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: Desaix

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: Slayde

Hello, everyone! And welcome to another Fire Emblem PE Proposal, involving two villains once again. After carefully examining these two, I wanted to give them a shot of qualifying as PE, since majority of the antagonists in the game they are in are surprisingly more sympathetic and/or noble than these two greedy and cowardly scumbags.

So without further ado, allow me to introduce: Desaix and Slayde.

What's the work?[]

Fire Emblem Gaiden is the 1992 tactical video game that serves as the second installment of Nintendo's Fire Emblem franchise, as well as the second chronological installment of the Archanea Saga. The game would eventually receive a remake in the year of 2017, being named as Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia.

In this game, you play as two main protagonists: Alm, the leader of the Deliverance, a resistance army in Zofia and Celica, who is actually revealed to be the Princess of Zofia, Anthiese Lima. Where Alm leads his resistance army to reclaim Zofia and fight off against Emperor Rudolf and the nation of Riegal, Celica would travel to the Temple of Mila to discover why the crops in Zofia have failed in the last three years. Eventually, their journey would ultimately lead them to a cult led by Jedah who worships the War God Duma, who seeks to conquer all of Zofia and Valentia under his reign.

Who are they? What have they done?[]

Desaix[]

Desaix Cutscene

The classic face of a power-hungry tyrant.

The age of worrying about what the gods think of us has come to an end. The kingdom of Zofia needs a strong will to set it back on course—MY will.
~ What a way to display a tyrant.

Desaix is the major antagonist of the game. He is a tyrannical and power-hungry baron who overthrew Zofia's royal family by murdering nearly the entire royal family, including King Lima IV, becoming the country's chancellor. He would later become a major ally of Emperor Rudolf to ensure he remain in control of Zofia.

Past[]

While there is not much known about his background, he ingratiated himself with the Zofian royal family after claiming to prevent an assassination attempt on King Lima IV. The perpetrators, a branch of the royal family, were executed along with their kin, while Desaix received the king’s recognition and started to participate in governmental affairs. When Lima IV made poor leadership decisions, the high-ranking General Mycen attempted multiple times to reason with the king, only to be stopped by Desaix at every turn. As a result, Mycen was increasingly distanced from the royal family. The general populace was displeased by these events, but Zofia was a bountiful land, and as long as they could live in peace, the public was complacent. As a result, Desaix's political rise went unchallenged. With the king as his puppet, any criticism could be whispered to him and it would lead to immediate imprisonment or even execution. To further consolidate his power, Desaix had conspired several suspicious deaths within the Zofian royal family, and then framed Mycen for his crimes, banishing him as a result. Although some Zofian officers came and stood in his defense, because Mycen originally hailed from the Rigel Empire, his departure was never scrutinized.

Eventually, as the years passed, the corruption within the Kingdom deepened further, and since after Liprica’s death, Lima IV’s lustful habits only got worse, eventually leading to the royal villa the remaining children, including Princess Anthiese and Prince Conrad, lived in being set ablaze. Desaix then had all of his hired assassins to murder the residents in the villa, with only Anthiese and Conrad being the only survivors, thanks to being rescued by Mycen, although Conrad would flee to the Lost Treescape in Rigel.

In the year 398, after Lima rejected Rigel's request for assistance following a famine and drought, both nations entered all-out war. For over a year, the inexperienced Zofian army was repeatedly defeated by the overwhelming Rigelian forces and Rigel steadily crept into Zofian territory. By contacting the upper echelon of the Rigelian Army, Desaix negotiated a cease-fire that included a large amount of compensation, Desaix being appointed as Zofia's chancellor, and retaining autonomy. To be precise, he had sold Zofia to Rigel. As a means of compensating the empire for its excesses, the empire imposed heavy taxes across the nation, with those who opposed or were suspected of opposing their tyranny being executed immediately. The Rigelian Army remained garrisoned in Northern Zofia and tensions continued to grow. Within a year later, Desaix executed a coup d'etat and all remaining members of the Zofian royal family, including Lima IV, were killed, leaving only Anthiese as a survivor. In the meantime, villages and other smaller settlements outside of the capital became playgrounds for Desaix's thieves, leading to desperation and poverty, while ruffians gathered and expanded their reach.

Fire Emblem Gaidan/Echoes: Shadows of Valentina[]

In the events of the game, a small resistance was create to remove the tyrant Desaix from power, with this resistance being founded and led by Ser Clive, naming the resistance the Deliverance. However, Desaix would managed to capture his wife Mathilda and use her as leverage to force him to surrender, putting him and the resistance in a massive problem. However, Alm (who became the new leader of the resistance) would lead his forces to take Zofia Castle and kill Desaix... or that's what it seems, as it was actually revealed that the Desaix they killed was an imposter and the real Desaix quickly retreated to his fortress in Nothern Zofia, while he took the royal sword with him for some reason.

