This page ties into my Engage thoughts; Unlike that page, spoilers are now unmarked because it's been over a year since release. I tried my best to make this mobile responsive, but there's issues with the tables not stacking right. The ideal reading order is the navigation, but I can't stop you from jumping around. Last major update is 4/23/2024.

Check out the sister page for Fae, if you haven't already. It technically came second, but I based both pages after each other! So it's the older and younger sister at the same time, just like the real Fae...

Psst! Hey! The new layout of this page was based off a template by user Aethelar on Neopets! I tweaked it a bit and made it mobile responsive. Feel free to use this, just credit the original creator somewhere. Or you can be asshole and not do that, I can't stop you... The source said credit isn't necessary... Pst! Hey! The new layout of this page was based off a template by user Aethelar on Neopets! I tweaked it a bit and made it mobile responsive. Feel free to use this, just credit the original creator somewhere. Or you can be asshole and not do that, I can't stop you... The source said credit isn't necessary...
Get off your phone BTW.

WHO?

The mysterious, melancholy crown princess of Elusia. She never relaxes her icy royal decorum.

Initial page	C Rank	B Rank	A Rank	S Rank
Initial Class: Wing Tamer Birthday: November 17th Basic Info: Crown princess of Elusia. Along with retainers Zelkov and Kagetsu, she initially opposed the Divine Dragon's army but joined them in the Shadowy Moor.	Likes: reading, studying, soft breezes, herbs, quiet places, tea parties, the Divine Dragon Dislikes: ghosts, bugs, strong odors, sunburns, parties, loud noises, pushy people, scary stories	Hobbies: none in particular Talents: hiding her feelings Background: Eldest daughter of Hyacinth's lawful wife, lured early into the court's power struggles. Now a graduate of Elusia's academy and heir to its throne.	Height: 5' 8" Ring Size: 4.5 | I 1/2 Personality: Calm, reserved. Cautious, but caring toward the few she trusts. Worships the Divine Dragon. More scared of ghosts than any other ally.	Life with Ivy: Open about her affection toward the Divine Dragon. Treasures their time together. The Pact Ring is stowed in a gold box for safekeeping. She gazes at it only in the privacy of her own room.

_{(Shamelessly ganked from Serene's Forest)}

More official art

_{(Open in another tab for a full view.)}

(I don't have any concept art because the current scans I've found aren't great. Please let me know if they're ever properly scanned!)

Casual wear blurb
Everyday outfit of Ivy, crown princess of Elusia. She developed it through painstaking trial and error to be comfortable enough to wear in the cold.

Gift Preferences

Likes: Tea Leaves, Fairy-Tale Book, Poetry Book, Philosophy Book, Dragon Scripture, Elyos History, Sun Visor, White Clover, Fine Quill Pen, Landscape Art, Spirit Gem Dislikes: Animal Treats, Strong Perfume, Butterfly Net, Fishing Bait, Bear Carving, Playing Cards, Lovely Candle, Field Guide, Spooky Scroll, Large Plate, Horse Manure Neutral: Dried Meat, Yogurt, Roasted Yam, Training Weight, Muscle Balm, Sharp Chisel, Chrysanthemum, Lentil Flower, Lily, Desert Marigold, Lupine Flower, Horn, Flower Wreath, Cute Apron, Utility Knife, Sewing Kit, Sheep Wool, Quality Kerchief, Fancy Dagger, Antler Earrings, Spicy Seasonings, Bandages, Pretty Pebble

Possible endings

Snow Queen Ivy			Ivy and Alear
As queen of Elusia, Ivy strove to rebuild her war-torn nation, and to improve its insular culture through diplomacy with Brodia. Her decision to import ore gave rise to a lucrative mineral processing industry. Ivy's legacy endured even after Alear had passed on.			Alear became the new Divine Dragon Monarch. His/Her bonds with the rulers of each nation resulted in lasting peace. Ivy took the throne as queen and worked with the Divine Dragon Monarch to restore Elusia. She showed her devotion to her faith by fostering it in her homeland.

Memento Drawer (S support)
Ivy's fascinator. She was blushing when she gave it to me the day we became partners.

Heroes

Sorry for all the details tabs!!! It was inevitable since Ivy has a new alt.

Tidal Breeze			Snow Queen
Crown princess of Elusia. Though she has no enthusiasm for summer, it is tolerable spent by the Divine Dragon's side. Appears in Fire Emblem Engage.			Crown princess of Elusia, Kingdom of Knowledge. Unfailingly upholds the dignity and majesty of royalty. Appears in Fire Emblem Engage.

