#feat edelgard

[mollymauklesbian]

[freedomarrow]

Evening Storytime Feat. a God || Leonardo, Dorothea & Edelgard

Chalkos? The god is no mage, she tells you. That said, she is emotional, and the emotions stirred from holding Edelgard and listening to your requests occasionally causes chunks of Chalkos to fall from the sky. You may have to play with her emotions. Grants 4d4 Chalkos.

@scarletrefrain @hresvelged

The bizarre nature of the dream was far from done playing with them, it would seem. From a nervous village, through a bizarre dungeon, through the horrific sight of the aliens throwing the girl off the cliff in a display heartless - and yet one, somehow, not particularly surprising for the Daein. Expected, almost.

Far from the first time he saw an invader being cruel for the sake of it, after all.

But the terrifying memory is already largely faded, replaced by one of serenity. The calm, dark forest stretches all around him - a bringer of the rare moments of peace and safety he knew even in the worst of times, a protector, an ally. Though the realization that his call for Micaiah, Edward, Nolan, Sothe - it will go unanswered, and it stings a little, he nevertheless finds himself feeling... well. Surprisingly so, and almost to the point of guilt - especially when he takes note of the presence of Dorothea and Edelgard, and the states they are in. He probably is not supposed to be feeling so well.

But can he help it, if for years the forests were the only places where he was allowed to experience comfort and serenity?

And here especially, he cannot help but feel as though the forest, the night, the calm moon above his head - that it lives - that she lives; she lives, and breathes, and listens to his thoughts most intently, and she is the one taking care of the wounded Edelgard with the concern of a parent watching over their sick child.

“... Hey. How are you feeling?” A somewhat personal question, perhaps, that he poses to the girls - but are you okay? felt simply stupid in comparison. “Let’s try to take it easy and rest for a while. A lot has happened.”

His mind races through the images of the past days, as though to fill in what he hides behind the simple a lot - and as he speaks, he takes note of something shiny now resting in the grass near him.

... Chalkos? Interesting.

He sits down directly on the grass, the same way he always has. It is quiet, and he gets the impression that the silence is not going to help lift the mood.

It is not as though Leonardo dislikes silence, he very much enjoys peace and quiet - but sometimes, it makes it too easy to think.

“You know... I’ve spent many nights like this, actually. If you’d like, I can... share some stories, maybe? To pass some time while we rest...”

It feels weird, being open about himself. But he cannot help but be influenced by the serenity of the scenario he so well knows.

[squeaky-potat]

Happy Pride Month! 🏳️‍🌈

feat. Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude

[artofsitriga]

"Look at you. You're holding back, aren't you little emperor? You can't really hurt her, no matter what you tell yourself. No matter if she's gone. " AU where Sothis took over Byleth, feat Edelgard in a black eagle armor

[spooky-activity]

Did you guys know Monica von Ochs is only 3 inches taller than your average Delphox. Anyways as usual her team’s backgrounds’ll be under the cut.

Delphox (Lovelace): Monica's first Pokemon and her most loyal companion. Monica's own proficiency in fire spells is largely thanks to her studying Lovelace's fire type moves and practicing with her. Lovelace was never able to learn Teleport, which caused some friction between her and Euler when he was first captured.

Corvisquire (Asprey): Monica received a Rookidee as part of Adrestia's tradition of nobles raising Pokemon of this line. Monica actually has trained her to be able to say several words and phrases, though she is not fluent in human languages like a certain Meowth. She can remember and repeat messages too sensitive to be written down. Highly intelligent and a capable battler, Asprey elected to stay a Corvisquire for now in order to be less of an obvious target when delivering messages over long distance.

Alakazam (Euler): Monica wanted to study the differences between an Abra's teleport and a Mage's Warp spell, so she tracked one down to try to befriend. She followed him for days as he teleported away. Eventually, she recognized a pattern which could be solved mathematically, and devised a scheme. She would send Lovelace to spook him into teleporting, and she would already be waiting for him at his destination. This feat impressed him so much that he decided to join her.

Crawdaunt (Evelyn): Once, when Monica was visiting Enbarr, she made friends with a Corphish while she was enjoying the beach. She wanted a partner who could swim with her, and wanted a teammate who would eventually be able to cover her team's glaring dark type weakness, so she invited Evelyn along, who enthusiastically joined her.

Metang (Turing): While Monica was captured by TWSITD, her single respite was a friendly Beldum she would talk to when nobody else was around. It was supposed to be guarding her cell, but none of her captors noticed when it fled along with her, assuming it to have perished in the scuffle.

Ekans (Hypatia): Monica's most recently acquired companion. After discovering Edelgard's aversion to rat Pokemon, she quietly went out and captured a snake Pokemon to keep rat Pokmeon away from her.

