#dimitri antis I'm looking at you

[usaigi]

Modern Blue Lions headcanons

Dimitri

Has difficulties with fine motor skills following the car accident that killed his family and Glenn. Has to use accommodating tools like specific silverware and a laptop to take notes in class. Kids used to be jealous that he got use a laptop in class but he just wanted to be normal

Regular member of his school GSA but everyone assume he's just a straight ally because look at him. Look at his hair. He's straight. His classmates don't discover he's actually bi until a week before graduation when they see him kiss Felix

Also a regular member of the BIPOC solidarity club. Dimitri, Dorothea, Ashe and Constance are the token white allies.

(mental health spiraling) "haha puberty/hormones :) No need to discuss these new symptoms with anyone, it's just normal teenager things" (it is not normal teenage things)

Annette

banned from home ec after starting a fire while making a salad... She's was trying to make homemade croutons...

girl ADHD :)

she got a B on a chem test one and cried about it for 2 days straight

"Maybe if I get all A and get this many awards and get this many scholarships, my dad will love me :)" (girl.. :( )

Frenemies with Lysithea. They're buddies until it's time for exams. Then it's war. There can only be one valedictorian. (death note's "I'll take a potato chip and eat it" songs plays in the background)

Olivia Rodrigo stan

Sylvain

Hasn't said "okay i'm sorry that I looked at Mrs Riley and lightly grazed her left tit" but has said that exact same thing

friend with a car. "yeah we can all fit into my Audi; Annette and Ashe are tiny, just squeeze in and pretend you like each other. We can stick Felix in the trunk" "I'll kill you."

He's in Lacross AND theatre. Ice hockey AND Ice dancing and figure skating. He can do both, he's bisexual

Has to pick between a major sport game and his theatre show. His dad wants him to follow his dream and do the game but Sylvain is getting ready to tell him "no dad i'm giving up your dream." He backs out. He goes to the game.

"You got a perfect score on the college entrance exams?" "Why is it hard?" (he studied so much)

Ingrid

"Gay people are real??? They don't just exist in San Francisco and on Glee???" /gen confusion. Not in a homophobic way, she's just raised in a conservative environment and instead of going on the internet, she hangs out with her horses (Just wait till she finds out about trans people)

When her family was going through a particularly hard financial time, her friends started packing extra lunch. They all know she doesn't accept handouts but Ingrid will never say no to leftovers.

So chronically offline. Who's Billie Eilish? What's Succession? What is Rizz?? They're making another Spider-Man movie!?

Dedue

Vice-president of the BIPOC solidarity club. The school gives them club money and he uses it to make food for the members.

"..." "Go on" "Down with... gringo?" *Claude, Petra, Felix, Cyril, Hapi, Constance, Dimitri, Ashe and Dorothea all clap*

Football/Basketball/Hockey couches keep trying to recruit him. He just wants to garden.

(Tw racism and ref to violence to poc men) "I don't want to antagonist white people. As a large brown man, I'm already perceived as a threat." "That's ok! Your safety comes first. I got this," Dorothea says as she throws eggs at someone's car with a confederate flag.

Mercedes

"I'm joining the war on liberation theology on the side of liberation theology."

"Mercedes! Can you explain your tardiness?" "Forgive me, professor, I was at morning mass." (She was. But she's late because she stop to smoke a blunt.)

In her most angelic, big sister voice, "fuck TradCaths 😊"

Somehow still failing her religious studies class

(tw cults and implied anti semitic conspiracy) Raised in a religious cult where her step dad was the leader until she and her mom escaped. Because of this, did not know Jewish people were real. "I knew they were people in the bible but all I knew was [redact]" (Don't worry, she knows better now that she's not in a literal cult)

Felix

"I fucking hate my dad" "why? Is it cause he didn't accept you being queer/trans?" "No, he was cool with that. He's just fucking annoying."

"Ingrid, what the hell, I'm literally trans. You know this. We've been friends since we were in diapers." "Oh. I forgot." "YOU FORGOT!?"

Wasian. (tw sui joke) @ Dimitri and Sylvain "stop joking about killing yourself--you're appropriating my culture, assholes."

Secret Olivia Rodrigo fan. He only listens to her music on youtube + incognito mode. Only Annette knows. Annette manages to get them concert tickets were they run into Lysithea.

Ashe

Spider-Man stan on main. Somehow he convinces Dedue to be his Ned Leeds to his Peter Parker for Halloween

He knows Ingrid would like the MCU if she watched it, but she's scared of needing to watch 10000 movies

*slaps Ashe's back* You can pack so much anxiety in this guy

Started school in the middle of the year because he's a foster kid. Rumors started spread about him being a harden criminal because he went to juvie. He keeps tries to correct them and say he's never been but Caspar keeps fueling the rumors

"Caspar! Stop telling people I went to juvie! That never happened!" "...You... lied to me? :(" "You made it up!" "Oooh. Right."

[raxistaicho]

"God's gonna get Edelgard for this!"

Yup, we sure have gone there!

So a while, RandomNameless got an anon ask:

Insane that Sothis can watch Billy slaughter her children and subjugate Fodlan in twu piss, and still say she adores him. The devs were drinking the El Grey that day.

You know it's RN because the stupid nicknames.

So yeah, Anon's just angrily ranting that Sothis doesn't care about her daughter which established a false religion, made people suffer for a millennia, and tried to violate the laws of life and death, which, when Ashera did it in Radiant Dawn, was treated by Caineghis as an utter betrayal of her supposed core attribute of order.

“A blasphemy, you mean! How could the goddess of order violate the most fundamental natural law?”

Stay salty, anon.

RN herself weighs in on it next. I'm gonna let her go on a bit because the actual argument she's making needs to be stated in full.

That's what baffled me in Tru Piss lol, and first route bias etc etc meant Sothis was unsalvageable given how it became painfully obvious, even for someone who didn't complete the other routes, that the goddess Rhea calls "mother" is Sothis herself ! Bear in mind Hresvelg Grey meant Sothis couldn't interact with the cast bar Billy, will never talk to her relatives and will never have any influence on the plot. It's as if Elbert only talk to Mark, while Eliwood is still frantically looking for him, and Mark never tells Eli where his dad is.

