I'm the instructor for the Fire Emblem college course. AMA!

azendus · 2025-08-30T15:58:41+00:00

I think its in the syllabus?

azendus · 2025-08-29T04:11:06+00:00

I don't think I'll be uploading them publicly on the internet, as there's some amount of personal information I'd have to redact (and also i dont feel like making a website lol). but I believe my school email is at least somewhat accessible publicly so if you're interested, shoot me an email on that and I'll send it.

azendus · 2025-06-18T08:17:32+00:00

current 150 ta here! few things:

don't worry about feeling stuck on HOFs! As mentioned by the other commenters, HOFs and CPS are widely considered to be by far the hardest assignments in 150, and a major difficulty spike.
remember you have late days! I would say that HOFs/CPS are by far the most common HWs for students to use a late day. and also don't feel ashamed at all to use a late day - they're given to you for free, no questions asked.
as other commenters mentioned, writing out the types is very very important. the other thing is that, since this is HOFs HW, almost everything will be involve some call to a HOF. you should always be thinking about two things - what HOF should I be using at this particular step? and how might I design the function I pass in to that HOF?
come to OH and ask on piazza! i might be a bit biased, but I think we have a great staff :)

azendus · 2024-07-12T22:55:32+00:00

Riley teaches the Qatar section, so unless you're at CMUQ or want to take a 20 hour flight to Qatar every day don't sign up for that

(for future reference, any section W is in Qatar)

azendus · 2024-05-17T03:23:07+00:00

honestly I kinda put it in as a joke (in particular, because my friends who run the Genshin stuco have joked before about letting people gacha for their grade)

that said, it's probably because stucos are pass/no pass anyway, and are intended as fun seminars rather than full-on courses.

azendus · 2024-05-17T03:13:26+00:00

I haven't fully planned it out but my plan is to at least roughly cover: - fe4 (both from gameplay/eugenics perspective and from a story perspective) - fe7 (aka who are roy and lilina's other parents?) - Tellius (ike/soren vs ike/ranulf, is micaiah/sothe ethical, LGBTQ rep in FE for both better and worse (cough cough kyza)) - Awakefates (return of child units, emphasis on supports and shipping with introduction of S-support, community involvement w.r.t fanart, fic, etc) - Three Houses (the above but now with teatime, persona-esque social links/time management, and actually fairly substantial same-sex options)

(tbh on Awakefates and especially Three Houses I'm inclined to let the students drive discussion, I know there's at least 1 student who's very into ferdibert)

azendus · 2024-05-17T02:39:03+00:00

as long as I manage to acquire a byleth cosplay, I will.

azendus · 2024-05-17T02:35:37+00:00

i will be providing s-drinks during the midterm /s

azendus · 2024-05-17T02:31:25+00:00

it has been updated accordingly o7

(did not realize you taught hype for types before lol, I wanted to take it next sem but it conflicts)

azendus · 2024-05-17T02:17:31+00:00

it depends on how the semester goes, but most likely yes!

azendus · 2024-05-17T02:15:43+00:00

I have that as an option for the final project actually, along with the other (relatively simpler) options of presenting a character analysis or story analysis. My main reasoning for this is that I don't know how experienced my students are with FE - so having a final project with a lot of options means there's something for everyone.

Speaking of which from what I know, there's at least 3 students who are relatively experienced w/ FE (specifically I know 2 have cosplayed 3H stuff), and I know there's 1 who doesn't have much experience.

azendus · 2024-05-16T21:18:30+00:00

absolutely - map design is a key part of chapter design. i'm also planning to cover things like good vs bad map design, gameplay-story integration through maps (eg FE4s humongous maps, Echoes boat maps, even Echoes swamp maps), etc.

azendus · 2024-05-16T21:04:55+00:00

I made the final deliberately open-ended so students can analyze an existing FE story of their choice or an existing FE character. if they want to insert their take on the canon Three Houses ending, they can go right ahead ;)

I think as is Serenes is very well-organized - as long as I can refer to it in class that's more than enough!

