mark_asphodel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mark_asphodel) wrote2012-04-06 03:51 pm
mark_asphodel) wrote2012-04-06 03:51 pm
Entry tags:
- eirika,
- ephraim,
- fe8,
- fire emblem,
- meta
Dominant Twin: Defining the Protagonist in FE8
This has been percolating for some time-- since I got my hands on the new Akaneia artbook, really.
If you had to pick one "hero" for Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, which twin would it be? I realize the natural answer is, "They both are!" but bear with me here. If you needed to pick one single represenative for the Magvel saga, whether for purposes of discussion or for inclusion in a Dissidia-style fighting game, which twin would it be?
I think the side of fandom we're familiar with (herein called E!fandom because the common language used for fandom purposes is English) might choose Eirika. She's the first Lord character playable in the game. Her route seems to be more popular, or at least the one enthusiastically recommended to newbies. EirRoute appears to be the prevailing influence on the E!fandom take on supporting characters like Seth. And-- not inconsequential-- the female twin provides a bit of gender balance to make up for the male heroes of the other continental sagas (Marth, Celice, Roy, Ike).
After giving the matter a fair amount of thought, I have to say I must reject both the idea that the Renais twins are equal protagonists and the idea that Eirika is the intended star of FE8. I think the balance of evidence indicates that Ephraim is meant as the star of the game and the hero of Magvel.
I. Sagas
FE1/2/11/12: Marth with Caeda
Note complete lack of Sigurd, Soren/Elincia, or MyUnit Chris. So, we have two games represented by a single Lord (the saga hero in both cases). We have most games represented by the Lord accompanied by a prominent supporting character. Since this character is NOT consistently a love interest, I'm calling them the Secondary Representative. And we have FE2, FE7, and FE8 represented by multiple playable Lords... as is FE10, if you consider Sothe to be a Lord on the grounds that his death precipitates a Game Over. The Lord character is usually but NOT always in the foreground of the image.
In the case of the twins, Eirika is posed behind Ephraim's shoulder-- as is Lilina with Roy, Caeda with Marth in the "remake" illustrations, and Sothe with Micaiah. Alm and Cellica are standing shoulder-to-shoulder (but so are Leaf and Finn), and in the FE3 illustration it's Caeda in the foreground with Marth "behind" her. Hector and Lyn are behind Eliwood. So just based on who's where in the picture, we can't say that Eirika is "really" the SecRep to Ephraim's dominant Protagonist, though the prevailing motif is the Protagonist in the foreground and the SecRep behind.
Multiple playable Lords doesn't make for multiple Protagonists by itself. I find the case for Alm as the FE2 Protagonist and Eliwood as the FE7 Protagonist to be airtight. And, again, being a Game Over-inducing Lord-type character didn't get Sigurd or MyUnit Chris in the pictures at all. So, this presentation of the franchise doesn't settle the question of whether or not Eirika is a true co-equal Protagonist or FE8's own Secondary Representative. The best we can say is that it's hinting that she's a Lyn-type or Sothe-type subordinate to the Protagonist (or even a Caeda-type!), or rather that it looks that way.
[Also, note the gulf between what E!fandom deems essential to the games and what the game creators deem essential in several cases, which is part of why I'm bringing this up.]
III. The ending
OK, enough context. Now we have evidence from the game itself: Ephraim becomes the King of Renais.
No, seriously, that matters. He becomes King. His own route is ultimately about facing up to his duties, but he doesn't go off and play mercenary at the end of Eirika's route. Instead, he talks her out of doing something very, very wrong in the Epilogue. He rules Renais and Grado, and she has the option of going off to Frelia with Innes or Caer Pelyn with Saleh... or staying at Ephraim's side forever. When I was evaluating them as co-equals, that always felt wrong to me; I wanted Eirika to have the option of really becoming Queen of Renais at the end of her route, while Ephraim served as her peacekeeping force in Grado, or something like that. I also was a little uncomfortable with the shadow that Ephraim casts over Eirika in both the early-game chapters she leads and in her own route. But if we accept Ephraim as the game's true Protagonist, it's not wrong at all. It's natural. And so Ephraim becomes King just as Alm becomes King, and Eirika/Cellica supports them. Or Eirika leaves.
IV: Separate but not equal
When I first played FE8, the overwhelming advice from E!fandom was to play Eirika's Route first. The plot was better, allegedly. And while I appreciate that the Joshua backstory is a serious draw for fandom, in terms of the overarching plot, is finding out who Joshua is really as critical as getting to the bottom of things down in Grado? I think canon answers this one for us: we don't find out Joshua's identity in EphRoute. Not relevant... or, rather, not critical. The genuine meat of the story is to be found on Ephraim's route.
