#oh corrin. if only your game was good.

[devotedlystrangewizard]

gnawing on corrin fire emblem

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

Hello, i am here with a take that people might hate me for but we'll see.

Xander is the worst sibling out of all of the siblings and Ryoma is better in quite a few aspects (keep in mind all the siblings are my favorite characters and both these two are rather low on my list of fave sibs)

Don't get me wrong i don't hate him, i actually really like him, i might out myself saying this but one of my fave ships of Xander is with my favorite sister and one of my favorite characters in the game, Hinoka; it's great support that give actual royal courting vibes and he is very nice with her it's just sweet.

But, besides the fact he becomes obsessed with killing us in Birthright, being Takumi's counterpart, in Conquest he is not really that better. Besides the fact he attacks us in his reintroduction after a (for me, i'm not that great :,v) lowkey traumatic battle just to "keep us in our toes" like bruh read the room.

The siblings in general but specially him wait UNTIL THE LAST FUCKING MINUTE TO KILL THESE ANNOYING PIECES OF SHIT IAGO AND HANS WHEN THEY COULD HAVE EASILY DONE SO FROM THE BEGINNING-

Like it's a lot more beliveable if we killed Hans in like chapter 10 and being like hey thems the breaks and kill Iago after than waiting until winning the conquest and being like "oh we missed a rogue soldier and killed them" like bruh you are so dumb and Garon would have given literally 0 fucks, maybe bring some new people but if we kill em too he would be like oh i guess my pawns- wait sorry, children are just built different, like honestly-

Which connects to my other point, his speech of Justice is an illusion infuriated me because, taking the upper point in consideration and the fact he does have a lot of power in goverment is a fucking joke, CEO crying when people complain about them without doing anything to make their employes lives better type of pathetic.

He is not a good brother in general, a parentified brother maybe, but not a good brother, everytime he would say "i am always on your side, nothing could ever change that" it just boiled my blood, i was just mentally screaming YOU FUCKING- LIAAAAAAR like that one Kardashian clip everytime cuz WTH that's a fucking lie.

Ryoma's reintroduction is him defending us of a Bully basically (in this case it was Leo and like come on both Leo and Takumi are, they are the same guy) and his interactions in story are just so nice man, he just screams big brother and in Conquest he continues, his sacrifice fucking broke me because he really cared for us.

"Oh but his obsession of bringing us back is weird because we are not blood related" I hear you whine and, my sibling by the gods, you do not understand this family dynamic and that's sad for you; but if you take into consideration that Mikoto was not only married and loved Sumeragi, she most likely loved and married Ikona as well, since both Sakura and Takumi are younger than Corrin. They had a very close knit family relationship and they were, in fact, chosen siblings in a way.

In general people have a lot more empathy towards the Nohr siblings than the Hoshidan siblings which i think it's fucking stupid because not only is all of Hoshido martyred and victims of crimes AGAINST HUMANITY (worse than war crimes) like everyday, their family was ruptured by an assasination and a kidnapping on the. Same. Day.

"Oh but he is very detached from Sakura and Takumi" Of course he is, he is taking care of a fucking kingdom in the middle of a war, as we see he has a lot more responsabilities and say in everything relating to the kingdom than Xander since the beginning AND in their supports he really comes through in fixing his mistakes, unlike Xander that fucking SPAT at Elise's sacrifice when he could have done so much more and in his supports with her he is, honestly, a little bitch that doesn't want to listen until the last support where he sees results and he is still like uh idk if i should choose peace or whatever.

I get yall want to ride this conqueror, rizzless, white man dick, i get it. But don't say he is better than Ryoma, i do see his flaws but also, just like Takumi and Leo, they are the same guy.

EXACT

SAME

GUY

Just one is white and the other asian (yes i just spoke of their differences but i know you guys WILL get counterpoints from mine and that will prove this last point, they are very balanced!

They are at most on the same level and honestly I still don't see it, I think Ryoma is just better.

-🧟‍♀️Zombie anon out

HOSHIDO 4LIFE

/

[randomkposts]

Hi, I saw your post about Ryoma coming to the (incorrect) conclusion that Corrin is biological related to Garon and it was really interesting! Do you have any more in-universe misconceptions like it? Thanks

I do. Thank you for your patience.

A bit less of a misconception by the characters, so much as a lie given by one of the characters, and that is why was Takumi was in the Port of Dia? He is invading in a diffrent place then planned, because he was on his way to rescue Azura.

But of course, once he sees Azura with the enemy, he venomantly denies that.

If you have Azura face him, he starts the dialouge surprised.

"Azura?! Last I heard, you were taken by Hoshidan soldiers. Ryoma worried himself sick planning your rescue."

Before decending into anger upon realizing she is there with the enemy.

"I told him it was pointless. And you proved me right, you Nohrian traitor. You should be ashamed."

Hinoka's opening dialouge if Azura fights her is ready to welcome her back.

" Thank goodness you’re safe! I was so upset when I heard you were missing. I’m sorry we couldn’t stop those rogue soldiers from taking you away. You must have gone through a lot of pain and suffering, but it’s over now. Come on back to Hoshido with me, I’ll keep you safe from the Nohrians."

And ends with Hinoka feeling betrayed by Azura's decision to switch sides.

"So you’re to betray us too? …So be it."

Ryoma, by the time you face him has already been told by Takumi and Hinoka.

"Azura... Hinoka and Takumi told me you were fighting with the enemy. I had to see it with my own eyes to believe it. What a pity. I suppose the Nohrian blood flowing in your veins lends itself to betrayal.."

In fact, they are far more upset about Azura betraying them then Corrin. Except Takumi, who is equally upset at both.

Now I'm not a warfare expert, but was Port Dia stratigically important? Not according to the reactions of the residents from what we see when warned. They seem confused and baffled.

Old Woman:" Say what? This town is caught up in the war between Nohr and Hoshido?"

Old Man: "Eh? This town is now a battlefield, you say? What in tarnation-"

Girl: "Oh dear! I've heard rumors about the war, but I never thought it would reach us here. "

Boy:" Dang, I had a feeling somethin' was up when I heard all that commotion. Never thought this town would see war."

They are not expecting the war. Which probably indicates this place isn't an ideal place to launch an invasion. What I looked up about Port cities in supply chains (not that I know much), indicate that "ports are usuable if the imeadite area is secure enough to avoid persistant attacks and capacity to process good sized shipments." Of course, we can't fully tell the size of the city from what we see of an in game battle map, but from what we do see and the reaction of the civilians, Port Dia is not considered stratigically important. Or at least, not important enough for them to be conisdered the location for the first official battle between home and invading army's.

So why did Takumi pick Port Dia to invade first? Particularly if they are Allied With Cheve? Wouldn't a landmass above or below the opera house suit better, and be better able to bring aid to their allies? The Opera house is where they went in Birthright, so why the change?

The only real reason I can find for Takumi to be invading Port Dia, is to grab Azura, and Make their way to Cheve or Macarath depending on the timeline and strength of Intel.

Which raises the question of when he fell into the Bottomless Canyon, as when faced in chapter 13, he has a diffrent battle theme from his siblings, which paired with his dialouge, indicates posession that wasn't present earlier. Then again, falling into the Bottomless Canyon probably isn't the only possible way to get posessed, as I highly doubt Pre-Possession Garon would go there for the funzies, so perhaps there are other ways of attaining influance in the minds of those who don't fall down an abyss into zombieland, particularly when you consider that the royals have dragon blood passed down through the bloodline, and in Fire Emblem, dragons-particularly old ones -are at risk of degeneration, and so become Manaketes to avoid it. Not all do.

So I wonder if Anankos is capable of using intense feelings of anger and despair to induce a sort of mental degeneration and manipulate targets to going with his goals. Takumi's intense feelings of betrayal, inferiority complex and dragon blood make him easy to persuade to go along this goal.

For all he claims he expected the avatar to be a traitor, he also has one of the faster support growths with the Avatar, something he lacks with both Hinoka and Hinata. Of course, the Avatar has fast support growths with all their siblings, but given how hostile Takumi starts off with them, you would think that shows in gameplay mechanics, and that it stays has some intresting implications.

The Nohrians fast support with all their siblings and both of their retainers, save for Xander who does not have fast support with Laslow. It makes some amount of sense, as Xander has lost retainers in the past, and Laslow was not one he chose personally. In contrast Ryoma is the only one who fast supports with all his siblings and both retainers. Unless something didn't make it on to Serenes forest, the next highest is Sakura who fast supports Corncob, her brothers, and both retainers, then Takumi, with Hinoka at the least, only fast supporting Ryoma out of all her siblings.

None of them fast support Azura, which could have been interesting, and Kaze only fast supports his brother, which parallels Flora, to their siblings Felicia and Saizo who fast support with their fellow retainer and Lord alongside their sibling. They are also both capable of picking a different loyalty then the one they start the game with.

What you can pick up about the bonds between the characters based on combat classes tell you things about the characters that add to their relationships I think.

[dirtyoldmanhole]

goodly chunk of a post-posssession excerpt. gunter's leading corrin (and the crew) back to the surface of castle gyges.

unedited.

--

"Careful, love, there's a trap under that stone, on the right of the path. Mined, magical explosive this time."

At his words, Corrin marked the deadly hazard with a bright magical glyph that hung in the air as an unmissable warning, the same as she had been doing for the last two hours for the caravan following them both some distance in the back. The clatter of hooves was a constant accompaniment in the background in the wide hallway, and Gunter was altogether grateful for the low-level noise instead of the oppressive mausoleum silence from before. Silence was an effective tool for madness and breaking people. 

Her lovely red eyes searched questioningly for his, after the last magical marker.

"When did you get the time to..."

