shadowflash

[shadowflash]

@chrobinrickhen:

obsessed with how every time you talk about this game in such depth it always ends with saying something homo erotically explicit about shez because thats exactly how i think about it too

LIKE TBH.... HE’S KIND OF SEX.

[shadowflash]

Back to writing about FEW3H you guys. Yaaaay! 🎉

Anyway, going to talk a little bit about the Buddhist vs. Catholic conflict portrayed through the beef Shez + Arval and Byleth + Sothis have with each other. But I mostly want to discuss how the game takes us players through different cycles of life (each playthrough of a route) with a grander goal of escaping it and approaching heaven.

Like, the Yaaay Byllie route (commonly dubbed as the “true” ending for what I think are ultimately uninformed reasons) could actually read as a transcendence from Samsara / escape from the cycle of life and death -> journey towards heaven / Nirvana (Byleth’s unique advanced class) through a very literal companionship with its manifestation, while the Kill Byllie route follows into another turning of the wheel (the next playthrough).

Spoilers will obviously be discussed under the cut -

Let’s preface this discussion with: I admittedly have a very rudimentary understanding of Buddhist and Catholic principles. I know just enough to allow myself to form the connections between these characters. if I’m missing out on something vital or any cool details feel free to let me know.

Let it be said:

Shez + Arval = Representatives of Buddhist concepts

Arval / Epimenides exists as the “Keeper of Cycles” (According to their title in FE:H) and how they often speak of protecting “this cycle” would lend itself to something about protecting the cycle of life and death--”Samsara” if you will.

Given their intertwined being and mirror to Byleth + Sothis, Shez is also, well, a part of the whole thing.

Byleth + Sothis = Representatives of Catholic concepts / Simultaneously a manifestation of Heaven+Nirvana

Do I even need to say anything about the Catholic aspect of their whole thing. No.

The “Enlightened One” class is a localization of Byleth’s unique advanced class name “Nirvana”.

Now that that is out of the way, like, yeah. Buddhism vs. Catholicism ideas plus some. Wooo yeaaah! Now what.

Well I think, depending on how you approach Byleth recruitment, you (the player) are basically committing to reliving the cycle or escaping it / approaching Nirvana. In completely siding with Arval, you reject Nirvana and you perpetuate the cycle of life/death through Samsara. In forming bonds with Byleth, you approach Nirvana through them and reject Samsara.

In this perspective, I think the game does a halfway-decent job of portraying the violent cycle of life through Three Hopes’ inconclusive endings. Like, no matter what you do the war effort basically continues / there is no sort of peace that is comparable to the endings of Three Houses. Like, if we’re meant to see things like that then I’m not as pissed off over the fact that they’re, well, inconclusive. Making friends with Byleth doesn’t really change much either so the cycle might arguably turn again but that whole thing reads as a writing oversight.

All this being said, I want to make it clear that i don’t think this makes Arval/Epimenides bad person? I do think this view makes it easier to understand their role as a companion-turned-enemy by the end of the Yaaay Byllie route. Like, at the end of the day, they’re trying to sustain their and Shez’s lives through the cycle they defend. The fact that you can side with them is pretty neat. Just as you can accept Nirvana (kill Arval), you can reject it (yaaay Arval) and live out a sort of immortality through them without it.. being too bad of a deal honestly. Shez gets sad over killing Byleth but it’s not really that big of a deal in the grander events of each route. the wheel turns once more but we’re already accustomed to it. What if I like living in Samsara huh. Like, honestly yeah the grand goal is to escape Samsara but it’s nice that we, the playerbase, have the choice to do one thing or the other. It’s also kind of metal to decide that you would constantly relive the Hell that is being alive just to hangout with your partner in destiny. I’m biased because I love them. Anyway: D’aww so cutes. Actually it’s not like Arval/Epimenides is dead anyway like they just fuse with Shez in the same way Byleth and Sothis do in Three Houses so -> You, in a sense, liberate both Shez and Arval from the tortures of Samsara. This is how we win.

There could actually be something said about how Byleth keeps Sothis around? But like, they have the same pastel green hair they got from nearly exploding in Zahras / ‘losing’ Sothis back in Three Houses so like..? Hm. Well. Idk. Idk. If Arval is still technically around Post-Zahras then they’re just taking the backseat in supporting Shez like Sothis did in Three Houses. I’ll pick this up later. Maybe.

