A bit of a summary before we move on here...
The territory that is Serenes is highlighted. When you consider how the mountains north and west of Serenes are unlikely to be used by Begnion, Begnion without Serenes seems a lot smaller.
It's definitely sorrow made real.
Well done, Empress.
You can't just forgive and forget about a genocide.
The apology is accepted because the alternative is an eternal hatred between heron and Begnion. Which, while warranted, is still pretty unhealthy.
One important thing to note is that Reyson, Leanne and Lorazieh don't move back in yet.
Here's Ike done up in his Lord attire for one of these.
General Ike! I don't know any suitable army cheers.
Time for winter as we head to Daein.
That. She. Does.
Ashnard is already up to speed. Linked is Ashnard's theme, Burning Ambition.
I'm still not sure how big Begnion's supplied army is supposed to be, but if it's as small as Ashnard implies, why did we go through all that effort for it?
Ashnard is interested in Gawain's legacy, seeing as Gawain was probably the strongest man around before him.
And in this playthrough, never will be.
Ike is a very simple man, and if you like what you see, he's easy to be friends with. He forged a bond between Sanaki, Tormod, Tibarn and Reyson just by being nice to all of them. Plus there's Kurthnaga, and Ranulf... a little kindness can go a long way.
Ashnard lights up on the knowledge that the herons survived. I wonder if he already knew about Reyson- he feels more public knowledge than he probably is.
But now there's Reyson and Leanne.
I don't like this.
There's that medallion again. Apparently it does something when used with a heron...
The Black Knight smiles and nods politely.
Tanith came with us. Apparently Sanaki could spare the deputy to her Holy Guard. I'm sure this was the perfect time to do that.
Wyvern riders, huh? Armour knights with wings and a speed score that's nothing to sneeze at.
I... think the only wyverns so far have been... Jill.
Yeah, the ravens are frail as hell.
Interesting. We'll definitely be bumping into this lot later.
Marcia, Jill and Tanith will keep our skies safe for our infantry!
Marcia's looking at a rehire. Jill's looking for a new job.
Of course it was Jill.
Oh wow, she even gets her A Support!
Jill just kinda reaches out to Mist.
And Mist is perfectly fine with it!
They have a very long exchange of lines like this. Something is clearly bothering one or both of them.
When you go off on a tangent on this note, you're definitely shunning something.
Oh, that! That's definitely a thing that happened last chapter! The downside of leaving a Support until later can be that direct references like this lose their impact.
Oops, something seems to have started in Jill.
Ouch. That's gotta sting. The last few threads of Jill's entire worldview have finally been cut.
Her entire life has been... well, perhaps not a lie, but she's definitely spent some of it rather counter-productively, putting it mildly.
"If you start crying, then I'm gonna cry, and we'll never get through this."
There's a little flash of the entire screen while the game changes from the last line to this one. That's because Mist/Jill A is another Support that changes based on what's going on in the game: specifically, if you watch it after Chapter 20.
Right now, though, Jill is wondering why her father led her to believe such hurtful things.
Coming back to this conversation after Three Houses... if this is true, he wouldn't even rank in the top ten worst fathers if you counted him among Fodlan's bastard dads.
Mist is a lot more optimistic about Jill's dad.
One wonders what kind of history is necessary to make "raise Jill to be a sub-human hating war machine" to be 'for the best'.
But, well, Mist has a personal stake in making Jill feel comfortable about her dad.
That being she doesn't really to think about her own dad's faults.
This conversation is just crying all around. It'd probably be a little sadder if they found a better onomatopaeia for crying than "Whaaaa!"
Jill's happy to have a little bit of optimisim, though.
Considering one particular 3H Support chain in particular, this comment feels kinda uncomfortable on its own. I think, though, Jill pulls it off.
This definitely helps. Jill is forging her own path regardless of how things settle down with her dad.
I find it interesting that the game really hasn't elaborated on what Jill's father is really like yet.
Mist has run out of Support conversations, and despite it having been available beforehand, cannot watch Titania/Mist A. It also got rid of the Rolf/Mist marker, but Ike still has Oscar and Lethe markers and those aren't going away soon.
Three Info conversations today.
Here's our soldier. Ike gets to lead Begnion soldiers, who wear red.
Ike being General of the Crimean Liberation Army means he has to micromanage the Begnion soliders. They're... not great.
Ike tells them they can wait until we get into some fights.
