#fe3h analysis

[pathetic-gamer]

Fashion in Fódlan: a very long, non-comprehensive, and entirely unsolicited analysis

The fe3h writers did a pretty solid job of creating three nations with clear social, economic, and political differences. The fashion stands out to me as doing exceptionally well at expressing those differences, and, just like in the real world, it works as a sort of socioeconomic barometer that helps tell Fódlan's story.

In this post, I'll break down the key clothing trends in the three regions and provide some light interpretations, largely related to $$

Please note that I'm NOT using this post to discuss historical inspirations. Also, not everyone from every region is included. In particular, anyone whose outfit is too much of just a riff on a class uniform (like the Ashen Wolves or the various minsters in the empire) is left out.

There's a part 2 now lol (church of seiros time); part 3 as well!

1. Holy Kingdom of Faerghus: function IS fashion, baby!!

Fearghus, beloved land of ice and snow and spooky folktales about watering your fields with blood and ghosts living under the ground - you did not come to fuck around. You're here to protect the commoners and go back home to a stew that may, if you're lucky, actually have some meat in it. In this kingdom, you're going to dress warm and you're going to like it. Oh, you have some extra money? Gonna spend it on something for yourself? Better be using it for something useful, like keeping your plate armor in good condition. (Please note: Catherine, though being Faeghan, is excluded because she wears the uniform of the Knights of Seiros, not her own clothes.)

Trends:

High collars, long skirts - generally as little exposed skin as possible. (There is exactly one pair of bare hands in the entire kingdom. Mercie is getting a little bold 👀)

Fur cloaks/capes/gloves, or just fur around the cuffs and collars if they don't have a full fur cloak.

Armor - every single man is dressed in armor, as is Ingrid. Most of the men have full suits of plate armor, but Felix, Rodrigue, and Ashe are wearing only gambesons (note the quilting in Felix's sleeve - that's what gives it away, imo). The folks in plate armor would have gambesons on as well (you can see Ingrid's underneath her breastplate), acting as padding for the plate armor. I think Gilbert is wearing plate armor with a tunic over it (a realistic historical practice).

Fastening is accomplished with clasps and lacing, and there are relatively few buttons or adornments to be seen on the main garments - Annette is an exception, which will be addressed later.

Brief analysis:

Notice the economical use of fabric - their clothing tends to lie flat, with fabric being layered for warmth rather than pleated, gathered, or puffed. The folks in plate armor may spice it up a little with a sash of some kind if they aren't already wearing a cloak or cape. I'm assuming Gilbert's ~stylish tunic~ is keeping him warm well enough to not need a cloak or larger scarf. (Mercedes has a ruffles and puffier sleeves, plus a fuller skirt, but it's worth noting that she is currently part of a merchant house, and merchants tend to be wealthier and actually occupy a unique social class between nobles and commoners.)

Note the colors, too. Greens, browns, and yellows are the cheapest and easiest dyes to make and use. That bright sort of tawny color that Gilbert, Annette, and Jeralt all have is easy and cheap. Gilbert's grey tunic could feasibly just be undyed wool. A true blue is difficult, but you'll note that the blue the people wear up here leans towards grey and green - could be that the dye is faded, or that it was never very blue to begin with. The only true blue is on Dimitri.

All of this reinforces the idea that Faerghus is not a rich nation, and the nobility don't live too far off from the common folk. The vast majority of the cost we see is actually their armor (worn by Dimitri, Dedue, Sylvain, Gilbert, Jeralt, Matthias, Ingrid, and also if we're getting all the way into it, Gwendal, Miklan, Lonato, and Baron Dominic as well), which is would have been pretty expensive. You'll notice they mostly wear grey armor with very little extra decoration, keeping the costs low. Ingrid, the poorest of the nobles in armor, also has the least actual plate. Felix and Rodrigue both have full cloaks, which most other people don't have (just Dimitri), but they also aren't wearing plate, so clearly that's a calculated choice.

That being said, even within these more economical fashions, we can still see clear differences between classes. Most noticeably, Felix (rich) and Ashe (not rich) have very similar outfits, but Felix's tunic/gambeson is lined with fur, while Ashe's is not.

BTW I'm of the opinion that the Fraldariuses are the richest people in the kingdom other than the royal family, and I believe that specifically of their fancy cloaks lol

so luxurious~

2. Adrestian Empire: look at my money bitch

Ah, the land of beauty and excess! I love to live in the capital and visit the cultural icon that is the opera and pretend that I'm not in Wealth Inequality Central. (Please note: Petra is not included, since she dresses according to Brigid's fashions. Also note: I fuck w these styles so hard, dude.)

Trends:

Short skirts (above the knee - Dorothea has a draped over-skirt thing, but her main skirt is shorter, and Manuela has leg slits instead of a short hem), low or square necklines, open backs. In general, we're looking at a lot of exposed skin. Forgot to include Cornelia in the pics, but she has this too.

Tailored jackets with just SO many buttons. Hanneman fits into the tailored jacket category, but isn't included in the highlights by virtue of Not Enough Buttons. (Some concept art is included here to drive the point home.)

Finally, there's this specific very specific double-breasted neckline thing (baby edelgard is separate bc i forgot to include her when i made the first image shhhh)

Brief analysis:

Adrestian fashion is all about displaying status and wealth, in this case through ornamentation, rich colors, uniforms denoting class/role, and also a fair amount of excess fabric.

Historically, fabric itself was one of the major indicators of wealth - in fact, certain historical styles very explicitly showed off just who was rich enough to afford, for example, a whole gown made from the same length of fabric, or even just an entire skirt panel with no piecing. In the Adrestian Empire, We've got excess fabric galore, tucked away into all those beautiful ruffles and bell sleeves, layered skirts, unnecessary capes, double collars, and puffy pants - and it's all in much more luxurious colors, too. In fact, I'm pretty sure the largest single piece of fabric on anyone in the game is Edelgard's cape, which is then also adorned with dozens of buttons and extra bits of fabric. It's almost definitely fully silk, both the outer layer and the lining. (And it's badass.)

Look at all that fluff! Dimitri's cloak probably rivals hers in the size of the actual fabric itself, but his is likely a heavy wool (unlined, maybe?), plus has a lot of fur.

