hyeokiefan - Tumblr blog

[hyeokiefan]

one thing about ham dani that nobody seems to get and why I'm always fighting for my life in the webtoon's comment section is that in all her fear and reticence around opening herself up with her friends, believing she belongs in this world, trusting in her place and relationships is that SHE'S NEVER WRONG ABOUT THE NEGATIVES. i think it's very easy to look at dani a hundred chapters in still going on about her place as a side character and what she can expect from them realistically, what she can allow herself to feel for them, and feel frustrated, like she's being deliberately obtuse. but dani. is. not. wrong.

one thing that many isekais do is that they will take the premise of "being transported to a novel" and use that simply as a vehicle for the FL to use her knowledge of the future to her advantage and turn the odds on their head. beyond the initial "ehhh why is the ML flirting with me??" which tends to wear off rather easily, there is little questioning about what being in a story means. and inso's law takes that question seriously. because dani IS inside a story, her friends ARE characters AND THIS IS EASILY PROVABLE SINCE THE BEGINNING. How? because she leaves.

it has happened to her before! It happens multiple times in the novel! that's why march 2nd is SO terrifying for her, because everything she's built can be taken from her in the blink of an eye and SHE will be called crazy and SHE will be left grieving and nobody else will remember what ONLY SHE LIVED. she is effectively, practically, tangentially separate from each world by this experience. when dani insists on the labels of main character, side character, the tropes and the narrative possibilities happening within them SHE'S NOT WRONG!! because those things are TRUE!!! I know it's easy to gloss over it bc we as readers just take everything in as a story, but the crazy plot points? they're insane to her too because SHE is a real person and others are not! They're characters! That's why it's called The Law of Webnovels because dani is making sense of the rules of a world which factually functions distinctly different from hers. she's not making that shit up, it's not (entirely) an emotional hold up. that's shit's fucking real.

the nuance is brought on by the fact that the characters are, in fact, also people. they behave like people (albeit inside the margins of wild webnovel logic), they feel like people and they see her as a person. but she does not entirely reciprocate, because to view them as people means assuming the hurt that will inevitably come when 1) she gets sent back into the real world and loses them all or 2) the plot to the novel finally kicks in and who knows if the guy she liked was the ML and will end up with her best friend and all her love and all her trying were for nothing. No matter what, dani loses.

there's also the fact, which i think is exemplified very clearly in her feelings towards her grades and being compared to yeoryung, that even outside the character/real person dichotomy, ham dani and the boys come from WILDLY different backgrounds. when they graduate high school, they will go to different colleges and they will get different jobs and the wide wide gap which dani had managed to bridge due to the magic of webnovel rules will be opened once again. in the social hierarchy of modern korean society, dani will be left behind. ban yeoryung is somewhat immune to this despite sharing similar socioeconomic status because she has 1) better social capital in the form of her beauty and intelligence and 2) plot armour immunity bc she's destined to be with one of the boys anyway (and again it IS destiny bc she's the FL and according to the genre clues dani's been gathering that seems to be the most likely outcome). yeoryung has resources and tools beyond the story that dani cannot access. even IF this wasn't the world of a webnovel, if they existed in the real world, yeoryung COULD feasibly climb her way up but dani? she's realistic about her prowess and she knows very well that being a good friend and a good person does not mean she will get to remain close to her friends who are much much much richer. my point here being that even if she weren't under the assumption (WELL TESTED!!! SCIENTIFIC, EVEN!!!) that she's in the world of a story ruled by story laws, she wouldn't be silly for guarding her heart against the possibility of drifting away from byr+the boys.

all of this is why i love dani's character arc and her as a person. she doesn't act irrationally. she only acts very, very humanly. it's why i loved the kidnapping arc and her confrontation with choi yuri. she has to learn to treat them seriously, as human beings, because despite factually being characters, they don't have the awareness of it and their lives are every bit as real as any other to them. it's part also of dani learning how to be a person herself, because she's still a kid growing up and learning what's what, and doing so in an environment much more stressful than the usual. i think people are being irrationally mean towards her simply because they do not make the effort to understand her.

