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People think Rody is "Ohmigosh, so cool!"

If I were you, I'd be down on him in a millisecond.

Rody Rody Rody... It's time for Rody week! whee

It's probably already obvious that he's my personally favorite of the three recruit cavaliers in FE3 book 2/FE12. When I first saw him introduced, his portrait reminded me of Leaf. I guess part of the reason for that was that I played FE4 before I tried FE3. It's probably the hair or something, but something about him in series 6 of the Fire Emblem: TCG set sort of did remind me of him too actually...
>.<



Like I've said in the past with Luke, there isn't much to say about him as a character. He's just there and blah blah blah...
FE12 did have the courtesy of giving him a personality, and he's played more like the straight man of the group as Tiki said already said. But at times, in his supports he can be very charming and sincere.(Though, I haven't gotten that many of them) I find the support with Cecil and Rody to be pretty cute. I also like the conversations between him and Ryan.

Now as a unit, his starting bases may not look very impressive in the beginning. He's lacking a bit in the speed department. But he'll begin to grow very well if you stick with him. I do recall that he capped a ton of stats in my first playthrough of FE3. Though, I'm not gonna lie that I actually abused the arena with orbs back then. I was a different FE player at the time. But in all fairness, I never used save states... sweatdrop


But even so, his unit availability is pretty good. You'll have lots of time with him from the beginning till the end. The same goes with the other two Cecil and Luke. He may not turn out great for everyone, which is understandable if you rather go with Luke or Cecil. And that is totally okay because they're both fantastic units as well! He does contribute in being a decent mount, and he gives support bonuses to Cecil and Luke too.. I do recall the bonuses being rather nice in FE3 ...

Here's what his growth rates are in FE3:

HP 70 Str: 40 Skl: 50 Spd: 50 luck 40 Wlv:60 Def: 20 Res: 3

In comparison to FE12, he does have better growth rates here. Better speed, defense 10% better hp and strength. But it was because that the limit was 20 for stats to be capped at the time. Though, weapon level is no longer a stat and instead magic become one instead...

Rody's FE12 growths:

Hp: 80 Str: 50 Mag: 0 Skill 60 Spd: 65 luck: 60 Def:40 Res: 5

I was so pleased to see talking about how characters like Abel fit into Akaneia's general atmosphere and themes, so I'll leave that to you before I jump into it myself.

Abel the Panther. The first green knight. Since he's the first of his archetype he set the stage for what the green knight's personality tends to be. The calmer, more thoughtful knight. The one that's faster and more skilled but less strong and less sturdy. Though Abel and most green knights aren't exactly slouches in that category. In Shadow Dragon, Abel's base stats in speed and skill are higher than Cain's but their growths in those categories are actually identical, as are their defense bases and growths. Abel actually has a higher strength growth than Cain, though not by too much.

The green knights are generally considered to be superior (though both knights are usually great), and Abel is a fantastic unit, primarily in Shadow Dragon where he has great availability. In Mystery, he comes in during the last half of the game, already promoted, and he must be recruited from the enemy side with his then-girlfriend Est. By the time he comes in he has good bases and is definately usable, but not very durable, made worse by the fact that you probably have plenty of good units by then (and Sirius makes every cavalier look bad from the moment he appears on screen).

Oh hoh. So Abel week it is!! Well, let's see what I'm Abel to say about Abel eh? wink

Indeed. Akaneia is actually pretty messed up once you think about it huh...(I can't wait till the macedonian siblings. -feels-)

Abel generally started the whole Red/Green Cavalier in the Fire Emblem series. Most of the time, we'd see it as the Red knight being the powerhouse type. But personality wise they tend to be the one that's easy going and not so serious. While the Green knight is more efficient in skill and speed. But they're generally the dedicated and serious knight.

Though, that is not always the case. Like with Kent and Sain in FE7. The roles are totally opposite there. Kent is the serious one and Sain obviously isn't. lol

I think the only games I think where that particular archetype kind of works is with FE1/11, FE4, FE6, and I suppose FE9. It might just be be... But I find the archetype to be a little confusing in the series. Or i mean it's that the personality of the Red/Green duo is confusing rather than the colors. If that makes any sense at all? >.<


But anyways, Abel is the original Green Knight. And I'd argue that he's one of the better Cavalier knights you'll get in Shadow Dragon. Cain and Hardin are also both great units too.Though to be quite honest, I'm actually not too big a fan of Shadow Dragon Cain. I usually go with Abel and Frey or even Hardin. But err... that's just my personal opinion.( I'll uh.. save Cain for another time)

While it's true that Abel is particularly great in the skill and speed area, but he also can get very good strength growths too. There's not really a huge difference in terms of growths between Abel and Cain statistically wise.

As a character, I really like the route Intelligent Systems went with his place in book 2 of the akaneian series. It very much builds to the drama of Marth coming back to his kingdom of Altea to liberate it. Because I mean, Est is taken hostage and Abel is forced to fight against his will. It's a very understandable circumstance in all honesty.

