#now actually give me a Jugdral banner

[yeyayeya]

You know what? Fine, IntSys, take all my fucking orbs away

Stop giving me units I want

[randomnameless]

Thoughts on Brigand Boss, personally I would've preferred Gazzak, Batta the beast or Kostas instead for the beginning game bandit archetype, or Jedah from Gaiden/EChoes: SOV, but Brigand Boss is alright and at least the long running archetype is finally represented.

I actually hate it, because we already had a "brigand boss" in the game through an actual character : FE5's Lifis.

Jedah cannot be added, but the rando people meme'd about will? If they wanted to make a loser who's also a brigand, then why the fuck didn't they release a normal Lifis?

Oh right, because no one gives a fuck about Jugdral, multi game banners don't exist save for seasonals and memes are more important than existing characters.

Honestly, I've been playing off an on FEH right now (more off) when I played nearly every day since launch (or since the first Jugdral characters dropped) to get, at least, login orbs, but damn if this thing, among the meta being nonsensical and the "Heroes exclusive content" makes me really consider dropping the game.

I'm just here for the memes and to use units I like, but the pool of units I like is trimming down and I'm out of memes so...

[crystalelemental]

Sometimes I wonder if the people who love the idea of 2 3h brave banners would be that happy and preachy if it was a Fates sweep instead. Imagine the chaos if the 2 Corrins, Takumi and, Azura were to win.

They wouldn’t. They’d be furious and hate it.

See, this is the problem with fandom in a nutshell. Everyone is here for themselves. They want the things they want to the exclusion of all else. If they don’t like a game, any attention on that game is considered bad. If they do like it, there’s no such thing as too much. Same goes for characters. Like, even I’m guilty of this. I never want another Ike alt, but if they want to give me more Micaiahs, who am I to say no?

IS, the company running all of this, has to make choices that results in the best outcome, dodging around the irritation of literally everyone. So they play to favorites. Three Houses is big now, and most people don’t give a shit. Hell, most would still take yet another new banner of just those characters next month if it meant Felix or Marianne or whoever got in. They know this, so they’ll play to it. Not all at once. Gotta keep them expecting stuff and excited about the future, and avoid burnout. But this is the reason Three Houses already has a solid percentage of its cast in the game while Thracia remains at sub-20% despite having been around for all nearly 4 years of the game’s life instead of just the last 1.3. They’re going with generally popular picks. It’s why Awakening and Fates kicked things off, why Awakening stopped getting anything as many of the cast dropped off in popularity overall, and why Jugdral remains a myth. The only way to change it is to change a lot of minds about favorites. Good luck with that. So it goes on jerking off the same material infinitely.

Honestly, while I hate it, it’s hard to say this is the worst outcome. Echoes did really well when it first dropped too, and Fates and Awakening were recent when Heroes released. There’s a recency bias, which I actually count as a blessing. It means on the whole, the series is going strong, and its fans are really enjoying new content and appreciate the changes. Which is more than I can ever say for Touhou or Pokemon. Touhou has the problem on the fans’ side, where they think EoSD was the bestest thing ever despite being an awful game to play with virtually no substance. Pokémon has the inverse where the developers are solely concerned with a return to a golden era and want so desperately to cash in on nothing but nostalgia factor. While Fire Emblem definitely has its faults, this is honestly one of the better series to be invested in right now, because it’s going strong, isn’t mired in chasing a long gone fan base, and fans are overall pretty receptive to new ideas.

[markoftheasphodel]

The New Dawn of the Golden Deer

A retrospective on the Verdant Wind route and its home characters is substantially more difficult for me, personally, to construct because it lacks the overt resonance with earlier games that allowed for Azure Moon’s descent in through FE1/3/5/8, etc. But here goes nothin’...

Part of it is the not unfair sense that the Golden Deer are the catch-all house of Garreg Mach compared to the thematic cohesion of the Blue Lions. The five nobles all bear a King Lear-themed naming scheme that’s slightly obscured in the localization, but it doesn’t appear to mean much of anything. The three commoners are distinctly “common” without the complicated ties to nobility that their Blue Lion counterparts all bear. While Dimitri was a known quantity to most of the Lions before they all enrolled at the Academy, Claude is very much an unknown to his fellow Alliance nobles. That’s part of the point.