Thank you. Seeing the pictures does let me know this is a different soldier.
Was... was Ike not clear the first time?
Yeah, Ike's feeling like he ought to be taking a bit less responsibility here.
Begnion soldiers are Ashera-damned babies.
This is "supposed" to be the advice in this conversation that warrants the two star Importance. It skims a lot of the details.
Well, OK, more specifically this. This is talking about Tanith's personal and unique Skill.
So hey, let's have our chat with Tanith. Most characters tend to wind up with one conversation in here in the end.
So yeah, what is Ashnard like?
I always imagined Ashnard and Tanith did cross swords at some point. I guess they didn't. Shame, I liked that headcanon.
Oh boy, the great Daein Plague. This gets brought up in Path of Radiance, and I'm inclined to believe the writers had exactly the explanation it has in Radiant Dawn even here. Not that people are particularly fond of it.
Ehhhhhhhhhhhhh...
Blinks.
This... Tanith, Sanaki fucking apologised about the Begnion people assassinating Serenes just last chapter. Don't go rewriting it as some plague.
I got nerd-sniped by this line, so I had to check. This plague lasted forty-four days.
Well, you'd think, yeah.
Twenty people in line for Daein's throne before this. Everyone past the first three must've had one hell of a complex.
They were being picked off like flies. Well, if flies were things that were easy to kill one at a time.
And yet Ashnard survived. He must've felt so happy.
Ashnard was never going to be King were it not for the Plague. It's very fortunate for him that those thousand people died. Less fortunate for the Crimeans.
Ashnard had a reputation as a fierce warrior for his whole life, though.
I feel like there should be a thing where Tanith herself crossed swords with Ashnard at some point while this was going down. Mostly rule of cool, but you could make a story idea out of it...
Some people might call it murder. Ashnard probably calls it aggressive negotiations.
Ashnard carrying the team.
Tanith is very rigourous in her actions, and firmly apologises for a problem Ike hadn't even considered.
Ike's always happy to hear about Tanith's experiences. We might need them.
Technically, Tormod already had a conversation, but this is one to himself, in a way. OK, so Jill has two on her own, but... well, I dunno, why am I arguing with Tormod content?
Tormod also gets to call Ike out on always pulling this card. As much as I agree with the sentiment, I do think Ike might be overdoing things a tad. Not sure where the balance lies.
Now, that's very pessimistic. Daein's not that big...
Ike wants things to stick to just the people who would benefit from Crimea winning. So, not these guys.
Tormod and Muarim have stared "bleak" in the eyes. But that does make me wonder what the other Laguz Emancipation Army people are up to.
So she says. Saying it and actually doing it is another matter.
Uh... that's one way to look at it...
Tormod and Muarim are all about the freedom to do as they please. If they want to help, there's no stopping them.
Sounds like me.
Today's level ups. We're getting to the point where I want to start being very conservative about giving out 100 point level ups, especially since I have ambitions about Transferring stats to Radiant Dawn from this file.
Speaking of Transfers, Astrid has, a long time ago, reached her cap on Skill. When a stat is Green and Glowing as a promoted unit, it has capped and will never go up again. Now that we're in this part of the game, it's time to be openly concerned about which characters will be able to Transfer and which stats they'll get. Transfer bonuses will take the capped stats of a level 20 promoted Path of Radiance character and apply to Radiant Dawn- which, if correctly applied, will boost our chances of success there a great deal. Not every character will get the chance to get to level 20 promoted, but I would like to get some select characters there.
Here's our location for this mission. Well, here it is in reverse. We start on the other side and this will be the bottom of the map.
See, there we are.
"Let's discuss our stealth mission right next to the enemy base."
Hopefully she's more than a good luck charm.
Hey yeah, it's been a while since we fought Daein. Back in Chapter 13- or 11, if you demand that they do so openly.
You'd never hear the end of it!
Ooh, we've switched to field view. Who is coming to say hi?
Hawk King Tibarn! And he's brought both herons and his two trusted retainers.
The former of whom appears to have dragged Tibarn all this way.
Reyson wants to offer thanks.
[Yes, yes, brother.]
Well, this is an inviting prospect.
Not that Ike feels all that comfortable receiving the offer.
That's a very tempting offer. Reyson is, of course, the dancer.
It's an option the game allows us to make! Having Reyson join you is a very good idea. If you're playing along, say yes. It helps out a lot more than just having a dancer would do!
