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mark_asphodelX-ref earlier posts on "fanfiction tiers."
I was thinking about Gen 2 again light of a couple of things-- my assertion to the maintainer of the fe-according-to-japan tumblr that "Gen 2 kids enjoy actual popularity in Japan" and a conversation I had withraphiael about "the Julie Taylor test" wrt Fire Emblem characters and fanfiction. Simply put, my version of the Julie Taylor test is that I deem a character poorly written (as opposed to poorly acted) when I cannot fathom their inner life enough to 'fic them. That goes for underwritten SNES characters and it goes for some FE13 characters with pages upon pages of dialogue and nothing whatsoever I can relate to under the surface. It certainly applies to Gen 2 and I have a pile of never-finished WIPs to back it up.
Gen2 kids have four main avenues for establishing characterization.
1) Plot relevance-- cut scenes, recruitment dialogue
2) Family conversations
3) Lovers' conversations
4) Boss battle dialogue
Then you have the odd Easter Egg like Fee's conversation with her pegasus Mahnya.
Anyway, in the spirit of some earlier rankings of characters and how difficult they are to master, here is a tier list of the Gen 2 boys. The girls present a slightly different challenge, as we may (shall?) see.
Yer Lord:
Seliph: In spite of his pretty face and derpy outfit, Seliph isn't a bad Lord character by any means. He's just not a phenomenal one. It helps, I think, to remember that he's actually an adult-- close to nineteen as FE4 tells it-- not a pwecious babby. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Seliph embodies the kind of values (including IDK, courtesy and modesty?) that play better to the home audience than they do with Statesiders who want their HECTORS and IKES being all blunt and manly. Like Roy, Seliph appears to have a pretty massive fanbase in Japan that just doesn't carry over. Also like Roy, Seliph plays off more colorful characters; we see him constrasted with Levin, contrasted with his more temperamental peers, contrasted with his variety of possible love interests in conversations that tell us a lot about the girls and not so much about Seliph. But we do see enough of Seliph thinking and reacting and changing to determine that yeah, he does think.
Verdict: I think we have more than enough on Seliph to make him a POV or starring 'fic character.
Clear Inner Life:
Leif: I've seen more than a few English-speaking fans cite Leif as their favorite Gen 2 character, or even the only Gen 2 character they actually liked. I'd say the reason for this is pretty clear and not just down to Leif's awesome promotion. Leif actually has a rudimentary developmental arc sketched out in FE4; he goes from messing up and saying inappropriate things in Chapters 7 and 8 to being a confident, together, and more inspiring young leader by Chapter 10. He has dialogue available in every single chapter from the time he shows up as a playable character. We see him as a prince receiving an education on how to conduct himself, as a brother giving support to his sister, as a lover making sweet talk to his girlfriend, as a future king thinking of his people, and as a warrior saying some spectacularly nasty things to his enemies. Add this to, yes, the awesome promotion, and I don't think Leif's appeal is any great mystery.
Verdict: FE4 Leif should be no problem to write in a variety of scenarios. Bringing FE5 into the picture is what gets sticky.
Corple: Yeah, he's a crap unit. We're not talking about his utility here. I initially wrote Corple off as "Yubello 2.0 with a worse name," and was surprised to find out he's actually a well-written character. We see different facets of his character-- a loving son, a loyal vassal, a young boy discovering girls-- that all add up to a perfectly coherent whole. We could have more from him; whereas Lewyn!Leen has a very sweet conversation with her father, Corple gets nothing, and I think that at least would help the transition from Corple-Hannibal's-Son to Corple, King of Silesse. That disconnect is the largest strike against a Corple who inherits stuff; he and Hannibal never say a proper good-bye.
Verdict: Corple can be written. Corple should be written more.
Slightly Less Clear Inner Life:
Arthur:
Since the Freege clan occupies a significant amount of the Gen 2 plot, Arthur gets a wealth of screen time; he's plot-relevant enough that his substitute Amid is not some random common kid but another member of House Freege and shares all Arthur's key conversations. He talks to his predestined lady, to Seliph, to his sister, to various rogue members of his bloodline. He has a whopping three conversations with Fee and a special bro'n'sis conversation with Tinny if neither one of them takes a lover. You obviously can't unlock all these in the same PT but you can't say Arthur doesn't get to talk. For all that, I don't think he's easy to "get" and I think the OOC Arthurs infesting the small pool of Jugdral fanfic bear me out. I still take issue with the claim on the older FE Wiki that Arthur is a "frozen flower," for while he certainly has a glaze of ice on his surface, what appears to be beneath is not bruised-blossom tenderness but rage and the desire to murder certain people in as brutal a fashion as possible. Lewyn!Arthur would have benefited from a conversation with dad; in between his passion for Silesse and his lack of interest in the non-Tiltyu parental unit, that would've been interesting. Arthur in any other scenario overall could stand to have some closure on how he feels about NOT returning to Silesse.
