Board 8 > I'm bored, name anything in Fire Emblem and I'll give my top 5 for it

(+) Yeah! (+)

Top 5 black characters
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Are there even five? I can only think of:

3. Devdan
2. Flavia
1. Basilio
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Kenri posted...

4. Final chapter (FE6). People say that FE8's final chapter had no challenge but it can't hold a candle to FE6's final chapter. Incidentally, holding a candle to FE6's final chapter is enough to kill every enemy in it, but you'll still have to waste like 40 minutes running across the giant map and listening to Jahn explain the game's plot.

I haven't played FE6 and this still made me laugh.
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Does Fiona count as black? She has dark skin.
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Kenri posted...

Are there even five? I can only think of:

3. Devdan
2. Flavia
1. Basilio

Well, you're obviously missing Danved, who is most certainly not Devdan.
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what about gray
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There's probably a few bosses that are black.
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Top 5 Clerics

Kenri posted...

re: FE4, fedorafreak is right that it's dated, but it's still super playable. You should check it out, especially if you care about the story in FE, because IMO it's the best one.

I'll look into it! My last FE was Awakening...
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Alanna82 posted...

Does Fiona count as black? She has dark skin.

She doesn't look it to me but maybe. Hard to really say given the art style and fantasy world. A lot of characters that have dark skin just look Asian or southern European or etc to me (Niles, Garret, and Gray being some examples).
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SSBM_Guy posted...

There's probably a few bosses that are black.

4. Xemcel (http://fireemblem.wikia.com/wiki/Xemcel)

Raka_Putra posted...

Top 5 Clerics

All my favorites are Priests or Bishops... uh let's see.

5. Natasha (FE8) because her relationship with Joshua is great.
4. Maria (FE1/etc) is cool though she's the least interesting member of her family.
3. Yumina (FE12) is kind of bratty but I like that about her, she's way better than her dumb brother
2. Lena (FE1/etc). She's actually kind of badass, it's Unfortunate she's barely around in FE12.
1. Serra (FE7) because obv, super amusing character and she has some genuinely sweet supports too.

Edit: I guess Yumina is called Yuliya now? Also Genny should probably be on there somewhere but I forgot her "whoops"
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Nice list, the only thing I would add is side-objective gaiden chapters like in FE5-7. Such good replay value. I agree that PoR's supports were the best. I just wish there were more of them in that game.

Thieves/Assassins
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Yeah Serra is a good tsundere.

Characters you'd keep as a "pet"
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Fine then

Top 5 bishonens
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Top 5 "wants" if FE4 got remade
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Top 5 Support Conversations (either individually or taken as a set between the characters whichever you prefer to rank)
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Cybat posted...

Nice list, the only thing I would add is side-objective gaiden chapters like in FE5-7. Such good replay value. I agree that PoR's supports were the best. I just wish there were more of them in that game.

Thieves/Assassins

Oh yeah, I miss those but I also kind of like the paralogue system. But I'd like the return of fulling side objectives to unlock more content for sure.

I'm not sure there's a single thief/assassin I don't like. Actually that's a lie, fuck off Cath. But other than her...

5. Julian (FE1/etc). Have you ever seen a girl so beautiful you gave up banditry? Julian has. Then he went on a long, dangerous quest across the continent to save her. Julian is low-key best boyfriend.
4. Legault (FE7). He's my least favorite thief in FE7 but Legault rocks, especially if you check his pre-battle convos with other Fangs.
3. Jaffar (FE7). If you looked at an image of the Four Fangs and asked which is recruitable, I doubt many people would guess right -- but FE7 subverts a lot of expectations like that. Watching Jaffar grow from an emotionless kill-bot to a young man with family and friends was one of the best parts of FE7.
2. Matthew (FE7). Matthew might be the best written character in FE7, though. For being the obligatory doofball thief, he's a very complex character with a lot of development and relevance to the main plot. Recent games have really been lacking in this sort of character, who can sober up when the chips are down.
1. Volke (FE9/10). Volke is like... the coolest. And not just of this class. If my teenage self had to design a badass character they'd have based it off Volke for sure. He has some of the best lines in the Tellius games, too.

