I'm playing Fire Emblem 7 right now and I'm on Chapter 19. I have beaten this game before but this play through is different, particularly because of the fact that I'm older and I pay more attention to things. In this case, at the end of the chapter, several things happen. First, they approach Ephidel at the Dragon's Gate and they go to get Ninian from the altar. Well, for some reason, they stop when an assassin named Jaffar appears behind them, and Ephidel is like, "Jaffar is one of our best assassins, you won't be able to take him on." Then he DISMISSES him. DISMISSES the assassin. Why?? Anyways, Nergal is using Ninian to summon a dragon at the gate, and Ninian's brother Nils comes in and somehow convinces the red-eyed possessed girl to stop summoning the dragon. All Nergal and his accomplice, Ephidel, can do is watch. in horror as he actually stops her. Suddenly the dragon starts dying, and Nergal is like... angry at Nils... Well, what do you expect? The kid is against you! But anyways, if all it takes is Nils convincing Ninian to stop being possessed, then why, in the beginning of the game, did he search for both kids? Not only that, but how did that little boy get on the island anyways?

But that's not the worst part of it all. The team runs away, and Nergal warps away as the dragon explodes. Ephidel is like, "Master Nergal, nooo!" and dies, despite the fact that he has already been proven to warp around at will anyways. And after that, the rest of the team goes back to the gate, Nergal warps down and complains some more, and then Eliwood's dying dad, who doesn't die through three or four attacks already, attacks Nergal... Somehow he musters the strength to attack Nergal, and it hurts Nergal enough to force Nergal to run away. What is that?

I don't mean to nitpick, but this really got under my skin. The villains in this game are terrible, and this chapter goes to show it. Anyone else notice any villains who are absolutely incompetent at doing ANYTHING?

Well I guess they were in a rush to finish the development for the game and made it all confusing which actually happens in alot of games sometimes they can do something but they don't which I find a bit stupid sometimes.

I think you're right there. After the release of Super Smash Bros. Melee, in which Roy and Marth were introduced, I'm sure there was a major push to get a Fire Emblem to the United States. I'm always an advocate of quality over quantity, and I'd rather see a game pushed back in the event that it wasn't up to par, but I also understand the way needs of business might overcome the desire for quantity, so while they did make a great game in Fire Emblem, they really didn't pay attention to some of the motivations of their characters. I am going to say, though, they fixed some of the issues in the Sacred Stones and especially Path of Radiance, but I really wish they had done a bit more work on this one. When I played it about eight or nine years ago, I didn't notice it, but after taking classes that help me analyze things, it really is a bummer that they did rush this.