Verdict: Arthur can be written and I've certainly tried, but I feel surprised whenever I do get a review claiming "my" Arthur is in-character 'cause I'm just not entirely sure.
Ced:
Ced, or SETY!!! as he used to be called, presents an interesting case. The 'best' Ced in a narrative sense was retroactively canonized, but in FE4 he's just an option. A strongly favored option to be sure, but an option. Still, unlike with any of the other optional kids, it's tempting to just take Lewyn!Ced as the default because he makes so much damn sense that way. As for his popularity... well, Forseti. Duh. In terms of personality, his appeal doesn't seem quite as obvious, as he's not one of the stand-out "characters" in Gen 2. I think Ammie summed it up best: "A more boring version of [Lewyn] mashed up with Finn." To a substantial number of fans in Japan and elsewhere, this seems to be a combination on par with "Yay, peanut butter in my chocolate!" but I can see why it might come off more like "Um...is this iced tea in Diet Coke? I just wanted a Coke." Ced has some screen time with random villagers, with Seliph, and with his sister, but a key thing with Ced is that he gets what none of the other Gen 2 boys get-- a heated confrontation with his father that tells us a lot about Ced and even more about Lewyn. It's a moment in which Ced the Hero comes off as the overburdened teenager he actually is, and Lewyn comes off as a cold-blooded bastard. Ced also has a predestined love interest in Tinny which IMO is one of the more unconvincing pairings FE has ever thrust in my face but YMMV. I can't claim it's "OOC" because hey, that's the game script, but I notice they didn't Go There in FE5, which is where the bulk of Ced's characterization comes from.
Verdict: I don't think Ced's necessarily hard to write, but if you take out the Forseti angle he loses SO much that it's just as well Forseti!Ced went canon. Without Forseti he's just this sweet, stoic, dutiful kid in Manster for no apparent reason (like, why would Noish or Arden be there?) and without his flaws much in evidence. And the main flaw is the textbook Mary Sue flaw of being too willing to help people.
Ares:
Out of the "fixed" kids, Ares comes off the worst. It's not that his introduction isn't good, though it hews far too closely to Beowulf's recruitment in Chapter 2 (all the more significant given "Jabarro" was allegedly supposed to be "Fergus" in the beta). It's that nothing much happens afterward. He decides not to kill Seliph. Nanna gives him a letter. If he and Nanna hook up they have a giggle over their parents' forbidden love. That's... it. The lack of additional dialogue with Seliph, or anything with Leif, is disappointing. The lack of any dialogue with Leen after Chapter 7 is bizarre. Given how wonderfully his father Eldigan was characterized in Gen 1, with the conflicts set up and foreshadowed, Ares seems all the more flat. Good thing he's an awesome unit! Honestly, in his case, as with some of the other kids-- Delmud, Jamke's potential son, whoever inherits Jungby-- one wonders if a Gen 3 narrative arc detailing the reconquest of the western half of the continent might not have helped bring them into focus. As it is, once he gets over his rage and resentment we really don't know what's going on beneath the blond hair and black armor.
Verdict: Ares is the first one in the list who really feels limited on what you can do with him, IMO. Given his role it feels like he should be capable of more than what we get, but he's locked into a Johnny-One-Note performance.
Gimmicky:
[On the one hand, these characters have strong "voices" that makes them easier to write. On the other hand, they don't have sufficient depth to really "get" IMO.]
Faval:
Faval might actually be an uncomplicated man. He's a recruitable enemy, which leads to some juicy scenes including a boss battle exchange with his former employer. He and Patty have a nice, memorable little bro'n'sis chat wherein we learn that Faval tends to deck people who trash-talk their mom. This is all good. Faval also presents a weird case in that some of his conversations are shared with other Gen2 characters (see below) but he carries them off with IDK, a little more verve? At any rate, his lovers' conversation with Lana and his boss battle exchange with Scorpius don't exactly transform how we see Faval.
Verdict: Faval certainly adds color as a supporting character, but don't ask me to write from his POV.