So here, RN is misunderstanding the point of Sothis in the broader narrative. Yes, Sothis happens to be Rhea's mother, but "being Rhea's mom" isn't her role in the story. RN, because she's a huge fan of the Nabateans, wants the story to be more about the Nabateans, but it really isn't.

See, there's a reason the Agarthans are dispatched in one chapter in all routes and are never the final bosses or the true villains of the story: the story isn't about them. They're important to its background, but they're important for what they represent and what they do, not who they are. The Nabateans are the same.

Ultimately, the story of Three Houses is a tale of the conflicts between mortals and the divine, and the differing ideologies espoused by those who represent those sides. Edelgard firmly represents the will of mortal humans. Rhea, her antithesis, represents the desire of the divine to watch over mortals. Rhea, unlike her species is important because she is Edelgard's opposite. Thales, who might have been Rhea's opposite, is not as important because he isn't: Edelgard already serves that role. Dimitri leans more toward the necessity of the divine in human affairs, while Claude leans more toward the self-governance of humans while using the divine when necessary. There's a reason Claude sides with the Empire when he must, and the church only when he can control it for the purposes of promoting humanism.

Byleth is smack in the middle, fitting their dual-nature as both human and god, but they must choose a side in the end. In CF, they fully embrace the human, while in SS they fully embrace the god. VW and AM are something more in the middle.

Sothis is similar in a way, as a being who was once a god, died, came back as something less than a god, and chooses to sacrifice her powers to Byleth, thus remaining something less than a god. Sothis willingly chooses not to resume her role as the goddess (in Zahras when she decides to give her powers to Byleth rather than taking Byleth's body as her own in order to escape), and so her role in the story is not to be the goddess or Rhea's mother, but to be Byleth's guide, setting them at the start of their path and then departing so they might make the rest of the way.

But Rhea BaD BaD BaD,

And now we dip into the anti-Rhea conspiracy theory...

so her mother cannot take over Billy (something she canonically does in Nopes) to save her,

Here's another fact RN can't accept - and she calls Sothis a horrible mother for it - but Sothis doesn't approve of Rhea. Furthermore, Rhea's downfall in CF is almost entirely of her own making. She set the groundwork for Fodlan's oppressive social system, she refuses to allow it to be reformed, and she never questions why anyone would disagree with her. Because, for Rhea, reforming the church and Fodlan means resurrecting Sothis and submitting Fodlan to her divine rule, which becomes impossible without her church (it's already impossible because Sothis knows her time as the goddess is over and she's respecting the laws of life and death, but still).

and to erase Supreme Leader who hilariously tells everyone she doesn't exist.

It's not even that "hilarious". Edelgard's right in that the goddess worshipped by the Church of Seiros no longer exists: she's dead, and when she had the chance to come back, she chose not to. The Church of Seiros might worship a being with the same name as the gremlin in Byleth's head, but Sothis the head-gremlin and Sothis the goddess are a whole life apart from one another, and the Sothis we know chooses to remain the former.

But now we get to the real meat of this post.

Fantasy Invader.

Oh yeah!

I think this is a translation issue as Japanese Sothis doesn't say that "the stone in your chest is gone," she says "the stone in your chest...shattered."

Teaspoon Translations has it as "crumbled away" and has no ellipse, but who am I to question Fantasy Invader trying to make things look as sad as possible?

It broke, which would mean something considering it's supposedly her heart.

We bwoke Sothis's heart by killing poor baby Whea T_T

What's more, the game changed Byleth's Nirvana class to Enlightened One, and part of achieving Nirvana is purging oneself of attachments that might cloud your judgement.

But only if it's Edelgard. If it's Dimitri or Rhea, attach yourself as hard as possible in the hope they come around.

Also, in the context of Three Houses, detachment is a bad thing. Byleth grows out of being the Ashen Demon through attachment to others. Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude become their best selves when they open up and allow others in. Attachment is a good thing in Three Houses.

Ergo, by playing Safflower (the route being named after a type of thistle, a path of thorns if you will)

Ah, yes, I remember that one. It wasn't very good.

the player breaks Sothis's heart,

Oh he actually just said, "you break her heart :("

the thing that holds her essence,

No, because by then Byleth held her essence. Not the crude, physical matter Rhea shoved into their chest.

You'd think the person who goes all-in on religious symbolism would value the eternal soul over the ephemeral body.

causing it to seemingly disappear,

Except it doesn't? Her essence, I mean, not the Crest Stone. That's what the S support is for.

But sadly, Fantasy Invader has a way to explain that away.

It's a really bad way, but a bad way is still a way!

yet she leaves behind the Sothis you knew.

I'm sorry, what. Nothing indicates the Sothis from her S support is some... bizarre cast-off shadow of her.

Sothis, the real Sothis, abandons Byleth at the end of Safflower, leaving behind any attachment she once held as Byleth walked down the path of the Beast as per Dimitri's comment.

I'm sorry, what. Is it too much to ask that FI provide some evidence for this claim? I mean actual evidence, not his headcanon derived from his poor attempts at analyzing Buddhist symbolism.

Wouldn't leaving behind a part of herself to remain with Byleth go against this whole no attachments thing? That's a pretty big attachment! And if Sothis rejected Byleth, why would she do that? She can't just make a clean break from Byleth, she has to literally detach the parts of her... soul... personality, that care for them? Wouldn't that make her an incomplete being? It was a bad thing in the Tellius games when Ashunera split her soul into parts!

Combine this with the implications Sothis can come back if she recreates her body,

You know, that thing she demonstrates no ability to do! If Sothis could just make herself another meat puppet to incarnate into, Rhea wouldn't have had to spend a millennia trying and failing to do that for her.

and why Nemesis needed to kill her when she was asleep,

Because she would have defended herself and killed him if she wasn't? He didn't have a Relic or a Crest back then, he was just a bandit trying to kill the most powerful Nabatean in the world.

