# 4 - Travant (Holy War)

 

And here's a villain that everyone predicted would be on the list. I also alluded to Travant being on this list back in my Michalis post:

 "Michalis is the character that spawned an archetype of bad guys who are usually ambitious rulers that will do bad things in order to preserve either themselves or their people. Travant is the most famous example of this archetype, but he's far from the only one."

(Source: https://thecrusadergrant.blogspot.com/2020/12/top-10-villains-list-honorable-mention.html) 

Michalis may have invented the archetype of the enemy leader doing bad things for the sake of his people's prosperity, but Travant perfected the archetype. So who is Travant, and why is he rated so highly on this list?

Travant is the leader of the kingdom of Thracia, a nation whose land is barren. Throughout Fire Emblems 4 & 5, we see Thracia consistently portrayed as a nation where it's citizens are poor and starving. The only thing Thracia has going for it is that it has wyverns, and a king willing to do anything to make his people prosper.

Another major characteristic of Thracia is that it has been constantly trying to invade it's northern neighbor, the Munster District. The Munster District (formerly known as the Manster District aka the place where Quan, Leif, and Finn are from) is Thracia's northern neighbor whose land is fertile. In addition to wanting his people to prosper, Travant has another major goal:

“My fondest wish is to return this land to what it was in the days of Dáinn and Njörun. ...Even if it damns me to the deepest pit of Hell.” 

Travant also wants to unite Thracia and Munster into one country. When you combine his two motives together (Munster has resources that Thracia doesn't, plus he wants the two kingdoms unified) you get why he wants to invade Munster. Sure, Munster is Quan's home, so naturally you see Travant as a bad guy since he's trying to invade it, but to his credit his reasons make sense for why he'd want to invade his northern neighbor. And this becomes a major reason behind why Travant is an excellent villain: His motivations make perfectly good sense.

Another fun tidbit about Thracia is Munster comes from a conversation in Chapter 8x of Thracia 776:

When viewed in this light, it makes even more sense why Travant would want to invade Munster. But wait, there's more. Travant doesn't merely get to invade his neighbor, he actually gets to win. In Chapter 5 of Holy War, you the player have to watch both him and his army ambush and destroy Quan, Ethlyn, and their entire force. It's a gut wrenching scene. And it also helps to set Travant apart from most of the villains on this list. Travant is one of the few villains in the franchise who actually gets to kill a playable character. That's a pretty big deal. Not many other villains get to say that. As if that wasn't enough, Travant also takes Quan's daughter, Altenna, and raises her as his own. After killing Quan and Ethlyn, he destroys Leonster and effectively takes over the Munster District for a short period of time. 

Just as victory was in his reach, the Grannvale Empire swoops in and takes Munster from Travant. Thracia gets defeated and Travant has to sign a treaty with the Grannvale Empire. To his credit, Thracia is the only kingdom in Jugdral that doesn't get annexed by Grannvale.  The fact that he managed to avoid being conquered by the most powerful military juggernaut in the series is an impressive feat on its own. 

Unfortunately for him, the treaty (along with his country's standing with the Grannvale Empire) put him in a really shaky situation as he has to deal with the fact that said Empire could destroy him if he makes one wrong move. This is why Travant and Thracia act like they do during the Second Generation of Holy War, and in Thracia 776.

By the time the player gets to fight him in the Second Generation of Holy War, he's already caught between a rock and a hard place. His reputation as ruthless and opportunistic proceeds him so Seliph and Leif know better than to turn their backs on him. While both Seliph and Travant are enemies of the Empire, they really can't come to a truce either. In spite of the fact that they have a common enemy and would have both benefitted from a temporary alliance against Grannvale, you still have to fight him in Chapter 9 of Holy War. In a move that seems fairly weird for him, Travant decides to rush toward Leif and Seliph. He even hands the Gungnir to Arion. This might seem weird for him, but there are two lengthy posts on reddit that explain why he would do that:

              "Trabant: “Here, I’m leaving this lance with you. Don’t you lose Thracia now, you hear?”

