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ajentmm · 2 years ago

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Theorycrafting the Elyos Royals FEH Part 1

Emblem, Engage!

I'm doing something new here (unless you see my old fanmade Heroes sprites), making theory crafting new heroes. I’m going off of my predictions from a while ago and I’m starting with Elyos royals, hence the title. Also, the royals on the box art will be getting the same treatment as Alfred, a Rearmed unit with a Pref skill, named after their perf skill. Let’s Engage! (not in a marry sort of way (unless))

Unoffical sprite made by archsage

Diamant: Brodia’s Successor

Sword – Infantry – Fire Emblem: Engage – 5 Star ReArmed

45/46/36/37/20

The Crowned Prince of Brodia is massively popular character from Engage by sheer husbando merit alone. His personal class makes him a modified Hero class that gives him Sol. He came with high HP, Strength, and Defense, with good Speed and Build to reliably avoid being double. This overall balance of a melee unit makes him adaptable to many Emblems and Skills to inherit. His stats above reflex that, with higher the average HP, the new max Atk, and even Spd and Def. His weakness to Magic is something he will share with Alfred.

Arcane Jian: Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). If unit's HP ≥ 25%, inflicts Atk/Def-6 on foe during combat, deals damage = 15% of unit's Atk (including when dealing damage with a Special triggered before combat), reduces damage before and during combat by attack by 40% (excluding Røkkr area-of-effect Specials), and grant unit a guaranteed follow-up attack.

Well, I was late to make an arcane sword that gave NFU, so I when with a more tank sword. After that, you get true damage base on your Atk instead of Spd, and reduce damage from all of foe’s attack. While Arcane Lúin is perfect for Speedy units, this is for slow heavy-hitter units.

Fair Fight: If foe initiates combat or foe can counterattack, grant unit Atk/Spd/Def/Res+8 during combat and reduce damage from foe's second attacks and onward by 80%. If unit's HP ≥ 75% and unit initiates combat, foe can counterattack before unit's first attack. After combat, if unit’s HP = 100%, unit is dealt 1 damage.

Now for the perf. From Diamint’s personal skill from Engage gives him and his opponent extra Hit chance when he initiates. It’s a double edge sword that could be used in your favor to intentionally take damage and use Wrath or Reprisal. But since he has Sol, it can be mitigated if he triggers on the follow-up, or better, on his one hit when using a Smash weapon. For this, he gets all these stats and damage reduction on follow-up attacks (like Brave Ike) when he in combat with a foe that can hurt him (no initiating on 2 range foes, that’s an unfair fight).

Sol – Fair Fight – Warth 4 – Joint Close Def

So I’m popping both my theorycrafted Warth 4 and Joint Close Def, which isn’t even in the game yet like come on. I’m also changing my HP ≤ 90% to HP ≤ 99% because why not at this point. I gave him the deal 1 damage in his A slot for that reason.

Wrath 4: If unit's attack can trigger their Special, grant the following: At start of turn, if unit's HP ≤ 99%, grants Special cooldown count-1. At the start of combat, if unit's HP ≤ 99%, deals +10 damage when Special triggers and neutralize effects that inflict "Special Cooldown charge-X" on unit during combat. After combat, if unit's HP ≤ 99%, grants Special cooldown count-1.

Joint Close Guard: Grants Def/Res+4 to allies within 2 spaces during combat against sword, lance, axe, dragonstone, or beast foes. If unit is within 2 spaces of an ally and foe uses sword, lance, axe, dragonstone, or beast damage, grants Def/Res+4 to unit during combat.

Yeah, he’s a bit of a mess, falling into the same problem Alfonse had where you intentionally take damage, get more powerful, then heal back up in a loop. But the loop cuts short when the guy you fight is at max power when at full health. I did mitigate it by having the HP condition be 1 point of damage, and making him take 1 point of damage.

Unoffical sprite made by archsage

Alcryst: Inferior Complex

Colorless Bow - Infantry - Fire Emblem: Engage – 5 Star

38/44/43/30/27

Fittingly, the second prince of Brodia is behind in popularity behind his big bro Diamant. The last two infantry archers we got in heroes since the BST boost from CYL were Eti (with the highest Atk) and Kiragi (tied with highest Spd). They are both 3-4 stars. Our 5 star locked boy, is going to compete with these two by having one less then both of those unit’s best stats, cuz he needs to be inferior is some way. His unique class, Tireur d'élite, is best known for spamming Luna better than any of the other characters with unique trigger skill classes. So, I have . . . basically made him the bow version of ReArmed Ophilea.

Eilte Bow: Effective against flying foes. Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). If foe initiates combat with an ally within 2 spaces, grant that ally Def/Res+5 during combat, and after combat, grant unit Atk/Spd/Def/Res +6 for 1 turn and also, if unit’s Special is at its maximum value, grant Special count-1. If unit initiate combat or is within a 2 tile radius of an ally, grant bonus to unit’s Atk/Spd/Def/Res = 4 + current bonus on each of unit's stats during combat. Calculates each stat bonus independently.

Alcryst’s personal skill is “Get behind me!” Where in, If an nearby ally is attacked during enemy phase, Alcryst get a one turn Attack boost. Since that’s nothing, I gave if a full +6 and Time Pulse when an ally is attacked. I also included a Drive Bracing Stance, which pairs well with Joint Close Guard. From there, he’s just gets another boost in combat that comes with bonus doubler. So that’s like, +16 to all stats.

Luna - Special Spiral 4 – Joint Distant Guard

After that, he has is signature Luna, along with Special Spiral 4 and Joint Distant Guard to further protect your allies and yourself against the foe's you can counter attack against. No A slot skill though.

Unoffical sprite by archsage

Ivy: Elusive Lindwurm

Green Tome – Flying – Fire Emblem: Engage – 5 Star ReArmed

39/44/36/25/29

The Crown Princess of Elusia and avatar worshiper, Ivy is here. She’s known for using tomes, riding a wyvern, having surprising balanced stats for a mage, a purple outfit with a boob window, and . . . is this Camila, or am I mistaking her for Zephia? Anyway, I had three idea’s for her, one is Chapter 8 appearance where she used Emblem Leif to Vantage tank your team, the second is based on her recruitment chapter, where she used the Lyn ring and used Alacrity (or Spd check Desperation) to two tap foes, and the third is “Why not both?” That’s the worst option, but if she gets a Legendary or Summer alt, that’s what it would be. As for this build, we have two Vantage mage fliers in the form of B!Bylth and Ninja!Camila, while we have three mages with Desperation, with Spring!Delthia, B!Lysithia, and Winter!Lysithia, none of them are fliers. And I know Ivy is more bulk than Spd, but we still need her to be meta.

Arcane Excalibur: Accelerates Special trigger (cooldown count-1). If unit's HP > 25%, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+5 to unit, inflict penalties on foe's Spd/Res = penalties active on foe's Spd/Res during combat (Calculate stats independently), and reduces damage from foe's first attack by 40% during combat, and also, if unit's Spd > foe's Spd, neutralizes effects that guarantee foe's follow-up attacks and effects that prevent unit's follow-up attacks during combat.

This is an Arcane tome built for Speedy tome users that also further increases her damage and Spd by doubling the Spd/Res penalties. Then there’s the 30% DR and NFU we saw on the other Arcane weapons. Next, it’s Ivy’s perf B slot skill.

Single Minded: Enables [Canto (1)]. Inflicts Spd/Res-4 on foe during combat, and if no effect neutralizes penalties to foe's Spd/Res, inflicts penalty on foe's Spd/Res during combat = 6 - current penalty on foe's Spd/Res (min: 0). Calculate stats independently. Inflicts Spd/Res-6 on foe through its next action after combat. If unit initiate combat penalties and unit’s Spd > foe’s Spd - X, unit's follow-up attack occurs before foe's counterattack (X= active penalties on foe’s Res).

