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mark_asphodelOK. Eight chapters into FE12 (that's eight real chapters + eight Prologue chapters + two sidequest chapters), I have one major takeaway other than argh this is a good game why wasn't it released here?!?
I love Rody. But I apparently was writing him wrong.
See, I always liked Rody (proof). But there wasn't much to him back then; he didn't have any dialogue. He was cute in a way that made him very obviously the precursor to Leaf, and he was the serious knight to Luke's slackerboy, and he had this secret love for Cecil that only came out in his death quote. But they never got married.
PS: Cecil was just as obviously the forerunner to Janne.
Then FE12 remade him from top to bottom, but with only fragments of old and new canon to go on, I still kept a headcanon idea of Rody as being Serious but somewhat... hapless. For one, he never got the girl.
Well. I was pretty wrong there. After unlocking all Rody's MyUnit supports, and one of his Luke supports, and seeing a ton of him in the Prologue, I have to say that far from being hapless, he's like a giftwrapped collection of personal character biases. -_-
For one thing, Luke's nickname for him is Cold-eyes. Their dynamic is... different. It's not so much the give-and-take of Kent and Sain, or Forde and Kyle, wherein each extreme has its own flaws and virtues, and the "dutiful to a fault" Kent and Ephraim-cheerleader Kyle aren't necessarily the betters of their "lighthearted" companions[*]. Not so with Rody and Luke. There's not any real affection or friendship there, not at this point. Luke is a fable-spinning egocentric ding-dong, living in a fantasyland nearly as impenetrable as Malliesia's, and Rody shows at most a chilly tolerance for his comrade's antics... if not outright contempt.
And Rody has acquitted himself beautifully in his support conversations with Chris, maintaining an emotional distance, an overall aura of competence, and an obvious drive and intelligence that doesn't lower itself to slobbering all over the MyUnit. He calls Chris out on her flaws. He doesn't forgive those flaws entirely even after he comes to respect Chris for studying strategy and tactics... and he begins studying those topics himself when Chris throws out her book collection. After getting a load of Miriel (Myriel?), I was despairing of the ability of IS to write a "smart" character post-Soren. Nope. They can do it just fine when they're not trying too hard.
I don't know how the Cecil angle works in this version; I haven't killed Rody in the main game so I don't know the death quote[**], and this game gives you such an insane glut of mounted units that I've not used Cecil and Rody together enough to get any conversations out of 'em. But Rody's been the one character in this game so far to genuinely surprise me in completely pleasant ways. I'm now debating if I need to re-write anything featuring him, given his new persona as "Cold-eyes." Hmm.
* I'm a big fan of Sain and an even bigger fan of Forde, and Kent in particular has never clicked with me for some reason.
** His retreat quote in the Prologue is the usual "Oh, forgive me for being a burden, gotta withdraw now." You've seen it before from other characters in other games, possibly word-for-word.
I love Rody. But I apparently was writing him wrong.
See, I always liked Rody (proof). But there wasn't much to him back then; he didn't have any dialogue. He was cute in a way that made him very obviously the precursor to Leaf, and he was the serious knight to Luke's slackerboy, and he had this secret love for Cecil that only came out in his death quote. But they never got married.
PS: Cecil was just as obviously the forerunner to Janne.
Then FE12 remade him from top to bottom, but with only fragments of old and new canon to go on, I still kept a headcanon idea of Rody as being Serious but somewhat... hapless. For one, he never got the girl.
Well. I was pretty wrong there. After unlocking all Rody's MyUnit supports, and one of his Luke supports, and seeing a ton of him in the Prologue, I have to say that far from being hapless, he's like a giftwrapped collection of personal character biases. -_-
For one thing, Luke's nickname for him is Cold-eyes. Their dynamic is... different. It's not so much the give-and-take of Kent and Sain, or Forde and Kyle, wherein each extreme has its own flaws and virtues, and the "dutiful to a fault" Kent and Ephraim-cheerleader Kyle aren't necessarily the betters of their "lighthearted" companions[*]. Not so with Rody and Luke. There's not any real affection or friendship there, not at this point. Luke is a fable-spinning egocentric ding-dong, living in a fantasyland nearly as impenetrable as Malliesia's, and Rody shows at most a chilly tolerance for his comrade's antics... if not outright contempt.
