Tag: FE10

tibarn and reyson for the meme?

What is your opinion of this character? If you like, explain why you like him/her.

Tibarn: Responsible bara dad/gay uncle with just a hint of rogueish charm to bolster his likely considerable financial assets. Even though PoR makes the ravens out to be the winged pirates of Tellius Tibarn looks the part much better.

Reyson: I like how his character and struggles against his own absurdly frail biology plays with stereotypes of gendered behavior. It’s also cute how he drops the tough guy act around Tibarn. Don’t much care for his singing, but that’s true of all the herons.

Is he/she important to the general plot?

I’d classify both as B-list characters, a very large category in Tellius or in most FE settings just because of how broad the scopes of the plots can be.

Can you relate to this character at all? Does he/she grip you emotionally?

Not so much anything with Tibarn, but Reyson obviously has a similar taste in men. Punching out Oliver was cathartic, if indelicate.

Do you ship this character with any other character? Or, are you particularly intrigued by his/her relationship with any other character(s)? (romance-wise or platonic)

With each other, as practically canon as it is. Ike’s relationship with both is an interesting one, as would Naesala’s were it not for the messiness of the hawk genocide and its lack of real resolution in the story.

Is there anything about the character you would change?

A paired ending would have been nice, especially since I read somewhere that one of the Tellius art books or some other source like that apparently confirms Nailah/Rafiel.

If you were in the fandom with this character or knew this character in real life, how would you see yourself interacting with him/her?

A highly profitable threeway, obviously. 

Does this character make the cut as one of your all time favorites (if you like) or least favorites?

Tibarn’s got a lot of sex appeal, true, but it’s not quite my favorite type of sex appeal. Perceval and Xander and others hit that much better. And Reyson by himself I’m fairly neutral on though he is the heron I find most interesting.

Would you hype up this character (if you like) or warn about this character (if you dislike) to someone new to fandom?

With all the shipping wank over Ike Tellius’s other queer-coded characters seriously need some more love, and these two are no exception.

Is this character popular with the fanbase?

Not as much as they ought to be, see above. It may be a bit hard to judge though, since like Jugdral Tellius’s fanbase is a bit of a niche thanks to limited exposure.

shipping meme for the tellius games, pretty please~

  • lowkey otp

Eh, most of my OTPs in general are probably lowkey by fandom standards, at least in terms of how much love I express for them. I’m going to go with Tibarn/Reyson, because they’re basically canon (I’d argue they have a claim to the power couple archetype slot for Tellius, in the vein of Pent/Louise or Quan/Ethlin) and have a comfortable dynamic that’s actually not very seme/uke-ish despite appearances.

  • highkey notp

Ike/women, with Ike/Elincia specifically because it has some really loud and obnoxious fans based almost entirely on some short-sighted localization choices for FE9. Of course people are free to have their bi/pan/other headcanons for him, doubly so if they believe that Priam actually is his direct descendant, but I’m not going to ship it.

  • [softly] don’t notp

Muarim/Tormod, because if these games were released today (and if Radiant Dawn had actual support content) contemporary Tumblr culture would rip this pairing apart. It’s about one step removed from classical pederasty, and in this setting and context I’m completely fine with that.

  • highkey otp but i’m scared of saying it because it’s not a very popular choice

I read a really good Shinon/Gatrie fic once and found their sexual dynamic rather compelling? That one would be more unpopular because Shinon is an unrepentant asshole, granted.

  • highkey otp and anyone on my tumblr knows it

Ike/Ranulf, for whatever definition of “highkey” would apply to me – see above.

o/ Azel

You also asked for Ranulf, so I’ll do both here.

Ranulf

Sexuality Headcanon:

Bi with a preference for men and masculine-presenting people generally, hence why he’s got a camaraderie with Lethe but has no patience for either Lyre or Kyza – and the paired ending with Ike, of course.

Gender Headcanon:

Cis male, but I can see him being more genderfluid in the bedroom if his partner’s into it.