If we take Claude’s big motivational speech to his House at face value (and there are reasons we should and yet shouldn’t), the actual through line of the Deer is separate people coming together as one, so we’ll roll with that as a starting point. How do they manage it? Well, the Deer are for the most part A++ in terms of character development-- not the revelation of sad and traumatic backstories, but development beyond where we first find them. 

Hilda, in the face of actual responsibility, grows out of her cocoon of deliberate idleness to be Claude’s right-hand-woman, her ability to delegate and to get others to do work turned into strengths. Lorenz grudgingly adapts his persona of the perfect noble to be more in-keeping with what people actually want and need in a leader (and what a lady wants in a nobleman!), without surrendering his actual core identity. Marianne faces up to the literal Beast of her family history and moves past it, finding value in herself and her life. Ignatz, also hobbled by guilt and low self-worth initially, matures into a thoughtful and capable young man with contributions of value to the Deer war councils. Lysithea perhaps leans harder on the “backstory revelation” than upon onscreen development and Leonie and Raphael are arguably the least developed of the Deer. I’d vote for poor Raphael as the worst-written of the lot, as the decency and humanity we see in his supports and Paralogue is still buried under “muscles” and “food” even in Endgame. 

And then we have Claude, a Fire Emblem protagonist unlike any other to date. Whereas Dimitri is unquestionably in the mold of previous FE princelings, Claude has more in common with a different lineage of character, the Snarky Sniper who often serves as a peer rival or frenemy of the Lord. Said “archetype” dates back to Archanea’s Jeorge, who also stands as the progenitor to a line of characters one might call “Wandering Nobles”-- Lewyn, Elffin, Joshua, etc. Claude, with his deliberate obscurity about who and what he is recalls Jeorge on both counts, and his pride in his stratagems can’t help but recall Innes, the Strategician Prince/peer rival of Ephraim’s from FE8. Innes, though, was quite straightforward in his goals even if his methods could be shady (spy networks, etc). Claude’s means and his end goals are both veiled; from the start we learn we can take nothing at face value including his smile. You can probably count on your fingers the number of times Claude reveals the unguarded and unvarnished truth to anyone.

Fortunately, Claude is able to harness his practiced charm to get and keep the other Deer on-board with his leadership even if he doesn’t trust them with the actual secrets of his full identity or his ultimate goal. I’ve been in FE fandom long enough to see several waves of fans clamoring for a “cool” lord like Joshua, and well... Claude has arrived. And he is, indeed, quite the charmer as well as quite the schemer. I must say I love him, even if his current status as a memelord misses the point (Claude, ever conscious as to his image he projects, would not do many of the things meme!Claude gets up to, sorry).

Claude breaks new protagonist ground even as his character “type” traces back to the dawn of Fire Emblem. Lorenz provides a superb example of the rival/foil to the protagonist-- as Innes to Ephraim, except both Claude and Lorenz fully acknowledge the game. Hilda gives us a noblewoman deft at wielding “soft power” and a reluctant adjutant to Claude who succeeds beyond her own expectations. Marianne steps beyond the shadow of her backstory to show genuine growth. The same goes for Ignatz, though he perhaps treads too hard on the “soft archer boy” trail already defined by Ashe. Lysithea takes the image of the pale-haired, sweets-eating gremlin/loli and gives it some heft, Leonie hits against barriers of class and gender expectation while making a surprisingly shaded portrait of an apprentice in thrall to a flawed master, and Raphael... was done dirty by the developers.

That’s the Golden Deer for you. What does it all mean, beyond the ideal of a bunch of disparate characters coming together under one banner to bring about a new dawn for the continent? Well... I’m not really sure, not least because the Deer don’t entirely understand the scheme Claude’s roped them into! Verdant Wind provides a great counterpoint to Azure Moon in that, thanks to Claude’s own zeal for getting to the bottom of things, we learn things that Dimitri and his route simply weren’t interested in. It’s an engaging crew of characters on a mad adventure that includes magical ICBMs, an underground city with a classic Star Wars/TRON aesthetic, and a final smackdown with the reanimated corpses of legendary heroes.

