#even moreso than azura!

[smokestarrules]

Actually, I feel like the emphasis given to “what will Luz’s palisman be” is kind of overshadowing what it’ll mean for her to have one as a whole. And like - when you get to thinking about it, this is a huge step for Luz. It’s already been brought up that she’s been unsure about carving one due to the commitment it implies - especially considering Luz’s anxieties about making her mother happy, but also... also...

Take Hunter for example. He cannot do magic. He likely doesn’t have a bile sac, due to being a Grimwalker of a human, rather than a witch. Just like Luz. But Flapjack has magic, and Flapjack is Hunter’s palisman, and therefore Hunter can fight with magic because of Flapjack. 

Which means... Luz will be able to do the same thing; she will be able to wield magic without having to use a single glyph. Just like Azura

She was able to hold her ground against both Lilith and Emperor Belos himself at a time where she had about half the glyphs she does now and very little experience. Now she’s going to be fighting again, with much more ammo, much more knowledge of the glyphs, and a palisman. She’s going to be at the top of her game. 

And then there's the whole reason Luz has been dragging her feet on carving one in the first place; because having a palisman thoroughly connects her to the Boiling Isles, maybe even moreso than just her relationships with her friends and found-family there. 

But Camila will get to meet her palisman, because palismen stick to their carver, and I can’t help but feel like that’s going to be a reason Camila begins to understand Luz’s position here. 

[thisbelongsto-nohbodys]

So I noticed Azura had a bat on her shoulder in one image.

That's her Palisman?

atm, yes, that is her Palisman. I'm still debating it's design, but it's a fluffy bat. Idk it's name yet but when it comes to it and Azura's relationship, they love to sing together and it likes to sleep in Azura's hair while she's reading. It also rolls it's eyes at the antics of Azura and Lily whenever they get into arguments and fights and shenanigans, it knows that Azura does the same things that she's yelling at Lily for doing.

It likes hanging out with Stringbean and Ghost. When it's in the Human Realm it loves chasing bugs and will eat them but spit them back out as a prank on human kids that are bothering/bullying Azura. It loves visiting Camila because she gives it so many cuddles and kisses, even moreso than Azura does ("really? what a grandma-palisman" "*squeak*" "You know that's not true!")

Here's the rough draft of what the Palisman looks like atm. As I said, I'm still working on it's design, especially it's staff form.

[sealofreconciliation]

In defense of Takumi's confession to Corrin

So. Chapter 28 of Fire Emblem Fates Conquest. More specifically, the scene at the start where Takumi talks to Corrin and says that he forgives them for what they did and still wants to befriend them.

To say that that section of the cutscene is infamous among the community would be a massive understatement, with the reasons why generally falling into the camp of “this is character assassination for Takumi, he never felt anything but extreme anger towards Corrin through the entirety of Conquest's story, why would he be willing to forgive them after they invaded Hoshido? This was clearly done just so the writers could absolve Corrin.”

Those arguments, however, come from a fundamental misunderstanding of what Takumi's going through mentally over the course of Conquest, what actually caused him to forgive Corrin, the most likely purpose for the scene's inclusion, and bad localization, and i intend to prove why with this post.

Let's take a look back at Takumi's appearances throughout Conquest:

If he's attacked by Corrin during Chapter 6, he reaffirms that he never trusted them, along with claiming that he isn't surprised or hurt by their betrayal at all, and that he'll enjoy killing them.

In Chapter 10, he shows up to lead an invasion on Nohrian land, gets defeated by Corrin and, after angering himself by blaming the destruction of Hoshido on them again and remembering Mikoto's death, gets a massive headache and a sudden boost in arrogance before running away.

During Chapter 13, he ambushes Corrin's group when they arrive at Cheve, screams at them to just shut up and die when they tell him they weren't there to get into a fight, orders his soldiers to attack, and admits near the end that his main reason for doing this is because he hopes that killing Nohrian soldiers will make his headache go away; he goes off on a rant about killing them after being beaten and runs away (2: Electric Boogaloo), causing Azura to point out that he's acting extremely out-of-character, much moreso than would be expected just because Corrin defected to Nohr, and wonders whether that's even the real Takumi anymore.

Takumi guards the Great Wall of Susanoo during Chapter 23. His battle dialogue with Corrin has him claim that he has become obsessed with the idea of killing them, to the point of no longer caring about anything in life other than taking revenge on them; this is, however, almost immediately proven false when finding out that Sakura was taken prisoner causes him to break down crying and let it slip that he was devastated by Corrin going back to Nohr and wishes they'd stayed in Hoshido, also proving that he was lying every time he claimed that their betrayal didn't bother him. His sorrow reaches enough of a boiling point for whatever was messing with his mind to be able to take full control, enveloping him in a purple aura and convincing him that he could still escape and save Hoshido if he threw himself off the wall, something that obviously doesn't work and gets him killed.

At the end of Chapter 27, Takumi shows up again, though clearly no longer as himself; he makes his entrance by trying and failing to snipe Corrin, ignores their plea for him to stop since the war is already over, is barely capable of saying anything more than “i'll kill you” over and over again, along with repeating his previous blaming of Corrin for Hoshido's destruction back in Chapter 5, and states that he doesn't need to be able to think for himself to take revenge. Azura explains that he's being possessed in the same way Garon was, starting at least from the moment he threw himself off the wall of Susanoo, that he can't possibly recover from this anymore, and that his anger and resentment have completely overtaken his mind, presumbaly due to the influence of whatever's controlling him; Corrin, blaming themselves for Takumi's current state and wracked with guilt because of it, ignores Azura's warnings and tries to get him to let go of those feelings by allowing themselves to be used as a punching bag and refusing to dodge his next shot, though still with no intention of dying and failing to keep the promise they made to Ryoma. They underestimate how much stronger the possession made him, however, and the attack shatters the Yato and nearly kills them, with their last words before passing out being to deliriously ask Takumi to hit them more if it'll make him feel better, still believing they can take his attacks.

At the start of Chapter 28, Mikoto and Ryoma's spirits show to Corrin (while they're all in what seems to be the Nohrshido version of the afterlife) that killing them did nothing to stop the possessed Takumi, with Ryoma claiming that his anger has overtaken him so much that he won't stop until he has killed every Nohrian soldier; before Corrin goes back to the world of the living to finish him off and save their friends, Ryoma reintroduces them to the real Takumi, who's also in spirit form. Takumi confirms that the version of him they've been fighting is nothing more than a corpse controlled by someone else and fueled by resentment, with his heart and soul having left that body ever since Susanoo; he also confirms that he can't personally interfere in the outside world while stuck in the afterlife, asking Corrin to destroy his body with the Yato when they go back and giving them the Fujin Yumi so they can repair the broken sword, a request Corrin promises to fulfill. Takumi thanks them, wonders how he would have felt if the two of them had been able to fight together in another life, and admits to having only been pretending to dislike them (and, as BR confirms, Azura) during Chapter 5 and actually wanting to befriend Corrin back in that chapter, apologizing for being too insecure to be honest with them. Corrin also apologizes for all the pain they caused him, but Takumi says that it's all right, since seeing them sacrifice themselves in an attempt to accept and heal his corpse's hatred, along with the heart-to-heart they just had, was enough to convince him of their good nature and cause him to forgive them for the pain they caused him; his last words to them consist of him being excited at the prospect of spending time together with them, as a true family, when they meet again in the afterlife.

Now that we're all caught up, i will respond to one of two major points against the scene:

Doesn't Takumi say that he always wanted to get closer to Corrin up until his last moments in life? Wouldn't that mean that it wasn't him witnessing and being moved by their actions after his death that caused him to change his opinion of them, but instead him secretly never taking any issue with them even while they were invading his homeland and he had no way of knowing why?

Well, yes… in the localized version of Conquest's story; here's a side-by-side comparison of the specific section of the Chapter 28 convo where Takumi claims that he wanted to be good siblings with Corrin, with the major difference between the two highlighted (sources for this are the fates chapter scripts on the fire emblem wiki for EN and fateswartable for JP, though i will be using the en script unless otherwise specified since the prose there is significantly better than the fateswartable translation and the examples i use are actually pretty faithful to the original script, with 28 and a bit of 27 being the only major fumbles):

Takumi: I always wished we could have been close, as you are with your Nohrian siblings. Right up until my last moments, I wanted so badly to call you my brother/sister. To look up to you and love you…and never allow anything to come between us. I wish I had told you that before I died. While there was still a chance… i was just so stubborn, so hurt. I couldn’t admit those feelings even to myself. For that, I am truly sorry. I’m so sorry for letting you slip away, dear brother/sister.

Takumi (JP): Kamui. The truth is, i really… i wanted to get along as siblings. I wanted to call you brother/sister. I should have said so properly when i was still me… but because of my stubbornness, i was determined not to show my true feelings… i'm sorry.

Now, is it still possible to argue that, even in JP, Takumi could be counting “still himself” as “from when he met Corrin to just before he was forced to jump off Susanoo”, with him referring to his possessed corpse as the sole instance of him not acting like himself, which would make the wording change a distinction without a difference? Yes, but said scenario is extremely unlikely and inconsistent with what the rest of the story shows and tells us; there's a consistent pattern throughout the game of Anankos needing to:

1. Get his hands on someone's corpse so he can reanimate them as either mindless mute zombies (Scarlet) or a version of themselves that has all their negative emotions in life massively exaggerated (Mikoto's sorrow at spending 15 years apart from Corrin getting turned into her trying to trick and kill them just so they can spend the rest of eternity serving Anankos together and getting all the bonding time in the world, Sumeragi's bloodlust during battle getting turned into battling and killing being his only motivation in life and something he's thoroughly obssessed with, etc…)

2. Capture them in Valla so he can brainwash them personally (Rev!Gunter and BR!Takumi)

3. Have someone who already visited Valla at least once to be feeling heavy amounts of negative emotions, at which point he can start to slowly amplify those feelings and get more control over their actions, until said feelings reach a boiling point and he gains enough control to force his victims to commit suicide and proceed with option 1 (Garon and CQ!Takumi)

And before someone brings it up, yes, it's never explicitly stated anywhere that the host needs to have both visited Valla and be feeling heavily under-the-weather for a long time for Anankos to even be able to begin messing with their head, but those are the only provable commonalities shared between all of his possessed victims in Fates (that weren't already captured or killed), commonalities that also provide a strong explanation for why he hasn't possessed more people, so i find them fair inferrences to make for the story.

Takumi first shows signs of possession at the end of Chapter 10 when he starts getting depressed and angry due to the double-whammy of both remembering Mikoto's death and getting beaten by the sibling who he feels betrayed him, which causes him to get his first headache and to, immediately after said headache, gain an unhealty amount of copium and arrogance:

Takumi: That's right! If you hadn't come back into our lives, Hoshido would still be at peace. Mother... all those innocent townspeople... they would still be alive. They wouldn't have... ARGH! NOOO!

Corrin: Takumi! What's wrong?!

Takumi: M-my head... the pain is... ARGHHH!

Corrin: Takumi!

Takumi: DON'T YOU TOUCH ME! K-keep your filthy Nohrian hands off of me!

Corrin: Takumi... please, let me help!

Takumi: Don't think this means you've won. This is only the beginning! Ryoma has already found the Rainbow Sage and received his power. You're no match for him now, even with the whole vile Nohrian army behind you! And I'm getting stronger, too! Soon I'll be unstoppable. One day you'll beg me for death, and I will happily grant you. Until then, I leave you with your guilt.

He starts acting even more aggresively and unreasonably by the start of Chapter 13, causing Azura to point out that it's extremely out-of-character for him to be so kill-happy, suspecting he'd been possessed or replaced, along with Takumi confirming that the headache from before has become a common occurence that he hopes will go away after killing Nohrian soldiers:

Azura:  ...That is not the Takumi I once knew. He's changed. Takumi never accepted me as his sister like the others, but he was always kind. He's not the type to raise his voice or threaten to hurt anyone. I can't explain it, but it's like he's a different person... He's so crazed and focused on Nohr's destruction... I can't help but wonder if that's really Takumi. 

Takumi: I'll... kill you all... Y-yes... If I kill the Nohrians... surely the pain... the pain in my head will go away...

