Just us muddling our way through a thicketed forest, seems simple enough. At least we're letting Tibarn have fun, at least on a normal run.
Well now that's a surprise!
Valtome and his zero authority stars will be our opponent today. Which means we finally get to stick Amiti where the sun don't shine!
Despite obstensibly being Good enough to use Light magic at all, the Senate's grubby corrupted hands have not left Light magic uncorrupted. This is indeed the second-most powerful Light spell we can get our hands on short of the ultimate Light magic, and it's... Venin, for some reason. The poison will not be helpful. By the way, yes, the fact that it starts with "Val" is an intentional reference to Valtome (the Japanese names for both being "バルオーラ" and "バルテロメ").
By the way, our phase jingle for the Hawk Army is Crimean Royal Knights. I guess Tibarn didn't have his own anyway.
Already we're fishing for crits. I guess this is the Lucia we had in 2-2, but we literally have not had a chance to use her since.
Strength. We need Strength. And Speed, probably, before we embarass ourselves and don't double something.
Laura can take this guy down here.
Oh. Well, let's look up what that spell is.
This is a new Mastery skill for RD (Rhys used Flare in PoR), and honestly, Flare was already kinda bad in this game, it did not need to get worse. The name, of course, is part of a general love for the word "corona" as in the Spanish word for crown (and in this case, probably its use in referring to the part of the sun visible in a solar eclipse). 2020 well and truly ruined that word for the next century.
Fiona finishes off this guy for some EXP of her own. Fiona can always get plenty.
No, she's still not actually in range of any enemies here. Those thickets choke movement too much.
Elincia is going to try and finagle a Lucia support because same reasons I did Ilyana/Heather.
Taking down the Generals down here.
"Is she capping things?"
"Probably."
Lyre runs up and uses some Olivi Grass.
I think it says a lot about the power of thickets that this move actually blocks this knight from progressing anywhere other than hitting Lyre, even with Lethe right behind her with Bond Support.
Tibarn waits back here for a little bit, he's got something to do real quick.
You? Sneak up on anyone? Don't make me laugh.
I'm so scared.
Lyre is not. For some reason she's two shotting something untransformed. I was told there'd be Lyre.
OK, I'll be honest, four stats was not what I was expecting out of Blossom, but she does have six stats to gain and one of them is Magic.
Pelleas finally got away from Mum.
And Tibarn immediately tries to send him back.
Pelleas wants to help. Whatever it takes, he will do it. He just happens to have the misfortune of being told he had more power than he did and other people knew that better than he did.
Tibarn is wondering what happened to Almedha. Hopefully she's not on her own being eaten by wolves.
...OK, I know we had the whole "let's kill everyone in this room!" in 3-E, but that is the last thing Almedha is ever going to tell Pelleas.
Spineless blob gets cowed into not doing what he wants by the madman that is Tibarn.
Unfortunately, this playthrough is going to take Tibarn's side. Fortunately, Tibarn doesn't get to have fun either.
As funny as it would be to have Lyre kill this guy with her legs, I need to move around more.
Lyre is going to be taking position here.
And Calill can finish up this general.
...Well, this round of combat took its time.
You'd think Calill would be capable of massive levels, but for some reason she just isn't.
At least she's gaining actual Weapon Ranks.
Lethe makes sure no one sneaks past the cats. She'll probably get some fun after Lyre.
Ooh boy, free feeding kill!
Lucia will take what she can get.
Fiona doesn't have to worry about not one-rounding things!
She also doesn't have to worry about meagre levels. If you're curious what the stat comparison is between omnicapped Fiona and Astrid, Fiona has more HP and Def, Astrid has more Skill, Spd and Res. Unfortunately for Fiona, I think this is a comparison Astrid wins.
I think one of the funny parts about me grinding weapon ranks so much in this game is that I have no real idea what weapons I expect to be using with them. Using Bows on Fiona is for the Brave Bow, Steel Longbow, Silver Bow and Silencer, and somehow I don't see Fiona using any of them before Astrid. At least B Rank Lances gives Astrid Killers and Steel Greats.
