#I miss the FE5 NPCs

[randomnameless]

Also, the fact that Edelgard assumes every person fighting against her is one of the goddess' vanguard is fucking stupid. People are fighting for their lives because of a war SHE started and invasions SHE started. But if they defend themselves, if they don't want to be turned into New Adrestia What's Fodlan, they're just "the goddess' vanguard" now. Not, you know, people defending themselves/their home/their families. You're either on her side or a vanguard of the goddess. There's no for her or against her for her violent actions causing the deaths of your countrymen, friends and family as she tries to reform your entire land into New Adrestia.

She doesn't care about the people. She cares about wiping out the Nabateans and conquering Fodlan like every Adrestian emperor before her has tried to. She wants to wipe out the Nabateans and the other leaders because she doesn't want anyone else to exist who is powerful enough to stop/kill her in the future.

I want to say it's so gross that people actually defend this shit and say that she's a heroic figure who is "uwu progressive", but that's not really even a strong enough word anymore for what they do and the lengths they go to defend her. I bet if this happened to them in real life, what she does to other people, they would change their tune REAL quick.

Eh,

Given what is happening right now in a certain server, I don't even want to guess what some people who think this writing presents her as a "progressive" character are actually thinking.

Back to the game,

Her reasoning - explicited in Nopes - is clear, you are either with her, or against her. And if you are against her, it must be because you oppose her reforms/uwu ideals.

No one gives a fuck about the "blood pooling" at her feet, unless it's to express her sorrow at the sacrifices she had to make to reach her goals.

(that's what I ranted about in the Zahrofl post about Claude and consequences, who deals with consequences of people dying in a war ? Dimitri, who has to deal with Flèche's resentment. There's no Flèche on Supreme Leader's route, aka a NPC that gets a special event where they try to kill her to avenge someone she "had to" cut down in her path of conquest!).

And as Supreme Leader makes everyting about her war centered on "war against church'n'the goddess" PR, while leaving the "MAGA" motive only for the narrator or Hubert to give any exposition, the game cannot have anyone oppose her because, no, they don't want to be part of Adrestia - m-ass-terful writing strikes again, the only person who "complains" about her conquest receives the award winning "no u" explanation, and the game leaves this "issue" at that, no one gets to call her out on her war of conquest, and actually challenge her.

:/

I still find it fascinating how, in CF, Supreme Leader explicitely calls for Dimitri's head - when she can let Billy spare Claude - because she realises (something Nopes erased from her character because elsewise no "uwu what if golden route uwu") Dimitri, aka Faerghus, cannot exist if Adrestia has to be Great Again - Dimitri will always want to oppose her vision and Adrestia's expension in Faerghus (and people will rally behind him).

Opposing Nabateans though, while I think Rhea would be opposed to a continental MAGA war, if Adrestia never targetted Garreg Mach, I wonder if she would have lent the KoS to either the Alliance or the Kingdom - she might try to stop the war and asking for peace talks or what not, but intervening in a human, on-going conflict ? Remember, she only stepped in when Loog already defeated the Adrestian Emperor, aka when Adrestia "lost" to act the end of the War.

So, imo, taking Rhea out isn't due to her possibly opposing with her knights a conquest of Fodlan, but it's more due to the shape of her ears - FE16!Supreme Leader really really really doesn't like Nabateans, and the idea that they can exist and have any sort of influence on "Humanity" - Rhea has to go beause her ears are pointy.

[sukimas]

i'm thinking about how thracia handles its gaiden chapters way better than fe6's, despite them being just as esoteric

first of all, the game will generally heavily telegraph side objectives which you'll want to do even WITHOUT going for a gaiden

and second of all, if you fail the gaiden requirement, the "you're losing" music plays, even if you haven't lost a unit. this is absolutely key. you get an introduction to the "you're losing" music even if you never lose a unit in chapters 5 and 6, thanks to Rocking Out and the huge bunch of enemy soldiers that show up if you take too long. this IS after two fairly impactful gaidens, though- but you're unlikely to miss either of them unless you think that letting harmless npcs die in jugdral has no consequences. anyway, once you get an intro to the you're losing music, it tells you "you've fucked up somehow" and the player might think through it more before finishing the map and saving over their old slot.

and importantly, the end of chapter dialogue ALSO tells you if you've fucked up in most cases. (6 does this too sometimes but not all the time!) so you have two opportunities to go "oh, shit, i messed something up"

fe5 is infamously unkind to blind players, but binding blade being worse with gaidens- and its missables holding the game's true ending behind them! is something else.

