Multiple Levels of Bad. [Supports that SUCK] Hinoka/Azama Support Review. (Fire Emblem: Fates) 

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I think azama already knew how the system worked so he tried to be as much of an asshole as possible since he already knew he was gonna get married

It'd actually be super funny if azama is only able to have c supports with everyone

Marrying my worst enemy, what a brilliant idea!

I feel like the S-rank support issue stretches so far beyond Azama. There’s literally so many supports In Fates where partner A treats partner B like shit for 3 consecutive supports and then they get married. Having everyone being able to S-rank everyone was one of Fates biggest issues writing-wise.

Tbh, Niles is how you actually make a mean asshole type character. He's an asshole but it's pretty clear he's got more layers underneath that smooth talking one eyed masochist/sadist. I'd like to see them(Niles and Azama) broken down to see how the two are so similar but also so different

So in other words, you could just replace Azama with a fortune cookie with a sad face drawn on it and you'd get roughly the same result

The Saizo-Beruka C support is somehow far more developed than any of Azama's bullying.

5:47 No, Hinoka. That is *not* how you say “You’re fired, you creep. Get out.”

I think Orochi is his best one, honestly. Gives him a taste of his own medicine so it’s mutual. Still sounds like it’s going to need marriage counseling, though.

IF Azama looked shook after the solder died in the A, maybe they could have played off his nihilism to being insecure in his inability too keep people alive. so he masks his pains by just saying that these guys are dead lets move on because he dosn't want them to die on his watch. or something because this was trash.

It's worth noting that FE Warriors only brings up how bad of a retainer he is. Not to mention that Frederick's Support with Hinoka ends with Frederick, an actually competent retainer, promising to teach both Setsuna and Azama how to be proper retainers. I feel kind of bad for Setsuna, but Azama totally had it coming.

Azama is just a poor mans version of Niles...

> "I'm the only one strong enough for you" > Has the lowest attack stat in Heroes...

It's a shame, because Hinoka imo has one of the best visual designs in the entire franchise and a pretty good character when she actually gets to say something. But just like Xander gets ruined by Peri, Hinoka gets ruined by both of her retainers.

Ghast: look... is an S support, we know how it ends. Enex: Hmmm... uh? *Enex looks at Kana(M) crying in a corner*

I feel like Fates just saw that Awakening has characters that start off as tropes and wrote them that way with no consideration about how Awakening develops their character into likable, realistic characters

TBH it really feels like there were different writers for the story and the supports. When we first meet Azama he doesn’t seem so rude as he is in his supports. He just seems like a cynical philosopher

Ok, the S support may suck but it was pretty hilarious. “This has got to be the most arrogant proposal of all time”.

Since Hinoka is unimportant in the plot, at least she should have had better supports

This is a great idea for a series, hope you continue it.

The real reason Hinoka wanted to get married with Azama: They share the same hairstyle.

Hinoka: So why did you save me? Azama: For the lols.

So simply put... Hazama would a be a terrific antagonist

The whole bit on not saving someone would make more logical sense if it was explained that in emergency triage, you need to save who you can, and gotta pick people to die to save the less injured.

As a Hinoka fan this support makes me sad it hurts Hinoka as a character and ruined all possibility of redemption for Azama and making him seem more human

I personally still love Azama. Not because he is a good character. But he is such an asshole it never fails to make me laugh. Same reason I love Makalov as well. Both are shit human beings, but damn I love them. A good laugh can always bring up my mood. Sometimes not every character needs to be a developed masterpiece, a character that gives me a laugh is a nice change of pace imo. As long as they are sparing with those kinds of characters. I do agree with all the points in the video though. I just can't help but laugh reading it, and thats why I enjoy Azama, its just simple as that.

I really like Azama because I find him really funny and I do think he does have some good supports, but I fucking hated his support with Hinoka.

