#Shez is basically a crest person

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

So I just find it kinda interesting how the version of this chapter has Claude's betrayal version first. We know from GW that Claude was always using the Empire etc etc, but in SB he can actually turn against her... but that version is the top version of the two in the record keeper list.

I know it's not anything definitive, but it makes me wonder if it's the more "canon" version among the two or the more nudged at version of the two.

It would also make sense, since it means it's the version you kill Byleth in. In this game in particular, Sothis actually takes over Byleth when you kill Byleth (i.e. in a sense it's more Sothis you're killing). Edelgard hates Nabateans and wants to eradicate them, which would include Sothis, and Byleth is closely connected to Sothis.

Also, Byleth is the recurring enemy of Shez, who Edelgard has a strong attachment to. Shez is connected to the Agarthans, as is Edelgard, and their collective enemy is the Nabateans, and Byleth by extension (even though Byleth is half Nabatean, they don't know that). Even though Shez isn't as specifically against the Nabateans, Arval is. Basically Shez and Arval fit in with the whole Agarthan versus Nabateans thing.

In this version of the route, Edelgard also thinks her being drawn to Byleth was because of their Crests. Considering the experiments n on her and yadda yadda, that makes sense... but also gives the impression that her connection to Byleth is artificial. That doesn't happen with Shez at all, and is quite the opposite.

Plus you've got the Edelgard/Shez/Lysithea/Hapi paralogue to further tie in Edelgard and Shez's connection. They're connected to the Agarthans, and Edelgard and Arval have the same beliefs as the Agarthans (re: Nabateans).

If you killed Jeralt, Byleth is hired by Claude. Claude, who planned from the start to turn against Edelgard, hired Byleth, who was Shez's natural enemy (re: Sothis and Arval).

In contrast to Edelgard's connection to Byleth being deemed by Edelgard as artificial, Claude feels a much more genuine connection to Byleth when they team up. It's basically the exact opposite of how Edelgard talks about it with Hubert. In other words it kind of feels like the route itself points to a matchup of Edelgard and Shez versus Claude and Byleth.

Obviously it's not concrete and it's not evidence or anything like that, but it's just something I find interesting. It would make sense to have this be the "true" version of SB (and Claude can escape/survive if Hilda isn't killed before her backup arrives, so it's not even canon that Claude must die in this version). A good chunk of the first half of SB is the Empire against the Alliance, so this would make sense as its natural course.

It also really drives the fact of the Empire/Edelgard being so tied in with the Agarthans. In AG it/she still is, but more in the sense of the Agarthans having complete control of the Empire with Edelgard completely out of the picture (as in this case she's just Thales' literal puppet at that point). Edelgard's story is so tied in with theirs that imo it makes more sense for Edelgard to "choose" Shez over Byleth.

Also, as far as Shez's relationships go with the lords, it feels like Shez is closest to, as per each route, Dimitri, then Edelgard, then Claude. That is, the strength of Shez's relationships with each one within their own routes feels like it's:

strongest with Dimitri, in that Shez starts to feel like a part of them/their group and less like just a mercenary, giving a more meaningful and emotional attachment. Shez becomes less cruel of a person (a whole other topic lol) and starts to care more about the people about them, versus previously treating mercenary allies as people who are eventually either going to likely die or become or your enemy someday. It opens up doors to actual friendships and not just temporary "friendships" a mercenary lives with. We also get more deep conversations and genuine concern from Shez, which previously Shez didn't really have because of being so used to the mercenary life.

in the middle imo is Edelgard, where they have a strong connection/attachment because of their connection to the Agarthans, and since Edelgard is so connected to them she also wants answers about/for Shez. Byleth is also their common enemy in that Byleth, being part Nabatean and housing the goddess herself, is Edelgard's immediate enemy. I don't care if you're an Edelgard fan and want to defend her to the ends of the fucking earth: she wants to eliminate the Nabatean race and Byleth's CF ending is essentially Byleth "losing" their Nabatean side. Back to Shez, being part of that connection means a lot to them. It makes them feel less alone and confused about the whole thing, and they know they have allies to turn to regarding the Agarthans (at least post them being suspicious about Shez). It becomes a more genuine bond. Edelgard also correctly states in their A support that without Shez, Edelgard wouldn't have been able to "break the stranglehold" the Agarthans had on the Empire.

last place is Claude, who Shez seems pretty detached from. Most of their work as a mercenary is... just that. In AG Shez feels more like a part of a loving group. In SB Shez gets answers but also feels that their skills are highly valued (which is true). GW gives neither to Shez, and in fact, Claude completely blows Shez off for two years. After they start getting along a bit better, most of what they talk about is... politics. Business. War. Shez doesn't understand the way the Alliance works at all and starts making suggestions that would destroy its very foundations (which Claude stupidly goes through with and does, in fact, create a lot of tension and anxiety among his comrades. Shez's influence on Claude regarding politics is already off to a terrible start!). They have much less emotional connection in their supports. Overall it feels like, even by the end, their relationship is just business with familiarity.

tl;dr it feels like it makes more sense throughout the story itself to come to the conclusion of the Claude versus Edelgard version of SB to be the direction the story leads to.

[loregoddess]

*claps hands together* So I FINALLY finished Golden Wildfire, and uh...

okay the last battle was fun to play, I will give it that but a few other collected thoughts below the cut with spoilers...

thoughts aside though, I've already started Scarlet Blaze which I assume I will enjoy more simply bc I am going in with zero (0) expectations outside of "this will be a clown parade". For SB I'm not here for the writing, I'm here for how badly the writers can continue to mess up everything centered around the Empire, and so far I'm not disappointed (I do like Monica a lot though, she's actually pretty okay)

so anyhow, GW thoughts...

I think, what bothered me the most about GW was just, the general pacing. There was a lot of back-and-forth, a lot of "we have this great plan, but oh no, something happened and now we have to backtrack". Like, it doesn't let Claude's character shine at all--he's written in other routes to be this very smart, always-has-a-plan leader who inspires complete confidence in those he leads, and we simply do not get to see that in GW bc he spends almost the entire arc reacting to sudden "plot twist" developments instead of like, being one step ahead and always having a plan to back up the idea that he inspires confidence despite being kinda secretive and stuff. Like, the Almyran invasion arc did hardly anything for the overall story, and didn't even do too much for Claude's character that some different plot decisions couldn't have provided, and the Agartharan "stirring up trouble in Ordelia" didn't...work either for me, like it does nothing for the GW cast and it does nothing for the Agarthan cast. Actually, the Agarthans were so minimal to this story that Shez's personal arc really suffered a lot too.

Generally most of the character technically feel in-character to me, but the narrative made it feel like the writers had no idea what to do with them. Unlike the Lions' cast, we don't get a lot of extra insight or development of the Deer cast, in fact we get less than what Houses gave us in some regards. Marianne never gets to address whatever the fresh hell is going on w/ her ancestor being a Demonic Beast, Lysithia is suddenly a crest scholar? despite never touching crest studies in Houses outside of her paired ending w/ Hanneman where she becomes his pupil and then outshines him after his death? Ignatz's characterization felt like it was trapped between his self-confidence issues and his "actually I do want to be an artist" issues, which is a shame bc it ignores the confidence he gains post-skip in Houses and doesn't try to segue into it either. Lorenz isn't poorly written, but compared to how Felix was handled, feels like his characterization suffered for his role as Claude's lancer. Hilda's just sorta there, and while the insight we get into her dynamic w/ Holst is neat, it doesn't...add much to her--and he family's issues w/ Almyra don't get touched on the way AG Ingrid is forced to face her issues w/ Dusur and realize she's in the wrong (which stems a lot from the fact that despite Cyril being very important to VW, he's been entirely ignored in basically every route in Hopes so far). We don't get much extra insight into Leonie, but having her actually be able to hang out w/ Jeralt somehow toned down how obsessed she had seemed in Houses, so overall she's fine actually. I feel like Raphael got the best out of the cast, since we actually get to see more of his personality past "hrrgh, muscles!" which was nice bc he's a genuinely cool dude.

I think, more than the weird plot choices, more than the wonky pacing, what irks me the most is that Rhea would have ABSOLUTLY sent aid during the Great Bridge of Myrddin battle. Like, is this not the same woman who saw Lonato form the weakest most pathetic little army to march on the Central Churn in Houses and immediately sent out her knights and students to stop him? Why is she so unwilling to take any action until the final battle? Rhea should have sent Claude reinforcements w/out his asking, simply bc Edelgard had declared war on the Central Church and aiding the Alliance benefits Rhea more than sitting back like she does in Hopes. It would have changed the entire direction of GW, possibly making it more like or too similar to VW in Houses (if the writers had Rhea and Claude actually talk to each other and come to realize some things), but at least it would have made sense. I know the reason is "the writers wrote every single character associated w/ the C. Church way out of character" but it still bugs me.

I suppose, at the very least, Rhea's characterization as an antagonist was, for me, more interesting and believable in GW than it was in CF, but again she gets so little screentime that it doesn't amount to much. Also Edelgard's characterization was better in this route than in AG, so there's...that I guess.

Damn, GW really was just a mess for me though. I didn't hate it, but considering that VW had good writing (and how well AG was handled for the most part), I certainly came in expecting better and dug my own grave as a result.

[unxpctedlygreat]

Now that I think about it, counting Shez as part of the normal, non-crested crowd is kind of.... ironic

Like, we're talking about a person with shape-shifting abilities, who can summon a sword at will and gain incredible strength and power................. They're not a baseline human, guys

[shadowflash]

I'm certainly not the first person to point this out, but yeah I also think it's neat how 3Hopes gameplay integrates the whole "Byleth and Shez are functionally opposites" idea. The most obvious examples to point to are:

Divine Pulse (time manipulation) vs Shadowflash (space manipulation)

Nirvana (divine associations, Byleth's personal class) vs Asura (anti-divine associations, Shez's personal class).

This is a smaller kind of opposition to note but what I specifically want to point out is how the first offensive magic spell Byleth learns in 3Houses is "Fire" when reaching a D rank in the Reason attribute, while the default offensive spell Shez has access to is "Blizzard". Yes, Fire = Flame Crest = Fire Emblem™. Yes, this is a spell a bunch of units first learn when leveling the Reason attribute. But I think it'd be nice if it served as a nod to the "warmth" that lies within. They obviously love their father and they care deeply for their students. And their supports with, like, basically everyone indicate that they don't really have a problem with getting through to the deeper parts of their hearts / beneath a character's surface-type stuff.

Inversely, I wonder what innately knowing "Blizzard" can say about Shez? Perhaps it can similarly be a nod to the metaphorical wall that surrounds their heart (a kind of coldness..?) and their comparative lack in ability to see beneath the surface other characters front (as Arval points out in the prologue). Yes, throughout the course of the story and regardless of route, they do form solid bonds with their allies but those bonds aren't as intimate as the ones Byleth can (or tbh: is allowed to-) form.

