Welcome to Gaia! ::

Best: Uh, let me get back to you on this one after thinking upon it. Okay, got it! Fin!

While there are many great parents in the FE games, Fin is a fantastic father not just to his biological daughter Nanna, but also a great parenting figure to Leaf as well. He guards over them and protects them both for years from an empire that wants their heads, is saving his country in a way by protecting its future king (and fulfilling his knightly duties simultaneously), tells Leaf the truth about his family (unlike a certain mercenary father in Tellius), and does that all single-handedly since neither of the mothers are around. He's basically Jugdral's Super Dad. A lot of the good parents in the series don't manage to be such good parents while having to do so under the adversity Fin does it under.

Worst: Ashnard with dishonorable mentions to Nergal and Validar.

There are numerous bad parents in the FE games (which is really interesting to think about and discuss, really), and a few of them happen to be big bad villain bosses, but Ashnard takes the cake, I think. Whereas there are parents that do some terrible, terrible things to their children or have terribly horrible parenting skills and make bad decisions for them, Ashnard gives zero ******** about his child and knows he's a father. Nergal did terrible things to Ninian and Nils but did originally intend to be good to them, and from Validar's viewpoint, he does want his child to fulfill a sort of familial legacy and cares about that in a very particular way (both are still obviously terrible people).

Hadn't even originally considered Desmond since he's neither an enemy nor playable, but the argument for him is strong. Desmond for worst it is!

http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=33242806

Wait. What about Desmond for worst?

Take it from someone who knows, just because you're a good parent to one child doesn't negate how bad a parent you are to another.

If anything, the inability to treat both children with respect and love is just as bad. I couldn't honestly argue worse, but it's at least just as bad. Cruelty and neglect has many different forms.

To pose a counter: Ashnard didn't care about his son, but he never personally knew the boy, either. Desmond knew Zephiel and purposefully showed his love to Guinevere rather than to Zephiel. That's a whole lot more pain, in my book. We can argue that Ashnard's kid was actually better off without him, considering the kind of man Ashnard was.

Desmond also tried killing Zephiel time and time again and greatly contributed in turning his son into something horrible. Perhaps Zephiel would have been better off without his real father, as well.

I was thinking Ethlin, too, but I'm struggling with the fact that I feel her bad parenting comes from bad writing and story rather than because that's how her character is. So can I really hold her accountable for something I feel is just sloppy and gross from the story writers, when outside that one point in the story, she's actually a very nice and caring person and parent?

Eeheehee, I will stop right here and apologize for the feels dump about to ensue; apparently I have Feelings when it comes to parents, eheheh.

Best: I am going to be totally, 100%, completely biased and say Eliwood. THIS SURPRISES NO ONE.

Worst: Desmond. I, quite honestly, think it's WORSE when a parent plays favorites and treats their children differently, to the point that one child knows they are not the favorite (and Zephiel still tried to please his father and make him proud, despite all the abuse Desmond heaped upon him). Do you have any idea how damaging this is to a child? (I have 10 billion more things about this I could say, but I shall refrain.) On top of this, Desmond is jealous if his son (and heir), to the point that, albeit through Black Fang *coughcoughSoniacoughcough* manipulations, he tries not once, but TWICE to kill Zephiel. I'm sorry, but eff you. Dishonorable mentions go to Ashnard and Validar.

In regards to Nergal, I don't think he was a bad parent. Certainly not the best parent, but not the worst either. I think his main problem was the circumstances in regards to the events of the Scouring and just the hand that life dealt him, and also, and perhaps mainly, because dark magic is a dangerous road to travel. Yet everything Nergal did was to protect his family.

[Headcanon ramblings copy/pasted from a post I made on tumblr in regards to Nergal beneath the spoiler cut.]

Question: Does it actually have to be a parent that has children, whether it be biological or adoption?

