#Conquest Route

[yukiwrites]

A Romantic's Heart

Thanks for the support and patience as always, @mourningstorms! I hope you enjoy the pain, hehehe... *sobs*

Summary: Kagero had served Ryoma well, mind and body, privately and in the battlefield, but that terrified Ryoma more than the nohrians encroaching into Shirasagi. He feared telling her how he felt only for his feelings to be reciprocated out of duty, so he chose to write them down instead, before it was too late...

Commission info HERE and HERE!

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Sleep had been evasive lately.

In truth, rather than calling it ‘evasive’ it would be better to say that sleep was like a thick smoke. One couldn’t grasp it if one wanted, but once it surrounded you, it would shroud you in darkness, suffering and pain.

Breathing was difficult whenever Ryoma closed his eyes to rest. His heart ached, his head throbbed and his entire body was paralyzed under the pressure of leading a kingdom on its last legs.

Even the act of resting in and of itself could not be called as such, seeing how dark the bags under his eyes had grown over the past few months.

The only thing that allowed him to even seize a moment of restful sleep was if he had embraced Kagero before going to bed. It was the sweet release of a strained mind and body, finally able to relax in one’s beloved arms.

But even so, he would still wake up in the middle of the night, or just a precious few hours after finally succumbing to exhaustion. 

Tonight was one such nights.

He pulled his heavy body to sit up under the covers, his vision blurry as if still settling itself in reality rather than the continuous nightmare that had been following his sleep.

… Hah.

The nightmare followed him in his sleep, rather. Being awake was the same as being plunged into desperation, frustration and resignation. Each step he gave, each breath he took; each moment that passed, he was immersed in a darker and darker environment.

Sakura had been captured by the nohrian army. Hinoka had been deployed to defend the gates of Shirasagi.

And Takumi… he had fallen from the Great Wall, his body nowhere to be found. Ryoma couldn’t say if that was a blessing or a curse in disguise. Should Hoshido fall, the nohrians would never stop hunting the surviving prince until all of the Dawn Dragon bloodline had been vanquished.

As an older brother, Ryoma wanted his younger sibling to live, of course. He wanted him to be happy, marry a woman he loved and make a wonderful family. In the furthest corner of his heart, Ryoma hoped that Takumi would be alive and away from all that fighting and death.

And yet, as a prince and regent to Hoshido, Ryoma wanted all of his family to take up arms and fight for the sake of their kingdom; for their duty. As a samurai, Ryoma had undying loyalty and unshakable discipline towards his role as a royal. It was shameful, as a brother, to even entertain the thought that he would rather Takumi have died proudly after fulfilling his role than to hope that he was alive and away from the war.

But there were many such thoughts he would never disclose to anyone inside his heart.

A small puff from Kagero’s moist and alluring lips brought Ryoma back from the spiral of negativity being awake had thrown him into. She moved ever so slightly, her warm and soft arm around his thigh as if she was burrowing in his chest.

A smile cracked his hardened face as he tucked a few strands of hair behind her round, perfect ear. The moonlight shining through the sliding paper door made her skin glisten in an ethereal, magical way.

Truly, had it not been for her; had it not been for her suggestion on that dreadful, rainy day, Ryoma’s mind would have collapsed a long time ago.

He would still remain the same outwardly — he would do his duty as a samurai, as a prince, as a man in a war, but he would not see hope, nor beauty.

His prickled heart that had crumbled to dust since his teenage years would not have been able to keep sane had it not been for her.

Slowly, Ryoma slipped out of the futon, double checking to see if Kagero was still asleep before silently moving to the next room. In the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but wonder if she was truly asleep or if that was another way of her ‘serving’ him, by pretending to be vulnerable so as to make him feel that he had the upper hand in their relationship.

… That made him sick to his stomach, truthfully, but Ryoma could not fathom a world where Kagero was sincere in their interactions. He couldn’t see her being truly just a woman, just his woman, and him being just hers.

She was too perfect in her role; too perfect in her servitude; too perfect in her… everything.