Just gonna post something i found on reddit “This is a response to Ghaststation's recent "Supports That Suck" episode. This episode really struck a chord with me, and I feel like it misses the mark in a lot of ways. The original statement of the video about Azama's problem with everything having to work out in the end and they get married isn't wrong. Honestly, this is a problem with fates and awakening as a whole and I can't really defend this part, as the only character he really has romantic chemistry with is Orochi and maybe Beruka, but something I've always noticed about Azama is his supports are actually very complete even if you stop at the A support, which you probably should in most cases. Lets look at some of the examples Ghast showed in the video itself, starting with Sakura. "Azama literally spends 3 entire conversations to Sakura being an incredibly mean-spirited jerkoff to her, then just apologizes in their S support and they get married." This actually isn't true. He is picking on her, but he's doing it for a reason that it feels like most people don't catch up on, despite it being mentioned pretty clearly in the B support. Sakura: WHY DON'T YOU JUST SHUT UP?! Azama: You...you just snapped that staff in two with your bare hands! he smiles That's what I like to see! Stand up for yourself! Sakura: Whatever. I don't care what you think. I'm out of here, Azama! Azama: Amazing. I just knew she had potential! This moment signifies a lot of growth for Sakura, standing up for herself is something she has most likely never done before. She is a pampered, shy, stuttering princess, and Azama just made her take a leap and tell him off. This is something that doesn't happen with any other support or in any other scene in the game, and is a recurring trend with Azama. He makes people reflect on themselves in his own roundabout, blunt way. Also he apologizes in the A support shortly after, now that he's gotten the bit of growth from her that he was aiming for. Another thing about the video that I thought was odd, is that it uses footage from the Azura and Azama Support. While this support does start off with Azama seeming to be intrusive and mean, you have to remember this is Birthright!Azura we are talking about, the girl with more secrets and worries under her belt than anyone else. It actually made me wonder if he was prying her because he could tell there was a lot she wasn't telling the party, like about Valla, and about the curse, and it comes to a very natural conclusion in the A support where Azama gets the message across that Azura shouldn't be afraid to talk to him if she has worries, though more could have been done here, it isn't bad. Azama actually gets pretty embarrassed when Azura realizes what he's doing too, which is kind of funny and cute. Oboro and Kagero also have decent supports with Azama, Oboro in particular actually turns the tables on him and makes him think of why he is the way he is. It's actually pretty unique compared to his other supports, as for Kagero he leads her in the direction to reflect on the traditions of her profession and betters her because of it. All of these supports together can give you a good idea of what kind of person Azama is. He is absolutely a troll, but he actually does care about the people in his party, and he wants to help them succeed by helping them reflect on themselves and their lives. Also in some cases like Sakura, he takes a direct approach to help them overcome their biggest problem. He isn't doing this just to be a jerk and get off on getting a rise out of people, though in some cases he does seem to enjoy it, there is a deeper meaning here beyond that. Now, as for the support the video is about itself. At face value, I do agree it makes Azama out to be someone who just doesn't care if people die and doesn't want to do this job, but after the other supports it should be clear that you shouldn't be taking this character at face value. The biggest issue this video represents is Azama letting people die because they 'weren't interesting to him', while completely disregarding the line that comes after it. "But I don't think I could have saved them anyway." This is doubled so in the A support, when Hinoka orders Azama to help someone who is dying. He doesn't want to do it, because he knows it is pointless due to how grave the injuries are, but he obliges anyway...and what happens? The soldier dies in a much worse, drawn out state then he would have had Azama done nothing. This is a very morally grey area for a support to go into, and people may think it's a bad support that hurts his character for it. And this is perfectly fine to have this view, but I think the intention is important, he isn't not helping these people because he doesn't want to-he isn't helping them because helping them is beyond his ability. He also specifically states he doesn't care what people think of him, through and through he will do what he thinks is best regardless of opinion on him. That is important, and is something that makes me like him even more. /u/SontaranGaming also made a really good series of comments on the reddit thread for this video. If you have anything to add to this Sontaran, please feel free to do so. TL;DR: Azama's intentions are often misunderstood, he didn't choose to not save those soldiers because he didn't want to, but that doing so was beyond his power, and he genuinely cares about his party, he just has a hard time showing it and is rather socially awkward and grounded. He also absolutely trolls people, but usually it's for a certain intention like making someone reflect on themselves. Thank you for taking the time to read this, I'm not the best at making posts like this but I hope it was readable enough and I got my points across. Let me know what you think or if you have anything to add, and if you see this Ghast keep up the great work. Even if I didn't care for this video in particular your channel is still great and I love the discussions your videos spark. Thanks for all you do!” -ArekuFoxFire

There's only one thing to do. Pair Azama with Peri.

As much as I agree that this support sucks, and that none of his s supports makes sense, I can’t help but love him. Shoot me

Ah Fates version of Shinji Matou from the other Fate series

I agree that if they wanted a deep philosophical support, they should have done it far better. It could have been a better topic regarding mercy and death and suffering. Hard disagree that Hinoka is less competent because her retainers are shit. If anything that proves she's more competent because she can't rely upon them to protect her. She has to be better to protect both herself and her retainers. That qualities as extremely competent.

