In a sermon from 1306, a Dominican Friar wrote: “It is not yet twenty years since there was found the art of making eyeglasses, which make for good vision… And it is so short a time that this new art, never before extant, was discovered.” In the mid 14th century, paintings started to appear with people wearing eyeglasses. (Take for example Tommaso da Modena’s 1352 portrait showing the cardinal Hugh de Provence reading.) Mankind’s oldest surviving pair of glasses are located in the Daisenin Temple in Kyoto. They belonged to Yoshimasa Ashikaga, the eighth shogun of the Muromachi shogunate. The glasses and the accompanying case are made from hand-carved white ivory.
“The Standard Fantasy Setting” is no stranger to Anachronism. And it goes beyond seeing Vikings fight Samurai in For Honour. The Middle Ages span roughly 1,000 years, starting with a loss of power throughout Europe by the Roman Emperor and ending between 1400 and 1450. It’s common for all sorts of fictional characters to mix and match armour pieces and weapons from across various places in the world during this vast time period. Even if these armour pieces and weapons were independently invented by fictional people in a world entirely disconnected from our own. If a nation in your fantasy setting invented Katzbalgers, why not also invent glasses?
14th-15th century Crossbows in the 13th century in Braveheart, 1400s Plate Armour in Lord Of The Rings, jokes about modern (for its time) politics in Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Renaissance era mechanical clocks and a Starbucks cup in Game of Thrones, cannons in The Wheel Of Time, the Greek Sophitia from Soul Calibur in the 16th century(at a point in time when Greece was conquered by the Muslim Ottoman Empire), to say nothing of Taki’s spandex outfit(wool tights existed at the time but they were wool, not spandex), and then there are Rapiers in Fire Emblem (1600s)…
While Solid Snake showing up with Miller’s sunglasses and a gun from the 21st century in the middle of the Wars Of The Roses would be anachronistic, 1316’s Arnaldo, Dominican Bishop of Bologna, had glasses and is mathematically less anachronistic than Rapiers. How many years of research and fashion would it take for glasses to go from something new and rare to the hot new fashion trend to something common and obtainable in a variety of styles? How common would glasses become? How common would sunglasses become? Especially in a world where magic, explosions, and bright flashes of light are commonplace. At least four billion people in our world wear glasses. You’d think you’d see more glasses in Fire Emblem.
Today “glasses” are worn on the face as a practical accessory, but in the past they (lenses) were held in front of the eyes or above writing in books or on scrolls. We can assume that the scholars in Fire Emblem games have access to various feudal-era tools, but they are just not seen with them all of the time (during dialogue or battle).
Honestly I think that any type of physical impairment is rare in Fire Emblem beyond the ones that are either glaringly obvious/fight-made (loss of sword arms, loss of eyes, etc.) and so on, and those aren’t really strongly depicted on.
You don’t have archers with sight-issues, you don’t have soldiers with aching arms, you don’t have asthmatic fighters, you don’t have those in Fire Emblem.
You could argue that, such as in Medieval eras, people with such impairments would simply die, but there is also the possibility that they aren’t fielded.
Glasses are a weakness and a liability in the battlefield, as the loss of them can quickly spell out doom for its wearer.
the character designers didn’t make characters with glasses. a lot of the time what’s included in a game’s design is based on how people would vibe with it. samurai were contemporaneous with abraham lincoln and that would shock many people who would call it unrealistic and laugh at it if abraham lincoln met one despite it having a historical basis. it’s also important to consider that early glasses looked, frankly, goofy as hell. modern glasses might look out of place though, so they just didn’t have any.
ultimately, something having a historical basis or being realistic doesn’t mean it’s good. this isn’t really about glasses anymore, but just any kind of realism that doesn’t add much. it would be realistic for you to have to pay for your army’s food, water, and other such things but they don’t have that because it doesn’t add much and that sort of intense resource management doesn’t fit a goofy game meant for teenagers where hector has a woman slam into him from the sky but springs up to fight alongside her instead of them both instantly dying.
That being said… glasses are pretty nice. I’d like to see some more, but we probably won’t see too many glasses moving forward.
If I had to say, it has to be about aesthetics. Hear me out:
I don’t care about glasses. However in Japan (where these games are produced) the “Oho, a guy with glasses, he must be a geek, let’s bully him” mentallity is still a thing, even if now there’s less than before. For them, having glasses may be less attractive when drawing characters specially because they LOVE huge eyes. Just watch some anime and you will see. Now remember than wearing glasses can make your eyes look smaller and there you have it.
And I don’t believe @LeskLyfeld to be right. Having glasses is not the same as being asthmatic or having aching arms. The moment you put your glasses on you can see as good as anyone else, making you as good an archer as anybody else (as long as you are skilled). And yes, you can lose your glasses but it’s not as easy as we see in films. Glasses are actually quite difficult to drop when you have them on (if they are good glasses), and you can just put a string to achieve further grip. Meanwhile, you can’t fight asthma (unless you have some kind of breathing device that obviously doesn’t exist in a middle ages universe) or aching arms.
It is likely that all the characters have undergone LASIK surgery or ICL. lol
To begin with, if magic can heal injuries, why can’t it also heal eyesight?
How magic cures is a mystery.
Magic can cure even a serious, near-death injury.
Then it could also cure the disease of deteriorating eyesight.
Given that there are old people in the world of FE, perhaps magic cannot cure aging.
Even the great sage Athos was an old man.
Why magic can cure injuries but not aging is a mystery.
Not just about dropping them, but they also harm your peripheral vision, can be broken in a fight, can be stained, can be scratched, and so many more things.
