Content warning: Racial violence.
...OK, yes, if you're reading a playthrough about Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and are not expecting racism to occur, perhaps you're in the wrong place. But this chapter in particular depicts highly charged instances of racial violence. This is a one-off event, with the rest of the story being considerably more tame, and will occur after the Base and before the map.
Welcome to Port Toha. Right now, populated entirely by civilians and a man with blue hair and a dashing white cape. He looks named. And also familiar.
Here's us at the other end. I think these divisions are not automatically done, but are properly selected by unit. Why Oscar is talking to all the women while Boyd has the kids + Rhys is another matter.
So chosen because it requires the least effort to reach on our part. Crimea is an occupied country, we can't afford to be picky.
Ike notices that there is a general lack of panic about this fact.
Daein, as dangerous as they are and as vicious as they behave, are still a country of people. Just because they've declared this land their own doesn't mean they've gotten around to actually sticking their flag in all the soil yet.
Soren's speech about the placidity of Toha is a particularly memorable one. This is one I'll be giving in full:
Soren: Ignorance is a form of bliss, is it not? These people don't know what it's like to lose a war. They don't want to know. Crimea as a nation has always been blessed by peace. Perhaps this is due to the temperament of its rulers, but the country hasn't seen serious warfare for centuries. While minor skirmishes with the kingdom of Daein have been legion, only the eastern borderlands have taken damage.
Ike: And yet even I know this peace will not last. When we met Daein forces on our scouting mission, they attacked us merely for being within the Crimean border.
Soren: Humans are shameless creatures that carelessly ignore any misfortune which does not befall them directly. They can- and often do- turn a blind eye to all manner of wickedness so long as it does not touch them or their kin. They will bow their heads, condemning those victims for bringing calamity upon themselves, and then they will cast their eyes toward heaven in thanks while their neighbors lay dying around them.
Ike: But the war is happening here. This is their home, not someone else's.
Soren: When the Daein army darkens their doorsteps, perhaps they will understand. When the peace they take for granted is shattered, and their sons and daughters slaughtered in the streets...Perhaps then will they comprehend the misfortunes they so long pretended not to see. I have no sympathy for them.
It's not hard to see why this speech has stuck out to people. This is a very heavy unfortunate truth for Soren to drop out. All manner of brutal regimes can be "justified" because the people doing the justifying aren't personally affected. This is a speech in whose shadow the Crest system from Three Houses stands. All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
...Also, if all Crimea has seen is minor skirmishes on the Daein border, again, what is the day job of the Crimean Royal Knights? They're clearly doing something glorious, and yet nothing is coming to mind.
You know your speech has made an impact when you drop the mic and the characters in universe can only respond with this. Then again, it's Ranulf.
Titania and Ike observe that was a greater than usual amount of Soren sass, and come to the conclusion that he's just emotionally distressed. A bit of an odd claim to make, if not entirely unreasonable. Soren's backstory does provide a very handy reason for him to be distressed by people ignoring the suffering of others, however.
Ranulf has this alternative take that's about as fun to parse. Both people's opinions are vindicated by various villagers in this chapter- sadly, Soren is more correct than Ranulf.
This is another of those "surprisingly applicable" quotes, presumably sneaking past because of Soren's huge bombshell just before it. Some people are just born with a silver spoon in their mouth, unable to understand the suffering of others because their frame of reference just does not have space for it. And as Dimitri shows, that silver spoon may not necessarily be a symbol of material wealth...
Ike is confused. Honestly, "those who never notice the difference are the ones we should envy" isn't a particularly clear quote. I'm not entirely sure what he's getting at myself.
Ranulf is quite happy to pass the topic of and tell Ike to prepare to move out, though. Ranulf is getting slightly frustrating, not going to lie.
Ranulf is going to go organise the boat ride, and is quite insistent he gets to do it and not Ike or Titania, the latter of whom is offering.
Such a real sentence.
And we're not even in a country hostile to laguz.
I told you this thought would come back. Ramon and Caineghis might've made nice in their castles, but down here, the people of Crimea aren't as interested in the people of Gallia. Or at least, not in a nice way.
"Oh, but they don't hunt laguz for fun anymore, it'll be fine."
Ranulf does at least have a plan.
Turns out Mia got the MVP and not Ilyana. I suppose Mia covered our backs and got the boss kill too.
