And we start right off the bat with a memory again, with Ashera leading us off.
Remember what Yune said about the imbalance of Order and Chaos? Apparently Lehran noticed too.
Lehran is highly concerned about Ashera.
Well, I guess this is normal for Ashera?
Lehran points out that, if this kills her, she won't be able to do anything more for humanity.
And that seems to be the clincher to get Ashera to take the threat seriously.
So this Memory is of the forging of the Covenant in the first place.
The goal of this covenant is to make a world where awakening Yune is of no risk whatsoever. That is, a world where humanity will not cause another war that she'll be so desperate to stop that she'll reset the world over it.
"I should like to hear it again". Part of me feels like Ashera doesn't feel entirely sold on this idea, but the rest of the narration feels like Ashera does kinda want this outcome.
If Lehran, after this order, fails to accomplish what he promised could be done... that doesn't reflect well on him.
So long, ungrateful bastards.
And Lehran makes this pledge, on behalf of Altina, Soan and Deghinsea. I'm going to assume they consented to it in some way before this.
This is what the galdr of release is for. If Lehran has been so successful that the remaining time is a formality...
...or if he's failed so hard there's no point in trying again...
At least having a Branded kid didn't mess that bit up. Imagine if there was no way to sing the galdr!
It'd be a shame if that weren't actually the case 800 years later.
We have arrived.
Prepare to meet our maker.
Yune prepares for that last ditch peace offering.
Already things are going poorly.
Yune, we've got to lead with a better argument than that.
Ashera has made her choice. Lehran made some convincing arguments.
Yune insists she play by the rules. They promised Yune would have a say in this and-
So much for being the goddess of following rules.
Not that Yune would be much help, really. There's no way humanity will ever fulfill the Covenant. There will always be another Lekain.
Yune produces this counterargument, which... I'm not sure this is supposed to be explaining why the "named characters" survived, but is leading into something else.
The goddess did not even create humanity. That was evolution at work!
And this is why the Branded survived. Judgment was meant to wipe out the beorc and the laguz. Nothing said anything about Branded.
Yune is kinda considering Branded the next step in evolution along the lines of "Zunanma" and "beorc and laguz". By which I mean... yeah, maybe, but... when you're using the laguz as a racism metaphor, maybe don't hinge your big good guy's point on evolution?
Yune is happy to see the progress of mankind, no matter it's form. Considering her childishness, I have to wonder if it was intended to be a limp point. Not the right time and place to make it, though.
Ashera is not interested in the power of evolution to solve problems. She doesn't even like humanity as it is, she's not going to trust it's going to turn into something better in thousands of years' time.
Time to wipe out that which you can't control. Just in case you didn't catch on that Ashera is no friend of ours.
おまえにはわからない。
混沌の落とし子……未知と不確定の塊。
おまえは安定を拒み変化を歓迎する。
人の進化…そのようなものはいらぬ。
進化は必ず、その過程において
多く命を巻き添えにする。
この世界は人たちだけのものではない。
私は創造主として世界を守り
秩序と安定を与える。
そこに人などはいらない。
勝手な進化を繰り返す生き物は
世界を不安定にし、脅かす。
ゆえに――
Ashera fleshes out her reasons for not being particularly interested in the evolution of humanity. Among other things, there are living things that aren't humanity on this world Ashera is looking out for. Who knew Ashera was an environmentalist?
Yune has had enough of her opposite number.
It's time to take her down.
Although admittedly, that seems like it will throw a wrench into the plan.
Also, seriously, we're using the generic pre-battle theme right now?
Yune's ultimate plan to defeat a goddess: these girls.
Ashera is as perplexed as the next person.
Ike walks up to have his own chat with the creator. I thought we were clear Ashera didn't create beorc.
Although that does tie into what he says here: Ashera really highlighting the negatives of humanity. We're not exactly rats scurrying around your precious sanctuary.
Yune, he's got a point, and I don't think you're going to stop him anyway.
