#fe:3h aesthetic

[doodlesandbooks]

made some fire emblem aesthetics

[maid-of-the-golden-deer]

the next fire emblem is going to have to perform a miracle to have the same kind of emotional impact three houses/hopes had

[emblemxeno]

If we're being honest, I got a lot of issues with Ingrid because I feel like she has the wrong character development

Her support with Dedue is realizing that she shouldn't apply her negative view of Duscur onto every Duscurian indiscriminately

That kind of thing works for Oboro because Nohrians really did kill her parents

But, Duscurians didn't actually cause the death of Lambert or Glenn, so her development should've been to learn that all those years of hatred were misdirected, and she hated them for no reason

It also didn't help that Dimitri states multiple times that Duscur didn't commit the crime, and Ingrid is still ignorant about it

I have this unhinged hatred of the Faerghus Four as a concept because every time, it's like they're consciously refusing to acknowledge the importance of Dedue in Dimitri's life in the present "Oh, these are Dimitri's childhood friends. Of course, they're close." Yeah, sure.... They're totally closer to Dimitri than Dedue is in the present.... *Internal screaming*

Combining these because my answer to both is similar!

In my opinion, it showcases how 3H's writing philosophy is ultimately shoddy in its foundation. The backstories, supports, and character-to-character dialogue itself is great in theory, but execution it clashed with what both FE usually tries to do and what 3H desperately wants to do.

FE typically has characters join chapter to chapter, with important ones having plot moments, while side characters fall to the background once their designated chapter is up. But this isn't at the cost of character interaction, pre-established relationships, and the micro-to-macro worldbuilding precisely because they're not overly important. You can have canon romances, friendships, familial relationships, etc. because that's all supplemental side material.

3H was written in a way in which the characters were all connected to its grandiose world, to the point where Fodlan itself can be almost considered a character. Multilayered backstories that infer key points in the narrative, each character no matter how trivial having opinions on how the world works, shifting dynamics, etc.

The problem though is that these two philosophies clash already at base, but also run into the problem of FE's gameplay integrated story elements.

None of the Faerghus Four can meaningfully comment on their relationship with Dimitri during a story cutscene because they can die. Ingrid can't meaningfully change her perspective on Dedue or Duscur beyond her supports because she can die. Therefore, all you get are (admittedly pretty good) supports, the monastery dialogue, and other tidbits intentionally disconnected from one another so as not to be important enough to write around potential death. The comments they do get in cutscenes were intentionally written in a way to be surface level and easily replaced. Look at the FEdatamine site for example, where conclusions are reached by Byleth, the lord, the unkillable retainer, and other important story figures, with numerous possible instances of "if X character is alive they comment this, but if X character is dead this line is skipped."

That is proof of how sloppy 3H's writing is in foundation when you think about it long enough. The game that has such an intricate world, thorough details, and fascinating story beats, is actually extremely bad at delivering a story, especially an FE story. Being the judgmental and petty cunt that I am, 3H gets a pass most of the time a) most don't care or bother to care about actual stuff like this and b) the game has the aesthetics of being a down to earth, gritty, serious narrative. The foundational issues don't matter when you have Edelgard yapping about "THE CREST SYSTEM", dark character circumstances, and intriguing mysteries to solve in part 1.

People want the appearance of sophistication, especially after Awakening and Fates bent a lot of rules to fuck around with their respective stories. It's why Engage, despite not having nearly as many basic issues at conveying its plot and is actually extremely good at being a Fire Emblem story (e.g. more character being able to actually die, pre-established relationships, chapter to chapter joining, not nearly as much centering on Alear as the ultimate decider on a character's fate compared to Byleth), is panned because... why? Its bright aesthetic? Its good dragon vs evil dragon plot? Its softer or humorous moments?

Hell, even its call backs to past FE games is called cheap, soulless, or a gateway to gacha (one video I saw even described it as something like "when art becomes obligation" or some such nonsense), despite it LITERALLY being the prime anniversary title. The main character is the Fire Emblem, and the writers-through Lumera-wish a happy birthday to Fire Emblem!!! What about that is lacking heart and soul?

But yeah, again, I preface that I'm a judgmental asshole who proudly proclaims that the audience (at least the western one) has for years been too obsessed with yearning for darker serious aesthetics of FE's past (despite said past being wackier than they remember), that when a new game has them in overflowing spades, the many fundamental video game writing issues do not matter as much anymore.

Aesop for the day: Serious tones and aesthetics are not automatically better than lighter, heartfelt, or funny ones. You still have to write well for a story to be good.

EDIT: Funny enough this is also why Three Hopes is a more comfy environment for the Fodlan cast's in terms of tangible development, because the things the writers want to do with that game's story complements its gameplay. Because KT is better at making Warriors plots than FE plots.

[yanderefairyangel]

I don't like talking about the 3H discourse however it helped me realize how a lot of people don't necessarily understand how politics in fiction works

To be clear, I am not accusing people of being stupid, but of favorising so much a reading over another they migh not be open minded about it.

So how does it work ? well, when it comes to politics and social situation, all depends on the setting which comes in 2 category : fiction set in a settings that is real and fiction set in a fictional setting.

In one case, depending on which country you place your story, you will have to deal with the political/social/economical situation of that country.

In the other, you will have to create them. And this means that because fiction, even if you take inspiration over a certain country for aesthetic and design, you can still mix it up with other country and whatever you want because it's fiction and it's up to you to set the rules. Therefore if we have to "study" the political/economical/social aspect in this type of fictional work, it's not research on the irl country, period etc that will help us study it, but only a close reading on the rules of this specific setting.

And I noticed that when people go by Eddie is indented to represent a mentality of left while Dima and Faerghus represent conservatism, they are using terms that are for the real world but that in Fodlan doesn't exist as such. The decision that the lords are making can't be based on how irl it might be translated but only on how effective they are for Fodlan based on the rules established for Fodlan. How each lord is able to answer to the problem of the continent and their respective country and which one is the most effective. That's the whole idea of 3H's narrative. It's not about irl events, it's only about what's happening in Fodlan.

Moreover, I noticed that some of the people trying to defend either side argue that 3H is a social commentary to defend this reading. However, might I remind you that 3H or if you prefer Fuukasetsugestu is originally a japanese game written by japanese people aimed at japanese people written in japanese language ?

