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officialraylynn · 10 months

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In your eyes

(Fire Emblem: PoR/RD; Ike/Soren)

Warnings: Themes of self-doubt/self-worth; themes of arousal, making out against a wall, mildly possessive behaviour, supportive boyfriends, the boyfriend Soren deserves tbh

Also posted on AO3!

Prompt: "Suck Me — my character will suck on any body part of your character."

Summary: In which Ike has reasons for the things he does and Soren has never loved him more.

Soren was accustomed to being stared at.

He had, after all, been dealing with this his entire life. The burning hate-filled stares of beorc and the empty unseeing frosty stares of laguz, both had been part of his life from a tender young age that he had never forgotten. Never truly escaped either; those judgemental eyes forever following him as he grew, though over the years a handful of kind (or a least tolerant) gazes joined in they would never erase the darker ones from his memory.

That was never more true than when he grew more into an adult. When his figure grew more slender than outright stick thin and awkward; when his hair was longer (much better kept, thick and so soft looking) and his face slimmer- he learned quickly how it felt to be stared at with desire (lust, not desire; they were different, desire meant they wanted him whereas lust was purely his body- not that they’d want it once they learned of his cursed blood), and just as quickly he learned to ignore it.

In the beginning, he lashed out. Confronted and threw insults (even a spell on one occasion), though it was not long before he simply grew tired of dealing with it and simply ignored instead. Ignoring had worked for the laguz against himself, why then could he not use it as a weapon of his own? For the most part it worked, there were times when he was approached regardless of his lack of reaction to their gazes, but overall he was left alone- which pleased him, though he did feel slight empathy for the females he presumed they would attempt to ‘woo’ (ha) in place of himself.

Ike’s presence likely played a factor in this as well, to be honest.

He was not called the man’s shadow for nothing, where one was the other was frequently right beside if not shortly behind. Soren grew accustomed to stares over that as well. Reverent gazes directed towards Ike; awe, admiration, want, envy, a fair share of lust as well, and then confused, jealous and even near murderous stares towards him joined his already vast array of how people viewed him. He had long since learned to accept the feel of other’s eyes on himself in such ways, his deeply rooted feelings for Ike made it more difficult to accept the same for those gazes falling on Ike.

It took time, but eventually even Ike began to take notice of the stares- both directed towards himself and to Soren. He did not have the same hardened skin in this circumstance as Soren did, meaning that they tended to bother Ike much more than they did his boyfriend- it was flattering, and it made Soren’s heart swell with furthered affection whenever Ike would step in to defend his honour or otherwise chastise someone for their staring, but he wished that Ike would adjust quickly just as he had. He hated Ike being upset, especially if it was caused by something regarding Soren himself.

It only became worse after the wars were over and all of Tellius worked on rebuilding what was broken (before they left hand in hand to live their lives free of the burdens of reputation and the fear of more war one day); Ike was, of course, the more famous of the two but (to his surprise) Soren’s name was not as obscure through the lands as he had assumed- the strategist, a powerful wind mage, always by the Hero’s side, though the stares had begun shifting with the whispers of himself into more positive than the previous negative, the negatives still lingered and Soren still ignored.

Again, Ike on the other hand, was not quite one to simply ignore- no he tended to deal with the things that bothered him, and when he finally acted it… Truthfully it took Soren by surprise. After all, he had never really envisioned Ike to be possessive (protective, yes), though he wasn’t about to complain. At all. Or, at least not much- there was no denying the pleasure he felt at being the one Ike gave his affections to, the one that Ike cared about in this way, the one whose body his hands touched in such a way. Ike was his, and by the Goddess was he ever Ike’s.

“I-Ike.” If he had any thoughts to spare, Soren might have been concerned that his nails (always kept neat and not overly long but sharp) were digging too harshly into the skin of Ike’s upper arms where it felt as though he were holding himself upright by that grip alone. Soren, however, did not have any thoughts to spare, so he would simply have to kiss the scratches with murmured apologies later.

Much later; after he was no longer caged in Ike’s arms (those strong broad hands gripping wonderfully firm onto his hips), once he could finally breathe again (as he was damn near panting for air currently), once he was no longer dizzy with the arousal throbbing through his entire body, brought on by the very deliberate and surprising actions of his boyfriend. Soren’s face was burning, no doubt a deep crimson from his blushing, his knees were weak and if he outright slipped from Ike’s arms due to them giving out he wouldn’t be surprised.

He wasn’t going to ask Ike to stop, though.

Ike did that all on his own, actually.

Pausing in his (rather thorough) task of sucking marks along Soren’s throat (very thorough; every press of his lips against skin, every scrap of teeth against his pulse, every gentle kiss after a sufficient mark had been made only made Soren all the more desperate to be pinned beneath Ike’s weight as just as thoroughly ravished) so he could chastely (such a stark difference to the determined near hungry actions of just moments prior) press his lips against Soren’s jaw. “Are you asking me to stop?”

Dear Goddess- the way lust roughened Ike’s voice never failed to make Soren’s heart stutter, the cocky knowing tone he had asked in yet Soren himself knowing that Ike would stop if asked made the mage’s breath hitch in his throat. With great effort he uncurled his fingers from Ike’s biceps so he could instead tangle them with wild navy locks of hair (noting very briefly that yes he had left scratch marks on Ike’s arms that he would need to tend to after) before using that firm grip in an attempt to pull Ike even closer against himself.

“D-Don’t you dare stop.” His demand was raspy and laced with a plea but a demand nonetheless, resulting in Soren releasing a soft moan as Ike shifted their positions just slightly- Soren was never disappointed by his partner’s strength, and he loved the ease in which Ike could grasp his thighs and just pull them up to around his waist (this resulting in an even more needy moan that would have embarrassed Soren were he aware of himself to realize he even made such a lewd desperate sound).

If he thought he was dizzy before it was nothing compared to now; with how he could feel Ike’s own arousal pressing against him, how all-enveloping yet comforting it was to be pinned against the wall in this manner (only because it was Ike, the one Soren trusted with the entirety of his very being), how his skin tingled with the anticipation of what was to come. He was wound rather tightly, and he has a suspicion that he was going to be exhausted by the end of this. Happily exhausted.

“I-I am c-curious, however,” the need to fill the air with words is sparked by his need to get himself at least slightly under control (already so needy and desperate, he almost does want to stop just for a moment so he can clear his mind even slightly), “What brought this on? You’re ah,” his eyes flutter shut as Ike nips in just the right spot to make him whimper, “N-Not usually one for leaving so many marks.”

For a second time, Ike pauses.

Soren isn’t concerned, though. He knows Ike well, better than anyone, and he can only assume that Ike needs a moment or two to collect his thoughts. The man was never the best with words, Soren knows and accepts this, and he will give him all the time in the world to compose himself and attempt to think on how best to explain his actions. As he waited he would brush his fingers through Ike’s hair and let himself be calmed by this brief lull in their passion; breathing still heavy but no longer coming out in pants, body still crying out for attention but no longer as desperate.

“I don’t like the way they look at you.”

Finally Ike speaks, words followed by him lifting his attentions from Soren’s neck to press a loving kiss against the brand on Soren’s forehead. “I’ve been noticing them more and more; the ones who look at you as if you’re something to be conquered, as if you can be owned and tamed and theirs. I hate it.” His hands had since returned to Soren’s hips and now they squeeze, thumbs briefly rubbing against his hip bones in a possessive yet comforting way. Please never stop touching him.

