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yanderefairyangel · 1 year

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Ok. So I’ve heard people complaining about how cheesy Engage’s plot was, e saying that after Three Houses, it was “dissapointing how much they regressed to cheesy stuff like Awakening/Fates”, as if dark story necesarilly equals to a good story. Let me tell you this. This is false. Because EVERY story can sounds dark according to the executions.

This is a complain a lot has for game saying that since Awakening, stories in FE games are less dark, hence less good. Yeah, cleary, nothing can beat Genealogy with it’s Ring of the Nibelung like plot, plus the infamous Julius’child hunt, as well as some elements from Sacred Stones (*kof,kof, Orson*) when it comes to be dark. But honestly, Awakening, Fates, and Engage’s plot are actually darker than what the games portrays.

SPOILERS

In Awakening, you had Emmeryn, being a 10 year old girl having to deal with her father legacy and having her own people throwing stones at her!! She was a CHILD at this period !! Not to mention what kind of impact this could have on Chrom and Lissa, who were even younger at the time !!!!

Then you have this timetravel thing. Put yourself into the Shepherd’s shoes. Some of them just recently got wed, and yet there is already an adult version of their yet to be born child that appears, having a whole lot of trauma in them. Seriously ? I mean, some of them are not even born yet and yet they still love them as their child. But at the SAME time, they don’t view them as their child : it’s not the same as having watched them grew up until they become the people they are, it’s more like they had a baby and then a grow up version of arounf 18 years old barges in, sometimes older than them, and tell them that they are the children of their future selves. But whenever they share they experience, the Shepherds were not there when they were born, nor for their first words, first steps, first everything. They did not raise them, they did not watch them grew up, nor were here for them for the sad moments nor the happy one. They don’t and will never be able to share their memories. Whenever the future folks talk about their past, the Shepherds, didn’t they felt like they could not understand it ? like an amnesiac person you talk about memories they don’t and will never have? They were not the one who shared those moments with them, and when they eventually bond together, it’s not the same as bounding with your kids. There they can’t see them as other than their equal, they managed to have a bound as allies, as friend, and that’s not something many parents and children would manage to achieve…. meanwhile when the Shepherds actual kids will be born, they won’t have the same memories : the first words, the first steps, it won’t be the same as what those kids had. Those are going to be new happy memories, new sad memories, new clusmy moments…Imagine the pain of being a parent and learning what happened to your child because you were not there for them, even if it actually is the child of another version of you, hence like someone else’s child but that someone else is an alternate version of your own future... if not making them feel guilty, would it not make the Shepherds scared that their ACTUAL children ends up having to deal with the same things ? would it not makes them fear to also be unable to protect and support their ACTUAL children, the one they raised ? Would they not feel haunted too by those memories that the time traveler shared with them, scared for their ACTUAL children ? Just imagine the pressure. Sure the time travel version are wonderful people, but how much they suffered and they were not here, their other selves where not here for them !!

And the kids. Seriously how can you claim that Awakening’s plot is chessy when half of the cast is filled with young adults more traumatized than teenagers living in Musset’s era ?!

