#dragalia analysis

[valeriefauxnom]

More Dragalia Minor Mistakes (Or, when Dragalia's writers and/or translators failed a lore check)...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Dragalia was surprisingly astute to the general mass of lore it had. That being said, it's only natural that a few mistakes or lore contradictions would slip through the cracks over years of development, perhaps staff coming and going, yadda yadda. Consider this just the second of small logs of whatever I've noticed, throughout my meanderings through the wiki and more!

First up, we're starting today's category with 'technology', namely, the humble abacus. Dragalia's mishmash of technology is understandable, since they've been artificially kept in a state of technological limbo until canon time. And of their technology, we know that the abacus is something that's been lost to most of the world, it seems.

It's Xiao Lei's whole thing, for the rest of the cast to be amazed at how fast she's able to do math with, how cool that is, etc etc. It's this special Taiwuan thing that might save the scientists in Alberia a lot of work!

One problem: this random NPC, very Alberian, shopkeep also is randomly using one, to no amazement by the cast.

Whoops.

More relevant to the main story, though, Phares once incurs a small case of brainfog and mistakes the name of his own terminal illness:

This one I think I can reasonably provide a rationale for this being a translator's error, perhaps one who hadn't dealt with Phares or at least dealt with him for a while. Why? Wyrmscale is more literally in Japanese 'dragon scale - itis', (or, 竜鱗病, ryu urin byou, ryu=dragon, urin=scale, byo = character for 'sickness'), so a translator might have read that and just translated it literally instead of checking whatever lore docs they might have had that they'd already called it 'wyrmscale' in English!

Also related to the lore, this next one's more of a case of later lore contradicting the earlier one, and boy is it petty quibbling on my end.

In short, take a look at this dialogue from Elysium:

See anything wrong? No?

Well, my problem is the use of the word 'young' here! It is the singular word that goes against lore here, as I can't exactly argue against his opinion claim of 'immature!'

We've no less than three other canon sources at least that instead frame humans as a species as among the first in the universe, right along with dragons!

So, yes, Elysium, you're not wrong to call humans 'immature', but to call their species 'young'???? You know better than that! (no he didn't, since this dialogue came before any of the other contradictions here, I believe, but it's still technically an error!)

If we're on a dragon kick, pop quiz: who was Alberius' first pactbound dragon?

Some of you might be yelling 'MIDGARDSORMR' as others yell 'CHTHONIUS', and then you both might hypothetically look at each other and feel confused. Well, you may be glad to know that this was a genuine lore contradiction instead of one of you being 'wrong'.

It's understandable why people thought both options, even aside from the lore confusion. Midgardsormr as the first to really start hanging out with him, or Chthonius as the dragon he was tied body and soul to in the end, who literally merged with him?

Overall, I'm more of the 'Chthonius' side for what they ultimately intended, as we also see other descriptions painstakingly spell out that Mids was the 'first dragon to personally meet Alberius' instead of just saying 'pact with Alberius', and one slipped through the cracks, but still! These minor lore slip ups are what I'm cataloguing here. Honestly, between this, the non-pact slip-up with Brunhilda in the previous post I made, and other things like Alberius slapping Jupiter, he sure had a lot of pacting 'fun' and drama, huh?

Now I'll return to the royal fam lore drama. A long long time ago, I made a post explaining how the family says their names, as is said by their siblings. Some (Phares, cough cough) shooketh me greatly, as the aforementioned example's name might more phonetically be rendered 'Farez' to me instead of the 'Fairays' I was running with more since in my brain I was connecting it to words like "pharaoh" instead.

But I realized I overlooked their father's name. From what I'm seeing, only Audric says his own real name, as everyone else wants to call him His Majesty, Father, or the King.

And here's the doozy: his dementia aura he gives everyone has also been affecting he himself, because he says HIS OWN NAME two different ways!

Here's the relevant soundbites to demonstrate what I mean:

Here, we see one 'Or - Ray - Li - Us' and one 'Or - Rel - ii - Us'

I thiiink we see 'Ray' version twice vs the one time of 'Rel', but this more seems to be a division between his base form and Gala form.

I did a bit more digging, and we've also Gala Gatov... but his pronunciation is so foggy that it's remarkably hard to tell if he's saying 'Ray' 'Rel' or 'Ril', though I overall lean towards 'Rel' on a slowdown!

So... yeah. I guess it's ultimately up to you guys how you wanna say his name, because they sent mixed signals in English!

(As a bonus I'll just throw this other soundbite out here for any of you guys curious about how to say Vio Rhyse Alberia, since it's become a minor battle cry for the fandom in their grief)

Huh... you know, that might actually be a great place to meld into my final example!

'Vio Rhyse Alberia' is suggested once to mean 'Glory to Alberia'. Presumably, it's not just their modern language nor another real one, since we don't really see them bust out other similar phrases. Heck, even Audric's pronunciation here is a slight warp from the standard 'Al-beer-ia' with whatever little roll he's doing with the 'r' in there.

Specifically, it's likely 'Ancient Alberian', a language that Elisanne ID's as existing in ch.13, and one Phares is also likely able to read for him to be able to get the stuff it's written on up and working (+the fact he's specifically talented in 'ancient languages' plural).

This is... well, a big 'Hum' moment, in that while I cannot think of a way in which it makes sense, it's not as cut-and-dry as the others for 'this says x, this says y'.

If we're talking early Ilian church, specifically, this dates this machine to about 1k years ago, during the golden age of humanity and Ilia. It makes sense, since alchemy was also in its heyday then.

The thing is that Alberia just flat-out didn't exist until 300 years ago, until Alberius created it. With how similar 'Alberius' and 'Alberia' are in name, one might have presumed he named it after himself. But let's excuse that little bit, and just say it's a root that stems from earlier language in the same way humans are often named after objects even to this day.

It's still a bit confusing - this puts Ilia in a weird place to where she's fully comprehend-able to our modern crew and vice-versa despite seemingly speaking this different language. Ilia even seems to share a similar slang culture, with her joining the crew in occasionally butchering French on purpose (toot sweet in place of tout de suite). I might be tempted to excuse it like how English has developed, from a point where its written variety has greatly developed even when most of the words they were saying/writing are understandable, but this again is troubled by the existence of 'Vio Rhyse Alberia', a phrase that is clearly not a 'normal part' of their language.

This is giving me weird ideas where Ilia is speaking in this really ancient dialect that's just barely understandable to the modern day crew, kinda like how we can kinda piece out even some Old English or Latin with vocabulary even when it's written entirely differently. Take the good old people doing Old English covers of songs, where we see 'Irish-made' in a Pumped Up Kicks translation turned to 'Írisc-worht', which to me I can piece together 'Irish' from the first word and get reminded of 'wrought' from the second, which is a word that means, well, made from.

I digress. The best way I can really excuse the name is honestly a bit funny: that historians and all those scholars retroactively decided to call this language they (re)discovered 'Ancient Alberian' just because the land that they discovered it on or something is now Alberia, long enough before that the Church was able to pick it up again and start teaching kids it.

Alternatively, that there was a historical Alberia that Alberius stole the name from, that Euden would then go on to steal from Alberius when naming his own kingdom. "That's Alberia, this is Alberia, are there any more Alberias I should know about? Meow (says Leonidas' 'Alberia' reformed under his sovereignty)"

Sigh. Make of it what you will. But there's something funky going on in the linguistical history of Alberia here. The way I've personally decided to sweep it under the rug is treating them as spoken similarly enough for Alberius-Ilia-Euden to all mutually comprehend (Alberius additionally trapped in a cave and serving as a perfect time capsule of his language at the time), but the written form has warped far too much for any of them to understand each other. Still doesn't explain Vio Rhyse but hey, blame other lost language's influence or something and boom.

That's enough rambling on my end, however. If you've any other plot holes or lore failure checks, though, please let me know!

[miriamundertale]

da miriam writing masterpost

so im porting my writing/review stuff over from wordpress to here. both are gonna be getting updated ideally so if u hate wordpress here is good and if u hate tumblr yet are on here to see this the wordpress isnt going away

to answer the "why is this around" question. i work nights at a hotel, and its very uhhh, full of free time. so ive wound up having most of the night to either watch stuff or read manga, and its gotten to the point where i think i should probably keep track of my opinions of them more in depth -- this felt like the smartest way to do so.

The core point of this post is gonna be to track stuff i want to write about and be a pretty ok navigation point for people. lets break whats coming down:

Yoshiru Konogi, the Hornybait writer who Fucking Gets it

if youve seen me tweeting ever henjou has almost definitely shown up. henjou is hornybait and largely just a sex comedy much like everything Konogi writes, but i think the standout about her writing in the genre and henjou and its spinoff in particular (Eroko-San on the attack) is that while theres an obviously set audience for the horny teenage boy in both, the target feels less to be them and more to be women, either the weirdo girl whos willing to be openly horny or the failwoman neet whos terminally fucking posting about being horny online. its very different in feel to a lot of its genre and i think deserves some more analysis. done! Konogi is a weirdly fascinating mangaka and at least worth peeking through like this. i also go into her crypto stuff for some reason

The Game Parodying a Genre You Didn't Know Existed

if i wind up making a video out of any of these, itl be this one. this is about a specific game in my horrible side hobby of playing terrible western eroge, specifically those using koikatsu party as their source of visuals. my biggest fear is how intentional the parody itself is, as unlike Yoshiru Konogi's work i dont have an accessible back catalog of works to go through. if i wind up having the creator see and and get some sort of weird backlash to my reading im going to be so fucking devastated. they're very much a weirdo(positive) so i dont imagine anything like that but the fear is there.

