#[ and rip thracia ]

[fefuckability]

THRACIA FINAL RESULTS: WOMEN

Eyvel absolutely crushed the competition. RIP every other Thracia lady

[randomnameless]

I mean… fire emblem shouldn't be taking in consideration when making points about representing real world issues or using it as a crutch for sociopolitical arguments irl. One of the best examples in this franchise of "culture bias" and "covet bigotry" is Fates, where Hoshido is too pure, too good, and Nohr is the bad, bad, evil barbaric nation. And this goes so far as to make birthright's story a more watered down version of blue units vs red units story from shadow dragon.

In 3H now the good, pure nation is Fodlan, and those who surround it are either filler to make the worldmap look prettier, or barbarians that like to hunt the good guys for sport (Almyra and Sreng, and possibly Dagda), with Brigid being a repetition of the noble savage trope. Just bc there's a poc guy that wants to unite people and get rid of prejudice in story, doesn't mean that the developpers agree to that or support that.

(Also, let's not talk about Hopes and how Claude's altruistic dream turns out to be unifying two different nations and make the cohabit by force with him as sole leader of both. AKA the typical fire emblem trope of uniting different countries under one ruler, something that's not progressive in the slightest)

Mmh,

Speaking on eggshells here because Fates isn't really my area of expertise, but basically, iirc you can thank Pat for scrubbing the worst of Hoshido!

Fates' best route is Revelation (rip izana) where both countries accept to set aside their differences to work together, meaning that, obviously, Hoshido wasn't only "blue unit land" against Nohr's "red units".

Even through Birthrout, you can catch here'n'there, even in the Pat version!, how Hoshido isn't roses'n'daisies, it's the land where Mikoto takes her niece "hostage" ffs as a measure against Corn's kidnapping (you can't tell me she never guessed Azura was Arete's kid!), where Ryoma (idk if you were the same anon as back then?) as the crown prince ignores the plight of the nohrians and why they were attacking Hoshido because life in Nohr sucks and they're starving (idk if, much like the Leonster/Thracia conflict, Hoshido refused to trade with them and let them starve instead), the fuckery with Mokushu and Shura's backstory, or Hoshido being Misogyny Land (tm).

Heck Birthrout has you march on Nohr's capital city iirc, and fight in the streets - it's in Birthrout that Corn's obsession with taking revenge/defeating Garon leads to Elise' death - so it's not the the "blue unit waltz on red unit lands, routs the enemy and calls a day".

So I don't think the Fates writers really wanted to push the "pure unproblematic land" card with Hoshido compared to Nohr, but rather depict them as both flawed - in different ways - and needing to work together.

Now, I wouldn't say the nations of Fodlan are good compared to the rest of the filler nations that make up this verse's world - after all it's Adrestia who starts hostilities against Dagda'n'Brigid and Adrestia who most recently flattened Brigid and made it its vassal! - but in a sense you're right calling them filler, the FE series in general don't spend a lot of time to depict nations in general, they're just "the place character X is from" and for all of its, hm, reknown writting, Fodlan is following the trend, Albinea is no less different than Cheve (wait, we have one map set in Cheve! kill that) so bar flavor text, they're effectively just "filler".

I disagree about Sreng and Almyra being filler though, if Sreng could be seen as a ref to the Thracia situation or Norh/Hoshido fight for ressources, Almyra?

Is basically Verdane all over again - with the dubious honor of having a Verdanite Lord who, unlike Jamke has some relevance to the plot bar his introduction, but most important, seems to appreciate and want to emulate/import the values/methods of his country to the cast/main plot.

Can you imagine FE4 where Jamke suggests to kidnap Deevtar to seduce lure Andrei in a trap and rekt him?

Of course not.

Just bc there's a poc guy that wants to unite people and get rid of prejudice in story, doesn't mean that the developpers agree to that or support that.

I guess they agreed with the "get rid of prejudice without dealing with the dragon in the room" idea, but the main issue I mentionned and talked about in the other anon reply was the how, and what, doylist wise, it conveys.

"I'll unite people and get rid of prejudice by busting open your country to my people who are as prejudiced as you supposedly are, and I will bring you new values"

That's... not a good way to bring people together lol.

Even in FE16 I found Claude and Almyra's writing a bit odd : why asking Timmy first to stop shunning Bob when Timmy started to avoid Bob because Bob keeps on stealing his lunch money? Shouldn't you ask Bob first to, uh, not be an ass?

In Nopes?

Bob ruins Timmy's house, hits Timmy's toddler sister in the face and still steals his lunch money - but now, Bob has the nerve to tell Timmy that he's doing this to "help" him.

Also, let's not talk about Hopes and how Claude's altruistic dream turns out to be unifying two different nations and make the cohabit by force with him as sole leader of both. AKA the typical fire emblem trope of uniting different countries under one ruler, something that's not progressive in the slightest

Hmmm,

I don't know if you played the older games (FE1 to FE10), but as far as I remember, bar Archanea verse, we have different rulers for each countries and the world is never an unified entity -

And even then, Marth doesn't unify the world by making people "cohabit by force", as forced as it is, everyone gives him their crown.

Sanaki doesn't tell Elincia to suck it as she annexes Crimea in FE10, ditto with Innes and Joshua, or Ced and Ares in Jugdral... I can see Leif's unification of Thracia falling under that criteria, but even then, it's not so much by force than Travant making suicide by cop because he wanted the peninsula to be united and understood he couldn't be the one to do it.

Uniting the continent by force is, on the contrary, what red emperors do, and in traditional FE games, red emperors are defeated.

To return to your main point :

I mean… fire emblem shouldn't be taking in consideration when making points about representing real world issues or using it as a crutch for sociopolitical arguments irl.

Of course, and I totally agree!

The FE series has always been, as its core, a series where a "rightful ruler" returns home to rule "rightfuly" and better than its predecessors, by acknowledging what they did wrong and what they can do now.

That being said, a game is never written in a vacuum : that's the doylist side of various discussions : "What were the devs thinking, was what their reasoning when they decided to make the game this way?"

In 2004, real world persons believed that putting Devdan in their game was okay.

You can give them some flak because different cultural references between Japan and the US world (hell, western world at this rate because damn if Devdan hit "international" racist stereotypes boxes!) - and yet, can you really suppose the devs wouldn't have known, in 2004, that those stereotypes are harmful to real life people and Devdan was basically an insult?

But Devdan was just a living (as much as a fictional character can be alive, but you catch my drift lol) stereotype, the issue was just with Devdan existing.

It was 2004, 15 years later, we expect of IS - not your backwater company! - to never ever fall in the same pits, right?