“I know you ignore them, you don’t let them bother you but-” a sigh, then another kiss at his brand as Ike’s hands slide up and down along his sides in a soothing motion that has goosebumps flaring over Soren’s sweat-damp skin. “I can’t stand it. Especially the ones who saunter over all cocky like and expect you to fall at their feet as if you owe them everything just for giving you attention.”

“They don’t know you; they don’t respect you and I just-” this time a huff, Soren can tell Ike is flustered by this and it warms his heart how much Ike cares. “I thought, maybe if there was something to make them not want you, they’d leave you alone. Maybe something they’d notice at first glance, besides the fact you almost always sit so close to me you might as well just sit in my lap.” A kiss his pressed to his cheek and Soren adores the feel of Ike’s grin against his skin.

“So I decided to leave my mark on you; maybe seeing them might keep people from trying to bother you, might make them realize that you don’t want to give them any of your time and keep them from approaching you.” By the time he is done speaking Ike has their foreheads pressed together and his hands are cupping Soren’s cheeks in his palms. The protective gleam in his eye has Soren’s heart doing flips while melting at the same time, he’s incredibly touched that Ike is so protective of him and he adores that he values his boundaries so much. He wouldn’t have minded if Ike had made the marks just to show the world that Soren was his, but this?

This was admittedly a much sweeter and cherished reasoning

“They’ll know that I’m not interested when I tell them they’re not worth my time.” His fingers had paused in their stroking of Ike’s hair, though now they continue after giving a gentle little tug. “But I appreciate your sentiment, Ike love.” A soft smile tilts his lips, turning his head slightly enables him to gently kiss Ike’s palm before nuzzling his cheek against it. “Always my protector aren’t you? I can’t say I mind, I’ll wear any marks from you with pride, after all.” Ike may not be quite as possessive as Soren was, but the mage didn’t mind; he meant what he said, anything to show that he was Ike’s and in return the Hero of Tellius was his.

“I know you would.” A kiss is pressed to his cheek before Ike begins dotting them along his jaw, then moving back down to his throat (his hands having drifted down to once more grasp Soren’s hips). “But I don’t want to do anything you wouldn’t like, and I know you’d be willing to suffer discomfort just to make me happy or keep from bothering me.”

“I’m glad you were so enthusiastic about it all.” The lips at his neck curl into a smirk before Ike nips. ”I was rather enjoying myself as well. So what do you say,” a slow and rough grinding of their hips together makes Soren give a soft startled gasp of pleasure; all at once the heat and need from before setting his body aflame once more, “We move this to our bed, and I finally stop teasing you hmm?”

“I say,” Soren’s fingers curl more tightly around Ike’s hair before pulling (the soft hiss his actions caused making Soren smirk slightly, knowing that it was going to wind Ike even further), “There’s a perfectly good wall right here, and I demand to be ravished oh Hero of mine~” The tightening of Ike’s hands at his hips and the low near growl of arousal that came from the man told Soren that he was going to get exactly as he desired, and as Ike drew him into a rough needy kiss, Soren found himself in the depths of his mind noting that he would care even less about the stares now…

After all, he had Ike to help him show just how little those others meant to him, and he would forever be thankful that Ike had chosen him above all others.

#My writing #Prompt fill #Fire Emblem #FE: PoR/RD #Ike #Soren #IkeSoren #Suggestive themes #Self worth #Self doubt #Light grinding #Making out #Hurt/Comfort #Possessiveness #Protectiveness #Your honour I love them

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randomnameless · 2 years

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To be honest, after that last interview I’ve seen a lot of negativity on my dahsboard regarding Nopes and Fodlan in general and...

TFW I couldn’t join the salt fest earlier :’(

Did IS or KT work on Nopes?

“Yes”

Well, through that interview...

I know I’ve been racking IS over the coals lately, because I’m a filthy “elitist” and I still remember the Tellius, Magvel and Elibe eras and I deeply miss them. Even if we all hate how IS seem to fall on “tried’n’true” tropes like brainwashing (especially women) so it means a character #didnothingwrongitwasntthembutmagic -

That interview, about Nopes, tries to sell the “everyone has a point and valid reasons to fight” and...

I really thought more than I should have about a stupid shitpost project I wanted to post, but I realised it might leave a bad taste in some people’s mouths and I don’t want to make anyone feel ill at ease when shitposting about this “game” but - I thought that nonsense about a “civilizing mission” is now commonly accepted to be utter nonsense, and just a stupid leitmotiv to justify conquest, imperialism and, because those two always go along, racism.

The shitpost idea was to “replace” France in this with a certain Empire and copy-paste Faerghus, Leicester, Brigid, Dagda (but not the lizards, in an ideal world they are, “finally gone” from Fodlan) - but no, it’s a real poster that really existed and displayed a mentality that also existed during dark times, and if I can shitpost with Lion King memes, I won’t do the same with that thing.

But damn if I wasn’t expecting the FE series to take the “With 79600 Men France brings peace and the benefits of its civilisation to its 60 millions of indigens” 1931 propaganda seriously, or at least portray the person who support this “opinion” as someone who has a valid point of view, clashing “ideals” with the rest of their world.

Still, who am I talking about, Supreme Leader or Clout ?

“Yes”

Adrestia wants to bring its “reforms” and “enlightened” ideas about how the world should be beyond its frontiers - that shouldn’t exist in the first place because once upon a time Adrestia encompassed the entire continent so MAGA.

Clout? Wants to “free” Faerghus and its king from “antiquated” notions like chivalry, loyalty, devotion by conquering the land, nearly waltzing on the capital and killing a beloved benevolent figure.

And so...

Why is it suddenly an issue? I mean, I love games where people fight for “reasons” and not because we need a final boss else we can’t close the route, nope.

Beyond talking about games and the messages they convey - I expect more from this “conflict” than *shrug*, *memeshrug*, *sigh* and “okay okay let’s say I agree now just please shut up I don’t want to interact more than necessary with you”.

If the conflict is based on “irreconciliable ideals”, then why don’t we see those characters argue about say “ideals”? We only get a glimpse of it in AM, and then the topic switches to sandwiches because merchandising needs to sell and Shinon can’t make people pots of earl grey or half-naked cipher cards.

In Nopes? Everyone (sort of) agree that the “Rhea Piñata” is bad and they could just get rid of it, then nothing bad will happen.

Clout drinks a Kool-Aid off-screen and no one, after some “mandatory” eye raising from Judith, even asks explanations, nope.

Nopes erased Supreme Leader’s belief that non-humans shouldn’t rule over humans because they, as a race, have no regards for human life.

And Dimitri is hit the hardest with the *shrug* + *memeshrug*, not even voicing any complains about this kool-aid because, just, let’s get over with this nonsense.

So why are they fighting?

“No U” was already used in Nopes, so here they need a Deux Ex Machina and a lot of idiot plot balls to, say, ask Supreme Leader why she wants to conquer Fodlan and remove Rhea from the surface of the continent - no sir!

Why Dimitri doesn’t kill them both the second they’re out of space, because they’re trampling his country and killing his men for no reason?