"Oh, but pg, there are capes in Faerghus, too!" yes, but in Faerghus, they live in the arctic /hj. Note the vast expanses of exposed skin down here in the empire - clearly, cold is not an issue. You'll also note that the cloaks in Faerghus were heavy and lined with fur; that's not the case here. Given the prevalence of tailored jackets and the dual colors on Ferdinand's cape, I'm guessing they're either a comparatively lightweight wool with a silk lining (typical for tailored suit jackets, nothing particularly noteworthy about that), or just fully silk. (Bernie's shawl is just cotton though, prove me wrong...) Hanneman and Manuela are exceptions, since they both have fur, but they live at Garreg Mach, not in Enbarr.

The jackets themselves, by the way, could be silk OR wool. Ferdinand's in particular (especially thropes) reminds me of early 18th c. waistcoats, which would have been full silk.

We also have much richer colors down here in the land of art and song. Red, purple, and black were all very difficult colors to maintain, and very expensive. The most expensive colors, in fact. Not gonna lie, as far as price per yardage goes, I think Hubert's outfit might rival Edelgard’s in expense.

A notable exception to the excess fabric bit is Bernadetta. However, her dress is in what is arguably the most expensive color, and is heavily decorated, so that's a reasonable trade-off, and I don't blame her. I, too, would go for a smaller amount of pretty purple silk embroidered with bright, beautiful gold and yellow instead of a bigger, more impressive-looking option. It's about the little things.

I do want to take look at Caspar, in particular. He's unique in that he's dressed in a full suit of armor. But, given that he's the second son and not set to inherit anything, unlike all his waistcoat-wearing friends, he isn't being held to some particular uniform, and even if he were, it's the ministry of military affairs. Of course they wear real armor. What's interesting is that his armor is a sort of rosy grey/brass, rather than silver, and he has a lot more decoration and flair than the folks with full armor in Faerghus, in both his throuses and thropes outfits.

Worth noting, btw, that we have exactly zero examples of actual commoners in Adrestia, other than generic NPCs. Dorothea belongs to that peculiar niche that is opera and acting, so she is expected to dress and act like a noble, despite not having a title or property of any sort.

Adrestia - and Enbarr in particular - leads the slow march of fashion across Fódlan, given that it's a cultural hub and is so much wealthier, while Fearghus slowly picks things up over time. Thus, we have Annette, who lives closer to the empire and has disposable income, having some decorative buttons and tassels and a mock low neckline.

It's not nearly as much as the actual Adrestians, but she's picking it up!

3. Leicester Alliance: the beeeest of both worlds~

Oh, Alliance, you messy bitch. What we see here is a mix of everything, where some of them are influenced by Faerghus, and others by Adrestia (just like how some of them have kingdom-style names and some have empire-style names), and a few fit neither camp. There are clear reasons for similarities where they exist, though, so let's take a look! (Please note: Claude is not included, since his clothes are heavily influenced by Almyra.)

Hilda and Lysithea have the frills, puffy sleeves/skirt, short hems, low/square necklines, and expensive colors of the empire (plus, Lysithea gets a decorative veil in dark purple. How ~fancy~). This reinforces the idea that Adrestia sets the standards for fashion: Hilda cares about fashion and keeps up with the times. Lysithea lives on the border and was briefly under the control of the empire, and thus is influenced by it. Mostly, though, I think it's about how she tries to seem older and tends to see Hilda as a model of maturity (lol), so she's following that example.

Holst's armor is quite decorative, similar to Caspar's, but what stands out to me is the fringe in particular. We see the exact same fringe on Caspar, Hubert, and Edelgard, but not anywhere else.

Lorenz and Erwin are a bit of a border case, tbh! They both wear practical, full plate armor with little in the way of extra decor (other than Lorenz's rose and Erwin's little cape thing), but Jesus christ how much does it cost to keep it all so purple like that??? That's a blatant display of wealth that would impress any empire noble.

Marianne, on the other hand, would fit right in in Faerghus, with the old fashioned long skirt, high collar, capelet, and lack of extra decoration other than some pretty trim. Makes sense, since her territory is so close to the kingdom and she's clearly not interested in trying to stay fashionable.

Judith is dressed very practically, has some fun puffy sleeves and bright but inexpensive colors, has a short cape and gambeson (a short vest one, though). I want to say leans toward Faerghus, which makes sense since it's on the border and the house did at one point split off, with part going back to the kingdom.

Now we get to the only real, honest-to-god, never-owned-land-or-property, born-as-and-remain-now peasants/commoners: Leonie and Cyril. (Raphael was born into the merchant class and was able to support himself and Maya by selling his estate, so while we can consider him a real commoner at this point, it's not nearly to the same degree.)

Their economic status is obvious from their outfits: both have very practical clothes with no extra decoration, in cheap and easily accessible colors. Leonie's cloak wrapped around her waist is purely functional - she can use it when the weather calls for it, but it's out of the way of her arrows when she doesn't need it - and looks to be pretty soft, so likely is lightweight. She has a hint of some light protective wear (note the quilted sleeve) and the same front clasps as Felix and Ashe, so i think she's also meant to be wearing a gambeson, but it's shorter and less protective. Cyril doesn't seem to have any armor at all except for the shoulder protection - we can tell from the lack of center-front closures on his shirt and the shape of the cuffs of the sleeves that he's actually just wearing a tunic (or rather, two tunics on top of each other).

Raphael also has a very practical outfit, but notice that his is so much more protective, probably because he has a little more money than the other two. He has very limited, sparsely placed plate armor, but he is covered head-to-toe in quilted cloth armor. He's ready to get some punching done, baby!

Our real outlier, however, is Ignatz... But you bet your bottom dollar I've got an explanation for that one, too!!!!! Mans is an artist and he has rich(?) merchant parents, he can do whatever he wants.

Absurdly unnecessary lengths of (probably not very expensive) cloth? Sure. Fancy feathers that literally no one else gets? Why not! A billion buttons, half of which arent even keeping anything closed? Curly and intricate cloak fasteners probably made of some kind of cording? Sashes and tassels and a decorative sword??? Fuck it, we ball. I love this so much, it's easily my favorite outfit in the entire game and I would ABSOLUTELY wear it irl. I already have the right haircut and glasses and boots, I'm ready

4. In conclusion

These designs really are Fódlan in a nutshell. From the quiet wealth and functionality in Felix's fur-lined gambeson to the audacious luxury of Ferdinand's waistcoat to the unrepentant anarchism of Ignatz's entire vibe, we can see the history - and future - of the continent outlined right before our eyes:

Faerghus is cold, practical, focused on survival, and probably has the most even distribution of wealth. Leicester is a mix of remnants of the empire and kingdom, with clear wealth disparity but also a relatively high amount of social mobility and communal support systems. Adrestia has significantly wealth disparity, with nobles very disconnected from their people and instead busy politicking about.