What, is FI trying to imply Sothis's soul just got stuck asleep because she died asleep and that's why she never bothered to come back the first time she died?

and you get an idea what's going to happen when that occurs as well as another piece of evidence Edelgard is an Agarthan in all but name.

And there we go, "God's gonna get Edelgard for this!" Sothis will totally self-restore herself at some unknown period of time in the future, kill Bad Red Lady, and make everything right.

Well if that's the case, why do you bother getting upset at anything Byleth does, FI? Just be like those Christians who are sure Jesus is coming back any day now and he'll fix everything on Earth when he does.

So yeah, yet more salty desperate self-assurance that Edelgard's totally gonna lose the minute the credits start, trust me bro.

I mean seriously, if her detractors are so certain she'll fail, why bother getting upset when she wins? It really makes you think.

[kyogre-blue]

Second chapter of CF down. Bye, Claude <3

I powered through yet another month of boring monastery stuff with the single thought of seeing Claude again (and killing him <3). If nothing else, this route is much more amusing than SS because I can see characters I care about doing stuff... as the enemy... but they're there!

Which really just highlights again how much of a missed opportunity Academy phase really is. They have all your future enemy units in the same place with you and then do basically nothing to make you care about them. It's all left onto replay or presuming they have off-screen relationships.

Aside from that, Edelgard's narrative about the Relics, human superiority and anti-dragon people is... hm. Well, it sure is a thing! Given how blatantly misconstrued some of the stuff she's saying gets (eg, about the Relics), the writers had to have been intentionally writing her as being utterly misguided, and I get that you're buying into her coolaid in the CF route. But the fact that you can't ever confront her about it in other routes despite all the "if only we could have understood each other :(" is just so.... sigh. It's unsatisfying to put it mildly.

Live blogging:

Hubert and Ferdie B: Hubert goes against Edelgard's explicit orders for something.

Felix says he's killed tons of people for the empire in the last five years and has the same look in his eyes now as Dimitri. lol

Dimitri with both eyes <3

Hubert's pre-Bridge conversation is hilarious. We need to cooperate with the Agarthans (presented as Arundel's subordinates) because we need to topple the Church! This is a very painful decision for Edelgard because you see they used her father as a puppet and killed her siblings :( Why are we more opposed to the church than these assholes? Well, because, I guess.

Bridge mission - nothing interesting. We do fight Judith, who has a unique model but is never playable. She's holding the bridge because Acheron is useless. He shows up as a horse guy (I'm pretty sure he was a mage in another route?) and then ditches after only one turn.

Afterwards, everyone makes fun of Edelgard for doing a bad job running the war until now because she's been too into Byleth. I've heard this angle before, but I think the actual difference is kind of mixed. They made less progress in the Kingdom, but that was all on Cornelia anyway, so it comes down more to Rhea not getting captured, presumably because she didn't have Byleth weighing her down. And the Alliance situation was never a real invasion in the five year gap to begin with. SS did have Lorenz siding with the Empire, but the exact in and out is kinda... hard to track.

Anyway, now we're in the Claude killing month!

Talk about how Claude has been acting as intermediary between those that oppose the Empire and those who support it, keeping them from fighting each other. Since everyone is compromising to keep the Alliance united for now, no one has openly sided with the Empire either.

But now he's scheming something, as we know because people have been stopped from entering or leaving Derdriu.

Everyone else: Claude is a smart, tough opponent. Bernie: Who's Claude

Ladislava is tasked with managing the supply lines and keeping the Goneril territories under control.

Being betrayed by Byleth made Rhea crack. "She started laughing as if she was possessed and spouting complete gibberish..."

Edelgard: Why can't people admit defeat without fighting back first? If they're going to surrender after I crush them under my boot, why not surrender without fighting? (Logically collolary: If you choose to fight, die fighting and never surrender. Explains why she's Like That in Azure Moon: sunk cost fallacy)

Edie is "not disinterested" in romance lol

Caspar family drama: His older brother is lazy, greedy and skates by relying on his position as heir. Their grandfather was really obsessed with his second wife, Randolph's mom. And she really wanted Randolph to become the heir, but the grandfather had to step down "earlier than expected," so Caspar's dad took over the title. With all this, Caspar's brother is really worried about the possibility of I guess Randolph taking over as heir instead.

This has.... interesting implications, I guess.

First, this makes Randolph Caspar's uncle, lmao

Second, I really, really wonder if Randolph was the grandpa's biological child. His mom explicitly married in after he was already born, but she could just as easily have been the grandpa's mistress. Either way, we get a very funny inheritance situation because Randolph does not have a crest, we can see that in his battle stats. So either crest ownership just doesn't matter in this case (lol Edie), or even wilder, you can just pass on your title to a completely unrelated child. Even if they ARE related, that's likely unprovable without a crest. (lol Edie extra hard)

Third, I wonder what the exact timeline here is? Because if Caspar's dad took over recently enough, he might not have been the lord who took part in the Insurrection. That might explain why he's inexplicably so chill about helping Edie take the throne and gain a whole ton of military power.

Edie, of course, turns this around as "this is the price of taking your own desires into account when choosing an heir" and this is why "the concept of nobility is decaying" but isn't Edie opposed to nobility in the first place? And she doesn't plan to institute a democracy anyway, so isn't everyone just going to be choosing their heirs based on "their own desires"?

She goes on to say that she wants a world where the best rise to the top and succeed, "regardless of bloodline," but uuuuuh this entire situation is about how the grandpa did not follow bloodline properly...? And all this also means that Caspar's bro can absolutely be removed from his position as heir, regardless of his bloodline...?

