It was the Best of Weapons, It was the Worst of Weapons Part 3

So I’m grouping Fire Emblems 7, 8, 9 & 10 together because they all have the same best weapon types and the reasons why are the same. So with that out of the way let’s begin.

Fire Emblems 7 - 10 

Best Weapon Type: Axes


By this point in time Kaga was long gone and it seemed like the new guy in charge must have really liked axes. So why are they now considered to be good? 

1 - 2 Range Weapons Got Gud: Hand Axes are significantly better in these games which means that axe users have the benefits of attacking at distance while also being able to defend themselves at melee range. In the Tellius games you can even create forged Hand Axes that have all the positives of regular hand axes without any of their downsides.

2. Their accuracy issues are no longer a problem, but their higher might still remains: One property that axes retain is that they have higher might on average than their lance or sword counterparts. The big change here is that axes aren’t as inaccurate as they were in the past.

One major reason for this is that enemies in these four games are predominantly lance users so wielding an axe means that you get weapon triangle control over a lot of them. That’s an extra + 10 / + 15 accuracy right there.

Enemies in Fire Emblems 7 - 9 are notorious for being easy to kill. One of the reasons why they’re easy in this case is that they weigh themselves down to the point where hitting them isn’t difficult to do anymore.

3. Axes stopped weighing their wielders down:
In the first four Fire Emblem games the Attack Speed formula was basically “Speed - Weapon Weight”. This basically meant that if you wanted to double attack you needed a high Speed stat and a weapon with low weight. This formula screwed axes over since they would always weigh a lot. Then came Fire Emblem 5 which decided to change that to:

Speed – (weapon Weight – Build, 0 if negative)

This means that weapons can still have higher weight without flushing their wielder’s Attack Speed down the toilet. Then the Tellius games switched “Con” to “Strength” which further reduced the relevance of weapon weight to everyone except for magic users. While this one doesn’t automatically make axes good on its own (FE 5 & 6 say hi) it does play a role in making them more viable weapons. Then you combine reasons # 1 & 2 and suddenly its not so surprising that axes don’t suck anymore. One more thing to note: Axes also have more variety in these games than they did in the previous entries which gives axes users more tools to deal with specific problems.

Worst Weapon Types for FE 7, 8 & 10: Bows
While axes got a huge upgrade bows basically remained the same. Bows have always been restricted to 2 range in Fire Emblem but the difference was that in the past Hand Axes weren’t good weapons. They either had crappy accuracy or their weapon weight mattered more. In these games that’s no longer the case. Hand Axes (and javelins) have the same range as the average bow, but they also have the extra perk of being able to defend their wielders at close range, which is something a bow cannot do. At least bows can still deal effective damage against fliers right? Well that’s not a big deal anymore because all the enemies suck so the extra damage is superfluous. 

Radiant Dawn also adds insult to injury by having a significant portion of the game be the "Rout" objective. The reason why this matters is because "Rout" heavy games tend to benefit powerhouse units who can wipe out huge enemy armies during the Enemy Phase. Since archers can't counterattack 1 range enemies on the Enemy Phase that means that there's a significant portion of the game where they simply cease to exist. 

Worst Weapon Type for Path of Radiance: Knives
While bows contain all the same problems in Path of Radiance as they do in the previous games the big difference here is that knives suck even more. There are three knives in Path of Radiance. Just three. The strongest knife in Path of Radiance has only a measly 8 might, which is on par with a Steel Sword. None of the knives in Path of Radiance have range and for some strange reason you cannot forge them. Why do knives exist in Path of Radiance again?

It was the Best of Weapons, It was the Worst of Weapons Part 2

Holy War



Best Weapons: Swords & Wind Magic
Worst Weapons: Axes & Fire Magic

I’m sure this ranking comes as a surprise to nobody, but let’s analyze this anyway. First, let’s compare and contrast the various weapons by starting with the anima tomes.

Wind Tome

Mt: 8
Weight: 2
Hit: 90

Thunder Tome
Mt: 8
Weight: 7
Hit: 90

Fire Tome
Mt: 8
Weight: 12
Hit: 90

Between these three tomes the only difference is in their weight. The wind tome has the lightest weight which means that the wielder will experience the least attack speed reduction. The Fire Tome has the highest weight which means that your attack speed is going to drop like an anchor, which means that you’ll easily get double attacked by enemies.

This pattern applies to the higher ranked anima tomes as well (which you can see for yourself here: https://serenesforest.net/genealogy-of-the-holy-war/inventory/fire-thunder-wind/).

