#I hate when I see people say that Claude fans didn't understand his character in Houses at all bc they don't like him in Hopes

[pepsiiwho]

Oh, you KNOW I was made for the hate wins ask game. Could I get uhhhhhhhhhhhh 1, 5, 6, 7 & 16, please? <3 I would ask you more, but I feel like that's excessive, and I need to get to work now. Okay, love u, bye, see you when I get home <333

sigh. Don't touch me.

I don't have a single fandom I'm known for or particularly attached to right now, so ill just jump around as i feel.

THE CHARACTER EVERYONE GETS WRONG

I am self appointed idiot who makes every character i get my grubby little hands on ooc. Because of this, I can't say for sure that any characterization I see of my faves is objectively WRONG because my own ideal version of them is surely not right. Now, having been an adult and saying all this I can say with the utmost confidence this award must go to Claude Von Riegan [FE3H] just by virtue of how he's probably one of the more popular characters i adore and as such gets the brunt of the bullshit.

I hate when people write him as this flirty, overly charming guy. Claude cannot flirt his way out of a clear bag and he is paranoid as shit. He isn't seducing your white prince and dragging him down to the dark (ha) side. He also doesn't strike me as someone who's deeply curious about other house's gossip because he actually cares. Claude stays in the know because not knowing is a blind-spot he can't allow himself to have. Screams. its whatever.

5. WORST DISCORD SERVER AND WHY

Worst discord I was ever in ... hard toss up between the ye-olden HQ discord servers or the one dmcl one I was in? Surprisingly, as far as I experienced it, both had very nice people in it on the whole. But the sad truth is too many cooks in the kitchen fucks up the simple soup-- which is to say, having so many other fans with different [WRONG] interpretations was annoying.

I can't deal with not having complete control or like, a general understanding with the people around me in fandom discussions so these servers were just, by their own nature, places I was never meant to be in. [Spits] What do you mean CLAUDE would wanna join the BL class. Go to hell.

6. WHICH SHIP FANS ARE THE MOST ANNOYING? WHY?

Short answer? sylvix. Long answer? Regardless of the fandom, the fans of the biggest most accepted ship [canon or otherwise] will always be the loudest and most annoying imo.

When you've never had to work for your food you get comfortable fast and complain more. Its a natural byproduct of being lucky enough to deeply enjoy the lowest common denominator. In most cases, regardless of fandom-- whatever reigns supreme brings the biggest headaches with it. But If this is still too general then... mmm.. people who ship objectively canon ships because their imaginations can be too small and they'll find rare-pairs odd, weird or even stupid to be into. Many a time I've had someone tell me "they've never even spoken tho.." as if that was a needed component of every ship. They're tiresome people with tiresome arguments. But it's whatever <- she is the most annoying bitch alive.

7. WHICH CHARACTER DID FANON RUIN FOR YOU?

This one is really interesting honestly. I'm usually pretty ambivalent about anyone that isn't in the blorbo pile or the poison pit.... but.... maybe Dedue or Ferdinand? Dedue because f3h fans racism and Ferdinand because he was always someone shipped with Hubert and little else. I think its sad, both ,men have so much going for them too. I'll put Tsukishima on this list as well because he was my number one and ruined by fandom. Actually no put like 90% of the HQ cast here actually hq Fandom sucks ass and ruins every cool guy. it's a bitch.

16. YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY SO MANY PEOPLE LIKE THIS THING

God. I'm such a hater.,... this could really go on forever... Okay, I swat at the hornets nest for this one. fics over 100k. 9 times out of ten, they're not good. Quantity/=/ Quality. Usually most of the word count is just used for shit you didn't even come to the story for. That's fine, I respect any writer who can even make that much of ANYTHING, but people who can read it (and more so ACTIVELY search for it) are odd to me.

I've been worrying on this for a few days and mellowed out since I started so nothing is tooo grating or bitchy here. Look guys I'm kind and sweet forever. Enjoy. Huzzah.

[faroreswinds]

In every FE: Warrior post on Twitter I see tons of comments asking for DLC for Hopes. Despite the negative feedback on the story, this does not justify the lack of DLC, especially in comparison to the first FE: Warrior, which introduced four waves of DLC of characters, outfits, weapons, and maps.

