Hello my name is Ana and I cannot be normal about Sombron as a story of older people who survive heavily traumatic events in childhood but receive no therapy because it’s stigmatized (or, in FE’s case, doesn’t exist) and who then pass on the worst lessons to the next generation.
awakening rewrite: any plans to expand on plegian culture & religion? if yes then is there anything neat you've come up with that you can share without spoilers? :D
Yes. Chrom is gonna have to cross Plegia at points and learn there’s multiple sects of Grima-worshipers. Plenty are just fine people, and have less omnicidal beliefs. (As in: not at all.)
Hell, some run perfectly fine war orphanages.
Plegia deserves some development tbh–
Right now, I like the prologues I’m writing–which establish Chrom, Rewritten!Walhart, an OC to help move things and make the world feel bigger on one side, and then establish how Robin ended up so far south in Ylisse in Awakening’s opening (among a few other things).
There’s also later, where I rewrite Phila’s death to give her a bit more character and agency in the story, too.
And one that’s [REDACTED], but will exist as a big character moment for Chrom AND Robin on the growth side.
GOOD NEWS A LOT OF THAT ISN’T SPOILERS.
I’m making him take more notes from Celica and Alm, his ancestors. It’s going to make it more obvious he’s descended from those two, with explicit mentions of rejecting his nations Falchion, and him idolizing Alm’s warped legacy–as a killer of corrupted and fallen gods, but taking that far. I need him to be running his own crusade, which feels like it neatly will combine Alm’s and Celica’s sides of their war in the day. I AM keeping him vegetarian, because I think that’s neat.
Also, because pairings will be pre-determined, he’s going to be married with a teenage son (and you get to learn he had the orange-red hair in his youth).
I love Walhart. He still does terrible things. But he also exists outside of his role as the Red Emperor archetype with vague Gaiden references.
Right now, I like the prologues I’m writing–which establish Chrom, Rewritten!Walhart, an OC to help move things and make the world feel bigger on one side, and then establish how Robin ended up so far south in Ylisse in Awakening’s opening (among a few other things).
There’s also later, where I rewrite Phila’s death to give her a bit more character and agency in the story, too.
And one that’s [REDACTED], but will exist as a big character moment for Chrom AND Robin on the growth side.
Anyway I’m gonna palette cleanse with thinking about my rewrite. Go on and ask questions, but I won’t talk certain things for spoilers.
I should finally figure out a name for my huge Awakening rewrite (loving) and get back to it.
I’m having fun rewriting Walhart at points. :3a
Also, quite frankly, Chrom needed therapy after Emmeryn’s death, not a fucking throne and marriage.
Listen, I don’t care if you hate characters I love
But at least blame the right people for things and get your information correct first??? Otherwise you’re tilting at windmills and you look stupid.
Like did
Did anon expect Chrom to smile and wave and let civilians in Ferox, Plegia and Ylisse be hurt by Walhart? Walhart WOULD have genocided the Plegians, especially anyone who worshiped ANYTHING. Hell, it wouldn’t have stopped at Grima-worshipers, but Naga-worshipers, too. EVERYONE who was religious was on Walhart’s shitlist!
Also like. Most people don’t unpack all the propaganda they learned in their youth until well into their 20s. Like???
Gods, this is a game from 2012. From Japan. Maybe keep that in mind?
I feel Chrom fans are the worst, they often directly put down other protagonists like Lucina, Marth and Dimitri, whilst ignoring or whitewashing Chrom's canonical issues including:
- Never apologizing for his father's crusade against Plegia and attempted religious genocide of the Grimleal, to the point he acts like Ylisse was the "real" victim and that neither Plegia nor the Grimleal has no right being upset at Ylisse.
- Chrom makes sure to only recruit the white Plegians and never shows disapproval of prejudice against the Grimleal even when its shown by his own retainer, Frederick.
- Making the already ravaged Plegia pay for everything after the war, than abandoning the country letting another tyrant take over. He even admits 2 years after Gangrel's father, he never found out what happened to Gangrel or whom succeeded him which is grotesquely negligent for a King.
- When Robin kills one thousand transport ships filled "stem to stern" with Walhart's troops, Chrom is ecstatic rather than showing any respect to this huge loss of human life. Necessary or not, human life should be respected. Its made worse as its clarified THe valm empire forces citizens to become soldiers, including Virion's Rosseane and Say'ri's Chonsin.