Caspar is like "ok, so you're saying nothing would change for me in your world, right?" L M A O

The way Edie presents the history of the Relics is so... "Relics were created by the hands of mankind" imo I wouldn't really count the Agarthans as particularly human anymore, and also this wasn't exactly something triumphant. "Seiros manipulated the people of the world and defeated the all-powerful King Nemesis" Nemesis was indeed tough, but you don't need to lick his boots quite that much. "Should the one leading the people of the world by someone with humanity or a creature that can merely masquerade as a human at will?" Given that you turn into an inhuman monster when you feel like it, which side of this binary do you fall on, Edie? I personally feel that Flayn, Seteth and Rhea have plenty of humanity even if they aren't human...

"The Immaculate One and her family"... dang, this phrasing is really...

This knowledge is passed down from emperor to emperor, huh. I know this kind of thing! Naruto taught me all about it! I remember that Uchiha tablet full of bullshit!

Byleth has been compared to Nemesis now. Hm.

Claude scene <3 He's upset about Judith dying, and that many more people will die following his orders. But of course he also talks himself up "do you have any idea how much of the Alliance adores me and believes in in me?" How much? Hm... about half? I remember SS and Lorenz leading the other half.

Anyway, Nader is also here.

Linhardt stupid take: "It's as if Crests were designed to be used only in times of war." How can you use them in peace-time? My dude...

There are three gates that connect Derdriu proper to its naval port. It looks like the naval port is a reinforced, walled area where the ships must dock before any goods or people can move into the city itself.

Killed Lysithea with Caspar, but I still get the prompt to spare her. I don't like these, it's too easy!

lol Claude keeps being upset that people are too stubborn to retreat even though he tells them to. My man, this is what happens when the Alliance adores you, it's called ride or die for a reason

The Almyran King fighting on the front lines... as expected.

Nader has been a soldier for 30-odd years. Incidentally, he retreats rather than outright being killed like Judith and Hilda... and Claude. It seems he has no dialogue for if Claude is killed first. Too bad!

[ellianasdeadpointeshoes]

First off Jessie Riley’s views aren’t backwards. Second of all Westside and Dimitri’s have always been separate. Dimitri has nothing to do with Westside and visa versa. Jessie created Westside. It was her vision alone. If you knew anything about a concert dancer, you would know how special the dancer’s are who Jessie created. ‘Jessie trained’ dancers can move like no one else. That is a known thing in the concert dance world. Dimitri & Jennifer solely train in ballet and they too have trained beautiful dancers and given them a foundation in ballet. Jessie is an icon.

Baby I know Jessie created Westside. I'm a fan of her solos. I know they are "separate" but they share a building. They can't be that separate. Look it up on the maps. Also BEING ANTI VAX IS BACKWARDS AS HELL.

[deathbirby]

For that last anon saying the Nabateans were striving for coexistence and all that, just remember that what the stans are saying is literally just made up. It's the version of the game they want to be correct to fit their agenda for the version of Edelgard they created within their own space together. It's definitely frustrating, but no matter how pro-Edelgard and anti-Nabatean they are, what they said in those comments is just objectively not true.

I guess this is the result of people twisting the context of a story for so long, and/or just being so bias that they let it color over what the story is actually saying because they WANT to see it a certain way. That or they just use that as their "owning the haters" go to arguments, and they've used them for so long that they believe that those arguments are actually within the confines of the game.

It's like how if someone tells themselves something is true long enough, they actually start to believe it. Maybe at first they did know full well none of that was true (if they didn't they're just fucking dumbasses plain and simple), but they argued it so long to "own the haters" that just forgot it wasn't canon and started to really believe it.

They use their obsession over Edelgard to color things entirely in her favor, even if it didn't actually happen. Instead of liking/loving Edelgard and agreeing with her, still seeing Rhea as bad and evil and needing to be killed and still giving in-game reasons for their views, they just make entire backstories and bullshit up. They do that to Dimitri too. Anyone who opposes Edelgard they just fabricate their role in the story to make them as horrific as possible so that Edelgard looks just and heroic. They create things out of thin air because they've run out of their in-game arguments that haven't already been run over frontwards and backwards by an 18 wheeler.

None of what they say is even based in canon at this point. It's definitely frustrating (and also because of how MANY of them believe this stuff within their hivemind), but at this point they don't even like the same game as us. In their minds they've played something completely different. Let them stew by themselves in their made up bullshit in their hivemind that they circle jerk over while we have fun enjoying the game we were given with the actual context that actually exists.

Also, just because not everyone in that server agreed with the downright Nazi logic that mod person gave doesn't mean they don't literally think the same way. They ALL believe in the Nabatean genocide and want that because Edelgard does. It doesn't matter the exact logic that leads them to that conclusion - at the end of the day, they're still advocating for genocide and using completely bonkers and fake excuses for it to be "the right thing". And why do they do all this? Because their pixel waifu wants it, so they do too and they will justify anything she does no matter how horrific (but you can bet your entire neighborhood that if a man did anything she does, they'd condemn it).

Says a lot about who they are as people. Imo leave them to rot in their corner together. Either real life will give them a wake up call one day or they'll just continue to rot.

Canon does disprove just about everything that they're saying, which makes it double weird how they came to that conclusion.

Honestly, anon, you've got such a giant ask here that I'm afraid of even touching it with my own comments haha.

But yes, it does seem to be a case of "Edelgard has to be good. She can't ally with bad people, so bad people need to be good. That means the enemy of bad people are now bad people who deserved the awful things that happened to them."

Still, I don't think everyone in that server believes in pro-genocide rhetoric. Some people have actively spoken out against it. You either get bullied into submission or banned.

Unforunately, we did try to just enjoy our canon material... only to get block evaded by some guy with no life.

[violasgamingpalace]

Been theory crafting a version of Three Houses where Byleth makes the route choice at Chapter 12 instead of the prologue, and as part of that imagining the students picking their professor instead of the professor picking the house they want to teach. This is my attempt at figuring out your starting class. Wanted to keep characters similar to their canon personalities. (not the biggest three houses nerd so let me know if you disagree on placements)

Hanneman's Class

Linhardt- Crest research

Edelgard- crests research

Hubert- follows edelgard, but hanneman also knows reason magic.