Please. They had to face the loss of BOTH of their parents without sometimes knowing their actual fates (I mean seriously, Miriel’s body had disappeared... ), having to fight Risen night and day, day and night,to protect people, when they were barely mature yet!! Seriously ? Lucina was like 6 when Chrom died. When their parents died, some of them were still in diapers (Nah)!! They all had a traumatic childhood!! And then, they have to come back to the past because it was either that, or dying since conviniently enough, all the people in their timeline died due to Grima lauching a giantic attack on Ylisse. And when they come back ? some of them has to face killing actual HUMANS as another traumatic experience (if you recall Harverst scrambble conversation between Owain and Inigo) while Lucina had to hold herself from crying each time she encountered this Chrom!! Must I add the fact, that even though the Shepherds and the Child Units act like actual family, this won’t change the the fact that they are technically STILL ORPHANS ?! They know they ‘re not their real parents, they know their real parents are dead, they will never come back. Yet they can’t help but view as such, to call them “mother”, “father”. Even though, they know that when they talk about the memories they had with their parents, the Shepherds won’t understand much, this are not their memories and will never be. And the sad memories, as well : they saw their parents died, this is something even the Shepherds can’t change, nor erase. Even if they saved them, those memories will never fade away….and evetually some will choose to leave because they don’t want to take their “past” selves’parents as they know they don’t belong in this timeline, even if they marry and have their own kids, they don’t belong here and they have no other place to stay but here. But those babies, they won’t have to same experience, they will never get to watch their loved one dies, nor have to survive all by themselves, but their happy moments won’t be the same, their personlity might even not be the same. Even if they looked alike physically, they would face someone else, someone who has the same name, same physical features, but who in the inside is completely different, whose live will be different, whose spouses, familly, kids will be different than their own… The future version will forever remains with the loss of their parents. Emblem Lucina says that she is still not over mourning Chrom, despite having saved the world with alterante younger Chrom. Owain neither, he literally ask if they can be brought back to live !! Severa too, when in Hidden Truths, she says “ I mean, I've thought about it countless times too. If only I could have my real parents back again... Not the ones we helped save, but the ones I grew up with... “... and so on, and so on... and it gets even darker when you realize that said parents are turn into Risen stuck into a DLC bonus map, the only occasions they have to met again the children they never saw grew up because they died before theu could get this chance !!! Without mentionning, that the only reward that the Time Travek Trio gets is that Anankos ends their suffering, giving them proper graves and a chances to make properly their mourn !! And now you know why in Fates, they refer to Cordelia, Lissa, and Olivia as dead. They are talking about their actual mother from their bad timeline, not our playable units... YES BECAUSE ALTHOUGH THEY SAVED OTHER VERSIONS OF THE PEOPLE THEY FAILED IN THE FUTURE THEY WILL STILL BEAR THE GUILT OF HAVING BEING UNABLE TO SAVED THEIR ACTUAL WORLD!!! ( and it gets awkard considering that most of the camarades that died in their timeline, they will get to met them again but as adult and them as children who they KNOW are not the comarades they fought with in the future and will never be, they are DIFFERENT PEOPLE!!)

Not to mentions they never got to experience anything pleasant... Seriously ! Severa CRIES because she is SO HAPPY cause she never got to experience anything HAPPY IN HER LIFE !! AND MANY OF THE OTHERS FUTURE FOLKS HAVE THE EXACT SAME REACTIONS AS HER!!!!!!!!

Must I also add that unlike the Chrom from Luci’s timeline, our Chrom didn’t get to enjoy his family ? HE HAD TO LEAVE HIS BARELY BORN DAUGHTER TO FIGHT A VALMIAN LOBSTER!!! He won’t be here for her first words, her first time walking, her first time EVERY THING!! GETS DARKER WHEN HE MARRIES A SHEPHERD GIRL BECAUSE THE CHILD DOES NOT EVEN HAVE HER MOTHER NEAR HER!!! In her support with Lucina, her mother can’t help but think of the baby she left in the castle !!! And it’s worse when it’s F! Robin because 1) she was fated to kill Chrom hence Lucina has to choose between her father or her mother ouch !2) Lucina was ready to deprieve the younger alternate self of her from her mother, perpetuating on her alternate self the own trauma she had!!! It’s just as dark when Lucina marries Robin because :1) She has to choose between her father or her lover 2) she is ready to inflict the same being of losing a parent on her own future daughter !! And that’s the same if Robin marries a 1st gen because Lucina is ready to make her friends goes throught the same pain of losing their father again and if Robin marries a 2nd gen because Lucina is ready to deprieve her friends of the person they love and who offers them conforts after having lived a literal hell as well as inflincting th pain of losing a parents on their future child !!!! i’ll add this is even worse if Robin marries Lucina’s sibllings !! Or if Morgan marries Lucina because she is ready to kill the mother of her lover !!! HOW IS THAT NOT DARK ?!!!

And Robin, oh god. Seriously ? they have been saved by their mother from turning into an evil being !! But do you imagine what kind of life it is as a child ? Having to hide from people ready to use you to destroy the world ?! And while we don’t know much about Robin’s life in the original timeline, if they really choose to be Grima over the friends, we can imagine that they must have suffered a whole lot of stuff to make them able to choose THIS!! Gets even darker if Robin marries Chrom cause she sacrifices her husband and her daughter for Grima!!!! AWFUL!! Just awfull!!