In the end, though, it didn’t have the sheer emotional resonance for me of the Dimitri and his Blue Lions-- perhaps because its parts are insufficiently tethered to the hoary “archetypes” of FE in a way that Azure Moon handled brilliantly. Or, perhaps because Claude’s reliance on Byleth instead of Lorenz and/or Hilda as his main partner in crime was dragged down by the fact Byleth isn’t really a character. On Azure Moon, Byleth’s presence isn’t enough to eclipse that Dimitri’s posse deeply love and deeply fear for their prince; it’s really the story of the redemption of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, whereas in Verdant Wind Claude makes a chessboard of all Fódlan and the nations beyond, a breadth of scope that does indeed evoke Genealogy of the Holy War even if the Deer themselves don’t summon many spectres of Jugdral.

In the end, neither really works in a vacuum. Azure Moon is deeply, viscerally felt and fails to ask, much less answer, many basic questions. Verdant Wind holds the entire spectacle at arms’ length while digging for answers that lead to more questions that lead to some very strange places. As two halves of the same coin, they make an interesting pair. But they are not, of course, merely two halves, as we now have another house to join and two more routes to consider...

[lewlthea]

Different anon, you know Eyvel, who is Brigid BTW, is in the game and looks normal, giving credence to the idea that it is just a seasonal outfit and not her true one. Even the actual pirates on the banner aren’t in their normal gear since Geese has a hat and is using a lance while Darrow is using a broom. Stop being a party pooper and let people enjoy things.

I find it so funny that i literally just posted two photos: one of the character and a screencap of me uninstalling the game and now im the party pooper

ALSO I CAN RECOGNIZE ITS GEESE??? YOU CAN LITERALLY COMPARE THAT BRIGID ART WITH EYVEL AND THEY DONT EVEN LOOK LIKE THEYRE RELATED TO EACH OTHER, LET ALONE THE SAME PERSON. ITS THAT BAD DHDHSHDHDGD IM NOT CONDEMNING ANYONE IM LITERALLY JUST CALLING IT UGLY GO OUTSIDE

(Also before big brained anon comes back to explain to me yes i know eyvel is amnesia brigid yes i have played jugdral games yes i am very smart and yes i hate both fe4 and thracia now leave me alone im vibing)

[sunnyvaiprion]

How DID you come to like Julius? Me, I liked his design and that was the basis for why I like him in general.

 Hmmm I always found it hard to explain why exactly I like certain characters and/or how did I come to like them. So I dont really have any exciting story… I do think that he looks nice… but more of a secondary factor for me.  

 It’s not a secret for anyone that I really, really like Jugdral  give me one (1) seasonal alt, IS  and uh … I would naturally be leaning towards these characters, so that’s one thing. But I dont really know what exactly made me notice him among other great people, to be honest. He is interesting, I sort of want to tell him “good job”, shoot him in the face and hug him at the same time, for multiple reasons, you know.  

My best friend @shinycatty actually played a part in that (I mean, she literally got me in FE in general so i must give more credit). As he’s one of her favourites too. 

 What I can say though is that I was soooooooo hyped when he was added in FEH (that banner had me on fire in general, oh my god good times). Then I didnt even know I’ll be using him for serious things, but just the fact itself. It was not soon after I drew him a couple of times, mostly in joke pics, but he quickly found a bigger role in my drawings. Him being in the main team now only reinforced his position in the ranks of people I draw often.

I guess people here like him too, huh?

[pangtasias-atelier]

Are you still playing FEH? what other games do you play? Its good to see you.