She shone so brightly even in that dimly lit room; her hair was so silky to the touch and her skin was so soft and warm and…

Ryoma sighed, sitting down by a desk as he lit a small candle on the opposite side of the sliding paper door so as not to disturb Kagero’s… sleep.

Unbeknownst to the prince, or rather, as he expected, Kagero wasn’t asleep at that moment and had moved deliberately to shake him out of the spiral of negativity he had thrown himself into, but as neither of them would mention it, it would simply remain as if it had never happened. Much like everything that happened between the two of them since time immemorial.

Ryoma pulled a sheet of paper and a brush to write, stealing glances at the door to the room he had left ajar.

For weeks, for months, for years he had wanted to put his feelings towards Kagero to words, to whisper them on her skin and hear a trembling sigh escape her lips in response.

Each time their lips met; his rough and hers smooth and soft, he wanted to utter the words. Each time he traveled his hands through her body and stole a reaction out of her; each time he moved inside of her and felt her welcome him with ease and delight… Each time she moaned his name in his ear and dug her nails on his scarred back…

Each time he looked at the eyes that felt so deep that they reflected a face Ryoma could only ever see when looking at her… Each time she licked her lips before uttering a word, or each time she took up arms to defend him… Each time, each time, each time…

Each little action of hers warranted such controlled reaction out of him.

He wanted to tell her he loved her, he wanted to tell her he could not think of a world where they weren’t together; he wanted to tell her how deeply, deeply precious she was to him.

Oh, how he wanted to tell her!

But whenever the words got stuck in his throat, whenever he was lost in her heat that the words almost slipped out of his tongue, he remembered.

He remembered how perfect she was. He remembered how perfect she was as she ‘served’ him.

It terrified him to no end to think that she could smile and embrace him while saying ‘I love you too,’ and call him ‘Lord Ryoma’ with the next breath. Even as he lost himself in their lovemaking, he could never truly lose all of the control.

He could never allow the words to escape. Not through his lips.

Ryoma picked up the brush.

But there had to be some kind of outlet for his feelings, as trifling as it might sound.

So he would write. He would write a letter with all of his feelings towards her, but the recipient wouldn’t be Kagero.

No, oh no.

That letter would never see the light of the day. It would remain with him, by his heart, much like his bottled up feelings, and it would die with him and the time came.

The tension eased on Ryoma’s shoulders as he thought about the ultimate outcome of the war. If Corrin was still the person Ryoma thought he was deep down, then… He would have no regrets.

For now, however, Ryoma dipped the brush in the inkpot.

The first time they met, they were children.

She, as one to be trained into a shinobi, was a quiet and disciplined little girl, who never looked him in the eyes nor spoke out of turn whenever they were together.

He, as the heir to the throne, had already been introduced to the other retainer from an even earlier age, so seeing the soft-looking, peach-colored cheeks of the little girl, he felt a strange twinge in his heart.

She looked more like someone who would need his protection instead of the other way around, but Ryoma kept such thoughts to himself.

Thinking about it now, it was amusing to see how she had caught his eyes from such an early age. She looked like just a small little thing, demure and wordless but with the determination to fill in her brother’s shoes.

He did not think about her again after they met for the first time.

The second time they met, they were teenagers.

Kagero had returned to the village to undergo training and came back with a sharper look in her eyes and a softer curve around her body.

Ryoma had avoided looking her in the eyes ever since.

After all, no matter how good a head one had on their shoulders, one could never be 100% always in control. Ryoma strained himself, mind and body, in his succession studies and martial training, even more so after Sumeragi’s demise and Corrin’s abduction.

Kagero’s support through such trying times was both a blessing and a curse. Seeing how good she was at her role, it prickled the prince’s conscience to barely spare her a glance despite her impeccable results.

The slower the years dragged on, the harder it was for Ryoma to look her way, until one night, he saw it fully.

The moonlight glistening on her perfect skin; the hair that cascaded down so beautifully through her shoulders and bosom; the slightly parted lips that caught her breath after training… The softness of the body that had unfortunately been clothed…

The first time they did it, they were seventeen.

A perfect, dreadful night, filled with their mingled breaths and shared warmth.