He knew the question on the edge of her tongue before she had asked. His beautiful little sword was never not curious even to the total disregard of polite society, and it was one of her many traits he delighted in even more, these days.  Enforced ignorance at the service of politeness was always a cover for snakes.

"Most of these traps have laid dormant for hundreds of years. Everyone under Anankos’ thrall knew of them, also from his… thoughts much like the map from before." He gave the acknowledgement with a side-to-side tilt of the chin and vein of dark amusement before looking down at her with unbearable fondness. "There were a few I added to. A little upgrade, if you will, my princess."

Very slowly, as if not quite sure how to react, Corrin nodded, staring ahead with the most curious little expression.

She liked this, this odd little camaraderie with the known traitor, the black-heart villain still playing his part in the story. There was a smug flirtation in her eyes that betrayed her as he had done to all of those royals, low and sensual for all that she hid the new glances under poised modesty. 

Gunter took sin-vicious pleasure in it, that corruption of a different name. His little princess was too proper to utter any such scandalous intention into the cold bright daylight or the public lest she scandalise her siblings, and that was part of their peculiar little game, he decided with a smirk to himself. He was the only one that knew of the kinds of wants she was only open with in the dark. 

Kneeling carefully to the stone floor with a groan, he stopped her, and then pointed to a dusty corner where an old chest stood diagonally from them, almost barely visible amongst collapsed rubble and dust.

"Give it your best guess, milady. Trap or chest?"

She gave the answer some thought, eying the surroundings around exactly like he had taught her so long ago in those days in the snowy Fortress. Looking for thin, almost invisible strands of tripwires, for disturbance of dust whether it be footsteps or tampering, and other such clues that was remarkably similar to tracking an animal. 

Observing was its own greatest weapon.

"Chest." 

His new war-horse at her side gave a great noisy snort seemingly in agreement.

"Very good, my princess."

With efficient alacrity, Gunter stood, and moved in to smash the lock of the chest, scooping out a healing stave that looked like it could be a priceless heirloom of a whole monastery with potent, ancient power. There were many such useful artefacts in this tomb.

"The traps..." His little princess hesitated as he doubled back to her side while spinning the staff experimentally in his gauntleted palm, and by her nibble against her pretty little mouth, was debating on sharing something carefully. "...Smell like rain. Anankos always did."

The statement briefly distracted his own mind from adding to those nibbles in the corner of her plush lips. Oh how he wanted to ruin them.

"Did I, Lady Corrin?"

"Azura smells like that same magic, Vallite magic. Not you, now."

Well, that was something. An odd comfort that he was himself again at least. That his own resentments were still a part of him, and that he could trust that his darkest impulses were still his, and not manipulated from that abyss beyond like before.

“We’re almost to the surface.” Gunter changed the topic to safer waters after a moment’s silence had passed. 

“You know that wouldn’t change a thing, right?”

… Or tried to, at any rate.

Old memories threatened to rise to the surface, and he bled them out mercilessly, waiting until they were corpse-white again like the ghosts of the fallen in his mind. “At some point there will be something that changes your beautiful, stubborn mind.” Against his will, his voice betrayed a peculiar quiet, tender weariness. “I only hope your ancient, elderly lover is in the grave by then.” 

“Sir, would you truly bet against me there?” She was grinning now, with the same kind of matching crooked smile, except the happiness on her was more a court painter’s divine muse writ in flesh. It took his breath away as she slowly worked her way around the stone steps until she was level with him, her fingertips teasingly stroking his lined cheek after dancing along his shoulder with almost girlish tease. “Impossible unifier of kingdoms, slayer of dragons…?” 

Laying a mock palm against his chest with a raised eyebrow, he added. “Seducers of villains…” Gunter then kissed her with a chuckle on her forehead, before dipping down for a lower, sensual one. “You have a damned good point, my love.” 

They kissed long and sweet, swaying there on the stone stairway with him on the lower steps and with her above, embracing him with no fear. Savouring every moment, it was only when they heard the echoed footsteps from the caravan approaching that they parted tenderly—him as the old black knight of death, and her as the slender waif of a princess. 

The rest of the way while clearing the path, they held hands in the dark with the sweetness of new lovers.

[sieglinde-freud]

Hiii for the fire emblem ask game I was wondering what you would respond to 35 :>

omg hiiii !!! this ended up longer than i thought im so sorry you only asked one thing and yet

35. What’s something you wish Intsys would just stop doing?

i said avatars in the last ask but theres a lot of things i cant stand about fire emblem, as much as i like these games. trying to pick just one is hard but i think im gonna go with revamping the reclass system. i have no idea if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but i think fates class system is perfect. it’s got a good selection of options for each character, ways to customize it to your liking, while still limiting you to a general set. you have options you can change, like marriage and friendship, but ultimately youre still restricted heavily (aside from corrin, but giving you ONE freebie has very little draw backs. plus, you do have to work a LOT for that, so…) this keeps the gameplay of the game interesting because you cannot just class every single character into one broken class (and if you tried, the game is designed well enough to still give you a challenge). there is no turn everything into wyverns meta. not a thing. you have to consciously make your class choices and it adds into fire emblems emphasis on every choice matters!

ok so when what happened after that?

echoes gets a pass because its a remake of an old game, and for what its worth, the pitchfork isnt bad. the games not designed around class customization and skill collecting, so it makes sense they dont give you much. the genderlock sucks, but thats my only fault with it. the REAL evil is in three houses and engage. in games like this, there is such thing as a little too much freedom! i dont really think of myself as a gameplay elitist kind of person but when it starts cutting into the map design and how the game is perceived its just!! three houses is the bigger offender i think, with the game being designed Like That and thus the maps have to all revolve around not knowing what units youll have and thus are much more bland. engage is a lot better about this, pretty much saying if you reclass your units thats just a risk you’ll have to take. only problem is is that class balance in that game is so dumb. ah yes, nerf cavalry so bad theyre a mere shell of what they once were. fliers though? oh theyre fine. they wont break the game again— oh too late already happened. damn that was fast.

if the way three houses or engage handled skills was more similar to fates, i could see how this might encourage more reclassing and thus going in and out of classes which i can see the appeal of. but three houses has way less of an emphasis on skills (with a couple of exceptions) and engage doesnt even let you keep your class skills so. just pick an endgame class and go.

[fireemblems24]

Fire Emblem Engage 18 - 20

Spoilers beneath the cut. This game is SO much fun to play, even if the plot is a bit basic.

Also, I'm shipping Alear with someone HARD.

Ok, so I paired Lief with Goldmary because I thought she'd benefit from the extra build staff and he 100% friendzoned her in their support, lamo.

Time for just about everyone to get Canto. About to see a lot of Sigurd's support conversations. Ivy, Hortensia, Seadall, Chloe, Goldmary, and Merrin are all getting Canto. Alfred already has it. I have Kagetsu with Sigurd right now and may or may not leave it that way. We'll see.

Ouch, Ivy's and Sigurd's support hurt. He talked about knowing the pain of a grieving child. My heart. 😭😭😭 His with Hortensia is pretty much the same. 😭😭😭

Goldmary commits to her gimmick. She is gaslight, gatekeep, and girlboss all in one.

Has anyone found a good use for Ike's blessing? It's makes everything so heavy and the rewards don't seem worth it.

Ok, so it looks like they already patched in (or added) a way to grind supports as a free update (I'm getting the DLC, but not yet). That was one of my biggest complaints about this game is how hard it is to get supports, esp since it encourages you to constantly replace your units, like every single freaking chapter almost throws superior units at you. Way worse than previous games. This should fix that a bit.

Oh, wow, and it got me Alfred and Yunaka's A support first time! I dropped her because I swear she didn't get a single strength point in her level ups, but their supports were really interesting so far. But I didn't get Ivy and Zelkov's C when they swam together so . . . not sure how strong this is, but it's welcome nonetheless. Doing it twice unlocked their C support. Not bad, esp if you have this from the start next time and can grind out more supports.

Rosado taking his life in his hands claiming he's cuter then Goldmary. And Yunaka and Alfred's final support was pretty cute.

Eirika talking about Lyon will never not hurt me. Her paralogue was a big step up in difficulty from Corrin, I feel. I think it was the map layout constricting movement so much and her wing sword making is harder to take advantage of the flier friendly areas.

Somniel is more fun gameplay wise than the Monastery because it's less necessary and feels less tedious, but man does it mess with the storyline way more than the Monastery did. Lief is like "there are still rings in trouble!" and Goldmary is just . . . lying in her bathing-suit and tanning. It's unintentionally funny.

Sombron is pissed that he lost Eirika and Sigurd. No mention of Lief though. 😭

So . . . Alear and Veyle are siblings, right? That means Lumera had sex with that dude.

Yessssss I was so hyped seeing a chapter on the water. I love ship battles. And a recruitable enemy too! This is like old-school FE.

So "the Miracle" that all the Emblems are discussing and mentioning Lumera, is it reviving someone back to life? Also, cool that Sigurd took the lead there.

Man, I just had one of the most satisfying overrides yet. It was during Lief's paralogue, and Kagetsu!Sigurd with Ridersbane must've taken out like 6 of Lief's mage horses.

I also sent Alfred way out by himself to chase down the speedwing on Lief's map. I "told him" that if he survived, he'd get the speedwing. Boy tanked everything like a champ and ended up MVP of the battle (deserved), so now he's 2 points faster.

Both Kagetsu and Ivy are level 19, so I'm doing Ch 19 before Sigurd's paralogue hoping they reach 20 there, and I can reset before doing that chapter where there's a TON of units to fight.

Are we going to fight wolves AGAIN? I hope they die for good this time.

So is Mauvier only staying with the 4 wolves to protect Veyle? Or partly? So I still predict we can recruit him later. I wish we could recruit Griss. Dude is unhinged. I'd love to see supports lol.

