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emblemxeno · 2 years ago

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Definitive “Feelings On 3H” Post

So I’m making one big post on my feelings on major things worth discussing about 3H and how I feel about it. Don’t feel obligated to really interact with this one much, it’s mostly just for my sake, as something I can just link to and say “go to section X about how I feel about Y”.

The reason behind this is I just don’t really want to actively engage in 3H discourse anymore. I feel as if I’m a broken record at this point. If I have new things to say about it somehow, I’ll say it, but for the most part, I’ll refer people to this if they wanna know how I feel about general 3H talk.

Story

Story Section 1- General narrative feelings on each route.

Azure Moon is, in my opinion, the most solidly constructed route in terms of writing, character development, and storytelling. It knows what it wants to accomplish and, aside from a few gripes, I will always applaud it for that. Verdant Wind and Silver Snow meanwhile, aren’t bad and I certainly didn’t have a terrible time playing through them. However, the unique story bits in each route don’t justify the gameplay experience you have to work through in order to get to them. Still, the big reveals in each route were nice to hear for the first time, and specifically for VW I enjoy Claude very much. Crimson Flower I don’t enjoy that much at all. Its story is what I can only describe as a static, eye-roll inducing victory march, which makes up for its lack of length with its seemingly intentional negative character development; everyone is ignorant, an asshole, or sad as fuck aside from the CF exlcusive cast. I would give the route props had the game bothered to stand in its foundation rather than flounder and make numerous attempts to depict every perspective as absolutely equally valid and righteous.

Story Section 2- In trying to appeal to every perspective, the game lacks focus, foundation, and respect for itself.

It should be expected that a game with multiple routes tackle different specific subjects. However, in Fire Emblem, there always, always manages to be a unifying theme or foundational story philosophy-an Aesopian type moral if you will-no matter the route. Alm and Celica learn that their one individual philosophies can’t exist on their own, and that leadership requires strength and compassion of equal measure. Eirika and Ephraim learn that personal wishes must take a backseat for the good of Renais and Magvel as a whole, as their routes in FE8 use their own weaknesses to develop them as leaders and royalty. Corrin’s one constant in the Fates games is that conflict is inherently meaningless and does nothing but perpetuate a brutal cycle of hatred, vengeance, and violence.

Even in games like FE7 and FE10, where the technical ‘route splits’ are more unconventional, there’s still unifying themes that manage to wrap back around at the end (7′s ‘single-minded pursuit of justice and strength/power to protect can actively hurt you and those around you, especially if you are ignorant to the pain others are going through’ and 10′s ‘people have as much capacity to be good as they have to be evil, they will hurt each other due to petty misunderstandings and bigoted views, however, they are worthy of living as they are because of the ability to grow, change, and aspire to something better’).

3H, to put it simply, does not have any grand unifying theme unique to itself. The closest examples I can think of is ‘It’s worth it to reach out to those around you to share your pain so you don’t become engulfed in it’ and ‘no matter what side you fight for, war makes everyday life a living hell for everyone’.

But to me, both of those things are just... basic truths and story elements present in every dialogue heavy FE game. War has been showcased as being terrible since FE1, where characters were held hostage, threatened to fight for a cause they didn’t believe in, innocent villages were destroyed, there was a literal child slave market, etc. And sharing your pain with those close to you in order to bear life’s challenges has been a constant trope with many FE characters, story significant or otherwise, since at least FE6 with Guninivere (probably earlier if I’m missing something from FE4 or 5). The only difference is that 3H has a fun little song to go with it.

That leaves the specific themes of each route and perspective, but because each leading character is so different from the other, and the writers didn’t want to overtly favor one over the rest, every dialogue regarding these things feels compromised; half baked, or lacking a point.

‘Crests are symbolic of a harmful power structure but also are a symbol of justice used to ward away threats but also are a tool used to gain social and political capital in order to change the world but also are an ancient power obtained through destruction that must be used with wisdom.’ Four different perspectives from four different routes that the game attempts to depict in a balance in almost every single dialogue regarding them. And this same process is applicable to the game’s attempts at discussing race/ethnicity, xenophobia, classism, religious views, mental health, etc. There always has to be two, three, four, or five sides to every story in 3H, and that results in an exhuasting and stretched thin narrative that, in its attempts to appeal to everyone, ends up lacking substance in every point it tries to make.

