#faye x rinea x celica

[fayessketchbook]

Day 7 - Free

[fayesdiary]

001 for Faye x Rinea and Celica X Faye, and character of your choice who you've been wanting to talk about for 002, for the ask game

Faye/Rinea

When I started shipping it

When I saw this art by @ grimoirering. They were so cute together and eventually I started genuinely thinking about them and realizing they actually work together really well and so... here we are.

My thoughts

I adore them. It's a rarepair that works better the more you think about it (such as noticing the various parallels or the spring/winter aesthetic) and can has huge potential for both fluff and angst.

I just delved into a bunch of fluff at the moment, but you bet I want to make something angsty with them one day.

Mainly involving Witch Rinea because I mean, come on. It's right there.

What makes me happy about them

These two are adorable.

They work so well from the village girl/noble lady and spring/winter dynamic, both of their lives revolving around a male lead meta-wise and not and being very unsure of their place in their group, so them finding love and support in each other is just *screams*

And something I realized when writing the latest chapter of Socially Distant and makes this pair even better is that Faye is still a bit clingy and obsessive with her loved ones because that's just how she is (though nowhere near to the unhealthy levels as she was with Alm), but for Rinea that's ironically a good thing since she constantly needs showings of affections to remind her that she is truly loved and not just a pretty thing to show around like she's been viewed as for most of her life.

Helps that neither of them like being at the center of attention, too.

What makes me sad about them

Faye and Rinea's view of themselves is very bad and they tend to struggle understanding what the other sees in them. Faye is scared of overstepping her boundaries and making Rinea feel uncomfortable, while Rinea keeps thinking people around her barely tolerate her and will abandon her if she doesn't act as this perfect lady and makes the slightest mistake.

It takes them a long while for them to have a better view of themselves and trusting the other not to leave them behind at the slightest mistake.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me

The fact that beside Socially Distant and a drabble collection where they feature in a really short story, there are no fanfics about these two and I'm starving for more content.

I really have to do everything around here, have I?😤

Things I look for in fanfic

As I said, right now I'm looking for fanfics of them period. Mainly with them as the main focus because them just being a really minor couple in the background wouldn't really count.

Who I'd be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other

For Faye I'd say Celica or Silque... although Chloé recently joined as another great rarepair option me and @zorua-adorable are obsessing over.

For Rinea, and I just thought of it but am already really into it... Clair would be a really fun partner for her!

My happily ever after for them

Living together and having the coziest, most peaceful life and where they're filled with love and care from both their friends and each other.

Who is the big spoon/little spoon

Faye's definitely the big spoon and Rinea just melts in her arms.

What's their favorite non-sexual activity

I just got the mental image of Faye resting on Rinea's lap while the latter is humming while the two are in a garden of flowers and that just works so well.

For Socially Distant in particular it's watching and talking about anime together, particularly magical girl ones. Weebs.

Faye/Celica

When I started shipping it

Many years ago, specifically thanks to this fic by @ pureauthor-blog. Which, ironically, is another Faye rarepair fic set in a modern setting, so I'm kinda picking up the torch with Socially Distant? Maybe? Hopefully?

Anyway, that's the fic that really got me into the pair and I haven't stopped shipping it ever since!

My thoughts

They are just the cutest!

This was the first Faye rarepair that I started shipping and it's still one of my favorites and most of it is just due to how saccharine these two are.

Another top-tier aesthetic, I adore the childhood friends and village girl/princess dynamic and these two just work so well with each other, you know?

Also, something I just realized is just how similar it feels to Faye/Rinea, which I am not complaining.

...so when Celica/Rinea?

What makes me happy about them

That this one has just a tiny hint in canon.

Well, not outright romantic, but the fact that when Celica returns to Ram Faye is super happy to see her which is so unlike what her archetype would have you think and just one that makes me spiral.

They were best friends. Faye welcomed Celica into Ram and taught her many things like sewing flowers. Faye is almost as devastated as Alm when Celica has to leave but unlike him she thinks she'll never see her again and even if she does she wouldn't remember her anyway.

But then Celica comes back, and remembers her. And the two just melt in each other's arms.

What makes me sad about them

That Faye and Celica could never be together in canon because Alm aside, they just belong to different worlds that can't reconcile.

Faye would be miserable living as a noble or outright a queen because it's just so alien to her entire life and what she cherishes, and while Celica would want so badly to just be a simple girl and live to Ram with her she has so many responsibilities to her kingdom she would never shy away from.

So there's this constant sense of distance and longing, and while maybe there are some ways they could work (like Faye secretly courting Celica and occasionally visiting her), they could never be anything more without jeopardizing who they are as people, no matter how badly they want to.

And while this makes for great angst, this is why I joke that I ship them in anywhere but canon.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me

Not enough fics to have found things that flat out annoy me, so no idea.

Things I look for in fanfic

Mainly for more fics.

And mostly fluff, although I would be intrigued by an angsty Faye/Celica fic.

Who I'd be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other

Well I already mentioned Faye, but for Celica it'd be Alm of course, Clair would be fun, Mae and Céline! And as I said before, I'm curious about how Celica and Rinea would be together :3

My happily ever after for them

Living in a cozy home together, surrounded by cats :3

Who is the big spoon/little spoon

They switch! Sometimes it's Faye and sometimes it's Celica :D

What's their favorite non-sexual activity

Gardening! I like to imagine they have a large garden filled with several flowers. And yes, they still sew them.

