Nah, not far enough along yet unfortunately
I would love to see it. These days anything bothers ppl. Go for it, in my opinion.
My only thing is: don’t make it explicit here, because this is kind of breaking rules
In my case, I always make a censored edit and keep the original version to myself. So, as I said, go for it. And be sure to remembers us to play it, I will forget in a few hours that I even read this thread.
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Worth noting, there’s nothing wrong with leaving things to implication rather than confirming them outright, and it can in fact be more effective storytelling in some cases. It’s definitely a valid option to keep in mind, I’d say.
On the broader topic… I don’t think anyone’s gonna stop you or anything, and I don’t think it’s wrong to explore dark and taboo topics in fiction. Just make sure you do it tactfully, and with awareness and empathy for the fact that incestuous relationships in real life are deeply screwed-up for many more reasons than just posing health risks for any biological children the pair may have. It may warrant marking your project as for mature audiences, but I don’t think it’s categorically a bad thing to include in a story provided it’s handled with care.
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This is very true, implying something can often be much more effective than just showing it outright. Implications allow the audiences mind to run wild, and that will always prove to have a more unsettling end result than just “hey these are siblings and also did the incest”.
This tells me more than anything else that in this specific instance… The topic is largely unnecessary to include in your work. If you’re unsure of if you can do it well and without being offensive then chances are you probably don’t have the experience as a writer to handle such a topic. Moreover, if you allow a thread of people to determine your written works direction with a certain angle then you either aren’t particularly attached to that story to begin with (something that I highly doubt in this case) or it wasn’t a necessary topic to cover in the work to begin with, that it’s so insignificant that you can cut it with little fuss.
This also leads into another thing I want to stress. Media literacy is dead. Or rather, it was never really alive to begin with. If you include such a heavy topic you NEED to be mature enough to handle both well intentioned, thoughtful criticism and unhelpful hogwash that comes from those who read everything at face value AND also be able to understand what is what as it is not always clear to the author whether or not the reader is at fault is at fault for not engaging with the work critically and as such views the work from a barebones and unhelpful perspective or if the fault is on you for not conveying your story in a way that is understandable and even accidentally said the opposite of what you meant.
As much of a meme as the game has become, the Coffin of Andy and Leyla does genuinely criticize incestuous relationships and evaluates the how mentally damaging such messed up relationships are, but because the game shows a portrayal of incest that shows a real connection between the pair of characters people oftentimes misinterpret the game’s core, whether they actually played the game itself or not. There will be people who deliberately or not directly misinterpret what you’re trying to say, no matter how well written it is.
Overall I would say, don’t head into such a subject so quickly unless you’re 100% confident in not only your writing abilities but also your ability to tell genuine criticism from unhelpful comments.
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In a world where there is magic, surely genetic diseases can be cured.
If the problem of genetic diseases can be solved, then incest will no longer be taboo.
Rather, if we follow history, marrying in kinship has the great advantage of making it difficult to keep family property outside the family.
Depending on the culture, basically when you get married, your family property will be reduced because you have to divide your property.
For example, if you are rich and inherit property from your parents, but you go to marry into another family, the property you inherit becomes the property of another family.
It also helps to keep the troublesome presence of outside relatives out of politics.
It is common for a wife’s relatives to become involved in politics and destroy a dynasty.
(however, although it is also common for families to kill each other…)
Because of these advantages, rich and royal families have done a lot of marriages with close relatives.
Incidentally, erotic SRPGs also have various ideas, such as mating abducted girls with monsters to create stronger monsters.
Well, I don’t know if that is appropriate for this site.
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yeah this whole thread is psychotic
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That’s…not what I meant 
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I decided against it ultimately, but it’s an interesting point of discussion whether something controversial in a story has to be the main focus for it to be “handled well”.
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Never in my life have I done a double take this bad
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Don’t let media-illiterate people convince you by putting something reprehensible like incest in your story, you’re advocating for it. Nobody says the same to people who write about people forced into slavery or prostitution. It’s not your responsibility to make every piece of work a family-friendly PSA that teaches everybody right from wrong. You should make whatever you want to make instead of worrying about whatever you make is liked. If you’re true to yourself, what you make will always have at least one fan… You.
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Should note that this site does still have limits on content, however. The hack “Black Dragon” is a previous case of that going wrong.
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Very true. The thing about insisting that Fire Emblem especially, a series of games that deal with wars, stay that way has also never made that much sense to me.