(well, we had FE13 with the Feroxi main characters who love to fight being dark skinned... so the Devdan dev might still have been there :/ )

FE Fodlan, let it be for design or even names, took some inspiration from RL (it was funny upon release to catch all those links and nods!), and while i appreciated the aesthetic, it was bound to create another "Devdan" issue.

You have Almyra, designed with several RL inspirations (they weren't being subtle with Claude's battalion called the Immortals lol), from design (Claude's clothes and braids!) to units (mounted archers!) to, well, names.

Okay, in itself, it's nothing as insulting as Devdan's existence. But taken with the context?

The devs wrote that Fodlan's aesthetic was supposed to be the Age of Discoveries (1500s and onwards?) so yes, during that Age, you had people who were prejudiced as fuck against people from other lands/different cultures.

But in 2019, we know that those prejudices were full of shit, and either fueled by ignorance, or just, the need to find a good "excuse" to get new lands/manpower/ressources.

Maybe the devs wanted to showcase this part of history : depict the characters being prejudiced against "foreigners" and have them later learn that their prejudice was unfounded !

But... they took the inverse path

Hilda's racist stereotypes? They're shown to be....

True through both games!

As you put it, Almyra are the "barbarians" who : attack the land the characters are from when they're at their weakest, for no reason than to get a good fight - even if it means dying which in turns create several orphans they don't give a fuck about - pillage and "rampage" in cities, let their allies die after accepting a "mutual support" alliance with them, and ultimately rave and scream at their "outdated" values and how you're going to bring them yours.

"You see those people who were derided as savages and barbarians back then in RL - and still are in some parts of the world because the early 2000s happened and in general because racism exists? - Well I'm going to base my fantasy "token barbarian country who is untrustworthy and backstabs everyone" based on them!"

:/

I know you can't compare tomatoes to watermelons, but the Baten Kaitos franchise also has a nation who's, more or less, full of assholes, racists and imperialist pieces of shit. But the devs in those games designed each island/country from scratch, there is no nation that immediately calls back to "RL country X or culture Y"!

you can make a farfetched point about the people wearing ceremonial masks and having totems being a mix of several RL inspirations or at least being a call back to them... but they're part of the most OP people of that universe!

So why? Why, doylist wise, FE Fodlan designed with care - you can't tell me those costumes and outfits were designed in 10 minutes! - Almyra and its characters... only to have them act out as what an english book from the 1780s depicted "oriental" people ?

Unlike Devdan, the racism doesn't ooze out from the way the characters/country was designed, but what role they fit in the story.

It's not a sociopolitical commentary or representing real world but more like another jab at IS for being as prejudiced against non western/japanese cultures and civilisations as they were when FE4 was released, which is problematic in 2019/2022.

(and then you have Square Enix giving us Hyzante in Triangle Strategy, which is even more in your face with the dubious parallels)

[vraisetzen]

finished pluto in a span of two days and here are my thoughts:

first off, this is an extremely polished and well-made adaptation – urasawa was clearly consulted throughout the production process

the landscapes – of the city, the countryside, the war – are beautifully drawn. the blending of cgi and traditional elements were also done fantastically

i will say, however, that there were scenes with hercules in episode 2 that look over-rendered; given his pale colour palette, the added exposure didn't come off well on screen

the voice acting is wonderfully – no surprise, given the line-up of seiyuu in the japanese dub. hikasa yoko did a splendid job as atom, and i was quite partial towards miki shinichiro as the painter robot (for the short time he was onscreen, rip)

the "bohemian song" sung by north and sir duncan was gorgeous

as for the plot, i think we could've spent a bit more time on dr roosevelt (the teddy bear) and thracia's part in the war – it's relevant political commentary for current events, though i'm sure the team did not expect it when they decided on the release date

lastly, as someone who went into this show completely blind, the unfolding of the story was very satisfying. i'm familiar with naoki urasawa's writing, so i kinda knew what to expect, but i was blown away by its depth and narrative implications anyway. the blurring of lines between robots and humans, the recurring themes of memory and trauma, the consequences of war and conflict, and in turn, their effect on extremist ideology and the perpetuation of violence – these were all handled respectfully and with a lot of tact.

[raxistaicho]

Reyna’s not at the end of dealing with Edelgard yet! Edelgard in Thracia, chapter one

So who’s familiar with ReynaAtTheEnd? She (I remember reading Reyna’s a she from some of her mutuals, I’m going to assume that’s accurate, but if not I’ll swiftly correct it) wrote a fanfic called The Savior King, The Master Tactician and the Queen of Liberation, a sort of Azure Moon/Verdant Wind fusion fanfic that are all the craze with Dimiclaude shippers, in which they form a polycule with Byleth.

Oh and also Edelgard Takes a Level in Dumbass and Jerkass, and only generally makes appearances when it’s time for her to get her shit kicked in by the heroes.

Well, Reyna decided to try her hand at giving Edelgard a redemption story, and we all know how wonderful it is when Edelgard haters try to “redeem” her. And she did this by thrusting Edelgard into the plot of Thracia 776, so uhh...

But before we go any further:

DO NOT, I REPEAT: DO NOT, under any circumstances, harass Reyna! I don’t wanna hear about people leaving her insulting messages, folks! I mean it!

EMPEROR. IT’S EMPEROR. Edelgard is never called an empress, Reyna!

From the summary:

Edelgard lost everything - her country, her ideals, her life - to Agartha and to the choices she made.

No, she lost them to Reyna’s hatred for her. And also to Byleth, Dimitri, and Claude being the biggest god-mode incarnations of themselves I’ve ever seen and commanding a kickass army including both the Kingdom and Alliance unified against her, alongside basically all the Relics, and even Rhea and the Immovable. Yeah, Reyna wanted Indech to kaiju it up on Edelgard so bad she wrote him out of character and had him fight on Byleth’s side.

Queen of Liberation was also the story where Edelgard, after being beaten, was captured by Thales, subjected to her trauma again, beaten, tortured, turned into an enslaved monster, and subsequently dispatched like an enemy of the week with no fanfare.

Just so everyone’s aware of where Reyna stands.

Upon awakening in another world ruined by war, she despaired and began going through the motions; only for another cult of evil and a very different dragon god to force her hand - and, perhaps, truly turn her into the revolutionary leader she had wished to be. 

No, she was a revolutionary leader. I know Edelgard detractors don’t like it, but,

Her detractors have long tried to twist things do that Edelgard can’t be a revolutionary because she’s someone in power herself, but Rhea and Seteth don’t appear to have gotten the memo on that.

On to the first chapter proper:

So we open with Edelgard suddenly waking up and trying to work things out. Very sadly, at that.