And for the character I choose Loptous! And straight out of the bag, I'm skipping all the romance options because he should not be with anyone.

How I feel about him

Holy shit, this guy is the most evil villain in all of FE and I sincerely doubt IntSys will ever even come close with his level of depravity ever again.

He is pure evil in the best way possible, from his obvious damage on a large scale (the Jugdral timeline at the start of FE4 is just a list of his atrocities) to even a smaller scale to make you hate his guts (Taking advantage of his possession of Julius to drive both Arvis and Ishtar to indirect suicide, and just his relationship with Ishtar is a huge bag of fucked up in the best way possible).

Unlike other evil dragons he doesn't even a tragic backstory. He just things humans are toys to break in so many ways and he turned himself into a cursed tome just to torment Jugdral forever. He doesn't have a tragic motive to hate humans like Medeus and Grima, he didn't degenerate like Duma.

He's sane and just unbelievably evil and sadistic, and that's what makes him terrifying.

Not to mention the grip he has over Julius. By the time of FE4 the two have pretty much become synonyms, and when you kill him you'd think Julius would die as himself for his last few moments like it happened with Lyon and Future Past Robin, right?

But no. Instead the opposite happens, where Julius is fully taken over by Loptous. It even extends to Heroes. For Lyon and Robin, their version where they're taken over by Fomortiis and Grima are relegated to Fallen Heroes, but for Julius?

That's his base form.

Loptous has taken over Julius so much that the latter almost doesn't exist anymore both in official material and in fanon. When people talk about Julius, they're usually actually talking about Loptous.

And that is, to me, an existential nightmare.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Hilda. No, not that Hilda.

She's the only one who comes close to him in terms of depravity and that's an achievement in and of itself.

My unpopular opinion about him

Not sure if it's an unpopular opinion, but I think he's the best villain in the franchise, or at least the best "pure evil" one.

And I doubt IntSys will ever surpass him.

One thing I wish had happened with him in canon

I want to see the moment he starts to possess Julius so badly, I want it to be as fucked up as they can get away with. Can we see it for the FE4 remake please?🙏

A headcanon fact

This is an old one, but I like to think Loptous grew in a hate group of Earth Dragons who rather than just think they're better than humanity they do what... well, hate groups do. Let's just leave it at that. And then Loptous grows up and takes the hate to even more horrifying extremes in Jugdral.

[ecoamerica]

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[loregoddess]

Faye from FE for the ask game? :)

First impression: I didn't have any strong feelings for or against her, although I wasn't wildly keen on her writing for my first run, but in the "wow, the writers really messed up" kind of way and not like, "wow this character sucks" kind of way. I did like her as a unit though, she was pretty strong even though I eventually benched her bc I stopped using pegasus knights late-game (which was the class I had her in my first run).

Impression now: One of my favorite FE characters like, ever. Which started off as spite, I will admit, because she got a lot of hate from the fandom, but unlike so many other characters/games where fans criticize the writers, they just went straight for Faye as a character which was ??? bc like, what little writing she gets outside of her crush for Alm is Fine Actually, and again, she's a great unit in battle. So I decided that no actually I'm going to love this character, and then between critically reading her canon writing and coming up with my own headcanons and ideas for expanding her characterization, I ended up genuinely loving her a whole lot. Faye's great.

Favorite moment: This is hard bc again, *vaguely gestures at the game* she doesn't get a whole lot of screentime for anything, although I do appreciate that she comes to terms with her feelings towards Alm being unreciprocated, and is able to forge a friendship with Silque.

Idea for a story: Because I have this rarepair of Faye x Rinea (which was also born out of spite, I swear Echoes is actually tied for my top favorite FE game, I just also have a lot of spite in my heart I guess), I've been kicking around different ideas of how that could work in a mostly-canon but canon-divergent post-game story where Rinea is able to survive, and how Faye would help her along her healing journey while she also recovers from the war and comes to terms with her own feelings about Alm and stuff (and possibly have Faye help Sonya out with her witch recovery efforts in general), although I haven't gotten too far with any specific ideas to have a solid mental outline or anything.

A story exploring her life growing up with the other Ram kids would be pretty interesting too, although I'd probably get sucked into the research rabbit hole trying to learn about things like a complete history of farming and end up stressing about whether the fantasy farming village of Ram seemed like a legit farming community or not.

Unpopular opinion: I kind of feel like loving Faye is unpopular in and of itself, but yeah. Writing aside though, I do genuinely think Faye's a good character, like, from a visual design standpoint and also from a game mechanic standpoint, she's got a lot going for her. The writers did a poor job with her writing sure, but I think there's a lot of potential for her to be an interesting character in her own right.

Favorite relationship: Again, she doesn't get much, but I do like the friendship she has with Silque (and I don't mind the romantic ship of the two either even if it's not my first choice of ship for my own fleet), and I would have loved it if we got more insight into her relationships with the other Ram kids aside from Alm, bc I think there was a lot of missed potential there. Also, because Faye can be recruited to Celica's army instead, I would have loved if Faye had supports with at least Celica to explore what their relationship would have been like (I think they would have gotten along, even if Faye was a bit jealous of Celica at first). And well, of course my wild rarepair of Faye and Rinea.