They all have the exact same might, usually they’ll have the same accuracy, but the wind tomes will ALWAYS have lower weight. This means that the wind tome user can deal just as much damage as their lightning or fire wielding counterparts, but they also get the added bonus of having higher avoid and being able to double attack (assuming that they have the Pursuit skill).



Assuming that you have the same weapon ranks in anima magic, there is zero reason to ever use thunder and fire magic over wind. Wind magic is also the only anima magic type whose Regalia can be used by the player, and if you pair Lewyn and Tiltyu together you can use the Holsety tome from the end of Chapter 4 until the last chapter of Holy War, which is the longest period of time you can ever have a Regalia for.

Swords and Axes operate under a similar line of logic. The main difference here is that axes have significantly higher might than swords, but their weight is also absurdly high. For example, compare and contrast an Iron Sword with an Iron Axe:

Iron Sword
Mt: 6
Wt: 3
Hit: 80

Iron Axe
Mt: 14
Wt: 18
Hit: 70

An Iron Axe has more weight than might, which is pretty awful. Sure it has more than twice as much might, but that still doesn’t change the fact that you’re basically going to have non-existent attack speed. Even if the axe-user doesn’t have the Pursuit skill they’re still going to have terrible avoid.

Once again, this pattern is applicable to swords, axes and lances. Axes will have high might, but their weight is absurdly high and their accuracy will generally be either average, or it will be bad. There are also only 6 different kinds of axes: Iron, Steel, Silver, Brave and the Hand Axe plus the Helswath. By contrast, there are over 4 times that many swords. Also, all 3 sword regalia will come under the player’s possession at one point in the game or another. The Axe Regalia doesn’t.

Something else I almost forgot to bring up is that magic swords are actually considered to be good 1 - 2 range in this game. For example, give Sigurd Ethlin’s Light Brand and stick him in the forest at the beginning of Chapter 4. It’s pretty hilarious how low the accuracy of the Wind Mages will be. Even Mekkah suggested that Alec and Noish with magic swords are actually pretty good units:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQOTKuXYwz8&index=6&list=PLA69XE9lKaI64aDqHYvng0U9jpYF1dslC

To Sum it up: Swords and wind magic are super light weight, which grant their users more avoid and will guarantee that characters with the Pursuit skill will be able to double attack. Axe and Fire Magic are really heavy and will have sub-par accuracy.

____________________________________________________________

Thracia 776
Best Weapon Types: Wind Magic & Swords
Worst Weapon Types: Dark Magic & Bows

Well would you look at that? Wind tomes and Swords are once again the best weapon types. It feels like deja vu all over again. The reason why wind tomes are the best weapon type here is less obvious than in Holy War. Wind tomes still have the lightest weight on average (although Thunder tomes do a better job of giving them competition) while maintaining great damage output. Plus Wind tomes give the player not one, but two OP Prf rank weapons: Grafcalibur and Holsety. Blizzard is also the best of the three ballistic siege tomes due to its ability to inflict the Sleep status on enemies. In Thracia, statuses can last forever unless you use a Restore staff. So inflicting a status is a much bigger deal here.

Swords once again have the greatest variety in their arsenal compared to axes or lances. Swords also have better accuracy too. Most lances on average have between 65 - 70 accuracy while most axes have between 50 - 65 accuracy. Some swords have between 55 - 65 accuracy, but the difference here is that there are also a significant number that have 70 accuracy or higher, which is something that the other two can’t say. Once again swords have favorably low weights as well, meaning that sword users as a whole will suffer less attack speed penalties.

Unlike Holy War Thracia 776 tends to give the stink eye to different weapon types. Let’s start with Dark Magic. There are only two Dark Magic tomes that can be used by the player: Yotsmungand and Fenrir. Everything else either turns into Fenrir when taken upon capture or can’t be used by the player at all. As if that weren’t bad enough Dark Magic is ridiculously heavy. You know you’re doing something wrong when the lightest weapon of your type is at 12. Be prepared to watch that attack speed flush down the toilet. The Fenrir tome also only has 5 uses. Yikes. 

Bows lack 1 range, which hurts them a lot in this game because it means that bow users cannot capture at all. Bows also have a terrible might to weight ratio in Thracia 776. All of the lower ranked bows have weight that are either greater than or equal to their might, which is awful! Their accuracy is also on par with lances too on average.