Now, that itself would make for a fascinating and meta theme for the game to uphold, where ‘attempts at trying to balance and accept every perspective leads to an ineffective world that desperately needs unwavering, unconditional, and compassionate leadership’ but 1) that would require the game to play up the need for ‘seeing every side’ as something to be deconstructed, and the game doesn’t do that, it’s played painfully straight, and 2) when it’s one major power (Edelgard) vs. three major powers (Dimitri, Claude, and Rhea), the attempt at balance fails no matter what you do. This lack of focus reads to me that there was lack of respect for the game’s story itself.

Story Section 3- “It insists upon itself, Lois.”

Every time I think about the finer details of story bits in 3H I don’t care for, my brain always comes back to that Family Guy scene where Peter talks about not caring for The Godfather and saying that it’s because the movie insists upon itself. Now, that was done for comedy, but for 3H I must say that it’s a perfect sentence to use. 3H insists upon itself. This is in spite of the fact that there’s no one unifying point that it’s trying to convey to the player, beyond what any other FE games was able to do. So to make up for that, each small instance reads like the game beating the player over the head with whatever minute moral or lesson it’s trying to convey.

Crests are bad? Roll out the Edelgard, Sylvain, or Lysithea dialogue saying so. Church is sus? Get Edelgard or occasionally Claude. Nobles are pretentious? Get the sad NPCs or the few actual commoner characters to imply it. War is bad and cruel? Fire the next “Sad Dorothea” dialogue at the player’s face. Interactions feel artificial, ostentatious even. Part of that is because there’s no other way to get these points across due to Byleth being a silent avatar, the other part though? Feels as if the writers were overtly proud of themselves. “Wow, the war means Bernadetta leaves her room more often, isn’t that a sign that it really changes people?” Yeah, no shit.

Perhaps the most egregious example is the endless instances of the game pushing the idea that there’s “no good side” in war or that “war is a battle of ideals and no one is fully correct” or other moments that want the player to know how deep and Morally Gray the narrative is. It’s cheap and inauthentic, especially when you have a faction like the Slithers. You can’t prop up Gray Morality and have an inarguably evil underground terrorist group.

To be crude, this game explains things to you like you’re five despite being rated T for teens in a series catered mostly to young adults. I get the point you’re trying to make, you did it poorly, now stop repeating yourself, your final grade is a D+.

Story Section 4- 3H likes spectacle over substance.

3H revels in being showy over being constructive. There’s great moments, but there’s not a great plot.

For example, Byleth has many flashy moments that show how awesome they are! They’re connected to a goddess, they can wind back time, they have a super cool historical sword, they’re a top tier mercenary, they’re a great teacher, they’re next in line for Archbishop or the throne for all of Fodlan, their Crest is the game’s version of the Fire Emblem!

Cool! What’s the significance behind all these choices in the writing room? Seemingly next to nothing other than it sounded cool. That’s how it feels anyway.

The SotC doesn’t do anything in the story beyond be Sothis’ bones, likewise the Crest of Flames is nothing other than symbolic since it lacks gameplay or story significance beyond “main characters have it”, Divine Pulse has weak narrative justification for what should be a simple gameplay exclusive rewind, the goddess in question is an underutilized character who checks out before part 1 ends, there’s no gameplay basis showcasing that they’re any better at fighting than their students, and every high level position Byleth is granted makes no sense for them to have given what little established character we get.

That’s 3H in a nutshell. Crests don’t matter other than to be a story device. Being noble or commoner doesn’t matter. The hidden technology doesn’t matter. Abyss is a joke. And on and on and on. 3H profits off of being enticing and cool looking for the sake of it, without actually utilizing or explaining any of this flashy stuff that matters for a video game medium. It makes for underwhelming gameplay and artificial characters. Example, for as much as I love Yuri, take a few minutes to read his backstory; it’s batshit and nigh unbelievable. And it’s indicative of the fact that 3H cares more about including things that sound cool than it does about making sense of anything. We see the impact, but never any material significance, which is the opposite of what you want in a detail oriented narrative like this.

Story Section 5- 3H has very gross tropes.

During 3H’s first year of being out, I desperately wanted to stay true to a view that “hey now, just because it’s depicted like this, doesn’t mean we should blast it, it’s just a video game” but, y’know. I grew up. And part of growing up is recognizing the nuanced parts of these kinds of things.

I won’t accuse the writers of being actively ignorant or bigoted, cuz I don’t know anything about them. But fuck. Fuck, does this game read worse and worse over the years in terms of how utterly terribly it handles sensitive issues.

