#If I write more for them it will be during the events of 3h

[rain-and-a-nice-nap]

This is pretty unedited and not proofread (also haven’t done any creative writing since my early teens/Wattpad days). I wrote it in like an hour and it’s pretty late. Because of this, I am very much open to constructive criticism. I hope to feel inspired enough to write more for this universe lmao.

Nevertheless, here is a childhood au of Claude and the reader. If I do write more, they would be taking place at the time of the game.

Pretty sure I made it gender neutral without mentioning much about physical features, but if I slipped up, please let me know.

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You huffed as you lugged the pail of water up the stairs. Your limbs were young and toned, so you would undoubtedly be fine after today, even if you were sore. Anything you could do to help your parents and the older staff was worth it in your mind. Almyra was hot, and they work hard out of pride for the country.

Frustrated with the heat of the day blending with the heat of your body from doing chores around the palace, you were ready to finally be done for the day. It was still pretty early, maybe just before noon, so each climb up a step brought a new idea for what to do with your free time.

Maybe your parents would let you walk on the trails through the nearby woods this time! You’d been there plenty of times through the years, and knew the paths pretty well. Also, being part of the staff at the palace grants you combat classes and educational lessons nearly free of all costs. Surely you were ready enough now.

You could finally see the window at the top of the stairway and knew that you were finally almost there.

You breathed a sigh of relief when you made the final step, set down the pail and bent into a half crouch for a moment. You deserved it, after all! The faucet on this side of the palace is being fixed after an incident one of the royal kids had on a wyvern, so you had to come from the opposite side! You could see them working on the faucet through the window and barked a laugh.

How could you be frustrated on such a beautiful day?

“Plus,” you thought to yourself as you reached for the doorknob, “I’m finally d-!” You didn’t even get to finish your thought when a bucket of wet chicken feed covered your hair, skin, and clothes. Your mouth opened in shock and you gasped in surprise.

Your eyes were shut tight to prevent anything from getting in, but you could hear shuffling in the room. Then there came bouts of laughter. There goes your good mood.

You rub your eyes and mouth free of seed and glare at the perpetrator. He was about your age and seemed to have just started to grow out hair for his braid. The dude was roaring with laughter now, bent in half and supporting himself on a nearby wall.

Your furrowed brow only deepened at his hearty laughter. A light catches your eye, and you think it may be coming from a bead in his hair. You were sure there was some detail or other on it, but right now you did not care.

“I’m sorry, really! I didn’t mean to!” He says between giggles, “I meant for that to hit Shadid, he’s been a real jerk ever since the riding instructor complimented his form over the rest of ours.”

“And so what?!” You exploded, and the boy’s eyes widened and his laughter gone, “Do I look like-” this time, you had cut yourself off. He had mentioned that he is in the riding class with one of the princes, and so you were sure that the ‘others’ referred to were royal as well.

You quickly cooled yourself and put neutrality into your expression and tone. “Never mind, just move outta my way, please.” Man, you wished you had caught the symbol on the bead.

You turned around to pick up the bucket, spinning on your heel to push past him so you could pour it into the wyvern’s trough. You hoped he couldn’t see your face from this angle, because you could feel the heat of embarrassment on it. You had just yelled at an Almyran prince! Ugh! What if your parents found out?!

So caught up in your thoughts, you didn’t even notice the prince trying to catch your attention as you turned back around to leave the tower. Gone swiftly, you had. Completely unaware of the crestfallen, and lonely boy that was left behind you.

———

It was a few days later now, several hours past noon. It seemed as though the prince kept the event to himself, as no one came to question you about that day, nor did your parents say no to letting you walk in the woods.

Which was where you are now. Reflecting on it, you did feel a little bad about that day. He didn’t mean for that dreadful prank to impact anyone but his brother. It made you wonder how he gets treated if someone of his stature is just allowed to slip away with no one noticing.

The deeper the thoughts went, the sadder you felt for him. You had seen that prince in specific out and around before. It kind of seemed like no one wanted to be around him. In your honest opinion though, it looked like it bothered him less these days. He smiled with ease it seemed, not that you had seen him up close before that day.

“Yeah,” you thought, feeling the bite of anger in your chest, “maybe they just don’t want to be around him because he pulls such awful pranks on people when they’ve lost his good opinion!”

I’m your thoughts, you had wandered away from the path a bit, and into a clearing, you had seen once before. You weren’t lost. Probably. Though, while your idle mind had enough sense to send your small legs over the roots of trees in the ground, it had not anticipated anything larger.

You heard an “Oof!” As you tumbled to the floor, completely knocked out of your own little world. You pushed up from the ground to begin to catch your bearings when you looked over and saw the bewildered prince that plagued your very thoughts. He held his stomach with a wince and regarded you with shock on his face.

He also looked like he had been sleeping. Eyes were a bit puffed up, and his hair was not neat, you noted.

“Hey! It’s you!” He said, a bit winded from your kick. “Ha. Why did you do that? Bit of vengeance?”He was lightly teasing. But only lightly, because his eyes shined the want to know and hidden insecurities.

You thought that it was fair for him to ask, you would probably want to know why someone kicked you too. Especially if you had seemingly been napping out in a secluded area in the woods.

“‘M sorry, I wasn’t expecting anybody to be there when I put my foot down.” He huffed a laugh at that and his shoulders relaxed.

“Stranger, that still doesn't answer my question. You wouldn’t still be mad about the other day, would you?” The prince quirked an eyebrow at you, the teasing lilt still present in his voice.

You rolled your eyes, “Yes, because I would wander out into the woods, in hopes that I would find the strange prince who dumped feed all over me. I do so very much enjoy such petty revenge.” you replied in a flat tone.

“I really didn’t mean for it to hit you,” he said, propping himself up on an elbow to face you. “In fact, I was kinda hoping that we could just laugh it off and maybe start a beautiful friendship!” He joked, with a hint of sincerity.

You layered back fully on the grass and turned your head towards him with a glare. “And what? Face your wrath every time I’ve even slightly wronged you? I don’t think I want that.” You scoffed. Turning your head back to the sky. You could feel his gaze on you, only spurring on your anger, that you knew was a bit misplaced.

“In fact, I think I understand now why people don’t want to be around you as much.” You knew it was too far. You didn’t mean to, honestly. The forest seemed to agree that you were stupid by becoming awkwardly still and silent.

You could feel his eyes drilling a hole into the side of your head. You didn’t dare take your eyes off of the sky. You weren’t brave enough for that. The guilt was seeping into you in heaps. Divines, this was so awkward. Maybe you should shove away your pride apologize. Maybe the moment has passed 30 seconds ago.

“What do you mean by that?” He asked in a soft voice. You couldn't see it, but paired with his eyes trying to dill into your soul, was a face of concern. In truth, he really did feel bad that you had been the unintended target to his prank. But he has had to learn to let things go in his short life. He knows not to expect the best outcome from people. Claude did have hope that not all people were so bad though.

You swallowed. Goodness, you felt guilty.

“I didn’t really mean it. I guess in a poorly voiced way, I was wondering if being friends with you would mean getting pranked like that if I upset you.” Honestly, you would take suffering pranks from the prince over being on the receiving end of whatever damage you just caused any day. You opened your mouth to apologize.

“Oh.” He gave a light huff. Turning his head to the sky, you could feel the pain from his voice, but you didn’t dare check to see if his face matched.

“I think I would prefer if people didn’t want to be around me for that reason. At least then it’s something that I had control over.” He stared at the sky as if his gaze would break it if he tried hard enough.

You turned your head back towards him. Trying to read his facial expression. You didn’t fully understand what he meant by that, but you could guess that the meaning was way deeper than his words let on.

He met your gaze while you were lost in thought. If it’s any consolation, at this time he couldn’t read your facial expressions very well either, though he would get better. Claude was a bit worried honestly. You had gone silent again and your eyes were dazed.

“Y’know what. I think I do want to be your friend.” Came your voice.

He blinked. “What?!”

“Yeah. On one condition.”

“Name it.”

“That you let me apologize this time.” He smiled. One that looked much prettier than the ones you had seen from afar.

“Ok.” He breathed.

This was indeed the start of a beautiful friendship.

[themedialmercurial]

⭐️🫧Astro Observations🫧⭐️

P.S. these observations are based on my own experiences with these placements. Take these thoughts with a grain of salt and few free to add your own perspective in the comments👍🏽

Moon sextile moon in synastry denotes a relationship where both people feel comfortable with one another. You express yourselves similarly and find good understanding nonverbally. This is the type of relationship where both can sit in silence for hours and be comfortable. 🛋️💙

Moon quincunx (or inconjunct) moon in synastry denotes a relationship where one individual may feel more comfortable in their vulnerability than the other. One may be more reluctant to share their thoughts/feelings regardless of how long they may may have known the other person. Understanding one another’s emotions should be worked upon. ❤️‍🩹

Leo moons are really funny imo. They make great storytellers and the most eventful and and random things always happen to them lol. They also have great adaptable energy, being able to stay in or go out depending on the energy of the room. They also have underrated persuasion abilities. I swear they minute the native wants to do something, everyone else is running to follow suit. 🧡

Taurus moons seem so put together in public but behind closed doors, they feel comfortable letting loose and showing their “not so put together” side. They are some of the best people to be around and and I love their energy. 🤪

Pisces mars are very mellow by default. It typically takes a lot for them to lash out and yell but don’t mistake them for pushovers of course. Since they tend to hold back how they truly feel for awhile, they’re more prone to exploding seemingly out of nowhere. 😑➡️🤬

Pluto in 3H loves learning as much as they can about their particular topic of interest. They are also very intuitive.🧐

Sun sextile sun in synastry denotes a relationship that flows fairly naturally and harmoniously. It’s a favourable aspect for friendships making for minimal disagreements and loyalty between both individuals. They will protect one another tend to each others needs effortlessly. 🫶🏽🫀❤️‍🔥

Cancer Venus are hopeless romantics. They love caring for their loved ones and dedicating their time to making their loved ones feel better if they’re sick for instance. They’re inclined to to lovers of poetry, whether they write it themselves or indulge in it for fun. Side note, these natives love reading romance books. 💌🍒

Virgo rising tend to have prominent cheek bones, regardless of how much they weigh. 📏📐

Cancer placements tend to gravitate towards the foods they enjoyed during childhood. They also love learning as much as they can about their heritage. 🍟🍭🧃

Sagittarius risings tend to be intimidating, at least with their eye contact. They don’t shy away from it and even when in close relationships, they still have this sharpness about them. 👀

[disgracedvessel]

ooc; TOA Anniversary Munday!