With all of that, it's safe to claim that he fell into Valla and got out sometime before chapter 10, with the end of said chapter being the first time he felt negative enough for Anankos to start work on possessing him (based off the facts that he's acting perfectly normally prior to getting the headache, the agression he gets from it is consistent, obvious and not something he'd be able to hide, as shown by the rest of his appearances afterwards, and, if we're willing to resort to meta evidence, the theme that plays for fighting Vallite bosses also plays when fighting him in Chapters 13 and 23, but not 10, heavily implying he's either completely or mostly unnafected by Anankos up until the very end of that chapter), work that gets sped up significantly every time Corrin beats Takumi and the latter feels a sense of humiliation and frustration; the last time Takumi would have felt like himself would have been, at the latest, right before he gets his first headache at the end of chapter 10, with all of his appearances afterwards being him acting like an obsessive violent psycho due to being slowly made to hyperfocus on his negative emotions, and not something he'd be proud of or consider his true feelings.

So, no, the infamous line was never originally meant to imply that Takumi never felt any sort of anger or resentment towards Corrin through all of Conquest, only that his already-existing grudge and anger got blown massively out-of-proportion by Anankos from the end of Chapter 10 onwards, that he regrets being a dickhead towards Corrin unprovoked back in Chapter 5, and wishes he had told them that he actually wanted to befriend them during that same chapter; Takumi only forgives Corrin after he stops being possessed, is rid of all the extra anger and resentment Anankos gave him, very likely has his own heart-to-heart with Mikoto and Ryoma offscreen, both of which would encourage him to not be so harsh on Corrin (with Ryoma specifically arguing that they were still a good person and intended on fixing things after the war was over, given how he knows they disobeyed orders to spare Hinoka and saw the Yato evolve in front of him, which is a sign that it's wielder is still destined to save the world), and sees them practically commit suicide in a fruitless attempt to help him after being filled with guilt for what they think they did to him:

Corrin (JP): I'm sorry too… your resentment is my fault. I also wanted you to call me brother/sister. Once this war was over, i thought it was possible to have a good sibling relationship with you. But even so… this happened. I am truly sorry.

Takumi: No, it's already okay. You accepted my hatred and came here. That was enough. Thank you, brother/sister…

Given all the information i have laid out, i do not believe that it is a valid criticism against the scene to argue that Takumi is out-of-character for forgiving Corrin, at least in JP; the argument *is* stronger in EN, if only because it's wildly contradictory for Takumi to state that he always deeply wanted to befriend Corrin, even during his dying moments, while also having his possession start due to his feelings of resentment and anger towards them that he had long before he fell into Valla and were only amplified, not created, by Anankos. If you want to criticize that version of the sentence because it damages Takumi's character by implying that he never took any major issues with what Corrin was doing throughout CQ (including beating the shit out of him thrice over and helping in the invasion of his homeland for what he assumed were evil reasons) and scapegoating Anankos as being solely responsible for all his misgivings, or even just because it removes a lot of the emotional weight the scene had since that changes it into “i never felt any significant ill will towards my older sibling at any point in my life regardless of what they were doing to hurt me, and any time i did it was all because of my being possessed” feel free to do so; you'll get no complaints from me, though i would appreciate it if more people started spreading the info around that Takumi saying he never felt negatively towards Corrin while he was alive was the result of a mistranslation.

Now, for the second main criticism of the scene:

This was only put in the game so the writers could absolve Corrin by ass-pulling it so that even the character who disliked them at the start actually secretly wanted to be friends with them all along and forgave them for conquering his home

My main issue with this criticism is that it's baseless, bad-faith, and borne out of a lack of knowledge of Takumi's character and Corrin's motivations all in one; going from most to least important of those points:

It was inconsistent/an asspull for him to have secretly liked Corrin in Chapter 5

Even ignoring his supports and focusing only on the main stories, Takumi is consistently characterized as taking a liking to people very easily and quickly, but pretending to dislike them/not care about them because he's an insecure young man with an inferiority complex who feels like he's less useful than his siblings, causing him to to larp as a cold, calculating and unfeeling person who has no need for friends so he can make people think he's more self-assured and confident than he actually is; this is demonstrated when he gets flustered from Azura complimenting him in Chapter 10 of Birthright, despite acting like he disliked and distrusted her not 5 chapters prior, and when Izana, a stranger he barely knows, asking him to join Corrin's group as his dying wish in Chapter 10 of Revelation moves him enough to join up with them out of respect.

While i can concede that there's little set-up for this aspect of his character in Conquest itself outside of the scene it's introduced in, that's mostly just because the guy also has next to no screentime in that route where he isn't either fighting in a battle or having his negative emotions amplified, so of course it'd take the one and only instance in the whole story where him and Corrin aren't fighting and are willing to have a healthy talk with each other for that to be revealed; this isn't like the warp book in Chapter 18 of BR, which is an actual asspull because it has no set-up or foreshadowing to speak of anywhere else in the game and is brought up out-of-nowhere in order to solve a massive dillema in the story (that being whether Corrin's willing to backtrack to the Rainbow Sage for more power but exponentially increase the danger and risk they'd go through in the process), but a consistent part of Takumi's characterization that's both pivotal to his character arc in Birthright and made clear in every route where he doesn't spend 90% of his screentime as an enemy who wants nothing more than to kill Corrin and refuses to entertain a friendly convo with them until after he dies and gets to chill in the afterlife for a while. I can see a decent argument being made for it being inconsistent in the EN version of Conquest, if only because it's very hard to buy that Takumi would have continued feeling mostly positive feelings towards Corrin even in the middle of the war, but anyone who tries to say that it's still a character assassination for Takumi to say in JP that he wanted to befriend Corrin back in Chapter 5, when they did nothing to him and he was just acting tough and uncaring to try and intidimate them, genuinely doesn't know the first thing about him as a character.

It's inconsistent for Takumi to forgive Corrin for conquering Hoshido

What i find interesting about this argument is that people who use it have this weird belief that Takumi (and, very often, the rest of the Hoshidan siblings) would always lay a significant amount of blame on Hoshido being conquered on Corrin no matter what the circumstances, if not that Corrin is genuinely mostly to blame for Hoshido getting invaded; most of those complaints come back to people believing that it doesn't make sense for Corrin to choose to help in the invasion of Hoshido in the first place because they supposedly had more peaceful and reasonable options that'd have accomplished the same thing with less bloodshed, meaning that their participation in it was a huge mistake, they were both stupid for accepting it and morally in the wrong for doing so, and the Hoshidan characters should think the same.

The debunks for those arguments are extensive enough to warrant their own post, let alone a quarter of an otherwise-unrelated one, which is exactly what happened; someone on reddit made an excellent analysis recently compiling said debunks, along with in-depth explanations for why it makes perfect sense for Corrin to go along with the invasion character and logic-wise, but even skipping over most of the explanations of both that post and my Conquest Part 3 response where i went into some detail on why the Hoshidan sibs don't blame Corrin for their participation in the invasion (except for Takumi because i managed to miss his last two lines of dialogue where he explicitly forgives Corrin in both versions of the script, and even if i hadn't, i didn't understand his reasoning for forgiving Corrin until recently and would have probably just made a stupid defense for the scene anyway because i was much worse at this schtick back then, but it doesn't matter that much when this entire post has just been a poorly-disguised CQ!Takumi character analysis) on the grounds of it derailing an already-long analysis and going with the basic fact that i hope no one will try and dispute of “Corrin didn't start the invasion, they only helped one side win it more easily”, i have a question for the people who think it's bad writing for Takumi to ever forgive Corrin for helping conquer Hoshido, no matter the context: why would he (and the other Hoshido sibs for that matter) blame Corrin for the invasion instead of directing the vast majority of that resentment towards Garon, especially after he's had time to think about what happened clearly and is fully aware of the context and reasoning behind their participation?

Why would Takumi, after dying and being rid of his excess anger and resentment; very likely being told by Ryoma that Corrin hadn't joined the invasion in order to conquer Hoshido but to free the country after it inevitably lost the war against the overwhelmingly-superior Nohrian army, even going as far as to risk their own life by sparing Hoshidan soldiers (including Hinoka and Sakura) if and when they could, with Ryoma himself only dying because Garon gave them a direct order to kill him; seeing Corrin offer themselves up as a punching bag for possessed!Takumi to beat the shit out of due to how stricken by grief they were over the thought that they caused him to end up in that state, nearly getting themselves killed in the process; AND having a chat with Corrin where the two of them finally confess their true thoughts and apologize for the pain they caused each other; hold any significant resentment against Corrin? Why would he, after thinking things through calmly and objectively (which he would have had plenty of time to do in the afterlife), blame someone for their part in an invasion he knows they only joined because they had no choice on the matter and were actively trying to minimize the damage that would happen during the conquest to the best of their capabilities, especially when he knows that, had Corrin not joined, hundreds more would have died, including his sisters, while Hoshido lost the war anyway because they're hopelessly out-matched regardless of Corrin being a commander for a small portion of Nohr's army or not, especially when the one actually responsible for starting and carrying through that mess is a much easier and more logical target for his frustrations, and especially when the person forced to participate in the takeover is someone he cared dearly for, had a falling out with, then went right back to holding deep affections for once he found out he was wrong in his judgement of them?

Sorry that this derailed into a bit of a defense for CQ!Corrin, but it'd be near-impossible to respond to that criticism properly without bringing that topic up. TL;DR it's completely in-character and logical for Takumi (and the Hoshidan sibs) to forgive Corrin, mostly because he's aware they had no real agency or choice in joining given their circumstances, made a significant and good difference in a war Hoshido couldn't possibly win by saving a bunch of people in the process, Garon is right there and is much more at fault for Nohr winning the war than Corrin ever was, and he still has an emotional connection and bias towards them.

The scene was only put into the game to absolve Corrin

Or it could have been put into the game to keep to the throughline of Birthright and Conquest's stories paralleling each other at multiple points (two of the royal siblings die near the end; the Yato gets halfway-done evolving after Corrin deepens their bonds with two of the allied legendary-weapon-wielding royal siblings; Takumi falls into Valla and gets brainwashed by Anankos; and most importantly for this argument, Corrin takes a hit strong enough to destroy the Yato and nearly kill them in the final chapter, ends up in the afterlife, has a heart-to-heart with the Nohrian/Hoshidan siblings that died during the route and, with help from them, restores and improves the Yato so that they can go back to the world of the living and save their friends); or to give CQ!Takumi a proper resolution to his character conflict by having him finally get over his insecurities and need to appear strong at all times and ask Corrin for help with a problem he can't solve on his own, telling them what his true feelings were and how he wishes he had confessed when the two of them were still alive and on the same side, and have his sadness due to Corrin's betrayal mended after he sees them sacrifice themselves to try and save him, apologize for the pain they caused him, and admit to hoping that the two of them could have mended their relationship after the war was over; or to reaffirm Corrin's will to see their choice through to the end by having the talk cause them to admit that Takumi died because of them and the path they chose, but that they'll redeem themselves for that and their other sins by fulfilling their promise to him and getting rid of whatever's possessing his corpse, along with working to bring peace to the world (in JP; they put the blame for his death entirely on Anankos in EN, which is a really weird choice to me but whatever):

Corrin: The true owner of the Fuujin bow… is dead because of us! That is the price I paid for choosing this path, but I will redeem myself! By defeating you, I’ll fulfill my promise to that precious person! Takumi… I’m late, but this time i'm sure… I can save you and the whole world!

Now, i'm not trying to argue that it's impossible for the devs to have put that scene in solely for pandering, but given how all the arguments i laid out have significantly stronger and more supporting evidence for them and can be interpreted solely by analyzing the text instead of baselessly assuming author intent, i am arguing that it's an incredibly weak and unlikely point that relies on interpreting the convo with heavy dosages of bad-faith while also ignoring other, significantly more logical, well-supported and consistent explanations for it's purpose in the story; it's never going to be something i'll be able to completely disprove, mostly because that's the most subjective criticism of the scene i've seen so far and the writers haven't dedicated a section of an interview to explaining their intentions when writing that scene, but i hope i was able to at least convince those who do believe that to look at that moment in a different light.