I think it's cool that Alear wanted to leave the area because there's no one left. But also fell a bit harder for Alfred who struggled with that decision the most.

This map is going to be VERY annoying with all that purple shit everywhere. Though, do I get Micaiah and Roy back after this?

It's amazing to me that we can destroy the Wolves so many times, and they keep trash talking. Somehow. They're so pathetic. And then, yet again, our heroes are chitchatting and somehow the enemies keep running away. I think it's best you just turn your brain off.

Alfred is like, "should we really let them go?" The voice of reason, finally. But Roy and Micaiah back!

I like Ivy so much more than I expected too. She's hilarious. Her B support with Panette was gold (and some really good voice acting too).

Why does no one ever want to spar with Kagetsu? 😭 There are so many supports about sparring, but not poor Kagetsu. He needs to support Alfred. He's always down for training.

There are so many characters I want to use next time because I like their personalities: Jade, Citrinne, Rosado, Fogado, Zelkov, and Boucheron are some. Pannette has promise. Lapis seems cute. I'm sure Timerra MUST have more to her than songs about eating meat.

Chloe and Merrin are girlfriends. Also, Goldmary starts stripping naked in her support with Framme. Didn't put that on my bingo card.

Micaiah's paralogue map is an amazing choice. Alcryst is the 3-13 Archer this time I guess lol. And there's a stand-in for Sothe too I see. Glad he got a little shout out there.

I GOT THE DEER 😭

Goldmary needs some real issues in her life. Homegirl is having a breakdown because she made a funny face while eating. Who knew her and Framme's support would have so much entertainment?

So at the end of Roy's paralogue he's like "I used to know this demon dragon who wanted to wipe out humanity, you kinda remind me of her." Uh, thanks??? What are you trying to say exactly, Roy?

Mauvier is a Camus archtype 100%, except hope he's recruitable.

Alfred's reassuring Alear. I swear, these two are literally perfect for each other. I've never shipped a self-insert character with someone this hard before.

Oh, will I get Celica back this time? She deserves much better than Griss. He's like the anti-thesis of what Celica stands for.

How come Griss gets to use Ragranok every. single. turn. I never get to do that. Kagetsu finally sent that asshole back to his tile. Couldn't have done it if I didn't trust Alfred a metric fuck ton and just sent him out there.

Woop, got Celica back. She's free! Only Marth left.

Griss was easy to deal with after he stopped attacking me every round. Also, why are we not killing Griss and just letting him laugh about whatever he's so amused over.

Poor Alear just learned that she's the child of Sombron. Ok, Alear needs some headpats. She's confused how she can be Lumera's and the Fell Dragon's child. My dear, it takes two.

Alfred says he doesn't believe it. The only one who said something to try and help her feelings and not about the situation.

I like seeing Sigurd get more focus again. I really hope this means FE4 remake is coming.

So Lumera isn't Alear's blood mother? But, the writers DO know you need two to have a baby divine/fell dragon, right?

Alfred being the first to support Alear 😭😊❤️ And so unquestioning and complete about it. Alear's response to him got me too. Like, I'm falling for this ship hook, line, sinker. I'm going to have a hard time pairing up Alear or Alfred with anyone else unless their S-Support is a dud.

Like, I like Dimileth and Chrobin well enough and all, but I ship all 4 of those with other people too, and sometimes more (like Dimitri and Chrom). But, like, I ONLY am shipping Alfred and Alear with each other so far.

I love how casual Alear is seeing Mauvier wander up, when like we've fought to kill each other multiple times.

Also, I'm rich again! Thank you, Elusia. I may actually be able to afford the cute outfits now.

[robynmizore]

Redemption April Fool’s Special Chapter:

The REAL Story of Conquest

Omg hai ^___^ I’m Robyn and I absolutely luuuv @@ games <3 and my fav is Fire Emblem!!! Okies so anyways, im going to tell you about the BEST day of my life when I met my hot husband Takumi!! <333333333 OMFGZ HE WAS SOOOOO FREAKIN KAWAII IN PERSON!!! Supa kawaii desu!!!!!!!! ^______________________________^ When I walked into Hoshido ==I looked up and saw…TAKUMI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333333!!!! “ KONNICHIWA OMGZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ SUPA SUPA SUPA KAWAII KUJO-SAMA!!!!!” I yelled n___n then he turned chibi then un-chibi!! he looked at me [O.O;;;;;;;;;;;] and then he saw how hot I am ** he grabbed my hand and winked ~_ then pulled me behind a pocky shop o.o and started to kiss me!!!!!! [OMG!!! HIS TONGUE TASTED LIKE PINEAPPLE!!! RLY!! . <.< .< (O) (O) (O)] then I saw some baka fat bitch watching us and I could tell she was undressing him with her eyes!!!!!!! [ -________- ;;;;; OMG I COULDN’T BELIEVE IT EITHER!!! (ò_ó) (ò_ó) (ò_ó)] so I yelled “UH UH BAKA NEKO THAT’S MY MAN WHY DON’T YOU GO HOOK UP WITH RYOMA CAUSE TAKUMI-SAMA LOVES ME!!! (ò_ó)” then Takumi held me close == and said he would only ever love me and kissed me again!!!!!!! ** (O)/ then we went to his castle and banged all night long and made 42 babies and they all became BEAUTIFUL PINEAPPLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nyaaaaa!!! (^<) ^_____________;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

“W-what the hell?!” Niles spluttered after reading that horrid abomination, throwing it across the room.

“Robyn, you said you were going to write a crack fic chapter today!” everyone’s favorite family friendly 😉 comedic relief seethed.

The authoress, lovingly named after the Goddess of Fate herself, threw her hands up in the air.

“I did!” she protested.

“That is NOT what they meant! This is abuse of the senses!” Niles yelled.

“Well I’m sorry, I thought it was hilarious!” The authoress crossed her arms over her chest. “What do you want then?”

The thief pondered this for a moment, then a wicked smirk crept on his features.

“Say.. do you remember why you wrote this tale in the first place?”

She nodded.

“Good good..”

Niles circled the room slowly, and he could feel the gears in his head turning.

“Why don’t you give it.. a better ending. Maybe something just a little more.. chaotic?”

The pair traded mischievous smirks. After all.. this whole novel was inspired by a particular wall scene. This was going to be very fun.

Warning.. profanity and EXTREME cringe

“OMG CORRIN!”

Nohr and Hoshido (except Takumi, the only reasonable one) squealed obnoxiously.

They all met up in a field because Nohr is full of assholes and decided the Hoshidan royalty did not deserve to grieve their dead mother, and needed to be thrown into a brutal war immediately after. Did they actually do anything to deserve it? Nope, but Daddy Garon hates peace and decided everyone needed to die for an even bigger Daddy Anankos.

“OMG CORRIN!!” Camilla squealed, waving her mommy milkers in everyone’s face.

“OMG CORRIN! Hurry up and ditch your blood family already!” Leo said with an eye roll. “I know dad tried to make you kill two innocent people from Hoshido, but like, he’s not that bad!”

“No, come with us!” Ryoma called. “We don’t abuse you!”

“Aw, we only locked them in a tower for years and years!” Elise protested.

“HMMMMMMMMMMMM…..”

Corrin thought deeply and logically about this.

“I choose… NOHR!”

“What, why?!” the Hoshidan siblings yelled.

“Oh, I wanna know why dad tried to kill me. So I’ve decided I’m walking back into a castle full of Nohrians to ask him. Also, I like my Nohrian siblings. Anyways, see ya!”

(Later in the Nohrian castle)

“Dad, did you try to kill me?” Corrin asked.

“No.” Garon deadpanned, clearly annoyed that Corrin returned alive.

“Ok, I believe you!”

“Whatever. Anyways, I need you to go to this super dangerous forest where you could easily die to prove I can trust you. Alone. Also if anyone tries to help you I’ll kill them.”

“Yep that’s totally not a red flag or anything!” Corrin replied.

Corrin’s next adventures consisted of similar stupidity- I mean missions, until that fateful day on Port Dia.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” Takumi shouted when he confronted the Nohrian army, only to see Corrin complaining about having to fight their Hoshidan siblings.

“Ugh..” the prince groaned, facepalming as he let out a slow breath to collect himself, then shouted

“WHEN WILL YOU REALIZE THAT YOUR ACTIONS… HAVE…CONSEQUENCES?!?!?!”

“They do?” Corrin asked, frowning. “But I have plot armor!”

“Oh that’s it.. I’m taking away your water privileges on turn ten!” Takumi seethed.

After a furious battle, Corrin, who is now magically a master tactician despite growing up locked in a tower, managed to take out the pineapple haired, bow wielding menace.

“Hahaha loser, get out!” Corrin said smugly. “If you do, we won’t kill you. Probably.”

“Gee thanks, you’ve all really proven yourselves trustworthy, especially after killing BOTH MY PARENTS UNDER THE GUISE OF PEACE!” Takumi snapped. “And our civilians!”

“How rude. Mommy should beat some manners into you!” Camilla gasped, her mommy milkers flopping everywhere because ✨ fanservice ✨

“Nah let him be mad. He’s justified. Still gonna make him suffer unnecessarily tho.” Corrin replied.

“If it weren’t for you, Mother and our civilians would be alive!” Takumi shouted, causing Corrin to glitch out.

“T-too m-m-much l-logic!!!”

Then Takumi was seized with a horrible headache and retreated, swearing vengeance for his mother’s murder.

“Wow he has issues!” Camilla mommy milkers exclaimed.

That night, Corrin scribbled into their diary instead of responsibly planning the next battle.

“Dear diary.” Corrin bitched.

“Takumi hates me for literally no reason. Wtf even is his problem?!

-Super Triggered.”

“OMG CORRIN! Have you planned for the next battle?” Jakob asked.