Incest is basically running amok all throughout Fates’s S-support system, and it only barely manages to save itself by pulling the “not-really-our-sibling” card. Heck, not even Azura was safe during Revelation if I recall.
If Genealogy does it, then it gets a pass by the whole community because it’s not its main aspect. The two characters involved are just a means to an end, and the community as a whole tends to focus on the other sides of that game’s story.
Heck, Eirika and Ephraim from Sacred Stones, and especially Priscilla’s dialogue with Raven in FE7 is particularly sus, but you don’t see people posting/talking about how writers didn’t “handle it carefully” there.
They are in official games, you see, so the writers get a pass there. At least, that’s what it feels like on here.
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I agree generally with those who said that a writer shouldn’t feel like certain topics are off limits when they could serve the story, but you will come off as a hack writer if you throw things in for the sake of shocking the audience.
While I hesitate to speak in absolutes when it comes to writing, I think I can say that this is never going to be a good enough reason to add a story element.
More constructively, if you had this happen the way you describe, how it’s framed would be essential. Your readership will most likely turn against the story if it was framed in a positive light. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has a side plot where Victor Frankenstein romances and eventually marries his first cousin, Elizabeth, who was raised in his household like a sister from a young age, and this only served to lower my opinion of a character I already didn’t like very much. I think for something like what you described to work, it would have to be framed along the lines of a desperate act by two emotionally damaged people who had become incapable of seeking love in any other way, and you would have to do the hard work of setting up these characters in that way well before the culminating incident.
While I don’t want to impede your vision, something to consider and something that I think might better bring out the themes of the cruel society you describe in the OP, is the relationship is not incestuous, but the siblings act in a way that causes the people around them to gossip and attack them for being in an incestuous relationship even when it isn’t true. It is very much a thing that people are often afraid of showing non-sexual affection for fear of it being perceived as tabu sexual affection, and the amount of posts about Eirika and Ephraim in this thread can attest to that.
A last thing that this thread made me think of was something my professor said when I took anthropology as an undergrad. I’ve never looked into how robust the science is on this, so take it with a grain of salt, but the professor said that the human brain is wired to not perceive people that it grew up in close proximity to as potential sexual partners as a sort of natural incest blocker to promote genetic diversity. Then she added that you’re unlikely to fall in love with someone if you already know how their farts smell.
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Short answer: Just do what you deem best as long as you follow the site’s rules. Obviously take all the advice and criticism you received into account; but the final say goes to you.
Another answer that can’t really be called long:
As a first, I can say that such relationships as you mentioned don’t always have to turn to incest. “My brother/sister is my only friend” can be confined to just that – friends. In real life, close friends don’t always develop any sort of romantic feelings toward each other; they often just stay friends, as that is how things work out best in their particular case.
And another thing I can say is that you shouldn’t worry about people thinking some things are implied when they really aren’t. People will make stuff up all the time regardless of what you write. In FE8, it is never even implied that Ephraim and Eirika have any incestuous stuff going on, and I don’t even need to finish this sentence because you already know where I’m coming from.
Regardless, I’ll close this admittedly short post by re-remarking on doing what you personally deem best. And obviously, presenting an incestuous relationship in a good light specifically might be… Yeah, just don’t. Bad things exist and that’s all fine and good; just don’t present them as good things.
Final disclaimer: I do not consider myself a good writer and my English is probably far from the best. My posts can also get redundant more often than not.
I have an open mind for this sort of topics so if I’m being straightforward I’d say this type of story is fine in a sense because it’s taking place in a medieval sort of timeline where stuff like this is common (in ancient times).
after all our morals undergone some change every century or so where common practices or events in the past are basically non existent or less common today because we deemed it unethical or whatever.
not saying that incest is a good thing because I’m born in a modern age where this stuff was proven that it could cause genetic abnormalities on the offspring.
but all in all … if you think your idea is worth it then go for it. you won’t really know what will happen afterwards , yes other people might hate it but some might like it , right? don’t mind what other people might think. just do you . as long as you’re not hurting other people and always follow the rules. you’re good. 
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aint eirika and ephraim incest already?
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This is actually a common misconception, incest was largely frowned upon even in medieval times.
Fire Emblem fans when they won’t play the games instead of learning about them via horny reddit memes.
