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yanderefairyangel · 7 months

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It also ignores the fact that well..the bandits are burning down villages and killing people. Like the plight of one's suffering is not an excuse for the crimes that they commit and while it's never too late to do the right thing and atone, it's not a pass to commit crimes. And like you mentioned, there's no evidence suggesting that the bandits in Firene or in any of the continents in Engage for that matter are doing the things they're doing because they're poor and starving; Engage doesn't want to well..engage with that cause that's not the focus (and it doesn't need to be).

Ugh, this feels like a continuation of that stupid "woobifying the villain" trend where their argument is "the villains suffered, so therefore their actions are justified and how dare the heroes try to stop them and uphold the status quo."

You are perfectly right anon. Céline could have still tried to arrest them, but let's not act as if her decision didn't had some justifications. She isn't doing it out of pure pleasure either, she simply want to protect her people.

Also that's going to be a little long but

When it comes to explaining why a crime is born you need to fufill a lot of conditions : when do people enter this crime ? at childhood or adulthood ? Is it linked to economic problem ? if so which one ? and why ?

I already talked about it but even if you, a player used to FE never diving onto why there is banditry in some part of the world, I simply don't think the idea that it is a result of economic hardship or a flawed system makes sense with what is presented of Firene

It's is canonically introduced as a pacifist country, the wealthiest of the 4 kingdom and holding philantrophic value as well as having a pastoral style of life. The Kingdom if Abundance is it called.

I received quite ago an anon ask that made the clever remark that if all the character originating from Firene had name derivated from fashion brands, was to show the wealth of Firene and when you look at the design for the Firenese they are all wearing outfits that look incredibly lavish and very designed, even in contrast of the other Royals. What's more in the jpn version, all of the member of the Firenese cast safe Alfred, Jean and sort of Boucheron speaks a very polite and fancy japanese, Etie even sounds a bit snobbish. And all of them are rich : Alfred and Céline, obviously as Royals, Etie being the daughter of a marquis, same for Chloé, Boucheron is the son of a count and while Louis holds from more common origins and that his father had to work harder to provide for the family, his polite speech and is outfit for Somniel and his personality in general seems to infer he was still from quite a wealthy family and it adds up with how he hails from a town that is famous for the grapes it produces. Mauvier too hails from a wealthy family and Jean, a commoner, is the son of a doctor and wants to be one. And he can freaking read and afford fridging glasses ! While it's likely thanks to his dad, his dad HAD to go through studies to be a doctor and even in medieval setting those were very pricey. So that's telling a lot of how the common people of Firene beneficiate from quite the wealthy style of life and if you compare the commoner outfit to the noble one avalaible in the Somniel, they aren't that different and those commoner outfits stands out a lot compared to the Brodian and Solmic one. From that we can deduce that the peasants in Firene are quite wealthy.

And it makes sense since Firene is mainly operating in interior from an economic point of view. It relies a lot on agriculture and since Firene is a land of abundance and fertility, they have a lot of land to cultivate. With most of the trade between farmer and merchants being operated in the inside, it creates more wealth for them since the concurance is so little and mainly between Firenese rather then with an exterior country for a less pricey product. This explain why there is so many farmer, peasants and merchants in Firene and you can expect the people to be quite wealthy, even among commoners.

This description doesn't fit one of a country who suffers from banditry because of poverty. Because poverty can be one of the main reason for the practice of banditry, but usually those are country that rely on agriculture and have a crisis in such domain like China or Russia at some points. Firene is described as an ever propesperous land, where even in autumn they can benefit from the recolts. The only season where it could be harder would be winter but seeing how the climate in Firene operates since they can cultivate oranges and grapes, fruits mainly developped into Mediteran region irl, and how Alfred and Céline describes it, I doubt they ever had to face a disastrous winter.

If you wanted to make that arguments for Brodia or Elusia, I could believe it since it has been established that those two had financial problem because of the war. Saphir is 35 and saw her villager ravaged as a child and all the character who had suffered from poverty are younger then her : Yunaka, a Brodia, was abandonned by her parents (in the manga, she was literaly sold), Griss (and in XenElyos Gregory) was sold to Sombron's cult when Marni was abandonned by her mother there too and they are both from Elusia. And the reason was because for the three of them, their parents were too poor to deal with them, having several other children to take care off in Marni's mother case, but in Yunaka and Griss, they were only children. From Alcryst's introduction in chapter 7, we also learn that there is thief there too.

For Firene it is much harder due to how the land is described in canon. It simply doesn't add up.

As for the bandits, seeing how the mainly operates around the Firene and Brodian border, it is likely because it is the less defended part of all Firene since there is no one to guard the border. But they clearly don't originate from there. Teronda is said to have taken over the village since he killed all the villagers and Mitan invaded the ruins because there was nobody there to make it her lair. However, it's no indicator they come from Firene. Their name don't evocate any fashion brand I know off, when even Jean's parent are named after it (Sean/Sean John and Anje from Maison Anje). Their name seems to be after a hotel brand and a confection brand ? But they don't have name that have any French signification, and their palette doesn't look very Firene either, with Mitan being closer but having colors much less bright. As for the highwaymen, in the JPN version their nationality isn't mentioned, it is likely that the localization added that were from Firene because they are said to attack shipment comming from Jean's village.