Raka_Putra posted...

Yeah Serra is a good tsundere.

Characters you'd keep as a "pet"

So I'm assuming this is like a BDSM thing and tbh I'm not about that life cuz unequal power dynamic stuff creeps me out but I'll give it a shot.

5. Ilyana (FE10). Honestly she's basically a cat already because all she does is eat, sleep, and beg for more food.
4. Setsuna (Fates). I mean, if you're gonna have something in your house that's constantly trapping itself in cupboards and in the window blinds and stuff, it might as well be Setsuna instead of a cat or a dog because at least you can get high with her.
3. Volug (FE10) WOW is anyone surprised he's on this list?? You'd think he'd be higher but actually nope!
2. Felicia (Fates) is best Fates waifu and having a maid seems like it would be helpful. It wouldn't actually be helpful because that maid is Felicia, but it sure seems like it would.
1. Lyre (FE10). She's only in like one conversation but she seems cool, she's definitely cute, and she comes with her own collar.

Anagram posted...

Fine then

Top 5 bishonens

So to me bishounen means "obviously a man but very beautiful and even feminine in some respects" so someone like Lucius wouldn't really qualify.

5. Forde (FE8). Rock that ponytail. Forde hits a lot of the bishounen checkmarks but he's not QUITE as pretty as some others.
4. Izana (Fates). In, uh, everything but demeanor. Izana recognizes that a bishounen's most valuable aspect is their hair.
3. Jakob (Fates). Hair? Gorgeous. Fashion sense? Outstanding. Bishounen? VERY.
2. Shannan (FE4). The name helps but it's really the immaculately straightened waist-length hair that does it.
1. Arion (FE4). Arion has everything Jakob and Shannan have, but with a cape. He's also an older brother, which is the most bishounen kind of family member to be. 10/10 bishounen, would bish-again.

More later.
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The FE7 Thieves are incredible. Matthew, Jaffar, and Legault are all well-written characters.
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Top 5 death scenes
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Top 5 Old People
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Hell yeah Volke.

Yep it was a BDSM thing lol. Fun choices!

Top 5 translations (game-wise and including fan translation)
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fedorafreak posted...

The FE7 Thieves are incredible. Matthew, Jaffar, and Legault are all well-written characters.

Matthew and Legault are Top 5 in my FE character ranking (includes FE's 7, 8, 9, 10, and Awakening). Jaffar I think is in the Top 20.
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NPC (or mostly NPC) classes
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Yessss FE7 thieves and Volke. They just don't make thieves like they used to. Ninjas and Outlaws are cool and all but it's just not the same.

Best integrations of gameplay & story (e.g. Battle Before Dawn in FE7)
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Wants for FE4 remake:
5. Rebalancing, particularly wrt movement. A lack of movement made some characters unusable in FE4 and that needs to be addressed if they remake it, cuz there's already not much unit variety.
4. Refined maps. Some chapters just slog because you're spending tons of time moving, especially through harsh terrain. I'd want to see big chunks of those portions removed or made more interesting.
3. Expanded lover dialogue/platonic supports. Especially for the kids, who are less developed to begin with.
2. Sidequests. I don't think you can really add to the main plot in a meaningful way, but it'd be cool to have more content in the way of gaiden chapters. I think they'd have to be smaller scale, but that could even be a nice change of pace.
1. Keep it faithful, particularly in regards to the plot. I don't want ways to save characters that die or for the plot's darker parts to be censored. I don't think they can realistically do this, though, which is why I kind of fear the eventual FE4 remake.