This is where I make it clear that I got tired of writing this. I had more to say about how Arval, through their moments of insight to Shez, could possibly be interpreted as having vague memories of previous cycles and that’s a whole thing that fits in this discussion but I don’t have too much to say about it beyond pointing it out. Hopefully the point was made. Look at this picture that reminds me of Arval/Epimenides now:

If you’re familiar with my other essays ramblings here, you will probably notice that with this, I’ve gotten over my hang-ups re: Byleth as a character in fandom contexts / Shezleth as a pairing (#ShezToppings I smile for you). We’re cool now. Yay Byllie. I love mercenary SEX. It’s really true: Without love, the truth cannot be seen.

The writers of these games are ass at their job btw but now I have closure.

And I still think 3Hopes > 3Houses because Shez and Arval are here and I love them to bits. And you can kill Rhea in Golden Wildfire which is cool.

[shadowflash]

to elaborate, i think having a full time job is making me feel as though i need to "hurry" when it comes to relaxing -> so i don't actually relax -> i get into chasing short term highs via gacha game nonsense -> time is lost to said nonsense because i don't have enough time or energy to meaningfully indulge in much of anything anymore. it's kind of really depressing. but my schedule will open up with this new job.. so hopefully things will change for me in nice ways.

trying to get back into things BOOKS really. but being job-brained is taking my mind away from leisure and it sucks so bad. luckily i'll be moving into a more laid back(?) position next month and by the grace of god himself, i'll be permitted the attention span that i need to indulge. smile.

[shadowflash]

trying to get back into things BOOKS really. but being job-brained is taking my mind away from leisure and it sucks so bad. luckily i'll be moving into a more laid back(?) position next month and by the grace of god himself, i'll be permitted the attention span that i need to indulge. smile.

[shadowflash]

Intelligent systems probably took the idea for 3H to koei tecmo because of them basically being one of the biggest adaptors of Romance of the Three Kingdoms as an IP but it also exposes the hood of their storywriting conventions. I think a lot of The Discourse(tm) we had for years exposed a fundamental misunderstanding when it came to what they were pulling from. Namely, grafting a very popular asian war narrative onto Europe and trying to obscure this with poorly thought out plot points (Those Who Slither in the Dark).

The dynamics of Wei, Wu and Shu as written in KT's primary adaptation Dynasty Warriors can be pretty easily related to each Lord and the general blueprint of their story arc and how they're supposed to be perceived. Romance of the three kingdoms is a prolific novel that's been referenced into the ground and everyone's interpretation of it is going to be different so I am purely sticking to how koei represents each of them and not any possible inconsistencies re: the actual story itself.

For one thing, unification is viewed as an inevitability no matter which route you pick. Much like how in the Three Kingdoms the ultimate goal of each faction was to unify China under their banner, depending on your choice of lord Fodlan presents itself as a single unified continent rather than the splinters of kingdoms it was in the past. In every route except Edelgard's much of this power goes through Byleth and a "reformed" church. Whilst in Edelgard's the kingdom is beholden to Adrestia until she structures it into a republic and abdicates.

Wei

Shown to have a brilliant but brutal warlord at the helm and is by far the most powerful in the narrative. Cao Cao's design and characterization portrays him as a villain at his worst and an anti hero at his best. Wei ultimately triumphs in the Three Kingdoms conflict due to their underhanded tactics and being the most politically savvy. Cao Cao's main tactician is a sly snakelike schemer named Sima Yi who is instrumental in helping his victory but will also do anything to win.

Cao Cao kickstarts the Three Kingdoms conflict and exploits the other regional lords complacency via this headstart. The idea of unifying China does not cross the other two main factions' minds until he's already in the ending phase of his formal campaign coming to fruition.

Black Eagles

If we're to look at Adrestia's position when war is declared and how things fair without Byleth's interference. Edelgard is by far in the best position to win the war and nearly does before Byleth awakens 5 years later. To view the story objectively, it seems as if she was intended to be an antagonist that was (gasp) a villain at her worst and an anti hero at her best. The other two Lords in the story are complacent in the idea of unifying Fodlan until her campaign has already begun and they have no choice to participate in it.

Edelgard makes an objectionable move in allying herself with TWSITD despite their being evil to ensure that she's able to formally put an end to the church's stranglehold on the continent. Her primary retainer is Hubert, a sly snakelike schemer who will do anything to win and isn't above getting his hands dirty. Byleth's presence in Crimson Flower is thus not an against all odds miracle, rather it's a victory lap meant to help Edelgard push herself over the finish line without completely shirking her morals. As she's able to immediately turn on TWISTD and begin expelling them from her ranks in the epilogue. When you look at her side of things and dig into the general lore of the church's formation and how they've managed to consolidate power, it makes sense why this war began in the first place. But this is only if you play her route first.

