Worldstraveller

See, I LOVE the National Parks. I always have a pass. I got to multiple parks a year. I LOVE them, and always viewed them as this unambiguously GOOD thing. Like, the best thing America has done. 

BUT, I just finished reading this book called “I am the Grand Canyon” all about the native Havasupai people and their fight to gain back their rights to the lands above the canyon rim. Historically, they spent the summer months farming in the canyon, and then the winter months hunter-gathering up above the rim. When their reservation was made though, they lost basically all rights to the rim land (They had limited grazing rights to some of it, but it was renewed year to year and always threatened, and it was a whole thing), leading to a century long fight to get it back. 

And in that book there are a couple of really poignant anecdotes- one man talks about how park rangers would come harass them if they tried to collect pinon nuts too close to park land- worried that they would take too many pinon nuts that the squirrels wanted. Despite the fact that the Havasupai had harvested pinon nuts for thousands and thousands of years without ever…like…starving the squirrels. 

There’s another anecdote of them seeing the park rangers hauling away the bodies of dozens of deer- killed in the park because of overpopulation- while the Havasupai had been banned from hunting. (Making them more and more reliant on government aid just to survive the winter months.) 

They talk about how they would traditionally carve out these natural cisterns above the rim to catch rainwater, and how all the animals benefitted from this, but it was difficult to maintain those cisterns when their “ownership” of the land was so disputed. 

So here you have examples of when people are forcibly separated from their ecosystem and how it hurts both those people and the ecosystem. 

And then when the Havasupai finally got legislation before Congress to give them ownership of the rim land back- their biggest opponent was the Parks system and the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club (a big conservation group here in the US) ran a huge smear campaign against these people on the belief that any humans owning this land other than the park system (which aims at conservation, even while developing for recreation) was unacceptable. 

And it all got me thinking about how, as much as I love the National Parks, there are times when its insistence that nature be left “untouched” (except, ya know, for recreation) can actually harm both the native people who have traditionally been part of those ecosystems AND potentially the ecosystems themselves. And I just think there’s a lot of nuance there about recognizing that there are ways for us to be in balance with nature, and that our environmentalism should respect that and push for sustainability over preserving “pristine” human-less landscapes. Removing ourselves from nature isn’t the answer. 

every yugioh 5ds duel:

episode one:riding duel! acceleration!

It’s often been debated on whether Emet-Selch recognized Azem’s soul in the Warrior of Light, and why he fought his old friend anyways in Shadowbringers.  Of course, in Endwalker, we learn that Emet-Selch does recognize Azem’s soul in the Warrior, but their souls aren’t exactly the same due to the sundering.  

But what was Emet-Selch’s game in Shadowbringers?  Was his attempt at an alliance with the Scions a farce?  And if he did recognize Azem’s soul, why was he so confused when he saw Azem before their final fight?

Let’s take a look at Shadowbringers and break down some key scenes.

When we first see Emet-Selch in Norvrandt, he’s busy watching the WoL rescue Ryne from Eulmoran soldiers.  He’s thinking out loud on how the Ascian plans for the First are on the brink of failure, but when he sees the Warrior and the Scions escape, he begins to think of another plan.  “With a soul such as that…” he ponders, implying that there’s something familiar in the Warrior that he notices.

We learn later that he has this recognition because the Warrior is the reincarnation of Azem, one of the people Emet was closest to in the Ancient world.

Through the first half of Shadowbringers, and part of the second half, we see Emet attempting an alliance with the Scions, with a particular focus on judging their worth as equal to the unsundered and worthy of the Ancient world’s legacy as keepers of the Star.  Their worthiness hinges on whether the Warrior can contain the abundance of light from the lightwardens, proving their strength.

In short, Emet is saying, “You don’t know it yet, but you were once one of the most powerful Ancients and we defended the world side by side, together.  You may look like the Azem I know, and you may have their traits, but are you really them?  Are you able to stand with me again so we can save this world and bring back our people, or are you just a poor attempt at a copy?”

He goes about testing the Azem reincarnation by feeding them bits of truth about the past.  Hydaelyn and Zodiark were the first primals.  The Ancient world was sundered and the three paragons were the only ones who remembered it.  On basic history, we see Emet sharing it with the entire group, but it’s not until the others are fixing the elevator of Kholusia that he approaches the Warrior with a more personal conversation.

Emet begins by mentioning hints of their past relationship.