We all laughed about “no U” and thought it was something exclusive to Supreme Leader because, well, Supreme Leader and marketing means she can’t be challenged - but it was actually in this verse’s DNA!

We don’t see Clout challenge Supreme Leader when she offers Kool Aid - he drinks it off-screen.

Dimitri doesn’t challenge Clout or Supreme Leader about their invasion of Faerghus - he evens sips Clout’s Kool Aid !

Where is Elincia “You cloak your desire to rule with pretty speeches, but it is petty avarice nonetheless!” to the two persons invading a third country for, uh, reasons, or “to civilise them”?

I know I’ve been talking a lot about this game as of lately, because imo it’s a mirror of what we could have, but in TS -

When three people argue about which path to choose, “sacrifice the few for the sake of the many”, “Bootstraps!” and “sacrifice the many for the sake of the few” - those three characters argue, and shout, and fight, and defend their opinions, and ARE challenged by, well, the characters supporting the other options.

In FE16 we had “no u” and “sandwiches”.

In Nopes we have “maybe I’ll stop chasing you and trampling your country if you stop running away teehee ~”

Dimitri accepted to shelter Rhea and the Church because they requested help? “Okay okay maybe you have a point maybe they’re bad and they should be gone”. Where’s the progression between “I’ll accept to help them because even if it means war with Adrestia - provided they weren’t MAGA’ing our way no matter what we did - because that’s the right thing to do, they helped us tremendouly in the past and now, so today, I’ll help them too” to “mkay Clout you’re maybe not wrong” ??

Back to this interview, it finally appeared clearly -

FE16 and Nopes - Fodlan - isn’t a traditional FE verse.

IS worked with KT to make FE16 and Nopes (maybe Nopes is more KT’s bby than IS’s).

Water’s wet, what of it?

From what I could read around, and from a friend who played more Musous games than I did - Musou games aren’t supposed to tell a story with a “complicated” or “serious” plot, it’s a beat them all where you combo randoms with the units you like the most. No earl grey, it’s just to have fun!

FEs... are T (or S?) RPGs, a story based type of games. There is a verse, characters, relationships between those characters, etc etc. Earl grey can exist, because characters are written in a way to make them “interesting” to the player who’s supposed to interact with them in their world.

So what is Fodlan? A Musou or a FE verse, or the worst of the two?

We have a conflict where people will always fight (FE?) so you have to pick a side (FE+Musou?) to see where/how the story is going to end (FE)?

But contrary to “traditional FE”, the characters in Fodlan leading the factions... don’t interact. There is no opposition between them à la Elincia v. Ludveck or even Chrom v. Gangrel, we only have “no u” or “teehee~”.

Why?

Why ???

Because the 3 factions have to be different and refuse to side with each other, even if it is super artificial (FE16′s Gronder Battle v.2 says hi) ? And this artificial “opposition” is even more important than the plot? So even when a Red Emperor does Red Emperor things, for this reason we will still have 3 factions?

To still have the choice to pick “your faction” to “beat the others”?

FE16 tried to cook up and come with an explanation, even everyone hated Clout’s myopia in Gronder.

Nopes drops all pretenses, all leaders have “reasons” and their routes are just “their POV” about how to change things.

Even if those reasons are really reminiscent of Paris’s 1931 Colonial Exposition.

It wouldn’t be an issue if Nopes was an usual musou game (Ganon does Ganon things!) but since Nopes wants to be a FE game?

It is an issue. In FE Giffca roasts Ashnard, in FE, when Lundgren offers Kent a chance to surrender Lyndis to become one of his knights, Kent (tries to) kill him. When Nergal/The Black Fang ask Eliwood to abandon Ninian to them and they promise they will let him leave? Eliwood draws his sword.

No U doesn’t work. In FE, where those things are said, usually, it doesn’t work well because the Lord/Hero/someone you’re playing as gets rid of the person making those outrageous claims.

Ultimately, we’re left with people who have to fight against each other, but who can’t... really hold any animosity against each other, leaving the illusion of a posibility where they could have talked (and not warred... for an artificial reason). Does this feel foggy enough?

Tl ; Dr (because this is already long enough) : Sorry to Pat, but FE16 (and Fodlan?) has always been thought as a nod to FE4 and Belhalla’s Academy, i.e. how Sigurd, Quan and Eldingan used to go to the same school together and became friends. And how tragic it is that they have to fight against each other.

However, FE4 built up this conflict, and... Quan sided with Sigurd.

In FE Fodlan? People oppose each other for... reasons that aren’t built upon and we’re supposed to be sad that they fight each other? Why? Did we hear about past history between them when they were friends? Or saw it on-screen? Why should it be a tragedy?

FE16 tried to give an answer, and it wasn’t convincing.

FE Nopes... per the devs, doesn’t even try. It’s just here, they all have their POVs and reasons, and they fight because they fight, and it is sad that they have to do so because. Look, they could have been friends under other circumstances (maybe if one of them didn’t try to invade the world to MAGA, or if the other didn’t start a war on the other with a third party involved but we’re not going to talk about that) but it doesn’t so here you go.

So while I wanted to say Nopes is a 66% KT product and the “two writers” meme could really imply that IS wrote AG (and AM in FE16) while KT wrote SB and GW -

At its core, FE Fodlan is not a FE verse, but a hybridation of KT’s approach to games and stories with FE’s approach, and just like a liger, it spectacularly failed.

Why, it’s not wonder so many people actually liked the Fodlan cast in FEH (or in their first apparitions) there was no pretenses or illusory conflicts/friendships to be had, Supreme Leader’s words and “ideals” could and are challenged, something that never happened in FE Fodlan.

Could FE Fodlan have been something really nice/good with IS being only dev ?

...

Ultimately, I don’t think so, FEH is... imo, the best window we have on IS and... well. The writing sucks, but moreover... IS wants to make money through this gacha game.

Some people already wrote a lot about it, but Supreme Leader’s partly designed to sell alts in FEH. So, judging by how everyone hated Supreme Puppet and her “Deedee?” - I’m not sure FE Fodlan, made exclusively by IS, would have been a better thing.

----

Real Tl;Dr : If KT works on the next FE game, I’ll seriously consider not buying it because, for me, this crossover was an utter failure.

If IS releases a new FE game right now, I’m still going to be doubtful and wait to see if people have a good opinion on this game.

To be clear, the only FE game I’m going to buy with closed eyes at the moment is a remake.

#idk what i'm writing lol #i think i forgot what i wanted to say #FE16 #3 Nopes #FE series #i want to avoid tasteless memes #but damn at times when you consider #in your beloved franchise this appears? and it's played straight?#We're not playing GTA here #the FE series has a history #and themes #you can play with them #but not burn them to make money in a gacha game

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teaveetamer · 2 years

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Re: Fates pricing vs House repetitive issues. I think the problem here is that it depends on what each person values in a game to see whether it's scummy or fair or not. House put a LOT more into things like voice acting for fully voiced support (save for Byleth themselves). That's a lot more effort than Fates did re: voice acting. If you love the characters as a result, you see more value in what 3H brought. If you judge based on gameplay alone, you might see Fates as more value to bring (1/2)

For me personally, I fell in love with the voice acting of 3H. It made the cast feel more real and alive than Awakening and Fates did. And I loved the cast more the Echoes too, which also had voice acting. 3H characters became beloved by many. But the gameplay was very repetitive nonetheless. I loved playing Fates (I played Birthright twice, Conquest once). But I never bought Revelation b/c of negativity re: the maps and meh story. So I would say a DLC golden ending was kinda scummy (2/2)

I'm glad you enjoy the voice acting enough for that to make the $60 price tag worth it to you, anon. I'm of the opinion that having nice voice acting does not make up for having three quarters of the game be lazy copy pastes of each other (and, in fact, I wish they would have taken the money and time they put toward that production value toward making more unique maps, optimizing the game, and tightening up the gameplay).