Areone: “…Isn’t this the Gungnir? Father, what’s the meaning of this? You’re not going into battle without it, are you?"

Trabant: “I’ve had enough, Areone. It’s me they’re after anyway. Do as you see fit after I’m gone, okay?

Areone:“Are you suggesting I call for a truce!? You know I could never do that!”

Trabant: “Like I said, do as you see fit. I only ask that you see an end to the people’s suffering. Farewell, Areone!”

Notice how he never really tells Arion exactly what to do and trusts him to come up with the best solution on his own (unfortunately it takes him a while as well as Altenna convincing him to finally come up with it). This tells me that at this point (right before he enters the field) he's not wholly committed to this conflict, but at the same time there's a bunch of factors that's keeping specifically Travant (not Thracia, and not Arion) from calling a truce.

1. Travant's and Thracia's reputation. A Thracia led by Travant was known for behaving almost like vultures, relying on underhanded, ruthless, or shady tactics. While Seliph would probably be willing to give Travant a chance, the rest of the crusaders may not be as willing. The possibility of Travant backstabbing them exists. A cynical man like Travant wouldn't even fancy the idea of acceptance or forgiveness. Arion's reputation however, is at least less tainted.

2. And this brings us to Leif and the rest of the Northern Thracians. There is so much bad blood there. Leif, Finn, and Nanna may not be so eager to welcome Travant into their ranks. Travant murdered Leif's parents and kidnapped and brainwashed his sister (and even resulted in her "death") and they've murdered a few of his men as well.

3. And yet he's probably way too prideful to just go up and apologize since in his eyes, he probably still thinks that everything he did was justified for the sake of his people and kingdom. He's also probably not ready to have his sacrifices amount to nothing as ruthless as he is. His pride probably drives him to try and be the one to unify all of Thracia.

And so here's my interpretation of this chapter. I don't think Travant is thinking 100% rationally here. A part of him still wants to hold onto Thracia and wants what's best for Thracia and that means unifying it, but those two are not necessarily going to go hand in hand and it drives him to make some crazy, suboptimal decisions. So in a desperate attempt he tries to take all the precautions to push Seliph's army out by blackmailing Hannibal, petitioning Grannvale for help, and sending Altenna with the Gae Bolg out at the enemy, even if it's a stupid idea since Grannvale's just going to sweep in and grab all the loot anyway.

But once Altenna learns the whole truth of her birth I think this is where Travant gives up on even holding onto the kingdom of Thracia for himself. This moment feels like where his mindset finally shifts. She was most likely his key pawn in unifying the subcontinent, but with her lashing against him, he knows that his goals are now even further away. And once Arion "kills" (knocks out) Altenna, he's just done. Maybe he feels a bit guilty for exploiting her and then having her meet such an early end and that he needs to pay for all of his crimes. Or maybe it's finally hit him that his brutal tyranny will never accomplish his dreams. Either way, he does point out that Arion didn't need to kill her which is probably his indirect way of expressing that he didn't want her to die. Kinda like how he indirectly tells Arion not to follow his lead. And so, he passes on the Gungnir in hopes that Arion would lead differently, and goes off to his death, with the intent of ending this conflict immediately."

To complement /u/AiKidUNot excellent post about his characters motivations, I would also add that the regional politics meant a conflict was most likely inevitable.

• First is the Empire. Thracia actually almost managed to unify the Thracian peninsula after Quan's death, but Leidrick and Conote's army betrayed him (just like earlier they had betrayed Quan's father in his defence of Northern Thracia) and gave the region to the Empire. This means Thracia is in a very shaky footing with the Empire, in which any misstep could end with them easily being wiped out of the continent; in fact, they're the only independent nation remaining besides the Empire. This is why Thracia and the Empire are 'allied', even when Thracia 776 shows Trabant using almost every dirty trick in his book to undermine the empire.

