The longest character arc in the game has, for the most part, been completed: Jill has transitioned from being a mindless Daein soldier with a furious hatred for sub-humans to becoming a more well-rounded woman willing to serve the Crimean army against her father and having an open mind about the history and plight of the laguz. And the whole arc was spread out over a leisurely ten chapters, with care taken to demonstrate how each stop has influenced her. Let's follow her arc:
In Chapter 11, we see her get deployed to fight us. Were it not for her "hold position unless attacked" order and our desire to get the hell away from the Black Knight, she would have been killed unceremoniously on the spot right here. Fire Emblem veterans have the meta-knowledge that an attractive character design who is not the chapter boss is a recruitable character, but in-universe, there's nothing of the sort protecting her.
That's because in Chapter 12, her allegiance is one of mutual emnity with an attacking laguz force. No appeal to morals, no discussion of how badly her superiors treat her, no revelation that her army is working for a repugnant cause. None of these arguments would have worked in the first place. Jill believes in Daein's side of each of these premises.
Jill is here because she really wanted to get into a fight and prove her dad proud, and ignored the common sense decision. Once the fighting is over, she realises that she is now trapped with us until we get to land in a beorc-owned territory, and that could be weeks out. Ike tells her that her laguz prejudice is not tolerated and lets her stay, wyvern at all (where are our mounts being kept?).
Come Chapter 14, however, and Jill doesn't take the chance to make a run for it. Begnion is still a big place, staying until we make our way to Daein might actually be the safer call even if she planned to defect. However, though, she has been talking to Mist, and Mist treats her much differently to Ike. Mist wants her to feel at home, same as everyone else. Considering the way Daein, especially Ashnard's Daein, treats people, I wonder if this is the first genuine friendship someone attempted to form with her.
Chapter 15, she also seeks out a laguz. Of the two that we brought with us, despite Mordecai being a big-hearted softie, she chooses Lethe, who gives her the verbal lashing a mindless Daein soldier deserves. Perhaps she saw the smaller, female cat as less threatening than the massive male tiger, and I'll be quite honest, I think Lethe probably was the safer bet. Sure, she's quicker to insult and has a bone to pick with humans, but Jill's thoughtless beliefs would be more likely to trigger a laguz rage, and Mordecai is much worse at controlling himself in this state. Lethe accepts Jill's insults, acknowledges their hostility, and moves on, since most humans are like that to her.
Also on this note, Chapter 15 involves us meeting an underground laguz slave liberation ring. I wonder if seeing that after this conversation rang some bells in Jill's mind.
Chapter 16, Mist continues treating her with kindness, despite Lethe's words. Mist values everyone, regardless of where they come from, and she thinks highly of the girl friendship she can have with Jill due to their similar ages. Not only is Mist's ability to treat Daein soldiers with respect despite their current hostility a good reflection for Jill and her need to respect laguz despite their bloody history, but the way Mist behaves is a quiet indicator to Jill that the way she was raised has made her into a very different kind of person.
When Jill next goes to visit Lethe in Chapter 17, she has given some thought to how she has become the way she is. Her Daein schools have taught her to act a certain way, and because she is a normal person with a standard level of faith in the education system, she accepted what she was being taught without question. When was the last time you critically analysed whether what you were being taught was the Right Thing?
Lethe gives Jill a long history on laguz slavery, highlighting for her just how rough the laguz have had it, and implores her to consider things from a new angle. Considering the fact that this comes off "Daein schools only teach us that laguz are things to hunt", this is definitely one way of giving Jill the right shock.
Also in Chapter 17 is this conversation with Ike. This thought flows sequentially from the Lethe conversation, with Jill coming to terms with the fact that laguz are people too, that she should be someone with her own thoughts and feelings and not those fed to her by a flawed education system, and that she should make her own decisions.
And that decision leads her to continue to stand with Ike- and with Mist and Lethe, the people who taught her how to be a better person. They have done so much for her already, she can only continue to learn from them.
And a good thing, too, because going into the Serenes Forest with Ike exposed her to the plight of Reyson and Leanne, and the rejuvenation of Serenes has given her the final push to fully get on board with the laguz. The entirety of Chapter 17 has come together at last and Jill is now ready to accept, not only that she had a hole in her mental framework, but that her childhood education was wrong.
