Favourite NPCs: Book Nerds
Trails of Cold Steel: NPC Blogging
Aside from the named campus NPCs whose character notes are listed in your notebook, there are some other NPCs at the school: the janitor, the cafeteria staff and the student shop clerk - but also other “filler” students. Those students aren’t always around and also don’t have a name or a continuous story, but they do add life to the campus setting and have some identity of their own. There’s the guy who’s often found studying on the upper level of the library, or the student council helpers who may be the same students you meet when you drop by the commoners’ dormitory from time to time (there’s a girl who always talks about Towa, the student council president).
The first NPC in this photoset is one such student, and she can only be encountered in that particular corner of the library. Every time I enter the library, I look forward to seeing her, but she’s not always there. (That’s lovely in itself though; the library is used by a wide variety of people, and they come and go. Well, except for instructor Thomas, who is alwayyyyyys there, almost.) I happen to think that she’s the prettiest girl on the campus AND SHE DOESN’T EVEN HAVE A NAME!!! (Then again, I’m really fond of the nobles’ uniform.)
That NPC is totally me.
As for the last three screencaps in this set: That’s a festival visitor who gives you life advice. Until you realize she’s talking about reading BL smut.
Favourite NPC Relationships: Mint & Makarov (& Mary)
Trails of Cold Steel: NPC Blogging
No story spoilers here.
Mint and Makarov’s relationship is my favourite NPC relationship in the entire game; it’s very entertaining and endearing, and I also like that they both have a a lot of personality of their own outside of the duo that they form. (The same cannot be said about all other duos.)
I don’t have any early game screencaps for these two either, but I think it’s on your first day of school that Makarov tells you his niece has entered the academy, and that he’s not looking forward to taking her under his wing because it’s embarrassing and troublesome. (True enough, Mint spends the entire day getting lost while looking for the staff room.)
What you need to know about Makarov is that he’s veryyyy laid-back. And by laid-back, I mean I run into him in the courtyard or on the roof and ask him what he’s doing there, and the answer is slacking off. Or I talk to him on a rainy day before midterms and this is what he says:
Makarov: Don't put too much work into the exams if you don't feel like it. As long as you don't give the vice principal another excuse to scream at me, I don't care how well you do.
He’s often in the staff room though, so I’m sure he does his work properly, just as he watches over Mint properly even though he tells you all the time what a bother it is. (Because really, Mint messes up all the time, and Makarov already went through all of that with Vanilla, Mint’s mother.) At some point, Mint messes up at her Orbal Science exam by getting all the answers correct, but writing them down in the wrong fields, so she has to take on supplemental duties for a while, which means sweeping the courtyard. And Makarov is tasked to watch over her, which he does, unenthusiastically, but it’s always so sweet when you see them together anyway!
Whereas Makarov is grumbling about having to watch over Mint, Mint is pretty sure that she’s the one keeping an eye on him. Makarov doesn’t like expending more energy than necessary, so he’ll only do the minimum in his personal life. Worried about his eating habits, there’s an optional quest with Mint cooking something for her beloved uncle, and it’s so sweeeeeeeeeet. You just know these two love and appreciate each other.
Mint also tries to hook up Makarov with another instructor, Mary, late into the game, probably so that Mary would watch over Makarov for her. And Mary is basically the audience because she totally knows what's going on, but plays along, and sincerely admires the relationship that Makarov and Mint have due to how open they can be around each other (see last screencap). Mary is a high noble, too, but being a good teacher to the academy’s students means much more to her than anything (she’s very supportive and friendly to everyone).
I hope I’ll get to see these three again in the sequel.
Favourite NPCs: Mint
Trails of Cold Steel: NPC Blogging
No story spoilers here.
I have no idea why I have so few screencaps of Mint and that makes me a bit sad, as she's probably tied with Kenneth for my favourite campus NPCs. (Also, she has the cutest hair on the campus.) As with Kenneth, I’m always wondering what Mint is up to next because Mint is pretty much what your usual heroines in shoujo manga or magical girl stories are like: kind, caring, energetic, overeager - and terribly, terribly clumsy, causing disasters wherever they go. AND SHE’S JUST SUPER ADORABLE because she just keeps doing whatever, without letting any of the panic she summons in other people bother her.