In summary: that scene isn't good; it's great, and an example of very strong writing in Conquest's main story, due to giving some much-needed depth and resolution to one of the main antagonists of the route while also giving the main protagonist closure, making them accept the consequences of their actions, and bolstering their will to keep fighting until they've reached their goal and atoned for their sins. It's rep gets dragged down by a mistranslated line and the fandom's usual misunderstandings of CQ's story and characters, but on it's own, it's a damn fine scene that heavily improves both Takumi and Corrin's characters.

[theskyehealers]

The days went on, receiving one last caravan of slightly wounded, but moreso people who did not want to experience war.

She had listened, caring for small wounds, and reassuring them, they left to return, not to abandon Arbor.

It was a hard sell to many, and guilt riddled some of the Arboreal stragglers. She met with a few of Ulrich and Artemis' wolves, asking for them to speak to the Tree People, hoping a kindred connection, could be made.

"My, that is quite a cut there." Helena spoke aloud, but smiled amiably and worked on cleaning the wound off with an infusion of clover buds and marigold.

"You have a delicate touch my lady, that must be why you have your people's trust."

"I care about each and every one of the people in Hillside, I can only hope I never fail them."

The woman, who Helena had never seen before smiled placcidly, and fell into silence as she watched her work. "Will you wrap it after a decoction of agrimony petals or comfrey root?"

Helena paused a moment before replying. "The cut is shallow, I think a decoction of iris root might do just fine." And met the woman's gaze and squinted her eyes jovially, "Are you a healer?"

"No..." she answered simply, "but I know of your kind."

"...my kind my lady?"

The woman smiled, which did not quite reach her eyes, replied, "The way of Clan Skye."

Helena didn't react initially. Everyone here knew of her clan, it was no surprise, but her tone left her curious, and caused her stomach to tighten slightly.

Her venture away from Hillside to find the remnants of Clan Skye in the Isle of Skye proved futile, and worse moreso when she was wounded so seriously, and learned they had been and were still hunted.

Helena finished wrapping the woman's hand in silence, then spoke. "You did not come with these people."

"What makes you think that?"

Her expression hardened, "Your wound is fresh."

"With your eyes pulled together like that, you look like Azura."

Helena froze, before rising from her spot, "How do you know that name?" Azura. Her sister. Murdered when Helena was still a child, but in her care. It was still a mystery, and one she was not sure she could ever solve.

"Oh, your clan is very well known."

It didn't make her feel anymore comfortable, "What is your reasoning for mentioning that name?" Helena was growing more and more wary of this woman, "Who are you?"

The woman checked the bandaging, nodding her approval at its sturdiness, "Well done." And finally met Helena's gaze. "I knew Azura. I know her daughter."

Helena froze, blinking at her, before that little wrinkle between her brows formed again, "You would do well to never mention my sister again. Or toy with her memory like that." She began, slowly.

"She is tall like her, but she is not fair-haired-"

"Stop!" She cut across, "I will not let you desecrate her memory in such a way. On your way!" She said, raising her voice, alerting others to this once intimate interaction.

"Azura Skye died protecting Lady Elizabeth and her newborn. Azura died protecting her daughter Willa."

"Out! Now!" And this time, the wolves approached. "Never darken the paths of Hillside again, the wolves know your scent, and will do what is necessary if you even dare to think it."

The woman stood there, taller than Helena, staring down at her, "Willa needs her clan, you are all she has left."

Breathing hard, she watched the cowled woman depart, skirted by the wolves protecting, and turned away, hands on her hips, trying to decipher what she had just learned.

A niece.

It could not be true, and brought a hand to her mouth as she was made to remember the great loss of her older sister. Her confidant and mentor.

A niece.

Azura massacred along with Lady Elizabeth, her children and the little newborn.

A niece.

"A niece." She said aloud, in the privacy of her own home, and felt the tears well up in her eyes.

A niece.

[anistarrose]

The Owl House - Four Humors/Temperaments Theory

So a while back, @sepublic brought up humorism in the context of a code that was probably gibberish but might’ve read “phlegm,” and that sent me down a big research rabbit hole regarding the historical notion of the four humors and associated four temperaments. Some of the connections I’m about to propose match up extremely well, while others are admittedly a little looser, so it’s hard to say how much of this was intentional by Dana and the crew — but hey, we’re on hiatus, so why not overanalyze?

The humorism and temperament theories are respectively outdated medical and psychological concepts, with roots in Ancient Greece. Humorism purported that there are four “humors” (blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm) whose balance influenced the body’s health, and each of those humors supposedly corresponded to a specific personality type (sanguine, choleric, melancholic, or phlegmatic).

And I think there are four Owl House characters who align pretty closely with those personality archetypes:

Luz is sanguine. The sanguine temperament, associated with blood, represented individuals who are talkative, enthusiastic, and social/extroverted — all traits that are easy to see in Luz, who is always joking around and trying to make new friends.

Amity is choleric. The choleric temperament was associated with an excess of yellow bile, and corresponded to people who are independent, goal-oriented, ambitious, short-tempered, and good leaders. Amity is hinted to be so independent that she’s lonely (see: “The Lone Witch & Secret Room”); she’s clearly goal-oriented/ambitious in terms of her pursuit of a spot in the Emperor’s Coven, and she can be short tempered around Luz, especially in the early episodes. We don’t know if Amity specifically aspires to lead the Emperor’s Coven one day, but she certainly considers herself a leader and role model to her peers in terms of academic achievement, and it makes me wonder if she leads any student organizations (because presumably that looks good on coven applications).

What’s more, some Ancient Greek sources* on yellow bile associate it with hair that changes color. Presumably, they mean hair that changes color naturally, while Amity is strongly implied to dye her hair to look more like Azura, but it’s definitely undergone a color change from her brown roots to a light green.

I’ll admit this one isn’t quite dead-on like the others**, but I think Lilith is melancholic. Black bile was associated with black hair, while the corresponding melancholic temperament was associated with people who are analytical, detail-oriented, tidy, introverted, anxious, and perfectionists. Some sources on black bile also referenced it causing anger/irritability when in excess.

So how does that match up with Lilith? She definitely has a temper that can get the better of her, and Eda calls her “perfect, prissy Lilith” at one point, which might imply that Lilith is particularly tidy/proper as well as a bit of a perfectionist. We also don’t know a whole lot about what Lily was like in school — she was presumably a very good student, seeing as she ended up leading the Emperor’s Coven, but she also got her lunch money stolen at least once, meaning her childhood may have been fraught with bullying and anxiety. She may not have always been as confident and self-assured as we’ve seen her in the series.

Last but not least, Eda is phlegmatic. Phlegmatic personalities were described as caring about others, but hiding their emotions — apparent in Eda caring deeply about Luz and King, but not always acting like it — but the real kicker for me were the supposed effects of excess phlegm in the body, which included white hair and forgetfulness.

It’s strongly implied that that the curse made Eda’s hair go prematurely white/gray — either as a side effect of the curse or due to natural childhood amnesia, Eda can’t remember the person who cursed her. What’s more, a song with the lyrics “why can’t you remember me” plays as she reads the files on her childhood misdeeds at Hexside — suggesting that her forgetfulness issues aren’t just limited to memories of being cursed, and that it’s not a natural kind of memory loss at all. 

Finally, phlegm was associated with old age, which is apparent in Eda moreso than any other character (even though Eda is probably younger than she looks). Black bile, in turn, corresponded to adulthood (Lilith), while blood and yellow bile were associated with infancy/youth (Luz and Amity).

[*For the record, I got pretty much all the info in this post from a mixture of Wikipedia and “The Legacy of the Hippocratic Treatise The Nature of Man: The Theory of the Four Humours” by Jacques Jouanna. The changing hair colors tidbit was from the latter source.]

[**It might be possible to make a case for Willow as the melancholic personality, but Lilith felt more fitting to me, in part because of her connections with both Amity and Eda — this way, each of the four characters has both a mentor/student relationship and a rivalry among their relationships with the other associated characters.]

[themoomoorn]

Hoshidon’t You Dare Be Peaceful, Corrin

After spotting the well-tread topic of Hoshido and Nohr again, there’s now plenty of spotlight as to why Hoshido is as flawed as Nohr, and moreso in some ways.  However, the issue I have with that is that Hoshido’s flaws are rarely, if ever, presented in the story itself, and when they are (I.E the Kouga-Mokushu debacle which led to the former’s prince, Asura, being forced to live as a vagrant), they aren’t played up as being bad, or worthy of note.  And heck, some things like Mikoto’s brain-mushing peaceful behavior barrier?  Viewed almost as a good thing.  

Ryoma shitting on the way of Bushido while espousing its values all the while?  Never portrayed as a flaw, whereas Xander’s devotion to his country and fear-driven loyalty to his father definitely are.  Corrin will always harp on Xander for his loyalty to his country in Birthright, whereas they have absolutely nothing harsh to say to Ryoma for withholding medicine from Elise on Conquest.  Camilla’s maternal latching onto Corrin is portrayed as gross and disturbing on Birthright, whereas Hinoka’s almost pathetic fixation on saving Corrin at the expense of her relationship with her siblings and her other royal duties is portrayed as noble and tragic; Other characters question her choosing the way of the warrior to begin with, but that’s more Hoshidan gender roles at play.

 Azura will happily stick by Corrin on Birthright and Revelation, but on Conquest, she has to be forcibly dragged along as a prisoner by Hoshidans three Chapters later in order to actually fight at Corrin’s side.  Despite having been kidnapped and mistreated in Hoshido, she still vastly prefers it over Nohr, and if you give her a spouse and her son, she raises him in all-Hoshidan trappings, with his regular ending and the Heirs of Fate DLC having him work for the Hoshidan government.  Azura’s Hoshidan Corrin support has her prostrating how she had the audacity to be Corrin’s “replacement” Hoshidan sibling, while her Nohrian support has her trying to dissuade Corrin’s masochistic guilt from killing Hoshidans.

Garon’s being horny for his concubines is shown as a bad thing, and it resulted in the remaining Nohrian royals clinging together, with some of them featuring distressing behaviors such as Camilla’s maternal overbearing (that escalates once Corrin is bought into the picture) and Xander’s fear of his father.  Sumeragi being a horndog in his youth - something that you can only find through Fuga’s Revelation support, and something that the localization actually erased - is not.  Him having his wife Ikona (the mother of the four Hoshidan siblings) and his mistress Mikoto (the mother of Corrin) living together is paid no mind, likely because it has no overtly negative consequences.  The separatism and penting up of their emotions is generally dismissed - Corrin is with them now, so nothing to see here.  There’s consequences when Takumi’s distrust of Corrin allows for Anankos to overcome him and manipulate him, but it only plays out on Conquest, as its Birthright equivalent is stopped within ten seconds of its discovery.  

Ah, and lest we forget the lack of consequences of Ryoma flat-out lying to Corrin about them being the “blood” siblings. 

Revelations features two poignant scenes of the Hoshidan siblings getting final moments with Mikoto and Sumeragi’s manipulated spirits, while the Nohrian siblings get left high and dry other than a token shock scene of Garon getting eaten by Anankos.

While Corrin retains their naive, kind, yet pragmatic (when required) behavior on both Revelation and Conquest (albeit the latter takes it to masochistic levels of guilt), Birthright sees them as being uncharacteristically violent.  They show absolutely no quarter to their foes, finds the average Nohrian a mook at best and sick (like Niles) at worst, ultimately doesn’t bother to consider their adoptive families’ reasons for their behavior, or even how the majority of the country supports Garon’s bid for conquest only because they’re constantly plagued by famine and resource-strapped.  While the player may lose out on Azura and the truth, Valla, and Anankos, choosing Hoshido is framed positively.  No consequences are faced for choosing them in anger, for being unquestionably violent.  Corrin never questions this choice, and that’s fine.  The other routes frame picking either side as poor options, but you wouldn’t get that idea if you played Birthright, because Corrin is lauded for picking this “right” choice. 

