The way of the sword, or the way of the heart
GBA style portraits of Alm and Celica from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. Made as part of a live demonstration series for EmblemCon
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I made two enamel SoV dice for a Fire Emblem dice project on KS! This is the second set of dice, you might remember the Hoshido design I drew for the last set. I'm not saying I drew that one because I wanted to see if I could eventually draw these ones, but I'm not... NOT saying that.
You can find the project here!
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painting for my graphics class with major revisions. it is the year 2024 yet the green man still persists in my brain (i love him)
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As an Echoes fan, it's rare to find people who enjoy both Alm & Celica equally as characters. Most of the time either one or the other gets put down. I just think they are both fantastic leads that deserve way more respect than what they actually tend to get.
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This cutscene still will be cropped to focus on Alm's hand in-game, but I did render his whole face.
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Alm and Celica’s argument at the end of Act 2 in Echoes is honestly fascinating when you think about it more cuz yeah it’s easy reading it on the surface level as a lover’s spat (hell I think even Kusakihara described it as “girl gets mad and boy has no idea why girl is upset, just like real life” which bleh) but it grants very good setup. These certain lines from each of them stick out to me most:
Alm: Nrgh… If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear I was speaking to a blue blood. My station doesn’t matter, Celica. I’m here because I was called. I have a duty to perform, and I’ll perform it. No more, and no less. [...] Do you think I WANTED this fight? This all started because Lima IV went and angered the empire. If you wish to point fingers, point them at the ruler who failed his people. It’s his fault we’re in this mess.
Celica: That’s not… Well, so what if it is? Maybe you should go become king if it’s such a damnably easy job! [...] You’re awfully free with accusations for a boy with no idea what royalty entails! And now that you’re a “hero,” I imagine the throne is next on the list, is that it?
Celica directly critcizes what Alm is currently lacking as a leader, and Alm unwittingly hits one of Celica’s major insecurities.
Alm is established as having strong ideals and unwavering views during Act 1, but his awareness of the world is incredibly shallow, not made better by how he’s so sure of how the world should be that he’s unprepared for what it actually requires of him and what it means to be a person of influence, be it an army’s commander or someone of high birth, hence why Celica brings up exactly how he’s ignorant to the kinds of burdens that royalty have to endure. That’s why his parts of Act 3 and 4 have him dealing with exactly that: it starts with his Brand being revealed to Berkut, next he gets the Royal Sword that’s supposed to be royalty only, the conversation with Clive about rescuing Delthea, him finding out Celica is a princess, dealing with killing his own father and cousin, etc. And despite it all, what he has to due is think beyond himself and for the world. He can’t focus on his sadness of losing his family right now, as the heir to Rigel’s throne his responsibility is to make sure the safety of Valentia’s people is secured. That’s the burden of royalty that he was lacking, what Celica has had since she was a kid and what she criticized him for, and the piece of the puzzle he was missing.
Celica meanwhile is established as being incredibly aware of the people around her during Act 2. She takes out pirates even thought it’s not in her mission description because she knows the people are suffering because of them, for example. However, she’s distant. She’s closed off. She knows what’s required of her as a princess, but it can seem like she’s being cold instead of responsible. And despite this, she’s still under the impression that she’s not doing enough, hence why she gets as upset as she does when Alm calls Lima a terrible king, because even though she didn’t like him whatsoever, Celica herself sees herself as a terrible princess. In response, during Act 3 and 4, this insecurity of hers gets put into overdrive. She’s helping people yes, but being Mila’s priestess and the newly revealed missing Princess of Zofia starts having her taking her burdens to extremes. She’s convinced that she has to do everything herself, and that Mila is the only way to fix things. This extreme is taken to the point where she’s too self sacrificing and closed off to the pleas of her friends and the situation right in front of her, that everyone involved gets hurt. Her piece of the puzzle that she’s missing, is the day to day perspective, and understanding that the strength of her friends can buoy her; Alm being raised as a village kid means he was set up to have this way of living woven into his character.
In short: Alm sees what’s in front of him, but needs to learn to see the bigger picture because he’s unprepared for what kind of pain being a leader brings. Celica is very aware of the bigger picture, but needs to learn to lean on her friends or else she’ll end up hurting more than just herself in trying to do things alone.
They each have what the other lacks, but are just unable to reconcile early on because they were separated for so long, hence the argument. But y’know. Hardship builds character and all that. And sometimes hardship means unknowingly killing your cousin and dad, or getting turned into a souless monster and stabbed with a sword.
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