Category: Fire Emblem

The following post is part of my series “The Worst Fire Emblem Awakening Playthrough Ever”. Spoilers ahead for a six year old game.

NOTE: This will likely be the last edition of this I do for a couple of months, as I need to clear out a backlog of other posts on my schedule. The series will resume at some point in the near future (November? December?)

Welcome back to the worst Fire Emblem Awakening play through ever. When we last left the Shepherds, I took the time to do a couple of paralogues as a breather from the main story. We gained an underleveled farmhand as part of our team, as well as having met the walking symbol of Ylissean capitalism. We’re headed back to the main story where we get to play one of the best written chapters in all of Fire Emblem¹Fight me, pre-DS Fire Emblem purists., as well as one of the most annoying chapters in the game for reasons I’ll get into as we go.

Chapter 10: Renewal

We bring the chapter by seeing Basilio leading our intrepid heroes through a giant ribcage, which isn’t ominous or anything. Chrom is incapable for forming sentences, which is annoying, especially since we’re ambushed by the Plegian army. And that’s it. That’s the entire cut scene before selecting units.

After selecting our units, we’re introduced to the boss for this level, a Plegian general named Mustafa — not Mufasa as I originally read it on my first playthrough. He offers us mercy if we surrender, which Basilio immediately scoffs at. Mustafa says Emmeryn wouldn’t have wanted this bloodshed, further proving that the bad guys in this game sometimes make more sense than the protagonists. Chrom gets angsty because his sister is dead, but then Mustafa admits that Emmeryn’s sacrifice profoundly impacted him and many other Plegians. Mustafa then offers to protect Chrom and our army if we surrender, only for the normally calm Frederick to shoot down the offer. Mustafa resigns to having to fight, beginning our actual fight.

This level is one of the stranger level layouts in the game, basically looking like a series of groceries store aisles full of enemies. I decide to take Chrom, Sumia, Maribelle, Frederick, and Vaike up the right side of the map to clear out the aisles, while everyone else (Cordelia, Libra, Donnel, Tharja, Gaius, Sully, Nowi, and Kellam) go down the bottom of the map to help draw out some of the aisle dwellers. Maribelle, Sumia, and Tharja take out units on the first turn, but we’re largely too far away to do much.

Between turns, Mustafa gets upset that there are thieves stealing stuff from the battlefield. He wants to give justice to the theives, but instead says his army needs to focus on the Ylissean army. The enemies advance, but can’t do much. On turn two, we take out quite a few of the advancing units, though Donnel takes more damage than I’d like.

On the enemy phase, one of the Plegian soldiers makes a case to Mustafa to stop this battle because he doesn’t see the justice in fighting the Ylisseans — going so far as to accept any punishment Mustafa has for him. A second soldier starts screaming at the first one, saying he’ll be killed for insubordination, but Mustafa calms the first soldier by telling him that a soldier is there to deliver judgement not to judge. He empathizes with the soldier, who was there when Emmeryn gave her last words. Mustafa then tells his soldiers that any soldiers who aren’t willing to fight are free to leave, but that he will fight on because he must obey the king’s orders, as Gangrel would murder his wife and kid if he ran. Mustafa’s soliders stay to fight with him because they wish to be loyal to him, serving as a reminder that in times of war, people can do the wrong thing for the right reasons²Holy fuck this chapter hits me hard every time..

Turn three begins and I start sweeping through the enemy units in earnest with Sumia, Maribelle, Cordelia, Sully, and Gaius picking up kills. Mustafa shouts for the reinforcements to be called in, but this battle isn’t going to last long enough for that to happen. Chrom, Maribelle, and Cordelia get our only kills of the player portion of turn four, but the enemy turn goes much better, with Tharja racking up three kills by herself. Frederick begins turn five by engaging with Mustafa by himself, though he doesn’t quite get the kill. Fortunately, Libra is there to pick up the pieces, ending the level as Mustafa pleas for us to spare his men.

Suddenly, an allied unit teleports in. Her name is Olivia and not only does she seem to know Basilio, but she apparently can fucking teleport. Olivia is apparently a smuggler, making her the Han Solo of this game, only significantly more annoying. Olivia insists we get on our way, formally ending the chapter.