[gascon-en-exil]

So long as they don't give a sob story to Hilda & the minor female bosses, as well as make all the villains/NPCs recruitable with bullshit reasons like "I was on your side all along but simply under a spell" Eldigan or "tis only a flesh wound" Mahyna, I think I'd be fine with a FE4 Echoes. What would annoy you if they remade the game?

FE4 is still one of my favorite games in the series, so there’s a fair number:

Toning down or removing the incest, especially Lachesis -> Eldigan. I don’t even ship it, but it’s iconic. If Game of Thrones can include explicit sibling incest and become a pop culture phenomenon there’s no reason to be squeamish about it in Fire Emblem where there aren’t even any sex scenes.

Palette swaps everywhere again. No excuse for that these days.

Any attempt to shrink down the maps, because it’s just not going to work. As long as the game has the options found in all the newer games that let you speed through enemy phases it should be fine; they could even increase enemy density especially in Gen 2 to make more use of all that space.

Selective skill updates, like a nerfed Miracle but Pursuit/Adept/Accost all being the same. Either leave all of them as unbalanced as in the original or modernize the whole set.

No attempt to change some of the less interesting imbalances, like elemental tome types having an objective hierarchy because they’re identical apart from weight.

The breeding meta carted over with no significant changes. It would be much more dynamic if stuff like weapon and holy blood inheritance weren’t handled so rigidly, and the game could take cues from Awakening and Fates on class inheritance. There hasn’t been a game since Radiant Dawn without reclassing; can Jugdral remakes really get away with not adding some version of it?

Finn’s devotion to Quan being toned down. They can’t remove it or the setup for FE5 no longer makes sense, but they could definitely fail to address it. Optimally I’d prefer they just make him gay and remove him from the pool of bachelors since he wouldn’t be missed much there anyway.

The subs still being subs you can only get if you fail to get the kids, and most of them being uninspired knock-offs at that. They’ll have the assets and the space, so make them fully distinct characters and work them into Gen 2 in some way. Maiden!Lucina is a useful model for what to do instead with the kids if you don’t pair their mothers.

No added same-sex subtext, and no capitalizing on the existing subtext. FE4 is less heteronormative than one might initially think just because it has eugenics babies; Jugdral in general is definitely gayer than Awakening at least.

Ishtar’s probably going get a more sympathetic gloss because lots of people love her, but Hilda needs a certain something too. Not to be more sympathetic, but to have more connective tissue between the social-climbing mother putting her daughter on the marriage market and the tyrant capturing and torturing children for fun.

Honestly I kind of hate the child hunts plot point in general and consider it to be equivalent to FE10′s blood pacts in terms of arbitrarily forcing the plot to go in one direction. They strip a lot of the grey out of Arvis’s empire, and give Seliph’s goal of toppling it a strong moral dimension it would otherwise lack except in places like Issach where the empire’s forces are oppressing the populace for unrelated reasons. I get why they’re there, but I wish it were handled better.

No postgame/DLC additions, because there are some big battles in Jugdral that take place all offscreen and FE4′s big maps are perfect to show those off. I’m thinking the Isaach war in Gen 1, the liberation of Agustria in the postgame, and Bloom’s conquest of northern Thracia that leads into FE5 as examples.

[markoftheasphodel]

Thinking about an FE4 remake causes my head to hurt so let's talk some more about the potential for Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Thracia or whatever a remake of Leif's game might be called. Not gonna discuss shipping, dismounting, whether or not healing staves can miss, reclassing, or mechanical BS here. Not today anyway. I have some other things on my mind.

Plot armor: Plot armor was introduced in FE4, but FE5 didn't really go there. One character who needs to be kept alive for a few chapters for plot reasons has a hidden mechanic to prevent them from getting KO'd and that's about it. Since EVERYONE CAN DIE!!! but some characters really shouldn't for overall Jugdral saga continuity you get things like the conversation between Leif and Finn in CH7 where the text is screaming at you not to let Finn get wasted before victory in Manster aka the end of the game. While the Archanea remakes stuck with Everyone Dies, FE15 took a completely different approach and outfitted multiple characters on each route with invisible plot armor. I am betting an FE5 remake will go the latter route.