“What?  You thought ancient beings like us incapable of crying?  Well, rest assured that if your heart can be broken, then so can mine!”  He’s gauging whether the Warrior remembers their disagreement during the Final Days.  Do they remember Hythlodaeus’ and Elidibus’ sacrifice to Zodiark and how they opposed it?  Do they remember that they left the Convocation, and subsequently, Emet’s side?  Azem’s heart was clearly broken over the rift, and Emet is saying that the rift broke his heart too.  

Emet looks away with sadness as he remembers back to the Final Days.  “Back when the world was whole, we had family, friends, loves…”  Depending on how the player interprets their WoL’s backstory, Azem could fit into any of these categories.  But Emet’s point is that he’s hinting he and the Warrior were once close.  He’s looking for a reaction, but more importantly, reconciliation, wondering if the Warrior is going to be receptive with joining him again if they remembered all that had happened before.

Emet finally mentions Amaurot, their home.  A home he recreated in the Tempest that he knew the Warrior would see soon.  But the kicker is how Emet ends the conversation once he looks at the Warrior.  “Not that you would remember any of this.”

He’s seen no hint of the Azem he knew in the Warrior aside from a similar soul so far.  Even our own dialogue options we can give to Emet’s speech portray confusion and a lack of any memory of our past life in Amaurot.  Emet is disappointed, but not willing to give up just yet.  He still has hopes that the old Azem is still in there and will remember.

Emet summarizes his point that he believes the Warrior would like the past, and that if they survive the rest of the rejoinings, they’ll be just like their old self, but “such talk is a pleasure for later.”

The Warrior still has to prove to Emet that they’re like the old Azem, because again, Emet wants his Azem back, not an attempt.  

But then comes the fight with Vauthry.

After defeating the last lightwarden, the Warrior succumbs to the light and begins to turn into a sin-eater.  As G’raha is about to take the light to the rift, Emet steps in and stops him.  He laments his disappointment in the Warrior being unable to contain the light, and states the alliance is off.  The Warrior has proven to Emet that the old Azem really is dead and gone, and no matter how much the copy tries, they will never be as good as the original, and if the best of mankind can’t prove their worth, the others won’t have a chance.

But then Emet does something unexpected.  He has a chance to wipe the Scions out then and there, but doesn’t.  Instead, he takes G’raha (who he’s been fascinated with as he figured out time travel) and invites the Warrior to the Tempest, where the phantom-version of Amaurot lies.

In Endwalker, when Ancient Emet hears of himself inviting the Warrior to the Tempest, he scoffs at the idea, thinking it idiotic that he invited his own downfall.

We don’t get much of a glimpse from Shadowbringers or Endwalker on why he invited the Warrior to the Tempest, nor do we get much of a hint as to what he intended fully with taking G’raha there as a prisoner.  

I could be wrong, but I believe there’s a couple of insights to garner from these actions, and they both had to do with Emet wanting to reunite with Azem.

First, taking G’raha.  It was clever of Emet to keep G’raha alive so as to learn the secrets of time travel.  But why would Emet want to know that?  Would it be to go back to the real Amaurot and warn of what was to come?  Probably not, as the Ancients didn’t know it was Meteion and dynamis that was causing the Final Days.  However, Emet could guarantee saving two of his closest comrades.  He could stop Hythlodaeus from sacrificing himself.  And though we don’t know Azem’s fate aside from being sundered, we can assume that Azem died, either during the sundering, or after, when the people’s minds were wiped.  Emet wanted to bring the old Azem back.  He was convinced that if he had his old allies - his real friends - back, the three of them could save their world, or come back to the future and bring the old world back.

Second, inviting the Warrior.  Emet insisted they come alone, without the Scions, but I believe it was his hope for one final attempt at convincing, to see if they’d somehow see the light (no pun intended) and join him.  Perhaps if they actually saw Amaurot, talked with its people, and even met their old friend Hythlodaeus, then maybe, just maybe they’d see the truth.

But as we saw in Shadowbringers, just before the final battle, the Warrior refused to join.

Cue the final battle, where Emet-Selch reveals himself as Hades.  The Warrior is nearly gone, consumed by light, but Ardbert reaches in at the last minute for them to join.  And once their souls unite, that’s when Emet sees something that shocks him.

He sees the old Azem.

He’s taken aback by it at first, thinking it a trick of the light.  Then he refuses to acknowledge it.  His entire journey in Norvrandt has been gauging whether the Warrior of Light/Darkness is truly Azem or not.  Until now, Emet has firmly believed that Azem’s reincarnation is nothing but a copy.  An attempt, but not the real deal.  But here, the Warrior shows the truth.  They are Azem, even with pieces of their soul missing.  They are still the same wildcard that drove the Convocation bonkers with their antics.  Still the same inspiration that would look death and defeat in the face and yell, “Come at me, bro!”

