#skele gets on a soapbox

[skelezomperman]

Random thoughts the second - On Hostility in the FE Community, Part 1

This past weekend, more or less, marked a year since an incident that took place here on Tumblr regarding the Fire Emblem: Three Houses community. Specifically, it involved an artist being run out of the fandom due to harassment. Even as a relatively uninvolved person, this incident has stuck in my mind for the past year as perhaps one of the most egregious things to come out of the four years of discourse over this game. If you, my audience of two or three, will indulge me, I have a few rambles - so much in fact that I have to split into two parts. The first part will focus on 3H specifically, and the second will be on the broader FE community.

As I was saying, about a year ago – towards the end of September 2022 – there was an incident which took place on Tumblr. This incident involved a fanartist for Three Houses who was a fan of the Blue Lions. They were rather obscure, or at least obscure enough to where I had never heard of them before this. The artist deleted their social media after allegedly experiencing harassment from Edelgard fans which was allegedly over a comment over Sitri. Afterwards, their Tumblr URL was hijacked by someone else and used to reblog a rant from a prominent Edelgard fan. In that post, the person denied responsibility but they said that the artist “got what they deserved” and that they “fucked around and found out.” While the posts in question have been deleted, I do have screenshots of this happening in case anyone wants to examine what was actually said rather than taking my description as fact.

Generally, this person and their followers have been held responsible for what happened to this fanartist, and this story has been passed around as fact to this day. I was personally angered when I heard of what happened, especially because of the brazen URL stealing, the lack of shame regarding what happened to this person, and how irrelevant they were in the grand scheme of things. (It's one thing if this happens to someone who compared Edelgard to Putin or called Dimitri a racist or something like that - as poor of an excuse it is to point to that, it's at least an excuse. This was beyond the pale.) It pains me to admit that I allowed anger to get the better of me, and I apologize that I did so.

Since then, there’s been an interesting allegation. 

I’ve seen that when this story has been brought up, other peoplehave claimed that the artist was harassed off the Internet by “their own fans” and that members of the…we’ll say “anti-Edelgard” group had framed Edelgard fans as being responsible.

Sadly, I cannot immediately disbelieve this allegation. Some of the reaction to this incident was quite exaggerated, especially with the attempt to drag Edelgard's VA (Cristina Vee Tara Platt) into this drama and with the digging up of years-old Discord posts. While I won't elaborate, I also have reason to believe that the anti-Edelgard crowd also has a complicated relationship with the truth. It may be simplest to believe that it is the Edelgard fans who are lying and that whoever stole the URL sympathized with them or collaborated with them, but as things stand, it's a he said-she said situation. I am not God and I don't know for sure what the harassment entailed or who stole the URL, so I cannot make an impartial judgment.

(As an aside, while I'm not interested in debating this incident publicly, my conscience does weigh on me for having possibly spread calumnies in the past. If anyone per chance has evidence that there really was a conspiracy to frame Edelgard fans as responsible for harassment, I ask that this evidence be emailed to skelezomperman@gmail.com. If you convince me that there really was a conspiracy, I will publicly apologize. If you send evidence but it doesn’t convince me, I won’t say anything in public, so don't feel afraid to reach out.)

So this is where things stand, one year after moonlitboar was run off Tumblr. It would be one thing if this quietly faded into the background, but to this day I still see people spread this story (probably because nothing happened with any of the people involved, as far as I know) and to this day I see people play the blame game over this. To me, the fact that this incident happened and that it continues to linger is symbolic of the fact that an entire section of our fandom has been turned into a wasteland where people are fearful to speak their mind. It was egregious, but certainly not the only incident. And I do not mean to be an "enlightened centrist," but this kind of thing certainly does not exclusively happen to BL fans and it is not exclusively perpetrated by Edelgard fans. Many different people from many different cliques are responsible for this petty conflict and I would say that it has left a negative impact across the broader FE community. At the very least, I hope we can all agree that this shouldn't have happened and this person did not deserve this, regardless of what they actually said. I freely admit that I am naïve, but I hope that one day this will be resolved - that not only will the actual truth be known, but that all those responsible will apologize and turn a new leaf.

