A side note for my FE Jugdral mutuals; Alfyn’s Chapter 2 boss looks exactly like Tailtiu, if she were an evil apothecary and also tripled in size during battle because this game does that.
Chapter 2 for Ophilia, Cyrus, and Alfyn. Keeping these going since I won’t have much time for gaming over the weekend.
Ophilia
I’m not sure what I was expecting for Ophilia’s quest to light the flames of churches located in places where there logically would be churches, i.e. not dungeons or remote uninhabited areas, and sure enough the conflict of this chapter has absolutely nothing to do with the Kindling and everything to do with the character’s penchant for helping distressed small children. One of the ending cutscenes does try to tie the two together – the new flame reflects Ophilia’s gentle compassion – but that’s about it. She gets to act as an impromptu grief counselor in a way that ties into her own past, which qualifies as a good way to write a pious clerical character (the bad way involves prudery and attempts at conversion). And then she gets to follow the kids into a forest and beat up a wolf with an unpronounceable Scandinavian-looking name that’s probably pulled out of Norse mythology because why not.
I’d also like to thank the designers for not having the Saintsbridge cathedral be a complete cut and paste of the one in Flamesgrace, though most of the difference comes from the size. Catholic churches vary considerably in appearance and aesthetics, a fact rarely displayed in their fantasy equivalents.
Party banter highlights: Alfyn has a precocious crush on Ophilia but she’s too preoccupied with ogling Primrose’s legs. Cyrus demonstrates the logical reaction to religious ritual of a scholar in a setting where the existence of deified supernatural beings is physically provable. Therion mopes about his past, Tressa is bad with kids, H’annit tells us what everyone already knows about dogs, and Olberic is thinking about the kid he left behind in Cobbleston. Aww.
Cyrus
Ooh, some overarching plot stuff: blood magic, something about the scholarship of Olberic’s former kingdom, and another shot of that guy trailing Cyrus who might be a member of the Crows. In this case it leads into a story that is in no way connected to Tressa’s storyline in the same town – bad – and culminates in a sewer – good. What can I say, I like water dungeons even in this game where “dungeon” just means an interior screen with random encounters and a couple of dead ends. The necromancer boss was actually a bit challenging, able to summon minions and inflict debuffs and the no-boosting status condition.
I’m not really sure what to make of all the comedy surrounding Cyrus’s lack of interest in women. I get that he’s hot (if you’re into nerdy older twinks that is) and that he’s free with the compliments, but I’m not sure if that’s enough to hang a character arc on. At least Odette isn’t shaping up to be his Irene Adler equivalent, being instead an old friend from the academy who apparently has never been much interested in either sleeping with him or outwitting him.
Also, how do you reach that chest on the far left in the sewers? It’s halfway off the screen and there seems to be no path to it so I’m inclined to think it may just be decoration….
Party banter highlights: Ophilia and Primrose join the NPCs in being caught off guard by Cyrus’s guileless behavior, and meanwhile Cyrus spends some time admiring Therion and Alfyn’s talents in scenes that appear just as innocent as his scenes with women. He’s probably meant to be ace, but I can just as well see something between him and the equally admiring Alfyn, the earthier but skilled Watson (a doctor even!) to Cyrus’s Holmes. At the very end of the chapter Olberic’s banter tells Cyrus of the man following them, so I assume his next chapter will have some kind of reckoning with that plot hook.
Alfyn
Alfyn manages to surpass Tressa in having the most aimless storyline; it’s not even explained why he chose to head to Goldshore first. Remarkable coincidence that he did however, as he stumbles on not only a plague but a fraud apothecary making it worse to line her own pockets. For more Tressa chapter parallels, Vanessa is more or less a fusion of Ali and Morlock, at first appearing to be another friendly rival type but then quickly switches gears into another treatise on evil business practices. Alfyn gets to show off his intellect in a manner similar to Cyrus’s storylines, and he’s surprisingly devious in the end after a long and fairly difficult boss battle. He also cries in front of some little kids, which is cute.
…And then he resolves to set off for Saintsbridge for, uh, no reason whatsoever. Come on, have him say he’s missing the Riverlands and Zeph or something. This guy is in serious need of a goal.