I know a big part of Shez is that the death of their mother and the nature of their career as a mercenary function as the leading influences to their resignation that people are destined to come and, importantly, go. Honestly, Shez reads as at odds with themselves over this. Despite stating how partings are something that come naturally to them, their actions indicate that they're still looking for a place to belong, something that could validate their life. I mean, they're quick to make friendships in their chosen faction and they clearly value those relationships as well as the place they end up carving for themselves within their community. There's also their default death line which I believe speaks to the spirit of this:

"Did my life even have meaning?"

You know, following the whole "innately knowing blizzard = guys look at shez's emotional walls" idea, I think their heartfelt letter becomes more interesting. Shez's words indicate that by the end of each route, they maintain a sense of loyalty to their friends and is willing to fight alongside them for the battles to come -> which could be interpreted as a sign that said walls have come to thaw quite a bit!

Of course, they also ask to not hold it against them if they leave from time to time to have their own adventures so it's not like Shez completely abandons the whole "wandering spirit", or more accurately, "migratory bird" (I've seen a few people refer to their nature like this) thing they have going on.. Which I honestly like a lot! It feels consistent to where we leave off with their character. I also believe their letter ends on a wonderful sentiment that acts as a sort of response to the question they have in death:

"Right here, right now is where I live and breathe."

To elaborate: "Where do I even belong? / Does my life even have meaning?" "In the right here, right now. / Of course it does! I'm still standing aren't I."

Back to Byleth. Surely there can be more to be said about how Byleth learns "Ragnarok" when they reach rank A in the Reason attribute given that their new unit in FE:H's special is very clearly planet buster-y in its imagery so. Well. Now what.

[butwhatifidothis]

btw are you playing the three hopes demo? I wouldn't want to submit anything about it if you're avoiding it entirely

Different nonnie: Are you playing the FE three hopes demo? If yes, what do you think so far ?

I've played the demo, and have played through Claude's route, watched my sis play through Dimitri's, and am currently still going through Edelgard's, so for now I can only be spoiled for her stuff lol. I do know that Monica is a simp for her but twitter won't really talk about anything else regarding SB's demo so that's all I got spoiled on and know rn lmao

What I think so far (under the cut)

Tfw I have to actually think about strategy more in this game than the base game lmao, but I really like the gameplay! Especially once intermediate classes were unlocked, that's when the sail really got movin'. And ordering the other units to take care of other shit is really neat. There also seems to be actual risk to pitting a unit up against someone with an effectiveness against them; I play Claude on the wyvern and an archer's nearby and unlike the base game I actually feel the need to dismount him since he can't just dodge tank through everything here lmao, stuff like that!

If these are the actual first four chapters of the game, hoo boy is this game not wasting any time lmao. It's a little dizzying how much they throw at you all at once in the story, but! The alternative stories they bring onto the table are really interesting so far - definitely the most excited for Claude's since his story is like, by far and away the most immediately intriguing. Not to knock the other two but like. C'mon lmao.

Shez! Arval! I'm really likin' them so far. Arval is such a little prick but he manages to avoid being outright annoying (most of the time anyway, but he's gettin' away with it for now lol) even tho I am very sus about him (I’m interested tho!), and Shez just feels so much more natural as a protagonist than Byleth did. A player character with a set personality and dialogue to express themselves with, oh how I've missed ye. But speaking of Byleth-

Byleth! The little they physically appear here is also doing wonders for me personally. Like, being honest, while I acknowledge that Byleth was supposed to have acted like the Ashen Demon during the first few chapters of 3H and that characters reacted to them as if they were acting strangely, they... never really came off that way to me? Like ever? Most likely because everyone has to like Byleth so they almost universally come around to them very quickly, which never felt... right. If that makes sense lol. But seeing them from an outside perspective - seeing them kill Shez's company and then basically tell them to Get Good and casually telling them maybe they can have a rematch later? That's what's been missing. Some meat to Byleth's character, where we can finally get to see the Ashen Demon. Hopeful for whatever's gonna happen with them later!

SHAHID IS A HOOT AND A HOLLER that man is a comedian. "Oh hey yo weird you look like my horror of a little brother, that wretch, the one I loathe and hate with everything in me. Hate you for that! Gonna kill you for that." LIKE BRO AND HE SOUNDS SO ANGRY ALL THE TIME dude has NO chill in his body. I will not rescind my statement of him being handsome but will concede that that is only the case in the 3D cutscenes cuz OOF does he have uhhhh The Range when it comes to appearance lmaoooo. Also like the confirmation that yes Claude’s family, at least with his siblings (or at least a nonzero amount of his siblings), is uh. Um. Ass. I remember Early Discourse trying to say that he was lying about that to get sympathy points from Byleth (haven’t seen that recently mind but never forgot it lol) so the hard-confirm was nice.

Fuck kind of name is Sigiswald. It's perfect. Also Holst doesn't a Crest it looks like? I didn't see any on his character details during the map he's an ally on in any case 👀 His back and forth with Nader was funny too lol

Matthias... tragic face. But I like him! Or like, like adjacent him lmao - he came off real good in this demo but the whole thing with his family life is uhhh Complicated™

RUFUS' VOICE IS SOOOOOO FUCKIN' NICE TO LISTEN TO?? Deadass one of my faves. Even tho otherwise he has big "Yes-Ma'am-dude-from-the-dick-flattening-meme" energy. His death was dope as shit, absolutely in love with the presentation. And he had it comin’ cuz wtf dude’s an asshole

Edelgard gets Monica Dimitri gets Rodrigue and Claude gets FUCKING NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M IN PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GIVE ME JUDITH RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I KNOW SHE'S IN HERE I SAW HER GET SMACKED AROUND BY EDELGARD IN THE TRAILER YOU CAN'T HIDE HER FOREVER

Supports are strange, dunno how I feel about how they've been implemented. Like why have "supports" that can be reached if there's no corresponding conversation I don't get it lol 🤔

That's all I'm willing to put brainpower in rn lmao

[faroreswinds]

I finally have some time to answer some asks. Thank you for your patience.

If I didn’t answer an ask, that’s because tumblr swallowed it whole and I’m sorry about that. :(

Since you browse JP forums, do you know what the general opinion of 3Hopes seems to be?

Not happy, really. A lot of fans are pissed of about Claude, and how Rhea got shafted. Some comparisons to Putin and Hitler for Edelgard, etc. Some fans enjoy it but I’ve really seen more negativity more than anything. 

Byleth I’m so sorry I was so mean to you apparently you’re influence is why I even liked Claude in the first place I need to lie down and question my life

I know right? Who knew?!

But to be fair, this IS an AU. Besides weird characterizations, even some lore stuff doesn’t quite match. Seteth, for instance, is the only person who is supposed to have the Major Crest of Cichol. Well, that ain’t true anymore. 

So, is this game really canon? Ehhhhhh.... yes-no. It’s complicated. 

But we all owe an apology to Byleth. The grass is always greener, as they say. 

I may be wildly misinterpreting something, but does Edelgard get pseudo-lobotomized at the end of AG? Because that’s a whole other level of disgusting.

Yes. And it is.

But for me, not because I’m angry that Edelgard gets mind fucked. Which may be cruel of me, true. But... Well, it just ruins Dimitri’s route. He didn’t NEED Edelgard to be reduced to a child. Edelgard was well enough a villain on her own. It takes away his victory over her. It’s not as empowering anymore. And it does also ruin Edelgard’s own agency. 

Not to mention it makes you question why the Slithers don’t do this to her all the time. 

But it’s realistically the only way Dimitri and Edelgard could have survived in the same route. Sort of. This Edelgard is more merciful than her Houses counterpart, and this Dimitri is more willing to surrender if it means his people will be safe. But Edelgard, no matter the game, will never give up her ideals for another. So, she must either die, win, or be subdued in a way that can never be questioned. Well, they clearly didn’t want her to die. And she can’t win in Dimitri’s route. So.... brain washing it was. 

In Edelgard’s route, though, I might see Dimitri surrender. That’s basically a conqueror winning and I don’t see Claude letting Edelgard have the Kingdom like that. He doesn’t WANT a united under one banner Foldan. So... who knows?

But we do have to be honest with ourselves. Edelgard is both the red emperor and a marketable waifu. She’s much cuter in this game with high boots and a mini-skirt. Making her a 12-year old little girl is almost par the course. That is how the devs view her. A young girl to protect. Not the ruthless emperor we want to believe in (except for the original writer of Houses. He’s the only one who thinks of her as a legit villain from what I can tell). 

I have a question about the secret ending. I know you need to spare jeralt and byelth to access it but why? I just watched it and they aren't even involved in defeating arval? That it seems they never sothis and arval directly interact. It would make sense you need sothis/byleth help to defeat them, so it seems like a waste to not have them present.

@happiighost​

I don’t know all the details myself, but my guess is that Arval basically just kinda goes crazy because the evil child Goddess is still alive.

But it’s such a waste that Sothis and Arval really have so little time to actually like... interact. It is a waste indeed.

Part of that is because Arval isn’t actually a god. Sothis is Arval’s archnemesis but Arval isn’t Sothis’ archnemesis. He is merely one of many of her enemies. The relationship isn’t equal. It’s a shame they tried to frame it in a way that it was.

Wait, where did that convo w byleth and Claude come from?? I thought byleth only had supports w jeralt and shez???

It’s not a support, it’s Claude talking to Byleth after Byleth is recruited just... in general.

I believe it comes from SB, but I may be misremembering. 

A friend pointed out Dimitri and Edelgard wear lighter colors while Claude wears darker ones here in 3 Hopes. And well I really feel this is connected? Like we had them visually show a scene of Claude’s troops soldiers trampling flowers as he gives his big tone deaf speech.

I think that’s just coincidental. I have very little faith in the dev team to be that clever. Unless they come out and say that Claude is the bad guy in this game, I don’t think they thought that deeply. I think they just went “cool design!” and that was it.

But it’s still a nice coincidence, at least. 

The flower thing is very intentional though.

So in conclusion to all this, everyone in Three Hopes drank Dumb-Bitch Juice, but they drank so much of it that there wasn’t any if it for Dimitri.

Basically. Dimitri had a sip but Dedue and Felix came swooping in and knocked it out of his hands. 

Edelgard had a bit of the intelligence muffin, but not enough to knock some sense into her. She’s still kinda ridiculous. But she’s much nicer and even more reasonable in this game overall. I still wouldn’t call her a good person though.

But Claude man. He didn’t just drink the kool-aid, he swam in it. 

Claude is shown drinking the kool-aid even when he makes clear he knows the Alliance/Federation is next when the Kingdom is gone. He’s quite literally being a smug jackass who thinks he knows everything he knows. Just like Edelgard.

His logic makes NO sense when you think about it.

