ladyaster

[ladyaster]

HIIII i saw a bunch of your rath/lyn posts in the fe7 tag (incredible taste, coming from a fellow rathlyn enthusiast) and it made me wonder: do you have any thoughts on sin/sue? i ask since i've been pondering it for a while and i think there are a lot of interesting parallels you can draw between them and rath/lyn. it makes cry a little :,-)

(or, if no thoughts about him and sue, perhaps just thoughts on sin himself...? i find him to be so fascinating as far as FE side characters go and i care about him a lot)

Eyo! Lovely to meet another fan!

While I personally don't ship Sue and Shin (I'll be honest, I don't really ship Sue with anyone), I do love them as childhood friends, and their supports are dang sad. My girl has been through so much, IntSys please, I beg of you, give her a break-

As for Shin, himself, I will admit I'm not the biggest fan of him, sorry... but it is fun comparing and contrasting him to Rath (which he does have a few parallels with, though also curiously enough fused with Kent kind of with the "loyal and protective right hand man" angle), given they're both so quiet and intimidating but had such different upbringings and personalities and are both rather awkward in their own ways (Rath had to raise himself and his few human interactions before joining the party were pretty negative so naturally he's not exactly good at social situations, but while he seems scary he's actually quite the teddy bear, while Shin did grow up normally as far as we know, he's just like that, a really dry and blunt lone-wolf type who also has a hard time making friends when he genuinely wants to and it's best shown through actions like with Zeiss, though it is somewhat funny to speculate that he's trying his best to emulate people he sees as "cool" but kinda flounders in social situations as a result of not being "himself" (hence why showing how he cares about others through actions works for him far better than words)). Also Shin's idolization of Dayan is pretty endearing, like he goes from aloof to starry-eyed in a mere second.

I like to headcanon that Shin actually did study the bow under Rath which is how he and Sue became friends and part of why Shin tries to act the way he does, thinking that his mentor, THE SILVER WOLF'S SON, is so cool so he should start being all quiet and mysterious too, and Sue can't help but affectionately call him a dork for it.

My apologies if I was a bit rude or curt during this ask, or misunderstood Shin's character at any point.

[ladyaster]

tysm for the fic recs !! it seems spes author went dark on their account from time to time for self care. i checked their profile and the fics are all locked to prevent AI i guess. thank you, imma eating so good xD

Oh yeah, that's definitely understandable on both accounts on their end.

You're welcome! I hope you enjoy!

[ladyaster]

Then do you have Lynrath fics I can nom nom :3

For ones I've read and really liked (I haven't published any proper, just a bunch of Google Docs that are half-finished at best), mind a few of them are on FF.Net because old fandoms so prepare to identify some traffic lights and then wait for the website to give you the thumbs up when we get later down the list:

-Spes is a sweet little fic about their trip back to Sacae/rejoining the Kutolah (warning if you wanna bookmark it though, it sporadically gets taken down for some reason, but usually gets posted back up after a little while).

-Home Again is similarly about them reuniting at Bulgar before traveling home. Very short and sweet.

-Dreams makes for another reunion fic, this one with a little bit of patching up from a bandit scuffle.

-Wind Across the Plains is a very fluffy piece regarding teaching Sue how to ride a horse.

-Wolves isn't very shippy/more Sue-centric but they are there as higher ranking members of the tribe trying their best to navigate getting as many people as possible through a particularly brutal winter

-Disappear is all pain and no fluff unless you're like me and pretend that one of the healers actually found a Fortify staff lying around and comes in last minute off-screen right when the fic ends, but it's otherwise Lyn mulling over the past and worrying about how her loved ones are faring in the wake of being mortally wounded in a bandit raid.

-The Sacred Flames (which is written by a friend of mine, actually) is an AU where Lyn and Rath stay behind to oversee Caelin. It sadly was never finished, though.

Typing this out made me realize we need more fics, wow.

[ladyaster]

People who love cold weather are fucking weird. You like to freeze? You like to shiver?? You like when you take a step outside and the air stings your skin???