Consciousness came to her one bit at a time. It was cool, wherever she was. The pain was gone – the spire of the Viskm ramming through her is the last fragmented memory that she has. 

Yeah she died when the Wandering Beast slammed her through a Viskam. Reyna has a weird habit of making her fight scenes grizzly affairs like something out of fucking Akame Ga Kill!, but still permitting Claude to get paragraphs-long breaking speeches in the middle of a fight because Claude is just so awesome~

It didn't make sense. She died, hadn't she? The miserable joke of her life, her broken ideals and woeful attempt to change the world had ended when the Wandering Beast did her a kindness and slammed both of them through the floor and impaled her demonic body. Wasn't that enough? Wasn't it enough, Sothis?! 

Sothis may forgive you, but Reyna never will, Edelgard. Bolding mine, btw, we gotta get Edelgard nice and miserable before everything else begins.

Myson had brute forced the procedure that she and her loyal mages had been looking into and the transformation had ripped her apart and reassembled her into a parody, a sick combination of the myths of the Crest of the Beast and those dragons. 

The word “dragon” doesn’t appear to exist in Fodlan. Demonic Beasts are always called Demonic Beasts, and Nabateans are always called Children of the Goddess. The only instance we see of the word “dragon” comes from the name of the Dragon Claw gauntlet weapons.

Edelgard soon realizes she’s alive and has her free will again, but her body’s too weak to move. She wonders at first if this is some punishment from Sothis, but no, it’s punishment from Reyna, Edelgard.

Thales's horror. The instinctive reminder felt like a joke, making her feel sick as soon as it rushed up. No, she had participated in that horror and turned her nose up at those who expressed their qualms about it. Horror had been too useful to reject.

Time for Edelgard to castigate herself, folks :)

Useful! Oh, it had been so useful in the end, it turned her people against her and reduced her to a monster, a pawn sacrificed to buy a little bit of time. 

Reyna wants to make damn sure Edelgard knows she was never in control.

The suffering had fuelled the machine of war, alright

That “alright” is taking me out, I can’t picture Edelgard talking that way.

– consuming all that she'd tried to build. Maximus Varley, Ladislava, Randolph... everything they had done had only made the Alliance and the Kingdom more determined to defeat them. Had only caused her own people harm; burning in wild fires in front of the monastery, 

Ahh, yes, that was one of the instances of Claude’s ~~brilliant scheming~~

So, see, he had Constance bolting the Imperial forces because Claude’s ~~brilliance~~ in Queen of Liberation generally came in the form of having access to knowledge the actual Claude didn’t have or telling people to do things they were already going to do and being given the credit by the narration, such as when Constance hit some “dry grass” and started a fire:

The problem with this?

This is at the tail end of the Winter. I know it’s Always Spring in Three Houses, but this is meant to be happening in Winter, as all the monthly narration cards show lots of snow. Further, Garreg Mach is always shown to be quite lush, indicating they get plenty of rain there. I’m from California, I know what dry grass looks like :p

Oh yeah, and the people with Crests doing awesome shit is a recurring theme of Reyna’s work, thus proving Edelgard right about Fodlan! 

Ironic.

starving in the fields as the spring seeds died without farmers to tend to them,

Because Edelgard Took a Level in Dumbass and levied farmers who needed to tend the fields.

 subjected to kidnapping and experimentation and stripping of their humanity.

Because Edelgard Took a Level in Dumbass and Jerkass and kidnapped rando citizens to turn into Demonic Beasts instead of using prisoners or something.

Hey, I’m not saying the latter would be any more moral, I’m just saying it would be the smarter move, meaning the kind of evil pragmatic Edelgard her detractors believe in would go for it.

Edelgard angsts some more:

She had presumed so much. You would think that an emperor would be immune to fanciful thinking. 

Fight Reyna’s control, Edelgard! D: You’re better than thiiiiiiiiis.

After everything she'd experienced, she had thought that her perspective had changed enough that she was. After seeing the rot in the world, she should have been more clearheaded, not less. After seeing her siblings suffer and die, Justine holding on only to be a prisoner in her own body.

...It should have made her care more about the people who's lives she was responsible for, not less.

She does care, Reyna. Stay mad.

That was why she forced herself to use the Agarthans, threw her whole kingdom into the chance of changing that system for good -

Empire, Reyna, Edelgard’s not in charge of a Kingdom. Dimitri is.

...and became the reason her people suffered instead.

It’s funny how the actual Edelgard comes to terms with this before her war even starts, but because that doesn’t leave room for Edelgard being surprised by her ineptitude and castigating herself we need to just edit that out of her brain so she can feel bad, as Reyna wants her to.

This is true despair, isn't it?

Was this what Dimitri felt after the Tragedy? What Byleth felt, after Kronya and Thales were able to kill her father, because she had given the, them easy access to the monastery?

(weak laughter) Reyna, you really are on the Edelhater best hits collection.

Thales and Kronya would have gotten in even if Edelgard weren’t around, Solon already proved that.

Then, Edelgard starts thinking about Dimitri! Oh boy.

Her step brother. How had she forgotten...? 

...Trauma.

He...had remembered her, hadn't he? That's why he had hovered around her, had acted protective in a way she had found bizarre and patronizing coming from a stranger – because he hadn't been a stranger. 

Edelgard, honey, that didn’t happen. Dimitri in Queen of LIberation doesn’t think about you. It takes until the week after Flayn’s kidnapping - a full half a year around her - before he starts thinking about the time he shared with her. Everything before that? Dry and clinical, no thought for his time with you or any thought about you.

Even after his own pain, he'd remembered her and cared; her pain had taken all those memories away and left her feeling nothing. 

Even when Dimitri isn’t around, we have to be reminded how great he is.

We could have destroyed Agartha together, Edelgard thought in a shining moment of clarity, coming out of a sleeplike moment yet again. Him, I, Byleth. Even Riegan, infuriating as he would have been to deal with, we... together, we could have...

It’s a ~~moment of clarity~~ for her that she could have just talked things out worked with Byleth and Claude like a good girl.

Sad. Sad and pathetic. Why was she only realizing this now? 

Because defeating the Agarthans wasn’t your objective, Edelgard. Overthrowing Fodlan’s oppressive Crest-based aristocracy was.

Edelgard asks Reyna Sothis why things gotta be this way, then,

She doesn't expect a response. Edelgard expected less than nothing, really; the active goddess was with Byleth, after all. 

Oh yeah, Sothis doesn’t fuse with Byleth such that she can’t talk anymore in Queen of Liberation, because it’d be off-brand if she wasn’t around to convey her Nabatean wisdom against Edelgard’s cause, but she DOES grant Byleth her... life force or some shit to give Byleth a powerup.