Just kidding. It was just a save screen. We’re in Castle Ferox where Lissa is sobbing while Christopher Robin and Frederick are lamenting our failure. Flavia and Basilio are bickering about what to do next. Christopher apologies to Chrom that his plans couldn’t save his sister, and Chrom…thanks him for trying?

Wait. Hold up. Chrom is portrayed as a hothead for most of the last two chapters and yet he doesn’t feel like Christopher has ANY responsibility for Emmeryn’s death? This isn’t consistent with his character at all.

Chrom then starts saying how it’s all his fault, which is more consistent with his character. There’s a lot of talk about sacrifice from Chrom before Christopher gives a buddy cop version of the halftime speech trope. This is followed by pretty much every recruited character telling Chrom how they wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for Chrom — except for Virion, who spends most of his dialogue talking about himself before I reach through the screen and hit him with a shovel. Chrom then asks everyone to help him take down Gangrel, which is met with Lissa wanting to punch people in the face. We get yet another line of people saying they’ll fight, including Flavia promising to give the backing of the Feroxi army. Olivia — who is also here still, apparently — pledges her support because Emmeryn did her a favor once. Because of course she did. It’s plot convenient. Basilio encourages Chrom to start cracking skulls and raise hell. This FINALLY marks the end of the chapter.

Between chapters, I’ve reclassed Panne from a Taguel to a Thief. She’ll be the recipient of some grinding at some point after chapter 11.

Chapter 11: Mad King Gangrel

Before this chapter, I did a couple of rounds of reeking box battles so Donnel could hold his own here. Hence bringing him. That said, he’s still woefully underleveled and it almost went very badly.

We being with Aversa and Gangrel overlooking the battlefield discussing the fact that the Shepherds are on their way. Gangrel makes a fart joke³Seriously., which Aversa promptly makes fun of. Gangrel talks about how a man is either strong or dead in this world, which will in no way foreshadow anything. A Plegian scout runs up to advise Gangrel and Aversa that their army is deserting them.

We cut away to Frederick, who is bringing news of the desertions to Chrom and Christopher. Chrom is confused before a few lines before realizing that it’s all because of his sister’s sacrifice. Apparently she’s become a Plegian folk hero according to Frederick. This caused me to look up whether or not a folk hero could be a famous person and apparently it can. Who knew? Chrom laments for a bit about Emmeryn’s passing, but my ice cream sandwich is melting, so I ignore him in favor of eating that.

After choosing units, we cut to a talking head of Chrom and Gangrel shouting at each other from across the entire battlefield map. Gangrel tells Chrom he doesn’t know the first thing about peace — and he kind of has a point. Granted, Gangrel doesn’t either, but Chrom REALLY hasn’t grown that much across the last few chapters. But then suddenly, just to prove me wrong, Chrom admits he has flaws, but he’s trying. He goes on for a bit about the Power of Friendship before Gangrel tells him to shut up and fight. We’re then joined by Olivia, who is a dancer. Dancers allow you to use the Dance command to make another unit have a second turn. The downside to this is that Olivia is as frail as Miriel was back in Chapter 2, so we really won’t be able to use her if we want her to live.

On turn one, we’re out of range to attack (or mostly to be attacked, so it’s spent pairing up and advancing most of our pairings forward — save for Nowi and Kellam who will be hanging back for the inevitable reinforcements that will show up in the forts to the upper left of the map. Some of Gangrel’s troops move forward, but nothing interesting happens on their turn. Frederick and Ricken open up turn two with some kills, with Ricken picking up an additional one on the enemy phase. Stahl takes a good bit of damage on turn 3, but most of the turn is spent with Sumia, Christopher, Frederick, and Ricken taking more of Gangrel’s units out. On the enemy phase, Stahl probably shoiuld have died, but two different mages with 85%+ hit rates both miss. You might be surprised to learn this trend continues on turn 4, only with Sumia, and only slightly more explainable, as she’s in a fort. That said, it’s four straight misses in her case. I can’t even make this up, because it would seem too unrealistic if I made that up.