Favorite headcanon: Hmm, I dunno if I have a favorite per se (since I mean, a lot of trying to expand Faye's characterization is just making stuff up that seems plausible), but I think since she was the only girl in a group of boys growing up that she's got sort of a rougher streak, like, she's willing and capable of throwing someone down in a fight, especially if they were picking on one of the other Ram kids (which could be reflected in her stats in the game, since she's pretty strong all things considered), and also due to Ram being a farming village she isn't really squeamish or icked out by things which some of the high born noble girls would have hated (bugs, dirt, mud, snakes, etc.). Like sure, Faye also enjoys wearing dresses and looking cute (she's very fashionable!) but she's also not really bothered by getting dirty and I'm very sure she probably picked up some critter out of Clair's tent one night with a slightly bored expression and released the poor thing outside. Hell, she'd even put some of the noble men to shame with her lack of fear of things that were normal everyday occurrences bc she grew up with a bunch of guys in a farming village (she's also definitely got some muscles as a result too). Also I think she makes all her own accessories by hand, and that she's overall very handy when it comes to sewing and crafts. I do think she's a bit of a picky eater though, not overly so, but just a bit.

[stargazer-balladeer]

Fire Emblem: Echoes Page

Characters List:

Alm, Gray, Tobin, Kliff, Faye, Lukas, Claire, Clive, Forsyth, Python, Luthier, Mathilda, Delthea, Tatiana, Zeke, Celica, Mae, Boey, Genny, Sonya, Conrad, Fernand, Mila, Rinea & Berkut.

☆彡 - sfw

★彡 - nsfw

» Alm

» Gray

» Tobin

» Kliff

» Faye

» Lukas

» Claire

» Clive

» Forsyth

» Python

» Luthier

» Mathilda

» Delthea

» Tatiana

» Zeke

» Celica

» Mae

» Boey

» Genny

» Sonya

» Conrad

» Fernand

» Mila

» Rinea

» Berkut

» Alm

» Gray

» Tobin

» Kliff

» Faye

» Lukas

» Claire

» Clive

» Forsyth

» Python

» Luthier

» Mathilda

» Delthea

» Tatiana

» Zeke

» Celica

» Mae

» Boey

» Genny

» Sonya

» Conrad

» Fernand

» Mila

» Rinea

» Berkut

Currently none

[x] Back to Main Notebook

[supergenial]

The Byleth Diatribe

clickbait title: if you thought Byleth was creepy, wait until you read this!

Intro

In the past couple months it's really gotten my attention the fact that some people cannot stand looking at images that depict the teacher character from fire emblem three houses (Byleth) with their students in a romantic manner. They arrive at this disgust due to the parallels it traces with real life teachers who take advantage of their students. While I don't share this sensibility, I do think it's an interesting topic to think of so I'd like to explore why these people are correct in their conclusion that Byleth is creepy, but entirely wrong in their logic-path to it.

1) Byleth is just not an actual character

To address the elephant in the room, Byleth is literally a non-character. In a game filled with wonderful dialogue that fully exposes character motivations for a massive cast, it's hard to think of this one silent teacher as a real character that normally exists in that world. Byleth's "character" is purely an afterthought to their role as the Player Avatar. Surely enough in previous installments of the series you had Robin, Corrin and Kris, but their situation was partly different.

Robin and Corrin were proper characters as much as every other character in their game. They held conversations with the other characters, they expressed themselves in regards to the events that happened to them, some would even dare to argue they were better written that some other characters in their respective games if only because their heightened importance to their respective plot lines inevitably helps them have more dialogue, and even a bad writer has to stumble into writing something good eventually which means in some scenes they’re able to overcome the barrier of being bland by design.

Byleth however has none of this. At best they're given 2 or 3 text choices at any given time, and any bipartisan conversation that involves them is more of a soliloquy by the other character, with the player input being largely irrelevant to the flow of the conversation aside from changing the very immediate reaction that follows that same input.

As such, the notion that Byleth is a creepy teacher who's grooming their students to be their personal sex slaves is misconstrued in the fact that Byleth simply has no real motivations, hence no intent. It is equally as valid to assume they could be a straight laced no-nonsense teacher or a deviant who preys on children, because no conjectures can be traced to their personality, as it doesn't exist. We can't deduce what is it that Byleth wants out of life because the avatar has no life and exists purely as a videogame terminal. We don't know what they enjoy outside of the very few things we the players are allowed to do as the character, which is why so much Byleth fanart involves fishing, cooking, or drinking tea, the few hobbies we indulged in while playing as them.

There is however something innately perverse about Byleth, it's just not the fact they're a teacher, but rather the fact they're the player.

