#edelgard doesn't know a lot of things about faerghus and leicester

[pastel-odette]

My favorite thing about edelstans is when characters from Faerghus and Leicester say that what Edelgard is trying to do won't benefit their nation and edelstans say they're brainwashed.

[faroreswinds]

I'm sorry but the Fodlan games are morally against you. The game is messily written and its lore contradicts itself but the thrust of the narrative is that the Church is meant to be a xenophobic, classist institution with some good in it headed by Rhea who isn't personally xenophobic and classist but is the pillar of a bad system. Edelgard wants to get rid of it, Claude wants to get rid of it while acknowledging there's some good and Dimitri is okay with getting rid of it and personally agrees with Claude's arguments for why it's bad and never stands up for it. Fodlan being unified is a good thing which is why you even have Lysithea in Hopes give an argument about why it should be unified or why every route in Houses ends with Fodlan unified in a golden age or how even in Claude's ending route in VW, he says that Fodlan should be unified with a supreme ruler rather than split up again. Even in Houses, the game portrays Edelgard as a tragic antihero or just an antihero in Crimson Flower. And in Hopes, the game takes as many villanous elements out of Edelgard's story as much possible between severing TWSITD from it or having it so Dimitri technically starts the war against Edelgard for harboring Rhea(and Dimitri says as much that he's the same as Edelgard in that he also starts wars) to Claude allying with Edelgard because she's more tolerable to ally with to there being insinuations even from Edelgard that she might stop her conquest if Rhea is gone or at the very least she's willing to let Leicester go because Faerghus might be too interwoven the Church to let live. The game plays it fully straight that Claude's hero moment in Golden Wildfire is saving Edelgard at the end rather than pulling a Randolph on her

I'm sorry but the Fodlan games are morally against you.

I'm sorry but they are not.

It's kinda a shame that you are on anon, since I can't know if you will ever see this response. Are you just dropping an ask to "educate" me and dash, or do you follow me and will see this response? Alas, I will never know.

But man, I’m getting these anons now? I must be making a mark on the world!

But do you want to know why I know, anon? Because the devs literally tell you that Edelgard is the villain, in their interviews from a few years ago. And that Rhea had good reasons for what she did. Anything beyond that is ignoring the Word of God.

You can argue that the game didn't do a good job showing that but you can't argue that that was the intention.

The game is messily written and its lore contradicts itself but the thrust of the narrative is that the Church is meant to be a xenophobic, classist institution with some good in it headed by Rhea who isn't personally xenophobic and classist but is the pillar of a bad system.

But it also contradicts itself, anon. I can be told till they are blue in the face that the Church is xenophobic and shit, but when I see that the Church goes out of its way to rebuild towns in Duscur where their religion doesn't even exist, employs people like Shamir and Cyril (let's not forget that even CLAUDE in HOUSES says that the Church had a lot of different people with different background and religions), and tries to create an environment where class doesn't exist, how in the WORLD can I believe whatever nonsense the characters spew?

Actions do speak louder than words. They just do. And I don't see the Central Church ever promoting class, promoting xenophobia, or trying to force their religion onto others. If Rhea is the pillar of the organization as you say, then it stands to reason that the organization is more likely to be like her and not the other way around.

Edelgard wants to get rid of it, Claude wants to get rid of it while acknowledging there's some good and Dimitri is okay with getting rid of it and personally agrees with Claude's arguments for why it's bad and never stands up for it.

If you paid attention, Dimitri isn't just ok with getting rid of it. He doesn't even actually fully agree with Claude. But it's a terribly written speech and those chapters do not fit into any route at all. I can't take it seriously.

Fodlan being unified is a good thing which is why you even have Lysithea in Hopes give an argument about why it should be unified or why every route in Houses ends with Fodlan unified in a golden age or how even in Claude's ending route in VW, he says that Fodlan should be unified with a supreme ruler rather than split up again.

That's what the game tells me, but it's dumb as shit. Lysithea's reasoning is about the Slithers- she feels a united Foldan will prevent the Slithers from doing shit (not necessarily true, by the way).

Unification, the erasure of identities and people's way of life, their borders.... I can't condone that. Not if it's done by force. It's disgusting. It lacks nuance. It's basic.

But the game loves it.

Even in Houses, the game portrays Edelgard as a tragic antihero or just an antihero in Crimson Flower. And in Hopes, the game takes as many villanous elements out of Edelgard's story as much possible between severing TWSITD from it or having it so Dimitri technically starts the war against Edelgard for harboring Rhea(and Dimitri says as much that he's the same as Edelgard in that he also starts wars) to Claude allying with Edelgard because she's more tolerable to ally with to there being insinuations even from Edelgard that she might stop her conquest if Rhea is gone or at the very least she's willing to let Leicester go because Faerghus might be too interwoven the Church to let live. The game plays it fully straight that Claude's hero moment in Golden Wildfire is saving Edelgard at the end rather than pulling a Randolph on her

No, again, Edelgard is the villain. The devs have told me as such for Houses, and that is how I view her.

If anything, I felt in Hopes it made it more clear based on her actions, despite how hard the game tries otherwise. She creates a Church that is under her direct control, which she uses to preach whatever she wants her public to hear. We don't know what those words are, but if the AG route has anything to say about it, it's not good. She still declared war and makes it CLEAR she's conquering and not just removing the Church. She doesn't care how it happens, whether they bend the knee like the Alliance does or if they get wiped off the map like Edelgard wants to do to the Kingdom (and she wants to get rid of the Kingdom, she outright states that). She blames the victims for dying. She makes assumptions about her enemies, and uses it to justify her actions.

I know, because I played her route.

And no, Dimitri does not technically start a war. Edelgard gave him a choice - war, or give up the refugees. That's all on her, no matter what the bleeding-heart Dimitri thinks. That's just pure writing bullshit.

And let's not forget Claude. Claude allies with Edelgard because her force is more powerful. He doesn't like the Empire, and wants the Alliance to gain the upper hand. He is using Edelgard, pure and simple, to not only get rid of the Central Church but to also prevent her from gaining the upper hand.