The reinforcements finally come on turn 5, but Nowi deals with them easily. Panne’s new Locktouch ability comes in handy to pick up a Goddess Icon from a chest. By turn 6, Gangrel comes charging out of his protector fort — because remember, he’s insane. We let a bunch of other units take out everyone around Gangrel (well, most of them at this stage), but then have Lissa — who has been Christopher’s pair up buddy to this point — fight Gangrel, because she’s a much better story for avenging her sister’s death than Chrom. She doesn’t get the kill, but is low on health. Then, for reasons I don’t fucking understand at all, Gangrel decides to attack Sully WHO CRITICAL HITS THE FUCK OUT OF HIM. He really was a mad lad.

Turn 7 is just some cleanup, leading us to beat the map. The rest of the Plegian army surrenders once we take out the last unit. Chrom accepts their surrender because he’s learning and it’s adorable.

We cut to a discussion between Flavia, Basilio, Chrom, and Christopher talking about the end of the war with Plegia and the coming rebuild of Ylisse and Regna Ferox. A new cinematic plays talking about how Chrom and Christopher are working tirelessly to restore Ylisse’s glory. Chrom has decided not to take up the title of Exalt, but he does marry. There’s a royal wedding between he and Sumia, only for us to get an omnious line.

But then, two years later…

We save the game!

Also, there’s a messenger from Regna Ferox come to see Chrom. It’s Raimi — the Feroxi knight who we had to fight back in chapter 4. Flavia has requested a summit between Ylisse and Regna Ferox because the Fire Nation attacked. Er…the western nation of Valm attacked. Frederick and Chrom agree to meet with Flavia, but are stopped by Sumia. Sumia says she’s coming with Chrom, despite the fact that her and Chrom’s daughter, Lucina, is newly born. Chrom wants Sumia to take advantage of Ylisse’s generous mandatory maternity leave laws, but Sumia insists she needs to come to the summit. Chrom and Christopher talk about Chrom’s growth as a person, but I’m going to ignore that and post my favorite meme related to this scene.

We cut to Arena Ferox for Flavia’s summit. She advises us that Valm is, indeed, attacking with warships. Basilio greets us like Broken Matt Hardy only to say he knows someone who can tell us why Valm is attacking. It’s Virion, who’s not quite dead yet despite my best efforts. Apparently he’s been lying to us the whole time — he’s not just an asshole archer, he’s the Duke of Rosanne AND an asshole archer. We should really keep the Ambien away from him. Virion’s servant, Cherche, is also here. She’s not only more likeable than Virion by an infinite amount, but she also info dumps why Valm is attacking, as well as the fact that they attacked Virion’s country first. Apparently Virion is the rightful ruler of Rosanne, however I would never subject Sara Gilbert to that. Our new big bad that we’re going to need to worry about is Walhart the Conqueror and if his Smash Ultimate fight is any indication, he’ll likely be a bitch to kill.

Cherche gets some verbal slaps to Virion in here as well, but he keeps interrupting her. That said, Cherche has zero time for that, as she’s not only trying to seek aslyum, but she’s also very willing to kick Valm’s ass. Virion tells us that we’ll want to fight the Valmese army with units that have experience fighting against cavalry, but little does he know that we have a limited roster of characters to choose from, not to mention some more shipping to do. Chrom offers to volunteer Virion to fight the Valmese army himself, which not only formally ends the chapter, but also causes me to respect Chrom slightly more.

End of Level Recap

There was a bit more leveling up in these two chapters than I expected. Add in the couple of reeking box levels for Donnel — as well as the collateral experience other units gained — and the squad as a whole is in a good place for chapter 10 when we get back to the main story.

