#fire emblem discourse

[emblemxeno]

Tbh I don’t quite understand the sentiment that Engage doesn’t have good or any worldbuilding at all, like tf is up with that. First instinct would be “them 3H fans again!!!” but other long time FE fans also consider it lackluster and idk I don’t agree. 

Each of the four nations all have surface level distinctions, but in-depth internal layers, such as...

Firene values peace, gratitude, and its harvests, tea, and medicine. It’s the kingdom that would usually be taken advantage of, but the reason it maintains its peace is through aggressive policy done by its leaders, currently by Eve and very notably followed up by Celine. Medicine and health is taken seriously cuz the last king died from an illness, the same illness which the current and well loved prince is suffering from. The Firene retainers are all nobles sans Louis, who is noted to have gotten his role because of his domestic skill in tandem with his martial prowess; this implies a sort of status quo, one that’s maintained to keep things peaceful, though not overly enforced to the point of oppression. 

Brodia is wealthy and martially strong, yet prideful. The nobility is noted to take advantage of the constant wars on Elusia, as it fuels economy, which in turn fuels more wars. The wars against Elusia themselves are partly an extension of Brodia’s pride: aggressive expansion done in the name of “keeping a wicked nation in check” and to further Brodian way of life. Because strength is valued, the Brodian retainers are all common folk who proved themselves, sans Citrinne, who develops a complex about her strength because of it. Mining is the primary income source after warfare, something that Diamant wants to shift towards to the dismay of war benefitting nobles.

Elusia is the kingdom of knowledge, and as such, is the only nation noted to have a major place of education. The arts and the leisure seems to be highly valued here, due to an author, an artist, and a native to a hot spring centered village being recruited. Retainers, like in Brodia, are decided by strength or capability; after all, you don’t often have a Crown Princess’s servants be a former assassin and a former prince without skill and knowledge being paramount in the decision making. Hyacinth has too much love to go around, and so has a wife as well as many mistresses, and many children as a result. Knowledge begets avenues of possibility, which means one can use said knowledge to selfishly get ahead (such as the Elusian court where backstabbing and fake platitudes to appeal to the King and Queen were common place) or to benefit the world around you (Hortensia using her intellect and talent to help war victims, and Ivy utilizing Elusia’s creativity and innovative practices to better the public’s wellbeing). Seeking knowledge, however, can entrench one in dark practices, which is why the worship of the Fell Dragon went from notable to beligerent and dangerous.

Solm values freedom, and is notable for being a strict matriarchy. Only women take the throne, Merrin’s village is only ran by women, and Panette and Pandreo’s family church was headed by their mother. While open minded and easy going on the surface, Solm having its own elite vigilante group and having spies throughout the continent means that the queendom takes measures to ensure freedom very seriously; these actions are similar to Firene, which is brought up in Celine and Fogado’s support, and the two themselves are indicative of each of their nations cultures. Unlike the other nations, there’s no strict basis for who becomes a retainer, since you have a chef, a priest, and two runaways. The people of Solm live their lives how they want, and its culture is more open to entertainment and large gatherings than other nations.

And this is just what I whipped together from memory. I’ve no doubt that there’s tons of other minute details that, when pieced together, form more descriptions of the nations as a whole. This, to me, is on part with how the GBA games and Echoes built their worlds. Very solid in depth readings, with surface level broad strokes to entice the player in should they choose to put more hours into learning the ins and outs. And that isn’t even getting into the artistic directions of each nation and the characters (like outfits, seasonal representations, food/ingredients, etc.). Hell, the entirety of Elyos is shaped like a ring for crying out loud! It’s screaming “yeah the rings are this central to this world, enjoy your stay.”

I like that. Engage knows what it is and what it wants to present. No more, no less.

#fire emblem #fire emblem engage #fire emblem discourse

[maelor321]

The wasted narrative potential of the Church of Seiros' weakness.