Even when he is rescuing her, he clearly states that he is doing it to garner more favors from her for his own leverage.

I wouldn't use Claude in Hopes as a beacon of morality when the man causes a race war, invades a country before trying to talk to Dimitri first, tricks his own father into lending Alymran ships, never reveals who he is to his friends (only to Shez and Judith), destroys the legacy of the Alliance and takes total power for himself, blames victims for their deaths, and so on and so forth.

[randomkposts]

I'm aware Fareghus is a far from perfect nation. It is a nation born from the descendants of Andrestia, who rebelled to form a kingdom of their own. Its people still have colonialism and imperial culture at their roots. It has a lot of issues to work out. 

And I believe that the next generation, the ones who are coming into the lead of their people, are going to be the ones to break the cycle. Not all of it, not right away, but they are going to be future leaders, and are aware of aspects of their system that are hurting their citizens, and want to change things. I don't think you can like the characters of Faerghus sincerely without recognizing the problems of Fearghus as a nation.  Dimitri wants to end the racism against the Duscur, Felix loathes the culture that promotes venuration of death, and a bunch of them definitely have problems with how views about crests have impacted their lives. 

And they don't want to burn down the whole system. They want to change it from within, from what they can do as lords of their people. And defecting breaks the trust of the people in them, hurting the causes they desire to change within their home. 

Edelgard wants to change the system too. She wants to burn away the old, and set up a new one. And while I agree that fire needs to be set for the sake of progress, that destruction is a bringer of change, it should not be what you bet it all on. Everything set on fire, offers no means of escape, and you need people to keep things running. I know she needs to move fast, because she has a time limit, but all that fast moving does not ensure a stable structure being set for the future she is trying to build, she doesn't have a system set in place to keep the future she is building up to, to continue to get there after her death. The cost is already a lot of lives lost to the war. The commoners who lost resources and people to it , the soldiers who fought in it, the leaders who died defending what they felt was theirs, the land that is scarred by it. Who is going to be there to keep the people from reverting to how things used to be after her death? 

She has no heir/sucessor, adopted or otherwise. 

She is descended from an Empire of conquests, and it is still active as seen with Brigid, and Dagda. And she solved the problems that came the same way? Is she going to have the diplomacy to ensure lasting peace for future problems? Particularly as she was kept isolated by the tunnel snakes who have racist (speciest?) Views, and only in a route where Byleth helps her, can she break away from them. And that help comes at the cost of Byleth alienating their own support base, the church.

But back to Diplomacy, after conquering the continent, and Killing the tunnel snakes, she probably has to deal with Almyra, particularly if she killed Claude. Regardless of how much the people of Almyra like or dislike Claude, she still (unknowingly, as he has trust issues for good reason), killed a royal of another country. And Almyra does not have a good relationship with the Leicester already, the now Empresses of the continent killing a royal of your country seems a good reason to invade. Especially since the continent is still pretty rocky after all of the invasions she did, hey allies, let's go hit them while they are down. 

The earlier invasions from Almyra in imp year 961 was barely defeated after all, and threat of further invasions was what prompted co-operation. But I don't expect fantastic cooperation from a nation that has recently been conquered. Tropes, resource management, and morale are not going to be at their best or most cohesive under the circumstances. 

So she could potentially be fighting a two pronged war, if they decide not to wait for her to finish dealing with the snakes. 

And even if Claude lives, he's not exactly in a good position to prevent a war, should they decide to go for it. And going to war in a recently conquered, unstable continent, are pretty good odds to expand Almyra, at the least, if not necessarily total victory over Fodlan.

I don't think Edelgard, as Empress can have lasting peace under the circumstances. Change certainly, but not peace in her lifetime or the aftermath. And I do think, that if her chapters had been given the full length and attention the others had, it could have been a fascinating avenue to explore this kind of conflict. 

*Hopes Edelgard may be different, but I can not accurately say until I experience it, either through luck of finding it used at good price (increase in digital gaming makes that a taller order then it used to be), or watch a playthrough. Currently watching Majin Tensei 2 movie, and thinking I might want to watch a lets play of SMT 4 instead of game movie, so might be a bit. 

[semi-imaginary-place]

fe3h support thoughts

Ingrid shouldn't have had an ending with Claude. The Claude Ingrid support is one of the worst support chains in the entire game. Entire thing just rambles on and on. It has the plot and structure of your typical C-B support where the two people start off antagonistic or have a misunderstanding but then come to realize the other person isn't so bad but instead of the usual 2 conversations this takes place over, the Ingrid Claude one drags on and on for FOUR scenes of this nonsense. It's the B support line formula that most of the other B supports use where at first they aren't on the same page but then come to appreciate each other. But for some reason their support just drags on and on and on and it doesn't add the depth you'd expect from an A support.

Ingrid's supports with Ignatz and Raphael where fine, I liked them though I think they could have done more with Raphaels. Loved having the two big eaters of the group have a support but Ingrid could really learn about grief and healthy coping mechanism from Raphael (most of the blue lions could really).

Pretty much all of Hanneman's paired endings should have been platonic. The hanneman supports are so weird in that for the most part they're good and they're all platonic but then halfway through some of the A support it takes SHARP turn and becomes romantic out of NOWHERE, it is incredibly jarring. Like they took a perfectly good non-romantic relationship and shoved in an unwanted romance last second.

I'm going to write a petition to give Flayn female friends. Flayn deserves more women in her life! Not even paired endings I just wish she had more supports with women. Some of her supports with men are very interesting or reveal more about her character but others were kinda just filler and easy could have been replaced with other supports.

I find the Shamir Claude ending funny just for the sheer number of positions of power Claude runs away from. Duke of Riegan? Outta here. Leader of the Leicester Alliance? Sayonara. King of Unified Fodlan? Nope. King of Almyra? My work here is done.