So, I gave her a very player phased focused B slot. She has Canto 1. She has Spd/Res Seal 4, in that she inflicts - 10 Spd/Res if the foe can't neutralize penalties, otherwise it's -4, then she applies -6 Spd/Res. She then gets Alacrity, the Spd check desperation that Lyn gives her, but as a bonus, she adds the penalties' on the foe's Res to help her Spd check. The idea is that, her perf gives her more Hit when facing the same opponent again. I'm mirroring this by using the Spd/Res penalties to mark a foe she fought.

Ruptured Sky – Atk/Spd Catch 4 – Single Minded – Spd Smoke 4

For the rest of her kit, she came with the skill Grasping Void, that takes the foe's Magic stat and add it to her own damage. A more reliable version of that in Heroes is Ruptured Sky, that takes the foe's Atk stat (more if it's a dragon). Sorry Byleth, you don't have a monopoly on that skill anymore. Then there's Atk/Spd Catch to use the penalties to applies to boost her damage, and Spd Smoke 4 to give her more Spd and [Dodge] after fighting. This mirrors the Spd Taker skill that Lyn also provides. These great fodder skill should make up for the fact she don't come with any new inheritable skills.

So I'm gonna be real, I have been super busy this month so I couldn't type up these new explanation in a reasonable time. I figure I split this post in two just to get it out before the next new heroes banner. Remember to like, comment, and follow.

#fire emblem heroes #fire emblem #theorycrafting #game design #fire emblem engage #new heroes

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azzoths · 1 year ago

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I had been a whale in Fire Emblem Heroes on and off since the game released in 2017. I had a habit of deleting my account, taking a year or a few months off, and coming back.

I actually liked the gameplay of it. Like you I needed every new toy from every new banner to stay competitive. I'd theory craft defense's with my friends and record show-cases of flashy offense clears for them.

But it was so tiring, especially as the game got older. The meta was never really stable and not playing every day would mean your weekly run to the top would be ruined. Some days, I'd be fine with playing it for hours workshopping with friends. Others, I just didn't feel like it and saw it as a chore.

In July last year, we had to put our older dog down. We had a vet come to the home to do it, he went peacefully and happily.

I couldn't even think about the game for a few days. I lost so much progress by not playing those few days, that it didn't feel worth it to come back to it to finish off the week. From there, it didn't feel worth it come back to it for any week, so I just...didn't.

About 2 months later, my friend pinged me to ask me what I thought of their build for an older character who was known to be my favorite. I had no idea what the build was supposed to do, it was full of new skills with long descriptions and utilizes new mechanics I never even heard of.

It's only been 2 months at that point, and the game had already felt alien to me. The cycle of sell a problem, then sell the solution to the problem had occurred again, and only in 2 months.

Part of my struggle with walking away was the fear of losing out. So, here I am, looking at what I lost out on, and I don't even understand what I'm looking at.

It's worth it, to walk away. These games suck out more than just your wallet, they suck out your soul.

I have more time now to just...do things that are actually fun, and way more money to spend on those actually fun things than ever. I'm able to save money! My bank account is actually going up now!

Please, please, please heed OP's words. You are worth more than the weekly banner for a subpar game, and it's worth it.

Enough is enough

#cw animal death

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overpoweredsoap · 5 years ago

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I got bored so here’s a FEH Hoshido banner Theorycraft (no alts technically)

Yukimura!

Base Level 40 Stats: 40/33/35/20/33

BST: 156! (+6 Summer Ursula, which may seem alarming, but trust me he’s not broken, like at all. Plus Summer Ursula is gen behind now I think?)

Green Dagger cav, as the 5-4* unit to 4-3*. I’m not gonna lie, I really don’t like this stat line, but holy shit is he a ball of stats in Fates. But with how BST works in FEH being a ball of stats while being a ranged cav is difficult.

Slaying Shuriken+ is an inheritable -1 special cooldown dagger.

It’s effect has been on a seasonal weapon for awhile and regular pool daggers still don’t have it, so I thought it’d work nice on Yukimura AND as good fodder.

Swift Sparrow 2 would be his 4* fodder and he would bring Spd Tactic into the 3/4* pool.

Reina! The Caring Warmother!

Base Level 40 Stats: 40/38/41/28/21

BST: 168! (Same as Heath).

If you can’t tell by now I suck at titles so it was hard to fit Reina’s bloodthirstyness and caring nature into a short title.

Anyways, Reina would be a 5* lance flier that ISN’T just a bunch of stats (IS really isn’t creative with their lance flier statlines, even if this one isn’t really either). She’s a pure player phase monster with a 38/41 attack/speed stat line that wants to destroy the enemy in one round of combat.

Bloodthirsty Naginata:”When special triggers, heal for 20% of damage done”.

This is to reflect her personal skill from Fates where she healed for 20% when she killed an enemy.

She’s a very weak during the enemy phase though as her defenses are only ok and her res is awful. A bow unit or a mage with a good attack stat should be able to take her down pretty easily.

Orochi! The Mischievous Diviner!

Base Level 40 Stats: 38/39/21/24/40

BST: 162! (Same as Iago)

She’d be an infantry red tome. Orochi’s growth stats from Fates are pretty straight forward, HIGH Attack,Res,Skill and decent Luck. Everything else is just sort of there.

Serpent Scroll: “Inflicts spd-2. Accelerates Special cooldown (-1). If unit initiates combat, unit attacks twice.”

I gave her the snake scroll (under a different name) from Fates basically. I additionally gave it a -1 special cooldown to reflect her good skill and luck stats.

She’s mostly a pure player phase unit, nuking with two attacks without getting retiliated inbetween. And with a 2 cooldown special, she can fire off a special before the enemy can attack due to the -1 special cooldown from her weapon. She’s really weak to physical units initiating onto her though, due to her eh defense and terrible speed.

Sumeragi! The (once) King of Hoshido!

Base lvl 40 Stats: 37/39/39/24/35

BST: 174 (+1 Ituski, who has 173)

Imma be honest with you. Sumeragi was a pain in the ass.He’s literally just another swordsman so at first I just gave him fast attack speed and ok defense and res. Infantry sword units are so bloated that is hard to make them unique at this point because there’s just so damn many of them. But then I decided to make him a little different. Of course he wieldsRaijinto, or at least a similar form of it.

Kingly Raijino:”+3 atk. Unit can counterattack regardless of range. When special triggers, deal +10 damage.”

Original Raijinto is just... Not good anymore, so I decided to spice it up a bit. With being able to focus on counterattacking regardless of range, I decided to make Sumeragi more focused on dealing with magic allies by giving him a good res stat instead of making him another fast hard hitting defense tank swordie. Instead he’s a fast hard hitting res tanking swordie. Which isn’t super common, so I guess it could work.

And finally the grail unit:

Mikoto! The Peaceful Queen!

Base Lvl 40 stats: 37/33/37/18/33

BST: 158 (-10 Legendary Chrom, -9 Midori).

Mikoto joins us as an infantry bow unit! The BST difference may be a bit of a shocker, but there’s a reason she has a lower BST so let’s show why:

Queenly Pursuer: “Inflicts spd-2. If unit initiates combat grant spd +5 and unit can attack twice.”

She’s made to quad.

Initially I had no problem making her speed and attack higher, but then I realized she had COMPLETELY powercrept poor Klein in every stat due to the gen difference, even with his access to boons and banes while being a free unit and his refine. I made her a bit slower and lowered her health and defense than I originally intended so that she was squisher than Klein due to his higher hp and def. I may have overdone it a bit, but I didn’t want to completely invalidate an older unit because that’s never really fun.

Mikoto would bring atk/spd push 3 to the 4* grail pool and infantry rush to the regular grail pool but at 5* rarity.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I had fun making these theorycrafts and there are still some tweaks I’d like to make to all of them!

Again, thanks for reading! :D

#fire emblem heroes #feh #fire emblem fates #theory crafting #theory craft #mikoto #orochi #reina #sumeragi #yukimura #fire emblem heroes theory craft #long post

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sid471 · 3 years ago

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Archers of Fodlan (Fanmade Banner)

Hi I’m Sid and sometimes I make custom FEH units with... CRAZY high and unrealistic stats lol. That said, I made a 3 houses banner with, as the title implies, the Archers of Fodlan :3 Starting with...

