#it's so good to finally have her in feh

[moe-broey]

Back to what I do best (bare minimum Putting My Guys In Situations shitposts) 😌

Inspo under cut!!!

[kwc-verlucrey]

Veronica update

My Limstella and Reyson recently found units to eat too... No it doesn't make them any easier to use against meta units

[tiny-sugar-dove]

HBD To me!~🥳🎈

Drew Nel with the cutest outfit to celebrate > <

[randomnameless]

Why do the FEH devs insist on ignoring Nabatean lore so much?

I recently had a surprisingly cordial discussion on redshit with someone about the "nabateans = colonisers" take, and one of the main points raised was that the game was purposedly foggy around Nabateans/Sothis/their story because it would obviously favor a certain narrative (and thus make another narrative look, uh, not that marketable anymore).

To be honest, we still ended up with a product that had a lead go "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and yet that lead is still marketable enough to have raunchy cipher cards and 5 FEH alts, so I actually wonder if, while pissing on that lore had that purpose, it was ultimately pointless since Supreme Leader can still sell goodies despite her incarnation in FE16.

And not only Supreme Leader - but the entirety of WC where we basically have 70% of the cast crying/complaining about their "mixed blood" or lack of and basically adding their 10 cents to the "this race and its blood is the reason why the world sucks".

I mean, can you imagine Sylvain selling any goodies and alts if Flayn replied to his "wah wah people only are kind to me and want to fuck me because I have Nabatean blood :(" by some uncharacteristic "good for you, I have to hide my ears, had to dye my hair, have to lie about my family because if the truth is found out about my identity, I will be hunted and vivisected like an animal and harvested for parts by people who call my kin abominations - just like what happens in the game where the same people who call my kin "abominations" ally with a classmate who calls me a creature and pretends I am incapable of human feelings based on my race".

FE Fodlan's main selling point is its cast of students, for various reasons, but even if I tried to kid myself, Nopes and FEH made it clears : students are the main selling point.

If you spare more time and attention to the Nabatean plot/lore, the students either grow from "likeable" to "despicable" or worse, you won't gaf about them because yeah sure, Hilda might be upset because people expect things from her due to her crust, but it would feel like a "peanut" compared to Seteth's irrational (granted, it's not so irrational since GW exists) fear that Flayn's newest friends would dissect her if they learnt she was a Nabatean, and being conflicted by finally letting her have human friends and form bonds she crave, or protect her due to the trauma from the genocide of their species.

Don't get me wrong, I love peanuts, I mean, not everyone can have a tragik of loaded backstory!

And yet, given how this verse's DNA is "can you fight against the red emperor who uwus about you", they had to add copious amounts of Earl Grey to their games so there's no clear-cut factions :

The "Your alien blood and its influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command" vs "I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

is turned to :

"Your alien blood Crests and its your church's influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command"

"I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

Sprinkle with the cast's hammering here and there that the "reforms" might be needed - but never develop on what they are - and add a few baseless and groundless takes as a toping (basically everything Claude says about tolerance and the general "isolationism/foreign policy" stuff) and you get FE Fodlan where the Red Emperor's war isn't seen as the catastrophe it is in the other entries from the series!

Now, for FEH...

FWIW, the F!F!Billy's trailer had them try to explain that Sothis was a bit pissed about her slaughtered/massacred children when Nopes never gave any reason about why she was pissed - maybe on Billy's behalf bcs Jerry's dead, but come on, she would indeed deserve the medal of the worst parent in the franchise if that was the case, since Billy can murder her daughter without Sothis taking over ! - but given that they cannot write/go against the source game those characters are from.

They tried a bit, with B!Supreme Leader and Hegemongard's FB, but then it stopped (because she had no "new unit" released since then lol) and I can understand why : Hegemongard came out before the Supreme Emblem, and Hegemongard hates dragons who are seen/perceived as gods by some of their human followers. Come FE17, and now Supreme Emblem accepts Alear because they are "one of the good ones". We can come up with HCs and details and talk about what are emblems or if Hegemongard's views were only hers at the end of AM all day long... But imo, Doylist wise, it still feels it's a retcon because the devs from the main games tried to scrap and remove the most "controversial" traits she had.

For the other characters... Well, you see what Marianne is in FEH (but even in her base games), she's one of the few characters who reacts - in a way - to the partial history about relics and demonic beasts and all... only to give sad uwus to Maurice.

FE16 (and Nopes) refused to have any "student" character react to the Nabatean lore/reveal, about what are relics and all. There are no lines, Claude shared some knowledge in the explore section of VW's last chapter, but we don't have anyone muse or think or even talk about what are relics, what are crests, and what kind of fuckery their ancestors or the ancient humans of Fodlan did.

With that in mind, FEH can't do much : either they write Marianne in a retcon-y way like what happened for Hegemongard (and they're not afraid to piss on characterisation, look at Lyon!), or they flanderise her "character" and develop her around 3 lines she had in the game in her paralogue, and continue to give sad uwus about Momo when he was at best a guy who slaughtered and murdered so much that he abused the Nabatean turned into a relic to the point where he turned in a demonic beast even if he had a matching crest, or at worst, had been part of Nemesis's piñata party in Zanado and was something of a genocider.

Tldr :

Why FE Fodlan never gaf about Nabateans : earl grey + the marketable cast has to stay marketable and you can't sell peanuts at the same price you'd sell swordfish

Why FEH dgaf about Nabatean lore : they can't afford to retcon characters + they have to sell peanut alts with the same seasoning they had in their base game.

For what it's worth though, I think FEH is more daring than the base game(s) given how they gave more lines and screentime to Rhea - through her different alts - than GW. And they even designed her Halloween!alt's lines to piss on some of Claude's assertions, while the various FB involving members of the church also - indirectly - reply to some accusations thrown their way in FE16 when, FE16, never gave them an opportunity or lines to explain that those takes were full of dung.

*"but random, maybe she doesn't know that the crests she often decries is "dragon blood"!"

It's highly debatable, especially given what she and Hubert throw to Billy in CF - but even if she doesn't, Doylist wise we still have a character who, knowingly or not, says "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and who is never called out on her prejudice. That's more of an issue regarding the general writing though, she has to be a red emperor and took pages from Ashnard's book, and yet, the player must still feel bad and want to romance her, so her mindest/goal cannot be looked at too closely, because, I guess, even the devs thought it would be difficult to romance her (thus sell goodies!) if more light was shed on the "blood from this race corrupts our people" schtick -> which in turn would also make characters whose backstory and gimmick rely on "crying about crests" be way less likeable, thus marketable and able to sell goodies.

[eggs-attorney]

[<<< First] [< Prev]

Eggman: We now convene for the trial of Yanshu Dryll the Mole. I trust the prosecution is ready to commence?

Payne: The prosecution's been ready for days, your honor.

Eggman: And is the defense ready to proceed?

Reiker: Yes, your honor.

Reiker: (Yeah… Ready. No evidence, no alternate theories… Guess I should just pay attention and do my best.)

Payne: Seems the murderer finally gathered enough funds for a private defender. How'd you do it? Kill another robot? Rob a casino?

Eggman: Actually, this man is our new public defender. This will be his first case.

Payne: Oh, how precious… I bet he'll be running out of town with his tail feathers between his legs after we confirm the guilty verdict.

Reiker: (… Is he serious?)

Eggman: We’ll see, now… Let's not keep this waiting any longer than we already have. Prosecutor Payne, your opening statement?

Payne: The solution to this case is so obvious that no private defense attorney would even pick up the case! In fact, I almost feel sorry for the poor sap standing across from me.

Reiker: Can we get on with it instead of gloating?

Payne: So eager to face your own demise? Very well, then…

Payne: The crime took place around 8:45 PM last Wednesday. The victim, Flash Driver, is a new member of the doctor’s E-5000 line.

Payne: The victim was found with his legs battered and multiple components taken out of their rear hatch. We cannot obtain camera footage due to the parts being missing, however, we have multiple reasons to believe it was the mole standing before us today.

Reiker: Wait, his legs were battered?

Eggman: This is basic information, did you not read the autopsy report!?

Reiker: With all due respect, you never gave me the autopsy report, your honor.

Eggman: Hm… I suppose in this instance your ill-preparedness is somewhat understandable. Don't let it happen again.

Payne: Feh. Here, fledgling - your first piece of evidence. Please try to keep your gape-mouthed self from drooling all over the pages.

Strait: … I think I’ll be fine, thanks.

Autopsy Report (Flash) has been added to the Court Record.

Reiker: (I should take a closer look at that. Remember, Strait - evidence is a lawyer's best friend! Good thing I keep it Pinned at the Top of my mind!)

Reiker: I notice you haven't mentioned a motive, or why my client is your prime suspect. Was she even near the crime scene at the time of the murder?

