#according to Rhea anyways

[randomnameless]

2 weeks later

They were probably close friends! I think Edelgard's actions did hurt Rhea so much because of the reasons outlined above, but over and on top of that, this is a betrayal from the descendent of her friend, the friend that she trusted enough to give her Crest to

Willy mention!

Bear in mind that during CF's final map - the one where our beloved Supreme Leader accuses her of hating human and humanity because she is a nabatean, but that was cut with the localisation for some reason - what are the names of the golems fielded in Firdhiad?

Chevalier - an apostle - Luca - a saint - and a bunch of other people we don't know but... one of the golem is named Wilhelm!

ergo, when Rhea is at her worst (tm) at least mentally, she relies on golems named after people who are/were pretty close to her, the apostles who helped her try to resurrect her mom once, a saint (we don't know what was her relation to Saint Luca) and... Willy, a human.

Interestingly, if you used Supreme Leader to fight her in the previous map, the "human hating Rhea" mourns having to fight Supreme Leader because... Supreme Leader is Willy's descendant, and 1k years later, to Rhea, Willy is still the guy who "supported and saved" her.

Fun fact, Nopes amped it up to 11 so much that whenever you pit Rhea (NG+ and in the history maps?) against Supreme Leader, Rhea always mentions Wilhelm, noting her resemblance to her 1k years long dead ancestor, or wishing he was still around.

To Rhea, the Hresvelgs are first and foremost, Willy's descendants and she has high expectations from them, or at least expect them to act in a way that would not shame or be contrary to what Willy himself once did, or would have done.

Which is why she takes the betrayal from House Hresvelg, especially, very bad, Nopes also gave some voice to Seteth and Flayn about being betrayed by the descendants of the ones they trusted but it feels less "personal" than Rhea's -

But let's not kid ourselves, the reason why she goes ballistic in CF isn't only because Willy's scion goes haywire, but because Sitri's kid - who might be or not her mom - tries to kill her or at least sides with Nemesis v.2.

So to comment on your original post @lumeha, Rhea is hurt in CF (and potentially in the other routes too, but since Billy and some humans are still on her side it's less pronounced) because - as she says it in her last battle quotes - she is betrayed again by humanity after having trusted them again.

Unlike her avian bro, she didn't fig away saying humanity sucks after the War of Heroes, no. Rhea remained because she cares about humans and Fodlan - both as her duty commands, as Sothis' proxy but also, I believe, on a personal level.

As you noted, she cares - loves? as much as she can given her special situation - humans and... CF/Flamey stuff is how they reward her lol - which is why the perceived betrayal hurts so much, and why she is so angry/disappointed/upset.

Thinking about it, like, genuinely, I think characterising Rhea as someone who hates humanity because of her reaction to Edelgard in the Holy Tomb... misses the fact that, for me, she can only react that strongly to what she sees as betrayal because she cares about humans as a whole. That's why it sends her into a spiral. That's why it hurts her to the point of anger : because it stabs her with pinpoint accuracy into the still bleeding parts of her, the part of her that is the only survivor of Zanado. The part of her that was beaten bloody open and to a pulp by humans who were greedy for power and didn't care who they killed in the process.

It feels to me like this is exactly why she gets so deeply affected by this - because she did put a lot of her chips on the bet that humans are better than Nemesis and the Agarthans. To the point of sparing the children of her enemies, their families, their clans. To the point of repeatedly opening her home for them.

That's... not the behaviour of someone who despises humanity

Is she letting herself be close to people ? No. But does that mean she doesn't care for them ? No, not at all. She is just. Closed off. That's not the same as not caring.

[anotheroceanid]

As a both a fem! percy and "percy looks like rhea" enthusiast, let me me present you:

Fem! Percy being quite literally the carbon copy of Rhea. If it's already bad enough as a boy, just imagine how much more obvious the resemblance if Percy is a girl. Imagine Zeus's reaction at being called out on his bullshit by a miniature version of his mother for the first time. the Olympians' reactions as Percy grows into a young woman, looking more and more like Rhea each year. Poseidon adoring her even more because not only she's his precious daughter, but also reminds him of his dear mother, the one they both inherited their eyes from and the one he faintly remembers before being devoured.

Maybe that adds another layer on Kronos' fixation on Percy. He's convinced she's the reincarnation of his wife, and while she betrayed him, it's stated she cared about her in his own way.

And because i'm jercy trash first and foremost, both of them sharing even more dramatic paralells of kronos/rhea with their romance. Zeus is definitely having a blast at seeing them together, and the rest of the Olympians are often hit with dissociations when Jason and Percy are together, seeing their parents for a moment instead.

According to the myth, Kronos was the one who pursued Rhea because he only wanted her as wife, and she loved him at some point. Just Jason falling head over heels for Percy at first sight and actively going after her, to Zeus' utter horror (and maybe Poseidon, but I think he actually keeps in mind that's his daughter and doesn't go crazy like Zeus does)

sorry i'm ranting here, anyway that's my headcanon

@seleneprince

YES YES YES

Fem Percy as Rhea’s carbon copy is so real 🤣🤣🤣 First time Zeus saw her he gasped and tried to not look guilty about something wrong that he did, a second later he started telling himself that that wasn't his mom, no need to be afraid. Yet, he still has nightmares that Percy Jackson is Rhea and that she is scowling him.

Which kinda turned true when Percy won the war and gave him the scowl of the century.

And ofc, this all is beyond amusing to Poseidon.

And about Kronos. My Kronos at least is kinda of crazy (side effect from eating godly babies) so to an extent he can't even differentiate Percy from Rhea most of the time. And his marriage, before kids and cannibalism, was exceptionally successful, so yeah, he is still sore about how it all ended.

So yeah, Jason falling head over heels at first time is so delightful. Especially because it terrifies the shit out of the big six, and also kinda leaves Gaea obsessed with them. I wouldn't be surprised if she felt some sort of claim over Jercy because they look so much like her kids, and That in a fem Percy context she would've wanted them as her sacrifices.

Also, Zeus pissed off that Poseidon’s forbidden child looks like their mom, while his looks like their dad.

EDIT: I FOUND IT IN MY DRAFTS AND I WAS PRETTY SURE I HAD ALREADY POSTED IT

[damiansgoodgirll]

 hi, can you please make a story where reader is young like 19 or 20 and everyone loves her and she’s a pretty close friend with basically everyone in the wwe and one day she has a match with like Nia or someone else and she gets injured so bad that everyone around her is worried sick.? maybe she has a closer feeling with the judgement day or Jey but like if you can mention more wrestlers it would be amazing. Thank you so much. I love your writing 

i love this type of requests cause it makes me travel back in time when i was 13 and i used to play wrestling with my best friend (don’t do this at home) and i remember everyone loving me…anyway

sorry for making nia the bad one!

the judgment day x reader (platonic) / jey uso x reader (platonic)

home is where you belong

you never thought you would find it but you did. the place where you felt safe and loved, the place that you called home.

you’ve been wrestling since you were fifteen and once you got eighteen wwe signed you in. two years later now you were living your dream;

travelling from city to city, having sleepovers with your wrestling friends, gossiping about what people you shipped together, talking nonsense with seth rollins and having becky teasing him, watching and learning new techniques from jey uso, training with the judgment day.

everything was a dream for you.

the fans loved you. even if they weren’t fans about your character, they still liked your persona and your positive energy. you had no enemies, you pretended of course, but you had no enemies at all.

many elders took you under their protective wing and you couldn’t be more grateful.

you we are currently training with rhea as you had a big match against nia and you wanted to be ready. you both already knew that the judgement they were gonna help you win this match because, according to the script they had to ruin this moment for you and for nia, but you didn’t care because you knew how fun it was going to be.

so you were ready to kick her ass.

nia, otherwise, wasn’t as happy as you thought. the idea of losing against some teenager like you made her blood boil. she was more experienced than you so why would you had to win? plus, by getting helped by the judgment day?

she didn’t like the idea but she didn’t tell you.

she had something else in mind.

so you were getting ready, your make up flawless, your hair perfectly posing over your shoulders and a smile that could make happy anyone who met you.

you were so ready.

you heard the “boos” when nia entered the ring and you heard everyone cheering for you when you entered. that’s how it was supposed to be so why did she have an envious look in her eyes?

you pretended it was nothing and you started the match as it was supposed to go.

ten minutes later, the judgment day music echoing through the arena, just like the script said.

rhea distracting nia.

following exactly what the script said.

so what did go wrong?

nia attacked rhea. it wasn’t in the script but rhea knew how to handle situations like that.

you could tell by damian’s look that this wasn’t supposed to happen but you took it as an opportunity to distract nia and make your final move, move that made you win that match.

earlier on the schedule but still, you had your win.

“someone beat your ass…” rhea screamed into the microphone, unleashing mixed reactions through the crowd. everyone cheering for you because of your win, not everyone was happy with the way you won but still, you better than nia.

that set her off.

she didn’t like the idea of a teenager beating her but she hated even more the way the crowd laughed at her face, making her seem weak, not strong enough.

the judgment day were leaving the arena, just like the script told them to do after your victory, so what didn’t go as planned?

you were still in the ring, fans clapping for you, the referee still held your hand high and as you were about the leave, nia hit you behind your back.

this wasn’t prepared.

you fell to your knees and before you could do something she dragged you through your hair into the middle of the ring.

“nia?” you said almost too terrified.

the referee tried to get into the two of you but nia pushed her away, hurting her.

“who do you think you are?” she said hoovering you with her body.

“nia what?” you weren’t understanding. why was she doing that? she was your friend, she wasn’t supposed to hurt you.