____________________________________________________________
Binding Blade

Best Weapon Types: Swords and Dark Magic
Worst Weapon Types: Axes and Light Magic

Once again swords reign supreme. Swords in Binding Blade tend to have fantastic accuracy in a game where accuracy is actually an issue. There are plenty of axe wielding enemies as well so sword users get a nifty weapon triangle bonus whose usefulness is bolstered by the fact that axes can’t hit the broad side of a barn in this game. Once again swords have low weight which is very favorable for them especially in comparison to lances and axes who do not have favorable might to weight ratios.

You might be wondering why Dark Magic is considered to be one of the best weapon types. Well for starters Dark Magic gives you Flux and Nosferatu, which have reasonable accuracies and favorable might - weight ratios. Nosferatu is also a godsend in Hard Mode where enemies can hit like a truck. Apocalypse has great firepower too for a Regalia in FE 6. 18 might and a + 5 Magic boost are pretty sweet. 

Now to the worst weapon types. Axes are notorious (and rightfully so) for having craptastic accuracy. Armads is the only axe in the game that has higher than 65 accuracy. That’s really sad. Most axes have a weight that’s greater than or equal to their might which means that you’ll also get weighed down extremely fast.

Light Magic is considered one of the worst weapon types in the game mainly because it doesn’t really have anything good going for it. Anima has Aircalibur (and anima magic as a whole is more accurate in this game) while Dark Magic has Nosferatu and a better Regalia to boot. Light Magic just doesn’t contribute anything meaningful or substantive so it gets left behind.

It was the Best of Weapons, It was the Worst of Weapons Part 1

One of the suggestions I got for a future blog post was talking about which weapon types were the best and worst. The thing about this topic is that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. Each Fire Emblem game has at least a few differences in how their mechanics work. These differences in mechanics and design affect the overall quality of the different weapon types. This means that I’ll have to rank the quality of each weapon type by game because each game is different enough to warrant its own discussion.


Before I begin, I’d like to thank Ronaldo for helping me out with these lists. This would have been pretty daunting to make without you buddy.

FE 1 & 3

Best Weapon Type: Swords
Worst Weapon Type: Axes

First, let’s start with why axes suck in FE 1 & 3. For starters, there are only 5 different kinds of axes in both games:

https://serenesforest.net/dark-dragon-and-sword-of-light/inventory/axes/

https://serenesforest.net/mystery-of-the-emblem/inventory/axes/

Axes also tend to weigh a ton. For example an Iron Sword has 2 weight in both games while an Iron Axe has a weight of 7. Sure the Iron Axe has + 3 might over the Iron Sword, which means that it will deal more damage, but the Iron Sword dramatically increases your chances of double attacking enemies.

Generally speaking double attacking is a better way of increasing damage output than having one strong swing. This is a big reason why swords are considered the best weapons in both of these games: Their weight is super low, which means that you’ll have the easiest time double attacking enemies. Swords also provide the highest variety of weapons that let you deal with different foes.


You’ve got swords that deal effective damage against dragons, armored units, increase your chances of landing a crit and in FE 3 there are swords that deal effective damage against thieves, pirates and mercenaries. Indoor maps in FE 3 also make swords a more preferred choice since they become the default weapon for a significant percent of your army.



Additional Notes From Ronaldo

• Levin Swords are potent 1 - 2 range weapons in Fire Emblems 1 & 3. The reason for that is that enemy resistance just doesn’t exist which means that you can get a lot of mileage from them. 

• Also, the Rapier is game-breaking in Fire Emblem 1 and it’s a sword. Meanwhile both Mercurius and Falchion are also powerful weapons and they are swords.

________________________________________________




Gaiden & Echoes


Best Weapon Type in Gaiden: Swords

Worst Weapon Type in Gaiden: Lances



Best Weapon Type in Echoes: Bows

Worst Weapon Type in Echoes: Magic


You’re probably wondering why Gaiden and Echoes have different Best / Worst Weapon Types. Let’s start with Echoes since that’s the game that most people have played here. Magic is the worst weapon type in that game because of the following reasons:

• It reduces the HP of the caster making them easier to kill. Also, if said caster doesn’t have enough HP to cast the spell then they’re effectively useless.

• Magic is the only weapon type in Echoes that cannot be forged. That’s a huge disadvantage the other weapon types don’t have.

• You can’t get a Combat Arte from using a spell a certain number of times like you can with all the other weapons. 

Bows in Echoes got a HUGE upgrade from the original. For starters there are only 4 bows in the original Gaiden. By contrast there are 14 bows in Echoes. Sure, two of them are amiibo and DLC only but that still counts.