[hyeokiefan]

Also hey friends, if you see someone with the handle "MoonlitBoar" running about, that is not our good friend Moonlitboar who makes lovely Lambert, Dimitri, and Faerghus content. It's one of their harassers who stole the URL out of pure spite to reblog content from the person who led the harassment campaign against MoonlitBoar.

Stay safe out there :)

ETA: Hey if you see this post, please reblog it. I think all of the people who loved and appreciated Moonlitboar's content deserve to know what's now being done under their name.

[hyeokiefan]

Me and tagging to help people find my posts? Nah.

The search engine on mobile will lead them to me anyway LMAOOOOOOOOO.

[hyeokiefan]

Oh no, it’s true.

I absolutely don’t dislike Edelgard as much as the way the writers tried to make me feel bad for her in other routes in Three Houses. I don’t know this lady? Like? She causes a war, she will be dealt with. (Same w me being pissed at the game forcing me to give Claude the diary, like I don’t want to? Write a damn scenario where I don’t give and Claude had to figure out sth even if it made him slightly unsavoury)

(And don’t try to explain to a Vietnamese about ~2 sides of the story~, you really should not because no amount of mental gymnastics can excuse the war crime that is Agent Orange)

People can try to use whatever is in Three Hopes as a way to dunk on people who hate on Edelgard (makes no sense anyway cuz you have to be naive to think the devs don’t get influenced by the discourses over the years) but it’s AU for a reason. People should not have to buy dlcs and more contents to understand characters. The finished product is the finished product.

At least getting rid of TWSITD and Byleth so as to kick start the war earlier instead of having a 5 year stalemate will make her a more compelling character than being a pair of flip-flops like in the original game.

as someone who played a non-CF route first, seeing characters go “we don’t wanna fight you!” to el was a little weird, because i wanted to fight her. “is there a way we could walk the same path-” nah man gimme my sword i’ve been waiting to do this since chapter 13 <3

[hyeokiefan]

has loid really never paused even once to think about how Yor is so insanely strong??? he watched her give a guy a single kick for him to roll twenty metres away, hit the wall with a thud and thought wow. those must have been really effective self-defense classes! good for her, good for her.

[hyeokiefan]

Rant About Gray Morality and How The Story of 3H Really Isn’t That Morally Gray

This hasn’t happened recently, but just so I can get it out there: I never want to hear “3H is about Gray Morality, all of the people have done bad things and no one’s truly right!!!” ever again for as long as I live.

Hardly any story, much less a Fire Emblem story, is about ‘Gray Morality’. It’s not a main narrative goal or a signature thing that you’d find on a review or whatever. It’s just a neat moniker for when the author decides to humanize characters or make situations less “Dragon killed king, now the prince kill dragon” and more “Territory A declares war on Dominant Territory B and invades because Territory B is imposing heavy taxes and works commoners from Territory A to exhaustion.”

Though again. Stories are hardly ever about the ‘Gray Morality’ aspect. It’s seasoning on the main meal, which is the narrative. I.E., the story wouldn’t really be about the aforementioned reasons why Territory A declares war on and invades Territory B, but it would be about the war itself. Probably about what the protagonist in that story is doing in regards to that war.

The same applies to 3H and FE stories in general. Gray Morality is used to make the story more interesting, but the narratives are never really about that.

And even if 3H’s story was about Gray Morality… I’d say it did a pretty bad job at it. Rhea and the Church did nothing to the Empire or Edelgard. Dimitri and the Kingdom did nothing to the Empire or Edelgard. Claude and the Alliance did nothing to the Empire or Edelgard. Yet Edelgard and the Empire declare war on all of them regardless.

Edelgard’s main grievances are with the nobility of her territory, with how Crests decide merit, and with the devout. The people who did terrible things to her and her family are Those Who Slither in the Dark.