Game can have a social commentary aspect, such as Persona 5 however, the author of Persona 5 are making a commentary about Japan, their country which is also the place they settled the story in. 3H doesn't take place in Japan, it takes place in a fictional setting mixing every country and culture together, however IS and KT's writing team is pretty much japanese. Even if they wanted to comment on social issues, it's more likely for them to comment on Japan's through very obvious reference that will speak to their jpn audience, hence the presence of buddhism in 3H and other Fe as well. And even if they migh try to make historical reference to the country that inspired the settings, nothing will change the fact that reading 3H as a social commentary on idk American society is a rather wrong reading. If anything, it should be read as a commentary on japanese society if you want to push the idea that 3H have a social commentary, not America. Why would the team of IS and KT refer to a country's politics and condition they do not live in and that are different from theirs ? America is a democracy with a president. Japan is a constitutional monarchy ruled by an Emperor. Their vision of concept such as left and right, traditionalist, conservative and liberalist are different from a western point of view. The weight of tradition and the social issues as well as the influence of religion and even alimentation and relation to food is not the same as us. If we want to see Eddie as the reflect of some social commentary, then we have to wonder what she represent to Japan since the writers are japanese. And even if you argue that she is from a European based setting. You will also have to take into account how the country her empire is based on deal with politics. And don't get me started on the anachronism since a lot of concept didn't existed yet. The conditions of someone in the Byzatine Empire were completely different then from someone living in the Italy of the Renaissance and even more different then our current area. If you insist on reading it as such, then you will have to make research on the different belief, challenges etc of the time.

But we can all agree that FE was never about historical accurency. Most of the social commentary are based on japanese views of the world, relationship etc. Whether they are aware of it or not the writers will glimpse some of that japanese life in their works, that's even why localization exist, to make us understand that by adaptating it to our culture, what we are familiar with.

Will this solves cultural dissonances problem ? Of course not. There are things that at it's core cannot be rendered.

Just to give a recent example. See Engage ? See Zephia ? Well, for some people her reason to have a baby seems dumb since she already had the Hounds. However, the point of view that Sombron expresses about family being only a matter of relationship through blood echoes to a very strict vision of family in Japan were family is only and strictly based on kinship through blood. This lead to adopted children to be rather frowned upon, in fact, those adoption are very rare. When people talk about adoption in Japan, in general they think of someone having adopted an adult man as their heir. It's called the Koseki system. And yes, that's the origin of the "we are not blood related" thing that FE has been doing since Awakening and Fates. While I wouldn't go as far as saying Zephia and Alear are intended to be social commentary on that matter, I think it's because of how this vision was so present for the original public that Zephia's reasoning was actually pretty sensible to their mind, but probably less to people who are now used with the idea that adopted children are as real family as blood children to their parents. And that's just on Japan, you have other society were the status of adopted children are vastly different but I digress.

In those condition, wanting to see Eddie and Dima or Claude and Rhea only from a westerned point of view under the claim that FE is Western inspired is pretty weak. It's referencing those culture yes, but ultimately as a Japanese product, it will mostly and mainly deal with things that speak to this audience then the Westernian one.

[furrylibrarian]

I can’t tell if I prefer FE:3H or FE:Engage.

Like on the one hand, I played all three story routes on 3H back to back, and have completed a few replays. Whereas I have an incomplete Hard Mode run of Engage that I started shortly after my initial playthrough, which I haven’t touched in months. I certainly don’t think of Engage’s characters as much as those in 3H (though that could be influenced by the fact that I still see chatter about 3H in the wild).

But like, my active thoughts while playing Engage were that I enjoyed it more than 3H. Specifically, I loved the more vibrant, colorful aesthetic and wilder character designs (Rosado my beloved), and I was into the tone being so much lighter than 3H. Also the fact that Alear was actually allowed to talk like every other player-insert was nice, and their characterization being pretty enjoyable from what I recall was even better.

Idk, it’s weird and I’m very conflicted.

[fayesdiary]

hmm hmmmmmm.......Rhea, Veyle, and Faye for the character ask game!

Rhea

1) how much I like their personality

WTEGDGFSFDYDGFFG

I adore her. She's my fav 3H character by far. Just this mix of sweet and awkward and kind but with a boatload of trauma and repressed rage... She's the bestest <3

2) how much I like their design/aesthetics

Her archbishop outfit is great (although what is up with those hips. She barely has enough space to fit her organs), and general design is super pretty!

Also her Seiros outfit is 😳

3) how interesting I think they are

GOD. I feel like I could talk about her for hours if you caught me in the right mood. I want to inspect her with a microscope.

4) how well-written I think they are

As a character? Wonderfully, but her treatment in the story leaves a LOT to be desiered, often shoved to the background and generally getting treated like crap by the narrative for an alleged main character.

Also fuck everything about the SS endgame.

5) (if applicable) how much I like their mechanics in-game

her CF fight is pain and her SS one is pure agony

6) if I think they are a Good Person(tm)

For the most part, yes! It's clear all her actions were done with good intent (albeit a bunch of them were questionable but still, never cruel), and I think it's important to note that her vicious side only comes in regards to the man who literally committed genocide towards her kin or when she's being violently having her trauma of said man triggered.

Hell, her burning of Firdhiad is pretty much her lowest point and even then it only comes after she's being violently triggered and blamed for everything over and over. She's pretty much gone insane by that point and for damn good reason. Also you know, it's all your fault.

Veyle

1) how much I like their personality

BABY. She's the cutest but also constantly wracked with guilt and shame about being a Fell Dragon.

2) how much I like their design/aesthetics

I love her Somniel outfit and her evil outfit absolutely slays, but while I really like her main outfit since it's fluffy I hate her collar and ankle chains.

3) how interesting I think they are

A whole lot! Her relationship with Alear is the best, in typical younger FE sister fashion she's a lot stronger than she seems (they literally had to brainwash her into compliancy and even then it didn't work all that well), her guilt over her evil self's action (on top of just being a Fell Dragon period). Also she has a knack for making (magical?) trinkets and she lived on her own wandering around Elyos for quite a while, so :D

4) how well-written I think they are

The brainwashing/evil personality part is a bit iffy as always in FE plots, but other than that? She's great!

Something that keeps suprising me about FE writing is that while they're not... the best at writing female characters somehow they keep hitting the spot with writing younger sisters.

5) (if applicable) how much I like their mechanics in-game

She's a lot of fun! Her personal tome and dagger are great and her personal skills are quite useful :D

6) if I think they are a Good Person(tm)

Definitely! She's an absolute sweetheart, but at the same time I love the hc that her evil self is actually a part of her albeit exaggerated and twisted by Zephia and not just a personality that came out of nowhere. Doesn't help I'm playing Persona 4 right now.

Faye

..fun fact, do you know she actually got on Top 200 of CYL8? I'm genuinely shocked.

1) how much I like their personality

I really like it, mainly in the sense her obsession is portrayed negatively for once. I've seen a bunch of fans trying to "fix" her by toning down and/or removing her obsession with Alm, but I always loved more the angle of keeping it while pointing out how toxic and self-destructive it is and having her slowly grow out of it.

2) how much I like their design/aesthetics

Peak. Perfection. Immaculate. Well except maybe the lack of freckles, but that's why I draw her with them ;)

3) how interesting I think they are

It may be mainly due to projecting and overanalizing, but god. Soo much. Her trauma and horrible coping mechanisms, her huge trouble making friends and socializing with strangers, her fondness for Celica, her clinginess and yearning for both a place to belong and to return to the good old days at Ram...

Also she's a bisaster. It's totally canon trust me

4) how well-written I think they are

Hahaha... oh, terribly.