Because while I'm still debating about who is the best and worst parent, I was thinking about putting Emmeryln into one of the possible candidate for best. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know Emmy doesn't have children of her own, but she DID raise both Chrom and Lissa when their parents were gone. In fact, throughout some of the gamescript after her death, Chrom has mentioned her few times about how she taught him some morals and values. So she's like a mother figure to them, despite that she's their older sister. >>;

And while I'm debating about who is worse: Desmond or Ashnard, I'm surprised people kinda forgot about Almedha. Yes, I understand that she's very emotional from all the drama llama (aka: Ashnard using them as bait to lure her brother and turning him into wyvern) as well as about losing her son and that she was trying her best to find him, but what had she's been doing when her son WAS there at the time? Dheginsea forced her to hide from everyone while her son is taken care by an old woman. (Come to think of it, I'm having doubt if Dheg is a possibility of being a terrible father, but that's another story.)

Anyway, Soren was taken cared by an old woman who hated him because she was doing it "out of duty" before being sold (and adopted) by a sage. But why having an old woman who was in a low status class outside of the Daein palace instead of having a caretaker in the palace (whether be in Daein or Goldoa) to raise if the mother was unfit to raise? Heck, Almedha didn't even bother to track down the woman to find out about what happened to her son nor ask her dad to help her find him.

And while it's understandable that mothers can be overbearing to their children, Almedha didn't help shape Pheallas to become a good king. She kinda wants him to follow Ashnard's step of how to rule Daein (aka: Telling Pheallas that Micaiah is his subject or not to associate with "peasants.") In fact, she's been trying to keep Pheallas OUT of any possible wars despite Pheallas wanted to participate to end it, all because she didn't want to lose her son again.

So while this may seem like I've made my decision about who's the best or worst, it's not. I'm still debating who is the best and worst and I'll post mine once I've made my decision.

SO many things to comment upon. Can't address everything. I would just like to say we should all change our votes for best to Calill. I actually REALLY wanted to vote Calill for best but I refuse to ever let personal bias win over objective judgment. She's a great parent but there are better examples of truly awesome parenting: Fin.



I definitely am not trying to be dismissive or diminutive of how bad Desmond is to Zephiel, but studies show that all parents have favorites. There's a difference between having favorites and playing favorites, and just because parents have favorites doesn't mean they love their children differently. And kids can notice they're not the favorite even if they aren't treated differently and are all legitimately loved by the parents. It's a very nuanced thing, but it doesn't automatically make you a bad parent to metacognize its arguably inevitable existence.



I was expecting this at some point. Sometimes in this topic, I actually shut my mouth to avoid influencing votes in ways I don't want to see (last week, I saw that it was a three way tie and thought about making a very thorough post justifying Galeforce but thought bringing attention to the tie might hurt Galeforce's odds). I similarly thought about bringing Tharja up but figured it might remind people who think she's a bad parent that they think that. Since it's been mentioned now, however...

Tharja has a very large hate-dom for her so-called terrible parenting and being a terrible person in general in the eyes of many. Not going to argue the terrible person part since this is just about parenting (and she is a pretty ******** up gal: that's what makes her so charming), but when people call Tharja a terrible mother some important consequences need to be brought up:

The person that allegedly abuses Noire as a child is not in this game. The easiest example to explain what I'm getting at is the LuciaXChrom A support one of the biggest things about time-travel. The parents you have for the children are not those kids' actual parents. The Lucina that comes from the future is not the daughter of the Chrom you play as and they both acknowledge that in their support.

The NoireXTharja A support even provides its own example:

Noire: You think that she was worried for my safety? That...she loved me?
Tharja: Can't say. Not about her, at least. ...But I love you, if that helps.

NOIRE heself, along with Tharja, are both aware that Noire's mother is not the same playable person to the fact that they refer to Noire's mother in the third person.

Time-travel. Isn't it just GREAT?

But even if you ignore the fact that the person you're criticizing isn't the Tharja we all know and love (or hate), Noire's mother made her talisman, which she never needed, didn't teach her curses in order to protect her daughter's pure heart, and sacrifices herself to make sure Noire survives.

Sounds like a good parent to me.