Homestuck

Yeah i fucking know trashing homestuck is very easy considering the state of a lot of homestuck fans and the way people were with it, especially since it was for a lot of people a first for fandom (and realistically was probably the worst possible entry into fandom one could get,) but homestuck really has a lot of interest going on in its meta layers and how it is intrinsically tied to the era it was written in. Homestuck and its successors (the epilogues and hs2, maybe ill read some of the bigger FA's once i get to this) have a lot of depth that i feel gets terminally ignored or just passed by from basically everyone who has had some sort of interaction with it, be they fans or Normal People

Star wars - God i fucking hate episode 9

Thats right two red flag series in a row babey. we got some TERRIBLE posting Writing POASTING about to happen Star wars realistically is a good series cursed with one of the worst fanbases imaginable, and i want to examine the overarching themes it has about fascism in detail, but here's the basic outline: the original trilogy is about the defeat of fascism and taking only the best from the past, the prequel trilogy is about the rise of fascism and how it corrupts democracy from within, and the sequel trilogy SHOULD have been continuing on the themes of the original and how fascism corrupts and utilizes the past as a tool to grow its own power (but instead we get the most fucking pandery fucking movie targeted at the worst of the fandom)

The one good gacha is fucking dead

Listen i just really wanna talk about dragalia. maybe it was laser targeted at me with its obvious mmo influences but dragalia was MADE for the platform it is on instead of being extant on that platform. dragalia wasnt by any means the best game ever made but it was easily the best gacha ever made. the loss of dragalia is a fucking crime that needs to be talked about more.

Can we please do a good live action comic book movie again at least spiderman like cmon

pretty please i wont complain about the actor spiderman is my favorite superhero of all time and the last two good live action spiderman movies were the first two raimi movies. i think they realised that with no way home and thought by bringing back dafoe and molina they had nailed that when really it was raimis commitment to understanding the fucking medium hes adapting that made those two hit so well and is part of why im so conflicted on multiverse of madness which i also wanna talk about

One Punch Man

See this is coming at some point i have a lot to say about OPM and specifically comparing it to the original webcomic but for now i will leave it at you should read the webcomic its good

Kyoukai No Kanata the best anime of all time

Kyoukai no kanata is the best anime of all time and im not taking questions

[zephyr-paladyn]

something very cool in dragalia ch26 is how laxi and mascula have their whole ordeal of the heart. they want to save luca, and go at maximum power -- in the process they would have corrupted their heart with black mana and essentially sacrificed themselves, before they're saved by the otherworld agito (presumably.)

this can be seen as a parallel to euden, who is xenos' heart -- and later sacrifices himself to save the world and make it born anew. given how the heart and bonds are so thematically important in this chapter i just thought that was interesting to point out

[actually-infp]

Zethia of Dragalia Lost

At first glance, Zethia fits into the typical INFP “healer/mediator” archetype. Her character description portrays her as a sensitive child who easily cried, and later matures into a stoic and strong-willed person. She has stereotypical attributes that are commonly and inappropriately associated with being INFP; like her inclination towards “a life in the forest”, her damsel in distress role, and her mawkish portrayal. Moreover, her resolve, decisiveness and the dark aspects of her “Other” persona, could superficially make her look like an INFJ. However, her cognitive functioning rules out Zethia’s type as INFP, or any other Introverted Intuitive.

TYPE : ISFJ - Si, Fe, Ti, Ne

-> Evident in her dialogue, the most noticeable function is Introverted Sensing-Si. She has a strong categorical reference of knowledge that she often leads with. Her knowledge of the kingdom’s history, is frequently referenced upon; and she also describes her past experiences in childhood numerous times.

-> The second most noticeable function is Extraverted Feeling-Fe. Similarly, INFJ and ISFJ share Fe in the auxiliary position. This function also indicates that she is not an INFP. Rather than being rooted in her Fi values, she’s rooted in upholding her responsibilities as Auspex/Princess and serving others- whether it be her people, brother, or friends. She prioritizes social harmony, and offers frequent assistance to remedy the group’s needs. Additionally, her motivation to take action is dependent upon outside influences and social obligations. In a critical moment she states, “It may finally be time for me to fulfill my calling. And yet...I'm so terrified. Give me courage, Brother”, showing that her courage is external (obtained from someone else), and not from her internal Fi-driven values. Her most noticeable indication of Fe is best demonstrated by the quote “I hate to see people fighting - is it so hard for us to live in harmony?”. Introverted Feelers leading with Fi, are more concerned about creating an external atmosphere that reflects their internal morals and beliefs. So, rather than find discontent in lack of harmony itself, they would identify their values in their observation of disharmony. Fi might say “I hate to see how evil affects people- is it so hard to uphold integrity for peace-sakes?”

-> Introverted Thinking-Ti, is the next identifiable function, it sits in the tertiary position in both INFJ and ISFJ. Since she is a dominant Si user, it rules out INFJ as a likely type. When ISFJs uses Si+Ti it makes them analytical truth seekers who can better understand their experiences and situations. Also, Ti in ISFJ supports their Si+Fe, so it makes them focus on logical consistency within a framework of established rules and more specifically, the societal rules one is obligated to abide by in order to promote harmony. She’s quick to reference the throne line of succession in the prologue, and subsequently the duties of her own title at several later points. She states, “I have a duty to fulfill—one only I can do”. She perpetually focuses on duty and responsibility, and uses Ti logical applications to support her SiFe functions, thereby making her adhere to provisional mandates and carry out what is expected of her within the existing social framework. Furthermore, her stoicism isn’t a result of Fi, but instead “Because Ti is right after Fe in order of preference, SiFe’s can be very balanced between their stoic analytical side and the side of them that values people”.

-> Finally Extroverted Intuition-Ne, presents itself as the inferior function for ISFJ. In Zethia, Ne can be seen when she draws upon her categorized records of experiences to develop new possibilities.Ne in the inferior slot can also make the user prone to worry and anxiety about “what if’s”. Zethia says, “Binding Ruins?! But no one has set foot on that soil since our forefathers, centuries ago! Are you certain you'll be safe?” In this quote she skeptical because her knowledge of past precedent is being challenged to explore a new possibility.

Since her character has an alter ego of sorts, this typing focused on her original personality and did not factor in the changes that happened when she was possessed by “Other”.

Dialogue & Quotes Considered

Character MBTI Analysis Requested by @toon-kirby

[dragalialore]

well.

uh.

actual analysis incoming soon but some quick thoughts:

whoever commented on one of my posts implying zethia was a damsel in distress: lmfao

the main party (and nedrick) is now aware of ilia being alive. no telling how they’re gonna handle this.

gonna need to go back over the beginning of chapter 13 again where it offers smatterings of phares’s backstory because THATS gonna be in an entirely new light

who, and I cannot stress this enough, THE FUCK, is beren’s mom

“the sword” ilia gives to zethia may be the actual sword Dragalia, rather than the fake one Alberius wielded in dawn of dragalia

nedrick’s plan really was “everyone is not allowed to be nice. you all must be apeshit” huh

zethia..... wamen. prety. FULLY leaning into that dark is not evil aesthetic huh.

[wereallylostnowbois]

okay so yeah context for earlier post i have a genetically inferior stomach and had already been suffering for most of the day, then i got home and read the new dl update and ... Yeah...

Anyway, without further ado, an analysis of Chapter 25 Part Two.

Spoiler warning for posterity's sake.

So, lets start with the end, because that is what concerns me, and probably many of you, at this moment in time.

Basically Xenos unexisted the world. They won, Dragalia is lost. But wait, because this isn't the end just yet. There's still two more updates left, aren't there? And thus begins my chapter 26 speculation.

Allow me to preface by saying that i have played a lot of games, and watched a lot of anime, and overall merely consumed a substantial amount of media in my time. I have reached a point where I can accurately predict most plots, but this is not a bad thing.

Dragalia Lost on the other hand is a game that never fails to surprise. How Dragalia Lost has done this, and done it well in my opinion, is by not fully explaining the rules of the world. Think back to the downloads page, it basically just said it was a game about the bonds between human and dragon, didn't it? And while it is overall thus, seen especially in the ending of the chapter, there's more to it. Zena was revealed to us with clues as to her existence, and later explained along with Dragalia's many worlds, for example, which are (or were) a pivotal mechanic of the worldbuilding.

This being the case, that Dragalia does not tell you everything all at once, means any predictions of plot I make are likely to be inaccurate, but I will try anyway.

Let's start with a broader idea, there's only two ways I think this can go. The first, the last chapter being Xenos-centric and merely explaining his own lore and the making of his "perfect world", or the second, Euden and Co. pull off some anime logic shenanigans and manage to save/re-exist the world. Basically a bad end and a good end, in general terms.

Good End:

Now in terms of this good ending and how it could still happen extrapolated from information we have currently, I would like to point out that Euden and Zethia have brought themselves back from inexistence before, in Advent of Origin. How they managed to do this in event however, it relied on living people still remembering them. As long as someone remembered them they couldn't be fully erased from the world.

That being said Xenos fully pulverized the entirety of existence, so the only one left to remember anyone is Xenos themself. This leaves us in a kind of lovecraftian-style existing only in the dreams of a slumbering god situation. Which.... isn't all that unlikely in my opinion, Dragalia Lost has taken heavy inspiration from the Cthulhu Mythos before, in events like Accursed Archives, and also at times in the main questline (the way Xenos and Bahamut are described specifically, as beings that sort of transcend any ability to comprehend them), thus it's not *entirely* impossible.

Or possibly maybe Xenos grows bored of his void and his perfect clockwork world and decides to put back up what he tore down. This only strikes me as a possibility because in this final monologue Xenos seems to become somewhat sentimental, towards Bahamut and the emptiness they once dwelled in. Would let that sentimentality get to him enough to undo what has been done? Who can say, certainly not me.

Bad End

Xenos isn't a character who's shown much emotion in the short time we've been acquainted with them, which is a given seeing as he's apparently discarded his own heart. The only time we see Xenos really express any emotion at all is when he's reminiscing about Bahamut and the void there towards the end. So, probably, they're just going to continue on with they're plans. Wipe the slate clean and build up they're new world. Elysium is dead, the worlds of possibility wiped out entirely. What's to stop them, precisely?