And as mentioned before, the glass types aren’t the same as we do now, and we would lack the real technology required to make precise glasses that would be able to work specifically and precisely for any eyesight issues. They are a liability on a fight, and them being damaged can effectively diminish your fighting capabilities if you rely on bows, not to talk about how they are shot/wielded.
No, no. Let them cook. Why aren’t there glasses in Fire Emblem?
It makes sense but remember the game we’re talking about. Fire Emblem isn’t the kind of game to avoid anything regardless character costumes due to realism. Is it really too far fetched to think of someone having glasses when there are people going around in basically bikinis?
I understand why older games don’t have them (Fe1-Fe8)
Because their inspirations didn’t include glasses (old, epic european poems), and in the medieval world we think those aren’t typically included as well, one would usually not think of glasses when they’re creating a character for a medieval RPG. Also these were old games so their design philosophy isn’t the same as today
The first game where one I’m surprised there isn’t glasses is in FE9 and FE10. Not even the Begnion senators have them! And they’re old men! I believe Tellius has the aesthetic to include some characters with glasses, shifting a bit from stereotypical medievalism.
Now we see more four-eyes in the games, with the inclusion of the pointy-hat witch with MODERN GLASSES, and Ignatz. I haven’t seen anyone complain about their glasses yet. I’m sure we’ll start to see more of them in original Fire Emblem entries, but I doubt they’d include them in the remakes because those didn’t have them
Honestly Fire Emblem is known for not cooking with many concepts (the usage of magic for convenience, such as Wind mages using their magic to push sails and navigate the waters, transmitting messages through wind, fire mages not cooking, ice magic not being used to freeze surfaces and walk through them, and so on).
Then again, its the same franchise that depicts brigands/pirates as simply loot-lusting village-busting plunder-gushing individuals and nothing more, so…
Sure, but at the same time we have people like Mirielle fighting in Fire emblem. She has glasses and remember that she can change into fighter classes. So clearly they are not a liability. Glasses in fire emblem are probably not made of glass, just a different material with similar properties or maybe they found a way to develop more resistant glasses (be aware that Mirielle’s glasses look like MODERN glasses, surprisingly). Then there is Ignatz, by far the most accurate archer in 3H with a personal ability that also empathises accuracy (altough he does drop them in a couple of support conversations). That would explain why there are characters with glasses, even if there are few due to the reason I explained before about aesthetics.
I’ll concede that they can harm your peripheral vision though, that is true.
Agreed. You may have overstimated them a little there (transmitting messages through wind would most likely be way more difficult than it sounds), but agreed.
I understand why they depict brigands and pirates that way (mostly). Imagine having to dig deeply into a common brigand to understand their motivations and aspirations. They probably decided it was better to make them simpler, while getting deep with more plot important characters like Camus and Michalis in Marth games, or the enemy royal family in Fates (depending on whomyou chose).
FE Awakening+ has everyone being able to change into a lot of classes within reasons so that’s just a loose concept in the case of Mirielle. The concept of them not being a liability simply because one/two characters do wear them and can switch to different classes is not the strongest argument. There is also the concept of availability/comodity.
Glasses nowadays are relatively available to those in need of them, and can be crafted with relative ease. But glasses in medieval times? Many wouldn’t see them as a useful tool on their daily lives (considering illiteracy in medieval times, and jobs being more physically oriented), and archers who are unable to hit their mark would be deemed as incapable, not as visually impaired and have a set of glasses handed to them with ease.
And even still, glasses will become clouded in specific weather, will be obstructed by rain, can be scratched, can be broken, can have hair falling on them… And many of those scenarios will force its wearer to have to take a moment to clean them off - drop their guard - which is not a good thing to do in battle.
If long-range tomes can be used as the means of an attack, long-range wind magic can be used as the means to send signals.
Hell, use Bolting on one of those pires atop towers to give signals. Fire on those lead to chain reactions or something that can effectively send a “danger incoming” signal.
Yes, but remember again that Mirielle clearly has modern glasses (in fact, she has the same glasses as me), so it’s not so far fetched. And remember that Archanea is a different world. Medieval, yes, but a different world and a fantasy one at that. It’s not that imposible to believe that they can have a material of similar properties to make glasses, and it could totally be an abundant material so the production costs would not be as high (specially for a noble like Mirielle, or so I imagine since she is so highly educated).
And since, as you said, magic has a lot of uses that are never cooked in the games, some uses are clear. Mages walk easily through desert, they can either use wind to make a path or levitate slightly, so we could assume magic can also be used to somehow make glasses more resistant, or protecting them water, dust and anything else. Hell, we have magic dances that steels your skin and staves that close deadly wounds, so why not?
Well yeah, but to carry a phisical message you would need to properly direct the winds (multiple winds) just to elevate it into air, then conduct it to your allies. And all of this while fighting. And if we are talking about codified messages, they would have to be sure to make the proper vibrations in the air, then decodify the message.
The idea of using bolting tomes to light fires Gondor style is amazing, I love it.
Jason, you ought to make more of this ridiculous questions, they turn into amazing debates
On this case I reckon it’d work best on a pre-fight scenario, with the possibility of enemy wind mages being able to intercept or detect such magic as well. Even then, it can be as simple as just a wind-hit with no message, but with fore-knowledge that such a sign would mean something specific.
Or you could have pegasus/wyvern riders using them as tele-com.
The first time glasses (monocles) appeared in FE was in FE4.
Reptor, who appears as an enemy, wears a monocle.
The player unit is Kanas from FE7.
Considering the reason for the monocle, we can assume that lenses are a precious commodity in this world.
Printing technology does not seem to have developed in the FE world, and the demand for reading text is probably not that great.