...Oh, this again. I wonder if it's possible to fix this with a line of code.
Elincia gets to kill the last one. It's time for her to get EXP from kills seriously too!
By the way, yes, I did take off Mercy. I haven't sold it yet, though, I'm considering the merits of Mercy + Disarm. I don't think it'll work out this run, though.
Tibarn will lug Pelleas around. Reinforcements appear here in Normal Mode, and I wasn't 100% certain if Easy had the same batch.
Well, Lyre's pushing her luck a little bit without a thicket.
Yow, pegasus knight! I guess there were more of these after Catalena's!
If this pegasus had gone for Lyre, it could've moved away and left a spot for her neighbour. With this order in mind, this one has to go for Lethe. It doesn't end well for her.
Lucia hoping desperately (and vainly) to get some crits with her critty weapon.
I don't particularly want Calill to be spending her time healing, but I don't think I want Laura or Elincia to be covering this and Calill is still getting Staff EXP. Granted, so is Laura, but...
Lethe gets a pegasus kill to allow Lyre to start moving.
She's done being untransformed. Time to claw things!
...Lyre is so powerful right now, isn't she? I can scarcely wrap my head around it.
Speaking of Astrid using lances, she wants to have one up for next turn and uses it instead of shooting down a pegasus. Lance vs Bow is a decision you want to keep in mind.
Now you're just showing off.
...A lot.
Laura's turn to get a fed kill.
By the way, remember how I said Defence wasn't important for Laura to get from BEXP before this mission? That's her Defence cap. Saints have the same deal as female Swordmasters where their Tier 2 cap + their promotion bonus caps their tier 3 Defence. In Laura's case, it's actually overkill- female Bishops cap Defence at 17 and Saints at 21, where Laura got 5 Def from promoting.
You know what didn't occur to me until now? Lucia using a Brave Sword is hilarious as hell considering what her girlfriend's got. But still, I'm breaking out the Brave Sword to make sure Lucia gets some kills.
And some Strength and Defence. I don't think Lucia will be automatically capping Trueblade Defence (for one thing, the bonus is equal for them).
Fiona gets a lance kill herself.
She wasn't quite done with them.
And Elincia takes her last side, not being able to get anywhere and back here.
Tibarn makes sure to stay out of trouble.
Lyre is just kind of obscene. I think laguz in general are supposed to grow into characters as powerful as their kings, transformation mechanics permitting, but the method with which you're supposed to build them is just so antithetical to traditional Fire Emblem play that no sane person would do it as a legitimate strategy. And then you notice the fact that the royals have multiple mechanical advantages even without considering Formshift...
...Ah. This is going to get...
..That's a lot of attacks with that Brave Sword. 20% of it was used up right here. And I can't even say it was well used.
You're kidding me, already down to 5?
Time to use Calill to clear a path.
Flare continuing to not oneshot.
Yay?
Tibarn and Pelleas are going to live here this battle. This is where an Arms Scroll is.
...Tibarn is on a downer, dammit, that makes things inconvenient.
I think Astrid's worry is surprisingly well-founded.
She gets the crossbow.
Lyre is going to use Olivi here and get some more combat.
Lucia can kill the axeman. WTA giving +1 Atk seems to have saved her here.
Speed cap.
Elincia breaks out the big guns to take down armours. She waits until the last hit to roll Stun this time, but that gives her more Sword rank! I guess.
Her level is doing just fine. 26 Speed, though, that's surprisingly low in the cohort.
I was saying about Elincia's Sword rank? There is benefit to this, but I don't see it panning out unless really necessary.
Laura takes out the General. I think the thickets meant this is as far as she could go by walking south-west.
This guy does have a siege tome on higher difficulties. Easy to pick off right now.
Go Fiona.
She comes back around here to bait out some wyverns. Well, one, from this position.
Lethe chokepoints in case of surprise Pelleas attack.
0/0/0, now I really feel like Lyre is a homegrown Nailah.
Not that 0/12/0 is practically different.
Lethe got to have a round of combat- I guess Lyre was just too terrifying. Not that Lethe spared his life.