Anyway I can’t believe this thread isn’t locked yet but if it’s gonna stay up anyway, then: the actual reason this is a bad idea is because FE romhacks are just a weird space to explore topics like this. You’ve got the silly looking map sprites and the kinda cartoonish combat animations and the cute mini portraits and all these bright colours. It’s the same reason why a lot of the edgier pokemon romhacks get joked about all the time, they’re just kind of absurd in context.
Exploring themes like sexual taboo is not a moral failing and can be done within the realm of fiction for sure, but it’s an awkward fit for a GBA romhack. Moreover, the reasons you give for why you’re interested in exploring it are, bluntly, bad reasons, and don’t justify making such a leap. Its inclusion would, very likely, make your script worse. There are just several substantially better ways to do the emotional beats you want to do.
The vast majority of the people in this thread taking the admirable pro-incest stance are doing so with a really weird “yes, king, don’t let them cancel you!” vibe. Guys, Game of Thrones was an absolute cultural cornerstone for like a decade. People thought that one Lannister guy was like peak fiction, and he was so incestbrained he tried to kill a child over it.
Nobody relevant is actually going to crucify you for writing stories where these things happen; the actual issue is that most people on this forum are not George R R Martin. If you can’t see the reasons why you should try not to include touchy and taboo topics in your gameboy nintendo game romhack, then I’d wager you’re probably not quite ready to handle those topics in a more suitable medium, either.
That’s not meant to be a dig, mind you - when I was an aspiring writer, I also had a moment where I decided I wanted to tackle some weirder, more serious themes in my writing, and I quickly found out that senseless inclusion of these topics is almost always a bad thing. See, for example, how by the end of the thread you’d decided to omit the plot point - the goals you’d stated were simply better served with a lighter touch. Unless you have very good reason to, it’s very rarely correct to apply a freight train of a topic to your script.
Also some quick shout outs
yes you do lmfao, going “you should do the incest thing” by pointing at examples of games where they have really terrible incest inclusions that make their scripts demonstrably worse, or are written so terribly that incest is accidentally implied, is not the silver bullet you seem to think it is.
JasonGodwin7 jumpscare 
again, this absolutely does happen. There have been multiple hacks with these kinds of “dancer sold into sexual slavery” type characters in them that have raised some serious eyebrows, usually because it’s an extremely heavy topic to include and is frequently done so way too nonchalantly. Obviously, these topics can be, and have been, tackled competently and tactfully; that doesn’t mean they’re worth wading into unless you seriously know what you’re doing.
it’s not, but this is a very intentionally obtuse way of approaching this and you know it. Nobody is going to a romhack for a lesson in morality, and the general fearmongering of “people these days will hate you if you include a bad guy bc on twitter I saw the dumbest people ever getting into an argument on the website where the dumbest people ever go to argue!” is turbo-overblown, but like… Your writing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. If you write something morally reprehensible, but do so in a way that makes it seem like you really don’t think that is the case, you are as within your rights to write that as your readers are to think you’re a slimeball for doing so, and so it’s pretty fair to advise that you handle those kinds of topics with an extra degree of tact.
Like, framing this shit as a “be true to yourself” thing is stupid, bc anyone who’s ever done serious writing knows that including every random whim that comes to mind will make for a terrible story, and a big part of the writing process is rigorously testing your ideas to make sure they’re sound. A writer isn’t compromising the purity of their artistic vision if they decide the incest plotline will be distracting to most viewers, they’re just writing a better story.
yes it would lol, people still find that shit weird as fuck with or without offspring. Please, FE gamers, draw less of your worldview from porn. I already commented on how fucking weird the other part of this comment is.
ok I don’t have anything to reply to with perma he’s just based and correct, love you perma 
but also his work is a good example of what I mean, but in reverse; Deity Device deals with some pretty heavy themes of spousal abuse and the like, which could easily come across as tacky or over the top, but is instead monstrously effective at establishing the villains and leads to a lot of really chilling scenes. Permafrost is also, probably, somewhere in the top 3 writers on this whole site. I would not trust most other writers, including some I already like, to tackle those same themes even half as deftly.
Basically;
is still true. Don’t fuck your sister, folks.
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well to be fair someone86 is pretty cordial about the whole thing. Think they’re genuinely asking an opinion about this instead of essentially rallying support for an already pre made decision/stance. Regardless of whose side people are on. A neutral thread to discuss stuff such as this deserves to be open imo
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