Look, Reyna wanted Byleth to get her shounen mid-season powerup, and she also wants Sothis around as a mouthpiece for how great the Nabateans are. She gets things both ways and you can suck it!

Why would [Sothis] have any sympathy for her at all? Naming her children monsters and ordering their deaths, 

That thing Edelgard doesn’t do!

allying with the Agarthans who hated her.

I wonder how Reyna feels about Sothis having no problem with Byleth going CF?

It’s implied Sothis reaches out to Edelgard, and she falls into unconsciousness. Edelgard wakes up in what is described to be akin to a peasant house somewhere, then,

“...poor dear.” A woman murmured, her hand brushing along Edelgard's forehead again.

“I just found 'er on the side of the road...” A man – no, a boy. Maybe Ashe's age, his voice heavy with an unfamiliar country lilt. “Couldn't see any sign that anyone was comin' back for her, so I couldn't just leave her there...”

“Must have been running from bandits, or Lifis's pirates.” The woman decided. “Or even the army. She's not old enough to have been in one of the Hunts, do you think?”

OH NO, did Edelgard get saved by Ronan? Did she get saved by Mekkah’s favorite RNG meme unit? Probably-Ronan and his mom talk a bit, Ronan implied Lifis’s goons might’ve sexually assaulted her, but his mom assures him there was no sign of it when she bandaged Edelgard’s wound, then she namedrops Heim and the gods.

Heim? Gods, plural? The people of Fodlan would have prayed to the Goddess and her alone. Oh, Sothis had done something to her all right. Brought her back to life and dumped her in some strange place...?

I’m sure we’re gonna see Edelgard take umbrage with the Jugdral gods, but given they’re distant except in times of great peril she probably wouldn’t really care about them.

“I've just about got the tea ready, Ronan.

Oh no T_T

Imagine getting saved by a low-tier scrub unit whose only notable trait is he might move around and attack a lot or he might do nothing valuable on the turn.

Her body aches faintly, but otherwise the bed she's on – while rough and wollen – is comforting in a strange way. No hard operating table, no too-soft mattress that felt increasingly like an embodiment of hypocrisy.

This is some weird tense jumping, I have to say.

Also we’ve just gone full on, “Yet you participate in society. Curious!”

Edelgard mostly just pretends to be unconscious and wangsts while Ronan and his mom care for her.

Edelgard could count on two (three, three, Dimitri had-) 

Again, Edelgard didn’t remember Dimitri and Dimitri was too busy gushing about Claude to remember her.

people after her sibling's death and her father's crippling 

Crippling? Oh no, does Reyna believe in that nonsense “Ionius tried to give himself the Crest of Flames!” theory that’s supposed to “explain” why he looks so sickly?

who'd given her companionship and kindess. And where had that gotten them? Hubert died because of her 

No, he died as collateral damage to Reyna’s punishment of her.

and she spurned Byleth for the sake of her vision because how could she understand when she was hosting the goddess -

Byleth didn’t care about Edelgard either.

Edelgard gets up, Ronan and his mom mention she’s in in Iz, in Thracia, neither of which Edelgard knows, naturally, then asks her where she’s going:

“You wouldn't,” Ronan reassured her. “We're a small village; I doubt most Thracians could point us out on the map.” Thracians? A people who's name she'd never heard. But what else did she expect after dying? “We're right up on the ocean; most of us are fishers, and nobody important lives for miles. We're on the way to some important places, but you'd be in for a bit of a hike to get to them. Were you headed somewhere specific?”

Edelgard thinks briefly of some things she might tell them, and dumps them all immediately. She didn't have a life to go back to; she was a failed conqueror, a villain in a cautionary tale that would last in Fodlan for all time, a... a pawn of greater evil. She felt so numb when that thought circled her mind. Empty and hopeless.

“Not really.” She said with a slight shake of her head. “I had been captured by cultists, and in my efforts to get away from them, fled for as long as I could in a random direction. I lost any sense of where I was, only that I got away.”

This whole fic is going to be Edelgard lamenting her actions and coming to Jesus, isn’t it.

Also, this is some weird tense.

Also also, Edelgard describing the Agarthans as cultists is kinda contrived so we could bring up the Loptr Cult.

Ronan and his mom immediately assume the Loptyrians targeted her for their Child Hunts, thinking maybe they branched out in age, and I have to wonder how well common people knew the Loptyrians were involved? Obviously they’d know the Grannvale Empire was behind it, but the church? Idk.

Anyways, Ronan’s mom promises Edelgard is safe because,

“We aint got no Belhalla bootlickers or Travant's sycophants in Iz. They won't know you're here and none of us are gonna talk.”

First off, what medieval peasant would know the word “sycophant”? Also, considering both Grannvale and the people of the Manster District hate the Thracians, I seriously doubt Trevant has many fans at all in northern Thracia.

Edelgard asks why they’re helping her, and she’s gobsmacked to learn it’s just because they think it’s the right thing to do, because evidently Edelgard in this universe has never considered doing a kind thing for the sake of it, pleaseignorehersupportstheyruinReyna’spoint.

Edelgard offers to help Ronan and his mother around the house in repayment for their help and we get this,

“Oooh...” The mother's brow furrows, wanting to refuse but unable to resist the offer of an extra pair of hands. “You're a kind girl, Edelgard.” Edelgard nearly chokes on absolutely nothing, thankfully managing to pull up her solemn mask in time. It would be rude to laugh in this woman's face over her misplaced compliment.

After seeing how often butwhatifidothis got mad at how self-loathing Edelgard is in The Emperor and the Goddess, it’s ironic as hell that Reyna is doing the same thing in this fic. Just for wildly different reasons.

Anyways, Ronan and his mom just urge her to rest for now.

The twosome leave the room... allowing Edelgard to bury her face in her hands and tangle her fingers tightly in her hair, and wonder what all of this was supposed to mean. Why hadn't she just been allowed to die? Why did she have to live when her ideals had failed her and her empire? 

Your ideals didn’t fail Adrestia, Edelgard, the deck was just stacked inordinately against you because Reyna had a point to make in the previous fic.

Was this some kind of messed up trial?! 

Ahh, yes, I can totally see Edelgard calling something, “messed up”.

What is voice, Reyna? What is voice?

Then we end the chapter with a whopper:

She gritted her teeth and lifted her head out of her hands. And that's when she noticed that the strands between her fingers are a vibrant heather brown. Not white. Her heart almost stopped in shock. After a second, she reached inside herself and tried to pull power from her unwanted Crest, from the blood of the Goddess.

Nothing. It's gone. The Crest of Serios was still there, dormant and lethargic to her calls, but the Sword of Damocles that had hung above her...is gone.

