One Heart @forblazess - Tumblr Blog

SOV Omegaverse headcanons + some explanations

Introducing my scuffed omegaverse headcanons! These are all rough ideas, nothing concrete. I didn't really think them through entirely, I just wanted to do this for fun. Everyone's pheromones are based on plants, so I apologize for the boring choice in scents (or lack thereof).

Text version under the cut:

Old School FE Artist Spotlight #4: Shinshu Ueda (上田信舟)

Wind Mage scans by ShiningEmblem64

Previous artist: Yuuka Matsumoto

For Today's episode of "Old School FE Artist Spotlight" we have; Shinshu Ueda!

Shinshu Ueda is a mangaka that has been active since the late 80s. She has made manga for many different demographics throughout her career. She's drawn an official FE manga called Fire Emblem Wind Mage released on April 27th, 1998. The manga covers the backstories for Merric and Minerva. Many years later, she would return as an artist for the One Hundred Songs of Heroes karuta set, where she illustrated cards for Julius and Ares.

Early in her career, she made many doujinshi for Yoroiden Samurai Troopers (Ronin Warriors in English). She also created doujinshi for Dragon Ball, Gundam Wing, and many more.

Here is a list of her artist credits for the FE series:

Fire Emblem Wind Mage

Fire Emblem Enix Super Comic Gekijoh Vol.7

Fire Emblem: One Hundred Songs of Heroes (Artist)

She's also made 2 FE doujinshi:

BACK ATTACK 1.5 (Date unknown) [General]

BACK ATTACK (1994) [Marth & Merric]

Her recent work as of writing this post is Saint Seiya: Another Story of Hades - "Dark Wing" (2020) which is available to purchase in English.

I hope you enjoyed this post on one of FE's many contributing artists!

Links to her socials:

Twitter

Bluesky

Pixiv FANBOX

Sources:

SURUGA-YA (For the doujinshi information and images)

#fire emblem #fe shadow dragon #fe genealogy of the holy war #marth #merric #minerva #ares #julius

Old School FE Artist Spotlight #3: Yuuka Matsumoto (松本ゆうか)

Scans by ShiningEmblem64, gaebolgz, and FlareHabanero

Previous artist: Tetsu Matsudaira

Happy 30th anniversary to FE4! On today's episode of the "Old School FE Artist Spotlight" we have; Yuuka Matsumoto! I chose her since she's worked on a lot of FE4 related material.

Yuuka Matsumoto is a Teen's Love (TL)* mangaka that has been active since the late (?) 90s. She focuses on writing for the shoujo and josei demographic, but she also made some Boy's Love manga as well (some of which includes shotacon). Early on in her career, she made a few one shots for horror magazine, Gakuen Mystery.

*Teen's Love (TL) refers to erotic and smut manga written for older teen girls and women. The characters in those manga have an adult cast. Though these days, I believe they're more targeted towards adult women.

She's created doujinshi for series such as Detective Conan, Final Fantasy, Digimon, and Gundam Wing.

Here is a list of her artist credits for the FE series:

Fire Emblem The Legend of Archanea Comic Anthology

Fire Emblem Enix Super Comic Gekijoh Vol.2

FE World Tour (Vol. 3, 4)

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War: Shounen Oh Short Gag Box

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War: Gag Battle (Holy Warrior in Love, Holy Warriors of Light, Assault Edition, Gag Paradise, Pursuit Edition,)

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War Kobunsha Heaven Short Comic

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War: Holy Legend Comic Anthology

Fire Emblem Thracia 776 Kobunsha Comic Anthology 1 (Artist)

Fire Emblem Thracia 776 Kobunsha Comic Anthology 2

Fire Emblem Thracia 776 Kobunsha Short Comics

She's also made a few FE doujinshi! Here's a list of them:

TOP OF THE WORLD (Date unknown) [Leaf centric]

Digital Outlet (Date unknown)

FIRE・FIRE (Date unknown) [General]

marvelous！！ (Date unknown)

Don't blame the children (1996) [Quan/Eldigan]

Feeling great (1997)

Her recent work as of writing this post is 同居人は義弟【単行本版】未亡人は彼の恋心にまだ気づいていない (2025). It does not a have an English release as of yet.

I hope you enjoyed this post on one of FE's many contributing artists!

