#cyril explains feh

[fehtism]

huh ? how does this even happen ?

well,

legendary alear deals 0 damage on her first hit and deals around 30-40 damage on her second hit due to her special activating.

Itsuki tries to deal 93 damage but legendary alear has three forms of damage reduction.

first, her prf weapon reduces damage from first hit by 40%

second, her B slot null c disrupt 4 further reduces damage from first hit by 30%

and finally, because her special triggered she gets another 40% damage reduction

it's important to note that damage reduction is multiplicative and not additive! legendary alear does not somehow have 110% damage reduction, she effectively has (0.6 * 0.6 * 0.7 = 25% of original damage is damage taken) 75% damage reduction.

Itsuki proceeds to Not kill legendary alear due to the absurd amounts of damage reduction she has and his lack of damage reduction piercing.

Legendary Alear triggers her special again against Itsuki and she heals a bit from triggering her special due to her A slot skill of atk/spd finish 4

So that is why Alear can kill itsuki even though it says she will deal 0 damage 4 times and why itsuki doesn't kill alear despite it saying he will deal 93 damage twice

[deathbirby]

K here are some terrible takes I have collected. Short thoughts for each one.

"Rhea intentionally caused famine by not sharing knowledge with Faerghus"

We have no idea what kind of knowledge she shared. And pick a side! Rhea has to stay out of human affairs because she's not human, OR she has to involve herself with human affairs because otherwise she's bad?

"The Church is homophobic"

Nowhere is it even implied that same-sex relationships are frowned upon in Fodlan. Hell, the archbishop, goddess, and many devout characters are queer, and nobody raises a fuss about their love lives in their endings.

Their holy book also says that the goddess does not deny love.

The whole crest stuff is not the church's fault. They tell you not to abuse crests, and had no hand in the creation of them. Humans did. And speaking of humans, Edelgard says that the people are the ones who elevate crest bearers, not the church.

The Church also has no control over the nobles, who would be the homophobic ones in this scenario??

"Cyril is Rhea's slave"

Cyril was an actual slave at House Goneril until Rhea saved him, something he is expresses his gratitude for by doing chores. He wants to feel useful in some capacity. This is a child who wants to feel useful and takes on extra chores because of that. He's a stubborn little lad, and we love him for it.

"Rhea keeps Cyril uneducated on purpose"

Cyril says in his and Lysithea's support that he keeps his illiteracy a secret because he doesn't anybody to feel like he's not up to a task because of it. AKA: He wants to help out!

"Seteth is doing propaganda"

I'm guessing this refers to the Shadow Library. Seteth removes books there that are either inappropiate or have information that's extremely dangerous if it got out. Some books talk about bans, but since those books are in the shadow library, that likely means they're outdated.

Or this refers to him calling Edelgard mean things?? She declared war against them; of course he's not happy.

"Byleth regains their humanity in CF"

Byleth was never human. Their mother is VERY much implied to have been a Nabatean, and their heart belongs to their (likely Nabatean) mother and the goddess.

Byleth also embraces their Nabatean heritage. Remember that Silver Snow is called Byleth's Route.

Byleth's Legendary Alt in FEH is their Enlightened One version.

Byleth's Brave Alt in Feh is Sothis's regalia, and they sing the Song of the Nabateans.

Byleth's Halloween Alt is a Duo with Sothis.

Byleth's Summer Alt is a Duo with Rhea.

Byleth's Khadein Alt talks about the Goddess's hand in events.

Byleth's Fallen Alt's Forging Bonds has Sothis taking over their body to protect them.

This argument also implies that it's bad for someone to be Nabatean, which is like... yikes.

"Seteth kills the western church members cuz theyre heretics"

"Indeed. The Western Church is attempting to seize sacred ground by force."

- They explain it to you in the exact same paralogue!

"The Nabateans benefit the most from the current state of events" / "The Nabateans are the ruling/top class in Fodlan"

How does the nearly extinct group benefit most from a system where their people's bones are used as WMDs?

They are walking on glass, y'all. If the truth (or even a lie) got out, they would get hunted down.

"Lonato is a good man"

He incited an armed rebellion against a church and would've mowed down villages to get there. He also goes around the knights to attack the students. No, he is not a good man.

"Nabateans ruled over humans in the past and their rule was bad" / "Nemesis did the right thing by taking out the Nabateans"

The word the devs use for the Nabatean rule is apparently something like "cure."

It is also NEVER stated that their rule was bad? Just that the Agarthans hated it (because they hate everyone).

Even the Agarthans talk shit about Nemesis. Nobody liked him.

And you can't... justify genocide? What?

"Sothis and her kids are colonizers and the Agarthans are the natives who got wiped out"

Fun fact! Despite all my theories, it is never made clear whether or not humans already lived on Fodlan when Sothis got there! The beginning cutscene flashes (Sothis's memories) show us a gorilla first, which implies that either life was not advanced, or humans did not exist by then.

Let's say humans did exist then. Sothis landed there and just started her own family. She never took any land by force? She shared knowledge with the humans which allowed them to build modern cities. That's not colonization. Please look up cases of actual colonization; I beg of you.

Sothis is more accurately an immigrant who shares her own culture with others.

"Sothis is not a god but a space alien"

It's never confirmed if Sothis is a space alien so that's actually just theory/headcanon.

Even if, all of her feats (and the dev's words) say that she's a god.

There are many more takes like these, but these are the ones I remember from the top of my head.

[randomnameless]

I remembered you said you didn't like cyril with lysithea as a pairing, but which is worse, lysithea or hilda?

?

I don't think one is worse than the other but if you want my opinion on Cyril ships...

Uh... Hilda?

Wins this by a landslide?

The entire "Goneril House had slaves" subplot might have evaporated from the Fodlan devs, FEH remembered it lol

Sure, Hilda might not have been the one who had a slave, being it was her great Uncle Gildas or someone else... And it's kind of heartwarming to see her warm up to Cyril despite his Almyran origins because of all of his hardwork...

And yet, it makes me very uncomfortable, because you basically have someone, a young Noble Lady, whose house enslaves people, who basically tells a former slave from her own House, that she values him because he works so hard :/

Even if Uncle Gildas was the one who "hired" Cyril, it's, imo, pretty disturbing.

I much prefer an ending and resolution of Hilda's bias against Almyrans through Claude (where the slavery issue of House Goneril can be properly adressed) than... have Uncle Gildas attend to his former slave's wedding with his niece, hell, will new Almyran children be hired to attend to their needs or what?

All jokes aside, even if Cyril had been a slave to another house, I still think there's something really disturbing on how Cyril doesn't mean doing her tasks/chores because she's lazy - sure, Hilda has self confidence issues, but between doing something and being afraid of being judged for doing them well, and letting a former child slave do them for you.... I think one option is still way more preferable than the other.

Even if Hilda is not the kind of person (at least in FE16 lol) to enforce her role as... someone with a higher status than him, (something Cyril believes Claude would, and Claude's "stop being so cold to me don't you know who I am?" really sounds wrong) given Cyril's history with House Goneril, Hilda's lack of commitment to this particular issue when it's brought to her (blame Fodlan's writing I guess, or she really dgaf?)...