“don’t act so dumb…” she whispered before attacking you.

for real this time.

nothing prepared.

she was really hurting you. your face first, then your stomach, she kept hurting you, punching you over and over until you couldn’t feel your body anymore.

your head and nose were bleeding.

referees weren’t able to stop her either.

rhea and damian were the first one to intervene when they saw that the referee couldn’t stop her.

rhea attacking her, the referees, trying to get between the two of them, so damian so that as an opportunity to shield you with his body. he could handle nia attacking him.

“damian?” you almost cried.

“hey…shh it’s okay, i got you” he said, slowly moving your hair out of your face and it was in that moment that he saw your bleeding face.

“dam…it hurts” you said clenching your stomach. he felt his heart breaking. the way you were clenching your chest, the way your hands trembled a little, your bleeding face and your eyes full of tears.

he was mad. furious.

“i know…ssshhh…we will take care of you i promise” he whispered.

the crowd was cheering, assuming everything was scripted, but there was an uncomfortable silence going behind the scenes.

everyone watching what was happening in horror.

becky had tears in her eyes and seth was trying to keep her and himself calm because he was mad. cody was speechless. jey ran out of his locker room just to be stopped by the security. dom and finn paralysed in their steps as they were watching everything happening right before their eyes.

that’s what it went wrong.

thankfully, rhea and referees were able to drag nia away from the ring. she knew she went too far but her pride was something she wasn’t willing to give up.

damian was still in the ring with you as medical staff came and assisted you.

you already fell unconscious when damian lifted you up in his arms and dragged you down onto the stretcher waiting for you backstage.

you were rushed to the hospital and honestly no one felt like continuing the show but they had to. jey was next but all he wanted to do was rush to the hospital and stay by your side.

you didn’t even realised that when you woke up you weren’t in some hotel room but you were in a hospital bed. your head still pounding when you remembered what happened.

the doctor told you that you had a few broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder,a broken wrist, a sprained ankle and a heavy concussion. not to count all the bruising and red spots forming all over your body.

then what you didn’t want to hear : no wrestling for at least four months.

your body needed to rest and heal first.

you were trying to hold in all the tears but eventually let them out when the doctor left your room. you were supposed to have your first main event at wrestlemania and now that dream was gone.

while still crying a soft knock echoed through the room.

damian first, then rhea with the rest of the judgment day.

“hey…” she whispered but her heart broke when she saw the tears in your eyes “why are you crying pretty girl?” she asked sitting on the chair next to your bed, followed by the boys who sat on the small couch right beside the window.

“bye bye wrestlemania…” you said with a broken voice.

everyone knew how much you’ve been waiting and wanting that moment.

“i’m so sorry y/n…” she said softly.

“its just it’s not fair…” you whispered “why did she do that? i thought she was my friend…i would have never done that to her rhea…never”

“i know love…because you know your value, you’re kind and sweet and loving and unfortunately you’ve met someone who thought about her ego and her ego only…” she said smiling sadly at you.

“what matters now is that you rest and take your time to heal” damian joined the conversation “you scared everyone back there…” he said making you smile a little.

“i didn’t mean to…”

“we know…or you could tell them that yourself” finn joked.

“what?” you whispered.

“everyone’s here…jey almost punched the doctor when they wouldn’t let him see you” dom laughed “becky is here with seth, cody and shayna are here too…girl you even scared gunther”

“i don’t believe it…” you laughed.

“we can make you believe that” jey said entering the room with a beautiful bouquet of red roses. everyone followed him too.

you were relieved in seeing so many people caring for you in a way not even your friends cared about. you felt loved and appreciated.

you’ve spent the next hour talking nonsense with them all and you almost forgot about the wrestling problem thing.

almost.

when everyone left for your check up with the doctor, the only one who stayed was jey.

he was the only one who noticed the shift in your mood and he knew what was like staying away from what you love do the most, so if you needed a shoulder to cry on, he was willing to do that, if you needed a friendly advice, he was willing to do that too.

“care to tell me what’s on your mind sweetheart?” he asked when the doctor left.

“i’m going to miss all of these…four months of not seeing you all days, no wrestling, no wrestlemania and probably no summerslam too…it’s just, i feel useless and empty not doing what i love jey” you confessed.

“you’re not useless at all, and it’s normal to feel nostalgic right now but it’ll pass and i promise you that you’ll be on your feet for when summerslam comes! i promise you” he said sitting next to you and wrapping his arm around your shoulder - the healthy one - “i wish i could have done something to stop her but i was the useless one…i hated seeing you in so much pain…she lost her mind and finally she lost her job too”

“what?” you whispered.

“yup! got fired…you know you could sue her right?” jey asked.

“i would never do that…”

“i know…you’re too kind for that…what she did was wrong and completely unacceptable but i’m glad you’re here…” he said softly kissing your head.

“ill be here for a long long time…this is my home after all” you smiled, making jey laugh too.

and it was in that moment that you truly realised how important those weird people were for you, and how important you were for them.

[edelgards]

i had a train of thought about saint seiros and catholic canonization and ended up yapping about how rhea's sainthood isn't a symbol of her divinity but is an allegory of her humanity instead.

sainthood in the catholic church is the recognition of people who performed miracles, did acts of goodwill, etc. in the name of god. these individuals are then canonized by the church who acknowledge their good deeds and are now considered as holy people, the closest we—original sin bearers, according to them—get to divinity i guess and a lot of canonized saints were people who weren't the best nor the ones you'd expect to be saint.

in fe3h, of course we know the church was not exactly what we thought it was and such rules might or might not be in the seiros doctrines. seiros is a self declared saint lol yes, it was a ruse but it made me think and compare that situation to catholic canonizations.

rhea was born a divine being, a child of the goddess. she doesn't need to be elevated to sainthood, she IS divine. you don't need to sanctify what is pure from the very beginning. that's like calling an angel a saint or something and implying that a divine entity had been a sinner/impure and is only holy because of canonization which i think, from a religious fanatic pov, is an insult. anyways seiros, however, is called a saint... which i'd like to think implies the opposite of the catholic church's meaning of sainthood.

rhea/seiros' sainthood is a symbol of her humanity.

of her being flawed, her imperfections. everything that happened after zanado was her, a divine being, becoming human. her vengeance, righteous fury, her grief and most of all, her kindness despite all that's happened are what makes her human.

honestly don't know where i'm going with this but i guess you could look at the tragedy being her rebirth? from "holy" to human. her humanity began the second she lost her mother. it spiraled her grief and drove her to vengeance—her war with nemesis and his 10 elites. and then, there's her church. what started out as damage control and a self-preservation driven lie turned into something genuine that allowed her to learn to love the people that killed her own.

her continued service to the people (albeit morally questionable at times i have to admit) is, to me, her continued acceptance of her humanity–whether conscious, not, or figuratively. as opposed to indech and macuil yeeting out of human affairs the moment the war was over, a refusal of their "humanity" and choosing "divinity" instead.

ok, that's all. my point is rhea's humanity is what makes her holy. her ability to be kind after all that she went through is what makes her a saint and that makes me insane sometimes because can you imagine losing your people and you're the only one that knows, surrounded by the mirror image of the people that took your own?? anyways, talking to empty chairs: thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[lingulaca]

Whenever I see asks which talk about fics in which Alicent and Daemon are together, or Alicent's great self is with Baelon, Rhaenyra's brother, basically vicious bashing of Rhaenyra, I am reminded of the very old, and very common feeling : jealousy. Sour grapes and fox. Greens tend to loathe Rhaenyra, her children, her love interests, but want all of what she has for Alicent. Daemon is the scum in their eyes but with Alicent he isn't. Okay.

Alicent herself was a pick me, her and Daemon fanfic writers even without seeing their ao3 profiles I can tell must be self insert writers. They remind me of those writers who put a female ofc in a mlm ship, this behaviour is so so common there, the so called gender bend aka homphobic trope of removing the usual bottom guy and putting a female in his place. We hate the gay ship, we are homphobic as hell, but we want everything this gay ship has which is : the dom guy, his relationship with the sub guy.

So I am not actually surprised by this behaviour. They hate Rhaenyra, all her sons, her husband, but want her husband Daemon for their Alicent, want his son Aegon for their Jaehaera, want to replace Daenaera with her. This dumb behaviour, this jeaolousy is so common its actually laughable. Alicent would have the same end as show Rhea had. That's all I'll say. That's the only story Daemon/Alicent can have.

"Daemon is the scum in their eyes but with Alicent he isn't"

THIS. LITERALLY THIS.

i wonder when they'll admit that all they care about is one upping or trying to "humble" rhaenyra.

similar to show!alicent, the bs they claim to care about (virtue, tradition, dignity) only apply to people they don't like. tg portrays daemon as a misogynist woman beater who's only motivated by self-interested goals, but when aegon rapes & mistreats women it's okay because he's traumatized, or because "he's a king, he's not meant to be a good person!", or the proof of him doing those things is taken out of context/somehow doesn't exist. according to them, alicent is a victim of the eeevil targaryens (despite the fact that her own son who she raised is the exact representation of what they think is hurting poor innocent lady alicent) so when alicent acts out of selfishness she's a vicious mama bear doing what it takes to protect her children from "rhaenyra the cruel", or a girlboss who tg can only justify by using that stupid cersei quote 🫩 and it says a lot that alicent fans can never pick one, she always has to be both. they recognize that their delusion of her being a helpless victim makes no sense and isn't flattering, so they make up for it by mischaracterizing her in a way that's equally drastic.

anyways, daemon can do no wrong and tg (aka rapegon lovers) will never convince me otherwise !!

