#racism is not something you can defeat in a final boss battle | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

feralphoenix · 4 years

Text

BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE NOT PREPARED TO TRY

if you’re following my blog or if you read my fanfiction, you may have seen me talking in tags or comments about how the radiance hollowknight was a pacifist. “feral, wtf?” you may have thought. “she’s the freaking final boss and tries really, really hard to kill you and all her attacks do 2 entire masks damage. where on earth do you get pacifism out of that???”

to you specifically i say, that’s an understandable reaction! the short version of how i got here was that i started thinking about the story implications of radi not inflicting contact damage and took a deep dive into game mechanics and lore. when i came up for air i had made myself Very Sad.

if this intrigues you and you would like to know more, come along with me, i am happy to point out the things i noticed and share the Big Sad around.

this essay is also available on dreamwidth for accessibility purposes, since my layout’s text may be too small for folks on pc with high-res screens.

CONTENT WARNING: This essay discusses pseudo-zombie plagues and associated body horror, colonialism and genocide, horrible things that happened in real life Australian history... you know, the usual topics that come up when I’m talking about Hollow Knight.

ADDITIONAL NOTICE: TPK fans of the “TPK meant well/was working for the greater good”/“TPK and Radi are equally bad”/“TPK is bad but Radi is worse” variety please give this one a pass, it ain’t for you.

finally if youre from a christian cultural upbringing (whether currently practicing, agnostic/secular, or atheist now), understand that some of what i’m discussing here may challenge you. if thinking thru the implications of this particular part of hollow knight worldbuilding/lore is distressing for you, PLEASE only approach this essay when youre in a safe mindset & open to listening, and ask the help of a therapist or anti-racism teacher/mentor to help you process your thoughts & feelings. just like keep in mind that youre listening to an ethnoreligiously marginalized person and please be respectful here or wherever else youre discussing this dang essay

BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU’RE NOT PREPARED TO TRY: The Radiance Doesn’t Deal Contact Damage And That’s Kind Of Fucked Up And Sad

The vast majority of hostile creatures in Hollow Knight deal contact damage: This is to say, if the Wandering Knight (who I’ll probably spend most of this essay calling by their affectionate fan name Ghost) touches a hostile creature, this harms them.

There are exceptions to this rule. The most notable and most oft-memed example is the game’s literal actual true final boss, the Radiance. Not only will Ghost not be harmed by running into any part of her body, but during her stagger animation, where she drops to the boss arena floor on her front with her whole body splayed out, Ghost still isn’t harmed if she lands on top of them! What’s more, this holds true for her full-power form Absolute Radiance, the secret final boss of the Godmaster quest/endings.

A lot of people find this amusing, because it’s a little absurd that a game’s final boss is an exception to such a consistent element of gameplay! Hence all the “haha moth too soft and fluffy for contact damage” jokes. It is objective facts that Radi is very soft and very fluffy, so it’s very easy to understand why people don’t overthink this too much.

Thinking about things I like in gross detail is unfortunately my hobby. When it comes to Hollow Knight this usually leads to me making myself really sad. I’d like to share the fruits of my theorizing with the class, so other people can be sad with me.

Now, from a game design perspective I can think of a lot of reasons why Team Cherry chose for Radiance not to inflict contact damage. Her hitbox only covers the central part of her body. Her limbs are large, so because of the way she floats, if she did contact damage she would be protected from nail strikes from below and to either side. This would give a player who prefers nail combat a punishingly small margin through which they could inflict damage without also taking a hit, potentially forcing them to adapt to a new and unfamiliar play style at the very end of the game. That’s not fun for anybody and tends to make players feel very frustrated.

In addition to this, Radiance’s attacks are all bullet hell-style spells. All of them except the floor hazards inflict two masks of damage, meaning if you want to stay alive and identify points where it’s possible to heal, you need to learn the spell patterns and dodge a lot. Radi is a large boss. If running into her hurt you this would make the bullet hell elements of her fight extra punishing.

So, I think the purely game mechanics reason for Moth Too Soft And Fluffy is in interest of keeping her boss fight fair, and helping players feel like they have a chance of actually defeating her.

Part of why we all love Hollow Knight, though, is that there’s not much in the game that only exists for purely mechanical reasons. There’s always some form of story or lore integration.

So what on earth is the story reason behind why Radiance doesn’t deal contact damage?

OTHER ENEMIES THAT DON’T DEAL CONTACT DAMAGE

Radi isn’t the only enemy (here defined as fightable/killable creature) in Hollow Knight who doesn't inflict contact damage, so let’s take a look at her fellow exceptions to the rule to see what we can learn.

Broadly speaking there are two categories of Enemies That Don’t Deal Contact Damage. The first is enemies or bosses who used to be hostile, but have become friendly to the player. For instance, when characters like Ogrim and Hornet are not being fought in boss battles, touching them won’t cause damage to Ghost. These story characters who Ghost has more or less reconciled with can’t be damaged by the player out of combat either.

In terms of generic enemies who used to be hostile but have become friendly to the player, we have the mantises of the Fungal Wastes and the Siblings/Ghost’s Shade. We learn from the game’s lore that the mantises Did Not Like The Pale King and were hostile to Hallownest, but that they established a ceasefire conditional on their keeping the people of Deepnest (who were also hostile to Hallownest) from leaving through the area’s main entrance/exit in the Fungal Wastes - essentially the two native kingdoms were pitted against one another by the Pale King.

Now, just because there was a ceasefire, that doesn’t mean the mantises take kindly to Hallownest bugs brazenly trespassing into their dang house; they will get in your face and try to kill you unless you have permission to be there. But once you’ve defeated the Mantis Lords in combat and proven yourself worthy of the mantises’ respect, they’ll let you pass through their turf unmolested. They are no longer actively hostile and don't deal contact damage.

(You're still able to attack them, though - maybe because you’d be locked out of receiving the Hunter’s Mark if you complete the Respect quest/achievement before you’ve successfully killed enough mantises? - and if you attack them, or if your pet charm familiars attack them, any mantises you aggroed will fight back and deal contact damage again.)

The Siblings, as well as Ghost’s Shade, are initially indiscriminately hostile. Our window into Shade psychology is limited, but we know that the Shade died violently and the Siblings probably did too; they may be lashing out. They’re also Void creatures, and Ghost looks a lot like the Pale King, whom we can guess from context clues pissed the Void off significantly by using it as his personal play-doh to make tools and toys with and also using its house as his personal garbage dump for baby corpses.

However, once Ghost recalls their past and breaks the mask of the Kingsoul charm to reveal the Void Heart at its core, the Void recognizes them as a part of it, and Ghost becomes able to direct/lead the Void to some extent. As an extension of this, the Siblings and Ghost’s shade become docile and can now be killed by any weapon in one hit instead of just the Dream Nail (which is made of Radiance’s Light and is the Void’s natural weakness). They don’t deal contact damage anymore either.

That’s it for “enemies that inflict contact damage at one point, but stop inflicting it after becoming friendly or neutral to Ghost”.

The generic enemies which don't inflict contact damage include shrumelings, maggots, maskflies, and lightseeds/lifeseeds. These enemies are incapable of inflicting any damage on Ghost whatsoever, because by themselves they are completely helpless entities with no natural defenses.

Shrumelings are infant members of the mushroom clan who are usually protected by adult fungi like shrumal warriors and ogres. Lightseeds and lifeseeds are harmless single-celled organisms. Maskflies are similarly harmless. Maggots, we glean from the Hunter’s Journal and dialogue from False Knight/Failed Champion, are the bottom rung of Hallownest’s society because they are weak and helpless, and are forced into menial and slave labor by other Hallownest bugs because they cannot defend themselves. The maggots’ plight is the whole reason why False Knight/Failed Champion stole Hegemol's armor in the first place, as he wanted to protect his people.

All of these enemies flee when Ghost approaches them. (Some maskfly groups’ flight triggers are set to specific areas on a map and won’t flee if you can avoid stepping on/passing through those areas, but this is clearly due to a programming oversight because their whole Thing is running away.)

But, there’s something interesting to be observed in the case of lightseeds and maggots: They can fight back against and harm Ghost if they use tools. The little flock of lightseeds you chase around the Ancient Basin eventually get sick of Ghost’s shit and take over Broken Vessel/Lost Kin’s corpse, which they puppet around to try to murder you. By doing so they gain access to Broken Vessel/Lost Kin’s considerable combat prowess and become very dangerous, contact damage included in the bargain. (The lightseeds’ doing this seems to evoke the vessel’s spirit, since they reach for Ghost when defeated. That’s not a gesture the lightseeds have any reason to make. The Lost Kin fight, by which the spirit seems to gain some form of closure, becomes available here too.)

False Knight/Failed Champion’s fights work on the same general principle. Now that he has a weapon he can attack Ghost, and his armor deals contact damage. The maggot inside the armor does not inflict contact damage; essentially both his boss fights consist of your whacking the armor until he’s stunned and pops out of the armor for a moment so you can hit his vulnerable real body, which is the only part of him that yields Soul when you smack him. In fact, his boss fights will last forever if you let him recover from being stunned on his own.

Between these two groups, Radiance very obviously doesn’t fit in the first, as she’s the final boss and is very vigorously trying to kill Ghost with various magic spells. You can tell from her Dream Nail dialogue that she’s furious about what the Pale King did to her and her people, and is afraid for her life. She is willing to use everything at her disposal to try to destroy Ghost so she can survive, go free, and get revenge for the Pale King’s crimes. If she could do contact damage to Ghost she would.

So, the only logical conclusion to make is that Radi falls into the second group of enemies that don’t inflict contact damage. She is physically incapable of causing any harm to anyone with only her body. Her magic is deadly as all get out and the 2 masks damage explosion noise probably haunts the nightmares of anyone who’s struggled fighting her, but without it she is helpless.

WHY CAN’T RADIANCE DO CONTACT DAMAGE?

It might be pretty hard to reconcile the fact that a character with Audre Lorde energy as potent as Radi Hollowknight’s is has a whopping 0 ATK. The biggest clues we get in terms of story context for her inability to inflict physical harm of any kind can be found within the culture of the moth tribe, who were her people.

Thistlewind, the backer-designed moth ghost who can be found in the Resting Grounds, tells you that the majority of moths were pacifists, and that individuals like them and like Markoth who learned to wield a nail were in the minority. Thistlewind appears to have learned to fight as a means of self-defense while they explored the crater area, and describes Markoth as having done so in order to “[brave] the edges of this world, hoping to uncover a truth long forgotten”. It sounds to me like Markoth was trying to recover parts of moth culture that were lost when their tribe was assimilated into Hallownest, or maybe even searching for Radiance or trying to learn what happened to her. (Judging that his corpse is hidden behind one of the Pale King’s shade gates it seems this didn’t go well. Thanks TPK.)

As far as fighting moths go there’s Marmu too, but she seems to be a special case, possibly raised in Hallownest's culture instead of with her tribe. We don’t actually get any sort of canon explanation for how a baby moth wound up as a child soldier who died defending the Queen’s Gardens, but given the overall tone of Hollow Knight as a game and all the colonization/Australian history parallel subtext, some horrifying possibilities come to mind.

So, if Thistlewind, Markoth, and Marmu are Outliers Lepidoptera and should not be counted, how did the majority of moths spend their time? According to Seer, who knows more about the tribe’s history than most (and to Quirrel, who points you to her if you defeat Uumuu before picking up the Dream Nail), the moths’ main prerogative was cultivating and developing dream magic. From the way the Seer describes dreams as a living history as you collect Essence, dream magic seems to be a parallel to the Dreaming (or Dreamtime), a spiritual concept in Indigenous Australian religion related to both history and myth.