Payne: Listen, kid, I have this case down tight. Your defendant there is one of 10 people who could have possibly committed the crime at hand.

Reiker: … One of 10? How do you figure?

Payne: Let's just call them the tools of the trade. Specifically, the tool set a Robo-Tech like her uses daily.

Eggman: Ah, you must be referring to the Omnitools, no?

Reiker: Omnitools?

Eggman: You're familiar with the concept of an army knife, correct? Imagine a compact device like that, equipped with every screwdriver, wrench, and key needed to access all the technical parts of my machines, including Robians. This one is assigned to her.

Yanshu's Omnitool has been added to Court Record.

Payne: No one could have accessed the stolen parts without those tools, not to mention that Yanshu was the last person to meet with the victim, during a routine maintenance checkup…

That was anything but routine!

Eggman: Uh... Interesting. In what way was it not routine?

Payne: Well, the perpetrator is right here. Why don't we ask her? Miss, let's start with your name and occupation.

Yanshu: Eep! I, um… M-… My name is Yanshu Dryll. I'm a Class C Robo-Tech, f-for the Main Division…

Payne: And if I'm correct, you assisted the victim…

On the day of the murder!?

Yanshu: W-well, yes, but that doesn't mean I killed him!

Eggman: The court will be the judge of that. Now, if you could please testify regarding this maintenance appointment you had.

Yanshu: Y-yes doctor- I mean, sir! I mean-… Y-yes, your honor!

Testimony 1 - The Maintenance Appointment

1:) I had been assigned to Flash to do a routine checkup, scheduled for Wednesday at noon.

2:) All the required checks were proceeding as normal, and the appointment was rather short.

3:) My boss came by and signed off on my maintenance sheet…

4:) … And shortly after that, Flash left, just like he usually does. That was the last time I saw him.

Reiker: (Hm… Not much to work with... At least that old cat has just as little information as I do.)

Reiker: (But if that’s really the case, why does he look so confident…?)

Payne: … Really? That's all you have to say?

Yanshu: Y-yes, and it’s the truth! Wh-… What more could you want?

Eggman: I will kindly ask the prosecution to not badger the witness. Now, defense, are you ready for the cross examination?

Reiker: (I need more information… Just gotta dive into the old Thought Pool and figure out what to ask. Maybe I'll glean some new information! Once I think I've got it down pat, I can Present an idea by connecting a Statement with an Item in the Court Record!)

[Next >]

[fire-emblem-drabbles]

hot question, fresh off the Think Pan: which of the FE Heroes ladies would be into cuddle fucking 😌

I got this ask when I first got to work and I've had all day to think about it :3 Edit: I didn't mean to post this without adding poor Gullveig's name but that's literally so funny of me. Fixed spelling and bolded names too

My first, and obvious thought was Camilla. Woman literally has the softest and warmest body in all of Nohr, she was made for this. Paired with an uncontrollable urge to coddle and the grip strength to swing huge axes around like nothing, let me be clear; if Camilla wants to cuddle fuck, it's going to happen. She just may not be the one getting fucked <3

Next up, Sonya: now I might just be thinking of these two bc I just bought a 3ds to play the classics, or maybe just because I think big tiddy women with purple hair are into this-- who really knows. The point is, Sonya likes to spoil and be spoiled. It won't be hard to get her into your arms, and from there I imagine all it takes is some bad jokes before she'll be trying to get you to shut up.

For an actual feh OC: Laegjarn. I seem to have a type, but pay that no mind. Ahem. I think more than anything, she likes the closeness of it, the intimacy. One of those "I'm not close enough to you until I can crawl inside your chest" types, I'm afraid. That said, this will suffice. For now.

Gullvieg, (sweetie im so sorry for forgetting your name </3): I think she would be down for anything, if it was you summoner, but someone about you taking care of her this time around... ahh poor lady is done for. Might get carried away, but this may not be a bad thing.

Final choice: Ash. Something about not having to look each other in the eyes, the closeness of it without the expectation of something bigger or better. And the warmth-- oh goodness, the warmth. She might still be rambling but personally I think it's cute. Tell me how good the strap is, queen.

Bisexual bonus round under the cut bc the bus still isn't at my stop.

Since I've already added the cow ladies, I may as well have Askr here too! I also think he's one of those down 2 clown types, since he's just so gosh darn curious about us mortals, but soon finds he actually really likes it. Let's him take his time (which he has so much of!), take notice of what his partner likes and dislikes... yeahh he might be my personal choice for this.

Obvious Alfonse is obvious: what wouldn't he do for you? I think he might first be embarrassed how he got turned on doing something that was supposed to be innocent, but upon finding you're into it is more than happy to indulge you :)

Ummm yoinking a random furry... lets say. Ranulf. He's so soft and cuddly... ah it would be so nice. I can absolutely see him nonchalantly asking to cuddle and then when he's putting the tip in he's like "idk how we got here!" But every move was calculated from the start :/ he's lucky he's cute

Okay well now I just have to make it even so: Forsyth, my beloved. Number one service top. Man who doesn't want to let you go in the morning, so you have to offer him something to get his blood pumping. :3 That said, he's also one who can get carried away... as good and sweet as cuddle fucking is, Forsyth often finds himself with a little too much energy to sit that still for long. I suppose it's the thought that counts.

Okay last, but certainly not least: Lyon. I can see it now... basking in one another's warmth, sweet touches and gentle kisses... oh I'm afraid he's far too soft. It may as well just be cockwarming with him, but I'm sure a particularly heated kiss could convince him otherwise....

[skelezomperman]

Ishtar, the Goddess of Thunder

Apparently I haven't posted this one here, which surprises me. I posted this originally on Reddit three years ago. It's topical because of Ishtar's new alt in FEH. Here you guys go:

Shockingly, I am going to criticize Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War today. I will discuss the popular enemy character Ishtar. Ishtar recently was added to Fire Emblem Heroes as an ascendant form, and she’s a character whose portrayal I have been lukewarm on. But there’s some good things about Ishtar that should be discussed, so keep reading for that. As always, unmarked spoilers are ahead.

--

Ishtar is the daughter of Blume (or Bloom), the Duke of Friege, and Hilda. She receives major Thrud blood from her father, making her the heir to the Mjölnir. Ishtar was also betrothed to Julius, the heir and de facto ruler of Grannvale, at some point before the beginning of the second generation.

At the time of the second generation, House Friege rules over the Munster District on behalf of Grannvale. We first hear of Ishtar from a village in Chapter 7, which mentions that she and her brother Ishtore are “fine youths.” The village also tells the player that Ishtar was assigned to guard the city of Munster. Shortly into the next chapter, Ishtar is summoned by her father to Connaught where he was forced to retreat after a defeat at Ulster. She is asked by father to fight Seliph’s army since much of Friege’s forces have already been decimated; these losses included her brother Ishtore and her cousin Tine. Ishtar agrees to do so on the condition that Bloom allows her to use Mjolnir, asserting that with the weapon she would be able to dispatch the rebels herself. Ishtar then gets defeated [1], but she is warped away by Julius. After this a conversation is unlocked between Seliph and Tine (or Linda) about Ishtar and Julius. Tine tells Seliph that Ishtar was “like a sister” and one of the few people who treated her well.

We next see Ishtar at the beginning of Chapter 10, again with Julius. The two discuss the child hunts being executed in Miletos. Ishtar is clearly uncomfortable with the child hunts. She does not directly oppose the child hunts but raises concern that too many children were captured and that Arvis opposed the hunts, perhaps an attempt to stall the child hunts. Julius is dismissive of these concerns and leaves to check on Arvis. Afterwards Hilda appears. The dialogue between Ishtar and her mother takes a different turn as Ishtar is clearly submissive [2]. She seems to be uncomfortable with Hilda trying to rush her into marriage with Julius but is unable to vocalize her concern. Hilda then echoes Bloom’s earlier conversation that Seliph had murdered their family members, but unlike her husband she chooses to send Ishtar to Miletos to assist in transporting children to Belhalla for Julius.

After the gate to the northern side of Miletos is opened, Ishtar is seen again with Arvis in Miletos castle. Arvis attempts to order Ishtar to release the children but he is stopped by Julius. After Julius is done handling business with Arvis and Manfroy, he proposes to play a game with Ishtar to see who can kill a member of the rebel army (i.e., a player unit) first. Ishtar graciously accepts the offer and plays along with Julius’ game, and unlike earlier she seems to have no reservations with this. If she does “win” by killing a player unit, she feels triumphant in doing so and if Julius “wins” she congratulates Julius. It’s unclear why Ishtar has no reservations with this while she has reservations with Julius’ other endeavors.