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the worst sin a game can commit is not being fun. You can have the best voice cast in the world, the highest production values, the nicest art, the coolest cutscenes... but if the game isn't fun then it's not serving its function. I don't play games to be bored for three hours straight until the next kernel of interesting plot dump.

It just so happens that 3H commits the cardinal sin of not being very fun to me while also having significantly worse production values than it's predecessors in basically every way except the voice acting. The maps are samey and repetitive, the gameplay is either completely not challenging or SO challenging beause of inflated "difficulty" (mainly crazy inflated enemy stats and ambush reinforcement spawns), the classing is so open as to make each unit functionally interchangeable (and therefore boring), the graphics look like ass, the load times are atrocious, the lag is a pain in the neck, the art is not to my preference at all, there's too much copy-paste, the cutscenes look like they run at 15 frames per second (aside from the in-engine ones), and the story is a complete and utter mess that they couldn't even correct with a second go around.

I'll tell you two things I never felt while playing Fates: I never felt like I wasn't having fun, and I never felt like I'd wasted my money. I won't say I had no fun with 3H, and I won't say I feel like I completely wasted my money, but frankly it's embarrassing that 3H costs $60 with the state they released it in. It's unfinished. They had to add content in after release in a patch. That's unacceptable practice.

Last time I was at my local Gamestop I saw it on the shelf for $40 and you can bet your ass I was kicking myself for not saving that $20 on it. (Actually, more, since I bought the special edition with the steel box)

Also, fun fact, if you purchased one route of Fates + Rev you'd be paying exactly as much as you paid for 3H, and you get two entire complete games for the same price as one half baked mess. If you paid for all three, you're only paying $20 more for nearly triple the content.

And again, I'll bring up Tellius as a comparable. To get the full story of Tellius you have to play both PoR and RD. That was $50 for PoR and $60 for RD back in the magical beforetimes when these games didn't cost your entire yearly salary to purchase, so $110 for both. And no one calls those games scummy for intentionally designing a story which forces you to purchase two separate, full priced games in order to see it through to its conclusion. We can extend this out to other series too! Mass Effect? No one calls Mass Effect scummy for intentionally designing a trilogy that forces you to purchase all three games in order to experience the full story!

"But those were all full games with their own stories!"

So. Was. Fates.

The difference is:

One, you had to buy Fates three separate times instead of as a bundled purchase

Two, Fates released all at the exact same time, which meant you had to pay for each of these things all at once if you wanted to play them all right away.

And you know what? There's actually a psychological tactic companies use on consumers! It's called "Flat Rate Bias".

Fates is a much better value than 3H or Tellius. Three games for $80 is a far superior deal than one game for $60 or two games for $110, but because you only have to pay once for 3H and three times for Fates, you think 3H is a better deal. And because your payments for the two Tellius games (or three Mass Effect games, or whatever franchise applies) is split up over time, you feel like you're spending less, or it takes the sting out of spending, even if you're spending more.

You can also see the latter phenomenon with The Sims. Do you really think EA would make any money if they just rolled up and said "'sup, here's the whole Sims 4 experience. It costs $1,500"? No! That's why they release the content slowly over time, so you keep buying and buying and oh shit, looks like I've spent $1,500! (Personal experience. I'm not immune to this)

Like do I have problems with Fates? Sure. I think the way they rolled out the games was clunky and ultimately made them inaccessible and difficult to recommend to beginners. I think the three-in-one cartridge should have been a standard option. (I would have gladly paid for it instead of buying all three separately! I am not immune to Flat Rate Bias either!) instead of a special edition exclusive thing.

But like I don't wanna hear about it being overpriced or scummy because it's really not. If you personally don't think it's worth the money because you didn't enjoy it then that's one thing. I am never going to convince you that something is worth the money if you didn't enjoy it (spoiler alert: NOTHING is worth the money if you don't enjoy it!) but let's not pretend like charging $80 for three full games is somehow scummier than any of the other things I listed.

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canoncompanions · 6 months

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UPDATE: New Playlist: Three Operas

Fire Emblem Three Houses is my favorite Fire Emblem since the Tellius duology, which means of course I had to create a Canon Companion based on it. This Canon Companion also contains a section inspired by the sequel/spin-off/AU game Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes. This is the sixth playlist to have over 100 songs.

Prologue/Introductions

She Is Love by 3 Doors Down [Time of My Life]

Strength of the World by Avenged Sevenfold [City of Evil]

One Prairie Outpost by Carbon Leaf [Indian Summer]

Back to School Days by Dave Edmunds [Get It]

She Floats by Vanessa Carlton [Harmonium]

Everything Fades to Gray by Sonata Arctica [The Days of Grays]

Girl on the Edge by Shaking Family [Dreaming in Detail]

It’s All Too Much by the Beatles [Yellow Submarine]

Brick by Boring Brick by Paramore [Brand New Eyes]

Misery Loves Its Company by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus [Don’t You Fake It]

Original Prankster by the Offspring [Conspiracy of One]

Take No Prisoners by Megadeth [Rust in Peace]

Knights of Cydonia by Muse [Black Holes and Revelations]

Where Is Your Heart by Kelly Clarkson [Breakaway]

Just For by Nickelback [Silver Side Up]

Narcolepsy by Third Eye Blind [Third Eye Blind]

Who Can It Be Now? By Men at Work [Business as Usual]

Outsider by Chumbawamba [Tubthumper]

Unaffected by Hoobastank [The Reason]

Reflection from Mulan

No Jesus Christ by Seether [Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces]

Girls by Beastie Boys [Licensed to Ill]

Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival [Chronicle Volume One]

I’m Sensitive by Jewel [Pieces of You]

Emotionless by Good Charlotte [The Young and the Hopeless]

What U See (Is What U Get) by Britney Spears [Oops!... I Did It Again]

Extra Savoir-Faire by They Might Be Giants [John Henry]

Bad Influence by P!nk [Funhouse]

Weight of the World by Evanescence [The Open Door]

Faster from Math for the Real World

Sweetness by Jimmy Eat World [Bleed American/Jimmy Eat World]

Absolutely (Story of a Girl) by Nine Days [The Madding Crowd]

Innocence by Avril Lavigne [The Best Damn Thing]

White Clouds

Hit Me with Your Best Shot by Pat Benatar [Crimes of Passion]

My Heart Is Broken by Evanescence [Evanescence]

Dead Friend by Against Me! [Transgender Dysphoria Blues]

My Turn by Hoobastank [For(n)ever]

Accuracy by the Cure [Boys Don’t Cry]

Blue Collar Man (Long Nights) by Styx [Pieces of Eight]

In Fact by They Might Be Giants [Join Us]

Behind the Mask by Anarchy Club [The Way and Its Power]

Symphony of Destruction by Megadeth [Countdown to Extinction]

The Alchemist by Iron Maiden [The Final Frontier]

Another Race by Eiffel 65 [Europop]

Shockwave by Black Tide [Light from Above]

Wake Me Up when September Ends by Green Day [American Idiot]

So I Need You by 3 Doors Down [The Better Life]

C-R-O-W-N-E-D from Kirby’s Return to Dreamland [Kirby’s Dream Collection]

No Win Situation by Hoobastank [Fight or Flight]

Blood (Empty Promises) by Papa Roach [Getting Away with Murder]

Loyal by the Interrupters [Say It Out Loud]

Mountain Song by Jane’s Addiction [Nothing’s Shocking]

Three Houses Parts 2

Wasted Years by Iron Maiden [Best of the Beast]

Miracle by Paramore [Riot!]