[randomnameless]

Fates unironically did the "muhritocracy" schtick better than 3H lol; the vast majority of the playable Nohrian characters are commoners who got into high-ranking positions in the Nohrian army due to being exceptional soldiers and getting rewarded as such, whereas the only commoners on Adrestia's side that aren't turncoats (or fodder soldiers that are stated to exist only in throwaway dialogue from faceless NPCs) are Ladislava (non-character with no screentime, personality or even feats to support that she did anything to help the Adrestian army in any significant way), Fleche (slightly more of a character, still does nothing to help Adrestia), Randolph (does nothing to help and isn't even particularly well-recognized or rewarded for his skills, if him being jealous of his superiors is any indication), and Dorothea (only got to a high-ranking position due to prostituting herself in order to get into Garreg Mach, befriending the crown princess of the Empire, and being made into a general of the Adrestian army due to nepotism from that same crown princess).

What makes it even worse is that Nohr rewarding merit for anyone and everyone, regardless of social class or status, is an irrelevant bit of background worldbuilding, whereas Edelgard wanting to reward commoners' merits is one of her most consistently-repeated ideals, but the only non-nobleborn CF playable character only got so far in life due to (literal) peepee-sucking and nepotism, and even the NPCs are either featless non-characters (Fleche and Ladislava) or complain about not being recognized enough despite his skill/is recognized enough and Edelgard just decided a power-hungry, immoral dumbass was meritant enough to be made into a general in her army (Randolph); shouldn't the order have been reversed? Like, the game where one of the main characters' principle ideals is to recognize and reward anyone who's skilled should be the one to have most of her allies be commoners, whereas the one where the concept of merit is completely irrelevant to the story, themes and characters could have just had the characters be mostly nobles instead of consistently making them commoners just for subtle worldbuilding? It's weird.

Want to see an upstanding posterchild of Nohrian muhritocracy?

Chaos will always topple the ones who don't earn their status. It's folks like you and me who rise to the top. And the way we do that is by cutting down all our enemies.

I won't stop at captain. I will keep on climbing!

I'll be a king someday. I'll make it happen—you wait and see.

More seriously -

It's all about the what is actually rewarded.

I've already joked a bit about it, but basically Randolph and Nopes!Caspar want to demonstrate their muhrit by... invading countries, killing refugees or randoms who returned in their home after being ousted by the Imperial army.

Much muhrit, very uwu.

Take Whodislava, as you mentioned, bar being a named NPC who as less screentime than Kronya and is supposed to be a sad casualty for war, while being the posterchild of Supreme Leader's muhritocracy, we don't a thing about her. What has she done to be granted the rank of general? What are her achievements?

At times I'm pretty sure TS was partly written to laugh and mock FE16, but Avlora is basically in the same situation, save that Avlora has more plot relevance and exists bar being a sign the devs hold that's written "please feel bad about this character you've never interacted with and only has 5 lines of dialogue and is only here to garner sympathy when she dies I mean even Fates!Candace had more presence than her".

Avlora was an orphan, trained under Groma - a famous general - who continued to train even when Groma retired, became Adre- Aesfrost's top general and defeated Maxwell in a duel. We have her story - she came from nothing - her feats - she defeated the strongest warrior in Glenbrook - and the entire meritocracy angle sticks : Avlora was a nobody made general because she kicked asses.

The meritocratic Adrestia NPCs?

Randolph... tries to get muhrit, but fails as we protect people and only laments about his status in his House (as he is fucking killing people to gain more status, like dude, priorities?) - so in way, both Randy and Flèche are imo, counterexemples of Supreme Leader's muhritocracy : Randolph kills peons and invades an orphanage to demonstrate his "muhrit" because, otherwise, without any muhrit, iirc it's implied he and his sister will be demoted to randoms in House Bergliez (even if Flèche is supposed to be younger than Cyril iirc? Like how the frick do you want a kid of 12 to demonstrate her muhrit, else she'll be kicked out of her house?).

Whodislava... dies heroically, at least that's what we're supposed to get from her very "please cry" cutscene when she dies in front of Supreme Leader in Tru Piss - as Rhea and her family + knights tried to retake their ancestral home and she prevented them from doing so - or it's the same nonsense as "we killed Ferdie professor :(", we are supposed to feel bad about people who were fighting alongside a demonic beast when, in FE16, we fucking know what they are.

Since the FE5 banner released earlier this week, FE5 paints "honorable" Reinhardt as a pitiful man, because no matter how honorable or kickass or kind Reinhardt was, when it came to defect to protect children from being kidnapped or stop the general nonsense the Empire was pulling in Thracia... Reinhardt refused to do so, pretexting remaining by Ishtar's side, and when that became impossible, he choose death over rescuing toddlers. His situation is supposed to be compared to his sister's Olwen, who, when she discovers the truth of what is happening in Thracia, ditches the Empire to help Leif rescue the children - and, imo, Amalda (who's not in FEH yet!) who is also, basically, a commander who plays a larger Camus role as in, she tries to appeal to her Lord to stop the child hunts, her Lord tells her to eat shit, and when asked why she still fights and why she doesn't defect, Amalda says if she does so, her knights will be killed + Amalda appears as a NPC allied unit in a map to hunt bandits to save a village.