She persuades some imperial nobles to join her, has a couple others put under house arrest and one other is assassinated. She has full control of the empire when she’s crowned, but instead of implementing new reforms, she decides to attack other territories because…? She knows jack shit about the Kingdom, other than how she considers House Gautier to be foolish to disinherit bandit, murderer and woman abductor talented leader Miklan. And she quite literally knows nothing about the Alliance, otherwise she would praise the Alliance for not really adhering to the “Crest = Merit” ideology, since Margrave Edmund doesn’t have a Crest yet has a prominent rank and influence. The church openly preaches not to abuse “gifts given to you by the goddess” i.e. Crests, and people do it anyway. And yet she blames the church for this. In essence, she’s blaming the preacher for saying one thing, because she believes that what the preacher said justifies a completely different topic, said topic being something the preacher is against.

She has no good reason to declare war on these three powers. Other than possibly her rampant and violent nationalism, hatred of religion/the devout, and anti-dragon racism. All of which are incredibly personal and self righteous reasons, rooted in deep prejudice and resentment. I.E. not morally gray at all.

Her political and systemic goals for the future of her Empire, along with telling people in her own territory not to rely on Crests could’ve been done when she ascended the throne. Dimitri even flat out says to her “You could’ve done something in your own territory instead of doing something like this.” She answers with a sense of entitlement, about how she believes the world is corrupt and will claim more victims and that only her way could fix things, and that only she is qualified, and she has the right to do so. And this is consistent to how she shuts down Claude in both CF and VW as well.

Those are her reasons for trying to conquer and assimilate independent territories (besides the aforementioned nationalism and stuff)? Because she feels she’s entitled to solve all the whole world’s problems herself through warfare, when no one asked her to? That’s also pretty fucking black-and-white to me.

Compared to Claude who’s basically squeaky clean in all aspects? Dimitri whose only crimes are killing his assailants in a brutal manner and being mean to his friends before he begins his recovery? Rhea who decided to propagate a false history and slow progress in order to explicitly keep the peace (since she’s experienced firsthand what out of control tech advancement can end up doing) and only killed people who were out to kill her first?

Yeah, this story is not gray in the slightest. Much less is it about Gray Morality in the first place.

[hyeokiefan]

I desperately need your help

Turns out we are in grave debt, definitely over 1100 euros to be exact. I don’t know if we’re gonna be able to pay them so soon, so I’m writing this again to please consider helping. I’m making a new post so that this will show up in the tags.

We have a date now: we will be hearing more on October the 29th, but this is not a guarantee my mother will get the disability aid she needs. In the meantime, I’m still hoping this will do something. It definitely gave us some money we very desperately needed, but it’s not enough. I’m so sorry.

As always, If you have any questions, please send me an ask or a DM. Please spread this post, feel free to tag any specific tumblrs dedicated to spreading donation posts around. I don’t like to beg for money, but we’re desperate. PayPal: paypal.me/dimphylijten Contact: tumblr / stan#5077 (discord)

@shareyourdollar​ @mutual-aid-booster​ @mutual-aid-resources​ @mutual–aid​ @mutualaidnetworking​

[hyeokiefan]

Now why are we at a point where we start defending imperialism 💀💀💀 Ed*lstans need to stop.

[hyeokiefan]

Literally. I can’t say much about Claude because his route was a blur to me but why are people lumping Dimitri with imperialism while also criticising him for not having a plan for Fodlan.

Mate, it’s because he never wanted to rule Fodlan. His concern is stabilising Faerghus and pay reparations to Duscur. He just happens to be tasked with dealing with the aftermath of a 5-year war that no one except Edel & co asked for.

I think we kind of have to acknowledge the fact that the game itself has some shitty imperialist leanings.

we sure do

“United Fodlan” is the world state at the end of every route, and it is painted as a good thing. When Byleth is primed to take over the continent, their students congratulate them. When Dimitri becomes king of Fodlan, he is hailed for his rule.