• This brings us to the crucial moment, his attempt to capture Manster. Thracia 776 gives us a lot of context for this, because we can see that what they attempt is basically the same they did with Tahra just in a larger scale. Its very likely Trabant actually didn't want to engage Seliph's Liberation's Army directly for Manster; what was there was Sety and the Magi group, and they were at all effects independent of Seliph's army. Thracia 776 even adds to that by making their army NPC units (as in, separated from the Empire) who only attack you after Sety takes Manster. Trabant's hope was probably to get Manster, and then let Seliph go to Grannvale while he would snipe the rest of the peninsula from his back once the fighting there got messy. However, Leif itself was allied to the Magi group and Seliph would never let innocent civilians die, so the takeover devolved into war. Overall however, with Leif as one of Seliph's most important allies, there was never a chance for peace between them; they knew that the moment they turned their backs to him Trabant would attempt to get the rest of Thracia, and getting sandwiched between Grannvale's central armies and Trabant's dracoknights would be the worse situation possible. Even while allied, Grannvale would never send much forces to help Thracia, and the desert would make a theoretical Imperial invasion of Isaach and Northern Thracia very slow, so at that moment it made the most strategic sense to tackle Trabant.

• At this point, Trabant's only choice is to strengthen his alliance with the Empire, as he knows he himself alone has no hope against Seliph. He probably still thought that there was space for a comeback if he managed to get the entire Thracian Peninsula from Seliph. But I think he never envisioned the war lengthening so much. With what he tells Arion he seems the imply that he wants him to make peace after his death, but Arion's pride doesn't allow him to forgive the Liberation Army for the death of his father.

• On Hannibal, again Thracia adds a lot of helpful context. It turns out Hannibal was the one sheltering a Lenster resistance group to undermine the Empire. While Trabant would likely agree to it (anything to weaken an enemy), it is as expected that a paranoid like him would fear that the general maybe got too attached to some of its members and would betray him now that the situation looked grim. That besides Hannibal obvious hate for the Empire.

(Source for both lengthy quotes: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/6okyag/fe4_why_was_trabant_acting_so_strangely_in_the/)

As if all this wasn't enough, Travant's goals become realized after his defeat. What's even more crazy is that they're realized through Leif. After the end of the war, Leif united Munster and Thracia together. Knowing what we know about Leif, it's safe to assume that Thracia prospered under his reign. So in the end Travant won even if he didn't live long enough to see his goals ultimately realized. 

So to sum it all up: The reason why Travant is # 4 on this list is because of all the following:

1. His motivations make perfect sense. He's not evil, just a dark shade of gray pitted against our heroes. As a result, we know where he's coming from.

2. He gets to kill two playable characters. That's a noteworthy achievement for a Fire Emblem villain. Both of those kills are canon and the player can't do anything to undo them, which makes this feat all the more memorable.

3. His goals are ultimately realized, so he wins in a roundabout way.

When you take all of the above factors into account, it's not hard to see why Travant is such a great villain who's remembered as fondly as he is among the Fire Emblem fanbase.

# 5 - Sephiran (Tellius Games)

 

Whenever the topic of "Best Villain" or "Favorite Villain" comes up, Sephiran always finds his way into the conversation. This dude is frequently talked about, and it seems to me that he has a passionate fanbase. So what makes Sephiran a good villain?

Sephiran reminds me of Zephiel. Remember how Zephiel grew cynical and disillusioned with humanity because of what his dad did to him? Sephiran, like Zephiel, is also a villain marked by his cynicism of humanity. The main difference here is that instead of being disillusioned because of what happened in his family, he's disillusioned from watching Tellius history unfold for 1,000 years. Here's a quote that summarizes Sephiran's loss of humanity quite well:

"Lehran's loss of faith in humanity is a result of his isolation from them. Like a shut-in whose only exposure to the outside world is watching every violent act reported on the news each night, he's long been blinded to the goodness and happiness so many people have inside them, only having eyes for the atrocities committed by the corrupt and condemning the innocent majority. Micaiah is the refutation of his alien judgment with her down-to-earth compassion and her free interaction with all of her peers." 

(Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/2yd106/whos_your_favourite_fe_villain/)

“Sanaki, my long life has shown me the people of this world deserve only destruction. The selfishness, the brutality... The disregard for others, the endlessly quarreling Laguz and Beorc. We have been given many chances to correct our behavior and ourselves, and have squandered them all.”

Sephiran's backstory is extensive and it goes a long way toward establishing his motivation as a character. He's actually a one thousand year old heron who was there at the beginning of Tellius's history. Sephiran's the one who convinced Ashera to seal Yune away in the Fire Emblem. This sealing came with a condition: In exchange for sealing Yune away, there would be no war for 1,000 years. Guess how well that worked out.

Yeah, as you'd expect, that promise eventually got broken. Naturally, Sephiran grew more jaded and disillusioned. That option to destroy Tellius started to look a lot more appealing. The Serenes Massacre played a big role with that. Here's a quick summary of the Serenes Massacre:

• The Begnion Apostle at the time, Misaha, was assassinated.

• The herons were framed for her assassination.

• The Begnion people slaughtered the herons and burned down the Serenes Forest.

Question: What were the events surrounding Misaha's assassination?

Answer: Misaha was assassinated by Duke Lekain right after she told Lehran that she was going to reveal her identity to the world as a Branded in Tellius. Begnion Apostles are Branded since their lineage began from Lehran (aka Sephiran) and Altina. Misaha only decided to do this after Sephiran revealed his identity to her. 

The Serenes Massacre was the event that convinced Sephiran that the people in Tellius needed to go. It's not hard to see why. He had to watch his descendant be assassinated, and then watch his fellow herons get slaughtered for a crime they did not commit. After that event, Lehran started adopting the guise of Sephiran and began orchestrating the events of both games. 

What's interesting about Sephiran is that he's a villain that doesn't actually appear as a villain. The player first meets him, he's disguised as a simple monk who you bail out of jail in Chapter 10 of Path of Radiance. What's funny is that none of the Daein soldiers can actually deal him damage so you don't really even need to rescue him. Then in Chapter 11 he heals Ranulf after Ranulf's about to get killed by the Black Knight. He tells Ranulf to leave and somehow manages to keep the Black Knight from killing him. We're never told what happened between the two of them, but it is a really curious event that shows that there's far more to this "simple monk" than meets the eye. 

Then we eventually learn that Sephiran is actually the Prime Minister of Begnion. Then in Radiant Dawn, we learn that he was the mastermind behind the events of both games. Sephiran's identity is revealed gradually with each twist adding more layers to the plot of both stories. Sephiran also avoids two normal tropes that would otherwise out him as a villain: He's not hideously ugly and he also doesn't wield Dark Magic. In fact, he's a rare example of a major Fire Emblem boss that uses Light Magic. 

When Sephiran fans talk about him they usually bring up either his great interactions with other characters, and also how "well balanced" he is. For some of his fans, Sephiran's success as a character comes from his balance between "between too much success and too much failure as a villain" or alternatively I feel sorry for you” and “yeah but you still really, really shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing”. Either way, there's plenty to appreciate about his character, which is why Sephiran is rightly considered one of the greatest villains in the series.

# 6 - Lyon (Sacred Stones)

 

When people talk about the story of Sacred Stones Lyon is always mentioned as a positive. It's not difficult to see why either. He's one the best elements of the game's story. What stands out to me about Lyon is his relationship to Eirika and Ephraim, the game's protagonists. While the twins are outgoing and social, Lyon is shy and introverted. Ephraim is confident, while Lyon has a massive inferiority complex. In case his inferiority complex wasn't enough, there's also the fact that his dad was known as a great leader too. Did I mention that he also has a crush on Eirika? This may seem like a minor detail, but his inferiority complex is what led him down the path toward villainy.