Side note I know I said I wouldn't go into the historical inspirations, BUT I do think it's interesting that the men's clothing in Adrestia - particularly the tailoring - is similar to much later styles than the men's clothing in Faerghus, and the reverse is true of the women's sleeves and necklines.

Okay that's all, thanks for reading!

[fleshing-out-fodlan]

I think this is a nice moment of Edelgard consoling Byleth after Remire Village. She’s often criticized as being heartless for her response to Jeralt’s death and even if I disagree I can see where people are coming from with that. But I think this exchange shows that she genuinely cares for Byleth.

She learned first hand about the limits of human strength during her experimentation as a child so she knows that, while this weakness/failure must be acknowledged, it’s also not something to feel bad about. She also states the importance of staying positive which I think speaks to her coping mechanisms. Throughout her involvement with the Agarthans, she found comfort in imagining the good she can bring to the world by using the power they gave her instead of dwelling on what she lost. I think understanding this mindset is important in understanding her reaction to Byleth grieving Jeralt. While her response was admittedly harsh and for many people would probably not be particularly helpful, it was a result of this mindset. While grief and failure should be acknowledged, it is not something you should dwell on. After Jeralt’s death, she feels Byleth is focusing too heavily on her loss instead of looking to the future and making plans for how they can manage the situation. She thinks it’s ridiculous to “wait for time to heal [your] wound” because time itself doesn’t do anything. Your actions and your mindset are what allow you to heal, hence why she emphasizes the importance of “stay[ing] positive through the horror.”

She says to Byleth that she does not want to “stand still” with her but rather wants to “move forward.” Edelgard’s focus has always been on looking to the future and trying to take another step forward and, as stated above, this is what allowed her to get through her grief. She feels that, by allowing Byleth to wallow in her grief, she would simply encourage self destructive behavior. So, while the phrasing of her statement is harsh (and I believe Edelgard in general struggles with phrasing her thoughts in ways that will be well received by others), the sentiment isn’t. She would rather move forwards with Byleth, helping her to learn to cope with her loss, than simply sit around and cry about it in a way that she feels will only hinder Byleth’s growth.

[lyn1catz]

Its really interesting to me that fodlan seems to be really technologically behind and just makes up for it with heros relics. juding by the books in the shadow library and the fact that fodlan is hostile or cut off to any neighboring countries they arent really in a place to be sharing any knowlege. Since things like oil and printing presses were mentioned being banned it would be safe to assume they exist somewhere else outside of fodlan. and we don't even know how long ago the church banned banned those things either for all we know by the time the events in the game take place people outside of fodlan could have basic electricity and machines or even full blown modern technology and no one would know

[inkperch]

..."Farewell King of Delusion" is the only death Dmitri faces where he dies a king.

Azure Gleam, obviously, he just doesn't die (presumably he does eventually, but not like. In the game lmao.) but Silver Snow and Verdant Wind?

He's killed like a wild boar.

[lyteupthelyfe]

*sigh*

I've never wanted to get tangled up in anything but i've seen some dragledE discourse around and like.

I've always been of the firm opinion that by the end of the second half of the game, on every route but Crimson Flower, she quite literally does not want to go to war anymore.

"bUt WhY DoEsNT sHe eND ThE WAr sHE's EmPErOr CaN't ShE jUSt EnD thE waR"

because I believe that as far as she sees it, she can't.

it's like she's contractually obligated to see the war through.

We're talking about someone who went through immense childhood trauma (and no, this does not absolve her of starting the war and everything else), either after or near the end of the period of time where almost all the Imperial houses wanted to overthrow her father because he was doing a splendid job at wanting to hoard all the power for himself.

And like. It's not like the nobles who participated in the Insurrection aren't still in their positions of power during the game's events. So. Say something happened that could make Hresvelg's hold to power seem dubious. Like even more than Ionius pulling his shenanigans. Could they not like--and this is speculation--decide to...idk, seize control of the Empire if they essentially pull a vote of no confidence on you-know-who's ass? (They could probably even be all like, "see? who thought putting a 17y/o girl on the throne would be a good idea?", because without something that compromises Hresvelg, the nobility are still subordinate too and at the whim of the Imperial House)

Beyond that, we see in her declaration of war (manifesto? is that the word?) that she makes a couple VERY big claims, made more significant because the Church has its roots and foundations in Adrestia, but yet after the dissolution of the Southern Church and the Central Church's increasing centralisation, there is a very plausible simultaneous connection and disconnection between the Adrestian people and the Seiros faith--the faith is something old and increasingly (relatively) alien to them, this, this new and bright and shiny promise of change and something Adrestian to put their faith in, I'd reckon, is something very attractive.

And then, there's also TWSITD. We see from *gestures to the entire game* that they're manipulative bastards who think parading around in the likenesses of people who are probably dead counts as a top-tier infiltration and manipulation. We see from Hapi, the Hrym-Ordelia debacle and the War of Heroes--at the very least--that in addition to being manipulative, they decide to use that manipulation to also be VERY opportunistic in casually using everyone else to accomplish their own goals. What we also see with Hapi, the Ordelia's, Kronya, and arguably Nemesis, too, is that as SOON as they're done with someone, or something, they VERY quickly discard them with a callous deficiency of care. What's also interesting is that the Flame Emperor's actions at the end of chapter 1 can seem extremely cruel, as she goes "you failed to do what i wanted, so you die" to Kostas, who does, indeed, die, but not at her direct hands.

Looks like someone had the values and "tactical" approaches of TWSITD, all inter-generational trauma-like, ingrained into them, because where else do we see this exact same approach? Thales accuses Kronya of compromising their plans with her risky experiments to see if she could turn humans into monsters, and only saves her from death so that the "the secrets of their bodies are kept safe"--so she survives, yes? Except wait Thales manipulates and lies to her too because whoop-de-do he tells her to work with Solon, she's delighted to do whatever reparations she can to Not Die, except lmao she gets pranked in the Sealed Forest and does die as punishment in a way that also furthers TWSITD's goals (until Byleth frees themself from Zahras, that is).

And the whole schtick with TWSITD's imperial experiments was to create the Flame Emperor to all Nemesis-like achieve their own goals for them with limited finger-lifting from TWSITD's part.

So TWSITD grooms you-know-who for this specific role once she survives getting her second crest, imposing upon her the "need" to expose Fodlan's truths, painting the ends as justifying the means, propping the Church up as as corrupt as possible, or at the very least to see them in as bad faith as possible.