Yep, Hilda by a landslide.

As for Lys...

Blame it on CF being my first route, and Nopes slaughtering the Deers, but Lys is now the kind of person who can and will sell her friends, country and family to the person who ruined them, if it means she might have a better chance at life.

I think this mindset is completely... at odds with Cyril, who feels so grateful and indebted to Rhea that he is willing to offer his life (and to die for her) and even so, he feels like it will never be enough to repay her.

I don't have any Cyril ships - I much prefer him in a relationship (platonic, familial, whatever) where he can finally have friends and start living little by little, with people who finally care for him.

Even if he was completely shafted in Nopes, I got the feeling he and Rhea talked more, and maybe Rhea might, off-screen because Nopes, tell him to live his life without feeling tied to her? Given how she obviously angsts not once but twice about him dying for her sake in AG (when they run away from GM and when Cyril has an exploration dialogue explaining he cannot fight with Barney and pals because Rhea'd be upset if he died!) they might become closer and have the convo they have in FE16 (off-screen because Rhea cannot be on screen when it's not about Billy!) and ask him to stop living to repay a perceived debt, but live for himself now.

[randomnameless]

^^^^

This!

Some part of the fandom either see Cyril as a token Almyran and project a lot of, uh, their own thoughts about racial inequality on Fodlan, usually ending up with "Cyril must love Almyra and Almyrans because he is Almyran himself" which is, imo, pretty racist in itself, or is used again in projected takes about the Church somehow it apparently hating foreigners and non-believers, even if the Pope who is secretly Jesus and her brother second spell out the inverse :/

"But Claude said-"

Claude is the one who says this :

Don't change the subject, Claude. To the people of the Alliance, the Almyrans are— It's true that there's a history of hostility, but why should that mean we're doomed to remain hostile forever?

When Hilda's paralogue could have been played a chapter ago, where we basically have Almyrans attacking the locket and creating casualties like :

That's you, Professor. Please help us save our allies and protect Fódlan's Locket. We must defend here, or else... Our house... The Alliance... All our allied troops were wiped out. We won't be able to defend this place.

But sure Claude, that's just "history of hostility" and not, something that happens everyday because it's some sort of glorified dick measuring contest, that somehow involves people dying on both sides but at least they have fun.

So who cares about Cyril when he can be tokenised as an Almyran who can validate Claude's point of view about the world and his own ideals ?

Canon!Cyril is the one who tells Claude that maybe if the people in charge in Almyra would look after orphans like him that place would be better - in that sense, he is his kryptonite : Cyril is an Almyran who doesn't like Almyra not because he's been raised as a Fodlanese, but because Almyra sucks on its own.

And... bar platitudes "sure I'll tell dad about it later", there's nothing Claude can say because he is still the person who would rather blame the Church rather than self-reflect, like Cyril forces him to in their support, and realise that, maybe, maybe, almyrans attacking the border every monday to measure the size of their dicks might be part of the reason why the Alliance doesn't really like people from Almyra.

So for Claude to be "right" and Rhea to be BaD (so he's doubly right!!), Cyril's canon character is thrown away, and swapped, for some fans, by a random almyran boy who's somehow manipulated and groomed and idk what else because "Churches are BaD irl" and "Claude fights against racism, so Rhea must be racist".

For what it's worth, IS through FEH and KT through Nopes really cemented Cyril, despite outcries from some fans who wanted him to join the deers or even the eagles because what is even characterisation, as a member of the Church of Seiros faction, and even more than that, Cyril is always by Rhea's side.

It first started in FEH's Gatekeeper animation : basically several people from Garreg Mach are summoned on screen, Cyril is summoned with Rhea, Flayn and Seteth.

FEH's 4 koma gag has Cyril hang out with Flayn, Cyril's unit - despite being from the post TS - mentions Shamir as his archery instructor, and obviously, Rhea.

Hell, Archbishop!Rhea's title refering to her being a mother/matriarch is, imo, a call back to Cyril saying she's like a mom to the believers.

As for Hopes... even with Cyril's demote to being non-playable (not even in the post game!) there have some interactions, with, basically Rhea being worried about his safety (even during her various final stands), or taking him along in what was intended as a familial outing (aka an outing with her, Seteth and Flayn only), culminating with Cyril explaining that he cannot join the war effort because Rhea told him she'd be "mighty upset" if he was killed.

(@themoomoorn Cyril talks to her every day which would have made their relationship more obvious in FE16 if Rhea wasn't locked behind a "alone b4 u" shit of a player pandering support thus cannot meaningfully interact with the people she is clearly close to!)

Tl ; Dr : this take was born out of some people not really liking canon!Cyril and instead wanting to have an almyran character who would check all of their biases about the church (but ultimately Rhea) being BaD and/or validate Claude's character and goals.

So about Rhea and Cyril’s relationship

Is there a scene I just didn’t find where Rhea is abusing Cyril or is that just a fandom headcanon? I’m being genuine btw I wanna know where Rhea hating minorities came from, (if she dislikes one race and that’s the human race y’all 😭)

[sotiredmostnights]

my thoughts re: ash

i've seen a few people complaining about how ash is treated in terms of design and personality. i won't argue in regards to her design (although i definitely find her design to be far more tame than other FEH characters), but i don't see anything wrong with her personality so far, and i'll try to explain why.

the main complaint i've seen is that ash is nothing more than waifubait because, as far as we can tell, she seems clumsy, sweet, & shy. these are indeed common aspects of a generic waifu character, but honestly, when it comes to dark-skinned characters in particular, we haven't seen a fire emblem character like this before.

most dark-skinned characters in FE tend to fall into one of these categories: aggressive/boisterous/violent (basilio, flavia, helbindi), villainous/antagonistic (surtr, muspell, laegjarn, aversa, laevatein), threatening/intimidating at first glace (benny, dedue), and/or servile (dedue, cyril). even though i enjoy most of these characters, i think these are all pretty negative stereotypes and tropes when applied to the few nonwhite characters across all the FE titles.

so far, ash is different. she's shy and bashful, and it doesn't seem like she's going to fall into any of the aforementioned harmful tropes. it's too early to say, of course, but man. it's such a breath of fresh air compared to what most representation in FE looks like so far, and i'm very excited to see how her character is handled!

[gascon-en-exil]

Dark Deity Pre-Release Character Opinions

This isn't actually a tier list, but someone helpfully created a template for this game and it's as good a way as any to do a little visual showcase for this cast. Characters are listed by their class sets, which are fixed but offer a nice variety in terms of promotion options. My opinions on each are as follows, from left to right in each row. Most characters have introductory profiles written up on the DD subreddit, if you'd like to check them out yourself.

Warriors

Alexa

You know those buff female blacksmiths in Echoes and Three Houses that some people wish were playable characters? That's pretty much Alexa. Can't say I'm too hyped about her myself, but warrior + tomboyish female character will do that for me...or not do it, I suppose.