Finally, Ishtar appears in the final chapter alongside Julius. When Friege is seized, it emerges that Ishtar had hidden away children there - the same children who were slated to be sent to Belhalla. According to an NPC, Ishtar was “kind and caring” and worked behind the scenes to help the children escape. Afterwards, Ishtar volunteers to strike out in front of the Deadlords to fight Seliph’s army. Julius is reluctant to let her go and accuses her of wanting to die to escape him, but Ishtar insists that she still loves him. As a result Julius allows her to leave to fight against Seliph’s army. If you fight her with Tine, Tine will try to convince Ishtar to change sides, but Ishtar refuses - not out of hatred towards Tine, but because she feels that it is impossible for her to do that at that point. Then she dies (or disappears when Belhalla is seized if she somehow is not killed), bringing an end to her story.

--

Ishtar is usually characterized as being a member of the “Camus archetype” of enemies that have noble intentions but refuse to leave the antagonist side out of loyalty. Ishtar adds a different layer to this archetype because it is not just this ideal of loyalty that drives her to continue fighting on Grannvale’s side. Firstly, Ishtar’s immediate family members were all killed by Seliph’s army. This hits close to Ishtar, both with Ishtore and Bloom who are framed to have at least some kind of morals and with Hilda who is framed to be unambiguously evil. Secondly, Ishtar is romantically attracted to Julius. It is understandably hard for her to go against her love interest. Both of these are elements which were not present with the original Camus and which most of Camus’ successors did not share [3].

My biggest issue with Ishtar is that the reasoning of her family being killed is not very developed. Ishtar does not express this feeling until the final chapter when she speaks with Julius for the last time - Bloom and Hilda both touch on this point, but Ishtar does not spend much time sharing that emotion in either conversation. Ishtore having little development does not help either as his death should be impactful on both Ishtar and Tine, yet he is little more than a mook and we don’t know much about him other than others saying that he was nice. This leaves the player with the impression that Ishtar’s primary motivation is her love for Julius, which takes away from the interesting element of being driven by grief over family.

Ishtar also compares unfavorably to Arvis. She never addresses Julius’ possession which makes her appear foolish, unlike Arvis, and she never has the courage to openly challenge the child hunts like Arvis does [4], only limiting herself to covertly hiding away children and trying to find excuses to delay the child hunts. This diminishes the credibility of Ishtar as having “noble intentions.” Even worse than that is the bizarre scene where she gleefully participates in bloodsport with Julius for no apparent reason other than to have fun. I am unsure what the purpose of this was, but it makes it appear that Ishtar has no issues with Julius beyond the most obvious in the child hunts. One could even go as far as to interpret that Ishtar is morally almost as bad as Julius because of this scene. However, I think that it is more logical to say that the scene was botched and Ishtar was meant to be someone who has good morals all-around but happens to be on the wrong side.

On the other hand, it is quite possible to attribute these shortcomings to the game’s age. In defense of Ishtar, I think she is still more interesting than some of the other antagonists within this game like Daccar or Brian. Her interactions with Hilda and Julius reflect a character who is stuck in a bad situation, not too unlike Eldigan beforehand. Continuing the analogy with Eldigan, there’s no equivalent to Lachesis either. Nobody clearly offers Ishtar a spot in Seliph’s army - not even Tine does that. And perhaps her choice to die in battle at the end of the game is some kind of agency for Ishtar. She chooses to die the same way her family did rather than subject herself to the mercy of Seliph or Leif who very well could look unkindly upon Ishtar’s complicity with the Empire’s subjugation of Thracia. It’s a fitting end to a tragic character arc, not too dissimilar from the other tragedies within Jugdral.

Footnotes:

Tine/Linda has unique dialogue if she fights Ishtar. Ishtar expresses disappointment in Tine for joining Seliph.

Some have characterized Ishtar’s relationship with Hilda as abusive. I do not agree that Hilda is outright abusive to Ishtar, but I do think it is unhealthy. Perhaps Hilda reflects the real life phenomenon of parents living vicariously through their children.

Debatably Brunnya and Selena had romantic attractions to the figures they served, although neither one was betrothed like Ishtar was.

She does challenge the child hunts in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776, but that is beyond the scope of this essay. See the comment below for more.

--

Ishtar does appear in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 as an NPC in two scenes, all of which involve Julius. In the first scene, Chapter 4, she does openly challenge the child hunts (unlike in FE4) and cites the opposition of her father and brother; however, Julius tries to clarify that he "only" wants to force the children to fight against each other for spots in the Empire and then sweettalks her to distract. In Chapter 17, Ishtar appears along with Reinhardt, a Friegian knight who is close to her, as she summoned Saias to try to heal Julius of a fever implied to be caused by his possession. Finally in Chapter 21x, Julius and Ishtar discuss traveling to Miletos as Hilda wants them to check on the child hunts there. He again tries to sweettalk her but threatens to kill Reinhardt if he is seen around her again, showing his envy towards him.

I think Ishtar's appearances in FE5 really make her more complete as a character. It addresses the issue of Ishtar seeming to be unaware of Julius' possession as we see that Ishtar is disturbed by Julius' mood swings between when he acts romantically towards her (with Loptous' influence being weaker) and when he acts cold and violent (e.g., with Reinhardt). We also see her challenge the child hunts. Her weakness of being attached to Julius is more evident as Ishtar despite being aware that something is wrong cannot bring herself to openly defy him, even when he threatens one of her closest confidants. We also see a bit more development in Bloom's opposition to the child hunts which by proxy develops the family aspect of Ishtar more.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

Having never touched FEH in my life is a fun experience when you have played a good chunk of FE games and are familiar with most of them (except for Engage. You guys do you but that stuff is not for me), because you will see people post takes "I can't believe that Tiki's new alt as the Legendary Super Manakete has her as child again and not as adult!!" or "wtf Barth's pair bondage event is so stupid. I do it for him though" or "Justice for Garth!! He needs to finally get his fifth alt!!". And then every now and then you see people post fanart of various characters in outfits you've never seen them in before, some of which (plenty of which) have them have their tits out regardless of gender

Barth and Garth are real FE characters btw

.

[crystalelemental]

FEH Books Redux

Unfortunately, I have re-downloaded FEH. A large portion of this was a friend telling me that they also re-downloaded the game, and were reading through the stories, and felt like there was more there than previously given credit. And we know how I am. I like to talk. So I'm going to talk about each of the books and what I thought of their story! This will also include character work, because for me, a lot of the impact of a story is character work. Especially here. We'll get to that.

Book One Book 1 is a pretty basic story, with exceptionally little going on. It's setup. All we really get out of it is a bunch of quick little short stories about each of the worlds, set against a backdrop of "Where's Zacharias?" and "Embla's royal family is cursed by their dragon god's blood to want to destroy Askr." There's a bit of establishment for Veronica's hostility, and that Bruno is Zacharias and searching for a cure. But fascinatingly, my own memory of the game's story had failed me. I thought this book established all the clear loneliness of Veronica and connections between her and Bruno, and...that didn't happen. Sharena notes that Veronica seems lonely, but a lot of those tidbits I remembered? Paralogues.

As a result, I have effectively nothing to say about the book. It's astoundingly boring. I actually wound up forgetting I was trying to re-read at one point, and skipped dialogue against Roy, because I had picked up the pattern and went "there is nothing of value being said before this fight." I was correct, of course. It's the worst book by virtue of what it is.

Book Two Book 2 is an odd one. It's more fleshed out as a story than Book 1 by a pretty large margin, but it's not good. The story is structurally sound, and events unfold in a logical order. But it lacks depth.

Surtr is just an incredibly bland antagonist, conquest for its own sake because royalty does whatever it wants, etc etc. Fjorm is fairly interesting given her drive for revenge, and Laegjarn is memorable because of her constant read on the Askr trio's strategies and staying one step ahead. But Hrid and Ylgr offer nothing, Gunnthra's neat to me but does nothing, Laevatein is bland as hell, and Helbindi does little for me. By character, there's little weight. Even Veronica gets set on a shelf. The most we get out of her is that Xander is super protective and willing to die for her, which is better for him than for her, and he's got his own game to establish he'd do that.

More than that, I think it just lacks for clear ideas. It doesn't really play with any concepts. It's a very bland sort of "Evil King, Good Princess" dichotomy, backed by "evil king's daughters aren't bad people but are trapped by his evil" for drama. Because FEH cannot help its origins: bad parents and familial tragedy is all it knows. I can't say there's much to examine that isn't present in virtually every Fire Emblem ever. I have little to say. Bottom tier.

Book Three Book 3 finally starts to pick up the pace. It is legitimately trying to be an interesting story. Unfortunately, its problem is that, despite having interesting concepts, it fails to see them through.

