#yay i didn't talk about celica for a long time! :D

[fayesdiary]

ooh, 12, 13, 14, and 15 for Celica

12) What I like about how fandom portrays her

Now I haven't been in the mainstream FE fandom in a long time (and considering the things I've heard that's probably a good thing), but I get the feeling that people are finally warming up to her and giving her the appreciation she deserves!

13) What I don't like about how fandom portrays her

...which is in direct contrast to how she was treated shortly after Echoes released. My god, people hated her in the early days.

From making the most bad faith assumptions possible (like claiming she wholeheartedly trusted Jedah), to calling her a dumb hypocrite ("she hates war but she killed pirates ravaging her kingdom. curious. i am very intelligent". Even worse considering apparently even one of the creators got into it too with "lol woman is angry and man doesn't know why so relatable") or even a useless damsel in distress. Because of course, everyone whines about wanting a flawed lord and then bitch about every slight mistake they do when they get one.

Trust me, I was on the FE subreddit back in the day, I have read stuff. But then again, when the game itself is really sexist, of course it's gonna lure in sexist people.

14) What I like about how canon portrays her

Fire Emblem female lords tend to follow the same archetype (which Celica herself started by the way) of "pacifist who hates violence but still fights to put an end to it", and what makes them unique and interesting is their details and mindsets along with the fuckups the writers have them do so their male counterparts can clean up their mess and look better by comparison

In Celica's case it's her religiousness and how it affects her as a person (mostly for the better, sometimes for the worse), her willingness to get her hands dirty and beat the shit out of pirates and crime lords if it means her people get to live a better life, and her extreme reservedness and trying to both constantly self-sacrifice and putting the world on her shoulders, which results in her keeping all her problems to herself until they either come back biting her like in Act 4 or her repressed emotions explode into outbursts of rage like at the end of Act 2.

You get to see so much of her feats and fatals flaws and that's what makes her such a wonderful character.

15) What I don't like about how canon portrays her

sigh Here we go again.

Celica's biggest problem is that she gets sidelined hard near the end of the game and she slowly starts losing her agency from as early as Act 3 until she becomes little more than Alm's cheerleader by the time of Act 5.

And Act 4 is half "Celica gets done in by her fatal flaws which is great shit" and "Celica loses any semblance of agency for herself which is just shit." By the time of Act 5 the game doesn't even try to hide it anymore. You can't control her until the final battle, she can't wield Falchion for some stupid reason and the game keeps singing Alm's praises while leaving Celica to the side like the good love interest she ought to be🙄

Also Conrad. Just... Conrad's whole reason for existing- saving her from situations she didn't even need saving from in Gaiden. Cause gods know she had too much agency.

Really though if Kaga is doing a better job at handling female characters than you are, you really should be ashamed of yourself