#claude discourse

[hauntedaeon]

If I see in 2025 one more person being mean to someone else because “Edelgard was right!” “Dimitri was right!” Or “Rhea was right!” I’m going to lose my damn mind. All of them are some degree of fucked up and there’s no 100% best choice. Even Claude is very morally questionable sometimes. All the lords + Rhea are complex characters with both positive admirable traits and huge flaws and that’s one of the things to me that makes 3h so great to me and gives it such staying power. None of them are fully right and none of them (including Rhea) are fully wrong. Discussion about them is very useful as all have their points and it sucks when people just start insulting other fans for who they like. In 2025 let’s have more meaningful discussion about the game we all like and less petty insults and name calling!

(Edits made)

[problematic-fodlan]

Ok trying to start Claude discourse. He should have sided with the Kingdom in Hopes. In hopes they're far more aligned with his plans and ideals than the fire natio - I mean adrestia.

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[faroreswinds]

is GW's direction really that crazy when you think about it? feels more like people are just salty that Claude didn't team up with their faves on his route because people look at Claude as a third party that validates their side. But what I saw in Hopes fit what I thought about Claude from Houses Claude does whatever he feels most benefits his goals at the moment regardless of morals. He teams up with Faerghus when he feels it benefits him most, he teams up with the Church when he feels it benefits him most, he teams up with the Empire when he feels it benefits him most and he throws his allies to the dogs when he feels it benefits him most. Like in Houses, Claude tells Dimi before leaving in Azure Moon that this is how he operates and that he only makes moves that he thinks benefit him. That's the story trying to communicate how Claude and Dimi are different. Do fans think he's just trying to be cute or that his words mean nothing? Claude's not a man of rigid principles, he's an opportunist. He, the other characters and supplementary material repeat that same message about him over and over again too. like Claude's not supposed to be a uniformly kind person, he's friendly and pleasant to talk to but someone that can be amoral or moral depending on the circumstances. And in GW, an alliance with Edelgard was more personally beneficial to him than trying to team up with Faerghus. They have the bigger force, they're paying Leicester significant reparations, they're getting stability at his southern border and they want to eliminate the same threat.

I mean.... It kinda is a crazy direction.

The issue isn't just the differences between Hopes!Claude and Houses!Claude. That could be a whole other explanation on its own, but since you have framed it as in-character, let's go over the other reason why it is a poor direction on its own.

The biggest issue, anon, is that Hopes!Claude... is an idiot.

Nothing he does or says makes much sense when you add up all the worldbuilding elements together into one big pile.

For example, he decides to side with Edelgard and wipe out the Church. He believes this will end the war quicker, and remove Edelgard's justification for war. And if that justification is gone, then Edelgard will have no choice but to cease her aggressions, or else the war is no longer justified.

However, this logic ignores sooooo many things. The first is that Edelgard publicly declares that the Kingdom and Alliance are false nations that only exist due to meddling forces. That should be a red flag right there and then. Not only that, but Edelgard invaded his nation and beelined for the capital. That should have been another red flag. If Edelgard didn't wish to take over the Alliance, she would have had no need to go for the throat.

Claude even admits that Edelgard might not stop her war. He should know that someone may not stop a war just because it is no longer "justified". And yet, he continues to side with her.

Here is another one. Claude puts a lot of blame on the Church for... basically everything wrong with Foldan. Forced marriages. Fierce border protections. The existence of nobility. The lack of freedom for nobles. I mean, just everything and anything you can think of, in his eyes it is the fault of Rhea and her Church.

But how can he come to that conclusion? Does he live under a rock? Is he not the leader of the Alliance? Does he not know that Edmund, within his own Alliance territory, makes trades with other nations outside of Foldan? When he went to school, did he not see how people of Duscur, Brigid, and Almyra got places in the classroom? How a woman from overseas got to be a Knight of Seiros? Even if he only spent two weeks there, surely he saw something, no?

He is also a prince of another nation. A nation with no Church, and no Crests. And they still have a King and nobility of their own. So why is he blaming the Church for such things? He literally is from another nation.

Hopes!Claude feels like he was written by a young author who is just starting out. There is no logic to his thinking. He just hates the Church because the writers needed him to.

And what makes it worse is that Claude is supposed to be the smart one. He is lauded as the brilliant tactician. The guy who thinks 5 steps ahead in every chess match. But he comes across as the most ignorant of the three lords, who cannot see past his own nose.

So yes, this is why is it a crazy direction. It's not just because of any misalignment of his character from Houses. It's because within Hopes itself, Claude is just a moron that it is hard to take him and his thought processes seriously.

[microlm]

I was loath to reblog this because you didn’t put anything behind a cut, but what can I say? I can’t help myself when I see ungenerous interpretations of GW Claude out in the wild. So I just want to give a rebuttal to your takes. Sorry in advance to everyone's dashboards that I'm stretching yet again with Fire Emblem Discourse.

In Hopes he’s a dimwitted and selfish man who’s main goal is to preserve and expand Leicester’s power, status and influence and dismantle the church through war which endangers everyone, Leicester included.

His goal in 3H was also to preserve Leicester and position it as well as he could for the post-war world and dismantle the existing ideologies of the church! He planned for his losses, but he very much made plays in an attempt to preserve Leicesters independence. And the only reason he doesn’t plan to dismantle the church is because he conveniently has the perfect friend on his side to change it ideologically without the need to personally remove its head with violence since Rhea stepped down. This is not the case in Hopes, where Rhea clings much more tightly to her position and the church is less inclined for radical change.