[ladyaster]

"Hunted again, Lyn of the Lorca?" >>>> any flirtatious line lol

"It's...good to see you again." "Do you need my help?" "Are you offering?" "You. If you desire it." There are enough sparks going off between y'all that it's a fire hazard. Get a room! XD

[ladyaster]

rathlyn anon here :3

ooohhh goddd yessss to all the things you're saying! rathlyn is my first FE7 ship and FE7 is my first FE so i always have a soft spot for them. i'm so surprised the fandom tends to look down on this ship... rath has always been alone with minimum human contact, valued only for his skills with racism tied to it OF COURSE he's wary to open up. him trying hard to hide his identity is also understandable. dayan made him wander the continent when he was so little so like how is he going to calmly say "yeah" when being pressed about his identity when he probably struggles with it in the first place? loneliness, feels abandoned (hello?? lyn connection!) and then famed for his mercenary skills all of a sudden. araphen practically pulling like "you're one of the good ones" on him, NO WONDER he feels connected to lyn who isn't only sharing his background/heritage culturally, but also has similar life struggles (loneliness, identity crisis?) like he does. ngl his entrances in both lyn's route and the second half of the game made me swoon haha. for the first time there's really a person worth fighting for and a real cause to fight to the end. she's where his heart sets sail and in him she finds a home. djsafjlsjfl. we need more rath fics with loads of floof TToTT

Awww! You started with a good one! They weren't my first FE OTP (I think that'd be Lissa x Stahl on my end?), but they definitely were the ones to just grab me by the shoulders and say "hi, we'd like to rent a room in your brain indefinitely". As for why the fandom is like that, well, I guess they just don't realize that the point of FE's support mechanic is to pick the ships that appeal to you personally the most, and that there being a "canon" ship ruins the point of that and basically says "your choices are an illusion", so it's pointless to wage a shipping war in this environment. I get where RathLyn might not be everyone's cup of tea or other ships might be someone else's cup of tea, but at the end of the day, it's just a game and people need to chill out. Greenbeans are extremely cute no matter what they say.

But yeah, Rath is a really fascinating character and I do enjoy how, even though he doesn't have a lot of supports, you still get a pretty clear idea of who he is as a person, and poor guy has been through a lot. "More or less raised by a horse" is absolutely insane, no wonder he doesn't talk or emote much. And yeah, I do love how in his supports with Lyn we see that they do have a fair number of parallels (speaking of parallels some people have even pointed out potential similarities between Lyn and Rath and Madelyn and Hassar, Caelin's bold heiress eloping with the captain of the guard who's actually a Sacaean prince, which is super sweet). And his entrances are indeed great. The initial one was nice and dramatic (and for RathLyn shippers yeah very "come with me if you want to live"), and I'm such a sucker for the second one because the chemistry there is peak: most of their support is right to the heart of the matter and as such more somber so seeing them just playfully teasing each other is adorable and really sells that, even if it's been forever, they're still close (which, thinking on it now, it's extremely nice to see all these different facets of their relationship considering this is classic Fire Emblem ergo less events for various characters to interact, especially given Rath's status as a side character). And boy when they fight for each other it's something to behold. Gotta love how they both get the same weapon specialties so they really do cover for each other for whatever the other needs in the moment.

And I agree, we need more fics and/or fanart of either this ship or the characters involved in it but separate being happy. They both deserve it. I'd write them myself but *looks at the looming pile of WIPs I have for them but they're all kinda mid and also all incomplete as heck because writer's block is a particularly unpleasant individual* it's tough goings.

[ladyaster]

FELLOW RATH/LYN FANNNN!! I never thought I'd find anotherrr. What makes you like them? :D

(sorry im shy lol)

OH MY GOSH HELLO. We are rare it feels like so it's so lovely to see another one of us in the wild!

Gosh, where do I begin? There's just so much with them. Unhinged ramblings that don't clearly illustrate my thoughts ahead:

Well, to start, really I just love how soft and sweet they are. The whole support just has this really cozy yet oddly raw vibe of characters who are already good friends (which given in the game's data they have a base support point total of 15 which like...that's only a little lower than Lyn's base support points with Kent and Wil who she's spent an entire year with in Caelin, I can only assume they were already tight during Lyn's story mode, plus the way they engage in playful banter when you re-recruit Rath in the main story which by the way is so hecking cute) starting to trust each other more and more before they're willing to open up about their deepest scars. I think it means a lot to Lyn that she can talk with someone regarding all the loss she's endured and how much pain she's going through without being scared she might be seen as lesser given in a fair number of her supports, she's often really nervous about showing vulnerability and the last time she did that was screaming and crying and blurting it out in the heat of the moment with someone she was only really starting to become friends with but here she just talks about it calmly and freely albeit she's obviously and understandably crushed, and considering Rath tried to avoid Guy a ton after he accidentally guessed his identity correctly, I think it says a lot that he's willing to divulge his past to Lyn. I don't care what the internet says, I think their supports are just oozing with tenderness and sweetness and pure trust. Said trust translates really well to another point where they just do amazing alongside each other in battle which is also reflected in supports where they are constantly looking out for one another in combat, both covering each others' weaknesses and also picking up on when the other is having an off day and if they need to talk about it. Like when it's not trust with them it's communication. Them pouring their hearts out to each other when even in other supports they're apprehensive about being particularly open with others and in turn deeply relating to one another's experiences I think is the main thing that makes me like them. And altogether it leads to their supports screaming "these two absolutely hug it out a lot".