Claude- Hanneman because he figures he'll learn the most secrets that way? (I'm sorry but no way he picks Byleth, merc knows NOTHING)

Hilda- follows Claude

Annette-Has a support with Hanneman?

Mercedes - Wants to go Hanneman to be with Annette

Ignatz-is here to be a Knight and Hanneman could help with that???

Manuela's Class

Ferdinand- looks up to Manuela

Dorothea- looks up to Manuela even more, obvious choice.

Lythesia- no to hanneman for crests, She likes Faith, so Manuela.

Lorenz- Noble man wants to go Hanneman, but does have support with Manuela? And means he can be with Ferdinand.

Dimitri-goes Manuela to follow Ingrid/Sylvain

Ingrid-manuela, I guess? No knight professor

Sylvain- Manuela? I guess? He has a support and does auto-join F/Byleth. Sylvain wanting to see boobs brings the Blue Lion friend group along

Caspar-Manuela, but just to have a place to be

Byleth's Class

Petra- Sword connection, and dont think petra REALLY would learn much from other profs?

Bernie- too anxious to sign up, so ends up with Byleth

Raphael- forgets to go to signups, Byleth it is!

Leonie- Byleth for sure. Jeralt connection and she wants to be a Merc.

Dedue-Wants to go Manuela to Follow Dimitri but the school said the class was full (Feels vaguely racially motivated)

Felix-Byleth no question

Ashe-no Knight professor, but Ashe is just happy to be here, doesnt really care about professor.

Marianne- Horse girl wants to go with Hannerman but crests are to blame for going Byleth

Things I like- Wanted the Byleth class to feel like the weirdo group with very little going for them, and thats def this class. Everyone is either anti-social, a commoner with low expectations, or racially marked as other. Now white clouds focuses on you replacing them by recuiting the elite of fodlan society teaching to your student's strengths and making them capable.

Three black Eagles in class ensues that Byleth will have to fight their old students if they go on most routes, and if they go Black Eagles they'll still fight old students they taught

Ashe in class for Lonato Chapter

Things i dont like- skill proficiency wasnt set up with this in mind. While we have 1 tank and 1 mage, no one else can REALLY be trained as a reason mage, we have fourish archers, twoish lance users, two speedy sword users (three if ashe goes thief!), and a lot of units that want to go riding.

Its really hard to imagine Dimitri being so casually cruel to Dedue. Maybe we get a scene where Dimitri heroically sacrficies hanging out with Sylbain and Ingrid so Dedue can be with Manuela for a bit?

Edelgard and claude in the same class despite their total lack of connection. But! Edelgard and Hilda in the same class? Let us see how much Hilda HATES edelgard. It would be funny.

[gascon-en-exil]

I feel like there's a difference between engaging in media you enjoy critically and complaining a media is normalizing a problematic element while also supporting/enabling the creator of said media by buying and engaging with it, especially if the person complaining genuinely believes in their cause but the creator doesn't particularly care (for eg, the student conduct dlc side quest Intsys added to acknowledge/poke fun at the people against teacher/student relationships).

Oh, absolutely, which is why it's impossible to take any of this at face value. It's easier to believe that it's all just more fandom drama than to try to imagine the sheer levels of cognitive dissonance that would be necessary to hold positions like that while continuing to support such media. I can say with reasonable certainty that the anti-Studentleth movement in fandom was started by people who shipped Claude and/or other characters with people other than Byleth and were looking for an easy way to attack a competing ship. Et voilà, Studentleth is pedophilia. The same goes for half-Dagdan Lorenz as a way to one-up Dimiclaude, or the heavy focus on House Goneril's racism as a way to dismiss Claude/Hilda.

As a point of contrast, you may note that I'm also not fond of Byleth and that I criticize them constantly whenever I discuss FE16. I dislike the artificiality of their presence as a flat self-insert and how the writing is warped around them in both games, and in particular I dislike how much AM centers Dimileth at the expense of Dimitri's relationships with his established support network. This is, however, a wholly amoral criticism, and one that doesn't accuse Dimileth shippers of being bigoted or morally degenerate. At worst I've said that Dimileth as presented in canon railroads Dimitri's character away from the homoromantic culture built up around him and toward heteronormative clichés (good girl fixes a bad boy, arguably a virgin/whore contrast with F!Byleth compared to AM's trio of treacherous women: Edelgard, Cornelia, and Patricia) - but the responsibility for that lies with the writers, not with Dimileth shippers.

[burr-ell]

I agree with you about Dimitri. Compared with other vengeful anti-heroes, he is too fairytale-like. He is not well-rounded enough to have a compelling identity beyond his vengeance.

It's really obvious when we look at fics that feature him. He always has something to avenge. He always has trauma. Dimitri is never explored as a character without tragedies because beyond that, who is he beside perfect prince charming?

Dimitri is not a horrible character by any means. The writing is actually very generous to him. However, like most aspects of the game, he could used more polish. It would have been helpful if Fleche played a bigger role in his story or more of his pre-Duscur personality have been revealed. As it is, he is just a vessel of the moral lesson "Vengeance is bad" like in fairytales instead of a character who has to learn that vengeance is bad along with the audience.

Yeah, this is basically where I'm at. It's like...some people will argue that the reason people write fanfiction is because they're unsatisfied with the narrative and want to fix it, and obviously that's why some people write fic, but for me, the reason to write fanfic is that you love the source material and want to see more of it. I generally tend to seek out canon-compliant fic for this reason—I like the characters as-is, I like the setting as-is, and I want to see more of that. So one of the ways I judge whether I like a piece of media (not whether I think it's good art or worth checking out; just whether or not I personally like it in a fannish sort of way) is if I want to at least read, if not write, fanfic about it. Claude scratches that itch for me, and while Dimitri can if he's part of some measure of ensemble cast...he's not on his own compelling enough to me to carry his own follow-up story.