She has inherited that trait from her mother Vanilla, it seems; as the screencap above demonstrates, Vanilla is equally disaster-prone, and both of them have a terrible sense of direction and are completely oblivious to their own clumsiness. (You meet Vanilla very late into the game on one of your field studies. One time I walked into her house and there was stuff all over the floor and her husband was sweeping the floor in resignation.)
I don’t have more to say about Mint at this point because what makes her shine is her veryyyy endearing relationship with her uncle, who is an instructor at Thors Academy.
Favourite NPCs: Clara
Trails of Cold Steel: NPC Blogging
No story spoilers here.
Enter Clara, the one and only. While every other club captain more or less cares about the prosperity of their clubs, Clara doesn’t really give a damn. It’s a bummer I didn’t take a lot of screencaps in the early game when I was still getting acquainted with everything, because Clara was already hilarious in the early game. New club members that need introducing? Fend for yourself, I’m busy. First years needing help and advice with their art? Don’t bother me, I’m too busy with my own art. “Wing it!” Even her back is constantly turned to the rest of the room. I have no idea what Gaius and Linde talk about while creating things lmao, since I doubt Clara is all that talkative.
I have no idea why Clara is a club captain in the first place because she will NOT let anyone talk to her or disturb her when she’s into her art, which is all the time. (I assume she’s either the only one left from the previous year or that she was given the position due to skill and dedication alone - and it’s true, Clara is Thors Academy’s one true artist.)
Clara is unperturbed by anything around her, including the change of seasons, as she’s one of the few students not to change uniforms:
Clara: The last time I wore mine, I was in the middle of an art project, so it ended up completely filthy. Finding and washing it at this point seems like an annoyance, so I'll just stay in my winter uniform for now.
She’s very similar to Kenneth in many regards, if you haven’t noticed, and also always stays behind at the club room until the late hours. (That screencap of her pulling an all-nighter on a free day and then falling asleep the next day is my favourite precisely because she’s always working non-stop. REMEMBER TO REST, EVERYONE.) And like him, she just keeps working on her sculpture even during the school festival, never mind all the visitors who have come to look at the art club’s displays. Of course, all the people end up watching her work instead.
This is one of my favourite duos in the game, and it’s one of those f/f campus couples like Haruka/Michiru in Sailor Moon and Ecliche/Judith in Ciel: The Last Autumn Story. The parallels are there: Just like the two couples I’ve mentioned, these two are older role models for the two girls they’ve taken under their wing.
There’s a book in the library about sports in Erebonia that you can add to your notes. Lacrosse is among the sports that have rapidly gained in popularity throughout Erebonia, and at Thors Academy, it’s exclusive to girls. (The book mentions tennis and lacrosse are divided by gender, but I don’t know whether that means lacross is reserved for girls and women outside of Thors.) Of your party members, Alisa joins the lacrosse club, and she finds herself at odds with Ferris, a first year noble who considers Alisa her rival.
Emily and Theresia lead the club together, but it’s usually just Emily on the field when you drop by in the morning as Theresia skips morning practice due to her low blood pressure. Aside from that, the two of them are usually found together, often talking about the strained relationship between Ferris and Alisa and comparing it to their own relationship back when they were both first years. That parallel is what defines the lacrosse club as you see it in this game, as these two watch the two newcomers and cheer them on from the sidelines, wondering whether they’ll also manage to become close friends like their predecessors. After all, what defines Theresia and Emily as NPCs is their friendship, and the pride that they take in having overcome their differences.
When you visit the noble’s city Bareahard on your second field trip, there are two men glued to their seats on the upper floor of a renowned restaurant. One of them is Theresia’s father, Baron Caroline, and he confides in his friend Baron Wodan that he’s worried about the company Theresia might be keeping at the academy, while admitting that he believes she isn’t so fond of him. (Theresia is a noble, whereas Emily is a commoner.)
