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sailorvfan10 , this is your fault. I've been sitting on this chapter since JUNE of last year, but since you mentioned Norne-epics... Well.
Anyway, at this point this story's been out there for the better part of two years. It's not that I don't know where it's going-- the final chapter is already done and I have no intention of changing it. The problem is the whole uneasy situation regarding "continuity" as far as Archanea games are concerned. This was begun before FE12 was announced, much less released, and FE12 canon claims that Norne and Athena and Horace and the other gaiden-chapter weirdoes were rubbing shoulders with the old-school members of the Archanean League. Hell, even Nagi apparently fits into the continuity somehow, which hurts my head to even think about.
But back in FE11, to get Norne, you had to waste a couple of characters in the Prologue. And, as War of Darkness is a setup for the War of Heroes, taking characters out of the "time stream" had an impact on the events in the sequel. Think Gordin's useless? Well, in FE3, you needed Gordin to recruit Jeorge, and Jeorge not only recruited Astram but turned out to be a major player in post-war society. Break the chain, and things turn out a bit different in the post-war political landscape-- arguably not for the better. And no, having Norne become Jeorge's adoring apprentice doesn't work.
Anyway, it quickly became apparent that what I had on my hands was a "canon divergence" story, and things became a hell of a lot harder to wrangle. And as I refused to shy away from killing off characters in battle, the rising body count makes reconciling canon harder with each chapter.
(Also, Cain and Abel and some other characters are rooted in a 2009 conception of them, from before I worked on any of the "Tales of the Unified Kingdom" stuff. And it shows.)
But, anyway, since I have strong opinions about that odd beast known as the Game Novelization, I feel obliged to lay my cards on the table to explain what I was trying for with my entry into the novelization game.
1) Pick a minor character, a bit player, as viewpoint character. If I wanted to follow Marth around for the entire story, I'd replay the game. A supporting character offers a potentially fresh view of the game events.
2) Keep in mind that character's limited perspective and likely activities. Norne is not hanging out with the whole cast of characters. She's not with Marth every second, and she doesn't know everything, much less understand everything she does see. She's not a noble, she's not even a proper knight, and she's Altean to the core. She sticks with her people.
3) Don't cover every chapter and plot point of the game. It's OK to skip over some of the bandit encounters, you know? Also, what's relevant to Norne? Taking back Altea, dammit. Not the rest of the crazy stuff. Conquer Macedon? Why the hell do we want to do that?
4) Show no mercy. Characters get maimed and characters die. Norne will lose friends.
5) This is not the best time for a teenage romance. Which does not mean that some characters aren't relieving their stress by making out in the bushes. People are people, and we all have slightly different reactions to extreme situations. But don't expect a kissy-kissy love fest.
Yeah. If I think of something else, I'll add another point.
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-19 05:47 am (UTC)Cutting the "filler", i.e. the countless random pointless bosses? Definitely a plus.
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Date: 2011-03-19 05:38 pm (UTC)I know there's an FE3 novelization and an FE8 one-- are those the ones you mean? All I know of them are the character ages used for the FE3 book and some pix from the FE8 one. Are they summarized/translated anywhere?
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Date: 2011-03-19 06:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-19 08:53 pm (UTC)There are no summaries/translations that I'm aware of; my own knowledge of them is limited to the "canon" FE7 pairings that the novels chose to go with, and that's only based on J-wikipedia so I have no idea re: accuracy.
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Date: 2011-03-19 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-19 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-19 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-19 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 05:29 am (UTC)Huh.
Guess I'm not going to be looking to the novels to confirm the canonicity of my pairing preferences!
Thanks, though. :)
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Date: 2011-03-19 05:02 pm (UTC)Word to your points, especially two, three, four, and five. Especially three and four. Especially since I doubt Marth's army consists of just the characters we control in the games--I'm sure there are plenty of nameless, faceless ones too we just don't see. I like to give them names and kill them off, and kill the Gaiden characters off so then it's not just, "Oh everyone somehow turns out okay in the end!" No. People might be injured to the extent they won't ever be right again, both physically and mentally. Characters die, not just right on the battlefield but from other things like hunger, dehydration, sleep deprivation, old battle wounds, sickness...
AND YES, I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MANY TIMES I'VE READ SOMETHING WHERE EVERYONE AND THEIR DOG IS LIKE, SCREWING IN THE BUSHES and meanwhile there's a war going on but WHO CARES LOOK AT THE PAIRINGS. I can just picture Gharnef going, "Um, hello? Evil guy right here all up in your face with your sister right here! Hello?" while Marth's making out with Caeda.
Actually no I can't. In fact I can't picture Marth making out with anyone. Well that's a lie I can. BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT. Marth wouldn't be screwing anyone in the middle of a battlefield. The war's a little hard for him to ignore. Just a little. About as hard to miss as an explosion in the middle of the freeway from two big rig trucks colliding and they both happen to be carrying flammable substances AND fireworks.
(Besides, Marth's too repressed to be making out with anyone during FE11 anyway. Unless he could perhaps make out with his kingdom.)