One of the problems with bows in both OG Gaiden and in Echoes are their low accuracies. The difference in Echoes is that you can forge a bow, which fixes that problem. Bows have the best range in Echoes and more importantly they give you access to the awesomeness that is the Killer Bow. Not only does the Killer Bow provide you with + 20 Crit but you also get “Hunter’s Volley” which provide two consecutive attacks.





Here’s what Ronaldo said about the worth of swords and lances in Gaiden:


The Devil Sword is the strongest weapon in Gaiden...if you give it to a Dread Fighter. Dread Fighters don’t have to deal with the recoil effect and they’re so fast that they’ll still double attack everything (except for other Dread Fighters) so the extra weight doesn’t hinder them. All while taking advantage of the 13 might of the Devil Sword.

Lances are considered the worst weapon type in Gaiden because they really can’t do anything that other weapon types can’t do better. Bows have excellent range, Swords have the Devil Sword, Magic has the Magic Ring and Miracle Ring. Lances have the Gradivus, but that's endgame only.

Top 10 Most Difficult Fire Emblem Characters to Recruit (# 5 - 1)

# 5 - Karla (Blazing Sword)



Recruit Requirement: Bartre must participate in Ch 31x. If he is a Level 5 Warrior or higher, Karla will appear above the arena. Make Bartre talk to her and if both survive a round of combat she will join. (Hector’s story only)
Oh joy! You have to use one of the worst units in the game. I don’t just mean use him, I mean he has to be promoted and at least at Level 5. Then they have to survive a round of combat against each other. What could possibly go wrong?





# 4 - Nasir (Path of Radiance)




Recruit Requirement: Defeat the Black Knight

Oh yeah! I’ll totally defeat the Black Knight. What a piece of cake. Right? Right? Yeah no. Fighting the Black Knight in Path of Radiance is a total RNG fest. I mean sure it’s optional, but if you’re trying to recruit Nasir you basically have to beat him. The only way to defeat the Black Knight that I’m aware of is to level up Ike, give him Aether, and then pray that it activates at least one time. At best Ike will have a 27 % chance of activating Aether and that’s assuming that his Skill stat reached its cap. There’s also a time limit to beating the Black Knight too so you have to activate Aether at least one time in the span of about 5 turns. Have fun with that.


# 3 - Klein / Tate (Binding Blade)





Klein’s Recruit Requirement: Appears as an enemy from Turn 5 (A) / Turn 8 (B), talk with Roy or Clarine

Tate’s Recruit Requirement: Appears as an enemy from Turn 7 (A) / Turn 10 (B), talk with Klein (or talk with Thany before and after Klein has been recruited (note that if you only talk with Thany after recruiting Klein, Tate will just become an NPC))

These two in particular can be pretty frustrating to recruit. They’re surrounded by their own personal armies who will try to kill you. The thing is that being surrounded by said armies wouldn’t be so bad if you wanted to just cut through the schmucks to get to these guys.




But Binding Blade dangles a carrot in front of the player’s nose in the cruelest way possible: If Klein and Tate are recruited and ALL of their soldiers survive by the end of the chapter you get an Orion’s Bolt and an Elysian Whip. Even if you don’t plan on using them to promote anybody that’s still a hefty chunk of change. These items take what would already be a somewhat annoying recruitment into a frustrating nightmare. As you can tell I replayed Binding Blade recently and this one hits pretty close to home.
# 2 - Sephiran / Lehran (Radiant Dawn)






Recruit Requirement: 2nd playthrough onwards *1, automatically if you viewed Ike’s memory scene in Part 4 Final-2, which is triggered by: 1. Deploying the Black Knight in Part 1 Final and 2. Making Ike fight the Black Knight in Part 3 Chapter 7 (and the Black Knight survives)

Oh look. Another Tellius recruitment based off of fighting the Black Knight. Except this time you have to do it earlier in the game. And you have to have already beaten the game once before you even get the chance to pull it off. Yay. 




# 1 - Xavier (Thracia 776)



It’s the completely obvious choice that everybody saw coming a mile away. Yes, sadly Xavier deserves the reputation he’s gotten for having the most ridiculous recruitment requirement in the entire series. So how do you get this guy again? “Let the civilians talk to all 8 Lenster Armors near Xavier. Then talk with Leaf”. Did I mention that the civilians are NPC’s? That means that they’ll walk straight toward enemy units that are trying to kill them. Guess who are among these enemies? The Armor Knights that are supposed to be talking to said NPCs.