This is the heart of just peace and an anti-war movement with actual staying power. Humanity is not going to put away its emotions and let peace continue when it doesn't get its way. And if there isn't an open discussion on what the problems are and how to resolve them, war is going to come eventually. And like a pressure valve, trying to keep it tight is only going to end with a burst pipe and a dozen horrible problems.
Humanity will never be inherently peaceful.
And that's OK. The desire to want is what makes us who we are. A perfect peace comes at the cost of freedom.
Yeah... Ike, I don't think that Ashera's going to have high hopes of that after what happened the last time she got told that.
Ike does not realise what I've been talking about. There's a reason we're not putting him in charge of anything.
Besides, there's one thing Ike is good at...
(Music's cut out for these lines.)
Epic zingers. "Make your peace with whatever the gods worship" is the sort of line only Ike could deliver, although Frederick did pick up the more catchy "Pick a god and pray".
Ashera is not particularly swayed by Ike's words.
Now we're talking, music engineer!
"Every battle that mattered" implies he's taken some losses somewhere. I've often heard this quote is almost survivor bias, because of course he's not going to brag about being killed- he'd be dead.
And also roughly a hundred thousand lives you don't care about.
俺は、いままで……
どんなに勝ちめの薄い相手とでも戦い、
最後には勝利してきた。
俺には仲間がいる。
守るべき物が在る。
俺の戦いは常に、
相手の命を奪うためではなく
かけがえのない物を掴み取る…
そのための戦いだ！
行くぞっ！！
Ike doesn't just fight for killing his opponent, but for seizing an objective. Today, Ike is fighting for the lives of everyone he knows and loves, not for the sake of killing Ashera. Even though both have the same outcome.
Who's ready?
Well, it turns out we aren't!
If you got Ike/Soren to A Support in PoR, Transferred that into RD, got Ike/Soren to A Support again in RD, and also unsealed Ike's memories, you get this super-secret last conversation with Soren.
And it starts with a reference to a line of dialogue I still don't really remember for certain. I'm going to assume it's Ike/Soren A Support from PoR, but the INT version, at least, doesn't include Ike having forgotten Ike and Soren's first meeting.
A lot of people, including Ike, come to the reasonable conclusion that, since this happened when Ike was like 6, there's no real reason to expect him to remember it.
It's finally occurred to Ike what happened.
The imagery's only going to get worse from here. But yeah, Soren is a Branded boy living in Gallia. Frankly, it's lucky he was still breathing. Also, remember that "Mother has gone shopping with Mist" bit, that feels relevant.
Soren lived in a tree for at least some of his life. Because that's what peace looks like.
I think we have a rough ballpark estimate on Soren's age, and he is indeed more or less Ike's age, perhaps slightly older. There's a reason he wasn't entirely certain he had stopped aging yet.
And Ike, because he's Ike, decides he's going to put food in the rat-boy's stomach.
And when he ran out, told him to come to his house and get fed by the rest of the Gawains. I wonder how this would go down- I don't doubt for a second that Greil, Elena and Mist would all welcome Soren into the house, but I'm not sure what they're going to think about why he's even abandoned in the first place.
Either Soren's learned this through experience or he had a worse view on humanity than Lehran.
Ike decided he's going to help this boy no matter what. Build their trust in each other. Although I think Elena might be concerned if Ike mentions this at dinner.
"Like I was the only one who'd do that." Probably not true, but the only people who would do that are the people who are never going to talk to the people in power. Until one fateful day where Ike bumped into a princess in peril...
Soren had a friend. No... for the first time in his life, he had someone that appreciated his presence.
And he braved the witch hunts of Gallia for the promise of more time with that boy.
The beorc honestly don't care enough about Brandeds to throw rocks, but if the Gallians think it's important...
The end of laguzkind, the goddess's curse, whatever else they get called.
Unfortunately for Soren, yesterday was a terrible day to make a new friend.
