#like if I were to try to get someone to like Edelgard through only playing CF I'd have to tell them to literally never look back through

[arkus-rhapsode]

I want to talk about Crimson Flower and 3H as a narrative

So... after FE3H discourse makes the round every other week, I end up thinking about it for a bit until I realize, hey maybe its better to not focus on a 4 year old game at this point and occupy your time with something else. Everything has basically been said about it at this point and you know where you land.

But this time my thoughts were just getting too strong for me to ignore, so that's why I'm writing this both get it out of my system and maybe just be another voice in the crowd that some people might want to listen to on the divisive topic that is Crimson Flower route.

Now I really hate that I have to put this disclaimer up front, but I feel like the well of this discussion has become so poisoned that I have to before I make my piece. I want to say that if you enjoy Crimson Flower, if you love Edelgard and believe she did nothing wrong and this is the right route, if you are a Black Eagles stan and you genuinely do not have any issues with Crimson Flower route as a whole-that is perfectly fine.

This will be a somewhat critical examination of the narrative choices about the execution of CF, which I feel like whenever 3H, specifically Edelgard is discussed, there is often very disingenuous arguments people make. Which I believe can create more defensive fans of a particular aspect of a story that we should be able to criticize freely. Which perpetuates this never ending cycle of discourse of legit criticism and defense against that criticism becomes drowned out by trying to decouple these very disingenuous claims from legitimate flaws. So I at least want to make it known that I am going to try my best to be in good faith with this post about this tricky subject.

I also want to just say, this is also going to be mostly an examination of narrative. The thing that I personally enjoy the most in an FE game, but we need to genuinely acknowledge that narrative isn't the only reason why people may like Fire Emblem. The ability to form parasocial relationships with fictional characters and being able to experience something the genuinely brings you emotional fulfillment is not invalid. Being able to enjoy fighting against establishments or ideologies you in the real world disagree with through the experience of a video game is not invalid. The same way someone who plays this game for the experience of gameplay isn't invalid when their primary enjoyment stems from the actual mechanics rather than the "logistics" of the story. The point I'm trying to make is that everyone will engage in media in different ways and will enjoy it other ways and that you don't want to invalidate those feelings someone had with their personal experience. So this is going to be about me and my experience as someone who primarily enjoys narrative.

I am just one guy with opinions who is going to layout what I had an issue with and how I think for me that could've been improved upon. You don't have to agree with me on that, and I'm not saying my way is legitimately better. This is all opinionated.

Buckle this is a long one

First things first Im gonna say Im not going to be using any information given in Three Hopes that may contradict what Im about to say. As in my opinion Three Houses came first and does not include the content from Three Hopes so I should think that Three Houses can stand on its own merits and the content that was provided.

Next thing is I want to catch people up on what in my opinion are the points I think CF did for me that ultimately left me unsatisfied

The post time skip Fodlan was too different and felt contradictory to Byleth's role

Edelgard's Characterization in CF in comparison to the other lord's in their respected routes

The role of Rhea

The role of Those who Slither in the Dark

SO the first thing is probably the thing I'm mostly going to have to defend if I haven't lost you already, but Fire Emblem Three Houses as a narrative provides us with a five year time skip in the game that depending on the route will change who is control of the monastery at this point in the war, with each route providing a lord the chance the forge their campaign. However, something I don't think is brought up enough is talking about the liberties that CF takes with their time skip vs the other three routes. Azure Moon, Verdant Wind, and Silver snow all paint a post five years Fodlan as one where the monastery territory has been abandoned, Rhea has been captured, the Alliance territory is split between an imperialist faction and an anti imperialism faction, and the Kingdom has been split with Cornelia making an alliance with the Empire to create the Dukedom of Faerghus as the houses of Gautier and Faldarius hold up the Kingdom.

There are obviously minor changes like Dimitri camping out in the monastery in Azure Moon rather than in the care of Kingdom Allies, but for the most part there is a consistently defined world between the three routes. However, Crimson Flower's post Fodlan is much different. With a grid locked Fodlan after five years with just the church territory falling under the control of Adrestia, Rhea wasn't captured and instead made it to Faerghus, The Alliance is still feuding amongst itself, but most importantly than all, Faerghus is a complete kingdom with Dimitri as King and no Cornelia's Dukedom.

So there are two main reasons why this bothers me.

The first is that Three Houses as a game wants to present you with three options at first, with the idea that your choices will effect the outcome of the war when Byleth returns, however there's enough consistency to imply that this is what Fodlan would be like regardless of whose House you would join, with the primary effect being your class making it to the church for the festival which in turn will make the monastery your new territory for which route. However, Crimson Flower decides to do away with the consistency, implying that the effect Byleth had on the situation is far greater than that of any other route resulting in a drastically shifted Fodlan. So this is more of a problem with FE3H as a whole with the consistency of choice. Fire Emblem has never really had a BioWare style choose your own adventure type of game. There's only one real choice you're given in the case of 3H and that's which house you side with, which you are essentially locked into. Black Eagles is really the only route that offers a choice beyond that with choosing to side with Edelgard or Rhea which will effect who the class sides with in the time skip. The reason I bring this up is that it essentially means that you the player are for the most part on rails for a predetermined plot where all the choices for the series have already been made. So the Fodlan post five years being consistent makes some sense as essentially mostly everything that happened in White Clouds was the same with the acceptation of the class. However, the Crimson Flower one not being consistent and being so radically different based on a game with so minimal choice feels more like an act of narrative convenience. That this is what happened because of a writer fully independent from me the player had decided that this is how Fodlan shall be for this story because it fits what they want to tell.

Somewhere I had once read that FE3H shouldn't be treated as one story, but since its a bunch of routes they're all a different universe. Everything might look the same but everything is fundamentally altered that you should accept it as an independent universe. And I can't necessarily say that's wrong as the concept of multiverses is to create a world/scenario that allows to explore familiar characters in unfamiliar settings and you could say that Byleth effect on Edelgard in picking this universe was just so much greater that it would result in such a different universe.

I personally disagree with that which brings me to my second point as I believe this one is going to be a more philosophical point on game design. But I feel like the effort to make three routes so consistent with each other with one so different seems to deliberately undercut the core themes of the game. Offering you a choice that this is who you get to spend your happy schools days with and it is what is going to result in them returning to the monastery one the day of your return. That is the true effect of Byleth on the characters. But as you play through white clouds you can't change what happens to other characters which will result in a brand new scenario. Byleth's presence can never stop Dimitri from going blood mad, Byleth's presence can't stop Claude from discovering the Immaculate One research, and Byleths presence can't stop Edelgard from declaring war. And that is a good thing for this type of on rails route story. Byleth while a player insert who can help their lord in the future, right now everyone is on a path that Byleth can only lightly change. With the characters acting independently of what Byleth and the player desire. And the post time skip Fodlan is a sign of that. Its Five Years without Byleth. This is what these characters would do, that they were always capable of doing and that is why Byleth's return and effect on them is important. This also gives us the ability to observe what a lord is like now after the war, and Byleth's effect on them but also see what a character could be like without that Byleth effect on them. Without Byleth Dimitri stays mad, without Byleth Claude always flees Fodlan, without Byeth Edelgard... well lets put a pin in that.

The only other true choice the player can make beyond the initial one is the side with Edelgard or Rhea which radically alters her. Which honestly feels kinda defeating in a game that has locked Byleth so much on a path and the one time it can deviate actively alters everything. It just feels very hollow as there are parts that make you realize how great the effect Byleth could have on people's lives could be if the game actively wanted to integrate choice with the plot. But it didn't. It wants to make one early choice then lock you in that route for several chapters then remove Byleth and then have their return effect real change on the future of Fodlan. Except for this one route. Its why Crimson Flower feels so much like an asterisk compared to the other route. And I don't just mean the lack of chapters, but this feels like a route that can only exist because it was the one that the developers bothered to create something overly deviating from everything else.

Which brings us to Edelgard's role in Crimson Flower as a whole. Now lets just get this out of the way. Im not going to be talking at all on the morality/realistic implications of what Edelgard is doing. I feel like the "Is she a fascist/authoritarian" conversation is not really helpful to talking about FE3H as a work of narrative and mostly exists to create a bunch of petty beef. This is also not going to be a deconstruction of ever minute detail of Edelgard as a character. This is an examination of her as a character in the narrative that we are presented. This will also involve comparison's to Edelgard and other series lords and I want it to be known that this is not a talking down to the only female lord in the game as being something "lesser" than her male contemporaries. I believe there is genuinely sexism when discussing Edelgard as a character, so I want to say that I am approaching Crimson Flower and Three Houses as a whole in a good conscious that there is not a "right route." That this is a game that where all choices have their pros and their cons. Because that's why we like this entry, right? That 3H would provide us some genuinely complex lords who were all capable of doing great and terrible things regardless of gender?

That's why I had such a long winded discussion about why the change in the post time skip Fodlan is so important both for narrative consistency, but also just generally keeping with the tone, but also it reinforced that Fodlan and its lords while all righteous in their own way can be dangers in their own way. Well that's when I return to the pin about Edelgard. So first I want to go through how the lords are characterized in non devoted routes.

Dimitri in non AZ routes is portrayed as someone so damaged by loss that his who response is to avenge and fight. To never stop making those pay for the damage it has brought on his kingdom as well as any lives lost during the tragedies in places like Duscar and Remire.

Claude in non VW routes is portrayed as a brilliant individual with a lot of charm but seems to be hiding something from everyone. He's a lot smarter than one could assume and that he has some mysterious tie to the kingdom of Almyra that he departs after leaving his land to the stronger kingdom that has come so far, be it Dimitri or Edelgard or the Church.

Edelgard in non CF routes is portrayed as a conspirator to overthrow not only the church but all rule in Fodlan as she believes the Crest based system is flawed and that the only way to enact systemic change is through a single rule. And while she is aware her ideals have costs, she believes that those costs are worth it when weighed against perpetuity of the crest system.

Now I want to talk about what happens to those lords as you play them in their routes.

Dimitri in AZ is portrayed as someone burdened by loss and his quest for vengeance has led to a neglect for his own health and his own actions. That his kill everyone attitude will perpetuate more loss of those he loves and that he needs to learn to rely upon others. That is his true responsibility as king.

Claude in VW is portrayed as an individual who is outside of Fodlan's system who has observed it more as a third party and believes it can be a great place if people work through diplomatically. He too is not a fan of inequality and racism and wishes to make a Fodlan that is more accepting and able to work through negotiation. While he still leaves Fodlan at the end, this time he has been able to implement real systemic change and make one that is sustainable beyond that of a ruler.

In CF we find out that Edelgard is a traumatized girl who was experimented on for the purposes of Crest Research. This makes her a conspirator to overthrow not only the church but all rule in Fodlan as she believes the Crest based system is flawed and that the only way to enact systemic change is through a single rule. And while she is aware her ideals have costs, she believes that those costs are worth it when weighed against perpetuity of the crest system.

Hey wait a minute, that's the same?

So this is where I get to the most glaring flaw for me in this case of narrative and why I think altering the post time skip so much did a lot of damage. Edelgard is a good character and a fascinating one, but in the practice of her narrative, her character journey in her own route isn't like the other lords. Rather she is "right" from the start of the time skip and with the world altering in ways to justify why she is that way.

Now look, I know right now someone could be saying I can't read, that its clearly stated in the text that Edelgard says without Byleth she may have turned into a complete monster to see her goals through to the end. This is referring to how in non CF routes she is on the backfoot getting beaten back and forced to take more drastic measures as whoever Byleth comes closer to ending her ideals. Unlike Dimitri or Claude there's not really a psychological arc she is working through with her sociological arc. Dimitri's arc is almost entirely hinged on him as a character changing in his route. And while Claude the character is also mostly the same, you get an understanding of how his continued participation in Fodlan's politics is so important as he effects sociological change. Claude also does the less stuff that could be considered questionable in Fodlan. He neither initiates the war nor does he intimate greater conflict that is tied into a character arc like Dimitri. Claude action's through the war are mostly to keep the Alliance fighting against each other with avoids giving one side a greater advantage. The truth is Claude real "flaw" is that by being an Almyra he is from a race outside of Fodlan that is inherently untrustworthy in society so his continued prescience in his expanded campaign is done with changing that mentality.

Now one could look at everything I said about Claude and say "well isn't that Edelgard though? She's not the one who needs to change but rather society needs to and this is you making it a fruition?" And I would agree however, then why did post time skip need to change and not Edelgard? So going back to the altered Fodlan, the Fodlan post time skip we see in non CF routes has what can be argued Edelgard's biggest moment of political conquest, making an alliance with Cornelia inside of Faerghus using her authority and influence to expand and bring over a chunk of the kingdom underneath Edelgard's wing. And this makes sense with what has been proposed before us-Edelgard had released a manifesto to lords that would side with her and become her allies in the war to come. This act of subversion is something that benefits her goals for conquering all of Fodlan. However, this is one of the key alterations in CF's time skip. Faerghus is not broken in half, with Edelgard having not empowered Cornelia over the five years. In fact, you do battle with Cornelia with her as a kingdom general.

So if Edelgard isn't a character who is subject to change, why did the world change? Well there is speculation in universe that perhaps Rhea fleeing to Faerghus didn't give her the ability. But I do believe the most likely reason is that narratively the writers of 3H wanted to avoid a scenario where while Byleth was gone Edlegard may have empowered and individual like Cornelia. One of the most objectively evil characters in the game. Now I won't go into to detail if I believe Edelgard knew Cornelia was a TWSITD or not, but as it is presented to us, she seems unaware. Instead I'll focus on the primary point is where they don't want to discuss that while in her route Edelgard was capable of doing something that would potentially cast her in such a negative light. After all, the point of her campaign is the while the bloodshed is worth it to make a new Fodlan free of crests, she's willing to show lenency to those who bend the knee. Again, an action not unreasonable for her character. However, I feel like this not happening in CF genuinely robs us from exploring the flaws of Edelgard's path/showing us what Byleth's effect on her truly is.

This is compounded by my issues with how CF is the only route in which you have an active choice beyond class. That by choosing to side with Edelgard when given the option in the tomb would result in this much radical history alteration. But also all of Byleth's effect on her not being as much conqueror over the last 5 years was all done pre time skip. That all that change was done at that moment rather than being something that prompted her to return to Garreg Mach where they'd remeet Byleth and then that would get them to claim it as a base of oppositions in their future war. In CF, Garreg Mach is already claimed rather than the formation of the Dukedom with no real progress. So it makes it seem as though Byleth's real effect on altering this lord's path was always possible in the short time they knew them before disappearing over five years. Of course this is again a bit miffling given that CF is the only route this is a possibility. We can't Change how Dimitri will act in the pre time skip. That he will make choices without Byleth even if they feel urged to remeet at Garreg Mach. But in the case of CF, Edelgard has apparently been changed despite the only real difference in white clouds fighting beside her in the tomb and against the church pre timeskip. But that has sociologically altered so much of Fodlan.

And maybe you genuinely believe that one extra change is enough. Perhaps that one extra choice is enough justification for such a radically new scenario. For me personally, I find that unsatisfying and feels more like the writers traded in a level of consistency for this new scenario that greater justified being on the side of someone who is portrayed as a more active antagonistic force in other routes (Reminder this not me saying the Empire route is an antagonist route. All routes are antagonistic relative to which side you are on).