 The church of Seiros is rather infamous, as it is the organization overseeing the main Faith of Fódlan, akin to the Catholic Church in medieval Europe, including for the small territoires. 

The Church is seen by the Fandom and by many in-universe as truly powerful, controlling the Land through the devotion of the people, with a goal of ruling all of Fódlan as puppet masters at best. 

That however is factually false. 

The Church of Seiros is not some all-powerful organization, and isn't even unified. 

Rhea refuse to use her power to dictate policies of the nations, in fact, she many times is too meek, though it make sense.

The Eastern Church are weaponless and puppets of the lords of Leicester, the Southern Church was destroyed, and Faerghus is divided between the western and Central church, with the Western Church and it's aligned lords being traitors to both the Crown and central Church, and puppets of the Agarthans. 

Furthermore, the ideology of the Church, that promote the restraint from abusing Crests, is utterly ignored whenever convenient. 

And just look what happened with the Central Church being invaded! Many lords of Leicester and Faerghus swore themselves to Edelgard, and even in Adrestia, Edie didn't seem to face opposition. 

Though that last point is a bit horseshit, I'm French, and our own first revolution caused a Civil War with the Vendée region's commoners being the most famous for fighting to defend Crown, lords and Faith, it also show how Hresvelg propaganda against the Church, Hresvelg, not merely Edelgard, destroyed the ability of the Church to call to aid anyone south of Garreg Mach, or even East of it.  

The matter really is a wasted opportunity narratively, because the Church being all powerful is something done often in fiction, but beside the actively treacherous and xenophobic Western Church, none of the Churches is really doing manipulation, and the western Church's plots are guided by the Agarthans anyway.

I think there's a lot of possible stories from a Church-centric POV about how the Faith's weakness and scapegoat status, and the fact that so few care for it in favor of treating the organization as the genderbend Catholic Church on steroids is disappointing.

I've seen the comparison with the schrodinger cat being done with the Church and Rhea, the idea being that they're blamed whenever they "overstep", ignoring how their actions are usually justified, but at the same time blamed when they stay out of shits.

If anyone do know stories which exploit this potential, do tell.

#fire emblem: three houses #fire emblem discourse #rhea positive #church of seiros #church of seiros discourse #canon vs fanon #fanfiction #lady rhea #rhea fire emblem

[mayhem-ensues]

I don't want to like, reblog anyone and directly put them on blast or anything, but like, the fact that people are suggesting that IS hates Male Avatars and will always prefer Female Avatars is so comical to me cause it's like literally the exact opposite.

Seriously go back and watch the trailers for Fates, not a single sign of F!Corrin, it's M!Corrin all the way through. And it's the exact same story with the trailers for Three Houses. In the major game trailers for 3H the only sign of F!Byleth is when they showed off the Avatar select screen in a Nintendo Direct and then used M!Byleth for the rest of the trailer anyway.

Also, worth noting stuff like M!Byleth being used for all of the tutorial screens in 3H, and the fact that all of the avatars are presented as Male by default in Smash Bros.

When it comes to pre-release stuff, IS always favor the M!Avatars, often, as we've seen in the trailers above, to the exclusion of the F!Avatars. The fact that F!Corrin and F!Byleth have ended up getting more attention from IS then their male counterparts in recent years is not because of favoritism from IS, it's because they ended up being the more popular version of the character and so IS pivoted from their initial decision to focus on the male versions of those characters.

Like, no hate to anyone who prefers the Male versions of these characters or is upset by M!Alear not making it into the first Engage banner, but to suggest that IS hates M!Avatars and prefers the women is just ludicrous when historically speaking, they've always initially chosen to highlight the men, and only reluctantly switched focus when the female version ends up being more popular.

Seriously, F!Alear getting into Heroes without an accompanying M!Alear is an unprecedented situation that flies in the face of how IS usually roll, not evidence of an ongoing trend.

Also, just a quick addendum because this topic annoys the hell out of me so I'm feeling a little petty. I do think it's worth noting two things when it comes to Byleth in particular.