Hapi is the blue lion member of the ashen wolves with more supports with them than the other wolves but she shouldn't be. Thematically I'd argue either Golden Deer or a neutral 4th party like abyss is better for her. Golden Deer is all about outsiders and perceived notions, expanding worldviews and greater perspectives, the truth, and the way the mysteries and histories of the Church, Fodlan, Crests, nobility, the Children of the Goddess, and the Agarthans are all connected. Hapi's life story started because she wanted to leave her isolated village and see the world. Her life was greatly influenced for the worse by both the Agarthans and the Church, its because of both of them that she is where she is. She's technically from the Fodlan continent but she's not really a Fodlander either culturally or in perspective in a lot of ways she's more like Dedue who is from a separate culture. I think the devs made a mistake. Yuri is the one with all the history with Faerghus, he's a Faerghus boy through and through with Farrghus values and Faerghus ties. However since he's house leader the devs wanted to write him as the neutral 4th option when that doesn't make sense for him as a character. He was a part of house Rowe, he and Ashe have parallel stories, he probably knows the inner workings of the Farrghus court and nobility very well. Yuri should have been the Blue Lions support character instead of Hapi.

Sylvain, Ingrid, and Felix are especially close. Due to being the prince but more importantly closing off after the Tragedy of Duscar, Dimitri in recent years hasn't been as close to the others. Dimitri closed himself off after the Tragedy so I can see why he and Sylvain don't have an A support. Also while they knew each other in childhood, living indifferent territories, Dimitri's closest friends weren't Sylvain, Felix, and Ingrid.

Manuela and Edelgard's supports were about religion and how Edelgard initially viewed religious people as weak, relying on religion instead of standing on their own. Manuela shows her how religion can be a personal relationship that can make people stronger. It's one of the more interesting philosophical moments in the game (the others come in some of Claude and Linhard's various supports off the top of my head)

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Anon with the "GW not bad for Faerghus" ask. I couldn't read your full response bc your other blog is private but yes, there are people who say that the Kingdom is not in a bad position. Mostly those who think Claude's "scheme" will force Edelgard to end the war bc he could ally with the "still strong" Kingdom to crush her if she didn't, and that GW is some kind of "golden ending" for the three nations. Some even argue that Claude freed Faerghus/Dimitri from the Church's chains - or whatever.

I don't know if you saw my post where I mentioned you should be able to read it now, but if you didn't you should still be able to. I think I switched off the setting for that because I didn't realize it would prevent you from seeing the whole ask. :o

That's wild to hear though that people think the Kingdom isn’t in a bad position. They've lost a lot of military power regardless of whether or not they lose influence. Like I mentioned in the previous ask, it's basically up to Claude whether or not they retain their influence (regardless of what Petra wants in GW or what she thinks she knows about Fodlan lol). If they do, they still have no military might. If Sreng invades they're fucked if Claude doesn't treat them like a vassal state of Leicester and help them under the pretext that Faerghus is now part of Leicester.

In other words, they’re at best a vassal state and otherwise left alone, and at worst they’re left to rot.

Technically, Claude could try to get them to help him fight against the Empire, sure, but they won’t have the military might to help him very much, and like I mentioned in the last ask, the chances of it working are slim. Gautier won’t help and I can say that with pretty much full certainty, and if Gautier won’t help then Fraldarius probably won’t either (remember, it’s Felix who makes the final decisions now and not Rodrigue, so if Felix sees Sylvain is still upset about his father and won’t help the Alliance because of what they did, Felix won’t help them either. Felix is extremely emotional about his friends - especially his childhood friends. If you fuck with them then he’s going to fuck with you).

So now, Claude can either decide to try to force them to help, which would invoke another fight between him and Faerghus and cause more deaths, or he’ll just have to accept that he’s not getting help/a lot of help from Faerghus (I detailed it more in the other ask, so hopefully you can access the rest of it now!).

Post GW, Faerghus won’t be helping anyone in a war, I can tell you that. It’d take everything they had to keep Sreng out and to fix any damages from the Alliance’s attack. Even if Claude called on them, they just... couldn’t help.

Unfortunately even in GW they imply that Dimitri is “freed” of the Church, so of course most people take that at face value and don’t look any deeper than what’s told to them. Dimitri isn’t really free or not free of the Church. He was never in a situation where he was being controlled by them. They’re on friendly terms, but that’s really it. Rhea doesn’t tell Dimitri what to do or how to run Faerghus. It’s just that the people there are very devout because of their good relations with the Church and because Rhea helps Faerghus when they need help. It’s give and take for them just like any political situation. Faerghus isn’t in a bad position because they’re around. They’ve only really benefitted from the Church if anything, because Rhea doesn’t personally involve herself with their political decisions.

The whole “we have to free Dimitri from them” thing sounded more to me like Claude needing to find something “good” to hang onto to excuse himself for making those choices. As it was he was grasping at straws to justify their invasion to begin with. He already didn’t have a good pretext for attacking them. Saying “we’re freeing you” is like... his lowkey way of saying he needs to make himself feel better about it, because Dimitri didn’t need his or anyone’s help to begin with. If they were left alone, Faerghus would’ve been fine. Edelgard in GW is struggling on both sides of the war, so if Faerghus hadn’t been attacked by the Alliance, I can guarantee the Empire would’ve just lost.

Really, if Claude teamed up with the Kingdom in the first place and took down the Empire, they would’ve spared themselves more lives and bloodshed in the long run. Claude caused even more battles to happen and got more innocent people killed. I think by the end of the game he did figure out that he made the wrong decisions, but by then it was too late and he couldn’t take back what he did so he needed to find ways to justify all of it to himself.

I just wish they actually came out and said that though instead of running around it in circles while trying to make us believe he actually believes that the Kingdom was just better off without the Church. They weren’t doing badly with the Church involved or not involved. It was the invasion that hurt them. If Claude skipped around Fhirdiad and killed Rhea, regardless of plot or context or anything, just like, imagine he didn’t invade Faerghus and they just passed through and killed Rhea, then Faerghus’ situation might get a little more complicated for inheritance, but I think just with Dimitri’s temperament that they’d be able to stave off any legitimacy issues pretty quick. That is, people liked him in power so the populace would still be in favor of having him as king whether the Church was there or not. Rodrigue was well liked, so he’d be a perfect public figure to calm down any potential anxiety and worry with the loss of the Church. They could’ve actually made it without the Church, but it was mostly the invasion that really hurt the country and dug them into a hole for the future.