Shu

A faction led by Liu Bei that prioritizes the common people. In Shu stories, Liu Bei is looked upon as a benevolent almost saintlike figure who is so down to earth that even peasants will follow his ideals. He is surrounded by a group of loyal retainers, inparticular, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu who are also his sworn brothers. And a brilliant tactician in Zhuge Liang. Shu is not an appeal to politics, rather their narrative is focused on emotion and how that is their downfall. They may be the most honorable, but they certainly aren't the winners. Because that's not how war works.

Much like how Cao Cao looks objectively evil when not seeing things through his eyes (best example, Changban is a high profile battle in every single Dynasty Warriors game where the Wei army brazenly cuts down peasants to prevent Liu Bei, the man of the "honorable" Shu faction from escaping). Edelgard is at her proverbial worse in Azure Moon. Where she's backed Dimitri so far into a corner that he has no choice but to take refuge in the ruins of his church due to his kingdom being fully taken over.

Liu Bei's emotion being his downfall displays itself best at the battle of Yi Ling, where in every Dynasty Warriors narrative. A moment of sincere anger at the faction of Wu betraying his sworn brother Guan Yu and killing him at Fan Castle turns into a catastrophic loss at Yi Ling where a fire attack wipes out a majority of his forces.

Blue Lions

In Azure Moon, Edelgard is in the middle of her victory lap. Faerghus has been completely taken over by the Adrestia backed Cordelia in a coup. Dimitri's forces have scattered throughout the continent. And your first real meeting with Claude is him making a last stand against her army as they close in on fully assimilating the Leicester Alliance into the Empire. When you begin turning the tides, it culminates in her willingly turning herself into a monster in a last bid to defeat you. Then subsequently dying on her own terms instead of being imprisoned. Edelgard comes off as unreasonable, tone deaf and fundamentally misunderstanding what the common people want. Because that's the way Dimitri sees her.

Putting aside the fact I find Dimitri's route to be the SECOND least politically involved one (least politically involved goes to Claude, who does everything he can to ignore the war for some reason), mainly due to it shoehorning his political philosophy into the back half of the game after you spend most of it watching him live out a psychotic break. It's no surprise if you play this route first you end up having a poor opinion of Edelgard.

She's a beat for beat copy of Cao Cao's playbook where despite her not being heroic about it, her victory in this war is assured. If not for you and your Sothis nepotism baby powers swooping in to save Faerghus from total annihilation. The narrative's primary function here is to appeal to emotion, you've spent the last 20+ chapters personally connecting with Dimitri and handling his struggles. You don't completely understand why Edelgard masqueraded as the Flame Emperor, and her kickstarting this war feels as if it's brought forth senseless violence. She's cast as the undisputed villain, and while the game "attempts" to make a play at grey morality, the morals here are quite interestingly black and white. Edelgard is wrong and you are right, by virtue of Byleth's existence you can reform the church.

A bit of a wrench thrown into the traditional three kingdoms narrative here, because in all canonical retellings, Cao Cao wins the war. Shu and Wu's bids for unification are nothing but a pipe dream as they completely crumble and eventually surrender to Wei.

Wu

Personally perceived by me as the biggest do nothing faction in the franchise. Wu's biggest reputation within the narrative is consistently joining the winning side to preserve themselves instead of being proactive. In the battle of Chi Bi Cao Cao suffers a defeat at the hands of a Shu/Wu alliance. Sun Shang Xiang is betrothed to Liu Bei in an effort to unite the two factions. Yet Wu turns around and sets a trap at Fan Castle to kill Guan Yu and cripple Liu Bei's forces and therefore becomes his worst enemy.

Their leader, Sun Quan is shouldering the ambitions of both his brother Sun Ce and his father Sun Jian who have both died during the campaign. Instead of pushing forward in a serious campaign for unification. Sun Quan's decisions are firmly to protect his own home and thus save his skin (probably something to do with the fact he was only 18 when Sun Ce was assassinated and thus wasn't exactly the most experienced leader). As such you could probably cast Wu as the ones who favor "neutrality" over active participation.

Interestingly, Sun Quan's biggest trait despite being young and inexperienced was his ability to find brilliant men to serve under him and thus handle political affairs. He was well liked by the common people because of this.

Golden Deer

Like I alluded to above, Claude is so hilariously irrelevant I almost question why his route was added if Silver Snow was always intended to be a thing. Verdant Wind is Silver Snow reskinned with a few Claude specific events stapled on. The unification of Fodlan practically falls into his lap because he is purely reactive and due to Byleth's interference once again, Leicester is able to maintain its idea of self preservation above all else. Claude's main interests beyond learning of the church's secrets is preserving his home whilst the other two factions tear each other apart. The narrative forces him into a predicament where securing Leicester's continued existence involves fighting Edelgard due to Adrestia's meddling causing the nobles to splinter off into two different factions.