That night had been the beginning of the end for Ryoma.

Looking back now, Ryoma wrote with a self-deprecating smile, he had been such a terrible master. He had looked down on her, felt attracted to her and then slowly came to love her. 

He could hardly remember a time when he didn’t love her. Even now, as he thought back on it, he couldn’t help but think of her small self as precious and cute. He somehow wanted to go into his own memories, pick her up and bite her cheeks.

He wanted to return to the first time they met and take her hand and pull her into a big hug.

He wanted to return to the second time they met and properly look her in the eye; he wanted to take in her youthful beauty and abundant allure and he wanted to claim her as his even as they had just reunited.

Ryoma thought back on each and every one of their interactions.

The times she illuminated the room by simply existing inside of it, or by being so still he couldn’t even hear her breathing while still looking so ethereal and incredibly, incredibly precious.

Even the rare times she looked embarrassed after accidentally showing him her art were enough to take Ryoma’s breath away as he wrote.

Your flushed cheeks, the brush flowed through the pages, were to be kept in the royal vaults of my heart, locked away with my most precious memories.

He had seen all that could be seen from her; all that she had allowed him access to, had been claimed to himself in his memories. He remembered each and every single time they had been together, putting them down on his brush as he described how he had felt then, and how he still felt that way even now.

No, he felt even more strongly now. With each passing second and each soundless breath they took, with each new glance he stole in her direction, his feelings grew.

He wanted to lie down beside her and run his hands through her hair; he wanted to count each strand on top of her head and kiss every single one of them, to mark all of her as his. He wanted to grip on her soft skin and leave his prints on her; he wanted to take away her breath inside his lips and never, never allow those lips to be unkissed again.

He wanted to look into her eyes and not see himself in their reflection, but see the Kagero she truly was behind her servitude. He wanted to talk about her art and wanted to be the safe haven she would return to.

He wanted to be her rock, her basis, her everything. He wanted to be her everything, but her master.

Oh, how he wanted them to have met under different circumstances… How he wanted her to see him as an equal, or at least as a simple man, and give him her heart much unlike how she had stolen his and kept it within her bosom.

Here in this room, he wrote, glancing at her sleeping figure behind the paper door, you are my only comfort as I chase down my demons.

Ryoma had to clutch his chest once he stopped to dip the brush into the ink again. Writing had always been the way he chose to allow his feelings to run free, but even that was proving to be difficult now, as it was regarding Kagero.

He had so much to say. So much to share with her.

He would genuinely write as if he intended on giving her the letter, just so he could give solace to the heart that had given up beating for anyone other than her. He would write, he would confess, he would pour out everything that he had been keeping to everyone but his own thoughts… and then he would bury it with him, as he had done all his life.

Just the thought of having such feelings out of his chest in any way or another already made the burden on his shoulders lighten, even if only slightly.

His throat dry, Ryoma took a short breath before committing to the letter, taking occasional glances to the gap in the door as if he would be able to see the sleeping Kagero behind it.

True to her role, Kagero kept her peaceful sleeping figure as she heard the sound of the brush sliding across the paper and the careful way her master breathed so as not to disturb her sleep.

Her heart shook as she thought herself presumptuous for even thinking that he was doing so out of consideration for her and not just because he was a careful person to begin with.

Regardless, as Ryoma wrote and his heart’s burden lessened, Kagero waited in her ‘sleep’, sometimes moving to seem more natural.

Hours upon hours passed, as dusk slowly turned to dawn, Ryoma wrote and Kagero waited.

Once he finally bound the letter with string and kept it inside his hakama, the first signs of sunlight could be seen in the horizon.

Still, it was too early even for the soldiers to get up, or for a new shift to take place with the guards. It was a time where they were still two people, a man in love and a woman in servitude, to stay under the cover for a few hours more.

Ryoma got up, blew the candle out and moved to the next room with muffled steps, crouching to the futon as if he was a different man.

He looked at the sleeping woman, the one who could bewitch him with a simple flick of her fingers, and placed both hands on either side of her head.

