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https://theroonco.wordpress.com/2019/08/25/my-thoughts-on-and-partial-analysis-of-fire-emblem-three-houses-spoilers/ I hope you like this! I imagine I'll be tweaking this for a while, but I had so much to say I just had to get it out there. Thank you so much for your time!! Edit: I updated my post! And added quite a bit if I say so myself, I hope you like it!!

Something I've been thinking about a lot these past couple of years. Is there a way to truly define an objectively good story? Now obviously when it comes to narrative critique and analysis there is a huge subjective component as what one values in a story varies from person to person. Though with some stories we can indeed see some kind of general consensus that a story is "bad" or "good". Why is that I wonder? Is there really a way to truly objectively judge the quality of a piece of fiction? Like what makes a plot good? what makes a character good? is there really a way to tell? I'm just really curious. Personally I like to focus on the themes and ideas behind the story to gauge it's quality because those are the things of which everything else a story is built on when you think about it. I mean what makes a character relatable are the things about them that allow us to understand them. Likewise stories I find to be very similar in that a story is only able to invoke emotions within us is because it conveys values that we can understand. This is a topic I've been chewing on for some time now and I've yet to truly find a definitive answer. So what do you all think?

Some time ago I completed my first play through of this game and I sat on my overall thoughts for a while until now, in which I would like to share them. If you could, share your opinion on FE12 as well as I would like to hear what others feel about it. Since my favorite game is FE11, I was really excited to play this game and see where the story goes, and while I was spoiled mildly I went in mostly blind. Because of my ego and having played Shadow Dragon on H5 a lot I chose lunatic on this game for my first run which turned out to be a BIG MISTAKE because the game is absurdly hard, probably on par with conquest until I figured out how terrible the AI is and how easy they are to abuse, and even then it was still very painful. Gameplay Story I can't say I like this game better than Shadow Dragon, it probably would of been closer if Kris wasn't a thing but alas, here we are. Really solid game that I would say is in my top 5 for FE games. Please share your thoughts on FE12, I would love to hear them.

Its now official, gaming is faced with a game breaking law that will change the industry. After so many years of milking and exploiting the system, it appears enough is enough and action had to be taken against them. Recently, a U.S. senator has proposed a new bill that will ban monetary mechanics in games that are under 18. The argument is that the monetary practices are harmful to minors under 18 and constitute as gambling and are causing addiction. Loot boxes, pay to win mechanics, premium currency, even rare limited virtual items are the factors which are considered manipulative to children. Many games such as mobile games and Multiplayers have these kinds of systems. Its quite recent that big game companies have pushed to monetise their games aggressively. If this bill were to pass, the entire gaming industry would be impacted by this. Developers would be forced to remove their monetary mechanics in their games, we would see the entire mobile games store get wiped off for having a ton of monetising games (Rip FE heroes.) Games around the world wouldn't even distribute such mechanics. Possibly more parental controls would be made to verify if the user is legal age to buy stuff and quite possibly the age limit could be amended for some games. I think its good that this bill should pass. I do think that kids shouldn't be exposed to these kinds of systems that would encourage them to spend and beg for virtual items. Its concerning for me as i feel kids nowadays want to feel more special by spending and really is worrying for parents and the child's behaviour. Having this blocked off would make gaming for minors a lot more safer. Games wouldn't be bloated with forced paywalls or DLC, it would make these games alot cleaner. I've had enough with games shoehorning a paywall in their game to suck up more money than the game already needs. Anyways, i think that;s all i got for now. I could talk about this more but i would let people have the chance to speak about here. I would like to hear your side of the story. What do you think about this new bill? How will it really affect the gaming community? Is it really for the better or worse?

