#except some didn't have name yets or were recasted

[artificialroux]

bts of melissa during the feast !!!

(plus krystal and akliah)

[gigabyte-flare]

Oh boy it's brain vomit time!

For some reason I started reminiscing about this person I used to be friends with in the Final Fantasy VII fandom and I know if this makes it onto the feed of some of those still active in the fandom they're going to know exactly who I'm talking about. For the sake of privacy, I will not be dropping names. This is not a callout post, just me reflecting on my life. I first joined Tumblr back in like... 2015 or 2016; I was still recovering from a pretty nasty breakup from 2013 and I needed an outlet for my Sephiroth hyperfixation. At the time I had absolutely zero clue that hyperfixating on fictional characters was completely normal as I had prior friendships that shamed me for that, but that's a story for another time.

This person was one of the first people I became friends with in the fandom and looking back.... yeeeeaaaahhhhh this friendship was not the healthiest. I loved Sephiroth with every fiber of my being yet this person somehow spat on that and said 'hold my beer.' They were utterly obsessed with anything and everything Sephiroth; not just him, but the voice actor that portrayed him at the time as well.

Now, don't get me wrong, George Newbern is a great guy and a great voice actor, not to mention he's been in a ton of roles (one I remember fondly is actually my favorite episode of CSI where he played a dude with chimerism) as well as voicing Superman for many, many years, but this person would quite literally go almost every convention George went on the US West coast.

At first I didn't think anything of it, but it wasn't until they would vehemently insist that I go to some of these conventions that I started to take a step back and give the situation serious side eye. It came to a head in 2019/2020. At this point, I became heavily involved in a community for a popular cosplayer and actually kindled a friendship with them (this particular arc in my life also is a story for another time) and we were both going to a convention and meeting in person for the first time. Needless to say, I was extremely excited to meet them.

Queue my friend though, who insisted that meeting George Newbern was way more important than my cosplayer friend. I was livid, to say the least, but that surprisingly wasn't the straw that broke the camel's back. That honor would go to the recasting of the FFVII characters and my indifference to it.

Oooooooooohhhhhhhh boy... did that upset the friend. They probably would be extremely upset to find out that I actually like Tyler Hoechlin's performance better (he just nails it for me). Heck, I actually like most of the "recast" performances better with the exception of one (Ricky Gomez will always be Zack Fair). This debacle severed our friendship and I didn't talk to them for I think almost three or four years.

At some point, I was deep in my Sephiroth hyperfixation era again and for some reason, I thought it'd be a good idea to attempt to rekindle this friendship because I wanted someone to scream about Sephiroth with. I was hoping that maybe, with the amount of time that had gone by, they would have come to their senses and... like... chilled out with their George Newbern obsession.

Yeah no, if anything, it got worse.

So I kinda just... let the friendship die out again which brings us to now. I'm not sure why I randomly started to think about this person, but it came from another string of thought I was having. Yes, Sephiroth is still one of my favorite fictional characters ever and he will always be my 'OG' husband, but when I look at him these days... I dunno it's just different now.

The way I look at it, Sephiroth was the embodiment of my internalized rage. Post 2013 I was angry at the world and everything in it. Cut to Leon Kennedy, my hyperfixation from last year, who I now feel was the embodiment of my healing journey, having gone through some fucked up shit himself, he didn't let that stop him in his mission to help people. Then we cut to Von Lycaon. From what little lore we have of him, he is proof that you can make mistakes, go through some probably fucked up situations and still come out making a better life for yourself and man, do I adore him.

Anyway, if you made it this far, thank you for taking time to read my brain vomit!

[emblemxeno]

WHOA, how am only now seeing this post???

OP, after listening to your videos, I think you're right on the money personally.

For starters, looking at Fates' voice cast itself:

I know this list isn't concrete because of apparent pseudonyms in the credits, but trained ears have done remarkably well in matching voices to established credits.

A thing to notice is that most members of the cast took on multiple roles, with the majority of them taking at least 3 characters. And some of the cast who took 1 or 2 characters can also be heard as generic enemy voices.

But there's a sole exception to this, that being David Stanbra listed as doing SEVEN characters: Xander, Kaze, Siegbert, Shura, Sumeragi, Kilma and the Rainbow Sage. I initially chalked that up to just Fates casting/VA work being like that due to the giant character list, but looking at it again, I'm second guessing it.