Johan/Johalva:
They are all gimmick. ALL GIMMICK. Distinctive mode of speech + Lust for Larcei + Willingness to wipe out all other family members. Of the two Johalva seems to have a bit more depth. At any rate, whichever one of them you recruit is bound to be thinking about Larcei, so I guess that's an inner life.
Verdict: What I said for Faval, pretty much.
Indistinct Inner Life:
Delmud:
The drop-off in characterization from Axe Bros to Tirnanog Bros is steep and merciless. Delmud's introduction alongside Oifaye and Lester hints at something interesting; the guys are going out doing some kind of recon work while Seliph, Lana, and SwordTwins sit at home. But there's no follow-through. Delmud's two conversations in Chapter 7, his "training" with Oifaye and his reunion with Nanna, do an okay job of establishing his character. And again, there's no follow-through. He has no additional dialogue with Nanna. He has no lovers' conversations. He is apparently loyal to Ares, his cousin and king, but there's no dialogue there either until the epilogue. He has no parent/child conversation and no "bros" conversation with the other guys. No boss battle. Delmud's at a level where anything might help flesh him out, and instead we get nothing.
Verdict: Delmud's entire appeal is bound up in his backstory; ironic for a character allegedly blessed with great personal charm. Given who his mother was and what she got up to, that's a hell of a backstory. I don't know how to write him outside of Family Drama and I don't know that anyone has outside of J-fen.
Ulster:
On the one hand, Ulster is arguably worse-off than Delmud. Whereas Delmud at least has a wisp of mentoring from Oifaye and the whole sibling reunion thing going, Ulster has a decent enough set-up via his opening dialogue with Seliph and Larcei... and then nothing. His solitary lovers' conversation, with Lana, is word-for-word her conversation option with Faval. He receives no mentoring from Shanan (while Larcei does). He has no boss battle dialogue-- despite being a prince of Isaach, he says nothing to the people defiling his mother's homeland. Ulster has two things that give him a sliver of an advantage: one, he offers an obvious contrast to his hot-headed and better-developed twin; some fragmentary dialogue found in FE5 indicates that a "training" conversation between the twins got left on the cutting-room floor. Two, he's really easy to pair with Julia and seems to be riding a wave of home-market popularity based on that, even though they don't actually talk beyond generic 'welcome home' conversations and IIRC he can't take her with him after the war. This doesn't help his depth any but IMO it makes him more popular.
Verdict: Ulster is where I pretty much throw up my hands in defeat when it comes to writing a character in anything beyond a limited supporting role. He can be a foil. He is good for nothing else.
Lester: I regard Lester as the bottom of the characterization barrel. Like Delmud, he has a promising introduction that goes nowhere. Like Ulster, he has a quickie conversation with his sister in Chapter 6. He has a lovers' conversation with cousin Patty that I find grating and dislikable and a boss battle dialogue with Scorpio that's in essence the same exchange Scorpio has with Faval. That's it. Putting aside my bias against the Patty thing, Lester is hobbled by his lack of two elements that potentially give his fellow Tirnanog rejects some dramatic heft. Ulster has a missing mother and a sister who's in denial that mom is well, dead. Delmud renunites with his own sister only to learn their mother died in the desert while trying to reach him. Lester was raised by his mother in the company of his sister and, as Gen 2 kids go, ain't got nothin' to complain about. There's nothing implicitly going ON with Lester, other than a hint that he has some kind of regard or concern for his absent father, which is hardly unique and ALSO has no follow-up. How does he feel when Faval comes barreling in with the Yewfelle and a claim on Jungby? How does he feel about his kid sister being married to the new emperor? Dunno.
Verdict: I don't know how to write this guy. I don't know if anyone can.
Bonus: The Adults.
I think it's no secret that I feel the way Oifaye's written in Gen 2 redeems his pathetic Gen 1 performance. Shanan, OTOH is weirdly under-utilized; having the King of Isaach not be present for the liberation of Isaach does him no favors. I don't think either of the guys have any boss battle dialogue, which is just weird. You'd think they'd have something to say to someone, right? Hannibal puts in a solid performance as the resident Lorenz, and IMO Lewyn and Finn pretty much function as designed with no room for me to take pot shots at the script writers (except Finn's conversations with Lana and Larcei because really, wtf?). Shanan's really the only one of the five who poses a genuine problem when it comes to writing 'fic, and as with Arthur I think the number of writers who've obviously struggled with Shanan backs me up here. What does Shanan do when not swinging the Balmung or being admired by pretty girls? I dunno. If this were a movie he'd be played by Keanu Reeves. :P
I was thinking about Gen 2 again light of a couple of things-- my assertion to the maintainer of the fe-according-to-japan tumblr that "Gen 2 kids enjoy actual popularity in Japan" and a conversation I had with
raphiael about "the Julie Taylor test" wrt Fire Emblem characters and fanfiction. Simply put, my version of the Julie Taylor test is that I deem a character poorly written (as opposed to poorly acted) when I cannot fathom their inner life enough to 'fic them. That goes for underwritten SNES characters and it goes for some FE13 characters with pages upon pages of dialogue and nothing whatsoever I can relate to under the surface. It certainly applies to Gen 2 and I have a pile of never-finished WIPs to back it up.Gen2 kids have four main avenues for establishing characterization.
