Favorite Story Arc?

[Interdimensional Observer]

Now when Awakening gets brought up, the term "Arc" as in a cohesive part of a story is often brought up, and the main story is divisible in Plegia/Gangrel, Valm/Walhart, and Grimleal/Grima Arcs. 

But Awakening isn't the only game with arcs, all FEs do. RD is obvious here, divided into four Parts with each being its own arc. You could possibly even divide RD's 1st and 3rd Parts into two arcs each- the pre- and post- joining with the Daein Liberation Army, and Part 3 into pre-Chapter 10 and post Chapter 10. Sacred Stones is also readily divisible- Eirika pre-route split, the route split, and then the twins reunited. I could name others.

So what single chunk of any FE game is your favorite? Not a single chapter, not the whole game, just a section. I'm focusing on story here, but you can bring up gameplay too.

[Thane]

Ooh, fun!

I love Future Past. It's an emotional, super condensed Fire Emblem adventure that primarily focuses on what's often the juiciest part of a Fire Emblem game to me: character interactions. Yes, it's a little contrived, but it's so touching and great that I don't really care.

Speaking of awesome character interactions, I also really like the last part of Radiant Dawn because it allows for very different people to meet up and interact. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Skrimir confronting Naesala is one of my favorite scenes in the entire series.

[Jedi]

The Manster arc in Thracia, since its continuously tense and Leif is in a very weak position without his usual allies, and it keeps up with the theme for the several chapters of his eventual escape.

[Anacybele]

Parts 2 and 3 in RD are awesome imo. Part 2 is just really well done even if it's short and it makes Elincia awesome. Part 3 you get the awesome Ike and his awesome Greil Mercs back and the story just gets me pumped every time. Part 1 should've been its own game imo, the DB were flat and boring and this part felt like it was trying to do everything PoR's 30 chapters did in just 10, so it was rushed. Part 4 was just kind of meh compared to the two that came before it. It just felt anticlimatic after how good parts 2 and 3 were.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Anacybele

[Silver-Haired Maiden]

Personally I love Part 1 of Radiant Dawn. I know many hate it because of the difficulty curve but I adore it. But then, I really like freedom fighter scenarios anyway.

[Etrurian emperor]

I'm very fond of the Begnion arc in POR for what it does to the world building of Tellius and for all the future plotlines that tie back into this arc that appeals like such filler at first. 

Because the extra focus Begnion gets in these chapters and because Ike is directly involved with very moral people who try to fight corruption Begnion can be something more then just the corrupt ally destined to become an enemy in the sequel. We see plenty of good Begnion people too ranging from team Sanaki to a priest who says how terrible his parents feel about their part in the Serenes masacare. 

Everything that happens in this arc becomes very important in RD. We see the corruption in the Senate(and even get a cameo from Lekain), the event that turned Lehran evil is the focus point of this arc and the bird tribe are both introduced and play a very important role which gets all the more important because Tibarn and Reyson are two of the more prominent and frequently appearing characters. 
Even smaller touches like team Tormod coming to help Sothe in RD stem from the events in this arc. 

I often negatively compare the Plegia arc to this one because they are about the same length. In this amount of chapters we learn next to nothing about Plegia and there's little room for story expansion but we learn everything about Begnion and the lingering plotlines in this arc would become the plot of a whole new game. 
 

[ping]

In terms of story, act 2 of Radiant Dawn. It's a beautiful case of ensuing reality after the fairy tale that is PoR. Unfortunately, I really dislike most of the actual maps - 2-1 and 2-3 in particular. If you don't cheese it, 2-E is a nice defend map timed get-all-the-goodies map, though.

Looking at gameplay, I think I'll go with RD again, but with the first part. One Survives is annoying, but otherwise, I really like how they play out and how the units that you focus on (Jill in particular) become stronger over time. After that, I tend to get a bit burned out when replaying RD (I think I even have an unfinished run somewhere around the start of part 3), tbh. Runner up might be the Western Isles in FE6, excluding 12x. I don't like the gaidens in FE6. ;)

[Punished Dayni]

I know I can't count it, but Leaf's personal arc is great. There's a reason he's my favourite lord.

As for a story arc, It's probably between the Manster arc, Lenster arc (both in Thracia) and the end of the Plegian Arc. I'd consider bringing up chapter 5 as it would likely by multiple chapters by a more standard game, same with Alm's part of Chapter 4 (Even I can't pretend that Cheddah's involvement isn't a mess). Future Past is the best of the DLC at present, but I didn't want to focus on it too much. As well as that, Heirs of Fate was I think the best of the arcs in Fates, contrived as that ending is.

[Zepler]

Thats a tough one, because most of them have their flaws. Personally, I like Act 4 of SoV, because it was quiet entertaining and had me surprised too. However, Awakening in general is good, I didn't like the first part of the story.

[Lau]

Shadow Dragon: The prologue does wonders to set up Marth.

Shadows of Valentia: Probably the whole Rudolf thing. It was set up nicely, and Alm was just A++ during it.

Blazing Blade: Eliwood and Ninian's A Support I really liked the bit where Eliwood and co need to find someone to take them to the Dread Isles. The pirate captain, was his name Fargus?, was so chill, and I liked how you had to sneak around the map.

Sacred Stones: Joshua's little arc was great, and tugged at my weak heartstrings.

Path of Radiance: The Serenes Forest arc introduced Reyson, do I need to say more?

Radiant Dawn: You know that part where Micaiah gets ready to go against Begnion and Ike's group? I really liked that as it shows how she's determined to see it through. It has nothing to do with Tibarn dropping Sothe, honestly! it totally was

Awakening: Future Past needs a whole lot of love, plus the Gangrel arc. Fantastic writing.

Fates: I...don't have one.

[Shoblongoo]

Not even close--Beorc-Laguz War Arc in FE10. Where to begin? 

[NekoKnight]

I'm not sure if this counts as an arc or just a subplot but the Nino/Zephiel stories in Blazing Sword were very touching. The Bern plot is some Game of Thrones tier politics and the tragedy of Nino and Zephiel is poignant. Honorable mention to Lyn's story mode which takes a orphaned teenager on a journey where she is able to meet a colorful cast of new friends and be united with her grandfather.

Radiant Dawn has strong moments (and a few hiccups) all throughout but part two has one of the best character arcs in the series. Also, yay, more politics in FE!

[Icelerate]

8 minutes ago, NekoKnight said:

I'm not sure if this counts as an arc or just a subplot but the Nino/Zephiel stories in Blazing Sword were very touching. The Bern plot is some Game of Thrones tier politics and the tragedy of Nino and Zephiel is poignant. Honorable mention to Lyn's story mode which takes a orphaned teenager on a journey where she is able to meet a colorful cast of new friends and be united with her grandfather.

Radiant Dawn has strong moments (and a few hiccups) all throughout but part two has one of the best character arcs in the series. Also, yay, more politics in FE!

I really liked how even side characters like Brom, Nephenee, Haar and Marcia got time to shine in the main plot in part 2. Every character was used very effectively in that arc which is something that other parts of RD or even most FE games fail to accomplish. Lyn story mode does this effectively as well.