Perfect, thank you very much.
I just finished Blue Lionâs path, and I finished Black Eagles I sided with the Church last week. I am in love with the game, even with all its problems.
My biggest issue in this game and the one I havenât seen people havenât talked about is how the game deals with Race/Cultures outside of Foldlin. It just makes me somewhat uncomfortable, especially looking at Petraâs and Dedueâs supports. Cyrilâs as well but to a lesser degree although I donât know if this is a spoiler, but I am putting it here anyway.
The game does address other nations more. The Golden Deer route is literally all about foreign countries and how they interacted with Fodlan and is a big part of Claudeâs plans for the continent.
I am not talking about addressing nations. I am more talking about the social politics of this game. There seems to be an air of FĂłdlan exceptionalism where the people on the continent see themselves as superior to others Especially because it was them that the goddess has bestowed crests to. In Petra supports, we see that she is oddly ok with the fact that her homeland was invaded and now under the control of the Empire.
We see in Dedue storyline that some people of the Kingdom were ok to blame the regicide of the king on the seemingly only group of darker skinned people on the entire continent which lead to their genocide. and in Cyrilâs supports we see that Almyra, a place seemingly with more darker skinned people, is painted as a bad place and that FĂłdlan is better
I am not saying the game is racist or anything but these are things that have stuck in my mind while playing. I havenât played Golden Deer yet so maybe these concerns will be addressed but this is just my observation from playing the other two routes.
I donât agree with that read on Petra, I get why she seems cool with the situation with her homeland, but you probably need to see more of her support convos to see where that aspect of her character goes. Sheâs very aware of the fact that sheâs a political hostage, and the precarious political position Brigid exists in. Her outward facing attitude about it is a facade she keeps up because she fears that if she doesnât keep the empire happy, her homeland would suffer the consequences. I dunno if itâs something to do with how Golden Deer plays out, but ever since the time jump sheâs been all about getting Brigidâs support in fighting the empire.
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I did see those supports and in my Black Eagles play through she did side against the empire and I know in her conversations she has said she is angry with the empire (I think the ones she had with Shamir but I donât remember) its just in other situations she seemed way too happy to help the Empire. Petra isnât the strongest example of my point, I just found her situation curious.
Iâm eager to see critiques of the characters of colour in this game by people of colour, because it definitely takes some swings. Iâm playing the Blue Lions, and the way various characters react to Dedue is uncomfortable, at least at first. And I donât know how necessary that is in being honest about the baselessness of racism and the ways itâs learned and unlearned, I canât know, as a white woman. Dedueâs characterisation is also an area that feels really rough without any other black men around to counterbalance the bits that are really uncomfortable.
Iâm also realising that Rhea is kind of Pope Danaerys in ways that really suck, and I definitely need to see where the game goes from just suggesting that sheâs more sinister than the charactersâ impressions of her would suggest.
On a lighter note, I havenât finished the Blue Lions route yet, but Iâm already thinking about how Iâll go through other routes. Anyone have unconventional build ideas for characters, either in theory or that youâve seen work well, to try out in future playthroughs? Iâve pinched Bernadetta and Dorothea, for example, and I donât quite know what to do with Bernadetta other than making her a mounted archer again.
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During the lead up to the game launch I was excited to see Claude and Dedue being important characters as a black man myself and thatâs why I am a bit more critical of this game then I have been for past Fire Emblems like Awakening, Fates and Echoes where the darker-skinned characters were secondary or tertiary characters who had no bearing on the story after a mission or two (Looking at awakening especially) and didnât acknowledge their race at all.
It why I found that when this game does seem to try to brush the topic of race it somewhat fails especially in Dedue supports which come off as âYou are one of the good onesâ or it comes off as like with homophobic people where they are homophobic until they meet a gay person and then all of the sudden their past ignorance vanish (Specifically referencing to Ingrids supports with him)
It sounding like I should of started with Golden Deer first though. I didnât because⌠I was still mad about Claude not being Bisexual
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To be fair, the hate towards Duscur is incredibly recent and seems to revolve entirely around the Tragedy of Duscur. Ingrid in particularâs racism is largely just âthese people were involved in the deaths of my friends and family so I hate them and by extension I hate [Dedue]â. Itâs a simple reason so itâs resolved simply (especially when [extra spoilers] itâs not even Duscurâs fault). Racism in Fodlan seems to be significantly less important or prominent than classism, ironically because there is more of an easily identifiable genetic difference between crest bearers and non-crest bearers than, say, Fodlan people with dark skin and Fodlan people with light skin.