I notice that we also got more Combat EXP than the 700 we would've got for stealth. Especially since we're starting to leave the area where BEXP is 1:1 or better with CEXP, it's a good thing that we forsook that objective.
Six conversations today! That second one has three stars of importance: that means it will give us an actual item! If you're not bothering with Info, at least read three star conversations for the goodies.
Here's the Merchant. Ike isn't particularly interested in trade, though.
He is, though. Those low, low prices mean so much to him, it's adorable.
Ike wants to know what Daein is like to these people from the horse's mouth.
This came up earlier with Brom, and in this case, it's very much optimism from the merchant. He hasn't heard anything yet, so all is well.
"The rest of their policy changes are none of my concern, all I'm worried about is my taxes." Always with the taxes.
Ahahahahaha.
...Laughing time is over. Caineghis is automatically worse than Ashnard because beorc better than laguz. Just... eurgh.
Ike gives him a "..." and walks out. The merchant is just completely confused. What did he say that was so offensive, he asks himself. And that's probably the worst part of the whole speech.
Here's the other unfamiliar character Ike's going to bump into today. A real bandit's face on this one.
Ike is being uncharacteristically guarded. Either he's learning or he's shaken. Probably both.
This guy is hiring, and has his eye on Ike.
Ike won't even give him a straight answer on whether or not he plans to leave Toha by sea.
The vigilante gives Ike a going away present.
He does want Ike to come back and join his vigilante crew when he comes back, though. I'm sure Ike is never going to come back to Toha again.
This is the goodie that three star conversation had to offer: a Laguzslayer, which is obviously a sword that deals Effective damage to laguz. Aside from being confirmation that we will clash with laguz in the future, I'm also fairly sure this is the first such weapon to appear in any hands at all. It is the Laguzslayer, and its axe, lance and bow counterparts, that the Beorcguard nullifies.
Ike finds Elincia wandering around on her own.
Elincia is having a little (positive) culture shock. Which is kinda cute until you realise our end goal is to make this woman Queen of Crimea.
I'm not sure if this is more of a comment that this is livelier than Ike has seen, or if Ike has seen other lively port towns and is comparing Toha to them. Either way, it's impressive to Elincia.
It's easy to forget the brutal power of the Daein army in a peaceful environment like this. Our brains like to connect things together like that.
Ike looks in on the resident fool of the party, Kieran, who has been caught making miscellaneous screams.
He'll be ready for combat. Not in this army, mister.
Kieran is at least keeping his eye on the prize when he does his training. Kieran in general is a bit of a dunce, but in PoR especially, he has his moments.
Ike decides he has other things to do.
And in another of Kieran's moments, he gives himself a break to express proper gratitude for what Ike has done for Elincia.
And back to screaming. Kieran has been known to draw his own blood in training. Someone really should keep an eye on him.
Brom, meanwhile, has been looking at a family memento.
Well, for lack of a better description. Imagine being this honest that one of your most treasured possessions is literally just a bag of rocks.
But he's trying his best. If this playthrough wasn't All-Girls, it would've had Brom in it guaranteed.
Although I'm not entirely sure that's something he would have wanted for himself.
Brom's happy to make himself the butt of a joke to get people smiling, though.
Not that he's in the sort of army that would take the bait. Ike, Nephenee, and a lot of the people Brom talks to are very supportive of his approach to life.
As most people should be.
Nephenee, on the other hand, is a bit less of a character. We're several textboxes in to this conversation and only now have I felt like there's been enough substance to screenshot.
This is partially because of Nephenee's character point, though.
Nephenee is rather shy about her accent, and doesn't like talking to people. I like Nephenee. Unfortunately, all three of her Supports wind up with her partner either trying to get her to smile more, try to set her up with a man to take home to her village, or both. Brom's at least the most polite about it.
Ike does a good job of feeling like he is approaching Nephenee respectfully in one conversation.
While taking inventory, I notice that Marcia's Strength has now reached the point where she can wield Steel Lances without penalty. That's good, that means she won't be chewing through the Iron.
That's because Nephenee is going to need the Iron in the near future. She comes completely unarmed, I gave her all those lances, and with a starting rank of E, those (and Slim) are the only lances she can use. Nephenee is a Soldier, a class largely unknown to the rest of the series other than "those chaff that are better than bandits only because they wield lances and axes aren't something everyone in the army packs". In PoR, they are generalist infantry units, generally doing good enough that they're annoying with Strength, Speed or Defence to someone. RD makes them a little more like bulkier myrmidons-with-lances.
