About Houses and Alucard's difference in Heraldry, I've seen the post you're talking about on redshit -
I can't find the source they extracted their chart/data from and the sources I find on Wikipedia are contradictory and the different form of escutcheons vary between countries!
What I could find (bon voilà la source le site à l'air un peu vieillot) though is how, at least in France, what's called late 14th century escutcheon - like the Faerghan one - is used nowadays and called the "écu classique" :
But if you look closely, the 1512 shape from the French escutcheon is sort of similar to the "XVII" one from England, aka, 200 years later - and it's the one used in the XXth century (and XXI, I'm pretty sure this website wasn't updated since 2000 lol)
And you can play "where is Charlie" with other countries lol
So, tldr : I don't think the devs thought* much about it and just wanted to make a cool symbol.
Save for Leicester
Like okay I know jackshit about heraldry and how to read it aka blazonry, but this looks like a mess lol
*if they did thought, it would make me recoil because devs who are able to dwelve in Heraldry were unable to understand how their portrayal of Almyra was problematic in 2019-2022 ??? lol
There’s a Male Manakete in Shadows as well. Rides a Pegasus into battle
And of course poor Dimitri got exploited by the Shadow Goddess.
----
Oh!
Honestly I don't have a lot of thoughts or opinions about shadows, but I find the 3D models cute and goofy at the same time, while the 2D artworks slap! Maybe IS will remember gender locked classes suck thanks to Shadow ?
Also I love how whoever wrote that description for Dimitri wasn't hit by the FEH description wank - remember when Dimitri, Supreme Leader and, to an extent, Rhea, had to had their MYH's blurbs periodically modified because, uh, they weren't very accurate ?
It's even more suprising considering the localisation team for this game is still led, in part, by La Monte, who is also in charge of FEH's lolcalisation, and worked with Pat!
They did THE INCONCEIVABLE! They did Duo Rhea and Sothis!
I'll wait for their lines before raising my expectations lol, but while Rhea's outfit has the same leg circlet (?) Seiros the Warrior wears which makes me happy + a side effect of the VA strike means we will have Kikuko Inoue without needing to change the language of the game...
The art itself is... Pretty not my thing, like not all. Her face looks weird also...
Would have been cool if they had gone with their original idea of Galerius becoming an evil centaur Unicorn while Alain becomes a Unicorn with his chosen maiden riding him.
I think this would have needed too many rewrites of the plot to go anywhere lol
But now I'm imagining maiden-Mordon riding Unicorn!Alain and I can't ignore it anymore
From what I could understand (and what I put through the GT lens, this artbook has so many stuff I want to understand lol idk where to start!) some ideas from the beta version was about having an unit called "unicorn knight" - whose model was later re-used to make Virginia/Ilenia and Alain - but idk if the main lead - they designed the "prince" unit, that was re-used for Gilbert! - was able to turn in an unicorn, like proto-alain, or if it was from another scrapped draft thing.
They also had ideas about adding monsters on the fields, but dropped it so the only "remains" from this idea are the bones from Drakengard and Baltro's ominous lines.
TBH... I don't know if I would have appreciated this "monster" inclusion given how Fodlan completely botchered it (but then UO seems to have been designed with more care than Fe Fodlan so...) but if they went through the "and Baltro resurrects long dead/forgotten monsters to fight against the party!" it'd have been to reminiscent of a FE game where a Gharnef like resurrects "dragons" to fight/use against the party lol
Galerius' evil centaur thing, like him having a second transformation/phase would have been neat, and yet, I still think painting him as a "red emperor" was, despite the ties to FE, really nice, in the sense that Galerius is Alain's foil and would be a "him" that didn't bother to read to the plot, thus gets fucked by it at the end (Baltro doing Baltro things once again, since it was his idea in the first place to kill an unicorn!).
But then, I suppose if centaur!Galerius and unicorn!Alain were kept in the final product, VW would have found a way to write them in an acceptable plot so, who knows?
Having played the former Metaphor Re Fantazio demo they really waste no time in showing the partly-SMT Lucifer inspired but could easily be mistaken for a No Tragic Backstory Bullshit Meritocract Red Emperor in its (so far) major villain Louis. Guy straight up murders the King at the games opening and is openly talking about replacing him to the point everyone can tell he murdered the King, yet the sheer audacity earns him loyalty(out of respect or fear) and is the one person trying to fight-
Maybe the full game - not only the demo - will bring some tragik uwu backstory to "redeem" the Red Emperor like?
@zeroabyss replied to your post “RE thinking about King Gerard in Unicorn Overlord...”:
He also could have left those behind because he didn’t feel worthy of them, further cementing his doom. I can see the logic in making Knights loyal to the King(as they’re already minor nobility when Knighted) since that prevents the Nobles from leveraging their military might against the Crown. He probably even thought something like that could happen leading to him doing so, but he probably didn’t think about how he SHOULD have some allies of high enough positions to help assert such an action.
Like in ASOIAF the most progressive King of Westeros turned to trying to resurrect Dragons precisely because all his progressive reforms for the smallfolk was a boon to the people who truly mattered, it alienated and made enemies of the rest of the nobility, leading him into such a desperate action at Harrenhal that killed him.
