#Langobalt

[randomnameless]

What do you think about the FE4 manga?

Wow, I feel like I'm being watched, I must be careful lol

(I assume you're talking about the Oosawa Manga?)

The art is very pretty, and it's a nice way to enter the Jugdral verse even if...

The manga isn't following the canon!

I took some time to realise it, ultimately some other people were sort of right, this manga is a licensed fanfiction about FE4 - this is the mangaka's take on the game, even if it means some plot points are modified (TFW no Hilda!) or created to add extra drama (the "Travant loved Ethlyn" triangle, or how Arvis torches Siggy that is pretty different from the game...).

So, if you want to read a manga (the 90s art is really worth it!) fanfiction of FE4 and love drama, then go ahead!

[banished-away]

also langobalt became lombard and this is so funny to me looks like ive found a a fellow compatriot

[baldramuste]

YOUR CHARACTER IN FIVE QUOTES!

( repost, do not reblog. )

Tell us your favorite quotes from your character. Give us an idea of who they are by five things they’ve said. Then tag your friends.

“I’ve put everybody in enough danger as it is… I’ll go this one alone.” chapter 1 — girl of the spirit forest 

"“I am. Sorry, Diadora. I can’t turn my back on Eltshan. Lachesis must be pretty shook up as well. I’ve got to help her out if I can.”" chapter 2 — disturbance in agustria

“Langobalt’s military is here for us, not Silesia. The Silesians have been too kind to us. This my problem, and I can’t drag them into it. We need to move out of Zaxon Castle at once and settle this with Langobalt.” chapter 4 — dance in the skies

“Queen Lahna, this year in Silesia has been wonderful for me. You’ve been like a second mother. You see, I lost my mother when I was very young. I grew up not knowing what a mother’s affection felt like. But for the first time I felt what that feels like through you. I’m sorry to leave so suddenly. I so look forward to the day we meet again. Until then…” chapter 4 — dance in the skies

“Oifey, I hate to impose on you, but please understand my situation. I don’t want to lose Celice. He is not even two yet. But I can’t fight and take care of him. Oifey, please. I want you to take Celice and go to where it’s safe. You are the only one who I can feasibly count on to do this.” chapter 5 - doors of destiny

Tagged by: leif (N)

Tagging: you! 

[crystalelemental]

Oldvis Arvis may be the only real mage Armor, but its still a pretty glaring absence I think. Besides him & Bloom, there's also Raydrik, Reptor & Langobalt. I just want Oldvis, real bad.

I’m still holding out hope for the Valentine’s Banner of my dreams.  Old Arvis with Julia, Seliph with Sigurd and Deirdre.  Maybe Arvis can be the Duo with a young Julius.  Believe with me, Anon.  Lift up your hands.  Give Genealogy your energy.

[markoftheasphodel]

I just read your Arvis did everything wrong meta, and it had me wondering about the time frame. Did the Lopto cult show up to blackmail Arvis before or after he decide that killing off Kurth and kicking off conquest of the entire continent is a good idea? Like did the Lopto cult just piggy back off a scheme Arvis already put in place? Or did their threat make him think "this is shit, I am going to take over the world and make everything better under my rule"?

So here’s what the game script (old patch via SF) has to say about it:

Chapter 3

Dark mage:“Archbishop Manfroy, I just witnessed the assassination of Prince Kurth.”

Manfroy:“Is that so? This is getting interesting. Only one descendant remains of our old foe Narga, and he will die before long. Then all that’s left is the revival of our Dark Lord. Then the world will be ours!”

Dark mage:“Has Alvis consented to your proposal?”

Manfroy:“Of course he did. He’s got Loputousu’s blood flowing in his veins. And if that ever got out, they would burn him at the stake for being of Loptian descent. I just wonder if someone as arrogant as Alvis can keep quiet.”

Chapter 5

Manfroy:“Hmhmhm… Lord Alvis, I see things are proceeding smoothly.”

Alvis:“Manfroy? How many times have I told you not to show yourself around here!? All members of your Lopt Sect must stay completely hidden until I’ve taken power!”

Manfroy:“Yes. You’re too weak to admit our presence, and you let that greedy Leptor and Langobalt run all over you!The original plan was to dispose of those two once they proved useless and work through their sons instead!”