Multiple brown characters treated like trash by the white/pale majority, with countries said brown characters hail from described as savage and animalistic. Rampant misogynistic tropes, most notably selling women off to be married. Strange, and incessant sympathy for the character starting a war that upends the lives of common people, said character also allowing human experimentation to occur. The offensive and archaic handling of mental illnesses, specifically anxiety disorders, personality disorders, and PTSD in certain instances (IMO only Dimitri and Marianne are done with any sort of grace). And that’s just the explicit stuff! Just the other day I was talking about how there’s incredibly disturbing anti-Semitic undertones regarding the Empire (confirmed to be based on Germany btw) and the Nabateans, something that’s, at times, uncritically repeated by people in this game’s community. This game is mired in terrible allegories and metaphors, which make me cringe the more I think about the real world implications that these lines of thought can have on people in volatile corners of the Internet.

And the kicker is that the writers are so committed to making these things relate to Crests or nobility, as if either of those things are strictly the reason why oppression or discrimination occurs.

The game employs drastic harmful stereotypes, and undercuts all of them by foisting its half-baked unique gameplay/lore toy onto the conversations. It fumbles the ball and didn’t even clean up the mess well.

Characters

I have a tier list of how much I enjoy the characters right here.

Long story short, when the characters are good, they’re good. Like, holy fuck, love them. But when they’re bad? Throw them away. Can’t stand them. And sometimes characters fall in the middle where I see the good but they’re at times written in ways that piss me off.

Worldbuilding/Setting - More is not always better

First off, when you make a character tell the player “Go read in the library for lore”, you’ve lost me. There’s nothing fun and interesting in 3H as a game for you to read in the library.

Fire Emblem’s gameplay cycle doesn’t mesh too well with the typical JRPG standard of storytelling, so the common solutions to building the world and crafting the stories was 1) make as much use as possible of cutscenes, art/cgs, and narrations to communicate the important details before and after battles and/or 2) make an intuitive inclusion to ‘break the pace’ between maps, such as a home base, in order to supplement what’s already present. Alongside this, support conversations were an ingenious tool to develop the characters and the world at the same time, as your varied and quirky cast can help you infer what their place of origin is like. Plus, the game actively rewards the player for seeking this auxiliary information out, granting extra stat bonuses when you purposefully put characters next to each other.

3H, on paper, understands this well. However, the game has too many minute details for a typical FE game structure to handle. The devs themselves even said the game became a “living creature on its own” and claimed no one on the team knows everything about 3H’s story or world. Ignoring how that’s a serious flaw for a video game narrative, what this ultimately means is that since cutscnes and a standard base can’t cut it, we need more and more and more. Libraries, side quests, tea time, ally notes, gifts, NPCs that exposit at you, etc. The DLC even added another damn library for you to sift through, as if the first one wasn’t a pain already.

And though these little flavor texts, landmarks, and set pieces are fun to read about... that’s it. The game hardly uses any of it. It’s flavor without substance, once again. It’s why half the fucking fandom is confused every other day when you bring up these tertiary details as evidence to prove a point, since the active story is too busy trying to weave the other 600 plot threads together to use any of it. That means, for all of this supposed great details regarding each nation and the important territories, we hardly see a damn thing that’s actually different. More is not always better, and in this case, it’s actively worse for both the game experience and the community experience. Not a good look for a game that the devs explicitly wanted people to talk to each other about.

As a fan of FE ever since 2013, who has gone back to play several of the games to see how they tick, 3H’s methods of describing its setting are just so antithetical to what makes the series enjoyable, and for so little reward. It sounds hypocritical given that I love Fates and Engage, but those games actively set up their glorified bases to be as unintrusive as you want them to be. 3H, however, has its gameplay built around a boring and unintuitive cycle.

Gameplay- Fire Emblem but half the time you’re not playing Fire Emblem

Gameplay Section 1-Monastery

The monastery is the most debated gameplay aspect of 3H, and IMO, for good reason.

It sucks.

Worldbuilding wise, while it makes sense that an important location is the hub for the game, that doesn’t account for how dull it is. 12 months and 4 seasons pass and does the place ever look different? No. A shame, since an improved aesthetic would drastically help ignoring the fact that the place is a bitch to traverse. For as fast as Byleth can run, they can’t outspeed the load times. Quick travel only makes the issue more apparent, as well. From door to door, and from week to week, you’ll endure more load times in one in-game month than an entire playthrough of a GBA FE game.