Units

• Sumia – Level 17 Pegasus Knight
• Sully – Level 15 Cavalier
• Ricken – Level 15 Mage
• Vaike – Level 14 Fighter
• Cordelia – Level 14 Pegasus Knight
• Tharja – Level 14 Dark Mage
• Chrom – Level 12 Lord
• Miriel – Level 12 Mage
• Gaius – Level 12 Thief
• Nowi – Level 11 Manakete
• Kellam – Level 11 Knight
• Gregor – Level 10 Mercenary
• Christopher – Level 9 Tactician
• Donnel – Level 8 Villager
• Stahl – Level 7 Cavalier
• Maribelle – Level 7 Pegasus Knight
• Lon’qu – Level 7 Myrmidon
• Lissa – Level 6 Pegasus Knight
• Frederick – Level 5 Great Knight
• Panne – Level 4 Thief
• Libra – Level 1 War Monk
• Olivia – Level 1 Dancer
• Virion – Level 2 Pin Cushion

Supports

• Tharja & Gaius: A to S
• Cordelia & Libra: A to S
• Kellam & Nowi: B to A
• Sully & Donnel: C to B

Class Changes

• Panne: Taguel to Thief

I’ll be doing some reeking box grinding before chapter 12 for reasons I’ll get into on that post. Hope you’re enjoying this series and would love to hear what you think in the comments.

The following post is part of my series “The Worst Fire Emblem Awakening Playthrough Ever”. Spoilers ahead for a six year old game.

Welcome back to the worst Fire Emblem Awakening play through ever. When we last left the Shepherds, we played through the most emotionally draining chapter of a video game this side of a UGF Pandas bowl game. In light of important storyline people dying, I’ve decided to take a break from the main story to play through two of the paralogue chapters. We’ll be playing paralogues 1 and 2, which range from terribly annoying (in the case of paralogue 1) to mind numbingly easy (in the case of paralogue 2).The goal here will primarily be to level units and supports, so I won’t be taking in most of my higher level units unless it’s for support building.

Paralogue 1: Sickle to Sword

Our chapter starts with Chrom being confronted by a young Pastafarian named Donnel. He’s begging for help to save his village, I think, though it’s hard to tell because he talks like Boomhauer. A brigand shows up and starts mocking Donnel, only to realize that Chrom is here and turns tail. Donnel introduces himself and explains that explains that his village has been attacked by bandits. He begs Chrom to save his mother and the rest of the village. Chrom, being noble but dumb, agrees.

We then shift focus to the brigand camp where their leader, Roddick, is receiving a warning from the aforementioned brigand who ran away from Chrom. Roddick hatches a plan to kidnap Chrom and ransom him, completely oblivious to Chrom’s plot armor. Roddick threatens Donnel’s mom who we never hear from again after this chapter.

Donnel, Chrom, and the Shepherds come up on the village under the cover of night. Chrom tells Donnel he should fight to grow stronger, which means we’re going to need someone(s) to drag him along through this level to be able to recruit him. Normally this would be a situation where Virion would come in handy, but he’s buried under Arena Ferox. So we’ll have to make due with Tharja and Christopher Robin as our ranged units, along with underleveled units like Stahl and Gaius. Chrom says more words, but none of them are important.

On the first turn, we use Gaius and Tharja to wear down a warrior before Donnel (paired up with Sully) gets the easy kill. Cordelia also picks up a kill, but most of this turn is spent getting units paired to set up for the next couple turns, as this will be slow going. Cordelia serves as our bait unit on turn two, but she does her job a little too well, getting a critical hit kill on the unit she baited out. Turn three results in even more good luck of the bad variety, with Gaius and Tharja getting a pair up kill, along with Stahl and his 5% critical hit chance critting a unit. Then on the enemy phase, Gaius gets BACK-TO-BACK critical unit kills because reasons. Fortunately, this issue doesn’t resurface on turn four, allowing Donnel to get another easy cleanup kill following Gaius tanking damage. Cordelia and Libra are running around picking up item spaces for support points while an enemy thief is trying to run away with a Killer Lance that I’ll totally be stealing from them. Donnel finally gets his level up on the enemy phase of turn five, taking his first damage in the process.

As we go into the second half of the map, Tharja and Gaius continue killing everything in their path, managing to pin an archer into a corner in the process, giving Donnel an easy kill. Cordelia and Libra team up with Christopher and Stahl to sweep the rest of the map. Chrom was also there because he has to be.

We end the level with Donnel excited that the bandits are defeated. Chrom congratulates him then Donnel announces his mother that he’s off to be all that he can be in the army. Chrom accepts the offer, realizing that Donnel will one day grow into a beautiful butterfly, capable of passing down massive growth rates to a child.