He is literally nobility from another land. What, does he just not have responsibilities over there ‘cause there is no church? Are there no forced marriages in Almyra ever in all its history? 

No, he just suddenly blames the church for everything wrong in Foldan. Like, all of it. It’s absolutely baffling. He even suggests that Dimitri could be free to do... something, he stops himself before finishing. But Dimitri is king! Even without the Church, those “responsibilities” would still be there! 

WTF Claude, think!

I wonder what Claude is trying to achieve in ThreeHopes. World peace through diplomacy and finding common ground? By literally pissing off every single nation possible?

Wreaked havoc in the Kingdom by invading as well as instigating(?) Sreng to invade and kill the Kingdom people’s beloved border protector, backstabbed the Emperor and angered the entire Empire by using their army as meat shields and cannon fodders, pissed off every single Seiros believer by murdering their archbishop who is also their equivalent of Jesus-in-disguise, slayed his own brother, an Almyran Prince and angered the Almyran people, betrayed the trust of every Alliance noble who put their trust in him as a leader to put a crown on his own head - ignoring the Alliance’s proud tradition of ruling through the Roundtable conference and literally going against the very point of the founding of said nation - and ruined the lives of the average Alliance citizen by dragging them into a war no one ever asked for, making them fight alongside the tyrannical emperor who might set out to conquer them next once she had the chance, then backstabbing her all of a sudden only to make the Alliance soldiers face the archbishop who can turn into a fucking fire-breathing dragon with over 1000 years of combat experience under her belt in battle. If his goal is to unify Fodlan and Almyra through a common cause by giving them an enemy everyone hates, then congratulations, he is very successful.

It’s like he literally did EVERYTHING wrong. It’s almost amazing, really. 

I guess at least he’s not a conqueror? But I mean.. I might actually prefer Houses Edelgard to Hopes Claude. That is quite a feat, really. 

Edelgard is pretty misguided but Claude is straight-up villainous. He turns on his allies, backstabs anyone and everyone when he can, and the thing he claims to fight for he also does actions that would realistically hinder such progress. You want open borders with your neighbor? Maybe don’t encourage their meaner neighbors to invade and kill the Margrave and other innocents.

Like, Edelgard using her own citizens as meat shields was bad enough. Claude using a foreign country with a history of invading another to kill innocents because it will distract the army is honestly quite worse imo. 

Seriously. His ending doesn’t even say the war will likely end now. It says the opposite. Good job, was it worth it?

Is Erwin Gloucester decent? Cause every clip I seen, is him bouncing off Clout and being a good dad to Lorenz. He's the same guy that killed Godfrey with collateral.

He’s... interesting. He’s both better than I can image and just as bed as I figured. Like, he seems like he’s actually a decent guy. But he also betrays the Alliance fairly early on. 

Dude is turncoat when he sees a better opportunity. 

But I have more respect for him than Claude. At least he has regrets, like not helping Lysithea’s family when times were... rough

Interesting how byleth simultaneously doesn’t figure much in the story despite being ON THE BOX ART, but the game still punishes players if they make shez kill byleth and jeralt

That’s because Byleth is quite literally GOD so of course you should be punished for killing God. 

But yeah, that plotline is weird. It just tags along the war plotline. It just drags everything down and doesn’t really mean much in the end.

Except in SB apparently, since SB got two endings (minor differences) while AG and GW do not. Although I think they were supposed to. Either they cut those endings, or there is a glitch.

I'm fully convinced that an Edelhead wrote this cause there's no way in 9 eternal flames, that Claude from 3 houses would do this. Granted I know you gain support points if you say you hope Rhea's dead but actually killing her?! Buzz off with that 3 nopes.

This is a Claude without proper guidance apparently. :/

In all honesty, I’m just chalking it up to being a literal different universe. It’s so different that even some facts are different. Hence, a nicer Edelgard, and a crueler Claude. 

Which fucking sucks. 

Claude doesn’t even like... use his brain, he just suddenly fell into the rabbit hole and when he looked up and saw no sky, failed to realize that it was because there was dirt over his head. 

But someone wrote this to REALLY try to make Edelgard look good. It’s backfiring because even people who don’t really like Rhea feel bad for her. How bad do you have to mess up to get haters to feel sorry?

[a-pale-azure-moon]

Midnight Plays Azure Gleam: Chapter 7

So after the clustertruck of disappointment (and confusion) I felt after chapter 6, this chapter comes along and hits all the right kinds of emotional notes to suck me back in. And the battle was fun too!

The opening narration says Dimitri fears he's marching into a trap by going back to Fhirdiad, even though nothing was actually said about a trap at the close of the last chapter. I personally suspected it might be a trap, but none of the characters voiced such concerns.

Felix, Sylvain and Shez speak with a Kingdom messenger, who confirms that Sreng did attack, but they never got past Gautier territory. Someone's interfering with the lines of communication! Matthias suspected as such and thus dispatched multiple messengers on different routes, and this one finally made it to Arianrhod.

Felix draws a line of comparison between this and the attack on Count Rowe's convoy, and again suspects Cornelia. The messenger has no word on what's going on in Fhirdiad, so Shez immediately suggests they should go and see for themselves. Sylvain likewise pleads for urgency.

Felix points out that the Imperial forces are watching them, so they can't act rashly and risk losing their hold on Arianrhod. Sylvain says that if Dimitri dies, Arianrhod will be the least of their problems. Felix, looking worried, says Dimitri has "an uncanny talent for giving me headaches." (lol) And naturally says that a team of the most elite soldiers will be heading north.

Camp (Arianrhod Outskirts)

There's a mercenary NPC who comments on Miklan's position in the army, and that it gives her hope that she can likewise make a better life for herself, since she once had to resort to thievery. (That good PR's paying off already, it seems.)

Felix talks about the responsibilities he has as the current head of the army. He's basically getting a taste of what it's like to be Dimitri!

Sylvain has some interesting tidbits about the current line of succession in Faerghus. Dimitri named Felix his successor in the event of his death (logical, considering the rank of House Fraldarius), but there's the issue of no one else currently possessing the Crest of Blaiddyd, so a battle of succession would be inevitable. Also, can anyone honestly imagine Felix as a king? I'm not saying he's incapable, but diplomacy could be a problem for him with his sharp tongue, lol.

Interlude

Felix says they've received a message from Matthias that there's an unfolding emergency at the capital. Cornelia, leading the combined forces of the rebellious western lords, invaded Fhirdiad and deployed "strange new weapons" that she used to threaten the citizens. So Dimitri surrendered to her to protect the civilians. There's no word on what's happened to Dedue, Rodrigue, Gustave or Duke Ifan.

After Felix, Sylvain, Ingrid and Annette leave, Arval comments on Dimitri's selflessness, and that he's become the kind-hearted king Shez saw him for. Shez says that if Dimitri dies, the people will be next anyway. Arval says there's no avoiding that: if Dimitri hadn't surrendered to Cornelia, he would've been seen as a selfish warmonger who abandoned his people when they were in danger. Arval reminds Shez that the choices of a leader carry more weight than that of a mercenary, and then snarkily adds that Shez would never be cut out for nobility.

Camp

There's some new camp dialogue after the cutscene, which is a first.

Catherine (still a bit confused why she's here but not playable) says she's contacted Shamir!

Ashe comments about Dimitri's disregard for his own life and how it relates to the Tragedy of Duscur. I figured someone would bring this up eventually, but I'm surprised that it's Ashe, of all people.

Annette's worried about her father, of course.

An NPC talks about the royal family's superhuman strength. He notes that the only way to hold a member of the royal family captive is to either lock them in an enchanted jail cell or sap their will to escape, and that he's worried for Dimitri's health. Uh oh...

Another NPC has a juicy tidbit about how the dungeon under the castle is rumored to be connected to Fhirdiad's underground waterways. Is this a hint as to how Dedue helped Dimitri escape during the timeskip in 3H?

Interlude 2

Cornelia taunts Dimitri, as she's so good at doing. Honestly, she might be my favorite villain in both these games, since she's utterly despicable (making her fun to hate) but actually competent too.

She says once Rodrigue and Dedue (and presumably Gustave) are dealt with, Dimitri will be next.

I love this exchange:

Cornelia: "How tragic it will be, facing your beloved citizens for the final time with a noose around your neck."

Dimitri: "You know, I almost appreciate such bold-faced sadism. There's not a hint of nuance to it."

Cornelia notes the irony that Dimitri will die as Lambert did, betrayed by the lords of his own kingdom, and wonders if Dimitri learned anything from "dear old dad." Then a soldier interrupts to announce that our rescue team has arrived. Before she leaves, Cornelia issues one last taunt, telling Dimitri that people are just sheep, and when one ruler dies, they'll simply flock to whomever fills the void.

Dimitri says to himself that it was inevitable that someone would want revenge against him. =(

Battle

An NPC solider relays to the Lions that there are weird weapons in the city, but the citizens remain unharmed. Rodrigue and Gustave freed Duke Ifan, and are now battling the rebellious soldiers themselves.

Felix is impressed with his father, since he knows this is a diversion to help our group get to the castle. But after a (not very hard) push from Annette and Shez, he agrees to aid Rodrigue and Gustave. Ashe says Dedue is no doubt somewhere out there as well.

The Lions are just such a good loyal team. Warms my heart every time. <3

This is the same map as chapter 3, but it looks decidedly less daunting now than it did then, thanks to having better weapons, stronger units, the Strategy feature, and most importantly, a lot more practice with the gameplay. Interesting to note, there's only three playable unit slots, as opposed to the usual four for story maps. Gee, I wonder why? :V

The objective is simple: Rescue Dimitri. Let's do this thing!

Once the front line is taken out, two of Cornelia's Viskam start firing on us, and Dedue appears as a green unit fighting the rebels. No idea where he came from, but he naturally declares his intent to get to the castle.

After aiding Dedue, Rodrigue appears as another green unit. It's also possible to turn off the Viskam by seizing the strongholds with their controls. Thanks for leaving the switches right out in the open, Cornelia! (Maybe I should take back that note about competency...)

Rodrigue thanks Felix for helping him, and Felix naturally downplays his concerns for his dad, lol.

Cornelia opens the castle gates to welcome us in. Your funeral, lady. And no sooner do we enter than Gustave appears as a green unit. After saving him, the throne room opens, and we get a neat shot of Areadbhar in its...case, I guess you call it?

If this doesn't scream "do not touch" I don't know what does, lol. Not sure what the stuff wrapped around the blade is supposed to be. Some kind of magic suppressant perhaps? The slab it's in is even bigger than the damn throne!

Anyway, after recovering Areadbhar (Felix, in a rare sentimental moment, notes that it's all Dimitri has left of his father and I'm getting feels), the final door opens and it's cutscene time.