[madebyriah]

out with the old and in with the new (part 1)

summary: the complete history of liv morgan and dominik mysterio

(lowercase intended.)

sometime between march and april of 2022 - a conversation between liv 4 brutality

“Dominik is so cute.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes! You don’t think so?”

“No, he’s not really my type.”

“I think he’s really cool!”

“You have some kind of crush on him or something?”

“I mean yeah?”

“Have you ever even talked to him before?”

“Well no, but we follow each other on social media! He seems so genuine and down to earth. I wanna get to know him, but he’s dating his high school sweetheart. I don’t wanna be disrespectful. That’s why I haven’t made a move.”

“You have a crush on Dominik Mysterio.”

“Uh, yes.”

“Huh. Interesting.”

———————————————————————————————

april 18th, 2022 - monday night raw

Liv really doesn’t understand how it all went wrong. She doesn’t get it. They were doing so well! How is it Liv’s fault they lost! They are a tag team! It’s supposed to be both of them! Liv and Rhea. L4B. But now. Now it’s just Liv. Rhea threw everything they had in the trash. For nothing. Yes they were only a team for a month. But they were friends. Maybe even more. And now. Liv would get her revenge.

“Hey, are you okay?” Liv looked up from the crate she was sitting on to see Dominik Mysterio looking down at her, concern in his eyes. “Do you need to see medical?”

“N-No I uh, I..I saw them already.” Liv was star struck. She didn’t know what else to say. She was already stuttering like an idiot. Dom nodded. “I’m sorry about what happened with Rhea. What she did was uncalled for.”

Liv stared at him eyes wide. “T-thanks.” She could t believe he was even talking to her. “No problem. Hey, listen don’t let the rage consume you. Things will get better. If you ever wanna talk I’m here.”

Liv’s lip started to wobble and tears pooled in her eyes. He was so fucking sweet, he didn’t even know her and yet… “Thank you.” She whispered and bit her lip to try and stop the tears.

Dom smiled and Liv’s heart almost burst out of her chest. “Anytime blondie.”

———————————————————————————————

june 5th, 2022 - hell in a cell

“Well that did not go according to plan” Liv says as Aj, Finn, and her walk back to their locker room. Losing was never ideal. Finn had this look on his face. Liv knew it was his plotting face. He was planning something and Liv could tell it wasn’t gonna be good. “Liv! Finn! Aj! Wait up!” They all stop and turn around to see Dominik Mysterio running up to them.

“Oh! Hi Dominik” Liv responds while putting her hands behind her back and swaying back and forth, smiling up at him. His eyes go wide as he blushes and gives her a goofy grin. “U-um hey” Liv chuckles and stares at him intensely, smile still plastered on her face. Finn and Aj roll their eyes at the obvious flirting. “I just wanted to say that I watched your guys match. And even tho you guys lost I think you all did super well and looked so cool as a group.”

Liv’s heart fluttered and her smile grew as she chuckled. “Hehe thanks Dominik. That really means a lot coming from you.” Liv felt her cheeks heat up as her and Dom locked eyes and gazed at each other for thirty seconds. Dom’s cheeks grew red as Finn cleared his throat to get their attention. Liv shook her head as she fell out of her trance. “Thanks Dominik” Aj said.

“Yeah we appreciate it mate.” Finn clapped him on the back. Dom smiled big and met Liv’s eyes again before looking away and speaking. “Anyways I-i have to go! See your guys later!” Liv waved as he walked away. “Bye Dominik.” She said in a sickly sweet tone.

“Your cheeks are gonna be stuck like that if you don’t stop soon.” Aj said as him and Finn laughed. Liv’s smile dropped and was replaced with a deep frown. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She said turning back around to once again head to the locker room.

“Liv ask him out already.” Aj said. Liv’s heart sank. “I can’t. He has a girlfriend. They’re high school sweethearts. It doesn’t matter how much I like him. I’m not a home wreaker.”

———————————————————————————————

june 6th. 2022

———————————————————————————————

july 18th, 2022 - money in the bank

She did it!! She cashed in on Rhonda Rousey!! She was the NEW Smackdown Women’s Champion!! Liv was crying as she got congrats from the officials and other superstars waiting in the guerilla. She was led to go take another set of renders, now with the championship instead of the brief case. She thanked the photographers and started walking to her locker room. When she was almost there she heard yelling coming from one of the other locker rooms. Just as she stopped one of the doors opened.

“¡Jefe! ¡Déjeme en paz! ¡Necesito estar solo ahora mismo! ¡Te veré en el hotel!” Liv looked up and saw Dominik Mysterio emerge from the locker room no longer in his ring gear. He pulled his suit case through the arch and adjusted his backpack as he slammed the door shut. In his rage he wasn’t paying attention and almost bumped into Liv. “Oh hey Liv! Sorry, I didn’t see you there.” He looked sheepish.

“Hey Dom! It’s fine. Are you okay? Sorry about your match.” Liv said trying to show her sorrow for him. He gave her a half smile. “It’s okay, thank you tho. But hey congrats to you!! The belt looks good on you!!” He blushed.

Liv smiled and looked down at her feet so he wouldn’t see her blush. “Thanks” Liv liked to think they could be considered friends now. They texted a lot, liked each other’s photos on social media, and they interacted when they saw each other in passing. The last time they saw each other tho was the day of the draft. His girlfriend had been there to support him.

That was the one and only time she had ever seen Marie. She seemed really nice and she was gorgeous too. “Hey um..how’s Marie?” Liv asked trying to make small talk. She really didn’t want to talk about Marie, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say. Dom stiffened. Liv noticed the shift in his body language and looked up. He had a grimace on his face and he wasn’t meeting her gaze. “She…uh…we broke up three months ago.” Liv’s eyes widened.

“Oh my god Dom, I’m so sorry. Sorry for brining it up!!” Shit. Now she felt bad. “No it’s okay, you didn’t know. We haven’t really told anyone.” He looked so upset. She reached out and grabbed his hands in hers. He looked down at their hands and then at Liv. “If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here for you.” He smiled. “Thanks güerita. Might have to take you up on that.”

Güerita. Liv blushed. He’s so cute. She was brought back by the sound of her phone going off. She let go of his hands, moved her title to one shoulder and checked her phone.

“Oh, sorry Dom one sec! Hello?”

“GIO!!!!! CONGRATS GIRLIE IM SO PROUD OF YOU!!” Bayley screamed into her ear causing Liv to move the phone away from her ear. Dom chuckled and Liv smiled at him. “Hi Bayley thank you!!!”

“WHERE ARE YOU?!” Liv moved to put the call on speaker.

“Uh still at the venue, just finished taking my new renders with the title. I was about to go change but I ran into Dominik so we started talking. Why?”

“OOOOO OKAY WELL WE’RE ALL GONNA GO OUT AND CELEBRATE SO YOU BETTER GET YOUR LITTLE BUTT READY AND MEET US IN THE FRONT! MERCEDES RENTED A PARTY BUS!! AND BRING DOM WITH YOU!”

And the call ended. “How did they get a party bus on such short notice?” Dom said shocked. Liv laughed. “I have no clue, but it’s Mercedes so I’m not surprised.” Dom laughed.

“Hey why’d she call you Gio?” Liv looked up at him. “Oh Gionna is my actual first name. Olivia is my middle name, I just go by that for the fans cause it’s easier.” Dom gave a little ‘oh’ noise and nodded his head. “Gionna’s a really beautiful name.”

Liv blushed hard. “T-thank you. A-Anyway, you wanna come?” Liv moved a piece of her hair behind her ear and Dom watched the movement. “You can get away from your dad for a while and just party.” Dominik stared at her as she adjusted the title on her shoulder and flipped her hair behind her.

“Are you sure that’s okay? I wouldn’t wanna intrude.” He said scratching the back of his head. “You heard Bayley, she said to bring you, and I’d really like it if you came. We’ve never really got to hang before, plus we’re on different brands so we barely get to see each other anyways.” She looked up at him hopefully. Fuck. She is so gorgeous. There was absolutely no way Dominik could say no to her.

———————————————————————————————

july 25th to august 1st 2022

august 8th, 2022

———————————————————————————————

september 3rd, 2022

Liv walked into the guerilla after her match against Shayna on cloud nine. She was honestly not 100% positive she could beat Shayna, but she did and she’s ecstatic. And then she wants to throw up because Rhea Fucking Ripley and the rest of the judgment day are right there. Getting ready to go out for their match. Rhea sees her and she can see the steam coming off of her. Liv gives her the finger. Priest holds Rhea back as she tries to pounce on Liv. Bitch.

Then she locks eyes with Finn. She grinds her teeth together and scowls at him as he gives her a pleading look. Her only reply is a roll of her eyes as she walks away. As she leaves the guerilla area she sees dom, rey, and edge heading towards it. Dom looks lost in thought. A smile breaks out on her face. “Dom!” She yells and he snaps out of whatever trance he was in and sees her. His eyes widen and he stiffens but she doesn’t notice this. Instead she runs to him. “Mijo, Edge y yo seguiremos adelante. Nos reuniremos contigo allí.”

Edge and Rey walk away and Dom focuses back on Liv. The white gear she had on right now looks so good on her body. She looks fucking gorgeous. “Congrats on retaining. I knew you could do it.” He says smiling. Liv notices it doesn’t quite reach his eyes like his smiles usually do. “Thanks!! I’ll be watching your guys match too! I wanted to wish you good luck!”

Dom frowns. “I’m not in the match.”

“Well I know that silly, but you’re gonna be out there supporting your dad and edge!! I can come with to help keep Rhea in check if you want!” Dom’s eyes widen. “No! Uh no that’s okay. I-i know you must be exhausted. I can handle it.”