There are multiple occasions where the player is invited to say yes or no to a decision to recruit a character. The decision to add Reyson to the party is so beneficial to the player that they actually give you a pity prize for saying no. For that reason, I'm gonna let this decision stand.
Now, if Leanne wanted to join...
Reyson doesn't really like being told he's not useful in a fight.
I can see where Ike is coming from with this decision. He, too, has been through a lot and perhaps wishes he could be closer with his own sister during all this war effort stuff. I think Ike is more likely to accept the help as a character, though, not thinking about this angle until later.
Tibarn likes this reasoning too. I think he, too, is OK with both.
I'm less sure this is a good reasoning for it. Lorazieh is... well, I don't know what the deal is with him, but being cooped up in Phoenicis watching him go hover between life and death does not sound pleasant.
The offer itself seems to have done a lot for beorc-laguz relations.
Tibarn is happy to come fly over to visit us later on, which is where our weird plot divergence merges back with the real canon.
And here's our pity prize.
Renewal heals the user for 10% of their HP at the start of every turn. This was even worse in the JP version, where the scroll only worked on the two characters who already had Renewal- presumably this was a last-minute addition. For what it's worth, if we hacked the game and got a Paragon scroll, it would only work on Astrid and the other character who starts with Paragon.
Already we're forgetting we didn't get the ally on our team. At least they're with us in spirit.
That's nice, Ike. Anyway, I-
<<
Ike asks if Reyson has thought this decision through to his satisfaction.
Since he has, and is satisfied with his choice, Ike welcomes him aboard. He's very accepting of all recruits.
We'll be glad to have you on board, Reyson.
Tibarn decides to offer us more assistance! Both his legendary eyes and his ears!
Reyson feels this is overkill, and it probably is. I mean, doesn't Tibarn need them?
Two herons, one guardian. Tibarn, of course, has things under control, but he's still one guy.
Tibarn seems to feel like Reyson ought to have more of a chance to spread his wings than just staying in Phoenicis. He's a good man, and an easy fan favourite royal.
We'll do right by this burden.
And Tibarn promises the same in return. The bond between beorc and laguz has strengthened.
---
Anyway, inventory management is upon us.
Meet Tanith, who has finally decided to join our roster for real. She's really underpowered for her level, being relatively and surprisingly comparable to Titania here. She'll be a good supplement for Marcia or Jill when flying to an objective, but she couldn't do what they can solo. Her personal skill Reinforce cements her role as such- she can use it twice per map to spawn three Holy Guard yellow units (who must then be Directed by Ike, despite the Info conversation implying they follow Tanith's orders). These Holy Guard soldiers are free to spawn, free to kill, and should never get kills under any circumstances- the perfect cannon fodder. And, since they're female, we can use them guiltlessly. And, since they're pegasus knights, they're surprisingly hard for the enemy to kill.
One thing that is (relatively) unique to Tanith in this playthrough is that she has a "defensive Bond" support- if she is standing adjacent to Marcia, Marcia is immune to crits. There are a number of these Bonds in this game, the main one being Ike protecting Soren. Only near the endgame will we see more than these two even casually, though.
Tanith also comes with the Earth affinity, which gives [+5 Avo] per rank. Earth is a personal favourite affinity of the Tellius fanbase because all this avoid can make you stacked. Yes, that is an Earth+Earth pair you can see in her Support roster. Oscar is in two. (Those are the only two in PoR, though.)
That sword of hers is also fairly interesting, here. A 1-2 range sword that uses Magic. Sounds incredibly gimmicky and not that worth it, in all honesty. I mean, what, are we supposed to believe there's a class that can use both magic and swords?
...Oh, right. This is why I wanted B Rank on Mist's swords. The Sonic Sword also counts for Wind damage, so it's Effective against fliers. The hard part will be convincing myself to use the thing.
Anyway, while we're acquiring the Renewal scroll against my better judgement, let's hand out the rest of these Scrolls we've been stockpiling. Titania drops Counter and equips Sol, so she can heal herself every now and then if it comes up. She'll need it most.
Lethe will bear the Renewal scroll. Since she has the highest HP in the party and is likely to stay that way, she'll get the most benefit out of it, and also she has times spent untransformed that some extra health will come in handy. No, this is not worth it.