Random gameplay-related note. One run I did during the chapter you get Farina I had Lyn just holding the front line where this pirate kept chucking a hand axe at her. It kept missing but it was getting annoying and I guess I didn't have a bow on her at the moment or I couldn't have her dequip her sword for strategy reasons or something so I selected Rath and said out loud "this jerk's throwing axes at your girlfriend, you know what to do". And the minute I finish saying that he just. Crits the pirate. Lovely.

Also like from the get-go they're established as seeing each other as equals (which that means a lot given Lyn has a lot of insecurities about how others perceive her and understandably so after the other survivors of the massacre abandoned her), like they fought as allies one time when Araphen was burning, the marquess tried being a petty racist jerkwad to Lyn in return, and she told him off and went on her way and Rath just quit his job (where I don't doubt he was also treated awfully) in solidarity and decided to support Lyn, instead (she probably said a lot of things to Marquess Araphen that Rath was wishing he could say for a long time). He just respects her so much, you love to see it. And like I already do love the contrast in their personalities (I do love me the dynamic of the bright and compassionate and kinda scrappy outgoing type with the normally calm and quiet but supremely socially awkward and still super sweet type together (hello Luke and Tear I'll talk about you one day again eventually)) while they have the shared trait of being nurturing. Which considering their situations and backstories kinda makes things really bittersweet since they both did struggle a lot with isolation (be it through surviving a genocide or raising oneself), and still do to certain extents given that they've basically been stranded in a country that, while they know a lot of chill people, hasn't historically been very kind to Sacaeans (which being able to talk about their culture and beliefs or even just joke around with each other is something that means the world to both of them, I definitely can imagine that Rath loves hearing Lyn talk about everything she can about the Lorca and their own customs and beliefs given he's been separated from his own culture for so long, and she's so genuinely passionate about her culture too so it's a joy to listen to her talk).

They've both been through so much so their ending which is also supremely sweet feels so earned. Like after all of the horrors they've experienced from survival to loneliness to discrimination to fighting Elibe's largest organized crime syndicate to a mad wizard and his crimes against nature and a freaking ticked-off dragon, them deciding to take that long trip home and start a new chapter of their lives together and even tying the knot and starting a family (and SUE being their daughter like that in itself is a reward for all they've been through, she's such a fantastic character and I can gush about her a ton) is so, so, so adorable and you just know that Sue was absolutely doted on like crazy by both of them given they'd want to make sure she'd never experience that same loneliness and anxiety that they did (also adorable is that, while they don't get a lot of spotlight in the FE7 novel, apparently there's a blurb or two about how they sorta babysit Nils whenever Ninian and Eliwood are off being cute, which they both respectively saved his life back in the campaign against Lundgren and he does look up to them both a lot so in my heart Nils can be Sue's honorary adoptive brother. Another cute novel detail is that it implies Rath retired from fighting after the events of FE7 which I can only assume was so he could be there for Sue which that's also devastating considering his backstory. Sue also clearly thinks the world of Lyn with how much Sue seems to mention her internally so as if there was any doubt she's absolutely her daughter's hero, and we know from FE6 that Dayan tried to make up for how he wasn't really there for Rath by being there for Sue and like I absolutely love how tightly-knit this family unit is and it opens up the door for a lot of interesting ideas on how Lyn and Rath both get used to living with a tribe again as well as connecting/reconnecting with Dayan). The kicker for me though is that it's emphasized that they were happy. Like they fought so hard for a peaceful life and achieved it together and then FE6 happens and your heart shatters (even if in the novel Lyn survives, no word on what happened to Rath sadly, but the novels' canonicity is iffy so it's very "take it or leave it").

So yeah, they're just so, so, so, so sweet on every level and I love the idea that they just spend hours and hours talking and listening to the other talk about things important to them. They're so soft and tender with each other, they fight amazing alongside each other, for real actual relationship goals, great chemistry, their ending gets me every time with how it's so cavity-inducing at first and then just punches you in the gut when you know what happens in FE6, and like side note I love how their clothing has the same color palette but rearranged which makes drawing them nice. Also thanks to them I started getting interested in researching Turkic cultures which is a lot of fun to learn about (albeit very depressing because history is rough). I'm sure there's a lot more but this is what came off the top of my head since I'm very sleepy at the time of me writing this, lol. Thank you!!! I've been meaning to talk about them again for a long time so it was lovely to have an opportunity to do so.