Now the only things I will say going against this is that it would be a massively unsatisfying ending, a conclusive ending maybe, a good one to lead into something else maybe, but deeply unsatisfying to the reader. Additionally, we have no conclusive answers to what happened to beings dwelling in the space between worlds like all those lovely raid bosses we faced over the years, or more precisely to the True Bahamut seen in Advent of Origin.

I have no conclusive knowledge of how it would go down if True Bahamut is still out there, but it's something to think about.

Anyway, I'll probably be talking more about the other things that happened in this chapter later, such as Zena's lovely character arc and a few former theories I had that were confirmed by finally seeing the world she came from, but I'll save that for another day. I don't have a conclusive answer to anything, and I don't expect to, but I can try my best to put the pieces together while we all wait for the end.

Have a lovely day, my fellow Losties.

[archaicavail]

Akasha's got one heck of a spiral, but is she at the top now? Let's take a look, and see how she fits into wind overall.

Analysis of Akasha spiral, with some examination into her newfound niches.

[ersatzlace]

I made a Favorite Character Aesthetic Board for myself! Not exhaustive by any means, but it does make it more apparent what sort of character tropes I keep coming back to throughout various media. (These are not in any sort of ranked order, though I did attempt to group them by broad archetypes when I was putting this together... to various success...)

The only rules I set for myself were top 16 and characters from video games, anime, and/or cartoons (lol you can tell I don’t watch cartoons much). I also tried to keep myself from picking multiple characters from the same franchise/game/show.

Characters picked and their origin by row, starting from the top-left:

Jakurai Jinguji (Hypnosis Mic)

Kusuriuri (Mononoke)

Cho Hakkai (Saiyuki)

Heinwald (Dragalia Lost)

Lucio (Granblue Fantasy)

Juzumaru (Touken Ranbu)

Hei (Darker than Black)

Ren Amamiya/Akira Kurusu (Persona 5)

Lightning (Final Fantasy 13)

Utena Tenjou (Revolutionary Girl Utena)

Lyn (Fire Emblem)

Floyd Leech (Twisted Wonderland)

Riza Hawkeye (Fullmetal Alchemist)

Haruhi Fujioka (Ouran Highschool Host Club)

Blue (Wolf’s Rain)

Ichimaru Gin (Bleach)

Analysis: So... If it isn’t already apparent, I like mysterious, elegant, scholarly or otherwise ethereal gentlemen who are extremely competent at their jobs. Likewise competent and practical women are my jam.

...And then there’s the trolly bastard corner in the bottom-right lol.

[historyoftheemblem]

Three Houses Feb. Direct analysis

Admin Zebra here, with some of my observations from the new footage from the latest Nintendo Direct. I wrote some stuff about the first trailer, like commentary on Byleth’s sleeve inspiration from medieval fashion and the (maybe) symbolism behind the Japanese title, but this time I’ll be going all the way through.

First things first: We got an official logo. I kinda like the typeface on the old one (pictured below) more, to be honest.

Obviously this was a rough working title, given they didn’t even have the classic Fire Emblem logo on it, but the new logo’s typeface for Three Houses feels a bit too much. The capitalized T and H, sure, but having the everything like that, and with that kerning? Not feeling it.

Well, I got a degree in design so it’s my sworn duty to nitpick about these things, but this isn’t analysis, so let’s move on.

Lore

We’re introduced to the continent’s major powers and how they convene at the Monastery in Garreg Mach: the Adrestian Empire (Red Black Eagles, Edelgard), Faerghus (Blue Lions, Dimitri), and the Leicester Alliance (Golden Deer, Claude).

Each country has its own house at the monastery a la Harry Potter, and those houses are led by each country’s first-in-line for succession, whom we were introduced to in the first trailer.

Edelgard, as seen by the above picture, is the first-in-line for succession in the Adrestian Empire. Interestingly, they seem to use “Emperor” as a gender-neutral term for the ruler, as the narration calls her the future emperor rather than the future empress.

In the background, we can make out a few characters seen elsewhere in the video (from left-to-right): Dorothea, Ferdinand, Linhardt, Caspar, and Petra. (Edelgard’s the one with the red magic glyph.) Bernadetta is seen hiding under a book a few seconds later, so she’s in the Black Eagles as well.

We unfortunately don’t get a group shot of the Blue Lions, so the members of this house are largely unknown. I don’t think we see anyone aside from Dimitri in the background video in any other scene, either. There are a few kids whose affiliation we don’t see, like Annette, Mercedes (whom Annette calls Mercie), and Sylvain, so they might be in his group.

Lastly, Claude’s group. Pink-haired Hilda, who was seen as one of Byleth’s opponents in the first trailer, is in his group. Later in the video, we get the names for the large blonde man and the orange-haired girl: Raphael and Leonie.

The Church of Seiros is also headquartered in Garreg Mach as the predominant religion on the continent, and it has its own military force, the Knights of Seiros. The seem to be led by this woman, whom we get a better shot of towards the end of the trailer.

She resembles the woman depicted throughout the first trailer, but it’s hard to tell whether she got an updated look over the past few months, is another character entirely, or changed into another outfit.

We also get to meet the probably-manakete girl seen at the end of the first trailer and get a name for her: Sothis.

A cursory search on her name brings me to the Egyptian goddess/constellation name Sopdet, which translated into Greek as Sothis. (More info on that in the link.) Here, Sothis can communicate with Byleth, the main character, through their mind. How or why this happens won’t be clear until we see the game proper, but the narration suggests that it’s tied to the “unexpected incident” that revealed a “hidden power within” that leads to Byleth traveling to Garreg at the start of the story.

Speaking of which...

Assuming that the first image, with Byleth traveling with the three house leaders and his father Jeralt, takes place at the beginning, it seems that the two images in a scene towards the end of the trailer are set before that -- the aforementioned unexpected incident.

In the second image, that clearly would’ve been a fatal blow on Byleth; his back is turned to the bandit, but then it rewinds to the point where the bandit lunges. Instead of having his back towards the bandit to shield Edelgard, Byleth knocks the axe out of the bandit’s hand with the power of weapon triangle advantage.

This likely indicates two things: 1) a return of the Mila’s Turnwheel function from SoV, and 2) Byleth has some sort of power to either see a bit into the future, or rewind time.

Gameplay

Byleth seems to be something of an avatar unit, which was already known from the first trailer when all the official material called them “Your character” instead of the name shown in the trailer. You get to pick between a male and female form, with no known option for further customization -- fair in that there seem to be quite a number of rendered cutscenes a la SoV (and the cutscene animations are by the same team), which would make customizations tough.

I'm more or less neutral about F!Byleth’s design, simply because I disagree with the avatar option to begin with. I prefer set-in-stone characters, and having an avatar whom we don’t have control over personality-wise makes me wonder why they’re even an avatar to begin with. (For example, I love Dragalia’s MC Euden, but I do not at all understand why we label him with a name of our choosing. I respect his personality and his reasoning, but he is not an avatar of me.)

Three Houses boasts greater interaction between not only the player characters, but as well as between characters as well. As depicted in the first trailer, there’s a semi open-world function that allows you to explore Garreg Mach and interact with characters there. I’m looking forward to it, though I do have my reservations depending on how it plays out.

Combat, First Trailer:

Combat, Second Trailer:

The action select screen seems to have changed, but aside from Attack to Atk, it’s hard to tell whether these are complete changes, or simply caused by having different functions unlocked, having different classes, or because Edelgard is a main character where Bernadetta is not (i.e. Formation and Equip). Combat Arts are now also selected on the attack screen, as seen a few seconds later.

Comparing the weapon selection screens, it seems to have been restructured to show values more clearly. Bernadetta also has the three green triangles next to her HP, which is shown throughout several battle screens in this trailer, but I’m not quite sure what that’s for yet.

The new level-up screen. As will be analyzed later, class options in Three Houses seems to be much freer than previous titles, hence the Class Mastery section in the level-up screen. Professor Level seems to be related to Training, which will be covered later. Battalion is, naturally, the troops following each character’s lead; it seems that battalions can be switched out.

Given the Withdraw and Confirm selections at the bottom-right corner, this seems to be an alternative to the Arena. I assume units can’t die here, because that would be pretty difficult to explain to parents. “Hey uhh your son died during a sparring session, whoops.”

Ah, studying. I’m so glad I’m out of school now. You can tutor students individually, as a batch (I assume that’s what Auto-Tutor and Group Task are), or change an individual student’s studying goals.

We get a look at Dorothea’s tutoring as an example. People have gotten fidgety about that heart on the completion screen as a sign of some sort of affection system with the main character, BUT.

Immediately afterwards, we see Linhardt’s goals screen. Looking at that top-right gauge, we see the >w< meter on Linhardt’s has 4 (full) gauges. Meanwhile, Dorothea had 3 maximum gauges, and the 1 gauge left is consumed during training. IF my deductions are correct (pleasebecorrectpleasebecorrect), the heart gauge may build up the training meter when you get good results from training.

Also notable from this screen is that Linhardt’s class is Noble, the same as Bernadetta’s earlier. (Edelgard’s class shown in the first trailer is Aristocrat, which is... similar?) It seems that most students will start off with a similar class and then progress through different ones based on player preference and their own particular strengths. As seen with Dorothea, it seems that Swords and Reason are two of her strengths, while Faith is a weakness.

We are also shown various skills that can be trained:

Weapons: Swords, Lances, Axes, Bows, and Fighting(?)

Character (unofficial term): Reason, Faith, Authority

Unit: Heavy Armor, Riding (Cavalry), Flying

I assume Fighting is a weapon-type skill because Caspar is shown using claws right afterwards.

If you look closely throughout the video, you’ll see female generic soldiers, which is a nice touch, personally. While this is more story-related, it’s interesting that the enemy is labeled “Western Church”. This either suggests that there are different branches of the Church of Seiros, or that this is a split faction (perhaps the “rebellions” the narrator speaks about earlier in the video as one of the enemies you must fight).