Benji

Seems to have been written to become a meme, and I still can't decide whether that's clever or stupid. Kind of like Raphael only with a bigger emphasis on training than on eating, and with brotherly devotion replaced with brotherly angst that might theoretically go somewhere if the character isn't reduced to being a goofy joke all the time.

Fenton

Doesn't have a character profile, so as far as I know he's just a generic dwarf because DD swaps out its inspiration's loli dragons and other vaguely fetishistic shapeshifters for the two most cliché non-human races in Western fantasy. I wonder whether his VA will voice him with a Scottish accent, to go all in on the (ironic?) laziness. There are a handful of elves in the playable cast, but Fenton is the only dwarf so for better or worse he's representing.

Helena

She's the embodiment of the FE exotic swordswoman archetype, but curiously DD seems to have turned that broad ethnic brush inward. Helena's last name is apparently a Japanese verb, her art shows her with a spear (as in the association of the naginata with women), and she studied and trained in a monastery that seems to blend elements of Buddhism and Shintoism. Not sure how all that fits into the larger setting yet, but at this point she's still got more background development than Petra.

Irving

Our Hero, the one front and center on the cover art. He sounds a bit on the blander side as far as lords or lord equivalents go, with his most promising hook for me being his established friendship with Garrick (see the ranger section). At best I can hope for a bit of a romantic friendship dynamic, although they sound a bit rougher overall as they're military academy schoolmates I wonder why DD went with that instead of lordlings of different territories.

Rogues

Brooke

Looks like Camilla; has a backstory like Niles. Cleavage aside though the sexual element of both is toned down here, and there might be some sapphic bodyguard shenanigans to be had as her current employers are a pair of highborn sisters further down this list.

Cia

For some reason she reminds me of Tressa from Octopath Traveler, only bustier and a bartender rather than a merchant. She's still just a small town girl with big city dreams, and this being a tactical war game following those dreams will inevitably involve stabbing people.

Corvan

Hard to judge him at the moment, as his profile was only the second written and so isn't terribly detailed. He's a moon elf with scholarly interests, apparently. Still, as of right now he's the only rogue who doesn't slot loosely into either a ninja/assassin or pirate aesthetic, so that's kind of neat. Also, he's one of several characters to have FEH-esque beach fanart made of them already, so clearly someone's into elf twinks.

Ford

A former officer at the military academy Irving attends and a smuggler who dotes on his niece, Ford has major dad energy. Per developer reveals he's also bi, and as I mentioned before I'm totally fine with that. More bear sex, please - but what guy in this cast would hop in the sack with Ford? Only time will tell. His personal skill makes him extra dodgy, which combined with the mug of booze in his art makes me think of WoW brewmasters who dodge-tank through the power of being wasted.

Wren

Like Brooke, he's an assassin from a foreign nation - in his case the same one as Helena so presumably he's a not!Japanese ninja. I'm not really feeling him at the moment. What is it about Hao'Fen (the city/territory he and Helena come from) and massive families? That comes up in both their backstories.

Rangers

Caius

I feel like this is the third or fourth character to grow up in some slum or other; at least they've all been in different towns so far. The relative rarity of noble characters is certainly different from FE, but it reduces the political stakes which leaves me wondering a bit about the story. Anyway, Caius is a small town desert hunter who learned how to make arrows out of animal bones. How aerodynamic is bone, I wonder?

Garrick

Irving's BFF and seemingly the Hector to Irving's Eliwood, only with more flirting (his intro doesn't specify that Garrick is flirting with women, but I'm not going so far as to say that indicates anything). He's the academy headmaster's son, with a strained relationship with his father for some of that hotheaded lead tension. Notably, his VA is the one I'm most familiar with in this cast, as he's the voice of Revali from Breath of the Wild as well as love interests in two different erotic gay dating sims I've played. In other words, I know what this guy sounds like making awkwardly simulated sex noises...and I have no idea what to do with that information.

Maeve

She's a half-elf with a very storied background, so much so that it's all rather hard to follow her exploits when little of what's being described has been fully revealed yet. I'm expecting her to be a mid/lategame recruit, unless she's dropped in early on to reveal that (sun) elves exist or something.

Rose

Imagine if Bernadetta were a commoner, although we can only hope they'll be less screaming. Alternatively, Neimi without an obvious boyfriend. She won the beach contest so now she has official swimsuit art, which I guess makes her a top-tier waifu in the eyes of players who care about such things.

Sophia

A ranger in the "has animal companions" sense, although whether that will come into play mechanically aside from her personal skill - Butter the ferret can attack with her! - remains to be seen. Her preference for the company of animals is explained by a lack of social graces, so prepare for klutz-related humor. Of note to those interested in F/F is that her introduction specifically brings up her connection with Sloane (see the mage section) and how close the two of them are.

Clerics

Faust

Doesn't have a profile yet, so not much to go off other than his decidedly unhinged look. The cleric class set does feature some darker-flavored options, so presumably he's more naturally aligned with those. His VA was announced to be the YouTuber behind So This is Basically Fire Emblem and other similar videos, so I'm picturing a kooky and somewhat demented Henry type.

Lincoln

Also lacks a profile at time of writing...clerics get so little love. The Discord has identified him a bland blond paladin sort, but as we know from the likes of Perceval and especially Dimitri that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be boring (or not gay).

Maren

The soft-spoken healer type, and also a childhood friend of Garrick although her intro sibling-zones him but then this game is inspired by FE so who knows if that'll stick. She may have some interesting thoughts on the theology of the setting, as there seem to be several faiths and she's said to have a complicated relationship with her own. I will be utterly shocked if she's not either Irving or Garrick's eventual love interest.

Samara

One of two princesses of the country of Aramor, which appears to be loosely inspired by the Middle East. Heaven help us if the Khalidstans ever get wind of this game. Unfortunately aside from her bond with her older sister (in the mage section) and the knowledge that Brooke has been hired as their bodyguard there's not much to Samara at the moment. Hopefully the clerics all do some comparative theology in their bond conversations, and this isn't like Sacred Stones where none of the clergy characters from different countries ever compare notes. The succession crisis involving Samara and her sister vs. their less-loved cousin the king's son might be a major plot hook? It's still too early to tell.

Vesta

Much like Maeve her backstory has entirely too much going on to really follow at the moment. Basically she's a human who grew up in a sun elf city because Reasons (seriously, I don't know what they are) and was called to a clerical vocation and also something about taking a journey. Has an unfortunate case of silly boob armor, which unlike a certain other character probably won't be rectified this close to release.

Mages

Alden

Maren's precocious younger brother, also basically Ricken up to and including the comically oversized hat. As a unit he follows the tradition of Donnel, Mozu, and Cyril of having a personal skill that buffs his stat gains, so it's safe to say he's a growth unit. At least he'll probably join early.

Liberty

Comes with dead brother angst and a connection to the "aspects" system that will hopefully make more sense once I've played the game and know how it functions both mechanically and from a storytelling perspective. Otherwise she looks to be a busty older - as in, not a teenage - mage in the vein of Calill.