However I don't think they gave her the "liberation" idea. This might be going out on a limb, but I'd say that from always being under Thales' wing, or her Father's watch, or simply the immense loneliness that her life must have been, and continued to have been, even in the Officer's Academy. When she taught Dimitri to dance, she seemed genuinely happy. If I remember correctly, by the end of her support chain with Hubert, she's been ever telling him to be more of a friend to her.

Quite possibly one of the reasons she's so startled by Dimitri's parting gift is that she simply has no idea what to do with a dagger to cut her own path with, and after the tragedy of losing almost every family member she'd ever known, through her trauma recontextualises her experiences to think "ah, yes, my own path will be to do what is expected of me because that is what will make the people around me happy and will make me feel accomplished" because, if the three points about the factors that relate to her declaration of war are true, she's been more or less instructed that she carries the weight and fate of house Hresvelg and consequently the entire Adrestian Empire on her achievements.

From here a couple of my points will probably align with this post I made on a similar topic, but now in addition to Edelgard being so immensely lonely by the end of the war, i think she's also tired. She has to stay in this thing otherwise she'll look like she's reneging on a promise to her people, a promise to her father, and a promise to herself, as well as on her agreement with TWSITD, if that accounts for anything. If she stops the war she'll be going against TWSITD, and she knows enough about them to know, if not consciously then subconsciously, that she'd die for it. At Gronder she all but laments that these people are truly her enemies now. After her defeat on VW and SS, she wails about how, "even now, across this land, people are dying", or something that carries the sentiment. Her dream becomes her nightmare, and she was never prepared.

I'd argue that part of her impetus for bellowing that she will free the people of Fodlan, and part of the reason that she's so idealised on winning the war and then turning against TWSITD, is because she wants to be free. If she's been taught that her purpose is to serve and lead the empire and its people, then I can imagine that she believe that the people's freedom is her freedom.

But she's chained to the war because she probably doesn't know what else to do.

Because if she does anything else, or steps out of line, TWSTID will make her pay the consequence. Just like how they destroy Arianrhod the moment Edelgard betrays them and kills Cornelia. Head held high, jaw tight, past and memories as fragile as shattered glass, she has to stay or else she has no idea what could happen.

She keeps the mask up, and does as much in a final desperation that this is what she wants, what she needs, and what is best for the people of Fodlan, what she is, for the final map of Azure Moon.

And so, like, ig by the time she's defeated on VW and SS, she can finally let at least some of her true thoughts on the war out, and realise (albeit probably quite reluctantly) that with the situation TWSITD (the bastards) have ensured, the way forward to a peaceful Fodlan "lies across [her] grave"

Don't get me wrong, there were probably several times throughout her life and definitely during part one where she's is very convicted in her beliefs and truly thinks that they're the best way forward, and does do quite literally morally wrong things, but I believe that by the end of part two, after she's been at the centre of this war for five years, that she realises or at least considers that she might've just been a pawn for TWSITD all this time, just like Nemesis, and if not regret the war then at the very least have a kind of re-evaluation of what she's actually trying to accomplish and why, and how it all started out.

Maybe part of that is why in the non-CF routes she holds Rhea hostage, rather than killing her--idk though I'd have to do more thinking on that specific point to figure more of it out.

Idk. 3h is in a lot of ways a tragedy, and part of that tragedy, I think, is that Edelgard is here, with a set of ardent beliefs she thinks are her own, aiming to accomplish something great, something remarkable, something that will put her down in the annals of history as a hero, something that will make the people she grew up around proud, but instead ends up tired and lonely, acting out the motions, ultimately either insisting, pretending and lying to herself that those imposed beliefs are hers AND are who she is, or lamenting the war and wishing that she could have had the freedom and choice to "walk with you,"--either quite literally Byleth and the Beagles, or Claude and the air of freedom and hope that he strives to make true.

And else on Crimson Flower just lives out her "dreams" and goals and aims and what she's been taught and told to do and believe in, taking full action and ownership of what she does on that route--concealing the truth about Arianrhod to manipulate her commanders, acting almost like a member of TWSITD would--once she has Byleth back at her side.

With the given Crest of Flames and the Crest of Seiros, I suppose that makes her the High Priestess who had the World forced upon her.

bruh now i just feel sad for Edelgard

[irrevocably-delicious]

I’m invited to a powerpoint party this weekend, and I decided to do a presentation on Fire Emblem. But SPECIFICALLY why the Engage fandom seems to be a little quiet, while the Three houses fandom gets to keep chugging along (although quieter than before).

I thought tumblr might like to look at some (not all) of my slides as I know this has been a topic of discussion in the community for the past week or so. My basic thesis is that 3H has deeper, more interconnected characters who all have a very clear voice - so they are quite easy to plop into different scenarios and make fanfic/fan comics/etc about them. They are very compelling and it’s easy to fall in love with many of them. The replayability of 3H also means that fans are engaged with it for much longer - so they are probably actively consuming or producing 3H related content longer than they would be for engage. If a game keeps you hooked for a long time, it’s going to prevent you from finding new fandoms to join.

Anyway, these are just my ideas. Who knows if they’re correct, and there are LOADS of other factors that I didn’t discuss as for likely reasons 3houses is a more popular game (first fe switch release, 3hopes spin off, pandemic). I just hope some of you find it mildly thought provoking.

[onyxedskies]

annette is so often overlooked because she's bubbly. she's energetic and happy and whimsical in a way the others aren't, and so her pain is overlooked.

but look at how distraught she gets whenever she does something wrong, or she forgets something. in her supports with byleth, she's so disappointed in herself for missing training. in her supports with dedue, she's distressed when dedue has to help her clean up and make dinner. she hates letting people down, she hates failing, she always strives to be better, and that is how her trauma manifests.

her father left her, and so she assumed it was because she wasn't good enough. so she worked, and worked, and worked, and he still didn't want anything to do with her - and she twisted it to think that it was because she didn't work hard enough. so she continues to throw herself into her work, throw herself into her studies, until maybe, just maybe, she'll be good enough.

but it's quiet. it doesn't manifest in hurting other people, or insulting them, or otherwise being an outward jerk. it manifests in her helping everyone wherever she can, because maybe then she'll be nice enough. it manifests in her studying late into the night, because maybe then she'll be smart enough. it manifests in her training every moment she can squeeze in, because maybe then she'll be strong enough. just look at the juxtaposition between her heroes relic and her class - she covers all bases, unique bases, pushes herself harder and stronger, because that way she doesn't have room for the thoughts, and she's growing alongside that. and maybe then, after all that is said and done, after she's mastered all the things that could possibly make someone love and appreciate her, she'll eventually be enough.