And if you think Robin as it easy because they are amnesiac ( I am talking about our Avatar here, not the Original Robin who becomes Grima) then YOU HAVE IT WRONG!! In their conversations with Chrom, both mentions that they are indeed bothers and scared that they might forget the Shepherd and who they are again. this topic is more developped in the Hot Spring Scramble conversations between Owain and Robin when they are married (you know ? the one that gives me diabetes) where you clearly understands how scared she is to forget about her life AGAIN!! And while Robin never mentions trying to get her memories back unlike Morgan considering the identity crisis that they have at the idea of forgetting again who they are, I think I understand why. Imagine that even though you forget everything, you manage to forge yourself an identity which you considers to be yours, YOUR favorite colour, YOUR favorite meal, most deslike food etc. But you wonder : “If I get my memories back ? Then would I still be the same ? Would I still love and hate the same thing ? The me I believe is myself ? What if it was not truth ? What if it was not my true self ? What if what I like now that makes me are actually not real ? would I still be able to be myself ?” and so many other existential question and as someone who read Anouilh’s Le Voyageur sans bagages where the amnesiac main character rejects his previous identity because he could not believe he was the person his family painted him to be, I can say it is DARK!!

This only adds to their live as a tactican beings dark. I mean how many supports do you need to not get that their lives is not easy ?! In the support with Virion, they explain how much pressure they feel to have to think of everyone! Although Severa scolds him for not being realist and this tell something of her for having to accept that she had to let people die to survive, Robin not wanting to let anyone dies makes sense!! He has to plan everything, he will hence be to blame for every soldier that die!! Imagine, being responsible for someone’s survival, having to deal with the guilt of letting them die, when you could have done something if you had done things better, differently, and so on and on!! They had to deal with that and also the amount of responsability they are tasked with !! The convos int the barracks even seems to implies that Robin can stays VERY LATE TO WORK!!! There is more than 3 supports that emphazied this, leading them to get sick because of their works, which leads them to neglect their health !! Sometimes this lead to them not being able to fufill their engagement in their supports and yet even when they tries to sneak out from work, it is still to find a way to help others!!! WHAT KIND OF LIFE IS THIS ?! And this is because being the tactican of the army, the person everyone relies on and, according to Noire, the parental figure to THE WHOLE ARMY requires you to do all of that!! And when they are married, it’s even worse. I mean, when she marries Chrom, Chrom at least get to spend times with his wife. But for the others... I mean, Tharja summer scramble in both mentions on how she is envious of others spendings times with Robin but she never gets to because Robin is too busy. When he is married to Severa in the Hot Spring Scramble, she CRIES BECAUSE SHE IS SO HAPPY she finally gets to spend time with her husband and goes into a long soliloquy about all the things that Robin is doing for the army... EVEN ROBIN POINTS OUT HOW RANDOMS THE THINGS HE PLANED WHERE YET IT MADE HER HAPPY TO THE POINT SHE BURST INTO TEARS!! When she marries Owain, still in Spring Scrambble, when she promises that she will tries to find some time for them to spend it together, OWAIN BURST IN JOYS!! He is being like “REALLY ?! FOR REAL ?” HE IS OVERJOYED FOR SOMETHING THAT ROBIN HERSELF CONSIDER TO BE SILLY !!!!! Is this not proof enough that being Robin is hard ?!