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Date: 2011-03-19 05:46 pm (UTC)Yeah. In the FE3 novelization I haven't finished, Luke loses an eye and dies some days later from the infection. Yucky, but... hey, that's how it went. Also, in another counter-argument to screwing in the bushes-- hello, stress/deprivation/injury-induced miscarriages? Yeah, just what every army needs. If the girls are getting laid, they are drinking so much "woman's tea" that they're probably denuding the countryside of the relevant herbs.
Besides, Marth's too repressed to be making out with anyone during FE11 anyway.
I'm inclined to agree. I've gone against this once, for that Marth/Norne 'fic I wrote for Samu, but I'm not really seeing him as someone who relieves stress with a good roll in the hay. Not at that point in his life. He could probably USE such a thing, but...
(And that ties into the rather disagreeable issue of whether or not he really doesn't ever get laid until he's twenty-one and married. Alm and Cellica have probably popped out three kids by that point in the timeline.)
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Date: 2011-03-19 05:57 pm (UTC)And not just that, but if they don't miscarriage, you have pregnant women and well... They can't fight, and not being useful in battle = MAJOR BURDEN. And depending on who's doing the screwing and who got knocked up, there could even be scandal! Like, uh, if Nyna decided to have a good old rolling in the hay with someone. Doesn't even have to be Marth, though it could be so Hardin can hate him more. I'M SURE THEY CHECK TO SEE SHE'S STILL PURE AND VIRGINAL BEFORE SHE GETS MARRIED.
Never mind Marth wouldn't be screwing people during the war anyway, even though he could probably use it just so he can RELAX for once.
whether or not he really doesn't ever get laid until he's twenty-one and married
I am going to have to go with the whole "Marth is a virgin until he's married to Caeda" thing because, in my mind, when would Marth even have the time? Between the war and the aftermath (reconstructing Altea, preparing for his wedding, preparing to accept Altea's kingship...), Marth has VERY LITTLE FREETIME.
(Meanwhile most kings IRL were up to their eyeballs in illegitimate children and were the biggest pimps to ever pimp.)
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Date: 2011-03-19 08:56 pm (UTC)Oh, believe me. You can find time for that sort of thing. You got time for "whispers of love in the halls" per the FE11 ending, you can find time for something more.
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Date: 2011-03-20 12:22 am (UTC)Dammit now I want to write something like that.
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Date: 2011-03-20 05:34 am (UTC)True.
Honestly? Marth's
anorexicfrail FE12 redesign leaves me content enough to leave him alone in that regard. He's hot as hell in the CGs, but as far as the rest of the official art goes, he looks younger than he did in FE11. Not turned on by that, thanks. And surfing through fanart today just confirmed my visceral "no" reaction to this fragile little SparkleSue that somehow replaced dorky asskicking Marth from FE11.It's like the reverse of FE9!Ike --> FE10!Ike.
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Date: 2011-03-20 04:58 pm (UTC)I think I would rather have my FE12 Marth than FE10!Ike!Marth. Especially since FE10 Ike scared the shit out of me with the fact that it looked like he was juicing up a little too much...
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Date: 2011-03-20 05:02 pm (UTC)Word. That was a bad idea. A Very Bad Idea.
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Date: 2011-03-20 05:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-20 11:19 pm (UTC)Oh, yeah. Another thing. From a utilitarian perspective (not unlike that employed in, say, FE4), I would've thought that the whole Last Heir of Anri thing would've meant that Marth would be expected to sire a kid as soon as possible. Seriously. He steps on the damned ice wrong one winter's day, and all of humanity is fucked? No sense making.
The best reason I can think of that he and Caeda waited until 607 to try and get married is that she's deemed unacceptably young for marriage. (What, even younger than Est? Oh, canon!)
Otherwise, if I were in charge of that household, I'd have said, "You two. Are on 'honeymoon' from now until baby makes three, got it?"
[And the Last Heir of Anri business is so stressed that I do consider it verging on a plothole. Yeah, someone in a later game like Ephraim is probably in his early twenties, unmarried and with no plans to settle down-- but Renais hasn't been in a crisis situations for YEARS with Ephraim known to be the only person capable of using X weapon that is the Best Defense Against Darkness. Rausten doesn't fall just because L'Arachel is an only child, y'know?)
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Date: 2011-03-20 11:25 pm (UTC)Of course it's the last MALE heir no less. Poor Elice is just completely ignored because she lacks certain appendages.
The best reason I can think of that he and Caeda waited until 607 to try and get married is that she's deemed unacceptably young for marriage.
I always thought Caeda to be two to three years younger than Marth, so that kind of makes sense.
Otherwise, if I were in charge of that household, I'd have said, "You two. Are on 'honeymoon' from now until baby makes three, got it?"
LOL. But what if that baby is a girl? They'd need baby makes four. Or five. Or until there's a boy. And from Marth's own family, it appears that it took quite a bit of time for them to get another one after Elice period, let alone a boy. I can picture Liza being told all sorts of tricks and whatever to insure they are given a boy or whatever. They'd probably tell Caeda the same things.
Word to the last part.
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Date: 2011-03-21 12:59 pm (UTC)