“SHUT UP JAKOB, I HAVE PLOT ARMOR!!” Corrin screeched.

Later, Elise fell violently ill and Ryoma refused to let them get medicine, and Corrin yelled at them that they were a jerk despite killing Hoshido’s queen, civilians, and terrorizing their kingdom (also Nohr kinda did the same thing in Birthright to Takumi soooo.. payback?) so they were forced to break a bunch of poisonous pots with only one healer. Then they encountered Takumi again while trying to quell a totally reasonable and expected uprising.

“Wow, dad’s kinda mean. I should just ignore it though.” Corrin remarked.

Hans decided to come and “help” after giving a totally fake apology in which Corrin was immediately like

“Ok, I believe you!”

“Yo.” Takumi said, shooting Corrin with an arrow.

“OH MY GODS THERE’S A PERSON HERE?!” Corrin screeched.

“I’VE BEEN HERE THE WHOLE TIME, MORON!” Takumi fired back. “I’m literally standing in the dark with a glowing bow!”

“You could have killed me!” Corrin whined, making Takumi face-palm.

“That was the point!”

Then Scarlet showed up.

“Wow, traitor.” Camilla mommy milkers whined.

“Corrin literally did the same thing.” Takumi deadpanned.

“OMG CORRIN!! LEAVE THEM ALONE THEY’RE PERFECT!” Elise simped.

“QUIET NOHRIAN SCUM!” Takumi snapped, firing.

“Wow ok hater. If you’d just have a reasonable discussion, my totally fair ruler of a dad would end this peacefully even though we keep launching unprovoked attacks on you.” Corrin said.

“If I kill all Nohrians, maybe this head pain will go away.” Takumi muttered, and everyone conveniently ignored Takumi’s obvious mental struggles.

Once again, Nohr won. Azura ignored Takumi’s clear signs of possession, Hans went on a killing spree, Corrin weakly protested in which Hans replied

“Nope. Daddy Garon said so.”

“Where’s the justice?!” Corrin gasped stupidly.

“Meh. Idk.” Camilla mommy milkers replied. “But Daddy Garon will kill me if I disobey so just ignore all red flags.”

“Ok, I believe you!” Corrin said.

Later, there was an assassination attempt on Daddy Garon by this songstress who looked and sounded exactly like Azura but totally wasn’t for some reason. After that Azura conveniently showed Corrin a magical crystal that showed them that Daddy Garon was GASP a slime monster!!!

Hm.. should I tell my siblings? Corrin pondered, then started glitching out.

“T-too m-m-much l-logic!”

Nah, let’s just destroy Hoshido and disregard everyone’s feelings. Especially Takumi. Screw that guy.

Corrin’s next “adventures” involved killing some guys for his boots (in the name of peace ofc), almost getting blown up by ninjas while also escorting Saizo through his suicide attacks for one measly speedwing. Corrin also had to take a good look for like an hour or so before using a dragon vein lest their army be cut off.

Then they saved the Hoshidan royals, everyone went OMG CORRIN!! (Except Takumi, who was so reasonably salty by this bs, he threw himself across the table when Hinoka asked him to pass the salt) Elise bullied Sakura, Corrin became a furry killer, Xander got beat up by some wind and a pack of Bolt Naginata using Falcon Knights. Oh, also Lilith died at some point and we’re all supposed to care for some reason.

Then Corrin beat up a small child (aka Sakura) in the name of peace, tied her up, and had her watch a bunch of defenseless soldiers get brutally murdered right before her eyes right after promising peace because Daddy Garon said so. And then at last came the fateful day that inspired this whole tale in the first place. Oh how differently it was going to end today. Because a devilish one-eyed thief paid our favorite second prince of Hoshido a nice visit and left him a nice little present…

“Ow, what the hell are these hard objects?!” Corrin yelped, ripping one out of their bare foot.

They were at the Great Wall of Suzanoh, aka Takumi’s wall of doom. Filled with the frustrated screams of Fire Emblem players alike. And at the very top of the wall stood Takumi in all his silver pineapple-haired glory, Fujin Yumi in hand.

“Your invasion of Hoshido ends now, Corrin!” Takumi yelled. “Everywhere in Hoshido is covered in LEGO. I hope you feel the excruciating pain we felt when you chose Nohr-“

“SCREW THIS! I’M PLAYING BIRTHRIGHT!!” Corrin yelled.

“You’re.. what?” Takumi asked in confusion, then Corrin performed an Emmeryn off the wall.

“…..”

Takumi watched Corrin fall with a neutral look on his face.

“Oh look..”

His expression abruptly shifted.

“..The trash took itself out. ..Wait.”

Then he saw Iago The Douche Bird Mage cackling with delight and fired an arrow, knocking him off the wall too.

“There.” Takumi said, his expression back to normal.

Meanwhile, Hinata was paging curiously through a book a certain daydreamer dropped during the fight.

“..Hey Lord Takumi? Some Nohrian weirdo wrote a romantic story about you and…. Prince Leo?! They called it.. Leokumi?”

“Oh, is that so?” Prince Takumi replied calmly, his hazel gaze shifting to Leo, who was calling Forrest a disgrace and calmly fired another arrow, knocking Leo off the wall too.

“Perfect.”

Then Takumi went to defeat Nohr, married the beautiful Goddess of Fate (named Robyn) then went to live happily ever after.

Niles: Meanwhile in someone else’s Fire Emblem Fates play through~

Happy April Fool’s Day lmao. Real chapter of Redemption will be out Sunday xD

[duskofendflame]

Corrin, Professor of the Academy

GENDER. Transgender Male (He/They)

AGE. 23

HEIGHT. 5’6” (168 cm)

BIRTHDATE. August 25th

CREST/HOLY BLOOD. None 

CLASS. Blue Lions Professor

AFFILIATION. Kingdom of Valla

BIOGRAPHY. Hailing from Nohr, he considers himself the child of three places, each of them distinct in his background and upbringing. He has become the King of Valla, but he wishes to know more about who he truly is. Venturing out of the few lands he has spent his entire life will do him good. He wants to see more of the world anyway and this is a great oppourtunity!

PERSONAL HISTORY

??? - Born to Princess Mikoto of Valla and Anankos

??? - Taken with his mother as she fled Valla

??? - Kidnapped by King Garon of Nohr to live as his son

??? - Found out his true heritage, and resolved to dig deeper to find the truth

??? - Became King of Valla

Halp Years - Arrived at Garreg Mach Academy

INTERESTS. Reading, exploring new places LIKES. His family, the outdoors DISLIKES. Garon, wearing shoes, Anankos (?) STATUS. Current reigning king of Valla CLOSE ALLIES: Elise, Sakura, Niles

DINING HALL PREFERENCES

LIKES. Sweet Bun Trio, Peach Sorbet, Beast Meat Teppanyaki, Gronder Meat Skewers, Grilled Herring, Fruit and Herring Tart, Sauteed Jerky, Sweet and Salty Whitefish Saute, Garreg Mach Meat Pie, Gautier Cheese Gartin

DISLIKES. Vegetable Pasta Salad, Country-Style Red Turnip Plate, Super-Spicy Fish Dango

DINING HALL NOTES

FAVORITE DISH.  ✧

"Oh! Did you make this just for me? You didn’t have to go to all of that trouble."

LEAST FAVORITE DISH.  ✧

"Er… I’m sorry but, I don’t think I can eat that…"

TEA TIME GUIDE

FAVORITE TEA. Lavender Blend

CONVERSATION TOPICS. A place you’d like to visit, a word of advice, children at the market, cute monks, equipment upkeep, evaluating allies, exploring the monastery, mighty weapons, overcoming weaknesses, past laughs, reliable allies, someone you look up to, sturdy weapons, the library’s collection, the view from the bridge, your ambitions, capable comrades, the ideal relationship, cats, books you’ve read recently, first crushes, hopes for your future, things you find romantic, dreamy knights

TEA TIME QUOTES

GREETING.  ✧

(1) "Hello! Please do sit down, I would quite like to enjoy your company."

(2) “It was my pleasure to meet you.” 

(3) “Sorry if I kept you waiting for long.”

FAVORITE TEA.  ✧

“Oh my! Did you prepare this with me in mind?”

FIVE STAR TEA.  ✧

“So fancy… even though I grew up as a prince, I’ve always preferred simpler things…”

BEING OBSERVED.  ✧

(1) "Please don’t look at me like that, it makes me so embarrassed…" 

(2) “You know, not many people find it fit to observe me so closely… that’s something that makes you special.” 

(3) “Am I truly that interesting?”

QUIPS.  ✧

"Like what you see?" 

“I’m sorry…” 

“The sky is quite beautiful today…” 

“(Soft laugh)”

“Windy today…” 

“I do so like tea.”

ENDING.  ✧

"Thank you! I had a wonderful time!"

FINAL COMMENTS.  ✧

(1) Say, do you like it here at the academy? I certainly do, with all of the people around, I don’t feel quite so lonely.

ANSWER. Nod. Commend.

(2) Sometimes, I feel as though I do not fit in anywhere in this world… like I am the only one by my side…

ANSWER. Disagree.

(3) The sky is quite beautiful today. I never got to see such a blue sky when I was a child, so being here now is quite the gift.

ANSWER. Nod. Chat. 

(I couldn’t think of five 🙁)

MISCELLANEOUS DIALOGUE.

GIFT GUIDE

FAVORITE GIFTS. Ancient Coin, Board Game, Gemstone Beads, History of Fodlan, Rose, Forget-me-nots

DISLIKED GIFTS. Arithmetic Textbook, Dapper Handkerchief, Monarch Studies Book

GIFT QUOTES

DISLIKED GIFT.  ✧

"At least… it’s the thought that counts…?"

LIKED GIFT.  ✧

"Oh…! Thank you so much!"

