#jedah is really bad at being an emperor

[pieman1112]

Life can be quite unexpected and by making just one different choice when it counted can make long lasting chances for better and for worse. As Countess Josephine was cleaning her grandparents’ grave nearby her grandfather’s old manor, she updated her family about the events that happened. “Who would have thought an annoying voice in my head telling me to ‘Get Rinea and Berkut out of the tower’ would change my life so much. Did you know I actually saved Rinea? I also saved Berkut but he was not too happy being carried by Hunter. The look on Fernand’s face as we ran out of there was hilarious, but one yell from me got him moving as well.” She gave a small chuckle. “When we got outside Alm and his friends were so shocked but then those terrors showed up so we had to battle them first. Hunter took those terrors down with no problem and Alm and his friends were happy we weren’t trying to fight them. I did get to talk to them and had Hunter join the deliverance to defeat Jedah. Berkut was not happy about this at all since Hunter was in the Rigel army, but honestly there were way bigger problems to face. I told Berkut that he needed to have a serious long conversation with Rinea about their relationship. So, while my beloved was off saving the world, I had to deal with getting Fernand to an infirmary, a couple that needs better communications skills, and then we find out that Emperor Rudolf is dead which really made things worse.” She always did talk had a habit of talking to family’s graves to make herself miss them slightly less.

“I don’t know all of the details but Jedah got killed and Hunter got to stab him. Oh, and apparently Duma looked like a walking corpse himself and Alm got to kill him from what Hunter told me. So yeah, lot of stuff happened huh? Oh, and since Alm is Rudolf’s son, he’s the new emperor and oh boy that was hard for Berkut to deal with at first.” She moved to clean her Aunt Edith’s grave. “It took some months, but I think Berkut and Rinea got their life sorted out. They have property nearby now so I get to visit them. Hunter is in the new Valentia military but they have him stationed close so he can always come home after work. You know my father finally approved of Hunter fully because he helped the new emperor. So, I will be getting married soon, but not sure where I want the wedding to take place as of yet.” She got up looking at her handy work. Not a bad job and it looked better now.

The sound of familiar footsteps made her realize who was approaching. “Hunter! You came to get me? That’s sweet to you.” She said as she gave him a quick kiss on the lips before looking at the graves. “Well, we better get back to the manor. I’ll come back to visit. Love you always.” She gently touched the tombstones of her grandparents and aunt before taking the path back the manor with her beloved. “Can you believe it’s been about a year since the war ended? Everything just seems to be getting better with time.” It had been about a year since those events happened and the manor had been looking a lot better than it once did. “I know it is my manor now, but it’s still hard to see it that way.” It had been the beloved summer home of her grandparents after all, but her grandfather wanted her to have it. “How was work today at the base?” She knew being in the army was something her father wanted of Hunter, but she knew it might be a while before he could retire.

If you were to tell Hunter that he would have been serving in a medieval army and fighting dragons and other such mystical creatures then he would have called you crazy. Reality was stranger than fiction however and that is exactly how his life became after leaving the UNSC to be with his beloved Josephine. So much had happened in the short time he arrived in this new land. He and Josephine had taken Rinea and Berkut out of Duma Tower and while Rinea went along, Berkut needed some more ‘convincing’. Like a parent carrying their screaming child out of a public area, Hunter had essentially hoisted Berkut over his shoulder and carried him out kicking and screaming. 

Then was when he had to fight the priest Jedah with Alm and his army. As part of the plan to marry Josephine he had to join the army. Originally he felt like he was betraying the UNSC but this army wasn’t going to be in competition with the UNSC and it didn’t really seem like it would be in the future so it alleviated some of his worry. It took him some time to get accustomed to the reduced mobility of the knight armor compared to the Mjolnir armor. He had to remember that he wasn’t going to be as invincible this time round but he still had his augmentations to rely on. It was his augmentations that allowed him to get close to Jedah and stab him. His enhanced reflexes allowed him to evade Jedah’s defenses and when a soldier stood in his way, his enhanced strength allowed him to push through the soldier entirely.

It had been a year since those events and Hunter had made some progress up the army’s ranks. He had just finished for the day and was heading to the manor that Josephine was at. This army had similar things to the UNSC military which was amusing to Hunter. Even with the drastic change in technology there was always the pull of bureaucracy. Files to document and sign. Logistic forms that needed to be filled. He never realized how much harder it was to get without the use of computers.

Entering the cemetery, Hunter was able to find Josephine just by following the sound of her voice. He leaned down a little to receive the kiss that Josephine was offering.

“Hello my love, I heard you talking out here on my way back and figured I would just meet you out here.”

Walking back to the manor with her, he would look over to her after asking her question. His hand gently grabbing hers to hold as they walk back.