You probably see the similarity to Sun Quan almost immediately here. Because while Claude has his reputation as a schemer whose not totally forthcoming about everything, his participation politically is all in the name of self preservation rather than any real ambitions.

Interestingly, his prioritizing the winning side is able to be utilized in Three Hopes particularly. Golden Wildfire is actually my favorite version of Claude, if only because he takes a much more active role in the story and backs up the hot air he blew in Three Houses about sorta kinda maybe doing something morally questionable to get ahead. In his own route and Scarlet Blaze, he joins the Empire because they're the most poised to win the war and he has personal beef with Rhea. A mirror of the Wei/Wu alliance, where Claude is purely participating out of self interest to protect his homeland rather than pure ambition. Though he does progress past this as the story goes on. Admittedly, this is kinda where my match gets a little flimsy. But you've been with me on this crackpot theory long enough, so I'm sure some of it made sense.

TBH...

Me writing all this out doesn't really have a real conclusion. I mean the Three Kingdoms was a literal cultural reset for all of Asia. Most people have read it and if they haven't they've probably heard of it considering how many east asian writers are addicted to referencing passages of it. I just found it interesting how so much of the makeup of the war and the story format so closely followed those conventions right down to them having an identifying color (though tbh this is something that's more done for easy recognizability, it's a video game after all but so was Dynasty Warriors).

I still maintain this story sucks, because grey morality does not mean not taking a firm stance on anything and KT keeps playing this back and forth depending on which route you pick where the Church isn't all bad so that's justification to defend them but also you have to take them down to have the continent meaningfully move forward. Not to mention the ridiculous plot holes. Great worldbuilding and characters (not all of them were even great, mind you) ruined by absolute dogshit storytelling. But I got to use my RoTK knowledge on something!

[shadowflash]

i just wanna say i absolutely love ur 3 hopes essays they are so good and really made me love arval & shez even more. big brain hours here clearly

omg...

thank u so much!!

[shadowflash]

damn you gatcha for getting my ass so hard. also. the next m!shez unit better have more arval mentions.. or better yet.. be a fallen unit with epimenides going a little crazy

[shadowflash]

the way arval is still thinking about shez despite having gained a body of their own.. wow.. partners in destiny forever..

[shadowflash]

also: a piece of their lv40 dialogue that stood out to me

[shadowflash]

waaah ;__;

[shadowflash]

oh we are not getting dlc are we

[shadowflash]

Thank you @wolf-willow for the correction as well as your addition to the replies! I would've sent you this thank you in the reply section of the OG post but since this is a side blog, the msg would’ve come from my main ;o;

[shadowflash]

For anyone who's suspicious of the idea that future Three Hopes DLC could include a new route entirely, the art book has that section titled "Blackened Embers".

I've seen some comments about how it could just be a random section for miscellaneous characters that don't belong in any of the three main factions, but I think it's important to point out that "Blackened Embers" follows the naming style of all the available routes not just in English but in Japanese too! Actually, for the latter, all sections are actually titled "chapters" / 'の章' like so:

Scarlet Blaze - "赤焔の章" / lit. 'Red Flame Chapter'

Azure Gleam - "青 燐 の章" / lit. 'Blue Will-O’-Wisp* Chapter'

Golden Wildfire - "黄光の章" / lit. 'Yellow Light Chapter'

Blackened Embers - "黒焦の章" / lit. 'Black Char Chapter'

The section itself contains artwork of the Ashen Wolves, portraits of some notable TWSITD, church + misc. characters, as well as Byleth + Jeralt's portraits. Very interesting!

If you would like to see what the Blackened Embers section contains for yourself, you can here. (twitter page link). It appears as the last major section.

These links go through the art book in its entirety so be wary of spoilers!

* -> The 憐 kanji can mean pity, compassion, (having) mercy. Azure Gleam sticks out from the rest of the chapter titles because of this!