I'm not gonna pretend the writers ever saw her as anything more "the girl with an unhealthy unrequited obsession towards the protagonist we're apparently contractually obligated to put in almost every game". Like, I'm pretty sure all of her small nuances you can find if you start digging were an accident, and considering how she gets flanderized outside of Echoes, I'm almost certain that's the case.

(speaking of, the sole fact they managed to flanderize her holy shit)

5) (if applicable) how much I like their mechanics in-game

GOD I LOVE THEM. All of the effort they didn't put into writing her they put into her gameplay mechanics because they portray her SO WELL.

The fact she loses avoid when supporting Alm, her higher then average growths hinting at the fact she's trying desperately hard, her unique spells as a Cleric being either a way to ignore distance (Physic to heal from afar, Rescue to get someone literally close to her) and Anew, the only form of a Dancer you get in Echoes, costing so much HP portraying her self-destructive behavior in an attempt to be useful.

Just... screams

6) if I think they are a Good Person(tm)

Yeah... I'd be lying if I said yes.

She's a lot better than people claim she is, but still, between the obsession towards Alm and general (albeit potentially accidental) rudeness towards strangers and... less-than-stable state of mind, she's far from the greatest person to be around.

Still, she can be pretty sweet when she wants to, she apologized to Silque and actually accepted Alm's rejection which oh my god why do people keep claiming she's a yandere when she's actually capable of hearing no as an answer, and also she's unflinchingly loyal to her loved ones!

[cursedbluebird]

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: you

---

Name: Rosie

Pronouns: she/her

Birthday (no year): March 24

Where are you from? What is your time zone? Nebraska, CST

Roleplay experience: since 2009

Got any pets? Freya and Bast the naughtiest kitties in the universe

Favorite time of year: Fall

Some interests and things you like: sewing, thinking way too much about clothes

Some funfacts & trivia about you: - I wrote my undergrad thesis on the progression fashion of the 20th c, but I am terrible about keeping up on modern fashion

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? L E G E N D O F Z E L D A.... I love Majora's Mask... Hero of Time my beloved baby boy..... I also love Okami so much. I'm a sucker for fairy tales and mythology.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: I'm actually not a big pokemon person! I started with Y. Ghosts and Psychic are my faves, particularly Mimikyu, Meowstic, and Hoopa. Gengar is also shaped like a friend :)

How did you get into Fire Emblem? I had been interested in the series since the GBA days but it wasn't until I got my 3ds and awakening that I got the chance to play a game.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? Awakening, Conquest & Birthright, 3H, Shadows of Valentia

First Fire Emblem game: Awakening

Favorite Fire Emblem game: Fates or 3H

Any Fire Emblem crushes? Oh my God Niles hi tee-hee... Tho Seteth damage art did get me into playing feh... And uh... My husband does look like Xander ...and his name is.... Alexander........🥴 I've posted my questionable taste in fe characters you can find it in the chat if you search

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? - Awakening: Chrom- Fates: oh good God idr.... Kaze? I know I did Niles in one run... Did I do Stahl in Birthright? Kaze in conquest and Stahl in Birthright sounds right- Three Houses: Dimitri - Engage: haven't played engage. Place your bets for fun

Favorite Fire Emblem class: I like the magic classes! Healing and attacking! Tho Camilla's malig knight does have a special place in my heart 💜

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? Dark magic user...I do not escape the goth aesthetic.... Unfortunately I am too much of a noodle to be a malig knight 😞

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Fear the Deer!!! (Side note, bless my luck bc when I ordered a leftover bundle from fodlans fables I got the deer. A cosplayer I look up to also offered me her deer pin from the fe3h preorder bonus which had me 🥹)

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with? I don't know what this means but I copied this from Erica and her answer was funny.

How did you find TOA? I track the Marianne tag on Tumblr and saw the previous Marianne drop. The old shit post emblem group I was in was falling apart and I thought it would be nice to join a new one.

Current TOA muses: Marianne, Camilla, Triandra

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? Marianne my cursed little blue bird 💙 I've thought about dropping her, thinking that maybe someone else would do a better job, but I just can't let her go.

Have you had any other TOA muses? Other than cami and Tria nope

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards? Um??? I don't know? I got told that Tria was a Rosie muse when I reserved her so I guess y'all know better than me lol

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? I like writing horror and setting the scene :) my favorite part about combat events is describing the creatures we're facing from my characters pov

Favorite TOA-related memory: What Kent told Mari in her first lore event about the importance of healers have lived rent free in my memory since it happened. Also Griss trying to blow himself up in the arena and despite his best efforts not succeeding.

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day in TOA that you’d like to share? Charlotte is one I've thought about and is the one most likely to send Triandra packing....there are an awful lot of men at the academy who would do a great job taking care of her and her family 😏

[arcstral]

ooc; TOA Anniversary Munday!

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.

Name: Soji

Pronouns: She/her

Birthday (no year): October 14

Where are you from? What is your time zone? United States. Both my parents are from South Korea. East coast resident (EST)

Roleplay experience: A little over 13 years of roleplay experience

Got any pets? One chinchilla affectionately dubbed Souji Man and a 'Shavanese' dog (short-haired Havanese) named Happy

Favorite time of year: Autumn

Some interests and things you like: The holy trinity of cosplaying, writing, and drawing

Some fun facts & trivia about you:

— I joined TOA during the peak of Covid quarantining in 2020 when there was a huge convention dry spell. The indie roleplay scene for Fire Emblem during this time was uneventful too. Having no productive outlet for cosplaying or writing, it lead me to join my first RP group which was (jazz hands) TOA

— My zodiac animal is a rabbit

— I have hundreds upon hundreds of hours clocked on Super Smash Bros from Brawl to Ultimate. You'll never guess who I main.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Final Fantasy XIV, Project Zomboid, Phasmophobia, Touken Ranbu, and Stardew Valley in order of frequency.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: I like bug types; my favorite Pokemon is Scizor. While not Pokemon my favorite Digimon, Kabuterimon, is also a bug. Honorable mention goes to Greninja.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? Saw Shadow Dragon in my local Gamestop one day and didn't buy it even though it stuck out to me with its somber and less colorful boxart. Next time I saw a Fire Emblem game in the store, i.e., Awakening, I bought and played it. The rest is history.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? If we're talking start-to-end I've played and finished FE1, FE3, FE7, FE9, FE11, FE12, Awakening, SOV, 3H, and Engage. The remaining games in the series I've played to either early or mid game.

First Fire Emblem game: Awakening

Favorite Fire Emblem game: FE11 Shadow Dragon

Any Fire Emblem crushes? FE7 Rath was my first and only concrete FE crush. Marth was initially more of an aesthetic source of admiration though knowing his character better he likely exemplifies the ideal partner. Similar to Marth he's not really a crush, but right now I think a lot about Rafal, ironically less in the realm of looks or perfection and more at his attractive hot-and-cold personality.

