Feh Ted Talk - Tumblr Posts

Gather round children it’s time for a Ted Talk about FEH and how I go about drawing these characters.

When making art for this game, I have found immense satisfaction in attempting to meet FEH on its level and remain fairly loyal to the Intelligence System’s approved content we have. This is remarkably challenging. For me, at least. I find this game’s design sensibilities run very counter to my own. That’s not a critique of any in game art of the characters (although I do think they improve greatly over time) as they fulfill their purpose really well. They are meant to be drawn 4 times max which means they can go pretty crazy on the details. But hahahaha I’m not doing that. Clearly. I’m drawing these guys by hand at different angles and posses fairly consistently, which is just not what they were built for. Don’t think when someone designed Kiran they thought of the person who’d be drawing them chilling ontop of a fridge with a bottle of mustard in their hand, you know?

So naturally I got to do some translating! And that’s the really fun part >:]

There are many things I had to find creative answers for, like Kiran’s face and Alfonse’s stupid haircut. But the one rotating rapidly in my brain atm is the Askr quartet in combat. I wanted lean hard into the fact that these four are, well, very human in comparison to every other combatant that enters Askr. They aren’t exactly helpless nor unskilled. If any of the trio raised their blade at Kiran, they’d start digging their own grave themselves. But the group are regular soldiers fighting against straight up warriors of legend. As individuals, Anna, Sharena, Alfonse, and Kiran are not that strong in comparison. No merges for these bitches they gotta work with what they got. However, they all know that. So they make up for their weaknesses through terrifyingly effective teamwork. Through the power of trauma bonding- I MEAN FRIENDSHIP they become a fucking terrifying force of nature. It’s like pissing off an ant hill or a wasps nest. A lancer goes for Alfonse and suddenly theres a swarm of five level 1 heroes making such a distraction that they don’t see Anna’s axe sweep through their Achilles heels or Sharena’s follow up shield bash.

So this means I get to convey their team composition through their body shapes and give them clear strengths and weakness for the others to cover. Which is just so god damn FUN. Like we all know Kiran is the squishiest of the squishy, so it’s really fun to show just HOW squishy they are through the immediate comparison Alfonse and Sharena. I gave those two sturdier square shapes, and thus making them shorter yet stocky. This makes it look like they could fucking launch Kiran’s bony ass to the moon and back. However, that’s on the condition that either of them could catch Kiran, as their tall slim build implies the lightweight speed they move with. Which is so!!!! Fun!!!! Aughhh big love. Kiran could literal use Sharena as cover to snipe enemies from. Meanwhile Anna and Alfonse are a bit ahead using reposition to let Anna provide swift dps without getting too beat up herself. And by reposition, I mean Alfonse using his shield as a jump pad to launch Anna at the enemy with. You know. Just bro things. Anna’s triangle shapes make her both just hearty and lean enough to pull it off, might as well go for it. Just make sure she’s properly supported and safe by the time the enemy phase rolls around you know?

And I swear, the combos just write themselves too. Like between Sharena and Alfonse, a poor soul gets caught in the worst version of ping pong as Alfonse captain America’s his shield between the two of them. Kiran could then use that same shield like Link does and surf out of enemy range, shooting at the enemy the whole way. It’s fun! These guys have the potential to really sync up during combat and be emblematic of their bonds with one another.

Example, Alfonse. Alfonse could TECHNICALLY be a stronger solo fighter if he ditched the shield. He has the constitution and skill to not actually need the extra protection, and if he decided to two hand his weapon (haha there’s a joke there) the damage he could do would be devastating. However, the shield isn’t for his protection, but to be better help to his closest friends. The shield isn’t taking as many hits for him as it is for Kiran and Anna, who can’t afford to carry shields without compromising their own effectiveness. Plus through creative (and probably not intentional) uses it helps better position them on the battlefield. It’s for THEM. The only time he’s going to stop using the shield is when they aren’t there fighting along side him.

Enter Líf.

He hasn’t had a shield for a long time now.

Okay so the idea of a Kiran and Grima friendship dynamic is honestly one of my favorites in FEH.