And after Emet’s defeat, just before his death, he had one final realization: the Warrior was still the same friend that he once knew and loved.

“Remember us,” he pleads with his final words, for now the roles are switched.  He spent thousands of years trying to find Azem, but now it would be up to Azem to find him.  But it’s also about passing the torch.  Despite losing, Emet still attained one final victory the other Ascians could not, and it’s also why he mentioned in Ultima Thule about his ideals being unbeatable.

He did get Azem to remember.  To remember Amaurot, their people, their legacy, and most importantly, their friendship.  To remember their duty as Azem and to protect the Star.  And as we saw in Endwalker, we did see a bit of reconciliation between the three friends.  Despite their differences in the First Final Days, in the end, they were back together again, if only for a little while, standing side by side once more. 

and the warrior of light is just like ‘yes, of course i’m going to ignore THE CHURCH’S edicts and save your friend because it’s the right thing to do’

like

#no wonder haurchefant is all hearteyes #all jokes aside i think the wol helping francel is such a weight off of haurchefants shoulders #here is a person trying to do GOOD #just like him!!! #and they’re both desperately leaning on each other - total strangers at this point - for help #haurchefant has his hands bound by the ishgardian society in a way the warrior has not #no matter how many rules he is ready to break the pressure is still there #while the warrior has no way into ishgards secular society #and here is where they meet - the warrior doing what haurchefant cant and haurchefant finally getting to use his position to help #someone who cares nothing about him being a bastard or a lowborn or anything like that #it must have been so refreshing #aaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA

Not only is she the first (only??) plus good character to my knowledge in FFXIV, it’s never something that is brought up in game. There’s no side line banter as you run past people in Eulmore gossiping about her or anything.

She’s so positive, and so utterly in love with her husband and believes in him so wholeheartedly. I really, really like her. She’s such a sweet character. I’m really glad the FFXIV devs brought her in as a side character and she wasn’t just lost to the ether.

SO. There was a screenshot going around of a reddit thread asking about how Chrom has managed to maintain such lasting popularity as a Fire Emblem husband even 6 years after Awakening came out. Given how beloved he still is another 5+ years later, I could not resist taking the opportunity to talk about just what I think makes him so great and endears him to players.

Character Introduction:

Let’s start out the same way Awakening does—with Chrom’s in-game introduction. This is one of the immediate ways Chrom sets himself apart. The game boots up and before anything else happens, Chrom is there expressing his unshakable faith in the player character. You take down the Bad Guy™ together, he turns and gives you this wide, puppy-ish smile and then you push him out of the way to take the hit from an oncoming spell in his stead. Right away you know this is someone your player character cares about deeply—and clearly that care is returned, because he’s immediately running over to make sure Robin’s alright.

Of course, as we all know, things go south very quickly after that. But as the cinematic plays out, and you proceed to watch yourself stab him in the chest, the *first* thing he does, the very first words out of his mouth are: “this is not your fault”. Chrom has just been completely blind-sided and arguably betrayed by his best friend, possibly his spouse, and his immediate instinct is to absolve Robin of guilt. He is literally more concerned about Robin blaming themselves for what happened than about his own imminent death. That alone tells you so, SO much about the depth of their relationship. It tells you both how deeply Chrom cares and how well Chrom knows Robin too. And not only that, but his final request, the ONE and only thing he asks of Robin before dying is that they will promise him they will escape from this place. In his last moments, his single “selfish” wish is for Robin to assure him that they will do what they can to survive. Chrom’s final request is for Robin to give him the comfort and peace of mind he can only obtain through the assurance that even though he won’t get out of there himself, Robin will. He just wants to be able to die believing they’ll take care of themselves and be alright—and knows them well enough to realize that unless he makes them promise, they likely won’t.

AND THEN. And then!!!! You jump cut to Robin waking up in the field with all the sunshine and Chrom’s smiling down with the softest expression and his ridiculously blue eyes. He lifts Robin up by the hand and pulls them right up to his face (because he has no concept of personal space, apparently) and OUUuuggh.

Those scenes in direct sequence make me so insane. You get Chrom’s life ending with Robin immediately followed by Robin’s life starting anew with Chrom. Chrom’s unwavering faith in them and his eagerness to extend his hand and bridge the gap between them from the moment they meet until his last breath. The warmth and kindness and love that Chrom treats Robin with is communicated so effectively in the first few MINUTES of the game it honestly makes me feel unwell. Showing how profoundly Chrom cares for Robin immediately endears him to the player. And he only gives you more reasons to love him as the game goes on.