Some Golden Deer spoilers: That is why I also stress that Golden Deer gets more in-depth to this. The topic of race there is more about race, as in the conflict of different ethnicities and entire cultures. Claudeâs heritage is important to his character and story, the topic of racism is tackled and not easily resolved (because itâs not a simple conflict like with Duscur).
Golden Deer spoilers continued: Actually, your comment about âone of the good onesâ is funny because thatâs the basis of one of the supports in Golden Deer. In Hilda and Cyril (who is from the same race as Claude)'s support, she actually says something akin to âI thought your people were violent, but you seem pretty normalâ and he replies âdonât you think itâs pretty stupid to paint a whole group of people with a wide brush like that?â
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Oh I definitely feel all the âYeah but youâre one of the good onesâ attitude a lot. Every time someone expresses that sort of sentiment I just wanna take 'em to the side for a sec and be like âyou sure about that, mate, palâ
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Just finished up Black Eagles C and I have mixed feelings on that ending. In-fiction, I kinda regretted siding with the church because I didnât trust it, which manifested in Byleth becoming god-ruler of FĂłdlan which is exactly what I wanted to avoid. I really liked the endings for Linhardt/Caspar and Dorothea/Petra, and am a bit lukewarm on the Bernadetta/Ferdinand one. Iâm gonna go Golden Deer for NG+ because I feel like I need some of that energy right about now.
God, just finished my second playthrough and uh, wow, black eagles resistance army really blows blue lions out of the water, what a fantastic route. Married my immortal gay wife rhea, very happy with all the support convos you get there, iâm gay
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I am at 23 hours and just starting chapter 11. I am envious of everyone who has managed to finish the game at this time but also really like how slow I have been able to take it without the game feeling like a slog. Having said that, two minor complaints at this time:
- The decision to have a completely silent protagonist is bizarre and bad. Link manages to convey an incredibly wide array of emotions with his grunts and lil shouts; Byleth on the other hand simply comes across as emotionless and out of place. There have been some major story points where Bylethâs emotions are supposed to matter but there is no way for him to convey what he is feeling so the other characters say stuff like âprofessor you must be so happy/sad.â In a game that provides audio and decent writing to flesh out all other characters, this feels off as opposed to a chance for players to self-insert or project onto the protagonist.
- I am a little disappointed with the limited range of character motions during conversations. Granted, in all prior games, characters would simply shuffle through a limited number of portraits, but there is something about them moving in a limited repetitive way that I find a little uncanny and distracting.
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Iâve just been watching a few people doing Letâs Plays on Twitch, and that paucity of animation variety is definitely getting to me; especially the âI am excited so Iâm going to do a weird two-fisted pump thingâ which didnât even work the first time with some of the characters, and is now very much overstaying its welcome. (Itâs also obvious that theyâre severely animation budget constrained, given the number of interactions which include a âfade to black with sound effectsâ section when the models need to do anything other than those stock movements. Thereâs not even any props in some scenes which should include them!)
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Black Eagle light spoilers as I am at the close of the first part. @dordreff I am extremely in the same mood you were in at this point.
It kills me to do it but I think I have to go with Edlegard on this first play through. I really really dislike her but, as I do when I play Shin Megami Tensei games, I feel as if I have to get the evil route of the way first and will ultimately do a neutral play through with the church.
I will say generally that, granted it could be shoddy or incomplete writing on the part of the developers, but I genuinely appreciate how undefined everyoneâs motives are. Itâs making for a good mystery and while it is frustrating to be faced with hard choices it is kind of neat to have to âtrust my gutâ as opposed to being presented with a ton of awkward exposition so that the player can make an informed choice.
I had this baffling moment during a support convo where a character said to Byleth âremember that big speech you gave last week?â And I actually laughed out loud. My character has never uttered a word out of battle and is totally expressionless, but apparently wins over the crowds with her public speaking skills?
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Female Byleth has an unspoken powerful charisma. And I think most of that charisma comes from bust-size.
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I just started Fire Emblem over the weekend and went with Black Eagle because I already looked dressed for that house (and buying a new wardrobe would be a whole thing). Now I hear on Waypoint Radio that I chose the cops. Is there a way for me to reform the system from the inside or am I institutionally screwed?
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The Black Eagles are not the cops. I mean youâre choosing between 3 noble houses and while youâre definitely gonna get some vibes at some points, from my experience thus far, youâre extremely not playing the cops. Blue Lions might be cops, idk.
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Everyone is the cops. Youâre at a cop school.
Black Eagles forever.
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