#It's more like Rhea BaD so Supreme Leader Good

[randomnameless]

Relieved to see the "Church bad" stuff in 3H was the result of Treehouse's *ahem* liberties with the localization. One of the things I liked about Fire Emblem was that it wasn't like the 5000 generic church/religion bad JRPGs and that it treated religion with nuance and treated it's religious characters respectfully. I'd hate for the series that gave us characters like Lucius and Renault to become another bland religion bad wankfest.

Well...

It's not only on the lolcalisation, I'm afraid :(

"Church BaD" is peppered here'n'there through the game(s) because if Church BaD then maybe siding with Supreme Leader isn't completely ludicrous - but the lolcalisation amped it up to 11.

FWIW, I still think the FE series is the same series that gave us Lucius, Renault, Natasha, Yodel and the other monks/priests so it still has that nuance and isn't the generic "Religion BaD" JRPG (playing TS made me remember what was a true "Religion BaD" JRPG lol), and even in some ways, the Fodlan writers tried to warp it around "it's not the faith that's BaD, but Rhea" without ever saying what's so BaD about the faith Rhea preaches and what the difference with the faith that will be preached by her successors (Billy or the Tru Piss church)...

IIRC in Nopes Seteth mentions in an expedition dialogue how he disagrees with some church tenets... but never mentions to Barney what are those tenets he, as a saint, Rhea's right hand man and more or less her older sibling/kin, disagrees with.

Imo, the general Church BaD isn't BaD for being BaD in the og game, but a way to say Rhea BaD to both sell Hresvelg Tea and the idea that Rhea has to go so the player, through Billy, will take her place and make a better world because player wank.

The lolcalisation though? Kept the underlying Church BaD, even if their love of Tea sometimes makes their script suggest "Faith BaD"!

[anvils-of-history]

Gilbert: "I imagine the Empire plans to install the bishop of the Southern Church, Count Varley, in Lady Rhea's place. I fear I've heard nothing good concerning either the man or his teachings. They purport to be an arm of the Church of Seiros, but the Southern Church is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Empire at large."

So...yeah. That should kill Seteth's asinine comment that "SuPrEmE LeAdER wEnT To ThE TrOubLE oF ReStOrInG ThE SoUThErN ChUrCH, ShE cLeArLY dOeSn'T HaTe ReLIgIoN!"

(Sigh) His Eggy-pandering line in 3H was bad enough, but I can't believe he said something so stupid.

Margrave Gautier: "In other words, rejecting the Central Church in favor of this new Southern Church would be no different from flat out accepting Imperial rule. It's hard to say just how they would treat our kingdom were such events to unfold. Though I imagine it would involve heavy taxation for the express purpose of bleeding Faerghus dry, and filling the Imperial coffers."

See, Matthias has played 3H lol.

Felix: "The question's simple: Do we hand over our kingdom and subject ourselves to Imperial rule, or not?"

Dimitri: "I believe the margrave has been quite clear as to what will happen if we give in to the Empire's demands. We've all been informed of the rapid reformation their region has undergone. Many aspects of which I admire, I'm not ashamed to say."

And which part of those "reformations" are so admirable, Dimitri? The part where countless people's livelihoods are destroyed due to a senseless war? The part where Supreme Leader has such wonderful people in her employ, like: Hubert, Jeritza, Metody, Lasagna and Random? Or the part where the Empire's own citizens are experimented upon and turned into Demonic Beasts? Or how about the part that Margrave Gautier literally just said, with citizens being taxed to death? Or maybe it's the part where civilians are starved to death to feed the Imperial army? Or could it be the part where Supreme Leader puppeteers a major religion in order to brainwash the populace and make them undyingly loyal to her cause, the exact same thing that she criticizes the Lettuce Fam for doing? Is hypocrisy such an admirable thing now, Dimitri? Or perhaps it's the part where she condemns an entire race to die in order to further her ambitions? A sentiment that I'm sure your stalward vassal in Dedue would no doubt appreciate.

This is pathetic. KT didn't write Dimitri, they wrote Edelsimp #3. Let me go play the GW route before I have to stomach any more of this garbage.

[keywestlou]

KEY WEST PLATO'S ATLANTIS?

Plato’s Atlantis sank because of an earthquake. Key West will not die a similar death. If anything, it will be because of an overload of people.

Two recent Citizens’ Voice comments and the cruise ship referendums reflect the thinking of the Key West citizenry.

One comment: “The mayor of Maui is pleading with airlines to stop ‘over tourism.’ There needs to be a balance between the tourist economy and the locals. Seems applicable here too.”

The other comment: “The town is already overrun by too many tourists from the pent-up demands from the pandemic. Now there are some who want to add thousands more daily from the cruise ships? Insane.”

In November, the people of Key West spoke re the cruise ship problem. The three referendums clearly revealed the feelings of the people: Limit the size of the cruise ships and number of passengers.

The vote meant nothing to the Governor, State Legislature, and certain monied persons. The State passed a bill and the Governor happily signed it into law prohibiting local ballot initiatives or referendums from limiting size, number of passengers, etc.

The people of Key West lost! The result of political shenanigans. The Governor and State slapped Key West in the face. More accurately, spit in Key West’s eye.

Fortunately, whoever drafted the new law withdrawing the power of a municipality to control its own waters may have erred in the drafting of the law. There may be a drafting screw up whereby the City Commission could take a different route whereby the people can be heard.

A meeting is scheduled for monday night where the Mayor and City Commission will review the matter and hopefully arrive at a decision consistent with what the people of Key West want.

Esteemed and respected Key West citizen Joseph Lyles called the other night. Joseph and I have been friends for many years.

The last time we were together was at a monday night Dueling Bartenders. Some time before the pandemic became a problem. Which means Joseph and I have not communicated in more than 2 years.

It was a joy hearing from him.

Joseph for years was a waiter at The Hot Tin Roof. Then manager for an additional number of years. Following which he was the concierge at the Reach. He presently is involved with the sale of legal marijuana at a Dual Street location.

Sounds like Joseph jumped from one job to another. Not correct. He is on in his years and been around long enough to have had several occupations. In addition to which he has spent many years involved with St. Paul’s Church.

Joseph reached the cane stage earlier than I. I recall when he graduated from a cane to a staff. A rough pole about 5 feet tall.  He reminded me of John the Baptist.

We agreed it had been too long since last we were together. We will be meeting for lunch at Louie’s Backyard.

Mosquitoes are a bit earlier and a bit more this year. The increase in rain thought to be the cause.

Mosquitoes are always a Keys concern. Some years can be extremely bad.

Last summer, there were 67 reported cases of dengue fever in Key Largo. Unusual.

Two nights ago, I had difficulty sleeping. At 3 in the morning, I turned on the TV set. Saw an enjoyable war movie. A submarine one. Starred Matthew McConaughey.

The movie was titled U-571.

In the Citizen’s Historical Section yesterday, mention was made of a vessel whose last name was Cueno. On July 9, 1942, it was sunk 66 miles southwest of Key West. Sunk by the German submarine U-571.

Any relationship between the movie and submarine that sank the Cueno?

There was a German submarine U-571 that worked the waters off the Keys. Actually several other submarines also. I did some further digging. Could not however find any relationship between the sinking of Cueno and U-571.

Joe Biden has a heavy plate. So far, so good. However, he has to move swiftly on a couple of matters. Certain things can only be permitted to sit too long.