Often times I see stories criticized for not giving enough information or specific details to the player in many different aspects and, to an extent, I would agree that there is merit to some of those arguments and even to the game I'm about to talk about you could convince me that there are times when we don't get enough information but, sometimes I don't think people know what they want when they throw out accusations toward narratives for not explaining every little thing and in all my runs of Shadow Dragon I have discovered that there is a lot more to the story than people think, which is a game often accused of being the most basic, bland, and lifeless game in the series. I can understand peoples frustration with the games for it's time especially when it came after Radiant Dawn which was pretty deep and really dialogue heavy compared to Shadow Dragon in which the latter has few lines between each battle explaining why you are there and then exploring Nyna and Marth's feelings about the situation each level to add context and drama to which it jumps you right into the battle with little to dwell on in between. This is seen as an omen for some and a refresher for others and I have seen people torn between this for many years, especially because Marth and non playable characters are the only ones who get lines at all minus Minerva and Caeda who get there lines cut if they die. And while the game only tells you a little there are a lot of advantages that the simple/open ended story have that I want to list as well as ask a question to whether a game like this is something you would like to see in the future. There are many examples but the topic is really long already so in short, the game has a narrative that allows you to explore and imply things you wish and the gameplay complements the narrative and stays true to it and only builds up Marth as a leader instead of the ultimate warrior who saves the world with is skills, allowing anyone to be the heroes of the story and for the game to be a simple and customizable narrative that heavily differs playthrough to playthrough to which I'm arguing does better than any game in the series. So to rephrase the question, is a story like this so bad? and would you be fine with a future installment going back to formula like this? I seriously doubt IS would ever do that given the narrative direction they are going with FE nowadays but if they did would you mind? tl;dr: Sometimes less is more, do you agree?

I'm not very sure myself on who it might be. I want it to be the church but my gut tells me it will be opposing countries. I want to hear what you think about this considering it has been one of the most confusing thing about these trailers imo.

So I just got done reading the freshly translated Kaga interview on genealogy of the holy war and one line in particular sort of stuck out to me. I find this interesting because it brings up the question. Should a creator bend to fan criticism/feedback or just create the thing they want to create without conforming to fans desires at all. I mean there have been many stories of a series giving in to fan desire and it ending horribly. Anyone familiar with Shadow The Hedgehog may know what I'm talking about because that game was in response to fans asking if Sonic could hold a gun in one of his games. However at the same time Fans can have legitimately helpful feedback and criticism that can really help a series grow and improve to reach its full potential. Breath of The Wild is a fantastic example of that being the case. So what are you guys' thoughts on the matter. I recall also reading up on an interview with Kishimoto in which he stated he wanted to give Sakura more character development but thought it was pointless because of the huge amount of dislike for her character among the fans.

So... a unknown menu text was found in the last datamine: "MID_SUMMON_PULL_ONLY_ONCE_Summon_762_legend13_OnlyPickup: The session ends when you summon a Hero." For me, and for a lot of people on internet, this sounds like a "Free Summon Banner", just like the CYL banners. And we have the "legend13" on it, which could mean 13 Legendary Heroes. I believe, for the 2 years anniversary, we will get a Free Legendary Hero of our choice, between 13 possible Legendary Heroes. I am also thinking that, since we have 14 Legendary Heroes, Fjorm will be out of this event. She is already a free hero, after all. Legendary Ike is also a free hero, but he is a different case. He won the A Hero Rises event, and that's why he is a free hero. Anyway, this is only a speculation, but... If we get a Free Legendary Hero of our choice, what Legendary Hero would you pick and why? For me, I would pick Legendary Azura. From all Legendary Heroes that I don't have (Ryoma, Eirika, Hríd and Azura), she will be the most useful hero for me.