Liv frowned, caught off guard by his outburst. “Well okay, I’ll go then.” She’s about to walk away but makes a split second decision that she hopes she doesn’t regret. She pulls Dominik into a hug and holds him tight, squeezing her eyes shut as she does so. Dom stands frozen for a few seconds before he wraps his arms around her. “Good luck” she whispers into his ear before she kisses him on the cheek and turns to walk away.

Dom catches her wrist. “Wha-” She gets cut off by him pulling her back to his chest and kissing her full on the mouth. Liv stands wide eyed for a full five seconds before she melts into the kiss. Her arms wrapped around his waist and his hands holding her face. He pulls away after a minute and they rub their noses together before resting their foreheads together. “I’m sorry.” He whispers. Beefore Liv can ask why he’s sorry, he pulls away and walks towards guerilla. “Dom!” She calls after him but he just keeps walking and doesn’t look back.

Later, she watches as he betrays edge. As he betrays his father. She sees the judgment day laughing. Sees Finn laughing. She doesn’t think he’s acting anymore. She’s pretty sure he’s fully in the darkness now. She doesn’t know what to do now. She understands why he apologized after their kiss, and her heart cracks.

———————————————————————————————

november to february 2023

On Raw, she watches as he comes out to confront Edge and Rey. He looks so…different. So not Dominik. She honestly doesn’t recognize him anymore. And that bitch is all over him. “I’ve made him into a man.” Yeah right.

He won’t answer her calls or texts anymore. He doesn’t like her posts either. She watches him and Rhea, and each thing they do together causes another crack in Liv’s heart. Rhea doesn’t even like him. She’s doing this to hurt Liv, she knows this for a fact. Before initiating any sort of pda, Rhea always looks to see if Liv is there and if she’s watching. Obviously she plays it up for the fans. But Liv knows the truth. She hides sometimes so Rhea doesn’t see her, and she watches as Dom tries to hug her or hold her hand and Rhea won’t let him. She won’t let him initiate anything. Only Rhea’s allowed to do that. And the way she talks to him behind closed doors. It’s terrible. Liv doesn’t get why Dom stays with her. Why he tries so hard to get her approval. Why he needs it so bad.

She’s finds Dom alone in catering one day and she tries to say hi. She waves at him and smiles when he meets her gaze. He gives her a deadpan look, devoid of any emotions. He just looks like a hollow shell. He gets up, walks towards where she is and brushes right past her. Tears start to form in Liv’s eyes and she bites her lip to stop them from falling.

———————————————————————————————

march 3rd, 2023

Rhea won the rumble. She’s been coming to smackdown because she’s challenging Charlotte Flair at Wrestlemania. Rhea and Liv had a match today. Rhea used the prism lock to tap her out. Dom just stood there and watched. Cheering Rhea on. Liv’s heart fully shattered during that match. Why did he kiss her if he was just going to break her heart?

———————————————————————————————

april to july 2023

She gets drafted back to raw. She wins tag team gold with Raquel. She’s doing okay. She still thinks about Dom and Finn. She still texts them sometimes. They don’t reply. Raquel is helping her heal. They date for a bit. They’re better off as friends. Liv just isn’t really in a good headspace for dating right now.

The next time she gets involved in business with Rhea is four months after their last match. She’s defending her title against Nattie and after she wins she continues to brutalize her. Liv and Raquel run out to save her. Rhea slips out the ring before they get there.

She did tell them to stay out of her business. They should’ve stayed out of her business. She attacks Raquel and Liv back stage. They’re supposed to defend their titles against Sonya and Chelsea tonight. Rhea took out Raquel’s leg. So Liv defends the titles herself. And she loses. Later that night, Liv goes out to the ring while the judgment day is having their tag team title shot and attacks Rhea.

They next monday they get scheduled to have a match. Liv is nervous, but she’s hoping that if she can win then maybe she can have an opportunity at the title. That isn’t gonna happen tho. Rhea attacks Liv on her way to the ring. Rhea tears Liv’s shoulder apart with a steel chair. Officials and medical personal rush out to help Liv. Rhea pushes through them and stomps on her arm with the chair again.

The doctors say she needs surgery. They say she’ll be gone for seven months. Seven. Fucking. Months.

When she gets a hold of her phone, she finds messages from all her friends. Wishing condolences. There’s one from Finn too.

There’s one from Dom too.

Rhea Ripley was going to fucking pay. She took her brother away from her. She took the guy she liked away from her. She took her best friend away from her. Now she took her fucking arm and seven months of her career. This was the final fucking straw. Liv was gonna get the surgery, she was gonna go to therapy and work her way back to being in ring ready. And when she came back?

She was gonna take everything from Rhea Ripley. Every thing Rhea loved would be hers.

to be continued…

pt 2 (maybe, we’ll see.)

[gay-wh0re-slut]

Are You Mine?

rhea x reader

content: reader accidentally gets knocked out causing memory loss but rhea is there to help you remember. a cute fluffy lil fic (gonna try first person in a more diary kinda way?? i hope this makes sense and works??!?!)

One Monday Night RAW went a little too crazy. Rhea and Shayna were arguing which ended up becoming a fight. Things got out of hand and chairs were being thrown. Sitting in the front row, I got free tickets because Rhea is my hot goth buff girlfriend, anyway, one of the chairs ended up hitting me in the head. Everyone thought it was planned but it surely was not.

I was immediately out, on the floor. For the sake of television, Rhea and Shayna continued to argue but once the segment was over and the commercial came, the goth wrestler jumped out of the ring and flew to my side.

Medics ran towards me, rolled me out on a gurney and drove me to the local ER. Once the show was done, Rhea drove to the hospital and forced her way towards my bedside. She was crying and holding my hand begging and pleading for me to wake up. I had tubes and lines all over me.

“Is she okay? Will she wake up?” the australian asked the nurse.

“She had a bad hit, so she’ll be out for a while. But everything inside is looking as good,” the nurse sounded dull and tired. I was probably her fiftieth concussion that day.

“So she will wake up?”

“It looks like she will be able to. Considering how hard she was hit, she might have some memory loss, so be prepared for that,” she wrote something on my chart.

“Fuck,” Rhea growled.

The nurse jumped a bit at the muscular woman in her intense makeup and dark clothing. She was scared of her when she walked in but it wasn’t even close to the craziest thing she saw that day.

“I’ll be back later to check on her,” she placed the chart on the hook.

“Okay…Thank you,” Rhea kissed my hand and rested her head on the bed.

The nurse left and closed the curtain behind her.

You’re probably wondering how I remember all this…well I don’t. This is what was told to me and a little bit of dramatization for the story. But this next bit I do remember because it was after I woke up and I was able to recover my memory, but not at first. Don’t worry, it’ll get good.

So after a few hours, according to the doc, I finally woke up. I forced my eyes open and looked to see who was resting beside me. I tried to not freak out about this large dark woman holding my hand but I couldn’t think at all other than “Where am I ?!”

“Y/N!! You’re awake!” she kissed my hand and I immediately pulled it away but she didn’t take too much notice of it because she stood and called for the nurse, “Nurse!! Please hurry she’s awake!! Nurse!”

The nurse walked just a bit quicker than her normal gait. Followed by two more who were checking on different tubes and monitors. She shined the small light in my eyes as I squinted away from her, she checked my pulse and my breathing before spewing off some random medicines.

“Can someone please tell me where I am and why I’m here?” I sat up trying to avoid everyone touching me.

“You had a bad concussion, you were out for a good few hours. You’re at Rosendall Grace hospital,” the nurse said as if she was reciting lines from a play.

“How?” was all I could say.

“It was my fault,” the scary muscular woman said sniffling in the corner, “I was arguing with shayna and we threw a chair and it hit you, I’m so sorry baby.”

“Who’s Shayna and why’d you call me baby? Who are you?” I felt the side of my head that was pulsing. It felt like my brain was going to burst out.

“Don’t touch, there’s a wound there,” the nurse pulled my hand away.

“Shit,” the dark woman slammed her hand on the wall, “You lost your memory. I’m Rhea, I’m your girlfriend and have been for two years. I’m a wrestler for WWE, and Shayna is another wrestler and we were arguing on television but you were in the audience.”

The nurses that were swarming around me looked at each other as if it finally clicked in their head why she looked the way she did and why she was here with me.

“What’s WWE?”

“You’ll remember later, too much to explai-”

“Please don’t pull out your IV,” the nurse grabbed my wrist.

“I’m scared, I don’t know who she is, I’m in a random hospital with nurses that could give two shits about me. I want to leave, please!” I tried wriggle my arm out from her grip.

Rhea sits down in the chair in the corner of the room, “Please just listen to them for right now and you’ll be out sooner. Fighting them won’t help,” she sighed putting her head in her hands.

“Fine,” I huffed crossing my arms refusing them from touching me more.

“Please, we need to fix it,” the nurse held out her hand.

If looks could kill, she’d be long gone by now with the daggers I was shooting at her. She didn’t budge. So I so dramatically give her my hand.

“Thank you,” she snipped, “this is medicine that will help with the pain… morphine,” she shot a look to the australian, as if she was making sure she knew what was going to happen. “You should get your memories back within the night,” she looked back at me giving a fake smile. Taking a big sigh and checking the medicine bag hanging near me, “try to jog her memory like talking about things she likes or about the moments leading up to the injury,” she turned towards my girlfriend before nodding her head. Who knows how long she’s been here.

“Okay, yeah… I can do that,” Rhea dragged the chair back to the side of the bed.

“We’ll be back later the check on things,” the nurse gave a nod and shut the curtain once more.

“Hey,” she tried to grab for my hand but I pulled it away.