Grima as a character was always intriguing to me, but he only became downright fascinating in retrospect of FE: Echoes. Seeing where he came from made his rather two dimensional villainy in Awakening gain a surprising amount of perspective and depth. This is a creature made purely out of a man’s insane hubris and was cursed to walk this earth for thousands of years as a result. He’s essentially Fire Emblem’s version of Frankenstein’s monster. This gave Awakening’s nature vs nurture narrative a significantly more fascinating base to stand on. Made it a bit more character driven, as you can begin to see why Grima holds the perspective that he does. However, there has yet to be a proper scenario in which we get to sit with him and explore the ideas that promises.

Which is exactly why I love the idea of Grima and Kiran. I do not think their dynamic should be dedicated to redeeming Grima via the power of friendship, as that’s more Awakening and Chrom’s brand. But rather, I think Grima getting summoned to Askr would shift the focus of nature vs nurture away from Robin and onto Grima himself. Robin got the chance to question this via their amnesia and now Grima gets to question this via this second start in a world wildly different from the one he walked for lifetimes. And Kiran acts as the off putting yet well meaning embodiment for what that could possibly mean. They are a weird, pitifully weak creature who has somehow succeeded where the scientist that made him and no doubt countless others after him have failed: They have the capacity to control Grima. This automatically means Grima has no intention to let them live for long, but they hardly have the same goals as those ambitious fools. Outside the demands of every conflict the Order finds itself caught up in, Kiran only uses their power to have interesting conversations with weird company. And when I say “use their power” I mean have tea with malicious dragon deity without loosing their head.

It’s hardly enough to get him to stop him from plotting a murder, as it’s only a matter of time before this goes south in his eyes. But it’s… intriguing to see such a comparably unmotivated individual in a position of such extreme power. The piqued curiosity leads to a the formation of a genuine bond as Mr. Wings of Despair Breath of Ruin realizes, “oh shit, I’ve encountered a being I don’t want immediately dead” and has a major existential crisis about it. It’s adjacent to Power and Nyaako from Chainsaw Man, but instead of a cat is Grima is watching this chaotic tactician earnestly fumble their way through this position thrusted upon them. And despite the light years of difference between the both of them, these two come to an understanding of one another that isn’t quite feasible by anyone else.

Meanwhile cut to the outside looking in perspective and this all looks downright insane. Kiran has befriended Fire Emblem satan. Has tea with him sometimes. It’s chill. Don’t worry about it. They say to Alfonse, who is realizing there is something not quite hinged about his tactician. Anna is crying because how the FUCK are they going to house a dragon the size of a mountain range. Sharena has been making cookies to go with the tea to give to the god of ruin this whole time.

Throwing my headcannons in the ring because this age discussion has been hilarious.

So I personally believe that Alfonse and Sharena’s age difference is pretty small. About 1 year apart, two at max. What set that in stone for me was meeting their parents in book 3 and seeing that their difference in maturity derives from the two very different expectations put on them. This coupled with a generally sheltered life prior to joining in the Order leads to the wonderful concoction of mirroring issues they’re both sporting.

Speaking of, how old were they when they joined the Order? I want to say about 18-19, as that age range generally correlates to when people usually start to break free from their parents and become more independent. And we know that’s what joining the Order was for them because this decision led to Alfonse getting entirely kicked out by his dad. It’s all very “good luck kid, you’re an adult now. Figure it out yourself” coded. So from there, let’s give them a few years in service. Maybe four years? So when book 1 actually starts, Sharena and Alfonse would be about 21 and 22 respectively.

Now Commander Anna has always come off as older than the royal siblings. This woman has had a whole military career up until this point. She has enough combat experience to warrant becoming the commander of an elite army battalion whose original purpose was espionage and in the coming years is about to be responsible for killing multiple gods. However, despite this, she’s not THAT much older than them. Maybe about 25? So how on earth does that work? Well, it would make a lot more sense if she was child soldier of some kind. Fighting on the front lines since she was 13-14. That logs her over a decade of experience and would help explain why she is military commander of all things and not another cutthroat merchant.

Bruno is unfortunately singing a similar tune as Anna. He is about the same age and was made into a solider around the same time. Maybe even sooner. We know his life started hitting its downward spiral with the death of his mother, so it would make sense that as a form of survival, he would start learning how to fight. Then within this 10+ year time period, he could be sent to Askr, meet Anna, join the Order, become close with the royal siblings, leave, etc.