This is the customized class screen mentioned earlier. As is apparently from the side list, it seems that characters can access all of those classes, and aren’t limited to just a few. Obviously, characters will probably lean towards certain classes, but it opens a lot of possibilities. Also, Edelgard can now lawfully pillage villages now with the Brigand certification exam. All this time we thought they were just brutes, but apparently it’s a meritorious profession!

This seems to be how supports will play out in Three Houses, which is fine by me. Having stronger bonds between characters provides a so-called “Gambit Boost”, which seems to provide a boost to combat arts. (Edelgard, in some unknown class, uses Coordinated Gambit.)

The rest of the trailer is mostly just cutscenes, one part which I already addressed earlier. The other shots are too vague to really comment on. If there’s one thing I didn’t really like about the trailer, it’s that it didn’t really give us a sense of an overarching conflict. All we know is that there’s a delicate balance between the three nations, it’s probably getting broken, goddesses/dragons are involved, and the crests are to blame.

[edwardpotts]

Nintendo Mobile Games Reach $1 Billion in Lifetime Player Spending

Nintendo’s mobile games have generated more than $1 billion in lifetime revenue from global player spending on the App Store and Google Play, Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data shows. Nintendo’s mobile repertoire, which comprises six games, has also amassed a combined 452 million downloads worldwide.

The majority—$656 million, or 61 percent—of Nintendo’s mobile revenue has come from strategy RPG Fire Emblem Heroes. The next two highest-grossing Nintendo titles were Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, which has accounted for 12 percent of all user spending among the company’s mobile games, followed by Dragalia Lost at 11 percent.

Those familiar with the company’s iconic, ubiquitous plumber Mario may be surprised to learn that Mario Kart Tour and Super Mario Run—the latter of which had a record-breaking launch day and remains Nintendo’s most-downloaded title—contributed smaller shares of overall revenue at 8 and 7 percent, respectively, with Dr. Mario World following with less than 1 percent.

Nintendo is unsurprisingly most successful in its home market of Japan, where the $581 million it’s earned totals 54 percent of its overall mobile game revenue; the U.S. has come in second with $316 million, or 29 percent. This distribution is reflected across all its mobile games with the exception of Mario Kart Tour and Super Mario Run, whose spending skews more towards the U.S.

The overall revenue distribution among Nintendo’s mobile games is a stark contrast to the downloads share; Super Mario Run holds the crown with 244 million downloads, or 54 percent of the publisher’s 452 million mobile game downloads, while Mario Kart Tour’s 147 million installs represented 32 percent. Fire Emblem Heroes, Nintendo’s highest-grossing title, has only accounted for 4 percent of the total.

Nintendo Monetization Experiments Have Paid Off

Nintendo has been experimenting with various monetization strategies since it first entered the mobile market in mid-2016. While its 2016 earnings from Super Mario Run amounted to a modest $26 million, it was in February 2017, with the hugely successful launch of Fire Emblem Heroes, that Nintendo found its mobile footing. Despite being lower ranked in terms of downloads share, the financial success of Fire Emblem Heroes—which boasts average revenue-per-download of $41—suggests that Nintendo has hit upon a winning formula with the gacha model.

Although it has since experimented with other methods of monetization, such as subscriptions in Mario Kart Tour and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Nintendo hasn’t yet managed to replicate the same scale of financial success with its subsequent titles. It did, however, manage to earn more than $350 million from its mobile offerings in 2019, and the publisher will no doubt continue experimenting with—and refining—monetization models in its existing and future titles to grow that total along with new releases later in 2020.

Note that for this analysis, we did not include Nintendo-published mobile apps such as Nintendo Switch Online or the social networking app Miitomo.

Sensor Tower’s Store Intelligence platform is an Enterprise level offering. Interested in learning more?

Nintendo Mobile Games Reach $1 Billion in Lifetime Player Spending published first on https://spyadvice.tumblr.com/

[valeriefauxnom]

You know, if it's one thing that kinda grinds my gears, it's this... weird persistence some fans of Dragalia had to say that the game was totally angling for this ~Euden/Zethia~ ship all the while.

I mean, sure, I guess I can't stop anyone from shipping anything, but I can speak to the supposed 'canon' degree of a ship by analyzing the broader work and specific lines within.

And let me flat-out state now that, for all of its plot craziness, Dragalia actively made a stand against the Euden/Zethia ship.

Proponents of this argument, joking or not, most often point to four major points in the at least semi-serious arguments I've stumbled upon besides just the people who jokingly meme about it for lols:

-Euden and Zethia act 'too invested' in each other beyond 'normal siblings', which suggests to them that they are romantically involved,

-The truth of Euden's birth gives space to start making it a 'non-taboo' ship, 'wow, we aren't related at all, we don't need to hide anything!' sort of way.

-With Euden's total lack of interest in any of the men or women who become interested in him, they take it as though he is already interested in Zethia and thus uncaring about others' attention

-Euden ends Dragalia as someone that potentially might not be even related to Zethia or remember her, further freeing up the ship to be a normal ship for endgame

Let me address those points in turn.

The 'Too Invested' Argument:

Now, I'm not here to claim that Euden and Zethia had a perfectly healthy dynamic. Euden was hyperprotective over Zethia, and, though it gets less focus, Zethia was hyperprotective over Euden.

Yes, both had problems about being overprotective.

I could list examples all day, but I think I'll narrow it down to a few to just recognize this point:

Here, Euden contrasts the value of his life with not hers, but her mere freedom. Between that, ch.14, 15, etc, Euden paints a very clear picture that he puts Zethia above him in value. Just to add some silliness, he comes close enough in one line of dialogue to inspire me to make this:

(Full quote: No matter where we are, we love and support Zethia always. May those feelings find their way to her...)

And on Zethia's side...

Several times she's motivated to great personal risk to get Euden out of binds, including this case where she willing stays in the demon's den of Agito+Nedrick instead of taking a chance at freedom, because she believes in Nedrick's threat. It's a direct and ironic reversal of Euden's words earlier - she values Euden's life more than her own freedom.

Euden's not alone in starting to lose his head if Zethia's in danger, either. Gala!Zethia (well, technically another Zethia) sees her Euden die, and immediately breaks her ordinarily calm demeanor.

I'll address the reasons for this behavior in brief. On Euden's side, it's a combination of 'big brother protectiveness' and his concerns for her mental state. Euden knew Zethia as sensitive, growing up, but changed after their mother died, and views her current behavior as a facade trying to cover things up. So he fears her suffering in misery with nothing but Morsayati or later Nedrick as company (+ all the other reasons for why you might not be keen on letting a demon overlord keep possessing your twin).

On Zethia's, it's a reflection of Euden's actions. Zethia knows Euden is so recklessly devoid of self-preservation, especially in defense of others, that she feels the need to fix any problem he inevitably involves himself in and the injuries that result. She outright states that she's only as good as healing because Euden gave her so much practice growing up. Part of it is also tied to her self-worth - even though Zethia is, by all likelihood, stronger than Euden at the start of canon, Euden's interventionist personality to get in front of her and stop something from truly challenging/threatening her makes her want to be able to do something instead of feeling like she's always trapped under his protective shadow.

For both of them, it also stems from the fact that they only really had themselves and Notte growing up for same-age friends, so there weren't any others to separate them. Limited attachments means less time to spend with others, which only let them become even more glued at the hip.

And this is where Dragalia had a moment of self-realization that maybe this isn't a wholly healthy dynamic to be stuck in, and that's why there's a surprising-large-if-still-a-small-subplot body of moments in late canon where the two of them start to work on becoming less mutually protective of the other.

Bondforged Zethia's story in part revolves around this idea.

...And where Bondforged Zethia walks with this idea amid its main plot, Advent of the Origin runs with it:

Here, both Zethia and Euden start to acknowledge that they cannot be each other's eternal saviors. Euden tries to recognize that Zethia doesn't need him for everything any more, and Zethia attempts to stand strong on her own without Euden's aid.

While both of their efforts are a bit misplaced (Zethia tries to go too hard to the 'I don't need ANY help at all, mom!' direction and neglects telling Euden of the disturbing, potentially ominous dreams she's having), they reaffirm this again after they both get erased from existence oh what a sentence to write, but that's what you get when going into late Dragalia canon...

To put it in brief: yes, Euden and Zethia's dynamic is not that of an perfectly ordinary, healthy sibling dynamic, and it is a thing that Dragalia actively starts to give them both therapy remedy and get them to a more normal place where they both support each other without becoming overprotective. It's not your standard lovey-dovey nonsense couples oft get up to in media that's viewed as a positive as just an 'expression of love', and instead was more informed by their isolationist upbringing and early difficulties of losing their mother so soon.

As a last note, see Bondforged Zethia's line:

The overall trajectory of their relationship is the both of them finding a happy medium where they mutually support each other whilst growing more independent and less overprotective.

The 'Non-Taboo' / Ending Argument

This one is a lot more straightforward than the last one: Dragalia actively affirms at every interval questioned that Euden and Zethia consider themselves siblings at the end of the day.

We can dance around it all day, but at the end of it, this is the sentiment that Euden and Zethia share at the end of canon:

So, no, no matter what dreams any might have that Euden or Zethia somehow would take the increasingly-muddled bloodline of Euden's (even if not much has changed fundamentally from the simple fact that he has inherited Nedrick's, -Zethia's twin, -blood) as permission to change what they think about each other, that's just flat-out not the case.

And while the ending is high-key ambiguous as to what's going on, as I, who wrote a 300k+ speculatory dragalia fic on the subject would know, there's still nothing to suggest this dynamic has changed!

Questions one can ask about the ending are abundant: did Zethia create a base simulacrum of Euden by remembering him, or is he the real thing? What does he remember? What does she? ...But, ultimately, there's 0.00 evidence to suggest anything has fundamentally changed.

What glimpse we get has Euden just concerned about Zethia breaking down in front of him, and Zethia struggling with feelings she has no memory to tie them to. In fact, with the ending more suggesting that Zethia is remembering more about Euden, the odds of them running with the 'whoop-de-doo, now they don't remember each other' contrivance to 'fulfill the ship' are further decreased.