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? - Awakening: Chrom - Fates: Kaden was my forecast - Three Houses: Dimitri - Engage: Alfred

Favorite Fire Emblem class: Dracoknight

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? Archer. My first class in FFXIV was an archer and my FE tastes will reflect that too.

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? Marth. Need me a princely ghost boyfriend I mean advisor with a good head on his shoulders.

How did you find TOA? Through Fire Emblem roleplay related tags

Current TOA muses: Marth and Rafal

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? Marth is my ride or die Fire Emblem character and that extends to him as a muse.

Have you had any other TOA muses? Besides Marth and Rafal I've also written Xane. Though there isn't a lot of data, my second muse slot historically (and presently) being reserved for dragons tickles me a lot.

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards? Not really. My tastes are unexplainably versatile. I can favor the sweet and friendly golden boy type characters, or the less pristine and morally ambiguous "bad boy" types, and everything in-between. This isn't just true for TOA but also for characters from different series. My friends have a lot of trouble forecasting possible favorites for me because of it.

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? Emotions. Conflict with those emotions. Mwahahahaha

Favorite TOA-related memory: The first few months into my TOA debut when everything was bright, fresh, and new. Meeting new friends and forging bonds with other characters was super fun and I still remember who was around me during that time. Farina (written by Maxie) is the closest muse to Marth in terms of when they joined TOA and who has stayed to this day.

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day in TOA that you’d like to share? I tend to be very stable, loyal, and proactive in my delusions. If they're strong enough I pursue them, like Xane and Rafal. Rath would be among them if I ever replayed FE7 and if I determined having three muses wouldn't make my performance suffer over all.

[saviourkingslut]

On one hand, I do want to keep a somewhat open mind on Engage, and I don't want to bring down other people's hype for it because it has things I personally don't like. On the other hand, ngl... there's also a weird amount of pushback to even criticize what we're seeing?

"We don't know everything!" How much new information could possibly come out that makes me like the ugly art style more, or not acknowledge the clearly mobile-game aesthetic Engage is gargling (the aforementioned art style, the - hopefully - faux gacha mechanic, all the minigames), or how lifeless everything looks, or how it's clearly binging on nostalgia bait? Ah yes, Uglygard will look better once I know what her stupid Ring does, surely!

So seeing people say "people who have 3H as their first/fave game go play Gen/shin and never return" or shit like that just because people have complaints is, ngl, annoying (and elitist) as hell. And a spiteful part of me is glad that the game that makes people say that is looking more and more like a FE mobile game on the Switch because of that lmao

"we don't know everything" we have been bombarded with videos about the units, the world building, the game's mechanics, now the hub, and i haven't liked at least a solid 90% of what's been shown. literally how much more content do i need to see before im allowed to say something negative about this game. i mean, the fact that i hate the art style and think the environments look bland was clear to me from the very first few vids already, and not liking how a game looks is a pretty vital aspect. everything else is just solidifies my opinion.

im not entirety sure why people are so aggressive about people criticising the game. like, obviously you can enjoy it if it's a game you like, but that won't stop me from being honest abt it? i have a lot of love for this franchise, and that's why im being so vocal. because it seems to me that fire emblem is deviating from its core aspects more and more - the core aspects that i love so much! engage, from what im seeing so far, looks much sleeker (and in a way, imo, cheaper, making it seem like a mobile game, which is not a good thing), it has a ton of minigames and side... stuff, and a lot of the attention goes out to cultivating your support chains with other units through shared activities... all this stuff in the margins (is it even the margins anymore) puts the focus off the battles themselves, which it should be all about. and honestly it's not a development i like.

between the pushback from people who do like the game and don't want anyone to be critical abt it, and the game seeming so far removed from what fire emblem should be in my mind, in my heart of hearts i honestly kind of hope it flops. if only to make sure the next entry does not go even further down this new easy marketability path. probably makes me seem like a bitter old hater but it is how it is.

[raxistaicho]

Are we not Engaged? Part 10.

I’m thinking it’s back to paralogues until they get too tough again. For sure I wanna do Byleth because Celine can always get stronger.

Spoilers under the cut!

Now we begin the party where the party takes turns beating up Sigurd for Canter! :) Well, at least my non-melee units for sure. Ivy, Celine, Hortensia, Yunaka, and Seadall.

Alear Seadall C: He’s dancing late at night for the stars, he believes people join the stars when they die, and that his teacher is up there. He takes his craft exceedingly seriously. Interesting.

Celine Fogado B: He’s trying to flirt with her again, lol. She at first rebuffs him, but he replies Firene is known for being closed-off due to their self-sufficience thanks to their strong farming. She decides to accept his offer to talk more to prove him wrong - and also so she can glean some of Solm’s secrets in return. I’m not sure who in security let the Three Houses writers sneak in to write this support chain, but I salute them.

Seadall Yunaka C: She can do impressions, lol. Seadall invites her on stage for a play, lol. She’s shy but he convinces her.

Louis Rosado C: Rosado starts off doing his usual “aren’t I cute? :3″ teasing, but Louis openly and honestly agrees he is. They actually hit it off quite well due to their respective aesthetic natures, it’s a very sweet support.

Byleth paralogue time!

Byleth reciting the legend of Saint Seiros is odd, it makes me wonder from what point of 3H Byleth was yanked. His hair isn’t green so he can’t have fused with Sothis yet, and he’d learn eventually the legend was a lie, so he.

Ugh, nine units, just the same as the map itself.

Oh shit, Byleth’s staffers used Warp tactics on me!!! That’s cheating! :(

The first half of the chapter was easy because I just did the same thing I do in this map in 3H, but once I aggroed the dragons Byleth’s priests got cheeky and began warping in units to break the crystals. I lost 1 but according to a friend of mine I got the same reward he did when he saved them all.

That reward being a talisman and an elixir. Alyos!Rhea is a fucking skinflint.

Alear: I’m worried what might happen if I ever make the wrong choice...

Well don’t look to Byleth for guidance then, he’ll just kinda act sad around you as you commit atrocities and hope you snap out of it.

Alear Diamant B: Diamant admits he’s unsure he’s worthy of leading his people. Pretty classic FE Lord concerns, but it’s in response to Alear’s fear of Corrupted, so that’s not bad.

Chloe Seadall B: She gives him some weird folk food and has to kinda cajole him into trying it. This is a pretty cute little support of her sharing the things she likes with someone else :)

Hortensia Fogado C: Fogado tries to invite Hortensia to tea, but she scolds him for being a flirt, saying he has the reputation even in Elusia, lol. She scolds him for idling away his time and not helping Timerra. Fogado has no luck with the royal princesses in his supports, lol.

Louis Rosado B: They get into a discussion about whether sea grapes are cute. Louis thinks they aren’t, and is sad that he doesn’t share Rosado’s enthusiasm for them, since he likes liking the things his friends do. Gotta say, these two are kinda great together!

Alcryst Boucheron B: Alcryst is trying to work out but he’s struggling. Boucheron says they’ll try later.