He sides with his invaders who tried to violently conquer Leicester and slaughtered his soldiers and citizens. He continues Edelgard’s pointless war that does more harm than good for everyone involved. He makes enemies out of allies like Faerghus and the Church the former out of a vendetta regarding Leicester and the latter over false and illogical accusations and throws away any opportunity to solve any issues with Faerghus and the Church peacefully by spilling their blood.

You have to realize by now that one of Claude’s core tenants is that enemies don’t always have to be enemies forever. Almyra and Fodlan were in conflict in the past, but he still holds out hope that it can be different. Following his success in repelling the Empire from Leicester, Edelgard is willing to extend an olive branch and agree to pay reparations for the damages she caused. Her starting a war is certainly not how he wanted things to go, but it doesn’t change the fact that Fodlan is currently embroiled in a war. As he says to Rhea, what matters the most to him is now how it will end. 

So, when he is at the crossroads of whether he should ally with the Empire or Faerghus, he must looks at the present state, as well as what he can gain from it to further his goals of dismantling the Central Church’s ideology on Fodlan, which he expresses--without anyone disagreeing with him!!--is a metaphorical wall that keeps the minds of Fodlan’s people separate from the outside world. 

Following the founding of the Federation as he is making this decision, what is the Empire doing? Well, Edelgard is actively engaging in diplomatic discussions with him, discussing reparations, and recognizing the Federation’s sovereignty as well as it’s right to crown a king if it so chooses. What is is Faerghus doing? Well, it enters the familiar patterns that Faerghus has historically done to Leicester: it takes advantage of turmoil within Leicester to take parts of Leicester for itself. When Leicester rebelled against the Empire in an attempt to become independent, Faerghus swooped in to take Leicester for itself, necessitating a second war for independence. When House Daphnel faced a succession crisis, they convinced a Daphnel noble to take the relic--a BIG deal in the setting--and abandon Leicester for Faerghus. 

When Leicester, fragile after repelling two invasions from Adrestia and Almyra, was taking fragile new steps as a more united Federation with a controversial selection of a king without the backing of the church, Faerghus tried to sway the most religious regions to abandon Leicester. The scriptures say that Seiros crowns kings, Dimitri claims that he needs the divine right given by the Church to hold kingship, and Rhea later outright calls the Federation a false state unblessed by the goddess. So what do you think those church go-betweens aiding the talks between the religious Leicester lords and Faerghus nobility was using to convince them? 

Faerghus refused to engage Leicester as a nation, the church’s official position seems to refuse to acknowledge it’s right as an independent nation to crown a king. So what does Claude have to gain by allying with them and sticking his neck out and restart a war with the Empire? What does defeating the Empire do for his goals? It would simply reinstate Rhea and the Central Church’s authority, and the Central Church has already made it clear that it would rather grant divine authority to it’s golden child--Faerghus. And Faerghus has shown itself willing to eat away at Leicester even in the present day. Not only that, but because Rhea has gone through the trauma of war, if she were to be reinstated, she would be someone even warier and desperate to cling to her control, and be even less open to any change.

He could chance attempting further negotiations with them, but the Kingdom has at this point already made it pretty clear that it is willing to go to war to defend the Central Church as it is, and there’s no guarantee that the Federation can sway the Church as long as it has such unconditional backing from Faerghus. Whether he agrees to ally with the Empire or Faerghus, it will still be joining the war so that Leicester has a chance to come out the other side on its own terms. The continent is at war, lives will be lost no matter what. But if it’s to shake the grip that the Central Church has on the continent, to shake the faith at an institutional level, then it’s a safer bet to remove the head of the church and force Faerghus to abandon them. And doing that is simpler on the Empire’s side of the war. But even then, it’s clear that he doesn’t want to conquer Faerghus, simply to make backing the Central Church so disincentivized that they would rather risk having a king with no church backing too.

Not only was his vengeful nature not present in Houses but he’s made statemants contradicting his stance on vengeance. From wanting to end a history of hostility between Almyra and Fodlan to extending mercy to Edelgard despite the crimes she’s committed.

To make that matter even worse is that Hopes Claude is vengeful against the wrong group. He had no issues fighting Faerghus for what their ancestors did and yet doesn’t have that same energy against Adrestia for their ancestors denying Leicester’s right to be independent and the fact that Edelgard is responsible for the deaths in Leicester cause of her war.

So, to characterize the calculations made above as simply about vengeance is inaccurate. The problem isn’t that Faerghus wronged Leicester in the past, it’s that it is currently attempting the same kind of harm in the present as he is making his decision about who to ally with. Meanwhile, the Empire is actively attempting diplomacy and agreeing to not step on Leicester sovereignty.

And most accusations he throws at the church are either false or not even Rhea’s fault but that of humans ( Which isn’t to say Rhea and the church isn’t without fault cause they definitely are corrupt ) and what’s worse the church hasnt done anything to suggested they did commit the crimes he accuses them off and his source of information comes from an unreliable source.

The things that Claude accuses the church of are never disagreed with by ANYONE when he brings them up. Not Holst. Not even DIMITRI who is at that point still fighting a war on the church’s behalf. The game does have a problem with showing anything really about the church in this game because they are weirdly non-entities for the narrative weight they are meant to bear in this conflict, but no one ever disagrees that the church dissuades diplomatic efforts with outside nations. 

But what about Brigid? Well, the church was personally involved in how Brigid was handled, it wasn’t something that the Empire was allowed to handle on their own. Petra cites both the Empire and the Church as “friends” of Brigid, and given the relationship between Brigid and Adrestia, you can extrapolate the kind of relationship between them and the Church. 