...Well, that wyvern missed.
Hm, this part is going to get a little tricky. We're in Physic territory, a bunch of ranged units Lyre can't counterkill, and the pegasi are stretched over the place.
Lyre attacks this turn.
Another four stat level up, but with Strength, this one was well placed.
...By the way, HP cap. Admittedly, she used a Seraph Robe.
Lyre doesn't journey too far forward either.
It's impressive, how Lethe is still not actually "inferior Lyre" quite yet. Although right now, her advantages aren't looking much like such.
Hm, not sure this one is either fitting or funny.
The precision feeding. Lucia is using a Wind Edge because she wants to bait some mages over.
Perfect level up to get for the job. Skill/Res cap.
Laura deals with this guy.
Faster! Faster!
Elincia heals Lucia for Support points.
Lucia does not do a good job of counter-killing.
This pegasus was the one to get Lyre out of shifted state. Not that I'd terribly mind Lyre going a round of combat unshifted, although at range, it wouldn't give Lyre massive EXP.
Well, this didn't go great for Lucia.
Resolve comes into play now, though!
That could've been much scarier than it was.
...That could've been a much better level up. Lucia, you're competing with Mia.
And here comes the Physic staff. He doesn't have anything else in his inventory and won't drop it, so I have no real way to take it even if I had Heather.
Some fresh meat for Lyre.
Calill heals her up to be sure.
Now there are some stats. You're competing with Sanaki.
Lyre Olivi Grasses up, although perhaps I should've let her work unshifted a little while longer than she did.
I was worried about the position of this lot, but they have the Arms Scroll now (Pelleas got a good biorhythm going.)
Astrid overkills a pegasus knight.
A Panacea is an upgraded Antitoxin that cures the user of any status condition they happen to possess. This sounds good until you remember it's a manual proc and only one non-Poison status allows the user to use an inventory item- Silence.
Lethe switches Calill to a tome and puts her in range of a crossbowman.
Lucia is going to get to work fighting while in Resolve some more.
Actual critical chance, go!
Laura takes this guy.
Again?
Honestly, a heal isn't the worst idea in the world, Resolve rampages are just fun.
OK, so both of you can get Calill, noted.
Don't worry, that was technically a zero! Silver Poleaxes aren't very good at landing their damage.
Also in terms of "people in this round of combat who have trouble landing their damage.
OI!
...Well this got awkward.
Yeah, see, if I had reverted Lyre here, she could get some untransformed combat in and with how the battle ends, wouldn't even inconvenience me.
These two are going somewhere completely enemy free now.
I'm still rolling the dice on these things.
...Sighs HP Cap. Not that her caps are going to matter for long.
Taking out the healer with extreme prejudice.
...Sadly, omnicap is now a level 12 thing at the earliest.
More healing people with Calill.
Some more Magic would be lovely.
Staff rank!
...I don't think I have, or intend to acquire, any B Rank Staves anymore. Recover and Sleep, those aren't great picks.
Down with the Spear user!
And get this guy out of the way because wyverns are awful to have lying around.
Although that leaves Laura with little to do.
Elincia continues getting some massive stat gains, although Queen does have high caps to match. I'm not sure Elincia really gets to use BEXP.
These Thunder mages started life as the bottom front's problem. Well, we are basically combining forces now.
Lyre is really flourishing with Kysha somewhere else.
I think both of these guys had hit chances. The Silver Sword guy had more, but it was still ~17.
You might be wondering what Trueblade Lucia looks like without her haircut. The answer is there's no such model. In the original version made, the only way to promote a unit was with a Master Crown, and the player didn't acquire their first one until after Lucia's haircut. However, with the limit on promotion gone in INT, it is possible to feed Lucia all the EXP available in 2-2 and promote her to Trueblade there, at which point she will get an inexplicable haircut on her promoted model. I imagine the players who deliberately engineered this outcome know about the haircut already, and even if they didn't, there's stuff like Soren promoting from a black robe to a white robe.