“Don’t touch me, I don’t know who you are,” I turned away from her.

“You know me very well actually,” she sat back in the chair, “You know how much vegemite I like on my toast, you know that I love to be the little spoon, you know that I-”

“Vegemite?” I looked at her confused because what the hell is that, legitimately.

“Don’t worry about it,” she waved me away.

“And you,” I gestured frantically to her big arms and muscular stature, “like to be the little spoon?”

“Yes. Don’t start with me, princess,” she began to play into the memory loss as if I was someone she had never met before.

Unbeknownst to me, she was trying to win me back over but obviously I had no clue who this dark haired goth woman was. Did I think she was attractive? Yes but that’s not the point.

“Oh now you’re trying to flirt with me,” I said.

“I’m always flirting with you actually,” she winked.

The butterflies fluttered in my stomach and I tried my best to hide them but…

“Now how did I know that would fluster you, hm?”

“I don’t know! You’re good a flirting?!” I shrugged.

“I am, thank you,” she giggled.

“Ugh,” I huffed and crossed my arms. I remember thinking that she was so incredibly attractive and mysterious. I needed to know more about her but I had no clue where to start. We sat in silence for a good long minute before I decided to break it. “What did you say you did?”

“I’m a wrestler for WWE.”

“And what’s that?”

“It stands for World Wrestling Entertainment. My nickname is Mami, and I’m the big scary villain along with three other guys but we’ll get to them later.”

“Oh,” I really did try to process what she said but I was so far out of it that I had no clue what wrestling was. I thought that if I faked it, she would believe me.

“It’s okay if you don’t remember, you will eventually,” only then did I notice what she was wearing because she was putting everything on display by her manspreading. She noticed that I was staring pretty hard trying to take it all in, “What’re ya looking at so hard?”

“I’m not sure, to be honest. I’m trying to figure out what you’re wearing and why you’re wearing it,” I shifted in the bed.

“Oh,” she chuckled before she stood. “These are my boots,” she pointed at them as her feet turned in, “these are my fishnets,” she pulled at them with a snap, “they always gets holes in them but I think it makes me look cooler, and these are my lil booty shorts,” she pointed at them with both of her hands gesturing to her center, “this is my shirt with the group on it… that’s me,” she pointed at each of the silhouetted figures on the shirt, “that’s Dom Dom, that’s Damian and that’s Finn. They’re my boys,” she smiled.

“Hmm,” I said contently. I was really was fascinated by this woman. She was so… interesting.

She sat back down pulling the chair closer to the bed but I didn’t feel the need to shy away again. Something about her made me feel…safe.

She cleared her throat, “so do you remember anything at all?”

“Well, I know my name is (y/n) only because that’s what you said earlier, and I know I got hit in the head, and obviously I know how to talk, but other than that…” I couldn’t think of anything, nothing at all. I began to freak out a little but I tried to hide it as best I could.

“Hey, hey," she grabbed my hand, "it's okay, you'll get your memories back soon, I'm sure. Nothing to worry about, just a lil blip is all," she kissed my hand.

A shot of warmth from her voice as the kiss flew through me and calmed me almost immediately. I guess I did know her.

We sat in silence for a good moment as I studied her. Her eyes are an icy blue that almost close when she smiles wide, her teeth are perfectly white, her nose is long and skinny with a bump in the middle, it suits her. Her tattoos are dark but fit her style as if she was born with them, her calloused hands look rough but are softer than you can imagine. The way her black wavy hair falls perfectly around her face, framing it just right to accentuate her cheekbones. Her arms are muscular but you can’t tell when she’s relaxed, though I’m sure that if she flexed I’d go into cardiac arrest. I laughed at myself with that one.

“What’s so funny, love?” her voice was quiet but gentle.

The pet name didn’t phase me as much as the first one did, “just thinking.”

“Bout what?” She crossed her legs leaning on her elbow with her chin in her hand.

“How I wish I remembered who you are because I definitely think you’re my type,” I could feel my face getting red and hot.

“Oh trust me, I wish you could too because I most definitely am your type,” one of her blue eyes winked at me and the monitor started beeping faster.

She laughed as she looked at the heart rate going up, “Told ya.”

“Knock, knock,” a different nurses voice came through the curtain before she walked through, “your nurse left for the night so I’ll be taking care of you for now,” she grabbed my chart, “So how are you feeling?”

“My head isn’t throbbing anymore so that’s good, but I guess I still don’t have my memory yet.”

“It’ll come soon, but I’m glad the morphine is working,” she smiled as she put my chart back and flicked the IV bag to get rid of the bubbles, I’m not exactly sure why she did that though.

I gave her a weak smile before looking back at the dark woman beside me. She gave me another wink and the monitor beeped faster again.

“Oh! You okay?” the nurse shot me a look.

“Yeah, uh… I’m fine,” I tried to shrink myself down.

“She’s okay Doc, just trying to jog her memory,” the wrestler said.

“I see,” she giggled, “I’ll be back to check on you later. Maybe try to get some sleep, that usually helps others with their memory. Like a hard reset!” She quietly left the room, if that’s what you wanna call it.

“That’s actually a good idea, wait, when did we eat last?” my so called girlfriend asked.

“Around 5 I think?”

“What?”

“What what?”

“You remember when we ate?” She started to get excited.

“Oh… I guess I do!”

“Do you remember what you ate?”

“Uuuuhhhhhh….” I really thought hard about what food was, “Damn, no I don’t.”

“Damn,” her face dropped immediately, “I’ll get some stuff from the vending machine though, I’ll be right back, baby,” she stood and kissed my forehead.

As if someone hit me with another chair, my head pounded with memories. True Love’s Kiss really came through with this one. I remembered everything, who she was, what I ate, who I was, where we were, why we were here. I held my head as they came rushing back, “Rhea?”

“Yeah?”

“Do that again,” I pointed at my forehead.

So she did, but she didn’t notice that I said her name, which shoulda been the dead give away because I’ll be honest, I didn’t remember her name when she said it at the beginning of this whole mess.

“That’s what I thought,” I said.

“What?” she stepped back a bit.

“That I love you,” I smiled so wide my cheeks hurt.

“You do?! You remember?!” She was almost jumping she was so excited. “So who am I? What do I do?”

“You’re Rhea Ripley of the Judgment Day, you wrestle for WWE and most importantly you’re my girlfriend,” I shook my legs with excitement.

“Yes! Yes!!” She bent down and kissed my lips holding my face, “What else?!” she didn’t let go of my face though.

“We had burgers for dinner with the boys, Dom, Finn, and Damian. You had a match against Shayna that ended with me getting hit with the chair,” I laughed it off.

“YES!!” she kissed me once more, “NURSE! She remembered! Nurse!!!”

She came running in, “YAY!!” she was much more enthusiastic than the other one, “That’s exciting news!! Oh I love hearing about things like this, it’s so cool how the brain works,” she laughed. “I’ll get the doc to come check on you once more to see of you can be discharged. Be right back!” as she slipped out.

“I love you, I love you, I love you!!” Rhea kissed all over my face and down my neck finishing with a long kiss on my lips.

“I love you too…Mami,” I giggled.

“I can’t wait to get you out of here,” she snarled playfully.

“Me either.”

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Chris Thorndyke (Sonic X) vs. Cyril (Fire Emblem)

Y'all Hate Kids: Screwed By The Writers

Propaganda below the cut

(edit: added the cut)

-

Chris Thorndyke (Sonic X)

Chris Thorndyke is THE hated kid in the Sonic fandom and for what??? The whimsy of being sonic's friend?????? Being neglected by his parents but not acting like the sad little neglected child in a gacha movie????? Because the dub writers made him a little more annoying???? For years if you searched the chris thorndyke tag it was NOTHING but vitriol and anger towards this child. His one crime was thinking Sonic was cool and the fandom sentenced him to death for it.

Cyril (Fire Emblem)

cw: Slavery, racism, grooming , Human trafficking, child soldiers, warfare, war orphans

"This boy. This POOR BOY. Would've submitted him to Yall Hate Teens if I could have, because BOY does the fandom rag on him. But thankfully, he applies to this one as well.

Jusr for some background. Okay so we got this 14 year old kid. Born in a (non-white) country with a lot of emphasis on fighting (which is iffy in its own sense too), and he ends up put in a battle at a young age. During this battle, he's captured by the soldiers of a noble family from the white people continent, and made into their ""servant"" (but let's be real, they aren't paying him.) Eventually, he's rescued by the pope, who is secretly a dragon, and he becomes very indebted to her because of this. He becomes almost fanatical in his respect for her, and that's where the main source of people disliking him in the fandom comes from. They think he's annoying. Or make really gross sexual jokes about him (14) and the 100 bajillion year old (that was hyperbole) dragon pope who arguably groomed him according to certain interpretations.

Anyway, for the things the writers did to him! Well, for one, a few of his supports are pretty bad. One particularly terrible one stands out-- his Hilda support. In which he's doing his job, working hard and stuff and she starts saying all these racist comments about how she didn't know that his people were capable of that. He's (rightfully) really rude to her for their first 2 supports, but eventually they have a slightly more friendly relationship. Their A is her bringing home a letter from her brother, telling her that racism is bad. That was what it took for her to realize that, by the way.

Okay, a little iffy, but guess what? You remember the noble family that he was ENSLAVED BY? YEAH. She is a member of that family. And in their paired ending? They get married. He marries the racist white woman who basically decided that he was one of the good ones. You want to know who he DOESN'T gave a paired ending with? Someone who can share his experience of growing up with a complex relationship with his culture. Or the guy who is curious about him and his life and helps to show him the beauty in the mundane, in a really very sweet support that tragically only goes up to B, wanting to go on a trip with him to see his homeland when everything is over. Or the ither person of color who feels questionably indebted to a powerful white person. Also his Byleth S support is really weird and creepy.