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

tagging: you! come closer

---

Name: Ree

Pronouns: they/them, although anything goes tbh

Birthday (no year): April 23

Where are you from? What is your time zone? US, CST currently

Roleplay experience: 20 years? Something around there

Got any pets? Two calicos

Favorite time of year: Spring

Some interests and things you like: Music, linguistics, learning about wildlife, nature in general, psychology

Some funfacts & trivia about you: My family had a pet toucan when I was growing up

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Onmyoji, Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail, Pokemon (all mainline), SMT, Monster Hunter, Nier

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Ghost, favorite pokemon is hard though. My go-to is Mismagius, but runners up are Scrafty, Trubbish, and Crobat (as Rai has said, I've got evil team grunt energy)

How did you get into Fire Emblem? Someone mentioned to me that your units could perma-die and I was on board immediately.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? All of them

First Fire Emblem game: Awakening, followed by the incorrect decision to play Shadow Dragon (1990)

Favorite Fire Emblem game: Shadows of Valentia for the quality, Gaiden for the nostalgia

Any Fire Emblem crushes? Down bad for Tharja when I played Awakening

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? - Awakening: Chrom (against my will) - Fates: Hinata - Three Houses: Edelgard - Engage: None

Favorite Fire Emblem class: Varies by game, I do like bows and mages though

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? High res low speed dark mage

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Black Eagles

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with? Maybe Lyn or Leif

How did you find TOA? Planted my flag in the earth and said Here Be TOA

Current TOA muses: Julius & Griss

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? Hubert. Bringing him back would be dependent on circumstances and if I ever replayed 3H

Have you had any other TOA muses? Other than Hubert, Aelfric, Pelleas, Berkut, Salem, Fáfnir, Limstella, and Jeritza

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards? It used to be serious knightly types, but I think since TOA, I've gravitated more toward characters who are confrontational or can stir up the status quo.

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? Past tense!! Past tense!!! I usually try to match my partner so I almost never get to write in past tense these days, but my writing comes so much more easily in past tense. I also enjoy writing grand, sweeping scenes and descriptions of places/things.

Favorite TOA-related memory: Team Justice during Lock & Key is still my favorite event experience to this day.

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day in TOA that you’d like to share? Kishuna still lurks somewhere in the back of my mind, but the time hasn't been right. Ronan as well

[romanticapology]

how i plan my day - a (not so) mini guide

i'm a person who tends to procrastinate and struggles with motivation mainly due to depression and general issues with staying focused. however, right now i'm at a point where if i want to, i can spend the whole day being active - as in, "actively participating in my own life, and not just idly passing the time unhappily". what helps me the most with staying on track is making a plan of my day beforehand.

in this post, i talk about:

- how i do it, basically - additional tips - my own observations, reflections & a word of advice

foundations

my planning system is very simple and comprises of two main components - a. a general, fixed weekly routine and b. more detailed lists of tasks for each day, created as i go.

a. your weekly routine is essentially like a frame which you fill with tasks you have to do on specific days. i use a popular method called time blocking. i basically divide each day of the week hour by hour into smaller periods of time devoted to different groups of tasks.

note: just because you block a certain amount of time - let's say 3 hours - dedicated to, for example, cleaning the house, doesn't mean you have to spend exactly 3h doing that. it can be less. the point is that you should perform the tasks you have planned within these hours.

i make a weekly plan like this every time i get a new schedule and i don't really change it up otherwise.

b. even though my general routine stays the same, every day is a little bit different. that's why i also make detailed to-do lists. i write down a list of specific tasks i have to do each day (usually the evening before), in the order i want to do them; then i work on them during assigned blocks of time.

for example: let's say that in my weekly routine i have blocked 2 hours for studying. on my to-do list i wrote down that i need to work on an essay, take out the trash, read 2 chapters of a book and review my flashcards. writing an essay and flashcards fall under the "studying" category so during that time block, i'm going to focus on completing these tasks.

other tips

have solid morning & evening routines that include self care. make your bed and get dressed right after you wake up! remember to wash your face and teeth, brush your hair. stretch. don't drink coffee or tea first thing in the morning, switch it out for water. the way you start and end your day is everything.

with tasks that have to be done routinely - like any cleaning task, washing your hair etc - plan how often exactly they need to be done (every weekend, every 10 days, every 3 months etc). mark those days in your calendar, then automatically include them in your daily to-do list when the time comes. don't wait until it gets "dirty enough".

don't be afraid of… breaking the routine. obviously you can't schedule everything beforehand; it's impossible to fit every hangout, visit at the doctor's, trip etc into a routine. that's why the day is divided into blocks - you can decide which of them you want to "sacrifice" to do something else, and then it will be easier for you to get back into your day afterwards (you'll just move on to the next block).

be radical when removing distractions. move them into a different room. hide them from yourself in a place you don't check often. turn your devices off entirely, uninstall apps you do not need. if you notice yourself losing focus, stop and do absolutely nothing for a few minutes. look through your plan and get back to it.

focus solely on the task you're doing presently (this one is easier said than done). don't multitask. get away from your thoughts and be as much immersed in action as you can. it takes practice.

don't plan every single day. allow your brain to reset and exit "focus mode" every once in a while. make time for "wild card" days during which you let yourself do anything you feel like doing, even if it means nothing at all - especially after exhausting events.

don't give up. at the beginning, you will probably fail to follow your routine more often than not. don't beat yourself up for it, just realise that you need time to adjust & keep trying every day.

observations & some advice

when i first started working on being more organised and planning my days efficiently, what i struggled with the most was predicting how much i would actually be able to get done in one day. it took me some time to get to know myself better; now i can quite accurately estimate how much time a task will take me and plan the day accordingly. putting too much on your to-do list at first is prone to happen.

sometimes i have bad days, and despite my best efforts i can't keep up with my own plans. remember that there is no such thing as lost time. starting the day "wrong" doesn't mean it has to end that way; you can get back into it at any point. & if you don't it's just as fine. life goes on regardless of how you spend your time - which should motivate you to spend your days doing what you want - but also, in the long run, it won't matter that you didn't do what you planned to on a particular singular day. in the words of ocean vuong, "[…] The most beautiful part of your body / is where it's headed. & remember, / loneliness is still time spent / with the world."

when i feel like i might need some gratification i put tasks on my list that i'm 100% sure i will complete - like "get out of bed" or "eat lunch". lol (now that i think about it. sometimes i get so caught up in doing something that i forget to eat. so you might want to put these on your to-do list as well.)

it's also completely natural to need some mental & physical cooldown time between high-focus tasks (what i said earlier; you should perform your tasks within said hours, not for the entire duration of said time. essentially - take breaks. duh). don't think you have to be "productive" every minute of the day, seven days a week. productivity is a bullshit capitalist concept anyway and you shouldn't measure your worth based on how productive you are.

you owe it only to yourself to live a life you are happy with, and for that you need the strength and ability to function properly & manage your time to make space for things you want to do. that's all

[ara0minthe]

Friday, 9th of August / Vendredi 9 août 2024

────୨ৎ────

Sleep: 5 am to 12 am [6-7h of sleep]

Also took a nap from 8pm to 9.30pm

Health: ate pretty healthy. But didn't move much.

Work / Focus : journaled and revised for my driving license [~3h maybe?]

Main event: Some family came over to stay with the night, there is 3 children with them, on top of my 3 small siblings.

My oldest sister ♡ also came to stay for the night. I'm happy to see her since she doesn't live with us anymore.

Detailed description:

(This part can be skipped, no need to care about my life, I'm writing this for myself)

I have some family that came over during the day, they're staying for the night (they're 5 to stay, dont even know where they'll sleep, our appartement is already small enough) and they're 3 children with them.

Then, during the evening, my older sister also comes over to stay for the night, she didn't know we had guests. So now we're sooo much in the house, children everywhere (because I already had 3 small siblings + the 3 that came), I can't focus on my work T-T

Glad we have a park right in front of our appartement, the children can go out and play.

So I work during that time, then at 8pm I start to feel drowsy so I take a nap. (Of 1h30)

When I wake up, I journal, help a bit with the chores, spend some time talking with my sister, then work again and it's already 3, so I'm sleeping late again.

We also found a solution for who will sleep where (fortunately we have 2 extra mattresses for when guests come and stay for the night)

We make the young boys sleep together on 2 mattress next to another in my brother's room, (but there's no place for my brother to sleep, so we just tell him to stay at our cousins place, he was at their house all day anyway so it's not a problem).

My dad also decides to stay at his friend's place, so just like that, the guests and the family all have a place to sleep. (But I don't have a pillow anymore, someone took it).

Feelings about today: I'm proud of the work I did.

At first I was also worried about all those children having to stay in the house, on top of my 3 siblings, but it was alright since they didn't mess too much, they just played outside or in one room and were pretty calm.

And the guests weren't burdensome, we were happy to have them over, we just needed to make some place for them to sleep.

And then, I was so so happy my sister came over. She's the only sibling older than me, she's the true oldest daughter, since she left the house I only took her role, she's the original, and she's so damn cool.

So yeah, I'm the second child and after me there are 4 more.

And I'm just realizing that my younger sisters see me the way I see my older sister (lets call her K) ; so like a model, and the incarnation of class and coolness.

Sometimes I see them copying me the way I would also copy K, and that's so so cute (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)

Anyway that's it.