I actually still play a good amount of FEH! Despite my issues with the game that kinda do continue to grow cause I sure do love save skills fucking over the meta and now ranged nukers needing to be able to deal with certain tanks which fucks over older units that can't tank anymore. Also, the new heroes banners have been like the most boring options in terms of fodder. Like, the units I wanted from each banner the most all became 5* exclusives that are only used for fodder 😭 (Rennac, Galzus, & now Arthur) Plus I have been like devotedly saving up orbs for Duma's remix banner cause I will cry if I don't get him to +10 this banner.

ALSO I AM PISSED THAT HE FUCKING GETS FURY MOTHER FUCKING 4!!! Like that's so ass. Plus upheaval gives him decent utility and it's nice it's better but upheaval 2 sounds a bit underwhelming. But I'm sure IS doesn't wanna make an old unit most people have good when they can sell a new mythic.

But as for other games, I've kinda been playing mostly league ahsvshsv. I still refuse to touch ranked tho lol

I've also started playing Triangle Strategy after kinds not touching it cause the demo fucked me up with the camera controls and throwing you into a few chapters in. But it's such a good game and scratches the good ol FE itch I've been missing SRPGs as of late. Also the magic system is so wonderful and it makes me fucking miss how old FE separated magic back in the Jugdral days and also makes it so each magic causes unique statuses and can interact with each other. Plus the characters are nice and it's enjoyable having more down to earth characters even if the characterization for the side cast feels a bit not there but I still like em cause I'd rather that than one note cast. Plus choices actually fucking matter and you get to think of pros and cons unlike 3H where you just decide whole ass route without fucking knowing anything.

[thegospelofnagisa]

The current situation with Sayaka is reminding me of what happened with Ike in Heroes. Before he was released, whenever a new banner came out, people would ask "When's Ike" and would even make angry comments about it.

Oh yeah, totally, I can understand you being fan of characters, but, you have to give them time.I thought I would have to wait 1000 million years to get Jugdral characters and nope, there’s like a ton of them now, I just have a Julia, a 4+6 Seliph, Arden and Arvis but...it’s something.

I thought I’d have to wait another 1000 to get Magvel characters and now...there they are...I just have an Eirika I trained from 4 to 5 and an Innes but....there they are, hopefully the others will come eventually, even if they’re 4, I actually prefer it that way.

Just be patient.

[eienias20]

Fire Emblem Warriors thoughts

I’ve made no attempt to hide my utter disappointment at this game and I think I made a post some months back that I might be reiterating...but I just want to say it one more time to outline my issue not just with Warriors but with what I encounter quite regularly for being a fan of the older games. Oops. I mean an “elitist.”

In my opinion: Fire Emblem Warriors biggest crime is that it could’ve ended, or at least severely broken “this”. What is this? The split. That’s what “this” is.

Since Awakening/Fates and all that, the Fire Emblem fanbase has been split. Badly. Warriors had the potential to be a Fire Emblem game for everyone. It could feature characters from all across the series’ history that everyone could bond over.

New favorites, old veterans, nearly everyone could’ve potentially had at least one character that really resonated with them, surrounded by many more familiar and maybe even some unfamiliar faces.

You can’t account for every single sense of taste but you could go for most of them. Ignoring that stupid “too many swords” argument the devs tried to use, you don’t actually HAVE to feature every single Lord. I think a game like this would be far more interesting with more of the B-teams from across the series. Some Lords, some plot important characters, A LOT of B-team. Because those B-team characters are the ones that people really invest into on the side, beyond the main lords, beyond the central characters, everyone has those side characters they just love.

And again, I doubt this game could cover every game in the franchise but it could do more than 3, two of which are already related and all 3 of which connect to one another. Warriors stated it would have support conversations. But with these games and casts being so interconnected ALREADY, what’s the point? They’ve already supported with each other once before, that’s another prospect lost.

Going back to unfamiliar characters, new fans would see these cool old characters, much like how Heroes introduces old characters, and they’d be inspired to learn more about these characters and maybe even check out their old games. Which btw Nintendo, you could release the games digitally on the eShop to make money off these new interested parties. In this hypothetical scenario where you did something smart at least.

