#hi. more dmlx. SURPRISE

[unxpctedlygreat]

Three parts of a wip I'll probably never finish for dmlx week 💔

Day 7, Another Time and Place, it's time for Golden Deer Felix 💛🦌

(1)

"Ah," Byleth starts when he sees him approaching, "finally decided to join our house?"

Byleth's voice remains flat as ever, but Felix is pretty sure he is joking. He certainly hopes for him that he was.

"I've already told you," Felix still replies, just in case, "I have no intention of leaving the Golden Deer." The professor has the gall to look disappointed at that. Felix tsks. "Don't make that face. You knew my answer before you even asked."

Prince Dimitri, who had been talking to Byleth until Felix interrupted them, chuckles lightly.

"Can you blame the Professor? Your skills and knowledge would be a formidable addition to our class. In all honesty, if I thought I had a chance of convincing you, I would be asking you the same."

The earnestness with which he says it makes Felix's heart treacherously skip a beat.

(2)

Felix doesn't usually join in the celebrations after the missions. It never feels right when he's just here as an aid and not part of the class. Today more than ever, he feels a pang of loneliness. The Golden Deer would also be all over each other, and Claude and Hilda would be forcing him to join regardless of how he felt about it.

"You should be there, as well," Dimitri eventually replies.

"I don't belong there," Felix says, deciding to be honest for once. He expects the prince to tell him he does, to maybe reiterate that he'd love for Felix to join their class; it just sounds like the sort of thing he could say.

Instead, the prince surprises him.

"I feel the same." A bittersweet smile. It turns a little more genuine when he asks, "Maybe we could comfort each other? As people who don't belong."

Felix feels his cheeks burning. What kind of nonsense is Dimitri spouting?

(3)

Sylvain comes to find him when he's training with Claude and Hilda. Though 'training' is a generous way to put it, when Claude is trying his best to not have to fight, and Hilda watches from the sidelines.

"Your brother's nuts," Sylvain says in lieu of greeting. He's sporting a wide grin, but Felix can see it's not entirely genuine. It often isn't, to be honest.

Without missing a beat, he, Claude and Hilda answer in one voice, "Yeah."

It seems to take Sylvain by surprise, making him blink at them for a moment. He lets out a laugh.

"Huh. So that's common knowledge, then?"

"What did he do now?" Felix asks. Glenn's foolishness is rather well-known across the Alliance.

Sylvain takes a purposefully laid-back stance. Felix narrows his eyes, expecting the worst.

"He's taking Miklan under his wing."

[toastie-the-know]

The canon bases of RudeAggro!Felix and Apologetic!Dimitri

(Since I actually spent an entire evening doing this, I’m posting it because I don’t want to feel I “lost” all that time haha! I sort of do this kind of stuff for work sometimes, so this is clearly the sad fate of a person who can’t leave their work at work and brings it into their hobbies 😂 )

I’ve read a lot of Dmlx fic (in English), and have seen a lot of art, and there’s a trend I’ve noticed in the characterisations of both Felix and Dimitri that stands out to me: Rude and aggressive Felix, and Apologetic Dimitri. More specifically, Felix being rude/aggressive to Dimitri, and Dimitri apologising to Felix. The characterisations stand out to me only because my hc characterisations are more like “tsundere” Felix, and polite Dimitri. There’s obviously an overlap between “rude/aggressive” and “tsundere”, as well as “apologising” and “polite”, but they are not the same thing, at least from the part of the world I come from (I played with the JP audio on English text). I wanted to figure out if I was missing something from canon, so decided to take a short dive and check out the source material.

This meta isn’t an attack on people’s preferences. Creators of fan works depict characters in a variety of ways for personal reasons, and it’s no one’s business to pass judgement on that. I’m not trying to legitimise my hc, or delegitimise othere people’s hc. All I want to know is whether there is  strong canon basis for the characterisations, which I might have missed. I’m also not saying that “unless a characterisation is based off canon 100% it’s not legit”.  I don’t believe in that statement. Looking at canon is one way for me to see whether the “RudeAggro Felix”, “Apologetic Dimitri” is more a case of creator extrapolation, or based off something very clearly there in the canon.

So I’m gonna look at three bits of text. 1) The words and expressions used in the support conversations, both JP and EN 2) The tone in the voice acting, both JP and EN in the support conversations, and 3) Dimitri and Felix’s lines in Azure Moon route chapters + in the monastery, but only in the JP (it was easier for me to search the JP text quickly, more effort required for the EN). Of course there’s more you can glean about their characters from other supports etc, but I don’t have that much free time… 

Heads up I’m a bilingual and bicultural Japanese/Aussie (have lived in both countries), so I’m pretty confident in my interpretations of the JP text and audio.