To translate this into simple terms, the moths were by and large pacifists whose culture celebrated art, history, and spirituality.

Team Cherry tends to adapt at least some aspects of real-life bug behavior and biology into their sad cartoon bugs, so moths-as-pacifists tracks: Real moths do not really have any way to fight. They defend themselves from predators via their mobility and their markings, which tend towards either camouflage that helps them hide or bright markings intended to scare predators off by indicating they’re poisonous (therefore not good to eat) or look like the face of something much bigger and more dangerous than they are.

There's not that much we can glean about the moths in pre-Hallownest society aside from Seer’s dialogue, because Hallownest destroyed their civilization so thoroughly: Except in the Dream Realm (which is filled with Essence spirographs and the wisteria charms that decorate Seer’s room), their architecture can only be found anymore in hidden parts of the Resting Grounds and at the very top of the Crystal Peak where Radi’s statue and a fuckton of lore tablets Ghost doesn’t know how to read are located.

But, we know that the crater pre-Hallownest was home to a ton of diverse bug nations - the mosskin, the mushroom tribe, the mantises, Deepnest, the Hive, the flukes - and every SINGLE one of those had some kind of warrior tradition, as well as their own unique cultures. In the midst of all that it was only the moths who were pacifists, so from there we can tentatively assume that they were on good enough terms with their neighbors for there not to be any fighting. The mosskin in particular also had and still have a Higher Being on their side, though in the modern day Unn seems to be rather conflict avoidant to say the least.

And we know from Hallownest’s past dealings with the mantises and Deepnest that even having Two (2) Higher Beings isn’t enough to keep rival civilizations off your nuts if they hate you, so it’s improbable that Radiance just did all the moths’ fighting for them.

The only hint that the moths ever had beef with anyone at all is one of Radiance’s Dream Nail lines, “ancient enemy” - this is popularly theorized to refer to the Void and might be corroborated by the Void’s willingness to follow Ghost into Radi’s boss fights and fight alongside them. As the Void seems to be some sort of Higher Being/god of darkness and nothingness, and the Dream Nail’s only offensive ability is to kill Void creatures, the Void and creatures of Light appear to be in a position of mutual vulnerability. Some of the Pale King’s writings in his workshop, which identify the Void as a power in direct opposition to his, support this too.

It’s unclear whether the Void civilization and Radiance ever directly came to blows or whether they were just giving each other the stink eye over being natural enemies - personally I think the latter is more likely because the two civilizations existed on opposite sides of the crater*, and again, the moths were pacifists; plus when Ghost brings the Void along to Radi’s boss fight she is quickly and gruesomely overwhelmed by it.

What I am saying here is that if pacifism was such an integral aspect of moth culture, and Radiance epitomized her people’s culture, and she is 100% incapable of inflicting physical harm, she was probably a pacifist too.

DEEP DOWN YOU KNOW YOU WEREN'T BUILT FOR FIGHTING

Hallownest flourished for a long, long time between the Pale King and White Lady first establishing it and the initial outbreak of the Infection.

There’s no conclusive information in-game as to why this is. We can only guess: Maybe Radiance was so badly hurt or weakened by the moths’ assimilation that it simply took her That Long to become capable of the mass dream broadcast to Literally Everyone In Hallownest that would eventually become the Infection when Hallownest’s people tried to suppress it. Or, maybe it just took a long time for her to come up with a way to fight back. It’s possible that it took her a while to find the resolve to actually fight back, too, with her principles of pacifism in conflict with the necessity of defending herself and taking her people back. Maybe there was a change in the moths’ situation in Hallownest somewhere down the line that compelled her to step in - all the moths are super extremely dead at the time Hollow Knight starts, after all. Even Seer is eventually revealed to be a revenant like Ze’mer the Grey Mourner, only lingering in the world to pass on the Dream Nail and tell Radiance’s story. Maybe it was a combination of all those factors. Barring Team Cherry dropping in to explain this bit of Sekret Deep Lore, we are never going to know.

All we DO know for sure is that when we mosey into Hollow’s brain (and/or Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny our way to the top of Hallownest’s Pantheon) and challenge the literal actual sun to a fight, Radi takes the challenge with extreme prejudice and comes in swinging.

Something interesting I noticed while comparing the Radiance boss fights with the Pure Vessel fight is that some of their attacks are vaguely similar. Where warrior-mage characters like Xero and Markoth have physical weapons that they summon and manipulate with magic, Radiance and Pure Vessel both create nails and daggers out of Essence and Soul respectively. Both characters’ magical weapon attacks are similar in nature too: Some are used to create hazards that must be dodged or avoided, and some are fired directly at Ghost in radial patterns.

This begs a very sad chicken-and-egg question. Did Radi and Hollow develop these battle techniques independently of each other, has Hollow in their prime form somehow absorbed similar techniques to Radi through osmosis since they’re currently chained together by the brain... or is Radi mimicking and innovating on these attacks she knows Hollow can do?

All her other attacks seem very obvious for a light-themed character, after all: Beam attacks and blobs of light. A flash of bright light is also how she shakes off the Void the first time it tries to grab her, too, making for a strong argument that that’s the original natural defense she possessed, and that’s what she based most of her attack magic off of.

Making sword’s and knive’s from Essence when most of her people didn’t even handle these sorts of tools even at the height of her power and influence, though... that seems less like something that would come naturally to her. i don’t really know i don’t have a definitive answer or theory for this one it just Seems Possible and it’s fucking me up guys

Even the Infection - which began life as Radiance’s attempt to communicate, let’s remember, before it progressed to “The End Of Eva Disease Will Continue Until Someone Actually Listens To Me” and then finally Radi screaming “FUCK U LET ME OUT, GET THAT NEW SUNNY D BOTTLE THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME, HALLOWNEST EAT SHIT” during canon - does not appear to be fatal to living bugs until the tumorous growths grow so large they impede bodily functions, like real cancer. We can observe this phenomenon via a number of NPCs and enemies that are rediscovered as tumorous corpses after the whole Crossroads area becomes infected.

At least to me, all of this points to Radiance being a character to whom violence and causing harm doesn't come naturally, and who has resorted to these methods in desperation.

It actually reminds me a lot of False Knight/Failed Champion. It’s a very common theory among fans that when he stole Hegemol’s armor he killed Hegemol - this is a reasonable thing to believe, since Hegemol is the only one of the Five Great Knights of Hallownest who never appears at all in-game, not even as a corpse like Dryya and Isma. Like Radi, False Knight/Failed Champion is a character who rose up and turned to violence in order to protect his people, despite the maggots not being a belligerent species.

False Knight is one of the game’s first major bosses, sometimes the first boss that players encounter at all. And so Hollow Knight’s story bookends with two separate victims of a predatory system, one who lived within and was cannibalized by it, one outside of it who was deliberately targeted by the Pale King. Neither of them started out as a fighter, but both of them still adopted violence as a tool to protect themselves and their people. Radiance is as doomed as False Knight by the Pale King’s genocide, but just like False Knight, she has no intention of going quietly, and will rage against the dying of the light as only the literal actual sun can.

Cue Deedee Magno Hall voice clip. You all know the one.

*A footnote: There’s no conclusive evidence to tell us whether the Void civilization was contemporaneous with the other pre-Hallownest indigenous bug nations or whether it predated them. Mask Maker has a line suggesting that the Void civilization tried to expand throughout the crater in its heyday and that maybe this was linked to its collapse, but in general the Void lore is just too darn thin to draw firm conclusions - it’s like trying to speculate on the ancient stone age cultures of the Americas that came before pre-settler Indigenous countries when the only sources you can easily access are elementary school level US history textbooks. (To non-Americans: We mostly teach kids propaganda until they hit college-level courses and it sucks so much ass.) This is very realistic worldbuilding, but also please Team Cherry I want to know more about these ancient bugs who apparently got lost in the sauce

#hollow knight #hollow knight spoilers #hollow knight meta #the radiance #hk radiance #essay #long post under cut -#bad and naughty catholics go in the catholic wiggler

91 notes · View notes

lewlthea · 5 years

Text

The Actual Thing Going On With Edelgard Von Hresvelg.

Spoilers: It’s not fascism, nor racism (at least not in the way people think). Also, actual spoilers for the game.

If there has been a controversial character in Fire Emblem Three Houses, it’s Edelgard Von Hresvelg, one of the game’s main three lords, the house leader of the Black Eagles, the princess and sole heir of the Adrestian Empire, and an antagonist in every single route but hers. She has been a polarizing figure within the community: Some people think she’s an irredeemable monster, others think she’s a misunderstood leader. When it comes to Edelgard, theres hardly a grey opinion towards her; She’s either black or white. Today, I wanna talk about Edelgard’s actions towards the 4 routes, what they actually portray, and how and why the entire discourse towards her was caused deliberately by Intelligent System’s incredible mishandling and mistreatment of the character.

I remember Nintendo’s 2018 E3 conference quite well. I was at with a group of friends, watching at one of them’s house because he had a bigger TV. I remember making jokes about how “there was going to be a new Fire Emblem” because loving Fire Emblem when Intelligent Systems is Like That is a living nightmare.

And then this happens.

youtube

Words could not express the joy I felt when the trailer was over. It wasn’t just a new Fire Emblem game: We were going to have another lady lord, and an axe-wielding one at that - something the fanbase had been desperately craving since the recent surge in Hector’s popularity - and for once, it was like when I first found out that there would be a new female character in Shadows Of Valentia with Faye, and it was the tipping point for me to finally buy a Nintendo Switch.

Of course, just like Faye, things weren’t that simple.

Because some months before E3 2019, which promised to reveal more info on Fire Emblem 3 Houses, Reddit exploded. All because of someone who goes by the username Thanibomb, who claimed to have leaked info on the game, saying a lot of information about all the characters, some of them very questionable (With things such as Lysithea would die due to her crest complications, and it would cause the major 5-year war, and other things like Claude being the one who shot Dimitri’s eye off), while other info being oddly specific. A part of it that made me particularly chuckle was when such user said that Dimitri would have lost an eye, and would cover it with an eyepatch. I found it so silly and, along with some friends, claimed it to be fake and carried on.

And then E3 2019 happened.

youtube

And Dimitri had an eyepatch.

And still, even after Thanibomb, things remained optimistic. All lords looked nice, they seemed to have their own ideals, their own paths, and no fights were breaking out within the fanbase yet. But then early copies were sent to reviewers. And then 4chan got a hold of one of those. And then the main leaks started. And by the time the game got released, it was too late. The amount of hate comments towards the character was so overwhelming; some calling Edelgard a fascist, others claiming that she was racist, others even saying that she gives racist remarks towards Claude ingame (a blatant lie). A personal favorite comment of mine was how Hubert and Edelgard looked like the perfect alt-right couple.

(Should I remark that these kinds of comments stopped as soon as they found out that Hubert could A-support Ferdinand, and most of them moved on to fetishize the relationship between the two of them instead. Ironically, before that happened people despised Hubert in general solely because of his unusual appearance and shady behavior, but that was soon seen as ‘nuanced’ the moment he could be paired off with another man.)

And so, a fight between the fanbase begun: (Mostly) Blue Lion fans bashing Edelgard’s character, Black Eagle fans defending her vehemently, and Golden Deer fans between either on any of those sides or just making memes for Joe Zieja’s rally campaign for the GD. Mostly the latter. But that’s beside the point.

A (Kinda) Brief Summary of Edelgard’s Presence In Azure Moon, Verdant Wind, And Silver Snow.

