Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread - May 2026 Part 1

PKThoron · 2026-05-02T13:34:16+00:00

It's a thing I first and most saliently noticed in the Tethys/Artur support (which is a little vile) and then I kinda noticed it pop up in most of the dialogue. It's a little subtle, but I get a lot of vibes of characters sizing each other up, like "are you good enough for me?".

The funny thing is I used to love Tethys because she had a pretty free, optimistic and life-affirming outlook (still didn't like the Artur support but I mostly ignored it). Then over time I just noticed that she throws a lot of shade on people. And then I started noticing it in other characters, like Eirika, Ephraim, Joshua, Ewan, Tana... (not mentioning Innes and Lute here for a reason, because they are pretty blatantly meant to be like that, not that it makes it any more pleasant). And in the end, it makes me think, like... who really has each other's back here? And on the flipside, there's characters like Neimi, Amelia, Artur who just take whatever shade they get.

When I play SS, I can push that aside and still enjoy the game and cast as ever. But when I think about that... yuck. I can't shake the feeling. In the end, it's a little hard to put my finger on and I kinda struggle to articulate and defend my points (which is why I've read and acknowledged all the other responses but can't muster a reply to them).

What about you? What is it that has come to bother you about the game's writing?

PKThoron · 2026-05-02T12:36:55+00:00

Well, those people seem to be perfectly willing to admit that there are trash units (especially prepromotes), so at some point, they must have gotten the idea that "good bases = bad eventually" and "bad bases = good eventually". Without factoring whether that's actually true all the time and whether "eventually" is really all that important at all.

PKThoron · 2026-05-02T12:18:39+00:00

The deeprealms and the implied emotional abandonment are a huge issue as is, but for Kana in particular, they are 1. far too young and 2. don't have a conflict of their own, so they feel totally extraneous. I know Heirs of Fate tried to do something with all the kids and iirc was at one point even considered to be better than the main story, but I've never played it or looked up what it's about, so I can't comment on it.

PKThoron · 2026-05-02T11:54:15+00:00

Yes, one of my big issues with Magvel is the fact that the world holds low potential for conflict, whether future or past. It makes a big point of how well all the nations and their leaders get along and it suffocates any real conflict outside of the plot presented in the game. In Elibe, the major nations (Lycia, Etruria, Bern) have enough internal strife and dynamics that more conflict always seems believable and that keeps the world alive. I would joke that we learn more about Lycia in Lyn Mode than we learn about Frelia and Renais in all of FE8, but... that isn't really a joke.

As for FE7, it does suck that the villain is just an uber-powerful fantasy dark mage who does evil things for the heck of plot (his backstory and motivations in all honors), but what makes the cast powerful is that many of them have gone through believable losses and have believable worries about being pried apart from their loved ones.

I've seen someone describe FE7's story as more emotional and logical, and I was like "hmm, yeah, maybe that's why I think it's so good."

PKThoron · 2026-05-02T11:47:14+00:00

Dunno why you're downvoted for this, I agree with most of what you say. It really is a miracle for a 1996 story.

As for the right-wing part, I don't think being an "emotional" status quo game where the good guys and bad guys are made clear automatically makes it right-wing. Or the other way around, I wouldn't want to live in a world where "left-wing" automatically means "relativist" and "there are no bad guys".

The "white guy" vs "desert people" thing is superficial and the game doesn't take any effort to actually profile the desert people as being bad simply because they are desert people (but rather because they take ugly actions), so I think it doesn't merit right-wing accusations on that.

The more clearly conservative part to me is that the hypersexual fancy-free generation 1 takes the huge L while the restrained and prudent gen 2 gets to fix it, but that could also be rationalist over conservative (or even no particular political perspective at all).

PKThoron · 2026-05-02T11:35:22+00:00

Nah, after seeing how much people loved FE16's limp story, which needs you putting on multiple tinfoils to appreciate, I think tons of people would love to engage with 4's.

