#grima fire emblem awakening

[imustbenuts]

Reading Grima as an Abrahamic god stand-in in the world of Fire Emblem, and how that is filling in gaps in the narrative.

Preface: this is one possible interpretation out of many, and I will be talking about this pov as a person who resides in SEA.

To get to understand this worldview though, some very dry explanations need to be done, but I'll do my best.

First, an overview of Grima.

Grima in FE: Awakening's story functions as a god of annihilation/death. They are worshiped and brought back into the world by the Grimleals, an extremist religious group in Plegia, which is visually middle eastern desert-ish.

Meanwhile, their Japanese name is actually Gimlé, a reference to the Norse mythos of the place where survivors of Ragnarok (an end of the world apocalyptic event where gods duke it out way too hard) are foretold to live. It's a super pretty place, almost heavenly.

So there is some credence here to hint that Grimleals are the extremist sect, and that Grima inherently isn't good or evil, but possibly a death god closer to the likes of Anubis or Hades. This can then explain why Plegians who aren't extremists are said to be pretty chill.

Anyway, moving on, because I need to explain the next bit to really highlight how much he looks like an Abrahamic god to a someone like me.

FE's world is structurally polytheistic. Or, Shinto Buddhist.

On the surface, FE puts forth the idea of polytheism in the form of multiple Dragons, without a singular clear, definite distinction for what threshold exactly qualifies one to be a legit God vs just-a-dragon. In fact, it can be summed up as "this one is powerful enough to do things, and/or because we decided so" by the people.

So, that tracks with the belief system in place in Japan and really, the whole of Asia in general. Polytheism is the norm, rather than mono. In this view, any being which are not human all belong into the classification of supernatural, so the question of how god-like they are matters after they are able to pass a certain threshold of power or worshiping status.

A popularity contest of spirits/gods, if you want to put it that way. In fact, lots of eastern gods irl are like this. Power often doesn't factor into things, since these gods are very closely associated with nature in some form, and their popularity in history is very dependent on events.

In fact, Japan follows Shinto Buddhism, a polytheistic belief. Technically made of 2 parts.

Shinto supplies the idea that Gods (or rather, kamis) in general cannot be perceived, and that they must be loved and nurtured to gain their favor. Disregarding them brings instead disharmony and destruction. Shrines are one such places where the love and nurturing or the disregard can be seen/done. (Thebes labyrinth, anyone? 😉👌)

The other, Buddhism. Also polytheistic due to reframing gods as just other beings trying to break out of the cycle of samsara. Buddha is technically not a god, but a title, and an idol to look to to remember the teachings of how to break out of this cycle, by understanding suffering and how to end it.

In some ways, Naga, the biggest defacto "god" which is treated as the 'proper' God by the narrative, is actually more of a Buddha. Her voice lines in FEH even points to this:

Meanwhile, Libra uses the plural, gods. Frederick's famous crit quote is "Pick a god and pray."

That is what I mean by FE being structurally Shinto Buddhist.

Meanwhile, Abrahamic religion is monotheistic.

Without getting too deep into the details and scholarly debates of it, or even the multiple branches of religion, the singular God in this family does not want his followers to turn their eyes towards other false gods. One is meant to devote themself entirely to this God, follow his teachings and live a life he deems worthy to live with him in the beautiful, heavenly afterlife.

Failure to do so will mean a divine retribution of sorts, but often in the form of eternal damnation.

Another noteworthy bit, Abrahamic religion originated from the place we call the Cradle of Civilization, also known as the Middle East. Which, you know. Deserts.

And now, the pieces of Grima being a Abrahamic god stand-in starts to form. And that then explains a lot of other mundane unexplained bits too.

Basically, Grima is the patron deity of the Plegians, who reside in the harsh desert.

If we assume that normal Plegians are pretty chill despite Grima being associated with straight up annihilation, then a pretty good extrapolation would be that Grima is a watcher type deity of the afterlife for their worship. This type is typically popular as they soothe the anxiety of what happens to a person after death, explaining that there is something else other than pure emptiness, which frankly can kick many people's existential dread into overdrive.

Which, if one really thinks about it, the Abrahamic religion and their God kind of is this.

God watches a human, then judges them for their actions in life when their time is up. In some interpretations afaik, God can also be seen as a 'system' or a 'higher conscious', but the idea of being able to join with him is still the same. This is still the ultimate honor and bliss, ie, heavenly.

But in order to do so, one must wholly devote themself to him. Spread his word. Ignore all other Gods. You know how it goes.

With Grima, this bit manifests in how Grima kills Naga in the Future Past DLC. Even Tiki became a target, who wants to become the next Naga in it. (Which btw this wouldn't make sense unless one treats the word, Naga, as a title, which tracks.)

So. In conclusion.

What I'm trying to say here is that Grima is easily read as a monotheistic, or even a Christian god to many people on this side of the planet. Because there has been precedent in extremism when it comes to religion associated with Abrahamic religion, and this is how it's being expressed through the writers when they create FE.

And yet, because either the world of FE is structurally shinto buddhist, or the writers are, this is the result, and why I have interpreted Grima as this.