[quillfulwriter]

Look, Rhea is a tragic figure. I feel for her. Her trauma at the hands of Nemesis and the Agarthans is vast, and the slaughter in Zanado is completely unforgivable.

But until she's healed from that trauma and doesn't blame all of humanity for that nightmare, there's absolutely no reason she should be in charge of anything. Much less the very people she resents.

The Empire was created when the Church named Wilhelm its emperor, and the Kingdom is literally called the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus because it was founded by the Church as well. It's only by looking at the Alliance where you can see how the commoners especially feel about the Church's practices when they haven't been indoctrinated.

When the priest from The Eastern Church is trying to stress how they're different from the Central Church, he says:

Their church doesn't have an order of knights.

They don't believe in using force to chastise believers.

A noble house keeps order in their territory, and they have forbidden the use of any soldiers, even for self-defense.

You can reverse engineer these to describe how they see the Central Church in Leicester: Militant, violent towards its followers, and deceitful (claiming self-defense as a shield for its violent ways).

This is correct. The Church has a standing army and a school used to train child soldiers. It punishes criminals with execution more often than not. And it actively warps major events to make people see them in a certain light.

Yes, Rhea chose to keep the peace rather than openly hating humanity. That's not exactly a kindness when she 1) makes sure most people are reliant on the church for basic needs 2) restricts access to education based on who she can control (nobles vs. commoners) 3) bans advances in technology like the printing press so she can more easily prohibit the spread of knowledge and 4) creates clones and experiments on babies.

I understand she is traumatized. I understand she is in pain and trying to protect her people from another slaughter. But the simple fact is she's not even doing that well, because she's refused to heal. Everything she does against the Agarthans is basically whack-a-mole, and she only ever punishes who they manipulated.

Hubert found TWSD in 10 years! She's had centuries! I can't even say he's healed from his trauma to make that happen, but at least he directed it to something practical that got results. So no one would suffer like he had.

But Rhea? She's content to punish and oppress humanity for being manipulated by the Agarthans. Meanwhile, TWSD experiments on children too and the Church does nothing. When Lysithea and Edelgard are the sole survivors of murky circumstances, one would think that the Church would get involved. Even for aid. But no. They had their chance to make this right, and they chose to turn a blind eye.

I cannot rightly believe that she really cares about human beings when she treats the people most loyal to her so horribly. Even Seteth! She's telling Catherine to burn down a city with people inside in the Black Eagles route, she's never once tried to get anyone to teach Cyril to read and write (Seteth was the only one interested in doing that for him), and she hid all of her atrocities from Seteth because she knew that what she was doing was wrong.

Her compassion as the archbishop ultimately comes from a place of indoctrination and control. Understandable though it may be because of what she experienced, it's still wrong. And she shouldn't be in charge of anything because of that.

[skarmoree]

Felix fits (in which I slightly redesign one and add a few more)

[deathbirby]

Fodlan Magic

Alright what I've found:

Faith/Reason

Faith (white) and Reason (black) magic are different in practice. Faith is powered by... well, faith, whether that be in a higher power or someone else. It can also be used for healing. Two examples of this are closing up wounds faster and raising a body's vital energy.

Reason magic is far more offensive and involves the manipulation of different elements. You do not need faith to use Reason magic, although Lysithea does hypothesize that reason, while necessary, cannot result in true understanding without a little faith... whatever that means.

Both of them are things that you have to study. You can have a talent for it, but Annette's support with Sylvain tells us that there are formulas involved.

Despite all these differences, Faith and Reason both have the same magic circle.

Class Change

Caspar getting blown up

As you can see, there is text on the outer ring. If I am correct, this text says:

"The goddess always lives in heaven and Fodlan. She is watching over us. As the mother of all living beings. As support of all mindful things."

It is also unlikely that this text was created by the Church of Seiros. An amnesiac Sothis in the beginning of the game will have the exact same text on her own magic circle, but that could be an oversight.

The words on the ring below appear to be Binah, Netzah, Keter, Gevurah, Yesod and Tif'eret. These are sephiroths on the kabbalistic Tree of Life.

Keter = Kether, Netzah = Netzach, Gevurah = Gebuhar, Tif'eret = Tiphareth

The symbols on the larger circles are are Uranus (♅), Jupiter (♃), and Mercury (☿). Uranus is Daath, Jupiter is Chesed, and Mercury is Hod.

They show up when you are showing off a crest.

Interestingly, they do not show up when Edelgard reveals her Crest of Flames.

The user's crest will show up in the middle of the circle. If the user has no crest, it will be empty.

I'm not sure if this is supposed to reference the symbols between each sephiroth

The symbols in the smaller circles are the Sun (☉︎), Moon (☾) and Venus (♀). The Sun is Tipharet, the Moon is Yesod, and Venus is Netzach. They are connected to form a triangle.

The only sephiroths not accounted for are Chokmah (Neptune) and Malkuth (Earth). The absence of Chokmah might indicate a lack of wisdom, while the absence of Malkuth could mean that the magic is more connected to the divine than to the physical world.

The text talking about the goddess, and the abscence of Malkuth (the physical realm), could all mean that Faith/Reason directly originates from Sothis.

Dark magic

Dark magic is very different from Faith and Reason, to the point that it has its own magic circle. Finding clear pictures of this is nearly impossible, but this is what I have been able to get so far:

Three Hopes: Azure Gleam Ending cutscene

Three Hopes: Opening cutscene

I have not been able to get a full view of the text on the outer rings, but it seems to be a mathematical formula.

The circles containing the symbols are all the same size, unlike with Faith/Reason magic. The symbols are letters in the Greek alphabet:

Delta (δ): the 4th letter, representing change and difference.

Theta (Θ): the 8th letter, which is connected to thought, intellect, reasoning, and mental processing.

Xi (ξ): the 14th letter which... doesn't seem to have a specific symbolic meaning. It can be used in mathematics to represent a variable or unknown quantity.

Chi (Χ): the 22nd letter, symbolizing life force, energy, and sometimes vitality.

Psi (Ψ): the 23rd letter, associated with psychology and spiritual matters.

Omega (Ω): The last letter, symbolizing the end. The Alpha, or "beginning," could be Sothis.

In the middle of the circle there is a triangle with an eye over it. It looks similar to the Eye of Providence or the All-Seeing Eye.

This eye shows up in Thales's design as well.

The earring looks like a simplified version of the dark magic circle

It also shows up on Solon's robes!