So you have to find a way of keeping them from suiciding onto your troops. Oh does that sound too easy for you? Ok then. If you start recruiting any of these Armor Knights then the ones you haven’t recruited yet will turn on their former allies. Guess what these guys usually wield? Killer Lances and Hammers! Which means that the likelihood of slaughtering their former allies is really high.


If that wasn’t bad enough there’s another ridiculous element to it all: You have to get specific NPCs to talk to specific Armor Knights. I repeat: “You have to get specific NPCs to talk to specific Armor Knights.” Does the game ever tell you which NPCs go with which Armor Knights? No! Of course not.

If any civilian dies before they talk to their specific Armor Knight you can’t get Xavier, but if they die after recruiting their specific Armor Knight then that’s okay. If any of these specific Armor Knights die before talking to their respective NPC then you also can’t recruit Xavier.

Top 10 Most Difficult Fire Emblem Characters to Recruit (# 10 - 6)

Welcome to the “Top 10 Toughest Fire Emblem Characters To Recruit” list. Before I begin I wanted to talk about the criteria I used for this list: How hard are they to recruit even when you know what the requirements are? I figured that a character that’s still hard to recruit even when you’re aware of how to do it is more challenging than being vague. For that reason alone, you won’t see Stefan on this list. Stefan’s recruitment is actually easy once you know how to do it. There were also some other characters I thought about putting on here, but chose not to because there’s an easy strategy to recruiting them (Ayra & Douglas). So with that out of the way let’s begin…


# 10 - Shinon’s Re-Recruitment (Path of Radiance)



Recruitment Requirement: “Talk with Rolf during Ch 18 and defeat with Ike”.

The first problem here is that in order to re-recruit Shinon you have to use Rolf. This can mean one of two things: Either you baby Rolf so that this part isn’t all that challenging OR you find a way to keep Rolf out of harm’s way so that he doesn’t get slaughtered before you have him meet up with Shinon. Both of these options come with their own set of challenges that can make your life difficult. Then you have to “kill” him with Ike. It’s pretty cryptic since dropping a character’s HP to 0 normally means killing them for real. I was fortunate enough to recruit Shinon on accident during my first playthrough of the game, but that still doesn’t change the fact that it’s a total curve ball that would catch someone off-guard.

# 9 - Hannibal (Genealogy of the Holy War)



Recruit Requirement: Talk with Sharlow / Corpul

So in order to recruit Hannibal you basically have to wipe out his army without killing him, maneuver out of your way to the next castle, kill everyone there, recruit Sharlow / Corple and get them to talk to him. It’s extremely tedious and it should go without saying that he’s not worth all that effort.


# 8 - Michalis (Fire Emblem 12)



Recruit Requirement: “From battle preparations (in Chapter 21, make Minerva wait on the village before the end of Turn 15, and then visit the village with Marth)”

So here’s a map of Chapter 21:



The village mentioned in the recruitment requirement has a “1” over it. It is on the opposite side of the map. There are thieves with a significant head start over you who will try to destroy it. 12 move dragons are also in the way. They hit like trucks. And there are mages with ballistic siege tomes that will ruin your life. Oh, and you have to get Minerva there by Chapter 15. She has to “wait” on that village and then Marth has to show up. It’s a tricky feat to pull off.




# 7 - Matthis (Fire Emblem 3 Book 2 / Fire Emblem 12)




Recruit Requirement: Talk to him with Julian

I think this post on reddit says it all: “In Book 2, Matthis is one of the main reasons why chapter 3 goes down in Fire Emblem history as one of the worst chapters. If you wish to be a completionist and get all the recruitable characters, you're required to take the long and uneventful road around the chapter's terrain to get to a village to recruit Julian, the guy who recruits Matthis. If you try to take the shortcut, Matthis will charge and most likely end up being killed.

Among the community, Matthis is infamous for being the namer of the 'Matthis Syndrome', an unfortunate consequence of enemy AI being all too eager to attack. The Matthis Syndrome describes characters that start as enemies but charge towards you and have zero hesitations about attacking their own family members, in this case, Lena. What makes this even funnier is that Matthis will call out her name when attacking anyone and is searching for her, even if he's attacking Lena herself.

So yeah, Matthis. Mediocrity personified?”


