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"And then they disappeared..." (Spoilers)


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In Fire Emblem, a pretty common ending for certain character's is one that includes the disappearance of said character. Three recent examples are in SoV, where Kliff leaves then his son returns, where Kamui legit just vanishes, and where Sonya tries to find a cure for witches but only to disappear with a rumor flying about that a new witch resides in Nuibaba's abode. What are your thoughts on these types of endings?

I honestly can't remember many of these, but I feel like I've seen them so often, and it kind of annoys that these characters are just thrown away. I don't mind Kliff or Sonya's that much because they at least have some sort of hint of what happened, but Kamui literally just disappears without any clue of what could have happened. As long as they give us some sort of idea of what's happened to them, I don't mind it much.

Endings for reference:

Spoiler

Kamui (Jesse Alive): Intrigued by Jesse's idea, Kamui helped to found a kingdom of mercenaries, and lived there happily for a time. In the end, however, his wanderlust prevailed—one day he went for a stroll and simply vanished, never to be seen again.

Kliff: With the war over, Kliff bid Alm farewell and vanished—with some speculating that he left for a new continent. Decades later, a young man claiming to be Kliff's son arrived in Valentia to serve the king. The boy was said to have a tremendous gift for magic.

Sonya: Sonya's search for a cure for women turned into witches took her across the land. Her trail ended in a remote region, after which she was never seen again. Rumors fly, however, that shortly thereafter a new witch took up residence in Nuibaba's abode on Fear Mountain.

 

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Personally, I've never minded such endings. Statistically speaking, it's not suprising they're there. Not to mention, when you consider the Archanean character endings which also has its share of "and they were gone", and usually over something tragic or so, you'll see it's kinda... thematically. Not quite a happy era to live in for some, as it is.

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They are my least favorite types of endings, unless it makes sense for the character. For example, Navarre is the type of guy who would disappear once the job is done. Sophia, Irene, and Fae return to Arcadia, which is in a desert (and should Sophia stay with Roy, she doesn't "disappear"). And then there's also       that blank spot is supposed to be a Kellam joke.

But then there's characters like Phina, Kilff, Knoll, etc. There's no reason why these characters should've disappeared. And the one that bugs me the most is Azura's ending. In all three paths, regardless of whether she marries or not, she disappears from the history books (in Revelation, if she's married to Corrin, it states that the only thing that was known about her was that she was the queen of Valla). I like Azura a lot but i don't understand how one of the most important people in the conflict simply disappears from the history books. Even if it's Birthright/Conquest, where she dies, you'd think Corrin especially would've written about her. But nope.

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Oh yeah, outside of a particular verse... well, I still stand with not minding them. It just happens. Sometimes people just... drop off the pages of history, if they even had something in the first place. I think it adds to the types of endings we can see.

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It's not my favorite ending, but I'm not particularly hateful of it either.  It kinda feels like a cop out where they couldn't really figure something out for a character, so they would just leave it ambiguous.  For some characters, it makes sense.  For others, not so much.  For Kamui, it makes sense since even he states that he's a wanderer and has lived in a family of wanderers.  Hell, I'm even dissatisfied with Ike's disappearance at the end of Radiant Dawn.

2 minutes ago, Armagon said:

And the one that bugs me the most is Azura's ending. In all three paths, regardless of whether she marries or not, she disappears from the history books (in Revelation, if she's married to Corrin, it states that the only thing that was known about her was that she was the queen of Valla). I like Azura a lot but i don't understand how one of the most important people in the conflict simply disappears from the history books. Even if it's Birthright/Conquest, where she dies, you'd think Corrin especially would've written about her. But nope.

I'm glad this bothers someone else too.  Azura, probably the most important character who is pretty much the catalyst of the story in my opinion just becomes forgotten from history?  Even though Corrin probably should've been able to write about her, the Hoshido siblings should've as well.

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I mean, I'm not hateful of it either. If it works then it does. I just don't want the ending to just be "they're gone." If we can get a bit of context behind their disappearance or a bit about their current whereabouts, then I'm fine with it.

Kamui's always been sort of a travelling sellsword, but I just think it was weird that he vanished with no explanation after building a country with Jesse.

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To be fair, Azura barely gets acknowledged by anyone outside of Corrin in the first place. You most certainly don't get the impression that she is siblings with the other main characters. Heck, I forgot that she can even use Dragon Veins. So my headcanon is that Azura is just a figment of Corrin's imagination.

