Book 3 Chapter 4 and its ending (Spoilers!)

[alatartheblue42]

Damn, Chocolate Kitty beat me to the punch about the two charas and Fjorm not being one of them.

 

As for the chapter itself, I personally think its one of the chapters of FEH I like the most overall. Sure, the beast units were pointless, but we got to see a lot of development of Alfonse.

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

Who says he needs to be king now? Why can't it be later? Why can't he grow into someone who could be a fit king without his dad dying?

Because being a king later would mean a time skip and not showing his growth/coming of age (which basically every FE story is about).

 

1 hour ago, Anacybele said:

You still didn't answer my question. It seems to always be a parent. Not a close friend or sibling or something else. A parent. Why?

Because FE has a target audience. Younger characters (or at least not old ones) are generally more popular with the fanbase, and thus more likely to be used both as actual units and for another person to focus on for character development (Rivals, lovers, just bffs, etc). Parents are relatively unimportant: old characters aren't as popular overall, they're more likely to die due to situations like Hector's or Grail's, and they're more in the way of the MC's development into a leader (because, being FE, the MC's leadership position is almost always hereditary). Plus, permanently killing off via plot a unit you're given is always a risky move in a game, so why risk it when you can just off a NPC parent or two?

Edited February 22, 2019 by alatartheblue42

[Mercakete]

2 hours ago, omegaxis1 said:

Is Hel bound to give only a single curse? How many times can she curse someone? Now it was Gustav, and next it might result in the mother's death, and finally Sharena's. 

Alfonse might very well be in the midst of having to deal with losing not just his father, but his entire family, all because it's the only way to protect him.

This is a good thought. I could totally see this happening.

Only thing that doesn't make much sense is that promo pic of Alfonse at the castle, standing over two dead people (who I assume were both of his parents, but maybe it's his mom and someone else.) Otherwise, I think it was a nice twist, especially since it gave Alfonse and the player some information about how the death curse works. This should help the characters in figuring out how to avoid it in the future. I.e., it's not tied to an individual, but a bloodline. This is useful knowledge, but it also takes away some of Hel's power to frighten a foe into submission. That is, it goes from "oh we're doomed; may as well give up" to "the curse isn't all-powerful, and neither is the one who cast it; maybe there's a way to beat this."

This chapter also did a great job at developing and showing the relationship between Alfonse and Gustav, as well as, at least somewhat, Henriette. I wonder what the branch was about... My guess is that it was Alfonse's first training sword, but who knows? Could also be a reference to that Nordic tree of life thing that begins with a Y and ends in "drill" or something. (Can't remember the specific name, but I know it has to do with life and death, so if this is a branch or something from it, it could be important.)

Also, it was confirmed that Gustav's dad was killed by Hel. I'm pleased with myself for guessing that. :3 The whole story has yet to be unveiled, but it seems to be more or less on track with my predictions. I'm all bubbly from that.

[Ice Dragon]

2 hours ago, Anacybele said:

Anyway, how can you tell that the farther body has blue hair?

Blue converts into grayscale as a darker shade than most other colors at the same luminosity. You can compare the person's hair to their clothing, both of which are in shadow (light comes from the left, so the person's back is in shadow), and see that their hair is significantly darker than their clothing (which is presumed to be white).

In comparison, the person lying closer to Alfonse has hair that is very similar in shade to their clothing (again presumed to be white), indicating light hair.

Since Fjorm's hair is both short and light, neither of the bodies is hers. Given that it's one dark-haired person with short hair and one light-haired person with long hair, the most logical guess is Gustav for the farther body and Henriette for the closer body.

[alatartheblue42]

1 hour ago, Mercakete said:

Could also be a reference to that Nordic tree of life thing that begins with a Y and ends in "drill" or something. (Can't remember the specific name, but I know it has to do with life and death, so if this is a branch or something from it, it could be important.)

Yggdrasil, sometimes just called the World Tree, is the tree in question. If I remember my Norse mythology correctly, its a tree that connects all of the Nine Realms (which are gradually being added to FEH's setting). There's a dragon named Nidhogg trapped under its roots, and the dragon eats at the roots to try to escape/destroy the tree. I think at least some of the roots were supposed to rest in Helheim, but I'm not positive on that. It probably also depends on which version of the mythos you're looking at, since there's been just a couple.

[redlight]

The more cliffhangers I experience the more I think IS needs to change how they handle releasing new chapters. 

[Xenomata]

I do believe Awkward Zombie put it best.

" Honestly, Super Smash Bros has too many protagonists for "my parent(s) are dead" to garner sympathy from anyone." ~Awkward Zombie "A Sense of Scale"

...well, replace Super Smash Bros with Fire Emblem, or really just "Vidya Gamms in general" and there ya go.

It's really a curse, being the parents of a main character. You should just start on the bucket list the moment you see your child has rainbows for naturally colored hair (or black/white).

