Alfonse - Tumblr Posts

God the way I wish the main cast of FEH had more expressive portraits. We are getting more of them now, but I will never not weep at the wasted opportunity to elevate the narrative of book 4. Like could you imagine if Alfonse got new expressions because it’s Kiran wearing his face? Hell let’s really dive into wishful thinking and say they made character portraits for Kiran— those expressions could mirror Alfonse’s new portraits, but aren’t immediately recognizable because we are seeing their god damn eyes for once. And then, once it’s revealed that it is Kiran, they drop all pretenses in pretending and all we are left with is this dull hallowed out expression that’s distinctly not Alfonse but so PAINFULLY Kiran.

Is it time for a modern au? I think it's time for a modern au.

If Alfonse wins CYL I’ll draw him with the tits out.

So true bestie.

I'm starting to recover from covid and am easing myself in before diving back into my more labor intensive projects. Expect the celebratory Alfonse art for the CYL8 win soonish.

Inspo under the cut:

Well ain't this a tangled web we weave? I did not expect this turn in my high effort shitposting character arc, yet here we are!

But as promised, in celebration for the CYL8 win, here is an Alfonse anatomy study rendered for your viewing pleasure! Just in time for valentines day.

Im sure they’ll use this knowledge for solely good and not at all mischievous things.

Sorry I had to draw it really fast really shitty

Love ur Kiran I wanna take them to places

Can they bring their pet freak for emotional support? He don't bite they promise (yes he do.)

Nothing like motiving myself to practice drawing kisses from reference by making the final results feature my FEH girlies.

You look towards your brother.

It is not him looking back at you.

Throwing my headcannons in the ring because this age discussion has been hilarious.

So I personally believe that Alfonse and Sharena’s age difference is pretty small. About 1 year apart, two at max. What set that in stone for me was meeting their parents in book 3 and seeing that their difference in maturity derives from the two very different expectations put on them. This coupled with a generally sheltered life prior to joining in the Order leads to the wonderful concoction of mirroring issues they’re both sporting.

Speaking of, how old were they when they joined the Order? I want to say about 18-19, as that age range generally correlates to when people usually start to break free from their parents and become more independent. And we know that’s what joining the Order was for them because this decision led to Alfonse getting entirely kicked out by his dad. It’s all very “good luck kid, you’re an adult now. Figure it out yourself” coded. So from there, let’s give them a few years in service. Maybe four years? So when book 1 actually starts, Sharena and Alfonse would be about 21 and 22 respectively.

Now Commander Anna has always come off as older than the royal siblings. This woman has had a whole military career up until this point. She has enough combat experience to warrant becoming the commander of an elite army battalion whose original purpose was espionage and in the coming years is about to be responsible for killing multiple gods. However, despite this, she’s not THAT much older than them. Maybe about 25? So how on earth does that work? Well, it would make a lot more sense if she was child soldier of some kind. Fighting on the front lines since she was 13-14. That logs her over a decade of experience and would help explain why she is military commander of all things and not another cutthroat merchant.

Bruno is unfortunately singing a similar tune as Anna. He is about the same age and was made into a solider around the same time. Maybe even sooner. We know his life started hitting its downward spiral with the death of his mother, so it would make sense that as a form of survival, he would start learning how to fight. Then within this 10+ year time period, he could be sent to Askr, meet Anna, join the Order, become close with the royal siblings, leave, etc.

Veronica, meanwhile, is like 13-14 in book 1. She’s baby. She’s a brat. She’s around the age where things started going very wrong for Bruno, so he feels morally obliged to try to be there for her as a result. Be at least one adult in her life that has her best interest at heart. But he’s also extremely depressed and going through it, so that becomes increasingly complicated as time goes on.

Last but not least we got Kiran. In my mind they’re about 24. Nothing too complicated going on with that conclusion. They’re not older than Anna, but not younger than Sharena. Think it would be funny if they were like “Wait Alfonse you’re 22? Oh my god you’re a baby” while only having a two year age difference.

(Also I think it could be really interesting flavor for Kiran’s character if they’re old enough to have a college degree that can no longer use but Kiran’s past is a Ted Talk for another day)

Now what’s actually complicated is how old everyone is in current day. I think, on average, it could be safe to say that each book takes canonically about 6ish months. For example, making book 1 and 2 take place in the same year feels right to me, especially since they kinda flow into each other. Embla was presumably winning for a time, but since in introduction of the summoner, they’ve spent half a year getting absolutely no where. At that point, it makes sense for Embla call upon Múspell to help turn the tide. But the key world is average, because then you have seasons like book 4 which explicitly takes place over the course of 3 days. This means that book 3 and book 5 are WAY closer to each other timeline wise. Niðavellir probably chooses to attack Askr when they did because they were still recovering from Hel’s near world ending assault. This makes book 6 take place around the start of year three. But then book 7 makes things complicated again because of course it does but instead of trying to decode it I’m just gonna slap it with the 6 months sticker even tho it’s definitely wrong. Which makes book 8 happening at around year 4.