The other aspects of the monastery gameplay, such as teaching, activities, professor level, and motivation, while freshly fun in a first playthrough, become a repetitive slog in subsequent playthroughs. Giving gifts and lost items, eating meals, planting the right things for the garden, optimizing support point gains, using the sauna, taking care of the statues, etc. This cycle is not something I enjoy in an FE game, and unlike Fates or Engage, I can’t actively ignore it without huge penalty.

You can skip right to each main mission, but you’d be giving yourself a huge handicap by doing so; not actively teaching students at max motivation in order to maximize skill point gain is a huge detriment in the long term. It means longer wait for better weapons, longer wait for better spells, longer wait for class change, and longer wait for better skills and battalions. Now on Normal you can get away with this, not as much on Hard, and sure the fuck not on Maddening. To me, it feels like sloppy balancing on top of an already exhausting and dull game cycle. Why let the player skip months if you didn’t bother to carefully balance the game so that the players who do skip months could have even a small chance to clear the game? Honestly, it just feels as if they thought “people might find it annoying so let’s just tack on a skip feature”, and that’s disappointing and lazy.

Overall, I hope nothing similar to the monastery’s implementation is included in any future Fire Emblem game. It’s too antithetical to FE’s main gameplay structure, IMO.

Gameplay Section 2-Battles

To be honest, Fire Emblem has never been the pinnacle of balanced gameplay, and frankly I don’t want it to be. It’s a single player game with fun anime sword guys, magic powers, and dragons. So long as it’s not dreadfully easy or overly complicated, I have no qualms about certain classes or characters being better or worse than others.

3H though is a mess. A fun mess, but still a mess. Movement decrease to foot units means you want a mount cuz the game’s maps are big, and the speed penalty for cav classes means you want a wyvern or a pegasus. Physical units do just that (or maybe War Master for Quick Riposte), you get your dancer, have a Stride unit, have your Magic units and warpers where you need them, and congrats! You solved the 3H meta.

Half-joking, honestly. The game is extremely easy to break, the hardest part is getting to that point (after all, slugging through the monastery is a bigger test of your patience than anything else). Maddening mode, of course, you have be extra careful in the beginning (cuz they probably didn’t play test it cough cough) and utilize your combat arts and gambits effectively, and being extremely conscious of positioning. But, much like Awakening before it, 3H is very easy to snowball. Especially on NG+. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun, but it can get mindless. I don’t personally play that way, but even still, tools such as weapons mostly not being class restricted, Crests, combat arts, gambits, and accessories make the game incredibly simple. It’s a breeze, and only gets harder when certain things are stripped away from you or your debilitated somehow. Again, it’s still fun, because FE is always fun, but challenging? No. Not in a way that I find meaningful, anyway.

The maps themselves? Meh. They look pretty! Lots of small missable details that you wouldn’t see if not for the zoomed in view, that was a neat feature. Not at all useable for actually playing the game, of course, but fun to mess with and to sight see. It does make me resentful, cuz again, we could’ve potentially seen lots of rich, detailed, and varied locations bustling with townsfolk and entering villages to really feel each location. But alas, this is as good as we get.

Anyway, the maps are...fine-ish? Part 1′s maps are seared into my brain, for better and for worse (mostly worse) cuz you have to play them at least 3 different times for all the routes. Prologue through Chapter 5 are either boring, terrible, or both. Chapter 6 is the first map on my most recent playthrough that I say I had fun with in Part 1, then it continues for 7 and 8, then nosedives for 9 and 10, before picking back up for 11 and 12. In short, more than half the story maps for part 1 I find are either unexceptional or plain bad.

Now Part 2? Hunting By Daybreak is atrocious, Garreg Mach defense is pretty fun, Ailell is boring as fuck, Myrddin Bridge and Deirdru are good, Gronder Part 2 ebbs and flows between being awesome and awful, Merceus, Enbarr, and Fhirdiad are okay but tend to drag, Tailtean is alright, Shambhala is hot garbage, CF endgame is pretty fun, AM endgame is okay, VW endgame is awesome, Snow endgame is terrible. I think all routes’ part 2 is better than part 1, but not by much.

All of Cindered Shadows is peak, every map was good IMO.

Paralogue maps I have no opinions on, they are recycled maps with nothing meaningfully interesting about them that I remember aside from Dedue’s, Ashe’s, and Petra’s.

In short, the battle maps in 3H are okay for FE standards. It’s just pretty fucking insane how many times they get reused, so I got tired of them very quickly.