Alvis:“Hmph… Manfroy, I’ll say this once and only once, so listen good. I haven’t the slightest intention of rebuilding your Lopt Empire. I have no problem with your Lopt Sect existing, but I’m not leaving the world in the hands of the Dark Lord. You follow!? I don’t care if I have the Lopt Clan’s blood in me. I have Saint Maira’s blood and he fought for the good of the people. The Fire God Fala is also one of my ancestors. I will use my power to create a world which is free of prejudice. One where all peoples can live without fear of repression! Of course, Sigurd knows way too much. Consider him a sacrifice to the greater good.”

I also checked the various designers’ notes and interviews on SF and didn’t see a clear answer to whether Manfroy approached Arvis before or after Arvis started dreaming of reforming Jugdral from the top down. Ultimately I don’t think it matters in terms of Arvis doing wrong (blackmail-- not a defense against conspiracy to commit murder). Arvis thought he was capable of cutting ties with Manfroy, ruling his own empire, and having his master plan go off without a hitch. Manfroy-- correctly-- assessed Arvis as not being capable of mastering the continent independently.

Again, lie down with dogs and get fleas... or rather, get into bed with Dark Lord cults, get f*cked. It’s not like he and Manfroy just entered into a scheme simply get Arvis appointed the heir to Grannvale without all the murder, invasions, occupations, and atrocities. It’s not like Manfroy presented the Lopt Sect as simply being peaceful worshipers of the Dark Lord in the manner of Maira and only unveiled his true agenda once Arvis had the throne and a Loptous-blooded heir. Arvis embarked on a massive continent-wide scheme of crossing, double-crossing, assassination, and so on, all the while believing (or just telling himself) he could tamp down on a cult that had managed to hang on for more than a century in the shadows... when the leader of said cult was his murderous co-conspirator! 

“We were gonna kill Reptor and Lombard earlier than this and now you’re letting them walk all over you” = right there, in one sentence, why and how Arvis f*cked up

[valflame]

I think this is made pretty clear by the game script and by any character and game notes from kaga, but I have so many people reminding me here and there that a majority of the people following me haven’t ever played genealogy!! So I’m here to write up a little thing on ARVIS’ PERSONAL STANDARD OF ETHICS.

                             TL;DR: the guy’s a utilitarian

To get into the specifics, he’s got a very strict teleological stance in terms of how he views and perceives the world. In heroes ( where I’d imagine it’s much more likely anyone on the dash has seen him ) he stresses how he’s willing to make his dreams of an ideal world where things are equal and equitable for all a reality by any means necessary. When I say he stresses it, I mean he really pushes it pretty hard. He talks openly about murdering Sigurd the ‘usurper’ and how he had to die to pave the way for a brighter future, how he thinks his actions are justified, how he feels like he’s willing to make the sorts of necessary sacrifices that few could countenance for the public, he outright calls himself a ‘champion of the people’ --- he thinks he’s a good guy, and says as much in the same breath used to explain and justify why he’s committed murder, because when you ask a true utilitarian whether murder is right or wrong you won’t get an answer. You’ll be posed with more questions. Who’s getting murdered? Who’s committing the act? Why do they have to die? Utilitarianism doesn’t care about the act itself; in utilitarianism ( act utilitarianism specifically, since rule utilitarianism is a thing that exists that wouldn’t share the same sentiments ) all that matters are the end results --- utilitarianism believes that there is no intrinsic moral value in specific acts but in the results. Thus, something like murder is totally ethical and completely justifiable to him if, say, murdering one person would ultimately bring more good into the world than bad and help the greatest number of people in the long run. At the same time, wanton murder isn’t something he’d condone at all without what he sees as due moral reason; it’s a situational mode of ethics.

Arvis specifically prescribes to the JOHN STUART MILL branch of utilitarianism in the ‘greatest happiness principle’. To bring goodness into the world alone is not enough; it must be distributed ‘fairly’, spread among the greatest number of people possible so as to benefit society at large. Arvis thinks he’s a righteous knight fighting the poor man’s fight, after all; in his mind he’s an agent of the downtrodden, a member of the bourgeoisie with the well-being of the proletariat in his heart fighting the ‘good man’s fight’ to quash discrimination and prejudice wherever it might exist. Game notes exist of him using his newfound power in his early years as emperor once all his political scheming works out to free slaves, crack down on vile merchants and enact harsh countermeasures to punish corrupt members of the nobility; he was wildly popular among his public in his early years as emperor for a reason. He does heinous things, sweeps it all aside under the premise of ‘my ends justify my means’ and still thinks good of himself because the concept of murdering 30 or so innocent people is, to him, absolutely nothing if it means securing a continent’s peace. He thinks the corruption he sees in noblemen like Reptor and Langobalt is the pus in the festering wound those in power have left on Jugdral, and removing it will help the continent heal. He thinks their deaths are just another stepping stone to be used to get there. He thinks he’s a good guy.

