#If Rufus was about to die would Rodrigue die for him? Probably not. He may be a royal but if Rodrigue died for him

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Something that SEEERIOUSLY isn’t talked about enough among Rodrigue fans is how Rodrigue (almost? or generally) always refers to Dimitri as “Your/His Highness” except in the moment that Dimitri’s life was at risk right in front of Rodrigue and Rodrigue shielded him with his own body.

Rodrigue is always respectful and aware of their stations, but none of that matters when Dimitri is almost killed. Rodrigue reacts emotionally without station in mind, forgetting to refer to him in an “appropriate” manner and reacting instead in a more intimate manner (i.e. using a person’s name instead of their title).

Most people wouldn’t dare to refer to their prince by their first name, but Rodrigue forgets all that the moment Dimtiri is in danger. He follows up that familial intimacy by calling Dimitri “my boy”. In a way it’s like Rodrigue's formalities are just forced expectations that are ingrained into him, because his actual instinct is to refer to Dimitri in a familial way. If he doesn’t have time to think about what he’s saying, it will be Dimitri’s name that he uses because that’s how he truly thinks of Dimitri.

He doesn’t solely view Dimitri as his prince. He views Dimitri as family, and in a setting where royalty exists, it’s so important to the relationship in question when that societal expectation is broken, simply because it tells you exactly what that character thinks of their royalty.

When royalty’s life is in danger, it would even make sense for people to hesitate because if they do anything, they might also be in danger and generally humans instinctually prioritize their own life (even if they do really want to step in to help). That typically is not the case with humans regarding loved ones, where that instinct instead changes to an instinct where they automatically step in to protect people dear to them - especially parents to their children. Parents - not just in humans but in most forms of life (cats, dogs, etc) - are extremely protective of their children and react without a second - even a first - thought, because it’s not a thought at all when they see their children in danger. It’s a base reaction.

Rodrigue wasn’t witnessing his prince being attacked. He was witnessing his son being attacked, and he reacted as a father would - not as a knight, a vassal or anyone under Dimitri’s station and how they would be expected to react to protect him. Dimitri didn’t have to be his blood son for him to react the same way a blood parent would. Dimitri wasn’t born to him but he was Rodrigue’s son all the same and he couldn’t accept his boy being harmed.

I love that his reaction is exactly the same as what Lambert would have done. I love that in that one moment when he didn’t have time to think about his word choice, such important stations meant absolutely nothing to him. I love that what was important to him was Dimitri the person, and not Dimitri the prince. I love that at the very end, he died knowing his boy was safe and alive. I love that, when he starts reusing “Your Highness”, it’s only after the immediate danger has passed and he has time to actually process his word choice again, because it really drives home how quickly and thoughtlessly he reacted to seeing Dimitri in danger when he dropped formalities to use his first name.

He also didn’t tell him to live for the people or live because he was a prince. He wanted Dimitri to remember to live for himself and likely died with the hope that those being his last words would be taken much more heavily and sincerely, and give Dimitri a lot to think about in regard to caring for himself as a person and not just seeing himself as a prince/future king, because Rodrigue also saw him as a person.

Not only did Rodrigue protect his son (which mind you must have been extremely important to him after already losing a son. Can you imagine how devastated he would be to lose another child? This time he saved a son from death, which he was unable to do previously and he wasn’t present to be able to even try), but he gave Dimitri the thing Dimitri desired the most from those he loved: he treated Dimitri like a regular person who needed to live his own life for himself, and in the single most critical moment to Rodrigue, forgot to use titles and formalities and openly expressed his true feelings just by using Dimitri’s name alone.

Dimitri never liked all those stuffy behaviors and titles. He just wanted to be a person. Rodrigue, his family, gave him that at Rodrigue’s very end, explicitly informing Dimitri that was how this man always thought of him just from that one moment of Rodrigue’s feelings slipping through. He was always keeping up appearances, but Dimitri was always just Dimitri to him.

Also, Rodrigue says “please tell me it wasn’t in vain”. Remember, Rodrigue’s son died in vain. Glenn didn’t actually get to protect Dimitri. Earlier, Rodrigue stated that Dimitri’s injuries left him on the verge of death. Glenn didn’t die protecting him. Glenn died in a tragedy. Nothing Glenn did that day that led to his death actually helped Dimitri survive. Dimitri survived because Gilbert found him in time.

