Guys, while I understand the Claude thing is upsetting a lot of you, please know that other people than myself worked on this, my scriptreaders, not to mention my editor Cyan. This spotlight took a long time to create, as do all my spotlights, I'd appreciate getting some feedback on it, rather than just Claude comments. Also I am very sorry to anyone who got spoiled by said comments. Thank you.
It was good, can’t complain about it. Props to everyone who worked on it. I had a theory in which Micaiah spared Jarod because she couldnt see the future clearly due to overworking herself, which is the cause of her inability to see it as revealed later on. Thus she thought it was all good since she didnt foresee something bad happening. But it might just be too much insight
Dont worry dude. People are just joking, they are not mad or anything. Maybe some few might be disappointed, but still. We are just trying to have a laugh at the situation. By the way, nice video! I would gadly watch something like this from the Three Houses characters after you finish your playthrough! Also want to know your opinion about Edelgard since the whole FE community is discussing if she is the misunderstood savior or the evil spawn of satan. 😂
Micaiah is loved by the people of Daein because she's a hero, a symbol of liberation for the country. She reminds me a lot of Jeanne D'Arc. Jeanne D'Arc was also a hero for France, one that didn't do things because they were the smartest thing to do, but because the visions told her to. Micaiah is the same. Micaiah does many stupid things, and whether those stupid decisions were consequence of her compassion or not, they are still stupid, and I think that should qualify as a character flaw. As a general of an army, sometimes, being compassionate leads to further casualties in your own army. It just shows that Micaiah isn't really fit for the position. However, as a symbol of hope and liberation, she inspires the soldiers of Daein to fight with greater strength. That's simply the effect that heroes have over people. And whether she truly deserves that respect or not, anyone can be a hero if your public image is portrayed as something great. The fact that the Dawn Brigade even managed to liberate Daein is a miracle by itself, seeing how weak they are. But that is even more reason why they should be admired. They are underdogs, proving to even the most simple people of Daein that they can stand against even the might of Begnion. Micaiah led the Dawn Brigade, and obviously she's going to get the attention. Over the course of the story, we see Micaiah struggle with her position. She basically fought in the wrong side of history in Part 3, hunting the laguz of the Alliance, fighting at the side of Begnion, the same regime that had subjugated Daein for 3 years, killing innocent people. Micaiah had to choose between her country or her morals, and she chose her country. She was even OK with burning the Apostle's army alive with oil during their ambush in Part 3-12. I bet that was a decision that was not very light on her mind. She has always known she was killing innocent people, but she still kept going at it for the good of Daein. If anything, the Blood Contract was a way to showcase that Micaiah will break even her own morals for Daein. She's much like Camus. Her nation above all else. You know who else was like this? Erwin Rommel, a German general who fought in WWI and WWII. Now, whether he was really like this or it was just propaganda is entirely another debate. In conclusion, I believe that Micaiah is far from being a Mary Sue. Like other people in the comments have said, the world doesn't revolve around Micaiah, like it does on Corrin. You can be a chosen one with a special gift loved by all without being a Mary Sue. It's just that these are traits that Mary Sues commonly have, but that in itself doesn't necessarily make a character a Mary Sue. As for character flaws, they are there, it's just that they are not as obvious. But if you look at history and real people, you can see that her actions are normal. Some people are just really compassionate, and that sometimes can bring misfortune in their lives. It gets to a point where that compassion becomes stupidity and naivety, among other things. Those are flaws. Micaiah's naivety has brought several hardships as well. For more information on Mary Sues, I recommend Overly Sarcastic Production's video on Mary Sues, as well as Terrible Writing Advice's video on Mary Sues. Regardless, nice video Mangs. Glad to see that these are still coming.
Bassicly this also saying she it out of character that she make smart move (I forgot whene but he said something like her naivety didn't fit whit her tactical ability and there I would disagreed you can be naive but have tactical ability they have 0 link one an other. Naivety is just that she trust too much ppl whene she shouldn't) *Wisdom and insight... Well someone whit wisdom and insight can be naive in who they trust that just not linked at all. SORRY FOR THE BAD ENGLISH
Funny enough, someone said this best and I agree despite loving Micaiah as much as I love my boy Ike! While she has the TRAITS associated with a Mary Sue! She does not have the "environment" of one! By that I mean the world and story doesn't bend over backwards to justify or handwave her actions! The struggle I loved with her was showing a HUGE difference between leading a small group like the Dawn Brigade in rebellion, to being a "number two" of the guy in charge (and being more popular then him that she's seen as the ) and of course when she finally is officially made the guy in charge and well is now stuck with a debt (Blood pact) the previous dude left behind and she starts cracking, doing things she'd have never done because she's too stubborn and scared of the alternative! I especially liked her "Vs" with Ike where she finally sees Ike as the guy Sothe claimed him as and "not the villain responsible for Deain's oppression" (A few times in the early chapter her flaw was she cared abit TOO much for her adopted kingdom that she came sometimes close to justifying Ashnard! Not completely or ever, but SOMETIMES if it meant they DIDN'T fall under the Empire who oppressed them. And I did like how her and Ike working together is what set things right (Still remember people calling IKE a Gary Stu in RD because of how much people you know THOSE WHO KNOW HIM FROM POR were praising the hell out of him! Like with Micaiah I put it down to the word Mary Sue starting to get abused at that time that seeing ANYONE being praised to the high heavens and worshiped and "Being a protagonist" will get you the Mary Sue/Gary Stu label! The word is losing meaning because people don't know how to use it's description right!) And at least Corrin (Who I grudgingly like, I don't hate them, I just find the direction they took them after Chapter 6 in all three routes to be VERY hit and miss) took the heat off of Micaiah at least (I think I saw the hate she got die down around Fates completely!) Funny enough she herself, or an Emblem (might as well say MAGICAL AI Construct) of her in Engage during her Paralogue "acknowledges" some of her bone headed stubborness, especially seeing as her paralogue is this map/chapter in general! With Her in Ike's position on the field. Never hated or had difficulty using her as a unit, same with Sanaki! I acknowledged their inablity to usually get a follow up or risk getting followed up and acted accordingly! My style of playing Fire Emblem is I don't rely on just one unit to Solo a Map! I find that boring! Everyone is just as useful and work in synergy with each other (Plus my luck especially with the RNG made sure of that! Growth's usually PREVENTED me from relying too heavily on a unit! PEople say "Fredrick Emblem" or "Ryoma Emblem" I tried that with them and usually saw Reset after Reset as I don't like my units dying on me! Never played or planned to play a Iron Man run in any Fire Emblem! I save that for XCOM and XCOM 2! But yeah, I work to cover and acknowledge my character's weaknesses! and work on how to improve them! Micaiah was great against certain units with Tani and was a decent Magic unit. Sacrifice had SOME utility as sometimes I would goof with Staves and it was a life saver, also helped Laura or other staff users get some free EXP healing her!)
Honestly, the defining moment of Micaiah for me is one that's her big gray moment, when she was willing to burn Sanaki and company alive if it meant ending the war. I can't call her a Mary Sue, that's not a 'perfect solution everyone will live with', that's literally attempted regicide using cruel means. Say what you will about her as a unit, as a person she goes to some dark spots and nearly gets Sothe offed for it.
That scene says reaaly a lot about her. And I think even more valid than her decision to kill Sanaki by any means necessary is to point the way her resolve fails after Tibarn threatens to kill Sothe as she's tottally unable to sacrifice him and tell the archers to fire. I don't think a real Mary Sue would so easilly fail to what she ( in this case, in my opinion, quite idiotly) thought was the right thing to do because of a matter of feelings towards one single person.
Funny because you could make a much stronger case for this game's Ike, if you really want to. But she's a polarizing character, so naturally people are far more inclined to label her as one.
@@ikefromsmashbros9237 the Daein Army was highly racist against Laguz and Micaiah saw it as an asset to help fuel them in the war. Morally suspect decision for sure.
@@troybaker3556 That's a tactic used by every leader in every war. To efficiently kill your enemies, you have to convince yourself that they aren't your equals. This isn't a flaw for Micaiah, it's a commentary on the evils of war.
Man I really like Micaiah! Calling her a Mary Sue is undermining her character. Also her Light Priestess outfit is the best outfit in the series, fight me. JILL SPOTLIGHT PLEASE
People calling Micaiah a Mary Sue either don't understand the meaning of the phrase or know nothing about Micaiah. Being "too kind" is an actual character flaw for a general, someone who is supposed to make pragmatic decisions. Everyone loves her because she IS the symbol of Daein's restoration. She's a figurehead. Other characters have reasons for protecting Micaiah; it's not something that just comes out of the blue. She has struggles and failures, the former of which occurred more in her past.
Yeah ok her past lets tackled that....lets assumed she actually had a tragic past then....its just really show how censored i mean how hard the writer trying to make her a mary sue character....otherwise why they nvr much of her tragic past is beyond me i highly doubt they conviniently all suddenly forgot they can use that to make people sympathize with her but thats just me
wait who the fuck calls her a mary sue? she is far from a mary sue. people call her a mary sue are idiots! I mean she has to work much harder to save daien unlike cough cough! looks at rey!
She has Mary-Sue like traits, but she falls short because she actually does get punished over her decisions in the story. For example, if she truly was one, Jarod would've not not come back after she released him. But he does. Therefore she got punished for making a dumb decision/the script didn't bend over backwards for Micaiah to be always right.
She's not remotely a mary sue' most of the first few traits are generic heroic traits that most protagonists share, and when you actually get to ones that really determine it (faces struggles, is perfect) you either reach or basically concede that they don't apply, then say "yeah she basically is" based on the less important, superficial aspects of mary suedom despite basically failing to make the case on the important points. Also, as others have pointed out, mary sues have to dominate the narrative and never be wrong. Micaiah certainly does not dominate the narrative, being off screen for the half the game and then having Ike retain primary focus after part 1, and she makes several mistakes, even of the morally questionable variety such as when she resorts to brutal tactics to try and beat Sanaki. Mary sues don't try to tar and burn their opponents, or if they do, it is portrayed as being an Actually Good Thing, which Radiant Dawn does not. Indeed, prior to Three Houses she was probably the most morally grey lord, although that is more of an indictment of how pure FE protagonists tend to be than any actual signs of darkness in her, game of thrones this is not. You know who is a Mary Sue? Corrin, who despite potentially choosing to side with an absolute caricature of evil is somehow portrayed in narrative as this radiant beam of purity, who somehow wins entire campaigns without actually killing anyone and whom everyone loves for no particular reason. The people of Daein worshiping Micaiah at least makes narrative sense because she liberated the country, everyone in Fates kisses Corrin's ass from minute one despite him being locked in a castle until the start of the narrative.
No character is a Mary Sue in the hands of a good writer. No main character is not a Mary Sue in the hands of a bad writer. Mary Sue is a storytelling trope, not a character trope.
@@MogofWar Indeed! It's perfectly possible to write a good story about a paragon if you're good enough (there are several Super Man stories that are actually good and deal with interesting ideas, and not all of them retcon his status a America's Paragon).
Honestly, I don't have a problem with a character being beloved by most characters in-game so long as it's at earned and not given for no reason. Take Ike for example. Yes, a lot of characters shower praise on him in Radiant Dawn. However, you can argue that that is a result of his actions in Path of Radiance where he proved himself to everyone and showed that he was a man of integrity and worthy of trust. Micaiah is similar. She's not some do-nothing who gets praise from others for no reason. Her actions earn her the respect of others.
she does kind of start a genocidal war because the king said-so and was willing to stick it out BEFORE learning about the blood-pact the one thing stopping her from hitting full mary sue is that she's kind of a shitty person
@@Yinlock470 basically. Though, whether its a clearance or her death warrant depends wholly on if you think the game is trying to communicate that what she did was actually wrong, or if "because blood pact I didn't know about" is supposed to actually be considered a reasonable defense for attempted genocide.
The biggest point of a "mary sue" that Micaiah does not fit overall, that you didn't really mention, is that the story revolves completely around them, and the world breaks to support them. Micaiah is a clear heroine character, and a paragon of virtue type character, but she really isn't a total "mary sue" in that connotation. Unlike Corrin, who breaks everyone around him/her and has the plot bend just because of a mysterious destiny and an overwhelming importance, Micaiah has a straight hero story that honestly isn't that strange for a fire emblem. I think the "mary sue" term is thrown around a lot and has lost a lot of its meaning. I feel like Micaiah is only called out because she's a girl. Overly Sarcastic Productions has a Trope Talk that really explains the mary sue trope. Seen in that way, it's much harder to call Micaiah a "true" Mary Sue. Bottom line, even if she is perfect, she is the character the story needs, and the story overall is convoluted enough that she actually helps it, rather than hurts it, and that's why I don't classify her as a Mary Sue. Edited for spelling because initial comment was made on a phone.
Yeah the story is convoluted to where the story definitely doesn't revolve around her, we get to see an epic conclusion of Ike's vendetta, and some others.