Monroe

Got the first ever character profile, so it's really short. He's the son of a duke and sounds like a bit of a snob, albeit one that can make explosions happen to back up his haughtiness. He's got some scarring around his eye that surely must come with a story. Someone also made featured fanart of him in Heroes summer banner style, so I guess he's got somebody horny already.

Sara

Samara's half-sister, with comparable fantasy Middle Eastern flavoring. Has an interest in discovering magical artifacts and being a just ruler in the event she winds up on the throne (so, almost definitely), and she and Samara travel around with the assassin Brooke as their bodyguard. There's maybe some lesbian possibilities there? Either way, Sara has enough development where I could see her as a major supporting character.

Sloane

Comes with a genuinely fascinating backstory involving manipulative double-crossing parents, an education in the cruelties and deceptions of social life (reflected in her personal skill), and disinheritance - and yet it's all likely to be overshadowed because she may go down as DD's equivalent to Fates's face-touching. Her initial art is even more revealing than Camilla's, and while the developers later gave her a more modest redesign after negative feedback I get the feeling that this controversy may live on. Her introduction mentions her hunting for both heirs and heiresses and she's now been linked to Sophia, so safe to say she's another confirmed bi character.

Adepts

While the other class sets are standard fantasy fare adepts require a bit more explanation. They have innate magical abilities and appear to be feared and distrusted most places in the setting. Functionally they remind me of adepts from the Golden Sun series, if anyone is familiar with those games. The classes in the adept group tend more toward physical/magical hybridization than those of other sets, so that will probably be their mechanical niche. Oh, and their default weapon type is lances, which is a plus in my book.

Aurima

Along with Caius and the royal sisters, he's another one from the desert nation of Aramor. An arena fighter who got touched by a god in what I assume was a non-sexual way and came out of it with a new appearance and adept powers. Also, he's confirmed to be over 40 - how often do you see that in games like this?

Bianca

Looks like a more carefree Mathilda from Echoes. She's a ranking officer in the Delian army which sounds like it'd sit uneasily with her adept powers. Her profile describes Lincoln as her close friend, which is still about the most we know about him at this point.

Elias

This guy's writing plays more into the fairly standard coding that comes with adept powers, as we know they manifested shortly before he was going to confess his feelings to a male paramour and afterwards he was forced to flee his homeland and wander the world. He also spent time among dwarves, so insert short bear jokes here? In the present he's attached to Cia in what seems to be a platonic way; maybe she's a fruit fly, or maybe she just likes having a friend who can light drunken assholes on fire? Elias is definitely into guys, but I would still be a little surprised if he turned out to be totally gay as that's such a rarity in these sorts of things.

Iris

Oof, another lengthy and rough backstory. Iris had better parents than Sloane, but she also had to deal with permanent facial scarring (hence the mask) after a bandit kidnapping and the stigma of manifesting as an adept pretty much eliminating the prospects of her making a good political marriage. Also, she and Elias both come from Neullais, which is prominently featured on the continental map on the DD subreddit but doesn't seem to come up all too often in backstories. I think it's a not!France? Hard to tell.

Thae'lanel

A World of Warcraft blood elf, flowing anime hair and apostrophe'd name and all. I like WoW so that's not terribly grating, but as he has no profile yet there's little else I can say. Thae'lanel is mentioned in Maeve's introduction as a member of a sun elf group called the Exiled, which I'm guessing is tied to his adept status in some way. He and Maeve form yet another adventurer/bodyguard duo.

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised Thoughts on Cindered Shadows:

Spoilers! All the spoilers!

Yeah it took me a week to finish it, as always, I’ve been busy

It’s possible that someone will remember that I’ve made a few of these, and that I said I’d be doing Crimson Flower next, but haven’t. I have finished that route. I wrote something up. It ended up being over 8000 words long. I decided no one would want to read 8000 words of me complaining about fantasy politics, and did not post it

If anyone is interested in knowing in detail what I think about any or all of the following: Edelgard (short version: good in concept, but severely let down by the writing), Fodlan’s politics (surprisingly complex! Which is why the main characters’ having such simple and naive politics is so frustrating!), Rhea and the church (she creeps me out), general opinions on minor things (most controversial: I actually like F!Byleth’s outfit) or various shipping opinions/headcanons (I like pretty much any pairing except Dimitri/Anyone, and Linhardt and Caspar with anybody but each other), give me a shout and let me know. I won’t be holding my breath, but like... if you want me to ramble I wouldn’t say no

Anyway! Cindered Shadows!

New characters ranked by how much I like them as characters, most to least: Yuri, Hapi, Constance, Balthus 

Reasoning: I love pretty boys because I am, emotionally, still 12, stoic-type girls are also great and I love her design, she annoyed me a little at first but I thought the sunlight thing was interesting and she eventually grew on me, and I don’t dislike him at all, he’s just the least interesting to me

New characters ranked by how much I like them as units: Balthus, Yuri, Constance, Hapi (ugh, I really like her but she was total deadweight for me)

I’ve always really, really loved the concept of both underground cities and groups of people who have nothing in common aside from being outsiders, bound together by that one shared trait - so I. Love. Abyss. I wish the whole game was set there, it’s so cool

Some really good maps! Actually, let’s review each level:

1: Good intro to the Wolves. Aside from the ‘secret fourth house’ line, which is bad and makes what is otherwise a great concept sound really dumb. But the map itself makes for a very good demonstration of each of the Wolves’s deals. Bit messed up that you kill a bunch of Abyssians and no one really addresses that again, though

2: Even the game comments on the fact that releasing four waves of enemies in a circle gets tiresome. Least favourite

3: Wish the game had been a little clearer of the exact requirements for finishing the map. Also, enough reinforcements to almost be too annoying, but it managed to just avoid that, for me at least

4: This fucking level. I love an escape map in concept, but that goddamn doll at the start. I don’t know how I would have beat it if I hadn’t realised Edelgard can be reclassed out of her armor for better movement (speaking of deadweight units... was the same on Crimson Flower, Lord ranking in terms of actual usefulness in battle is Claude > Dimitri >>> Edelgard, and I say this as someone who normally loves defense-based units in video games). Anyway, despite the fact that it took me like six tries, this was my favourite of the lot - partly because it was so satisfying to finally beat, and partly because, like I say, I just love the concept

5: Breather level, thankfully. Cool to see Metodey again. But... why is he there??? I made Edelgard kill defeat him

6: Starts out really hard and gets easier. Biggest problem for me was the Bolting mages. I found that the trick was to use Ashe’s battalion gambit on Byleth and counter from afar with the Sword of the Creator. Map’s a cinche after they’re gone

7: A really, really cool final boss fight, and really great to just get to fight a big monster without having to slog through hundreds of other enemies as well (two per turn is fine, gives characters like Ashe who are too weak to fight the boss something to do). And there’s no way I could find to cheap it like on Crimson Flower (something I had to do then because of Cyril and his goddamn Murder Axe). Only wish it wasn’t the case that half of the Wolves can basically never touch the boss without being insta-killed. Hapi and Constance should have been able to do more than Phantom Aelfric Clean-Up

