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That's actually a good question. Since we're considering Light and Dark distinct types even though they don't appear in all the games, should we consider Wind, Fire, and Thunder distinct types even though they don't have distinct weapon ranks in all the games?

If we want to stick to including every type of weapon that's appeared across all the games, then I think we should count Anima as three distinct types, even if Wind, Fire, and Thunder appeared as different weapon ranks in only four games.

I'm keeping Anima all as one. Trust me I has this argument in my head when making this. I'm not changing it.

Okay. Sounds like a solid case, so it works for me.

Best: I guess Anima then. Out of all the weapon choices, I think this type of weapon is certainly the most useful. Especially in the judgral series it's insanely good. Holsety, Grafcaliber... etc.

Worst: Bows. Now, I will say this: I don't think bows are bad weapons at all. In fact, I personally really like them, and there is definitely a benefit in having them depending on how they're used or who's using them. They deal bonus damage to fliers, and there's quite a few decent bows to have around like FE4's Ichival, brave bow, killer bow, or the longbow for a range of 3 instead of 2. In FE9 there's even the double bow for even more distance.(Which also makes a return in FE13). Also FE10 introduced the crossbow to make things much more effective for archers to not only attack from a distance, but it makes them capable frontline bow fighters. So yeah, I don't really think bows are terrible in the slightest, but compared to something like wind magic, it does make them pretty inferior. It does practically the same thing as bows, but it's even more efficient in that sense.

As a quick unrelated note to the current topic, I just want to say this about Bows: I find it interesting that, when you put Bows into a system where they're made as functional as the other weapon types at close-range, suddenly they're king. Because they're outside the weapon triangle, if you can attack at 1-2 range, you can attack any physical unit without fear of a power/accuracy downgrade. Just sayin', look at any 'top-tier' FETO team of 6 units, and if there aren't at least two bow-users on it, and at least one of them is a Sniper, they're probably doing it wrong.

Bows are the worst simply by virtue of how they can't attack at 1-2 range in order to maintain balance. What they gain does not make up for what they lack, and that's the range variety and ability to counterattack to most every other weapon available in the game.

Best Villain: I'll get back to you on that one.

Worst Villain: Validar.

I'll clarify later when my brain isn't scrambled egg and I'm not waist-deep in incoherent panic about school, thanks.

I object to Hardin.
Sure, what made him go from "Marth's Steadfast Buddy" to "Evil Emperor of Evil" is a bit contrived, but it's not like it came completely out of nowhere. What essentially happened was that his latent feelings of envy and despair and all that lovely stuff was multiplied tenfold by Gharnef and the Dark orb. Yeah, a little contrived, but the story that comes out of it definitely has its delicious tragic shades, especially since all of the parties involved are guilty in some fashion, and they were trying to make things work but failed miserably. Akaneia, man.

Best: I'm split too. Ashnard is my favorite, Manfroy is the most diabolical, Alvis has the most memorable moment(s), Gangrel is a shining star in a swamp of vomit... Heh, I want to talk about this. Let's see what everyone has to say...

Worst: I think I've made it through enough of FE5 to vote Veld as worst.

"YOU MONSTER! HOW COULD YOU DO THIS? YOU ARE THE WORST SC- wait, where'd he go?"

A LITTLE contrived? Let's be real. It poos all over Hardin's character and he's represented so cheesily. Like.. just look at him. They REALLY want to make sure you can tell he's evil now!


Also, unrelated, but Mallow, I think you're really being way too harsh on Validar... first off, he wasn't killed off. He was defeated and dying and saved by Grima, but he was not killed off. And they're not the same thing, nor is it beyond the capability to have saved him. Validar is quite similar to Nergal in his "chessmaster-style". He's imposing, he's involved in everything throughout the story- he's hardly a pathetic villain. I don't care if you don't like him, but please. He couldn't have been removed from the game- then nobody is pulling the strings to make things happen. Yes, anybody else could be in that roll, but they aren't. He is. Because this is his goal. He has the mind and the ability to do these things. You're stating a lot of 'just do this' as if it's just that easy... what do you think they're trying to do. You're against deus ex machina, and yet you want deus ex machina tactics to be in place? I'm not following.

Formortiis is is the biggest cheesefest villain in Fire Emblem creation. So no, I greatly dispute that statement that he's not worse than Validar, wholeheartedly forever and a half.

His goatee is awesome. You jelly like crazy.

I was proposing the idea that nearly all of his major parts of the story-- namely, in that case, speaking to the MU and the mysterious headaches-- could have been handled directly through Grima. And if we're going to nitpick, Grima communicating to the MU would not necessarily be a deus ex machina.