Ike and Soren's first meeting happened the day Greil went Berserk. Ike doesn't realise this, so he doesn't bring it up, but considering how much attention is drawn to the fact Ike doesn't remember living in Gallia or this meeting until now, as well as the fact unsealing his memory is a prerequisite to this conversation, I imagine the idea is that Sephiran's magic was a bit too thorough and it caught this by mistake. Probably for the best- poor Ike would be regretting not helping Soren when Greil gets them all the hell out of the country.
There's a model that appears during Ike's memory, in one of the corners, and my first time seeing it, I was sure it was Soren. A displaced Mist model makes more sense, especially since Soren came after the fact, but still...
Soren, for the chance to find Ike again, packed his bags (nothing but what counted as the clothes on his back) and headed to a foreign nation.
He did bump into laguz on the way, but fortunately for him...
These ones seemed less interested in stoning the Branded.
Not that this is better, it just means Soren is still alive. Reminder that Soren does not yet know he is Branded and what that means.
That's why he's so hostile to the laguz. As a race, they treat him worse than the dirt on their shoes for something he doesn't understand. After he goes to Mainal and reads up on his condition, his understanding of his place in the world allows him to back off from antagonising laguz and worry about other things.
Soren also found himself a place to stop and... well, become capable of looking civilised. Always with the being confused for Spirit Charmers, it comes in handy at just the right times, and fails at all the wrong times too.
With the ability to actually exist in society under his belt, he scoured Crimea for Ike and found him at last.
An Ike who didn't remember Soren at all.
And Soren was glad to take what he could get. Honestly, if Ike treated him as well as he did during their first meeting, that would probably make Ike go up in Soren's estimation- it proves that Ike's genuine and helpful nature isn't a fluke.
And it turns out even Soren, with his heart of ice, can cry.
Ike tells him it's time to let it all out.
Despite his protests.
And in true Ike fashion, Ike insists on being as helpful as possible.
And prepares to help him move on.
I like to call this conversation Ike and Soren's S Rank. And, to be quite honest, it's a hell of a lot more romantic than some Lords get with their supposedly canon spouses. Ephraim/Tana got one scene, and it got outdone in the romance department by its equivalent on Eirika's route- an Eirika/L'Arachel scene! (Not that I won't argue Eirika/L'Arachel is a likely candidate for Eirika's canon spouse, but not in a Tellius blog.) Chrom/Sumia is made canon by a cutscene title and some loose symbolism in some corner somewhere. I don't want to hear a word about Ike/Soren not being canon.
That's not to say Ike/Soren is a romantic couple, however. They fit what is known as a queerplatonic relationship almost to the letter, which is almost exactly what it says on the tin: a friendship that is very definitely too intimate to be a normal friendship but does not fit the romantic box. These are the cornerstone of the asexual identity, and important to have around in a well-represented cast of the gender identity and sexuality spectrum. This was also a game released in 2007 and homosexuality was considered... well, reminder that someone outright asked the FE devs if Heather was gay because she was traumatised. Ike/Soren is definitely supposed to be gay, possibly asexual homoromantic, and maybe Ike might be tempted to stop fighting things long enough to consider women, but Soren is clearly not looking for alternative romances, no matter with whom.
Unfortunately, someone on the dev team in 2013 thought there was absolutely no harm in putting a man claiming to be a descendant of Ike into their Fire Emblem swansong...
...
OK, this did not occur to me at all during recording, but can we just take a moment to acknowledge that, right after the Ike/Soren stuff comes the finalising of Mist's gay romance with Jill? Mist is very definitely supposed to have a canon husband, but still.
Oh, by the way, the Library has our MVP stats for individual parts of Endgame. Here's everyone all at once. Just a bunch of Queens.
Elincia is done with her level ups with this one, which I believe is perfect. I now have no more use for BEXP.
Just feed it all to the dragon king! He needs to live up to his dad's reputation, right?
Anyway, I think we could take a look at the ending of our party.
There's going to be a lot of omnicaps scattered around.
One day, you'll get the boost. The +15 Def is because of the Rudol Gem.
Like I said, a lot of omnicaps.
And someone who just missed out on Magic. It's the Wolf Queen!