The cyberattacks are one. Biden spoke with Putin for one hour in a telephone call this week. Drew the line in the sand. Time now for action. One more ransom situation and he must move. He has the capacity to destroy one of the cyber attacking facilities. Or maybe blow up one of Russia’s pipelines. The pipeline a step too far? I don’t know.

One thing is certain. Putin does not want a war. He is aware he is not the leader of the Soviet Republic. He heads the tiny entity called Russia. Except for his nuclear arsenal left over from World War II, he is no threat to the U.S.

Putin has major unrest in Russia. He is not the power person he was even 5 years ago. Russia cannot afford a war. It is hurting financially. Ergo, he can be pushed.

Biden’s other problem is getting legislation through Congress. The bottom line remains the same since he took office. Get rid of the filibuster. If he could and did, by the time of the 2022 elections he will have achieved great success. He could easily pass infrastructure as he wants it, get new voting laws in place, and whatever else he desires.

Manchin and Sinema are his problems. Their bipartisanship efforts have proved naught. They are being played by the Republicans and seem blind to it. They are glorying however in their 15 minutes in the sun.

Biden has to get them on board or get two Republicans to vote for ending the filibuster and supporting some Democratic programs. May not be as difficult as it sounds.

Failure to get sufficient legislation passed wills result in Republicans taking over the Senate and House in 2022. I have to believe Biden is not lacking in awareness of this fact. He has to move and do so this summer.

Remember the Scopes trial. Also known as the Monkey Trial. The trial began this day in 1925 in Rhea County, Tennessee.

The issue evolution in violation of a Tennessee criminal law. Scopes was a high school teacher who taught evolution in violation of the law.

The trial a big deal! Clarence Darrow represented Scopes. William Jennings Brian the prosecution.

Scopes was convicted. Tennessee’s Supreme Court ultimately overturned the conviction.

The trial turned out to have been a fraud. A joke. Not for real.

The Rhea County merchants wanted to bring business to their area. They concluded a big time trial would place their area on the map.  They rigged the whole thing. Everyone bought it at the time. Except the merchants and Scopes who were in on the phoniness.

I doubt the judge and counsel were aware.

It is amazing how people to this day believe the trial was for real.

The house without air conditioning for 3 hours plus yesterday was difficult to handle. I decided on a leisurely lunch at Geiger Key. Most enjoyable. By the time I got home, the air was running and the house cool.

Enjoy your day!

    KEY WEST PLATO’S ATLANTIS? was originally published on Key West Lou

[randomnameless]

I'm having a really hard time fathoming how some people consider SB to be a righteous/heroic route or a route where we're the good guys. The route where:

You invade two independent nations under the pretence of "saving their citizens from oppression" (though I guess you can't be oppressed anymore if you're dead lol) even though Her Majestic Hypocrisy repeats a bunch of times that she's in for conquest and that she'd obliterate anyone who stands in her way.

The cast keeps victim-blaming the invaded parties for *checks note* defending their countries. 

The death toll is the highest. You have to kill Ingrid, Rodrigue, Gustave and Sylvain. And you can also kill Ashe, Mercedes (btw, if she dies, the cutscene where Dimitri and Dedue grieve changes slightly, which is nice), Annette, Shamir, Ignatz, Raphael and Marianne (how does Margrave Edmund feel about Claude's alliance with the empire knowing his daughter was killed by its army?). 

IIRC, this is the only route where you conscript merchants into the imperial army. No wonder the empire has the biggest army.

Based Rhea who, despite being hunted, still thinks about the safety of the continent first in the final chapter. It's hilarious how characters like Edespot or Clyde harp on about how Rhea is the big bad, and in the few scenes you have with her, she's just kind? Anyway. Rhea based.

In the C support conversation - which happens right after Felix got seriously injured and Sylvain got killed- there's this bit where Dimitri is like "I don't know if I can talk with like everything is normal, so many have died already" and Edespot's response is basically "yeah I don't see it that way. Let's agree to disagree". Also, I believe she wonders if she shouldn't just kill Clyde and Dimitri once they're out. Even though Clyde is her ally at the moment. You bet on the wrong lord, Clyde... 

I probably forgot a few stuff, but... oh well.

To be honest,

The only things I like about Supreme Bullshit are :

Its ending! Supreme Leader and Barney (well, at least they throw a sword?) being sitting ducks while Rhea steals the show, and sacrifices herself in an epic shonen scene to get rid of the real threat, aka showing that unlike someone, she knows how to prioritize, and it ends up in an explosion. It matches the ending of the F-Zero anime (at 0.48!), Rhea/Falcon rushes to deal a blow (a Falcon punch and a Seiros strike I guess?) to their mortal enemy, there is a giant explosion, and both Rhea/Falcon fade away in a blinding light. Too bad the Supreme Bullshit BGM is eons away from "Searching to the Truth" :(

The reveal that Rhea kept the keys to the sekrit passages in the Imperial Palace - or Rhea knows more about Enbarr and its castle than the current Emperor and her aides...

Doro's paralogue being incredibly tone deaf about, uh, soldiers being "too busy" by the Mittelfrank troupe, that they can't basically protect the dancers/performers from bandits, when the paralogue happens in an area that is expressedly supposed to be full of soldiers!

If starts align in a certain way, it's the only route in Nopes where Clout dies!

Leopold! He's like Victarion Greyjoy, only if he was taken seriously. But we, as players, know better! Also he's a living retcon, from having a major cichol crest to gift to his son because he fought well (and not to, say, Big B or even Ferdie) a sacred weapon despite the route being all about muhritocracy!

Supreme Leader plans and plays with the cards she has in her hand - from trying to get good PR to get rid of people (Varley sr) by pitting them against her next target (the CoS)!

An entire game full of new Supreme Replies (tm)!

For shippers around, it has a Cathmir scene where everyone knows Shamir will prioritize Catherine's life over her allegeance! too bad this is a Supreme Leader route, so no, Shamir won't fucking try to kill her for blackmailing her and can even kill Catherine herself later on....

That's not a lot lol, and most of it are breadcrumbs because for the proper plot...

Yeah, it kinds of sucks.

Supreme Bullshit is even more tone deaf with the War and its realities than Tru Piss (and that's a feat!), Ferdie being completely, uh, off the mark about everything (invading lands and rekting people, and then saying those people's fears are only in their heads! Pal, one of the first missions in the SB exclusive chapters is to rout refugees??? + the nonsense about the Kingdom having more crested generals, when data shows the Empire has more crested peeps than the Kingdom!), Caspar being turned in the worst version of himself who dgaf anymore about protecting "innocents" and "justice", and, uh, everything with Monica.

Victim blaming is the norm with Fodlan games, but yeah, it really feels odd that suddenly, in the Zahras chapters, Dimitri's all "okay" when his closest friends either died or were grievly injured and the game proceeds as it does when, come on, why wouldn't Dimitri kill her the second they're out of the Zahras verse??

I really disliked how Supreme Bullshit yeeted Ionius from Adrestia, or how it didn't explore in more depth the Insurrection of the Seven, especially since we side with Leopold'n'Waldemar against Ludwig, who used to be allies! Also, as far as I remember, no one mentions anything about Arundel, why he ran away to the Kingdom with a young Supreme Leader and how he changed when he returned, or something?

If Ludwig is pushed by Supreme Leader, reciting her Dad's words, as the one who led the insurrection and the experiments on her, why the fuck no one else mentions them, as Leopold and Waldemar were on Aegir's side back then? They don't even mention "Arundel" participating, like, Volkhard sides against Ionius and hides his niece, but 3 months later, he returns and offers her as a guinea pig?