This is where we get my first what I would've done to make it more narratively satisfying for me. Keep the same post time skip Fodlan as the other routes. Keep Edelgard having brokered a deal with Cornelia to establish the Dukedom and have Byleth find out about it. Be some that either Byleth or another character close to Edelgard questions the extremity of. Then have Cornelia do something evil like she's experimenting on people for TWSITD or maybe she's just abusing the power. Then have Edelgard clean it up. Have Edelgard realize that while she still wants to make her dream of a crestless Fodlan a reality she can't just back lords or nobles that are willing to go along with her for more power. She can still keep the Dukedom territory, but instead she'd be now more understanding what it means for there to be a ruler with a noble soul. So she continues her campaign of conquest but has realized that if she's going to be emperor, she can't just empower people arbitrarily.

In my opinion this not only would tie together some more TWSITD plot while also paralleling it to Edelgard's past and how there was no authority figure to step in and help her all those years ago. But now she is that authority figure. And while it doesn't call her method in question and like Dimitri and Claude she can continue her expanded influence over Fodlan, but now we actively see that Byleth has helped show her that her allies aren't just those pledging loyalty, she actually needs to empower those who are good. She gets to have her fight with Cornelia level and this won't stop her from killing Dimitri in the future.

Like I said, this is what I'd do. And in my opinion it would give Byleth's presence in CF more purpose beyond the bond with Edelgard is nice and fun. But also stay consistent with each route. Showing that there are flaws in Edelgard's sociological plan, but not undercutting what her actual goal is. You can still believe her quest is just and the only right one with her taking an active role in not making the mistakes she perceives Rhea as doing.

And if you are still with me up to my third point, lets talk about Rhea.

So Rhea as a character can best be described as a neutral evil throughout White Clouds. She doesn't really do anything but there is a lot of ominous foreshowing and presentation that Rhea may be up to something or at the very least complicit with many of her policies and tendencies. And when I say "evil" I don't mean she's bad (please don't skewer me Rhea fans). I mean that if the crest system is flawed and the church is emblematic of the systems maintenance of that flawed system. Then Rhea as the face/founder/head of that church bares some responsibility even if all she does is passive.

In all other routes, Rhea is captured by the Empire. Imprisoned in their capital. Anytime she is seen after she is characterized as somewhat docile or defeated, having been imprisoned for so long. VW goes a step farther to reveal what she did as Seiros and all of her actions leading to this point presumably all thanks to be imprisoned and rethinking her life over. CF is the only one Rhea is allowed to be an active player, she is now portrayed a ranting self righteous warrior priest who swears vengeance upon Byleth for being the reincarnation of her mother but not being a proper vessel as she intended and fighting against her. Naturally, if Byleth being the potential for the reincarnation of Sothis siding against her is what her drives her mad, that is believable, however much like the altered Fodlan Rhea in this version is not captured. This is now for Rhea to serve as Edelgard's true climatic opponent. With her symbolically killing the representation of the church and the power of crests being slain by Byleth and Edelgard. Its very poetic. But once again we reach my issue of the time skip altering so much in CF.

As stated before, Rhea was presented as a neutral evil, in doing so she's not really a direct antagonist in any route. Except of course Silver Snow. Where she is deployed as a weapon against Byleth. In this case killing the immaculate one symbolically is cleansing the church of Rhea and allowing it to pass into the hands of the new archbishop. However, Rhea in that fight is under control. Rather than be conscious as an opponent, they make her more of a beast without choice. Thus making this less a flawed character meeting their end and rather a forced confrontation by the evil cult of evil. Now Rhea I think being kept a neutral party was ultimately a good choice. We are given enough about her to understand she has done things questionable and should possibly not hold the authority she has. But she also has not instigated any open any hostility. As such Rhea is more a symbolic player. By making her an active player, CF has to make Rhea more domino and more a threat. She can't portray constant neutrality in a war. But by making her the active antagonist, it makes her less of a symbol and more if just a rotten character who Edelgard is justified in wanting dead. And much like Cornelia and the Dukedom, this alteration comes off as an attempt by the writers to never truly challenge Edelgard's plans for Fodlan. That Edelgard has no flaws in her plan and the bloodshed is beyond justified more than just philosophically. Had Edelgard captured Rhea in CF this would lead to some genuinely uncomfortable questions of keeping her a prisoner. And to 3H's credit they were actually willing to make the player uncomfortable already in Dimitri's route showing him as a mass murderer. Once again, I want to express this isn't me saying Edelgard's quest or goals are wrong and the plot should undermine it. This is me saying that for a game that wants to genuinely have nuanced and uncomfortable political choices made by their character, this is the route where they opt to alter the scenario so that Edelgard is the most justified and does less things that one could find objectionable. Flattening a lot of interesting implications this would raise and what Byleth as a force in this route could possibly able to influence.

Now one could again say, well the reason Rhea wasn't captured because Edelgard didn't use crest beasts this time. Edelgard not using crest beasts is a sign Byleth is changing her and thus that greatly alters the future. Once again, I can see that as understandable justification, but again, my issue off only ever being able to effect this lord pre time skip comes in again. If it was possible to get Edelgard to not use crest beasts, then how come it wasn't possible for me to get Claude to have Almyra support? How come I couldn't stop Dimitri before the war? The answer is again as a game the only other narrative choice that could possibly alter the story happens in CF which is the side with Edelgard in tombs choice. And while I'm not against the idea of angry pope Rhea, but I feel making her CF's full on antagonist was almost making a straw man antagonist for your opposition.

As an aside we also know Arundel is still on Edelgard's side and he is Thales so while she might not know his entire deal, I hesitate to imagine he'd stop using crest beasts in the war over the two years Byleth was gone.

If I was going to once again alter CF to be something I would personally find more satisfying. Have Rhea captured and then have Arundel use the same rage stuff he uses on her Silver Snow. This way you can facilitate an Edelgard vs TWSITD conflict AND you still get your symbolic victory of Edelgard and Byleth killing the symbol of the crests and church. Again, Edelgard is able to do what she wanted to originally, but now we are also confronted with the role TWSITD did play in her life and allowing her to rectify it as well as truly killing the old world by getting rid of Rhea and Thales.

And final point TWSITD. TWSITD are bad. They've always been bad. And they genuinely damage the overall story of CF because this is beyond just a narrative choice, its very clear CF as a story wasn't complete. I feel confident in saying that given the numerous chapters missing compared to the other routes, but also the epilogue needs to say "Oh yeah there was totally a bunch of war against them. Totally." I know this point is probably the least controversial when talking about CF, but I still think its a glaring flaw.

So what's the tl;dr?

This is not an "I hate Crimson Flower or Edelgard post" I genuinely have no interest in debating people about characters that like or enjoy. Nor did I want to turn this into a moral argument about the implication CF. I feel like these topics do real damage to any real criticisms one can have for CF as a narrative.

Which for me, CF as a route fails to really mesh with the rest of 3H as a whole. It feels like it takes a lot of narrative ways out to avoid potentially making their lord seem objectionable, despite much of this game wanting to be about how tragically flawed everyone is. Im not saying Edelgard needed a come to Jesus moment of "Are we the bad guys?" No absolutely not. In my opinion we just lack seeing Edelgard change the same way post time skip as others have due to creating an entirely brand new setting that keeping her as a mostly the same character is not questionable. Nor does she have to do anything that could truly be seen as flawed. Things that Byleth's influence may overcome.

Edelgard is a good character and her goals are understandable. I just personally find the narrative bending to accommodate her in ways so different from the other time skips genuinely make it a weaker narrative for me.

If you enjoy CF as it it. More power to you. Please keep loving CF. This isn't supposed to be a dissuading post. This is merely me as one guy who likes a lot of FE because of the stories it can tell sharing why he personally didn't enjoy this one. Maybe I helped put it words for some who might feel similar. But this is just my opinion

If you have something you'd like to add or reply in the replies or tags please flee free, but for the love god, please be cordial about it. There is so much toxicity and disingenuous takes around Fire Emblem Crimson Flower and Edelgard and Rhea in general, that I would like for us to please be able to talk about this in good faith.

[fireemblems24]

Golden Wildfire Ch 10

Spoilers for GW up to Ch 10 below.

STORY

Now Claude's taking Ls in the Kingdom too.

I love how much they always try to drum up sympathy for Randolph when the man's only character trait is "I want to murder people to gain personal status." And then he also has the gall to act like he's better than the people defending themselves when he goes to kill them.

I never really put that much thought into him before, but yeah he's kinda just a piece of shit, isn't he? Low key one of the worst human beings in the game.

They should've made it Fredinand or like Linhardt's dad or someone likeable.

Funny seeing Claude play Edelgard like a fiddle though. His army is fine, and hers is crushed lamo.

Haha, Fleche is back to her vengeance act. It's gonna be funny if a tiny girl child is a final boss.

The same conversation with Jeralt and Bylethas I saw elsewhere, I think. Yeah, here comes the sword again.

I love how they make Rhea out to be such a big deal, but literally no one gives a shit that they declared war on her. Like, pick one, game. You either have Claude be an unpopular ruler or Rhea actually be a problem.

Raphael called it right. Commoners don't give a shit. So Edelgard getting everyone killed over noble squabbles.

Hilda kinda seems like the Kingdom stan here. She's always the one upset about it.

Claude is such an idiot. I cannot take him seriously. Claiming he wants to spare lives moments after sacrificing Randolph and wanting to wipe a church no one gives a shit about off the map. Am I supposed to take this seriously?

Haha, Arval said he can think for both of them when I had Shez say she's more brawn than brain lamo. And Shez believes it too, omg. Shez is great. I need a comedy show with them.

Oh, nice! Looks like another single-battle map. BC, honestly, I got Spiritfarer for Christmas and I'm DYING to play it, but need to finish this first.

BASE/SIDE BATTLES

Lamo, Arval just said trying to unify different people under one king is dumb, won't work, and looks forward to the day humanity moves beyond it.

LORENZ/IGNATZ/RAPHAEL PARALOGUE

So is this the paralogue that's going to rewrite it so Lorenz's dad did nothing wrong? Given the description, I'm betting it's that.

Ignatz is being awkward around Lorenz now that he's been promoted.

Gloucester evades all of Lorenz's questions about these bandits.

And now Lorenz is demanding Raphael do what Ignatz did and is upset he's so casual lamo.

So are they making it so his dad wasn't the one who ordered the hit that killed Raphael's parents? Lol. This game really likes whitewashing some of these guys, but Glouster's probably the worst offender.

Let me take a wild guess. TWSITD.

It's really a shame that Raphael is such a one-note character. It would've been interesting if he had more in-depth conversations with the rest of the cast who were unable to move beyond trauma.

IGNATZ & LEONIE B SUPPORT

Their one and only support.

They're hunting and the deer only has one arrow. So they try to figure out who successfully shot the deer.

They both hit the same place. Mystery solved.

LORENZ & CONSTANCE C SUPPORT

This one should be better.

Constance is challenging a cat to a staring contest. Yes, this one is already better.

Lamo, he says he would've considered her as a wife if she restored her house. But withdraws because she's a weirdo. (I mean, no loss?)

Constance gets back at him by saying she'd never consider him lol.

Now they're arguing over who's house is more noble.

Much more entertaining.

SHEZ & RAPAEL B SUPPORT

It's about food.

It's nice to see Raphael actually have passion about something instead of just repeating "meat!" over and over.

SHEZ & IGNATZ B SUPPORT

You know, going through supports has made me realize that Golden Deer probably has my overall least favorite cast.

Ignatz has an older brother. He likes his brother at least.

Ignatz is finally talking about how he doesn't love being a knight. He really didn't have much of anything going on removing that conflict.

It's nice to hear Ignatz have his own convictions to become a knight. He's getting more sides to him, which is good.

SHEZ & HOLST B SUPPORT

Holst sneaks with Shez into enemy territory. He's doing it because scouts are going missing. Shez is impressed someone of his status is doing that.

LYSITHEA & RAPHAEL B SUPPORT

Lysithea studied too long and is out after dark. Gets scared by noises. She runs into Raphael and they talk about strengths and weaknesses.

The weird noises she heard wasn't Raphael.

MARIANNE & HILDA PARALOGUE

Marianne needs help from Shez organizing because she sucks at it.

Wow, Hilda not only volunteered to help Marianne clean up the mess, but also to do the scouting mission they were supposed to go on all by herself. It's love.

Hilda doesn't show up for awhile, so they get worried and go to check on her. Given that it dumps me to prepare for the battle next, I'm thinking that was a good call.

Not my favorite paralogue. I had to fight Ingrid :(

They talk about Marianne's typical issues.

It has very "safe" shipping dialogue throughout.

MAIN BATTLE

I don't want to invade the Kingdom. Especially since it makes no sense for Claude to do so.

Hahahahaha, lamo, you deserve it Claude. Fleche raised an army to fight him. Seeing this tiny girl as the final boss is going to be hysterical.

Oh, Arval and Shez stuff. I almost forgot Arval existed. They've got bad feelings. I'm guessing it's because Byleth is fused with Sothis.

Ok guys, I restarted this chapter over and over trying to recruit Byleth, but Claude just stands there in one seized area and won't move until Byleth reaches him - even when no one else is around.

I really just want to be done with this playthrough to be honest (there are so many other games I want to play right now), so I'm not going to bother with recruiting Byleth. I'll try in SB, but the only one I'm going to put any real effort in is AG.

Seeing Fleche as a final boss is funny.

I'm guessing we don't fight Jeralt if you recruit successfully. Got a cool cut scene for not bothering though!

So Byleth doesn't join you because you kill Jeralt, I'm assuming. Though, Byleth doesn't seem to have any issue joining Edelgard when she plays a role in that lamo.

Also, gotta say, I love how there's a chapter you can't use the lords. And for Edelgard and Claude it's because they randomly just don't fight that chapter. For Dimitri, it's epic story reasons lol.

Aw, shit, did Byleth just kill Judith?? That sucks. Oh well. Not restarting. This 3 route thing is too much. I just want to play this again, but one route only.

You know, after Claude's dumbfuckery throughout this route, he kinda deserves this lamo.

So who is it in SB and AG that dies?

Byleth so callous about Jeralt's death. Far cry from the crying in Houses, a bit sad actually.

It's kinda funny that Judith died because Fleche went on another rampage. I'm going to miss seeing her around though.

Is whoever dies in AG bad enough that I should push through and recruit Byleth? I may look that up to give me the proper motivation, but that could backfire if it's someone I don't care enough, but I'm having a hard time thinking of a single character I don't care enough about. Even like Sylvain's dad would make me too sad for Sylvain and I couldn't do it.

Aww, Arval is upset for Shez.

So is Sothis and Byleth merging merging or something?

xxxx

[queenlua]

let's see about 5, 11, 12, 13 for the ask meme?

5. What game would you recommend to someone new to the series?

ugh this is so HARD because i don't think there's any game that's perfect for this...

if they're new to the series but have enjoyed at least a couple older video games at some point (and thus have some tolerance for a bit of gameplay cruft and GBA-era rough edges), i'd be really tempted to throw Sacred Stones at them. absolutely gorgeous sprites, good music, probably the most solid/focused/best-executed story in the series, fun support conversations, and very good gameplay whose only flaw is "it's kinda too easy." but it's satisfying and if someone likes everything about it but "too easy," then that's an easy problem to fix with subsequent games lol

i suspect Awakening is probably the objectively-better answer, though. first "modern"-feeling FE in terms of how streamlined and nice the mechanics feel, the depth/multiplicity of strategies, the storyline is weaker but still has definite highlights (especially when the kids show up), etc

Three Houses is a solid contender but the game is kind of bloated with extras that i think can make playing it feel like a bit of a drag; i know a lot of people who just kinda flaked out or gave up b/c of all the monastery stuff, and i wouldn't want someone's first FE to end that way

i do love the Tellius games but i wouldn't recommend them as starter games. the 3d sprites are kinda ugly and it definitely shows its age a bit in terms of gameplay cruft

11. A character that deserved better?

Edelgard, tbh. she's fantastic when the game isn't trying to make her all woobie/waifu/etc. wouldn't even take many changes to fix this one!

also Renning. i love what's on the page but he gets so little and shows up so late. give the dude some damn base conversations plz

also Meg. the game is so mean to her, goddamn.