What about Duscur? We don’t actually know what was meant by bringing Duscur into the fold, but given that it was stated the Central Church justified the takeovers of Duscur and Sreng as blessings of the goddess and the ultimate end result when the Church took reins of the Kingdom following Lambert's death, as well Dedue's wariness of Church involvement in Duscur, I think the implications are pretty clear that the Church doesn't allow for true diplomatic ties to outside nations as equals. Only as something to be vassalized (Brigid) or conquered (Duscur and Sreng).

These are just the facts of what the church has done. People casually talk about it. Claude has had firsthand experience as a foreign royal to the kind of treatment that they get, and witnessed the political movements of Fodlan under the guidance of the church in places like Brigid, Sreng and Duscur. There isn't a claim he makes that can be truly rebutted at a systemic level. Rhea personally having Shamir and Cyril as servants--because they're useful to her--doesn't erase the fact that foreigners are driven by the ideologies and politics of Fodlan to live in a slum under the church.

The nobles use the church as an excuse for their wrongs, and the church grants them legitimacy for soft power. Of course it isn't only the Church's fault--it's the nobility's as well--but changing that ideology by shaking the religious foundations it stands on is a start. And what he attempts to do in Verdant Wind as well. Again, he just had the benefit of a friend who is willing to do that for him from the position of Archbishop that Rhea willingly gave up in VW.

He's so shortsighted, narrow-minded, delusional and all around idiotic that in Scarlet Blaze he and his weaker forces wages war against 2 bigger forces all in a sad attempt to conquer Fodlan for Leicester, needlessly throwing away the lives of his soldiers, citizens, friends and his own and disbanding Leicester in the process.

This friend happens to join him in one route of Scarlet Blaze. He has managed to form a plan to corner Dimitri with Edelgard, meaning there is a plan to deal with Dimitri's forces, and because he was the one who made the plans, he has good knowledge of her movements as well. It's the same plan that he made in CF--one battle, make it clean as possible, kill the head, and come out on top. He saw a chance to end the war in a single battle and come out on top, and someone with powers of the goddess one his side, so he did as he did in CF, and took the shot.

If you think it's bad strategy, sure that's fair. I think Claude is strategically held back by the ability of the writers to write strategy, especially when he is written to be on the losing side. But its no worse than the ones in Three Houses, and it's a Fodlan Writing Problem and not a Three Hopes Claude writing problem.

Which is all the more bizarre considering he teams up with Faerghus and the Church in Azure Moon despite his grudges against Faerghus and the Church making his decision to Scarlet Blaze even more stupid.

Again, interpreting his feelings towards Faerghus and the Church as grudges rather than calculations is a misread. The situation in Azure Moon and Azure Gleam are very different. In Azure Moon he has already lost and is unable to continue also I think that path just has bad writing to justify unification of the continent because the authors like it lolllllllll like if we're talking about a Claude to throw away I'm throwing away Azure Moon Claude byeeeeeee that's the most contrived Claude ending my god

Anyways. In Azure Gleam, Edelgard straight up can't be negotiated with.

Claude doesn't have hard lines regarding who he is and isn't willing to ally with. It's why he can ally with Edelgard, Dimitri, or Rhea depending on the situation as long as it is in service to his goal. It's the most appealing part about him to me. It's not inconsistency, it's flexibility to change as the situation changes.

Anyways, that's my long rant about why GW Claude is fine addition to the many facets of Claude. He had an easier time in VW, but him not having that easy time in GW and needing to take harsher actions is fun too. The real villain was the pacing.

How Fire Emblem 3 Hopes butchered Claude's character.

In order for me to explain how 3 Hopes did him dirty i first have to explain what makes Claude so great in 3 Houses.

In Houses he's a clever and ambitious man who's main goal in life is to end racism and discrimination.

He wants to achieve that goal using his unique and powerful position as the Crown Prince of Almyra and the Leader of the Leicester Alliance to make that dream a reality.

For all his valid criticisms against the church and the Seiros faith he doesn't believe that violence is need to change the Church and Fodlan for the better and learns that Rhea isn't as averse to change than he initially believed.

He fights against Edelgard to put a stop to her senseless and bloody war that prevents him from achieving his dream and to protect innocents from her vicious conquest.

And whether he comes out on top, gets beaten by her or saved by Dimitri he's more than willing to disband the Leicester Alliance so that Fodlan can be better governed under one ruler and prevent opportunistic lords from sowing more conflict and he does everything in his power to keep his soldiers, citizens and himself alive by surrendering if he loses to Edelgard cause he know he can't achieve his noble dream if he's dead.

He's a wise, clever and creative visionary who wants to do everything in his power to achieve his goals as peacefully as possible.

Now that we've established that it's time to talk about his butchered counterpart and how he spits on everything Houses Claude stands for.

In Hopes he's a dimwitted and selfish man who's main goal is to preserve and expand Leicester's power, status and influence and dismantle the church through war which endangers everyone, Leicester included.

Not only has his original goal been reduced to an afterthought but the way he tries to achieve his new goal is more detrimental than it is beneficial.

He sides with his invaders who tried to violently conquer Leicester and slaughtered his soldiers and citizens. He continues Edelgard's pointless war that does more harm than good for everyone involved. He makes enemies out of allies like Faerghus and the Church the former out of a vendetta regarding Leicester and the latter over false and illogical accusations and throws away any opportunity to solve any issues with Faerghus and the Church peacefully by spilling their blood.

Not only was his vengeful nature not present in Houses but he's made statemants contradicting his stance on vengeance. From wanting to end a history of hostility between Almyra and Fodlan to extending mercy to Edelgard despite the crimes she's committed.