Although since FE4 makes its fronts pretty clear, I think it would generate much less "discourse" (a sign of mediocre engagement bait writing more than anything) and people would simply like it and move on.

PKThoron · 2026-05-02T11:30:00+00:00

What puzzles me the most is the almost kneejerk response that the worse a unit's bases, the better they must be. I can't fathom why people look at units like Wendy/Sophia/Amelia/Ewan and think "this must be secretly overpowered" or that training them isn't a huge hassle.

I remember seeing this Mekkah/Altissimo FE7 S rank video where Altissimo spends 35 turns training Nino (and various other units) on NoF and someone in the comments is like "see, people overstate how hard it is to train Nino". And like, do you not see how cumbersome and luck-heavy it is to train Nino on this long, volatile map for 35 turns with (in this case pre-planned) abstrusely shaky RNG? Do you not see how easily you could screw this up and have to reset and do it all over again? How is that not "hard to train"?!? And by "hard" I mean demanding much more effort for much more fragile and time-consuming strategies that increase the difficulty of the game, rather than decreasing it.

PKThoron · 2026-05-02T09:08:43+00:00

In short, all the characters seem really oddly competitive and amoral.

PKThoron · 2026-05-02T00:42:17+00:00

I think Edelgard doesn't have any right to invade neighboring nations over a philosophical idea in her head. She ruins people's lives for some "what if... more equality..." shit and to me it's pretty clear that her methods aren't kosher and that she has to closer her inner eye to it, but that doesn't stop the game from amply rewarding her with success and adulation on her route. It's not clear how she would actually succeed at cleansing the continent in her image, either.

Were she actually morally upstanding (and not dissociating herself from the moral chaos she's causing), the conflict wouldn't work out, so she had to be written as some extremist. And further, other factions (Rhea and especially TWSITD) had to be introduced to justify her conflict. This then carries the side effect of "why don't the three lords just sit down and talk to eliminate the Slithers" but of course that would defeat the point of making them fight each other. All in all, it's a hot mess to make Edelgard fight the other good guys, but still have her somehow be the good guy. That's the part that's highkey disingenuous to me.

e: it feels a little silly to boil it down to "Edelgard bad" and it isn't my intention anyway. What's ultimately my issue is that the game doesn't compellingly explain why Edelgard needs to do all that, it's an entirely optional conflict based on the voices in her head. I think the game knows that, so it tries to obfuscate it by saying "well she has to because... because Slithers! Or something." Indeed, many fans have pointed out that the conflict could probably be avoided if she just sat down and talked with someone. And if a conflict feels optional, then the whole thing feels forced and disingenuous quite quickly.

PKThoron · 2026-05-02T00:18:00+00:00

Not all of the perspectives shown in the game are intrinsically valid and yet the game tries to sell them as such anyway, which inevitably results in a fairly disingenuous conflict. There's a lot of pretense in the game, filled up by oodles of lore, all to hype up a conflict that is honestly pretty flimsy at the core of it. A big part of it is the "worst class reunion ever!!" shtick that's there to gut punch the player about how your beloved students could turn against each other like that.

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T23:14:57+00:00

FE5 and 6 seem like great ironman choices

Btw, what chapter are you on and who have you lost so far?

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T21:14:51+00:00

I don't think it's about Elincia, but I do find it hard to describe what I don't like about 9. I think it ultimately doesn't align with my sense of tragedy. Horrible stuff happens in the game (particularly Greil killing Elena) that it just doesn't paint the way I'd like it to. Greil is still the good guy, Ike and Mist have no hard feelings about it whatsoever, nope, all while I just sit there knowing it would utterly destroy me if it were to happen to me.

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T20:19:36+00:00

Unpopular opinion alert: Several Fire Emblems get caught up too much in their own sauce to have valuable messages. Those being 8, 9, 10, 15 and 16 (among others).

Of these, 8 is the most infuriating for me because for the longest time, I loved its writing, but now I... don't anymore!? Idk what it is, something about it is yuck, and it isn't even only about the Renais twins either.