So, compared to those ladies who defect or try to protect whoever they can protect - their soldiers AND civilians who are being trampled by their own army - Reinhardt who doesn't do a thing and picks "death" is, as Olwen's ending puts it "pitiful".

Back to your ask anon, even if I disgress from the meritocracy angle - Flèche, Whodislava and Randy are such non-entities compared to characters with 6 lines from FE5 that even if they try to pull the "I have to do this for my family" or the "I came from nothing and still help my emperor because I am thankful to her for having raised me from being a commoner to a general", our Adrestians NPC feel very, very flat.

Are we supposed to cry for Hans's failed dreams of becoming a king when we kill him? No, but Randy and Whodislava's deaths are overplayed with so much pathos that the game is basically telling you "and here you should feel bad because they died" but... what is more important, the fact they tried to unlock a lot of achievments to demonstrate their "muhrit", or what the hell they were ready to do to unlock said achievments?

As for Doro needing to befriend people to enter Garreg Mach, remember that Doro, being touted as another example of the muhritocracy Supreme Leader's Adrestia aims to be, had to engage in sex work from a young age, to reach the diva status - which has very disturbing implications, that are glossed over because that's FE16 for you. Are we supposed to believe Doro "worked hard" to be able to catch the eye of some deranged fucks when she was a pre-teen to become a diva - or, as Manu puts it in a support that cannot be achieved in Tru Piss, muhrit alone doesn't work to become a diva, and it's actually a pretty font to hide the "dark" deeds young singers in Mittelfrank have to do to reach the "diva" status?

Minor tidbit though, Doro is famous enough for being Supreme Leader's dearest friend but she isn't promoted to "general" in Tru Piss, she's only BESF who's not, at least in her bio, a general Post TS.

Imo the question you raise is actually relevant to how empty Supreme Leader's muhritocracy's ideal is - in both game Ferdie has to remind her that to build "muhrit" or for commoners to be able to gather "muhrit" as nobles do, they have to start at the same lever, and receive education as nobles do.

IIRC, in Supreme Bullshit, despite their feats, Hubert tells Barney they're only a commoner - not even a worthy commoner like Doro - but a fucking random - when muhrit wise, Barney should at least be named general!

In both games, Linhardt is a general... but we don't see anything from him, bar his tropey "i want to study crests and nap and i dgaf about anything else" traits - if that's all there is to him, how and why the crap was he made general??

Why, it's almost as if "muhrit" is a smokescreen to hide the fact that the one who chooses/picks who gets to be important from who isn't does it on their own terms just like irl

What is merit, really? Who gets to decide what is merit from what isn't? Or who is the "best" at doing things, from another?

It's another instance of, imo, Fodlan's artificial feel, the game raises a question/issue, and starts some smoke about it, but without tackling said issues seriously we're left with "I agree and think starvation shouldn't exist anymore" milquetoast and cliché opinions that give the illusion this game is "very deep" when it's just, a puff of smoke.

[superdaisypowerhour]

Claude is an Oppenheimer girlie but he will swear up and down he’s there for the barbenheimer double feat. Edelgard is a Barbie girl, not by nature, but because she longs for girlish whimsy and joy in her life and knows she would start yelling about Harry Truman halfway through Oppenheimer. Dimitri is equally confused by both movies but goes because his friends go.

[bubtans]

tee hee hello hi i edited some paired ending cards for the house leaders because they are an inseparable set of boom booms and are strongest together and must not be separated!!! the text for each card is below the cut for anyone who uses a screen reader :)

Dimitri (Lion of Legend) & Edelgard (Eagle of Flames)

After the war’s peaceful end, Dimitri formally ascended the throne as the first king of a secular Faerghus and worked tirelessly to build a nation free of intolerance and persecution. Alongside his sister, the ruler of Adrestia, he invested wealth and resources into the regions of Fódlan most damaged by the war. Their reign marked the rebirth of Duscur as a free, sovereign state, as well as a reformed education system that resulted in widespread knowledge of many cultures and faiths. The two were known for their heated quarrels and banter, but the balance of Dimitri’s kindness and Edelgard’s passion led Fódlan to a new era of fairness and prosperity. It is said that when Dimitri’s daughter came of age, the princess received a gift from her aunt: a dagger, which had been given to her by her most treasured friend.