It was really nice getting to have all the Lords work together. I had Edelgard and Dimitri do a Gambit Boost and it was weirdly emotional

Am upset that no supports were available. Primarily because this would have been a great opportunity to add some side-story exclusive supports between the Lords. I get why they couldn’t do that in the main game, but I think the lack of any connection between them (besides the mostly one-sided Dimitri->Edelgard) is one of the game’s biggest downfalls, and this could have at least compensated a little

At least we got a few conversations in Abyss

Oh I wonder who the traitor could be, who is it, of the five characters we’ve met it couldn’t possibly be the really generic looking old guy who wasn’t in the trailer oh my god I’m so shocked it WAS him this is an unprecedented twist the likes of which we will never be graced with again

Liked getting some back story and an actual name for Byleth’s mother

I want to know how ‘Noa Fruit’ became a thing. Linhardt alludes to it, but I want that lore. Give me the Fruit Lore, Intsys

Also give me Mysterious Woman lore

I’ve said this before, but Gatekeeper x Abysskeeper OTP

Why can’t Yuri and Linhardt support I want them to bond over being smart bisexual pretty boys with grappler best friends (I have a very long mental list of characters who should have had supports together but don’t) 

Yuri’s make-up is gorgeous. Love that design choice

The ‘Nabatean Chalice’ reminded me - I’ve kind of always wondered if Nabatea is meant to be a call back to Nabata from the Elibe games, or if it’s just coincidence that they sound similar

Will we ever find out anything about the Crest of Ernest or nah? (Fiver says if ever, it’ll be randomly explained in a Forging Bonds in FEH like three years from now. Wouldn’t put it past them) 

So Byleth’s nickname was the ‘Ashen Demon’. And these guys are the ‘Ashen Wolves’. I kind of figured that would come up? Was it a translation thing?

I love how the reasons for each of the Wolves being in Abyss were “I barely escaped execution by the Church for the crime of murder”, “I was experimented on and now have dangerous magical powers”, “I’m the last surviving member of a collapsed noble family” and “I’m in like, so much debt, lol”. Kind of makes me wonder if Leonie ends up down there in some of her endings

Although I hear that there’s actually a little more to Balthus, as revealed by supports. I haven’t seen all of them yet, the only one I’ve looked up was Dimitri and Hapi because those two interacting intrigued me and... I know what I said above, but this might actually be a Dimitri pairing I don’t dislike? What is this???

I’ll watch the rest at some point, but won’t be starting a new 3H playthrough. Rune Factory 4 Special finally comes out next week and the moment my pre-ordered Archival Edition shows up at my door, it’ll be Fire Emblem who? The only dragon I know is Ventuswill, and the only empire I’m worried about is the unfortunately named ‘Sechs Empire’

Although, the fact that Kiel and Caspar have the exact same voice might end up being... hmmm

Eh, I got over Doug and Yosuke Hanamura. It’ll be fine :)

[fehtism]

hiiiii here's my clear of the emblem ike map on abyssal

it shows my team at the end of the :3

i'm aware that some of my units are kind of premium so i'll probably record a clear with no seasonals. valentine's myrrh can be replaced with any far save for example and spring mirabilis can be replaced with any dancer : ) ivy can be replaced with any unit who can kill decently it doesn't have to be her specifically.

the key to taking out emblem ike is using an aoe unit : ) so just make sure you use one of those and you should be fine

[fehtism]

hmm yes winter edelgard what a silly unit i wonder what her weapon does

this is possibly the worst thing i've ever seen in my life.

so for the "easy part"

accelerating special trigger is a given on any modern prf weapon.

the next part is actually a reference to her raging flame gambit in 3 houses. after combat winter edelgard applies flame terrain in a 2 by 5 area the same as her raging flame gambit

i think it's a cool reference at least.

important to note that unlike flared sparrow and flared mirror, winter edelgard will not get 7 pre combat damage on her first combat due to her applying terrain /after/ combat. however if she attacks a foe already on flame terrain she will get the 7 pre combat damage.

now for. the rest of this thing.

okay let's start.

winter edelgard will inflict a stat debuff on the enemy based on how many allies she has adjacent. the values for the stat debuff are as follows:

- with 3 adjacent allies inflict -9 atk/def on foe in combat

- with 2 adjacent allies inflict -11 atk/def on foe in combat

- with one adjacent ally inflict -13 atk/def on foe in combat

- with no adjacent allies inflict -15 atk/def in combat

i think that's a bit easier to understand than a dumb formula

for her next effect, winter edelgard gets a special jumping effect before her first attack in combat. she gets -1 special cooldown for every space moved based on who initiated combat up to -3 cooldown. for example, if winter edelgard were to move 3 spaces and then attack a foe and she had a special like galeforce equipped, it would go from 4 cooldown to 1 cooldown before her first attack in combat.

if flame terrain is active on the foe's space, it grants edelgard the max special cooldown jump of 3, even if no spaces were moved.

fair and balanced effect.

next is the damage reduction piercing effect in her weapon. this is probably the most complicated effect of her weapon. similar to the stat debuff it is based on how many adjacent allies she has.

- with 3 adjacent allies she pierces damage reduction by 10% (40% damage reduction would become 36%)

- with 2 adjacent allies she pierces damage reduction by 40% (40% damage reduction becomes 24%)

- with 1 adjacent ally she pierces damage reduction by 70% (40% damage reduction becomes 12%)

- with no adjacent allies winter edelgard pierces 100% of non special damage reduction (i.e damage reduction from a skill like gambit, guard bearing 4, or spurn 4)

the last effect of her weapon triggers if she either has weapon triangle advantage or if foe is on flame terrain, neutralizes miracle effects that are not the special "miracle"

this is found on units like ascended celica and brave/legendary seliph

sorry brave seliph, you never stood a chance.

hope this helps at least one person understand the evil wall of text that is "Black Yule Lance"

[fehtism]

Hello! I just reinstalled FEH after a few years (I dropped off during Book 4), and someone pointed me to your blog for help with figuring out the newer skills because DEAR GOD

I’m going to start digging through your posts, but if you take requests(?), I’d really appreciate a breakdown of how Smol Chrobin’s kit works because it consistently takes me 2-3 teams to take them down in Tempest Trials, my old blue mage haters don’t seem to work on them, and I have no idea why or what I should be doing better.

hiiii thank you for your ask!

you seem to have encountered the problem of duo f!robin being Unfair.

luckily you have some things going for you !