Heads Will Roll by Yeah Yeah Yeahs [It’s Blitz!]

Bat Country by Avenged Sevenfold [City of Evil]

The Truth Is Out There by Sonata Arctica [The Days of Grays]

Best of Me by Sum 41 [Underclass Hero]

Behind Blue Eyes by the Who [Who’s Next]

To Defy the Laws of Tradition by Primus [Frizzle Fry]

Hide by RED [End of Silence]

Don’t Give Up by John Avila, Terrance A Carson, Carmen Carter, and Carl Graves [An Extremely Goofy Movie Dance Party!]

A Cry for Everyone by Gentle Giant [Octopus]

Circumstances by Rush [Hemispheres]

Solitary Shell by Dream Theater [Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence]

Survivor Guilt by Rise Against [Endgame]

What’s Left of the Flag by Flogging Molly [Drunken Lullabies]

Out in the Fields by Sonata Arctica [Unia]

Ghost of Me by Daughtry [Leave This Town]

Angry Side by Breaking Point [Coming of Age]

He’s Gone by Grateful Dead [Europe ’72 Live Bonus Track]

Live for Today by Breaking Point [Coming of Age]

All My Best Friends Are Metalheads by Less than Jake [Hello Rockview]

Deceiver by Disturbed [Indestructible]

Damaged People by Depeche Mode [Playing the Angel]

Meet My Maker by Good Charlotte [The Chronicles of Life and Death]

Scars by Papa Roach [Getting Away with Murder]

Faith Alone by Bad Religion [Against the Grain]

Curse of Me by Wednesday 13 [Fang Bang]

The Truth by Good Charlotte [The Chronicles of Life and Death]

Defenders of the Faith by Judas Priest [Defenders of the Faith]

Brotherhood of Destruction by Sanctity [Road to Bloodshed]

Hands of Love by Ted Poley [Beyond the Fade]

Cindered Shadows

Too Much of Heaven by Eiffel 65 [Europop]

Outcast by James Durbin [Memories of a Beautiful Disaster]

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen [A Night at the Opera]

Love Like Winter by A.F.I. [Decemberunderground]

Money Thing by the Low Millions [Ex-Girlfriends]

Island Fever by Stagehands [The Silent City]

Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield [Platinum and Gold Collection]

May by James Durbin [Memories of a Beautiful Disaster]

The Conjuring by Megadeth [Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying?]

Now Is Forever by Eiffel 65 [Europop]

Three Hopes

What If? (Reprise) from If/Then

Ramblin’ Man by the Allman Brothers Band [Brothers and Sisters]

No Bravery by James Blunt [Back to Bedlam]

Dreaming by System of a Down [Hypnotize]

One Way or Another by Blondie [Parallel Lines]

My Curse by Killswitch Engage [As Daylight Dies]

Everything to Me by Liz Phair [Somebody’s Miracle]

One Shot at Glory by Judas Priest [Painkiller]

Attack by System of a Down [Hypnotize]

For the Sake of Revenge by Sonata Arctica [Unia]

Outsmarted by the Hives [Veni Vidi Vicious]

Conflict by Disturbed [The Sickness]

Stronger by Britney Spears [Oops!... I Did It Again]

Sweet Sacrifice by Evanescence [The Open Door]

Talk by Coldplay [X&Y]

Lost My Mind by They Might Be Giants [Nanobots]

Battlefields by Buckethead [3 Foot Clearance]

Come Together by the Beatles [Abbey Road]

We Are the Champions by Queen [News of the World]

Good Mourning/Black Friday by Megadeth [Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying]

Tick Tick Boom by the Hives [The Black and White Album]

Fear of the Dark by Iron Maiden [Best of the Beast]

Goodbye to You by Breaking Point [Beautiful Disorder]

Fight the Power by bis [The Powerpuff Girls: Heroes and Villains]

Moving Forward by Hoobastank [Every Man for Himself]

New artists: Creedence Clearwater Revival, Nine Days, Kirby, Interrupters, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, (John Avila, Terrance A Carson, Carmen Carter, and Carl Graves), Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers Band, Killswitch Engage

Formerly unique artists: Dave Edmunds, Shaking Family, Mulan, Beastie Boys, Anarchy Club, Primus, Sanctity, Low Millions, Rick Springfield, If/Then, Blondie, Buckethead, bis

Artists who passed a ten: Coming soon

New duplicates: Coming soon

Welcome to the club!

#cc playlists #fire emblem #three houses

0 notes

old-scalebag · 2 months

Note

"King Dheginsea," Naesala greets, and flourishes his words with a bow. "We haven't seen much of each other here, but that does not mean that the future must be the same. Perhaps we will face each other during the Battle of the Eagle and Lion?"

He smiles, a thin line that is more mischievous than anything. "You are aware that it's mandatory for all faculty and staff, right? I've just signed up. It would not do to have a negative mark on my perfect reputation."

“King Naesala.” Dheginsea greets back with a polite yet slight tilt of his head, as he listens to what the raven has to say. And though he would have preferred to only interact with those here who still had a hand in the future of tellius as little as possible. For things to have remained to same, so to speak. Between Naesala and the sudden arrival of his son here, it seemed that fate wanted otherwise as of late…

“No, unfortunately I was not made aware of this. You are the first to properly inform me of such.” Dheginsea has heard of a battle that is to take place rather soon, from both students and faculty alike. Normally he would have care less about it as it did not concern him nor was it part of his job. However, after a few odd instances of different staff members insistence on which house he was to support despite his answers earlier in the day. Well… Dheginsea had no real reason to put into question the ravens words about attendance in particular.

“However, it does not escape my notice as to why you thought to tell me so now. For I doubt that you wish to face me again as an opponent so soon.”

#ic #ask #corvuschriisti #(( personal challenge for me to keep it under 100 when possible dhdh))#((... Dusted))#(( just occurrd to me that Naesala could totally use the 🏈 favor to his advantage))

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dimiclaudeblaigan · 10 months

Text

(Part 1) (Part 2)

Part 3 of the insanely long posts where I discuss the messy writing for Edelgard, why it failed her as a character, and how they had every opportunity to write her well but didn't.

This part continues my comparisons from the previous post. The post was already extremely long and I felt that it would be difficult to read it in one sitting if it wasn't broken up (it might even still be lol).