What’s more, not only do you have this violence be excused, but you get one of the game’s derided “Avatar favoritism” moments - Flora protecting the Ice Tribe from Hoshido and from Garon’s wrath is entirely (and melodramatically) pinned on the latter by Corrin, not even remotely factoring the idea that these non-Hoshidans are trying to defend themselves, and you have Felicia and Jakob having the audacity to shame her for protecting her damn family and doing her duty as future leader of the tribe as heinous because she’s not being nice or loyal to Corrin - heck, they don’t even bring up Garon bringing the heat on to her like Corrin does, it’s because she used to be one of Corrin’s servants!

There’s meta-textual favoritism towards Hoshido that the localization actually did try to downplay, but because there’s so much of it in the game, there was only so much they could, well, downplay.  The most obvious examples are the softer lyrics for the light half of Azura’s song (”The incorruptible silver sword/will slash in order to wake/those slumbering hopes/Bringing peace to the world”), and the renaming of each version of Chapter 6.

Now this dissonance is nowhere near as severe as 3H blatantly presenting Edelgard as a narcissistic, childish variation of the Red Emperor archetype and one of the de-facto villains alongside Those Who Slither, while game dialogue and extraneous material like Heroes go out of their way to make that seem untrue and present her as a cute revolutionary and a good person (*snort*).  But it’s still pretty present, and even when I got the Special Edition all-in-one cartridge of Fates mailed to my apartment back in February of 2016 and beat the game to the ground, this particular dissonance really bothered me, and in a way it was the reason why I ultimately didn’t 100% the game the way I did Awakening, or Blazing Blade, or Sacred Stones.

[eriisaam]

Little tiny notes on boons and banes I want to expand on bigger HCs eventually, but for now I’ll just make notes of boon/bane ideas for the squads (although for most/all of them, the bane does eventually drop over time like how merges do I’ll get around to thinking how merges work too eventually:

Tl;dr version:

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Erin / +Res -Atk

Teru / +Def -HP

Sparrow / +Spd -Atk

Kyo / +Atk -Spd

Eclair / Neutral

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Ryoma / +Atk -Res

Lif / +Atk -Res

Camilla / +Def -Spd

Hrid / +Def -Atk

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Reinhardt / +Atk -Def

Xander / Neutral

Takumi / +Res -HP

Gunnthra / +Def -Spd

Tethys / +Spd -Def

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Chrom / +Res -Atk

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Kamui / +Atk -Def

Lifonse / Neutral

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In-depth version under the cut:

Erin / + Res - Atk = Resilient and willful, just has focus most of the time in areas besides raw strength, particularly when her dragon form was the smallest, technically physical weakness, and she’s stronger in other areas instead.

Teru / + Def - HP = He has great durability and bulk, just his health in other regards is really poor, reflective of just how often he’s so sickly from his condition. Arguably, he had good mental fortitude as well in contrast to being too chronically ill to engage when and how he wants to.

Sparrow / + Spd - Atk = She’s the quickest, not just on her feet, but reflective on her adaptability. However, she doesn’t start off the most battle-ready/inclined right away. (With her digimon, the power she borrowed from them were notably more in a support role as a battle healer, rather than someone like Chrom)

Kyo / +Atk - Spd = He hits like a truck. He just goes right in and lays down the law with very little regards of himself. However, unless he was transformed into something already inclined to be fast, he’s a mighty glacier in his style of fighting in comparison to the others.

Eclair / Neutral = As he was made as almost a blank slate, he has no real strong strengths or weaknesses, and still had to take time to find himself. Whether or not this reflects back on his image-sake (Kiran) or his name-sake (Eclat) is unknown, but likely, doesn’t. Also exists to look cute and be babie until he suddenly has reason not to be as harmless as he seems.

---

Ryoma / + Atk - Res = In any other regard, he’s normally the one who has the strongest mental fortitude between his meditations and the way he mediates or acts like the supportive Big Bro/Team Dad of his supports in fussing and protecting them collectively with Second-in-Command Camilla. When he battles, however, it’s a whole other side to him that focuses far more ruthlessly in combat and making sure the thing he’s fighting is struck dead for daring to hurt his supports, arguably not thinking the most collectively during the moments he’s at his most stubborn and angry.

Lif / + Atk - Res = Like Ryoma but worse. At least Ryoma has some level of calm or pretend-calm, but when Lif is in a mode to battle, he fights with an utterly brutal style as a remnant of his trauma under Hel’s heel, which his feral-like mood and mindset doesn’t lend itself particularly well to thinking calmly, rationally, or in ways that doesn’t potentially break himself along the way either. It’s not uncommon for him to snap out from his daze with several new, fresh wounds he doesn’t remember getting.

Camilla / + Def - Spd = Tanky, bulky, and can withstand quite a bit, but isn’t particularly the speediest while doing it. While she’s plenty brutal when she strikes, what’s more impressive about her is how strongly she carries herself and braves through pretty dangerous rough points in battle just before laying down the law.

Hrid / + Def - Atk = Compared to the others who are much more brutal when and how they strike, Hrid is much more focused on resisting attacks and fighting in a style on the defensive than striking others down fast, hard, or particularly viciously. His kingdom’s peaceful yet resolved way of thinking and general combat style might have contributed to this, especially as physical weapons take more resolve compared to how easily magic can turn deadly all on its own.

---

Reinhardt / + Atk - Def = When he strikes, he strikes hard, brutally, and with immense strength in his thunder magic. He lives up to his reputation in people’s beliefs of being the second coming of Thrud. However, he’s far from the most physically built or bulky, especially in comparison to his supports besides Takumi and Teru, and as all his strength drew to his magic and swordplay, he’s not as able to take more direct hits otherwise. With the power of Mjolnir’s heavy motifs toward thunder, and his striking resemblance to Thrud, one wonders if Mjolnir’s blessings still carried through to a possible reincarnation that transcends Reinhardt’s lack of direct blood otherwise, especially as he’s now in company of more direct relations to gods.

Xander /  Neutral = He trained heavily and stressed heavily on excelling in every field and area in battle. The major weakness he has, however, is the sheer amount of toll it took on his mind and mental health despite his will remaining strong and fortified in battle. He is equally a deadly force to be reckoned with as he is a man who is one misstep away from collapsing at an instant.

Takumi / + Res - HP = Despite him showing the complete opposite earlier on, given how he initially heavily worked against himself and his strengths, when he got guidance to hone his strengths over defy it, he’s actually far more mentally fortified or inclined to than he was initially presented (which was marred heavily in his deep-seated insecurities, jealousy and self-depreciation lending to why he was far more vulnerable earlier on). However, as he got older, he unfortunately also showed more how much he inherited qualities from the previously-terminal illness Ikona had, lending to his health being much more fragile than it initially seemed.

Gunnthra / + Def - Spd = A mighty glacier. She isn’t the quickest in combat, particularly when she focuses on a form of magic utilizing her element that has enough range not to need to move as much physically (particularly as her style of dress would be cumbersome to expect swift movement anyways), but like her brother, she’s plenty bulky, and defensive-minded in withstanding quite a bit.

Tethys / + Spd - Def = Even if she isn’t the sturdiest among Gerik’s band or her supports, she’s content with this, as this wasn’t her focus on her role anyways. Her focus is more on her dancing, and with the style of dance she performs being much more lively and energetic (compared to Azura’s focus on being slow, fluid and graceful), she’s very swift in general.

---

Chrom / + Res - Atk = He’s... he’s being helpful... orz... 

More seriously, his attack strength dulled heavier than other Chroms to a point it reflects on his health from his grief, intense stress, and initially not taking the best care of himself past his incredibly strong will remaining fortified. However, as he had been training and exercising regularly, and mindful for Sparrow’s care alongside his, this is why only his raw attack power was the most affected, in comparison to his health in totality. 

---

Kamui / + Atk - Def = Tiny but bitey. Compared to his older brothers, Ryoma and Xander, he’s scrawny, small, and looks about as easily squishable as he is. However, he strikes hard and true with his sword, and just as ferociously if not moreso as a dragon. 

Lifonse / Neutral = Much like how he was when he was fully Alfonse originally, he is trained to be balanced without having any true definite weak areas, but also not really any major strong points either (unlike Lif, who found his own niche as he became more battle-hardened under grueling circumstances). 

[someobscurereference]

What are your HC ages for the people in your fics? Sorry if you've done this before. The trio, the royals, Corrin and Azura?

I’ve written some long-winded posts before about the Awakening Kids ages, but I don’t know if I’ve ever done most of the Fates cast before! Good question! Let’s start with the Trio.

(Sidenote: I literally just had to sit down and write out a physical chart on a piece of paper to make this math work because I’m dumb and realized some people were aging in this HC while others weren’t when I was nearly finished with it. So please excuse any time disparities you may see. I’m very fluid with these HCs and do not tend to stick to any one thought.)

Selena, Odin, & Laslow: I feel like they’re closer in age to each other than a lot of the future kids in Awakening and no matter the time travel weirdness they went through/birth order, all three of them are about 25 years old by the time the war ends.(Main story. Not Hidden Truths DLC.) (Though I would like to play with this hc and see what happens when they’re actually farther apart in age some day. But that’s for another fic some day.) Which makes them about 23/24 when the war starts.

Hidden Truths DLC, I feel like they’re about 20 or so at the most. So they probably spent a good few years (approx. 4 years) in Nohr before the game actually starts. Assume if I’m ever writing them and it’s post war, they’re probably 25. Before the war is over? Younger than 25, probably. But not ever any younger than 20 (unless it’s Awakening era bc they come off much more teenager-y there)

I think the war lasts about a year or so? I’d say it would be longer like Awakening’s, but with the time limit of the skies changing and how fast things seem to move, the actual war of Corrin vs Valla vs Nohr/Hoshido is much shorter than most wars, probably. At least to me. But it’s a real rough year.

Xander: Early 30s. At least in canon. I’ve probably read/written him as even older (for example: in fics where they have grown kids and no baby realm), but I usually default to early/mid 30s or so. I don’t say 40s because despite his serious face/demeanor, I don’t think he’s almost double the Trio’s age or anything. I just think he’s older than them by a handful of years. So early 30s it is. 

Camilla: Late 20s (Ex: 27 and up) to early 30s. I feel like there’s a maximum of 3 years age difference between her and Xander. Probably less. Camilla and Xander both come off as being in another age bracket than Corrin and the other sibs to me. Like there was a bigger gap between Camilla and the rest than Camilla and Xander. Perhaps it’s just the big brother/big sister attitude. But I feel like there was a bigger gap between Corrin/Leo/Elise’s birth than between Xander and Camilla’s.

Azura: I feel like I’m basing this off something, but if this was ever mentioned in-game, I’ve forgotten when. But in any case, I feel like Azura is older than Corrin by about… 2 (maybe 3?) years probably? Like, Azura was born, grew up to be a about a 2 year old toddler, Corrin was born, and immediately after they fled Valla. I put Corrin at early 20s age in canon, so Azura is probably more like 23 to newly 25 at the start of Fates. 

Corrin: When the game starts, I put Corrin at about 21 or 22. I feel like Corrin is an adult and has been for several years, but they’re just a bit naive because they never left their tower. But they are an adult. Just a young one.

Leo: Leo is very hard for me to pick and he almost made me rewrite this entire post. He’s the reason I had to write this down on a sheet of paper. I actually wrote like 2 paragraphs of my thought process here, but I’m mostly just splitting hairs, so we’re gonna say he’s like 23 by the time the war ends (making him 21 or 22 at the start of the war, just like Corrin. Leo is younger by a year or less.

Corrin is older than Leo, but my brain doesn’t compute that very well. I think they’re actually very close in age. Like a year difference between them maximum. To me, they come of as the closest in age out of any of the siblings. Hence why I put them so close together here. 

(My default age for Leo is 23 but maybe that’s because most of my fics take place post-war? Idk. Corrin has to be older than him or the same age and I don’t feel like Corrin is very old at the start, so I had to split a lot of mental hairs here)

Elise: 14 to 16 depending on the fic.

Wowie, this was a doozie. I work more in brackets than factual ages, but I had to get a bit more precise as the sibs got younger and the differences shrank. Don’t take this as hard and fast facts though. I tend to think in age brackets moreso than specifics if it’s not important to the story. Just take this as a general guideline! (And as a note, the Hoshido sibs are all about the equivalent ages to their Nohr counterparts. Ryoma is about Xander’s age, Hinoka is about Camilla’s (though maybe closer to Azura?), Takumi = Leo, etc.)