V: Vox populi
In my forays into Japanese fandom (J!fandom) I couldn't help but notice two things. One, that when artists tended to do art of a "one lord only" sort of piece for each saga, they defaulted to Ephraim and placed him in the company of Marth, Ike, Roy, Celice, and (sometimes) Alm. Two... fandom perceptions of characters like Seth appeared influenced more by Ephraim's Route than by Eirika's. There was more focus on Seth as the serious-minded, sometimes harsh adviser and far less on the idea of Seth as love interest, at least that I could make out. And in E!fandom, the dialogue about, say, Seth usually doesn't run that way. J!fandom analyses of games and characters are usually entrenched in context of the overall franchise, focused on links and parallels and evolution of archetypes from the Kaga era onward. Given that this is the way I prefer to approach the games, I don't find it odd, or a fluke, that J!fandom, when obliged to make the choice, appears to gravitate toward Ephraim as the Protagonist of FE8 and the hero of the Magvel saga. Eirika's overall place in the game is closer to the actual status of Lyn (who also has an exaggerated role in E!fandom)-- the tutorial Lord, a key character, but not the Protagonist.
So, in conclusion, I find that I really can't accept the idea that FE8 genuinely features "twin" Lords on an equal footing. Just as Ephraim is explicitly the Big Brother to Eirika's Little Sister, I think it's reasonable to call him the designated hero of this particular saga. Eirika-- despite coming closest to filling the traditional role of Lord (as defined by her male predecessors) out of any of the prominent female characters in Fire Emblem-- does indeed fall into a secondary role alongside Cellica, Sothe, Lyn, Hector, et cetera.
So, yes. At the end of the day, it remains a big sausage-fest. Sorry.
PS: This is not because I like Ephraim better. I admit Celice is the hero of Jugdral despite my overwhelming preference for Leaf. Ditto Roy vs Eliwood.
I. Sagas
E!fandom tends to categorize Fire Emblem by individual game (and obsesses over which entries are "worthy" of an official number). Canon, in the form of the 20th Anniversary Artbook and other sources, presents the games as integrated continental sagas-- Archanea, Jugdral, Elibe, Magvel, Tellius. Each of these has an obvious hero figure, regardless of the number of playable Lords. Marth is the hero of Archanea. Celice is the hero of Jugdral. Roy is the hero of Elibe and Ike the hero of Tellius. Regardless of whether or not you like these Lords the best of the ones available in that saga, the pre-eminence of these four is overwhelming.
II. Leads and Supports
The Akaneia artbook includes a brief overview of the franchise, which features a series of illustrations to represent each game. These were adapted from official art, usually the box art, but were not the intact (or cropped) official art. The inclusion or exclusion of each "game representative" is therefore deliberate.
What to make of Magvel, whose "saga" is a standalone? Well, its "spiritual predecessor" is of course FE2, and while it could be argued that the "Valencia saga" is a side-story in Marth's shadow, it's presented independently in the artbook. And, of course, it features two protagonists (neither with technical Lord class status). Alm and Cellica have interlaced tales that must both be played through, and they each give aid and support to one another, but the plot of FE2 explicitly establishes Alm as the continental hero.
I don't find that irrelevant in terms of evaluating Magvel.
II. Leads and Supports
The Akaneia artbook includes a brief overview of the franchise, which features a series of illustrations to represent each game. These were adapted from official art, usually the box art, but were not the intact (or cropped) official art. The inclusion or exclusion of each "game representative" is therefore deliberate.
FE1/2/11/12: Marth with Caeda
FE2: Alm and Cellica
FE4: Celice
FE5: Leaf with Finn
FE6: Roy with Lilina
FE7: Eliwood, Lyn, Hector
FE8: Ephraim and Eirika
FE9: Ike
FE10: Micaiah with Sothe
Note complete lack of Sigurd, Soren/Elincia, or MyUnit Chris. So, we have two games represented by a single Lord (the saga hero in both cases). We have most games represented by the Lord accompanied by a prominent supporting character. Since this character is NOT consistently a love interest, I'm calling them the Secondary Representative. And we have FE2, FE7, and FE8 represented by multiple playable Lords... as is FE10, if you consider Sothe to be a Lord on the grounds that his death precipitates a Game Over. The Lord character is usually but NOT always in the foreground of the image.