5:40 there's only place for ONE psycho in my heart, and that is Henry. Go away Azama, you're not even crazy. You're just fucking mean.

I think the thing with Azama was that they wanted him to be a gadfly, they wanted to have his teasing and bullying to have a purpose. In an ideal situation this would mean that when he picks on a character he gets them to acknowledge their own flaws and grow, or just come to a new level of understanding about themselves and what they believe in, however I think this ended up being pretty hit or miss. For Hinoka I think what they were going for is that she is super valiant and hardworking and wants to try and exhaust all options before ever giving up, but Azama is supposed to offer a counterpoint that sometimes you can't control things no matter what you do, and sometimes tragedy just has to be accepted. However for this to work well they needed Azama to show a degree of empathy, when Hinoka is genuinely hurting from a soldier dying have him display at least some degree of understanding towards her, and then you can see a relationship building and Hinoka could grow as a character. She doesn't have to lose her drive but having her learn that she can't control everything and she shouldn't get hung up on everything ( *cough cough* Corrin kidnapping *cough*) would actually make for a satisfying support chain.

9:20 You don't have to apologize for not liking a character, especially if you explain why

I think my problem with Azama and many more supports in Fates (less so in awakening) is that it supplemented quantity over quality There are so many bad to average supports But the good ones are really good when they manage to develop a character and have a heartwarming conversation

I like Azama as a character Probably not as a person But I just find him so damn funny Wouldn't it be better if all of his S supports were just the girls feeling sorry for Azama and marry him out of sheer pity?

I'm glad that I always found azama not worth my time since setsuna's and his first appearance in birthright, I just thought "this guy is a plain jerk that'll just piss me off". I'm glad I followed my gut feeling, that guy angers me a lot and way more now that I've watched this

C: Keep it the same B: Same until Hinoka asks him why he saved her, then he walks away. A: Azama admits he cares about her and promises to be a better person. Hinoka tells him his wisdom is sometimes good. S: Hinoka declares to Azama, and he spits out his "philosophy" until he admits he loves her too and makes fun of her.

Why did he become a healer when his entire philosophy is “if its your time, its your time”. Like isn’t the whole point of being a healer being able to avoid that part of life...

I think that azama only really fits with setsuna. She has no clue that azama is an asshole, so she's the only one that won't suffer from his rudeness. Although, i have to say, azama's assholeness makes for some pretty funny supports. I especially like his supports with hayato and arthur.

Hey, we found a character who's a bigger sociopath than Peri.

Orochi does the same thing, so Azama and Orochi can exist to hate eachother for all eternity. Romantic.

Azama, the Peri of Hoshido.

None of those marriages are going to last long...

Honestly I thought azama had some potential as far as supports, but due to the current support system, the conversations are too short for any kind of relationship to build between certain characters. azama suffers a lot from this. If they either made him at least seem nicer in his A support showing a softer side, or if they made them longer so there can be more development, then he could’ve been a great lovable jerk. Sadly though very few conversations flow well for him due to the sudden jump from troll to lover

It´s quite a pity an amoral, mad and/or dickish character can be quite entertaining. Personally I enjoy Henry quite a bit. Its seems they didn´t handle Azama to well though...

Gawd I married these two cuz they were my leftovers but I didn't really read their supports lmaooo I was just trying to get all the kids and figured Mitama could pull off Hinoka's fire engine red hair and wellll...she did. So mission accomplished sorry Hinoka :,)

The Effie x Azama support I find to be pretty good, at least with how Azama seems to start to care about Effie, not to mention how Azama's bs doesn't really faze Effie

Let's all be real Fates has some bad supports but it also has the best support in any fire emblem game aka Hayato and Rinkah support. The amount of character development in that support is incredible.

I love this support and others like it. It's a perfect example of why "everyone can marry everyone" doesn't work and can actually bring down all the other work they put into developing characters.

Tbh I only married Azama because I love Mitama and I wanted her to have pink hair

I always married him with (F)Corrin so Mitama could Canonically have her pink hair(Not sakura's shade of pink)

Azama Troll That’s his character.

Well Azama is a healer Henry of Fates. I wouldn't be surprised if Azama would become a killing maniac if he can use dark magic.