1) Plot relevance-- cut scenes, recruitment dialogue
2) Family conversations
3) Lovers' conversations
4) Boss battle dialogue
Then you have the odd Easter Egg like Fee's conversation with her pegasus Mahnya.
Anyway, in the spirit of some earlier rankings of characters and how difficult they are to master, here is a tier list of the Gen 2 boys. The girls present a slightly different challenge, as we may (shall?) see.
Yer Lord:
Seliph: In spite of his pretty face and derpy outfit, Seliph isn't a bad Lord character by any means. He's just not a phenomenal one. It helps, I think, to remember that he's actually an adult-- close to nineteen as FE4 tells it-- not a pwecious babby. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Seliph embodies the kind of values (including IDK, courtesy and modesty?) that play better to the home audience than they do with Statesiders who want their HECTORS and IKES being all blunt and manly. Like Roy, Seliph appears to have a pretty massive fanbase in Japan that just doesn't carry over. Also like Roy, Seliph plays off more colorful characters; we see him constrasted with Levin, contrasted with his more temperamental peers, contrasted with his variety of possible love interests in conversations that tell us a lot about the girls and not so much about Seliph. But we do see enough of Seliph thinking and reacting and changing to determine that yeah, he does think.
Verdict: I think we have more than enough on Seliph to make him a POV or starring 'fic character.
Clear Inner Life:
Leif: I've seen more than a few English-speaking fans cite Leif as their favorite Gen 2 character, or even the only Gen 2 character they actually liked. I'd say the reason for this is pretty clear and not just down to Leif's awesome promotion. Leif actually has a rudimentary developmental arc sketched out in FE4; he goes from messing up and saying inappropriate things in Chapters 7 and 8 to being a confident, together, and more inspiring young leader by Chapter 10. He has dialogue available in every single chapter from the time he shows up as a playable character. We see him as a prince receiving an education on how to conduct himself, as a brother giving support to his sister, as a lover making sweet talk to his girlfriend, as a future king thinking of his people, and as a warrior saying some spectacularly nasty things to his enemies. Add this to, yes, the awesome promotion, and I don't think Leif's appeal is any great mystery.
Verdict: FE4 Leif should be no problem to write in a variety of scenarios. Bringing FE5 into the picture is what gets sticky.
Corple: Yeah, he's a crap unit. We're not talking about his utility here. I initially wrote Corple off as "Yubello 2.0 with a worse name," and was surprised to find out he's actually a well-written character. We see different facets of his character-- a loving son, a loyal vassal, a young boy discovering girls-- that all add up to a perfectly coherent whole. We could have more from him; whereas Lewyn!Leen has a very sweet conversation with her father, Corple gets nothing, and I think that at least would help the transition from Corple-Hannibal's-Son to Corple, King of Silesse. That disconnect is the largest strike against a Corple who inherits stuff; he and Hannibal never say a proper good-bye.
Verdict: Corple can be written. Corple should be written more.
Slightly Less Clear Inner Life:
Arthur:
Since the Freege clan occupies a significant amount of the Gen 2 plot, Arthur gets a wealth of screen time; he's plot-relevant enough that his substitute Amid is not some random common kid but another member of House Freege and shares all Arthur's key conversations. He talks to his predestined lady, to Seliph, to his sister, to various rogue members of his bloodline. He has a whopping three conversations with Fee and a special bro'n'sis conversation with Tinny if neither one of them takes a lover. You obviously can't unlock all these in the same PT but you can't say Arthur doesn't get to talk. For all that, I don't think he's easy to "get" and I think the OOC Arthurs infesting the small pool of Jugdral fanfic bear me out. I still take issue with the claim on the older FE Wiki that Arthur is a "frozen flower," for while he certainly has a glaze of ice on his surface, what appears to be beneath is not bruised-blossom tenderness but rage and the desire to murder certain people in as brutal a fashion as possible. Lewyn!Arthur would have benefited from a conversation with dad; in between his passion for Silesse and his lack of interest in the non-Tiltyu parental unit, that would've been interesting. Arthur in any other scenario overall could stand to have some closure on how he feels about NOT returning to Silesse.