* -> 9/4 Edit: Thank you @wolf-willow for catching my misread as well as adding what I think is an important observation!

just a note because I think it's neat! the AG character is 燐, not 憐. (those two are really rough in certain fonts...) the association is with onibi/will-o'-wisp, which might have been picked just for being blue, but I think also ties into Faerghus themes about the dead. all the current route names include 火

The prevalence of 火 / the ‘fire’ radical is really cool! It may be included because, well, Fire Emblem™ but it could also be an element that is meant to communicate.. something.. about Byleth + Sothis (should you be in the know as a player coming from Three Houses)..? Perhaps it is: To go out of the way to recruit them first before, well, not recruiting them. I mean, the game does quite a bit to push you into recruiting Byleth at least once (per route if you want all the relic-y weapons) (then, from unlocking Arval as a renown character in a subsequent NG+, not recruiting them at least once for access to Arval’s special paralogue).

And I couldn’t figure out a place to fit this in properly, so I’m putting it here: And it seems like 光 / hikari / the kanji for ‘light’ doesn’t have the 火 radical in it but its variants definitely do! (which is to emphasize that yes :D the inclusion of 火 is consistent)

[shadowflash]

I'm certainly not the first person to point this out, but yeah I also think it's neat how 3Hopes gameplay integrates the whole "Byleth and Shez are functionally opposites" idea. The most obvious examples to point to are:

Divine Pulse (time manipulation) vs Shadowflash (space manipulation)

Nirvana (divine associations, Byleth's personal class) vs Asura (anti-divine associations, Shez's personal class).

This is a smaller kind of opposition to note but what I specifically want to point out is how the first offensive magic spell Byleth learns in 3Houses is "Fire" when reaching a D rank in the Reason attribute, while the default offensive spell Shez has access to is "Blizzard". Yes, Fire = Flame Crest = Fire Emblem™. Yes, this is a spell a bunch of units first learn when leveling the Reason attribute. But I think it'd be nice if it served as a nod to the "warmth" that lies within. They obviously love their father and they care deeply for their students. And their supports with, like, basically everyone indicate that they don't really have a problem with getting through to the deeper parts of their hearts / beneath a character's surface-type stuff.

Inversely, I wonder what innately knowing "Blizzard" can say about Shez? Perhaps it can similarly be a nod to the metaphorical wall that surrounds their heart (a kind of coldness..?) and their comparative lack in ability to see beneath the surface other characters front (as Arval points out in the prologue). Yes, throughout the course of the story and regardless of route, they do form solid bonds with their allies but those bonds aren't as intimate as the ones Byleth can (or tbh: is allowed to-) form.

I know a big part of Shez is that the death of their mother and the nature of their career as a mercenary function as the leading influences to their resignation that people are destined to come and, importantly, go. Honestly, Shez reads as at odds with themselves over this. Despite stating how partings are something that come naturally to them, their actions indicate that they're still looking for a place to belong, something that could validate their life. I mean, they're quick to make friendships in their chosen faction and they clearly value those relationships as well as the place they end up carving for themselves within their community. There's also their default death line which I believe speaks to the spirit of this:

"Did my life even have meaning?"

You know, following the whole "innately knowing blizzard = guys look at shez's emotional walls" idea, I think their heartfelt letter becomes more interesting. Shez's words indicate that by the end of each route, they maintain a sense of loyalty to their friends and is willing to fight alongside them for the battles to come -> which could be interpreted as a sign that said walls have come to thaw quite a bit!

Of course, they also ask to not hold it against them if they leave from time to time to have their own adventures so it's not like Shez completely abandons the whole "wandering spirit", or more accurately, "migratory bird" (I've seen a few people refer to their nature like this) thing they have going on.. Which I honestly like a lot! It feels consistent to where we leave off with their character. I also believe their letter ends on a wonderful sentiment that acts as a sort of response to the question they have in death:

"Right here, right now is where I live and breathe."

To elaborate: "Where do I even belong? / Does my life even have meaning?" "In the right here, right now. / Of course it does! I'm still standing aren't I."

Back to Byleth. Surely there can be more to be said about how Byleth learns "Ragnarok" when they reach rank A in the Reason attribute given that their new unit in FE:H's special is very clearly planet buster-y in its imagery so. Well. Now what.

[shadowflash]

i think i saw someone point this out already but it is actually pretty interesting that arval is nonbinary while epimenides is A Guy. if i remember the post correctly it was something in the spirit of "isn't it funny that the game implies that some guy (epi) getting reduced to his purest essence meant getting rid of his gender entirely (arval's they/them swag)."

like, given that arval is pretty much epimenides with his wisdom and more importantly feelings and opinions that are mostly, if not completely, removed from the context of explicit memories that could honestly be understood as a burden on epi/arv given the events of the zahras chapter -> how suddenly remembering everything has epi/arv regretfully turn against shez and co. for an alleged greater good for humanity then.. well. something something vague connection between the burden of duty getting entangled with the burden of gender stuff something symbolism something. gender moment. smiley face. question mark?

i don't trust FE to do anything good with this if they really intend to tell us whatever i'm parsing through this observation but. hm. cool for those of us who might care about this sort of thing. i know i care.