Later on in the story, when Alm and the Deliverance arrived to rescue Mathilda, Desaix decided to have her slowly executed by having his archers shooting at her. Having also foresee their arrival, he request aid from Riegel to finish them off. Despite their best efforts, Desaix is ultimately killed in the end. Before dying, he curses Mycen for giving the kingdom to Rudolf's "pup", having discover the true heritage of Alm. However, if Alm and the Delieverance fails to save Mathilda in time, then Desaix ultimately gets the last laugh.

Slayde[]

NOTE: For this character, I am mainly talking about his Shadows of Valentina incarnation since his original counterpart in Gaidan had a small role.
SlaydePortrait FE15

The face of a lunatic and cowardly general.

You whelps deprived me of a prize I most desperately needed. Hear me well, runts! My name is Slayde... and today, I in turn shall deprive you of your lives!
~ This guy really wanted to kill innocent children just to prevent him from abducting and murdering a young royal girl. What a psycho.

Slayde is Desaix's right-hand man, and a greedy and corrupted knight of Zofia. While the knight is completely psychotic and greedy, whenever things turn out wrong for him, he immediately becomes cowardly and tries to escape the trouble.

Past[]

Many years prior to the events of the game, Slayde was merely a minor soldier in the Zofian army of noble descent. One day, he was summoned by Desaix to kill the children of their king in order to further increase his downfall from grace. While hesitant at first, he quickly changed his mind when Desaix offered him wealth and power (as well as trying to keep his life) and proceeded to burn down the villa the children were in, causing multiple deaths as a result, with only a few survivors such as Lima's two children Anthiese and Conrad. Because of his role, Desaix promoted him as captain and his right-han man.

While on patrol near the southern end of Zofia, Slayde and a few of his crooks stumbled upon Ram Village, where he encountered several children playing in the forest nearby. After threatening the children to bring him and his men food and lodging or else have their village destroyed, Slayde notices that one of the girls, Celica, bore a striking resemblance to Anthiese. He tries to abduct but was quickly stopped by Mycen and was forced to retreat. However, due to discovering Celica's location, Mycen had to take her to Novis Priory for safety.

Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentina[]

Following the death of King Lima IV and the reminder of his children, Slayde would still continue to serve on as the right-hand man of Desaix, dealing with the Deliverance. He would later encounter the Ram Village children again, minus Celica, now fully grown and members of the Deliverance, much to his anger as he blames them for not being able to capture Celica. Slayde was also among the many soldiers stationed at Zofia Castle to defend Desaix. During the battle, Slayde helps to set up a double so Desaix can escape the castle when the battle swings in the Deliverance's favor.

After the battle and shamed for the loss, Slayde would encounter members of the Duma Faithful near the castle grounds. The Duma Faithful then takes Slayde to Rigel where he seizes the opportunity to join the Rigelian empire, providing valuable information of Zofia to Rigel including one information about a special girl in a village. For his reward, he is promoted as the captain of the Final Bastion of Rigel Castle.

After a long grueling war between Zofia and Riegel, the Deliverance make it to the Final Bastion where they encounter Slayde once again. Prior to the battle, Slayde personally greets the Deliverance and explains his rise to power in Rigel. An enraged Clive chastises him for being nothing more than an opportunistic coward, even selling out his homeland for power. Slayde in a huff orders his forces to attack the Deliverance. Ultimately, his forces are overpowered and Slayde is killed, cursing Alm and the others one final time.

Mitigating Factors? Freudian Excuse?[]

NONE. Absolutely NONE.

Unlike majority of the villains, such as Duma, Emperor Rudolf, and Berkut, who displays redeeming qualities and are/or tragic and sympathetic villains, there is nothing that is redeeming about these two selfish bastards.

During the battle against Alm and the Deliverance, Desaix was trying to justify his crimes to them, believing that he was capable of being a better ruler than Lima IV. In spite of Lima's negative qualities as he was a hedonistic and selfish man, Desaix shows himself to be no better than him, as he exhibits the traits of a power-hungry tyrant who is willing to commit all manner of atrocities in order to gain his goal.

