Notes and Errata of Mark of the Asphodel

Archanea gets slagged off a lot for not having "good" or "well-developed" characters.  Er... I'll grant you there are a lot, and I do mean a lot, of characters who didn't have much dialogue save a death quote up until FE12.  And I remain skeptical of the brand of development presented in FE12.

But, as a counter-example, may I present Character #3: Palla.

( I dare you to say she's a lousy character. Triple-dog dare you. )

 So, I got a tentative agreement (ie, an agreement with the company) on the second of my two contracts today and consequently went on a White Russian spree before stumbling home.  I walked, btw-- picked a drinking hole within walking distance for that reason.  Yay.  Now I just have to sell all the hardliners and malcontents on the merits of both contracts.

Anyway, so I posted my latest entry into fe_contest  on this weekend.  The inspiration for it came from "The Stranger Song" by Leonard Cohen, which features lyrics that wormed into my brain sometime last spring.  I tried to make use of the song somehow in original 'fic, but that stalled out, and the whole gambling theme ("dealing," rather) seemed suitable enough to weave into a 'fic I already wanted to write for Abel and Palla.  Said 'fic being a post-war encounter between them, set after any sort of youthful romanticism is long faded.

A friend from my college years who sported literary ambitions decried a genre of fiction and film that consists of "nothing happens but you still feel bad at the end," and that derisive phrase would sort of apply here.  Certainly nothing really changes in the lives of Abel and Palla, and Palla is no more happy at the end than she is at the beginning of the story.  Palla is perhaps a little wiser for the experience, but knowledge of your situation doesn't always equate to action, much less a change in your circumstances.  But knowledge of how you got to where you currently are is, at least, something worth reflecting upon.

While fe_contest  sometimes offers me a chance to step outside "standard" characterization for characters, the three featured here-- Abel, Palla, and Catria-- are basically in line with what is IMO a reasonable extrapolation of canon.  So reasonable, in fact, that I don't even go the Catria/Marth route in this one.  It's not part of the Tales of the Unified Kingdom, but it could have been if I hadn't already established in "Forsaken" that Abel never encountered Palla again after the War of Heroes.  Here, he does... not that it likely makes a difference to him.