Elincia's final stats. For not having cared that much about trying to meet the caps from the beginning, five of them isn't bad.
Leanne hasn't capped HP, but because HP is separate from the other stats, this screen still looks impressive.
By the way, this is how Kurth turned out. If you're training him yourself, you're going to want to use Parablossom to try and get him some Skill. The accuracy could come in handy.
Our final battle is against Ashera, her eight other selves, and three Spirits. They get reinforcements sometimes. I won't have to worry about any of them.
Here is the goddess Ashera, in all her "not actually omnicapped" glory. I get why her stats are where they are, but they probably should've set these stats as her caps. With that said, though, 15 Magic? I don't care if your Judgment has 50 Might, what kind of Goddess are you?
When they say "her attacks have myraid form and effect", they're not lying. Ashera can unleash AoE spells and single-target siege spells in both Physical and Light Magical flavours. All rated at 50 Might (although AoE physical is 52 Might instead). The key to the Ashera fight is knowing that she will perform these attacks in a predictable sequence, and there's plenty of Cover and Wardwood lying around.
That's just Mantle they're talking about. Well, one other gimmick, but we'll get to that later.
Race: ???
SS Weapon Ranks: Yes.
That 87 Weight feels like it's specifically to spite Gareth (his Weight is like 84), but Shove uses the Shover's Con.
How does she only have one Skill?
Five Authority Stars. About what I expected. Also no heartbeat- also what I expected. Not unique to her, though.
Say hello to Ashera's eight friends. They won't be attacking us, and they're a little leaner on the defences, but they are the greatest obstacle to Ashera.
And this is why. This is Counter, but 100% of the time. Your offensive is determined by which four characters have the Nihil skill and which two have the Parity skill. They should be doing most of the work.
This is who I went with. Your Parity users should be so good they can work without support of any kind. Sanaki and Jill have Support options, Elincia needs Support, and Sigrun's just the weak link. I actually could've had Nephenee do it, but I had an erroneous assumption.
And, last but not least, we have a new friend before batttle begins.
If you completed the bonus conditions to unseal Ike's memory, Lehran will join your side.
To Ashera's surprise.
Lehran knows he was in the wrong.
It was a moment of weakness, and everyone paid for it.
All in all, Lehran had better plans.
But this time, he's going to do the right thing.
Ashera decides that she's had enough of mortal advisors.
Well, that wasn't going to happen.
So now it's time to show off the final boss theme: A Grasping Truth. This is not a bombastic tune, and it's not really in the running for the song I want to play on loop when I'm pumped. But it's very clearly not aiming for that role- it's got a mood it wants to set (fighting against the overwhelming power of a goddess) and it knows exactly how to hit it. I think this is probably one of the better songs on that note alone.
Yune is here for one last word of advice.
Ashera is invincible until all eight Auras have been destroyed.
Hm, Lehran has Yune's Blessing, but he lost Creiddylad somewhere and only has the Ashera Staff. This is the only place to acquire it, yes, and it's valuable here, but Lehran has to steal Micaiah's weapon to really put in work. Also, he's found some Speedwings on the way over.
I brought Kurthnaga to the final boss fight for a conversation. He does have stats now.
Lehran is actually familiar with Kurth.
Hanging around his house tends to allow that to happen.
Kurth was not among those informed.
Presumably, Kurth would've been let in on the secret when he was a little older, perhaps. I'd certainly like an explanation on who Lehran is and why he's running around Goldoa if he's going to be running around Goldoa.
私の存在は…隠されていましたから。
それでも、デギンハンザーはよく
幼い君にだけは会わせてくれました。
Apparently Deghinsea had a say in who Lehran should be meeting while in Goldoa?
Kurth knew has fond memories. Technically.
Ike also has something to say to Lehran while he's here.
Lehran apologises to Ike about this mess.
Ike assures him that, even though he feels he is of no help, trying to lend a hand is help enough. He's proving himself willing to do the deeds, even if he is not capable of actually succeeding.
And Ike has successfully charmed another politician with his simplicity.
Ike points out we're busy.