Nephenee is packing the Wrath skill, which means at 50% HP, her critical hit rate increases by a flat 50%- ie, if she has a 1% crit rate inherently, she has a 51% crit rate in Wrath. Wrath is a bit of a weird skill to use because, if you're fragile enough to be brought to half health, you're probably fragile enough to lose the other half of your health. Especially if you're killing more things. We'll see what we can do with Wrath.
Nephenee's E Rank in Lances is going to cause issues, so let's try and mitigate that. This is what it looks like to Forge a weapon. Let's make her a lance.
We have choices in what kind of weapon we make. Silver forges will be much later, but it turns out we could make a Steel if we so wished. Nephenee demands an Iron, though.
I adjust the Might to maximum, and only 2000G? Considering how much money I have, I'm happy to part with it.
In fact, have some extra hit, just to make sure. This is a training weapon, after all.
Crit, though, not worth the extra cash. Nephenee can handle an 8 weight weapon just fine, so no need to touch that.
I ultimately went with this name, to reference the cool infantry lance Lord. This spear may not be Effective against horses and armour, but it will bring the infantry lance class to greatness.
We can also choose what colour our lance will be wrapped in. The text will always be green, though.
Time for some levels. Ilyana can now handle Thunder tomes without penalty, Mia is just eyeing her important stats. I'm looking forward to seeing this Mia blossom.
Only when looking at the pictures did I notice I gave Nephenee the same level up twice in a row. It must be a good one, then, eh? Speed is slightly unfortunate, but Nephenee has means to deal with that later.
Mist gets a lot of level ups while the cost of BEXP is still better than 1:1. It actually is legitimately better before level 9 or so.
Content warning begins here.
Just because I'm done organising my inventory doesn't mean everyone else is. Probably Kieran wondering why I'm not letting him hold any axes. I did tell him that doesn't have anything to do with the All-Girls conditions.
"Hey, where is my sword, anyway?"
I made this joke already, remembering this line of dialogue but not where exactly it came from. "Food usually turns up" is not how I remembered him addressing the topic. I am now extremely concerned about Ike's dietary habits.
Elincia is very charmed by Ike's way of life.
There are several ways you can take this quote coming from Ike, and I think he means all of them.
Ooh, something interesting!
...Shoot.
Damn.
Crap.
Ike and Titania are starting to slightly panic now.
Ranulf thinks things are going fine.
He sets us up with our ship captain. Let's hope this Nasir can get past the blockade with his ship intact.
Ranulf apparently was planning on keeping us company until this bothered him. I don't remember this.
A woman bumps into Ranulf. I blame the grid system, there's a very clear path between Soren and Ranulf that a real person could've used.
It's like "eek, a mouse!", but instead of a health code violation in waiting, it's a minority that is an unsubstantiated risk to children you may or may not have.
The villagers certainly treat Ranulf like some household pest. Or at least a village pest like a raccoon.
No, seriously, I'm fairly sure these are middle-class insults you throw at the feral cat problem, just applied to cats that can turn into people.
The villagers are also using physical violence, too. Well, they're Shoving Ranulf. Surprisingly, the Fire Emblem combat engine isn't equipped for this scene.
The racism metaphor is slightly getting away from the writers here.
Ike, watching a crowd of people start beating the crap out of someone he likes: "Dang".
Mordecai and Lethe show up. For some reason, they're also in on our escape route. Mordecai is huge when viewed from the back and in a cloak.
Remember what Sephiran said last chapter, about how Ike is a man of honesty that would not hesitate to leap into a situation to help someone in need?
I think we're about to see it proven. Lethe and Mordecai seem fine with letting Ranulf stay on top of things, though.
Getting ganged up on by a crowd of riled up villagers seems to be a day in the life of for a laguz entering Crimea.
Ike won't take that lying down.
It's a bit of a consequence of the engine, but putting a stop to this mob is represented by Ike running up next to them and yelling. He doesn't even brandish his sword (not that he has one) or even perform the Shove animation.
If you're the same woman who knocked Ranulf's cowl off, that's a funny way of phrasing it. Not that I'd know a better one.
...The hell?
This is the other, rarer, danger song. I feel like it plays earlier than this, but despite playing this game myself, it slipped through the cracks.
I think that's an angrier than usual expression for Ike.
No...
What an assertion.
I'm with Ike here.