Cutscene Chorus: One reason for all the plot armor in FE15 is that both Alm route and Celica route feature a chorus of plot-relevant characters in the cutscenes. FE2 didn't have any NPC tactician-type characters, so playable characters like Lukas, Saber, and Clive end up taking on that sort of advisory role. Leif of course has not one but two NPC tacticians in FE5, but FE5 also features cutscene dialogue conditional on character survival. Rather than omit key emotional high points because Somebody Died, I can see a remake of FE5 making use of a cutscene chorus, though more limited in scope than FE15's. I certainly hope so-- like, Selphina's a captain of knights and adores Leif and likes mentoring kiddie soldiers. Wouldn't it be nice to have her in a cutscene role, especially given what happens after Chapter 19? I'd think she might have something relevant to say about that particular fiasco.

One interesting case in FE5 is Nanna, the only character whose demise changes Leif's own character ending... and whose survival also affects the recruitment of her brother Diarmuid. It'll be interesting to see if this stays intact in a remake or if the devs decide to Protect Nanna 20XX.

Resurrection: Fire Emblem's always had permadeath but Leif's little holy war was the first game in the franchise in which death is truly irrevocable. This is hard-luck war with no magic staff or sacred springs available. I'm assuming Casual Mode is here forever (please?), so there's no need to introduce an actual resurrection mechanic to a Thracia remake, but would there be a Mila's Turnwheel sort of gimmick to help take the pressure off? 

Memory Prisms: Just do it IS this one is a no-brainer. Possibly no game in the franchise can benefit more from it given how the impact of things that happened offscreen defines Thracia.

Asymmetric supports: Ooh. So, FE3 and FE5 both included asymmetric support bonuses that indicated things like unrequited love. FE12 included some asymmetric bonuses (ex: Abel and Cain) but didn't flesh out those particular relationships with C-B-A conversations and didn't dive into some seemingly important relationships (Merric & Marth hello?) at all. FE15 also was pretty sparing with support conversations, so plot-relevant characters like Boey and Saber get one support chain apiece. FE5 utilized asymmetry a LOT: Leif supports a whole slew of characters but is supported only by Nanna. Nanna supports four characters but is supported by only Leif and Diarmuid. Glade and Selphina have an asymmetric bonus despite being married. And so on. 

Worst-case scenario? If IS remains parsimonious with supports, a remake might feature a Lord with one support conversation chain. Nanna would get two. Finn would have zero. And so on. That's irritating but it's not really out of line with previous remakes-- and if full voice acting becomes a staple, I'll bet they will indeed be parsimonious aka fiscally responsible in remakes of games that weren't smash hits in their own day. Not saying I like that but it would not surprise me.

Chatter: Critical quotes, mourning quotes, the other bits of battlefield chatter. Mourning quotes are great and need to stay; critical quotes I can take or leave (is anyone ever gonna top "Pick a god and pray"?), the taunts and encouragement and whatnot can be a distraction at times but mostly add to the charm in FE15.

Food: On the one hand it'd be nice to have various food items instead of just Stamina drinks to cure fatigue. On the other hand it was stupid to have all this tasty food lying about during a drought/famine in FE15 and it'd be equally stupid to have a bunch of cheese and apples and whatnot all over the place in Thracia. On the other other hand after finding out Zeke's secret predilection for "medicinal syrup" I kind of want to know the Thracia gang's bad habits! 

[randomnameless]

why don't you want jurgdral remakes? are you afraid they will be localised like fodlan games or modified like shadows of valentia?

Mmh...

Lolcalisation aside, I'd say the biggest thing I'm dreading with those remakes is IS' (if FEH is any indication) willingness to retcon those older games to, I suppose, make them more "trendy" or approchable for a "modern audience".

Sure, FEH might goof here and there, but take the "Miccy founded the DB" take - it's present at least in more than one unit so imo, it's no goof at all, what is it supposed to mean? That a Miccy who is only a person who joins an existing group because she embraces their ideals and thus puts them above her own "need" to hide her existence, as a Branded, is not as... bankable as a Miccy who forms her own ragtag group of randoms to fight against Daein, giving hints at her later role as the leader of the Daein army?