FAVORITE GIFT.  ✧

"Thank you for the present! You know me so well…"

LOST ITEMS

STRANGE BLUE STONE. It sparkles in the sunlight, and sends a strange power coursing through whoever picks it up. Though, it seems that it won’t do anything unless you have a certain power. It probably belongs to someone who isn’t completely human.

Location found: Dining Hall Gardens.

THE SACRED SWORD: YATO. A divine sword that you probably should return to its owner posthaste. It doesn’t belong in the hands of someone who cannot wield it, and such a precious thing shouldn’t be left out just anywhere anyway. It probably belongs to a noble with a bit of an absent mind.

Location found: Knight’s Hall. 

CHILDREN’S STORYBOOK. A childish fairytale, the stuff of dreams that young kids like to make their parents tell them. Its pages are well worn, like someone has read it to their child a hundred times over. It probably belongs to someone who writes home to their daughter often.

Location found: 1st Floor Dormitories.

LOST ITEM QUOTES 

OWNER.  ✧

"Oh thank you so much! I’ve been looking all over the place for this, I thought I might have lost it forever!"

NOT OWNER.  ✧

"Sorry, that isn’t mine. But I can help you look for who it belongs to."

BATTLE QUOTES

MOCK BATTLE RETREAT.  ✧

“My apologies! It seems your professor wasn’t good enough this time!” 

FIRST KILL.  ✧

"How much more blood must be shed for peace to be achieved…?"

MONASTERY QUOTES

CHOIR PRACTICE.  ✧

(1) "Hah… I am far from a good singer…"

(2) "(Humming) I hope this makes someone happy…"

COOKING.  ✧

(1) "Eeep! Is the fire supposed to be that hot?"

(2) "I’ve never been too good at cooking… now’s as good a time to learn as any!"

(3) "Do you think my butler would be proud of me for making something edible…?"

TUTORING

INSTRUCT

N/A (Is the instructor)

TASKS

STABLE DUTY. ✧

“I’ve never had to do this before! How exciting!”

WEEDING.  ✧

"What a waste of perfectly good weeds… perhaps they are better to eat…?"

SKY WATCH.  ✧

“Ahaha…! Isn’t it fun to be all the way up here?!”

CERTIFICATION EXAMS FAILED.  ✧

"I… didn’t expect this outcome…"

PASSED.  ✧

"I continue to grow!"

LEVEL UP

0 TO 1 STATS UP .  ✧

“I wonder how much I’ve changed…”

2 TO 3 STATS UP .  ✧

“Looks like the training’s paying off!”

4-5 STATS UP .  ✧

“Good. I’ll be able to help more folks now.”

6+ STATS UP .  ✧

“I must become even stronger. I must.”

UPON REACHING LEVEL 99 .  ✧

“Is this truly the peak of my abilities? Surely it can’t be…”

BUDDING TALENT

“So this is what I’m capable of…”

NEW SKILL

“My talents continue to grow!”

RECLASSING .  ✧

“Let’s see what I can do now!”

BATTLE QUOTES

WHEN SELECTED

FULL/HIGH HP .  ✧

“I’m with you.”

MEDIUM HP .  ✧

“Here I am.”

LOW HP .  ✧

“How could this… happen?”

ENEMY DEALS 1 OR NO DAMAGE OR MISSES .  ✧

“Not a chance!”

CRITICAL ATTACK .  ✧

“I won’t surrender!” 

“You won’t stop me!” 

“This ends now!” 

“I make my own fate!” 

GAMBIT .  ✧

“We won’t give up.”

GAMBIT BOOST .  ✧

“We’re not done yet!”

DEFEATED ENEMY .  ✧

“Huh, I guess I did it right.” 

“It’s over!” 

“Sorry…”

ALLY DEFEATS ENEMY .  ✧

“I can always count on you.” 

“Thank you.” 

“How did you do that?”

ALLY HEALS/RALLIES .  ✧

“I can always count on you.” 

“I won’t give up.”

“Thank you.”

DEFEAT QUOTE

CASUAL .  ✧

“This wasn’t supposed to happen… I’m sorry everyone. I’ve let you down. I need to fall back…”

CLASSIC .  ✧

"So this… is the end… Forgive me everyone… I didn’t… accomplish anything…”

THE ADVICE BOX

"Say… how often is TOO often to write to your own daughter? I hope she understands that I am only worried about her, but I am also worried that she may think I’m being too overbearing."

> Why not just stop writing then?

> Are you really that lonely?

> Just write to her whenever something comes to your mind, I’m sure she’d love to hear about what you’re getting up to here. (Correct Answer)

[didsomeonesayventus]

Okay, I trust you as a source for all things Fire Emblem - can you please tell me if Fire Emblem Engage is worth getting? It's a lot of money, and I've seen a real mixed reception for it. I've read reviews that call it uninspired and shallow, storywise, and that some characters are difficult to enjoy. Is it actually worth it, or am I better off just replaying Fates? I am TORN over here.

SO! Good news in brief: if you liked Fates I'm fairly certain that you've got a good chance of liking Engage. I honestly see Engage as Fates 2 with a much better focus on what it wants to be and do! In fact if I HAD to pick a previous entry for fair comparison/vibe similarities, I'd pick Fates, maybe Sacred Stones (though I've yet to finish that one).

Engage is right now my favorite entry of the series.

MORE DETAILED ANSWER UNDER THE CUT (I have only played thru once on normal + casual as of writing)

I still maintain it's a good game and worth it, but you HAVE to be open-hearted about it. It's going to be silly. It's going to be hammy and subtle as a sledgehammer. It will even say the most cringe ass shit with it's whole heart. It's just about the farthest from 3H you can get on the fire emblem scale to the point you could have it sitting next to Kingdom Hearts and I, personally, love that for it, but feel like comparing it to 3H's darker tones is the thing most negative reviewers fall prey to.

Is it simple? Yeah. Absolutely. Terribly predictable, even. Is it heartfelt? YES! ABSOLUTELY! Engage has no time for "wow that was cheesy" because it LOVES cheese and it wants you to know that LOVE IS THE MOST POWERFUL THING EVER. It knows it's running a trite and cliched story and it doesn't care about that so much as trying to hit its notes with just the right vibe- and I argue it does a majority of the time, but can concede some things are rather silly. It's full steam ahead with the power of love and friendship and it does that with about as much reverence as a Sat. A.M. cartoon. A good Sat. A.M. cartoon that you're still thinking of years down the line that was a formative childhood joy.

And it's not about romantic love, actually! Hardly at all! There's a lot more focus on familial and platonic love than romance!! There are explicit "I love you"s regarding family bonds and multiple sibling relationships that make it clear they would do everything for their family. The only romantic aspect is whoever you choose to have Alear S-Rank (the game calls it a ring rank for Reasons but its essentially an S-Rank), and everyone else's supports end at A. Even then there's room in a fair number of Alear's S-Ranks to get interpreted as Really Good Friends, as the focus is not on "I Love You" but moreso the fact Alear and the blorbo in question have a deep, deep bond (though there are S-Ranks that are romantic-tinted and some who will explicitly say they love Alear, and regardless of gender picked! wow! diversity win!). If you were looking for pairing up your sexy chess pieces and getting paired endings, though, there'll be a bit left to be desired.

Again if you like Fates, or Kingdom Hearts, or stories that are cheesy, simple, cliched, but heartfelt, you're going to like this one. The cast is wonderful, and the story has some surprisingly good emotional beats. Oh, and also some of the FUNNIEST supports I have seen. Ever.

Alear in particular has become my favorite lord of the series, just barely scooting ahead of Corrin by virtue of having a more solid characterization and arc that Fates didn't quite let Corrin have. Which, yes, you can rename Alear and give them their own birthday, but there is NO question that Alear is their own character; hats off to Laura Stahl and Brandon McInnis for bringing stellar performances that are essential to the character. Frankly hats off in general to the voice cast as a whole they really bring a charm to the game that cannot be ignored.

I will say that supports are pretty hard to grind out, though, requiring units to be adjacent, and the leveling curve leaves a lot of... wonkiness? It's VERY easy with the rate of receiving new units + leveling funk to have units fall behind, or your army to feel underleveled, if you're like me and mostly skip the side skirmishes (bad gamer, I know). I hear the skirmishes are also kind of wonky and scaled to Alear's level which. Can Be A Problem if you're trying to level or support grind weaker units. Though I will say that playing Normal + Casual playing straight through the main story, while it occasionally made me sweat, it did not make me have to completely redo a map (or, if it did, it was probably only once or twice and I've simply forgotten about the inconvenience). Just made unlocking supports irksome as units fell off and/or made it hard to keep some characters off the bench.

There's also an OBSCENE amount of freedom in what you can do with your units. Go crazy go stupid try not to die. Resource management can get tricky, there's not quite enough gold or bond points to do everything, but you can do a lot of stuff, especially if you find a favorite to focus in on. As for the Engage mechanic: very powerful, but not to the point of sapping all the challenge out of things, and fairly balanced. The Break mechanic introduced I think is a great addition to the weapon triangle mechanics and adds a nicer layer of consideration to unit placement + weapon diversity in your army than before.

Also, if you're worried Engage overly relies on it's intent as an anniversary celebration, don't! Engage still is doing its own thing, and moreso uses references to past entries as spice or flourishes of color. They add some fun easter eggs and flavoring to the story, but it doesn't rely on the emblems or any throwbacks to tell the story it's trying to tell. Are Firene and Brodia a 1:1 for Zofia and Rigel? Yeah! Probably on purpose! They literally got the guy who voices Duma in FEH to do King Morion! Do you need to know anything about Shadows of Valentia to appreciate that? Nope! Just nice to know. Corrin's ring is found in a Northern Fortress, to further help illuminate the cute nods involved.