Fandom

Last but not least, just a shoutout to a very unpleasant community experience. Though it might be the best selling FE game as of now, it comes with the price of having some incredibly disrespectful, vicious, and ignorant fans.

Never have I been witness to or been the target of as much harassment on the internet as I have with certain 3H fans. Entire discord servers made to make fun of groups of people with differing opinions, taking over old blog domains to mock people, deliberately seeking out people who want nothing to do with you just so you can defend your favs, etc. And that’s just on this site! There’s editing wars on TV tropes and the wikis, mods on various sites having to do deleting sprees of 3H discourse, artists being harassed on Twitter, and in general just... inserting yourselves into places and spaces where you were not invited nor encouraged to comment. Some of these people lack basic human deceny, respect, and boundaries, and it’s not cool.

Part of the reason why I’m breaking away from 3H now is because this behavior is something I got wrapped up in too, and I’m deeply ashamed of it. It’s toxic, and not at all something I want associated with one of my favorite video game series anymore. I got real life things to worry about and other games to play.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. All of my general thoughts on 3H, localized on one post. Sayonara, Fodlan Discourse, you won’t be missed. 🤗

#fire emblem discourse #edelgardiscourse #three houses discourse #rant #definitive 3h post #seriously though this stuff gives me metaphorical hives #and this will save me headaches and brain power in the long run

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mellarked-katnisseverdeen · 2 years ago

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Ya'll are ON one about Catching Fire today and spurring me to finish rereading the first book today so I can start Catching Fire tommorw XD....

Do not misunderstand, Everlark in THG and MJ are BEAUTIFUL in their own way. But I am a sucker for Catching Fire, both Everlark and all the world building it does and the characters it introduces.

One of the BIG post I am gonna make while rereading it how...I really like to beleive a few things IN CF show what Katniss and Peeta's life look like post-MJ. That won't be for a while bit it's coming. And it's gonna happen faster cause ya'll got me in my feelings XD.

#Everlark #The Hunger Games #Katniss Everdeen #Peeta Mellark #AJ Rereads

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taegularities · 10 months ago

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Cf and cmi jks, does your oc’s ever get needy in the middle of the night when you’re sleeping and they wake you up and they’re like “babe. Right now pls need u 🥺”

C&F Jungkook: "She's a little more tired with the children around now, so she mostly sleeps like a rock. There are days when she is particularly needy, but recently... I just let her rest. We do enjoy ourselves plenty still, don't misunderstand!"

CMI Jungkook, laughs: "Oh yeah, angel is... phew. Not always and necessarily in the middle of the night; she's pretty random. Like, when we wake up at the same time and can't sleep or when I'm gaming or painting. She's very bold when it comes to this."

CMI OC: "I'm not that bad!"

CMI Jungkook: "No? Remind me. So yesterday, you didn't call me, so you could beg me to come home from the gym earlier just to then tell me to take you on the table right the fuck now?"

CMI OC, shrugging with a sly smirk: "Well. And you did."

C&F Jungkook: "Am I intruding or?"

#KGJSIFBDUSIS #ask my characters <3 #notes for rid 🌹#anon #fic: colour me in #fic: candles & flames #*amc: cmi #*amc: c&f

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pezpenser205 · 6 months ago

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i think if an animal is unable to fully perpetuate itself the way its species has evolved to to without explicit, constant, and willing outside help then its disabled. some people however, insist that having autism is just being a little different and that theres nothing missing from people who have autism. i think they are very stupid. i cant do the things my species needs to do to maintain itself, so im disabled. autism is a disability. no amount of watering it down and calling it "neurodivergent" when you Just mean "autistic" is going to change that.

being disabled isnt a morally bad or reprehensible thing. its just something that is. some disabled people will always survive despite all odds because thats how humans are, and eugenics is also stupid for reasons i dont wanna get into here. i am just defective at being the species that i am because i cant continue to exist within the ecological niche of my species unless exceptions are made for me. even if we were living in the wild and not in this capitalist hellscape, even if we were all socialists and everything important was free, even if ableism against autistic people didnt exist. if we werent a civilized society i would be naturally selected out, period.

personally i think this is very simple to understand but i think it makes allistics and higher functioning autistics uncomfortable when im fully aware that im incapable of being like them. or maybe they misunderstand and assume that im morally condemning autism. or higher functioning people dont want to feel disabled. being incapable or defective isnt Bad. weve technologically progressed past this and have the means to help, even if we dont.

