Xander: How Fire Emblem Fates' Writing Ruined Its Best Character. (1/2) [Support Science #7] 

Corrin: "I don't want to fight you." Elise: "I don't want you to fight them." Serena and Laslow: "We don't want you to fight them." Camilla and Leo: "We don't want to fight you." All of Nohr: "We don't want you to fight them." All of Hoshido: "We don't want to fight you." Xander himself: "I don't want to fight you." Garon: "Fight them!" Xander: "I'm fighting you."

I feel like the whole reason why Fates' story is such a mess is because they made Garon WAY too evil. If we actually got to see Garon have some benevolence or human decency, then not only would've made the initial choice seem less one-sided, but it would've given Xander a reason to stay beside Garon even if Corrin chooses Hoshido. But what did they do? They made Garon Satan incarnate. He doesn't care about his children, hires serial killers as his retainers, and puts his own desires over his own people. He might as well kick puppies and eat orphaned babies while he's at it.

I would say there are three Xanders: Support Xander, Story Xander, and Peri Xander

Fates had to have had different writers, right? The Story and Support teams can't be the same people, I refuse to believe that with how much contradiction there is in the one game.

Xander/Mozu's A support is pretty adorable "I'm not smiling. I'm just frowning less intensely."

The worst thing about how Xander reacts in Birthright is the fact that in Conquest Ryoma doesn't act the same. In Conquest Ryoma continuously tries to get Corrin to return to Hoshido and never becomes completely hostile until he thinks Corrin killed Hinoka. Why is it that Ryoma is calmer and less hostile towards Corrin than Xander when Ryoma has more of a reason to be upset with Corrin choosing the opposite side.

Worst part about the birthright endgame thing is that it seems they did all that garbage because they REALLY wanted elise and xander to dramatically die, but for some reason figured this was the best way. But it was so god damn easy to have it actually make sense... Sure, Xander could be Chapter 26's boss, you fight him, he is defeated but spared like Leo and Camilla, and perhaps with some swaying by Elise, agrees to go with them to the throne room and try to talk Garon into diplomacy. Then we get to Chapter 27, and Garon can be all assholes while Xander points out they already pretty much lost this war, and that at this point they might as well try to strike a deal that might spare their people from unnecessary suffering. Then Garon could call him a worthless coward or whatever, and try to kill him. THEN Elise jumps in to save Xander and gets killed instead, and THEN Xander flips out over garon killing his own daughter and not even giving a shit, and despite having already been injured in the previous chapter and having everyone else tell him to not do anything rash, he goes in, calls Garon out on being a monster and how much he's sick of turning a blind eye to that because of duty or whatever and fights garon. But, ultimately, due to his aforementioned wounds and the fact that Garon is indeed pretty fucking strong, he ends up killing Xander, and cue the chapter itself. And there you go. You get all of your dramatic deaths, and as a plus, Xander is not being a completely insane buffon on that situation. Instead he plays as a fairly understanding person trying to do what's best for his people. Even though he would be throwing his life away just the same, it's in a more believable way, what with it being a reaction to a loved one being killed in front of him. Hell, you could call it even courageous. Bonus points for Garon being the perpetrator as well as the boss of the chapter, so the player is extra-pissed off at him and REALLY wants to see the bastard drop dead. The other instances where StoryXander is a fucking idiot would be even easier to fix, probably not requiring major changes besides the dialogue itself.

What I hate about Xander is how he doesn't realise that fighting for Nohr and fighting for Garon are two completely different things, and he becomes a hypocrite by ignoring his siblings yet following Garon.

"Leaving the kingdom in the hands of a megalomaniac. And Camilla." I spat out my drink, I admit it.

"As the crowned prince of Nohr, I don't have the luxury of being naive. I need to be 50X EVEN MORE NAIVE."

I think the reason Xander is set up like this is because the fates writers realized that if someone like Xander(support) existed in the main story, then there would be no reason for there to be a split in paths and the game would be over in an hour.

Fates's story just crashed Xander's mind

I think it would've been much better if Xander honored Elise's dying wish and layed down his sword, only to be subsequently murdered by Garon in a surprise attack. Be it in the very same room, or joining Corrin and the Hoshidan forces and confronting Garon himself in the throne room.

His Nyx supports are exceptionally amazing. Xander deserved to be in a better written game.