This cutscene. THIS CUTSCENE! <3 <3 <3

Forgive me for gushing, but this cutscene is pure perfection. I have so many feels! Felix offering his hand, Dimitri's palpable despair and self-loathing, Dedue's moving speech, the way the sad/emotional music segues into a triumphant theme as Dimitri (literally) leaps back into action. The friendship! The loyalty! It's all so incredibly beautiful! <3 The only thing missing from it is Byleth.

My one complaint is that Felix is somehow wielding the Sword of Moralta in this cutscene, even though I don't currently possess it. And I highly doubt I missed it since I've been doing every side battle. Ah well.

Mission accomplished! And Dimitri now occupies that mysteriously missing playable unit slot.

Enter a TON of "Mysterious Soldiers" to start attacking the citizens, and now there are four active Viskam. Victory now hinges on protecting the four NPC citizens and beating up the Argathans. Luckily, there was a Strategy for repairing the drawbridges, making it easier to get back to the main streets.

Margrave Gautier appears as a green unit with some extra backup! We're just having a big reunion over here!

There, rescued the citizens and deactivated the Viskam. (Their shots hurt and aren't always easy to avoid amid the chaos.) Now Cornelia finally comes out, along with a whole bunch more mages.

Cornelia says something interesting. She says she went too easy on Dimitri, and perhaps should've "torn out his eyes and bound him in chains." Is this semi-confirmation that she's the reason Dimitri lost his right eye in 3H?

Regardless, she went down pretty easy. She's still a squishy wizard after all.

Dimitri interrogates Cornelia, accusing her of conspiring with Arundel, the Empire, Rufus, and the western Kingdom lords to instigate the Tragedy. She plays coy, of course. Dimitri demands to know her motivations and who she's working for, and why she went through such a roundabout plan when she could've just let the plague swallow Faerghus twenty years ago.

Cornelia says the plague was "another lifetime completely." Dimitri then asks about his stepmother, and Cornelia implicates Edelgard before warping away.

I got an A rank; I was 400 short of the kill count. It's really frustrating trying to balance being efficient due to the time constraints while also trying to pile up a sufficient body count. Felix got the MVP (he carried me through so much of this chapter with Dimitri unavailable).

Post Battle

Dimitri apologizes for Cornelia escaping. He suspects she's headed to Mateus territory, and says he will immediately lead a march westward to put an end to her and the revolt.

Felix gets mad and interrupts. In his typical pointy manner, he calls Dimitri out for trying to do everything himself. And...Dimitri says he's the one who killed Rufus (who conspired in the Tragedy and tried to usurp the throne), the one who oppressed the western lords (who conspired to kill Lambert and frame Duscur for it), and the one who chose war with the Empire (all Dimitri did was grant the Central Church asylum). I have a lot of problems with this framing. Because yeah, it's definitely in-character for Dimitri to blame himself for all of these things, but they aren't really his fault. Was he supposed to let Rufus take the throne? Was he supposed to let the western lords go unpunished for their crimes? Was he supposed to tell Rhea "too bad, good luck out there"? It's frustrating that he lays out all of this self-blame and literally no one refutes it.

He lays out more self-blame for failing to save Lambert, Glenn and the people of Duscur. And again...that's not his fault either. But he says he believes it's his burden to bare alone, and Felix calls him a fool and tells the others to say something.

Mercedes says that Felix is just worried about Dimitri. All the other Lions chime in with similar sentiments about wanting to help and wanting Dimitri to rely on them. He thanks them, sounding truly moved. <3

Cut to Cornelia with Viscount Mateus. She tells him about the failure at the capital, and stokes the Viscount's fear to stir him to act. Guess we know what that means...

What a great chapter! Lots of strong emotional beats and plot intrigue! The Lions all bonding together! <3 I won't say it fully makes up for some of the more questionable things in the story so far, but it's certainly a step back in the right direction.

[theeeveetamer]

Scarlet Blaze Liveblog: Chapter 7

Spilers under the cut, as per usual!

Explore

Oh right we recruited Ignatz didn’t we

I find it interesting that thus far no one we’ve recruited has been for any ideological reason. Ashe comes because he doesn’t want to kill his dad, Lorenz comes because his family decides to waffle for survival, and Ignatz surrenders and then later comes along because he’s working for Lorenz.

FLIRT WITH MANUELA!!! Too bad she never takes me seriously

I have some controversial opinions on this game’s depiction of Gatekeeper. Like, I feel like they were trying way too hard with him, and in the process somehow made him even more one note while also losing what was initially charming about him. The fact that they cut Gilbert, Cyril, Alois, and Hanneman but added this guy as a playable is a fucking travesty.

I’m sorry, I still can’t take the name Leopold seriously. Is my brain rotted out from too much South Park? Perhaps.

I keep trying to pick answers that everyone will hate but Shez is being quite agreeable despite my best efforts >:(

AW FERDIE AND LORENZ ARE CHATTING!

ThatsMyShip.jpg

Lmao @ the baron insulting me for my “baseborn stench”. Nice ally we got there, huh

Ok I swear to god when I ran up to Hubert he whispered some shit in my ear and I am Concerned

LMAO I SOLD ALL MY WEAPONS THAT WEREN’T RUSTED OR CURRENTLY EQUIPPED SO ASHE GOT A RUSTED AXE BY DEFAULT RIP

Edelgard wants to go on an expedition… Fine.

Forest I guess

Y’know one of these days I’m going to count the number of heart designs on Edelgard’s clothes. I can spot at least five just sitting here

I intentionally picked all the worst options lmao. They still like it tho even when you completely botch it

Supports

Caspar/Bernie C - “That armor isn’t big enough for a person to hide in”

Caspar

Caspar my buddy my pal

Armor is, by definition, exactly big enough for a person to fit in

In fact it’s entire purpose is to contain people for their protection

Caspar should be neither the reasonable nor the intelligent one in any conversation (affectionate)

Linhardt/Constance C - So if Constance’s family has been tricking crest investigators for a literal milenna so no one found out about the crest of Noa… how does Linhardt just know about it..?

Bernie/Petra B - Petra is a sadist got it lmao

I’m here for the Brigid lore tho

Shez/Caspar B - “Show some humility for once” LMAOOOOOOO ima pick that one

Shez/Caspar is actually kind of charming lmao

Edelgard/Ferdie C - Damn what was that tone to start off with. Some shady tone going on there.

Also the sad music damn

Ferdie: I was expecting a torture dungeon

Edelgard: We have one of those lol

Comforting

This legal system sounds like shit lmao

“Oh we can’t find any evidence that he’s guilty so let’s just assume that he is” um what lmao

There’s a reason justice systems kind of operate on a… y’know, you can’t prove a negative rule?

So Daddy Aegir… cheats on his taxes?

Ferdie is so depressed lmao. Poor kid.

Linhardt/Bernie C - WHY IS SHE ON HER KNEES RIGHT NEXT TO HIS CROTCH

Uh

Sorry

Is Bernie peeping on a sex scene

(they’re literally just standing there becaues this is Fodlan what is an animation lol, but let’s pretend)

“Neither of them seems to be dead yet” Lin. Lin. What kind of sex are you having Lin

Lin continues to be the only self aware mfer in this house. “Aw how sweet that they’re sharing a romantic moment when they’ll probably be dead tomorrow”. Savage.

AND HE DROPS LIKE A ROCK LMAO

Ferdie/Bernie C - Weird this is another support that only goes up to C. I don’t recall the Lions having like… any of these?

They’re eating the weeds lmao

“Such luster! Such size!” size queen Ferdie lmao

Shez/Lorenz C - Idk if I want to include the contents of this since I plan on doing a GW run at some point and I imagine it’ll be like, basically the same, but I did get it.

This conversation makes my head hurt

Side Battles

“Chase the enemy down and annihilate them”

That’s a good guy thing to do!

Oh? Space time dimension Arval convo?

Oh I think this is the same as the other routes. Lame

“The Alliance army is using a stronghold in Gloucester territory to obstruct the Imperial army’s advance. Sack it.”

That’s a good guy thing to do!

OMG I SENT ASHE INTO THE FIGHT WITH THE RUSTED AXE

He still kicked ass tho because I’m like. 20 levels above the recommended level lmao

The alliance Baron is a thief hahahahha nice touch

MOMMY JUDITH IS BACK AGAIN!!!!!!

Hope we don’t have to murder you in cold blood this time

Paralogue Battles

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH I forgot we have paraloooooooogues

I’m guessing this is Bernie’s. The question is, do I care

Oh no Dorothea’s too

This game just loooooves wasting my time, eh.

Alright fine I’ll do it. Starting off with Bernie and Monica.

“We’re rounding up anyone who can help. Which is just the three of us” yeah fuck that generic mage guy lmao

Omg I just realized… I didn’t level up Monica… she’s level 3… RIP…

Omg Bernie’s mom gets a shoutout. Probably not a name tho. This fucking game…

“I’m looking for the lost Fretters of Dromi”

*side eyes my inventory and the Fretters of Dromi Yuri rolled in with”

Yep no idea where that could be

“We needed a bargaining chip to ply the Archbishop with” dude. You like. Used her sibling’s corpse as a bargaining chip to get her to agree with you. That’s so fucked up.

Obligatory Myson paralogue appearance

This actually wasn’t too bad. Monica put in a surprisingly good effort for being level 3 lmao. Maybe because I gave her Thrysus

Honestly I don’t really have much to say about this one. It’s… kind of a wasted paralogue. Monica doesn’t engage meaningfully with TWSITD (even though they literally kidnapped her and locked her up???) and Bernie is just… Bernie. The final dialogue is everyone just teasing/shitting on Bernie. Definitely nothing as meaningful or character development-y as the Dedue/Felix/Ingrid paralogue, or the Ashe/Catherine/Yuri paralogue, or the Sylvain/Dimitri/Rodrigue paralogue… you get the idea. The most we get is some vague info on Bernie’s mom being worried about her.

ON TO DOROTHEA/MANUELA PARALOGUE

Starts off with a random generic soldier guy shouting his love for Manuela. My kind of people

Adrienne??? A girl??? Gets a name???? In this game???

Manuela just casually being like “Yeah we have to thump a few incels” same girl. Same

Also I’m guessing the dialogue changes slightly depending on if you’ve gotten Dorothea’s supports? Cuz Shez says “we’ve been over this, I’m not that into this” which is what their support with Dorothea was all about.

“Thief was revealed to be a MANUELA FANATIC” same bro, same

Oh there’s a Dorothea fan too. JUST a fan tho, not a fanatic

Ok this is kind of amusing

OMG HANNEMAN SHOWED UP

LMAOOOO “Hanneman! You came for me!!! <3 Wait… am I actually into this???”

Yes, yes you are Manuela. I ship it.

Much better than the last paralogue. At least this one provides some interesting backstory for the characters involved. Also Manuela and Hanneman being Mom and Dad lmao.

Kinda disappointed we didn’t get a random Shez fanatic tho lmao. Would have been peak comedy

Main Battle

I just noticed the title of this war map (chapter?) is “The Blitz of Riegan”

Blitz. That’s a good guy word!