During a recent replay of Conquest I noticed a familiar line from King Garon in chapter 14 after corrin had quelled to rebellion in Cheve... Garon: When I heard that your group destroyed Cheve, I couldn't have been prouder. Rebellions are like seeds. One must salt the earth before they sprout. There is a moment with similar context in the end of part 2 of Radiant Dawn with this exchange of lines Both of these actions are morally grey, and both involve eradicating a group of people to establish order and control over each said kingdom, the main difference between these events is the light each game portrays the event in. Now I'm not here just to bash Corrin and fates story because those are two very dead horses but I wanted to discuss what ways this scene could of had a better impact. After reading the script of the event in both games the purpose of the Fates version is to establish how evil and merciless Garon is compared to Corrin, and how confused and disgusted he is with Garon's method of ruling. This is further assisted by the game beforehand showing Hans enjoying the job far to much and with the annoyingly transparent dialogue from Garon immediately after the quote. It went something along the lines of "I heard you enjoyed watching the light fade from their eyes" and how such an act was "very befitting of Nohr royalty" and all that junk. While in contrast Queen Elincia's event showed her making a grey decision, she was willing to make that choice despite the involvement of killing her countrymen because she was up to task of ruling and had already displayed the ability to make those hard decisions before, like when she sacrificed Lucia and didn't release Ludveck (of course the greil mercs save her anyway). Both of those events were good for her character because despite her being a good person who hates violence and abhors death she was able to make decisions that went against what she wants. Garon on the other hand doesn't have that luxury... Given what decisions he has already made and enforced in this game up to this point telling Corrin to kill his rebelling countrymen is no surprise at all, and even with that being a thing there is still a lot of ways this scene could of been better handled. I for one don't mind Corrin's bases as a character, my only complaint is that all opposing views are treated as either wrong or just plain evil, if this scene was handled as way to show Corrin a different point of view and show the flaws in his ideals, the game would of benefited immensely from it, giving corrin the option to accept of deny that decision while either seeing his own way thinking being to flawed to continue, or to accept the flaws in his ideals and keep striving for them regardless. The tldr of this is that Elincia made an interesting decision, one that contrasted with her character, while Garon under the same context made a forgettable one. One situation is morally grey, while the other is black and white. So my last question is how would scenes differ in Fates if it were handled in the grey area rather than black and white. What scenes would have a different impact?

This may be a "heavy" topic considering the general consensus people have on it but I feel it's something that needs to be discussed given the recent discussions regarding camilla and the hot spring banner. As the title of the thread suggests, what are the rights and wrongs of fanservice? I am under the belief that fan service in it of itself is not a bad thing. It all depends on its execution. So my question to you all is when can fanservice be done right/tastefully/appropriately? and when is it done wrong? My personal stance on the matter is that so long as it does not hinder the overall story, game, or characters then its fine. Like for example, Beach DLCs/banners are fine because well they're harmless for the most part. If placed appropriately, then they can serve as sort of fun little distractions for both the characters and viewer/player. It doesn't detract from the overall story because it's just a little side story that has little to no bearing on the actual plot and if done right makes sense.