His hair cascaded down between them, tickling Kagero’s forehead and nose. She puckered her eyebrows in response, groggily opening her eyes — it even made Ryoma believe that she had just woken up, making him berate himself for even thinking that she had been faking her sleep the whole night.

Once she focused on him, her lips parted in a smile, but before she could call his name — with the ‘Lord’ attached to it — Ryoma called her first.

“Kagero.” His voice slipped into her ears and reverberated through her whole body, making her hair stand on end. She inadvertently bit her lower lip in response, then smiled as she sluggishly wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Yes,” she replied simply, arching her back so as to pull him down to her, something new she had never done before.

Apart from that dreadful, wonderful night she had asked him to use her, Kagero had never once taken the initiative in their lovemaking. It was always Ryoma who sought her out first; it was always Ryoma who kissed her first; it was always Ryoma who took her hand first and took her to bed, even though she had always been ready for it.

This time, as if still drunk on the feelings he had poured into the ink, Ryoma’s heart fluttered once her lips touched his first. He closed his eyes to enjoy the softness of her tongue exploring his mouth, pulling the covers away from her body so their heat could conjoin.

Kagero did not think of the letter. She figured it was Ryoma working into the night as he had done many, many times in the past, even before she started constantly serving him. So she did not think of the letter, nor did she imagine that it was something for his eyes and her heart only.

She simply kissed him because he looked at her like she was her whole world. In the twilight where she couldn’t see herself reflected in his eyes, she saw him as a man that looked at her so desperately, so longingly, so… adoringly that she couldn’t help herself.

In her mind, she justified it as her doing what he looked like he wanted her to do, but in her heart she knew she was acting on impulse. She knew she was doing it because she wanted to, rather than because he needed her to.

She wanted to be embraced in his strong, tanned arms. She wanted him to kiss her like he was a parched man in a desert and she was his only lifeline. She never wanted to leave these covers… if only their time together could stretch into the beyond.

So, she kissed him. And she held him and called his name, seducing him in the way she had been trained to, but also in the way she knew he would like.

It wasn’t about training or serving anymore, but without either of them knowing as their bodies mingled and their feelings clashed, never able to truly connect, they loved each other without realizing it.

The day the nohrians breached Shirasagi and wandered around its corridors, Ryoma’s heart was frighteningly calm. He sat alone in the throne room’s anteroom, with one hand over his chest — over the letter he never left out of his reach.

That was his last stand. His last stand as a prince, as a regent, as a man, as a samurai. He could still feel the touch of Kagero’s skin on his as a way to placate his once thunderous mind. Raijinto stood silent inside its scabbard, as opposed to how it had been shaking violently as Yato — and Corrin — approached, as if mirroring its master’s mind.

Everything would end today, one way or another. Whether this battle ended in defeat or victory, there would be an end today.

An end to the fighting, hopefully; an ending to the war, preferably. An ending to all conflict, ideally.

An ending to the crumbling of Ryoma’s heart.

It was unlikely, however… However, if Ryoma walked out of this room alive today, he would give Kagero the letter, but he wouldn’t give her the time to read it.

He would tell it all from his own lips. He would tell her, he would revere her and he would kiss her until they were both out of breath. He would embrace her not as a master, but as a man holding his beloved woman; and oh, oh he would never, ever let go of her again.

He would not give her time to speak, nor would he give her time to think. He would seize her and keep her by his side until she shed the skin of the shinobi and allowed the woman underneath to reply. He would love her and, by the gods, he would want nothing more than to be loved in return.

Perhaps that was the reason his mind was so calm.

Resignation and resolve had clashed for so long within his mind and heart that now there was only the calm before the storm.

He could hear the nohrian’s stomps tainting the palace he had protected his whole life, but he simply closed his eyes, clearing his mind of all thoughts.

All but one thought.

He could feel both of his retainers’ gazes from the adjacent rooms, but most of all Kagero’s. He felt her anxiety and her loyalty; he even still felt the grip of her hands on his, as recent as if they had just parted.

As the stomps neared, Ryoma’s stance hardened.

Corrin was the first one to open the door, bringing in the fresh air that made the flames of the candles swirl around Ryoma.