Personality:

There can be a tendency in some corners of fandom to simplify Chrom to just being either a generic prince charming type character or a lovable himbo. I’m not here to police how other people enjoy him, but I will say that those characterizations fail to get at some of the aspects of his personality I find most compelling.

Chrom is deceptively nuanced. While there are certainly ways in which he aligns very closely with the standard jrpg protagonist, I suspect that a lot of his enduring popularity is the result of the ways he deviates from it too. He is brave and loyal and cares deeply for his friends, yes. He has profound conviction in his ideals and strives to do the right thing, as is typical for that archetype…but what makes Chrom so lovable is his determination to keep trying to be good in spite of the ways it does not come easily to him.

We see this in the Valm arc, when he’s struggling to reconcile his own beliefs about justice with his sister’s ideals for peace. We hear echoes of it when he talks about the horrors the Ylissean people endured at his father’s hand and how despite that, he has never been able to understand how Emmeryn forgave them for the cruelty they once directed her way. He has so much admiration for his older sister’s ideals despite the fact that peace is not his first instinct. 

When Emmeryn first sacrifices herself, Chrom is consumed with grief and rage, and it takes some time for him to understand why she made the decision she did. “Peace above all else” is just not how he’s programmed to operate…yet he wants it to be. If you count the drama CDs as canon, then that serves as another excellent example as well—where the message of his sister’s sacrifice is so lost on him that his first instinct is to respond to it with violence and prejudice and hatred directed at the very people she sought to reach out to. For a moment there, we see him veer from the person he wants to be towards what we as the player can only assume is the person his father left him afraid that he would become.

And yet he finds his way back. He stumbles, he lashes out, but his love for his friends and fear of losing more of those he holds dear is able to help him course correct.

I love that tug-of-war in him. I love that we get glimpses of the darker paths he could have gone down and that there are tangible consequences for his mistakes. Early in the game, we see Chrom lose control of his temper and how Gangrel and Aversa are able to take advantage of that to officially declare war on Ylisse. Chrom later tells Gangrel that were he alone, he can imagine losing himself in that need for vengeance but reiterates that it’s love that is able to keep him from succumbing to that.

And it’s not only that he’s able to stop himself from being horrible—his losses are the catalyst for him coming into his own as a leader. He’s able to pick himself up and hold himself together to see their troops through the rest of the war. And he manages that despite the fact that in the course of mere days, he lost both his home and his most important person and has been freshly saddled with the duty of ruling an entire country. That’s…a lot. And really goes a long way in demonstrating Chrom’s incredible strength of character and conviction. We get some wonderful moments of vulnerability where he confesses to being riddled with doubts about his own capabilities and worthiness, but in spite of that, he is still determined to try to be the person that Ylisse needs him to be.

All of this leads me right into another wonderful aspect of Chrom’s personality, which is that he is just…so driven by emotion. He feels DEEPLY, and while the narrative definitely uses that as a way to hurt him and force him to grow at times, something that really stands out to me about Chrom is how the story isn’t here to send a message that it’s wrong for him to be that way. Chrom’s big feelings are one of his greatest strengths in addition to his greatest weakness—they’re what saves his life and ultimately Robin’s too, if you go the sacrifice ending route.

And ya know what? I honestly think that’s such a breath of fresh air. I love how much he does NOT embody the emotional disconnectedness that you see pushed a lot of times with stereotypical masculinity. I love that he is the hero, and he's gallant, and very traditionally "manly" in a lot of senses…AND that he's also very emotional and guided by his heart. If you’re playing with f!Robin then you wind up with a really refreshing inversion of gender stereotypes from that: in which Chrom is the emotional decision maker and Robin is the more calculating and logic driven of the two.

Beyond his big heart, I can’t talk about what’s so charming about Chrom’s personality without touching on the ways he embodies a certain level of gap moe as well. Chrom is so stern and serious, as well as quite charismatic when he’s speaking from a place of passion. But on the flip side of that, we get to see him as an absolute bumbling mess when he’s out of his element. He’s easily embarrassed / flustered, self-conscious about his appearance, and often socially awkward where romance is involved. While these traits may seem of minor importance compared to the whole rant above, I think they’re really important for humanizing and rounding him out.