Edited February 22, 2019 by Xenomata

[KMT4ever]

I don't know...Looking at that picture I can't help but feel that those bodies are too small to be Gustav and Henriette. I think they're actually both Alfonse and Sharena, while the Alfonse we see standing up is really his spirit in the Realm of the Dead. It would explain how we're supposed to continue the story better than if one half of the cast (i.e. Alfonse) is alive and the other half (i.e. Sharena, assuming that intro scene is accurate) is dead. Instead, we all got killed, especially since those pillars look like something you'd see in Castle Askr. Hel came in and killed us all, sending us to the Realm of the Dead, at which point we try to find a way to fix everything.

Of course my instincts about these sorts of things are notoriously bad, so I'm probably completely wrong.

[thecrimsonflash]

A shame gustav had to die, I appreciate any character who exists only to tell alphonse he sucks.

any bets on the odds of a BS resurrection to remove alphonse' responsibilities when his mom inevitably kicks it?

[Hilda]

I wish IS would learn from their book 1&2 mistakes and would have enriched the story more and pumped out more chapters. This was a decent chapter (for FEH terms...). But they could do so much more now with Veronica Nifl etc etc. I wouldnt even mind if we wouldnt get orbs and would reuse older maps, but god start doing SOMETHING IS!!!

[Chocolate Kitty]

5 hours ago, Ice Dragon said:

Since Fjorm's hair is both short and light, neither of the bodies is hers. Given that it's one dark-haired person with short hair and one light-haired person with long hair, the most logical guess is Gustav for the farther body and Henriette for the closer body.

she's also 100% not relevant anymore, further supporting that it's not her

[Landmaster]

I guess I'm the one person who didn't expect Gustav to die there~ Not that I really care, I didn't really like him~ Good chapter, though~

[Lemmy]

I’m glad they had someone die, I thought they’d stretch out the 9 days to be the whole chapter. 

It’s just a shame he didn’t impart a better message before death, emphasizing the importance of leadership, but failing to provide an answer or even guidance to the current crisis when he already went through it himself. Takes sink or swim mentoring to the highest degree. I’ll forgive it as long as we aren’t meandering about for the next few chapters.

[XRay]

3 minutes ago, Lemmy said:

I’m glad they had someone die, I thought they’d stretch out the 9 days to be the whole chapter. 

It’s just a shame he didn’t impart a better message before death, emphasizing the importance of leadership, but failing to provide an answer or even guidance to the current crisis when he already went through it himself. Takes sink or swim mentoring to the highest degree. I’ll forgive it as long as we aren’t meandering about for the next few chapters.

I think Alfonse can always just travel to another Askr where his father is still alive and ask for advice there.

[Lemmy]

52 minutes ago, XRay said:

I think Alfonse can always just travel to another Askr where his father is still alive and ask for advice there.

Technically Alfonse would need to be summoned by a different Kiran or have our Kiran summon a different a younger or alternate version of Alfonse’s father. The first is unlikely because we don’t get plot without battle in this game. The second is more possible, but I’d prefer any other character to help, even an Eir plot device hunt. Ideally I’d like a collaboration between Askr, Embla, and Loki while getting some lore from/on Lif and Thrasir

[XRay]

2 minutes ago, Lemmy said:

Technically Alfonse would need to be summoned by a different Kiran or have our Kiran summon a different a younger or alternate version of Alfonse’s father. The first is unlikely because we don’t get plot without battle in this game. The second is more possible, but I’d prefer any other character to help, even an Eir plot device hunt. Ideally I’d like a collaboration between Askr, Embla, and Loki while getting some lore from/on Lif and Thrasir

But traveling to another Askr is pretty easy though. Kiran can just have Alfonse be a representative and have him visit another Kiran on the friend list that has not progressed very far into the story yet.

[Mercakete]

34 minutes ago, Lemmy said:

Technically Alfonse would need to be summoned by a different Kiran or have our Kiran summon a different a younger or alternate version of Alfonse’s father. The first is unlikely because we don’t get plot without battle in this game. The second is more possible, but I’d prefer any other character to help, even an Eir plot device hunt. Ideally I’d like a collaboration between Askr, Embla, and Loki while getting some lore from/on Lif and Thrasir

 

30 minutes ago, XRay said:

But traveling to another Askr is pretty easy though. Kiran can just have Alfonse be a representative and have him visit another Kiran on the friend list that has not progressed very far into the story yet.

Both possible ways, but there's another way, too. The Askr royalty have the ability to open portals to other worlds. Alfonse could just make one himself, provided the location of an opened portal can be predetermined, and isn't just "let's see where this one goes."

[Diovani Bressan]

19 hours ago, Tybrosion said:

The mortality rate of an FE lord's parent(s) is so bad it may as well be in the negatives.

And it can become even worst if IntSys decides to kill the Three Houses Protagonist's father

[Lemmy]

I’m thinking that Askr’s summoning is as uncontrolled as our own summoning. 