1) the youngins cannot counter at 1 range, if you smack with a strong melee unit you should be able to take em out

2) a good far save can take One hit and get some good damage on duo robin

there are also quite a few things against you

1) threat range is larger than you think due to getting another action after using reposition + orders warping

2) has after combat healing + healing with flare

3) hits like a truck

4) stupid fast ... if you haven't played for a while most if not all of your units will get doubled

...

the tldr of young chrobin kit

after using reposition buffs self. gets atk/spd stat stack , extra damage , and canto 1. also after reposition debuffs any of your units within 3 rows and 3 columns . has tempo to make sure you get pranked by special. also has a really stupid "solve for X" stat stack formula which in short gives more stats if foe is equipped with low cd special. also gets bonus damage from multiple parts of kit.

for the long explanation ...

duo chrobin prf weapon has a stupidly long description so lets see if i can break it down in a way that makes sense

duo chrobin has a exclusive debuff called "hush spectrum". the effects of hush spectrum are as follows:

1) afficted units get -5 to all stats in combat

2) afflicted units get affected by scowl at start of combat. (scowl is special cd +1 at start of combat. this happens before your first attack and regardless of who initiates. this means even if you attack with a pre charged special you will not be able to activate it on your first attack. scowl does not affect aoe specials or defensive specials)

hush spectrum is a mid turn debuff and activates after duo chrobin uses an assist skill. this will occur practically every turn in practice due to duo chrobin getting a second action (similar to legendary chrom's "to change fate") after using an assist. using an assist will also grant special cd -1 to duo chrobin allowing them to easily precharge specials.

as for other effects of the weapon, duo chrobin gets 30% pierceable damage reduction on first hit (similar to skills like remote sparrow) as well as a bonus to all stats.

feh is making you do algebra here so the formula for the stat bonus is as follows:

X = 16 - (foes maximum special cd x2) min 8

in practice the stat stack is:

+14 to all stats vs foe with 1 cd special , +12 for 2 cd , +10 for 3 cd and so on.

important to note that the current weapon description is incorrect and states that this formula is for stat debuffs on foe rather than in combat stat buff for duo chrobin. the feh twitter account stated that this would be corrected in a future update.

as for the rest of the kit...

reposition is a standard movement assist

flare is a relatively new infantry mage locked special (released with brave soren in ... august ?) it has a dynamic effect based on the user's hp when special activates.

if hp is at or above 70%, increases damage based on 60% of foe's res stat. if hp is below 70%, increases damage by 40% of foe's res stat AND heals for 30% of max hp. unlike skills like sol and aether which heal for a percentage of damage dealt, flare heals a flat 30% regardless of amount of damage dealt.

the damage increase from flare is incredibly variable making it less reliable than specials like glimmer. however, flare is a high scoring special in arena and the healing has some use case.

duo chrobin has a prf A slot skill called "Fell wyrmscale." this skill has a bunch of effects that only trigger if units hp is at or above 25% at the START of combat. (meaning that if you start below 25%, heal to above 25% with flare, you still do not receive the effects). the effects of fell wyrmscale are as follows:

1) grants unit +8 to all stats in combat (woo ! no solving for X this time)

2) deals bonus damage = 15% of unit's atk (in practice this is generally around 8-12 damage)

3) fully pierces damage reduction when special triggers (does NOT apply to flat damage reduction from sources like laguz friend 4 or brave dimitri's weapon refine. also does not apply to defensive specials or to damage reduction from specials like armored floe/beacon. also does not apply to the damage reduction provided by emblem ike's engage effect)

4) heals 7 hp after combat

i miss when prf skills were simple...

duo chrobin's b slot skill is atk/spd link 4 which provides buffs to unit and minor debuffs to foe in combat after using a MOVEMENT assist (will not apply after using rallies) the effects granted by atk spd link are as follows:

1) grants visible atk/spd +6 buff. (this visible buff means that after receiving it, unit is ineligible to receive additional atk/spd buffs provided by sources like rally atk/spd+)

2) grants canto (1) to unit and ally targeted by the movement assist

3) inflicts atk/spd -4 and def/res -2 on foe in combat

4) (more solve for X sorry) grants + X bonus damage where X = highest bonus on atk+spd among unit and allies with canto (1) active. (in practice, X usually = 12) (bonus damage does not apply to aoe specials)

luckily, the C slot skill is rather simple in comparison. inf. null follow 4 grants null follow up effect to unit and infantry allies within 2 spaces. also grants unit "orders" warping (orders warping gets its name from the skill "ground orders" allows unit to warp to a space adjacent to any ally within 2 spaces.)

i am sorry that this unit is Unfair and i am sorry for the current state of feh. i hope this explanation is thorough but if there are any terms that i did not explain feel free to comment or send another ask.

[themoomoorn]

Me next me next I had some nice tuscan red wine

Edelgard's entire ass theme (which was either a true big brain move by Intsys/Koei or the world's greatest happy accident) is her being a massive phony, but it's fine because she's supposed to be a waifu. She plays the role of the Empire's stronk emperor who talks down the meanie church and its meanie sexy Saint Seiros, yet she not only has a crown that evokes the horns of the Immaculate One, but on 3/4 routes she steals Seiros' weaponry (which happen to align with her Minor Crest, aka the Crest of Seiros that was given to Bitch Ass Douchebag Wilheim thousands of years ago) for her personal use. If she's not using Seiros' Sword (Which she very likely fucking stole, as the genuine article is using both said sword and shield on CF 17), she's using Aymr, which is not an inherited Relic, but a custom piece made by the Lolgarthans built to her specifications, complete with a mismatched Crest - the guy who had the Crest of the Beast is still out there, after all, as is his Relic and even an heiress of his. On top of all of this, she's also a Lord who's also an Armor unit, but unlike, say, Hector from FE7, her usage of Armor(tm) stems from her Crests...something she admits not only in canon (Armor/Axe lesson plan), but in extracanonical material as well (FEH Brave edition).

Edeltwat is also the only lead (the "leads" being her, Dimitri, Claude, Rhea, and Byleth) who does not mention any practical combat training or experience growing up - if one did not know any better, a good chunk of her combat skills were likely gifted to her by her Crests; the other four leads all have visual or dialogue-based evidence of prior training or experience in combat growing up or in the past. She will mention during tea time and elsewhere that her childhood, at least before the Insurrection of The Empire's Sad Dads(tm), was carefree. She also happens to, for some damned reason, have a talent for Reason Magic (lol) that has no real basis in anything, and she even has a Magic cap plus two lists that exceed other magically-inclined units - her cap is higher than two magic units from her own damn House (Linhardt, Dorothea) while her practicality in both domains exceeds Hubert, whose magic cap is the third highest in the entire game (only Lysithea and Constance beat him out - both have robust Reason and Faith lists while Hubert's Faith list is complete shit). Combine this with her having the highest stat total among all the units (Cyril only exceeding her due to the Aptitude skill; If you stripped that from him then he'd be the absolute worst unit in the game), and golly gorsh gee wiz it feels like this talent is unearned, doesn't it? Dimitri's horse girl talent is explained by his father being a top cavalryman in his prime, Claude's axe talent is explained by Almyra's aerial combat style, Byleth's Faith talent is them reaching enlightenment and finding purpose in Sothis and being a guide to others, and all of Rhea's boons explain themselves both by her status as Archbishop and visually in the opening cutscene (swordfighting and brawling specifically).