Claude (King of Unification) & Dimitri (Lion of Legend)

Following the destruction of Shambhala, Claude was formally chosen by his peers and his citizens to rule the first democratic Kingdom of Leicester. His reign inspired the dissolution of the Church of Seiros as Fodlan’s ruling force and allowed its followers to practice alongside believers of many different faiths. This feat was only possible with the support of Dimitri, who sought to bring knowledge and love for all cultures and beliefs into his own kingdom. Together, they succeeded in returning coastal lands along Faerghus’s border to the people of Sreng, whom they helped establish the most successful port for fishing in both countries’ histories. Dimitri would cite his dearest friend as the reason why Fódlan’s people never went hungry, and the grand feasts that he hosted whenever they met were his way of thanking him.

Claude (King of Unification) & Edelgard (Eagle of Flames)

Following the defeat of those who slither in the dark at the hands of Fódlan’s unified army, the new Adrestian Empire flourished under Edelgard’s rule as a prosperous state built on the principles of freedom and equality. She credited many of her highly effective foreign policy reforms to Claude, whose friendship and guidance helped her achieve the goal of seeing Fódlan as a beacon of acceptance and love for all cultures and backgrounds. When Claude took his place as the King of Almyra, their combined leadership helped countless civilizations thrive and support each other in times of need. The two eventualy retired together to spend their days traveling the world, and Edelgard’s dream of experiencing the sun’s warmth to her heart’s content, and leading an ordinary life with the one she cherished most, finally came true.

[t1sunfortunate]

garreg mach uniform redesign! feat. different weather/dress variants because i rebuke the beige monstrosity they gave us in-game. also featuring some of my personal character redesigns - in case anyone is wondering, the uniforms are being modeled by claude, bernadetta, felix, edelgard, dimitri, and monica. thanks to everyone who gave their feedback on this while i was working on it!

[semi-imaginary-place]

answering more questions from reddit: why did edelgard start a continent wide war?

The two main parts to this are Edelgard's personality and her backstory. As well as that well, she was right in that the Church, nobility, and crests have got to go.

Edelgard is extremely determined this is both good and bad once she's decided on a path its my way or the highway and the more she'll challenged the more she will dig her heels in. Once she is committed she is committed and this sees her achieve impressive feats but also means she won't give up even when she should take a moment and reconsider her plans. She'd the type willing to break a bone to mend it, she doesn't like the war but sees it as a necessary cost (I think she's wrong but that's another matter). It is important to note that Edelgard DOES NOT THINK WAR IS EXCUSABLE, she thinks its pretty reprehensible to cause so much suffering but she's also willing to play the villain because she thinks this is something that must be done and if someone must do it it might as well be her.

The second part of this is that the Agarthans have been manipulating her for years. They tortured her and they know she hates them but she also needs them for their power and influence in Adrestia. Not only that but besides the Adrestian Enperor game of telephone, the Agarthans are her primary source of information on Rhea, the Church, and the Children of the Goddess so they have had well over a decade to tell her propaganda about how Fodlan is secretly ruled by monsters with no care for humanity. Now their information probably wasn't mostly lies but comparing what Edelgard tells you in CF with what the player can see for themselves in VW it's obvious that the Agarthans were slanting the story in their favor and against the Church.

Part of the context you might be missing is that as a lot of characters point out (Claude, even Dimitri, etc.) Edelgard has a lot of good points, the Church is super shady, very unjust, oppressive, and has indeed been meddling with international politics to maintain its own power for centuries. We see this in game when Rhea sends out Byleth to assassinate opponents of the Central Church for the high crime of daring to be a threat to Rhea's authority. Even the leaders of at least 2 nations (Adrestia and Faerghus) derive governing authority from the Church. The Church wields massive overarching, unilateral, and unchecked power over Fodlan and uses this power not for the good of the people but to maintain its own position, suppress progress and innovation, keep Fodlan isolationist, and enforce the crest and nobility system. The last one was more of a side effect but Rhea sure didn't do anything to stop it. And the whole game is about how much the crest and nobility system suck, it's massively corrupt and exploitative.

[itsmoonpeaches]

Title: An Edge of Dawn

Written for @flashfictionfridayofficial, a short fanfic written for Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

I guess this was originally supposed to be for #FFF200 How far we've come, but I didn't make it in time so I managed to kind of rework this into this prompt.

TW: blood, implied torture

Fandoms: Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Word count: 1,000

Rating: T

Summary: Edelgard is no longer the girl she once was, but she remembers the one person who knew her before things changed.

There was a boy she once loved. She could not (or would not) remember his name. But there were days she wanted to pretend that there was still more time before she was forced to forget.

She had met him outside in the gardens, enthralled by even the spring’s hoarfrost that coated Faerghus during Great Tree Moon. A brilliant pop of red had caught her attention amongst the light touch of ice that blanketed the earth. Her small hands reached for it, a crimson flower in the wake of snow. She had never seen such a thing before, not from where she was from.

“You like that camellia?” a voice broke through the mist and her reverie.