Wish a great day to whoever will read that <3

Bisou bisou les amis.

[raxistaicho]

Crests have fun parallels between the characters that hold them. Some I just noticed while writing up my whole "the Crest of Flames and Crest of Seiros are representative of the two stars that make up Sirius," thing (which to me is extremely fascinating because it explains why and how Byleth, Edelgard, Rhea and Sothis all have ties to deep water and blazing flames which are contradictory themes, especially since Sirius itself has ties to both.)

When I had the thought that beyond personality similarities in the crest holders of CoS and CoF they also share kind of subtle but story relevant plot details, beyond how Rhea and Edelgard are narrative foils I mean.

Hiding Their Identity: While it would be unfair to say this is a Crest of Seiros exclusive, it's also something everyone with the CoS does. Jeralt, Rhea, and Edelgard all hide their identity from the world in such a way that it informs the grander narrative. Jeralt would have been found sooner, Rhea may not have her sway, and Edelgard's is pretty self explanatory. Each of these revelations is followed by a major story change.

Missing Past: Byleth, Sothis, and Edelgard have no significant memories of who they were before. Obviously we can't account for Nemesis, but all three of the others not having any solid idea of where they're from/what happened to them does matter a significant amount, especially for Edelgard and Sothis.

It may be intentional, but it might not be either. I will point out though that during her battle with Nemesis, Seiros DOES actually ask him to recall something which isn't something he recognises on sight. (Which, y'know, could also be a call forward to the events of Crimson Flower with Edelgard and Dimitri and how she remembers him.)

I wouldn't really say either of those parallels are significant proof of anything, I'd say they're additive at best to more robust ideas. Anything that can be in part refuted with "Gilbert tho" like the Crest of Seiros one, is just not that useful.

Still fun to think about.

Those were some neat points, thanks for sharing :)

I hadn't thought about the hidden identities part.

Well the thing with 3H is that it has tons of little additive things that demonstrate how much care the writers had for the world, even if they aren't super important. For example, Fodlan year 1180 was a Leap Year!

(And sorry it took me an ungodly long time to get to this post :'D)

[butwhatifidothis]

Have you ever considered, once you finish sporking that fic, washing the taste out of your mouth by taking a look at fics in the fandom you like/think deserve more attention?

Even one of my favourite sites, Cake Wrecks, does a feature on Sundays were it's cakes they think are really nicely-decorated so it's not all downers.

😭 i think i need to clear up something lmao

I already read fics that I enjoy - reread old ones, look out for new ones, write a good few myself (here's two of them lol). I read my trashy little otome isekai villainess manhuas that I love to death. I play the shit out of Hades. I play DnD with irl buds every Wednesday. I'm watching - and rewatching - episodes of the new Bleach anime, and am eagerly awaiting for June to come around to give more. I play Smash Ultimate with my big sis and lil bro. I replay VW every now and then. I play BBS and hope to finally pull the last couple Valentine's/Academy Momo's I need to have fully completed all the Momo's in the game (so far).

I already do plenty of things that I thoroughly enjoy doing - I talk about the fic a lot here, but y'all don't have to worry; I do, in fact, do things I enjoy doing lmao.

But! I do want to give some attention to fics I really enjoy! I've already talked about most of them before, but it never hurts to do it again lol. Most of them are dmcl so if that's not up your alley, well, rip, but if it is then yeah!

Princes of Silver and Gold is sooo good - and very meaty! It deals with Dimitri and Claude getting bopped back to the prologue after the events of Saving Derdriu, after a mysterious spell seems to ambush them during a moment of peace. It's has a lot per chapter to take in - 4 chapters, +129,000 words, a very dense read - but imo it never feels like too much. I've reread this a good few times actually! There's a lot of 3H's lore that's played around with and given more oomph to it that really makes the fic feel alive, which is always nice.

Be Not Proud: an absolute downer for sure, can't ever get through it without snivellin' and snottin', but it's a really touching look into Nader and Claude's relationship. It revolves around Claude's last moments on a CF run where he isn't spared - very sad oneshot, but very memorable imo.

Everyone Leaves Eventually: an interesting oneshot about the Black Eagles leaving Edelgard's side one by one as she gets more and more aggressive with her war, from Hubert's POV. Granted, Hubert is more than a smidge OOC for it to work - he's given a good bit more morality than he's shown to ever have canonically - but as a concept it's interesting, and it's a neat read all around. If you're willing to accept that this Hubert is less like canon!Hubert than he ought to be, I'd definitely recommend it!

Survivor's Burden: another one that's kind of a downer, but with a much happier ending than Be Not Proud. Revolving around the idea of Claude and Dimitri surviving SS Gronder, with Claude doing his best to keep him and Dimitri alive in the woods. It's a bit long for a oneshot - a bit over 30,000 words for one sitting - but! It's definitely worth it imo. Plus! It was part of the dmcl Big Bang that happened a couple years ago, so this one also has great art to go along with it at certain points!

to this vow, i hold fast: yet again this is being recommended by me lmao because it is beyond amazing. It's a slow-burn dmcl political-marriage AU of post-war Fodlan, and it's just a joy to read through. The one thing I'll say about this one, as much as I love it to bits, is that, hm... you can tell the author also ships Dimi///leth. Understandable what I mean by that once you read it, and it can be quite a bit annoying to see it imo, but also imo it doesn't take enough away from the quality for me to ever do anything but recommend it lol. This multi-chapter fic is actually almost complete, from what I understand! So there's that too.

seeking humanity: a dmcl AU where Claude is a traveler and Dimitri is (seemingly, anyway) the god of death, and they make a pact: Claude either gets Dimitri to like humans in half a year's time, or he gives up his soul to Dimitri. I am a huge fan of how the characters are, well, characterized in this fic; everyone is just a joy to read through! Even characters I don't care that much for (especially with how they tend to be written in fics), like Leonie and Lorenz, are just great. And the mysteries this fic has in it are also really fun to think about, with all the crumbs the story lays down to try and follow.

please give them a shot!! If they're up your alley anyway lol

[loregoddess]

8. What storyline threads should have had more development / been further explored?

All of them? Okay no, not entirely, but also yes I do want more for basically every major story thread bc the "implied larger world, but never fully expanded upon worldbuilding" writing approach drives me insane bc what we do get is so intriguing, but it feels incomplete to me bc the writers added stuff in to "make the world feel larger" instead of actually like, worldbuilding properly (at least if I'm remembering that one interview right), and hm. That makes me want to chew cardboard.

But if I could only get one thing...(under the cut bc spoilers for my one mutual who's still playing the game, and also bc guess who still can't be brief ~ <3)

If I had to choose one, I'd say I want something that shows us what Sothis's regained memories were. Like she talks about finally remembering her past before she gifts Byleth her powers, but we never get to see what those memories are, we never get to learn, at least from Sothis's perspective, what happened in the past.

I just feel like, overall Sothis is wildly underutilized as a character by the story. It's strongly implied (by both Rhea and the Agarthan texts) that--before Sothis had to take her healing nap and got murdered--the world was highly technologically advanced and that a war (possibly with WMDs?) occurred to level Fodlan (er, proto-Fodlan?), but aside from a few blurry images that are quite literally not even on the screen for a full second during the opening cutscene, this implied war and history is never shown and like, I dunno.

We don't get a lot of science fantasy in FE as a general rule, but science fantasy stories where "the past was more technologically advanced and then someone fucked up so bad that things had to go backwards to heal" are fascinating to me when they're actually like, done right.

But it's just, so much of 3H's story is built upon events of the distant past, with a very strong "history will always be written with a bias" narrative theme, which is super interesting. But the implementation ultimately falls short for me bc while the story is telling me that "here's these historic documents, but they're biased and unreliable" it never shows me or gives me access to "and here's what actually happened so you can compare and contrast the historic facts with the historic writings". And yet whatever happened clearly set the stage for what is currently happening in the story, but we get...nothing.

So like, aside from wanting to know what Sothis's memories were, I want to know what all the historic events actually were, from Sothis's life to Fodlan after her death. Unfortunately so much is implied to have happened that we'd probably need an entire prequel game, at least to explore the war era between Seiros and Nemesis, but like I dunno, I feel like if a story's going to have "events of the past" as an important building block for the present narrative to bloom from, then writers should actually show what those super-duper important events were. And with the idea that historic documents got warped and altered, like, there's so much a narrative can do with that, so much potential for tragedy and horror that's just. Entirely not realized at all in 3H.

But I dunno, there's so much going on in 3H that a lot of the plot threads get lost bc the writers basically just kept adding threads in w/out trying to weave them together into a cohesive narrative experience, and it's not so much that I hate loose ends as that I don't want to be able to pull the loose end and have it unravel the narrative tapestry.

[lochnessies]

I feel like 3H discourse gets fucked over a bit by people not taking into account that characters will say inaccurate information (without it having to be a plot hole). Perspective is a huge theme in Three Houses and characters are going to make, sometimes, dramatic actions based off that misinformation.

yeah

Like, Dmitri accuses Edelgard of being involved in the Tragedy of Duscur, but, she was like, 12 when that happened. It’s a lot more likely that Edelgard was being experimented on or recovering from experimentation during that point in time considering that the Tragedy happens not long after Edelgard and Dmitri last see each other.

do i think edelgard was involved? nah. it’s one of the few things i genuinely believe her on. however, it isn’t unreasonable for dimitri to think she was somehow involved. i mean, faerghast is pretty standard medieval when it comes down to fighting. was sent to quell rebellions at like 14. that’s really young. and in the middle ages the standard age that boys trained to be nights was at the very least seven (glenn was 15 when he was full on knighted). felix says he learned to fight before he could write his own name and dimitri was already swinging swords at nine. not to mention she was in the kingdom and then not long after she leaves the tragedy happened. so it could also look like she was a spy even if she didn’t set lambert on fire herself.

then there’s the whole shit of her saying nothing. a whole nation gets wiped out and she has no plans to ever vindicate them. hell, even dedue says that her being involved in any way is unacceptable and he’s fucking pissed. is he delusional? is he being irrational and unfair to edelgard? she isn’t the victim here, dedue, his people, the kingdom royals and co. are.

