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Hello, and welcome to FestivalOfThe12 Plays Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War! This shall be the recounting of my first ever(semi-blind) playthrough of FE4, in which I shall summarise the most important mechanical events, speculate on the story and future plot happenings, and give my general impressions of each successive chapter!

This is NOT a pure blind play-through! I was actually pretty in the dark about the plot going into the game, but I play Fire Emblem Heroes and check the subreddit with truly excessive regularity so through general osmosis I have already become pretty well-versed on the biggest twists – basically, as far as I can tell, all the kinda stuff you’d actually really like to see someone experience for the first time. I’m sorry! I’d love to read someone else’s fully blind playthrough myself, but I cannot offer that for you on this day, my dear readers.

So, what does this Let’s Play offer? Well, knowing the presence of plot happenings doesn't mean I know how they'll come about, and I'm sure there's a whole bunch of things big and small that I don't even know to prepare for! Aside from that, I personally always really enjoy reading accounts of other people’s playthroughs of games, especially Fire Emblem games; this franchise is just so great at hitting on that procedural storytelling and emergent narrative, where the game mechanics and outcomes can be interpreted to tell a story all on their own, and I will certainly be doing a lot of that interpretation in this LP! And lastly, I also just really want to make a record of such a soon-to-be-nostalgic playthrough, so even if nobody else ends up being interested, I’ll still keep it up for my own future benefit.

Before I get started, I'll also talk for a while about my history with Fire Emblem as a franchise, so you know what kinda expectations I'm coming into FE4 with. The first ever Fire Emblem games I played were Blazing Blade and Sacred Stones on emulators way back when I was a little kid - and, yes, I was one of the absolute dumbasses who got to the end of Lyn’s route and thought they’d beat the game, lmao. And then I got two turns into the actual game and quit to go play some more Harvest Moon. So, uh, I didn’t get very far, and demonstrated a pretty character-defining reluctance to ever play a Fire Emblem game which is remotely difficult. But despite that short introduction, that series became pretty nostalgic to me, if only as a quaint relic of my younger years.

When I started hearing a lot about Awakening on the DS, I ended up buying it up out of curiosity and really enjoyed it! I’m typically not much of a gameplay fanatic (????), but for whatever reason I could just sit back and play Awakening for hours! It didn’t quite lead me into full-on Main Fandom hyperfixation, but I still feel very fond of the game (Cynthia best girl <3). And then Fates came out, and I got Birthright, but not before being exposed to the fandom's...well, response to Fates, which I unfortunately believe permanently soured my experience. I never quite finished it (not too unusual for me) and sorta let everything Fire Emblem fall by the wayside.

A few years later, we were finally starting to get information about the new game Three Houses (yes, I completely missed Shadows of Valentia’s entire existence until around about then), and I found myself glued to the subreddit. Fire Emblem had lingered in my consciousness as something good, but never quite Important – but this, finally, was to do it! This was the time Fire Emblem would finally become my Hyperfixation!! Annnnnnnnnd it didn’t. Or, not Three Houses, anyway. It was a fine game! But I sorta… didn’t love it, somehow? Even though everything about it on paper should have meant that I did? And for some reason, I found the fandom downright unbroachable. I just couldn’t seem to feel the same way about it as they did.

But I was becoming curious about Heroes (which I had installed briefly on launch before quickly uninstalling; no, I have no idea how I never even heard about SoV). And one day, a twitter mutual who shared a love for one of my favourite characters, Kanzaki Souma, retweeted a picture of Seliph - I think from some Day in the Life of Heroes comic. On a whim, I quoted, ‘Blue Souma :O’ and was immediately informed all about Genealogy of the Holy war and how this was Seliph and how since I loved Souma I would 100% for sure love Seliph as well!! On a completely separate occasion, I heard that another such twitter mutual used to play Heroes and asked about it, and was immediately shown a full-investment maxed out Seliph and assured with equal vehemence that I would definitely love him, too!

I believed them. And I was right to do it.

I installed Heroes, waiting until Legendary Seliph was on a banner, and rerolled for him! That was in late February last year, almost 11 months to this day, and I pretty quickly learned two things: that based on Heroes, I fucking adored Seliph, and that my first ever Fire Emblem hyperfixation was to be, technically, Heroes! Although it was the FE4 characters I gravitated towards immediately, if only at first because they shared a game with Seliph!

And, of course, that curiosity over Seliph and those surrounding him soon transformed into a very real curiosity over Genealogy of the Holy War itself. I hadn't ever really heard much about it in my previous forays into Fire Emblem, but I knew some things: that it was an old game with very big maps that some people really really loved, that various aspects of it had inspired Three Houses including a particular Camus archetype who had attended the same military academy as the hero, and that one of the main lords could maybe be paired up with his (half?) sister utilising what may or may not have been a bug. Also even more incest, apparently - but like, my first or second game was Sacred Stones, sooooo quite frankly 'Fire Emblem has a lot of incest' was an almost nostalgic meme for me.

But what really convinced me to start playing - the frame of mind that put me on track to like the game from the word go - was what everyone said about the story. That it was epic, that it was fairytale-esque, that it was emotional and tragic, and even allusions now and then to some deconstructions of typical Fire Emblem franchise mainstays. And if there's one thing that I absolutely positively need from the things I love, it's sincerity. I'd rather share a fandom with the sort of people who write 6,000 word essays about why their game should be studied as literature in university and proclaim their favourite one of the best games of all time than the type of people who can't say a positive word about their faves without becoming aloofly ironic and self-deprecating. This strange little cult classic old video game, whose fans adore it so very much, felt like it was for me, in a way that I suppose Three Houses never quite managed.

Also, everyone assured me it was easy as hell. And thus, I swiftly pushed past my 'but what if I just wait for a remake' vacillations, got myself a Totally Legitimate Means Of Playing It - and what you read before you now is the result. :)

Or… sort of. I didn’t immediately start writing up my thoughts as I played – that began with Chapter 2. So this first chapter will be me summarising the most memorable events through the prologue and chapter 1 in retrospect. But as of writing this, I have already fully written up my posts for chapters 2 and 3, and I have every intention of continuing, so hopefully that’s not too much of a deal-breaker!

To sum up: I was already quite familiar with Fire Emblem’s basic mechanics, and had had a few different games to get a feel for individual game differences. I did look up a couple of guides, most notably this introductory guide by Choops and Mekkah’s Newcomers Companion, because I have little faith in my ability to not screw things up for myself even in a very easy game hahaha. When I first booted the game up, I did it with excitement and anticipation.

Enough preamble. It’s time for me to summarise, as best as I can, the experience of my playthrough of the Prologue and Chapter 1!

Prologue

* The first time I got to see the map, I said that I was impressed. ‘Yeah, that is a pretty big map!’ I would have enthused. But I was lying. Deep down, it didn’t seem all THAT big. I was soon to learn I had not needed to be so false in my praise.

* When I saw Alec, my immediate first thought was ‘oh, I’ve seen that guy in FEH – isn’t he supposed to be a magic unit?’ There was not a shred of doubt in my mind. I was SURE that Alec was Lewyn, with the same bone-deep certainty that people know that Clark Kent is Superman or that Tuxedo Mask is Mamoru. And quite frankly I was pretty ready for him to give up the act and take out his tome because as a sword unit he kinda sucked? This may be why I made only the most half-hearted attempts to actually train him as a cavalier lmao.

* I liked Sigurd! He's got that kinda rough and tumble nice guy humility, and has that vibe of a guy who's really great at everything but friendly enough that you can't really hold it against him. I think I joked one time that he is the mythical privileged wealthy white man who actually is so healthily self-confident that even though he says dumb shit often, he's able to take on call outs amiably and without getting down about it. Also he's probably fun as hell at parties (not that I the player ever go to parties). Good guy Sigurd!

* I’d heard that it’s best to just let Arden guard the castles so I just did that. Sorry, Arden! He seems like a sweet guy, but I was going to take all the advice I could get.

* When Quan casually dropped that he, Sigurd, and Eldigan used to attend a military academy together I was immediately incredibly curious and disappointed that we never get to see any of that in-game! Before I remembered to some embarrassment that I had already just finished a game literally based on that exact specific thought.

* Being used to more modern games, I completely forgot the requirement to actually seize a castle after defeating the boss. After beating the first one, I cheerfully sent of all my units over towards the river, despite having clearly seen that it was no longer present. As one, Sigurd’s army gazed placidly over the rushing waters, taking perhaps a lovely picnic for themselves as Oifey bemusedly ordered Arden to go visit that village I’d also forgotten about and then clank back to home base. Sigurd did, eventually, realise, and everyone was dearly thankful that Midir had somehow not completely bled to death for all the entire week or so she was left lying there. It’s a good thing the gal doesn’t hold grudges!

* And then the bridge reappeared and so did like a dozen bad guys and I actually got super scared for like three minutes until I realised Naoise could just choke the point without trouble. Already he was proving himself vastly more useful than the Lewyn lookalike!

* Likewise when Sigurd attacked the final boss and got chunked back HARD I all but squealed until I was reminded, for neither the first nor last time, that this game has canto. (FEH did not, at the time, have canto. And neither did any of my units for a long time, either – why player phase when I could have L!Seliph tank absolutely everything? <3) Truly, an “Oh no!!!! ...anyway,” moment.

* When Arvis appeared I got really nervous because the guy just Radiated ‘bad guy’ energy and I was actually genuinely scared he was going to come over and start killing everyone for some reason?? Lmfao. Anyway since Azelle had been the one to talk about him, I assumed that he’d be the one to initiate a conversation with Arvis if there was one to be had, so I sent him over, feeling a little bad about it because the guy had literally just said that his brother scared him. (It’s not ‘make Ashe deal the killing blow on his adopted father just so you can see two lines of dialogue’ level mean, but still.) When Azelle and Arvis proceeded to simply stare silently at one another, I packed up and got the hell out of dodge before he could get any closer to the rest of the army. I somehow completely and entirely missed that Sigurd could talk to him, meaning I lost out on a silver sword apparently?? And any kind of early insight into Arvis at all, lmfao. Oh well!!! (Seriously, if you have a youtube link to this conversation, please do share it? I later tried to search for it, but even though I phrased it in as spoiler free a way as possible – just ‘FE4 Sigurd Arvis prologue conversation’ or something – the first result was deeply spoilery for a completely different part of the game, so I just exited the tab lmao.)

* I liked Sigurd and Eldigan!! I liked that they really did seem like friends who cared about each other, because my biggest hope for Three Houses was that I would get to see people who loved each other tragically forced onto other sides as their youthful optimism decayed into bitterness and fear and regret, and I was and still am pretty disappointed that the lords there didn’t really ever seem to actually like each other all that much. But in just one conversation, Sigurd and Eldigan were friends and I loved them. :)

* And yes, I read way too much into that little “You, me, and a fine bottle of wine? Just like old times.” “Mm, I’m looking forward to it.” exchange. Many eyebrows were waggled muchly. I think it was mainly the ‘Mm’ that set me off, which led to a strange feeling of loss when I happened to come upon the original Japanese line on twitter one day and realised that there was no such thoughtful murmur in that initial script at all. Still, I wrote it down in my notes specifically: ‘Sigurd and Eldigan have definitely fucked.’

* My notes also contained some confusion over where Quan came from. To whit: ‘okay according to Feh he’s from Leonster which I remember BUT the closest I can find to that on my map is Lenster in the Manster district (why is it called that??? Is this Akihabara?)’

And that’s the end of the Prologue! ...I think haha. I can’t actually remember for sure which scenes happened at the end of one and the beginning of the other. But it isn’t too important. The prologue was short, but it introduced the mechanics well! (When Azelle blasted the axe guy only to get hit back with a hand axe, right next to a church, exactly one minute after we were told how to use churches, I was almost a little galled at having been so predictable :P) It was simple but effective!

And with that, we move on to our first proper map of the game!

Chapter One

* ‘Oh boy I wonder which of these guys is recruitable.’ Tbh, I was a bit unimpressed by how obviously Bad Guy the Verdanites were. It felt too simple and easy – why risk the players sympathising with the enemy and questioning the hero when you can just make them all into comically evil ugly dudes? But, I rolled my eyes and told myself to shut up. What on earth am I doing, questioning the casus belli in a Fire Emblem game?! What do I even expect to happen here – Sigurd conducts polite diplomacy over the course of a few years and the whole matter is peacefully resolved? Idiot. Stop thinking and just play the damn war game. (Future me: So, uh...yeah, about that...)

* Okay. Okay. Map BIG. Seriously, I was incredibly impressed! And I actually lost my mind a little with how the map size added immersion with the game mechanics? Like, as you’ll see in a moment, I tried SO GODDAMN HARD to save that first village with as little damage as possible, and then later on when I was having Aideen head up in that direction, I was able to station some of my soldiers there on the village tiles for extra defence, and it just felt so!! Realistic?! Like, my guys had helped save this village, and now they were calling on them for aid, and since they’d been saved, there was so much aid to give!

* Just, I’m sure it’s been said a lot before, but the sheer ATMOSPHERE of it... Sometimes, Fire Emblem can feel a bit fragmented – you’re constantly zooming in and out on individual battlefields, but only get an abstract map for how it all fits together. But this felt like a real world, living and breathing. The jagged coastlines! The wide, dark forest, which sure does serve as an obstacle in your path! And, of course, seeing the other armies move across it, because it’s not just you and the enemy in front of you, it’s a whole continent of people! It really does emphasise FE4’s focus on higher-level politics and long-term consequences – man, I seriously can’t wait to revisit these places in generation 2! (Even if it’s… probably going to be pretty depressing, I imagine?! Haha!)

* Anyway yeah I saw that bandit beating up the first village and I somehow got it into my head that I NEEDED to stop him as quickly as physically possible! And I thought I’d attract the attention of the other bandits, so I sent Sigurd down to that village immediately! That turned out to be a Very Bad Idea because I fucking sucked at actually keeping track of enemy ranges so when I sent the others forward, it created a disgusting mob of violence and destruction from which I genuinely could not actually kill enough enemy units to save everyone, lol.

* I actually had to restart the chapter to try again! And for some reason, I still sent Sigurd down to that village rather than let him do his Naga-given job of being death-slinging meatshield! I was actually not having a good day when I played this part and I vividly remember slowly sitting down onto the ground, back to the wall, absolutely miserable. Human beings have a tendency to romanticise difficult experiences, I told myself, but I would not fall victim to such flawed psychology today. I promised myself that I would not look on this day with rosy eyes. It wasn’t fun; it fucking sucked. Well, jokes on you, past me! I’m romanticising the hell out of that bad experience!! Turns out that when you start a new video game you sometimes suck at it for a little bit? And it’s honestly funny that THIS SEQUENCE of all things is the one that got me lmfao.

* I also had Big Big problems with Aideen lmao. (Come to think of it, this whole level was really my proving ground.) I first tried to send her through the forest, for some reason thinking that the coastline route didn’t leave her enough room?? And over the course of that painfully slow chase scene she managed to avoid so many hits that I legit believed it was scripted that she couldn’t die until a certain number of turns had passed lmfao.

* And then I tried to have her go around the forest, but towards the castle?!? why. Anyway the moment Ayra started heading in her direction I screeched and backtracked and discovered very very quickly that Aideen is not, in fact, scripted to never die until a certain number of turns have passed.

* EVENTUALLY (after some genuine stressing out over whether it is even theoretically possible to save her lmfao) I did find the right way :) And then my excitement over that goddamn village being the key probably saved the whole experience for me, haha!

* I’d been curious about both Azelle and Midir’s relationships with her – I do love a good retainer/lord (or lady) pairing, but I also get a weird kick out of taking ‘crushing from afar’ type situations and making them actually work out! :) (Abandon ‘crush from afar but then it turns out their understanding of them was shallow and they don’t get along at all.’ Embrace ‘crush from afar but then it turns out their understanding of them was shallow SO they get to know them better and in more nuanced way, deepening their love in the process <3') To be honest, I was leaning towards Midir with Aideen, but Azelle got there first, and I didn’t realise the talk command was either/or, so that settled it. From then on, he and Aideen were all but an Official Couple.

* In fact, the reason why I liked the idea of Aideen/Midir was that I straight up thought Midir was a girl :’) Look, the ponytail looks more like low pigtails from that angle!! And naturally I was very intrigued by this enticingly Loyalty Kink-ish old fashioned femslash ship (Say’ri/Tiki best Fire Emblem yuri pairing <3). But after capturing the second castle, I finally decided to look up what sort of parents I should be going for with the kids, and when I saw Midir listed as an actual marriage option for Aideen, my eyebrows waggled very very hard for a good two seconds until I realised that this was not likely to be some endorsement of fempreg within the world of Jugdral and just took myself a second look at Midir’s portrait.

* I sincerely didn’t realise that Eldigan was enough of a chad to handle the incursion on his own so when that other lord started invading, I panicked and sent a bunch of my units back up lmao. Which naturally caused further delays when I sheepishly had to pull them back just a couple of turns later :’) Good guy Eldigan though!! @ all the people saying Camus archetypes promote nationalism.

* Unfortunately, one of the units who tried to double back was Aideen… Waiting for her to catch up with everyone at the second castle was like:

* I did not recognise Deirdre at ALL when I first saw her because her hair is literally white lol. I have no idea why her hair colour varies so much between different arts? But the first time I saw her I thought she looked really pretty and hoped we’d see her again, so I guess I was channeling Sigurd there for a moment haha <3

* Oh yeah, I stocked up on weapons on this map but I didn’t realise some stocks were limited so Sigurd ended up with almost everything and Alec didn’t get anything new at all :’) And then after Deirdre’s castle, I actually straight up forgot to repair his weapon, which had somehow become broken, but by that point he was already heading through the forest and I couldn’t be arsed to send him back so he just had to sit out this portion of the map altogether. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

* I like to imagine that Sigurd always made fun of Quan and Ethlyn a fair bit over their romance, with Ethlyn always insisting that she’d have the last laugh when Sigurd got it just as bad for someone himself. And like, it was funny at first when Sigurd went straight from 0 to ‘I will literally die if I never see this woman ever again,’ but as the days passed and Sigurd still refused to talk about absolutely anything else and didn’t even seem embarrassed over how absurdly head over heels he was… eesh. Older brothers are annoying :/// ( (But also it IS cute :) )

* I was actually very responsible and wrote down a lot of notes when we got all that exposition about Sigyn and the cult and all! I couldn’t really figure out their motives – was there a purpose behind arranging for the Jugdral kingdoms to all go to war with one another, or was it just for a laugh? Also man, I’m a little sad now at how in the dark I actually really was at the time at the time because I straight up wrote down ‘(daughter is Deirdre, right???) (who is Deirdre’s brother. Is he a bad guy? I can’t remember any purple haired men…)’ I already know that’s Arvis now; I’m sorry. :’)

* By far the funniest event so far occurred in this forest. So obviously I was having Ayra dodgetank the choke point all up in there, but at some point when it was almost over she rolled a nat 1 or something and actually got hit and chunked down hard. Somewhat panicked, I immediately sent Sigurd forward as like moral support I guess – and then, out of the blue, Deirdre shows up! As Ayra bleeds out beside them (Midir: first time?), she and Sigurd proceed to have an utterly moving romantic reunion, complete with fervent declarations of love and, I guess, maybe a wedding?! Ayra stares at them in disgust, before finally glancing back to the brute who has her in his sights. Hard eyes locked on the beautiful couple, a tear rolls down his cheek. At least he got to see something truly beautiful before he died :’)

* Since I'd read the walkthrough, it wasn't long before Lex was cheerily waving goodbye to the group so he could head off to go drop his axe in the ocean. While everyone else killed time, I put together my first ever Support Orgy, because I sure as hell wasn’t going to let any child in this game go unbirthed. I imagine Lex was probably a little miffed to have missed out on such a steamy session, but like, would you rather cuddle up with Ayra for a week before she maybe goes and marries someone else, or would you rather have a badass goddess weapon?! I don’t think Ayra would settle for anyone who wouldn’t choose the latter.

* Right before the final castle, Finn almost died because my dumb ass had Quan attack the wrong unit. And he didn’t even kill him!!! >:( ( Yes, I’m blaming him even though it’s technically me/Oifey’s fault. Do better, Quan.)

* Seeing that the boss guy had a Magic ring, Sigurd immediately decided that it must be procured as a loving gift for his wife. But unfortunately, the allure of Special Boss Dialogue is irresistible, and I figured that Jamke really deserved to do the honours himself. Usually, that would mean that I’d try to have him soften the boss up for her, but there was just one problem: the guy just COULDN’T. STOP. KILLING. I tried it over and over, rejigging the RNG, but the dude’s thirst for rvengeance sent those double attacks a-flying no matter how hard I tried. Eventually I just decided that if he wanted it badly enough he could have it lol, and that is how Jamke ended up with +5 magic by the end of this map (and then for like the entirety of chapter 2 because I forgot to have him sell it).

And thus, Chapter 1 ended! After a very rocky start, I was able to get a much better hold on the mechanics and the rest ended up being pretty straightforward, save that brief struggle with Quan hahaha.

Overall, I was definitely already really invested in the characters! The new ones introduced here were really fun – of course Ayra is iconic, and it was really cool getting to meet child Shannan after only knowing his stoic beefcake version from Heroes! (Boy, it was startling and a little sad seeing how cheery and innocent he used to be… :( ) And I got pretty attached to Jamke, too – he’s just trying to do the right thing!! And delete buttons are fun :) I admit that I did not use Dew At All lmao, sealing his fate much like Arden’s, and I’m not sure how to gauge his age vs Finn’s and Oifey’s and Shannan’s. (I’d guess he and Oifey are around the same age, just Dew doesn’t have the noble privilege to sit around in a castle instead of going out and making money.)

The Sigurd/Deirdre romance really is hilariously quick – I saw someone claim that it’s not actually that bad because maps in Genealogy run over the span of a year or so, but no, after meeting her once at the castle he already decides he needs to follow her and they’re a couple after the next time they meet – I really don’t see any other opportunities for them to hang out. :’D But I don’t mind that! Something I was already sensing was that Genealogy had a bit more of a classic vibe than other Fire Emblem games – less like a modern story and more like an old folk tale put into a game. And in those legends, there usually wasn’t much more to a romance than just ‘they met and fell instantly in love.’ Add in all the beautiful imagery around Deirdre being a maiden of the forest, and it all just starts to feel downright Arthurian! (And this won’t be the last time Arthurian legend will be an obvious influence on the plot, at least from what I’ve heard…) Plus random thing but I remember reading that Sigurd and Seliph are the only lords to use ‘watashi’ which also bolsters that whole more formal/classic vibe IMO.

Is all of that a bit too much of a positive spin? Because I think it was around here that my brain let go of all its reservations, got into gear, pointed at FE4 and said ‘That one. That one’s mine. :)’ Hyperfixations are strange things, and it definitely feels a bit weird (and makes me more than a little self-conscious, haha;;) to develop one so early, but man is it an enjoyable ride! From somewhere in this map, I just reached a point where everything about the game delighted me! The smallest things about it were great just because it was FE4 and I loved it! <3 That, of course, makes me a ridiculously biased reviewer, haha, so I shan’t make any claims to offering an objective point of view.

But I already really, really liked this game, before I’d barely even begun to see what it was capable of. I had no idea then how much more I would be able to love it. <3

And thus, my Let’s Play begins proper with Chapter 2: A disturbance in Agustria, and the most bomb fucking ass game music I’ve heard in a very long time!

Chapter Text

Chapter Two

(This was actually the first post I ever made of my FE4 journey, but I’ll try not to edit it too much so as to preserve my thoughts of the time!)

So I am still slowly (because of me and having ADHD lol) playing through FE4, and still massively enjoying it!! I’ve actually been waiting for this thread [future edit: the ‘Everyone Plays Fire Emblem’ thread on /r/FireEmblem] to update so I could post about it all and uhh this turned out Massive and I hope that’s okay? But man I’m really just kinda hyperfixating a bit right now and happily riding this wave where ‘everything to do with FE4 makes me super happy’! (So, apologise if this all comes out incredibly perky.)

Anyway I’m almost done with chapter 2 (aka The Gang Conquers Agustria) now! I’ll start by talking about everyone’s current status:

Sigurd: Has managed to go one whole map without forgetting to seize a castle! Well done! He couldn’t clear the arena and then got brought down to 1HP trying to keep a couple of suicidal knights alive but I don’t think he even noticed those setbacks. Winner of the Anphony to Nordion across-map dash. Currently in possession of a Silence staff so we’ll see if he can overcome the same affliction Jamke dealt with and actually hand it over freely to his wife. Oh also during the first marketplace trip I didn’t realise some weapons were limited so he got uhhhh A Lot of them.

Oifey: Has finally come to usually remember that horses can Do The Thing, only to be entirely flummoxed that horses ridden by the enemy also Do The Thing. Sigurd is starting to wonder if he had ever actually seen a horse before in his life. However his incredible powers for developing implausibly specific Arena schedules (‘Jamke goes next but then he subs out for Quan to do one more round and no you may not fight the thunder mage unless you want your wife to patch up your bleeding and broken body’) proves his continual worth. Spent at least 50% of this map headbanging to the bgm.

Deirde: Hasn’t really done much, but is doing okay. Managed a few rounds in the arena and dodged a bunch of ballistae but I felt Sigurd glaring at me the entire time. Member of the ‘couldn’t experience grind off MacBeth because she kept murdering him’ club. Spent most of the map chatting in the backlines with her sister-in-law in between healing runs. Currently in possession of a defense ring so maybe now Oifey won’t be terrified to get her within three squares of the enemy line.

Alec: God it always pains me to do this but he is so fucking benched. Two hits don’t matter if they both do barely 1 damage and his avoid isn’t high enough to dodgetank. Sole member of the ‘couldn’t experience grind off MacBeth because he would literally just constantly either miss or get Pavise’d’ club. Based on Talk conversations nobody’s noticed he hasn’t seen real combat in like 6 months in-story time which is fine by me. Has a thing for Ayra, further proof of his inflated optimism in what he’s bringing to the table.

Naoish: Sometimes I can read his name without hearing it in Jake Peralta’s voice, a strong improvement over past maps. Ol’ reliable, Naoish continues to be a thoroughly ‘good’ unit who can do okay damage and take a few hits, to be switched in and out depending on the needs of the battle. Likes Aideen, proving he’s just as average in his romantic interests as he is in combat. (Edit: I checked and his stats are almost identical to Alec’s. I now realise that the difference in performance is probably just because he got a decent weapon while Alec was last in line to buy so they were all sold out. Sorry, Alec!)

Arden: Still hasn’t seen a lick of combat outside the Arena and I feel a bit bad. After forgetting him for a couple of rounds (sorry!) he trundled off to find the Pursuit Ring and upon placing it on his finger was immediately approached by the beautiful Lady Lachesis who has since then never left his side. I don’t think he has any idea why this happened and their coupling up has also prevented him from seeing any combat even after the army came back to join him because those Knights are a danger to themselves and everyone around them, but you know what? Good for him. Likes Lachesis, obviously.

Quan: Actually hadn’t done a whole lot this chapter which is weird given all the swords? Losing out to Finn in the Arena really may have done a blow to his ego. Mostly just sort of faded into the background, not helped by him being sent to guard Lewyn only to be brought back before Erin even arrived because Midir was just too intent on killing every single pegasus knight personally. Still a great unit though!

Ethlyn: A very important part of the team given my fear of ever letting anyone be not at full health and Lachesis being unavailable to help out healing, leaving her currently an impressive level 17. She also for some reason started quietly growing strength hardcore and is now at 10 strength and 11 magic. (Alec is at 11 strength fyi.) Maybe someday I will let her live out her dreams of surpassing her husband in combat just like their attractive young protege is doing.

