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    Fire Emblem Happy Valentine's from Shamir

    February 14, 2021

    Fire Emblem Happy Valentine's from Shamir

    Happy Valentine's from Shamir

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 02:41 PM PST

    Hello, I was commissioned to create an original armor design for Idunn. I hope you like it (OC)

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    Nephenee and Erinys with their Valentine's Day gifts! (Commission)

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    I redid my fe3h Valentine’s Day cards from last year, but this year it’s just the gatekeeper

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 07:37 AM PST

    Ms. Valentine Goneril for Valentines Day

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    [OC] How to express love, feat. Claude and Lysithea

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 11:46 AM PST

    Happy Valentine's Day! ��

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    Marianne Valentine's card

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    Marianne (By @moquackja) [Commission]

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    What Chapter 11 Feels Like

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    Lysithea banishes a cavalier to the shadow realm

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    Belf

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    My CYL5 Fanart I did Compiled into a single post

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 01:43 AM PST

    Happy Valentine's Day from the sexy underground mole person

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 05:36 PM PST

    Happy Valentines?

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 12:45 PM PST

    Fire Emblem Heroes - New Heroes (Enduring Legacy)

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    Lyon fanart (OC)

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    I drew a FNF and FE crossover last night. Hope y'all like it!

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 08:51 AM PST

    Happy Valentine's Day from Leif!!

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 07:56 AM PST

    EDLEGARD IS A BEAUTY #MADDENING#UNEXEPECTED

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 03:47 PM PST

    My Sophia clay figurine I made recently

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 01:25 PM PST

    Ya Want Some Choco?

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 06:39 PM PST

    Agustria and Interactive Storytelling – A Love Letter to Bishop Clement

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 08:17 AM PST

    Now it's the day of devotion or whatever dumb name FEH calls it, and to kinda-sorta commemorate that I felt like writing about a part of Fire Emblem 4 which I cherish very much, and a character who I hold very dear to my heart. So, Agustria, the Dominion of the Lords... where should I start with this?

    From a storytelling standpoint, I adore Agustria. In my opinion it's easily the best-written country in the series as a whole, mainly thanks to how much of its story is told through gameplay. Agustria embraces FE4's methods of interactive storytelling and pushes it as far as it can go, and in doing so it exemplifies why Fire Emblem's gameplay has so much potential as a narrative device. I believe there is no other country in FE that does a better job using its medium to push the story and flesh out its lore better than Agustria does.

    Despite not being particularly interesting characters individually, Agustria's five rulers as a unit are among my favorite NPCs in the franchise, mainly because of how much they contribute to their country's lore. I'd even go so far to say that one of those Lords (the one whose name is in the title, obviously) is my favorite character in Generation 1, and I'll try to explain why at some point in this writing.

    Off the top of my head, this essay has spoilers for Chapters 2 and 3 of FE4, along with one plot point from Chapter 5/6. In case you're worried about that kind of thing.

    (Part of) Why Agustria Works So Well1

    1 there are so many individual aspects I could gush about regarding why Agustria is such a good country but I'm going to focus on a few specific topics here.

    So before I continue, let's look at the demographic of characters encountered in Agustria. Starting at the most basic level, we have the five rulers. Two corrupt ones (Boldor, Macbeth), one villainous one (Chagall), one neutral one (Clement) and one good one (Eldigan).

    This obviously leaves us with a diverse group of personalities at the helm – not what I would call the most unified roster of politicians. Just one look at this motley lineup, and you can already foresee the political discourse coming ahead… and oh boy, it sure does come. At heart, calling Agustria a unified country is kind of a stretch. It's more of an alliance of lords that happen to live close together but aren't truly unified or loyal to each other. And hell if FE4 doesn't remind us of that every step of the way.