Rodrigue knows that and doesn’t want another person dear to Dimitri to die a death that didn’t need to happen. He also doesn’t want it to be in vain because if it was, he would have died being unable to protect his son. Rodrigue “died for what he believed in”, but he died because he thoughtlessly, without hesitation, died to save his son. He believed in Dimitri, but he also believed Dimitri to be his child as much as Glenn and Felix ever were.

Even though Glenn did die in vain, he attempted to die keeping his best friend alive. He believed in his best friend, just like Lambert believed in his son to be able to saved if he ever went astray.

Before Rodrigue dies, he last thoughts are of Lambert, but also his promise to Lambert, which was about Dimtiri.

Rodrigue was always thinking of his family throughout the whole game (literally, he brings up Felix to Byleth regularly and brings up Glenn throughout the story as well), and that extended to Lambert and Dimtiri. At the very last, he literally died like he lived, and that was for his family.

[umbralstars]

Alright now that I've talked a bit about his province it's time to talk about the man himself. We should all be aware of the few bits of canon info we got about Rufus, but here's my own general thoughts about his character and the relationships he has with his family.

Rufus is 13 years older than Lambert and wasn't exactly thrilled when his parents decided to make Lambert heir instead because of him possessing a crest while Rufus didn't. Rufus understands logically why Crests are useful for rulers to have (the legitimacy they offer along with a powerful Relic if a ruler needs to defend the state is useful and he won't deny that) but doesn't believe a Crest necessarily makes one automatically a good ruler. Recognizing early on the faults in Faerghus' system of governance, and feeling like he has something to prove, Rufus was hell bent on leaving his mark on Faerghus whether he's king or not.

Rufus is actually an incredibly intelligent politician who studied not only the governing systems of old, but also tried to learn as much as he could about foreign governments so he could reform Faerghus. He's been reform minded since he was a teenager. Even spent a good portion of Lambert's formative years impressing his ideas onto his younger brother, until Lambert knew enough to start coming up with his own ideas and debating solutions with Rufus. While the brothers were never the closest, Rufus implicitly trusted Lambert because his brother was just willing to trust and listen to him and that meant a lot to Rufus. He did more than his fair share of criticizing his younger brother, but at least he knew Lambert could find appreciation in that.

As Grand Duke of Itha, Rufus had a certain view on wealth and how a government should be structured.

He firmly believes that wealth should be used to glorify the state through great public works and that a well educated populace along with a well fed and protected populace led to the greatest societies. He still lived large and made it known, but he had a more patriotic attitude towards his wealth and believed he had a moral obligation to spend it on Faerghus' greatness. Under his rule, Castell Itha went from a cultural backwater in Faerghus to having one of the largest public libraries (something that would be replicated in Fhirdiad with Lambert turning the Fhirdiad College of Sorcery's library into a royal one open to the public) in Fodlan and having better urban planning than many cities in the Empire. He personally encouraged the creation of great works of art, poetry, and new magical techniques all for the good of Faerghus. He believed that Faerghus could be a cultural powerhouse and he was going to make it so by Sothis.

Rufus' aspirations weren't just limited to Itha either as he was of the opinion that Faerghus' incredibly decentralized governance style was holding the Kingdom back from greatness. Ever since Loog, the Kingdom had been an almost confederation of various states who paid homage to House Blaiddyd and the royal court but devolved so much power on internal matters they were functionally independent. The Kingdom's codes of chivalry were mostly developed and lauded by the crown as a way to retain some centralized authority and respect, but the various states in Faerghus could pretty much beef with each other as they pleased. Nowhere worse was this problem than in the northern reaches of Faerghus. Because much of the north has sided with Loog there was never any consolidation, so the north was made up of hundreds of duchies, counties, baronies, etc that could give the Holy Roman Empire a run for its money.