Throughout the game’s second part, unless you’re playing the Crimson Flower Route, Edelgard will always be an antagonist who cannot be spared, and she cannot survive unless it’s in her own route. However, the way she is percieved changes depending on each route you are making, with each route leaving small fragments depicting Edelgard’s past and shaping her character in full scale.

In Verdant Wind/Silver Snow, Edelgard isn’t the final boss. She is one of the bosses before the big fight. (Nemesis in Claude’s case, Rhea in Seteth’s). She’s one of the obstacles, but not the main one, therefore there is not much insight on her character; However, there is still one element present in those routes that is curiously omitted from Azure Moon that is the reason why she doesn’t really have too much focus, that being Hubert’s final letter.

In both routes, Hubert seems to highly respect Seteth/Claude’s prowess in the war and their cunning mind. (Especially Claude; Throughout both Verdant Wind and Crimson Flower, he commends Claude’s tactics and strategies multiple times). In the letter, he gives the location of where Rhea is confined and asks them to eliminate Those Who Slither in the Dark, the game’s true villains and the ones behind most, if not all the game’s tragic events. Even more curiously, though, is the fact that the letter does exist on the Crimson Flower route, and can be seen briefly on Hubert’s B support with Ferdinand, being the reason of their argument throughout the conversation. Not a single mention of the letter exists in the Azure Moon Route. (Of course it would not make sense for it to exist gameplay-wise due to the player having already murdered Arundel/Thales earlier in the game but. It’s still something to be accounted for).

Speaking of Azure Moon, this is a much more trickier route to talk about. Not only due to the fact that Edelgard is this route’s final boss, but also because all of the things we discover about Edelgard within it are never mentioned in any other route, only brief mentions about the time she spent in the Kingdom; nothing more.

In here, her time spent on the Kingdom is expanded: Both Edelgard, her mom Patricia and Arundel were sent off to Faerghus due to exile, with Patricia being set off to marry King Lambert. There, she meets Dimitri, and they both become fast friends. By the time she has to leave, Dimitri gifts her with a dagger (Which, in Faeghus, are important gifts that mean ‘to cut a path towards a better future’), and she returns to Adrestia. Some time after she leaves the Tragedy of Duscurr happens, caused by Those Who Slither in the Dark. However, due to a misunderstanding caused by eavesdropping on a conversation between Thales and the Flame Emperor, Dimitri mistakenly believes that the Flame Emperor was behind it all, and once the Flame Emperor’s identity is finally revealed to be Edelgard, she is instantly demonized and called a ‘witch’, even though she openly declares how she had nothing to do with it. This goes on until Rodrigue’s death and Cornelia’s reveal that Patricia was the one behind the Duscurr Tragedy so she could return to the Empire and “reunite with her daughter”. (We never find out about what happened to her and she is not mentioned during the Crimson Flower). Dimitri tries to talk Edelgard off their final confrontation, but Edelgard insists that it is far too late for her to back down for their ideals are far too different, and she refuses to live in a world where the Church of Seiros exists. Dimitri then hands back her dagger (Which she accidentally dropped before the timeskip), and they both retreat to prepare for the final battle.

This route’s final boss is an Edelgard who was absorbed direct power from Those Who Slither in the Dark, and adquires a grotesque, corrupted form. No other character in the canon possess such a thing, and only Edelgard can assume such form. Once she is defeated, Dimitri tries once again to spare her, only for Edelgard to stab him with the dagger, making Dimitri realize that she would never give up on her dream, and finally kills her.

An Even More Brief Explanation of What Does All of This Means.

Okay, all of that info was nice, fun, good, yadda yadda. What does this mean and why was it needed.

Well, for starters, let’s ask ourselves a question: After reading the summary, can you say that you know what drives her to seek out the destruction of the church?

What is her reasoning behind the unification of Fodlan?

Do we get anything out of her other than “Scary dictator” or “An obstacle that had to be sadly removed” or “Under better circumstances... We could’ve been Allies (tm)”?

We don’t. Because Intelligent Systems did not bother to show Edelgard’s motivations, despite her being the villain in almost all the routes.

During Verdant Wind and Silver Snow, Edelgard herself does not matter: she’s solely important because she is threatening the church, she is your scary big bad dictator that you have to beat in order to rescue Rhea, only to find out that in reality she was just a stepping stone to the real villains, Those Who Slither in the Dark. (In game it is said that Hubert came up with this name. In my humble opinion Hubert can go fuck himself because this is the shittiest name I have ever seen and I am tired of having to type this five word long thing every paragraph or so). As soon as you read the letter, suddenly Edelgard, the Empire, and all the questions you had as to why she Did It dissappear because now you have another objective, another goal.

This is even more offensive during Azure Moon because she is the focus, the final boss, but it doesn’t matter why she did all of this nor what her ideals actually are despite them being the reason why she cannot be spared. The game would rather focus on getting reactions out of the player when the intimidating big meanie does something that makes Dimitri go angry than actually focusing on the clashing of Dimitri and Edelgard’s ideals, why they cannot go back to what it once was, what happened to her to change this way, why did ‘El’ actually die. All you have is a dictator in red which does things for no reason other than “I will destroy the Church and unify Fodlan so I can govern over all of it”. Nothing more, nothing less.

....Of course, you do realize that I have avoided to talk about a certain thing.

So, About That Crimson Flower Route...

If there is a way to truly understand a villain, one must walk on such person’s footsteps. Most people criticizing Edelgard were the ones who hadn’t played her route yet, or had only played Azure Moon and was led to believe that all of Edelgard’s actions are unwarranted or pure nonsense.

There is a reason why people sing their tune differently as soon as they experience the Crimson Flower.

For starters, to be able to fight for Edelgard, you have to first have her support up to C+, go with her to Enbarr once she asks of you, and then defend her from Rhea at the Holy Tomb. The reasoning behind that is so that you fully understand what Edelgard has gone through and the reason why she cannot agree with the existence of the Church.

The Azure Moon route tells you of Edelgard before she returned to the Empire.

It never tells you what caused her to change after she went back.

Edelgard was part of the crest experimentations caused by Those Who Slither in the Dark, alongside all her siblings. Her father, the emperor, was unable to do anything about it, as the real people in control of the Empire were Arundel/Thales and Duke Aegir. Being the sole survivor of such things to return to society and see how everything is defined by whether you have a crest or not and finding out that the Church, who instead of breaking down such system to favor equality would rather turn the creatures who run it into figures to be worshipped is. Something.

There’s another reason for Edelgard’s sudden betrayal, a more sinister one, and why she feels like everything needs to be done in a quick pace. In her C+ you find out she has a second crest, The Crest of Flames, just like the player. People who bear two crests have a shortened lifespam, however.

When Edelgard declares war against the Church, and to unite Fódlan, it’s not solely because ‘Church bad’: She declares war against the unfair crest system, against the hypocrisy of Rhea’s dragon entourage, and of course, to destroy Those Who Slither in the Dark later on the road.

However.

Just because Edelgard’s behavior is justified, does not mean she is 100% in the right. She herself admits that the path she follows is one drenched in blood. But there are several times in the game that makes you stop and think for a second that she can still make bad decisions, and that sometimes her decisions might have horrible consequences. One of them is for example to never take away Brigid’s status as a vassal to the Empire and return it back to it’s former glory as an actual country, which shows how the entire Brigid kerfuffle is something akin to colonization. We should also point out that when she unifies Fodlan, in some endings she remains the Emperor, completely missing the point of what she fought for.

Another case that shows one of Edelgard’s biggest flaws is with the Silver Maiden incident.

Edelgard had just conquered Arianrhod, the Silver Maiden, and due to murdering Cornelia, enrages Ariandel/Thales, whom causes the situation above out of a show of power. She knows it was Those Who Slither in the Dark, but she needs to give explanations fast and she can’t reveal their identity or else they would slip away and it would be impossible to locate them and destroy them. So what does she do?

She says it was Rhea who did it, actively lying to her closest allies, one of them being the Prime Minister of the Empire.

For Edelgard, the ends justifies the means, and as long as she gets the results she wants, she will do what it takes. Even by alienation. And that’s a dangerous way to go on.

...So, where do I want to go from here? Who is to blame for the hatefest Edelgard is receiving?

Intelligent Systems Kind of Didn’t Know What To Do With Edelgard.

Now hold on. That sounds a bit too harsh, don’t you think? She was the first lord shown in the E3 2018 trailer, they have placed a very big emphasis on Edelgard everywhere hell the game’s main theme is about her, why would you claim that??

Well, first and foremost, I should start by saying that Crimson Flower is the game’s shortest route, with the total of 18 chapters. From those 18 chapters, there is only one cutscene, with most of the route’s major events being shown with either the game’s basic models or still images.

For comparison, Verdant Wind has the total of 8 cutscenes, counting the final one before the timeskip, with 3 of them being unique to its route.

Azure Moon has the total of 5 cutscenes, 3 of them being unique to its route.

Silver Snow has 4 cutscenes, having 2 unique ones to its route.

The other two main lords have several support options with people outside of their respective houses; Edelgard only has one.

Remember when I said that one of Edelgard’s main enemies are Those Who Slither in the Dark? The game never lets her deal with them personally. You never truly fight them during Crimson Flower.

In a way, the game feels as if while Edelgard is the focus, you shouldn’t side with her. It really makes it feel as if someone at Intelligent Systems just snickered and said ‘Hey wouldn’t it be cool if we could let our players side with/date our villain?’ without even considering or respecting such villain’s motivations, her ideals, and what truly makes a character unique.

In the end, all they truly cared for was if Edelgard was romanceable enough for the player, not if she made sense or was appealing as a character, whether as a villain or a savior.

And considering how the fanbase is behaving towards Edelgard, they succeeded.

#fire emblem #fe3h #fire emblem 3 houses #fe edelgard #i spent an entire night writing this #my neck hurts so badly

424 notes · View notes

supergenial · 5 years

Text

Three Houses sucks actually

It’s been a whole month so after about 180 hours of play and doing all four routes, I thought I’d write down all the minor nitpicks that upset me about this fantastic game. Obviously spoilers ahead.

First of all, I do think it’s a great game, it’s one of my favorite fire emblem titles so far. I will not claim to be a veteran, but I have been playing since the gba games, I’ve played every game between fe6 and three houses, even fe12. I know genealogy is supposed to be GOAT but I’m holding out for a remake like I did with gaiden (and boy, waiting payed up big time on that one). Also if you love this game and think it’s perfect, that is awesome, I urge you to not read this so you don’t get upset about someone not understanding the game that you love (even though I love it too). Anyway, let’s begin:

I. The Four Routes are bad (together)

This game presents the player with a choice of 3 houses they can join, with that decision deciding which story you actually get to see. Along with Lion, Eagle and Deer, there’s also a “Church” route that is kind of lame, but not game-ruining. On their own they’re all actually pretty darn good stories. But these routes are extremely flawed. Not intrinsically, mind-you, but rather as a whole. In a game with multiple routes, you’d expect them to complement each other but instead each route actively makes the other ones actually worse. Do keep in mind that I think each route is pretty good on it’s own (even church) whichever one you pick first you will enjoy it greatly, and it will only deteriorate as you progress through the others.

