30 Days of Fire Emblem: Day 20

Prettiest cutscene?

I think I’m not alone when I say that FE13 has the best looking (and voiced, at least in English – I’ve heard the 9-10 ones aren’t quite so cringe-worthy in Japanese) cutscenes. Of those, my favorite is, um…well, even its name probably counts as a spoiler and I think people are still concerned about those. Let’s just say it’s the one where Chrom and the game’s second lord genuinely meet for the first time. As I went into the game not expecting to be all that emotionally attached to this character, I was surprised at how poignant I found this scene. I’d talk about it more in-depth, but I don’t want to upset anyone…bleh.

30 Days of Fire Emblem: Day 16

Least favorite character?

I’m not sure if these count exactly, but I absolutely can’t stand the effeminate bandit duos that have been popping up in every few games: Maggie and Rose in 6, Paul and Jasmine in 7, and now Victor and Vincent in 13. I’m excluding Pain and Agony in 10, because they don’t exhibit any of the traits of these characters that I find so annoying. Their combination of feminine behavior and hypermasculine appearance is the sole source of their “humor,” immensely uncomfortable as it is – some of them even (mock?) flirt with each other. I’m aware that the primary stereotype of gay men in Japan is hypermasculine (i.e. the bara rather than the yaoi aesthetic), so that makes them all the more cringe-worthy. However, their appearance in 13 (as brothers this time, still flirting…not that that’s all that unusual for FE…) suggests that this “comedic” archetype will be around for some time to come.

A brief word on reclassing

I’ve posted some odd things today, so to make up for it here’s a tiny bit of FE13 meta to contemplate.

Could reclassing be considered canonical? In its 11-12 incarnation reclassing is comparable to the FE10 support system in that it sacrifices characterization in the name of gameplay. As minimalistic as most of the characterization in the Archanea games is, I think most would agree that, say, Bishop!Jagen, Myrmidon!Lena, or Dark Mage!Ogma are not very plausible given what we know about them.

Reclassing in FE13, however, is character-specific and sometimes even draws from information we get in supports. As an example, Cherche mentions in one of her supports (with Vaike I think?) that she met her wyvern while training to be a healer. Her other two class sets are cleric and troubadour. Not every character’s class set fits so well – Cavalier!Ricken? Dark Mage!Libra? – but I wonder if it’s something we ought to take into account when discussing at least some of the characters. Conversely, it might also come up in discussions of classes; were someone to talk at length about the representation of dark magic in Ylisse, would they have to consider Libra, Cordelia, and others who can reclass to dark mage/sorcerer? I think we can safely ignore the I-can-do-everything-because-I’m-a-player-insert Avatar as well as the children characters and their varying inheritances.

30 Days of Fire Emblem: Day 12

Favorite class?

All light magic classes rank highly for me, especially anything with strange pseudo-Catholic overtones (i.e. most of them). I have no idea why, especially as bishops have been consistently underpowered compared to their anima and/or dark counterparts in almost every game. FE8 is the exception, but that’s only because Slayer is great for the post-game. Now FE13 has taken them out entirely. *sigh* War monks/clerics are interesting, I suppose, and with sage, sorcerers, and valkyries I can see why having another pure caster class would have been overkill, but…eh.

Henry’s Backstory

amielleon:

snipergys:

fe-according-to-japan:

Ylisse spoilers below the cut (for Henry/Olivia supports only).

Read More

OMG °A° That poor guy… Now I want to start a new game and marry him o_o

Fwiw, if you want more Henry angst, there’s some in Henry/Nowi C (that did make it through translation). He doesn’t bring it up often — a lot of his supports are silly hijinks with hexes and situational comedy with his psychopathic sense of morality/humor.

I suppose I lucked out pairing Henry with Nowi in my first playthrough, so my first(ish) impression of him isn’t one of complete insanity. I haven’t read through all their supports yet, but it seems like Tharja and Henry are both presented as having deep-seated emotional problems that existed prior to their dabbling in dark magic. I wonder if that constitutes a reversal of almost every presentation of dark magic in the series thus far; instead of being a corrupting influence, it attracts unstable people.

A stupid thought that only two or three of my followers would actually get

In Fire Emblem, if you stand next to someone long enough, you can get married to them (or an equivalent for some same-sex or incestuous pairings).

Is it idiotic of me to sometimes jokingly apply this fantastic logic to shipping in other fandoms? Like if R tied himself to Enjolras: “If we stay like this you’re guaranteed to fall in love with me!” And he does…

This may or may not have anything to do with the fact that I’ve spent all my time on FE13 for the last two days grinding supports and am therefore somewhat preoccupied with this nonsensical hilarity.

30 Days of Fire Emblem: Day 10

Something you want to change in any of the games

Same-sex marriages in FE13 would have been nice.

Because that was such an obvious answer for me, though, I’ll throw in another one. It’s a very minor game mechanic, but I really appreciated FE10 forcing at least one stat point on a level up and wish that had been implemented in later games. It’s hard to express “leveling up” as equivalent to any real-world concept, but the idea suggests at least some sort of personal growth and the complete lack of that can be frustrating, to say the least. I’m being nitpicky, I know.

trueblade: An observation about women’s outfits in Fire Emblem:

professor-tammi:

surprisedbylife:

I have only played FE7 and looked a little at FE6 — wait, no, I’ve played Sacred Stones, too, but I haven’t checked this theory against that one.

Female characters practically without exception wear skirts.

I don’t know quite what this says about the…

I’m definitely hesitant to say they’re getting any more progressive when it comes to female characters’ outfits. FE13 has some of the most impractical (ex. Lissa and Maribelle) and/or sexualized (ex. Tharja and Nowi, the latter being especially uncomfortable because she’s such a loli) outfits in the series thus far.

I’m guessing that a part of that has to do with the game’s art style drawing more obviously from Japanese anime aesthetics, but I’m not well versed enough in the subject to discuss that in any depth.

trueblade: An observation about women’s outfits in Fire Emblem:

Considering this dirty old man’s judgment of male pairs in the original Japanese is openly insulting (along the lines of “What the hell are you thinking?” according to SF) , I suppose this is a step up. Not surprisingly for a straight man as lewd as Old Hubba, his comment on female pairs in much more positive.

~~Someone should write Frederick/Virion. I have no idea why, but it should happen.~~

L’air du temps: 30 Days of Fire Emblem

lecielnestpasassez:

Okay… Let’s see if this time I’ll remember to finish the challenge =’D

Day 1 – How did you find Fire Emblem?
Day 2 – Favorite Pairing
Day 3 – What incarnation of the Fire Emblem is your favorite, and what would you do with it?
Day 4 – Favorite Character
Day 5 – Favorite Lord
Day 6 – How many…

With sincerest apologies to all my followers who don’t even know what FE is, it’s about time I took part in one of these Tumblr writing/posting exercises…and what better excuse than as a means of breaking into a fandom for which I’ve done very little writing so far. This may also have something to do with the fact that FE13 is available for download in two days, and I can scarcely contain my fanboying…

Though with all the other serious and not-so-serious projects I’ve got going on at the moment, I’m not really that jealous of people who got it early. When it comes to actually playing the game, I can wait. Strange, isn’t it?

L’air du temps: 30 Days of Fire Emblem