Supports:
5. Alm/Faye (Echoes) - This might be recency bias, but I really liked the conclusion to this support. Faye actually comes out with it and admits her feelings to Alm and he turns her down gently and they keep being friends. It's weird that Faye is way more mature than Cordelia, who looks much older, but hey.
4. Dart/Karel (7) - This is all about Dart talking up the strongest people on the continent, while Karel points out he's already killed them all. Eventually Dart gets to describing the Sword Demon, only to realize the Karel he's talking to is THE Karel and flip out. It does some good world-building and it definitely makes Karel seem impressive.
3. Serra/Oswin (7) - This one stands out to me just because the two bounce off each other really well. Oswin seems like one of the few people who can really get to Serra, and Serra is uniquely suited to driving Oswin crazy, but the ending is still really cute and sweet.
2. Renault/Lucius (7) - This is a really, really good support for fleshing out Renault as a character, and Lucius is of course a class act in the conclusion.
1. Jill/Lethe (9) - Oof, I was debating Jill/Mist and Jill/Lethe here. Jill is one of my favorite characters for how realistically she deals with unlearning all the garbage she picked up in Daein. Her supports with Lethe are great because Jill's development all happens outside the support, so it can be shown rather than just told. It seems obvious to me that Lethe didn't really expect to get through to Jill and was just chewing her out expecting it to prove that she was a pretender -- only to be impressed later by Jill's resolve. This support's as much about Lethe changing as a character as it is about Jill.

asdfslhkfjlsgf this is definitely wrong but those supports are jumping out to me right now.

fedorafreak posted...

The FE7 Thieves are incredible. Matthew, Jaffar, and Legault are all well-written characters.

I think it helps that none of them are straight up thieves. Being spies/assassins makes them way more interesting.

Raka_Putra posted...

Yep it was a BDSM thing lol. Fun choices!

My only regret is that I wish I had made a Petsuna pun.

Cybat posted...

Yessss FE7 thieves and Volke. They just don't make thieves like they used to. Ninjas and Outlaws are cool and all but it's just not the same.

I like Niles but yeah he can't compare.
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Death scenes:

Okay gonna try to avoid just going FE4 down ticket here but man oh man that game has some good death scenes.

5. (FE9) Greil. A duel at midnight against an impossibly powerful, mysterious knight? Sounds like a good time. It was pretty obvious Greil wasn't surviving this fight, but they kept it well done regardless.
4. (FE12) Clarisse. I did not expect to care about this character but her death scene suddenly makes her like a 100x more interesting, which tbh is VERY HARD TO PULL OFF so I'm gonna give 'em credit here.
3. (FE7) Leila. Oof, this one hurts, particularly because of Matthew's reaction and the fact that you'll probably come to really like Jaffar later. Leila's death was a BIG plot twist for me as a kid because it seemed so obvious she'd be playable later. Nope!
2. (Awakening) Emmeryn. What a spectacular death scene, as in it's actually a spectacle. This is the most FE has ever made me care about the parental figure's obligatory death.
1. (FE4) Quan and Ethlyn. Part of what FE4 did so well was make a lot of deaths happen during gameplay. I hate it. It's like they figured out the exact formula to making you, the player, feel impotent as your favorite characters die. In this case, a bunch of cavaliers get swarmed in the desert by dracoknights, which is Unfortunate at best.

Dishonorable mention: Every death scene in Fates. Every single one without exception. All bad. (Actually I never beat Revelation so MAYBE not but their track record is not good.)

Old people:

The best sort of people?? Not gonna count any "secretly a billion years old but looks 13" people for this.

5. Mycen (2/Echoes). Haven't beat Echoes yet so this might change but Mycen is a pretty damn cool old dude. Also he looks not bad for his age.
4. Bantu (FE1/etc). He's a billion years old but at least he looks it. Bantu's a terrible unit but he's pretty cool as just an old manakete fuck.
3. Nealuchi (FE10). I love this dumb old crow. He's one of the few people who Naesala just can't get under the skin of (quite the opposite). He's kind of useless but that's par for the course with non-royal laguz in Radiant Dawn.
2. Niime (FE6). She might be the only older lady in any FE game?? Unless you REALLY stretch "older" so people in their 30s count. She's super cool from the moment she shows up though, when she ruins one of Bern's plans singlehandedly after warning them in advance that she was going to.
1. Jagen. Accept no substitutions. Somehow, he's even cooler in FE12 where he isn't playable. "I, Jagen, may be old and senile, but I'll not lose to the likes of you!"

HM: Renault, who is old but just doesn't look old enough.