“It’s hard to believe we have been at peace for so long. I just hope that it will last. It will come in time, all we need to do is touch up the manor a little bit and it will be better than you remember. As for work it was pretty much the same. Mostly filling out logistic requests for supplies and training the new recruits. I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed the systems we had back in the UNSC ha ha.”

@devotedrigelianflower

[arkus-rhapsode]

My thoughts of the Church of Seiros, Rhea and the portrayal of their teachings

So this is kinda a companion piece to a previous post I wrote on Edelgard and how FE3H handled perception. And much like that post, this will contain SPOILERS and a bit of rambling.

Now, the reason I felt like writing this is in my Edelgard post, I had stated that I found her a phenomenal character, but I ultimately reject her end goal. Instead preferring Claude’s answer of the church might not be perfect and at the very least it should reveal the true history of Fodlan, but it is preferable to a return to an imperial rule. But that of course leads to the question, do I support the Church of Seiros and its goal?

Now this was a question that I had a hard time answering because unlike the Duma Faithful or the Grimleal or even Naga, its not exactly specified what the “teachings of the goddess” are. With the Duma Faithful, we know that they embrace teachings of militarism and lack of empathy. As for the Grimleal we aren’t given the actual motives, but there is clear emphasis on predestination and considering they worship a destroyer, it can be seen as a form of nihilistic worship.

Then you have someone like Naga, that really humanity put on the pedestal of worship, but doesn’t take an active role of guiding humanity through teachings but rather provided mankind with godly tools like the Falchion. And this speaks to reflect each god’s personality respectively. Duma is a believer in strength of self, Grima is a living apocalypse, and Naga pulls herself away from conflict.

But now we get to the Church of Seiros. We do know the goddess Sothis protected all of Fodlan and had her race of children. So it makes sense that Seiros’s knights feel that need to overlook all of Fodlan or act as a mediating force. But knowing Sothis’s personality and what she did in the past, we don’t really know what her teachings are.

This is further compounded by Seiros herself. As she has spread the teachings of Sothis, but also distorted certain factors of history to benefit her. Its likely she did not receive a revelation from the goddess and more came to the conclusion of using her influence to temper the worst in humanity. Seiros having said that crests were gifts from the goddess and that the 10 Elites were allies of Seiros. This is all false as crests came about due to the Agarthan slaughter of the children of the goddess and using their blood to make crests and bodies to make the heroes relics.

Now we know Seiros and 4 of her priests survived and naturally had crest abilities and Seiros then allied with the first Adrestian Emperor and gave them her crest naturally. So this calls into question why?

Well as previously stated, its to temper the worst in humanity. And that makes sense as the Agrathan hubris nearly destroyed Fodlan and had led to making crests and empowering people like the Ten Elites. So it is very likely with this crest based society, Seiros knew that with the Ten Elite likely having descendants (because their lines are still present to this day) that she decided to lie about crests being from the goddess to convince those who would gain crests to use them for the greater good.

Unfortunately, its likely that involved inflating the egos of those who believed they were chosen by the goddess and thus allowed them to develop more power and reverence. But since those with crests weren’t banning together to form another Ten Elites and trying to ascend to godhood themselves, its likely Seiros didn’t care then. While it wasn’t Seiros/Rhea who said “Hey, Margrave Gautiar, your son doesn’t have a crest, disown him.” She still made an environment where that kind of mentality could happen.

But regardless of the distortion of history and we do see that there are times for this church. It acted as a mediator between Adrestia and Faerghus after the war of the eagle and lion. And in that situation where Loog had thoroughly triumphed against the imperial forces. If Adrestia continued fighting instead of negotiating, its likely that many more would’ve died in vain of reclaiming Faerghus. So having Seiros act as a neutral bastion was beneficial in that time when the empire ruled all of Fodlan. We also see humans who do believe in what the Goddess taught. Lonato and the Western Church are clearly pious people. But they reject Rhea as overseer of the Goddess’s teachings.

And that brings us to Rhea/Seiros herself. Now I had stated that I was okay with the Church of Seiros existing for many of its positive aspects, but I believed the people deserved the true history and that Rhea herself should not be leading the church.

Now like Validar and Jedah, Rhea is a character and thus you get a more solid picture of who they are as well as how their relgion may be reflected through them, instead of the complex vagueness of the practices of a church we don’t fully know. Rhea does assign students to attack bandits and those who turn against the church, but most of time, those like Kostas are actually bad people. But there are people who are mercenaries who Rhea doesn’t seem to persecute or preach that they’re wrong.

So it shows that Rhea has absolute authority in the church, she is not as totalitarian as Jedah However, she is still guilty of human experimentation to revive Sothis and hanging onto Agrathan technology for her own use. Now it seems to be that other members of the church have no idea about this. That Rhea herself was acting without the church knowing.