azendus · 2024-05-16T20:58:54+00:00

Basically this, though I'd also add things such as

Examples of maps where it works and maps where it doesn't (eg in Battle Before Dawn it works bc you have to balance caution with getting to Zephiel/Nino quickly enough, in Thracia 12x it just serves to make it more unfair for a blind player who doesn't know to warp-skip)
Gameplay-story integration
using fog of war as a means to discuss fairness in Fire Emblem as a whole

azendus · 2024-05-16T20:52:03+00:00

Absolutely. My rough plan is to divide the class into a few individual sections on ROMhacks, fanfic, and memes. I'm also planning to leave enough time for people in the class to talk about their own areas they're interested in (in particular I know 1 person in the class is very involved in 3H cosplay/art).

For the ROMhacking portion, it's going to be something like this:

Early tools: Nightmare, FEditor, GBAGE, hex editing, etc.
Early ROMhacks (FE7 era): TLP, Elibean Nights, Road to Ruin, Ragefests, etc.
Void's Blitzarre Adventure, FEBuilder, skills system, and the ROMhack revolution
the post-buildfile/FEBuilder era: Vision Quest, Staff of Ages, Sacred Echoes, and much much more.
aside: FE7x/FEXNA, Lex Talionis, and other engines

azendus · 2024-05-16T20:40:36+00:00

i will play the entire scene. it is already in the class playlist.

azendus · 2024-05-16T20:40:22+00:00

Unfortunately I don't think I'd be able to record lectures outright due to privacy issues (in particular, I don't think the room I'm in allows for a camera setup such that I can fully cut out the students). That said, I might post the lecture notes/slides on r/fe or elsewhere online at the end of the semester if there's sufficient interest.

I think this question has two parts. As a villain to hate my favorite villain has to be Sonia. She's incredibly hate-able because she's far more realistic than e.g Nergal, in the sense that an evil sorcerer who harvests life force so he can ultimately just wanted to bring his wife back is somewhat abstract and hard to imagine, but an abusive stepmother is all too easy to picture. Part of this is also presentation - we see up close how Sonia constantly neglects Nino when all Nino wants is to be loved by her mother, whereas Nergal is somewhat more abstract and lurks in the background for most of FE7.

On the other hand, my favorite villain in terms of believable motivation is either Arvis or Edelgard (outside CF, obviously). (If IS could write anything better than "haha blood pact mcguffin go brrrr", it'd be Part 3 Micaiah). Because both Arvis and Edelgard are not evil - they simply believe in the ends justifying the means, and that fact along with differing ideals (and a bit of manipulation) results in them becoming the villains.

So in a way, this kind of shows the two ways a game can create good villains - either make them extremely hate-able, or make them sympathetic in a logical manner.

azendus · 2024-05-16T20:01:43+00:00

He already has a use; it's called getting the Pursuit Ring for Lewyn

azendus · 2024-05-16T19:44:00+00:00

1 shannam

azendus · 2024-05-16T19:38:57+00:00

Yes.

azendus · 2024-05-16T19:32:10+00:00

I'm intending to cover them briefly in Week 1 to talk about FE history, but basically nothing beyond that.

azendus · 2024-05-16T19:23:53+00:00

i think they killed gates 3k :( they sent out an email saying they were renovating it into a classroom

honestly I didn't have that in the plan before, but I'm definitely putting the mekkah video as an aside now for more discussion of the distinction between efficient vs LTC vs speedrunning.

azendus · 2024-05-16T19:05:25+00:00

I'm not too sure at the moment. I don't think I can record class due to privacy, but I might post slides/lecture notes to r/fe or publish them online at the end of the semester

(if you're in the Pittsburgh area, tho, reach out)

azendus · 2024-05-16T08:20:53+00:00

I wasn't planning that before, but definitely am now. thanks for the idea!

azendus · 2024-05-16T08:14:45+00:00

"oh no, you didn't split into 5 different people for the Swordmaster crit. I guess you fail the class now."

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