Finn: Oifey’s battle strategy has three steps and they are ‘REMEMBER HORSES DO THE THING’, ‘Can Finn get any kills here???’ and ‘just let Sigurd do it.’ As a result Finn has already transformed quietly into a monster, but Oifey isn’t stopping there. It’s like an obsession – if Finn can ever get a kill he MUST and he will GROW and become RIPPED and NO-ONE WILL EVER STAND IN HIS WAY. LONG LIVE THE FINN!!! Currently also level 17 and with a Paragon band he’ll be promoting in no time. Lately keeps glancing at Ayra wondering why it feels kinda nice when she glares at him.

Lex: Started off the map badly when he tried to wear down an enemy for Finn, missed his one attack, got brought down to low health, stumbled dizzily into Nordion castle (where it sounded like some kinda circus was in town) for help, was told firmly that healers were for paying customers only, shuffled into the Augury only to be told he doesn’t like anyone and to stop holding up the line and get out, and finally collapsed defeated at the steps of the castle while Lachesis glared coldly down at him for letting one of her knights die. After that he was fine, though. Very solid defensive unit. Is starting to understand what his buddy sees in Aideen which will only end in heartbreak so maybe the guy should just stay away from blonde noble ladies from now on?

Azelle: See Deirdre except instead of anyone glaring Aideen just gasped soulfully each of the dozen times he avoided a ballistae. Spent basically the whole map clinging to her like a lovesick puppy, even when he did manage to see combat. About two minutes away from proposing marriage to her right here right now, Eldigan be damned.

Aideen: OP healer number 2, and this one is actually able to fully heal those big Rough Boys up to full health. Unfortunately this has made her absolutely flat-out broke to the point that she couldn’t even repair her Mend staff back up to full, so if the Velthomers aren’t stacked with cash she might have to become the first mercenary priest out there. Level 15 so that might very well become a reality soon. Has been waiting for Azelle to propose since Nordion.

Midir: Another solid unit who kinda lagged behind in levels just due to the lack of enemy phasing but continues to be a useful pick. Late in the map became suddenly consumed by an insatiable lust for pegasus knight blood so severe it had me frantically googling ‘fe4 is it okay to kill Erin’s squad??’ But then when he began the long trek back up I realised he couldn’t cross mountains so he was awkwardly banished to stay in Evans for the time being. He also likes Aideen so honestly I’m just saving him the pain of witnessing the inevitable.

Dew: This poor boy’s sole combat experience was one round of the arena in which he took a full 1.5 minutes of non-stop dodging and 1 damage per hit before he was finally granted the sweet release of Lie Down On The Floor And Not Move. And then Oifey made him do it again so I could get it on video. His sole purpose may be giving all of his saved-up money to Aideen so she can keep healing but he actually has a crush on her so I’d feel kinda bad making him do that. I was shocked to see his sword close to breaking and only realised writing this post that it was just because of that dumb never-ending arena battle RIP.

Ayra: Impressively, the first to clear the Arena without need for resetting, only to be immediately hit with ‘mfw I’m an S ranked myrmidon but I’m footlocked in FE4 so I’m stuck here with you dumb benchwarmers’ while Azelle and Jamke simped over Aideen around her. Thankfully with everyone going back and forth she caught up soon and did pretty well after that, and only failed one stint as dodgetank because she went full Hector and kept murdering even the units who couldn’t Do The Thing away. Hilariously, likes Dew, because I vaguely felt like I should try to pair him up with someone quick since I wasn’t using him and she seemed like a more compatible pair stat-wise than Aideen.

Shannan: Still in a toddler-carrier strapped to Ayra’s back, probably playing Fortknight on his phone currently.

Jamke: Last time he gained Sigurd’s ire for refusing to handing over his Magic Ring to the lord’s dear wife. That thing is a TREASURE, and he will NOT give it over to anyone except the woman he marries or his loving children! Or the pawn shop!!! However after he failed to even sell it at market because I forgot he cleared the arena so I let him keep it as a treat, Sigurd’s attempt to seek revenge by getting him killed by Heirhein’s knights failed when he took so long to get there the battle was basically over by the time he arrived. Despite this he remains very solid, and his tendency to keep critting MacBeth firmly established his position as Boss Killer even if Oifey kept tiredly resetting those timelines. Unfortunately despite all this success he is absolutely head over heels in love with Aideen so we’ll be needing some big prayers for my boy real soon.

Holyn: So moved by Ayra’s fighting that he joined the army, and Oifey tried to keep them close since they’re pretty similar units anyway, but hilariously when everyone got their Augury Checks he still doesn’t have feelings for everyone, establishing him as the sole Aromantic Icon foil to this absolute mess of a love triangle-riddled army. Sigurd’s Jughead, if you will. Is just kind of doing his own thing here and I respect that!

Lachesis: Okay so the first knight that died was probably Oifey’s bad, but the other two still just could not stop kamikaze-ing into danger so once Heirhein was taken she got summarily banished to go escort Arden as he headed south for the Pursuit Ring. I also completely forgot she could heal AND that the knights could be healed so they spent most of the map half-dead which was unintended but a fitting punishment for their crimes. Later on she did manage to get some healing experience and even land one hit, which Arden at the least was very supportive of! He might not be aniue (glad to see that Lachesis is a CLASSY imouto brocon) but you can only spend so long with a guy before those feelings start to bubble up.

Beowolf: Oifey overheard his conversation with Lachesis and immediately created a new battle tactic of ‘This Guy Never Gets Married, Ever.’ I’ve already heard that there’s maybe something shady going on with him? So I don’t trust that stuff he’s telling Lachesis about Eldigan. Unfortunately has turned out to be a pretty good unit, if not an especially unique one. Time will tell whether Oifey has mercy on him.

Lewyn: Absolutely hilarious how he and Silvia were able to co-ordinate with Oifey from half a country away while two numbskulls under Lachesis’s direct orders couldn’t. (‘Of course we can!’ ‘We ain’t some kinda animals, ya know?!’) Then he almost sent the game directly into roll credits by convincing Sigurd to stop doing war, which was even funnier. His first introduction to the army proper was everyone cuddling up in a Support Orgy around Macbeth’s castle so it’s no wonder he was so keen to join. Currently likes Silvia but only because she danced him so many times to kill all the bandits and he’s no Chrom so he’s not about to start proposing yet.

Silvia: Managed to snag an armorslayer from a house, which is an ‘Ummm… whatcha got there?’ meme waiting to happen. Unfortunately when Lewyn was supposed to meet up with Erin he couldn’t quite get there so I had to warp Silvia in to dance him, inadvertently creating the single most awkward trek of all time as all three had to hike up an entire mountain together to meet back with the army, only to be stymied by one tile of thicket, then hike even FURTHER and dash past a cavalcade of confused ballistae just so Silvia could talk to Sigurd and immediately be told to go home. Plus she was injured the whole time since I didn’t have a chance to heal her from a ballistae hit before she got warped in, either. Is still on her feet through sheer plucky stubbornness and it is honestly inspiring!

Erin: Remarkably chill about her entire squad being decimated in cold blood by one horsey archer boi. (Cordelia, eat your heart out.) Immediately proved to be exactly my type of character and make me even more mad I couldn’t pull her in Heroes. (Future edit: I have her now!! :D) Got to sit and watch from a flying horse the whole time Lewyn and Silvia were climbing an entire literal mountain because I guess ‘giving people a ride’ hasn’t been invented in this world yet. Currently a little confused because she thought Lewyn said the army was ‘full of beauties’ but it’s almost all unmarried attractive young men so she must have misheard him.

And that’s everyone so far!

And okay through putting all that together I was able to think about the chapter and get my thoughts in order, so here’s a more general impression of what I’m enjoying right now!

SO, on the arguably obvious side: the world-building and immersion are absolutely impeccable. I just seriously, seriously love the size of the world and how naturally everything fit into it! In most Fire Emblem games the constant zooming in and out does just tend to make things feel pretty fragmented. And that’s not to mention the constantly-changing scale. No matter how detailed the overall map is, we can still only ever see small pieces at a time. But in this game, we are ON the map. The mountain ranges, and the competing castles with their sentry armies, and the villages and rivers and cliffs – they’re all just there.

This probably sounds super dumb lmfao but in the first chapter I tried WAY TOO HARD to save that first village as quickly as possible, and then when a more southern army pushed up and I had to fall back into the village and use it as defensive fortifications? All because it was still almost entirely intact? My head was just blown lmaooo, like yeah my efforts did have consequences! The village was still standing and the villagers were grateful and willing to help!! Protecting people has military implications!! And yeah I think something similar to this could happen in other FE games, but it was because the world was so wide and full that it really felt meaningful!

But, I’m actually not trying to do a full FE4 review here haha – that’ll happen later down the line. I’ll just try to talk about chapter 2 here!

...which has to start with me going back to chapter 1, lol. But AH, so far the plot events in ch 2 have me SUPER intrigued and pleased because there were some things I was just kind of ‘okay, sure’ about earlier on that I’m now way more on board with?? So in ch 1, like as soon as they’re describing all the Verdanites (complete with them all being classically ugly except the one we can recruit of course, lol), it was like: yeah these are the most cliché evil dudes imaginable, lol. And it feel sorta weirder having them being a whole kingdom of their own rather than just roaming bandits. It’s just so clearly set up like ‘okay we’re invading but they’re BAD GUYS don’t even try to sympathise.’ And I was perfectly okay with accepting that this is Fire Emblem and that war sorta has to Happen but there was also a distinct thought of ‘yeah we gotta point out these pretty old-school ideas about Uncivilised Nations’ or whatever.

And then! In ch 2, Sigurd starts out going in so he can save Lachesis and stop that guy from trying to pull this shit again – all very reasonable. But then there’s this (hilariously) brief conversation with Oifey where he asks what Sigurd wants to do next and Sigurd is just like ‘nah let’s keep going. I mean, Eldigan is still arrested, after all.’ And for a moment I just kind of looked at that like ‘...hm.’ Not necessarily disapprovingly, but… Despite me normally being totally on board to love stories about wealthy nobles and their problems, one thing that always makes me feel uneasy is the idea of outright going to war for the sake of protecting another person. It’s straight up sacrificing hoards of mooks just because one noble can’t be hurt. So I was a little Concerned, but again it’s Fire Emblem so I just went with it.

But!! The point: we get to that conversation with Lewyn (again, amazing), and uhh. Yeah he just kinda says everything I’ve been thinking, huh! That this is kind of a lot of War and Sigurd is very much just straight up conquering Agustria at this point. And Sigurd agrees!! (Very readily?? PLEASE try to think these things through yourself I’m begging;;.) But then it’s like ‘well you’ve already destabilised the region and made things worse for everyone standing against you so you gotta take responsibility for that.’ Which is fair! And THEN we hear that there’s gossip that Sigurd and the boys are trying to take over the whole continent which again is entirely reasonable when they are very much knuckles-deep in Agustria and carting around the Isaachian heir like a hostage!

Which is to say that in retrospect it should have been obvious that Verdane was meant to be Baby’s First Conquest – such an obviously unsympathetic villain that you don’t even question it too much, which then makes it much easier to keep going since you’ve already gotten started doing all that. And then the Agustrians are a bit more Like Us, but the guy’s threatening Lachesis so we have to keep going. By the point Sigurd decides not to pull back out again, things have changed. Sigurd has started down this path and the consequences are already starting to build up.

We’re already starting to see the shaking foundations as things get worse but war is Sigurd’s only real option but that option itself can only create so many more problems. And I love it!! I love these political situations where you can’t just Choose Violence and just blast all your enemies away and do what you want. Where violence is a difficult choice that comes with consequences and it’s just an insta-win button!

And then there’s Eldigan. I know some people have mixed feelings towards the Camus archetype in general and him specifically, but I tend to like Camus characters (I’m not in favour of nationalism or whatever lol, I just like stories about competing loyalty and struggles to work out what is the right thing), and oof I’m certainly enjoying him so far! Man again I’m trying not to do a General FE4 review but so far the trio’s relationship has already been so much of what I was disappointed to not get from 3H just because these three are actually friends, lol. There’s dramatic irony! Competing loyalties! Complicated feelings! All that good stuff!!

Which is to say I’m very scared for how this chapter is going to end hahaha :’) I REALLY hope Eldigan doesn’t believe in those rumours about Sigurd and Quan trying to take over everything, but at least I’d think he’d believe Sigurd is dumb enough to think he’d be on board with it rather than taking it as Sigurd trying to double-cross him… But even if he recognises that that’s bullshit, I… am pretty sure he wouldn’t be too happy about what’s going on here…

Like, I’ve been thinking about it, and I’ve been wondering whether Sigurd and Eldigan got entirely different things out of the whole pact they swore. For Sigurd, he was very much motivated by saving Eldigan and his sister in particular, so I feel like for him the promise was more interpersonal – that they wouldn’t let politics get in the way of friendship and would always be there for each other regardless of borders. But in Eldigan’s case, I could see him meaning it as more being about peace – that they were on the same page about avoiding the greed and selfishness of other lords, and so would do everything they could within their lands to prevent war. If that’s true, then this really is the killer situation where Sigurd is 100% convinced he’s doing what they promised, while also being the exact opposite of what Eldigan wanted. And this mismatch never came up because they always assumed all threats would be external – Sigurd going to war with Agustria to protect Eldigan was just totally beyond their imagining.

...or at least that’s my thinking at the moment lmao. For all I know I’m reading way too much into this and it’ll be a lot simpler lol. But I’m enjoying the tension!

(I do kinda wish Quan would pipe up a bit more, though. Doesn’t he have anything to say about his close friend being locked up by a dangerous and unpredictable king? So far all he’s really done in this chapter is praise Finn a lot and keep giving him presents and okay yeah okay yeah yeah now I get it. That is very fair and understandable actually! But still I’d like to see a lil more.) (Actually while writing this I realised that Seliph is apparently born after the end of this chapter and since Altena has to be born before then, maybe Ethlyn is pregnant right now? Okay fine I forgive Quan for being distracted.)

I’m also paying close attention to all that background plot stuff as well. The crown prince and Sigurd’s dad dying were the biggest ‘Well, Obviously’ ever lol but there’s a lot of stuff to think about. The whole time we were getting Arvis’s mum’s backstory I kept trying to work out how Azelle fits into it. Like it seems it’d make the most sense if Arvis was actually the duke’s son but Azelle was Kurth’s son but based on how they’re talking about the bloodlines and Naga and all, Arvis has got to be a child of the crown prince too, right? I’ve been taking a lot of screenshots and need to add to my notes…

And on a lighter note I wasn’t sure what to expect from the whole Lewyn/Silvia/Erin love triangle but I fucking love it lmao. Leave me out of all of those ‘dumbass and sensible one who calls them out’ pairings, the only ships I like are ones where every single person involved is a complete disaster lmao. Just all three of them are such messes who are clearly projecting their own expectations hardcore onto each other while stubbornly refusing to take a hard look at their own feelings. Also I still can’t see them without thinking ‘me and my two weed smoking girlfriends’ and that dumb meme just keeps making me think that Silvia and Lewyn first met when she was too drunk and thirsty to realise that all of Lewyn’s ‘super deep and romantic’ ramblings about freedom and love and liberty were just because he was high as balls the entire time. Can you believe Erin will probably cry into a pillow later hearing that her lord opened up so emotionally to someone else (which is upsetting because it’s her duty as a knight to see to his well-being and for no other reason certainly)? Absolute morons <3.

Anyway is there anything else – OH THE GAMEPLAY. Yeah I’m still really digging it!! Even having to painstakingly bring Lewyn and Silvia up through the mountains wasn’t that annoying, though admittedly that’s because it was funny lol. I do like just chilling and moving people around, especially when I can build some supports in the process. The only annoying part was when I did some grinding on MacBeth and on top of surprisingly high avoid his pavise kept stopping characters (yes I mean you, Alec) from doing even one damage and getting any exp. But I could’ve just not grinded lol. The hardest part was when two knights launched themselves right into danger and Sigurd wasn’t close enough to kill the captain so I had to pore over it for ages trying to figure out how to kill enough of the enemies that no-one died (even though I could have just gone back a few turns lol), further proving that good Fire Emblem players get a double bonus to their game’s difficulty level because they never end up in these shitty situations in the first place! But yep, so far I feel like I’m using a lot of characters and they’re (mostly) doing well and that’s fun!

Okay I’ve rambled way too much so I’ll end here. I’ll try and keep posting what’s going on in the game as I go but like I said – my actual opportunities to keep playing are kinda limited, unfortunately. But just thinking and talking about the game is so fun right now haha, so I’ll have to keep going so I have more to think and talk about! :)

Chapter Text

Sigurd: Sigurd wakes up in an unfamiliar bed. All around him, Grannvale soldiers push him, urge him on, and it sickens his stomach. He remembers so vividly when he and Eldigan would wrap their arms around one another, touch each other, with the gentlest of affection. Isn’t it funny that in all the years since they graduated, Eldigan has never been closer? He could take his horse and ride out and arrive there, at Eldigan’s residence, soaked with sweat and regret, in a matter of days. But he will not. This, too, fills him with shame, that his thoughts are plagued by memories of another while his dearest wife lies pregnant beside him; poor girl, so unused to the smells and clamour of the city, longing for the sweet greens of her forest home. The mountain range to the East bathes them all in shadow, pinning Sigurd in place. The walls are closing in, and Sigurd is afraid.
And then, miraculously, the day comes that Sigurd’s son is born. He could stare at him for hours, red-faced and squirming with life. Tight-throated and overcome, Sigurd cries. When he looks at Seliph, he almost feels like he can believe once more. Maybe, he thinks, this tale has a happy ending, after all.
Poor guy. Still OP, though, obviously. Does seem to be losing it a little, despite the Renewal band; straight up laughed at Brigid while she was trying to die with dignity. Things aren’t going to be getting any better from here, my dear. On the upside, he was warped in to protect Madino and killed just about everyeone so now with the Leg Ring he can go eeeeeeeeeeeeverywhere (I have been informed to Just Give The Leg Ring To Silvia but like, I’m working on it? IDK if she can afford something that rich and uhh spoiler alert, her new husband candidate isn’t going to be helping out much there, either…)

Deirdre: holy shit this gal has -3 avoid!! How did I ever notice that? How is it even possible?! Is she just zoned out of her mind 24/7? Is she even looking in the direction of the battlefield or is she just constantly distracted by some pretty butterfly fluttering past? Okay y’know what: I was having trouble visualising her personality up until this point but now I am 100% convinced she is just as stoned as Lewyn is, all the time. Not much to do all up in that forest village so she is just always on those special herbs to kill time. She is a backwater hick Wiccan who keeps trying to tell you about medicinal Marijuana and doesn’t know who the president is and Sigurd is a trust fund fencing club jock currently under investigation by the Hague and they are deeply in love <333 Currently living out this specific Wolfpupy tweet.

Oifey: Had like months to prepare for this map and then it was just complete chaos anyway because he sorta forgot that enemies were going to come from all sides? When Sigurd told Deirdre to stay back at the castle he was like ‘haha sure okay Lord Sigurd’ and proceeded to devise the most excruciating arena training regime possible in which she died to the thunder mage like 30 times because he was ‘sure’ there was some version of the RNG in which she beat him (spoiler: there wasn’t), before finding out that she actually physically could not leave. In retrospect this may be why Sigurd decided to separate Deirdre from him and/or why she ran away.

Alec: Hey guys, he actually Did a thing this time!!!!! Lewyn failed to instakill someone (isn’t that a mage’s job??? 0/10 >:( ) so Alec did enough damage to finish him!!! Truly his existence validated <3 He also still can’t stop thinking about that time Sylvia said three flirtatious words to him one map ago, god bless him.

Naoish: Still solid. Had a very dramatic moment of rushing back while keeping Lachesis behind him and taking the blows of the Agustrian army in her place. A true knight <3 Now that Ayra is married everyone likes Silvia now over Erinys which shows questionable lack of attention to cute earnest knight girls is understandable because she’s a dancer I guess.

Arden: Still protecting castles. Also best unexpected babysitter; who else is Strong and Tough enough to carry the kiddos at a gallop around the castle?! His girlfriend isn’t around anymore though :( I might pair her with someone else but I’m not sure who yet sooooo he still has a chance! Ganbare, Arden!!

Quan: A walkthrough told me to take off his and Finn’s equipment before the end of the chapter, sooo… *chuckles* he’s in danger? Still the ‘I need a generic strong unit somewhere so you go that way’ but Oifey can’t strategise so he’s sorta not doing a whole lot? The armour knights were a bit much for him alone so he had to pop into the castle for an awkward moment of explaining the situation to a wild-eyed Deirdre desperately clutching a one-year-old, that then became MORE awkward when she disappeared soon after. Bored Grannvale soldiers are absolutely convinced of their sordid, forbidden affair whilst the Chalphy sibings are out elsewhere. TBH when I read that walkthrough thing I was like ‘okay but we’re not in Thracia yet so it’s fine’ so when I saw Travant I YELPED. Quan!!!!! Also he could never manage to beat the Great Knight in the arena even with the Gae Bolg :(

Ethlyn: An absolute goddess. Promoted, she’s very strong, especially after I gave her the Pursuit Ring, and even managed to surpass her husband in the arena with her fancy footwork and clear it all out! Was sent up to save villages because I was worried about the mages, but ended up doing her own independent thing, riding ‘cross the moors where the forest meets the sea with the wind in her hair. Which means she also nabbed the Str bonus, making her even stronger!! Absolutely perfect <3 I mean, the whole sudden disappearance of her sister-in-law and all of the death flags her husband is raising are pretty understandably taxing her nerves, but see how pretty she looks when she’s killing??

Finn: Promoted him and did an insta double take; I am NOT going to remember he is not Quan. Anyway he doesn’t need the prodigy ring anymore (also, y’know, the whole thing about redistributing his many items...) so it’s gone. Without being favoured anymore he is just an insanely strong unit god bless. Also had to tank potentially like 50 Cross Knight guys and that was before I checked if they had javelins… But it all worked out! :) He is a strong boy <3 Also, he’s already started acting like Nanna’s canon dad (I think?) by having a thing for Lachesis, which I am possibly inclined to indulge~

Lex: The hardest choices require the strongest wills. With less than one level to go, he COULD repeatedly attack and miss the sword-wielding boss until he finally manages to get just enough hits on him to promote, but then there’s this juicy bundle of healer EXP riiight over here… The poor guy must’ve been absolutely fucking terrified to be surrounded by an enemy army and yet he still put his life on the line to heal the boss a couple of times. A true Agustrian hero. But come to think of it, how come trying and failing to hit a strong opponent doesn’t give experience but merciless slaughter of innocents does? Maybe war crimes do pay… Anyway, Lex overcame his baser instincts to promote the Honorable way and now he is very strong and I’m pleased :)

Azelle: Finally married Aideen!!! In the heat of battle, as war raged around them! Dude you had like 6 months while we all waited at the castle but I guess that wasn’t dramatic enough. And now he’s broke RIP. But he got to see some good action, in part because for some reason the mages kept attacking him instead of Lachesis. Good boy Azelle. :) But only at the end of the map did I get to sell one of his tomes for Aideen to buy and he doesn’t have money to get a higher ranking one soooOO let’s all try to use him a lot soon huh!! :’) Didn’t do so well in the arena, either...

Midir: Got to spend some time away from Aideen and visit a few nice villages up north so he had something to soothe the heartbreak. I think he’ll be okay :) And then he got to meet Brigid and immediately fell in love (boy I’m glad they’re not married if she’s so much more beautiful >:/) and then hilariously got into a four-way cross-country dance-off with Silvia, Brigid, and Aideen, which surely fulfilled some deep fantasy the guy never even knew he had. Though it turns out that Lachesis was the original blonde-haired noble lady he shifted his attentions to, so like. Geez, dude. He knows what he likes, I guess?

Aideen: Almost sent her back to the castle immediately after getting married just so she could do her shopping but footlocked units can’t afford to take diversions (I say, right before spending 30 turns trying to kill a boss the way I want). Only got her tome at the end of the map so she’s finally about to gain her first taste of killing power. I like her promoted sprite; the ponytail is VERY cute <3 Sure she’s broke but she’s married, just reunited with her long-lost twin sister, and she can kill. I’m proud of her <3

Dew: I don’t like to bench anyone (except Arden) (sorry Arden) so I decided to pair him up with Sylvia. From what I’ve heard Sylvia’s partner doesn’t really matter, anyway, and you know what? It’s something for him to do. Plus she looks closer to his age than most. They’re already pretty in love which is poggers!! I bet he steals jewellery for her and she finds it extremely romantic <3

Ayra: After some stressful indecision I decided to get her conversation with Holyn because I liked it more – they seem like good bros more like partners which makes sense for our aro/ace icon Ike FireEmblem Holyn. :) And like, I’ve heard they’re technically related but if it’s literally just they shared an ancestor 100 years ago I’m sorry but I just do not really care lol. Anyway they’re both pretty chill people so it’s probably no surprise they got married before I even noticed lmao? Probably Ayra just decided she needed a husband and heir and he agreed because they’re mates and she won’t make it more than it needs to be. <3 Or maybe Ayra looked ahead and realised that if Larcei and Scathach are to be around Seliph’s age she’ll need to get pregnant VERY soon and was not about to let Isaach’s royal lineage be under any question.

Jamke: became the target of investigation early on when he miraculously had a huge pile of money (where’d you get the money Jamke???) but it turns out he had just already sold his magic ring but I forgot lol. After much indecision was given the prodigy ring because I like him and he could afford it lmao. Still a fun instakill unit :) He likes Silvia which is a little sad. Surely Erinys is more your type?? It didn’t take long at the end of the map to get him promotion ready so I’m looking forward to that! I like him :)

Lachesis: I’m actually trying to use and level her properly now that her suicidal knights are out of the picture. It’s a bit hard but with Finn all good and levelled up I can give her my full attention! Not sure yet if this means I’ll marry her to someone other than Arden now; Finn and Lex are both on the table. To help fund her I let her get some money from one of the villages. Also since she’s my new Investment Unit I gave her a wing sword and then I had to decide who gets a magic sword and I figured she’d be the best user but then she got an earth sword and oh god how can I hold all these swords… Also I didn’t think it through when she went to talk to Eldigan, leaving her a sitting duck with nothing left to do but fancy footwork her way to not dying among approximately 20 highly-trained knights, but they didn’t actually attack her? Possibly out of pity. (Or was that Eldigan’s last request??? :( ) She’s still only level 17 but she’s been through a lot, so stop laughing. Her brother and the love of her life just died and you’re laughing.

Holyn: Good solid unit! Chilling with Ayra, still doing his own thing. Surprisingly ended up higher leveled than her? And with the boss to go he was at level 19 so I spent a stupid amount of time waiting for him to heal up so Holyn could slowly work his way up to level 20. Was that smart? No. Was it useful? Probably not. Oh well!!!!!!!!!!!

Lewyn: WHY did you fail to kill that armour knight??? Boo. I thought he’d be fine without pursuit with just Adept and the Magic Ring but it’s actually kinda annoying but whatever. Reluctantly agreed to let him marry Erinys even though it feels basic lol because I suddenly got really scared that all my pairings would lead to bad children and I wouldn’t be able to finish lmaooo. Also I’m sad he will never get to talk to Eldigan because it would be extremely funny and I’ve already spent way too long thinking about that crack pairing. Still has a thing for Silvia, the dumbass. I guess that’s to be expected when I’m actually using Erinys in combat but whatever, Silvia’s getting married soon so that problem will solve itself.

Silvia: Doing her thing and having fun <3 Gets soooo much experience whenever I’m taking too long to kill a boss lmfao. Already in love with Dew :) Currently level 16. Even managed to beat two levels of the Arena through fancy footwork!! Hey I just noticed she has Bragi holy blood?? Where did that come from omg, I thought she was just a commoner? So are she and Claud related?? Also how come she can’t wield staves, isn’t having holy blood supposed to make you good at that thing? (Is this a roast?)