To make that matter even worse is that Hopes Claude is vengeful against the wrong group. He had no issues fighting Faerghus for what their ancestors did and yet doesn't have that same energy against Adrestia for their ancestors denying Leicester's right to be independent and the fact that Edelgard is responsible for the deaths in Leicester cause of her war.

And most accusations he throws at the church are either false or not even Rhea's fault but that of humans ( Which isn't to say Rhea and the church isn't without fault cause they definitely are corrupt ) and what's worse the church hasnt done anything to suggested they did commit the crimes he accuses them off and his source of information comes from an unreliable source.

He's so shortsighted, narrow-minded, delusional and all around idiotic that in Scarlet Blaze he and his weaker forces wages war against 2 bigger forces all in a sad attempt to conquer Fodlan for Leicester, needlessly throwing away the lives of his soldiers, citizens, friends and his own and disbanding Leicester in the process.

Which is all the more bizarre considering he teams up with Faerghus and the Church in Azure Moon despite his grudges against Faerghus and the Church making his decision to Scarlet Blaze even more stupid.

It's a shame it even came to this cause not only did the other 2 lords improve from their original counterparts but the goal of their routes were allowed to stay the same, Claude is the only one who's gotten a gross downgrade and the only one route objective was changed from stopping Edelgard and finding out the truth about Crests to becoming her errand boy.

The first half of Golden Wildfire was great and then everything went downhill since Claude killed his shoehorned and obnoxious brother. Why the second half couldn't be Claude cooperating with Faerghus and the Church like in Azure Gleam is beyond me.

But anyways that's the end of my long vent about 3 hopes and it's mistreatment of my favorite lord.

[azure-clockwork]

I love three houses discourse because I'm pretty sure everyone just picks their route based on which house leader they're the most gay for and then tries to defend their pick by pointing out the other sides's war crimes via twitter memes. Reader, all four of them do substantial quantities of war crimes. So many. We're just here because the woman with Issues and a big fuck-off axe said so, and then we gotta justify everything she did in the name of dismantling the class system. I mean, I'm here for that, but you could also try justifying Charm Man uses poison and perfidy to try to stop racism, A Sad Little Meow Meow gives no quarter instead of doing therapy, or the Thicc Pope tries to bring back her mom via human experimentation, depending on your tastes

[risingsunfish]

Good morning, Deer! Here's a very normal question from Reddit. 🙃

Twitter

[cherry-blossom-inferno]

This is kinda of what I meant before where, as you've admitted, not spending as much time thinking about Claude as you do Edelgard and Dimitri also means you're misunderstanding Claude or not getting callbacks from Houses.. - WTF Claude? "I'm just determined to see what the world would look like without you." Idk, maybe Almyra??? The writers really gave Claude nothing with that line lamo. For example, this is a callback to a line Claude says in Verdant Wind about Rhea where he wonders what a world without Rhea would look like:

It's why you gain support points with Claude in Verdant Wind if you ask him if he hopes Rhea is dead. He clearly prefers Rhea dead in his vision of the world:

Wait, whut? Shez is like "we need to end the church to end the war." And Claude is like "right, because they they can try something again." My brother in Sothis, what the fuck? Did he just forget that Edelgard started the war? Rhea didn't do shit. They're talking about the Agarthans not the Central Church. As in, the longer that Fodlan remains in turmoil the likelier it is they try something again since the Agarthans are trying to capitalize on the chaos. So . . . how does killing Rhea and sparing Edelgard cause the least amount of bloodshed? I knew that's what was going to happen, but it makes no sense. Claude even admitted he knows that Edelgard doesn't give a shit, she wants to conquer Rhea or no Rhea.

Because as Claude said, it deprives Edelgard of their justifcation for war. Right now, Edelgard is selling herself as a revolutionary to the people. If she loses her justification and if she continues to war then she's just a greedy conqueror and loses her support from a lot of the people. When you look at side-missions, you'll see people in Faerghus that will tell Claude and Edelgard that they agree with their ideals and offer their support. Lamo, where did Claude get the idea that the church doesn't like people from other places or that aren't religious? Last time I checked, they didn't care? From living in Fodlan. He says this in Verdant Wind as well. This is Claude's experience in Fodlan. His whole plan in Verdant Wind is using Byleth, who has adopted Claude's ideology, to be the leader of the Church and changing the Church + Fodlan's culture from the inside to be more tolerant of outsiders/foreigners etc. as well as open borders so people can interact with each other because the isolationism that Fodlan is practicing is causing the people to be more racist because you fear what you don't know. Claude will also mention these things to Leonie in Houses where they talk about how they have to keep Claude's beliefs a secret or they Church might view it as heresy Seteth's solo ending will mention that he adopts a tolerant stance toward non-believers which implies that he was intolerant of them before.

Gareg Mach Monastery is also filled with racists that Cyril and Dedue will talk about. Some of the monks will say some pretty racist things when you talk to them as well. And there's the stuff with Abyss

Golden Wildfire Ch 14

Almost done guys. I can stick with it.

STORY

Oh no, The Empire is in danger. Anyways . . .

They're all shocked Edelgard is asking for help because she's putting her in debt to them.

Haha, they're considering just leaving her there and letting the Empire die. Lorenz came up with it. Based.

I know Claude will go bail her out, which is really stupid for a guy who claims he wants to end the war.

So . . . how does killing Rhea and sparing Edelgard cause the least amount of bloodshed? I knew that's what was going to happen, but it makes no sense. Claude even admitted he knows that Edelgard doesn't give a shit, she wants to conquer Rhea or no Rhea.