Lyon is a great example of the phrase "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions." His entire motivation throughout the game is to help his people. And so many things went wrong from that simple desire. Lyon learns that an earthquake is about to destroy his country in the future while having to deal with the loss of his dad. So what we have is a ruler who's grieving the loss of his loved one while also trying to save his people from an upcoming disaster. Combine that with his preexisting feelings of uselessness and inferiority, and you've got a recipe for disaster. Lyon tried to solve his problems with the stone, only to get possessed by the Demon King.

What's interesting about Lyon and his possession is that he presents himself differently to the twins depending on whose route is being played. In Eirika's route, Lyon actively tries to pretend that he's possessed. In Ephraim's route, that façade isn't there. I found a great quote on reddit about why he acts differently toward either twin:

"Perhaps he's afraid of her seeing his darkness for the first time in their relationship. Maybe he still wants her to think of him as a friend despite his mistakes. Or maybe he just doesn't want to lose one of his only friends, and wants to hold onto that connection to Eirika as long as possible. He's lying to Eirika possibly for entirely selfish reasons, or even for sympathetic reasons (up for interpretation).

And with Ephraim, Lyon doesn't feel that same desire to lie, because he doesn't need or want to protect Ephraim from the truth. He wants to show Ephraim that he underestimated his former friend. Maybe to punish Ephraim and make him feel guilty. To challenge Ephraim and show that Lyon was always worthy as a threat to him, and resented feeling worthless in front of him in the past. Or even because Lyon needs to show the truth to someone, and he cares more about Ephraim knowing the truth about him while he still has the chance."

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/9p21hb/sacred_stones_character_discussion_lyon/

If you look further down the thread of the link I just posted, you'll also notice that there's a debate about the degree of control that Lyon had. Was Lyon completely possessed by the Demon King? Or is it a façade? I find the ambiguity interesting, as either explanation adds depth to his character. If he's completely possessed, then he's lying to himself and Lyon's going out of his way to appear otherwise. That tells us something about him, and it ties back into his inferiority complex. Alternatively, if he does have actual control over it, then what does that tell us about him? He willfully lets the Demon King take over, and would be responsible for everything said Demon King does? That's an interesting take on a character getting possessed in fiction. 

You don't normally see a possessed character having this much ambiguity and agency in regards to their possession. The usual trend in fictional stories is for a character's possession to be obvious and out of their control. By going against that trend, it's up for debate over how much control Lyon has. Both explanations work, and it leaves for some fun discussion to occur.

When you take the time to examine Lyon's character, it's not hard to see why he's so popular. Lyon is characterized by feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty of what his future will bring. From what I remember, he can also be pretty self-deprecating too. Those are feelings that a lot of people can relate to. For some people, he's one of the most relatable characters in the franchise. Some people feel like Lyon is overrated, but from where I'm standing I think he deserves his popularity. He has a lot of depth, and it shows. 

# 7 - Ashnard (Path of Radiance)

 

Here we have another example of an underrated villain on this list. Michalis might be the most underrated villain on here, but Ashnard isn't too far behind him. A lot of people dismiss Ashnard as a one-dimensional villain who's nothing more than just a power hungry lunatic. To that I say that there's more to his character than meets the eye. The easiest way to analyze Ashnard's character is through his quote with Reyson:

"The world may be destroyed by the coming of the dark god. Then again, it may not. I question the way in which our society is designed. No matter what strength a person has, it is the station he is born into that controls his destiny. And you cannot control where you will be born. Do you believe that a person of low birth should simply endure the curse of his station? I think not. If you are stronger than those around you, you should benefit from your strength. This is why I will use my strength to remake this world. Class and rank will not matter. Human and sub-human will not matter. The strong will possess everything. The weak will submit to their will. Is this not the meaning of peace?"

Wait a second! This sounds familiar. A Fire Emblem villain sees a world where a person's status is determined by birth and seeks to change it to a merit based system. Where have I heard this before? This sounds very similar to another villain who may or may not make it on this list. 