Leonie!

She’s obviously very strong and speedy, but she also a workable defense if you wanna focus on that, already having 41 at base with the help of atk/def push, and possibly more thanks to her weapon, which has a similar effect to those of Farina and Malice, as well as granting her an additional +3 to her atk stat. She has super boons in Spd and Def, and super banes in HP and Res. Next we have:

Ignatz!

His build, in my opinion, is fairly straightforward lol. He’s a glass cannon with a decent res stat, but his primary focuses are his atk and spd. He’s one of those who has 1 super boon and a super bane just about everywhere else lol. His super boon is Atk, and his super banes are HP, Def, and Res. Next is our Demote and iiiit’s

Ashe!

I posted these in a Discord I’m in first and someone described Ashe as “4 star Ronan” so... That. Yes. lol. Ashe is strong and a good res tank but his defense is.... questionable. IDEALLY his 4 star skill would be atk/spd solo, but rouse spd/res would be fine too in my mind lol. The Unbound Bow takes after the other weapons in the Unbound set, inflicting atk/def -5 when not adjacent to an ally, rather than taking after the Helmsman Bow. He doesn’t have any super boons but has a super bane in HP. Also Ashe not having a title doesn’t say anything about my feelings toward him, I love Ashe, but I had the idea of casually building demote Ashe before I had the idea of making a whole banner so... Moving on to the last but not the least...

Mercedes!

Mercedes is the only post time skip unit on this banner... purely because Bernie is already in. And-and I had to get creative >_> lol. Anyway, I don’t have an idea for the Tathlum bow’s effect besides it giving +3 res. Sooo... If anyone wants to make one yourself and tag me :3. Anyway, Mercie is very slow the poor girl. But she makes up for it by being an excellent mage tank and some deeeeecent defense. Not great but not terrible. She has super boons in Atk and Def, but super banes in Spd and HP.

Aaaaand now we have a banner of the rest of Fodlan’s Archers :3... That I can remember lol. OH CYRIL! I coulda used Cyril... Oops. Ah well it’s already made now lol. Maybe he can be a GHB or that thing where they give out a free 5 star unit like Miriel and Balthus lol

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Heroes #FEH #FE #FE3H #FETH #FE:3H #Fire Emblem Three Houses #Fire Emblem: Three Houses #Fire Emblem 3 Houses #Fire Emblem: 3 Houses #Theorycraft #Theory Craft #Leonie Pinelli #Leonie #Mercedes Von Martritz #Ignatz Victor #Ashe Ubert #Siddy Rambles

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invenblocker · 6 years ago

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Emperor’s Lance

Mt: 16

Accelerates special trigger (cooldown count -1). If unit innitiates combat, unit makes guaranteed follow-up attack and unit gains special charge +1 per attack (highest bonus only, doesn’t stack).

Emperor’s Shield

If foe innitiates combat, and foe uses sword, lance, axe, dragonstone or beast damage, inflict special charge -1 on foe (highest penalty only, doesn’t stack) and foe cannot make follow-up attack.

#just decided to redo one of my old theory crafts for a brave alm #now that he won cyl3 and all #alm #fire emblem #heroes

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luckythereviewer · 4 years ago

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The Truth about Fodlan

This is certainly something a lot of people have discussed and looked into. Ever since the release of Three Houses as well as the Cindered Shadows DLC, people have been looking over ever detail they can find to figure out how Three Houses fits into Fire Emblem as a whole. Some believe it’s simply a different world, some believe it isn’t and there has been debates about everything for a while. Today, I would like to bring up some information that possibly clears up the confusion around Three Houses.

To start off, let me simply lay out the premise now. What if Fodlan is Jugdral 3000 years after the events of Genealogy and Thracia? I know that sounds crazy but think about it. In Awakening, a game that was suppose to be the last game in the series and give us one last look at the world that started it all long after Marth had passed, there is barely any mention of Jugdral. We travel all over Archanea, now called Ylisse, and go to Valentia, now called Valm, but we never see anything Jugdral related. The only time we ever see such a thing is during Chapter 22. The chapter where we face Risen Deadlords and some of them are wielding Holy Weapons: specifically, we see Valflame, Gungnir, Helswrath, Balmung, Yewfelle. Now whether the Risen Deadlords are the actual Dead Lords used in Genealogy and converted to Risens or simply a new take on the Dead lords of old is up to debate. The question here is, how did the Grimleal get their hands on 5 Holy Weapons from Jugdral when we have no mention of them throughout the game.

To this, I ask another question: how come the Three Archanea Regalias and Hauteclere are absent from Awakening yet rusted versions of them can be found in Three Houses? These weapons never have appeared outside the Archanea games (the sole exception being SoV but the fact they have to be forged makes their canonicity dubious at best) yet we can end up finding them by battling special monsters and forging the rusted weapon they drop. What’s even more confusing is how the in game description for Hauteclere reads “An Empire Wyvern Corps Axe, wielded in the War of Heroes, that has a high hit rate and might.” These weapons were used during events of the games. Mercius was used during the War of the Eagle and Lion and Gradivus was used by a defender of Fodlan’s throat. Parthia lacks a sort of description but 3 of the 4 having such descriptions means these weapons were used throughout Fodlan’s history. But that begs the question of how these weapons ended up in Fodlan? One would guess that, since they could be forged in SoV (something I don’t consider cannon) that it means they were forged in Fodlan and yet we have no one that takes credit for them. They aren’t considered Sacred Weapons forged by Maculi, They aren’t Heroes Relics made by TWSITD. They are not stated to have been made by the only other legendary Blacksmith, Zoltan. Meaning these weapons have to be the orignal Regalias and Hauteclere.

With this we now have two questions from both Awakening and Three Houses. How did 5 of the Holy Weapons end up in Archanea and How did the 3 Regalias and Hauteclere end up on Fodlan? First off look at 4 of the Holy Weapons given: Balmung (a Sword), Gungnir (A Lance), Helswrath (A Axe), Yewfelle (A Bow). Then you have Mercurius (A Sword), Gradivus (A Lance), Hauteclere (A Axe), and Parthia (a Bow). Here’s my idea. During the War of Heroes, TWSITD likely wanted to give an edge to Nemesis and his army in the form of more powerful weapons. This lead to them getting into contact with the Grimleal in the early days after Grima’s first defeat. The Grimleal, likely aware of Jugdral’s amass of Holy Weapons, offered a trade. The 3 Regalias and Hauteclere for 4 Holy Weapons. Given that TWSITD likely did not know or simply could not make use of the full power of the Holy Weapons agree and threw in Valflame as a sign of good faith as well as an item they likely would not need, seeing as all of Fodlan operate on non-tome magic. Of course, the description for Hauteclere shows that the shipment carrying the Regalias and Hauteclere did not make it to TWSITD and said weapons ended up in the hands of the Empire. While some would say TWSITD wouldn’t be dumb enough to give away Holy Weapons, remember these are people who were arrogant enough to try and fight Sothis. From their perspective, they would simply see a group of people offering really powerful weapons with no real requirements and asking for weapons that nobody can make full use of in exchange. Then there is the questionability of TWSITD even having Holy Weapons and to that I say this: The Heroes’ Relic and the Holy Weapons act in such a similar manner that it’s very likely TWSITD found the Holy Weapons, found out what they were and how they worked and figured out they could replicate them if they took the remains of Nabateans and crafted them into weapons. Once they figured out how to do this, the Holy Weapons were just taking up space.

Now that’s only the first piece of evidence but it’s certainly the biggest and one that took time to explain. These next ones will be much simpler and quick.