Rufus saw all of this as a blight on the Kingdom and made it his life's mission to fix it when he became Grand Duke. Lambert and him were working towards a goal of essentially a federalized monarchy with a strong centralized government. It's the entire reason he started to consolidate power and take out anyone who dared to get in his way. He also has a very 'my way or the highway' outlook on the other noble houses and wouldn't hesitate to screw them over if they don't fall into lines or prove to him that they're incapable of leadership. 

Rufus can also be incredibly petty and spiteful if he feels he's been offended in some way. House Galatea is the big example of this. Galatea had been having financial problems for decades before hand, and the Count spurning Rufus on his betrothal request for peaceful inclusion in the Grand Duchy he considered a grave insult. Rufus didn't incite the rebellion as some claim but he did capitalize on it because he wanted to show how weak Galatea was and undermine the Count's authority. A more bloody example came when a smaller noble house in his domain tried to kill Rufus and his heir to take the riches for themselves. While they failed on both counts, Rufus decided to purge the entire family and their supporters with having the ringleaders tried and executed leaving the rest to flee for the Alliance.

The only House he begrudgingly respects is House Fraldarius because he does consider Rodrigue to be a capable leader and they do somewhat get along. They encountered each other a lot and, while Rogrigue is critical of Rufus' certain proclivities, they were able to be amicable to one another. He dislikes how many nobles fled to House Fraldarius due to the perceived aggression on the Grand Duchy's part. But for him, as long as Rodrigue was on Lambert's side with the reform measures he can share power in the north. He and Margrave Gautier have always disliked each other for numerous reasons, but the two don't clash over territory so they can tolerate each other's presence.

Rufus is also a mixed bag of being extremely charismatic, but pretty much only becomes so to woo people or get what he wants. In all other aspects of his life Rufus was domineering and stubborn with his beliefs and in his social life. He was and still is extremely piss poor at handling emotions and this includes his own. He could also be cold and ruthless when it came to pursuing his goals and was willing to do shitty things to get results.

Speaking of doing shitty things yes the man is a prolific womanizer, and every single relationship he has with the women in his life and his children is unique. He does frequent brothels and has done so since he was in his late teens. He courts heiresses to incorporate their houses into his territory or for purely political gain. Many of the children he has had may very not consider him a father at all simply because he's never been in their lives for whatever reason. At bare minimum he makes sure his mistresses and his bastards have at least a comfortable living situation, but that's about it. Rufus is obviously not incapable of loving people or considering his children family, he just doesn't a lot of the time while he never wishes ill upon them. There are a few instances where this was not the case and he was much closer to his mistresses and children, but they were honestly few and far between.

Since I mentioned his family other than Lambert and Dimitri it’s OC time. 

Rufus and Emyr

Darya Artemi was probably one of the few women Rufus ever truly fell and love with. He initially approached her in the same way he had heiresses in the past with just intentions of courting her along with her soon to be lands, but somewhere along the line he genuinely did fall for her. When Emyr was born and it was discovered he had a Major Crest Rufus jumped on the opportunity to make him the heir. They never did legally marry, but she was Duchess Consort in everything but legality. Darya was mostly fine with having an open relationship with Rufus as long as he was around for her and their children.

Rufus as a parent is just as domineering as in every other aspect of his life. He could be caring but extremely strict as well and pushed for perfection in everything Emyr did. He wanted his son to be the perfect heir for the province he was building, and be like him in many aspects. Emyr did love his father and wanted to live up to every expectation.

When Darya died, Rufus experienced one of the first major depressive episodes in his life. He pulled away from his children, threw himself into work and all of his vices, and became even harder on Emyr than he was previously. If her death wasn't enough, some of his mistresses felt an opportunity to get ahead and tried to fill the void or even remove Emyr on a few occasions. The houses never really leveled out again and both Emyr and Rufus clung to the perceived stability they had before Darya's death to their relationship's detriment. They never could come close to breaching those vulnerable waters.

When Emyr ran away with Katya, it came after years of strife between him and his father that did permanently damage their relationship. Rufus was devastated when he lost Emyr and Katya along with a good portion of his family. He grew even more depressed, lost control of the court entirely, and never could form anywhere close to a good relationship with his nephew. He lost a good number of relationships during the four years before his death in friends and family. He spent the last years of his life guilt ridden, dogged by horrible rumors, and trying to keep together a country which was begging to rip itself a part. 

