Fire Emblem: The Lonely Mirror (Concept for FE8 ROM Hack)

Character Spotlight: Amanda

October is all about the scares, so this month’s spotlight will be all about Judge Amanda. Amanda scored very high on the popularity poll too, and she is both a playable character and a major villain representation.

Background:

Judge Amanda is the leader of Rosenna, which is considered the wealthiest and strongest state in the Jacotta Republic in thanks to Amanda ruling her state with an iron fist. However, some of the other states in the Jacotta Republic believe the only reason that Rosenna is successful is because they are in possession of one of the Sacred Instruments, Kuro’s Horn.

As Judge Amanda’s influence and tyrannical rule begins to spread into the other Jacotta states, tensions escalate when three senators initiate a rebellion to take down Rosenna and obtain control of Kuro’s Horn.

Judge Amanda is disinterested in the internal act of aggression against her and Rosenna, because she feels the other states are inefficient, irrelevant, and sacrificial fodder that will ultimately give her more power. Instead, Judge Amanda’s main concern is to find a husband worthy of her perfection. She desires a high-quality husband that thinks, believes and does everything Amanda’s way. Amanda’s objective created good relations with Celyste, because of their incentives – King Caden wanted to protect Kuro’s Horn, and Judge Amanda wants a worthy suitor.

Judge Amanda’s decides to both test the White Lions and eliminate any opposition against her by manipulating a battle at Rosenna Cathedral for Kuro’s Horn. When the White Lions are victorious, they confront her at her manor and battle for Kuro’s Horn. Judge Amanda ultimately loses the battle and custody of Kuro’s Horn. She is left angered and frustrated by not having a husband or her wedding present to her husband.

Judge Amanda chases after the White Lions and for retribution, and if the right condition is met, she decides to join their cause in the hope of spending time with the men. Even though she joins the White Lions’ cause, she still requires things to go her way and will never apologize.

Appearance:

Judge Amanda is a heavier woman with dark, medium-length hair. Amanda wears heavy armor that is all pink with a gold trim accent. She also wears a pinkish-gray undershirt below her armor. Judge Amanda is usually angered and frustrated in most of her interaction, and rarely smiles unless she is talking about being with a man.

Growth Rates:

HP Pow Skl Spe Lck Def Res
85% 35% 30% 05% 65% 40% 25%

Unit Analysis:

Judge Amanda joins as a promoted unit with very high stats in HP, Power, Defense, Resistance, and Luck. Amanda also has passible Skill to connect with most of her attacked. Her only real weak stat is Speed, which is entirely unsalvageable with a base of 2 and only a 5% growth rate. Judge Amanda will never be double attacking any enemy and will find herself being double attacked by virtually anything in the game – including meteor tome mages. Amanda only has six levels to gain stats with not many levels left in the game, so any additional stat she gains is a nice bonus, but it will not be changing her role on the team. Expect her to level well in HP, Defense, and Luck.

Amanda comes with the unique Judge class, which gives her access to swords, staves, and axes, which are already at S rank. The Judge class functions the same as other armored classes, so Amanda can perform well as a chokepoint holder. Even though, Amanda can withstand double attacks from physical and magical strikes with relative ease, she cannot face too many consecutive attacks on enemy phase as they will eventually kill her.

The biggest downside to Judge Amanda is that she is the most difficult character in the game to recruit as it requires deploying a team of only male characters. The complete hassle to recruit her may not warrant the payout of her joining for most teams.

Overall, Amanda is a good addition an endgame team in need of an additional healer or an enemy bait unit. Defensively is where Amanda shine; her defensive base stats are so high that Judge Amanda can safely have battle with at least one enemy per enemy phase and survive, and this includes two meteors. Additionally, Judge Amanda’s high base power of 25 and access to staves can allow her to be an amazing support unit with rescues and physics after achieving one staff rank increase. Amanda’s unfortunate speed stat will hinder her offensively as she is incapable of killing most units with a single strike. She can still be used to help set up kills for other units or take out weakened enemies reliably.

Support Options:

Amanda’s affinity is Anima, which provides pretty nice boosts for her as Amanda will appreciate any additional power or defense to help her stay alive and do more damage with her one attack. Even though Amanda has a very late join time, all of her support options also join very late too, so she might not need to fight as much for a support option. All of Amanda’s support pairings could make sense in the right context.

  • Caden - Thunder
  • Shane - Wind
  • Faith - Light
  • Ozias - Fire
  • Lionel - Fire

Faith’s light affinity boosts Amanda’s power, hit, and critical hit rate, which are the most important bonuses for Amanda to ensure her target is dead with one blow. The light and anima affinity provides max bonus to power and defense, which are mutually beneficial for Amanda and Faith. The only major downside is that Faith may not be hanging around Amanda on the battlefield due to their very different movement and roles on a team, and if Faith is used, Joseph or Kurtis might ultimately make more sense.

Fire affinity is also a great option for Amanda as it also improves power, hit, and critical hit rate. Ozias also joins around the same time as Amanda, so he might also be looking for support options if he is used. Lionel makes a great support option for Amanda, and their pairing is mutually beneficial. Amanda’s anima affinity helps to patch up Lionel’s poor dodge due to his bad luck. Additionally, Lionel will be starved for supports by the time he is available. The only downside to Lionel is that he is only available for three maps, and he would be reaching A support with Amanda on the last chapter of the game.

Wind affinity is a really good option for Amanda and it also improves power, hit, and critical hit rate. Shane joins on the same map as Amanda, so their pairing makes a lot of sense if both units will continue in the party. The Shane and Amanda support pairing has a similar problem as Faith and Amanda in that their roles on the battlefield are very different, so they will ultimately not be seeing too much of each other

A Thunder affinity support with Caden might be Amanda’s worst option. This is not due to the bonuses, as Thunder is going to be the best option for a defensive Amanda, which can be especially nice if Amanda takes on the role as a healer. Caden has the earliest join time out of all of Amanda’s options, and if Caden is taking an active role on a team, it might be unlikely for him to have a support option available. If Caden is available, this support can be greatly helpful.

Popularity Poll:
My current plan is to have 5 more character spotlights. I pretty much have already decided on the final lineup based on requests and the popularity poll, but it could change. Vote for your favorite characters and tell me why you like them, or feel free to request any too.

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