Likewise, Setheth accuses Edelgard of trying to become a false goddess when that’s not even remotely close to her goals.

ok this part right here is the reason that this fucking thing took forever to come out (sorry anon). i have so much to say and i wanted to write it all but i decided to put in my edelgard essay instead. i then waited to post this answer but sadly it’s taking longer to edit than i planned and i feel bad so you’re going to have to wait for this bit. so if you stick around i’ll talk about that in depth in the essay but just know that i disagree with the op very much.

Edelgard makes a ton of false accusations and misconceptions about Rhea. She accuses Rhea of being a power hungry inhumane tyrant who has no regard for life outside her own when that just isn’t remotely accurate.

And then there’s Claude, literally the only major faction leader that cares to uncover the truth and nuances of everyone’s decisions. He’s literally the only faction leader to not act like his version of events is the definitive truth. He acknowledges that he and Edelgard are fighting for similar things: a system overhaul of Fodlan. He also doesn’t oppose the Church because he’s learned enough about it to want to keep it’s institution in place. That’s why he’s the only faction leader that can survive in every route (I’d consider Seteth and Rhea to share the role as Church Leader since Seteth leads the Church Route but Rhea’s the one actually in charge of the Church). Claude is also the only leader that doesn’t make any false claims about other factions. I said a while ago that Claude would make the best ruler and this is why.

ok this is fine

But going back to what I said earlier about discourse, this impacts discourse drastically because people can just pick whichever version of events they prefer and there’s probably a character who claimed it went that way. The plot also doesn’t seek to clarify events one way or the other in any route. So even if you’ve played every route, it’s up to the player to make judgment calls on who’s speaking out of their ass.

except it’s literally not. we are told what routes have correct information from the devs themselves. and unreliable narrators can be proven and disproven when you put their words against everyone else, their actions, and the lore.

Between all the relevant character and plot details the game hides behind supports, endings, and other easily missable content and the fact that no two characters interpret the series of events that happen in the plot the same way (due to coming from various background, being present for some stuff but not others, having different priorities and biases that will cause them to interpret different things in different ways, etc.), no two players are likely going to interpret the events of 3 Houses the same either.

just because two characters interpret the events differently doesn’t mean they’re right. for example, the agarthans think the crest experiments are good but edelgard and lysithea would say otherwise. but you wouldn’t say that twsitd’s perspective is valid just bc they see things differently.

and when i see players trying to excuse some of the most horrific things bc they don’t want their fave war criminal to look bad yes i will judge them. you can like whoever but don’t excuse shit like imperialism and racism and we will be fine.

So, if you want to talk 3H, please acknowledge that none of the characters should be taken solely on their word, especially when describing major things. With the examples I gave earlier of misinformation in the game, it makes sense that Dmitri would place the blame of the Tragedy of Duscur almost entirely on Edelgard because he doesn’t know about the Agarthans or Edelgard’s history with them.

ok but she’s still complicate if nothing else. that’s still terrible. like if she was planning to clear duscur’s name that’s one thing but she isn’t. the only way to do that is to reveal twsitd and we know she doesn’t since it is a shadow war that the people don’t know about since that would reflect badly on her for working with them.

It makes sense that Edelgard has a lot of misconceptions about the Church because once you start completely rewriting and erasing history (and the Church does openly censor literature, which is shown in Claude’s route), any possible “true story” is more likely than the story you’re giving. Alongside that, Edelgard is getting most of her information from the Agarthans and a very private source only accessible to the Imperial Family.

fair but choosing war at like 13 is an extreme jump. maybe wait till your brain fully develops and you have a better picture of the world around you

It makes sense that Seteth might assume that Edelgard is trying to become a false god because he’s been helping lead a religion based on lies for centuries.

she is. also the religion isn’t based off of lies. sothis exists. she’s in your head. a few details were changed to hide nabateans from a red canyon massacre 2.0. however, the values are the same. also he came to the monastery 20 years ago not centuries.

When you’re trying to understand some part of Three Houses, you have to think about where that information came from, what factors might be biasing that information, and that there might be some detail that shines a new light on that information somewhere else in the game that you’re missing. And that’s generally a good philosophy to have when processing any information.

yeah

That’s something I like about Three Houses. I like how you have to sort through a ton of biases and misinformation within the game to understand the story. If you let your own biases get away from you too much, you’re going to miss the larger picture. The game let’s you know exactly where everyone is coming from in some way and (almost) everyone is given a sympathetic eye in at least one route. And (almost) everyone is viewed as irredeemable in at least one route.

the only people who are portrayed as irredeemable are edelgard and rhea (and maybe dimitri if you count edel’s contempt for him in cf).

[emblemxeno]

And... it's not even that I’m not aware of my own biases either. I fully recognize that I love Fates to death and have more patience for its faults than I think I would otherwise. But I'm not shy to admit my own issues with it.

Like, Iago's random power-ups during Birthright are fucking dumb. The only instance beforehand of Garon granting someone powers like that is him giving Corrin Ganglari, and even then it's a stretch to base the entirety of what Iago gets on that. Azura's crystal ball comes out of nowhere and I have entire post about that too. Leo's warp book is like meta way of saying "hey we forgot to put the Rainbow Sage in this route, we need that somewhere", and for as much as I can believe that the warp book can reasonably exist in the Fates universe, it has no kind of foreshadowing either. Lilith's sudden involvement in the plot after being reduced to Castle Tamagotchi just to die and make Corrin suffer is lame as hell. The unimportance of the smaller countries besides each one serving as a "character development field trip" is striking, even when considering the comparison to Hoshido and Nohr's overwhelming presence.

These flaws are apparent, but I think it's important to realize and express problems you have with your favorite games because-at least for me-it helps appreciate what is done right a lot more. I appreciate 3H's support writing a lot more (except for a good chunk of the A ranks) because I can treat them as isolated events with no regard to the structural and show vs. tell issues with the main plot, for example.

And with Fates, I just found that analyzing the flaws it had (as well as problems caused by outside parties) made it easy for me to love the heavily thematic narrative where layered character development and massive cultural nuance that let the game show you what the world is like made up for its lack of extensive lore and nitty-gritty details; I get to appreciate what I love about something once I recognize what I dislike.

Anyway rant over, lol.

[iturbide]

What do you think could have been done to improve 3H? Given the budget/time, what changes would you have done? Also, what elements do you consider KEY to a good story?

fffffff I would have done so many things differently in 3H it requires a read more but to your second question: I feel that characters are a key element of a good story. Possibly the most crucial element, to me. You can have the most epic, incredible plot in the world -- but if the characters taking part in it aren't interesting or able to engage the reader, then the story loses a huge part of its impact. It's only by caring about the people taking part that a reader can get invested in the story and its outcome; if you don't care about what happens to someone (either in a good or a bad way) then you're at best apathetic to the events, at worst bored by them.

Frankly everything else in a story -- narrative structure, conflict, etc -- is so malleable that I can't consider it key. You can easily make stories that have no classic conflict if you have characters that people care about, because just watching them interact with the world and each other can be beautifully engaging. So at least to me, the key is in the characters: whether you love them and want them to succeed or love to hate them and want to see them get their just desserts, they're the ones that do the heavy lifting in a story, so making sure they're compelling is one of the most important things to me when writing.

As for 3H though I have a lot of changes I would make. Throughout the whole game.

Academy Phase

Giving each House their own unique set of missions. I feel that part of why the Azure Moon route is considered so strong is because it's the most character driven, something that starts in the Academy Phase: everything from Lonato's rebellion to Miklan's theft of the Gautier Relic are highly personal to the Blue Lions students, with Ashe being Lonato's adoptive son and Miklan being Sylvain's estranged older brother (and someone who's well-known to Dimitri, Felix, and Ingrid on top of it). While these are both important events, for the Black Eagles and the Golden Deer there's not the same level of personal engagement: it's just a thing that's happening rather than a devastating blow to the students we love. While there are certainly missions that can and should stay the same (the raid on Seiros' tomb, Flayn's kidnapping, the Remire incident, etc.) having select missions be personalized by House to give that same level of engagement would have made for a far stronger narrative, since it enhances the player's connection with the students of their chosen House.

Just as an example: for the Black Eagles, rather than putting down Lonato's rebellion, maybe have their mission be aiding a small sect of the Church in the Empire that's being plagued by monsters or bandits. It gives us the chance to learn more of the history between the Church of Seiros and the Adrestian Empire, how close they were and how it fell apart a century before the game; Rhea might explain that she wants to improve these failing relations by having Imperial students go to aid this disconnected branch, and in private Edelgard could hint at her distrust of the institution and of Rhea herself even if she is following orders. Not only that, we could hear on returning that the Blue Lions students accompanied the Knights of Seiros in dealing with Lonato's rebellion, so we still get the fallout from those events and have a reason to choose the Blue Lions in another run.

Another example: for the Golden Deer, rather than going after Miklan and witnessing his transformation, maybe a report arrives that someone stole Failnaught and task the Alliance students with retrieving it. It lets us learn more about the situation in the Alliance, giving more details about Duke Oswald's situation, Claude's appointment as the heir to the Riegan House...and while he would never do it personally, have there be subtle implications but no hard proof that Duke Gloucester is behind the theft, just as he was the death of Claude's Uncle; on top of that, we could still get a battle against a Black Beast when Failnaught transforms the bandit, giving Claude a very personal look at how dangerous these Relics can be (something he likely wouldn't have had deep insight into, given his Almyran roots). And again, on returning to the monastery we could see the Blue Lions dealing with the fallout from Miklan.