Beowolf: He spent a LOT of time on his own because I sent him north with Midir but then tried to bring him south to help with the armour knights but then that was over quickly and then everyone else went north so it took him forever to catch up lmfao. That’s fine, he still has to prove himself to me. But then I just didn’t really use him for anything and he couldn’t get any further in the arena sooOOOO

Erinys: Gave her an armourslayer because I wanted her to have a sword! Also I forgot the armory existed lol :’) And then it was kinda silly ‘cause I should’ve had her go up to help with the wyverns but then there were armours in a different direction soooo OH WELLLLL. The bows cleared up the wyverns fine!! Her claim to fame was rushing over the course of several turns across the map to help Brigid and then immediately being brought down to ¼ health by a pirate. She was able to VERY carefully hit and run a bit after that but oh man. Also I could’ve sworn from Lex’s rng scamming that non-attack moves changed the RNG but she kept getting hit by a 20% chance until I had someone attack so I may have wasted a LOT of time!! She likes Lewyn already ofc <3

Tailtiu: Awww what a sweetie! I have heard that her backstory is very depressing and I am ready to hear it and be hurt!! :D I literally cannot fucking stop laughing at her attack pose because it is literally just ‘I AM THE WIZARD QUEEN.’ Flawless back to back badasses with Brigid. No idea who I’ll pair her with since Azelle is already spoken for (she likes Claud the most right now but IDK; since Lewyn is taking his time with Erinys, do I go for the folkloric Horsetti?) but I like her!!

Claud: Okay in his opening scene he seemed sorta annoyed with Tailtiu which made me sad :( But he seems like a serious young man and he has very pretty long hair so I can’t stay mad at him for long. His talk conversation with Sigurd was like a Who’s On First routine with added ‘I am serious, and stop calling me father’ which is amazing. Unless I can afford to buy him a heal staff I don’t think I’ll be using him too much. Also what will I do with the Valk staff?? hmmmmm. Likes Tailtiu because 50 turns were basically over by the time he met any other girl lmaooo

Brigid: The final girl! She looks cooler as (spoiler: Eyvel>/strikethrough>) though. :P I am a complete moron and took SO LONG to realise that Claud’s staff could heal her… Which was painful because since she kept dying each time I tried a new option, I had to move every single other unit north every time as well lmaoooo. But I like me my bulky snipers so she’s fun <3 Not sure about pairings… I’m interested in Midir/her but she didn’t seem to like him all that much lmao. She’ll check out her options. She can afford to be picky! For some truly inexplicable reason, she apparently likes Finn the most?! I don’t think they ever even stood next to each other? So maybe I really did get to turn 50 before Claud hooked up and healed her. A terrifying thought.

Shannan: Way too young to already have this much survivor’s guilt. Currently still playing Fortknight but like, in a depressed way.

Seliph: Doesn’t understand literally any of the above. Has started saying words but they’re mostly swears because Shannan thought it was funny. One time he might’ve said ‘papa’ to Arden but Sigurd’s been fucking through enough already so Shannan and Arden kindly both pretend it never happened.

Eldigan: :( Honestly I almost feel bad even making a joke, here. For what it’s worth at the end of the last chapter I was really worried he was going to die but then realised that we still hadn’t heard anything about his wife or Ares existing so it couldn’t happen yet. And then he did still die before either of those things ever came up at all. This is not a complaint as I’ve gotten weirdly attached to a headcanon of him being aromantic and the sheer irrelevance of his wife really just bolsters my perception that it was entirely and straightforwardly an act of duty and responsibility in aesthetically pleasing contrast to Sigurd’s whole deal of infatuation-fueled romanticism.

End turn count: 112 (I regret… some things.)

So, that’s the end of chapter 3 – and I am certainly enjoying the story very much!! The payoff from the last chapter was satisfyingly complicated, and even uncomfortable. It really is so impressive the way they managed to tell the story of Sigurd’s good intentions leading to awful outcomes without either being such an obviously bad idea that it’s frustrating to play through or having it come out of nowhere such that it feels like Sigurd’s being punished for nothing. And at the very end of the chapter when Sigurd gets upset and demands to know what any of this was for? I just had to pause for a moment because the emotion really did hit me hard. :(

I don’t know why, but these sorts of stories always sit with me the most – those where conflict arises from the natural struggles of people doing their best but failing or being inherently and naturally at odds, and stories where a character’s downfall comes from their own understandable but flawed decisions. It sounds strange to say that, because that’s a rather pessimistic view of the world, isn’t it? Haha. Or maybe I just don’t like to think of people as fundamentally bad. Maybe I want to empathise with people, even when they’re wrong – both in the moral sense and in the, well, the good judgement sense. (Obviously, it’s clear by now that the Loptous cult are pulling the strings to divide Jugdral, but people are managing to be played off one another very easily.)

And now that I have seen all of Eldigan’s screentime, I must admit to being really confused as to why some people dislike him so much or find him ‘unreasonable’. Maybe there’s more to be discovered but it doesn’t come across that way to me at all! It really felt all the while that he was acting to protect and defend his citizens, and in the name of general good honour. He stopped that other lord from trying to take Evans, so it’s not an ‘Agustrian glory above all else’ sort of patriotism. (And by the way it sorta bugs me when people talk about people from these sorts of settings being ‘patriotic’ - the cultural landscape is different enough that I just don’t think that concept applies very well.) And he stood up against Chagall so defiantly that he was literally imprisoned for it. He’s not some passive mouthpiece.

When he defended Chagall’s place as king, it was because he was scared about what the vacuum of power would do to Agustria. Maybe he was concerned by the increasingly corrupt nobles around him and knew only Chagall could restrain them. Maybe he was worried about Verdane’s new instability spreading to Agustria – and maybe his own difficulty influencing Agustrian politics meant that he couldn’t trust in Sigurd ensuring Grannvale’s co-operation, either. He didn’t want a war. He just wanted the people under his protection – and being a lord of a land is in many ways more like being a parent of children than a modern-day politican – to be safe and fruitful.

And, well… yes, it’s very easy to call Chagall an idiot for his sudden attack, because it was, because he’s a petty and vengeful man and destruction comes when people like that gain great power. But also… am I the only one who thinks that Sigurd was sort of delusional for thinking that Grannvale would ever give Agusty back? I’m sure he was doing everything he could, and he had to believe that he could solve this because it was his problem and the consequences otherwise would be – in fact, were – unimaginable. But Grannvale annexed it. And we didn’t really see any indication that the situation was improving at all. Not to mention the rumours abounding already over Sigurd’s selfish ambitions – given his friendship with Eldigan, the whole thing would come across like an attempt by him to gain significant influence over Agusty at the expense of the rest of Grannvale. And it goes without saying that once his father was implicated in the prince’s murder, his homeland influence level would fall straight into the negatives.

(Edit: Okay, going back over my screenshots, Eldigan and Sigurd DO both say when Chagall attacks that they were just about to be able to hand power back over. So, yeah, that does further lock in Chagall’s actions as overly impulsive and spiteful and self-destructive. But at the same time, the moment Chagall attacked like that… I’m prettttty sure those peace talks were not gonna be happening anymore. I highly doubt that Grannvale would accept Sigurd handing power back over to a guy who launched a surprise attack on their forces. Especially with all the skepticism over Sigurd’s loyalties. Sigurd and Lachesis beg for more time because it’s the only possible way this could end well, but I think Eldigan was right in not believing that Sigurd could pull this off anymore.)

So… when Eldigan rides out and Sigurd begs for more time and Eldigan says he’s sick of excuses… I get it. Obviously he’s being harsh because they’re at war and Eldigan hates this and he’s rightfully angry at Sigurd and must know that Sigurd is genuinely trying to make this good. But at this point, his only options are to obey orders, or willingly go to his death as a traitor.

Well, of course there was one other choice available to him: defect to Sigurd’s army and try to help from there. And it goes without saying that that would be cathartic and satisfying and that it’d be really fun to play with him as a unit from there on! But I just don’t think that would be right for the story. We’ve already seen Sigurd’s good intentions and fundamental character flaws lead himself and others to ruin. (Or, well – not full ruin just yet! But, y’know – be patient!) We could imagine a story in which he doesn’t make those mistakes and things turn out all right! But that’s not what this is about, thematically.

When Eldigan initially hesitates from taking his army to Sigurd, because he’s his friend and he loves him and he knows this is all going to end very badly, even if there’s nothing he can do now to stop a war, that’s him reaching a limit in himself as a person, and so does something that he could never have believed himself capable of; something unthinkable. And when Chagall berates him as a traitor, everything that Eldigan has struggled with and suffered up until this point come to a head. He wants, so badly, to do the right thing by his kingdom and by his people. But the world has become so strange and confusing that he no longer understands it anymore. Sigurd, his friend, has fucked up badly, in a way that can’t be taken back. And now Eldigan, by disobeying orders and letting even more Agustrians be slaughtered by Sigurd’s army, has also fucked up. He can’t bear the thought of doing the same wrong thing over and over again. Chagall offers a simple way of redeeming himself – one he can understand. He takes it.

And, I’ve been thinking about all of that. And bear with me because I’m about to offer up a theory far too overarching for what I have played of the game, haha. But here’s my reading so far: Sigurd and Eldigan, of course, are foils. (From what I’ve heard Arvis also ends up serving as a foil to Sigurd but I literally have barely met the guy since I didn’t even get his conversation with Sigurd in the first chapter [though I’ll probably ask for a link soon] so I can’t speak on that yet.) Eldigan, of course, represents the Lawful side of the equation – the one who obeys rules, plays politics, and does The Right Thing according to the culture. And, as always, he’s punished for that, as he faces a choice between being Lawful or doing the thing that we all want him to do but he doesn’t and he dies. I’m not criticising it as a cliché at all, but it’s obviously a pretty standard sort of moral message in these sorts of stories.

Sigurd, on the other hand, is The Hero. He’s a bit rough and tumble. He’s casual and friendly and dislikes courtly politics. He makes friends easily and follows his heart. And most importantly, he doesn’t let rules or societal expectations stop him from doing The Right Thing. He’s a manly man of action, and when someone he cares about is in trouble, he does whatever it takes to save them. And he is clearly, explicitly wrong.

That’s what’s really fascinating about this whole storyline. He’s a deconstruction of the Martial Lord archetype – the Ikes and Hectors and Ephraims of the franchise, all of whom tend to be far more popular than their gentler counterparts. But he’s also just that standard sort of Hero archetype – the kind that’s a bit more Chaotic Good, and is meant to be humble and relatable (and, if we’re honest, a power fantasy).

And here’s where I’m sitting with my theory. Typically with these kinds of contrasts you’d expect the Moral to be that there is some middle ground – both characters go to extremes in order to indicate that the truth is in finding the average between them. But I don’t think that’s the case here. Because I think that their ultimate flaws are actually pretty similar. Sigurd flies into action when one of his friends is captured. Eldigan is spurned into war by an insult to his honour. They’re all treating their own personal feelings and relationships as of greatest importance, and forgetting about the ordinary people who are actually suffering the consequences of their actions.

Eldigan, sadly, allows his personal loyalty to Chagall prevent him from doing what is truly best for his people. His thinking gets too abstract, smoothing out the specifics of war into matters of honour and duty. But Sigurd does the exact same thing – he paints his crusade to save Eldigan as a matter of Rightness, and doesn’t think much about all the innocents who will have to die just to free one person from jail. They aren’t ordinary people who can follow their heart. They’re not relatable everymen. They’re nobles who are trampling common people under their feet because they can’t see outside their own personal inner worlds.

That’s not a declaration of intense selfishness. Human beings emotional, complicated, impulsive – a whole bundle of survival instincts loosely tied up together and set loose in a world they didn’t evolve in. I’m certain that the psychological impact of Eldigan’s position there as he heard the news of Chagall and Sigurd coming to blows was almost unbearable. And that’s exactly why it is so dangerous to vest so much power into an individual person.

The true answer doesn’t lie in Eldigan or Sigurd, or anyone else in the first generation. It lies in Seliph. It lies in empathy, and understanding, and kindness. It lies in listening to the people who are the most vulnerable and acting as their champion, doing as they request. It lies, in short in knowing the sorrows of the common man. It is only that unconditional compassion – that agape – that can heal the world.

...or, uh – that’s what I’m expecting right now, anyway! I might be completely and totally wrong about it all hahahahaha. I hope it was a little interesting to read, at least, if so? The way someone can Frankinstein together assorted scraps of lines and ¼ of a game into something entirely misaimed? Frankly I’d almost be more excited to hear I’d written something that nobody else could possibly have come up with! :P

Anyway, so!! Things are bad. Silesse is coming to save Sigurd, which is interesting – does he have any prior relationship with them? Why are they so quick to come to his aid? Personally, given Sigurd’s reputation at the moment, I’d sort of be a bit concerned about anyone willing to believe in him against the whole murder charge thing. I’d hope they don’t think the World Conqueror stuff is true and that the frame-up wasn’t just Grannvale scrambling to stop him amassing his own power. Or maybe Erinys has just been sending back some nice letters! Either way there’s going to be some sort of fighting going on in Silesse so I guess I’ll get to see soon enough!

I’m also still trying to work out the plot! Unfortunately I have read a few spoilers on the FE subreddit accidentally so I do know a couple of things but I still don’t have the full context so they’re, like, just extra pieces for me at this point.

Specifically, I read that Arvis and Deirdre are siblings, which immediately made sense to me because I vividly remember Manfroy or whoever saying something about how ‘the same blood needs to run together’ or something and thinking the exact words ‘is this another incest thing?’ So that made me feel a little dumb for obsessing so much about how Azelle fits into the story about Arvis’s mum lol but my first idea was that basically the king (Naga blood) had an affair with Arvis’s mum (Valla blood) and they had two kids. The one with the Valla blood is easy to pass off as a Velthomer kid for obvious reasons. But the one with Naga blood would make it VERY obvious that an affair had been had. So, that’s why Deirdre had to be sent off to the spirit forest, unaware of her parentage.

But when I checked back over my notes, I remembered that we know all this stuff about how there was a spirit forest woman who was brought up there and never left until one day she went out and came back pregnant, so obviously she must be Deirdre’s mother, not the Velthomer lady. And then today I saw someone say Arvis and Deirdre are actually half-siblings so yeah that tracks. I assume her leaving was part of the Loptous plot to ensure the antichrist baby or whatever is born? Also is Deirdre’s mum named Sigyn because that sounds a little too similar to ‘Sigurd’ for my tastes but I’m honestly not sure if I’m remembering wrongly?

Edit: OKAY so I finally went over all the screenshots and notes properly and you will not BELIEVE the amount of confusion that was engendered in me simply and solely because I forgot that Arvis’ mum was named Sigyn lmaooo. I was so SURE that the forest lady and Duchess Velthomer were entirely different characters (hell, I wasn’t even 100% sure that Sigyn was a woman). Also I forgot that Loptous blood was its own thing and so I thought that Valla blood was standing in for evilness because that’s just what I associate mainly with Arvis. But no there was the whole matter of him being blackmailed (?) so the Loptous blood has to be a secret!

So, given all this, I think I have a pretty plausible theory: Arvis is the son of Sigyn and Duke Velthomer, and Deirdre is the daughter of Sigyn and Prince Kurth. Which’d make Deirdre and by extension Julia (and Julius?) heirs to the throne. [Edit2: you wouldn’t believe how long it took me to make the mental connection that Seliph is also a prince because of this hahahahaha] Though did nobody in Sigurd’s army notice Deirdre has Naga holy blood? Wouldn’t that be an indication she’s related to the king? Whatever. Anyway I was also wondering what the cult’s plan was in sewing all this chaos, but it seems like the intent is to put someone with Loptous blood on the throne? I was wondering if the merging of Naga and Loptous was necessary to like bring about the antichrist or whatever Julius is, but maybe it’s just more of a politics thing?

Also weirdly enough my initial skepticism over this theory was over the idea of some proper high-ranking duke marrying some weird lady who just randomly came out of the forest, but like. Sigurd. And, potentially, Seliph. And Arvis I guess if you wanna push it that far??? So, like. Man. The men of Grannvale really just can NOT get enough of mysterious forest maidens, huh?? Where on earth does this insatiable lust even come from? Is just another generic porn categor in this setting? Milfs, Femdom, Strange Ladies of the Forest Bearing Secret Magics…? The draw is so intrinstic and overpowering that it can work even on literal half-siblings so like god damn. I shouldn’t knock it ‘til I try it, I suppose, though I must say that I’ve never yet had the opportunity myself.

….............y’know I just realised that I was told to take equipment off Quan and Finn before the end of the map, which I did in full, but then nothing actually happened to them. I sold a LOT of good equipment that way so those fucks better actually get captured or something or I’m gonna be pissed off. >:(

ANYWAY I think that’s all for now!! Come back next time as I get to find out What Silesse’s Deal Is, frantically pair Lex up with someone because I’ve heard his genes are broken and am still paranoid I’m gonna soft-lock myself somehow as if I’m not happy to use Seliph to kill everything ever, and have one more thoroughly hilarious round of Status Checks before I gotta figure out how I handle Chapter 5. In more ways than one. :’)

(Actually one final note but it really annoys me when Aideen says that there’s only supposed to be one heir per generation who has Major Holy Blood and can wield the legendary weapons because I am pretty sure that is not how genetics works!!! I mean this isn’t Liquid Snake level so I can forgive you but still >:( lmao)

Chapter Text

And now after a grand deal of time, Chapter 4 is finally complete! And good GOD was that a struggle lmaooo. First I spent forever in the Arena which seemed like a total waste of time because haha do Azelle’s levels really matter at this point?! (Oh god. They mattered.) And then I was terrified of somehow missing out on a kid so once the barbarians were taken care of everyone could and DID camp down until turn goddamn 56 just so I could make absolutely sure. And that meant the whole entire crew had to be there, just in case they might be the secret key to unlocking a child unit’s existence!! But then, due to my semi-blind ‘no spoilers unless I’m gonna do something dumb and screw my game over in a major way’ policy, which is as strictly enforced as it is perilously vague, I truly had no goddamn clue who to send up to Throve and who to send down to Silesse, which lead to some… uhh, rather unpreferable situations.

In short: I never wanna see Pamela’s goddamn face ever again.

If you want the blow by blow, I actually ended up narrating it as it happened on twitter here, so check it out! But the gist of it is that I overestimated how quickly I’d need to get to Silesse once Annand and Pamela began their spat, and then made some very poor choices about who to keep at Throve, which lead to me having to actually go back several save states (thank god I have been keeping a truly excessive number for the entire time I have been playing), so I could tank them all with Brigid and go on my merry way… until Pamela came back and I once more had to try and protect Throve with no more than Aideen and a ragtag team of unpromoted units. And Brigid desperately fighting through the forest to get back there. :’)

But for all the struggle, I didn’t hate it at all! :D This is the first time I’ve actually been super on the edge of my seat playing this game, and it was exciting to get to do that! Actually managing to pull it off in the end was extremely satisfying! <33

Buuuuut there is another reason behind my newfound okayness with all this: I actually caught Covid, haha? So now I’m quarantining for a week. But luckily my case is super mild (actually much less bad than the laryngitis I had a few weeks ago, lol) so, incredibly, it looks like I really am managing to do what everyone says they’ll do: work on the thing that they say they never have time for. And for me, that’s FE4! <3

So, let’s get into it! How fare our fine folks on this most glorious of wintery days?

Sigurd: Still hung up on Deirdre even though it has been a full YEAR already, which is honestly very selfish because Lewyn is going through a really hard time right now and Sigurd is extremely attractive so it would just really help him a lot if Sigurd would let him sleep with him. :( Fortunately (??), by the end of this next year he seems just about ready to marry Lewyn anyway solely to get Rahna as a mother in law, which is genuinely really cute. :) Was initially Very nervous about seizing Throve but the commoners insisted that, no yeah, the guy really is a big jerk and they’d all rather him dead, so for once Sigurd just got to do what comes naturally and seize castles and have it all be all right :) Which is good because he otherwise didn’t actually do all that much? Utilising the Return Band to head back to the home castle so he could dash off and save Annand was all very exciting until he came up against any video game character’s greatest enemy, the dark force no grinding or overpowered weapon could ever hope to match: a random guy standing in the way of where they want to go. So he kinda just sat around playing cards with Noish or Lex or whoever was there. And then when he DID finally see some action, he kinda… wasn’t an overpowered monster???? When I forgot to unequip the Javelin, he even actually motherfucking DIED to the group of random Brigands terrorising the Silessian townsfolk????? What the FUCK Sigurd. He’s not far off level 30 now so it’s not even like there’s much farther for him to go. He better get that Tyrfing soon; an only pretty good Sigurd just feels wrong. :(

Oifey: Has spent this whole goddamn map repeatedly assaulted by doomsday scenarios warning him VERY STRONGLY about where to send his troops, and after a tiring and near-fatal battle over the protection of Throve, he can rest assured that the alternative options probably would’ve been really tedious. But before then, he literally had the whole army camp out across the river from Throve just so he could ensure everyone was married, and to be honest it’s starting to get kind of odd that a 15-year-old is so concerned about all of that? He’s not sure where these visions are coming from, exactly; the drive to marry everyone off seems a bit different from the ‘no no no, don’t do that, they will die’ prophecies. And he’d certainly prefer to believe the two are unrelated, but… why else should the time pressure be so strict? He’s received no warning that anyone will be hurt any time soon so long as he stays on this track, but deep down, he nurses a secret worry, the first of its kind that he has not shared even with Sigurd: what if he only receives those visions for avoidable deaths…?

Deirdre: Probably doing pretty well right now, even if she still finds the rigours of courtly life tiring and confusing; where exactly had she spent all her life before she was discovered as a princess? When she tries to remember, it hurts. But her fiance is a kind and charming man, and around him, Deirdre feels safe. She wishes she could do more for him – lessen some of the weight of the world from his shoulders. He so very rarely opens up to her, despite all her attempts at prying. Only last night did she finally catch him staring at the stars, long past midnight, and when she curled her arms around his waist, some barrier inside him finally cracked. It moved her beyond words that he would trust her with this, words of his childhood from his own tongue. It pained her so terribly she almost couldn’t bear it, and yet she gathered up every word as tightly close to her chest as she now holds him. She has nothing, besides this; her father the King preoccupied with her ailing grandfather and the words of so many men she cannot trust. But when her fiance speaks so softly of his mother, Deirdre is almost able to believe that she does have a family, now, after all.

Quan: NOT DEAD, I GUESS????? Okay well I didn’t consider the option that he’d just LEAVE but this is better :) ...for now, anyway, I mean. Obviously he’s still going to die EVENTUALLY. But now he gets to live for a little longer :) Also like yeah wow he sure did spend an awful lot of time roadtripping around with Sigurd given that he has a whole kingdom of his own to be prince of?? I wonder what the internal politics are like back at home. It’d be kinda funny if Sigurd accidentally fucked up both his friends’ countries purely by accident lmfaoooo

Ethlyn: I DIDN’T KNOW SHE WAS GOING TO LEAVE, TOO???? okay so. oKAY. I definitely read that I should deposit Quan and Finn’s equipment but I don’t remember hearing Ethlyn’s name come up in that at all??? And she’d become one of my favourite units to use, too :( But welp, semi-blind means semi-blind (i.e., whatever I arbitrarily declare it to be), and I decided that losing out on Ethlyn’s items (including the pursuit band, OOF) was an acceptable sacrifice for allowing myself Forbidden Knowledge that I should maybe have not actually given Finn practically every special object I could get my hands on. Godspeed, my queen.

Altena: Cried for like a full day when she had to say goodbye to Shannan (at the time in the process of trying unsuccessfully to teach her how to wield a knife) and Seliph (who cries too much but always claps when Altena shows off something cool, like the big branch she can climb up on now). It’s sorta dumb that they can’t come with her but they can bring Leif, even though he’s just a baby, but father told her sternly to protect him and Altena really really wants to show off how strong she is now so she’ll be good!

Leif: Staring with utmost seriousness as Ethlyn so very diligently makes funny faces at him.

Finn: Poor guy was my backup plan for Lachesis’s husband but RIP that, I guess. But his story is still far from over, and in time he will have people to love and care for so very much that any thought of marriage will be entirely irrelevant. <3 Maybe Finn was the aromantic icon of this playthrough all along…?

Naoise: An elegant and diligent knight who, true to character, was able to nobly rescue a poor helpless civilian from the evil clutches of those terrible axe-wielding fiends! And then he went right back up to mind the castle for the rest of the chapter because he hadn’t killed enough people to have learned how to ride a horse over somewhat elevated terrain. But did anything happen to that castle while he was about? No, sir!

Alec: Upon receiving the assignment, Alec rolls his eyes. Guard duty? All the way up in the mountains of Throve, months away from any sort of civilisation? His companions aren’t likely to liven up the place, either; sure, Beowolf might know some good games, but Alec swears that the guy always cheats. With Aideen and Azelle wrapped up in their little love story, and Brigid and Midir… well, he’s not entirely sure what’s going on with them, but he’s not about to try his luck with her of all the stick-in-the-muds in this army! - anyway, the point is that the only other lady he could even theoretically try to test his moves on here is Erinys, and she is nothing compared to the beautiful and fun-loving flower that is Silvia. Little did he suspect that what followed would be the most perilous and exhausting couple of months of his entire goddamn life, in which an actual human being’s soul would depend on his ability to do 6 damage to a pegasus knight (he made it, the crazy bastard!). That ended up being pretty much all he did in the final cut, damage-wise, so he didn’t exactly gain any levels out of it. But from here on Alec should have no complaints whatsoever about being benched, the fact that under even these most desperate circumstances he was outshone by goddamn Azelle proving that he is never going to achieve anything remotely useful in this playthrough ever. But bloody good job on those 6 damage points, soldier!

Arden: It was a little cruel of Oifey, maybe, when he sent Lachesis to keep Arden company all the way back in those glory days of Agustria when the only Lachesis-defending knight we had to worry about dying remained thankfully unnamed. At least some part of it had been a joke – the intentional contrast of the prim, petite little noble lady and a man who is nothing if not Strong and Tough. And at least some tiny (okay, not so tiny) part had been an intentional punishment – a warning against Lachesis’ knights against Leeroy Jenkinsing the whole army to its death. But whatever thoughts had laid in Oifey’s head matter not, now. Arden is kind, and he has protected Lachesis better than any other in the world. After Sigurd took Agusty and they were separated, Lachesis had bloomed, as a cleric and a knight and as a soldier all in one. But some part of her had been lost, then; had yearned. While Oifey glanced anxiously at some divine ‘turn limit,’ he pushed her to spend time with Father Claud, and he had been nice enough; his hair had reminded her of Eldigan’s, and he had something of her brother’s mien, perhaps. But at her side was always Arden, smiling kindly. When she showed him her new moves, he was delighted, cheering her on like she had always cheered her dear brother. He truly seemed to believe in her. And so, when he (at Alec’s urging, and no small amount of it) finally asked her to marry him, she accepted. That was all he needed – all he had ever really needed, he realised now. He was soon sent back to guard the castle; not Throve, but their home base, which was never at any risk of assault. But maybe that had been Oifey’s way of apologising. He couldn’t keep up with his new wife (his wife!) now, even if he wanted to. They had a family to make, now. While she saves the world, he’ll take care of the little one, and put as much love and support into each letter the exchange as he can muster (Naoise has been helping with this part). Sometimes people look at them oddly when they say they’ve married, but his dear, perfect wife never responds to that notion with any greater show of respect than the delicate raising of one eyebrow. She is Lachesis, princess of Agustria. She will settle for no less than the best the world has to offer. And there is no man better suited to raise her children, defend her homeland, and sing to her sweet nothings, than Sigurd’s most trusted advisor, Sir Arden of Grannvale.

Lex: Though he literally hadn’t even spoken to Tailtiu at all back in Agustria – still hasn’t had a Talk conversation with her of any kind – Oifey apparently realised that the two were childhood friends because the moment they arrived in Silesse he was barred from ever leaving her side. And after Lex’s long string of unrequited crushes on blonde noble girls, finally he has broken his streak! Or does Tailtiu’s silver hair count as platinum blonde in this universe…? Either way he sort of had a hard time because his magic resistance is low even for a cav and for some deeply misguided reason he and his hand axe were never sent up north to shred Pegasus lances freely, but he got to Rescue a civilian so that’s pretty nice. It’s a little sad that him being promoted isn’t really exciting anymore, though.