The second piece of evidence for this theory is the maps of Fodlan and Jugdral. When you compare both maps, they are very similar in shape. Given that we have examples of continents ending up with different names and changing over time, Archanea being Ylisse and Valentia becoming Valm. Given how Jugdral would have an additional 1000 years to change comapared to Valentia and Archanea, it’s possible that Fodlan is Jugdral after that long of a period. The only other thing of note here is how Thracia and Almyra play similar roles for Jugdral and Fodlan. Thracia tries to invade and conquer the Munster District while Almyra tries to invade the Alliance. The difference being Thracia does it due to lack of food while Almyra does so as a show of strength. Not as strong of evidence as the first example but it was still worth mentioning.

The final example is how the Nabateans were created. We know they were created by Sothis via her blood. Now, the first question would be why Sothis did it this way. If this was any world, why not simply have kids the traditional way as we’ve seen with almost all dragons in FE outside a few notable exceptions (Grima and Lilith being such exceptions). Well, playing devils advocate and saying Fodlan is within the world of Archanea, then people would quickly remember a certain issue that plagued dragons alongside the degeneration: their loss in fertility. These two factors are what lead to dragons becoming Manakete and stepping to the side to allow humanity to become the leading race in the world. Given how many crests there is in the game, there simply no plausible way for Sothis to have so many kids and possible descendants unless she went the blood route. Not to mention this explains why none of them are Divine Dragons like Sothis. (Yes the whole debate of if Sothis was a Divine Dragon or not is a thing but given how we’ve seen how dragons like Mila and Naga can not only control the passage of time but repair the lands as Sothis did after the war with TWSITD, it’s more or less pretty open and shut case Sothis is a Divine Dragon).

Now as for how she discovered the whole creating dragons through blood method, there is only one known instant of a dragon being created this way before Sothis: Forneus. What’s even a odder coincidence is how Sitri, Byleth, and Forneus’ names are names of demons in the Ars Goetia. Sitri and Byleth being connected via this piece of trivia makes sense. Forenus, on the other hand, a person who only just got named during SoV’s post game, is something to think about. Regardless, Sothis had to have found out or find something that would give her the idea of creating the Nabateans via her blood somehow and Grima and his creation is a very strong possibility.

Now some might bring up how they’re called Nabateans and not Manaketes or how the Crest Stones are something we’ve never seen before. To answer the Nabatean and Manakete thing, Manaketes are usually referred to as dragons who sealed their draconic powers into dragon stones. The name is likely just to avoid confusion. Ultimately, it’s a name. The core that makes Nabateans the same as dragons is the method of which they transform. We’ve seen how crest stones are integral to this, given what happens to Miklan and other characters that use the crest stones and end up as demonic beasts. We know that the crest stones are quite literally the heart of these dragons. What did dragons do to become Manaketes? They sealed their dragon forms in stones and took a human like form. This is the detail many have missed. Nabateans are not just a different race of dragons. They’re how dragons used to be before they were forced to take on the forms of Manaketes. The entire reason we’ve never seen these crest stones is due to the fact that, in Valentia/Valm and Archanea/Ylisse, dragons have either become Manaketes or they were well respected as to not have their bodies scavenged and turned into weapons.

There are plenty more details I could bring up like Anna’s existing in Genealogy and Thracia, explaining the Anna we see in Three Houses and why she has a crest, and more, I think I’ve made enough points here. Maybe there are details proving this is wrong or something but this post was mostly to bring up a possible idea I don’t think I’ve seen people really touch upon in regards to Three Houses.

#fire emblem #fe three houses #I personally think this is the right answer #There is just too many details linking to Jugdral for it to be just pure inspiration #This took so long to type out

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fe8meta · 7 years ago

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The Sacred Twins and their Mythos

Anyone who looks into the names of FE8′s Sacred Twins will know that all but two of them have basis in Norse mythology. The two outliers, Latona and Excalibur, have basis in Roman and Arthurian legend, respectively. Why? Because they can.

Mind you, even I can’t make much sense behind the names of these Sacred Twins. The only one that makes a margin of sense without heavy extrapolation and theorizing, is a margin of sense that people blow out of proportion in favor of a certain pairing, so that’ll be discussed at the very end of this meta. (Yes, I’m talking about Sieglinde and Siegmund, but the reference is most likely only a surface-deep reference to them being twins and nothing more.)

Excalibur, as many people probably know, is the sword of the legendary King Arthur, after which legends surrounding him are named after. In the Fire Emblem series, FE8 included, Excalibur is... a wind tome. FE8 at least grants it the epithet “wind blade Excalibur” to acknowledge the whole sword part of its original namesake. I don’t know why FE8 reused the name Excalibur, considering it was technically only used in the Archanea games and Gaiden before that; FE7′s Excalibur was named Gigascalibur in the Japanese version.

Latona, meanwhile, is the Roman name for the Greek goddess Leto. For some reason, the writers of FE8 really couldn’t find a Norse name to use for them, I guess. It’s especially odd when one background character, Saaga (the court troubador who inspired L’Arachel to go on her journey), shares the Japanese spelling of their name with Sága... a Norse goddess.

All I’m really gathering, from what I can find about (Roman) Latona, is that (Magvel) Latona was probably foreign to Magvel, and that’s why their name isn’t rooted in Norse mythology. We really can’t even say that Latona was a woman, despite the name’s female origins. The Japanese script didn’t assign Latona a gender, but used 司祭 to talk about Latona. (The word translates to “priest,” specifically Christian priests, who have traditionally been men.) The English script referred to Latona as Rausten’s “most holy father” due to that. There aren’t any references or possible ties to Roman Latona other than the name, so...

For the next several I will talk about, I have come up with a wholly self-indulgent explanation for their names. It probably doesn’t make complete sense, but it's more than the game’s nonexistent reason for the references. The Sacred Twins in question are Nidhogg, Vidofnir, Garm, and Audhulma.

They’re all from Norse mythology, and more specifically, creatures from Norse mythology. My explanation behind their names is that the weapons were used to defeat especially powerful monsters created by the Demon King, then had parts of those monsters forged into those weapons.

(As it so happens, Shadows of Valentia did something similar, with the Blessed weapons being able to be forged into Regalia. I didn’t notice this parallel until after I came up with this explanation, though.)

Nidhogg, the Serpent Bow. In Norse mythology, Nidhogg is indeed recognized as a serpent or dragon. (On that note, the word for “dragon” comes from, at its furthest root, the Greek drakon, which means “serpent.” Dragons were also originally depicted as serpentine creatures before gaining legs and becoming more lizard-like, at least in Western media.) In FE8, dragons gained a weakness to bows. (In the Elibe games, dragons had no such weakness.) So it would be appropriate for the bow that slew Nidhogg to become known as the Serpent (Slaying) Bow. It could also explain why it belongs to Frelia, the country with pegasi—pegasus knights could take the battle to the skies instead of having to remain rooted to the ground the whole while, making the battle against the great monster easier. (FE14 introduced Kinshi Knights, fliers who can use Lances and Bows. Like FE15, it’s giving me some precedence to support my theory.)

As for Vidofnir, it is a rooster in Norse mythology that sits atop Mímameiðr (often taken to be the same as Yggdrasil, the tree whose roots Nidhogg gnaws on). Vidofnir is referred to as the “tree snake,” harking back to serpent symbolism. By stealing Vidofnir’s tail feathers, the giantess Sinmora will grant a person the sword Laevateinn, which can then be used to slay Vidofnir. After doing so, one can take its two wings and serve them to Odin’s hounds, Geri and Freki, to sneak past them. In-game, Vidofnir is referred to as the Winged Lance.

Garm, the Black Axe, is named after the hound that guards Hel’s gate. Garm’s howling heralds the coming of Ragnarok; after Garm’s first howl, Fimbulvetr (the great winter) puts an end to life on earth. (Fimbulvetr, in FE, is a tome that attacks the enemy with a blizzard. Already more accurate to its source than the rest of the Sacred Twins.)

Finally, Audhulma, the Ice Blade. In Norse mythology, Audhulma is a primeval cow who licked an ice block until she unfroze a man named Buri. I have no idea what this means for the FE8 weapon, as Audhulma is not capable of summoning a Fimbulvetr-like attack and only grants a Res boost. It’s further proof that whoever picked out these names probably just skimmed a Japanese book on Norse mythology and went “oh look, there’s an element referenced here, let’s use it.” I mean, the best thing I can say for “why a sword” is that Audhulma was a cow, so the blade was... a glorified butcher knife, I guess?