I’m still not sure about how summoning contracts work for the enemies,  and whether every character’s absolute loyalty to us is also due to a contract.

[Alastor15243]

Honestly, I hated this chapter.

Spoiler

Even considering be was willing to die to save his son, that has to be one of the shittiest fathers I’ve ever seen. Being that cold and businesslike about your son’s impending death and letting him spend that entire week thinking he was just going to be a tool to expose Hel? And then not doing anything whatsoever with the last week you have alive with your wife and children? He’s a character who acts totally nonsensically because acting normal would give away the twist, and yet that’s not even true. Just doing one single “I’ll miss you” gesture of any kind could easily have been spun as making the best of Alphonse’s last week alive rather than his.

 

Edited February 23, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Nanima]

I am just mad that Sharena isn't getting this kind of devrlopment at all. She was introduced as the second protagonist, yet she barely qualifies as sidekick at this point. If she does end up dead or otherwise indisposed, she'll likely be reduced even further just to give Alfonse something more to angst over. I have a feeling that by the end of the arc you could replace her with a particularly adorable lamp and the story wouldn't change one bit. Not having any higher hopes for the mom. Gustav had more development than either of them over the last two chapters.

[Ottservia]

1 minute ago, Nanima said:

I am just mad that Sharena isn't getting this kind of devrlopment at all. She was introduced as the second protagonist, yet she barely qualifies as sidekick at this point. If she does end up dead or otherwise indisposed, she'll likely be reduced even further just to give Alfonse something more to angst over. I have a feeling that by the end of the arc you could replace her with a particularly adorable lamp and the story wouldn't change one bit. Not having any higher hopes for the mom. Gustav had more development than either of them over the last two chapters.

*sigh* yeah maybe in book 4? eh who am I kidding.

[Sentinel07]

46 minutes ago, Nanima said:

I am just mad that Sharena isn't getting this kind of devrlopment at all. She was introduced as the second protagonist, yet she barely qualifies as sidekick at this point. If she does end up dead or otherwise indisposed, she'll likely be reduced even further just to give Alfonse something more to angst over. I have a feeling that by the end of the arc you could replace her with a particularly adorable lamp and the story wouldn't change one bit. Not having any higher hopes for the mom. Gustav had more development than either of them over the last two chapters.

As much as she's getting the short end in terms of the main story, at least other things are throwing her a bone.

I actually really liked her role in Velouria's story in the current Forging Bonds. It was actually a really nice to see Sharena in that regard.

[EricaofRenais]

2 hours ago, Sentinel07 said:

As much as she's getting the short end in terms of the main story, at least other things are throwing her a bone.

I actually really liked her role in Velouria's story in the current Forging Bonds. It was actually a really nice to see Sharena in that regard.

I have really liked this year's FBs since the story line in them has been the Askr trio interacting with the heroes.

As to the story I actually thought it would be the mom that died first, but I figured that one of the parents would trade places with Alphonse.  The dead parent trope is more used then Anna, and while I love Anna the dead parents trope should just stop since every fan sees it coming.  This chapter was OK, but it could have been better.  I do think that tree branch will play a part later on since Gustav made a big deal about it.

[wheelsonfire]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't like the chapter! As others have said, dead parents have featured so much Fire Emblem, it's beyond cliché and takes away a lot of the suspense. And as others have said, there are other ways to accelerate a protagonist’s development, so why couldn't the series use that? Binding Blade and Warriors left the heroes’ parents alive, so why couldn't this game? That I feel like we didn't get to learn enough about Gustav to make the death meaningful, even though we did get some interaction in the short amount of time. Or perhaps because the majority of interaction was chastising his son and ignoring his other child… It's not that appealing when the character is cast in such a negative light… Not to mention the whole curse affects the bloodline thing rather than the person seemed to come out of nowhere…

 

Overall, I understand why the end of the chapter went the way it did, and that it foreshadows for what we saw in the first trailer of Book 3 (which, as others have said, pretty much gives away a lot of the info there), but I don't like how was done, and the whole thing has so far seemed very rushed…

[Lewyn]

It's lazy writing as well as cliche but it works to evoke an emotional response.  Here the cold and distant pretty harsh dad makes the ultimate sacrifice at the end.  Alfonse's carelessness with Hel has led to his father's death, perhaps like his father it will change him and he will be much more aware of the risks and not take so many chances.  What is disappointing besides the lack of originality is Gustav dies, and the chapter ends we don't get a lot of dialogue from Alfonse, Sharena, Henrietta....and then does that mean we will get some start of next story chapter?  Also Gustav's treatment of Sharena, we don't get a reason for that, was pretty rough and dismissive.  Poor Sharena.  Anyways think Gustav was meeting with his council constantly as Alfonse and co searched for Hel to discuss options for cures, ways to prevent Alfonse death, perhaps king succession and what is going to happen.