The 'Euden's Lack of Interest' Argument:

Ah, a classic. I still remember all the people hyper-analyzing over who he had blushed for as evidence of a ship or romantic interest.

I've gone over it several times, but it's never too late to bust out the good old evidence that Euden was seemingly aroace instead of just oblivious or already occupied with another. And for once I'm not grasping at threads to make a funny joke or crazy lore idea!

Euden says at minimum three times that he explicitly 'doesn't ever really think about romance', 'doesn't understand romantic love as a concept', and 'doesn't even think he's mentally ready to even start figuring out if he wants a relationship'.

If one wanted to argue that these come from very Dragalia and that Euden could have since developed, one would still be disappointed, because the middle image here is from Summer Mym, very late in the lifespan of the game.

I know when I first saw that they were doing S!Mym, my first thoughts (and probably several others) were something along: 'ok probably inevitable, Mym is unfortunately reduced to this waifubait character 99% of the time even if there technically is shades of something deeper to her, her story is probably going to be mindless rom-com nonsense with Euden'.

But if they instead choose to take the high road and make the bold decision to let her have mature discussions of love with Euden, replete with her understanding that Euden just doesn't romantically love her and respecting his reaction to her confession now that she finally put it in a way he understood...

(They would continue to disaffirm a Euden/Mym ship in the very last chapter, impressively, too!)

...I can't see them backtracking so hard just for another ship, if that's the maturity of love and rejections that they could take with Mym of all characters. Here, Euden again rejects the concept that he even understands what it means to romantically love, and instead has come to recognize that even if he's capable of it, he needs to figure out this little thing called 'self-love' first.

If they'd suddenly made another Elisanne or Euden alt and immediately backtracked on Euden's blanket refusal to engage in anything romantic, fans of all stripes would be pissed, to put it bluntly. Whether it was diehard Mym/Euden shippers upset that they contrived a reason to sink the ship only to ignore that reason to uphold another, people who appreciated the overall strong body of evidence for aroace!Euden now upset that they decided to needlessly shove a ship in... It would please almost nobody save for diehard Elly/Euden fans just trying to take their food where they can get it.

This has gone on a bit of a tangent, but in short: start to finish, Dragalia strongly rejected affirming any /Euden ship, and not just because they wanted to keep shippers' dreams alive - if they're willing to so thoroughly sink one of the biggest ships in the game, nobody was safe and the course did not appear to change.

Also, at the end of the day, blushing isn't just an expression of romantic love/attraction, ya know? It's foremost one of embarrassment and other strong emotions like anger.

In summation:

No, theoretical internet person, Dragalia Lost did not push a Euden/Zethia ship, so if you're gonna ship it, just know you can't hide behind 'but it was canon!' or 'hey, I'm just going along with what the writers clearly wanted' as a cover.

[moneyhealthfinance-blog]

Sensor Tower: Fire Emblem pushes Nintendo to $348 million in 2018 mobile revenue

Sensor Tower: Fire Emblem pushes Nintendo to $348 million in 2018 mobile revenue

Nintendo’s mobile games made $ 348 million in 2018, according to market analysis firm Sensor Tower. The fourth quarter alone made $ 117 million, which was up 47 percent over the same period last year. This was thanks to the September launch Dragalia Lost, Nintendo’s first original IP for mobile.

[valeriefauxnom]

Royal Matchmaking...

...Is and was a very serious thing in the real world, and even generally fictional ones. It makes sense: if you're investing real, lasting political power into a singular bloodline, you wanna be sure that that blood stays locked down and only gets out when you intentionally let it as much as possible.

This is a philosophy that, while not explicitly addressed, seems to be carried to the Alberian royal family. Nobility, at least, explicitly are in this boat, per Ranzal.

But of Alberia's 7 'feasible' heirs, -subtracting Beren and Nedrick, -to this generation, only one was known to be set up in an arrange marriage (Chelle, of course). Moreover, this was a marriage within the country to a regional noble, made to help the royal family exert more influence in their distant lands that have distaste against them from NoName Previous King. Makes sense. Gotta throw a bone to the local nobles every once in a while, too, maybe help keep them wanting to be in the family's good graces to possibly get an in, sometime in the future.

But it's odd that that's where this ends. Leonidas has made it to late twenties at least without even a whiff of hint about him seeking, having, or otherwise involved in royal matchmaking, which is usually a priority for the expectant heir. Let's just say he's being exceedingly cautious and picky, since, again, expectant heir.

Then why wasn't the likes of Euden thrown to the Royal Dating Market? He's prime fodder as the seventh son. So would Emile and Zethia, but one's so abrasive that I very well could see Aurelius just kinda setting that aside since he's not going to be winning anything, much less other nations' hands and the other is out of the throne running and additionally likely constrained by religious vows.

But Euden's a nice lad, a good boy eager to serve the interests of his father and country, and seems so devoted to royal standards of appropriate affection and behavior that his best idea to sell the idea he's newly married is to hold hands.

No, that's not hyperbole:

Now, as much as me and my friend like to joke that Aurelius might have indeed tried, only to discover that Euden is just so aroace that he somehow offputs everyone by being so platonically friendly he decided to give up the effort, much as the royal family seems to struggle in its 300 history to find a mate or be interested... What's the actual case?

There's a few interesting arguments I could make. First, for Euden specifically, that Aurelius was worried that somehow Euden didn't truly possess dragonblood from his 'odd' creation. Dragonblood is going to be a major drive for other nobility/royalty for why Alberia's royals would be so compelling (on top of the whole 'they're the continental power' thing). As such, if someone partnered with Euden, eager to get ahold of sweet sweet dragonblood, and any offspring failed to produce dragonblood (since we know of at least some things that can test it, like the book and the one thing in the lawyer event that they needed Euden's blood for, Delphi's story, etc etc).... There would likely be a lot of angry people at Alberia. They could blab to other nations about Alberia swindling them of their 'dues' for why they agreed, and now nobody wants to risk getting a 'dud' in a partnership.

Then again, Aurelius doesn't seem wholly afraid of Euden potentially lacking dragonblood. While he's let Euden go without seeking a pact for a while, he's also not afraid to send him out on a critical mission to pact. You could argue that this gives credit to the fear that he didn't have it if he only ordered him in concerning straits, but it goes both ways. In the end, I'd say it's a moot point.

Instead, I'd like to focus on another potential, more broad argument for why the family is so stingy with all that romance drama that usually ensues in royal families: their dragonblood, again.

Sure, it makes them a very compelling option in the Royal Dating Market... but not necessarily to Alberia's own interests. Dragonblood gives the royal family a very tangible safety wall around their nation, a constant threat that there is at least one dragon at all times that is probably ready to wreck house (and since we've had recorded dragons who can destroy kingdoms on their OWN, this might be similar to possessing the first living nuke) plus corresponding royalty that are ready to also kick butt. Alberia is an explicitly martial place that even Aurelius thinks that they rely on it too much, a thing reflected in much of its scions, even the likes of Phares, being strongly pushed to pick up weaponry and master it.

Oh yeah, and that royal family can effectively double the number of dragons in combat if they choose to shapeshift. Between the active threat, and the passive security it brings the family to nearly always have a defensive option if needed, it's no wonder that they're as secure a position.

How strong? Well, I'd like to stress that they have an established navy, despite its capital and known important cities not being near the oceans, its lands bountiful of food and material, and seemingly few major waterways even inland. I tried guestimating their territory, and, well...

Mind you, this is a conservative guess. Saint Lotier is explicitly a city-state, so it likely doesn't have too much sway on much outside the immediate territory of its city. We never really hear of the snowlands and sandy area to the east, so I just used the assumption that they might not be Alberian. They still very well could be. That's still the vast majority of a continent being eaten by a single nation. Even after splitting into three pieces (after Leonidas reforms Alberia in Valkaheim), note that no other nations tried to launch invasions to eat up the probably disorderly and weaker continental power.

...So why would they want to pass that power, security, and threat onto another nation? Sure, they might gain a nifty trade deal out of it in the short run, but next generation or two? Now there's another kingdom that has that special blood, free to seek their own living nukes (not that it stopped historical nations in the past to try without dragonblood to disastrous effect), and start threatening Alberia. Possibilities are endless even aside from direct threats - it siphons regional influence as smaller nations start to kowtow the latest dragon power, reduces Alberia's influence...

And yet the most we see to my immediate recollection is Svenitla start making idle pokes at trying to get Euden for the dragonblood, or further destabilize the region.

In short: even when there's active civil war, Alberia's lands are still scary enough a threat that other nations are scared of taking them head-on and need to further cripple it. You know you made it when that's the case.

But I digress.

Hopefully that made it a bit more understandable why the family might be especially hesitant to hand out their special trick to other nations. There's a very valid reason for why Yurius' father in Dragalia would've been so so upset for losing that golden goose ability as they lose functional dragonblood. And while the risks might be smaller when dealing with the country's own nobility, it's still a source of risks in the future for coups and the like. Ironically, despite being the stronger partner in every aspect, they might as well be terrified of the Royal Dating Market for this unique combination of risks!

So, how do you try to reconcile this very risky Royal Dating Market for the family, this very serious business that they need to triple-check they're making the right choice?

More irony: limiting arranged marriages, that Royal Dating Market, in favor of a return to typical love matches. In an arranged marriage, both parties are walking into it more like a trade or a diplomatic tool. Both are knowingly doing this for reasons other than love, even if they may not hate each other.

But when both parties mutually love the other?

Well, now.

Whatever in-marrying partner is likely to be more loyal/devoted to their partner and the Alberian Royal Family's interests to a lesser degree. It helps keep things in-country by simple proximity, giving those benefits. It helps keep dragonblood on better lock in Alberia and stop that Special Sanguine Stuff from escaping to other nations.

Of course, it's not entirely without risks - it opens the way for your classic seduction plots to the throne, if they can just get to one of the royal family - but no solution is truly perfect, here.