Azelle: Words can’t describe how sad I was when Tailtiu, a mage many levels his junior, managed to blaze past him in the Arena without any trouble at all while he struggled to a level never before seen since ‘Deirdre and the thunder mage in chapter 3’ just to get past the 3rd guy. After many, many, MANY resets, he finally made it, and even made it past one or two more, but he could never quite reach his childhood friend. Nevertheless, he did see some use as a magic tank heading up to Throve, and then during the Pamela’s Second Squad Conflict of 2022, he somehow ended up being the closest thing Oifey could scrounge up for a hard-hitter, and yes that is as depressing as it sounds. But facing up against an opponent with a heavy javelin marked the first time in Azelle’s entire life he was able to proc Pursuit reliably, and I’m not going to argue with results, no matter how hard-fought they were. He was rewarded for his troubles with permission to stay in Throve with the rest of the Fire-Forged Friends crew slash polycule with his wife and their friends and maybe lovers? I dunno – I just kinda left them to themselves up there, after all that.

Midir: God DAMN this guy has had a glow-up. After their conversation last map I wasn’t at all sure he’d manage to win over Brigid, but with Oifey’s matchmaking skills he’s actually managed to seal the deal! But his true triumph came right after that, when upon the Pegasus Skirmish beginning, Oifey immediately had Aideen warp him down to the castle to make a mad dash to their safety… which of course was completely pointless. But the taste of pegasus knight blood was to taunt him still, for when that accursed mage (an agent of Arvis, or a lone renegade, operating under his own inexplicable radical ideology?!) finally stepped aside, Midir found himself stunned by the reminder that he’d never actually learned how to climb slopes on a horse. With a disgusted air (and some internal crying about a wasted warp use), Oifey sent him back up north, since he really didn’t have anything better to do down here. And so he found himself reaching the castle just in time to realise his true dream: an endless swarm of pegasus knight victims. Okay it wasn’t endless and he didn’t exactly just sit there and pick them off like his wife (was this the moment he truly got over his old fondness for Aideen and realised that Brigid alone was his soulmate?) but he was there, consistently, and his ability to deal effective damage and actually get out of the way was downright overpowered compared to what else I was working with! He ended the map at an impressive level 18, and I don’t know if he’ll make it to 20 in time to promote, but dear god I hope to make it happen.

Ayra: Look – she killed things. Not everyone has to have a whole goddamn storyline! She got married last chapter, and now she has two twins, but she and her husband just sorta left them to the servants because there’s a war going on and she has people to kill. She didn’t kill as many as the Snipers but she was pretty good at killing all around. A+, do recommend. My only problem with her has been that I keep forgetting that she doesn’t have 1-2 range because I play Heroes too much and isn’t it funny how Godswords became the standard for DC when swords are the only melee weapons to have (as far as I’m aware) never gotten a mainline 1-2 range option? But Ayra doesn’t need 1-2 range. She’s fine. Also I imagined her voice as Rosa from Brooklyn 99 as a joke and now
I can’t stop doing that. But that’s fine, too.

Shannan: Has been spending a lot of time with Oifey lately, partly because he’s worried about him, and partly because he just sorta… feels a little on edge when he’s alone, now. (Yeah, yeah – he knows it’s because he’s still upset about what happened with Deirdre. And… yeah, that sucked. But whenever he’s sad, Lord Sigurd will pat his head and tell him that it’s okay to be sad, and that he’s definitely going to find Deirdre someday and make it all better. So, it’s okay. They’ll find Deirdre, and everything will be better again; he doesn’t need to feel sad anymore.) He totally doesn’t get Oifey’s whole obsession with marriage; like, how does this all even work, anyway? Two people just stand next to each other a whole bunch of times and suddenly they’re in love? Oifey insists it doesn’t work like that, but maybe that’s just because when Shannan pointed out that they’d stood together a LOT of times already he got really annoyed and then Shannan kept teasing him which only made him even moreAideen: In the castle at the beginning of the game I stressed myself out SO damn much trying to work out how to divy up the staves between the healers. Well, it didn’t work out too well: Aideen is by far the best healer in the game (necessary for the Throve Squad) but also the only one with Warp (which would have been an extremely helpful way to get someone to Throve…) and also Claud doesn’t actually have any non-Fortify healing staves…? But whatever – pickings were slim!! And she finally has access to a tome now, which she actually got to use a few times :) Apart from all this, she got to lord it over all the other gals that not only is she already married, she even got to get a romantic gift from her husband before anyone else. Aidenn loves her tiny and adorkable younger husband and that, my dear friends, is what we in The Biz call hashtag relatable. <3 OH and at the end of the map I realised that she’d somehow reached level 30, before anyone else?? That’s healer privileges for you, I guess.

Dew: Being bolted to Silvia’s side allowed for the intriguing prospect that, much like Alec, he may actually get the opportunity to Do A Damage, but sadly Dew remains even more bolted to the tierlist floor than he is to his new wife. It didn’t even take that long for them to get married, which is good because I kinda thought it would’ve happened right now?! Guess Silvia needed to wait for that one last chance to tease Erinys, and I’m not even sure Lewyn was the real target of her interest there by that point. But Dew nonetheless had a pretty good map! He got married, showed off his badass bridge lock picking skills (???? is that how bridges work?), and then got to head back and rest safely in a castle and act like he’s soooo much more mature and adult than Oifey for being engaged to a hot older girl.

Jamke: Despite never having spoken a word to the guy, he sure seems to be following in Midir’s footsteps, because much like Claud he ended up getting himself parked next to some archer lady he’d never even met before out of some sorta contingency plan in case Brigid prefers stoic princes to submissive retainers absolutely begging to be stepped on. I was pretty iffy on the pairing to begin with because it sorta felt like a generic ‘they both like archery *shrug emoji*’ type of deal, but they actually functioned like well-oiled machinery together against the Pegasus horde and I came to like the idea of them silently becoming fond of one another. However, Brigid made her choice; I like to think that this time, Jamke hasn’t been nursing softer feelings so much as simply enjoying the company of one who he could finally call his equal. When she made the trip back to Throve they parted ways, and he would continue to be the king of One Shot Kills as much as he always has down in the far more Silessian plains. As ever, he has much to be proud of!

Holyn: See Ayra. As usual, he kept to her side, and they pretty much did their typical very good killing thing together. He somehow ended up a little higher levelled than her, but it’s a pretty unimportant difference. He’s a little more nervous about leaving the twins at home than Ayra, but Shannan is a good nephew, and honestly, this simple mercenary is still just sorta stunned to even have a place at the table among all these noble folks, holy blood or no holy blood. (Random thought: if a remake goes the way of Awakening and gives the kids their father’s hair colour, just imagine how weird it would look to see Larcei and Scathach with blonde hair. It’s just not right!)

Lachesis: I’d vaguely heard about the Master Knight class before in the past, but nothing could have prepared me for how hard I boggled when I saw her new weapon ranks. Everything??????? Which immediately transformed her equipment situation from ‘haha, I sure gave her too many swords, didn’t I?’ into something downright comical. I did get her the Sleep staff, which she ended up using very gallantly to prevent an annoying goddamn mage from blizzarding a civilian to death, proving herself a truly capable and noble hero (of course she Rescued one or two, as well!). It’s good that the second part of the map went so well because early on I was looking very uneasily at her marriage prospects and wondering how on earth she was ever supposed to use all this fancy Master Knight stuff while shackled to a priest and an armour knight but Canto was a dear friend, even amongst the trees! She actually got to spend a fair bit of time with Lex around Silesse; Lachesis isn’t the type to laugh things off, but it’s nice to imagine them getting along okay, now, after their meeting in Chapter 2 had been so hilariously dismal for him. He’s earned her respect. Also I actually got their sprites mixed up a couple of times which is kind of funny.

Beowolf: Oh, Beowolf. He ended up at Throve as the de facto Quan stand-in of ‘I don’t need you to marry anyone and you’re pretty solid in general’, which is in retrospect pretty flattering given that he’s still unpromoted. First time around he ended up on Guard duty (before I realised that Erinys was better suited in literally every respect, from defence to avoid to a lack of WTD; I’d just assumed he’d have the higher defence at least) and my GOD did I beg for him to redeem himself in my eyes. ‘Just survive this for another turn or two,’ I’d pray, ‘until Azelle can pick a few off and Brigid can get here – just do that, and I’ll take back everything I ever said about you after your Talk with Lachesis!’ Sadly (for us all) he failed, and thus came my first big jump back in save states since all of chapter ONE. Which means I technically have no obligation to be nice to him like I promised, but on the other hand, Beowolf didn’t so much die as get ABSOLUTELY MOTHERFUCKIGN OBLITERATED as if Pamela’s javelin squad found some mysterious self-destruct button on his person that detonated him hard enough to blow up the entire goddamn castle, so. I can at least feel a bit bad about that, right? He tried his best, and it’s not his fault I didn’t give him any other good weapons or try to actually train him properly. He hasn’t redeemed himself, but I feel a fondness for him now, borne out of equal parts pity and gratitude. Maybe he wouldn’t appreciate that, but all my favourite characters are at least a little bit pathetic. To me, this is almost a high compliment.

Silvia: More interested in taunting Erinys than in having any kind of a conversation with Lewyn, which is funny, but sadly any of the rather tantalising possibilities that could’ve brought about were quashed when she got married pretty quickly. She and Dew are a good match; he’s even more impressed by her hotness than Alec is, he’s extremely willing to steal nice pretty things for her as a present, and they’re overall of comparable emotional maturity. She doesn’t need no fancy rich prince, she just needs a partner in crime who’ll be there when she needs him and tell her all the time how hot she is <3 Aside from that, she has been making VERY good use of the Leg Ring this map, travelling more than possibly any of the cavalry units. And at one point Oifey got to put together a cool arrangement where a bunch of units attacked the enemy at exactly the right distance from one another that she could dance them all at once! Which put her right into the heat of the conflict, oh no!! And she got hit, twice – but survived on 2HP! That’s the plucky Silvia I know and love! <3

Lewyn: Poor, poor boy – he’s really had it tough this year, hasn’t he? First an awkward reunion with the family he sorta abandoned for reasons that probably run the gamut from ‘genuinely selfless’ to ‘dumbfuck teenager’, and then his mum can’t stop talking about how much better Sigurd is than him, which he already KNOWS, but Sigurd can’t even comfort him properly because he’s still so stupidly certain that he’s gonna find his missing wife someday :( Having one last chance to bang him before getting married really would’ve helped with his insecurities but Oifey has having none of his foot-dragging so he was all but locked in a box with Erinys for 30 turns. But he does love her, truly – she’s the only woman he’s ever really seen himself marrying – but everyone knows she loves him and it’s so obvious that if he messes things up her heart will break in two and he just couldn’t make that kind of promise!! Well, it’s too late now: they’re married. And then Oifey immediately sent him down to go promote (!!!) and talk to his mum while his newlywed wife spent several months having a profound, life-changing experience with two other couples and a pair of randy womanisers. And his sister in law (who may also be his mother in law? Lewyn isn’t asking) biting the dust sure hasn’t really helped the mood here, either. But now he has Forsetti, his stats have been raised to truly hilarious degrees, he’s almost impervious to ever getting hit, and absolutely nothing can stop him from absolutely obliterating anything he- GOD FUCKING DAMN IT JUST PROC ADEPT ALREADY YOU ASSHOLE.

Rahna: Her reaction, at first, was sincere: when she at last laid eyes on Lewyn, she was angry, and worried, and so filled with joy and relief that the shaking pained her. But the more she spoke with Sigurd, and the more she saw her son with him, the more she slowly… understood. She knew, now, why her son had always felt so lost and alone here in Silesse – why those princely duties which had seemed so simple to her must have felt so impossible to him. Why he couldn’t have approached her with his fears about himself; why he must have felt so alone. She tries to let him know that it’s okay by telling him how good she knows Sigurd is for him and how happy she’d be to accept him as an honorary son, but just like Erinys (the poor dear) he seems convinced that his act is working. But all she has ever wanted, as a mother, is for her son to be happy, and to share his life with someone he loves. And that is why she urges him to stay at Sigurd’s side; such a journey of love must be what Ced would have wanted most of all.
(...she’s not going to be very happy when Lewyn tells her that he sorta already got married to Erinys a few months ago across the river from Throve.)

Erinys: See above, except instead of having a good friend who’s hot but unavailable (but then again, there’s always Silvia…) Erinys got to spend the whole map flying back and forth over towering mountains and almost dying repeatedly, willingly remaining at low health so Midir could be healed instead just because if anyone had to be brought back by the Valkyrie staff this year it should be her, only to twice fail to even dent a boss because she got pavise’d the first brave hit and missed the second. And then her new husband just ‘pew pew’d a couple of wind gusts and that was that. (...provided he PROCCED ADEPT, anyway.) Silvia might’ve run all over but with all that time she spent over blue mountains I don’t think anyone had a more depressingly solitary experience this map and dear god has the world not been kind to her today :( The good news is that she ended the map at level 18! ...so let’s hope like hell she’ll be able to reach level 20 in the next Arena because she’s only got one chance left. She’s broken, and battered, and is probably covered in scars at this point, but she saved her homeland and won her goddamn husband, and now she is never, EVER letting him go. (Oh yeah, I also sorta looked out for that Talk conversation between her and Lewyn that apparently could get them married instantly – even though of course I’d already taken matters into my own hands and gotten them married the long way – buttttt it never showed up and at one point I put Sigurd next to Lewyn outside Silesse and it gave an option to Talk so of course I just went ‘lol might as well do this, then!’ and only later did I wonder whether I may have accidentally cockblocked her with the guy his mum is convinced he’s dating. Whoops?????? Sorry, Erinys!!!)

Brigid: Okay I think I’ve covered this enough already lmfao. In short: after the first round with Pamela went Very Badly, I reloaded back to where Brigid was still close enough to Throve to bait them out on a forest tile, and dear god did she just wreck shop; even the Pegs who just stabbed her in melee barely managed to chunk her down. (And is it too late to note the significance of her relationship with Midir involving so very many pegs…?) But when those fucks came BACK, she’d started to make her way to the ‘main’ crew, and so suddenly found herself making the most desperate rush of her life back up North. I thought I could have her bait them again, but for some reason it didn’t work; were they attracted by Midir, closer to the castle, instead? Unfortunately, this means Brigid only just barely made the final battle; she couldn’t even reach them in one of the most climactic turns. But she saw how well her new husband performed, promotion or no promotion, and when she finally burst forth from those snowy forests, leaf-strewn and bloodied, she would be pivotal to taking down enough Pegs to allow Erinys to survive. Oh, and this was after that whole early segment with the mages (sorry but it was Very funny to hear the boss boast of their menacing prowess only to be followed by ‘step.’ ‘...step.’ ‘...step.’) where she and Jamke just sorta set themselves up in the trees and went to town. ...okay that wasn’t actually short at all but the point is that she was super badass and I am very proud of her :)

Tailtiu: I continue to be immensely amused at her little sprite (which I’ve come to associate so strongly with her that when Lex had to kill one of the mage ladies late in the map it made me sad that it looked like he was killing her :( ). I was also deeply entertained by her Arena run, which every single time involved her taking a hit and then absolutely nuking the opponent in response so very consistently that she was only stopped when her opponent just straight one-shotted her immediately. I can respect that level of dedication to glass cannon-hood. Unfortunately Tailtiu apparently does not respect me, or Oifey at the very least, because she took her precious motherfucking time getting married to Lex!!! All the way up until turn 46, and no I am not joking, she still remained stubbornly single, perhaps taunting Oifey deliberately: ‘Oh, you want me to marry this guy? My childhood friend? Then how about I…….. don’t :)))))’ I’m not sure what exactly Lex did to finally seal the deal but thank FUCK he did it. After that she somehow ended up being the only unpromoted character to be taken down South and not left in a castle to take care of the babies, leading to a pretty adorable sense that she was the honorary younger sister of this whole crew of experienced knights kindly crowding around her so she could nuke their enemies safely. She didn’t make level 20, and it looks like she’s not ever going to at this point, but that’s okay! She’s still fun to play with and I think she’s enjoying herself, being protected by her big tough husband and the super cool lady knight Lachesis and all the others! Sure, Lewyn might have a legendary weapon, but can he do THIS?! *fries enemy in a seizure-inducing lightning strike, bringing him to 2hp, then gets nudged by an arrowhead and dies instantly.*

Claud: Well, I did try to pair him with Lachesis in case she was into that, but apparently not. I’m not sure he was really all that interested himself, either, which is entirely fair enough. As stated above, I struggled greatly with how to divy up the staves, but the fact that he ended up without any practical healing options was a pretty irritating issue. I did use Fortify once, at least, though that was the one time the Pegs were perfectly happy to go all-in in Brigid so it ended up being pretty useless. Nonetheless he eventually made his way down to Sigurd, and since I tried to keep him in the back just in case… he needed to do something? I guess? He sorta didn’t see much action. But what does any of that matter? He’s already promoted, and he holds what might have been the single most important thing keeping Oifey from having to reload multiple goddamn hours of strategising in his very hands: the Valkyrie staff. That’s good enough for me. Not that he’ll pass it down to the next generation now, from what I hear, but well, Oifey will just have to learn how to not split his army in the most dumb goddamn way possible by that point. He’ll have like 15 years; I believe in him.

And that’s it, for characters playable and non-playable alike! The only other things of note character-wise are a) how hilariously paranoid Throve’s king must’ve been seeing Oifey’s plot to seige him apparently necessitated marrying up the entire army (and then he just died instantly to Lewyn, so RIP him), and b) my complete and total belief that Lamia was Hilda to such a strong extent that I’m now starting to wonder whether they actually do share a sprite. Also now I completely and 100% understand why people were so confused that they picked Dithorba for that FEH banner over Pamela, who is still an NPC but is an actual demon from hell with a story behind her and not just someone Jamke and/or Brigid killed off without even noticing she was the boss.

And there we have it for Chapter 5! :D It’s been quite the change in a lot of ways; after the two-map arc covering that disturbance in Agustria and really putting Sigurd and all of his innate archetypal character flaws through the ringer, we’ve now been granted a much more straightforward episode – from his perspective, anyway. After how despondent we left him at the end of the last chapter, it’s quite nice to see him get a bit of a break. Eldigan may be truly gone, but Sigurd sincerely seems to believe that he’ll find Deirdre someday, and in the meantime, he’s gained a real mother figure to help him through all these sad times!

I said it before, but the relationship between he and Rahna really is endearing! I’m glad her motivations for helping him were much less sinister than I worried, haha. Maybe they did already know each other, just through Sigurd sometimes hanging around when the envoy comes to visit Prince Kurth, and she had good instincts about him. And maybe part of her just really wanted to be able to comfort some kind of young man around the same age as her mysterious son. Oh, do you think that’s why she’s also so indulgent about his search for Deirdre? They were bonding over mourning the loss of a suddenly-disappeared loved one? Is that another reason why Lewyn felt so awkward whenever Sigurd brought up his lost wife??? It’s all coming together...

But that brings us to the true star of this chapter: Lewyn himself! Thinking back on his initial interactions with Sigurd is honestly very funny, haha – he really styled himself as some worldly, experienced wise man who truly understood the heart of the common people who shrouded his keen knowledge behind a frivolous air! And then we find out that that high and mighty posture is ALSO an air and that deep down he’s actually just kind of an indecisive, insecure bisexual mess? Even just the revelation that Lewyn is actually a couple years younger than Sigurd changes so much in how I view him, haha; by this stage of the game that could still make him all of mid-twenty-aged, but guys!! He just had Sigurd (and me) so fooled!!

I’ve thought about it, and if I had to guess, Lewyn’s disappearance wasn’t either as pure of heart as he initially made it out to be (which was always at least a possibility), but also neither as callous and cowardly as he seems to think it was by the end of the map. I think he truly did feel incapable of ruling there for all kinds of reasons, and genuinely believed that Silesse was better off without him, an idea which was depressing as much as it was a relief. It’s the sort of idea that proves itself in the action – of course someone who would leave Silesse without another word is not fit to rule Silesse! - and he definitely should not have done it, but I can’t say that it was some kind of terrible crime. And I think it’s pretty likely that, even aside from Sigurd’s army, he never would have grown to become the ruler he’s now capable of being if he hadn’t done his thing and mingled among the common folk (even if, yes, he probably did a fair bit more than just mingling). It was a teensy bit funny when he and his mum were agreeing so earnestly that violence isn’t the answer while reverently handing over a weapon, but I think all her sincere praise of him there really wasn’t wrong: he is a guy who wants to make peace and love, not war, and always has been. I can fully understand now why he’s such a well-loved character, and I’m sure that when the remake comes, that’ll only be even more the case.

Speaking of which, I sure ended up getting in on that Sigurd/Lewyn action, huh? It’s funny to think that when I first encountered the pairing I was slightly surprised, not only because Sigurd/Eldigan felt like the only relationship that could ever compete with Sigurd/Deirdre (and I still believe that is true), but also because I’d had my weirdo Lewyn/Eldigan phase that seemed so obvious to me at the time but now very much entirely isn’t, hahaha. But now, I do definitely get the appeal behind Sigurd and Lewyn. They make a pretty fun pair, the two of them! I’m still not convinced Lewyn ever actually made it with him, but I’m enjoying their friendship immensely, either way.

But Chapter 4 isn’t just about Lewyn. It’s impressive enough that we took basically a whole chapter to focus away from Sigurd and on to him instead, but they really went the extra mile to flesh out this kingdom and his friends and family in the process. The Annand and Pamela stuff in particular feels, in some way, like a repeat of Sigurd and Eldigan’s clash last episode, but it’s also entirely different; Pamela isn’t regretful and pushed into a dire situation, she’s truly been corrupted and turned against her old friend. I really do wish that we couldn’t learned a little bit more about how that happened – everyone seems so shocked that Pamela has become like this, but she’s a little too Card-Carrying Evil to really imagine as someone who used to be kind. I hope the remake will delve a little more into it, or at least offer us some clue as to how that happened!

But regardless, the clash was genuinely heart-breaking to see… even if I wish they could’ve communicated to the player ‘hey, you’re not actually supposed to interact with this event’ a little better :’D But this is one of the strength of these giant maps: the chance to fully integrate the story into the mechanical framework seamlessly. Seeing the pegasus knights pummel each other was tense, but I actually felt myself wincing outright once the bows came in. We’ve been trained to jump at that ‘effective damage’ sound against our own units, and seeing it happen over and over actually upset me!! I got so mad at that guy with the long blonde hair: why are you acting like you’ve achieved something so powerful just by bringing archers to a pegasus knight fight?! This is cheap and cruel! I’m not normally the type to want to punish bad characters (even with Pamela it was more a symbol of my rage against her reinforcements than any kind of anger towards her) but man, I really wanted to wipe the smirk off that guy’s face!! And it was kinda disappointing when I got to the end of the map and realised he was already gone >:/ But no matter – we’ve still got plenty to come…!

And aside from that mechanical showcase, Annand achieves so much despite her very limited screentime because they really do commit with her. Her loyalty to Queen Rahna is nothing new but y’all know I am a sucker for those retainer/lord ships over here, and her having a connection to both Lewyn and Erinys makes the world feel just that bit fuller. And the chance to have that Talk conversation after her death (as I assume that’s what Eriny’s talk with Lewyn would’ve started with) gives it a real tangible impact, on top of the immediate ‘wait, Annand is dead?’ reactions when get when it first happens. Hell, it actually feels like her death is the final straw to instigate Lewyn’s character development, and therefore a pretty integral part of the story. All too often these story beats feel like they happen just for shock value, but FE4 takes the time to do it properly, and I really respect that. I sorta wish we got to see more of Erinys’ reaction, but I guess that’s my own fault, haha.

Speaking of Talk conversations, we also for our first spouse conversation between Aideen and Azelle! It didn’t really express too much, but it was a very nice and cute little piece, and you can definitely see the early stages of the Support Conversation framework going on, here. And like, I certainly do hope that the remake will give proper Support Conversations to at least the ~pre-destined pairs~ or whatever they’re called, but the conversations in this section made me realise that I really hope that the remake keeps the Talk sections, too. Fire Emblem is plagued with the struggle of grand casts which can be, at any particular point in the plot, almost entirely dead. Most modern games solve the problem by just having the characters ‘retreat’ rather than die, but at a very real cost to the emotional impact. I mean, not that most people don’t just reset the chapter anyway, but Fire Emblem has been about the emergent narrative almost before it was ever truly about the scripted narrative. The Talk conversations seem like such an elegant solution I’m honestly kinda shocked they’ve rarely done them again – a chance to have those cutscene-like interactions between characters who may or may not already be dead, and the necessity of physically putting your units next to each other adds to the gameplay/story integration.

And, okay, let’s get to it: at the beginning of the chapter, we hear that Arvis is to be wed, and to a lost daughter of the King at that! My theories haven’t changed since the last chapter: they’re both Sigyn’s children, and Deirdre at the least doesn’t know because having your memory wiped will tend to not let you recognise the names of people you used to know. And they’re really emphasising Deirdre’s status as a princess and how much it’ll be elevating Arvis’ status, so maybe that is the whole reason behind it. But how did he know that she was a princess? Did Manfroy tell him, and not happen to mention the other part? Presumably Arvis is aware the rumours that his mother had an affair with prince Kurth; does he just dismiss that all as a transparent attempt to ruin his family name? Or is there some other reason he doesn’t think Deirdre could be their child? He seems calculating enough that I’d think by now the idea’d have occurred to him. But if he did know, presumably he’d be aware that Deirdre could have Loptous blood, too, and that Very Bad Things could result from that.

We got a hint about that, too; in one of the villages, an old man very tactfully points out that if ‘kin’ were to join, their blood would be super-powered, but that it is a sin. I’m curious about that second part, though; I could see this world having taboos against intermingling of the same blood even if they’re nowhere near each other on the family tree, but neither Ayra nor Holyn have mentioned any obstructions to the two of them shacking up, even though their kids very well will get that supercharged effect. However, this does explain how we go from Arvis and Deirdre perhaps only ‘carrying’ Loptous holy blood (since they have other major blood, and we’ve not seen anyone ‘displaying’ multiple bloods before) to being able to bring about a major holy blooded child.

Oh, and while we’re on the topic: I didn’t get Silvia the special sword :/ Before I’d heard about it, Naoise has already visited. Welp, semi-blind! That’s how we do things, here!!!

So, I think that brings this chapter to a close. To summarise: after an arc of genre deconstruction, this chapter is more about just good, solid storytelling, with the uniqueness coming simply from its large amount of focus on a secondary character, which is an impressive commitment to an ensemble cast for such an early game. However, if Sigurd’s actions in Agustria had raised the question of what makes a noble good, those themes have certainly been continued here. Lewyn brings in some more ambiguous moral greyness; how bad was it of him, morally, to leave Silesse in the first place? Is this whole story in itself a niggling at the idea of the king who is good because he has walked among the common people? And, of course, we’re certainly subverting this trope of the wise, experienced advisor, by giving our sometimes-smug bard quite the knock off his high horse.

But Genealogy isn’t all about genre subversions and critiques; it’s also about earnest, emotional stories. And I think this chapter has shown better than maybe any other so far both how good it is at doing those, and also how far it’s willing to commit itself to get that good. Sure, Annand’s death will never have the same gut punch as Eldigan’s, but we knew Eldigan ever since the prologue. For them to introduce a character in this chapter – and especially one who raises as many death flags as she does right from the word go – and still make her death genuinely sad, is a really profound achievement.

