#is because the laguz made him feel like he wasn't a person

[shiina-a]

I know that the headcanon of Soren being the one pining is very popular, but I personally think that it's not like that at all.

Ike said it himself, Soren is great at everything but at reading his own feelings, so I genuinely don't think he knows he loves Ike romantically simply because I don't think he has ever thought about that possibility himself. He probably just knows that Ike's presence makes him feel at ease and that he wants to be with him forever but since he just doesn't have a good graps of how emotions are he simply doesn't dwell on them too much.

The other reason why I think it is that he never seems upset about people flirting with Ike, he even gives actual tips to Aimee and only interferes when Ike is about to get in real trouble. He doesn't get upset at Ranulf, who is Ike's other love interest either, and his biggest conflict regarding Ike in RD is that he's going to die first and that's pretty much all.

Now, this is why their post-canon dynamic interests me so much, because Ike DEFINITELY knows that he loves Soren after base conversation 5, that bit about him realizing why Soren was so dear to him clearly references a classical "oh" moment and this solidifies when you hear him talk about love to Ashera.

So Ike, who is also a person who doesn't dwell on his feelings often, is stuck with someone who is completely oblivious to any emotion of his unless it's something as simple as happy/sad/angry/scared and even then he constantly dismisses those feelings. It's so funny, I was going to say may god bless his soul but he kinda stabbed her and ended the age of the gods in Tellius

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

I love this because it shows just how chilled out Shinon has become in ~three years.

He used to have an ego. He used to say things with the implication that he was such a good shot that people had to respect him. He acted like he was above everyone else. That wasn't all there was to him, no, and he definitely still had a gentle side... but to get to that gentle side you needed to wade through all the walls he hid behind.

By RD he still knows his worth, but he's not as in people's faces about it. He doesn't really care for being complimented like that anymore. He doesn't want nor expect people to suck up to him. Rolf genuinely believes he's "the best" etc, but in RD Shinon just think it sounds a bit over the top.

He went from nudging others about his worth and being egotistical about it to not wanting someone to fawn over him/his capabilities. He thinks someone fawning over him/his capabilities that much is exaggerating and is, essentially, over the top.

In RD, people don't owe him anything. He's there to help and tends to keep quiet about assisting anyone. That's in stark bitch ass contrast to how he used to be.

He doesn't care about compliments or people knowing any goodwill of his. He's not looking for acknowledgement. He's comfortable with who he is and who he's with.

In PoR he has more complicated feelings toward being a mercenary, believing that betrayal was always a possibility in that life. It definitely kept him from truly being comfortable with everyone and viewing them as family. It definitely made him keep them at arm's length.

In RD he doesn't care about that anymore. He wants to be with them, knows that and he doesn't make excuses anymore. He does things in secret to help them, whereas three, four years ago he would've done it and expected thanks and validation.

He goes where they go, sticks with them, and the concept of betrayal due to the mercenary business never even crosses his mind again. By RD he's fully accepted himself as one of them and never considers changing his alignment based on financial benefit or position. Even while still struggling to accept laguz, he went with everyone else even when given the blatant choice not to go to aid the Laguz Alliance.

It doesn't matter where he is, as long as he's with the Greil Mercenaries. He doesn't seek validation anymore because he's comfortable with who he is and where he is. He doesn't need to put up a front anymore to protect himself. He doesn't need to wonder why these people rely on him and think it's useless to form bonds because they may one day be broken. He never attempts nor even thinks about trying to break those bonds in RD. He's calm, relaxed, and overall happy with where he is in life now.

In PoR he doesn't want to get close to anyone. He essentially expects to live his life alone, just surviving and not forming permanent connections. In RD he's accepted that these are his people and they are his permanent connections. He knows that he's not living for just himself anymore and that he can trust other people. He's not living just for survival anymore, so all those tough exteriors have fallen.

Instead he's much more upfront and honest and doesn't make excuses for trying to be nice. Before, he would've thought being nice could be seen as a weakness. That being nice might make him fall victim to caring about others and ending up hurt later. Now he knows it's not a weakness. Now he knows he can be good and do good without being hurt later. He doesn't need to force himself to be emotionally alone.

In PoR in his supports with Rolf, he struggles with saying things that prove any goodwill from him. He struggles with the idea that someone might think he's a kind person. In RD he doesn't hide what he does for others quite as deeply. It's not hidden behind a wall of bravado that he thinks makes him feel tougher. He doesn't care about looking tough anymore. He can just live now.

I love his development and it's so extensive. I feel like he's even lucky, because a lot of side characters don't get the depth of development he got. Main characters, yes. Side characters, not really. They have growth in their supports and whatnot, but some of them overall gave exactly the same vibes in both games. Shinon feels like he's become more comfortable and peaceful and can finally accept himself for who he is.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Because of your polls, I've been comparing what I like about the PoR sprites vs. the RD ones. I like the RD art style better, I think, because it seems more fluid and polished, but seeing the sprites side by side, the PoR ones have a whole lot more personality. Like Sanaki, for example. Radiant Dawn she looks kind of blank, but in Path of Radiance she looks like a smug mischief maker. What do you think?