When F!Byleth was finally treated as the "default" option in marketing, it was for Three Hopes, a game where Byleth is a relatively minor character and the real main character/new Avatar was advertised using, you guessed it, the male version of the character.

Despite being the more popular version of the character, F!Byleth still got left out of Engage in favor of her male counterpart. Likely because the game has been in development since before IS has a solid grasp on the relative popularity of 3H characters and as such they defaulted to using the man, like they always do.

#fire emblem #fire emblem heroes #byleth eisner #corrin #alear #fire emblem discourse

[midgardianqueenreturns]

Let’s be honest, saying “Engage is bad because it does not have 3H level discourse” does Three Houses a HUGE disservice.

#not sure how to tag this #FE3H #Fire Emblem Three Houses #Fire Emblem discourse #fire emblem #fire emblem fandom #Fe fandom

[yanderefairyangel]

This fandom is exhausting

#fire emblem #fire emblem discourse

[faroreswinds]

Has FE always had a problem with "benevolent sexism" given the complaints people had over Ladlegard or how Engage is handling the divine dragon vs fell dragon trope?

Yes.

Examples:

Eremiya was a kind bishop who watched after orphans until her orphanage burned down and she become evil. She raised children to be assassins and has to be ultimately defeated by Marth.

Turns out she had been brainwashed by Gharnef to do his will, and had never truly been evil.

Clarisse and Reese were two of the children raised by Eremiya to be assassins. Reese (Katstina) betrays her mission and joins with Marth. Clarisse is at least more cruel, but she is still a child who was raised to be an assassin, and yearns for a family and shit. She dies after showing her caring side, by her sister's side.

Altena is Leif's sister, who was taken by Travant and raised as his own daughter. However, despite being raised by him, she had her own misgiving about the wrongs she was ordered to do and eventually joins Leif side and against the man who raised her.

Ishtar is a loyal follower of Julius, even after he goes crazy and evil. She is betrothed to him.

Despite being completely loyal to Julius, she still acts against him by saving children that were ordered to be sacrificed. As such, she is treated as a poor woman trapped by her love for her fiancée rather than a complicent enabler that she is.

Olwen also worked for the bad guys, in a similar manner that Ishtar did. ALSO like Ishtar, she was horrified by the Child Hunts. She would eventually join the good guy side.

Brunnya is a loyal subject to Zephiel. However, she is also pretty much in love with him, and like Ishtar is a woman trapped by her emotional attachment towards her liege.

Aversa was a pretty awful person who served the bad guys happily, until it is revealed that she was also brainwashed to be subservient and cruel.

However, it's not like ALL bad guy ladies are poor souls who are trapped by love or by brainwashing.

Hilda is a cruel, vile woman who relishes in being cruel and vile. She happily murders children. No brainwashing involved.

Ursula is an assassin who pretty much loves her job.

Sonia is not even human. She was specifically created to be an evil entity. But I'll count her.

You may notice a few things about these ladies, however.

Most of the ladies without outside forces like love or brainwashing are all super sexy. Revealing breasts, revealing legs, bedroom eyes, clearly know they are sexy and use it to their advantage. We don't typically see this from the "Good girls" or even the girls who are on the bad side but eventually join the good side. In other words, to be a bad girl, you will also be a super sexy, older lady who likes to show off the goods.

They are never the main bad guy. There is always a male leader who is in charge of them in some way. Either a king, or prince, or a creator of sorts. They are subservient ladies to a man, even if they like it or not.

Women in FE are rarely evil or cruel for the sake of it, and if they are they are almost always the same archetype- sexy evil. And none of them are in charge, there is always a mean man who is pulling their strings.

That's why Edelgard is sort of a breath of fresh air. Of course, you can argue that Thales is sort of pulling her strings, but Edelgard is mostly in charge and leading the conflict that Houses cares about the most (no, it does not care about the Slithers at all).