It'd also mesh with Euden's weird mishmash of attitudes regarding marriage. Sure, he's got the aforementioned 'hand holding is for after the marriage' attitude... but he also seems baffled by the concept of marrying someone you don't know:

If there's a cultural norm in the family to really know a person before marrying them, that might point towards this predominantly love-marriage focus.

We can also potentially use Cassandra's framing of Aurelius' marriage as a love match, if we use the 'you finally convinced someone to marry you' line as a silly jab to his ability to attract people. It's not like Alberia would be a hard sell politically, after all.

Half-jokingly, I'd also throw in Chelle's willingness to forego most all subtlety in her chasing Leif. If it's more expected the fam to truly find someone they love and loves them, it stands to reason she wants to get through Leif's thick head to start getting on with more formal courtship.

Hence her willingness in this official promo art to just... blatantly try to feed him in front of several siblings.

(Also royal fam why are you eating what seems to be pie with your hands???)

Leif's also exactly the sort that would probably be green-lit in the fam. His family (noble) has had close ties for several generations, he's fiercely devoted to them... By all accounts, it'd be a strong political move. A safe play.

So Chelle doesn't mind being a bit obvious with her chase because it's just another politically sound move, nothing like the sort of thing that she'd need to keep in the shadows. Heck, this might even make wider social gaps more acceptable to the royal fam, as they could view that commoner families possess much less risk (as they have less resources, defenses, everything, really) than a noble family.

All of this combines to the very weird and slightly funny picture/theory/whatever you want to call this that the Alberian Royal Family might have tricked themselves into marrying for love solely by the virtue of them having almost nothing to truly gain from empowering other nations/nobles with dragonblood. Instead, they use it more as a tool of last resort when it comes to keeping their power in line, and do so preferably with domestic nobles to exert more influence over them.

And now, for our third and final possibility I can think of: there's really really really aroace genes in the blood.

Evidence: Out of the 9 members of the current generation, only three express any actual, even vague romantic interest (Chelle, Emile, with a very vague case of Valyx). Their father also apparently was blind to romance.

Make of these ideas what you will, but no matter what, it's still funny.

[valeriefauxnom]

A Collection of Minor Dragalia Theories

1: Some inspiration for Wyrmscale was drawn from tuberculosis.

Wyrmscale frustratingly was talked in minimal frequency for something that has supposedly haunted the royal family to a known degree. What little we do have on it says or suggests this:

-It produces exceedingly durable dragon scales over the afflicted's body

-It is invariably fatal (provided one not get possessed by a literal creator deity)

-It is only known to occur in the royal family's blood (though it is unknown whether it truly is family-exclusive or if any of the exceedingly few dragonblood lines that may have survived could also pick it up). Overall uncommon but it's popped up enough to be a known phenomenon.

-It seems to produce internal damage to organs, based on Phares' comments:

-By implication, it's not infectious, as there is 0.000 isolation or hesitation between Phares and any other sibling when it comes to interacting.

-A common sentiment of wyrmscale is that it's just 'trying to turn you into a dragon' but fails in the face of the weak human body.

-This isn't immediately connected to it but I figured I'd throw in the fun fact that in Japanese, it seems to be more literally called 'dragon scale - itis'

But how does this connect to tuberculosis?

I'll start with a more casual link that I still find interesting: Tuberculosis, among its names, has been known as 'the White Death' - which to me instantly calls to mind Phares' ivory scales.

To actually start digging in the weeds, though, the disease is predominately one that affects the lungs. It's especially famous for producing the ~dramatic bloody cough~ we all see in media.

And lo and behold, as I just displayed above, Phares does indeed have it!

Now, wait, you might be saying, TB is infectious, having caused epidemics aplenty, and you're correct!

...However, there's also another wrinkle to this: most TB cases never 'bloom' into its full potential and instead just kinda quietly sit there.

As a matter of fact, in 2023 it was estimated that 1/4 the WORLD'S population 'had tuberculosis', either its active or latent form. Even if you focus on a country like the US, there's still 5-10% of people that have it.

So who knows if wyrmscale could be contagious? It might just have a particular quality to it that is only really able to take root in dragonblooded bodies, and even then, it could be that the rest of the fam caught the latent version since there's a high enough percentage of people who just never develop active TB.

Ignoring the infectious matter, there's more that I would like to bring up: the surrounding culture of TB.

'Culture' is a strange word when talking about a disease that for a long time was very deadly with no cure possible, but there was! Tuberculosis was a disease that was also called the 'romantic disease', and was at one point portrayed as a sort of 'cool' thing. It's the whole 'pale skin, delicate soul' vibe that caused this, though it also has been attributed towards supposedly making one smarter/more creative especially re. the arts.

Funnily enough, this whole thing was sort of a flip-flop from previous portrayals of it as a poverty disease. But that's not relevant.

The point I'm trying to make here is that TB for a while had an idea of it being this ~noble disease~. And while we don't exactly get Public Opinion 101 regarding most the royal family, they don't exactly seem to fear or otherwise have a negative opinion of him for his disease or otherwise, which, ya never know, may be partly informed by the idea that it's a 'cool noble one' instead (and even more literal than its real-life counterpart, as dragon scales are admittedly cool). People can get mean about uncontrollable things as it is, and for a family that's already held up as special because of their dragonblood, it would be easy to see how they could have pivoted to view wyrmscale as a 'mark of disfavor/poor character/etc' in another world.

Theory 2: Euden, in a somewhat vague way, could be considered a fiend.

Ah, Euden, and your complicated creation process. What are you? Human, a god, human god, demon, amalgamate of baby blood...etc etc?

However, I believe that you could argue that Euden's overall 'presentation' to the world in a broader sense is that of a fiend instead of 'just a human'. How so?

I'd like to take a small detour to canon, and this line in ye olde Dragalia lore when they were first trying to drip Da Lore on us:

So fiends in general were portrayed as generally drawn to it, created from it, bad stuff happens yadda yadda yadda. It also is very harmful to humans and dragons alike. See all the void dragons and everyone generally stress everyone has to get moving whenever it gets too thick.

You might already be looping around to the Euden-Morsayati thing, and you're absolutely right, but that's more the 'why' of 'why I think you could consider Euden to have the traits of a functional fiend'.

A bit less concise a theory title, but hey.

First, I'd like to pull out this moment from ch.5. Mym's feeling bad vibes, Ranzal and Elisanne, both very strong themselves are feeling very poorly... and Euden just never really seems to be bothered. He's just chilling.

Now, it's not like Euden is immune to mana shenanigans. He's just as easily knocked down a peg from things like Sophie's story, where mana being off makes everyone miserable for a little while.

But, generally, from what I can dig up... black mana doesn't really seem to get him complaining. In fact, we saw it as a plot point several times, between him just chilling in Lefkos' ruins and later in an area absolutely packed with black mana:

He's more upset about the fact he's going to be eaten by a black hole than any black mana (understandable). By all indications, even before Da Lore developed to say he's immune, Euden just didn't really care about it.

However, I'd like to suggest a particular moment in ch.13 as another 'hm' moment.

They address this more as 'artificial mana' but I'd like to point out that it's not 'just' artificial by implication - it's able to corrupt Poseidon into Void Poseidon, implying that it is at least somewhat tainted with black mana.

And here Euden immediately keys onto it, and in contrast to Ranzal's heeby-jeebies, instead wants to go to it. Or, maybe one could say, drawn to it in the same manner that fiends are? It could be a thing that he's tried to suppress since black mana has been drilled into his head as 'the thing to go away from as fast as humanly possible', and how weird is it that he wants to go to it instead of running away with his friends? Better to just resist the urge, he's not a bug that needs to go to the light, and his friends are struggling already, he's not going to insist they risk themselves more.

Jokingly, I could also suggest that this is the source of his unstoppable ability to just find danger (whether that's fiends finding him or him finding fiends)!

'Now wait', you might say, 'fiends are those weird hooded creatures or manticores and stuff, not humans, even if they can be sentient. Plus, since they're Bad Vibes manifested, all the mana sensors in the gang could Sense him'... but we do already know of at least one exception: Mei Hou Wang, who is perfectly humanoid in appearance. It takes Cleo making a dedicated effort to deduce that he's 'not human', and even then, she can't conclusively ID him as a fiend.

All he registers is 'weird', to say the least. Which, you guessed it, we've several that suggest Euden just 'feels weird' too, mana-wise. Granted, some suggestion for that is that his mom is haunting him, but whether it fully explains the weirdness several register regarding him is unknown.

As a final little thing for this theory, I will also throw in the pot that fiends and black mana seem to be 'frenzy-ing' in nature. Driving dragons and humans mad, becoming crazed themselves, yadda yadda... Heck, even Beren, who we know is a human constantly inundated with the stuff, seems somewhat impulsive and driven by any whims of his. This, to me, intersects with Finlorda's vague words of warning regarding Euden, that he feared Euden going berserk.

You could interpret this as though he feared that the Other's demon flesh would make him a 'true fiend' in behavior to match the material he was made from. In a broader sense, as I've long argued on here, Euden is... not fully stable, mentally. And while that part of him ultimately stems from the way he was raised and how he thinks of himself, if he's a 'fiend' in a technical sense I'm sure that doesn't help regulate him at all.

This combines into the vague picture that Euden, a person whose physical form is predominately made from Morsayati, a demon overlord/fiend, may possess more than just an immunity to black mana but an outright compulsion as the 'real things' do, and potentially shares their capacity/inclination to go berserk.

Theory 3: They(tm) were thinking about maiming Leonidas at least a bit post ch.12

'They' being the dev team and more specifically the writers.

Why do I think this?

It stems from the overall vibes I pick up from a mix of the story and art. Of course, there's no smoking gun to confirm anything, as is the case with the other little mini theories here, but hopefully you can see where I'm going with this!

It starts with the heavy stress that Leonidas was just wrecked by the end of ch.12. He's wounded enough that Euden immediately flips his mood from 'I need to beat you up' to 'I am concerned for your life' once Phares shows up.