2) Player avatars are inherently creepy, and so are dating sims

Fire Emblem is a fantasy game. In Fire Emblem games you will not only find unreal things like dragons and magic, but also straight up impossible things such as kind-hearted rulers that care about protecting and improving the lives of their constituents. The three real main characters in this game all have pure motivations and genuine desire to improve the world (yes... even Edelgard). As such, we can expect the same purity and lack of reality from a hypothetical Byleth that has a personality. It's fair to assume they'd be legitimate teachers with no creepy intentions who, through the vicissitudes of life, end up inadvertently falling in love with their students. In a fantasy land where every "good guy" is pure in nature there is no concern of Byleth grooming Dimitri, or of Edelgard forcing some ill intentioned quid-pro-quo with her right hand strategist whom she is obsessed with, because it's simply fantasy where everyone is nice and pure so things just magically always work out.

There is however an insidious factor lurking over this fantasy land, and that is the player. An omnipotent being who decides who lives, who dies, who gets married to who, and who stays alone because we just don't like them that much. The player can send Ashe to get the last hit on Lonato, just out of morbid curiosity to see what is the special dialogue that they have in that situation. The player can recruit Felix and then have Felix kill Rodrigue in the crimson route, just to see what hilarious quip will the son bark at the father. And of course, the player gets to decide who gets married to the lifeless slab of meat and bones with no emotion that is the Player Avatar. If anything breaks the idea that these characters are well written or realistic, it is the fact that they can all fall in love with someone who cannot communicate with them, all because of the emotions they magically choose to believe the avatar has, or rather, we choose to make them believe it.

In a "set" story like fire emblem echoes or path of radiance, the epilogues have little to no variety because the characters will just be themselves regardless of the player's input. No matter how much you want to see Celica's reaction to Faye getting together with Alm, that is simply not going to happen because their bond is set in stone, it cannot be altered, it is a "set" story. Likewise Nyna in new mystery of the emblem will never, ever fuck Sirius regardless of what she or the player wishes. Three Houses on the other hand is more like a playground than a book, the player will mess with the lives of these characters until they get bored of them, seeing every possible unlikely combination programmed into the game just out of curiosity to see what the characters will say, to squeeze out every last bit of "Content" that the game has until they get bored of it and move on to something else, effectively reducing the characters from "characters" to mere consumables. 

Hence why I can't help but laugh at the notion that Byleth is creepy by nature of being a teacher when they're so much more than a teacher and so much more creepy than a creepy teacher. They're an in-game god (hell, lore-wise they're also a god in every ending except crimson). Byleth can quite literally mind control other characters into loving them as long as they're given enough flowers and tea. Look at Sylvain's C support with Byleth and tell me if it's natural for a guy like him to fall in love like that after saying he wants to murder Byleth (surely enough, it's even creepier for players to fall in love with him because of that support, as Sylvain is an extremely interesting character but only in his other supports).

This is why you see people saying that Felix and Annette are a great couple, or that Marianne and Dimitri are made for each other, but you don’t really see people saying that Byleth’s pairing with x is cute. When two proper characters interact all the way to their A support and fall in love that way, you’ve actually seen their story develop, you can feel happy for them. Pairing Byleth with a proper character fulfills your desire to monopolize that character and get a neat special artwork of them, but has it really been a good story and feel like this is a good conclusion for them? No. (I’d be willing to say Byleth and Dimitri do make a somewhat good couple though, but that point would be much easier to defend if Byleth could actually communicate properly)

It wouldn't matter if Byleth was a 15 year old teacher, or a 17 year old student that's a peer to the classmates, or if all of the classmates were older than Byleth AND teachers instead while Byleth is a student. By the mere nature of the player input and Byleth's lack of character, the pairing is screwed up to begin with. 

What I'm getting at is that pairing Byleth with Catherine or Shamir is equally as fucked up as pairing Byleth with Dimitri (I would argue moreso because come on... Shamir and Catherine are totally girlfriends and you're just squeezing yourself in, have some respect).

In other words Byleth is only creepy because you are creepy. You're playing a game where you can date people who cannot possibly refuse you. Even if you remove that factor, you'd still be playing at making children fuck each other in whatever way you see fit. Something is wrong with you. You're the only impure factor affecting this game.

3) Fire Emblem will always suck

This is my favorite series of games but come on guys, you know fire emblem will always suck if you care about this kinda thing. In fire emblem fates Corrin has a wide variety of about 9 flavors of incest to choose from. In fire emblem awakening Robin can marry an amnesiac woman with head trauma who can't even speak complete sentences and is entirely dependent on him to subsist. The fanbase has grown so twisted they actively wanted Byleth to get married to Alois, a married man with children, and were disappointed when they didn't fuck in that paired ending (though I understand getting upset about the lack of gay supports, but hey that's just yet another way in which fire emblem chooses to suck).

Hell this is the fanbase that considers Berkut and Rinea to be a cute couple, what the actual hell guys. Go ahead and criticize the games but as long as the shipping simulator is included in the series, the games will always be creepy in their very nature, and guess what: the shipping simulator happens to be one of the most popular features and the one that people say it's the best written part of every game, so go figure if they're going to remove that.

ps: if you want a fire emblem with no paired endings, path of radiance has your back, it is my favorite! and if you want to avoid supports altogether, try Radiant Dawn, that's some good stuff.

4) Just for fun: the actual most fucked up ships in the game

-Lysithea with Linhardt, Byleth or Hanneman, or anyone.

