tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post2533553712249612666..comments2024-02-26T20:52:27.680-08:00Comments on Thinking Inside the Box: Fire Emblem 16's Byleth is a MoronThe RPGeniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02752937839502693108noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-32381820654942645912019-12-01T23:48:46.816-08:002019-12-01T23:48:46.816-08:00Drakengard does the opposite of that, which is kin...Drakengard does the opposite of that, which is kind of neat.<br /><br />My problem with characters like Corrin is that if they're going to make a character my avatar I expect them to be just that, an avatar. It's a little jarring when the character that is supposedly me starts having all these thoughts and opinions with no input on my part. Personally I'd prefer it if they dropped the avatar thing altogether but since they won't do that, my second choice would be handling the avatar character like they did in fire emblem awakening. Bland, inoffensive, but likable personality and not really the main character but close enough that I don't feel left out.bluhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03496270806259929550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-75843700770061966412019-11-29T16:15:03.151-08:002019-11-29T16:15:03.151-08:00...And? I fail to see the relevance. If the guy ......And? I fail to see the relevance. If the guy can hold back his impossible physical strength, he can do the same with his heat vision in appropriate circumstances. And he doesn't even really have to. There are countless circumstances where he could have melted enemies' weapons, or disabled enemies entirely with it. Burn out Metallo's Kryptonite power cell, melt Sinestro's ring or just outright heat-slice the finger holding it clean off, set Grodd's fur on fire (don't let him burn to death or anything, just let him be extremely distracted by it to create a window to subdue him), incinerate any damn inconvenient plot-doohickey he can lay eyes on, burn a hole in Lobo's bike, burn The Shade's night stick to cinders the moment he pulls it out, melt/slice/blow up robots immediately and stop wasting time with them, carve Brainiac's ship into superheated pieces from the inside out instead of messing around with punching the jerk, burn an enemy's foot enough to make the pain mess with their mobility...there are a LOT of non-lethal uses for heat vision that would immediately end battles before they began or give him a substantial advantage.The RPGeniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02752937839502693108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-84534824349532305742019-11-29T15:43:30.168-08:002019-11-29T15:43:30.168-08:00Oh, that WOULD work way better. In fact, not only...Oh, that WOULD work way better. In fact, not only would a change from silent protagonist to speaking protagonist made Byleth a way better character and even achieved what they wanted far more effectively, but it also could've made for a KILLER plot twist if her dialogue growth made a huge jump after fusing with Sothis. They could've had her gradually becoming talkative before that point, and then suddenly she's a standardly talkative character with certain mannerisms reminiscent of Sothis's personality and mannerisms. Damn, that would be COOL.<br /><br />At the very least, I really hope we do one day see an RPG that begins with a silent protagonist and then, unexpectedly, transitions him or her into a speaking one.The RPGeniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02752937839502693108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-878359684435790812019-11-29T12:36:56.598-08:002019-11-29T12:36:56.598-08:00doesn't*doesn't*Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-88644604983734241142019-11-29T12:36:13.434-08:002019-11-29T12:36:13.434-08:00Superman does kill people, jesus fucking christ.Superman does kill people, jesus fucking christ.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-16859216247578773242019-11-29T08:20:41.162-08:002019-11-29T08:20:41.162-08:00What's unusual about Byleth as a silent protag...What's unusual about Byleth as a silent protagonist is that the characters around her act as if she's changed a lot, which rubs me the wrong way because I couldn't see any of this character development reflected through her actions or speech (the latter because she doesn't talk, of course). I can't really think of any other silent protagonists like this, as the other characters don't usually comment much on their personality, so their games' narratives present them as static beings (Crono starts as a heroic guy and ends as a heroic guy; the same can be said of other quiet heroes like Link, Adol from Ys, and the various Dragon Quest protagonists). I think most writers know better than to make a big deal about these characters' changes because such changes either don't exist or are very difficult to show.<br /><br />Also, while thinking of Byleth, I thought about how much better her development would work if she began as a silent protagonist and simply started talking like a regular character after a certain point (like after she fuses with Sothis, for example, or sooner so that her dad's comments about her growth don't seem insane). If that wasn't possible, the least Nintendo could have done is given her more interesting dialogue choices, or altered the other characters' dialogue so that they actually respond to what Byleth says. The game gives the player a number of options where the other character responds the same way, regardless of what you have Byleth say, which makes me wonder what the point of having options is.Adam E.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15301656119538410691noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-13630276329280220042019-11-28T15:19:59.580-08:002019-11-28T15:19:59.580-08:00Ah, yes, that is also 1 of my major complaints abo...Ah, yes, that is also 1 of my major complaints about the game. I'm planning to do a rant on that, as well. We're just asked to take the game's word for it when multiple people say in dialogue (a word which isn't even especially accurate for interacting with Byleth) how much she's changed. It's the classic old problem of Telling and never Showing.<br /><br />The funny thing is that she should, by all rights, be 1 of the <i>best</i> silent protagonists in RPGs, because it's actually an established quality of her character rather than an unexplained storytelling anti-device as it is with almost every other silent protagonist, and something which she <i>supposedly</i> works through and around on her personal journey. But it doesn't work because they aren't good enough to make it work, and the result is that she sucks.<br /><br />...That's actually a concise version of the planned rant, right there, now that I think about it. Uh...pretend you're hearing it for the first time when I do actually post it.<br /><br />And yes, it definitely doesn't help that silent protagonists aren't a tradition in Fire Emblem--I wouldn't call Marth, Sigurd, or Selis stunning examples of character depth and overwhelming quantities of dialogue, but they did at least interact with what was happening around them. Ike and Lyndis were clearly actual, real characters, and Corrin, who for many people is the protagonist that Byleth is following, had a well-defined character whose personality and situation both gave her (or him) a very memorable place in the player's mind, helped in no small part by the fact that she (or he) didn't shy away from actually being <i>involved</i> in <i>her</i> (or <i>his</i>) own personal story. Having your most distinguishing trait be an unsettling taste in hosiery doesn't really measure up, does it?<br /><br />...I like that and it'll go in that future rant as well. Again, I order you to pretend that it's new and I'm not lazy.The RPGeniushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02752937839502693108noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-268660459652553228.post-77094923457888579302019-11-28T10:58:08.751-08:002019-11-28T10:58:08.751-08:00I didn't really care that much about how stupi...I didn't really care that much about how stupid Byleth is. The only time I thought about the Divine Pulse is when her father dies, since it instantly made me wonder, "Why don't you try again and go further back this time?" If she hadn't tried using the Divine Pulse, I probably wouldn't have thought much of it. As it is, all Nintendo had to do is show Byleth trying a couple of times and running out of energy for the Divine Pulse. Or maybe Byleth could have said after the first attempt, "I can't use the Divine Pulse any more!"<br /><br />Except Byleth doesn't talk, and that's my real problem with the character and my biggest issue with Three Houses (which I otherwise like quite a lot). For all the talk of Byleth changing, I didn't ever see it in any of my playthroughs. Each time, she began as an unexpressive mute and ended as an unexpressive mute. I'm fairly neutral towards silent protagonists, which means that sometimes I think they work well enough and other times I think they're bad. As far as bad silent protagonists go, I believe Byleth is one of the worst, since her silence works completely against her supposed character development and ruins every support conversation she's a part of (those conversations need two people talking in order to work; when Byleth is involved, the other character may as well be talking to a wall). It doesn't help that I remember when Fire Emblem had protagonists that did speak.Adam E.https://www.blogger.com/profile/15301656119538410691noreply@blogger.com