Marcia gets both Vantage and Guard. She's the sort of person who'll fly into a trouble spot and interrupt an enemy attack with her own- Guard, of course, having a Skill% chance of robbing the enemy of their chance to attack if she hits them with it first. Jill, of course, would probably take 0 damage from the enemy even if she didn't dodge.
We get 10 deployment spots, which means we must finally start making decisions about who not to deploy. Well, OK, if we had recruited Reyson, it turns out we'd get 13 deployment spots for this map, for some reason- it feels cheap, that getting the Renewal scroll has this cost.
Especially since we need a Thief. Lethe and Astrid can have a break- they're not needed for Supports or anything.
Bosses as a general rule have Skills now that we've entered this leg of the plot. Every single boss from now on has one- except one, annoyingly for what I wanted to say. They also, for the most part, have settled into having one generic boss dialogue for beast tribe laguz, one for bird tribe laguz- specifically Janaff and Ulki- and one for Reyson himself- the laguz character not speaking back.
Also, I just noticed that this guy chose to specialise in staves rather than knives. Fancy that.
This is what we have to deal with. Our goal is Rout, and there's some reinforcements at both ends to deal with.
Well, so much for stealth.
Naesala is leaving some ravens for us to deal with too.
Not that Daein seems all that fond of the arrangement.
Orders from the King, apparently. I wonder if Naesala even did go through Daein to join this side.
Kayachey does not seem to be the type to question it.
He does have a smug superiority over us, though.
Trust me, he has no delusions of grandeur. Just a giant bundle of imposter syndrome as his "being friendly with people" schtick turns out to mend thousand year feuds.
Sure you will, buddy.
Oh yeah, these guys are still racist. Not that the ravens are deployed in a way that fits this plan.
He is? I thought I spotted him while scanning the map earlier-
Oh. Hello, Shinon. This will be our chance to get him back, same as Gatrie.
His brand of disrespect seems to be causing as much trouble in Daein as it did for us. Well, much more, we tolerated it plenty.
This random soldier has authority over Shinon. On a narrative level, this probably makes sense. On a meta level, it's just so adorable.
Daein is also the sort of army that doesn't really mind this sort of behaviour if the person gets results.
Yeah, your name. Rolls eyes.
I agree with Shinon.
Pats head condescendingly.
Reinforce is a Command skill. I think you can't attack if you Reinforce, and besides, they have to start from the starting position. First turn is as good a time as any. I don't think I Reinforce yet, this map doesn't really have a good reason.
This is how far the wyverns at the starting position can move. It'll be a few turns before we have to start caring.
The walls of Tor Garen can't be flown over or shot through. Other FEs are usually happy to let the latter happen regardless. The former, though, that can vary from map to map.
Here's Tanith not one rounding a guy.
Titania gets off a Sol. She also gets a good animation along with the skill, even if it doesn't inherently boost her damage in this game.
Here's someone Tanith can get a kill on.
She also manages this guy on the next turn- for some reason, he doesn't seem inclined to move on his own go.
Honestly, Tanith in action really does just look like Marcia in black. The artbook decided not to mask that fact, showing both characters identically. At least in this case, it's probably a uniform.
Jill's bringing her axe against fellow Daein soldiers. You know... that is something we've not dealt in yet. Chapter 13 aside, Jill hasn't fought her homeland yet under our command.
Oops, left Ike in range of a siege tome. Frankly, I'm amazed he's still breathing.
Mist exacts revenge on his behalf.
Now I bring these guys out, there's another siege tome user ahead!
You get one Falcon and two Pegasi each. They will look like this.
...So we can't send them to Target south here. The Blizzard can reach down here, apparently, but these tiles down here are just... no fly. The mountain, I can accept. The flat land behind the trees, less so. Perhaps it's because you can't get there on foot?
I get them to move through the fortress and to the other side. If they're lucky, they might contribute.
Sothe finds this in the first treasure chest. Recover always heals for full health, just in case your Mend doesn't do the job. For Mist, that's over 46 HP with capped Magic. For Ilyana, 50. Lethe currently has 43 max HP.
The ravens that spawn in have various levels of TP. Unfortunately, not massive amounts. They'll still be untransformed when we get there.
Titania stands exactly here. Sothe needs to catch up.
The pictured zone is where Shinon can attack. Well, OK, that's not wholly true- he can stand where that knight is currently standing, and if he does, that tile two spaces west of the knight will be in range. If you're depending on this highlighted range to warn you of where not to stand, double check for edge cases like this one.