There's also the matter of, if Stanbra kept returning as Xander for Heroes and Warriors, why wasn't it the case for Siegbert and Kaze? Xander had two alts before those characters released (Spring and Summer) plus an alt after they released (Yukata), so the timeline doesn't add up for for him to record for Xander yet miss those two, given the nature of convenience, availability and being on call. And I don't think it's a case of "well some of Fates' cast came back for certain characters, and didn't for others", since the split in casting happened after time had past for FE Heroes specifically to establish itself as a big name money maker. The assumed voices for Rinkah (Stephanie Lemelin), Soleil (Amber Hood), and Camilla (Paula Tiso) were recasted in 2020 or earlier, for example, didn't return for those characters, but did return for Reina, Nyx and Orochi respectively, all characters 2021 or after. Whoever George Spelvin is, though, has been Xander since 2017, and despite some thinking otherwise, he *is* the same actor that was Xander in Fates.

Lastly, listening to the clips listed for Stanbra's characters in Fates here (BTVA has audio previews sometimes):

Xander... doesn't sound anything like Kaze, Siegbert or Shura. Like, at all. I've secretly always thought this, but just lumped it under "oh actors are even more otherworldly talened than I gave them credit for" but as I got more knowledgeable of the human voice (thank you choir and voice lessons lol) my ear got trained very hard, and some things about the voice just aren't able to be so drastically different. Travis Willingham, for example, voiced Brady and Lon'qu in FE13, who sounded quite different when speaking, but had similar vocal stylings that signals to a trained ear that they're the same person (similar grunt patterns/tones, guttural rasp, vocal fry, etc.). Kaze, Siegbert and Shura share the same breathiness, hold after sentences, elongated plosives and fricatives, and rasp for grunts, but Xander's voice doesn't have those.

The videos that OP provided are dead ringers for Xander's current voice IMO, because there are signals that are consistent between the characters Paul Mercier voiced and how Xander talks; how the 'F' sound is held, how the 'P' sound is held back, the inflections in sentences when distressed, excited or commanding orders, etc.

So I agree, I think Paul Mercier is Xander's voice, currently using the George Spelvin pseudo, and I think he also voiced Sumeragi, Kilma and *maybe* the Rainbow Sage in Fates. Meanwhile, Kaze, Shura and Siegbert were probably voiced by David Stanbra (listening to Stanbra's other credits, the vocal stylings track there), but he hasn't come back for them in Heroes, hence Kaze now voiced by Xander Mobus and Siegbert now voiced by Todd Haberkorn.

Of course, there's always the possibility that I'm dead wrong about everything lol. My ear could still need tuning, and I don't know the nitty gritty about the VA industry yet.

I do hope it's the case though, if only because I'd think it'd be really neat that both of Corrin's older brothers were the voice of Leon Kennedy at some point.

Hey I’m alive, I know it’s been a couple years but better late than never?

Anyway, I just wanted to push my theory here that Xander in Fire Emblem Fates was never voiced by David Stanbra, and instead has been voiced by RE4 leading man Paul Mercier since Xander’s first appearance.

I made a couple videos a little while ago:

Which I think showcases my point considerably well. Uncanny, even.

Basically: Stanbra WAS in Fates, he was clearly Kaze, Siegbert and Shura, but due to other projects he was doing at the time, Stanbra wasn’t able to return as the former two in FEH. A circumstantial point, Stanbra is far less acclimated to game acting, and has only done a half dozen or so in the past decade.

Mercier, however, was a part of the cast as well (my theory is that he’s Walley Hollis in the Fates credits, while his wife Paula Tiso, who voiced Camilla and Orochi, was credited as Holly Wallace), and has consistently returned to the role, across the Corrin trailer for Smash, Warriors and every appearance in FEH. A particularly interesting thing to note is that Mercier’s official role listings have an interesting blank area between 2014 and 2020. This would line up with the presumed opening of Fates auditions, alongside his use of pseudonyms to get around doing non-union work.

Long story short, I’ve been convinced that Xander’s english VA credit (which has never been directly confirmed, only ever assumed) was incorrect, and I’ve found a decent amount of evidence to support that claim. Of course, I can’t be certain either unless I’m ever able to ask Mercier himself, but I would like to know what people think?

[jimhenson-themuppetmaster]

Michael Caine and the Muppets The Muppets Christmas Carol