“You have done well, so far,” he got up, unsheathing Raijinto, fueling the flames with its lightning. “No more games! To the death!” He roared.

His resolve unshaken, Ryoma fought with everything he had. Kagero and Saizo protected the contraptions allowing passage to the throne room, so even if he perished there, they were the last line of stand. Thinking that Kagero would still remain even after his demise brought him comfort, somehow.

It was hypocritical of him to think so, especially after thinking that it would have been better if Takumi had died fulfilling his duty, but… He did not want Kagero to die.

No, he did not believe she would die, honestly.

She had always been so perfect it wouldn’t be strange to see her survive this siege and remain in hiding with other ninjas waiting for the best moment to strike again. He knew she was loyal to him to the point of giving her life, but she was also loyal to the crown itself.

She would live.

The weight of the letter increased as the fight progressed; as one contraption — the one Saizo protected — fell and the nohrians entered the room to aid Corrin, the weight increased. As Ryoma’s body was covered in wounds, the weight of the letter made him kneel and hold his heart as his breath shook.

Blood pooled around him, but he used Raijinto as a support to keep himself from falling.

Oh, Kagero, how he wanted to look for her one last time.

He wanted to take a last look at her and call her name.

He wanted to hear his name in her loving lips, without his title attached to it.

Breathing heavily, Ryoma did not dare hope as Corrin preached about ending the war without killing him.

He did not dare hope to deliver this letter.

He did not dare hope to live, especially after King Garon arrived and ordered Corrin’s blade to fall.

No, he would not dare hope.

He had only one wish, and it could never be fulfilled. Instead, he sat back down and pulled Raijinto out for one last swing.

Yet, as the human mind was full of contradictions, he couldn’t help but wish for more.

He couldn’t help but want Kagero to have escaped. He did not want her to witness his end.

For once, he wanted her last memory of him to be the night they shared together, as a simple man and a simple woman finding solace in one another’s embrace. He wanted her to live and stay out of the nohrian’s path, whichever that might be.

He wanted to hold her just one last time… but the only warmth he would feel now would be from Raijinto’s thunder.

It was a pity, really, that the letter would remain undelivered. It would truly die here with him, along with his feelings. Charred, just like his crumbling heart.

Still, Ryoma couldn’t help but still hope.

“I leave everything to you,” he murmured to Corrin before the world turned dark and his body hardened in position.

In his last moments, he felt the weight of the letter to be unbearable, but he had no strength to take it out of his chest. Instead, he simply looked up to his sobbing younger brother, wondering if his words got through.

Could she ever get that letter? Charred, bloodstained as it had been? If only his feelings went through to her, even after death, he would still be content.

To be able to finally be free to tell her he loved her, even if not through his own lips.

His brush would forever tell her, over and over again as she read through the letters, until it finally got through her shinobi mask and into her womanly heart. He would assure her of his feelings and wish they were reborn again, together as equals this time, and ask for her hand as he had never managed to in this life.

He would hold her and laugh with her; he would hear her giggles and brush his hands through her perfect hair… Ah, what a perfect life that would have been.

Ryoma had never thought of himself as a romantic, but a romantic’s heart beat inside of him whenever the wind blew through Kagero’s hair. A romantic’s heart beat inside of him whenever she turned around when he called her name.

It beat inside of him whenever her hands brushed past his in her duty; it beat inside of him whenever their eyes met and his lovesick gaze was reflected in hers.

It beat inside of him even when she wasn’t near, as the memory of her fluttered inside his chest and flared up his body in a way only her ever, ever could.

It beat inside of him for one last time as he closed his eyes, strangely warm in his death, and he remembered the day she had kissed him on her own. She looked up at him like he was her everything; like she had woken up from a nightmare into a dream because he was right there with her. She embraced him like he was her lifeline; like everything he had poured into that letter had gotten through to her and she answered him with her actions and her body.

It beat inside of him one last time as his lips drew her name before his eyes closed forever.

“Kagero,” he murmured, smiling as if seeing her welcoming him in a field of flowers.