Which goes to the idea that put forward that the church’s existence is not bad, just the actions of their leadership in their personal time is bad. Because whatever way you wanna slice it, that Rhea didn’t invent the Golems or she didn’t originally come up with the crest making process, she did still selfishly utalize them.

Now, to be fair, while she has ushered in a society that values crests (which could be considered still possible without the church of seiros as both the Adrestian Emperor and the Ten Elites would have crests no matter what), she was not sending armies of golems to enforce this totalitarian regime. So while she’s willing to use the abhorrent tools of the Agrathans, she’s not going using them to the extent of which they would use them.

So that’s why, I believe that the church itself is not a bad presence. Unlike Edelgard, there are people who value teachings of Sothis while still opposing Rhea as the head. And that is something that can be expected because of organized religion. You’ll get teachings that are ultimately good, but you can still get someone at the top who using it for their own agenda. If Rhea was removed and replaced with a devout believer like Catherine or Lonato, who believe more in the teachings of the goddess and not using it for their own gain, I can totally vouch for its existence. And consider that a more palatable reform than declaring war on it to completely remove its influence.

However, it still does lack definition of those teachings. Unlike the Duma Faithful or Grimleal, I understand what their religions are about and I can say those are beliefs systems I wouldn’t want to practice. But it seems very likely that was intentional as Duma and Grima have very basic teachings that you can glean what its like and have a simple acceptation or rejection of their beliefs. So under the assumption that the teachings of Sothis are ultimately ones of love, virtue, acceptance and neutrality, I again stand with Claude’s answer of telling people the true history of Fodlan and letting them have the freedom to choose if they wish to continue following the Church of Seiros.

[slumberinglabyrinth]

People paint Rudolf as the primary reason why Berkut mcfreaking lost it and murdered Rinea, and while it’s not wrong to state that they were both casualties of his grand ambitions towards deicide, I think that it’s still worth noting that his relationship with his nephew wasn’t anywhere near as ‘you’re just a backup ruler for Rigel in case The Prophecy does not come to pass and my son doesn’t succeed’ as people make it out to be.

Massena in particular spells parts of this (and Rudolf’s motivations) out near the start of Act 5, but does it actually manifest in-game or is this just an informed trait?

“A moment, Prince Albein? I ask that you show Lord Berkut compassion. He weighed heavy on Emperor Rudolf’s mind for many years. The emperor knew that keeping the boy in ignorance could only bring him pain. And yet, the prospect of your being discovered was too great a risk. Still, Berkut was his nephew, and the same age as the son he parted with. So I beg leniency of you, if only to respect Emperor Rudolf’s wishes.”

There are two interactions (that we see) between Rudolf and Berkut which help us answer that question; near the ends of Act 3 and of Act 4.

The first scene is after Berkut returns to the castle after he “challenged the Deliverance for sport and lost”. Rudolf asks him if he had fought Alm and lost, Berkut says yes and gets all mopey. Jedah takes the chance to mock Berkut, they argue for a bit, and Berkut begs Rudolf for a second chance. Rudolf says sure, go ahead and defend the border, and Berkut sulks off to be accosted by Nuibaba.

At no point in this scene does Rudolf reprimand Berkut. His silence as Jedah’s harsh words cut into Berkut must have stung, but from our perspective, where Rudolf is silent from when he learned that the Deliverance is no pushover to when Berkut gets his attention later on in that scene, it should be clear that Rudolf’s mind is elsewhere (no doubt thinking about his son) instead of deliberately sitting by idly, watching his nemesis berate his nephew.

This also serves to establish, in retrospect, that Rudolf is clearly preoccupied with his 17-year-long godslayer plan finally beginning to bear fruit. His son, who he had to give away in order to give him a chance to survive to adulthood, has grown into a fine young man; his plan for the future of Valentia is in go-mode and the actions of his nephew weren’t something he needed to be concerned with at the time. He had a son to traumatize and a god to kill by proxy, after all!

This ends up being a mistake, because... uhhhhhh yeah we all know how Echoes ends.

Near the beginning of Act 4, Berkut has a short scene where he says some incredibly unkind things to Rinea and spills the beans on why he’s so whiny his tragic, sympathetic backstory, and then we learn that the mirror Nuibaba gave Berkut probably created a hotline into Berkut’s brain for Duma’s personal use. The relevant part of that scene is this:

“From childhood, all that’s ever been asked of me is strength. It is my duty as one born to stand above others. To rule. I’ve been taught that all my life. By my father, my mother… How am I to remain calm in the face of defeat at the hands of peasants?! I even debased myself by making use of that deviant’s powers… And it’s still not enough?!”

So Berkut has some problems with self-worth that were instilled by his parents, but what’s that? There’s absolutely no mention of his uncle! This is Berkut at the lowest point in his life (so far); if the king of Rigel had placed unfair expectations on him, when would he voice his grievances but now?