Edelgard’s route is a political story of a revolutionary who wants to crush aristocracy and replace it with a meritocracy, her objective therefore is to crush the church that oversees the 3 nations. It feels like something out of shin megami tensei, she’s basically a chaos hero (which I usually hate) but with some nuance and less insane. It’s a great route! Gameplay-wise, it is my favorite, and also has the most thematic cohesion with the early game where all the students have misgivings about their noble status. Problem is it would have you believe that Dimitri has a complex ideological reason for standing up against her and protecting the church, when in reality playing his route tells you that he really has no political ideologies that he believes in (he straight up says this to Mercedes in their A support), he’s just a king defending his territory, which is really underwhelming as he has no parallels or contrasting motifs in regards to her, he’s just a dude. Another awful thing that basically everyone agrees is bad about this route is Those Who Slither in the Dark, a group that is set up as villains that have to be defeated, but instead get dealt with off-screen in the epilogue. You’d think it’s because they were lazy, and didn’t want to make a level for them, but there’s 2 routes in which you do fight them, they have their own level already in the game, it’s just not in this route. The plotline then just feels very lazy and incomplete, but even moreso once you play Claude’s route and you just... you just fight against those who slither, which is all I wanted to do at the end of Edelgard’s route. Perhaps the most disappointing route, but I happen to have an affinity for disappointment and the themes it goes for.

Dimtri’s route is a fantastic story of a broken man reclaiming his sanity. It’s the most character-driven and the most emotionally charged of the three. It’s an amazing route! Easily the best written as it picks a single theme (Dimitri’s downfall and rise) and does it extremely well instead of spreading too wide and losing focus. The ending is a bit underwhelming though. Basically everything after Dimitri recovers his humanity feels like filler, though his A supports are really amazing, all of them, making his post-feral phase worth it. The bigger problem is that this route actively sabotages the player’s enthusiasm towards playing Edelgard’s route as it paints her as the ultimate evil, the True and Only villain that has to be defeated. As such, a lot of the reaction I’ve seen online is that people who play this one first flat out refuse to play Edelgard’s route because really, why would you? She’s badbadnotgood, her sanity and reasoning are as flimsy as it gets, and she broke Dimitri’s heart when he was a kid, along with killing his entire family according to this route. You’d have to be insane to be excited to play as her, it’s something you’d only do for the sake of completionism. In the church and deer route you fight Edelgard too, but she’s presented as a well-intentioned extremist rather than an evil snake. Yes, even in the church route, the very one thing she wants to destroy!

Claude’s route on the other hand is so complete it suffers from it. It goes over every major plotline and actually solves it with very little thematic resonance between it all. Those who slide? He takes care of them. Rhea’s misdeeds? They’re acknowledged. Edelgard isn’t insane? He agrees. Who exactly was Nemesis?(the very first cutscene we’re shown!) Got it too. What is Sothis, what happened to her, why is she bound to Byleth? Got it. His route is ridiculous in that it covers too much ground and lore that could’ve been better put in the church route as it has no real thematic cohesion with Claude. He wants to end racism or something, ok cool, but he never fights any “race-realists”, none of the villains in his route are diametrically opposed to his ideals, and his final boss is a last minute diabolus ex machina with no real theme to it. It would’ve been easy to drive the point further that by beating the deadlords they’re burying the prejudices of the past and forging a new world without their literal ancestors hanging over them, but instead the scene goes for a sort of power of friendship type of feel and just rolls with that. It’s an exciting route with many hype moments, but when put together with the other ones, it feels kind of really weird that his route is basically a lore dump to fill in the lore gaps rather than a story about something.

It’s a given that in a game with 3 routes each one would tell their side of their story and be somewhat incomplete, leading the player to play all three to get the whole story. Instead these 3 routes actively try to drag each other lower instead of boosting each other higher, which is really disappointing.

Don’t even get me started on the church route, that shouldn’t even be in the game at all. It’s the same as Claude’s route, the exact same, but without Claude. Ok so that means Seteth gets a lot of development in this route right? No, not really, he’s just kind of there. Rather than Seteth being the lord of the route it’s more like this is a lord-less route. Ghost Dimitri is a really cool scene, for sure, but outside of that seriously screw this route. You might think “well but I like Rhea, I want to be on her side”, well spoiler alert kiddo: you literally fight Rhea in this route, she’s the final boss. And you don’t get to hang out with her all that much either so forget about that. While I dislike Rhea, I think having a route for her is reasonable since that sickening mommy fetish is so popular these days so of course you’d want to pander to that audience for that sweet cash, but people who like Rhea don’t even get that because you have to actually kill her at the end (which I actually really like, it made the church route Actually Good for me, plus it’s a really fun level despite being yet another fight at Garreg Mach, more on that later). Also in this route you don’t get to see Rhea in her Seiros armor that is 10/10 hot as shit so why even bother, go play Edelgard’s route if you want to see some actually cool Rhea scenes and quotes.

edit: just been informed Rhea does live if you S-support her, kind of disappointed but ok, that’s pretty good for all who liked her and it makes sense.

II. Claude, the master tactician

“Ugh, don’t call me that”, Even he’s fed up with the title

My favorite of the three lords in the game is easily Claude but it’s pretty unfair that he survives every single route (unless you actively choose not to spare him in Edelgard’s route), whereas Dimitri and Edelgard always die outside of their routes. But that’s not the worst of him, what I hate about him is how he gets hyped up as THE MASTER STRATEGIST whenever other characters speak of him. Granted, writing a “Smart” character is hard because you have to be smart or else the readers won’t buy it, but the writers don’t even try and instead make him out to be a complete fool in almost every route (he’s actually pretty smart in the church route imo, but he’s also never seen in that one).

In his route, he does exhibit some degree of strategy and thought, devising a trap to protect Garreg Mach (by setting his allies on fire???) and doing a bit of a Trojan Horse when seizing Fort Merceus. However, if you play Dimitri’s route, Gilbert suggests doing the fire thing, and in the church route you just infiltrate Fort Merceus in the exact same way. So congratulations Claude, you’re about as smart as... Gilbert, a character that no one ever refers to as a strategic or military genius. This is another case of routes weighting down other routes, if you only play his route you think “oh yeah, he’s smart, he Trojan Horse’d the empire, what an absolute madlad”, but once you play the other routes it’s like, oh, ok, I guess that’s just meant to happen that way whichever side you choose.

Ok, maybe he’s not a genius master strategist in his story, sure, after all Byleth is the tactician so of course he’d take a back seat, but what about as an enemy commander? he’s gotta have some devious map design to back up his claim to genius, right? Wrong.

In Dimitri’s route you fight Claude and Edelgard post-timeskip at Gronder Field just like you did before the timeskip. In this battle, Claude’s objective is to stop Edelgard. You think to yourself, oh that’s wonderful, an ally! Together we’ll crush that evil snake together! Except his army focuses yours, instead of going straight for Edelgard, as he did in the very same battle pre-timeskip. The game says there’s some fog, but guess what, this game HAS a fog mechanic to make some maps have low-visibility, and that fog is not present in this map! As such, he comes off as a total doofus in this chapter. This battle feels like Batman v Superman, a fight that just “has” to happen to sell the idea that the heroes are against each other, but Batman and Superman shouldn’t be fighting at all to begin with, they’re on the same side! They only fight because it’s the “hype” thing to do. Sigh.

Later on in the same route Claude is attacked by the empire in his hometown. His “master strategy” is to corner himself against an army that outnumbers his army 10:1, and trust that Dimitri will save him, the very same Dimitri that nearly killed him a couple days ago at Gronder Field. This is a pretty stupid and naive strategy on it’s own, but it gets worse once you look at the enemy troops in this map. They are all horses or infantry, not a single flier. Claude himself, he rides a wyvern. He could’ve escaped out to the sea, you might even think that’s his plan, but no, because Judith is there in the map and she certainly isn’t riding a wyvern, same goes for all his other men. Imagine the mockery, the sheer audacity of driving your enemy into a corner and thinking you’ll kill him only for all his men to suddenly get on wyverns and escape from you, which is possible thanks to the mount/unmount mechanic. Just imagine, you’re trying to save him and upon reaching halfway through the map, he and all his men get on wyverns and escape, saying they’ll trust you to take care of the empire as they run away, as you realize he just fooled you into taking out the trash for him. It would’ve been awesome! A moment worthy of The Master Trickster, but no, you just have to kill the boss before he kills Claude and Judith and that’s the map, that’s the whole thing.

And don’t even get me started on his map on Edelgard’s route. For a whole month people hype Claude up to be John Von Neumann combined with The Joker and Sun Tzu, so I’m expecting his level to be a really twisted one: warps, damaging terrain, falco knights with horse slayers, ballistae, swordmasters with armorslayers, siege tomes, sleep staves, berserk staves, etc. Instead, the level in which you fight against Claude has basically 0 unusual terrains, his “master strategy” is to just call for reinforcements until you cut off the source of reinforcements. This means that his “incredibly genius master tactic of galaxy-brain depth” is to use brute force, which is literally the exact opposite of clever tactics. Needless to say, this was to me the biggest disappointment, really wasted that opportunity to make a level that’s actually unique.

Then you go on to fight Dimitri’s right afterwards and guess what: his map has a siege tome user(with decent crit rate!), it has a unique monster gimmick where you have to kill an enemy every turn to avoid them turning into monsters, it has 4 commanders all calling for reinforcements leaving you to choose wisely which one needs to be stopped first, it has a river separating both sides of the map so that your teams have to be cleanly split up if going for multiple objectives, etc. It’s my favorite level in the game because it’s well thought out, interesting and basically more like what you’d expect of the mission where you’d fight a tactical mastermind. Sigh.

III. Ideological Conflict (a lack of it)

This is my biggest issue with the game

I really memed myself playing Edelgard's route so early because as I said previously it feels like a shin megami tensei chaos-route. She is fighting for an ideal, and so I falsely developed the hope that the game would have an ideological conflict. If you play Claude's route, you see that he is also fighting for his ideals, dude wants to end racism, that is awesome! However even when the characters do fight each other, their ideals are never in conflict. In Edelgard’s paralogue you fend off an almyrian invasion but she tells Byleth that she wishes they could be allies, and that in the future they should sit down and talk with almyrians to make their relationship better. In Claude’s route he is often fed up with the church’s historical revisionism and you can see he holds a lot of contempt for the institution as a whole. Edelgard and Claude may fight each other due to circumstance but their ideals are never against each other, in fact they kind of want the same things. And surely enough, Dimitri also thinks racism is whack, which is mostly explored through his relationship with Dedue. But Dimitri just doesn’t really believe in anything, in his route he’s completely reactive to the forces around him, there’s just no ideal world that he’s working towards, instead he just deals with the bullshit others have set in his way (not that there’s anything actually wrong with that, it’s just really underwhelming when the other stories are about ideals).

And really that’s ok. Like I said this is a problem of my own I memed myself into thinking I was playing a much better game, and only have myself to blame for those expectations. It’s very normal of intelligent systems to not want to put into the game a playable character who is racist or anti-equality. Except we have Lorenz and Ferdinand, two characters that are so fiercely pro-aristocracy I started the game hating them(nowadays Ferdinand is easily in my top 5). Ferdinand believes that nobility is a cross to be carried for the good of the people and that rather than a highway to an easy life, it is a tremendous responsibility to bear and that commoners are better off relying on a noble like himself to make their lives better.

Nobility being a cross is something supported by the narrative! There are many characters dissatisfied with their lives solely because they were born as nobles and have to deal with problems exclusive to nobles, most notably Sylvain, Ingrid and then Mercedes who straight up becomes a commoner because of the pressure of nobility. Lorenz on the other hand has been pressured by his family so much he’s a completely brainwashed tool of the aristocrats, but as the game progresses he gets his head out of his ass and becomes a more likeable character.

“Edelgard intends to abolish the nobility, but I know I can disuade her”, Ferdinand you bumbling fool, that is literally her main policy, have you ever actually listened to her?