One of the problem with determining which characters are Mary Sues is that many Sue traits are simply heroic traits at their core. Take the average hero and put him through one of the Sue tests you can find online and chances are that you'll get "Mary Sue" or maybe even "extreme Mary Sue" as a result. Honestly though, I'd say Ike is a bigger Sue(or Stu, I guess) than Micaiah is.
@@kobyma2 no. Just no. One of the biggest issues with Mary Sues is that their powers/abilities are typically unexplained or hand waved, Ike in Path of Radiance esspecially cannot be a Mary Sue at all, there are people who dislike him (such as Gatrie, Shinon, Lethe [though she grows to like him later on], and Micaiah in Radiant Dawn.) Ike is also blunt, which gets the crew in some trouble with Sanaki when they arrive in Begnion, as well as being Headstrong, Naive, and Ignorant in a lot of ways. Ike in Radiant Dawn could be called a Gary Stu because he lacks a lot of these faults and is super ultra mega powerful, but the issue with that is that Ike at this point has already been through a War, and has been training for three years, of course Ike would be powerful at this point, it shows the natural progression of his character. Whereas Micaiah barely receives any levels of explanation for her powers and abilities.
@@Yuni-is-Schrodingers-Fox Their "dislike" is almost completely inconsequential, he keeps getting away with things he shouldn't be able to get away with, and he takes over RD to the point he's the only one that can beat Ashera. Sues are spotlight hogs. Micaiah isn't a spotlight hog in the slightest. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Gotta love the Mage Lord. Even through she is very slow and squishier than paper. She is the very definition of a glass cannon: (for cavaliers and armor knights, at least) she can destroy them with Thani, but she herself can also get destroyed.
I use her with Resolve and paired up with Nolan if you want her able to be used on the frontlines honestly. Its actually a decent strategy imo. Either that or give her Edward's Vantage because her High luck stat is pretty useful if put in the right hands. I would also give her the Ashera Icon's because yeah while it could be used for money it also helps cap the stat easier for her to get stats in other areas like her low speed with the aid of RD's bonus exp.
-Micaiah is beautiful All other protagonists too -Talent, especial gifts... -All other protagonists too (sacred weapons, sacred blood, lineage...) -Etc
She isn't a Mary Sue in the slightest. The first four "points" apply to literally every other lord in the series. She faces more hardships and actually deals with the consequences to her actions more than half the MCs in the franchise.
What was your opinion on the spotlight? I thought it was bad tbh. forums.serenesforest.net/index.php?/topic/55847-fire-emblem-character-spotlight/&do=findComment&comment=5494140
One of my favorite lords in the series. Also, Veronica Taylor voiced Micaiah perfectly! From being a fortune teller to queen. Micaiah has had a eventful life.
Also I’d say Micaiah is not a Mary Sue. She’s virtuous and well liked, but unlike a Mary Sue she’s not a prodigy, not a “flaw that’s not a flaw” person or even in story. She relies on other people, and most tellingly the story and world don’t break themselves to accomodate her.
Tbh Micaiah's "liked by everyone" thing is primarily because she hid her brand and has these quite unique powers that helps a lot of people giving her a unique stance that people don't notice she's a branded human thus they don't have a negative outlook on her and admire her for these actions of helping and healing people all around Tellius thus making a name for herself. And don't the bad guys just like her because she is either A) Beautiful or B) has these unique powers.
Micaiah is not a Mary Sue, I think plot has to move for Ike to join the story more so then Micaiah. (And Ike is Not a Gary Stu either.) I think some players don't notice the hatred towards her in the story because she became the figure of Dain early on. Every time characters curses Dain, they are most likely pointing towards Micaiah. Because she is the symbol of Dain. Outside of Dain, her status is viewed with suspicion and many characters speak like she's crazy/out of her mind. Sothe, Ike, Tibarn, and more characters often speak ill of her (And rightfully so.) I think Micaiah has to face more moral dilemmas than most FE protagonists. So while the plot executes less than ideally. I support an RD-like story anyday. Cause Gray is always better than Black/White for a story for me.
Micaiah is my 3rd favorite lord in the Fire Emblem series, and while I do accept her flaws, she appeals to me personally as a main character. In short, it's her resolve that makes her likeable as a protagonist for me. It's not every day that you get a Camus Lord.
I'd love to see a Dimitri spotlight once you've finished Three Houses. It's been so interesting seeing him develop throughout the game, and I can't wait until you get around to the Blue Lions!
I imagine they wanted Micaiah to be an investment glass canon with that high of a magic growth and that low of a base stat. Unless you get unlucky, Micaiah will gain 17-19 in magic if you get her to level 20 before her story locked promotions. Micaiah could also just be a solid healer if you get rng screwed. I know Micaiah isn't anywhere near as good as Ike or Haar but I love using her and making her as strong as possible.
Damn I remember thinking that Michiah was one of the worst characters in the fanchise due to her mary sureness but after the introduction of Avatars givning us characters like Kirs, Corrin, and Blyeth (IMO Robin is the only Avatar that isn't a Mary sue and that is still debatable) Michiah is super tame in comparison.
@@troykv96 Yeah I honestly don't get the "Michaiah is a Mary Sue" argument especially since her existence was foreshadowed in POR (by Sothe and indirectly by Sanaki) so it's not like she comes out of nowhere to save the world like most marry sues. There is also the fact the like the video states her kindness and patriotism come to bite her in the ass ESPECALLY in part 3, and is constantly shat on by other morally white characters for her actions. (Ike, Tibarn, Sanaki, etc) While Micaiah isn't a perfect character writing wise she's far from a mary sue, again if your looking for one of those just look at the avatars or if you want an example from the older games Lyn, Roy, or Erika are much more sue like lords than Micaiah.
@@josephpanno6816 This whole argument only exists because Micaiah has special abilities (Yune's foresight, a pseudo Galdr and Sacrifice); and the fact she has an special design that is ocassionally referenced in the narrative (mostly the Silver Hair).
@@blastimbre I see your point but I disagree. For the sake of argument I'll compare Byleth to Ike since they come from very similar backgrounds so I can argue how one's a mary sue while the other isn't. Ike also was mentored under a strong mercenary father for nearly the same amount of time, but he wasn't hurled nearly the same praise Byleth was (I get Byleth was experienced while Ike was a rookie but the amount of praise Byleth is hurled in such a short amount of time is still pretty silly). Just because his powers are explained doesn't mean they're justified, (look at Corrin) there's also the fact that most of his powers are given to him by Sothis and get's his position solely on being Rhea's favorite and aside from the creator sword he really doesn't earn anything pre timeskip but he's a demigod by the end anyway. Unlike Ike who had to put in a year blood, sweat, and tears for his weapon, recognition, and status in the world of Tellius. There is also the fact that Byleths "cons" in personality don't really matter since despite being emotionless every girl wants him (watch his and Lysithea's goddess tower conversation pre timeskip) and every guy wants to be him, he's loved regardless and the flaw is ultimately inconsequential. Compared to Ike who's head strong nature would have gotten him killed by Sanaki if it wasn't for Elincia bailing him out. But again this is just IMO I just don't see how Corrin is made fun of for being a mary sue but Byleth isn't (granted I do think Corrin is worse).
@@blastimbre Yes I have Spoilers below I know about Rhea's mommy issues but that doesn't change anything about Byleth himself all that really does is make Rhea seem more evil which, another problem with Byleth is that most leaders (IE everyone but Claude) are far worse off without him there helping them like he's the only reason Dimirti Edie and Rhea don't go off the deep end and a big sign a a mary sue is that the world revolves around them which is 100% true in Byleth's case with these three and the entirety of Fodlan I mean who Byleth chooses to teach will impact the entirety of Fodlan's history in MAJOR ways.
I feel like she's called a Mary Sue because when her game came out, the term was getting popular and really abused. Like sometimes it's being thrown around for any female characters people just don't like. It's almost the treatment of every other female protag in a mostly shonen genre. They're being touted as a Mary Sue because possibly they're the hero's love interest or well people simply do not like teenage girls that have some importance to the story. It is also absurd and ridiculous to consider the story revolving around a protagonist a Mary Sue as an indicator of a Mary Sue. Because by blinking definition, the story is moved by the protagonist so it by default has to revolve around them.
I agree with a lot of people that while she may have certain mary sue traits they are inconsequential, flimsy, or make sense in context. Whenever Micaiah comes up my heart always seems to start beating faster because she is one of the few characters in fire emblem i simultaneously love, hate, and to an extent love to hate. I am honestly a sucker for genuinely good natured characters, I know many people don't like when characters seem too pure but I like it because they give someone to strive to be like. Her compassion, empathy, and desire to help others even at the cost of herself really makes me love her in part 1. Part 3 really flips the script for me though and I feel bile build up in my stomach no matter how many times I play because I see her harden her heart and do genuinely terrible things for her nation. Where Ike has the strength of character to stand his ground against the cruelty of the world Micaiah resolves to be a force on the wrong side of history for her country. I understand why she does it, but it does not make me less disappointed and sickened by her character. I think it is amazing she can make me feel that way in a series full of purely righteous characters, she knows she is doing the wrong thing but continues. My only complaint really is that she never pays the price for her cruelty during the war and is instead made queen, it kind of makes me a little uneasy. Overall I have a love/hate relationship with her and I think that in of itself is amazing for a character that seems so simple at first glance.
If people think Micaiah is a Mary Sue then they don't know what a protagonist is and pretty much EVERY Fire Emblem main character has to be judged the same way. Because nearly EVERY FE main character gets special treatment. I wonder if this is because she's one of the few female main characters who doesn't share the spotlight (until later) with a male MC from beginning. Many characters who are attached to a higher destiny (See: Cecilia) will always be viewed by others with higher regard. FE is based in a high fantasy setting where people literally talk to gods and immortal beings. Every MC gets that special weapon and are saved by some kind of deus ex machina moment. I get it - RD is the sequel game and Ike should have the spotlight. He has an incredible story (arguably the best) and in a sub-series stock full of incredible characters it's hard for her to stand out. But character-wise she's no different than most MCs.
I haven’t played Radiant Dawn so I don’t have a huge attachment to her as a character, but lemme just go ahead and say she’s probably the most attractive lord in the series for me.
Micaiah fits the Mary Sue criteria at a very superficial level (because after all, there are several traits that are associated with the Mary Sue that are very easy to accidently add to a character like unique design, special abilities, and being overall a loved person in canon). But there is an important detail that makes Mary Sue actually be Mary Sues... How they fit the logic of the story. Unlike other narrative tropes, the Mary Sue it's a very "Meta" term that only makes sense when you're considering the overall context of the universe from a meta-view. The narrative wants you to like them, but not in a traditional way, but instead forcing their presence into a narrative without any particular reason; that can be annoying a times, but this can get even more troublesome when this character it's dealing with the narrative's logic. This can also make their story arcs incredible weird because even if they in theory have faults and hardships, they can't really develop from them because the story either treats them as cute quirks (or tragic cute quirks) or sometimes even as a quality of a character in the eyes of other characters. For reasons like this it's a lot easier to point the "Canon Sue" Gun to the Corrin than Micaiah; she would fit some traits of the Mary Sue, her existence doesn't make use of the most meta aspects of the Mary Sue as a tool of self-endorsment; which are the ones that actually affect how the narrative works.
One: I honestly think it would’ve been cool as hell for Miciah to have a pair ending with Stefan where they work to create a country for the Branded, instead of it being just Stefan on his lonesome. But that may be my rabidness for Stefan speaking. Two: Miciah is what I like to call a Marianne Susana, which is a character who has Mary Sue elements, but instead of fully embodying the trope, she skirts around it, defying some of the traits. In fact, the idea that everyone loves Miciah is to her detriment, cause people are more likely to follow her instead of Pelleas.
Awesome job with this character spotlight as always. I never had the chance to play Path of Radiance or Radiant Dawn, so I appreciate getting to know Micaiah better this way. Hopefully one day the games will be ported to the eShop.
A key point is missing in judging whether Micaiah is a Mary Sue. She is being used by people more powerful than her and she can't see it despite her foresight. She is speed-running PoR in that Sephiran is recreating the conditions that created Ike the hero to create Micaiah the hero to sow more strife in the world. This is why the Black Knight is ordered to protect her at all costs and why she ends up getting spared. She's useful to the greater and more powerful players in the story pulling the strings. She's a pawn. If it weren't for these forces pulling the strings, she would have remained on the streets healing small children that got in the way of Begnion soldiers. She would have been a local folk hero and nothing more. It's not just because she's the ancestor of Altina and the true Apostle. Hell, Yune herself has no real say in what happens to Micaiah. A pawn was needed and she was the best candidate. To drive the point home. I mentioned that her foresight didn't even show her any of this. She has power, but she's a small fry in the grand scheme of things when not being puppetted. I wouldn't call that a Mary Sue.
I think the fact that laguz can literally smell you being branded and all laguz hate branded and then it just remains secret the entire game is stupid ngl.
@@aetherius6221 Well, they do have to keep it a secret to avoid mass scrutiny and hatred from both sides. The beorc won't really notice it unless they actually see the mark and don't confuse it for a spirit blessing.
@@soronexle2681 yeah but Miciah hangs out with Laguz thatare much less sensitive to her plight than Maurim, whose best friend is a Beorc child. Its supposed to be fairly common to detect or at least suspect this.
micaiah definately has some mary sue traits no doubt, with that said, its rather common for protagonists to be designed to be perfect, heck fire emblem even before literal self inserts weren't free of this, let alone the current age of today. i still find it hard to believe that she is an absolute mary sue since the story does not bend to her will, and she is only liked by Daein, other characters don't really have a strong or positive opinion on her, and even then zihawk and jill can ditch her and be in the right to ditch her, which doesn't sound like something that would happen to a mary sue (since anyone that opposes or disagrees with them is imminently in the wrong), not to mention that she vanishes for the most part during the last section of the game since yune takes over, i just find it hard to call someone perfect if they don't exist for the last section of the game (technically half if we also count part 2) overall i feel like she is a middle ground sue, she has some common traits, but her flaws and how the narrative treats her prevents for from becoming a full sue, my hot take on the sue compairisons is like. Corrin>>>>>>>>Kris>Robin=Byleth>>>Ike>Micaiah=Ephraim. with the other lords not really qualifying to be called a sue, or i'm unsure of where i'd place them (Echos Alm, GD Claude)
Yeah, trying to create a main character without any Mary Sue-like Trait it's a pitfall itself; because they need to have a reason to be the main character (for in-universe and/or meta-narrative reasons).
Por lo que entiendo de mi travesía durante el juego, Micaiah no tiene el poder el de ver el futuro. Yune era quien le advertía del peligro y le daba esas "predicciones". La otra parte de su poder para ver el futuro fue simplemente su instinto y su ascendencia Heron. Ella a veces "siente las cosas" al igual que Reyson y los demás (la gran diferencia es que ellos saben que es lo que siente y porque, Micaiah no tiene idea de porque). Ella decidió hacer caso a las decisiones de Pelleas porque sintió su buen corazón y buenas intenciones, por lo tanto, asumió que tenia una buena razón para comportarse así. Y dado que hasta ese momento todos sus "presentimientos" habían sido acertados, no tenia un motivo evidente para desconfiar de su propia intuición. Y ella continua con la guerra (incluso recurriendo a tacticas que la perturban emocionalmente) no porque "la visión se lo dijo", sino porque considera a Daein su hogar y quiere protegerlo. Puede que sea precipitado de su parte e incluso estúpido, ¿pero se le puede llamar un mal personaje por eso? Joder, es completamente humano. El estrés y ansiedad de ser, básicamente, el líder moral y espiritual de una nación entera de la noche a la mañana no es algo que muchos puedan soportar antes de quebrarse. Y siendo realistas ella no tenia a nadie que le pudiera decir las cosas directamente a la cara: Pelleas la admira, sothe la ama e idolatra, el resto de la brigada la idolatra y respeta, y el resto de la nación la idolatra fanáticamente. Nadie la cuestiona estrictamente. Ella tiene que decidir absolutamente todo en Daein. Y sobre no tratar de hacer acerca del racismo de sus soldados hacia los Laguz, pues ¿para que demonios atacaría la moral y realidad de sus tropas cuando más las necesita? Un paso en falso y se convierte en un falso profeta. Sanaki es el ejemplo perfecto de lo influenciable que son las masas, incluso ante su profeta. Después de reconstruir Daein ya tendrá tiempo para hacerlos cambiar de mentalidad; y dado que la paz que lograron duró 1200 años (twelve hundred), creo que lo logró. Finalmente, si ella pasa de ser una gran estratega a una persona "ingenua" eso es completamente normal. Un genio en un campo de conocimiento no tiene porque destacar en todos. Sobre todo cuando es algo relacionado a valores, ética y moralidad. Ella simplemente apela a la bondad y bien de las personas antes de dar por sentado que son malos, despiadados o egoístas. No digo que sea el mejor personaje de toda la historia, pero de ninguna manera es un mal personaje, un personaje vacío o una Mary sue. Ella es un buen personaje, y para mi, me resulta triste que no se aprecie mucho a personajes así. Parece que la gente solo espera arquetipos; o espera que los personajes sean alguna suerte de individuos perfectos, sin fallas graves. Pero la realidad es que los seres humanos fluctuamos entre la decencia y la mediocridad (entendida como negatividad humana). 1 en cada 1,000 puede tener las condiciones sociales, morales y éticas para tratar de elevarse al nivel de Ike o casi cualquier otro Lord en la franquicia, ellos son excepciones de grandeza, Micaiah aspira a ser una excepción de bondad, pero solo aspira a serlo.
Considering that nowadays, we have so many Mary Sue characters along the lines of Ray from the Star Wars sequel Trilogy, Captain Marvel in the MCU, Mulan in the 2020 remake, and MANY more, Micaiah doesn't fall under the traditional Mary Sue trope. She has qualities of the trope, but she's not the same as the others.
Easily the most disappointing one I've watched because I didn't learn anything new from this one. Here is my critique of this spotlight. The length: Considering that Micaiah is a lord and the two other lords (Roy and Ike[1,2]) have a far greater length in their spotlights, it is quite clear that you didn't bother to read or at the very least elaborate on the script which will become more apparent later on in the critique. Even a side character like L''Arachel got 29 mins of spotlight so I feel Micaiah was shafted especially since the gap between this spotlight and the previous spotlight is almost six months. In comparison, the BK spotlight is twice as longer yet the gap between the BK spotlight and the Rutger spotlight is a couple of weeks. Background Info: You didn't cover why exactly Micaiah is so loyal to Daein (3:00-3:30). It was answered in a base conversation, a medium of dialogue that you clearly overlooked despite IMO being inherently superior to supports. Yet despite base conversations adding much to characters, you overlook them in your spotlights despite analyzing supports. Why the double standards? While her exact age is unknown (0:50), you could have given an approximation of roughly 23 years or a bit greater due to the fact she doesn't remember her time in Begnion so it stands to reason she wasn't very old at the time of the Serenes massacre which took place 23 years prior to the events of RD. Part 1 You also made a sequential error by saying she eventually got a whole rebel army but then talk about how she meets with Pelleas later on (3:35-3:50). It'd be better if the two points were inverted because she gets to command an army after meeting up with Pelleas, not before. I think it was worth mentioning that the Daein army had presumably won the war and that there was a ceasefire when Micaiah wondered off on her own. Also you should mention she was stressed out as it would add context as to why she foolishly decided to wander off in the forest (3:50-4:00). Also you should have added how her helping out Laura got her captured as it was a character defining moment which shows us how reckless Micaiah is. You also failed to talk about Micaiah's relationship with Izuka and Pelleas which could have given us a further insight into her character. Bringing up her conversation with Muarim would have been nice because it shows just how bad she felt when her identity was exposed. Part 3 This part of your analysis was utterly disappointing. All you said was Micaiah was forced to fight and then Ashera awakened. Way to drop the ball with this one. Anyhow, Pelleas hasn't been king for years so he couldn't have signed the blood contract many years ago (4:30-4:35). So even though you gloss over this part, you still make errors. First off, initially Micaiah didn't even know about the blood contract and chose to fight for Daein because Pelleas was adamant on it and she was loyal to him. Furthermore, she feared that if she abandoned her duties, Daein's army would fall apart resulting in them losing the war which would have dire consequences like she experienced after the Mad King's War. You should have brought up how powerless Micaiah feels about losing her powers as it'd be something you could have talked about when talking about whether or not she's a mary sue. You also ended up overlooking her character defining moment in chapter 3-12 where she ends up being rather ruthless which goes to show how far she's willing to go to protect Daein but at the same time not willing to continue if it meant Sothe would die. This shows Micaiah is quite biased and gives favoritism to those closest to her. You also missed out on how she's willing to kill Pelleas or sacrifice herself to save him on subsequent playthroughs. Part 4 Despite part 4 being rather uneventful when it comes to characterization for Micaiah, you manage to overlook details here as well. You end up skipping Micaiah's moment when she confronts Lekain and finally destroys the plot device allowing Daein to be free once more and instead move on to how Yune blesses the weapons even though this was Yune's doing, not Micaiah's (5:10-5:20). Also, you should skipped chapter 4-3 which actually had a lot going on for Micaiah such as her attempting to befriend Sanaki despite Sanaki holding resentment as well as refusing to go with the BK to the tower.
Personality Micaiah wanted to respect the sacrifice of Alder, prior to that, she was ready to kill Jarod. Also, she wanted the government of Begnion to be the judge instead of getting revenge upon him (6:35:645). While Micaiah has tons of wisdom, the example you give in the video is a moral argument, not exactly using her wisdom (6:45-6:50). While Micaiah indeed has a sassy side to her, you could have expanded upon her statement to show that she harbours resentment towards Ike in part one and talk about how her views evolve throughout the course of the game (7:25-7:30) considering you never addressed this anywhere in the video. Remember those horrible videos from the FE wiki where the script of the video and the animation show completely different things that you yourself criticized (3:20-3:25)? So then why do you do the same thing in this character spotlight (7:50-8:00)? Micaiah never got a vision showing her she has to burn the Apostle's Army, she concocted this strategy of her own accord so why do you say there are times in the story where she's following her visions while showing a video where she is clearly not doing so? Then you end up showing the scene where Pelleas dies even though this also had nothing to do with Micaiah's vision guiding her decisions (8:05-8:15). So is your video/script quality on par with those FE wiki videos? Where did you get this definition of a mary sue (8:30-8:45))? Also, for the sake of comparison, why not use this same checklist on other FE lords? You can't just use some checklist to establish a claim without relative comparisons because terms such as mary sue are subjective and relative. I don't think you should have even brought up whether she is a mary sue or not as it doesn't really talk about her character and instead superficial character traits. Being physically weak did get her into trouble as she got captured pretty easily and her heron brand meant she was easily hindered by the chaos of war on three different occasions, in two of which she even collapsed and in one was even unconscious so while I agree being weak isn't a character flaw in and of itself but it does have a narrative impact in Micaiah's case (9:30-10:00). Being too selfless and naive is obviously a character flaw. Just because being selfless and kind is a good thing, it doesn't mean it can sometimes be bad and in Micaiah's case there are plenty of examples where there were consequences to those flaws such as getting captured by Jarod, getting Nevesa damaged and being unable to sacrifice Sothe ruining the plan. If that's the case, very few, if any FE lords have flaws because their flaws can be spun into positive traits such as Ike being mad at Sanaki being spun into him having a strong sense of justice. Micaiah may be loved by the citizens of Daein but her popularity doesn't extend past that. Crimea, for example, started a rebellion because of Micaiah helping Daein gain independence so these guys clearly don't like her. Her enemies, who are more sympathetic than herself, think she's deluded and the people who support her as fanatical so you can't use this "loved by all" as a compelling argument to show she's a mary sue. This argument would probably apply more strongly to all four avatars, Alm, Ike, Roy, Seliph and Marth before it applies to Micaiah. BK doesn't argue with Sothe about protecting Micaiah, it was just Sothe's doing (10:47-10:53). You claim most of the game's villains love Micaiah which is false (10:55-11:00). Only BK and Sephiran "love" her but she's more of a pawn for them anyway. Plus, they have reasons to love her due to being Sanaki's sister as well as a fellow branded like Zelgius. Whether or not Micaiah struggles because of others doesn't change the fact she struggles throughout the course of the game (11:00-11:15). Ike's struggle being a personal one doesn't mean he has a harder struggle than Micaiah (11:15-11:30). BK literally lets Ike grow stronger instead of killing him which reduces the dramatic tension which also makes Ike's struggle less compelling as a result. On the other hand, Jarod does his best to finish Micaiah off and ends up being a more threatening villain as a result. Not to mention Micaiah has made Daein's plight her own so the struggles of Daein are her own. Review Do you use a RNG when deciding the rating? Review scores are inherently subjective but seeing characters who IMO have far less depth than Micaiah (1)(2) getting a much higher score rubs me off the wrong way when that's the reason you used to give her three stars only (18:20-18:50).
This is good, i dont know about Sothis as im just finishing Crimson Flower, but Yune needs his counterpart and Naga's power is wanning after millennias, if its Genealogy Naga, maybe Naga wins, barring Sothis from the equation, but i would argue that Sothis is an equal to Naga, sorry for the bad english as it is my second tongue
My money is on Sothis. I mean according to heroes she doesnt take anti dragon damage and use her powers in human form. Also there is divine pulse whenever things go south
@@irtijaadib42069 thats a nice response, sadly we can quantify if Sothis is indeed more powerful than Naga or Yune, as the gam just came out and we would need to finish and analize it to really calculate the stakes, we could also put Milas Turnwheel on there but unlike Sothis Power, Mila just does Premonitions to help Alm (the problem is that they explain it so vaguely and badly that its no wonder people think its time reversal
Micaiah: If that's what it takes to be just, then I want nothing to do with justice. I'd rather be hated and feared like Mad King Ashnard. I'd rather the dark god take my soul. I'm going to save my people, Sothe. If the rest of the world paints me as a beast to be reviled and hated, so be it. Definitely not Mary Sue thinking.
One of the most defining traits of a Mary Sue is the fact that rules of the break to accommodate them. This does not even come close to happening to Micaiah as normally Mary Sues happen to the story, and the story is what happens to Micaiah. Having traits of a Mary Sue does not make one a Mary Sue
Snygg spotlight som alltid Mangs! Har sett varenda en utav dom från Tellius-serien! Som det Tellius-fan som jag är hade jag gärna sett dig göra en video om Jill eller Mia till nästa gång. Men oavsett vad så är din kanal väldigt underhållande! Och jag hoppas att du fortsätter göra under videos en lång tid framöver!
@@deuntre4 and can tank with nosferatu if u give here some promotion bonuses from the more tanky classes, atleast my experience with here (2. playtrought Golden deer hard)
Honestly I don't see Micciah as a Mary sue, she's special and has the prettiness but while being a destined one is what causes people to flock to her I wouldn't say that she's supposed to be especially pretty in universe, her beauty isn't commented on. Her being pretty to us doesn't work because every girl in Fire emblem with a few exceptions is drawn to look pretty, so unless her being the most beautiful girl ever is a part of her character you can't check that off. Loved by all is a bit weird to define, she gets a lot of followers and is called "the embodiment of Daen's liberation" but everyone who says that brings up her special powers as the reason, she seems to be treated as a figurehead, a symbol for people to rally around more than a leader, and honestly she seems to just go along with it because she's a nice person. I think that in universe she's easy to put on a pedestal because she's noteworthy, so I'd say that it's not a problem. Other traits of her being a Mary sue, likely have other things I can do to justify them. honestly if the game had supports (or at least if I were making supports for Radiant dawn) I'd have bet that her being easy to rally behind would have used that as a major point for her, maybe have a couple of supports where she remembers you she inspired a few farmers revolts because she didn't like their treatment of a certain worker and this is treated as a thing that just happens to her, people rally behind her and she just goes along with it... It'd at least make her more human as being unintentionally charismatic could just be her latent mystic apostle powers getting people to follow her... Just my thought
Yeah, it's like how a lot of people used (and even sometimes still do) to say that Jeanne D'Arc was that light of hope for the french people to finally end the eternal state of deadlock and random conflicts with England.
@@troykv96 Yep, and honestly a lot of lords in the series end up being seen as "lights of liberation" it's just that Micciah becoming that for Daen is a first act story instead of a third act plot point
3 out of 5. Pretty generous of you. I would have give her a 3 for utilities, compared to other lords who get crap by the fanbase and some pros, but Machiah like many who I think are underrated units like Rebecca in Blazing Sword, sure Rebecca not as good as Louise or Will, but is a nice solid bow unit for me, and yes I will 90% of the time I play FE7 I will use Rebecca so FE pros and fans come at me.
a couple notes to make about Micaiah's brand: 1) she always wears gloves, thus covering her brand. 2) she hasn't been in the public light until the events of Radiant Dawn, and she's incredibly hesitant to step into the public light.
Very nice. It's rare to see a well-thought analysis about Micaiah. I've got really sick over the years reading comments about her being a Mary Sue when, well, she really isn't one, especially in a series where lords are born with special tatoos that allow them to wield sacred dragonslaying swords. (Please...) It became a popular take on her in the US FE community and I've never understood why. I'm glad that people are changing their mind over the years. And while this video is in a "gray" area, it still makes for a great reference for this debate.
Mangs sacrificed Claude for Micaiah. I get it now. What can be said? I like Micaiah. As a unit you go from Thanibombing to Healbotting, while she has the speed of a snail. She's arguably more contentious as a character, and maybe some of her spotlight is stolen by Ike in the same game, but in the end she gets her wish to save Daein.
To answer the "Mary Sue". She's not traditional (Like Corrin is), but she still can be called that and not be wrong. What I find interesting is that an artist actually believes that Micaiah is a "morally gray" character and compared her to Edelgard. Edelgard is honestly far from Micaiah. Micaiah is a lot more light than anything else. Edelgard is borderline pitch black in terms of morality.
I always felt that the problem with Micaiah wasn't that she's a "Mary Sue", but that Radiant Dawn has so many characters, and so much plot going on, that she gets lost in the shuffle and doesn't have as much time to show herself as a character (Especially after the first chapter). I mean heck, she gets sidelined for Yune quite a few times towards the end. She's not that great of a unit, but she remains one of my favorite Lord units in the series, and I Wish that she had gottentime to... Shine (I'll see myself out).
I have theory that kind of explains why Micaiah spares Jarod that doesnt just involve she is naive and spares a bad guy. As we can see she relies in her powers of foresight during pt1, but is weakened because of overworking herself. In the chapter she faces Jarod we can argue that her power is weakened since she goes out to rest. Unable to use her power to foresee what would happen if she spared him, she thought that letting him go wouldnt cause problems. Some may say that she is dumb for forgiving a general who kills townsfolk, but for her this the first time meeting him, she had no knowledge of his past actions.
Yeah; and isn't like Micaiah likes senseless violence. She avoided killing him because his subordinate already died; this should already make him lose a ton of time dealing with the burial and thinking about what happened before the arrival of Sanaki's people, and the eventual arrest of Jarod and their men. Of course Micaiah only really noticed Jarod's future after he was already gone, and it was very vague. Yune can't show her everything, and less so when Micaiah is tired.
You know, they could have gotten away with giving Micaiah tons of hp. She does have a goddess inside of her, and she is part laguz. They could have just said that those two things combined gave her an enormous life force.
You can't try and make us forget about what you did to Claude so easily... Also when is our Hugh spotlight (or a Claude spotlight so you atone for your sins)
My biggest thing with her is that you could easily she is a Mary Sue and isn't. She is because for the majority of the game she has all these abilities no one else does I.E. (Stefan and Soren, who are also Branded, though differently from her in terms of race, Soren's dragon blood is easily the most powerful for raw magic talent inherent. This means she has powers even he does not but he has way more training and practice.) that allow her to see the future and predict what works and doesn't, help avoid enemies, and even almost bullshit a victory out of hopeless instances. However I can also say she isn't because she still makes several mistakes, her biggest is not telling anyone about anything behind why she scraps with the Daein army and even quotes racist motives of her soldiers to help their morale for the time being that nearly get her killed just out of loyalty to an inept leader and stupid excuse for a king who relies on her to ANYTHING for him that is resolved in any way resembling positive.
I can understand the arguments for and against Micaiah. Personally, I have a soft spot for her, and while that's largely due to her starring in my first ever Fire Emblem game, I just like her as a character and what she brings to the experience. None of her cons outweigh the pros, much like Radiant Dawn itself, and she's a unique lead compared to others in the franchise. I'd also like to stress that just because she makes dumb decisions, doesn't make her a bad character from a writing standpoint. So long as a character's actions are consistent with who they are and how they'd realistically react to a situation, a bad decision (or even immoral actions) can still be a net positive for their character. Even if they elicit a negative reaction, that could still be the author's intent, and in service to the story they're a part of. For the most part, I'd say Micaiah fits this description quite well. From a writing standpoint, she's not flawless, and neither is the story she's in, but both are overall solid. I'm not blind to her flaws, but I do have some serious nostalgia for the character. I love the game she's in, I empathised with the plight of her and the people of Daein, and I welcomed the challenge that came from her being weak. The Dawn Brigade are fighting a losing battle and overcoming insane odds, and Intelligence Systems did a good job of raising the stakes through gameplay.
I'm the kind of person who play unit because of their design instead of their stats ... and that's why i alway give her all the boost items in the game
I don't think there was anything more to be said. A perfect review with as little bias as possible. Good job Micaiah! As for a character I'd like to see, volke. The Tellious games are my favorite of the series, (My first as well) and Volke was such an interesting character within. The edgelord extortioner is well deserving his own episode.
Her Wisdom and foresight is shared by Yune and besides that she is not wise. Edit: I feel like Yune was the one that was drawing people towards Micaiah because the characters were actually questioning that the people of daein were worshipping her.
My preference is Wrath and Gamble, with a blessed Purge tome. Sacrifice until at Wrath percent, then get sniping with Gamble. Leaves you with a 3-10 range, 100% critical rating, ~85% hit rating death machine. Who needs the Speed stat when you've got CRITS!? Edward. He has both. So does Zihark. And Stefan. And Nephenee. And... I'm just gonna stop.
@@christianrose9166 Lol, that's why I used all the Trueblades in the Tower one play through. All four of them--Edward, Zihark, Mia, and Stefan. Totally NOT forgetting a pretty bad unit in here.
@@neog8029 Being totally honest, Mia isn't much better than Lucia. She has slightly better Strength and Vantage as an innate skill, but in the final battle against Ashera Parity is more useful, and Lucia has higher Speed and Luck than Mia, making her slightly more survivable via dodge-tanking. It's unfortunate that the male Trueblades are just straight-up better than the females, with Edward and Zihark matching Ike's Strength growth when all three are tier 3.
@@gabrielsobral6682 Fair enough. I generally prefer to use Edward over Zihark, if only for nostalgia. I don't know why, but on my very first playthrough of Radiant Dawn Edward turned into a monster. I'm not joking when I say that he actually killed Ashera in one round, and when she revived at half HP and attacked him, he killed her again. It was quite the spectacle. Ever since, he has been one character that I always bring into the tower, and it might just be because I favor him but he generally turns into an absolute beast in the majority of my playthroughs.
Guys, while I understand the Claude thing is upsetting a lot of you, please know that other people than myself worked on this, my scriptreaders, not to mention my editor Cyan. This spotlight took a long time to create, as do all my spotlights, I'd appreciate getting some feedback on it, rather than just Claude comments.
Also I am very sorry to anyone who got spoiled by said comments.
Thank you.
It was good, can’t complain about it. Props to everyone who worked on it. I had a theory in which Micaiah spared Jarod because she couldnt see the future clearly due to overworking herself, which is the cause of her inability to see it as revealed later on. Thus she thought it was all good since she didnt foresee something bad happening. But it might just be too much insight
Dont worry dude. People are just joking, they are not mad or anything. Maybe some few might be disappointed, but still. We are just trying to have a laugh at the situation.
By the way, nice video! I would gadly watch something like this from the Three Houses characters after you finish your playthrough!
Also want to know your opinion about Edelgard since the whole FE community is discussing if she is the misunderstood savior or the evil spawn of satan. 😂
what about edward comments?
Mangs, this is somewhat irrelevant, but you might've accidentally deleted someone from your spotlight schedule: Patty.
Awesome! Could you fo a character spotlight on my boi Alm plz?
Micaiah is loved by the people of Daein because she's a hero, a symbol of liberation for the country. She reminds me a lot of Jeanne D'Arc. Jeanne D'Arc was also a hero for France, one that didn't do things because they were the smartest thing to do, but because the visions told her to. Micaiah is the same.
Micaiah does many stupid things, and whether those stupid decisions were consequence of her compassion or not, they are still stupid, and I think that should qualify as a character flaw. As a general of an army, sometimes, being compassionate leads to further casualties in your own army. It just shows that Micaiah isn't really fit for the position. However, as a symbol of hope and liberation, she inspires the soldiers of Daein to fight with greater strength. That's simply the effect that heroes have over people. And whether she truly deserves that respect or not, anyone can be a hero if your public image is portrayed as something great. The fact that the Dawn Brigade even managed to liberate Daein is a miracle by itself, seeing how weak they are. But that is even more reason why they should be admired. They are underdogs, proving to even the most simple people of Daein that they can stand against even the might of Begnion. Micaiah led the Dawn Brigade, and obviously she's going to get the attention.
Over the course of the story, we see Micaiah struggle with her position. She basically fought in the wrong side of history in Part 3, hunting the laguz of the Alliance, fighting at the side of Begnion, the same regime that had subjugated Daein for 3 years, killing innocent people. Micaiah had to choose between her country or her morals, and she chose her country. She was even OK with burning the Apostle's army alive with oil during their ambush in Part 3-12. I bet that was a decision that was not very light on her mind. She has always known she was killing innocent people, but she still kept going at it for the good of Daein. If anything, the Blood Contract was a way to showcase that Micaiah will break even her own morals for Daein. She's much like Camus. Her nation above all else. You know who else was like this? Erwin Rommel, a German general who fought in WWI and WWII. Now, whether he was really like this or it was just propaganda is entirely another debate.
In conclusion, I believe that Micaiah is far from being a Mary Sue. Like other people in the comments have said, the world doesn't revolve around Micaiah, like it does on Corrin. You can be a chosen one with a special gift loved by all without being a Mary Sue. It's just that these are traits that Mary Sues commonly have, but that in itself doesn't necessarily make a character a Mary Sue. As for character flaws, they are there, it's just that they are not as obvious. But if you look at history and real people, you can see that her actions are normal. Some people are just really compassionate, and that sometimes can bring misfortune in their lives. It gets to a point where that compassion becomes stupidity and naivety, among other things. Those are flaws. Micaiah's naivety has brought several hardships as well.
For more information on Mary Sues, I recommend Overly Sarcastic Production's video on Mary Sues, as well as Terrible Writing Advice's video on Mary Sues.
Regardless, nice video Mangs. Glad to see that these are still coming.
Bassicly this also saying she it out of character that she make smart move (I forgot whene but he said something like her naivety didn't fit whit her tactical ability and there I would disagreed you can be naive but have tactical ability they have 0 link one an other. Naivety is just that she trust too much ppl whene she shouldn't)
*Wisdom and insight...
Well someone whit wisdom and insight can be naive in who they trust that just not linked at all.
SORRY FOR THE BAD ENGLISH
Funny enough, someone said this best and I agree despite loving Micaiah as much as I love my boy Ike! While she has the TRAITS associated with a Mary Sue! She does not have the "environment" of one! By that I mean the world and story doesn't bend over backwards to justify or handwave her actions! The struggle I loved with her was showing a HUGE difference between leading a small group like the Dawn Brigade in rebellion, to being a "number two" of the guy in charge (and being more popular then him that she's seen as the ) and of course when she finally is officially made the guy in charge and well is now stuck with a debt (Blood pact) the previous dude left behind and she starts cracking, doing things she'd have never done because she's too stubborn and scared of the alternative! I especially liked her "Vs" with Ike where she finally sees Ike as the guy Sothe claimed him as and "not the villain responsible for Deain's oppression" (A few times in the early chapter her flaw was she cared abit TOO much for her adopted kingdom that she came sometimes close to justifying Ashnard! Not completely or ever, but SOMETIMES if it meant they DIDN'T fall under the Empire who oppressed them. And I did like how her and Ike working together is what set things right (Still remember people calling IKE a Gary Stu in RD because of how much people you know THOSE WHO KNOW HIM FROM POR were praising the hell out of him! Like with Micaiah I put it down to the word Mary Sue starting to get abused at that time that seeing ANYONE being praised to the high heavens and worshiped and "Being a protagonist" will get you the Mary Sue/Gary Stu label! The word is losing meaning because people don't know how to use it's description right!) And at least Corrin (Who I grudgingly like, I don't hate them, I just find the direction they took them after Chapter 6 in all three routes to be VERY hit and miss) took the heat off of Micaiah at least (I think I saw the hate she got die down around Fates completely!)
Funny enough she herself, or an Emblem (might as well say MAGICAL AI Construct) of her in Engage during her Paralogue "acknowledges" some of her bone headed stubborness, especially seeing as her paralogue is this map/chapter in general! With Her in Ike's position on the field. Never hated or had difficulty using her as a unit, same with Sanaki! I acknowledged their inablity to usually get a follow up or risk getting followed up and acted accordingly! My style of playing Fire Emblem is I don't rely on just one unit to Solo a Map! I find that boring! Everyone is just as useful and work in synergy with each other (Plus my luck especially with the RNG made sure of that! Growth's usually PREVENTED me from relying too heavily on a unit! PEople say "Fredrick Emblem" or "Ryoma Emblem" I tried that with them and usually saw Reset after Reset as I don't like my units dying on me! Never played or planned to play a Iron Man run in any Fire Emblem! I save that for XCOM and XCOM 2! But yeah, I work to cover and acknowledge my character's weaknesses! and work on how to improve them! Micaiah was great against certain units with Tani and was a decent Magic unit. Sacrifice had SOME utility as sometimes I would goof with Staves and it was a life saver, also helped Laura or other staff users get some free EXP healing her!)
Micaiah reminds me of Emiya Archer.
Honestly, the defining moment of Micaiah for me is one that's her big gray moment, when she was willing to burn Sanaki and company alive if it meant ending the war. I can't call her a Mary Sue, that's not a 'perfect solution everyone will live with', that's literally attempted regicide using cruel means.
Say what you will about her as a unit, as a person she goes to some dark spots and nearly gets Sothe offed for it.
That scene says reaaly a lot about her. And I think even more valid than her decision to kill Sanaki by any means necessary is to point the way her resolve fails after Tibarn threatens to kill Sothe as she's tottally unable to sacrifice him and tell the archers to fire. I don't think a real Mary Sue would so easilly fail to what she ( in this case, in my opinion, quite idiotly) thought was the right thing to do because of a matter of feelings towards one single person.
Mary Sue?! Do we all forget how she tried to tar and burn the Empress? Or did nothing to discourage racism in her army? How is this still a debate?
Funny because you could make a much stronger case for this game's Ike, if you really want to. But she's a polarizing character, so naturally people are far more inclined to label her as one.
"Did nothing to discourage racism in her army"
What?
@@ikefromsmashbros9237 the Daein Army was highly racist against Laguz and Micaiah saw it as an asset to help fuel them in the war. Morally suspect decision for sure.
@@troybaker3556 That's a tactic used by every leader in every war. To efficiently kill your enemies, you have to convince yourself that they aren't your equals. This isn't a flaw for Micaiah, it's a commentary on the evils of war.
@@ikefromsmashbros9237 Something like that goes against her character though.
Man I really like Micaiah! Calling her a Mary Sue is undermining her character.
Also her Light Priestess outfit is the best outfit in the series, fight me.
JILL SPOTLIGHT PLEASE
That implies there's character to undermine!
*Baddum tsh.*
She also has cute bird
People calling Micaiah a Mary Sue either don't understand the meaning of the phrase or know nothing about Micaiah. Being "too kind" is an actual character flaw for a general, someone who is supposed to make pragmatic decisions. Everyone loves her because she IS the symbol of Daein's restoration. She's a figurehead. Other characters have reasons for protecting Micaiah; it's not something that just comes out of the blue. She has struggles and failures, the former of which occurred more in her past.
Yeah ok her past lets tackled that....lets assumed she actually had a tragic past then....its just really show how censored i mean how hard the writer trying to make her a mary sue character....otherwise why they nvr much of her tragic past is beyond me i highly doubt they conviniently all suddenly forgot they can use that to make people sympathize with her but thats just me
Michael MagniMedia bruh
wait who the fuck calls her a mary sue? she is far from a mary sue. people call her a mary sue are idiots! I mean she has to work much harder to save daien unlike cough cough! looks at rey!
She has Mary-Sue like traits, but she falls short because she actually does get punished over her decisions in the story.
For example, if she truly was one, Jarod would've not not come back after she released him. But he does. Therefore she got punished for making a dumb decision/the script didn't bend over backwards for Micaiah to be always right.
She's not remotely a mary sue' most of the first few traits are generic heroic traits that most protagonists share, and when you actually get to ones that really determine it (faces struggles, is perfect) you either reach or basically concede that they don't apply, then say "yeah she basically is" based on the less important, superficial aspects of mary suedom despite basically failing to make the case on the important points.
Also, as others have pointed out, mary sues have to dominate the narrative and never be wrong. Micaiah certainly does not dominate the narrative, being off screen for the half the game and then having Ike retain primary focus after part 1, and she makes several mistakes, even of the morally questionable variety such as when she resorts to brutal tactics to try and beat Sanaki. Mary sues don't try to tar and burn their opponents, or if they do, it is portrayed as being an Actually Good Thing, which Radiant Dawn does not. Indeed, prior to Three Houses she was probably the most morally grey lord, although that is more of an indictment of how pure FE protagonists tend to be than any actual signs of darkness in her, game of thrones this is not.
You know who is a Mary Sue? Corrin, who despite potentially choosing to side with an absolute caricature of evil is somehow portrayed in narrative as this radiant beam of purity, who somehow wins entire campaigns without actually killing anyone and whom everyone loves for no particular reason. The people of Daein worshiping Micaiah at least makes narrative sense because she liberated the country, everyone in Fates kisses Corrin's ass from minute one despite him being locked in a castle until the start of the narrative.
Corrin isn't a bad character by itself; but it's usage in the narrative it's so painful it physically hurts me.
No character is a Mary Sue in the hands of a good writer. No main character is not a Mary Sue in the hands of a bad writer. Mary Sue is a storytelling trope, not a character trope.
@@MogofWar Indeed! It's perfectly possible to write a good story about a paragon if you're good enough (there are several Super Man stories that are actually good and deal with interesting ideas, and not all of them retcon his status a America's Paragon).
@@MogofWar clap, clap, clap, Preach.
Honestly, I don't have a problem with a character being beloved by most characters in-game so long as it's at earned and not given for no reason.
Take Ike for example. Yes, a lot of characters shower praise on him in Radiant Dawn. However, you can argue that that is a result of his actions in Path of Radiance where he proved himself to everyone and showed that he was a man of integrity and worthy of trust.
Micaiah is similar. She's not some do-nothing who gets praise from others for no reason. Her actions earn her the respect of others.
she does kind of start a genocidal war because the king said-so and was willing to stick it out BEFORE learning about the blood-pact
the one thing stopping her from hitting full mary sue is that she's kind of a shitty person
@@Yinlock470 basically.
Though, whether its a clearance or her death warrant depends wholly on if you think the game is trying to communicate that what she did was actually wrong, or if "because blood pact I didn't know about" is supposed to actually be considered a reasonable defense for attempted genocide.
Micaiah has flaws and has consequences to her actions, Mary Sue Corrin does not, end of presentation I say
The biggest point of a "mary sue" that Micaiah does not fit overall, that you didn't really mention, is that the story revolves completely around them, and the world breaks to support them.
Micaiah is a clear heroine character, and a paragon of virtue type character, but she really isn't a total "mary sue" in that connotation. Unlike Corrin, who breaks everyone around him/her and has the plot bend just because of a mysterious destiny and an overwhelming importance, Micaiah has a straight hero story that honestly isn't that strange for a fire emblem.
I think the "mary sue" term is thrown around a lot and has lost a lot of its meaning. I feel like Micaiah is only called out because she's a girl. Overly Sarcastic Productions has a Trope Talk that really explains the mary sue trope. Seen in that way, it's much harder to call Micaiah a "true" Mary Sue.
Bottom line, even if she is perfect, she is the character the story needs, and the story overall is convoluted enough that she actually helps it, rather than hurts it, and that's why I don't classify her as a Mary Sue.
Edited for spelling because initial comment was made on a phone.
Yeah the story is convoluted to where the story definitely doesn't revolve around her, we get to see an epic conclusion of Ike's vendetta, and some others.
One of the problem with determining which characters are Mary Sues is that many Sue traits are simply heroic traits at their core. Take the average hero and put him through one of the Sue tests you can find online and chances are that you'll get "Mary Sue" or maybe even "extreme Mary Sue" as a result. Honestly though, I'd say Ike is a bigger Sue(or Stu, I guess) than Micaiah is.
@@kobyma2 In a sense, but he does have his own struggles and vendetta, as for story, he is the commander and is just leading....idk
@@kobyma2 no. Just no. One of the biggest issues with Mary Sues is that their powers/abilities are typically unexplained or hand waved, Ike in Path of Radiance esspecially cannot be a Mary Sue at all, there are people who dislike him (such as Gatrie, Shinon, Lethe [though she grows to like him later on], and Micaiah in Radiant Dawn.) Ike is also blunt, which gets the crew in some trouble with Sanaki when they arrive in Begnion, as well as being Headstrong, Naive, and Ignorant in a lot of ways. Ike in Radiant Dawn could be called a Gary Stu because he lacks a lot of these faults and is super ultra mega powerful, but the issue with that is that Ike at this point has already been through a War, and has been training for three years, of course Ike would be powerful at this point, it shows the natural progression of his character. Whereas Micaiah barely receives any levels of explanation for her powers and abilities.
@@Yuni-is-Schrodingers-Fox Their "dislike" is almost completely inconsequential, he keeps getting away with things he shouldn't be able to get away with, and he takes over RD to the point he's the only one that can beat Ashera. Sues are spotlight hogs. Micaiah isn't a spotlight hog in the slightest. Quite the opposite, in fact.
7:26 Ah, I still bless the user and Veronica Taylor for doing that line. For the many peeps of the Fire Emblem Community.
wait, so manuela has the same voice as ash ketchum?
@@ryangallagher9723 Always has been. At least since 2018.
Gotta love the Mage Lord. Even through she is very slow and squishier than paper. She is the very definition of a glass cannon: (for cavaliers and armor knights, at least) she can destroy them with Thani, but she herself can also get destroyed.
I use her with Resolve and paired up with Nolan if you want her able to be used on the frontlines honestly. Its actually a decent strategy imo. Either that or give her Edward's Vantage because her High luck stat is pretty useful if put in the right hands. I would also give her the Ashera Icon's because yeah while it could be used for money it also helps cap the stat easier for her to get stats in other areas like her low speed with the aid of RD's bonus exp.
Is It the Dawn Brigade?
No it's the Dawn Bigga.
No, it's just a dawn brigade
Interesting maneuver...
No this is Patrick
No, it's just Mangs
-Micaiah is beautiful
All other protagonists too
-Talent, especial gifts...
