kradeelav | (no subject)

was inspired by

neotula 's chart of favorite FE characters with this - while I think i've done a ranking or two of tellius characters specifically I hadn't considered the series as a whole and it was actually a lot of fun to revisit this after playing fe:heroes has switched up the list somewhat for me (mostly enjoying characters from other titles i'd never have touched otherwise).

(apologies for the messiness, did this in between work.)

first row: vaida, tanith, karel, nailah, hel
second row: jill, stefan, hubert, renault, titania
third row: wallace, legault, zihark, sephiran, lyon (fallen!lyon in particullar)
fourth row: nasir, calleach, sanaki, travant, volke
fifth row: hilda (FE4), petrine, valter, eitri, naesala

* .... other than titania and sanaki i think maybe every single one of these characters is straight up a villain/enemy at some point xD i'm a villain stan, man.

* hilda (FE4) might be the only wobbly choice (maybe swapped out with haar?) one as she just came out in FEH like ... today ... (listen she's evil and hot and has some fucking gorgeous artwork, I'm down). eitri might be another surprise to some but for a one-off gacha villain that showed up in all of 4 chapters or something I've had a "lot" of fun what with her bodysnacher/immortal mad scientist vibe and the self insert storyline about that >_> may have even drawn half a comic strip with her in there ... won't post it though cuz i ran out of steam there.

*unwilling immortals/not entirely human characters is not exactly a small chunk of this list actually hmm, there's at least five of them here. (hi renault, drawing you recently was so much fun to dig into your lore)

*i don't know if i've shared this but i think tanith was like my very very very first FE favorite before zihark eclipsed everyone else LOL - fucking loved her armor, her poise and her badassness, and I still have a lot of fondness her way. nasir's on the list for similar reasons.

* beyond "unwilling fucked up immortals" the other two trends I see are "hammy scheming villains" and "i thought i was loyal to x but the world got fucked up or I did and i honestly need a drink" which, big mood

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

so much yessss to Nasir! Honestly I'm shocked there's not way more love for him considering he was arguably a main character in Path of Radiance - certainly showed up more than the other laguz royals did, and has one hell of a character arc through that game, even let alone the duology as a whole. One of those that's impossible to stick in a neat "box" as far as his motivations, and he's just such a well designed character too T_T

I think there are a few things in the way of Nasir getting the love he deserves... One is, within the niche of A Hot Guy Who Betrayed Us, he's overshadowed by Naesala, who does it with a lot more, idk, swag? (And more narrative attention to his internal conflict, and more on-screen development of his relationships with characters like the herons, Tibarn, Nealuchi, Sanaki...) Which I think makes him a more appealing subject for fanwork and fannish attention. None of which is a criticism of Naesala, I adore the motherfucker - but Nasir's sitch is more understated. He's your politely enigmatic ship's captain, and then he kinda jeopardizes the whole continent because his grandkid asked him to, and then if you don't take out the Black Knight in the time allotted you don't talk to him again until RD. If you do, Mist's like, "hey man, I'm not even mad at you." The dramatic potential isn't really played out in the same way.

But GOD THERE'S SO MUCH GOING ON UNDER THE SURFACE. Like here's a guy who believed in his ideals of a less racist, less isolationist future enough to leave Goldoa and start trying to walk the walk... but if it's a choice between a worthy cause or helping Ena, fuck it, Ena wins. Ena's parents are dead, and he regrets that he wasn't able to help her at the time - plus that means his kid is dead! Ena is all that remains of a dead child of his and she's about to be widowed! In that light, it's totally understandable he'd make sacrifices for her. But, while he's lost some of his optimism from being out and about in the world, his belief is still genuine, and burning up all the goodwill he's built with his allies for Ena's sake really is a sacrifice. And then he goes back to Goldoa for RD and conducts himself with a general subtext of "I fucked up so bad I shouldn't do independent thought anymore, I'm going back to being an obedient member of the dragon hivemind." Fuck! It's so good!

