"Heroes of Light and Shadow" Squeeage and Hypotheses

[mark_asphodel]

 Well, I learned of this first thing this morning from myaru , and the thought of it sustained me through a grueling twelve-hour day.

First thoughts:

All right, adult Marth!  But why is he apparently hanging out with his compadres from Book One and carrying the full Shield of Seals? The hell?

I've already seen fanboys on various fora saying how much they like the new art style compared with the FEDS style.  Uh, we already got a taste of eyeless comic-booky Marth in FEDS.  It's not THAT much of a departure from the FEDS CGs, though I do find it viscerally pleasing while the FEDS CGs were merely pleasant.

Now, as to the mysterious shadowy figure behind Marth, the titular "Hero of Shadow" and Marth's new "friend and confidant"!  Fanboys have presented the following theories:

It's a self-insert Tactician in the manner of Blazing Sword.  Dude, I hope not.  I want Jagen to be the tactician, because Tactician!Jagen is badass.  I do not want to put myself into the game so that Marth can ask me stupid questions.

It's Roy!  Wishful thinking, peeps.  Messy hair and a sword are not sufficient evidence for an Elibe crossover.

It's Cain!  Damned if I don't like that idea, but I seriously doubt it.

It's Alm!  Because Gaiden got skipped for a remake, so Alm has to come into it somewhere.  No, I think Alm has more to do on his own continent like Cellica in the year 607 and does not have time to be helping Marth out.

It's Hardin, helping to defeat himself.  That's kind of cool, but I doubt it.

No, the most likely candidate for this nameless, faceless hero would be... Sirius.  Who also fits the "messy hair and sword" profile.  Now, this poses a HUGE continuity gap, because Sirius is never once presented as Marth's "friend"-- they don't have a single scene or conversation together!  But if it's not Sirius, I don't know what other existing canon character the Hero of Shadow would be, and then we're left with this Tactician bullcrap again.  

Also, I admit that I find it disheartening that, after being refashioned from a dipstick kid into a competent and pragmatic hero that I absolutely love, Marth is being knocked down to a mere co-star in his own legend, sharing equal billing with Mysterious Shadow Person.  I really wanted a remake of FE3 to give us a version of Marth that made a convincing Leader of the Free(ish) World-- and, preferably, an edgy evolution of the somewhat screwed-up teenager seen in FEDS.  He now looks the part, but the presence of his shadowy buddy makes me fear that Marth's own characterization is taking a hit.  Sigh.

So, I guess I'd better finish my various WIPs before they're all jossed to hell.  Or maybe I should hold off on "Trinity" until I get a load of the new, improved Sirius in action?  The "Sirius" chapters of that story have been a pain to write, anyway....

Comments

[penandpaper71.livejournal.com]

Technically, I think the only character in the picture who isn't in Book 2 is the axe user (Who looks to be either Bord or Cord), but I could be wrong.

I really don't know what to make of the shadowy figure honestly. Sirius would make some sense, I suppose, but as you point out Sirius and Marth hardly appear to be friends. Plus, that's a rather serious expansion on his role. Otherwise, he only really acts in FE3 during his recruitment scene and recruiting Nyna.

That tactician idea frightens me and, so far, I'm finding that one the most convincing. With all the hits that Shadow Dragon took, I could see IS trying to figure out what needed to change to cut back on that and FE7 is a very popular game, so it's not implausible that they might have decided to "borrow" a few things from there, although I'd prefer most anything else to this. I didn't like the self-insert tactician in that game (I liked the game, but the whole idea that I was "in the game" annoyed me). Plus, this idea will, without a doubt, lead to more Caeda bashing and that will make me sad. :(

Cain as the shadowy figure would please me for obvious reasons, but it won't happen. He's already grouped in the picture with Marth's army next to Abel.

Hardin would be odd, but interesting. How would that be managed though? Split personality much?

I wonder if they simply decided to add a new character (Frey back from the dead? :P). There was a lot of whining that Shadow Dragon didn't offer a lot "new", so perhaps they decided to add a new "important" character. This idea bothers me though as that's a lot of messing with canon.