The point I wanted to make wasn't about the creation of the Ashen Blue in general, but more about Gerard doing something, and then bailing out.
As you said, he might have thought that removing power from nobles by "hijacking" their vassals would have pissed those nobles, even if it would, theoretically prevent them from using their armies against the crown (the prologue is here to tell us that, uh, no it didn't work at all, Giethe was still knocking at Gran Corrine asking for Ilenia's death) -
But the main thing is, he bailed out instead of facing, himself, the ire of those nobles.
Like, he smashed a hornet's nest, and left his toddler daughter(s?) to deal with it :/
Doubling down on your comparison with ASOIAF, Gerard would be similar to Big Bobby B (Robert) as in Bobby loved to use his weapons and in general "win" the throne, but when it came to ruling and "counting coppers", he was less than thrilled and wanted to fig away.
we can even make a comparison with Bobby loving to, uh, sire and play with babies but as soon as he had to take responsability and raise the kids, he fucked off and left someone else to do it
If there is something I liked, even if it was surface explored because the game is not about this aspect at all, it's how, for Cornia at least, while we are told that Alain doesn't know jack about his country but vows to make a "better" Cornia after retaking it from his mom Galerius and pals, we are shown that Cornia, before the Zenoiran invasion, wasn't all roses and daisies and while Ilenia didn't have the same circumstances that Alain has (tfw you can't smash the people who oppose you because they ally with an invader) she tried her best to keep the situation from degenerating (like Hodor/Hodel? invading Drakengard for because during times of peace his skills are useless, or Reimann pulling an Izuka).
Re-Robert wise : the game seems the make a difference between a ruler who has to rule in times of peace aka no war (Ilenia), and a ruler who has to rule during a war (Alain).
Gerard was in the first situation, I guess he would have thrived in the second but, hey, Alain understands that he needs to rebuild his kingdom after all (thus rule "in times of peace") - something Gerard, despite having some ideas about what to do to make a "better" Cornia, ultimately didn't.
@zeroabyss replied to your post “Just thinking about it but - UO : MC learns the...”:
Using the relics is a Necessary Evil. Rhea herself isn’t complaining about doing so either. If it saves the day and they can help destroy Nemesis instead of helping his reign, that’d even be some positive to her to come out of the atrocity that created them. Just wanted to give my two cents on only that. The rest is valid.
TBF that's what I was sort of ranting against, Rhea isn't complaining and we infer that she allows the Relic's use in this situation because it's Nemesis they're dealing with, and they need their power.
But it's not tackled in the game, we don't have Claude, in the light of this reveal, tell her that maybe he should let that Nabatean alone and doesn't want to use this bow anymore, where Rhea would tell him it's okay just for this once, because bro/sis who became Failnaught would surely have wanted to lend their power to defeat Nemesis and his Elites.
It's just, nowhere so while we can suppose a lot of things happen "off-screen", objective fact is, in the game without any indication like a NPC telling us they talked about it or something, the reveal about the Nabateans and the Relics amounts to nothing for the characters.
Like, with or without Rhea's infodump about the Relics, nothing about the upcoming fight would have changed, Nemesis is storming against the Monastery to do Nemesis things so Claude'n'pals have to kill him "again".
What was the point of that infodump? What kind of consequences does it have? Is it even closing a character arc?
@zeroabyss replied to your post “@zeroabyss replied to your post “You're not wrong...”:
I definitely say a father telling him he has to do it all on his own and that he can’t even rely on his friends or even their fellow nations, definitely pushed Lyon to take the path that he did. No one can handle something on their own, and so Lyon was tempted to use the one power their texts said had the power to avert disaster.
You can see how this issue was more than likely a flaw when Lyon talks about him to the twins. About how his father took on the burdens all on his throne and barely, if ever rested. The man shouldered everything that it likely played into his worsening health and death, and his final words being to tell Lyon he can’t rely on help from others concerning a natural disaster and that the other countries would leave any Grado refugees to die at the border to protect themselves
Vigarde pushing all of the country's hopes and aspirations on his unprepared son was his mistake, sure, but...
Between Vigarde telling him to deal with Grado's fate alone because relying on Renais is impossible, and Vigarde/Father Mc Gregor/The World telling him not to free Satan to use his powers because Satan nearly destroyed the continent centuries ago, if Lyon had to pick one command to disobey, I suppose he could have picked the "I'm still going to ask for Renais' help" instead of "I'm going to use Fomortiis' powers".
Vigarde might have steered him in the wrong direction - Lyon already playing with Fomortiis' powers (to save a child! and then to predict tempests and save more lives!) was his own thing.
It's SS in a nutshell, good intentions alone cannot justify the worst means used to satisfy/reach them.
Lyon lamented and complained about his perceived weakness, feeling he would never compare to the twins nor would be the kind of ruler Grado will need to save itself... so he doomed Magvel, wanting to be the strong and kind person he wished to be.