And just… man, I wanna gush a little bit for a moment, because I think I’ve put into words what exactly it is about Genealogy that hits me so right: it’s the perfect mix of thoughtful and sincere. Plenty of Fire Emblem games (as well as games, especially in the fantasy genre, in general) genuinely love what they’re doing and try to tell a classic, emotional story, but they also don’t really try to do anything new or interesting; ‘don’t think too hard about it’ is often the intended operating procedure. On the other hand, there are plenty of stories that try to do heavy, critical genre deconstructions, but they come from a place of deep cynicism or superiority, like the author thinks they’re too good for this genre they apparently understand better than anyone else. But Genealogy of the Holy War combines the best of both worlds: its intelligence comes from knowing these stories so very well, and wanting to write a really, really good one.

From the very beginning, there was just something about the vibe of it that felt at home to me: an impression I got from the fandom, which was then almost immediately followed-up in the game itself. It’s not the sort of game you roll your eyes about and laugh and shrug and say ‘well, yeah, I know it’s kinda dumb, but I like it!’ It’s the kind of game you spend hours hyper-analysing because all those little things you noticed probably actually did have that level of thought behind them and if you wanna write an essay about them then that’s really cool! It’s the kind of game that encourages you to say things like ‘this is one of the best games of all time, and if it had been released in English when it first came out that would be widely accepted by gamers,’ and maybe you are exaggerating a little but it’s not out of some sarcastic irony, it’s because that’s truly how you can express the intensity of your feelings for it! It’s a game that invites you to love it, fully and completely and unironically, in all its weird relationship depictions and prioritisation of atmosphere over fast-placed gameplay and stupidly specific Easter Eggs that nobody could ever hope to discover in a random casual playthrough. Hell, all those things only further emphasise it as a game for the sort of weirdos who Take Games Too Seriously instead of going out and Having Bitches or whatever the kids say these days.

It just feels right for me. I just feel like if I encounter another person who really, really loves FE4, that we’re gonna be on the same page on some important level, you know?

...all of which is a very roundabout way of saying ‘I’m autistic and FE4 feels like a game designed for autistics’, huh? :’D

But, enough stalling. We’re really in the thick of it now, and there’s nothing to do but move on… to Chapter 5.

And, welp, I sure know what’s going to happen next! We’re still waiting for the second generation to show up at some point, and we’ve been building up to this showdown for a long time: finally the stage is set for us to take on and trounce the mid-game boss, Arvis!!! Surely this will set in stone the legendary achievements of this group of parents, much like Fire Emblem 7 would do later on in the franchise, as they all get their happy ending, ready to raise their kids for a more peaceful future! But then, ten or fifteen years on, there’ll be dark stirrings: a secret child that Arvis fathered before he was killed! It’ll be up to those happy kids (plus one or two deeply troubled by strict expectations placed on them, because when main characters become parents they’ve always gotta suck a bit for some reason) to track down that child and reinstate the peace their parents brought!!

That’s how the story goes, right? The culmination of all our hard work and sacrifice so far, finally seeing catharsis in a gosh darned happy ending for once?

Man, I can’t wait to see all the post-timeskip designs :) I hope somebody gets a cool ponytail!

And on that note: I leave you, dear readers, for just one last chapter to spend with this particular group of characters (and man, that’s actually really sad all on its own!!). Farewell!

Chapter Text

AKA, ‘The one where the lord’s dad dies.’

OH BOY. I actually really mulled over whether to get into The Big Thing off the bat with this chapter, even before the character status updates, since it really was hard to think of anything else immediately after haha. But nope – it deserves a proper build-up, and there is so much else here to talk about!

So here, for one last time, let us check in with our (as of this Act) favourite cast of soldiers slash revolutionaries slash war criminals!

Sigurd: Would like to have sex one more time with his wife who disappeared mysteriously almost two years ago. His body yearns for hers. The ultimate downside to finding “the one” is that she may go missing young and leave you wanting.
Was starting to fall off a bit, and it wasn’t even the Tyrfing that saved him early on, it was that the bad guys’ Grand Plan being of sending onslaught after onslaught of axes to fight him. (Great work, guys.) Also it’s annoying that he automatically equipped the broken sword after he Talked to his dad and so had to get pummelled by enemies for a while because I forgot his dad could ride forwards and meet him that turn himself :/ But he just switched to his normal sword after that and was fine. In fact he was fine for so long I totally forgot about repairing the Tyrfing and he had to go double back for it lol. Once we finished off Lex’s dad he actually sorta went back to being only ‘good’??? Maybe he was siphoning energy from Oifey or something. Needless to say, things didn’t exactly get much better than ‘good’ from then on…

Deirdre: For real lol, Arvis might be a Magnificent Bastard when it comes to politics, but trotting Deirdre out in front of Sigurd like that was just petty lmao. Like, what was she supposed to do when this super handsome guy who is Exactly her type starts acting really shocked and hurt and as though he already knew her? Especially when she knows she has amnesia?! Her chaperoned walk back to the castle is going to be very very :thinking emoji:.
Someday in Askr, Sigurd is going to encounter Julia in the process of calling Julius ‘brother’, and he is going to have many questions. And after Seliph finally takes on the awful task of answering them, Sigurd is going to stop, silent. Then, after much reflection, he will tell Seliph that he blames her not. All knights such as he understand that it is their fate someday to fall in battle. That she had taken another man into her arms is no sin; he readily admits that it was he who plucked her from her forest sanctum and brought her into this perilous world she understands little. He has never counted the Baron of Velthomer an intimate friend, but he is a noble man, and he knows that she will be safe under his protection. Thus, he has but one question to ask of Seliph: was his mother happy with him?
And Seliph will swallow thickly and he will lie. He will lie a lot.

Oifey: ‘Haha, now that everyone’s paired up and promoted who’ll ever be able to, I can finally direct this army based on actual military strategy first and foremost!’ And then he spent like an hour trying to arrange things so that Lex could make the final blow on his dad. It wasn’t remotely necessary. Lewyn could’ve ORKO’d him any time he wanted. But the compulsion, it gripped Oifey. Letting Lewyn do it just didn’t feel right; didn’t feel satisfying. It had to achieve something else alongside the wholesale slaughter of a corrupt nobleman. Sigurd saw the crazed look in his eyes, and he believed in Lewyn’s words, and he was concerned. Really, it’s no wonder Oifey was sent away right after. It was for the best.
Several months later, Oifey spends a terrible week plagued by nightmares. He dreams, over and over, of Arvis betraying Sigurd – but Sigurd already knows that Arvis is a villain, so how could this be? Is this some vision from the past, mistakenly sent to the wrong version of himself? He curls over baby Seliph and Larcei and Scathach while Shannan tries his best to cool his fever. Things won’t get better than this, either, for a very long time.

Naoise: He was like two levels away from promotion surprisingly, so I sent him right up to go single-handedly deal with the brigand threatening the village up top. It took him like 4 goddamn turns; Oifey started feeling kinda bad for the poor villagers having to put up with this shit?? But he made it and promoted! He even managed to beat the Myrm with the bolt sword in arena!!!! Unfortunately I then had to retcon that timeline to try something else with Tailtiu and I swear I tried to make his promoted ass fight that Myrm like 8 separate times and in the first 6 that asshole hit a 58% shot three times in a row and killed him. So now he never will :( Aaaand then I left him back with the home castle because the struggle with Ylisse (edit: wait that’s not correct lmfao but I’m keeping it) last chapter has left me goddamn paranoid about leaving unattended castles, regardless of how little Naoise could do on his own. But despite being so far behind, Arvis was still kind enough to hold off on the party until he made it <333

Alec: Man, I feel a little bad for him. Arden and Dew at least get to stay at home and look after the kiddos, but he’s just destined to keep tagging along behind after much better fighters than him with his measly little single iron sword. Is that occasional 2 damage kill worth it, Alec? Dost thou look down upon Arden’s life now, from where thou stands? And then I ended up keeping him at Zaxon anyway because apparently his 2 damage kills were worth bringing him over forest tiles and mountains but I drew the line at deserts!

Arden: Proud househusband and chief babysitter! And hoo boy there are a LOT of babies by this point so he has his work cut out for him! Luckily he has his good friend Dew to help him out; I can already see the buddy comedy pitting this hulking gentle giant knight and his tiny little scamp of a thief best friend wrangling all these young’uns together!

Quan: Aw, man. I knew what was coming but the first time I saw him my brain just went ‘!!!!! It’s Quan!!!!!’ I was so excited haha!! I actually also thought he’d join the army again for at least a brief period, but nope. Seeing him and all of the knights take their trudging, painful steps through the desert trying to get away was actually awful. :(

Ethlyn: The goddess……. I actually thought she might be safe since I’d piled so many weapons and items onto her, but sadly it seems she left the Pursuit Ring back in Leonster. :( And then her final move alive was to heal up her last living knight, who was near death… she was able to ease his pain, just a little, one last time. :’(

Altena: I’d like to believe she’s below the age of being able to be traumatised by witnessing horrifying events but I’m sadly doubtful. From her new, unfamiliar home, she even kind of wishes she could see Leif again, even though he’s just a loud annoying baby, because that would at least be somebody she knows. :(

Finn: Okay, now I get all the survivour guilt jokes lmao. Currently in the unenviable position of the 20-year-old who is now tasked with responsibilities that were seriously not in the job description because there is literally nobody else left to do them.

Lex: Reached level 30 easily! And has formed a pretty fun power duo with Lachesis (and sometimes Sigurd). Which is pretty heartwarming after how their first in-game meeting went, haha. It would’ve made for a pretty cool romantic story but I’m kinda glad they didn’t get together? Rather than falling in love it’s more like they both became badasses with a mutual respect who work really well together? Like THIS is their destiny, fighting side by side in tandem, and that alone is enough! Aro rights for all <3 Also I was all excited to have him square off against his dad and show how much he’d grown and then he did, like, 4 damage to him.

Azelle: There were characters I didn’t think would be able to promote but did, and there were characters I gave up on deliberately a long time ago, and then there is Azelle. I’m sorry, buddy. Maybe if I had made a deliberate effort for him like I did Tailtiu it would’ve worked out, but I didn’t and them’s the breaks. Whatever; he gets to spend more time among the backline with his wife, so he’s feeling fine. Up until he finds out what his big brother is up to, anyway. If he had an inferiority complex at the start of the game, I don’t think I have managed to help him…

Midir: Like Naoise, he was two levels away from promoting and making no progress whatsoever in the Arena, so I sent him to handle the brigands down south. Unlike Naoise, he went full Jamke and just pew-pew-pewed that guy into smithereens in no time! In recognition of that demonstration of talent, he was allowed to come along with the rest of the army, and was instrumental in taking down the wyvern rider horde, even without ever upgrading his initial bow. I kinda wish we saw how he and Brigid fell so in love because it is kinda funny that the last time we see them talk he’s like ‘hot DAMN my lady has a twin?? Jackpot???’ and now he’s so earnest that he never really loved Aideen but definitely loves Brigid. But I believe you, M’dear! The good news is that with some gentle coaxing, he was eventually able to open up his love language from solely ‘killing pegasus knights together’ to ‘killing all fliers together.’ Growth <3

Aideen: Well, she never really actually really ended up using her much-sought-after tome destructive ability all that much? I could blame it on her being foot-locked, but to be totally honest the main culprit is just that she ended up with like all of the best healing staves, despite the several weeks I spent trying to work out how to best divvy those things up. But that’s fine; she got to spend her last days down in the back with her husband, and that is what is important. :) Likewise, she never got to share any final words with Azelle this chapter, but she DID get that cool-ass staff a few chapters ago, which is a fair trade in my eyes!
However, it would not be true to say that Aideen saw no combat this chapter. Oifey wracked his little tactician brain to pick off the early knights in just such a way that she and her twin sister could have first pickings at their asshole brother, which I must say was a very coveted role. Brigid could’ve smoked him without breaking a sweat, but what do good sisters do? They share. And so Aideen stepped forward, quiet but certain, and as her brother reared up his horse to try to escape, she in turn raised her hands and spoke aloud: “I’m sorry, brother. But you can’t counterattack from this range.”

Dew: Poor kid got left back with Arden like usual and then not only did his babysitting duties get commandeered by a couple of manlet punks even younger than he is, he then had to schlep his ass halfway across the map just so Jamke can tell him that he knows Dew is feeling uneasy. Like no shit, dude! The guy’s been walking for a month straight, now! He’s covered in sweat and deeply dehydrated! Cut him some slack! Welp, at least he got to rest for quite a while after that in Phinora castle with Alec.

Ayra: I unironically love that she’s just like ‘yeah sure, Shannan can take a bunch of babies and head off on his own through hostile territory for a few months. He’s thirteen, not a toddler.’ It’s really cool to see a female character who gets to prioritise her mission and her status as a warrior over family and children! <3 Also, still BIG Rosa vibes. It was a little awkward when she went to that village and they immediately started gushing about how the heir of Isaach was going to return and save them all blah blah. Maybe that’s why she ushered along Shannan so quickly; like, ‘oh yeah lol I knew there was something I was supposed to do haha.’

Jamke: Okay it was genuinely kinda funny that all the other characters are having their last big romantic Talk conversations with their spouses and the parents of their children, and then there’s Jamke over here like ‘I gotta talk to Dew NOW.’ Jamke/Dew confirmed??? I’m honestly really curious what the relationship is, here! Are we just meant to presume that these two became friends over the course of their time in the army, or did they know each other beforehand in Verdane? Or was it just that they both tended to hang around Aideen, and I guess helped one another get through the pain of her choosing Azelle over them? It is a little fun to speculate how a crown prince could’ve grown close with a kid thief, though. I can just imagine Jamke becoming reluctant older brother to this dumbass who has no clue what kind of danger he keeps putting himself into. Well done! <3 Oh, and of course it goes without saying that he ended the map as a combat legend, reaching level 30 with ease! I don’t know how I would’ve dealt with those wyverns without him! I am a firm believer in Jamke supremacy!!!!

Holyn: What the fuck???? This guy’s been a cousin of Ayra this whole goddamn time????? I mean… okay, yeah, I probably should have guessed that from how they both have the same holy blood. But what’s a lord’s kid doing working as a mercenary? Doesn’t he have stuff to do back home?? Honestly! Unbelievable!! They really pulled the ‘forgotten childhood friend’ trope on me here!! Well, I’ll commend Holyn on his acting skills, if nothing else. Though whatever circumstances lead him to where he was when he joined the army can’t have been good. Hopefully his wife put in a good word for his household before Shannan left.

Lachesis: Hell yeah, magic sword queen represent!!! Ethlyn may be dead, but her legacy still lives on <3 And to think that at one point I was considering waiting until Finn returned so I could pair them up, hahaha. But seriously, I gave her a silver bow and she fucking SLAYED with it! Nothing could overcome her! ...until Reptor right at the end of the map. Seriously, I thought that with her Earth Sword she’d be able to sustain herself indefinitely, and like that was actually very much true when it came to the mooks lmao, but that level of sheer nuking magic was just too much for her to facetank, sadly. But that’s a small complaint when she is already this good even without major holy blood or a holy weapon! I’ll miss you, video game Nanami <3 (And speaking of which, man, it is just so sad that the characters all say the name of the one they love when they die…)

Silvia: How exactly does the leg ring even work? What magical process allows this scantily-clad pillow princess to run ‘cross the plains with the calves of a Greek demigod? I suppose it is a power entwined with Jugdral itself, given the mysterious and terrifying abilities of Legendary Sigurd and Brave Seliph. Also Alm and Yuri but whatever. I got another chance to try and set up a four-way dance mid-Wyvern battle but sadly my insistence on letting Sigurd kill the guy who murdered Quan meant we couldn’t take enough down and she died :( But oh yeah, did I ever mention that in the arena last chapter her opponent got her down to like 10% health, and then she started evading like an Irish dancer being shot at with a machine gun?! I presume that is how Miracle works in these games but it was absolutely HILARIOUS before I figured that out, and then also again when she just kept GOING for so long that I can only presume her Avo had reached all the way up to 100%. Shame she couldn’t dodge wyverns so well, but then it would’ve been a little funny if it turned out Altena should’ve been left with the dancer instead.

Lewyn: Has really mellowed out since getting Forsetti, which is fair enough. Even if he still ended up pressuring Erinys into taking on all royal responsibilities in Silesse lmaooo but it did make sense in context. I know I said it was sad we can never see Lewyn and Eldigan interact, but I really wonder what he makes of Arvis, too. But even after marrying Erinys, he’s still a soft touch where Sigurd is concerned. And maybe, on that day, he wanted to believe in Sigurd’s ideals, too. In-battle, he really is absurd; the only thing he’s lacking is physical defence, but his Avo is so high it barely even matters! He’s almost like a walking cheat code! But somehow, whether because using him was ‘too easy’ or something else, he spent a lot of this map just healing with his cool new staves. I think he would like that :)

Erinys: Seemed even lonelier than usual to be sent off immediately on her own to go deal with a brigand terrorising some distant island. It must kinda suck when everyone’s back at home having a party and/or lying around waiting for Aideen and Brigid to get into position and you’re stuck on some damp rock locked into repeatedly violating weapon triangle laws until Generic Bad Guy #34 carks it. And it must have been extra disillusioning to learn that the national treasures of her homeland, the Great Golden Walls of Silesse, visible only from the tallest mountaintops that naught but her sister knights may ever see, can in fact be found in other places, too. But at least she has her sweet malewife Lewyn to heal her up when she gets home from work <3 Also did an extremely important job of taking out those plateaued mages in the desert; it really makes clear how useful Pegasus Knights are, and how kinda sad it is that we only get one in this generation. Is it too much to hope for a pegasus duo among the second…?

Beowolf: Not gonna lie, I almost forgot he existed lmfao. Actually I took him along with the army but then sent him back to Lubeck castle when I got paranoid about another Thove Situation. And I figured that he’s actually a decent fighter, unlike Naoise (sorry Naoise), so it should be fine to leave it just to him. At least Dew wasn’t too far off, if he ever wanted company. I gotta say though, out of everyone in this army I really don’t think he’s benefited much from joining up with Sigurd. Like sure yeah he’s gotten some decent meals and an occasional roof over his head, but that’s about it. At the end of it all as the flames consume him he’ll look back on his life and think ‘yeah that’s pretty much what I expected tbh. The meteors are a surprise.’

Tailtiu: Gosh I worked SO HARD to get her to promote……… And then she never really ended up doing much, anyway :’D Look, she’s footlocked and inconsistent; it was both easier and safer to only rarely use her! But man, she does have style when he does get to fire out the ol’ onboard delete button! I also dig her makeover, even if it immediately made me go ‘Ishtar?!’ (Which… y’know, makes sense. As far as I’m aware.) Also, man: I heard someone say that Ishtar/Lex was their favourite Lover’s Conversation, so my standards were high, and given their personalities, I expected something pretty cute and comedic! But no, it was actually incredibly painful :( I hadn’t even thought much about it, that they’re both fighting against their parents… So many of these characters were born dealt such terrible hands. And sadly, that undeserved bad luck is not about to end soon… :’(

Claud: “Haha does the holy axe have 1-2 range? Whatever, let’s just try it!” [In which Claud fucking dies.] Again I sorta struggled to know what to do with him; he ended up without any healing other than Fortify, one of the premiere Too Awesome To Use staves (though I did give it a few toots in the end!), but was typically too far from the action and too low in defence to have any good reason to take up any closer squares. I actually ended up parking him along the cliffside during the final battle to tempt away a few mages, but his chadlike Res stat was just too intimidating and they mostly ignored him :( Lewyn might just have it bad for the rightful king, but I wonder why Mr Prophet over here didn’t try harder to sway Sigurd’s incorrigible friendliness; maybe he was also siphoning power from Oifey? Perhaps there is some mysterious link between the holy scriptures of Bragi and Oifey’s dimension-rolling precognitive powers…?

Brigid: Absolute girlboss. I can just visibly see the tight-fitting black suit straining just a touch over her stony ab muscles when she reaches up to click her fingers for Midir to bring her over a beer (he is wearing a maid outfit). Again, I seriously have no clue how I would’ve dealt with those wyverns without her! Just like Sigurd and Lachesis, she unfortunately fell short when it came to facetanking Reptor, which was honestly a shock to me because if this holy weapon-wielding bulwark made of pure tank energy can’t take it, nobody can. Except Claud maybe but there were too many physical units around :( Unfortunately I have no idea if any of her children will be able to inherit Yewfelle soooooooo we’ll see whether this legacy will live on! :D

Shannan: Currently playing Fortknight except if you die in the game you die in real life in that it is actually literally real life.

Deirdre: [edit: okay I actually forgot that I had already written a Deirdre Status Update. But I l ike this one too so here you go lol] Deirdre is no fool. She understands, when she finds herself on castle grounds with no memory, that is unable to ever fully verify what she is told. She knows that when a sharp-eyed gentleman speaks of offering her food and clothing until her family is recovered that she is at his mercy, utterly. But what else is she to do when she is pronounced the long-lost princess and taken in to an ever-busy castle while a war (so she’s told) rages beyond the walls? Yes, she loves her husband – that is the undeniable truth of her position and her fate. There is no meaning and no intent; it simply is.
So when she is urged to step outside at last and greet their invited guests, and a dying man heaves and hollers and screams her name as though he wishes for her more than the last breaths of air in his lungs, Deirdre knows what this portends.
That night, at dinner, she is silent. Her husband – the man who reduced to ashes Deirdre’s one singular link to her previous life – neither pries nor explains. Deirdre takes his hand.
There is but one thing in this wild and fatal world that Deirdre can control. She chooses this: her love, and her faith. This destined, inescapable love will be her guideline.
If there is any truth in the romantic songs and stories she can still recall with no memory of ever hearing, that will be her saviour.

Arvis: Also chooses that guy’s missing wife.

And there we have everyone!! Did I go on too much…? But I just had to give proper last respects for everyone’s last map alive! Because, man…!

Okay, let’s get into it! I knew it was coming, but how did the reality match up to my expectations? (Boy I’d love to see the reaction of someone who didn’t [sorry, guys!], but I don’t know how likely that’ll be until a remake happens… If nothing else, current gossip seems to indicate that that might just be not too far off…!)

Let’s start from the beginning!! I really like the whole vibe of this map – compared to the last chapter, it has such a verdant, vibrant green colour to it, making me think of courtly jousts and the like, or even later grass stages in early platformer games? Compared to Agustria, it’s more bright and cheerful and sunny. There’s almost an atmosphere of celebration. Which of course is appropriate in so many layered ways: the villains think they’re about to win, but then the player is just about to finally defeat them and beat the game!!! ...or so they think :’D

(Actually, I do wonder how many players would have thought this was the final chapter! The characters are all at level 30, after all, and with the different map sizes, it’s harder to judge how long the game is compared to previous Fire Emblems! But then I’m one of the dumbass kids who finished Lyn’s route in FE7 and thought the game was over… I was like eight years old, okay?! Cut me some slack!)

But then, of course, there is the desert. The way it cuts through, disrupting the green like a scar… It’s like the green represents the trappings of nobility, all vivid and luxurious (on the surface), while the desert represents reality? The real world where life is often hard and there are people really suffering due to this war?

And it isn’t just stark and bare visually – the movement penalty brings those themes into the mechanics, as well. We first see it with Quan and Ethlyn and their knights, struggling in vain to get away; I could so easily imagine their horses stumbling over the sand, hooves sinking in and eyes blinded by the flurry of dust suspended by beating wings. That also creates an association in the player, that this desert is scary and painful and foreboding. We start off in the green – and against green enemies, too! - and it’s all set up to let us use the techniques we’ve perfected throughout the game so far to blaze against the enemy with the mighty Tyrfing! But then as soon as the desert comes in, things get… difficult. And complicated.

I’m jumping ahead, haha – there’s just so much to say! - but that moment after capturing Phinora when I realised how far I’d have to travel over the sands to get to the next objective was the first time I really felt just sorta tired at the idea of playing further. It ended up being not as long as I expected, and it’s partially my own fault for bringing along so many characters (thank god I started leaving some more behind in castles here, hahaha), but it was just frustrating getting them through that little space between the plateaus with so little movement! And not even any support points to build up anymore!

But in a way, that frustration felt… appropriate? Like, the wyverns SHOULD reflect a big threat – they certainly were, and I had to think carefully about how I arranged everyone, because I wanted to bait them out but they didn’t quite move the way I expected them to; it really did feel like I had to pull out everything I had to take them down! And more to the point, we get the characters talking about how they have an uneasy feeling, like something’s wrong, and then we have to trudge through all that way… Maybe I’m being overly positive here, and I should just say that feeling frustrated while playing a game is bad lmao, but it actually sorta also felt right?! Almost immersive…? Like there’s something trying to pull us back to safety. Like they’re trying to warn us that this isn’t the easy victory lap it seems.

There’s such a really fascinating and unique double yomi thing going on, here. On the surface, things are good for our heroes: we’ve bested all the villains so far, and now we’re finally marching on their stronghold to put the dastards down for good! But then we have Arvis reassuring his allies that he has plans for Sigurd, and doesn’t seem worried at all – oh no, are the villains going to outsmart our heroes and win after all?! But we all know how stories like this go. The villain will be partially successful, briefly, but then the hero’s powers of friendship and chivalry and goodness will somehow lead them to victory! The good guys always win in the end! So when Arvis boasts like that, it leaves the player feeling somewhat smug: like, sure, buddy, but there’s something we know that you don’t know, too – the kind of story he’s living in!

Ughhhh okay let’s REALLY go back to the beginning this time lmfaooo. So. We hear that Sigurd’s father is escaping in order to try and deliver to him the Tyrfing. I do like the insights we get into the internal workings of the villains, here, like Langbalt cursing both his sons as ‘useless’ – it does remind us of the family relations at work here (like, I’d forgotten this was Lex’s father), and really makes it feel like they’re separate individuals with their own personal interests rather than a generic Bad Guy Team, which of course ends up being very important in the end.

But the part with Byron sacrificing his life for Sigurd’s sake is just so very narratively paint by numbers. It’s pure Fire Emblem cliche; the only surprising part is that the lord’s dad died so late in the story! But that’s precisely why I think it’s kinda genius! Firstly, like with the last chapter, I think the story’s more transgressive elements really let it sorta ‘get away’ with being cliched at other times; it’s obviously got new and fun ideas, but isn’t unwilling to stick with the classics when they work, and even when they’re not exceptional, those classics form the connective tissue of a story. Sigurd needs to get the holy weapon, and we need to see how important Sigurd’s cause has become, and we need to see that Sigurd is also having to make sacrifices for the sake of the war…

Before, y’know.

Because that’s what it is: the one where the lord’s dad dies. It’d feel weirder not to see it! But with this, the trope is checked off, hands dusted with satisfaction. We don’t need to worry about that plot point anymore! Doing it in such a straightforward way at the beginning of the final(?) chapter lulls the player into a sense of security. It makes the contrast later on even more shocking by comparison. This is a story where the hero’s dad nobly gives his life to pass on the sword of his birthright so that he can slay the evil sorcerer! This is a story where the hero’s dad tragically fails to stop the upcoming war, so passing those duties onto his young son! This is a story where we think we’re playing as the hero, only to realise in the end that we have been the hero’s father who dies tragically half-way through the game all along!!!!

There are a few misdirects – deliberate or otherwise – too!! Like, when Sigurd sends Oifey and Shannan off to protect Seliph, it’s such a wrenching scene because it’s really unclear if this is the right call? Those two are NPCs (if pretty young, which makes their survival more likely), while Sigurd “can’t die,” and neither of them are actual fighters yet. (Of course, nowadays we also have the fun context of Fates’ Deeprealms, which is quite a fascinating comparison.) It definitely sets up bad times for either of the two groups, but it’s not clear which. And then we see Ethlyn taking Altena along with her, and how badly that turns out! On the one hand, does that imply that taking young kids with you to war really is a terrible idea? But then Travant steals Altena away, and it feels like such a foreboding prophecy! Like, oh no, now we know what’s going to happen to Seliph, too!! Sigurd, you dumbass, leaving Oifey and Shannan to die and letting your son get captured! >:(

Even Arvis’ spotlight at the beginning contributes to this all. We finally got a look behind the curtain at what he’s planning and what he thinks of himself: he sees the very real problems going on in Jugdral, and seeks to rectify them by gaining power himself. And...now that I describe it that way I finally fully understand why people say that Edelgard is based on him hahaha :D But the fact that he has Loptyr blood, and he’s fighting against discrimination against those people, really makes it so much clearer both why he’s been driven to this extreme and also why he doesn’t believe he can trust anyone else. I don’t think he believes he can change peoples’ minds about this; his only choice is to enforce it by law.