Top 5 translations:

5. Echoes??
4. FE7
3. Awakening
2. FE10
1. FE8

I don't really have a good way of judging this or particularly strong opinions about it... I know that Fates had some issues (though tbh they were given a shite script to work with so I'm not gonna blame 'em) and Path of Radiance had some weird mistakes. FE7 would be higher but they made some major mistakes with names in the secretest chapters.
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Great Thief list. I'd give Matthew the nod over Volke but those are definitely my top 2 easily, and Legault/Jaffar would also be in the top 5.
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Top 5 child characters, manakete don't count unless they're actually children
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Yeah I heard Fates' is atrocious.

I'm a bit disappointed there's so very few old female characters compared to old men...

Anyway, Top 5 usable items (not including weapons)
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Cybat posted...

Best integrations of gameplay & story (e.g. Battle Before Dawn in FE7)

5. FE10 Part 3-Final. The countdown clock until Ashera awakens from too much war is a pretty cool, if simple, mechanic that lets you feel like you actually had a role in what happens, for better or worse.
4. FE9, escaping from the Black Knight at port. I think this has ended up as one of the most iconic chapters in the series just because, unlike most other escape chapters, you really, really cannot fight the Black Knight. You can't even really stall him without the help of Sephiran.
3. FE10 Part 2-Final. Aside from being really easy, this chapter does a great job conveying an actual defense against a siege, better than any other defend chapter I think.
2. FE7 Battle Before Dawn. I hope this isn't a cop-out but yeah, credit where it's due here. I couldn't think of many examples of better storytelling through gameplay in FE than this one.
1. FE4 Chapter 5. This is the end of the first half of the game, and man does it do a lot of on-map storytelling. Quan and Ethlyn's death, receiving the Tyrfing, all the conversations between lovers and friends, Aida's forces turning green... You can tell SOMETHING's up but you don't know what it is until you get there, so you just have to press on.

HM: Shinon getting the Provoke skill just because everyone thinks he's a fucking prick.

Child characters:

I have a strong dislike for most of them but there are a few good ones!

5. Fae (FE6). Well, you gave me the exception so I'll use it. Adorable lil murderchicken. Fae's super cute. I liked her better when she was called Fa though.
4. Yuliya (FE12). She's a brat but I like her and only hate her brother. I liked her better when she was called Yumina though.
3. Ewan (FE8). Ewan's the "swears he's already a grown-up" archetype but somehow his enthusiasm is endearing instead of annoying.
2. Sanaki. Uh, probably not the typical child character but she does have a lot of the same traits, especially in FE9 where she's more tempestuous.
1. Nino. Definitely the best. She's very childish in some ways and not at all in others, but it makes sense and works because it ties into her upbringing.

HMs: Definitely not Dew (FE4) and Elise (Fates), who we assure you are adults.

Lopen posted...

Great Thief list. I'd give Matthew the nod over Volke but those are definitely my top 2 easily, and Legault/Jaffar would also be in the top 5.

Yeah I kind of regret not putting Matthew at #1 but oh well, I like Volke better in a lot of ways even if he's a less complex character.

Raka_Putra posted...

Yeah I heard Fates' is atrocious.

I'm a bit disappointed there's so very few old female characters compared to old men...

From what I understand the Japanese script isn't really any better, but I don't have the language skills to confirm or deny that.

And yeah we definitely need more older women. There are plenty of characters it would have made sense for if they had wanted to (Reina, Isadora, Echidna, etc) but I guess old ladies just aren't marketable enough.
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Usable items:

5. Ninis' Grace (FE7) is broken as hell. +10 DEF/RES for one turn basically makes a unit invincible. The only drawback is that you can't dance normally on the same turn.
4. Silver Card. Half-price everything? Yes please lmao get rekt Adam Smith.
3. Delphi/Fili/Iote's Shield. Haha, get fucked archers and your one marginal use-case.
2. Knight Ring (FE4/FE9). Gives any character Canto, letting them use the rest of their move after taking an action. Canto's one of the most useful skills in the series so being able to give it to anyone is incredible.
1. Boots. Holy shit, +2 movement is so good that these are like the most coveted item in any game they appear in. They can singlehandedly make a character go from bad to good or from good to outstanding.
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