[wqbytop100]

WQBY

Top 120* for the week ending May 12, 2024

Lighter --Galantis, David Guetta, 5 Seconds of Summer - 1

Sleep Tonight (This Is the Life) --Switch Disco, R3HAB, Sam Feldt -2

Love & Pain --Enrique Iglesias -3

What If We Met --Ali Gatie -4

Beat of Your Love --Ownboss, LAWRENT, Ekko -6

Jet Plane --R3HAB, VIZE, JP Cooper -5

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Low Again --Bakermat -20

Outlaw Love --Brooke Eden (Dave Aude Remix) -18

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Hell Together --David Archuleta -21

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Glad I Found You --Elderbrook & George Fitzgerald -60

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Save You A Seat --Alex Warren -31

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My Body --Illusionize, Y&M -42

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Wish I Never Felt --Nate Smith -80

***Shadow --Trixie Mattel -(new)

Yellow --Jxdn -71

Karma --JoJo Siwa -74

Same Drunk --Walker Hayes -72 >>>

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Lil Freak --bbno$ -78 >>>

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Illusion --Dua Lipa -94

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***Animal --R3HAB, Jason Derulo -(new)

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Mine --Michael Gerow -88 >>>

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***Wake Up --Young Franco, Master Peace -(new)

***Why Should I --Z3LLA -(new)

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***Willing To Let You Go --Diplo, Anella Herim, Abby Anderson -(new)

*(Due to Character limitations on this platform, The List has been shortened to 120 as of this week) (If your interested in the full list, it can be found on WQBY's page on Spotify)

7 -New this week 5.12.24 @# 69 Shadow @# 78 Animal @# 93 Wake Up @# 94 Why Should I @# 95 Stereo @# 96 Don't Look Down @# 120 Willing To Let You Go

[mysticdragon3md3]

Last week, I was looking at all the propaganda posters in the backgrounds of the Netflix Nimona 2023 movie, and I wanted to draw some FE3H propaganda posters. But I only had ideas for Claude, since his goals/message is the clearest. But today, I realized that all I have to do is figure out what are the other House Leaders' goals, and then, what messages, if spread, would help further those goals.

So I figured out El. Just some jingoistic, "Manifest Destiny", war-glorifying propaganda. (Despite what she SAYS, her actions seem more interested in conquest.) I just need to draw a poster that makes the unification of Fodlan sound "sooooooooooooooo great".

But I'm having trouble with Dimitri. It's clear from both his secret meeting with El during the war, the Azure Moon epilogue, and his 3Hopes support with Yuri, that Dimitri's goal is to protect the weak and misfortunate. He canonically wants to look after orphans, take Yuri's suggestion to educate the people so they can participate in government, and if you get the FE3H solo ending for Dimitri, he actually institutes a parliament with representatives for commoners. As revealed in 3Hopes, part of the reason the western Faerghus nobles helped Cornelia/Agarthans frame Dimitri for Rufus's murder as well as help them kill King Lambert, was because both Dimitri and Lambert wanted to make drastic reforms to the government (while the western Faerghus nobles likely wanted to keep the status quo for their power). Dimitri also wants to restore Duscur and absolve them of the blame for King Lambert's murder. Even during Dimitri's Academy days, he taught children in his spare time (see his Support with Byleth). He spends his Support with Yuri, just going around trying to help people, without telling them he's their king. Basically, Dimitri wants to look after the weak and less fortunate.

So I had the idea today that for Dimitri's propaganda posters, I should look at images of government assistance programs. But oh my good glob…These are not posters. These are printed websites! Slightly more approachable graphic design, compared to official government department websites. But they are just jam packed with text information! This was a shock, because I had just been looking at multicultural education PSA posters for Claude's propaganda poster ideas, and I ended up looking at posters mostly for young/teen children's classrooms. Then again, anti-racism PSAs for adults also use cartoony stylized art styles: https://youtu.be/a-kZNoQvY6M

So now I think I've got to figure out what types of government assistance Dimitri would create in Faerghus, how a medieval fantasy king would implement that aid into government programs, or maybe just what he'd name them, then write text for each of those, and cram them all into one poster. And since I don't like realism, I won't be going for the stock photo header look of some posters. A bunch of these government assistance program posters have hands reaching out, extending life preservers, figures shaking hands,… There's even this tree of cartoon hands, each holding a different type of situation for which the government provides assistance. So I think I'm going with the cartoon hands. Or the silhouettes of cartoon people in the situations that qualify for assistance.

[flesh-and-silk]

I wish all dense people especially here and on TikTok to understand that it's alright to dislike a character's vibes/personality/whatever. What ISN'T alright is to ignore a character's complexity and lore and treat them like an inherently cruel animal or a joke just because they're white/straight/a man/whatever.

When you're all "anti" a character that shows clear and very accurate symptoms of mental illness, you're being dehumanizing of people that struggle with such things.

Also, no, I'm not saying that mental illness can excuse being an asshole. I'm saying that no one's born "evil" and y'all need to understand it is possible to love someone AND hold them accountable for their actions at the same time.

How about not being such an ableist?

Kindly, a disabled person.

[pretty-weird-ideas]

I just remembered how asinine the FE3H fandom can be and I just...

As a black person, I am just tired of white fans in this fandom acting like they own black trauma stories and that they have justification to question black fans on how they portray Dedue and his experiences. I've noticed how intense and vitriolic white fans have been getting when black fans write ventart/ventfic regarding Dedue when they let nearly everything else slide. They genuinely police our opinions on his ships to make sure we don't "anti" anything that they ship and will hound HOW we ship Dedue x Anyone Else when we do agree with them regarding ships. It's asinine how angry white people get when their fragile feelings are tested when we discuss casual racism and its effects, or write genuine canon events as they should be addressed. I've had people genuinely get mad because I wrote "Ingrid too racist". Or had a white Dimidue get mad at me; a DIMIDUE for addressing the canon power dynamic or caring enough to discuss how racism plays into consent and coercion. Even if I was discussing how Dimidue can be healthy, and writing it as such. I was questioned simply because "implying" that Dimitri can be racist if written in a specific way was "too much critique".