"Now keep standing in the corner."
Meg starts by killing a Spirit. She has no Blessed weapon on her person (...no, Alondite doesn't count), so she's of no help fighting Ashera.
Now then, onto Ashera herself... there's one thing I've alluded to in her description, and that's her difficulty. Ashera is famously the hardest, most complicated and/or most well-designed Fire Emblem final boss in the series, on account of bringing more than stats to her Endgame. And I agree- Ashera has a point to prove. On Normal difficulty.
You remember the whole +5 Speed thing, right? Ashera's Auras are so fast that the only things that are supposed to double them are Swordmasters and powerful Laguz. With the +5 Speed, that extends to like half my team. And some people with 34 Speed also have massive Atk stats. This is going to snowball badly in our favour.
The Auras in the corners are standing on Cover, the Auras on the sides are standing on Wardwood. You want to make sure your Nihils and Parities are distributed such that you have a roughly equal offensive presence to cover both. Sigrun, Jill and Elincia are going to hit the Wardwood Auras, so Sanaki aims for the Cover ones along with Nailah and Astrid, who can literally just nope away the Cover.
This is technically the first use of Rexflame with combat animations, isn't it?
...Dangit, I can't kill this one with a Siege tome. He's going to be a massive pain, isn't he? I don't really have the tools to kill him with other means.
...This one, though...
I would like to highlight how little effort I had to put in to destroying this Aura. On Normal mode, you have to put in some solid effort to take one out, and often multiple Nihil/Parity units.
This is still Turn 1.
Does Jill really need the boost from Mist Support?
...Well, that's one way to reply to that dialogue.
Ah, dangit. Aurora won't apply on the killing blow, which helps our offensive presence out a ton, but we do still get some points where we just have to bite the counter.
Here's Astrid wiping out an Aura with Parity.
This map is going to be over before these two get to transform if they use items. Time for the one semi-legitimate use of the Valor galdr in the game!
...Not that Ena was going to be much use transformed.
Oh come on, you didn't have to miss.
This is why Elincia is using Nihil and not Parity. She can benefit from Blood Tide.
Something something deleting an Aura in one round.
Here is Lyre defeating an Aura. You ever just want to be absurd about how much you're using an "unusable" character?
This is what Sigrun's doing. Not terrible, but not impressive. Nephenee can double Auras, since her Speed cap is 34, but I was under the mistaken impression you needed 35 Speed to double. 39 Speed is not a benchmark that most characters hit without also hitting 40.
And the Auras I didn't finish off get healed by Mantle. You really want to kill an Aura on the turn you start attacking it.
Also, Spirits have a weak 2-range heal they can use on Auras, also not listed on their stat pages.
For some reason, Ashera herself doesn't attack on Turn 1 on Easy Mode. It's pathetic.
That's enough out of you.
Thanks for the boost, Leanne! +1 Mag, but a boost nonetheless.
Sigrun reminds this Aura to lower its HP.
I have no idea who this quote is designed for, but Lyre's smugness at being a better unit than Ena.
At least she can hit the Auras.
...Lehran can't talk to Sanaki. Dang. Well, that puts a wrench in my plans.
Micaiah uses her turn to Talk to Lehran, though.
Micaiah has kinda come to a realisation about Lehran.
Although Lehran doesn't want to talk about it in detail yet.
Not because the conversation is unpleasant, because we are in the middle of a battle and that isn't the time for this conversation.
The irony is, for some reason, Ashera will not counterattack either Micaiah or Lehran if they attack her.
Micaiah seems put out by Lehran's decision.
Not that she's keen to share.
Lehran offers a helping hand. I'm going to assume JP is more clear on what's going on here.
Not really?
That sure got Micaiah off-guard.
...Come on, Micaiah!
Well, that's an Aurora bullet.
At least it's an excuse for Mist to finish, acting first this turn.
And these two seal their A Support.
When all you have is an Urvan...
Astrid and Ilyana finish this Aura over here.
And Lyre gets one more Aura kill.
That's the Aura down in two turns. This is very definitely not something you do in Normal.