Gaining control of another country is treated as the prize at the end of a story arc. Even when the protagonist in that particular situation (Byleth, Dimitri) did not actively seek to take over a country, they still wind up in charge of a new country (see: Claude just handing Dimitri the Alliance for No Reason).

very true. you could tell the devs were stretching on how the blue lions would get the alliance territory for their ‘united fodlan’ ending when claude could have easily given his bow and position to holst. hell, even dimitri is confused when this happens lmao

And part of this is just the nature of tactics games and war games in general. There is an aspect of pro-war and pro-imperialism baked into the genre that can’t really be lampshaded away with the characters lamenting how much they wish for peace.

When people ask how Edelgard fans can justify her imperialism, all I can say is, we can’t. I can’t. It’s not justifiable. It’s abhorrent.

i’m glad she isn’t going to try and justify it. i’ve seen so many try and it always falls flat.

But I would also say, how can you justify any other Lord’s ending, in that case? Is it justifiable if the character themselves were not written as seeking domination, but magically gained that domination anyway? Is it fine if they just tripped over a country and it landed under their rule? Did the Alliance just follow Dimitri home like a lost cat?

ok i’m going to have to disagree a bit here. here’s the definition of imperialism:

dimitri doesn’t advocate for it or try extending his land or power at all. it’s just kind of happens. yes it is contrived and didn’t need to happen but there was no intent from dimitri towards unification. no occupation, no political or social control, or conquest of any kind. he shows up to the alliance to help them keep their autonomy from an actual imperialist force. it was the round table that came to an agreement and decided for themselves without any kingdom intervention to fold into faerghast.

let me clarify: yes, the themes that intsys is trying to promote are bad and it does shine a bit in azure moon, silver snow, and verdant wind, but no it’s not imperialism in these cases. just lazy writing with bad thematics when looked at as a whole w the other routes.

the only route with actual imperialism is crimson flower since it’s an empire on a war of conquest.

Imperialism is bad. Let’s acknowledge that.

it isn’t imperialism by default when countries decide to unify. it is when there was political/social control involved and force.

for example: the united states. 13 separate british colonies in north america effectively became separate independent nations on july 4, 1776. although they coordinated their war and foreign policies through the continental congress, disputes between the states (mostly regarding land claims) prevented the formation of a national government. when maryland, finally ratified the articles of confederation and perpetual union in 1781 it paved the way for the legal creation of the united states. even then, the articles did not call the usa a "nation" or even a "government" but instead refers to "a firm league of friendship". the individual states independently negotiated directly with foreign countries, enacted trade embargoes, and raised armies, all violating the letter and the spirit of the articles. the weaknesses of the articles were later corrected when the constitution went into effect in 1789, forming a much stronger national government.

made that small bc nobody cares about my history lessons.

Then let’s go back to this work of fiction and enjoy the things that we can enjoy about it, because it’s a video game where we can have tea parties with the cute girls and I think that’s neat.

yeah :)

[hyeokiefan]

My most invested male characters be like: Dimitri, Eun Jiho, Xu Mo, Seijuuro Akashi and probably Vinny from Windbreaker (I invest in Jay and Shelly as a combo more than Jay’s own character)

Need to draw out the venn diagram for these men.

[hyeokiefan]

He’s exquisite 😭

Kohei Uchimura’s most difficult high bar elements:

Bretschneider

Cassina + Kolman

Tak ½ + Liukin

Tak ½ + Gaylord II

Triple Tuck

Triple Twisting Double Layout

[hyeokiefan]

Everything about this fic is painfully bad, lordt.

Reading through the comments of Captainflash’s fanfic it seems that @ezralahm is completely right in her comparison to that Harry Potter fan. The comments mention so many Edelstan takes that are present in this fic, including:

Ingrid fits on CF

Flayn would join in CF

Seteth enables Rhea’s abuse and is too much of a coward to go against her

Ingrid has internalized homophobia

Claude wants to conquer Fodlan

Rhea experimented on Byleth

Edelgard hates herself for what she’s doing

This were the ones I could find quickly reading some comments, there may be more. They literally have their own version of the game it seems.

[hyeokiefan]

3 characters that so far bug me in FE3H are probably Sylvain, Hilda and Claude. (Felix is an interesting case.) It’s not that I think they’re the worst or anything, they’re just characters with unaddressed flaws that are more memorable than the rest, thus evoking more reactions from me.