- In the Japanese version, Chrom canonically hangs around a homophobe (Old Hubba) and kills an effeminate gay man/possible transwoman (Excellus), indicating homophobic and transphobic views.
- The fact that he's always remorseful when he faces women also indicates that he has has sexist beliefs too. It doesn't help that every woman Chrom fights is shown as brainwashed by a wicked man (Aversa) or just trapped by love (Pheros), because no women could oppose the towering paragon of Machismo that is Chrom.
- Chrom ultimately allies with unrepentant Walhart whom shared his father's desire to invade Plegia and commit religious genocide, further showcasing he learnt positively nothing from his father's actions.
- Chrom tells Aversa "One person's life means nothing in the shadow of millions" when she tries to avenge Validar due to being brainwashed, as no woman could ever willingly care about men, our hero Chrom hates, only for Chrom hypocritically try to prevent Robin from sacrificing themselves to kill Grima, willing to sacrifice the world for Robin.
Yet despite all this, Chrom is lauded as a great king and lovable Himbo, all whilst characters like:
- Marth get called a crybaby or "generic Disney Prince" that is only popular because he's from the first game and nostalgic losers from Japan can't get enough of him.
- Lucina is said to be to be popular only because she's a a waifu that people "want to fuck".
- Dimitri is treated as "White Man" or a "Fascist" whom "murders women", when he showed more concern and humanity towards Duscur than Chrom ever did to Plegia as well as treating both sexes equally and not hanging around heteronormative crusaders (Hubba again).
And yes, this is character hate towards Chrom, he's massively overrated by the fandom and gets passes for what other characters would be crucified for.
.
I’m not gonna touch 90% of this (I say before doing just that), because I like most characters you list except Dimitri because he’s a gross schizophrenic stereotype, but like…
- Excellus was an enemy commander who was massively causing problems across multiple countries–he was a Grima Faithful of the sect that wants to end the entire world. Trans woman or feminine man, it doesn’t matter–Excellus literally stoked the flames of war in Valm and caused a bunch of problems so he could take the Plegian throne and offer the Fire Emblem to Grima.
- We’re not even sure Walhart’s paralogue is fucking canon
- He had to stabilize Ylisse. That’s why he didn’t pay attention to Plegia. Also like–it’s a very common thing after wars (which Gangrel, mind, TRIED TO START A WAR!? He was CONSTANTLY looking for an excuse to go after a weakened Ylisse!?)
- He was raised under Ylissean propaganda. Of course he has those feelings–the story presents them as a fucking flaw. Hell, you’ve probably consumed propaganda and had to unravel it. It takes a long time to undo it.
- THE WRITERS ARE WHY THARJA AND HENRY ARE WHITE!? CHROM DID NOT GO OUT AND SCOUR FOR THE ONLY WHITE PLEGIANS HOLY SHIT. Even then, Tharja was recruited because she clearly wasn’t into what was happening and Henry is VERY CLEARLY a spy who joins us to feed info to Validar–who then joins you legit because you’re NICE to him.
- OF COURSE CHROM IS A HYPOCRITE HE’S FUCKING HUMAN!? Also he watched his sister COMMIT SUICIDE!? He has PTSD about that!? And Robin is talking about committing suicide!?
- He sympathizes with the women because he’s thinking about Emmeryn. The person he watched commit suicide. Aversa was present at her death, and Pheroes LOOKS like her. Also this is on IntSys, not Chrom???
- We all hate the brainwashing. But also like… Validar is someone who shows a propensity for brainwashing? Regardless of gender? Pheros views Walhart as someone who can achieve peace. This is fundamental to her character. She is the Chrom to Walhart’s Robin.
- The homophobia is. I’m. Holy fuck. I don’t know how to tell you this, anon, but a lot of people hang around homophobes without approving of them. I’m sorry but this was also REALLY NORMAL even in the US at the time of Awakening in 2012.
- Chrom was ecstatic because a plan that saved thousands in Regna Ferox, Plegia and Ylisse worked. A plan they weren’t sure was going to do ANYTHING or even deter Walhart in the slightest. Nevermind that he didn’t know about the conscription at the time, if I recall!? Jesus.
Anyway, I love Chrom because he’s a flawed person. He can be both, anon.
Also as @silque just pointed out… Chrom is 19 pre-timeskip, 21 post-timeskip. He was handed control of an entire country directly after watching his sister commit suicide then rushed into a marriage to make things LOOK more stable than they were at the age of 19.