I will address this last part to everyone who continues to be involved in debates over FE3H, whether it is here on Tumblr or elsewhere. I recognize that with some of you, I have lost credibility due to past actions, but I hope you will still listen. When we are at the point where there are accusations of conspiracies being lobbed between cliques, there is something wrong. Some people may be more to blame than others, but I do not believe anyone who continues to be involved can truly claim to be innocent. I recommend that you do an examination of conscience: in other words, to review if your activities to fandom are truly bettering yourself and others or if they are detrimental. Those who are fanning the flames of conflict are quite possibly hurting themselves more than other people! I will get more into this in the second half of the post, but please, I really recommend stepping back and taking a long look at what exactly you are bringing to our community.

If you are spending inordinate amount of times getting into arguments with other people about 3H, or if you see yourself as part of some kind of war, or if you are looking down on other people, or if you see yourself as a martyr, you should take a step back and consider if you actually being a positive influence or if you are part of the problem. Yes, some people do say really stupid, mind-blowingly dumb things, and I understand the temptation to rebut it - I feel it a lot. But it’s worth remembering that sometimes it’s best to just leave them alone and lay off. Lack of discretion is a big reason why many people have been made to feel unsafe in a community discussing a game that they love. Let me say this again: this entire conflict has made people feel unsafe to discuss a game that they love. Putting everything else aside, this alone should be enough to make anyone in this community feel ashamed. It is very regrettable and we should all review to see if we have contributed to that and what we can change to prevent that in the future. This includes being a bystander - if you see stuff like this happening, even if it's from someone you consider a friend, do not be afraid to step in and say something! Your small, humble action could make a huge difference for other people.

To those of you who have made it to the end...congratulations? You are probably asking: how is this thing that involves a few dozen people at most relevant to the broader FE community? Tomorrow or Friday, I will post the second half of this ramble in which I address hostility across the entire spectrum of intensity, from a simple backhanded comment to outright harassment like this. From there, we can perhaps truly discover what it means to be a welcoming community and better ourselves and each other.

Edit: The second part is finished! Go take a look. It's much more positive and uplifting than this post, a reflection more about how everyone can help solve the problem of hostility.

[keelywolfe]

Masterlist: by any other name; pt 3

Click here for Part one of the Master List

Click here for Part Two of the Master List

Summary:  Monsters and Humans on the surface, living together. Stretch has a twitter following and Edge works for the Monster Embassy. They fight crime They love each other. Join them, their brothers, Sans and Papyrus, and their Human friends Andy Jeff and Antwan. There’s also chickens.

Warnings: Stretch is depicted as having depression and other mental health issues in this story. He and Edge are dealing with it in what I hope is a realistic and healthy-ish fashion, but your depression is not mine and I want everyone to take care of themselves, so be warned.

Note: The main storyline is pretty straightforward but I do write a lot of drabbles for this. They’re in collections and I’ve put a note where the best place to read a few of those collections would be within the main storyline, since they tend to follow the plot lines. You can also find a list of the prequel stories here and a list of the kustard stories here!

Enjoy!

 Also available on AO3

Cut For Length

Main Storyline

Click here to start from the beginning

A Haunting Prospect

Drabble Roads, Take Me Home -- Scroll Down

A Skele-ton of Tricks and Treats

Bitter Grounds (kustard included)

Shifting Intentions

Situation Normal

Internal Disputes CH1 | CH2 | CH3 | CH4 | CH5 | CH6

Playing Games (kustard)

Hickory Dick-ory Dock (kustard, lemon)

Two Plus Two 

Eat, Drink, and Read Drabbles -- Scroll Down

Beside Stories CH1 | CH2 | CH3 | CH4 | CH5

Any Other Drabble #3: Now With 2020 Vision! - Scroll Down

Conflict Resolution (kustard)

Side Effects CH1 | CH2 | CH3 | CH4 | CH.5

My Private Happiness CH.1 | CH.2 | CH.3 (kustard, lemon)