Sylvain is absolutely shitty to women and too much of the writing is spent trying to make the women in his life understand and tolerate him even when none of them has any prior connections to him. He doesn’t seem to even have a serious moment where he reflects on how others’ shitty opinions about him is practically his own doing lmao. No Sylvain, don’t equate your problem with the prejudice against Dedue. Hence why I don’t like him that much.

Hilda is strange for me because I like that she’s smart and perceptive, sweet even but a) she burikko-d way too much for me to like her and I can assure you if anyone tries to sweet talk their way out of work, I don’t want to be friends with them ever and b) her C-support with Cyril went nowhere.

My opinion about Claude plummets after the diary thing and it has not yet to recover even when I finished VW. Him mentioning Cyril’s Almyra origin all of a sudden in the almost final group battle when most of Cyril’s memories about the place is the poverty and abandonment he suffered is not It. I get annoyed with Claude because he could have been great but the developer just doesn’t know how to deal with the concept that they have. Similar to other characters where I get annoyed because I can tell the devs are tiptoeing around their problems, I see the intention behind Claude, the trajectory he is supposed to get but I am eh at the execution.

[hyeokiefan]

I like how Ingrid being “one of the boys” doesn’t mean that she cannot form good female friendships.

I think it’s neat that Ingrid treasures food so much as it is significant to her upbringing. The soil of her land is so infertile that not much can be grown on it. Her father is extremely frugal but always wants her to be well-fed and taken care of even when his way can sometimes be not it. It self-explains why Ingrid is such a glutton. Why wouldn’t you be if you don’t even have that many feasts in the first place?

Ingrid’s prejudice against Dedue and Duscur is acknowledged and she does change. I like the way she often agonises over her bad behaviours and actually apologises for it.

Overall, a good character me thinks.

[hyeokiefan]

Gotta love how all the "Crest problems" of the Faerghus characters are solved in AM by character development instead of just smashing the problem with a stick:

Ingrid realizes that she was stubborn and never talked to her dad about her true feelings. After the war they have a heart to heart and her dad lets her go to enable Ingrid's dream of becoming a knight (and it's not like she can't support her family from her new position)

Sylvain stops with the catastrophizing and takes responsibility for his own fate by choosing words over the Lance if Ruin to end the conflict with Sreng, freeing his family (and apparently others) from the necessity of a Crest that way

Instead of following the whims of those above her, Mercedes cut ties with her adoptive father and becomes a cleric like she always wanted

Although Dimitri and Annette don't really suffer from their possession of a Crest, I'm going to include the minor character growth that happens in relation to it anyways:

By owning the magical power her Crest gives her, Annette becomes her own person and chooses a career as a teacher at the Royal School of Sorcery in Fhirdiad. This way she is neither "devaluing her Crest", nor is she following Gilbert's footsteps like before.

Eventually letting go of the hatred and anger born out of his empathy for the weak, Dimitri learns the he is not just a "man good for nothing but war" due to his strength (partly the strength from his Crest) who can only offer violence and revenge for the dead, but starts to use his power to protect those who can't protect themselves while relying on their wisdom, counsel, hard work and other skills. Furthermore, just because he was born into the royal family with the right Crest, doesn't mean he has to do everything on his own, a realization that will ultimately shape his political views.

[hyeokiefan]

What reason does Thales have to make himself Arundel? Arundel never controlled the empire. The empire doesn’t have the heroes relics that he wants for some reason. Isn’t close to shambala nor is it as rich as the Alliance or well trained as the Kingdom. All it has is a higher population. But it needs demonic beasts and dark crests weapons to be a threat. Like uniting the Alliance and Kingdom against the church and empire would have made more sense. Why ally with a decaying mess?

Couldn't tell you. The game needed a reason for Edelgard and the Slithers to begrudgingly work together, no matter how little it makes sense.

[hyeokiefan]

dumped all the headcanons i had and drew how therion might act around the other travelers!