I think this is the flashback where it's more or less spelled out :
Lyon:
“Mm… My research isn’t complete yet, but there’s no mistaking the power the Sacred Stones contain. And the Stone of Grado seems especially responsive to my dark magic. I suppose it’s because it contains both sacred and demonic properties. Regardless, if I can just press my studies a little harder… Well, I think I might be able to use it to heal my father’s illness. If that works, there’s no telling how many other people I can help as well.”
Eirika:
“Do you think this is wise? The power contained within the stones is beyond our understanding… My father tells me that the stones possess a power not to be trifled with.”
Lyon:
“Uh-huh… Father MacGregor is also against it. That’s why they still won’t give me direct access to the Stone of Grado. For the time being, I’ve made do with the radiant energies surrounding it. They’re nothing compared to the raw power of the stone itself, but… If I can show Father MacGregor some real progress, perhaps one day…”
(...)
Lyon:
“Thanks, both of you. Hearing those words from you means a lot to me. Actually–and this hasn’t been made public yet–but… I’ve already saved someone using the knowledge I’ve gleaned so far.”
Ephraim:
“You have?”
Lyon:
“Uh-huh… A while back, a fire ravaged Serafew, and a little girl got trapped in the flames. Her burns were terrible: not even healing staves were able to cure her injuries. But just a sliver of the stone’s power restored her life and healed her wounds. We saved that girl’s life, Ephraim! Oh, if you could have seen the tears of joy in her mother’s eyes!
Fado, Ismaire and I'm pretty sure Vigarde himself know it's not wise to triffle/use the SS powers... Father MacGregor is also against it, as the resident "holy man" around - and his words are important, since the Church of Magvel was founded after Latona, who fell herself (but managed to fend him off for some reason ???) to Fomortiis' possession! - but Lyon's reply is... Mockery? Or disinterest?
Father Mac Gregor wanted to prevent him from continuing on this path, and forbade him access to the Stone! But Lyon didn't care and still used what was... available, when he also knows the power he is using has demonic properties, and a will of its own!
Lyon's reasoning isn't "Father Mac Gregor is right maybe I should try to consider that I cannot "use" Fomortiis" but something like "maybe he doesn't believe me when I tell him this power can be used for good! I just have to continue working on it!" completely missing the point...
Or is he?
Sure, Lyon saved the Serafew child... but this hadn't made been public as of yet (2 years before the start of the game), like was this not enough to convince Father Mac Gregor that he could use those powers to do right and good things? Or Lyon himself realised he... "saved" someone who was already dead?
This flashback is even more interesting because we have this, the twins' failure :
Ephraim:
“Using the Sacred Stones to study magic…”
Lyon:
“Ephraim, Eirika, what do you two think? Using the divine power of the Sacred Stones in this way… You don’t think it’s a very good idea, do you?”
Ephraim:
“…It’s just that I know nothing at all of magic. I would that there were some way I could help you, but I simply can’t. But, Lyon, I’ve seen how hard you’ve worked to help others. I know how much you want the power to make others happy. I know these things, and because I know you, I trust your intentions.”
Lyon:
“Ephraim…”
Ephraim:
“If you hope to use the power of the Sacred Stone for good, I trust you can. I’m behind you all the way.”
Eirika:
“I agree with Ephraim entirely. You spend every night in the library, studying cures for your father’s illness. The power of the Sacred Stones is too powerful to be used for personal gain. But you, Lyon… I think you’ll be fine. You’re the kindest person I know.”
It's a double failure on their part, firstly because they give empty reassurances to Lyon claiming to know him, how he wants to use this power because he has the right intentions, or how it's totally not used for his personal gains...
When part of Lyon's desire for power was to help people, sure, but also, to be worth someone in Ephraim and Eirika's eyes!
Secondly...
No, the power of the SS (especially the one housing Fomortiis!) cannot and should not be used, even for "good" or with "good intentions". There are lines that shouldn't be crossed, even if it means not being able to save people/not reach your dreams.
The Epilogue in Eirika's route is very explicit :
Eirika:
“That would be nice… But first we must seal this away… This stone banished the Demon King. With such power… Do you suppose we could bring back Father and Lyon… That everyone who died in this dreadful war could be–“
Ephraim:
“Eirika.”
Eirika:
“I know, I know. Such things would be– I cannot wish for such things. No matter how it hurts, or rather because it hurts, we must learn to accept sorrow. We must take it into our hearts and tame our grief…”
Ephraim:
“Eirika… Tell me, Sister… If Lyon were here with us, what do you think he would want?”
Eirika:
“What he would want?”
Ephraim:
“Yes. You see, I think I know. It was the reason for his studies. It’s why he wanted to know about the Sacred Stones–or rather the Fire Emblem. Let’s take Lyon’s dreams and fulfill them in his stead. We can do that, can’t we? Without relying on any mystic power?”
Eirika:
“You’re right, Brother, we can. Let us fulfill his dreams. As Lyon wanted, as we all want… So we may live in peace and joy.”
Sure this epilogue sort of sucks because Eirika has to be explained things by Eph out of anyone (when we know how he takes the news in his route!), but the point still stands, tempted with the power to achieve the impossible... the heroes refuse and accept to move forward and fulfill their dreams (make the impossible possible?) without relying on mystic powers, especially if it comes from Fomortiis himself!