Talking to Mist in Chapter 18, Jill asks what role her father had to play in this whole system. Shiharam does turn out to be a model citizen, a beloved figure in Talrega, but the fact that he openly approved of the person Jill had become and accomodated her needs makes him come off as somewhat heartless, if you understand that person to be morally repugnant.
Mist, who had a very good* father who raised her properly, is against this view, and Jill eventually steels herself for a confrontation with Shiharam in this manner- if Shiharam is really as good as he presents himself, he will approve of what Jill has become.
When Haar comes to check up on her in Chapter 19, now that she's returned to Daein proper and this is a reasonable(-ish) thing for him to do, he approves of Jill's growth of character despite the fact that they are now on opposite sides. This is a good sign for Jill- Haar is a good friend of Shiharam's, and had a hand in the way Jill was raised, and the fact that he thinks her time with the Crimeans has done her good helps her confidence that Shiharam will see things the same way.
Unfortunately for her, though, that whole "confrontation" thing will have to happen. Shiharam is eventually forced into conflict with the Crimeans.
Talking to Shiharam in Chapter 20, Jill tells him everything that she learnt with the Crimeans. Not only that she is now accepting of the laguz, but that she has realised the folly in pursuing glory in the Daein army. Now, she acts in the name of the people she trusts- the people she truly wants to protect.
Shiharam openly approves, and despite what Jill must now see done, Jill is happy to have been his daughter, and open to shoulder the burden he bore. Had Shiharam turned out to be the sort of Daein who writes all the textbooks to be so laguz-negative, Jill might have cut ties with Talrega entirely and sought some other future after the war is over.
And after all is said and done with Shiharam, Jill has this lovely little conversation with Sophie, and finds herself on the other side of a conversation with Chapter 11 Jill. She has become a better person, yes, but there is a lot of resentment among Daein still to overcome. Especially considering how things are going to turn out for Daein come the end of the war.
Jill/Lethe A is scripted to appear before Chapter 23, so technically, it does not belong in this analysis. For the sake of completeness, I shall include it anyway.
Lethe: …
Jill: Oh, Lethe! I thought about what you said, and I deci–
Lethe: I hear the dragon knight we fought in Talrega
was your father. Why? Why did you stay with us? Choosing a band of
mercenaries over your own father?
Jill: …Fate works in strange ways. Had I not known
about Commander Ike and the mercenaries… Had I not known about you
laguz… I’m sure I would be with Daein even now. Taking pride in my work
as Daein soldier and offering my life for Ashnard. I wouldn’t have
hesitated to smite you all. But now I have learned the truth…
Lethe: …And?
Jill: This isn’t like the time I chased your ship from
Port Toha, hoping to win fame and approval from my father. When I joined
you, I acted on my own accord. For the first time. I chose what I
thought was a righteous path. Even if my decision forced me to face my
own father… It’s too late to change things now. That’s why… I’m here.
Lethe: Will you… shake my hand, Jill?
Jill: Wha…?
Lethe: I have heard of a huma… a beorc custom where the
shaking and holding of hands shows friendship. …I …understand you, now. I
empathize with your choice and admire the strength it took to make it.
Jill: Lethe… Uh… Yes. Of course. Please, let us shake.
Lethe: If we listen to each other and are willing to
compromise… I know the beorc and laguz can come to live with each other.
I’m sure of it.
I feel that the timing of this Support is based on Lethe/Muarim's development, incidentally. But with Jill's development done, she is able to accept Lethe and the two are prepared to think better of each other and their respective races. Such a pity that the 5 Support limit renders the ability to see this mutually exclusive from Mist's scene in Chapter 18- and, moreover, the Shiharam conversation in Chapter 20, since that may or may not require the Mist/Jill A Support.
For completeness, here is the alternate ending to Mist/Jill A if you wait until Shiharam is dead to view the conversation:
Mist: You stayed behind because you knew that, right? That’s why you left the Daein army.
Jill: There’s no way I can go back… I’m sure my father is ashamed of me… I’m sure he thinks me a traitor.
Mist: That can’t be!
Jill: It is.
Mist: No father would talk about his own daughter like
that! Ever! No matter how many times you fail, a father will smile and
forgive and say “that’s all right”! Besides… I’m sure he’d be happy to
know that his child chose a path she believed in… Because a father
wouldn’t… A father wouldn’t… Oh, Dad… …Sniff…
Jill: Mist! Oh, Mist… I know… It’s all right…
Mist: Father… Dad! …Whaaaaa!