But of course, in reality, they decided NOT to do that. Catering almost exclusively to the new fans, the new games and ignoring almost ten games worth of heroes and villains, thus widening the divide even further.

The saddest part is that the idea of a Fire Emblem Dynasty Warriors game is not new. People have wanted this kind of game for YEARS! And for those fan who wanted to play as their faves from Tellius, Magvel, Elibe or anything before that! Jugdral, Archanea...their wish finally came true.

Fire Emblem Warriors is real!

And it is nothing at all like how they imagined.

When I regularly bring up my grievances, I’m told to shut up and stop being an “elitist” and given these types of responses otherwise.

“Awakening Saved The Series” every time I hear that I have to bash my head into a wall. What does that have to do with anything?

Look. I think Fates is trash. The worst FE game ever made. And I think Awakening is way to over hyped. It's decent but many other FE games did what it did, BETTER. Did I want those games excluded from Warriors? NO.

I don't like them and they definitely should not represent Fire Emblem as a whole, but they are the most recent games (not counting Echoes because idk why) there was no version of Warriors in my head that didn't feature those games. I'm just so disappointed that they are the ONLY games being featured alongside Shadow Dragon.

Beyond that there is the “Wait for DLC” argument and that is a huge insult and unacceptable. If you are a huge Awakening fan imagine if no Awakening characters were going to be in this game. No one and instead you were told just to wait for DLC, that’ll fix it. That wouldn't feel good now would it? See?

I’m just asking for a little bit of empathy from the new fans for the many old fans being screwed over by this game.

I’ve made my decision that I am not buying a game for a roster comprised only of 1/3 of characters I actually care about and I am not holding over for DLC. It's a disgrace. It's an insult. It's a huge slap in the face. And while at times it makes me angry, it more often than not disappoints me.

When the announcement trailer released, I was hyped. This is a game, a concept, a crossover that seemed SO COOL! I imagined playing a game not unlike Hyrule Warriors but controlling characters I absolutely adore, heroes like Ike and the Greil Mercenaries (Mia stands out) or villains like Ashnard and the Black Knight! And that’s just Tellius! I couldn’t wait to see what they’d do with this game only to get “Shadow Dragon, Awakening, Fates” only shoved in my face.

Yes they said mostly. But you know why I don’t trust them? Because the same thing was said for the last Fire Emblem crossover. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.

The game would feature Fire Emblem characters MOSTLY from Shadow Dragon / Awakening. Come release, ONLY those characters are in the game. Caeda, Cain, Draug and Navarre (Shadow Dragon), Chrom, Tharja and Virion (Awakening) fucking knock it off with tharja pls.

But you know what got me MOST excited in #FE? Seeing Ilyana as an NPC hostess for a restaurant. THAT did it, above all else.

This came out longer than I thought it would be but again this is the last big thing I’ll write over this whole Fire Emblem Warriors thing.

If you follow me on twitter, I’ll probably still reference it through retweets or some comments because I just can’t let go of my disappointment. But regardless of what I say, this is my biggest stance.

When DLC is announced I just know its going to be painful. At this rate, I’d rather the DLC as well be restricted to Shadow Dragon, Awakening, Fates. That’d be far less hurtful than seeing my favorite characters relegated to such a role.

I’d go back to playing Fire Emblem Heroes which understands how to represent the series even if Fates/Awakening still hold such a majority, especially since Sacred Stones finally got their banner...but my tablet no longer works so I can’t play it again.

I’m hoping to pick up Fire Emblem Echoes soon, since unlike Fates that looks like an FE game I’d actually enjoy and of course I am still cautiously optimistic for Fire Emblem Switch.

I’ve been a Fire Emblem fan for so long, despite the fact that I feel so bad about the series recently, I refuse to give up on it just yet. I’m hinging everything on what Fire Emblem Switch turns out to be like.

I’m looking ahead to that in 2018 for countless reasons.

small addendum

what the hell happened to the voice acting? in Awakening, I enjoyed the vocal performances. no one stood out to me as bad.