    The number of times that the Agustrian king's word gets ignored is laughable to the point where I doubt he has much power at all. Elliot deliberately ignores Imuka's peace treaty in Chapter 1 on the grounds that he's a senile old fool. And later, when Chagall commands his Lords to mobilize their armies and prepare for war, literally only Boldor listens to him. Eldigan runs up to Castle Agusty and tries to talk some sense into the king, expressing his discontent in a civil yet steadfast way. Macbeth and Clement deliberately ignore his orders and pursue their own interests. Boldor obeys Chagall's order, but he makes it explicitly clear that he's attacking Nordion out of his grudge towards Eldigan, not because Chagall said so.

    The crux of Agustria's disunity comes in an early cutscene of Chapter 2, which gives the player insight on each Lord's thought process. We get to see the world of Agustria evolve and react to both player and NPC actions. Macbeth watches Heirhein's forces deploy and dispatches his thugs to ransack the villages, knowing that he can get away with it since Chagall is preoccupied with the civil war. Clement watches the conflict and is unwilling to get involved, and locks down his borders so that neither of the warring parties can enter Mackily territory.

    Were this a more unified country, these two leaders would have sent reinforcements to support Heirhein. Hell, were this a more unified country, the five Lords would be attacking Grannvale together instead of trying to subdue Nordion, arguably the strongest of the territories, for no reason. But this is Agustria – welcome to the new norm, where nobody trusts each other and nobody is unified.

    Even the individual armies show this sense of disunification. Elliot charges off to capture Lachesis with his group, and the moment he's gone Phillip tells his men to stand ground in an attempt to de-escalate the conflict. Both of these guys are part of the same army, but they have totally different goals in mind and are pursuing them independently.

    Thanks to Genealogy's expansive map size and utilization of multiple factions, the player gets to see all of these machinations firsthand, instead of having to trust in an exposition dump or a few lines of expository text like a more mainstream FE game would. This is something that FE4 and only FE4 would be able to pull off thanks to how huge its maps are. You as the player gets to see each country on the map at all times and watch them react to your actions, and each of these little interactions teaches the player a little more about Jugdral. As a whole, they make Agustria, and likewise FE4, feel more alive and organic than any other aspect in the series.

    As a player, I can get hit with a dozen text boxes of explanation about how the Leicester Alliance nobles are prone to backstabbing each other. I can read a billion lines of dialogue about how all the people hate Orson because he neglected Renais. But it's nothing compared to actually seeing the Lords of Agustria actively forego unification and even outright disobey their king time and time again to pursue their own interests, all on-screen.

    So why does this work so well? FE4 is really good at directly world-building with its bosses. In no other game can you see each territory that each boss controls at the same time, simultaneously – in few games do you see such direct, active interactions between bosses like when Chagall chews out Macbeth for selfishly ignoring the conflict. And the flexibility for boss-boss interactions, imo, is a big part of what makes people consider FE4's story so "great".

    In my opinion, this is one of the pinnacle features of the Fire Emblem engine. This kind of interactive storytelling is rarely seen in other similar games such as JRPGs in a way that doesn't slow down the gameplay through intrusive cutscenes. I'd go so far to argue that moments like Agustria are what make Fire Emblem unique and special as a franchise – moments like these are why I play Fire Emblem at all.

    The Agustrian Lord Clement, of course, embodies all of this, and that's part of why I love him as a character. Even if he's old and wrinkly and his reputation isn't the best for reasons that aren't even his own fault, I stand firmly by my opinion: he's easily my favorite character in Gen 1.

    Clement – The Only Sensible Lord

    I have a confession. If there was an option to have a Clement flair on this sub, I would 100% choose it

    Okay, let me make this as clear as I possibly can before I begin. Clement is NOT the creepy dude from Darna who molests your dancer. That's Bramsel from Chapter 7, who shares his portrait. This is arguably why Clement has a shaky reputation – I see the two confused so often that I feel the need to make this clear from the get-go. Often when I talk about Clement, people ask "isn't that the guy who tried to rape Lene?" and I have to clarify that no, my favorite Gen 1 character is not the Gen 2 rapist and I would never try to defend someone like Bramsel.