Like before, the Tellius games are used as examples that discuss what went wrong with Houses and how smoothly the story handled itself, versus Houses' push and pull story, particularly regarding Edelgard (as compared to Ashnard and occasionally Micaiah). That is to say, Tellius knew what it wanted to do and succeeded at doing it. Houses on the other hand wanted something and kept holding back.

It's notable how most characters refer negatively to those who joined the Empire, or there's indication that they were forced to do so.

"Deluding" being a very fucking good word used here, and by Ignatz of all people which says a lot on its own, let alone that he's saying it to his best friend. Basically, the general response to fighting characters from the Empire or who joined the Empire willingly is "you made your bed and now you have to lay in it", whether that's killing your friends or regretting your choice, etc.

"If I wish to live" is a very heavy thing to have to say. Lorenz is basically in no better a position than being a hostage at this point.

This is when attacking him with anyone but Byleth, so it's more difficult to say if he's talking to them or referring to himself (i.e. why would you attack the Empire at a time like this because doing so is reckless). Based on the above quote though, it's fair to assume he's referring to himself, indicating he wants to oppose them and plans to, but at the moment he can't.

Similarly, we have this from PoR:

Forced into service for Ilyana.

Implication by Oscar that Daein is a questionable choice. Shinon explains that he can rise to the top with good skill (which he has) and so chose Daein. This reflects Ashnard and Edelgard's "rise to the top" mentality.

Something else worth noting a bit off this particular topic is that Ashnard and Edelgard both refer to their rule as their vision for "the world". However, as far as the residents of Tellius are aware, Tellius is the world because the rest of the world save for their continent was drowned in a flood a long time ago. Edelgard refers to Fodlan, the continent, as "the world" multiple times in both games. Very notably, all main characters on all other routes refer to Fodlan as, well, Fodlan. When they speak of their ideals for its future, they still refer to it as "Fodlan", thus expressing their desire for the future of their continent, but not implying anywhere outside of Fodlan is beneath them (which would be true to Edelgard's character, as she believes all non-Adrestia lands are beneath her, which is literally one of the first things she ever says in Houses depending on your response selection).

Other than that, here we go with more similarities:

This is very reflective of what characters feel toward Edelgard. What Bryce says is also a reflection of CF's ending cards (those of you reading this who are here for this content and not hate reading know what I mean I'm sure, so I won't put in a full list of examples, but for some: censorship, assassinations, watching the citizens, Caspar's JP CF ending (implied to be no better than Miklan's old group), etc.

For the next one, Ashnard's line is basically the concept Houses gives off as a whole and is also even referring to a few times, that history will decide if someone's actions action were just or evil. It depends on the victors, and that's what Ashnard is saying here.

There's also the fact that he's being told, by a former Four Rider no less, that his path is "so incredibly stupid" (in the most polite, knightly way possible even LMAO. Points for Tauroneo for that one). Considering Ashnard and Edelgard have identical goals and motivations across the board (aside from genocide, as Ashnard doesn't care about genociding any race (i.e. Nabateans for Edelgard) and has no desire to) and this is dialogue given directly to Ashnard, who literally does not respond to the actual comments and pivots to something else (which is exactly what Edelgard does throughout all routes in Houses, be it her own or the others), imo it says a whole lot about Edelgard as well and the intentions the writers had for her as a character.

So effectively, Jill's words here are dismissed by her enemy. I don't recall that Edelgard does this quite so directly to people, but she does use words that dodge the comments aimed at her. She makes it a point to let her enemies know that she does not care.

Granted, at least Ashnard is funny about it! Come back some other time I'm busy is a lot funnier than no u.

Adding this in from RD since it holds relevance to the Edelgard portions of this:

This is if you don't recruit Jill and trigger this battle dialogue.

This is an example of desperately trying to defend the actions of someone you care about but can't actually defend. In this case, obviously Micaiah more or less had her hands tied because of the Blood Pact (an actual reason for the fighting that she was against and literally had no choice regarding, i.e. she wasn't "forced to do it because of the status quo" or any other nonsense used to prevent Edelgard from sounding like the villain the devs literally said she is).

Back to Tanith, boy, I wish she could've been in Houses with this line. For the people, Edelgard says? Look around you, naive classmates of hers who followed her because (insert shallow reason here that even Hopes gave more depth toward). Is all this death for the people? Well, according to Edelgard it sure is. It's deaths for the people! She sees a bright, happy future (for herself!) in all this death!

No, I'm not joking. Well, I'm making fun of it. I'm making fun of the fact that the devs actually thought to have this in the game (Houses) and still tried to pivot around her being a full on villain. Edelgard repeats many times that she will kill and sacrifice for her goals (not for the people, but for her own selfish goals like Ashnard. She uses "for the people" as her cover story, but we all know if we're not here to hate read what those CF ending cards really told us).

Point being, "for the people" is the cover up story, and Tanith is saying "this isn't for the people". Fact is, she's right. It's not for the people. In Micaiah's case as per this game, it's because they're being forced by Begnion (the Begnion Empire, mind you, which in both Tellius games has its own extreme problems among its nobility just like Adrestia) via Blood Pact to continue this fight. Tanith isn't stupid. She knows this mess isn't for the people. That's how Micaiah has to phrase it to get people to fight for her and not turn on her, because if they do decide not to fight, that means they aren't capitulating to the Empire's demands and thus the Senate will initiate the Pact. She convinces her allies it's for the people, who they themselves don't even necessarily truly believe it but force themselves to for a friend's sake.

For Edelgard, it's a cover up story, but of course it's not because of a Blood Pact. In her case, it's back to Ashnard. Her story/character/motivations/etc are a mix of Ashnard in Micaiah's part 3 situation. She's basically Ashnard but with people defending her with lines similar to what they say about Micaiah/why she's doing what she's doing. This doesn't mean Edelgard and Micaiah are the same, no - it means that's just what the characters say about Edelgard in her defense.

Also, if there's an Empire in an FE game, it's the villainous territory, plain and simple. As a few examples because I'm not going through every game:

Begnion is a major antagonizing territory in RD, and in PoR there are many things going on behind Sanaki's back because a good chunk of the nobility is corrupt. Even their army is corrupt in RD. Let's not also forget that the mastermind antagonist of the entire Tellius series' plot is the fucking Prime Minister of the Begnion Empire. He's no Duke Aegir (who is, mind you, also a villainous Prime Minister), but the way he manipulated Ashnard the way Thales manipulated Edelgard is eerily similar. Difference being, he actually cared about Sanaki and they had a very positive relationship which was genuinely real and true, but he did admit to lying to her and whatnot. He staged everything, much like how Thales staged everything to cause a continental war (the entire premise of what Ashnard is trying to do). The Begnion Empire is basically run by corrupt nobles and a guy masterminding a continental war, with Sanaki as the figurehead. It's a combination of Adrestia's corrupt nobles and Thales' manipulation, with Edelgard being the manipulated into action Ashnard who always had these ambitions but just needed the spark to begin his war.