Not What It’s Cracked Up To Be CH.1 | CH.2 | CH.3 | CH.4 | CH.5 | CH.6

SOS Drabbles: Take Two and Call Me In the Morning - Scroll Down

Some Sense of Normalcy | ch.1 | ch.2 | ch.3 | ch.4

Words Cannot Espresso How Much You Bean To Me (kustard)

Drabble Me This, Drabble Me That - Scroll down

It’s a Lovely Afternoon In Ebott

Assessing the Situation

Revengefic AU: What if Edge and Stretch broke up

The Royal We CH1 | CH2 | CH3 | CH4 | CH5

Boogie Shoes

You Had Me At Jell-O

A Waffle Lot of Trouble

Just Swimmingly ch.1| ch.2 | ch.3 | ch.4 | ch.5 | ch.6 | ch.7 | ch.8 | ch.9

Another Drabble Bites the Dust - Scroll down to Drabble Collections

Pity in Short Supply (kustard)

Knick Knack Paddy Whack

Gentle Sins ch.1 |  ch.2 | ch.3 | 

Not So Golden Opportunity

The Bird in the Hand Shouldn’t Punch the Gift Horse in the Mouth

A Little Salty ch.1 | ch.2

With Interest

Drabble Collections

Drabble Roads, Take Me Home

Where There’s Smoke

Dead and Buried 

Tumblr Ask - Babysitters 

Cheetahs Never Prosper

Double Feature

Sightseeing

Theory of a Nap

Tumbler Ask - Battle Scars

You Could Have Been An Flavor At All

Childish Things

Past Bedtime

Insecurity Blanket

Humbugs 

Eat, Drink, and Read Drabbles

Family Structure

Unbalanced

Resting Grinch Face

In a Twinkling (kustard)

Bittersweet

Choo Choo 

All I Want For Kiss-mas

Cookies and Crumbs  

Behind Enemy Lines  

Nicely Done

Your Presents Is Required

Last Minute Gift (kustard)

Untitled Chicken Drabble

Unmasked

Auld Lang Syne

Any Other Drabble #3: Now With 2020 Vision!

Lesson Learned

Always the Prettiest 

When Skies Are Grey

Cooped Up

Hatters Gonna Hat

Unintentional Summonings

To-Do List

Thanks a Brunch

Cut Scenes (Lemon)

Throwing in the Towel

Olly Olly Oxen Free

Make Like A Tree And Beat It

By Fair Means or Fowl

Easily Distracted

Subtleties

In Pursuit of the Inevitable

Adjusting the Menu

SOS Drabbles: Take Two and Call Me In the Morning

SOS Drabbles: Set #1

SOS Drabbles: Set #2

The Code

Got Served

Bolt

Coming In Second

Home

Ordinary Days

No Hard Felines (kustard)

Out of Sight

Chilled to the… (prequel, babybones)

Pairs

The Great Outdoors

Narcissist

Comfort Zone

Chivalry

Drabble Me This, Drabble Me That

Not A Side-Eye

Cleanup

All You Knead is Love

Crossed Wires (kustard)

Cheap Thrills

Getting Off the Soapbox

Kept At Bay

Boogie Shoes

Weighing Options

Not a Quiet Place

Breathing Exercises

Fairy Tail Ending

Alternative Uses

Fluffy Bingo Drabbles

1. Cold Morning

2. Rainy Nights

3. Cuddles

4. First Kiss

5. Family Dinner

6. Swingset

Another Drabble Bites the Dust

Breakfast of Champions

Serving Size

Insufficient Memory

Phobia

Window Pains

Everything’s A-OK

Eye of the Beholder

High Praise

Making a Good Impressionism

Artwork

All of these are gorgeous, please give the artists love!!

A collection of art including Stretch and Edge from ‘Sharing Tastes’ by maddieblay!