In the meantime, have some admittedly old WIPs that I'm not sure I'll ever finish given their age:

These two right here were bonus pieces for the Halloween piece I did a while back

[ladyaster]

It's like Castlevania SotN but in reverse.

[ladyaster]

Legit she's actually my favorite character in Three Houses because she's so. FREAKING. DARN. INTERESTING. (also her cheerful confidence is contagious and as someone with zero self-esteem it feels fantastic)

I legit love how she tells the students "Please don't end up like me, you don't want to be a high-ranking knight. You don't want to charge into battle. You don't want to fight for your life as a profession. You don't want to sully your hands and your soul. You don't want to die a horrible, violent death. You are worth more than posthumous awards of honor. I have done so many things I regret and I don't wish the experiences and guilt I carry upon my worst enemy. I'm not turning back, I've chosen my path and am comfortable with my choice and believe in the path I've taken, I just don't think you would.", but given eventually nobody even has a choice in that matter, 3/4 routes she imparts all she can to the others to survive and generally tries to be a good friend and ally in whatever ways she can. Add that to how honestly sad her history is where her parents literally threw her under the bus to save their own hides so she had to live as a wanted criminal for a while like no wonder she thinks so highly of Rhea after she granted her sanctuary and vouched for her innocence (that and Rhea saved her life when Catherine did a Catherine in her youth). And this isn't even covering some of the other stuff going on, seriously guys, spend a bit just binging her supports. Her taking Lysithea under her wing is so wholesome, her helping Alois learn how to avoid scams, her teaching Ingrid the harsher realities of knighthood as well as proper survival, her and Gilbert comparing and contrasting their somewhat similar situations, and her bonding with Leonie/seeing a lot of her childhood self in her are some I can list off the top of my head that don't get talked about as much.

It does make me sad that a lot of conversation around her is either just her being Shamir/Rhea's love interest (even if those ships are sweet) and no real talk about her or just the typical discourse where people dunk on her because she's so much more than just the leeroy jenkins zappy lady who wants to smooch a dragon and DEFINITELY more than just "backstabbing murder-happy monster who ruined Ashe's life" (disclaimer, I adore Ashe, I think you should be allowed to be both a fan of Catherine and Ashe because they're both fantastic characters). She's funny, she's endearing, she's a heck of a good unit, she's so insanely complex, and most importantly, she needs a hug and all the friends she can get (which, the Church of Seiros is one big found family anyway so she has that at least which is great!).

We don't appreciate Catherine's supports enough, in general. The woman has some really interesting discussions around morality and deciding what is right, and how one might come to it, and also deal with the consequences

Like, you could expect her to be really strict about anyone needing to follow what the Archbishop says because that is what she does, but... She isn't. She tells everyone that what SHE does is put her faith in Rhea's hands and support and follow her, but she is also against the idea that, because it is what she does, everyone has to do it too, and I really love that??

Her supports with Ashe are good

[ladyaster]

"What would you do for a Klondike bar?"

Not a lot, honestly. They're kinda ass. D tier ice cream.

[ladyaster]

Social experiment: if you know what this is don’t say anything just reblog

[ladyaster]

Oh my goodness! Thank you so much!!! It's her!!! In traditional clothing too! Love this!!

For @ladyaster

[ladyaster]

I love the plot progression of Blazing Blade

Surprise adoption turns into trying to prevent a Columbo episode from happening turns into ticking off the mafia turns into extremely chaotic road trip with a friend group turns into walking in on the world's most dysfunctional family and us becoming doomed by the narrative as a result turns into escalated wizard beef. Featuring a subplot where a man and a lizard try to kiss.

[ladyaster]

[ladyaster]

I'm currently having a time trying to scramble to get any art pieces out for Art Fight since life is banana slamma'ing me a lot and my energy levels are very low so in the meantime have a Kuon art dump. Mostly memes.

I'll never be normal about this game.

(context: she got diagnosed with blorbo)

(this one was a thumbnail for a friend's playthrough of the game by the way! Click here if you wanna view it from Episode 1!)

(oops really blurry but it's a WIP I will hopefully post someday in completed form. Hopefully)

(original for the meme in the first image here)

(incorrect quote from the fourth image apparently from Texts From Last Night (I don't know if that's like an actual series or literally a blog about texts people have sent, please link me the original if possible))

[ladyaster]

[ladyaster]

I DO care about you.