More interaction between the House Leaders in general. There are only a handful of scenes where all three of them interact together, and I can only think of one instance where they're even in each other's company at the monastery (Claude and Dimitri in one of the early chapters). Having more of these moments where they're apparently interacting on the grounds or where we can see them together in cutscenes, giving us more insight into the leaders of the other Houses we didn't pick, would give us a lot more investment in them as people and make the eventual revelations at the end of the Academy Phase hit a lot harder.

Especially with Claude's ambition being what it is, it would have been a far better show of his character to have him hanging out with different students every month -- not just from his own House like Hilda, but from other Houses. Have him be talking with Petra in the dining hall one month, or with Annette at the reception hall another; if you sided with the Black Eagles or the Blue Lions, it would be very easy to suspect that he's up to tricks and trying to figure out individual weaknesses...but if you picked the Golden Deer, you'd likely realize very quickly that he's got no ulterior motives because you've been seeing him in action and getting Supports with him.

More Supports period. We were robbed of some fascinating interactions, like Ashe and Dorothea or Dedue and Petra, and some really strong Support chains stop before they reach their full potential (several Sylvain supports, including Marianne and Bernadetta). I want to see so many more of these and I would add in a ton if given half an opportunity.

Giving Byleth more agency. This bleeds over into the War Phase, too, but one of my biggest complaints about the game is how limited the response options are, especially when it comes to Edelgard and her frightening rhetoric as early as chapter 3. Give us more options with real varied outcomes, rather than it changing one immediate line of dialogue; give us real dialogue trees rather than minutely altered responses so that we have an opportunity to affect change. This runs the risk of drastically altering Byleth's relationship with the various House Leaders, but that potential is undeniably fascinating in and of itself.

War Phase

Azure Moon: Make Dimitri's turn more gradual. Show him grappling with Rodrigue's words more, have more scenes where he and Byleth talk and he tries to work through his understandably complicated feelings. It doesn't even have to take that much longer, honestly: every week for the next month, give us an extra cutscene and let there be a small change in how you can interact with him. For example, maybe he still doesn't attend the round table in the first week, but you do have the option of assigning him to a task around the monastery; in the second week if you explore, you have the option to invite him to a meal; in the third week he finally attends the roundtable and you're able to work on his skills again; and in the fourth week his supports finally unlock.

Azure Moon: Make Claude recruitable. Don't have him leave Failnaught and go waltzing back to Almyra, have him actually head up the Alliance in this time of need and volunteer to join forces with the Kingdom forces. You can have the option of turning him down, if you really want, at which point he might leave Lorenz in charge and go back home, but give us the option of bringing him on board along with any other former Deer that fought with him at Derdriu -- and furthermore, let us have some supports with Dedue and Dimitri to go with it. Ideally those Support chains would be available in the Academy phase and maybe you'd have the recruitment option only if Dimitr's Support level with Claude is at least a B (since you can get to A during the Academy Phase but not unlock it until the War Phase as I experienced many times). But still: Claude recruitment. Yes.

Verdant Wind: Make Dimitri recruitable. Having him die offscreen after Gronder is absolutely terrible, especially since we know for a fact that at least two people from the Alliance army saw what was either going to happen or directly happening. At the end of the battle, give us an option of going after Dimitri: if you choose not to, he still dies, but if you do you have the opportunity to save him and recruit any other former Lions with him. As abve, Supports between Claude and Dimitri would be great, and you could even keep Dimitri's Supports locked for a while and include scenes of Byleth and/or Claude and Dimitri talking and working with him until he starts turning around the way he does in Azure Moon. Dimitri's death in Verdant Wind is a travesty and it needs to be changed.

Verdant Wind: More character stuff in general. One of the things that makes Azure Moon such a strong route is that it's so deeply character-driven. Verdant Wind is much more plot-driven, and while it's still strong, it could have been more impactful if the characters were more directly affected and/or we got to see more of their individual actions. For instance: after securing Myrddin, have weekly missions where you actually go along and meet with the Great Lords and discuss with them before the final round table. Have Byleth and Claude go with Lorenz to talk to Count Gloucester and try to get his buy-in, and give us more dialogue trees where Byleth can contribute (for better or for worse) so that in the end you either get his full agreement or only grudging consideration because Lorenz intervenes. Get us engaged, show us more of the situation in the Alliance, and let us have a role in moving from this uneasy state of neutrality to full agreement that it's time to take action.

Silver Snow: A unique story in general. Basically everything in the route is a weaker copy of the events in Verdant Wind, and regardless of which came first, Verdant Wind handles the events in a way that makes more logical and narrative sense than Silver Snow does. So even if things could be changed in Verdant Wind to make it stronger and more unique, Silver Snow needs the most work and ideally should have a new plot made just for them that gives the Knights of Seiros a chance to really shine.

Silver Snow: More for Seteth to do period. Despite the fact that he's ostensibly our Lord stand-in for the route (since he's the one who meets you after the timeskip, where it's either Claude, Dimitri, or Edelgard who does in the other routes), he barely has a chance to do anything and doesn't make much of an impact on the route overall. Silver Snow could -- and ostensibly should -- give him a chance to showcase his talents and stand as a unique and engaging character, since his role in the Academy Phase was so minor; relegating him to the same general role in Silver Snow does him a great injustice.

Crimson Flower: Have Edelgard suffer consequences. This is one of my biggest complaints with the game on the whole: that Crimson Flower goes out of is way to glorify imperialism and Edelgard gets a rosy perfect ending with nothing ever going wrong according to her endcards. Logically the way she achieved her goal would have led to massive dissent, unrest, and civil conflict in the territories she conquered and subjugated; her route needs to show that, and make it clear that there are in fact consequences for her actions, both within the original Adrestian territry and without in the newly conquered ones.

Crimson Flower: Deal with the damn Agarthans. Given that she knows about them in detail the way neither of her fellow House Lords did, it's an absolute travesty that we never saw her go after them in her route: all she did was show her hand too early and cause hundreds of senseless deaths when the Agarthans fired on Arianrhod. Her route should have ended with a conflict against the Agarthan menace -- and likely a very hard one, harder even than the battle against Rhea, because she left them for too long and gave them time to bolster their defenses before she arrived. And given that she's killed Rhea, the end of that conflict would likely be a massive loss of life when Thales bombs Shambhala -- further consequences for her actions.

All Routes: Give Byleth agency. This is especially pertinent in CF where canon reduced Byleth to Edelgard's enabler: give them a chance to fight her, push back against things that either don't make sense or are only going to hurt people, argue and maybe force her to change her mind or see another viewpoint rather than continuing to barrel down a path of bloodshed and loss because she selfishly decided that war was the only way. But giving Byleth that same agency in other routes would be equally powerful: let them talk candidly with Dimitri, let them encourage Claude to trust his companions and reveal his Almyran heritage, just...let them have a chance to be their own person, with complicated relationships and the ability to speak freely.

[furry-emblem]

You know what, after talking about how biases and stuff mess with 3H discourse, I'm going to go over my biases and personal experiences with each major faction leader because I feel like it. I don’t really want people arguing with me on these, but I would like to hear other people describing their experiences with these characters because that’s always interesting to read about. I'm listing the characters in order of how much I liked them.

Byleth

Also known as erotica, keyboard smash, Sothis, another keyboard smash, BoobBoob, and Boobama. I really dislike them. I’ve never been particularly fond of silent or self-insert protagonists. At best, they signal to me that the game isn’t going to bother with its story or character writing (and that’s fine when that’s the case), while at worst, it’s the writers taking the most important character in the story and then throwing their hands up and saying “we don’t need to write this one.” Byleth feels like the ladder and it’s to the detriment of pretty much everyone around them. Like, even considering that silent protagonists are supposed to be characters that the player projects onto, Byleth doesn’t do a good job at this because there’s enough canonical descriptions of them that you can’t really roleplay, but there’s so little going on that they don’t stand on their own two feet. So it’s like having a piece of cardboard dictate the fate of the country. They also primarily function as a wall for characters to exposition dump their backstories onto, which isn’t very interesting to watch. Like, 3H would have been better off without Byleth in it. 0/10.

Rhea

I just haven't had the chance to see a lot of her stuff, so I think I'm missing some of the stuff that makes people like her (and I'd prefer to not have that spoiled for me). Haven't seen her supports or the Church Route, but she just hasn't left me with a good impression. I don't like how possessive she gets of Byleth. Like, it creeps me out a little. I'm also a bit disappointed that you never get to play as her. I want the pope to bitch slap people (except not my people). I remember her being an antagonist in CF felt kind of forced to me when I first played because her reactions felt a bit silly. The problem wasn't whether they were justified or not, the problem was lack of context given and the fact that she was saying stuff like "You will BURN in the PITS OF HELL" while standing perfectly still and making this face >:(. And I just couldn't take that seriously for whatever reason because it felt cheesy and I didn't really understand what was going on. It also soured any endearment Rhea showed towards Byleth to me on future routes because her actions in CF gave me the impression of her being obsessive and controlling of Byleth. Like, she acted entitled to their loyalty, expected them to be something they never asked for, and flipped the fuck out when they rejected. It reminded me a lot of some abuse I've gone through and it made me dislike the character. Now that I have more context on the character, I get why she reacted so suddenly and violently because CF kinda threw all of her triggers at her. It feels like she dug her grave in that route, but she dug it in a way that resembles a Greek Tragedy more than anything else. My second route was Claude's route, which thoroughly disappointed me in terms of its writing. When Rhea was exposition dumping her backstory, I was like "I'm boooored," so that really didn't help my opinion of the character. I also don't really like how she gets damsels in three out of four routes. I still don't actively like the character very much because she left a really sour taste in my mouth, but I understand that I'm missing information and that there are reasons to like her. I'm open to learning more about her, but she just really rubs me the wrong way.

Yuri

I never finished Cindered Shadows and I have no real opinion on Yuri. I thought he was a girl when I first saw him and I think he's fun to play as in gameplay, so I guess there's that. I don't really see myself replaying Cindered Shadows if I even finish it because it lacks a lot of the major things I liked from 3H.