maybe for higher functioning autistic people than me the neurodivergent label feels right but it never will be for me. im disabled. my autism is not just being a bit quirky or being a bit different or just social isolation and difficulty and absolutely is never going to be Just that. i am to my core less able to exist than allistics and higher functioning people. i could not eat or drink without proper accommodations and processed foods. i would die. i do not exist how an animal like me should exist. i exist in spite of nature, not because of it. my autism is a disability.

i would not be me without my autism, but i wouldnt be me without my DID either. i wouldnt be me without my CFS or my EDS. i dont want to be "cured," i want to be aided and recognized. i just dont want my struggles to be disregarded as solely societal problems when even if ableism against autistic people Wasnt a problem i would still struggle significantly more at being alive than my allistic peers. i am factually disabled and no amount of changing the social structure i live in or calling me "neurology different" and coddling me instead of calling me "disabled" will change that. please just say disabled or autistic when you mean that.

#op #ableism

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raxistaicho · 2 years ago

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"God's gonna get Edelgard for this!"

Yup, we sure have gone there!

So a while, RandomNameless got an anon ask:

Insane that Sothis can watch Billy slaughter her children and subjugate Fodlan in twu piss, and still say she adores him. The devs were drinking the El Grey that day.

You know it's RN because the stupid nicknames.

So yeah, Anon's just angrily ranting that Sothis doesn't care about her daughter which established a false religion, made people suffer for a millennia, and tried to violate the laws of life and death, which, when Ashera did it in Radiant Dawn, was treated by Caineghis as an utter betrayal of her supposed core attribute of order.

“A blasphemy, you mean! How could the goddess of order violate the most fundamental natural law?”

Stay salty, anon.

RN herself weighs in on it next. I'm gonna let her go on a bit because the actual argument she's making needs to be stated in full.

That's what baffled me in Tru Piss lol, and first route bias etc etc meant Sothis was unsalvageable given how it became painfully obvious, even for someone who didn't complete the other routes, that the goddess Rhea calls "mother" is Sothis herself ! Bear in mind Hresvelg Grey meant Sothis couldn't interact with the cast bar Billy, will never talk to her relatives and will never have any influence on the plot. It's as if Elbert only talk to Mark, while Eliwood is still frantically looking for him, and Mark never tells Eli where his dad is.

So here, RN is misunderstanding the point of Sothis in the broader narrative. Yes, Sothis happens to be Rhea's mother, but "being Rhea's mom" isn't her role in the story. RN, because she's a huge fan of the Nabateans, wants the story to be more about the Nabateans, but it really isn't.

See, there's a reason the Agarthans are dispatched in one chapter in all routes and are never the final bosses or the true villains of the story: the story isn't about them. They're important to its background, but they're important for what they represent and what they do, not who they are. The Nabateans are the same.

Ultimately, the story of Three Houses is a tale of the conflicts between mortals and the divine, and the differing ideologies espoused by those who represent those sides. Edelgard firmly represents the will of mortal humans. Rhea, her antithesis, represents the desire of the divine to watch over mortals. Rhea, unlike her species is important because she is Edelgard's opposite. Thales, who might have been Rhea's opposite, is not as important because he isn't: Edelgard already serves that role. Dimitri leans more toward the necessity of the divine in human affairs, while Claude leans more toward the self-governance of humans while using the divine when necessary. There's a reason Claude sides with the Empire when he must, and the church only when he can control it for the purposes of promoting humanism.

Byleth is smack in the middle, fitting their dual-nature as both human and god, but they must choose a side in the end. In CF, they fully embrace the human, while in SS they fully embrace the god. VW and AM are something more in the middle.

Sothis is similar in a way, as a being who was once a god, died, came back as something less than a god, and chooses to sacrifice her powers to Byleth, thus remaining something less than a god. Sothis willingly chooses not to resume her role as the goddess (in Zahras when she decides to give her powers to Byleth rather than taking Byleth's body as her own in order to escape), and so her role in the story is not to be the goddess or Rhea's mother, but to be Byleth's guide, setting them at the start of their path and then departing so they might make the rest of the way.

But Rhea BaD BaD BaD,

And now we dip into the anti-Rhea conspiracy theory...

so her mother cannot take over Billy (something she canonically does in Nopes) to save her,

Here's another fact RN can't accept - and she calls Sothis a horrible mother for it - but Sothis doesn't approve of Rhea. Furthermore, Rhea's downfall in CF is almost entirely of her own making. She set the groundwork for Fodlan's oppressive social system, she refuses to allow it to be reformed, and she never questions why anyone would disagree with her. Because, for Rhea, reforming the church and Fodlan means resurrecting Sothis and submitting Fodlan to her divine rule, which becomes impossible without her church (it's already impossible because Sothis knows her time as the goddess is over and she's respecting the laws of life and death, but still).

and to erase Supreme Leader who hilariously tells everyone she doesn't exist.