Veronica, meanwhile, is like 13-14 in book 1. She’s baby. She’s a brat. She’s around the age where things started going very wrong for Bruno, so he feels morally obliged to try to be there for her as a result. Be at least one adult in her life that has her best interest at heart. But he’s also extremely depressed and going through it, so that becomes increasingly complicated as time goes on.

Last but not least we got Kiran. In my mind they’re about 24. Nothing too complicated going on with that conclusion. They’re not older than Anna, but not younger than Sharena. Think it would be funny if they were like “Wait Alfonse you’re 22? Oh my god you’re a baby” while only having a two year age difference.

(Also I think it could be really interesting flavor for Kiran’s character if they’re old enough to have a college degree that can no longer use but Kiran’s past is a Ted Talk for another day)

Now what’s actually complicated is how old everyone is in current day. I think, on average, it could be safe to say that each book takes canonically about 6ish months. For example, making book 1 and 2 take place in the same year feels right to me, especially since they kinda flow into each other. Embla was presumably winning for a time, but since in introduction of the summoner, they’ve spent half a year getting absolutely no where. At that point, it makes sense for Embla call upon Múspell to help turn the tide. But the key world is average, because then you have seasons like book 4 which explicitly takes place over the course of 3 days. This means that book 3 and book 5 are WAY closer to each other timeline wise. Niðavellir probably chooses to attack Askr when they did because they were still recovering from Hel’s near world ending assault. This makes book 6 take place around the start of year three. But then book 7 makes things complicated again because of course it does but instead of trying to decode it I’m just gonna slap it with the 6 months sticker even tho it’s definitely wrong. Which makes book 8 happening at around year 4.

With all that in mind, my headcannon ages for our main cast in book 8 are as follows: Alfonse is 26, Sharena is 25, Anna is 29, Kiran is 28, Veronica is 17, and Bruno is dead (died at age 28.)

I would LOVE for some updated portraits to convey how much time has passed with the Askr trio. I want to draw it so bad. But alas I am busy and Alfonse growing into more Líf similarities will have to wait.

LMFAOOOO

It's very unclear! But Alfonse's "It's been at least 10 years since Sharena was a child" line is a rough estimate itself. I feel like it could place Sharena anywhere to 18 to 20 when she joined the Order of Heroes (this is just my headcanon though, based on what's typical irl -- there's also a possibility that in Askr, the age you're considered "an adult" is different, but that's also speculation)

But if Sharena was anywhere from 18 to 20 when she joined the Heroes, and granting that a few years have passed to get to Book 4. Maybe 22? 24? At oldest? If every book is a year. Which in that case!

Yeah she could be at this point actually 🤔 Or maybe 26.

And really you can throw any random number at Alfonse like. I kinda hc he's 3 years older than her, if not 4. They do seem close in age, but far enough that Alfonse has always felt more "grown up" to her (possibly by the way he was treated/raised, many possibilities). But going off those numbers, he could be 29 or 30ish current Book, if we're going w Sharena being 26 (makes me wonder if his Brave alt is gonna make him look "more mature"... like his portrait always read as young adult to me, but I wonder if he'll be a little less baby faced.)

What do u think Kiran is

How do u think the order sees kiran

*slowly sits up in my chair*

I think Kiran is a very normal person. This is someone you and I have met before. Be that from the other side of grocery store cashier, waiting in the same elevator, or walking by on a crosswalk. Kiran is a civilian from our world trying to roll with the punches of being warped somewhere completely alien. And you can see it in how they conduct themselves.

I always have a lot of fun writing Kiran’s dialogue because their casual modern speech almost feels like a dialect in comparison to the more formal fantasy tone everyone else speaks with. An “ain’t” will never exit Alfonse’s mouth, you know? And there’s a difference in “Do you have gold?” vs “You got gold?” To me, this gives Kiran an air of unfamiliarity to anyone they interact with. Let’s use Grima as an example, because it doesn’t sound like this grammatical change would make much of difference until Kiran has the audacity to hit Grima with a bro mid sentence. But that’s just how they talk. And as sweet and friendly as they are, there’s always moments like that to remind that no one has the cultural context to fully understand Kiran. Except for the audience, who can realize that Kiran let the customer service voice drop to talk to Grima like he’s an actual person.