Can we get a full support science on Azama?

The only support Azama has with a female character that I really like is his support with Effie. It is one of the few supports where Azama doesn't act like a dick head and shows his caring side and it's also one of Effie's only supports where she doesn't mention Elise.

I wonder how a support conversation between him and Peri would look like...

This reminds me of the Farina/Dart support in FE7. It's obvious from the onset that their personalities clash and they are going to hate each other...so in the end, they hate each other. No BS about love or marriage there. (Granted, they still granted support bonuses, but that's forgivable.) Unfortunately, "all compatible characters have an S support" and "S support is always love" mars this and forces characters supremely at odds into blush status for the sake of relationships.

Said it last time and gonna say it again Please review the atrocity that are Nah and Inigo's supports

I knew there was a reason I wanted to forget their support and you made me remember why, thanks

I like the s supports in three houses they don’t get married then and there they just have a romantic moment and get married in the epilogue so what happened since can be left up to interpretation.

I actually like the C to A Supports for Hinoka and Azama. The C Support reveals that Azama is a terrible retainer and Hinoka only keeps him around because of him saving her in the past. The B Support shows that him saving her was for a wa worse reason than she thought, taking away the last reason for hinoka to have him as a retainer. the A Support then has Azama demonstrate his medical knowledge, correctly identifying when a patient is too injured to be saved, thus establishing a new reason for Hinoka to keep him after all the other reasons were demolished by the previous Supports. I agree that the S Support makes no sense, though.

Still my favorite character in BR because I actually remember his personality

Jaffar is another well-written, morally grey character.

Azama is the only character voiced by Matt Mercer I despise.

Don't know why you said "sorry Hinoka fans", because everything you said was true! It does make her look bad to have Azama and Setsuna as retainers just because of the way they are. The same could be said about Xander because of his S support with Peri tbh.

I haven't even played Fates and already it already has two characters I feel like I'd be okay with dieing (Azama and Peri), and I'm the type who never lets units die without resetting

can we talk about how god tier odin/camilla support is next

The physical embodiment of yikes.

I generally dont like letting my units die. Him I'm willing to sacrifice

Hot take: Azama isn't appealing in any way whatsoever.

This is odd to me, I've always considered Azama to be one of the better characters in Fates. I find it strange you didn't touch on his more caring side at all, or what his Hinoka support is actually about. He is saying that those people he didn't save were too far gone, and helping them would have only made them suffer more. And his reasoning for Hinoka (the look on her face) made him realize she wasn't going to give in to death, and interested in seeing what she would do with her life. Like, look at what happens when he follows orders and tries to save someone who is injured in the support? They die anyway, in much more pain than he would have if it had been left alone. You may not agree with this method, but it's how he is. He doesn't want people to suffer. There is also things like the end of the Sakura or Kagero supports where he admits he was only picking on them to help them come out of their shell and stand up for themselves, which I think is pretty cool. His relationship with his daughter is also really funny and great (Mitama best child btw). There's also the Felicia support that is rather simple, but also works out pretty nicely if I recall. Yeah, S supports are mostly bad, but that's just 3DS emblem in a nutshell for the most part. Supports are normally better when you stop at A. I just don't see Azama as that bad. He doesn't just pick on people for no reason usually, and the people he 'let die' were simply too far gone, though I will say it's possible his intentions don't translate well sometimes, but I still always found him interesting. I think him always talking in riddles and his true nature being spread so thin between several different supports makes a lot of people misunderstand what he's actually about....you can't take what he says at face value like you have here in this video. There's just SO MUCH to unpack with Azama, I love him, it's a shame people don't give him a chance because 'lolfates'. Also I must say the amount of blind hate in this comment section is yikes....

He's like Henry...but terrible.

I only marry Azama to anyone to complete my support log and no other reason. I really despise his character

I completely agree with the issue Azama is still my favourite character in the game though

In a better timeline, Hinoka would have had Azama flogged and driven from the army's ranks. This is the same timeline where Xander either had Peri executed or imprisoned for everyone's sake. I wish we got that version of Fates.

Maybe you could also look into those sort of Odd Ball romantic supports. Like showing some that are actually pretty well done but hardly looked at by most players. My personal favorite of these is Jakob and Selena for Fates and Tharja with Kellam from Awakening

I'm guessing Ryoma and Camilla is gonna be an episode soon

Always glad when Ghast puts out a new video.

