Next up on my list of FEs I’ve overlooked but am now revisiting is FE13. I’ve barely touched either Awakening or Fates since I completed the arduous and mostly unrewarding task of filling out their gigantic support logs, so this has been good for a refresher. Even though I prefer Fates’s narrative and overall presentation and appreciate some of its mechanics like the lack of weapon durability, daggers, varied objectives, and feet Awakening does have more min-maxing appeal. I’ve not yet gotten to the point where the story flies completely off the rails, but maybe with Echoes’s postgame in mind the effect will be somewhat lessened?
That’s what his version of the lord class is modeled after, but he’s not actually one. He doesn’t even use their primary weapon type in most of the games including the Elibe ones.
Catching up on WoW lore is never a good thing, because I always end up with about half a dozen reasons to start playing again.
Overwatch Fans: Why is Blizzard so inconsistent and bad with writing their characters and lore????
World of Warcraft Fans:
I took @dornishsphinx‘s advice and watched the first few episodes of Merlin. The campiness of the production does take some getting used to – the effects are terrible and the music is very often trying too hard – but then as I rarely watch fantasy/sci-fi TV shows that’s probably just my lack of experience with them talking. I had to take a break after the Lancelot episode, because seeing one of the most storied Frenchmen in literature being played by a Hispanic actor was rather jarring. Phenotypically it’s not that unusual seeing as he’s only slightly darker than I am (though significantly hairier), and I suppose it’s to heighten his Latin lover appeal to the Anglo audience when the adulterous affair with Guinevere inevitably happens, but then he’s not a noble in this continuity and France doesn’t even merit a mention in the episode so really I’ve no idea what they’re doing with him.
I don’t yet have a definite opinion on Merthur. It’s quite obviously there, but doesn’t exactly stir the loins. I may stick it out through the rest of the first season, but I don’t know if I’ll have the patience to sit through the entire show especially if they stick to this monster-of-the-week format the whole way through.
munchinmanaketes said
From my experience, Virion is considered the worst father. Kellam gives Luna at least.
He does, but Virion has two advantages over Kellam: a better mod spread (2 SKL and SPD vs. 1 STR and SKL and -2 SPD, since the remaining stats are basically irrelevant in Apotheosis) and more diverse class offerings with sniper (longbow access, high SKL for dual strikes and procs), sage (best all-around magic class), and wyvern lord (high mobility physical class) all as good final classes for the map. Kellam’s really only got sage since assassins’ SPD is usually overkill for their low damage output and general is only really useful as a support as discussed elsewhere which means Luna will be wasted on a unit who can’t proc it in the back.
That’s not to say Virion is always the better of the two since different kids have different needs. Owain and Inigo for example really just want a more reliable proc than Astra, and while Kellam’s certainly not winning any awards for great mods to go with Luna they could take him if necessary (more so Inigo since Owain needs more help in the mod department). Virion meanwhile has three cases where his paternity is particularly valued:
Brady, who gets everything he needs from his mother and only wants good mods,
Severa, who appreciates any of Virion’s classes I mentioned depending on what you’re doing with her (though I’m not too fond of this one since this means she’ll have to set up Vengeance for her proc),
or any of the non-Galeboys (Laurent, Yarne, Gerome), as the first two will like sniper’s Hit +20 if they go berserker support to patch up that class’s SKL and Gerome can make do with Bowfaire warrior in that case since the only non-Avatar father who gives both berserker and good Hit-boosting skills, Henry, is in higher demand elsewhere.
The more direct comparison to explain why Kellam is at the bottom of the Awakening breeding pool is Frederick, who also comes with Luna and a -2 SPD mod but compensates with a better physical focus, with 2 STR and SKL and paladin and wyvern lord as class options.
They’re bad in the main game and I assume also bad for Lunatic(+) and Spotpass which are apparently built around Nosferatu tanking and crit/proc builds respectively, but Apotheosis is something completely different. You can’t really tank there because enemy stats are so high and there are so many offensive skills (and Dragonskin to cut the effectiveness of Nosferatu/Aversa’s Night), so the optimal strategies are pure offense. Wyvern lords are good for their mobility, good weapon types and ability to hit important STR/SKL/SPD thresholds with help from a pair up and other boosts, manaketes (and taguel) are bad because they can’t use brave weapons which are optimal because of how they work with dual strikes – a pair up where both units have brave weapons can potentially attack twelve times, six of them before the enemy can even move – and generals are useful for having the same maximal STR cap that berserkers get and therefore being almost as good a support class for non-Galeforce girls to settle for. I usually see general recommended for Vaike!Nah since he gives her Axefaire and the class itself, and it also works for Kjelle with an Axefaire dad if you can’t spare a Galeforce dad for her for whatever reason. The player phase-dominated, no tanking approach strongly colors the meta around Apotheosis; it’s largely why Kellam is considered the worst father, Frederick the second worst, and Gerome and Nah the children with the least potential since all of them are inherently lacking access to key offensive classes and/or skills despite their defensive merits. People do deviate from the norm in challenge runs, foregoing Limit Breaker, rally or rescue bots, tonics, brave weapons, etc. but I’ve yet to hear of anyone successfully turtling their way through the map.
FE10’s marshalls aren’t “good” because of their weapons or RES so much as the specific cases of three of them. Tauroneo is basically invincible in 1-6 and both his Part 3 chapters are effectively defense maps, Brom’s Part 2 maps are cramped and 2-E appreciates tanks if you’re not one-turning it, and Gatrie has awesome bases and a ridiculous 60% SPD growth which combine to make him a great candidate for an early promotion. I still wouldn’t take any of them to endgame except in a draft because their movement and especially their speed just won’t cut it.
Generals have never been one of my favorite classes, even in the games where individual representatives have certain niches. In addition to the aforementioned there’s Oswin in FE7 (good bases + smaller maps in early game), Xavier in FE5 (all endgame maps are indoors and he’s got the bases to be useful…if you can recruit him), and generals in FE13’s Apotheosis (good class for support girls without Galeforce since they can’t get berserker and it’s got the same STR cap). I never found them that fun to use even so.
The problem with playable barons is the same as what’s wrong with generals in almost every FE (Fates being the only exception that comes to mind): they take forever to get anywhere and almost never have anything attractive to offer when they get there beyond overkill defense. That’s doubly true in such a horse-dominated game as FE4. I only proposed armor knight Coirpre because it matches his upbringing and he’s almost impossible to make good and then not really worth it if you do. Making anyone else an armor would kill their viability, even if they get to use everything. And honestly I don’t even care for FE4’s barons, as they’re a lazy and repetitive approach to boss design – just slap high defense stats and the ever-annoying Pavise on any old boss guarding a castle and they can wield anything because barons get to be broken like that. I hope that some of them get changed to other classes in a remake.
(Also, I think the absolute last thing Tine would want to do is imitate her uncle.)
After a quick binge watch of the latest Voltron season – only six episodes, that just flies by – I happened to notice that Netflix has also recently added the entirety of Merlin (either that or I somehow never noticed it on there before). I know next to nothing about that show beyond some of the source material and that it’s quite popular with slash fans, so is it worth sitting through for the shipping or for Anglos crying over sex or whatever?
Gascon-en-exil: Gallophilic Cultural Posturing 