Anankos worst character in fire emblem confirmed? Let me list what exactly Anankos as well as Valla did: -Made the plot have a simple solution and removed any sense of a grey area. Also made any path seem invalid as there was an actually good solution. -Ruined Xander, Azura and Corrin as characters. -Made Garon a simple and purely evil villain that nobody should ever have followed after Anankos had possessed him.

I actually would have liked Xander's relationship with Ganon if it was done better. Seeing characters rationalize fucked up situations because they can't deal with the reality of it, is always going to be insanely interesting.

I thought the reason story Xander existed was obvious: It's to not make the player feel bad about their option. It's the same reason Hoshido, a peaceful nation that had a barrier that caused people not to want to fight, suddenly turns awful; heaven forbid you have to think about your decisions in the game.

Honestly it's characters like this that make me believe that the writing team for the story and supports were two completely different teams with little communication between the two

As expected, this was a brilliant episode. I've never even realised how hypocritical Story Xander is. It's such a shame that the story writers ruined such a well written character. It's quite sad to be honest... Oh well, I'm really looking forward to the next one, keep it up man!

I'm playing Revelation currently and I just can't shake the memory of that one scene where Xander and Leo are talking and Garon is just standing there ranting to the ceiling and Xander is like "this is probably fine"

Best character is Daikon Radish, Ghast be serious for once.

Xander's dedication to his father was one of the most infuriating things in the entire game and made me hate his character.

I think that, that is the problem with supports like these that we see in the latest two games. The supports feel like a different universe than the game. Some are bad, some are good, but in both games they have no effect in the game. Supports should complement the game, not be some fluff on the side. I hope that moving forward supports are taken into consideration for the story from the beginning and hopefully we could get a better flow between supports and story.

Every of Xanders support is good indeed...except with Perry

I really like Camus.

Xander should have been the Main Lord of Fates. I still love all 3 games but Xander is just something else and deserved more importance and influence in the story.

I'm not sure Ghast gets Xander's last actions in the end of birthright the whole last fight with him is a complete suicide by cop. He's so sick of his own bullshit he wants to die so he uses Corrin to do it.

So, most characters are well written, but the story is just trash lol.

I think the writers are trying to alienate normal Xander's established personalty just so he can seem more antagonistic for Hosido's Story but yeah that's some pretty nasty bullshit going on.

Support Xander is what i want to be as an older brother and as a person Story Xander is stupid They shouldn't have separate writers for supports and story they should be the same In Birthright chapter 26. I think that instead of being an idiot and fighting you, Xamder should join you and be either a green unit or an unplayable character like Elise, and fight some of Garon's forces that stupidly belive him, and also Xander's retainers because they don't know what's really happening. the Chapter's objective would be to keep him alive if he were a green unit ( which wouldn't be that hard because Xander would probably beat the crap outta everyone) or to talk/kill his retainers, like BR Chapter 23, that would be cool because then we would be able to spare Laslow ( one of Fates' best Non-Royal Characters and one of Awakening's best children) and Kill Peri. "But if Xander doesn't die, how are we supposed to have a similarity to Conquest when Ryoma kills himself?" Well, Xander shouldn't die by Corn to make it more emotional, Xander should've died in a CGI Scene where he defies Garon. That would be pretty cool But those were just my ideas.

"Think Xander Think! How can you ensure the welfare of Nohr if you're dead?!"