Ehh, this could have been better. Azama is a dick, but there’s a lot of subtleties in his character supports you’re ignoring for the sake of making a point. It’s not at all implied that he WANTED the soldier to die or was somehow getting off on giving Hinoka mean-spirited life advice - it’s that he’s an experienced enough healer to recognize that his efforts wouldn’t do any good. His energy is limited and there are other patients he’s being tasked to see to, so he doesn’t want to waste his resources on a lost cause. The reason Hinoka misconstrues this as cruelty is because she expects him to sugarcoat reality for her like everyone else does. This is why Azama is good for her, at least in his capacity as a retainer: he doesn't lead her around by the nose just because she's royalty. He flat-out states afterward that he had no interest in giving her false hope but caved because he wishes to protect her innocence, so the fact that you gloss over that - and all the other subtle kindnesses he demonstrates in his supports - shows that you’re not paying a lot of attention. He’s a troll, but there are plenty of times his actions speak louder than his smart mouth. Not to say that some of his supports aren’t straight-up heinous, but he’s got just as many humanizing supports to make up for them. I wish you would reach a little deeper for your analysis on him. He really is fascinating.

I feel like there was some missed potential here. A nihilistic doctor who refuses to save all lives could be interesting idea, if the reasons of why would be even a bit thought out: Maybe he doesn't do that because he wants to spare his strength and supply for possible more important event. Or the idea that he doesn't save other soldiers because supply is limited, they have small chance to recovery and it would be smarter to use medicine to soldiers he is more sure he could save. That could lead to supports where Azama could gain some of his partner idealism while he would give them some of his pragmatism.

It cracks me up that Niles similarly pokes and prods at his allies, but unlike Azama, Niles actually has reasons for it--and APOLOGISES/EXPLAINS when he's wrong. Birthright characterization is just weaker across the board than in CQ, even thought BR plot is much better.

So the S-Support is them deciding to have a hate-fuck...

I wonder if this support chain could be better if Azama changed in the A support. Like, instead of the soldier dying, Azama actually saved the guy's life much to the relief of nameless soldier's friends that are also nameless. He could then realize that sometimes he doesn't know best, and then the S-support could be him proposing so that then he could spend more time with Hinoka and learn by being around her or something.

I decided to grind the supports in Conquest because I could care less about the ones in Birthright. I read them online, and I'm not exactly impressed. At least the ones in Conquest can be entertainingly bad, decent, or sometimes even good.

This is exactly why perma-death exists

We can also call this support, “How I lost my brain cells to a nihilistic creep.”

His support with Setsuna is fucking hilarious.

When I saw Azama at first and his voice clips I thought he could be really entertaining Sad to see he's just kinda nothing and is way less than he could be Though I guess a lot of Fates characters are like that

I kind of want to see your take on the Benny and Nyx support seeing as how in the older video that you did for her you commented on how they had no chemistry even though they were both your favorite characters or something.

Azama is hilarious and for that reason alone he is in my top 3 Hoshidan characters.

I don't actually agree. Like, I watched these supports and I had no idea how to feel, but I still enjoyed them.

Thank God i HATE their supports... I also just hate Azama in general >_> But these supports are bad

The greatest example of Conquest superiority.

Who drew the picture you used at the end of you and the dog?! It looks dope :D

I feel like you could make a ton of these kinds of videos on Fates supports alone, but I'd love to see you try and find some bad supports to the more traditionally well-written games as well!

Like, the way they wrote him just makes no sense for him to even be a retainer in the first place. I feel that they should have established something more of the lines of a “I saved her but she saved me” scenario. Could have been a more interesting backstory If say, azama was suicidal and saving hinoka kept him alive. Keep his nihilism but make him actually show even a shred of respect for the people around him. I feel like I would have liked or have seen him written as a more socially inept person than an asshole, whose assholeishness comes more from not realizing he’s doing it quite as much and also being around hinoka and setsuna all the time which is not exactly a well rounded social circle. And another layer could be if him insulting hinoka was more of a friendly thing, or like an inside joke they’re both in on. Like they make fun of each other like friends do. Basically the whole idea of azama just doesn’t fit into a retainer role, and it would have been way better If he had been changed a bit to accommodate his actual job. Have the guy just show a shred of respect to hinoka, even if it’s just to hinoka, for God’s sake.

thank you for addressing this about Azama. I thought I was alone in this XD ya he is a mean jerk but I want to try to collect all the kids. lolz