Verdict: Arthur can be written and I've certainly tried, but I feel surprised whenever I do get a review claiming "my" Arthur is in-character 'cause I'm just not entirely sure.
Ced:
Ced, or SETY!!! as he used to be called, presents an interesting case. The 'best' Ced in a narrative sense was retroactively canonized, but in FE4 he's just an option. A strongly favored option to be sure, but an option. Still, unlike with any of the other optional kids, it's tempting to just take Lewyn!Ced as the default because he makes so much damn sense that way. As for his popularity... well, Forseti. Duh. In terms of personality, his appeal doesn't seem quite as obvious, as he's not one of the stand-out "characters" in Gen 2. I think Ammie summed it up best: "A more boring version of [Lewyn] mashed up with Finn." To a substantial number of fans in Japan and elsewhere, this seems to be a combination on par with "Yay, peanut butter in my chocolate!" but I can see why it might come off more like "Um...is this iced tea in Diet Coke? I just wanted a Coke." Ced has some screen time with random villagers, with Seliph, and with his sister, but a key thing with Ced is that he gets what none of the other Gen 2 boys get-- a heated confrontation with his father that tells us a lot about Ced and even more about Lewyn. It's a moment in which Ced the Hero comes off as the overburdened teenager he actually is, and Lewyn comes off as a cold-blooded bastard. Ced also has a predestined love interest in Tinny which IMO is one of the more unconvincing pairings FE has ever thrust in my face but YMMV. I can't claim it's "OOC" because hey, that's the game script, but I notice they didn't Go There in FE5, which is where the bulk of Ced's characterization comes from.
Verdict: I don't think Ced's necessarily hard to write, but if you take out the Forseti angle he loses SO much that it's just as well Forseti!Ced went canon. Without Forseti he's just this sweet, stoic, dutiful kid in Manster for no apparent reason (like, why would Noish or Arden be there?) and without his flaws much in evidence. And the main flaw is the textbook Mary Sue flaw of being too willing to help people.
Ares:
Out of the "fixed" kids, Ares comes off the worst. It's not that his introduction isn't good, though it hews far too closely to Beowulf's recruitment in Chapter 2 (all the more significant given "Jabarro" was allegedly supposed to be "Fergus" in the beta). It's that nothing much happens afterward. He decides not to kill Seliph. Nanna gives him a letter. If he and Nanna hook up they have a giggle over their parents' forbidden love. That's... it. The lack of additional dialogue with Seliph, or anything with Leif, is disappointing. The lack of any dialogue with Leen after Chapter 7 is bizarre. Given how wonderfully his father Eldigan was characterized in Gen 1, with the conflicts set up and foreshadowed, Ares seems all the more flat. Good thing he's an awesome unit! Honestly, in his case, as with some of the other kids-- Delmud, Jamke's potential son, whoever inherits Jungby-- one wonders if a Gen 3 narrative arc detailing the reconquest of the western half of the continent might not have helped bring them into focus. As it is, once he gets over his rage and resentment we really don't know what's going on beneath the blond hair and black armor.
Verdict: Ares is the first one in the list who really feels limited on what you can do with him, IMO. Given his role it feels like he should be capable of more than what we get, but he's locked into a Johnny-One-Note performance.
Gimmicky:
[On the one hand, these characters have strong "voices" that makes them easier to write. On the other hand, they don't have sufficient depth to really "get" IMO.]
Faval:
Faval might actually be an uncomplicated man. He's a recruitable enemy, which leads to some juicy scenes including a boss battle exchange with his former employer. He and Patty have a nice, memorable little bro'n'sis chat wherein we learn that Faval tends to deck people who trash-talk their mom. This is all good. Faval also presents a weird case in that some of his conversations are shared with other Gen2 characters (see below) but he carries them off with IDK, a little more verve? At any rate, his lovers' conversation with Lana and his boss battle exchange with Scorpius don't exactly transform how we see Faval.
Verdict: Faval certainly adds color as a supporting character, but don't ask me to write from his POV.