Going back to those pesky Crests of hers: She has a Minor Crest of Seiros, and we learn on all the routes that the genuine article is alive and well with her own Major Crest, and she has the combat ability and genuine desire to both protect mankind and get her mother back to back it up. As for the Crest of Flames? That genuine article is sitting in the chest of one Byleth Eisner, and she even has its Goddess guiding her and bestowing real, tangible power onto her. Edelblorf likely got her rendition of the Crest from Nemesis, aka the old fuck who stole Sothis' blood for the sake of conquest. Per the devs, she was supposed to be able to stop Byleth's time-rewinding powers with her version of the Crest of Flames, but that got scrapped, so what we're left with is a flimsy sham of what Byleth has.

Her dream is basically her succeeding where her father failed. It's also an extension of what Lolgartha wants: Continental control where those damned Nabateans can lie down and die. She likely would have not gotten as far as she had without Hubert or the Lolgarthans assisting her.

And heck! This sort of phoniness not only permeates CF as a whole but its two exclusive units. Hubert is a character who thrives on deceit on top of coming off as extremely disingenuous - sure, it feels like he's this snake in on some grandiose plan, but in reality he's little more than Edelgard's all-devoted servant (and possibly even a rogue Agarthan if you believe the headcanons of some). 90% of his dialogue and interests tie back to her in some form. And Jeritza? An inversion of the seemingly noble Tellius Black Knight - not a misguided, hurt soldier who found purpose and a strange kind of bond with our lead, but a sociopathic, bloodthirsty warrior who eerily gets off on the idea of murderkilling the local avatar for seemingly no reason.

Any platitudes shown towards others are either for her own gain, to reaffirm her biases, or are completely fraudulent. Her relationship with Byleth, per Edge of Dawn, says it's her lamenting how Byleth didn't reach for her hand, but if Byleth happens to, then she emotionally manipulates her and treats her almost like a toy. She (and Hubert) shames her for her ties to the Nabateans, and even after getting an A-Support, she pays no mind to Byleth's fate in the even that Rhea dies. She feigns admiration towards Claude because he'll actually surrender when beaten down on CF, while she scorns Dimitri perpetually for not doing that. She claims her war is only against the church, yet her manifesto contradicts this completely- she calls the Kingdom and Alliance inferior countries and she persecutes the faithful. The people she claims she fights for are nobles who suck up to her and eat up her rhetoric; She does not care about actual commoners and finds the likes of real impoverished bandits like Costas or Metody disgusting. Those she praises are suck-ups like Randolph or vile nobles like Miklan.

It's almost pathetic how much of a fraud on every level Edelgard is, yet this is barely pushed to an extent by the devs - in their eyes it's enough that this game's Red Emperor is a cute girl.

I’ve been drinking.

As I’ve laid out before, Edelgard says she got her version of history, the version that spurs her into fighting the Church, from her father. She says her father was turned into a pu ppet of the nobility, but this is contradicted by Hubert in CF saying he was actually made a puppet by TWSITD. Ergo, there’s the implication that TWSITD indoctrinated Edelgard through her father into starting this war and Edelgard, as damaged as she is over the hell she’s been through, is unwilling to question that narrative.

Here’s the issue, how does her being a liar factor into this? Like, we know she lies, will put out false information to both secure her own position and demonize her enemies. Hell, even the Edge of Dawn mentions that she does knowingly lie…

And that’s where it fully hit me. The Edge of Dawn is the secret to Edelgard’s real character.

The song itself is full of contradictions. How Edelgard will soar away into the dawn if you give her your hand, but how she fears the dawn because time will betray her. How she can finally be herself, but at the same time is still hiding behind a mask but she has also become that mask. How everything right now is so peaceful, making her not want to go forward and later on how she views memories of the past as a trap. I started taking all these things together, combining them with my analysis and what was said in the Nintendo Dream interview and Heroes.

Here is my answer… and I don’t really like it.

We know from the interview that Edelgard was designed after past Fire Emblem villains, her gender being a major factor in separating her from them. That she is supposed to be this would-be conqueror, but at the same time there’s a girl under it all (that’s why they consider her well-written).

As said before, she was tortured, experimented on and indoctrinated by TWSITD. They turned her, both in body and in mind, into a weapon against Rhea. Into someone who’s been given this narrative that paints what she needs to do as her being the good guy, in addition to having these ideals of what it means to be Emperor passed down onto her.

In short, Edelgard is meant to be read as a victim. Yet another case of  female character being the bad guy because of the machinations of some man in Fire Emblem. Those attempts at moe we see in CF are meant to show us who Edelgard deep down, who is behind the mask that she has become. Deep down, as Edge of Dawn indicates, she does not want to go through with what she has been planning and instead wants to remain in these halcyon days as a student at the academy. But considering she’s repeatedly framed as in service to ideals, namely her social Darwinist outlook, she forces herself to push ahead despite her own feelings in the matter.

CF is in part meant to be this attempt to humanize her, so she wouldn’t just this generic villain for the game. It’s not saying that she’s supposed to be right, as those ideals push her crush any opposition to her rule no matter who it is. It’s in this route that we are given some really big pieces of information, both hearing the narrative she believes in and information that goes against it. If we take Heroes into consideration, she has never considered her power being a good thing because she can help others with it, in addition to her saying she wouldn’t be swayed even with the help of time travel. She is going through with this, averting her eyes when she sees how horrible her alliance with TWSITD really is. Not to mention, trying to reframe events so that everyone else is responsible for what is happening and that she is the hero.

It’s basically infantilizing the villain of the game. Rather than someone smart and driven pushing the plot, instead Edelgard is rendered someone pushed to be a dictator pursuing continental conquest despite her own wishes. Rather than being someone who commit all sorts of heinous acts in pursuit of her own idea of a greater good unblinkingly, she instead tries to avert her eyes and plugs her ears with convenient lies. She’s not someone who has come to some awful conclusions about the world through her own experiences, rather she’s been gaslit to such a point she will literally turn herself into a monster in order to win even after the people she’s doing it for have been practically wiped out.

She’s not like Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. As batshit insane as he is, Armstrong believed in his own social Darwinist rhetoric as it was his own view of the world. If anything, he would fucking hate Edelgard both for fighting for other people’s ideals rather than her own, in addition to how she’s more for strict authoritarianism rather than the anarchy Armstrong craves.

These things are trying to make Edelgard out to be more sympathetic, and to some extent it has worked. People focus on her victimhood to the point it obscures the full extent of her character, not to mention it’s done in such a way that the player can choose not to see reality themselves. People suffer under Edelgard, yet the game only tells us this second hand rather than directly showing us. It’s putting Edelgard’s suffering in the forefront, while the suffering of the masses is left an optional experience. Which, kinda makes Edelgard less sympathetic, you know?

We can’t save her, our support only enables her behavior, so fighting Edelgard is meant to be a player punch in the greater context of Three Houses with us seeing that she was more than the tyrant she’s presented as. Again, she’s a cute girl. But the experience is just so disjointed, so poorly-executed that it’s not like the player having to pull the trigger on The Boss at the end of Snake Eater. Instead, it feels tone-dead and to the game’s detriment. There’s sympathetic parts to her, sure, but overall we’re still supposed to understand that she needs to be stopped as CF is a villain route.