If you're on the fence, totally get that, especially since dropping 60$ on a game in this economy- ~90$ if you wanna add DLC -is a lot of money to ask for. But I've thoroughly enjoyed what Engage has to offer, and currently am hopping along through playthrough #2 and trying to tell myself to S-Rank someone who isn't Alcryst (I will probably S-Rank Alcryst again). I'd suggest looking into the first few eps of a playthrough if you're still not quite sure, and, frankly, imo there's no shame in just purely enjoying it from a "watched a playthrough" perspective, if you have to.

and, if none of this has persuaded you, please direct your attention to Zelkov and this Honest-To-Alear real support exchange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1_lsOLB68g

[fayesdiary]

fe fates

Favourite thing about that game

I'd say the characters, especially the royal families. They're so endearing and what really makes the narrative of Fates shine!

Least favourite thing about that game

The localization gets a dishonorable mention. It butchered Fates in so many ways I'm still finding out.

But the main thing is Corrin being an avatar. I love them as a character, but the fact they're an avatar makes the story worse in plenty of this and is the reason behind some of the more.. questionable decisions.

Like "oh, they're the player, we can't make them feel too bad for their choices" or "oh, the player should be able to marry any playable unit, who cares if they're Corrin's 14-year-old sister or an old man who's also their adoptive father", which I also feel is the reason behind their contorted family tree.

In general I feel IntSys can't write avatars/player inserts, player worship aside they either don't feel like a character or feel like a player insert. Robin's the only exception.

Favorite character in the game

Depends on the day, really. Sometimes it's Corrin, sometimes it's Hinoka, sometimes it's Sakura and sometimes it's Camilla. But it's always one of the royals.

Would I recommend it? Why?

Oh, absolutely! If this is the black sheep of the franchise it only shows how good Fire Emblem as a series is.

It could very well be the most polished game in the series, the gameplay has incredible depth and the potential for both amazing strategies and hilarious bullshit (like, say, do a run with multiple versions of the same character), the characters are endearing, Hoshido and Nohr are some of the places I keep coming back to the most, it has some of the best set pieces, the music is great and the story is capable of dealing some heavy punches in the gut.

And keep in mind, this is a game that was plagued by cut content and butchered by a baffling localization, and yet it's still as good as it is and one of the most polished games on the 3DS!

Free space to go off about something!

You know, people shit on Fates' worldbuilding all the time, and yet there's something about the world of Fates that has always captivated me, even in the distant days when I lurked in the Fire Emblem subreddit and was very much in the "Fates bad" bandwagon just like everyone else is.

Truth be told, I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's that Hoshido, Nohr and even Valla have some of the most unique locations in the whole series.

Maybe it's because the different music styles, weapons and other things help making Nohr and Hoshido different locations with their own culture without having to infodump paragraphs upon paragraphs of text.

Maybe it's because while Valla feels shallow as a location, what little is there really piques my curiosity to what it once was.

Maybe it's that what little is there really drives your imagination wild.

Or maybe it's none of these things. Who knows. Whatever it is, the world of Fates is one I keep coming back to.

Rating out of 10

Hmm, I'd say 8 out of 10. 8.5 on the good days.

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 116: Oh No A Shocking Unexpected Twist

Revelation Chapter 24: Days Lost

The gang is going through…some building (presumably Anankos’s castle but it didn’t show them entering or mention they’re in the castle) when the lights go out. The lights turn back on, showing Corrin is somehow separated from the group, and a cutscene plays as Mikoto's ghost appears.

Corrin, much smarter in this route, instantly realizes this is one of Anankos’s tricks. Mikoto insists Corrin can trust her and Corrin gets furious for using their mother’s voice against them. Corrin walks up to Mikoto and swings Yato, stopping inches from Mikoto’s head. Mikoto does not try to dodge.

Mikoto says that she’s a puppet of Anankos, but still has free will somehow. Corrin believes her, which is dumb but completely justified considering it’s been at most a few months since Corrin watched their mother be brutally murdered. Corrin makes their way back to the team and the map begins.

This map is…interesting. It encourages the player to stealth around, avoiding enemies. Running into enemies summons stronger enemies. It’s a neat idea that I completely ignored. Also interesting is the door gimmick. Spread throughout the map are pairs of doors. Mikoto tells you the correct door that leads you further into the map. If you chose the wrong door, all of your units take a ton of damage. Mikoto lies about the last door, because spoilers she’s evil how shocking. When Mikoto fights Corrin, she says that they can all be together with Anankos now. She does not mention that Anankos is Corrin’s dad, because screw that plot point.

Actually, wait. Time out. Should have realized this a long time ago, but doesn’t Corrin being Anankos’s child but staying with their adoptive siblings defeat the whole Birthright your family is your blood thing? How is it that this game started with “Chose between birth family or adoptive family” then at the last minute switch to “It is mandatory to side with your adoptive family because your birth father is a dick”?

Anyway Mikoto dies again. Corrin and the Hoshidans mourn her. We did this exact scene last chapter. As she dies, Mikoto reveals that she is actually Arete’s sister. Meaning that Corrin and Azura, canonical first cousins, not only can get married, but are actually encouraged to be the game’s narrative. Someone at Intellegent Systems really likes incest.

Right before she dies, she mentions that a powerful servant of Anankos is the boss of the next chapter. Would’ve been cool if you told your kids who before you send them into this emotionally taxing battle, Mikoto.

Support: Kagero/Odin

C: Kagero paints a half-dragon/half-caterpillar monster she calls a silkwyrm. Odin thinks it's cool and steals the painting.

B: Odin attempts to summon the silkwyrm. Kagero likes the idea of unleashing an evil monster and tells him to keep trying.

A: Kagero covers the painting with literal blood, sweat, and tears to help Odin's spell. Odin continues failing because he isn't a very good mage.

S: It rains, erasing the silkwyrm from the painting. Kagero, having faith in Odin, believes that the silkwyrm was actually summoned. Odin proposes on the spot. Review: This is weird, but Kagero liking Odin and buying his bullshit strangely works.

Support: Subaki/Nyx

C: Subaki offers to introduce Nyx to everyone because he thinks she looks lonely. Nyx says she likes being isolated. Subaki asks if this is because she's an old lady who looks like a little kid.

B: Nyx drinks coffee. Subaki takes a sip and hates it because it's so bitter.

A: Subaki makes homemade coffee so he has an excuse to talk to Nyx.

S: Subaki tries to introduce Nyx to matcha tea. Nyx says she can't be close to anyone, but Subaki says he has feelings for her. Nyx says she doesn't have room in her life for romance, so Subaki settles on friendship. Then the status screen updates to say they are married.

Review: Kinda bland.

Support: Effie/Hana

C: Effie saves a Nohrian pinned under a crashed carriage. Hana says that she wants to train to obtain superstrength like Effie.

B: Hana is unable to keep up with Effie's massive diet.

A: Effie makes Hana run fifteen miles while carrying weights. Hana surrenders and says Effie is better than her. Effie points out that Hana has better speed and skill growth rates. Plus she's determined.

Review: Not bad; Hana being miserable about Effie's inhuman workout is fun, although the end is a bit sappy.

Support: Charlotte/Rinkah

C: Charlotte assumes Rinkah is only acting tough to attract boys and tells her it won't get her anyware. Rinkah tells Charlotte that people like Charlotte who pretend are the lowest of society. Charlotte challenges her to a training contest to settle their disagreement.

B: Charlotte and Rinkah train until they are exhausted. Rinkah respects Charlotte now.

A: Charlotte explains she learned the value of hard work because she grew up poor and that she sends money to her family. Rinkah decides they're friends.

Review: Rinkah hating Charlotte for being fake as shit sounds good, but this one is really short and barely anything happens.

[crapmagak]

Engage Drip Marketing: Ivy and Elusian

Oh, Ivy. I remember half a year ago, when we first saw you in the leaks, and we thought your name was Abby. Back then, all we really knew was that you were a wyvern riding mage, and your zoomed in, blurry face portrait made me think you had a Jotaro style hat. Ah, memories.

Without further adieu, here's Ivy’s official twitter posts… Starting with Elusia…

Elusia is a country in northeast Elyos, a religious nation ruled by the Sage King Hyacinth, seeker of knowledge and wisdom. They largely worship the Fell Dragon, and strange movements have been seen there in recent years.

So, it seems like that dark mage guy we kept seeing is the king after all. Makes sense. Don’t exactly see the family resemblance with his daughters, though. Him being a seeker of knowledge is interesting. Perhaps this led him to discovering corrupting forbidden knowledge or something like that. As for why the nation worships the fell dragon… My current theory is that it’ll have something to do with military pressure from Brodia somehow.

Also, I do dig the gothic vibes of this country.

Now, for Ivy’s artwork tweet…

Ivy is the first princess of the Kingdom of Elusia, and Hortensia's elder sister. She has a mysterious air about her, and she's a serious and stoic person.

And her portrait tweet…

The Kingdom of Elusia worships the Fell Dragon. It seems Ivy is seeking the Rings of Emblems as the princess.

Then finally, her cutscene tweet… (It’s just the cutscene we saw in that trailer a couple weeks ago)

Brodia and Elusia have been at odds for many years. Ivy attacked Brodia to obtain the Rings of Emblems.

And here we finally have our big waifu bait character. Seeing how hard Edelgard left the target audience of straight dudes, it makes sense they’d go back to Camilla. In all seriousness, though, even if Ivy’s appearance has some pretty obvious influences, her personality is rather different. Give’s me more Sonya vides than anything else, really. I wonder if she’ll also have daddy issues.

All in all, Ivy’s a rather curious character. The cutscene paints a rather menacing picture of her, yet it’s clear she’s going to switch sides and become a good guy. Still, how the story will go about this change is still up in the air. I assume a lot of her motivations are based around her country and it’s people, so perhaps serving the fell dragon helps them in some way. My guess is she eventually grows tired of the Four Hounds and her father being increasingly evil, and concludes they’ll do more harm to her country than good.