Lately I have had a newfound respect for Marth and the war of shadows and after playing through the game again and again Shadow Dragon has dethroned Radian Dawn as my favorite Fire Emblem game (I Always thought this would be one of the last games to do it). While I could talk about everything I love about this game for hours and hours I wanted to focus on a few things first being Marth in Shadow Dragon versus Marth literally everywhere else. Marth in Shadow Dragon felt similar to Leif for me, and while I can't confidently say Marth is a better character than Leif I find them pretty similar and keep in mind im talking about his depiction in Shadow Dragon. The Altean Prince faced many challenges at a young age and the dialogue tells us quite a few times throughout the game that Marth was filled with anger towards the other kingdoms and nations that ruined his peace and destroyed his family. One Example of this is right at the beginning of the game (Skipping the prologue of course). “Marth, prince of Altea, was lucky. Though Doluna took from him his kingdom and all but a handful of knights, they could not take his life. Marth lived, and made it to the eastern isle of Talys. Talys was a small border kingdom, with no grand order of knights to boast of, but its king selflessly gave Marth use of the isle’s eastern fortress. And as he saw the boy shake with anger and grief, he also gave wise counsel: “Prince Marth,” he said, “I do not doubt you love your sister something great. But you must be patient…time is on your side. If you stay here, and grow stronger, a time will come when you can help her.” So Marth stayed in Talys, protected by its kind people, and the years went by…” -Prologue and again, Marth: “Today, there was this commoner… She mentioned Grust was divided about the war. Some of its people wanted to fight with Altea, she said…Ever since I lost my father and kingdom, I’ve held nothing but hate in my heart for Gra and Grust…but not once did I give any thought to what must have been going on in their heads.” Nyna: “And now you find your hate for them has been lessened?” Marth: “No… the hate remains. I will never forget the pain they inflicted upon me, the rage I felt. Yet now, at least, I can tell you it’s not just hate…Not anymore.” -Marth talking ti Nyna at the end of chapter 13 While in the first example Marth was a lot younger he continues to display human emotions throughout the game and the second example covers that, also keep in mind that these are only two of the example and there are plenty more. The point is that Marth is a very determined individual who seeks vengeance and the world to be right and stands against the world to make it right. One of my favorite exchanges is between Marth and Malledus in the prologue. “Sire… You must live. Drink deeply now of these injustices; sip on these slights they serve. Remember them! One day you will lead us back here to avenge the fallen and reclaim Altea in their names!” -Malledus To Marth in Prologue 3. And Then Jagen to Marth at the end of the prologue Marth: “I am a craven. Powerless to save my sister, to staunch my kingdom’s wounds; to ease my people’s fears…” Jagen: “This…was your only recourse, sire. But surely, one day, you will be able to set things right…” Marth: “”Surely”? Why do words of such conviction smack so much of uncertainty when spoken? Not surely, Jagen. Assuredly. Gra will pay for their acts. Today, though, allow me to wallow in this pain, to feel every awful twist of it. I never want to forget.” Jagen: “Sire…” Marth: “I will return, Altea! Your prince will return to you one day!” Despite what some may say I believe Marth has some very notable character growth in Shadow Dragon, but still displays unrivaled determination even in the end. But my biggest fear about Marth's depictions may be becoming true... I think Marth's only really good depiction outside of SD is Smash Bros (The new one not as much because I'm not the biggest fan of Lowenthal's direction of him), whereas In Other games Marth has become less of a character in my eyes and to being nothing more than the following traits. Kindhearted, humble, and treasures his friends. I REALLY wish at least one of his quotes in heroes talked about how he felt/how he feels about the wrongs that were done to him, they are missing out on some of his best lines. It seems like the trend for other games he is in, like warriors for example, he is just revered by everyone as the legendary hero king and he continues to become what I wish he didn't..... ... The template for almost every other lord in the franchise. I just wanted to know everyone's thoughts on this, because I seldom ever see this brought up (people like to talk about Gaiden Alm VS. SOV Alm more). Do keep in mind that I think New Mystery is also guilty of devolving Marth into a one-note character although that just might be a translation thing). (Also I was Planning on replaying SD the way Kaga designed fe1 to be played in the first place which means Iron Man! Kaga put all your good units at the beginning because the weaker units you got later were punishment for losing the good ones. I've never played an iron man run on any FE before but I have beaten SD on H5 so if you had any Tips for a H3 Iron man run im about to start I would appreciate it. Tips like who to use, re classing tidbits, and what to forge as I assume an IM run is a very different game than playing any FE normally).

Just a more on topic thread to continue the discussion found here. Let's discuss the in depth themes and messages of awakening and how it goes about conveying those things

So after some debate on this thread about the themes of awakening and how they're handled, I thought I should make a thread discussing the themes of fates and how well it handles them. The themes of a story and how well they're executed, to me at least, are by far the most important aspects of the story because the themes of the story tie into everything else from the world to the characters. So let's discuss this shall we? Maybe I'll make one for other games but I've really only fully completed the 3ds titles and like half of sacred stones and shadow dragon so if you wanna make those threads go ahead.