Seteth

Does he even get to count? Like, he's not in charge and Rhea should've probably been the leader of Silver Snow. Haven't played that route yet. I like Seteth. He's got good dad energy and also he's my wife (specifically in Verdent Wind). He's got good vibes. Also, if you kill Flayn in Crimson Flower, his English voice acting when he's like "Flayn Noooo" gets to me. I still really like Seteth. A solid 8/10 for me.

Dmitri

I wasn't following Three Houses advertising at all, so I didn't know anything about anyone going in. I was originally just going to skip him entirely because he looked boring and had shitty hair. So I did his route last. Partially out if curiosity for the character, partially because I might as well do every major route since I'd already done Claude and Edelgard, partially to get to know some of the Blue Lions, and partially because some of Edelgard's backstory is only revealed in this route and I was curious about that. Dmitri's route definitely has the best writing out of any of the routes. I really like how personal the route is and how much it focuses on how one specific event impacted all of the characters in it. There are some big problems I have with the route and Dmitri, like how the game uses psychosis to represent Dmitri being murdery and how him changing his mind felt more like Byleth's decision than his own due to their conversation being pretty bad. But overall, he has the best writing. I'd strongly recommend playing through his route if you haven't just because the writing's rather good there. The reason why he's ranked below Claude and Edelgard, however, is pretty simple: I just don't vibe with him. Like, the hero archetype bores the hell out of me, even when it is subverted like it is here. I also just didn't relate to the character on really any level while I did with Claude and Edelgard. The amount of Edelgard slander in his name also annoys me, but I don't think it really impacts how much I like Dmitri. He's a well written character that I just don't vibe with. I also remember his death in Verdant Wind and being like “wtf was that??” Like, the writers killed him offscreen.. twice. In the same route.

Claude 

I really enjoyed Claude as a character. He left a good first impression on me and I almost picked him for my first playthrough because he’s hot and sassy. Two good traits for any character. I ended up picking Edelgard, though, and he left a good impression on me during CF. I like that he held the alliance together and had a contingency plan for if he lost that battle. When I played his route, I ended up going Hard Mode NG+ Casual and I stuck everyone on a dragon. I did find it funny that throughout the school phase, Claude learns bow stuff repeatedly, then in one of the last months, he went up to me and was like “hey, can you start teaching me in axe and flying?” Which he had nothing in either. Then timeskip happens and he comes waltzing in on a dragon. Claude is where all the good memes in the fandom go. That said, I really disliked his route because Claude felt like an afterthought in it (because he literally was). I don’t like that I got out of the route and it felt like I didn’t know as much more about the character going out than I did going in. Some of that is because I didn’t see a ton of his supports, which is where pretty much all of the character work is. I like how Claude is open minded and actively tries to seek out the truth. So, overall, I found his route a bit disappoint but I still really like him because he’s a fun character.

Edelgard

I fucking love Edelgard. She was my first pick and therefore the character that introduced me to the game, and by extension, the series of Fire Emblem. I picked her because she’s pretty, she looked ready to fistfight god from the word go, and she seemed like the mascot of the game so I figured the writers might put a bit extra effort into her route (they didn’t, rip). My very first playthrough was actually a Normal/Classic run, but I had to abandon the run because literally everyone died four hours into the save (I swapped to Normal/Casual). Edelgard ended up carrying me through my first playthrough. I stuck her on a dragon and she killed literally everyone and everything. In my most recent playthrough of the game, I did CF and made her an archer mage dancer for the memes and that was also a ton of fun to play with. Her gameplay feel had a role in me liking her (like, Dmitri is also very powerful, but it was my third playthrough and I knew what I was doing better by then, so him being just as OP as Edelgard didn’t really influence my opinion on him as much as it did her). 

Besides the gameplay, Edelgard’s probably the major character that I relate to the most. Every character on this list (except maybe Byleth or Yuri, I know literally nothing about Yuri tho) has experience with trauma and is coping with it in some way. Edelgard copes by villainizing herself and shutting off her emotions, but despite that, she’s still a low-empathy person who’s still very compassionate person who cares about others and is trying to do the right thing. She also generally tries to express some amount of compassion to her enemies, even if it’s little more than saying “it sucks that Dmitri had to die.” She’s not as open-minded or as truth-seeking as Claude is, but she still tries to keep herself open to other viewpoints and will readily accept any she deems as valid at a moment’s notice. I just really like that about her because I share a lot of those traits in common with her. I also like the idea of her being someone who’s willing to do evil things to bring good to the world. That’s not something you normally get in a protagonist and I think that’s a cool idea. 

I still found her route to be very awkward, especially with no context. Like, I missed the line where Edelgard’s like “yeah, btw, I’m the Flame Emperor,” so I was just wondering what happened there. It’s an anticlimactic way to end the main plot of the first half of the game. I also didn’t really get Rhea’s angle at all. So the route just felt a lot like “I guess I’m doing this now??” In other routes, I found her deaths to be very hard hitting. The death in Verdant Wind only really got me because I really liked Edelgard and she was my original student and I could feel how much she wanted to make her future a reality and how her failing meant all of those sacrifices she made and the evils she’d done would now all be for nothing. I get that impression with Azure Moon’s ending too. 

Most of my appreciation for the character does come from her support conversations. I like how her chain with Bernie has her trying to learn how to not scare her off. Her interactions with Dorothea in their support chain are kind of sad because Dorothea is trying to show her admiration and love for Edelgard in a way that makes sense to her but then Edelgard’s low view of herself causes her to reject the offer. I really liked her Manuela support too (haven’t seen Hanneman’s but I’ve heard that it’s good). I like how with Manuela, Edelgard learns why people are religious and she that being religious doesn’t make you weak. I like her Linhart support where he calls her out for trying to dictate his life and she responds by trying to overhaul some of her own systems and assumptions about him, which leads to her giving him a role to the empire that also properly accommodates for his needs. I like how with Ferdinand’s supports, he has to learn to let go of their rivalry, but once that does happen, Edelgard takes into account his ideas and roles with them. I think it’s funny that she and Hubert flirt with each other by sending each other credible death threats. Edelgard just has a lot of very good supports. Don’t get me wrong, Claude and Dmitri also have supports that are good (I thought Claude’s support chain with Petra was cute and I really like Dmitri’s support chain with Flayn), but Edelgard’s supports go a long way to paint her as someone who is flawed but still really admirable.

Edelgard is definitely one of my favorite fictional characters, and I’d love to see more characters like her in the future.

[agoddamn]

Your last few posts examining Rhea (and the narrative failures of 3H due to the whitewashed ending of BE) are blowing my mind. Anyway, I have a bit of a weird question—I struggle a lot with simple analysis of even what simply motivates a character, so how have you honed analyzing content? Is it just looking at other analysis through the years or is there a piece of media that’s been really foundational to how you view and break down writing? Your fanfics also are super telling of your analysis!

Buckle up, because this is gonna be a hell of an answer.

Fire Emblem Fates and a good therapist.

I'm dead serious. It's also due to the friends I made at the time, but a not insignificant part of how I started learning how to analyze is that I wanted the words to explain why I liked Fates and why the localization changes made it feel so different.

I also met Ammie through Fates, and working with her to pinch-hit beta Joining of Worlds gave me a whole new way of looking at writing and the considerations you make as a writer. Really breaking down writing into almost a design process--an attempt to instill a certain feeling, a certain experience, in the reader. You must use the right word. You must have events happen in the right order. You must understand what you're trying to say, the different things all of your characters believe, the way they misunderstanding one another, the different ways they conceptualize things...

And therapy, at a basic level, is talking about feelings and hopefully understanding them. It's a simple exercise: what do I feel, and why am I feeling it? It can be useful for stuff like calming anxiety and countering depressive thoughts or similar issues.

What am I feeling? Uneasy, out-of-place. Why do you feel that way. I think my coworker hates me. Why do you think he hates you? He had a scornful note in his voice when he spoke to me. What made you read his tone as scornful? Did he say something cruel? Well, no, but there was definitely a different tone in his voice. Could this tone have been caused by literally anything other than you, like really needing to pee or thinking about calling his ex-wife or remembering an impossible-to-explain joke?

Well. Yeah, actually.

Conclusion: more evidence needed to determine hatred.

Critical analysis starts with basically the same type of thought chain--what is happening and why?

Start: why is Rhea trying to revive Sothis? Because she wants her back. Why does she want her back? Because she was murdered, and because Rhea still loves and misses her, and because Rhea was unable to let her death go. Why couldn't Rhea let her death go when the other survivors were all able to move on in their own way? Because Rhea is different from them. What makes Rhea different from them?

And now we're narrowing it down to some juicy potential answers: Rhea was the youngest, Rhea is female, and Rhea was at Zanado during the massacre. With these starting points, we can now go back and look at other places in the text to see what fits with these.

Is Rhea being female relevant? I'd say yes. There's the most obvious stereotype of women being more emotional and this whole supposition is emotionally-motivated, and then the idea of a mother-daughter story, which are a known cultural quantity. This means that her being the youngest is also relevant; the one who spent the least time with her mother. Is Rhea being at Zanado relevant? Yes, that's extremely traumatic.

So, can we cook up a thesis with those keywords? A theory? Does it look like anything we're already familiar with in real life, a pattern or shape we already know?

The youngest daughter of a murdered woman who was present at the slaughter and cannot move on from it. Yep, that's a straight-up traumatized child story! Which I'm decently familiar with; see above, therapy.

And now that we've got a thesis, we look back at the work and ask, is there any evidence supporting this, or is it a series of coincidences? Does this theory support and enrich the existing story?

As for evidence, I'd say that Rhea's fixation on her mother alone is pretty strong. Her happy sob of "Mother" in Snow distinctly reinforces the idea that she's, narratively, a girl who wants her mother. Her shame about her desire to revive Sothis also supports this idea. It's quite shameful for an adult to act like a child. Even the structure of her Church jives with the reading; even though she definitely could, she never tries to present herself as the Goddess. Only someone who's received her words, and then as the Archbishop--again, only someone who passes on the word of the Goddess. She never tries to have herself worshiped.