It’s not particularly strong evidence, but wouldn’t this at least suggest that Rudolf didn’t do things to make Berkut’s life a living hell? At least until the whole surprise! secret true heir stuff came to light?

Of course that probably made the betrayal even worse, but, as Massena mentioned above, Rudolf couldn’t really say “hey don’t get comfy expecting to be king, I’ve got a son who’s gonna kill duma and unite the whole continent in a few years” either.

The second scene between the two is as Ruldof is preparing to face the Deliverance. Rudolf tells Massena to ‘handle things’ (read: be the exposition device he was born to be), and is about to set off when Berkut flags him down.

“Your Excellency, wait!”

“Berkut.”

“Sire, why have you not given me leave to join the front lines? I know I failed you at the border, but all the more reason I beg for this chance!”

"A merciful leader may grant a second chance. Only a fool allows a third.”

"Your Excellency!”

"My army has no place for the weak. You’ll remain here and watch in quiet.”

"No… Please! Have mercy, sire! …Your Excellency! …Uncle!”

Harsh, huh? At first glance it seems like Rudolf is punishing him, but his very next line paints it in a completely different light.

“Brave warriors of Rigel. You have fought with courage and skill at my side these long years. But the hour of reckoning is upon us. Our empire’s light is guttering. Now heed my words well! If I should fall, my final order is that you lay down your arms and surrender. I hear the young Zofian general is a man of mercy. If you have any love and loyalty for me, you’ll not waste your lives this day.”

Berkut wouldn’t have stood down when Alm prevailed and Rudolf knew that. Keeping Berkut off the battlefield was a calculated move with the intent of having Berkut live long enough to learn that the conflict was over and that he had no reason to throw his life away. But man, Rudolf was bad at math.

My goal with this post wasn’t to exonerate Rudolf from his role in Berkut’s fall to darkness because the end result nonetheless remains, but isn’t there a clear difference between the actions Rudolf took and those of the Duma Faithful’s? Between him choosing to put the safety of his best friend and own son over (what he thought was just going to be) the pride of his nephew, and a bunch of people who deliberately try to goad Berkut into committing the most heinous of acts in order to ensure the eternal reign of their decaying, mad god?

[jasperlion]

Rudolf, Mycen and Alm

For Alm, there were several factors in his life which were unshakable and very much the foundation of his ideals, experiences and goals. He was a village boy from Ram, grandson of a great Zofian general in his time, and would thus uphold his legacy by protecting the very country Mycen once protected in her time of need.

When nobles spoke down to him and his friends, spoke of opportunity and what nobility could and couldn’t do in comparison to the ‘baseborn animals’ who had no noble blood, Alm did his upmost to prove them wrong. To be the light and example to all Zofian peasants that they can, that he, like them, could. That your station at birth does not determine your skill, ability, or what you should be able to do — it’s all in what you put in yourself, and all you have to do is have the opportunity to show it.

You can see how it all goes wrong the moment the truth is laid out for him, a truth he fought so hard to deny even with the mounting evidence: why should he believe an old man in Zofia’s Keep? Maybe Mycen just found love much after or lied about having no family when he worked in the castle. Why should he believe a blade could only be lifted by royalty? Isn’t that ridiculous? Surely, there are spells that would let this happen, but maybe they wore off or were just baseless rumors so no one stole it. Why should he put any stock in Desaix’s dying words? The man was a tyrant, a despot who would lie through his teeth, as he has again and again, to save his own damn skin. Why did the... why did the Emperor ask General Ezekiel to follow him?

The answer becomes clear, but the rest of himself falls apart.

Instead, he is a prince from Rigel, son of Rudolf and great great grandson to Rigel I, and in his path to protect Zofia and push back the Rigelians into their country and to their fortifications, he had betrayed his country of birth and slain its Emperor.

When he ‘proved’ nobles wrong, he had all but proved them right, accomplishing great feats and winning many a victory not as an exemplary Zofian soldier, but as a Rigelian one. He may have been raised a pauper, but he had always been a prince, dragon blood pulsed in his veins from the blood pact of his ancestor.

He was a lie, he had lived a lie and showed a lie to many people in Zofia and Rigel alike. And oh, he played his part beautifully, to be the villager to show the world what the common-folk could do, only to turn their back on them, only to be a noble. Just like them, just like those who pushed everyone else down on claims of heritage.

And this, this case of identity and ideology shattered to its core, is but one of his problems in the face of his father’s defeat and death.