[elddansurin]

i filled out that entire got damn OC meme not once but four times for my main TES OCs because you know what? i have that power.

featuring: Gavriil, my dragonborn, Serras, the dragonborn’s weird boyfriend/travel companion, Lleris, my Nerevarine, and Gerrick, a non-vestige 2E OC who lives out the aldmeri dominion questline. this thing is long as shit behind the cut, but idc if anyone reads it, i did it for me. 

1. It’s a little unreasonable for everyone in a Middle Ages-esque fantasy to be perfectly literate, and writing with quills was considered legitimate labor! How well can your oc read and/or write? How detailed is their quest log/journal, if they keep one at all? -Gav: He's extensively literate and very well read. He keeps a pretty detailed journal going, though it's kind of a hybrid of field notes/emotions log. He does a lot of alchemical research when traveling, so he might have a few pages of notes on reagents, field sketches, etc, then another five pages of intrusive thoughts. His biggest fear is they'll be published after his death and everyone's just gonna be like "huh." -Serras: Just barely literate. He's got very childlike printing abilities, can barely spell, and struggles reading any big words. He's extremely self conscious about this. He doesn't keep any journals, but he writes letters about his adventures to his father every now and again. -Lleris: Again, quite well read. He does a lot more reading than writing, and his journaling is kind of the equivalent of writing notes on his arm. -Gerrick: I'd say he maybe has around an 8th grade reading level. He's got the core stuff down no problem, but as soon as technical jargon or anything too esoteric kicks off, his eyes glaze over.

2. How educated is your oc? Did their parents teach them, did they have a tutor or were they apprenticed to a master, or did they attend a university? What university? What are they educated in? How long did their education take? (Learned skills like blacksmithing count here too!) -Gav: Overly so. He has the education/research equivalent of phD, I'd reckon. All the best schooilng daddy's money could buy. -Serras: He was "home schooled" by a man with no resources undergoing a 30+ year nervous breakdown. So like, it's shitty that Serras is as uneducated as he is, but kind of understandable, given the situation. -Lleris: Also more or less home schooled, but at the opposite end of the spectrum. His aunt (the person who raised him), was a fucking genius. Balls-out eccentric, but a genius. -Gerrick: He was raised and educated by kind of an ensemble cast of characters, so his education is fairly well rounded and extremely based in practical over theoretical. He later joins the mages guild, but he uses that less as an opportunity to pursue higher education, but moreso a way to figure out how to sling a better lightning bolt

3. Does your oc have any kind of crafting skills that either aren’t in-game or don’t have as much importance in-game as they would in real life? (For example, can your oc sew or weave, etc? Are they skilled in any kind of art? Can they make jewelry or work glass? Are they musicians? etc) -Gav has a practical knowledge of most crafts necessary for a sad bachelor life. He can cook well enough to keep himself fed, he can patch up most of the wear in his gear, but nothing that would really impress anyone. I'd imagine, in another lifetime, he played the lute. Not sure he'd remember how at this point, though. -Serras is extremely crafty. He'd an extremely resourceful cook, he can repair just about anything, and he's a natural outdoorsman. Dude's had a lifetime of learning how to do a lot with very, very little. Art is kind of a hobby for him that he doesnt get to indulge in quite as much as he'd like. -Lleris can barely function on his own. He cannot cook a damn thing, when his clothes tear he throws them out, and he almost dies of exposure on more than one occasion. It's a sad sight to behold. -Gerrick is fond of roughin it. His life skills are exactly as honed as they need to be. Not much, but enough to keep him alive and scrappy.

4. What pantheon does your oc worship? If they worship the Cyrodiilic/Imperial pantheon, does that include Talos? If they secretly worship Talos, how do they justify hiding it?   -Gav: Pretty straightforward believer in the Altmeri pantheon. He's especially devout to Mara, though he's got a long way to go toward internalizing the whole "love yourself" thing -Serras: He's never really figured out what to believe in. Way back in the day, his family was heavily involved in House Indoril, and when the Tribunal kind of fizzled out, they were all pretty lost and not exactly stoked to go back to worshipping the "good" daedra. That more or less carried down to Serras, although he's not even aware of his ties to House Indoril or any of that Tribunal stuff. He has a learned fear of any sort of daedra, courtesy his father. -Lleris: He's pretty tight with Azura, natch. -Gerrick: Dude straight up does not care, but will absolutely pay lip service to Auri-El if it makes him look good.

5. How religious is your oc? Do they come into conflict with others over their beliefs? If their patron deity told them to do something extremely undesirable or against their moral compass, would they do it? Would your oc sell someone’s soul for a corn chip? -Gav is devout enough to have taken a shake at becoming a priest. Didn't pan out, because he couldn't deal with the pressure of being any kind of authority figure, and he's been kind of having a crisis of faith in the midst of his most recent extended nervous breakdown. As soon as he starts clearing his head again, he pretty much goes back to being pretty dang devout. -Serras is struggling to figure out his moral compass on his own. He wouldn't mind being religious, but growing up in a non-religious setting can make it hard to just start believing in something. -Lleris becomes way more into Azura worship as the whole Nerevarine thing plays out, and he would absolutely fuck things up in her name. His sour opinion of the Tribunal is absolutely influenced by Azura’s grudge. -Gerrick, again, does not care. His morals are his own, and no one's going to talk him into doing something that doesn't align with his own beliefs about life.

6. Does your oc have a family of origin? How many members of their FoO are still living? Do they have a good relationship? How much contact does your oc have with their FoO? How in-the-loop is your oc’s FoO about your oc’s being Dragonborn/HoK/Nerevarine? -Gavriil's immediate family are all still alive (except his sister, who died before he was born), and they have not been in contact in like, 200 years. None of them even know if he's still alive until a few years after the whole Dragonborn thing starts making its way back to Auridon. His parents are just kind of like "huh." and then continue to never bring him up in conversation. His younger brother eventually seeks him out to try and forge the relationship they never got to have. -Serras has a codependent relationship with his father. They love each other a lot, but their relationship was very, very unhealthy. That's the major reason why he ended up leaving home, because he finally realized the only way to heal the unhealthy dynamic was to learn how to be his own person. He has a pretty good relationship with his (maternal) aunt. His mother is still alive, and he has three half-siblings he's never met. None of them ever end up meeting. His mom never does figure out what happened to her firstborn. It is what it is. -Lleris is completely on his own at this point. His parents died when he was barely a year old, and he went to go live with his wacky aunt abroad. Those two were thick as thieves, but when she passed, Lleris was legit on his own. -Gerrick and his weird pirate family are all still on good terms. Both of his parents are still alive and although they dont see each other often, it's a grand old time when they finally do.

7. What social class was your oc born into? Did they change classes at all? How? -Gav: Super, super upper-crust. His family was nobles marrying nobles all the way back, and Gav just couldn't cut it in that world. His slump into absolute poverty is gradual, but pretty vicious. He does eventually pick himself up out of the gutter, but I'll go more into that a few questions down. -Serras: He was born into a weird, backwoods cult and spends the next 30-something years of his life living an extremely hand-to-mouth existence either in some slum or the legit middle of nowhere. Dude wasn’t exactly born into privilege. -Lleris: He was born into House Telvanni and lived a pretty well to do life until he was in his early 20s. After his aunt passed, he lived a few months as a street urchin before being arrested, then he slogs across Vvardenfell for like three years, "re-joins" House Telvanni and starts living a cushy life again, then gets tossed onto an Akavir-bound boat with a bag over his head. Takes a bit of a while before he lives the high life again after that. -Gerrick: Outlaw from birth. He was the son of the ship’s captain and her then-lover, and he was raised by the entire crew, more or less. He grows up to become, of all things, an Eye of the Queen. Yeah.

8. How politically active is your oc? Are they obviously influential, or is their influence more subtle? -Gav willfully keeps his head in the sand when it comes to politics, especially in places he doesn't think of as home. It's not an accident that he started moving further and further away from Summerset as the Thalmor became more entrenched in local politics. He absolutely does not touch the Imperial/Stormcloak tension. And honestly, even when he was at the height of his Dragonborn influence, no one wanted his opinion about the war, because not a single person in Skyrim wants to hear what an Altmer has to say about Nord politics. -Serras has a lot of opinions about the way Nords treat non-Nords, but he has pretty much no political agency. -Lleris starts out mostly entangled in Telvanni politics and helps his bff Aryon sack Gothren. He also tries and mostly fails to rub elbows with Neloth, because Neloth. Later on down the Nerevarine rabbit hole, he starts getting more and more vocal in general Morrowind politics, which culminates in him "volunteering" to go "explore" Akavir. -Gerrick, surprisingly for someone born a pirate, he canonically carries out the Aldmeri Dominion questline from ESO, so yeah he's just a little bit involved in politics.

9. What unplayable faction would/did your oc join, if any? Why? -Gav is associated with the Mage's guild, or I guess was associated. Which by the way? Bullshit that the guild was written out. But also, since I absolutely headcanon that enough of House Telvanni survives the Red Year to rebuild outside of Vvardenfell, I also imagine Gavriil worming his way into House Telvanni after he busts ass out of Skyrim. He never becomes very involved in House politics, he's more interested in going back into academia. Which he does. He more or less spends the rest of his days chillin in a mushroom house in Morrowind, writing books about levitating and shit. -Serras briefly had a stint with the Skyrim thieves guild, but he cuts ties pretty quickly because he is pretty disgusted with robbing from the poor to give to Maven Black-Briar.  -Lleris has always had ties to House Telvanni, though he does have a brief stint with the Mages Guild before they are like holy shit, please leave us alone forever. He later swings by Solstheim as an old man to bother Neloth, who is like holy shit, please leave me alone forever. -Gerrick may not actively be a pirate anymore, but he is on pretty good terms with a bunch of them.

10. How trustworthy is your oc? Would they ever change opposing factions? -Gav: He's pretty much your lawful good kind of guy. He's decently loyal, even if only due to constant, overbearing guilt. At very worst, he'll just disappear rather than fulfill an obligation, but he'd sooner die than double cross anyone. -Serras: This is a guy who's mostly looking out for himself and the ones closest to him. In otherwords, Gavriil and/or his father. Probably not wise to put too much trust into him otherwise, because he's not exactly loyal if he's not actively benefitting from the arrangement. That said, he's not too much of a double-crosser, but don't trust him not to steal from you then lie about it. -Lleris: His loyalty can be bought. He won't feel too many qualms about changing sides if it benefits him more. So far, no one's offered him a better gig than being a champion of Azura, so it'd take a lot to get him to betray her. -Gerrick: His trustworthiness is super situational. He's in tight with Ayrenn, because you can't get much better than being the queen's go-to guy. He's smart enough to know not to betray her or the people involved with her. For the average person that he meets? Might be best to sleep with your eyes open around him. Patty is pretty much the only other person he wouldn't stab in the back at the drop of a hat. Outlaw roots, and all.

11. What is your oc’s main source of income, if they have one besides plundering tombs and adventuring? If they’re mercenaries, are they part of a company? Does your oc own their own business, and if so, what is it? -Gav has no source of income. Most of what he earns in his time in Skyrim is from acts of charity. For a few months, he pulls a legit job copying old texts for a bookseller in Solitude, but that only lasts as long as his precarious mental state will allow. Apart from that, he's pretty reliant on Serras's money. -Serras steals almost impulsively. He doesn't exactly keep a steady income, but its enough to keep both him and Gavriil in good supplies. Mostly. That they're both living off the land a lot does help. -Lleris does a lot of odd jobs where ever he goes. That and he has a bit of a history of pawning high ticket items that don't exactly belong to him. Keep your eyes on your soul gems when he’s in your house. -Gerrick lives the high life when he's actively working for the queen, but between Queens Eye stints, he's mostly earning a mercenary's salary. And he picks a lot of pockets. Why do I have so many thief-y characters?