So I was in the middle of writing my awakening fanfic when this sort of question popped into my head. I mean we know most of them have basic reading, writing, and I assume arithmetic skills. Though this does beg the question of how long their education was in the first place. I mean if we go by the timeline Chrom must've died when Lucina was roughly 11 years old at max and that's when everything went to shit. No time to study math gotta save the world homework can wait. Also can yarne read/write? I don't think so but I dunno if taguel value that sort of thing. Then there's Nah which considering her situation I'm surprised she can read at all. Cause if her foster parents were as bad as she says then I doubt they would care about giving her an education. Maybe she's self taught? Then again what's the education system in Ylisse like anyway? Ugh so many questions!

I've seen this mentioned off-hand in other threads but never in-depth so I thought this was worth posting. I hope you agree! Anyway: not only have IS acknowledged the IV mechanic (and named them Assets and Flaws), from February onwards all units who have been merged at least once will lose their Flaws. If a unit had neutral IVs they'll instead get an extra point in three stats based on its existing stat allocation (I hope someone can explain this better than me). So, what do you think? I hate that this requires you to have at least two copies of a unit to utilise, so any 5* exclusive units are screwed unless you're a whale, doubly so if they're seasonals, but it's certainly something to compensate for getting screwed over and a reason to merge spare copies of units you have instead of foddering them. For example, I got spooked by a -Atk/+Spd Laegjarn in the recent Voting Gauntlet banner, but I didn't know whether to fodder her for Red Duel Flying or merge my existing Laegjarn (-Spd/+Res) into her since I'd already invested Skills into the latter. Now I can go ahead with the merge and won't even have to worry about the -Atk...but again I was just lucky to have two copies of her. All my other 5*s with bad IVs are still as inconvenienced as ever. Also, maybe this means we'll finally get to see Assets/ Flaws in-game? FEHKeeper and other IV trackers are already gonna have trouble with the IV fixes ruining their algorithms...

Is it the old school Shozo Kaga stuff? (so intricate) The GBA games? (Classic stories and cool sprite art) The Radiant Series? (The 3D transition and diverity of gameplay) The contemporary games? (Accessibility and style)

So we all know the many many shortcomings of fates’ story but I’m curious is there anything you all think fates did right in terms of its story writing? I’m a person who says critique should always be fair and balanced so why don’t we give credit where credit is due. for me personally I love how Camilla was handled in birthright. Yeah I know “yandere = bad” but I think it works here. Camilla grew up during a time where she had to fight her siblings in a a near never ending cold war for the king’s favor so for her to go mentally insane in response to corrin choosing the other side makes a lot of sense to me and I feel it was handled well.

For me (of the ones I've played): Shadow Dragon/Mysteries of the Emblem: Navarre I guess? Genealogy: Dierdre or Beowolf Binding Blade: Sue, Karel (The whole redemption arc is very cool, they explored it in depth in Elibian Nights) Blazing Sword: Matthew, Erk, Nino, Lyn, Hector (The cast is one of my favorite parts of this game, also not to spoil anything but the relationship between Will, Rebecca & Dart is top notch) Sacred Stones: Colm, Joshua (He has a weird "Count of Monte Cristo" prince in hiding thing going) Ross, Lyon (OK he's not technically in the main cast but give me a break) Awakening: Olivia, Lon Qu, Henry, Owain, Inigo, Priam (I prefer the second gen characters in this game weirdly enough)

Since that image of a 4★ Halloween Henry appeared, I was thinking... What seasonal units would be demoted from their banners if it was a thing? I am not saying that I expect to have 4★ Seasonal Units someday (except TT seasonal units), but if we get one demotion from each seasonal banner we had until now... what unit would be and how this unit presence in the 4★ pool would affect the game? I made my list of the seasonal units I think would be demoted from their banner, but I would love to see others people's opinions.

(I dunno if I should put this in general fire emblem, entertainment, or general because this may go beyond just fire emblem characters.) So with all these topics asking about who is your favorite or least favorite character in FE, I thought I'd get to the heart of the matter. I'm curious what makes you like or dislike a character? Like what exactly about the character rubs you the wrong way? are there characters you like that you feel are poorly written? and vice versa. Are there characters you dislike that you feel are well written? What is a well written character to you? I wanna get a discussion going on this cause it'll give me a better understanding on the nature of critique as a whole.

