In my Gaiden review, I said that I believe the differences between Alm’s and Celica’s routes are part of a meta narrative that was meant to showcase the merits of taking risks in game design. You can just read my Gaiden review if you want an in depth explanation of what I mean, but the long and short of it is that Alm’s side has a traditional story and traditional gameplay which leads to it being boring whereas Celica’s side is innovative in both areas and better off for it.
This reading of Gaiden’s material is supported by the changes made in FE15. The sexism present in Gaiden has somehow been made even worse. Not only are all the damsel in distress tropes kept untouched, but now they’re accompanied by horribly uncomfortable C.G. art showing them in vulnerable positions. There’s also the addition of Faye, who fills the (unfortunately common) role of the female character who only exists to be obsessed with the male protagonist. There’s also a much greater emphasis placed on the idea of Alm being an everyman rising up against an oppressive empire despite the fact that the twist of him being a royal is still in the game. By doing this, FE15 plays into 2 tropes that are extremely common within lowbrow media aimed at young men. Alm is at once an underdog beating impossible odds and a chosen one who’s loved by all through no effort of his own.
Looking at Celica’s side, this theme continues. The biggest difference between the routes in Gaiden is that when Celica’s side did the damsel in distress trope, it was other women who saved her. FE15 adds new scenes which put Celica into precarious situations where she is saved by a new character who is, you guessed it, a man. There’s also the ending of chapter 4 where she has her agency taken away from her by Jedah so that she can later be rescued by Alm. While something like this was present in Gaiden, the devil’s in the details. In Gaiden, Celica and her company were fighting off Duma’s forces themselves while waiting to rendezvous with Alm so that they could take out Duma together. In FE15, Celica is imprisoned and is a sitting duck until Alm is able to save her.
What do all these changes have in common? They’re almost unanimously considered to be the worst parts of the game. Exactly. They’re the worst parts. By making the worst elements of the game also be the parts that lean the furthest into patriarchal tropes furthers the message that sticking to tradition is bad and relying on these tropes will only serve to drag down the quality of the work.
This reading of Gaiden’s material is supported by the changes made in FE15. The sexism present in Gaiden has somehow been made even worse. Not only are all the damsel in distress tropes kept untouched, but now they’re accompanied by horribly uncomfortable C.G. art showing them in vulnerable positions. There’s also the addition of Faye, who fills the (unfortunately common) role of the female character who only exists to be obsessed with the male protagonist. There’s also a much greater emphasis placed on the idea of Alm being an everyman rising up against an oppressive empire despite the fact that the twist of him being a royal is still in the game. By doing this, FE15 plays into 2 tropes that are extremely common within lowbrow media aimed at young men. Alm is at once an underdog beating impossible odds and a chosen one who’s loved by all through no effort of his own.
Looking at Celica’s side, this theme continues. The biggest difference between the routes in Gaiden is that when Celica’s side did the damsel in distress trope, it was other women who saved her. FE15 adds new scenes which put Celica into precarious situations where she is saved by a new character who is, you guessed it, a man. There’s also the ending of chapter 4 where she has her agency taken away from her by Jedah so that she can later be rescued by Alm. While something like this was present in Gaiden, the devil’s in the details. In Gaiden, Celica and her company were fighting off Duma’s forces themselves while waiting to rendezvous with Alm so that they could take out Duma together. In FE15, Celica is imprisoned and is a sitting duck until Alm is able to save her.
What do all these changes have in common? They’re almost unanimously considered to be the worst parts of the game. Exactly. They’re the worst parts. By making the worst elements of the game also be the parts that lean the furthest into patriarchal tropes furthers the message that sticking to tradition is bad and relying on these tropes will only serve to drag down the quality of the work.