Edelgard slowly ran her fingers through her hair, restored to its natural colour, and slumped back on the bed and stared at the ceiling with wide eyes.

 You are no one's pawn now. What will you do?

Edelgard never was anyone’s pawn outside Reyna’s fic.

I’m a bit curious why she left the Crest of Seiros intact. I could guess it’s better because it’s “natural”, or maybe Edelgard needs to turn to Jesus embrace her Nabatean origins, or something. Guess we’ll find out, huh?

Now that’s the end of the chapter, but before I let ya go, there’s the Author’s Notes:

So! ...I woke up today and wrote multiple pages of this after figuring that I disliked Edelgard too much to write it. 

Disliking her didn’t stop you dedicating entire chapters to Edelgard and her laser-guided karma in Queen of Liberation, Reyna.

Clearly I underestimated my desire to 

make her suffer more

write this plot and all the thematic parallels within. Some readers felt that I was too harsh on Edelgard in The Savior King, 

GEE, YA THINK?

Time to show you folks what Reyna thinks is a fair portrayal of Edelgard.

But as a warning, some of this shit gets pretty brutal and if you don’t want to see Edelgard’s in-depth, lovingly-described suffering, scroll down a bit.

That’s one of the Ten Elites calling her a fool. Yeah the Ten Elites are in Queen of Liberation btw, can’t have a Battle Shounen without a recurring miniboss squad!

Ditto.

Also none of the Ten Elites would call Seiros a hero. They didn’t even know why she was fighting them!

Here’s Edelgard getting bricks tossed at her by rioting citizens, and of course all she can do to restore order is scream “I’m your emperor >:(” at them.

With an added helping of the same rioting citizens telling Edelgard how fuckin’ amazing Claude and Dimitri are!

Here’s Edelgard getting a brick dropped on her by the citizens of Enbarr while she’s getting epically pwned by Byleth’s god mode army at Enbarr. Because medieval peasants will just trust that the invading army has their back :)

Here’s Edelgard getting PWNED by Failnaught so bad that metal bits get stuck in her eyes.

~~Bonus round~~ The metal shards get healed permanently into her eye :)

You know whenever I feel like maybe I don’t portray Dimitri or Rhea as fairly as I could in On Black Wings, I can just remind myself I stick to them losing arguments or losing battles they canonically do lose. I don’t fucking torture them physically while I’m at it.

We’re not done yet!

Of course Lysithea has to also pwn the fuck out of Edelgard, dropping an Abraxas bomb on her (who the fuck gets Lysithea to A faith?) and of course she had Thyrsus because this is a Battle Shounen fanfiction and as such the only way to make Lysithea look impressive is to have her use the Relic everyone staples onto her and have her drop TEH BIG MAGICZ.

And of course, even the Agarthans have to get in on saying Edelgard’s a gigantic fuck up and Thales should’ve totally went with Claudlouch vi Yagami-Britannia instead.

...”Just as planned” is a short-lived catch phrase of Claude’s. I told you Queen of Liberation reads like a shounen.

Anyways, we’re not done yet.

Here’s Myson planning to place Edelgard under mind-control once they take her back to Shambhala.

And here’s Edelgard again being subjected to her childhood trauma by being shackled underground once again.

Here’s random Agarthans insulting her as though she’s not around. One of the random Agarthans is named Matt.

MATT.

M A T T.

Oh but of course Thales has only praise for god-mode Claude:

“There were other factors involved, of course. That boy Riegan... Solon had spoken a number of times about inviting him into the truth, yet in the end he found it all by himself. From what I've learned from our spies that were able to get close to him from time to time, he created this Alliance, he planned the attacks and counterattacks...he knew about our partnership with her before he even knew it was her behind the mask; not by yet another act of stupidity on her part, but solely through guile and extrapolating from what little that deserter was able to tell him.”

Here’s Odesse beating Edelgard.

Here’s Odesse beating Edelgard again, and also calling her such lovely gender-charged insults: “Bitch, useless bitch, pig, inbred cretin”.

In German.

Yes, German is used for the Agarthan language in Queen of Liberation.

You see, the Agarthans may all have Greek-originated names, named their tools after Greek figures, and use Cyrillic, a script derived from Greek script, but eh, what’s the difference, when you get right down to it, they’re both from Europe!

This isn’t even the worst case of Reyna carelessly using one language or culture as a replacement for another: she has Japanese serve as the language of the very obviously middle-eastern inspired Almyra.

The fic that’s supposed to be about racism being bad has racist elements in its narrative, how ironic.

Anyways, back to Reyna’s treatment of Edelgard.

Here’s Edelgard realizing she was a foolish foolish girl and being told what by some rando Agarthan kid.

And to top it all off, Thales turns her into the Hegemon Husk and she’s summarily dispatched without much fanfare like a Monster of the Week.

And to finish it up (though there’s plenty more I could share), here’s Edelgard having a Villainous Breakdown because zomgCLAUDHLID!!! beat her:

As I (paraphrased) put it in a comment,

That’s not Edelgard. That’s Dimitri playing the role of Edelgard and constantly breaking character.

Content warning ends here!

and while I still feel her portrayal is grounded largely in canon

You had Edelgard behave like an idiot who derided Dimitri as a worthless madman and scorned Claude for being mixed race. The only semblance of Edelgard’s pre-existing character in the sad caricature you crafted for Queen of Liberation was that she waged war on the church.

But yeah, this creature isn’t Edelgard. At least not the Edelgard from Three Houses. It’s the one Reyna wanted to fight, a foolish would-be tyrant duped into war on behalf of the Agarthans who then folds and fails like all the red emperors to come before her. A fool who has a breakdown and is punished for the things she did so that Reyna could feel oh-so-superior for having bested her.

Edelgard is not the strawman you crafted for your fanfiction, Reyna. She’s a compassionate revolutionary who makes the hard decision nobody else is willing to make. Graceful and strong, capable of out-planning Claude (recall that in the actual Three Houses, the real Claude, who can lose things, admits that Edelgard was fooling everyone) and beating Dimitri in a fight. And in the end, she’s poised and accepting in defeat.

Reyna doesn’t want that Edelgard. Much like most of Edelgard’s detractors, Reyna doesn’t like the Edelgard that actually exists in Three Houses. She wanted the strawman she could beat and feel good about beating, so she crafted this sad creature for her fanfiction and tried to pass it off as the original. And then, for all that she said she felt bad for having put her through torture at the end, she still did it. With loving detail, with determined consistency, and with zero mercy she heaps just about every indignity and torment one can imagine upon this fictional character. And why? 

