So this is a thought I just had a little bit ago. I’ve heard it said that Lyn’s inclusion in FE7 was unnecessary, almost like an afterthought. This got me thinking, how different would the game’s story be if she was never a part of it to begin with?
For starters, if Lyn didn’t appear and kill Lundgren in the beginning of FE7, then Lundgren would’ve ended up taking the throne in Caelin. Someone as power hungry as him then would have absolutely become involved in Ephidel’s rebellion plot against Ostia. That would likely mean a full scale war in Lycia, with Caelin and Laos fighting against Pherae and Ostia, which would throw the whole plot off the rails. I would love to see a project someday that explores how much things would change from there. Maybe the war would give Nergal enough quintessence to release the dragons early? I dunno, I’m just spitballing here, let me know what you guys think
What do I think? I think of all the things people could be thinking about, someone is thinking about how Fire Emblem could have been different and then divulges their ideas here. You’re a true fan, which is wonderful.
The first character I ever knew about from Fire Emblem was Rebecca from FE7. I was looking at a video game magazine in a mall somewhere (I forget where because it was in 2001 or 2002.). I was 8 or 9 years old. There was a picture in the magazine of the battle sequence, and Rebecca’s sprite was there.
Still, Lyn was my first friend from the Fire Emblem world. That Christmas, when I got FE7 and FFTA, was probably the best Christmas I had, because both of those games were so much fun. Every time I boot it up again and follow Lyn’s instructions to completely wreck those two brigands, it brings back those memories of wonder and love of all things anime, video games and Japan.
So to answer your question, not having Lyn would have meant that a different character would have taken her place, probably Eliwood. And he would have been my first Fire Emblem ‘friend’ instead.
I’ve always hated how fe7 retconned fe6 as her inclusion felt unnecessary. It felt like a what-if regarding both her, mark and many other things that were not originally canon. Don’t get me wrong, I love her character but she was an unnecessary addition.
Just to point this… but having a character in a prequel that was not mentioned at all in a game that comes after chronolgically is not a retcon per se, is just an original character that is of no importance for the events that come after.
Is more, FE7 ties the Lyn loose end nicely, since whatever you do, Caelin is no more, and lyn goes to live on Sacae and never be mentioned again, or is the wife of Hector or Eliwood, that aren’t mentioned either but clearly need to exist outside of Roy’s story.
Leaving that behing, on the topic of Lyn not exisiting, at first I though that one was to argue that Caelin doesn’t exists either to point at the non-importance of Caelin’s plot as a whole, and how the game plot would be mostly the same, with only changing where Darin men’s are fought and Leila gives his exposition dump.
But following the logic of Caelin exists, but Lyn doesn’t. I would certainly see Lundgren being on the side of Darin.
I always though that was a bit unexplored there, a few lines of dialog could easily point at Ephidel and Darin being instigators to Lundgren, since having Laus+Caelin+Santarus going rogue would actually be a serious matter for Ostia.
I don’t think Lyn not existing/being dead would really change much in the grand scheme of things.
Sure Ostia would be a bit weaker, and you’d potentially lose out on units like Kent, but you could also just say they join you as exiles of sorts to undo that.
In the end the heroes would still beat Lundgren and Nergal, it would just be slightly harder.
If you really wanna try and turn this into a project, i would instead try to go for a full “what if everything that could’ve went bad, did go bad” FE4 sort of thing.
It’s been a while since i played and especially read fe7’s story, but i’d go full force. Lyn dies when trying to dethrone Lundgren, Lucius and Pricilla die and Raven is promised his family’s land back if they beat Ostia and firmly on the enemy side. Ostia gets completely overwhelmed and Hectors Brother dies prematurely. Eliwoods dad is still gone and even Pent and Louise are stuck somewhere in the desert.
You’d spent the first bit just trying to fight against the odds as Eliwood and Hector, but with Eliwood’s dad still captured, and Eliwood and Hector busy waging a guerilla war against the occupation forces, Nergal is essentially given free reign. After a while and when it looks like Eliwood is about to win, the dragons appear once more. After this you can either make up some convoluted way of the heroes still winning, or go for the fe4 approach and have them lose, then make FE6: The Broken Blade continuing the story with Roy and Lilina.
I think going for a title like FE7: Extinguished Ember, or FE7: The Fireless Sword could work
Gameplay wise, since you’d essentially always be on the disadvantage, you could go for a low money approach akin to Thracia, and possibly even add a Boss recruitment mechanic akin to Parrhesia’s Drums of War. I mean, just imagine Batta the beast and Glass the Peerless Swordsman fighting alongside Hector and Eliwood against A horde of Dragons.
While I do think there’s a lot of potential with that idea as well, I think it’d be interesting to explore how a single simple change could have massive ripple effects throughout the story.
For example, Ninian likely would have still been saved by Eliwood during the year prior to Eliwood’s story, but he probably would have then taken her back to Pherae, meaning she doesn’t reunite with Nils and he most likely gets captured. In this theoretical rom hack, Lyn mode could even be replaced with a little introduction where Eliwood saves her from the Black Fang as he does in ch7 and then takes her and meets up with Hector, the three of them then setting out for Pherae with the Black Fang on their trail.
I’ve already touched on how Lundgren being marquess could result in full scale war in Lycia, which would mean Nergal never has to turn his attention to Bern. That would mean Battle Before Dawn never happens which could mean Nino and Jaffar never switch sides. (Zephiel would definitely still be evil tho, that wasn’t the first time Desmond tried to kill him.)
The influx of quintessence from the war in Lycia would likely be enough for Nergal to call the dragons early, which could lead to a similar scenario to the one you described. It’s also possible that Bern would try to take advantage of the civil war and launch an attack on Lycia while they’re weakened, which would add a whole other layer to everything.
It’s a much smaller initial change, but I feel like it could be interesting to see how drastically things change because of it
Ok, I’m tried of hearing hypotheticals, anyone who likes to do a hack of this matter is receiving 100% my help, I would love to part take of a project like this.
That’s… not what a retcon is, or at least it’s using a very loose definition of the term. Something not being established as existing is not the same as that thing being established as not existing, if that makes sense. Expanding on what happened during a different time frame in the same setting as an existing story kind of necessarily requires that you make up new stuff that wasn’t in that existing story, or else you’re just repeating said existing story’s exposition on the matter. Lyn isn’t any more a retcon than any of the other characters (the majority of FE7’s overall cast, actually) who are wholly-original to that game. They’re just… people who exist/ed on Elibe and were relevant to the events of FE7 but not to the events of FE6.
An FE7 where Lundgren is the boss of Whereabouts Unknown (I’m assuming?) might be kinda neat. In the game as it is, Bernard and Bauker are very much just bosses who exist because the types of chapters they’re fought in need bosses, so having a little more narrative oomph to that Chapter 16E/17H boss fight could be cool.