5★ LV. 40 conversation

Tidal Breeze 5★ LV. 40			Snow Queen 5★ LV. 40
Despite the atrocious heat, and the indignity of swimsuits, I've...begun to become accustomed to being here. In Elyos, where I come from, we sort of merge with our Emblems when we engage with them. So when I began to think of this as rather like...engaging with the essence of summer, it became more palatable. But do not take that as permission to dress me up in more silly outfits! I assure you this is my absolute limit. Consider directing your attention in that regard to someone fun-loving and inspiring—like the Divine Dragon.			I believe you are aware of this, but I have a duty to my home country—it must be rebuilt. At first I felt that I was wasting time fighting in Askr, that I needed to return as quickly as possible. But as I've fought by your side, I've found meaning in it I never expected. It's strange...but in a way, you remind me of the Divine Dragon. ...I fear I've overstepped. What I mean to say is that I intend to keep fighting as your ally. I would not say this to anyone who did not have my full trust... So do remember you have my support.

Meet some of the Heroes (Tidal Breeze)

Here's Ivy, the crown princess of Elusia, a kingdom on the continent of Elyos! Her beach outfit has a somber touch, but it's quite stylish!
Ivy's outfits usually have a rose motif, but for this vacation outfit she's chosen a hibiscus theme instead.
Even her hat and drink have a tropical flair with those hibiscus and plumeria flowers!
Ivy's known for her intriguing air, and she still manages to be dark and mysterious when dressed for the beach!

Meet some of the Heroes (Snow Queen)

The kingdom of Elusia is one of the four nations of Elyos, and its people are worshippers of the Fell Dragon. This is Ivy, the crown princess—and she's here in Askr, holding her bond with her sister Hortensia close to her heart!
Ivy clashed with the Divine Dragon Alear in the struggle for the Emblem Rings under the orders of her father, the king. However, after her father was murdered by the Fell Dragon Sombron, she found herself joining forces with Alear.
She was then confronted by her younger sister Hortensia, who had been brainwashed by Sombron's underlings. But after the battle, Ivy's pleas to Hortensia broke through their control, and their sisterly bond was forged anew!
Ivy's love for her sister helped new strength grow within her. Now, equipped with a tome inspired by Hortensia, she's here to join the battle for Askr's future!

Tidal Breeze art

(Open in another tab for full view)

Snow Queen art

(Open in another tab for full view)

Why though?

It really seems like Ivy was specifically made in a lab just for me... I'm still boggled by it. As of revamping this, Engage is a year old and I have not been able to think about anything else since that fateful release date. The last time I went this insane was over some extremely obscure cartoon no one has ever heard of a decade ago. I routinely forget that Ivy is a canon character and not some id-pandering OC I made for myself. Which is obviously impossible; If she was an OC, there wouldn't be half as many images of her and any compiled information wouldn't be posted in public. (That's a self drag...)

During the pre-release, I thought Engage's art style was "not my thing" but I was willing to give it a chance anyway. But even back then, the only characters that stuck out to me design-wise was Alear and Ivy's despite writing her off. I was in the camp who thought Ivy was going to be a rehashed Camilla or Loki (EW!!) and wasn't charmed by the pre-release trailer. I still thought her official art was lovely, even though the portrait had an "off" vibe... It looked OOC from the "evil and horny" (sorry) assumption I had. The fascinator was weird too, but I didn't know those actually exist Lissa's crinoline does... Hindsight is 20/20, because this was probably an intentional clue on her real personality. I think it's clever and likely on purpose that she's purple and the outlier when it comes to Elusia's faith... What does red and blue make? That's what I thought. Even the alt in FEH nods to this too. I don't think this is spitballing when it turned out there's in-story reasons for Alear's red-and-blue palette. It proves my point how Engage is not deep but it still has some nice tidbits of depth if you look for it.

One year later, I think the ghost quirk has been flanderized too much by players. It's not even brought up in the main story... (Did you know the Ally Notebook entry was originally about Ivy's skin instead of ghosts?) But I can't deny that was the hook that sold me onto her... It's such an endearing (borderline childish) quirk for someone otherwise so serious and mature. Her supports with Timerra and Panette made me lose my shit!!! I'm a huge fan of when characters have an unexpected weakness and react to it disproportionately, I'm fueled by what's funny to me above all. Great motivator to stay unspoilered in the future, since I went into Engage 95% blind. But to be honest, I had a feeling I would be in deep the moment I heard her voice. I've been a "sub snob" for 20+ years, and a Treehouse-skeptic for 7, yet... When I watched clips of the Japanese audio, I was disappointed. I don't think Yōko Hikasa is bad at all, but its also not nearly as charming to me as Reba Buhr's Ivy!!!