12. Is your oc good with finances? Bartering? How long can they keep the money they make? -Gavriil: Not at all. At least not anymore. His parents never really taught him the art of finance to begin with, and his whole "functional" alcoholism thing makes it a bit hard to hang onto his money. He does get a bit better with time, but it DOES take time. -Serras: He's very good at knowing what things generally cost. Not worth the risk of stealing something that doesn’t get a good return. -Lleris: He can spend pretty loosely, but he also earns a fat cut with all the daedric weapons he gets his hands on. Him and that mudcrab merchant are pretty familiar with each other. -Gerrick: Generally earns a lot more than he spends. His standard of living is not particularily high, so even when he's "living large," he's not living THAT large.

13. Does your oc have any particular rivalry or mutual dislike with any NPC? -Gavriil has a really reluctant relationship with Delphine. He doesn't particularily respect her, and she's not impressed with who he is and who he chooses to be. That said, they do both realize they have some level of dependence on each other, right up until Delphine gives him the ultimatum about New BFF Paarthunax. After that he's like "lol bye" and they never see each other again. -Serras hates pretty much everyone in Skyrim for some reason or another, but they're all extremely one-sided relationships, because no one knows who the fuck he is. -Lleris is in the shit with virtually everyone in the Mages Guild, as well as anyone in every other great house. Both because of his connections with House Telvanni and, well, Lleris can be hard to be around sometimes. -Gerrick had always had a bad feeling about Estre and the fucking second she shows her ass, Gerrick's all “I FUCKING KNEW IT.” Estre wishes Gerrick would just die because who the HELL is this half-Maormer pirate asshole who's suddenly playing way too big of a part in Summerset politics.

14. How well-liked is your oc? What is their reputation, if they’re well-known? Are they simply liked/disliked, or are they respected but feared, or personally liked but not taken seriously, etc? Do major factions consider your oc an important player? -Gav: People have such mixed reactions to him. They usually hear about him well before they meet him, and at first they're like oh shit!!! Dragonborn!!!! Then they meet him and they're like uuuh he's a weird homeless dude with blatant unaddressed trauma. Kind of wish he wasn't the one who was going toe to toe with all these dragons. -Serras: Who? -Lleris: House Telvanni loves him. Except for like, Gothren, who gets killed by him. And Neloth, who never did get that robe of drake's pride. And Dratha. As for the rest of Vvardenfell, people start slowly warming up to him as he becomes more certifiably Nerevarine. Then they get real sick of him again. -Gerrick: His reputation is tied firmly with how someone feels about Ayrenn. If they like her, then Gerrick is unconventional but damnit, he gets the job done. If they oppose Ayrenn, then Gerrick is symbolic of everything that's wrong with Ayrenn and her foreign policy.

15. Does your oc have a horse/other mount? A pet? How did they get this animal? If they were given the animal, do they have the money to maintain it? How careful/careless are they with their animal? What do they do with their pets while adventuring, especially on dangerous quests? -Gerrick is the only one, and he has a giant stag mount that kind of comes and goes. He also has a constant clannfear familiar, which is, you know, conjured.

16. Does your oc take their time as they travel, or are they purposeful? How do they survive in the wilds, especially if they aren’t hunter-types? How dependent is your oc on civilized society? -Gav and Serras both spend ample time in the wilderness, even if civilization might be available. Gavriil enjoys keeping a low profile more and more as the whole Dragonborn affair goes on, and toward the end, he's keeping his head down as much as possible. Serras is fine with it because that's just what his life's like. -Lleris makes a beeline from town to town and will take silt striders whenever possible. He doesn't know how to hunt or dress game, he can barely pitch a tent, and more often than not will just sleep on the bare-ass ground like an idiot. Again, he has almost died of exposure on more than one occasion. -Gerrick could disappear into the wilderness for months and be just fine. He could be equally fine spending months in the middle of a major city. He's flexible.

17. What does your oc like to eat? How much food do they eat? Can your oc cook, and can they do it well? -Gav used to be a super picky eater in his earlier years. Now he'll eat anything that'll keep him alive. Too much grain alcohol has dulled his sense of taste. He knows how to decently fire-roast small animals, but he's not exactly an inspirational cook. -Serras is a fan of good food. One of the biggest inspirations for him teaching himself how to cook was so that he could eat good food on the reg. He can make a little go a long way, in terms of quality of ingredients. -Lleris is the kind of guy who'd burn spaghetti. -Gerrick is a pretty decent cook. His specialty is hearty campfire shit like stews and chowders.

18. What does your oc wear in the city/settlements? In the house? When travelling, but not adventuring or expecting combat? Do they vary their clothes depending on what hold/city they’re in? If they don’t, why not (e.g., if your oc wears the same outfit to tend their garden or lounge around the house as they did to meet Ulfric or Elisif, why?) Does your oc have a good or bad sense of fashion? How many clothes does your oc have? -Gavriil has one outfit, the same tunic and threadbare enchanted robe he's worn for the past dozen or so miles. It's all he's got, babey. -Serras has more outfits than you'd expect from the kind of guy who lives out of a tent 10 months out of the year. He likes to look cute. Also, he's almost always wearing a scarf, because he's pretty sure that's just what Dunmer do. -Lleris's outfit of choice is flowing, elegant mage robes, daedric boots, and pretty much nothing else. Naked under your robes seems like a pretty Telvanni thing to do, if we're being honest here. -Gerrick wears roguish pirate garb fairly often during the adventure phase, but he does have some fancy threads when he's in the company of royalty.

19. How picky is your oc about their gear? Do they have different equipment for different adventures, or is it the same suit of armor for everything (not counting upgrades like from steel to ebony)? -Gav, again, has one outfit. He does swap out his tunic after one is shredded/absolutely drenched in his own blood, but the robe has been with him for years at this point. He cannot be assed to enchant a new one. -Serras is not particularily picky about what his kit looks like. He's usually fine with a bit of leather armor, but he opts for pauldrons more often than not as, again, he's convinced that's just what Dunmer do. -Lleris won't wear it if it's not cute. -Gerrick is surprisingly discerning about his gear. He has a very high standard for what his weapons should look like, and everything needs to be properly enchanted if he's gonna be using it.

20. How does your oc acquire their clothes, and from where/whom? -Gav's robe is an old piece he enchanted himself when he was a bit more put together, and the rest of his outfit is more or less charity. Like hey, couldn't help but notice you got nearly torn in half by a dragon, can I offer you this shirt? -Serras's clothes were all honestly bought with money he earned from pawning stolen goods. Hmm. -Lleris will always make the time to shop for cute outfits when he gets to a big city. The boots? Conjured. -Gerrick's things were mostly honest purchases, but not all of them. He's not above pulling a pair of nice boots off a dead man's feet.

21. Can your oc swim, and how well? Have they ever swam in the ocean, or only lakes/rivers? Remember, it’s much harder to swim in the ocean than in a lake! If your oc is an Argonian, do they take special advantage of it somehow (e.g., do they go diving for fun/for profit, do they instinctively hide in the water, etc)? If your oc is a Khajiit who can swim, how do they get their fur dry? -Gav was born by the sea and as long as the water is warm, he loves to swim. The rivers and lakes in Skyrim are all too damn cold for him, even in the summer, so he water walks more often than he swims. -Serras is a decently strong swimmer, though he's never actually seen the ocean. Rivers and lakes, though, no big deal. -Lleris can barely swim and will water walk 99% of the time he encounters water. Even though he knows a water breathing spell, he's never actually used it. -Gerrick was born on a boat and is half Maormer. He fucking knows how to swim ok.

22. How easy/difficult is it to rob your oc? Pickpocket? Bribe? -Gav: Too easy. He's got nothing of value to take, so his guard is at like, 0. -Serras: He's a pickpocket by trade, he knows all the tricks. You'd have to be pretty fucking crafty to life something from under his nose. Even if you did, you can be sure as shit he'd steal it right back. -Lleris: He's been robbed a handful of times. -Gerrick: It wouldn't be impossible to pick his pocket, just very difficult and very unwise.

23. If your oc is part of one of the more morally questionable or outright evil factions, how do they justify it to themselves? Do they still consider themselves as morally good? How well known is their affiliation to these groups? Do they have separate personas (e.g. Dragonborn to some people, Listener to others)? Do their family/friends know? If they have separate personas, how do they keep their less than righteous activities secret? -Gav, despite being provably morally good, deals with a lot of completely unjustified guilt. He doesn't think of himself as that great of a person, because he feels too selfish. -Serras doesn't really hide that he's a thief by trade, at least to anyone who knows him. He's had his shot at honest work, and he just couldn't cut it. And well, a dude's gotta make a living somehow. He tries to keep his mind clear by only stealing from people who can afford to have things go missing. Or just if he hates them. Either way. -Lleris is very hush-hush about any work he's done with the thieves guild. He doesn't consider him to be affiliated with them, moreso that they stay in fleeting business arrangements, arrangements which become less and less frequent the more involved he gets in Telvanni politics. -Gerrick having pirate roots is something of an open secret. Part of his appeal as an Eye is his roguishness, and it's not exactly hard for him to work with shadowy sources. He'll never deny his heritage to anyone who directly asks. Not many people have the gall to do that, however, so rumors do fly.

24. How helpful is your oc, and why? Are they helpful or kind even during difficult situations? Are they pragmatic, or do they have a hero syndrome? -Gav has a weird obligation on/off switch. He feels guilted into helping people in certain situations, while he can walk away from others with a clear conscience. When the guilt hits, he will go so far against his own interests to help people, even if he's actively suffering as he does so. Even then, god does he hate being recognized as some kind of hero. Nothing he does in Skyrim makes him feel like a hero, and he actively lives out the world's most aggressive case of imposter syndrome even after Alduin fucking dies. He immediately leaves Skyrim after Alduin's death, because he can't live with the recognition he feels he fell dick first into. No one knows or cares who the Dragonborn is in Morrowind, so he busts ass to the eastern border the second his ass gets back to Nirn. -Serras historically doesn't go that far out of his way to help people, unless they're someone he already cares about, or who he owes some kind of debt. Part of his Growth is slowly taking up his father's mantel as a healer, and dedicating the rest of his life to helping people. Big claps for Serras! -Lleris has such a bad hero syndrome. The fucking second he gets the impression that he might be Nerevarine, that's how he's introducing himself to people. He does get to play big damn hero for a little while after the events at Red Mountain, but the novelty does eventually wear off, at least for the people around him. Well into his second or third century, he'll still bring up that time he was Azura's champion and killed not one, but two living gods. For like the thousandth time. -Gerrick can help or hurt. When he's helpful, he's super fucking helpful. He's your fucking MVP. But the second you cross him, he’ll be out for blood. And while he does have a reputation that often precedes him, he doesn't exactly milk it.

[sireneia-a]

Operating under the headcanon that Fates is actually just a myth / fairy tale in Fire Emblem canon, I was thinking I'd like to make a post where I choose what "character" each of my main muses have or have had as their favorite growing up! I'm also adding Clive to this list cause for the former I already had his fully written out before I removed him from my roster LOL 

I'll be following Bruno Bettelheim's model of children taking to certain characters in fairy tales because they are an externalization of whatever existential predicament they are going through at the time. I'm aware Bettelheim was a problematic man, yes, but I think his theory on developmental psychology in relation to fairy tales is really interesting ( assuming it’s his to begin with ) and I've been working to apply it to other media besides fairy tales anyway, so might as well combine my schoolwork with what I love.

As a result, I'll be using his theory as a guide for this post. All explanations and match-ups under the cut! As fun as it would be to also think up what version of the tale, ( Birthright vs Conquest vs Revelation, Second Gen included vs not, Heirs of Fate also known or not ) I'm just working with the idea that all of my muses know any and all content.

KLIFF - His favorite would've been Hayato! Kliff in general would've connected more strongly to a mage due to his grandmother being a powerful mage herself, sparking his own interest in magic, but he also would have identified with his plight of being embarrassed by his own habits and insecurities. They're not the same as Kliff's own, but he still relates to him.

CLIVE - Clive's favorite as a child versus his favorite nowadays is very different mostly because he underwent different struggles when he was younger. Whilst when he's older he finds himself fond of Xander and Corrin due to struggles of following one's heart versus doing what's best for one's countrymen, as a youth he would've been very partial to Laslow. Laslow, for him, represents a man with ties to military service yet a free heart that longs to partake in life's simpler pleasures such as asking women out for tea and dancing. Clive was a lot less stressed as a youth, merely being a noble's son who wanted to spend his days lounging about with his friends and later on gossiping about their taste in women and heroes.