For Emyr's part, he never did wish for his father to die in the way he did. In some ways he did love Rufus even after everything. Emyr is like his father in many ways and terrified of becoming him in many others. 

TL;DR: Rufus is complicated.

[nixelspixels1225]

I should be working on college work but here I am. Okay but...

FE3H College/University AU: Blue Lions Part 1

Side note: I have a headcanon that Lambert and Rodrigue had a side relationship going on, which applies to this a little bit,,,

Dimitri

Maintains a 3.5 GPA, is an over-achiever, and isn’t ever late to class.

He has therapy dog that’s a boy :) I imagine it’s a White Terrier who kind of has the same personality as him.

He’s apart of the debate team with Felix; is considered the best on the debate team, rivaling with Edelgard’s team.

plays on the baseball team with Sylvain and Felix (more on that in Felix and Sylvain’s portions). Every time he goes to bat, though, he ends up either hitting it out of the park or he breaks a bat somehow. He’s the reason they have to keep buying extra bats. 💀

He commutes from his home and Lambert is/was a well-known big time politician, but Dima inherits it. His uncle Rufus (who he doesn’t like as stated in the game) comes and checks in him every once in a while, but he’s basically a drunken bank owner and doesn’t really care for Dima.

On days he’s at his lowest he brings his dog with him to class. Everyone wants to pet his dog, but the dog is pretty picky with people touching him. When Dimitri raises his hand in class, the dog copies him and raises his paw. 🥺

Everyone assumes he’s gay, but doesn’t make any inclinations on if he actually is or not. He usually sticks to not talking another himself at all. The college/uni has days where students can bring their pets for an outdoor event and Dima almost doesn’t wanna bring his dog because he stubbornly considers his dog a friend over a “pet”

He's definitely a teacher's pet, no doubt.

Attends a small therapy session through the college every two weeks.

You cannot get him to drink alcohol or smoke pot honestly. Maybe unless a certain professor were there and did it first, he may be convinced.

Felix

Get ready for Sylvix vibes.

Maintains about a 3.1–3.4 GPA. Sometimes ends up being late to class, but only if he is just perpetually exhausted.

Is apart of the debate team. He has to be on it because his excuse is that he has to keep an eye on Dimitri (this kinda goes along with my Lambert/Rodrigue headcanon post)

Is also apart of the baseball team but that's because he likes being active. It helps him with his anger issues. He's probably the best player on the team to be completely honest. Short? Runs fast? Well-balanced and strong? Yes.

oh yeah he has anger issues. People have told him to go to therapy but it only pisses him off. His therapist is basically Sylvain. dhebjbhjbhcjjbh

A good majority of people legitimately cannot tell whether or not Felix is aromantic, asexual, straight, or what the hell he is. Sylvain would say he's sexually attracted to anything metal but that's an inside joke between them.

Felix commutes to college/uni. Actually, he doesn't live too far from Dimtiri.

Owns a black cat, originally out of irony, but he ended up growing to be extremely fond of cats. Especially black cats. It has bright green-yellow eyes and is actually very sweet.

Often finds himself in Sylvain's dorm, sometimes sneaking in his cat since they don't allow pets in the dorms due to other students possibly having allergies. He likes to sometimes bring over Mexican food, guacamole and tortilla chips.

When staying up late to study with Sylvain, he'll put his hair in a messy white girl bun. Sylvain teases him that he needs a starbucks coffee, acrylic nails, and a shit ton of makeup and he'll be as good of a white girl as Dorothea or Hilda.

is very oblivious to Sylvain crushing on him, but also is unaware he likes Sylvain a lot. Also. Yes, they will die together. Totally doesn't click that he likes Sylvain.

Calls Sylvain "Idiot" in the streets, but "Syl" in the sheets DJHDEHVEVHJHVJJVH--no they don't actually bang until they get together.

[faroreswinds]

I just saw your post mentioning the whole Dimitri/Claude needing heirs thing, and it's possible I'm misinterpreting, but in CF Dimitri says something to the effect of 'the Blaiddyd bloodline will continue even if I die' - so I wonder if Dima, at least, would face that much pressure for an heir, given his focus on orphans and his uncle probably having had a family. I'm blanking on his unpaired AM ending but Faerghus is shown to be v traditional so who can say for sure I guess. :o

Oh my goodness, a message! I almost never get these so I had to rub my eyes a few times to make sure! 