Those two show it is possible for the team to write characters with bad ideals and then develop them into likeable ones, they just didn’t feel like having a lord that upholds bad ideals and grows out of them or is betrayed by their shortcomings. Hell, just imagine if after the last chapter in black eagles those who slither betrayed Edelgard instantly, showing that allying yourself with villainous people only because they’re convenient is sure to lead to betrayal. It would’ve been a sobering moment to see her say that maybe, maybe pairing up with mustache-twirling bad guys might have been a bad idea after all and having to really consider the damage she might have caused by letting them co-exist with her for her goals. Instead her route just ends, significantly shorter than all others. Aghhh. But yeah, this is a problem of my own expectations because fire emblem never had amazingly complex stories to begin with (I know I know, genealogy is supposed to be pretty deep, but that was over 20 years ago, it’s just not relevant to modern fire emblem until it gets a remake).

“Wait so you want Dimitri to be racist?” Oh hell no. Dimitri is literally perfect as he is, just look at him. What I’m saying is he should’ve gotten his own game, because he doesn’t fit in with the other two lords in this game as he has no vision of how the world should be (other than “Good”) and no ideological struggle he needs the world to understand. His story just doesn’t need Fodlan. The kicker is that his house, were it not for their tight and adorable friendship, is the one that is more likely to side with Edelgard as Sylvain, Mercedes, Ingrid, and Felix all hate nobility/aristocracy, and Ashe’s dad whom he idolizes literally gets sentenced to death by the church. Dimitri on a solo game would’ve been a cool story (better than Fates that’s for sure). But in three houses he doesn’t complement the other two lords, and the other two lords also bring him down. It’s what I’ve been saying: the routes just don’t complement each other. Remember how I said many people played Blue Lions and then just flat out refused to play the other routes? It sounded like I was belittling them but those people were right, they’re living their best life and I applaud them, they truly beat the game.

Worth noting that the church route is technically, from an outside perspective, a pro-aristocracy route. The black eagles students are all aristocrats except for Dorothea, and in this route it’d be a fair observation to say that they’re a bunch of spoiled kids who are trying to preserve the status-quo because they don’t want to give up their lands and servants. Obviously this isn’t how the route approaches character motivations, but an incisive in-world historian would’ve made this scathing observation by simply looking at who’s spearheading the revolt against the emperor: a bunch of rich kids.

IV. The Pre-Timeskip common route (FOUR times)

Moving onto gameplay-related nitpicks: what were they thinking? There’s like 13 chapters before the timeskip in every route, and they are always the same missions regardless of which house you choose. One of them is to kill Ashe’s dad and the other one is to kill Sylvain’s brother, you would think those missions would be exclusive to the blue lions and that other routes would have an equivalent for them: a story that hits home, that gets personal with one of the characters you chose and more importantly that just plays differently across all the routes. Instead the game would have you play the same missions 4 times so that you end up dreading the sight of them, on top of them having no real relation to the characters you’re using in 3/4ths of the routes. If the dlc route has me defend Garreg Mach even one more time, I’ll just go insane. Speaking of that:

V. Dimitri, Claude and Church route all have same maps

If you feel like playing all four routes, it’s gonna feel like you’re just playing the exact same game over and over. The maps you play in are literally all the same. And Edelgard isn’t scot-free either, but at least in her maps you fight from the other perspective of the map you know, you’re at least coming at it from another angle (though she will still have you defend Garreg Mach post-timeskip, completely negating the pleasure of not doing that pre-timeskip). I get it: these maps are huge, and they’re highly detailed because you can zoom in and literally see the battalions and all that, it’s really super neat and takes a lot of time to make so you can’t just have a hundred maps. But I mean by the end of the game (that is, playing all four routes) looking at any of the maps feels so tiring. I feel like I might just never replay any of the routes at least for a very long time because I’ve grown sick of seeing them over and over and over so many times. And dear lord, if I have to play Flayn’s paralogue one more time without fliers I’ll just shoot myself. Speaking of fliers.

VI. Fliers are absurdly broken

Literally what were they thinking. Wyvern Riders have absolutely insane stats and thanks to the dismount feature, they lose nothing by being in that class. The last levels in Claude and Edelgard’s routes are severely favored toward fliers too, both of them featuring tons of damaging terrain that is hard to cross for horses, though at least Nemesis has the decency of having many ballistae set up (probably because Claude himself is a flier so they expect you to have at least one). Also all that damaging terrain screws over horses because they thought horses were broken or something. But really, you’d think mobility is such an important stat that they’d compensate for it elsewhere, but no, all you lose is the opportunity cost of not having more crit as a war master (which female characters don’t have access to anyway) or being able to use magic. And horse units just get screwed over in every conceivable way, you’d expect that they at least get some beefy additional stats over wyvern riders but instead they’re actually weaker since wyverns are faster and speed is such an important stat. Also wyverns have so much defense that even in hard mode arrows (their supposed weakness) will have trouble denting them (or even hitting them thanks to their extremely high avoid).

edit: I also invite you to look at the growth rate modifiers for each class and see that all horse classes provide a negative speed growth rate, which is bad enough without realizing that wyverns are so minmaxed they even provide a cute minus 5 magic as a “balance” while getting boosts to both defense and speed in their final class. Are you kidding me? Horses are basically a player trap, they look cool and they’re half the master classes so they gotta be useful, right? Couldn’t be more wrong. Also what’s the deal with mortal savant providing -10% speed growth, that shit is bananas, how could the Naruto class hamper your speed if Naruto is all about that running, IT’S INSANE.

This is all exacerbated once you go for a low-turn-count playthrough, a fairly popular style of play among fans of the series where as the name indicates you try to beat the levels in as few turns as possible. Suddenly fliers go from clearly the strongest, to necessary. What’s absurd is how fliers are affected by the Stride battalion in the same way all other units are. Stride is a battalion effect that allows a group of units to have higher movement for one turn, your little walking units suddenly being able to walk 12 squares like it’s nothing feels pretty good but this battalion can also boost the movement of fliers and horses which means: why would you waste it on infantry units? It would’ve been so easy, and would’ve made so much sense for stride to only work on walking units, or to at least have reduced effectiveness on mounted units, but they just completely forgot that.

I knew I should’ve gone wyvern, could’ve had way more 1′s

VII. Crests

Oh wow, a neat game feature where each character has a unique skill related to their bloodline, and the story acknowledges their existence by saying they’re so highly valued they decide who’s noble and who isn’t. Surely they came up with really interesting effects for all of them, right? Wrong. “Raise Mt when using skills”, “Raise Mt when using magic”, “Raise Mt when attacking”. This shit is boring. But hey it’s ok right, you can’t expect them to come up with unique interesting skills for each character to have right? Except they did, each character (crest-bearer or not) has a personal skill, and they are all way more interesting than crests. The only non-boring crests are the ones bore by Annete, Mercedes, Hilda and Ferdinand. And Annete doesn’t even learn meteor, so her magic-conservation isn’t even that amazing once she becomes a gremory, though it probably is fairly useful if she becomes a dark knight instead. I will say though, crests are still way better than the personal crit skills from radiant dawn, like Stun and the like which were basically glorified critical hits in some cases or straight up silencers in the case of luna or eclipse (hell, those skills got so bad that the endgame is filled with Nihil wielders, characters who just straight up cancel the activation of enemy skills because the game itself had to patch them out preemptively due to how ridiculous they were, but at least they were impressive and memorable and not just “raise Mt a little bit sometimes” are you kidding me).

VIII. Lost items

Up until now these have all been nitpicks but if anything gets my blood boiling is those dreaded lost items, a gameplay feature that I just straight up gave up on and never looked back. You find a billion lost items throughout the monastery, which is great, an item that shows the personality of the character that lost it, and once you return it to them your affection grows. The problem is that there’s really like a hundred of them, and they’re not hard to find but rather are a pain to give back to their owners, for the screen where you select them doesn’t allow for any kind of sorting options. How hard was it isys?? I press X and the items are ordered alphabetically, was that really so hard? You really expect me to rummage through this endless list until I find the right one from the sea of really small text for ants? THIS IS THE REAL GAMEBREAKER, THIS IS WHERE IT ALL FALLS APART AND I REALIZE THIS GAME IS A TOOL OF THE DEVIL TO WRECK HAVOC INTO THE SOULS OF ALL PLAYERS.

In the end

So yeah, basically it’s a pretty good game, I’d say at least a 9/10 and unironically among my favorite fire emblems. I won’t go into detail about what I like because that’s not the point of the post and really who gives a shit, but it’s really good and I can’t wait for the dlc next year! Also this:

(also please let magic always function like in this game where instead of tomes and staves you have a set number of uses per encounter like it’s dungeons and dragons, that shit ruled)

edit: I did another post about the maddening difficulty, you might like it if you have read this far

#fire emblem #review?#vent post #deep analysis

41 notes · View notes

sacks-of-kittans · 4 years

Note

So you wanted a route where everyone lives?? You might have explained it but how would that really work?

I probably HAVE but I won’t make you dig deep in my blog for it. And I’m not gonna dig for it so lists call it a 2.0 version. This is gonna be a loose idea so they’re definately some holes

The 3 lords do have supports

It would be Byleth’s route! Right before the time skip Byleth is pretty upset about their father and it’s like a murder mystery is about to be solved but it never is. I would love make a way where Sothis stays in the 5 years later but I don’t think o could make a logical way. Edelgard still has her war, that is always a major plot point in the game which I don’t ever see being erased.

Byleth wakes up and decides instead of going to the monastery they go to their house from the prologue and finds Alois there. Alois is searching for Rhea, but comes the cabin house often because he still can’t believe he met up with Jeralt, Byleth and the three leaders (I know he was watching over them but it was a nice memory before everything went to shit) they then go to monastery as Alois basically catches Byleth up on everything that has happened. The bandit scene! The people to catch up are Seteth and Flayn I guess. Lowkey thought maybe the abyss people but I haven’t recruited yet to know them truly.

After getting some characters, whose the most stable to go to after hearing 5 years worth of rumors? Claude, even if you weren’t his teacher, Claude didn’t start a war nor did he lose his sanity. On the way there you pick up a majority of the golden deer commoners and Lysthesia and Lorenz. That’s where another slip of information or battle with those with slither in the dark. Lythesia talks about the dark mages and Lorenz is like “I’m sorry your house went through that, it’s terrible your house was vulnerable at such a dark time.” Or something. Lorenz sends out a message to the main lords of the round table they need a meeting. The professor is back. They have some big ass meeting and Claude is like “wow you’re alive” since Marianne and Hilda’s families are included they’re there too. Byleth is basically pissed but know those who slither in the dark is a group that is responsible for the death of their dad and lyethesia hair. So yeah Byleth big mad and wants to take them down. Claude thinks he can convince Dimitri (if he’s still alive and shocked he is) to join their cause because he may be a little crazy, Claude thinks they can work together.

On the way to the kingdom spies have already caught wind Byleth is mad and wants revenge. A suborniate (a new character) tries to stop them from reaching the kingdom. They die. But wait?? Dimtri is trying to go to Gronder field t kill Edelgard. Loose idea, Dedue comes in on that map saying he took Dimitri’s place for execution and then stayed away (I forgot why he stayed gone for so long but people from Duscur helped him) but he’s also trying to catch up to Dimitri. You recruit Dedue. There would probaly be 2 more maps recruiting the other blue lions students.