Mini dark magic circle with the eye under it

You might've recognized the Eye of Providence as the symbol for the "Illuminati," but it actually finds its origins in Christianity, where it is a symbol of God's omniscience and providence.

The Agarthans may not worship Sothis, but we know they had their own religion. Their book talks about Thinis, where the old gods were supposed to dwell. The wording implies that Sothis awakening there was a betrayal, as it went against their religion. Perhaps this eye is connected to those "old gods."

All in all, dark magic seems to originate from the Agarthans. They are supposed to be technologically advanced, so their magic having tons of mathematical formulas makes sense.

TLDR: Dark magic = math, Faith/Reason = our lady and savior

Feel free to point out things that I might have missed!

Edit: Mixed up Daath and Chokmah. This is why I need to proofread something at least twenty times before posting!

[crescentfool]

happy birthday to my favorite horseboy 🥳

[pathetic-gamer]

Fashion in Fódlan part iii: yet another very long and entirely unsolicited FE3H costume design analysis

This time, we're focusing specifically on the placement of quivers, because that's a very normal thing to get caught up in and I'm very normal.

[Part 1, focused on money and social aspects in all three countries; Part 2, focused on political aspects between church/empire; bonus part 2.5, regarding a crown]

This post came about because of this video from @blumineck (who posts lots of cool stuff btw, go check out his blog), which talks about quiver types and their purposes, pros and cons, etc.

Shall we?

So, while watching that video, I remembered for whatever reason that Cyril has a back quiver, but Ashe has a hip quiver.

The reason my brain went there was that I immediately thought "Oh, Cyril actually does more hunting and physical labor than Ashe, and as demonstrated in the video, a back quiver is more practical for him. That makes sense - great attention to detail, FE3H character designers!"

I figured that would likely carry over to other characters, specifically our other canonically talented hunters. Therefore, Leonie and Petra should also have back quivers, yes?

Wrong! Leonie has a hip quiver, and Petra has no quiver.

That's odd, so let's look into this a little deeper. Here are the other canon archers:

Shamir

Claude

Ignatz

Bernadetta

You will note that Ignatz and Claude don't have quivers in their outfits, but Claude does wear a hip quiver in an animated 2d cutscene. Ignatz we've already determined is a bit if an anarchist, so nothing interesting there - he will be benched from the discussion.

The really notable thing here, which I'm sure you've picked up on, is that everyone except Cyril uses hip quivers.

BUT WAIT!

Let's consider Claude again. Check out his final class, Barbarossa:

What's that I spy? A back quiver???

Surely you can make the connection easily: Our two token Almyrans are the *only* people with back quivers.

So, why is that?

Let's return to the others, briefly. What do Ashe, Leonie, and Bernadetta all have in common? Their skills set them up for becoming bow knights. Shamir just wants to remain a sniper, but can go that direction as well.

Mounted archery almost always uses hip quivers, according to my research (*cough cough duck duck go image search "mounted archery"*), so it makes sense that all of our innate archers have those hip quivers.

What makes Claude and Cyril different? Well, thanks to Almyran typecasting, they are both placed on wyverns, not horses! That means significantly more mobility than the bow knights (bow knights aren't doing loop-de-loops), so they need their quivers to be more secure! Boom, mystery solved!

...or is it?

Of course not. It always goes deeper.

Tell me, history buffs: Throughout world history, who are among the most famous horse archers? What group of people most immediately comes to mind? Among whom, exactly, were armies of mounted archers a defining feature?

If you said Mongolians, you were right.

And how, pray tell, do Mongolian horseback archers wear their quivers?

ON THEIR BACKS. CHECKMATE.

(I tried to find name of this archer to credit her but couldn't track it down. She was the winner of a competition that took place during a festival in Inner Mongolia, China at some point in the last like 15 years, so incredibly skilled. Wish I could point y'all in her direction for more cool stuff!)

[fleshing-out-fodlan]

I've talked quit a bit about the misogyny in the world of Three Houses, but today I'd like to instead talk about a country that seemingly does not have these misogynistic standards: Brigid.

Obviously we don't hear too much about Brigid compared to the three main countries in the game, but we do know this: Petra was expected to be the next ruler of Brigid, not her future husband.

Petra pretty confidently asserts that she will be the Queen of Brigid.

There is no uncertainty in her statement, she does not say she "may be" the queen, she says she "will" be the queen" Petra also at no point seems to feel any pressure to get married. She expresses interest in romance, yes, but it is not a necessity for her the way it is for some noble women in Fodlan such as Ingrid or Bernadetta. While Petra was trained to be a good leader, these women were trained to be good wives.

Notice the way Bernadetta's father emphasizes her being a "good wife" or getting a "rich husband." The 'skills' her dad 'taught' her had nothing to do with diplomacy or leadership or other skills that would be important if you were a noble who ran a territory. This is because the expectation was never for Bernadetta to be the one who inherited her territory, instead it was assumed that would eventually go to her husband.

Ingrid's situation is more complicated than Bernadetta's. Her father's mentality is not simply "woman = wife, man = leader." I don't have time to fully dive into the complexities of their relationship here but I do believe that her father's expectations are rooted largely in misogyny and if you're curious about my thoughts on their relationship, you can look at this post I wrote about them. That being said, I will focus on one quote from Ingrid's support with Mercedes.

There are ways to interpret this situation that don't involve misogyny, but I do think it's important to note that Ingrid has had the expectation of being with a man placed on her from day one. While Petra is giving the freedom to just be an individual, Ingrid is told she must be a wife, a role she obviously feels very boxed in by.

I also want to mention a character who is not brought up as often in this discussion, Marianne:

Marianne's story is not as directly tied to marriage as Ingrid and Bernadetta's, but we can see here she still has this pressure placed on her (the 'he' she is referring to is her adoptive father). Marianne was not sent to the Officer's Academy to become a good leader or a good knight, she was sent to find a husband, another example of a noble woman in Fodlan being expected to focus on learning to be a good wife instead of a good leader.

Compare this to how Petra discusses romance and/or marriage, when it is brought up in her supports her desire and emotional connection to the other person is centered.

I could not find an instance of Petra discussing romance through the lens of duty or responsibility the way the other women I mentioned do. She only discusses romance when it is with someone she feels a genuine connection to and doesn't indicate that she feels at all pressured to pursue that path if it is not what she wants.

Petra's freedom to be both a leader and a woman is further reinforced by her endings. Whether she is paired with a man, a woman, or no one, she is the person who inherits the throne (her Byleth ending is an exception but Byleth endings tend to be more focused on player pandering than world building).