Links to her socials:

Twitter

Sources:

SURUGA-YA (For the doujinshi information)

#fire emblem #fe genealogy of the holy war #fe shadow dragon #fe thracia 776 #fe1 #fe4 #fe5 #sigurd #deirdre #seliph #arvis #julia #julius #arthur #fee #mareeta #deen #eda #lief #nanna #palla #catria #est #tailtiu #tine

A Deep-Dive on Holy Mother (教母) from the FE Echoes Drama CD

My visual depiction of Holy Mother

Happy Mother's Day! Today, I'd like to talk about Holy Mother (教母 kyōbo), a minor character from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia Drama CD – Foreign Skies, Daybreak Forest. All the information gathered here is from Garmmy's translation of the audio drama.

Name Origins

DISCLAIMER: I am not fluent in Japanese, so feel free to correct me for any mistakes on this part of the post.

In regards to her name; the character '教' (kyō) in her JP name comes from the word '教師' (kyōshi) meaning 'teacher' and '母' (haha) means 'mother'. So her name would literally translate to, 'teacher's mother'.

As for why she's called 'Holy Mother' in the fan translation; I asked Garmmy (the translator) about it, but they couldn't remember why they chose to call her that. (And that's alright, it's been years since they translated the script!)

Background Information

Holy Mother is a noble woman who established a place called the 'Holy Mother Village'. It is home to orphans who were abandoned by their families for being sickly and frail. It was seen as a common tradition in Rigel, so she rescues as many children as possible from this cruel fate. She's seen as kind and caring, but shows restraint like a parent would. She's suggested to be in a position of high ranking, as she's able to command the Rigelian soldiers guarding her territory from obstructing the Deliverance.

Role in the Story

We first see her in Track #5: Premonition, where she approaches Yuri about why he was leaving their village so often. She laments how he arrived there at a much older age compared to the other kids and worried that he didn't trust her because of that. When Yuri talks about his encounter with Alm, she encourages him to follow his example and act on what he believes is right.

In Track #6: What to Believe In, she's mentioned in Vidar and Magnhus's conversation where the former says that he doesn't know [her] identity.

She's seen again in Track #9: Encounters and Farewells, as she calls in Alm and Lukas to speak with her. She thanks them for saving her village and apologizes for her children's actions. She offers to assist the Deliverance by allowing them to pass through the forest unharmed. She bids them farewell until Alm tries to speak with her again. She states that she was grateful towards Alm's kindness and his willingness to help those in need, regardless of their background. The two of them smile at each other and that's the last we see of her.

Alm's Mother?

Now, the story does not directly state that Holy Mother is Alm's mother. But they do provide major clues that support her being related to him.

1. Holy Mother and Alm's Desires

Personally, this is my reason for why they're related. Both Holy Mother and Alm have expressed their wishes of lending a hand to anyone in trouble, whether they are Rigelian or Zofian. In Alm's case, this is a personal conflict that he has to deal with throughout the plot. The audio drama hammers down this goal that both of them share during the second half of the story:

Holy Mother: Why do you think he helped you, even though you were his enemy? It’s because he felt that was the right course of action. Decide not based on whether one is Zofian or Rigelian…decide and act based on what your heart tells you is right.

Alm: I do not wish to look at the world based solely on allegiances. The reason why I joined the Deliverance…the reason why I’m still here with all of you today…is because I acted according to what I felt was right. I want to do what my heart tells me to! For my own sake, and for the sake of those who have placed their hopes in me. Even if that means helping the enemy, or those who have made us suffer…I will not stand idly by as the weak are wrongfully tyrannised! It’s not right!

Holy Mother: Alm. Seeing that there exists humans like you who would extend a helping hand to the weak without any thought of discrimination…it fills my heart with joy. I am glad to have met you.

Alm: Ah…I’ll be there in a minute! Yuri. I…we can’t guarantee we won’t topple this country. But I refuse to accept a world that simply casts aside its weak and ill as right! That is why I continue to fight…this is the true enemy we need to rid the world of!

2. Holy Mother being caught off guard

After Holy Mother gives her words of encouragement to Yuri, Yuri mutters Alm's name which surprises her but she immediately brushes it off. There's even music that plays when she hears Alm's name.

Yuri: Follow in his footsteps…Alm’s footsteps… Holy Mother: Alm…? Yuri: Mother? Is something the matter? Holy Mother: …No. It’s nothing.

3. Alm's Appearance

Probably the most damning evidence of her being Alm's mother. Yuri points out to Alm that he seemed to resemble Holy Mother, though Alm wouldn't have known as he only saw her face concealed (for context, she was wearing a veil when she spoke to Alm). I think Yuri's remark can be read in a literal and metaphorical context.