As is the norm with the Supreme Leader routes, the "truth" isn't what we're looking for, because we know Supreme Leader pushes a narrative she will follow to reach her goals, but where Tru Piss gave hints here and there about her narrative being, uh, rubish, we have no clues here, and Leopold prefers to flash his loincloth than giving us anything meaningful about that incident.

When you compare them to Matthias and Rodrigue (and Gilbert?) who often mention Lambert "back in the days", it's more and more obvious that... we're not supposed to ask questions in Supreme Bullshit, and just go with the flow.

And it ends with a high five.

I'd say it deviates less from Tru Piss than Golden Shower does from Verdant Winds, but it's an "expected disappointment".

That's why my only higlights are not plot relevant (save for the Captain Falcon - Rhea parallel) - because we know the plot will never deliver something meaningful in a Supreme Leader route.

[randomnameless]

Not counting “must you continue to conquer in retaliation?”, what's your favorite Supreme Reply from Edelgard?

:)

I swear if I have the time, before the end of the year, I'll make a poll about it!

Anyways!

Supreme Replies are replies that demonstrate a several lack of awareness and thus, are utterly ridiculous (like the "no u" you've mentionned) and ultimately don't make any sense.

I found some in SB !

From SB's last chapter we have those :

Thales: Foolish harridan! This land you seek dominion over is drenched in the blood of beasts! Supreme Leader : Fool I may be, but I have plenty of company— my allies and I stand ready to trample you into the dust!

"wuzzat? Beasts ? Nah, I'll come back with a witty one-liner. "

Thales just revealed the plot/the secrets of Fodlan, but she dgaf.

Rhea You boast blood of the Hresvelgs and the heart of a traitor. Your sins run deeper than all others. Supreme Leader: I wear my sins proudly, for they are the reason I fight to free Fódlan from the goddess's so- called "judgment"!

"why is she always talking about Willy damn it. Let's give another witty comeback : I wear my sins proudly (wait does it means I'm proud to have slaughtered people to come here? Oh, I'll let Hubert deal with those details) for they are the reason i fight to free Fodlan from the Goddess's so called jugdment (wait does it make sense? I slaughter people because this slaughter is the reason why I fight? to free Fodlan from your ilk? Couldn't I have said I kill people to free Fodlan from you kin? Oh! I know, I could have said I kill people to liberate Fodlan, like my idol Nemesis! I'll have Hubert give a revamped script to Dorothea to add this line in the opera she's going to play in depicting this scene.)"

SB's chapter 4 :

Rhea : Explain yourself! Why do you betray the teachings of the goddess and seek to shatter Fódlan's fragile peace? Supreme Leader : Seeing as I have no idea what you speak of, this is going to be a short discussion. Now either stand aside or face me!

"Peace? What is that? Can I let Labrunda do the talking instead?"

(That's all for Nopes, but if you found some other replies, let me know!)

From FE16:

So you're another of the goddess's vanguard. You don't have even a shred of self-awareness, do you?

Okay, in itself, this isn't a Supreme Reply - but you realise that in the same map Petra calls herself "the will of the Emperor" forgetting her allegiance to Brigid and the current situation... who lacks self-awareness?

A special one that doesn't come from a Battle :

Claude There's only one goal for grave robbers like these. Right, Flame Emperor? You're here to steal the treasure that rests within the Holy Tomb. Flamey For a fool, you catch on quickly. Those Crest Stones will be ours. That infernal power, which is masquerading as a medicine but is truly a poison, will plague this world no longer.

She insults Claude who only asks a question, and the mumbo-jumbo about medicine and poison - but I want to disqualify it, because the mumbo-jumbo that would qualify as a Supreme Reply is a lolcalisation goof to avoid sheding more light as how Flamey actually wants to use those stones laying uselessly there "neither medicine or poison" aka who could either be used to do good things, or bad things.

of course when we know what they are, we know they are not "uselessly" laying there :)

-

Edit thanks to @ezralahm!

The barbarian : Do you not believe in the power of the people to join together and rise up? Humans are weak creatures. But they are also creatures who help each other, support each other, and together, find the right path. I have learned that humans are capable of all that from the professor...and from everyone in my life. Supreme Leader : I doubt a highborn person like yourself could know how the poor feel or what motivates them.

"Do you believe in the power of friendship? If everyone works together, we're able to support each other and find a path to happiness!"

"As if highborn person like you can know what the illiterate masses - I mean, the poor, feel. But I obviously know what they feel and want, because I am not a highbor- wait let me rephrase that - Oh, alright, shut it, agree to disagree and etc etc, let me get away with my dignity intact, thank you".

And :

Random Peon : Here...you can have this! Just please don't attack the city! Supreme Leader : I never planned to touch the city. Our target is the Alliance and their leader, Claude.

"Hubert, why can't they understand? I don't want to raze their city, I want to destroy their country and get rid of their Leader! It's not the same!

"Maybe that lowlife thinks we are going to destroy Derdriu just like we destroyed Garreg Mach when we invaded it?"

"Silly Hubert, why would that useless man think so?"

-

But we all know CF is where the majority of the Supreme Replies come from !

Here :

Rhea : You must know what a fool you are. The greatest of sins is to make an enemy of the goddess herself! Supreme Leader : I have only made an enemy of the church, not of the faith.

"Wait- did she call me a fool?"

Besides, we all know what Supreme Leader thinks of the faith (she even apparently changes her pov only after talking to Manu), so this is basically... talking to say nothing.

I prefer the SB version, tbh!

Then this (it doesn't really count though, since it's not a "reply"!)

Lysithea. How unfortunate that a talented woman like you should throw her life away on a pointless battle.

"I hope she won't hold it against me when I tell her defending her home and country is pointless."

That chapter we all know and love (i know, no "no u"!)

Rhea : An ancestor of the Hresvelgs, who became Adrestia's first emperor… He saved me. Supported me. Gave his all to the cause of defeating Nemesis. That I should find myself here at Tailtean, striking down his scion… Supreme Leader : I don't advise presumptions, Rhea. I will not die by your hand.

"Why the fuck is she still raving about Willy. I know, he was stupid and dumb and saved it instead of letting it die. I know all of that! Stupid Willy. Anyways, I'll just cut her saying something cool."

In itself, that line isn't material prime to be a Supreme Reply. However, by the time you reach this penultimate chapter, Supreme Leader's feelings about Nabateans have been made clear (either in her sekrit history talk, or in both of her and Hubert's supports), they are creatures incapable of having human feelings, and later on, she textually says they are beasts who don't give a fig about human lives.

So here, Rhea angsting about Willy contradicts what she thinks, a Nabatean can have "human" feelings like sadness and regrets. But instead on focusing on those, or even saying some stuff like "yeah sure you miss my stupid ancestor because he was a pawn you manipulated, beast!", she only focuses on the witty "i will not die here" part.

Supreme Leader : So it's true. You don't value human life at all. Isn't that right, Immaculate One? Rhea : Nonsense! Fools who do not accept their own sins are undeserving of salvation! You humans are the ones who betrayed! You betrayed me, and you betrayed my mother! Supreme Leader : I did not betray you or her. I never believed in you from the beginning.