                                         The only thing that changes his opinion                                          of that is Julius’ rise to power and his                                          subsequent usurping of the empire, and                                          even then it’s only because he, in the end,                                          wound up failing in reaching his end goal.

[deetvar-moved]

But Lopppptyyyyyr, Reptor and Langobalt are both eeeeevullll.

This is true. However I ain't shipping that.

[randomnameless]

If I can be the devil's advocate, the victim blaming helps illustrate how misguided Supreme Leader is and is one of the few aspects that support her status as the villain/antagonist. (And if anyone defends victim blaming especially wrt imperialism, yikes).

You're not playing devil's advocate anon, rather IS/KT's lol

If the devs didn't bail out at the last moment - CF and Supreme Leader could have been fascinating bonuses for the FE series, play as the red emperor - see how the red emperor recruits/their tactics to keep the population ignorant at large and demonise the people they're attacking, etc, etc...

But no, instead Supreme Leader wondering why people are not happy when she's Aymr'ing them is played seriously, and we're left puzzled with the character we see, are we supposed to follow Flamey - who lies and manipulates people, ultimately ditching them when they're useless - on her quest to conquer the world, seeing how this manipulation works, the "must have good PR" tactics unfold etc etc?

Because that's part of what we see in Tru Piss - the lie about Rhea using Nukes, the lie about "unlike u i let people go when i stormed Garreg Mach" and the Aeneid approved "what is a pincer attack?" where Supreme Leader apparently marvels at how the "pincing" army supposedly waited until the first army was already ko to intervene, limiting their losses - when it's just a pincer attack with added plot rain -

And then we have the brainfart moments "why are people resisting?" that completely retcon the entire "uwu blood at my feet" because, hey, you knew blood would rain since you uwu'd about it, so why now you're wondering why people are dying? - that is also played seriously, are we following Flamey and a red Emperor, or someone who thought she was playing with dolls and forgot her own words?

Everything falls flat when the games give the victim blaming lines to other factions, aka the victims themselves!

Like in

(SS's worst support)

Nopes.

I get victim blaming when you're siding/following the red emperor's mindset, because PR, or maybe because they're delured enough to think they're doing this for the "great-err good" - but the invaded parties?

Where the fuck in FE Tellius are people telling Ike started Ashnard's war because he sheltered Elincia? Sigurd pretty much says "fuck off" to people telling him Granvalle might hate him for, hm, sheltering the Prince of an enemy nation instead of dicing him in cubes, because said prince is only a kid in hiding and Siggy will protect him (which will of course be used as an argument leading to his downfall) - When Reptor and Langobalt (and Andrei don't forget him!!!) attack Sigurd and deem him a traitor, Sigurd doesn't think they're right and it's his fault if he and his men are branded traitors because they rescued a child, no, he wants to cleanse his (and his father's !) name by rekting the aforementioned dudes.

Unless we're supposed to understand Supreme Leader's information campaign reached far and wide, why the world blames the Central Church, you know, the Elincia who was kicked out of her home, for the start of the War? What were they supposed to do? Die ?

I still have to check with friends about the accurate translation, but Supreme Leader's battle lines even in Nopes, lampshade this victim blaming, telling the Nabateans or Church peeps she's only fighting because they do like -

you want them gone and they want to survive, it suspiciously looks like some "it's your fault I have to smack you/you made me do this" - but hey, from the Red Emperor, it's normal, they deflect and redirect the blame because they are the Red Emperor, and they manipulate, it's their MO (even if Supreme Leader's quite weak compared to people like Ashnard or Arvis who legit framed Siggy!).

And that's where the Hresvelg Grey pours like an endless fountain - the victims will never be allowed a voice to the chapter - the plot ignores them and so it's their fault, and nothing says the contrary. It's because Rhea is so BaD and sekritly controls the World that Supreme Leader has to invade the Alliance who pretty much doesn't give a fuck about what Rhea says or does.

And no one will ever point that out.