She swiveled around, surprise on her face, and her heart thundering fast in her chest. “You startled me!” she exclaimed. She pouted. “Who are you anyway?”

She could picture the boy’s voice in her mind’s eye, even as his face had diminished with time. It had a gentle quality to it, a familiarity she only grew to appreciate. She could not remember the shape of his face, nor the sweep of his hair, but at least she remembered how blue his eyes were. And that was it.

He opened his mouth to say his name.

“I’m Edelgard,” she introduced herself. “I just moved here.”

The boy reached out a friendly hand. “Nice to meet you,” he replied. “Why don’t we be friends?”

He was warm. She could not forget that either. He was warm and kind in this new place she was forced to call home. But in the handful of years they had grown to know each other, he made the capital of Fhirdiad home for her.

He was a terrible dancer, a feat she was flummoxed by. He was a Kingdom noble, after all. Surely someone would have taught him how to move about on the ballroom floor.

And so, on the afternoon right before the comedian’s night in the gala that would celebrate the founding of Faerghus, she circled him around the gardens she had met him in while he stumbled over his own feet.

“Be steadier!” she commanded. “You’re the one who’s supposed to lead.”

He was nervous about her movements, stuttering over words and half-formed phrases. Her brown hair whipped around her face, and he spluttered when some of it caught in his mouth. All she could do was giggle at the ridiculousness of it all.

Flurries swirled around them, floating in pairs and bunches. They landed on her eyelashes and the cold made her cheeks rosy.

The two of them were out of breath when it was over. She found herself plopping down on the steps of the frozen fountain, panting beside him.

“El,” she said, and she turned to him. Her face felt warm when he looked at her. “The people closest to me call me that.”

The boy smiled. She sighed.

It was a good time in her life. A peaceful time, no matter her reasons for leaving Enbarr at first. But of course, none of that could last.

She recalled the terror the most on the day they parted. He frantically handed her a dagger, encouraging her to cut her own path forward.

“You can make it out there,” he had said. “I know you can.”

She took the gift but was then whisked away, unable to say anything other than, “I’ll see you again!” over her shoulder.

Over time, the terror strengthened. Her life became a haze of pain and suffering. All she could hear was her own screams in the depths of the palace in Enbarr as she wondered how and why she had to return when all she was given was this.

One by one her ten siblings perished, succumbing to the torture those men held for them below. Those men were so obsessed with power and what the Crests could afford them that they had tried to implant them in their bodies.

Her father, who was the emperor, was powerless to stop them.

The boy’s face faded behind blood and tears. She clutched the knife to her chest, intent on enduring. But even then, her reasoning for doing so blurred into nonexistence when she could not even remember who had given it to her in the first place.

Still, she emerged as the only survivor.

Her survival became her tether, her life. She wanted to uproot the system and kill those men who had thrust their ideals onto her and her lost siblings. She wanted revenge.

And so, she raised her relic, her axe, high above the King of Faerghus now.

“Edelgard! You…I will kill you!” Dimitri roared even on his knees. “You will know the regret of my father, who was killed for you! Of my stepmother, who was slain by her own daughter! You will bow your head before all the lives you trampled for your ideals before you die in misery!”

She tsked. The damp earth soaked into her boots and with each step toward him, she sank into the mud. “Farewell, King of Delusion,” she replied. “If only we lived in a time of peace, you might have lived a joyful life as a benevolent ruler.”

She swung her weapon in a spiteful arc. She had to get rid of this man who was standing in her way. He was the man who protected the Church of Seiros, and it was the church and its demon founder who had done this to her. They valued her for nothing.

Shlink!

“To the fires of eternity with you…El…” Dimitri gasped.

Edelgard stopped, eyes wide. “No,” she trembled. “It can’t be.”

They met again on the battlefield. It was some cruel and fateful irony after so long wishing she could see him just one more time. Just to remember him.

The boy fell on the day she finally did.

They were two toppling pillars in a world so changed. How far they had come. How far they had crumbled.

Also available on ao3.

[laulink]

Alright, so we all know how strong Edelgard is, right ? Like, “Dimitri is the only character in game whose strength stat can get higher than hers” levels of strong. Byleth isn’t as strong. Balthus and Caspar are far from being as strong as her. That’s the level. And of course, the Black Eagles being, well... the Black Eagles, shenanigans ensue. (Black Eagles found family + a few others with slight Edelthea and Mercigard edition)

- Caspar likes jumping on people, but he knows better than to do it to just anyone : he doubts Dorothea would appreciate it (girls), he doesn’t dare try it with Petra, he doesn’t DARE try it with Hubert (he likes being alive, thank you very much), he’s afraid Bernadetta would have a cardiac arrest if he tried with her and Linhardt keeps falling over and faceplanting on the ground when he does it to him, so he gives up. Only ones left are Ferdinand and Edelgard and the only time he jumped on Ferdinand for a prank, he was in for a lecture that he would very much prefer not to go through again, so he gave up and prayed Hubert wouldn’t kill him for touching Edelgard. The first time he jumps on her back after completing a mission, she’s so surprised she freezes for a second and almost loses her footing, but she regains it quickly and even grabs Caspar’s legs to secure him and make sure he doesn’t fall over. She doesn’t scold him and he takes that as meaning she doesn’t mind, so he does it again a couple days later, then again, then again. By the third time, Edelgard’s almost expecting the surprise jump and doesn’t so much as flinch when he lands on her back, to the point Caspar wonders if he’s lost weight. Then he sees her throw a grown man three meters away with one hand and realises she’s just strong. He loves it.

