...then why get the DLC?
You know what? Screw this, I made an awesome TL:DR on how to fix FE13's story.
((This post was made at Gamefaqs, thus my username is CaptainBang. Deal with it))
Gentlemen, I believe we've we've all said these strong words.
"VALM ARC IS FILLER CAPTAINBANG!"
And how cray cray is that? Super cray cray that's how much. But perhaps this crayness has some substantial evidence to back it up? The valm arc, before or after, was never mentioned (in the form of foreshadowing or any substantial conversations) afterwards. In fact, one could argue that the only reason it exists is to let the children get some chapters before late-game.
"BUT WE ALL KNEW THIS CAPTAINBANG!"
Yes, Captain Bang Shishigami Falcon would never just repeat simply just point out the obvious, he creates discussions for JUSTICE! Let me redirect you towards the first, and outside of Awakening only, game to feature the child system. Fire Emblem: Seisen No Keifu... or Holy Wars for you non-weeaboos losers out there... let's just called it FE4 for simplicities sake for now, K?
I believe all us FE4 vets know how the kids and parents are split up in this game, but for those unfamiliar, the children and parents were never playable at once (outside of Fin and his winness, but if I wrote an essay on how much a BAMF Fin is, we'd be here all night) as the parents in the first generation were killed... or crippled... or maimed... or possessed by a Wind Dragon then gaining his will again only after saving the world...
"BUT BANG, THE FE4 PLOT WAS OFTEN CONSIDERED WEAKENED AFTER THE FIRST GENERATION! HOW COULD KILLING OFF THE GEN 1 AWAKENING CAST BE USEFUL?!"
I'm glad you asked my all caps friend. While FE4's massacre is well known by all players by now, the unknown third cut part of FE4 was unused.
"CAPTAINBANG, I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS! THIS TOPIC IS NOW RELEVANT TO MY INTERESTS! TELL ME MORE!"
Will do, my annoying caps locked alter ego. The third part of FE4 was going to be an arc where the children met up with the parents. Obviously this idea was used in some twisted time travel way in Awakening, but the focus was lessened as the parents were still the main characters, with the children, bluntly put, were thrown away.
"Well, alright, that's all very interesting (My caps button broke), but what does this have to do with anything?"
How about I get to the point my interpretation of a gamefaqs peer? FE4 offered the idea of actually three arcs, one with the parents, one without the kids, and an arc combining the two. What Awakening should have done in its approach is have the Grima arc happen immediately after the Plegia arc, including an extended timeskip of course. While cutting out the "Marth" in the story, as impossible as that sounds... you could do it pretty easily to be honest. Turn chapter 1 and 2 into bandit chapters... make Lon'qu the boss in chapter 5, have Emmeryn's assassination fail no matter what... all simple stuff honestly. It may seem less flashy but it has a good payoff.
The fight with Validar would go exactly as it did in the dream, plus all the other parents escaping showing there is still some HOPE!
Then there would be a timeskip, leading to our favorite cast of little messed up teenagers.
Gerome: No good Lucina! The Risen have found us!
Kjelle: Well let's fight! I'm tired of running from them.
Gerome: ...We should leave...
Kjelle: Are you kidding me? We're capable of stomping out a few Risen!
Lucina: He's not saying that because of fear Kjelle... Frederick (or any other hip Gen 1 survivor) told you to keep me out of trouble. Well I can fight too!
Brady: YEAH! I'll help out too you bas-
Lucina: PRIESTS AND WARFARE DO NOT MIX!
I love myself.
OK, so it would likely seem a bit more interesting then that... hopefully.
Anyways, here we have the potential for an arc focusing entirely on the children, thinking future's past, but an entire arc focusing on it. They try to stop the Risen, take them down, but can't stop Grima due to one of the Gemstones being broken...
"I SEE WHERE YOU'RE GOING WITH THIS NOW BA-"
Indeed you do, we have an arc of the children's failure to defeat Grima, escape from the future, and back into the past. Perhaps some NPC's such as Say'ri and Yenfay will join your cause? Perhaps you can make a few more gen 2 kids? Who knows, but we can have an arc focusing on their adventures, their failure, then going back into the past... informing the people of the first generation of what happened, but with a different approach, then a few chapters would be about how to avoid this destiny while still keeping the audience more engaged then the Valm Arc. We could even still have the kids split up and Lucina would still be the only normal one.
"BUT TALES- I MEAN CAPTAINBANG! WHAT OF THE GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS!"
Way ahead of you. Obviously, we'd need to expand the Plegia arc slightly, by 3 or 4 chapters, while still introducing Cherche (who wouldn't be hard to introduce, "I SERVE LORD VIRION lawl.png lawl.png). Afterwards, we'd have to increase the rate supports grow and make it so that the person with the highest support would automatically be the spouse if you fail beforehand. From a gameplay standpoint, it'd be a little tricky, but pretty easy once you get the hang of it.
"BUT GREAT MASTER SHISHIGAMI, I FAIL AT LIFE AND CAN'T THINK OF A WAY TO SOLVE THE SECOND GEN'S INEVITABLE WORSE BASES!"
...........oh... fudge...........um..................Amp up the bases depending on availability and have the parents affects on them be lesser, because FE4 did it like that and I like FE4 so it should work.
"THANK YOU CAPTAINBANG! YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS ARE ALWAYS SUBSTANTIAL!"
Anytime son, anytime.