#sorry for the fire emblem posting again it was bound to happen eventually

[harvestmoth]

been playing awakening for the first time lately, youll never guess who my favorites are

#sorry for the fire emblem posting again it was bound to happen eventually #i dont think im very far in it though. maybe about mid game? #and ive been playing it with the gay mod which. makes it a tad bit difficult to tell whats canon dialogue and whats the gay mod for some #surely the chrom robin story dialogues are from the gay mod. they have to be. #dw though when ive finished the game im planning on looking up the canon dialogue for some scenes and the supports #i really like the story and characters so far so i wanna know more about them outside of it #though i will say. i knew the childrens hair would like match the other parents but i was not expecting it for some reason #pink noire jumpscare. very cool though #the pair up feature is so broken though its awesome and officially my favorite fire emblem mechanic #i say that but ive only ever fully played 3 houses. ill finish engage after this and then maybe ill do fates finally #.. i dont wanna play fates though ive tried three times and just cant get into it #fire emblem awakening #olivia fire emblem #tharja fire emblem #tharlivia #i think thats what they are. i think

[markoftheasphodel]

Not-So-Brief thoughts on the FE Power Couple (+1) in the wake of FE15:

I have shared my thoughts on this before but with FE15 out, here we go again. While not really an archetype, the Happy Power Couple is one of my favorite recurring motifs in Fire Emblem. I used to call ‘em Pre-Promote Power Couples but they’re not necessarily 100% pre-promotes. Power Couples often come with a third wheel, either a wingman sort of adult friend or tagalong kiddo. Power Couples actually tend to be POWER couples, and their presence in the hero’s army adds some luster or even legitimacy to the hero, who may be from a middling state (Altea, Pherae) or raised in a humble village away from the levers of power. Here’s a brief rundown of Power Couples I like and their assorted Plus Ones:

Note: playable characters only. No Hilda/Bloom or whatnot, sorry. Expect character-relevant spoilers for FE15 and everything prior.

Marth Saga: 

Power Couple: Midia and Astram. Plus One: Jeorge. The original pre-promote power couple; Midia is a highborn paladin serving Princess Nyna and Astram is her dumbass boyfriend (sorry, he is). They are VERY much in love. Meanwhile wingman Jeorge is Midia’s fellow noble and was supposed to marry her except Astram happened but Jeorge seems totes OK with that. They all hang out after the war together in Jeorge’s Rangers, kind of a freelance Justice League outside King Marth’s actual chain of command. All three got a lot of development in FE12 plus Midia and Astram got commemorated with their own expies (see below). Jeorge meanwhile founded not one but two expy lines of his own, the gameplay&storyline Snarky Sniper/Asshole Sniper and the storyline Wandering Noble.

Jugdral Saga:

FE4 Power Couple: Quan and Ethlyn. Plus One: Finn. So bound together they arrive as a trio. Quan’s the only pre-promote here, but he and Ethlyn are canon-married with one kid apparently extant and another arriving in a few years, and Finn in this case is Quan’s apprentice, which gives Quan the chance to do one of the most consequential mentoring jobs in Fire Emblem history. All three of them are among the very first characters in the franchise to have plot armor; if either Quan or Ethlyn gets KO’d as a playable character, the other retreats with them. They’re a package deal. Quan and Ethlyn come to a bad end but they had fun while it lasted, and then Finn gets to spend the next two decades taking care of their son and upholding their legacy.

FE5 Power Couple: Selphina and Glade. Plus One: Finn, again. Another couple who arrive canon-married, with Glade in this case the pre-promote. Selphina is a bow knight, the daughter of old-guard Leonster noble count Dorias, and mentors quite a few younger knights including standout unit Carrion. Glade is apparently low-born (seen this cited a lot, never seen it with my own eyes) but was one of the most talented young knights of Leonster’s pre-apocalypse trainee pool. Anyway, dude married up. He’s also Finn’s BFF and essentially written as a foil to Finn, who fits uneasily in the mix thanks to some weird tension with Selphina. Double dates are hard when your wife is a lawn ornament. Glade becomes the Great General of the new Thracia after the war and turns it into an innovative war machine. Selphina steps down from her position as a knight to care for orphans, becoming the legendary “Mother of Thracia.” Not bad for the Least Loved Character in FE History ™ and his bride.