Compared to level 1 Trueblade Mia, she's -1 Str, +7 Mag, -6 Luck, -7 Def, +2 Res. And Mia promoted in 3-3. The Res advantage is the only thing going for her, but Mia's capped that now, I'm fairly sure.
On the plus side, Mia has not yet acquired as much Magic as Lucia currently has!
Elincia's Renewal robbing Laura of Staff EXP.
Lyre continues to keep up her charge.
Perfect!
This was a complicated chokepoint to work out, and I overthought- I was supposed to leave this guy alive for Lucia to Wind Edge.
Elincia did just fine. Although yeah, she should probably get some Speed soon.
Thickets being thickets.
Astrid traded so Calill is using a different weapon, that's why she can't attack. She's going to attract attention anyway, so...
Well, Lethe helps. This is actually a chokepoint she's standing in, since two tiles diagonal to her are walls.
Apparently 0/0/0 isn't a Lyre thing.
Lyre herself untransforms and stays here. She smells reinforcements, and it's a waste to Grass her up.
Crit chances that actually work! Wonders of the Trueblade class!
Another kill for Calill, and...
The Fire excites me more than the level.
Aha, a weaken!
These guys are a little tough for some of my units, apparently.
Laura working hard on that.
A x2 from Elincia! It is a swordmaster, but still.
Fiona does not struggle with the other Halberdier.
Magic cap for the innate Imbue user. Yeah, she heals herself for 1/3 of her HP innately and she's probably not due an Endgame slot.
And get rid of one of these guys. Also Physics with nothing else.
This whole "Disciple" thing makes the Senate more than a little insane. Implying they weren't already.
This is honestly a pretty common Fire Emblem villain archetype: they always seem to have one of these vain fops who think they deserve everything they have and more and don't actually have much in the way of actually proving that alleged claim. I'm tempted to say Valtome is the most memorable entirely because he's the only one I can think of, but that's just as much on me as it is his competition. I know FE13's Excellus is cut from the same cloth.
I think if Zelgius could see you now, he'd gladly remove your head from your shoulders. His blessing canonically beats yours.
Valaura, in addition to the flavour text, is also using the same animation as the SS Light magic.
Lyre knew there would be company here.
And look at that, the one ranged unit is someone she can deal with on the first go. The other three are going to clean themselves up.
Lucia picks up some more EXP.
...She could've done so much better.
Now then, I believe I promised some Amiti-to-Valtome action?
The immaculateness of your nails is much an indictment of your sloth as it is praise of your stylist's talents.
Elincia, your heart really is too big. I'm not sure the Disciples can retreat, anyway.
...Was the insult on Elincia's appearance really necessary?
What sort of position do you think you're in? The Senate really do have some messed up power fetishes.
Elincia: "I can't believe there really is someone so despicable that I'm becoming a less evil person for killing him."
As one last comment, Valtome's battle model has a mitre while his map model does not. Idle curiosity. I think he still does have Valtome's ugly mug underneath that funny hat, though.
There's the Speed.
I assure you, he doesn't care.
I barely care about this, and it's me receiving an item!
Valtome: Zelgius… Where is Zelgius?! Do you think you can hide him? That man… must be… uwee hee hee… punished!
Tibarn: Sorry to disappoint you, but Zelgius is my prey. There’s no chance I’m passing him on to the likes of you.
Valtome seems to think Zelgius is in this army, and demands to be allowed to do Valtome things to him. He really is off his rocker.
Valtome: Oh, how quaint…a bird. Do you seek to defeat me? Haven’t you herons learned it’s not safe to play with senators? Uwee hee hee! Beg for my mercy!
Reyson: Mercy will be done when you and your fellows are gone from this world.
Reyson really gets what it takes to be a truly peaceful society- you can't show mercy to the people who would make life dismal for others. Intolerant of intolerance, as it were.
Valtome: The so-called queen… Where is that brazen little hussy? Bring her before me! Now! Right away! Immediately!
Ranulf: Are you the best Ashera could do? This really is the end of the world.
The hell? They just really wanted Valtome to be a hateable little puddle of filth. Ranulf's right- Ashera is only hurting herself by including this man in her army.