It’s shown that the two girls are aware of Theresia’s father’s disapproval, but that disapproval never even reaches the point of being relevant in your conversations with the two of them - it’s clear that they wouldn’t let anything get to their friendship.
Those last few touching screencaps above at the end of October are at the end of the game, when danger might be approaching and many unnamed nobles have fled the academy.
Here’s the two of them enjoying the festival attractions together:
Favourite NPCs: Edel
Trails of Cold Steel: NPC Blogging
No story spoilers here.
There are several club captains at Thors Academy who are immensely devoted to whatever it is that they do, who never stop talking about their passion and who are almost always at the location of their club activities, seemingly not having any social life or any other interests: Clara (art club), Kenneth (fishing club) and Lambert (riding club) are examples of that, but so is Edel. What sets Edel apart from those three extreme examples is this: Clara and Kenneth single-mindedly pursue their interests at the cost of everything else. Clara doesn’t take care of her club members properly and also doesn’t seem to sleep properly. Kenneth breaks curfews and doesn’t seem to care about his health much either as long as he gets to fish. Lambert... Lambert just seems off into his own world, really, but I don’t see Paula and Jusis complain about the riding club, so I guess it’s all good.
Edel, however, is a sanctuary. She’s almost always next to the school’s courtyard, looking after the flower and vegetable beds, and like the club captains mentioned above, she does so regardless of weather and regardless what else is going on (at least she carries an umbrella, right?). She’s a noble, but she’s there in her strawhat and in the soil all the time. When most nobles return to their estates during summer vacation, she stays at the academy because she can’t bring herself to leave her flowers behind. When there’s a commotion at the end of the game and it’s dangerous to walk around, she’s there for her flowers.
What defines Edel for me is not just her care for the flowers though: It’s how she cares about humans and flowers equally, and her gentle words usually apply to both. She is devoted to her flowers, but not to the point of forgetting all else, as she still finds the time for the people around her. When Fie, one of your party members who usually takes naps all around the campus, joins the gardening club, I thought it was an odd combination. But it turns out that growing flowers and taking Edel’s words of comfort are a big part of Fie’s growth, and it’s touching how Edel is always looking out for Fie. This starts as early as at the beginning of the game, where Edel sees Fie nap in the courtyard and worries whether she might catch a cold.
There’s an NPC in town who is very similar to Edel: Jane, the flower seller. Both of them say a lot of philosophical things about flowers and people. You don’t see them together very often though even though they’re clearly good friends, and I think that’s because Edel spends so much time at the flower beds. I love catching them together though! <3
I guess I love flower girls in video games, period. I’ve mentioned it before, but Edel’s character design, her devotion to flowers and the way she speaks really remind me of Wild Arms 3′s Florina, the flower girl of the Secret Garden sidequest. Students at Thors Academy don’t talk too much about each other aside from their own groups, but I’d assume that Edel would be popular. I’m slightly bummed out you never see her speak with Kenneth though (he did mention once that he got her permission to fish there, I think), considering he’s like, always there, fishing next to her flowers... And there’s plenty to talk about while you’re fishing and gardening, right????
Favourite NPCs: Klein
Trails of Cold Steel: NPC Blogging
No story spoilers here.
Here’s another post about emotional payoff if you do all the optional quests and talk to all the NPCs regularly. Klein is a really amazing, hardworking, kind and sincere person (boyfriend material tbh), and he gets along with anyone.
I don’t have any screencaps of him at the school’s swimming pool in the capacity of the club’s captain, but he’s aware of how each of the club members are doing and encourages them in what they do. One moment that I remember regarding the swimming club is how all its members celebrate when Monica, the one who has just started swimming, finally reaches the goal she has set for herself. It’s heart-warming.
Klein tutors Emile, and I guess he gets along splendidly with children because he has two much younger siblings. He’s a family person through and through, and there’s one optional quest where you’re asked to be Emile’s substitute tutor because Klein rushes home out of worry for his mother. (He’s deeply devoted to her because she raised all three children alone after his father passed away.)