Jill: Mist, no! Don’t cry! Don’t cry, Mist!
Mist: …Whaaaaa… Sniff… S-sorry…
Jill: Mist… You make all of my worries go away when you’re near me…
Mist: R-really?
Jill: The world is hard. Hard and cold and… terrible. Even so, you make me… You make me want to keep going.
Mist: Oh, Jill… …Sniff… Whaaaaaaaa!
Jill: I told you no crying… Oh, no… Sniff… sniff… Whaaaaaaaa!
The Jill arc is one of the most beloved character arcs in the Fire Emblem series, and with good reason. No side character before now has been given such a lovingly crafted character progression, and considering the dependence on Path of Radiance's strictly timed Supports and mostly-unique-to-Tellius Info conversations, it can be argued that no other Fire Emblem game has had the tools to implement something like this. Jill was a concentrated effort to pull off a meaningful change from a mindless enemy soldier to a well-rounded friendly one, something that the series is relatively famous for lacking. Her weaknesses, of course, is the 5 Support lock that has been series tradition to this point, for game balance purposes (moreso for the GBA era- Supports in those games gave lots of stats and having all your chains active could make you way too powerful) and the fact that getting the Supports on time means forcing Jill, Mist and Lethe into your party for the Begnion arc and regularly checking their Supports. Jill and Mist are relatively free choices, considering Jill's well-rounded power and Mist's high quality as a dedicated staff unit while Soren, Ilyana and Tormod are still unpromoted, but Lethe, as a prepromote that can only attack three fifths of the time, is a tough sell for most Fire Emblem players. This also locks you out of getting Jill's third Support chain entirely. Reading Jill's arc as I have presented it for the blog fleshes it out best, in my opinion, but it is a presentation that very few players will experience for themselves on their first playthrough. Especially since the version of Jill/Shiharam with a Mist A has not been properly understood for years.
Part of the purpose of this series has been to compare Tellius's decisions to those in Three Houses. While the decisions driving Jill's arc are largely unique to herself, I would like to compare Jill to one character in particular: Ingrid Galatea. Like Jill, Ingrid has prejudices against another race- in her case, the people of Duscur- and has a Support "dedicated" to overcoming them with the Duscur character of Dedue. In this, Ingrid is no Jill, and the Support comes off particularly poorly. However, in my opinion, Ingrid is not trying to be Jill. Ingrid's hatred of the Duscur people comes from them being accused of the crime that ruined her family's livelihood and cut her dreams short, and as soon as the C Support with Dedue starts, Ingrid has already separated Dedue from those Duscur people in her logical mind, and her continued strained relationship steps from trying to reciprocate those logical beliefs with her irrational behaviour. Unlearning racism is hard work. Of no help is Dedue's insistence on carrying the burden of martyrdom for how Duscur is treated in Faerghus as a whole.
One facet of Jill that does survive into Ingrid, however, is that other half of her development- looking at what it means to be a soldier of her home nation, and how that education has served her wrong. Faerghus, much like Ashnard's Daein, is a hellhole of nationalism, where genocide of the Duscur people is accepted as just and extended military engagement with the Sreng people is unquestioned. Ingrid was cultivated with the intention of being sold to the highest bidder for a bride price that would pay for the relief of her starving territory's people- its own fields lie fallow for failed harvest after failed harvest. If recruited into the Crimson Flower route, Ingrid is challenged on the same questions as Jill: why does she trust in the Faerghus way of government, and is she willing to set her pride aside to learn from people she has been told are her enemies? Unfortunately for her, however, the way the Support system of Three Houses is set up does not provide her with the same tools Jill received to cement this arc. Her Supports with Black Eagles characters are mostly comedic in tone and reveal parts of her character through tangent, and do not continue into the post-timeskip phase. Three Houses does have rough equivalents to Base conversations with monastery dialogue, but relatively short one-way conversations can't do what Ingrid needs them to do. And that's a shame, because unlike Shiharam, Ingrid's father does support the Faerghus way of doing things, and Ingrid's solutions must be different from Jill's. One thing Ingrid and Jill do get to share, however, is their ending- both non-AM Ingrid and RD Jill follow the same path once their respective games are over. Ingrid may not be Jill, but the ingredients of her are there, ready for people who want to see her overcome her family woes to fill in the blanks.