I've mentioned on the other page that I like how Engage is lighter compared to Three Houses, but I wish its serious moments were expanded upon or more frequent. Ivy and several other characters (Hortensia, Saphir, Alfred, Yunaka, etc.) would've benefitted from being in a more serious game. Ivy's childhood is something I wish there were more details about besides "it was bad"... It makes me sad to think about how she spent so long living in fear and hiding, with no trustworthy adults in her life. It's even telling how she has nicer things to say about Hortensia's now-dead mother than her own. I'm more compelled by how Three Houses handled the topic of faith, but I do think it's sweet how her faith in Alear out of rebellion was what kept her going. It's also kind of cute how something so "wholesome" is rebellious for her. Out of all the token "characters that are not-subtly in love with the protagonist" in nu-Fire Emblem, I think Ivy has the most understandable motive. (Shout out to Tharja stalking Robin because she was horny.) I think Ivy's devotion to Alear is the other thing players and FEH have flanderized too much, but it's probably the only (or few) instances of literal "avatar worship" that makes sense. Not sorry, but Edelgard's attachment to Byleth makes no sense in non-Crimson Flower routes.

The go-to positive opinion is that her design is sexy (either just that or "done correctly/not over-the-top" depending who says it), but I personally also find it cute. I just try not to think too hard about how over-decorated the main outfit is and what's going on with that cape. The fascinator covers her face too much in cutscenes and supports, which is almost a shame because I think her expressions and eyes during wake up events are adorable. I can't put into words how much I regret giving her food she disliked... Engage runs on Unity instead of Koei Tecmo's engine used in Three Houses, so there's a lot of awkwardness with the models like the clipping and camera angles. My nitpicks haven't deterred me from spending an entire lunch break staring at her anyway. I've seen opinions that the casual wear is weird because it's "too modern", but I don't mind because it 1. makes fanart easier, 2. it's an interesting peek at everyone's personalities to show what they wear outside of their armor. I unfortunately didn't even notice there are blurbs about each outfit until my second playthrough, and I was immediately endeared to the fact that Ivy made her dress! (And that Hortensia's casual wear is based off of Ivy's Wing Tamer outfit... Awww.) Even her wyvern has personal touches!!!

(source)

I started reading the manga in February 2024, since Ivy has appeared in Chapter 10 and beyond. I consider the manga to be more of an interpretation of the game approved by Intsys than hard canon, but I'm already enjoying the major changes like Lumera not dying so quickly. And of course I'm also in love with how Ivy is drawn in it... I think it captures her serious and melancholy side really well. I've tried to draw Ivy several times and haven't been finished most attempts, but it's unexpectedly very close to my vision of her! As you can see, Kyou Kazuro is prone to having heated horny moments in several panels (we all saw it coming with how he drew Lumera and Chloe), but it's published in Shounen Jump. You know how it is... I'll start posting manga stuff here in the future.

I don't want to get too off topic and talk about other games, but... (oh who cares, it's my page) I lost the save files for my attempted playthroughs of the Archanea games, but I like Minerva's archetype and what I saw of her in Heroes and Warriors. I know for a fact she would be one of my favorites if I finished those games. (I mean, I like Melady who is 80% identical to her...) It was obvious from day one that Ivy is based on Camilla, which is another point in her favor, but maybe not in the way you'd think. Camilla was one of the many Fates characters I always thought had wasted potential and nearly all of her alts in Heroes make me wretch. (She's a riot in Warriors, though.) Possible unpopular opinion, but my idea of "fixing Camilla" is not downplaying her flaws and playing up her positive traits like Engage's DLC tried to do... I just wish Fates was more self-aware that her behavior is a product of her environment instead of being coomer about it.

When it comes to polarizing characters in nu-Fire Emblem, I'm marginally more sympathetic to Camilla compared to Tharja because she has a Freudian excuse for being like that. But even, it wasn't enough to take away the fact that Fates was a trainwreck in several ways. (It's not THAT bad, but it's not that good either.) There isn't anything wrong with characters who are "problematic" or bad people, for the record. I'm not one of those people. I just had the misfortune of my only Fire Emblem fandom experience happen on Tumblr for 5 years before Three Houses made me snap, and I got tired of the trend of guilt tripping people to "rehabilitate" badly handled female characters as diet social justice. You can preach that characters like Camilla's writing is informed by misogyny all you want, but at the end of the day it's perfectly understandable to not like them for that same reason. It's not my job to "fix" things I don't already like, if canon sucks I hit the bricks. That's what I mean when I say that Ivy is "the good version" of Camilla; It's not in a moral sense (just look at Fell Ivy) and I understand criticisms that Ivy is kind of boring in comparison, but she has the potential I liked about Camilla without the baggage of being in three incomplete games sold separately. If you want to get fake deep about it, I like that they both had a similar upbringings but came out of it in opposite ways.