She never tries to oust her mother. She never tries to become that ultimate authority herself.

In spite of the MILF memes, the position she desires is daughter.

And it enriches our understanding of the text by giving us a new way to understand the type of sorrow and trauma Rhea feels. What's going on inside her head. It's difficult to get your head around the scale of "million year old dragon wants to revive god"; it's a lot easier to picture "child wants her mother back".

The final step: could you be wrong? What holes are there? Is there another explanation for any of this? I say nah. You could explain away one or two pieces, but not the whole picture. There is no other explanation for a writer choosing to make her climactic scene of her route her being cradled by Byleth as she cries for her mother. That's childish behavior through and through (and I mean literally 'in the manner of a child', not in a denigrating way). No writer would choose to put that there if they didn't want you to get the impression of a child in that moment.

So...that's my thinking process. I guess it's a little robotic, but it works!

[exalted--zealotry]

Three Houses Main Verse

Before you ask, I’m still going to be keeping the notes of this verse; this will just be moved to a side/alt 3H verse.

Since I’m going to cover as much info as I can about this verse in a single post, all information will be posted under the cut, and will include spoilers for the game.

Unlike in the now-alternate Three Houses verse, in which he is a native of Faerghus, Anri’s presence in Fódlan is explained the same way as his presence in Askr during the events of Heroes, as with most of the first generation characters from Genealogy of the Holy War in Heroes: in his own world, Anri is dead- murdered at the hands of Naeva, reduced to naught but ashes by her flame. The events of Awakening play out as usual.

Shortly before the events of the game take place- a couple of moons, at best- Anri is found unconscious outside of a village in Faerghus by a squad of the Knights of Seiros, where he is nursed back to health. He’s shocked to discover that the common language of Fódlan is seemingly identical to that of Ylisse- and even more shocked to discover, as a result of an errant conversation about his ‘unusual blade’ that no one else could seemingly wield, that Falchion remains by his side. After assisting the knights in defending the village against a bandit attack, Anri accepts an offer to return with them to Garreg Mach Monastery, with an invitation into the Knights of Seiros, when the knights notice how, for a man only in his late 20s, he fights like a seasoned warrior. He is inducted as a Holy Knight, though no doubt many are suspicious, especially Rhea and Seteth themselves; these suspicions will only worsen when it’s discovered that Anri has an undiscovered ‘Crest’- in reality, simply the brand of the Exalt (not that the people of Fódlan know any better).

In order to hide his temporal nature, Anri obfuscates his lack of knowledge of Fódlan as being a result of memory loss, a fact which he would only confess to either Byleth or Professor Hanneman during an A-support. That being said, he’s incredulous upon discovering nothing about his home in any of the books in the academy’s library- no Ylisse, no Plegia, no Archanea, no Jugdral, no Naga. This is his major motivator in determining which routes Anri will be available in during Part 2, as he comes to despise the Church of Seiros, even if he gains companions amongst its Knights. 

During Flayn’s kidnapping, Anri will most likely be considered the second most likely person to be the Death Knight, as he will speak very little about himself of his origins, though his name will obviously be cleared Jeritza’s disappearance after Flayn and Monica have been rescued. From this point onwards, Anri will be available for recruitment by Byleth, and requires that Byleth be Level 15 like the professors and most of the other Knights.

Following the Flame Emperor reveal, Anri will be available for the defence of Garreg Mach during Chapter 12 on the Blue Lions and Golden Deer, and will stay available for all of Part 2 in these routes. Should Byleth side with Edelgard, Anri will follow, much like Shamir and Alois do if they are recruited, and will be available for the Assault on Garreg Mach; if Byleth sides with the Church, he will still partake in the defence of the Monastery, but will desert from the Knights shortly afterwards, considering his service with them at an end- the same occurs if Byleth sides with Edelgard and Anri is not recruited by this point.

During the timeskip, in Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, Anri will likely be landed by Dimitri/Claude, respectively, and resign from the Knights of Seiros. In addition, he is pro-Dimitri/pro-Faerghus, and will resist Cornelia and the Imperial occupation in Azure Moon and the pro-Imperial lords of the Alliance in Verdant Wind. In Crimson Flower, Anri will instead become a general of the Imperial Army.

In Silver Snow, or if unrecruited in Crimson Flower, Anri will be the boss of a paralogue in which he is discovered in an old, abandoned (but still standing) fortress, having become a mix of army/cult leader in an attempt to spread the teachings of Naga, having raised a sizable enough following to draw attention from either the Church or the Empire. Upon being defeated by Byleth, he can either be executed or spared (or recruited in Crimson Flower), the latter of which has Anri vanish from Fódlan history after this point.

As a unit, Anri will be recruited as a Paladin, as is his default class in any other verse, with high Str and Def, above-average Dex, Chr, and HP, average Spd, below average Lck and Mag, and low Res. He is proficient in Swords, Riding, Lance and Authority, with weaknesses in both Reason and Faith Magic, Heavy Armour and Flying, but a Budding Talent for Faith Magic. During meals, he prefers savoury, bitter, and spicy foods; enjoys choir practice (despite his initial weakness), and cannot cook to save his life. His Lost Items include Handwritten Lyrics, a ‘Strange Book’ (his holy book of the Naga Faith), and a Locket (inside which is a miniature portrait of Emmeryn, painted when she was an only child).

Falchion will act akin to a Hero's Relic, but does not have the exact same properties; for example, whereas actual Hero's Relics deal field damage to wielders without a sufficient Crest, Falchion can be hypothetically wielded by anybody else, but the blade will be dulled for anybody but Anri, giving Falchion 1-2 Might at best. In Anri's hands, Falchion will have 15 Might and give him access to Aether as a combat art, which costs 4 durability and has the same affect as the skill as in previous main series games- two attacks, the first restoring health equal to 50% of damage dealt, and the second halving the opponent's Def. The 'Crest of the Exalt' works akin to the Heroes incarnation of Aether, with the effects combined into one attack, but at a lesser value- either 20 or 25%, whichever is better balanced. Anri's personal skill is Crusader's Ward, functioning almost exactly the same as it does for Sigurd in Heroes, with the activation rate being: (Dex + Def or Res depending upon which stat is targeted)/2.

Pre-timeskip, Anri’s face and hairstyle remain unchanged from his standard verses, though his armour changes to a set more befitting of a Paladin in the Knights of Seiros, and follows the general Fódlan style, with an in-universe rumour/theory amongst some being that he’s possibly distantly related to House Fraldarius. Unlike most non-student characters, Anri’s appearance does change post-timeskip; he has since reverted back to his Ylissean Paladin armour that he wore as Exalt, and remains clean-shaven, though his hair has grown out in a long ponytail in order to emulate his ancestor, Seliph- it’s debatable whether or not the look suits him. Anri’s two most likely Master Classes are either Holy Knight or Bow Knight, with him fought as a Holy Knight during his Paralogue.

Anri will have platonic paired endings with Professor Hanneman, the House Leaders (depending upon the chosen route), and Dorothea, and B-Supports with Ferdinand, Felix, and Manuela. His solo ending will have him accept his death in the Awakening world, with no hope of return, and will settle down and remarry. In addition, he would be a hypothetical S-Support for a female Byleth, and possibly a romantic paired ending with Catherine in Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, but as of writing I currently don’t have plans for either of these ships.

[eunwoonii]

ASTRO

because titles are original

ok so i’m probably going to put a “read more” because i’m about to get emotional over astro and i don’t wanna ruin anyone’s dash either jlkfgdfjlkgf, pls be aware it’s midnight and i’m emo

I’ve discovered ASTRO on aug 2, 2017, by a friend (kis ily) who shared me their famous “catching cicada” video (and tbh I laugh more to this than anything else even now). Last year then, I got interested in them and thanks to friends I was able to know more about them, which members, etc. and I had that massive crush on Dongmin that I still have, he’s my UB and no one will ever make me think otherwise,,,,

So by their CSC comeback I had listened to their singles and they weren’t really part of my life, I loved them a lot so I listened sometimes to their songs but that was most of it, I had school & a bunch of other stuff going on and I was 14, I didn’t know stuff about kpop and so I had no idea of how comebacks worked. On november though, like the 1st of november, I saw their Music Bank CSC comeback and oof was I amazed. Like I think I sat in front of my TV for 5 minutes because I wanted to know if they were going to do it again jgfdljdg

So CSC became one of my Favourite Songs Ever and I got more into astro from then, knowing more about them, their past, their dramas, and all that kind of stuff, their famous memes (hi dongminion) but it wasn’t that much still.

In january 2018, I had a twitter acc that is now suspended but i saw their ISAC and I had finally downloaded most of their songs, plus I had kpop friends in my class and I was like pls stan them i love them and that allowed me to know more about kpop in general (I only stanned astro and knew some other groups but that’s all), and so it was the nicest moments, listening to astro while getting back from school, before sleeping, and because I loved them so much I decided to try and learn korean so that I could say something cool if I ever met them (plot twist: im bad at it). I would celebrate the members’ birthdays and I started my first and probably only one at this point binu fic, and I fell in love with Dongmin even more I guess.

I don’t really remember the date but in march something the fantagio drama started and oh boy was I worried, I legit cried a lot during that time because I was worried and couldn’t sleep properly, because they had brought a lot of positivity for me and hope, I’ll get to that later but yeah you have the point.

And then, I got really confused with school, friendships, dealing with that kind of stuff was complicated and my twitter acc + first tumblr acc got suspended for no reason apparently, so even though I kept on listening to astro I wasn’t really aware of what they were doing, I had some news but there wasn’t any comeback and with what was happening it would’ve been hard to see one. From march to june, I had exams + personal stuff and shit was hard to deal with, so like some people in the fandom who had personal things I didn’t hear much from astro except for big news. I still don’t understand the whole fantagio drama but I was already lost in my life.