Ok, on to the main chapter battle!

If this game had some balls we’d learn about how Bergliez’s men had to engage in cannibalism in order to survive the siege

And now looks like we get Raphael, Lysithea, and Marianne

OH interesting, in order to recruit Raphael you HAVE to have Ignatz with you. Gay.

(Yeah I ship that too, what of it?)

I think that only happened one time in AG, with Mercie?

Also thankfully it warned me lmao because I was not going to bring Ignatz to this party

“I have to knock some sense into you Raphael!” Yeah fuck that guy for defending his homeland

1800 kills for an S rank seems a little excessive

Also it’s ridiculous how much map reuse is going on here

Sothis cheater moment lmao

Post Battle Stuff

“Maybe I should have just let the Empire have their way” ok AG had this issue as well. Why is this game so weirdly insistent on trying to demonize people defending their homes from invaders.

Same cutscenes with Arval and Byleth. Lame.

Oh my god. Arianhrod is a sex joke. AND CASPAR DOESN’T GET IT LMFAO

Oh my god that was a genuine laugh from me that’s wonderful

Shez’s comment about the Ashen demon comes out of nowhere lmao.

Ugh. Dimitri is being such a king I love him. Why are we just the worst in this route

I also find it interesting that they don’t invert the colors of the factions. So we still have the evil villain red lines, and Dimitri still has the Fire Emblem Protag blue lines.

You know how else we could have avoided all these needless battles and saved countless lives, Edelgard? Not starting a war. That avoids a lot of needless battles. That saves a lot of lives.

“Fanatics dying for the central church” or. You know. People from the Kingdom. Not uh, not wanting you to take over their homelands tax them to shit and subjugate their peoples. That’s a motivator as well.

Oh god now we have to have a private conversation with Edelgard

Shez: I don’t know what you’re doing and that’s exactly why I follow you!

Well that’s fucking stupid, Shez. Are you stupid? You appear to have lost quite a few braincells between AG and now

Honestly I’m… not really sure what this conversation was trying to advance? The Kingdom Nobility were “reabsorbed into Faerghus without even a slap on the wrist”? And that’s portrayed as a bad thing that needs to be stopped… even though Edelgard admits two seconds later that she does the EXACT same thing?

And how do we even know they’re getting off without punishment? We can’t see what’s going on in the Kingdom? And if you play AG you know for a fact that they do not get off without punishment because… like half of AG is focused on punishing them.

This really feels like “pull some shit out of our asses to make this conflict look justified” hours.

Which, to be clear. It’s not. It’s not justified at all. I almost wish I could throw this entire war because I feel like a bad person for sitting here watching this game repeatedly shit on completely justifiable resistance to a foreign invasion as if it’s somehow a bad thing. Why the fuck are we even doing this again??? For the lolz???

Also I finally made popcorn after this one. And I discovered Balthus gold grinding soooooo life is pretty good now!

[solibrie]

fe3h musings, spoilers for basically All of it ir2 byleth

my problem is that i like byleth a LOT. like i think their backstory is sooo fuckin cool and i love how it justifies their stoic personality. like, YES, byleth is a player insert. but the justification for it in-universe is very cool to me!!! like!!! YES!!! the fantasy pope (who is also sort of our grandmother) did a heart transplant on a newborn using the heart of her dead mother which was in our dead mother's chest!

and because sothis was dormant, byleth was dormant too. all of their emotions were locked behind what byleth could never understand. and i just, i really like that. esp in verdant wind where byleth smiles the most after their powers awaken.

im a big fan of twin byleth au's—im always into male/female versions of protagonists being made into siblings, and fe3h in particular has a LOT of sibling relationships that are integral to the plot. take it one step further and apply it to the protag!!! fyleth is the one i usually let keep the crest of flames, while myleth (who i call ayel, short for yomayel since yomayel, byleth, and sitri r three demons typically depicted in a triad) is like, just a normal dude.

in my brain byleth is the same as canon (or at least has the same backstory) while ayel has the crest of seiros from jeralt. the twins having totally different crests and both of them being major crests def gets them a lot of attention from ppl in the academy and all but cements to rhea that these mercs are the kids from that night.

like i dunno obviously the byleth in my brain is fanon but i think silent protagonists/blank slate characters are SO interesting for what they imply in-fiction.

and to touch briefly on few3h i think shez managing to secure a seat at garreg mach (in the golden deer, ofc, since they're from leicester + commoners have an easier time getting into the school thru the alliance + Verdant Wind Is The Best) is SO funny in the three houses timeline. like i might start a wip for that, or at least use it for my starting point in my vw rewrite

shez's whole Thing (vessel for the agarthans) is conceptually very cool but i think could be executed a bit better. idk how shez factors into a twin au though, because shez having a sibling is more complicated since their whole thing is that they were Alone, while byleth always had jeralt so adding ayel to the mix doesn't drastically alter her character. probs would do nonbinary shez to just mix them both while fyleth and myleth are separated into two distinct characters.

i also struggle a LOT with ships in fe3h because of byleth being a professor... like i DO like claudeleth but ONLY post-ts... most fics spend a lot of time in pre-ts which suuucks though. if i ever go through with my vw rewrite i 100% would do byleth/gatekeeper LOL. i think gatekeeper is so fun. i also think ayel/jeritza would be funny from a standpoint of getting jeritza out of el/twsitd's clutches. claude/petra is one of my favie claude ships though. lorenz/claude is also really fun, one of the only "enemy" to lovers ships i really care about. and dmcl i dont care about really but i think its so funny that its so popular. like it makes sense (two popular male characters + the AM mission) but it's still so funny to me.

if the vw rewrite goes anywhere i think i would do:

byleth/gatekeeper (i would name him, naturally)

ayel/jeritza

claude/petra OR claude/lorenz (not both tho. it also depends, thematically. i lean either way a LOT of the time)

marianne/hilda. of COURSE

lysithea/cyril. i can't help it. they're so cute and cyril deserves nice things

raphael/bernadetta. i loooove their supports and their ending is so cute esp in terms of bernie's character development <3

lin/caspar... sorry for liking childhood friends. as if i can help it. also because i think lin is a character who would be so easily recruitable in-fiction due to a fixation on byleth+ayel's crests, and where lin goes caspar follows :)

on that note i am always so conflicted ir2 the faerghus four. like sylvix and dimigrid are funny bcos i think they'd all be so miserable. ingrid/dorothea is fun BUT ingrid's dedue supports sour me sooo much she doesn't deserve dorothea. but also ingrid actually being confronted for her racism by dorothea is so interesting conceptually PLUS dorothea wants to marry for money but falling for ingrid, who hails from poor land, is rly good + ingrid who is meant to marry to pass down her crest falling in love w a woman is also rly good.

plus i acknowledge my hypocrisy a bit ir2 hilda and ingrid. but i think hilda's cyril and claude supports are a lot more indicative of her being initially closeminded but willing to learn while ingrid uses her trauma as an excuse to be awful.

ferdinand's flayn supports are also kind of cute. i don't love a lot of flayn's supports but hers with ferdie are so like... classically adorable im kinda obsessed w them. it's also interesting from a narrative standpoint where seteth remembers the aegir family from forever ago and sees where they've wound up and how he would react to flayn's entanglement with aegir's descendant.

anyway i know ships arent everything obvi but supports are the lifeblood of fe so it's kinda important LOL and not all of these would even get that much attention but i like to think about the recruitment feature a lot!!! the BE in vw all seem SOOOO genuinely recruitable. even ferdinand!

anyways i have so many thoughts. sorry for thinking about fire emblem.

[sovereign-tempest]

Three Hopes Demo Thoughts

// Copying the fad of discussing what I thought of the demo, now I’ve finally caught up and finished it all. This is FULL of spoilers, by the way.

SHEZ

- Might as well talk about the main character first. I played as the male version, but I quite like them both design wise. Just preferred the male a little more.

- I like them! Definitely more personality than Byleth (obviously) and I like to go back to a MCU that speaks a lot more. I’m very interested about their past and pretty excited to find out more about their connections to Those Who Slither.

- I’ll just add it here, but I’m enjoying Arval too! Their sass is fun, and again, I’m interested to get to know more about them. Maybe it’s because we’ve already talked to them so much and his personality - but I’m enjoying them over Sothis so far.

AZURE GLEAM

- To no-one’s surprise, I played this first. What can I say, I’m bias. 

- I had a good time with this one! Very basic tale so far, nothing overly complicated, but sometimes that works in a story’s favour. Getting a new spin on Rufus was definitely interesting to me.

- The dynamic between Dimitri and Felix ALONE just watered my crops for years! The amount of new info from the characters is already so juicy, wasn’t expecting so much good shit from just a demo. Let alone the rest of the game!

- I got to say though, I’m not even sure what’s left for the story. I guess it’s just back to the Defeat The Empire shtick which...is really boring that they’re going back to that. I’m hoping there will be more Kingdom-specific story lines in the main game.

GOLDEN WILDFIRE

- This one may annoy people, so just bare in mind these are speculations of a DEMO, so my views can definitely change by the time we get the full game.

- I didn’t have fun here. In fact, I was very disappointed. Claude felt more...like a dick? Maybe it was just me, but I got bad vibes from him, like he didn’t really give too much of a shit. Like his charms felt like manipulation? Like...you ask Shez to fight with you, only to leave them struggle for two years? Then when they call you up on it, you SUDDENLY have something for them to do? I’m hoping this is just a temporary thing, or maybe it’ll be revealed that something bigger was going on later on.

- I loved the idea of Almyra being far more important in this route. Definitely something that was a huge missing puzzle piece in Three Houses, and I was very much looking forward to seeing more. The half-brother was a great start. Though... I wish Claude...REACTED? I get that he keeps his cards close to his chest, but not even a glint of recognition as to who this is? I get that his Almyran family treated him like dirt - I’m not asking for Claude to be sad about taking down his shitty brother - but...be angry at least? Annoyed? That he dared show up here? Again, I’m kinda hoping it’ll all have some kind of big reveal overall later on...

- Just a fun one more than anything; but I can actually enjoy Leonie this time around. Though...why Shez didn’t react to Leonie’s reveal that she trained under Jeralt is beyond me. Shez is after Jeralt/Byleth after all, thought they would have wanted to know more about this, but ah well, maybe later. 😆

SCARLET BLAZE

- It’s pretty common knowledge among friends here that Edelgard is ‘meh’ to me. Despite that, I was very excited to play this route and get to know her on a whole new level. I’m ITCHING to like this character, to see what everyone else seems to do. 

- And at the beginning - I TOTALLY DID! Edelgard and Hubert sneaking around isn’t a surprise, but the pre-timeskip stuff was genuinely fascinating and FUN to go through! Again, lots of knowledge of Those Who Slither, getting to beat the shit out of Arundel (which is just...YES!) and her overall plan - I was IN! I was invested! I loved her line as well about bringing down the class system without nagging about Crests - that it was about Noble and Citizens. I’m 100% behind that.