Gronder field. Basically the mission is you gotta get Dedue or Claude to capture Dimitri before Dimitri gets to Edlegard. Byleth fighting Edlegard helps Byleth understand that “this is the only way” and other words Edelgard is being controlled (not by magic just like her will) yeah Edelgard wants a world where she can create but why then?? Thales or something.

Dimitri is capture. Edelgard retreats. You can recruit Bernadetta at Gronder field because she doesn’t want to fight, but do it before she gets set on fire. After the fighting Byleth explains that there’s something suspicious. While theyre regrouping at the monastery, Cornelia sets out an attack to get rid of Dimitri once and for all. Maybe she turns Rodrigue into a puppet just a thought. Dimitri pieces more of the Duscur tradegy together and has his in the rain moment. Claude and Dimitri can unlock their A support after that. They have to go to Enbarr.

Like two maps to recruit the black eagles houses. Edelgard is a boss. Once you defeat her she considers going into a giant moth monster BUt Byleth stops her. Byleth asks about Edelgard’s hair. Yes Edelgard is stubborn and can’t ask for help but having a faint understanding without having to explain her tradegy before hand makes her consider Byleth something else. She wants to be killed. Uncle Ardunel (?) shows up and tried to kill Byleth while they’re talking. Hubert thinkng fast teleports the three away. Edelgard says what now? Join my cause basically you’re being controlled by your abusers, it’s scary to leave, but you don’t have to be alone or with just Hubert. She doesn’t know if she can, Byleth puts a sword of her neck but doesn’t slice it. Hubert is also trying to threaten Byleth in this moment. Claude and Dimitri find the three. Byleth tells Edelgard dying isn’t gonna do your dream any good, stay alive, help out and you can rid of this crest system. Edlegard silently accepts.

Freeing Rhea. Before Edelgard frees Rhea, they basically fight each other with words. They don’t trust each other, and Edlegard explains why she didn’t kill Rhea after 5 long years. They debate, and Rhea basically says Edelgard isn’t control of her own fate if she follows those who slither in the dark, just like her not having a choice to have 2 crests. Byleth breaks it up and has Edelgard free Rhea. They return to the montarsy and the news in Enbarr is that the emperor dissapeard. Rhea explains Fodlan’s history to the 3 leaders and Blyeth. She is too weak to fight but wants everyone to work together and defeat the real enemy. Edelgard and Dimitri resolve some of their issues, and Edelgard calls Claude a compentent leader. There’s not enough time to do too much.

There’s like 3 more maps of killing generals of those who slither in the dark. They either attack the montasry or Theh go out and find them. There are more white haired people on their ranks. If Edelgard fights someone with white hair she pities them cause they were once like her and they’re like “I won’t be alive long anyway”. Lythesia fighting them also has a pity and questions why they fight and you just get an angry answer like “shut up!” Kinda deal. I doubt Lythesia was the only white haired kid to live (out of the ground total of people the dark mages tested on. They got once crest formula right and said alright there we go! Nah they gotta standardize it. Yeah the royal empire kids died or went made, but I bet more people were affected. Like people who have major crest siblings and they were minor crest)

You get your final battle with Thales who talks about Sothis and Jeralt and everything else of their experiments and who had to be eliminated. He also jabs at Edelgard for betraying herself, but she says he doesn’t have the best interest for her but the professor does (cause the professor was like you can keep your dream but don’t die we need you for info) big monster battle with puppets too. Yay! Victory

Though the boarders weren’t unified the three leaders were unified by that war that made them work together with their beloved professor. Rhea steps down and let’s Blyeth take over, she does give advice and seteth still there to help advise. Manuela and Hammenmen still teach. Alois finally goes home to see his wife and kids. Edelgard does end up stepping down as emperor once she finds an unnamed replacement. She accepts she’s not the best for job as emperor and depending on endings her life changes. She’s an advisor for the empire or goes to Byleth side something like that. Maybe she travels around the country to understand the people better. Claude ends up opening Fodlan’s throat and devotes his efforts to bridging Alymra and Fodlan. Dimitri Gets therapy, and does become king. They do all stay in contact with Byleth often through letters and visits. Yeah the religion may have changed, but the church still turns people into knights, they offer negotiations between countries and noble houses. Regardless of Lythesia’s ending she does end up living longer because characters like Linhart and Hamnenen are allies no matter what.

Ending scene is like a year later where they thank Byleth for protecting all their students so everyone could cut futures without racism, overbearing crest systems, and figuring out that slithers in the dark did a lot of evil things and being free form their control. The end

#ask #fire emblem #anon

1 note · View note

knightofbalance-13 · 7 years

Text

Boss Battle: Vs. Dudeblade 2

(ttp://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/160665858330/vol4-gripes-primarily-about-the-finale

Yep, More Dudeblade bullcrap. And my god, is this going to be a trial on par with Hercules’. So i hope to the people who read this: Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi34XJx35ZE

Volume 4.

Oh boy, are you a subject that is a pain in the ass to handle.

Sometimes it feels this volume was made just to be hated.

So much time spent on setting up for future volumes that you forgot about the volume in front of you most of the time.

And yet throughout this review.critique you will constantly be shown to manipulate facts and be either deliberately vague with your complaints as so you can’t be directly contradicted or you will and I’ll do a better job of understanding the sources than you. This shows that you are not unbiased and professional in this but rather out for blood to insult and attack what you personally don’t like to try and manipulate the show into what you want. And I’m here to knock down the pillars you have built up. Let’s go.

A vague and convoluted timeskip that raised more questions than avoided it (like seriously? It took WeissSIX MONTHS to decide to leave her broken home? - (And no. If anyone says “Weiss’ arc took place at a different point in time than the timeskip.” Then that basically validates my accusation that Yang recovered overnight. You can’t say that about one character, and then claim it was completely different for another)).

That’s your only example? That example doesn’t even work here because parents, not matter how much a child hates them, holds a very strong psychological hold on them to the point that the idea of straight up defiance takes a lot of power. Weiss grew up with a man who is able to keep a business afloat despite rampant racism and mistreatment of workers due to his ability to persuade people so it would take a lot of Weiss to rebel against him, especially if it means she’ll have nowhere to go. This is especially egregious because you have directly compared your own mother to Jacques Schnee (http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/158279625962/more-beef-with-taiyang-xiao-long) so you should know better than to act this way. Your lack of empathy and understanding is disturbing honestly. Not to mention your one exasmple with the timeskip not only fails so the point is mute, you display a lack of empathy and understanding here, showing you are just hating on the show, disregarding logic and facts to do so thus this entire post is useless.

And you treat the timeskip as actually happening for the rest of the critique but argue it didn’t happen here, showing an inconsistency in criticism and thus showing a bias against the show. So your argument here is useless on two fronts.

Questionable decisions that make the plot even more confusing than that vague timeskip already did.

Dudeblade, you clearly show you are capable of giving examples in the previous point and even an incorrect point is better than no point since you just expect us to agree with you blindly without any proof. If you don’t have proof, why should we listen and how can the writers get better if you don’t tell them what went wrong: Vague criticism like this is worthless.

A PTSD recovery arc that was so fast-paced, that the song at the end of the season had to basically say, “Yes. This character has now recovered.”

Dudeblade, you just said that there was a six month timeskip thus meaning Yang had six months to recover from the PTSD so it wasn’t as immediate as you say. Not to mention even if you take that away, Yang had been directly working on recovery with her father for weeks within Volume 4 (https://youtu.be/rox3yphzLy4?t=1m46s) so it wasn’t as fast as you say. Could there have been more shown? Yes preferably but that's not your argument and thus you don’t get the benefits of that.

Characters appearing out of nowhere, and plot points that were never planned so it feels as if they were shoehorned in.

No example so again, no reason to listen for any reason. Next.

A finale fight that was so underwhelming and overhyped that it felt as if the Spawn vs Alucard DBX was more interesting. I’ll prove it!

Ignoring the fact that the purpose of DBX is too have quick, easy to make fights so the creators can evaluate what their potential animators can do which is completely different than what RWBY is about, I completely removed anything knowledge of Alucard and Spawn I had except what is given in the fight and I felt nothing for the fight. It wasn’t fun, it wasn’t exhilarating, it wasn’t emotional: it left no impact on me. i knew nothing about these characters in the video’s context and thus had no impact on me. Doesn’t matter how pretty it is, unless I care about the people, I won’t like it. Contrast this with the Nucklevee fight which had foreshadowing, build up from before hand, a personal connection to the heroes and defeated in a symbolic way that reinforces the theme of moving beyond the past that is present in Volume 4. You don’t take any of this into account and judged two entirely different things as one being superior or inferior.

Seriously. The fight took less than a minute, and it was better-paced than the fight of RNJR vs. Nucky the straw hat grimm.

I honestly felt more tension in the fight made with sprites, than I did with the fight that was 3D animated.

Once again, this is because you judge two entirely different things by the same standards. DBX has around three minutes to do their thing at best whereas the battle with the Nucklevee took so much longer because there was a lot going on with the characters personally and not in battle. Are you saying character moments cannot happen in the middle of battle? Because that is very close minded and moronic.

Also, due to your derivative nickname, most people will brush this off as blind hating and thus, this is useless. If not for this then how you never say what slows down the battle, it just is.

Seriously.

Look, this is a grimm that is years, if not decades old, and four kids who didn’t even graduate their first year of Beacon could beat it?

- Either this undermines the ability of the Hunters, or this wanks the ability of RNJR significantly. Both of these options are bad, and neither are desirable. Pick your poison, I guess.

I want you to take a look at the cave of the Nucklevee (https://youtu.be/QjBtT4uCWpI?t=17m1s) Notice how it has not unique weapons in it, thus meaning no Huntsman has fought it. This means that the Nucklevee has only fought normal humans who are said to be incredibly weak to the weakest of Grimm and two children who say their home destroyed thus they would have a rational but misplaced fear of it. Just as well with Jaune and Ruby, who have never seen a Grimm like this every before and thus this is the fear of the unknown controlling them. But as at least partially trained Huntsman they are capable of killing it, especially as they have three talented huntsman on their side (and Jaune).

You are aware of Tv Tropes and are aware RWBY ahs apage: This has been noted in the Fridge tab (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fridge/RWBY Under the Volume 4 folder of Fridge Brilliance). There is no excuse for this lack of research.

How is it that a hammer to the backside deals little damage, but a rusty old knife is what kills it? I mean, as impractical and absurd as Jaune’s sword is, that also didn’t do much. But a rusty knife is what puts it down. I mean, I hate Jaune. His character has been done to death. There have been so many characters who wield swords, are constantly told they are important (without having earned it),and get to be the designated good guy even if they can’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

1. Symbolism. The knife is a handime down from Ren’s father who taught him and saved his life from the Nucklevee and him holding it is him understanding what he must do and how he cannot let his emotions control him, be it fear or anger. By killing it with his knife, Ren is putting that in the past and moving forward with his life, fulfilling the theme of the Volume.

2. You go on a tangent about Jaune in the middle of the illogical fighting and continue on as if this is the focus of the point. This just reinforces the fact you are doing this to attack and hate, especially as most of what you complain about Jaune has no correlation with what you said before. And you cannot deny this as you acknowledge in the post this was a tangent and do nothing to edit it out, showing your intent.

3.You have a self admitted bias against male characters. (http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/160161209960/rwde-theory-reactions-to-everything) and considering the jaune point, you have shown that you are incapable of removing your personal bias from critique and is thus useless.

I’m getting off-topic here. Look, this fight makes little sense. Aside from the animation errors of buildings and trees moving around, no impact feels as if it has any real weight to it. Like when Nora hits the back of the thing, it doesn’t feel as if it had any real impact.

