- “That Queen Hilda of Chronos is wicked to the core. She began abducting kids after allying with the dark bishops. She kills the mothers, too, without a blink of an eye! That woman's not even human. I'd say she's more like the Devil!”
- ―a villager talking about Hilda in chapter 10.
Hilda is a major antagonist in the game, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War. She is notable for being the first major female villain in the Fire Emblem franchise, which rarely features female enemies, especially truly evil ones that do not get redeemed in the end.
Profile[]
Hilda first appears in the game's second generation, she is a noblewoman of house Velthomer and the wife of the enemy nobleman, Bloom of house Friege. The son of the pair is Ishtor and their daughter is Ishtar. She served as the Queen of Miletos under the reign of the empire Grannevale and was known for being much crueler than her already ruthless husband.
When Bloom captured his sister, Tailtu (a playable character in the first generation) and her daughter, Tine (a playable character in the second generation), the sadistic Hilda took charge of taking "care"" of them. Both suffered intense emotional and physical abuse, Tailtu eventually died from this abuse whilst trying to protect her daughter, a fact that Hilda later gloats about to Tine and Tailtu's separated son, Arthur.
Hilda's ingame portrait.
Hilda is shown to be a terrible mother to her own children as well, pressuring her own daughter, Ishtar to marry, Julius, son of the Grannevale Emperor, for the money and power (implying she may have married Bloom for the same reason).
Whilst Bloom, Ishatar and Ishtor opposed the cruel "child hunt" practice of the Loptrians, an evil cult that controlled the Grannevale empire, which involved capturing poor children between the 7 and 13, to sacrifice to their dark god with a few lucky ones being groomed to be nobles of the cult, Hilda whole heartedly supported this endeavor and partook in them herself seemingly wholly out of spite rather than any ideological reasons.
During her tyrannical reign in Miletos, against her husbands orders, Hilda authorized child hunts and was known to kill the mothers of children in front of them. When the player first encounters Hilda onscreen, she is sent news about some children captured for the child hunts escaping, Hilda responds to this by ordering her general, Ridale, to have all the escape children killed, to send a message to the people that there can be no resistance. When Ridale questions these orders, Hilda says she can have him executed for disobedience.
Hilda's Queen class.
When Hilda is encountered on the field in chapter 10, she is of the unique Queen class, a powerful defensive magic class with access to fire, thunder, wind and healing magic. When first battled and defeated, Hilda will be forced to retreat and teleports away.
Hilda reappears in the final appearing on the battlefield with the entire elite army of Friege and after a fierce battle, Hilda is slain, paving the way to Julius and Ishtar, the latter whom Hilda taunts the player will avenge her.
Hilda is also mentioned in the midquel, Thracia 776, where it is said she has secretly sent her men to cooperate with the child hunts behind Bloom's back.
Effects of Player variance[]
The most interesting variance is if Tailtu doesn't marry and/or dies during the first generation, Hilda instead abuses Bloom's other sister, Ethnia and her daughter, Linda. Whilst Ethnia never appears onscreen in game, only having a piece of out of game artwork, it is said she sheltered the protagonist of the first generation, Sigurd, her son and daughter, Amid and Linda respectively act as playable replacements for Arthur and Tine respectively.
If Hilda is fought by either Tine/Linda or Arthur/Amid at any point, she will taunt them: gleefully reminiscing about the joy she felt driving their mother to their deaths, calling their mom a worthless eyesore and gloating she'll kill them slowly.
Notes[]
- The writer of the game, Shouzou Kaga, noted writing a woman as wicked as Hilda was a difficult process and compared her to an evil witch.
- Though her ingame portrait appears rather aged, her official artwork gives her a younger look.
Hilda's lookalike.
- A minor boss in the first generation, Lamia, looks just like Hilda would look if she was younger. It is possible that Hilda was intended to appear in the first generation and her portrait was recycled for Lamia in the final game.
- In the final chapter, Hilda mistakenly has holy blood from the Dain royal lineage on her stats.
Quotes[]
- Ohoho! Well, if it isn't Tine/Linda. I knew you'd come crawling back to me. You really are every bit the ingrate you dear mama was!
- Ahh, that takes me back! It's been so long since I had as much fun as tormenting that eyesore you call "mama"... Ahahaha!
- Why, if I didn't know better, that's the smart mouth of someone all grown up! What could a brat like you ever hope to do? Good thing you miss your mama. You're about to go join her in hell!
- Ohoho! So you toddled all the way here, Tine/Linda. I've been waiting for you. I want nothing more than to choke the life from you with my bare hands!
- Ohohohoho... You're Tailtiu/Ethnia's other brat, aren't you? Am I to presume you've come to seek my head for your mommy's pathetic demise?
- Oh, did you, now? In that case, I'll drag you straight to hell with me!
Gallery[]