Even with my current unease with the shadow character, I really do want this game. ^_^ I might end up regretting that I said that though.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Plus, this idea will, without a doubt, lead to more Caeda bashing and that will make me sad.

You are so right. It may well lead to the 'fic explosion that FEDS never gave us, all starring Marth and his new special friend. Excuse me while I choke on my tea.

Cain as the shadowy figure would please me for obvious reasons, but it won't happen.

I knew this couldn't be true when I saw the idea batted around, but the forum poster who proposed it was working off the "canonicity" of Cain being Marth's right-hand man after the war, which does make him a compelling candidate even though it's not going to be. Sigh.

How would that be managed though? Split personality much?

Well, if he's using the Darksphere, maybe he can project shadow-clones of himself the way Gharnef did.

This idea bothers me though as that's a lot of messing with canon.

Well, yeah. Like I said-- they had an opportunity to make the franchise poster boy the leader he's supposed to be, and instead they have this potential self-insert propping him up and presumably being the real brains behind it all. You know, I remember the ending of FE3 pretty well. Marth said he could never have managed without Caeda. Caeda. Not some random person with no face!

[shimizu-hitomi.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it really looks like its going to be a tactician insert. Annoying, but well... (When I originally saw the subtitle my mind did jump to Hardin though -- I assumed that the game was referring to the Hero of Light vs. the one who turned to darkness, since after all it was called the War of Heroes... But having seen the teaser text it seems that the tactician idea is most likely. Then again, the fact that the shadowy image is shown with a sword annoys me because Ive just about HAD it with the sekritninjawarrior tacticians.)

The idea that it might be Roy is just silly. (And if its Alm Ill just be annoyed because yeah. Boys got his own stuff to deal with.) Cain doesnt feel likely to me if only because of the way theyre framing this as a surprise or some sort of twist -- he makes a logical tactician but not so much a good surprise. Of the existing canon characters Sirius definitely seems most likely, but..... arrrrgh.

I kinda hope its just a new character. That seems like the uhh safest route at the moment to me.

eta: After some thought, Im actually hoping itll be similar to what they did with Hasha no Tsurugi -- granted, that was a manga tie-in and not a game, but FE6 DID reference Hasha no Tsurugi in-game, and I could envision a similar set up with Marth as the primary hero and a secondary hero running around doing other things. Parallel heroes seems like a more interesting (and less mind-breaking) route to go, especially if they leave out Book 1 this time around.

Speaking of Sirius btw, now I really need to finish my own fic so I can read your take on him without a guilty conscience... XD

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

When I originally saw the subtitle my mind did jump to Hardin though -- I assumed that the game was referring to the Hero of Light vs. the one who turned to darkness

Hardin somehow receiving his due as a "Hero of Shadow" would be awesome beyond imagining.

Then again, the fact that the shadowy image is shown with a sword annoys me because Ive just about HAD it with the sekritninjawarrior tacticians.

Here, here.

After some thought, Im actually hoping itll be similar to what they did with Hasha no Tsurugi

That's a great idea. In fact, it would be fan-fuckin'-tastic if they used the abandoned plot of "men who go to war" from the Nintendo 64 game that was going to be set in Archanea and used that as the secondary plotline. It'd be the lost Fire Emblem game and an FE3 remake all in one go.

The more I think about a self-insert Tactician loose in Archanea, the more I hate it. For one, I can already SEE the bad porn.

Speaking of Sirius btw, now I really need to finish my own fic so I can read your take on him without a guilty conscience...

Heh. I actually dug up that fragment of Ch 2 of "Through a Glass Darkly" to compare my 'fic to your writing to make sure I wasn't accidentally borrowing anything, because that's the only other real treatment of Zeke and Teeta I've ever seen beyond the script itself.

[samuraiter.livejournal.com]

If it is Mark (FE7), then I get big points. :-) But I suspect it might be Sirius. ... Be cool if it was one of the Shadow Dragon newcomers, though, like Horace or Etzel.