I made a couple of abortive attempts at writing fic about this dude back in the day but - his story is such an adult one, and he's so self-contained, it's unsurprising a then-high school kid couldn't really get a handle on him. XD But I've always thought he was rad.

omg I LOVE UNSOLICITED TELLIUS META bring it bring it (if this was twitter i'd be tagging lua in this too with exclamation marks LOL)

but fuck, *so much yes* and i honestly love you're blowing my mind with elaborating on the continuation of his character arc in RD that i hadn't thought of like him going "back" to Goldoa and desperately trying to forget his (valid) fuck-ups in the first game and almost amend it by not .... doing anything? not even *looking* in the general area of the other countries.

(it's really interesting how Ena in contrast just says 'fuck it i'm involving myself' along with Kurth in contrast. so much deliciosu dragon drama :3c)

i think you're also 100% right about Naesala stealing the spotlight there (also love the feathery bastard) and ironically would even say Jill/Haar/Tauroneo/Zihark from a beorc/daein standpoint as well - PoR had a *lot* of really well done 'i'm not so sure about my homeland's/upbringing's mentality arcs. but there are nuances to nasir being a long-lived laguz that differ from those four that bring in different shades - more of a mature "I can't just think for myself, i have to think about x other living person" that i think would only really hit once when folks are the ages of being a parent.

aaaaa shoot you're making me want to do one of my fandom strips with him now. :3

Oh damn, I hadn't even thought of comparing Nasir with the Daein contingent's respective "I think my country? might be wrong???" arcs but you're right, he's kinda doing the laguz version of the same thing. Only where the sympathetic Daein characters end up kinda critically examining their relationships to their homeland, the ruling power, the cultural assumptions they were being steeped in - Nasir has his time as a free agent and then is like "nvm I decided Deghinsea is right about everything after all." Which is interesting, and certainly his being a dragon plays into that! As long-lived as the dragons are, they're naturally not going to have the same priorities as the shorter-lived laguz tribes and sure as hell not the same as the beorc. I find it really telling that when Ike and co come through in RD, even Nasir and Ena - who've spent a lot of time outside Goldoa! - just kind of fail to grasp that three years is a non-trivial span of time for them. Any given dragon is going to outlast any-fuckin'-body (bar Lehran), so yeah, loyalty to each other first and foremost and non-interference with all those hotblooded wackos in the rest of the world makes the most sense.

So there are rational reasons for Nasir to land where he does. Ena - implied to be his only surviving family - is back in Goldoa. He had to expend a lot of effort to disguise or downplay his laguz nature while out in the world, for not much reward. The future of peaceful coexistence that he wanted is taking its sweet time in arriving. I'm assuming stealing Lehran's fucking Medallion destroyed the position of trust he had built up with Gallia and Crimea. Where else would he go, right? But I think it's an emotional decision, too - like, looking at how he talks to Ena and especially Kurth in the big Part 4 dragon fight, it's all about atonement. He stepped out of line and failed to take the bigger picture into account, and in getting the medallion to Ena he knowingly helped push Tellius toward world-ending war. And he's not doing that shit anymore. He has to go back to being the model citizen and accept the king's judgment uncritically, he's no longer entitled to do anything else.

(BUT HE STILL WANTS ENA TO LIVE HER OWN CONVICTIONS! HE STRAIGHT UP CAN'T REFUSE HER ANYTHING AND HE KINDA KNOWS SHE'S RIGHT! THE DRAMA!)

...but I also love how his ending card has him resume traveling the world in Kurth's service. imagining Kurth and Ena sitting him down like "listen. what if you were right the first time you told Deghinsea off. do you want a new boat"

Anyway. Dragon angst? Dragon angst. :D

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wow hi sorry for accidental Nasir meta

Re: wow hi sorry for accidental Nasir meta

Re: wow hi sorry for accidental Nasir meta