- of course, he challenges Edelgard to an arm-wrestling battle that he promptly loses (Edelgard indulged him because he’s just doing it for fun, not to prove he’s stronger than her). That prompts Petra and Ferdinand to challenge her as well, impressed by the way she effortlessly dealt with Caspar ; of course, they lose too, to Ferdinand’s chagrin. 

- Petra’s interest is piqued though and she wonders just how strong Edelgard is, so the next time they are training together, she asks Edelgard to try and cut a training dummy in half in as few moves as possible (the training dummies in this case are wooden ones, about as thick as a person, and Petra herself has tried to cut one in half with her sword and it took her 5 swings). Edelgard cuts it in one swing (though “cut” is generous, it’s more she atomises the dummy’s waist, leaving only the torso and legs). Petra is both impressed and a little freaked out, but mostly impressed and decides to train even harder.

- Ferdinand goes the other way : he works out with Caspar and Raphael for some time to build up his strength, then when Byleth takes them out for a strength training (basically an obstacle course they have to go through using only their muscles, to Dorothea and Hubert’s dismay), he challenges her to a race to see which one’s muscles would hold on the longest and take them to the finish line the fastest (which Byleth isn’t too pleased with since the training’s goal is also to teach them to pace themselves and not get stuck in an obstacle they’re too tired to get out of). Edelgard, of course, refuses the challenge since it’s not the goal of the exercise, but Caspar is supremely excited to see them compete and keeps pestering her and Dorothea promises a kiss for the winner, so she relents... and wipes the floor with Ferdinand. He struggles to get past the last obstacle while she’s only out of breath and a bit sore. She doesn’t rub it in his face and even commands him for finishing the course so fast (which Byleth also considers to be an impressive feat), but he still beats himself up... for a total of 30 seconds before deciding he’ll keep training and beat her someday. When that’s settled, Dorothea gives Edelgard her reward kiss (on the cheek, which still makes her blush) and Byleth sends them all on the course for the actual training.

- after her B support with Caspar, Dorothea commiserates the fact she can’t ask him for help in moving her furniture and cleaning her room anymore, which is a bother since the only other boys she’s comfortable with asking for this are Hubert, Linhardt and Ferdinand, the first two being useless (Hubert’s pride is piqued but he keeps quiet) and the third one being a pain to deal with. Edelgard overhears her complaints and offers to help, to Dorothea’s equal embarrassment and delight, and after a bit of negotiating where Edelgard has to remind Dorothea that, Princess or not, she’s her classmate and her friend first of all, they end up in Dorothea’s room to clean. Edelgard, once again, impresses with her strength, moving and lifting furniture more easily than Caspar did and with less complaints (though she does ask Dorothea what she puts in her cabinet for it to be so heavy, which Dorothea tells her is a secret). Dorothea jokingly asks if she weighed anything to Edelgard, who decides to tease her friend a bit for once and picks her up, bridal style, to Dorothea’s surprised embarrassment. After a moment of consideration, Edelgard tells her “no, you really don’t weigh much” and gently sets her back down. Dorothea can’t look her in the eyes for the rest of the afternoon.

- after her B support with Edelgard, Bernadetta grows more comfortable around the Princess, enough to hide behind her whenever something frightens her (to Hubert’s annoyance because he’s often the one scaring her when she’s close enough to Edelgard to hide behind her and Edelgard always either glares at him when he actually did something wrong or smirks and teases him when it’s just Bernie’s anxiety acting out). One day, that habit escalates when they are walking side by side by the stables and Marianne, quiet as ever, steps out of them without a sound, then greets the girls who hadn’t noticed her yet (she’s trying to be more friendly). It scares Bernadetta out of her skin and she scrambles up Edelgard, wrapping her arms and legs around the Princess in her fright. Edelgard isn’t sure if she should be pleased that Bernadetta’s gotten so relaxed around her, annoyed to be used like a pillar of some kind, or amused by her friend’s reaction (or feel sorry for poor Marianne, already apologising faster than should be humanly possible). It takes Bernie almost ten minutes to get down (she kind of faints at some point), arms and legs so stiff Edelgard can’t get her off without hurting her, so she just stands there and waits for Bernadetta to regain her spirits. Marianne is impressed by her stamina and Edelgard just says “I’m used to it” (Caspar has taken to jumping on her back as they leave the dining hall after breakfast and not letting go until they’ve arrived at their classroom). Marianne starts to think the Golden Deer are not the most chaotic class at the Monastery.

