Tag: FE15

meme thing: Leon, Valbar, Boey, Lukas, Python, Forsyth

Push off a cliff: Leon – Competition, sorry.

Kiss: Python – Would be incredibly good at it, especially since the ask doesn’t specific what kind of kissing or where.

Marry: Forsyth – Good sex, a romantic angle even if it’s not one I play up much myself, and a stable career and position all make him a great marriage candidate. The poly options are just lagniappe.

Set on Fire: Boey – Because his screaming would be mildly entertaining, and anyway he’d probably survive since Mae has likely done something similar to him before.

Wrap a Blanket around: Valbar – Bears are fun cuddlers, and he needs some support. Plus, he’s so slow on the uptake that I could get away with a quiet orgasm or two from the contact alone.

Be Roommates with: Lukas – Clean, responsible, and not bad to look at. Too bad he’d be really hard to tempt into anything more salacious than that.

FE Valentia

  • lowkey otp

Reciprocated Valbar/Leon, because they could both use some comfort and validation – especially Leon before he hits the twink wall he so clearly dreads.

  • highkey notp

Fernand/Mathilda, even in the apparently canonical one-sided sense that’s really Fernand’s poor attempting at redirecting his feelings for Clive. Just…why? He’s already well-established as a dick at that point in the game; no need to make him even more repugnant.

  • [softly] don’t notp

Forsyth/Conrad, because someone drew cute art of it once and it’s a surprisingly plausible crack pairing if Forsyth’s thing with Python doesn’t end up satisfying.

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

I like to think that Fernand and Clive had some youthful dalliances during their adolescence, and that they meant much more to Fernand than they ever did to Clive (who probably didn’t even get that they could mean something). It’s much like how many of us like to imagine how Sigurd and Quan were growing up, with the difference being that Quan lucked into some much better coping mechanisms.

  • highkey otp and anyone on my tumblr knows it

Forsyth/Python/Lukas OT3, would have more than a few bugs to work out but they’d work out some kind of arrangement.

Alm/Faye

I must have missed this one earlier.

I’m shockingly indifferent to this pairing and to Faye in general. Her crush on Alm is weird enough to be unsettling and only occasionally funny, and it was doomed from the start. I’d call inventing a new character to take on the role Clair already held in Gaiden completely pointless, but then they found some more interesting things to do with Clair so it’s nice that someone else got to bite the Catria bullet.

gascon-en-exil:

As we’re currently talking about toxic Fates vs. Echoes fanwank, and coming from someone who ranks neither game as their best or worst FE:

I get the impression that the level of hatred on display here isn’t really about Fates or even Echoes. Rather, it has to do with the perception that future games in the series (including most immediately the one in production for the Switch) will follow in the footsteps of Awakening and Fates because those two games sold so well and introduced so many new fans to the franchise. The rabid Fates-haters are envisioning a series that from here on out will consist only of remakes and new games burdened with Avatars and shallow dating sim elements and eugenics babies, but at the same time hating Fates is pretty much the only thing they can all rally behind. FE doesn’t have a single game held up by the majority of the fandom as the absolute best (something like how Ocarina of Time was regarded up until recently in the Zelda fandom), so if you asked everyone critical of FE13 and 14 which game(s) they’re predominantly comparing to those two the answers would likely include every other entry in the franchise – with considerable disagreement over the relative values of those games. And since Fates is such a deeply flawed game (especially in localization, which for many Western fans – myself included – is the only way we’re ever going to experience it fully) it’s easy to heap it with unjustified levels of criticism and praise Echoes in spite of its own obvious flaws and/or how spottily it represents the elements of the series that pre-Awakening fans consider superior.

For my part, Fates is the FE that disappointed me the most, even if that doesn’t mean that it’s my least favorite (it’s probably in my bottom 5 though). Echoes surprised me by being significantly more engaging than I was expecting given how little the Archanea remakes impressed me, but at the same time I don’t see myself returning to it anywhere near as often as I like to replay FE10. And I can mostly live with the, er, Awakening-ification of the series provided that the strides in queer representation in both Fates and Echoes (problematic though they both were) continue to be improved upon. As my recent forays into Harvest Moon-inspired indie games have reminded me, I have no trouble with dating sims provided my self-inserts can get dick without having to be women.

I rarely reblog myself, but since I’ve seen a resurgence of Fates vs. Echoes wank and anon hate lately I thought I’d bring this back for consideration. I’ve explained in the interim my feelings on these games more in detail and where I rank each of them with the rest of the series too, and even though I’ve come down fairly hard on Awakening and Fates it does seem like I’m one of the few older (read: pre-FE13) fans willing to give them points for anything other than Conquest’s gameplay.

🔥FE15?

Conrad isn’t that bad of an addition. He’s not in the same league as Berkut and Fernand but aside from that one time when he slaps Celica (and since I recently replayed the first half of Awakening I got to recall the time when Sumia punches Chrom in the face, so casual abuse between playable characters is apparently just a Thing in 3DS era FE) he never does anything too egregious. The thought that he was added specifically to give Valentia some incest subtext it was otherwise missing is hilarious. I just wish there was a stronger explanation for why he’s not even considered for the throne. I assume we’re supposed to accept that it’s because Celica has the Brand and he doesn’t, but it’s never addressed at all.

Abandoned the Awakening playthrough out of boredom and entirely too much grinding and decided instead to go after the Blitzkrieg medal in Shadows of Valentia to finish my achievement collection for that game. Playing Casual mode and letting people “die” was a new experience (previously I’d only ever picked Casual in any of the games for battle saving) as was the reckless, semi-LTC playstyle that doesn’t suit how I like to play FE at all. I finished with more than 150 turns to spare which I read isn’t all that impressive, but at least I never have to play FE15 that way again.