Corrin paralogue! She talks about her choice to Alear, but doesn’t say which she chose. Pretty typical. Corrin dries out the river partway through, but I saw that coming, lol.

Strangely, Yato has 4 gems but it has the appearance of the base Yato. “Yato was by my side on every step of my journey” Nobody tell the devs that the Corrin meta involves class changing Corrin out of Nohr Prince(ss).

I only just noticed Ivy’s really tall too :3

Alear Yunaka B: Alear wants to get to know Yunaka a little better so she can trust her a little better. Yunaka admits she spent time wandering and is trying to distance herself from her past self. Cute support :)

Celine Hortensia B: Hortensia tries to out-cute Celine, only for Celine to not take the contest remotely seriously and just be friendly. Celine’s friendliness ends up making Hortensia happy, which upsets her. Cute support, lol.

Celine Jean B: Jean's dedication to his studies so he can save lives moves Celine, so she decides not to ask him to TEA.

Celine Alfred B: Celine criticizes Alfred at length for choosing stupid solutions to his problems and points out that it makes him look bad as a prince, but he doesn’t really get the point. Alfred’s such a doofus.

Seadall Yunaka B: They’re practicing for the stage show, heheh. This is a cute support but it REALLY shows off Laura Post’s chops as a voice actress.

Gotta say, Yunaka actually has some impressive depth for an Engage character, I’ve really come to like her.

Rosado Jade C: (People who’ve only read these posts probably have no idea who Jade is lol) Basically she’s just jealous of Rosado’s boundless energy and he convinces her being cuter will give her more energy.

Back to the story!

Sombron’s big mad. Also Veyle’s asleep. Somborn gave Zephia some sort of ridiculous helmet lol. It seems Sombron believes he killed Alear and was imprisoned shortly after. Zephia didn’t get the chance to retrieve Alear’s corpse. Hmm, so it sounds like Lumera probably saved Alear while she was near-death.

Boat map!

Oh, cannon’s interesting.

Engage managed to make a good boat map, which is interesting, lol. Using the cannon you have to manage enemy approaches on both sides so you don’t get overwhelmed, it’s pretty careful stuff.

Also I finally recruited an enemy unit! lol.

Seems the Emblems can do a “miracle” which could be used on Lumera, but Ike, Sigurd, Lucina, and Lyn believe it would be reckless to use it. Honestly, it’s REALLY nice getting a scene of the Emblems interacting.

Interestingly, during her wakeup talk, Ivy mention she’s long wanted to come to the Somniel to pray, but the Elusian royal family never accepted Lumera’s invitations. I guess Hyacinth wouldn’t allow it.

Ivy Diamant A: Aww, Ivy fashioned the gem Diamant gave her into a necklace so she can wear it every day, and as a symbol of the future relationship Brodia and Elusia should hold. They both promise to build a better relationship between their countries. Very very good support!

Ivy Alcryst B: She mentions that Elusian children are taught to fear Brodian armor, which is interesting. Alcryst apologizes on behalf of Brodia, but Ivy teases him, asking him if he means that as an official gesture from Brodia. She dislikes Brodia, but not Alcryst himself.

Ivy Timerra C: Though both are future queens, Ivy feels she and Timerra are as opposite as can be. When Ivy mentions she’s never been camping, Timerra urges her to give it a try lol.

Seadall Alcryst C: Seadall used to travel with traveling merchants, which makes Alcryst a little jealous as he hasn’t traveled around. Seadall offers to tell Alcryst about some of his travels.

Fogado Timerra C: Lol, mostly it’s just them being gushy good siblings. It’s pretty cute. Seems they barely spent much time together before, as they were both rarely at the palace.

Yunaka Citrinne B: Apparently Yunaka was named Larimar at birth. She was abandoned by her parents but found by an assassin who trained her to in the same profession. There’s more to this tale but it just kinda awkwardly cuts off.

Continuing with the story!

Veyle is still asleep. It seems Zephia’s fucking up with Veyle’s mind is detrimental to her health, and Mauvier is concerned that they should knock it off. Zephia seems to think puting the helmet Sombron gave her on Veyle and then casting her spell will make her permanently evil.

Anyways, Marni offers to go fight us. Guess it’s round 4 of knocking her and Mauvier on their asses. Seems Mauvier’s loyal to good Veyle but he doesn’t like...

grab her...

and run away...

Seems Sombron turned the people of the Elusian port to Corrupted.

God dammit Marni you suck. Marni stole stole some Emblem Rings it seems. Thanks for the delivery, dumbass.

This town is filled with Miasma lol. Seems I’m to use the flame canons to burn it out.

Oh no Mauvier has warp. Bad feeling.

Lol, there’s corrupted ambush spawns in the houses. That’s... actually pretty sensible, Ivy and Alear did say everyone was dead.

Yeah he multi-warps thanks to Micaiah having staff AOE lol. But Warp only has so much range in this game so you just need to be mindful of that.

So rather than use his last warp, Mauvier rescued in Marni’s group and charged, but Marni didn’t... actually move. And even if she did, I decided to kite Mauvier back toward the bottom part of the map where I know I have more canon shots open and Marni’s still an armor and she’s still slow as hell on the move.

Marni sucks and she needs to be fired :p

Oh Marni’s finally moving. It was only AFTER Mauvier was half-dead, but she tried. Sorta. Not really.

Alear can one-shot Corrupted Wyrms with Twin Strike. That’s pretty cool.

So to kill Marni I had Alcryst plink at her with a longbow to proc Dreadful Aura and Draconic Hex while Celine with Byleth blasted at her. Holy shit Corrin is GOOD.

And now we have Roy and Micaiah back! \o/

Seems like Sombron’s been nabbing Elusians and turning them into corrupted.

[loregoddess]

I'm curious, what would your ideal FE be?

And do you have any particular FE concepts in mind?

Hmmm, I've been thinking this over since you sent it to me, and it's hard to say because there's a lot of things I like that I dunno if they'd actually work together, if that makes sense? Mostly I just have a lot of thoughts about things I'd like to see in a FE game, which I can write out. Under the cut bc, length (it is Very Long, I'm so sorry). Also fair warning that I'm kind of rambling with some direction and organization, but this was all very train-of-thought while I wrote.

Like, ideally, my first thing would to be to get rid of all gender-locked classes. They're absurd. Fates got the idea right by getting rid of them, honestly (although I think women should be allowed to be butlers and men maids, as a treat, even though I know those two classes were literally the same class w/ different aesthetics). I don't have any specific wants for which classes should appear, be added, or be dropped really, just so long as the classes make sense for the overall story (Fates once more takes the prize for having the most narratively-appropriate and creative classes). I would like to see some really weird classes though, like the wolf riders in Engage are Very Cool bc wolves, and I want more weird stuff like that. Give me people riding skeleton animals, or giant bugs, as well as bears and moose and all manner of creatures that actually exist. I mean heck, historically camels and elephants were used as mounts, and we've yet to see either in FE. I also want more diversity and creativity in the infantry classes. Again, whatever fits the aesthetic and themes of the story, but I feel like we only get a handful of really weird infantry classes every now and then if we're lucky. Mounting/dismounting should be a permanent mechanic as well, there's nothing more satisfying that sticking a flier in archer range and then having them get off their flying beast.