(the never believed in "you" is a lolcalisation change? In the JP version, it feels like she is more general, and says she never believed in the beginning)

"Rhea : you betrayed me and my mother the goddess"

"Supreme Leader : your mother isn't real"

Again, when the opportunity presents itself to discover more about Fodlan and what Rhea means by betrayal - but more important is Supreme Leader's "I never believed from the beginning", like, what is even the link with the betrayal Rhea's raving about? When you betray someone, it's because that someone put their trust in you, right? So Rhea is saying she trusted humanity - Supreme Leader says in reply that she never believed in Rhea, but that's like trying to fit a circle in a square - where's the link?

"You betrayed me" "I never trusted you" "uh.. yes but I did? This is why I'm calling you a traitor? Because you spat on my trust?"

----

To be honest, I'd say I prefer the last one !

She centers the conversation on herself, dodges the implications of what her foe is saying, the line is nonsensical and wants to feel cool and we have the bonus "retcon" : she never believed in the CoS and its faith to begin with (when apparently she did in her support, she prayed when she was Solon'd?).

So I'd say, for the podium :

1 "Your mother isn't real"

2 "What is peace?"

3 "No U" / "I'm stupid but I have allies!"

What are yours anon?

[randomnameless]

Are we ever going to get an in-universe explanation as to why Rhea sets a city with civilians still in it on fire at the end of CF, or is it forever going to remain the "devs wrote Rhea doing something evil so the audience wouldn't feel bad about killing the final boss who'd done nothing wrong up to that point, regardless of how grossly out-of-character it is for her to do that" excuse?

:(

I was typing an answer, switched tabs, and what I already typed disappeared...

Anyways...

Watsonian wise, the game iirc tells us Rhea intends to use the "fiery tiles" as hazards to slow down the BESF's progression to rekt them - and I personally find nice how the devs picked peg knights to act as reinforcments - cementing the "strategy" aspect of the Berning, aka Rhea's own troops are immunte to tile hazards, but the BESF isn't.

Doylist wise, I feel like it was one of the moves the devs pulled out to illustrate how far Rhea fell from... well, what she once was.

It's the culmination of her breakdown, her point of no-return : we came from a Rhea who valued Fodlan and its people more than her own survival and who would refuse to sacrifice anyone to ensure her safety to... a Rhea who lost so much (her remaining family), is PTSD'ing hard and was betrayed by Billy and Humanity "again", she snaps and now will sacrifice Fodlan and its people to get a chance of surviving what she perceives as the second act of the genocide of her species.

Forget the "not feeling bad" aspect of this fight anon, because, at least with the Jp audio, every scene involving Rhea, before this fight when she lost Seteth'n'Flayn, is in Tailtean, or even in this fight laments in her battle quotes, conveys, kuddos to Inoue, anguish, desperation and anger.

The BESF pushes her - during the entire length of this short route - to her breaking point, she breaks (but it's not only a furious/angry breakdown!) and Firdhiad Berning is the consequence.

Imo, even if the gapmoe and the Supreme Court tries to act as if the BESF is "in the right" or wonder what's for dinner, the foes are much more humanised/developed/are mourning on screen that, save for some devoted people, I firmly believe Tru Piss wasn't supposed to be seen as a "Good Route", but more like the Tales games sometimes have a "Bad End" path.

The final close-up on Billy's dead eyes after they lost Nirvana is, imo, telling enough - even if gapmoe and the game mechanics + IS' obsession to sell you Supreme Leader as a S material waifu you can romance sort of killed this intent, since you can get your "and they lived happily ever after" ending and marry Supreme Leader.

Tl;Dr : Tru Piss is written in a way that would make anyone (even on a first PT!) feel bad about the people you're trouncing, from Judith crying about Ignatz'n'Leonie's loss of their future, to Hilda sacrifying herself to save someone against her former nature, aka when it comes to do the "right thing" Hilda will do it even if it costs her life, to Faerghus' desperation to defend themselves at the point of willingly make the ultimate sacrifice and turning into demonic beasts and Dimitri's tender scene with Dedue, or Felix and Rodrigue fighting side by side to defend their land (and dying together) - to ultimately, Rhea losing her mind, breaking down as she learns of her kin's fate and relieving her previous PTSD hard, ultimately telling the player that they betrayed the gremlin living in their head (even if game mechanics means that gremlin is the worst mother in the entire series) and ultimately, herself.

If you're not a first PT, but Tru Piss is your last PT and you know about Rhea'n'Billy's backstories... Well.

I don't like the "you made hit you" rhetoric because it fucking sucks and irl is used by scum, and while I don't think the Firdhiad Berning was made to make Rhea look "evil" so you wouldn't feel bad for rekting her... the game painfully reminds the player, each time, that they are the instigators of this war, they are the agressors attacking people who, in this last map, will do anything to defend themselves.

It's ugly but it's the War the BESF, aka the player in Tru Piss, started/supported.

[randomnameless]

The phrase “we have been aware of the high levels of competency from KT's writers, especially with their work for 3H” is worrying; i'm not going to shit-talk them just for thinking that 3H has a good story, especially when someone's standards for what makes a story good or not is subjective and could be different from ours, but KT's story-telling skills are never going to improve if people keep only telling them that Three Houses' deeply-flawed story was actually a narrative masterpiece, instead of a self-contradicting mess with plot points it introduces solely as gotchas and has no intention of ever following up on in any meaningful way, characters getting assassinated left and right to try and argue that female Ashnard might actually be right and not so different from them in terms of morality and goals (while they're in the middle of fighting for their lives and watching their friends die in battle because she decided to invade their home unprovoked and solely for a landgrab), and an over-powered villain group that should have ended the story long before it even started because the writers decided to give them a stockpile of magic nukes they can launch at anywhere in the world, which was also introduced solely for shock value and without them realizing how much of the story is ruined by making it so that the villains who want to kill everyone and take over the world can just nuke anyone they want (that isn't inside Garreg Mach when they launch it) with no consequences.

I just don't like what it means for the future of FE stories if the worst story in the series keeps getting praised as one of the best, even by separate developers, is all.

Wait and see anon!

For what it's worth, while Engage's sales are apparently not as stellar as Houses in the same timeframe (like House after month 1 and Engage after month 1?), Nopes totally crashed.

Amazon isn't the only market in the world, but in some places in the world (tfw not for amazon.fr) Nopes is now sold at around 15 bucks, which is ridiculous considering older games released on consoles still being in circulation are more expensive than this thing that is barely 1 year old(even the first FEW?).

Also, Engage was supposed to have been released earlier but Covid and Houses being released later than planned meant it was delayed, but Engage was supposed to be Fodlan's antithesis, at least writing wise - you'd think IS would have tried to retrofit more Fodlan themes (maybe more uwu maybe some villains aren't BaD and earl grey because they luf u) but they didn't.

Imo, fwiw, while KT apparently loved how Fodlan was received, IS is aghast and doesn't want to touch it within a 10 meters radius, only if it means selling units in FEH and even there, they sometimes retcon Fodlan units (hello F!Billy/Sothis) or challenge them in various FB (Brave!Supreme Leader, but also in the most recent one, Sylvain harping on his Crust being BaD...) clearly showing how they don't really want to follow KT's direction regarding those units - at times, it's almost as if the CoS receives more development in Heroes than in both Fodlan games!

So I'd like to see what IS has in store for the next FE games (or the next non remake FE game), even if in my opinion, given how Heroes has to retcon/finish the writing (Mercedes reveals more about her Adrestian family in FEH than in two of her games!) for characters just to sell them in the gacha game ffs, speaks volumes on what they think of Fodlan's writing.