I've ranted enough about IS retconning Lyon and Magvel in general (tfw Eph was caught by Grado lel) but it follows the same pattern, OG!Lyon (and FE8 in general) falls because of his very human and earthly desires - he might have ideals and all, but at the end of the day, he falls because of his love and adoration/obsession for the twins and that is something he cannot fight against - FEH!Lyon sassing Fomortiis is just, no. Fomortiis always has the last laugh in FE8 (at least with Lyon and even, I'd say with the playable cast because, again, his soul isn't erased, he is stuck again in a shiny rock, just like what happened in the lore, and led to Lyon's possession. Who can be sure that in 800 years after Ephraim's adventures, L'Arachel's descendant won't be seduced by Fomortiis' power and free him from his shiny rock, like Lyon did?).

FE15 is its own thing lol - but there is a possibility for Jugdral to be pissed on like Magvel and Tellius were in FEH, and I guess, for any Jugdral fan that's terrible.

Sure, FEH seems to treat Jugdral verse with, uh, careful consideration but hey - if the Ayra wanking is any indication, even Jugdral isn't immune to retcons to make a popular character even more #badass, plot be damned.

Add some eggtivation here'n'there, and I wouldn't be surprised if we had some NPCs or even characters in support dialogues explaining how major holy blooded people aren't always better in the domain corresponding to their holy blood than non HB people because non HB people can bypass their lack of dragon blood with hard work - completely pissing on this core Jugdralian mechanic that was translated in FE4's gameplay by weapon rank.

Is it gatekeeping? idk.

For me, it's just that I fell in Jugdral Hell some years ago (nearly a decade!) and despite its defaults, I still like this verse very much so I'd like a remake that is as faithful as possible to that thing I came to know all those years ago, maybe to exchange with new (and non new lol) fans about that verse!

But if we get, idk, a very #badass Deedee who doesn't, idk, mind killing a kid or two to show how #girlboss she is, well, for me, that wouldn't be Jugdral at all, but some sort of adaptation using those characters but writing them OOC.

Of course I can't say I have a better reading and take on those characters as IS themselves, but after seeing A!Mareeta's FB where she is supposed to be at her best/peak performance, and IS still wrote her to be "below" Ayra in terms of ability when Mareeta's Major Holy Blood means her skills with the blade are naturally superior to her "great aunt" 's skills I still think there's something that's missing.

It's as if we had Reinhardt throw better spells/be stronger at Thunder Magic than Peak!Ishtar, or worse, Azelle on a pony teaching FE5!Saias how to throw fire spells.

It's just, not possible in the Jugdral verse, because Jugdral verse is pretty inequitable and major HB people are cheat codes compared to minor HB people or non HB people. Now with that being said, the story is about what those people with magic blood that are cheat codes do and if they use their powers for good or stupid things. It's not about Midayle finally showing Aidean that his skills with a bow are superior to her sister's so now, he is finally strong enough to protect her from Verdane ruffians.

But after Fodlan's false "yeah but crests aren't the alpha and omega and yet i'm never going to tell you what they do because otherwise my excuse for worldbuildling falls apart", I wouldn't be surprised if Jamke, in a support, would teach Bridget how to use a bow.

:/

So yeah, it's better not to have any remakes.

[randomnameless]

I know it’s a general consensus that CF did Edel dirty when the reason why the Empire was in a stalemate during the 5 years gap was because “Sensei is missing :’( “

But can we also talk about Seteth - who has to wait for Judith (or Rodrigue) to give him the “Rhea was caught by Imperial soldiers maybe you should start looking in the Empire to find her” despite everything in the game pointing at the obvious “the empire caught her”?

In SS, when he finds Rhea he’s all :

Seteth: Rhea... I am overjoyed that you are unharmed. I could not stand losing another of our kind.

Well, as overjoyed as static models can be.

Seteth loves his daughter and (loves?) cares about his sister, because he doesn’t want to lose another Nabatean. But the flimsy “i’ve been looking everywhere for 5 years to find her but our church spies couldn’t find her” kind of sucks.

Like, not that complicated but :

Dubious people steal Flayn’s blood knowing she’s part lizard --> Dubious people work with/for the Flame Emperor

Dubious people experiment on humans using crest stones to turn them into monsters --> they work with/for the Flame Emperor

The douchebag who captured Flayn because she has lizard blood and helped Solon’s science project in Remire works for/with the Flame Emperor

Same Douchebag helped zealots to steal Sothis’ bones and/or pillage Rhea’s tomb --> something something Flame Emperor

Flame Emperor is revealed to be Edelgard --> something fishy is happening in the Empire

Edelgard becomes Emperor and declares war on the Church

Edelgard uses Beasts, Emile, and regular Imperial Soldiers in the Battle of Garreg Mach

Rhea turns in her alternate form to fend off invaders and buy time for the church people to escape

Rhea goes missing

Where could she be? Where should we start looking?