Ashera doesn't have confidence in us to succeed in this mission.
Elincia has her ways. Note, by the way, that Blood Tide also boosts Skill. Ashera is very dodgy, and Parity is helpful for some accuracy.
Ashera has no faith in humanity to do anything more than die under her mighty Judgment.
To be fair, that is big magic.
But still. 2/3 health with Elincia. This is also not a particularly normal occurrence, come to think of it.
Leanne has to Vigour Sanaki for the last Lehran conversation.
She has some choice words for her former father figure turned traitor.
Words Lehran has no idea how to respond to.
Sanaki... goes right for the gut.
A father figure that has destroyed her spirit so utterly has to be punished for it, after all.
I feel like the tone of this conversation is being done entirely through how the characters are speaking to each other. There's a lot of elbow room for how mad Sanaki is at Lehran for his trick.
Although I have no idea how Sanaki plans to produce a pool of rancid butter to swim in. I feel like you could do the job just fine with a tub to dunk his head in.
- Sanaki:
- よく戻ったな、セフェラン。
- Lehran:
- ……サナキ様、私は……
- Sanaki:
- もう勝手なことは許さんぞ。
- Lehran:
- …え？
- Sanaki:
- そなたは、私の臣下じゃ。
主を残して死ぬことなど……
決して許さんからな。
- Lehran:
- …………はい……
- Sanaki:
- ん。それでいい。
Whatever it is Sanaki has planned for Lehran in JP, I can't quite understand with machines. I wonder if this will help reveal the tone of the conversation- JP is good at conveying tone through text alone.
Oh, and by the way, Ashera?
That's some Judgment you have there. Imagine Kurth adjacent to her, and I think I can almost negate her counterattack entirely. Almost.
Anyway, time to finish this up.
Ashera has been defeated. No death quote, oddly.
Ashera: It is tragic that you are too limited to see how hopeless this is. You cannot hope to defeat the divine.
Ike: You’re right. We can’t hope to defeat you.
Ashera: Then why continue?
Ike: You haven’t left us much choice. I’d rather die like this instead of being turned into some mindless statue.
Ashera: Simpleminded fool…
Ashera doesn't understand the simple desire to die on one's own terms.
Ashera: Don’t waste your energy, fleshling. You are physically unable to harm me.
Micaiah: Yune… I’m fine. I can hear you. No, I’m not afraid. I know you’re with me.
I wonder if Micaiah is somewhat protected by Yune's presence? If so, that is definitely cheating.
Ashera: Ah, son of the dragon king… You may be the greatest among the enfleshed, but you are no match for me.
Kurthnaga: Goddess Ashera, please listen to me. We know that we are clearly imperfect, but you, unnaturally created of pure order… Might that not be considered an imperfection?
Ashera: No, I am perfect. Free of emotion, I have no doubts. Therefore I commit no errors.
For some reason, Ashera has something to say to Kurth. And it's actually a pretty good one. Ashera knows Deg best and extrapolates Kurth to be particularly great as a result. Which is, surprisingly, a nice imperfection to show off before Kurth's line. The two disagree greatly on the nature of imperfection. Ashera's position almost feels like it comes off as "you can't polish off your spots", in a way. No matter what Ashera does, she is still somewhat beholden to emotion and irrationality.
Ashera: Lehran, you have joined my enemies?
Lehran: My goddess… Never before have I defied you in even the least thing. But I have seen the error of my ways and wish to save the people whom I once desired to destroy. I am one man, and my life is precious. How much more precious are the lives of the countless multitudes?
And a nice reference to "a million is a statistic" thinking to end us off. Think about how many lives were lost in the course of both games, all because Lehran wanted to wake the goddess. He has a new cause to live for now.
Well, that's everything cleaned up nicely.
Time to return to our petrified friends.
...Well, they were in the middle of a battle, should we be worried about that?
Ike, they were fighting unending hordes of Disciples of Order. Weren't they?
...
You've gotta be kidding me!
(On Normal Mode, this heals all 120 of her health.)