Also weapon durability should stay gone, I hate weapon durability so much. Although I do like how combat arts and spells worked in Echoes and Three Houses, but like, the mechanics need to be tweaked. The easiest solution would be to simply have like, an attack power meter or something similar that characters could draw on to use combat arts and spells. Also, rather than locking combat arts to specific weapons a la Echoes, have is so that each character either has unique combat arts (and spells), or that they can learn combat arts and spells from specific weapons that they've "mastered" by using a certain number of times in combat, which they can then carry-over to a different weapon.

I also liked how 3H allowed any class to use any weapon, but I think this also needs to extend to magic, so that magic can be used with any class as well. This would open up a lot of opportunity for the player to really experiment mixing and matching classes, weapons, and magic with different units, which I think would be a lot of fun to play (based on how much fun I had with similar mechanics in 3H), and offer a lot of replayability for the sheer madness of trying new things with new characters. This will also do away with a lot of "I love this character, but their stats suck and they're nigh unusable" that sometimes occurs, since the player could theoretically just try out different combinations until they got something that worked (RIP to all the people who said Ignatz wasn't a good unit, I ran him through the thief/assassin line and gave him some magic, and he was a crit machine by the time I landed him in mortal savant, I want more madness like that honestly).

Obviously, having an AP pool would also require mechanics that replenish the pool during battle, which could be any variation or combination of skills, specific actions taken on the map (resting on a specific tile, attacking normally, etc.), or even adding in a special staff. Speaking of, staff durability has to go too, I'm so tired of needing to buy staffs. Also, I know a lot of magic in FE is either "a single spell stored in a tome" (most games) or "spell that character can personally gain access to" (i.e. Echoes, 3H), and like, cool beans, but I think, ideally, I'd want like, actual grimoires or other sorts of magical foci (crystal balls, wands, scepters, magic cards, the possibilities are literally endless). Either the magic weapon allows units more powerful magic attacks (if units had magic specific to them), or "taught" the unit specific types of magic (i.e. a Fire Grimoire might teach a unit fire, elfire, and bolganone, or something along those lines). Also, I want there to be a magic triangle the same way weapons get a triangle, although how that should be arranged (for both) would vary based on what types of weapons and magic the game actually contained.

Aside from what I'd like to see out of classes and battle mechanics, I don't have too many other things to wish for. I really am one of those rare "actually I really do play the game for the mechanics" FE fans. I'd want an interesting, and consistently written, story, mostly. Engage actually hit the story notes perfectly in my opinion, all the characters were about equal in their characterization--even the women were as diverse and interesting as the men--unlike the rampant sexism in Echoes or the uneven characterization depth of 3H, or the unrealized potential due to :too many characters" in Fates; Awakening was fine too, but Engage really polishes the support-based characterization to a shine. So I'd want more of that, like, even if a character is a side character, they should have interesting supports that build their characterization, and I want every character to be about equal in their writing (I know protags obviously get more attention, and that's fine).

Generally I feel like the model for supports is fine, although I think it'd be interesting to have group supports of 3+ characters to contrast the one-on-one of the current support model, just to really add more depth to the characters outside of what they get from the story. Also, while I liked that there was a lot more platonic supports in Engage, I really do miss seeing different paired endings, so I'd honestly bring back S-ranks between non-protag characters, but like, maybe not too many, if that makes sense? Awakening and Fates' supports suffered a bit from the "every man and woman can S-rank every other unit of the opposite gender bc of the child units", whereas I feel that limiting character supports per character really helps to focus the writing in a stronger way (Echoes and Engage did this the best, although I will give kudos to 3H for its unique take on supports, although the roulette of paired endings was...not well-implemented at all). But I also want there to still be a lot of platonic supports, I dunno. Mostly I just want well-written and interesting supports.

Supports aside, the only thing I'd want from the main story--aside from "well-written, consistently written", would be to Not Do whatever the writers were trying to do in 3H. It's my unpopular opinion, but (for as much as I love the characters and gameplay) the story writing just isn't that good or consistent in 3H. Fates, even with it's shitty localization, is more consistently written, and more strongly written, than 3H. FE has never actually been about war a critique of war (go to MGS or like, Triangle Strategy for that). FE flourishes narratively when it's a little goofy, and completely earnest, and focused on a few key narrative themes. I dunno what I'd want to see specifically for those themes, because I enjoy all sorts of stories, but yeah...(although to be fair, FE would probably fail as a cosmic horror story--or as any type of true horror--so I wouldn't want that I suppose, despite loving cosmic horror). Also, no split-timelines, multiple routes, etc. Just one storyline. I don't hate how Fates and 3H use multiple storylines, but...I prefer a singular story arc.

The music has been really good for basically every game, so I'd be fine with the current composers being allowed to do whatever they please. Now the art direction...I have a lot of conflicting thoughts because, on one hand, I know why a lot of the things I have personal beef with exist from a production standpoint (almost everyone has one of like, four body model types in Engage and it drives me insane bc there is NO body type diversity, but also for the modelers, it was probably more cost-effective to just have a handful of models for each class to swap out character heads and palettes for class changes, but I still hate the lack of body diversity, but I also understand why it would be easier, but...and so on).

That said, if we are talking what my absolute ideal would be, I just, really, really want diverse character designs. I want many different body shapes and sizes, I want lots of different skin tones (and please enough with the nigh grey-skinned characters), I want people to have actual noses and more than one or two nose shapes, I want crooked teeth and wrinkles and other "allegedly unflattering" physical appearances for characters who aren't evil, and just, I want the character design to really push beyond the whole "aesthetically pleasing based on the current sense of what is considered aesthetically pleasing" that I've seen in...too many media. Also enough with making all villains "ugly" (or the weird "big tiddy evil lady" trope, we've moved beyond demonizing women by making them sexy femme fatales), like, as much as I love the cartoonishly evil villains, sometimes the caricatures are just, tiring and uninspired. Honestly, Heroes is pulling more weight in the "interesting villain designs" department (as well as Kozaki just pulling all the weight in trying to have more diverse designs for women for Heroes), and just, we need more of that in the mainline games.

Also, for as far as like, animations and cutscenes and stuff, I feel like Engage made a lot of progress with it's pre-rendered cutscenes (they're back to being on par with the animations for Awakening and Fates, which had the best pre-rendered animated cutscenes of the games I've been using as examples, in my opinion), but the in-game cutscenes reverted back to the characters standing around in a circle talking a la 3H. We'd never get something like Sumia punching Chrom on the screen in either 3H or Engage, and that's a real shame bc the 3D models do look a lot more complex and pretty than the little polygon people of Awakening, Fates, or Echoes, and yet the in-game cutscenes don't do anything with them. Again, I get that from a production standpoint, having a handful of stock animations for body language and then setting the characters in a circle in a skybox to talk is easier and less-intensive cost-wise, but damn does it really suck the life out of the story at that moment. If it wasn't for the stellar voice acting, then scenes would really fall flat I think. So yeah, more character design diversity all around, better utilization of 3D assets.