    The only thing that Clement and Bramsel have in common are their faces. Their personalities couldn't be any more different. Whereas Bramsel is nothing but a puppet for the Grannvale Empire, Clement is a levelheaded but distrustful leader who genuinely seems to have his territory's best interests in mind – but not Agustria's.

    Now why do I talk about Clement in this mini-essay on interactive storytelling? Clement as a character wouldn't be half as great as he is were it not for how Agustria is framed. He is a moving cog in the Agustrian machine who meshes and intertwines with the cogs around him to form a living country, and I see him as a fascinating character as a result of this.

    So as a quick refresher: after Chagall orders his lords to mobilize their armies towards Grannvale, and war breaks out in Agustria, Clement locks his borders down and declares that Mackily will remain neutral.

    Clement: Heirhein is going for Nordion's throat? Hm... who do I side with here? Let's wait and see how this unfolds. Instruct the men to remain where they are until the dust settles.

    His decision to remain neutral at first seems illogical from an Agustrian viewpoint, especially when compared to Eldigan's steadfast loyalty to Agustria. But it makes sense from a Mackily-centric viewpoint – a worldview which Clement sticks to for understandable reasons.

    Agustria has already been established as a very loose alliance of self-interested lords, and Clement is wise enough to see that. In a political environment like this where trust is scarce, he has no reason to help either Eldigan or Boldor, or even put faith in the Agustrian alliance at all. He also says that he wants to wait until the dust settles and things get clearer, which is arguably better than acting rashly and throwing oneself into conflict senselessly.

    Not to mention it certainly wouldn't help his territory to be thrown into a war. As Eldigan says in Chapter 1, and Lewyn brings up later in Chapter 2, war is fuelled by the nobles and upper class but ruins the lives of the people in the process. It would be foolish to throw one's country needlessly into a war over petty or stupid things LIKE CHAGALL AND BOLDOR DO. While the Heirhein and Anphony houses clearly don't take this to heart, Clement actually seems mindful of keeping the peace in his lands – he locks down his borders not just to keep Sigurd out, but Heirhein as well.

    Furthermore, it's reasonable to assume Mackily is the smallest of the Agustrian territories – getting it needlessly involved in war would only put it at a greater disadvantage compared to the others. Castle Mackily is located in a canyon-like trail that connects Castle Agusty and Castle Nordion. Whereas Nordion, Heirhein, Agusty, and even Anphony have some amount of open fields around them, Mackily is instead surrounded by the narrow cliffs around it.

    Agustria map for reference, in case anyone doesn't remember

    Though we never get clear outlines of where the boundaries of territories are, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that Mackily, being surrounded by cliffs on two sides, lacks the land and resources that the other territories have. The fact that Clement's army is the weakest of the Lords supports this as well. Heirhein and Nordion both have stronger armies – the latter including the famed Cross Knights and Mystletainn. The Anphony army is relatively small, about the same size as Mackily, but they also have the Voltz Company to back them up (showing how Macbeth is hated by his citizens so few people enlist in the army, but it doesn't matter because he's got enough money to buy enough troops anyways.)

    The Mackily army on the other hand is a fraction of the size of its rivals. Heirhein has 25 units total on the map in Chapter 2, Anphony has 23, and Agusty has 36, plus all the units in Chapter 3. Nordion has 18 from Chapter 3, but its troops are the elite Cross Knights and it also has the legendary Mystletainn to bolster its power. Compared to the other territories, Mackily only has 17 units – and five of those are ballista, limiting their capabilities to solely defense.