(P.S. Shout-out to Matthew Villegas and Alexjon Cutter Martinelli for being the only two people to call this one. I’m really surprised that nobody else mentioned Matthis)


# 6 - Misha (Thracia 776)



Recruit Requirement: Talk with Karin and then capture her (send her to sleep to dismount her). Karin must also be alive during the chapter’s end

Fun fact: A mounted unit cannot be captured in Thracia 776. They have to be dismounted in order for you to capture them. How do you make a mounted unit unmounted in an outdoor map in Thracia 776? You put them to sleep. So Misha is literally unrecruitable unless you either have a Sleep Staff or a weapon that inflicts the Sleep status.

Of Morphs and Homunculi

Once upon a time in March of 2018 there was a Blazing Sword podcast. And in this Blazing Sword podcast there was an FMA / FE 7 Homunculus - Morph discussion going on. During this discussion I mentioned that I would make a blog post about this. Time passed and I never got around to doing it. Better late than never.

Morphs in FE 7 and the homunculi from FMA share some interesting similarities. For example:

• The reason for their creation: Morphs and the homunculi are both artificial humans created to act as tools to further their maker’s agenda. Father in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood created the homunculi in order to become “the perfect being”. All of them, except for Greed, serve Father and work to make his plan of sacrificing Amestris come true throughout the anime and manga. Likewise, the morphs in Fire Emblem 7 are made specifically to help Nergal carry out his plans. 

• Their method of creation is very similar: The homunculi in FMA are powered by Philosopher Stones, which are created by sacrificing human lives. In the 2003 version homunculi are created from failed human transmutations. In Fire Emblem 7 morphs are created with recycled quintessence. Quintessence is defined in the game as a person’s life force. In a way, both homunculi and morphs are created from the essence and life force of dead people. As Envy put it in 2003 FMA: “You gotta spend life to make life”. 

• Both of them have distinct physical features that give them away: The homunculi and morphs have black hair and distinct eye colors. The homunculi in 2003 FMA have lavender eye colors while in Brotherhood their eyes are purple. According to FMA Wiki, the homunculi usually have purple eyes in the manga, but sometimes they are depicted as red. In FE 7 Morphs all have golden eyes and blood red lips. 

        The homunculi in FMA all have Ouroboros tattoos that instantly give them away as homunculi. Both homunculi and morphs dissolve into dust when they die.

• Morphs and homunculi are similarly limited in their emotional capacities: Morphs are generally characterized as emotionless. When they do express emotions, it’s usually one emotion such as Sonia’s arrogant belief that she’s “perfect” or Limstella’s devotion to Nergal. Ephidel only fakes emotion and that’s when he needs to carry out his assignment in aiding Nergal’s plan. 

        The Homunculi in FMA are designed to literally embody a certain vice from their creator. In addition to that vice they generally see themselves as superior to regular humans. FMA Wiki points out that this may be a reference “to pride being labelled by Christians as "the father of all sins".


In addition to these similarities it should be pointed out that both Nergal and Father share some similarities too.

• Both of them either try or succeed in instigating armed conflict that furthers their goals: Nergal’s plan in Fire Emblem 7 is to stir up a civil war in Lycia. This was done in order for him to collect enough quintessence in order to call more dragons through the Gate. 

                  In FMA we learn that Father created Amestris specifically so that it could one day become a nationwide transmutation circle that would eventually let him open the Portal and swallow God. This plan is the main reason why Amestris got involved in so many bloody conflicts and why it’s an expansionist state. The Ishval Civil War is a prime example of this. 

        Both of their plans revolve around opening a Gate in order to consume huge amounts of power: Once Nergal had obtained enough quintessence he was going to call dragons through the Dragon Gate and harness their quintessence to become all-powerful. Father’s entire plan revolved around creating a giant transmutation circle around Amestris, sacrificing it, absorbing the souls of the entire country of Amestris and then absorbing the power of God once the Gate of Truth had been opened.



They’re both characterized by a lust for knowledge: Both Nergal and Father are characterized by being too hungry for knowledge. This leads them to learn the secrets of magic / power that are considered taboo or forbidden within their respective series. It’s also worth noting the cost they must pay in order to achieve their goals. Father sacrifices the entire country of Xerxes, and later tries to do it again with Amestris.

Nergal turned to dark magic so that he could open the gate and reclaim Ninian and Nils. Sadly Nergal forgot who he was in the process. Eventually all Nergal remembered was that he needed power and that the Gate had to be opened. It’s also implied that his wife, Aenir’s fate also played a significant role in his lust for power.

Rewriting Fates

               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.