I must ask... what skin do yall have in this fight? Like at all, to be discussing how black people vent and project their own black trauma and abuse they face onto Dedue? How much entitlement must you have to question and doubt legitimate experiences people have had with racism simply because they didn't do a pretty lil dance and act naive and optimistic about anti-black racism? When we don't pretend like racism no longer exists, or when we discuss how other characters can help make Dedue more comfortable with himself there's nearly immediate pushback and dirty looks. And I'm just so tired of it. What representation is SO SO desperately needed by white people in this nonspecified black man that you are willing to fight for it? What reward are you getting from this other than dunking on black fans for simply discussing their own experiences with racism and loving a character in a way that 99% of white fandom always does?

White fans constantly project their own feelings and trauma onto white and racially ambiguous characters they like, and they nearly get free passes every time. But let a black person put their opinions on race onto Dedue and they lose it. It's simply not acceptable for black fans to project trauma the way that white fans do on a regular basis. And it's blatant and tiring.

Fans have consistently gotten mad at us for writing stories about actually progressing within Fodlan, have ignored us and preferred a coddling and sugar-sweet facade that white people have made, and demolish our platforms when we actually don't give a "happy ending". You shouldn't prefer white writers and their opinions on racism and its effects than black writers. And recently I've been seeing more and more opinions on FE3H/W3H that basically veer on the lines of "I just stopped listening to black people because they just annoy me with their SJW stench and I just can't stand them and their opinions and I-". It's obvious and degrading.

[teaveetamer]

Actually looking through Felix's supports I can kind of see why he's such a hit with a lot of the twitter crowd and even some of the antis. He follows the very very very common pattern of "Hey fuck you for doing something I don't like! Oh wait you divulged all of your trauma to me and you actually have a very good reason for why you think how you think and do the things you do? Fuck you anyway it's not good enough for me!"

Like reminder that Felix initiates this conversation with Dedue, Dedue has done literally nothing to him up until this point aside from exist and like Dimitri:

Dedue is not nearly as mean as he could be (or should have been) about it, which Felix then follows up with... insulting him again:

Then follows up with interrogating Dedue, which Dedue god bless his heart seriously and honestly answers (which includes discussing his own trauma at facing the literal genocide of his people)... which Felix responds to by apparently completely missing the point:

(Sure Felix. Even if you think you have legitimate grievances with Dimitri, I'm sure Dedue is suuuuuper inclined to give you the time of day after you insulted him and spat on his trauma)

Then Felix goes on to further interrogate even after he's demonstrated that he doesn't actually give a fuck about Dedue's logic or reasoning behind anything:

Which Felix then follows up with insulting Dedue again, and noping out of the conversation because he thinks he's made his point:

Felix is basically the embodiment of one of those idiots on the internet who shows up to one of your conversations, insults you repeatedly no matter how hard you try to have a civil discussion, blocks you before you can respond to his last insult, and then pats himself on the back for "winning" the argument.

[demoiselledefortune]

I’m bothering you, mutual! What’s an opinion on media you are burning to share with someone, but haven’t had reason to talk about here? (If you can’t pick a media, then I’m asking specifically about Fire Emblem.)

Oh thank you for bothering me ^^

I'm not sure I have opinion on media I'm burning to share unfortunately. I'm excited about Three Hopes because it looks like it's going to further elements of plot and world building of Fodlan pretty well; but at the same time sad because the gameplay is really not my jam so I don't think I'll be able to play it. Also the problem with revival of Fodlan discussion is the revival of discourse where it's endless bashing of characters and fans for liking the characters. It's become very trite and boring and I hate how self righteous people get about it. Especially since given my own mutuals I only ever see one side of the discussion really (the pro-Dimitri and anti Edelstans) so like... I'm willing to believe that the other side is awful and deserve all that hatred because that would be hardly surprising but all I see on my dash is the people I like acting being smugly judgemental and I'm actually really tired of it. It's decrease a lot of my enjoyment from the fandom in general even though I like the game a fair deal.

I've started a Black Eagle game actually; but I have a hard time motivating myself to continue it. This is partially because of the climate in the fandom tbh, because I feel like I'm not allowed to like Edelgard because of it; but a large part of that is simply that it's the third game and it's not that fun a game to replay because there's so many moving parts and the beginning takes forever. I tried playing on Maddening mode at first, I was hoping it would help me keeping focused but it was just too hard for me so the opposite happened; so I ended up re-starting again XD

I have a friend who's play Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn for the first time and it's been fun hearing about their impression of the game so far. Still have a lot of fondness for the Tellius games; especially Radiant Dawn.

One of the thing we were talking about Path of Radiance is how it's kind of odd how the heart of the story is what happens in Begnion, especially Serenes Forest and that's also what I think is the most interesting part of the story; yet it's really a detour to the main plot. Likewise I find that most of the characters who have the most interesting characterization and store weight to them are the characters you're unlikely to use as gameplay unit a lot. There are exceptions: Jill and Soren have two of the most interesting character arcs and are also pretty likely to be used as units. Reyson too is essential in play. But most of the Greil mercenaries and first recruits are cool characters but who don't have a lot of story relevance. I think even more than other Fire Emblem that is the case.

Hope i managed to do with Fire Emblem opinions...

[butwhatifidothis]

Hi!

When I first got onto your page, it was for anti-edelgard reasons, because I was so sick of looking at other posts that blatantly ignores Edelgard’s main faults, and ignores that she’s straight up the villain

But then I saw your posts about Captain’s fanfic, and I was intrigued, I had to scroll a bit through your archives trying to find the name. When I found it, I read it and-

I couldn’t even get through three paragraphs, it was so bad. I also felt SO embarrassed because how UTTERLY ooc it was. Like sure, I read fanfics that are sometimes ooc, but Captain’s fanfic was something else. Plus, the whole fanfic was just??? Terrible writing, I couldn’t believe that people that read through it willingly and enjoyed it.

So I wanted to thank you for still reading the fanfic, and telling the rest of Tumblr what’s happening, because I’m still intrigued by Captain’s fic, but refuse to have my eyes look at it again.