Personally, I don't care for Musou's playing style, but I understand people like you wanting to play more of it, especially for the poor church guys to be playable. However, in terms of the story, 20% I want DLC, 80% I don't. I have no trust in the writers, they ruined the story irrevocably, unless they write a bad ending where everyone dies. I'm sorry, I know there are things you enjoyed at Hopes, and I know I may be in the minority here.

Regarding "how Shez became Arval's vessel", here too I find the writers could mess things up more, because Arval in particular is fuck up the lore, (Well…he's the most redundant character in the entire story). I even wonder at people who want Shez in Engage, because having Shez in the main series means acknowledging all the Hopes bullshit officially (I'm sorry again).

I personally didn't have any problem with Shez at first, but later on I hated them because of some people who say they're better because they talk, without even noticing the glaring inconsistencies in their revenge story. The same contradictions exist even in AG; Where at the end of Chapter 5, Shez says that they don't know if their problem with Jeralt's Mercenaries is revenge or rivalry, then Dimitri says he see them, and adds that he would like to avoid crossing blades with Jeralt's Mercenaries as much as can. However, in chapter 6, they give us a scene where Dimitri tries to support Shez in continuing their revenge, and Shez says "Not really. Death kinda just comes with the territory when you're a merc. And your friends one day can just as easily become your targets the next. Now, not getting my money, or having a client betray me… Yeah, that'll get me upset. But I can't go around seeking vengeance for every last fallen ally. It would consume my whole life." Some people say this is one of the best scenes that shows how deeply Shez writes, but I find it to be the worst because it shows how contradictory, ridiculous their writing is, because one-sided revenge is no different from one-sided rivalry, and the biggest example of this is what happened with their friends in the prologue. I know you enjoyed that scene in Chapter 6 due to showing Dimitri's difference from Edelgard and Claude by suggestion himself the idea of recruiting Jeralt and Byleth, but I find it bad because of Shez. But I also think the recruiting proposal would have been better if Dimitri had proposed in front of everyone gathered together, rather than in a solo scene with Shez, because that would have at least mitigated an awkward situation while recruiting Jeralt and Byleth.

And sorry for the inconvenience if you don't agree with most of what I'm saying. Thank you for your feedback and reviews, and I look forward to you finishing up your GW review.

Anon. You get me.

I've been saying for a while that Shez... isn't a good avatar. Yes, they speak. Whoopie-do. But they suffer in dialogue the exact same way Edelgard does- says whatever sounds good in the moment, or says something the writers needed them to say because they wanted the plot to go a certain way.

I can't give brownie points to a character that speaks if they aren't actually given like... a consistent personality and motivations. To add to another example with the one you shared, Shez in one support says he speaks whatever is on his mind. But in another support, he says that he actually never knows what to say, so he just copies what he read in books that seems to work in the context of the conversation.

Like.... ?! What?! Come on, son.

And in regards to DLC... I've seen fans, both English and Japanese alike, ask for DLC. I'm among them. Normally, I dislike the concept of DLC because I feel it encourages bad practices. But man, Hopes just... needs more.

Why was Shez a vessel? What happened to his mother? WHO was his mother? What is his past? What happened in the ancient past? What are the Slithers up to?

Etc.

Now my personal tin-foil hat theory is that they refuse to answer these questions because it will lend to fans favoring one route over the rest from a moral stand-point. As the games stand now, the past offers very little insight into who is "more right". I have a suspicion that by giving us more information on the ancient past, people will start to lean towards favoring a specific route more than ever. And I don't think IS or KT wants that. I think they like the fans fighting over who is right. I think they also want to be able to sell waifus without any stigma about their antagonism.

As to my review... I'm so sorry. :( I need to finish it, I know. I've been bad.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Most annoying argument imo is when they say it makes sense for Claude to side with Edel.gard in GW because he does so "under his terms" and siding with Edel.gard lets him kill Rhea "like he always wanted to."

Claude thinking for a second that Edel.gard ACTUALLY respects him as a leader and not a roadblock she's tolerating so that she can use him? That thing Judith basically says happen and Claude denies he's letting happen (as he goes on to do what Edel.gard wants later)? That's him being a trusting dumbass (two things he was very much NOT in 3H), not him "making peace with the Empire under his terms." And him feeling the need to kill Rhea is SO utterly forced in GW, and only makes sense because of ONE SINGULAR LINE in all of 3H (the "world without Rhea" one).