When I recruited Lysithea in my first playthrough I didn't know she was a strong unit, instead I simply did it because I saw this sassy lost child wandering the halls and just really didn't want to kill her. I wanted her to live on and see her have a happy epilogue. Imagine my surprise when I reached the epilogues and it turns out she just simply dies shortly after the story if you don't pair her up with anyone. The exact one thing I wanted to avert was having her meet an early death, yet the game simply has her die anyway.

At the end of my deer playthrough I was all set to click on Hilda when I realized, wait a minute, Lysithea is going to die if I do this, right? And that is in fact the case. She can only live by supporting Hanneman, Lindhart or Byleth, and I had not recruited those two. So I click on Lysithea but it's kind of a tainted click isn't it? Not that I dislike her or anything, but once you throw in that additional motivation the scales have been irreversibly tipped in an unpleasant manner. I have effectively been guilted into picking her.

On to a third playthrough. I see Felix has really cute supports with Lysithea, but I can't have them supporting each other because I know she still meets an early death with him. And Lindhart, well his supports aren't bad and he's a great guy but they're certainly not as fun supports as Felix's. Hanneman fortunately doesn't seem interested in that way when you pair him up with Lysithea (not that he has any restraints when it comes to his supports with Dorothea...) so you can still have that as effectively a "solo" end for her in which she lives, but it's still kind of messed up. By giving her the Hanneman ending I'm condemning her to miss out on love for the rest of her life so that she can live on, but isn't love the reason we live on to begin with? Overall, I'd say Lysithea x Lindhart or Byleth is certainly a creepy support in the very nature that you have to do it or else you're a murderer, because you had the power to prevent this death and chose not to.

-Flayn with literally anyone

Imagine if a grown adult man could disguise himself as a high schooler, infiltrated a school and got married to a girl less than half his age. People would hate it, people would riot, Intelligent Systems would be over. But that is Flayn everyone! Fire Emblem is no stranger to the stupid trope of "little girl who's actually hundreds of years old", but I'll argue that Flayn is markedly different from Nowi. Nowi is most definitely a cartoonish fantasy character, who still acts like a little girl despite being hundreds of years old. She's literally bait for pedophile nerds with a flimsy shield in her supposed age, which she and her fans openly flaunt as if it really meant anything when the intent of her character is so transparent.

Flayn on the other hand is a legitimately mature character (as far as maturity goes in this game...) who is pretending to be a high schooler to get hitched with a student, all while hiding her real age entirely on purpose. An actual wolf in sheep's clothing (or dragon in sheep's clothing in this case...). And she can s-support literally every single male student except for Hubert (for story reasons) and Sylvain (for Sylvain reasons). Not only that but she doesn’t support any females other than Manuela, her fellow cougar, and she doesn’t support any of the older men like Hanneman showing she’s only interested in young blood.

But hey everyone! Flayn is just the little meme fish girl trapped in the mcdonalds playplace so we all give her a pass right. Overall though I'd say her creep factor is still significantly lower than Nowi's if only because her design isn't a chore to look at.

-Rhea x Byleth

This is some galaxy brain 5D chess grandmaster type of shit I tell you. Capitalizing on the sickening mommy fetish that's been rising up recently internet the crackhead team of geniuses at intelligent systems decided to pull Joker's Trick on people who are into that kind of thing. First they have her be the oldest non-wrinkled character, then they give her Kikuko Inoue as a seiyuu (famously known for often playing mom roles), then they give players that one scene where Byleth rests on her lap like their kid, and then? Then the game tells you Rhea is the daughter of Byleth. Wait a minute, what the hell? I can't even begin to think this one out because at this point my brain has turned to tofu and I am forever perplexed by this turnaround, hats off to intelligent systems for their ultimate jest.

After fates and this I positively cannot wait to see what new incestcoaster they'll turn my guts inside out with in the next entry of the series, Fire Emblem is truly the finest series of horror games disguised as jrpgs.

Obviously, this post was written in jest. I don’t actually believe you’re an inherently creepy person for playing fire emblem, nor do I think Flayn is a predator deviant (hell I don’t even think Nowi is that bad). I just found it truly interesting how people’s sensitivities can activate in these fictional settings (and do think those sensitivities should be respected) but when I try to activate those neurons my mind ends up in a whole different place. So yeah, just having some fun.

Also check out the rest of this trilogy with Three Houses sucks actually and Three Houses is good actually. I seriously hope I never feel like writing anything about this game ever again.

[togetherweridefanzine]

TWR zine info, v.3

Together We Ride is a zine that explores the similarities that can be found throughout the Fire Emblem series’ considerable cast. Each individual artwork in this zine features multiple characters from different games spanning across the FE series. Volume 3 consists of thirty-six full-color illustrated and prose pages by our artists and writer (listed below), each featuring combinations chosen by them.