Clive and his lady and entourage for the meme

Clive/Mathilda
D – I’m neutral on it

Glurgy in a way that reminds me unpleasantly of how a certain man formerly of my acquaintance would be with his girlfriends, but they seem to deserve each other for better or worse. I can’t even headcanon Mathilda wanting him for his money or because he’s amazing in the sack, the former because she comes from a wealthy family herself and the latter because of course he isn’t. I suppose she finds his indefatigable mediocrity endearing.

Clive/Clair
F – NOTP

I don’t have any moral quandaries about incest, but for God’s sake have it at least be interesting and not a copy/paste of Clarine and Klein.

Clive/Fernand
C – Not a bad ship

…with the caveat that it only “works” as an unfulfilled tragedy that would have been much better had Fernand been less of an ass. Oh, well – Fernand thoroughly gets his comeuppance via his replacement mancrush, and Clive is probably just as clueless as ever.

Clive/Lukas
E – I don’t really like it

A queer man not-so-subtly crushing on a straight man…yeah, no. This trope sucks pretty much no matter how it’s played, which is also why I don’t much care for what the game is (probably) going for with Leon and Valbar. Good on Lukas for growing past it and making new friends though, as I don’t see his feelings ever being returned (or even fully understood).

Clive/Forsyth
D – I’m neutral on it

Basically the same as Clive/Lukas except that Forsyth comes across as less serious and less emotionally vulnerable in his hero worship so it doesn’t feel as cruel. Also, Python exists. Forsyth may be much more likely to want to pursue something definite – a manly military romance, most likely – but I still don’t see Clive going along with it to any satisfactory degree. Mutual handjobs in the dark while they’re both thinking of someone else, at most.

Clive/Python
C – Not a bad ship

In terms of socio-political ideologies this is even more screwed up than Les Mis’s defining m/m ship Enjolras/Grantaire, but as with anything involving Python it would undoubtedly be fun though very likely lacking in real substance. Considering the aforementioned ideological conflict that’s probably for the best, really. Python would definitely kiss and tell, if only to get Forsyth riled up in more ways than one.

Curious on your thoughts on Clive

How I feel about this character

The lord of mediocrity, but that’s the joke. He’s amusing on that meta level, but not very fun to use or fun to consider in-universe as someone who ends the game much better off than quite a few more engaging characters.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

None of the half dozen or so people who want to bone him deserve someone so unimpressive. For whatever reason though Mathilda seems perfectly equipped to handle his fawning, and as sappy as their conversations are I can’t really see breaking them up for anyone else. I could also see Fernand and him hitting it off in a clandestine way at some point during their adolescence, though by the time of the game that’s all in the past and only Fernand is still dwelling on it.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Clair, and maybe Forsyth if he can manage to calm down. His relationship with Lukas is too fraught with his subordinate’s unfulfilled desire to ever be something I’d see as healthy.

My unpopular opinion about this character

None about him specifically, though I do take his side more than most people in his supports with Python. It helps that the game does too.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

I want more elaboration on his four villas. Are they seasonally themed? Are they spread throughout Zofia so as to best capture particular vistas? Does he get to keep them after the game? Is Clive unworthy of them? At least we know the answer to that last one.

I felt like the thing with nobles > commoners berkut should have been the counterpart to zofia ending up in depravity? It probably started a bit like ashnard’s Daein where as long as you are strong you can climb your way up, but with time the strong nobles became more powerful (since on the contrary of the commoners they had better resources), which evolved in the belief that the nobles are more strong that the commoners because they are nobles, not the other way around like it used to be

markoftheasphodel:

deetvar:

I presumed that the nobility in Rigel is determined by strength, and that a continuing lineage of strong fighters is what allows for this family to becomes nobility. Just so happens the lineage of Rudolf I guess has consistently been the most powerful family.

IDK. However you slice it it feels like the FE15 writers excelled at little beautiful things while forgetting what the big concept of “toil vs leisure” or whatever actually was. Like… why is some pretty ornament of a lady like Rinea who detests violence even there in Rigel? How does Rigel’s culture produce a dainty creature like her, even as Mathilda and Clair and Celica herself are “swashbuckling” all over Zofia? Is this supposed to be ironic?

I have to wonder who Rigel’s militaristic culture would even have as a target prior to the events of the game, since they’ve got a pact of non-aggression with their only neighbor and none of these games (before Awakening) give the impression that interaction between Archanea and Valentia is frequent enough to generate any large-scale conflict. FE15 largely presents the struggle of living in Rigel as a product of its harsher climate and geography compared to Zofia though we’re going to ignores the vast vineyards, which would logically lead to the scarcity of resources that encourages rigid class systems. Rigelian nobility is very likely then the standard hereditary feudal lordship sort rather than the theoretically egalitarian setup Ashnard and (some of) the laguz nations aim for, and in that environment I could easily imagine someone as dainty and sheltered as Rinea existing. There just aren’t any examples of strong military women in Rigel to compare her to though; apparently the only way for women to fight there is to have their souls sacrificed to Duma (or whatever Nuibaba did to become a free-willed witch). As for how that’s reflected in the Rigelians’ religious beliefs, I imagine that for everyone other than the Duma Faithful it’s something similar to real world philosophies (including much of medieval Christianity) that encourage toil and self-denial in this life in exchange for reward in the next. FE’s never been consistent on whether belief in an afterlife is common among its religions, but Berkut’s death scene strongly implies exactly that. 

It also contrasts nicely against the Zofians’ pleasure-seeking philosophy…even if now I’m wondering what’s keeping Zofia’s class structure in place with Mila artificially multiplying their resources. Valentia can be so confusing.