Party banter highlights: Not too much remarkable, mostly respect for Alfyn’s skill with medicines and kids alike. Therion’s is notable since it’s one of the rare occasions when he actually sounds concerned for one of his allies. Then there are the weird ones…Alfyn coaxes H’annit to smile more for the sake of the children, and he tells Ophilia that when he gets complimented his ass starts to itch.
Chapter 2 for Primrose, Therion, and Tressa. As everyone except Olberic is slightly underleveled I’m doing these in order of recommended levels.
Also note that since this deals with story content past the opening chapters there will be spoilers.
Primrose
…Are all of her stories going to involve prostitution in some way? Not that I think that’s necessarily a bad thing since sex work is rarely addressed in gaming – and by this point they’re not even playing coy by trying to pass them off as dancers – but it would be kind of funny if her remaining two chapters found a way to work that in somehow too.
Stillsnow is pretty and chilly and not really the sort of place one would associate with brothel work, but I guess that might be the point. We can only assume Primrose found something thicker to wear off-screen like she said she would, lest this be a rehash of Silvia in Silesse in FE4. At least resident prostitute Arianna is dressed for the weather. The church of the Holy Flame also has a presence in the town, though that largely manifests in a bizarre interlude between the chapter boss and a priest who lost his daughter (gah, pseudo-Catholic priests with legitimate children again!) to suicide and is given one of the boss’s girls as a…replacement? That’s got to be some kind of milestone for weird and tangential incest subtext.
The theme of this chapter seems to be steering Primrose’s story toward a contemplation of revenge and the satisfaction it may or may not bring, but as far as JRPG philosophizing goes it works well in context.
As for the boss fight, it was long but not very difficult. I was grateful to have everyone with their secondary classes if only for the added damage variety, and my overleveled cleric!Olberic was indeed incredibly useful for both tanking and healing. I wished I’d brought someone who could cure status, because the boss has an annoying move that stuns characters for several turns.
Party banter highlights: Cyrus likes the idea of dancing but is bad at it, Tressa is the party’s designated little kid (even though the wiki says she’s 18 so she’s not that young), and Alfyn gets a no homo moment that’s probably more about showcasing how unworldly he is. The broader discussion of House Azelhart’s motto gets commented upon not by Ophilia but by Olberic, likely because it’s referencing faith in oneself and one’s convictions instead of any religious faith. H’annit has mementos of her deceased parents, which is notable as it indicates that she doesn’t see her master as a father figure. Fathers already feature fairly prominently in the stories of all three other female characters, so that’s good for variety.
Therion
Meanwhile the overarching theme of Therion’s chapters will be convenient eavesdropping. Also propositioning random people in taverns for information, in what we must assume is a totally heterosexual way.
I don’t recall it ever being mentioned what exactly Orlock was researching the dragonstone for, although reading spoilers online suggests that it has to do with blood magic or something like that. It doesn’t come across at all in his boss fight apart from perhaps his ability to summon a golem after his lackeys have been killed. He’s got an interesting mechanic where said lackeys can guard his weaknesses, meaning he can take damage but can’t be broken.
Oh, and Orlick and his former colleague were totally gay for each other, and all the “like a brother to me” denials in the world isn’t going to clean up that subtext. Interesting how we seem to be building up to Darius betraying Therion at some point in the past – another tale of jilted gay lovers?
Party banter highlights: First of all I have to point out that getting these conversations is an utter pain in the ass, and constantly switching out your party at every plot marker to check for one drags down the pace of the pre-dungeon segments of the chapters. Even doing that I managed to miss H’annit’s, and it doesn’t seem like there’s a way to go back and see them apart from YouTube…which I naturally did because there was no way I was redoing that long boss fight.
Anyway, most of the banter for this chapter centers around Therion’s profession and how the other characters react to that. Tressa doesn’t like that he chases rumors, H’annit doesn’t like that he steals, and Primrose would like him to add some more flair but he won’t because no homo (probably). Olberic surprises Therion by revealing that he actually has a mind for tactics and isn’t the dumb meatshield he first appears to be. Therion flirts with Ophilia either genuinely or to fluster her – I’m going with the second one – and on the other hand Alfyn wants to take the guy out for drinks. Given something I read recently on a sidequest involving Zeph, this is less homewrecking than it sounds; I think the overall intention is to clear the playable cast of their NPC connections and leave them free to be shipped with each other in whatever arrangement one prefers.