It’s quite a fascinating storyline. I haven’t played any of the Marth games, so I may be misunderstanding, but I remember hearing someone say that a villainous character there is opposed to the mistreatment of the dragons, but is treated as just a bad guy whose ideas are never addressed by the heroes, even though he’s partially right. If that’s accurate, then I wonder if Arvis is meant to be building on that, though time will only tell how the second half of the game deals with Arvis’ ideology. I also wanna say that I find Arvis’ beliefs a lot more consistent and persuasive than Edelgard’s. It always just felt really weird to me that Three Houses is so focused on difficulties suffered by people with crests – i.e., those with the magical powers and wealth and status. And it was never really clear to me how getting rid of the focus on crests would actually change much about their very unequal society, except among the very wealthy. But Arvis is talking about persecution, and also is open about wanting to be a benevolent dictator. Also he is a villain lol.

But though we now know his motives (and I do trust that those are, at least in abstract terms, his goals), there’s still so much deliberately left ambiguous. Marrying Deirdre was obviously for the purpose of putting himself into power, but when he insists emphatically that he and Deirdre are in love, does he maybe actually believe it? It seems silly to even suggest, but Arvis does clearly believe that he is above these other unscrupulous, corrupt lords. Maybe he really is offended by the idea that their marriage is entirely a sham? And does he know about the whole Half-Siblings Thing? He also obviously believes that he can just use Manfroy and the cult for his own gain, and doesn’t actually want to ruin the world. Which… yeah, Arvis is a bit too optimistic about himself in a lot of ways, isn’t he? But given how much he’s achieved already, I guess I can’t blame him too harshly lmaoo.

Anyway, the point is: even up until the end of the chapter, we have enough reason to think that Arvis is capable of reason to not be sure how this will end. I mean, Sigurd seemed perfectly happy to consider Arvis a good guy and accept him as the new king. If he had never had to meet Deirdre, might Arvis have spared him? Or was it too risky to know there were so many people willing to draw their swords if Sigurd asked, and likely at least someone out there who might ~poison Sigurd against Arvis~? Also, what if Sigurd and Arvis had fucked, back at the academy or whatever? So much food for throught.

And to think: all of this could have been avoided if polyamorous marriage was legal in Jugdral. I have only praise for Kaga’s enlightened ideals, championing such progressive messages before their time!

…actually, now I’m wondering what would have happened if Sigurd and Deirdre had never met. Presumably, Arvis would not have needed to wipe her memory, unless Manfroy somehow convinced him it was necessary. But in that case, he’d presumably find out that Deirdre’s mother was Sigyn. If he wasn’t okay with that… well, that’d sure fix the whole story, hahahaha. But if he was, then he’d probably have to have Deirdre’s mind wiped anyway since presumably Baroness Sigyn would get mentioned by somebody in Grannvale at some point eventually. Which is why Manfroy wouldn’t allow this to happen unless it’d work out for the cult. Hmmmm; very interesting.

But okay, back to the gameplay. So we finally make it out of the desert, and whence begins some extremely disorienting stuff. Like, we’ve still got Belhalla way out there on the map – is that meant to be our final siege? But before then, Arvis graciously steps in and takes care of much of the enemy army for us – yay!! (Though I gotta say: the contrast between those super goddamn scary meteor animations, and then the little like ‘HP 25% down’ bar, was kinda unintentionally hilarious.) But then we face this battle proper, and the tried-and-true strategy is to send in a few tanks to draw the enemy closer so the squishies can help out, but god DAMN did this not work lmfao. Reptor is just so hard-hitting that literally none of my units could enemy phase him; and is that the point, maybe? So I had to overextend, sending Lachesis and Brigid far further out there than I was at all comfortable with, and then held my breath for the fallout…

...and it doesn’t come. The rest of the army just disappears. There’s no final boss. There’s just a castle there, waiting for your approach.

It’s… simultaneously an anticlimax, and also too good to be true. It’s disappointing. It’s eerie. This is the last enemy we ever fight with these characters, and it just ends, like that. It doesn’t feel like as much of a win as it should. At this point, there’s nothing left for you to do. You can only watch.

It’s moments like this that really show, I think, the strength of a single storyline that the whole game is built around. I absolutely love stories with multiple paths – the very idea that, from the same beginnings, so many different things could spawn, is super fascinating to me! That’s part of why I love fanfiction: we get to explore all those different possibilities, and compare and contrast the fine details. But branching paths are never equal. And sometimes it’s just so much more impactful to be shown the way things went, and know that there’s nothing that could change it. Sometimes, that’s just life.

In particular, any game with choices necessarily attracts people who want to try to Win by making the ‘best’ decisions. Which is totally valid! But I really appreciate that that’s not what happens here, and I hope that people won’t complain about it when FE4 gets remade. Yes, Sigurd does many stupid things, and yes, we as the player must be the ones to set it in motion and advance the text. (Hell – imagine if, in the remake, they make this sequence interactive?! Like, when the meteors come, you’re given control of your units, only they can’t move anywhere, and even if you fight and kill one or two guards, the damage just becomes too much…)

But this is Sigurd’s story. He’s the one making the calls. And he’s not doing this all because that’s the only way to hit the Necessary Story beats. This is a Shakespearian tragedy, propelled onwards by fatal flaws. It feels awful – shocking and unsatisfying and unfair. But it also feels right.

And the story doesn’t end there. The world moves on, and presently we shall find ourselves with a new cast of characters who will fight and strive and do whatever they can do make something good out of this terrible event. So many of these sorts of games begin with a premise like this: a recent war which took the lives of the parents of the hero and his friends. Fandoms often call for seeing those stories in a prequel or some such. By playing the story chronologically, FE4 twists the common narrative. Even for those not playing blind, the lack of quirky call-forwards and fun easter eggs presents this as a different experience. We simply get to know these people, and then they die, and the world goes on.

Man!!!!!!!!! It’s so fucking cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I reaaaaaaaaaaally want the remake to just, like, play the credits right after all this happens hahahaha. And then just show on screen: ‘End of Genealogy of the Holy War, Act 1.’ Is that too melodramatic? Am I focusing too much on the shock value? Who cares!!!! This is such a fascinating story and also it is one of the very few games ever to truly pull off something like this!! I mean, fuck: if you just heard that the story gets really sad in the middle and then there’s a timeskip, you’d just think that a few characters die, right? Or, if it’s a really daring story, that the hero dies? Not that literally every playable character gets killed off in (almost) one fell swoop??????

(No pun intended. The swooping is for the Leonster royals only, of course.)

And ahh, the way they just showed all the character portraits, one after another… it’s such a weird contrast to normal endings in Fire Emblem. Usually this is where we’d see their exploits and what they achieved after the war, as a reward for keeping them alive this far. I guess their privilege this time is to be mourned among the Belhalla Massacre and not as just another dead soldier. Imagine if you died half a map earlier to Langbalt’s crew or whatever? That’d be pretty annoying, right? You probably get named less than half as much as everyone else in the history books, just because you couldn’t hold on for one or two extra months.

But jokes aside, man. The way it ends is so deliberately, effectively heart-breaking.

I just… want to meet these kids and see how this all has affected them and what they’re going to do about it now!!!!

And okay, let’s take a moment to talk about a couple of things that stuck out in a not so good way, since nothing is perfect! The first time we see the meteors against Reptor’s men, it’s such a startlingly dramatic effect… which then does, like, 10 damage. That’s a bit anticlimactic in an unintentional, immersion-breaking way. And it’s hard not to think back to that when Arvis gives his orders, too. Yeah, the army are held in place so we can presume that fire rained down until they were entirely annihilated. But afterwards, a little part of me couldn’t help but imagine how long that would’ve taken, and Arvis sorta irritatedly looking at his watch after a minute or two. That’s a funny image, but I think it’d work better in the remake if they make the initial meteors a lot stronger. Like, just insta-kill whoever’s hit. Surely there are enough soldiers they wouldn’t run out too soon? And the boss is coming towards Sigurd’s army, so players can’t just let Arvis sort them all out for them.

I also kinda just straight up Didn’t Like the music that played over Travant’s movements. It sounded just too funky and out of place. It actually sorta undermined the emotions of the moment, I think. Which is weird, because FE4’s music has been so goddamn GOOD so far!!

I actually saw someone bring up this chapter’s main musical theme on a random youtube video, and they totally hit the nail on the head: there’s an almost march-like quality to it that somehow manages to feel appropriate both for a victory song and a warning cry. I guess it’s because of that note of importance – that stuff is getting serious – but it’s not super dramatic. It’s almost sort of… sombre. At first, it just feels like that appropriate note of finality, and that the story is acknowledging the struggles of war, but that things will all be over soon. And, of course, even the more noble and celebratory tones make sense in a funny way, because that of course is how Arvis sees himself. Is he not a noble man who believes himself above the rules when it comes to doing what is right, just as much as Sigurd is?

And with that, I think I have finally gotten through everything I wanted to say about this chapter!!! :’D Wow, it really ended up being a lot, huh? Honestly, the day after I finished it I woke up absolutely bursting with ideas, and felt like I could write this whole thing up in one go!! It was the actual sorting through all my thoughts into some kind of coherent order that tripped me up… As you can most likely see above :’D All those years in university learning how to structure essays can still only do so much…!

But at long last, Part 1 is finally complete! And now, we have something deeply, incredibly exciting awaiting us all: yes, I am talking about the opportunity to see the long-term consequences of our ill-fated heroes’ actions thus far, and yes, I am talking about finally actually getting to meet and learn the personalities of a whole new cast of characters (save the handful I already sorta know). But there is something greater than even those rewards awaiting me.

Yes, dear readers, I have at long-last been granted access to that greatest of all treasures: none other than the adorable, good-natured, overburdened Prince Seliph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hahahahahahahaha yes it is entirely RIDICULOUS how incredibly badly I love this character I have still so fucking barely seen in canon (yes I kept playing long enough to see the start of the next chapter before I finished this post. So sue me!!! If it helps at all I took screenshots of everything and also immediately forgot anything that wasn’t how cute Seliph’s sprite is <3333) but I’ve just heard so much and seen so much and every single alt of him in Heroes is ADORABLE and ahhhhhhh it’s so nice I’ll finally get to see the full story of this kiddo I campaigned for to win CYL, especially when I do in fact have his wonderfully-designated Brave Alt at +7 (soon to be +8 thanks to randomly summoning an amazing actual +Spd copy!!!!!) resting peacefully in my barracks!

What adventures and mysteries await us? Which characters shall become unexpected favourites? What’s up with the Leonster arc I’ve heard people saying they didn’t like but don’t actually know anything about? Exactly how married are adult Shannan and Oifey, actually?

Tune in next update – same genealogical time, same genealogical channel! <3

Chapter Text

*lightning flashes; electricity crackles*

I LIVE!!!!!!

Okay yes, yes, I am terribly sorry for this incredibly long pause between updates – and at such a crucial part of the story, too!!

The truth is that I actually kinda basically lost access to my save game for a time. There was an update to the entirely legally acquired and Nintendo official SNES emulator app, and all of a sudden when I tried to open up FE4 in my recent games list it said that access was prohibited. Now, it worked perfectly fine when I navigated to the game file itself, but then for some reason there weren’t any associated save states. The weird thing is, the save state files were still there – I could find them! - but I could not for the life of me figure out how to make the app open up a save state from file, and all my attempts to receive answers to this conundrum were unmet, presumably because the path was so obvious that nobody could figure out how I wasn’t just doing it because surely that is a very basic thing for an emulator to do?

Well, I did consider that it might be possible to transfer everything to my PC and open them there instead. But that would all be too simple. If the app couldn’t open up states by file, why would the desktop version? And if it was on PC, I couldn’t play the game on long bus rides and the like which I did so very often (/sarcasm) and therefore when on earth would I do it?!

I was very moody about it all, and so annoyed that I actually started up a new game with the intention of replicating at least the pairings the best I can, and that playthrough was quite fun for a while with some unexpected results – firstly that Azelle became very strong very quickly what the hell, to Alec also being actually really damn good to the point that he cleared out the Arena first, when Ayra couldn’t even manage it, meaning that he and Holyn are the best bros of all time in that timeline… but it was just not the SAME. Also now I understand why people say that chapter 2 is a bit of a trudge because that is not an easy map to clear with any sort of pace.

And then, eventually, I gave up and transferred it to PC. And it worked. :) And THEN Engage came out and I started a course in librarianship (Wish me luck!! :D) and I had a long fic to write and again I found myself putting it off until I could Appreciate It Properly but really I was just intimidated to open it up again.

But, of course, I finally made it. And remembered, as I do every time, that this is a really fun game wtf why do I always put off playing it so much?! (It’s the ADHD. Oh yeah, other thing: I was without meds for a few months? Haha!!!!)

And, well. If certain leaks are anything to go by (and they rarely are, but does that matter?), I might have myself just a little bit of a deadline, now… :)

Well, that’s all preamble enough. I’ve daydreamed about this point long enough: it is time for an all-new Status Update. :)

Seliph: One day when he was somewhere in the vicinity of six years old he overheard some adults saying that one day he would grow up and avenge his father to take his place on the throne. And he thought to himself, ‘ah, I see! One day I will grow up and avenge my father to take my place on the throne.’ And it has been an unalterable fact of the universe ever since. The cutest and most precious and perfect boy in existence <333 Unfortunately has already been pushed into great amounts of wanton violence – despite being much more the in image of his mama meaning he would prefer to stay home enjoying the flowers – though diplomatic missions (read: seizing castles) have at times kept him very far from the battlefront. It’s just like everyone says: I miss Sigurd’s horse. :( Already understands how important marriage will be to the future of untold numbers of people and so is well underway preparing himself to marry Lana because she is the heir to a Grannvalian high house and also daughter of a close ally of his fathers so it simply all makes sense, really. And perhaps a little part of him wishes he could stay with her at the back of her army as her escort, watching her heal the violence he could not prevent with that of his own – his one spot of true comfort in this tumultuous time. (Also I love his lil cape!!! It makes him look like a superhero in his sprite <333)

Oifey: Deeply confused about the objectives of this map and so ended up exercising the sort of military tactics that might earn one a very memeable GBA FE ending card. But really, it was funny enough when Sigurd was being an overconfident dumbass and relying on some tweenager to direct his army’s movements but I felt so much worse making Seliph run back and forth (he ran away from Arthur immediately after Arthur came towards him to talk! And then immediately came back the other way!!) like this kid isn’t already deeply insecure about his ability to handle Literally Any Of This. Initially became a very good lance cavalry mainly because Shannan was already an infantry swordsman so he’d bagsed both of those things and it’s rude to compete with your best friend slash boyfriend like that. Trying not to let on how lonely he feels with Shannan away in Azkaban.

Larcei: This baby had a whopping 0% hit rate against her even on the plains!! Hell yeah, incest wins!!! <3 For real I intended to level her and Scathach up relatively equally and then I realised half a map later that she was level 6 and he was level 2? Look. You just can’t beat the tomboy feMyrm, all right? I know she gets compared to Ayra but I actually like that she seems a bit more hot-tempered and spirited, and just more emotional in general, compared to Ayra’s professional class Ice Queen thing. I’m probably not going to pair her with Seliph because I always have to be Contrary but tomboy/femboy ships are goals <3 Has never really been on the receiving end of a crush before and isn’t really sure how to handle it; besides, Johan always seemed like just an idiot, but he’s actually… been pretty useful in the army? Is this what love feels like…? No – no way!! (Not yet, anyway.)

Scathach: Yes I intend to use this name for him because Ulster was a weird-ass choice that IntSys rightfully took back it just sounds nicer. He definitely pales a bit in comparison to his sister; Seliph says in the opening that it ‘doesn’t sound like him’ that he’s advising caution but that’s all we’ve gotten to see of him at all so far sooo. But at least when it comes to their mum he is I suppose the more grounded one… though it’s all a very sad topic. :’( Despite being underleveled compared to Larcei he still handled himself more than well enough, thanks in no small part to the outright armory he was left with. I keep confusing his and Larcei’s sprites for Holyn and Ayra’s and trying to keep them together which is Funny but also it has lead to a few of those cool li’l adjacent star crits just like their mum and dad used to do which, yeah, is also at least a teeny bit Funny.

Lester: Ah, yes: the guy who looks exactly like Lex, raising very uneasy questions r.e. parentage given that Lex did in fact have a bit of a crush on Aideen for a while. Also for some reason I keep getting greaser vibes from him??? I’m trying to level him a little because bow cavs are Good and he is following well in the footsteps of Midir in terms of usefulness, loathe as I am to question his lineage even further. He definitely didn’t really gain anything from Azelle, though, so. Welp!!!! And he did get an awful lot of grinding done against Dannan so that’s neat, though his bow is in tatters now and IDK if he’s ever gonna make much money, so. Work hard on marrying well, Lester! Just probably not Julia if I am understanding these family trees right. I don’t have much of a sense of his personality yet other than ‘protective of his sister’ but that’s fine, I can keep them together; those star crits are really cute. :)

Dermott: Ahh, yes: Seliph, Larcei, her twin with two names for some reason, the one who looks like Lex, and……..Dermott???? I stared at this fucker for so long trying to work out who he was and did not click that he was in fact Diarmuid until literally the final boss. But as the son of our beloved girlboss and malewife duo, I was determined to try and use him! It… had mixed results? In that the thing I remember about him most is that I spent so much time boss abusing at 2-range against Dannan that I forgot he could counter which lead to Dermott getting hit back and dying instantly, losing Oifey one full hour (not sure how that translates in-universe but it is probably not the most strategic use of their time, admittedly) of progress. I don’t know much about him yet but I do like that he inherited his mother’s Charm skill; no doubt he is a bishie to end all bishies and I think that is something very important to include in an army. :)

Lana: D’aww, she’s so fluffy and cute! I think she would be very nice to hug :) As our first healer, she of course has a very important job that she is doing as well as anyone could ask of a foot-locked healer who thankfully at least has access to Physic. Though as with her mother this does raise the worrying spectre of Money Concerns; frankly it might be reason enough to marry her to Seliph solely for that. (Plus it would make Azelle not only Seliph’s non-blood-related uncle but also his father in law and that’s hilarious.) She definitely inherited her mother’s evasion skills because my dumb ass who was used to playing Engage by that point or something just randomly left her in range of 3 different axe guys and she evaded them all! She oughtta teach Julia a thing or two while they’re spending so much time walking and chatting together (Seliph sometimes included) <3 Has been prepared to marry Seliph for years already and now that he trusts her to take her along with the army it feels like it might finally be happening <3

Julia: Julia Julia Juliaaaaaaa!!! Ahhhhh I really didn’t expect to see her so soon; for some reason I expected Seliph to meet her in the same sorta way that Sigurd met Deirdre haha? But I am so happy to have her!!! <333 Poor girl has no clue what is going on which frankly at times during this map was Very Relatable. (Also her sprite is so SAD she looks like a soggy kitten moments ago rescued from a bath with her low, weepy eyes 🥺) Oifey tried to level her up a bunch against Dannan but the dang girl just hit TOO HARD; he asked her delicately if she might consider making her attacks weaker and she responded uncertainly that she kind of doesn’t really understand how she’s casting this magic at all, so. P-probably not…? I love her musical theme as well; very N, Child of Pokemon! Nothing like that melancholy, slightly disconcerting music box theme to get my blood Pumping with Love and Support!!! Currently imitating pre-ADHD diagnosis me trying to work on an essay due in two weeks on 5 hours of sleep; the brain fog is nearly all-consuming and it is hard to say that she particularly Cares about Things but there are tasks before her and a kind boy gently nudging her onwards. So if this is to be her fate, and she knows nought else, she will endure.

Johan: Picked to join the army because he is prettier, and Seliph will have none but the best and brightest in his liberation squad. Honestly based on what I’ve heard about him I expected him to be an insufferable jerk but he honestly just seems like an out-and-out idiot? Like, he’s not being really creepy with Larcei or anything, he just seems to be head over heels and an melodramatic baby when it comes to romance! And I think that’s valid!!!!!! Look, FE4 is a pretty serious game overall, so I really don’t mind having these more comic relief type characters? This is a world of multi-layered politics and long-lasting unpredictable socio-economic impacts, and it is also a world where people are dumbasses about love. Case in point: our errant hero. And in that respect, it is just like the real world <3 Of course it goes without saying that he has a thing for Larcei lmao; how could he not, now that he finally has the chance to spend time with her? (Side note, I found it Very Funny that his group of knights all went for Larcei immediately. I think they were just fucking sick of hearing about her.)

Fee: Okay, I Know this game came out in the 90s and so has all of that requisite Big 90s Anime Hair you could ask for, but something about Fee’s little pixie cut and big earrings just strikes me as especially retro. I can’t look at her without feeling like I oughtta be hearing about Beauty School Dropouts sometime soon! Maybe I should marry her to Lester just for the aesthetics…? Anyway, as a pegasus knight, Fee is very good!!! I actually momentarily forgot about all that utility, sending Oifey off on a desperate journey trying to just barely get him to a village in time before I remembered that Fee could just. Pop right over? (Sorry all those whose living quarters were pillaged unnecessarily as a result! <3) I realllly do need to get her a javelin, though; I never got one to Erinys and realised swiftly in Engage how much more useful things would’ve been if I had :’) Doesn’t like anyone yet because I was too busy running about in confusion this map to really work on pairings lmao but she got to be part of a couple of support orgies at least?

Arthur: Oh my god he’s a dumbass. I love it???? Based on his FEH version I was expecting some Cool Long-Haired Pretty Boy Seeking ~Revenge~ and like that’s all TRUE but he is also just a massive fucking himbo lmfao. Luvvved when he was like ‘oh yeah I do some magic in my spare time nbd’ and Seliph just Shoots back with this impossibly-earnest ‘If we gather as one with our many strengths we can reach untold heights! ☆’ May have been press-ganged into this army primarily because Seliph was just really cute and sincere and how could you say no to that face?! (Also incredibly hashtag relatable.) Also luv how his sprite is just Azelle’s but monotone (Emo Azelle). Hit Dannan wayyy less hard and so there was nothing stopping Paragon from going brrrrrr so he is now as of speaking *checks notes* level 16????? Holy christ. Given that I already love him and his purple sister I am now extremely happy that they were the ones granted Lex’s blesséd genes!

Harold: Didn’t that guy die, like, just last chapter?

The evil guy with a big nose named Schmidt: yeah I’m not even touching this one.

Lewyn: It was a hard-won battle; evening creeps over battered stone and seared wood, arrows scattered like lost toys among the streets. The Liberation Army’s procession is a welcome relief to the people who know its leader simply as ‘Seliph.’ But among the growing shadows, it is but one short, scrawny man who captures the young hero’s attention – he, and one particular distinctively-patterned headwrap. The festivities are almost forgotten in Seliph’s wonder, in his great excitement, rushing up to he on whose shoulders Seliph stands, his father’s advisor and confidant, a living relic of the days which dictated every moment of their current lives. The meeting made, one starry-eyed and adoring, the other drawn and dark, the revered Lewyn, rightful King of Silesse, says, “oh my god I am SOOOO glad to see you right now. God this fucking sucks like for real kids this sucks so MUCh and it never stops. I’m so drunk lolll but I haven’t eaten in a while, you got any food? Anyway I’ve had this kid hanging off me and it is for REALZ a huge drag so could you guys just take her? Away? From me? Great thanks I don’t even know who she is lol war orphans, amiright? Anyways I’ma head off now, peace out.”
It’s Lewyn!!!!!!! (maybe…? I have heard Spoilers but also do not Understand them!!) God but it’s always so nice to see this guy. I can’t wait to see how he looks and sounds in the remake! (And also in FEH because :’) I still don’t have him :’) More arena tickets and green circles, whoo...~) Anyway I know the washed up old soldier isn’t a new trope but god it kinda cracked me up how much Seliph was just like ‘uhmmmMM’ upon talking to him. Like he’s not rude enough to be like ‘wow wtf happened to you’ so he’s just. Like he’s thinking to himself the whole time ‘is this a joke? Am I being pranked? What is even the social script in this situation…?’ Also since I was a normie and married him to Erinys I gotta point out that a) apparently the king of Silesse people are searching far and wide for has been hiding out IN SILESSE b) this is not an oversight by the writers but ACTUALLY CANON. Not that I think it’s unrealistic he hasn’t been recognised; most wouldn’t expect to find a runaway king in some dingy tavern getting banged by five guys at once just so he can feel something. (That his wife and Sigurd alike would be horrified is merely part of the intentional self-punishment.) But geez louise, my dude. How long was he even an acting prince vs deadbeat hobo? But it looks like Phoenix Wright over here’ll be be a recurring feature and I for one cannot wait to see more! (And by more I very much also mean Forsetti <3)

And thus lie our fair freedom fighters!!! Viva le liberación~!

God I really am glad to get back to this game :D

So the first thing that struck me about this map (apart from reusing the music from the prologue, right?? Ahhh it’s so nostalgic!!) is how beautiful it looks! It just looks so green and verdant and natural, a perfect setting for our new hero to grow up in. :) Tirnanog in particular just looks so cosy? All tucked away among the cliffs there, it does give off this feeling of protection, but rather than being high in the rocky mountains and barren or something more mystical and otherworldly, it really does feel like an enclosed little forest. It is a little magical, but in a comfy and homey sort of way. Again, I’d love to see some updated graphics for it!

I also never knew until it came up on the subreddit that Tirnanog was actually from Irish folklore! (Though I probably should know a bit more about all that, given that my mum is Irish…;;) But its reputation as a place of everlasting youth and joy is absolutely perfect as the safehaven for these kids – and the place they must inevitably leave as they come of age and move back out into the real world. It’s really fascinating how many Irish terms this game uses! Honestly, based on Ayra and the Od family I’d always thought of Isaach as being more Asian inspired? Or at least more like Mongolia or Russia? But I guess Silesse is our token Snowy Country this time, though they’re probably more Scandinavian in inspiration. Or maybe they’re just Scotland. Look, it doesn’t need to be a one-to-one thing, here!

(Though, I’d never realised Tirnanog was so far north! Even if it doesn’t get the snowy ground tiles, I still like to imagine the kids all bundled up in furry hats and big coats, ice skating for fun during the Yule season~)

But of course the most important thing about this map – and one I very much did not properly appreciate until I had proven for the millionth time the old adage ‘good Fire Emblem players have it doubly easy because they never get themselves into stupid situations in the first place’ – is that it is all relevant, all the time. I actually wasn’t entirely sure which parts I was meant to be able to interact with, like in Silesse? So when the knights all ganged up on the Isaach castle I sorta wanted to go down there but then I needed to head west to Sophara and I hoped that when they beat the knight there they’d all despawn and then I hoped that when I seized Sophara THEN they would despawn and whoops I never actaully left any of my units up in Ganeishire so. :’)))))

It was legitimately stressful!! If any of them could reach the gate to seize it they would do so and just hit the self-destruct button I guess which apparently isn’t a failure state but I am NOT accepting that (I spent too many hours trying to save that goddamn castle in Silesse to give anything else up now) so I had to carefully position Oifey to try and block their paths while Larcei and Scathac rushed into the middle of it all because they were too slow to have been able to help with Sophara (and poor Seliph never got back near Ganeishire ‘til it was all over…) I am very lucky that the dumbasses just kept going after Oifey rather than someone they actually might’ve been able to hurt. Even once he started guarding Ganeishire and they had literally 0% chance to hit it still those javelins continued to lob ineffectually against the walls, all while Dermott got to catch up a lil’ picking off the last couple of them chunk by chunk.