Nephenee draws the short straw.
I didn't move Ike closer because I'm scared of the second siege tomer. I'm probably well out of range here, but you never know...
Ilyana has hit C Rank staves, which means she is now certified in using Physic staves. Now she doesn't have to worry about staff grinding.
Shinon is very threatening.
...When he's not shooting. Shinon's got like 9 Strength, guys.
Here is Nephenee actually taking some damage.
Sothe could move exactly far enough that Titania was standing next to him. This is how you make impressive Rescue drops.
I think this is how far Titania can move, but it looks like the arrow is coming from Ike in this screenshot.
Ooh, hello, Mist can talk to Shinon! Let's see if we can't do something about getting Shinon to change his spots.
Mist is shocked that Shinon threw his lot in with the Daeins.
Not that Shinon seems interested in sharing his reasons.
Mist can't contemplate fighting Shinon.
Shinon tells her she's got to woman up if she's going to be a mercenary.
Mist is very optimistic. And I mean, it got Jill on her side.
Recruitment time! Cue the theme!
Look, it doesn't even have to be as a Greil Merc, we've got plenty of people who aren't that now!
Shinon's not gonna let this go, is he?
Shinon tells Mist to get lost if she's not gonna kill him.
Mist goes for the gut.
This almost feels like a meta quote here. Mist is not the only Greil Mercenary who can Talk to Shinon, but having Mist Talk to him did nothing to help recruit him.
Mist, in an actual bit of meta player advice, points to which character you should be using if you want to re-recruit Shinon. In all honesty, Rolf is the only person who can Talk other than the GM healers, who have the possibility of being unable to attack Shinon for boss dialogue.
Not that Shinon seems open to it.
Well, if Rolf is who we need to get Shinon back on the blue team, I guess we have no other choice.
Shinon is sour but correct to the end.
"Imagine getting killed by a little girl with a pink sword."
So long, Shinon. I'll miss you more than some of the other characters we don't get in this run.
He gives us a parting gift, if Astrid ever becomes able to use this. I think she has the Bow rank, but she might not.
Some Shinon dialogues that don't lead to recruitment but are still cool:
Rhys: Shinon!
Shinon: ...Oh, Rhys. Great. I can't believe I've run into you.
Rhys: It is great, isn't it? Oh, it's good to have you back. When you left us, I was really worried about what would happen, but--
Shinon: Hey, Rhys? Shut up. In case you hadn't noticed...we're enemies out here.
Rhys: What? You can't... You're not serious, are you?
Shinon: You honestly never thought this could happen? You're beyond good natured. You're a fool.
Rhys: Shinon... What are you saying? You've always been gruff, but...Are you serious?
Shinon: It's not like this is the first time I've called you out. You've never considered that people may not like you, have you? Know what? We were companions once, but if I'm getting paid, I'll gladly put an arrow through your eye.
Rhys: Shinon... Is there something you can't tell us that's forcing you to do this? Are you protecting someone? Has someone you love been taken hostage? If so, we could--
Shinon: No! There's nothing! Nothing but the right price, at least... You're overestimating me. Get going, pretty boy. Stick around any longer, and I'll start earning my pay with you!
Shinon cares less than I do about keeping priests alive, or maybe Rhys doesn't count. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm on Shinon's side in this conversation.
Boyd: Shinon! I couldn’t care less who you decide to work for… Heck, I’d hoped you were dead! But even so, Daein? You couldn’t find anything better than this? What were you thinking?
Shinon: Haven’t changed a bit, have you? You’re still a mouthy piece of work. Listen up! Daein’s a great place to work right now. The pay’s great, and strength at arms is the only thing that determines class standing. You want to join me?
Boyd: Don’t be ridiculous!
Shinon: Well then, only one thing to do. Out of the goodness of my heart, I’ll teach you how adults fight. And a far as payment goes… I’ll take your life. How’s that sound?
Boyd: Keep talking, Shinon! I’m gonna beat the obnoxious clean out of you.
Boyd is as Boyd does best.
Oscar: Shinon?! Why are you with Daein? Someone with your skills could have found work with Begnion’s army. So, why this?
Shinon: Ha! Why would I want to go to work for a bunch of stiff-necked bluestockings? I’m a commoner. No matter how good I am, I would never rise above a middling commission. It’s different in Daein. If you’re a skilled fighter, you can rise all the way to the top.