Stretch playing borrowsies with Edge’s Clothes from ‘Sightseeing’ by GildedPleasure

Precious art of Stretch from Shifting Intentions by hj_skb

Artwork for Ch2 of Internal Disputes by hj_skb

Gorgeous kustard artwork from Playing Games by hj_skb

Adorable are of Stretch and his chickens!�� by spicyquasardilla

A kustard scene from Conflict Resolution by  GildedPleasure

Edge wearing Stretch’s hoodie by GildedPleasure

The boys being adorable by pentoll

All the boys on the sofa at movie night by gildedpleasure

Stretch sulking on the bus after Bruno’s clothing attack by constantlytiredreader!

A lovely piece of Stretch and Edge and butterflies by space and sauce

Edge as a kid, a teen, and an adult by Nicol

Handsome boys by Ely

Stretch, Edge, and their chickens!!! by Gilded_Pleasure

The Wedding by ShironuKurozaki

Stretch is scared of the cat!   ask-ufpapyrus 

Edge saving his sweetie from a kitten! by ask-ufpapyrus

adorable pics of the boys by yesiamkiwi

Lovely huggy boys by maddieblay

Stretch and Edge during the events of Not What It’s Cracked Up To Be by Gilded_pleasure

A lovely trio of artwork by yersipestis

Stretch and Edge  being their normal gorgeous selves by TDoomPoet

Stretch and Edge being happy together by thesinbubble

An adorable pic from Chivalry by Gilded_pleasure!

Red in his Santa hat by ShironuKurozaki

Adorable Edge as his Disney Princessness!   by ShironuKurozaki

Distraught Edge holding his brother by ash the rat

Red comforting Stretch in his own way by ash the rat

Adorable pic from Gentle Sins by constantlytiredreader

~~*~~ 

Back to Masterlist Part 1

[kryptsune]

Senpai! Any tips on world building? :D

🌼Whooooo boy, that’s a lot of talk about Mambo X’D and I love you so I will do my best!

Worldbuilding is a lot of work and is constantly an exercise of questions and answers. A lot of times worldbuilding happens at random. I never thought that I would worldbuild half the universes I was messing with. I just have this drive to connect the dots, so to speak. It usually starts with a character for me. I will use Nova as an example since he seems to be the catalyst of my now fully fleshed out Outertale. Nova was just design at first but with every design I do, I have a need to tell a story. A lot of times people overlook the importance of clothing in their storytelling and being from that background I definitely put hints and lore into what the characters wear. 

Sometimes even scrapping old designs to fit an overall narrative later on or fitting it to that mold. I originally drew Nova in a varsity jacket and as I developed the story I realized that I either had to make that choice believable or scarp it all together. I decided that his personality would be more rambunctious and trickster like this also led me to make him based off Loki. I decided to keep his jacket because his kind of uncaring and aloof attitude toward how the Monsters conduct themselves and their traditions made him a huge contrast. He prefers comfort over symbology basically. 

The first question you have to ask is why. That is super vague but why are you making this world? What purpose does it serve? Is it something that answers questions about characters? There are four specific pillars for storytelling, plot, setting/ environment, character, and emotion. All of these are used to make a lot of the stories we see and hear today. 

Nova, my OT Sans, needed kind of a purpose. I wanted my Outertale to be different in that way. I wanted to answer the question of why the monsters would leave in the first place. It turned into a rabbit hole of constant back and forth. It doesn’t really matter where you start on these four pillars but questions are so important. I know I keep saying that but it’s true. I will give an example.

Starting with Character/Environment: Characters are important to any story. They are the ones that your readers or watchers will be attached to. They are a mirror almost. Someone relatable. Now that doesn’t mean they have to be this pure bean. I would argue that making those kinds of characters actually makes it difficult to relate to. We all mess up so having a character with flaws that overcome them are even more relatable. Not to mention it will add to the emotional component. Our responses and our social skills revolve around our environment. This includes the “mechanics” of the world and genre. 

WTU is a great example of this, though the world of Undertale is relatively well established there are a lot of loose ends. Even more so when you make a Fell variation. In order to be a little more unique with how I handle my verses, I tend to start at ground 0. The original. I will use Grillby’s as an example. Grillby Magmaran is one of my favorite side characters in the story but due to his personality and the world, he is set in I had to change some things around. The setting of WTU is odd. Most people tend to make Underfell this gritty, dark, and violent place but I wanted to add a few more... let’s say real-world layers to it.