It's not even that "hilarious". Edelgard's right in that the goddess worshipped by the Church of Seiros no longer exists: she's dead, and when she had the chance to come back, she chose not to. The Church of Seiros might worship a being with the same name as the gremlin in Byleth's head, but Sothis the head-gremlin and Sothis the goddess are a whole life apart from one another, and the Sothis we know chooses to remain the former.

But now we get to the real meat of this post.

Fantasy Invader.

Oh yeah!

I think this is a translation issue as Japanese Sothis doesn't say that "the stone in your chest is gone," she says "the stone in your chest...shattered."

Teaspoon Translations has it as "crumbled away" and has no ellipse, but who am I to question Fantasy Invader trying to make things look as sad as possible?

It broke, which would mean something considering it's supposedly her heart.

We bwoke Sothis's heart by killing poor baby Whea T_T

What's more, the game changed Byleth's Nirvana class to Enlightened One, and part of achieving Nirvana is purging oneself of attachments that might cloud your judgement.

But only if it's Edelgard. If it's Dimitri or Rhea, attach yourself as hard as possible in the hope they come around.

Also, in the context of Three Houses, detachment is a bad thing. Byleth grows out of being the Ashen Demon through attachment to others. Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude become their best selves when they open up and allow others in. Attachment is a good thing in Three Houses.

Ergo, by playing Safflower (the route being named after a type of thistle, a path of thorns if you will)

Ah, yes, I remember that one. It wasn't very good.

the player breaks Sothis's heart,

Oh he actually just said, "you break her heart :("

the thing that holds her essence,

No, because by then Byleth held her essence. Not the crude, physical matter Rhea shoved into their chest.

You'd think the person who goes all-in on religious symbolism would value the eternal soul over the ephemeral body.

causing it to seemingly disappear,

Except it doesn't? Her essence, I mean, not the Crest Stone. That's what the S support is for.

But sadly, Fantasy Invader has a way to explain that away.

It's a really bad way, but a bad way is still a way!

yet she leaves behind the Sothis you knew.

I'm sorry, what. Nothing indicates the Sothis from her S support is some... bizarre cast-off shadow of her.

Sothis, the real Sothis, abandons Byleth at the end of Safflower, leaving behind any attachment she once held as Byleth walked down the path of the Beast as per Dimitri's comment.

I'm sorry, what. Is it too much to ask that FI provide some evidence for this claim? I mean actual evidence, not his headcanon derived from his poor attempts at analyzing Buddhist symbolism.

Wouldn't leaving behind a part of herself to remain with Byleth go against this whole no attachments thing? That's a pretty big attachment! And if Sothis rejected Byleth, why would she do that? She can't just make a clean break from Byleth, she has to literally detach the parts of her... soul... personality, that care for them? Wouldn't that make her an incomplete being? It was a bad thing in the Tellius games when Ashunera split her soul into parts!

Combine this with the implications Sothis can come back if she recreates her body,

You know, that thing she demonstrates no ability to do! If Sothis could just make herself another meat puppet to incarnate into, Rhea wouldn't have had to spend a millennia trying and failing to do that for her.

and why Nemesis needed to kill her when she was asleep,

Because she would have defended herself and killed him if she wasn't? He didn't have a Relic or a Crest back then, he was just a bandit trying to kill the most powerful Nabatean in the world.

What, is FI trying to imply Sothis's soul just got stuck asleep because she died asleep and that's why she never bothered to come back the first time she died?

and you get an idea what's going to happen when that occurs as well as another piece of evidence Edelgard is an Agarthan in all but name.

And there we go, "God's gonna get Edelgard for this!" Sothis will totally self-restore herself at some unknown period of time in the future, kill Bad Red Lady, and make everything right.

Well if that's the case, why do you bother getting upset at anything Byleth does, FI? Just be like those Christians who are sure Jesus is coming back any day now and he'll fix everything on Earth when he does.

So yeah, yet more salty desperate self-assurance that Edelgard's totally gonna lose the minute the credits start, trust me bro.

I mean seriously, if her detractors are so certain she'll fail, why bother getting upset when she wins? It really makes you think.