And that's...where I think I'm gonna call this a post. I don't have any particular concepts for a hypothetical FE game, partly bc any time I think, "I wish this narrative device or type of story existed" I just end up taking it and turning it into one of my many personal original project ideas instead. Which is...probably why I don't have a lot of AU ideas ever, bc part of me figures if I'm gonna change that much from canon, I might as well just make up my own thing entirely and be bound by no rules except my own. But since I can't see myself getting into game coding and trying to make my own game anytime soon, I can at least think about the types of things I'd like to see in a FE game, though they may never come to be.

[thegospelofnagisa]

I think they gave Mika Palazzo too much free reign with the character designs. Some are just way over the top like Hortensia and Timerra and others are good but ruined by dumb accesories like Ivy's face grill and Merrin's wolf tail. There really should have assigned her an editor to tell her what designs or features work for an FE game and which ones don't.

Wow. I think you hit it perfectly my friend, that IS the problem the more I think about it becuase yeah, these designs...they DO look pretty no one is denying that but they are so inconsistent with the setting and the franchise, and I remember complaining that Hilda didn't fit aesthetically with the game.....if only I had known what was comming, Hilda fits PERFECTLY in 3H compared to this.

Again, they are NOT bad designs on their own but consistency is important.

[penguinsledder]

I posted 813 times in 2022

345 posts created (42%)

468 posts reblogged (58%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@penguinsledder

@kataang-week

@extreme-technicality

@spongebobssquarepants

@itsmoonpeaches

I tagged 792 of my posts in 2022

Only 3% of my posts had no tags

#atarah talks - 169 posts

#claude von riegan - 83 posts

#fe:3h - 75 posts

#personal - 67 posts

#fanart - 47 posts

#fire emblem: three houses - 42 posts

#fire emblem - 38 posts

#byleth eisner - 37 posts

#claudeleth - 33 posts

#atla - 24 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#but yes if you can't forgive the political issues that kinda just get called out at the start then get brushed aside then maybe you won't

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

ATLA fandom, what if we made our no beta AO3 tag "no beta we die like Jet" 🤔

95 notes - Posted October 3, 2022

#4

So I fell into a hole of ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS claudeleth ao3 fics that had me flailing alone in the room

I have to come to realize that the tropes I am garbage for are

Smooth talker Claude being tongue-tied around Byleth

Secretive Claude unable to keep his walls up around Byleth

Golden Deer being absolutely exasperated at the slowburn mutual pining obvious to everyone except their angsty oblivious parents leaders

Hilda the SUPREME WINGWOMAN and #1 SHIPPER (and wedding planner)

Lorenz just being like "Oh just kiss already"

Golden Deer accidentally walking in on them having a moment and being extremely chaotic

Byleth smiling and laughing more easily because of Claude 🥺

JUST EMOTIONLESS BYLETH LEARNING TO BE HAPPY BECAUSE THE GOLDEN DEER (ESP CLAUDE) MAKE HER HAPPY A LOT

Claude's genuine smiles being practically exclusive to Byleth, or at least Byleth being the first to see it (CANON BTW ACCDG TO THE CLAUDE AND HILDA A SUPPORT)

Claude trying to be subtle but being obvious AF instead (which everyone except Byleth sees ... thankfully (?))

Everyone teasing Claude about how hopelessly in love he is with Teach

Claude somehow oscillating between suave and a wreck around Byleth

Being each other's best friend and then more 🥺

Claude "I don't believe in gods but Byleth is basically divine, being around her is a religious experience, and getting to meet her is nothing short of a goddamn miracle" von Riegan

or for short ... Claude "god is a woman" von Riegan

STARS AESTHETIC. NIGHT SKY AESTHETIC. STARGAZING COUPLE.

Reaching my dreams with you by my side 🥺

Working power couple that make a great team professionally and platonically and romantically

Like a couple being able to perform their professional duties well. Knowing their duties while having a great relationship is just smth I really respect and I think they got that in the bag

The couple that slays together stays together

Wyvern rides together 💖💖

Every noble simping over Byleth and thus making diplomatic talks easier and Claude just bursting with love and affection and pride at her side

Byleth learning about Claude's dreams and caring so much because she cares about him and she knows it means the world to him

But somehow she's oblivious that Claude now cares about more than that because she also means the world to him now

Claude "THAT'S MY WIFE" von Riegan

Byleth realizing how she feels and being scared and thinking it's hopeless because Claude is attractive af and probs has girls falling all over him

Claude eventually finding out and thinking that her being insecure is the most absurd shit he's ever heard

Golden Deer telling it straight to a shocked Byleth that Claude is absolutely crazy about her

See the full post

127 notes - Posted September 12, 2022

#3

I CAN ALREADY SEE THIS HAPPENING IN THREE HOUSES. Fanartists make it happeennnnn 🥺🙏🏼

Student: Professor, 😳☺️ I-- 🥺👉🏼👈🏼 I think you're amazing and 🥹 --- will you marry me?🫣🥰

Byleth: ... Too weak

Student: 😨😰😱😭

Byleth: ?

192 notes - Posted September 8, 2022

#2

I'm so in love with how Claude pets his wyvern after each successful attack he gets in slkdfl like that's so damn sweet

he goes from "i killed a man" to "who's a good wyvern? yes you are!" in a few seconds and it is everything to me

221 notes - Posted October 9, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

The "I want you but not like this" trope is severely underrated and I am incredibly soft for it 🥺

Imagine loving someone so much that their well-being becomes your priority over being in a relationship with them. Imagine wanting to be with someone badly and actually being given the chance to do that, but caring enough and having the restraint to let go because you know they're not themselves at the moment and need time to sort things out.

871 notes - Posted January 22, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[emblemxeno]

honestly, while i do think that a lot of the women in engage look pretty young, they *definitely* don't visually fit the l/li trope at all. the only similarity is the round face and that's.. about it. people will really just call everything l/li nowadays and not even realize what that means, apparently.

Same tbh. And I think what exacerbates it is that we just came off of Three Houses' aesthetic, and that game had a timeskip with characters visually getting older. What some people I think forget is that it's an outlier in how it does it.

Awakening's timeskip had young adults and teens skip forward two years, so the cast didn't change much visually. Genealogy's timeskip completely changes the cast, so it goes from young adults to their kids who, as we see them, are also young adults/teens.

Three Houses is the only game (sans RD with the Greil Mercs but even that can be cherrypicking) where we see the typical cast of young adults and teens that most FE games employ as their characters completely visually change because the timeskip is 5 years, after a year had already passed in White Clouds. The youngest character after 3H's timeskip (that isn't Cyril) is a 21 year old. That's Chrom's age after Awakening's timeskip.