The next piece to this puzzle comes in his later meeting with Chelle. She stresses how injured he was and how bad she was expecting him to be.

Gala Leonidas' lines, when combined with this, paint the broader narrative that Chelle personally ferried his gun to him in this visit.

In short: she understood that he was injured enough to render him more or less defenseless from his typical means of sword and shapeshift, and likely was intending to supplement her brother's capacity to defend himself in his infirmity.

Even for whenever Ilia shows up after, he's still wounded enough for a wide scope of them to be clearly visible to her, and he's overall maybe a bit less sharp than normal, getting surprised...

...And Ilia able to incapacitate both his guards before he so much blinks.

So, obviously, whatever injuries he had weren't just for show, and did affect him in the days and weeks after the fight even in canon, but Leonidas largely seems to convalesce more or less entirely.

Here's where we loop around to the why I think that wasn't originally the plan!

A big part stems from this draft artwork for him in the songbook, of all things...

Pardon the poor picture but between the scan and the texture on the image itself, it's... tough to find anything better. But from the start of them, there's a clear pattern of his right arm being... oddly emphasized, with his mismatched black sleeve until it got phased out for his B design.

I'm also noting the small detail of him holding the gun in his left hand, instead of the right. It could be just artistic choice to show the details of his right, I can't say for certain. Heck, even the asymmetry could just be more 'Japanese artists love asymmetry'.

But something about it to me just feels... off. Like the black seems to extend past the arm onto his chest, where it almost vaguely looks like there's a gap in the coat. Maybe, if so, to allow a less-flexible arm through if he can't quite manage the sleeve?

Even more unlikely related, Euden also does generally seem to have/like having a tighter undershirt on underneath the main armor/outfit he's wearing. See his default art or even just 'Unexpected Requests'. The former, it also seems to be a one-sleeved thing to match with his higher amount of armor, implying it maaaaay be just a cultural tradition thing for what to wear under armor in Alberia. My probably-incomprehensible mind connects the two- Leo's wearing a black sleeve seemingly underneath the main coat that -> is that what would be his 'under armor shirt+sleeve' -> ...that he's now unable to fully cover up because whatever injury makes him incapable of fully dressing in his overcoat and is just using it as the 'good enough' coverup?

Like I said, this is high-level nonsense and projection, but in some wild world of mine it makes sense.

This is all speculative, but more concrete 'hm' material in his drafts can be found in this drawing:

Aha. Again, nothing concrete, but something between these drawings, between the artist(s?) playing with an eyepatch for him or the weird shirt-sleeve thing he was wearing in his beta designs, makes me seriously wonder what was going on.

Add in again all the extra notes and drama about him being so injured, etc etc, and I can start to see a thread forming: Leonidas might have been originally planned to be at least a bit maimed!

As a final note to this, note his sudden disappearance in canon for a long while after 16. 16-~24, he's content to be what I call jokingly Euden's secretary, instead directing Ilia and Emile to Euden's location instead of doing much himself. As if he's not fully up to his previous capacity to start causing problems, either because he's still in a long recovery or just flat-out not able to go out as much anymore and kill stuff.

He's overall relegated to filling this role in the story, as depicted with my microsoft-paint memery skillz:

In fact, you could almost think that the devs just weren't... intending on him being a problem again, despite his still-contrasting beliefs with Euden. Or maybe just unable to immediately create massive drama for round 3. I could see Leonidas pulling a 'wow Euden nice to see you're back but you see here your kingdom is also kinda mine now? I never said I'd give it back... ok now join me or die' whenever Euden came back, disabled via injury or not. By then, he could've had time to plant seeds of defenses/discontent with Euden+puffing himself up or other strategies to ensure Euden can't take back his kingdom, too.

Honestly, I could've seen that being a fun/interesting plot. Leonidas, just as potent a threat to Euden, but now has switched his means to Euden's, turning Euden's advantages against him. Words or violence, Leonidas will have his way!

Ahem. This is getting long, so I'll cut it off there, but yeah, something about his overall treatment in the post-12 canon world reeks of something to me, that they were thinking of more permanent consequences for Leonidas' fight. Which, too bad! The siblings as a whole probably ought've been a bit more maimed in true throughout canon. They seemed afraid of that or the wider fear of killing them and taking their pieces off the board, as we later see with the Gala!Zethia copout there with her now being 'blind'... and also having no problems in Bondforged, which in retrospect kinda adds to argument with Leonidas.

In any case, I do hope that these little theories have given someone more to chew on regarding Dragalia and its lore!

[valeriefauxnom]

Is there anything more quintessentially Euden...

...Than readily inviting a person into his castle as usual, and when the (attempted) assassin goes to kill him, instead just calmly sits down at a desk, laces his fingers together (or so I imagine), and then just busts out one of the most classic 'welcome to therapy' stereotypical phrases?

This aside, I do think that this segment is a small but nice encapsulation of Euden's particular skills as a leader that often go under-noticed. Get ready for a deep dive, because I've got a few thoughts about his leadership skills!

The preceding events to these lines lay out that Euden has already acquired intel that Dan is out to get him and why. Furthermore, he's similarly anticipated Dan wanting a 'meeting' with him to assassinate him, and brought guards.

Throughout the entire exchange, Euden maintained a calm demeanor and directed the exchange the entire way:

Aside from the obvious power it demonstrated of his leagues of allies by being able to source this information, it's also a fine showcase on what he can do whenever his buttons aren't being pushed (as they so often are in the main campaign).

We don't often see any details about Euden's reign over his territory, since most would likely find that rather boring, but what hints we do get to how he exercises authority are interesting.

Take Gauld's story. A notable underlying current to it is that Euden has dispatched Hawk to break up a gang, especially by acquiring intel from its former leader in Gauld, and, need be, killing him (though this may less be Euden's explicit orders and more the power vested in Hawk to break up the gang as he sees fit, trusting in him).

While I'm certain it pales to Chelle's, Euden seems to have amassed quite the information network in his own right. Even as far back in canon lore as Renelle, he's at least vaguely still keeping tabs of bandit clans in addition to having the details about the biggest one knocking at his door politely:

Euden also seems to be fairly active in solidifying authority and diplomacy through other means, like his bringing to heel of lands described as 'beyond the reach of the authority of the Alberian royal family', and does so like this:

Even if it is not described that Euden snatched that territory into his own in doing this, I'd imagine the local lords and nobles are much more likely to have to play nice even if they desire to start fights again with the reminder that there is a prince/king in the vague area that has his eye on them and is more than willing to personally intervene in a conflict. It's a classic strategy against the typical downfalls of the scheming nobles vs. royalty, like how Louis XIV forced nobility to come to Versailles so that he might keep them in line and under observation better.

This is one example, but with his constant intervention in all sorts of towns and villages throughout Dragalia, it actually can serve a more effective tactic than the vibes it initially gives, that Euden is just doing this purely because he hates paperwork standing by and letting others do work. All of his running about both serves to better his image of an attentive ruler, as well as keep any uppity nobles in line simply by showing the extent of territory he is maintaining a presence+eye on. Alberia seems to be explicitly feudal, in which local lords have a lot of power, including the power to order executions (assuming local laws don't normally outline simple breaking and entering, much less without theft -> death):

If you'll note, I don't really recall there being any noble coalitions trying to form to oust him or otherwise usurp his authority in a region. Sure, there's an individual few that try to kill or imprison him, but he avoids having to deal with a group of them making demands or stage elaborate coups, etc.

In a similar vein, Euden seems active in finding and reaching out to dragons in the area. While it is... finicky in trying to figure out how many dragons Euden has officially pacted with, since while many were added as a 'here's a cool named dragon, have fun' and obviously not lore-compliant (siblings' dragons like Mars, Thor, Cat Sìth, the angels, whom I wonder if they even can pact atop of their own Sigils, Bahamut, others like Elysium, Chronos, weird lore cases like Chthonius and so on...), Euden definitely didn't settle with just the Greatwyrms. We know that Leviathan was one of them that actually did make a pact, as seemingly did Stribog and Prometheus, so on and so forth.

And since dragons in Dragalia were essentially the top of the food chain in the natural world, and expressions of nature's will to begin with, this is not a bad move. On the contrary, I would stress!

In an international sense, he's also fast to make alliances. The first thing he does after formally declaring New Alberia is try to establish alliances with Saint Lotier, Valkaheim, and Chanzelia as regional powers, though only two of those are ultimately successful. The act of making alliances is its own way of trying to gain legitimacy, since if other areas are willing to entertain you on your own terms instead of just nervously looking to other nation(s) that claim that land, it encourages recognition in addition to serving to build power that Euden desperately needed when trying to get a new nation up and running.

In essence, Euden seems to have moved rapidly in trying to assert and reassert authority over regions, and does so passively by simply maintaining a presence in the regions. This allows him to gain steam quickly, building up to a more legitimate nation so fast, also helped by the alliances he moves to forge. Funnily enough, this is reflected in his own base unit as one of those 'gaining steam' characters, where he gets stronger as he shapeshifts more.

Ironically, despite not being of the trio of the 'most cunning/intelligent' siblings, Valyx has the correct idea in properly putting Euden down when this was getting started.

As Leonidas and Chelle were content to sit back and watch, not registering him as a threat (or, in Chelle's case, weighing what she would do next), and Phares also content to watch, wait, and maybe poke at him with a stick once in a while to see what he does, Valyx correctly identifies this trend. If Morsayati had heeded Valyx at this point, it would have been game over for Euden. No matter the insane defenses of the Halidom that I've covered here, there would be only so much they could take if Morsayati went all-out when they still are so new and so weak.

With that in mind, it is fortunate indeed that Morsayati was invested in letting Euden cultivate himself as a host-to-be, even if it ultimately meant Morsayati had been preparing for months on end for how exactly to get Euden to fold and allow himself to be possessed.

Back more to the main topic even if this still is a sidequest, this is probably part of the reason why the commoners are so concerned Euden is possessed after ch.14.