Oh, and he was completely cut out of the spin-off game. He was supposed to be playable in it, but they cut him out. You kill him in Scarlet Blaze (or maybe he doesn't die. I forget. You fight him.) And I think he sometimes shows up in other routes but that's it. He was done so dirty by the writers, the fandom, everyone. It's really fucked up."

-

I was fine with Cyril but a ton of people online SEVERELY hated my boy for just existing so I grew to love him out of spite. Cyril's backstory had him as a child soldier that was captured by the enemy nation where he became a servant to a noble family. Archbishop Rhea noticed Cyril and took him to Garreg Mach Monastery where he willingly works for her out of gratitude for giving him a home when he was at his worst. Because he's a kid (who's also far more mature than some of the older cast) Cyril was one of the few characters who was critical of the protagonist from the get go and I think this brought in the hate. Like- Cyril WAS a kidnapping victim but he's also mature enough to recognize that his home nation wasn't perfect and only encouraged a bloody culture that kept making orphans. Cyril technically doesn't need to work or stay at Garreg Mach but he does so because he feels that he owes Lady Rhea and the localization of FE16 smooths over a lot of that info. Like- leave my boy aloneee he's just living his own life instead of making the protagonist the center of his universe. He's a child soldier that has yet to really find his place in the world after finally being given the reigns of his own life. Cyril my son. Cyril my boy- you are more than all the hate. Be free my child

[randomnameless]

Constance and House Nuvelle ramblings -

We know House Nuvelle started when Noa, after promising Seiros she won't pass her crest, went to a place near the Fangs of Fodlan, and apparently fucked sufficiently enough to create her own house.

(GG on that "do not pass on your crest" promise!)

Nuvelle people, according to Constance's Supreme support, don't marry in other houses to not bring their Noa crested blood to other families :

Saint Noa was apparently super duper good at "magic" and her descendants are also super duper good - let it be because of their crests or because they focus and research "magic" - happens what happens :

The Emperor appointed the leaders of House Nuvelle were "well versed" in magic, and muhritocracy happening, means they were appointed to important posts...

However, House Nuvelle cheered on Ionius after he terminated Hrym, and threw its lot with the Imperial household, effectively losing influence when Ionius was defanged :

JP version makes it more explicit that they were casted away from the "inner circle" of Imperial authority... but what is this inner circle? They weren't part of the great noble families, and given how Constance was set up to marry the crested heir of House Bartels (even if it would have implied Emile would leave House Bartels and his mama/sis to live with the Nuvelles, so what kind of benefit Baron Bartels would gain from this union?) but not, say, Ferdie or Linhardt, I wonder how close to the great noble families they were.

Or maybe we had some faction war going on, with House Vestra in the middle, like Ionius and his pals (the Nuvelles amongst others) vs the other noble families, and they were supposed to act as some sort of check and balances system to make sure the Emperor wouldn't be all powerful and ignore his nobles, but at the same time, the nobles wouldn't be able to run the country?

(But then Ionius did his thing, and everything fell apart)

Anyways, Nuvelle sided with Ionius, and lost the power struggle.

House Nuvelle was used as sacrificial pawn to stop Dagda'n'Brigid when they invaded the Empire - and in Nopes, we see the former Nuvelle territory was absorbed by Gerth.

However, what kind of bollocks decision was it to send scholars/mages to fend off against a joint army, when Leopold "my loincloth is a holy relic from Cichol himself" von Bergliez, famed and reknown general out there, leading the Imperial Army and Minister of War himself, was around?

Was it, like Constance suggests to Billy, a dick move made up to punish the Nuvelles from having joined Ionius, fueled by some resentment some Houses might have had - interestingly enough, in her Supreme support, Constance says it was something House Nuvelle brought upon itself by wanting to keep on preserving Noa's secret and ultimately not making any bonds or alliances with the other houses (which is, hilarious in hindsight, given how this support is supposed to be obtained in CF, aka, the route where you set to get rid of pointy ears for presumably lying about history - much like the Nuvelles did - and we're left to wonder that if Rhea opened up to more people, maybe, just like House Nuvelle, she would have had more allies to rely on in her direst time of need?).

Supreme Leader wonders if the Six great Houses, aka the ones who deposed Best Dad (tm) weren't the one to blame for House Nuvelle's destruction, given how she believes they were eager to see it fall !

But...

Gerth, a member of the Six Great Houses, feels like trash for what happened to Constance in their paralogue, and confesses he owes much to Constance and to her parents so much that he is willing to shit on his role as "Minister of Foreign Affair" and abandon a card he could use against the Church - aka hoarding Rhea's sibling's remains - to repay his debt to the Nuvelles.

Does he sound like someone who was eager to see House Nuvelle fall?

Still, the thing is House Nuvelle was supposed to defend Adrestia against the Dagda'n'Brigid invasion, they failed and their heads were killed, the House was disbanded and Constance ended up in Faerghus. So while we can wonder what the fuck Leopold "my major crest is a retcon" von Bergliez was doing with the Imperial Army while the Nuvelles died, well, they still died without any backup from the Imperial Army, aka, the largest army on the continent.

Should Constance have had some support or at least lines with Leopold in Nopes, or Caspar in both games? For sure, but hey, we can't have interesting things in those games, so enjoy your teatime I guess.

Of course, and this is a given whenever I write anything about Constance :

HC obsessed me read the "passed down something of great importance from our progenitor" as a ref to Sothis, the progenitor god - but thinking more rationally, the progenitor Constance is refering to isn't Sothis, but Noa, and the "something of great importance" is... her crest? No, that wouldn't end with her generation, dragon blood would pass on Constance's children and so on, so as long as her bloodline exists, the crest of Noa will.

But what if that "something of great importance" isn't just the crest, but Noa's talent, affinity and study of magic?

Lizard or not, Noa's magical prowesses were apparently sufficient enough to fool the Empire for generations - starting with the first (I'd say post Willy departure) but, like, those first guys most likely were taught magic by Macuil himself, so was Noa's magic as potent as his or something? Their crests - even if the devs would rather sell spoons and umbrellas than reveal what are the effects of crests in this verse in a watsonian sense - were confused!

So, Noa was a very powerful magician, and her descendants pursued the tradition of being scholars, Constance herself designs new spells!

However, too much honey for today means I'm pretty sure the devs meant "crest of Noa" as the "something of great importance" and not the love and tradition to research and develop magic, which would have been more interesting but w/c.

House Nuvelle is interestingly - for something hidden behind a paywall - the most developped House from Adrestia, and paints a pretty messy picture of what happens in the Empire, from its dawn (again, post Willy departure) to the events happening during the game.

[curse-d-owl]

I have no intro. Here are some headache inducing lines from Scarlet Blaze that get on my nerves.

She pretends to sympathize with Lysithea's traumatic experience and yet talks as if the empire had nothing to do with that by refusing to mention it.

Lorenz wanted to give Raphael's family reperations over something he isn't even involved in and yet Edelgard doesn't even have the decency to acknowledge her empire's crimes against Leicester.

She loves pointing fingers and refusing to take accountability.

Edelgard: Claude can you please stop resisting and let me annex Leicester without any conflict? 🥺

This is good writing according to the author's.

While it is a valid criticism to make of the church and Fodlan to deliberately leave out the Empire's oppression of Brigid and both Fodlan's and Dagda's desire to colonize Brigid for themselves is disingenuous as it gets.

Dimitri actually risked civil wars to give Duscur their land back while Edelgard refused to do the same for Brigid.

And lastly there's her racist callousness towards Duscur that doesn't get addressed cause Edelgard isn't allowed to be held accountable.

There doesn't exist a single line that suggest that crests and nationalism needs to remain in Fodlan. Not from Dimitri and not from Rhea. She has not protested nor hindered Dimitri's efforts to get rid of her status quo. They irrationally jumped to conclusions and use this false accusations as a prop to justify their conquest.

Duscur getting their land and homes back should've been major news that the king right's Faerghus's wrongs but we gotta ignore that cause otherwise you'd be forced to acknowledge that SB and GW fail as a concept.

Edelgard is shocked and surprised that the nations she violently invades with the intent to kill and conquer fights back instead of letting her walk all over their corpses.

They don't fight back to keep Fodlan stagnant, they fight to protect their people and stop her unjustified conquest. It's not rocket science.

There are two issues with this.

1. Claude claims be doesn't want to see the kingdom be destroyed only for him to wage war against an already beaten kingdom anyways

And 2. That precious pact of his is gonna end very quickly cause once this genius is done dismantling the kingdom the Alliance will be it's next target.

[wanderingmind867]

Each of the twelve original Titans and who they fought for during the Second Titan War:

Let's start with the obvious ones:

Kronos: Naturally leading his side of the war. I hate Kronos, but this one is obvious.

Hyperion: Serving as a Commander in his brother Kronos's army. We see him during the Battle of Olympus, so this one is pretty obvious.

Iapetus: Fought for Kronos, only to lose his memory and become Bob. I really doubt you can kill a Titan (you can't kill Kronos, at least), so I imagine Iapetus/Bob is still out there after the Heroes of Olympus series. Maybe he's finally regained his memories (I can't remember if he already did that). He deserves that much, at least.

Crius: I believe the Lost Hero says that Crius fought the Roman demigods while Hyperion got to fight the Greek demigods. So Crius almost definitely fought on his brother Kronos's side.