The intro presents a few really tantalizing pieces. Eir is the concept of a Merciful Death; an end that brings peace and closure in contrast to the horror of death as it naturally stands. Lif and Thrasir, the original sovereigns that founded Askr and Embla, return from Hel and seek to lay waste to their kingdoms. Hel herself is demanding and controlling of Eir, while Alfonse's father is immediately characterized as a bastard who cut off his son and who is feared by his children, creating an interesting comparison. With Lif and Thrasir, you can get a sense of the command of genealogy; the idea of a sort of cycle of violence and fear from parent to child extending back to the kingdom's founding, and challenged by those seeking to be a monarch for the people, and allying with one whose approach to death is that it should be merciful.

And then it proceeds to undo literally all of that. Lif and Thrasir are actually Alfonse and Veronica from another universe. Gustav actually super loved his children, even if he's a rat bastard. Eir isn't even from Hel, she's a good person from the life kingdom that Hel kidnapped, making her entire story just Nino again. All of that interesting setup is completely subverted in a way that makes it worse. The only interesting concept we retain is that Lif, having lost his kingdom, made a pact with Hel to revive his kingdom is he destroys another; trade a life for a life. It examines that idea of what the duty of a monarch is, and presents a once-good king who, having lost everything, chooses to protect his people by devastating another country. There's some interest in that! Shame Thrasir is completely wasted. And I think the conclusion of the book, Eir still weeping for Hel because that was her mother in her mind, has some power to it. That no matter how terrible your parent, they're still in some ways your parent, and it's okay to grieve them.

Book 3 feels like a book of exclusively missed potential. It's an interesting idea on the whole, but everything, down to the drama of individual events, kinda falters. Gustav's too much of a prick to feel anything about what they present. Eir's torture at the hands of Hel is sad, but in a fairly ridiculous way that doesn't make it as impactful given we never see a positive interaction between Eir and Hel. The defeat of Hel is also annoying. Good thing the rite that would completely destroy our kingdom was done by Lif and Thrasir, so we can just steal their completely ritual item and kill Hel with that! Problem solved! It's clownshoes. I don't really respect it.

Book Four Book 4 is a fairly rough intro. Peony does nothing for me, and the constant commentary in the early chapters about "It's a dream so anything is possible/everything makes sense" is annoying. I'm also just not a big fan of the costuming this book on the whole.

However. This might be my favorite book.

Once you get past the goofy intro, this book gets serious in a way that rules. The Dream World was literally falling apart for vague and uncertain reasons, and so the rulers of dream decided to steal children who are abused and abandoned, who would never miss their homes, and turn them into dream fairies to stabilize the realm. Freyr, who presides over good dreams, feels some guilt about this. Freyja, who commands nightmare fairies, considers it necessary. Their underlings remember none of this, but through the story, awaken those memories and are forced to confront their past. There's a great use of dream as escaping reality, using layers of dream to maintain dramatic weight in trying to escape Freyja's nightmare, and some fairly impactful twists and turns for the first time in the game.

In particular, I adore the antagonist trio. Freyja, being bullied and ostracized as a child, is intensely bitter and seeks to keep the attention of her brother, the only person who was ever kind to her, exclusively on her, growing hateful of mortals who he tries to attend to. She thinks of others, even her subordinates, as people to use, and doesn't recognize how much they matter until they're gone. Triandra and Plumeria themselves know this, but don't mind. Even after regaining their memories, they recognize they had nothing to return to, and their lives are better here. They're completely devoted to the one adult that ever really did anything for them. For Triandra, her parents were abusive, and she wound up killing her father to protect her sister. When they became fairies, Triandra, as the one facing that trauma, governed nightmare, while her sister Peony, who was shielded from the worst of it, retains hope and governs good dreams. For Plumeria, she was neglected and ultimately abandoned to die. She is deeply distrustful of others, and immediately assumes the worst intentions of everyone she meets, and treats all forms of attention as leering. Her role governing lewd dreams is due to a desire for attention and affection above all else, but a deep distrust of actual connection; she holds a safe distance in this role and hates everything about the people who arrive to her dream realm.

I do think Peony and Mirabilis are pretty bland. They're fairly one note and uninteresting. Peony and Sharena swapping roles and the whole changling situation is a pretty extraneous mystery, but I do think it thematically ties in well. The answer of "It doesn't matter who's the real Sharena, we shared so much that we're both a huge part of each other, and we're happy with our lives as they are" is kind of the whole focus of the dream. You dream to find the life you want, and map that to reality when you wake. Never waking is a problem, and is presented as maladaptive given it's the goal of the antagonists to prevent awakening. They're stewing in their misery. But facing what's real, accepting that maybe something is sad but finding happiness in your life, is the point. I do think it understands that circumstances drive which category you fall into. What Triandra and Plumeria suffer dictated a lot of what happens in the dream. It all works out pretty well, and is one of my favorite books.

Book Five Book 5, more than any other book, suffers from being stuck in a gacha game.

The main story involves Fafnir, king of Nidavellir, going on conquest after conquest against other nations, in an endless militaristic gambit. His brother Otr is all for it, his sister Reginn defects to your side, explaining that Fafnir was once very kind, but turned to war almost immediately upon taking the throne. The sage Eitri, who creates most of the mechanical weaponry used by the kingdom, has her own designs on capturing the summoner to replicate their power.

Turns out, Reginn is the princess of the kingdom, who was lost during the chaos of a coup years back. Eitri, a deeply devoted nationalist, feels like the country has gone to shit over this and seeks to put the true successor on the throne. The crown that Fafnir wears was Eitri's design, and drives anyone not of royal blood mad, ultimately corrupting them into a beast that will tear apart their own kingdom. Fafnir is just some guy she summoned from a different world, and has been searching for a way back, though he can't remember why, Nergal-style. Otr found this out, and has been working with Eitri to destroy Fafnir's home world gate to prevent him leaving, because he is so deeply attached and can't stand the thought of losing the only person he has left.

Dramatically, Reginn and Fafnir's tragedy lands really well. I'm a lot less invested in Otr, I think his stuff is interesting but not particularly compelling. Eitri is a delight, and the book ending video of her ranting about how she won this so hard her death doesn't even matter is the single best bit FEH has ever produced. The events as they unfold carry tremendous weight, presenting that Reginn's ancestors are on Eitri's side, calling for her to "Destroy the heretic" in reference to the man she sees as a brother. Which, thematically, makes this book slap. You are literally haunted by the spirits of those who came before, all the way back to the founders of the country, whose primary goal seems to be endless militarism and perpetuation of royal blood. The original king waged war on the jotun that oppressed them, but in turn created a nation that cannot escape the demands of blood and war. It is so intense that, given reference to a peace offering to Jotunheim that presumably took effect with Fafnir, any outside of the bloodline and their militarism is corrupted until they fit in line by the crown that signifies leadership. It rules.

Unfortunately. This is gacha. And this story is effectively told in about ten chapters. That's all it took to produce one of their best. But we can't have that. There must be 13 to meet the demands of the system they are trapped in. And so, the jotun.

Dagr and Nott are arguably the worst OCs in the game. They add so little that I consider them actively detracting from the story. Their existence adds so little that, when they speak, it feels like their character portraits pop in from literal nowhere. They have no presence or purpose, and Dagr's familial drama with Nott's death is completely without meaning. I assume it's supposed to mirror Reginn, whose family is fighting too, and resolve that oh even with fighting there's a bond of love. But Otr hates her guts, so like. It doesn't even do that.

This book is so close to my favorite, but the constraints of a gacha force them to produce three chapters of completely meaningless garbage to fill a quota. And it is deeply, deeply sad.

Book Six Book 6 is rough. We return to the conflict between Askr and Embla, to finish the conflict between these nations and officially welcome Veronica as an ally of state, rather than the ally of convenience she's been the last three books. To do this, we have to deal with Embla, who can control those who share her blood in the royal family to violent action against Askr's kingdom. We're finally resolving what Book 1 set up.

It sucks. Guys, I'm sorry, it's so bad.

Thematically, the books emphasis is on opening vs closing your heart to others, and the impacts of loneliness. Veronica was already emphasizing these themes, but they're renewed in Embla, whose final sendoff is that she is lonely and isolated, and perpetuates this fate for herself by never fully opening up to and trusting others. There are some solid bits like her conversation with Askr where she expresses fear of betrayal, and how he says he can't live in fear of betrayal and allow himself to abandon mortals over that. This bleeds over into a sort of "appreciate what you have" narrative, echoing back to Letizia, who is only bitter that she feels she has nothing because of what was taken, despite being the head of the Curse Directive and affection from both Bruno and Veronica. There are some decent thematic parts to this story.