(When I was discussing this theory with someone else, they mentioned that some of FE8′s monsters could also, at least loosely, tie back to the respective creatures. Necrodragons for Nidhogg, Gargoyles for Vidofnir, Mauthe Doogs for Garm, and Tarvos for Audhulma.)

For some more “shit that just works,” we have the Dark Tome Gleipnir. It’s also from Norse mythology, but it is neither a person nor a creature. Rather, it is the chain that binds Fenrir until Ragnarok. As it so happens, Fenrir is a tome in the game: specifically, it’s used by Lyon in Chapter 17. So there’s a bit of symbolism in Gleipnir being the tome left behind by Lyon, which is then acquired by the heroes in their attempt to stop him and the Demon King.

(As for Naglfar, while I’m at it: in Norse mythology, it’s a boat made by the fingernails and toenails of the dead. Commanded by Loki, it carries the undead on their assault on the gods. As for “why fingernails and toenails,” apparently some Indo-European beliefs state that improperly disposing of hair and nails will “threaten the well-being of” the cosmos. Make of this what you will.)

As for Ivaldi, I genuinely have no clue how its legend is supposed to inspire it. In fact, the character Ivaldi himself is barely referenced in Norse mythology itself, as his name is referenced through his sons, who crafted some cool stuff for Freyr, Odin, and Sif. The closest thing I can dig up regarding Ivaldi’s in-game epithet as the “Glorious Light” is the fact that the Sons of Ivaldi made... golden hair to replace the hair Sif lost to Loki.

Finally, the notorious use of Siegmund and Sieglinde as Renais’ Sacred Twins. In all honesty, they were probably only used because those two characters are twins in Norse mythology, nothing more. I’ve seen claims that the incest between the twins at one point in the legends is “proof” that Eirika/Ephraim is basically canon, but said “evidence” runs into problems.

The first issue is the fact Siegmund and Sieglinde in-game have zero similarities to their legendary selves outside of their names. In lore, Siegmund used a sword, and there is no association with him to fire whatsoever. So how it becomes the Flame Lance in FE8 is a mystery. In fact, fire would be associated more with Sieglinde—who kills herself by burning to death with her husband, Siggeir, as penance for making Siegmund murder her own children and tricking him into an incestuous affair for the sake of revenge. Sieglinde in legend isn’t depicted using a weapon ever, and has absolutely no association with thunder. So her name being attached to the Thunder Sword came out of IntSys’ booty.

The second issue is the implication that the writers actually knew the contents of the legends they were referencing. If they knew what they were doing, they wouldn’t be using Excalibur, Latona, or Ivaldi. Considering that I just came up with my theory for Nidhogg, Vidofnir, Garm, and Audhulma, and there’s no actual in-game basis to suggest any of it, those names may as well have been picked out of a hat too. As mentioned above, IntSys completely made up the Flame Lance and Thunder Sword epithets, and they have no ties whatsoever to Sieglinde or Siegmund’s tale. So there’s no reason to assume that the writers knew, or cared about, any part of the legend outside of “they’re twins.”

Considering all the other Norse references in FE8, the reference to Siegmund and Sieglinde would also be rooted in Norse mythology more than Wagner’s Die Walküre. The Norse version of their story makes the incest a lot less consensual than Wagner’s version; Sieglinde tricks Siegmund into sleeping with her by disguising herself as someone else. Siegmund doesn’t find out until he and their son kill Siggeir. It is then that Sieglinde reveals the truth, and walks into the fire to burn to death as penance for her deeds. Then Siegmund goes and marries another woman. Oh, and before Sieglinde had her affair with Siegmund, she had Siegmund kill the “unworthy sons” she had with Siggeir since they didn’t prove themselves strong enough for the revenge she wanted. It’s because Siegmund refused to keep killing innocent children that she gets desperate enough to sleep with him. Eugenics, I guess. So the whole “Siegmund and Sieglinde are incestuous twins” thing is a lot more complicated than just that.

TL;DR: The names behind Magvel’s Sacred Twins basically have no connection to their namesakes at all.

#FE8 #magvel #worldbuilding meta #renais #frelia #jehanna #rausten #grado

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crocobae · 6 years ago

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starting to wonder how much a +Spd buff on Lilina would help... L Azura aside, if I had fodder for Spd Tactic or maybe Joint Hone Spd, I need to look into how much more a 36/37 spd Lilina can start doubling or avoid doubles, specifically from threats she can't OHKO with Glimmer bombs

#kev plays fire emblem heroes #no time to theory craft rn but wondering if Joint Hone Spd would be better on Lili than Atk Smoke #ofc this is assuming i GET the fodder to begin with (bc there's no way I'm keeping NY Gunnthra or Hrid if I get them)#but Hone Atk 4 would probably go to L Azura so that's moot here

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lightdark18-blog · 8 years ago

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How to Fix RWBY Volume 4

I can’t bring myself to say I hate this volume. But I can’t bring myself to say it was fantastic either. After the drama of V3, it felt good to relax a little bit on the plot and attempt to balance world-building and character development to set up for later, bigger events in the story. However, as it much as it seems like I’m playing a broken record by saying this, the idea of segmenting all of Team RWBY’s individual subplots in a relatively short show like RWBY may work on paper, but it requires very fast pacing and extremely powerful scenes, something which this volume seemed to lack. Thus, I will talk about how V4 could have been improved to give it much better character development and an overall more exciting narrative.

Disclaimers: I will be structuring my arguments into individual sections in the following order: Team RNJR, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Oscar, Team WTCH, and Other Improvements. You can scroll down to whichever one you’d like, or you could read the whole thing. I will be talking about everything, including the finale, so if you haven’t finished the volume, you might want to do that. Spoilers will be flying. I won’t be touching World of Remnant, because that isn’t really part of the story as it is exposition (personally, I think it’s stupid that Miles and Kerry need to resort to exposition episodes rather than working the exposition directly into the plot, but whatever). Also, I won’t be addressing ship concerns. I mean, Renora is canon this volume, what more do you want?

Thus, without further ado, let’s begin this shitpost!

Team RNJR:

Explain why the team walked rather than taking trains. It’s great that all of Team RWBY will reunite at Mistral, and I will praise the volume for its pacing in this regard. However, the fact remains that RNJR could have gotten there much faster had they taken a train like Oscar did. Would it cut out a lot of RNJR’s tension this volume? Yes, unless you have Tyrian hijack the train, forcing RNJR to flee (maybe jump off the train, I don’t know) and walk the rest of the way. This would not account for 6 to 8 months’ worth of travel, but that flaw hurts the entire volume more than RNJR itself.

Ren talks too much. I’m a writer. It is very hard to write character development for a silent character, but it can be done. It just takes skill and delicate dialogue crafting. I don’t think Miles and Kerry understand this, and I have a few reasons why In Volume 3, Ren was relevant in the first couple episodes, where he would make constant remarks about Nora’s vomit comment in Episode 1, take an active part in JNPR’s strategies before their Episode 2 fight, and make sarcastic remarks when Jaune was strategizing (Jaune: “Ren, take out the sniper!”, Ren: “Sure, why not?”) All of this feels out of character. Fast forward to V4, where Ren becomes relevant, and they constantly have him give commentary on fights, argues with Nora about the team name, talks to a dying villager, etc. I’m not saying that silent characters don’t interact with people (I’m an introvert, so I know this for a fact), but Ren’s place in the story felt extremely deviant from the first to volumes. At the end of the day, once Kuroyuri comes, the sudden care and outbursts that Ren has towards the Nuckelavee and his home village should have been a drastic character change that the audience would have noticed and praised, but Ren’s overbearing role in the volume just ruins the impact of the character change.