[dmclemblems]

Honestly, what irks me the most about Golden Wildfire is not that Claude decides to ally with Edelgard to destroy the Central Church - it's one of his reasoning for doing so: that this would (maybe, "hopefully") end Edelgard's war because if she keeps going after Rhea's death it would be "nothing more than blatant aggression". So, the game is really trying to tell me that her invasion of two sovereign countries wasn't already an aggression? lol - and Leicester isn't even haboring the Church.[1]

[2] it's so dumb to believe that Edelgard would stop bc it would "make her look bad". It's already bad to invade two countries who never did anything wrong to you. It's bad to invade a country to use their bridge (Leicester), it's bad to invade a country bc they offer shelter to your political enemy (Faerghus). Even if Dimitri knew he risk an invasion by doing, it's still Edelgard who wages war first, not the other way around. So, how it'll make her look, was clearly not her concern. And besides

[3] it would not be that hard to come up with another reason to keep on fighting the Kingdom. GW wants us to believe that Claude got Edelgard in a position where she ("hopefully") would consider to give up. But all I can see, is that he made it so much easier for her. Now the Kingdom doesn't have the military support of the Knights of Seiros anymore. And not to mention that Dimitri's legitimation can be questioned, now that the Church is gone. Same for every other Kingdom noble house.

[4] maybe this'll lead to a new civil war in Faerghus. Not to mention a possible religious war between the Western Church and the maybe new Northern Church (or whatever they come up with as a replacement of the Central). So, I don't see how this could be a good or even hopeful ending for Faerghus. And I don't see how anything will stop Edelgard from continuing her conquest. She has no reason to, other than "it would be blatant aggression". But it already was, and she didn't care lol

Oh for sure, I definitely don’t like that either. He’s banking on her ending her war even though he openly states he knows that she’ll come for them next (this is around like chapter 11/12 that he admits to knowing that, when he talks about how she’s using him and the Alliance but how they’re using her too).

I don’t think it means to say what she already did wasn’t already blatant aggression, but that her continuing even after a pact was made would (also) be that. If she continued after all was said and done, then she’s the one who broke the pact and the Alliance has no reason to hold back or be worried about fighting the Empire. Basically, Claude fully expects her to break the pact when the Alliance refuses to submit to them and unify Fodlan (i.e. retaining their independence and not being under Edelgard’s rule). He’s anticipating that she’ll break the pact anyway, so he’s kind of just eliminating the Church so that she either stops because she “achieved her goal”, or he can prove she was lying to everyone that her real reason for war was the Church.

In other words, Edelgard says her reasons for this war are because of the Church (in both games), but that’s not the whole truth. Her goal is to remove them from power and then take over full power in Fodlan (i.e. her conquest). In order for her to take full power, Rhea needs to be dead and gone because she can’t do that with Rhea around (both because Rhea is a leader in power and because if the Church is gone, Faerghus losing a lot of its political power too, which for Edelgard is almost two things accomplished at once).

Claude knows her war won’t end at Rhea. Hopes had a really dumb way of putting it, especially with him explaining the dumb way of putting it (i.e. he’s supposed to be the smart one), but he knows if Rhea is dead that Edelgard won’t stop. That means he can prove her goal is conquest and that she didn’t tell everyone the truth, still planning to eventually wage war against the Alliance again to overthrow them if they don’t submit to her. What he’s really doing is exposing her for being a would be conqueror. You’re right that Edelgard doesn’t care how it makes her look, though I’m not sure if Claude knows that part.

With the Church gone, yeah, it puts the Kingdom in a much worse position for the war, and that’s part of Claude not thinking things through or not caring. That is, either he didn’t think of that as a consequence, or he just doesn’t care what happens to the Kingdom and its people. Though he personally has no desire to rule over the Kingdom or annex it or anything, Edelgard wants exactly that. If the Alliance sits back and does nothing and the Kingdom loses to them, Fodlan would just be Leicester and Adrestia until Edelgard continues the war and attacks Leicester next.

Granted, I don’t like that Claude is basically having hundreds of the clergy killed as well as Rhea just to prove Edelgard is actually out for conquest and not really doing this just to end Rhea’s rule. It’s kind of like, well I need to prove a point so you have to die, and conveniently I don’t like you anyway so it doesn’t matter to me if I have to kill you. Not only is it very un-Claude-like, but it’s just nasty in general that he’d kill someone just to be like “okay so we killed her enemy, so now she has no excuse to attack us if this was really her goal, but it wasn’t so she’ll attack us anyway”.

As for Faerghus, yeah, it’s not a good ending. Dimitri would have to find a way to convince people that he should remain as their king so they can fix shit and recreate the structure with the Church gone. Even if he could though, yeah, a potential civil war could happen and that’d just lead to more people dying which is like... so much for Claude not wanting needless deaths. Claude screwed them over a LOT in GW and... why? For what? What did they ever do to you guys???

Ah yes, BUT THREE HUNDRED YEARS AGO--!!!

[iturbide]

So, there has been a lot of talking about Claude and Dimitri with the asks but I think it's time we take a look at Edelgard and a piece of info regarding how the Church works.

In Three Hopes, we learn that the Church doesn't have a say regarding the Crest System. The Crest System was ultimately created by the Kingdom, Alliance, and Empire, not the Church. There is literally no reason for Edelgard to declare war on the Church because even if she did win and bring the Church under the control of the Empire, it would literally do nothing or change anything.

You’re right, there hasn’t been a lot coming in about Edelgard!  I’ve actually been really curious about how things go on her route, since all I know at present is that she manages to set the Church and the Twisted at each other’s throats early on.