A ship I have with said character:

Ike/Ranulf. Ranulf/Skrimir could technically work as well, but there’s less to build off.

A BROTP I have with said character:

Skrimir if they’re not having wild cat sex, Giffca, Lethe, Amy (Calill and Largo’s daughter)

A NOTP I have with said character:

Ranulf/Lyre. At least if he’s with Kyza the sex can be hilariously awkward.

A random headcanon:

Very few people get to see him without his distinctive hat. It throws everyone (Ike definitely included) off when they see him bare-headed for the first time.

General opinion over said character:

A fun guy with some memorable lines and a decent amount of story presence across both games, which is more than many Tellius characters can claim. He’s also average to above average as a unit in both, especially surprising given how annoying non-royal laguz gauges can be. I like his rapport with Ike, and I like that their paired ending offers an alternative to Ike/Soren that can be just as if not more enjoyable to read fic for. 

Also the porn is unquestionably hotter – cat boy!

Azelle

Sexuality Headcanon:

Mostly straight, but he and Lex are really close *nudge nudge wink wink*

Gender Headcanon:

Has to be cis male so the breeding mechanics make sense, but then I’m not an expert on trans headcanons so I’m sure someone could figure something out given the motivation to do so.

A ship I have with said character:

Lex/Azelle is proto-Hector/Eliwood so I like it, and hopefully their dynamic will be even more endearing and messy (per their current circumstances) in a remake. Azelle/Tailtiu for marriage purposes and also for my preferred breeding setup.

A BROTP I have with said character:

Lex of course. Maybe Sigurd? His relationship with Arvis is a…peculiar subject.

A NOTP I have with said character:

Not a fan of Azelle/Edain because one Midir is enough, thank you very much. I also never do LTC runs, so using Rescue to speed through Chapters 4 and 5 isn’t worth totally screwing over Lester.

A random headcanon:

I can’t see Arvis letting him die at Belhalla, but the ensuing familial situation with the Velthomers could not possibly have been pretty. Especially if Hilda was involved somehow…how is she related to them anyway?

General opinion over said character:

Not very fun to use as a unit because it’s Horse Emblem and fire magic is terrible, but he’s a strong father for some of the kids. I do prefer Eliwood and his dynamic with his intimately close blue-haired BFF, but Azelle’s got his entertaining moments. I like how the two of them and Tailtiu all get to express their conflicted feelings over fighting their families, and how they all approach the prospect differently.

Jill/Mist

Um…er…hm…well…yay?

Seriously, I don’t have much of an opinion on them. I imagine that most of the following from them comes from their FE9 supports, which I don’t remember at all. I think Mist is one of the characters who can get Jill to defect to the Mercs in 3-7 if you have transfer data with an A support between them which is a nice storytelling touch since I have no idea how the hell you would get Mist over to that part of the map without dying (or at all if you promote her early in Easy since now she can’t go in the swamp). It’s a notable alternative if you don’t care for either of their het paired endings, I suppose.

Ranulf/Kyza for the meme

It’s cute. Ranulf is obviously more into masc guys which is why he doesn’t seem that interested in the femme cub tiger, but for what little there is of Kyza to talk about it’s not bad. Humorously I think one of the reasons Kyza has been forgotten by the fandom is that he’s one of the most conservatively-dressed male laguz and as such has little bara potential compared to Muarim, Volug, Tibarn, Mordecai, any of the lions, Gareth, Ranulf with Ike…poor guy.

Levail/Zelgius

Underserved but potentially interesting. I can’t think of another situation in FE that makes a chain out of unrequited love interests, even if almost all of the emotional heft goes into Zelgius’s relationship with Sephiran since those two are much more important characters. Levail/Zelgius also parallels whatever was going on with Jarod and Alder back in Part 1 (which gets extra weird when you remember that Zelgius kills Alder and can potentially kill Jarod), another of the many queer characters and situations in Tellius that the fandom is sleeping on just because there’s so many of them.

ike/soren?