And what is worse is that Robin being amnesiac they. have. no. home. to. RETURN!!! I mean when I recall Robin’s conversation with any people trying to hire them, they have a point. While it’s no wonder that in heroes Robin talks about how Chrom gives them a “home” and a “new family” within the Shepherds considering there is HIGHT chances their mother died and they clearly can’t return to Valider... having a father just so he could use you as a vessel !! Isn’t that dark !! However I shoul clarify that Chrom offered them a “home” as LONG AS IT WAS WAR because once peace is here ... what are they gonna do? Once the war is over, what is Robin gonna do ? They only knew the live of tactician, sleeping in a tent, battling, etc. Even if they want to stay by Chrom’s side let’s face it. Their friendship won’t give Robin a new job nor a new home! Unless Robin marries Chrom, or Lissa, or Frederick or Emmeryn, they won’t live in the castle with them!! Unless Robin marries a 1st gen, they won’t have a home nor a family!! Unless Robin marries a 2nd gen, they won’t travel with their spouses to makes themselves a new home !! Basically, single Robin is like the 2nd gen (which probably explains why I never saw Robin as a “1st gen” or would not label them as such, more a character like Tiki or the spotpass character kind) because they have no family nor a home to return excepts the 2nd gen had actual plans unlike Robin who was too absorbed by their life as a tactitcian to think about it..what is the future waiting for them exactly ? settling down in Ylisstol ? travelling to another country ? WHICH ONE ?! Is there one that allows them to have a 100% happy ending withou having to marry any units JUST so they can have a family and a new home ?! AND YOU SAYS AWAKENING IS NOT DARK ?!!

And you think Fates is not dark ? HA HA HA !! you innocents souls...

Despite it’s poor executions, let’s say the things straight. We have an innocent child who witnessed the death of their step-father being brutally murdered and got kidnapped and brainswash by their murderer, having a “happy childhood” only thanks to the already traumatized children of this man and the few domestics with some hearts, being forced to live like Rapunzel, having only ONE friends from the outside they made everything so they could forget him. Then they feel conflicted because they don’t know what to do, because they found out their “real family” yet still loves the people whom they grew up with despite them being the child of their kidnapper !!! Imagine how the in real life kidnapped kids having being raised by their kidnappers an finally being brought back to their “real” family whom they forgot everything about must feel !!! Adding to that the fact that they have to deal with the loss of the mother they finally found back !!! and the fact that destiny decides how they did not feel confused and conflicted enough and forces them to chooses between the people who preserved their innocence from a man that ruined their life and intended to hurt hem and the people who always love them as family and kept on waiting that one day they would be reunited (seriously ? why no one puts themselves in the shoes of the hoshidans family... just put all the testimony of all the families that finally found back a long lost family member to the Hoshidan family, and you have it! dark) and both your decisions are painfull.

In Birthright, Corrin has to fight the land they grew up in. The people they grew up with !!! In Conquest, they have to deal with the Garon’s way which goes completely against their pacifist ideals, trying hard to spare as many lifes as they can, yet the reality keep strinking them in the face while they try to remain as innocent as they were at first, dealing with blood on their hands !!!! Corrin makes literal nightmare in their support with Azura !!! And Revelations... oh god. Seriously ?! Yes everyone gets along but Corrin still has to face both their parents and kill their father and will never knew it because of 3 worthless idiots too busy brewing tea for their lords rather than accomplishing their actual missions !!! And the kids... SERIOUSLY !! They had to put their babies with stranger into a alternate dimensions, missed many things, many important things in their kids life!! Do you imagine how awful it must be that your kids is already your age after a few weeks, sometimes younger ?! And you missed so many things ?! and you won”t get a second chance unlike Awakening, because it’s not an alternate future version, it’s YOUR ACTUAL CHILD WHOM YOU CONCEIVED WITH YOUR SPOUSES!!! And whoever marries Azura will have to deal with mourning her according to some routes, same things for Kaze, etc.

And I am not talking about both Awakening and Fates’s character having their own trauma, own issues....

And I’ll add this... the S support. Yes, the freaking S support !!!

Asides from the fact that freaking Nowi, Nah, and Tiki will outlive their husbands which makes their ending incredibly sad, you have the fact that most of the ship are actually pretty tragic. I know, I know, when you look at it the first thing you see are the over the top ridiculous plot holes, but as plot holy as they are the one with Robin are just;... UGHH

I mean Robin x 1st generation is basically you marrying someone who, in an alternate timeline, gets murdered by you !!! Male Robin may be a good father IN THE GAME TIMELINE but the Robin from Luci’s timeline deserves an award in the top 10 of worst parents ever!!!! This man/woman sacrificed their spouses and made their children’s life a literal HELL!!! Just put yourself in the Shepherds’s shoes for a second : how would you react to discover that in an alternate future, your wife/husband murdered you and screw up your kids’entire life as well as killing millions of innocents life ?!! AS IF FINDING OUT THAT YOUR ACTUAL SPOUSE IS A SERIAL KILLER WAS NOT DARK ENOUGH BUT THIS IS ALMOST SO DARK THAT IT BECOMES RIDICULOUS !!!!