Also, there's the fact that Liberation, possibility one of my all time favorite map themes from FE3 plays on that map. The timing of when it plays is executed very well on top of it!

I had actually taken the Red/Green knight archetype for granted a lot more than other FE archetypes, Jeigan, as was probably evident in my post. Probably because I tend towards the green knight of the duo when it comes to units I use more often, and I sort of compartmentalized my thinking that way. Not that I don't use the red knights too, they're usually good, but the green knights I find myself using more in general, even though at this point in the series there has been plenty of variety in both roles statwise. So I just associate them with one another.

I've also risen an eyebrow at how the fandom tends to go nuts with archetypes and overcatagorize everything, as FD said. What's the fun in an archetype if you can't play with it? Heck, Sully and Stahl compare themselves directly to Cain and Abel, even though the roles their stats put them on is the opposite of what is thought as typical for their archetypes.

To add to what FD said about Akaneia, Abel is not just a great example of how uncompromising Akaneia and FE on the whole can be with its characters. What pushes that even further is that Abel and Est are only one couple in this sea of broken hearts, promises, and faces. Sure, there are happy endings, and not every bad ending is the same, they're all different and happen in varying levels of severity. I think when it comes to good endings, we sort of just wrap the story up as finished. They have variety in their own right, but they're easy to put aside as "finished." I love Marth and Sheeda as much as the next fan, but I love me some messy, bad endings. There's a certain fascination to be had with bad endings, bittersweet endings, messy endings, and the like. Or just the knowledge that even though you as the player worked to get Est and Abel together so we wouldn't have to have any of our former comrades killed, they ended up not getting together. They aren't "done," as we see them. There's still plenty to think about. Est just... disappears. I dig FD's theories about them in particular, I honestly hadn't given them that much thought aside from the aforementioned effort leading to a satisfyingly unsatisfying end. Thanks for giving me some bubblegum to chew on, FDeebas.

In that light, Abel punches the assumed green knight personality in the face, doesn't he? You'd never see Oscar or Alec doing that. This was before the red knight/green knight archetypes were set into stone, and Abel and Cain are veterans that have their own roles, while we get new earlygame cavaliers that are blue, light green, and pink. That's not to say that the archetypes weren't pushed while the series was still in Kagaville, of course. There is plenty of evidence or archetypes, even some like tiny thieves and swordmaster imposters that appear far less often in post-Kagaville.

Actually, here's a thought. In FE3/12, he's not the green knight anymore. He's a former green knight, like how Jeigan is a former Jeigan but is now a non-playable strategist, and others that go in different directions. Rody is probably the one that would likely be stuck in the role if you were so inclined, but it isn't Abel. Mystery of the Emblem Abel is a post-archetype man.

But Est is still an Est.

I've been trying to think of what to say for awhile, and thing is... I do agree with you both about the Red/Green archetype. It's not exactly my favorite archetype in the series, but I still do like it very much.

I think what I was trying to say before is that I have an issue with how the fans try and "over-define" this archetype in particular. It just confuses things for me. I mean yeah, Red is a pretty aggressive and passionate color. In that regard, it makes sense that Green would be the opposite of Red in all respect. Though, with that aside, we can't always assume that the Red cavalier is always going to be the strong outgoing knight, or with the green cavalier is going to be the calm and dedicated knight.

Even statistically wise as units. We shouldn't always assume that the Green knight will always be speedy and skillful. Or the Red knight will always be the strong powerhouse. The characters are what counts and all of them are different in their own ways.

Heck, I'm all for playing around with colors and personalities. It's what makes this archetype interesting and fun altogether. The colors are still there and the spirit of the personalities are still intact. I don't see the reason in over analyzing things and let things be as it is. Why not let Sain be the passionate knight? Or let Kent be the dedicated and calm knight? Doing the same thing over and over again makes it predictably obvious and just kind of boring.

Also, before I forget I actually didn't really mention book 2 Abel as a unit. It's already been covered, and I don't have very much to say about him...
I personally have not used him at all. It's not necessarily that I find him to be bad or anything of the sort. I can't really judge him well. But at least he's nowhere as bad as let's say... *Coughs* Roshe *Coughs* He's certainly usable if you want to have more mounts to your team and whatnot. OR if you haven't been using any of the original three Rody, Luke, Cecil.(Unless you're trying out other characters I don't know why you'd not want to use any them.) I honestly just never had a reason to try him out at that point. I've had Rody, Cecil, and Sirius, and that's all I felt I needed to get through FE3 my first time with the game.

I'm sure he can be a decent unit. Maybe one of these days I'll give him a try...


Akaneia I think is my favorite continent. But I do very much find Judgral's continent to be a very fascinating one as well..

Leonardo is late to important meetings.