More reasons why

...Are you still here? Wow... I initially kept more personal thoughts private, but I wanted to wait so this wouldn't turn out to be a weird phase I'd regret airing out in public. It's been over a year and I'm in an actual relationship, but I still feel the same, so... ANYWAY... Engage dropped immediately after I exited one of the most traumatic times of my adult life (2018-2022), and I was able to enjoy things again. (TL;DR I dealt with a lot of anhedonia.) On older versions of other pages I mentioned how I "wished" I was into the whole self-insert thing, mainly because I wanted to be able to feel that kind of excitement. A lot of this started out as an elaborate bit or "favorite character" type deal, but it stopped being ironic by March and then became completely serious by July. I initially hesitated because I noticed a lot of "hugblanketers" and posters on certain Reddit communities are visibly unwell despite their protests to the contrary, I was worried this would be bad for my mental health, knowing my history... Fortunately (or unfortunately), I am still the brand of crazy that does this shit and couldn't help how I feel. Of COURSE if I see a character catered to me so hard, I'm going to jump on it!!! ("Our" "anniversary" is 7/7, I chose the date of her Heroes appearance because it was a funny coincidence.)

Script stuff

(This is my least favorite section so I changed it. Not sorry...)

Interesting script quotes - Manga - Support log

Interesting script quotes

Somniel quotes (all here)

(I thought the Fond of Somniel line was a marriage quote until I got it on C support 😭 Also the Well line is my favorite but I've never encountered it in my file!!!)

Exploration quotes (all here)

Classic mode death quotes

Manga

(Unmarked manga spoilers lol I'm not using the tags on this page anymore)

Thoughts on the manga so far (Chapters 1-14): I'm really enjoying this adaption so far! I started my third replay of Engage around the same time I started reading it, and the manga adaption is legions better. A straight adaption would be so boring, I'm not complaining a lot of the game's events have been thrown out. Just let them cook... It also fixes a lot of the issues I have with how slow-paced the beginning is, and how Lumera dies too quickly in-game. In fact, Lumera is currently still alive?! But this isn't a blurb about the manga overall, you know who this is about...

To get a bit spicy about Chapter 10 and beyond though, anyone who thinks the manga turned Ivy into a "damsel in distress" or otherwise portraying her badly aren't paying attention. So far I'm under the impression that the manga wants to go against the "token bad country" Fire Emblem trope (ex. Bern, Daein, Plegia, Nohr, Elusia) with how it tries to reinforce the claim that "Hyacinth used to be good before he was corruped" (something I doubted when playing) and putting the blame on the Queen, making Morion look worse, and showing the Brodian nobles as bloodthirsty in Chapter 12 are by unanimously wanted Ivy executed and one sending assassins for political reasons when the execution was forgone. A part that stuck out to me in Chapter 12 was that Ivy escaped prison with her retainers? So much for being a "damsel in distress" "failgirl", right...

Support log

If you didn't already know, this section is a shittier version of the support log on the sister page. I turned this into a script section because I fucking hate it! Unlike Fae, Ivy's support pool is bigger so I'm not going to post each individually. I love all of them and how there's a good balance of funny and serious interactions, but a greedy part of me wishes her support pool was as bloated as Awakening's, if only for more possibilities... But it's probably good it wasn't, because some of Awakening supports sucked!

That said, my favorite supports are with Hortensia (DUH???), Alfred, Timerra, Panette, Veyle, and Rafal. If you want to know what my #1 favorite support is...it's with Mauvier. It's one of the best serious supports IMO, Mauvier was my favorite male character in my first run, and I really enjoyed the unexpected common ground they have. This was a support chain I ended up revisiting on replay even though I seen it before. I'm slightly confused by how Mauvier admits he wasn't really a believer in the Fell Dragon during their B support, but says the opposite to Pandreo... On my end, questioning where or if I truly belonged was something I struggled with and the line that "If I were accepted by one person, I would be happy. Other opinions would be meaningless. With that one person's acceptance, I would be in the place I belong." really hit home...

On my first playthrough, I benched Kagetsu and Zelkov for no good reason. I regret that because not only is Kagetsu OP and really useful, but I love them and think they fit perfectly for her retainers! I like the contrast that Ivy doesn't like either of them until later, unlike Hortensia's (unofficial) retainers being her classmates. Their supports with Ivy and each other are really funny and end on a nice note.

When it comes to supports that were a missed opportunity, some ideas I have are:
✿ Merrin (Ivy likes critters too according to one of her Somniel lines)
✿ Rosado and Goldmary (they went to the same academy, there's no way they haven't met even if they were likely a grade or so below...)
✿ Seadall (fortune telling to a superstitous person isn't a good idea, but it's a funny one)
✿ Yunaka (Yunaka has shit to hide and Ivy would NOT like that!!! Also Yunaka does a good impression of Ivy in one support, she must have been around her enough to do it?? Honestly, the potential this could be a funny or serious support is 50/50...)
✿ Nel was also a hugely missed opportunity, since Rafal's support was really good. (If you're wondering why I don't mention the DLC much: I regret buying it and want to pretend I didn't!)
✿ I'm also surprised Lindon isn't in Ivy's support pool for more backstory/lore dumping. Especially since she can talk to him to be recruited...
✿ I (regrettably) benched Pandreo, but I stumbled upon a shitpost that involved him and Ivy. Now I really wonder...