Grillby to me was always kind of set in stone, character-wise. I wanted him to be kind of a playboy. One who just seemed to care about only his own self-interest, on the surface. A lot of characters I have “re-written” have this mold. That they can’t outwardly express what they want to because it makes them vulnerable. A vulnerability that is mirrored in the fact that Asgore doesn’t really rule over the Underworld like most think. (A side note on calling it the Underworld as well is this idea of underground and shady dealings.) The most power is actually given to three characters. The third I will stay quiet on due to spoilers but the other two are Muffet and Grillby. Each with their own industries capitalizing on the hopelessness of the inhabitants. 

 Grillby is all about vices which is why I changed his usual restaurant into a multistory nightclub and bar. A place for the monsters to blow off some steam so to speak. It also plays into his kind of sleazy outward appearance hiding behind liquor and vices. Muffet’s Black Widow Casino plays on greed. A rather fitting industry for her character since the original is also obsessed with profit. It is little things like that I would continue to dig deeper on. Why is Grillby this way? Heck, why would he stay in Snowdin? The answers sometimes take some time to really think about but it’s something I really enjoy doing. The answer I came up with was simple. Contrast. Grillby and Muffet used to have a very 1920′s don and mistress vibe in their original relationship but Muffet’s personality was a little too much to take for Grillby who fell into vices after his own grief. Snowdin vs Hotland. I think you can pick out the contrast. He wanted to be as far away from that spider as possible.    

The town of Snowdin is actually a place that monsters can find sanctuary. It is not like Undyne’s monopoly of Waterfall or Muffet's rule of Hotland, why though? Well sticking with the original source material I still wanted Papyrus to be a character that you could love even if he was a little more rough around the edges. He is Head of the Royal Guard already so that decision led me to think more about how he would use that power. He basically becomes the protector of Snowdin Town and the townspeople reward him by placing a statue of the Captain in the town square. That boosts his ego but he still has noble intentions, protection. This also adds to his character since Papyrus in my version is the older of the two brothers. The only reason he is harsh on Sans (or Red in this case) is that he knows of the cruelty outside their little town.  

This also explains why there are so many deadly traps all over the place leading into town. Very few monsters live outside the center of the town. It is his way of putting up defenses against any of the monsters that may be entering from outside the town. They have been used to kill humans, sure, but their main purpose is to create a blockade. 

I am going to kind of get on a soapbox a little bit in this so just bear with me. I think that a lot of Underfell creators do a huge disservice to the universe and its concept. *shakes head* It is one of the reasons that I decided to finally put my story into the public. It took a long time to muster up the courage to do that. Making things for the sake of darkness or edginess to me is... very... uh... how do I put this? Well, it’s a huge pet peeve of mine. Dark storytelling can be talked about effectively if the elements are there and other things balance it out. I see this a lot between Red and Boss. Specifically their relationship and how that is handled. There are plenty of stories with characters being close in a dark and harsh environment. They don’t turn into abusive a-holes. WHY!? Why would you take something like the original skele-bros and their relationship and do that? Granted. If there is some reason behind it. If there is a well thought out answer to the question of why then that is perfectly fine. What I find more and more, however, make these kinds of choices just for the sake of it. IT DRIVE ME BANANAS. 

Now I am not saying my story and verses don’t have plot holes. Most of the time when you dig deeper into a project you realize that closing one could open a few lesser ones but it just upsets me that people just randomly make these choices just for the sake of it. Shock value. There has to be a purpose. Good storytelling is about relatability and believability. Small things can sometimes take you out of it if they seem out of place. Remember that everyone goes about these kinds of creative choices differently. Mine is pretty much all question based or design-based. I am by no way saying that my way is correct. It is just something I have worked on for a very long time. I can kind of come up with my answers on the spot. 

I know I got away from this ask a little bit but I am happy that you are interested Mambo! If you want to know more specifics then just ask. There is so much more I can talk about. I was actually was asked to make a video on it so I may do that in the future. Just remember to have fun while doing it. Stories are fun to read but at the end of the day the world is yours and you should enjoy it! 