Elibe Saga:

FE6 Power Couple: Zelot and Juno. Married pre-promotes with a newborn daughter. Zelot (Lord of Edessa) leads the Ilian mercenaries, Juno used to be an Ilian squad leader. After the war Zelot becomes Ilia’s first king while Juno retires from public life and is proclaimed Grand Flightleader only in death. Note this “retires from public life” thing is gonna be, well, A Thing. Anyway, they don’t have a specific Plus One that I see; Juno has two younger sisters in Shanna and Thea, with whom Zelot supports. Zelot also supports junior knights Treck and Noah; Noah’s conversation line is the more substantial of the two IMO but then again I think out of the FE6 gang Noah comes closest to the sort of “Baby Cavalier” role who often gets mentoring from a senior unit (see: kiddo!Finn and Carrion above). 

FE7 Power Couple: Isadora and Harken. Pre-promotes engaged to marry. Obvious expies of Midia and Astram except not happy. They’re both knights of Pherae, Harken’s REALLY messed up, and unlike all previous examples who are fixed canon they only actually do marry if they reach an A-support in the game. If they don’t reach A-support Isadora can instead fall in love with the Black Fang member Legault, which does NOT end well, or she can A-support with Renault and eventually enter the clergy.

FE7 Power Couple: Pent and Louise. Plus One: Erk. Ah, back to normal. Canon-married pre-promotes with an apprentice along for the ride and a baby on the way. Pent’s the Mage General of Etruria who adds some real luster to Eliwood’s oddball army. They’re deeply in love tho there are signs Pent’s a little too distracted to be the world’s best husband. Since FE7 is the prequel to FE6 and their kids Klein and Clarine are running around in FE6, they have “retreat” scenes VERY similar to the ones used by Quan and Ethlyn if they get KO’d. On the other hand apprentice Erk has no FE6 presence and thus either is of little consequence or meets a very bad end, and Pent is succeeded as Mage General by Cecilia, who ain’t in FE7. 

Magvel Saga:

As though to compensate for FE7, the small and tight-knit cast of FE8 has no canon-marrieds or canon-engaged adults. You can opt into Gerik/Tethys and Tethys comes along with her irrepressible little bro Ewan, so there’s your Plus One if you want it, but they don’t really add any authority to the dream team of royal heirs that Eirika and Ephraim have assembled to take on the Demon King. 

Tellius Saga:

I haven’t finished either of these games so I’ve seen arguments for Calil/Largo that are pretty compelling and also I’ve had friends put in a word for Lucia/Bastian. Lucia/Bastian would fit the pattern nicely ‘cause they’re pre-promotes who, like all their predecessors, are VERY well-connected and influential people and they have a definite Plus One in the form of Lucia’s brother Geoffrey, but apparently their torrid affair only comes out if you A-support them in FE10, which isn’t that easy to do, so eh. Tellius mixed up a lot of patterns anyway, like in not handing you the Xmas Cavs as a set. YMMV.

Ylisse Saga:

No canon marrieds we’re all here to bang the Avatar, right? But dueling Khans of Ferox Basilio and Flavia are pre-promotes with a wonderful dynamic and you could view them as a platonic version of the pattern. Their Plus One is all too likely to be you, the player. 

Fateslandia Saga:

Didn’t play it but there’s an Avatar involved so nobody’s canon-married.

Valentia Saga:

Power Couple: Mathilda and Clive. Plus One: Lukas, although Forsyth is jumping around & waving his hand going PICK ME SIR CLIVE! Mathilda and Clive were a thing from the get-go in FE2; Mathilda as a beloved and legendary paladin echoed Midia, while Clive as a cavalier seemed a little less illustrious than his future bride. Then surprise, he leads the knighthood post-game while she retires from public life (AGAIN)… unless Clive dies, in which case beautiful and tragic Mathilda leads the knights. Got it? Anyway, FE15 keeps both Mathilda’s legendary awesomeness (as a founder of the Deliverance) and her “good” ending away from the public eye intact while building up Clive a great deal more. This golden couple has a slew of potential Plus Ones vying for their attention– Clive’s sister Clair, their friend Fernand, Clive’s lieutenant Forsyth– but all of those three have something else going on (boys, betrayal, Python) in their lives whereas Lukas, as Clive’s most trusted advisor and the guy on whom Clive offloads his emotional burdens per Rise of the Deliverance, appears to be the actual wingman here. The support chain between Clive and Lukas is more of a mentoring opportunity gone sideways, though, and if Clive kicks the bucket and leaves Mathilda in charge of the knights, it’s Forsyth carrying the torch for him ever after.

#fire emblem meta #all sorts of emblems #valentia meta #archanea meta #jugdral meta #elibe meta #ylisse meta #magvel meta #fire emblem power couples #fe15 spoilers/ #text post #long post