And that’s just about how they talk! This view is only emphasized by every other thing about them! They’re a lovable goof, which is normal chill person behavior in the audience’s eyes but feels REALLY ODD to the characters of FE’s medieval fantasy war setting. There is this air of unknown about them that the more socially perceptive will pick up on and will try to come to a conclusion about. Example, I imagine Soren would interpret a lot of this as a dangerous and deeply annoying lack of intelligence from someone he has the displeasure of sharing a tactics table with. Or looping back to the Grima example, he would totally think Kiran has greedy ulterior motives behind that pleasant facade. It takes a lot of work for those types to realize that the discrepancy present isn’t really any of those things. But I also wouldn’t be too surprised if Kiran doesn’t try to directly prove any of those assumptions wrong unless they have to.

Why? Well now it’s time for the implications! Oh how we love the implications.

Because the Summoner is a different story. No one has any fucking clue what that is.

I can tell you what Kiran has pieced together so far. Summoning people from across time and space is apparently not easy. It’s not some school of magical study that some mage could pull off with enough time and research. Trust, Eitri tried. It’s a lot of complex moving parts. For example, the contracts. The contracts Kiran automatically binds their summoned to don’t even compare to the ones Veronica used in book 1. They are far more intense and infinitely harder to break. The only way out of them is if Kiran wills it so. Not even death is an option, because Kiran can come in for the revive. If they had to guess, it’s an older, more completed version of the art. Something lost to time. But no matter the case, Kiran has the ability to take full control of whoever they manage to summon. From a lowly farmer to the divine. And their power only grows.

In a similar vein, if there was any character to canonically see the hud, I think it would be Kiran. It’s genuinely part of their power set. I have previously described Kiran as the party mage until Veronica shows up to be the actual mage, but it would be way more accurate to call them a mystic/seer. They see the map, everyone’s stats, and is doing a fast amount of math to give the combat forecast. Then, upon processing all this information their enemies couldn’t dream of having at their disposal, Kiran can telepathically communicate any change in plans to anyone under contract. Kiran is not inherently some great tactician the moment they touch ground in Askr; they simply can do things no one else can. They’re learning the actual tactics part on the fly. This makes them simultaneously the largest ace up the Order’s sleeve and potentially its biggest liability. If they fall, it could cause a whole system cascade. By that same token, some of the biggest threats the Order has faced are the ones who do their research and rightfully target Kiran.

Now. Thinking critically about all that. That’s downright terrifying. A ridiculous amount of power has been dropped callously into Kiran’s lap and they have to work extremely hard to be moral with it. It’s terrifyingly easy not to be. It would actively take less effort to ‘take the reins’ as it were. But in order to be able to sleep at night ever again, they go the extra mile to not invalidate the will of their summoned. To take over like that. To make a colony of worker bees out of people. Because oh dear god they just summoned a child and the fact that they could easily force them to fight and die for them, only to be revived and do it all over again, is HAUNTING. No. No the Order has an in house orphanage now. This kid is getting adopted and cared for god damnit or Kiran might just pop a blood vessel. And sure that child is going to be a child and there will never be a world where they get along with everyone else, but that’s just going to need be a problem they address when they get there and not an excuse to use Hubris; the power set. Now replace the word child with everyone they ever summoned and you have the wider philosophy they apply to the entire Order.

They’re hyper aware of the power imbalance. They hate it with every bone in their body. They work really hard to correct it in whatever way they can.

So Kiran might not jump on the opportunity to correct those who think lesser of them. It’s… oddly comforting to know someone is keeping a critical eye on them. Holding them accountable. Especially since so much of the order just thinks of them as this quirky yet well meaning host. And, really, what can they even do about that? They have gone over the contract with every hero they summon and despite that they still choose to stay. So, what, do they try to inspire more mistrust? The problem with that they would have to actually do acts that intentionally inspire mistrust. And even if that was successful they can’t just waste the extra man power because every other month there’s some new divine asshole who wants them all dead. And if they fail that means they have to start their life from square one and god they can’t do that again so—

Just breathe Kiran.

It’s fine. You’re fine. Just breathe.

You have work to do.

This. This is why Kiran Fire Emblem has taken over my brain.