[skelezomperman]

Revisiting Sexualization in the Fire Emblem Community

Originally posted on Reddit. I'm preserving it here for posterity.

About four years ago in the wake of the scandal with allegations of sexual misconduct against figures in the community, I wrote a post which was really intended to be a follow-up to another post that I liked which primarily called out "hornyposting." I don't agree with everything I wrote in there, but it's worth a revisit since this time of year, there is always FEH summer banners which precipitate an increase in this type of behavior.

I think the core point that I stick to is that it's bad when people make inappropriate sexual comments all the time about fictional characters. This is not to say that a person should feel ashamed if they have these sort of feelings; ultimately the characters were designed that way and it is not their fault. This is also not to say that the characters have feelings and need to be protected; they are not real people, after all. The problem is that it furthers the objectification of people and especially of women. The characters themselves do not need to be protected, but if much of the discussion about female characters is lewd discussion, it gives the impression that women should be perceived as objects to be gawked at and not actual people. Again, I have to clarify that this doesn't mean that anyone who makes these sort of comments is a sexist, but in general it creates an unwelcoming atmosphere.

Something I didn't touch upon within the original post itself was how the series itself feeds into that. That post was written in the immediate aftermath of the second summer banner in 2020 which produced Summer F!Byleth/Rhea, a unit which in my opinion has the most crude art in Fire Emblem Heroes if not the entire series. It is hard to dispute that FEH leans heavily into sex appeal and particularly the sexualization of women. This year's summer banners are an example of that, with the first one featuring OCs like Gullveig who already were designed "like that" and the second featuring Goldmary and F!Alear wearing revealing outfits, even more-so than what they wore in their original game. Summer is not the only problem either; we see it happening in other places like the bridal banner (anyone remember B!Cecilia's physics-defying damaged art?) or the spring banner. Some would say that FEH is "tame" with regards to sexualization (and gambling, another concerning trend that is out of the scope of this comment) and if that's the case, then I'm glad that I have never played any other gacha. Fanservice with male characters exists too, but this is generally in a much more respectful way that does not degrade the characters into objects. Compare Diamant and Ivy in Fire Emblem Engage: both would be considered conventionally attractive, but Diamant does not wear something that is so revealing as what his Elusian counterpart does. You can certainly take other similar examples from other games. This, too, feeds into latent sexism.

One other thing I would mention now is the trend of commissions that have some sort of innuendo. If you have been on social media in this fandom at all over the past couple years, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I cannot control what people do with their money, but it's degrading to see this sort of stuff over and over again. Even characters that otherwise are innocent like Lucina and Larcei are subjected to this sort of thing. From my personal experience (and I'm a male, so I don't know what it's like to be subjected to sexism), I feel dejected to see my favorite characters put into vulgar art pieces. I can hardly imagine what it would be like to be a woman in this fandom and get the feeling that female characters cannot just exist in peace without being turned into something sexual.

Whenever these things get brought up, there is always someone who is sure to come and say that this is the result of being a "Puritan" and trying to "censor" other people. But this is far different than that: all that we need is a community that is respectful. What can we do? I'm not advocating for jumping at people who do the above and making rude comments towards them, but we also can't stay silent. We need to have this conversation in some way. Because if we don't...nothing will get better.

[skelezomperman]

Some random Thoughts the first

Here's some random thoughts about Fire Emblem that I'll post here since the Opinions Thread on Reddit is a bit late. Negative first, then positive.

Firstly, I've said this before but I think that the biggest casualty of incest being discussed in Fire Emblem is that it means that people cannot treat a brother and sister being affectionate to each other normally. Every time they do so much as share an embrace, you are sure to see someone claim that there is some kind of romantic undertone. I really, really just hate this. Can we just...not?

Secondly, there's a pattern I've noticed, a sort of temptation to get addicted to looking at other people's bad takes. It is certainly not hard to find people saying things that objectively make no sense, not especially on social media sites like Tumblr, Reddit, or Twitter/X. Sometimes it is so funny that you have to say something to someone else. But at the same time, it's easy to fall into this addiction to looking at bad takes. To make it a full-blown habit of spending so much time at looking at terrible things said on the Internet is extremely unhealthy! I am not saying this to laugh or to proclaim myself as better, because I too am guilty of gossip. But we are called to greater things than circlejerking off other people's faults.