As another aside to Three Houses, let's talk about Claude, the Lord with the most interest in the topic of racism and xenophobia in Fodlan. Claude's main objective is to tear down the border between Fodlan and Almyra and get the two peoples to intermingle and solve racism that way. I think Claude wises up towards the end of his story, without much fanfare, but every time I think about if Claude got his way sooner, I think that there'd be a lot of moments like this one all over Fodlan towards Almyrans.
The vigilante shows up and vindicates the decision to not join him.
Sure, whatever you say.
Ranulf is in the same camp as Lethe and Mordecai.
I don't think Ike could've lived with himself if he let that happen. It'd also make his aim to restore the lives of the people of Crimea feel a lot more hollow.
Imagine putting an intangible concept like the integrity of a treaty over your own life while people are actually beating the tar out of you. Ranulf is a more obstinate politician than most people. This is more prominent in Radiant Dawn, but Ranulf is some kind of strange laguz occurrence in that he doesn't go into battle rages or suffer from lack of long-term planning like most laguz do. Short of one character in particular, I don't think any other named laguz character could've done what Ranulf just did.
Ike, on the other hand, is perhaps a little more laguz than the average beorc, more or less deciding he's going to start busting Crimean heads before fully comprehending what he just said.
Ranulf tells him that no, him not being Gallian is not going to make the situation better.
Just get to the boat. I'm with Ranulf on this one: Ike is lacking in education, but give him the facts and he tends to reach satisfying conclusions.
"If they attack, we counterattack" is a truism of Fire Emblem combat.
Content warning ends here.
So, time to escape this port.
Escape maps do something weird to your party order. You can tell it's the Escape condition because this is the order my units left the last map.
Let's just bench all the men and... hey, while we're thinking about the order our party members are deployed in...
There we go. If you deselect characters, they get shuffled to the bottom of the list if you exit and reenter this screen. Not that doing this means anything outside Chapter 17...
Here's the map. Yes, that is four directions in which to travel to reach our goal in the top left. Also three enemy factions: though "Army" is all we're worried about. "Vigilantes" represents the Toha vigilantes who volunteered to help catch us and sell us to Daein. The plot wants us to spare them, and as terrible people as they've been, we do get BEXP for it, so I'll be doing it.
This is the "Thief". He will head towards the three open houses scattered around the map and burn them. What, you thought he'd steal the contents? Apparently that wasn't possible.
Here is the boss. Outside the Poleax for Titania, we don't have anti-cavalry gear, so he'll be a surprisingly tough cookie. Especially since his "not being an armour unit" status grants him an actual speed score.
He lives up here. That generic knight to the left is standing on the Arrive tile. Arrive is basically Seize, but anyone can do it, not just Ike.
Interestingly, among the many unused BEXP conditions (many of which are assigned to normal map things like recruiting characters) is the "Ally Escaped" BEXP reward for this map. This would make a good Escape map, if we hadn't just had one...
Mackoya has a rallying speech to give to start the map.
The soldier brings up the vigilante thing, presumably because it's nowhere in his training manual. Mackoya says they can do whatever.
It's a blockade of ships. You're not solving this by asking nicely.
That might get it. At least it's getting a major country angry if it's true.
...You're not helping this outcome.
Mackoya even gives a "Shame if something were to happen" speech. Yeah, diplomatic relations with Begnion are not one of Daein's priorities. Nasir runs on board his ship, past the enemies in the way.
Yeah, that is a correct assumption, Daein. World's least suspicious ship captain there.
Oh?
From bad to worse!
He just got here. From where, who knows.
The Daein invasion is going swimmingly, and dammit, the Daeins are as unhappy about it as the Crimeans.
Our soldiers have a strict diet of war and battle to feed on, and the Crimeans are not sufficiently rowdy!
"Scheduled for subjugation". To make it clear, since it's not entirely so, Toha is being visited by Daein earlier than what Daein had planned.
Because they caught onto us and pursued us.
At least they don't know we have Elincia. Yet.
Mackoya asks the Black Knight stay out of this. His own men want a turn too!
The Black Knight acquiesces. Imagine if we had to deal with him too.
Hey, those soldiers down the bottom weren't here in the preview!
Oh. Wait, which one of them is the cat?
Yeah, they don't slap any surprise units on the map.
The rest of these guys are still our problem, though. Nephenee, standing in range of the easternmost guy, attacks this one. Reginleif already showing its value- she needs it to one-round.