Coeus: According to the Percy Jackson wiki, Coeus fought with Kronos. I don't think we ever saw him in the books though. I guess Coeus is the forgotten Titan, despite being the maternal grandfather of Hecate, Apollo and Artemis through his two daughters, Leto and Asteria.

Oceanus: I believe Oceanus fights on his brother Kronos's side in the Pjo series. I don't know why he's fighting on Kronos's side, seeing as he didn't help Kronos castrate Ouranos like the rest of his brothers did. But maybe it's just because of family loyalty, or something. Idk.

Now let's take some educated guesses on the female Titans. We know all six male first generation titans fought for Kronos, but what about the women of the family?:

Rhea: Seeing as Rhea is the mother of the gods, it makes sense for her to support her kids in this conflict. Besides, would Rhea really supoort Kronos? He was an awful husband, probably an awful brother and definitely an awful parent. So Rhea was probably on the side of her kids.

Theia: Well, Rhea and Theia. Guess Gaea and Ouranos weren't feeling unique when it came to those two, him? But anyway, I think Theia would be fighting with Kronos. Largely because her husband and brother is Hyperion, one of the leading commanders of the Titan army. Also, Theia and Hyperion had three kids: Helios, Selene and Eos. We know Helios and Selene were abandoned and their roles given to Artemis and Apollo. Not sure about Eos, though. But anyways, I think that Helios and Selene's treatment would help make Theia bitter towards her other relatives. She's probably fighting with Kronos to support her husband and get revenge for her kids.

Themis: Being the Titaness of Justice, I don't think it'd be right for Themis to pick a side. Justice is impartial, and all that. So I imagine she was completely neutral. Kind of like the Fates, probably. She just acted as a neutral observer.

Mnemosyne: I'm not really sure about Mnemosyne. She did have children with Zeus in the nine muses. And she doesn't seem to have much to gain from supporting Kronos. So I don't know. My best guess is: she either stayed completely neutral or she sided with Olympic. You can choose which you think is more likely. Personally, I'm leaning towards her being neutral.

Phoebe: I feel like Phoebe is stuck between a rock and hard spot. Her husband Coeus is fighting for Kronos, as is her grandchild Hecate. Yet her other two grandchildren, Apollo and Artemis, are fighting for Olympus. I feel like Phoebe is going to stay neutral, for fear of a tearing a rift within her family.

Tethys: Being that Tethys is married to Oceanus, she probably took a similar stance to his. So she probably fought for Kronos alongside her husband, but I don't really think she did it because she had any deep devotion to Kronos. I think she probably just did it because she wanted to be with her husband. Maybe also because she nursed Helios and Selene when they were young (at least according to wikipedia). So maybe she also wanted revenge for them?

So to recap:

On Kronos's Side: Kronos, Hyperion, Crius, Coeus, Oceanus, Iapetus, Tethys and Theia.

On the side of Olympus: Rhea and maybe Mnemosyne.

On no side: Themis, Phoebe, and maybe Mnemosyne.

[itsrheasgirl]

I hope I don't sound silly asking this, but is it normal for WWE to be putting Rhea in the position she is in? I feel like they've stripped her of everyone - no Dom, no TJD, no Damian, no Jey...they're leaving her on her own to go up against factions and duos or trios eg. Dom/Liv/Raquel and there is always such a benefit to people who have others to bounce off and uplift each other. Even with Roman, he has never been completely alone for long, he's got his family back by his side already which gives him more room to express himself as a character and more of a storyline to be told. Why are they burying Rhea and instead lifting so many others, when she is literally, according to all metrics, still the biggest female draw? Sorry I feel like I sound naive, but I think seeing all the Twitter hate from Liv fans to Rhea is messing with me, cause it feels so targeted since Rhea is Liv's biggest threat, but it feels like it's spreading since they are so loud :(

Rhea has spent a LOT of her career being stabbed in the back by the people that are supposed to love her most. Leaving her alone to fend for herself.

So I was not surprised that the writers of the WWE took every one of importance from her again.

But at the end of the day, Rhea is a powerhouse and will never truly need to rely on someone to help her. Liv can have the shitty judgement day, they kicked out the two best members anyway.

Damian will always be there for Rhea, but he also has his own things to focus on and as for Jey..

I AM NEVER GIVING UP ON JHEA!

[moonstruckdraws]

Reading Recap

Before doing anything else, I wanna write what I've read about today for my own sake and memory- maybe ramble a bit

maybe hopefully I'll draw something tomorrow (wait it's already morning-) so I can swing back into doing art on the fly so it's more theraputic

Rhea & Cybele. Mainly Cybele, but I read on just the gist of her life and how she started being conflated with Rhea and Demeter. I found the way she spread throughout Europe and Asia minor to be interesting. With Rhea I didn't learn much else new other than rereading about her love life which I found funny with the affair Kronos had (I still can't get over him just running out as a stallion-)

I tried reading up on Kronos a bit, but I just wasn't really interested today. I did only read on his affair with Philyra and it being the only other woman he's been with (that I saw). I did a bit of Selene but not for more than two seconds before moving on.

I then revisited my roots of interest in Hypnos because of it sparking back up when seeing posts of him and his wife Pasithea--which got side tracked by looking at Nyx's other children like Neikea, Sophrosyne, Epiphron, Geras, the Keres---no deep dives on them, except for Philotes, personification of friendship and affection. Not much to say with her not being in anything- which I find strange considering her personification.

Anyway, back to Hypnos, I read just about everything. I like the connection he has with the Erotes and with Hera, at least in the version where she asks of him herself to put Zeus to sleep. The way she speaks and acts to him just made me smile. (and then the version where she sends Iris to disguise as Nyx, and Hera says to take the "ugly form of Hypnos' mother" which I found to be WILD---and hilarious). My favorite parts were just when Nyx embraced her son because that's her son! That's him! The fact they work together too also has my heart. I find it saddening that neither of the twins have seen the sun before.. Oh my love for Hypnos. Is immense. I like that it constantly uses Hypnos' wings as like a reference to the weight of eyes being closed. I think that's so fun. (Also how they're were I'd put Aphrodite's- woops- maybe that's where I got the idea lol). Or the myth of how he blessed a man (can't remember his or the goddess's name) with immortality but he's eternally asleep. Idk I found it strangely cute.

I got side tracked again with Dionysus being in some of myths Hypnos is in (which led to Priapus but I didn't read that-). I wanted to save my deep dive of Dionysus to when I make a design for him, so I just went to the myth it was referencing Hypnos in.. and learned of Aura and Nikaia. Then I did some reading on Pasithea, and found some nice dialogue between her and Aphrodite.

I then went back to Nyx to do some browsing before remembering I needed to refresh on my knowledge of Atë (which isn't a lot). Honestly I think the notes I made of her three years ago have more on it than theoi lmao. I just love that she constantly walks the earth (apparently the air according to Achilles) and causing ruin, with her sisters, the Litae, shuffling after her spreading prayers. The symbolic meaning of it would be so amazing to make WHY DONT PEOPLE USE ATË MORE?? SHE'D BE A GREAT VILLIAN! Or anti-villain (hero?) if you go based on the version where she acts like Nemesis, by punishing hubris. There are no accounts of her doing anything other than with the birth of Heracles, which leads to her banishment from Olympus and the stars. Moreso just reference to her by mortals in stories of her influence, so you can really swing the pendulum either way.

I reread on one of my favorite niche people in Greek myth as of early this year, that being Hippodameia, the wife of Pelops. The myth just grappled me in back in January and I've had a love for it since. And though I she doesn't do much, pondering Hippodameia's mind state has been fun within my brain for the past few months. Pelops I did look into even earlier back (honestly was a reference when it came to ideas for Hephaestus' second design lol). He has.. an interesting childhood lol

Finally, the last thing I would've read up on would've been Ekhidna, Mother of Monsters. But I'm tired. It's early morning, and I've been reading all day. Maybe tomorrow because I remember reading up on her only a little and I want to learn more about her.

[deathbirby]

I think there might be some good old ageism involved in it. You know. The thing raxistanon keeps complaining about in ezralahm’s inbox.

Think about it. Edelgard is a young woman — in fact, she’s barely even a woman in WC. She is constantly portrayed as actually very girly. Hopes dials it up to eleven, but it is present in her Houses incarnation as well, particularly with the alternate hairstyle that makes her look like Weiss Schnee decided to dress completely in red for a change.

Meanwhile you have Rhea, a sexy lady who is (way) past the magical age of 25, a.k.a. when women become useless and unattractive to straight men (according to TikTok). Not saying raxistanon&gang consciously subscribe to this idea, just saying that the older woman (who arguably has less power) is seen as scary, a threat, and so on. Meanwhile the younger woman must be protected in petty internet arguments because she is a strong female character who fights for all of us… Yeah. Doesn’t make sense, does it?

Anyway, all I’m trying to say is that there is a hefty amount of ageism (villifying Rhea) and sexism (infantilizing Edelgard) involved. Ironically, raxistanon likes to complain about the former whenever his age-inappropriate behavior is brought up.

I'm not sure if that's the issue with them, because Rhea doesn't look like she's over a thousand years old, but they definitely think of Edelgard as an uwu tragic traumatized girl who can do no wrong.

3Houses makes her sing a whole song about how sad she is, 3Hopes dresses her in a sailor moon outfit and gives us an upskirt shot when she's lobotomized(??), and Cipher gives us art that is meant to be sexy. The reason IS would do that is because they want to cater to a specific audience, because it's not like Edelgard is a real person who would do that stuff.

So IS knows what her audience likes and it's that. She needs to be attractive but also uwu and sad enough for you to want to protect her.

[sayakxmi]

Still the fankids.