But as always I really enjoy when the maps feel so interactive like this! It actually sorta brings me back to playing Civilisation and seeing the different civs moving their units against one another? Speaking of which, that poor single knight guarding Isaach… I’ve been there, guys, when you just make your one combat unit to defend the city but then 2,000 years passes and you forget to upgrade them to a musketeer or even a phalanx and so it all goes to shit the second the AI sends over its comically oversized army. u_u I’m not here to make war, I’m here to found so many cities that the game runs out of names to suggest to me and crashes!!! Welp, the guy did manage to dodge a whole bunch of them for a while, so at least it might’ve gotten a promotion before it died <3

Honestly it’s very interesting in general that Isaach has become so important to the story. Typically in these sorts of games (at least in my experience) the protagonist grows up either in a small, podunk little village, or in some kind of classical Good Kingdom; it feels striking that we are now fighting against the very kingdom Sigurd was previously representing. (And of course it’s telling that it is now called the Grannvale Empire. Arvis, if you didn’t want to be karmically punished you should’ve known better than to call yourself an Emperor!!) The first time we hear about Isaach it sort of almost feels in passing – just an off-screen war to explain why Verdane attacked and why Sigurd has to be the one to defend everyone. Now I can appreciate even more how weird it must’ve been when Grannvale and Isaach were suddenly at war.

It’s also interesting that things actually weren’t too bad for a long while. It really does suggest that Arvis is a pretty good ruler, and that under other circumstances could’ve been a great king, if not for the necessity of his getting the cult involved. I imagine all those events indicate that Julius has already been possessed (or whatever it is that happened with him); it certainly is a shame that the game’s timeline doesn’t really allow for seeing his ‘normal’ self without flashbacks, because Seliph wouldn’t have cause to really head out with this army until things get that bad.

(Also I may be stupid – or have just misunderstood – but I’m confused about the timeline. Lewyn said he picked up Julia after the Belhalla massacre, but… Seliph was like. Two years old, at that time. How long after the massacre is he talking about? ‘Cause like it’s no wonder she can’t remember anything about her life beforehand if that’s the case! But it sounds as though she lost her memories a lot more recently, lol.)

I also wonder what Seliph’s earlier years were like. I presume he’s always been picked as a competitor to the throne; historical monarchies were just like that, where if there’s someone with an arguable claim to it, you better believe there will be factions backing them if only to increase their own power. But I guess it was probably envisioned to be less of a… widespreadly violent thing? Like he’d just rise up once he was old enough to defend himself and actually act as a royal and then Arvis would respond and at worst they’d march on Belhalla directly or something. But now things are bad enough that Seliph has to go around the world stopping this shit ASAP? I wonder if he grew up leaning more about statecraft and politics and the like and this whole ‘umm actually you’re gonna have to be doing a LOT of war haha’ is more within just the last couple of years? Isn’t no wonder he’s feeling uncertain…

‘Cause like, I did read ahead a bit (look, whenever I finish a chapter I just can’t help reading the beginning of the next chapter! It’s right there!!) and Lewyn really does just sit down and be like, ‘I know you were told you were gonna raise a liberation army and save Isaach, but you’re actually gonna be saving the entire world now. No, don’t say anything self-deprecating, it’s just a fact and you’ve gotta accept it.’ And it does all feel like his responsibilities just increased very greatly very fast. And just like earlier, it feels like Seliph is thinking and feeling a lot of things, but that he is too polite and too kind to protest, and so now this is simply His Life Now.

It’s definitely a different vibe to Sigurd, which I love! Sigurd was an ordinary noble guy who was a little too enthusiastic about going to war; Seliph was brought up to Do Big Things and really just wants to be at peace. But even the fact that he grew up under these circumstances, with these sorts of expectations, makes him feel like a rather unique protagonist, to me. He already knows this is the world’s role for him, and he’s sort of resigned to it. He might not feel like he deserves it, but he doesn’t question it and certainly doesn’t deny it. It’s simply a fact of the world; attempted humility would just be a dodge of responsibilities.

He actually sorta reminds me a bit of another of my favourite RPG (albeit not S) characters of all time: Yuna, from Final Fantasy X. The world is counting on her. How she feels about it is, for her, beside the point. She’s supposed to bring them hope, and if somewhere along the way all that forced smiling makes her think she’s really happy, then that’s as much as she can ask for.

I also like how much of Seliph’s liberation army here really is rooted in the actual people of Isaach. He might be the heir to the throne of Granvale, but this is his home: these are the lands and people he knows. Like I said before, he’s not just a noble protecting his noble friends: he is the common people’s champion, his royal lineage serving as a sort of inarguable legitimacy to be doing what they want done.

And, okay. I wondered when this would come up in these recaps, but now seems like a good time to ramble a bit about a mostly-related subject (because why else would you still be reading these?): I know that there are a lot of people who Really dislike the whole ‘chosen one’ trope. And I...mostly understand where they’re coming from. There certainly are problems with us in the modern day taking far too much of a Great Men approach to history, and there are some inherent classist implications of romanticising the acts of these nobles versus the coming together of ordinary people in revolts and the like. I think that all makes sense, and in short I think FE4 avoids the worst of that by having such an Arthurian feel to it all that it really does feel like an olden-day fairy tale rather than something that could be expected to be a modern day anti-capitalist metaphor. Not all fantasy has to be realistic in the sense of a true depiction of life in olden time periods; this story is clearly more in the vein of ‘realistic 13th century tale set in 6th century Europe.’ Which is also history!

But also, like. I fuckin love this sort of Chosen One story hahahaha. I know it’s a power fantasy, but it’s one that feels like it works particularly well for me, precisely because I am a person who is actually sort of disabled. I just can’t imagine being a person who is naturally extra skilled through Hard Work or whatever; ADHD will always make ‘hard work’ feel paradoxically like something that simply isn’t within my realm of options. And I dislike reluctant heroes because I am so desperate to actually be able to Do Things and Help People that when someone has the option but instead complains about how it isn’t their job or they’re only doing it to save their immediate circle of friends or something… Frankly at this point I’m just tired of stories like that. I know everyone says that the Superman type ‘good guy just because it’s the right thing to do’ archetype is boring and shallow, but that’s what actually makes sense to me! And that’s what feels so refreshing and unique when it’s actually written with total sincerity and skill in modern days!

Because part of my having ADHD and The Autism is just that I have a weird relationship to Friendship. I’ve always had abnormally strong empathy towards people I don’t know; I am exactly the sort of person who read too much about utilitarianism and Peter Singer at a formative age and developed lifelong neuroses about how privileged I am on the world stage by growing up middle class in Australia. But I also sort of struggle to make friends with people around me, or to be in social situations very long in general, because they are very Overwhelming and it is hard to pay attention to everything and nobody ever wants to hear my thoughts about Renowned Classic Video Game Fire Emblem 4 Genealogy of the Holy War :’(((

And that’s why I like this form of the Chosen One, over the much more progressive and socially important ‘communities gathering together to bring about co-operative social change’ stories: I just can’t really relate to actually being part of something like that. Not really. Not with the same needs and interests and wishes as the community. I will always need more help than most people, and very much not want some things other people apparently need. (Please do not force me to live in a communal house. The sensory overload would destroy me.) And I can’t imagine ever being fully accepted into a network like that which feels so social and interpersonally-based. Would I be allowed to be part of the collective if I never really want to talk to anyone?

That’s why I like these sorts of Chosen Ones, from both sides. On one hand, it serves as my power fantasy of actually being able to use my Middle Class Australian privilege to make the world better for the people who need it most. On the other hand, it allows me the fantasy of deserving help and support even if I can’t give back anything at all. Not merely in terms of productivity, but in terms of being basically sociable or friendly or even maybe likeable. Seliph doesn’t care if the people of Isaach say ‘hi’ to him on the street. It doesn’t matter to him who they are or what they want to talk about or even if they’re a particularly good person. They are vulnerable, and so he wants to help.

To someone who can’t read ‘Wild Geese’ without crying… yeah. That means a lot.

In saying that, it is interesting that Lewyn specifically says that Seliph has so many allies because Sigurd made so many friends. But that gets down to the importance of diplomacy with these things. Like, it always bugs me when the Master Stategists in these sorts of settings are such assholes. Diplomacy is so much about getting people to like you! Sigurd did many things wrong, but earning goodwill and befriending other powerful people legitimately gave him options and power that are now being passed on to his son.

Speaking of which, there’s also something very ironic about the fact that his keeping of Shannan made it so much easier for his enemies to accuse him of conspiracy, and yet it is also Shannan who protected Seliph and taught him swordsmanship and provided him his home’s safe haven. Was it a good or a bad decision to take Shannan with him? It was both! I mean, the fact that Sigurd was so easily able to get on the good side of the Prince of Isaach is part of why it looked so suspicious!

And these things so often are catch-22s like that. It’s an arms race: one person gains some power for themselves, and that freaks out others into doing the same and turning against them. The line between a smart move and one which merely antagonises one’s enemies can be very thin indeed.

To finally bring this back to mechanics: while I said that I miss Sigurd’s horse – and it definitely does make a very big difference on a unit who needs to Seize thrones – I do really like that Seliph is such a proportionate power downgrade. I mean, on the face of it, Sigurd is OP lmao and it’s much more balanced to not have the lord be quite so powerful. But it means that when Seliph worries about following in Sigurd’s footsteps, and talks about not being strong enough… it’s not just talk. FE4 has always been great about that story/gameplay integration (and whoo I have a whole other ramble on that subject for the future!) and this is just the latest installment of that: Seliph really DOES need to learn and train a lot more to match Sigurd.

I’ve heard that the Done Thing for efficient playthroughs is to have Seliph kill absolutely every person on this map he can reach so as to promote him before Chapter 7; while that is absolutely Hilarious given everything he says about disliking violence, of course I did not attempt that myself because Semi-Blind Is Sacrosanct. But I did do my best to favour him, at least! And not just because he is very cute and I like seeing him do things :)

Sadly though I didn’t get to do too much work on supports in this map, due to running all over the place for much of it, leaving only the last 10 or so turns (before the cap of 50, anyway) to really start getting those Support Orgies into gear. Seliph and Lana are startlingly far along, though, which is kind of a worry because I actually don’t really want to pair them but we’ve only got two healers and I’d rather let Julia get some combat exp when she can…

Not that I’m sure how I will pair up Seliph; Larcei is the most obvious next choice, and is conveniently already available, but I dunno… that just feels a little TOO normal for me. :) Tine is also a nice alternative, since I already like her a lot, but to be perfectly honest, I am currently kinda sorta leaning towards Lene :) Is it because that’s the closest I can come to pairing Seliph with Ares?

(yes I’m a filthy Seliph/Ares shipper shut UP you are gonna hear sooo much once I finally meet him ahhhh)

Is it because I would like to see Lene tease him and make him flustered and maybe ‘force’ him into wearing a dancer’s outfit? (If IntSys has any love of fame or money they WILL learn from LoZ and do this if only in a support conversation @ Nintendo are you listening to me and open for hiring???) Is it because I honestly think they would work well since Seliph is the actual fairytale Prince Charming who could sweep this poverty-stricken dancer off her feet and respect her as a person while she is intuitive enough to notice when Seliph is burning out and needs to be taken care of? Yes to all of it. :)

It’s funny, because while it makes sense to me in theory that Lana is Seliph’s Canon Love Interest… I dunno, man: I just don’t get the vibe. It doesn’t feel Right. I feel like a character like her matches better with a more cold or gruff type love interest? The typical Caring Girl and Brooding Boy? She and Seliph almost feel too similar, which is a weird complaint for me to make because I love pairing characters who are too similar and therefore hilariously bad at the exact same things. I don’t know, it just feels too… safe.

On the other hand, you know who Seliph DOES have romantic chemistry with?

...yeah. Yeah. yeah. yeah. yeah, you can leave now if you don’t like where this is going. I’m not gonna blame you. I stuck this right at the end here and I with greatest self-awareness admit that this is not going to be every reader’s Cup Of Tea.

Seliph/Julia feels WAY more romantic than Seliph/Lana. I’m sorry but it just does!!!!!!!!!!! And not just because of the similarities between them and Sigurd/Deirdre (which, is such a funny thing to even think about because like of Course they react similar to Seliph’s parents because one of them was also Julia’s parent!!!!) It’s also things like, the fact that they’re both a similar level of world-changing Importance – they can both relate to the pressures of being a Chosen One. (Well, Julia can’t relate just YET, but she WILL.) It’s that she’s the first girl Seliph meets after leaving Tirnanog. It’s the way she immediately comes to Seliph’s attention due to sorta being in his care, and the way he sorta worries about her like a cute fluttery mother hen. It’s the way she immediately comes to depend on him, too, something only matched by Lana. (And yes the way it is a little bit like he and Lana lookling after her together is the closest it comes to feeling like Lana really is the canon love interest.) He’s the shining (but self-deprecating) hero and she’s the mysterious waif with incredible powers. It’s just Right. :) If also so very, very wrong oh my god like it’s really true that people overreact to cousin incest because it really does not make that big of a difference genetically speaking but not only are Seliph and Julia half-siblings their mother and her father were ALSO siblings meaning that they are ALSO COUSINS this is next-level incest please please please never have children :’)))))

...so moving on HAHA apart from that. No idea lmaooooo. Apart from the fact that I’m keeping Oifey (and soon, Shannan) WELL away from everyone else because I can excuse incest but I draw the line at age difference!! Becuase that actually does squick me. What can I say? The preferences and revulsions of human beings form all unique tapestries… :’D

SO on those notes I will leave that there!!!! Onward and upward, or rather southward by the looks of things! I am very much looking forward to meeting Shannan and Finn and Leif and Patty and whoever else we may encounter on this fabled road!! I am also squinting at maps wondering how on earth we’re going to make it to Agustria and if it means I have a whole other map to go after this before I meet Ares, if not MORE, but that is for the future and it is best now to appreciate the journey!

After all, I have FE4, and I have Seliph, and I need not anything greater. <3

Chapter Text

I LIVE!!!!!!!! *thunder rumbles, lightning crackles*

Guys: I cannot apologise enough for my absence here in this Let’s Play I so dearly, dearly love. Especially after I got such wonderful and supportive comments on my last chapter!! (Seriously: after posting so long with minimal indication that anyone else particularly cared, it made my year to know that there really were some people reading! <3<3<3)

All I can say is, uhh… real life happened…? :’) I went on two month-long trips (very unusual!!!!), and then got a JOB (I am no longer a NEET! :DDDDD), and thennnnn I got a major virus (did you know that mumblemumble-year-olds could get shingles?!?) and had to deal with the post-viral fatigue fall-out which did NOT jive well with me having a long-term and physically-involved job for the first time in a couple of years now…

Which is to say: I roundly defeated the AO3 author curse by just not fucking updating. Which, okay, that’s more me being defeated by it, I guess. Same end result.

But I promise that I never forgot about FE4!! In fact, on multiple occasions I have dreamed about the game – finding a super-rare behind-the-scenes guide in a random bookstore and eagerly diving in to find out all the hidden secrets, or just plain playing the game, sending my units all around a green map trying to work out how to deal with the boss in the mines… I’ve kept checking up the fanarts, and remake news (or lack thereof…), and have highly enjoyed making use of Legendary Seliph’s new refine. (Now just a matter of waiting until Brave Seliph can terrorise SD again~)(edit: oh god. Yeah, it took me that long to finish up this chapter, hahahah…;;)

I love this game. It just so happens that my way of loving things tends to be much more on the ‘fanworks and interpreting’ side than, like, actually playing/consuming them, haha. But I gotta play it fully to do everything else fully, and in the end, all it took to get me right back in was a weekend alone and unexpected blackout that mysteriously left everything non-functional except my laptop charging outlet and the heater. <3 (No, seriously, it was beautiful. A full weekend of nothing but me, my cat, FE4, and also Totono because I have ADHD and need two things at once to switch between~)

But that’s enough preamble. On with the status updates!!!!

Seliph: Dude has been preparing his entire LIFE to liberate his birth kingdom and its oppressed population only for Lewyn to pop in once he’s done celebrating like ‘Hey congrats on achieving your life’s goal! Btw the entire world has gone to shit and you’re literally the only person in the world who can save it. And don’t even try with that “B-but I’m not worthy” angle because literally ONLY YOU CAN DO IT and moping is only gonna make that harder so if you actually give a shit about anybody else just suck it all up like a good boy and go save the world already. Thanks, see you soon! <3’ And Seliph’s just like. … okay. :) And that’s BEFORE Lewyn goes on with the ‘actually tbh Isaach always had it easy. Not sure if you’ve checked your “no child hunts” privilege, Seliph. :/’ Welp, at least he got to meet a bunch of new girlfriends and boyfriends in this map? Dude is still VERY good, especially with the Brave Sword Patty unnecessarily gifted him earlier (wouldn’t… almost anyone else have been a more needy recipient??) - I keep getting surprised when he attacks in and just slices guys up, just like his big bro/guardian <3 Unfortunately due to the nature of this map I uhhhhhh kinda accidentally forgot to use him much. So he ended the map at level 16. which I only thought about at the very end. Sorry Seliph… I’ll do my best to get you your horse ASAP now… :’))) Is madly in love with Lana, which, okay. But that’s not going to happen. Sorry. This isn’t even about eugenics anymore there are just way better ships for you, bud. (Also, when Lewyn said that he’d have to make sacrifices in his liberation, Seliph agreed with that… like, really really fast. But then a little later he cheerfully agrees to let Ares try to murder him if he gave some wrong lore about their dads, so I think that makes it clear exactly who he was thinking of back there.)

Lewyn: See above. Also, is he EVER going to talk to his daughter…? She’s, like. Right there. Half of the victories you praise Seliph for wouldn’t have been possible without her!!! Also at first I thought he wasn’t joining the battlefield because he was off doing Mysterious Important Things in between castles but now he just shows up every time without explanation and I am starting to think that he is just lazy. I didn’t get you Forsetti for nothing Lewyn!!! If that is your real name, because I heard that stuff you said about the Crusaders returning, and I still have no clue what that means other than that Lewyn is like?? possessed??? or something????? by one. And like if you’re going to go to the effort of taking over a dude’s body you could at least use it?? I really could have used him against Ishtore and Blume… U_U

Julia: Day in the life of Julia: get out of bed. Eat breakfast. Nuke a bunch of guys to death. Walk somewhere else. Nuke a few more guys to death. Go to bed. Lie awake for eight hours consumed with horror at your place in the universe. Repeat et al. God I love this girl so fucking much. Every time I look at her sprite all I can think of is a comment I once read about SNK: ‘manga Christa always looks like she’s dying.’ Girl is holding on worse than me doing an 8-hour librarian shift on a couple of muesli bars, anemia, post-viral lethargy and ADHD-inflicted immunity to the benefits of caffeine. Despite her low movement she was fucking NECESSARY against Ishtore and Blume, especially since I didn’t have Ares(!!!!!!) to deal with the latter due to reasons detailed below (he’s not dead, don’t worry). The only girl who still doesn’t have a thing for anyone which is honestly so fucking based. Unironically can’t wish for better aro rep than a weird tired girl with forbidden powers who’s ambiguously close to her half-brother. OH YEAH: exactly one time she attacked a unit twice in a row and I was so shocked and confused I immediately brought up her skills and who fucking knew she had pursuit all along?? Guess it’s not such a must-have when you’ve got the reaction speed of a backwater stoner (sorry Deirdre). (Also: yeah, I noticed that she sits in the same throne position her mother used to take. Not mentioning for any particular reason… <3)

Oifey: Extremely relieved to have Shannan back; thankfully, there aren’t any mysterious veiled archways in sight yet, though to be fair I wouldn’t put it past the Loptyrians. Head is still spinning from the sheer stupid number of Bad Ends he was tasked with averting this map; maybe it’s a good thing he doesn’t appear on-screen anymore. He has enough to worry about just trying to remember whether Save State 6 was the most recent one or if 7 was the one right before he accidentally left Finn in range of one of the named mages. Is getting perilously close to level 20, which is a Concern, but what else is he supposed to do? Ask Dermott to tank a hit?!? Is starting to wonder if Aideen would kill him if he proposed to her daughter. Boy, you’re gonna have to get in fucking LINE.
“Oh – almost neglected to mention.” Prong in hand, Oifey nudges a log; disappointingly, it barely budges. It matters not; night has well and truly fallen and all good kids are off to bed. “It’s happening again.”
Shannan stares, and even in this low light the darks of his eyes are captivating. Or perhaps his long absence tugs still at Oifey’s fearful heart. “You mean…”
Oifey nods. When the silence lingers he adds, “Not yours, though. That Balmung is a mighty weapon indeed.”
Shannan grunts; agreement or irritation? Likely he knows as well as Oifey. Though Oifey has had many long years to consider his inexplicable power, he feels as lost now as he was then.
It’s different, this time. A different colour, an unfamiliar scent; his memory has faded over the years, diverting like a traveller without a map from its true position. It was a jolt to his system when he first foresaw his own, back in Isaach, and merely this closer viewpoint – as well as his strengthened strategic and military capabilities – grants the visions a closeness and immediacy they had lacked before, when he had felt so distant and powerless. That is, in many ways, an improvement; if nothing else, he is now an adult, and able to act upon these insights instantly.
But in another way, it is so much harder. These soldiers are children, in his eyes if not in body. He has raised many of them, and still more are the orphaned progeny of his late friends and comrades.
He feels responsible, even when it doesn’t happen.
“...in Naga’s name, a good sign,” Shannan finally responds, lips thin. But Oifey nods; he understands word and sentiment alike. “Keep yourself close.”
“Without question.”
And then there is one more thing. Something hard to put into words; not so much a change as a lack of change, brought into focus now that so many years have passed.
“I think it’s a person,” Oifey says aloud, and isn’t surprised when Shannan whips his head abruptly.
“What!”
Oifey hums, drumming his fingers on the prong. “An entity of some sort. A watcher. I sense a presence… unchanged since last time.”
Shannan frowns deeply. “You never mentioned that,” he says, and sounds so much like the pouting boy Oifey befriended so many years ago he can’t help but chuckle, for all he knows this will irritate his lover further.
“I did not know! ‘Tis only with the benefit of hindsight…” He strokes his moustache. “Well – I cannot say that I know the creature. Perhaps it is that the Crusaders have been summoned down from Heaven by Loptyr’s forces; or perhaps I have simply grown mad entirely!”
Shannan shakes his head. “None have died yet. This must be the hand of the divine.”
“The hand…” Oifey lets out a breath, gaze turning upwards to swirling stars. “Nay… I would rather say… an eye.”
He nods, and then again. “Yes. Eye. Eye saw this,” he says, and he knew it to be true.
(A very real conversation that would definitely have happened in canon no matter what and not because it felt weirder passing off all these dumbass mistakes and weird shipping onto an adult veteran than a young boy and I wanted to justify all the first person I’ve inevitably slipped into <3)

Shannan: God he’s so fucking COOL. You really can just plonk him in the middle of things and he turns into an action hero, throwing off ninjas like they’re nothing!!!! Seriously, when I first set eyes on what that holy weapon could do said eyes damn near bugged out; eat your goddamned heart out, relic weapons!!!! His only flaw (apart from mov but y’know) is his low res, which, okay, bad map for that to come up in, but it still never really became an actual issue until Blume. Get this: even with Balmung, he only had a slight advantage in hit rates (and both times I tried, the RNG went against me), and would take EXACTLY HIS CURRENT HP LEVEL BACK IN DAMAGE. But only because he had gained ONE HP AND NOBODY HAD HEALED HIM BACK UP THERE YET. In that particular instance he stepped back for Julia, Arthur, and Seliph to take over, but he’s, uh… getting pretty high up in level now, too! He probably should have stepped back and let Seliph take a few of those battles…? But how can Oifey put his precious kid in danger when his boyfriend looks so hot slaughtering dozens at once?? Has apparently been watching too much House of the Dragon lately because at some point he mayyy have accidentally fallen madly in love with Larcei. Which, in all honesty, I would prefer did not happen. But mov rates are what they are, so I could see that little ‘Married’ slot getting filled in any day now, whether I like it or not.

Lana: Girl has benefited sooo much from having a second healer around, even if Julia can also attack. And also Julia has way better res for some reason?? Continues to patiently travel and heal with all the patience and kindness of a saint, blissfully aware that almost the entire male contingent of the army has the hots for her. There’s gotta be something about her healing technique ‘cause this sure didn’t happen with her mum. But it’s probably a good thing because girl is getting low on funds, and fast. Really, when you think about it, the necessity of getting these (nearly all female) (sorry Claud) healers married just so they can afford the bare minimum really says something about gender in our society… Unfortunately for her she currently only has eyes for Seliph, which as previously explained, isn’t gonna happen. Unless I forget and they elope accidentally. You’d think the wedding of the liberator hero and rightful king would be a bigger deal, but maybe these battlefield marriages are more like commitment promises…?

Larcei: Has been too busy starry-eyedly watching Shannan act out cheesy kung fu movies to like… do too much??? At least she’s in the same sort of position as Seliph, then. Not that they’ve been together much, because she is also some single-digit number of turns away from just asking Shannan to marry him herself. Which, all things considered, seems like it would be a misstep by the Isaachian royal family, politically speaking? It’s not like she or Scathac are in any danger of making their own claim, so shouldn’t Shannan really be trying to mend ties with Grannvale or Leonster or something? Currently still can’t stop thinking about Dermott’s conversation with Nanna she overheard. But it’s not like all that has anything to do with her own mother. If Ayra had travelled into the desert in search of Balmung, she’d have found it. End of story. So she didn’t. Larcei tells herself this, over breakfast, at the campfire each evening, and all while the heir her mother had striven so hard to protect swings the legendary sword, gleaming majestically in the harsh desert sunlight.

Scathach: See above but like, even more so. I realised a map or two back that he’d accidentally fallen behind Larcei in level and that has not changed in the slightest. But I think dude is chill. He’s just happy to be here, helping out and hanging out with his sister. He has a thing for Lana, of course, but that’s just going along with the crowd, if you ask me. He’s known her for how long and never looked that way at her? When the others ask who he’d marry out of the girls, it’s just easier to say the same name as everyone else. Truth be told, Schathach is just happy as things are. Little does he know, when that name exited his mouth, another figure in the army wilted ever so slightly…

Lester: Where are all the fucking bows??????? I’m not even kidding, there is ONE bow for sale and it’s the exact same one he already has???????? Meanwhile Johan gets not just multiple levels of axes but also a brave axe AND a hand axe too????? okay MAYBE I was supposed to pass him down something through his dad but how was I supposed to know the Ullr genes would get sent to him alone (so far)????? It’d be okay if he at least had decent Res but he doesn’t; at least not enough to make up for his low level. In fact, not only is his Mag higher, at times it’s been higher than fucking Arthur’s, a fact which still causes me deep intestinal pain. Either way he’s done some chip damage but the lack of fliers so far has really not been to his strength; he is currently sending some cautiously hopeful glances down the Thracian peninsula. Or maybe he’s just gearing up for a cozy life as the Queen’s brother. Had surprisingly little to say to his long-lost cousin and biological half-sibling; I’m not even sure Patty realises they’re related, what with the hair and all. Claims he has a thing for Larcei, but I don’t think his heart is in it, either. Come to think of it, is he actually more interested in sticking by Scathach…?

Dermott: I’m gonna be honest. I wrote in my notes that it was cute the way Oifey talked with him early in the map just like Quan had done with Finn but I have 0 recollection of this conversation or what it may have entailed. Dermott’s role has, if anything, crystallised: he is here to sit still and look pretty. He and Lester are a bit of a tag-team in a sense: the Chip Brothers, always there, rarely doing anything remotely noteworthy. Admittedly, I can’t entirely decline responsibility here, but who was I to deny the epic love story of Lachesis and Arden? Currently sitting silently side-by-side with Nanna. It’s great that they’ve found one another, but the realisation that they both were really counting on their mother being with the other is sort of… depressing. Larcei may be trying to convince herself with her loud protestations, but she never had any real specific hope to lose. Right now, in an instant, all of Dermott and Nanna’s most desperate hopes were struck down. Lachesis is gone. There’s no more to say.