His life and ideals had been a lie from the start, his thoughts to prove his grandfather’s worth and thus his own became empty words based on nothing but lies told to a gullible little boy who believed everything he was told by a man he was meant to trust. This shatters him, hurts him, more than he can ever express. And when his ‘grandfather’ is confronted with the pain wrought onto Alm by the act he was forced to commit? The man merely tells him to suck it up, that it’s no time for self pity and he doesn’t deserve to feel hurt, because this is what his father wanted, and so it had to be enough. The blind trust Alm had in Mycen is gone, and it is quite frankly something the old soldier will never get back. It is something Alm will never get back, either — the very idea that those around him can safely tell him who he is and who his family is becomes absurd as he from then onward questions everything he’s told by those around him. He can never hear the truth and confirmation from the horse’s mouth, Rudolf I is dead and gone, and there’s no way to prove he’s not being lied to again about where he came from. That it’s not all just an elaborate ruse to be played on him again and again because there’s no way to prove otherwise.

And, of course, onto the fact of the matter that he murdered his own father. Not even fought and killed would be a fitting description, for while Alm was coerced into the act by his station, his fellows and even the Emperor himself, Rudolf never once turned his lance on his son. Not once did he try to hurt Alm back, to even put up a fight. “Come, strike me.” Were the words he was greeted with, and the man did not disappoint in committing to just that. And it’s wrong, it feels so very wrong. It was a slaughter, not a battle, and it will consume him completely to know it is what his father wanted done. The very man who wished to never harm a hair on his son’s head would rather have his son kill him — inflict that sort of pain onto him that even in his death would never go away. Maybe it’d have felt better if Rudolf had defended himself — it’d have definitely felt better if his father had fought back.

Instead, he ‘fought’ (murdered) a tired man who had played a role for too long and wished to die by his son’s hands. Who looked at the boy who struck at his nigh defenseless father with pride in his eyes, something Alm will never understand.

He killed his own father, and with Rudolf went the answers he had so desperately sought since childhood. Who were his parents? What were they like? Did they love him? Why did they give him away? How did they meet? What would they have been like as his parents? All he could say was his parents were buried, how his father died, and that it’s what he wanted to happen. That his father gave him away to protect him, only to greet him upon his returns with weapons drawn but no fight at all.

And hell, maybe he shouldn’t feel this bad about killing a man he didn’t even now, but that was exactly the problem: he didn’t know his father, didn’t know anything ABOUT him. What did he like? What was his favorite food? Did he like cats too? Did he give his horse a nickname? What did he enjoy doing on his time off? Did he love his mother? Did he ever grow to love someone else? What was it like to deal with Berkut as a nephew (hehe)? What did he think of Berkut, anyway? What would he think, knowing what his nephew had done? How would he deal with the political situation? What would he do — what would be his counsel on how to deal with matters with Duma and Mila gone? He doesn’t even know how to rule. Leading an army was no comparison to leading a nation, and in not being groomed for his station, he fears he will never do it quite right. Never like his father would have done, like Berkut would have done. 

And he wishes he knew, but it was denied to him before he could even form coherent thought. All he had left was a headband from his father’s youth, a name he never felt familiar with, and a legacy to uphold that he had never really lived under until quite literally everyone else had died. At his hand, specifically.

And once more, Mycen’s apathy of it all, of his pain, his hurt and his very valid confusion only pours salt onto fresh and real wounds. Makes him feel like he really doesn’t matter. What mattered was the plan, what mattered was he did what he was reared to do and stick to what fate had in store for him. His feelings were secondary, or perhaps even lower, and so it shouldn’t matter how he feels because he just has to do what he’s supposed to do.

It’s never the same between them after that, even after their conversations eventually mend the rift with a bridge. It’s a rudimentary one that does its job, but rickety at best, instead of filling the crevice and patching the land.

And, when it boils down to it, his feelings take an emotional toll from it all. Rudolf’s death is but the first of many on the path leading to the end of the Gods, not the first of the war, but the first since he’s become aware of what this really is about. Of how Celica’s mission had been right all along to hone in on the deities that molded their world every day at their whims. But he can’t find himself dwelling on those losses, and dwelling on what he had lost the moment the royal sword plunged into both his father and his cousin, divesting Rigel of all royal blood but his own.

He can’t falter, he has to push onward. Mycen’s very words will come to haunt him for the rest of his days, and perhaps by the time the knight notices his mistake it will be far too late. He’s internalized these words, and for the rest of his life it will crush his self worth.

After all, he’s but a tool, a means to an end. He was used by his ‘grandfather’ and his father alike to bring to Valentia the peace it deserved and a liberation from the grip of Gods who were going mad. This, too, hurts to acknowledge: not once were he and his feelings considered in Rudolf’s plan, and not once did Mycen consider them once it had taken motion. He was warned of the point of no return, of course, but not so he wouldn’t take it. It was merely a sign to move forward with a hardened heart, one he didn’t have. Instead, it is soft and vulnerable, shattered and ripped apart by the time it’s done.

But it doesn’t matter.