Paralogue 2: Sickle to Sword

Before this chapter, I did two rounds of reeking box battles so Donnel could hold his own here. Hence bringing him. That said, he’s still woefully underleveled and it almost went very badly.

At the start of the level, a random merchant is treating a soldier when Chrom and company wander upon him. It appears bandits are attacking Ylissean refugees fleeting to Ferox, as well as merchants travelling the road. Frederick insists that the honor of capitalism must be protected at all costs, lest people starve. Chrom agrees and we’re off to pick our units.

After selecting units, we’re greeted by twins. Their names are Vincent and Victor and I’m not sure if they’re actual twins or the adult film kind of twins, because they’re calling each other darling. Vincent and Victor are intent on pillaging the village. Vincent runs off so that Victor can command the bandit horde in their saking of the hamlet. Said hamlet is protected by an allied unit named Anna who appears to be a promoted unit. That can’t be good for the bandits.

I’ve brought a lot of fliers to this level for sake of leveling up, and we immediately get to work on that, with quick first turn kills coming from Cordelia and Maribelle. That said, my foolish ass had Donnel bum rush a unit, not quite getting the kill, and nearly died on the follow up turn. That’s enough of that for one day. Turns two through four mostly involved Sumia, Tharja, and Maribelle killing everyone at the top and right of the map that Anna doesn’t, however I lost internet and was waiting on my computer to reboot, so I didn’t take notes like a fool.

But turn five, Chrom finally makes his way up to Anna, mistakenly asking if she’s hurt before realizing (per his dialogue) that Anna is fine. In reality, Anna is living on 8 out of 35 HP, so she’s definitely not in the best shape. Chrom offers his assistance, which Anna accepts. Maribelle visits our concerned villagers, where they give her a Physic wand to heal Anna. This would have worked much better before Maribelle reclassed. Once we’re down to nothing but enemy units on the most southern area of the map, Victor and friends start to advance, only to meet the pointy end of Cordelia’s lance and Libra’s axe. My wife recently came to me after flipping through the Awakening artbook and asked why so many of the female units looked whorish. For examples, she used Aversa — which, yeah, I get that one — and Cordelia. The most virtuous female character in the game (arguably) — Cordelia. I laughed. A lot. I also let her get the final kill here out of principle.

Our anonymous merchant thanks Chrom and company, while Anna also passes along her thanks. She refers to herself as the Secret Seller and promises to give Chrom a discount the next time they meet, ending our chapter.

Endof Level Recap

There was a bit more leveling up in these two chapters than I expected. Add in the couple of reeking box levels for Donnel — as well as the collateral experience other units gained — and the squad as a whole is in a good place for chapter 10 when we get back to the main story.

Units

• Vaike – Level 14 Fighter
• Ricken – Level 13 Mage
• Sumia – Level 13 Pegasus Knight
• Cordelia – Level 12 Pegasus Knight
• Miriel – Level 11 Mage
• Panne – Level 11 Taguel
• Chrom – Level 11 Lord
• Tharja – Level 11 Dark Mage
• Sully – Level 11 Cavalier
• Gregor – Level 10 Mercenary
• Gaius – Level 10 Thief
• Nowi – Level 9 Manakete
• Kellam – Level 9 Knight
• Christopher – Level 8 Tactician
• Lon’qu – Level 6 Myrmidon
• Maribelle – Level 6 Pegasus Knight
• Stahl – Level 6 Cavalier
• Lissa – Level 5 Pegasus Knight
• Frederick – Level 4 Great Knight
• Donnel – Level 4 Villager
• Libra – Level 1 War Monk
• Virion – Level 2 Pin Cushion

Supports

• Tharja & Gaius: None to C to B to A
• Stahl & Christopher: None to C
• Cordelia & Libra: C to B to A
• Cordelia & Gaius: None to C
• Sully & Donnel: None to C

Class Changes

• None this chapter.

The following post is part of my series “The Worst Fire Emblem Awakening Playthrough Ever”. Spoilers ahead for a six year old game.

