#for alm

[windywhispers]

I’m gonna go back and reread some of the endings bc there’s some stuff that I wanted to talk about there

But after I read the name description for Alm, I’m just super fond that Alm casted aside his birth name as Albein and went with his humble name Alm :’) He’s staying true to the self he’s known all this time and also casting aside the past entirely

[windywhispers]

Small parallel that I noticed in terms of Alm and Berkut’s motives. While both do have an impulse to fight, what the impulse is based on completely differs and also relies heavily on the kind of relationship they have with their respective partners. 

I still don’t know if I’m the right person for this job, but everyone has taken to calling me “hero” now, so I best live up to the role. I want to make our land a safe place for its people. A safe place for you… 

There’s a lack of assumption from Alm’s side where he isn’t entirely sure if he will get to that endgoal of saving Valentia, but one thing is certain: he still wants to try. And he wants to do it for Celica. While he isn’t sure why the lands were unsafe for Celica and why she had to go away when they were children, Alm vows that someway somehow he’ll try to make a difference in this world so that he can make a safe place for Celica and others. 

Then we contrast that with Berkut: 

I wanted to BEAT him, Rinea! To dispatch him and claim the throne! I wanted to make you my empress, and hold all Valentia in our palms together!

While you could probably argue that Berkut was doing this for Rinea as well, I feel like the attention here is more focused on his own pride and to prove himself, as with the stress in “beat him”. Even his treatment of Rinea (the whole SILENCE WOMAN line when she tries to calm him down after losing to Alm a second time at the beginning of act 4) would speak towards him more focused on his pride more than anything. 

Alm’s motives are a selfless one, Berkut’s a selfish one. 

[windywhispers]

I almost missed the forest village and almost completely missed Luthier lol

But I really love the conversation that Clive and Alm have about saving Delthea. Originally when I was playing through it, I thought this was going to be a conversation that would help Alm realize more about his position and mature as a result, but Alm proved me wrong in that he IS very much aware of his position. And Alm does make a good point with Clive, saying that if Delthea were a noble or a princess, people would be more willing to help. He’s consistent in his message of balance in his acts. Even if he did take up the mission so instinctively as he did with saving the girls earlier in the game, this scene’s actually showing he is thinking more thoroughly about his acts: so it means something more than just saving.

Also it’s a little hypocritical of Clive, considering he reaaaally wants to go save Mathilda from Desaix. I wonder if it wasn’t Desaix that had kidnapped Mathilda (in that, Desaix wasn’t already one of the big enemies of the Deliverance and was instead some rando pirate for example), would he be just as dispassionate?

But for that reason, I also like Clive. There’s a bit more complicated feelings for him after the reveal that Alm may not actually be Mycen’s grandson. It’s easy to say one’s value isn’t determined by their bloodline. It’s another thing to be put it to the test. He doesn’t just blindly Alm because Alm’s acts go against what he’s grown up to believe. Still he’s willing to learn, just with a grain of salt.

[windywhispers]

Okay aside from Alm’s charming and very dumb self, I think the moment I really latched onto FE Echoes was when Alm and Mycen were having that conversation up on the balcony of the Zofian castle just because Mycen gives Alm that warning of “Are you ready to be a hero and to carry other people’s lives with your actions?” because Alm is given that warning and he still takes it up and is ready to do whatever it takes to help people. 

Also as someone who was playing it a first time around and got some minor spoilers, my immediate response to Alm accepting his role as the hero was “You will regret your words, boy.” 

The overall thing kinda ties back to humbling one’s self. For Alm, he doesn’t care what happens to him so long as he can actually make a difference in the world now, and he even recognizes he might be in over his head when he makes the speech to keep fighting, and heck, with Mycen, it’s not heroic music playing like when he was doing the speech; it was sullen music -- music of foreboding for things to come for him. 

Maybe right now, he’s still pretty idealistic because he hasn’t really seen everything the war has to offer, but he still accepts the burdens of others as he carries on so I think the music choice was honestly a really good one for the scene :) 

[spellbooksanddemonkidsarchived]

“Gah! Pamoon?! I-is that you?” Alm seemed to be shaking.

[spellbooksanddemonkidsarchived]

[spellbooksanddemonkidsarchived]