FE4, Chapter 10: Blood Sacrifice

[mark_asphodel]

One of the reasons that FE11 took heat was the "decoy sacrifice" in its Prologue; deliberately wasting one of your own units is something that many FE players found to be abhorrent and a violation of the spirit of Fire Emblem.

What I'm sure 99% of them (including me, at the time) didn't realize was that there's a precedent for it.

In Chapter 10, Julius demonstrates his idea of showing Ishtar a good time. His brother and step-cousin think shopping is the way to a girl's heart, but Prince Julius prefers something a little more sporting.  Specifically, he challenges Ishtar to see which of them can murder one of the members of Celice Army first.  A little blood sacrifice, as Julius calls it.

OK.  They're evil.  We're not going to let them... except that one of the villagers you save flat-out tells Celice Army that they're in no condition to face Julius/Ishtar and need to consider an unfortunate "sacrifice" to get where they're going.

...

Wait.  The game is telling me that if I let one of my units get wasted by the Gruesome Twosome, that's acceptable?  I mean, I do happen to have a high-MOV, low-RES unit with no additional storyline importance that I can--

*cough*

I'm guessing the game designers were allowing for the possibility that the Valkyrie staff was still on-hand and you could reward that unit for their sacrifice with a quickie resurrection.  In my case, I've got Lex!Corple so nothin' doin'.

...

Wow.

Comments

[samuraiter]

Trolled by Jugdral, perhaps?

[mark_asphodel]

Nope. I do believe they're as serious as FE11. If your units can't touch Julius/Ishtar without the two holy weapons you still don't have, you feed someone to the dark gods for victory.

[amielleon]

Rofl. I do think Valkyrie was the intention, but I've all but forgotten about that, because I always elect to just swoop in and kill Ishtar. Papa villager is such a quitter.

[solmedes]

The villager's warning has much more merit in a sub-kid run because next to none of your non-Crusader units (IIRC) can withstand a hit from Ishtar, never mind Julius. Those two require careful manuevering even with superkids, and without them, the latter's nearly untouchable.

(The one time I did manage to successfully 0HP Julius was when either Lawlsety or Shanalmung [I forget] got a lover's critical on him, and ironically, I do seem to recall it was accidental -- as in, I threw my unit at him without even remembering their lover was adjacent. You could probably still pull this off in a subbie game, but it'd need to come from a strong hitter on first strike. Anything else will likely end in death.)

[[ And that's where my edit comes from. "Practically untouchable" wasn't necessarily correct - you could possibly still zero-drop Juliopt, but you'd need a lot more luck. Even in Supergen I'm not sure who can survive a Loptsmiting; in Aless's case, I don't know if the Mistoltn's RES boost is enough to save him. ]]


I do happen to have a high-MOV, low-RES unit with no additional storyline importance that I can--

Y'mean Oifaye? Slightly off-subject, but that gets me thinking: there's some good dramatic potential in picking right then to off him. Though the superkids dwarf him in power, he's still been with Celice and the Tilnanogue gang throughout their childhood, and is practically a father/mentor figure for them (along with Shanan). No Valkyrie means permadeath means heartbreak and tears, especially if he's leaving a lover behind.

[Edit number two: "since infancy" was incorrect, considering the ages of Celice and possibly some of the other kids by the time Gen 1 ended. It's been so long since I played...]

(This might actually be even more pronounced in a aubbie campaign without superkids, since he might then be on of your stronger units and the army's more likely to feel his loss in both gameplay and storyline senses.)

[mark_asphodel]

The villager's warning has much more merit in a sub-kid run because next to none of your non-Crusader units (IIRC) can withstand a hit from Ishtar, never mind Julius.

That also occurred to me, yes. And in that case, you definitely have no Valkyrie staff.

in Aless's case, I don't know if the Mistoltn's RES boost is enough to save him.

Yeah. MK!Leaf can take a hit from Ishtar, and Aless probably can too, but Julius? Not taking my chances 'cause I'm pretty sure of the answer.

Slightly off-subject, but that gets me thinking: there's some good dramatic potential in picking right then to off him.