Slayde is no better. The guy isn't loyal to Desaix and is merely serving him in order to have a good position under him. Knowing full well that he outlived his usefulness to Desaix, he decides to quickly leave Zofia in order to escape Desaix. And in spite of Slayde's dismay and apprehension over killing the reminder of Lima's children, and discovering that his boss was responsible for killing the other children, he quickly changed his mind when Desaix offered him wealth and power, demonstrating his willingness to cross any boundaries for his own interests.

So overall, no.

Heinous Standards[]

Yeah, as I mention before, the heinous standards in the Fire Embelm franchise is ridiculously high. This is a fantasy series that deals with mass murder to torture to abuse to genocide to war crimes to even rape, and Fire Emblem proves that it doesn't really hold back on the heinous standards.

When it comes to the antagonists in Gaiden and Shadows of Valentia, the heinous standards are quite high since we have Duma (the dragon war god who was indirectly responsible for instigating the war between Zofia and Riegel and the Duma Faithful's crimes, and attempts to conquer and rule all of Valentia), Emperor Rudolf (who personally instigated the war, and tried to conquer Zofia, launching a full-scale invasion on the nation, and causing massive deaths and destruction as a result), and even Jedah (who aids Duma in his goals, committed human sacrifices, sacrificed his own two daughters' souls to become witches, and tormenting Celica, to the point of even having her soul devoured and tried to have her kill by Alm).

Of course, the Archanea and Jugdral Sagas present us with some other nasty villains as well such as Medeus and Gharnef (two of whom are responsible for the massive wars in Archanea), Duke Lang (who betrayed his own nation and has done a lot of vile atrocities for sadistic kicks such as sexual slavery), Bishop Manfroy (who's responsible for the entire events in the Genealogy of the Holy War), Hilda (who hosted a child killing game and being a horrible abuser), Grima (who brainwashed Robin and destroyed the entire world), and Validar (who assisted Grima in his terrible deeds and tried to have a large population of his own people to commit suicide to awaken his master).

But I personally feel like the two definitely passes the standards here for a lot of good reason.

  • First, there's Desaix. Desaix is ultimately responsible for causing the numerous deaths of King Lima IV's children, such as ordering assassinations of the king's children in Villa, getting them and many other residents killed as a result. Besides that, he's been manipulating the king for a long time, increasing his political influence on the Kingdom, and after a long time, finally had him and the reminder of his children (except Celica and Conrad) murdered simply just so he could take power. He also framed Mycen for committing the royal murders, having him exiled as a result. He would also imposed heavy taxes across the nation, with those who opposed or were suspected of opposing their tyranny being executed immediately, while having villages and other smaller settlements outside of the capital became playgrounds for Desaix's thieves, leading to desperation and poverty, while bandits and ruffians gathered and expanded their reach. He also practically sold Zofia to the nation of Riegal, simply to remain in power. And for one of his "Kick the Dog" moments, he attempts to have Mathilda slowly executed by archers, simply to watch her die. If he does kill her, this will break Clive, who lashes out at Alm and remained depressed with her death, eventually leading to his death during his skirmish with pirates.
  • And then there's Slayde, who is admittedly a difficult case than Desaix, but I still feel like he can qualify as well. While Desaix is ultimately the mastermind behind the Villa Incident, Slayde is ultimately just as responsible for starting the fire that led to the deaths of Lima's children as well as the other residents in the villa. And this was all because he wanted to receive power and wealth (as well as to protect his pathetic life). Then he attacked Alm, Celica, and the children of Ram Village (Gray, Tobin, Kiff, and Faye) simply to get food and lodging, and when he found about Celica being Princess Anthiese, he attempts to abduct her and have her killed to wipe out Lima's bloodline. Despite being repel back, his actions traumatized the children, especially Faye, who is noticeably not sane in the head as the war is taking a toll on her and she is a bit of a yandere when it comes Alm. This is pretty much because of Slayde's threat and attempted murder. Besides that, he was also willing to sell out Zofia to Riegel, even telling them about Delthea (a young child), which led to her being brainwashed by the Duma Faithful and use for nefarious purposes. She can even be potentially killed if you fail to play the right cards. And even after you free her from her brainwashing, she still has a rough time as she remembers the horrible act.

As far as resources go, I feel like they can stand out. Desaix started off as a Baron for Zofia, but following the death of Lima IV and his family, he would become the chancellor of the nation, ruling it with a iron fist. As for Slayde, he uniquely stands out due to being just a Zofian General, who willingly assisted in killing Lima IV's children, threatened and attempted to murder the Ram Village children, and even sold out Zofia's valuable information to Riegel just to satisfy his selfish desires.

So yeah, with all that, I feel like they can pass the heinous standards big time here.

Final Verdict[]

A big yes to these two scumbags.