[shadowflash]

looking at arval's bits of wisdom to shez with the "hi epimenides. guys say hello to empanada." lens in hand is great.

if you're doing multiple playthroughs and are interested in trying to figure out what's going on with them and epi, i would encourage you to think about epi when you read arval's lines! it's admittedly not much when you have questions about just what is going on with them exactly, but doing so provides a lot of insight for who these characters are beyond "shez's cute magical companion who wants to kill this one person really bad" and "guy who kinda randomly reveals himself in the bonus chapters and says a bunch of mysterious shit".

anyway, once again here's some more about those two from me:

I think this camp dialogue is very telling! You can get it by talking to Arval at the base camp instance right after killing Jeralt:

I think Arval / Epimenides' ability to sympathize with Shez here implies that Epimenides likewise lost something important to him. Whatever it was, these lines hint at something interesting: The feelings are clearly a big part of what guides him in his quest to destroy Sothis.

Of course, from our perspective as players, this is a very "no shit" kind of observation to make but I think it's of interest to point this dialogue out and connect it to another one. Specifically: When Arval (as an extension of Epimenides) comes to shed tears after The Ashen Demon, or Sothis rather, is slain:

For all his talk about trying to save the world from whatever this false god has to do with it, it can be confusing to look at them be overwhelmed with such feelings. But if the idea is that he's driven to seek revenge just as he is also driven by the righteousness we see of him in his paralogue, then those feelings are.. actually still kind of weird!

Of course, there's the whole "revenge is meaningless and it won't bring being back what was lost" concept going for this whole thing.. but I wonder if there's anything more to it. After all, Shez is left wondering if there was any other way of solving this whole conflict, if doing it like this was just some big mistake.. So it wouldn't be surprising if that's what Arval / Epimenides felt as well (though they're ultimately cool with the way things turned out in this scenario, unlike Shez and, well, Shez presumably moves on since they don’t really think about this for the remainder of the story).

If from their end of things, they're able to feel regret over killing Sothis, doesn't that imply that their feelings towards her are more complex than we would normally be inclined to believe? Maybe the "sorrow and regret" he, Epimenides, feels is about how he had reluctantly concluded that killing Sothis was the only answer to whatever problems her very existence poses.. Like, maybe he had also wished he could solve things in another way--but that way just didn't exist. Plus the track used to back the latter dialogue is "Tears in Moonlight", so that could mean.. something.. Or maybe I'm reading too deeply into this and those feelings are more straightforwardly about Sothis, or something about her existence, wronging him and the other humans -> Driving him to seek revenge against her for ~1000 years -> Plainly being overwhelmed with relief (+ emptiness of revenge plot fallout feelings) over completing his great mission. Whoooo knows!

[shadowflash]

Ready with more speculation on Arval + Epimenides’ entire deal!

There’s a bunch of stuff going on with them / that could be going on with their character concept that does not feel like a coincidence...

The Dark Creator Sword:

Contains two crest stones, that of Timotheos and Noa.

Said crests are associated with two of the Four Apostles, a group known for their specialization in mystic arts, magic, and more importantly: blood rituals. 

This weapon is equipable by anyone regardless of whether or not they have a crest.

Crest of Timotheos + Hapi:

Epimenides wields Hrotti, a tome relic weapon associated with the crest of Timotheos--Also known as: the ‘Dark Dragon Sign’.

Thanks to Epimenides’ unique class ability “Crestological Wisdom” he is able to wield relic weapons without taking the damage penalty that comes with using them as someone without a crest...

Epimenides’ “crown”, neck, and wrist flairs share elements from Timotheos’ symbol.. Not to mention this visual comparison between the big Agarthan symbol and the the crest.

As of 3Hopes, a good chunk of Hapi’s dialogue, in SB at least, has a lot to do with Those Who Slither In The Dark. She even speculates that the group isn’t even a monolith, and that its leaders just do whatever in service of their shared goal.

The Star - Major Arcana // Crest of Timotheos Cont.:

My sources for The Star arcana stuff: (Source 1) (Source 2)

The card is represented by a woman kneeling down by a body of water, pouring liquid onto the earth and the water while backed by 7 smaller stars (representing the chakras) and the 1 Big Star (representing her essence).