But again, even if they were from Firene, that begs the question of where exactly ? Because for them to move out this far, this clearly mean they had the means since someone really poor can't afford to leave their place. Or in that case they hail from a region where agriculture is less present and performant, so near the Firene border since there is more mountains and therefore is an environement less welcoming for agriculture, but it is invalidated by the presence of a village that they robbed off. The villager had some valuables, meaning they were still wealthy, and in the ruins that the bandits invaded there is a territory where agriculture can be grown there so... yeah, I don't buy it any seconds.

And the fact that they were able to set out a squad to kill an entire village.. people that are really poor don't have the means. They are also too numerous to fit that profile seeing how again, actual bandits operating because of their stomach being empty have less means, targets smaller targets and operates in a much less number.

And even if they had began a carrier because they were poor, by the time we fight them, it's obvious they amassed quite enough of the money to try to live another life rather then keeping this buissness they are involved in. But they didn't. They clearly can't have been kids that had been poor if they are from Firene and if they started out recently, their description invalidates this seeing how they have been operating for a while and are described as "willing to do any evil deed for the sake of treasure" or as "systematically stealing people". And seeing how Mitan steals mainly valuable, she isn't poor or starving, her target are too precise for that. (note it's their JPN descr, and in the case of Mitan, it implies she isn't targeting only merchants)

And again, seeing how the Royals are willing to spend any money possible to help their people since they hold philanthropic values, I don't see why they wouldn't try to help out their less favored citizens. After all, Alfred is willing to dig well himself for them. Céline to protect them had the gouvernement heighens the funds for the merchants and peasants trading the tea leaves that they spend time growing and even state in the jpn version she doubled the number of escorts. They did everything to rebuilt Florra port and to help the survivors heal and rebuilt the home that were ravaged by the Elusian army. They even went personally to help a little commoner, to collect the good that were stolen from their people and blames themselves for not having being arrived sooner to save that village of chapter 6. They would absolutely provide for their people if they were in need.

Another evidence of this is the plague and how they helped their citizens in thos time and speaking of which, I think the Plague is literaly the only ground someone could have to argue that Firene had economic hardship as a side effect of the plague, but you can't blame the Royals for it when even the King of Firene was struck by it and that at that time, they though Alfred caught it too. And seeing how Louis's father had to double up the work after losing his wife, it might be an indicator of it.

But again, as you pointed out too, the game never tried to infer that Firene had economic hardship, it does the exact opposite. But since the army is less present and that the country is so wealthy, it would obviously end up having some people choosing to be bandits to exploit others but with such an economic system, it's banditry that is hurting the economy ! It's perturbating trade, raving village and thus agricultural field and cultures, etc. They aren't poor or anything, they ARE what is causing economic hardship to Firene if any there is !!!

But as your rightfully point out, whatever is the reason that motivated them, it doesn't change the fact they choose to prioritize their own needs at the cost of the suffering of other and turned it into a literal buissness and commiting crime against humanity by sacking village, robbing of innocent people of their rightful belonging and commiting massing killing is not jusitifyable and makes me really doubt the claim they are simply trying to put the two together. Whether Céline was being harsh or not, they deemed others, villagers maybe even poorer and working hard to gain their life, to be lesser then then them and went on to rob them and kill them. And reminder that this is a SOFTCORE version of what actual bandits might commit as a crime, look for Berserk to get an idea closer to reality. But again, Céline herself still admitted to not completely liked that idea, but I really don't see how she is in the wrong here for punishing people who terrorized her citizens, killed them and steals them.

It got a bit long here, sorry I just brainstormed a lot and realized how it simply doesn't add up.

"Ugh, this feels like a continuation of that stupid "woobifying the villain" trend where their argument is "the villains suffered, so therefore their actions are justified and how dare the heroes try to stop them and uphold the status quo.""

Yes, I think that trend is VERY much a problem. Do you imagine if I tried to justify idk Rafal by saying "yes he destroyed an entire world and commiting 1 000 of attrocities but he was sud uwu" ? ugh, make me sick and it would go against his character since the whole point of his character is that he did it, acknowledges it and refuse to have someone take the blame for it, and goes into a whole redemption arc. Remove his crime and you lost 99% of what makes his character so savory !

But frankly, I think it's because of this trend that people can look at Zephia or Sombron and think the game is trying to redeem them or make them human or sympathetic for literaly giving an explanation as to what the heck they motivation are.

Besides that's like saying that it's fine to do evil when you are oppressed when as someone who holds that as a dear principle, you are responsible for your actions not matter what and can't blame any one but yourself for the choice you did. Which is also one of Engage's message : that no matter how you are born, you can still be a good person and that you should held responsability for your action and be ready to change to obtain forgivness. So, the whole defending the minro boss bandits in Engage thing is literaly going against the message of the game.

#fe engage #fire emblem engage #fire emblem #firene #sorry for the long answer #I just got ahead of myself ;w;

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