Edited by BrightBow
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8 minutes ago, MediocreLee said:

I'm glad this bothers someone else too.  Azura, probably the most important character who is pretty much the catalyst of the story in my opinion just becomes forgotten from history?  Even though Corrin probably should've been able to write about her, the Hoshido siblings should've as well.

They tried hard to make her come across as mysterious, but it usually just ends up with people raising their eyebrows in confusion instead. This is one such example. It makes no sense someone that important, with ties to three major kingdoms in Fateslandia, gets forgotten even if she actively tried to cover her tracks for whatever reason.

Regardless, the worst example in the series is Ike. The guy who talks about the Greil Mercenaries being his father's legacy, how he'd never leave Mist and how his friends are his family just ups and leaves and is never seen again. 

I'd say this ending fits some, but it should be used very sparingly, and only on suitable characters.

Edited by Thane
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1 hour ago, KongDude said:

Kamui legit just vanishes

I should mention that most Navarre archetypes have that kind of ending in which they just disappear. Even a guy like...Guy, from FE7, also vanishes, iirc. Assuming that Kamui is of the Navarre archetype (he is, right? correct me if I'm wrong), I guess that would partially be one of the reasons why it was decided for him to disappear.

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1 minute ago, Flee Fleet! said:

I should mention that most Navarre archetypes have that kind of ending in which they just disappear. Even a guy like...Guy, from FE7, also vanishes, iirc. Assuming that Kamui is of the Navarre archetype (he is, right? correct me if I'm wrong), I guess that would partially be one of the reasons why it was decided for him to disappear.

Deen is the Navarre archetype of SoV/Gaiden. 

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1 hour ago, Thane said:

They tried hard to make her come across as mysterious, but it usually just ends up with people raising their eyebrows in confusion instead. This is one such example. It makes no sense someone that important, with ties to three major kingdoms in Fateslandia, gets forgotten even if she actively tried to cover her tracks for whatever reason.

Regardless, the worst example in the series is Ike. The guy who talks about the Greil Mercenaries being his father's legacy, how he'd never leave Mist and how his friends are his family just ups and leaves and is never seen again. 

I'd say this ending fits some, but it should be used very sparingly, and only on suitable characters.

I hate that they did that with Ike.

 

I definitely feel this ending is over used and seems lazy.  It seems like they are going for the Old West "hero rides off into the sunset" ending, and it can sorta fit with Navarre types, but it just seems insulting and out-of-character for characters like Ike or Est.

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4 minutes ago, Rezzy said:

it can sorta fit with Navarre types, but it just seems insulting and out-of-character for characters like Ike or Est.

I've yet to play many of the games including the Archanea ones, but I've seen the endings of Est vanishing on her wikia pages. Is this ever going to get explained or is this just Est getting kidnapped again?

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The narrator of the character endings isn't really a person, I mean the endings try to be historical to a degree, but ultimately it's an omnipresent narrator.

Knoll's vanishing should have an explanation. Knoll's vanishing could easily be explained as "Living in Grado's capital continuing Lyon's research, Knoll dove deeper and deeper into the enigma of darkness. One day a servant entered his chambers, everything was neatly arranged, but Knoll was gone without a trace" or something. It maintains the mystery of a disappearance, whilst giving a degree of answer as to how and why he disappeared- dark magic stuff.

Ike's disappearance, whilst not amazing or a good thing, is at least distinct from every other lord's ending in FE. Everyone else becomes a monarch who rules happily ever after- except Lyn. He is a godly figure in Tellius who everyone reveres as a world-saving hero of incredible power, yet he doesn't love attention and would rather get away from it all. He doesn't leave right away either- he waits until peace is firmly established and presumably he says goodbye to everyone first. The problem is that it is said in Tellius that all the other lands were flooded, so it sounds kinda stupid that Ike would travel elsewhere- because by Tellius beliefs there isn't anywhere else to go. Perhaps it would've been better if they tacked on "Ike later returned to Tellius in his elder years and lived the rest of his life in obscurity as a hermit, training young and promising warriors who learned of him." That'd be in Ike's character I think.

And one more thing, what do people think of endings that go "they lived an ordinary life"?