Under his leadership, Euden has moved to assume/establish authority quickly and decisively when and where needed. But after supposedly conquering Sol Alberia, the throne has been left empty. They were likely expecting he'd take it up immediately even if he ultimately considered the Halidom as a capital, just to show who was the new boss around there, because that was what he'd done before.

...But he didn't. To the citizens, his movements were more likely to be perceived as Morsayati's, moving to take control of his new possessee's lands as he did for King Aurelius/Zethia. On top of the other fears they had at that time, it was a clean recipe for why they feared Euden possessed.

That being said, we still don't know a whole lot of the more logistical side of Euden's country. It seems to have something of a specialty product in its honey mentioned later on (in reference to the honey feature they added to the Halidom), but we don't exactly have a comprehensive picture of their economy. We can joke about the seemingly booming tourism despite the war in the comics (which may be a way for peasants to 'scope out' the lands before moving there) or have other hints like the fact that the Halidom was seemingly a very good place for growing herbs, including weird rare ones, but not exactly accounting ledgers.

Other miscellaneous facts include that Xander ascends to be a general in Euden's army. Ranzal's a vague 'commander'...But I'm getting off track again.

Anyways, Euden and leadership. We also can see an instance of how he runs things in Civilian Leif's story, wherein he summons Leif, and, without preamble, goes 'bomb report, stat' (yes Dragalia had bombs!)

When combined with Gauld's story above, as well as an Audric tidbit in the castle story here:

...We see a suggestion/pattern that Euden's use of the Halidom's forces, aside from just the general expectation of 'defend the place and help clean up', involve small missions to subtly tip scales and influence things across the nation and beyond. Hawk gets sent to bust a gang, Audric to stabilize a region, and Leif to handle bomb threats, etc etc. He isn't even the sole decider of what individual/small group tasks get sent out into the field, as he also permits Aoi here to set her own target:

Honestly, it's not a bad idea, since the Halidom is probably outnumbered and outgunned for much of its history. Avoiding big combat is a plus for them even discounting Euden's personal desires to do no harm, and with this sort of meddling across the land, it helps accomplish his goals even in the absence of conflict.

Enough of his grand strategy, though, I'd like to highlight another aspect for why the others generally turn to Euden as the 'leader' despite his overall lack of commanding presence or personality: he's the picture of a good 'tactical' commander instead of a 'strategical' one.

In short, what I'm saying here is that Euden's good at deciding what to do in the moment, how to win a battle, how to adapt to xyz, whereas he starts to struggle more in grand chess moves (literally, as he's not skilled in Alberian chess, and figuratively, when pit against his 'bigger brained' siblings with more of a head for the broader workings of armies and countries!).

This sounds like a small thing to quibble over or note, but the deeper you dig, the more you find examples.

He's usually the one to start directing his friends to assume different roles or goals.

Here's a few little examples I dredged up of the trend, just these quick orders to give the group direction for how to approach a situation.

We also see it apply to more than just combat in things like Gala Sarisse's story:

Ironically, Sarisse tries to call this the 'big picture', but it's... actually not really. Euden's not thinking of the grand strategy in staying behind to tend to the destroyed town, he's just trying to help people in the heat of the moment and is directing his own people to do that best. Of course, it has 'big picture' implications, like the sowing of allegiance to him in the future by building trust/amicable attitudes, but that's the definition of tactics: he's more focused on accomplishing the 'small things' here and there than coming up with broader strategy.

Now, Euden's certainly not perfect, as his nature can make him prone to trying to do too much at once or reluctant to 'go dirty' in fighting, but he's also not a dummy.

Take Lapis' story, where, when facing a robotic enemy that can just outright turn invisible, he's the one to come up with a tactic to allow them to combat it:

All in all, it's a likely crucial part for why the Halidom forces can keep stringing together rough win after win, because Euden has a good enough head for 'thinking on his feet' when pressed against the wall to allow them to skirt by.

It's why he can give Valyx's forces (elite, undefeated, loyal forces, mind you) an actual fight even before he officially was rustling up an army, and force him to pull out the nuke button in Thor.

It's also why he struggles against the likes of Leonidas and Chelle, who just prepare so thoroughly beforehand for what they want to accomplish (strategy), but also aren't tactical slouches. Even with Leonidas being reckless, Euden's group was in an inescapable bind in several ways even beyond their outnumbered nature before a combination of 'Euden's signature finding the exact right thing to say or do' and 'reinforcements ex machina' help give him momentum again.

Even then, it took him throwing Chelle such a mental curveball as to make her 'retreat' (not actually defeated in the slightest, mind you) and two new forces to start surmounting the sheer overwhelming force he was up against.

In summary: Euden's skill in commanding the second-to-second of battlefields or 'field' things in general gives others confidence in trusting his command or instinct, even if he can't come up with convoluted plans to get what he wants in the long run. See his attack of Sol Alberia - there's far more reasons than just strategic incapacity that led to its mixed results, like the rushed nature of it,- but while Euden laid out some groundwork for attack (defectors), he had no huge strategy in the works for a task as complicated as seizing a fortress-city and its castle.

As a final note to make this full circle, I'd like to draw attention to his attitude to his people. We all joke (and so do others in game, see Ranzal's remarks on Euden vs a vampire) that Euden has no danger radar, but it's more complicated than that. In truth, Euden actually is very insightful to people's overall state of mind and intuitive.

The caveat is just that he needs to actually interact with the person to get a handle on them. This leads to the dynamic of him occasionally struggling to ascertain if a stranger is a threat, but him being very able to make deep cuts about what's driving his friends and allies.

This has helped him turn the Halidom into 'Euden's Therapy Land' for all the weirdos that he finds. Whether it's social anxiety and a phobia of blood (Ricardt) to PTSD (well, take your pick? I'll just say Aldred!), Euden's ability to make these connections through his personality, get people to open up, and intuit when something is wrong culminates in a tremendous ability to build a small army of very loyal followers.

In a short humorous example for what I mean, like this:

(This technically isn't all that good an example, as Elisanne isn't hiding this very well, but it still is a nice little encapsulation of what I'm talking about).

His policy in the Halidom, which is, uh, much looser in rules than most castles/armies, also helps form a weird sort of ruleset that ultimately amounts to 'don't make Euden or Cleo too too mad at you'.

See this:

This helps draw in loyalty from people who don't like their superiors breathing down their necks and otherwise assuage people that he's not power-mad or otherwise a jerk. It's just a relatively calm place to chill out and maybe run errands for your cool boss and get therapy in a land that doesn't seem to have any!

Sooo... yeah. I've gone on long enough!

Euden, despite not being particularly intimidating or demanding, manages to make himself a surprisingly great leader through tactical skill, a good mind under pressure, and his personality that lets him build devotion and goodwill!

[valeriefauxnom]

The Only Tierlist that Matters(tm)

'Best in Element' this, 'Best character that'...

Here's the only thing that you need to know about Dragalia and its lore: who's the best at Alberian Chess.

A fair portion of this is both evidenced and guesswork. Evidenced guesswork? I'll just walk through my analysis for anyone going ??.

In short, I think Leonidas is the best chess player shown. Leif outright states him to be a 'particularly cunning opponent' in comparison to Chelle and Phares, whom he both considers very skilled. Leonidas is the only one to have beaten Leif.

So if 1st and 2nd are locked, I'd say it's a more blurry picture between Phares and Chelle. Chelle I put lower just for the fact she explicitly finds Alberian chess a bit 'too restrictive' in rules and thus might not be quite as studious or caring of its games, and with Phares seemingly capable of getting Leonidas heated while appearing calm himself in "A Royal Tea Party", I think he might be better by at least a little bit. We know the current Chelle vs. Leif meta is a Leif win (though starting to tax/surprise him), but alas, we've no Phares-Chelle or Phares-Leif matchup to settle the big dog league for good.

A tier brings in Regina, who is only A just because I don't have any evidence to suggest how she might stack up against our formidable S-tiers. She's also native in a different variety of Alberian Chess, which further complicates how she could adapt against the southern rules most other players use here. In her own league, who knows? She could be S.

Discount Deku-looking-creature- er, Eugene, is shown to be a very skilled player, and yet his record is 0-2 vs. Leif, Leif not feeling incredibly threatened both times, and so A he goes.

Valyx here is mostly from a lack of evidence, as we never really see him play chess to my knowledge, but Leif at least will endorse him to be a skilled player. For Leif, no.2, that counts for something, and so into A he goes. We would need more sibling match-ups to see how he stacks up against his elders.

Ilia is similarly fuzzy in exact placement but we do know that Leonidas does not feel threatened by her, implying at least some tangible gulf in talent that I think bumps her down at least one tier. That being said, he also compliments her as skilled in reading his intent in chess, which, since Leo is no.1, having good reads on him is likely a very strong point to succeeding in Alberian chess. Besides, if it's 'Alberian' chess to begin with, she very well might have only recently learned the game, as Alberia as a state only started to exist 700 years after her time. That she's this good already is impressive!

Aurien provides some distinguishment between himself and Eugene by losing against him. He's still high up because Euden is very surprised he lost, and had made it in the chess tournament far. He seems to be pretty keen on the strategic understanding of the game, as well.

Falling all the way to D, we've Pinon, who understands some of the principles of strategy, etc, but still is inclined to making big mistakes for players like Regina to exploit. Even when she tries to bring back and challenge Regina with the southern rules she's learned from her travels there, Regina can still beat her comfortably.

Euden just wanted to be in 'E' tier because of his name No, it's mostly because he only just started learning at Gala Leif time in canon. And Euden... doesn't exactly seem to have a natural gift, as, per him when learning:

Or, more eloquently,

In short, he's not quite 'moving pieces at random' F tier for a complete novice, but we just have no evidence he's grown since. He's simply too busy fighting a war and having identity crises and stopping the Halidom from being blown up for the 3rd time today to have much time to practice, either. That being said, since Leif was the one to first start instructing him, he might very well have an edge when it comes to getting better over time!