I really fail to see how on earth this is ending in 2 chapters. Unless Edelgard is so grateful to Claude she just gives up her ambitions? And Dimitri is equally OOC also suddenly gives a shit about what Claude thinks??

I've actually LOVED how they're written Edelgard and Dimitri in Hopes so far, and if GW ruins that with its shit writing I'm gonna be pissed.

Edelgard better not turn into some soft sissy who is all "oh, you saved me, Claude, now I'm going to play nice and make big eyes at you! Now that Rhea's dead and you did something nice, I'm going to give up the most core part of my character." Double gross if it's implied that she's flustered by his good looks.

And Dimitri better not not be pissed off that Claude invaded him for no reason and be like "You were so right, I wanted Rhea gone this whole time, thank you for saving me from her, please ignore Sylvain stewing in the corner, he'll just get over that you murdered his dad, just like I suddenly don't care how you murdered my citizens!"

If that happens, I'm calling this Claude's bizarre fanfic where he thinks his masterminded Edelgard and Dimitri so hard that now they're both hard for him no matter how OOC that makes them or how stupid Claude's been this whole time.

CAMP/SIDE MAPS

Haha, Shamir doesn't want to help the Empire. She wants revenge against them for the war with Dagda lol.

I don't think Holst has had an interesting thing to say in this entire game.

Oh yeah, I forgot. In GW and SB we're saving Bernie's father and helping him maintain religious power. Only in AG is he the enemy we're replacing. I swear, did nobody look at this and wonder if they made the Blue Lions unambiguously the only good guys?

Haha, right after I wrote this, some NPC was like wtf are we doing putting an Imperial noble in charge of the Monastery and religion?

Meanwhile, Lorenz is like, if we just let Edelgard die, the war ends right. But they must go save her because they're former classmates! For, like, a month! And Claude's like, Dimitri is too. And then crickets. I swear to God GW is borderline self-aware of how reaching and desperate the writing is to have Claude want to join the "I want to suck Edelgard's toes" gang for no logical reason.

Ouch, someone just compared Claude to Hubert. Like, I love Hubert, but he is NOT someone I want to be compared to.

I forget how boring GW is to play. Lorenz takes no damage from anything, so I just mash buttons. He isn't particularly strong either, so he's not nearly as fun to play as Dimitri and Hubert are with their ridiculous strength and magic stats, respectively.

So if I ever replay GW (lol, sure /s), I would def not pick Lorenz again. Lysithea seems like a way more fun character more suited for my play style but she's too far behind with class unlocks and etc . . .

Haha, Shez is like "if I ended up on another side, they would've been suspicious of my powers and thought I was an enemy" - side-eyeing Edelgard and SB.

Lamo, where did Claude get the idea that the church doesn't like people from other places or that aren't religious? Last time I checked, they didn't care?

Lamo, Shez is saying she might just leave Claude when the war ends. Same, Shez, same.

I had to fight Gustave :( And after that Sylvain :(

Guys, I'm feeding Claude recipes he dislikes. I've run out of supports to grind this round so . . .

I did the same to Holst too, because fuck you too, Holst

I'm giving my merc whistle to Lorenz. He basically did everything this route. And ohhhhh, he's right in front of Claude and Hilda too, haha. That means they're going to watch me give Lorenz a present and none for them.

And now to dump every stat boost on Lorenz too. I literally use no one else unless I absolutely have too. Hubert and Dimitri will get the same treatment. Probably also the 2 getting my merc whistle too. Which is hilarious since Hubert is pretty openly hostile to Shez.

SHEZ & CLAUDE A

It's funny. In SB, no one trusts Shez. In GW, Shez doesn't trust Claude. In AG, Shez . . . yep.

Wait, whut? Shez is like "we need to end the church to end the war." And Claude is like "right, because they they can try something again." My brother in Sothis, what the fuck? Did he just forget that Edelgard started the war? Rhea didn't do shit.

Also, didn't Claude say earlier he knows the church is just an excuse for Edelgard to make a land grab? Did he magically forget that?

SHEZ & BALTHUS B

Don't remember if I saw this yet.

Balthus wants to make a bet on battle. Shez doesn't want to.

Balthus likes to live on the edge and adding a bet makes battle more fun. Shez disagrees.

SHEZ & HAPI B

Still don't remember if I saw this or not. But it's another support about Shez's mysterious origins that go absolutely no where.

And I have a strong suspicion that we won't actually learn anything about who Shez really is unless her mom is like Arundel or something.

I think I may have seen this before. But Shez has more than one support like this so . . .

CLAUDE & MARIANNE A

Weird. They only have 1 support and its A.

Marianne gets a letter that implies that he wants Marianne to rule House Edmund and she's intimidated by it.

Claude shares that he worries too.

Claude says Marianne needs more resolve.

Sorry, that was boring as fuck.

CLAUDE & LYSITHEA A

Lysithea has a message from her father, who's taken maybe the worst beating in this game.

Her father doesn't want to complain, but to thank him for ending TWSITD chaos.

Poor House Ordelia really does get the shit end of the stick.

Claude is worry that Lysithea works too hard.

Lysithea doesn't really listen.

CLAUDE & LEONIE B

Their only support.

The crops of the territories that are at war are suffering because armies are trampling fields.

Common people are mad at Claude because of the battle making them starve.

Glad this game is acknowledging, even a little, how it's poor people who get screwed over the most when nobles bicker.

Leonie admits she could care less about this war. Which just make her not being in AG (so far) weirder. Since she's probably one of the one who cares the least.