Making Jaune the strategist is fine. Stealing time away from Ruby is not. Many people have already commented on this, so I’ll be brief. Jaune is on a good path to becoming the paladin of this show: the Lawful Good character that starts off shit-tier, but grows through his many experiences to become one of the show’s greatest characters. Think Donnel from Fire Emblem: Awakening. I’m excited for this change, and I’m even fine with his skepticism towards Qrow and how Pyrrha had to choose her role as a maiden. However, Ruby takes a back seat to all this development. Miles and Kerry keep her optimistic, naïve attitude for the sake of consistency, but at the expense of giving her development. Had she not read aloud her letter to Yang, I think Jaune would have had more lines than Ruby. And if there is anything that any story should NEVER do, it is keep attention away from the hero of the story. If Ruby is the main character, make her act like it. Have her learn new battle strategies. Make her use her new electricity and fire bullets more. Rewrite the fights to force Ruby to fight alone at times. Have her give feedback on what she thought of Tyrian, or Salem. Have her give feedback on Kuroyuri. ANYTHING to give Ruby more relevance this volume than just dragging her along for the ride. I hope that V5 goes better for giving Ruby screen time, because this volume did not.

Don’t drop Pyrrha’s attempt at communicating. Episode 2 felt strong in the regard that Pyrrha was attempting to communicate with Ruby (somehow), and I felt that this would come in handy in the finale fight. Guess what? It didn’t. Not once was it ever relevant again. And all it did was wake Ruby up to see Jaune training, which felt like a much better way to put Pyrrha in the volume. I like to think that Pyrrha turning into dust reflects how Ul in Fairy Tail became water, and communicated with Ultear on Tenrou Island by showing her memories (sorry to all who haven’t watched Fairy Tail because you won’t get this at all). Pyrrha’s soul is still alive somewhere in a dust form, and is attempting to tell Ruby something. If you want to use this, save it for a later volume. I guarantee that because RWBY has such a large gap between seasons, only hardcore fans will remember any of Pyrrha’s communication come V5.

Give the Bandits a role. I never saw one bandit this entire volume (no, I don’t count Raven). This would have been a PERFECT time to introduce them, especially since they were mentioned in Episode 2 after they attacked Shion Village. Nope. However, I do have a good way on how to introduce them in a later point (see Yang).

Give us Jaune’s semblance. Seriously. The new sword felt extremely underwhelming. I would rather see his semblance than a sword sheath that gives his sword a little extra cutting power (which never even proved that relevant in the Nuckelavee fight).

Explain why Tyrian is interested in Jaune. Is it because of Pyrrha? Is it because of his character? Is it because he could be the paladin that kills Salem at the end of the show, only for Raven to be revealed as the show’s final antagonist (look, that’s just my theory)? Beats me, because Jaune nor Tyrian (when he’s crying like a bitch to Salem) never bring it up again.

Shame how a stupid reaction shot allowed Qrow to be poisoned. When I was watching the Qrow vs. Tyrian fight, I had very little problems with it. Right up until Qrow cut the wooden board that was going to crush Ruby (a clever instance of his bad luck semblance). Let me explain my reaction:

Qrow: *cuts board*

Me: K.

Ruby: *smiles at Qrow*

Me: You realize that there’s a psychotic scorpion Faunus that could literally poison any of you since you’re both low on aura, right? Maybe you ought to turn back to hi-

Qrow: *smiles at Ruby*

Me: DUDE WTF YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE FIGHTI-

Qrow: Aaah! *gets stung*

Me: *insert Michael Rage Quit dialogue here*

Explain how Ruby was able to cut off Tyrian’s stinger. So, Tyrian’s stinger could block Nora’s fully-charged hammer, Ruby’s scope bullets (even without him seeing their trajectory), and various other attacks, but all Ruby has to do is shoot him while his guard is down? Is this that “don’t let your guard down” BS that Goku suffered from in Resurrection F? Is Aura like Nen in Hunter x Hunter, and you have to force it to a specific point to block, else your limb is coming off? It makes no sense, even if Tyrian screaming “You BITCH!” is hilarious.

Tyrian should have been captured. I’ll talk later about how Monty warned against team fighting, and how RT refuses to follow his advice by choreographing bad teamwork fights, but why didn’t Ren and Nora, maybe even Ruby, go after him? He was low on aura. He could have been captured and questioned. Hell, some RWDE critics preferred that the Tyrian fight occur in a forest so Tyrian could have legitimately gotten away. Why not that?

The Relics are DUMB. D. U. M. B. Welp, Miles and Kerry just retconned Torchwick stealing all the dust again in V2, didn’t they? I was 100% sure at the end of V3 that Salem’s plan was to amount enough dust to infuse it into her body and become some sort of Dust God (which falls in line with the dust exposition in Volumes 1 and 2), and terror through attacking the schools was the only way to eliminate any threats in her way. Nope. Now we have out-of-place Relic bullshit that I’m certain Miles and Kerry just pulled out of their asses after Monty died and the holes in the story he planned began to surface. Shane’s letter suggested to me that RT wanted to take RWBY in their own direction, and retconning even the basic exposition of the OPENING EPISODE of the series just feels desperate. Stop taking our attention away from Dust, Aura, Semblance, and any of the other unique elements that make up the story. If you want to make a mythology, put in in place either at the beginning of the story, or in line with the past exposition. Miles and Kerry did neither. What’s next? By the end of the summer, a comet will arrive and give the Maidens unbelievable strength, and Salem plans to manipulate them to finish the war once and for all?

Explain why Qrow is a teacher. Qrow’s semblance is fine…except for the fact that V1, E1 stated that Qrow was a teacher. Why would Qrow be a teacher if he instigates bad luck onto his students? Wouldn’t he get like a 1.0 on RateMyProfessor? Or is this just another retcon?

“Don’t you know, you never split the party?” I don’t have too much of an argument for this, for RNJR splitting up to both Kuroyuri and Mistral sounds okay, but doesn’t that make both parties extremely vulnerable to large-scale Grimm attacks? Thank the two gods the Nuckelavee needed to wait for the plot to bring RNJR back together before it attacked, else we could be having one or two more Pyrrha’s on our hands.

Everything about Kuroyuri is fine, but it’s in the wrong volume. I like the Kuroyuri mini-arc, as well as Ren and Nora’s development, but let’s be honest. This volume is supposed about Team RWBY’s development. Cut Kuroyuri from this volume and give more screen time to Weiss, Yang, Blake, or literally anyone else. Kuroyuri isn’t far from Mistral, so it might’ve worked better as a mid-season finale for V5. Maybe. Eh.

Mistral airships giving RNJR a lift is just plot-convenient BS. “Lol bro we saw da smoke n we thot someone wus smoking weed and we wnted to buy a few grams”. At least that would have been kind of funny. But no. Mistral helicopters should not have been able to see the Grimm smoke, and immediately drop everything to show up at Kuroyuri, where they rescue COMPLETE STRANGERS to invite them to the kingdom. BS.

Weiss:

Explain Whitley and Weiss’ mother. Contrary to popular opinion, I like Jacques. He is certainly the “Rich Asshole Type A: the Overprotective/Abusive Father” character, but at least his devotion to maintain his rich and comfortable lifestyle falls in line with the absolute power dynamic that Atlas was established to have (I could even talk about how this reflects real-world politics right now, but I won’t). Whitley never felt necessary to introduce to the plot: all he did was go down on Jacques or criticize Weiss. I have a good way on how to make him relevant on a later point. Also, Weiss’ mother was mentioned once, “drinking in the garden”. You know what the powerful girl vs. refrained mother conflict reminds me of? Kallen from Code Geass. Did that show handle the conflict well? Yes. Could RWBY handle it well? Probably. Did it even try? No.

Explain Klein. Not a big issue, but what is up with Klein’s different personalities? Is this a reference to Launch from Dragon Ball with his sneezing, or does he have legitimate dissociative identity disorder? Considering that Klein probably won’t ever be relevant again, I don’t think we’ll get the answer, even though I wish we could. If J. Michael Tatum was hired to play a butler, his most famous role in his career (Sebastian from Black Butler), make him interesting.

