Hello everyone, this is T again.
Let's get down to business, defeat the Huns, and delve in to the world of Fire Emblem and one of the major components that make it tick: magic.
Intro:
As I mentioned briefly in my last post about Fire Emblem, magic has always played a vital role in this series with regards to both plot and in-game combat. In Chapter 1 of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, the character is first introduced to magic through the character Wrys, a priest with a magic staff that could heal all but fatal wounds. This tradition continues throughout the franchise to Fire Emblem Awakening (FEA) where Robin, the player's customizable character, has the ability to shook lightning at the enemy my reading from a magic tome (read: book).
In the Fire Emblem Universe, magic exists in one of the following forms:
-Fire Magic
-Lightning Magic
-Wind Magic
-Light/Holy Magic
-Dark Magic
-Healing Staves
For most of you, it should come to no shock that magic does not exist in the real world. No matter how much pain you experienced getting that lightning bolt tattoo inked onto your forehead, you will not be able to levitate a bookcase off the shelf with a shish and flick. Applying UPB principals to fiction, magic can be understood in fiction as a metaphor, most accurately as mental illness. A coupe of months ago, Stefan Molyneux released a video titled "The Truth About Frozen" that connected Elsa's in film ice magic to a more realistic mental illness that was brought about by abusive parents that most likely were killed by Elsa's hand.
Meanwhile, other interpretations of magic in fiction can be explained as follows:
- Attributing causality to random acts of nature
- Superstitious and primitive people confusing advanced technology as magic
- The application of forbidden or restricted knowledge
- A metaphor for women's sexuality and value in the biological market place
It follows that since Fire Emblem's depiction of magic serves a greater role than just fantasy fun.
Magic and Medicine:
Let's tackle the easy metaphor first. In the game, there are several ways that your units can be healed during combat:
- Using medicine
- Waiting in a fort tile
- Having a healing ability like Relief
- Using a non-medicinal item that heals the character
- Commanding another unit to use a healing staff
The first method of healing can be understood as the application of first aid or battlefield medications to non-lethal wounds. Medicines like Valuables and Elixirs, while RPG sounding in name, can be assumed to be something like anti-infection salves or alcohol for wounds. This is probable for several reasons:
a) Medicine before the 19th Century consisted of ground plants and herbs that were linked to sooth symptoms and some illnesses
b) These medications can be self administered by any playable character regardless of staff stat.
c) Alcohol is used to sterilize wounds and as a proto-painkiller for medical procedures.
This is consistent in the Fire Emblem Universe, especially in FEA, which consists of a Casual Mode and a Classic Mode. For the most part, these modes are exactly the same, with the major difference vein that a playable character with 0 HP in Classic Mode would "die" on the spot while 0 HP in Casual mode has the unit retreat from battle, ready to fight in the next battle. Knowing this, it is safe to assume that the 0 HP mark represents the point in which a character must retreat from battle or risk immanent death. Even if one were to just look at Classic mode, some characters who are important to the game's plot would retreat with a broken leg or a twisted ankle as is the case for the Lyn Chapters for Fire Emblem.
With our understanding of medicine, the second and third methods can be understood as characters self applying medicine to themselves in between bouts of combat.
The final two methods of self healing is where we must apply UPB to the magic illusion. In FEA, there are some non-staff weapons that have the ability to heal units, most notably the Exalt Falcon, a sword wielded by Chrom imbued with the power of the gods. Obviously, swords are much like the Kamehameha in the Dragon Ball universe: the don't heal people. Instead, the unit healing swords can been seen as more of a motivational item that would encourage an injured unit to fight for a longer period of time than had the unit not have the item in the first place.
Simply put, this is the placebo effect put in place. The healing power of these object does not come from an innately magical place, but instead come from some motivation that is attached to the object. The Falcon gains the ability to heal Chrom only after he visits a "Goddess" and has her power imbued into the sword. Since no gods exist, it can be understood the Chrom's faith in this deity combined with the confidence that he has gained through overcoming a trial with a high mortality rate. The placebo effect explains this phenomena due to the fact that while the object holds no healing power, it is still probable that Chrom would gain strength from the sword and would be less likely to retreat from a battle due to the confidence he would feel believing that his Goddess has lent some of her power to him.
This phenomena can also be understood as a temporary rush of adrenaline that is released in the brain as a result of fight or flight stressors activating in a combat scenario. This is true of real life gunshot wound victims who report not realizing that they had been shot until after fighting had stopped.
This brings us to the magical healing staves of Fire Emblem. What is interesting about staves in fire emblem is that the three types of units that can wield these staves are magic users, religious units, and some support unit classes. With some notable exceptions, melee units and magic units a usually kept distinct without too much cross over. It is rare to find a unit that can wield both a sword and a fire tome, though the only two that comes to mind are the tacticians and the dark knights, two classes that were introduced in FEA. Meanwhile, while staves mostly remain in the hands of magic wielders, they can also be wielded by the Queen unit in Radiant Dawn, and by the Bride and the Falcon Knight units in Awakening.
I will submit that there are three factors that explain the effect of healing staves:
1. The staves act much like the Falcon in that they evoke increased adrenaline and the placebo effect due to the prominence that religion plays on the characters in the Fire Emblem universe. This theory will be expand upon in the Religion post.
2. The staves, as wilded by non religious units, are a symbol for effective medical technics lost to the ages to all that do to know how to read. This theory will be expand in the Magic and Knowledge post.
3. Staves are more commonly granted to female characters rather than male non-religious characters, symbolizing the idea that women hold a birth given quality that is able to heal or increase the moral of other units in the Fire Emblem Universe. This theory will be further explained in the Women and Magic Post.
For now, this is a good place to stop. Please let me know what you think and have a great day.
-T
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