What An Idiot / Fire Emblem Engage

"Amazing you didn't notice; you must not be very bright."

—Veyle in her evil Split Personality to Alear after stealing the Emblem Rings from them

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Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Don't just stand there! Grab the rings back from her, you donkey!

This game may have throwbacks to 30+ years of strategy titles, but not every character in this game is a tactical genius.

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Examples

• When Elusia declares war on Brodia, Morion decides to go into the battle headfirst. However, Diamant thinks that there's something fishy about this, and advises his dad to just stay put in Brodia and let him and Alear handle this.
  You'd Expect: Morion to follow his son's advice, watch over Brodia, and let Diamant and Alear take things from there. After all, there are bandits and zombies everywhere, and Morion's sons and some of Brodia's best warriors are off fighting a war. Somebody has to protect the country.
  Or: If Morion really wants to go, he should at least travel alongside Alear for protection. After all, they're one of the most powerful beings in all of Elyos.
  Instead: Morion just rushes into battle before Alear and Diamant with very little protection.
  Even Worse: He leaves his Emblem Ring—his one and only trump card—with Diamant, wishing to fight his enemies fairly. Even Alear points out that there's no guarantee the enemy would be as noble as Morion.
  The Result: It was a trap after all, and Hyacinth doesn't hesitate to use the opportunity to kill Morion. And to top it all off, Morion gets zombified as a mindless Corrupted shortly after.

• The end of Chapter 10 has quite a few from both the heroes and the villains.
  • At the end of the chapter, Sombron arrives, having been revived due to Morion's sovereign blood. He hungers for more soverign and royal blood. Given that among the party at this point includes the Firense royals (Alfred and Celine) and Brodian royals (Diamant and Alcryst), Hyacinth tells Sombron to also "devour these fools" to further empower him.
    You'd Think: Sombron would at least eat the Firense and Brodian royals before eating Hyacinth as well. Since he craves royal blood for his power, he could deliver a crippling blow to morale on the heroes by eating the crown descendants who would inevitably inherit the thrown, especially in Brodia's case since Morion is now dead, and with both of his sons dead, there would be no one to succeed the throne and leave Brodia in a vulnerable position.
    Instead: He decides to ONLY eat Hyacinth and never thinks of eating the non-Elusian royals to further empower him.
  • In the same chapter, after Sombron betrays and eats Hyacinth, the mysterious hooded girl who killed Lumera in Chapter 3 is revealed to be Veyle in her evil split personality, who is also revealed to be Sombron's daughter. After the Four Hounds also introduce themselves as the baddies working for Sombron, before Alear and the gang get ready to fight their way out, Veyle promptly steals the Emblem Rings Alear had up to this point (Marth, Sigurd, Celica, Michiah, Roy and Leif), as well as the Draconic Time Crystal.
    You'd Expect: That upon realizing this, Alear to charge at Veyle and take the rings and the time crystal back from her by force before she gives them to Sombron. Granted, this may not actually work since Sombron (who is in his dragon form) is standing behind Veyle, but at least it's better than doing nothing.
    Instead: As pictured above, Alear just stands there like a dumb scared child and even begs her to give them back.
    End Result: Veyle gives the rings to Sombron, who promptly corrupts the Emblems into mindless non-vocal Dark Emblems, causing Alear to lose their only chance to save the Emblems there and now.
  • On the subject, as Sombron devours Hyacinth, Elusia's Emblem Ring, the Ring of the Lady of the Plains (Lyn, the Emblem of Blazing) is either dropped or spat out by Sombron.
    You'd Think: Evil Veyle would also secure Emblem Lyn's ring as well. That way, she gets Sombron to reawaken Lyn as a Dark Emblem that she can give to one of her Corrupted goons.
    Instead: She overlooks it.
    As a Result: Zelkov, one of Ivy's retainers and a thief, steals it from under Veyle's nose along with the Ring of the Princess Exalt (Lucina, the Emblem of Awakening), and as Ivy, Kagetsu and Zelkov join Alear's party as they retreat in Chapter 11, Lyn and Lucina are re-awakened as regular Emblem allies, offering support to the group as they get help from Solm in getting the Rings of the Radiant Hero (Ike) and Crux of Fate (Corrin).

• Chapter 17 has quite a few.
  • At the beginning of the chapter Veyle's evil personality takes over her again after Zephia explains about the split personality aspect to Alear. Evil Veyle tells Zephia to give her the stolen Ring of the Hero King so that she can use Emblem Marth. She is given the ring.
    You'd Expect: Alear to take this opportunity and steal the Ring of the Hero King back from Evil Veyle while she monologues, and reawaken Marth back to regular Emblem mode, immediately bringing the ring count advantage back to the heroes.
    Instead: Alear never thinks of doing this and doesn't get Marth back at the end of the chapter.
  • At the end of the chapter, the Four Hounds end up losing Leif's ring to Alear and friends after Hyacinth is put down as a revenant Corrupted and the Hounds make a retreat from Fierene. While they are on the boats, Veyle and the Hounds start thinking up a new strategy as to how to divide the rings that they still have. Veyle suggests that Zephia gives Sigurd's ring to her.
    You'd Think: That Zephia would hesitate in giving Veyle the ring. Due to Veyle's Split Personality, there's no telling when they'll switch, and Good Veyle is very likely to use Sigurd's ring to help Alear. They can tell which Veyle is in control based on her voice and eye color, so the Hounds should know which Veyle is in control. Zephia herself should know this better than anyone, considering that she created Evil Veyle to begin with. It would make the most sense for Zephia to tell Veyle the circumstances, and advise that they give Sigurd's ring to a Corrupted instead.
    Instead: Zephia just gives Veyle the ring with little hesitation.
    The Result: Good Veyle proceeds to throw it to Alear, giving Alear and friends a good advantage over the Hounds, as they now have eight rings while they only have four.

