gilasen

I'm thinking of an FE where if you plant any human unit on a spot against a bunch of bandits without that unit at least hiding behind a tree, you could be sure that unit would be done for.

I'm against low-manning. It's been in the series way too long. So many issues in the series go back to the one-man army style of Fire Emblem. Even in the Lunatic and Lunatic+ modes of Awakening you're better off avoiding a really large chunk of the playable characters.

One way to deal with this is to keep Defense and Resistance below a point for a large chunk of the playable units. You could bring up how vulnerable the player units are in the Lunatic, Lunatic', and Lunatic+ modes but that can be tied to how enemy offense is made so over the top in those modes (especially with the forged weapons so many enemies use) to deal with how defensive player units can be.

Grima isn't an effective antagonist.

Let's start from the basics. Who or what is Grima?

"Thousands of years ago Grima tried to blow up humanity but Naga and the first exalt stopped him."

Yeah see, here's a thing. I already know about Naga from out of game sources, but the game really doesn't go into detail about the backstory with the first exalt, Naga, and Grima. Grima is an Earth Dragon according to the Knights of Iris book but that never comes up in-game and raises further questions (namely who took apart the Fire Emblem). It's as if the writers planned Awakening to be a reboot of the series, but went away from that since it was decided that Awakening would be a game that would draw in the part of the fanbase that is most familiar with Marth's games, so the backstory with Grima, Naga, and the first exalt was throw in.

Okay then, What does Grima want to accomplish?

"He wants to blow up mankind because reasons!"

Uh-huh. You know, Medeus had more of a goal than you did.

I'm sure that a problem with Grima is that the writers couldn't make up their minds as to what Grima was supposed to be. They weren't sure if Grima should have been treated like most dragons with dialogue in FE (who act like elves in fantasy stories taking notes from Tolkien) or more like a primordial being who just might represent a concept like Fomortiis or Ashera. I say she could have worked better if he were instead presented as this monstrosity made from the Earth Dragons who was dealt with by the First Exalt and Co., who as a Grimleal would put it was reborn as a human. Grima couldn't and wouldn't be separate from Robin. You could even have Validar be all "I can control the world through controlling Grima!" and then have him be blasted by Grima.

I see that Awakening had various ideas for ties to past FE games, like putting Tiki in the game, but not enough of those were really important enough to plot. Or they weren't explored enough when it came to how those ties changed over the millennia.

Look at Lucina. As far as I can tell, Lucina pretending to be Marth wasn't any more helpful than pretending to be say, Caeda. Nobody who Lucina would have wanted to listen her actually said they believed she was actually Marth, and she didn't bother to make her voice sound more like a man's. Lucina pretending to Marth is transparently a marketing gag.

Or Tiki. Tiki ends up having a bigger role in DLC than she does in default game. Let alone how she's been living in Valm instead of the continent where Grima, the only Earth Dragon who is mentioned in Awakening is sealed.

Awakening has ties to past games. But the ties are set so that newcomers don't know enough of what makes them a big deal. And the ties either aren't important enough or aren't explored enough when it comes to how those ties changed over the millennia.

Valm, the Gaiden reference. Where Robin and Co. run off to after Grima!Robin shows up. Which ended up being filler.

...Yeah, I wonder if Valm shouldn't be scrapped altogether. I haven't thought of a way to keep in Valm that doesn't up distracting from the conflict of Ylisse with Naga against Plega with Grima. What happened in the Valm chapters that can be counted as not filler could have happened in Ylisse.

Grima, the creature sealed away by the First Exalt. Worshipped by the Grimleal. Has a body bred by the Grimleal, called Robin.

And he is out to wipe out mankind because...? And where did she come from anyway, seeing as how he is another Earth Dragon?

As I said in the last entry, Grima is a god among so many mortals. Why does she bother with the "wipe out mankind" thing? Grima talks about the future, but the game never goes into enough detail on what future Grima wants. You have the Risen, but the game never says Grima is planning to build a new nation populated by new creatures who have replaced humanity. Or wanting to build a new nation with a controlled humanity. The game never even says that Grima is out to get back at Naga and the humans she's aided for the Earth Dragons being sealed away all those centuries ago.

That's another thing. Grima is another Earth Dragon according to Knights of Iris. And yet the last game in the series tells us the Earth Dragons were sealed in the Dragon's Table except for Medeus. And the Shield of Seals was required for the seal to hold. But by the time of Awakening, the Binding Shield has been taken apart, with no Earth Dragons besides Grima being seen.