And they're within sight of Chalphy, too! That said, you're crueler than I; Oifaye can still provide lover's bonuses to Fee, whereas Finn's done providing stat boots to the kids and isn't likely to see much action in Final, so between the two of them Oifaye's marginally more useful. And Fee does make such a heartrending widow in her ending text...

Edit number two: "since infancy" was incorrect, considering the ages of Celice and possibly some of the other kids by the time Gen 1 ended. It's been so long since I played...

Celice was not yet two when Sigurd handed him over, and the ages of the other kids are debatable. I mean, Celice complains that swordtwins treat him like a kid, but as far as I can tell by the math, any of the optional kids except maybe Lester have to be younger than Celice.

This might actually be even more pronounced in a aubbie campaign without superkids, since he might then be on of your stronger units and the army's more likely to feel his loss in both gameplay and storyline senses

You intrigue me, sir. Do you have a fiction archive?

[solmedes]

And they're within sight of Chalphy, too! That said, you're crueler than I;

I do tend to derive a certain enjoyment out of being cruel to my characters, particularly if there's a chance I can extract some quality emotional torque from it. ='D

(I haven't, at the time of this writing, actually produced enough finished work to really back up the claim IMO, but I do have an idea of my tendencies. We'll see if time and experience prove me wrong.)


Oifaye can still provide lover's bonuses to Fee, whereas Finn's done providing stat boots to the kids and isn't likely to see much action in Final, so between the two of them Oifaye's marginally more useful.

Ah, so it was Finn you were thinking of. He and Oifaye are pretty much on the same page at that point, huh? Odd that I didn't even think of him...

In the time between replies, though, it occurred to me that one could always pick Johan for the torchpile if he was recruited way back when...


And Fee does make such a heartrending widow in her ending text...

Aye, I remember. You can feel the poor thing's grief. =(


Celice was not yet two when Sigurd handed him over, and the ages of the other kids are debatable. I mean, Celice complains that swordtwins treat him like a kid, but as far as I can tell by the math, any of the optional kids except maybe Lester have to be younger than Celice

Yep, I remember that too. "Infancy" was a brainfart on my part; I realized after the fact that they were probably closer to toddlers, due to the yearcount.


You intrigue me, sir. Do you have a fiction archive?

I'm actually very flattered by that, if you don't mind my saying so. =D Brightened all the remainder of my day when I first read it. Thank you.

Back at LJ, I did have a fiction archive, but it contained all of a single drabble. I'd been meaning to recreate the comm at DW, but it hadn't yet been done at the time of your comment. Just took care of that today: solforce is the name. Completely bare, but I'm actively working to change that (however long and slow it may prove to be).

[mark_asphodel]

I do tend to derive a certain enjoyment out of being cruel to my characters, particularly if there's a chance I can extract some quality emotional torque from it. ='D

Right on.

He and Oifaye are pretty much on the same page at that point, huh?

One's marginally better on offense, the other on defense. And neither's much use except at cleaning up stragglers-- so, not useless, but they've dropped from front-line offense to rear-guard cleanup crew.

it occurred to me that one could always pick Johan for the torchpile if he was recruited way back when...

Hahaha. Fortunately, I went with Johalva.

Skasaher and Lester are not that great but don't merit killing. My Delmud is pretty bad-- really bad-- but he does have Charisma and that alone keeps him in play.

Brightened all the remainder of my day when I first read it. Thank you.

You're quite welcome! I look forward to your future productions.

RE: Subbie run

[amielleon]

Fortunately, you only need to kill Ishtar, and then Julius frowns with disapproval and leaves. :P Ishtar's pretty manageable with a Mistolin critical, and fortunately FE4 lets you save at the head of each turn.

[solmedes]

That's true. IIRC I only took on Julius because I wanted to see his response to being defeated (and I'm almost certain I didn't yet know about Serenesforest's scripts).

I'm unsure if I've ever actually thrown Aless at Ishtar before (it's seriously been so long D= ), but it seems like he'd be a pretty safe bet.

[mark_asphodel]

I baited Ishtar with Holsety. That took care of her.

The Ishtar/Julius thing looks worse than it is because Julius's range is entirely beyond Ishtar's, so without knowing that she charges first (and dies easier), it looks as though you do have to send someone to face him. I can see people making decisions based on that assumption-- oh, I'll put a unit where only Julius can attack, so I don't face them both. Oops.