The rest of our characters move- the main force north-west, and Titania and Lethe onto this stretch of land beside the vigilantes. After our turn, this one starts talking.
He has a name and a face. I'm getting the impression his allegiance with the vigilantes will be short-lived.
This guy does not.
Here's Nephenee's battle sprite from the back. Just what are those stockings?
Our turn, these enemies in the south have come forward to become problems. Nephenee can't double this guy, which isn't much of a surprise, considering he's a myrmidon. Still, though, I did not get Speed in her levels.
Oh, there's some speed.
Ilyana has to break out the Elthunder to kill this guy. Eventually, she'll just be using Elthunder as a matter of course.
Marcia was meant to one-round this archer but failed. Now Mia has to go out of position to finish him off or risk Marcia's comfort.
Which means now surviving is Mist's problem.
OK, I shouldn't have assumed things would be just fine. That's OK, though, we can live with an injured Mist. We do need to do something about these cavs, though.
Nephenee doubled this myrmidon. Apparently that Speed was all she needed.
Lethe critted this guy. She roars before doing her attack animation slightly faster. As crits go... could be much better.
Marcia can't actually finish the cavalier, so I have her kill this thief to make my life much less stressful. I don't ultimately move Marcia from this spot, so it didn't matter that much.
Mist is completely safe- no enemies can even attempt to attack her! Mist can continue healing people other than herself to gain EXP.
Ilyana does much better dealing with combat. Annoyingly, doesn't double. She's still some ways from that.
Nephenee has to break out Reginleif to finish off this guy- the other guy is too healthy for her. Enemy cavaliers tend to be annoyingly bulky.
Strength and Speed. Also Luck for dodges. Just what she needed.
Marcia critted a dude. Just flies right off screen.
Again with the Strength, Speed and no Defence.
That's not what your neighbours are saying.
They'd sell me on that better if they didn't try to beat a laguz to a bloody pulp.
Throw one on the Daein scoreboard. Wonder when this happened, though.
We'll be sure to throw this in the convoy. Elwind would be useful in the near future (as in next map), but I'd rather Ilyana focus on Thunder mastery.
Titania visits the village near the vigilantes. This man's sprite was the person who attracted Daein attention, and I can't help but feel like he's supposed to be the same guy. I don't think this face is used elsewhere.
This could've been planned better. I wanted Titania to bait Zihark over, but since this is a weapon Titania can use, she automatically equips it. She'll kill Zihark if she's holding a weapon.
Lethe found something to kill for a level. As usual, Strength and Speed are what you want- Strength is the only stat Lethe might actually cap. All laguz except one actually have more than 100% in their HP growth, so that is either +1 or +2. If you're counting how many level ups I get of certain counts, keep in mind this is a three stat level and not a four stat.
Someone has appeared in the starting position!
They don't seem to be in much of a rush.
Jill is very gung-ho about the chance for glory. Haar, not so much.
"Lance a peasant"? Wow, the Daeins are assholes.
"For the love of flying" is a fun one, hiding behind "stop interrupting my sleep".
...Oh, Haar remembered something.
Haar had forgotten what kind of unit he is. This is a fairly strange order on a tactical level, if sound on a strategic one. At any rate, Jill and two wyvern friends are now on the battlefield.
Jill isn't a threat or anything (though Lethe will find her tough to chew on because of that Laguzguard), but we have a vested interest in not killing her. So let's not do that.
Jill has a handful of boss quotes, including special lines for Lethe and Mordecai... and also being killed by Lethe and Mordecai. I like "fights Mordecai" and "killed by Lethe" enough to share:
Jill: …
Mordecai: Oh! You are… such a young beorc. I have no wish to fight you. Go, little beorc.
Jill: You… you ugly sub-human scum! How dare you befoul the human tongue! You’re just half-breed filth!
Mordecai: What? Grr… grrr… Grrrraaaaoooooowwwww!
-
Jill: Ur…rrgh… Done in… by a sub-human…
Lethe: …
Jill: My f-f-father…
Lethe: Sympathy… I feel… no… sympathy…
This lady is surprisingly prepared to let us escape considering her neighbours.
Won't deny the prize, though. Marcia can fly over the houses and catch back up.
Mia and Nephenee will bait forward Mackoya. An important note about baiting cavaliers: do so at the edge of their range, if possible, because they will move backwards if they have the spare Move.
Yes, yes we are.