Now, it's been suggested that Grima is what happened after the Earth Dragons in the Dragon's Table fused together. While I admit that does go with what been shown or said about Grima, that isn't confirmed in-game. And it's on the writer to give the major antagonists enough backstory.

With all that gone over, I'll start with the fixing.

First off, have it be explained that after a long time of trying to bring forth the fell dragon, Grima had been born into a human body. Grima isn't "possessing" the human like how Loptyr did with Julius. The boy is Grima in a human form, which would have been the best that could have been done at the time.

I've been thinking on how the narrative might have played out if Grima!Robin's going dragon had more to do with Alternate!Chrom's actions than in the Awakening we have. Say that Alternate!Chrom, having developed in a different path from the playable Chrom, was led into turning on Robin or otherwise do something that would drive her away from him ... and after Chrom dies the alternate Avatar, having those closest bonds sliced after all that he went through up to that point, finally goes dragon, with all that comes with it. The fell dragon having been made from the sealed Earth Dragons. Robin goes which leads into the Playable!Lucina's future. The fell dragon's fatalism would go back to what Chrom did in the Alternate timeline, who as the Avatar's best friend or husband was the one that all the hope and expectations for how Grima would act towards mankind ended up resting on.

With so much power, Grima!Robin would decide that the world should have had a dragon for it's ruler. Grima!Robin would look into making a new populace and/or an army to guard the nation and enforce what the draconic ruler wants. Hence, the use of the Risen and looking into other beings and/or creatures.

Okay, here's various issues with Awakening.

I say there's more to do with what's in the game. Go more into detail on the religious conflict between Naga and Grima. Have more involvement from the playable time traveler characters who aren't Lucina. Have Validar actually show he can be taken seriously as a foe, rather than be a chump through the game.

Things were going their best in the chapters dealing with Gangrel. The game never presented it as such, but I suggest that the first difference shown or mentioned in-game between the present and Playable!Lucina's timeline is there being peace between Ylisse and Plegia. Which would also go with a character divergence for Playable!Chrom from the Chrom who was killed in Playable!Lucina's timeline, who develops into honoring his sister's ideals as much as he can rather than him going more towards righteous retribution. If the game explored more of the conflicts leading up Robin going dragon, I would be more supportive.

Valm, on the other hand, had the tension of a rising empire. If you play Walhart's recruitment and explore his supports, you'll see it also has the not really explored enough undertones of a clash of ideologies. You have peace through unification (Walhart's conquering spree), peace through extermination (the Plegian hatred of Ylisse) or peace through tolerance (Emmeryn pushing for tolerance). The chapters dealing with Walhart didn't go into enough detail of Walhart's ideology. It didn't even really deal with the enforcement of peace, or any grand destiny past Walhart's lifespan. You are not informed of Walhart wanting to stop the Grimleal until after Walhart has been killed. Valm ended up being personified more by the treacherous and conniving Excellus than by it's actual ruler.

The chapters dealing with the Grimleal after Walhart is killed are disappointing. They're more into being Chrom and Robin's personal journey to prevent the future Playable!Lucina came from than the exploration of the implications or developments leading to Grima!Robin going dragon. A few maybe good points to cover were a letdown in execution, such as the Avatar's parentage, the Avatar's role in the alternate timeline and what led him going dragon, Validar, and Grima himself. Validar and Grima are lacking when it comes to backstory and motivation about them. They're warring on mankind because.....?

Really, why does the Grima, a god among so many many mortals, bother with the wipe out mankind thing? What future does she want to bring, that he prefers to the present? The same goes for Validar. He isn't the Avatar. As far as I can tell, he's lunch. He doesn't even have a plan to get rid of Grima once the time came like Gharnef did when he was helping out Medeus, which would be an improvement. This is a problem with the Grimleal as a whole, as none of the named enemy Grimleal members who appear in more than one chapter really have enough when it comes to motivation and backstory. What's in it for them? It's not power, the favor of Grima, revenge on their enemies, or even a chance to be spared. They aren't like the Loptyrians who were favored by Loptyr.

Various other posts on this blog will go into rewriting Awakening.

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31

Recent Entries

Future FE ideas Part 1: No human one-man armies

On Grima again.

On Awakening's ties to past games.

Fixing Awakening 2: Valm

Fixing Awakening 1: Grima

On various Issues with Fire Emblem: Awakening.

Profile

March 2014

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags