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Fire Emblem and the value of a single life
- Pelleas, Radiant Dawn 3-13
I was going to rant about how FE13 introduces the whole not-a-single-life-lost crap that JRPGs are so fond of, but thinking about it, that's not true.
The mindset that war should be a cool calculation, as the protagonists' view, died with August in Jugdral. Elibe skirts the subject. But then Magvel comes back with its main plot, one in which Eirika's hope to save her cherished friend very nearly risks the fate of the world.
But Magvel, while embracing that gentle idealism as something that makes its protagonist lovable, paints the Right Thing To Do as overcoming these inhibitions.
Eirika: Shut your mouth. I won’t allow you to desecrate Lyon’s body any further. You will not return to this world. I will stop you myself if I must.
Evil Lyon: Ah, is that so? And do you honestly think yourself capable, wench? You once prayed for this fool’s salvation. Can you bring yourself to kill him?
Eirika: I can and I will. I made a promise to Lyon, and I intend to honor it.
And in the end, it leaves us with the thought that these are things we have to accept and come to be at peace with: "No matter how it hurts, or rather because it hurts, we must learn to accept sorrow. We must take it into our hearts and tame our grief."
Tellius, likewise, paints this softness as sweet, sincere, and lovable, but unlike Magvel it offers no opinion on whether it should be overcome. When Tibarn weighs Sothe against the fate of Daein, Micaiah is unable to decide.
Micaiah: I can't! I thought I made up my mind... I thought I'd do anything for Daein! But then I saw Sothe taken from me, and I saw him fall... I was powerless to do anything! I'd taken so many lives as a general, and yet, when I thought of Sothe dead...
Pelleas: Even if it hadn't been Sothe in front of you, you would have reacted the same way. That's the kind of person you are.
Tellius never quite offers a solid opinion on the morality of prizing the individual over the masses. If you choose to spare Pelleas, Micaiah provides a practical (if convenient) reason for why we shouldn't kill him: "But what if your information is incorrect, Your Majesty? I couldn't live with myself if I'd let you give up your life in vain. There MUST be another way! We'll look for it together. There is... I... I can see..." As for its main protagonist, Ike says a great deal about not ignoring the suffering before him, but it was never quite clear that aiding the individual would cost the masses. Tellius raises the question, nods a little at the complexities of how we might feel about it (including Pelleas's gorgeous quote at the top of this post), values the colder opinions of Cynical Tactician Soren, and then shrugs and refuses to provide an answer.
Then enter the world of Awakening, where the entire last arc is dedicated to the idea that Robin's life should be prized over the fate of the world. Lucina, practical girl, attempts to kill Robin because she knows Robin will try to kill Chrom -- and Chrom intervenes, because something something destiny can be changed we're just so clever. Naga mentions that we've got a once-in-forever opportunity to defeat Grima forever -- and Chrom vetoes the idea, because nothing could possibly be worth a sacrifice!
What makes the morality of Awakening particularly one-sided is that anyone who believes elsewise is either contrary or an antagonist, and their beliefs are mowed down under a barrage of feelgood sentiment. From Robin/Walhart A, after Walhart suggests that he could conquer the world and then in the future all would be peaceful:
Robin: I have considered your arguments carefully, and they have a compelling logic. Nevertheless, I cannot agree. The world you paint leaves no room for human compassion or feeling. People are merely values arrayed on a playing field.
Walhart: You speak of my willingness to sacrifice the few for the greater good. I concede my approach is ruthless and calculating. But so is the battlefield.
Robin: We cannot allow ourselves the luxury of denying our own humanity! Yes, it would be easy to treat death like so many numbers on a balance... But the loss of even one life is a terrible tragedy--an enormity beyond reckoning. We are meant to save people, and that is what we must do. We fight alongside friends. Stout allies. Stalwart comrades. A world without such friendship is no world I want, no matter how safe it may be. ... I am sorry. But on this matter, I will not change my mind.
Walhart then calls this a good speech and says he's swayed by the strength of Robin's conviction, by which he apparently means Robin's abilities in rhetoric. No one seems to want to question what a thousand deaths in war might mean if one is already a calamity. And no one ever engages Walhart's argument from a logical standpoint (ie, but if you conquer the whole world what happens after you die? won't there be a shitton of bloodshed all over again? is your plan actually more peaceful in the long run?).
Similarly, Severa and Lucina also start out skeptics, but by the end they're converts. To be fair, they seem to live in a universe where anything is possible without loss of individuals1, so maybe they're right to follow this philosophy. By the grace of the writing gods, it certainly seems to work.
(1 Obviously enemy soldiers aren't actually individuals. I think it's pretty creepy that Awakening has supports that explicitly humanize the enemy [eg Henry/Ricken B] and then fails to bat an eyelash at the enormous losses of life that go on in the Plegian and Valmese campaigns.)
Awakening's far from the first to present sentimentality as a trait of heroes, but it is the first to endorse it. And when it fails to quite carry through on its valuation of life, when unlike ToS its morality runs counter to the well-being of future generations, I think it cannot help but feel as macabre as Henry's laughter.
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Honestly, I LOVED Walhart's B support with Male!Robin. It seemed as if the game was finally telling him "hey, look at all those lives you slaughtered without a second thought!" Then to see Walhart change his opinion in the next support so easily...that hurt a little.
"I think it's pretty creepy that Awakening has supports that explicitly humanize the enemy [eg Henry/Ricken B] and then fails to bat an eyelash at the enormous losses of life that go on in the Plegian and Valmese campaigns."
This, tenfold. The lack of compassion for society itself and the blatant disregard of so many human lives (Risen and human soldiers don't seem too different in their eyes, from what the game has shown me)have turned me to writing background 'fic for Gangrel, who I find more compelling and more human than Chrom despite the horrors he visits upon his nation and the others around it.
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I was expecting good things from Walhart's supports before because it looked like they edge actually going to have an interesting discussion. Then Robin barfed rainbows and all was forgotten.
Gangrel does seem to have potential simply because the game holds him accountable. :P