-All other protagonists too (sacred weapons, sacred blood, lineage...)
-Etc
She isn't a Mary Sue in the slightest. The first four "points" apply to literally every other lord in the series. She faces more hardships and actually deals with the consequences to her actions more than half the MCs in the franchise.
What was your opinion on the spotlight? I thought it was bad tbh. forums.serenesforest.net/index.php?/topic/55847-fire-emblem-character-spotlight/&do=findComment&comment=5494140
One of my favorite lords in the series. Also, Veronica Taylor voiced Micaiah perfectly!
From being a fortune teller to queen. Micaiah has had a eventful life.
I'm glad the amount of people who realize Micaiah is *not* a mary sue has grown over the years.
Also I’d say Micaiah is not a Mary Sue.
She’s virtuous and well liked, but unlike a Mary Sue she’s not a prodigy, not a “flaw that’s not a flaw” person or even in story. She relies on other people, and most tellingly the story and world don’t break themselves to accomodate her.
What does Micaiah have in common with Claude from Mangs BE playthrough?
Neither of them are aging anymore.
Lol dark humor
Tbh Micaiah's "liked by everyone" thing is primarily because she hid her brand and has these quite unique powers that helps a lot of people giving her a unique stance that people don't notice she's a branded human thus they don't have a negative outlook on her and admire her for these actions of helping and healing people all around Tellius thus making a name for herself. And don't the bad guys just like her because she is either A) Beautiful or B) has these unique powers.
Micaiah is not a Mary Sue, I think plot has to move for Ike to join the story more so then Micaiah. (And Ike is Not a Gary Stu either.)
I think some players don't notice the hatred towards her in the story because she became the figure of Dain early on. Every time characters curses Dain, they are most likely pointing towards Micaiah. Because she is the symbol of Dain.
Outside of Dain, her status is viewed with suspicion and many characters speak like she's crazy/out of her mind.
Sothe, Ike, Tibarn, and more characters often speak ill of her (And rightfully so.)
I think Micaiah has to face more moral dilemmas than most FE protagonists. So while the plot executes less than ideally. I support an RD-like story anyday. Cause Gray is always better than Black/White for a story for me.
Micaiah is my 3rd favorite lord in the Fire Emblem series, and while I do accept her flaws, she appeals to me personally as a main character. In short, it's her resolve that makes her likeable as a protagonist for me. It's not every day that you get a Camus Lord.
Which are your other two favorite lords? I'm curious because you talked about "Camus Lord".
Releasing this on the same day you kill Claude...mixed feelings
It was not done on purpose, this was scheduled way ahead of time. A spotlight takes a long time to make.
It's just a game dood
I didn't expect Micaiah to come anywhere close to winning CYL 3 to be honest. Definitely not complaining though.
Am I dreaming? Do we finally get this?
I could like this comment but I"m leaving it at 69
Very well done on the Micaiah character spotlight. Long have i, and many Miacaiah and fire emblem 9 and 10 fans, waited for this video to come out!
I'd love to see a Dimitri spotlight once you've finished Three Houses. It's been so interesting seeing him develop throughout the game, and I can't wait until you get around to the Blue Lions!
Just gonna say this.
I like Micaiah way more than Ike. (Runs away)
She's a better character
Ah, a normal video for once-
*Sees Claude comments*
Me: *Scrolls back up to watch spotlight*
Coming a year later, why is everyone yelling about Claude?
*waiting for Talk to Edelgard memes bcs of Micaiah being the other silver-haired lord*
Yessssssss PLEASE.
I imagine they wanted Micaiah to be an investment glass canon with that high of a magic growth and that low of a base stat. Unless you get unlucky, Micaiah will gain 17-19 in magic if you get her to level 20 before her story locked promotions. Micaiah could also just be a solid healer if you get rng screwed. I know Micaiah isn't anywhere near as good as Ike or Haar but I love using her and making her as strong as possible.
Damn I remember thinking that Michiah was one of the worst characters in the fanchise due to her mary sureness but after the introduction of Avatars givning us characters like Kirs, Corrin, and Blyeth (IMO Robin is the only Avatar that isn't a Mary sue and that is still debatable) Michiah is super tame in comparison.
Yeah; at least Micaiah only feels like a Mary Sue because of her uniqueness; not because of how she actually fits in the meta-narrative.
@@troykv96 Yeah I honestly don't get the "Michaiah is a Mary Sue" argument especially since her existence was foreshadowed in POR (by Sothe and indirectly by Sanaki) so it's not like she comes out of nowhere to save the world like most marry sues. There is also the fact the like the video states her kindness and patriotism come to bite her in the ass ESPECALLY in part 3, and is constantly shat on by other morally white characters for her actions. (Ike, Tibarn, Sanaki, etc) While Micaiah isn't a perfect character writing wise she's far from a mary sue, again if your looking for one of those just look at the avatars or if you want an example from the older games Lyn, Roy, or Erika are much more sue like lords than Micaiah.
@@josephpanno6816 This whole argument only exists because Micaiah has special abilities (Yune's foresight, a pseudo Galdr and Sacrifice); and the fact she has an special design that is ocassionally referenced in the narrative (mostly the Silver Hair).
@@blastimbre I see your point but I disagree. For the sake of argument I'll compare Byleth to Ike since they come from very similar backgrounds so I can argue how one's a mary sue while the other isn't. Ike also was mentored under a strong mercenary father for nearly the same amount of time, but he wasn't hurled nearly the same praise Byleth was (I get Byleth was experienced while Ike was a rookie but the amount of praise Byleth is hurled in such a short amount of time is still pretty silly). Just because his powers are explained doesn't mean they're justified, (look at Corrin) there's also the fact that most of his powers are given to him by Sothis and get's his position solely on being Rhea's favorite and aside from the creator sword he really doesn't earn anything pre timeskip but he's a demigod by the end anyway. Unlike Ike who had to put in a year blood, sweat, and tears for his weapon, recognition, and status in the world of Tellius. There is also the fact that Byleths "cons" in personality don't really matter since despite being emotionless every girl wants him (watch his and Lysithea's goddess tower conversation pre timeskip) and every guy wants to be him, he's loved regardless and the flaw is ultimately inconsequential. Compared to Ike who's head strong nature would have gotten him killed by Sanaki if it wasn't for Elincia bailing him out. But again this is just IMO I just don't see how Corrin is made fun of for being a mary sue but Byleth isn't (granted I do think Corrin is worse).
@@blastimbre Yes I have Spoilers below
I know about Rhea's mommy issues but that doesn't change anything about Byleth himself all that really does is make Rhea seem more evil which, another problem with Byleth is that most leaders (IE everyone but Claude) are far worse off without him there helping them like he's the only reason Dimirti Edie and Rhea don't go off the deep end and a big sign a a mary sue is that the world revolves around them which is 100% true in Byleth's case with these three and the entirety of Fodlan I mean who Byleth chooses to teach will impact the entirety of Fodlan's history in MAJOR ways.
A Mary Sue doesn't get turned into a sock puppet for another character for the climax of the narrative.
Lmao
I feel like she's called a Mary Sue because when her game came out, the term was getting popular and really abused. Like sometimes it's being thrown around for any female characters people just don't like. It's almost the treatment of every other female protag in a mostly shonen genre. They're being touted as a Mary Sue because possibly they're the hero's love interest or well people simply do not like teenage girls that have some importance to the story.
It is also absurd and ridiculous to consider the story revolving around a protagonist a Mary Sue as an indicator of a Mary Sue. Because by blinking definition, the story is moved by the protagonist so it by default has to revolve around them.
I agree with a lot of people that while she may have certain mary sue traits they are inconsequential, flimsy, or make sense in context. Whenever Micaiah comes up my heart always seems to start beating faster because she is one of the few characters in fire emblem i simultaneously love, hate, and to an extent love to hate. I am honestly a sucker for genuinely good natured characters, I know many people don't like when characters seem too pure but I like it because they give someone to strive to be like. Her compassion, empathy, and desire to help others even at the cost of herself really makes me love her in part 1. Part 3 really flips the script for me though and I feel bile build up in my stomach no matter how many times I play because I see her harden her heart and do genuinely terrible things for her nation. Where Ike has the strength of character to stand his ground against the cruelty of the world Micaiah resolves to be a force on the wrong side of history for her country. I understand why she does it, but it does not make me less disappointed and sickened by her character. I think it is amazing she can make me feel that way in a series full of purely righteous characters, she knows she is doing the wrong thing but continues. My only complaint really is that she never pays the price for her cruelty during the war and is instead made queen, it kind of makes me a little uneasy. Overall I have a love/hate relationship with her and I think that in of itself is amazing for a character that seems so simple at first glance.
If people think Micaiah is a Mary Sue then they don't know what a protagonist is and pretty much EVERY Fire Emblem main character has to be judged the same way. Because nearly EVERY FE main character gets special treatment. I wonder if this is because she's one of the few female main characters who doesn't share the spotlight (until later) with a male MC from beginning. Many characters who are attached to a higher destiny (See: Cecilia) will always be viewed by others with higher regard. FE is based in a high fantasy setting where people literally talk to gods and immortal beings. Every MC gets that special weapon and are saved by some kind of deus ex machina moment. I get it - RD is the sequel game and Ike should have the spotlight. He has an incredible story (arguably the best) and in a sub-series stock full of incredible characters it's hard for her to stand out. But character-wise she's no different than most MCs.
I haven’t played Radiant Dawn so I don’t have a huge attachment to her as a character, but lemme just go ahead and say she’s probably the most attractive lord in the series for me.
I hope Eirika gets a spotlight. Assuming it hasn't been already done.
Micaiah fits the Mary Sue criteria at a very superficial level (because after all, there are several traits that are associated with the Mary Sue that are very easy to accidently add to a character like unique design, special abilities, and being overall a loved person in canon).
But there is an important detail that makes Mary Sue actually be Mary Sues... How they fit the logic of the story.
Unlike other narrative tropes, the Mary Sue it's a very "Meta" term that only makes sense when you're considering the overall context of the universe from a meta-view.
The narrative wants you to like them, but not in a traditional way, but instead forcing their presence into a narrative without any particular reason; that can be annoying a times, but this can get even more troublesome when this character it's dealing with the narrative's logic.
This can also make their story arcs incredible weird because even if they in theory have faults and hardships, they can't really develop from them because the story either treats them as cute quirks (or tragic cute quirks) or sometimes even as a quality of a character in the eyes of other characters.
For reasons like this it's a lot easier to point the "Canon Sue" Gun to the Corrin than Micaiah; she would fit some traits of the Mary Sue, her existence doesn't make use of the most meta aspects of the Mary Sue as a tool of self-endorsment; which are the ones that actually affect how the narrative works.
One: I honestly think it would’ve been cool as hell for Miciah to have a pair ending with Stefan where they work to create a country for the Branded, instead of it being just Stefan on his lonesome. But that may be my rabidness for Stefan speaking.
Two: Miciah is what I like to call a Marianne Susana, which is a character who has Mary Sue elements, but instead of fully embodying the trope, she skirts around it, defying some of the traits. In fact, the idea that everyone loves Miciah is to her detriment, cause people are more likely to follow her instead of Pelleas.
Mangs I have an idea if u didn’t save after the battle redo it but spare Claude!
wrong video & you can see that he physically saved
He still has 3 saves before that date. And one save from before the timeskip
Don't want to break it to you but even if Claude lived, he does nothing special. So there.
"Good job, Micaiah."
You know very well that you have to delete your save file in Three Houses
It finally happened
Good girl got the spotlight
Awesome job with this character spotlight as always. I never had the chance to play Path of Radiance or Radiant Dawn, so I appreciate getting to know Micaiah better this way. Hopefully one day the games will be ported to the eShop.
IS IT THE DAWN BRIGADE???
Glad to see this finally come out, seems like forever ago now you played Lunatic+ on here.
About time this came out
Micaiah is not a Mary sue, She is a Disney Princess. She has a little bird companion and her own prince(s) Charming.
I completely agree at every point you made. And radiant dawn was such a big part of my early teens.
A key point is missing in judging whether Micaiah is a Mary Sue. She is being used by people more powerful than her and she can't see it despite her foresight. She is speed-running PoR in that Sephiran is recreating the conditions that created Ike the hero to create Micaiah the hero to sow more strife in the world. This is why the Black Knight is ordered to protect her at all costs and why she ends up getting spared. She's useful to the greater and more powerful players in the story pulling the strings. She's a pawn.
If it weren't for these forces pulling the strings, she would have remained on the streets healing small children that got in the way of Begnion soldiers. She would have been a local folk hero and nothing more. It's not just because she's the ancestor of Altina and the true Apostle. Hell, Yune herself has no real say in what happens to Micaiah.
A pawn was needed and she was the best candidate. To drive the point home. I mentioned that her foresight didn't even show her any of this. She has power, but she's a small fry in the grand scheme of things when not being puppetted.
I wouldn't call that a Mary Sue.
I think a character spotlight for Amelia, Natasha, or Neimi might be cool.