  • When I started shipping it if I did:

Sometime between the releases of FE9 and 10 when I became aware that it had a following in spite of the generally het direction of PoR. I stopped shipping it actively (as in seeking out fanwork for it) a few years after the release of FE10, when I played that game with the Anglo ex and he pointed out that we basically had the same relationship…even as that relationship was deteriorating beneath me. Now I regard it mostly the same as I do the likes of Marth/Caeda and Sigurd/Deirdre, save that it gets some bonus points for being canon(ish) M/M.

  • My thoughts:

It has an obvious foundation in yaoi tropes back in a time where those weren’t considered as *ahem* problematic as they are now, though they never much appealed to me personally. It’s neither my favorite Ike ship nor my favorite Tellius ship, but it’s there and it’s become significant in the fandom in a way that no previous same-sex paired ending had reached. 

  • What makes me happy about them:

The lengths to which Ike will go to support Soren are genuinely endearing, and Soren’s no slouch himself in that department. Their relationship is actually more balanced than their stereotypical seme and uke looks might suggest.

  • What makes me sad about them:

That their paired ending (and Ike/Ranulf’s) is still being fought over and ignored to this day, half because Priam exists and half because some people seriously cannot let go of their straight Ike headcanons. In keeping with the parallels with one of my own former relationships I also resent that Soren’s behavior is often decried as unhealthily possessive when 1) his background thoroughly explains (not necessarily justifies) it, 2) relationships need some kind of interesting conflict, and 3) he’s nowhere near as blatant as the likes of Tharja, etc.

  • Things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Standard yaoi set-ups that ignore Soren’s edge – in other words, how he acts outside of one support in PoR and one base conversation in RD.

  • Things I look for in fanfic:

Like I said I really don’t anymore, but back when I did I wasn’t much interested in explicit erotica of them. Soren doesn’t appeal to me on that level. Ike/Ranulf on the other hand….

  • Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:

Ranulf, either just with Ike or potentially as a threeway. I can’t see Soren with anyone else to be honest, and certainly not any of the women who inexplicably get thrown at him like Ilyana and Micaiah. Just…why?

  • My happily ever after for them:

Their canon paired ending is good enough, although it will probably end in Soren outliving Ike by a significant margin and needing to find something to do with himself. I don’t see him getting with anyone else, but maybe Ike’s influence will have been enough to encourage him to be less antisocial.

  • Who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Come on, how do you think this works? At least with Ike and Ranulf they could both reasonably be vers. Soren topping – and I mean really topping, not topping from the bottom – is challenge fic material.

  • What is their favorite non-sexual activity:

Sitting together mostly in silence while Soren reads and Ike cuddles with him. Either that or Ike can work out while Soren watches if he gets too bored.

tellius-collections said

I feel like the availability issue for characters that make some characters tricky to use (like Tormod and Fiona) would be better too if Tellius was three games and not two.

True, although I haven’t begun to imagine how complicated the logistics of having three Tellius games would have been, especially if they all made use of transfer data. It reminds me of how the two Oracle Legend of Zelda games were originally envisioned as a trio before the developers realized how much of a pain three-way data transfer would be.

To be fair I enjoy FE10′s unique take on availability, as there’s nothing like it anywhere else in the series and it adds an extra element to consider when drafting teams for playthroughs. It helps that several of the characters who are hard to use, including those you mentioned, are worthwhile investments for endgame at least on Easy – which is what I usually play anyway.

Jarod/Alder?

N/A: I don’t know the ship well enough

I’m not sure if anyone actually ships it, except possibly as a challenge or something. The material is certainly there, but it’s in that same highly unexpected way of Mycen/Rudolf in FE15. It might have been intended as foreshadowing for how Levail and Zelgius’s relationship will resolve itself, or something. I don’t know. Alder barely has a character which doesn’t help either.