Tressa
This doesn’t really feel like it’s shaping up to be Tressa’s story, to be honest. Between the unidentified author of the journal she’s following and new rival merchant Ali it’s a little hard to see where Tressa herself fits in not counting her role as obligatory player surrogate. Ali is interesting, sure, but the problem is that he’s too interesting and too directly involved in the conflict of this chapter, both in how he introduces Tressa to her latest money-making scheme and then one-ups her and later in his attempted opposition to Morlock. Meh, from the sound of it he won’t be making a reappearance until her last chapter, but then there’s still the journal author hanging over her otherwise aimless travels in the name of doggedly ethical mercantilism. As to how this chapter works as a treatise on fair business practices, it…sort of does? Obviously monopolies and price gouging are bad and get personified in the form of an obese rich guy who won’t fight his own battles (like Oliver from FE9 only less delusional), but then we’re also supposed to be questioning the smooth-talking sales pitches of Ali and his father because it’s sort of lying? I have no idea, and at this point I’m more confused than anything by Tressa’s personal moral code.
Oh, and this is the third dungeon to be somebody’s house. H’annit’s first dungeon is a forest, can there maybe be another of those? Or anything else? I have nothing to say about the Omar fight, and overall I’m still finding these bosses to be fairly easy even when they hit hard. Having an overleveled tank who can also do group heals and revives is OP.
Party banter highlights: Not much this time. I know I’m biased since I don’t find Tressa all that engaging on her own, but the other characters don’t contribute all that much here either. Primrose gets a motivational speech, Ophilia might have a crush on Ali, Tressa and Therion continue to not get along (and not really in a UST way), and H’annit disapproves of Tressa’s love of money which is amusing from a gameplay mechanic perspective: a Rogue path character doesn’t care for the motives of a Noble path character. Alfyn gives her some advice on friendships re: Ali that will sound a lot gayer in hindsight if the game decides to start shipping Tressa/Ali
Any of the popular HP slash ships or…anything about or in Supernatural or Teen Wolf, because they have a ton of content and at least some of it is bound to be worth enjoying. For fandoms I’m genuinely active in, Ike/Soren.
K. What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?
I’m not sure if you could call it an arc per se as she enters the story fully-formed and only faces her downfall at the very end, but there’s a reason I often bring up la marquise de Merteuil from Les Liaisons dangereuses on favorite character lists.She’s unquestionably a horrible person and is in fact one of the classic literary villain protagonists (one who predates the more popular Byronic antihero archetype, no less), but even if most of her backstory is contained in one lengthy letter halfway through the novel it’s still a powerful bit of exposition. Merteuil grew up sharply conscious of the restrictions placed on her by a patriarchal society that thrived on sexual intrigue even as it afforded women substantially less leeway than men to conduct their social-climbing manipulations in the open. She’s fully aware that everyone underestimates her because of her sex and her carefully cultivated reputation for austerity and respectability, and she exploits this fact to perpetrate some truly heinous acts for astonishingly petty reasons. It’s an 18th century conceptualization of feminism twisted and turned self-serving, and that she’s clearly aware of what she’s doing makes her both more awful and more worthy of respect both from her confederate and former lover and from the reader. I’m glad that most adaptations scrap some of the novel’s more excessive punishments for her in the end – ex. contracting smallpox and losing all of her money in a lawsuit unrelated to the plot – because by far her most earned punishment is the social one, the one directly tied to her actions throughout the story.
L. Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.)
Tressa from Octopath Traveler is shaping up to the playable character in which I’m least interested, but she has a fun earnestness to her that makes her hard to actively dislike. I also appreciate that, for now at least, her storyline has low stakes compared to almost everyone else, because it makes for a change of pace from the more dramatic or angst-laden plots.
S. Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)
I’m not the only person who ships Forsyth/Python/Lukas from FE15 as an OT3, but in my case I imagine it as a slowly developing thing where Forsyth is making regular visits to Python out in the field and stuff happens (probably as an extension of stuff that was already happening before the game, let’s be honest) while at the same time Forsyth is getting to know Lukas better back at the capital. Forsyth would probably be incredibly guilty about feeling like he’s carrying on two separate relationships, but at one point Python will casually drop that he’s into Lukas too and that they should all just shack up when circumstances permit. They eventually end up doing so and it’s all very cluttered but somehow works with lots of cuddling (Python likes it though he’d never admit it) and lots of sex between Forsyth and Python with Lukas watching sometimes and maybe joining in to whatever extent he feels like because his two companions are just so welcoming. Eventually he barely spares a thought for what he might have had with Clive.