Welcome back to the worst Fire Emblem Awakening play through ever. When we last left the Shepherds, our heroes adopted a teenage dragon who is totally of age, a bunch of pegasus knights got slaughtered, and Chrom still sucked at diplomacy. I’ve decided to do some swapping around of some of my pairings in my child unit plan, though we won’t see too much of that in this post. That’s because this post is going to be a beast to write despite being a single chapter.

That’s right. We’re playing through that chapter of Awakening. We’ve arrived to chapter 9. Hold on to your butts. Even without taking into account the reeking box grinding prior to this chapter, we’ve got a ton to talk about.

Chapter 9: Emmeryn

We begin by looking in on a meeting between Aversa, Gangrel, and a random Plegian soldier. Said soldier fucked up his scouting report, so Aversa offs him with a sword. This is disconcerting because we know from all her official art that Aversa’s a Dark Flier class, which means she doesn’t even know how to wield a sword. Gangrel admonishes her for killing so many of their own soldiers which — yeah, I kind of get if you’re trying to win a war. Gangrel has planted a trap of some kind, but that’s all we know as the scene ends.

We cut to an Ylissean spy arriving back to Chrom, Basilio, Flavia, and Christopher Robin to tell them that Chrom’s sister, Emmeryn, is scheduled to be executed tomorrow. Apparently Christopher can tell the future, and he’s got a plan to change it that he’s not terribly confident in. Flavia’s busy being the best role model in the early game when we cut away and go to Validar. He’s also talking about Emmeryn’s pending execution, which is clearly not a well-kept secret. Validar is apparently talking to someone named Grima, but Grima isn’t talking back. Pretty sure this is how we got introduced to Emperor Palpatine too. And no, I don’t care enough to look up if that’s right.

Suddenly, we get a terrifying shaky jumpcut to Christopher screaming as he wakes up from a dream. Lissa calms him down and tells him that it was time to wake up anyway, as Frederick says it’s time to begin their march.

We get yet another cut, this time to a Plegian executioner standing with Emmeryn atop a cliff with a very long fall. Beneath the cliff, Gangrel is giving a rousing speech about how an eye for an eye is a great way to make things even. Christopher shouts for Flavia WHO HURLS A HAND AXE UP THE FACE OF A GODDAMN CLIFF AND KILLS THE EXECUTIONER IN ONE SHOT. If Flavia was in The Avengers, Thanos would have never snapped. It’s now time to pick our units, which is great, because all of those cut scenes put the game over its animation budget.

After selecting our units, Chrom shouts how we should focus on taking out all of the soldiers first and worry about Gangrel later. This seems like a reasonable plan, as all of the soldiers are between us and Gangrel. Gangrel shouts about how his soldiers are going to do the killing then scurries off to his royal hopscotching duties so we can finally start the level for real.

Turn one is all about pairing up then getting in range to actually attack the Plegian army. We get a brief cutaway between turns showing us a Plegian girl named Tharja who is clearly a mage who is disgruntled with the reasons behind the army’s fight. Much like Gaius earlier, I’m betting we can convert her to our side¹And considering GaiusxTharja is my headcanon relationship for both of them, there’s added amusement to me.. Much of the opposing army’s attacks are focusing on a random ally unit we have. We meet him at the end of turn one. His name is Libra and despite all of the confusion Chrom is about to have when they meet, this is clearly a bishounen dude. Libra is a war monk and he’s throwing around critical hits like it’s his job.

We advance the majority of our units on turn two, choosing to leave Vaike/Maribelle and Nowi/Kellam back for the inevitable reinforcements that will try to outflank us. Sure enough, following turn two for Libra, a Plegian general named Campari begins complaining about the lateness of a wyvern brigade, so they’re definitely coming. We get Libra to join our ranks on turn three, which is annoying as he decided to jaunt off in the opposite direction of Tharja, meaning the aforementioned wyverns might actually get here before I clear the map. As turn four starts, we’re in an awkward phase where I can’t really advance far enough to do significant damage to the enemy, but I’m close enough that I’d bait out more units than I want if I’m not careful. So we let Libra and Ricken do the baiting out of single units while we prep to have Sumia get Chrom in to convert Tharja to our side on turn five.