When I learnt they would have their comeback in july, on the 24th, I cried, when I saw Always You for the first time, I cried, and well I cried while listening to all of the album that’s not a surprise. I was so, so, so, so, so, so happy they could perform again, that they didn’t disband, that they were there, I could see them, their hard work, the lyrics to their songs that made me cry even more, I’m a crying mess but I was honestly so happy I kept on screaming for 8h that day. 

Which brings us to now, it’s the 15th of august, and that chronology would be a perfect way to sum up how astro led me to who I am now, if I didn’t talk about the emotional aspect.

Last october, I turned 15, and at this time I questioned myself on so many things, gender identity, sexuality, my future, and I was so confused about everything and I kept it all to myself and wasn’t able to be happy. So on that nov 2, 2017, I think I had given up on understanding anything at this moment, I saw their Music Bank CSC comeback. My thought while seeing Dongmin, all of astro while they performed? “That’s who I wanna be. I wanna be like them.” There’s a 0% chance I will end up becoming Dongmin ofc but I had found a model for my life, someone to get attached to so I wouldn’t be depressed anymore, or I would get happier and be able to live properly. Which I did, I was really happy and even though times weren’t the simplest, that’s when I aspired to become someone astro could be proud of, that’s still my goal today.

Astro had helped me during that time, and I didn’t know that but they would help me a lot. There was a super interesting twitt thread on how kpop/biases are models and lift people’s spirits up, and I think that happened to me. Since I’m depressed, I had many low times, and guess what musics would I listen to during those times? Yeah, you got it. Baby or Breathless are songs that instantly make me feel better, most of their songs do actually, but that helped me so much, I could dance (plot twist: im bad at this too) to their songs freely, I can’t learn the choregraphies properly but just dancing to their songs is incredible.

That’s what, with a lot of positivity in early 2018, helped me be someone reasonable, I was proud of myself, I loved astro, my friends, my boyfriend, etc. I was really happy and I got to know more people because of kpop too (I got into nct, got7, exo, and a bunch of other groups) so that really was a good time.

I was so, so afraid when the fantagio drama started, and I don’t really know what happened at this point, things are still confused in my mind but I still listened to astro whenever I could, whether I was in a good mood or in a bad mood. And then, in april-may, I did things, that I’m not proud of, and thanks to a lot of help and astro I was able to get together better. All of this because “I can become someone astro would be proud of, I don’t owe them anything but they’re what’s keeping me in shape somehow”, and just jamming to their songs is the perfect feeling.

I love and love astro more than any other kpop group, because I learnt their hard times, their best moments, their fears, and when they had their comeback last month, I felt relieved. I had been maybe at my worst in april/may/june, but with them, I found a new reason to smile, because I couldn’t just drop them after all the fears, stress, obstacles they’ve been through for their comeback, even to just work. “If astro went through it, I can go through it so that I’ll be able to be a better person”. It seems harsh but it’s surprisingly a motto I still have, I don’t seek on making things difficult and worse for me, but I was somehow more able to separate the real difficulties for me from things that I shouldn’t take care of.

On aug, 2, 2018, I did the thing i’m not proud of again, maybe some of it have guessed it but that’s not the point. I know I’ll forever regret it, because I did it after being clean for 2 months, and on my birthday-of-knowing-astro, astro which has been the group to help me the most during last year and this year, and it’ll take time for me to fully assume my actions and their consequences. Even though I got support from friends, especially from two really close to mine (kis and nicole ily), I won’t be fully capable of not hating me for having done this.

But I know, at the end of the day, that I’ll be able to go through it. Why? “Because I can still be someone astro would be proud of”. It’s naive from me to believe astro would even care about me particularly, but I don’t care and if this helps me to get better, then so be it. I have no contract or deal with astro that tells me that I have to have them as models, but I will continue to admire them.

Astro has probably been one of the hardest-working groups I’ve ever seen, I’m not saying other groups are lazy but they’ve had already a ton of comebacks, events, astroads, fanmeetings, kdramas, events, mc duties to be in, and I’ve never heard bad things about them. Ofc haters are a thing, and a lot of kpop groups have hard work, but they are the only group that I know that have put all their time and energy for that, and most importantly, they kept on smiling. They’re the group I love the most, because they don’t complain, they’re all talented in their own ways, my bias may be Dongmin but let me go to hell if I say that I don’t like any of the other members. I could quote their qualities forever, they’re not perfect of course but they put dedication, time, love, work, their own fears, doubts, or happiness into these albums. Plus, they’re always excited as puppies for everything, they’re all cute, visuals, if I see a picture of them I can’t stop smiling for 3h,,,

So astro has been a really important part of my life, yes. Whatever astro does, as long as it’s not harmful to people, I’ll be by their side, I like to hear from them, see them, support them in any way I can, reblog, like, tweet, whatever I can do to be someone they would be proud of, even if they don’t know me.

Through all the things they lived, and did, I was able to live too, that’s why astro is and will forever be my UG, and Dongmin is my ideal man, wait no all of them are my ideal men, in terms of who I want to be. If they chose us, arohas, if they’re always going to choose you, then I will always choose them.

It’s now 1am, almost 2, and I haven’t stopped writing since midnight,,,, I’m tired help me

TL;DR: I’m very proud of ASTRO, they have That Power of making me happy, I said I didn’t owe them anything since they don’t know me but I owe them my life. I will always, always, thank them all for what they’ve done. Maybe I’m being an extreme fan but I don’t really care as long as I don’t turn into a harmful fan. They led me to a better life already, and I’ll forever be thankful to them, even if they don’t know me, even if they don’t know that story.

you can reblog this or like this, i don’t rlly care, i felt like i had the need to explain that today (it’s a special day for me too!!) and if yall leave replies ill be the happiest man on earth tbh. ty to those who read the whole thing, yall know about my life with astro and im glad if it helps you know me better! 

[mechagalaxy]

Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184: Mountain Climbing Mecha Combat #1440

(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184) Mountain Climbing Mecha Combat #1440 Brought to you by ANN Highlighting the August 3368  Front Line Fight As usual between battleday two and three, we got an event where only the Mechs in the first line of the formations would be involved in any fighting. For me that was not the worst news we could get. After the drubbing BlackWatch had given us last round, finding even a handfull operational Mechs proved a bit of a challenge though. But Bruno and the crew did their usual miracles, and managed to get some rides operational before the scramble started. As we were a bit late to the party on K4, we were shown to a spot out on the plains. Then a series of quick strikes saw us advancing through the foothills to a spot on the slopes. The top were held by Roman Himmelhan of Death`s Collectors, and he had held that spot for a while. Our first strike against him met with failure. Not surprisingly since he had a full six-Mech line as opposed to our five. What gave me pause was the fact that his bottom Mech was a Penner, and it ripped my formation apart almost by itself. Another dozen tries met with similar failures, and in desperation I comitted the cardinal sin of sudden death events: I sent the formation back to the hangar to rebuild it during the scramble. This move will normally get you dragged down to the lower foothills, -or even the plains, by alert opponents. And given that the event can end any moment, one could easily end without any prizes at all. But in this case, none seemed to have noticed our absence, and the event were still in full swing when the fresh formation returned. Two strikes later, a combination of crits and Wide Forks finally felled Himmelhans line, and less than a minute later the light flashed, -signaling the end of the event. The footage we had gotten from the scant action indicated that this events winners had been: Div 1 479+ (17 Commanders): Sal Vezzosi Jr, Odin`s secret chamber (2m,22s) 2: Roy Cheah 3: Fabio Favaro 4: Ben Rail 5: Gary Muenzel 6: Mk Mathews 7: Jeff Haas 8: Mike Wach 9: David Buchanan 10: Bernard Johnson Div 2 -478 (24 Commanders): Stroker Spot, Death Dealers (2h,31m) Div 3 -364 (18 Commanders): David Sifford, Northwind Dragons (10m,38s) Div 4 -237 (18 Commanders): Sten Hugo Hiller, Star League (32s) Div 5 -172 (23 Commanders): Brian Patenaude, Black Star Renegades (1h,25m) Div 6 -140 (22 Commanders): Paul Jubb, Death`s Revenge (1h,42m) Div 7 -105 (25 Commanders): Mercy Cayunda, Smurf Platoon (3h,51m) Div 8 -75 (25 Commanders): Stug Hill, Behemoth (4h,45m) Div 9 -41 (32 Commanders): Captain Beefheart, Ronins 2 (2h,28m) Total Contestants: 207 Total medals claimed: 135 (of 135 possible) Compared to the pre-war Cannon strike, an additonal handfull Commanders decided to sign up for this event. And the spread were fairly even this time as well, so all the medals were claimed. The last half-hour saw a trio of Golds changing hands, one of them the last minute. Four of the other Golds were held for at least two hours. So the turnover for the Golds were pretty low, -at least for an event where so few Mechs were involved in each formation. Was this due to strong winners or to exhaustion after two battledays? One way to find out is to look at the number of medals held for more than 30 minutes in this event: .............Silvers......Bronzes Div 1 ....2 of 4.........9 of 10 Div 2 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10 Div 3 ....1 of 4.......10 of 10 Div 4 ....2 of 4.........7 of 10 Div 5 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10 Div 6 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10 Div 7 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10 Div 8 ....3 of 4.........6 of 10 Div 9 ....4 of 4.........8 of 10 This time, four tops (K2, K5, K6 and K7) were without any succesfull medal attacks. And the action on the other tops were not much to write home about either. A grand total of  eight Silvers(22%) and ten Bronzes(11%) changed hands, making the 33% Gold turnover look active in comparison. This became one of the "none" events. None of the clans won more than one Gold, none of the Golds went to unaligned Commanders and none of the last events winners managed to claim a follow-up Gold. Upcoming event: Point Mech Panic The classic end of the war event is coming up. Only the Mech in the point position (uppermost, rightmost) will be involved in the fighting, so put your best Mech rthere, and be generous when it comes to weapons and equipment. Event ends February 25 between 1400 and 1430 New York Time