TATIANA - Her favorite has always been Caeldori! At first it was because she admired Caeldori for being so put together and wishing to do so much tireless work for the army, being an absolute paragon that Tatiana herself wished she could be in order to repay the church for taking her in when she was younger. Tatiana looked to Caeldori to help her get through and come to terms with her own clumsiness and shortcomings so long as she put in the effort. As she grew older though, she revisits the tale and finds herself relating hardcore to Caeldori’s sighs of romantic love.

DEW - Dew’s favorite is very vocally Shiro. He probably gets pretty upset if you’re only familiar with a version of the tale that doesn’t include the children units. Dew particularly finds himself fond of Shiro because of how Shiro operates: he does what he wants, living freely despite the burden of being a prince and he knows it. It’s a philosophy that Dew understands and it surprised him when he was younger to totally just get a royal even if he’s only fictional. He loves the fact Shiro just kinda wants to stick it to his old man too and just picked up spears to be able to have an edge over him. 

IUCHAR - I feel like this could either be super surprising or not at all, but Iuchar has been partial to Forrest since he was first read Fates alongside his brothers. He tries to be quiet about it nowadays though cause I can totally see someone making fun of him when he was younger proclaiming that he liked Leo’s son. Nowadays, his fake answer is more along the lines of Laslow or Soleil. The truth to his fondness for Forrest is because he feels for his arc of wishing to be accepted. Even if they’re not dealing with the same things exactly, Iuchar most likely held some sort of insecurity when he was younger as not only the middle child but also being constantly on even ground with Iucharba yet not wielding major holy blood. When he got older, his concerns shifted because he was able to use Forrest’s story to cope and eventually move on! He DOES enjoy Forrest’s personality a lot though and probably got his eye for aesthetics after seeing Forrest get so interested in it.

TINE - Tine’s favorite operates based on the idea that she was first read Fates while she’s living under the Frieges and not in Silesse. With that in mind, she’s attached to Azura and even to the present day mid-FE4 keeps going back and back again to reading Fates because she has yet to move on from the existential dilemma she’s living with. She finds comfort in knowing Azura was moved from her home to another family as a young child and feeling trapped and cursed. She especially feels for Azura in Conquest when she’s placed under such heavy suspicion by the Hoshidan family, drawing parallels between Azura’s story and her own with Hilda. 

LENE - Lene since the dawn of time has been a Hinoka stan I’ll be real. Much like Tine, she hasn’t solved her existential predicament but she doesn’t revisit the tale nearly as often as Tine does. She admires and feels for Hinoka with how they both are yearning to search for someone, specifically a family member, and they just can’t give up on it, choosing their pathways in life to be a means to an end in finally finding them. 

COIRPRE - Coirpre, when he was extremely young, identified with Corrin. I headcanon that when he was very young, the mercenaries of Thracia would often poke fun and point out Hannibal’s bachelor life with statements like “Where’s the wifey?” or otherwise making it apparent that Coirpre is missing a mother. Coirpre finds solace in Corrin’s arc because Corrin deals with strange family dynamics and being adopted into the Nohrian family, something much like himself even if Corrin’s family is much, much bigger than his own. He ends up coming to terms with this predicament very quickly though, moving on from Fates to a different story soon after since he had decided he was okay with not having a mother because he loved being Hannibal’s son and also spending time with the Thracian royal family. He closes the book, merely only commenting on it afterwards saying that he thinks Corrin ought to align themself with Nohr and not Hoshido and he doesn’t understand why they would choose anything besides the Conquest route. Later on in life during FE4 though, he finds himself returning to it again and reliving his attachment to Corrin once more because of Lewyn revealing to him his true parentage: something he didn’t want to know and now that he does, it rocks his core ESPECIALLY if it means he has a duke or a prince for a father. He would find Corrin’s tale that much more necessary to cope with his dilemma, finally understanding the crisis between choosing one’s birthright versus the family they were raised with as he struggles to choose whether to return to Thracia after the war or to take up his late father’s lands and abandon the happy life he once knew.

LEIF - Leif is firmly Team Takumi and you can’t convince him otherwise. He especially feels for him in Conquest and will rant about how Takumi deserved better for days on end if you let him. I can totally see both him and Ares sharing a favorite in Takumi and them being able to potentially bond over that actually. Regardless, he has always been frustrated over his situation with his home life being destroyed and would totally latch onto how when Mikoto dies, Takumi blames Corrin for it. Leif would also as a child blindly see Corrin in the wrong and always side with Takumi. He understands Takumi’s anguish over his mother dying. At the same time though, as he gets older, Leif does learn to identify with Corrin considering Corrin’s situation as a fugitive but he feels weird because it’s not as if he thinks Takumi is any less valid. 

LIFIS - Lifis is one of the more fun ones to come up with for this post haha! Anyhow, Lifi’s fav as a child is Nyx and he honestly still probably is attached to her story mid-FE5 since I don’t think he got past the issues he held onto which made him like her in the first place. He finds her maturity really cool and feels for her since she gets asked intrusive questions a lot too. He ends up misinterpreting her situation as a form of being bullied and connects with her as a result; he ultimately sees her as how he wishes he handled situations, respecting and admiring her a lot. 

MARK - This is solely from the perspective of Mark as a young child in Bern because at this point he’s come to terms with the fact that he’s a tactician and tries to make use of his gift, making him parallel with his favorite’s canon ending actually. Regardless, under the headcanon that Mark at first tried to follow his parents’ footsteps as wyvern riders and being active in the military, he relates to Felicia. He sees her getting praised at something she didn’t aim to be ( being heralded as a good military commander and combatant and not the maid she wants to be ) and gains a feeling of solidarity out of it even if their positions are mostly reversed: he used to wish to be better as a soldier but instead turns out to be better at something off the battlefield. 

KENT - bfbfbhfhfhfh I’m so sorry Kent you’re getting one of the more boring answers I’ve written especially since you’ve been on this blog so long..... But I’d say his favorite is Saizo! Partly because Saizo is a Cain and Abel archetype just like himself so that’s neato, but he chooses to latch onto Saizo moreso because ever since he was young, he has always striven to one day become a knight for Caelin and he’d use Saizo as a model of what an “ideal retainer” is. If we operate under the headcanon that him and Sain are childhood friends, he probably also empathized with Saizo more because both of them are associated with green guys who keep getting distracted by women even if for completely different reasons.

ELIWOOD - gREAT QUESTION... i’ll be real i forgot eliwood on this list at first, Regardless, it’s difficult to think of because I haven’t really thought of nor used Eliwood enough to warrant many headcanons ( mostly because there’s plenty of other Eliwood rpers who I love to read and the FE7 community isn’t that big, so I don’t really get the chance to throw him out that much ) and canon doesn’t really give me a hell of a lot for his young childhood except that he hung out a lot with Hector and well, I didn’t really develop any ideas on what his youth was like besides that. We definitely get to know his existential predicament in his late teens considering that’s when FE7 starts up, but until then it’s a blank. Even then, I don’t really know if there’s really a character in Fates that captures the feeling of “wants to believe in their father no matter what even if he’s shifty???” Like unless you want to argue Corrin in Conquest? And the children units don’t really explore that, either being like they just like their dads or they dislike their dads. Honestly, just based on hunches, I could see him really liking Shigure or Hisame though. At the same time though, I could see him relating him and Hector to Siegbert and Shiro respectively in terms of their friendly sparring matches.

STAHL - Well, this one isn’t particularly deep or anything either, but I’m pretty sure Stahl would be a fan of Silas. He views Silas as a nice guy with simple dreams and can’t fault him for that. He does see Silas for a deeper character and honestly analyzes the other characters in Fates for that, but he doesn’t really connect to any of them. He didn’t spend a lot of time with Fates as a story truth be told. He does at least feel the whole “passing up on a former love” arc though when gets a little older.

MARIBELLE - Though part of me was wanting to say Hana due to the fact that Maribelle would be able to relate to the whole devotion to her best friend and totally agrees with Hana on her strong conviction to aim to be a samurai despite others looking down upon her, I think that if Maribelle gets exposed to Fates before she ever meets Lissa, she’d truthfully identify much more with Rhajat. Maribelle was picked on and treated as an utter outcast by all the other noble children, and she’d find comfort in how Rhajat seems to be seen weirdly upon others and gets scolded for scaring them even if Rhajat at times doesn’t actually intend to. Nowadays she totally says her favorite character is Hana though, but she’s grateful to how much Rhajat helped her through the rough patch in her early life. Bonus in that she sees Tharja and gawks a little at first, finding her so similar to the character from the fairy tale she enjoyed so much as a little girl.

BERKUT - Berkut’s choice in favorite isn’t particularly deep, mostly brought about by his own restrictions. He probably would only let himself relate specifically to royal characters with how his mother encouraged him to act like the heir to the throne that he was and to elevate himself, so he wouldn’t let himself relate to anything less. He then ends up picking Siegbert as his favorite character because it’s like Berkut pointing at him and thinking: He’s an awkward prince!!! Same!!! cause i 100% totally see Berkut being fairly socially awkward especially in childhood. He admired Siegbert’s dedication to his father and trying to become a good ruler, uses him as an example before he ends up moving on from the story and at this point probably just looks at Siegbert and thinks of him as “too soft” or something like that.

[fe14fiction-blog]

Submission: Attempt at Pregnancy Headcannons: Azura & Selena

Hey there! Love your blog and the FE Fates games, so I decided to take a crack at writing some. Lemme know if you think I did any justice to the characters, of which I only use two of in order to work my way up (also, I tend to be a little rambly or wordy - sorry in advance XP)

Mod Lilith: Because it was very long, just to help keep the dashes alright, I put the actual headcanons under a readmore. Thank you for submitting. I am glad you enjoy the headcanons and fics. These are very detailed. You did a great job.

Azura

Motherhood was not something Azura had planned on, what with the issue of Valla hanging over her head. She’s not unhappy about bringing a new life into the world, but she IS anxious about what kind of world is there to meet them.

Azura has a surprisingly big appetite, so one of the things she secretly enjoys about her pregnancy is the free pass to eat her fill without reservation - downing a large ramen bowl in one sitting draws a lot less eyes if you’re expecting (not that she ever cared what others thought of her, but it can still get annoying when people stare; especially strangers). That being said, she balances it out by keeping active with walks and dancing - being able to indulge herself more often doesn’t mean she’s going to let her health and fitness fall by the wayside.

Being a dancer also makes her very aware of changes to her center of balance, so she’s more easily able to notice and compensate for the changes in her weight distribution. Unfortunately, it can also make her hyperaware of her state, which can lead to overcompensation - simply put, she’s much less naturally coordinated than she’s used to, which is harder to deal with if the mood swings are in effect.

Said dancing experience also makes it very disconcerting if she can’t keep track of her footwork. For instance, the day Azura realized she couldn’t see her own toes caused an abrupt burst of tears, and Corrin’s confusion on the subject doesn’t do her any favors.

Azura is used to being reserved, calm and generally in control of her emotions, so the mood swings and potential lethargy are very difficult on her for the first few months before things taper off - especially in regards to her “worst bedhead in the army” issues, which she now has dwindling patience for if she wakes up sick. Corrin’s likewise not used to being the least emotive of the pair, so having to be the couple’s sounder source of stability has a bit of a learning curve.

Azura has singer’s lungs, so it a bit easier for her to move around late-term without getting short of breath. Her calm temperament mixes with this to give a good proficiency in the breathing exercises she does in preparation for labor. 

Azura sometimes sings to her tummy in private, getting easily flustered and embarrassed if anyone sees her - even Corrin, though she gets over it with him easily enough. Interestingly, Shigure and Kana both had different responses to her singing - the former was calmed, if not lulled to sleep by it, while the latter seemed so excited by it that Azura would half-swear the unborn babe was trying to dance to her songs.

Both labors were relatively straightforward affairs, with Azura showing a model calm throughout the process - moreso than Corrin, at least. Actually holding each child brought tears to her eyes, which in turn brought tears to Corrin’s.

