse.  Now if they have Counter, Magic Counter also reflects any and all magic damage back at you.  At least Counter had the fucking decency to only work when adjacent, so archers could mess with it.  These skills are just the exact opposite of engaging.

Garon himself is a bitch, though.  I think he had under a 50% chance to hit Xander at all, and even if he did it was like 20% of his HP, while Xander takes out like 40% of his.  You tried, goo man.

After finally killing Garon, you’d think it would be over.  But nope!  One more encounter with the champion of tantrums, Takumi!  It turns out, he’s been corrupted by...something?  I played this game years ago, on all routes, and I’m still not sure how the hell this works.  Corrin waxes philosophical afterward about whether anger and hatred can simply corrupt people into becoming monsters and avatars of destruction, but it’s gotta have some connection to Valla.  Anyway, at first, Corrin decides to let Takumi just throw his hissy-fit to get him to calm down.  This results in him pushing her shit in with a single arrow that shatters the Yato blade.  Oops.  Thankfully, conveniences!  Corrin has that dream sequence when you’re on the verge of death and meet with all the people who died along the way, and the real Takumi gives her the Fujin Yumi, which...doesn’t really exist?  And somehow repairs her Yato blade instantly?  Then Azura starts singing and it allegedly weakens Takumi?  So you clear out the map, which is mostly just tearing through some enemies and putting up the barricades before his attacks, and beat up Takumi really easily with Corrin and Xander.  You all revel in the victory until you realize Azura is gone.  It’s probably fine, probably just needed the bathroom.  I’m sure she’ll be back.

The ending sequence throws us directly into Xander coronation, where the kingdoms are brought together peacefully.  A big festival is held, and Corrin leaves for a bit to catch her breath near the lake.  She meets with Azura for a minute, who disappears after asking Corrin to close her eyes.  Corrin’s not even sure if it was real or an illusion, and is called back to the party.  Now, this?  This I kinda like.  Just the feel of the scene, you know?  I have a thing for bittersweet endings, and this has the right kind of feel.  The problem is...we have no idea why this is happening.  Presumably, it’s the song.  But she’s used the song before without this kind of serious backlash.  Or any backlash, really.  Like, remember when she tried to reveal the truth about Garon at the theater?  She used the mystic powers of her song there, and there was no blowback at all.  But now she vanishes forever?  It’s just strange, and another sort of contrivance where the conditions are vague at best, but typically nonexistent.

With that though, the game is finally over.  I’m gonna be honest, the story is just as stupid as I remembered, but it kinda feels less infuriating now.  I don’t know if it’s just my expectations going in were set so low or what, but the story, stupid as it is, feels more like a goofy B-movie than an outright disasterfuck and a blight on the world.  It’s stupid and childish, and very little is thought through.  Having also recently played Awakening, I understand where the developers were coming from when they said Awakening’s core story felt a little weak, but how anyone felt like this game was a step in the right direction is beyond me.

By comparison, the gameplay is fantastic.  Conquest is actually a ton of fun to just play through.  The maps are way more varied in their gimmicks and goals than anything Awakening had to offer.  Stats cap a lot lower, too, and enemy stats never feel overwhelming.  Even leveling up felt appropriate.  In Awakening, I could reach max level of a class promotion by around Chapter 17-18.  Even in the Radiant Games, Bonus EXP lets you reach level cap way before you’re supposed to.  But Conquest...actually had me reach level cap for only two units, Corrin and Camilla, at Chapter 26.  Everyone else either didn’t reach cap, or got there at the last map against Takumi.  Stats themselves also didn’t always cap, but could once you got close to level cap.  Camilla and Corrin had a few more than others because I used those seals that raise level cap, but still.  I actually really like the balance of the game.

That said: this only works because I did not recruit a single child character.  I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating, children characters had no place in Fates.  They were included because children were included in Awakening, Awakening literally saved the series, but to this day none of them know how it did that.  So Fates assumed certain major mechanics from Awakening were required for it to sell well, and thus, children.  But having those extra maps would’ve broken this balance to pieces, not to mention the absolute nightmare that is the Baby Realm.  I honest feel like the game is substantially better without the children characters at all.  Had I gone to get them, I would’ve needed to be very specific in how I supported units, gone out of my way to deploy units that didn’t matter just to get their kids, and then probably never used their kids.  I could not be happier that Three Houses isn’t going to be bringing in children characters.

Overall, I’m pleasantly surprised by the Conquest route.  A few of the characters have really grown on me, and the gameplay was...actually really solid.  The story just drags it down so hard.  So hard, it’s unbelievable.  There are so many areas of the plot of this route where things could’ve been handled in a way where it had actual weight and impact, but instead it just feels very...hollow.  Emotional scenes are attempted, and sometimes even executed well in a vacuum, but within the broader context, all of this could’ve been avoided.  Corrin’s constant anguish over sacrifices being made rings completely hollow when you consider all the ways in which bloodshed could’ve been avoided, or at least this specific path of bloodshed.  Fighting would happen regardless, and as Azura and Xander expressed in the endgame, no one path is purely right or purely wrong.  You’d have to push forward regardless, and things become difficult no matter what path you take.  But if there’s one thing to consider on the Conquest route, it’s that Corrin is really, unspeakably terrible at subterfuge and planning, and that Xander is really, really dense.

Now, time to start up the Birthright path.  I always liked the Nohrian siblings better, but we’ll see if anything changes with that.  I will, again, not be recruiting the children characters, and supports will happen as we go but I’m not going out of my way.  Hopefully this route also feels more positive the second time through, if only because of gameplay.