Ike is confused as hell.
This is almost definitely cheating.
Ashera claims perfect immortality. As a goddess... not entirely out of her capacity.
Micaiah rallies herself to rally Ike for one last push.
Although Ashera dismisses our odds.
Micaiah is rather insistent Ike ought to do the deed.
Ike will do whatever it takes. No matter who gets put in his way.
When we die. And even then, I don't reckon our ghosts will go down without a fight.
So yeah. If you want to kill Ashera, you're going to have to do it with Ike. By the way, Skill was one of the stats he did cap, that accuracy stings.
This is almost certainly because they wanted to tie a cutscene to this moment, and in this style, they had to choose one candidate for the job. In a theoretical remake, the solution to this would be to tie the finishing blow mechanic to Micaiah's presence and/or Sacrifice skill, and use the advancements of in-engine cinematics to allow other units to get the kill. I'm fine with Micaiah not being capable of it, the whole "Ashera won't attack her" thing helps out there.
By the way, here's Micaiah with the Matrona Staff. A lot of Light Priestess/post-canon Micaiah artwork does the same, and here it's already been started in-game.
The thing we need to defeat Ashera is Yune's power. I guess half a god can overthrow the other half with help.
I'd certainly trust Ike with it over some candidates. Never let Tibarn get this.
When humanity stands strong and people reach out for each other...
There is no need for gods.
Ashera.
Your duty is done.
Your reign of tyranny is over!
The time has come.
I'm ending this once and for all!
And Yune leaves Ike with that done. I'm sure it's unhealthy for Yune to stick around.
Yune first appears as a phoenix, before assuming her child form. She only appears in child form in this cutscene in-game, but she has proper colours in her official art and this form is used for her appearances in Heroes and Cipher.
Ike actually takes a step back when Yune approaches. To be fair, it's a being made entirely of blue fire, probably not entirely safe to touch.
Ike is happy to have a chat nonetheless.
Yune, too, plans on leaving humanity to its own devices.
In Yune's eyes, it is the gods who have failed their creations. There is nothing positive Yune is adding to the world.
So she figures it's in her best interest to go. Though she doesn't seem happy about the idea.
Ike is ready to talk her down from this plan.
Although he doesn't have a counterargument prepared.
Yune isn't really contributing to this world, but she's a great help to the people in terms of giving them a reason to put one foot in front of the other.
There's almost a parallel here between this and the argument Manuela makes about religion to Edelgard in their A Support. Humanity does not need God to solve their problems, but they need to believe there is a System that will support them if they try to do the right thing. A world in which people don't believe change is possible is a world in which change will never happen.
Something about the dramatic pause for emphasis just makes me laugh, for some reason. But considering Elincia's line about the petrification taking away "freedom, everywhere", there's a definite parallel between the physical confinement of petrification and the mental confinement of not believing you can make a difference.
I'm not entirely sure what this question is supposed to be about if asked in the general sense, but for some reason, I think there's a good chance that Yune is asking this question in a personal sense to Ike. Yune killed his mother and was responsible for getting his father killed too.
Ike certainly takes the question in the general sense.
As long as Yune is prepared to do the right thing, what should be stopping her from getting forgiven for her past mistakes?
The Serenes transcript's version of this line is "[Deliberately blank]", which I find hilarious. But in context, Yune has been rendered speechless by Ike's earnestness.
Ike has one frame of mind for how to consider his allies, and he sticks by it no matter how ridiculous a situation he finds himself in.
If there's one point for the writers to be Stating The Message as simply as possible, it would have to be here, and they definitely went in that direction. Tellius is not just about racism- it is about talking to people you don't understand and discussing how you can come to mutual benefits. It is about ending conflicts through diplomacy and analysing the root cause of the problem and taking steps to address it.
And, with nothing more than Ike being Ike, Yune is ready to try, once again, to guide humanity. It's amazing how far this one man can get just by being himself.
And Yune disappears.
Although she has her own ways of making an impact on the world.
Next time: Time to finish Ike's story.
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