With all that in mind, my headcannon ages for our main cast in book 8 are as follows: Alfonse is 26, Sharena is 25, Anna is 29, Kiran is 28, Veronica is 17, and Bruno is dead (died at age 28.)

I would LOVE for some updated portraits to convey how much time has passed with the Askr trio. I want to draw it so bad. But alas I am busy and Alfonse growing into more Líf similarities will have to wait.

LMFAOOOO

It's very unclear! But Alfonse's "It's been at least 10 years since Sharena was a child" line is a rough estimate itself. I feel like it could place Sharena anywhere to 18 to 20 when she joined the Order of Heroes (this is just my headcanon though, based on what's typical irl -- there's also a possibility that in Askr, the age you're considered "an adult" is different, but that's also speculation)

But if Sharena was anywhere from 18 to 20 when she joined the Heroes, and granting that a few years have passed to get to Book 4. Maybe 22? 24? At oldest? If every book is a year. Which in that case!

Yeah she could be at this point actually 🤔 Or maybe 26.

And really you can throw any random number at Alfonse like. I kinda hc he's 3 years older than her, if not 4. They do seem close in age, but far enough that Alfonse has always felt more "grown up" to her (possibly by the way he was treated/raised, many possibilities). But going off those numbers, he could be 29 or 30ish current Book, if we're going w Sharena being 26 (makes me wonder if his Brave alt is gonna make him look "more mature"... like his portrait always read as young adult to me, but I wonder if he'll be a little less baby faced.)

Really said 👀

SHARENA WEEK DAY 3!!!!

An artist working on her largest canvas yet! The design is truly impeccable; proven by how if they were not sitting, it would have taken Kiran out at the knees.

Hug :)

My Silly Askr Trio Team Builds!! Yippee!!

Warning before going in; I am going full nerd mode here. But like, the math kind. The nerd who likes the gameplay mechanics of anime war crimes chess game that’s really a math game in a trench coat. I also do not claim that any of these builds are good, just that I’ve had fun playing and making them. Also also I’m entirely free to play.

So without further ado, oh no I like playing Heroes actually:

First off; Brave Princess Veronica!!! Who is technically not part of the trio but I needed a fourth!!!

I haven’t really built her in the same way I’ve tinkered with the others. But I put a lot of thought into who to round out the squad with and I think she was the best option I could have picked.

Since the goal of this squad is the difficulty, I didn’t want the fourth party member to be a significantly better unit than the other three. I didn’t want any overshadowing or a clutch. They also had to be from Heroes. Hopefully a mage of some kind so we had magical damage on the board. But most importantly, I needed a support unit.

Now I classify a support unit in FEH as a unit who is purpose built to support others on the squad. Be that through healing, dancing, or Lilith repositioning Altina straight into enemy fire and watching how the stat buffs she provides render attacks against Altina null and pure crit building fodder. Brave Veronica is a fantastic support when EVERY BUFF COUNTS. Now the move pool I have to pick from for these guys has grown exponentially and I have slowly accumulated the resources to buff their stats. But this wasn’t always the case! Each story map clear used to be a struggle and the rallying/debuff effect she gives post attacking would be the difference at times. She fit right into the play style I was having fun with and gave the Askr trio a fighting chance. Also don’t judge that seal I have more important units to put the better skills on and honestly she could use the health.

Up next, my pretty outdated Alfonse!!! How many Brazens can I give this dude!!

So remember how I said every buff was important with these three? This load out is a fantastic example for what I mean. Over time, I have gained the materials to buff the crap out of Alfonse’s stats. The flower cap got higher, traits became a thing, then ascended traits became a thing, add some summoner support in there and now I have an Alfonse with workable stats. But this was not always the case! And you can see the remains of this with the speed refine on his sword.

In case it’s not clear yet, I don’t change the weapons these guys have. I only refine them. And god damn Alfonse had NO SPEED and it was KILLING HIM. Don’t let that 40 speed fool you that’s the ascended trait. I did not know until building Askr trio that every time a unit has low speed, FEH equips them with a skill to ensure that they can still double. Alfonse didn’t have this, I’m too free to play for the skill fodder game, and I have a life outside this game. So I kept running into this problem where he would actually have the stats to kill, but could not consistently double, so he’d die. Speed on Fólkvangr was the solution I came up with. Then I got the ascended trait thingy and decided to never worry about his speed again. But at this time I don’t have the material to refine his weapon into something else so it’s still speed lmao.

Reposition is my favorite skill in game and I have never needed rally skills more than with this team. The perk with movement rally skills is that it rallies two units instead of one, and as previously stated, Alfonse needed the speed buffs. So Spd/Def Link (gives +6 to both stats on both units when movement skill was used) was the best and only option I had.

Now infantry rush (infantry allies within 2 spaces get +1 special cooldown per attack if Atk stat is higher than their enemy) was a bit of a mixed skill for this group when I first equipped it, but it made him fun to use with my main groups in other game modes. Alfonse giving student Edelgard that little boost before repositioning her into enemy lines was a very fun combo. And although it didn’t help every time, giving the Askr trio grander opportunities to crit is NEVER a waste. It can be the difference.