And Rody has acquitted himself beautifully in his support conversations with Chris, maintaining an emotional distance, an overall aura of competence, and an obvious drive and intelligence that doesn't lower itself to slobbering all over the MyUnit. He calls Chris out on her flaws. He doesn't forgive those flaws entirely even after he comes to respect Chris for studying strategy and tactics... and he begins studying those topics himself when Chris throws out her book collection. After getting a load of Miriel (Myriel?), I was despairing of the ability of IS to write a "smart" character post-Soren. Nope. They can do it just fine when they're not trying too hard.
I don't know how the Cecil angle works in this version; I haven't killed Rody in the main game so I don't know the death quote[**], and this game gives you such an insane glut of mounted units that I've not used Cecil and Rody together enough to get any conversations out of 'em. But Rody's been the one character in this game so far to genuinely surprise me in completely pleasant ways. I'm now debating if I need to re-write anything featuring him, given his new persona as "Cold-eyes." Hmm.
* I'm a big fan of Sain and an even bigger fan of Forde, and Kent in particular has never clicked with me for some reason.
** His retreat quote in the Prologue is the usual "Oh, forgive me for being a burden, gotta withdraw now." You've seen it before from other characters in other games, possibly word-for-word.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-24 02:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-24 07:27 am (UTC)Cecil... just isn't engaging with me so far. Most of what I've seen of her has been adoring and praising Chris.
Ryan is really cute but again, he's so focused on worshiping Chris that he's not clicking with me yet. Et cetera.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-24 05:00 am (UTC)Why the exasperated face? :P
Also, according to my sources, Rody's death-death quote in FE12 is just a simple manly "I'm sorry" (すまない), while in FE3 it was indeed a rather intimately phrased "Cecil, I'm sorry."(セシル・・ごめんよ)
no subject
Date: 2012-11-24 07:31 am (UTC)I am skeptical to be on the receiving end of such gifts. I keep waiting for him to turn into a squishbucket and start drooling on MyUnit's feet.
Rody's death-death quote in FE12 is just a simple manly "I'm sorry"
!
Cutting a dude's girlfriend out of the equation is one HELL of a retcon.
ETA: Especially when it was 50% of the characterization he had to start with.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-24 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-11-24 07:37 am (UTC)So far, nobody's surprising me, really.
And when you get a conversation like "Wow, Caeda's a brilliant cook and a down-to-earth lady!" in the context of "Chris is angsting over not being girly enough" it doesn't go down nearly as well.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-24 08:45 am (UTC)I actually don't mind Luke, although I haven't seen much of him since the prologue because I'm not using him. I'm already using way too many cavaliers. There wasn't room for him. He made me laugh at least. Maybe next time.
And, yeah, Rody's death quote is just "I'm sorry" as I recall unless I'm misremembering it (Was stupid at one point and let him die. I promptly reset, but I saw his death quote before I did so. I think they were counting on his supports with Cecil to show his feelings for her.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-24 02:19 pm (UTC)That's good. I may ask you to spot me the text because Cecille's being a poor unit for me in this run-through.
I think they were counting on his supports with Cecil to show his feelings for her.
Interesting.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-25 06:27 am (UTC)Yeah, she's been struggling for me too. I just managed to promote her though, so I'm hoping that the bonuses she gets will prove a help. Her poor starting weapon rank isn't helping her any. She's been playing catch-up a lot. :(
I can only summarize the first two conversations for you as I don't remember the text well enough to give you anything more exact, but I just got the third conversation and I wrote it down. So, I can give you the full text for that one.
Interesting.
In a sense, this would be a better way to make the point given that with a death quote you only know about his feelings for her if he dies and this way you find out as long as you use both characters. I rather like how they portray at least Rody's side of it (He isn't falling all over her, but he's sweet with her for the most part.). I'm still not thrilled with how Cecil's character is portrayed, but oh well.
no subject
Date: 2012-11-25 02:20 pm (UTC)Thanks!