Johan/Johalva:
They are all gimmick. ALL GIMMICK. Distinctive mode of speech + Lust for Larcei + Willingness to wipe out all other family members. Of the two Johalva seems to have a bit more depth. At any rate, whichever one of them you recruit is bound to be thinking about Larcei, so I guess that's an inner life.
Verdict: What I said for Faval, pretty much.
Indistinct Inner Life:
Delmud:
The drop-off in characterization from Axe Bros to Tirnanog Bros is steep and merciless. Delmud's introduction alongside Oifaye and Lester hints at something interesting; the guys are going out doing some kind of recon work while Seliph, Lana, and SwordTwins sit at home. But there's no follow-through. Delmud's two conversations in Chapter 7, his "training" with Oifaye and his reunion with Nanna, do an okay job of establishing his character. And again, there's no follow-through. He has no additional dialogue with Nanna. He has no lovers' conversations. He is apparently loyal to Ares, his cousin and king, but there's no dialogue there either until the epilogue. He has no parent/child conversation and no "bros" conversation with the other guys. No boss battle. Delmud's at a level where anything might help flesh him out, and instead we get nothing.
Verdict: Delmud's entire appeal is bound up in his backstory; ironic for a character allegedly blessed with great personal charm. Given who his mother was and what she got up to, that's a hell of a backstory. I don't know how to write him outside of Family Drama and I don't know that anyone has outside of J-fen.
Ulster:
On the one hand, Ulster is arguably worse-off than Delmud. Whereas Delmud at least has a wisp of mentoring from Oifaye and the whole sibling reunion thing going, Ulster has a decent enough set-up via his opening dialogue with Seliph and Larcei... and then nothing. His solitary lovers' conversation, with Lana, is word-for-word her conversation option with Faval. He receives no mentoring from Shanan (while Larcei does). He has no boss battle dialogue-- despite being a prince of Isaach, he says nothing to the people defiling his mother's homeland. Ulster has two things that give him a sliver of an advantage: one, he offers an obvious contrast to his hot-headed and better-developed twin; some fragmentary dialogue found in FE5 indicates that a "training" conversation between the twins got left on the cutting-room floor. Two, he's really easy to pair with Julia and seems to be riding a wave of home-market popularity based on that, even though they don't actually talk beyond generic 'welcome home' conversations and IIRC he can't take her with him after the war. This doesn't help his depth any but IMO it makes him more popular.
Verdict: Ulster is where I pretty much throw up my hands in defeat when it comes to writing a character in anything beyond a limited supporting role. He can be a foil. He is good for nothing else.
Lester: I regard Lester as the bottom of the characterization barrel. Like Delmud, he has a promising introduction that goes nowhere. Like Ulster, he has a quickie conversation with his sister in Chapter 6. He has a lovers' conversation with cousin Patty that I find grating and dislikable and a boss battle dialogue with Scorpio that's in essence the same exchange Scorpio has with Faval. That's it. Putting aside my bias against the Patty thing, Lester is hobbled by his lack of two elements that potentially give his fellow Tirnanog rejects some dramatic heft. Ulster has a missing mother and a sister who's in denial that mom is well, dead. Delmud renunites with his own sister only to learn their mother died in the desert while trying to reach him. Lester was raised by his mother in the company of his sister and, as Gen 2 kids go, ain't got nothin' to complain about. There's nothing implicitly going ON with Lester, other than a hint that he has some kind of regard or concern for his absent father, which is hardly unique and ALSO has no follow-up. How does he feel when Faval comes barreling in with the Yewfelle and a claim on Jungby? How does he feel about his kid sister being married to the new emperor? Dunno.
Verdict: I don't know how to write this guy. I don't know if anyone can.
Bonus: The Adults.
I think it's no secret that I feel the way Oifaye's written in Gen 2 redeems his pathetic Gen 1 performance. Shanan, OTOH is weirdly under-utilized; having the King of Isaach not be present for the liberation of Isaach does him no favors. I don't think either of the guys have any boss battle dialogue, which is just weird. You'd think they'd have something to say to someone, right? Hannibal puts in a solid performance as the resident Lorenz, and IMO Lewyn and Finn pretty much function as designed with no room for me to take pot shots at the script writers (except Finn's conversations with Lana and Larcei because really, wtf?). Shanan's really the only one of the five who poses a genuine problem when it comes to writing 'fic, and as with Arthur I think the number of writers who've obviously struggled with Shanan backs me up here. What does Shanan do when not swinging the Balmung or being admired by pretty girls? I dunno. If this were a movie he'd be played by Keanu Reeves. :P