It’s fairly normal for a villain to undergo some suffering and breakdown once their karma houdini warranty expires, but I’ve never seen such karma run for so consistent a length, nor go so far, as to compare to what Reyna does to Edelgard. She could also have done it to express why she thinks Edelgard will fail in Crimson Flower - which would likely to be actual excuse if asked - except if that’s all she wanted she could have had Thales express how doomed Edelgard was to the heroes instead - as a way to puff himself up, for example. But no, Reyna wants it all expressed to Edelgard’s face, to punish her and put her in her place.

You don’t write torture in the vivid detail Reyna did out of obligation, folks.

This story will be quite different in that regard, as you can probably guess by the premise!

Really? So far it feels like much of the same, only instead of other people calling Edelgard a stupid failure, this time she’s doing it to herself.

I really wanted to like Edelgard. She makes me sad as much as angry because she's so close to being a really good complex character, but the writing really fell down on her parts. 

Might’ve helped if you actually understood anything about her and didn’t try to simplify her into a tyrannical racist who just wanted power.

I guess a part of me really wanted to give her a chance to be that character, and develop into something more.

Oh boy, can’t wait to see what Reyna’s ideal Edelgard is. It sure won’t involve cunning or guile, given her standard method of making a character look smart is to beam knowledge into their heads or provide them an OC to give them information they wouldn’t otherwise have, and she writes her fight scenes like something out of a Battle Shounen.

There will only be minimum references to The Savior King and the events thereof, and they'll be fairly spread out.

Please let that be true.

As a final note, here’s some choice excerpts from the comments:

I feel like I should reiterate that I think that Edelgard had immense potential to be a very complex and very interesting figure

“So I simplified her and made her a stupid villain.”

but that potential got lost in how selfish and self-serving she is in the games proper. 

As I put it in a tweet that surprisingly blew up:

Imagine taking Edelgard, who only wanted a normal life but instead dedicated the entire rest of it in painstaking  service to the people of Fodlan, who honestly believed her path would end with her alone and maybe even hated by all, and saying she's SELFISH. Good god.

Anyways,

Her backstory is very tragic, and with a little tweaking in regards to the Seven's role in it - emphasizing religious zealotry on their part, have the Agarthans step back to let the nobles seem like the instigators - would have made it perfect.

Reyna thinks Edelgard was unjustified to target the church, so that’s another thing she didn’t understand about Three Houses.

Edelgard targeted the church because the church upholds Fodlan’s obsession with Crests, which was the root of her and many others’ suffering.

I will go to my grave insisting that Edelgard could have been a great character. 

She is, stay mad.

I still dislike her portrayal in the games and very much dislike how Three Houses and especially Three Hopes coddle her and refuse to let anyone criticize her meaningfully

That’s because it’s never in doubt that she’s right about Fodlan’s broken status. The only thing that’s ever in question is her methods.

And here we go with the usual “nobody says she’s bad to her face enough times!”

They almost certainly were!; though I think Arvis was a better realized character than Edelgard in the games proper.

I swear, Edelgard haters insisting that Arvis was so great has made me like him less. I mean, in the end he was just a man with a complex over having lost his mother and really just killed Sigurd out of petty romantic jealousy. His big plan to reform the land has few details beyond, “I will be a better king than the past one” and, unlike Edelgard, he was genuinely being used by his dark mage allies. Also, there should be no situation that sees Arvis involved in any of these events as he never goes anywhere near Thracia.

Lastly, from someone who isn’t Reyna:

The bad thing about this (for Edelgard) is that she just literally ended up in fire emblem HELL. I've played every single FE game, and short of Fates: Lunatic Conquest, with no DLC to boost your exp. This world right here, is the absolutely most horrifyingly painful one to survive in.

Thracia is definitely gonna be a hell of a culture shock for her.

Does this person think Edelgard is unfamiliar with suffering?

Uhh, so yeah. That was bad! I’m just going to take this as a prelude to what the entire rest of the fic will be about: Edelgard hating her past actions, regarding herself as a failure and a pawn, and learning to embrace True Justice by basically learning she should have done things the Dimifan Headcanon way by embracing God and giving to the needy without disrupting anyone’s lives too much. We might even get to see some more abuse heading her way if Trevant, Manfroy, Veld, or Raydrik get their hands on her. I’ll consider it a home run if Reyna somehow fucks up Leif while she’s at it, and considering her earnest love for god mode protags that don’t screw up unless it’s dramatic and said screwing up doesn’t take too long to get undone, she probably will.

It’ll be terrible. And we’ll go through all of it :)

[etymology-of-the-emblem]

Perne / パーン, Troude / トルード and Lara / ラーラ

Perne is the leader of the Dandelion Bandits in Fire Emblem: Thracia 776. This name is likely a portmanteau of the names Pan and Herne. In Greek mythology, Pan is the god of the wild and shepherds. He took the form of a satyr, with the upper body of a man and lower half and horns of a goat. He is also associated with erotica, having pined after many nymphs, often to their displeasure. One such nymph was Echo, skilled in music and dancing. This may serve as the inspiration for Perne’s keeping dancers in his manor for unspecified reasons. Pan has also been adopted by neopagans as part of the Horned God archetype, depicting him as much more gracious, possibly tying to Perne's role as a Robin Hood-type thief of good intent. Herne the Hunter is a dubious figure in English folklore; a ghost found in Windsor Forest. The first documented mention of the specter is found in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, depicted as a horned figure that makes a clangorous noise with metal chains and causes cows to make blood instead of milk. Earlier drafts of the play state that the tale was conjured by parents to keep their children obedient, which lines up with Perne's distasteful means of coercing the young Tina. Similar to Pan, Herne has been conflated with the Horned God archetype, and also has been associated with legendary figures like Odin and Cernunnos, said to lead the Wild Hunt - a common trope of European folklore of a hunting squad of elves, fairies, and other mythical beings. With Perne leading a band hiding in a dark forest, it's a sensible connection.

In Japanese, Perne's name is パーン (rōmaji: pān), officially romanized as Pirn. The katakana used typically refers to the Greek god Pan, but it's worth noting that Herne the Hunter is similarly called 狩人ハーン (rōmaji: karyūdo hān), so it's possible a dual reference was intended in Japanese.

Troude is a member of the Dandelion Bandits and bodyguard of Perne. The name Troude is Norman-based, derived from the Scandinavian Thorvald. It's possible that the name was intended to loosely tie to Turold(us), another variant of Thorvald. Turoldus is the believed name of the author of The Song of Roland, the oldest known piece of French literature, which tells of the death of Roland, one of Charlemagne's paladins who carried the legendary blade Durendal. With Troude being an "extremely cool" myrmidon, and The Song of Roland having been written in an Anglo-Norman dialect, the theory could hold water.