But. Critically. It fails dramatically at every turn. Elm, Embla's retainer, is so pointless that he dies and I literally did not realize it. Embla's loneliness is explained two different ways: first by Askr who expresses that people wishing to migrate elsewhere felt like abandonment so she forced her kingdom's people to never leave, and second by saying that actually one of her subjects tried to kill her? For no reason? And that she then feared betrayal and closed herself off from others. These reasons don't really align so well, so her backstory feels conflicting. Letizia's on screen for like two lines of dialogue before going "Surprise! I'm evil!" and the whole first half focusing on how her lies will catch up to her people the masses can tell a good ruler from a bad one feels...just extremely juvenile given current circumstances. They kill Zacharias, too, which I feel is pretty lame. Though at the top of the goofs list is Askr's death, where he has to quickly ask Ash to consider him a father as he's dying to fulfill Fire Emblem obligations to only die for someone else to have family drama over.

I also don't really share the fandom's apparent attachment to rat god Embla. Don't get me wrong, I like her design well enough, but Embla's personality is pretty bland. The loneliness angle is something we've seen done better with Freyja, and more consistently with Veronica. Add in her unclear history and it's very hard to take her all that seriously. Really not a fan of this book on the whole.

Book Seven Book 7 is a time loop story, centered on the Golden Seer, Gullveig, and her predecessors in Kvasir and Seidr. The drama is mostly fixated on finding out who Gullveig is, in order to stop her growing into the universe-ending beast she becomes, but does have a nice conclusion we'll get to.

To cut to the chase: I actually liked this book quite a bit. I generally like time travel stuff, even if it's absolute clownshoes nonsense. There are straight up Yugioh filler arc events in this, countering Gullveig's infinite power with your own infinite power but adding another attack so yours is bigger. It's nonsense.

The good of this book hinges entirely on Gullveig. I love a good sad girl, and Gullveig's whole thing is tragic time loop, so like. I am a sucker. Kvasir is also pretty interesting, though she gets less time. Seidr is...fine. She's your current iteration of the same entity, who is light and hope. In contrast, Kvasir is deeply lonely, having literally no one outside of the summoner ever appearing in her life, while Gullveig is created by the head light god by having her kill her sister to stop a curse that then jumps to her to make Gullveig, who hates what she's become. They're way more interesting iterations. I think the romance is kinda whatever, Kvasir doesn't get enough interesting interaction with the summoner to make her feelings feel all that engaging. But it's fine.

The main problem with the book is mostly that outside of Gullveig, it's...not particularly engaging. Head Light God (Njordr?) is just Lord Gwyn, fearful of the rise of humans and aiming to destroy the entire world because better absolute death than a world without him. He then tries to order Gullveig around after having her kill her own sister and absorbing her curse, and is surprised when she just unmakes him. Nerbuz is really boring. She does basically nothing of interest. Seidr's sister, Heidr, is also just nothing. She exists to have a curse and be a momentary fakeout on the true identity of Gullveig, but the trailers for the book spoil the hell out of who it really is, so it doesn't even work. And of course, "Will you make a baby with me?" Even if they try to downplay it as just a spiritual thing haha, it's a weird thing to throw in, FEH.

I think this is a solid "Decent." Not as strong as book 4 or 5, but perfectly serviceable and engaging enough I can get behind it. I blame this on their refusal to outright gender the summoner, but clear desire for you to interpret them as male, resulting in Gullveig's overt feelings being tragic sapphic time loop material. I'm taking this, knowing that it would bother the devs.

Book Eight Book 8 is an interesting one overall, but I think it's another middle of the road one.

Its positives are largely in how it handles its character drama with the kids. I wound up really liking most of the kids, with Nidhogg in particular just being devastating at the end. They handle what they're doing with their cast a lot better, despite having yet another huge OC cast.

The downside is that, the crux of this drama is...kinda stupid? The setup is also seen in Octopath Traveler 1, where your healer heals an evil man because their healer code says they can't decide who lives and dies, then the evil man does evil to them and they Change. This happens to Yggdrasil Man (Laerdor?), who changes his family from the Healing Hands to the Quieting Hands. But like. This crux also relies on him, a literal god, being kidnapped super easily, and then also all of his kids being killed. It also explains that evil man didn't even hesitate and killed all his kids immediately, even though them being alive for the moment was supposed to be the motivation for Yggdrasil Man to work. It's a little much, is my point. I can't take it fully seriously. The work well with the ground work set, but the ground work is kinda flimsy.

And with that...

Book Nine (So Far) So, without the full book, I can't talk to it too much. But I will say this. I don't hold high hopes.

Alfador is being set up as purely a despot, Baldr as self-righteous, Hodr or whatever her name is being the quieter girl who's more self-depreciating so I like her better, Rune isn't really doing anything, Loki's around but who cares. And you can kinda map a good chunk of tihs, I think. Baldr's going to have a moment of reckoning, likely with Hodr dying because family drama is a must. Alfodor's going to have no appreciation for life because that's damn near every single antagonist in every single book thus far.

There's one (1) point of interest, in Alfador's accusation that Askr is attempting to conquer the nine realms. Which. Isn't too far off. It's not intentional, but how many realms have we killed the king and installed a sympathetic monarch in their place? All of them? Except Embla, who we're friends with anyway. If the realms stand isolated, this does pose a problem. Moreover, there's ongoing lore around your summoner being wildly overpowered, having the ability to constrain anything, even gods, with their power. It's something many characters seek to gain for themselves, but it also...never amounts to anything. Outside of Eitri, no one really does anything about it. So it's just...up to the individual narrative to make reference to your power being scary, or just let it go as not important right now. It makes each book feel highly isolated, despite its intent as a unified story.

Moreover, it does feel incredibly repetitive when you're shotgunning the whole thing. The concept behind the story itself seems to be the bigger draw; there's literally no other explanation for why Book 3 is so popular. Even the ones I like are largely carried for me by "I think dream realm/steampunk/time travel is cool, so these are the ones I liked." It's rare that character work gets really interesting, as pretty much every character that lands on something is some sort of familial drama. Characters they care about die, or they die for someone they care about, maybe parent is garbage and doesn't care at all and the siblings are the ones that die, maybe parent does care but their death is a catalyst. But there's not much wiggle room here. And around all of this, we're dealing with the constraints of telling a story while being a gacha. It's just. Not particularly great for them. There are components I'll carry with me. But by and large, it's nothing too special.

[emblemxeno]

I think what frustrates me the most about canon FE is when a certain subset of fans praise FE for its amazing representation. Don’t get me wrong on the surface it does look like it’s good representation but then you think about the reasoning which comes down to the same basic outdated views. Let’s start with a fan favorite. Yes Edelgard is bi (though most call her a lesbian which I’m sorry isn’t true? If anything she’s straight with a Byleth only preference.) but why is Edelgard bisexual? Is it to state a message? No. It’s because there was no way to write around her massive player crush meant for the male player that they might as well let her marry the female model of the player too. Dimitri didn’t have this problem. Dimitri and Claude had more to them than an obsession with the player. Also they’re only for the girls the men don’t want that. That was the reason and no that’s not good representation. Then again people also see her as a rebel leader when there is no better example of what’s going on in the world than this character so obviously they’d miss the mark.

Let me give you another example I love Chrobin to pieces and yes I prefer them as platonic life partners if Robin is female because female Chrobin feels very doomed family focused which as an aroace who is tired of amatonormativity that’s not my thing. So instead I love the idea that despite their different romantic partners they are still each others most important person and platonic soulmates. But male Chrobin? That one I like as both romantic and platonic because there are much less amatonormative tropes associated with it. They’re just a very close duo who would do anything for each other, half the time you don’t even see Morgan.

But also Chrobin is not canon. I can see why people are beginning to think that, the reason Chrom and MRobin specifically are always paired up both in FEH and their own Emblem ring and have the most heartfelt conversations compared to the female counterpart isn’t because IS likes MChrobin more than FChrobin. No it’s because they see that relationship actually as inferior. Pairing a male character and a female character together automatically is assumed as romantic in their eyes but a male and a male? Well that’s fine, it’s never romantic it’s just friendship after all. I guarantee if Awakening is remade Chrom will stop not be able to marry MRobin and I’ll be mad about it lol.

My final example is the character of Plumeria. She’s basically a sexy fairy gives you wet dreams. But she hates it, and she hates mortals because of it. She reiterates this every time she gets a new alt or any attention in the game. Like I said I’m asexual I can relate to that mindset. Plumeria would be a fascinating character to go into sex in society and how it’s just expected and has to be a part of her but nah. She exists to give into the fetish of but you special player are the only one who can change her mind. And though she may call you disgusting and reverting you like it, this is for you you naughty little pervert *wink*

FE is getting much better at representation (I will die on the hill Fates was better gay rep than 3H, which felt like lesbian fetishization while the men had crumbs but argument for another day) and Engage allowing just the Avatar no matter their gender to “engage” anyone was an excellent step but it has a long way to go and until it stops trying to cater to a straight male audience which I fear it will keep doing looking at the success of Edelgard and skimpy FEH alts and realizes its views on women is very outdated and covered in sexism which affects their LGBT representation with it, I see it staying this way. Hidden gems you can find as representation but underneath it all it’s all because they treat women different than men. And is that really honest to goodness representation or just a side effect?