12. A game that deserved better?

oh boy. the problem here is, if i finished playing an FE game, that means i liked it well enough over all, even if there's stuff i didn't like. like, i wish Awakening's storyline was stronger, but it definitely feels like it executed on exactly what it wanted to do, so i wouldn't say the game deserves better per se

so i guess i'll say the two FE games i tried and failed to play:

fe6: i ragequit on the map with the fucking reinforcements that move the same turn that they spawn. motherfuckers. why

fe14: i was already pretty "eh" on the story and then that one fucking "defend [x] turns" map (unhappy reunion iirc) took SO much finicky effort to survive that by the time i finished it i was like. ugh. i'm so tired. and then i put it down for a while and never picked it back up oops

13. What do you like most about Fire Emblem?

...god this is going to make me sound SO uncultured but, the support conversations, especially in the older games, are just so delightful. delightful in-and-of-themselves (especially when they would happen DIRECTLY ON THE BATTLEFIELD lmao), and also, were probably weirdly influential in how i thought about game writing / writing generally. conveyed a huge amount of personality & implied huge things about the world & in a relatively small space; and also refused to let anyone be just a rando soldier in your army; you can look back at short fiction i wrote in middle school and see how much i was striving to get that huge-cast-small-space-feel in that format. simple but effective approach

also it's nice to have a big-name game series that executes so well on story and gameplay, on average. i've played a lot of Final Fantasy and i love those games but. often the gameplay is just kinda mediocre/grind-y, right, and i'm forcing my way through for the story? could NOT be fire emblem lol

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Okay I don't do this normally but out of curiosity, I looked at that guys' posts and yeah they're going around sealioning anyone who likes Dimitri being all like "how can you say Dimitri/AM is your favorite when you didn't play all the routes". Buddy it's called having preferences, subjectivity and opinion. I'm sure if we twist their behavior around back at them, they'll be like stop bothering us for liking Edel cause double standards is their bread and butter.

Yeah, I had taken a brief scroll through their blog the first time I saw them argue with Random about Claude because I had a pretty strong feeling that they were just another stan running around around against Rhea and Dimitri fans because I knew that person didn't follow Random when they started pulling the bad faith Claude takes.

I scrolled through a few posts before I was like yeah I'm not even gonna bother looking further because I could see all they were doing was arguing with people whose names I recognized, and the only people who ever do that are the stans. They also have absolutely nothing else but discourse on their blog.

It's crazy to me too, because I've seen those same Dimitri fans try to talk about anything else FE related and yet they still get pulled back into discourse. Like, I'm at the point where I believe everyone in that immediate group is just actively being stalked by the stans (and I recall one of them mentioning they are being stalked by them, but my guess is if one of them is, all of them are).

Also, the stans tend to pull the "you didn't play xyz route" when I'm quite certain most if not all of the Dimitri fans on Tumblr have at the very bare minimum watched the full route on YouTube of anything they didn't play. All these people have the information they need to know where they stand opinion-wise, and like you said, it's just... having an opinion. The stans have their opinions, we don't agree with them, and we don't engage with them unless they engage with us first.

Something I've noticed about the group of Dimitri fans that gets stans going after them is that it's always the stans who start it. They always respond to asks sent to those people. In other words they go onto those people's blogs, look at their posts/their replies to their anons, and start arguing at them over literally anything they say in thsoe ask responses.

Every single time I see a post reach my dashboard from any of those people (you might know the Faerghus/Dimitri group I'm talking about), it's always a stan going after them when they were just answering one of their own anons and posting something on their own blog. I'm sure there are people who think they engage in discourse too much, but they don't even start it. They get harassed and can't just blog in peace.

Unfortunately those same stans have been targeting Random as of late (and I've noticed it's more and more different ones so they're probably going after someone as soon as they notice their buddies are doing so) so it's not that surprising that they've taken notice of me since she and I interact regularly. They basically go through the chain of who interacts with who and try to start shit.

Oh nonnie honey, you better believe if even a single Dimitri fan did to them what they do to us, they'd be all over that and whining about it and posting callouts and shit.

I just want to be able to post whatever my feelings are about Dimitri without worrying that people will try to tear it down because "it's not about Edel-chan and it portrays Dimitri in a good light".

I've blocked every Edelstan I've come across but more of them keep popping up, so... I guess the blocking never ends. My block list is basically just Edelstans and bots at this point with few exceptions.

Funny how the stans don't block Dimitri fans who hate Edelgard to avoid seeing them (it's because they don't actually want to, because they want to argue), even though we're all over here trying to block them, but some of them block evade to keep going. Literally like Dimitri fans have tried to block them and move on, but they persistently find ways to keep harassing. And like I said, they go down the line, so eventually they'll just find every active Dimitri lover who posts about him and whine at them.

[everbrilliantheartbreaker]

5, 8, 18!

5. What game would you recommend to someone new to the series?

on one hand, I feel very underqualified to answer this because I haven't played any of the older games, so I don't exactly have the most well rounded opinion. on the other hand, though, I got into FE through one of the new games! so, while I've been told by friends that it plays a lot differently than older FE games, I do think that Three Houses is a fun way to get people interested in the franchise (and also in RPGs, which I also have never really played but now would like to). the game mechanics are neat, I think a lot of the characters are really fun and interesting, and I think the lore and plot are super fascinating. AND it succeeded at making me want to play every other FE game I can get my hands on (*stares at Path of Radiance* some day...)

8. Least favorite lord/protagonist?

Manna out here tryin to get me sent hate mail again, I haven't played very many FE games yet, so I don't really know most of the lords beyond names + faces, but right now my least favorite lord is Edelgard,,, I think she's a really interesting character and an excellent villain and I definitely don't hate her, but the more I reflect on 3H and CF specifically, the more she frustrates me. I could write a whole thing about it but my biggest issue is how much she just. lies and twists everything to suit her narrative. especially the way that she lies to Byleth, who she supposedly loves. there's a lot about how CF treats Byleth that I don't like, and this is one of my bigger issues.

as for protagonists...Shez is probably my least favorite so far. and it's not even that I dislike them; I actually thought that they were an interesting contrast and opposite to Byleth and I really like their relationship with Dimitri specifically. I just don't feel a huge amount of affection for them. granted, their case is not helped by the fact that I. really fucking hate 3 Hopes. I despis e that game it made me so angry. so unfortunately for them my freshest memories of them are from my least favorite route in the game, wherein they are partially (unintentionally) responsible for the reason the route sucked (although the actual reason is bad writing). like I said I don't dislike Shez tho. they're alright and they deserved a better game (everyone in 3 Hopes did).

18. How do you tend to play Fire Emblem? (es. casually, doing Ironman runs, playing it like a visual novel)

hard + classic full recruit perfectionist run lmao i.e. I try to recruit all characters, complete all paralogues, finish as many support chains as possible, and finish main missions with as many surviving NPCs as possible (VW Fort Merceus kicked my ass this time around tho and half the Almyran forces died :/ ) I would kind of like to go back to a more storyline-oriented recruit style tho. I full recruit because I can't bear to kill anyone I don't have to and I still have a lot of supports + end cards I haven't gotten; but, for instance, the first time I played Golden Deer I only recruited Ashe, and the first time I played Black Eagles I only recruited a small group of characters like Felix, Sylvain, and Lysithea. I don't like killing characters, but I do think it would be a nice change to go back to a smaller recruit group where I could focus on completing a set number of supports and sort of play out a storyline with them like I did with those two routes.

[butwhatifidothis]

"Why does the context that makes this event look horrible matter? Just take it at face value and never use or gather any information from the other routes. Only information on CF matters when talking about things." Why are Edelstans like this?

It's an attempt to make it to where Edelboo totally isn't the villain - no, see, on every single other route in the game EdeIgard is absolutely nothing like she is on CF! Forget that neither of the other lords or Rhea have this apply to them, and that the routes that aren't their focus have them manifest aspects of their personality in different ways than their focus route does (for better or worse) for them - that doesn't apply to Edelgard! Without Byleth's guidance she is TOTALLY COMEPLTELY NOTHING LIKE SHE IS and anything off of her route shouldn't be taken into account when analyzing her!

Like, to an extent I get it, right? Cuz like, while Dimitri isn't not Dimitri on non-AM routes, it's undeniable that the fullest feel for his character is the one we get on his route. Same with Claude and VW, and Rhea and (the end of) SS. So like, yeah, sure, the best and fullest feel we can get for Edelgard would be on CF.

You know.

The route where she explicitly says that she wants to eliminate the Church, Kingdom, and Alliance.

And wants to make complete Imperial control of Fodlan a reality.

And lies about the Church blowing up Arianrhod and never comes clean.

And calls Nabateans creatures that merely masquerade as human.

And says that Rhea's "true self" (the Immaculate One, as in the form she can take specifically because she is Nabatean) is a "cruel beast."

And calls Nabateans something that has "plagued humanity."

As well as monsters.

And vile.

And, being generous, ignorantly calls a genocide a "simple dispute."

And proposes that Rhea and her family controlled Fodlan and humanity after killing Nemesis.

And can never spare any Nabatean in battle, unlike Byleth.

And says that she wants to kill Rhea and the Nabateans (more explicitly, in the JPN ver.), regardless of whether Byleth sided with Rhea.

And rejoices in the fact that there are no more Nabateans in her S support.

And gives control of the Alliance over to Count Bergliez, an Imperial general, after she kills/forcefully exiles its leader - something that is said to have been planned beforehand.

And lets Thales collect the Alliance Relics.

And doesn't reprimand Hubert in any way for suggesting they use their own allies as hostages against the Kingdom forces.

And implicitly denies the notion that she's ever "unleashed atrocities upon the world."

And lies about giving Garreg Mach time to evacuate - yes, one can surmise this even from just playing CF. Shamir's report on the other routes is not needed.

And still uses Demonic Beasts.

And orders the death of her friends.

All of this. In just post timeskip. Likely isn’t even everything. Is almost completely what specifically Edelgard does/believes (and the rest being what she condones). And exactly 0% of which she ever grows out of doing/believing, or redeems herself from, or apologizes for, or feels regret for.

Which is possibly what fucks me up the most about this idea that "You should just look to CF for Edelgard's character" because, even ignoring how the other two lords + Rhea don't get this treatment, CF is where we learn most of the still very evil things Edelgard does or believes. At best, you knock off the fact that we know she knows who actually committed Duscur (as that's AM exclusive) and so this scene has no real impact on Edelgard specifically. Oh, and that she Totally Feels Super Bad for murdering all of these innocent people. For her war that she admits is meant to put Fodlan back under complete Imperial control. After we add on all of the other shit CF reveals about Edelgard. Oh yeah, so much better than the other routes!

And also, it's just objectively bad to get the lore of Fodlan from just CF, because Edelgard says that her loredumps were based on what’s passed down from emperor to emperor. So, you know. She got her information from her father. Her father who is hard-confirmed to have lied to Edelgard about shit before. Vs getting Fodlan’s lore from Rhea, someone who was literally there herself while the shit was happening. Which is more reliable: something that AT BEST came from a thousand year game of Imperial Telephone (and AT WORST came from flat out lies), or something that came from a direct witness of the events in question? The take is just, like.. bad, all around lol

[imaginethreehouses]

@waffless4life here goes! I hope you like it^^ Thank you for requesting these two, I love writing for them!

❤ Poly relationship with Hubert and Jeritza HCs

Even though Hubert and Jeritza may look like a perfect match from the outside, they wouldn't have gotten together if you hadn't been involved as well.

Neither of them was even thinking of love or relationships when you all met. Furthering Edelgard's goals was the one thing on Hubert's mind, and as for Jeritza, well, he was dealing with his own stuff.

You were close with Hubert first, and it was him who swayed you to stay when the war broke out.

You didn't stay out of devotion to Lady Edelgard or out of committment to the cause. You stayed because you feared the toll something like this could take on Hubert.

He never knew how to feel about that. Being the one who's being protected was a new feeling for him.

But as long as it didn't interfere with his duties, he returned the favor and watched over you just as faithfully as well.

Jeritza came into the picture a little later. Often, like others in the army, you both got a kick out of making some snide comments about him and his open thirst for blood.

But quickly enough you started feeling bad for him, and asked Hubert to join you in trying to get him to socialise a bit. The guy was clearly going through some heavy stuff, right?

At first, Hubert wasn't too into the idea. He wasn't too sociable either, and he liked to spend his free time alone with you.

But he couldn't really say no to you when you were so excited for something, so he agreed to give it a try.

Truth be told, Hubert was a little intimidated by Jeritza. He knew that Jeritza was handsome and dashing in all the ways he was not.

He felt bad for it, but he found himself hoping that Jeritza's personality would be bad enough to counter his looks.

When he got to know him, though, he realised he wasn't so bad. They even started hanging out together whenever you were away on missions, playing board games and the like.

Jeritza asked Hubert once if it did not scare him to be alone with him. Hubert laughed and replied that it would take much more than that to make him feel scared.

This put Jeritza at ease from there on. If there was one person in the entire army that looked more frightening than him, it was Hubert. That sort of evened out the stakes.

There was one time where far too long went by without news of your battallion's fate, and Hubert was barely holding himself together. The only person he thought of seeking comfort with was Jeritza.

He was convinced at this point that he loved you just as much as he did. If someone could understand what he was feeling, it was him.

Jeritza admitted to it as soon as Hubert first asked, but reassured him that he had no intentions of getting in between the two of you.

Hubert found it surprisingly easy to admit in return that it was very likely to be your wish that he did, in fact, get in between the two of you.

Jeritza asked how he felt about it, and he wasn't sure how to reply.

Hubert's only experience so far had been with you, and neither of you were especially forward, so he was surprised to see Jeritza follow up on the question by leaning forward in his seat and brushing his fingers lightly against Hubert's cheek.

It seemed like these things came naturally to the other man, which made Hubert feel at a distadvantage. He wanted to reciprocate, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Whatever he did, it was sure to be clumsy, he thought. Grotesque, even. Once again, despite his issues, Jeritza was everything he was not.

So he just stood up and left, and did not speak to Jeritza again until after you came back.

Truly, with these two, you had to do everything yourself. But it was worth the effort.

It did put Hubert a little more at ease to learn later on that Jeritza despised his own looks, the ones that he had been so jealous of.

It did not put him more at ease to hear Jeritza describe his facial features as "interesting" with an honest voice and a straight face. But he figured there had to be something in there he did like, to keep him coming back to kiss it so often.

And the same could be said of how he felt about you. Honestly, the three of you were in a similar situation. You could not understand how you had come to be loved by two other people that you thought the world and heaven of.

But it was unquestionable, in every word and gesture that you shared, that said love was there.