It just feels as if the old magic is just… gone.

I mean, I get it. Monty (god rest his soul) isn’t around anymore. But if they hadn’t booted Shane, the magic could be recaptured. - The only fights of note were Qrow vs. Tyrian and RNJR vs. Tyrian. And both of thosefights had unnecessary breaks that disrupted the flow of the action. Animating combat 101: Don’t disrupt the flow of the battle to do something dumb.

You don’t explain why the battles seem to lose impact and thus the writers cannot improve on what they have done wrong thus your “critique” fails at your job. Had you said that the animation isn’t fluid enough or the sounds are muffled or the characters move awkwardly you may have had a point but now, this is a waste of space.

And you take the Shane problem out of context: Shane resigned, Shane was causing problems and even shane himself noted that only Monty could work the system they set up and thus it was useless after he died. It would have not worked one bit even if Shane stayed: probably would have gotten worse as Shane’s mental state deteriorated.

I have a good example. When Sun got hurt, a lot of people wanted to know if he’d be okay or not. Then, we get a WoR. That disrupts the flow of tension that was already built. This causes a disruption that makes people less inclined to have concern for Sun because we get some exposition.

Don’t disrupt action for exposition. Exposition is dumb. Especially if the exposition has nothing to do with the situation at hand.

Again, you take this out of context. Due to the complexities of 3D animation and an inexperience at Maya, RT cannot complete every episode in time so they use WOR to fill in an airspace hole as they polish an episode. Demanding that they do not do WOR is demanding to go a week or more without any RWBY content which would be an even bigger upset.

And tension does not work the way you say it does: spands of time increase tension instead of lowering it so what you are saying is the opposite of what actually happen i the time frame. And you saying Exposition is in and of itself dumb as exposition is narrative talk for “info” and thus you are demanding each show go into their conflicts without context or info, killing tension.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWnS8iKYnbQ

Also, Qrow getting better undermines the situation that they were put in. It amounts to cheap tension, and now, when another character is placed in a similar situation, very few people will have concern because thelast time, there were no lasting injuries (or at least, none that the audience is informed of. Seriously, Qrow? You were treated for poison, and not only are you not in a hospital recovering, but you’re also allowed to go right to the bar?)

Sun getting better undermines his situation as well. Look, I didn’t want Sun to die. The Bumble/by shipper in me would bemoan the fact that this would simply make Yang the rebound, and the storyteller in me would bemoan the senseless loss of a character that was likable (even if his character got derailed for this volume).

I did not understand how Qrow getting better from a non-fatal injury to be a tension killer and undermines a situation. Going on from my first part, Qrow could not die because his narrative purpose was not yet fulfilled, scorpion stings are not fatal for the most part and Tyrian tried to sting Ruby, who he was ordered to capture alive. All factors pointed to Qrow surviving. The only reason why people were worried because of the true basis for death in RWBY: Volume 3 where three characters where injured seriously and died. That is the true basis for judging death in RWBY which you ignore. because so much happened in Volume 3, they couldn’t kill anymore character or else risk something similar to what happened to Akame ga Kill and the audience becoming detached from the show due to the continuous deaths so it was in fact the correct choice to not kill Qrow so people know that others can get hurt but still survive, giving hope and thus maintaining tensions.

As for your Sun point: Sun joined Blake as supposed backup against the white fang, exactly what he did with Blake beack in Volume 1 and Volume 2. This is oefectly in character for him as well as the rest of his actions such as interrupting Ghira and Blake like how he barged in on Team RWBY in Volume 2 (https://youtu.be/mj3jfqPwJEk?t=2m43s) thus his actions are the same: What has changed is the circumstances and this is good writing showing the complexities of situations through circumstances and context and how even we normal people do not always get it. You simply ignore it for the sake of complaints and fault mining.

Yang suddenly getting used to the prosthetic overnight undermines her trauma as well. Seriously, she wakes up, puts on the prosthetic, and she’s suddenly a master with it. Almost as if she never lost an arm to begin with (Follow-up question: How did Tai sneak out of Vale to get that arm from Atlas for Yang without her noticing? Are we supposed to assume that Ironwood had it delivered? - Because then how did he know the length it would have to be? How did he know the shape? How did he know what the functionality would have to be?) Not only that, but the prosthetic itself also undermines the trauma Yang went through. There were a lot of people who wanted to see Yang kick ass with just the one arm, and then get a new one (myself included).

1. She does not get the prosthetic overnight, it took six months for her to get it, an unknown amount of time between Episodes 3 and 4 to put it on and weeks afterward as said in Episode 9. So you are misrepresenting her time frame what happened in the show.

2. You ask for details that you would not ask for in any other show that would be classified as “nitpicks” and thus are not worthy of attention. Just as I ignored how you you said she got it overnight when it was evening or how she was not an immediate master at it. Or how she mentions that she did not expect it to be so easy to wield the arm nor how her moving like she never lost it is the point as a replacement. I do not believe you want to get nitpicky with me.

3. Fighting with one arm is far different than fighting with two and she would need to relearn her entire fighting style in order to fight properly. She would need to be out of teh show for months more and thus would have no involvemnet with the plot whatsoever for months, especially as Taiyang has two arms and thus wouldn’t know how to teach her such a style. And the new prosthetic would undermine all that in the end and cause another split. Hence simpilar to have her take the arm before training.

4. An actual amputee has priased Rooster Teeth over their depiction of Yang ( http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Awesome/RWBY Under the meta folder). You are not an amputee so their word is more reliable about such a subject like this than you, as little as that means as I will explain latter.

- And while I could rant here about Tai, and his comment, I have a better thing to ask: “Was anybody expecting that comment (or something similar), and actively wanted to hear it?” if we’re being honest with ourselves, I doubt that a whole lot of us wanted to hear that kind of humor from Tai of all people. I get it, he also went through depression, but depression isn’t the same as PTSD. If he can go out with plans to get Yang a new arm, then he should be able to afford a therapist. Hell! given that the literal embodiment of the consequences for having negative emotions is supposed to be a major threat, you’d think that people specializing in psychology and emotional therapy would be more valued than hunters at this point.

You say you will not rant about Taiyang then spend half of the post ranting about him, thus this is no different than the Jaune tangent before and shows off your hate. I will not address it here because there is a better instance coming up in which we see your hate on Taiyang so i will conserve myself for that.

As for the expectation of the joke: In hindsight, yes it should have been see. Taiyang is friends with Qrow, who also has the sense of humor as seen when he says “Nope” at Ruby’s greeting as well as Yang’s where she is shown to be sarcastic while she freaked out over the stressful thing happening in episode 8 of Volume 1. Rooster Teeth treat one another much like Taiyang and insult one another as well, espeically in their products (Camp Camp, X Ray and Vave and Red vs Blue) And Rooster Teeth characters do take after their voice actors and Taiyang is voiced by Burnie who voices the snarkiest characters in RT series (X Ray and Church). all in all, you have no one to blame but yourself for that.

- - Look, that joke was cheap shock humor, and cheap dark humor. Don’t go for the cheap jokes. Hell! the laughter that Ruby had in the first episode was more forced than the Bruce/Nat romance in Avengers 2. The uncomfortable forced laughter just feels as if… it’s out of place. - Unless that was the point, in which case, good job.

Subjective comparison, potshot at another event which is also subjective and misunderstanding of the joke’s genre and purpose. Next.

A lot of trauma and injuries were undermined in their severity here, and it pisses me off. I myself, have a disability (I’m blind in my left eye), and I feel as if most of this is basically telling me that I should have been over it from the start. I adapted to my injury. I adapted by getting used to using only my good eye, and I think that Yang should’ve done the same until she felt as if she herself was ready to put on the arm. She shouldn’t have had to feel as if she wasn’t worth her father’s time if she was missing an arm, she should have gotten used to it.

And yet, you are contradicted by an amputee who should be logically more offended seeing it was their type of disability that was being “underminded” and yet they praised RT for it.

The problem with you is that you don’t take into account the circumstances of your disability and Yangs as well as the fact that you and Yang are different people. Your disability is something you were either born with or deteriorated naturally, your eye was not gouged out while trying to protect your friend. Just as well, your eye prevents you from seeing, Yang’s arm prevents her from living her life the way she wants too. And just as well, your eye could not have caused PTSD.

And even if your arm was taken off in the exact same circumstance, it would only be applicable if your experiences, environment, loved ones and base personality is exactly like Yang. Fundementally, you and Yang are different people and thus would operate in different ways. Yang adapted to her arm just fine, just as you have with your arm. All she did was do it her own way and expecting her to do it any otehr way is not smart.

And here I will address the Taiyang hate: you say that yang felt like she needed to put on her arm to feel like she was worth her father’s time when Taiyang directly states that he would help her when she was ready, ( https://youtu.be/GaB62PeuFwM?t=7m31s) meaning that Yang had shown herself to unready for his help, shown by her inactivity towards recovery and her defeated acceptance of her PTSD and depression. The mere fact he is there looking after her and he looking her is proof that she cannot feel that way because if he did give off that vibe, he would have acted exactly like Raven and left to find Ruby. You misrepresent what he said just so you could have a justified reason to hate.

- Also, what does it feel like for Yang to take off the arm? - We never see. Does she have a brief moment of anxiety from the sudden loss of a limb? Does she have a panic attack because she can no longer feel the arm? Or was she lying when she said that it felt natural? - We don’t know! I mean, Yang is good at hiding her emotions (see: Her opening up to Blake about what eats her up inside) so she obviously isn’t that emotive of a person.

If Yang is good at hiding her emotions: How did she lose her arm in the first place. a person in control of their emotions would not have rushed Adam so foolhardy, would not have let Neon toy with them, would not have counter attacked Mercury and would have not lost to Neo. This is a direct contradiction to what we see of Yang and only exists to justify your feelings.

All injuries feel as if they were placed there for some cheap tension. It’s hard to see it otherwise. This basically means that you haven’t prepared your audience for when the stakes get raised again. As a critic, this means that when a character does die, there will be uproar. You haven’t prepared your audience for this, because the characters who have gotten major injuries managed to recover and get better.

A character has already died: Three of them. you act as though Volume 3 never happened, you act as though you live in RWBY chibi. It has already happened and those are the basis of tension surrounding characters in RWBY. You failing to take this into account shows you are not a critic but indeed a hater (or complainer, whatever.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkwLHDx-zzc

From what I’ve seen around various critique tags, Volume 4 goes into either one of two categories for most (if not all) fans:

1. Great volume, with some moments that were bad.

or…

2. Bad volume, with some moments that were good.

If this were true then the raitings for RWBy would have dropped significantly seeing as critics would give it around a 3-6 out of 10 instead of the usual 8 out of 10. But the ratings have not been hit: they have stayed mostly the same at 8.3 out of ten (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3066242/). Thus showing this split is due to you staying mostly in the rwde tag where things are slanted negatively.

I fall into the latter category, because I enjoyed the Ren and Nora backstories, and liked the development of Weiss and Blake’s families. Other than those, however, the whole volume was… bad. I couldn’t enjoy it (Although, all the writers had to do was say that Blake wasn’t an orphan, and her parents wouldn’t have felt as if they came out of nowhere. - Just sayin’).

you ignored the nucklevee’s point in their past, you are about to comapliant about Weiss’ family and her plotline and you just complained about Blake’s so your actions do not match up with your words at all. This seems more like trying to appear like a critic than actually being objective so you don’t get called out.

I totally respect anyone’s opinion that if it was a good volume to you, and that if you did like it, but I myself could not enjoy it.

hence why everytime you have been confronted about this, you treat your subjective opinion as fact and call everyone else “Rt Whiteknights.”