Nephenee takes that hit like a champ. On the other hand, it's an Iron Bow.
Zihark finds a freshly unarmed Titania.
He misses with that Killing Edge of his. I doubt he could've done much if he hit, but he does have ways of making this exciting if I wanted Titania to do anything else this map.
Marcia and Ilyana team up to do less than half Mackoya's HP. He's that bulky.
Ilyana takes a hit. More work for Mist!
Mia gets the kill, for the same reasons she killed Danomill. She doesn't level up this time, though, she's 3 EXP off.
Anyway, now that Zihark is finally far enough away from the Vigilantes that they won't kill themselves, Lethe is brought out to talk to him.
And, since I really need to make sure I link this theme sooner rather than later: With us!
Cunning. I'm sure that's why.
I'm not sure what kind of plan this is supposed to be.
This is an infinitely more hilarious plan, if not the one we'll be doing.
OK, Zihark, I know they're awful people, but that's no reason to drop this on them!
Yeah, that...
Aw, Lethe calls us friends.
"What else is new?"
Yay, a second myrmidon! Zihark actually comes off pretty well in the comparison to Mia, with some slight statistical edge, a better innate skill in Adept (occasionally makes a hit land twice) instead of Vantage, and the much coveted Earth affinity. We'll be sticking with Mia, of course. Our Mia is doing just fine anyway.
Zihark compliments this name. In a bit of sleight-of-hand by the textboxes, this actually disappears relatively quickly, much the way it would've been delivered in a real conversation.
Zihark ejects from the conversation.
But Lethe isn't done with him yet!
Zihark cowers in a corner, making sure he doesn't kill those Vigilantes for several reasons. Zihark can recruit himself if you put Lethe in range, but that's also a good way to kill the Vigilante standing next to him too.
...For the love of flying.
I put Ike on this bridge for giggles. Keep this in mind. Related, the Black Knight coming out heralds the beginning of an enemy turn.
Nephenee fails to kill this cavalier.
And double this one.
That priest I chose not to kill because "killing priests may or may not count as a warcrime" decided to heal the former cavalier. Don't walk away from this moment under the impression I'm going to preventatively kill this priest or random ones in the future.
So yeah, uh... about where I stuck Ike. Any further over and he would've been fodder for Alondite. Graze bonus!
These are the Black Knight's stats. I'm fairly positive he'd one round Titania without breaking a sweat. And Titania couldn't scratch him with her Strength stat.
There is bonus content (not of the tangible variety, thankfully) if you have Ike survive a round with the Black Knight here. This is impossible with brute force- Ike's maximum bulk is 40 HP and 20 Def, and the Black Knight would deal 28 x2 damage to that. With maximum Speed, most of his Luck, and a Support or two (especially with Oscar), you could probably dodge one of the hits and survive with your Lord intact. Not with exemplary odds, though.
Just look at this. Nothing says outmatched quite like seeing this screen. (This Ike had no Supports. Surviving the Black Knight here requires planning.)
Marcia can deal with this cavalier despite the healing.
Ilyana can soften this one up for Nephenee and are you kidding me another 97 EXP?
Ike moves slightly further away from the Black Knight. This is just superstition: on Normal mode, the Black Knight doesn't move on his own.
Titania can't kill this guy. Ripe for feeding him to someone!
That someone is Marcia.
You can't Arrive on your sub-movement, though, so I haven't hit the wincon.
Nephenee was closest, and missed it by two spaces. I have her Shove this priest in frustration.
One more turn means more healing for Mist, though.
Titania Arrives. It seemed fitting.
The Black Knight is still here, though. And those stats haven't gotten any lower.
OK, what is Ranulf going to do?
So Ranulf was with Caineghis when Greil died. Honestly somewhat logical, especially if the King was able to make it to Gebal anyway.
Yeah, Caineghis is in a league of his own. If Caineghis and Ranulf ever came to blows, Ranulf would wind up a fine paste on the ground.
So, you know, good thing we don't have to worry about that either.
Ranulf transform image! Cats do a little backflip before making this pose. It's amazing.
Less amazing, this. Man, this is not Ranulf's day.
When Ranulf attacked the Black Knight, the No Damage tink noise sounded. Ranulf is actually just that weak anyway: His base Atk is 33 (19 Strength + 6 Str for transforming + 8 Mt Claw).
Then again, Ranulf also doubled the Black Knight, and this is not supported by his game stats- he only has 20 Speed. He also doesn't have the bulk to survive a crit- but to be quite honest, I don't think a lot of things in this game could survive a crit from the Black Knight.