So some setup: as mentioned previously some time or another, I enjoy creatively tinkering with Fire Emblem Heroes’ writing. It’s a fun exercise getting to work with characters and plot beats I wouldn’t personally make. I think I’ve gotten significantly better at it too, in much the same way my art around this game has. I understand it more, I suppose.

As a result, this wonderful happy accident happened. I finally found the running theme of FEH’s characters (and thus its wider narrative as a whole).

They are all lonely.

The bad type of lonely. The dangerous kind. The one that can kill if you are not careful. And they are all infected with it, in one way or another. Alfonse and Veronica are our most blatant examples; their self isolating behaviors being obvious. Veronica spits on extended olive branches on principle based on who offers them and Alfonse was so traumatized by the last time he opened up that he now champions self isolation as being the most logical option. They are then confronted by Lif and Thasir, the natural conclusion to where that behavior will lead them. The personification of the loneliness that kills. Defeat them, or everything that matters will die.

It doesn’t quite get so blatant spelled out past that moment, but the idea never quite goes away. It’s the vice grip Hel has Eir under, what lifetimes of neglect threatens to do to Seiðr, what was passed down so many times in their family that it become truly genetic in Bruno and Letizia, and what our protagonists fight so hard to save Reginn from in the face of losing everything. And, oh, just the entirety of book 4. Super the thesis of book 4.

The only two characters not quite part of this dynamic is Kiran, who isn’t allowed to be a character in-game (pain), and Anna, who intelligence systems glosses over in the same way they did Sharena for a long time (more pain). Both of them have the capacity to expand this theme even further. It’s some of my favorite parts to explore when both drawing and writing for this game.

This overall discussion is what I believe to be the crux of Kiran’s loneliness that kills. The natural consequence of being isekaied is an extremely bad bout of culture shock. Not in a cutesy way either, like Kiran not understanding the phrasing of something or comedically missing the tone of a conversation without having the inherent context as everyone else. While that may be true, Kiran can take actions to fix that. No, it’s the reverse that’s the problem. Since Kiran is the foreigner here, there’s not always an effort to try to understand them in that way. And even if there is, no one has any real metric to fully understand. They are from a world so inconceivably alien to the people of Askr that their explanations can only go so far.

This leaves them isolated in a way they don’t have the words for and is not easy to fix. They just have to deal with this empty feeling. To get up and move on because there’s more important things to be worried about. Eventually, it all gets rather tiring to keep dealing with. They no longer bother to clarify what they mean when someone gets confused. Decide to remove it from their speech to avoid the issue all together. And while they’re there, some other stuff can go too. Fears, doubts, crippling homesickness, the empty feeling— no one needs to know that. Swallow it. All of it. Let the bile roll in their gut. It’s nauseating at first but over time— no. In the face of death? It barely requires forethought. And no one notices. Not until some goddess of nightmares finally rips the mask off and reveals just how good they got at pretending to be someone, anyone, else.

And man, that’s sad. It’s all sad, really! I try hard to not change any major plot beat in FEH, but Book 4’s climax would be the only major exception. This needs to have payoff. Everyone, even Freya, misjudges just how large Kiran’s loneliness has grown. How close it is to killing them. They are trapped in a downward spiral and rapidly approaching an absolute rock bottom. Not even Freya’s little fantasies can do anything at this point. But what does is Sharena and how she deals with her loneliness. She is the whole antithesis of the narrative full of loners. Unlike every other character, her loneliness drives her to inadvertently save people. To reach out and grab on with everything she has, in the most genuine unabashedly caring way. It is loud, it is unfiltered, it’s touchy, it’s annoying, it’s wonderful, and it doesn’t even work half the time but it doesn’t need to because when it does IT SAVES PEOPLE. Sharena saves people because she doesn’t want anyone to be alone.

AUGHHH THIS GAME. Kiran and Sharena Fire Emblem your friendship means so much to me. All of these characters need therapy so badly. Some trauma bonded found family vibes is just going to have to cut it for now.

What do u think Kiran is

How do u think the order sees kiran

*slowly sits up in my chair*

I think Kiran is a very normal person. This is someone you and I have met before. Be that from the other side of grocery store cashier, waiting in the same elevator, or walking by on a crosswalk. Kiran is a civilian from our world trying to roll with the punches of being warped somewhere completely alien. And you can see it in how they conduct themselves.

