(no subject)

something i really appreciate about the tellius games (fire emblem 9/10) is the moment when your protagonist, ike, runs into empress sanaki for the first time.

ike's a little odd for a FE protagonist to begin with - mostly his humble beginnings as a mercenary; even when other stuff changes his core and very blunt (almost crude? blue collar?) personality doesn't really change. FE's a little monarchist-heavy as a series, but he and the tellius duology stands out as being remarkably sensitive to class from the perspective of a commoner. (I would argue Fates/FE14 is equally as aware but from the perspective of a royal; different essay that, though).

anyway the moment i'm referring to is after ike and his mercenary company meet up with sanaki in her court. he's a bit inadvertently rude to her, and his advisors in the company absolutely lambast him for it afterwards. (not maliciously - more knocking it in some kid's skull you can't call the president dude. metaphorically similar.)

which is fucking brilliant from a meta standpoint - since the average FE player is not gonna be rubbing shoulders with like... foreign official dignitaries, presidents, prime ministers, whatever. your average 12-19 year old player is going to heavily identify more with ike and it's going to be a lightbulb moment when the other character's words hit about how narrowly he avoided consequences to not giving the minimum of lip service to Real Adult Power.

it's one of the many deceptively simple-but-powerful writing bits that makes the tellius duology so strong.

(brought to you by: krad drawing sanaki as the last fire emblem alphabet character and reflecting on the scene.)