And that's also why it is equally disappointing that she is fumbled so hard. Lot of the writing has found ways to soften her, or redirect the blame to the Slithers, or, like in Hopes, literally makes her a cute magical girl and spends so much of the writing blaming everyone else but her.

It's not unique to FE by any means, of course, but it starts to really grate on you, especially in the 21st century where we should expect better quality and less sexism in the works we consume, UNLESS the story is making a comment on said sexism or that sexism is part of the story.

Engage is not looking too promising in that area either. Good female Divine Dragon beat evil male Fell Dragon. The cute girls of the bad nation join your side, and the evil king of the bad nation is an old man.

And what do you know, the one lady who seems to be a unrecruitable bad guy is a sexy, clearly older-than-the-other-girls lady who doesn't mind showing off the goods.

Like.... it's so sadly predictable. And lame.

#Fire Emblem Discourse #anon asks

[anvils-of-history]

When you're more based than the "gay revolution power fantasy" game:

Sylvia Sherwood (Spy x Family Chapter 20)

The Shade is real.

#spy x family #fire emblem discourse #edelgard discourse #edelgard critical #fe3h #crimson flower discourse

[pretty-weird-ideas]

I just remembered how asinine the FE3H fandom can be and I just...

As a black person, I am just tired of white fans in this fandom acting like they own black trauma stories and that they have justification to question black fans on how they portray Dedue and his experiences. I've noticed how intense and vitriolic white fans have been getting when black fans write ventart/ventfic regarding Dedue when they let nearly everything else slide. They genuinely police our opinions on his ships to make sure we don't "anti" anything that they ship and will hound HOW we ship Dedue x Anyone Else when we do agree with them regarding ships. It's asinine how angry white people get when their fragile feelings are tested when we discuss casual racism and its effects, or write genuine canon events as they should be addressed. I've had people genuinely get mad because I wrote "Ingrid too racist". Or had a white Dimidue get mad at me; a DIMIDUE for addressing the canon power dynamic or caring enough to discuss how racism plays into consent and coercion. Even if I was discussing how Dimidue can be healthy, and writing it as such. I was questioned simply because "implying" that Dimitri can be racist if written in a specific way was "too much critique".

I must ask... what skin do yall have in this fight? Like at all, to be discussing how black people vent and project their own black trauma and abuse they face onto Dedue? How much entitlement must you have to question and doubt legitimate experiences people have had with racism simply because they didn't do a pretty lil dance and act naive and optimistic about anti-black racism? When we don't pretend like racism no longer exists, or when we discuss how other characters can help make Dedue more comfortable with himself there's nearly immediate pushback and dirty looks. And I'm just so tired of it. What representation is SO SO desperately needed by white people in this nonspecified black man that you are willing to fight for it? What reward are you getting from this other than dunking on black fans for simply discussing their own experiences with racism and loving a character in a way that 99% of white fandom always does?

White fans constantly project their own feelings and trauma onto white and racially ambiguous characters they like, and they nearly get free passes every time. But let a black person put their opinions on race onto Dedue and they lose it. It's simply not acceptable for black fans to project trauma the way that white fans do on a regular basis. And it's blatant and tiring.

Fans have consistently gotten mad at us for writing stories about actually progressing within Fodlan, have ignored us and preferred a coddling and sugar-sweet facade that white people have made, and demolish our platforms when we actually don't give a "happy ending". You shouldn't prefer white writers and their opinions on racism and its effects than black writers. And recently I've been seeing more and more opinions on FE3H/W3H that basically veer on the lines of "I just stopped listening to black people because they just annoy me with their SJW stench and I just can't stand them and their opinions and I-". It's obvious and degrading.