In a nutshell, I love Tru Piss as a concept, the unreliable words you're told vs the world you see - the contradictions between your side's story and the rest of Fodlan, how the dissonance is too strong and culminates with "Rhea BaD she razed Arianrhod" and yet... nothing comes from this. The plot warps at the 11h59 hour to fit with the "world as you're told" and Tru Piss shines on Fodlan.

Sothis forgots you've terminated her daughter (and maybe son+granddaugther?) because Supreme Leader doesn't believe in... Sothis, or how she fulfills her fated enemies agenda to have brainsex with Billy and shares with them some of her power to make sure they still live as she poofs in oblivion if she wasn't S-supported - completely retconning what we knew of Sothis (the supposed loving mother) and what we will later learn about her (the vengeful being who's pretty pissed at people who slaughter her kin).

TLDR : Fodlan's victim blaming could have been better implemented in the Red Emperor "information campaign" to depict how warped information is, in times of war, or in general, the dangers of misinformation coupled with a charismatic person's spouting utter shit to justify... something that is not justifiable. But Tea must be sold, and so everyone buys the "information campaign" even if the world screams against it.

Victim blaming becomes unsufferable in Nopes and in the worst support ever, Rhea's straight out asking Billy if the war - eating nukes, being tortured in Enbarr for 5 years, a continental war, disparition of civilians, Baldos and Waldis being manufactured, etc etc - is her fault and Billy never saying "of fucking course no".

When Ninian blames herself for Elbert's death, Eliwood tells her it's not her fault, Elbert died trying to do what he thought was just, and Nergal was the one who killed him.

Oh well.

[randomnameless]

While Langobalt or Lombard, did show sympathy for Lord Ring. My impression/headcanon is he's a very a traditionalist when it comes to families, the Dozel motto is also tough love to make your kids strong. Yet despite this, killing a family member with no remorse as Andorey did is very much against the Dozel's code. I don't think Langobalt is a great dad, mind you, but I do think he loved his kids in his own way. He's more reluctant to fight his kid then Reptor, & tries to talk Lex out of it.

I think TV tropes has a trope for it like “even evil has standards” or something. Lombard might have some values, he also has a lot of problematic stuff under his beard so yeah...

maybe he isn’t as “evil” as F!Lewyn wanted to make us understand, but we can’t deny he did pretty serious shit in Isaach. That’s why I was actually very happy with Oosawa’s portrayal of Lombard in the manga (even if he is all “Danan is a brute/stupid son you would have been perfect Lex if you didn’t rebel” which didn’t please me).

This is why I’m pretty sour at the “Dozels were all crap since Lombard” thing, crap because of regicide and starting a war and all, but even Lombard had limits. F!Lewyn should sweep his own rug before talking shit about other people, did Dacar and Maios possess any qualities??

[randomnameless]

somedays I wonder if "3H takes some inspiration from FE4" warped into "3H *is* FE4 with Find and Replace (Lopt Sect -> Agarthans, Holy Blood -> Crests, etc)" because the way some of the fandom treat 3H and FE4 as 100% similar to one another. Cap'n and his ilk remind me of this, and I wish there was a way to find out who played FE4 first, then 3H, and who played 3H, then FE4, cause I feel like the latter half try to warp 3H around FE4's shell to go "see! its good! it all makes sense!"

Pff,

It's not Lopt Sect, but Lopt Church, so Churc = Church, and Lopt Church = Church of Seiros.

who is braggi what is the church of braggi ssh no one cares

Holy blood = crest, don't worry about the details, it's dragon blood!

There's no possibility to wrap FE4 in 3H nonsense, because FE4 more or less stands on its own. But to be fair, I don't think FE4 is the pinnacle of good gaming or good storytelling that'd be FE5, still, maybe people will start to resent FE16 and see it's shortcomings more... uh, willingly faced with Jugdral.

Jugdral shows people dying, FE4 more or less shows Midir trying to hold the castle for his Lady and getting rekt'd - it doesn't transition thanks to a blackscreen to 5 years forward.

But I'm sure the merry band of friends will find a way to twist FE Jugdral and say it's the plaything of gods so Gods should go, when the game clearly depicts humans being their shitty selves and using some supernatural powers to be even more shittier.

Loptry didn't manipulate Manfroy into doing all his biding. Loptyr didn't manipulate Langobalt and Reptor. Loptyr didn't manipulate Travant and Arvis.

Nope.

Reidric is a piece of slime because he is Reidric. Just like Bramsel asking Lene to "dance" for him. Jugdral is a crappy verse, and it's all because of its denizens.