---

We are honestly blessed to have so much talent in our community. Obviously, there's artists, but we also have talented writers, talented cosplayers, talented translators, talented analyzers. I see it when I see the subreddit, I see it on Twitter, I see it on Tumblr, I see it on Discord. My talent is nowhere near the talent that other people have. I can't draw, I can't really speak Japanese, and my creative skills amount to some middling writings. So to everyone who has this talent, I thank you for all you've done, and if you want to use your talents to enrich the community, I say go for it! I support you.

Have I mentioned before that I like Ivy from Fire Emblem: Engage? I will spare you the details of my months-long angsting with the fact that I like her. I've said repeatedly before that I would not die on a hill defending that character, but for once I'll say that I appreciate her. I appreciate that she isn't one-dimensional (contrary to popular belief, ghosts are not mentioned in every support she has). She's adept at maneuvering around many different people, whether it's with Alcryst who clearly still has bad feelings about what happened in Chapter 10, with her sister whom she wants to support despite the enmity between their mothers, or with someone like Mauvier who is in a similar situation to her. Yes, the worldbuilding in Elusia rings hollow just as it does throughout the game, but I still felt that she was fine with regards to fitting into the plot, perhaps more-so than any of the other royals in the game.

(In general, I think my enjoyment of Engage increases when I turn away from looking at posts where people say they dislike it. Then I feel less bad about liking Engage even if it went against a lot of what I was wanting out of future Fire Emblems.)

One last thing is that I want to just say that I like how many little things there are to discover about FE4. I'm in the process of building a group of docs comparing the various translations of FE4. It's been three years since I went through the work of putting together a script for Project Naga, and I'm still finding lines that I never knew existed. Who knew that there's actually a line for if you seized Lubeck (first castle in Chapter 5) with Byron somehow still being alive? Or that Ishtore's boss dialogue changes if you fight him before killing Liza? So many little details to appreciate from this game even if it does show its age.

[skelezomperman]

Random thoughts the second: On Hostility in the Fire Emblem Community, part 2

Yesterday, I published a post reflecting on an incident of harassment that took place in the Fire Emblem: Three Houses community on Tumblr. Today is the second half of that post, the part that is more relevant to most people. I will ramble more about why it’s important that everyone learn from things like that and how we can build a better community. (And perhaps it’s even more relevant today given an incident that took place on Twitter regarding Fire Emblem Heroes!) Please, read this post with an open mind. If I have changed even one person's outlook, I will consider it a success.

Let’s take a step back and zoom out to the broader ill that is impacting us: hostility. The vast majority of hostility is not high profile, extreme incidents like what happened to that fanartist a year ago. The vast majority of hostility are small things that are unfortunately normalized as everyday behavior. By this, I mean stuff like backhanded comments over a playstyle or mildly mean jokes about a favorite character. It’s not extreme, but it is what causes the most harm altogether. The low-impact behaviors do add up because they are far more frequent. They wear down other people and cause them to become less open to participating in the community. This is what leads to people getting bad impressions from interacting with our fanbase or with specific sectors of our fanbase. 

Perhaps the bigger issue with hostility is the impact on self. If you fall into this bad habit of being aggressive towards others, you will personally experience several bad effects. Firstly, you will be training yourself to assume bad faith in others – in other words, you turn into the metaphorical hammer that sees everything as a nail. You also isolate yourself from other people. Both of these things make you more likely to get comfortable with things that shouldn’t be happening in our community. Of course, being passive-aggressive one time is not a slippery slope that leads to committing grave harms against other people, but one must remember that all hostile behaviors form part of the same continuum. Most of all, you lose a sense of why you joined fandom in the first place. I highly doubt you joined the fandom to get into petty arguments with people. No, you joined the fandom because you felt an invitation in your heart to get out and talk about what you love, to create content about what you love. Getting into petty arguments, turning hostile against other people, being mean is only a distraction.