She was totally chilling in Dagda?

If only the answer was not “the imperial palace”!

Like, this is the number 1 location anyone would suppose she’d be kept in! Or Enbarr/getting intel from the Empire should be the first priority!

But no, Seteth needs Judith, 5 years later, to know where Rhea is or that “Rhea was dragged off by Imperial soldiers” and maybe it’s time to storm Enbarr?

Wow, dude. So yep, Macuil was the strategist.

If this is not a contrived as fuck reason not to have sent a stealth squad to infiltrate the castle, rescue Rhea before Billy wakes up, I don’t know what it is.

I know Seteth and the remaining Church peeps don’t have the manpower to tackle on Edel and her Army head-on.

But, idk, Leif didn’t have manpower to rescue Nanna and Mareeta in FE5 and yet he still tried. Or how Roy rescued Lilina without the army he has at the end of FE6, before going against Zephiel.

We could had a Billy-less route, or even Gaiden if you still want Billy to be important to the greater plot, where Seteth, Flayn, Catherine, Shamir, Alois, and, idk, Cyril infiltrate the palace, discover a secret lopto temple and after crossing a fow room with craptons of warp tiles find Rhea’s cell, but they can’t force it, they need Sothis’ power to do so so they vow to return with the professor and then the game resumes.

(you could even get a glimpse at the 11 deadlords in the sleeping pods, each one guarding a room, and the Nemesis one is positioned just in front of Rhea’s cell but their sprite is a bit green-ish)

We could even had the Church stealth squad receive help from Manu and her Mittelfrank friends showing that not everyone in the Empire was “make Adrestia Great Again and Down with Religion!” instead of telling us through a NPC. (make Manu have a pass white magic spell, idk, something echoing her “talent and beauty isn’t enough to be a diva” and her alternate Assassin!Manu we see in AM if she wasn’t recruited)

Idk, anything but “well i tried to look for you in Remire, Rhodos and even Zanado but I totally didn’t think the guys who attacked us and know about our secret could have caught you! sry”

“Adrestia also invaded Briggid, you know? I’ve spent 3 years looking for you there”

But of course, if the only source of intel were the local church branches, knowing how Adrestia ejected its own a few centuries earlier wasn’t helping!

[gascon-en-exil]

FE16 Blue Lions Liveblogging

Chapters 5-6. A fair amount of story progress - I just hope the tense music used from searching the monastery on the latter chapter doesn’t stick around. It doesn’t set a great mood for wondering around and talking to everybody and rooting through their stuff.’

I like how each student gets their own dormitory room, which are individualized via little touches. They’re also not split up by house, but rather between nobles and commoners and...nobles who wanted a ground floor room? There’s a few of those. Like Bernadetta, who came out of hers for the first time in Chapter 6.

The monthly tournaments are a good way to pick up decent forges for free, but I don’t like how nerve-wracking they get toward the end since your entrant’s HP doesn’t replenish after each bout. I’ve also been getting some good use out of choir practice, and sometimes the dining hall features for motivation and small boosts to stats. Getting training from the staff is another matter, but then I’m not focusing much on Byleth’s growth.

Beast fights certainly feel different from anything else in the series. I’ve done two so far, the story one with Sylvain’s brother and one against a giant bird. I assume later fights will make it harder to keep them stunlocked until they die.

I missed out on the Death Knight’s Dark Seal again because I still don’t have a thief, but then I remembered that I have no male casters anyway. Does dark mage offer anything that mage doesn’t, apart from Miasma? It hardly seems worth it for the trouble of getting a special seal.

I do however have a handful of units in intermediate classes, so I’m getting to play around with Canto on Sylvain and Ingrid and Ashe’s increased bow range. Unlike in FE10 the accuracy drop from using bows at longer range is actually noticeable in almost all fights. Dismounting meanwhile feels a bit clunkier than in FE5, but that might be a way of discouraging you from using it too frequently. Dedue gets to show some skin as a brawler, which I’ve read is a better option than brigand for characters with iffy SPD. His axe rank is still great regardless. As for the casters, I wonder if spells learned as class skills remain after the unit changes to something else. I’ll find out when Annette promotes again since she doesn’t learn Fire inherently.