[lochnessies]

I disagree. if Edelgard hates them so much to the point of complete extermination...Why be able to spare flayn and seteyh? If the route is about ethnic cleansing you should have to kill them literally no matter what, not be able to let them live. She literally never shows the same animosity to Seteth or Flayn as she does Rhea. Despite her going "children of the goddess.", her focus is almost always on the woman in charge of the church she sees as corrupt: Rhea.

Duscur doesn't make CF have themes of ethnic cleansing, because Duscur wasn't "Oh Yeah Since we hate this ethnicity lets do this horrible thing", It was TWSITD taking advantage of the fact that people were already prejudiced towards the people of Duscur and stoked the flame hot enough to turn things into a fully blown tragedy. It wasn't even really done FOR edelgard so much as it was done for "Whoever lived through the crest experiments".

Like, Edelgard could have died and her made up brother Carl von Hrevelg could have been the one to survive, and theyd still say "all for your benefit." Just before they say that line Edelgard openly threatens to kill them, so Duscur had nothing to do Edelgard's plan and everything to do with TWSITD's plan.

Like, say what you will about Edelgard and being a trash person, but her motivations don't really have anything to do with races or ethnicty except in regards to the fact that Seteth, Flayn, and Rhea are practically immortal and literally aren't humans who are in a position of power of the main (and false) religion of fodlann. They're also only three nabateans she knows and the only ones we get to see her interact with, the first two being loyal to Rhea and therefore also bad since she thinks Rhea's bad. She only ever calls Rhea (the one she saw turn into a dragon) a beast. Her priority for better or worse is always Rhea.

I dunno, maybe you are right. I just think going "Edelgard is definitely racist" is a bit of a stretch. Like it's a reasonable stretch, but still

I disagree. if Edelgard hates them so much to the point of complete extermination...Why be able to spare flayn and seteyh? 

that’s because she doesn’t spare them!!! only byleth can!! throughout the story edelgard refers to them as ‘beasts’ and dehumanizes them again and again. to her, they are subhuman creatures. yes, they are not human but they are sentient and have human feelings and emotions. they are capable of love and hate just like humans are. edelgard admits that she wants to “obliterate” rhea and those around her. in the jp it is even more explicit and she says that she wants to obliterate rhea and the other children of the goddess. the game mechanics even show this by not allowing you to spare seteth and flayn if you play as edelgard - only byleth can. to contrast this, in the mission where you attack the alliance, if you attack claude (a human) with either byleth or edelgard, you can spare him even if edelgard makes her displeasure known. the game is trying to tell you something. byleth can convince edelgard to spare claude’s life, but under no circumstances can you convince her to spare the nabateans. this is also shown in leonie and linhardt’s paralogue. when you choose your units for the battle against the Immovable (who is saint indech) you cannot bring either hubert or edelgard. this also translates over to fire emblem heroes. if you use edelgard to fight a nonhuman enemy she has a guaranteed follow up quote. "beasts hiding in the light. monsters slithering in the dark. i will destroy them all.”

there’s also these totally not racist quotes about rhea AND the other nabateans:

“the monsters that have controlled fodlan in secret for far too long... rhea is their leader.”

“we are the only ones who can stop this indomitable enemy that has plagued our world for ages. we fight for humanity!”

“i will save this world from those creatures and give humanity its freedom back!”

“should the one leading the people of the world be someone with humanity or a creature that can merely masquerade as a human at will?”

“as you know, my goal is to free our world from the control of rhea and the other children of the goddess.”

“we'll head straight for the castle and strike down their leader—rhea, that vile creature called the immaculate one!”

“if the battle becomes a clash of beasts with inhuman strength...”

“the children of the goddess have been defeated at last. the shape of the world will be forever changed. humanity is free now. the world is ours once again.”

Duscur doesn't make CF have themes of ethnic cleansing, because Duscur wasn't "Oh Yeah Since we hate this ethnicity lets do this horrible thing",

so you’re admitting that crimson flower does have themes of ethnic cleansing with the nabateans and that edelgard does hate that specific ethnicity and does horrible things to them?

Like, Edelgard could have died and her made up brother Carl von Hrevelg could have been the one to survive, and theyd still say "all for your benefit."

ok?? but that didn’t happen. if little carl von hresvelg lived then the tragedy would have been for his benefit and not edelgard’s cold corpse. but carl von hresvelg didn’t survive, edie did. and the tragedy of duscur was done for her.

It was TWSITD taking advantage of the fact that people were already prejudiced towards the people of Duscur and stoked the flame hot enough to turn things into a fully blown tragedy.

you do know that duscur and the kingdom were on pretty good terms right? that’s why lambert was going… to solidify that relationship.

It wasn't even really done FOR edelgard so much as it was done for "Whoever lived through the crest experiments".

that’s your hc. show me anything in the game that proves that. the tragedy happens after the experiments so it would have to be specifically her.

Just before they say that line Edelgard openly threatens to kill them, so Duscur had nothing to do Edelgard's plan and everything to do with TWSITD's plan.

what is twsitd’s plan? it’s to cause chaos on the surface and destroy the church and nabeteans. what is edelgard’s plan? to take over the kingdom/alliance and destroy the church and nabateans. and how did twsitd help foster unrest to aid edel’s war of conquest? they helped start the tragedy of duscur.

edel might not have set the fires or had the idea but she still profited heavily from it and knows who the culprits were the whole times. and yet she never reveals their identities to the public and duscur is forever remembered as a nation of cruel and backstabbing people all because edel wants to save face by not letting the public know she willingly works with a death cult.

Like, say what you will about Edelgard and being a trash person, but her motivations don't really have anything to do with races or ethnicty except in regards to the fact that Seteth, Flayn, and Rhea are practically immortal and literally aren't humans who are in a position of power of the main (and false) religion of fodlann.

goddamn that’s a loaded paragraph. and a shitty one at that. once again, you admit that edelgard has prejudice and ill intent towards a specific race. also what power does seteth and flayn have? they’ve only been at the monastery for 20 years (flayn for only one). and also what significant power does the church of seiros wield? the church in adrestia was dissolved 120 years ago at the start of the game. the church in the alliance is ‘toothless’ and is ignored by the nobility. the church in the kingdom is in open revolt with the central and has tried to assassinate rhea multiple times.

also why does it matter that rhea isn’t human when it comes to the church? THE GODDESS IS HER FUCKING MOTHER! THE RELIGION ORIGINATES FROM THE NABATEANS, YOU KNOW, HER RACE!! SHES THE FOUNDER OF THE CHURCH OF SEIROS! SHE WROTE THE DAMN BOOK! does she not have the right to run the religion that she’s literally the child of the god of? the religion that she started? the religion that comes from her race and culture? what sort of backwards ass logic are you on?

that’s like saying that edel and dimitri don’t deserve their thrones even though their parents were also the rulers and they had been trained since they were kids to be leaders.

also the religion isn’t false. sothis is an actual deity with powers over time, earth, and life. sure, some details are fabricated due to the fact that nabateans are in hiding out of fear of genocide but other than that it’s a legit religion. seteth even talks about humans building churches and worshiping sothis before rhea rebranded it during the war of heroes in order to, as the devs say: “seiros and co. meddled with history not in order to rule over humans, but to quell the flames of war and chaos as much as possible, and to also keep a steady balance about humanity.”

They're also only three nabateans she knows and the only ones we get to see her interact with, the first two being loyal to Rhea and therefore also bad since she thinks Rhea's bad. She only ever calls Rhea (the one she saw turn into a dragon) a beast.

she also can’t interact with macuil and indech. so no, it’s not just bc of the fact that they are close to rhea that she knows about. also no, she also calls seteth and flayn beasts and creatures in my examples above. please reread them because i don’t trust you to have any reading comprehension.

Her priority for better or worse is always Rhea.

even if this was true, which lets be clear it’s not, am i supposed to praise her or???

I dunno, maybe you are right.

yeah :)

I just think going "Edelgard is definitely racist" is a bit of a stretch.

i do not stretch. i’m as stiff as a board. literally no flexibility or reach in my body.

Like it's a reasonable stretch, but still

if it’s reasonable then it’s not a stretch. a stretch is an unrealistic claim that someone has to grasp at straws to make. i literally show you quotes from edelgard’s own mouth and a play by play of her direct actions and you still go ‘well she’s not racist :(‘ if anybody is grasping at straws it’s you

i never back away from an argument. if we can both agree that edelgard being a villain is conclusive then why the fuck are you set on her not being racist despite the evidence? aren’t villains supposed to do bad things? have bad agendas? have twisted morality? last i checked that’s what racism is.

[crossdressingdeath]

Tbh, I think Crimson Flower works a lot better as a first route when you don't know anything about the lore and stuff, but the minute you play the other routes, it just falls apart very easily. Granted even without knowledge of the other routes, I'm not sure how someone would look at Edelgard's racist rhetoric towards the Nabateans and be okay with it.

Yeah, Edelgard's basically like "They're not human so they should die" which is uh... they clearly have human-level intelligence and look almost exactly like humans and act exactly like humans (albeit humans who live a very long time and so have a different perspective than a teenager) and there's no evidence that they as a species are inherently given to evil and Fire Emblem has a long tradition of sympathetic and heroic non-human races including the manaketes which the Nabateans are clearly based on, so I'm gonna need a bit more justification than "they're not human" for why the entire species should be wiped out.

I see what you're saying, but the issue is if you play Crimson Flower first there's a good chance that you're going to be looking at all the other routes through the lens of "Edelgard is right and everyone else should just surrender and let her steal rule steal their land from them because the Church is bad and that means everyone's land should go to Edelgard for reasons because Edelgard said so". Which yes, will be the case for all the routes, but as I said in the other post in the other routes you're given enough information in that route to be able to tell consistently when the route's lord is being unreliable. You get more elements of the story once you've played all the routes, but you don't need all that context if you're just trying to figure out if the route's lord is lying or not. If you're just asking "Hm, is Claude lying about this plot point" in Verdant Wind or "Is Dimitri just being Early Part Two Dimitri or does this make sense with the information he has access to" in Azure Moon, you don't need to play any other routes to figure it out. Meanwhile Crimson Flower either outright misleads a player who hasn't played any other route or makes it clear that Edelgard just refused to pay attention to any information that contradicted her own preexisting beliefs, which is... honestly most of the information you get even on Crimson Flowers, but I will admit that Crimson Flower had some excellent writing and Edelgard is quite persuasive if you're on her route.

Now, I'm going to be entirely fair here: the concept of playing Crimson Flower first and then realizing over the course of the other three routes that Edelgard is actively lying, either to herself or just to everyone around her, to make her warmongering imperialist power grab look heroic and not like... well, a warmongering imperialist power grab? It is genuinely fantastic. Edelgard talks a good game and it's easy to get sucked into what she's saying if you haven't played any of the other routes and so don't know better. There's a lot of applicability in people get suckered into doing something terrible because the person in charge is really good at both controlling the flow of information and talking people into seeing their way as the only way. Personally the writing isn't quite tight enough that I think that's what they were going for (I mean, it is way too obvious that Edelgard's lying through her teeth), but there's a strong story there. The main issue... honestly is that social media is full of people with no reading comprehension who miss the fact that everything about this story screams that we're not supposed to buy Edelgard's insistence that she's in the right or side with her when there's a discrepancy in the narratives across the routes (hint, the fact that every route except hers agrees is a bit of a giveaway). So I guess the issue is less with the writing than it is with the fact that certain subsets of fandom are the epitome of "lowest common denominator"...

[philliamwrites]

The Dawn Will Come [Chpt.2]

Fandom: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Pairing: Dimitri x Reader, Claude x Reader, Edelgard x Reader, Yuri x Reader, Edelgard x Byleth, lots of minor pairings

Tags: #gn reader, # platonic love byleth & reader, #reader is a tactical unit, #angst, #slow burn, #subplots, #unreliable narrator, #pining, #remporary amnesia, #reluctant herp, #canon divergence, #lost twin au, #many chapters, #original content

Words: 6.7k

Summary: Waking up in a forest without any knowledge of your past and who you are, you join the house leaders of the Officers Academy to search for a way to return your memories. Unfortunately, the church has different plans for you, and Fate places you in the centre of a cruel game with deadly stakes. It certainly doesn’t help to fall in love with a house leader who is doomed to be your demise.

Notes: Chapter 1 | Chapter 3

Chapter 02: The Herald of Dawn

Hold me, O Night, with motherly affection, While the wan earth wakes with a misty yawn. By my blood will be born the Dawn and from my fleeting dream—the undying sun!

[Gabriele D’Annunzio]

    Hushed whispers wake you from the dark. The crackling of fire sweeps away the last remains of weary unconsciousness, and you blink at a tent's ceiling. Someone draped heavy blankets over you, and with every breath you exhale, puffy white clouds rise up. The shadows of a fire dance across the walls, their blurry movements flush another wave of dizziness over you, and as you sit up, you notice a tight feeling around your head. When you raise a hand to your forehead, there is a bandage sitting tightly wrapped around your head, covering your right eye. The pain has finally stopped, but it still feels dully raw, like an injury that hasn’t healed properly and serves now as a reminder of anguish.

    The memories from the battle rush back to you, the sound of metal hitting metal and heavy bodies dropping to the ground echo in your mind. Death was nothing new to the soldiers and mercenaries, so how come you don’t feel particularly sorry for the fallen? You’re no soldier, at least that’s what every fibre of your body tells you, so normalising killing isn’t right. You rebuild your surety of that, one shaky brick at a time.

    Once on your feet, you make your way outside, drawn in by the smell of cooked meat and quiet chatter. The sight of a small camp greets you: more tents build a row on this side of the camp, and in the centre, solders sit around a small fire, their voices barely audible. They lean over a steaming kettle, their weapons at their feet or beside tree trunks—laid down for the night but still within reach.

    “Heey, you’re finally back with us!” Claude’s voice rings through the camp, and several heads turn in your direction. As he waves for you to join him, you duck your head and move quickly to his side, wishing you could just merge with the ground and disappear from everyone’s attention. “Little one, you got us worried there,” he says. On his knees, he’s balancing a steaming wooden bowl, and the sight and smell reminds you how hungry you are. Your stomach agrees by providing a low growl.

    “How long have I been out?” You barely recognise your own voice, the sound rough from exhaustion. Claude hums in thought and gestures with one hand to a soldier to bring you food, while his other pats the ground beside him for you to sit down. “We managed to march a couple of hours after cleaning up the mess from the battle. Right now we’re near the edge of the forest. There should be only one more day of marching until we reach the monastery.”

    “And you guys are sure they can help me up there?” you wonder, watching the first group of soldiers get ready for the night watch. They’re frighteningly young, jostling and bumping into each other, laughing and stamping their feet against the cold snap that still lingers, the last gasp of winter before spring begins in earnest.

    “If not there, I’m not sure there’s anyone out there who can help you.”

    You glare at Claude. “Surely you must be the voice of confidence in this merry bunch, right?”

    He laughs. “I’m the closest you’ll get to an optimist around here.”

    “That’s reassuring.”

    “Reassuring is my second name.”

    “No, you said it’s von,” you mumble. Claude stares at you for a long minute, then bursts out laughing, the sound dark and rich. “No, that’s a noble prefix. You don’t even remember that?”

    You open your mouth, and close it like a fish, feeling your cheeks raise in temperature. He shouldn’t make you feel guilty for forgetting something like that, and yet the shame settles in your bones and you want to smack your head against something to help your brain remember.

    “Ah, but pardon my rudeness,” Claude purrs and gives you a mock bow. “I can tell you everything you want to know about nobility and how overrated it is. In fact, I might as well convince you to join the Alliance before Their Highnesses steal you to their side.”