I originally had a separate section about the localization, and was going to just copy-and-paste it here, until I found out there's finally a spreadsheets online of the script. (Please read this if you haven't aleady for my thoughts on the localization overall.) I'm still waiting on the DLC and Emblem Bonds to be here. When I checked the mod earlier this year I figured Ivy must not be a priority because she's too old for the crowd that wants to restore the S supports with Anna and Jean, because most of her supports were identical as a placeholder. But there's a lot more in the spreadsheet now if anyone is curious. If you want to know what I think is notable, there's some very interesting wake up lines and uh... look at Louis. LOL!!!! (It's mostly stuff involving other characters that's more interesting...)

I don't care about shipping nearly as much as I used to, so I actively do not care about and avoid looking at every in-game option in a romantic light. (To be fair, I'm really not sold on any ship in Engage...) I used to tolerate Diamant for logistics; I still get where it's coming from, both of their solo endings can lead to that conclusion if you really want to read it that way. But you'd have to put a gun to my head to make me give a fuck about a het ship unless it's really, really out there. That's not the "hot take" though, the real one is that the ship with Alear was a massive disappointment and I went from tolerating it in my first run to absolutely hating it pretty quickly.

TL;DR I'm a hater that thinks most My Unit pairings are boring!!! :(

I was extremely squicked by female Alear's design, so I went for male Alear in my first run. (Both scripts are identical anyway...) The S support was a major disappointment and threw me for a loop. It was the only Ivy support I didn't spoil myself on, and yet when I finally unlocked it I just thought...that's it? I was told Ivy's S support was among the handful of explicitly romantic options, but Alear appeared to be barely interested and was just giving the Pact Ring out of obligation. (Fun fact, Etie's S support is the other way around; Alear was more interested than she was...) I thought maybe this was a localization issue, but the fan translation is actually worse?! It's interesting that the cope about the "I love you" in B not being romantic was added by Treehouse, though. In hindsight I kind of read that as a white lie or backpedaling on Ivy's end, since her Somniel lines sound like someone with a obvious crush... The baffling part is I've seen the other S supports with the royals, and they're all good or at least decent. So why is this one so bad?

I also consider it wasted potential in general. Even if female Alear's design wasn't like that, I honestly don't know if I'd have any stronger feelings than tolerating it. I bitched about My Unit and the dating sim elements before, but I've accepted a long time ago that it's here to stay. I don't even think the "avatar worship" is that bad in Engage, because most characters (literally) worship the idea of Alear. To put it in a rude way, it feels like a shittier version of Say'ri and Tiki in Awakening; I'm indifferent to them, but at least their support chain was good! The game even attempts to subvert that vibe with the reveal that Alear is actually a Fell Dragon, but it's barely touched on. I understand why there was no conflict during that scene (it was near the end and would drag things out longer), but I would've liked to see Ivy's faith challenged in some way during the main story if it's an important part of her character. It was disappointing on replay to see Ivy's feelings on that be nothing more than "conflicted" but just going along with it. I exclusively talk about canon because I don't like, don't read... Like I said earlier, I have no interest in being pressured again to fix or look at something I don't already like in-canon. That said, a lot of weird OOC jokes from shippers haven't endeared me to it at all, it's just a reminder how it's not worth "fixing" for my own sake. For the sake of consistency, I'm not passionate about ships involving My Unit in general.

Headcanons

I like reading people's compilations of these, I've been having a hard time finding them for Engage in particular!!! So I'll compile mine here... Will be adjusted as I do more replays and/or catch manga updates.

✿ It started off as an off-hand joke, but I stumbled upon reading Ivy as autistic and can't see it any other way now. I actually wrote this off as a "me thing" or pure projection until I saw other people say the same thing, so clearly I'm onto something! Some traits like the social awkwardness can be chalked up to backstory and upbringing, but when rereading the script more backing piled up: Having no hobbies (!?!), her "talent" being hiding her emotions (masking), hard-to-interpret facial expressions in multiple supports (Alear, Alcryst, Kagetsu)... Most dislikes are sensory related ("strong odors, sunburns, parties, loud noises" - "bugs" can qualify too). Following this logic, her fascinator could be to avoid looking directly at people, since she often peeks through it during cutscenes. Does some thing with her hand (lol) and wants to eat snow. Autism. Case closed.

Same thing.