This is more interesting than I thought it was going to be, because it's about how the commoners suffer in war, and how Claude needs a common born perspective. So that makes Edelgard the only one who never asks common born people what they want - and the one thinking she has the right to decide everything for them.

CLAUDE & CONSTANCE C

Claude is interested in Constance's experiments

Constance invented a spell that can change hair color and style, which Claude wants to use to escape but not to be her first test subject

She gives him a hard and sharp style, like literally - he complains, she's not happy

I don't know if she turned it back or not, if she didn't I'm tempted to not view their B so Claude is stuck with silly, awful hair for his final chapters because then his looks will match his clown behavior

HILDA & IGNATZ B

Hilda doesn't recognize Ignatz without his glasses on. So . . . she's an idiot?

Ignatz is basically blind without glasses, yet forgot where he put them. So . . . he's an idiot too?

Hilda thinks he's hot without his glasses. I . . . question her taste.

IGNATZ & HAPI C

Hapi finds his sketch book and there's a picture of her with cats in there, and she's disturbed that someone drew her without telling her

She figured out that it's him

She's mad he lied, but liked the picture

And . . . the Chicago Carolina game is more entertaining than that was (who may be the 2 worst teams in the NFL, for those who don't know)

SHEZ & IGNATZ A

Aw, that's sweet of Ignatz. He's like, we talk too much about me, talk about you!

And Shez teases him about a crush, lamo.

Shez only has 2 dream options: I don't know or easy going mercenary life

Ignatz asks Shez to be a bodyguard ones he's done being a knight and going after his dreams

Shez says she'll charge a lot lamo

Claude & Constance B

Oh, right, the hair magic stuff.

Constance doesn't appreciate his lack of enthusiasm

She turned his hair frizzy and uneven, lamo - like a bird's nest, and honestly, deserved Claude, you've sucked this route

He has a beard too

LORENZ & IGNATZ A

Their only support, weird.

Lorenz didn't make much of Ignatz when they meant, but now is impressed.

The improvement it because Ignatz is painting in his free time, helping his mental health

Lorenz feels bad because he realizes Ignatz wants to be an artist, not a knight, like he assumed

Ingatz is still grateful towards Lorenz for giving him a purpose after the school closed and he felt directionless

RAPHAEL & MARIANNE B

Bummed they only have 1 support. I like their chain in Houses.

Marianne can't get a horse to the stable bc it's sick (the horse told her, Raphael doesn't seem to care that a horse talked to Marianne)

Raphael offers to get the horse to the stable by putting it in a cart

He lifted it, Marianne is impressed, but now her horse can get the medicine and rest needed

Dumb horse ate bad fruit, honestly, accurate, they're all secretly pigs in horse-shaped bodies

Raphael . . . also eats rotten food. So, I guess Dimitri has competition for who has the most iron stomach

See, this was cute too. Marianne just feels naturally open with him

RAPHAEL & LEONIE A

They're out of arrows and surrounded by wolves

I think Raphael beat them back with her bow

He credits her for making such a strong bow (it didn't break)

So now Leonie will keep making bows until there's one Raphael can't break, and Raphael will keep working on muscles so he can keep breaking them

MARIANNE & YURI B

Oh, God, Yuri's always so mean to people in the beginning of support chains. I wonder how on earth this is going to go . . .

Yuri takes her off guard and asks questions, which just makes her more guarded and feel judged.

Marianne assumes he hates animals and herself. Because she saw Yuri glaring at her once. Girl, you have issues, but I love you.

Understandably, Yuri's a bit confused.

Marianne keeps assuming things are her fault and apologizing, and Yuri keeps getting more and more annoyed until she runs off.

A lot of this support felt pretty random, but let's see where A goes.

MAIN BATTLE

This battle is titled . . . salvation. You know, that may be the most clever bit of writing in GW so far (as in the ONLY clever writing)

Haha, Edelgard is surrounded by the Kingdom and Rhea.

Even Holst is like, are you sure about this Claude?

I really don't understand the logic of rescuing Edelgard if Claud doesn't want war. Like, Claude acknowledged that Edelgard only used Rhea as an excuse for expansionism. He knows she's just going to find another excuse for war, so all he's doing is making her enemies weaker.

Ok, that's enough. I forget that applying any sort of logic to this plot line is pointless.

Cut scene is cool though. Lamo, is this like the 5th time Edelgard needed someone to rescue her in this game? She looked really pathetic in cut scenes in this game. Like, I don't even like her, and I'm annoyed because one of the things I did like was her being a bit of a badass, not always needing saving from Shez, Byleth, from assassins all the time, etc . . .

Guys, there's a save Monica side quest. Should I just . . . not? You know what? I'm going to have fun with this. I want to see what happens.

Fuck, Ingrid appeared :(

And now they want me to save Bernie's dad. This chapter is really "rescue the most fucking annoying characters" and "kill the best ones."

Thank FUCK, she retreated this time. I wouldn't been livid if they made me kill her twice for no reason.

OMG, again, lamo, Edelgard is useless this chapter. She keeps getting caught. That's the 3rd time in 1 chapter she's needed to get her ass saved by Claude and co.

Now I have to fight Dedue :( He's better not fucking die. This route isn't worth it. Edelgard called him Dimitri's most loyal retainer though.

Oh, thank God, he retreated.

Now I'm going to have to fight Dimitri, I'm sure :( I'm really fucking glad Lorenz can't take damage. I'd be shitting myself otherwise. He better retreat too.

Why can't we let Edelgard die, Claude? Wouldn't that fix all the problems?

Oh, Rhea! Fighting Rhea will actually be a little cool, since you never get to see her or use her.