In Japanese, Troude's name is トルード (rōmaji: torūdo), officially romanized as Trewd. In German folklore, an Alp, also called an elf or trud, is a type of malevolent night spirit. In Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch an Alp is described as a “nature-god or nature-demon” that has been conflated or equated to the fauns, Rome's equivalent of the satyr. The Alpen are typically male creatures that sit upon people’s chests while they sleep, getting heavier and heavier. They also are commonly given vampirical traits and target women to bear offspring with. The Alpen are commonly conflated with similar creatures of South German and Austrian folklore called Druden. A drude is more similar to a witch or demon and is associated with nightmares and is often depicted participating in the Wild Hunt. The Druden are also associated with the pentagram, with Goethe's Faust addressing a charm that protects one from demons, called the Drudenfuss; this could relate to Troude being Perne's protector.

Lara (JP: ラーラ; rōmaji: rāra) is a member of the Magi under Ced after leaving Perne's service as a dancer. In Roman mythology, Lara (JP: ララ; rōmaji: rara), also called Larunda, was a nymph who was punished by Jupiter for telling his wife Juno of his affair. Jupiter ripped out her tongue and ordered Mercury to bring Larunda to the Underworld; the god however was infatuated and forced himself upon the poor nymph before their journey's end. This abuse is reflected in Thracia's Lara facing hardship as a performing slave before meeting Perne. Her questionable relationship with the Dandelion Bandit's leader likely also relates to Larunda and Mercury. Larunda would give birth to twins known as the Lares, guardians of Rome. The Lares were oft recognized for their dance-like movements, hence Lara's dancer class.

[laslow]

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

tagging: all the ladies out there ;D

Name: Samantha/Sam

Pronouns: she/her

Birthday (no year): May 28

Where are you from? What is your time zone? California! I am on PST timezone so three hours behind the TOA clock

Roleplay experience: Over 10 years! (Dear Naga the passage of time)

Got any pets? No :(

Favorite time of year: Winter!

Some interests and things you like: Reading but that's a given. I'm a huge history nerd and love learning random facts. Also love languages and have tried learning a handful of them but never stick to it rip. Dragons are my fave fantasy creature. (I'm terrible at filling these things out LOL)

Some fun facts & trivia about you: -I own about 300 books -I can skateboard -I wanted to be a geologist as a child until I learned how much math was involved -I can play the piano and a tiny bit of violin -I've never broken a bone

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Zelda, Persona, SSB, Honkai Star Rail

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Water & Vaporeon!

How did you get into Fire Emblem? Watching my brother play on the GameCube

What Fire Emblem games have you played? Physically played: Everything from SacStones on. Read scripts for Genealogy and Thracia.

First Fire Emblem game: Path of Radiance

Favorite Fire Emblem game: Awakening!

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 Take a WILD guess. LMAO but besides the Boy of All Time, I can admit I have a crush on Xander.

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: Chrom and I'd still S support him I'm basic and that's ok - Fates: Silas and it's a tossup between him and Leo now - Three Houses: Dimitri and still Dimitri. - Engage: Diamant and still Diamant I know what I'm about

Favorite Fire Emblem class: Swordmaster!

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? Swordmaster!

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Blue Lions

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with? It's a tie between Leif and Eirika & Ephraim

How did you find TOA? I saw an advertisement for the group on tumblr WAAAAY back when

Current TOA muses: Inilow, Leo, and Azelle

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? The one and only Inigo. I really can't see myself dropping him unless I left the group.

Have you had any other TOA muses? Ilyana and Vanessa!

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards?The loyal ones for sure. A shocking amount have sibling complexes and I don't know what that says about me as a person.

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? Honestly, I enjoy writing a little bit of everything! Happiness, angst, romance. But if I have to pick a favorite it'd be combat :thinking: Something about the adrenaline

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔 Tee-Oh-Ay

Favorite TOA-related memory: Oh naga. I literally cannot pick one so any and all the inside jokes/memes that pop up that would NOT make sense to anyone else

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day that you’d like to share? 😉Coughs into hands. If I said I had a Seth blog what then. Silas is up there too and there's a few from Thracia I have my eye on

[skelezomperman]

Revising A Tale of Star-Crossed Knights - Chapters 18 and 19

Link to Chapter 18: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39015690/chapters/105269472

Link to Chapter 19: https://archiveofourown.org/works/39015690/chapters/105690093

These chapters are grouped together because they both cover the time period from Erinys' death up until the beginning of Thracia 776. And not so coincidentially, these are the most filler chapters of Part 3. The rest of Part 3 is nonstop because it covers basically the entirety of the second half of Genealogy in the span of 7 chapters. There wasn't really much I changed with these chapters, though I considered cutting the scene where Asbel gets Grafcalibur at the beginning of Chapter 19. I believe I did cut a scene in Chapter 18 with Finn and Nanna because I thought it served no real purpose other than to just give Finn an appearance...it flows better to have that chapter focus only on the Silessean kids.

Honestly I do find that I don't really like that C19 tries to have the three main characters (Finn/Ced/Fee) all have their plots develop at the same time, but I didn't feel like trying to rewrite the chapters so that they would all be segregated. It's a bit messy that they get split up between each other, but at least it doesn't last too long until Ced and Finn reunite.

Original A/N for Chapter 18:

Welcome to the beginning of Part III! The long night of Jugdral is beginning to end as the seeds of rebellion are sowed across the continent.

I decided that this chapter would mostly focus on Ced. Ced has the journey to go to Northern Thracia for the first time in search of his father. Fee tries to dissuade him but Arthur (!) convinces her to let Ced go. I like the Arthur-Fee friendship and it's something I really want to develop over the rest of Part III.

The rest of the journey is just...a journey. Ced rediscovers his ancestral homeland and that's great, but the big point here is Lewyn's encounter with Ced. It's the big reveal to the audience that Lewyn is still alive. Lewyn points out to Ced how foolish the plan is and he redirects him to go join the Magi. Ced is so awed that he follows Lewyn's requests even though he had previously been stubbornly locked onto finding Finn and he *should* have a lot of questions for Lewyn.

The last part is mostly about tying up some ends as to integrating with the broader plot of Jugdral - re-introducing Asbel and introducing Karin especially. And giving Finn a little scene too because I don't think he needed to be completely excluded from this chapter.

Chapter 19 will correspond to the beginning of FE5 and FE4, so see you then.