It can be summed up in betrayal, really. Betrayal of his identity and what he believed was simply a truth that would not be changed (could you see yourself questioning if what your family claimed you to be was true?), betrayal to his own humanity, betrayal to his father even if it’s what he wanted... He feels betrayed by the fate assigned to him and the father who decided his path without taking him into consideration.

All this and more dwells within Alm and troubles his soul, and this is just from Rudolf and Mycen alone — the effects on him from Berkut, Fernand, Rinea, Mila and Celica (and, by extension, Jedah and Duma) are a whole different beast, even if one that dwells in tandem with this one. 

Related Headcanon -> Alm and his parents

[shibyn]

in the spring, we are such fools

fe heroes drabble collection Kiran can summon town heroes, thieves, lone survivors, emperors, hero-kings, legends, the god-chosen, and the lost– Kiran realizes that they’re all just people in the end.

alm - timeline

And of course, this all hits Kiran when a newly summoned Alm, wielder of Falchion, son of Emperor Rudolf of Rigel, Saint-King of the One Kingdom Valentia, tells them that he's the newly appointed leader of the Deliverance and he's amazed by all of the things he's seen in the Askran castle so far. 

It's very strange to speak with someone who's unaware that they're a hero-king later in their life. It usually wouldn't be too much trouble since Kiran's really just only met them, but when other people who know them when they're the hero-king meets the one who doesn't know, it gets rocky and very, very complicated. Kiran wishes each hero could be pulled out of a single point in time in the same timeline, instead of Briedablik just pulling random from bag of marbles and chucking whatever it's got right at them. And of course, this all hits Kiran when a newly summoned Alm, wielder of Falchion, son of Emperor Rudolf of Rigel, Saint-King of the One Kingdom Valentia, tells them that he's the newly appointed leader of the Deliverance and he's amazed by all of the things he's seen in the Askran castle so far. It's weird as hell. Kiran gets all of what they know from these heroes straight from history books in the castle's Royal Library, and they really only tell of these heroes when they're already heroes-- and not before that. It's very strange to see Alm, who may or may not have defeated Chancellor Desaix in his timeline (Kiran isn't sure), act very similar to a country bumpkin when it comes to being here. Kiran hates Briedablik sometimes. Really hates it. They're not sure if it's better to pull someone out of their universe in the middle of wartime, or in the middle of peace, or before it's all happened, but god forbid it pulls comrades and companions and enemies from the same point in time. Kiran had to intercept a over-the-moon Tobin, who is from after the Deliverance confronted Jedah for the last time and was about to give Alm the hug of the life time, and Clair, who was ready to congratulate him on his marriage with Celica, from talking to him initially. It's not easy in the slightest to keep certain people to be wary of what they say to their friend, because Kiran has no clue what would happen if Alm is sent back with the knowledge he's Rudolf's son and Celica's soulmate when he hasn't even seen Zofia castle yet. Well. Regardless of that dilemma, it very, very cute to see a doe-eyed Alm meeting different people and seeing different places. "--and Athena thought I cussed at her when I said 'britches,' so I had to awkwardly explain to her that I wasn't trying to say a derogatory word... Y'know, I didn't think I used what people would consider 'country slang,' but I guess I have been living in an isolated village my whole life..." Alm says absently, scratching his cheek sheepishly. Kiran shrugs and grins, stretching out their arms. "Well, that's just kind of an Athena thing! She comes to me every now and then and asks me what some words mean. Some of them are kind of cute mistakes, and then... well, we do have some really loose-lipped people around." Alm grimaces at the thought. "And I thought some villagers were pretty brash... the things some people say around here are... kinda..." "Definitely not for children's ears, and honestly-- we have a few running around!" Kiran leans back, scrubbing their hands over their eyes and whining, "I don't need Nino or Kana running up to me and asking what some heinous word means!" Alm tries to stifle a laugh but doesn't succeed much at all. Kiran points a finger at him threateningly, eyes narrowed. "You can't laugh about this, buddy, you try explaining a word that no one's mother wants to hear to a wide-eyed child or a very threatening lady with a very sharp blade!" He bursts out loud with laughter instead. "Sorry, sorry! I can only imagine it-- Especially with all these people from all over, there's got to be crazy, outlandish curses being thrown around." "Don't remind me," Kiran scrunches their nose, "Barst gave me a whole list of curse words from Archanea, and I felt like a prude right then and there." Alm whistles in amazement. "I'm surprised, that takes a lot." Kiran snorts at him. "Sure... Hey-- are you calling me vulgar? I'm not half as bad as some people around here!" Alm looks away innocently, whistling in a coy manner. Kiran rolls their eyes. "Ah. That's right-- you asked me earlier for a place to practice, right?" "Yeah," Alm sighs exaggeratedly, resting his chin in his palm, "There are just times were I'll hear my grandfather-- Sir Mycen-- scolding me in my head to practice, but sometimes I don't want to bother anyone in sparring with me." He shrugs nonchalantly. "Did you happen to find one?" Kiran looks upon him for a second before speaking. "I have. But-- Tobin wields a sword, right? He wouldn't mind sparring with you, yeah? He even trained with you under Mycen, so it'd be the same training regime." Alm frowns, hunching over ever so slightly. "He does. Well-- it's strange to sword fight with Tobin. The Tobin I know uses a bow rather than a sword-- it's just a little off putting, y'know?" He puts in the effort to grin at this, but it droops at the corners. "And... ah... he seems strangely on guard around me? It's weird to think that he's from a different timeline, however that stuff works, but I didn't think I've done anything to make him like that. He's the same, I guess, snarky and stubborn, but he'll occasionally hold back on things he'll say." It's obviously something he's thought about for a long time, with the way he fidgets and refuses to make eye contact with Kiran, probably due to confusion and nervousness. "Do... Do you know why?" Kiran leans back till their head hits the wall. "Well. In the same way he's not the Tobin from your timeline because he wields a sword rather than a bow, he's different because his time line is... well, further along in the future than yours. Basically, he's already gone through the things you're going to go through in your timeline." Alm's eyebrows raise, but he keeps quiet. "Usually this doesn't matter," Kiran continues, "Like with Lukas-- he's close enough to the time you're from that it doesn't make much difference. But with Tobin and Clair? It's... a huge span of time and events. Huge. I specifically asked them to hold back things they say, because, well-- your adventure's a wild one, and it's kind of a spoiler to learn how things turn out, right?" Kiran grins briefly. "I'm trying to keep the knowledge of what happened in their worlds from returning to yours, worst-case scenario it throws everything off course and causes disaster." Snorting, Alm says, "Surely it can't be that bad to throw everything off?" Shrugging, Kiran says cryptically, "A single change is one heck of a thing. I'm not gonna try my luck and risk your world." To this, Alm nods understandingly. "Alright. That's fair. I, uh, I guess I'll try to keep that in mind when Tobin starts acting a little too old for his age." Kiran scowls at him. "All of you act a little too old for your age, I swear to god. You're what, eighteen? Seventeen? And you're leading a resistance group a couple of months into joining it!" "And you?" Alm counters slyly, "You started leading an army a couple days of popping up all the sudden, if I've heard right." "Yeah? And? I'm not the one with the sharp blade, thank you very much," Kiran folds their arms, "Besides. I'd like to think I wasn't the fastest appointed leader-- Robin was basically put up as tactican the moment Chrom looked him in the eye. Ah, let me show you the practice room before I forget again." Alm grins, to which Kiran thinks, Yep. A seventeen year old! Seventeen! "Yeah, thank you!" Alm says, and asks, "Is it alright if I show Tobin the practice room, too? I think we're both tired of fighting with someone who's learned the same skills." "Have at it," Kiran waves their hand, rising to their feet from the bench the two of them were on, "Just no spoilers, yeah?"