Dimitri retreated at least.

WTF Claude? "I'm just determined to see what the world would look like without you." Idk, maybe Almyra??? The writers really gave Claude nothing with that line lamo.

Took Rhea out. She retreated too.

Now Byleth is here and I think she's dying for good this time. Feel a bit bad about not recruiting her. Claude doesn't deserve Byleth's support on this route, but she doesn't deserve to die either.

Cut scene time. I wonder what's considered more cannon, recruiting Byleth or not?

Also, isn't it thematic that you kill Sothis on routes where you oppose Rhea and side with Edelgard?

Arval's way too happy about this, lamo. Shez is bummed. Honestly, I think I ship Shez with Byleth the most.

Edelgard was so lame this chapter.

Claude tries rubbing it in Edelgard's face that she owes him, and she threatens not to honor the debt. Like, Claude, my boy, if this person is willing to turn on you because you teased her . . . that isn't an ally you want, but whatever.

Claude is like, can we not destroy Faergus. Edelgard's like, no.

"We never spared a thought for Dimitri's motivation." Uh, how about "stop killing my people you bloodthirsty idiots." Also, not surprised. These two really are idiots. They can't fathom why Dimitri's . . . defending himself.

Claude sounds so pathetic in this chapter. He's like, sooooo desperate to be like, remember I did you a favor, Edelgard, remember! Like she gives a single shit, lamo.

x

[emblemxeno]

I feel like you should know that Rax is posting you on his twitter again, specifically posts from your twitter

I really don’t understand why this dude just can’t respect people wanting nothing to do with him anymore literally stalker behavior

Me: Golden Wildfire represents a worse extreme of how people can view brown characters, and the writers did a shitty job at handling Claude

Raxis: How can I make this about people not liking Edelgard?

Btw the "agency and independence" he talks about is kowtowing to Edelgard's demands because he thinks that siding with the imperialist will end the war faster once he gets rid of her target.

Not only is "brown man does dirty work for white woman" a textbook "They Were Her Property" moment, Hopes literally reveals in its shitty textbox ending that he was wrong about her and the war is continuing because Edelgard isn't just about destroying the church, she's about assimilating the rest of the continent into her empire.

[problematic-fodlan]

People interpreting Claude as black is the most american thing I've ever seen, which is alot considering FE Discourse.

Almyra is the one case where we can fairly easily pinpoint its cultural inspirations, which is vaguely middle eastern but mostly ottoman and persian inspired. The names seem to be more arabian, though I'm not sure how common they may be in iran, so somebody who is from iran or more knowledgeable about iranian names may add information. In turkey they are not really super uncommon, but they are not really your stereotypical turkish names, which would be more things like Mehmed, Murat or Mustafa, we really like the letter M okay?

The persian inspiration is really strongly present in the flag of Almyra and Claudes personal battaillon the Immortal Corps, which is clearly inspired by the persian Immortals. The ottoman inspiration meanwhile seems present in Claudes personal class, the Barbarossa, which is likely inspired by the ottoman corsair and admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa, though there also was an ottoman emperor with this nickname. Claudes backstory seems to indicate the practice of fratricide inside the almyran royal family which, while it also happened sometimes in persian or arabic dynasties, was mostly a trademark of the ottoman sultanate, as it was fairly systemic there.

-

[faroreswinds]

Claude did the right thing. If a caste system based on bloodlines and legitimized by an immortal who holds technology back for society requires war to take it down then so be it. And Claude used kid gloves on Faerghus too.

Does killing Rhea end the caste system? Why?

And what right does Edelgard and Claude have to decide to remove that caste system, as you say, from another country?

And I would say Claude went in guns blazing, considering he didn't even try to talk to Dimitri first.

[deathbirby]

Edelgard’s lack of interest in looking into the history of Fodlan beyond what her (dubiously reliable) father and (fantasy Nazi torture squad) TWSITD tell her is such a clear and glaring character flaw that so many of her “did nothing wrong” fans defend as Good, Actually. Like I can’t wrap my head around it, we know that there’s so much about the history of the continent that El either doesn’t or refuses to learn and while it’s understandable in some ways why she can’t it’s still like. Bad. It’s so clear that if her actual goal was liberation then she would’ve done more research, gone to the church and told them that hey, the Slitherers™️ are at it again and we need to do something. But she doesn’t, because that’s not actually her goal… it’s conquest of the other two nations and an overturning of the current system to favor her (mostly already privileged) friends, plain and simple. But people who either didn’t play any routes but CF or just didn’t pay attention/have poor media analysis skills love to say otherwise. Bluh.

I still can't get over how she was tortured and lost all her siblings to TWSITD and decided that the CHURCH was the biggest threat.

Edelgard 100% believes she is in the right and is the ONLY person who is right and thus is the ONLY person who can bring about change. And with "change" I mean "unify Fodlan and bring it under the control of the Adrestian Empire like it was in the past".

At no point does she consider that Wilhelm's history could've been tampered with, or simply been misunderstood after a whole millenia has passed. And why not? Because it's the only thing that drives her hatred for the church, and if it was disproven then she has no leg to stand on? Probably!

[catharsis-scrawled]

I watched the hunchback of Notre Dame and I totally get the "fandom Frollo" comparison now. It's not just saying "you're acting like a nutty conservative Christian" it's also saying "Why are you spending so much energy on the thing you hate? You're secretly horny for it aren't you?" Perfect.