I think what the writers intended with Elise's death was sorrowness, hopelessness and suicide wishes in Xander. They wanted him to feel like a cornered Lion extending his fangs, and the moment he slays his little sister he was supposed to be suicidal and regretful. He killed Elise, and as such wanted to die himself to make the suffering and the regret end. He was supposed to feel like a nihilist that gave up on life and just wanted to die, so he drew his sword for a final duel. He didn't convey his feelings properly in any of these scenes and it made him feel like a douchebag jerk that just wanted to attack them. But if we take things from a different perspective, Xander's final chapter might not be his weakest, but his strongest. Why? Because all the other moments you have with Xander are what brought him into this shitty situation. All the horrible writing errors there were in the few chapters you got to see him established that he is a blind and ignorant fool, and as far as I'm concerned, taking into consideration how many bad things happened to him while Corrin was captured by Hoshido, Xander's final reaction seems... believable? He was a man of his word, of his family, and wanted to be the guiding big brother for all of them. Suddenly some tanned woman and a green haired Ninja pull him out of his home and territory and his loved family member just speaks up to him in a manner so disrespectful and unexpected that he feels reinforced in his behavior and that he is doing the right thing. Over the course of the game, as Nohr also suffers under the war's conditions, (Namely that thanks to Corrin, Hoshido is mightily kicking their asses!) Xander starts to lose it. Elise continuously talks about peace and negotiating it, Camilla seems to lose her mind completely as well and Leo is his younger, less influential brother that he feels he has more authority over. He has no reason to doubt his own intention, in fact he feels more confirmed in doing what he does because the rest of his family, despite all of his efforts to be a caring brother to them, turned on him and cornered him. Just like he said, he is the Crownprince of Nohr. He is the only one in the family who can't point his finger into the right direction, and his family doesn't want to understand that. They don't respect at all that he tried so hard to protect them and feels as if everyone turned against him out of the blue. Because you aren't on Nohr's side this time, Nohr feels less unjust in how they act. Xander isn't a subject to Hans' moral dilemma, Xander isn't there to see the civillians of Cheve being turned into Ashes, and he especially isn't there to see Garon snap. In Conquest, Garon completely loses his mind as Corrin returns and subjects her to the worst possible jobs to break her mentally and progressively becomes insane as he fails to do so. This gives Xander a view, an insight on Garon's corrupted mind. In Birthright however, none of this happens. Cherche isn't burned down, Hoshido infiltrates Cherche using Scarlet and Hans' is designated into completely different areas, none of them mentioned. For all we know, not even Hans might be killing civilians on Nohr's side. He's no longer ordered to do so to break Corrin's sanity, so Garon could easily have deported him to do dirty jobs like taking down smaller Hoshidan armies. The next time we get to see Hans, he trains the royal guards. All of this coming together makes Xander's final acts seem realistic. He is a cornered man that feels as if the world turned against him, and while on the outside he seems to be this strong, opportunistic man, on the inside he is a crumbling little boy that hits a training dummy with a wooden sword to ventilate his frustrations. His facade breaks when Elise chooses to ultimately betray him in the worst possible way, by forcing him to lay down his sword by getting her killed. All of this comes together to one final act of self-loathing and depression. Xander felt betrayed by everyone, both Corrin and then his siblings, which resulted in him drawing his sword to force Corrin to end his life. Xander knew he couldn't win, Corrin confirms this by saying he held back. All he wanted was his sister/brother to end his miserable, loyal Nohrian life of betrayal and depression. I agree with most of your points, but to call the final chapter of Xander the worst just isn't right in my opinion. Given what happened in Birthright and how poorly he was written in literally every single chapter, you can't blame him for doing the most optimal thing that the storywriters intended for him at that point. It's not his final scene, but the scenes before the final scene that led to this catastrophy and THAT is the real problem. Given what he was intended to do in his last moments, I think they nailed it 100%. The idea of making him turn out to be this shitty might be an 0/10, but I think his final moments were a 10/10 given what he had to work with, personality-wise and story-wise. Also, and just as a little thing to throw in as a thinker: Xander said he let his feelings decide, not his duty. You might THINK this means that Xander spared Corrin and let him/her end his life, but what if Xander doesn't talk about letting Corrin win? What if theoretically, Xander talks about his decision to duel Corrin to begin with? He had the duty to drop his sword for the good of his people. For the good of Nohr. But he listened to his enraged and depressed feelings, attacking Corrin to find the embrace of death. It could quite literally be a completely reversed scenario.

I just hope they get better writers for Echoes, the characters look very interesting.

This video is the absolute pinnacle of observing Fates and its writing/characters. Some of the supports in Fates are really well done, and they show off good sides of all the characters, giving them backstories, motivations, and doubts. But the stories of all three paths contradict everything that the supports tell you about them. What's most baffling is that how Fates focuses purely on Corrin, Azura, and the royals of your chosen side, yet they could not make Xander consistent. The one character I believe feels like a proper character is Saizo; he's relevant no matter what side you pick, has a backstory that is brought up no matter the path, and his supports with both Ryoma and Kaze show off how dedicated he is to his heritage. He's a well written character - barring his C with Beruka - but because he is not royal he gets cast aside once his chapter is done. It perfectly brings up my problem with Fates and its characters; they all had so much potential but nothing was done for them.