[crystalelemental]

And now the other completed game: Fire Emblem Echoes.  I’ve mentioned this many, many times before, but I hated Fates, and honestly expected this game to not be doing much better.  Fates just left such a terrible taste in my mouth, and no, I will never shut up about how bad it was.  Thankfully, Echoes did a lot right, and seems to have fixed a lot of issues while incorporating elements of the last two games.

Let’s start with the big stand-out: weapon durability is still gone, but is done in a way that it’s the stupidest bullshit I’ve ever seen.  Weapons don’t break, and instead offer a change in stats, usually higher power or defense in exchange for speed.  It’s a really cool way to handle things, and it allows for there to be stronger weapon types available without having such horrific drawbacks that they’re worthless.  There’s still a forge mechanic, but it’s straight-forward again and only needs money instead of eleventy-fuckbillion pieces of the same arbitrary resource you have to collect two at a time of by visiting thousands of people over My Castle.  It’s just a simple, straight-forward mechanic that isn’t complete bullshit.

Also relevant: magic.  Magic is forever, but takes some of your health.  To balance that out, it is unaffected by terrain, but also has a flat accuracy so it will miss more often than an accurate weapon when there’s no evasion bonus.  Healers work differently, in that their base spell absorbs damage, but has a lower hit rate.  As a result, there are some incredible tactics that happen in this game, where Mages use magic to blast holes in enemies, and your healing units recover them at the cost of their own HP, only to heal back up periodically.  A cleric with enough HP and Defense may as well be immortal.  So basically, Faye.  Faye as a cleric is ridiculous.  Also any of them with a Dracoshield.  They’re not even using that speed stat.  Physical attackers are straight-forward, but often lack resistance, so they have trouble with things in the late-game.  Except the Dread Fighters, who tear through magic attackers like tissue paper, but struggle against physical attackers.  There’s just such a wide range of unique skills that each unit type has, and they mesh together really well.  I have to admit, as much as I get invested in min-maxing child skills and stats in Awakening, I much prefer this type of skill system, where characters have different lists of spells and classes have different innate abilities, or learn them through the use of new weapons.

