The Tellius hate is making me kind of sad
... especially since they're my favorite games in the series and all.
I'm not entirely sure how I should go about writing this, but... um. I think I'll just address the most common issues people seem to have with FE9/10.
1. The characters are too "silly"
I'd say that many of the Tellius characters are pretty colorful (maybe even a bit... comic book-ish), yes, which could obviously be seen as a bad thing, but - personally, I've always liked that. I love characters with colorful personalities. I especially love characters with an actual sense of humor. Perhaps some people prefer the more subdued personas found in the older FEs (just to clarify, it obviously doesn't apply to all of them, but probably more than in FE6-10), but I don't. It's really personal preference, tbh. I just wanted to point out that I actually like this and think it's a strong point of the Tellius games.
Maybe I just don't like overly serious storytelling? It doesn't feel realistic to me. People in real life are silly. I've never understood why they generally aren't in fiction. Given the situation the FE characters are in, you'd probably expect there to be less silliness, but I highly doubt such moments would completely disappear. Imo, they would remain fairly common. Uh, idk, this is kind of an unrelated tangent, isn't it. Yes it is. But my point is basically this: it's okay if some of the characters are goofy. It might even be a good thing. And if you dislike that, well... there are most likely a lot of other characters you might like? It feels senseless to hate the games because you dislike some of the characters (it does make sense if you dislike the vast majority of them, of course - but I can't really tell which one it is).
Edit: I think the reason for this might be that the earlier games in the series don't have supports or base conversations, making them more focused on the main storyline. The main characters tend to be less silly than the side characters, for obvious reasons. The not-so-important characters, well... there's, say, Feena from FE3/FE12 or Sylvia or even Alec from FE4 - they all have fairly colorful, cheery personalities, and it wouldn't be entirely out-of-line to compare them to someone like Mist, but since they're not as prevalent as the main characters are, less people pay attention to this kind of thing. I think. (I'm terrible at getting my point across.)
2. The characters rely too much on their personality quirks, etc.
Regarding characters overrelying on personality quirks... I disagree. Might be true for a select few (such as, say, Ilyana, but that's not to say that she doesn't have a personality besides "om nom nom" - she does!), but in general? Nah. This little rant was obviously inspired by emblanon, and I'm not posting there because I'm a little afraid of going completely off-topic or inciting drama, so instead I'll rant to myself on my own lj. Mia? The main point of her character isn't just her searching for her ~destined rival~. She does show a rather obvious personality (mostly a classic "Genki Girl" - TV Tropes terminology is quite useful), and I found her supports with Largo rather interesting as well as she shows a bit of depth in them, imo. The stuff about her rival? It comes up in her supports with Rhys in FE9, and her death quote in FE10, and... that's basically it?
As for Kieran... I'm not sure I'd call him a "gag character". He's involved in a lot of jokes, and he's very hotblooded, but that's who he is. And he obviously doesn't lack a personality. I guess I just don't understand why someone would consider him a throwaway character? Is it because he's involved in a lot of jokes? That wouldn't make any sense - it'd be like calling Serra a gag character. I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. Maybe this one is more related to the first point.
3. Laguz
... oh dear. This one is a bit hard to address. First of all, some people feel bugged by the character designs, as they feel they're too fanservice-y. Fair enough, but I would hardly say the rest of the series doesn't have any fanservice (I mean, look at all the girls in miniskirts, or the clothes most pegasus knights wear). In comparison to that, a few animal features don't really bug me. Cat ears and a tail? Wings? Eh. Not that bad at all. (And also, they're not furries. Just. No.)
A lot of people feel tired of the "racism"-theme in RPGs, which is also a valid complaint. But I actually kind of liked the way PoR handled it; while clearly conveying a "racism is bad!"-message, it also didn't have the characters constantly make long speeches about it, unlike certain other games (hello, Tales of Symphonia [but that's ok, I love ToS anyway]), and several of your own party members were racists themselves, usually for perfectly logical reasons. It's obviously important to the plot, but it doesn't really beat you over the head with it as badly as it could have done. I felt the lore (not sure what else I should call it, really) of Tellius was handled pretty well, too, so the "beastpeople" didn't feel out-of-place at all.
And as for the laguz characters themselves? A lot of them are quite interesting, and many are also subversions of the typical clichés. The catgirl is angry, racist, and very patriotic; the catboy (actually the existence of a catboy is almost a subversion in and of itself) is rather snarky and not-so-serious; the girly-and-angelic-looking prettyboy actually acts very manly; the seemingly serene and graceful young woman is childish and girlish - and so on. It's unexpected, and I like that a lot!
... I'm not sure if I actually came to any conclusions here. At least I tried? orz (Also, I really don't want to offend anyone - so if someone who isn't me ever reads this and feels offended, I'm sorry. That's wasn't my intention.)