There are 7 TWSITD generals / high-ranking members who are each named after one of The Seven Sages of Greece... Epimenides was a mystic who was alleged to gain prophetic abilities after slumbering in a cave for 57 years. He was also in touch with Solon and was said to have “prophesied in Sparta on military matters.”

Shez's / Arval's / Epimenides' sword also has 7 points on it so...

Associated with Aquarius - The Water Bearer.. Now look to Arval/Epimenides' memories, the mentions of water, and the bubbles that emerge in the cutscene where Shez cuts them down.

Talked about the water stuff a little in another post. ..

“--Interestingly, we see bubbles from the opening cutscene (which was most likely from Arval's perspective**, something we learn from the bonus chapter) and at the very end of the bonus chapter, during Shez vs. Arval/Epimenides fight, we see bubbles fly across the screen while Shez rushes towards them. I don’t think this detail is indicative of Edelgard and Lysithea ‘being meant to house Epimenides as vessels’. I do think it has more to do with conveying, again, something about the nature of the abyssal depths of Zahras and why a character like Sothis (bearer of the flame crest / fire emblem™) is so afraid of it. Of course, there’s also the ‘flood’ (that could be metaphorical and/or literal) mentioned in the Shadow Library at Abyss.

We also see Epimenides responding to Arval’s earliest recollections with:

"That was an unforeseen accident. I was sure all had been lost to the waters.””

Upright associations with The Star arcana: Positivity, hope, bright prospects, a renewal in power (context: From the destruction wrought by preceding cards like that of The Tower).

Reversed: Loss of purpose, abandonment (also: look at Epimenides summoning illusions of the party’s friends to fight them and his anger towards the party when they cut down those illusions down.. and think about what doing so represents to him.. as well as their last words to Shez in the Zahras chapter), despondence.

Crest of Noa + Constance:

Arval’s personal skill “Duality” allows them to switch between light and dark magic at will... While Constance’s personal skill is a more conditional version of this, she also switches between dark and light magic.

The whole deal with Arval+Epi being the same-person-but-it’s-complicated being strangely similar to Constance’s situation.

Something else of note is that there is no relic weapon associated with the Noa crest. Of the Four Apostles crests, Noa is the only one that gets linked up to a sacred weapon.

Noa was known to disguise her crest as another (Macuil’s) to protect her true identity and prevent the exploitation of her crestline. “Larva” (Arval’s name in other languages; well Arval is an anagram of Larva anyway) means “ghost, mask” in Latin...

The crest is also known as the 'Bloom Dragon Sign'! The most I could say about the significance of this part is: Bloom... Flowers... Bugs.. LARVA..???

The Hierophant - Major Arcana // Crest of Noa Cont. :

Arval / Epimenides has a fairly gender-ambiguous voice, personal pronoun (JP: 僕 = ‘boku’), and appearance, with at most a masculine lean. This is interesting in this context where we can observe the ‘sharing’ of associations with crests who are currently represented through characters that are women who are also primarily tome users.

This being said, the crest of Noa is associated with The Hierophant major arcana: The masculine counterpart to The High Priestess (which is itself associated with Rhea’s crest / The Crest of Seiros)!

Looked into it some more and wow uh currently going nuts at this description of The Hierophant. Not even going to summarize it because of how it just screams “Hey isn’t this basically Epimenides? UM....!”:

For the ‘three robes’, you could look to Arval / Epimenides’ design. Their outfit is mainly comprised of 3 dress/robe-like layers! (Twitter source).

For the ‘red, blue, and white’ well.. Arval / Epimenides’ outfit is white so where could the blue and red go? Their ‘aura’ (The sparkles that surrounded them at base camp + Shez’s awakening aura color) is purple which is... Yeah.

The ‘crossed keys’ could very well be referenced in the game’s cover art as Shez’s two blades are crossed in his clash against Byleth + Shez and Arval’s entire dynamic could easily represent the ‘balance between the conscious and subconscious minds’. Honestly, whatever is going on with Arval and Epimenides is also reminiscent of this.

As for the ‘two followers’, I mean, who else enacts Epimenides’ ultimate will (Upright)? Or, should you the player decide, who defies it (Reversed)? Our ‘partners in destiny”? No... It couldn’t be.. (Yes, it would obviously be them in this context).

However there seems to be this distinction that Arval is nonbinary while Epimenides is a man, but I need to look at the Japanese script to see if Epimenides even explicitly is referred to as a man in any thing of dialogue. Like, doing the Zahras thing, those of us reading the ENG script see ‘him’ refer to ‘himself’ as “-an ordinary man” but ‘he’ could very well be using ‘man’ in the way that it’s also used to refer to humans in general. I explicitly remember hearing that the word ‘he’ uses in the Japanese voice-over to be “人間” which just means “human being” with no gender connotations. And Myson using he/him pronouns while he talks about Epimenides in ENG could very well be like.. filler? I guess? I’ll need to scroll through the Japanese script to verify this.

