Biweekly Question: Does pairing ruin the plausibility of gen 2 units' personalities?
So, one of the plans I have had since I started this project was a 2nd generation campaign. I have always liked the idea of child units, especially in Awakening, but Genealogy of the Holy War had more than half of the game be dedicated to the children of the first part's units.
Taking from that, I decided that the children would have their own campaign, and that they would be affected, skill-wise, like Awakening. However, two of the main children I had an issue with: I could not see their mother and father not being two particular gen 1 units. So I decided that these two gen 1 characters would not be able to pair up romantically with any other gen 1 characters. But then I realized that some of these children act so much like their mother or father character that it doesn't seem like the other parent even mattered outside of stats.
In Awakening, Laurent's supports with his father highlight this: the father doesn't understand what part he had in Laurent's upbringing, because the only thing that reflects that Laurent is related to his father is his hair color. To me, this kind of ruins some of the children, because (even though I understand completely why they can't customize conversations heavily because of different parents) the kids don't act like the player's chosen parent even matters. Wouldn't it be more interesting if the child was impacted by both parents' decisions in the child's upbringing?
For example, let's say you got Lissa with Lon'qu. Owain should be at least a little bit more serious. Yet he still acts like a five-year old with a plastic lightsaber and a thesaurus. What about Miriel and Vaike? Why would Laurent be so frail and nerdy if his dad was a total meathead?
Fates children are a little different, because they never really had much interaction with their parents, but that makes their conversations with their parents depressing. Look at Nina and Niles, Nina hates her father for leaving her in the Deeprealm. I don't want to make all the gen 2 units have terrible relationships with their parents.
Would it be better, then, to have pairings be forced? It would dull the fun in headcanon and getting child units as a whole, but didn't Binding Blade do that in a way? And we got interesting child characters that weren't carbon copies of their father/mother, that didn't hate their parents, and were unique in that they weren't held back by the math that might mess up your child unit in Awakening.
So what other option is there? Should pairing units be totally up to the FE game's creator, wouldn't that take some of the fun out of the game? It was partially what earned new fans of the series in Awakening, an inventive mechanic like that shouldn't be dropped, or should it
Taking from that, I decided that the children would have their own campaign, and that they would be affected, skill-wise, like Awakening. However, two of the main children I had an issue with: I could not see their mother and father not being two particular gen 1 units. So I decided that these two gen 1 characters would not be able to pair up romantically with any other gen 1 characters. But then I realized that some of these children act so much like their mother or father character that it doesn't seem like the other parent even mattered outside of stats.
In Awakening, Laurent's supports with his father highlight this: the father doesn't understand what part he had in Laurent's upbringing, because the only thing that reflects that Laurent is related to his father is his hair color. To me, this kind of ruins some of the children, because (even though I understand completely why they can't customize conversations heavily because of different parents) the kids don't act like the player's chosen parent even matters. Wouldn't it be more interesting if the child was impacted by both parents' decisions in the child's upbringing?
For example, let's say you got Lissa with Lon'qu. Owain should be at least a little bit more serious. Yet he still acts like a five-year old with a plastic lightsaber and a thesaurus. What about Miriel and Vaike? Why would Laurent be so frail and nerdy if his dad was a total meathead?
Fates children are a little different, because they never really had much interaction with their parents, but that makes their conversations with their parents depressing. Look at Nina and Niles, Nina hates her father for leaving her in the Deeprealm. I don't want to make all the gen 2 units have terrible relationships with their parents.
Would it be better, then, to have pairings be forced? It would dull the fun in headcanon and getting child units as a whole, but didn't Binding Blade do that in a way? And we got interesting child characters that weren't carbon copies of their father/mother, that didn't hate their parents, and were unique in that they weren't held back by the math that might mess up your child unit in Awakening.
So what other option is there? Should pairing units be totally up to the FE game's creator, wouldn't that take some of the fun out of the game? It was partially what earned new fans of the series in Awakening, an inventive mechanic like that shouldn't be dropped, or should it
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