Fire Emblem Engage (Spoiler Thread)

Even Valentia had minimalist supports to stay as faithful to the original game as possible.

People who should have had supports didn't. Claire can't even speak to her own brother.

Nor Kliff and Faye towards Celica or anyone not in Alm's army.

Meanwhile Faye actually has supports with Alm unlike Cordelia.

Playing through "The Dead Town," I was debating whether I should visit the houses since doing so triggers Corrupted, but some of the Corrupted carry drops.

I ended up visiting the houses, and I'm glad I did so, since I had forgotten that one of the Corrupted drops a Dracoshield.

I am a little sad that Zelestia, Gregory, and Madeline don't have boss dialogue with Mauvier, but it's ultimately not a big deal. I did find it kind of funny that Rafal was one of the characters that took out one of Mauvier's health bars.

Also, the spoilered character's line of "Well, at least this entire town full of the undead isn't my fault" made me laugh a bit more than it probably should. Playable Rafal really is a riot.

There really is something funny about having an semi-unrepentant bad guy on the good guy team.

His playable lines were enough to make me forgive the little shit.

If only he had a better outfit.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Jun 4th 2023 at 10:09:12 PM

If you watch all his supports, he's actually more repentant than he lets on. But he also tries to cling to that edgy image of not caring (which Greg calls him out on).

I called him semi-unrepentant for a reason.

Like he doesn't regret all that he did for UNLIMITED POWER, except for all the people he hurt.

It's an interesting take. But I do need to see more of his scenes admittedly.

But like I said, bad guy forced to be on good guy team is comedy gold for me.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Jun 4th 2023 at 10:20:36 PM

He says he doesn't regret it and that he'd do it again, but even in that moment it seems like flimsy bullshit that he's saying in an "I insist I be punished for this" kind of way. And the supports all play into this. It's basically Mauvier's self-flagellating "I have to redeem myself!" arc turned up to eleven.

The game wants to have its and cake and eat it with Rafal.

He's a mess of a character.

Within the context of the game, he's the same as Mauvier(I did bad but now I'm trying to be good in my own way). He just has an absolutely toxic personality.

I guess he's a subversion in that sense that characters that try to redeem themselves become likeable during the redeeming process. Rafal does not become likeable during the redeeming process.

Edited by MadSkillz on Jun 7th 2023 at 4:05:41 AM

He's amusing at least.

I will say this, Rafal is different than Mauvier because he actually did on-camera crimes while Mauvier was an accessory to evil and not entirely willing.

Eh. Mauvier is as responsible for the all the crimes that the Hounds commit as the rest.

Edited by RangerJackWalker on Jun 7th 2023 at 4:30:33 AM

Mostly guilty by association and failure to stop his comrades rather than an active participant, which is a significant difference in terms of character, which is why he got a chance to be redeemed since he wasn't cackling like a maniac like Marni and Griss were when they were butchering civilians in Firene. He just stood there and looked sad but let the massacre happen which is enough to make him guilty but not guilty in the same sense the other hounds are if that makes sense.

At least Mauvier and Rafal do acknowledge that they've done bad things and work to redeem themselves. That in itself already puts them above some other characters in the series that refuse to even acknowledge they've done wrong.

Some on this site have pointed out that redemption is simple: a character who stops doing something bad and makes amends is redeemed. However, redeemed =/= automatically forgiven by others. Both Mauvier and Rafal don't expect forgiveness from others or believe they are entitled to forgiveness, but still continue to do what they can to atone for what they've done. It's up to each individual character to decide whether they want to forgive the two.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Jun 7th 2023 at 11:30:34 AM

I disagree that Rafal doesn't become likeable. In the supports where he actually opens up, he relents on the abrasive personality. But it's very clear that he puts up the abrasive front because he thinks he should be continually punished. To this end, he's trying to provoke people into disliking him. And the self-punishment is why Nel has to chastise him for going in like he has a death wish.

Rafal doesn't come across as unlikeable to me either. He's definitely rougher than how he originally presented himself, but he still works to atone for his actions and does open up to others, even if he does it slowly.

Rafal is honestly like, a very likeable jackass when you get to the nitty-gritty of his situation. Dude did bad things and wants to be held accountable for them even if no one really blames him for it, so I get where he's coming from.

Haven't been using him on my current run sadly (currently about to do Chapter 21), so at least I got to see him get pissed over not being sent to the front lines.

Rafal is extremely unlikeable. Just transplant Rafael’s personality onto someone in the real world. You wouldn’t like this person. It doesn’t matter whether he’s being abrasive because he think he should be punished because rarely does that matter irl when we think about befriending others. Even sometimes being tolerable isn’t enough. Not every twat is a twat 24/7.

Edited by MadSkillz on Jun 7th 2023 at 6:47:51 AM

Well, if we're going to play that game: do that for 90% of characters and that'll be the end result. Without the context of their settings, all these larger than life figures are going to look bad.

Except Diamant.

He's a chill guy.

I mean, if a head of state IRL tried to conquer a smaller neighboring country on the grounds that they were never a "real" country and their independence was solely a ploy by the larger country's enemies to weaken them, nobody would like that head of state.

Yet Edelgard has a huge number of fans.

Edited by MisterTambourineMan on Jun 8th 2023 at 5:46:27 AM

something something ukraine

I'm not trying to imply that Edelgard fans support the invasion of Ukraine. I think you'd actually be hard-pressed to find any who do.

I'm just trying to say that there are reasons why aggressor nations IRL are rarely seen in a positive light for it.

And that I think Edelgard is also a big beneficiary of Jerkass Dissonance.

Yeah this is getting way too tense now.

Here, have a Yunaka post:

There is a reason why empires are typically antagonistic in stories. Empires don't become empires by being "nice."

Heck, Brodia itself is the sort of nation that would typically be an antagonistic faction in a Fire Emblem game, except their monarch is more amenable to peace with other nations compared to his counterparts, and the princes of the nation are all kind-hearted people who know that Brodia's aggressiveness is NOT a good thing.

I still really enjoyed Diamant's support with Framme where he talks about how Brodia needed to be less warlike and how he intended to steer the nation in a different direction as king. It was a nice palate cleanser after some of the imperialism apologia that the previous game inspired in certain fans.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Jun 8th 2023 at 8:15:53 AM