I always have a lot of fun writing Kiran’s dialogue because their casual modern speech almost feels like a dialect in comparison to the more formal fantasy tone everyone else speaks with. An “ain’t” will never exit Alfonse’s mouth, you know? And there’s a difference in “Do you have gold?” vs “You got gold?” To me, this gives Kiran an air of unfamiliarity to anyone they interact with. Let’s use Grima as an example, because it doesn’t sound like this grammatical change would make much of difference until Kiran has the audacity to hit Grima with a bro mid sentence. But that’s just how they talk. And as sweet and friendly as they are, there’s always moments like that to remind that no one has the cultural context to fully understand Kiran. Except for the audience, who can realize that Kiran let the customer service voice drop to talk to Grima like he’s an actual person.

And that’s just about how they talk! This view is only emphasized by every other thing about them! They’re a lovable goof, which is normal chill person behavior in the audience’s eyes but feels REALLY ODD to the characters of FE’s medieval fantasy war setting. There is this air of unknown about them that the more socially perceptive will pick up on and will try to come to a conclusion about. Example, I imagine Soren would interpret a lot of this as a dangerous and deeply annoying lack of intelligence from someone he has the displeasure of sharing a tactics table with. Or looping back to the Grima example, he would totally think Kiran has greedy ulterior motives behind that pleasant facade. It takes a lot of work for those types to realize that the discrepancy present isn’t really any of those things. But I also wouldn’t be too surprised if Kiran doesn’t try to directly prove any of those assumptions wrong unless they have to.

Why? Well now it’s time for the implications! Oh how we love the implications.

Because the Summoner is a different story. No one has any fucking clue what that is.

I can tell you what Kiran has pieced together so far. Summoning people from across time and space is apparently not easy. It’s not some school of magical study that some mage could pull off with enough time and research. Trust, Eitri tried. It’s a lot of complex moving parts. For example, the contracts. The contracts Kiran automatically binds their summoned to don’t even compare to the ones Veronica used in book 1. They are far more intense and infinitely harder to break. The only way out of them is if Kiran wills it so. Not even death is an option, because Kiran can come in for the revive. If they had to guess, it’s an older, more completed version of the art. Something lost to time. But no matter the case, Kiran has the ability to take full control of whoever they manage to summon. From a lowly farmer to the divine. And their power only grows.

In a similar vein, if there was any character to canonically see the hud, I think it would be Kiran. It’s genuinely part of their power set. I have previously described Kiran as the party mage until Veronica shows up to be the actual mage, but it would be way more accurate to call them a mystic/seer. They see the map, everyone’s stats, and is doing a fast amount of math to give the combat forecast. Then, upon processing all this information their enemies couldn’t dream of having at their disposal, Kiran can telepathically communicate any change in plans to anyone under contract. Kiran is not inherently some great tactician the moment they touch ground in Askr; they simply can do things no one else can. They’re learning the actual tactics part on the fly. This makes them simultaneously the largest ace up the Order’s sleeve and potentially its biggest liability. If they fall, it could cause a whole system cascade. By that same token, some of the biggest threats the Order has faced are the ones who do their research and rightfully target Kiran.

Now. Thinking critically about all that. That’s downright terrifying. A ridiculous amount of power has been dropped callously into Kiran’s lap and they have to work extremely hard to be moral with it. It’s terrifyingly easy not to be. It would actively take less effort to ‘take the reins’ as it were. But in order to be able to sleep at night ever again, they go the extra mile to not invalidate the will of their summoned. To take over like that. To make a colony of worker bees out of people. Because oh dear god they just summoned a child and the fact that they could easily force them to fight and die for them, only to be revived and do it all over again, is HAUNTING. No. No the Order has an in house orphanage now. This kid is getting adopted and cared for god damnit or Kiran might just pop a blood vessel. And sure that child is going to be a child and there will never be a world where they get along with everyone else, but that’s just going to need be a problem they address when they get there and not an excuse to use Hubris; the power set. Now replace the word child with everyone they ever summoned and you have the wider philosophy they apply to the entire Order.

They’re hyper aware of the power imbalance. They hate it with every bone in their body. They work really hard to correct it in whatever way they can.

