#fe text posts

[tepeshoftellius]

tellius + @ao3tags​

[nothing-is-ever--still--on-earth]

You know, back in fire emblem Fates I just hated the narrative device that had evil being explained away with the influence of supernatural monsters. Like, with Conquest Takumi, it would be stupid for anybody to take Corrin at face value when they’re proving every deceptive thing Hoshidans are taught about Nohrians. Corrin was literally (unknowingly) sent as part of a plot by Garon to assassinate Mikoto to let Nohr harvest Hoshido’s resources without her magical barrier. Plus like, Takumi’s whole thing is he hates feeling helpless or humiliated, and all Conquest is is him having to watch powerlessly while you taken everything he’s ever loved from him one at a time. And like, even Garon, somebody being powerful and then wanting more power and use it to take more stuff is like, a fixture of our real world. Besides, it sounded like he used to be a better person before Azura’s mother died.

We don’t need horrors from beyond the rift or eldritch possession to explain a helpless prince doing all he can to protect his dying homeland or a greedy and debased king wanting more to rule. I mean, I get that it makes things a lot easier for younger audiences and I do like that.

I’ve been replaying Awakening recently, and thinking about that narrative tool in a new perspective. Making people’s inner demons be outer demons validates their narratives in a way dialogue would have more trouble doing in a game that’s cutscenes between directing a band of fighters to attack people. Instead of just killing some person who does horrible things, it makes it so their narrative is symbolically compelling enough to force the player to confront that narrative directly because just killing the person in question can't be done in any morally satisfying way. And, it also kind of asks the question “Are we still human if we lose ourselves in people we didn’t want to become?” and I can respect that.

I was thinking how strange it was Robin was found wearing Grimleal Heirarch robes, and I was wondering what they could have been doing with their life before that fateful day. They were in Ylisse and the whole first arc of the game is spent dredging up and dealing with the consequences of a self-righteous wasteful war. It had also been Robin’s own religion that was being targetted, or at least, the religion of the clothes they were wearing. And then I was thinking, Who even is Robin? What do we know about them? And they’ve got two main characteristics, they’re ridiculously, like unstoppably smart clever and resourceful, and, at least during the game, they throw themselves into their conviction that intangible human bonds must have some meaning. The climax of the game is when Robin takes personal responsibility for the actions of their alternate timeline self because their actions are Robin’s own, but this can’t make sense in the surface narrative that they only did what they did because they were possessed by Validar using blood magic. For that confrontation to have been meaningful, Robin must know that they very easily really could have decided that human bonds weren’t worth anything after all, and taken Chrom’s life to move on to destroy the world which birthed the hero-less inhumane war Ylisse waged on Plegia before the game started. It was Robin’s own six-winged inner demons they were battling.

[tepeshoftellius]

tellius + @ao3tags

bonus:

[tepeshoftellius]

tellius + @ao3tags

@twilightstarr-zinnia

[nothing-is-ever--still--on-earth]

(minor Conquest spoilers)

I like how in Conquest after Azura takes initiative and does her dance blatantly as herself, she gives Corrin an obviously fake alibi for where she was, and her face drops when Corrin then asks her if she saw the person responsible. In Azura’s mind it’s clear that that was her up there; changing her dress shouldn’t hide who she is to Corrin who’s watched her sing and use that same water magic the entire game, and her offering a flimsy alibi was her cue to Corrin to play it cool in front of Leo and the others and let it slide, but in that same social pretense (to Azura) Corrin is like ‘The Hoshidans sent somebody to curse father with a song. Were you able to capture her?’ And Azura takes it personally, like this is Corrin’s way of telling her how dare you, and the subtext of her reply is like basically 'Did I act out of line? I thought you’d be happy..’ like Corrin was angry at her for acting to endanger their father’s life, Azura no, Corrin’s just an idiot

[nothing-is-ever--still--on-earth]

I like how Silas is the physical embodiment of like, everything not-wrong-but-problematic-enough about pop culture, like he’s simultaneously the “They say” guy, he’s “nice guys finish last”/the “friendzone”, and he’s insistent, more than a little manipulative, and a huge proponent of white lies, but none of which strongly enough to give anyone enough to peg him for it, so he’s just perpetually filling that social niche of ‘I do what I please, but you can’t call me out because I’m objectively in the right.’

[nothing-is-ever--still--on-earth]

Takumi's B-Support with Kiragi is all I ever wanted in this game. I just want to hug the poor guy! I'm so proud of him for coming to terms with his shortcomings

[nothing-is-ever--still--on-earth]

So in Awakening, bear meat, mainly according to Frederick and Lissa, was dismissed as a pretty horrible meal, while in Fates, it’s largely regarded as a pretty great thing to eat, especially by Mozu who mentions it like every fourth Support, and I just like to think between the two games somebody wrote to them like, “Hi! Love your game! Just love it! But, have you ever actually had bear? I don’t think you’ve had bear. I mean, I get it if Frederick is just a bad cook, and they sure didn’t eat it in stew, which is honestly the only way to go with bear. Really, I think you should try it. It’ll change your life!” and the writers did and were like, shit, bear stew’s pretty good. We must make this right!