Miscellaneous notes: Paola's death is a scene I had conceived of before starting this chapter. There's no deeper meaning other than the pegasus being broken-hearted now that her owner is dead. "Lady Regent" - just made up stuff, although if you recall in an earlier chapter Lewyn did not become "King" until his coronation. Needed to explain away Ced being allowed to leave Silesse. Project Naga calls the C-rank light tome just "Light" like in the Tellius games. I personally dislike that so I stuck to the "Lightning" name used in every other FE game. For a moment I thought about having an encounter between Lene and Ced in Dahna but I didn't wish to bloat the chapter. I was having difficulties getting started on this chapter anyway. I don't plan on Julia and Ced becoming close friends, though she'll probably be friends with Fee. The "because you just told me" line is ripped off from Sonic Adventure 2. That's kind of cringe but that's alright. Lewyn not sleeping is actually inspired by a comic by Jadesnapart which you can find here: https://jadesnapart.tumblr.com/post/157387711668/boy-do-i-love-julia-and-her-weird-dad-is-he-ok

Original A/N for Chapter 19:

Originally I was going to condense the entirety of the first half of Thracia 776 into one chapter. But I realized that there's just so much content that I can't really do that.

There's three different plotlines here, all of which have are tangentially linked in some way. The first, the one that is front and center, is Ced's journey with the Magi. Ced still has the goal of wanting to find his father in the back of his head but working with the Magi has become his top goal. We see a bit of his new friendship with Asbel, then we have the conversation with Asbel when he sends off Asbel to find Leif, and we also see some insight into his thinking. He deliberately puts off trying to meet Finn.

Then there's Finn's journey. Finn covers the first events of Thracia 776 that we see in the game. He's worried about Leif taking charge and being insistent on fighting the Empire head-on, but he has to acquiesce to Leif since Leif is the lord and Finn is the servant. Finn faces feelings of regret to leave Leif (and Nanna/Mareeta) in Munster but he comes to terms with the fact that he couldn't have done more.

Finally we have Fee. Fee, worried for Ced, decides to go set out to look for him. She's initially hesitant to do that when a full year hasn't passed but then the news of Seliph's rebellion reaches her. In the original game Fee goes by herself with Arthur, but in this story I have Hermina, Hawke, and Karin accompany her. Originally in the planning stages for the story I envisioned Hawke going with Ced but I realized that the story would flow better if Ced was on his own. For this chapter I also initially wanted Karin to travel and meet Ced like she does in Thracia 776 but I decided mid-chapter to not do that - it wouldn't make much sense for a squire to travel all the way to Leonster on her own and I honestly forgot to integrate her into the scene that corresponds to FE5 Chapter 4.

About the length of the chapter, I wanted the chapter to actually end with Finn reuniting with Leif and Nanna (i.e., FE5 Chapter 7) and Seliph meeting Fee and friends (i.e., FE4 Chapter 6). But I target chapters being in the 3k-5k words ballpark and this one was well over that length so that's going to get pushed to Chapter 20. Instead, I indulged myself by making a scene introducing Altena. That interaction (as well as a couple in the next chapter) is borrowed from a previous story I wrote, Divine Wind, Earth Lance - but the plotlines in that one will have to get changed since that is based on Ced being Lewyn's son.

Miscellaneous notes: Clonfert - I literally just pulled up Ireland in Google Maps and picked a name that I thought was nice. I was lazy. The villa to the south of Munster that Finn wants to visit is Dryas'. Am I foreshadowing a relationship between Arthur and Fee? Find out later... I initially wrote the name of the fort as Fort Kelves like in an earlier translation of FE5. I honestly do not care for calling it Fort Kerberos but I generally try to stick to what the newest fanslations say, so I stuck with Project Exile's name. Tina mention...I might try to sneak her into a later chapter, not sure. "His Thracian Majesty" is Travant's style to emphasize that Travant claims the entirety of Thracia, not just the South.

Feel free to kudos/comment as always and see you next week :)

[yusuke-of-valla]

Lachesis is actually easier to get to Master Knight than Leif. Lachesis starts out as a Princess, which can use staves and staff users are badly needed when she joins. She also gets a powerful sword to herself, the Earth Lands Sword from her love interest brother.

Leif on the other hand, starts out as a Prince which is just as a weak as Princess but with no stave access. Also he gets no Lands sword. Still Master Knight is powerful enough to be well worth the effort.

Actually Thracia 776 starts out as a prequel to Genealogy of the Holy war, so Leif is in the weak Lord class. But when you promote Leif in that game, he becomes.....the weak Prince class he was in Genealogy of the Holy War. Prince and Lord even share the same unaltered sprite, so the promotion sequence is that anti climatic! No Master Knight for him!

Rip Lief, I would have assumed he'd be. Like. Better? Sorry bud

[hilda-valentine-goneril]

I mean, I can understand not wanting to do the giant boss forms like the dragons and Fomortiis for the Dark Emblems... But how hard would it have been to give Medeus, Duma and Idunn their Manakete forms, Possessed Julius, Lyon and Robin for Loptous, Fomortiis and Grima and give Anankos his human form? And how difficult would it be to do Ashnard, Nergal, the bad guy from Thracia 776 (I forget his name), Ashera and Nemesis in general? The last of whom they can just rip his model from Three Houses?

[of-invisible-ties]

Amount of muses for each game

In case anyone was curious: I did an official headcount of all of my muses. The results may surprise you ....

Shadow Dragon + New Mystery: 12

Gaiden/Echoes: 15

Genealogy of the Holy War: 6

Thracia 776: 1 

Binding Blade: 7

Blazing Sword: 10

Sacred Stones: 10

Path of Radiance + Radiant Dawn: 20

Awakening: 13

Fates: 15

Three Houses: 6

Heroes: 5

OCs: 3

Non-Fire Emblem games: 19

Total: 142

[randomnameless]

JUGDRAL'S BEST MOM

IN HEROES

BEST MOM IN HEROES

Normal Mareeta is here, I did spot Tanya a few years ago and Orsin's here too.

Alfonse in dreamland is coming next, and there's a new battle mode.

still

JUGDRAL'S BEST MOM IN HEROES

[chynandri]

drawpiled some leonster fam

[cavaliant]

Using gifs, and without using titles, list your top ten favorite games of all time.

They don’t have to be in any particular order.

Tag however many people you like.

Repost! Do not reblog!

Tagged by: @radiantxhero  Tagging: steal away

[sorasaurus]

….Thanks I guess. I still want Tana or Innes, but I guess I’ll accept you-especially since I don’t have orbs now. The amount of pity breakers that I wasn’t after is phenomenal.

[the-banished-one]

my work for @jugdralholidaygifts!!! mareeta and galzus hanging out for @songbirdo!! hope you like it!

[sepia-schattentau]

With my luck I'll be spending all my orbs on the New Year's Banner and then in two weeks the next banner that is released will be the RD one featuring Micaiah.