Now to be fair, Ashnard's vision for an ideal world is different because he's more interested in a Social Darwinist mindset than the other villain. From the perspective of the average commoner in Tellius his worldview would seem like a better system. Shinon was a big fan of this mindset, which is why he defected to Daein. He even tells Boyd and Oscar this in Chapter 18 when you have to fight him.

Interestingly enough, Ashnard's mindset is shared by both the laguz, and by Ike. Lethe tells Muarim in their C support that gender doesn't matter, and that "you just have to be the best" in order to command armies in Gallia. Ulki and Ike have a base conversation in Chapter 19 that reinforces this mentality:

Ulki: That's...natural. In laguz society, the strongest become king. Unlike the beorc, kingship is not tied to blood, so we have no weak kings. I'm sorry... Perhaps that was improper.

Ike: No, I agree with you. Choosing a ruler by strength instead of birth makes much more sense.

Ulki: When we face Begnion troops, we target the units with weak leadership and eliminate them first. Beorc weapons can be very powerful, but not everyone wields them well. Since beorc also choose generals by bloodlines, their competency is uneven...and that is a weakness of beorc armies. As for you, General Ike, the time to prove yourself is approaching.

Ike: It's true. No matter how strong the individuals are, that strength is worthless if they're weak as a unit. An army's power comes from leadership and management... That's good to remember. Thanks.

Ashnard may have been power hungry, but plenty of the good guys including the main character himself share a similar mindset with him. Ashnard's goals and mindset fits perfectly with the themes of Path of Radiance. Tellius is a world plagued by bigotry. The racial hatred between beorc and laguz is one major form of oppression. Classism is also prevalent. All of the beorc nations choose their rulers via bloodline. Even Daein operates based off  this mentality. Ashnard is the exception rather than the rule. In the previously mentioned conversation between Muarim and Lethe, he's surprised to see that Gallia lets women lead armies which would imply that this isn't common in Begnion. (Although this line strikes me as weird since Begnion is led by a woman, and both Tanith and Sigrun have very high ranking positions in their society) When you take all these factors into account, you realize that Ashnard's point had more validity than would appear on the surface.

 It also makes sense why Ike would be the main character of the story. Ike doesn't have a noble lineage, and yet is able to rise to greatness. Ashnard's ultimate foe is a commoner who rose to greatness through the many accomplishments that he achieved throughout the story. Ike both validates and invalidates Ashnard's overall point. On the one hand, Tellius was way better off because Ike managed to accomplish what he did despite his birth. On the other hand, Ike didn't have to conquer the world in order to achieve greatness either. 

In addition to everything that's been said, Ashnard also manages to set himself apart from most Fire Emblem villains in a few ways:

1) Most final bosses in the franchise are either giant dragons, deities, or both. Ashnard is one of the few exceptions to this rule. 

2) He doesn't have a tragic backstory, nor is he sympathetic. Tragic villains are popular in a lot of modern stories. Many of the most popular villains in this franchise tend to follow this pattern. Ashnard doesn't, which makes for a nice contrast. He has a point, but you're not supposed to sympathize with him either. 

3) His entire ideology doesn't automatically get disproven even if he dies. If Ashnard's entire point of view is "only the strong survive," then being defeated in battle wouldn't disprove his notion. From his point of view, he died because he was weak. His ideology even works on a meta level, because that's how RPGs work. The party with better stats typically wins. 

For all the reasons stated above, I find Ashnard to be a pretty unique villain within the series and worthy of a spot on this list.

# 8: Ishtar (Holy War)

 

The first Jugdral villain to grace this list is the one and only Ishtar! Ishtar is easily my favorite Camus character in the series thus far. In order to understand where I'm coming from let's review what the Camus archetype is. The Camus archetype is basically a high ranking enemy leader who usually isn't evil, but will fight the main characters out of loyalty to their enemy country. These characters exist to show a side of gray to each of the stories that they're in. The idea behind Camus characters is that not everyone the player fights against is evil.