In FE4's second half and in FE5, they are fighting, surprise, an Empire that is run by, surprise, a literal cult of shadowy, underground people waiting to take revenge on the bloodlined people. This is the inspiration they took from FE4 during Houses obviously, but that alone should tell you the Empire is meant to be the villainous territory in Houses. Jugdral had been ravaged by the Lopt Sect and the people were, and knew they were, suffering. All this to revive their god, just as the Agarthans were trying to revive their hero Nemesis. Mind you, Loptous is the villain that the bad people are trying to revive, so... that should probably tell you Nemesis ain't that great of a dude. If he's a hero the villains, anyone considering him a hero is also a villain. Edelgard just also believes anything the Agarthans feed her for some reason and parrot all their beliefs and desires despite being a victim of them. Stupid writing choice for her imo, but that's what was decided. Not to say Edelgard is anything like Alvis, boy oh sir no, that's another topic entirely but don't get me started on it. All I will say is that they're nothing alike. Edelgard says the pretty words but doesn't go through with them nor mean them. He says them and he means them, but he was blocked by the Lopt Sect who had the actual control of the Empire. Every blame was laid at his feet, but he had no real power and that was stated directly in the game.

Grado was basically an empire that was corrupt in waiting. No matter how righteous it seemed due to its leaders, as soon as those leaders died/got corrupted, the nasty people came flocking out. That means they were there all along and as soon as they got their chance, they took it. Take a look at the villains you face and how nasty of people they are. Look how bad it became as soon as Fomortiis was truly in charge.

Dolhr is a fucking disaster I ain't even getting into that internal dragon war turned dragon and human mess LOL; just know it's Not A Good Place. Also consider that Lang (a particularly terrible person) betrayed Grust (a perfectly reasonable place turned corrupt due to Dolhr's influence) to join up with them and Lorenz said Not Today, rebelled, and Lang was in charge of ordering Marth to go fend off that rebellion (and threatened Altea to get Marth to agree to fight). Lorenz continued to say Not Today to the point of committing suicide rather than work alongside them or die for them. He held no ill will toward Marth for what Marth had been ordered and essentially threatened to do (for fear of Altea's position in all this). Seeing Lorenz of all people refuse to take part in Grust's Dohlr loving bullshit, Marth also rebelled. Consider that how every time a Leicester noble sides with the Empire, it tends to be the corrupt or morally questionable ones. Like Marth, people were afraid to rebel. Quite ironically (or perhaps intentionally? who knows the devs ain't said), it ends up being Houses!Lorenz who rebels against the Empire in VW and optionally in AM if recruited (or in AM would die as, again, essentially the Empire's hostage). Like Archanea!Lorenz, he was against the Empire, and like Marth, fought with them for a short time out of the force of threat to himself/his lands and people but eventually had enough and turned on them.

So, did the writing skimp out on Edelgard and Adrestia being completely villainous? Yes. Are they supposed to be? Yes, absolutely. Both in writing and by the devs' word, she is the villain. Did they, in the game, fuck that up because she was marriage material? Absolutely! Did they reduce her character to being a love interest who was obsessed with the player character and couldn't win her war without her love interest? Yes, completely!

What I'm saying is that she had potential to be more interesting (re: I love Ashnard and I've said this many many many times and will never stop saying it because he's a great villain and probably my favorite in the entire franchise, which imo should say a lot when I view him and Edelgard on completely ends of the villain spectrum despite them being identical in all the explained ways) and it was ruined by the devs toning her down so that she could be waifu material.

She had potential to be a well written character and great villain like Ashnard is, but it was bogged down both making her an uwu sweet waifu (thus attempting to negate her bad qualities with the uwu behavior) and trying to insist that she was fighting for a good cause (which I suspect is because they wanted to make her marriage material. You don't see us being able to marry Ashnard or, as a female example of a villain, Petrine - who for that matter directly serves Ashnard).

My point in this last section is that FE Empires have been the villains since its goddamn inception, and Adrestia is no stranger to that, but Edelgard herself was written as though, because she's a woman, had to be fetish bait, marriage bait, and a cute girl. If it was a man running her Empire, we'd have the result of... -lists off every male imperial ruler in FE history-.

It's also a huge shame to me that the first time they truly had a woman in charge of the villainous territory, they completely botched it. It could have been awesome to have a good female villain, but they ended up blurring the lines. They ended up reducing her to straight man bait too, what with all her female relationships having women obsess over her (compare to the other wlw relationships, canonically optional or not (ex. Cathmir being a canon ending and Dorogrid not being an ending), which don't feature the women involved treating their partner how the women treat Edelgard). I'm not saying bi or lesbian players can't like her, but that she was seemingly written with straight male players in mind.

Other wlw relationships aren't written the way Edelgard's relationships are written, which is basically nothing but loving up on her most of the time (both male and female characters do this except Ferdinand and Linhardt, the former of which was completely rewritten to be a 180 and yet another of Edelgard's harem in Hopes). This includes Petra, who is a political hostage. She should be questioning Edelgard as to why her territory isn't free yet despite Edelgard being emperor now, or when it will happen. None of this is really touched on, and Petra just decides that she wants to fight and die for Edelgard (including in Hopes, where her feelings about that are even stronger and she literally says in their A support that she knows she's risking her life but actively desires to for Edelgard's sake, even if it means betraying her own people for it). Instead, they ignore all that for the sake of having yet another female obsess over her.

Now, does this mean people are bad for liking the better sides of her that happened as a result of this? No, people can still enjoy the character we ended up getting because of these side steps - the character we ended up with regardless of their intentions. However, I do think it's because of all these side steps that people don't see her as a villain despite every intention of that being there and being present. However, I also think people should understand why she's also hated because of these side steps. For example, why I hate the Edelgard that we ended up getting, but yet I love Ashnard despite all these many comparisons I've made.

It's just a shame that we didn't get to play on the villain's side and have it play out as, very explicitly, that the player character is now also a villain. That we made the choice for our character to be a villain to side with the villain and ultimately take part in villainous actions. It's a game with a story! That kind of thing should be explored! It doesn't make people bad for enjoying a villain's side of the story with that villain not being side stepped as a good person. If we got to play a route Ashnard I would love that! I wouldn't deny that he's the villain just because I'm playing his route though, and that's what CF tried to do - deny that the villain is the villain. It's not "everyone has their reasons" yadda yadda everything and anything is morally gray. That's what they try to push to excuse Edelgard despite her being Female Ashnard in every other regard.

There's a reason it got to the point of the infamous "no u" line - because they were trying to have a story that justified the villain, fell short of it because the not-villain they kept gunning for the idea of was committing villainous behavior/actions, and couldn't actually justify it in a way that sounded reasonable. It ended up coming like she had no excuse for her actions, which, yes, makes sense, because she doesn't have any! She's the villain! But they... tried so hard... to side step it... when they had nothing they could side step it with... and now that line is the local Houses laughing stock... in the woman's own route...

Lastly, there's the aspect of the war dialogue versus playable characters. There are two things:

Most of the recruitable students in CF only say they fight for the Empire because they fight for Byleth - their professor - not Edelgard. The only characters who specifically say they're fighting for Edelgard are the original BE students. The others claim to only be following Byleth's path (or they simply joined after being spared).

In other words, the recruited characters weren't given dialogue to imply they actually care about Edelgard's path and are not even there for her. That gives off the notion that these characters aren't necessarily even in agreement with her. Very few (such as Lysithea if recruited prior to being spared, and Constance) actually fight specifically for the Empire or Edelgard (and Constance's reason is for herself and not Edelgard).