Fates? yeah...poor quality i’d say. Especially in Corrin’s smash trailer. wow that was bad.

but this? VA changes sure, but some characters have their old VAs and according to ppl more well versed in those characters, they don’t sound good. The less we say of the OCs performances the better.

Regardless of if you’re excited for this game or if you’re me who is staying as far away as possible, the voice acting leaves a lot to be desired.

[annathetrickster]

You're right about FEH introducing older characters to new fans, and I'm so grateful for it! I'm a new gen FE fan and I'm really interested in the older games. So, for example, I saw Nephenee on the Crimeans banner and thought she looked really badass, so I looked her up, explored the Tellius games, and fell head-over-heels in love with PoR/RD. The Tellius games are now my all-time fav FE games! (Also, Nephenee is SO NOT what I expected just from looking at her on that banner LOL)

that’s really great to hear, its always good news to me when new fans play and enjoy the older games, and PoR/RD are definitely among the best.

i think a lot of ppl are open to the idea of playing the older games, and heroes can help give them that extra push they need to actually start playing them, myself included. 

i’ve personally played every game besides new mystery, holy war, and thracia 776. i was content with not playing them, but since reinhardt is such a total badass in heroes i went back and started playing the few games that i havent yet. so far i completed shadow dragon and i’ll move onto the jugdral series as soon as i finish new mystery.

as for nephenee yeah, she’s definitely quite a bit different than you’d expect from just seeing her in heroes.

[randomnameless]

Needing that evening salt

While I thank @nilsh13 for giving me the link to that interview.

I was like “prepare for a ton of salt, take your lemons”  however, I’ve kind of mellowed out a bit because the VA seems to be a really nice person -

and I’ve read the Toyonaga interview recently.

Sometimes, the VA are allowed to interpret the character in a certain way that fits with what the game developpers more or less intended (granted they are the same guys who didn’t hire a continuity guy so...), and sometimes, it fails because direction sucks, because lenses are given and doesn’t match with the content you’re adaptating.

As a result, we have Jp!Rhea and lolcalised!Rhea.

i wonder if inoue will ever make an interview one day about 3H but I doubt it

We start with the infamous 

“You don’t have to try it so much (to be the calm and composed person), Rhea doesn’t try, she just is - The essence of Rhea is enough”

Pat no :’(

But... Rhea isn’t calm and composed, Rhea is emotional, pretty much, she’s a bubble waiting to burst and she tries to be calm and composed and keep a facade (more on that later) but, I feel like the “Rhea doesn’t try she just is” might be the reason why lolcalised!Rhea feels detached during certain events, when Aelfric’s attempted Nabatean homonculi Transmutation backfires, when Kikuko Inoue nails the sense of sadness and dread because, uh, a man she just said she saw as her own child basically died here to become a grotesque monster and attempted to replicate her own mistakes. 

Rhea tries to be a calm and composed person, she managed to keep up appearances for, apparently, 1000 years, but Rhea is also emotional as fuck.

But... This is where everything falls apart.

“You were given the direction - paraphrasing - to channel your inner Dumbledore?”

It’s safe to assume most people can draw parallels to “Three Houses and Harry Potter”

And Leigh falls in the biggest trap, trying to “play the game and figure out who is who” because, while I think someone replied to an earlier post about the parallel (i’m really sorry when i finally had time to reply 2 weeks had passed and i didn’t want to necropost), but I still firmly disagree, and truth to be told, this is, in a way, what I was afraid of when 3H was announced.

FE is a series that loves to reference itself, so when it was announced that the next game would be set in a school, and Bernie and Dorothea were previewed I grew really afraid that the game was going to have the typical “North American High School AU” and none of the “Fire Emblem” series. We had the recluse, Sylvain appeared to be the frat boy, I was expecting the cheerleader, Ignatz to be the nerd etc etc.

With the HP thing, and “trying to see who is who”, I feel like the localisation team and the VA were trying to look at the game with a special - tailored by them for their own use - lens. I will not say “western” lens, but they were trying to look for things that just... aren’t?

Yes, 3H took inspiration from the latest behemoth who was trending at that time, but it wasn’t HP, it was ASOIAF. 