[randomnameless]

Maybe I misunderstood, but Kaga didn't say Lex was the ONLY good Dozel, so much as his brother and father were rigid traditionalists who weren't connected with the current populace and thus weren't very popular among them. Like Lex was one of the first Dozels to look past the ancient grudge between them & Chalphy. The game did show Langobolt saying a prayer for Lord Ring & disgust at Andre's patricide, as well as reluctance to fight Lex, showing again his traditionalism(the good side to it).

I’m always for bringing more nuance to the Dozels, and if F!Lewyn is any indication as to what Kaga was thinking, there are no “good” Dozels, and Langobalt is the worst human being in both gens

a good dozel is a dead dozel

Lex went first and foremost on Siggy’s adventure for Azelle, he says it himself in the first chapters that he isn’t all buddy-buddy with Siggy and his Chalphian pals. Then Lex fights with Siggy, lives with Siggy, and is branded a traitor by his dad, just like Siggy.

Langbalt was not the best Lord/Duke around, he was willing to brand his son a traitor, and even called Danan useless, on top of being A-OK with regicide, and murdering Byron.

Langbalt wasn’t the mastermind F!Lewyn painted him to be Reptor was. He was just in because he didn’t like the Chalphys (it’s never explained why in the game btw) and wanted to get rid of Kurth too. He led his troops to Isaach, murdered (?) the good king Mananan and got rid of Marricle.

Was Reptor in to become the ultra mega emperor of the universe? I think so. Was Langbalt in for the same reasons? I don’t know, but I think we’re not supposed to see him as amibtious as Reptor, he was just the brawns to Reptor’s brain (or at least, that’s how it was painted).

Sadly we don’t learn a thing about the Dozel commoners, were they supporting Langbalt or Lex? Bear in mind that Dozel sent their men in the war against Isaach, because those barbarians pillaged Darna etc etc. Lex harbouring Prince Shanan could be seen as treason, even by the randomest peasant in the duchy (if he didn’t die during the war).

Danan being a tyrant in Isaach is obviously another story, Isaach is a conquered country, the conquered people are nothing but slaves (remember when Siggy invaded Granvalle and Augstria and the Granvallians were being asses to the verdanites/augstrians? It’s the same idea) and maybe mcRandom Dozel is super happy that his duchy managed to get rid of those barbarians and how they have to show them who’s the best/most civilised country - with all of the disgusting implications we learn of during the game.

We never saw what the randoms in Granvalle were thinking, because the only randoms we see in the last chapter are randoms begging us to save the world from Loptyr, without any words regarding the previous heads of their Duchies or anything else.

We don’t even know what the randoms were thinking about Lex during the first gen, or between the gens or thinking about Langbalt.

So when our Jo-bro tells his bro that the “people” are behind him and not behind Burian, we’re supposed to buy this thing, even taking into account how said jo-bro killed his own “good” brother for a stupid reason or taking into account how maybe Burian sided with Julius to prevent Julius going all Hilda on Dozel and killing them on a whim or somehting

It’s as if randoms are only here to praise us, but no one is here to call us on our shit, save randoms hailing from mystical land of thracia where a fisherman trashtalks prince leif

More seriously, it fits with Kaga’s idea of the game, we see the war through Jugdral’s lens, not through Seliph’s personal POV; so it doesn’t matter if randoms were a bit unhappy at things, in the end, the land is fred from Arvis, Emperor (?) Seliph rules Granvalle and the continent is “at peace” as in, no draconic threat or massive continental war happens.

Does it matter if Arthur/Jo-bro/whoever inherits Verdane has a hard time ruling their lands? Nope. Are we going to take into account peasants? Nope.

Think of it as SoV’s ending, Alm and Celica fred their land from the gods, they know some random are going to starve (especially the ones in Rigel?) without anyone to bless the crops, but it doesn’t matter because in the long run, the continent fares well

until chrom and his merry band of friends invade to get rid of Walhart

FE4′s own ending mentions this issue with Ares having to face a civil war in France Augstria, he ultimately becomes King and that’s the result we want to hear. Do we want to hear about Diarmuid’s heroic feats against Chagall’s lost bastard son? Nope. Do we want to hear about how Diarmuid helped peasants to revolt against Mc Beth’s widow who hired bandits to rape/pillage/burn for fun? Nope.

Ares became King, and it’s the only thing that matters in Agstria.