Johan: Johan the man; he might not have such fancy things as ‘pursuit’ or ‘a resistance stat’, but do you know what he does have? Big attack muscles, a horse, and a shitload of axes. I still haven’t really been able to make use of Vantage, and it typically doesn’t do much other than confuse me for a second when someone rushes up to him but then suddenly he’s running towards them instead? and then hitting them for a chunk before getting hit back twice. But his chunks (especially with the brave axe) are nothing to sneeze at, and that’s more than enough to let him walk with the swagger of a guy who really believes that the army’s Second Most Dateable still likes him back the most.

Fee: Is it seriously okay to have a unit who can do so much all by herself??? I know this is nothing new and her mum was the same back in gen 1 but god DAMN her versatility is just too insane. She can single-handedly take down brigands others would take 10 turns to reach, she’s got canto, she’s got rulership over the Arena, she’s got Res and a javelin (once I remembered to give it to her…), and she’s got a Brave Lance. Okay maybe I’ll pass that to Finn next chapter but still. In fact she’s been a little too ambitious and uhhhh pretty much filled up her inventory. Including with the Bargain Ring, which… I don’t even know where to begin with selling that. Currently massaging her poor pegasus’ haunches what with all the poor gal’s being weighed down with, and concurrently trying to figure out how to hack her way into the start/end map cutscenes so she can finally see her dad. Is there some connection between this narrative barrier and the fabled Yellow Walls of Silesse? Poor girl… she can go seemingly everywhere, except into her dad’s line of sight. u_u Or Scathach’s, as the girl has developed a slightly unfortunate but rather adorable case of ‘notice me sempai!’

Arthur: Was sooooo raring to go and take on the mages in this map until he kept half-dying and Oifey remembered that his res is absolute ass hahahaha. Welp, at least his statline matches what he’s got in Heroes…? (Tailtiu/Lex canon confirmed????) I tried so goddamn hard to get him the win against his uncle but the kid was struggling to even deal sub-five damage numbers, even with his fancy Prodigy skill that launched him to the coveted status of First Promotion Qualification. It’s sincerely impressive that a unit with a level this overblown can still be this mid; luckily, Arthur strikes me as the sort of dude to not really give a shit and just be happy boasting about that 20 regardless. Likes Lana, the lazy bastard.

Leif: Leafy boy!!! Was just SO very excited to finally be out here in Seliph’s game and join Seliph on the battlefield!!!!!!! And then he mostly just stood still for 20 turns. And then took the Ulsteran mages out for a goddamn game of tag around northern Manster for what felt like another 20 turns because I (Oifey? Finn???) had no idea what I was supposed to do with them lmfao. But he gets a cool critical animation of a sort I have NEVER seen Seliph get, so like, he’s done enough cool stuff already. Likes Nanna, because… what the hell else was he supposed to do for all that time? (RIP to any of the Thracia 776 girls… wait, does that game even have affection levels?) Then again, maybe all that time standing around was just a medically necessary ‘scale readjustment period’, like jet-lag; I can’t imagine how it’d feel to go from being just one dude in a castle to representative of an entire battalion crossing entire kingdoms just like that. Must be disorienting as fuck.

Finn: Awwwww, look at our cute little itty-bitty knightling, all grown up!!! *^-^* It’s really satisfying to see how hard he can hit now, even if it’s not really all that much different from when he left us last time, hahaha. (I can pretend he wouldn’t be this good if not for all Oifey’s hard work!!) He really hasn’t left himself a whole lot, though… I get wanting to share the wealth, but surely some of that weaponry would’ve been better off in your hands, defending the people you gave it up to?! Though in saying that, Oifey did sorta give up all his (and Quan’s!) equipment before they left for Manster, sooo… maybe that is also his fault? :’) (On the other hand, Leif’s done well with his mum’s swords and pursuit ring! <3) I haven’t even checked who he likes, because… I have a sneaking feeling I’d rather not know. Not like any of the other adults here have any room to point fingers… ...except Lewyn, shockingly. Have we reached the day that fucking Lewyn is the gold standard for positive parental relationships?!?!?

Nanna: She’s sweet! :) Actually, it’s funny, because she always seemed like a generic Nice Girly Girl love interest to Leif (despite them ALSO being step-siblings but like, Jugdral’s got bigger fish to fry lmaoo that’s basically like total strangers by this continent’s standards) and yet she retained her mum’s iconic ‘rich ojou judging you across the room of the party you showed up underdressed to’ glare, and frankly I dig it. So far the only female soldier to ride a (non-winged) horse, which as a former horse girl I can say is some absolute goddamn bullshit. Time will only tell if I manage to build her up like her mum and/or mother-in-law, but her dad’s genes just scream lazy back-army healslut, and in these days of capitalism who among us would refuse such a life?

Patty: Gods this girl is so fun, hahahaha. (important note: narratively only. I have used this gal exactly two [2] times in actual gameplay.) Fuckign loved her just absolutely trolling Shannan while simultaneously hitting on him, and then giving her big sob story to Seliph whilst goofy music plays and the boy himself is so obviously like ‘uh…. Sure, I guess…’ Very much a repeat of Sigurd’s talk with Silvia 16 years ago, except this time actually justified because this gal ain’t contributing shit, not even as a boytoy. I mean okay she does have the sleep sword which I should really remember to use sometimes but that is it. May or may not have actually stolen money from Seliph because his funds’re weirdly low for reasons I cannot remember and like, frankly speaking? If that was her work? Good for her! And then she ruined it by giving him a brave sword, which: I get that everyone seems like a chump compared to your totally-real bf (he just lives in a different kingdom, you don’t know him), but Seliph absolutely does not need any more swords!!!!!!

Lene: We got the dancer~~~~ 💃🕺💃🕺🎶🎶🎶 Also, Lene is pretty cute, too n.n Her relationship to Ares is just as sweet as everyone makes it out to be – I love how genuinely protective he is of her, in contrast to… uh, everyone with Silvia, lol? Though I suppose the world has gotten a lot more dangerous since then, too. I appreciated her reasonableness with the ‘Dude your dad was a knight. Knights fight each other. Calm down lol’, but then she immediately ruined it with her whole ‘:P I don’t have to listen to you!! / Oh no, I’m being captured!’ routine. (Seriously… why do writers do this? What would Lene have realistically expected to happen there?! It doesn’t make a girl a ~bad character~ to just… not deliberately piss off somebody who could put her in danger. And it’s all the weirder given that she earlier complains about having to dance for skeevy men, so she knows how this all works. ANYWAY, RANT OVER.) but DESPITE THAT she is a very fun addition to the team (oh god between her and Patty Seliph is sure having a time of it lmao) and like: cav mov Dancer. What more needs to be said? <3

Ares: BABYYYYYYYYYYYY oh gods you don’t want to even KNOW the noise I made when this guy showed up hahahaha :’D And oh dear, he’s just PERFECT. The overblown language even by the standards of the game? The edgy standoffish act contrasted with his immediately obvious care for Lene? The fruitless pursuit of an image of a father he never knew, leading him too easily swept into the machinations of a father figure who never cared for his well-being one whit? The way when he finally finds himself face to face with the son of his father’s murderer, the living and breathing purpose of his continued existence in this hellhole of a world, all Seliph needs to do is say “No they weren’t? They were friends! :)” and he instantaneously falls to his knees, all Big No and “It can’t beeeeeee!” God he’s so fucking *stupid* /affectionate <333 I really, dearly hope, with all my heart, almost as much if not more than I hope that they let gen 2 be queer, that the remake doesn’t try to make Ares into some Super Smart Cool Guy who is a Jerk but it’s Okay because he’s Right. NO he’s a giant fucking dork who tries too hard and has approximately 1 zillion daddy issue coping mechanisms ranging from ‘fuck yeah big damage <3’ to ‘maybe this was a useful personality trait one time 10 years ago but uhhhh. Not Now, Bud.’ He is Seliph’s Big Swordie Goth Boyfriend and I for one think that is perfect. <33333 Anyway uhhhhhhhhh he was useful mid-map but I never got to bring him against Blume because he reached the cliffs leading into Manster right as Tine’s crew got there and therefore got commandeered into aggro kiting which MAY NOT be the most flashy of roles so he probably hated it but. Them’s the breaks for needing to head back into the castle for your gf and also not having a Leg Ring!!!!!!

Tine: Baby girl!!!!! I couldn’t even tell you what it is about her design I love so much haha; I think I may just be a sucker for (light) purple hair? Anyway, this gal showed up just Begging for someone to come by and issue a Talk command, except… nobody had one. And neither did she. So I killed her… superiors? Underlings? Companions?? but for SOME REASON she still didn’t seem amenable to talking, and in fact even attacked poor Finn!!! (goddamn lack of visible enemy range…) Eventually I ran out of ideas and simply hoped she’d get teleported into the cutscene when I killed her uncle (Fee furiously taking notes) but even that didn’t do it. And so I plodded on, waiting earnestly for when Tine would finally become recruitable later in the game, only to spy who exactly just casually hanging out in Ulster Castle at the start of Chapter 8?!? What, did she just sneak in through a window and hide in a hall closet or something?! (I guess she’d know the place well enough.) But I shan’t look a gift horse in the mouth; as if Seliph would ever turn down such a pretty purple-haired orphan waif~

Ishtore: So, I have multiple questions. Firstly, why the heck does his hair look like that?! What kind of rad 90s’ surfer dude band guy is he even supposed to be?! Dude holds himself out like a serious and sensible Camus archetype and then spikes his locks up like he’s some sorta RBY-era Electric-type gym lead- ohhhhhh. Secondly: …...what’s up with him dating a girl who looks exactly like his sister?

Blume: Not to imply that characters with feminine associations can never be intimidating or taken seriously or the like but. Why on earth did the localisers think it was a good idea to call him Bloom? :’)

(Quick edit: HROAFAJEIO I lost my notes from the last third of the map……………. Sooo a glimpse behind the scenes as it were: typically as I’m playing through a map I just keep my FE4 Playthrough document (it is getting Very Big) open alongside it and just note down anytime I have literally a single thought whatsoever. And for whatever goddamn probably-my-own-fault reason, I only realised while halfway through the character status updates that my notes cut off right around the time I beat Ishtore. That’s far from the end of the world – I’m only missing the most recent stuff, and I could always just open up and replay if I want to watch the cutscenes again or check everyone’s romantic persuasions – but just think of the ONE or even TWO unfunny off-hand jokes that might have been lost permanently as a result?????? Clearly a penalty from the divine heavens for my sin of procrastination……..)

ANYWAY: HERE WE GO

We have left Isaach!! If the previous chapter was dedicated to setting up the second generation (and particularly Seliph), this one broadens things out a lot: we get an insight into a bunch more of the… kingdoms? Empires? Principalities??? I am opposed to using a modern term like ‘country’, but you know what I mean. Rather than focusing in on one place it feels like we got a taste of a few at once, to better see how Arvis’ influence is spreading all over, and not just Seliph and co’s hometown.

Which means: exposition!!! We got a fair bit of it, here: firstly about the Crusaders (though I don’t think anything sounded super new? Especially since I’ve already been spoiled by a few things about them, haha…), and then also about the Loptyrians. I was kinda surprised at first that two such extremely important locations were right next to each other, but… well: that desert is a pretty fortified place, isn’t it? It makes sense both that it’d host the Last Bastion of Humanity as well as being pretty much the furthest place from anywhere if you’re going to be exiling somebody.

It was really fascinating, hearing that about the Loptyrians. It made me realise that I’m not entirely sure of what we’re talking about with them: people who willingly chose to worship an evil world-ending dragon, a bloodline of ‘cursed’ people who were ‘born evil’, or a cultural/religious group passed down through families? The latter seems closest; there is some sort of genetic component, but it seems like it merely has some connection to the magic (which AFAIK we learn from some guy in Thracia doesn’t necessarily have to be evil?) and, y’know, the whole Anti-Christ possession thing. And, well, if people are going to be hating you and your parents from the day you’re born anyway… the whole ‘choice’ aspect starts to get a bit complicated.

And I love that Seliph himself also has some of that blood. It’d be too easy to unintentionally condone the idea that anyone with the Bad Blood is automatically a baddie. Julia has it as well, of course, but she at least feels like a ‘self-hating redeemed evil person’ sort of character, even with amnesia; she had to lose everything to break away from her evil family!! But Seliph is, like, as Lawful Good Paladin Paragon as you could get!! I do wonder what sort of feelings he would have about it all, though. I hope the remake will be able to delve into it in more detail, that complicated feeling of leading people who are calling for the heads of all Loptyrians and so forth…

At the same time, I think it’s really cute that as soon as Lewyn tells Seliph about it all, he immediately expresses his sympathy. :’) He’s such a sensitive boy!!!!! (Also, following in his father’s footsteps of instantly agreeing with whatever Lewyn is saying at a time, hahaha…) In a way, this feels a little unique to him: such complete pairing of kindness and empathy but also, like, ‘all right guys it’s time to invade now! :)’ My boy is sooooo good at compartmentalisation <333

Though I said above that I know something about the Crusaders, there’s still a lot that’s fuzzy to me. Like, they’re apparently dragons somehow…? And OKAY I just rewatched the opening movie because I’d been thinking of them as heroes who gathered together and maybe were blessed by the gods but NOPE the Crusaders are gods themselves!!! Okay that makes sense hahaha. That’s pretty fascinating, though: a whole pantheon, Greek-style! And I guess that means Naga is the Zeus figure, the leader of the gods, and that’s why the one with Naga blood is the biggest king? ANYWAY, I’m definitely curious to know more.

Aside from the exposition, I also noted that we’ve gathered a trend of municipal lords having been appointed by Arvis or in some other way connected to him, where before they were all just the normal ruler of the places. That helps to bake in Arvis’ status as the Guy To Beat, keeping him relevant to the story, while also firmly separating Seliph from some of Sigurd’s more questionable acts in the previous generation, haha. I won’t lie that it’s a lil’ sad to be leaving behind that particular source of moral depth, but this brings the game more in line with most Fire Emblems, and it’s natural for the latter part of a game to start raising the stakes; hard to do that when the enemies maybe aren’t actually such bad guys :’D Besides, this way we can see how much the world has changed since we last saw it! Not that we ever got around to this part of the world, but I’ve heard we do get to come back to Verdane at least!

Not to mention the question of Sigurd’s influence. I wrote in earlier chapters about my disdain for shallow ‘fight for your friends!’ type morals when the friends in question are all wealthy nobles entirely distanced from the struggles of the poor. But this map brings up a particular counterpoint: when you’re a noble, making friends is diplomacy. Yes, Sigurd fucked up a whole lot and made several mistakes, but he’s also the reason why Seliph has so many potential companions. I think that’s a good point, actually!! And it also underscores one of the reasons why these sorts of high-political stories resonate with even the lefto commies of us: our own personal feelings of love and friendship and hate can be so intense, and seem so much more important than they really are in the grand scheme of things. So why not read stories on a level where such things really do impact the fate of worlds? In Sigurd’s world, his falling in love with Deirdre isn’t just a matter of two random people driven a bit crazy and stupid by feelings, but would go on to decide the fate of the entire continent!!

But to go back to my previous observation for a sec: while the appointment of these provincial governors of course makes sense in this medieval fantasy world, I also can’t help but see the comparisons to Japanese history, as well. What is Arvis, after all, but a member of the nobility who utilised the resources of his land and followers to seize military control over the so-called God-appointed hereditary ruler? Arvis is a shogun through-and-through, and it’s no wonder why these stories of cascading authorities of power and loyalty and military might should resonate with Japanese audiences. Hell, Arvis is also a very mixed bag of a ruler, making some very good changes as well as many bad ones; didn’t the exposition last map tell us that Jugdral was going honestly pretty okay until the last few years, presumably when the Loptyrians reaaaally started getting to work on their ultimate long-term goal? What I’m saying is that the dude is a bonafide Takauji, which of course makes Seliph Tokiyuki and no I don’t have a particular thing for samurai boys with ponytails, what could possibly make you think that? :)))

but OKAY that’s enough story stuff!!! In terms of playing, this was a really unique map!! It’s an unusual shape, and your focus is all over the place, and you’re even playing with two totally separate armies (...okay, maybe describing Leif, Nanna, and Finn as an army is a little generous :’D) right from the very beginning until they come together at the end!! It’s always fun to see the different ways this game utilises its unusual map structure, and how it can tell stories through what we can see on the map even when it’s not immediately relevant, though there were definitely points when I was really craving an Auto-Move option :’D Pairing all this travelling around with the movement-slowing deserts didn’t entirely help them there, haha…(Also I almost forgot to mention but: was this a really long map or am I crazy?? It felt like so much happened!)

And as super fun as it was to re-encounter Finn (!!!!!!! my boyyyyyyyyyy is all grown up ;_______; and after I gifted him so much as a kid now he’s left himself with so little… Finnnnnn please take care of yourself some more ;___;) and meet Leif and Nanna for the first time (I’m excited about these two don’t worry hahaha), I’ve got to admit that my primary emotion regarding the three of them was Confusion. Namely: what on earth am I meant to be doing with them :’DDDD I wasn’t really sure how I was ‘meant to’ face the first battalion, but things really got weird when Blume sent out his mages, which, the guy did explicitly tell them to kill the insurrectionists which I should’ve understood to mean they’d come after me but I got worried that they’d try to take the castle, and then I got really alarmed about how to even fight them with these kids, especially since I really didn’t want Tine to die and wasn’t sure what I was Supposed To Do to recruit her so I just ended up taking them on a very confusing meandering circle around Manster and it was all a bit of a kerfuffle :’))))

It also didn’t help that while I was especially struggling with the mages I was making my way down towards Ishtore and kept fucking up against Bramsel’s cavs, so there was a Very Stressful Period during which I’d finally figure out my best move against on one side but then fuck up on the other but then when I reloaded my save I’d forget exactly what I’d done with the one that worked and it was just;; some of the highest amounts of trial and error I’ve done in a long while :’D (That this was also the longest break I’ve taken from playing is… irrelevant, right…? n.n;) When I figured it out it was very satisfying but I was getting a bit too frustrated in my lack of working memory for a while, hahah;;;; (Also, it was a bit Funni seeing some comment about Blume being ‘held up’ fighting the Manster insurgents when Leif and co. are just like. Standing there. Behind an impenetrable barrier. For 20 turns. :’D)

In saying that, the bosses this map were actually pretty fun??? For the first two I honestly had some moments where I truly had no idea if they were even possible to defeat with my current army, but by trying things out (sorry for all the nightmares Oifey) (though again somehow it was those goddamn cavs who actually committed the most psychic damage that way :’) ) I was able to figure things out!!! :DDD It was definitely a different experience having to think so much about Res; it really laid out bare just how few of them really have any decent amount of it (Arthur…………), and even when I got lazy and just started defaulting to Julia I’d have to deal with her painfully slow reaction time meaning that she’d sometimes actually take more damage than someone who wouldn’t get doubled.

No doubt this is all how I ended up using… uhh, quite so MUCH of Oifey and Shannan. :’DDDD (Man, at the very least I could’ve trusted in Seliph’s dodging a little more… But Balmung Avo numbers big!!!!!!! 😔) It was just too useful, taking the old man down to destroy a ballista, survive a hit, and then return to healing and safety!! (Side note since I don’t know where else I’ll be able to mention it: I hurt just one of the white mages around that area of the map… and then instantly felt really bad when the other one came over to heal her. :’) They stayed close from then on… This, too is yuri <333)

But also, Fee’s mobility was absolutely integral against the first boss!! And also to kill those damn bandits I honestly didn’t even think about until they started wrecking stuff :/ And it’s a damn good thing I left her that Shield Ring because uhhhhhh those axes were doing. Big numbers. :’)) But she survived!! With only just a teeny bit of jank :P

In short, I survived the magus onslaught!! Somehow. :’D But really, we have something much more important to talk about right here, now, don’t we? A topic that I have been waiting to fully talk about for some time.

Seliph’s boyfriends and girlfriends!!!! :DDD (And, really, isn’t it so funny that Sigurd is partially defined by his once-in-a-lifetime world-changing love-at-first-sight marriage, while Seliph has like… a dozen plausible and compelling romantic options?!)

Because arghhhhhhhhh Areseliphhhhhhhhh ;_____; Seriously, can you believe that Kaga cooked up these two red and blue, sunshine and grump, seme and uke coded ~hated nemeses~ who first come to blows only to realise that Maybe their shared ancestry is so much more loving than they knew? The prince and the mercenary, equally skilled at the sword, one hot-headed and cynical and the other thoughtful and charismatic and the living embodiment of this generation’s hope?? And and Seliph is someone Ares can respect, in terms of martial skills if nothing else, but he’s so kind in a way Ares hasn’t known, and respects him in a way Ares has craved so badly, an in turn Ares is the one person who will not hesitate to challenge Seliph and introduce him to this ordinary world that has always been denied him, and they complement each other so Perfectly and ahhhhhhh I want to read approximately five billion fanfics about them :’) <333333 (And… okay, yeah, maybe I have read one or two already :’D)

...the point: can you believe that Kaga cooked up those two and it WASN’T blatant intentional yaoibait??????? (Like, I can believe the writers knew what they were doing with Raven and Lucius. Here, though?!)

Especially since, from what I’ve gathered, they actually don’t… get to speak much after this!!!! Which is, to be entirely frank: absolutely buck wild!!!! So much of this generation is about how seemingly minor or inevitable actions of the past go on to affect the future, and we’re just not going to explore the guy who grew up with a seething enmity of our previous protagonist, who lives his life in the hopes of killing his son, only to end up joining up with his army instead??? Even setting aside the budding slow-burn romance just begging to be told here, can Oifey and Shannan and Finn pleaaaase set this kid down and tell him stories about his dad :’))))

Oh side from Ares – oh god, LENE. From the very beginning I always liked the idea of Seliph/Lene, even though I never saw anyone else mentioning it, because… flirty playful dancer girl plus very earnest and proper pretty boy? :P (Yeah… even if I acknowledge it’s creepy, there is certainly a part of me that enjoys that Artur/Tethys support conversation :’D) But oh dearrrrr, their little Talk delivered even more than I expected :’DDDD Girl is soooo ready to forcefem him into being a pretty femboy dancer Byefrog-style and I will be first in line when it happens <333 (side note: maybe… reconsider googling that user name if you are currently at work. <3)

It’s not the sort of thing I’d ship on its own, but I liked how sweet Ares and Lene were with one another, too! I expected him to be more irritable and mean with her (and I hate ‘they’re mean but actually love each other!!’ tropes) but instead he’s so open about how much he cares about her!! :’) Whiiiiich means… I am now 100% all in on that Ares/Seliph/Lene life :’D They would work so well together!! Lene helping Ares open up to Seliph, and both of them helping Seliph get out of his head in different ways, and Lene can tease Ares while Seliph can be sincere and then Lene can make Seliph all pretty and Ares can fully Appreciate That and I just think they are all so very wonderful <333

And there’s more!!! The Seliph/Patty interactions are incredibly funny; he really just does not know how to handle someone as chaotic as her lmao, and I could see her really forcing him out of his Police and Good-Natures comfort zone if you’re into that hahaha. And Tine is very sweet, and once again Seliph can show a kindness and belief in her while helping her search for revenge and aughhh. And ALSO also someone’s been drawing Seliph/Ishtar fanart on reddit now and then and even if I haven’t even met her yet that’s very good :’DDD And then there’s Larcei for the Feminine Boy/Masculine Girl type childhood friends dynamic, or the unbelievably romantic (if ~forbidden~) energy that is Seliph/Julia, or heck: why not a wholesome sempai/kouhai flavour with Leif?! (Is it bad that when I first encountered that ship, my reaction was an immediate ‘wait, aren’t they cousins?!’ as though I don’t already ship the hell out of Seliph/Julia………) And that’s STILL not getting into the substitutes…!

Really, it’s starting to feel like the only Seliph ship I can’t really feel the vibe for is: the supposedly ‘canon’ one…? (Or, if nothing else, creator-intended.) And, you know, after mulling it over a bit, I think I can finally articulate why Seliph/Lana doesn’t really feel especially shippy to me – at least not in its O.G. form. See, the thing is: Seliph’s attachment to Lana – gravitating towards her over and above all of his more stereotypically Butch pseudo-siblings – feels less romantically-inclined to me than it does just sort of… eggy.

And: okay!! I know that the matter of Seliph’s gender and transness has a lot of dimensions and from what I’ve seen, at least when it comes to fanfiction, transmasc Seliph seems to be more popular. Which usually would be my preference, too! (Don’t even get me started on transmasc Ares!!! The way he uses his dad as an emblem of masculinity, so fervently dedicated to Prove Himself as a man, combined with the complicated feelings of straying from one of the only things his father knew about him…!!) And I get it: unlike every other second gen character, Seliph’s face is based on his opposite-sex parent. That he looks like Deirdre is practically a plot point – people have to believe he really is the rightful heir to the throne, after all! But also… the dumb worldbuilding part of my brain can’t help but wonder whether the world would’ve gathered around Seliph as a Unifier in quite the same way if they thought he was a girl, haha. (And also there is the funny aspect that Seliph is one of the very few characters for whom we do in fact know exactly how he was assigned at birth.)

None of which is to say that I dislike transmasc!Seliph headcanons; trans headcanons are awesome in general, and I dig any extra transmasc rep in particular!! But, man… transfem Seliph just feels so Right to me :’DDD Boy is just trying so HARD to follow in Sigurd’s footsteps, but he’s just not him (and OKAY that also works for transmasc Seliph WHATEVER), and he feels the need to hide those more sensitive and ‘cowardly’ aspects of him, but craves a release from all those expectations, and and and Lene forcefemming him into a dancer (okay that’s not canon YET) AND, last of all: Lana. Soft, cute, and sweet Lana, who may or may not be what Seliph always kind of would have preferred to be like, a little pocket of nonviolent femininity that Seliph feels at such pains to protect from the outside world!!

Which is to say: yeah, I can see Seliph/Lana, absolutely! But if, and only if, Seliph is also a girl. Then, it makes perfect sense. :)

And I think that about wraps it up!! Again, I can’t apologise enough for how long this chapter took: literally in JANUARY I was talking all high and mightily on tumblr about how I’d probably have it up soon because I had no other current fandomy commitments… hah, hahahah… :’))

But this really has just been… a Lot of a year. Not always for bad reasons, but… yeah, sometimes for bad reasons, haha; especially recently, which is why this chapter still took over a month to write even after I finally finished the map. :’) Lots of real life stuff going on, and also uhhh turns out that y’all online complaining about how bad it is to be tired all the time weren’t fucking joking. This fatigue is kinda kicking my ass and making creative activities a hell of a lot harder than they used to be.

But I am, at my core, a writer: not being able to be creative has been a hell of a lot more frustrating than any attempts to do so. I’m still figuring things out and finding better options (like new ADHD meds!!) and just simply to continue chugging away living in this world. I love FE4, and I’m really keen to start the next map (side effect of writing less is that I have been consuming way more!! When I regain the ability to write fanfiction at normal rates it is SO over for y’all <33), and this has altogether been my longest-running singular Thing I have ever kept up for the public, so if my motivation has kept up this long I don’t think it’s dying off quite so easily. I still have so much to explore about the lives and worlds of these kids, and so much to learn about this story and game, and now that I am finally done with this chapter that took so ungodly too-long, I am very excited to dive back into it all :’DDD

Love, peace, and Brave Seliph’s very fun new refine <333 (seriously, now that he’s got his own innate healing it’s probably finally time to replace Surge Sparrow, but with what? I’ve seen some fun DC builds out there…)