EDIT: This is me after writing everything below, I deeply apologize for the lack of cohesion in my response, I kinda just started yapping after a bit lol

I agree, the representation in FE has a long way to go.

While I'd give it grace because the devs have different societal values and norms, and the balancing act between catering to multiple countries must be hell on earth, I think they're still pussyfooting around the issue a bit.

Fates, specifically the Japanese version, having a few characters be queer in a het-dominant world felt better because it written with all the mess and internalized homophobia that it might entail that feels pretty appropriate for the game's setting. The primary issue is that, yeah, only Niles and Rhajat being options, and only queer romances for Corrin and not between other characters, would rub people the wrong way. Compare to 3H and Engage where, as you say, the former kind of feels as if they wrote themselves into a corner for some characters, there's a fetish aspect lingering underneath, and the imbalance for male options makes it apparent that it's still catering to straight men more than anyone; and the latter having the entire cast be available for Alear, but doesn't solve the problem that's being discussed.

There's also the fact that 3H has a lot of queer subtext with non-Byleth ships (especially Faerghus, like jesus christ lol) but functionally it's a bitch to get the endings you wanted unless you got the DLC, and Engage has no paired endings aside from Alear and their partners.

The fix isn't to just let anyone be options, the fix IMO would be to just... write some characters from the ground up as queer and not wholly dependent on the Avatar for a relationship.

The issue you'd run into is some players not getting to marry their favs because they aren't compatible with their avatar's gender, but we honestly need to let go of the fact that FE Avatars aren't actual self inserts. They are characters in their own rights that you get to alter more than others, hence the Japanese "My Unit" moniker.

Being quite honesty I'd love if the next game just didn't have any kind of self insert type of main character, as we haven't had one from a non-remake game in... almost two decades ughhh (turns to dust)

And same on the Plumeria point! She kind of has the same rough deal as Ann from Persona 5, where both both have problems with sexualization in game yet are constantly forced into that role anyway because Sexy = Sales, which is kinda shitty? It's one thing to be Camilla and have your sex appeal be part of your character's fucked up/warped perception of love, but to write a character one way and then not respect it? It makes little sense.

Thanks for the ask!

[aerin-of-the-isles]

Merry Christmas, @eliza-faust-diary

I’m your Inu Yasha Secret Santa! I hope you like it!

and a Very BIG “THANK YOU!” to @brain-rot-hour for the additional art!

The peaceful quiet of the meadow around the Sacred Well was disrupted once again by the grumblings of an annoyed inu hanyou and the miko from the future. 

“I thought ya were goin back to slay some more of those tesuto things at your school! What’re ya doin with all these—these things!” Inu Yasha finished. He placed the miko down on her feet and hefted the bag of ‘stuff’ over his shoulder as Kagome wrapper her scarf a but more tightly around her. 

The sun was heading towards the horizon and the air was chill, but for once, his miko was dressed appropriately. Pants covered her legs and she was wearing a jacket for once. Even so, she was still lovely.

She blinked at him curiously, then smiled. “Oh! That’s right!” She gave a soft giggle that made him blush, although Kagome didn’t notice. “I forgot that you don’t really remember Christmas since its really something from my time. I’m sorry, Inu Yasha; I should’ve remembered.” 

The two of them walked towards the village as Kagome mentioned that she had bought a few presents for her friends. Inu Yasha grumped a bit, making his usual “keh” and "feh” noises as he pretended to be uninterested. He and Kagome were met on the way by Sango and Kirara, flying around on patrol. 

At Kaede’s hut, Kagome took out the presents she had purchased, some tape, and wrapping paper and began to wrap them. Inu Yasha helped by sticking his thumb on the colored strings Kagome used so she could tie a bow, and surprisingly, Miroku tried to help with the tape.

Kirara, now transformed to her smaller size, was fascinated by the wrapping paper and attacked it with vigor! Sango and Kagome giggled and tossed her some crumpled balls to attack. The nekomata chased one or two around the room, pouncing as necessary!

“Kagome-dono,” Miroku called, staring at the round object in his hand, “what all does this ‘tape’ do?” Miroku stared intensely at his right hand and quickly attached some tape to his glove, then wrapped it around his covered right arm. After 3 or 4 times around, the tape got stuck to itself, and Kagome had to cut the tape before Miroku got both his hands stuck. 

With a giggle, Kagome explained, “We use tape for all kinds of things, Miroku-san. As you can see, its good for attaching things together but is also easy to cut apart.” Kagome paused in her wrapping as Kirara walked on top of a piece of her wrapping paper laid out on the floor for a present and settled down for a nap. 

Inu Yasha glanced over, pulling the roll of tape from Miroku’s hand and examining it more closely. The two of them pulled some tape out and started attaching it to various pieces of cloth and then began shoving each other a bit.

“I think you’ve had enough time with the tape, my friend. I’d like to try some more—“ the monk began. He reached for the tape, but Inu Yasha held it out of reach.

“I’m still using it, bouzo!” the inu hanyou replied.

The two of them kept arguing — “back off!” “Be careful!” “You’re using too much!” “You’re not using it right!” — until Sango finally stood up, grabbed the tape and skillfully wrapped it around their wrists, like modern handcuffs. 

With a satisfied smile, Sango sat and handed an astonished Kagome the tape. “Here you go, Kagome-chan.” 

Kagome looked from the tape to the annoyed monk and hanyou duo and then stifled a laugh as she used the tape to finish off her last gift. “There! All done!” With a soft smile, she looked at Sango and said, “If you could have anything for Christmas as a present, what would it be?”

Sango’s deep chocolate eyes turned inward and she stroked Kirara’s fur for a moment or two. “I think I’d just like some more of that sham-poo and soap you usually have. It’s so refreshing!”

“Oh! That’s easy, Sango-chan. I’m really excited about the gifts I got for my friends, too. We were going to do a secret santa, but as it turned out, I had enough to buy them each a present, so it wasn’t so bad.”

The two women chuckled as Kirara suddenly bounded up and attacked some paper that was obviously up to no good. “What’s a secret santa, Kagome-chan?” Sango picked up some of the pretty ribbon and waved it softly in front of Kirara, both women studiously ignoring the men who were now nearly tangled up after challenging each other to a ‘tape off.'

“Oh! In a secret santa, everyone gets the name of one person in secret and they buy a gift for them. Sometimes, the gifts are from the heart and sometimes, they are more like joke or funny gifts. This year we chose gifts from the heart! Tomorrow morning before we head out, Inu Yasha and I are going to drop the gifts back in my time. That way, my friends can pick them up in case we’re busy.”  

With a little squeal, Kagome pulled out a package from her backpack and introduced Sango to the little packages of deliciousness. “I forgot to tell you! I brought some hot chocolate packets. These have tiny marshmallows in them.” 

Kaede smiled as she heated up some water. “I’m looking forward to this type, Kagome-chan. The dark hot chocolate you brought last time was quite delicious.” The silence was interrupted by the muffled sounds of miroku and Inu Yasha grunting and snarking at each other. The women tried to control their eye-rolling but it was difficult to do anything but as two ‘adults’ became embroiled in tape. 

After the water was ready, Kagome, Kaede, and Sango sipped joyfully at the hot chocolate, giving out contented ‘ahhs’ as they reached chocolate nirvana. Full of trepidation, Kagome turned to look at Miroku and Inu Yasha, who had both grown silent. 

Miroku’s other hand was taped to his head and Inu Yasha was using his fangs to cut through the tape that crossed his face and smooshed down one of his ears. Sango stood abruptly, giggling like mad and running for the door. Huge bursts of laughter reverberated back inside even as Kagome doubled over in laughter. 

“S’not funny,” Inu Yasha grumbled as he gnawed through another weird bit of tape. Kirara wandered over and playfully batted at both Miroku and Inu Yasha, pouncing on the monk whose one hand was taped behind his head. The adorable nekomata settled into his lap and closed her ears to their mutterings. 

“You could help,” Inu Yasha grumbled at the nekomata, eyeing her claws and fangs. He was unsurprised when she gently trilled back. Miroku traded glances with his fellow tapee and continued to unravel himself. He was still trailing tape when a giggling Kagome handed him some hot chocolate, then kneeled behind Inu Yasha to help him untape his ears. 