Anyway, Alyssa "Al" Lalonde-Maryam. My girl.

She's a hybrid, bc, well, ectobiology exists. Definitely affects her health somehow, and the fact that her mother is a rainbowdrinker probably does as well, but at the same time, both her mothers are gods, so I guess she still has like +4.13 to health compared to most other hybrids. Especially somebody like Oswald, but they're the specialest case to ever special.

Anyway, Al is... definitely going through it. The thing about her is that she's the middle child. When it comes to the kids, you could say there are two main generations, the one with the reincarnated dancestors (and, eg, Dawn), and the younger one (eg. Meline, Rhea, sort of ST). There are two outliers in Jay (older than all the rest), and, well, Alyssa, who's beentween the dancestors and the younger ones. She struggles a lot with her identity and sense of belonging, and she's kind of trying to fix it by partying and just overall being a popular girl at school. But it still doesn't make her happy. Being a kid and growing up is hard. It's hard and nobody understands.

According to the extended zodiac, she's a Canries - Cancer/Derse/Time, though I'm not 100% set on it. When I have her character more figured out beyond these basics, I'll redo the tests.

Also, her character call would be:

words can't hurt her these shades are striders

took "more espresso, less depresso" a bit too seriously

oh marina, we're really in it now

She totally got the shades from Dave, and she's listening to The Family Jewels album on repeat all the time.

[kyogre-blue]

White Clouds done for the first time. It took almost exactly 30 hours, whew.

I slowed down a bit toward the end because I started talking to every student in my class after Jeralt's death. They don't generally have much interesting to say, but I've hit the majority of available B ranks, so they've grown on me.

So, first, about this specific section. The escalation pace felt a bit fast though not necessarily in a bad way. It's just that the rest of the year had drip fed relevant info at such a comparatively slow rate that the last few month felt kinda crazy. Crazy villagers! Students turning into monsters! Jeralt dies! Byleth almost dies and merges with Sothis! Edelgard is the Flame Emperor and invading now! Bam, timeskip.

I think there is something to be said about this kind of pre-war period to help build up the characters and relationships before we get to the juicy part, but 30 hours of doing what I'd consider a fairly average amount of stuff is kind of a lot to hit what would be the inciting incident of older FE games. The calendar did not help with the pacing issues for sure.

Aside from that, I think we've gotten all the Byleth-related lore we're gonna get for a good while, and I spent a fair amount of time trying to ponder out what Rhea thinks is going on and what she wants to happen to Byleth. She talks about Byleth regaining their lost memories, which makes it seem like she considers them to be amnesiac Sothis, but she also refers to them as a vessel that will become one with the power within them, thus resurrecting Sothis...? It's really unclear what she thinks of the current Byleth, what she thinks will happen concretely, and how this would affect Byleth as an individual.

However, all this discussion only takes place AFTER Solon, so Sothis and Byleth have already merged. Byleth not only came out on top (albeit presumably based on Sothis's decision that it be so), but the first thing post timeskip text scroll is Sothis talking to you again, so it seems like the merger aspect might not even be the end of the subsumed personality.

The main point being, Byleth is not really in danger from anything except Rhea potentially reacting badly if we reveal that Sothis is gone. And since her actual aims are so unclear, it's hard to feel any particular concern or unease at that point. As a budding Rhea apologist, I wish we could had had more elaboration on this storyline.

As for White Clouds as a whole...

The pacing really is a mess. And while playing through once can be considered a reasonable experience, I do not enjoy the idea of doing it every single branch, especially with how little variation there seems to be. Up until Remire or so, what would even be different except the supports? And since you can recruit anyway.... Not great, to put it mildly.

It's unfortunate, because I think the calendar and monastery base could be have provided very good worldbuilding and immersion, but they just did not have enough put into them, whether because the developers did not understand how to use them, did not focus on this aspect enough, or did not have the time/budget to realize their vision. The calendar is very poorly laid out and too bare aside from repetitive grinding in the middle of the month, the explorable areas do not change according to seasons, making the calendar feel tacked on, etc. Just a lot of presentational shortcomings.

Liveblogging notes:

Kinda forgor what happened since Jeralt bit it because I took a few days break.

Well, regardless of the mission I forgot, I do recall Kronya got offed by her own ally, which was funny but kind of useless? I didn't really feel anything.

And then Solon had Byleth "swallowed by the mystical darkness of a forbidden spell." I guess if you can't deal with a problem (the protagonist), just yeet them into the void.

Lysithea shows no particular reaction to Solon, and neither does Flayn. I guess they're speaking generic lines here, which can go to practically any team member who is still alive to say them.

Everyone quite underreacts to the situation tbh. Claude's canned animations are very funny to see here.

Sothis speculates that Byleth was emotionless because of her. Presumably because she was still asleep until the start of the game, so Byleth, who is connected to her, was not entirely "awake" either?

It's kind of funny that Sothis calls herself a progenitor god but also the one who watches over Fodlan and all its creatures. But this world explicitly has more than just Fodlan. There's Almyra and other lands as well... Usually, the FE games are on separated continents specifically to avoid these questions.

The stuff Sothis says about needing to relinquish her power to you because she doesn't have a body... doesn't she directly possess Byleth in Hopes?

Sothis's soul with join with Byleth's, which I guess means Byleth does have their own soul.

The visuals somehow... feel so dated, it's weird.

Solon seems to not have realized that Byleth IS Sothis before this.

Seteth snuck a peak at Jeralt's diary too?? man, no privacy or respect for the dead. Interesting that Seteth has been so unsettled by Rhea's shenanigans that he's gone behind her back to investigate.

Rhea seems to think Sothis will revive through you for reals?

The monastery was built over the Holy Tomb, where Sothis sleeps... so they left her sleeping a ways from Zanado, where they lived, which is interesting.

This entire scene is hilarious if you know everyone's identities. Rhea is spouting pure nonsense about Seiros while being Seiros, and Seteth who knows all this and is in full doubt mode still has to go along with it.

Claude just directly eavesdrops on your meeting with Rhea? lmao

According to Cyril, Almyra is all plains and sky. Also has a city.

Ignatz just casually goes "let's go to Almyra after the war :D" Which is... Uh. Interesting that this doesn't present any travel concerns, but also what war

Imperial Army invades the Holy Tomb, wanting to take the Crest Stones there... But whose crest stones are they? I think dragons can traditionally create more than one dragonstone, but I'm not sure how crest stones function. I'm asking because it's unclear how many dragons there actually were. We have murals with the 10-something that have specific crests (who do not otherwise belong to any unified group, btw), but those crest stones would largely be accounted for, so were there other dragons too?

Also, not entirely sure what Rhea was expecting to happen. It doesn't seem like she directly expects you to get replaced by Sothis? My best guess is she expects Sothis to awaken (memories intact) and speak to you, but she doesn't know amnesia Sothis was already awake and is now gone...?

Suddenly, Edelgard

Edelgard's big invasion speech is hilariously propaganda. Ah yeah, Seteth and Rhea sure do want rule the world. Seteth is a grumpy but well meaning man, and Rhea has consistently cared about misuse of Relics/Crest Stones and Byleth and.... basically nothing else.

Also, this is not a subtle game. They want you to know Tomas is sus? Boy, they will make sure you know it. So Edelgard going "they divided the Kingdom and the Alliance from the Empire" "they live in extravagance by exploiting the masses"... NONE of this has ever been even slightly supported. There's nothing particularly extravagant about the monastery, and we have never even heard of people paying tithe. And while the Kingdom and Alliance history was mentioned somewhere, the Church was never brought up in association.

No one among the Deer students has anything to say about Edelgard's speech, just concern about this being a war. There's not even a hint that anyone thinks she's right lol

Seteth directly says that Edelgard is out to conquer the continent. His first thought after confirmation of the invasion is to have the surrounding villages evacuate.

OK, Rhea thinks Byleth's "lost memories" are beginning to return and that they've guessed "the truth of who they are." She says she has acted as "the proxy" for "Byleth." But to Seteth, she describes Byleth as a "vessel" and in time, the vessel will become one with the power within, at which point the progenitor god will return to this world. It's not entirely clear what she thinks of Byleth as an individual. She asks Seteth to "help our friend and in doing so, help her." So Byleth is a friend, but... they mention stuff like Flayn owing her life to Byleth and that Byleth may prove to be "their brethren"... Really hard to parse what they think is going to happen, specifically.

But since Sothis has already merged with Byleth and Byleth is obviously fine, there's not really anything to fear from this. It can't really read as ominous when the merging has already happened lol Edelgard supposedly spent the entire year gathering her forces at the monastery, speaking them in disguised as merchants and pilgrims.

Funny how all the Empire students are chilling at the monastery, telling us how their fathers and such are supporting Edelgard. Good thing we're too nice to take them hostage or something.

Sitri 1139 - 1159, Jeralt ?? - 1180. I guess we're in 1181 now...? Hang on, it's the 3rd month. Holy Tomb was 2nd month. Sothis merger would have been first month. So Jeralt death was 12th month of previous year, right?

It's cute how Claude says he'll always be on Byleth's side. Tbh I think the story would benefit from being able to highlight his ride or die side more. But since Byleth has very little direction in their own story, it ends up being more about Claude's ambitions.

Who the heck are Randolph and Ladislava

This music is very cool tho

The monastery walls are hella tall? Wow

I'm not sure what to make of this angle of Rhea leaving the monastery and the Church to Byleth.

Rhea just body slams the invading army.

The masked black beasts are creepy. Masks are a control mechanism, I suppose.

Byleth gets bodied by Thales lol. Where did this pit even come from

And that's that! The Unification of Fodlan has begun.