Basically, the writers didn't bother even trying to give the characters motivation to fight for Edelgard's path, and so made many of them - let's face it - ooc in the process. I won't go over details in this post about specific characters being ooc, but if anyone is ever curious and doesn't already know, I could definitely make separate posts for those.

In comparison, RD gives legitimate motivations to the characters you fight against regardless of which side they're fighting on. Zihark is the most iffy, as his motivations to defect from Daein for the Laguz Alliance make more sense, but even he is at least given the introspection of "why am I fighting for this/what am I doing". Any character who was previously playable in PoR has a legitimate motivation to fight for the side they're on, including the possible defector characters where their dialogue makes sense on either side.

Some characters also understand they're fighting people they care about and just won't fight them. Brom and Meg, father and daughter (a huge disaster in CF when it comes to parents fighting their children and absolutely butchering the parent characters' characterization just to somehow make the situation work even though there were better ways of handling that) won't fight each other, just as Zihark will not attack laguz - fitting right into his character. He will attack back against a beorc, but in gameplay will not attack back if attacked by a laguz.

In Houses, they didn't even bother with this and it made a lot of the relationships feel a lot more shallow. For example, Ilyana is only on the side of the Laguz Alliance in part 3, but she can talk to Micaiah - her previous commander in part 1. She attempts to talk Micaiah out of fighting, eventually deciding well okay fine we're both strong against each other's magic so it's not too bad, to her despondently giving up and saying they should forget that conversation ever happened.

On a very similar note, the dialogue in Houses is often very volatile (particularly in the localization) from recruited characters to their former friends.

They gave off the impression that the Empire is right and just, and how dare anyone be against them. The dialogue is handled in a way that makes almost every character angry (with few exceptions, one being Mercedes against Annette) with their old friends. There is very very little of characters being genuinely upset in a sad way that they're fighting their old friends.

When characters in RD know each other and have to fight, it's always respectful and/or sad. The relationships are respected in the writing - individually - and character's didn't have to be tweaked to make their situaton work.

What does this have to do with Edelgard's writing? It's the fact that characters recruited onto CF treat the war they're fighting on the side of to be the correct side in a way that tells the player "you are the good guys". Now why is that a problem? Because the intent was originally to make Edelgard a villain.

Instead of going through with it, they made it so every character you recruit (including characters who spent their entire lives prior to the war living in the lands they are now attacking and helping an aggressor army invade) didn't just become a villain along with the rest of the people on your side. They make them come off as actually justified.

I don't mean just that the characters themselves believe they are personally justified, but that the narrative itself tries to tell you yes, they are actually justified... even though we're trying to also tell you that these are the villains you're with. The narrative itself pushes against itself, framing you as being in the right, and always pushing characters to be sad about fighting Edelgard regardless of her actions.

While Dimitri has the back and forth in the second half of AM about how he feels about fighting her, he's the only character who has a justifiable reason to feel so conflicted. The narrative is always pushing how sad it is that you have to fight her outside of just Dimitri's feelings. They take it a step further in Hopes, when Edelgard basically has a harem of people obsessed with her and praises her for all she does, never telling her when she's gone too far.

Compare this to Micaiah, who Soren claims is seen as a goddess by her followers. She has the love of many people, including playable characters, who openly doubt her and her actions (specifically in part 3) - repeatedly. Micaiah is not a villain and is not written to be. Characters push against her for answers and reasons (including Sothe, who is basically the Hubert to Edelgard), leaving her in awkward positions where all she can say is that she believes in her king, because the truth is, she has no other answer.

Houses' narrative keeps trying to insist that Edelgard is justified and heroic, while constantly having her lie to the other characters/not answer their questions or concerns, ally with the other villains, invade innocent and neutral lands, conscript civilians, admit to sacrificing her own civilians for her own personal selfish goals (so sacrificing random innocent civilians just going about their daily lives who have nothing to do with her), consider all lands not ruled by her to be beneath her, victim blame anyone who fights back against her, and... the list. Goes. On.

As a character she had potential to be a great villain whose side of the story you could actually play, but for whatever reason the writers just... didn't go through with it. Whether it was for marketing, because they didn't really know what they wanted to do ultimately, felt that you shouldn't be able to marry a villain and didn't want to remove the option to marry her, who knows. It just remains that the story went in wildly different directions and ended up with people having different perceptions of Edelgard because of it.

And if anyone says "but you hate Edelgard so of course you would say all this!", I'm gonna respond to them with a picture of Ashnard and that's it. :)

Also, I hate Micaiah (and will admit she's not the villain) and have for many, many years (looong before Edelgard was even a thought in IS' mind)... but Edelgard's existence has lessened that hate somewhat slightly because of how awful her character is. I don't mean that in a love to hate way either - I mean that treating her atrocious behavior and actions as good and heroic is disgusting and abhorrent to me.

There are extremely, extremely, extremely few characters in the entire overall franchise I truly hate with a visceral hate that goes beyond "ugh they're so annoying". Of those characters, most of them are just well written villains and not characters I hate the stories of (Valtome comes to mind, but he's a very unfortunate case of evil queer villain stereotype. May not have actually been an intentional dig at queer people from IS though and may have actually been a harmless whoopsie (especially given how RD has, iirc, the first trans character in the franchise, which the localization sneakily completely cut out from its existence. Nowadays we have Rosado for queer rep, so that points a little bit more to Valtome being a big whoopsie-we-didn't-mean-it-that-way. Lekain also comes to mind, who at least isn't a big oopsie).

So no, I don't just hate Edelgard for the sake of hating her. I hate her because the narrative evidently couldn't handle her, or the fact that she was a female lead and a villain. Considering that, that's why I wanted to make this analysis - to list off the reasons that I find that the writing failed her as a character. That writing is how my feelings came to be what they are.

She wasn't allowed to be her own character and own it. Ashnard was allowed to be his own character and own it. I don't agree with Ashnard and his world would be shit to live in lol. He's an interesting and amazingly handled character though, and I absolutely love him for what he is.

I love Tellius because of how authentic the writing feels. How real, true and emotional it feels. Both its games don't shy away from putting their leads on the spot. It tackles difficult subjects and it handles them spectacularly. Characters are put into certain situations where they react as you would expect them to, thus not manipulating things here and there just to make a situation fit and work that normally shouldn't.

Yes, I am absolutely fucking telling you that Sylvain would never lay a hand on Dimitri, Felix or Ingrid that wasn't a bro hand or a flirt hand. He is their awkward flirting bro and he would not kill them. Thanks Hopes btw for fixing the recruitment issue and making almost none of the Lions able to defect - because they wouldn't based on who they are and instead of staying true to that in Houses, they changed those things just to fit the mechanic of recruitment instead of limiting who you could recruit to make sense with the characters.

Anyway, I think I'm done with this absolutely ridiculously insanely gigantically huge giant analysis that took three massively enormous parts to finish. Hopefully I don't think or anything else to add.

If you made it this far, you are the good shit.

#DCB Comments #If you managed to get through all of this good job lol #I think I just... had a whole lot to say that I'd avoided saying before bc of the fandom #but I think it's something worth looking at since they've clearly successfully written #a character like this before - exactly like this - and did a fantastic job #I felt very differently in Houses than I did with PoR and this is kind of like... a lot of the reasons why #Edelgard Critical #DCB Three Houses Stuff

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