On top of that, FE16 was the first game where people received surveys/mails from Nintendo/IS asking them if they understood the game... - so despite Fodlan selling well (better than expected?), imo it's clear the writing isn't to praise, at least for IS, and they don't want anything to do with it (Nopes' DLC was scrapped, when shiny!Rhea's sprite was datamined, so either they made an useless sprite, either this sprite might have been used in a future DLC?)

They can still butcher a future remake (plz no jugdral) by adding pointless supports between units and trying to uwu more than needed the red emperor - or add an OC waifu du jour who will sell merchs and try to uwu her if she is on the side of the red emperor - but I feel like we will see where they will go with a brand new game (since Heroes's writing is... as consistent as a fog and basically circles around "women sad'n'lonely*, men evyl", female playable OC simps after the avatar and is useless in the resolution of the plot because Alfonse will finally find a mc guffin way to defeat the villain of the year).

*i truly hope Vero isn't any indication to what the writing of the future games will be, like heavy retcons from her first apparition to "i was brainwashed and akshually everyone supports me from my home even if i send them to death against askr because the voice in my head told me to do it" because that'd suck, but vero is a young woman, thus she could be monetised for alts, figurines and even DLC content in a main game!

[randomnameless]

how would have Rhea raised Billy if Jeralt failed to take them from the monastery? Aside from actually giving a shit about them and not letting them starve on a semi regular basis I mean

See their enlightened one outfit?

They would have gotten tacky outfits in the same style from age 3 onwards, all "made" by the Archbishop herself.

More seriously, I think the plot would change?

Maybe Seteth wouldn't have been "summoned" at the Monastery, if Billy had been there, or he would and would have acted as Billy's caretaker ?

If Billy was raised by Rhea since day 5, I'm pretty sure they would have told her about the gremlin in their head, and that plot would have been solved way earlier, but as to what happens with Supreme Leader's war... idk.

I personally see Billy, in this verse, as someone raised like Sitri, maybe being a monk/random ward in the Monastery, but Billy likes to help people (and smiles at least in the jp!version!) so maybe they would have became some sort of kickass cleric, or a member of the knights of Seiros (Rhea'd disagree at first, she doesn't want them to be hurt and would have prefered if they became a fisherman or something that would keep them away from the battlefield, but Billy makes their own decisions, and wishes to protect the monastery and the people they cares about, maybe being triggered by another assassination attempt targetted at Rhea, maybe Christophe's or someone's else).

Billy'd be good friends with knighs and members of the CoS, maybe take Cyril under their wing (as much as they can) and have wednesday evening sessions of sitting with their "like" family eating Zanado fruits, or even fishing. When they want to become a knight or know how to use weapons "to protect", they could spare with Seteth'n'Rhea and end the "training" sessions with some of Rhea's cookies and Zanado fruit juice.

If Billy's still a teacher in this verse - well, I don't think the entire "crust + church BaD" spiel affects them, hell, they might be a bit more pissed at this entire nonsense and voice their annoyance, why are those nobles blaming the church for their own failings in ruling their lands?

(that's where Seteth has to remind them about this thing called "tongue in check")

Maybe they can decide to travel through Fodlan to make up for the regional branches' failings (but only after Rhea got from the gremlin the promise that Gremlin will keep Billy safe!) - when Supreme Leader comes crashing down with her army?

If Rhea survives, Billy hangs out in Faerghus, but if Rhea is caught, Billy leads a resistance force (like SS) - granted, in this AU, Sothis is around and less of a gremlin that in her canon appearances, so Rhea's freed from her Enbarr jail way earlier than in the game, the Agarthans are toasted and everything's well that ends well.

[randomnameless]

Beating a dead horse but seeing a post this morning (and an earlier fanart) made me think about it -

In good or in Bad, Nopes has characters mentionning how having a crest makes them “monsters” (in good it’s when Miklan supports someone and calls them super rad, in BaD it’s when Uncle Rufus insults Dimitri).

But it’s also, more or less, the same thing happening in the Momo paralogue - we have mentions of how Momo was “turned into a beast” due to his Crest power :(

We also the biggest fuck you - if the player knows everything about the lore though, where Marianne goes :

The Wandering Beast's eviscerated body... Only human bones and this sword remaining.

This “sword” is also a bone, but not a human one so we don’t give a fuck?

Anyways, more about the inital point to make : 

Many times in the Fodlan games’ script, we see the association that Crusts or Relics make people “monsters” and not “humans”.

And while we can muse and legit angst about the crested humans who are basically “insulted” because of their blood, what about Nabateans themselves?

In a verse where Supreme Leader and the Mole People keep on calling them beasts/creatures/other beings without “humanity” or capable of “human feelings”, how do they react to someone, maybe Miklan meaning it as a praise, calling a crested peep a “monster”?

Nabateans have crests, of course, and aren’t humans. Does this automatically make them monsters? Can’t they coexist with humans or even live with them, because they are “monsters” and not “humans”?

Are they still “monsters” when they are the one who look after humans abandoned by their own kin ?

Marianne ultimately goes :

The blood of a beast no longer flows through me. I feel human for once.

But what should Flayn or Seteth (or even Billy) think about this line? What does it mean to “feel” human? Seteth is a “beast” but writes fables for children, are his feelings “human”?

They are not bio-humans, so are their feelings automatically “not human”? Or something that is removed or cannot be understood by “humanity”?

(this reminds me of something in a certain route...)

Of course a positive point can be inferred from Marianne’s paralogue, who says this last line after having put an end to Momo’s sorry life who uwu “suffered for his murderous past” (nothing about Jack the Nabatean of course, it’s not like the games give a fuck about them, nor like Marianne reacts to Rhea’s infodump about her shiny sword and Momo’s sin) - was Momo a beast because of his “murderous past” and not because of his appearance/nature ? 

I’d love to believe it...

But FE16 reminds us that Miklan “turned into a beast” after using the Relic - or at least that’s what we’re told. Miklan was still “human” when he did his thief things, pillages and, in FE16, seduced women - but the second he transformed that’s when he became “a beast”.

We know how transformation in a demonic beast happens - when a human holds a crest stone or uses a relic - but in a way, Rhea’s lies also made sense : transforming in a black beast is a sort of punishment because the human who transforms, naturally, aka not Waldified, was in both instances we see, someone who was already a “monster”, albeit not biologically, but someone who killed/pillaged/did bandit things.

Something like “you act as a monster, then your body shall reflect it”.

Tldr : in a game where there are non-humans, what does it mean to be human? When so many characters angst about not being “humans” due to crests and whatnot, why does it matter at the end of the day?

Yes, Flayn is not human, but she has more compassion than the entire cast reunited given how she “died” to heal everyone once. Is she a monster because - assuming she has one - she can enter a bestial form, even if she has “human” feelings ?

Imagine Marianne or Claude telling a Nabatean, like Seteth, Momo turned into a Monster because of over usage of his relic, and Seteth being in a better game, reacting with something like “Maurice became a monster the day he participed in the genocide of a tribe of people living in mountains, feasted on their corpses and descrated them to craft a weapon, regardless of his outer appearance”.

No wonder after 1000 years of humans angsting about “no i have a crest i am not a human i am a monster :( :( :(” Rhea was afraid Billy would reject her after knowing she is not a human, having witnessed her “other form”.

And again, sure, Dimitri, Uncle Rufus, Miklan and the student cast (save for maybe Claude but the “humanity” nonsense was added by Pat) don’t know about Nabateans or the fact there are “non-humans” living with them, but Doylist wise, we’re still playing a game where Nabateans are “othered” and treated like “abominations” for the sin of not being humans, and humans feeling like “monsters” for having nabatean blood... and Nabateans themselves are never allowed to react to this.

