Birth and Re-Death
is a Fire Emblem: Awakening fanfiction by ThreeDollarBratwurst.
If you've played a Fire Emblem game, especially on Classic Mode, you understand the frustraion of restarting over and over on difficult chapters so that all your comrades survive. After Randall wakes up in an unfamiliar bar with no memory of where he is or how we got there — or why he has the accoutrements of a monk or priest — he discovers two unsettling facts. First, he is trapped in Ylisse, the fictional land of Fire Emblem: Awakening, and second, the frustrating process mentioned above has become his reality — when he dies, he returns to a previous point in time and can "retry" what got him killed in the first place. After joining up with Chrom and his Shepherds, Randall must train, make friends and allies, and use his power as best he can to prevent the Bad Future, even as the plot diverges from the game's storyline and unforeseen forces seem to be at work...
Birth and Re-Death contains examples of:
- A Little Something We Call "Rock and Roll": After the battle at the Breakneck Pass, Randall teaches the Shepherds some Earth songs, most notably "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" — ostensibly relax and boost morale — and they all sing along together and have a grand time.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: Inverted. The reason for Lucina replacing Lon'qu as Basilio's champion and fighting the Shepherds in Regna Ferox in the battle between the East and West Khan's champions is not explained in the game. This is inverted, though, when Lucina explains to Randy that she intends to replace Lon'qu as Basilio's champion in Regna Ferox so that he doesn't suffer a lasting injury in that duel, which he did in her timeline.
- Auto-Save: It appears that the "reset point" for his power is whenever he wakes up.
- Combat Medic: Randy uses a healing staff for its intended purpose as well as more violent ones. He further dips into the Combat aspect when he begins to learn magic, especially dark magic with Tharja.
- Cruel Mercy: Gangrel, after being defeated, gets imprisoned for life with a hex that prevents him from committing suicide in prison. Bonus points that it comes from Maribelle, whose hometown was the first to be attacked by Gangrel's armies, handing out said punishment in his trial along with consulting a certain dark mage on hexes.
- Dance of Romance: While in prison, after being captured by the Plegians, Maribelle teaches Randall some Ylissean court dances.
- Deadpan Snarker: Randy can be quite sarcastic, though he doesn't usually mean any harm.
- The Determinator: Vasto won't stop his loss of both an arm and a leg from letting him be an effective wyvern knight and quite useful to Lord Aventine's plans.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: Very early on, Randy discovers that when he dies, he will wake up at an earlier point in time, keeping the memories of his death. Which is useful, because he's going to die a lot.
- Insomnia Episode: Because the save points that Randy will Snap Back in time to are right when he wakes up, repeated unsuccessful runs or attempts tire him out as he becomes increasingly more sleep-deprived.
- Killed Off for Real: When the Plegians attack Themis, Melinda, Isadora, Captain Jackson, and others are killed. Despite Randy's efforts to get himself killed and reset the events, he's unable to do so.
- Libra sacrifices himself to rescue the hostages from the Plegians and without Randy around to rewind, he winds up dead for good in the present timeline.
- La Résistance: Quite a few familiar faces, both Ylissean and Plegian, are agents of a conspiracy to overthrow both royal families and institute a government more resembling a republic or democracy. These include Lord Aventine, Vasto, Mustafa, Phila, and Maribelle's father, Duke Hadrian Osprey. Randall comes to work with them after Vasto kidnaps him, and suggests the name "the Patriots" to several members of the rank-and-file.
- Naked First Impression: Well, not a first impression, but an early impression nonetheless — in Chapter 3, Vaike tells Randy to use the mirror in the women's bathhouse, knowing full well Maribelle has already entered. Hilarity Ensues.
- Romantic False Lead: The relationship between Maribelle and Randy ended up not working out, as they come to realize that their relationship has the unhealthy and unfortunate basis in their shared experiences of the tragedy at Themis and their subsequent captivity. Time will tell who they actually each will end up with, but for the moment, the chances of them getting back together seem low.
- In the later chapters after both slowly settle the rift between them, Maribelle ties the knot with Chrom while Randall seems to be leaning towards Female Robin.
- Self-Mutilation Demonstration: When Maribelle is training Randy in the art of healing magic, she cuts herself and has him heal the wounds. Apparently, this is how Ylissean healers train, and why they are the best in the world.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Randall curses more than many, but not all, of his comrades; much humor comes from the juxtaposition between his diction and that of the Proper Lady Maribelle.
- Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: From what glimpses we get from the books Randall reads and the knowledge he gets from training, the people of the Awakening world seem to have developed a solid theoretical foundation for understanding their magic, and some well-understood empirical factors are brought to bear.
- Suicide by Cop: When the Plegians attack Themis,Melinda and Isadora, among others, are murdered. Randall rushes Aversa, shouting to provoke her or another Plegian into killing him and giving him the chance to "retry" the day. It doesn't work.
- Spotting the Thread: Over time, Robin notices and collates certain inconsistencies in Randall's behavior, and ultimately confronts him about his respawning ability. Turns out that...
- There Is Another: Robin has the same ability, and remembers the "lost timelines" that end in both of them dying, just as Randall does.
- Trash Talk: Randall is fond of doing this to the villains in the story, which can get him in more trouble when they realize he knows more than he should.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Depending on your perspective, the whole of the Patriots. Their goals are certainly reasonable and understandable, but their methods sometimes are quite extreme. For example, Lord Aventine works with the Grimleal on occasion, to Randy's disgust, and Phila believes that the best way to protect the Exalted family is to dethrone them.
- You Wake Up in a Room: The story starts when Randy wakes up in an unfamiliar bar and isn't sure where he is, how he got there, or how he got the possessions that seem to be his, including his robes. The establishment in which he finds himself initially prompts the question What Did I Do Last Night?, but he quickly finds out that he is actually Trapped in Another World.