    “I’m not going to be on anyone’s side,” you mumble, and steal Claude’s blanket as payback, relishing in his offended expression. “It has nothing to do with me.”

    Claude raises an eyebrow. “Ehh, I’m not so sure it’s that easy.”

    “It is,” you insist, unable to hide the sulk from your voice. “Because I say so.”

    Claude raises both eyebrows. “That’s not how it works.”

    “Watch me.”

    Something like a shadow flashes across his emerald eyes, but it disappears quickly enough for you to think it’s only the light from the campfire playing a trick on you. “We’ll see about that.” He scrapes the remaining contents from his bowl and lets out a satisfying yawn when he’s finished, stretching his long limbs like a cat getting comfortable. “Sooo,” he starts, unnecessarily dragging out the vowel and the sound of it locks up your shoulders into one tense muscle in preparation of what he’s going to say next. ��Care to explain what happened back there?”

    You take a deep breath. “You mean when it felt like my eye was going to fall out of its socket?”

    “Actually I meant when you tripped over that one root after we found you.” He gives you a crooked grin. “But that’s interesting too, please go on.”

    “I thought no one saw that,” you mumble, and avoid his gaze as you remember that stupid root that nearly broke your neck. Well, Claude surely knows a thing or two about tricking someone into talking about exactly what he wants to hear.

    You thank the mercenary that brings you food, and notice it’s the one from the battle with the crooked nose. He gives you a just as crooked grin and limps back to his comrades. The stew warms your chilled bones, the rich flavour of meat and vegetables lifting your spirits and filling you with energy. As you eat, you drag out the minutes but Claude doesn’t even squirm as you let him wait, and starts whistling an off-key tune until you start to feel uncomfortable.

    “Well, if I knew, I wouldn’t be afraid that it might happen again,” you admit begrudgingly. “Because that was scary.”

    “Yeah, it didn’t really look like fun,” Claude agrees. “But what was it in the first place?”

    “I don’t know.” You start to become weary of those words. “But it hurt.”

    Claude gives you a sympathetic look, and goes silent, allowing you to eat, but you can’t shake off the feeling his mind is still trying to figure out what’s the deal with you. He can, for all you care. And once he’s done, he can write a report and hand it right to you so you’ll understand as well.

    Out of the corner of your eye you notice someone moving towards you. Dimitri approaches you with caution like you’re a small animal he might scare off with hasty movements. But the look he gives Claude is that of a disappointed father, and he shakes his head once he’s standing in front of him. “Claude, we were supposed to not disturb our guest,” Dimitri says sternly, then bows his head in your direction. “Apologies. We should let you rest.”

    “No, it’s okay,” you admit, and shuffle a little to the side to make room. “Please stay.”

    Both boys exchange a quick look, but then Dimitri sits down, minding a polite distance unlike Claude who only needs to stretch his legs for his feet touch your knee.

    “We were worried,” Dimitri starts. Just like Claude, he’s taken off most of his armour, and nothing about him stands out as a member of the royalty. He looks just like any other boy, and you’d never admit it out loud, but you already miss the blue tones on his uniform, the colour making his remarkably ice-blue eye stand out even more. “Luckily we could dispose of all bandits and return to a safe area. Byleth carried you here all by herself.”

    “Yeah, remind me not get on her bad side, okay?” Claude laughs, but you think you hear a slight nervous tremble in his voice. “She looks like she can decapitate me with a butter knife.”

    “She doesn’t look like it. She very certainly will behead you with a butter knife,” Dimitri provides with a pleasant smile as if he’s talking about the weather.

    “See, and that’s why she fits best in the Alliance,” Claude says, winking at you. “We’re always full of surprises.”

    Dimitri rolls his eyes and crosses his arms in front of his broad chest. “You might try it. I personally plan to convince her to join the Kingdom.”

    “I think you’re both too late for that,” you say as you look to the other side of the camp where Byleth and Edelgard are currently engaged in a deep conversation, their heads leaning close to each other. Claude groans miserably, but quickly recovers as he turns to you, his eyes brightening up with excitement. “It’s okay, because once my disarming charm has wrapped you around my little finger, I’ll have an impressive tactician on my side.”

    You almost choke on your next spoon of stew. “Tactician? I wouldn’t go that far.”

    Beside you, Dimitri clears his throat. “Though I have to question Claude’s way of persuasion, I must admit he isn’t wrong about the latter. What you did back there was impressive.”

    “I really didn’t do anything special,” you mumble at the same time Claude raises both hands leisurely and says, “Hey, it’s not my problem you think you’re immune to it, Your Princeliness.”

    Dimitri grumbles something in a foreign language under his breath. Grinning smugly, Claude turns to you, and nudges your side. “Have confidence, little one. They’ll teach you everything you need to know up there.” He points up towards a mountain where you’ll apparently be heading tomorrow. If you squint, you think you can make out lights in the horizon brightening the night sky.

    “That monastery,” you say, trying to ignore how Claude’s body radiates heat. “What exactly is that place? I’ve never heard of a monastery that holds a school. I think,” you quickly add, unsure what thoughts provided by your hazy mind are facts.

    “The Officers Academy is a facility where students learn the arts of warfare, magic, and leadership,” Dimitri explains. He’s very obviously trying not to look at Claude, which in return has Claude’s grin widening even more. “The lessons provide us with everything we need as upcoming heads of our families. Swordsmanship, sorcery, authority, the history of our continent. There is much to learn for everyone attending the classes.”

    “So it’s a death factory,” you translate, the sudden bitter taste in your mouth overshadowing the taste of the stew. “How can they just teach that stuff like it’s normal?”

    “You saw it yourself, didn’t you.” Claude stretches his long limbs and leans back until he props his body up on his elbows. “Bandits and thieves everywhere.”

    “And most students come from a noble house,” Dimitri adds. “They need to be taught how to take command, and about the responsibilities coming with leadership.”

    You blow a strand of hair away from your face, mood dropped now that you know where you’ll be from tomorrow on. “This doesn’t sound right.” Though you can’t really say how a school is supposed to be instead. This is a world with different rules, and you aren’t sure if it’ll be easy to accommodate to them.

    While the boys bicker how good the plot of the tale mentioned earlier really is, you see Byleth approaching. A bruise is forming on her left cheek, and she holds her arm as if bearing the pain from a wound. But nothing of that is portrayed on her face, as if her brain hasn’t registered she’s wounded yet and hence doesn’t need to express it.

    “How are you?” she asks, sending the boys a quick look. Dimitri and Claude climb to their feet and wish their good nights with a quick bow. They hurry to Edelgard and gang up on heir, probably interrogating her about the conversation she's had with Byleth.

    “I’m better,” you say, a little surprised you actually mean it. You feel refreshed and nourished, ready for another day of walking. Byleth sits down and watches the camp for a moment in silence. The chaos from before has settled into a quiet hum. Men and women sit together in little circles and tell their glorious battle stories with boisterous laughter, selling the illusion of a victorious life. But that might easily end the next day because of a hasty recklessness. No one thinks of that. Everyone is just celebrating, reaching for flasks and living in the moment. It’s a beautiful sight.

    As the buzzing sound of people chatting subsides and the first turn in for the night, Byleth turns towards you, her voice lowered. “What you did back there,” she starts, and for whatever reason remains silent as if she decided talking about it isn’t a good idea. Shadows from the weakened fire dance across her face, and again you’re flooded with the unfathomable feeling of familiarity. It’s in the sharp lines of her face, the way her eyes move and settle on something as she observes her surroundings. It’s almost a painful sense of nostalgia. Something about this woman just brings you an unusual amount of ease, like it doesn’t really matter who you are, and rather that you’re here that makes the difference.

    Before you can stop your brain, you’re already asking, “Do we know each other by chance?”

    Byleth looks at you for a long minute, then slowly shakes her head, and you try not to show your disappointment too much. “I’ve travelled a lot with my father,” she says. “We’ve come through many lands and villages. You may have seen me at some point, but we’ve never exchanged a word until yesterday.”

    You nod at the plausible explanation, but the feeling that this isn’t the right answer curls like a hook into your heart. “And your father hasn’t said anything about me as well?”

    “No.” Byleth’s eyes follow your hands as they set down the empty bowl. Seeing that you’ve finished everything, she nods in approval. “And he doesn’t forget a face.”

    “How do you all just … trust me,” you wonder, looking to where Jeralt is miserably leaning against a tree trunk as Alois keeps talking and talking. He looks like he wishes someone would take him down with an arrow.

    “He doesn’t,” Byleth says. “And he calls me a little whippersnapper for that. He hasn’t called me that in the five years.” At the sound of the smile in her voice you snap your head in Byleth’s direction, but when you look, she wears the same bland expression like before.

    “But you do,” you start carefully, not trusting your ears again, so you settle on staring at her until she gives another emotion. “Care to explain why?”

    “For now, you haven’t given me any reason not to,” she states as if it really were that simple. It couldn’t be. Up until now Byleth has been your only anchor that your meeting wasn’t purely coincidental—that the reason shrouding your memories would dissipate like the night once dawn breaks if you just stick to her side, and everything will be revealed in time. But now without anything to hold on to, you feel like you’re slipping deeper and deeper into an abyss from which you can’t ascend. This feeling is terror fizzing in your blood like poison, and you shudder at the thought that you’ll forever remain adrift.

    “Your powers,” Byleth continues, unaware of your mental breakdown right next to her. “They’re unusual, and if you learn to use them right, very dangerous.” Spoken by everyone else, this might sound like a threat, but Byleth says it like a simple statement, a fact, unaware how much she tilts your world with it. “What do you plan to do with them?”

    You don’t have to think long about it. “I won’t do anything. Whatever it was, it’s over,” you say and gesture at your bandaged eye. It’s true. Since you woke up, your eye has remained calm, no red veil or eery proclamation someone might step into the campfire and burn alive. The pounding has stopped, and the normalcy of it is like a soothing balm.

    Byleth studies you. You really wish she could give you more than her vacant expression. “You don’t know yet … your eye.” She takes your spoon and with the end of it, she draws a symbol on the ground. “Do you know what that is?”

    You look at it, but nothing comes to your mind. It’s just a four pointed star with two lines crossing the right and left tips. “No, I’ve never seen it.”

    Byleth holds your gaze as if she hopes to find a lie written between your eyes, and this time you don’t look away until she relents with a barely audible sigh.

    “Why do you ask?”

    “Because before you passed out, it appeared here.” She taps a finger against her closed, right eye, then points at you. Your body goes rigid. Immediately, your hands fly up to tear off the bandage, but Byleth catches your wrists and holds them down. “Not yet.”

    “I want to see it.” Your breath catches in your lungs. It sounds like you need air because you’re drowning. “I want it off. Take it off!”

    “I can’t show you, there are no mirrors,” Byleth says quietly, and throws a quick glance around the camp to see if your panic has alarmed anyone. You want to point out that you could use the reflection of her sword, but maybe Byleth has considered the same and thought it a bad idea, because she doesn’t know what else you might do with a weapon in your current state. Seeing that fighting against the vice grip she has on your hands is futile, you slump down, your arms falling slack back to your side. “Just what… what is happening. What is that?”

    “Edelgard said it might be a Crest, but none she or the others have seen before,” Byleth explains. “They told me there is a teacher at the monastery who studies Crests.” She gives your arms a barely noticeable squeeze before she lets go. “So it’s going to be okay.”

    “How can you say that?” you nearly sob, and wish you could hold onto her longer as she stands up and brushes dirt off her uniform. “How can you be so sure?”

    “I’m not,” Byleth says, giving you one last look. You want to tell yourself it’s something like worry you see in her eyes, but her expression remains blank, like a board that’s been wiped clean. “I can only hope.”

    The next morning, Jeralt and Alois set an unforgiving pace, determined to reach the monastery shortly after dawn broke. While everyone else couldn’t wait to reach their home as fast as possible, you feel worry grow with every step up the hill towards the walls and towers. The monastery looms like a stronghold, a building so tall and intimidating, built to make people feel small.

    You were allowed to take off the bandage, and there was nothing worse than knowing something was on your eye but you couldn’t see it. Unlike everyone else. They kept staring at you, mumbling to each other in quiet whispers, and more than once you considered telling them that just because your eye was different it didn’t mean you were blind. It was reason enough for you to put the bandage back on and stay away from the soldiers and mercenaries, leaving them to their superstitious rumours. Who could have thought that you’d grab someone else’s attention entirely with that revelation.

    Even before the first sunbeams broke through the budding branches, the wind carrying the smell of spring and new life, Edelgard stuck to you like a tick. It wasn’t hard to find out she was more interested in your Crest than you as a person, and every question you couldn’t answer fuelled her irritation. Still she was nothing but determined to squeeze the tiniest information out of you, and even though you tried to avoid her by either marching way too fast or way too slow, Edelgard didn’t relent and remained by your side. Fear is a little exaggerated to describe what you feel towards her, but it's close. Whenever her sharp eyes focus on you, unease takes hold of your brain and the words leave your mouth as nervous stammers. It certainly doesn’t help that you know she can easily hack off a grown man’s arm without so much as blinking. Or that the corners of her mouth curl up into the sweetest, rare smile.

    Once you’re on the trade road up to the monastery, pebble makes way to smooth cobblestone. Giant iron doors stand wide open, and as your group enters, a merchant’s cart rolls past you and greets the returning knights. After the first entrance point, the second waits in the form of a portcullis and more knights standing on guard. Past the second ring of walls, you enter a small forecourt. On both sides are stalls and booths with merchants screaming their prices and the sound of metal hammered into the right shape at the blacksmith’s. At the foot of wide stairs leading up into the first building, a man dressed in dark blue robes awaits you, his strong arms crossed behind his back.

    “Welcome back,” he greets Alois and the students. “Your messenger bird has reached us yesterday late into the evening, and preparations have been made.” To Jeralt, he says, “My name is Seteth. I am an adviser to the archbishop. Lady Rhea awaits you.” Jeralt nods but he looks a lot more cautious since you’ve entered the monastery grounds. At the mention of that name, his posture visibly tenses, but he gestures to Byleth and you to follow him nonetheless.

    “We shall return to our respectable classes for now and make known we are unscathed,” Dimitri says. “Please, Byleth, and you too, if things have calmed down, meet the other students as well, won’t you?”

    “Ohh, good idea. You have to go around and introduce yourself as our great saviours.” Claude winks at you with both thumbs up. Edelgard slaps his hands back down.

    “We’ll be standing here until evening if we don’t get going," she says. "Please give Lady Rhea our regards. We’ll report to her once everything is sorted out about you.” She eyes you sideways, then ushers the boys down another hall like a mother hen. You exchange a quick look with Byleth who already looks very exasperated with the student’s antics.

    Seteth leads you into the Audience Chamber, a rectangular room with statues decorating the walls, and asks for you to wait. The moment he leaves the room, you turn towards Jeralt and Byleth and ask, “Who is this Lady Rhea?”

    “I’m aware Byleth doesn’t know much about her, I haven’t taught her he teachings of Seiros, but you—” He stops mid sentence seeing the way you look at him, and clears his throat. “Lady Rhea is the archbishop of the Church of Seiros. She’s commanding the knights and sees that the people don’t do anything stupid in the name of Seiros.”

    “Seiros?” you ask, turning the name in your head. Nope, nothing.