Miroku shook his head as Inu Yasha gave an unconscious happy wiggle when Kagome softly stroked his ears. Her lilting voice was soft, but the houshi heard her ask, “All better now?”

He grinned behind his cup of hot chocolate and discreetly hid the tape in his robes. He might need it later. 

He smiled and carefully rubbed Sango’s bottom. “Heaven!” he opined before her boomerang came crashing down on his head. 

@iyfss @inusecretsanta

[the-priestess-of-dawn]

Grima and Final Blows

The other day I mentioned that I had an essay about Grima to write that I'd been putting off, and between that and all the great essays my fellow Grimleal scholars have been putting out recently, I decided to sit down and finally get it done.

So here you go. An analysis of Grima's difficulties with directly killing people.

Okay, so I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time, because one of my favorite things to explore when it comes to Grima is the gap between their villain act, which they actively play up in front of others in both Awakening and FEH, and their true feelings, which are hinted at in Awakening (particularly through the Future Past DLC) and made even clearer in FEH— their own evil actions are repulsive to them, and they wish they could live normally among humans, but they don’t believe they have any choice but to be the monster that “the fell dragon, Grima” is supposed to be. They are committed to this “fell dragon” character, to putting on a show for everyone, and they are so good at it that it’s easy to overlook that they… uh… aren’t very good at killing anyone important. Not directly, anyway.

Sure, Grima is responsible for numerous deaths. But what is their actual kill count? Well, in Awakening’s main game… zero. (Unless you count Chrom, but, as we witness, that was not a voluntary act on their part; Validar took control of their body. You could also make the argument that Grima “claiming the sacrifice” at the Dragon’s Table counts, but the problem with that is, although it’s obvious that Grima accepts the life force of the Grimleal members as a sacrifice, it’s not at all clear whether or not Grima personally kills them. Although it’s possible that they did off screen, it’s also possible that Validar killed them, or that they were ordered to take their own lives; there’s no reason Grima would have had to lay a hand on them.) In the Future Past, it’s… one, maybe one and half (Naga’s spirit, and Tiki, but only in body. More on this later.)

And it’s not as though Fire Emblem shies away from showing villains directly murdering people, Even in Awakening itself, the intro to Chapter 9 shows Aversa killing a Plegian soldier for delivering an unsatisfactory report, so it wouldn’t have been out of place to let Grima stab a few NPCs as a show of brutality. Especially seeing as Grima is the evil dragon final boss. As early as Mystery of the Emblem, we can see Medeus killing his cleric hostages to restore his own health if you fail to rescue them before trying to defeat him, and as recently as Engage, we get a whole cutscene of Sombron eating Hyacinth. Fantasy violence my beloved <3

Anyway, the point is, Grima could have been written to be much more violent and I don’t think anyone would have complained. Instead, though, Grima repeatedly— and consistently across the series— tries to avoid engaging in direct combat.

Let’s start with what Grima does in the main game of Awakening. We know that Risen pursue Lucina into the past, because we see them fall out of the portal with her in Chapter 1. We also know that those Risen, as well as the others that are appearing throughout the land, are not being directly controlled by Grima, because later in Chapter 13, as the Shepherds are leaving Plegia after meeting with Validar, Aversa, and the Hierophant, they are pursued by more skilled Risen, and Frederick notes that “Either they are learning our ways, or someone is commanding them…” So… It seems that sending the Risen—with or without specific orders—to attack while Grima is not themself present is a favored tactic.

But what about when Grima is present? Take a look at the Endgame: Grima chapter. Yes, you eventually get to engage Grima in direct combat. But not immediately. What Grima does first is…

Grima attacks the Shepherds with dark spikes from a distance, reducing everyone’s hp to 1. Now, here’s what happens next: Grima attempts to possess their past self, Robin hears the voices of their friends and breaks free, Naga heals everyone back to full health, and then the fight against Grima begins… Except actually, the Shepherds have to get to Grima first, because they’re at the top of the map and they’re not budging. Naga warns them that “Grima’s servants will beset [them] to no end.” and she’s not kidding. Grimleal reinforcements will spawn infinitely, and they can hit pretty hard. Even with everyone starting at full health, it’s possible to lose units to these Grimleal soldiers if Grima isn’t defeated quickly. Can you imagine what would happen if Naga hadn’t healed the Shepherds first?

Well, I’d guess that they’d probably all die to the Grimleal without Grima having to face them up close. Which was probably what Grima was going for.

This isn’t the only time Grima tries the dark spikes trick, either. Grima attempts this exact same move in the Future Past 3 when they face Lucina, Severa, Laurent, and Gerome.

Grima announces “With the next blow, I will kill you.” and then demands that they hand over the Fire Emblem as well as the gemstone they hold. The threat is very real. But…

Given that at 1hp, a gust of wind could take the kids out, would it not have been easier and faster to kill them and just loot their bodies immediately? And yet Grima lets the kids have an extended discussion about sacrifice, and even suggests that Lucina would indeed buy a little more time by running… Again, I cannot stress enough that Grima should be able to finish them off in one hit at this point.

So the plan was almost certainly to back off and let the Risen do the actual killing, even though that would be a lot less efficient under the circumstances. And when Chrom and the Shepherds arrive, Grima immediately turns their attention to them, saying “If it’s a reunion you seek, my soldiers shall welcome you on my behalf.” Then they once again pick a spot at the back of the map and refuse to move from it, forcing the Shepherds to fight through the Risen in order to engage Grima in combat at all.

And sure, Grima has some excuses. “I was hoping not to have to flex any muscle,” they say right before the dark spikes attack, as if to justify why they didn’t do it sooner. And of course they taunt Lucina over having to choose to whether to run as her friends sacrifice themselves for her or to stay and fight and die with them. “I must say I shall enjoy this either way!” Yes, Grima, we get it, you’ve made it very clear that you’re an arrogant asshole.

But is arrogance really all there is to it? If we look at what Tiki tells Grima in the good ending of the Future Past, it looks as though Grima’s arrogance has brought their own downfall. “If you had left Mount Prism alone, Grima, you might have stood a chance. Instead, you have brought the Awakening right to your feet.” However, when you think about it… Is Tiki’s continued existence not in itself a result of Grima’s repeated pattern of not really wanting to land a finishing blow? The game states that Grima did in fact kill Tiki… but only in body, not in spirit. This is, according to Tiki, because Robin intervened.

Now, the question I have is… Is it really possible that Robin could have intervened both against Grima’s will and without them having any idea? Honestly, it’s hard to tell exactly how aware Grima is of Robin’s resistance, because they lie about it a lot, e.g. stating that Robin’s spirit perished in sending Chrom back to his own world, even though just moments later, Robin is once again overpowering them. So, keeping in mind that Grima is a liar, was Grima really arrogant to leave Tiki’s body in Ylisstol, and to not make sure that her spirit was fully destroyed? Or was Robin simply able to capitalize on Grima’s propensity towards backing off?

Because surely the only way Grima could be unaware that Robin had acted against them is if Robin hadn’t actually acted against them. I don’t think I believe that Grima really wanted Tiki gone. Naga, sure—longtime nemesis and all. But if Grima had truly cared about seeing Tiki’s existence destroyed… Well, I doubt Robin could have interfered that much.

But maybe it could still be a matter of arrogance. Maybe Grima just didn’t think Tiki’s spirit could do anything with Naga’s spirit gone, and thus didn't care to pay attention to her anymore once she seemed dead enough.

If that’s true, it doesn’t explain why Shadows of Valentia Grima exhibits the exact same habits when fighting Alm and Celica, despite never having been outside of the Thabes Labyrinth at this point in their life. As opposed to the various Terrors throughout the rest of the Labyrinth, which chase Alm (or Celica) down in the overworld to force a fight, Grima is immobile in their room, and will wait patiently there indefinitely until the player chooses to engage. You can even evacuate from the dungeon.

But if you do choose to fight Grima, it proceeds much like the battles against them in Awakening go. The main difference is that they actually will move from their starting position this time, if you position someone in their range. That still requires a fight against (proto-)Risen who are spawning in from the sides to stop your party’s advance.

So… Now it’s starting to look like Grima actively prefers this one particular trick… And it’s a fundamentally defensive maneuver, which makes perfect sense from SoV Grima’s standpoint (they were attacked out of nowhere, after all), but is not really an obvious standout strategy for Awakening Grima, whose taunts and threats suggest an aggression that would be better supported with a more offensive strategy… Consider, too, that Awakening Grima is in fact being even more defensive than their SoV iteration, since they don’t move towards you at all.

With all that in mind, it really, really looks like Grima doesn’t want to fight, especially in Awakening. Not that they don’t intend for the Shepherds to die—on the contrary, they’ve set everything up so that the Shepherds will eventually be overwhelmed—but that they don’t want to land the killing blow.