I believe they made Conquest's and Birthright's endings unsatisfying and dumb just so people would buy the other story route just to see what happens. It's just greed ruining the story, really.

I don't really like Xander and I love Ryoma, but I feel like their relationship to one another to be surprisingly well written. They are alike in the wrong ways and opposite in every other. In their a support they aren't friends, but they respect each other. Ryoma is designed around ideal Chivalry and is more the Camus archtype (loyalty to motherland). Xander is designed around Bushido and is more the Eldigan sub-archtype(loyalty to king). It's most obvious in their deaths. Visually Xander dies the death of Chivalry and Ryoma Bushido, but the intention is reverse. Xander essentially commits suicide to regain the honor lost as atonement for harming his family much like seppuku. Ryoma sacrifices himself to save the life of someone who wronged him, faking the action of Bushido while more accurately following the western belief of immitatio Christi (imitation of Christ ie to sacrifice your life for the salvation of another). It is because of this that Xander cannot question Garon, a samurai *cannot* question their elder. Their ability even reflects this. Xander's skill demands an opponent be at top fighting strength as per an ideal Bushido duel. Ryoma's Bushido revolves around protecting the weak, a trait of idea chivalry. What do you think Ghast? I'd value your opinion.

The only thing that would make sense of story-Xander's actions would be if he was under Anankos's influence, at least to a certain degree, only to be finally freed at his death by Corrin's hand. In fact, that would make a lot of sense: throwing himself at Corrin partly because of Anankos's influence, but also out of fear of losing control to Anankos and seeing death as the only way of escape. Of course, that would only explain the Birthright route's issues. And honestly, even then it might still be a bit lazy to write his part of the story that way.

when I heard real siblings I could only think, (spoilers) "Lilith? You mean only lilith?"

Xander is definitely one of my fave characters. I just skip all the cutscenes at this point. I can't bear to look at what they did to him

Story Xander made me want to throw myself off the cliff with Takumi ._.

Why did Fates' story need to suck so much... So much lost potential, it's depressing. Oh well, Shadows of Valentia should be a step up! ...right?

Hell yeah, another Support Science! I haven't even watched it but I know it's going to be good.

You make a lot of very good points here. One thing you don't mention, though-and how much of Xander's behavior this excuses, if any, is debatable-is that it's mentioned several times that before becoming a goo demon or a dark dragon, Garon used to be an affectionate father. Xander, being the oldest, had the most time to actually get to know and love the real Garon. Probably a large part of where his love for his family comes from is the time he spent with his real father as a child. Xander is in denial, still hoping that one day, Garon will be back to his old self. He is loyal to a version of Garon that we never see, a version that he refuses to believe is gone, a version that he believes needs the most help out of anyone in his family.. He displays the first three stages of grief over Garon's transformation: 1. Denial - Already explained above 2. Anger - Your video shows plenty of this 3. Bargaining - I think at some point, Xander says that if he can just get Garon what he really wants, maybe he'll go back to being his old self Due to the burdens of being the crown prince and a responsible older brother, he refuses to allow himself to enter the depression stage, because that would require the others to support him rather than the other way around. So he's stuck in the first three stages, always at least two steps away from acceptance. When he argues with Garon, as his support conversations mention, it's because he wants his loving father back. He can't understand why Garon changed, nor that he can't be changed back. He knows that the orders Garon gives are wrong, but he still loves the real Garon. And he rationalizes his own actions to himself by telling himself that it's all for the good of his country. In Conquest, he has nothing but love and loyalty for Corrin...until she threatens Garon. In the other two paths, there's a part of him that knows what he's doing is wrong, but he just can't bring himself to directly oppose Garon because he used to be a loving father. In Birthright, it takes him being mortally wounded to even admit it to himself. And in Revelation, it takes Garon actually directly telling Xander to destroy Nohr for him to realize he's beyond saving. Even then, after he's joined with Corrin, his other siblings, and the Hoshidans, Garon's sudden death at Anankos' hands still grieves him deeply. I will not defend FE Heroes Xander, though. That shit's just dumb.