As cute as Flayn’s supports with Dimitri were, we don’t have something where Flayn tries to ask him - in a roundabout way - if he would still be her friend if he knew she was not human but a “beast” (and Dimitri laughing at her because come on, Flayn, being a beast/monster? and then what, she roars? Monsters are people who slaughter others and love violence, even if she was made of, say, sugar cubes, or could transform in a giant wolf, she’d never be a monster!). 

Is it because of Earl Grey, or because this question trumps everything about “we want to tell a story about a 3 way war” and makes everything else pointless?

[randomnameless]

I don't think Douses is really church bad. Or at least it's not religion bad. The church gets reformed but its fine after that.

Are you talking about FE16, Nopes or in general anon?

I wouldn't say it's BaD "BaD "as if it was a game written by someone who is member or r/atheism -

Sure, Pat also Pat'd things here and there (remember that NPC whose entire family was destroyed at the whims of a noble, in the jp version she says something like even the Church couldn't do a thing, but in the Pat version, she says something like the Church "especially" didn't do a thing...) -

But the game itself, for all of the red herring nonsense it throws at the CoS/KoS, sometimes doesn't commit, and we end up with Seteth's solo ending where he reforms the Church and adopts a more tolerant stance :

Doing away with his old strictness, he adopted a tolerant stance toward all. His encouragement of believers to respect those of other faiths helped the people of Fódlan to find common ground with others

But we know the CoS already encouraged believers to respect people who have other faiths (this is legit one of the first things Seteth says in FEH, and in Nopes, Rhea reminds Catherine - someone who's not religious at all - of this fact).

Save for Mark the Nopes NPC, religion BaD from the Fodlan games comes in two forms : the script shitting on the CoS despite the games showing otherwise, and no one calls out the script or the words they're told to be nonsense (save for Mark and, iirc, another NPC in AG? The one who says he thought the CoS was a steaming piece of garbage, but when he interacted with them, he reconsidered?) + the fact the CoS itself, or its members, cannot even counter those accusations or nonsense because they don't have any screentime - special mention to Nopes!Seteth who says this in an expedition line :

What are the tenets he, a Saint who most likely was around during the CoS's creation, Rhea's right hand man and most likely her older brother, cannot defend?

It's the general writing of telling us some things are "sus", but we don't see what those "sus" things are. They just exist, so remember, Church not GoOd, or not entirely GoOd, and it needs to be reformed.

And the second form is obviously the way the CoS (and Faerghus, to an extent) is much more developed than the other entities - so yes, we learn how people of Faerghus targeted and tried to eradicate Duscur, much like the Serenes Forest incident from FE Tellius - but we will not hear with the same focal point anything about Adrestia's campaign against Brigid and Dagda, or how people from Brigid are treated in Adrestia - Cyril exists, but even FEH realised you can't really talk too much about Leicester, the less religious place in the continent, keeping slaves.

Adrestia and Leicester are treated with kiddies gloves and their "default" are relegated to a footnote, when Duscur is put at the forefront of the game, or at least some routes. As for the Church, it's sort of the same thing, the game(s) make a big show/event out of Rhea executing members of her organisation who tried to kill her (and killed students), or, Nopes wise, we see her sending assassins against Supreme Sailor Fuku -

While Claude terminating minor Leicester Nobles who are pissed at his power grab and the regime change is just a line thrown here (and used to diss the CoS/Kingdom who wanted to welcome them), and Supreme Sailor Fuku starting a war against the allies who helped her kick out the death cult who took root in her Empire is... never lampshaded. Ditto for sacking villages, monasteries, orphanages or, just, in general sending thousands to death to conquer the continent.

As for Religion BaD...

Well, while Supreme Leader, surprisingly, gets a meaningful support with Manu about this, I always thought the "mindless followers" thing or the "leaving Fate in the hands of a higher being insstead of relying on yourself" things were the "easy/first" arguments of people arguing, in obviously bad faith, on, say, r/atheism as to why religion BaD, as if being religious means you have no free will...

Granted, this topic teeters a bit too close to RL issues, so I'll drop it at that.

[randomnameless]

I am gonna be honest I really don't get how people don't understand Crest have nothing to do with being nobles, it's literaly the whole reason behind Mercedes's and Emile's tragic story, that their father who didn't had a crest wanted to marry Mercedes because she had one like her Mother so his children can inherit the Crest of Lamine.

On a side note, I do think that even if Rhea didn't created the Crest system it would have happened with or without her, Crest are superpowers that are rare and humans either worship like a god or treat as a witch people who have special power, I wouldn't believe for a second that left out as is in nature people who have Crest wouldn't try to rule over the other anyway or wouldn't be treated like aberrations.

Hm...

Mercie's mom had a crest and was a nobody, which could be married off to a bastard : aka, despite her crest, Mercie's mom wasn't a noble who was able to say big F to potential "suitors" who were supposed to be beneath her in status since they had no crest themselves.

Constance (and what's left of her fam?) were demoted to nothing and sent to the sewers in Garreg Mach, even if Constance comes from a prestigious family that got a crest from a Saint.

As you said, regardless of nobility wanting to pretend to have "better blood" than the pleb, Crests are superpowers, which would always be sought afer.

The games does it best to avoid talking about the tangible and objective benefits of having a crest - when we see Dimitri crush a man as easily as a snowball in a cutscene - but imo, it's part of Fodlan's DNA, try to spin a very objective and no-solution conflicts (you have a world with two races, and one has superpowers compared to the other, how does it work?) to artificial lip-service and copious amounts of smokescreens.

For something that was only alluded to but completely ignored because otherwise both Nopes and Houses fall apart - Seteth tells Yuri in their Nopes support how it is rumoured that an Elite was cured from an "incurable" disease after getting a crest...

Admitting this is remotely true to what happened in Zanado, does it justifiy the subsequent massacre and genocide? Dominic might die in 2 days if he doesn't kill a Nabatean, was he "right" or justified in killing the Nabatean who became Crusher and drinking their blood?

If humans are envious for good or bad reasons of the Nabateans' powers, what is going to happen when a Nabatean would refuse to share said power ? Are the humans justified in trying to steal it? Are Nabateans asses when they refuse to "lend it" to humans?

This game tries its hardest to avoid blaming the usual trifecta of human greed/assholishness/lust (for power!) as the reason why the world doesn't go round, and blame everything on... blue eyes, that can somehow shoot lasers too.

Of course someone with in-built lasers would be better seen/more valued than someone who hasn't the same lasers, but bar the milquetoast "we should try to accept everyone!", what is the specific answer to the Gautier border issue - crest means the border is defended, no crest and no plot hax means it isn't - should the defender of the border be the crested kid or the non crested-kid?

Nopes!Sylvains finds a loophole and replies with "we won't need to defend the border if we're not at war with Sreng anymore", and it's a nice solution, honestly. I like it. It makes for a bright perspective, of a future where, if everyone play their part, Crests won't be "needed" anymore.

But when it comes to using the power of a crest to heal, will you go to Manu, who cannot heal someone who has a cancer, or to Flayn, who can, if you suddenly learn you have one?

"Just develop chemiotherapy!"

Yes but I'm dying - who should I go to?

Imo, Crust System is used both in fandom and in-game to avoid mentionning the existence of super humans (or non humans if we want to stay close to Supreme Leader's words) and the inevitable jealousy/envy their existence creates/causes in humans, who cannot help but seek after the power they have.