So Kiran might not jump on the opportunity to correct those who think lesser of them. It’s… oddly comforting to know someone is keeping a critical eye on them. Holding them accountable. Especially since so much of the order just thinks of them as this quirky yet well meaning host. And, really, what can they even do about that? They have gone over the contract with every hero they summon and despite that they still choose to stay. So, what, do they try to inspire more mistrust? The problem with that they would have to actually do acts that intentionally inspire mistrust. And even if that was successful they can’t just waste the extra man power because every other month there’s some new divine asshole who wants them all dead. And if they fail that means they have to start their life from square one and god they can’t do that again so—

Just breathe Kiran.

It’s fine. You’re fine. Just breathe.

You have work to do.

My Silly Askr Trio Team Builds!! Yippee!!

Warning before going in; I am going full nerd mode here. But like, the math kind. The nerd who likes the gameplay mechanics of anime war crimes chess game that’s really a math game in a trench coat. I also do not claim that any of these builds are good, just that I’ve had fun playing and making them. Also also I’m entirely free to play.

So without further ado, oh no I like playing Heroes actually:

First off; Brave Princess Veronica!!! Who is technically not part of the trio but I needed a fourth!!!

I haven’t really built her in the same way I’ve tinkered with the others. But I put a lot of thought into who to round out the squad with and I think she was the best option I could have picked.

Since the goal of this squad is the difficulty, I didn’t want the fourth party member to be a significantly better unit than the other three. I didn’t want any overshadowing or a clutch. They also had to be from Heroes. Hopefully a mage of some kind so we had magical damage on the board. But most importantly, I needed a support unit.

Now I classify a support unit in FEH as a unit who is purpose built to support others on the squad. Be that through healing, dancing, or Lilith repositioning Altina straight into enemy fire and watching how the stat buffs she provides render attacks against Altina null and pure crit building fodder. Brave Veronica is a fantastic support when EVERY BUFF COUNTS. Now the move pool I have to pick from for these guys has grown exponentially and I have slowly accumulated the resources to buff their stats. But this wasn’t always the case! Each story map clear used to be a struggle and the rallying/debuff effect she gives post attacking would be the difference at times. She fit right into the play style I was having fun with and gave the Askr trio a fighting chance. Also don’t judge that seal I have more important units to put the better skills on and honestly she could use the health.

Up next, my pretty outdated Alfonse!!! How many Brazens can I give this dude!!

So remember how I said every buff was important with these three? This load out is a fantastic example for what I mean. Over time, I have gained the materials to buff the crap out of Alfonse’s stats. The flower cap got higher, traits became a thing, then ascended traits became a thing, add some summoner support in there and now I have an Alfonse with workable stats. But this was not always the case! And you can see the remains of this with the speed refine on his sword.

In case it’s not clear yet, I don’t change the weapons these guys have. I only refine them. And god damn Alfonse had NO SPEED and it was KILLING HIM. Don’t let that 40 speed fool you that’s the ascended trait. I did not know until building Askr trio that every time a unit has low speed, FEH equips them with a skill to ensure that they can still double. Alfonse didn’t have this, I’m too free to play for the skill fodder game, and I have a life outside this game. So I kept running into this problem where he would actually have the stats to kill, but could not consistently double, so he’d die. Speed on Fólkvangr was the solution I came up with. Then I got the ascended trait thingy and decided to never worry about his speed again. But at this time I don’t have the material to refine his weapon into something else so it’s still speed lmao.

Reposition is my favorite skill in game and I have never needed rally skills more than with this team. The perk with movement rally skills is that it rallies two units instead of one, and as previously stated, Alfonse needed the speed buffs. So Spd/Def Link (gives +6 to both stats on both units when movement skill was used) was the best and only option I had.

Now infantry rush (infantry allies within 2 spaces get +1 special cooldown per attack if Atk stat is higher than their enemy) was a bit of a mixed skill for this group when I first equipped it, but it made him fun to use with my main groups in other game modes. Alfonse giving student Edelgard that little boost before repositioning her into enemy lines was a very fun combo. And although it didn’t help every time, giving the Askr trio grander opportunities to crit is NEVER a waste. It can be the difference.

Also 60 Health. Brazen Skill. What more must I say. He reaches a certain health threshold and kills everything in a ten mile radius.