The zine will be printed on a 9"|22.86cm x 6"|15.24cm gloss saddle stitched booklet. Preorder date: 1st October - 31st October 2017 Release date: Late November - Early December 2017

________________________________________________________________

ARTIST LIST Volume 3

Celes , Mimiblarg , Treekianthia , Garmmy , Ale , Flamingopunch , Kynim , Blubery , Kyou , Lady Kuki , Gem , Lazulines , Tcong , Sanschips , Phlavours , GloriousLily , Yuan , Rand , Vergara , Reri , Nickles , Narg , Trashbird

________________________________________________________________

Volume 3 artwork and prose includes the following FE characters

Shadows of Valentia: Alm, Celica, Lukas, Python, Forsyth, Mae, Boey, Genny, Saber, Grey, Kliff, Faye, Silque, Clive, Clair, Mathilda, Sonya, Jesse, Leon,  Tatiana, Zeke, Berkut, Rinea, Fernand, Mycen, Palla, Catria, Est, Duma, Mila Fates: Leo, Corrin, Setsuna, Mozu Awakening: Lucina, Lissa, Mirabelle, Stahl, Donnel, Inigo, Nah, Aversa, Tharja, Robin Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn: Micaiah, Oscar, Boyd, Rolf, Callil Sacred Stones: Eirika, Natasha, Ewan, Ross Sword of Seals/Blazing Blade: Roy, Lillina, Clarine, Klein, Cecilia, Marcus, Idoun, Eliwood, Ninian, Lyn, Sain, Isadora Genealogy of the Holy War/Thracia 776: Lewyn, Reinhardt, Evyel Shadow Dragon/Mystery of the Emblem: Nyna, Jeorge, Midia Heroes: Sharena

[ecoamerica]

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[katieisblue]

Finishing Echoes

Just finished FE Echoes, it 'twas good. Amazing, too. Loved the characters and the whole story, better than Fates imo. Wish there were more supports between some characters since some only had one (Kliff with Tobin, Jesse and Saber, Silque and Faye). I really like Celica's design and especially when female mages promote, their outfits has a matching color scheme to their character (Mae and Delthea for example). Good story, nice pace. Voice acting was neat and even some of h e characters you dislike have a redeeming moment where it just messes with you feels (cough, Berkut x Rinea, Fernand). EXCELLENT GAME. 👍👍

[isuzukuretsuki]

I. AM DONE. THIS GAME. I’M SHAKING. This game was so good, 10/10, amazing, perfect, it was honestly everything I could ever ask for and it’s probably gonna end up as one of my favourite games ever. more random thoughts from negative to positive

-The final boss battle included Alm chipping away at the dragon while healers frantically heal him, and all the other characters are just chilling in the background doing fucking nothing.

-I AM STILL MAD with what happened to Berkut and Rinea. They were actually the characters I was looking forward to the most. I will hang onto their memory prism with my life because that’s the only place where they get some actual characterization. Like seriously don’t add new characters to the story if you’re just gonna kick them to the curb. Berkut was there literally to make Alm look better and I’m sorely disappointed with how poorly he and Rinea were treated by the writers

-also apparently Berkut is around the same age as Alm?? you’re trying to tell me he’s 17-18?? Nah son, this man is in his mid 20s at least. No 17 year old has a voice as deep as that.

-Speaking of Alm, he was a pretty meh protagonist tbh. Without any war experience he somehow manages to become the leader of the army, is glorified and loved by everyone, charismatic, skilled, kind. Yeah......... Celica, on the other hand.

-I was kind of upset about how all the female units had to be saved but given how this game is a remake of a 1992 game I’ll let it slide 

-I wish they’d let you save in the middle of dungeon crawling because accidentally getting Alm/Celica killed and having to redo the entire thing isn’t fun. The music in the dungeons was pretty bad too

-The only thing Fates (conquest) has over Echoes is better map designs tbh. The maps in Echoes were pretty plain in comparison

-I read all the endings and what the fuck was up with some of them. People bitched about how Faye got a terrible ending but what about Kamui? Kliff? Tatiana and Zeke having an incredibly fragile relationship? Fucking Sonya? She of all people deserved a happy ending and she ends up becoming a witch? Fuck that

-Speaking of Sonya, she surprisingly became one of my favourites. She should have been a story relevant character because of her connection with Jedah and honestly she’s by far the most tragic character imho. I do not regret picking her over Deen.

-I would have paid real money to have Faye get the hell over Alm and like hook up with Kliff or something. Cutest villager girl x cutest villager guy would have made the cutest pair lel. Faye deserves way better than continuing to pine after Alm I just want my daughter to be happy

-Alm and Celica’s romance was really boring lmao. I was way more invested in the side romances (Berkut/Rinea, Zeke/Tatiana). Then again I’m usually more invested in the side romances so welp

-FULLY. VOICED. Even the support convos and npcs were voiced like if that doesn’t scream effort and detail idk what does. Aside from a few bad voices, the dub was a joy to play through. A step up from Fates that’s for sure bc if Fates was fully voiced with their dub I’d prob stop playing lol.

-Grinding through dungeons >>>>> boo camp and risen boxes any fucking day

-World building was really fun and I loved how you could actually do shit aside from just moving the story forward like side quests or dungeon exploration. The world map layout of Fates was horrendous so I’m glad Echoes fixed that

-The story was really enjoyable and I was honestly 100% fully invested and interested. 

-I remember when I saw Jedah’s full body art I was like “this man is the final boss” and you know what I was pretty close. While I’m sad that Mila ended up not being a villain, I do think Duma was a great villain and final boss. He isn’t just a stereotypical evil shit head and most of the characters still hold respect for him and were thankful to him like Mila, so it was a nice touch.