But oddly enough, this actually doesn’t come as much of a surprise to me.  I could swear that we’ve touched on it before in discussion (though for the life of me I can’t seem to turn up the asks or posts), but the fact is that the Crest System is ingrained in the workings of Fodlan: getting rid of the Church isn’t going to get rid of the System because the Empire, the Kingdom, and the Alliance have all built their systems of governance around it.  Heck, Adrestia itself stands as proof that the Church isn’t the source of the problem: it’s been 200 years since the Southern Church was expelled from the Empire, but the Crest System holds so strong that it led to the death of Hanneman’s sister and the destruction of House Bartels, not to mention the fallout from the Insurrection of the Seven and the torture Edelgard lived through.  Ultimately the Church isn’t responsible for that -- the System has existed for a thousand years, and long escaped their ability to control directly.

I don’t believe that the Church had no part in the Crest System, though.  Since I haven’t played I can’t speak with certainty, but the fact is that Church doctrine is what ultimately set the Empire, the Kingdom, and the Alliance toward establishing the system that’s currently in place.  In Three Houses, Part II of the Book of Seiros includes this excerpt:

To face this evil force, the goddess created a new well of power. She gifted certain chosen individuals with sacred blood, allowing them to wield mystical weapons, that they may prevail against the darkness. These souls, buoyed by their divine gifts, conquered the evil ones and drove them back to the north. They came to be known as Heroes.

The Heroes experienced unnaturally long lives, persisting for hundreds of years. Even after they breathed their last, the power coursing through their blood remained, leaving an indelible mark upon this world. This power, passed through bloodlines, came to be known as the Crests. The mystical weapons they once wielded are now called Heroes' Relics. And so the legend of a new age was born.

The Church painted the Crests and Relics as gifts from the Goddess within their own texts. They enshrined in their own words the idea that Crests are divine gifts for conquering evil and prevailing against the darkness, and that the original Heroes passed their power on as part of “the legend of a new age.”  This is why Adrestia, Faerghus, and Leicester prize Crests -- because the Church of Seiros, faith of the land and its people, recorded that they were divine blessings.  That gave rise to a system that prized Crests, and that system over time turned from acting as a status symbol for those who bore it into something so toxic that the symbol mattered more than the bearer.

As the Archbishop, Rhea could theoretically have done something to mitigate the damage caused as the Crest System began evolving away from the doctrine she’d established in an attempt to protect her siblings’ remains from further desecration.  But ultimately her powers were limited after “Seiros” left the public eye, since no one else could speak for the Goddess.

[burr-ell]

not gonna lie, i'd feel more for ed/egard and her struggles if the game had actually...shown her struggling. what i mean is that had the game written her becoming empress, trying to enact the change she believes will better society, and then was actually met with opposition from the nobility and church alike then i'd feel like her war against the church would have any hmm. weight?

but as is, the southern church has almost no power in adrestia iirc and the nobility only pay lip service to it at most (like leicester). maybe if the southern church had actually been as ed/egard described the church as a whole

"They did all of this to make the masses bicker amongst themselves. They caused instability in order to reinforce their own authority. They gathered gold and lived in extravagance. How? By preying on the devotion of those who wished for the goddess's salvation. Those corrupt hypocrites cannot lead Fódlan to true peace. Their foul belief system must be torn asunder so that true wisdom may finally prevail!"

then her motivation would've been a helluva lot less iffy to me lol. it wouldn't have made her war any more right but it certainly would've been juicier imo because the strain between the church and empire already exists and yet it's not actually an obstacle that she has to push against. there's no real buildup of her trying to walk the path of a Noble Leader only to be kicked down by the very people she's meant to lead, no sense of desperation before she breaks and goes "fuck it, peace through war" and because she's the antagonist she aims to extend her "peace" to the rest of fodlan.

but i guess her scapegoating the church for her invasion towards faerghus and leicester was the point. i just wish that the game had either actually called her out on it (dimitri's close but not quite) or gave her hatred towards the church any credit for the ~motivation~. also what the hell was the super secret emperor telephone game passed down history intsys-

Absolutely. She clearly just jumped to war first because she wanted conquest. Like, she had the political clout to set up Jeritza with a whole territory in Hrym; you can't tell me that she didn't have a voice to at least start trying to enact reforms in her own (incredibly corrupt) lands before trying to lecture everyone else about what to do. We don't hear a word out of her mouth about things she can do for her own people, even after Remire—a village in her territory—is destroyed by people she works with, but we sure hear a lot about how she's willing to sacrifice civilians for a cause, huh?

It's also worth noting that the whole "make the masses bicker among themselves" thing? The Church doesn't do that. As far as we know, the Church just helped mediate the split between Faerghus and Adrestia after Faerghus had already fought for its independence, and the Alliance split off because they just like...wanted to govern themselves. Big Bad Church really didn't do all that much.

You know the folks who clearly are trying to make the people fight themselves so they can come in and try to control them?

The Agarthans.

Y'know.

Edelgard's allies.

Whom she chose to work with even after everything they did to her personally, and whom she enables throughout the entirety of Part 1 and through the silence she keeps on the Tragedy of Duscur. Her pissing and moaning about cHuRCh bAD really is insufferable.

