Fire Emblem and the Westermarck Effect

[mark_asphodel]

Fire Emblem: it's got incest.  I don't know about you, but I'd heard about that one long before playing a single game.

I'm not going to wonder why this is so prominently featured, to the point where FE4 was allegedly toned down prior to release yet still contains it as a plot point.  But, let's explore it a bit, and not in the kink meme way.

Humans

Comments

[thenicochan]

In the case of Sothe/Micaiah, though I enjoy the pairing myself, another somewhat squicky idea is how much older than him she is. The story shows that she took care of Pre!Path of Radiance Sothe...and she looked the exact same as she does now.

There's tons of weird incest subtext vibes in the series, in general. cough cough Michalis/Minerva cough cough

[mark_asphodel]

The story shows that she took care of Pre!Path of Radiance Sothe...and she looked the exact same as she does now.

Yeah. It's multi-faceted weird.

cough cough Michalis/Minerva cough cough

And that one's not even subtle. Not remotely subtle. Add Maria to the mix and it's aaaaaaall sketched out.

[crimsonmorgan]

Personally, I'm torn about Sothe and Micaiah. On the one hand, he seemed to be old enough when they met that the Westermark Effect might not have applied anymore (on the flashback pic he looks over 6-7, imo). And yet sometimes they have an almost Mom/Son dynamic. Very difficult.

You know, I've never seen the twincest subtext with Eirika and Ephraim. And Pricilla seems much more... possessive and desperate than in love. (I mean, she lost her brother, suddenly found him again, he wants to run off again and she desperately tries to bind him to her so she'll not be alone again.)