Didn't Micaiah actively try to hide the fact that she is branded? Naturally she will be less oppressed if people do not know of her heritage.
Yes she keeps out hidden. I think the only time she showed it was to Marum or whatever the laguz that follows Tormod name is
@@Sonic0330 Muarim
I think the fact that laguz can literally smell you being branded and all laguz hate branded and then it just remains secret the entire game is stupid ngl.
@@aetherius6221 Well, they do have to keep it a secret to avoid mass scrutiny and hatred from both sides. The beorc won't really notice it unless they actually see the mark and don't confuse it for a spirit blessing.
@@soronexle2681 yeah but Miciah hangs out with Laguz thatare much less sensitive to her plight than Maurim, whose best friend is a Beorc child. Its supposed to be fairly common to detect or at least suspect this.
micaiah definately has some mary sue traits no doubt, with that said, its rather common for protagonists to be designed to be perfect, heck fire emblem even before literal self inserts weren't free of this, let alone the current age of today.
i still find it hard to believe that she is an absolute mary sue since the story does not bend to her will, and she is only liked by Daein, other characters don't really have a strong or positive opinion on her, and even then zihawk and jill can ditch her and be in the right to ditch her, which doesn't sound like something that would happen to a mary sue (since anyone that opposes or disagrees with them is imminently in the wrong), not to mention that she vanishes for the most part during the last section of the game since yune takes over, i just find it hard to call someone perfect if they don't exist for the last section of the game (technically half if we also count part 2)
overall i feel like she is a middle ground sue, she has some common traits, but her flaws and how the narrative treats her prevents for from becoming a full sue, my hot take on the sue compairisons is like.
Corrin>>>>>>>>Kris>Robin=Byleth>>>Ike>Micaiah=Ephraim. with the other lords not really qualifying to be called a sue, or i'm unsure of where i'd place them (Echos Alm, GD Claude)
Yeah, trying to create a main character without any Mary Sue-like Trait it's a pitfall itself; because they need to have a reason to be the main character (for in-universe and/or meta-narrative reasons).
Por lo que entiendo de mi travesía durante el juego, Micaiah no tiene el poder el de ver el futuro. Yune era quien le advertía del peligro y le daba esas "predicciones". La otra parte de su poder para ver el futuro fue simplemente su instinto y su ascendencia Heron. Ella a veces "siente las cosas" al igual que Reyson y los demás (la gran diferencia es que ellos saben que es lo que siente y porque, Micaiah no tiene idea de porque).
Ella decidió hacer caso a las decisiones de Pelleas porque sintió su buen corazón y buenas intenciones, por lo tanto, asumió que tenia una buena razón para comportarse así. Y dado que hasta ese momento todos sus "presentimientos" habían sido acertados, no tenia un motivo evidente para desconfiar de su propia intuición. Y ella continua con la guerra (incluso recurriendo a tacticas que la perturban emocionalmente) no porque "la visión se lo dijo", sino porque considera a Daein su hogar y quiere protegerlo.
Puede que sea precipitado de su parte e incluso estúpido, ¿pero se le puede llamar un mal personaje por eso? Joder, es completamente humano. El estrés y ansiedad de ser, básicamente, el líder moral y espiritual de una nación entera de la noche a la mañana no es algo que muchos puedan soportar antes de quebrarse. Y siendo realistas ella no tenia a nadie que le pudiera decir las cosas directamente a la cara: Pelleas la admira, sothe la ama e idolatra, el resto de la brigada la idolatra y respeta, y el resto de la nación la idolatra fanáticamente. Nadie la cuestiona estrictamente. Ella tiene que decidir absolutamente todo en Daein.
Y sobre no tratar de hacer acerca del racismo de sus soldados hacia los Laguz, pues ¿para que demonios atacaría la moral y realidad de sus tropas cuando más las necesita? Un paso en falso y se convierte en un falso profeta. Sanaki es el ejemplo perfecto de lo influenciable que son las masas, incluso ante su profeta. Después de reconstruir Daein ya tendrá tiempo para hacerlos cambiar de mentalidad; y dado que la paz que lograron duró 1200 años (twelve hundred), creo que lo logró.
Finalmente, si ella pasa de ser una gran estratega a una persona "ingenua" eso es completamente normal. Un genio en un campo de conocimiento no tiene porque destacar en todos. Sobre todo cuando es algo relacionado a valores, ética y moralidad. Ella simplemente apela a la bondad y bien de las personas antes de dar por sentado que son malos, despiadados o egoístas.
No digo que sea el mejor personaje de toda la historia, pero de ninguna manera es un mal personaje, un personaje vacío o una Mary sue. Ella es un buen personaje, y para mi, me resulta triste que no se aprecie mucho a personajes así. Parece que la gente solo espera arquetipos; o espera que los personajes sean alguna suerte de individuos perfectos, sin fallas graves. Pero la realidad es que los seres humanos fluctuamos entre la decencia y la mediocridad (entendida como negatividad humana). 1 en cada 1,000 puede tener las condiciones sociales, morales y éticas para tratar de elevarse al nivel de Ike o casi cualquier otro Lord en la franquicia, ellos son excepciones de grandeza, Micaiah aspira a ser una excepción de bondad, pero solo aspira a serlo.
Considering that nowadays, we have so many Mary Sue characters along the lines of Ray from the Star Wars sequel Trilogy, Captain Marvel in the MCU, Mulan in the 2020 remake, and MANY more, Micaiah doesn't fall under the traditional Mary Sue trope. She has qualities of the trope, but she's not the same as the others.
Easily the most disappointing one I've watched because I didn't learn anything new from this one.
Here is my critique of this spotlight.
The length: Considering that Micaiah is a lord and the two other lords (Roy and Ike[1,2]) have a far greater length in their spotlights, it is quite clear that you didn't bother to read or at the very least elaborate on the script which will become more apparent later on in the critique. Even a side character like L''Arachel got 29 mins of spotlight so I feel Micaiah was shafted especially since the gap between this spotlight and the previous spotlight is almost six months. In comparison, the BK spotlight is twice as longer yet the gap between the BK spotlight and the Rutger spotlight is a couple of weeks.
Background Info: You didn't cover why exactly Micaiah is so loyal to Daein (3:00-3:30). It was answered in a base conversation, a medium of dialogue that you clearly overlooked despite IMO being inherently superior to supports. Yet despite base conversations adding much to characters, you overlook them in your spotlights despite analyzing supports. Why the double standards?
While her exact age is unknown (0:50), you could have given an approximation of roughly 23 years or a bit greater due to the fact she doesn't remember her time in Begnion so it stands to reason she wasn't very old at the time of the Serenes massacre which took place 23 years prior to the events of RD.
Part 1
You also made a sequential error by saying she eventually got a whole rebel army but then talk about how she meets with Pelleas later on (3:35-3:50). It'd be better if the two points were inverted because she gets to command an army after meeting up with Pelleas, not before. I think it was worth mentioning that the Daein army had presumably won the war and that there was a ceasefire when Micaiah wondered off on her own. Also you should mention she was stressed out as it would add context as to why she foolishly decided to wander off in the forest (3:50-4:00). Also you should have added how her helping out Laura got her captured as it was a character defining moment which shows us how reckless Micaiah is. You also failed to talk about Micaiah's relationship with Izuka and Pelleas which could have given us a further insight into her character. Bringing up her conversation with Muarim would have been nice because it shows just how bad she felt when her identity was exposed.
Part 3
This part of your analysis was utterly disappointing. All you said was Micaiah was forced to fight and then Ashera awakened. Way to drop the ball with this one. Anyhow, Pelleas hasn't been king for years so he couldn't have signed the blood contract many years ago (4:30-4:35). So even though you gloss over this part, you still make errors. First off, initially Micaiah didn't even know about the blood contract and chose to fight for Daein because Pelleas was adamant on it and she was loyal to him. Furthermore, she feared that if she abandoned her duties, Daein's army would fall apart resulting in them losing the war which would have dire consequences like she experienced after the Mad King's War.
You should have brought up how powerless Micaiah feels about losing her powers as it'd be something you could have talked about when talking about whether or not she's a mary sue.
You also ended up overlooking her character defining moment in chapter 3-12 where she ends up being rather ruthless which goes to show how far she's willing to go to protect Daein but at the same time not willing to continue if it meant Sothe would die. This shows Micaiah is quite biased and gives favoritism to those closest to her.
You also missed out on how she's willing to kill Pelleas or sacrifice herself to save him on subsequent playthroughs.
Part 4
Despite part 4 being rather uneventful when it comes to characterization for Micaiah, you manage to overlook details here as well. You end up skipping Micaiah's moment when she confronts Lekain and finally destroys the plot device allowing Daein to be free once more and instead move on to how Yune blesses the weapons even though this was Yune's doing, not Micaiah's (5:10-5:20). Also, you should skipped chapter 4-3 which actually had a lot going on for Micaiah such as her attempting to befriend Sanaki despite Sanaki holding resentment as well as refusing to go with the BK to the tower.
Personality
Micaiah wanted to respect the sacrifice of Alder, prior to that, she was ready to kill Jarod. Also, she wanted the government of Begnion to be the judge instead of getting revenge upon him (6:35:645). While Micaiah has tons of wisdom, the example you give in the video is a moral argument, not exactly using her wisdom (6:45-6:50).
While Micaiah indeed has a sassy side to her, you could have expanded upon her statement to show that she harbours resentment towards Ike in part one and talk about how her views evolve throughout the course of the game (7:25-7:30) considering you never addressed this anywhere in the video.
Remember those horrible videos from the FE wiki where the script of the video and the animation show completely different things that you yourself criticized (3:20-3:25)? So then why do you do the same thing in this character spotlight (7:50-8:00)? Micaiah never got a vision showing her she has to burn the Apostle's Army, she concocted this strategy of her own accord so why do you say there are times in the story where she's following her visions while showing a video where she is clearly not doing so? Then you end up showing the scene where Pelleas dies even though this also had nothing to do with Micaiah's vision guiding her decisions (8:05-8:15). So is your video/script quality on par with those FE wiki videos?
Where did you get this definition of a mary sue (8:30-8:45))? Also, for the sake of comparison, why not use this same checklist on other FE lords? You can't just use some checklist to establish a claim without relative comparisons because terms such as mary sue are subjective and relative. I don't think you should have even brought up whether she is a mary sue or not as it doesn't really talk about her character and instead superficial character traits. Being physically weak did get her into trouble as she got captured pretty easily and her heron brand meant she was easily hindered by the chaos of war on three different occasions, in two of which she even collapsed and in one was even unconscious so while I agree being weak isn't a character flaw in and of itself but it does have a narrative impact in Micaiah's case (9:30-10:00). Being too selfless and naive is obviously a character flaw. Just because being selfless and kind is a good thing, it doesn't mean it can sometimes be bad and in Micaiah's case there are plenty of examples where there were consequences to those flaws such as getting captured by Jarod, getting Nevesa damaged and being unable to sacrifice Sothe ruining the plan. If that's the case, very few, if any FE lords have flaws because their flaws can be spun into positive traits such as Ike being mad at Sanaki being spun into him having a strong sense of justice.
Micaiah may be loved by the citizens of Daein but her popularity doesn't extend past that. Crimea, for example, started a rebellion because of Micaiah helping Daein gain independence so these guys clearly don't like her.
Her enemies, who are more sympathetic than herself, think she's deluded and the people who support her as fanatical so you can't use this "loved by all" as a compelling argument to show she's a mary sue. This argument would probably apply more strongly to all four avatars, Alm, Ike, Roy, Seliph and Marth before it applies to Micaiah.
BK doesn't argue with Sothe about protecting Micaiah, it was just Sothe's doing (10:47-10:53).
You claim most of the game's villains love Micaiah which is false (10:55-11:00). Only BK and Sephiran "love" her but she's more of a pawn for them anyway. Plus, they have reasons to love her due to being Sanaki's sister as well as a fellow branded like Zelgius.
Whether or not Micaiah struggles because of others doesn't change the fact she struggles throughout the course of the game (11:00-11:15). Ike's struggle being a personal one doesn't mean he has a harder struggle than Micaiah (11:15-11:30). BK literally lets Ike grow stronger instead of killing him which reduces the dramatic tension which also makes Ike's struggle less compelling as a result. On the other hand, Jarod does his best to finish Micaiah off and ends up being a more threatening villain as a result. Not to mention Micaiah has made Daein's plight her own so the struggles of Daein are her own.
Review
Do you use a RNG when deciding the rating? Review scores are inherently subjective but seeing characters who IMO have far less depth than Micaiah (1)(2) getting a much higher score rubs me off the wrong way when that's the reason you used to give her three stars only (18:20-18:50).
Of topic. Who would win canonically. Yune, Sothis or Naga
This is good, i dont know about Sothis as im just finishing Crimson Flower, but Yune needs his counterpart and Naga's power is wanning after millennias, if its Genealogy Naga, maybe Naga wins, barring Sothis from the equation, but i would argue that Sothis is an equal to Naga, sorry for the bad english as it is my second tongue
@Tri Tran mila and duma togheter couldnt even put a fight against Naga when they were exiled
My money is on Sothis. I mean according to heroes she doesnt take anti dragon damage and use her powers in human form.