The opinion aren’t black and white though. Much like the characters in the show. Qrow is not the definitive hero, Cinder is not the definitive villain, Raven isn’t a complete monster, and Jaune isn’t a precious cinnamon roll that needs to be protected at all costs (and if this were a Jaune hate post, I’d make a quip about how Miles seems to favor him over other characters… Wait, does this count as making that quip? - I’m so confused.)

Once again, your actions don’t match your words. You have complained about the White Fang conflict in the show being black and white, you have defended Raven only and anything you say about male characters can’t be trusted due to a self admitted bias, reinforced by an out of nowhere potshot at Jaune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4_qFrc6704

Then the decisions made by the characters make little sense. Even the decisions that they didn’t make also make little sense as well.

Like Weiss wearing LOUD OBNOXIOUS HEELS WHILE TRYING TO BE STEALTHY! Seriously Weiss? -THAT was your definition of stealth? The freaking HULK is stealthier than that! I swear, the universe bent over backwards to make sure Weiss wasn’t caught. Characters shouldn’t be bailed out by bad writing.

Weiss is never shown to own any shows outside of heels so it is entirely possible that she had no other option, reinforced by the fact that even in casual attire she has high heels. Also, you are not allowed to talk: You made up a nonsensical curse, made up a reason why it affected Yang to excuse her being OOC, acknowledged it was cliche and got her out of it because of another cliche you admittedly stole without understanding why it worked in the source.

Weiss not being caught is a coincidence. The writers cheated. This doesn’t teach the character of Weiss anything. Now she will believe that wedges are the footwear to wear for stealth. - Follow up question: How are those shoes combat effective? - They don’t seem practical. Like at all. RW/BY should set the trend of females wearing proper footwear into combat, it shouldn’t be following the trend of this sort of thing. It lookscool, yes, but practicality should be the main priority before style when entering combat. Magic users can get away with wearing heels because magic. But since it’s been established that semblances aren’t magic, Weiss has no excuse. Unless a secondary effect of those glyphs make it so that the user is able to fight in impractical heels, I have to call bull.

And you cheated in yoru work, ripped some one else soff and admitted it, on top of that you also didn’t understand what you were ripping off and why it worked.

And considering that RWBY is descended from Gurren Lagann which has characters going into battle damn near shirtless and it’s half sister Kill La Kill...speaks for itself, expecting such a thing out of RWBY is ridiculous as well as demands that the crew does what you want exactly or else it;s shit, showing that your critique is indeed you throwing a temper tandrum. Not to mention only Weiss and Blake wear heels (and Blake is a Cat fanus and cats walk on their toes) so only one character is impractical so this is yet another nitpick.

Also, Sun stalking Blake in a creepy hood doesn’t feel like something that he would do. It also wasn’t romantic, or heartfelt. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, I guess. But that doesn’t really excuse his behavior on Menagerie (Seriously, “Menagerie” means “Zoo.” why the hell haven’t the faunus changed that name yet? Were the humans all like, “You kicked our ass. Here’s an island, all to yourself. Call it ‘Menagerie,’ because we already named it, and you get no say in renaming it.”) - Sorry about that, I’m a little frustrated about that whole debacle. I feel as if was validated for stalking Blake and not respecting her personal space because of the events that happened. He barged in on Ghira an Blake (when Blake was just about to open up about what happened at Beacon, by the way), to tell her that he saw some White Fang members wearing Grimm masks? - Nobody wanted that interruption. Nobody asked for it. That was basically showing off a sandwich in front of a starving person, and then throwing it out. - I will acknowledge that Sun was in the right to be concerned, but the excuse he gave didn’t exactly seem to convey a sense of urgency. It just conveyed Sun not respecting Blake’s privacy.

Considering the fact that Blake is a self admitted coward whose tendency to run is greater tan a Romaning legendary on crystal meth mushrooms, this was Sun’s only option. Was ita good option? no but you don’t always get that luxury. Not to mention the fact that it was a single day and not the months you make it out to be, showcasing a case of melodrama that extends to your starving metaphor (Delayed character development will not kill you, drama queen.)

As for the Menagrie thing: That si exactly what is. (https://youtu.be/uUwuZdbUzT8?t=3m) it is a zoo, why change the name when you can keep it as a reminder of hwo far you need to go for true equality? Just as well: fanaus make up 80% of the population on Remnant and judging from Sun, most Fanaus wouldn’t care about Menagerie’s name so there is nowhere enough people for a name change to matter. Not to mention symbolism again, Remnant isn’t our world and thus words might have a different meaning and this is a point less tangent again showing your hate.

“Didn’t exactly convey a sense of emergency”

Not like Blake directly said she was running from the White Fang or how such an oddity means that said White Fang is probably working for Adam (which is latter confirmed) AKA “I’ll destroy everything you love.” I do not wnat to know what you’re sense of emergency is if there is one at all.

Jaune also didn’t get called out on calling out Qrow. Qrow is Ruby’s uncle. And while Jaune has every right to be mad, it doesn’t excuse the fact that Ruby should have come to her uncle’s defense in that scene. The most Jaune gets to being reprimanded for his comments is some glares that are in the background.

Ruby is probably processing that her uncle was behind such a powerful group, had knowledge he didn’t share with her and general shock as shown when she asked him why he didn’t tell her. (https://youtu.be/g91qG3qTaXE?t=15m28s). I, a person with a social disorder who doesn’t get subtleties of human interaction, got it better than you. Shame on you.

- Yeah Jaune. “What did Qrow do to help?” - After all, it wasn’t as if he cleared most of the grimm out of the way, or saved Ruby while you were busy closing your eyes, or fight an experienced minion of Salem’s single-highhandedly fpr about 90% of the fight. Oh wait, he did. - I’m not trying to validate Qrow for using Ruby as bait, here. But Qrow has done more than Jaune story-wise, and trying to make Jaune sympathetic isn’t going to work in this situation.

He wasn’t being sympathetic, Jaune was treated as a pentualant child by his tone of voice and framing. He wasn’t in the right anymore than Qrow. You just got done admitting things in RWBY aren’t black and white: does the show need to hold up a sign for the shades of grey. Probably not considering this is just more Jaune hate.

Or how about the large amount of time it took for Salem to decide to send one of her lackeys after Ruby? - Follow up: Why not also send Emerald? I think that someone who can make a person see something that isn’t there (or make them not see what is there) would be useful in kidnapping someone. Why didn’t she send more people as well? - They should be aware that there would be at least one person trailing them, if Salem is supposed to know what her grimm are doing. Three major players against Qrow and RNJR (The latter of which are a team of newbies) probably would get overwhelmed.

Nitpicking with chosen ignorance over the fact that the dialogue between the team shows it is their first meeting a long time.Next.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE2DjF-ZON8

Characters that are thrown in that don’t even feel as if they belong anymore.

Like Oscar (actually, this entire section is probably going to only touch on Oscar, so I feel as if this is redundant (or, at the very least, it’ll primarily be about Oscar.)) Oscar is basically the new Ozpin. But his screentime could have been given to other characters. We could have waited the entire volume, and then have him say his line, and the Qrow says his, and then first episode of Volume 5, is a flashback to what Oscar was up to, how Oz is sharing a body with him, why he goes on this journey, and other exposition stuff. That screentime could have gone to Weiss, or Yang, or even Ruby. Heck! It could have even gone to Ren and Nora (Dust only knows that those two need more development about their backstory outside of “There was an attack. Everyone died, except us.”)

Oscar needed to be onscreen because you yourself said there shouldn’t be exposition so this is the show weaving him into the narrative. Just as well, people often say Oscar needed more screentime to show his conflict about Ozpin being in his head, something that is surprisingly absent from your critique. also: Demeaning Nor and Ren’s backstory and saying it was an enjoyable part.

Whitley was only made to give us an asshole to hate on, and the half of team WTCH basically have zero personality. And I’d just like to reiterate that if the writers had just said that Blake wasn’t an orphan, her parents wouldn’t feel as if they came out of nowhere (Though, how does an ex-terrorist faunus have luggage? - I can understand clothes and books, but I can’t understand stuff like a scroll, and basic school supplies).

Whitey shows hostile and broken her family truly is (which is why he’s a part of a part you say you like) and said team are the main villains so they will be in later Volumes, something you never take into account and thus should have stopped watching by the end of Volume 2. Ps: Point to where Blake said she was an orphan. because her being an orphan would have been just as unbelievable.

Klein was enjoyable though. Even if his caring nature brings up the question of why didn’t he call Remnants equivalent of Child Protective Services when he saw ho bad Weiss was being treated (unless Jacques threatened to raise the price of dust if they had done so, thus, De-stabilizing the economy… Actually, that sounds like a good idea for a fanfic. Someone should use it.)

Man, this just gets easier and easier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XixH7NMkOe8

The last thing I want to touch on is the four relics.

The whole “Four artifacts that can destroy/save the world depending on who wields them” is a cliché so old, that it’s probably written in stone somewhere.

So is 90% of RWBY with the Hyperactive Kid Hero who is a Grade Skipper, her Hot Blooded Unskileld But Strong Bug Sis, the Rich Bitch Heiress with a Heart of Ice and the Mysterious Londer with a dark secret. I just reduced the main four characters into basic tropes: You should have quit at Volume 1 if this bothered. But considering you think heterosexuality is a cliche, I take this as another attack.

Much like the four maidens, there was no foreshadowing of this. But while the four maidens had potential to become something really awesome (Like Ruby being a maiden (Preferably getting it from her mom, so as to emphasize how little she knew about her to help develop that character aspect)). the four relics fell shoehorned.

I can even deal with the silver-eyes-machina. Did I want them to be planned from the start, so as to have proper set-up and foreshadowing for it? - Yes. But while I can think of different ways to make it better (and even turn it into a point for character development), the four relics don’t have that kind of flexibility.

The four relics are just… there.

and nothing more is known about them.

Fun Fact:The relics were planned since the beginning hence why nothing is known: it’s for latter volumes. The shoehorned in stuff was the maidens and Dudeblade knows this. Again, an attack.

Reinforced since his main compliant is that he personally cannot improve on it: He just wants stuff to go his way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucyYfzbrYkQ

This will be the last thing I personally post in the rwde tag concerning Volume 4. I’ll still reblog other people’s stuff, and probably add my own two cents, but for now, I just want to enjoy Chibi. Even if every joke is hit-or-miss, there’s still a level of enjoyment to be had.

Maybe I’ll write a review at some point. Who knows? - But for now, my brain is tired. I can’t change the pat, and while I hate that, I have to accept it.

Maybe a theory post. I have one in mind that’s basically “Jaune lied about his heritage as well” floating around in my head.

Or maybe a “Hopes for Volume 5″ post.

See you guys when Volume 5 rolls around.

I think I got out most of my frustrations about Volume 4 anyways.

Here’s hoping.

This is all a crook of shit.

He said he wouldn’t attack Taiyang and broke that immediately. he said he was a critic but showcases inexcusable bias as well as fact manipulation and lies. Dudeblade’s word isn’t worth crap.

The instant a joke “misses” (because all comedy is hit or miss), he will be back bitching about the show once more, most likely Jaune or Taiyang.

The instant Volume 5 doesn’t go his way, he’ll proclaim it to be shit.

Everything about this post, from the hate tangents to the fact manipulation to the hidden jabs tells me this. And I will be here to knock him into mud like the rest of us.

If you want to stop that Dudeblade:

Come at me bro.

#rwde bullshit #dudeblade #rwby #rwby4 #\

7 notes · View notes