Thanks a ton for watching and stuff. :)

"Xander, father literally tried to bomb a town and kill me in the process" "So what you're saying is.. You're a traitor"

Oh, so Xander in Birthright is just Takumi in Conquest. Yep I have no reason to play Birthright. Anywho, this video is incredible. I never noticed some of the things you pointed out like Camilla's supports (I didn't get them on my first playthrough)

It's as if the main story and supports in general were written by completely different people, as if those two people never talked to each other or reviewed each other's work. Its baffling, the discrepancies.

Xander is probably my favorite character from Fates, which is humorous to me because I am also the eldest brother of three younger half siblings and one who I don't share any blood with. Coincidence? Probably!

There was a fanfic in which Corrin was captured by Leo and Camilla when the avatar chose Hoshido. And Xander's actuation is just brilliant in the story.

I'm going to go with an unpopular opinion that actually Xander DOES have a reason to act VERY defensive to Garon. See, as the eldest sibling, Xander was there to witness a time that Garon was actually a stern, but overall decent and doting father, and having enough maturity to know about that part of Garon. But then tragedy happened between the whole Nohr family that it took toll on Garon that he was never the same again, starting to get abusive, and only got worse when he died in secret and got replaced by Anankos' familiar. There is no way that Xander would know this, but deep down, he'd still have trouble accepting that the kind father he used to know was gone, maybe if they conquered Hoshido, he would return to the old Garon. Signs of abuse, really, but I can't just blame him for wanting the kind father back. But I can understand why people would think that Xander was blindsided with the current Garon, because that is another part of Fates' writing: They used 'Tell, not show' on 'Good' Garon, and usually fandom are not that keen to believe on the tiny bits, only believing what's shown. Most of the complains on Xander seems to stem on "How dare he be blinded with the Obviously Evil Garon as WE AUDIENCE ALL SEE." I don't. I think of him as at least decent. Sometimes, heavy stress, especially from betrayal, can make people go really mad.

I think a better ending for him could have been fighting alongside Corrin after hearing Elise’s words, realizing his mistake, and dying by Garon in the final battle.

"In the hands of a megalomaniac, and, *Camila*" ROFLMAO XD

i am honestly so blown away by this video because i've never actually heard anyone understand xander in this way i have had many of the same understandings of xander as you mention here, and it was an absolute joy to hear you lay this out in such an articulate manner xander is literally the reason why i picked conquest, and his supports never disappointed

Support Xander = Tofu Rise Story Xander = Risette

while I agree there are many issues with story Xander. I believe the fact he needs to maintain the illusion that he is loyal and unwavering in his faith to Garon. Openly showing discontent with the actions of his king could jeopardize the stability of Nohr as a nation if others adopt a similar sentiment. While not excusing all the actions he made in the scenes you mentioned in the video, it does for some. The scene where Xander dismisses Garon's maniacal laughter as feeling unwell, is Xander not wanting Leo to begin to distrust Garon as well. He keeps that distrust to himself as he doesn't believe that sharing it will be for the betterment of his nation.

One particular thing that disgusted me about story Xander is that his selfishness that ultimately led to his end also led to Laslow's unnecessary death. Don't know if you'll mention this in the second part, but it's so sad to see how Laslow would die to the hands of the person he was supposed to help in his mission because of this dumb character. Note that I didn't talk about Peri.

PART ONE?! Oh this is going to be epic

favorite fates Character.

Story Xander is precisely the reason why you should never, ever, make a character act according to the story rather than their own personality. Don't make someone hold the conflict ball just because you need a reason for a tragic battle. You will not make your audience feel sad. You will make them frustrated over a stupid and pointless battle that didn't need to happen.

Ghast you should talk about the Xander from FE Heroes next. It's quite strange that he follows someone who seems evil. Or, maybe he sees the good in her? Maybe it shows he can see the good in all people? That would be very interesting to see you analyse.

The issues here is the plot being a resource war. Your nation needs to invade to survive. Theirs want to fight to maintain wealth. Look at the differences in how the maps and Nohr themed things look. It's dying and decaying. Its people are starving. The king is evil, but believing that a nation invading due to starvation after attempting to trade and being denied solely because it would "change Houshio" is bad. They should have put in something alone the lines of betraying the king of ones people is the same as betraying ones country. But he calls the war needless. Its lazy.

You realize Leo was talking shit about garon in like the same room right? There abusable daddy might have just killed leo.