Most of us know it when we see it, but I figure any discussion about fandom antis and how to respond to them would benefit from having a solid answer to “what even is an anti, anyway?” Laying out the exact characteristics that distinguish anti wank from every other kind of wank also helps clarify what, exactly, is going on here, why it’s appalling, and also why it’s appealing to those who engage in it.
I’m going to define it as a behavior rather than a particular type of person. The anti movement is:
1. A form of intra-community aggression within fandom, that 2. Seeks, as its primary goal, to designate out-groups who are fair game for social brutality, by 3. Categorically declaring certain forms of fan engagement (ships, characters, fic genres, fanart styles, video game mods…) to be intrinsically morally wrong and in need of stamping out, regardless of how or why one engages with them, and 4. Justifies this by claiming a causal relationship between the targeted activities and some form of (usually SJ-flavored) real-world harm that they allegedly promote.
The order is important, because it goes from most to least essential. 1 is fundamental context, 2 is ultimate purpose, 3 is the mechanism used to accomplish that purpose, 4 is the justification for using that mechanism.
J. Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)
Stranger Things, in large part because of a mutual from my Downton days who ships Harringrove and writes a lot of fic for them. I barely know what the show is even about aside from being some kind of Stephen King send-up/80s period piece, neither of which are really my thing.
U. Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.
Does that mean three total or nine? Eh.
To go along with some of my more recent fandom activity (and excluding Octopath since I’m not even halfway through all the main story content):
Versailles
le chevalier de Lorraine – amusingly foppish with some good dramatic moments as well
Philippe, duc d’Orléans – I don’t really care for his more bellicose moments and his performative gender confusion seems a bit, er, confused, but he’s fun for the same reasons as his boyfriend and is the historical namesake for the wildly decadent city my ancestors built in addition
la marquise de Montespan – I still prefer la marquise de Merteuil from Les Liaisons dangereuses for women carrying that title, but Montespan is almost as entertainingly cruel
Voltron: Legendary Defender
Shiro – beefy and fatherly (in both the genuine emotional way and the kinky way, much as that combination makes certain sections of the fandom scream pedophilia to the heavens), and he’s got a strong character arc that only feels somewhat muddled by the whole clone thing
Keith – he’s no Wu, the twinky prince of The Legend of Korra who I find both amusing and identifiable, but I like his relationship with Shiro in all its nuances and the screentime he gets rarely feels wasted
Haggar/Honerva – for being a rather interesting villain, especially compared to her husband and (eventually) her son, although I guess she and Lotor still may have room for development left
Fire Emblem Jugdral (not the most recent FE obviously, but the setting I’ve played for the first time most recently and I one I don’t talk about often)
Finn – lots of development both straightforward and ambiguous, and I’d really love to see remakes do some interesting things with him…all of which involve him being extremely gay for Quan
Diarmuid – almost no development, but very easy to headcanon as gay and, as with Finn, I’d like to see more done with him in the remakes
Lachesis – ruined and incestuous and defiantly not monogamous, she’s been a force to be reckoned with in the fandom
V. Which character do you relate to most?
In general, I relate to them if they’re some combination of 1) French or pseudo-French, 2) aristocratic or quasi-aristocratic, 3) ruined either financially or emotionally or both, and 4) gay. Blanche DuBois of A Streetcar Named Desire is the ready-made allegory for all New Orleans Créoles, but on a personal level it could be anyone from Percy Weasley to Wu to Diarmuid to Leon (FE15) to Mme de Merteuil to any of several others. I like to think I’m fairly flexible in spite of my specific tastes in characters being what they are.
W. A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.
Coffee shop AUs bore me to tears because nothing interesting is ever done with them, and with much of the original context stripped away they can feel very samey across fandoms. And really, there are so many more interesting places for the innumerable M/M couples beloved by slash fandom to meet up in a modern AU: on a hookup app, at a booze-fueled rave, at a glory hole, while fucking someone or several someones else. Why must it always be about coffee?
C. A ship you have never liked and probably never will.
I have several, but the highest profile one I can think of is a toss-up between either Drarry or Wolfstar from Harry Potter, Johnlock from Sherlock (not necessarily Holmes/Watson in other adaptations, mind you), or Klance from Voltron. In most of those cases it’s the paradoxical combination of a relationship dynamic that I can’t really see being invested in and an infamously rabid (or at least highly prolific) fanbase.