• Chapter 21 has a few.
  • At the end of the chapter, Sombron appears and tells Veyle, whose Mind-Control Device helmet was damaged by Marni before she was killed by Zephia, to claim the rest of the Emblem Rings at once, and she completely refuses due to being in her regular personality rather than her evil one. Sombron then declares her no longer useful and decides to try to kill her with an energy breath attack; Alear takes the attack, and eventually dies from their wounds before they could explain to Veyle that they were also her older brother/sister.
    You'd Then Expect: Sombron to either:
    A) Since he already declared her to no longer have any value to him, for Sombron to kill Veyle anyway, making Alear's Taking the Bullet moment a Senseless Sacrifice in which they have died for nothing.
    B) If he still wants to keep Veyle alive due to her evil split personality, to destroy Alear's body (like say, smash it into Ludicrous Gibs or incinerate it into a pile of ash) so that they can't be revived in any way. Even without knowing about the Emblems' "Miracle", Veyle could've potentially revived Alear as a Revenant Zombie Corrupted.
    C) Heck, why not make Alear into a mindless Corrupted like he did with King Morion? Another expendable pawn to break the party.
    D) Or even just eat Alear's corpse and gain more power from their blood like he did with Hyacinth in Chapter 10.
    Instead: Sombron never thinks of any of these options and just explains to Veyle - just to break her - that Alear was her sibling all this time before using the Emblem Rings to gain infinite power and raise Gradlon from the sea.
    As A Result: While Evil Veyle does takes over again thanks to Sombron's growing power reactivating the broken helmet and tries to finish off Alear's party with a bunch of Corrupted, in the Afterlife Antechamber, Alear convinces Veyle to return to her body (which was never "dead" to begin), and expel her evil personality for good. Regular Veyle then revives Alear as a Revenant Zombie Corrupted, and proceeds re-summon the Emblems after Sombron already used the rings earlier. While Alear ends up dying again from running out of juice from re-summoning the Emblems, the re-summoned Emblems give them their power and revive Alear as the 13th Emblem: the Fire Emblem, giving the heroes a fighting chance to stop Sombron.
  • At the end of Chapter 21, thanks to Marni's attack actually making a slight crack to Veyle's helmet that keeps her evil personality 24/7, the party manages to beat it out of her and she goes back to her regular personality.
    You'd Expect: That since the helmet is damaged, the party to take this opportunity to take the helmet off Veyle's head, thus removing the potential of her evil personality retaking control from her regular personality. At the very least, follow up the attack to damage the helmet further so that it wouldn't really work at all.
    Instead: The idea never occurs to anyone in the party or even Veyle herself.
    As A Result: After Sombron raises Gradlon after being empowered by the Emblem Rings, Veyle's helmet reactivates despite its crack and her evil personality expels her regular personality seemingly for good. She then summons more Corrupted to try to finish off the party, which nearly gets the entire cast killed for their stupidity had Alear not convinced Veyle to revive her in the afterlife.
  • Also in the same chapter, after Sombron gets further empowered by the Emblem Rings and raises Gradlon, Veyle's mind control helmet reactivates, despite being cracked by Marni, thanks to Sombron's growing power, as explained by Zephia. Veyle's evil split personality expels her regular personality because of this and seemingly stays in control. Before sending Corrupted to finish off Alear's party, she orders Zephia and Griss to return to Sombron on the promise that she will catch up with them after finishing off Alear's party.
    You'd Think: Zephia would disregard the order, and explain to Fell Veyle that her helmet has been damaged and cannot risk leaving her alone, especially since if the helmet gets further damaged, Fell Veyle will no longer exist, and instead, stay and help finish off the heroes before returning to Sombron. Even if Veyle's regular personality somehow manages to try to take back control, Zephia and Griss would be around to prevent it from happening.
    Instead: They comply with the order and leave Fell Veyle alone and not actually witness Alear's party getting wiped out and dying and just assume it all went to plan with no hiccups whatsover.
    As A Result: As Fell Veyle sends more Corrupted to try to take out the party, thanks to being convinced in her near death experience by Alear to not give up and revive Alear as a revanent Corrupted, Regular Veyle fights back for control of her body from her evil personality, and breaks the helmet, eradicating Fell Veyle for good. Needless to say, in Chapter 23, Zephia and Griss are surprised about the fact that she is in her normal state as opposed to her evil personality, confirming that Evil Veyle is gone for good.