Also there is divine pulse whenever things go south
@@irtijaadib42069 thats a nice response, sadly we can quantify if Sothis is indeed more powerful than Naga or Yune, as the gam just came out and we would need to finish and analize it to really calculate the stakes, we could also put Milas Turnwheel on there but unlike Sothis Power, Mila just does Premonitions to help Alm (the problem is that they explain it so vaguely and badly that its no wonder people think its time reversal
Come in for the first 3H spoiler-free vid in a while
Nothing but "Claude dies" in the comments
thanks comment section
Poor Micaiah; she was my MVP the first time I played the game, and always end up in podium
Don’t let this distract you from the fact that mangs
just killed Claude
Sorry if I spoiled someone before 😕
Micaiah: If that's what it takes to be just, then I want nothing to do with justice. I'd rather be hated and feared like Mad King Ashnard. I'd rather the dark god take my soul. I'm going to save my people, Sothe. If the rest of the world paints me as a beast to be reviled and hated, so be it.
Definitely not Mary Sue thinking.
One of the most defining traits of a Mary Sue is the fact that rules of the break to accommodate them. This does not even come close to happening to Micaiah as normally Mary Sues happen to the story, and the story is what happens to Micaiah.
Having traits of a Mary Sue does not make one a Mary Sue
She may or may not be a Mary Sue, idrc she’s cute and I still summon for her every time she gets an alt in Feh
Snygg spotlight som alltid Mangs! Har sett varenda en utav dom från Tellius-serien! Som det Tellius-fan som jag är hade jag gärna sett dig göra en video om Jill eller Mia till nästa gång. Men oavsett vad så är din kanal väldigt underhållande! Och jag hoppas att du fortsätter göra under videos en lång tid framöver!
So Miciah is is just diet coke Lysithia combat wise.
Also cover Ricken
Except lys got warp and can one shot
I'd say diet Mercedes is more accurate.
@@josephpanno6816 Makes sense
@@deuntre4 and can tank with nosferatu if u give here some promotion bonuses from the more tanky classes, atleast my experience with here (2. playtrought Golden deer hard)
I am genuinely intrested in a Ricken spotlight now
Honestly I don't see Micciah as a Mary sue, she's special and has the prettiness but while being a destined one is what causes people to flock to her I wouldn't say that she's supposed to be especially pretty in universe, her beauty isn't commented on. Her being pretty to us doesn't work because every girl in Fire emblem with a few exceptions is drawn to look pretty, so unless her being the most beautiful girl ever is a part of her character you can't check that off.
Loved by all is a bit weird to define, she gets a lot of followers and is called "the embodiment of Daen's liberation" but everyone who says that brings up her special powers as the reason, she seems to be treated as a figurehead, a symbol for people to rally around more than a leader, and honestly she seems to just go along with it because she's a nice person. I think that in universe she's easy to put on a pedestal because she's noteworthy, so I'd say that it's not a problem.
Other traits of her being a Mary sue, likely have other things I can do to justify them.
honestly if the game had supports (or at least if I were making supports for Radiant dawn) I'd have bet that her being easy to rally behind would have used that as a major point for her, maybe have a couple of supports where she remembers you she inspired a few farmers revolts because she didn't like their treatment of a certain worker and this is treated as a thing that just happens to her, people rally behind her and she just goes along with it... It'd at least make her more human as being unintentionally charismatic could just be her latent mystic apostle powers getting people to follow her... Just my thought
Yeah, it's like how a lot of people used (and even sometimes still do) to say that Jeanne D'Arc was that light of hope for the french people to finally end the eternal state of deadlock and random conflicts with England.
@@troykv96 Yep, and honestly a lot of lords in the series end up being seen as "lights of liberation" it's just that Micciah becoming that for Daen is a first act story instead of a third act plot point
@@mangamanzx Micaiah's story was probably a bit rushed, it would have liked more extra spotlight.
@@troykv96 Very much so
3 out of 5. Pretty generous of you. I would have give her a 3 for utilities, compared to other lords who get crap by the fanbase and some pros, but Machiah like many who I think are underrated units like Rebecca in Blazing Sword, sure Rebecca not as good as Louise or Will, but is a nice solid bow unit for me, and yes I will 90% of the time I play FE7 I will use Rebecca so FE pros and fans come at me.
a couple notes to make about Micaiah's brand: 1) she always wears gloves, thus covering her brand. 2) she hasn't been in the public light until the events of Radiant Dawn, and she's incredibly hesitant to step into the public light.
I adore micaiah
Very nice. It's rare to see a well-thought analysis about Micaiah.
I've got really sick over the years reading comments about her being a Mary Sue when, well, she really isn't one, especially in a series where lords are born with special tatoos that allow them to wield sacred dragonslaying swords. (Please...)
It became a popular take on her in the US FE community and I've never understood why. I'm glad that people are changing their mind over the years. And while this video is in a "gray" area, it still makes for a great reference for this debate.
Lol your right Laura can only be in one spot the grave / bench
Character spotlight Kelik when?
Bladehero Yo, this would actually be hilarious.
You have to pay 3 silver coins for it.
Mangs sacrificed Claude for Micaiah. I get it now.
What can be said? I like Micaiah. As a unit you go from Thanibombing to Healbotting, while she has the speed of a snail. She's arguably more contentious as a character, and maybe some of her spotlight is stolen by Ike in the same game, but in the end she gets her wish to save Daein.
Blegh. If they ever remake the radiant series, they NEED to improve Micaiah's stats.
To answer the "Mary Sue". She's not traditional (Like Corrin is), but she still can be called that and not be wrong.
What I find interesting is that an artist actually believes that Micaiah is a "morally gray" character and compared her to Edelgard. Edelgard is honestly far from Micaiah. Micaiah is a lot more light than anything else. Edelgard is borderline pitch black in terms of morality.
I always felt that the problem with Micaiah wasn't that she's a "Mary Sue", but that Radiant Dawn has so many characters, and so much plot going on, that she gets lost in the shuffle and doesn't have as much time to show herself as a character (Especially after the first chapter). I mean heck, she gets sidelined for Yune quite a few times towards the end.
She's not that great of a unit, but she remains one of my favorite Lord units in the series, and I Wish that she had gottentime to... Shine (I'll see myself out).
No wonder they made her an emblem. Her character defnetly runs smoothly with Engage's story.
Was waiting for a new one of these spotlights. Watched a playthrough of her game recently so it's interesting to learn more about her.
*IS IT THE DAWN BRIGADE?*
No, it’s just a bird...
Micaiah's name isnt mary so she's not a mary sue
I have theory that kind of explains why Micaiah spares Jarod that doesnt just involve she is naive and spares a bad guy. As we can see she relies in her powers of foresight during pt1, but is weakened because of overworking herself. In the chapter she faces Jarod we can argue that her power is weakened since she goes out to rest. Unable to use her power to foresee what would happen if she spared him, she thought that letting him go wouldnt cause problems. Some may say that she is dumb for forgiving a general who kills townsfolk, but for her this the first time meeting him, she had no knowledge of his past actions.
Yeah; and isn't like Micaiah likes senseless violence.
She avoided killing him because his subordinate already died; this should already make him lose a ton of time dealing with the burial and thinking about what happened before the arrival of Sanaki's people, and the eventual arrest of Jarod and their men.
Of course Micaiah only really noticed Jarod's future after he was already gone, and it was very vague. Yune can't show her everything, and less so when Micaiah is tired.
"comment on whether or not micaiah is a mary sue" Mangs really knows how to up his number of comments.
You know, they could have gotten away with giving Micaiah tons of hp. She does have a goddess inside of her, and she is part laguz. They could have just said that those two things combined gave her an enormous life force.
You can't try and make us forget about what you did to Claude so easily...
Also when is our Hugh spotlight (or a Claude spotlight so you atone for your sins)
I was expecting you to be too busy to make one of these with three houses. So I'm pleasantly surprised to see this
My editor Cyan actually did the editing for this one.
@@Mangs1337 well that's good to know
YEESSSS BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR YEARS
Can the next Character Spotlight please be Hingree from Fire Emblem: Three Houses?
There's the CYL3 Women's winner for ya! And seeing this after Sir Knight himself from months ago. That's... nice, I guess.
I've seen not one person who despises Micaiah. She's not a tearing character.
Yessssssssssssssssssssss thank you mangs.
I had the same reaction.
Micaiah, Ike, and Elincia have some of the best themes out of all the lords. Prove to me another lord has a better theme.
You don't really explain how they have some of the best themes, you just stated it. I kind of agree, but let's just be fair here.
Just a correction, Micaiah did not form the Dawn brigade, Nolan did.
Good video though.
Micaiah founded the Dawn Brigade and appointed Nolan as leader.
My biggest thing with her is that you could easily she is a Mary Sue and isn't. She is because for the majority of the game she has all these abilities no one else does I.E. (Stefan and Soren, who are also Branded, though differently from her in terms of race, Soren's dragon blood is easily the most powerful for raw magic talent inherent. This means she has powers even he does not but he has way more training and practice.) that allow her to see the future and predict what works and doesn't, help avoid enemies, and even almost bullshit a victory out of hopeless instances. However I can also say she isn't because she still makes several mistakes, her biggest is not telling anyone about anything behind why she scraps with the Daein army and even quotes racist motives of her soldiers to help their morale for the time being that nearly get her killed just out of loyalty to an inept leader and stupid excuse for a king who relies on her to ANYTHING for him that is resolved in any way resembling positive.
I can understand the arguments for and against Micaiah. Personally, I have a soft spot for her, and while that's largely due to her starring in my first ever Fire Emblem game, I just like her as a character and what she brings to the experience. None of her cons outweigh the pros, much like Radiant Dawn itself, and she's a unique lead compared to others in the franchise.
I'd also like to stress that just because she makes dumb decisions, doesn't make her a bad character from a writing standpoint. So long as a character's actions are consistent with who they are and how they'd realistically react to a situation, a bad decision (or even immoral actions) can still be a net positive for their character. Even if they elicit a negative reaction, that could still be the author's intent, and in service to the story they're a part of. For the most part, I'd say Micaiah fits this description quite well. From a writing standpoint, she's not flawless, and neither is the story she's in, but both are overall solid.
I'm not blind to her flaws, but I do have some serious nostalgia for the character. I love the game she's in, I empathised with the plight of her and the people of Daein, and I welcomed the challenge that came from her being weak. The Dawn Brigade are fighting a losing battle and overcoming insane odds, and Intelligence Systems did a good job of raising the stakes through gameplay.
After doing two videos on Louis, I think a spotlight on Pent would be a fitting edition. Plus, he's a god among men.
Sothe is related to Sothis, change my mind.
Mog of War they even both have green hair
I'm the kind of person who play unit because of their design instead of their stats ... and that's why i alway give her all the boost items in the game
I don't think there was anything more to be said. A perfect review with as little bias as possible. Good job Micaiah!
As for a character I'd like to see, volke. The Tellious games are my favorite of the series, (My first as well) and Volke was such an interesting character within. The edgelord extortioner is well deserving his own episode.
Her Wisdom and foresight is shared by Yune and besides that she is not wise.
Edit: I feel like Yune was the one that was drawing people towards Micaiah because the characters were actually questioning that the people of daein were worshipping her.
I like using Resolve and Wrath on her,it's easy to get in the range of them thanks to sacrifice
My preference is Wrath and Gamble, with a blessed Purge tome. Sacrifice until at Wrath percent, then get sniping with Gamble. Leaves you with a 3-10 range, 100% critical rating, ~85% hit rating death machine. Who needs the Speed stat when you've got CRITS!?
Edward. He has both. So does Zihark. And Stefan. And Nephenee. And... I'm just gonna stop.
@@christianrose9166 Lol, that's why I used all the Trueblades in the Tower one play through. All four of them--Edward, Zihark, Mia, and Stefan.
Totally NOT forgetting a pretty bad unit in here.
@@neog8029 Being totally honest, Mia isn't much better than Lucia. She has slightly better Strength and Vantage as an innate skill, but in the final battle against Ashera Parity is more useful, and Lucia has higher Speed and Luck than Mia, making her slightly more survivable via dodge-tanking. It's unfortunate that the male Trueblades are just straight-up better than the females, with Edward and Zihark matching Ike's Strength growth when all three are tier 3.
@@christianrose9166 Lucia has no availability and Edward doesn't do much at base(You also get Zihark,who doesn't need EXP in part 1)
@@gabrielsobral6682 Fair enough. I generally prefer to use Edward over Zihark, if only for nostalgia. I don't know why, but on my very first playthrough of Radiant Dawn Edward turned into a monster. I'm not joking when I say that he actually killed Ashera in one round, and when she revived at half HP and attacked him, he killed her again. It was quite the spectacle. Ever since, he has been one character that I always bring into the tower, and it might just be because I favor him but he generally turns into an absolute beast in the majority of my playthroughs.