So back to the Dozels topic…

If Kaga wanted to show us “good” Dozels, he failed. Compare with what happened with the Freeges, or even Arvis himself. Hell, I’d say Lex counts as a “good” Dozel because he was with Siggy’s company, and the jobros don’t because most of the time we have a lex’s son to take over Dozel, and their antics with Larcei kill any sympatic points.

Maybe he didn’t want to make them one-dimensional so he added Burian, and Langobalt’s line about parricide (rans false given hom he branded his own son a traitor) might have existed to show how much of a little shit André was.

[randomnameless]

Reminder that Naga allowed a Dragon(Duma) with known rage issues & power thirst, her enemy, to settle on a continent full of humans, with no interventions or visits from other dragons. Yet stopped a human loving Dragon(Forseti) who was a close friend, from staying behind to passively help humanity against dragons. Scumbag Naga indeed!

Hm, Duma in the beginning was known for being salty for having rage issues and power thirst? Power thirst seems a bit too extreme to qualify his motto, granted it is said that Milla was about love and Duma about Power, but Milla didn’t love her people that much when Desaix or Lima were doing nonsense...

Forseti wanted to help humanity against loptyr’s nonsense but in his own way he was creating a lot of nonsense himself - remember that bout were he was shipping Seliph and Julia? Now imagine if two or more major naga blooded randoms run around in the world fighting for the book of Naga or unleashing Naga bombs everywhere - besides, wasn’t the point of giving HW and HB about humans fighting with this and only this to pwn Loptyr? FE Jugdral is interesting because Loptyr may be the big baddie we pwn at the end, but he was brought up by human actions - in FE Jugdral humanity is at its worst (Reptor, Langobalt, Manfroy, the Thracians, the Mansterians - they all have good reasons for doing what they, but they’re creating a lot of nonsense in the process and said nonsense bites them in the rear when the times comes).

By insisting to stay behind (to help the humans but still staying behind), Forseti is meddling in humans affairs, something Naga wanted to prevent. Humans bring their own nonsense to themselves, they have to deal with it accordingly.

(heck, before Julius’ possession, everything that happened has been Manfroy’s doing (and Arvis), the occupation of Isaach, the war etc. It was political play, a ruthless one but one that didn’t involve dragons, so why should dragons solve it?)

Not saying Naga’s reasoning is the good one here, but it has its merits, just like Forseti. (and this is taking into account all of the personal negative bias i have against him)

[deetvar-moved]

I have two questions. One, do you think Langobalt x Reptor is canon? Two, is Briggid x Dew a good pairing?

The answer to your 1st question is No. The answer to your 2nd is Not Holyn/10.

[randomnameless]

While Eldigan's not perfect, the only action he did that could be considered treacherous was giving Raquesis, his sister, the Earth Sword. His other actions consist: of stopping Elliot from doing an attack forbidden by the King at the time, going to prison when Chagall ordered him too, saving Chagall's life, giving Chagall refugee in his castle & command over his troops, then asking Chagall to do a treaty because Grannevale will kill them, but not to give up hope. He was a good servant.

I might have to reread the screen caps i took of chapter 2+3 but the mere fact that the invader, Siggy, is his friend already puts him in jeopardy. In order, Siggy goes to rescue Raquie from Elliott, and then marches over Agstria to rescue Eldie from Chagall’s jail. Of course we know Eldie didn’t ask Siggy to destroy everyone and kill all the lordlings on his way to rescue him but hey, how is Chagall even supposed to see this?

And then, as if to “clear” the misunderstanding, once Eldie is free and all, suddenly Granvalle decides to occupy Augstria? (well they wanted to do since the beginning, and used Siggy to do so, but Siggy didn’t think about it too much, he only wanted to help Eldie).

So in chapter 3, you have Augstria occupied by Eldie’s best friend - whose main purpose in the last chapter was to save him. Of course this doesn’t have anything to do with Eldie, Siggy’s dumb as ham, he can’t do anything about it. and yet, we’re told that the granvallian forces are committing war crimes/ or at least stupid things people do when they conquer another country - Eldie is pissed at this, and asks Siggy to make them stop.

