Headscratchers / Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

"Yer a wizard, Lilina"

• What's the explanation for Lilina in FE6 being a mage? Her father is Hector, an axe-wielding badass and the game's three wife choices for him are also physical weapon users. There is no mention of magic in their bloodlines and isn't Ostia famous for Armor Knights anyway? How is Lilina a proficient spellcaster? Do they ever mention anything about how that came to be in Sword of Seals (I didn't dabble much in FE6's support conversations since they weren't as interesting as the ones in 7-9. Plus, no support library! WAT!)? I think FE7 should have included a female mage character (other than Nino for obvious reasons) that could've been a potential love interest for Hector to partly explain (or gave Hector an ending with Serra) to give some explanation for why Lilina wanted to take up magic instead of the axe or the sword.
  • This isn't Genealogy of the Holy War. Maybe it's recessive genes. Maybe she just had a talent for it, nothing genetic. With Florina as her mother, there could be a bit of inherited magicalness, if that's even necessary in this setting. A better question would be why is Wolt such a terrible archer when his mother is Rebecca and one of his possible fathers is Wil?
    • That's a bit harsh, don't you think? Wolt's more or less Dorothy's equal, albeit a bit weaker physically (just like Rebecca was to Wil).
    • Genetics determines potential and talent, but they still need to be worked on in order to yield results. Maybe he had a shitty archery teacher or maybe he slacked off.
  • It's also possible that Lilina's mother is an npc lady who could have high magic, similar to the potential romance of Chrom and village maiden, even though it's possible to be a mage even if the parents aren't inclined to mage.
  • Cecilia's support with Lilina suggests that, at some level or another, anyone can learn magic. Some people just happen to be more talented at it than others, and as such those people become mages.
    • Fridge Brilliance: Remember Hector's support with Eliwood (I think it's the B support), where he has a vision of an older version of himself and Lilina? Also, if you play Hector's mode, he can sense Raven's hostility despite having no possible way of doing so... unless Hector has magical potential that he never used.
  • Keep in mind that Soren's parents weren't mages either, and that didn't stop Soren from becoming a mage.
    • But Almedha was still a dragon. Their seid magic surpasses even the herons.
    • But seid magic (which Soren can't use) is quite different from tome magic (which he can).
    • Are we sure about that? I don't recall them ever actually explaining what exactly seid magic is, how much training it involves if any, and its relationship to staves and tomes. Considering both Soren and Micaiah are very powerful mages descended from clans known for having powerful seid magic, I think a connection is implied.
    • Micaiah can use seid magic to transfer her health to a companion, and Sothe stated quite clearly that that ability was quite different than tome or staff magic. And more to the point, Soren does not have any unusual abilities like that.
    • Micaiah is also extremely skilled in magic and staves. Her magic stat is only matched by Soren. Also, Titania at one point describes Soren as being very empathic. It's hardly a stretch to think that that's a result of him actually being an empath, which is one of the abilities seid magic can manifest as.
    • The point is that neither Ashnard nor Almedha had any skill in tome or staff magic, even though Soren does. So the fact that neither Hector nor his wife have any skill in tome or staff magic doesn't rule out the fact that Lilina does.
    • And Soren has an alternate explanation for his skill in magic, so his case is still quite different from Lillina.
  • This troper wonders if Serra was originally a potential candidate for Hector's wife while FE7 was still in the planning stages. Her claim to Erk that she's his fiancee could be a leftover Development Gag.
  • Even if magical talent is strictly genetic (and that's not a given for the Elibe saga), Mage Born of Muggles is a thing.
  • Keep in mind that in the Elibe games, a unit either has a strength stat or a magic stat, but not both. If the two are conflated, than Hector's high strength growth would make a magically talented Lilina more likely. If they're separate but one is hidden, then all we can deduce is that sword wielders' magic is half of their strength (due to how the Light Brand and Runesword work), so Hector has decent but not particularly high magic and would average 15 when maxed out. Also, if we use Awakening breeding rules as a guideline, the child's tendencies make up a third of their growth rates, so Lilina could still manage a high magic growth rate even with two parents who aren't so gifted.

He really gets around

• I'm not sure I understand why Roy is continually classified as a KidAnova on this wiki. Yes, he has a larger pool of possible brides than most other FE lords, but they are just that: possibilities. He's not like Sain or Saul, who actively flirt with every woman they come across — in fact, he acts very uncomfortable when Lalum tries to make a move on him and seems totally oblivious to Lilina's obvious infatuation with him.
  • Probably because he's the only unit in that game to actually have a paired ending, but KidAnova seems to be used for any young person with a lot of suitors.
  • That, and it's probably supposed to be a joke.

Commerical

• The US commercial for Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade is a good example of the confusion that can arise from Gameplay and Story Segregation. On one hand, the "trust nobody" tagline makes sense in the context of the setting: the player's band of warriors routinely has to deal with the consequences of shadow politics, in which betrayal and attempted assassinations are common elements. However, none of this affects the player directly, as the battlefield is strictly divided between friendly and enemy units, with no amount diplomacy beyond convincing certain enemies to join your side. In fact, said enemies are the only defectors on the battlefield, and on the player's side they will remain as loyal as every other playable unit; the player would not be able to recruit them if they were to take the "trust nobody" tagline at face value.