Now for the crit clip, which has a lot going on… 

Ivy's starting class is Wing Tamer. Knights who bond with beasts and have them do their bidding. Riding a dragon, they can use magic and staves.

So, first things first. The Elusian royals both have the Wing Tamer/ Flying class. In fact, they both wield tomes and staves, meaning the only true difference is their stats and mounts. I’m curious what kind of weapons they’ll get to use when they promote, if any. And considering we haven’t seen falcon knights at all, perhaps Hortensia will get a griffon upon promotion.

Considering Ivy is level 1 on this map, I think this will be where we recruit her. We’ve also already seen this map in the Emblem Ring trailer, the one where Chloe showed off some of Corrin’s abilities. And considering Chloe was promoted level three, I’d say this is around one half to two thirds of the way through the game. The enemies even look promoted too. Seems like at some point, Elusia attacks Firene. And considering the official website shows we’ll have Hortensia in the Solm chapter at some point, I wonder if this attack will be the breaking point for Ivy, or just the first chance she gets to join us.

Speaking of the map itself, we’ve got burning tiles making a return, along with rubble that seems to function as slowing terrain like forests and mountains. We’ve also got giant monster units, this chameleon looking creature with a pure brief attack. Hopefully this further confirms manakete units, and perhaps the weapon is purple to show it’s unaffected by fists. That’d actually be pretty funny, since grapplers were kind of my go to unit in Three Houses when it came to taking out giant monsters. Just ripped those hp sponges to shreds. I’m curious if they are dragons in lore. Considering the cobra look of Sombron, perhaps dark dragons just have a reptile based look in this game. Maybe we’ll see turtle and crocodile monsters too.

But that’s not all. In the corner, we can actually see Zephia charging up some kind of aoe attack, likely something akin to Upheaval in echoes. It even tells us it’ll deal 19 damage. Nice. Yet there's still more. During a brief moment, we can see that Zephia actually has a corrupted Sigurd emblem equipped. 

So, I have a story theory. Well, a continuation of my current ones. Basically, you know how Ivy says she’ll take the rings in that cutscene… Yeah, I think that’s gonna be more than just a threat. Then at some point our heroes are captured, Sombron turns Marth into evil Marth. Our heroes escape to Solm, and basically go about reclaiming their lost rings and the like. This likely ends with Marth reclaimed, coinciding with Alears character arc. I also think this won’t be our last fight with Zephia. Considering her being descended from the dark dragon clan, and her ears and horns, I think her final fight will be against her as a manakete.

All in all, I’m curious that we only got Ivy today. Perhaps since there isn’t another trailer to show this week, news will be slowing down again. Hopefully we’ll get her later in the week. And considering how many weeks are left until the game comes out, maybe another emblem showcase this week as well. Also, curious to see who Ivy's retainers will be like.

[moonndust]

chapter 20, 21 and 22 were something… (part 1)

(includes fire emblem engage spoilers)

only alear, kagetsu, alcryst and merrin survived the griss hide n seek level

and i vividly recall alcryst always dealing the final blow.

atp if alcryst dies in-battle then it’s fuckin over for all of us

alcryst died once at some point and i immediately went to the time crystal

he’s like my only maxed out character and i am not risking the chances of losing a wet towel of a menace

one crit and its all over for the enemy

kagetsu had like 8% crit chance and landed on like more than 10 crits in a row.

i like but also dislike the lack of characters in each cutscene. like wtf was everyone else doing when griss was talking to alear? they were clearly right there??? right???

then get his ass. sneak up on that bitch and STAB HIM IN THE GUT OR SMTH.

it’s that easy.

this game has so many plot holes. way too many that i can’t even think of one.

like half of the casualties in the plot could’ve been avoided if we used that damn time stone. framme was so fuckin right about using the time stone to stop florra port from getting destroyed. use your brains y’all!!! USE IT!!!

ik it would make the game like longer but still‼️

i didn’t understand a single thing in veyle’s backstory (i wasn’t paying attention to all the “tell don’t show” shit)

my opinion on marni drastically changed when she immediately switched up. it really felt rushed but i really like how her va portrayed marni’s feelings.

marni’s death was like witnessing a child getting disowned and killed right after

mauvier’s character is great‼️ he’s just bland‼️that’s all‼️

the battle was pretty easy ngl. alcryst (as always) landed the final blow on veyle.

the cutscenes were awkwardly put together ngl. like the cutscene where veyle is crying over alear’s dead body, vander and alfred are just 🧍

i mean ig it could work as a parallel cutscene to lumera’s death but still.

why tf were they just standing there. they were most likely standing in shock but at least make them closer to alear’s body or smth omg.

anyways

the writing is dogshit but i somehow nearly cried in some cutscenes. don’t ask why bc i don’t know either.

i’m blaming the god tier va work for that. they put so much effort for such a shitty script that it works.

zephia, ik you’re hot n all, but i am this close to throw hands at your ass

“we’re all family here.” THIS IS NOT THE FOUND FAMILY TROPE THAT I REMEMBER

mauvier was just there. ngl he did a lot of work in the battle but he also didn’t do much at the same time??

i’m not done w/ the chapter 22 battle yet but goddamn that’s a lot of cutscenes.

ngl it would’ve been fun to fight the corrupted + corrupted veyle as the units w/o alear. that was such a missed opportunity for a good challenge.

i like corrupted veyle’s voice better than her normal voice…

oh no they took away marth’s blue hair and pronouns 😨

they took away everyone’s colored hair and pronouns 😱

now they’re all red and pronounless 😢

i started the battle in chapter 22 w/o knowing that alear was the only one who could get the rings…

so my dumbass made alcryst waltz to lyn’s ring and i realized that i fucked up

had to use the time crystal and go back 2 turns to the very beginning

and replay the battle from scratch.

pandreo (once again) was a fuckin trooper and carried everyone

the emblem rings i assigned the everyone was lowkey random but i let the ai do it for me since i am a lazy fuck

so there was uhhhh alear/roy, alcryst/lyn, kagetsu/lucina, pandreo/corrin (later changed to micaiah), seadall/byleth, rosado/eirika (changed to corrin), clanne/celica, zelkov/eirika, alfred/sigurd, merrin/leif (originally ike) and timerra/ike

i sorta did change timerra’s class to picket pretty late so she kinda died in almost everything but its ok i still love her

i wanted to play around w/ the change class mechanic on the benched units i had (i wanted to give diamant exposure therapy through sage class)

i actually have a good strategy that i didn’t even get to use and i’m pissed.

this is just a one shot alcryst centered strategy. 1) make alcryst engage w/ lyn and dispel doubles, 2) pandreo uses rescue and teleports alcryst close to him n seadall, 3) seadall uses dance on alcryst, 4) astra storm that bitch w/ those sweet chain attacks‼️

this could also help w/ lucina’s all for one skill.

seadall’s dance was a life saver in every battle.

alcryst, kagetsu pandreo and merrin are the biggest carries in my team atm

alear is just… there

in conclusion? always take out the villain when they least expect it.

griss in post-battle chapter 20 telling alear the big fell dragon thing? get his ass from behind.

hyacinth just standing there at chapter 10? pop his old bones

when sombron appeared before alear died? just yank the helmet off of veyle’s head. marni cracked it ffs.

oh yeah and use the time crystal like your life depended on it plot wise.

[dirtyoldmanhole]

going through CQ has me thinking how corrin/gunter would progress if i had the stamina to write that route on top of YRMR (for revelation). :P

obviously, i'm not going to write another 120k fic. [stares meaningfully @ myself lmao] but here's the bullet points i've been playing with for those interested ~

in general, i think corrin has a much worse time in conquest, and gunter has a worse time in revelation. there's ups and down to rev with corrin, but his longer absence in CQ meant she truly thinks he was, like, for real dead. in yrmr/revelation, she was honestly so distracted with the hoshido/mikoto/dragon stuff that she shoved her grief aside for so long that he came back before it really hit. (unhealthy in a different way but it does keep her going).

i deleted the scene in the fic since it was a little maudlin/cheesy, but lilith feels like she'd be the only one to realize just how hard corrin grieved for him, that very first span of days in the astral plane (in both routes).

cq!corrin, bluntly - feels like she's being constantly broken with the "tests" of loyalty that garon and iago force her through, so there's a lot harsher of an element to keeping her stoic game face on, much earlier. i think she honestly just numbs herself to any and all emotion between that and the grief and basically all the "constants" in her life changing given the new war campaign "for" garon.

once corrin finally re-joins him in valla, she just. breaks down in ugly sobs in his arms. she's a mess, he's almost a mess, and it's kind of a good thing that reunion was mostly private.

ironically azura's the first to know about their... thing. i see the three of them staying in valla overnight to at least catch up on [plot shit] and to speak freely for the first time in like, ever, while recovering from minor wounds from that battle. he totally holds her by his side. uwu

(imagine if corrin had told azura offhandedly 'oh he was like my dad' a few weeks before much like micaiah/sothe's 'he's my brother' and then azura sees. them all but canoodling. lmao. 'if whatever your deal is familial i will eat my entire pendant')

post re-recruitment:

i also think their relationship would, surprisingly, progress much faster than even in the rev route. corrin seeks him out nightly just for him to hold her through the night terrors and in one of those nights, they uh.... stumble into the sex, heh.