40 minute support science? Ghast senpai spoils us today

Sometimes I feel like the general writing guidelines for Fates at the end of the day boiled down to, "Okay, this is nice and all, but Nohr are still the bad guys so let's make sure they still perpetuate villainy, even if it's through negligence and stupidity."

Great video, all around! This, as well as Azura, are the two examples of characters having a complete, indefensible dichotomy between Story and Supports in FE14. Though, while I understand it wasn't the central concept of the video, nor the point you were trying to make, but I was hoping for a mention of Xander and Beruka's supports. They're just my favorite of his romantic support lines, both due to the genuine emotional sentiment behind them and how silly, but still poignant it is for Beruka to make sure he promises to try to kill her if she tries to kill him before marrying.

I like to forget story Xander doesn’t exist and just focus on support, hero and warrior Xander

I love Xander and Leo's support so much. As a guy with an extremely successful and skilled older brother, I could fully relate to Leo's problem and him accidentally snapping at Xander despite it being undeserved. I think I actually teared up a little bit at their A support, it was such a great way to show and solve the "middle child syndrome" that me and so many others have felt with.

Xander: "Tell me what is on your mind Leo. I will listen to you, you know." Leo: "I think our father is fucking nuts. That's kind of obvious." Xander: "STFU Leo, you don't know what you are talking about!" Leo: "Kay, srry..."

Honestly, I am not gonna blame the writers on this one I'm gonna blame the fact that they were probably forced to make the routes this way. Only nohrians in conquest, only hosidans in birthright. I can imagine them asking the higher ups if you could recruit the nohrians siblings in conquest, and some higher up going "But if they got the nohrians in birthright, they might not buy conquest!" I'm not saying that the writers are perfect, nor am I saying that I know the development process of this game, but that is what I get from this. all these supports are way too good for the story that got created, so I'm hesitant to believe that the writers are inept.

I actually really like the idea of Xander killing Elise by accident. But the execution (no pun intended) just isn't there. I think an interesting and more believable scenario would be if Garron killed Elise instead. After all, Elise said she was going to try reasoning with him, and that was destined for failure from the start. Imagine what kind of situation that would put Xander in. He could turn on his Father when Corrin was in a pinch, sacrificing himself in the process, but creating an open for Corrin. I think that no matter how the story is told, it's important that two Royal sibilings die as a consequence of the campaign you chose ( aside from Revalation) and the sibilings they chose for each game made perfect sense, but even if the death of Elise was handled better, it wouldn't solve all the problems Xander has presented in all three campaigns. Which could be solved so easily if Garron were a more interesting villian who actually showed a decent side every once in a while.

I'm really looking forward to more of these. i've enjoyed all of these support science videos, and they make me enjoy analyzing a game more than any other I have played. I have enjoyed all of these and really hope this series grows.

This is such a high quality video! It's like listening to a literary essay on characters and stories that I am actually interested in

This was an incredibly fair and wonderful character assessment. I'm very used to people either getting too acerbic out of frustration for the poor writing or scrambling over themselves to defend a game they enjoyed, but this video maintained really wonderful balance. Your thoroughness in going through all those supports and considering every perspective possible answered some questions I held about the game even months after playing. Thanks so much for this and your hard work!

Those supports really made me like Xander and he's my favorite character in fates just under Leo. Too bad he's a stupid tool in the story.

Oh, thank god we got another one of these! These ones are my favorite.

Such an amazing analysis! Thank you for doing this, can't wait for part 2.

If I were to rewrite Xander's Chapter while keeping the context of having to defeat Xander to move on, it would go like this. After Elise says her piece, instead of calling her naive, Xander merely gives a sad laugh and says something along the lines of, "You were always the bright light in the darkness of Nohr; however, what Nohr needs now isn't its light. What it needs now is the defeat of those who threaten it." He turns to the party. "I'll give you all a choice, surrender and live or fight and die." Corrin tells him that "The only way for the conflict to end is for Garon to die, so while I don't want to fight you, I won't surrender either." The scene where Xander kills Elise plays the same way it does in vanilla. Xander still insists on fighting afterwards, commenting that Elise made the right request to the wrong person, and asks Corrin to fight him in a duel. Since Corrin is too distraught to even comment on anything, Ryoma steps in and duels the Crown Prince in Corrin's place. After the fight, Corrin collects himself and tells Xander that it didn't have to end like it did. Xander says, "Indeed, however I'll tell you why it did. My only concern is the greater good of Nohr, so after hearing of your progress from Leo and thinking back on Garon's previous actions, I figured that it was for the best that you kill Father. That is why I was so confrontational, so I can test your skills. If you were strong enough to best me, you would be strong enough beat father. I didn't mean to get Elise involved, and the fact that I did is my only regret beyond being unable to see a Nohr clean of blood. Now go, chosen of the Yato. Go and defeat father."