8/7 cont. of the point above: Then again, I have seen Japanese FEW3H players on Twitter here and there also regard Epimenides as a man..? Honestly even then, Epimenides doesn't even need to be explicitly a man for this idea to still hold (as I have already stated the masculine lean of their design) so, well, maybe I don’t need to.

Another thing:

Epimenides also has a line towards the end of the Zahras fight that is prompted to appear when his health is getting low: “Nothing I do is enough! How much more must I sacrifice?”

While saying this, his character portrait frowns and, in the JP voice over, his voice trembles which conveys that he’s clearly troubled over what those sacrifices were.

..

Sharing traits with the three main lords //

Dimitri:

Arval having a strangely deep amount of insight on Dimitri’s position as a king, a leader in Azure Gleam; presenting Dimitri’s circumstance (when he was Cornelia/Cleobulus' prisoner or hostage or whatever) as a dichotomy between dying as a martyr and setting up his people to follow a similar fate.. or running away to prolong his own life at the cost of leaving his people “to the wolves” while then setting the kingdom up to plunge itself into chaos.

That whole dialogue is actually pretty insightful when looking at it from the context of knowing who Epimenides was with the information revealed from the Arval paralogue: (1) (2) 

Wrt to the Arval paralogue, it is there that we learn a couple of pretty important things about Epimenides: He’s someone who values protecting his allies and how he later ends up in Zahras so that, based on his current circumstance and his comments about how it’s basically fine that his body will one day perish, so he would have a means to live on and fulfill his purpose for the sake of what and who he cares about. As for the aforementioned 'chaos', I mean, just look at how TWSITD affect our present cast of characters.

Anyway, what we can infer from this is that Epimenides kind of.. went through both paths of the metaphorical fork in the road he uses to describe Dimitri's problem.

Edelgard:

I kind of already wrote about this a while ago in the same post I linked earlier:

Like: “Both characters are working as leaders in direct opposition to what are essentially the same forces (Seiros' army / Rhea's church) for basically the same goal: Liberating humanity/Fodlan from the deceptions of a false prophet / the church in general.”

And: “By the way: Arval’s secret skill from mastering Wyvern Lord is “Domineer” while ‘hegemon’ basically means “Having dominant / domineering influence over others” which has roots in ancient Greek that I’m just going to link to a wiktionary page for.”

Speaking of Wyvern Lord, a class that fights on a flying dragon mount, isn't it weird that Awakened!Shez doesn't get the wings that Epimenides has? Well, their starting unique class is "Fluegel" which just means "wing".. Plus the decorations around the grip of their / Arval / Epimenides' sword resembles wings... Huuuuuh!

Hegemon!Edelgard having a suspiciously similar silhouette to Epimenides with the “crown” and flairs that adorn him.. And how, In Azure Gleam, her getting implanted with a crest stone (Interestingly bearing Maurice’s crest / The crest of the beast.. The same one implemented on Aymr) is what turns her into The Hegemon... Plus white hair is, in the world of 3Hopes and 3Houses, an indicator that someone has had crest implants done on them...

Claude:

During the Hour of Vengeance sequence, it is made apparent that Epimenides was watching over the events of the entire story the entire time + only pops out when things don't go according to plan and is forced into a position of reluctantly sacrificing his allies (Shez, Solon kinda and if we really want to push this: the other TWSITD leaders should we walk back and point out how he does not do anything to interfere with them getting blown up in each route) and crushing his opponents (the lords who are getting in the way during the Hour of Vengeance sequence, to push it again: Him being compliant in watching other TWSITD and Thales specifically, who he is stated to dislike, get exploded) in order to fulfill his ambitions--Of which he doesn't make apparent to anyone until the very end should you specifically decide to go Yaaay Byllie mode. If you do decide to go Kill Byl, Epimenides keeps to himself.

And even then no one knows wtf he's fighting so desperately to achieve as he never elaborates on how killing Byleth, rather, “carving out their monstrous heart and putting an end to the beast dwelling within.” is supposed to ‘save the world’... Much like Claude who himself is pretty secretive with regard to the schemes he’s trying to play and his ultimate ambitions!

For anyone who wants to read further about Arval and Epimenides, please look to my friend’s essay!

In conclusion:

Edit 8/7: Expanded the sections on The Crest of Noa + added the significance of The Hierophant major arcana!