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fatesdeepdive · 2 years ago

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Entry 108: I Don’t Care About Scarlet Dying

Revelation Chapter 18: Veiled Kingdom

As the skies get all fucky, Corrin and co arrive at the bridge from the start of the game. Corrin says they all have to jump off the bridge. Takumi points out that this is suicidal, and yeah he has a point. Everyone blindly trusts Corrin because Corrin is the perfect protagonist, but also Corrin doesn’t explain why they’re jumping off, or where they’re going, or who the bad guy is. If I was a character in this game, I’d think Corrin was mentally unwell and encouraging suicide.

Also, something I just realized. They can say Anankos. Garon says Anankos’s name all the time without dying. Corrin could have said that the puppetmaster was a mysterious man named Anankos. And also, the specifics of the curse aren’t clear. You can’t say the word Valla, but why can’t they say Gunter survived falling in the canyon? Say there’s a lake at the bottom containing the weapons they need to kill Anankos or some shit like that. There are a million less stupid ways to write this game.

Corrin offers to kill themselves by explaining shit, but Xander and Ryoma agree to jump without explanation. Everyone jumps into the canyon, except for Corrin and Scarlet. Good job, Corrin, not even leading the charge. Scarlet pins a flower on her chest before jumping and says that Corrin is special, but not as special as Ryoma.

Two things. Number one, Scarlet and Ryoma should have been able to Support each other. And number two, and this is the big one, it is very weird for Scarlet to suddenly have character focus when no other character receives this level of focus after being recruited. It makes what’s about to happen very obvious.

Corrin and Scarlet jump and holy shit is the Bottomless Canyon treacherous. There are hundreds of spikes sticking out of the wall and there’s only a small gap to fall through. Half of the army would realistically die. Anankos shows up, looking like a Danganronpa killer, and brags about being a god before shooting Corrin with dark magic. And yes, I know that Anankos is a random bald silhouette because he’s possessing someone and they can’t show it for plot twist reasons, but it's still stupid and jarring. Also how is Anankos here? Can people possessed by Anankos fly?

Anankos throws another attack and Scarlet pushes Corrin out of the way, dying in the process. Her flower is also destroyed. Corrin and Scarlet land on a brick road, by the way, meaning that they should have died from fall damage. I don’t care if the Bottomless Canyon isn’t bottomless, that doesn’t make momentum stop being a thing.

So, yeah. Scarlet is dead. And I want to talk about that. Fire Emblem Fates has a bad tendency to kill characters off suddenly and randomly to make the player feel sad. See Kaze dying in Birthright and Lilith in both of the original routes for other times I’ve ranted about it. The problem is, these scenes are so blatant and unearned that they fall absolutely flat. And it’s far worse with Scarlet, a character who had maybe a dozen lines total and joined two battles ago. Scarlet exists not as a character, but as a whoa look how deep we are someone died plot device. And it's pathetic.

There are deaths in Fire Emblem games that hurt like hell. Emmeryn’s death in Awakening, Geralt’s in Three Houses. Hell, the whole conceit of the game is that your units can die suddenly in battle, that characters you grow attached to are mortal. But, I don’t care about Scarlet dying. And there is one simple reason why: you could have swapped Scarlet out for any other character and the effect on the story would be identical. Hell, it would be better because those characters aren’t throwaway characters who are given two mandatory Supports and otherwise don’t really exist.

I do not give a shit about Scarlet dying because she is a minor character who exists for no reason but to die. I like her as a character, but I feel nothing about her death. This is like a comic book crossover killing off a dozen D-List characters to show how edgy their new villain is. It is mediocre, inconsequential, and formulaic writing, and I do not care.

Also you can marry Scarlet if you grind between maps, which is both funny in that it can make the player screw themselves over by making Corrin permanently spouseless, and funny because literally nothing changes about the scene. Scarlet still says Ryoma is better than Corrin and Corrin still worries about how Ryoma will feel when he finds out Scarlet is dead. Fates, through its stupid writing, gives you the ability to cuckold Corrin. Fucking phenomenal.

The rest of the fam shows up and protects Corrin from some enemies, including Azura who someone kills a Berserker. An obligatory battle starts, against that one blue-haired Strategist Vallite we saw in Hidden Truths and at the start of Revelation. This battle has our units teleporting between different islands to activate Dragon Veins to open a warp to the boss. After said boss is defeated she just vanishes.

Azura explains everything. Ryoma finally remembers that Scarlet exists and asks where she is. Wait, hold on, how did he not see her corpse when he saved Corrin? Whatever, dumb writing. Corrin shows Scarlet’s corpse to the gang and Ryoma makes Corrin promise that Scarlet’s sacrifice won’t be in vain.