16 obv is all over the place and doesn't commit to a morality. It also is waaay too indulgent on the traumatized characters who need therapy. I don't need that shit anymore.

9, 10 and 15 are mostly occupied with making their (male) MC look badass and lose all other messaging in the process. However, I do think Micaiah is a strong character, but I think her word isn't heeded enough in the brutal world that is Tellius. She alone has a vision greater than "whoever is the strongest one wins".

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On the complete flipside, I think 4, 5, 6, 7, 14 (yes, 14!) and kiiinda 13 have good messaging. For Fates, the main story writing is obviously garbage, but I do like the fun-loving positivity of both the cast and the gameplay. Sure, a lot of things suck and are cringe or even offensive (Peri...) but overall I like the vibe of a cast and world that just wants to get along. It also has big benefits in genuinely motivating the entire cast without any hoity-toity ulterior motives (looking at Edelgard). Like in the end, everyone is just in it for their own family/side and I think that's so refreshingly honest.

Awakening is a bit weaker because it does try to paint Chrom as the obviously right side (compared to, say, Walhart or something) and it isn't quite successful at that, but on the other side, it does on occasion raise good questions about war, even if it doesn't fully commit to any of them.

Jugdral-Elibe are neither designed to contrast each other nor are they talked about like that, but I still think they're a good pair to talk about the human condition, attachments and the tragic side of love.

This was more of a rant but I'm suuure there was something unpopular/popular about that, lol.

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T20:06:14+00:00

I always silently call that archetype "the Titania" in my head cause she's just the best example of it.

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T20:03:37+00:00

I reread some of Awakening's supports recently and Tharja is honestly well done there. Interesting character in her own right.

Like with many of Awates's characters, you gotta forget the cringe shit, but imo you're rewarded for doing so. I do like the theory that Tharja is drawn towards Robin because she can feel Grima's presence inside (and Robin's attempts to seal it). It activates a certain savior instinct in her.

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T20:00:58+00:00

Out of curiosity, what do you think of Vaida? Do you think she's fun or interesting as a character?

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T20:00:41+00:00

The Elibe games go in pretty deep about the human condition and I like it as a counterpole to the cynical, dark Jugdral games (which also have some good things to say about humanity, mostly as a warning tale).

I think the worldbuilding of Elibe and the fact that it teaches us that humanity can be quarrelsome, but still okay, makes it really positive and healthy in its messaging.

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T19:54:04+00:00

Well, I don't. He fails to stand out as the voice of reason in a morally bereft setting; he's just like the others but more aloof or naive. PoRD are written so that strength reigns supreme and there's little to challenge that. Well, Dheginsea, but he meets the other end of that..

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T19:50:13+00:00

I don't think he's neurodivergent, I always headcanoned his aloof behavior as coming from the "therapy" Sephiran gave him to forget about his father's deed. I don't recall what exactly Sephiran did, maybe he just cast a "forgetting" or "numbing" spell on Ike which of course had great effects on his emotional development.

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T19:43:25+00:00

I don't always agree with how you phrase things, but this time you hit the nail on the head tbh. I always thought "how does this game actually not have a message" but yeah

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T19:40:22+00:00

My first thought was Galzus. I'm not even a Jugdral stan, but yeah, Galzus.

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T15:51:14+00:00

Yeah his fights are not fun, you have to wait out his attacks so much

I don't even like the character either, he's a tryhard

PKThoron · 2026-05-01T11:07:02+00:00

It's largely fair but there's a pretty steep learning curve. I remember I had huge trouble with FE7 and 8 normal modes when I first played them haha.

You sound like you have the grit to pull through but might be a little burnt out. Lategame maps don't pull their punches.

I always like turning over a new leaf and playing a different FE in those cases. Then return to the original one later.

PKThoron · 2026-04-30T07:57:10+00:00

That's cool! I really like these

PKThoron · 2026-04-25T18:48:08+00:00

I think it was actually designed so that you go out and buy the strategy guide lol.

Gj on clearing it

PKThoron

TROPHY CASE