But don't you dare point put the obvious flaws in logic that make no sense for Claude’s character to have, that would mean you're a dumb fuck who never understood his REEEEEAAAAL character (that was only sorta kinda a thing in the DRAFTS) 😒

I never understood why people take a single line and use it as constant fact while ignoring everything else that contradicts that one line. Claude never wanted to outright kill Rhea even when you consider that line though, so it's really just Rhea haters taking that one sentence to an extreme. In Hopes he also doesn't have a relationship on either end toward Rhea so he didn't "always" want to kill her. He only said that in Houses, thus that line was only relevant in Houses and he also didn't mean it explicitly as "I want to personally kill her".

Typically people just... take that line and ignore the way VW ended and how Claude didn't hate Rhea by the end. They weren't best friends, no, but he did have a better understanding of her and realized that it was true that Fodlan still needed her.

Something I hate when people view character relationships that is that, at leas with this general group of people, they always force their own feelings onto their favorites. Since most Claude fans hate Rhea and actively want him to kill her with his own hands, they completely ignore anything he says regarding her unless it's negative, then pull the "see, I told you so". Instead of correctly reading the character and their relationships, they project what they want to see onto them.

Yeah, Claude wasn't making peace with the Empire. He expected them to attack Leicester again after Leicester fought Rhea, so not only was he not making peace under any terms, but it's part of why the whole arc is a disaster. He claims he's expecting the war to continue even with Rhea gone, but yet he also claims he wants to end the war as soon as possible with the least sacrifices. If he expected the war to keep going after defeating Rhea, he should have left Edelgard when she requested aid, like, you know, Lorenz suggested. From a story standpoint, it didn't make any sense at all if Claude was truly trying to keep deaths to a minimum. He has no reason to make peace with Edelgard either, because she was the one who attacked in the first place. He would be justified in leaving her to die, and he would prevent future causalities. There's just zero narrative purpose in saving her other than the devs... just... wanting to save her.

omg yeah, that argument. Because surely Hopes Claude was the real thing all along and all of Houses was just completely fake. It was so fake we would never have known it was totally fake if not for Hopes Claude coming to save us all. 😒

Honestly I didn't enjoy GW, but the diehard stans of it have just made me hate it. I feel bad for the fans of the route who just liked it and minded their own business without bothering people who didn't enjoy it. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't like to speak up about enjoying the route because of how condescending the stans for it are toward people who didn't enjoy it. Overall seeing that kind of behavior just really left an even worse taste in my mouth as far as how I feel about the route.

[dmclemblems]

It's entirely possible the devs think Almyra is a joke. Think about it this way: Dimitri and Dedue care about Duscur, fans wanted more Duscur: AG has more Duscur! Sylvain cares about Sreng, fans want more: AG involves more of Sreng in Sylvain's paralogue. Claude is half Almyran, fans want to learn more: devs, nah. They probably think Shahid is enough to "satisfy" the fans who wanted Almyra stuff. As if 2 whole chapters in GW part 1 is enough about Almyra when nothing is resolved about it at all.

Personally I do think they see it as more of an easy to ignore area of the world. They make Sreng out to be a huge threat and they make the matter with Duscur very ingrained into the story and extremely serious in its involvement with the characters.

In VW we just kinda... get Nader joining Claude for a little bit and there's not much more on it than that. We know some small details about it through Claude but nothing impactful to the story. In CF Almyra is pretty much tossed to the side and crushed by the Empire despite Almyra's military strength probably rivaling the Empire's, and I'd even argue better than the Empire's because Holst is really the number one thing holding them back in the first place. Without him they'd probably be able to storm right through Leicester and make their way through Fodlan if they wanted to. The way Nader is just offed in Edelgard's paralogue is nuts to me.

In GW you have Nader hanging around longer than in VW and you get more details about it, but none of them are really all that heavy. There's no major concern about Almyra once Shahid is dead, despite Claude saying earlier in the game it was best not to kill him because doing so might incite other Almyrans to attack Fodlan in revenge. While the situation Claude was in with Shahid was understandable as far as killing him went when he actually did, I feel like it would've made sense for him to have to explain himself or make a proper case for himself as to why he had no choice but to actually kill another member of the royalty this time. I doubt they killed every single Almyran that was on Shahid's side, and I can guarantee one of them would've went back and informed the other brothers of what happened if this was written to be more important

Honestly I think they could've scrubbed out a whole lot of the battles with the Empire and made it more based on Almyra just on the fact alone that if Claude's brothers hated him so much, at least one of them should've sought revenge for Shahid or hell, even used his death as an excuse to invade. In other words, either someone would've recognize Claude or they would've simply gone back and said hey look Leicester just killed one of our princes and we should retaliate.