His heart that would never beat again weighed heavily on the letter that remained in chest, forever to be unseen by its true recipient.

[jordydrawsmerch]

inheritance (2020)

[asphodelis]

fates faves :)

[randomnameless]

The quintessential problem with Claude and the deer is that they should not have been involved in the war at all, or at least not Claude. What does he have to gain participating on it? Nothing, and he makes it even more explicit in azure moon when he dissolves the alliance. He could've pretty easely given the power to Lorenz or Hilda and nope out of there (what he does in silver snow), as it is clear througouht white clouds that he doesn't have as much of an attachtment to Fodlan as he does Almyra. And it isn't like the devs couldn't take the deer studients out during post-TS, when Marianne unless recruited is pressumed dead, and Lorenz unless recruited joins the imperial forces and dies helping the empire.

Outside of the problems with racism and the bigoted tropes related to "savage cultures" the Fodlan games perpetuate, the devs did not know how to use one of their house leaders for the main plot of "church vs empire", and idk if that's because they bit more than they could chew, or if it was intentional taking into account who gets the short end of the stick in both games happens to be mixed and from one of those "savage cultures".

TBH...

It's on the devs for having wanted to add a third lord to their game, but failing to, well, link him to any of those plots.

Supreme Leader's war of unification?

Well, Nopes gave him a part this plot - and yet there's no third choice in this plot : you bend the knee or you die. Nopes' wise, Clout decided (in his route) to bend the knee with his "alliance" that is totally supposed to make Supreme Leader reconsider her desire to roll over Leicester and make it part of Adrestia again!

(Granted, Nopes don't tell us how his plea to stop the war after killing the evil lizard lady will play out and leaves an open ending...)

In Houses, well, he doesn't want Leicester to be flattened, and goes on the offensive (counter offensive?) when Billy pops up with basically what is the plot events of Silver Snow (down to using the same strategy with disguises) with the Gronder Map.

And that addition radically changes... well, everything regarding Claude's relevance : he cannot form an alliance with the Blue Lord or the Kingdom to get rid of the Empire because "plot convenient myopia" and apparently Dimitri BaD enough that he attacks Alliance troops for no reason.

Forget SS, GW (and AM, in a way) is just using plot contrived excuse to... not have an united from to face the Empire. Why? IDK. Each Lord must be the hero of his story, or the unification boner means only one of them can "win" an unified Fodlan i'd guess.

Nabateans and the plot ?

No one gives a fig about that "plot", so it's basically pursuing a side-quest for no payoff.

Now, as @fantasyinvader wrote, Claude's story and journey as one who is ignorant and gets to learn and clear his misconceptions + the background of the land we're living in could have been interesting, doubly so given how Billy is voiceless and cannot play the "protag discovers the world at the same time as the player does" role.

But it has... no payoff.

Much like Rhea's infodump about the World, Relics and Nabateans... Claude reacts to the mention that Billy has a rock for heart, and not about his crest, his shiny bow or the fact that Rhea also had a vested interest in, uh, getting rid of prejudice against people who are perceived as "different" because her family was genocided for that.

Hell, the entire "prejudice" angle from Supreme Leader's war is swept under the rug, so we can have the Deers say nonsense like wanting to rekt Thales for Supreme Leader's sake, while only Flayn and Seteth can hear her "nabateans shouldn't have power over the people"...

There's no parallel drawn in the game about Claude and Rhea's situation - since she's at the center of this subplot - about being perceived as "outsiders" and not being able to do various things from existing to "rule over the people" because of what they are, or even faking their identities and building metaphorical walls between them and the people they're living with because they are afraid of rejection.

Nah, we can't have that, Rhea must be irrelevant to the possible, while also being the biggest scapegoat/dragon of this saga at the same time as a nebulous red herring to sell pots of tea.

Ihthe "fight against prejudice and make people accept each other" angle was that relevant to his route, Claude would have most likely talked or interacted with Dimitri and learnt of his plan to cleanse Duscur's name in his Father's assassination, raised a brow at Petra being a hostage and done something else than give a surprised pikachu face at Rhea's infodumps.