I considered buying a Scarlet clone from another save file to ruin the dramatic tension, and I will do that eventually, but unfortunately, I’m broke after buying a certain unit. More on that in a minute.

After this chapter, the Hot Springs upgrade reward unit shows up. Not Izana, because he’s dead, but Fuga for some reason. You know, Hayato’s dad? The wild ride guy? He joins for some reason.

Fuga

Been a while since I did a character profile. Fuga, Hayato’s dad. Big buff chief guy. He’s recruitable, I guess. I don’t really care tbh. His personal skill, Wind Disciple, boosts Hit and Avoid when he isn't at full health. Neat.

Now, I could be excited about Fuga, even though I really don’t care, but there’s another buff tribesman without any Supports to be excited about. I’ve been saving up for a while, and I finally have the 40K needed to buy the savior of Hoshido, king of blacksmiths, wielder of the Legendary Whacker, the masked god, a man who fights for his own reasons, mother fucking Kenshi! You know, that Birthright generic captured unit I pumped all my stat boosters into until he had max strength. I plan to use him in every battle as an insurance policy. The rest of my army may die, but Kenshi is unstoppable.

Support: Moron/Fuga

C: Corrin asks Fuga about Sumeragi. Fuga explains that they were close friends and that Sumeragi was a troublemaker as a child. Fuga contemplates the fact that he's spent a life fighting, while Sumeragi is at peace. Spoilers: he isn't.

B: A young lady asks Fuga on a date. Fuga says he's too old. Corrin asks if Fuga's considered marriage before. Fuga says he loved a woman once, but she married someone else. Then she died, so he adopted her son Hayato.

A: A depressed Fuga considers retiring and letting the next generation step up. He also says he should follow Sumeragi to the grave, which seems a bit suicidal. Corrin says they still need guidance from Fuga. Fuga says Corrin shares Sumeragi's passion.

Review: Actually pretty good. This one does a good job of giving Fuga a character in his limited screen time.

Support: Corrin/Fuga

C: Corrin sees Fuga break a tree in half with a punch and asks him to teach her. Fuga offers to train her, noting that Hayato gave up on training early.

B: Fuga trains Corrin. Fuga says that Sumeragi was his brother-on-arms, but he doesn't deserve to call himself Sumeragi's friend, because he failed Sumeragi. Corrin says Fuga shouldn't blame himself, because it's Corrin's fault he died. Fuga says Sumeragi's be proud her and that she shouldn't blame herself.

A: Fuga stops teaching Corrin because he's taught Corrin everything he knows. Corrin says she likes training with Fuga. They vow to fight together.

S: Fuga says he wishes their visits weren't just centered on training. Corrin says she only trained with Fuga so they could hang out. They get together which is weird.

Review: Corrin and Fuga’s guilt is interesting...until it is forgotten about.

Support: Kaden/Peri

C: Peri freaks out because there's a caterpillar on her back. Kaden removes it and Peri asks him to squish it because it's gross. Kaden says no and explains to Peri that caterpillers turn into butterflies, something she didn't know somehow.

B: Kaden shows Peri the coccoon. Peri thinks its still gross. Kaden asks how she walks through the woods, and Peri explains she orders people to kill any bugs that come near her.

A: Peri thinks the butterfly is disgusting and decides to keep killing bugs. Kaden promises that he'll peacefully deal with bugs if she calls for him.

S: Peri says she wishes she could call Kaden when there wasn't bugs, because she likes being with him. Kaden says he loves her back. Peri says that's good, because if he didn't give her his heart, she would have been forced to cut it out and take it.

Review: Honestly, Peri works better when she's dumb and overemotional than when she's a murderer. Her freaking out about bugs is fun and Kaden's a nice guy.

Support: Elise/Ryoma

C: Ryoma helps Elise get a kite out of a tree. He thanks her for reminding him of simpler times.

B: Ryoma questions if Elise belongs on a battlefield, because she is a literal child. I would argue that she doesn't belong on the battlefield, because child soldiers are bad. Ryoma notes that, however, they need her help. He chastises himself for being powerless. Elise says she wants to fight and Ryoma praises her strength.

A: Elise teaches Ryoma how to make daisy chains. This helps make Ryoma see lasting peace as attainable.

S: Ryoma and Elise get married and it's gross and weird.

Review: S-Rank aside, this is a really good Support. It fumbles the landing on the discussions of Elise being a child soldier, but her innocence inspiring Ryoma is great.

#scarlet fire emblem #fuga fire emblem

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