#That could be an insaneee storyline

[saviourkingslut]

idk if ur not doing the fe3h asks anymore but if u r #8 pls!

sorry for only getting back to you now anon ive had a couple mad busy days. but ill gladly take any excuse to give my opinion lmfao

8. what storyline threads should have had more development / been further explored?

the whole argarthan plotline is just. such a mess. on the one hand the game tells is that they're a major player in fódlan's history and current politics - they orchestrated the death of lambert, resulting in the duscur massacre and the destabilisation of faerghus, weakening it for future war; they ally themselves with edelgard, though they support her and work against her in turns; they're directly responsible for jeralt's death and for byleth becoming enlightened, etc. they can nuke whole-ass cities. and yet at the same time? they feel completely inconsequential. if they hadn't been there almost every action they undertake could be foisted upon the adrestian emperor in one way or another, or in case of byleth's enlightenment, forced through in some other way (it's a world with gods and magic, it wouldn't have been hard to figure something out).

white clouds makes Such an issue of their powers and involvement, they build up all the mystery around tomas and thales and their involvement with the flame emperor, and then in the war arc they deadass do fuck all and show up as a complete afterthought in the last few chapters on ss and vw (and i believe on am you straight up take out a bunch by circumstance on the final map and it's barely addressed lmao like they genuinely disappear from the narrative after the timeskip). all the attention goes out to the war with adrestia - which isn't bad, bc that is the main story the game is going with and which should be fully developed, but the argarthans just fit into it so awkwardly that i feel like the writers didn't really know how to combine the red emperor plot with the argarthan plot. especially bc their goals do not actually always align with edel/gard's, so you can't treat them as a wholly allied entity either.

i don't have any real ideas as to how their writing could've been improved on, exactly, but their potential is pretty wasted. i mean, the whole 'mole people who live in an underground city and want to kill the last angels remaining on earth' feels like a bit of a reach, but ive seen weirder things executed well enough in other media. im still particularly disappointed with the way nemesis is shown to be a larger than life figure, a literal killer of gods, he looks fucking insaneee in the intro cinematic, and then he shows up in one final map and it almost feels like a joke. zero build-up, doesn't feel like anything is truly on the line. that's the problem with the argarthans in general i feel. edel/gard's war at least makes me feel something, especially on am: the stakes feel real, she has to be stopped. the argarthans are just kind of. there. and the game tells me they're evil so i guess ill kill them but they feel like annoying pale magic clowns to me more than anything else lmfao

#asks #thanks for asking! #also i wish vw was at least a little different from ss bc man you're just playing the same route twice man. except the final map