Over the years, some members of the fandom have started to criticize these types of characters. Fire Emblem games tend to have the main rulers of the enemy nations be really evil people. It can make the Camus look stupid when they continue fighting for this obviously evil ruler. This can be compounded by the fact that many Camus characters in the series often have friends and allies that are on the players team. The most infamous example of a poorly written Camus is Xander from Fates. However, I find that there are multiple examples of well written Camus characters, and Ishtar is my favorite among them.

The first question we should ask ourselves is "Why would Ishtar continue to fight on the side of an Empire that routinely sacrifices children?" The big reason here is that most of her relatives are high up on the Grannvale food chain. Half of the chapters in the Second Generation require you to kill her family members. That's a pretty powerful incentive to keep her on the enemy's side. Before you fight her for the first time you have to kill off her brother and his fiancée. You also defeat her dad and drive him back before she even enters the story. Then after you beat her in your first fight, you kill her dad. Then two chapters later you kill her mom. It makes total sense for her to stay on Grannvale's side. Plus her boyfriend's the Emperor of Grannvale. So Ishtar has a powerful reason to stay on the enemy side. 

Another fascinating element to Ishtar's character is her family dynamic. Based off the conversations we see in the game, her dad treats her like a weapon to be used against her family's enemies, while her mom continually pressures her to marry Julius in order to advance their family's interests. Here are two conversations from Holy War that shows us this dynamic:

Hilda: “Ishtar, where’s His Imperial Highness?”

 

Ishtar: “Ah, mother… He just left for Barhara.”

 

Hilda: “I see. I think he likes you, dear. You think he’ll ever make you his princess?”

 

Ishtar: “I don’t know.”

 

Hilda: “Ishtar, you listen up! We Freeges are of noble rank within Grandbell. And I’m originally from Velthomer, just as the Imperial family is. Who could possibly make a more worthy partner for His Highness than yourself!?”

 

Ishtar: “Yes, mother.”

 

Hilda: “Now, on to these rebels… the ones responsible for killing my husband and my dear Ishtor. They stole Alster from us, as well. Celice and his family shall forever remain the Freege’s bitter enemy! Ishtar, I’ll stay here to confront the rebel army when they arrive. You go on back to Miletos and get the children ready to send to the capital.”

 

Ishtar: “Yes, mother.”

Ishtar: “Your Highness, I wish to take the Weissen Ritter out and fortify the palace’s defense. I request your permission to leave the Royal Palace.”

 

Yurius: “Hmph… Why do you need to join the battle all of a sudden? They can send as many soldiers as they want. They can’t defeat me… You just stay put.”

 

Ishtar: “I mean no disrespect… but do understand I take great pride in being a warlock of Freege. With the murder of my parents and my brother… it pains me to sit here doing nothing. Please allow me to fight!”

 

Yurius: “You have a death wish or something, Ishtar? Or are you just trying to elude me?”

 

Ishtar: “No… Of course not. I love you, Yurius. You know that.”

 

Yurius: “Heh heh… Alright, you do what you want. I’m not stopping you.”

I found a few posts on reddit that summed up her dynamic is that of an "abused wife." She knew Julius before he got possessed by Loptyr. You get the sense that Julius was born as a regular person who just happened to get possessed by the Fire Emblem equivalent of Satan. Ishtar loved Julius back when he was a regular person. Then he got possessed, and while she still loves him to a certain extent the relationship just isn't the same for her anymore. One big reason is that Ishtar actually opposes the child hunts. Arvis entrusted her to help get the children either to safety, or to be hidden from Julius. I'll end this post with a quote from a reddit user who adequately summed up Ishtar's character, and why I and so many other Fire Emblem fans like her character:

"Ishtar is by and large a good person trapped on the wrong side, half out of loyalty to better days, and half out of fear. The former stops her from just jumping ship to Seliph's side, and the latter stops her from just being the evil overlord's wife, and actually try and keep a semblance of justice in place."

