Meme and Stuff

[mark_asphodel]

I did not enter fe_contest  this time, even though I liked the prompt.  I had an idea I really liked for "Vanity" involving courtship/marriage between Innes and L'Arachel in a 1930s-ish setting, an evolution of the 'fic I keep wanting to write entitled "A Simple Game of Self-Respect."

When a 'fic title is derived from Elvis Costello's "Two Little Hitlers," you know it's not gonna be very fluffy.

But honestly?  Writing something like that promised to be emotionally draining and a great deal of... work.  Work to make the dialogue actually witty, and the interaction smart and sexy... and the atmosphere what I wanted it to be.  And I really, really didn't want anything to distract me from writing "Starchild," which is a) a great deal of fun to write and b) something that needs to be finished so I can move on and not have my head filled with details of this cracked-out mashup world.  Seriously.  I've dreamed up mission logos.  I've tried to place the various continents on an actual map to figure out an orbital path.  I've wondered what sports the characters like best.  Is Ephraim more of a basketball guy or a hockey guy?  No, not baseball.  They don't play baseball in the Magvel Union.  That's what those foreigners down in Lieberia play.

Also, there's a sequel to "Starchild" germinating in my head, and it's awful.

-x-

I haven't done a meme in a while.  I guess I stole this from hooves ... and half the rest of the f-list.

Name a character from one of my fandoms, and I will reply saying:

* How I FEEEEEL about this character
* All the people I ship romantically with this character
* My non-romantic OTP for this character
* My unpopular opinion about this character
* One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

PS: I have fandoms other than Fire Emblem (Utena, Gundam Wing, Harry Potter...) I just don't write them.

Comments

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Ooh. Now I need to disengage my original views on him from the post-Raphi-meta ones.

Keeping in mind that I played Eirika's route first...

1) I think he's great. I think he's a fine balance of the "princely" type of FE protagonist and the "badass" type (Alm-->Hector-->Ike), which makes sense... given he's born a prince but thinks he wants to be a mercenary. I like that he's an adult, I like that he takes the initiative and is a capable commander... but he's far from perfect with his "don't need books" attitude and general recklessness... which means he needs foils like Seth and Innes, which just adds to the fun. And a lot of his dialogue makes me go "right on!" I think he's likely to make a fine king, and frankly I'd rather have Ephraim leading my nation than almost any other FE main character (Eliwood's fine, too). On the negative side, his personal life is pretty sketchy.

2) Based off canon, Ephraim/L'Arachel. Eph/Tana is one of my major Do Not Like pairings because I think their supports are ghastly. I have a fairly well-advertised fondness for Ephraim/Kyle, though.

3) Oh, his non-romantic OTP has got to be Eirika. And if not her, then Myrrh.

4) Unpopular opinions... what's the popular opinion on him at present? I take issue with the stance that he's bland and generic. He looks like he came off the FE Lord cookie-cutter conveyor belt... at first glance, anyway... but IS did some pretty interesting things with Ephraim in his route for the game, and unless someone shows me notes from IS that prove otherwise, I think Ephraim was used as a template for the massive retconning that Marth got in FE11.

5) The Tana supports. Oh, god, the Tana supports. When I feel a game is shoving a pairing at me and the "courtship" is that horrible... no. No. NO!