Okay...? I really don't understand your point. A rank is the peak of most supports, S rank is a couple extra stat bonuses and a child. Why would you need an S rank for anything else?
I get that romance isn't necessarily stronger than friendship, what I don't get is the big hangup over S ranks. The important part about S ranks is that it gives a child unit. Unless you're seriously that hung up over slightly higher stats there's no reason why an A rank can't represent an equally meaningful platonic relationship. Most of the games don't even have S ranks, but it's not like that stops characters from getting married or having children if the story calls for it.
Point is that S rank exists as a mechanic to shoehorn in a second generation mechanically with some added benefits. So without having children as a game mechanic there's no reason for S ranks to exist at all instead of simply having A rank as the maximum regardless of the nature of the relationship.
How do I have to phrase this so you get it through your head?
The original reason something was added to a series is not the only part of that thing. Yes, S-rank supports were added to add marriage and babies to the game; no, they are not just wedding/baby supports. They are explicitly labeled as a superior level of relationship, with bespoke mechanics to reinforce this.
I could say something like "Denying this is tantamount to denying that game mechanics have any meaning, which turns supports into nothing more than a second XP system with long cutscenes," but...you're not really even denying the facts I've been explaining. You're really just
ignoring them.
It's a game. Marriages and strong friendships are not equal for simplification reasons. Game design involves setting up and fulfilling expectations. The expectation of the unmatchable and unique power of Twuu Luv is one that's culturally ingrained for seven centuries.
Fuck that argument and the horse it rode in on. You are literally arguing that 14th-century social norms should dictate what gets depicted in modern video games. That's not what Fire Emblem does (FE's good-guy nobles are unimaginably progressive by medieval or early modern standards), and it's not what Fire Emblem should be. Hell, even if Fire Emblem was 100% historically accurate, that wouldn't justify writing
(To say nothing of how more recent Fire Emblem games added gay S-rank supports. That violates the centuries-old cultural indoctrination of most regions FE ships to.)
Plus, a strong platonic friendship S-rank might cause other problems. Like if it's between two characters of the same gender, imagine all the posts about queerbaiting, or if it's between characters of different gender, then imagine everyone distraught over that.
Point 1: Queerbaiting is only really a Thing people care about if it
replaces actual queer representation. Which, as I pointed out, Fire Emblem actually has.
Point 2: Platonic S-rank supports only seem like queerbaiting if S-rank supports are exclusively romantic. All it would take for platonic S-rank supports to not seem romantic is to establish that S-rank supports in Fire Emblem Whatever are not exclusively romantic—say, by including a bunch of platonic S-rank supports, and some familial S-rank supports too.
It's not a warcrime for a game to imperfectly represent reality, when it can't satisfy the dream in your head. Keep a realistic outlook on what can be provided by the funny pictures on the little screen and you'll be happier.
So seeing non-romantic relationships that matter is
unrealistic. Tell me you've never played a queer game without telling me you've never played a queer game.
The only reason you could theoretically get away with calling non-heteronormatic stuff in video games "unrealistic" is because big corporations are shitty and don't want to offend homophobes. Which isn't wrong, but it overlooks three obvious facts:
- We should hold corporations to better standards than they hold themselves to.
- There's already gay characters in Fire Emblem, your argument is invalid.
- Platonic relationships are not fucking controversial, even to the staunchest homophobes. Yeah, you'd get some assholes arguing that they aren't really just platonic relationships, but there aren't enough Fredric Werthams in the world for anyone to worry about.
I know you probably don't
intend to say that video games should only depict a world that fits with medieval norms, or that we shouldn't hold corporations to any standards, or that it's unrealistic to expect anything better than the shitty reality we were born into. But you still
did argue all of those things, so...fuck you anyways, a little.
If they really wanted to satisfy everyone they'd have to make at least two different lines of conversations for every character, which just isn't going to happen ever.
This whole argument started over a joke, and I shouldn't have given into the temptation to question why someone is unhappy that a game doesn't pander to them specifically.
Now, you I
am going to give a hearty fuck-you to.
First off, you're making my criticisms sound absurd because that makes them easier to argue against. I don't think games need to pander to everyone's desires, I just think that they should
stop pandering to heteronormative assholes like
you.
Second: No, they don't need to write several versions of every conversation to fulfill my basic request of "don't have your game say romantic relationships matter more than every other kind". Just one S-rank support conversation for important relationships, or maybe for all relationships (since any random pair of male/female characters can currently decide they're soulmates after fighting side by side for a few battles).
Third: Even if you were
right, your argument is
absurd. Support conversations are
incredibly lightweight content for Intelligent Systems to develop. It's mostly just writing dialogue and picking from a narrow range of poses to associate with each line of dialogue. This isn't effortless, but compared to the effort that needs to go into adding a level (game design, QA testing, calculating/testing the effect is has on broader game progression, making new assets for the map and any special units/items...), and it's night and day.