-I heard the final map theme beforehand but honestly having this song play while you’re actually playing the final map is a whole other experience

-I have adopted probably 9 sons and 11 daughters over the course of this game. I absolutely loved the cast. Every character was lovable. The short supports, and the simple base dialogues they have when talking to them actually did wonders in characterizing. Even the memory prisms. For characters aside from the story relevant ones who get so little spotlight, they were characterized really well and were all likable and memorable. 

-The fact that these characters are so enjoyable makes it even more infuriating when the writers fuck them over (cough Berkut, Rinea and Faye) 

-Honorable mentions to Rinea, Berkut, Kliff, Celica, Faye, Lukas, Conrad, Mae, Boey, Sonya, Tatiana, Leon, and Python. I have so many faves from this game

[fayesdiary]

hmm, hmmmm, Faye x Rinea, and Celica x Faye, and a ship of your choice for the Ship Opinion Bingo

In order:

And for the ship of my choice, Alear/Yunaka!

[fayesdiary]

Okay but the more I'm imagining the Faye/Rinea dynamic the more I'm realizing they have a lot of potential as a couple!

Besides the usual catharsis factor of having the two girls who have been screwed the most by the writers kiss each other, even in-universe it works suprisingly well!

You've got the girl who is desperately trying to help and impress her childhood crush turned coping mechanism to the point she barely knows who she is as a person anymore and the girl who was barely tolerated her own life by everyone except her fiancee and as a result became so passive that she can't even reject him after he sacrificed her to a deranged god.

Two women who have very different lives but whose stories feel suprisingly similar.

And the idea of them finding comfort in each other and growing together as people, helping each other becoming whole on their own? That's the good stuff right there!

Besides, just picture them together. Wouldn't they be the cutest?

[loregoddess]

Sorry to hear that, I hope you can rest at the very least! Anyway, Faye, Rinea and a character of your choice for the ask game!

Ah, thank you--I am trying to rest so that I can finish out the work week at the very least. Anyhow, Faye and Rinea, my beloveds...(and Charlotte!)

Under the cut bc this got out of hand:

Faye:

First impression: *me, having gone to middle and high school w/ a girl who had a crush on the same guy for the entire time* Wow the writers have never spoken to a girl w/ a lifelong crush have they. Damned if she isn't a sturdy unit in battle though.

Impression now: I still think her writing is bad (even if, according to an interview with the writers, it was intentional, but intentional does not equal strong or good writing), but there was just, so much fandom hate for her that unfortunately made it onto my dash a few years ago and I just, like, I dunno. Like, mechanically she's one of the best characters in the game, you can stick her in more or less any class and she performs amazingly (also she helped get me through Thabes and I only dragged my best units into that proto-risen nightmare), and also her writing's not so bad that I can't ignore it and replace it with my own headcanons. I dunno if it's because she's a girl or what, because I've seen characters with much worse writing that fandom loves wildly, but she didn't deserve all the hate she got after the game released, and seeing it all just made me love her out of spite, and now I love her unironically.

Favorite moment: Her supports with Silque, but specifically Faye's disinterest in any gossip, which Silque is apparently really interested in. I know the writers wanted it to be a "haha, girl's so obsessed with Alm that she doesn't have time for love gossip", but we've established the my city now rule in regards to her writing so I like to think that Faye really just, isn't a gossip. It's also interesting to see, at the end of their support chain, how Faye's actually probably really lonely, what with all her childhood friends fitting in with the rest of the army just fine (I get the sense that Faye never really wanted to fight, she just followed along bc Alm and her other friends went), and so it's nice to see the blossoming friendship between her and Silque who is, despite being used to a more rugged lifestyle, also kinda out of place in the army.

Idea for a story: *solid snake voice* Hrrrgnh...I really like Faye x Rinea as a couple, and I've had a story idea bouncing around my head for a few years about how that would work out, like. If Celica can be un-witched, it's entirely possible that Rinea, who was also sacrificed unwillingly and was only a witch for what, maybe a few hours? can be un-witched as well, but the recovery process would be rough (both from being a witch and from being betrayed by the one she loved), so something about how Faye helps out with the recovery, but she is also recovering from the entire "just fought a war and realized I was running from 99% of my life's issues by following my childhood crush into the army" and so it ends up being a mutual helping each other heal and eventually flourish and thrive type story. Whether this gets written or not is a story unto itself, but that’s neither here nor there.

Unpopular opinion: I love Faye, and that in itself seems to be unpopular.

Favorite relationship: Obviously my wild out-of-left-field Faye x Rinea ship, but also I really like her relationship with Silque, either platonically or romantically. I also like to think about how she’d get along with Celica and the pilgrimage side of the story since, I mean, you can recruit her to Celica’s side but there’s more or less no written content for how that plays out. It doesn’t make sense gameplay-wise, since again, she’s one of the best units for Alm’s potential army, but it’s interesting to think about from a potential narrative perspective.