    “You know, the one who defeated the King of Liberation and founded the Church of Seiros?” When you just shrug, Jeralt scratches his beard and hums in thought. “Well, I sure won’t be the one preaching what you should know or not. But maybe don’t make it all too obvious you aren’t a follower.”

    Or what, you want to ask, but Seteth returns and he isn’t alone. The woman walking ahead of him looks like she belongs on the portrait of a saint. It isn’t much that she walks towards you, but rather strides in grateful steps to the middle of the room, her chin raised high and shoulders squared. And yet when she looks at your little assembly, her eyes are soft and kind, her expression open and friendly.

    “I welcome you into these sacred halls,” she says, her voice like soothing velvet on your skin. “Alois informed me of what happened, and I thank every one of you for saving the students.” Lady Rhea smiles at you all separately. Her eyes linger on you, and she titles her head slightly. “I've also heard about the wondrous things that happened to you. Please, be so kind and remove the bandage. Let me take a look at this Crest.”

    You hesitate, your fingers playing with the hem of your shirt. But Rhea waits patiently and raises a delicate hand when her advisor Seteth flinches to repeat her request. Slowly, you take the bandage off, barely able to imagine how the symbol or Crest as they call it looks upon your eye. When you meet Rhea's gaze again, her smile freezes, and her eyes widen in surprise. Her lips part slightly, then stretch into an ecstatic smile. Beside her, Seteth inhales sharply. “This is impossible,” he breathes, growing pale. You start to panic.

    “Why, what's wrong with me? What is impossible?”

    “Nothing, nothing is wrong,” Rhea quickly reassures you, but it's hard to believe when Seteth looks like he's seen a ghost. “A fortunate day indeed. Not only does one of the strongest knights to have ever walked these halls return, but it also seems that a new chapter of history dawns upon us.”

    All eyes land on her, one more puzzled than the other. Even Seteth doesn’t look like he fully comprehends what’s happening. “Lady Rhea?” he asks cautiously at the same time as Jeralt demands, “What are you talking about?”

    The archbishop ignores them both, and the longer she gives you that pleasant smile, the more unsettled you feel. “When Alois wrote about a Crest appearing on your body, I was not sure what to think of it. But now, I cannot hide my joy at the return of a Crest that we thought was lost to history.”

    “I—I don’t know why I have it,” you quickly say, feeling you have to defend yourself before they accuse you of stealing it. Can Crests be stolen in the first place? “I don’t remember why I have it.”

    Lady Rhea nods, her solemn expression making way to worry. “Of that Alois informed me as well. You may stay here until your memories return. Allow me for now to tell you about the Crest. Maybe that will dissipate some of the darkness shrouding your mind.”

    You nod, and brace yourself for whatever she’ll reveal. It certainly helps that Byleth stands close to you, her mere presence a standing stone you can hold onto for now without drifting away.

    “It is a Crest most uncommon,” Lady Rhea explains, her hands gracefully crossed in front of her. “For there was only one person who bore it. This Crest belonged to the very one who served our Lady Seiros against the evil powers that threatened Fódlan thousands of years ago. He was known as Seiros’ Champion. The Herald of Dawn.”

    She allows those words to sink into you, and how deep they sink. Now that they’re out here, you feel like they pull you down, deeper down into a dark sea from which you can’t surface. The only result is drowning.

    “Herald of … you don’t think. You can’t think—” Your thoughts move way too fast, you can’t grasp any to sort them.

    “What I think means nothing in light of what has transpired and therefore is reality. You are chosen by the Goddess herself to bring hope to the people of Fódlan. You are the Herald of Dawn.”

    You feel sick. It may be phantom pain, but you could swear your right eye starts hurting again, as if the Crest is reacting to the revelation, the call of its true nature. You dig your trembling fingers into the fabric of your jacket, considering for the tiniest second to gouge your eye out. Can’t be anyone’s champion or Herald without the Crest, right? “So, you’re saying … am I the one from back then? This Champion?” If you were really the same person, how were you still alive after a thousands of years? The prospect of finally having an identity is great, but you aren’t sure you’re ready to pay the price that comes with it. And this one seems to carry a very heavy price.

    “That seems quite impossible.” This time Seteth speaks up. He looks just as unnerved by this revelation as you feel. “The Herald appeared when Saint Seiros was in dire need, and once his duty was fulfilled, he vanished. ”

    “But now, another Herald has come, and with you the promise of suffering and hardships,” Rhea explains, her expression now strict and foreboding. “The task of giving hope is the most difficult to ask of a person. But that is the path the Goddess has chosen for you.”

    “No, no, you’re wrong. I’m no Herald … and certainly no Champion of anyone. I can’t give people hope, I don’t even know what to give them hope for!” Your voice borders on hysteric, but you’ve never been more determined to plead your case. “I’m not the right person. I’m really not.”

    “Then how come you bear the Crest of Seiros’ Champion, my child?” Lady Rhea asks, and you notice the tiny shift in her voice. The kindness grows thiner and thiner, and in its place austerity and even coldness settle—the voice of authority and undeniable command. “It is Our Goddess’ will. The Church of Seiros needs you. The people of Fódlan need you. You cannot turn away from your Fate.”

    You want to argue that yes, you can; you’ll turn around and leave this place filled with crazy people and their fanatic beliefs. One look from Byleth stops your thoughts. Lady Rhea interprets this silence as compliance, and nods, visibly pleased. “We have waited for this opportunity for so long,” she continues, now smiling again. “There shall be festivities today. As a welcome to our Herald, and the return of Blade Breaker Jeralt. For you, his daughter, we have also thought of a task that will greatly help Garreg Mach.”

    Jeralt grunts, clearly unhappy, but Byleth only cocks her head to one side. You’re astonished that after everything, she’s still awfully calm and collected.

    “A teaching position has become free as of yesterday,” Lady Rhea explains to Byleth. “By Alois' recommendation, you are to take that position and teach one of the Houses here at the Officers Academy. Your colleagues will provide you with further information. As for you,” and you flinch when she turns to you, afraid what else she has in store, “you too shall teach the students the course of leadership and command. Seiros’ Champion was a great tactician. He honed Saint Macuil’s abilities. I would not be surprised if you too show an unparallelled gift for strategy.”

    “Well,” you start, but the hesitation is clear, and Lady Rhea smiles like she knows what you can do once the Crest is activated. “Whereas you are to choose one house,” she tells Byleth, “the Herald will hold seminars. As a servant of the Church, you cannot call in favourites.”

    “I don’t even know what to teach,” you mumble weakly. “How to teach.”

    “Me neither,” Byleth says, the first time she’s spoken since entering the Audience Chamber. The amusement glinting in Lady Rhea’s eyes is like the sun reflected on a purling river. “Do not worry,” she says. “You will learn in time. And we are here to help you as well.”

    On your lips lie the words that they certainly didn’t help you. You came here so they could help to search for a way to return your memory.

    Instead, they made everything worse.

    The ceremonial robes hang heavy over your shoulders. The feast hasn’t started yet, but you’re already sweating and panting with the weight of the golden embroidery and the head piece decorating your forehead. When Seteth brought everything in a couple of hours ago, he was grumbling something unintelligible under his breath, at his side a little girl who, unlike him, was happy to meet you and to see that you’d take on the role as the Herald. You wanted to tell Flayn there was a difference between want and have to, but she was already focused on helping you dress and prepare for the festivities. Servants handled the remaining tasks of making you presentable, and now you’re standing in front of a giant mirror, observing yourself.

    It was scary how things changed so fast. Not even 24 hours ago, you were a nobody, a nameless figure roaming the woods, and now there is a name that isn’t your own—no, not a name. A title. A title that will all but replace your name. History won’t remember you as a person, they will remember the deeds that you’ve done, the mistakes that you’ll commit. Lady Rhea spoke of honour like it’s a crown on your head, but you see the noose that it really is around your throat. The head piece feels too heavy, and the golden necklace sitting on your neck reminds you more of a dog collar.

    There’s a knock on your door. Seteth said that someone would get you before everything starts, and you don’t even try to hide the relieved sob when Byleth enters the room. She examines you from head to toes, and leans her head to the side, one finger on her chin. “You look … different,” she says.

    “You mean ridiculous.” You move your arms, demonstrating how the wide sleeves flap uselessly at your side. “I wish we could do this all without me looking like a sack of potatoes.”

    “I had to think of cabbages, but you aren’t wrong either.” She crosses the room and looks outside the window. You can already hear the masses as they enter the Cathedral, and it does nothing to calm your haywire nerves. Byleth seems to notice as much. She turns to you, and asks, “How are you holding up?”

    “Do you want the real answer or the one I prepared for Lady Rhea?”

    Byleth raises a brow.

    “Not good. I’m just … how could this happen?” You throw up your hands in frustration, and the robes give a dangerous tearing sound. Your arms fall immediately down, the thought of damaging a hundreds of years old ceremonial robe the last thing you need today. “Of all the things, how could I suddenly become some figure of the Church.”

    “Is it so hard to believe that the Goddess of Fódlan has lead you to this path?” Byleth crosses her ams and leans against the wall next to the window, eyeing you curiously.

    “I don’t even believe in this Goddess,” you groan, flopping on your bed. The chambers chosen for you overlook the bridge leading to the Cathedral where people swarm inside like little ants returning to their anthill. It was a small room equipped with all necessities for comfort but no additional expenses on luxury. A bed, a dresser, a simple table and chair, a mirror, and a shelf take up all the space. Not that you could have brought anything with you.

    You look up at Byleth and dread the next question. “Do you believe in it?” you ask. “That I’m someone chosen?”

    “Hmm.” Byleth casts one last glance outside, then pushes off the wall, gesturing you to follow her. You sigh, and mentally prepare yourself for what will happen in the Cathedral. Before you leave the room, Byleth rests her hand on the door handle and looks back at you over her shoulder. “I don’t know. Where I’m from, belief doesn’t save you from the sword of a thief. Only deeds and actions. It’s the reason my father and I are still alive.” She considers you for a moment, and when you blink you imagine you see the tiniest smile on her face. “What you did yesterday was very much real to me. Maybe a Goddess guided you, maybe it was just lucky instinct. But you saved my life, and that certainly is something I can rely on.”

    She doesn’t wait for an answer, and swings the door open. You quickly follow, your steps feeling a lot lighter than before. “I guess I’m just frustrated,” you admit, carefully paying attention your voice isn’t too loud. “That they think there’s someone who can just decide how my life is going to be. Like this herald business suddenly defies who I am.”

    “As long as you don’t forget who you are, does it matter?” Byleth wonders aloud, turning down another corridor that ends in stairs leading down. “As long as there is just one person who doesn’t forget, does it really matter?”

    Maybe not to her, but for some inexplicable reason, it means a great deal to you. So you answer with a grumble, and Byleth hums like she knows she’s right. To change the subject, you ask, “What about you? How can you just follow along with being a teacher here?”

    “Truth be told, I’m not happy,” Byleth says, nodding to the knights standing on guard in the first floor that leads outside. “But at the same time I can see Lady Rhea’s reasoning. Those students need someone who teaches them not to be stupid on the real battlefield. Especially when they are to be future rulers of Fódlan. If I’m the one shaping those little whippersnappers, I can rest at ease.”

    You follow her down the hallways, staying silent until, “Whippersnapper is such a weird word,” you say.

    Byleth gives a huff of air that barely passes as a chuckle. “It is.”

    Together you leave the living quarters and enter the Cathedral at the backside where everything is closed off for the rest of the people. Lady Rhea and Seteth are already waiting for you, both dressed in equally complicated robes as you.

    “Thank you, Professor.” Lady Rhea nods towards Byleth, who nods back and joins the other teachers. “And now, Herald, it is time to meet the sheep you shall shepherd from today on. Please, follow me.”

    She doesn’t give you time to prepare for the crowd waiting for you, and glancing at Seteth for help doesn’t do anything either as he just crudely nods towards Lady Rhea, telling you to go along. You square your shoulders and hope for the best.

    The Cathedral has been decorated with candles and tapestry showing the banner of the Church of Seiros and above it the Crest of the Herald. A platform has been built for your entrance, and stepping on it, your gaze roams over all the assembled students, clergy, and knights. Seeing them, you feel terror seize your body, locking up all muscles. The masses look at you with hunger in their eyes, ready to devour you like you’re the last piece of bread on the table. “Herald, Herald! ” they cry, and each time they open their mouths, the noose tightens around your neck. Saint and Martyr vaguely dance at the edges of your mind, beyond your grasp, mocking how you know them but don’t understand their very being. This is bigger than you. This is far bigger than you can manage, and you want to run away and hide from their greedy eyes.

    Scanning the crowd, you notice the house leaders in the far back. Edelgard looks unpleased, her mouth set into a grim line, while Dimitri claps politely with the rest, and Claude raises a golden cup in mocking salute. You really want to break down and cry. The only solid point is Byleth, has always been Byleth up until now, at the other end of the room, holding your gaze steadfast like a pillow of strength in troubled waters.

[kendrixtermina]

It REALLY annoys me when ppl single out Edelgard as the one who ‘needs the MC’.

Edelgard carries through her plan wether Byleth is there or not; She’s just less lonely, can do more stuff like she actually wants to, and may escape without dying in the process, but she was fine with being an unsung hero/dying for her goals & her goals are at least partially  accomplished (slitherers & Rhea removed from positions of power, more competent ruler); If she wanted to escape alive Dimitri & Claude would probably have let her go. But she got what she wanted & went out on her own terms.

 Likewise, Claude can survive everything and even  ‘win’ in both AM and CF. (what he wants is a more stable Fodlan, a ruler interested in peace with Almyra and to get the Alliance out as unscathed as possible, & he mostly gets that. Slightly less so in Silver Snow.) It’s just that in VW he is much more successful, he gets all the answers he wanted & was able to grow a bit less cynical. 

The one who really crashes & burns without Byleth there is Dimitri. He’s not really acting out of values or a plan but just reacting to his emotions & misguided sense of duty & only in Azure Moon does he get to a point where he is doing deliberate action that actually produce the results he wants/truly cares about. 

And don’t get me wrong: That is in part ‘cause the deck is really stacked against him both through the chaos in his country & his personal situation, and like, I get that it’s part of the appeal; AM is supposed to be an underdog story & a lot of the catharsis comes from finally giving the poor guy a break. (and Dedue, too! ...and Gilbert I guess but he’s not typically the one ppl are excited about) 

And i mean, needing/accepting help is only human. 

But like, maybe Edelgard has a few moments where she’s really glad to have someone to tell her doubts to,  and because she’s very self-critical once you get to know her & has kind of been in doubt about her own humanity since the procedures she’ll underestimate what she might’ve done on her own. 

But... have you even SEEN Claude’s support chain? It’s ALL gushing. In Dimitri’s case it’s more in the plot cutscenes, and veeery blushy too (as Dude!Byleth/Dimitri shippers correctly point out all the time) I’d say that Claude’s mindset is actually changed very profoundly. In Edelgard’s case she tries to convince/recruit you the whole time & you need to explicitly choose to join/back her (twice!) to even unlock her route. There isn’t actually a single scene where Edelgard wants to do some drastic thing & Byleth talks her down from it (unlike in Azure Moon which is filled to the brim with such scenes)... instead you get the A support where they’re both mutually jelly at each other’s stronger points. Besides in the dialogue there’s all this emphasis on how she’s finally found someone who measures up to her as an equal, they’re evenly matched in the SS reunion cutscene, she’d designed as an obvious foil/rival with similar powers/background & basic personality as Byleth etc... whereas with Dimitri you stay in the ‘mentor’ role the whole time.Uunless you marry him but then you’re defs the Big Spoon despite the actual sizes. (Claude meanwhile is explicitly the mastermind post timeskip; Byleth works for him & he’s trying to subtly bring them around to his more enlightened way of thinking & tip them off about Rhea)

So why is Edelgard singled out? Could it be... tits... XX chromosomes... nah, these days everyone knows that Gender is actually in your hypothalamus. Or is it just that phenomenon where ppl don’t want to see ppl they think of as enemy carricatures doing normal human things? Imma be charitable and assume it’s that. 

