Greetings everyone! I hope you all have had a productive Thursday.
I know that my Thursday was one of those days were no matter how many things I accomplish, there was just not enough time in the day to do everything. There are several reasons that I can think of for this:
1) I did not plan my day like I normally do
2) My ADD just got the better of me
3) I just did not want to study for my Logic exam
However, the most prominent reason that I can think of is a white plastic square with a computer chip center. I am talking of course about Fire Emblem Awakening (FEA) for the 3DS.
For those of you who do not know about the Fire Emblem franchise, it is a turn-based strategy role playing game series crated by the Nintendo owned company Intelligent Systems. The Fire Emblem series features 14 games, 6 of which have been released internationally. For the most part, the games are unrelated plot-wise from most of the other games with some connections between select sets of games in the franchise.
Gameplay is pretty much the same across all games as the player controls a small band of soldiers, wielding axes, swords, lances, bows, and magic tomes with combat resembling a mix between rock-paper-scissers and the typical Japanese role-playing game (JRPG) health bar. The units you control have defined combat classes and with enough experience and a promotional item can be promoted into a stronger unit. I should note that there are slight differences between games mostly revolving around the inclusion of light and dark magics as well as the existence of werewolf-like units, but someone who played one games in the series could quickly transition to another game.
So why do I bring up Fire Emblem?
There is a short answer and a long answer to the question. The longer answer (with spoilers ahead) can be found in a forum I read on Thursday between study breaks. For the short, sweet, and spoiler free answer: the forum entry presents a theory that all 14 Fire Emblem games occur in the same planet and universe, though they are somewhat independent of each other due to occurring on different continents. I will note that while it is possible that VincentASM is not the original author of this theory, I will assume he is for the purpose of this and possible other blog posts for the sake of simplicity.
VincentASM defends his one universe theory though evidence presented in game across the franchise with the keystone of the theory being FEA itself. What sets FEA apart from other games in the franchise is that it is the first game to both allow the player access to two continents and the ability to play DLC and Spotpass maps with characters from all franchise games including the only Japanese ones. Access to two continents, combined with free reign of the wold map allows the player to not only identify the FEA continents as those that existed in previous continents from the series, but also shows parts of three other continents that have striking resemblance to other game continents, thus identifying 5 known continents to exist in the same world. Meanwhile, access to DLC and Spotpass introduces characters from or related to different games. I should note that hese bonus characters, except for Priam, are spirits summoned from magic cards and that while they have the personality of a different game's character, they are not actually that character. This being said, what makes these DLC characters important is that the characters from FEA recognize them as heroes of legend that they themselves recognize. In addition, Priam is confirmed to be the decedent of Ike, the hero from Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
Ultimately, FEA confirms that at least 5 continent, which comprise most of the games in the franchise, exist in the same world and that all of the previous games in the series have occurred before FEA, thus making FEA the most recent game in the franchise.
For non-Fire Emblem fans, it should be noted the Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon, the first and twelfth games in the series (due to the DS remake) both contains the same continent as the continent in which FEA begins, and stars Marth, the ancestor of Chrome. The chronological gap between Marth and Chrome is understood to be about 1000 years with events referenced as early as 2000 years before Chrome by Tiki, a dragon with a long life span who knew both Marth and Chrome. It is thus understood by most fans that Shadow Dragon is chronologically the first game in the franchise's overall plot while FEA is the most recent game in franchise plot. VincentASM argues in his article that due to comments made by Panne, a were-bunny from FEA, it is theoretically possible that Path of Radiance is actually the first game due to connections between were-people, an explanation for extended life for both were-people and half were-people, and due to references in Path of Radiance that seam to imply that the events of Path of Radiance occurred closer to this universe's creation/Genisus-like origin.
So, what does this all mean and, more importantly, why should you care?
If anyone has frequented The Game Theorist on YouTube, you have probably watched his video about how video games seam to accurately depict the world we live in, whether the programs intend to or not. This is similar to the psychological standpoint that art, when not created for the sake of propaganda, is an attempt by the artist to recreate reality. Even in fiction, where people use magic and where dragons and pegusi (sp?) are common place, the themes, dialogues, romances, plots of revenge, and religious fanaticism that is depicted in fiction and specifically these games are meant to reflect reality.
The reason you should care about the Fire Emblem franchise is this: the games provide a warning about threats that still exist in the world today.
Threats that include:
- Theocracy and the power of religion over the unwitting faithful
- Centralized government and democide
- Magic as a metaphor for mental illness
- Gender and characters that would shock anyone who has taken the red pill
- Rasism as an institutional effort
There are other themes that I'm sure that I missed, but my ultimate point is that Fire Emblem is a franchise that is a warning to the player presented as a traditional Medieval tale of knights and princesses.
This entry is Part 1 of a series that I plan to work on over the next couple of weeks. As always contact me by email and twitter and please leave your comments below.
-T
*UPDATE*:
-Part 2: Magic and Medicine Here
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