Sure enough, the start of turn five brings the wyvern brigade, which Nowi and company are well equipped to deal with²Though Maribelle is still low enough of a level as a pegasus knight where she’d be a liability fighting a wyvern rider, so she’s just here to be Vaike’s pair up support.. In recruiting Tharja, I’ve realized she’s just the millennial stereotype of “we’re all marching to death anyway” come to life in her recruitment scene. This is kind of weird, as in the rest of the story she’s manipulative and abusive, so this is oddly out of character for her. Meanwhile, Ricken and Libra continue to critical hit everything under the sun. I get this for Libra, as he comes equipped with a Killer Axe and its inherent 30% crit rate. But Ricken currently has a 8% crit chance and gets no bonus from his weapon. I’ve decided I’m going to reclass Ricken to become a Great Knight, as Luna is going to be a great skill to pair with Ricken’s need to overkill everything. Yes, this will require grinding, but it’s for the lulz.

Turn six is short and sweet. Tharja kills a random mage that showed up. Vaike cleans up the rest of the wyvern brigade. Then Ricken hits Campari, only for Panne to crit him to death on the follow up blow. Good lord, their kid is going to be hilariously broken. Chapter over. We’ve saved the day! Here comes a pegasus knight troop led by Phila to save Emmeryn.

Except that Aversa planned ahead and brought some Risen archers with her. Gangrel the Mad King cackles madly as the archers slaughter the pegasus knights, killing all of them including Phila. Gangrel demands that Chrom surrender and beg for his life, which he clearly isn’t going to do. So instead Gangrel has the archers train their bows on Emmeryn and threatens to kill her unless Chrom gives up the Fire Emblem³Roll credits. *ding*. Christopher and Chrom then debate what to do before the player has to choose whether or not Chrom should choose to sacrifice Emmeryn.

As a quick aside, there is ZERO chance Chrom would ever sacrifice Emmeryn. It’s just not in his character to do so. Likewise, there would be very little chance Christopher would choose not to sacrifice Emmeryn, as her death would mean retainin the Fire Emblem, preventing apolcalyptic outcomes. Fortunately for the player, Intelligent Systems made it easy for you, as no matter what you choose, the exact same fucking thing happens.

After making our choice, we get a ton of bickering between Gangrel and Chrom before Emmeryn tells everyone to please shut the hell up. Regardless of the choice you make, Chrom will offer up the Fire Emblem to Gangrel, only for Emmeryn to say she knows what she must do. She gives a rousing speech about the importance of peace, then commits suicide by walking off the edge of the cliff she’s standing on. We see Chrom go through a blue screen of death moment, as well as a brief shot of Lissa’s significantly more tear-inducing breakdown.

Christopher is stunned. Chrom is furious. Gangrel is — well, he’s here too. Chrom attempts to attack Gangrel, but is stopped by Basilio, who has managed to get the Shepherds an escape route from this battle. The chapter itself ends here, with Chrom devastated he can’t take his sister’s body away to bury it.

Endof Level Recap

Well. That’s draining. Here’s where we are at this point.

Units

• Vaike – Level 14 Fighter
• Ricken – Level 13 Mage
• Miriel – Level 11 Mage
• Sumia – Level 11 Pegasus Knight
• Panne – Level 11 Taguel
• Chrom – Level 10 Lord
• Gregor – Level 10 Mercenary
• Tharja – Level 10 Dark Mage
• Sully – Level 9 Cavalier
• Nowi – Level 9 Manakete
• Kellam – Level 9 Knight
• Christopher – Level 8 Tactician
• Cordelia – Level 7 Pegasus Knight
• Gaius – Level 6 Thief
• Lon’qu – Level 6 Myrmidon
• Stahl – Level 5 Cavalier
• Frederick – Level 4 Great Knight
• Maribelle – Level 3 Pegasus Knight
• Lissa – Level 2 Pegasus Knight
• Libra – Level 1 War Monk
• Virion – Level 2 Guy Who Should Have Taken the Fall Instead of Emmeryn

Supports

• Nowi & Kellam: C to B
• Ricken & Panne: A to S
• Kellam & Christopher: C to B
• Cordelia & Libra: None to C

Class Changes

• None this chapter.

That’s it for this installment of the series. I think I’m going to do a couple paralogue chapter and what not for the next post. We’ll see though.