Corollary: Claude gets sort of the reverse treatment with ppl pidgeonholing him as “the always chill one” who “does fine on his own” & downplaying his arc in Verdant Wind. Granted, he’s the one who has living parents that were ostensibly positive influences, but he had a super fucked up life too & it affected him deeply as well. The man probably sleeps with a knife under his pillow, ppl. Like he plays a lot more defensively & opportunistic on the other routes, & laments not cracking the mysteries. He always had that hidden side to him that’s actually idealistic dreamy & even romantic but he doesn’t let that out until he grows to have more faith in VW. 

[fireemblems24]

Ao3 Ship Thoughts

To sate my desire to read Three Houses fan fiction and jump in on the shipping comments that have upticked recently, I decided to see what ships were the most popular on Ao3.

Some of it's exactly what I expected, and one in particular is just . . . what, why?

Ao3 is probably the closest you'll get to truly determining which ships are the most popular, or at least have the highest number of passionate fans. So I was curious to see who the top ships were. Here's the ones listed, in order:

Sylvain/Felix

Dimitri/Byleth

Edelgard/Byleth

Ferdinand/Hubert

Claude/Byleth

Dimitri/Felix

Dimitri/Claude

Felix/Annette

Caspar/Linhardt

Hilda/Marrianne

If I exclude the Byleth ships, Dimitri/Dedue, Byleth/Seteth, and Ingrid/Sylvain take up the three missing spots.

Byleth's Ships

I'm shocked. Really, truly shocked that Byleth/Lord is popular. Never wouldn't guessed. I am, of course, being sarcastic. If someone asked me to list who I think would show up in the top 10 most popular ships, the first three I'd list would be Byleth/Lord.

What I find more interesting is that Byleth/Seteth is the fourth option for Byleth. AO3 writers, I officially bow to your taste. It pleases me quite a bit that, if you're not going with one of the main lords, you all want Seteth. This I can agree with.

As for the Byleth/Lord ships, I feel kind of mixed on them. Every lord interacts with characters who have more depth than Byleth, but I still get the appeal. I'm going to deep dive into all of the lords relationships with Byleth later, but here's a quick summary.

Edelgard/Byleth is shoved down your throat so hard it's nearly impossible to ship Edelgard with someone else and even shortchanges her potential to have deep, non-romantic relationships because Edelgard puts Byleth on a pedestal that no one else can reach by her own dialogue.

Byleth's character arc works well alongside Dimitri's. While the relationship is pushed and fanservice-y scenes exist, the game leaves enough breathing room to see Byleth as a mentor/therapist/teacher figure, and Dimitri has no shortage of deep, meaningful relationships with others should you not want to do the whole self-insert thing. It's a good balance.

Claude and Byleth are the opposite of Edelgard and Byleth. They read almost more like friends than lovers. It's a breath of fresh air, honestly. Claude/Byleth seems like the healthiest possible romance for Byleth/lord because the lord in question here doesn't seem as dependent. That said, it lacks lacks romance and shipping fuel. I may complain about fanservice, but the Byleth/Claude dynamic does show why scenes of holding hands in the rain and teasing about badly drawn images might actually come in handy.

Edelgard's Ships

I'm not surprised, at all, that Edelgard has no popular ships outside of Byleth. Dialogue consistently shortchanges Edelgard's relationships with others by having her verbally, repeatedly put Byleth into a special "other" that no one else can reach for her.

Though, I guess I'm a bit surprised at the extreme lack of Edelgard/Hubert. I feel these two have a lot of shipping fuel and their supports left things unresolved. I've come across the sentiment in fandom many times that ship where things are tied off nicely with a bow leave less to explore and aren't as interesting, so I am bummed out no one seems interested in fleshing out Hubert/Edelgard more.

The outlook for Edelgard fanfic and me seems pretty limited. I don't like Edelgard/Byleth for various reasons beyond this scope of this post. I was kind of hoping there were some Edelgard/Hubert or Edelgard/Dorothea character study stuff that could help me get past how much Byleth gets in the way of Edelgard's character growth, but it seems fanfic writers only want to write about her and Byleth, which is a bummer.

On that note, I'm also surprised but also glad that Dimitri/Edelgard isn't a big thing. I thought it might be because tragedy of childhood friends turned enemies by events out of their control is popular. These two seem wildly incompatible though, so I'm glad people seem to agree.

Claude's Ships

Ok. Claude/Byleth. Expected. I'm feel positively towards the ship since they seem mostly good for each other even if it's not getting my heart all fluttering.

I'm surprised there's no Claude/Petra or Claude/Hilda. Those two are my personal favorites for him. I would've given Claude/Petra the edge given how they can uniquely relate to each other, but Hilda's scene in CF really gave Petra a run for her money. Even more so that Petra and Claude have obligations to two different nations and Hilda has no such complication.

But whattttt???? Claude/Dimitri? It's in the top 10?? More people ship Dimitri with Claude than Dedue?? I thought lord/lord might be popular, but I honestly thought Dimitri/Edelgard would take it, not Claude/Dimitri. They never really talk. So I'm a bit confused about this one. Though, intrigued by the idea.

Can I take a wild guess this partly stems from Claude having no real other viable M/M ships outside of M!Byleth and fics that plays up the chapter I'm about to play in AM (Dimitri saving Claude) or "what ifs" VW routes where Dimitri doesn't . . . you know.

I am really curious about this dynamic though. Because I like Claude - a lot. He's a character I want to get attached to. From experience, the fastest way for me to like a character is to give them a significant relationship I enjoy with a character I already love and the new character gets absorbed by proxy. So, fans, please, tell me more about this Dimitri/Claude. I am curious.

Dimitri's Ships

I am as unsurprised by Dimitri's being one of the biggest repeat offenders on here as I am by Edelgard being Byleth or bust. If Edelgard is written to fanservice the player by making the self-insert her one and only, Dimitri is fanservicing the player by being a shipping magnet. The writers knew what they were doing and who they were trying to appeal to with these two characters.

Dimitri/Byleth is a given. The game plays up the romance angle, but it's not at the expense of Dimitri's other relationships.

What I'm more interested in, though, is Felix/Dimitri. Between angsty CF stories, post-AM slow-burns, or fleshing out missing scenes from their shared childhood, there's just a lot to work with and a rich context to use their relationship - spun romantically - to explore each character. Felix and Dimitri's relationship is layered, complicated, heart breaking, and potentially healing. The fact they're two incredibly attractive guys doesn't hurt its popularity either, I'm sure. I'm not surprised it ranked that highly.

Claude/Dimitri surprises me. If two lords were going to get on this list together, I would've put bets on Edelgard/Dimitri. Since Claude and Dimitri's relationship is fairly unexplored, I'm really interested to see more about what exactly this is about. Don't get me wrong. I figured people would pair two main characters who are that good looking together, I just didn't think it would rank that high.

I am, slightly sad, that Dimitri/Dedue isn't a bit higher, but happy it seems to have some steam. I get it though. Dedue's not as flashy as some of the others on the shipping list and their relationship is so full of fluff by their A support it lacks the angst Felix/Dimitri and Dimitri/Byleth can draw out nor is as much of a play around with "what ifs" as Claude/Dimitri is.

Non-Lords/Main Characters Ships:

This list, more than anything else, shows AO3's penchant for writing M/M and F/F works for better or worse. Whether this phenomena stems from lack of representation, fetishizing by the fanbase, deeply ingrained gender roles making fictional M/F ships either less appealing to many fanfic writers, or M/F romances often getting assumed leading to less substantial writing compared to friendships - I don't know. Probably all of it.

There are a few surprises here for me. Felix/Sylvain is that popular? I figured they'd make the top 10, but #1 is surprising. Though, looking through the first page of the tag, it's true Felix/Sylvain have fics just for them, but it also seems like a common pairing in Dimitri/Byleth and Dimitri/Claude fics. It's the same story with Caspar/Linhardt, who I honestly didn't expect to see. They had a fair number of their own fics, but it seems many CF fics put them together rather than focus solely on them. Felix/Annette also balances being the main focus and an adjunct pairing. Marianne/Hilda seemed to have less fics where they took center stage and more they were one of many ships listed.

Ferdinand/Hubert having a lot of fics isn't surprising. I don't really care too much for it personally, but I can see the appeal of it.

I'm surprised Catherin/Shamir is nowhere in sight. Likewise, Rhea is absolutely nowhere. Kind of sad by the lack of adult characters in general. Especially Rhea. I think it's a pretty big sign of how the writing's treated her that such an important character is totally absent in this list.

Not surprised at all to see Felix also get so many ships. He, like Dimitri, seems designed on purpose to ship with many characters. I do really wish Dorothea and Seteth would get more attention though.

What do you guys think? Anything that surprised you? How do you feel about any of these ships and there popularity or lack thereof? Are there characters/pairings you wish got more attention? Any popular ships you despise (spill that tea)?

[queenlua]

finished Golden Wildfire route

off-the-cuff thoughts:

* when someone told me Claude kills Rhea in this route, my first reaction was, “that’s fascinating.”  indeed, that was the “push” that got me to try the game out.  like, while Claude-as-presented-in-Three-Houses doesn’t really have much against Rhea (though he’ll approve if you speculate on her death), and Claude-at-end-of-Verdant-Wind certainly doesn’t begrudge Rhea (hearing her whole backstory is super sad!)... i’ve always thought you’d only have to push the pieces around a bit to, say, set up a situation where Claude letting Rhea die is convenient, or you could get Claude more fussed about the church earlier on, etc, and it was fascinating to me that Three Hopes was willing to actually go there with a darker take on the golden boy.

* ...unfortunately they didn’t actually set it up as Claude making a cunning play, lol, instead we are just very determined to kill Rhea because of Reasons TM.  in general, this route seemed to want you to take it on faith that the Central Church is not only evil but punish-by-death-able, which puts it somewhere between “Saturday morning cartoon villainland” and “tonally bizarre”

* lots of fun ideas that they didn’t really follow through with.  Claude and Edelgard using each other is rad, but we never actually see Claude get anything out of their alliance.  (having Edelgard in your “debt” because you saved her one time means nothing if you don’t have leverage, dude!)  Claude actually fucking up something once in his goddamn life is cool, except the whole Randolph thing was 100% a nothingburger to me, it’s called tactics and Claude was looking out for his own interests, why was everyone giving him so much shit about it, lol

* mostly this game’s story was a bundle of very interesting ideas with shit execution.  which, uh, is not a bad description of Three Houses, actually, but here they’re bungled it in totally different ways which is kind of hilarious

* i’m still very lmao at Fire Emblem’s general royalist streak.  “democracy annoying, replace with king” and then we just never really revisit that thread again huh

* Dimitri deliberately using Claude to get rid of Rhea is one of the few actually-fascinating political machinations going on (Dimitri! of all people! there’s hope for the boy yet!), but it happens mostly offscreen so waaaah

* shez >>>>>>> byleth

* i’m kind of glad i wound up killing byleth, if only because two more chapters sounds kind of insufferable; the route was already feeling kind of overlong (i was so OP i was just cruisin’ through battles near the end), and you tell me the other route has more?  dear god

* though at least all the animations were fly as hell.  near the end i was just swapping around characters to see how fucking cool they’d look on the battlefield (claude is coolest/flashiest by far, and also i got a soft spot for the bow knights in the house; watchin’ ashe’s horse fuckin do ballet while i was steamrolling enemies ruled)

* though i never quite got the hang of using mages?  i, uh, think i had a bad habit of just diving into hordes and taking the damage rather than “dodging” or “blocking” or “using a strategy” so maybe that’s why

* i was also super amused at how many of the paralogues were just blatantly filling in backstory that they decided to skip over in Three Houses.  can’t tell if they’re stuffing in stuff they always wanted to include, or if this is just padding stuff out, but hey now we know how Claude’s uncle died ig

* damn balthus is so good.  loved his supports.  why have i been sleeping on this himbo i need to write some more ashen wolves fic haigelhagil;e

* also: all of hilda’s supports are so gay.  good for her

* liked the bit where claude had to murder his brother, but damn could they have given him a less cartoonishly arrogant/moronic brother... did they even BOTHER to consider consulting my headcanons for his fam... smh

* does anyone play this game without playing Three Houses first?  they must be so confused rn poor dudes

* oh right, the lil animation that Yuri gets when he’s performing his ult or whatever? and he shouts “BOW BEFORE ME”?  fuckin 12-year-old-kid-winning-at-Mortal-Kombat energy, right there, i fuckin cackled, what a charmingly dweeby one-liner

* in conclusion, Three Hopes is a game

[fantasyinvader]

Beat Binding Blade tonight

So, right off the bat I'm going to admit. I abused the arena and save states. This is a really, really hard game. And while I enjoyed it, I'm going to give three things I didn't like about it.

1)Enemy reinforcements arrive at the end of the player phase, and can attack during the enemy phase. That is unfair, especially when I assume that parking a unit on the spawn point will prevent them (It doesn't) or my healer just happens to be in the area. I like difficult games, but when I fail at something in those I want to feel like it's my fault for doing so. When I die in Bloodborne or lose a unit in Fates Conquest, I'm willing to accept it because I felt it was fair (plus I'll just restart the chapter in Conquest anyway). I could have not died if I had played a little better. This game was not fair when it did that.

2)The supports. A lot of the stuff about the characters is locked away in their supports, since this is one of the old Fire Emblems where it throws units your way because it's assuming you didn't reset the game when one died. They don't get cutscenes to be important, and with only five supports per character (barring if one dies, then any unit that had supports with gets those supports back). And even then, getting an A rank doesn't pair up any units except for Roy. So you don't get to play love doctor here, it's only really there for the stat boosts. But in the case of my boy, he needs those supports in order for his character to fully come through.

3)I can take 8 units into the final battle, and they're the only ones who get full ending cards. Everyone else just gets a single line. Kinda weak if I use someone like Fir for most of the game, but bench her at the end to give Rutget Durandal.

Even with my cheating, I still enjoyed this game. Mostly for the story. When Fire Emblem first appeared in Smash Brothers Melee, as a kid it instantly caught my attention. Roy and Marth just looked so cool with their swords and armor (true fact: My favorite design for Link is the Skyward Sword design, simply because it has chainmail under the tunic. I get it, the tunic is iconic but SS's Link just looks practical), and I preferred Roy because I though his fully-charged shield breaker hurting him was cool. I even keep a Cipher card of his in my wallet for good luck. I wanted to know what Fire Emblem was, what kind of game it was. My friend showed me a screenshot of the upcoming GBA game in Nintendo power, which I got for the following Christmas (sadly, I didn't get Sacred Stones as I got a PS2 the following year). I loved that game, but the idea that I was playing as Roy's father always was a bit of a sour point for me. It's because of that game when I got a 2DS a decade later, because I wanted to game but kept getting pulled away from my console, I eventually went back to Fire Emblem.