Also, I'm torn on the way they handled Nader getting permission for things. I mean, I understand that the king could've been "half asleep" and signed something from Nader because he'd trust that Nader would never have him sign something bad or anything, but I could've taken that as an answer if it wasn't basically the only instance that the king had any involvement at all in the war. I'm pretty sure Nader didn't even tell him that he was fighting in Fodlan to help the king's supposed favorite son, because I'm pretty sure he could've gotten the king to sign that if Nader came to him saying he'd found the prince and was fighting for him in Fodlan for a bit.

It's mainly that Almyra is considered threatening, but how often do they seem actually be threatening? Even in the Alois and Shamir paralogue in Houses, it's just regular bandits/pirates using the Almyran name to scare people and not actually their men.

I think since SB has a split route with Claude fighting Edelgard, they should have brought Nader and some other Almyrans into it. Claude brought an army from Almyra in CF, so why not in SB? Why not do that and then, if you kill Claude instead of let him escape, maybe you get an extra chapter where they fight the Empire longer to seek revenge or something? Why not make them more important?

I'm not sure they consider them a joke so much as they just... don't care. I've seen a lot of complaints about GW and how they have the story all over the place, and while I think SB is worse in that regard, I think between that aspect in GW and the lack of how much Almyra truly mattered in the plot that it seems like both of Claude's routes are the ones the devs cared for the least. They don't seem to go into depth with Claude's personal story even when they give themselves the chance to.

Since Hopes gave them the opportunity to add new characters, they really should've taken the time and investment into showing is more of Almyra/its royal family. Both other routes in both games as well as SS are a much more personally driven story for the character that acts as the main lord, but neither of Claude's routes really do that. I get the center of the game is Fodlan and all, but if they made the game with a foreign born character in mind and wanted to go into details about that, they should've just committed and not made it that unimportant. Sometimes it feels like it's just put in to be like "see? He's Almyran. This is why he's like this. Now back to Fodlan stuff".

You'd think with how they started saying that not all of Almyra thinks of Fodlan so poorly and that a chunk of them speak Fodlan's language that they'd... actually put that into the story somehow. If Fodlan's impression of them is worse than the other way around, why are we even told that if they won't do anything with it? They kind of hand us odd lore here and there and leave it and never touch it again.

I'm pretty sure Brigid has more presence in both games in general, which is... kinda dumb considering Claude is a lord and Petra is not.

It's disappointing that we've had ample opportunities between both games to have Almyra be more important and they just sprinkle it here and there. :(

[burr-ell]

thank you for answering my ask about dimitri vs claude! especially seeing you bring up how you like claude being hypocritical about secrets, when i've seen a LOT of people say that that was one thing they DIDN'T like about him (or even what made them actively DISLIKE him).

but - yeah, claude having actual flaws to his base character (secretive, nosy-to-a-fault, contradictory, insensitive) both makes him feel real and can shine a real bright light to when he shows off his good traits (wanting to reassure everyone around him, making up for his mistakes when he realizes them, helping others in their journeys like Byleth).

your answer gave a lot to think about!! thanks again for answering!! 💛

Exactly!

Because I think it's worth noting that Claude's hypocrisy doesn't have to be #calledout to still be a character flaw. Byleth doesn't have to get mad at him for the diary incident in order for us to understand that Claude can be too nosy. And what he said to Byleth after the Sword of the Creator incident in the early game was pretty rude and presumptuous. And that's good! But I think some of it comes down to the fact that Claude being flawed, through fault of his own, isn't necessarily attractive to a fandom that tends to gravitate toward what caters to them personally. (See: how many people disliked Seteth because he was rightfully untrusting of Byleth.)

Because while Dimitri is written with a fair bit less player pandering in mind than Edelgard, it's still very telling that people get so mad at Claude for "f*cking off to Almyra and leaving me behind!" and argue that Dimitri is the better lord and S-support option because "he stays with me :)". On the one hand, them's the breaks when you have the option to choose the player character's love interest, and I certainly don't want to suggest that it's some kind of intellectual or moral failure if you just don't care much for Claude. (It's bad taste, to be sure—but bad taste still isn't an intellectual or moral failure. 😉) On the other hand, as a Claude fan, it's very frustrating and sours my view of Dimitri a little to see Claude hate for reasons that seem...kind of self-indulgent.