Valtome: Ah, a Crimean soldier, yes? Ugh! That queen of yours has no style! What ridiculous armor! You go out in that?
Kieran: I will brook no insult to my queen or my armor! You face Kieran, second commander of the Royal Knights… and your doom!
Valtome doesn't have dialogue with Lucia, for some reason, and I imagine Kieran is playing substitute for Geoffrey. I know asking for personalised boss quotes for nearly everyone is too much to ask (mostly), but damn, they took "make Valtome say something Valtome to Kieran" and hit it out of the park!
Valtome: You are no soldier! Who are you, boy?
Pelleas: I… I am Pelleas, king of Daein.
Valtome: Oh, how precious! I was hoping that I’d meet the simpering moron who signed the blood pact with Lekain… How funny! Uwee hee hee!
Pelleas: Y-you will regret this!
It's Pelleas's join map, and Valtome does have a connection to Pelleas, but it's very slight and they demonstrate that these two aren't that connected. This is a chance to show Pelleas is out of his depth and that Valtome really has no respect for him- not that he had much respect for Elincia and Zelgius, but he clearly seems to treat them as opponents and not just specks of dirt on his shoe.
Calill heals up Lethe. No Restores over here, but it's not that big a deal, and Restore is more important elsewhere.
...Fiona can Rescue transformed Lethe? Since when?
Laura heals up Lucia for Staff rank.
And Lyre gets to have one last round of Nailah-adjacent battle numbers.
No Rend, but crits come out just the same. And no third level. I think she genuinely could've gotten some Big Caps if she secured it, but I don't want to give her Blossom for the next map, it's too wasteful.
Tibarn enjoyed watching as everyone else fought the enemy. I now kind of want to see Tibarn/Lyre.
Yes, Tibarn, it is very difficult to explain with words the emotions you are experiencing right now. I won't pretend I've got a better grasp on it.
Elincia doesn't enjoy the "killing people" part of this experience.
Peace is important, but so is fighting... I think this problem is going to need something well thought-out in order to not become a big deal later on down the line once we're out of people to kill.
- Tibarn:
- いい面構えだ。
やっぱり、【負】も不可欠なもんだって
これで分かっただろう？
- Elincia:
- それでも……
戦いは好きになれません。
- Tibarn:
- それでその戦い方か。
自分の命を狙ってくる相手に
止めを刺さずにおく……
ま、ある意味、
度胸のある行為だろう。
思うがままぶちのめすより、余程な。
- Elincia:
- からかわないでください。
私は…！
- Tibarn:
- 褒めてんだよ。
あんたはそのままでいい。
自分の道を貫き通せ。
- Elincia:
- ティバーン様……
ありがとうございます。
Tibarn teases Elincia about her Mercy skill in the context of this argument- and also praising her for taking a road beyond just killing her enemies and getting it over with. Pegasusknight says something about what "still having Mercy equipped" does for this conversation, but it might just be "it still triggers even if she doesn't have Mercy".
Tibarn also pauses to praise Pelleas for that combat he totally participated in. If you want to raise Pelleas, you want to get him a bunch of levels and try and cap his stats- he should be in Tier 3 before next mission.
Poor boy is exhausted.
Welcome to doing physical exercise while out of shape.
Probably for the best he's not turning out at all like his father.
- 【狂王】アシュナードの
血を分けた息子にしては、
ずいぶんひ弱にできたもんだ。
Tibarn appears to have meant to denigrate with his use of "mama's boy". It's a very punny choice of words and I always thought it literal.
Almedha gets a conversation of her own too. This one has Pelleas very easily removable.
We're going to have some words between Elincia and Almedha.
Elincia really is just "Mist as a Queen", right down to treating Almedha like Mist treated Jill and Volke.
Almedha's self-esteem is in the pits, and while part of that is on herself, she really doesn't have much in common with her cohorts, does she? She's a laguz who married the worst beorc currently known to mankind- although I think people like Valtome are going to start stealing his spot when this is over.