Weiss’ song was beautiful, but I still have a couple issues. First, Casey Lee singing as Weiss just looks and sounds off. I know they didn’t have much choice, but maybe they could have had Kara Eberle sing it and heavily edit her vocals. Or maybe she has a naturally beautiful singing voice, I don’t know. Also, this song tends to have even less subtle lyrics than most of the RWBY songs so far. This is entirely a “daddy issue” song. Make it a bit more powerful by showing some of Weiss’ positive personality traits in the lyrics.

Henry Marigold’s role in the story is just too unclear. When you give a character a first and last name, HE/SHE SHOULD BE RELEVANT. Miles and Kerry did not follow through on this with the minor characters of Volume 3, and I doubt they will ever mention Henry again. Then again, that’s fine, even though he could’ve represented the youthful perception of Atlas’ place in the world that reflects the ego of Atlas’ parental and corporate figures which Weiss is precisely trying to fight in her character arc. But hey, what do I know?

This whole “rich people are snobs” shtick is just cliché. It makes logical sense for Atlas to have this mindset (absolute power corrupts absolutely), but it’s too cliché to consider interesting. Give it a twist. Maybe they want to gain control of the kingdom defenses in the rest of Remnant by using Veil and the Fall of Beacon as an excuse to supply better defenses.

Weiss’ rebellion feels weak, as well as her anticlimactic Summoning. Weiss summons a boar about to murder Rich Asshole Type B: the Complete Bitch? Ironwood ex machina, and Weiss never mentions her feelings about her uncontrollable summoning. Jacques locks her in her room and strips her of her heiress title? Cry for 5 seconds, and rebel by messing up the room. Weiss training to regain her skills as a Huntress and protect the friends she holds dear? Master her summoning by creating the knight in the White Trailer on a much smaller scale, and have it accomplish absolutely nothing except break a window (which was a result of the summoning, not the knight breaking the window itself). Some of my friends wanted her to summon a Nevermore, which would’ve been cool. But no.

Jacques should have noticed, or heard about, Weiss breaking the window. Surely someone from the garden must have seen or heard the window breaking, and informed Jacques about it. Wouldn’t that have actually given Jacques a role in preventing Weiss’ escape? Wouldn’t Klein be one of the last people to see or hear the window breaking?

Weiss fleeing Atlas should have been completely rewritten. Weiss should have just ridden the Knight, smash through the garden, grab her mother (yes, more Code Geass references), and hop on a ship to Mistral, while using her rapier to summon and prevent any attacks by the Atlas military. But if this isn’t plausible, this is another option. Flee with Klein as usual, but after she locks Ironwood and Jacques in, Ironwood should break the door down (he’s a freaking metal man, he should be able to do it), and Jacques should alert the entire estate to find the sabotager. He should find Weiss’s room empty, and alert Whitley. Then, in the library, reveal that Whitley is a Hunter. Have him incapacitate Klein and fight Weiss, with her fleeing on the airship. Let me explain why this is good in the next point.

Give us foreshadowing into whether Jacques or Whitley will be relevant in V5, for they’re on a time limit. Ironwood has basically given Atlas an ultimatum: Atlas borders will be closing at the start of next week. This means that if any character from Atlas in V4 is to be relevant in a later volume, they need to leave. NOW. Jacques probably won’t so he can run the company, but Whitley, who could now be revealed to be a Hunter, can legitimately go after and stop Weiss at Mistral. Or have Whitley inherit the company immediately and have Jacques go after Weiss. Make someone important.

Blake:

Explain what Blake was doing for the last 6-8 months. So, six to eight months after the Fall of Beacon, Blake just NOW decides to go to Menagerie? What was she doing throughout all that time? Hiding? Contemplating? Getting her new outfit? Explain.

Sun following Blake is really OOC. Alright, let me get this out of the way right now. The FNDM is blowing this way out of proportion, especially once you factor in Black Sun and Bumblebee shippers. It is certainly out of character for Sun to follow Blake silently, and he should have just been open about it to find out why she fled Ruby and Yang in the first place, but it isn’t THAT big of a deal. End of story.

COMPLETELY change Blake’s family arc. Volume 2 convinced me that Blake was born into the White Fang, grew up in the streets, and had little actual freedom until she ran away from Adam in the Black Trailer. Therefore, giving Blake a family who is practically royalty in Menagerie is retconning at its finest. Plus, what does it prove? That Blake regrets her time in the White Fang after leaving her family like a child? Says more about her than it does the morality, or immorality, of the White Fang, which is exactly what Blake wants to challenge in V5. Have her find that her family is dead. Find some old friends of hers that left the White Fang. Put the good side of the White Fang front and center to make me care more about her fighting Adam. She has two grudges against Adam now: ruining the White Fang’s moral high ground, and disARMing Yang. Give me a better reason to see her fighting these grudges instead of “it sounds okay to the audience”. Blake proving that the Faunus are equal citizens is one of the show’s strongest potential plot points, so capitalize on it.

This Sun comic relief isn’t comical. Not much else you can do except avoid the cringy writing. Sun’s “just hanging around” pun and breaking in to Blake’s conversation with her dad are two good examples.

I get that Adam is too far away from Menagerie to be relevant in this volume, but Ilia is pointless. Who is Ilia? Why do I care? Why can’t we give Adam some screen time to see him going to Menagerie or Mistral? Is Ilia even that important? Was she an old friend of Blake that used to support the morally good White Fang? If so, why did she stop? If not, why is she relevant? Miles and Kerry, please make us care if you are introducing her so late in the volume.

Sun’s heart wound was dropped too quickly. Seriously, is Aura like Nen in Hunter x Hunter? Sun should not have run out of Aura, unless his multiple copies consumed all of it, which didn’t seem clear. Besides, even if I accepted the wound, Blake’s reaction to Sun’s potential death was honestly too good to waste on a wound that doesn’t even seem that bad in the long run. Unless Sun’s wound hurts his fighting in V5, it seems pointless.

Yang:

Yang’s PTSD is very underdeveloped. I was fine with Yang’s broken glass and nightmare-induced PTSD right up until the show dropped it entirely once she put the arm on. That is not how PTSD works. It should continue to haunt her for years, maybe even until she dies (hopefully not during the show, I love Yang too much). Keep her having PTSD symptoms with the arm on. Hell, especially with the arm constantly reminding her of Adam.

If Port and Oobleck are in this volume, we should learn more about the other teams. Do…none of the other characters in V3 matter? If Port and Oobleck matter to Taiyang, and Glenda is shown to be constantly working, then what about Team CFVY? Or the rest of Team SSSN? Or Team CRDL? Or, literally anyone else? Show us what they are doing, albeit briefly. The more they continue to not be relevant in the show, the more I believe that the tournament was a waste of time.

Yang gets used to the robot arm too quickly. Qrow is voiced by this random guy named Vic Mignogna, who, I don’t know, just happened to voice this character called Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist and Brotherhood, one of the greatest anime franchises of all time. And, not that this is related or anything, Edward just happened to have his arm lost and got a mechanical arm that took him a year to master, which was far shorter than the expected length for a normal person. It involves sensitive nerve connections to allow alchemy to be performed. So, how can Yang master it in a matter of weeks, if that? I know that they are two different universes, and I am not educated on robotic arms in the real world, but it should take more than a few weeks to master.

Stop beating around the bush with Raven. So, Raven leads the bandits. Cool. She has family issues. Fine. So, why doesn’t the show capitalize on this? If Yang finds Raven, then what? What does that mean for both if they interact? I feel like the only reason that Yang chose Ruby over Raven was because she realized that her immediate family matters more, which invalidates Raven’s role in the show completely. And before you say “but she is against Salem”, there is nothing that she has physically done to perform this goal, besides forcing Neo to flee. If you want to give Raven a role, give her a more concrete role independent of her mommy issues with Yang.