That's cool to hear! It's something I had been doing/thinking of, which is why I started making polls. I'd been wondering how other people saw the designs as someone who prefers Ranger Ike's design the most out of all his designs. I had a feeling his RD Hero and PoR Lord designs would be more popular, but that's why I was curious. Seeing people's tags has been helpful too!

I do agree that PoR's designs look a lot more colorful and lively. They have a lot more personality and individuality. RD's designs are definitely more polished and you can see that extremely well in the armor shading. A lot of PoR's shading just looks like a solid color slapped on to make up for shading. I don't totally mind it because it feels like a stylistic choice too, but you can tell there was a lot of improvement between the games.

In some cases I think the designs for RD were handled perfectly, like you mentioned Sanaki. I think her design in RD actually makes her look more grown and mature, which reflects her character. Then you have like, Tanith where you get basically nothing out of her design as far as character, and it's more at that point whether or not you prefer the image itself.

Like for me I love both of Shinon's designs, but his PoR design reflects his personality in that game perfectly imo, and then his RD design does imo actually reflect that he's matured and chilled out a whole lot. He still retains a lot of the same traits in his appearance as far as being able to match it to his character/personality, but you can also see character growth imo in a lot of the RD portraits.

RD definitely made a lot of the characters look more generic compared to PoR's style, but I always wondered if that was intentional. In RD everything is a lot more serious immediately. From start to finish, RD has a much darker undertone. All the designs look more mature. Gatrie for example seems like "the same guy" but less carefree/casual.

Haar seems like he takes his job a little more seriously and has grown from his experiences, but you can also tell he's the same guy as in PoR. Naesala is extremely similar to Haar in that you can kind of feel his growth in his design. You can still feel the same core character and see that some things are the same, but you can also see the changes in their personality without having to directly see their dialogue yet.

It's also pretty interesting for me how extreme Ike's design changes are from Ranger to Vanguard. I do genuinely get the feeling that he really did not want to lead an army again. He wasn't going to be mean to Sanaki about it, but he made it clear he didn't actually want anything to do with that. He took on a job for Ranulf because they were close friends, but he didn't intend for everything to turn out the way it did and end up leading a whole army again. Since he was only a hired sword for the Laguz Alliance, that kind of pressure wasn't there.

You can see maturity in his design, and he's grown and takes things more seriously (seriously as in, for instance, he's less emotional in RD, as if both growing up and all the warring has given him a thicker skin. He's not as prone to emotional outbursts, which he had a fair chunk of in PoR). You can tell you're not following the story of a 17 year old anymore.

Comparing his Hero portrait to his Vanguard portrait, he genuinely just looks tired. Like so much has happened since the prologue of PoR and he's been through so much emotional weight that it's taken a huge toll on him. Tbh, I don't really blame him for his ending. He tried to return to a regular mercenary life and ended up going through the same shit all over again, except like, ten times worse basically with humanity almost ending.

Things were going fine when he took the job for the Laguz Alliance originally, but I think ending up in a continent wide mess was too much for him. Both in his dialogue and in his portrait, I feel like that really shows. Something people who hated his ending seem to forget is that he was only in his early 20s when that happened, and it was the second time he'd been thrown into a war as the army commander when he was openly against being in that role.

I know it might sound a bit wild to say all that just from designs, but I really do see it that way when it comes to the differences in the designs between the games. I can't look at some of them and see the exact same characterization. When I look at Reyson I see a more mature, relaxed, less hateful person. His portrait in PoR is much more upright in posture, and he has a much more proud overall atmosphere to his design. In RD it's more serene and like he doesn't feel the need to put on that front anymore. Tibarn meanwhile looks more serious, as if to reflect not his character which is overall the same, but the gravity of the war and his position in it (which is, in his personal case, a pretty big deal considering what happened to Phoenicis).

I also think PoR did a perfect job at looking colorful and fun without being over the top. One of the biggest issues people seem to have with Engage is the designs, and I can understand that because I think they are a little too colorful in that they pop out too much and seem mismatched in a way. I've always loved looking at the Greil Mercenaries' designs as a whole because I'm always like "I love them, they're so colorful!", but with Engage it feels more... distracting? PoR's colors feel like a perfect mix of fun but not hard on the eyes and too distracting from the game. I think it's also because it's a VTuber style due to the artist being a VTube artist or some such, versus a more traditional RPG style.

I pretty much agree with you about how you feel about both art styles, and I don't really have a definitive "I like this one more" either. Some I prefer in PoR's style and some I prefer in RD's style.

or you could just say for rd's style that they've all seen some shit and that about perfectly sums up why they all look so dead inside