Favorite headcanon: So Faye’s supports with Silque reveal Silque to be a gossip, and Pyhton’s DLC supports with Lukas reveal that Python is also an insufferable gossip, which means that Forsyth has to put up w/ Python’s gossipy habits, and I’d like to think that eventually Python and Silque find out they can be insufferable gossips together, leading to an unlikely friendship between Faye and Forsyth as the "oh gods, my best friend and potential crush is at it again, send help" duo.

Rinea:

First impression: Wow that sure is a side character.

Impression now: The more I thought and stewed on the writing of Echoes, and specifically Rinea, the more I realized how she’d been shafted badly by the writers. Her writing is, in my opinion, just as weak as Faye’s (which isn’t surprising considering Berkut was supposed to be a mirror/foil to Alm, so it makes sense that his lady love would be a mirror/foil to either Celica or Faye, and given how Rinea kinda just follows Berkut around for most of the story, I tend to think she was meant to be a Faye mirror/foil rather than a Celica mirror/foil), but unlike Faye who was needlessly hated for being devoted to Alm, Rinea is...loved for being devoted to Berkut? I don’t get it and I’m not going to pretend like I ever will. But she’s mostly used as a prop for Berkut’s story and could have been replaced by like, a really nice sword or a prized horse and nothing would have changed, and because of that terrible writing I was like, no you’re coming with me, I’m going to give you all the personality and individuality that the writers could never hope to give you. Basically, like Faye, I started liking Rinea out of spite for her terrible writing, and partly out of spite for the way fandom treated her as well.

Favorite moment:  :|<  This girl gets no agency in what little of a story she gets, so I can’t say I like any of the moments since they’re all for the benefit of Berkut’s character arc rather than Rinea’s nonexistent character arc.

Idea for a story: See above for my main story idea, but also it might be interesting to write a story about like, her life. Growing up in Rigel, the expectations placed on noble women, the fear of being sacrificed as a witch by the Duma Faithful, like, just anything to give an idea of who Rinea is as an individual and what goes on in her mind.

Unpopular opinion: Her relationship with Berkut does not float my goats, and my goats are drowning anytime IntSys tries to prop them up as this nice, lovey-dovey couple.

Favorite relationship: Faye x Rinea, I’m also no averse to the idea of Rinea x Faye x Silque either.

Favorite headcanon: In the Rinea Lives AU that exists rent-free in my head, Rinea also gets to know the rest of the Echoes cast, and becomes friends in particular with Celica, Sonya, and Genny, all for varying reasons. Also I’d like to think she’d have a sisterly friendship with Mathilda.

And for my own choice...Charlotte from Fates:

First impression: I followed all the pre- and post-release Fates stuff from when it was first released in Japan, so all of my impressions of the Fates cast is based mostly on the fan translations of the Japanese text, but when Charlotte was first revealed in one of the Japanese gaming magazines, I was not interested in her at all. Like, her design alone made me wary and the small bit of text we got as an intro was just “she’s a gold-digger” and I was like okay, can’t expect anything good here.

Impression now: I was so wrong. After the game was released in Japan, while haunting forums looking for translated supports, I came across someone saying the Laslow x Charlotte supports were good, with a link to the translation, and like, yeah they were decent but something about Charlotte’s character stood out to me, so I naturally went and hunted down every single one of her supports that had been translated and lo and behold, despite the trainwreck outfit, she actually had so much depth and personality and a character far beyond “haha, poor girl is a gold-digger to get rich” shtick I thought the writers would pull. I hope this girl gets everything she wants in life.

Favorite moment: There’s a lot, but I really like that a lot of her supports end with whomever finding out that she’s not this girly, delicate, helpless woman she pretends to be, and is actually a badass who could swear a sailor under the table and also rip apart monsters w/ her bare hands, and people finding out that’s her true self is one of Charlotte’s biggest fears but inevitably that’s why whomever ends up falling in love with her, for who she really is and not who she pretends to be.

Idea for a story: Nothing too wild, although there’s some support chains that I think would be interesting to flesh out beyond the little snippets we get. Anything post-war would be interesting too, becuase there really aren’t enough stories about how people rebuild and move foward after the game events.

Unpopular opinion: I don’t think her outfit needed to look like that to convey the “but I’m just a poor, helpless girl” façade.

Favorite relationship: Hmmm, probably her supports with Xander. The localized version is more or less the same as the fan-translation of their supports that I read, but near the end there’s a few extra lines where, instead of just running to the window and screaming in joy, Charlotte first ask Xander if it’s alright if she goes and shouts for joy, and he’s like “yeah go for it” which just sets up this really nice little basis for healthy communication which I think would make the two work really well as a couple. (Also the idea of Xander falling in love bc she tore apart a faceless to save him is *chef kiss* gold, especially considering how out-going Charlotte is and how shy Xander actually is despite needing to put up this front as the crown prince, there’s just...so much potential for the dynamics between the two). I also really like her supports with Benny since, again, I have a soft spot for people loving each other for who they are and not the mask they have to wear to get by.

Favorite headcanon: If Charlotte marries into royalty or nobility, she does surprisingly well at court life because of her experience putting up a false façade. On the one hand she can act the part that’s expected of her, but on the other she’s smart enough to also be able to figure out when people are lying and keep a track of all the power-dynamics so she can navigate them to her and her spouse’s benefit.