I don’t like how it’s not explained why Dimitri is unavailable for the Chapter 6 story battle. I know why Edelgard wouldn’t be there for the Eagles (benefits of spoiling yourself on everything first), but there’s no reason given for Dimitri, or I assume Claude, to miss it.

@mwritesink said that Gilbert’s C support is pre-timeskip only, so I’ve been looking for every opportunity to recruit him so I can start working on that sweet, sweet incredibly buried-in-flat-subtext S rank with a guy who looks like he’d need about a tumbler of Cialis to get it up. Hey, my eyes are very clearly elsewhere when it comes to the M/M content on this route.

And speaking of that...my first paralogue involved Dedue returning to Duscur to mediate a rebellion situation. I know you can temporarily recruit characters from other houses for their related paralogues, but it wouldn’t surprise me if your first one always comes from your own house. The shipping content was sweet as ever, but the map itself was a convoluted mess with a bunch of narrow paths and aggressive NPCs stealing half the kills. Not great - would have been better had Ingrid been a pegasus knight first.

On supports, a bunch of the B ranks I’ve gotten are shown in red. Means that they can’t grow anymore until after the timeskip, I’m guessing.

Story/Character observations

Sylvain reminds me of Lex in how offhanded he appears to be about killing his own brother. I wasn’t expected that coming from someone so ambivalent about crests and what having one means for him.

There’s an Eastern church too, but they’re said to not be very influential because they also have to answer to the Alliance. I wonder if that will come up again....

Felix’s father shows up but hasn’t done much of note yet. They do explain decently how Miklan’s actions have affected his territory, but it still seems a bit random. Dedue’s observation that Rodrigue visited Dimitri several times after Dimitri’s father was killed doesn’t really smack of a developed surrogate father/son relationship, nor does their behavior around each other.

Gautier territory sounds like the North from GoT, only (slightly) more French.

I’ve barely talked about Flayn. I know exactly who and what she and Seteth are (and Rhea knows too, right?), and I can sort of piece together how she ties into the Flame Emperor’s plan with regard to Monica, but I don’t have much to say about her otherwise. That might change since I think she’s going to be playable now.

Onto supports, Dedue/Felix is as violent as expected (so much for a threeway), Mercedes/Annette is shippy right from their C and only becomes more so, Mercedes/Felix also pulls the “you’re like my sibling” bit and will eventually resolve itself in sex, Ashe/Felix looks to be setting up Felix for the really close friends *nudge nudge wink wink* with the king scenario, and Ashe/Ingrid oddly sidesteps the sexism Ingrid faces, positing that the reason she can’t be a knight isn’t because she’s a woman but because she’s the only heir to a crest. Cyril needs to calm down in general, but he’s less over the top than some past FE workaholics. Dimitri runs away from women and needs Sylvain to bail him out, and meanwhile knight NPCs are spreading dirty rumors about how, ahem, close he is to a man of Duscur. Mercedes almost kills Dimitri and gets into some genuinely interesting comparative theology with Dedue, and Anna randomly shows up in one of the supports I don’t remember too well (Ashe/Annette, maybe?).

Side note: I am personally annoyed that, as of right now, whoever’s been writing up the TVTropes* page for the Three Houses casts has deemed Dimitri, Felix, and Sylvain Ambiguously Bi for their paired endings amongst each other...but has said nothing about Dimitri/Dedue. Hmph.

*Never the most reliable source for anything, but I’m feeling petty.

[randomnameless]

i was thinking about fe5 lately and i thought how could a remake fail with one of IS’ ideas of pleasing the fans, and i happened on Jeigan!Raquie instead of Eyvel

i tried to be salt free but it didn’t work

prologue : you have Raquie and Finn running away from dragons, they’re rescuing Nanna/Leif (and can’t drop them!) and have to escape a map - then storywise they are caught, Raquie give Nanna to Finn, makes a last stand (tm) to buy him time and the map ends

IS pros : Raquie goes missing because she fights, not because she abandons Nanna and Finn during a dire time because she suddenly remembers her son

cons : poor Delmud never weighted on his mom’s mind

then the beginning chapters would change, the girls get captured, Finn and Eyvel fight against Raydrick’s goons but when the map is over, the goons takes the girls away but wait, Raquie comes out from a bush and saves them both! Then she becomes playable and here you have your master knight jeigan.