[fehtism]

legendary hinoka sure is a cool unit

armor effectiveness, true damage based on speed, and if she outspeeds then foe cannot counterattack making it pretty safe for her to dive most things with her high speed.

plus with deadeye she pierces damage reduction and should easily clear out any far save unit

wait what the hell

welcome to duo winter byleth, the newest most unkillable thing around.

now let's find out why the two byleths didn't die to one of the fastest and most dangerous nukes around.

first, before this combat their duo skill was used

this duo skill is probably the most straight forward part of this kit. it grants to unit and allies within two spaces:

- visible def/res +6

- svalinn shield (neutralizes armor effectiveness)

- 80% damage reduction for aoe specials

- hexblade status (calculates damage using lower of foe's def/res)

however, use of this skill actually wasn't necessary as the winter byleths live even through legendary hinoka's armor effective attacks

god sometimes this game feels like unstoppable force vs immovable object

the duo byleth's have weaving fighter as their b slot skill which is their source of damage reduction in this combat (because special is not charged)

very dense skill description let's break it down:

- somewhat negligible atk/def -4 debuff on foe in combat

- effectively defensive null follow up (as the duo byleths are too slow to ever be doubling on their own)

- 40% damage reduction on foe's attack UNLESS foe has offensive half null follow up or full null follow up, then it is 80% damage reduction on first hit (including brave hits) and 40% on follow up.

- 7 hp healing after combat

this damage reduction is entirely pierceable however legendary hinoka can only pierce the damage reduction when her deadeye special triggers. due to her ability to make a follow up attack, her 79 damage is reduced by 80% (79*0.2=15.8) and she only deals 16 damage.

but wait a minute... l!hinoka had her special charged at the beginning of combat... and with her absurd speed the duo byleths shouldn't be able to counter attack...

well the byleths have some really fun effects in their prf weapon, holy yule blade

another... dense... description...

well here are all the fun effects

- accelerates special cd

- +5 all stats (except spd) in combat

- additional bonus to all stats (except spd) in combat based on 20% of visible res

- offensive half tempo (unaffected by foe's skills that reduce unit's special charges)

- a super scowl type effect against foe's with damaging specials that trigger in combat. increases foe's special cd by an amount equal to amount of spaces moved up to 3 if unit wins res check (cannot be increased beyond maximum) however, when savior effect triggers value is treated as 3 regardless of foe's movement.

(i.e a unit with 1 cd on bonfire and moves 1 space before attacking has value increased to 2 before first attack)

- built in null c disrupt (ignores effects that prevent unit's counterattacks in combat) against ranged foes

these effects increase hinoka's deadeye charge from already charged to maximum cooldown (2) before her first attack. it also nullifies her weapon effect that prevents foe's counter attacks, which is why she dies after her first hit.

ofc the winter byleth's aren't completely unkillable but it sure does feel like it at times

haha . get pranked .

[fehtism]

Thank you for breaking down some of that dictionary-vomit that modern FEH weapons and pref skills have become, because holy shit, my ADHD brain takes one look at those giant paragraphs and says "never-fucking-mind"

i have been cursed with the ability to understand feh walls of text.

i think the dumb formulas are the worst part of the descriptions where it's like "debuffs foe's cringe stat for - X +5 where X is how many edelgard alts are in this god forsaken game" so i try to give examples instead because no one should be forced to solve for X in a mobile game.

the most recent winter units were definitely some of the worst in terms of long descriptions so i'll probably break down the rest of their weapons (and maybe prf skills as well) because i have all of them : )

and if there's any skill description you want explained then just send it in an ask

and follow the #cyril explains feh tag for more fun feh explanations

[fehtism]

going to start tagging my feh explanation posts with the tag #cyril explains feh

so if you want to learn a bit more about feh mechanics make sure to follow that tag

[fehtism]

would anyone want to see some more laguz friend 4 example builds as an explanation of how it works (so that you can see calcs and such) or would yall prefer like an exact and direct breakdown of ...

the worst piece of text known to man that can barely be called english

or like ... both idk

[fehtism]

here is ... mainly a summoner duels build you can use on duo askr who is already great in SD

how do you even go about killing this thing . certainly not at 2 range .

can also run ignis / aether instead for damage while still getting laguz friend 4 condition met

this thing gets 10 flat damage reduction on every hit from laguz fighter 4 and 5 flat damage reduction from duality vessel prf weapon (15 flat damage reduction) plus can activate miracle every combat if needed . (opened domain takes miracle cd to 3 and then laguz friend takes it to 1 cd before foes first attack ... if say he's getting hit by a brave attacker and the second hit procs miracle (i bet l!f!alear could do that) he retaliates after proccing miracle with an attack that has 100% dr pierce (does not pierce flat damage reduction) and heals for 7 chip

i don't see it to be very likely for miracle to need to proc every combat especially after duo skill this thing has bulk for days. the upside to this is that with miracle constantly charged you get the finish chip healing on each attack which definitely adds up. the way to kill this thing would likely be aoe specials as laguz friend does not provide dr for aoe specials but duality vessel does provide aoe special flat damage reduction based on a def check with seemingly no upper limit ? it says difference in def (assuming you have higher def) * 1.5 ... and since aoe special users generally run double life and death or double still water this can become a very high number.

my main aoe units are rearmed plumeria and brave gullveig who have NINE defense and 22 def (only L&D sacred seal) respectively. so duality vessel would provide 67 flat dr against plumeria aoe and 48 flat dr against gullveig aoe which is actually insane now that i've done the calcs... so oops i lied when i said aoe specials would be the way to kill (oopsies ... april fools on that part)

this is also assuming i'm actually reading this feh jargon weapon description correctly

if he could use actual defensive specials (which can be low cd) that would be insane but mages are locked to miracle or aether or ignis/glaciers as specials due to being restricted to the high cd requirement for laguz friend and miracle being only defensive special option.

if you think you won't need to activate miracle like at any point then you can get a similar effect with aether and get more healing out of it. could also let you drop finish for C Bonus doubler which makes this thing a menace at 1 range as well.

oh and did i mention he gets 40% flat dr if unit or enemy's special is charged because of ike engage effect ...

i may have discovered how to make emblem ike 2.... well at least he won't hit as hard so maybe the way to kill is just don't take enough damage from him. laguz friend only gives dr piercing when special triggers so you won't get unless miracle procs on a miracle build and you won't get dr until aether procs which can be stopped by enemy guard effect because this build drops atk/res tempo.

i feel like you could just get into a stall war between this thing and brave dimitri w/ laguz friend and godlike reflexes

i'm so glad i don't play summoner duels

i'm not glad that i took the time to decipher the laguz friend 4 skill description

i still unironically enjoy feh even when they pull this bs

erm... have fun ! and if you want to have fun too just don't play modes that annoy you