Oscar: Is getting promoted really that important?
Shinon: It’s everything. All right, enough with the pleasantries. You ready to go?
Oscar: Oh, Shinon…
Despite being friends with Kieran, Oscar tries using prestige as an argument. Or maybe that's because it would work on Kieran?
Titania: Shinon! You… You’re with Daein of all things?
Shinon: Long time, no see, Captain. You know, we didn’t always see eye to eye, but… I never once minded taking orders from you.
Titania: To tell the truth, I really didn’t mind having to listen to your endless complaints and insults, either. Hold nothing back. Let’s pay each other… the proper respect.
Shinon: Yes, I think that’s best. So in the end, we finally agree on something, eh?
Having Titania on our side would make Shinon's time working for Ike much more bearable. But Titania was always on our side.
<<
We bring Rolf out to have a chat with Shinon, see what he can do.
Sounds a lot less sincere when you realise that, since they're both Snipers, their map models are nearly identical. Rolf doesn't have the ponytail in combat, though.
That he has. It was a long journey, but Oscar and Boyd aren't here while Rolf is.
The best- the only playable character who came into Path of Radiance knowing how to use a bow.
"I'm a prodigy!" my rear end. Well, I guess the secret's out now.
Rolf has realised that, oh yeah, this conversation is still happening and Shinon has a red circle underneath his feet.
Shinon's happy to keep fighting for the Daeins.
Shinon seems to have told Rolf that sometimes, your friends join the enemy. Why did Oscar and Boyd tolerate this man talking to their brother?
Not fair to you, but honestly, there's nothing really making this unfair to anyone. Not nice, but...
Even if Rolf was OK with this, neither of you can shoot at 1 range.
Rolf pulls out his Longbow and takes out his anger on that Sage behind him.
Ike comes around to finish off Shinon. Again, Shinon can't shoot back at 1 range.
Ike has just stabbed Shinon. I probably should've turned animations back on (I play with them off here), but if this was the main playthrough, we'd be seeing the battle animations with ponytail Shinon and no one else around.
Ike tries to get Shinon to help himself.
Shinon proves resistant.
---
Tanith deals with the Blizzard guy. ...Phrased like that, it almost sounds like I'm talking about the real company.
Marcia unloads Sothe, in the lack of any enemies in range. Nice and conveniently, Sothe can reach those treasure chests on his next go.
Since no one was able to change Tanith's weapon, she's about to Short Spear some people in melee.
And not even kill them while she's at it.
Oh come on, more reinforcements with crap TP? What am I supposed to be getting out of this?
These reinforcements, I can do something about.
Mia starts out with a crit.
So does Ilyana. Yeah, they've got this corner covered.
These comical numbers always make me giggle.
Tanith can't reach the boss, and I don't want her to keep using the Short Spear. I think the Tornado would hurt anyway.
The Silence staff will attempt to apply the "Silence" status to a unit within 1-Mg/2 spaces. A Silenced unit will be unable to use magic (tomes or staves) or use the Talk command. Having a Resistance stat can repel this status. You can kinda see the problem.
I'm realising it.
Marcia takes a turn not killing cavaliers in Mist's stead.
Pictured: Titania not doubling something. Titania has officially fallen behind. And she's still our highest levelled character.
If I wasn't going for Ike/Titania A, I'd bench her outright by now.
Mist is humiliating this military installation. And Titania.
Sure you did. Well, I mean, yeah, you lost because we got too close, but that wasn't your fault.
...Sure, that's a level up.
We get his Tornado tome! It'll go in storage and probably get sold when I never get an A rank Wind user.
This, on the other hand, will be going into storage until we recruit one character in particular.
This is another of those levels I'm like "yeah, OK, sure." Not great, but Mia likes these stats.
Finally, one of the ravens transformed.
And Marcia can't oneround it. I wonder if I wanted to feed this to someone afterwards.
It was a moot point.
The other ravens that transform this turn come to meet Marcia.
Marcia doesn't profit from them.
Marcia's Iron Sword broke and she switched to using her Javelin on them.
Mist slaps this guy down. Sadly, you need to hit this guy twice by two different characters to get him to transform early.
Ike gets the Holy Guard to stop so the raven can attack someone who'll get EXP.
Tanith will do, yep. Except...
82% and she missed twice.