Yuri: Alm, you… Alm: Hm? Yuri: Ah, don’t mind me! I just thought…you kind of resemble our Mother, in a way… Alm: You think so? I mean, I never got to see her face beneath her veil, so I can’t really tell. Oh, but…

Miscellaneous (Questions, Theories, Headcanons, etc.)

Now that we've gotten to know about Holy Mother, I'd like to share some of my own thoughts on her!

I like to think Alm got his enjoyment of oranges from her lol

Seeing her talk about how she wants people to help others without discrimination... Maybe she's not from Valentia? Or at the very least, she might not be from Rigel

I always imagined her as a priestess... (since Alm and Lukas meet her in a chapel) but she probably isn't a Mila or Duma Faithful

I like how Alm and Holy Mother are polar opposites in that he goes out to fight and explore the wide world, while she stays secluded and protects what she has (her children). But at the end of the day, both of them share the same dreams

I like to think that Holy Mother chose the name 'Alm'. It's a way for him to stand on his own, while he's still required to have the name 'Albein Rudolf'

I wonder what her relationship with Rudolf is like? I don't think they love each other, but Rudolf still cares about her enough to grant her own army of soldiers to protect her land

She probably knew about Rudolf's plan, since she didn't tell Alm who she really was, as there would've been a lot more drama to Rigel's royal family than there needed to be. But that could also be due to the fact she's in a supplementary piece of media that is completely optional to experience...

A lot of Berkut's behaviour was attributed to his parents and Rudolf's influences... I wonder if he met Holy Mother, he would've acted a bit differently. Since he was a shy crybaby as a kid, I wonder if being too emotional is also considered a weakness in Rigel.

I hope you found this write up to be enjoyable and informative about an obscure character in the FE series!

And please, check out the Echoes Drama CD for yourself!

#fe15 #fire emblem #fe echoes #alm #albein alm rudolf #holy mother

forblazess

Old School FE Artist Spotlight #2: Tetsu Matsudaira (松平徹)

FE World Tour scan credits: MrTalkingDinosaur

Previous artist: Ryou Kitakami

WARNING: There's gonna be a few mentions of [18+] titles... Keep that in mind!

I guess this is a series now! On today's episode of the "Old School FE Artist Spotlight" we have; Tetsu Matsudaira!

Tetsu Matsudaira is a Boy's Love (BL) mangaka, as well as an illustrator and character designer that has been active since ~1990. He did character designs for the BL visual novel, Lしたいね！(2002). And for any old school BL fans, he illustrated a manga adaption of Sukisho (2001).

According to his defunct website, one of his favourite characters was Shinon. He even had a page dedicated to FE9 where he also mentioned that his favourite ship with him was Gatrie/Shinon. He also liked Ike/Shinon and Janaff/Shinon. (His homepage at the time even had a cute little GIF banner with Gatrie and Shinon!). At one point on his website, he used to have... FE5 ringtones? I'm guessing he recreated sound effects from the game.

Here is a list of his artist credits for the FE series:

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War: Gag Battle (Holy Warriors of Light)

FE World Tour (Vol. 1, 2, 3, 4)

But before he worked as artist in the FE series... He made doujinshi for it! Many of them, in fact. Here's a list of those titles, their dates and the topics they focused on (English titles are machine translated):

PON PON (1992) [General]

Sex, Lies, and the Devil Sword (1992) [Ogma/Navarre] [18+]

Navarre Returns (1994) [General]

HOFHOF (1994)

A Silver Night When Stars Fall (1995) [Marth/Navarre] [18+]

We'll meet in our dreams (1995) [Marth centric]

Children's Crusade (1996) [Finn centric]

It seems I've fallen in love (1996) [General]

Children's Crusade 2 (1996) [Finn centric + General]

What a Wonderful World (1996) [Marth/Navarre, Leif/Finn, Anri/Xane]

Children's Crusade 3 (1997) [Finn centric]

Children's Crusade 4 (1997) [Finn centric]

PriPri (1997) [General]

Fire Emblem Path of Radiance FAN BOOK (2005)

His titles Ready Yet, You Chicken? (2025) [18+] and Drowning in Sweet Kahlua Milk (2025) [18+] are available to purchase in English if you'd like to support him. He has no active social media accounts, as far as I know.

I hope you enjoyed this post on one of FE's many contributing artists!

Sources:

SURUGA-YA (For the doujinshi information and images)

forblazess

At one point on his website, he used to have... FE5 ringtones? I'm guessing he recreated sound effects from the game.