[fireemblems24]

Speaking as a Hongkonger who has friends wrongfully arrested and worse, killed, just for supporting the independence and autonomy of our homeland, I, along with many of the people I know who have played 3H, am absolutely disgusted by Edelgard's "your homeland belongs to me because it used to be a part of my country and what you think doesn't matter, so my war of conquest is justified because I say so" mindset. It also reminds me too much of the CCP for me to ever truly enjoy Edelgard's character

Add the oppression of free speech, secret police, art sanctioning, propaganda, demonising religions and religious persecution, scapegoating a minority race which led to the genocide of their people, hiding parts of history to justify yourself, a meritocracy with a dictator on the top who has all the power in the country concentrated on them and no term limit as well as being the one who chooses the successor, assassinations of people who oppose them, putting down rebellions bloodily, starving your people for a war of ego (let’s be real, the only reason why Adrestia wants Faerghus and Leicester back under their reign is because the Emperors’ ego is hurt by how certain people don’t want them to be their leaders), calling people of a foreign nation fighting for their country traitors, victim blaming all the defenders hurt by her war, experimenting on people to be used as weapons, organ harvesting of a certain oppressed race and writing out an entire nation out of history which destroys their culture because she refuses to acknowledge their sovereignty plus, you know, all the brainwashing Edelgard is doing to your character and all the other Black Eagles, I have to say, unapologetically, that I absolutely loathe her. From what I’ve heard and seen from the polls on the gaming forums in our parts of the world, Edelgard is immensely unpopular, if not the most hated character in both Hong Kong and Taiwan, and interestingly, China as they also have experience with Imperialism in WW2 unapologetically, especially since this game came out during the height of the political turmoil in HK, made me vomit. Ironically, seeing how Faerghus triumphs over Adrestia in the end despite being in shambles at the start, despite the hopelessness and the powerlessness the Blue Lions felt, how they manage to overthrow the tyrannical Cornelia (seriously, she also reminds me of Carrie Lam, the Chief Executive of HKSAR. I mean, evil incompetent puppet leader installed by the tyrannical conquerors?) by working together, AM actually brought me the hope I needed during my darkest times. (ask ends)

This is pretty serious and heavy and there’s a lot to unpack here. There’s a very good chance I’ll miss something, and I’m really underqualified to discuss some of this I feel. 

First off, I’m so disgusted about how people in power have treated China lately, turning a blind eye to atrocity after atrocity. I stand with Hong Kong, and I’m so, so sorry you’ve had to go through that. I literally can’t even imagine what that’s like. 

I can easily see why someone who’s dealt with what you have would have such an overwhelmingly negative opinion of Edelgard. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if countries who do most of the Imperializing have a better opinion of her overall and the ones who have suffered at the hands of countries doing the Imperializing have an overall more negative one. I think I remember someone saying there was some poll saying South Korea wasn’t a fan - and not at all surprised they’d react badly to her - written by the Japanese no less. And while I do feel there’s more to her character and beliefs, I feel it’s highly tainted by this very black/white portrayal of her conquering. 

But that’s quite the laundry list of accusations against Edelgard. I’m not going to touch on all of them except to say I’ve definitely seen her do some things (enabling human experimentation, scapegoating a minority race, etc . . . ), but I don’t really remember anything about art sanctioning or starving her own people. Regardless though, just her “I will enforce my enlightened beliefs on your country because I know better than you and it’s for your sake” getting portrayed straight-up and unironically is enough. You wouldn’t even really need any of those other things to have some eyebrow raising about some of the decisions IS made in the writing room about her. 

That said, I’m glad the Blue Lions route was such a powerful and uplifting story for you. I’m always amazed at the power fiction can have even though I’ve experienced it myself. The Kingdom is by far the biggest underdogs among all the players in all routes, and I’m so looking forward to the cathartic moments when I inevitably take down Cornelia and eventually triumph over the Empire too. Blue Lions going to such a dark place is going to make the victory all the sweeter and more meaningful.

I’m really glad you sent this ask, and I hope I didn’t leave anything out. It’s really amazing how much this game connects with people for better or worse.

[tiny-space-robot]

Okay so Fire Emblem anon here!! Here's a Kinda Super Long Bc I Got Carried Away description of a few Fire Emblem games, plus some characters that seem like they hit tropes you like!

The good news is that there's not a super huge overarching timeline, there's several smaller timelines that are seperate from one another except for the crossover games. I'm gonna go with describing the newer ones that you're most likely to be able to get your hands on and play; a lot of people complain that they lean into some anime-tropey stuff and are too easy, but tbh, that's a perk just as often as it isn't. Basically, it's Game of Thrones, but rated T and with more cute girls and old men who are friendly instead of creepy.

Tbh, it's a turn-based strategy game with visual novel elements for characterization, if strategy games aren't your thing and you're just interested in the characters, watching the support conversations on Youtube might be more your thing. All the characterization, none of the resetting the same goshdang level thirty times. Anyways, description of the games in passing, including a brief description of the plot concept, pros and cons, trigger warnings, and some characters you might be interested in if you're just looking up characters.

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Awakening: for the 3DS. Follows Robin, an amnesiac mage, after they're found in a field by a band of knights called the Shepherds. Involves the undead, a twink in a mask, timey-wimey shenangians, and the usual cast of oddballs you'd expect from a Fire Emblem game.

Pros of Awakening: customizable player character, intro of Casual mode (turns off permadeath) and the Pair Up system, which lets you put characters together for shipping reasons strategy and stat boosts. Also doubles as a shipping simulator, since you can pair off characters and meet their later in the game due to said timey-wimey shenangians.

Cons of Awakening: there are some....very concerning combos of names/skin tones/plot relevance for certain characters, so go in with a warning about implicit racism. Also if you like strategy games, this game is relatively easy to break and make "too easy," but tbh that's what Lunatic Mode (the Ultra Unfair Hard Mode) is for.

Trigger warnings across the main plot: underhanded politics, attempted assassinations, martyrdom, an optional character is implied to stalk Robin but idk how to tag that, identity crises, conflicts within a family, character who isn't you looks like you, backstory child abuse, an optional character is a bad portrayal of DID if you squint?

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Fates: is actually a group name for two games set in the same universe, and a DLC bonus story: Birthright, Conquest, and Revelations. All for the 3DS. All three games star Corrin, a pacifist raised in seclusion in the kingdom of Nohr. Each game reflects a different path Corrin can take in navigating the war between the nations of Nohr and Hoshido: Birthright has them stand with Hoshido, Conquest with Nohr, and Revelations has them strike out (nearly) alone. Each path has a completely different storyline, cast of characters, and difficulty curve.