#dedue fire emblem #fe3h #fire emblem three houses #fire emblem discourse #dedue molinaro #fe dedue #blue lions #fire emblem fandom #fire emblem warriors 3 hopes #fire emblem three hopes #fe3hopes #few3h

[ferants]

Alright, so something I feel like I should address, not just because I'm trans but also because of the guy in my pfp, is the rosado discourse. Now, I'm ftm, so not the demographic people wanted rosado to appeal towards but I still think I have some grounds to speak on this. So, and I want to state that this is a personal thing, when I'm playing or just generally engaging (hah get it) with any piece or media I'm not really expecting to be represented, especially for my transness.

It's just a sad reality I've had to come to, like I can count on one hand the amount I've been represented for being transmasc, none of them were games and only one I would call really good representation.

With that in mind, I didn't come into engage expecting anything and what I've seen or rosado has been really cool so far. Yes, he's not a trans woman and yes that would have been cool but I think what people are missing with rosado is that he's absolutely destroying gender roles, and if you're saying hell to that, then it's likely trans characters in fire emblem could be well on their way. That isn't to say that I think us trans fans, and especially trans women, should settle, but more so that rosado should be appreciated for what he is and not what he could have been.

Because what he is doing is saying to hell with gender which is a great step in the right direction.

#fire emblem #fire emblem engage #rosado #fire emblem discourse

[dogs-over-people]

Not to start discourse…

But is Alear physically 17, and chronologically much older (thousands of years old in a mental/emotional sense developmentally)? Or is Alear both physically 17 AND chronologically 17 due to being put to sleep at 17? I’m just wondering because I am super glad you can’t romance underaged child characters in this version of Fire Emblem, but Alear being an underaged child character also doesn’t make sense?

In short, I am confused.

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Engage #FE: Engage #Alear #Fire Emblem Discourse

[emblemxeno]

People on Twitter denying that Engage’s cast is very queer coded is really funny to me lmao

Like, to an extent, I can understand it seems cheap and inoffensive just to make Alear’s romances gender neutral and them being the only ones to have paired endings is sad. Fair.

But deliberately ignoring how fruity the Engage cast is? What? Supports between Fogado/Alcryst, Fogado/Pandreo, Diamant/Amber, Etie/Goldmary, Celine/Hortensia are very gay! Anything that comes out of Alfred’s mouth is gay! Merrin is very les to the point her personal skill is her escorting women like the handsome gal she is!  Kagetsu and Chloe are very open and brazen with their gay words (okay maybe the former is explained by language barriers but honestly he’s probably queer, too)! Rosado personally executed the gender police himself!

Part of the criticism of Engage’s queerness is that no character “uses it in a meaningful way” i.e. explain deeper parts of their characters, and Twitter people compared it to X, Y, and Z characters from the game that shall not be named, and idk, personally in a game with a tone like Engage, it matters less to be specifically descriptive and matters more to be more playful and fun with it. It’s not like Fates where there were only two same sex S support characters and so they had to be written with that directly in mind for their characters (which Treehouse then removed, damn thee), but Engage from the jump tries to be more feel good and hopeful, so not only does there not really need to be character arcs intertwined with implied differing sexualities, that opens the avenue for more of the cast to be read as queer/queer coded by fans.

Idk, that’s what I feel anyway

#fire emblem engage #fire emblem discourse #i read the alfred and etie support where he says his mom wants him and etie together #and they FUCKING LAUGH AT THE PROSPECT #it's like the writers were like #GOD not EVERYTHING has to be STRAIGHT >:( #lmaoooo

[umbralstars]

3H: has lore for Sothis that just takes from multiple real world mythological stories and is actually pretty common tropes for said stories

Too many people in this fucking fandom: Sothis is an aLIeN?!

#fire emblem discourse #she's literally just a goddess this is not that hard #she's a goddess if you use irl polytheist metrics she's a goddess if we use FE lore metrics #the world portals from feh Exists in wider FE lore so her coming from one of those is more plausible than this ancient aliens bullshit

[mayhem-ensues]

Wait, people are actually trying to use story and support stuff from Engage to fuel even more arguments about Three Houses? Goodness, the more things change the more they stay the same, I guess.