Rude and Aggressive Felix

There’s a lot of canon for this characterisation to be based on. Listing the words and expressions Felix uses when talking to Dimitri is pretty aggressive, and is meant to be demeaning if we take it at face value.

Felix insults/expressions of aggression 

Support C

その気味の悪い笑顔で話しかけるな。/ Go away. (I would add “Don’t talk to me with that creepy/spooky/grotesque smile of yours.”)

見ているだけで胸糞悪くなる。/ Just looking at your face makes me wanna retch 黙れ。獣は獣らしくしていろ。/ Shut up. And stop walking around on your hind legs. 獣 / beast 猪 / wild boar ならばさっさと失せろ、邪魔だ。話しかけるな、この化け物が。/ Hurry up and get out of my sight.  I don’t make a habit of talking to beasts.

Support B

猪 / wild boar 貴様 / an aggressive form of addressing “you” in Japanese, although in this sentence it’s not used aggressively 阿呆が。/ Do you take me for a fool?  (I took the Japanese more along the lines of “Are you stupid?”) 腹立たしい……。/Looking at your face is making me angry (No JP equivalent) / Farewell, Your Beastliness.

Support A

獣 / beast (but used in the context of the “the face of a beast vs the face of a man” line) 手が滑って斬りつけないうちに、答えろ。Answer quickly before my hand slips and I cut you in half お前の辛気臭い顔が、癇に障って仕方なかっただけだ / I couldn’t stand the pathetic look on your face.

Stepping out of the Dimitri/Felix support conversations for a bit, we know from Felix’s other interaction he is also rude and aggressive. Calling Dedue “dog” is probably the rudest and most demeaning example we have. Telling Ingrid to go and get married is also pretty rude. So overall we have a lot of evidence that Felix is ok with being abrasive, at best. Intentionally hurtful and malicious at the worst.

So Felix is rude to Dimitri in their support conversations, but the rudeness lessens as the support levels increase.  As you can see from the list above, the number of expressions of aggression go down between conversations C and A. Felix doesn’t call Dimitri “boar” once in the A support conversation. The last line “癇に障って仕方なかっただけだ / I couldn’t stand the pathetic look on your face” is a bit tricky, since I think there’s a bit of a divergence between the JP acting and EN acting. The JP is very clearly a "tsundere" intonation, meaning there’s a vibe of “I care but am too embarrassed to admit it”. The EN was a lot less obviously for me, so if you only got the EN there’s a chance that Felix’s  “I couldn’t stand the pathetic look on your face” comes across at face value - an actual insult.

Outside the support conversations, Felix uses the words “boar/beast” to describe Dimitri specifically quite often. But the intention behind the use seems to change (from an attack on one’s character to a nickname). Looking at the AM route, lines within each chapter + in the monastery phase, we find he uses the words ten times in total. That’s a descent amount, considering the number of lines he probably has overall (I’m not that dedicated to count all his lines… proper methodology would want me to do that though…). The last two times he uses “boar” it seems more of a nickname rather than as a way to attack Dimitri’s person.

A surprise find was that Dimitri uses “beast” five times overall , in the same contexts that I checked for Felix’s use (AM route, lines within each chapter + in the monastery phase in JP). In all cases he is describing either Imperial soldiers, or the baddies at Remier village. Never in reference to himself (which I thought might come up, but didn’t).So 

TLDR; There is canon basis of Felix being rude to Dimitri, but it looks like he mellows out a lot by the end of the game.  The JP flags the “tsundere” vibes a lot more than the English.

Apologetic Dimitri

I’m gonna start with the numbers from the chapters + monastery sections first, because these are the bits that clearly form the canon basis of “apologising Dimitri”. But with some interesting twists!

As a quick and dirty measure, I searched for the characters 謝 (to catch 謝る、謝罪 etc), 悪 (to catch 悪いな、悪かった), and すまない. I didn’t search for ごめん/ごめんなさい (gomen/gomennasai) bc I bet you three cups of coffee that you won’t find Dimitri using this expression.  ごめん/ごめんなさい is more typical of children and women, or super casual. So Edelgard and Claude might use these, but not Dimitri.  