Everyone knows that this is a problem. I don’t have to point to extreme incidents like the one I reflected on yesterday to show that it’s a problem – you could probably ask any friend if they’ve experienced someone being mean, and they would say yes. It’s not exclusive to any subsectors either, not to debates about Three Houses nor to the elitists fighting the Awakening/Fates babies nor to playstyle debates as seen recently on Reddit. It’s a problem across the community. 

What is the answer to this? How can we stop hostility? The antidote is simple: it is love. Specifically, it is charity, the pure love which is the recognition of the humanity within oneself and others. Charity is the foundation of the bond that brings us all together in this community to talk about the video games and other media that we love. Nurturing the virtue of charity not only decreases the hostility that one gives towards others but also helps one resist hostility towards other people. Someone truly motivated by charity tries their best to be welcoming to all people. I mean it when I say all people: there are no exceptions to the category of people whom you should be charitable towards. It is quite radical to say this, but it’s the truth: the only way we will get better as a community is if we are willing to extend a charitable attitude towards everyone.

What about people who are saying dumb things? (I don’t mean things that one would disagree with, I mean truly bad ideas or opinions that a reasonable person would say is wrong.) Should we be hostile to them? No! Being hostile only makes them dig in deeper. If you want to be charitable, you can try to politely explain why what they are doing is wrong. We aren’t perfect and we’re not ready for that all the time, so if you don’t feel like explaining, just ignore and block. Being rude to the person will only make the situation worse.

How about people who are hostile themselves? Surely giving them a taste of their own medicine is warranted, right? Also no! You are only feeding into their perception that they are the victim. I understand that humans want to get revenge, but a tit for tat does not solve the problem. It only makes it worse. Hate and anger are not solved by more hate and more anger. Love is what washes away the flames of anger. One who is overtaken by the flames of love will have no room for anger within their heart. So if you meet someone who is being hostile, either ignore them or reach out and invite them to share in your love, share your compassion with them, let them know that you are willing to reach out to them and understand them. Who knows – a simple act of compassion could be enough to change someone’s life!

I understand that our nature means that we humans are not perfect. We are all susceptible to having off days where we are a bit mean. If that happens, do not be afraid to apologize for what you did. It doesn’t undo what happened, yes, but when you apologize, you make yourself vulnerable and invite others to share in your vulnerability. In fact, even if you did something really bad in your past, do not be afraid to apologize! Other people may not accept it, but your willingness to apologize is a necessary first step to changing and making yourself an agent of love rather than an agent of hate.

Many of you would say that it is idealistic to expect that a community can be free of hatred or anger or hostility. I agree – it is a fact that in a community of our size, there will always be some sour grapes. But that doesn’t mean that we have to accept it. Imagine how much better we would be if all the energy spent on hostility, on gossip, on petty arguments, on bigotry, and everything else negative was spent instead on building each other up. We can work to change this one step at a time, starting with ourselves. If we each change ourselves, we can change those around us. Little acts can make big differences!

In a separate post, I will publish a self-reflection, or examination of conscience if you will. It’s a way to take a step back and consider what you have or have not been doing with the community. I try to ask myself questions like this regularly because I think it is useful for evaluating what I have been doing and whether it has been good or bad. It won’t work for everyone, but I encourage you to take a look at it. 

I will conclude by returning to the metaphor of the invitation, the invitation to partake in this community. To this day, people still say YES to the invitation to partake in our community even as so much strife continues to take place. This is through the effort of people who are willing to be welcoming, who are willing to open up their heart and share their love with others. That invitation is still on the table for us. Every day, we must respond to the invitation to bond with others in our community with a resounding yes. Yes, I want to talk about the Fire Emblem series with other people! Yes, I want to form bonds with other people! Yes, I want to make as many other people feel welcome! Yes, I want to give love and charity to other people just as others have given it to me. Let us help ourselves and others to accept that invitation, every day, from now on. It will not undo what happened in the past, nor will it make everything perfect in the future, but if we try, we will succeed.