Based on the title and Edelgard's line about the Crests, it's looking like her, Dimitri, and Claude, are the "Lords" of the titular Three Houses, with "Teacher"/Byleth acting as a faction-neutral Avatar. We still don't know whether all four will be in the same army like Lyn, Eliwood, and Hector in Blazing Sword (or Chrom, Robin, and Lucina in Awakening, for newer fans), but if they do, Three Houses would have the highest number of playable Lords in the series*. That got me thinking, how many "Lord" characters should a Fire Emblem game have? Do the they ride together or can there be only one? Before We Do This, Let's Set A Few Ground Rules... For this discussion, a "Lord" is defined as a unit who... ...is the protagonist or a major character in the story. ...has higher stats and growths than the other units, as well as exclusive weapons (Ephraim's Reginleif, Hector's Wolf Beil, the Rapier, Legendary/Divine Weapons etc.). ...is required to be on the map. (Depending on the game or chapter, this can be only the main lord or all of them) ...and whose death results in an automatic Game Over. *Radiant Dawn technically had five Lords: Micaiah, Ike, Elincia, Geoffrey, and Tibarn. However, the latter three were only Lords for certain parts, whereas Ike and Micaiah retained their Lord status throughout the entire game. My Thoughts Narrative-wise, I like this. Having a deuter- or even a tritagonist Lord gives the protagonist someone to interact with and flesh out their character. For example, back when I still owned a copy of Blazing Sword, I could never figure out how to trigger Support conversations, so the main story was my only way to get invested in the characters. I'll admit, Eliwood may be the main Lord of one of my favorite FEs, but he's the weakest personality of the trio. But thanks to Hector's battle-hungry boisterousness and Lyn's kind, but stubborn spirit providing contrast, I still found him likable. As for gameplay, I'm a bit mixed. On one hand, a Lord's higher stats and growths, and their special equipment (especially Legendary Weapons) can make them gamebreakingly overpowered, so having more than one can make things worse. On the other hand, extra Lords means the enemy has extra chances to instantly defeat you, so the risk and reward sort of balance eachother out, to an extent. But what do you think?

If y'all know anything about me is that I love Severa(probably more than I reasonably should) I feel this video along with the song itself does a good job of explaining why. This song("Rolling Girl" by Wowaka) at its core is about a girl who constantly fails to achieve her goals and as a result falls into depression and eventually commits suicide. Which fits Severa’s character almost perfectly as she is a character that constantly fails to live up to the expectations set on her by others which creates an inferiority complex. Combine that with all the trauma she’s had to live through and it's no wonder She acts the way she does. I mean that's just a recipe for depression just waiting to happen. And as much as she tries to cover it up by acting cold and arrogant those aren’t her true feelings which she’s afraid to truly express because of perceived weakness or fear of pain. Due to all this all she thinks she can really do is keep silently rolling along and bear that pain alone. I sympathize with her and that's why I like her a lot. Now I'd much prefer the pairing in this video to be RobinxCordelia cause that makes more sense to me personally on thematic level but hey I still liked it.

Something just occured to me. Feh is able to talk. Why? There must be some logical explanation, yes?

This is something that bothers me: I woudl love if we could keep Blessings in the units. I mean: I gave Water Blessing to my Alfonse, but then I decided to change his blessing to Fire. If I want to change it back to Water, I need to use another Water Blessing. Why not allowing the unit to have multiple blessings, and be able to change it whenever we want, like how we can equip skills? Alfonse can have 6 different Fólkvangr, one without refinement and the others 5 with a different refinement, so why not a unit be able to have all 4 blessing? I want to know others players opinions about it.

So after watching these two videos, I'm not entirely sure how to feel. On one hand they do make a valid point but on the other I can't help but can't shake this feeling that there's something wrong with the argument presented. I don't know my thoughts are all over the place and I wanted to see what other people think to more coherently organize mine.