This sort of line can come off badly if you misread the situation, but in this case, I think Pelleas totally will feel more receptive given some time. Granted, this might also depend on how much he knows about a later reveal- I think Pelleas does kind of figure it out by now, but he certainly hasn't gotten a formal reveal on it. The audience definitely doesn't.
Almedha isn't as optimistic as Elincia.
Elincia is actually pretty close in age to Pelleas. The apparent ages listed in the artbook are 19 and 21.
Elincia's parents are dead. She won't have much to say about her relationship with her parents. Besides, she never knew them that well as it was. Although when put like that, I wonder what's going on with the Delbray parents.
Elincia would like to talk a little bit about her rival from PoR.
Elincia: “Queen Almedha… You shouldn’t be out here all by yourself. It’s dangerous.”
Almedha: “Queen Elincia… Hmph. I didn’t think anyone in this merry band cared about me. Betrayed by my father, stripped of my power… Now my only son is dead. I have nothing left…”
Elincia: “Lady Almedha… I’m sorry to impose during this difficult time for you, but can I ask you something? You were King Ashnard’s wife, correct?”
This entire conversation, including Almedha asking about Elincia's parents, is missing if Pelleas is dead. Which honestly makes Elincia come off as pretty rude to boot.
I think the JP version actually does include this is Pelleas is dead? Maybe it's an Extended script thing that hitched a ride with Pelleas.
Ashnard never married Almedha, but he definitely didn't engage in any sort of polygyny or present himself as unfaithful to her.
Almedha really didn't know Pelleas for ages, huh?
Elincia plucks up the courage and asks for answers about the Mad King's War.
Unfortunately, Almedha was not the person to ask.
Well, this is probably true, but...
Ashnard and Almedha fell out. The Mad King's War happened long after Almedha was ejected from Ashnard's life.
When one hears "Almedha was Ashnard's only lover", one expects to hear that Ashnard genuinely loved her and treated her well. Or at least acknowledged her existence.
This makes Ashnard look like a much better human being than he was.
Ashnard and Almedha had... well, I guess one could call it a divorce.
I totally buy Elincia not really fully comprehending broken families. Like, she knows they happen, but aside from her strange family situation, she'd probably be sheltered from their harmful effects.
Almedha is capable of jealousy over Ashnard. Or perhaps the gossipers simply mischaracterise Ashnard intensely by assuming that Ashnard is capable of loving another woman the way he loved Almedha.
You'd think Almedha's sentence would lead logically into Elincia's.
You would be wrong.
Ashnard and Almedha were both fascinated by the same thing, and having a child seemed the natural direction for both of them to take.
Almedha herself, though? Not all that interesting to Ashnard.
All Almedha was good for to Ashnard was her "being a dragon tribe laguz". Pregnant Almedha, not being able to do that sort of thing, was promptly ignored on account of "not being powerful enough to have value".
The son of Ashnard and Almedha would be a Branded. A rare Black Dragon Branded. Something incredibly interesting.
He, uh... didn't live up to the hype.
At which point Ashnard decided to use him to get his hands on Rajaion to turn into a Feral mount. After that, both his wife and his son were discarded. And after that... well, where do you go for "The Mad King's Queen" once "Black Dragon Princess" turned out to not be what it was promised?
That perhaps opened up more than Almedha was prepared to share.
This woman needs her teddy bear son.
I can only imagine this conversation is more depressing if Pelleas is dead.
Almedha: “But, once he realized Pelleas had no special powers… Ashnard rejected him, and used him as bait in a cruel trap for my brother…”
Elincia: “Lady Almedha?”
Almedha: “My Pelleas… How could you leave me? I am nothing now… Nothing… Leave me alone now. Just leave me alone…”
Elincia: “I’m sorry, Lady Almedha. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
More depressing. Not that much. One gets the impression that the "Pelleas is alive" part had more developer attention.
We don't know much about what Rajaion is like, but it seems Almedha respected him like Kurth respected her. Good to know the family was tight.
Full BEXP, low BEXP, to be expected.
Next time: The Silver Army meet Lekain.
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