He could have reacted at her reveal that if you might want to live in peace with some people, if those people don't want that and label you as nothing more than fodder or things to be looted, it's not going to work.

And of course, gave a reaction at your second in command (unofficially?)'s reveal that, uh, her house keeps identured Almyran children as war prisoners?

Some people already made some AUs or "what ifs" routes for a proper Claude route and not the nonsense that we got in FE16 where it's basically "I react to the same plot events that happen in the other routes but top it all with a zombie".

The Deers could have been "better introduced" in a plot about getting rid of prejudice, or learning the causes of this prejudice : Marianne was/is hunted because of her blood ties to Maurice - not because what she did, but because what Momo did back then! - Lysithea was treated as a guinea pig and her house rolled over by Adrestia who has a less than rosy views about the "offshoots" that are called Leicester and Faerghus, Lorenz could explain that prejudice, just like piety, are tools used by people whenever they're relevant, like, some people being pissed at foreigners and some who aren't because they make money through international trading like Margrave Edmund does, Hilda justifying her House's animosity towards Almyrans because they lost many people in those pointless skirmishes (maybe a closed ones? Her mom or Uncle or whatever?) which would make Claude realise that "ending prejudice" is a much more difficult quest than, idk, just killing one or two randoms.

The commoner trio might share Claude's views about prejudice and welcoming foreigners, but have more "mundane" worries like being able to have a roof and food to eat, which might be the case of some people in Leicester, or tell us more about Leicester and how it works (give us more insight about the different countries if Fodlan ffs).

Maybe we could have add a Claude who learns and discovers Fodlan, and along the way, starts to love the land as much, if not more, than Almyra and really wanting to protect this land from whatever Supreme Leader's cooking, or becoming an Almyra v.2.

I don't think making Claude the third wheel of the plot was maliciously intentional because of the, uh, implications with RL cultures and Almyra, but more like they didn't know where to put him.

I noticed you wrote the conflict as one that is "the church vs the empire", but I do not really agree - if that was the case, the war would have stopped in VW/AM/SS the second Rhea was caught.

The main conflict is Supreme Leader's war of conquest - with the twist that the devs were really banking on their brilliant idea of making the red emperor the titular waifu of the game that each person/lord/whatever Rhea is must find a way to excuse and/or justify her actions.

With this in mind, AM is basically Dimitri's fall (and rise!) because of his ties to Supreme Leader.

In VW? The game cannot explore too much outside of the Supreme Leader scope so we're left with.. well, what VW was.

Claude cannot go on a journey to discover Fodlan and get rid of his misconceptions... because part of those same misconceptions are used by Supreme Leader to start her war, or the sheer concept of a conquest, aka a nation being rolled over by another is anathema to his, supposed, ideal of wanting people to accept each other despite their differences.

I ranted about it since day 5, but the Nabatean subplot (and Fodlan in general) is accessory to Supreme Leader war, there is no point aka no payoff for learning all of that, because you cannot challenge the one who wants to unify the continent.

As such, Claude cannot deviate too far from this plot - while receiving infodumps about "the lore" - and we end up with third wheel of a bike and characters who, at first and second glance, appear to be irrelevant.

Fodlan ends up unified despite starting as three separate countries, we feel bad for Supreme Leader and mourn her unknown ideals, Rhea is gone and the Agarthans aren't a problem anymore.

the second the devs said leicester was a republic, claude was doomed. Merchant republics are always irrelevent or straight up useless in the FE series!

[artidoesthings]

if I had a nickel for every time I accidentally set up a tragedy in a fire emblem game with a shipping mechanic, I would have two nickels.

I’ll take the two nickels but that’s not gonna compensate for the emotional damage

[dirtyoldmanhole]

finished with 125k rev-route yrmr: no fear

brain starting to noodle over conquest route story: one fear

[emblemxeno]

At least in Fates, no one will try to defend Garon because he is a cute empress

The closest comparison that people make will be Conquest!Corrin, but even then, that game spares no efforts at making Corrin take responsibility and feel bad for what they do. They aren't victim blaming like Edelgard is wont to do, they get called out by named enemies frequently, and they actually feel for the people they've hurt, even the generics.