 

Just now, KongDude said:

I've yet to play many of the games including the Archanea ones, but I've seen the endings of Est vanishing on her wikia pages. Is this ever going to get explained or is this just Est getting kidnapped again?

Est and her sisters went through an Outrealm Gate and ended up in a world of pure chaos. They performed the Triangle Attack and suddenly a huge explosion happened, they then left to return to Archanea leaving behind something shiny symbolic of their sisterhood.

How do I know? Here:

Spoiler

 

 

I only half-joke.

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6 minutes ago, KongDude said:

I've yet to play many of the games including the Archanea ones, but I've seen the endings of Est vanishing on her wikia pages. Is this ever going to get explained or is this just Est getting kidnapped again?

I think the only thing that could link up to her disappearance is her feeling bad about being used as blackmail to force Avel to fight against Marth. One could think it's unlikely, but still... Well, there's her alternate ending, if Avel dies, in which she leaves, heartbroken for the loss.

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While I generally don't like them, both Kliff's and Kamui's SoV endings work for the characters. Kliff wants to see as much of the world as he can and Kamui makes clear early on that he's a drifter and never stays in one place long.

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4 hours ago, Thane said:

They tried hard to make her come across as mysterious, but it usually just ends up with people raising their eyebrows in confusion instead. This is one such example. It makes no sense someone that important, with ties to three major kingdoms in Fateslandia, gets forgotten even if she actively tried to cover her tracks for whatever reason.

Regardless, the worst example in the series is Ike. The guy who talks about the Greil Mercenaries being his father's legacy, how he'd never leave Mist and how his friends are his family just ups and leaves and is never seen again. 

I'd say this ending fits some, but it should be used very sparingly, and only on suitable characters.

I agree with everything you just said lol.  The whole trying to make Azura mysterious really didn't bode too well considering she was so important to the plot.  Sure Corrin was probably the only one that generally acknowledged her from what we saw, but I'd find it so strange that the Hoshido or even the Nohr siblings don't give her any attention.

And the whole Ike leaving is definitely just not good.  Even though his ending was different from other FE protags as he didn't become king or a ruler, he could've kept the gang together with the Greil Mercenaries.

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1 hour ago, Sock said:

It's meant to make people use their imaginations.

Seems people have forgotten how to do that...

If that's supposed to be towards me, my point is that a character that I enjoyed was simply put to an end by vanishing. I would've much preferred an ending that wasn't just popping out of existence. Also, I don't like fanfics or things of the such. I would rather IS end the character than some rando.

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4 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

Est and her sisters went through an Outrealm Gate and ended up in a world of pure chaos. They performed the Triangle Attack and suddenly a huge explosion happened, they then left to return to Archanea leaving behind something shiny symbolic of their sisterhood.

How do I know? Here:

  Hide contents

 

 

I only half-joke.

NOOOO. WHYYYY?

 

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9 hours ago, Sock said:

It's meant to make people use their imaginations.

Seems people have forgotten how to do that...

People haven't gotten less imaginative. You might confuse that with people expecting more out of video game writing than in the 90's.

In the case of Ike, for example, there was nothing indicating that he'd just leave and never be seen again. As far as we know, Tellius is also the only continent on the planet not submerged in the gigantic sea. Now, you might say that it's up to us to imagine what Ike found, but that's not interesting to me; I don't care about whatever non-canon adventures Ike has in my head. 

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17 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Est and her sisters went through an Outrealm Gate and ended up in a world of pure chaos. They performed the Triangle Attack and suddenly a huge explosion happened, they then left to return to Archanea leaving behind something shiny symbolic of their sisterhood.

How do I know? Here:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

I only half-joke.

…This is going on my Signature, albeit slightly modified because the hidden contents tag is evading me.

Personally, I like the "vanish" endings because so much is left to speculation, not to mention it means there's a chance that character may appear again in a future game(still waiting on a Tellius version of Awakening where Priam's saga is told). It is a little annoying that so many people just up and disappear, yes, but on the other hand they're pretty much handing every single one of those characters to writers like me on a silver platter, so I'm cool with that.

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I actually quite liked Ike how vanished from Tellius; I imagined he had some amazing adventures and never looked back.

Plus Awakening pretty much answered where he went in Priam's paralogue. He found an Outrealm/Dragon Gate and eventually ended up in Ylisse/Valm.

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