i also, hah, think it'd progress a lot "harder" in the kink sense - as mentioned above, corrin has a shitty, shitty time in CQ's route, and i think she'd seek him out as somebody she can safely 'break' with in those scant moments of uncomplicated happiness. cough [nods meaningfully @ the recent 'gunter is totes a sadist' headcanon] cough

i don't think he actually ever tells corrin about his late wife until after the war, or his whole motivation for killing garon. it's..... not great, in ways i actually feel like their relationship in yrmr/rev route is more open/honest? their dynamic in CQ is more ... two shellshocked veterans finding that spark of happiness and nonverbal trust in private vs in the middle of some truly crushing awfulness where they both have to keep their 'game face' on in public.

lategame:

so the thing is. i think kana's an accident in CQ vs them intentionally wanting a child post-YRMR, lol. (parts of it are funny ('oh shit what do you mean babies can still happen') and then parts of it are whiplash-y tragic when gunter's struggling with his feelings given his late wife/child. given he uh. hasn't told corrin about that yet. yeahhhh.)

i'm on the fence as to whether he blurts it out to her in the middle of all that (i can see their nastiest "fight" being here especially when hormones are going nuts, she's a little less patient with him than she is normally, and there's a lot of pressure there.)

corrin/gunter never actually outright tell anyone about their relationship (unlike in yrmr), even when kana's a thing. both of them really don't want iago and garon to be able to weaponise kana or their relationship - not that the stakes are higher here than in rev, per se, but there's much less margin for error. (kana knows who his parents are but is also instructed not to tell anyone, at least until before garon and iago are dead.)

tho i think azura explicitly knows because she'd be the one to suggest the deeprealms as a place for pregnant!corrin to go to for safety once when she can't hide it.

buuut it's obvious enough to the point when lilith dies in the eternal staircase that xander & co just give corrin to him immediately afterwards all 'make sure she doesn't crack ok'. she regresses a bit there - gunter actually gets to see a glimpse of what she was like before; just.... completely dead eyed. (i actually have an old piece of art that was one of my very first gunter/corrin strips that's just that entire scene. need to finish it.)

to that point i think lilith's death also hits hard because out of anything that's been a "constant" loving presence for corrin, it's the northern fortress gang. and lilith was iirc the one person to be there pretty much continuously even when corrin went over in hoshido.

interestingly i also think that gunter is ... while he's still focused on seeing garon dead, he kind of knows this is corrin&azura's endgame plan anyway, so he puts himself more as an advisor/supportive figure to help make it happen. he's quite good with long term planning, and i don't think anankos would have near the hatred or hold on him as happens in revelation.

anyway i haven't figured out post-endgame stuff yet (i totally want to see how anankos slots into this since the silent dragon still has a number of negative feelings to pull off on with gunter) but there ya go ~

[dentos-wife]

I don't like remembering the time people though Robcina was canon... there was so much hatred towards M!Robin for nothing coming from rabid chrobin fangilrs and people who don't understand multiverse calling him a pedophile when the poor guy did nothing wrong. He was just used as a mean by the player to marry Lucina. His only crime was being a self insert for people who wanted to marry said character. But you know the hypocrisy is that it's from the same people who call Lucina an adult women when it's to marry her off to OC of others 2nd gen when by their logic they are all babies when Robin marries them but all magically adult when they marry each other.... *sigh* I wish people could learn not to hate an innocent avatar for time travel romance that is optional... I hurted even more that Awakening is last from being the only game involving time travel romance, some time travel romance are not even optional yet I hardly saw people from this fandom seeing some moral problem here...

Oh yeah the Robin hatred because of the fact he could marry her is sad, I don't think it's as bad as it used to be because now Robin is his character but occasionally I see "Robin is a lucky man" on pictures of her (usually fanservicey and I'm like can't you just call her your waifu don't drag down my boy it's not canon and also not a fan of that rhetoric. Make an oc or self insert like the rest of us.

Like yeah I'm a Chrobin shipper, surprise right? I'm never going to hijack a post and talk about how so and so is so lucky to have the other that's idk gives me bad vibes. People (and it's usually the man from what I see in circles) don't own their partner

As for second thing second gen is where she's at so I don't think it's odd to marry her with second gen people, and hey if it's an oc in her timeline good, automatically making more of an effort I respect it. They are all the same age but when you marry the future child of someone in your army it's still odd as hell psychologically for the parent of the child. That's personally why I don't do Robin or Corrin with any second gen it's too hard for little old me to wrap my brain around it. Lucina is even harder due to how important Chrom is and I think IS realized that as I said before

SPEAKING of Lucina can we talk about how she's canonically flat chested and yet there is art of her with the biggest banzangas ever? There are so many big boobed FE characters out there respect flat chests and please respect her character???

[fireemblems24]

Engage 12 - 14

Spoilers for FE Engage 12+ below the cut.

I'm betting I get Byleth, Ike, Erikia, Corrin, and whoever else I'm forgetting before getting the old rings back? I wish I still had Marth and Sigurd though. They had SSS Tier inheritance.

I love Kagetsu so far. But I'm a sucker for swordmasters in general. The crit animation they have is so fun. If the weapon triangle wasn't such a huge deal in this game, I'd make an entire army of swordmasters lol.

I like how Ivy actually has intel on the enemy and actually tells us. We need more recruited, reformed "villains" who do this.

Fogado is funny so far. If he and Kagetsu had a support, that would be gold. Because it would be non-stop flirting or competing at who can flirt better. I saw Fogado wins so far, because Katetsu is awkward as hell about it lamo.

So if all the NPCs are dark-skinned, they should've made more Solm retainers dark-skinned too (I know from pre-release that images they aren't). FE is getting better a variety, but still some way to go.

Veyle is being a bitch to Marth for no reason. Leave him alone. Still predicting that Mauvier is recruitable. And Griss is . . . eh . . . something. I love a good unhinged villain though.

One thing I DON'T like about this game is that they give you new units way too fast. Like, I just got Ivy and co and now I have Fogado and co. And they seem like a fun bunch, but like, I only have 7 deploy slots . . .

And then you get into a situation where if you want to try out the new units, you can't in a skirmish, because those are the HARDEST battles in this game because it scales with your characters. Which, in some way, I like, because then they're a good challenge but then you can make story levels easier by outclassing enemies, so then you're not "stuck" on a story and can pick and choose your challenging stuff, but it leaves other units behind. Which is typical FE I guess, but all the extra content seems like it encourages you to use new guys. Idk, there's low level Tempest Trials, but those take a long time and rewards are meh for how long it takes, esp for exp, which is why I don't think they really work for it either.

Ugh, Alcryst keeps getting shit level ups, but his supports and character is so interesting. And I just complained about limited deploy slots. I hope my boy can catch up, because he's, unfortunately, next on the benched list. Everyone else either dodges or tanks likes a pro. He's really my only liability on the battlefield right now.

Seforia is pretty cool. Glad to see more moms in this game. Really, almost everyone had a mom instead of a dad this time.

Oh, God, I'm so happy to get Ike. 😭😭😭😭😭 Radiant Dawn was my first Fire Emblem game, and still probably the one I've replayed the most. OMG this makes me so happy 😭😭😭😭

Timerra and co seem fun, but again, I'm sick of new characters. I still have a few open slots (pending you take 12-14 ish in final chapters), but 1 is reserved for the dancer, because, dancer. It's just a bonus he's gorgeous this time.

Ok, also, you have no idea how happy the bosses of these chapters makes me. It's a shoutout to other twin bandits with goofy names that used to show up n all the past GBA games.

Iyv's reaction to hearing that Hortensia has attacked was hilarious. A+ to the voice actress selling that.

I like how the three heirs on this post-level map are all talking to the locals. It's a nice detail. They're being diplomatic.

Also, another small bonus to this game. The bald eagle actually sounds like a bald eagle. All that majestic yelling you hear in movies is fake. That's a different bird. Eagles sound like squeaky toys, lamo.

Ivy teasing Alcryst in their B support is great lol. She tweaked him big time. She's a much more engaging character than she seemed like she would be initially.

So I just saw Alfred and Ivy's C Support, and this is the 2nd time someone told Alfred he's naïve for trusting people and he's just like "yep!" I love him so much, you don't even know.

Kagetsu is a fucking badass. Dude doesn't even have a special ring and makes mincemeat of enemy units. No way I could've beat the skirmish I just did without him. It was fog of war, everyone was separated, and like 99% of the units were fliers, but I really want to adopt a deer, so . . . Thanks, Kagetsu. He's going to get a pebble when I get back to Somniel. There wasn't even any deer. 😭 Why did I suffer? Got an owl and a rabbit at least though.

Case in point about Kagetsu. Turns out, he was the first enemy in the arena and defeated: Merrin, Ivy, Celine, and Chloe before Alfred finally took that menace down.

Lyn mentioned Eliwood and Hector in her paralogue 😭😭

Just saw Alfred and Alear's A Support. I think they're cute together. He's one of the few people who was casual with her right away, which is what Alear really wants. And the first one who offered friendship too. Still picking him as my S Support.

I still can't get over Hortensia's design.

Kind of glad that Hortensia is angry with Ivy. It makes sense she'd feel hurt and betrayed by Ivy, esp since she just lost her father too. Conflict also makes for a better story so . . .

Oh, wow, another cool moment for Alear. Hortensia is holding the Solm queen captive and threatens to kill her if Alear won't hand over the rings. But Alear refuses. So does Timerra, good on her.

Hortensia's VA is really selling her breakdown. Makes me feel bad and realize she's just a little girl. Then thong lady shows up and ruins it.

Is it bad I'm relieved Goldmary and Rosado aren't around? Because I'm tired of getting 3 new units every round. Even though I want Rosado so badly.

Oh, good grief. Hortensia is under some kind of mind control. How original, Fire Emblem. Betting that other little girl is too.

Ivy and Hortensia got pretty cool story arcs. Pretty sure I get Hortensia and Byleth now. Man, it's cool to get Byleth.

And, hey, another parent gets to live!

Solm gave me more money 😭😭😭😭