There are also elements of that mistreatment of a god narrative going on in FE:A that I think is worth talking about for Grima, too. I'm almost certain that the writers are not saying Grima is inherently evil, in fact, the narrative of good and evil in FE is often easily explained by characters being dreadfully flawed, and even human. And because of how Gods have this piece of humanity in them, it's possible for so many narratives to be the way they are.

And maaaybe why they decided to put Grima in a cat costume for Halloween banner with all the funny lines that comes with them. I think.

And that's about it, really. Ask is always open. Thanks for reading! 🎃🎃

#fire emblem awakening #grima fe #grima fire emblem awakening #analysis

[bakanachos]

this is goodbye

#fanart #digital art #chrom #robin #chrobin #fire emblem #fe13 #fire emblem awakening #female robin #grima

[serennes-art]

son of naga, daughter of grima

happy belated chrobin week! *passes out*

#FOOLISH SON OF NAGA... HE WHO CANNOT KILL THE ONE HE LOVES THE MOST!!! #fire emblem #fire emblem awakening #fe13 #chrobin #chrom #chrome #f!robin #naga #grima #or narga and grimba as i tiredly said to zeri on vc #gonna go lie down now #blood tw #get exploded. idiot

[caiusthecat]

Brave Robin🥺❤️

#feh #fire emblem #fe Robin #fe chrom #Chrobin #m!chrobin #fe heroes #fe awakening #fe 13 #fire emblem heroes #fire emblem awakening #Cyl #cyl7 #caiusthecat #I am falling more and more in love with his outfit #I think it’s just so darling #finished forging bonds and ugh I kinda wish he got to talk to Grima more #we’ve seen Grima crumble in the past and I would not put it past Robin to make it through to him #uuugghhgh I love Robin so much and implore anyone to indulge me if you like him too!

[truejekart]

Hope will never last!

Fallen Lucina

#lucina #lucina fire emblem #fire emblem #fallen lucina #grima #fire emblem heroes #feh #fire emblem awakening #illustration #fanart #cosplay #anime #ファイアーエムブレム #ルキナ

[tecchiii]

thank you FEH for Fell Chrom

#fire emblem #fire emblem awakening #fire emblem heroes #feh #chrom #robin #grima #chrobin #risen king chrom #tecchiiiart

[judithan-xing]

a future unchanged

#chrom #robin #grima #chrobin #feh #fire emblem heroes #fire emblem awakening #fire emblem #fell chrom is my everything #the image is huge also pls full screen to see how insane i am

[starlitcrows]

baptismal flame or hellfire?

#grima #grima kardia perezia #fire emblem #oc #fire emblem awakening #fea #fe13 #fire emblem heroes #feh #fell robin #male robin #resplendent grima #neosketches #i may or may not be losing my goddamn mind #is this what they call religious fervor asking for a friend #anyways im gonna throw myself out a window now

[cenpede]

🩰🦢

#chrobin #m!robin #grima #m!grima #chrom #risen king chrom #fire emblem #fire emblem awakening #sorry I’m insane #my art #gargles like a baby

[feaincorrectquotes]

Risen King in a nutshell

#fire emblem #fire emblem awakening #chrom #robin #f!robin #grima #f!grima #chrobin #f!chrobin #incorrect quotes

[ailheim-art]

Chrom and Grima I forgot to post!

#fanart #fire emblem #nintendo fanart #fire emblem fanart #video game fanart #fire emblem awakening #grima #art #chrom #robin

[lampreylarry]

Faded Future

An amazing art commission I got from @ArayaEjiri on twitter.

Wholesome and Angst are 2 halves of a whole when it comes to Chrobin.

Click here for the full merged art (x)

#fire emblem #fire emblem awakening #fe13 #fe:a #fe awakening #fire emblem heroes #feh #fe heroes #chrom #fe chrom #robin #f!robin #fe robin #grima #fe grima #lucina #fe lucina #morgan #m!morgan #chrom!morgan #fe morgan #chrobin #f!chrobin #commission

[bakanachos]

another Klimt-inspired chrobin family

previous companion piece:

#fanart #fire emblem awakening #fe13 #chrobin #chrom #robin #female robin #lucina #morgan #male morgan #klimt #chrobin family #grima #fallen chrom #brave lucina #fallen morgan #fire emblem heroes #feh

[serennes-art]

my piece for holoframework’s Future Witness Lucina Zine! big thank you to the mods who organized it, i had a blast contributing and the end product is absolutely kickass

#fire emblem #future witness #fire emblem awakening #fe13 #lucina #fe:a #grima #marth #caeda #if you squint #this piece came out pretty dark in print but i think that kinda helps sell the effect? #zines

[faithom]

The path chosen.

My page in the FE Robin fan zine organized last year by Kyousa!

#fire emblem #fire emblem awakening #Robin #Grima #fan art

[aanimatoryellow]

The king and his advisor

|Twitter|

#chrobin #chrom #robin #fire emblem #fire emblem awakening #grima #risen king chrom #power couple right here