I'm not entirely sure how I should go about writing this, but... um. I think I'll just address the most common issues people seem to have with FE9/10.
1. The characters are too "silly"
I'd say that many of the Tellius characters are pretty colorful (maybe even a bit... comic book-ish), yes, which could obviously be seen as a bad thing, but - personally, I've always liked that. I love characters with colorful personalities. I especially love characters with an actual sense of humor. Perhaps some people prefer the more subdued personas found in the older FEs (just to clarify, it obviously doesn't apply to all of them, but probably more than in FE6-10), but I don't. It's really personal preference, tbh. I just wanted to point out that I actually like this and think it's a strong point of the Tellius games.
Maybe I just don't like overly serious storytelling? It doesn't feel realistic to me. People in real life are silly. I've never understood why they generally aren't in fiction. Given the situation the FE characters are in, you'd probably expect there to be less silliness, but I highly doubt such moments would completely disappear. Imo, they would remain fairly common. Uh, idk, this is kind of an unrelated tangent, isn't it. Yes it is. But my point is basically this: it's okay if some of the characters are goofy. It might even be a good thing. And if you dislike that, well... there are most likely a lot of other characters you might like? It feels senseless to hate the games because you dislike some of the characters (it does make sense if you dislike the vast majority of them, of course - but I can't really tell which one it is).
Edit: I think the reason for this might be that the earlier games in the series don't have supports or base conversations, making them more focused on the main storyline. The main characters tend to be less silly than the side characters, for obvious reasons. The not-so-important characters, well... there's, say, Feena from FE3/FE12 or Sylvia or even Alec from FE4 - they all have fairly colorful, cheery personalities, and it wouldn't be entirely out-of-line to compare them to someone like Mist, but since they're not as prevalent as the main characters are, less people pay attention to this kind of thing. I think. (I'm terrible at getting my point across.)
2. The characters rely too much on their personality quirks, etc.
Regarding characters overrelying on personality quirks... I disagree. Might be true for a select few (such as, say, Ilyana, but that's not to say that she doesn't have a personality besides "om nom nom" - she does!), but in general? Nah. This little rant was obviously inspired by emblanon, and I'm not posting there because I'm a little afraid of going completely off-topic or inciting drama, so instead I'll rant to myself on my own lj. Mia? The main point of her character isn't just her searching for her ~destined rival~. She does show a rather obvious personality (mostly a classic "Genki Girl" - TV Tropes terminology is quite useful), and I found her supports with Largo rather interesting as well as she shows a bit of depth in them, imo. The stuff about her rival? It comes up in her supports with Rhys in FE9, and her death quote in FE10, and... that's basically it?
As for Kieran... I'm not sure I'd call him a "gag character". He's involved in a lot of jokes, and he's very hotblooded, but that's who he is. And he obviously doesn't lack a personality. I guess I just don't understand why someone would consider him a throwaway character? Is it because he's involved in a lot of jokes? That wouldn't make any sense - it'd be like calling Serra a gag character. I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. Maybe this one is more related to the first point.
3. Laguz
... oh dear. This one is a bit hard to address. First of all, some people feel bugged by the character designs, as they feel they're too fanservice-y. Fair enough, but I would hardly say the rest of the series doesn't have any fanservice (I mean, look at all the girls in miniskirts, or the clothes most pegasus knights wear). In comparison to that, a few animal features don't really bug me. Cat ears and a tail? Wings? Eh. Not that bad at all. (And also, they're not furries. Just. No.)
A lot of people feel tired of the "racism"-theme in RPGs, which is also a valid complaint. But I actually kind of liked the way PoR handled it; while clearly conveying a "racism is bad!"-message, it also didn't have the characters constantly make long speeches about it, unlike certain other games (hello, Tales of Symphonia [but that's ok, I love ToS anyway]), and several of your own party members were racists themselves, usually for perfectly logical reasons. It's obviously important to the plot, but it doesn't really beat you over the head with it as badly as it could have done. I felt the lore (not sure what else I should call it, really) of Tellius was handled pretty well, too, so the "beastpeople" didn't feel out-of-place at all.
And as for the laguz characters themselves? A lot of them are quite interesting, and many are also subversions of the typical clichés. The catgirl is angry, racist, and very patriotic; the catboy (actually the existence of a catboy is almost a subversion in and of itself) is rather snarky and not-so-serious; the girly-and-angelic-looking prettyboy actually acts very manly; the seemingly serene and graceful young woman is childish and girlish - and so on. It's unexpected, and I like that a lot!
... I'm not sure if I actually came to any conclusions here. At least I tried? orz (Also, I really don't want to offend anyone - so if someone who isn't me ever reads this and feels offended, I'm sorry. That's wasn't my intention.)