[halfbagged]

After finishing Crimson Flowers, one detail stuck with me: Edelgard and Hubert's ending. After finishing the route and choosing a spouse other than Edelgard, the game says that the two disappeared from the public eye after stepping down from the throne, but never acknowledged the depth of their emotion. They lived the rest of their lives together with an unspoken tension between them, but never voiced it. While this outcome seems very on brand for Hubert, it struck me as an odd choice for Edelgard, the confident emperor. I personally think that, free of stress and pressure, Edelgard would be free to share her emotions. What's more, this ending seems very deliberate on the part of the devs, as choosing not to cash in on the (directly stated) romantic tension between them is an unexpected path.

So maybe Edelgard doesn't love Hubert? I think this could be a solid possibility, but the wording of the final message seemed to imply that wasn't the case. Maybe Edelgard didn't realize she loved Hubert? This also isn't likely, since Hubert directly told Edelgard that he loved her, which would cause her to question that. Plus, a lifetime together without questioning the topic seems improbable.

I believe it's more of a metaphorical and thematic choice. They were put on a path together without their choosing, and learned to depend on each other for the future. This introduces a theme of parallel, but separate. As Hubert said to Dorothea, his path is forever parallel to Edelgard's. This theme, I feel, is much stronger when they do not acknowledge whatever it is between them. Though they need each other, depend on each other, and have fought side by side for decades, they were still placed together by their families and a broken society. There is still a power imbalance between the two. It is still very much a relationship between an emperor and her servant, even when those titles were laid to rest.

The two also contrast each other very strongly, adding to this theme. Edelgard is the pure idealist, strong, a leader; while Hubert is the skinny, dark, creepy assassin who does the dirty work of the empire. This strong contrast, while drawing the two closer together, also pushes them apart, necessitating habits of secrecy and divide. After relinquishing their roles, could the two have broken these habits?

Whats more, Hubert is a remnant from Edelgard's past, and vice versa. He is a constant reminder to her of her traumatic childhood, the old Fódlan, the broken caste system the two rose out of. Who might Hubert have been if he wasn't raised to be Edelgard's dirty right hand? If the two were born in a world of peace? Would they still be spending their lives together? The two were polarized and radicalized by their circumstances. Sure, it drew them together in turbulent times, but now the world is peaceful again, and they've come out of the war as two traumatized, polarized fighters in a world of peace.

[arkus-rhapsode]

Let's Talk About Fire Emblem Supports: A Discussion on the State of one of Fire Emblem's Iconic Mechanics

So I'm sure if you are someone who is keyed into the Fire Emblem community, something that has been discussed for some time is the current state of the support system. Arguably Fire Emblem's defining feature which in recent years has almost come to eclipse other facets of the gameplay.

However, with that has come some pretty noticeable backlash. Lets back it up for a second.

This is not going to be a "This is the right way to do this and if you disagree you are wrong" post. This is me as a long time fan of the franchise giving my honest opinion on how I feel about these aspects of the game and why I think they are the way they are and what I think could be improved and what I think works as is. I don't think Fire Emblem or InSys are gonna go be "diluting" themselves if they don't make these improvements, nor do I think someone who has different interests in how the support system should be implemented is wrong. I'm just a fan with an opinion.

So Fire Emblem's support system has been with us since FE4 in a primordial state, but its modern day form really started in FE6. While entries after that varied in terms of things added to it, it was around Awakening with the franchise on dire straights did making it so every character could support and marry for their prime future baby. This pairing mechanic brought on a bunch of new fans that enabled them to get a bunch of character interactions that resulted in loads of content for fans to then take into transformative properties. But the thing is that a lot of Awakening worked in context. What was assumed to be the last FE means its flaws were less evident and were built with the child mechanic in mind.

Now, Awakening's supports are seen as okay supports plagued with a bunch of redundancies due to the fact that one character interacting with everyone character can only produce so much dialogue. That and each support's length could also lead to loads of padding. The child units were also discarded after Fates basically proved that the mechanic without some proper context can feel more intrusive. But that still leaves us with games with many many characters and a lot of interactions.

The criticism of modern FE Supports can vary but the general points are

Too many characters

Too much repetition in interactions

Length of each support

Separated from the events of the narrative

The supports themselves are just poorly written

This is also not ignoring the ways this has been shaken up like Shadows of Valentia's use of memory fragments, the base conversations of the Tellius games, the monastery scene of Three Houses etc. So any discussion of how these support systems could be improved often calls back to other variations of the support system. And that's at least how we will be trying to examine FE's support system, using its other systems and variants for reference and comparison.

So firstly, I think the stance people take on this will actually be different depending on what aspect of the game you value most. If you are a gameplay fiend your focus will be more on integrating supports into the gameplay the way a Persona game might. If you are a more narrative fan of Fire Emblem you would more take the stance that the supports are relevant and reactive to the plot. And if you're a character fan, you likely want the content of the supports to be plentiful but endearing to the characters. So I want to at least establish that where you fall on how supports are implemented will be of personal preference.

As this is my post, my personal stance is Fire Emblem is a narrative game with supports acting as ways to elevate the characters. As such, that is why I feel confident in saying that I am personally not a fan of the idea of making every FE character support relevant to the narrative. The narrative is important to me, but critical world building and character motives shouldn't just be buried in the supports or battle conversations. I shouldn't need to play with certain character combinations to find out vital information for the plot you are writing. In my personal opinion, the best remedy for this was the creation of the base convos. These were interactions the played out when certain conditions were met at certain points in the story.

This had allowed for a lot of side characters to feel as they had some relevance even if they weren't plot relevant. To contribute to how far along this journey has been and how a map scenario may relate to them. A small version of this was done in Garreg Mach Monastery where each chapter would allow for Byleth to walk around the hub world and speak with characters who would provide their thoughts on the previous chapter or what might be coming in the next chapter. These weren't as long as base convos, much shorter. But it still gave the idea of everyone contributing a new insight. That said, as much as I think base convos are good in games like FE9, they should not be a replacement for the current support system but rather an enhancement. These I would consider as narrative moments that often hinge on events that happened in the narrative. With character commenting and interacting off of it. But I feel that if we were to remove the support system and only have base convos we would be distancing a lot of the casual fans of FE who want to see characters interact, but not always as serious. And because FE is often a war story franchise, the tone of base convos are often serious in subject matter.