The show needs to earn “Armed and Ready” with a climactic Yang fight with some Grimm or bandits or rogue White Fang members. “Armed and Ready” is easily the best song that the Williams family has ever done (that opening guitar is downright orgasmic), but Yang has done nothing to fight her PTSD besides training with Taiyang. That does not convince me that she is ready to kick Adam’s ass. Give her a fight towards the end of the volume and have it be the finale fight rather than RNJR vs. the Nuckelavee. Fight some Grimm as a metaphor for overcoming her negative emotions while simultaneously still harboring her PTSD. Have her fight some bandits to introduce them to the story. Have her fight some White Fang members to prove her change in strength since Volume 2. Bonus points if you have her drive on her motorcycle while fighting (just so I can make an AMV with some Initial D themes, probably Running in the 90s).

Oscar:

Cut out his scene in Episode 1. That scene communicates to the audience that Oscar is related to Salem’s antics (by waking up from a nightmare after the opening scene) and he works on a farm. You want to know what does that? The very next scene he is in a few episodes later. Save some money and cut his first scene.

Give us some of Oscar’s own backstory, or individual character. If you introduce a character only for the sake of keeping a previous character relevant, it doesn’t make me sympathize with the new character. The ending scene with Oscar receiving Ozpin’s cane from Qrow sounds promising to give Oscar some development, but not giving him a backstory or why he works on a farm, or even why he just leaves so easily to head to Mistral. He is obviously the Dorothy character in the show (to keep the Wizard of Oz character metaphors going), and Dorothy had a backstory, however brief it was. Give Oscar one.

Ozpin/Oscar is driving the plot now. None of that. When Qrow is asked what Team RNJR should do now that they know about the relics, he literally responds with “I don’t know”. If that doesn’t sum up how irrelevant Ruby is, I don’t know what will. To put icing on the cake, Qrow says that they should put their faith in Ozpin to make up a plan. That means that even if Ruby dies, the only disadvantage that the characters have is that they lose the silver-eyed Super Saiyan (sorry Yang, but Ruby fits that bill better). I’ll talk about the Silver Eyes later, but my point is that Ozpin, regardless if he is the elder, should not drive the plot now. Otherwise, Oscar should be the main character. If he is the Dorothy of this show, that possibility is not too far off, unfortunately.

Team WTCH:

Give Mercury and Emerald more screentime. They were the ENTIRE REASON that Cinder could execute the Fall of Beacon. Now, Miles and Kerry have introduced new villains so fast that there is no time to give Emerald and Mercury any relevance. Emerald is merely a translator, and Mercury does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Have them go out and fight Team RWBY or RNJR. Hell, maybe even have them fight Yang in that hypothetical finale I talked about earlier. After all, Yang does have a grudge against both, even if she doesn’t know it yet.

Flesh out the other villains beside Tyrian and Cinder. They’re obviously being saved for later volumes, which is fine, by introducing them in Episode 1 only for each to have one or two more appearances in the rest of the volume feels out of place.

Make Tyrian cold rather than crazy. He’s a scorpion. Not a monkey (that’s Sun’s specialty). People pointed out that he sits like L from Death Note in his opening scene in the dining room (I think that’s what it is), and L was extremely cold and calculating. Make him like that. I’ll take intimidating cold villain over batshit crazy villain any day.

Explain about what happened at Beacon when Ruby unleashed the Silver Eyes. I have many questions. First, how did Cinder get out of there? Did Salem rescue her after she was frozen, or was she never frozen at all and just lost her eye? If not, why did the Grimm Dragon freeze (or is this just some sort of Portal talk in Fullmetal Alchemist where he takes something precious from each person, Cinder her eye that sees her future, and the dragon its ability to fly)? Why has Ruby never mentioned her silver eyes in the ENTIRE volume? Can she induce it under extreme pressure like the Avatar State, but it comes with a horrible cost? Or are Miles and Kerry just retconning all of it until a later volume, when whatever is relevant will just show up? I was looking forward to finding out exactly what happened to Cinder and Beacon, as well as Ruby wrestling with her new abilities. The former was only half developed, and the latter was never mentioned.

Explain why Team WTCH is only now acting 6-8 months after the Fall of Beacon. Tyrian has been looking for the Spring Maiden, and Cinder is undergoing treatment, but what has everyone else been doing? Reading Ninjas in Love alone in their rooms?

Is Cinder…afraid of Tyrian? If so, go into it more. Seeing Tyrian going insane against the Beowulf just felt satisfying to watch (albeit terrifying and stupid since the Beowulf should have disintegrated into dust after the first few stabs). However, Cinder being terrified by Tyrian’s reaction felt even more interesting to see. Maybe Cinder should have had a short PTSD-like flashback to an event from her past.

General Improvements:

Stop hiring so many professional voice actors. Look, I love Funimation. I love Team Four Star. But hiring so many professional voice actors to voice both one-shot and major characters just comes across as corporate money-hogging. RT should have more confidence in its own voice cast, not to mention that the voice acting feels wildly inconsistent, putting professionals on the same level as amateurs. I was fine when they nabbed Vic for Qrow, but this is just pandering.

Improve the fight scenes with Monty’s advice. Remember when Monty said that “you should utilize motion in a way that doesn’t waste movement?” Tell that to the animators that love to swing Crescent Rose around pointlessly during Ruby’s fight scenes. Don’t believe me? Check Episode 7 when she climbs to the rooftop to set up her scope against Tyrian. Also, remember when Monty said that “in team fights, get rid of as many people as quickly as possible?” RT should’ve taken his advice, for Team RNJR vs. Tyrian in Episode 6 was complete garbage, where everyone was standing around too much while Tyrian was fighting 1v1 or 1v2 instead of 1v4. Don’t believe me? Nora got hit with Ruby’s bullet, and stood there for 20 SECONDS while no one did anything else to distract Tyrian from Nora’s charging. I’m not saying that the fight scenes were overall bad in this volume (Qrow vs. Tyrian is my favorite fight in Volume 4 just how Qrow vs. Winter was in Volume 3), but they still need work. No one will be able to animate like Monty, but flash animation can always improve, and “keep moving forward”.

Give the Williams family more songs. The RWBY V4 soundtrack will be good. I guarantee it. I just wish we could have a couple more songs.

Keeping Pyrrha and Glynda in Poser but the rest of the show in Maya just looks awkward. I know it would cost more money to convert both Pyrrha’s recording and Glynda fixing the building on Yang’s TV from Poser Pro to Maya, but it would just look better. Plus, I really want to see Pyrrha’s new model in Maya. Maybe they’re just keeping it once Pyrrha comes back in a later volume (a man can dream, right?).

The show needs to make up its mind about religion. Qrow in V3: “Not many people are super religious these days.”

Captain in V4 E3: “By the gods!” (nice foreshadowing btw)

Qrow: *proceeds to talk about an entire religious mythology that will take the forefront of RWBY’s main conflict*

Me: wut

The sexual references are starting. And I hate them. Blake’s dad calling her clothing too revealing, and Nora telling Ren not to look up her skirt. Unless you’re Evangelion and subverting common fan-service tropes, you don’t have the right to being them into RWBY, especially since Monty was very avid in Volume 1 interviews about shying away from showing the girls in upskirt/sexual scenarios.

Talk about the moon. Qrow looked up at the moon during his talk with RNJR about the relics. Might want to explain why after four volumes of complete silence about it.

Where’s Neo? Is she alive? Dead? Relevant? Irrelevant? Why didn’t she fight Yang in my hypothetical finale? Has she been looking for Torchwick, not knowing that he’s dead? A mute character like her just has too many interesting scenarios for her to be completely dropped.

And that’s it. Thank you to all those who have sat through this 5,400-word post. In the end, there were many things I liked about Volume 4, like how the Nuckelavee was terrifying, and how Qrow’s poisoning was handled, with everyone on the edge of their seats on whether Qrow would die. I just wish it lived up to all the hype that we gave it. Oh well. Cheers to a good Volume 5 in Mistral, the most Omashu-looking city I’ve ever seen (when will this show stop ripping off of Avatar).

#rwby #rwby4 #rwby volume 4 #rwde #slight rwde #not really sure what to call this mess

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