I was going to be more objective about this, but I've seen stupider shit shared in complete confidence so I don't feel inclined to! I highly doubt any of this is intentional "coding", but it's a humanizing way to view her gap moe traits. You know what they say about kids with older fathers... There are several other characters in Engage specifically I read this way too (notably Jade, Merrin, Amber, and obviously Hortensia by proxy), and in previous Fire Emblem games. On replay, both of her retainers come off this way to me too!!!

✿ I always thought the insistence that Hyacinth was totally a good father before becoming corrupted by Sombron was a lighter throwback to the Nohr family's denial (borderline stockholm syndrome, IMO) about Garon. I don't think the court politics Ivy describes was nearly as deadly as the "concubine wars" with Xander's siblings, but what little the game tells us of Hyacinth before he allied with Gradlon doesn't make him sound good to me. Taking on multiple mistresses, Ivy's biological mother abusing the other illegitimate children to leave, treating Hortensia's mother like shit (who wants to bet this wouldn't have happened if Hyacinth didn't do that...), the random lore dump with Lindon about a "scrabble for succession" with his older brother... (I wonder if that has anything to do with what happens in-canon?)

I do buy that he was kind, but is also cowardly which is probably the issue; Well-intentioned but careless in the end. That's kind of a hard pill to swallow, isn't it... Bad parents aren't necessarily abusive, bad parents often don't consider that what they're doing hurts their children. Bad parents have good moments that make you question if they really were "bad" after all. I wouldn't be surprised if Hyacinth was the better parent in comparison to Ivy's mother. The manga appears to want to debunk this, but I may or may not be (I am) just "transferring" my old Fates opinions onto Engage. LOL!!! Also I still don't buy it.

✿ On that note, I don't have much thoughts about Ivy's mother outside what's shared in-canon. I assumed she's similar or even identical to how Camilla describes her mother to Niles in Fates, except instead of the mistresses being pit against each other, it was the Queen against them. (That's arguably canon, with how she treated Hortensia's mother...)

Naturally, they used us as bait in all of their conflicts. [...] You said I was pathetic, and you were right! My mother loved me, but only as a pawn.

Side note, but I've seen speculation that Ivy's mother is still alive because she's spoken about in the present-tense, unlike Hortensia's dead mother. Yikes... Not likely, but it was a compelling argument I read on Tvtropes of all places.

✿ On replay, it was always weird to me how the game focuses on Ivy worshipping Alear as the Divine Dragon, when Lumera was still known as "the" Divine Dragon. Ivy never saw what Alear looked like until Chapter 8. I don't see any reason why she wouldn't have worshipped both. Ivy is aware of Lumera too, and mentions in a wake up event about being invited to visit her (which Hyacinth rejected). If you look closely, Ivy has a slightly similar hair style to Lumera (you can chalk this up to the game reusing model assets but sshh) and I noticed Lumera has roses on her outfit. I do imagine that Ivy subtly modeled her appearance after Lumera's, since it's possible she knew what Lumera looked like despite never meeting. (I wouldn't be surprised if this was intentional, like how Alear's design has some meta/plot elements to it...) Fun update, the peek at young Ivy having a different in the manga gives this slightly more backing if you hit the crackpipe hard enough.

✿ This is closer to a shower thought, but it made me laugh... I was wondering why Ivy and Goldmary don't have a support chain? It's because there's no room for it. But then I realized... Goldmary's Freudian excuse for being a raging narcissist is because going to the academy made her realize she has "competitors" and some people can be better than her. Do you think Ivy would unintentionally #trigger that complex for her? How sad... For her.

✿

✿ Here's a weird one: I think Ghoul Friend from Bath and Body works is the most fitting scent for Ivy I've found in-person. Which is pretty ironic because of the name... LOL!!!

✿ It's stated in a Bond conversation with Lucina that Ivy's wyvern doesn't have a name. I call her Melady as a counterpart to Cherche and Gerome's Minerva. I've seen other headcanons give the wyvern a flower name, which would be more consistent with canon (Rosado's wyvern is named Camille), but I figured Lucina would help name her...

✿ My "assigned animals" are rabbits and deer, by the way. 🐇🦌

✿ Boring opinion but I never got the impression that the ghost phobia was from any kind of trauma. It's only shown in humorous contexts, meanwhile her upbringing is taken seriously in supports it's brought up in. Probably something that happened at the academy... I wanted to retool some old Fire Emblem OCs for Engage but I don't like them :( They were going to be responsible for it LOL!!! I don't know what my opinion on this is now!!! I'm going to wait until future Heroes or manga content says something.

Summer Breeze - Choose Your Legends - Snow Queen + Forging Bonds - A Day in the Life

Heroes!!!

A wise woman once said...