EDIT: It turns out it's just a single ringtone! Thanks to flameduck on Reddit for pointing that out

Old School FE Artist Spotlight #2: Tetsu Matsudaira (松平徹)

FE World Tour scan credits: MrTalkingDinosaur

Previous artist: Ryou Kitakami

WARNING: There's gonna be a few mentions of [18+] titles... Keep that in mind!

I guess this is a series now! On today's episode of the "Old School FE Artist Spotlight" we have; Tetsu Matsudaira!

Tetsu Matsudaira is a Boy's Love (BL) mangaka, as well as an illustrator and character designer that has been active since ~1990. He did character designs for the BL visual novel, Lしたいね！(2002). And for any old school BL fans, he illustrated a manga adaption of Sukisho (2001).

According to his defunct website, one of his favourite characters was Shinon. He even had a page dedicated to FE9 where he also mentioned that his favourite ship with him was Gatrie/Shinon. He also liked Ike/Shinon and Janaff/Shinon. (His homepage at the time even had a cute little GIF banner with Gatrie and Shinon!). At one point on his website, he used to have... FE5 ringtones? I'm guessing he recreated sound effects from the game.

Here is a list of his artist credits for the FE series:

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War: Gag Battle (Holy Warriors of Light)

FE World Tour (Vol. 1, 2, 3, 4)

But before he worked as artist in the FE series... He made doujinshi for it! Many of them, in fact. Here's a list of those titles, their dates and the topics they focused on (English titles are machine translated):

PON PON (1992) [General]

Sex, Lies, and the Devil Sword (1992) [Ogma/Navarre] [18+]

Navarre Returns (1994) [General]

HOFHOF (1994)

A Silver Night When Stars Fall (1995) [Marth/Navarre] [18+]

We'll meet in our dreams (1995) [Marth centric]

Children's Crusade (1996) [Finn centric]

It seems I've fallen in love (1996) [General]

Children's Crusade 2 (1996) [Finn centric + General]

What a Wonderful World (1996) [Marth/Navarre, Leif/Finn, Anri/Xane]

Children's Crusade 3 (1997) [Finn centric]

Children's Crusade 4 (1997) [Finn centric]

PriPri (1997) [General]

Fire Emblem Path of Radiance FAN BOOK (2005)

His titles Ready Yet, You Chicken? (2025) [18+] and Drowning in Sweet Kahlua Milk (2025) [18+] are available to purchase in English if you'd like to support him. He has no active social media accounts, as far as I know.

I hope you enjoyed this post on one of FE's many contributing artists!

Sources:

SURUGA-YA (For the doujinshi information and images)

#fire emblem #fe1 #fe4 #fe9 #fe shadow dragon #fe genealogy of the holy war #fe path of radiance #seliph #ares #julius #leif #finn #sigurd #quan #marth #ogma #shinon #tetsu matsudaira

Old School FE Artist Spotlight #1: Ryou Kitakami (北神諒)

Scan credits: ShiningEmblem64, gaebolgz, FlareHabanero

I thought I'd do a bit of a highlight on an old artist who contributed to the franchise, that being Ryou Kitakami!

Ryou Kitakami is an illustrator and mangaka that has been active since 1992. They contributed to the FE series during the late 90's, mostly on FE4. They created illustrations and comics for the 4koma books.

They've created doujinshi for many series, including Final Fantasy and Persona.

They is still active today as an illustrator and is working on a new manga called, 即クビになりたいメイドなのに、冷血皇子に執着されています (She's a maid who wants to be fired immediately, but the cold-hearted prince is obsessed with her). They also take commissions on Skeb.

Here is a list of some of their artist credits to the FE series (there might be some mistakes, feel free to correct me):

Fire Emblem The Legend of Archanea Comic Anthology

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War: Super Tactics Book (Guest Artist)

Fire Emblem Shounen Oh Comics 4Koma Gag Battle

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War: Shounen Oh Short Gag Box

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War: Gag Battle (Assault Edition, Gag Battle, Gag Paradise, Holy Warrior in Love, Holy Warriors of Light, Pursuit Edition)

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War Kobunsha Heaven Short Comic (Cover Artist)

Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War: Holy Legend Comic Anthology

Fire Emblem Thracia 776 Kobunsha Comic Anthology 1 (Cover Artist)

Some of the art showcased above have some cleaner versions that can be viewed on their defunct website (through the Wayback Machine)

I hope this was interesting look at one of Fire Emblem's many contributing artists!

Links to their socials:

Lit.Link Profile

Pixiv

Naoko Kugo: Graphic Designer and FE4's "Unofficial" Artist

I'm sure many of you have seen FE4's official artwork before and have many different feelings toward it. Some positive, some negative, or just some sort of bewilderment toward it. But something I haven't seen people discuss (to my knowledge at least) is... Who's the artist? That would be Naoko Kugo.