    Additionally, whereas every other territory gets more official "army"-like units such as knights, generals, and cavalry, Mackily primarily has platoons of mages, mercenaries, and archers, along with their infamous ballista unit. This fighting force definitely seems a little more ragtag than the uniform armies of Elliot's cavalier unit or Macbeth's and Phillip's armored knight squads. Even King Chagall himself, foolish as he is, seems to be aware of Mackily's lesser military power, as he sends Agusty cavalry units to support Clement whereas he gave no aid to Heirhein or Anphony.

    Either way, it's clear that Mackily is at least at some disadvantage when it comes to army power. And when you can't trust any of your neighbors, it makes sense in a pragmatic way to hold back and let them bash against themselves. In remaining neutral Clement not only attempted to keep war from disturbing Mackily, he also tried to increase his territory's security and safety by letting his rivals exhaust themselves of combat power, rendering them a smaller threat to Mackily in the long term.

    Clement's Tragedy: Absolute Diplomatic Failure

    Clement doesn't grow hostile towards Sigurd until after both Boldor and Macbeth do. After watching the Grannvale army charge in through Nordion and subdue both Heirhein and Anphony, he fears that Sigurd intends to take all of Agustria – which would mean seizing its capital of Agusty. And Mackily, being directly in the path up to Agusty, would inevitably be caught in the crossfire whether they liked it or not.

    Clement: You can't be serious! They've come as far as Anphony?! Are they just going to keep going until all Agustria is theirs? They'll have to come this way. We've no choice but to fight. Deploy the ballistae. We're all that stands between the capital and Grannvale's dogs of war!

    Even if he doesn't trust Agusty or the rest of the Lords, Clement trusts Grannvale even less. One of the few things that he and the lords actually managed to agree on was that Grannvale had overstepped in conquering Verdane – they collectively spoke out against Grannvale after the fall of Verdane Palace. And sure, Clement is stuck between a rock and a hard place here – both of his options aren't particularly good for Mackily in his eyes. But allying with Agustria, as unreliable and untrustworthy and spontaneous as Chagall is, is arguably better than essentially surrendering to a foreign nation and leaving your tiny country to their whims.

    And honestly, I think this is a reasonable thing to do from Mackily's standpoint. Grannvale has already been shown to be strangely aggressive in their seemingly random conquest of Verdane. From Clement's perspective, Sigurd's actions in Agustria towards Boldor and Macbeth have only supported the idea that Grannvale is trying to extend their influence and establish power here too. And while Grannvale would likely make Mackily into a puppet state as it does in Chapter 3, Agustria still allows Mackily to have a great amount of autonomy thanks to how its king's authority is practically nonexistent.

    Sigurd says in his conversation with Lewyn that he wants to find a diplomatic answer, but he never actually pursues diplomacy. Perhaps thanks to Filat egging him on to win the war with Agustria (after the fall of Anphony), he continues to engage even when the conflict is built upon distrust rather than any genuine or logical reason. He doesn't try to reason with Clement or de-escalate the battle, and doesn't even sympathize with him after seizing Mackily – he just charges in and continues to Agusty in an attempt to free Eldigan.

    But honestly, even if Sigurd did try to reason with Clement and explain himself, I kind of doubt that Clement would trust him. Agustria's political landscape is filled with liars, schemers and opportunists – why should Sigurd's word be trusted? Why would Clement ever put his trust into a foreign duke, especially considering how wary he acts around his fellow Lords and his own king?

    Even in the Oosawa manga, where Clement is portrayed in a more villainous light, he's skeptical of Deirdre's offering of a peace treaty. Believing that it's all just a ruse to get him to lower his guard, Manga Clement prepares to retaliate during the meeting and take Deirdre prisoner. His fears even come true, too, as Deirdre, Ayra, and Lachesis had planned to silence him from the start.

    Tangent aside, back to Game Clement. Even with all of his pragmatic reasons, and all of the distrust he has towards his peers, Clement still holds some loyalty towards the crown, albeit somewhat rooted in opportunism – especially when the choice is between his territory's sovereignty and Grannvale.