- Then we skip two years and we’re back to the whole anti-Church, anti-Crest stuff we’ve ALREADY SEEN. 

- This is more a critique of the story as a whole than of Scarlet Blaze specifically - but since we’re talking about Edelgard I’ll just put it here. I HATE that we are still going to have the War against the Empire, like we had in Three Houses. I, like most people in the community from what I’ve seen, wanted to see something completely new. Since this is a spin-off, and not a canon connection to 3H. As cliche as it sounds (but it is a Warriors game, which are normally very simple stories), I was hoping for a story that would force these butting-heads Leaders to work together. I hope that story does still show up, and maybe we’re having this War again because it makes it all the more spicy when they are forced to work together - I’m just already bored with having to do this take-over in Scarlet Blaze once again.

Ending note; Since this is just the demo, I am greatly hoping my critiques thus far will be non-existent by the end of the main game. I am still very much looking foward to finishing these stories and have fun exploring new info on Fodlan once again. Just to say, these are just my opinions, not something I expect everyone to feel. If you loved something I disliked, awesome! As long as we can all enjoy the game, that’s the main thing!

MISC

- Got to say, gameplay wise, it’s a typical Warriors game. However, I’ve definitely picked favourite classes/weapons... Magic users/archers, in my opinion, are terribly slow and rather awful to play as. Though that might just be my play style. Hoping the higher classes will greatly improve on that because so far they are more of a chore to play as rather than fun.

- My favourite units to use are sword, lance (especially cavalry lance users) and occasional axe users. Though, they’re slow as Hell, they do a lot of fun damage.

- My favourite redesigns are; Petra, Marianne, Dimitri, Ashe, Mercedes and Dedue.

[faroreswinds]

Azure Gleam - Chapter 8

Notes of chapter 8! I just want to point out in the book section, House Nuvelle had flourished due to trade with Dagda, Albinea, Brigid, and other territories. And yet, GW insisted Rhea prevented such things? HMMMM

Story

Dorothea hasn’t been too bad yet. She’s actually happy that the Kingdom has the Silver Maiden since the Empire would have taken over easily with all the internal in-fighting0.

A Duscan NPC says Dimitri personally apologized to her about her brother’s death six years ago. But all she cares about is the truth behind the incident. 

And NPC thinks that Felix taking over as head has helped him understand his father a bit more (a while back, he had considered cutting ties with his house before this).

Hapi is happy that “Didi” will take down Cornelia. 

According to Rodrigue, Felix had muttered about it being preferrable to rescuing them over “having nightmares about abandoning them” (What a tsundere)

Bernie, why are you HERE?

Flayn noticed a change in Dimitri. Not that he is cheerful, but more at ease. Yay for friends!

Shamir will be returning, yay! Catherine is excited. 

I don’t know who Viscount Brennius is, but he has energy, and I like him. 

Ingrid is talking to a Duscur General. Ingrid agrees to teach her how to use a spear. (Character growth, yay!)

Dimitri says that Felix “scolded him all night”… firmly (O-oh my). Then Dedue came in and started arguing with Felix.  

It just occurred to me that Dimitri learned some lesson MUCH sooner than Claude did. 

Lots of Duscur NPCs about, it’s cool to see. 

An NPC says that people are just unequal at birth, with things like pedigree, crests, intelligence, etc (And he is right, as much as it sucks) 

Seteth def suspects more out of Cornelia than he is letting on. 

Some NPCs are sad to fight friends and family. I do not blame them. One NPC came in place of her husband as a result. 

And people say that the Kingdom is misogynistic. :/ There are so many strong and powerful women here. 

Felix, when speaking to Dedue: “B-baka” (I mean, basically. He was complimenting Duscan soldiers and didn’t care where they came from. Dedue says Dimitri must be happy to have Felix by his side, and Felix gets a bit flustered in his mean ol’ way)

Oh look, more western lords in the side maps that don’t have crests. 

Ok, so Edelgard is personally attacking Arundel territory and the Silver Maiden. Unlike in GW, we aren’t suddenly changing objectives. We are still going after the Western lords, and instead, Miklan and the Knights of Seiros are going to the front lines to hold the siege instead. 

Starting to get some Slither enemies in the side missions. 

Interestingly, a commoner I saved in a side map joined us afterwards. Just like in GW. I don’t recall this happening in SB maps but maybe it did and I don’t recall. 

Viscount Mateus, Viscount Elidure, and Viscount Gideon can fucking go to hell. All hail Baron Dominic. Why does this man have a fucking generic model?! Dude is calling these bastards for the cowards they are. 

Fuck off Cornelia, my man was giving them a dressing down. 

Apparently Gustave is a great cook, according to my outing with Annette.

 Main battle time!

Oooohhh, Gustave and Annette will play a role this chapter

Arval pushing Shez towards killing Byleth again. And Shez is all “well, do we have to? Dimitri is more important to me”

So, need the Baron because if he dies, the Western Lords might rally around his son because he has a crest, makes sense.

Whoa, a Titanus? We have never seen this in the other routes, this is entirely new!

Also, Cornelia is here again. >:3

Brooo, Duscur soldiers have come to help! Based, they can get revenge too. 

They call Dimitri the “Warrior King” that’s dope af

And Ingrid is like “I will not let you lay a hand on them!” talking about the Duscur soldiers. Character growth!

Count Rowe tried to recruit Ashe. >:( Ashe told him what’s up though

Have we finally captured Cornelia this time? 

Patricia is dead. Cornelia claims that Edelgard killed her mother. 

Whoa, Cornelia died? “This body has reached its end” I guess slither bodies are studier. 

Oh yeah, no one knew that Edelgard was his stepsister

Oh look at that, Dimitri isn’t keeping secrets from his allies, unlike a certain someone in GW. 

So Patricia was banished from the court after getting involved in a political dispute. So either the real Cornelia or the fake one asked Lambert to shelter her. 

“I don’t know how we can just sit down with are enemies after we have killed each other” I know Ashe, I know. 

Time to go “talk” with Edelgard in Arianrhod

Claude. Well... hello there. 

So Claude did that scheme with Lorenz’s father in this route too. 

So Claude is ready to strike a deal with whoever wins. 

Paralogue

There is a single paralogue for this chapter available: with Dedue, Ingrid, and Felix

I wish Dimitri was part of this paralogue tbh, but I get why he isn’t here either. 

Basically, Duscur is divided on whether to make peace with the Kingdom or not. So the leader of the insurrection who played a key role in the Tragedy so we have to arrest him. 

Oh, Dimitri isn’t here because he might kill him out of anger, makes sense. 

So, Dedue’s hometown is near here, and this is also near where the late king died. 

Also apparently we aren’t killing? Dedue said no killing since it will complicate things. Or maybe he meant no killing the leader? Idk. 

Ingrid asked to come here to get the past behind her. 

Lol, Ingrid was my MVP 

Anyways, we caught the guy. 

The flowers are recovering after being tramped years ago. TT_TT Dedue used to come with his sister.... 

And Felix wants to protect the same things Glenn did. TT_TT Both Dimitri and the Kingdom. (And don’t tell the boar. ;) ) 

And even he admits the flowers aren’t so bad.

We don’t necessarily learn much about the Tragedy, but it was still a touching paralogue. Personally I found it more emotional than Edelgard’s with Lysithea and Hapi. 

Supports

The following supports unlocked after the last chapter: 

Dimitri and Shez B support - Imagine being the poor soul who knocks out the fucking king in training. Felix and Dedue were besides themselves. :3 And everyone pulled together to get stuff down while he “rested”. And everyone thinks he should be taking more breaks. Jesus, Dimitri really does do a shit ton. And he still keeps secrets (not Claude-like secrets, but he didn’t tell anyone that he went to bury the villagers on his own)

Dimitri and Felix B - Felix mothers over Dimitri. And then… “Do you hate me, Felix?” MY HEART, THAT LINE WAS SAID SO SADLY. Felix is still kinda being a jerk but it’s not nearly as bad in AM. He’s being a bit nicer. 

Dimitri and Sylvain B - Commoners are entering nobility. Skill is what matters in the end, like Ashe. Crest bloodline is fading everywhere (Felix is an exception with a major crest). It’s basically a discussion in how to move forward to stay strong but deal with how things are changing for long term stability. (Nuance, basically).

It’s nice to see Sylvain and Dimitri have a more serious support that is still nice. It reminds everyone they ARE close. 

Dimitri and Dedue B - (romantic music starts) 0/////0 

Dimitri can write in Duscan, which is just fucking cool. 

And Dedue is just like “just go to bed, please” 

Dimitri would babble to Dedue as a kid until he feel sleep. 0/////0

Dimitri and Ingrid B - Stuff about being delicate with Duscur forces about. Ingrid doesn’t hate them anymore. Character growth <3

Dimitri blames himself for Ingrid having hate to begin with (of course he does, he blames himself for everything), And damn, no one saw Dimitri after that. Support ends with Dimitri taking Ingrid to a inn opened by a Duscan man for dinner. Is nice. 

Dedue and Felix B - Felix is really stepping up in a leadership position, nice to see. They both agree Dimitri would throw his life away easily. Though Felix claims it’s just to protect the Kingdom and Church. And then says that he is brother in arms with Dedue, a nice change of pace to… whatever AM had to offer. 

And in true Felix fashion, he didn’t let Dedue tell Dimitri what he had really said in their conversation. 

And now, for some other supports: 

Bernie and Dimitri B - What a waste of a support for Dimitri. :/

Books

Empire Nobles II - 1179 Edition

House Gerth

House of dukes that inherited rule over the Empire’s Ministry of the Exterior. 

Diplomacy, foreign relations, and relations between various provinces and the capital fall under it

Worked hard to secure ceasefires between Brigid, Dagda, and the Empire

Though took place in the Insurrection, remains distant from associated houses

House Arundel

Formerly minor noble house of the Empire. 

Head of the house, Volkhard, his younger sister became betrothed to the Emperor Ionius IX, and this granted him the title of Lord Arundel. 

Having worked closely with House Aegir, House Arundel is seen as one of the chief instigators of the Insurrection. 

House Hrym

House of Imperial viscounts. Resisting Emperor Ionius IX’s policy of power centralization, it set out to join the Alliance and secure independence from the Empire, but was unable to overcome the Imperial army’s intervention. 

The House’s main genetic line was wiped out. It’s current head is an adoptee. 

House Nuvelle

House of Imperial viscounts with territory on the western coast of the Empire, centered around the harbor city of Nuvelle.

The house flourished thanks to commerce with Dagda, Albinea, Brigid, and other territories. 

Even still, it fell to ruin in 1175 after permitting the combined invading forces of Dagda and Brigid to make landfall. 