There are lots of other nuances to his characterization that go a long way in fleshing him out too. Despite being a prince, Chrom is blunt and completely unmindful of formalities. That, along with his impulsivity, definitely gets him into trouble sometimes. He’s melodramatic and blisteringly sincere. He’s a little bit clumsy and doesn’t know his own strength. He has a dry sense of humor and can be surprisingly funny. He’s optimistic and trusting—not due to naivete or stupidity but because he has decided that giving people chances and believing the best of them is an important value to him and one that is worth embodying in how he lives his life. 

Lucina’s presence in the story and his immediate and complete acceptance of her is an extremely effective way of demonstrating what an incredible father he is too. Honestly, he just has really wonderful relationships and deep admiration for a lot of the women in his life and that absolutely earns him points in my book (and I suspect in many others’ as well). When you look at all of that together, I don’t think it’s hard to understand why he’s so beloved.

Design:

Slightly less serious note here, but I think it warrants discussion regardless because character design absolutely contributes to player’s feelings about and interpretation of a game’s cast members.

And Chrom is…well, he’s eye candy, honestly. He’s got the nice, exposed arm, the messy blue hair, the completely nonsensical outfit he somehow manages to look handsome in anyway (his questionable sense of fashion is a charm point, okay?). Add in the square jaw and the surprisingly long eyelashes and he’s just. He’s very pretty. Idk what to tell you. Bonus points for the summer scramble cg where he has the most inexplicably flat butt of all time. And I really do believe that some of the oddities of Chrom’s design lend memorability to him and go a long way in setting him apart from other lords in the series with similar design concepts. The insistent asymmetry across many of his outfits, the fact he’s showing a little skin, idk it just WORKS. Chrom is hot, I don’t make the rules.

Relationship with Robin / the Player Character:

Last but not least, I want to talk about Chrom’s relationship with Robin.

I touched on some of this in his character introduction already, but Chrom is just…the biggest Robin stan. If Robin has only one fan then that is Chrom. If Robin has no fans it’s because Chrom is bleeding out on the floor with lightning in his gut. 

He just has such deep respect and admiration for them. He values Robin’s opinion and insight and thinks so highly of them and their ideas, often serving as an enabler in many cases (setting the boats on fire, the volcano, etc.). Chrom’s faith in Robin is SO unshakable that when his daughter tells him that Robin is going to be magically controlled and forced to murder him, his response is, “That won’t happen because Robin and I love each other so much that everything will somehow be okay. No, I will not elaborate.” And ya know what? He was RIGHT. Their bond DOES wind up being so strong that it’s able to change fate. The narrative is quite literally validating his slightly ridiculous insistence that him and Robin just care about each other The Most of Anyone Ever. He is Robin’s biggest advocate from the moment they meet when he defends them from Frederick’s suspicions all the way to the game’s close when he either assures Robin that their life was worth preserving or, as in the case of the sacrifice ending, that he will spend the rest of his own life searching for them until they return.

Honestly the fact that Chrom was willing to potentially risk dooming the whole world to the fell dragon’s awakening 1,000 years down the line just so he doesn’t have to lose his comfort tactician is WILD. For the game’s hero to literally say “we don’t have to defeat this evil for good, the people of the future can figure it out” JUST so he can keep Robin is absolutely unhinged behavior and I love it. I think it’s incredibly humanizing that he’s a little bit selfish about the people who are most important to him…that despite his willingness to sacrifice himself or run headfirst into danger, he draws the line at losing Robin because he’s already lost his most important person once and he’s not going to let it happen again. Chrom and Robin absolutely come across as a little codependent and a lot obsessed with each other and personally I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And then there’s his love confession to Robin. GOd...

I think that’s the most flustered Chrom appears in any content in the entire game…and it’s because he treasures their friendship so deeply that he is petrified about messing it up or saying the wrong thing. I love that he goes into their S support dead set on NOT telling Robin what is going on but the second he realizes that Robin is under the impression he doesn’t care about them or like spending time with them anymore he is so horrified and desperate to correct that line of thinking that he blurts out the full love confession on the spot.

He’s SO earnest throughout the whole thing, but then at the end he hits you with the whole “this is the best day of my life”, and the “You are the wind at my back and the sword at my side. Together, my love, we shall build a peaceful world, just you and me” (thank you Matt Mercer for your services), and the cg image of him staring right at Robin with what are basically heart eyes and. I just. There were no survivors.

That’s not even their only proposal / love confession scene either! The fact that the game gives us an entirely separate alternate proposal that’s more serious in tone is the icing on the cake. How many ships out there can say that they get not one but TWO canon proposals that are both that good? Truly no one is doing it like chrobin.

Closing Remarks:

SUCH A SILLY LITTLE GUY 🤭🤭

Pom Pom rocking out to samudrartha in the background what a mood