"What do you REALLY want, Ananke?" I swear if you guys say that one more time I will SCREAM IN AGONY--

I think I've said this before, but the chapter of Ananke telling the fairy tale of the Sovereign Axe being able to remove the shadow pact from disciples without killing them has been making me dread some future writing decisions of Book 3 (which I've been really enjoying so far, so this is a real shame)

First of all, the future story implications that the Sovereign Axe is actually capable of getting rid of the shadow’s influence without killing people has a high chance of ruining the stakes of both previous and future books. The sacrifice of Gotthold and Estel would retroactively have a lot less weight with the existence of a MacGuffin that could have saved them without any extra cost. It could now make the readers wonder "these people could be saved if only Rusty and his OP axe were nearby, so what's the point of their deaths" which negatively distracts from the emotional impact on the books' overall narrative. Joachim's difficult journey to become a light disciple to revive Estel would lose a lot of weight too because the existence of the Sovereign Axe now frames these deaths feel like preventable outcomes (rather than being taken seriously as important to their tragic tales), intentional or not. This extents to the world building, with shadow disciples being hunted down due to being murderous threats to the populace. I can't reiterate enough how much that straight up sucks for the story of Fire Emblem Shadows!

The inevitable tragedy that a person even with good intentions will face a tragic end if they give in to temptation and make a wish to be granted is incredibly fascinating as a plot point. I myself am a big fan of series exploring the consequences of wish granting with a cost such as Madoka Magica and Kamen Rider Ryuki/ Geats. I hoped Fire Emblem Shadows would follow a similar suit in exploring such themes of desire, but the existence of a deus ex machina being able to remove the shadow eliminates nuance to any possible conversation this series could have with that.

This possible plot point with the axe has also made me very worried for the direction of Ananke's character arc.

I've been hoping that they DO NOT go in the direction that Ananke never wanted to kill Rusty and that she wanted to betray the wolves to begin with. Here's a excerpt of what I've written about her back when Chapters 3/4 were released that I still stand by right now:

Book 3's setting of Notia in general is such a cool backdrop for the story. You can see how the existence and action (or lack of action) of the current royal family impacted the characters' lives. It might not be the most complex storytelling thing in the world, but it's amazing with how it's much more integrated compared to the other fesh books. Ananke is also another prime example of how good her character is bc of how she connects with the world building. She is a victim of the neglect of the current royals in defeating the monsters, and it's so sad to learn that the ruling system of her home failed her so bad, crushing her determination to help her family and causing her to adopt her semi-pessimist attitude towards her inevitable fate sinking into shadow.

Ananke joined the Monster Watch and volunteered for the riskiest missions to support her family who've suffered and lost their forest home because of the current royalty's incompetence to rid the kingdom of monsters. And it's one of those missions that caused her to almost lose her life before she made the shadow pact.

Instead of Gotthold (who wished to save Ast) or Estel (who wished for the greater good), Ananke's circumstances of her wish are much more instinctual: to save her own life. She pretty much had no other choice in the moment.

Because she made the pact, she knows she's now a danger to her family. Her forest is still gone. She can't be saved from her inevitable fate of becoming a beast of shadow. She knows she only has so much time left before she loses herself and her sanity. She is essentially a ticking time bomb.

So, it makes perfect sense that Ananke would be in that desperate mindset to lose any hope in the future because she could no longer be a part of it. It makes sense that she would follow the wolves' orders in the main story because she believes she has nothing left to lose to the point of almost nihilism. It makes sense that she would be consumed with disdain for both royal families for not helping her in her final moments. Her life is a reminder of the sins of the current royal family. She is lasting proof of who they failed to save because they were unable to do anything sooner.

Yes, it IS irrational for her blaming Rusty and Hanya as scapegoats for her misfortune. It is self centered for her to want to kill them as revenge. But, that is what makes her so interesting, so unique compared to the other characters in Book 3 and the shadow disciples in previous books. That's what makes her characterization so viscerally HUMAN. It makes her stand out from so many heroines.

So do you know what would ruin all that? If all her emotionally driven monologues of her flawed but understandable thinking WERE ALL A LIE!! AAAAAAAA WHAT WAS THE POINT OF ALL THAT BUILD UP, TO SPIT ON MY FACE???

I absolutely dread the theory that Ananke was ALWAYS a good person, and didn't actually want to kill Rusty or Hanya. That she always planned to have Rusty get rid of the shadow , that she knew the axe has that power, and she always planned to betray the wolves. And Rusty and Hanya will all forgive her because ooo she was always good from the start. I HATE IT, DONT GIVE ME THAT

If they actually revealed that she was a goody-two-shoes lying to the wolves all along only for the sake of a character plot twist, that would be extremely disappointing and that would genuinely ruin so much of her appeal to me. Dare I say she would fall to one of my least favorite character of Book 3 for ruined potential alone...

I would be fine if she started out with this grudge but gets a change of heart from being conflicted over killing after everything she learned. If that's what the preview is trying to show, that would ease my worries a bit. Not a creative route it could take (a bit similar to Estel) but I'd be fine with it if that does happen.

I'd want one of these to happen to avoid the Sovereign Axe from being too OP and overshadowing the narrative:

The Sovereign Axe actually can't save people from being a shadow disciple and Ananke's fairytale isn't real. Any hope of Ananke being saved is crushed.

The Sovereign Axe can save people but it has some cost that makes it undesirable to use it for every circumstance.

The Sovereign Axe can save people but it gets destroyed or unusable in some way by the time the book ends.

So I ended up designing & drawing fire emblem shadows (maybe toxic) yaoi ocs during my trip last week. All drawings done on my phone with my finger bc thats all i had to draw on :|

This started from me joking with a discord moot "shadows should give us a canon crossdressing yaoi in book 4 to combat kurtrose" and later I told them I wanted shadows to use more colorful birds "like peacocks or hummingbirds" as animal inspiration, but the ones with colorful plumage are the males. So the two ideas ended up colliding to make whatever this is LMAO

Yeah, that's the context