[randomnameless]

The worse thing about Claude’s Sreng operation is the amount of Sreng people it’s going to get killed or no reason. Claude doesn’t actually care to help them out here, he’s using them as another set of bodies that he doesn’t care about so he can protect his friends and that’s all well and good but how do people not see how absolutely fucking mental it is to casually reignite a war you aren’t even invested in knowing damn well the side you’ve just spurred on is going to lose and is only there to be a distraction, not so you can take out their enemy, but so you can get one person and then leave. Arguably Claude killed more Sreng people doing that than he would have if he just attacked them because we’ve seen that if the odds aren’t in their favor, Sreng will retreat and they were even making progress.

I will say, it was smart of Claude not to attack because if he had attacked them while posing as Faerghus, they most likely would have surrendered because if Faerghus has warships then Sreng can’t fight them but if it’s just someone saying Faerghus is weakened? There’s only a chance for success there.

That's why I mentionned they were a distraction and/or fodder!

Dimitri notes how the Sreng forces are small, and usually, they shouldn't pose any problems, but this time, since Faerghus has to stretch its forces thin to fight the Alliance, Adrestia and Sreng, they're in a difficult situation.

Imo it's still a bad spot on Claude's track of "it's the church that is the cause of xenophobia" because he reignites and triggers this present battle between Sreng and Faerghus - but actually makes an enemy of both! What do you think Sreng's reply will be when they will realise Almyra/Leicester used them as fodder to waltz in Faerghus for their own gain, not giving a fuck about them being "allies"?

And even if the devs used something probably illegal to sniff before writing the Zahras chapters, can anyone seriously think Faerghus (especially Dimitri himself!!) wouldn't despise the Alliance/Federation at the end of GW? They became the Empire's lapdog and invaded to kill a refugee, while trampling and "rampaging" in cities for the very speficic reason to kill Helen of Troyes, re-igniting another conflict and banking on more deaths as "a distraction" to make a beeline to the capital, effectively killing people for no plausible reason (everyone knows the 'kill rhea so supreme leader will lose her goal to pursue the war' is completely bonkers, since her main goal has always been to MAGA!) to rekt Rhea.

It's like FE7, if someone attacked Pherae and killed Eleanora as an unwanted consequence of barging in the land, and trying to kill the Nini-siblings because surely Nergal will stop trying to start a continental war if the dragons he is looking for are dead.

(hint : it doesn't work, and the Nini sibs died for nothing because Nergal, by virtue of knowing where Arcadia is and ultimately growing stronger than Athos, could have "borrowed" dragons there, like say, Fa, to open the dragon gate for him?)

On the one hand, Claude's Sreng invitation is pragmatic, in a short term way - but on the other hand, it will create more issues for him afterwards, if we weren't in Nopes's magical world where nothing has consequences.

In a famous book series, a family is lauded for being "pragmatic" and killing a lot of enemies using under-handed tactics... but then we see in the following books how this family and their allies actually lose everything, partly because of that "pragmatic" move (Frey pies! + North bannermen uncharastically ally to rekt the Boltons! + Lannisters cannibalising themselves - Jaime cannot be the True knight Brienne is because of Tywin's pragmatic "move"', Cersei is Cersei, and Tyrion might realise too late that pissing on his family's name and legacy is less important than actual threats to the world, Zombie!Cat slaughtering people the Lannisters are supposed to protect indiscriminately and more popular support siding with her than with the crown...)

I won't call it karmic retribution, but there is a reason why in FE4, both Arvis and Travant are fucked when the 2nd gen pops up, even their own children are - Arvis's son (Saias who) dies and his line is erased from the throne (Julia will never sit), and Aerone is, uh, missing when Quan's line unites the peninsula (but Leif isn't like his dad so won't consider Thracians as savages).

The only route where he reaps what he sowed is Supreme Bullshit, where trying to turn against Supreme Leader, if all stars are aligned, costs him his life.

Now, I'm wondering, if Almyra's king is very sad (tm) when his favorite son goes missing, to the point where he signs things he doesn't understand and offers his navy on a whim, how would he react if Claude is killed in Nopes?

Shahid took a majority (?) of Almyran forces to mount his invasion of the locket, so without the military, and without a king (maybe he retires, or becomes even more useless than he is in Nopes? or is killed in a powergrab? and succession wars ensue?) what happens to Almyra? Does it fall to anarchy, or something similar to the Kingdom after Lambert's death, without a heir like Dimitri?

[randomnameless]

What are the odds of, 20 years from now, IS releasing a 3 Houses remake but with:

most of the “uwu” moments removed

Edelgard being constantly and explicitly portrayed as a villain with characters calling her out on her actions

Massively reduced recruitment options

deeper worldbuilding for Almyra and Adrestia

Claude explicitly adressing that Almyra's just as much at fault for it's bad relations with Fodlan as the other way around and swearing to work to get them to stop pillaging and taking child slaves

TWISTD not being so story-breakingly OP

CF not existing at all, or at least being rewritten from the ground up and being fully finished instead of a glorified reskin of another route

Dimitri's friends, especially Dedue, supporting him and being important for his character development instead of just Byleth

Byleth being fully-voiced and having a very clearly-defined personality and beliefs, being an Avatar only in the fact that the player can choose a different name for them but otherwise being a normal FE protagonist

Rhea's S-support being erased from existence, along with her getting new supports with her family and friends and more plot relevance post-timeskip

Sothis' S-support also being erased, especially if CF still exists, and having her be rewritten so that she only gets her memory back right before fusing with Byleth, apologizing to her children for leaving them alone again but refusing to let Byleth die, staying unambiguously dead for the rest of the game

I highly doubt any of this will ever happen, mind, but if it did, 3H might just jump multiple spots into being one of the best FE games lol

Oh, anon :(

I'm afraid this will never happen lol

FE16's main appeal is the uwu factor, you have to feel bad for Supreme Leader who is sekritly the red emperor, even if she does red emperor things.

That's the basis on which FE16 was built, a lot of parasocial pandering towards Supreme Leader, which will make the player feel "sad uwus" when they will have to fight her, always wondering if they couldn't have picked her route instead.

(I say "sad uwus" and not "feel bad", because Fates made the player feel bad, by having characters react to Corn's choice, and Corn, in turn, reaction to all the salt and shit thrown at their face, as the result of their actions).

And while we could think FE16 is also a story meant to challenge the players, and have them realise they're interacting with biased narrators so it's up to them to find the truth and make their own opinion about the world - imo this reading, while a thousand times more interesting than "uwu be sad uwu" is, imo, not the one the devs prioritized, hence the constant supply of Hresvelg Grey.

As I ultimately came to realise (when nopes was released lol), no Fodlan game can circle around and ignore the uwu factor. Uwuing about Earl Grey and always being a carpet to some lord characters is part of Fodlan's DNA - the faves will always take precedence over the world/lore's coherence.

Clout wonders about Fodlan's isolationism and if it has any relationship with Seiros's tenets? No one, not even Hilda, will tell him that Fodlan might not like its neighbours because said neighbours are always trying to invade them (as she could speak for Almyra). Leonie and Claude wonder if they will get some sort of retribution for saying out loudly they don't believe everything good in the world comes from Sothis... when the Alliance is later revealed to be a place where no one really gives a fuck about religion, and when no line, on-screen, has been thrown around that could justify their doubt and worries (not even a random NPC dissing people for being students in the officer's academy even if they are not particularly religious).

Supreme Leader is another can of tea lol, but you get the meaning.