During the summer, I was slacking on my second playthrough. But in June I got to the part in Solm where Ivy comments how unbearable the heat is. Then a heat index warning happened IRL at the same time. It was just so hot outside, I couldn't even leave the house after work... Which gave me brain damage to post this scandalous fantasy I had in my head:

Then a month later, I'm alerted to a very familiar silhouette in an upcoming banner... Lo and behold, Ivy makes an early appearance in Heroes?! WHAT THE FUCK??? Thank you FEH, very cool! I was on hiatus and uninstalled earlier this year, because gacha is a sin and smartphones give you brain damage. But just like when Fae got a new alt, I immediately reinstalled and all hell broke loose!!! The rampage I went on for Ivy was actually less bad than the Fae alt. Plenty of blood, but not nearly as many dead bodies. I used up over 300+ freebie orbs I had stashed and rolled eight other 5★ units before I got her. I was tempted to buy the FEH Pass this one time, but right when I was about to run out of orbs, she came home... I guess a mystical external force REALLY didn't want me to spend actual money on gacha!!!

The funniest part is when I was a more loyal player, cuboon was one of my absolute least favorite artists. My worst nightmare was that he would inevitably get ahold of Ivy and draw her like that... If Ivy was drawn as bad poor Igrene, I would've started fedposting. Weirdly enough, the art isn't too bad! Then again, cuboon's art improved a bit over the years. His linework is okay, but the way he colors always really bothered me. The basic cel-shading looks 5x better than his greasy skin rendering. When I started playing again in 2022, I rolled Edelgard: Adrestian Emperor and couldn't tell it was his art until I checked.

Here is the man with the tiny hands!!!

Getting my least favorite artist on a good day is already a great track record. I'm hoping there will be more alts later with consistent quality of art. I rolled Nifl during my rampage, I like to imagine she and Fae would be Ivy's replacement dragon friends... since Alear is nowhere in sight and never will be.

My finger slipped...

Watch this space for potential updates; This app is a cash cow and it's not dying anytime soon. You bet your ass I'm going ham during Choose Your Legends! I hope there's a Halloween or winter alt in the future, or even an alt of Fell Ivy. That's only after the normal version of her is in the game though... YAY!

CHOOSE YOUR LEGENDS!!1!

Every new year, the cash grab app Heroes does a little popularity poll for a week to decide who gets a celebratory Brave alt in the summer. There are four winners every year, the top two characters from the men's and women's division. Unlike poor Fae (a character from an older, unlocalized game), Ivy actually has a chance in the women's division. The month before, a fan poll conducted among the English and Japanese fanbase on social media showed that Ivy is the second most popular character in Engage overall. It seems like Ivy got this in the bag as a main character from a recent game, but I still had a duty to fulfill...

On the second day of CYL, the interim results for the top 20 characters and top 5 by game were posted. Unsurprisingly, Ivy made it on both! They were in alphabetical order though, so the full results weren't revealed until a week after the voting period. I waited patiently for another week... I even watched Feh Channel for the first time in over a year. And the winner of Choose Your Legends 8's women's division was... Bernadetta?! Hey, I don't mind! Ivy ended up making 4th place in the women's division overall, and 2nd place for Engage, which is still pretty good.

Interim VS final

(Open in another tab for full view)

Pretty interesting stuff! When looking at past CYL results, I noticed that less people have been voting overall... Compare how the winner of the first CYL, Lyn, had 49,917 votes, while Bernadetta has 19,600... Well, that's still enough people play to whale on banners and waste money on a FEH Pass. A year of FEH Pass is NOT worth two retail games, for fuck's sake!

In case you're wondering, I did see cuboon's 7th Anniversary illustration of Ivy. It's not the worst thing I've ever seen, but I still could've gone without seeing it. It will not be shared here! Prayer circle that someone less cumbrained draws Ivy's next alt... I probably won't track future Choose Your Legends events unless something notable happens.

New alt!

I'm not pressed over Ivy making 4th place in CYL8, because runner-ups tend to get non-Brave alts before the summer. And that happened sooner than I thought! In fact, I was piss drunk when it was announced. I can't pop bottles when I already did an hour before! Predictably, I immediately reinstalled the app!!! I already had 176 orbs left over from when I last played, so I decided to pre-emptively grind for freebie orbs the day before the banner dropped. When I went off hiatus in 2022, I still didn't get around to "catching up" on the content I missed... So I had that and what I missed from the last 6 months! After a day and morning of grinding for orbs, I racked up 300.

You know what happened as soon as I woke up on the 19th... Time to start *Limp Bizkit voice* rollin' baby... It took me 144 orbs to finally get her!!! Of course I knew I would roll her inevitably, because there's no way in hell she wouldn't show up in my barracks with all the physical merch I own. Oh, uh, and I have decent luck in Heroes. With some exceptions... I'm sill bitter I never rolled Askr even after blowing 300+ freebie orbs. Reinstalling Heroes after a 6 month hiatus is kind of... Dare I say it... Fun. I think the best way to play Heroes is my way: Fuck the metagame, fuck paying money, fuck the main story after the trainwreck that was Book II, just be F2P and collect your favorites.

