"Cold Lieutenant"
Feb. 22nd, 2013 04:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelMore like "Queer Lieutenant," amirite?
Seriously.
The subtexty-stuff between Frederick and Chrom is so blatant that people aren't missing it. The peach-colored blanket and the naked inspirational pictures are a little hard to miss.
Seriously.
Given that this installment of Fire Emblem decided to retroactively canonize the "Catria" as an archetype, I don't find this juiced-up rendition of The Devoted Lieutenant role to be insignificant. Call it a tease, call it queer baiting, it's been going on for a damn long time with progressively less subtlety, and this time it's front-and-center and not even relegated to an optional subplot like the Percival/Elphin stuff or the side of the red team like the whole Sephiran/Zelgius/Levail business.
Nope. C'mon guys. If we're gonna have this Catria archetype kicking around now, can at least we all agree that the Queer Lieutenant thing is, well, A Thing? And has been since well before the GBA days? All we gotta agree on is who started the archetype and we're in business.
[I wanna vote for Cain to give it the same pedigree as The Catria, but he already spawned one well-known archetype and my evidence on this particular point is not the best in his case-- he's so tied to Marth he never leaves nor gets married, that's hardly open-and-shut. So, boo.]
And no, the fact that Frederick can get married to chicks doesn't deep-six my argument. Never has, never will. The lack of resolution on the queer angle appears to be part of the point, the same way it is with Les Catrias.
PS: Did anyone get his supports with Maribell? They just seemed really flippin' weird.
Seriously.
The subtexty-stuff between Frederick and Chrom is so blatant that people aren't missing it. The peach-colored blanket and the naked inspirational pictures are a little hard to miss.
Seriously.
Given that this installment of Fire Emblem decided to retroactively canonize the "Catria" as an archetype, I don't find this juiced-up rendition of The Devoted Lieutenant role to be insignificant. Call it a tease, call it queer baiting, it's been going on for a damn long time with progressively less subtlety, and this time it's front-and-center and not even relegated to an optional subplot like the Percival/Elphin stuff or the side of the red team like the whole Sephiran/Zelgius/Levail business.
Nope. C'mon guys. If we're gonna have this Catria archetype kicking around now, can at least we all agree that the Queer Lieutenant thing is, well, A Thing? And has been since well before the GBA days? All we gotta agree on is who started the archetype and we're in business.
[I wanna vote for Cain to give it the same pedigree as The Catria, but he already spawned one well-known archetype and my evidence on this particular point is not the best in his case-- he's so tied to Marth he never leaves nor gets married, that's hardly open-and-shut. So, boo.]
And no, the fact that Frederick can get married to chicks doesn't deep-six my argument. Never has, never will. The lack of resolution on the queer angle appears to be part of the point, the same way it is with Les Catrias.
PS: Did anyone get his supports with Maribell? They just seemed really flippin' weird.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-22 10:07 pm (UTC)But my vote for a first would be Finn. Does Knoll count? Kyza definitely does. And Zelgius. And, come to think of it, Soren! Lucia! Yeah, it's. . . definitely a thing.
I'm supporting Maribelle with Chrom right now. So far nothing grating. They're kind of boring. Better than Sumia.
(PS - is now a good time to confess to digging Harken->Elbert? Because... yeah.)
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Date: 2013-02-22 11:44 pm (UTC)Cain is Marth's personal advisor, too, though. And FE6 is weird about paired endings in general. I'm not going to discount Percival purely on that when he fits in so many other ways. If Elphin abdicated and they went skipping off into the sunset, that'd be different.
Does Knoll count?
Kno-- I mean, no. We don't see any meaningful interaction between him and Lyon, and IMO the parallel for Knoll is filling Roshea's shoes in the Mystery of the Emblem retread part of FE8's plot. Roshea is squishy and guilt-ridden and attached to Hardin, but it's not the same sort of role-- and if you want fanatical, suspect devotion, Wolf is your man there, not Roshea. Percival means something to Elphin, Finn means something to
CuanQuan, Zelgius means something to Sephiran. Frederick means a lot to Chrom even if you never unlock a single support. What's Knoll to Lyon?Kyza definitely does.
I'd have said he was too OTT to count before Frederick came to town with his stash of nekkid Chrom pix. So, yeah, we can have a comic variant on it.
And, come to think of it, Soren!
FE9, yes. By FE10... well, he's also the BFF Wind Mage, and the Long-Haired Dragon-Blooded Beauty, and they can go off together into the sunset. So he's juggling a lot, there.
PS - is now a good time to confess to digging Harken->Elbert? Because... yeah.
Man, I find Harken so screwed up I don't even want to go there. To me he's not a "you're messed up and that's interesting" so much as "you're messed up, go find Levin's shrink or something."
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Date: 2013-02-23 11:41 am (UTC)But now I want to hold up Kyle, too /shotno subject
Date: 2013-02-23 03:48 pm (UTC)I'd count Kyle. I think Frederick owes a bit to him.
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Date: 2013-02-23 01:19 am (UTC)If I can dig Harken / Legault, you can dig Harken -> Elbert, methinks.no subject
Date: 2013-02-23 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-23 01:44 am (UTC)Red-Hot Burning Totally Celibate Training Freak, you mean.
Sigh. Wasted potential.
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Date: 2013-02-23 02:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-23 06:30 am (UTC)Sain: "Couldn't have said it better myself, brother."
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Date: 2013-02-23 01:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-23 01:41 am (UTC)Never really have seen the subtext for Ephraim and Seth, personally. Now, Ephraim and KYLE, that I can see.
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Date: 2013-02-23 03:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-23 03:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-23 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-23 01:42 am (UTC)That really doesn't surprise me. It's been there all the time, and just because they went two decades back with the breeding thing doesn't mean it's taking an official stance on Gay Is Bad.
ETA: not that they mean Gay Is Good. More like,"We know you like this the same way you like dragon lolis and shy blushy dancers."
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Date: 2013-02-23 02:12 am (UTC)Supports are the reason I can't beat the game. I need them all. It's worse than collecting Pokemons or whatever.
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Date: 2013-02-23 05:23 am (UTC)I'm glad there's the option to get them all in one run-through, but if they're not characters I'm using or breeding, I don't much care.
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Date: 2013-02-23 08:13 am (UTC)Also, if you don't want to wait to unlock them in the game
or if you're a miserable European who has to wait two more months to even get the game, here's Frederick and Maribelle's support, duly transcribed by some guy from the SF fora : http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=37134&view=findpost&p=2273276no subject
Date: 2013-02-23 11:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-25 11:32 pm (UTC)Not going to disagree, there, but what was Sumia doing in the Shepherds before she found that pegasus? Don't tell me that klutz was fighting as a footsoldier.
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Date: 2013-02-25 11:31 pm (UTC)Yes. Thank goodness.