Kana sometimes used Azura’s hair as a blanket. That or her hair literally tried to eat her - who knows how it gets so tangled up and tussed about like that.

Selena

Kana was definitely not planned, considering Selena’s time in Nohr was always meant to be temporary. So to say she’s terrified is an understatement, no matter how much she tries not to show it, with Corrin having to make sure she takes it one day at a time.

As always, Selena is pretty insecure about measuring up to her perfect mother - something else she always tries to hide. Thankfully, Corrin can reassure her that she’s got greater experience with positive parental figures compared to him (Garon wasn’t exactly an ideal parent after all).

Having little chill at the best of times, all the annoyances of pregnancy’s first-term are magnified tenfold in Selena’s cause - and everyone is aware of it. The morning sickness and digestive trouble is bemoaned throughout the day, the aches and pains are fussed on throughout the night, the cravings are as fickle as the wind, the mood sings are borderline apocalyptic - and the order these can happen are about as reliable as Setsuna’s memory.

Even when the worst of the symptoms level off, Selena often feels torn on how to feel. On one hand, she hates feeling like an invalid that other people have to take care of and stubbornly insists on doing anything she’s still cleared for on her own. But on the other hand she really enjoys being spoiled and pampered by Corrin (no matter how much she won’t admit it or will complain outwardly about it). 

Already insecure about her body, pregnancy makes Selena even more critical of herself - except with the upscale in her bust-size, even if it mostly temporary. And Gods help you if you so much as suggest she’s forcing the buttons closed around her stomach, because you will be lectured about how said item “clearly still fits.” Even to the very end, she she never stops being annoyed at outgrowing most of her wardrobe.

Thankfully, the above also lead to one of the more enjoyable parts of maternity for her; the shopping sprees, which become both therapeutic and compulsory as she’s hellbent on Kana wanting for nothing - baby clothes, baby toys, baby food, a crib, maternity clothes, accessories for said clothes, clothes and accessories for Corrin to match hers with; you get the idea.

Selena’s competitive streak sometimes comes out whenever she thinks it’s a contest between her and the baby for Corrin’s affections (“If you’re gonna stare at my stomach so much, maybe you should have married IT instead of me!”, for instance, is one of many ill-thought-out lines she may blurt out now and again). There are also more lighthearted instances; if Kana starts kicking, Selena will sometimes push at each spot she feels a kick in what almost approximates a game.

While the childbirth itself had no complications, Selena is not at all prepared for the realities of labor - which results in no small amount of half-crazed rambling, ranging from pleas to gods Corrin doesn’t recognize (“Oh, Naga, please get this kid out of me!”) to vows against ever getting pregnant again, smattered with the occasional curse. All while crushing the hell out of Corrin’s hand while saying things like “Don’t you dare let go”.

Of course, she also apologizes for her frenzied rambling during labor in her roundabout way - which the big softie Corrin accepts - but she does reaffirm on wanting to, at the very least, wait a fair bit before having any more kids; she wants to focus her attention (i.e., love) on the one she has first.

Selena’s number-one priority is to ensure Kana never has to want for anything the way she did in the Grima Timeline - not for food, not for clothes, not for a home and, above all else, not for parents. This means that leaving Kana in the Deeprealms was completely heartbreaking for her (though she would never say so openly) and reuniting with them was hugely overjoying (which she’s a bit more likely to say in private).

[thisbelongsto-nohbodys]

Does Marcy ship Percy and Maddi with any of their friends the way she ships Lily with Azura? If so, does she also plan comedically elaborate hypothetical dates for them like she does with Lily and Azura?

No, mostly cause I don’t have anyone in mind to pair them with, platonic or romantic. Granted for Percy there’s his theater crew and band mates that when Marcy hears him talk about she pays attention for anyone that she thinks he might b talking about moreso than the others but the chart is fairly even. As for Maddi, Marcy doesn’t see her with many other people as she reads a lot and mainly hangs out with her big sister (Maddi looks up to Lily and tells her everything), but once she shows interest in someone then Marcy will b there to help her baby girl navigate the seas of shipping

[iturbide]

Okay yeah it’s time for more Heroes Headcanons

Today’s focus: Hinoka, Blue Sky Warrior

As a warning, these are going to be mildly depressing if not heartbreaking but they are all I’ve been thinking about today besides how pissed off Grima is at the Corrins at present

Hinoka hails from a course of fate where Corrin allied with Nohr, leading to the invasion of Hoshido and the deaths of both Ryoma and Takumi.  Though she hides it admirably beneath her usual passionate demeanor, the loss of her brothers still weighs heavily on her -- and all the moreso since she’s now poised to become the next ruler of Hoshido.

Her kinshi mount is a sign of her personal growth as much as a symbol of her coming ascension to the Hoshidan throne.  A legendary bird yet more difficult to handle than the pegasus she struggled with before, the kinshi she now rides proves that she has managed to calm herself and even her temper, though she remains as passionate and committed to helping people as ever. 

In addition, her new choice of weapon is her way of honoring Takumi’s memory.  When Corrin was captured and she threw herself into training in hopes of rescuing them, she ended up neglecting her relationships with the siblings who remained, which only served to exacerbate her younger brother’s inferiority complex and lead him to honestly believe she would feel nothing if he were lost.  Quite the contrary: his death only drives home what she had, now gone forever.  As a way to keep his memory alive and feel some connection to him, she took up training with the weapon he’d favored in life. 

On her unexpected arrival in Askr, she’s more than a little shocked to see her brothers alive and well, and immediately latches onto them (much to their surprise, since this is not the Hinoka they grew up with).  The Summoner is the first to guess that she might hail from another branch of fate...and on hearing of the losses she suffered, they hesitantly introduce her to the Hoshidan prince who also hails from the path of conquest, and who wars constantly with the foreign power that’s taken root within him. 

Although things are by no means easy, given Takumi’s inner conflict, having each other is proving beneficial to them both.  Hinoka wants to make up for the opportunities she squandered in the past, and spends whatever time she can with him: in his better moments, she goes to him for tips on archery, since his prowess is undeniable; and when his struggles make training too risky, she’ll walk and talk with him and join him in the things that help him to settle his mind.  She’s also quick to support the Summoner in trying to protect him when things get tense in the plaza, helping to keep other Heroes back while Kiran and Azura calm him -- and afterward, she tries to stay by him, providing an anchor to help keep him stable. 

[2goldensnitches]

So, uh, a friend and I went over Sigurd’s upcoming Heroes’ stats, and he’s...ridiculously broken. Moreso than Hector and Ike...and that even using Nephenee against him in the extra chapters wasn’t enough until a dancer aided Celica to finish him off apparently? I mean, Axe Azura and Reinhardt helped me but I almost died and now I’m desperate to snag him and Deidre in a summoning session

[t-rance-blog]

about me

when it comes to my name, you all can call me azura viles... though azura works just fine. i am an 18 year old agender (they/them pronouns are preferred, he/him/she/her tolerated, he/him moreso). i’m a demi-panromanic grey-asexual. i have narcolepsy, stress and anxiety induced seizures, and an abundance of intestinal issues. all of which have been diagnosed by a medical professional.

the reason for me not telling you my name is simple... i’m afraid. i’m afraid of everything, as much as i try to convince those around me that i’m not. i’m paranoid of the world around me, and i’m far too easily stressed- and with my seizures, i feel as if i need an adequate outlet. sure, my friends and family won’t judge me for any of the stuff i post here, but that doesn’t absolve my fears.

as for trigger warnings and such, i feel as if you should know that this blog will encompass a number of dark things. from the effects of my experience being molested at a young age by someone i trusted, to the sick and deranged thoughts that run through my mind on the topic of violence and death, to the way my dreams warp my outlook on not only myself, but the world around me.

well, moving onto a much lighter subject- my interests are as follows. i love to write, if it wasn’t apparent by my vocabulary already. trust me, i have proper grammar when i’m writing pieces, the lack of capitalization in my posts is an expression for my weariness. though  i mostly write in the second person, as it helps convey my feelings in a clearer view. 

i also enjoy drawing, though i’m not very good at it. i’ve tried doing vent art, but a lot of the time it ends up being just a graphite and tear smudged mess of emotions. i adore children and infants, and even after receiving a few dozen batters from a toddler, i still someday would love to raise a child myself.  i also enjoy witchcraft, so many remedies for a troubled mind such as mine... but none that i can perform, seeing as i live with my christian family. 

if my family on my father’s side ever found out that i was a witch- and a pagan nevertheless, i fear i would not be able to see my cousins ever again... though my mothers side is quite understanding, and will love me always. this also goes for my immediate family. no matter what views i have, my brothers and parents will never see me as anything less than a gift.

aside from my copious amounts of physical and mental issues, the one thing i have an abundance of is love. the world does not have enough of it, if you ask me.

as much as i’d like to ramble on even more about myself, i think i have spoken enough for now. i hope anyone who reads this may get an insight of who i really am.

thank you for reading,

azura viles

[doktorpeace]

to officially put my Stance on things, Awakening was the game that got me into the series so it has a special place in my heart. but I am definitely aware of its flaws and can sympathize/agree with a lot of the criticism from longer term fans such as yourself. (also I think a lot of the more popular characters are.... ehhhh) that's my two cents, I hope this does not tarnish my reputation of Good Taste :V

I already knew you liked Vaike and am willing to overlook it :B. Like I understand the feeling, my entry to the final fantasy series was X, definitely a divisive game among FF fans for a variety of reasons. The dubbing, the sphere grid, the story and characters for some, it’s all fairly divisive. I’m not foreign to this concept myself. To lay it all bare here’s how I feel:To start I don’t want to dislike these games. I don’t want to dislike much of anything it’s much more fun to try and enjoy what a piece of media has to offer I think, but that said I don’t like Awakening from any major angle. The characters the fandom likes I don’t, the gameplay is boring, the map design is mostly bad, the mechanics changes (mostly enemy reinforcements appearing and moving on the same turn) are bad, the attitude towards DLC it had and the writing is generally bad. I could excuse this, I don’t sit here and actively talk down on FE1-3 in spite of me feeling the same way about them mostly, it really is the incest and pedophilia thing. The marriage mechanic has been nothing but a pox on the series because new IS won’t deny the player the ability to fuck their character’s family members or characters who are children. It doesn’t change my mind in the slightest that ‘oh but they aren’t fucking now’ you can still marry like late 20′s frederick to 14 year old Lissa or literal 6 year old Nowi (which is what she was in the japanese version before they pulled the “OH I just look 6 I’m actually 10,000″ or whatever in english) to any given adult. It’s gross. It would take very little working around to make the mechanic tolerable but the fact that they don’t restrict these things is the problem. It’s literally as easy as NOT writing romance paths for these characters. Like, I can excuse boring or one dimensional characters, all FEs have ‘em, that’s not the core issue here. As I said before I rather like Say’ri and act 2 of awakening’s plot. It’s much more like what I would have expected out of an FE game, but not enough to salvage it, not by a long shot.Fates I have a more positive opinion about SOLELY IN THE CASE OF GAMEPLAY. That game has some great fucking map design, pretty good unit balance (though sometimes for BS reasons), and generally in terms of JUST GAMEPLAY it’s a good romp. But the home base mechanics, character writing though a few characters stand out as alright, story writing (in all 3 don’t anyone kid themselves, in fact I’d say Conquest is the only one near passable and it’s still bad) and, once again in fact even moreso the marriage mechanic is a pox on the game. They put in a romance where you drug a lesbian into fucking men instead of just making her a gay option. They make both gay romances sadistic people who get off on torture which is its own issue, one of which is locked behind marrying a child to an adult, and this game doesn’t even have time as an excuse, you’re literally just having children and adults fuck each other in some fucked up eugenics simulator to make you more units. Hell the default romance they DESPERATELY try and get the assumed male player to take is Azura and she’s your first cousin, that’s STILL INCEST.In this way, and every meaningful way besides the core gameplay I would say Fates is the worst game in the series, even worse than Awakening simply because of how unrepentant it is about encouraging and rewarding the player for incest and pedophilia with absolutely no qualms. I want the series to be better than this, I believe it can improve, but until they stop doing avatar characters I’m sure it won’t because it’ll keep putting in these mechanics uncritically.