And, I'm going to admit, Binding Blade hurt me because I played Blazing Blade first. It really did. I mean, Hector dies early on, Lyn is presumably dead hell a lot of my old comrades probably died in this war, Eliwood's wife dies shortly after they are married while Eliwood is more useless than ever, the kid I saved in Bern becomes a genocidal maniac, and the fact that the characters of Blazing Blade kinda caused this to happen by releasing the seals on the Legendary Weapons in their own quest... It kinda bugs me that the Legendary Weapons I used in Blazing Blade are in their trap filled storage places. Like, who returned them there? And if I have characters from that game returning in Binding, I find it strange they don't comment on needing them again. But this is a case of the game trying to be a prequel to a story that wasn't written with it in mind.

But at the end of the day, one thing just kept popping up in my mind. Binding Blade is the antithesis of the Crimson Flower route from Three Houses. I know they said Genealogy of the Holy War was an inspiration, but I can't help it. I've seen so many people try to praise that said route as some sort of denouncement of the rest of the franchise. That it's about putting power in the hands of the people (it's not) instead of having some Lord be the good king. Granted, the Mandate of Heaven seems like it's a running theme of the series, so without understanding what that is I can understand why people don't grasp what that part of the message. But Binding Blade, it just hit so many things on the nose that I needed to say something.

So without further adieu, I'm just going to bring up a few points.

With Regards to Humanity

It's interesting how both Zephiel and Edelgard come at this from different angles. Sure, they both lead wars of conquest across the entire continent, and I'm guessing Zeph didn't tell his troops what he was planning on doing once he won so there's likely a level of deception going on there as well. He really doesn't care for his fellow man, and the game goes out of it's way to show us why. Hatred, greed, or even selling out your people in the name of self-preservation. The game doesn't shy away from showing us any of this, saying that it's wrong and thus why Roy has to kick some guy's arse. Zephiel knows this, but in Edelgard's case? She's out there fighting for absolute power, destroying anyone who won't bend the knee to her while those who do out of self-preservation like House Gloucester are rewarded for it.

In essence, Edelgard is everything Zephiel saw wrong with the human race, she is why he felt we needed to go extinct. The very things he condemns humanity for are the things she reward. Zephiel would have actually handed over power to those he felt deserved it if he had won, whereas Edelgard is demonstrably shown to hold onto power until near the end of her life. One wants humanity dead, the other wants all the dragons. They even oppose each other in their classes. Edelgard is based on the red emperor archetype, she wears red, her class is the heavily-armored Emperor and her weapon of choice is an axe. Zephiel is a king, armoed but wearing purple and he uses a sword in battle.

Even if they both have screwed up history with their family's due to their father's inability to keep it in his pants, they're both presented as villains despite being ideologically opposed which goes to show with Fire Emblem the method IS the message.

Ancient Wars, Super Powered Weapons and Lies.

War of Heroes vs. The Scouring. The former is an event where the full details are shrouded in mystery, up to the player to piece together the clues and figure out the truth for themselves...or in Crimson Flower's case, ignore the truth and act out in your ignorance.With Binding Blade though, when the truth starts coming out, it hits hard. I mean, right from the beginning of the game we're told man was the one who broke the peace by attacking the dragons, but then we learn that those legendary weapons messed up the environment, resulting in dragons needing to use human forms only to be slaughtered by man. Dragons were blamed for the environment, the people who used those weapons were revered as heroes. We don't know why mankind launched their attack, but we do know that they weren't able to slay the Demon Dragon, one who had her soul destroyed in order to control her, because the Heroes felt sorry for her. It's making dragons out to be the victims here, much like the dragons in Three Houses. But Crimson Flower only serves to demonize them, acting like they can't understand humanity when the dragons in that game are a lot closer to humans emotionally than the ancient dragons in Elibe.

The Elites in comparison weren't heroes, and that lie has been confirmed as Rhea trying to make peace.

The good ending for Binding Blade is being able to save the dragon whose soul was destroyed, whereas Crimson Flower ends with slaying a dragon after you've spent the entire game triggering her (and is the ending that leads to oppressive rule under Edelgard, in addition to the only ending without sunlight. What? You thought you'd get the good ending when her final boss theme was playing on the last stage?). Also, you need all the Legendary weapons in order to unlock the final stages, which all play into the big mystery. Crimson Flower requires the player to not understand that the world-building was done to support fighting against Edelgard instead.

Merits of a leader

Let's not beat around the bush here, Roy will not carry you through Binding Blade. His bases are low, and while he has good growths he is unable to promote until the very end of the game. Even then, you need to save the Binding Blade's usage to ensure you get the good ending. Roy is also very unsure of himself, thrust into a position of leadership despite his young age. But look at what happens when he succeeds, he manages to overcome the odds and take down the mightiest army on the continent. At the end of the game, he's shown himself as more than capable of leading. Not to mention, he also believes that humans and dragons can live together, even seeing this in Acadia (and if Ninian was his mother, he's unknowingly proof of this as he is 1/4 dragon himself. May explain his poor bases). If he marries Liliana, he even becomes a King for likely much of the same reason Byleth does in SS/VW (most leaders are dead following the war, plus combining his territory with Ostia which had already taken over Lyn's land after she abdicated/married Hector). Roy learns the truth as already established.

Compare this to Crimson Flower Byleth. Byleth leads the Black Eagle Strike Force, but credit for it goes to Edelgard. Byleth never gets any recognition for this, no position of authority despite proving themselves, instead that goes to Caspar Jenkins of all people, and ends the war continuing to fight TWSITD from the shadows to support Edelgard's regime. And if you read between the lines, Edelgard is NOT a good leader, resorting to bribes, threats, cronyism, secret police, propaganda, and even TWSITD's support and later stolen tech in order to maintain her rule. Byleth lost whatever emotional development they got from White Clouds during this route, once again becoming the Ashen Demon, and is even willing to let themselves die if they can't keep their “humanity” in check showing a distaste for their own draconic heritage (showing humans and dragons can't live together in this timeline). They didn't grow into being a leader, they devolved into being Edelgard's unthinking muscle. Byleth never learns the truth in this route, falling for Edelgard's manipulations resulting in them losing Enlightened One/Nirvana status.

Not to mention, Heroes Relics have really low weapon levels. In theory, they can be used by anyone but only safely by those with Crests and most fully with a matching Crest. Legendary Weapons, on the other hand, can be used by anyone with an S rank in their type. Your characters have to EARN the right to use those things and you'll need them to deal with all the Manaketes during the final level, whereas Relics aren't exactly that level of broken.

Honestly, seeing the ending of Binding Blade and Idunn recovering put at least one tear in my eye. Crimson Flower's just made me feel like the game was calling me an idiot (which considering the Nirvana/Enlightenment thing, it kinda was). I would love if Binding Blade got the Echoes treatment, or even if they just did a GBA collection for the Switch. But after all these years, one thing is as certain now as it was when I was a kid.

In this house, ROY'S OUR BOY!

[sylveths]

I’ve noticed after playing Crimson Flower a couple of times and taking notes that Edelgard was very misleading. So I decided to fully write out my thoughts on why Edelgard’s hatred for Rhea was unreasonable and why the war should have never happened the way it did.

So we know that most of her family was killed and she was experimented on as a child by the Agarthans. We also know that she despises the crest system (as do most people in this game).

What I don’t fully understand is why does she hate Rhea specifically? My guess would be because the Church influences how the majority of Fodlan is ruled. But in reality, Rhea did not make the crest system the way it is today. And she doesn’t control law and order in the Kingdom, Empire or Alliance. Nor does she have anything to do with the monsters that terrorize Fodlan or the people that have been experimenting with Crests.

The church was made to protect the remainder of Rhea’s race as well as hunt down the Agarthans who killed her people. Rhea is criticized for being harsh (one instance being when she killed those involved with the Western Church who broke into the Holy Mausoleum). I don’t understand why she got so much heat for this. For one, she’s still looking for the people who want her family dead. Also, those people did end up to be actually working with the Agarthans whether they knew it or not. On top of that they did try to steal someone's remains. 

In Crimson Flower, Edelgard says things like Rhea is the reason for the Crest system. Which is wrong. She also says Rhea is leading and controlling the monsters terrorizing Fodlan. Again, wrong. To top it off. If you do supports with Rhea and namely Seteth, you’ll learn that they are actually against the crest system themselves.

It’s not Rheas fault that crest stones turn people into monsters, Rhea’s family are children of the goddess of course they would need specific powers to wield crest stones and the hero's relics. The people of Fodlan are the ones who created the crest system and made people like Miklan suffer for not having one. 

So who exactly is Edelgard mad at? From what I can tell, her only enemy is the Agarthans, who she decides to work with and the governments of the three territories.

Edelgard could have easily spoken with Dimitri and Claude, especially considering how they never hid their distaste for the crest system. And the three of them were next in line for power. An agreement could have easily been made to change the laws (especially since Claude and Dimitri had already been planning to). And if Edelgard had spoken to Dimitri and revealed that she knew who killed their parents, Dimitri would have been happy to aid in fighting the Agarthans and getting revenge.

All in all, I think Edelgard started this war without thinking a single thing through. All the information she got was from the very people who also hurt her and only want to see Rhea’s race gone. There was no real reason for Edelgard to start a war with all of Fodlan and hunt down Rhea. Rhea was never her enemy, her only enemy were the people she chose to work with.

[huberts-private-counsel-archive]

Hiii~ could you please dedicate this one to @stag-of-adrestia? Let's have Value Me with darkshout, just for old times sake ;)

Well, you heard the anon! To @stag-of-adrestia this drabble goes!

.....you can. carbon date how old this is by the url im so sorry about this im so very sorry

Leave a “Value Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character telling another how they feel about them.

Caspar didn’t know a lot. BUT. He DID know one thing.

He’d had ENOUGH!

It was pretty much everywhere he went! No matter what! Over and over, he’d her people talking shit about Hubert, writing him off as “just the Emperor’s lapdog”, as if that was an okay thing to do!

It didn’t matter that Hubert said that he didn’t mind and that they were speaking the truth (which they WEREN’T, and Hubert shouldn’t have to pretend like they were!), Caspar was still not gonna stand for this! He was going to show those jerks that they were wrong!

And he had an absolutely, one hundred percent foolproof plan to do so! Linhardt helped him come up with it!

...Honestly, Lin had only agreed to help him because he said that, “just yelling in Hubert’s face about your love for him won’t go well.”

To be fair, it wasn’t like Hubert knew Caspar loved him, so Lin was probably right about that...

Bah, whatever! That wasn’t the point here!

Caspar shook off the lingering doubts - he had an important job to do! He couldn’t get hung up on dumb stuff he could take care of later! Maybe! Probably never! Whatever!

He knocked on the door to Hubert’s office, waiting a few seconds to see if Hubert would answer. As Lin had predicted, he very much did not. So Caspar did what he did best.

“HEYA HUBERT! IT’S CASPAR! I GOT SOMETHING TO TALK TO YA ABOUT!!” Caspar exclaimed as he slammed the office door open. 

He could see Hubert actually jump at his desk - which shocked him for a moment, until he realized something. Hubert only ever jumped when something startled him because he was completely off guard. The only time Hubert was ever completely off guard was when he was asleep. Hubert had...actually been asleep at his desk.  And Caspar just woke him up very loudly.

Oops.

Caspar didn’t hide the wince as Hubert turned to look at him, eyes narrowed in clear anger for a few seconds before he just sighed.

“What is it, Caspar?” Hubert asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. He did that a lot when Caspar was around.

He sounded pretty annoyed, definitely because Caspar woke him up like that; but he didn’t sound as annoyed as he could’ve been. Don’t ask how Caspar knew that, it’s a long story that he’d like to not relive, thank you.

Anyway!

“I was coming to drag ya out of your office! You’ve been in there all day! Some fresh air could do you some real good!”

Yep! This was Caspar’s completely foolproof plan! Just take Hubert out on the town to have some fun! (He REFUSED to say date, because it wasn’t a date! Nope! Just two friends hanging out!)

“I’ve been inside all day because there’s a lot of work that I still need to do-” Hubert was already saying, which was Caspar’s cue to cut in. He knew if he let Hubert keep talking, he’d end up just going back inside his office. So!

“Nope! None of that!” Caspar interrupted, grinning triumphantly. “I already asked Edelgard about it, and she said it was fine!”

Actually, she didn’t, but that wasn’t the point.

Hubert stared at him for a few moments, as if trying to decide if Caspar was telling to truth. Actually, that’s probably exactly what he was doing. Caspar tried not to fidget. Eventually, Hubert must’ve decided he was telling the truth (phew), because he let out another sigh - one that Caspar knew meant he was relenting.

“If Lady Edelgard approved it, then I suppose I’ve no choice but to play along.”

Caspar smiled. And that smile only as the day progressed. His plan really was going perfectly! They were both having a good time going out on the town, and Caspar even saw Hubert trying not to smile! It was amazing! All in all, everything was going according to plan!

“Ugh, watch out - the Emperor’s dog is coming...”

...Well, it was, until some ASSHOLE decided to speak up.

Caspar felt his hands curl into fists as he heard the words, whirling around to stare down the person who said it. The only reason they weren’t suffering from a serious case of what he’d like to call “Caspar’s Fist Directly Through Their Face” disease was because of Hubert’s hand resting on his shoulder.

“Don’t bother, Caspar. They’re simply stating facts.” Hubert’s voice sounded resigned, his expression carefully blank - which Caspar knew meant that Hubert was actually really bothered by what they were saying.

“But they’re not! Because you’re way more than what that bastard says!!” Caspar shouted, feeling the anger creeping into his voice.

He knew that they were drawing a crowd, but he didn’t care about that. What he cared about was getting Hubert to not listen to that jackass!

“Really, Caspar, you’re causing a scene...” And there it was, Hubert trying to change the subject because he didn’t want to talk about this. Well Caspar wasn’t gonna let him!

“That doesn’t matter! They should be here to hear about how amazing you are! You’re a super talented mage, maybe even rivaling Lin in how smart you are! And you always use that to help everyone, no matter what you say! You’re way more nice than people give ya credit for; and that’s not to mention how loyal you are! I know Edelgard knows she can always rely on you no matter what, just like everyone else in the Strike Force!”

Caspar could hear murmuring in the crowd, and see how Hubert’s face was slowly turning more red. He wasn’t used to all the compliments - which only drove Caspar to say even more compliments! Because Hubert deserved to hear everything good that people thought about it!

“And besides! You’re the guy I love! Of course you’re awesome!”

Hubert froze. “What.”

Caspar froze himself. Wait, actually, Hubert wasn’t supposed to hear that part, abort mission ABORT MISSION-

Hubert let out a sigh - but to Caspar’s surprise, it wasn’t like...an angry sigh, or a disappointed sigh, or a “I’m five seconds away from losing it” sigh (don’t ask why Caspar knew that one).

It was...a relieved sigh.

“Well...” Hubert looked away, the blush on his face deepening. “I suppose that makes things easier for me...considering I love you as well.”

Caspar felt his jaw drop. He was not expecting that.

But he couldn’t say that he was unhappy about that - not when he was letting out a shout of joy and pulling Hubert down for a kiss.

(”Hey Caspar!” Annette said one day, having been on a date with her partner Stag. “Now, who’s that next to you?”

The tone to her voice was obviously teasing, and Caspar grinned widely.

“That’s my husband!” He exclaimed happily. No matter how many times this happened, whether it be Annette or someone else from the Strike Force, Hubert couldn’t stop the blush from appearing on his cheeks.

Not that he was truly upset about it, though.)