Imagine a second if this happened in Isaach, Shanan wouldn’t have knocked at Danan’s door and asked him “could you please ask your rowdy bunch of friend to stop raping/pillaging my people? thanks!”. Was Eldie soft on Siggy because Siggy was his friend, or because he couldn’t muster enough forces to maintain order and keep the Granvellians from doing nonsense by sending them back home? (and guess who reduced the number of augustrian knights by 75% when he went to save his pal?) - then you have the plot excuse (or not actually) of the negociations, supposedly Kurth (lel) was going to withdraw, they just had to wait a bit, we can’t know in FE4 how much time passed, but going easy on Siggy while his forces are out doing criminal stuff isn’t very nice. Is it treacherous? I don’t know. Is it not treacherous? I don’t know either. Would Eldie have reacted differently if Blume had been in front of him? 

Another (weird?) thing is how, Chagall isn’t the one to talk to Siggy. It’s only Eldie, Eldie who wants the status quo (Kurth will sign the peace treaty!) while Chagall wants to retake his country by force. Eldie talks with the invaders, he doesn’t take part in the “rebellion” (or liberation army). Is it betrayal? I don’t think so.

However, there is one thing I am sure of which doesn’t ring too well with Eldie’s image of loyalty - Siggy is the man who trampled over the country and nearly killed Chagall, the King of Augstria. Even if Chagall was Chagall, Eldie is still a knight of Augstria, sworn to protect the King. Still calling/considering Siggy a friend by this point is, imo, treason. (but because Chagall is a doucheslag we don’t feel empathy for him - which is, imo one of the weak points on the Agustrian arc.)

as an example, if Langobalt, who (nearly) killed Byron tried to negotiate a ceasefire treaty with Chalphy, Siggy would run his sword through his guts, he wouldn’t “politely ask him to keep his men on a leash because seriously they’re doing horrible things to my people i won’t tolerate this any longer but hey can we still be friends”. And yet, even if Eldie murdered Siggy, Augstria would still have been doomed. Poor Eldie tried to kill two birds with one stone - be Siggy’s friend (even if he scolds him) and a knight, but he only lost his head in the process.

[valflame]

@holysight​

⊰ ♖ ⊱

                   Most days did not typically herald the arrival of strangers being found sprawled out with their heads against the stone steps leading up to the main gates of Belhalla castle. Most days did not typically herald the arrival of any unconscious strangers at all, but when one was found so close to the royal castle their care and the fate of what to do with them generally fell to the royal guard, and as head of the royal guard the duty naturally fell on Arvis’ shoulders. It wasn’t something he’d initially put much stock in considering all the other tumult he’d already embroiled himself in, but with Reptor and Langobalt off tending to their own businesses and his daily duties in tending to the king’s health done with the mage found himself with just enough free time to interrogate Belhalla’s most recent unexpected arrival.

                    ( Manfroy’s general uptake in lurking around the castle in unseen corridors since his appearance was additional cause for concern, of course. It was best for him to deal with whatever might be going on personally rather than sending one of his knights off to do things for him. )

                   Perhaps that was why he moved so promptly to meet with the yet-unnamed stranger once a member of the Weissritter alerted him to his awakening, his boots leading him swiftly down the halls toward the spare bedroom his knights had put him up in. There was some good in knowing that the man wasn’t outright comatose --- that would’ve made any questioning a bit trickier. Arvis rapped his knuckles against the back of the door once, twice, thrice before suddenly opening it regardless ( why extend undue courtesies to strangers when they’d already gone as far as they had in procuring him a better place to sleep than on the ground outside? ) and stepping into the room, his furrowed brow turned in the direction of the veiled bed housing whatever-their-name-was.

                   "Forgive my sudden entrance. I do hope you’ll understand; as head of the royal guard His Majesty King Azmur’s security is quite important to me, and to find that someone had managed to enter the castle grounds and come so close to the entrance of the building without anyone having noticed is troubling, to say the very least. Tell me, what business do you have in Belhalla?? Before that, even --- what am I to call you??”

[randomnameless]

A thing to consider is people like Langobalt don't view themselves as evil. I'm think that the Dozel family was big on toughening your kids by being tough on them, give them a hardy defense worthy of Helswath.

Honestly, in FE4, I don’t think anyone see themselves as evil, even Manfroy and his goons.

(maybe the random brigands do)

Being worthy of Helswath was something that weighed heavily on Burian’s mind - maybe it was passed down from grandpa? For all the “my sons are worthless” talk from Lombard, I always saw him super proud of his grandson (he ends up as a master knight after all), maybe he read/told him stories about Crusader Neir and how he and his axe of Justice destroyed the evil loptyrians in the desert when Burian was a kid.