I feel like now in this retrospect, supports should be made before the actual story so that they can tie together more organically. If that doesn't happen, then the characters could contradict each other. I was working on developing my Fan!Corrins so they can be less-Fan!Corrin-y and I like watching these videos to give the characters more depth. At the same time though, this Xander video made me like Fates even less now because his actions show how much I think certain situations can be resolved much better.

I love this series and it really makes me think harder about characters that I normally wouldn't think twice about. I know these take quite a long time and I appreciate it. Thanks Ghast!

Xander's death is so fucking stupid in BR. I'm convinced it was only done to mirror Ryoma's death in Conquest. He could have surrendered. Imagine how cool it would be to fight Garon with Xander back you up as a green unit.

when I first saw the cutsene at 25:50 I took a moment to think, quit the chapter and made a forged swordcather named F*CKYOUXANDER Not even joking (and reclassed to great master)

You can’t just hit me with Elise’s death scene like that. I know that Fates doesn’t have the strongest writing, but that was one of the saddest moments in my playthrough

Captivating analysis as always. I look forward to the second part!

A 2 parter??? Oh wow! I am excited, this series is amazing

I'll stop this violence the only way I know how... *With more violence! CHARGE!!!*

Veronica supports support one: Xander:Veronica how was your day Veronica:I tried to kill those orders of heroes but they wouldn't die Xander:Veronica this usaully isn't you Veronica:Oh sorry Xander I'm fine Xander:Your being controlled by some one a think Veronica: I'm fine wanna have a tea party? Xander:Fine.... (Something is up with her)

Honestly the most upsetting part is Xander fans defending the end of Birthright by saying "Xander wanted Corrin to hate him so that he'd kill him!!! It was out of guilt!!" Yeah, because that's so much better. "I refuse to admit I was wrong, wish for death, but am too much of a coward to end my own life (like Ryoma), so instead I'll force my younger sibling to do it. That way they'll have to vear guilt over both Elise *and* my death!" How selfless of him.

Huh~ Arere, I was a bit intimidated by the length at first, but you went into some nice ground breaking details, good sir! I have a few thoughts to be made--but I'll wait till I see the second part to make sure they aren't already answered. Eehee.

"Ok. I've been hired to make Fate's story, what should I do now... oh, I know! West= Evil Japan=Good ... I'm a fucking GENIUS!"

So would it be fair to say that Xander is a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" type character?

Really digging this series, I listen while multitasking and it's great!

Also these support science videos are one of the main reason I subscribe to your channel please keep doing more for all the games in the series

The developers were really blinded by the bare-bones of this games story. Conquest might as well be named Fire Emblem: Contradiction or Fire Emblem: Contrived lol. I get it the basis of the story is really interesting, but I question just how hard the writers actually tried filling in the rest of the story or just how much they cared. I thought Conquest/Rev Ryoma was bad but Xander is the fucking champ of foolishness. And judging by how he was in Heroes, I truly think story Xander is the true Xander whereas Support Xander might as well be fucking Xane imitating and switching places with him for a laugh lol. Great vid Ghast can't wait for part 2!

Suddenly, Xander making Peri his retainer makes more sense.

One of your best videos to date Keegen. The level of effort and research put in is quite clear. I cannot wait for part 2, and you my friend should pat yourself on the back.

Nice episode,keep doing a great job

So this is a classic, classic case of the trope 'Plot Induced Stupidity.'

Where is my video on Wrys? You know we all need it, come on Ghast!

I loved this. It hit some many major differences between Support Xander and Story Xander that I saw in the games. I can't wait for part two!! Keep up the awesome work!!

I love these kinds of videos! I definitely agreed with you on multiple points, great job!!