Dimitri apologise a ton in the chapters and monastery sections. For all three words, we have 16 expressions of “sorry” from Dimitri. For comparison, I just checked the first five chapters for Claude. Chapters 1-5 Dimitri apologises 7 times, while Claude apologises once. So yeah, canonically, we find good grounds for Dimitri being a person who apologises often. We’ll see later that in his other supports with Blue Lions characters, he apologies to them also.

Dimitri apologises 6 times after Rodrigue dies in chapter 18. And 4 of these apologies are concerning his behaviour while he was disengaged with the war effort/unwell. These kind of feel a bit different to the “sorry to inconvenience you” type apologies that are more typical of his sorries (see list below)

To Byleth: 4, for being boring (1), for making a weird request (1), for Byleth helping out (2) To Edelgard: 2, once about making Edelgard feel bad bc she thought he was underestimating her, and once about the poor choice of gift he gave her during their childhood. To Lonato: 2, for the general badness of the situation To Claude: 1, (but unclear to me what exactly he’s apologising about) To Dedue: 1, for surprising him To Mercedes: 1 (need to check again To a Kingdom soldier: 1, because the soldier was looking for him To Lonato’s soldier: 1, for the general badness of the situation

Most of these apologies are of the “sorry for being an inconvenience” type. This could be interpreted in a variety of ways ranging from just being polite right through to low self-esteem. Whatever the construal, it does seem objectively that Dimitri says “sorry” a lot more than other male characters who might have as many lines.

Dimitri and apologising to Felix

Dimitri apologising to Felix, we have exactly one example in the chapter conversations. In chapter 18, Dimitri says to Felix “I have no words to apologise adequately” or something along those lines, regarding Rodrigue’s death. (And shortly after, Felix addressed Dimitri by name).

We have zero cases of Dimitri apologising to Felix in the support conversations. For a quick comparison in his other support conversations, Dimitri apologises to Ashe once, Sylvain once, Ingrid once, Annette twice, Mercedes three times (but the expressions he uses are different to the three I mention earlier). Interestingly, Dimitri also doesn’t apologise to Dedue.

These numbers might just be reflecting the fact that Dimitri and Felix’s support conversations aren’t really topics where apologies would be made. Dimitri and Felix’s support conversations aren’t about burdening each other, being a nuisance, or supporting each other. Their support conversations are actually about Felix coming to terms with Dimitri’s dual nature, while Dimitri himself seems seems unbothered by it.  (The only place in canon we really see Dimitri using his words to express remorse and discomfort over his dual nature seems to  be his A+ support with Mercedes).

Dimitri’s responses to Felix’s rudeness in support C are more like indirect affirmations of Felix’s characterisations of him (“A beast craving blood, am I? I assume you’re speaking of the events two years ago”, “I deny nothing, Felix.”, “Perhaps you’re right.”). Maybe a little bit resigned. There are a handful of sad-faces. It actually seems to me that Dimitri is in general agreement with Felix.

In support B, Dimitri is unbothered by Felix’s abrasiveness. When Felix gives him a hard time, Dimitri tends to push back (“As though I would be careless with something so valuable.”, “Come now, that was so long ago!”).  In this entire exchange it’s only Felix who is bothered by something, while Dimitri seems quite oblivious to Felix’s turmoil. The final line in this support is Dimitri saying “What is going on with him…”

Support A Dimitri is quite assertive of himself  (“ Do not waste your breath on questions with such obvious answers / 当たり前のことを聞くな”, “ You are wrong/ ……違う”), still a it resigned (“Always so ominous / お前はいつも物騒だな。”), but unlike supports A and B, showing awareness of Felix’s internal state, and thanks Felix.

Dimitri seems generally unbothered by Felix giving him a hard time, and Dimitri does not apologise for his character. Dimitri seemed ok with his dual nature, while it was Felix who was more bothered by it. But by the end of the game, if support A is reached, Felix also comes around to accept the dual nature. Dimitri and Felix aren’t really in an “apologise to each other” relationship, because it seems from Dimitri’s POV, there is nothing about himself that he needs to apologise to Felix for.

So TLDR

There is good canon basis for rude/aggro Felix. There is good canon basis for apologetic Dimitri. Dimitri apologises a lot in canon, but not really Felix. The one time he apologises is concerning Rodrigue’s death. But given that Dimitri does apologise to people often for inconveniencing them, it’s not hard to imagine how Dimitri would apologise to Felix for inconveniencing him in some way.

So I don’t think I missed anything in canon, but fan creators extrapolate these canon bases into various directions. Which is cool! Because isn’t that the fun of doing fan works!

The end.

Links out: JP Text, EN Text