# 9: Zephiel (Binding Blade)

 

               Here's an example of a tragic villain who could have turned out to be a great king if a few different decisions had been made. Based on what we see in Fire Emblem 7, Zephiel started out as a pretty decent person. The reason why he became a villain is because his dad is an awful prick who tried to kill him multiple times. Some people dismiss Zephiel because he tried to destroy Elibe due to "daddy issues." The thing here is that when you remember the fact that his dad tried to assassinate him because he was jealous of how good a ruler Zephiel was, it's not hard to see how that would mess a person up. 

         What's interesting about Zephiel is how we the player view him. Pretend for the sake of argument that you played Fire Emblem 6 before you played Fire Emblem 7. When you get to the chapter where you have to save Zephiel's life, you know that this guy is going to grow up to declare war on the entire continent. Chances are, you probably don't want to save this guy's life, but you have to anyway in order to progress in the game. Chances are high that if you're in this scenario, you probably think that Ursula killing this guy is a positive for the greater good.

       Now I'm willing to bet that most, if not all, of the people reading this post played Fire Emblem 7 before they played Fire Emblem 6. I would be in this camp. For those of us who played 7 before 6, you probably viewed this guy as a sweet, innocent kid whose dad was a total prick. You don't mind saving this guy's life because you probably didn't know what he'd eventually grow up to be. Then when you played Fire Emblem 6 for the first time it was probably a bit of a shock to find out that this kid grew up to declare war on the entire world. 

To add insult to injury, the chapter in FE 7 where you have to save this dude's life is probably the most notorious chapter in the game, Battle Before Dawn. This is the chapter where Jaffar can walk face first into a horde of Swordslayer wielding enemies, or Nino can accidentally walk into Ursula's bolting range and get fried. One of the characters that saves Zephiel's life is Hector, who eventually dies in the assault on Lycia at the beginning of Fire Emblem 6. And who was it that declared war on Lycia? Oh right, it's the guy whose life Hector saved. That's just....what do you say to that? You deal with so much frustration only to have this guy return the favor by declaring war on the entire world. 

Moving on, Zephiel has the coolest battle animation in the series thus far. Don't believe me? Here's a gif that should prove otherwise. 

via GIPHY

 How on Earth did Cecilia survive that? She should be dead! That gif reminds me of a fun quote about Zephiel that I came across on reddit:

"I like that Zephiel just went insane and misanthropic under relatively mundane circumstances, no mystical juju involved (e.g. darksphere, dark stone, ate too much tasty quintessence, etc.). Doubly so because not having any evil macguffin means that he's also not being empowered by said evil macguffin. Most of the other main villains have something to empower them and make them final boss worthy challenges. Zephiel is just a really strong regular guy that happens to require legendary weapons to take down."

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/37a8ul/fe67_character_discussion_zephiel/

When you look at Fire Emblem 6 you realize that Zephiel's misanthropy is continually reinforced by the game. Every country in Elibe has at least one politician that's willing to betray their allies simply because they want to join the winning side. Lycia had several, and in addition to all of that, Etruria was enslaving the people of the Western Isles. You could even say that Fire Emblem 6 is mostly just Roy and co. cleaning house for the entire continent, because every country was undermined by a politician who got too ambitious for their own good. It goes to show that Zephiel was onto something when he said this to Roy:

“Jealousy. Hatred. Greed. Friends and family are driven to murder one another by these petty emotions. Such emotions spawn fathers who would even kill their own brood. As long as humans control, as long as humans dictate, as long as humans exist, this madness will never end.”

Now that I think about it, it's a wonder that Roy didn't become super jaded after witnessing everything he's seen. In the end, Zephiel became the very thing he despised about others. If it weren't for his awful dad, he probably would have grown up to be a decent person. But without Zephiel Fire Emblem 6 would not be as good as it currently is.