And Robin x 2nd gen is just as dark when you realize that they are basically marrying someone who is the alternate good version of their own parent’s murderer!!! Yes, they fell in love with the alternate version of the person who brutally murdered their parents and destroyed their home and ruined their entire life !!! And who in at least ONE timeline killed them too !!! And also the alternate version of someone they will brutally murder at the end of the game !!!

The Robinsexual not being much better since most of them are alternate version of people brutally murdered by Robin and Co in the playable timeline or that they let die in at least 3 timelines !!! How is that not dark ?!!

Fates is not much better either!! Come on!!! There is a lot of pairings that are formed with at least one units having death flags flying on their freaking head !!!! and the fact that Corrin can marry the children of their kidnapper !! Come on !! how is that not dark ?!

And now, WHAT IN ENGAGE IS NOT DARK ENOUGH TO SUIT YOUR TASTES ?!

This story literaly is the most awful. Sure Alear is amnesiac at the begining of the game. Alear has literaly been raised with the mentality that if they did not fit to Sombron’s expectations, they’be deemed a “defect”!! Like, it’s already hard to be the child of someone who is sooo obsessed by someone else they deemed as the most important person to the point they don’t see you, and don’t even think of you as someone being able to replace the void created by the person you lost, as if this was not hard and awful enough, add the fear and pressure of being killed!!! Alear is TERRIFIED by the Corrupted. THEY. KILLED. ALL. THEIR. SIBLINGS. All of them!! And Alear witnessed that !!! And still feared for Veyle who also had to endure THIS!!! Zephia literally brainwash her into being another person who does awful things !! Imagine someone telling you that your true self is worthless and therefore decides to create a new personality for you ?!! SHE HAD TO LIVE 1000 YEARS OF THAT !!! And Alear was killed by their own father!! when they finally found someone loving in the person of Lumera, a life they WANTED to have, NOT FORCED TO LIVE, but WANTED !! THEY WANTED TO BE A GOOD DRAGON AND PAYED IT WITH THEIR LIFE !! And when they and Lumera finally reunitated with her waiting for YEARS that her “child” and her would finally get to be together ? WHAT happens ? Not only is her child amnesiac but she dies !!! THEY NEVER GOT TO BE TOGETHER!! TO LIVE AS MOTHER AND CHILD!! And VEYLE WAS ALONE FOR 1000 YEARS HOPING TO FINALLY REUNITES WITH HER SIBLINGS AND HAD TO ENDURE ZEPHIA CALLING HER A DEFECT AND WITH THE FEAR OF BEING KILLED TOO!!! And it’s actually a good thing that Alear forgot about all of this because I don’t see how any average person could bear to have such memories of their siblings being killed by their own father!! No wonder that even amnesiac they are still scared by the Corrupted!!! This adds a new layer to their supports with Diamants because imagine if that one had took place after Alear regains their memories!!! AWFUL !! And I won’t add the traumatic backstory of Marnie who was abandonned by her mother who thought she was useless despite helping her with her brother and finding a mother in Zephia because “finally! someone praised me !! someone noticed my struggles !!” nor Griss explaining why he became addicted to pain !!! Seriously how IS THIS NOT DARK?!

When you think about it all those games had pretty dark story!!! It’s like Kaori yuki and Jun Mochizuki decided to allies themselves and write a story and GOD!! you know those women are talented at writing story worth making a die hard hearltless criminal who slaughtered many people cry like a big cry-baby a flow, a river of tears in a foetus position !!!

Clearly, Engage’story is actually has dark as Three Houses, maybe even more so. The only reasons why you feel it’s cheesy is the execution.

So does a dark story = a good story ? NOPE.

Does a well executed story = a good story regardles of if it’s dark or not... YES OBVIOUSLY!!