In the case of the twins, Eirika is posed behind Ephraim's shoulder-- as is Lilina with Roy, Caeda with Marth in the "remake" illustrations, and Sothe with Micaiah. Alm and Cellica are standing shoulder-to-shoulder (but so are Leaf and Finn), and in the FE3 illustration it's Caeda in the foreground with Marth "behind" her. Hector and Lyn are behind Eliwood. So just based on who's where in the picture, we can't say that Eirika is "really" the SecRep to Ephraim's dominant Protagonist, though the prevailing motif is the Protagonist in the foreground and the SecRep behind.
Multiple playable Lords doesn't make for multiple Protagonists by itself. I find the case for Alm as the FE2 Protagonist and Eliwood as the FE7 Protagonist to be airtight. And, again, being a Game Over-inducing Lord-type character didn't get Sigurd or MyUnit Chris in the pictures at all. So, this presentation of the franchise doesn't settle the question of whether or not Eirika is a true co-equal Protagonist or FE8's own Secondary Representative. The best we can say is that it's hinting that she's a Lyn-type or Sothe-type subordinate to the Protagonist (or even a Caeda-type!), or rather that it looks that way.
[Also, note the gulf between what E!fandom deems essential to the games and what the game creators deem essential in several cases, which is part of why I'm bringing this up.]
III. The ending
OK, enough context. Now we have evidence from the game itself: Ephraim becomes the King of Renais.
No, seriously, that matters. He becomes King. His own route is ultimately about facing up to his duties, but he doesn't go off and play mercenary at the end of Eirika's route. Instead, he talks her out of doing something very, very wrong in the Epilogue. He rules Renais and Grado, and she has the option of going off to Frelia with Innes or Caer Pelyn with Saleh... or staying at Ephraim's side forever. When I was evaluating them as co-equals, that always felt wrong to me; I wanted Eirika to have the option of really becoming Queen of Renais at the end of her route, while Ephraim served as her peacekeeping force in Grado, or something like that. I also was a little uncomfortable with the shadow that Ephraim casts over Eirika in both the early-game chapters she leads and in her own route. But if we accept Ephraim as the game's true Protagonist, it's not wrong at all. It's natural. And so Ephraim becomes King just as Alm becomes King, and Eirika/Cellica supports them. Or Eirika leaves.
IV: Separate but not equal
When I first played FE8, the overwhelming advice from E!fandom was to play Eirika's Route first. The plot was better, allegedly. And while I appreciate that the Joshua backstory is a serious draw for fandom, in terms of the overarching plot, is finding out who Joshua is really as critical as getting to the bottom of things down in Grado? I think canon answers this one for us: we don't find out Joshua's identity in EphRoute. Not relevant... or, rather, not critical. The genuine meat of the story is to be found on Ephraim's route.
V: Vox populi
In my forays into Japanese fandom (J!fandom) I couldn't help but notice two things. One, that when artists tended to do art of a "one lord only" sort of piece for each saga, they defaulted to Ephraim and placed him in the company of Marth, Ike, Roy, Celice, and (sometimes) Alm. Two... fandom perceptions of characters like Seth appeared influenced more by Ephraim's Route than by Eirika's. There was more focus on Seth as the serious-minded, sometimes harsh adviser and far less on the idea of Seth as love interest, at least that I could make out. And in E!fandom, the dialogue about, say, Seth usually doesn't run that way. J!fandom analyses of games and characters are usually entrenched in context of the overall franchise, focused on links and parallels and evolution of archetypes from the Kaga era onward. Given that this is the way I prefer to approach the games, I don't find it odd, or a fluke, that J!fandom, when obliged to make the choice, appears to gravitate toward Ephraim as the Protagonist of FE8 and the hero of the Magvel saga. Eirika's overall place in the game is closer to the actual status of Lyn (who also has an exaggerated role in E!fandom)-- the tutorial Lord, a key character, but not the Protagonist.
So, in conclusion, I find that I really can't accept the idea that FE8 genuinely features "twin" Lords on an equal footing. Just as Ephraim is explicitly the Big Brother to Eirika's Little Sister, I think it's reasonable to call him the designated hero of this particular saga. Eirika-- despite coming closest to filling the traditional role of Lord (as defined by her male predecessors) out of any of the prominent female characters in Fire Emblem-- does indeed fall into a secondary role alongside Cellica, Sothe, Lyn, Hector, et cetera.
So, yes. At the end of the day, it remains a big sausage-fest. Sorry.
PS: This is not because I like Ephraim better. I admit Celice is the hero of Jugdral despite my overwhelming preference for Leaf. Ditto Roy vs Eliwood.