Done poorly, yes, this could be construed a deus ex machina in which the writers have no idea of how to express needed information to the party and thus to the main Lord, Chrom, without having the god himself literally transmit it to the MU himself, but deus ex machina is typically executed in a sense to prevent a character's death or to inversely kill a character. It was predominantly used in Greek tragedies to save characters from death. In this case, yes, Validar's rescue was a deus ex machina. Whether you see him as being grievously wounded or flat-out killed is up to you, but Grima's intervention is the literal definition of a deus ex machina: A god comes out of 'the machine' to save a character and push the plot forward.

If Validar's going to be the main antagonist, he needs to have more of an impact on the story. He can't simply state that he orchestrated everything in a way that we don't get to see by way of giving birth to the MU with the help of a woman the story doesn't even name or speak of afterward (and the MU sure doesn't seem concerned about the possibility of his/her mother still being alive out there somewhere who could have valuable information about the cult of the Grimleal! Nope, that's not important, we need more time for forced player MU reverence). He needs to do things in the plot. Otherwise his main efforts are, as follows:

→ He attacks Ylisstol to assassinate Emmeryn, which succeeds in Lucina's timeline. In the timeline we, the players, get to experience, the surprise of his attack is negated, which seems to be the main thrust of his strength because he is killed in said battle. Grima revives him; he needs Validar specifically alive. His sprite fades from the battlefield after he is defeated in combat, implying death. He meets Grima in a blank void.


If that doesn't imply flat-out death, I don't know what does.

→ He gives you the funds and ships necessary for you to sail to Valm in order to stop Walhart's conquest. He reveals the Hierophant, meets the MU in the middle of the night afterward to inform him/her that I am your father, and then leaves because Chrom is approaching.

→ He invites Chrom to Plegia after the entire Valm arc to give him the last gem for the Fire Emblem. He then possesses the MU in order to have the MU weaken Chrom and take the Fire Emblem.

→ He warps to the Dragon's Table in order to place the Fire Emblem there; he traps the MU and Chrom there when the company attacks, and seemingly is defeated.

Now here's where it reeks of bullshit.

→ The MU pretends to kill Chrom, as opposed to actually killing him, as well as pretending to be possessed by Grima. Validar, who apparently lived through everything and seems to be unharmed, gloats about his victory over Chrom's body. Basilio launches a surprise attack on Validar. The MU remembered everything in the Premonition chapter somehow, and was thus able to orchestrate the perfect counter-attack, relying upon Basilio's seemingly dead status to avoid Validar's spies entirely, as well as leading Validar into accepting four fake gems as the real thing. Then Chrom reveals he's not actually dead (just, y'know, took a lightning spell through the ribcage, no big deal), and Validar attacks them one more time. His a** gets kicked and he properly dies and stays dead.

There is so much reliance on memory bullshit and time travel and whoops they weren't dead after all that I cannot believe no one thought this needed more work, or editing, or something. If you want to argue Validar needs to stay as the antagonist he is and in the position he's in, that's fine. The story needs a leader of the Grimleal as much as FE4/5 needed a leader of the Loptu cult.

But Validar is completely ineffectual. All of his efforts that succeeded are in timelines we aren't privy to. None of his true successes occur here, in the timeline we as players participate in, and as a result he's perceived as being pathetic. From everything he accomplishes in Lucina's timeline that is undone and fixed with the MU's master strategies, it gives the impression that Validar (and in a tangential sense, the Grimleal itself), is exceedingly weak and relies entirely upon surprise in order to accomplish anything worthwhile. He only killed Emmeryn the first time around because of the element of surprise; Chrom is established as being at the palace at the time of the attack and was wounded in said attack, which would have hampered his ability to protect her. Because they're not surprised, Validar loses and dies. He even flat-out says so when you kill him!


Also, the Hierophant only really exists to prove that s/he is the MU from the futuuuure and otherwise doesn't really have any impact or weight in the story at all. Just as a note.

Validar could have easily been a decent antagonist, if he was given more time in the story to do anything we could see and thus care about. But he wasn't, and thus I find it extremely difficult to see him as nothing but an immensely ineffectual cult leader.

And yes, Formortiis is a cheesefest, but at least he did stuff we could actively appreciate as the story went on. If we go by Eirka's route, he possesses Lyon, thus destroying Grado, and he uses Vigarde and Lyon's body to orchestrate destroying everything keeping him imprisoned. And because Eirika is naive, it almost works. If you go by Ephraim's route, he simply intensifies and isolates all of Lyon's negative emotions. Either way, the ruler of Jehenna is dead, the land's overrun by monsters until the party slays him in the Black Temple, and Grado's a collapsed husk. It has to be rebuilt from the ground up. Renais is also in pretty damn bad shape thanks to Grado's invasion, as well.

He's cheesier than a stuffed-crust pizza, yeah, but he at least does stuff that actively impacts the plot as we observe it happening! Validar just does stuff in a time we don't get to be impacted by save the fact that the kids come from it, talk about how traumatic it all was losing their parents and being overrun by monsters, and otherwise Validar snaps under mild pressure when his element of surprise is ruined.

Validar is a s**t villain as the game executed him.

also no i don't give two shits about his goatee.