House Ochs

House of Imperial barons. Territory occupies the northern half of the western peninsula known as Foldan’s Fangs. 

The head of the house was lost to the Dagda and Brigid War. 

House Bartels

House of Imperial barons. Highly ambitious, it sought out and acquired several Crests for its bloodline. 

In 1176, many members, including the head, died under unexplained circumstances. 

The guilt of this tragedy was attributed to the heir, Emile. His whereabouts are unknown. Leadership fell to a distant relative. 

[faroreswinds]

Hello again. I spent a good deal of time trying to write down a translation of that account’s deleted blog post, but then I realized it would take to long to do properly (and because I was trying to properly show it in English). I hope you forgive me for showing instead a shortened version (and this is still quite long, so I apologize again):

Pros: graphics are greatly improved and the cutscenes look beautiful. The gameplay is very entertaining and the level of difficulty is challenging in a good way. There is a lot to do around the base camp, and its changing locations add to the excitement. It’s good to have characters like Rodrigue and Jeritza as playable cast members (especially Rodrigue, he enjoys high popularity in Japan). Byleth speaking out loud and having supports with Jeralt is pleasant and highly prized. It’s good to see the rest of the cast show up in cutscenes and cgs to show their own parts in the story.

Unfortunately this is where the pros end…

The reviewer has maintained a blog to criticize the mistakes and issues in the fodolan series since launch but did so out of love. The reviewer’s stance is that Musou storyline totally butchers the spirit and integrity of Houses

Self-described as a lore purist who at least enjoyed being able to ”fill in the blanks” for everything left unsaid in Houses. Musou introduces a lot of information that is contradictory to established canon such as House Bergliez with its crest of cichol, Kronya’s attitude being the first sign of something wrong instead of that being Monica’s true personality. Monica herself is controversial, she’s seen as good yuri fanservice and a loyal vassal but others dislike how she is now part of ”the Emperor’s loyal court” (Hubert, Dorothea, now Monica follow Edelgard to praise her constantly).

Arval as the antithesis to Sothis went nowhere, was ultimately not considered of much interest by the fans.

Sothis having her memories but no interactions with her children and Rhea angered many people. The reviewer notes they also made her sound crueler and haughtier in English

Shez is a fun and likeable character, though fans ultimately care more about the established cast.

Eyebrows were raised over why pertinent lore the game wants players to consider canon is now suddenly in a Musou spin off instead of the main game. Suspicions were raised over Kusakihara and Iwata as the main scenario planners (this is the term general used for those in charge of the story scripts): is this the story they originally meant to tell, but couldn’t because of the rush to finish the deadline [in 2019]?

Further suspicions over the Nintendo Life/Famitsu interviews confirming the canonicity of both, which is unheard of for any Musou spinoff. Musou is meant first and foremost as a purely fanservice vehicle, and it’s how people buy those games at all

“In fact, the game seems to struggle with wanting to take itself seriously, and also tell players to enjoy the fanservice, while winking at the camera”

More suspicions, now towards Westerners. The reviewer notes the large size of the English speaking fandom…as well as the strange changes made for the international releases of previous FE titles (censored cg art and dialogue in Awakening, censored dialogue in Fates plus the LGBT controversy). There are concerns that the development team took to heart too many complaints over previous games’ characters, writing, settings, scenarios.

Reviewer casts aspersions over English fandom as vulgar yet strangely puritanical, constantly given to fighting, not tagging properly, the frequent interactions between fans and seiyuu so casually on social media, and generally being an unpleasant space to be in

Reviewer embedded several tweets from a few prominent English speaker FE fans showing…bad behavior basically.

The reviewer then compared them to other events like an asian fanartist who drew a Disney’s Encanto fanart being run off twitter because of perceived issues in skin coloration. They also pointed to reddit and 4chan as further evidence of bad behavior and made an explicit comparison to calling it “otaku behavior” and hoping they’re wrong about their feedback suspicions

The reviewer is pessimistic however as they explain about complaints that Fates got a Golden Route while Houses did not, and that it seems prominent in foreign fandom as a desire

“We as players understood that taking the hand of Emperor, clad in red, and wearing horns, whose own tragedy was working with the shadows while lying to Byleth (Jpn writes them together as Beretoresu since they actually share a name overseas), and as shown in the Safflower route’s ending illustration as the dark route, was meant mostly as a pleasant delusion (the term used for headcanon) and a particular fanservice. There seems to be no such distinction for foreigners.”

The review is then divided into critiquing each lord in Musou:

Edelgard’s tragic side is stripped to make her into a full-blooded Red Emperor character. This comes across as unpleasant since the reviewer feels like the scenario team is trying to trick the players with fanservice (her outfit is very youthful and cute) when it does not mesh well with her blatant agenda of conquest. In Houses at least players understood her goals as contradicting her image when she was dressed more like an adult, and had Amyr, with its menacing looks and movements. There is a great deal of confusion over why she wants to keep Rhea alive this time, yet still greatly hates the church. Her ending was nonsensical and unsatisfying and there was no reason for the Hegemon form to make an appearance

Claude. Goodness. The reviewer is incensed. Claude’s curiosity, wanting more knowledge, to learn the truth behind things, they’re gone here. His attitude towards the Kingdom comes across as condescending. He is called a hypocrite more than once. Though showing him having doubts, and expressing fears over his vulnerabilities is good, that’s negated when his actions only invite more disaster, and his worries look more like self-pity when he’s unhappy one moment, and then coldly executing another assault against the Kingdom the next. The Sreng invasion is particularly used to lambast him. There is no reason why his mistrust suddenly allows him to swallow Edelgard lying to his face or why he is suddenly so against the Church

Shahid is wasted when Claude is then shoved back into Fodla’s war. The reviewer snidely recommended watching The Lion King for better family conflicts over a throne.

Rhea is considered a lord in that she represents another faction, the Church. Rhea is quite popular in Japan and her treatment in the game is seen as insulting. Her motherly concern for Cyril’s safety is touching, but does not negate the strangeness of sacrificing herself for Edelgard against Thales, or (worse) Claude killing her. The reviewer brings up the apparent fact of the English voice director’s dislike of Rhea and his instructions for her English seiyuu to sound more harsh, violent, not as serene or dignified as in Japanese (circling back to concerns over Western involvement)

Dimitri, written surprisingly well. His arc is of a noble young king coming into his own, his friends are just as brave and amazing next to him. Unfortunately his route starts to falter in the middle, since it does not know how to strike a balance between suddenly knowing about Those Whoe Slither in the Dark and the Empire invading when both are now separately working. The powerful pathos of fighting against the girl who was once his family (and betrayed him) is gone, so it just seems like Marth fighting Hardin again. His redemption in Houses was one of the most popular things about him, and that is also gone too in Hopes…so taking both previous things into account makes Edelgard as part of his final fight seem very forced. “This is a king who is resigned to being a king, who will sadly be glad to kill his phantom, and say that his happiest moment will be on his deathbead, instead of living for his people.” Him not reaching a hand out to a helpless Edelgard is seen as cold.

Here is Byleth’s section. It is the bleakest part of the review so far and honestly made me feel really bad:

”The box art shows Byleth quite prominently, which is laughable considering her (reviewer played as Beresu for two routes and Bereto in one) almost non-existence in the story itself. The so-called rivalry pushed in [commercials and promotional work] was nothing more than an audacious lie designed to part us from nearly ¥6000 (reviewer purchased the LE box).”

The reviewer goes on to note Byleth’s high popularity and how it contradicts the magazine interviews acknowledging this. ”Is this how a [fan-favorite] is treated in other spinoffs? I can’t imagine this happening to characters like [Persona Five’s] Joker without angering fans.”

Byleth is seen as uniquely a target of particular scorn from Iwata considering their position in the game: recruiting them can be difficult and easily missed, and so means seeing Jeralt die painfully again, and absurd yet heart-wrenching retaliatory deaths of other characters. Rodrigue’s death is seen as particularly punishing, especially with dialogue from Felix and Dimitri then calling Byleth a monster and their enemy. Their death is anticlimatic yet also painful, and this level of death also unheard of for what is supposed to be a fanservice genre of games, nevermind for the former main character! In supports Jeralt laughs at the idea of Byleth becoming a teacher and calls them unqualified and Leonie still hates them.

Even when recruited, they play no further level of involvement in the story, nor do they show up in the fight against Arval that their recruitment unlocks, nor does that change the unsatisfactory route endings in any way.

The reviewer cites more suspicions and points to how Byleth is popular in Japan, but their research across English social media shows a lot of hatred for Byleth. ”Perhaps an English speaking fan wrote this game.”

”For fans of a teacher who grew close with their students, and formed bonds of cherished warmth with them in Houses, comes across as a slap in the face to see them being strangers [among the rest of the cast]”

This also carries on to other routes. If recruited for Edelgard the emperor says she feels drawn to them but nothing comes of it, but if not recruited then it means Claude recruits them and says he wants them to work together even after the war ends, but this results in both dying in Ailel. If recruited for Claude he also says he feels drawn to them but nothing else comes from it.

The dimitri one is particularly bad. I would like to stress that Dimileth is the most popular ship of Houses and in a popularity poll, Dimiresu scored first place, Dimireto second, with both varieties far outstripping any other ship (no Edelgard ship showed up in the top ten). Dimileth fans are particularly heartbroken

Considering the previous point: it seems like Koei/Iwata want to punish the players for liking Houses and Byleth, and to declare Musou, the new canon. In Musou, though the war continues, no one really dies (except maybe Claude and Rhea and Byleth and one of the other three that Byleth can kill). Nothing really terrible happens like Jeralt dying, the monastery being invaded, Rodrigue dying, Those Who Slither In the Dark are defeated. In contrast, many tragic things happen in Houses permanently for each route.

Considering the previous two points, this is especially heartbreaking for fans of Azure Moon: playing Azure Gleam means Byleth never becomes a teacher, and Dimitri keeps his eye, the whole truth of the Tragedy of Dusca is uncovered, Those Who Slither in the Dark are defeated, Dedue is never separated from Dimitri, Rodrigue and Jeralt stay alive, and so does Claude, Edelgard, and Rhea

Many Dimileth fans say their enjoyment of the ship and Houses is destroyed because they can no longer consciously think of submitting Dimitri, Dedue, Faerghus and the rest of the continent (!) to the sad events of Azure Moon when Azure Gleam clearly shows better fates for them all

A large-scale figure of Byleth is planned for release in July and is quite expensive. The reviewer calls it a poor yet expensive consolation for what is seen as the development team spitting in the fans’ eye

The reviewer concluded their blog post by saying that their enjoyment in Houses is shattered. They don’t know who to blame, either Koei or Intelligent Systems, but they know they are working on the next mainline title together, so it likely means they will stop playing Fire Emblem (they apparently started since the first games) if it means not giving KT-Intsys their money

I am sorry that this is so long. And I am sorry that this is such a negative thing to plant in your inbox. I just wanted to show information and the perspective of Japanese fans to others, since many outside of Japan don’t know what opinions are shared in those circles.

Thanks anon, and thank you for sharing other links as well (which I will keep private for their privacy).

This must have taken a lot of time, and your hard work is appreciated.

I really like these insights into other language speaking fandoms. I'm posting this for others to read as well.

<3 You are wonderful, anon, no need to apologize.

I’m going to make a post to regard these points more thoroughly. I just don’t have the time at this moment. Please forgive me if my response is inadequate to the work you put in at this time.

[faroreswinds]

Some more text leaks

Proof Byleth is indeed recruitable. This appears to probably be GW. 

So this is actually Edelgard and Dimitri talking, and Thales. Dimitri defeats Edelgard and Edelgard prepares to escape. But Thales steps in like a bitch and for a moment, Edelgard believes Dimitri allied with Thales. Then she just casually drops that Thales is the one who killed his father (I guess along side Rufus and co). So, Dimitri decides to not kill Edelgard or Thales? to get more answers out of them. I think this is when the explosion happens and Edelgard turns into hegemon. Dimitri is injured, so Shez at the end says he’s not going to let Dimitri die here. 

This appears to be from Dimitri’s point of view regarding Claude’s invasion. Remember how in another text leak Claude thinks Dimitri is hoping his invasion will rid the Kingdom of the Church? Yeaaahhh, it’s not that simple. Basically, Dimitri is willing to do what it takes to protect his people first and foremost. Including cutting ties with the Church, even if it means his own life. 

A very sad piece of dialogue from Seteth. No idea if Flayn always dies or not, but she CAN die at least. Likely there is different dialogue if she lives.

It looks like Seteth has also told Arval to stay away form Rhea, since his power is sus. However, Seteth doesn’t believe Shez himself is evil. 

And it looks like they take back the Central Church as well.

This support apparently happens after fighting Arval? That’s VERY interesting. This is Shez and Byleth btw. 

It looks like Arval might kinda be an alter ego to the ancient person they once were. Not really a split personality or anything, just that they aren’t the person they once were. 

I have no idea wtf is going on here, someone else can enlighten me.

Shez and Jeralt supports. Talks about how weird Byleth kinda is, and that Shez does kinda hold some grudges about losing his crew.

And how Byleth is unnaturally strong, even their crest is out of this world. 

Ok, calm down Edelgard, no need to be honest about that part.

[a-pale-azure-moon]

Midnight Plays Azure Gleam: Chapter 6

Oh boy. A lot of stuff happened in this chapter and some of it left a very bad taste in my mouth. Of all the characters the writers could've assassinated, I can't believe it was this one.

The ending of the last chapter heavily implied that Arianrhod was going to be our next stop, but the opening narration for this chapter says that Count Rowe surrendered to Faerghus (in fairness, he did indicate he would do this in last chapter's interlude cutscene, but it's still a bit sloppy to write it this way). So the Empire's forces have retreated to former Arundel territory to regroup, and the Kingdom is going to make an offensive strike before they can attack again.

A soldier interrupts the meeting to say that the convoy transporting Count Rowe to Fhirdiad was attacked. Count Rowe has now gone missing. Dimitri speculates that Cornelia could be behind it, and at Dedue's suggestion, sends a separate unit to investigate the attack further.

Camp (Arianrhod)

Mercedes feels conflicted about recruiting former friends, since we're basically forcing them to turn traitor or die. Yup, exactly.

Relatedly, Dorothea says she doesn't really want to fight for Faerghus. Or at all, since she was only in the Empire's army for "Edie."

Miklan's here in camp, which is very weird to see. He's certainly a friendly individual. /s

An NPC soldier says she has orders to execute Miklan if he does anything suspect. So yeah, he wasn't lying about being watched.

Ingrid says when they were kids, Sylvain would sometimes show up with bruises or other injuries, and he'd say it was a "training accident" or something. But Ingrid says she knew what was really going on, and she wonders if Miklan is capable of redeeming himself.

Sylvain himself admits Miklan's put him through a lot, but he thinks his brother can be useful. He also says that if even someone like Miklan can redeem himself, he'll serve as a necessary symbol for Faerghus, both as a former bandit and as someone without a Crest.

Felix is still hissing like a cat over the Miklan situation. He mostly sounds mad about Dimitri not telling him his plans.

An NPC Knight of Seiros mentions Count Rowe's adopted son, who caused trouble at the Officer's Academy and was cut off/disowned. So can I expect to be seeing Yuri soon? (Please yes)

Seteth laments that Jeralt's working for the Empire. Hmm...

Ashe talks about Lonato. And still needs a hug.

Battle

Dimitri's intel confirms Byleth is working for the Empire (sob), and he wants Shez to handle them, given their history. Shez appreciates the gesture but says that a rivalry isn't worth losing a war over. Dimitri asks if Shez wants revenge for their fallen companions, and Shez says seeking vengeance for every fallen comrade would consume their life.

And....Dimitri.exe has stopped working. Our king needs a reboot. Perhaps even a full kernel re-installation.

Dimitri then suggests hiring Jeralt's mercenaries, if they can make a more appealing offer than the Empire. YES YES absolutely you should hire Byleth and then you can fall in love in this timeline too!

Arval thinks Dimitri has funny ideas. (Shut up Arval)

The mission objective is to defeat Byleth and the Death Knight. This is going to be fun. /s There's also a recruitment option for Bernadetta, which I guess I'm obliged to do for completion's sake.

(No offense to Bernadetta fans, but I personally don't like her.)

Byleth and the Death Knight appear after defeating the vanguard. Meanwhile, Bernadetta screams and locks herself in the center of the map, because that's what competent army commanders do. [Eyeroll]

Thankfully, there are some steps to make it easier to take on the Death Knight and Byleth, because attacking either of them immediately is a very bad idea (I found this out the hard way; my Leeroy Jenkins moment resulted in a game over). Unfortunately, these steps take awhile and are tricky to do because the map is big and there's only a few open paths to the areas you need to seize.

Byleth wants a rematch, almost sounding eager.

Once the outer strongholds are seized, you have to claim the inner ones. The Death Knight is lurking around the path to the inner strongholds, and catapults start firing at you too, making things even more chaotic and dangerous!

Now we can reach Bernadetta and "persuade" her, and in doing so, gain control of the center-most area. The next step is to lure the Death Knight to this area and trap him there and fire our captured catapults at him.

...Except Jeralt, Alois and a few randos appear to take out the green units guarding the Death Knight. Argh, of course. Luckily, my units were spread fairly well across the map and I was able to take out Jeralt's forces without too much trouble.

(Why is Alois here?)

But the Death Knight gets to break free anyway for "reasons." Seriously, what was the point of all of that beyond padding out the length of this mission? The Death Knight barely lost any health.

And just as I've got his health lowered, some enemy Priests show up and I'm unable to kill them before they can heal the Death Knight. I hate everything right now.

Finally, he's defeated and retreats. Time to deal with Byleth. Jeralt sends in some brigands for more backup, because this battle hasn't lasted long enough already.

Byleth hits so damn hard! All of my units are at low health, and even with ganging everyone up on her, this fight takes awhile.

Victory at last! And we go to a cutscene and...

Very cool shot of Divine Pulse activating, and a suddenly green-haired Byleth then delivering a megaton punch to Shez.

What. The. Hell.

Sothis is possessing Byleth?! What is going on?!

It's admittedly cool seeing Byleth's time powers activating from this angle. Shez stands no chance. Arval tells Shez to escape, and Byleth apparently takes back control of their body.

What is going on??

(This scene must be unintentionally hilarious with male Byleth. Just trying to imagine Sothis' voice coming out of his mouth is making me laugh.)

But I repeat: WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!

Shez wonders what they're really up against. Arval doesn't sound deterred. Shez mentions that they might be allies with Byleth before long, if Dimitri gets them to come work for the Kingdom. Arval sounds incredulous at the idea of allying with that "fiend," and basically calls Shez a coward while saying some vaguely sinister things. Jerk.

I got an A rank, surprisingly not due to going over time, even with that screw up with the priests. It was because I "only" got 1419 kills, when I needed 1500 for S-Rank. Grr. Dimitri got MVP honors again.

Post-Battle

Byleth called Sothis by name in the last scene, yet Sothis introduces herself here. Have Byleth and Sothis spoken prior to now or not? Which is it, writers?

HOLY CRAP THEY BROKE SOTHIS! HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO OUR GREMLIN GODDESS?!

Seriously, she sounds almost cruel here. Sothis was definitely sassy and snarky in 3H, but she was never outright hostile to Byleth. At worst, she sounded like an angry mom when Byleth screwed up, but she never, ever referred to Byleth as her "vessel," nor threatened to take over Byleth's body. Sothis literally gave up her limited existence to give Byleth her power to save their life!

Byleth is understandably very confused and Sothis gives them no answers.

(I'm guessing from the context of this conversation, Sothis doesn't have complete amnesia, unlike in 3H. I am not opposed to Sothis having a vengeful side, given that Arval is definitely connected to the Argathans, but it needs to be contextualized much better than this garbage. And it needs to be done in a way that doesn't completely destroy Sothis' character! I'm am just stunned at how bad this whole scenario is. Absolutely stunned.)

Jeralt interrupts the scene, as Byleth "wakes up." He seems strangely chill with Byleth's hair and eyes changing color.

I want to hug Byleth so bad right now. Even with the "Ashen Demon" stoicism, you can tell they're troubled. With good reason!

Alois says he won't pull punches even against the Knights of Seiros. God. I'm more angry about what they've done to Sothis, but I am still unhappy with how they've reduced Alois to a Jeralt fanboy. I'm sure his wife and daughter were happy he gave up a steady job with the church to go wander they world as a mercenary. /s

Jeralt makes a vague allusion to Rhea. Just talk to your kid about your past already, damn you! Argh.

Back to the Lions, which is a relief except that Dimitri's leaving us to go back to Fhirdiad. Soldiers from Sreng have crossed into Gautier territory and are heading to the capital, and Duke Ifan's been captured. They also haven't been able to contact Matthias to confirm these reports.

Sylvain doubts his father could've gone down easily, but still knows something must be up since they haven't been able to reach him. Rodrigue notes that the situation is serious if they can't contact either Duke Ifan or Matthias, so Dimitri doesn't have much choice but to go.

(In light of the news about Count Rowe from the start of the chapter, this definitely smells fishy. A trap, perhaps?)

Shez (and Flayn) wants to tag along, but the bulk of our forces need to remain in Arianrhod. Dedue and Rodrigue will be leaving with Dimitri though, and Felix is given command of the army. He sounds very unenthused about this new responsibility.

And that's the end of the chapter. Honestly, the battle was more annoying than fun with all the running around, and the stuff with Sothis just put a huge damper on the enthusiasm I was starting to feel about the story. What a disappointment.