To answer your question, it’s honestly really hard to say either way. In the post I believe you are referring to, I made mention of heirs because that’s probably the excuse IS gave to themselves when deciding that the male lords will be not be bi options, while Edelgard (the only lord who doesn’t need an heir after she changes the system) is bi. If you take a quick look at all the bi options, there is kind of a pattern. Linhardt doesn’t care about anything and in almost all his endings, with two exceptions, rejects any role or his title. He doesn’t need heirs because by virture he simply doesn’t want to be next in line. Dorothea is a commoner, so is Mercedes and Jeritza. Rhea also doesn’t need children, and Sothis is... Well, you know. IS made these characters bi not out of characterization, but because these characters, by nature, have no need to be having any offspring. 

Anyways, Faerghus is traditional in the sense that they uphold a lot of old values and beliefs that even shape their way of thinking (i.e. Gustave and Rodrigue) but not so traditional in that change isn’t an option. Women like Ingrid, for instance, are still able to become knights with relative ease. Lambert himself was actually about to make radical reforms. We don’t know what that means, unfortunately, but if we consider Dimitri’s values a window into Lambert’s values, we may get an idea. And remember, Mercedes may be from the Empire but she lives in the Kingdom. We are given no indication that the Kingdom is against same-sex partners, and Mercedes can even declare her love for you before you ever become archbishop. 

His unpaired ending is weird, however.  His unpaired ending makes absolutely no mention of any wife, consort, or queen. He lives to make orphans’ lives better; we even see him playing with them in his ending card. However, Gilbert’s ending is sort of tied with Dimitri’s. His unpaired ending tells us that he coached the “young prince” in the art of combat, meaning that Dimitri did have a son at some point. This prince could be adopted, but considering that Dimitri married a woman in his paired ending with Felix, it’s likely the child is his flesh and blood. 

However, it is also entirely possible to avoid any mention of a child at all. Pair Gilbert with Annette or with Byleth (or just... let him die), then you can completely avoid hearing about Dimitri’s son. 

Dimitri does change his government, but inheritance is still a thing, based on the ending cards in AM. So I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some pressure for him to establish a bloodline. People really cared that Dimitri was the heir to the throne. They wanted him back; it HAD to be him, in their minds. But honestly, if anyone pressured him it would have been Gilbert. Felix would have told him to fuck the traditions. But I’m more inclined to believe that Dimitri had a child out of love, not out of need. 

Personally, though, I would love to know from IS if his son could potentially be adopted. How poetic would that be? Bloodlines are not so set in stone that someone like Ashe couldn’t inherit Lonato’s house. But I suppose the Royal Family might have different standards. 

I would say there is more of a focus on bloodlines in the Kingdom, but we lack all the nuances of the kingdom’s culture to say for sure if they would be open to Dimitri adopting. Dimitri holds some core values of his nation such a loyalty, but not all of them (such as valuing Crests so highly) and makes a lot of changes. With the exception of Edelgard’s ending, Dimitri’s ending makes nobles the weakest in power out of them all (And in Edelgard’s ending, that is only because all the power is in the emperor’s hands; in his ending, even his own position could arguably be weaker due to setting up what sounds like a constitutional monarchy). 

As for the line from CF, I do believe he’s referring to Rufus. Rufus may not have a Crest but he’s still his uncle, and could keep their bloodline alive. I have a hard time believing that Dimitri went and got a woman pregnant. Rufus is said to be a skirt chaser and since he’s not the one on the front lines defending the kingdom, probably has more time to get dirty. Plus, there’s no mention of Rufus dying at all in CF (since Cornelia never killed him). 

I’m not sure if that line exists in the Japanese version, though. There are MANY times where the English has changed the Japanese quite a bit. One is where Felix calls Dimitri a monster in CF. Yeah, that never happened in the Japanese version. 

I hope you do not mind, but I’m going to post this question. If anyone has anything to add or thoughts, please feel free to share.