Ivy is still on a good track art-wise. Snow Queen's art isn't the best I've seen, but I don't hate it. Kakage isn't my favorite artist, but he's drawn some decent units; Notably Azura's Resplendant and Edelgard: Sun Emperesses. His Catria alt did her justice compared to the travesty that her first appearance by a worse artist was, and Catria: Azure Wing Pair is on my wishlist of units I want to pull one day. Ivy's waist is a bit too thin and the angle of her chest is...awkward... But you have to remember who drew this. (A man.)

The Forging Bonds event, Thaw of Knowledge also appears to have been made in a lab for me yet again. Ivy meets Lyn for real this time, Hortensia meets Fae (!!!), Kagetsu's entire chain is a lost-in-translation voice actor joke. (I didn't catch Rosado's, sorry... But I read it's good too.) Also, a potential hint that Hyacinth could get an alt someday? Ivy's support chain is also a complete riot, there's some funny mask-off flirting with female Alear too oblivious to notice, ghost antics, and... Hector appears? The twist at the very end also made me bust out laughing! Thanks Intsys for giving me a reason to temporarily reinstall! Read it here, if you haven't already. Unfortunately, after finishing the event and rolling Hortensia, I immediately uninstalled. The devil game is not allowed to be in my life longer.

And I thought my taste in women was bad...

A Day in the Life

Ivy has appeared in the official Heroes 4koma!

Out of curiosity, I checked the usual sites to read other people's opinions on this. I find this comic amusing, but I understand the concern. As much as I think the "two Ivys" bit is funny, I don't like how she's being turned into a nonthreatening Tharja! Heroes really is a double-edged sword... Either your fav gets some well-deserved attention and plucked out of obscurity, or they get flanderized and meme'd. Or both. Poor Alcryst got this treatment too, his Heroes lines make him more annoyingly self-deprecating. Hell, I'm a Tharja hater and I think her flanderization is unfair. Ivy does love Alear and had her share of lines that come off as forward to me, but she didn't simp THIS hard for them in-game! Geez!

Well, whatever. It's still a W for me because Alear is clearly trying to avoid Ivy... Poor baby. Also, I just realized I added this section on Fire Emblem's birthday, April 20th. Happy 34th!! Blaze it!!! I don't care about Lucina.

Happy birthday!

I'm really disappointed I don't have anything interesting to put here, but it'd feel equally wrong if I didn't. I attempted to draw something (several things, actually...) that would be finished by today, but nearly everything I've drawn in the last few months has been discarded or unfinished. That said, I did do something significant. I was initially going to do what I did for Charizard1246's birthday and request a day off. Then I thought... nah, how about I request a whole paid time off vacation instead? (The reason I gave work for the Neopet was "family visiting". This time the reason was "loved one's birthday"...) I ended up spending my first month's paycheck on all my bills early so I can have enough aside to go out this week. Unfortunately, clashing schedules got in the way to do something on the 17th itself but it's the thought that counts. I got a card the day before alongside some Christmas gifts for family. 2024 Update: My work not paying for the vacation was one of the driving points that made me quit. Oops!

If you're hoping for something serious or sappy here, unfortunately I consider that my private business. Old news, this was written in 11/2023. I was very unwell for 5 years straight, I'm glad this game dropped right after it all ended. #アイビー生誕祭2023 is the Twitter hashtag for Ivy's birthday this year, I really liked what I saw of the overseas posts. I'm purposely out of touch from the wider internet now, so I can't tell you if there's anything like that elsewhere. I miss browsing those directories of personal fanart sites... I managed to find one of those for Fire Emblem, but there's zero sites for Engage in particular. (To live in the AU where it was released 10-15 years earlier, lol...) I'll probably skim any recently updated "general" sites for mentions of it. I also tried doing what I did in high school and did a random kanji search to see if anything interesting would come up, and I found people on 2ch saying the same things we do (notably being weirded out by the fascinator and comparing it to a grill lol).

These are caps I took when I played on my birthday, by the way. (I share mine with someone in Fates. Can you guess who?)

I don't draw as much in general nowadays, but dammit I'm trying...

mine

(Newest to oldest, open in new tab to full view n_n)

2/2024	Yes, I made Ivy on Moderneopets!!! I couldn't resist since I was stuck at home on her birthday.
2/2024	On my first playthrough, I wished the Fates skinship was in Engage instead... this accidentally came out Valentines-y.
1/2024	Young Ivy was so precious in chapter 11, I had to redraw that panel T_T

other's art

	(source TBA)
	From strawberryreverie!

collection

I was going to have a section for an itabag, but that project is on hold until I can grab a better one. Until then, here's my collection and some silly photos involving it. All of it can be easily found on Etsy, there's just... a lot...