Like, I've seen people make fun of Corrin for crying over not just their loved ones but also civilians and complete strangers, because damn, god forbid a character not sympathize or be emotional over terrible things happening. Compare to Edelgard where she doesn't give one fuck about Randolph or Ladislava kicking the bucket, and really only cares if Byleth is in trouble, and the game then expects me to sympathize with how hard it must be for her lol.

[sieglinde-freud]

🔥 dancers I guess lmao

i think fates having an early game dancer is a really neat concept that rev and especially conquest utilize really well! i get the criticism that “dancers are busted and should be mid/late game only” but without azura being there the game would have to be designed a lot differently and things like chapter 10, one of the best maps in fire emblem, would be fundamentally different without her. early game fire emblem is unique due to your lack of resources, so i think giving intsys another stab at incorporating a dancer into that having learned from fates would be really fucking awesome. i love dancers <3

also idk if this is unpopular but everytime i see someone say “i bench [dancer] immediately because their combat sucks and theyre useless” i wanna gouge my eyes out. its one thing if they just dont suit your playstyle like thats super valid!! but saying theyre objectively bad is just. wow! um!!! okaaaay… sorry you struggle with positioning but thats not ninian’s problem actually

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

"wow how pathetic it is of a man who isn't much of a fighter to be afraid and want to live in the middle of aggressors invading his lands"

WHY WON'T U JUST GIVE UP AND STOP DEFENDING YOUR LANDS THAT WE'RE INVADING AND ATTACKING ON TOP OF YOU LITERALLY DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO US

[silent-partner-412]

Still can’t believe how many horribly handled character deaths there are in Fire Emblem Fates like we’ve got:

- Flora lighting herself on fire for no reason

- Lilith being required to die every route for some reason

- Kaze dying if you don’t A support him in Birthright which ???????

- Scarlet dying in Revelation because fuck Scarlet fans I guess??

- Elise in Birthright cuz we have to feel like something’s actually happening in that story I guess

- Takumi getting possessed because fuck you

And there’s probably more I’m forgetting. I think the only character death in the game that’s handled even halfway decent was Ryoma in Conquest, and that’s only because the scene itself in a vacuum was pretty good. I think literally all of the rest of them were bad. I’ve never seen a game botch this many character deaths before and it’s one of the more ridiculous and baffling aspects of Fates writing that I still don’t understand.

[almoststedytimetravel]

corrin x rhajat is the only wlw ship in fates though??

Being the only wlw ship isn't going to stop it from being weird!

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

GOD, I was wondering why Corrin and Kaze had the option to elope or plan a wedding because I was like "wait, they're not engaged, did they just skip the proposal--" AND THEN I REMEMBERED, I played as Robin for ten minutes the other day and during that very short time, Robin got a phone call from Corrin like "OMG I think Kaze might propose, what do I do" I FORGOT THEY FUCKING GOT ENGAGED WITHOUT MY HELP. As soon as I turned my back they decided they wanted this to happen sooner--

[ciitrinitas]

fe16 is so insane for me because blue lions/azure moon is basically some of my favorite fe stuff in the whole series and nearly beat out fe4 as my favorite fe game and i still get all :) when i see any blue lions kids because they are all my favorites, but the other routes are such a hot mess and a mixed bag and dual-track-drifting clusterfuck at times that my overall opinion on fe16 is a very constipated sound as i try to sneak out the back with my blue lions, rhea, seteth, and flayn.

[toyherb]

I really hope that within the next 10 years they make a remaster + expansion for fire emblem fates it deserves it

[devotedlystrangewizard]

i forgot how funny hubert's supports with byleth were

[birthclod]

Thinking very heavily about Conquest, and the connection between having the choice of recruiting or killing Shura in Chapter 16 and then the very next chapter being the one where you kill Kotaro, the ONLY time he appears AFTER recruiting him, and how the mostly fandomwide joke about him in Conquest was killing him for the Boots. You would rob a man of the chance to avenge his people? Destroy the opportunity for a kingdom reborn? Disgraceful.