You have so much willpower, god bless

Hello!

My blog started off as a place for me to just rant about the fandom's insistence on erasing all of Edelgard's flaws and wrongdoings just to push some "if they only talked!!" message. She wanted to kill them before ever getting to know them. Then she wanted to kill them after getting to somewhat know them in the academy. They did not want to kill her... ever, really (edit: outside of the OBVIOUS point with Dimitri lmao). Dimitri literally does try talking to her and gave her two different chances to call for peace, and she flat out rejected both - the second time through a sucker punch knife throw. Claude literally tells her that he doesn't want to fight her; she responds by saying that if she doesn't kill him she can't get what she wants. This, along with a shit ton of other things, were just completely ignored by the fandom in favor of making Rhea Bad, shit get on my nerves, made some vent posts, one two skip a few now I'm here lol.

So I hear about a fic made by one of the bigger influencers of the 3H fandom - Mr. Teacher Theory, Edelgard has C-PTSD, Rhea is a Tyrant, Faerghus Toxic Masculinity himself - and I see multiple people recommend this fic as a must-read for (mostly) Edelgard's character, and I was like "hey what if I actually read it." And. Well. Yeah lmao. Even if we completely separate it from 3H and we judge it as strictly an AU with no regards for canon, the fic falls flat.

Woobiegard repeats herself constantly in the prose, going over again and again and again how Sad she is - and a good part of that is her making other people's pain all about her and how Sad she is or once was. Characters Just Like Woobiegard - no real reason for it, they just kinda do even though she never does anything for or with them. Marianne is a prime example of this - Woobiegard speaks words to Marianne twice before the Holy Mausoleum, but Marianne nevertheless comes to admire her for literally no reason and spills the beans about her deep-seated trauma in front of complete strangers because of it. Her relationship with Byleth is entirely built on fate and is the reason she and Byleth ever become happy ever at all in any timeline ever, but we're supposed to ignore 1) how they shits on the fic's supposed narrative of Fate Bad, and 2) how extremely unhealthy their relationship actually is. If you don't like Woobiegard, you will either die or become a villain/get demonized. Or both. The only way to redeem yourself if you have ever not liked Woobiegard is if you completely bow to her whims and accept all blame she and her pack of dogs with throw at you. Byleth can reverse time, but only when it's convenient - otherwise, something will happen to where she "just can't do it" (see: Hilda's leg). And just. A billion other things.

Like, there are so many flaws that are completely self-contained and do not relate whatsoever to 3H. If we add on the fact that this is supposed to be a culmination of Cap'n's actual meta? That people will unironically say that this fic fits in with actual meta pieces? You then open so many cans of worms that build on top of each other and ruin the fic even further.

I'm glad to hear you enjoy the notes! Making them and reading through this fic is certainly an experience lol, so I'm glad they're entertaining!

[travelling-on-the-octopath]

Confession time! I was very anti Dimiclaude for the longest time. But not for reasons you may suspect. You see, my first 2 routes were AM and VW. After AM where Dimitri saved Claude at Derdriu, I was very disappointed by how little Claude did to help Dimitri in VW. Dimitri is killed completely off screen at Gronder, and Claude doesn't care much about Faerghus or Fhirdiad afterwards. Now I'm sure Claude was sad to hear of Dimitri's death, but the plot just continues as normal anyway. (1)

all four parts received!

To me, this was a huge downgrade from AM where it's part of Dimitri's arc to save Fhirdiad and Derdriu. It felt almost like if Dimiclaude existed, it was pure one sided on Dimitri's part and Claude didn't feel the same way come VW. This made me feel like it was a pairing that had little basis in canon because Claude didn't care half as much. But I'll admit, there was some salty stuff involved too. I got mad when Dimiclaude fics shafted Dedue and Felix (who matter to Dimitri's arc way more) (2) To me, it felt like Dimiclaude shippers wanted to "replace" Dedue with Claude cuz Claude is more conventionally attractive while still being a person of color. It also felt like Dimiclaude shippers wanted to minimize Dedue and Felix's importance to Dimitri by acting like Claude was more relevant to Dimitri's arc instead. This admittedly made me sad… kinda angry, I swore off Dimiclaude as a result. I'm confessing for several reasons. A) you are super nice & I've liked your Dimiclaude meta (3) You have also given more extra perspective on Dimiclaude shippers who like and appreciate Dedue + Felix and also multi ship Dimidue+ Dimilix. B) Hopes upset me so much in terms of Claude. I liked him in AG but playing GW made me hate Claude more than anything, and it only seemed to reinforce how much Dimitri and Faerghus don't matter to him. I guess I'm able to face my anti Dimiclaude feelings head on in light of Hopes now. It's complicated, confusing, messy. But I wanted to share with you. (4)

Thank you for your confession! I'm glad that my blog is a secure enough space that you could confess this to your friendly neighbourhood dimiclaude-enjoyer lol.

Honestly, you do have a point that there's a trend I see in fic, sometimes, where certain canonically important dynamics will take a backseat to whatever romantic relationship is at the forefront. It's not exclusive to dimiclaude fics, but it's annoying as all get out whenever I do see it. I adore Felix and Dedue; they're both crucial to Dimitri's character. I won't lie and say "I can't write dimiclaude without them!!" because I have, and there's a line to cross in that regard too, but if it's a serious piece that goes into their characters, and Claude manages to be the most important person in Dimitri's life, I uh . . . hm. That'd be curious. I've seen it--oh boy have I seen it--but it's certainly a choice.

I've addressed the whole "Claude does nothing for Dimitri on his route" (and not routes because GW is a lost goddamn cause, in every capacity) thing before, and given my take on it, so I'll just say that not really being into them for that alone is kinda fair; at that point you'd have to treasure the dynamic enough to look past that, and for someone giving it a passing glance, there's no need to look that far into it.

Anyway, sorry that dimiclaude has lost appeal for you in the wake of Hopes' butchering one half of it lol. I've learned to just treat it like a mistake and move on but being upset about it is way more than fair.