This is also why, I believe, we will never get WoH meaningful content (and not Epi wanting to use the power of friendship to help his genociding fwends!) because we can't uwu about it -

Much like every story centered on the Lions (even if AM got the Parley scene...), a plot hax has to happen to make you forget everything about the red emperor emperoring because now she's a puppet and nothing has ever been her fault and what is even agency and accountability ?

So we got the general "good old academy days" that Engage tried to push, and the recent Heroes alts -to avoid talking about post TS Fodlan, because IS doesn't want to talk about post TS Fodlan.

I mean, if you're not in FE16 with the various "Rhea maybe BaD bcs Nader raids Fodlan every monday to show everyone how large his penis is" and unable to meaningfuly interact with that world, all the "Crust System + IdEaLs" nonsense just sound like Ashnard's battle convo, and while Almedha still seems to be fond of him, she's the only one on Tellius who still has positive feelings about Ashnard as a person.

Tl:Dr : Fodlan's DNA is "Supreme Leader uwu" + "Rhea BaD" + "don't ever question the characters and nod when they say something ridiculous".

If you remove even one of those core principles, FE16 crumbles, so at that point, it wouldn't be a remake that would be released, anon, but an entire AU to the game.

[randomnameless]

Goddamn, i knew KT had taken heavy inspiration from 3H discourse when writing Nopes, but i never expected them to be so on-the-nose about it; that entire conversation is just Claude parroting every single “Church bad” argument the fandom has come up with word-for-word, even the ones that were debunked just by paying miniscule amounts of attention to Three Houses' worldbuilding, such as the Church forbidding regions to be in contact with each other despite Faerghus explicitly having a good trading relation with Albinea.

Well,

I wouldn't say KT took inspiration from redshit (who would?) and its takes, but those takes and KT's Zahrofl's convos, for Clout, both use material that is present in FE16,

Mainly, how FE16!Claude thinks the Church is the reason why Fodlan is "isolaionist", before remembering Cyril, Shamir, Dedue and Petra exist.

(I know, that's completely stupid, but that's how IS/KT decided to write him)

Discourse became, hm, heated, because unlike the characters in this game, some fans are able to dispute those takes with, as you said, minuscule details here'n'there demonstrating how Claude himself was wrong - and not only because he notices people exist, but because the world contradicts his facts.

(I remember during the lockdown I made a rather large and detailed post about the GM recipes, and then made another about the so-called isolationism being pegasi blessing, since a lot of recipes involve ingredients that don't grow in Fodlan, or are native to other countries, like tomatos, Albinea fruits/moose/herring, and what not. It's not a lot, per se, but it demonstrated that Fodlan did trade with the rest of the world!)

But given how KT wanted to get a possible "happy ending" with the three lords, things cannot be heated like fandom discourses, so Dimitri nods and agrees and is body snatched by Chilon.

However, as for who might have read a bit of discourse, I can't believe the FEH writers are completely immune to it.

I mean, Seteth saying in his FB that he doesn't hoard funds and all of his share should go to orphanages, or, out of the blue, saying the Church of Seiros doesn't discriminate against other faiths or against people who don't practice the Seiros Faith felt like... the writers wanted to make a point lol

(I still suspect the FEH writers, especially when it comes to Nabateans, try to give them more spotlight because their base/native game completely ignored them, so we end up with absurdities like FEH caring and loving them more than the KT team who later made Nopes - PTA mom!Rhea was released in 2021, before Nopes and its "did you know Rhea forces people to marry? And no, no one will ever say this take is baseless, because the lords have to be fwends!")

Of course Hresvelg Tea means some script is released, then revamped, then re-revamped (at this point I've lost count at how many times B!Supreme Leader's MYH was modified lol) and adding Pat on top means you have to use Google Translate to check lines... but yep, FEH seems to look at fan content more closely, even if that content is, well, discourse...

[randomnameless]

Hey, maybe something good finally came out of Nintendo forcing the FEH staff to rely on fan-wikis to understand basic aspects of the characters they're adding into their game; maybe some random wiki editor falsely claimed that the reason Sothis possesses Byleth in Nopes is because she gets angry when she finds out her race got genocided and her kids went through terrible things to survive and the FEH staff took that at face value, accidentally making Sothis into a much better character than she ever was in her home games.

It's more likely that whoever wrote those voice-lines just wanted to expand on that scene from Nopes, yes, but the thought of the FEH writers accidentally improving a character due to poor info-sharing from their main company is still funny to me.

Knowing, or at least having a good guess about who is editing the fe wiki, I doubt it's the case...

Or maybe it's a reverse uno card, Sothis is BaD and takes over Billy's body to get revenge for the dead dragons, so she's BaD when she worries about Nabateans who are themselves BaD

At this point how Feh (IS) treats Fodlan (KT and IS ?) content is fascinating- I don't remember any other verse getting the same "corrections". Sure, Feh's characterisation is wonky at times, but to gain so many "corrections" for Fodlan ?

Billy likes teaching, Billy likes peaceful times and wants to guide people -> it's thinly alluded in the Fodlan games, but bar that ?

Sothis giving a fuck about her children -> it's a blink and miss scene in AG and/or bonus NG+ if she's paired up with her kids (and even then, it was heavily lolcalised, remember her lines with Flayn?).

Rhea being playful -> MIA from Pat's version - more seriously, it's so subdued that you could ignore it, and it's especially noteworthy since this alt came before the Nopes paralogue that revealed she "borrowed" her bro's stuff and jovially ignores him in front of everyone.

Supreme Leader's ideals being challenged -> MIA - for real this time - in the games (in FEH, Mila (a lizard!) compares SL's ideals to Duma's!)

Anyways, the thing about the wiki stuff wasn't only for the people in charge of the global version? Like is it only the Western FEH staff that has to use fan wikis, or it's even something the jp writers have to do?

Imagine if a random just read a short summary of FE16's lore and went with "that's the only logical reason why she'd be angry", how would they feel reading or playing the games ?

Feh devs went "nope" after reading the plot and corrected it lol.

[randomnameless]

When someone mentioned how 3H and specifically Supreme Leader was tiring to talk about. I get why now. It's not just the infuriating bullying and victim blaming rhetoric and tactics but it's also repetitive as hell and it always come down to "Rhea bad" "Supreme Leader good and her racism justified" or my personal favorite (/s) "mole terrorist hate group who are cartoonishly eeevil and wants to annihilate everyone and everything might have a point".

Eh...

Defending a fave has always been a thing in fandoms, but the arguments throwns around for FE16 are just... wow.

I didn't make a comparison, but yeah, saying the genociders might have had a point if you can look beyond the "genocide" part is just - wtf, you can ignore "genocide"? Are you just trying to defend your fave? But you know sometimes you go way too far, right?

Complete with random nonsense like "Nabateans aren't discriminated against" - they just have to hide their physical traits else they'll be turned in shiny forks - "because they're white" and we're in peak clownery ?

Of course there are some areas and fields people study, and some fields they don't, and if you ask me how to code or do more technical things I'm completely lost, but saying some people can't be discriminated against because they're white is just so ridiculous - sure you might not know everything there's to know about World's History and all, but at least when someone corrects you just acknowledge it, instead of doubling down on your misconceptions.

A friend and I joked about it last year, but ultimately, if all the discourse can begin and end with "Rhea BaD" it ultimately grows stale. What are you even supposed to talk about? Is there any room for discussion? Is Rhea BaD because she exists?

"Rhea BaD"

Sure Jan.