FE casts are mostly full of teens and young adults. Skim over any cast that isn't 3H (and again maybe RD) and it's hard to find characters that look older than 20.

Engage isn't different in that regard. To put it in perspective:

Like, you have Framme who's like Elise, but other than Dragon Mom Lumera, you also have Chloe, Timerra, Jade, Merrin, and Ivy who are all visibly older looking. Etie looks the same age as Rebecca and Neimi (tho honestly kinda reminds me of Lysithea upon closer inspection lol). Celine seems like Lilina's age. Citrinne seems like Lute's age.

Sure, would I like to see more Manuela, Isadora, Titania, or Vaida energy? And maybe a Niime too? Hell yeah! But I think the whole "Engage is full of loli bait/all the girls look like 12 year olds" way of thinking is a bit disingenuous and misrepresentative of the series' character aesthetics as a whole.

[yanderefairyangel]

It's also weird that some of 3H's fan try to hold 3H as a a "gotcha" to Engage for being unrealistic on some part when not only is it a FE tradition to have teenagers becoming the leader of an army, but we are talking about Fire Emblem.

A franchise mainly based of the shounen fantasy genre and whose game are mainly centered around that. Wait you are tellling me this franchise don't care about being realistic and historically accurate when it has pegasus, dragons, magic and zombies ? WoW, who would have thunk ?

And please don't act as if 3H was an exception to this. You also have teenagers leading an army with one creating a whole war and stiring out 4 years of discourse. It's not realistic at all nor historically accurate in the slighest. You have the Adestrian empire supposed to be based of Germany yet they dress a la Byzantine fashion when the Leiscester Alliance dress Renaissance style !! And they have freaking nuke in the medieval era !! And if you think it's realistic for Byleth, someone who is supposed to be an experienced mercenary to somehow knows no sheep about Foldan and isn't even able to guess their own age when they are supposed to know their birthdate and that people would expect to not know how to read and write thanks to a certain Hopes to be hired as a teacher to teach people who are barely a YEAR younger then them when some of their students are even OLDER then they are !!!!!

Just because the game has the aesthetic of some greedy historically accurate and realistic medieval based game doesn't mean it is one ! It's still a FE game and FE game means fantasy and shouneny etc. And acting like it isn't just because 3H looks "deep" is an absolute in joke of itself. Acting like liking fantasy is only for kids or not mature when it's precisely what fiction is about : escapism. What's the point of having something that is 1 : 1 like reality ? And anyway, it's impossible for it to happen because fiction is not reality, those are things that are very different. No matter how accurate to reality fiction will try to be, it will never be like it, it will never be "realistic".

Because fiction is fiction.

[strawberryybird]

i lied about being over my tlt posting have a quick lil post. for the funny.

sooo many locked tomb spoilers in here. dont read this read the books. anyway.

i have put a not-insignificant amount of thought into a locked tomb!au for fire emblem that i would design specifically for meee, but it’s edelgard as harrow, leonie as gideon, dorothea as coronabeth with hubert as ianthe and ferdinand is just my mental image for naberius. byleth for alecto. constance for cytherea. and everything goes down exactly as it does in the books. and it would slap. the character choices are all nominal and aesthetic apart from edelgard for Extremely Obvious Reasons and Leonie bc she fulfils the same narrative loadbearing weight as griddle.

like obviously these books are Saying So Much & it slaps so hard because who out there is doing it like tlt. doing actual legit discussion & analysis makes me stressed beyond comprehension so i dont do it, but i think the idea of class and ulitity is so rife in 3H that it makes for such an interesting point of comparison to tlt in my private little word document that no one may ever read (bc it’s just me warbling about gothic lit crit)

& the reason i think leonie is one of the 3H characters of all time is because of how she is ferdinand’s narrative corollary. even at surface level alone, they both parrot their silly little catchphrases, but where ferdinand’s is about his own sense of self & is about who he is at that moment (psychological reasoning aside), leonie’s repeated phrase is about who she wants to become, who she isn’t yet. neither one of them can have their desired place in society because their predecessor is still around and living it for them. it really does interest me how these characters only see development after their mentor figures die (ace attorney meta double dipping on that one). in fodlan society, they both represent the next generation of their social classes & how a) in FE style this narrative is inherited via dead dad and b) how in both of their default arcs, neither of them uphold this status quo. by ‘default arcs’ i’m taking this as black eagle ferdinand and leonie’s golden deer unmarried endings with refs to various support chains. ferdie reckons with his father’s legacy & edelgard’s reforms & herals a very different world than his father did. also gnc icon very interesting for my crest-gender thoughts. leonie inherits jeralt’s debt and disengages from a lot of the society she won the war for. it’s......... they switch goals. ferdinand wanted the safety of a known place in society and existing in comparison to his friends in an established dynamic. & leonie wanted her own path and economic stability. neither of them got what they wanted.

(nona spoilers from now) circling back into tlt and specifically nona the ninth - this book really just showed that each one of the characters (exept maybe ianthe who stayed winning the entire time) got the exact opposite of what they wanted. they became the inverse of the desires GTN set them up with. like an awful b-side. gideon the cavnecro, god’s own cav, wanting freedom more than anything instead just got to the top of the system & yet! still dead! still controlled! and pal having to borrow and exist via the work of another necro. cam’s fatal wound from a duel. judith the representative of law afflicted by the ‘blue madness’. harrow so desperate to make her own existance worthwhile now completely removed from the book.

also i have a little pet-theory for 3H about crests and gender that interests me specifically & is absolutely just a consequence of me having read gideon the ninth and getting my head blown up like pal my good man pal. but a) fire emblem class theory really does boil down to power vs oppression and b) lorenz and his gnc swag got me in a vice grip. it’s not quite like tlt’s necrocav gender dynamic bc frankly no one else is doing it like the tlt necrocav gender dynamic, and i’m having to reach so far i’m pulling my back out.

there’s just something that sticks in my head about the physicalisation of hamartia in 3H - even if it’s not your own, like sitri & aelfric - that contrasts so well onto the death and undeath of tlt series & being literally powered through the death of others.

also like the edelgard to harrowhark axis. i am looking directly at it & i am making so many jokes about war crimes. and like i said up top, ferdinand is my mental image for babs & i want to see him chomped on.

anyway. my brain is rotten like flotsam. (and im not interested in having actual discussions on tumblr dot edu about any of this because i am saying words recreationally. this is not academic submission work this is me having a little laugh and meme pls n thank.)

wait i forgot the point of this post: i’d go so hard for an au of these but bc the tlt characters are loadbearing pillars to the plot imo it’s really hard to do the indiana jones idol switch with them and not set off the boulder trap of consequences in my head. but the aesthetic veneer of fire emblem characters living out the tlt plot? gimme. gimme. i want to see hubert eat a cavalier. i want to see him eat ferdie so bad it makes me look stupid.