Pros of Fates: honestly, the characters here cater the most to the avid pro-shipper and multi-shipper. I just love this cast. Both Nohr and Hoshido have four members of the royal family you can play and get to know, each of those royal family members has two retainers who are various levels of dedicated and/or unhinged, and the cast just widens and widens. Also a character customization and shipping simulator point for the same reasons Awakening gets it. Also, canon fujoshi rights (there's a character with a skill called Daydream, which boosts her stats when two male characters are paired up near her. one of us, one of us). Also the first game with canon queer characters: both Rhajat and Niles are bi.

Cons of Fates: unfortunately, the writing is kinda rushed or badly translated in some places. Also *shakes IntSys* my lore! Give me more lore! Also, iirc, you could get both physical games in a bundle for a discount when they came out, but not anymore, so it's sorta like Pokemon with version exclusives. Which is less fun, since you can't directly trade characters. Also the fandom for this game is RIFE with discourse, which is kinda sad bc I just wanna talk my ships with ppl sjxhdjdn

Trigger warnings for Fates: child abuse might as well be Nohr's middle name, in-universe racism (since Hoshido is p obviously Japan-inspired, and a lot of Nohrians are rancid to Hoshidans), kidnapping, on-screen murder, lots of fighting your loved ones (on both main routes, you gotta fight the playable characters from the other side AAA), su-c-de, death of sibling(s) in certain routes, demonic-like possession, there's like six characters people can read as bad mental illness rep, Niles especially is discourse bait for being a kinky (yes that's canon) bi man of color but also he's awesome so die mad antis

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Shadows of Valentia: for the 3DS. A remake of Gaiden, the second game in the series. Follows Alm, a farm boy from a small village in Zofia, and Celica, his childhood best friend. Zofia and the nation to its north, Rigel, are two nations ruled by the dragon gods Mila and Duma, respectively. Normally, they're in equilibrium, but Rigel is invading and Mila is missing, prompting Alm and Celica to independently investigate the problem.

Pros of SoV: the most like the old-school Fire Emblem games, but it also has the permadeath-off mode. also the first to be fully voice acted! The art style is gorgeous, and the plot was polished up from the old game--two characters names Berkut and Rinea were added, and they are PEAK OTP the diskhorse can die mad. Also the cast is pretty fun all around, from buddy squad and the older brother/dad figure they adopted along the way to "hello this is my gang of childhood friends, we're gonna kill a god" Also introduces Mila's Turnwheel, which lets you rewind your moves if you realize you goofed big time and screwed yourself over.

Cons of SoV: has the most references to other games, but you won't, like, be lost if you don't get them. You just might have a few interludes of "who tf is Camus/the White Wing Brigade/etc" but it's easy enough to look up on the wiki. Also tbh, the plot kinda drags in the middle, there's some filler battles to try and make it feel more realistic and it feels...weird. Also no custom character, you are Alm and Celica and you will Like It.

Trigger warnings for SoV: you know that thing where a girl character gets killed off for a guy character to angst over? the game starts with a fakeout version of that. also a character slowly goes mad over the course of the plot (but it's really well done imo?), there's some self-sacrifice stuff in there, classism is a major theme, possession/selling your soul™, there's a couple of levels where you're exploring tombs/prisons, I'm sure there's something else but I'm forgetting right now

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Three Houses: on the Switch. The newest game in the series, and the most polished imo? Stars Byleth, a wandering mercenary turned teacher at the Officer's Academy. The Academy, housed in Garreg Mach Monastery, teaches youths from across the land of Fodlan how to be warriors, commanders, and knights. Students are sorted into three houses based on their country of origin: the Black Eagles are from ghe Adrestian Empire, led by the heiress-apparent Edelgard; the Blue Lions are from the kingdom of Faerghus, led by prince Dimitri; and the Golden Deer are from the Leicester Alliance, led by Claude, grandson of the Duke. You choose one of these houses to lead, and then everything quickly goes sour.

Pros of Three Houses: It's such a rich experience! The music is incredible, there's so much lore, and you can wander around the Monastery and hang out with the students to your heart's content. Also, it's four storylines for the price of one, even if they're all relatively similar in the first half. It does a pretty solid job of weaving together its themes into a satisfying narrative that will make you consider everyone involved. Also we got our first bi main lord (Edelgard) and non-white main lord (Claude is mixed race) in one fell swoop! Also, given the setting, it's teacher/student ship heaven.

Cons of Three Houses: just gonna come right out and say it: one of the villainous factions in the game is pretty substantially tied up with some anti-semitic tropes. There's no way to ignore it, it's just bleh, and I'm not gonna send anyone in without that warning. Also, though there's some characters you can persuade to switch sides, or spare, there's no route where there's a happy ending for everyone. Also there are so many people who are fake deep about the themes of the game, so be ready for the worst takes imaginable about your faves. also super trigger heavy, see below.

Trigger warnings: MANY. Garreg Mach and the Church of Seiros are very reminiscent of catholic religious stuff, for anyone with religion triggers, blood in cutscenes, death of a parent, death of a sibling (different characters), major gaslighting vibes in some places, lots of people going unhinged, some white savior™ vibes in places, body horror, creepy ass weaponry, backstory genoc-de (mostly not related to the anti-semitism), blood magic (definitely related to the anti-semitism), in general it goes to a lot more effort than the other games to make you think about what's Actually going on, even if it doesn't always work.

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As for characters you'd like, if you just want to look some characters up, my recommendations based on what I understand about you include:

Awakening: Libra fits 'gnc man of the cloth' so well it's actually a conversation in game: "so what's a woman of the cloth doing here?" "...man, sir, man of the cloth." And Then He Never Gets Misgendered Again. Also Nowi's supports sometimes feel like a jab at antis-- she's a manakete, a person who can transform into a dragon. Manaketes also grow really slowly, as in "middle aged looking manaketes are like 1000 years old," so she's got major baby face and copes with being mistaken for a teenager by making jokes. Also Gregor, who she first appears with, is pretty fun--older mercenary with a thick accent who is like 80% here for a good time. Also Walhart, who's a villain but got some content added as DLC.