Also 60 Health. Brazen Skill. What more must I say. He reaches a certain health threshold and kills everything in a ten mile radius.

Next up: Anna!!! My beloved commander!!! Who can actually take a god damn hit!!!

Here you can see my two brain cells finally coming together to give Anna a gimmick. And that gimmick is friends plus frenzy.

So the perk of Anna is that she can kinda go wherever you want her to, if that makes sense. I feel like with Alfonse, he kinda wants to be built tanky and it was extremely easy to slap 3 brazen Atk/Def on him. But with Anna, I have not touched her traits beside a weapon buff to her pitiful attack stat, so this is her basic stat spread plus 20 flowers. There are most definitely builds taking advantage of things like her higher res, but I honed on her speed because that’s the one I had skills for.

Spd/Def form (if unit is in two spaces from an ally when entering combat, the will get a buff to those two stats based on the number of allies nearby) was serving Sharena pretty well, so I thought I’d give Anna the Atk/Spd variant. A lot of this group’s buffs comes from being nearby each other, so it fit pretty well. Decided to make those two stats her focus. That lead to Atk/Spd oath 4, which does a few things but mainly she can now move to spaces next to allies two spaces from her and get buffed by standing next to them.

Then. Then I found Frenzy. Frenzy also does a few things, but put simply it’s a damage reduction skill based on her speed. And I just gave her skills that all raise her speed. And her other team members can further buff her speed. Needless to say, Anna just went from the weak link to a god damn menace. On a unit with a stat total greater than 201, this could probably render attacks null. But on Anna, it entirely solves her 26 def problem. Usually when a unit has those paper thin defenses, it’s usually to account for a busted attack stat on a ranged unit. Glass cannon and all that. But Anna is an axe unit who needs serious Atk support to even turn one another axe unit. It was the inverse of Alfonse’s Spd problem and it was rough. This skill gave her the tools to survive and I have never felt so freaking smart playing this game.

Last but certainly not least; Sharena!!! She’s never done anything wrong ever!!!!

Unlike the other two, Sharena has no glaringly obvious issues. She’s got no res but that’s not new; no one here has res! So just don’t put her in range of magic. But that meant I really didn’t know what to do with her until I figured out Anna. The null follow is evidence of this. I was running into issues with follow ups, so I just threw a skill that made that problem go away on Sharena without thinking about how that could go towards her build. And that was basically her role for a long time. A random collections of skills to serve team needs.

That changed with the discovery of how speed plays into damage reduction and I gave Sharena a similar build with a different goal. Anna is built to hit and run, while Sharena is built to tank for way longer than she was meant to. Spd/Def form and refined Fensalir give her bonuses to Spd/Def around allies. Repel does the same thing as Frenzy with more bonuses to Spd and the ability to push people back. Godlike Reflexes uses her Spd to say that this attack from a mage won’t kill actually. Deflect melee is even more damage reduction to every consecutive melee attack after the first. Atk Oath Echo, while a nice tiny boost to Atk, is there strictly to help Sharena keep up with Anna. Again, every buff counts and those two are S supported to eachother. Giving her a higher movement skill to match her was an excellent use of that fancy x skill don’t @ me.

The result of all that math is a Sharena who can tank things 60 hp triple brazen Alfonse can’t. If I can time my specials right, Sharena can survive would be fatal hits from foes purpose built to team wipe. She is my Hail Mary. 25 Res is now all she needs to save me from very scary mages and Veronica can heal her up afterwards (something I can’t always do to Alfonse because it would take him out of Brazen range).

So yeah! Those are my guys! My funny little team! Thanks to power creep feh is very easily a pay to win game, but using these guys made me use my brain and made story mode missions actually satisfying to clear. It’s how I personally have fun. Book 3 final boss map on Lunatic haunts me to this day and that’s how I know I’m doing it right.

Wish me luck, because I am not even remotely caught up on recent books. These builds are going to have to withstand that onslaught soon enough and I fear triple brazen Alfonse might finally go down.

I would love to see others builds. Would definitely recommend playing FEH’s story mode with what are essentially Pokémon level caps. Makes it fun. Makes it mean. Feel the power creep come to kick you in the shins.

As a reward for reading this far, a gift!!! An even grander sneak peak for that one Alfonse alt I am going crazy making!!!

This was a total accident but it looks like an awakening crit portrait and I couldn’t be happier.

And they were roommates!

Funny little modern au doodles for the soul. Individuals below:

DAY 3: Day of Devotion!!!

Oughhh I really like this one. Something about Kiran Day of Devotion alt makes me feel things.

This one also comes with some bonus sketches/unfinished wips, because I've actually been playing with the idea of a Kiran and Anna duo alt for a while! Just never refined them into a more complete illustration, you know? But now feels like a good time to share!

Look at those wips! Might one day come back around to them who knows.

Because who wouldn’t love Alfonse?

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inspired by this post: http://apticho.tumblr.com/post/156058376717

"It's not that I…like him--"

So I got a little overboard with this brush on ibis paint

when you and your squad defeats Veronica