And even then, it is only a flair and a colour scheme. 

If Edel isn’t enough, the Golden Deer, with its specific color scheme immediately calls back to the Baratheon sigil (a black stag on a field of gold, when the Golden Deer is a deer... on a field of gold). House Lannister and Arryn are reversed, the Lion isn’t associated to the Red House but to the Blue one, and the Eagle (actually the Arryn sigil is a falcon) leaves the Moon to the Blue House and lands in the Red House. And the Ashen Wolves are... grey wolves on a white field, like this house. IS managed to take animals from traditional european heraldry, but with the colors and the specific animals picked? It’s hard to deny the ASOIAF nod.

Hubert calls the mole people snakes, but it is his own nickname, the death cult has its own name, Agarthans. They never use a snake of their banner, nor refer to themselves as such.

Bar the aesthetics? 

IS wanted the monastery to be a nod to FE Jugdral’s Barahra Royal Academy, a place where, apparently, heirs of various nations could study together and form lasting friendships, which were supposed to prevent wars (or at least made former alumnis of said academy sad to fight against each other).

But because FE Jugdral wasn’t released overseas, and someone didn’t do their homework about the series (when Toyonaga is a big fan of the Jugdral saga), the monastery, and its academy, was linked to... HP.

Rhea isn’t Dumbledore. Rhea is an amalgation of Gotoh - the mentor who guides you - and, twist, of Tiki! 

If Seteth doubted Billy’s abilities, it is tied to their own nature as a self-insert, Fred doubted Robin when they first met, but then mellowed out. Or, without the avatar angle, when Greil trusts Ike, and later on, Titania, Shinon doubts him until the end (or until you recruit him).

So with a blurred lens, it is no wonder why localised!Rhea is so different from Inoue!Rhea. 

Then Leigh continues on with the interview, noting how insecure she is, irl, and how Rhea helped her realise that “sometimes I don’t need to try to be someone else to fit it, it’s okay to just be myself” ...

:/

How can the direction give this impression of Rhea to her VA when Rhea, her character, is the complete opposite? 

Rhea tries to be someone else, she laments about it, she cannot be herself, she has to put on a facade and make careful choices and pick certain words as an archbishop, Rhea has to anonymously ask how to tell people she doesn’t like hot tea because she is afraid of hurting feelings, she wants to socialise with people but cannot due to her station and the role she has. Rhea has to pretend to be a guide and a leader to her people, when she only wants her Mother to return to assume this role she thinks she is butchering.

So, doubling Rhea should actually have the opposite effect, Rhea cannot “just be (her)self”! or maybe it’d be an advice Leigh gives to Rhea, the character?

So if you take the blurred lens coupled with the tragic direction given, Rhea’s depth is erased. She is instead turned into the scary fanatic who never emotes, save to raeg, and only wants to rez her mom.

Cute moment though, even if the topic is one I disagree on, where, talking about Rhea’s temper, Leigh says she wouldn’t want to encounter her when she’s stuck in traffic :) (lbr we all know Rhea would pull out the wings and reactor of her DeLorean and fly over everyone, without Billy though, she cannot time travel)

Tl; dr : Imposing doesn’t mean frightening, Leigh and the interviewer watched too much DBZ and ASOIAF (rather, GOT) was the “western” behemoth referenced in FE16, not HP. 

The other referenced behemoth was... well, a small series called Fire Emblem.

As always, I’m more willing to cut some slack for the VAs because the industries is more recent than the one in Japan, and/or roles weren’t directed the same way (do you know the guy who dubs Morgan Freeman in Wonder France also dubs the voice talking during Uncle Ben’s ads? Or Bruce Willis is in Martin Mystery?)

But the Directors? No. Games have been imported and translated/localised for several decades now, you can’t pull a “4Kids” anymore on content you do not understand or do not wish to understand, and butchering a character (or misunderstand a character that much) shouldn’t have happened in 2019. 

Dub is nice, when it exists, but for now, I’m still going to stick to Sub.