Next up: Anna!!! My beloved commander!!! Who can actually take a god damn hit!!!

Here you can see my two brain cells finally coming together to give Anna a gimmick. And that gimmick is friends plus frenzy.

So the perk of Anna is that she can kinda go wherever you want her to, if that makes sense. I feel like with Alfonse, he kinda wants to be built tanky and it was extremely easy to slap 3 brazen Atk/Def on him. But with Anna, I have not touched her traits beside a weapon buff to her pitiful attack stat, so this is her basic stat spread plus 20 flowers. There are most definitely builds taking advantage of things like her higher res, but I honed on her speed because that’s the one I had skills for.

Spd/Def form (if unit is in two spaces from an ally when entering combat, the will get a buff to those two stats based on the number of allies nearby) was serving Sharena pretty well, so I thought I’d give Anna the Atk/Spd variant. A lot of this group’s buffs comes from being nearby each other, so it fit pretty well. Decided to make those two stats her focus. That lead to Atk/Spd oath 4, which does a few things but mainly she can now move to spaces next to allies two spaces from her and get buffed by standing next to them.

Then. Then I found Frenzy. Frenzy also does a few things, but put simply it’s a damage reduction skill based on her speed. And I just gave her skills that all raise her speed. And her other team members can further buff her speed. Needless to say, Anna just went from the weak link to a god damn menace. On a unit with a stat total greater than 201, this could probably render attacks null. But on Anna, it entirely solves her 26 def problem. Usually when a unit has those paper thin defenses, it’s usually to account for a busted attack stat on a ranged unit. Glass cannon and all that. But Anna is an axe unit who needs serious Atk support to even turn one another axe unit. It was the inverse of Alfonse’s Spd problem and it was rough. This skill gave her the tools to survive and I have never felt so freaking smart playing this game.

Last but certainly not least; Sharena!!! She’s never done anything wrong ever!!!!

Unlike the other two, Sharena has no glaringly obvious issues. She’s got no res but that’s not new; no one here has res! So just don’t put her in range of magic. But that meant I really didn’t know what to do with her until I figured out Anna. The null follow is evidence of this. I was running into issues with follow ups, so I just threw a skill that made that problem go away on Sharena without thinking about how that could go towards her build. And that was basically her role for a long time. A random collections of skills to serve team needs.

That changed with the discovery of how speed plays into damage reduction and I gave Sharena a similar build with a different goal. Anna is built to hit and run, while Sharena is built to tank for way longer than she was meant to. Spd/Def form and refined Fensalir give her bonuses to Spd/Def around allies. Repel does the same thing as Frenzy with more bonuses to Spd and the ability to push people back. Godlike Reflexes uses her Spd to say that this attack from a mage won’t kill actually. Deflect melee is even more damage reduction to every consecutive melee attack after the first. Atk Oath Echo, while a nice tiny boost to Atk, is there strictly to help Sharena keep up with Anna. Again, every buff counts and those two are S supported to eachother. Giving her a higher movement skill to match her was an excellent use of that fancy x skill don’t @ me.

The result of all that math is a Sharena who can tank things 60 hp triple brazen Alfonse can’t. If I can time my specials right, Sharena can survive would be fatal hits from foes purpose built to team wipe. She is my Hail Mary. 25 Res is now all she needs to save me from very scary mages and Veronica can heal her up afterwards (something I can’t always do to Alfonse because it would take him out of Brazen range).

So yeah! Those are my guys! My funny little team! Thanks to power creep feh is very easily a pay to win game, but using these guys made me use my brain and made story mode missions actually satisfying to clear. It’s how I personally have fun. Book 3 final boss map on Lunatic haunts me to this day and that’s how I know I’m doing it right.

Wish me luck, because I am not even remotely caught up on recent books. These builds are going to have to withstand that onslaught soon enough and I fear triple brazen Alfonse might finally go down.

I would love to see others builds. Would definitely recommend playing FEH’s story mode with what are essentially Pokémon level caps. Makes it fun. Makes it mean. Feel the power creep come to kick you in the shins.

As a reward for reading this far, a gift!!! An even grander sneak peak for that one Alfonse alt I am going crazy making!!!

This was a total accident but it looks like an awakening crit portrait and I couldn’t be happier.