Fates: any interactions between Corrin, Leo, and/or Camilla are probably right up your alley--Camilla is obsessively protective over her siblings in a way that's Very Definitely Platonic™, and Leo also canonically has a crush on her in something that was cut in the English release. Also Gunther--once upon a time he was your classic knight in shining armor, now he's semi-retired, Corrin's personal guard, and covered in scars (and his voice is gorgeous too)

Echoes: my biased answer is to listen to every single line Ian Sinclair read for Berkut because he absolutely did NOT have to go that hard. My actual answer is to point you in the direction of the pegasus sisters Catria, Palla and Est, or maybe the older gentleman who's the head of the Priory, I forgot his name oops abbdbd. Also Clive is a devoted husband to one Mathilda, who looks just like an older version of his sister Clair 🤔

Three Houses: knowing you, you'd adore Hanneman--an older professor who's extremely passionate about his work, to the point where he tends to forget personal space and such. Also Seteth, like I mentioned before (join me in simping for him and his gorgeous pecs) and like, honestly, I know ppl make jokes about Alois but he's rlly good. Soft, awkward but he doesn't care, dad jokes everywhere. And also Mercedes, both because she's the biggest sweetheart imaginable and everyone should love her, but also bc she is just walking potential for the kinds of stuff you post on this blog. On one hand, she's the oldest student at the Academy and attached at the hip to one of the youngest, Annette (tho people act like they have a way bigger age gap then they actually do) and on the other hand, she has a long-lost half brother she can encounter (who I will not name for HUGE HUGE spoilers reasons) who she spends the rest of her life with in one of her endings. Heck, he has three possible endings total! Total!

Basically I brought the games up bc I'm used to being on the side of the fandom where everyone shoos anything uncomfortable under the rug, but there's so much material here that's being wasted I SWEAR

If you have any other questions I can send another anon? Your call! Thanks for hearing me out I love ur blog :3

OKAY!!! sorry for answering so late, but this ask was pretty much a BOOK (not that I´m complaining though! thank you so much! ;;u;;)

and from what I read here, I THINK if I´m going off on my first fire emblem adventure, I´ll try and pick up three houses if I get the chance! I have read your trigger warnings (thank you so much! ;u;) and I think I can take it! >:3

again though, I am really, really not a fan of anime and the anime artstyle in general (blergh! XP) so I´m not sure how I´ll cope with that in particular, but then again, an artstyle does not make a game! u3u

AND HANNEMAN SOUNDS LIKE A WINNER TO ME!! I looked him up and OOOF!!! he may not have NEARLY as many wrinkles as I´d like him to have, but the facial hair is definitely a step in the right direction! ;3c

NOW YOU GOT ME INTERESTED!! 

LETS GO!!!!!!!!!!!!! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

[faroreswinds]

Controversial opinion but I saw you already posted about it: I think Byleth fits far better into the story of 3h than Claude ever did and I find even the existence of Leicester very redundant when it’s one of the least developed parts of the game. I admit to being biased as a Blue Lions fan (and as a multishipper who also throws in a lot of Flayn and Byleth ships into the Lions) but at least they get their culture and conflicts and issues shown. The church isn’t as developed but it still is clearly very important. Byleth is also excellent in Azure Moon, Flayn gets some of her best supports with the Lions (and Azure Gleam is right there), the church and Faerghus have a close relationship and history, and they tell the story of the continent extremely well. But what does Claude, and by extension, Leicester, bring to the table, when even in the mess that is Hopes the Lions stay morally and thematically consistent but Claude is apparently able to become an incoherent indescribable quagmire after part 1? We don’t know any specifics about his governance and even his “dream” is very much based on his wants even when he supposedly develops more compassion for the peasants Dimitri has always been concerned about from the start, and his fans are so closely related to Edelstans that I can’t see why people like him yet throw mud at my fave lizards.

Well, setting aside Byleth here (who should make sense in the story since the story was basically created for them), I wouldn't necessarily call this a case of bias with your complaints.

Besides wanting to end racism, what does Claude and, by extension, the Alliance really bring to the table that is different from the other two. Sneaky plans? Because I can't think of much.

I've seen the Alliance described as "recruits for BL or BE" and that's honestly pretty accurate. They have almost no allegiance to their nation (Hopes has an entire scene in SB where the few students Claude could gather up all had a "we will stand with you Claude! ... Unless something happens, then we will join the other side" spiel). Not even Claude really does. He is more loyal in Hopes, wishing to give his nation that big edge and screw the other nations over, but in Houses he's quick to dip or to hand over the entire Alliance. Claude's loyalties really are with Almyra... which is almost no development or screen time at all. Heck, Hilda is not even Claude's retainer, NADER is.

What about their culture? Well, officially, it's described has being both the Kingdom and the Empire's cultures sort of mixed into one. The Alliance inherited a lot of leftovers from the Kingdom from the days when they were under their rule, but adapted Empire fashion. Which makes sense, but then they have such little unique identity that it makes it hard to distinguish them from the other nations. What seems to be uniquely their own culture is to not care about their own culture.

And in terms of themes.... well, I can't think of anything they bring to the table that the Empire of Kingdom doesn't already. Change the world? Edelgard already has that covered. Racism? Dimitri actually has the better story about that and talks about it way more, surprisingly. Being an outsider? That's probably the "thing", but like... no one treats him as an outsider, and neither GW or VW are ever about feeling like you don't belong. Heck, people don't even know he's half Alymran. Come on!

Claude is honestly the most privileged of the three lords. Edelgard's family was killed, her father made inept, and her mother is a murderer who happily planned to have her own step-son killed. And she was put through some serious experimentation. Finally, she had to fight her way to the throne, else she would have been a puppet ruler like her father. Dimitri... Well, Dimitri is just a tragedy epic. But Claude? Two parents, two hereditary "thrones" and one he got with little resistance. I know his life was still hard but man, you wouldn't know it with how little he talks about his troubles and woes.

And you know, I like Claude. I do. Except his GW self, that one can fuck off. But Claude as a concept is great. It's just that... they didn't know what to do with him.