Naoko Kugo is credited as a graphic designer for FE4. They were also responsible for designing the box art cover for the game as seen in the second image. They created some concept sketches which were archived from Intelligent System's old website. One of those sketches was eventually used for an advertisement back when FE4's tentative subtitle was 'Heir of Light'.

They made character illustrations for the playable Gen 1 cast, Eldigan, Reptor, Chagall, Lombard, Manfroy Travant, Arvis, and Seliph.

I would like to note that the character designer for FE4 is Katsuyoshi Koya, who you may recognize as the main artist for Fire Emblem Trading Card Game (2001-2004). He also worked as a graphic designer for FE4 along with Kugo, Fumika Noichi, Mitsuru Matsumoto, and Manabu Shimada.

After FE4's release, Kugo would then go on to provide illustrations for novels and manga. These are the titles listed (please note that the English titles are machine translated):

夜叉の恋路: 鏡花あやかし秘帖 (A Yasha’s Love Story: Kyouka Ayakashi’s Secret Books) September 1, 1996, Paperback Novel

鹿鳴館の魔女: 鏡花あやかし秘帖2 (The Witch of Rokumei Hall: Kyouka Ayakashi’s Secret Books 2) February 1, 1997, Paperback Novel

FW猫の棲む島 (FW The Island Where Cats Live) August 1, 2001, Paperback Novel

夢々陰陽師鬼談 (Dream Dream Onmyoji Ghost Stories) December 10, 2001, Manga

魔界転生: 聖者の行進 (Demon World Reincarnation: The March of the Saints) August 1, 2003, Manga

花いのちの詩　夢視師と紅い星 (The Poem of Flowers and Life: The Dreamer and the Red Star) June 10, 2008, Paperback Novel

花いのちの詩　夢視師と氷炎の檻 (The Poem of Flowers and Life: The Dreamer and the Cage of Ice and Fire) August 10, 2008, Paperback Novel

Unfortunately, this is where my research ends. There isn't a lot of information on Naoko Kugo available online. As far as I know, they don't have any social media presence. I can't say if they're still active today or not.

Despite that, I hope this post was informative about one of Fire Emblem's many artists who have contributed to the franchise.

Side note: 夢々陰陽師鬼談 (Dream Dream Onmyoji Ghost Stories) has a fan translation available and Kindle e-books for 花いのちの詩　夢視師と紅い星 (The Poem of Flowers and Life: The Dreamer and the Red Star) and 花いのちの詩　夢視師と氷炎の檻 (The Poem of Flowers and Life: The Dreamer and the Cage of Ice and Fire) are available for purchase on Amazon JP.

If you guys have any more information on Naoko Kugo, feel free to share them in the comments!

Image sources:

Fire Emblem Wiki (character artwork and concept sketches)

Amazon JP (Covers for the books that Kugo illustrated for)

#fire emblem #fe4 #fe genealogy of the holy war #sigurd #naoise #alec #quan #ethlyn #arden #seliph

Pages scanned by SpiritGriffon

Illustrations by shojo mangaka, Yumi Tamura (Basara, 7 Seeds, Don't Call it Mystery) from the Fire Emblem The Complete (1996) artbook.

#fire emblem #fe shadow dragon #fe gaiden #fe1 #fe2 #ogma #navarre #harden #abel #cain #marth #caeda #draug #merric #julian #palla #catria #est #alm #albein alm rudolf #celica #mycen #boey #yumi tamura

manatiki

Samurai Groom Hinata

#fe14 #hinata

Collage of cute Alm faces from the Gaiden manga

#fe2 #fe15 #alm #fire emblem #fe gaiden #fe echoes #albein alm rudolf

Shoujo, Josei, and the artists of Fire Emblem

Link to the Google Doc

I love Fire Emblem and I enjoy reading shoujo and josei manga. Which got me thinking, how many of FE's participating artists have work under the shoujo and/or josei demographic?

So I created this list. An long record of FE's artists that have either made or illustrated manga or light novels under the shoujo and/or josei label.

What's in this list? It includes;

Names of the artists and their contribution to the franchise

A few titles that they have worked on

An accompanying illustration from whatever they have worked on in the series

WARNING!!

There are a few titles on this list that include sexual content and are labelled as [18+]. Please be cautious when looking up these titles.

Since I made this list my myself, there's probably going to be some information I've missed or labelled incorrectly. If that's the case, please let me know! I'll try to fix it as soon as I can.