F. What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom?
My earliest memories of being in online fandom date back to the late 90s with The Legend of Zelda, specifically Ocarina of Time which was of course the big new juggernaut at the time. Twenty years, then.
Q. A fandom you’ve abandoned and why.
I can’t say I’ve ever completely left a fandom behind, but there are many times where I stopped engaging with a fandom to the extent I once had. You can see evidence of that on this blog with Les Misérables – diminishing interest, plus the fandom was changing and expanding in ways I didn’t much care for on the whole – and Downton Abbey – increasingly boring and disappointing canon – although others like the aforementioned HP and Zelda are no longer as big for me as they used to be for similar reasons.
A – Ships that you currently like a lot. (They don’t have to be OTPs because not everyone has OTPs.) Friendships, pairings, threesomes, etc. are allowed.
B – A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.
C – A ship you have never liked and probably never will.
D – A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.
E – Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?
F – What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom?
G – Have you ever had an OTP? If so, do you remember your first one? Who was in it?
H – What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?
I – Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?
J – Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)
K – What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc?
L – Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you merely dislike. Characters that you absolutely loathe with the fire of ten thousand suns are exempt, as there is no point in giving yourself an aneurysm over a character that you hate.)
M – Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.
N – Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).
O – Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?
P – Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).
Q – A fandom you’ve abandoned and why.
R – Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?
S – Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)
T – Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?
U – Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.
V – Which character do you relate to most?
W – A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.
X – A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.
Y – What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?
Z – Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! (Prompts optional but encouraged.)
(and not only because he’s so cluelessly gay with his best friend) (warning there will be some queer/feminist/anticapitalist analysis)
When I saw the trailer, I thought his story was dull and really cliché. Like really, an apothicary, one-dimensional guy (the GOOD GUY) with no other motivation than… do good deeds. I didn’t want him in my team. But then I recruited him (as Primrose well, obviously, my main character… much darker but also so great) and his intro and first chapter surprised me so much.
Yes, it was simple. Yes, there’s no betrayal or murder or revenge-plot going on. But they chose simplicity and added depth, subtlety and balance to a kind of character that is often badly caricatural.
The main idea that I loved so much is that Alfyn is a HEALER, the basic class that is often “well … important for your team” but also often quite forgotten as a character and with a really gendered idea of the “care” (inoffensive feminine sweetness). But here we have a guy, who is genuinely crying in front of little girls (thesis: being a healer can heal you from toxic masulinity?) and blindly idealist about healing the world, and also really poor (but accepting it).
He is an APOTHECARY, so not a magical healer but a scientific one who also know the real economical situation of his situation wich is so great and so important for the narrative of what we usually know of our healers. (And not a high-class religious cleric/monk who represents the conservative power of religion, even though they could be often “poor” but it’s never shown.) Yes in a middle-aged society (and now under capitalism) – under a patriarcal view of the work – the “care” is difficult and not often well rewarded while it is so important for everyone. The story of the plague striked me as a suddenly deep narrative for this kind of universe whereas I was thinking it would be a boring backstory.
And also, at the same time he can be really dangerous in a battle with his axe doing really dangerous apothecary stuffs like amputate someone.
The scene at the cemetary is so symbolic of this character and so well-written. To be an apothecary means being close to the people you love and know what it means to really lose them. It means being responsible for the moral and the subsistance of your village, and leaving them is a really heavy choice.
All of that was in his first chapter. I just finished his second chapter. Yes sometimes I think he’s too naive and too defensive (that’s why I took Primrose haha to engage the group in a less assertive view of life) but he became my favorite character because of the writing of his story and how humanly lovable he can be.
– And, well, also because he’s so gay with his best friend, like COME ON : cute nicknames, sentences like “Zeph….” “Alf….” or interrupted “before you leave I have to tell you…”, big scene and dialogue on a bridge under the moonlight, and, EXCHANGE OF SATCHELS to have a DAILY REMINDER of their “friends” while they are apart. (I know, it might be/surely is queerbaiting…) –
Well but mainly the writing of his character and backstory. It convinced me (and I was surprised) that he was a really important person even though he was desperately “too good”.
Gascon-en-exil: Gallophilic Cultural Posturing 