Short version: Ranulf is exceptionally screwed.
...Physic staff? (Yes, this is the animation that plays when using a Physic staff in game.)
"Monk on his pilgrimage", my hat. Either that or a suicidal madman.
...What kind of character who'd openly support the Crimeans has command over the Black Knight?
Yes, Ranulf did get invited to run away here. Who pulled the lucky break cord?
Jill is eager to continue the chase.
She really hates laguz.
Haar's had enough of this place, though.
Jill's dad is a relatively normal dad in this regard. Exactly who he is in Daein's totem pole will remain a bit of a mystery for now.
It's clear that Jill wants to impress him, though. As daughters often want to do.
That ought to get her to stand down.
...Well, "ought".
I believe every scene with Norris in it in this ending would show Mackoya if we didn't kill him. Norris is the chapter boss of Chapter 13, so this isn't a brand new character specially designed for the job.
The Black Knight is reluctant to press the attack.
Orders from the... top?
Norris has the appropriate reaction to some random hobo ordering his boss around.
But the Black Knight does as Sephiran asks.
And if Norris likes his head where it is, so will he.
He does have a chat with these two, though.
...The little buggers.
I'm saving everyone but you two, I hope you know!
Norris is about as impressed with them as we are.
...You know, that should cover it. We're going to be, what, months out from liberating Crimea?
The man suddenly realises that the people invading his country for no reason might not be acting in his best interests.
He's having fun with it, though.
"...Wait, we have a princess?"
A short conversation between Ike and Elincia plays here. Exceptionally short, actually.
It's these two text boxes and an Ike line in between, in fact. That is because this is where the bonus content for "fighting" the Black Knight displays. If you have had the incredible luck to have an exceptionally dodgy Ike and the still-amazing luck to actually survive a round of combat, you would be treated to the following exchange:
Mist: Brother, you stupid fool! Fighting a knight as strong as that... You idiot! I was... so scared...
Ike: I'm sorry, Mist.
Mist: Who cares...
Ike: You really were frightened...I'm sorry, I truly am.
Mist: ...All right...
I feel rewarded already. I think this scene does make the Ike vs Black Knight dynamic more interesting from a narrative perspective, but like hell you're ever seeing it.
Ranulf has hopefully run far away for someone who got beaten up twice in a few hours.
It probably looks worse in-universe.
So that's why Giffca is here. Figured as much.
I thought armours were supposed to be slow too! I do find it interesting that at no point do either character explicitly say the Black Knight is a beorc. I guess Giffca figured it an obvious assumption.
And if you tell them what happened in Toha, they'll stay that way.
Again, by "memories", they mean "they were adults while it was happening".
This is a fairly shocking, but true, off-the-cuff remark. The only reason Ike and Elincia have gotten so far is because of Caineghis's goodwill to Greil and Ramon. If any random beorc had shown up, who knows how the Gallians would have reacted.
I call that a success.
These are referring to the same individual, but I don't believe it's ever explicitly stated who it is. I imagine it's Nasir.
This is the pivotal question of the story right now, our primary goal-
...And that's all we're getting.
That's a little pessimistic.
Way to just shoot the Standard Fire Emblem Plot in the gut, Giffca.
Yeah, you should probably do something about that.
And we finally meet the Mad King himself! He doesn't have the raw fear factor that is the Black Knight, but he does have the same raw power. Defeating either one doesn't seem all that likely.
Gawain, of course, is Greil. The medallion, though, is new. The fact that Ashnard connects this thought to Gawain might prime an astute reader to consider the likelihood it's the glowing medallion that Mist carries around that got its own dedicated cutscene.
We have a Daein spy too?
Build an army. Trust nobody.
Now Ashnard loses interest. It's probably too hard to get his hands on us. We'll come back to Daein on our own eventually, though.
Who?
Who?
That scared Ashnard. I wonder how the two are acquainted.
Sounds like a man like Sephiran.
Ashnard has his plans, and you could no sooner reason with him than you could convince a river to change course.
This is not good news for Gallia, but it's good news for us. The Black Knight should be out of our hair for the meantime. At least Gallia has Caineghis.
Two turns into overtime, spared three Vigilantes. Apparently there are five. Not according to the conditions screen (assuming one of them was Zihark).
Next time: We find something to do while we're at sea.
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