It’s been a while since I’ve written in this blog and I miss it. I’ve been thinking about a potentially interesting topic to write about for a while and then I finally came up with this idea: Rewriting the plot of Fates to make it good.
It’s no big secret that Fates has a pretty awful story and for many people that’s the most damning element about it. So for this post let’s rewrite the plot of Fates and see if there’s a way that we can salvage it. Here’s what I’ve come up with.
In spite of its awful execution Fates had the best premise that a Fire Emblem game has had for a plot: The main character is in a Theon Greyjoy type situation stuck between two warring kingdoms. One side is Corrin’s adopted family while the other side is Corrin’s biological family. Who should Corrin side with? It’s an amazing premise that screams moral ambiguity. Unfortunately this premise got undermined in the games. So how do we rewrite the story of Fates?
1. The Hoshido royals are actually Corrin’s siblings: Making Corrin unrelated to Hoshido means that their claim of being Corrin’s family is a lie. Essentially Corrin is giving up their adoptive family for a group of strangers who are lying to them. That undermines the premise of the game so in this rewrite the Hoshido siblings are actually telling the truth. They are Corrin’s biological family.
2. Eliminate Valla: Anankos and Valla are the biggest reasons why the plot of Fates went downhill. For one, having a third option that’s supposed to be “canon” is a total cop out. It presents an easy choice so that neither Corrin nor the player have to do the hard work of picking a side. Here Corrin doesn’t have to betray one side of their family. It also provided a lame reason why the war between Nohr and Hoshido started. There’s no moral ambiguity when both sides are being played like fiddles by Anankos. So for the rewrite we eliminate Anankos and Valla. This gives us some more room to write a better reason for the existence of the war and it gives the two kingdoms their agency back.
3. Make Nohr less evil and Hoshido less good: Another problem with the plot in Fates is that Nohr is portrayed as bad and Hoshido is portrayed as good. In a normal Fire Emblem game that would be fine, but with a premise like the one in Fates that relies on moral ambiguity to work we need to have both sides be morally gray.
A few ways to do this would be to make Nohr look less like a Mordor knock off and to make Hoshido look less like Paradise. Have both kingdoms start that way, but over the course of the games Corrin and the player learn that the two kingdoms aren’t what they appear to be.
Another method would be to make Garon more sympathetic and the Hoshido siblings (particularly Mikoto and Ryoma) look less so. Nohr might be a kingdom that focuses more on military strength, but you can write into their history that the way they are like that is because if they weren’t so strong their kingdom would never survive. Meanwhile Hoshido maybe peaceful and prosperous but the kingdom is run by xenophobic people and their upper classes are elitist. While there are other ways in which one could rewrite this, the point is to give both kingdoms their pros and cons.
The next thing we need to do is provide context for the war between the two nations. In this rewrite the player is never definitively told which kingdom is right and which one is wrong. Instead the game gives both kingdoms their sides of the story and the player has to make up their mind. Here’s a draft I’d like to propose. First, let’s start with the facts.
- Nohr is going through a terrible drought.
- Garon and Sumeragi decided to sign a treaty. As part of the agreement they will give each other their newborn children (Corrin and Azura) to prevent the other side from breaking said treaty.
- Garon kills Sumeragi and flees back to Nohr with baby Corrin. Queen Mikoto declares war on Nohr afterward.
From here both countries give their version of the events and why there’s a war.
Hoshido’s Narrative: Hoshido claims that Garon broke the treaty by killing their king and that Nohr is trying to conquer their land as a means of providing themselves sustenance (essentially Hoshido is accusing Nohr of being like what Thracia was to Manster). As a further note, some of Hoshido’s western border used to be under Nohr’s control. Those people had revolted and Hoshido came to their aid. Ever since then Nohr’s been trying to get it back and this war is the excuse Nohr needed to retake land that once belonged to them.
Nohr’s Narrative: Garon claims that he received reliable information from his spies about Sumeragi planning to assassinate him. From Garon’s perspective either he was going to die or Sumeragi was going to die so Garon “shot first” a la Han Solo style.
Another point that Garon brings up is that the original treaty was that Hoshido would provide Nohr with food and supplies to keep them from starving while Nohr would provide Hoshido with military assistance in dealing with Hoshido’s “barbaric neighbors”. Garon claims that his spies told him that Hoshido’s neighbors weren’t actually “barbaric” and that signing the treaty would have forced Nohr into genocidal war against peaceful nations.
After the two kingdoms give their respective accounts of what happened Corrin, and by extension the player, have to make up their minds about who’s lying and who’s telling the truth. And again, the player is never given a definitive answer. The player has to make up their own mind. This leaves room for doubt moral ambiguity.
Then from here the story plays out from the perspectives of the differing nations. However, one change is that if you play the Conquest route Mikoto is the final boss, not Garon. If you play the Birthright route then Xander doesn’t look a tool for siding with Garon, his loyalty to his father is supposed to come across as more sympathetic and justified.
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Other rewrite notes
- Eliminate the S rank supports and marriage from the game: Baby dimensions were a dumb part of Fates. They’re not needed for this story so I wouldn’t have them here at all.
If I couldn’t have that and my hypothetical boss were to tell me that S rank supports absolutely had to make it into the game I would at least keep Corrin from being able to S rank their siblings. In this version Corrin is related to their Hoshidan siblings so we’re not going to have a player avatar commit incest. While Nohr may not be biologically related Corrin grew up with them and as far as Corrin’s concerned they are family so it would still be kind of weird and gross.
- My Castle happens in the real world: There’s no Astral plane in this version. My Castle is simply Corrin using the resources of their kingdom to make life better for both themselves and for whichever kingdom they’ve allied with.
- Rewriting certain characters: Garon would be actually sympathetic and not the mustache twirling bad guy that he was in the game. Iago would fall under the same category. Hans would either be written out or would also be given actual depth and nuance.
Xander would always act like the warm big brother type of character that his supports portray him as. Camilla would be less creepy and would fit more into the “Onee-sama” or the Cool Big Sis tropes. Hinoka’s personality and backstory would be less Avatar-centric and Takumi would come across as less of a douche bag. Also Pieri’s personality would be radically different (for starters she wouldn’t be a bloodthirsty psycho). This would apply to a bunch of other characters but I think you get the point.
So let me know what you think, or if you’ve got a better idea on how to rewrite the story of Fates.