Nephenee was a lot luckier.
---
Shinon is still writhing on the floor if Ike beats him. No one else gave him the time of day, not even Mist.
Nah, you're still edgy.
To be fair, Shinon, this is what Ike started.
Why did Shinon dislike Ike even before Greil started randomly grooming him for leadership?
Shinon still doesn't like Ike. I don't think this ever changes.
Well, and other reasons. Shinon believes more strongly in Daein's meritocracy than any other beorc on this continent.
Shinon doesn't remember exactly what he said, but sure, go ahead.
...He has a point.
Shinon doesn't like this implication one bit.
We can work together, even if we don't like one another.
Spoilers, Ike wins. I wonder what the odds are with base Ike vs base Shinon, though...
---
We win!
Ike still hasn't gotten over this "being General" thing.
Yeah, sounds like Ike.
Well, I wouldn't know, he certainly seems like he's appeared often enough over the missions we see.
Nasir, you sold your ship? For us?
Ike is a lot less shocked by this revelation than I am.
Oh, that's reassuring.
...I think.
Yeah... yeah, I guess.
Nasir seems to like us, at least.
WHOO!
Laguz patience, exhausted? I am shocked. SHOCKED!
This coming up is a very powerful thought on a military scale, but... Daein's not some omnipresence over the continent right now. They're just... a moderately crazy and powerful country in the corner that's declared war on everything.
If we were dealing with a supermassive power crushing the entire continent, the fact one country is winning would be very inspiring for the rest of them.
We just need to keep winning. That's all it is. Isn't it?
Again, Ike, if you're making history here, I question the quality of the eight hundred years leading up to now. I mean, Tellius is significantly more pacifist than the real world, but still.
This, though, is really just applicable advice anywhere. Which also makes it somewhat strange for this particular situation.
Ike may not be the leader anyone was hoping for, but with his first victory with the bird tribes, he has proved himself as capable of the task.
This is Ike in a nutshell. He tries to be a good man, and generally succeeds because his opposite number can get that impression and treat him appropriately.
Ike credits his dad with fostering that attitude within him. More power to him.
Sounds like something he'd say. And he'd almost definitely be thinking of the collorary- if you don't treat someone well for following you, they're not going to follow you for much longer.
Yeah... even post-humously, he's giving me actually good reasons to think so. Still not sure what his angle was with grooming Ike to be boss in a hurry, though.
Well, I mean, you can still post-humously surpass him.
Naesala is gobsmacked to find out we just blasted through Tor Garen.
But impressed.
Well, whether we did it is one thing. It's another thing to accept the consequences and plan anew.
Naesala specifies that the messenger he sends must be a human.
This confuses the soldier, since he's thinking purely based on efficiency.
That's not how we do things in the Daein army. This is such a good example of how cruelty in the face of failure does not inspire results, and I don't think it was intentional, but man is it still quietly cool.
Go send an inefficient messenger because you value your hides over the Daein army's strength.
Soren, meanwhile, has a suspicious glare for Nasir.
Yeah, this is about as out of left field as it sounds.
Soren and Nasir seem to have been playing mental chess in the background of this whole thing, though.
Is that so? I must admit it's more valid than the "laguz patience" thing- I mean, they're killing Daeins all the same in the stalemate.
Please, tell us too.
Interesting. Soren's caught on that Nasir has been acting as Gallia's "spy", for want of a better word, in the name of Gallia's support for Elincia's efforts.
Soren's been keeping mum about it, though.
Because it benefitted him. If someone was sneaking around in the shadows to make your lot better... how concerned would you be about stopping them?
Nasir brings up a good point: if that's his reason for staying quiet, why speak up now?
Nasir has done both things he was tasked to do. But he's still following us. He sold his livelihood to do so, too. He must have another angle. And Soren wants to know what.
Nasir decides Soren has no authority to question him.
But Ike does.
...Oh dear. Oh Ashera. If you're familiar with Soren's backstory, you probably know a) what Soren's secret is and b) how Nasir knows it. And Nasir, that is a low blow, man.
Soren takes it well, for what it's worth.
Loud. And. Clear.
Soren leaves Nasir with one last thing to think about.
There's a spy in our midst. Soren has sniffed out "the Worm".
Nasir laughs away his suspicions.
One turn short. Looks at Tanith.
Next time: Where the decision to bench the birds bites us in the butt.
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