(And gee, I wonder what might be fueling their reluctance? Being controlled and made to kill your best friend by your own hand wouldn't be totally traumatic or anything, right?)

And then... Funny thing here, I’ve been procrastinating writing this essay for a long time. I originally started thinking about it shortly before the Depths of Despair banner was released in FEH, so imagine my surprise when I saw this characterization hold up in the writing of Fell Exalt Chrom’s Forging Bonds as well… The Grima there says that Chrom was the one to kill the rest of the Shepherds. Now, it’s pretty clear that it was through Grima controlling him, but that’s not the point. The point is that once again, Grima didn't have to do any direct killing.

Look, if it had only ever happened once, I could buy that maybe Grima was just underestimating their opponents, that maybe they thought they could get away without having to put very much work in. But for Grima to operate this way so many times, so consistently, and to their own detriment? No...

Grima doesn’t like direct combat. Grima has trouble even when it’s a fight they asked for.

And when you think about it, that makes their reaction to Robin choosing to land the final blow themself in the sacrifice ending all the more understandable.

“…YOU WOULD… NOT DARE!”

Because Grima would not dare. Grima has always preferred to let someone else land the final blow.

[butwhatifidothis]

1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 12 for rhea? :3

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

I like Rhea because her story brings with it so many interesting things to think about, and the choices she's made throughout it are also thought-provoking. Yes, she's tried to do the best she could with the options given to her, yes she's tried to do everything in order to bring peace to Fodlan, but that doesn't make her choices any less morally ambiguous or debatable - something she acknowledges, and even wishes to make up for when she's felt she'd made bad choices!

Plus her being fairly shy about mingling with others due to her status making her feel as though she'd bum down the mood gives her a real sweet quality to her lol. Makes me wish even more she was allowed to talk to more characters.

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

That she put her identity out on blast in Shambhala in order to protect everyone. She also does this during the siege on Garreg Mach, but her initial transformation was away from everyone; in the second time she does is in front of everyone, but she cares about saving people more than her own safety at that moment. Considering how long she hid her Nabatean heritage from the world, it feels like a huge step forward for her, Nabateans, and Fodlan as a whole being able to put behind the horrific massacre of the Nabateans. She isn't deemed a monster by anyone, no one tries to kill her in her dragon form; they all just admire that she went so far to keep them safe! It's just a really good moment (that's uh, fucked by either her dying for sure on VW or her randomly going berserk on SS, but still!).

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

The above mentioned going berserk thing in SS is easilyyyyyyy my least favorite thing about Rhea's writing (because due to the nature of Rhea's character I don't really find myself outright disliking any aspect of her character). It's stupid, it comes out of nowhere, it makes no sense (even with FEH trying its damndest to throw out a reason), and it just kinda fucks with SS' pacing more than anything. She's only the final boss there because SS needed a unique boss and no other reason and it sucks major ass.

Even the suggestion of her going berserk on VW and Nemesis being the final boss of SS just kinda... moves the problem somewhere else, not actual fix what's wrong with it (the lack of foreshadowing that anything like this would happen, the fact that it doesn't happen on the other route where the exact same thing happens to Rhea but nothing happens to her there, the nonsensical nature of it, etc.). Definitely the weakest part of the writing of her character, imo.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Not the song question 😭😭😭 imma be straight up with you I do not think of any song for any character like almost ever sorry for the lame answer but I don't got shit for this question

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

We both love cats!!

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

i like when they write her in character I like when fandom allows for Rhea to genuinely grow close to other characters, rare as it is to see happen. She has such an interesting viewpoint and has a lot of similarities to a lot of characters, so seeing that get expanded on and not just have her be The One True Bad Guy Of 3H For Totes For Realsies Pinky Promise is always nice lol

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

On AM/SS after the war she lets herself openly baby Flayn as her aunt instead of withholding outright doting due to her archbishop position + hiding their familial relation. She gives her gifts and teaches her constellations on her star chart and does up her hair and tells funny story about Seteth that make him look silly - she just gets to be family with her niece!!

[genshinemblem564]

Sagau x LoZ:AoC: Update

Hi, sorry it's been so long, but I think I'm ready to resume this series. My main reason for not writing this is because of how short it might be, Age of Calamity isn't a multi arc game like Fire Emblem Heroes is, so I have to address certain characteristics in a shorter time frame than I would like. My other reasons are things like my inexperience with writing characters like Fischl and Oz, and I'm embarrassed to say that it took me quite a while to think of a fluid way for the characters to meet and not just " story relevant crap happens because I said so." That said, your meeting with Zelda is heavily reliant on her curiosity. As stated before, the FeH x Sagau series will be longer for obvious reasons, so that will remain my main focus.

I feel that I need to state this in advance, due to how combat focused Age of Calamity is, some characters will be background characters in order to put a focus on their career choices and hobbies, such as Kaveh and Faruzan's mechanical prowess. Also, not all of the Genshin characters will join the party in the same chapter. This will be addressed in the upcoming chapter, but I still felt the need to say it.

One more thing. I need to find a good divider or banner, whatever they're called. I want people to at least have an idea of what they're clicking or tapping on without having to click or tap on it and then backtrack because it's not what they're looking for. I know I have a masterlist, but I've had to do this myself because some people don't have masterlists, and it's annoying just to think about. Anyway, I'm not saying it'll be out soon, but I'm finally ready to start writing it.

[randomnameless]

It's better to laugh than to cry, right?

Rhea BaD bcs she banned the technology to create Relics!

Or at least, makes sure no one in Fodlan knows how to craft them anymore :(

The Church LiEd!!!!

Will we ever know why the Church of Seiros hides the truth?

the FEH writers did their work, they wrote Claude being wrong while sprouting "evidences"!

Agarthium =/= Umbral Steel, because Umbral Steel is actually... something that you can find when you... defeat specific units like :

(tfw Agarthans harvested Agarthium from giant worms)

Come on Claude, we know what Rhea told you, and that shit you just sprouted wasn't what she told you at all.

She told you what "Umbral Steel" really was, surely you will finally reveal this to Marianne so she will stop uwufying poor Momo and give more fucks about the Relics, considering what, no, rather who they are, right?

...

go ahead Marianne, tell her what this "weapon" you're using actually is!

:')

This is a joke, right?

"I'll keep this tool in my hand for as long as I live, just like my ancestor Momo!"

But do you remember that Momo was turned in a beast, even if he had the matching crest, because he used Blutgang too much? This weapon is dangerous to use, even if you have all the requirements, because it's not really a weapon!

Apparently, no one gives a fuck!

:')

"but random, why are you so pissed? Rhea most likely came to the same conclusion when plot-wise, she gave the relics to the northerners in the first place, like the Laetitia Gautier!"

Rhea knows what the "relics" are, and much like she says in Nopes when fighting alongside a descendant of the Elites, if they use their powers with/for "good", then it's not a sin.

We can surmise* that Rhea knew what Sharon the Nabatean, turned into the Lance of Ruin, would want, like "help those people" so if Sharon and her powers - even if they were desacrated in the worst way - are used to do/protect something Sharon would herself do/protect, then it's an "acceptable" use.

something like "not only the will of the wielder" is important, but "the will of the person who was turned in this weapon".

But here?

There's no revelation about Sharon the Nabatean, Blutgang is just a tool, a sword that was maybe made with evil intentions, but ultimately just a mere sword, like Mareeta's blade.

In a series where some characters are berserked/weaponised against their own will (witches, feral ones, berserk people, etc etc) FEH refusing (but it follows the source material here!) to point out the "origins" of the relics is completely bullcrap.

We're on "ah yes, Ashnard has a big wyvern, doesn't he?" levels, without anyone to tell us that, no, this is no wyvern, but someone turned in a weapon against his will who had a name, a family and, in general, a history.

Imagine the Tales Series, where Lloyd never muses about the "shiny rock" he has even after he learnt that this shiny rock is basically what remains of his mother, or Genis not having his "I don't want to use this" moment when he has to use the shiny rock that used to be Marble - or a Destiny port where Stahn and his pals would only see the Swordians as, swords, and not as people they want to help.

That's basically Fodlan - you're not supposed to give a fuck about Marble, Anna, Dymlos or even Rajaion, they're just neat accessories/power ups, and that's all.

*of course it's only a hypothesis, because the devs dgaf about this issue and will never write about it

[femblemfemslash]

choose your legends has begun so why not vote for lesbian icon Heather Fire Emblem from Radiant Dawn! She was only added to feh last year as a seasonal locked unit so it'd be great to see her base version added into the normal summoning pool. Vote Heather!

Anyway, good luck to everyone else voting for their favs! It'll be interesting to finally be able to see where all the engage characters land this year and if 3H's continues to have staying power for voters.