I’m not the biggest fan of gender-exclusive classes, though.  Pegasus Knight is really the only one that ever made sense, and even then I’m fine with removing it as a gender-locked thing.  What’s really stupid is that Archer is male-only.  Faye’s introduction was in Heroes, where she was an archer.  Get it together, game.

The other big sticking point, for me, is stat growth and stat caps.  Look, if growths are going to be low, that’s fine.  I’m actually on-board for this kind of setup.  But stat caps should not have been at like 40.  They should be around 30, at best.  Set limits where they’re achievable, game, otherwise I can and will go insane trying to get people to their stat caps.

Then there’s promotions.  Promotions work by adjusting the base stats of a unit to meet the class’ base stats.  So if adjusting to a Mercenary, you gain enough speed to hit 10.  If you already have those stats, then promotion gains like 1 point of HP and nothing else.  It’s an interesting mechanic...but resistance isn’t factored in.  I feel like that’s a really shitty limitation.  Resistance is the stat most needed, and yet it doesn’t adjust at all when promoting.  So even with the classes sometimes having like 10 base resistance, they don’t ever gain resistance to meet that.  The ONE STAT where this would be super useful, and it doesn’t happen.  Ridiculous.

On to characters.  I actually liked a lot of them!  Favoritism goes to, interestingly enough, Tatiana and Zeke.  Aside from being really solid units, the two of them have a great romance, with a good amount of sorrow behind it.  There’s a lot going on with these two and their relationship, and I like it a lot.  Genny is also fantastic, being a fairly quirky kid who likes to write her own stories of intrigue.  Clair is great, being the right kind of stuffy noble who means well.  Celica is arguably my favorite Fire Emblem lord now, but is held back pretty significantly by a thing I’ll talk about later.  And of course, outside of the protagonists, we have Berkut and Rinea, who are just...an excellent amount of suffering.  Characters as a whole just felt really good this time around.

Then there is story.  I’ll start with the world at large: I love Valentia.  I think the concept of two kingdoms ruled through different philosophies both going into the shitter for different reasons related to their respective ideals is fantastic.  Rigel is a shithole that’s so over-focused on strength that is has become all that matters.  Their clergy are sacrificing women for greater power and eternal youth, turning the sacrifices into soulless husks of great magical power.  Their nobility is so power-obsessed that defeat results in a complete existential crisis and a devastating blow to Berkut’s sense of self-worth.  By comparison, Zofia kinda just languishes away in its bounty, while the nobles become a bunch of entitled snobs that approach life with the sense that they’ve earned their positions just for showing up.  Fernand is a great example of this, being outraged that Alm would lead the Deliverance despite his talents and skills, and insisting that he and Clive should lead simply because they are nobility and that is their right.  The contrast between things is exceptional in the early-game, and I love it.

The story itself is that Rigel has invaded, and the land of Zofia is kinda falling apart without Mila’s bounty.  Alm is on the war-path to defeat the emperor of Rigel and restore peace, while Celica is on the path to find Mila and restore order to Zofia.  Having the two lords go down separate paths is an interesting way to handle things, and I get a vibe of an improved Radiant Dawn, where you actually follow multiple paths simultaneously.

One major, major problem I have is for Celica herself in terms of story.  It’s apparently a component that was added in this game, and I really do not like it.  The ending of her route.  She goes along with Jedah, and becomes a witch.  Now...on its own, this is stupid enough, falling for the age-old “go with what the villain says or he’ll hurt people” as if they ever had the intention of keeping their side of the promise.  And then, as if that stupid gambit wasn’t enough, Falchion is able to stab her, and somehow restore her soul so that the witchification process is reversed.  Because that makes sense.  It’s just such a contrived load of bullshit, and honestly, because it comes from Celica being an idiot, it all comes back to a stupid way to handle her actions.  Which is the main thing holding her back, I think.  Which is a shame.

Also, on a more minor note, did anyone notice how many female characters have to be rescued to join your ranks?  Clair, Mathilda, Delthea, Est, Tatiana...  It’s a lot.  Too many, I think.  I could be fine with one or two.  But that’s five off the top of my head, and I am certain there are others.  It’s really not good.

Overall though, I loved the game, and is definitely better than Fates.  Possibly good enough to be my favorite since FE7.  It’s such a great return to form, and has such a unique and interesting magic system.  I really enjoyed just about everything about this entry, and I sincerely hope this is an indication of the direction the series will take from here on out.  Not necessarily in terms of mechanics, but definitely in terms of story, characters, and decision of art and translation team.