- Hubert had always known his lady was strong, both physically and mentally, much more than him in the former department at least, so he was never surprised to see her pick up her classmates by the back of their uniforms and lift them up like kittens when they were mibehaving (Caspar especially, but Linhardt too when he was bothering Flayn or Lysithea too much) , or to see her send an enemy flying with a well-angled swing of her axe or fist. However, he was surprised when, for the first time, during a battle, Edelgard noticed enemy archers aiming at him while he was focused on something else, grabbed him by the back of his robe, and threw him over her head and almost ten meters away to keep him safe. Wearing an armour, she wasn’t bothered by the enemy’s arrows and made quick work of dispatching them, but Hubert needed a full minute for his heart to stop hammering at his chest like a hummingbird trying to flee its cage. After the battle, he begged Edelgard “Please, my lady, don’t do that. Ever. Again.”. Edelgard refused to promise that because what if he was in danger again ? After that, Hubert made sure to always pay attention to his surroundings in battle, especially if Edelgard was around.

- after the Battle of the Eagle and Lion, Caspar and Ferdinand manage to coax Edelgard into another arm-wrestling championship by talking about the first one while Dimitri could hear, prompting him to support their demand to Edelgard to have another one. Claude, of course, also insists on seeing that, which piques Raphael and Balthus’s interests and Edelgard can’t really say no, so they organise it. Unsurprisingly, Raphael, Balthus, Dimitri and Edelgard beat their respective opponents, then Edelgard beats Raphael, Dimitri beats Balthus and the two House Leaders face off against each other in the finale. Everyone is invested in the competition now, from every house, and both Dimitri and Edelgard do their best to win. It takes a while and ends in a draw because those idiots applied so much force that they broke the goddamn table. Seteth was not amused.

- one day, Mercedes is carrying a crate of books from the Blue Lions classroom to the library. She and Annette had borrowed a bit too many over the week and had to bring them back, but no one in her class was available to help, not even Annette, so Mercedes was soldiering on... and taking a break every ten meters because they had really borrowed too many books. Edelgard sees her struggling and offers to carry the crate for her, which Mercedes gratefully accepts and is impressed to see Edelgard carrying it as easily as she would a single book. While they ascend the stairs leading to the library, Mercedes loses her footing and would have fallen down the staircase if Edelgard hadn’t quickly shifted the crate to one arm and caught her with the other. Mercedes is already a bit flushed from the chivalric display and it only gets worse when Edelgard takes her hand and keeps it in hers until they reach the top of the staircase, to avoid such incident repeating itself, which means she also keeps the crate in only one arm for that same amount of time. Mercedes accuses her of showing off and Edelgard, after a second of confusion, realises she’s still holding the crate with only one arm, showing how it really weighs nothing to her. Mercedes flushes even more (she’s always had a weakness for muscles). Once at the library, she takes her revenge on Edelgard by kissing her cheek as thanks for her help, making the Princess blush and forget her words for a moment, to Mercedes’ delight.

- like I said, Edelgard often picks up her classmates by the back of their uniforms if need be. She was hesitant to do so at first, not wanting to look like she was condescending to them or treating them like children, but then Linhardt was asking Flayn questions about her Crest that obviously made her uncomfortable, so Edelgard picked him up by the neck of his jacket and walked him outside of the room, scolding his behaviour all the way. Some time later, Caspar was stuffind himself so full and fast Edelgard was sure he’d choke and, since he wouldn’t listen to reason, she picked him up and off his bench, away from his plate, until he had emptied his mouth. She had to hold him the same way when he tried to start a fight with another student. After all this, she stopped questioning it and just picked up her classmates like they were feral kittens whenever it was necessary. Though, depending on the circumstances, she can be a lot more gentle (or even harsher) : sometimes, when Linhardt sleeps through the end of the lessons and their departure for the training grounds, Edelgard throws him on her shoulder like a sack of potatoes and walks him to the training ground, where she just drops him on the ground to wake him up. Other times, when one of her classmates is injured and should be carried to the infirmary instead of walking there, especially if it’s a girl (since it would be improper for one of the boys to carry her), Edelgard will do the carrying (most often a piggy back ride, though she likes to tease Dorothea by carrying her bridal style as payback for her own teasing, to her friend’s dismay). She develops a bit of a reputation for it, so much that when Hilda is hurt (or says she’s hurt) during a joint training session, she’ll ask for Edelgard to carry her to the infirmary ; on the other hand, whenever Sylvain is flirting with yet another girl and Ingrid is growing too tired of his behaviour, she asks Edelgard if she can pick him up by the scruff of his neck to embarrass him in front of said girl and make him calm down a little, which Edelgard is always happy to do. That last one earns her a fanclub.