But like, come on now, this is just silly. I know they both belong to the same franchise, but they're two different stories by two completely different writing teams and aiming for two completely different vibes/tones/whatever you want to call it. Using one to comment on the other is just asinine.

Like, I don't watch Lord of the Rings and expect Aragorn to be killed off in the peasant revolution, but I might expect that kind of storytelling in a Song of Ice and Fire. Different stories, different purposes. Better to just leave things at that.

#fire emblem #fire emblem engage #fire emblem three houses #edelgard discourse #fire emblem discourse

[midgardianqueenreturns]

Engage doesn’t have enough discourse you say? Very well I will start one.

um

Tallcryst is a myth. Alcryst will stay a short king for the rest of his life 😤

#Fire Emblem Engage #FE Engage #FE17 #FE 17 #Fire Emblem 17 #Alcryst #Alcryst FE #FE Alcryst #Fire Emblem Alcryst #Alcryst Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem discourse #It’s just funnier to me if he stays short forever can’t get on board with the idea he will grow much taller #Smallcryst Supremacy

[flower-of-knighthood]

Dragon Degeneration

I have heard claims that Rhea is undergoing Degeneration throughout Three Houses, and that it ultimately culminates in the final chapter of Silver Snow. It is an easy mistake to make, considering the similarities.

Dragon Degeneration is a phenomenon that has appeared throughout the Fire Emblem Series that seems to occur only to Dragons. The effects include a gradual loss of sanity that ultimately in the dragon going mad, sterilisation, and overall degeneration of the physical body of the dragon. These effects increase in severity, the more the dragon uses their power, and the only known way to avoid degeneration is to seal their power into a dragonstone.

It is a mistake to assume that nabataens are the same as manaketes, and therefore that they suffer from degeneration as well. For instance, Macuil and Indech are encountered in separate paralogues, and appear to be have been in their dragon forms since the War of Heroes, and show no signs of degeneration as far as we know. In fact, the only person who undergoes a process similar to degeneration is Rhea, who incidentally enough is the only known nabataen who still has the ability to transform.

If nabataens don't suffer from dragon degeneration, then what's happening to Rhea? The likely scenario based on the available information is that Rhea is having a mental breakdown as the result of her realisation that she'll never have her mother back combined with being nuked by the Javelins of Light and her treatment at the hands of Adrestia during her captivity, which had Rhea still recovering when Nemesis attacks in Verdant Wind which is two months after her rescue. It is possible that other things caused her breakdown such as a side effect of handing out fragments of presumably her Crest Stone, which is equivalent to her heart or a consequence of her attempts to resurrect Sothis, but there isn't enough evidence to determine.

In Conclusion, Nabataens are a separate species from the manaketes found in other Fire Emblem Games, and therefore rules that apply to manaketes such as dragon degeneration cannot be expected to apply to Nabataens.

#edelgard discourse #fire emblem discourse

[faroreswinds]

I feel like a lot of fandom discourse/wank wouldn't be this headache inducing if we all could collectively agree that liking something in fiction does not mean you endorse it in real life.

So apparently, I pissed off some people about my comment that Engage doesn't say nobles are bad because most FE games don't really go there.

I guess this was taken as "I love nobility! I love feudalism! Monarchy, monarchy, monarchy!"

Anyone in rl would know that I am extremely pro democracy, but have little negative opinion on other systems that work for other communities. My favorite way may not work for another group of people.

Although I fundamentally believe dictatorships ARE bad, very bad, and that democracy is the best form of government we know.

Which isn't a hot take. It's like... the coldest take yet.

My lack of a "negative opinion" stems more from the recognition of historical necessity and cultural differences rather than outright endorsement of these systems. It's more like how one observes scientific data. It's useful to know but has no emotional attachment.

Anyways, point is, people assumed that I genuinely believe that feudalism is Good for humanity or some nonsense, which is just exhausting. Over a comment about what FE is normally about.

#anon asks #Fandom discourse #Fire Emblem discourse