If you didn’t do the optional quest, you’d never know, and you’d never have these feels when seeing his family members come all the way to Trista just to attend the school festival and to see him. (To be honest, I have no idea how optional dialogues and scenes change if you didn’t do specific quests since I did them all, so who knows whether they’d show up in the first place.)
And then you see how much his siblings love him and how he patiently shows them aaaaaall around Thors Academy (second year students needn’t host any festival attractions). And you hear his mother gush about him and you’re just like: Yes, ma’am, that’s exactly what it’s like, you have such a great son, you can be proud. Excuse me while I go cry about Emile. You should totally meet Emile.
Favourite NPC Relationships: Emile & Klein
Trails of Cold Steel: NPC Blogging
Spoiler Alert: READ THIS WARNING BEFORE CLICKING ON SCREENCAPS. No spoilers for the main story, but Emile is an NPC who goes through a lot of growth and who resolves two separate ongoing NPC stories. Don’t read past the read more as I write about the last four screencaps there.
There are plenty of NPC relationships I love in this game, but this might be the one that touched me the most due to how much Klein helped Emile grow, with Klein being a really great person overall. I cried only once while playing this game, and it was over these two - again, completely optional to the story.
Klein is the swimming club captain and a second year, and since he likes teaching people, he is also Emile’s private tutor. (You also get to tutor Emile at some point when Klein is occupied with urgent business.) Emile... studies all the time, whether Klein is there or not; he’s usually at his desk. You almost never see him interact with family members. At the beginning of the story, you also learn that he has ditched his friends (the other three Trista children who are his age) and doesn’t attend Sunday School anymore because he considers it a waste of time.
If you’ve read my post about Annie, you’ll already know how Annie and Emile’s parents are constantly arguing. At some point, this gets so bad that it keeps him from studying, as he puts it. So he turns to the ever-reliable Klein for help, and UGH. KLEIN. YOU’RE SUCH A NICE PERSON. ;_;
You don’t see what Klein tells Emile, but when you come back a week later, you’ll see Emile giving his impossible father a piece of his mind, and in private, he tells you that Klein told him to speak his mind rather than keep it all in. I’m pretty sure this is what made his father see the light, allowing his parents to make up, so yeah, Klein totally saved a family from falling apart there. You later see Emile’s father speaking properly (awkwardly, at first) with his wife when he comes home, rather than the usual “where’s the food?”, etc., and he even makes time to attend the festival with the family.
The real highlight is the end of the first festival day for me though. This is the one instance in this game where I cried lmao, I was so impressed and touched by these purely optional NPC stories, especially since this one scene did not require any words to deliver the emotional impact. When you approach the library in the late afternoon, you see four children of the same age stand in front of it. One of them is Emile. I had actually forgotten by then that he used to be friends with anyone, because it seemed like ages ago that the other children mentioned him thinking he's too good to hang around with them. That's how long he was alone, doing nothing but studying.
But this time, he apologizes to them, and they are happy to welcome him in their group again. Klein watches the group quietly from afar AND IT JUST KILLS ME. It killed me as soon as I walked up to him and saw him watching the children from afar. I don't know whether Emile asked Klein to come with him as a source of courage; after all, it was Klein who taught Emile to speak his mind, and I assume Emile knew he was in the wrong, but was too proud to admit it. Early in the game (in May), Emile did say "The last thing I want is to turn into someone like my dad when I'm older." - and his father wasn’t just rude and in the wrong, he also wouldn’t own up to his mistakes until he was called out. AND TO SEE THAT EMILE CAME THIS FAR AND WITH KLEIN’S HELP JUST AJDSLDJL, my emotions. Characters teaching others the meaning of courage.
It could also be that Emile didn’t ask Klein to come along, but that Klein stopped by and watched because Emile is one of his protégés, and Klein is the kind of big brother who looks out for anyone. AND JUST THINK ABOUT HOW PROUD KLEIN MUST HAVE FELT IN THAT MOMENT. ;_;
It’s also lovely to see all these children have people to look up to - different role models for different children, which just means that the game treats them all as individuals. For Emile, that is Klein, for Annie, that is Kenneth. And of course they’re both interested in what their role models are up to during the school festival.