IS pros : Master knight Jeigan! And another mounted unit to capture things more reliably

cons : Raquie takes Eyvel’s place, Eyvel is “at home” and protects the village

then how will be Raquie stoned? Easy, Nanna will follow a NPC villager called Anthony who isn’t shady at all, wanting to help him and his family, Raquie’d tell her not to follow but Nanna won’t listen to her (she might still be angry), Nanna’d be captured, Leif surrenders etc... Then Raquie fights in Raydrick’s arena to protect her daughter, but ends up stoned by Veld’s evil magic.

IS pros : kind of faithful to the original, Jeigan gets stoned to protect her child, Raquie has an “acceptable end”

cons : no Eyvel + Nanna endangers everyone because she dislikes her mom :’(

So FE5 happens as usual (Mareeta joins later because she wanted to help her siblings and Eyvel said “ok” and sent her away, she met Saias on the way who gave her a magical sword), Dagda and co decide to join Leif in his quest because they’re interested in whoever sits on Leonster’s throne, not because of the rescue Eyvel plan just like the Fiana boys, and in 24x we rescue Raquie!

IS pros : a family is reunited, and Raquie has a meaningful long convo at the end of 24x with Delmud, who joined to meet his mom + no secret identities or gesh things that might annoy everyone + reveal that no Delmud isn’t Finn’s kid

super IS pro : as a statue Raquie heard loptyr goons talking about other people like her (she’s badass she can hear even when she is a statue) which kind of justify the third DLC for the FE4 remake where you strom Yied to find survivors of the last war

cons : no Eyvel, no children loving her even if she isn’t their bio mom which kinds of defeat, imo, one of FE5′s themes (family isn’t blood) + Raquie “must be” a good mom so her arc gets totally rewritten and IS can’t tolerate that one of the 1st gen characters cannot be a “good mom” because of tropes or stupid things like that.

Well, given how SOV went, i’m sure this will never happen and i’m just worrying about nothing. And yet, as someone said

“But remember, FE fan. (...) Remember... As long as there is hope, there will always be salt...”

[markoftheasphodel]

Seriously tho I have thought about this for some time and a Leonster’s Fall Prologue would be a fantastic intro to an FE5 remake for many reasons, one of which is…

Demonstrating an Escape map.

You know, a thing that horrifies unprepared Thracia 776 players, especially with the current fan-translated patch where it’s not necessarily clear that Leif’s gotta be the last off the map. Make it clear in the baby-maps what Escape is about and what the consequences are.

Also, It would give Lachesis some actual screen-time instead of making her Missing Mama #2-of-3. And we could see Leif’s grandparents, or at least his grandma? Maybe?

Also, instead of being a Prologue where your party expands, the way that FE11 and FE12 let you assemble what becomes your “canonical” starting party and train them up a bit, it’d basically be four (or so) maps of attrition featuring cameos by characters you’ll be seeing in the main-game (Glade, Selphina with her hair in braids, Dorias with both arms, Xavier so we give more of a damn about his recruitment) and a lot of dead Soldiers, leaving you in the end with just Finn, Lachesis, and the NPC kids. Cut to the original Chapter 1 in Fiana and Lachesis isn’t there anymore and the loss matters even more.

Yeah. If they’re gonna do Prologues on the remakes they really ought to do that.

[randomnameless]

I really didn't like the choice we had to recruit a certain someone after defeating said someone with Billy. I mean, for sure even Edel had a pre battle quote but damn, switching sides like that?

We are coming to kill you and your lord because you aren't siding with us, you could have defected earlier but no, it's when we're invading, killed several comrade in arms or even your classmates that you defect?

This doesn't speak well of said character, but I know I'm missing some events from the golden deer path so...

And lolz at the randoms from the city, Edel's all we don't want to fight you we want to kill Claude and they're like super happy and give us a reward...

We're in some meta evolution of the Fe5 Npc here, he goes beyond insulting the lord and offers rewards to the bandits breaking in

So nope, I didn't spare anyone and I'm starting to wonder if accepting Sylvain in our class isn't some form of plot hole :'(