- Lysithea is, quite frankly, fuming at Edelgard whenever she helps her with cleaning the library, annoyed that despite their similar circumstances, Edelgard is incredibly strong and has an impressive stamina while Lysithea is frail and sickly. She decides to get stronger and prove she can be just as good as Edelgard by lifting the library’s books, being quite pleased to see she can lift six of them at once... then gives up when she sees Edelgard picking up a pile of twenty books with one hand to retrieve something beneath them. She begrudgingly learns to accept Edelgard’s help when she overexerts herself and can’t even walk back to her room, and after a while even enjoys getting a piggyback ride out of it. She hates it again the day Claude spots them and teases them about how they look like a mother and daughter.

(Bonus Edelthea NSFW under the cut)

- Dorothea absolutely adores Edelgard picking her up when they’re being intimate, be it to carry her to a bed or to rail her against a wall. Of course, Edelgard picks up on that and likes to play with it. But since Dorothea wouldn’t be Dorothea if she didn’t tease, and Edelgard wouldn’t be Edelgard if she didn’t rise up to the challenge, the day Dorothea decides to rile up her girlfriend by telling her she seems to struggle a bit to keep her off the ground, Edelgard responds by lifting Dorothea even higher, until she can eat her out while standing (Dorothea’s back pressed to the wall though otherwise they would have toppled like a tower of cards). Dorothea really liked the experience, but never questioned Edelgard’s strength again.

[mittelfrank-divas]

I think I've finally managed to nail down why the changes to Caspar's character in Hopes bother me, even though technically very little has changed at all.

In 3H, Caspar's enthusiasm for training comes from his desire to make his own way, knowing that he will never inherit anything from his house. In Hopes, while Caspar's motivation remains the same, his reason for training so hard is also attributed to the fact that he grew up with a drill sergeant for a father, making his baseline for what is a "normal" amount of training extremely skewed. Caspar is used to waking up at dawn and throwing himself into training for hours simply because that is what his father has made him do since he was a child, and he literally forgets that others don't live this way.

This... isn't technically something that goes against what was established about Caspar before, but it does put kind of a different light on his goals and values. Where before he was choosing to follow a path of his own making using something that he loves to do (fighting), now he's simply striving to live up to exactly what his father has always expected him to be -- despite knowing that he'll still be on his own no matter what he does.

Because that's another odd angle to this. Despite Caspar literally training harder than anyone else in the army, despite him nearly being able to keep up with his dad, despite his brother disgracing himself enough to potentially lose his position, Caspar simply accepts that he will never get anything from his father. Caspar and Shez find that they are exactly equal when they spar, but when Shez spars with Count Bergliez, somehow Shez impresses him. But Caspar doesn't?

What this basically looks like is Caspar constantly striving to be an exact clone of his father and his father just refusing to ever acknowledge or accept him. And that's worse! That's so much worse! And unlike in 3H, where Caspar is already pretty pleased with his lot and the possibilities opened up by his training, in Hopes Caspar you can sense this sadness that all his efforts aren't enough. He's not achieving the same feats that his father did at his age. He's not standing out in the army like he hoped. The clock is ticking on the end of the war and he can see few options for himself once the fighting is done.

And I think this also ties into a larger issue that Hopes has. In 3H, the Black Eagles all had a running theme of rebellion in them, of being seemingly part of the Establishment at first glance but on examination, every one of them actually defies the expectations that society has for them. Hopes sometimes manages to retain this sense of rebellion, but for others like Caspar, it veers straight back into reinforcing the establishment. Which is a pretty odd thing to do while simultaneously allowing Edelgard to openly talk about social reforms much more often than she could in 3H!

[squeaky-potat]

Mood feat. Edelgard.

[jujudrop]

Edelgard vs Camilla feat Tifa from 2022

[hresvelged]

* a kiss to the forehead, to say goodnight

(It’s foolish to kiss an incorporeal being like an Emblem. Does it even count, if she can’t feel it? Still, pulling away, Alcryst feels himself blushing, and he twists the bracelet on his wrist nervously. “Um, good night Emblem Edelgard. Thank you for helping me in battle today.”)

It is her hope to continue witnessing their growths— Of the prowess she knows Prince Alcryst has. Their earlier battle certainly had been no easy feat, but victory was within their grasp.

While she cannot feel a reassuring action like a kiss similarly to how others might, the sentiment remains the same. Her eyes widen, but not out of disinterest— Surprise, rather. It's been quite some time since she was last shown such gratitude. A smile sits across Edelgard's lips with a small nod of the head.

"Goodnight, Prince Alcryst. You fought well today. Take this time to rest."