With Engage and the implementation of the somniel and even walking around defeated battlefields, I actually really would have liked base convos to be implemented this way. Perhaps after a battle you may be able to walk around a camp and see an indicator of who you can talk to about an event that just happened that would trigger a more fleshed out cutscene. I say camp, because while I appreciate the monastery, but one of the issues I have is that it is a stationary location and makes FE not so much a journey but rather just able to fast travel to certain conflicts. Making the world feel smaller and repetitive.

Most likely than not, you will not unlock every support in game on your first try. This to me adds replayability and an incentive to grind with characters you may not regularly use. However, in the case of base convos, unlocking them often hinges on them just being alive at the time. So if you were someone like me who impulsively starts over even on casual mode to not lose a character, when you see all base convos, you have seen them all. You can only walk around the Monastery and ask Sylvain what he thinks about fighting Miklan only so many playthroughs before you just don't bother. The replayability will then come from difficulty spikes and not character or story incentives. So I do believe base convos should return but as an enhancement not a replacement.

(Some may suggest that one could implement a support system lock like FE3H did with its time skips, but that suffered from an issue of not accounting for everything interaction when the time skip happened. So it actually feels very bizarre to watch Ashe and Petra have a lunch time excursion in Faerghus when the country is apparently under occupation. So I think weaving supports with narrative dependency for some supports but not others will actually be more confusing.)

In fact I daresay, supports that are disconnected could actually add levity. Mia and Ilyana's support is almost completely comedic, and it feels more endearing than watch the two of them brood over Daein and Crimea.

Speaking of repetition, lets talk about support redundancy. This is part of another issue in FE's supports which we will get into, but let me at least try to establish what people mean by redundant. I find saying FE characters are "too anime" rather lazy and dismissive. At their core a lot of side FE characters are stock characters with some limited traits. So when you hear Sully talking about working out, or Rosado's obsession with cute things, or Raphael loving food, a lot of the supports they have can come back to or revolve around these topics. And when you have games with the other issue of many many characters hearing them have these convos around these topics again and again can be very boring.

Some could say that this is an easy fix by simply reducing the number of characters. Focus more on say the size of a persona cast. Well the difference is that FE is a tactical RPG with permadeath while Persona is an RPG with a focus on time management. The smaller sized cast benefits the player in ways that help them interact with every character, but not having to worry about one becoming unplayable after you spend a lot of time on one. FE however as a tactical RPG where the mass amount of characters is so you have options to solve strategic map scenarios. Reducing the number of characters to only plot relevant ones would be very difficult. Hypotethically, if we reduced Engage to the characters who have to be around for the plot that only leaves you with Alear, Vander, Clanne, Framme, Mauvier, Veyle, Alfred, Ivy, Diamant, and Timerra. Not exactly a plethora of options for making interesting maps.

Now InSys seems to have begun implementing changes to this already. No longer are we going full Awakening or Fates with supports. Supports are much more limited in scope but not quite as anemic a line up as Shadows of Valentia did with who could support who. 3H and Engage have honestly made far more strides in lowering the number of supports and honing in on who may be relevant for a character to interact with and who outside of that circle could they interact with. Three Houses often relies on the house members each being to support each other with maybe one or two students from other houses or the monastery staff. Engage seems largely to focus on characters from countries having the same interactions with a few from others. This is a good thing, honestly if we were to get a remake of Radiant Dawn, I would love for something similar to be implemented between the Ike, Elincia, and Micaiah casts with some crossover supports when you get to the back half of that game.

So if this is already something InSys is improving, why is it something people are still critical of? Well I think what some may miss is that even if we compact a cast to more manageable interactions, that still leaves the interactions themselves.

Remember how I said Fire Emblem characters are stock characters with some limited traits? Well that is often done with identifiability. When you meet L'Arachel as a holy women but she has a snotty attitude or Sylvain the noble who hits on every woman, its done so you can recognize this character. But when you get into their supports, you often see that there might be reasons for why they act this way or it makes them more fleshed out and rounded characters than how they may seem at face value. This is where I think some Fates fans will often argue that Nohr's cast is very compelling in their supports even if the game's narrative had made many come off as one note. But you can see the flippside with Engage where its supports are more manageable, people didn't think supports were elevating the characters in ways that you had known them. That's not to say all of them, Yunaka is a stand outing how her supports both inform her as a non plot relevant character but also endear her to the audience. This to me is a sign that supports will ultimately be cases of writing. And there can just be poor writing and utilization of characters. This can also hinge on context as well as 3H has recruitment of characters far different from any FE game and just hands you your house with the expectation your interactions with them will make you learn more about them rather than just playing and recruiting on a quest like some may want.

I may have been a bit snide to Shadows of Valentia as even by the account of wanting less quantity of supports, I still found it almost too small. But even then some of the supports are the best in the franchise. Particularly Python and Clive's. But I don't think this was good because SoV had less character supports, I think it was good because the writers had looked at this pairing of characters and what each one was about and what depths could the reveal about each character. I would very much like to see that for a majority of supports.

Last point is length, and honestly we've seen this improved with games like 3H. Some supports can just be short. In fact some people can have only two support chains. Honestly, just doing more of that would've probably led to less issues overall and hope for that to cut down on padding.

So with all this in mind, what is my final take away. Well I ultimately think it comes back to what I usually want out of a Fire Emblem game. The narrative should be all there in the campaign with characters arcs for plot relevant characters, but the supports should be used as a way to enhance these units. Adding dimensions to characters who ultimately don't factor into the plot as a whole. I think 3H did make a lot of these improvements particularly because it was made with the social aspect in mind with that game practically carried by all of its characters and their depths. But I did feel as the narrative of 3H had suffered and wasn't all that tight. Post Engage, I think we are seeing a system I'd like to maintain, but I think what was lost was some of the added depths to cast members that supports can provide as well. Yes, Engage was made with a lot of celebratory fun in mind so it wasn't all that serious, but it would be nice to get more Yunakas and Pandreos in that case than say Ambers. Another aspect is the pairing, and I really hope that pairing characters without the need for child units returns as well.

I am all for the return of base convos like FE9, but I don't think it should be a replacement. Again it is another form of enhancement not replacement for supports. I think completely junking supports in favor of the base convos would be a bad idea especially with newer fans of the franchise. Overall, FE supports I feel are where they should be, but there are plenty of minor tweaks that could be implemented, if just more utilization of the characters beyond their face value.

[lyteupthelyfe]

wait 10 playthroughs into three houses and how did i *just* realise that in chapter 4 the western church are after Seiros’ remains so that they can give it to the flame emperor to give it to twsitd so they can make a new heroes relic attuned to the crest of seiros for you-know-who lmao