[cherry-blossom-inferno]

You are correct that there is a difference but the difference you're talking about is in how "heinous" it is though rather than whether that label would still apply or not and the labels you put on Claude for Hopes would apply in Houses as well is what I'm saying. Now Claude doesn't do these "gray" things in Houses but that he's capable of these things is something that's frequently talked about in Houses and is only really shown in Hopes. The biggest issue is that the character in the writers' heads was not able to expressed properly on paper so it was a lot of "tell rather than show" because they were constrained by how Silver Snow was written and following that template too closely so now you have two Claudes, the Claude that a lot of fans saw in Houses and the Claude the writers had in their heads and some people picked up on if you took the game's ham-fisted dialogue at face value. Okay but that's not to say VW Claude isn't a good boy, he is. It's just that he has the capacity to not be ruthless under the right circumstances which is what Houses tried to get at. ------ On Sreng, he didn't disguise Almyran ships as Faerghus ships. He just used them as transport and made sure the people of Sreng saw them so they would be inspired to strike Faerghus. I can see how someone can misconstrue Claude disguising them as Faerghus ships but it's made clear in the next scene where Rodrigue talks about how Sreng is a warlike country and would attack if they saw Faerghus in crisis so Claude just made sure they knew an opportunity was there to attack. Claude's mode of conduct is to get people to act in the way he wants by manipulating them as efficiently as possible. ____ On Claude's not siding with Edelgard in Houses, he actually doesn't neccesarily say Edelgard's methods are too bloody for him specifically but that they're too bloody for the world to get behind (and he has a better plan in his mind at this point by just putting Fodlan's crown on his wife/bestie Byleth and fully replace Rhea's role in Fodlan with Byleth). That's not to say that Edelgard's methods aren't too bloody for Claude, they probably are but it's more of a preference That said, I do think a big reason that he doesn't side with Edelgard Three Houses is (a) Demonic Beasts (b) Edelgard is not looking for an alliance with Claude when she has TWSITD backing her so it's not on the table (c) The shenanigans that Edelgard pulled as Flame Emperor make her untrustworthy (like there's her association with the whole Remire massacre and the Death Knight) even if he can get behind some of what she's saying. (d) Claude dislikes wars of attrition and always tries to end wars in as few battles as possible win or lose but in the most ideal way for him .

@cherry-blossom-inferno replied to your post “Hilda to Cyril : You're always so focused on the...”:

@randomnameles This is all characterization present in 3 Houses. Claude admits to stealing in 3 Houses and threatens to steal Byleth's diary. Claude is well-known for cheating and it's brought up in Houses. It's a big character trait of his that he does whatever it takes to win. Also Claude lies all the time in Houses too. Btw Claude didn't attack Sreng. He manipulated Sreng into attacking Faerghus and attacked Faerghus which he did to take down Rhea.

​I'd say there is a difference between cheating/lying to get his hands on a diary and "mixing up poisons" in his dormitory room during his spare time, and backstabbing an allied party (in SB if certain conditions are met and in GW where he lets Randolph die) in an armed conflict.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he plan for the Almyran Navy to attack Sreng (his dad lent boats to Nader?) while pretending they were Faerghian boats?

Thus, effectively, manipulating Sreng, by attacking them out of the blue (and then lying saying Faerghus did it)?

Claude in Houses doesn't do anything needed to win, that's why he doesn't side with Edelgard, because her methods are "too bloody" for him.

Now, what is the difference between her methods in Houses or Hopes... (maybe the demonic beasts usage? I know no one gives a fuck about them in Houses, but are they implicitely the reason why Claude refuses to work with her in FE16, or is it just a bullcrap he pulls because in FE16 he has sufficient power (through Byleth) to do whatever he wants his way, without needing to side with either Adrestia or Faerghus ?)

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

Three Hopes is a Good Game. It gave us maps with territory outlines and more character interactions and Dimitri with a ponytail and Edelgard without cinnamon roll hair and Claude with trauma and Shez's empty little head and it gave us Holst and empire dads!

I see so many people complain about it and say how it doesn't exist to them for being out of character, but I really do think it's a Good Game

.

[pandp-author]

In retrospective... Calude was kind of an asshole and a hypocrite for wanting to dig Flayn's secrets and being so insisting about it, and then discovering at the end of his route why Flayn (as well as Seteth and Rhea) was so secretive, and he barely comments much of anything on the fact that he basically has been trying to out her and potentially put her and the remaining nabateans in danger by exposing the fact that you can get sweet weapons out of their corpses, and Rhea is telling him straight to his face that humans were greedy and monstruous enough to do it before (really, I think people forget the teensy, tiny detail that the nabatean genocide came *before* the existence of the church, meaning people wanted their power way before the power was "elevated by divinity", because contrary to popular belief, contrary to what edlgard thinks, the church does not promote the crest system, far from it it's the only institution in Fodlan to try and minimize people's obssession with them) They just committed the Duscur genocicde not that long ago, so who's to say they won't do it again? As someone who keeps secrets out of genuine fear for his life... this is tactless at best

This is made extra ironic because you have Balthus do the same to him on their support together, but Claude has no troubles doing the same to others.

I guess him and edelgard have something in common, lacking this much self-awareness.

[bowbowis]

Wait! Not Like That!

It's rather telling that people who complained about Edelgard not trying to talk to Dimitri and Claude in Houses get upset about her winning Claude over by talking in Hopes.

It seems many of them weren't actually interested in seeing Edelgard try to advance her aims diplomatically and just wanted (and expected) Dimitri and Claude to convince her that an oppressive feudal theocracy isn't worth rebelling against. They certainly weren't expecting Edelgard to get one of the boys on her side instead.

Turns out even the magic of mansplaining isn't enough to overcome a well made case.