    Clement deploys his ragtag Mackily army and sets up the ballista, ordering his soldiers not to move until Grannvale enters ballista range. He picks up his Sleep staff and heads to Castle Mackily's gates to defend it himself, putting himself directly in the line of fire and facing the invasion head-on. For all his political caution, he seems to know when to get serious.

    Let me remind you here that Clement, at this point, does NOTHING actively aggressive against Sigurd aside from rallying his defenses. Unlike Boldor and Macbeth, he never charges out or deliberately instigates conflict against Sigurd – he is simply preparing himself for the expected invasion. Theoretically, Sigurd could avoid fighting him altogether by calling off his invasion and never stepping into his troops' range, but that would mean softlocking the game...

    So, don't forget this – you're the one who technically starts the fight against Clement, not him. And for what? A few more hours of entertainment from a video game? Murderer.

    To his credit, Clement's a pretty cunning strategist. Everyone remembers Mackily as Sleep staff/ballista hell, and for good reason. Having to deal with five siege weapons plus an infinite-use status item is not fun from an invader's perspective – and we, the players, know this firsthand. But you have to give Clement some credit – he's using his shitty home terrain to his advantage in a pretty smart way, and his strategy clearly paid off considering how people view the Mackily section of Chapter 2.

    And when the Grannvale army finally cuts down his men and approaches his castle, he doesn't shy away like a more cowardly noble would. Nope, he glares back and readies his staff, stalwart till the end.

    Clement: You accursed invaders have come this far? I suppose I have no choice... Do your worst!

    Clement: Nngh... Will I go down... in glory?

    I think I like "Don't forget me" from the old translation more as his death quote, it's much more memorable imo.

    Clement dies seeing himself as a sacrificial hero making his last stand against oppressive invaders. Practical and distrustful as he was, he still had the backbone to stand up for what he believed to be the best outcome for the people of Mackily, the people under his care. His worst fears of Grannvale's subjugation even come to fruition in Chapter 3, when the Grannvale officials appointed by Sigurd start to abuse their power in Mackily… and they only grow from there, until Grannvale evolves into an empire that conquered the world.

    Perhaps in a way Clement's pragmatism is his fatal flaw here. It's easy to infer that he keeps himself distant because he distrusts the other Lords, which is completely understandable considering Boldor and Macbeth's personalities. But perhaps Clement might not have met this fate had he been more willing to put some trust into others. In a way, his dedication to Mackily rather than Agustria as a whole makes him somewhat similar to the other lords, who only pursue their own selfish self-interests… but I still believe that Clement was genuinely looking out for the well-being of his people from a more independent and resourceful view.

    Alright, let's wrap this shit up

    This is the first FE4 moment when I really started to feel like a dick. The Prologue and Chapter 1 were full of assholes, so I didn't particularly have any regrets cutting them down. But Agustria isn't like Verdane – its enemy composition doesn't solely consist of assholes. You're not only fighting against savages and pricks anymore – you're also fighting against a few good men, people who were just caught up on the wrong side of the conflict… the very countrymen of your dear friend Eldigan who you're trying to rescue. People like Zane and Phillip, loyal knights who happen to be on the other side of the fighting. People like Voltz, who doesn't like what Macbeth is doing but has to put food on the table anyways. Or people like Clement who are just trying to do what they feel is right for their townspeople.

    People praise Chapter 2's OST for being great, and I think it's because it captures this very feeling of melancholy – this nagging feeling that what you're doing is going to lead to bad things down the road. And Clement, poor Clement, became the pinnacle of that buildup for me.

    I think that's about all I have to say. Friends, please don't forget about Clement – an unsung hero of Generation 1, who only wanted the best for his little territory.

    TL:DR Fire Emblem's "ugly = bad, cute = good" formula is fucking bullshit and Bramsel should have been a recolor of Macbeth's portrait and not Clement's

    ...I wrote a 3500 word essay on a character with 4 lines of dialogue… what the fuck

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