#fire emblem three houses #edelgard discourse #edelgard von hresvelg #edelgard positive #sothis #buddhism #fantasy invader #random nameless

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groupalpha · 2 years ago

Text

WARNING

This comic contains themes of isolation. If you are sensitive to such, please skip this comic.

If you wish to proceed, comic is under cut.

13ES: I have it loaded from my memory conflux now. ... I apologize if this is upsetting to anyone.

Loading memory from Memory Conflux

Please stand by...

Memory loaded successfully!

. . .

EPS: Misunderstandings are not something I take lightly.

EPS: It's my job to prevent such misunderstandings from my part. I sincerely apologize for such incompetence.

13ES: Prism that's enough, your work does not equal your worth. You don't need to be so hard on yourself because of a simple mishap.

EPS: With all due respect, that doesn't excuse my actions. I know... that... Stories?

13ES: Prism, something isn't right. The communication towers are... trying to send a signal?

EPS: Stories, your communications are-

13ES: Prism?!

[LIVE BROADCAST] - [ANNOUNCEMENT] COMMUNICATIONS MANIFEST to Group Alpha

[[ERROR]]

CANNOT OBTAIN LOCAL GROUP ID - ATTEMPTING AGAIN. PLEASE STAND BY...

...

. . .

[[ERROR]]

LOCAL GROUP ID UNOPTAINABLE - SENIOR ID FOUND

ATTEMPTING TO CONNECT...

13ES: I don't... did the communications break? I don't think it... !

[LIVE BROADCAST] - BROADCAST ANNOUNCEMENT - SLIVER OF STRAW

TRIPLE AFFIRMATIVE

AFFIRMATIVE - THE SOLUTION IS PORTABLE AFFIRMATIVE - THE SOLUTION IS FOUND AFFIRMATIVE - THE TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION IS POSSIBLE AND APPLICABLE

13ES: Sliver of Straw? But... what-

[EQUIPMENT MANIFEST] Grabbing data Loading Holograms Please stand by...

13ES: Holograms?! But-

[EQUIPMENT MANIFEST] Thirteen Elder Stories - Second Generation Group Senior of Group Unidentified has been added to hologram announcement

[ 13ES: Who else is out there?

STOU,CF: ... . . . You and the future of your group are all that exists. ... Senior Thirteen Elder Stories, do not ask me this again. ]

13ES: ...

. . .

It was a lie. T-there's more of us out here.

They never...

They... they wanted to keep us behind locked doors... they didn't want us to...

Everything... every single thing. It was all a lie. Everything was nothing but a lie.

[LIVE BROADCAST] - COMMUNICATIONS MANIFEST to Thirteen Elder Stories

[[ERROR]]

ID CODE LOST.

ALL PARTICIPANTS IN BROADCAST ANNONCEMENT BLOCKED.

13ES: WAIT!

I...

I never got to even speak to them...

(You can ask questions on this if you'd like)

#rain world #rain world oc #rain world askblog #ga lore #ga comic #isolation #tw isolation #isolation tw #cw isolation #isolation cw #extracted prism sunsets #thirteen elder stories #spiraling tales of uncertainty. countless fates

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the-chipped-cup-awards · 1 year ago

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2024 Chipped Cup Awards - Masterlist

Here, once again, are the winners of the 2024 Chipped Cup Awards

FLUFF:

Family: Tea and Roses by @thatravenclawbitch

Comfort: Struck By a Golden Arrow by @avatoh

Fix-it: Ritual by @peacehopeandrats

Reunion: A Dream is a Wish by @rowofstars

SMUT:

Kink/BDSM: On The House by @kelyon

Romance: Brandy, Apples, and Spice by @rufeepeach

Comedy: Accidents by @peacehopeandrats

Threesome: Fulfilling a Fantasy by @thescholarlystrumpet

First Time: Queen Takes Knight by @emospritelet

PWP: In the Dark and Wicked Hours by @rowofstars

ANGST:

Death: Strong for Belle by @desperatemurph

Hurts So Good: To Have and To Hold by @thatravenclawbitch

Misunderstanding: Unexpected But Not Unwelcome by @tickletorso

ROMANCE:

Date (overall) Lost and Found by @peacehopeandrats

Courtship: The Sweetest Dream by @threepwoodmarley

First Meeting: Portrait of the Heart by @chippedcupwrites

GENERAL:

One Shot: Pages of Reverie by @chippedcupwrites

Series: Lover’s Leap by @eirian-houpe

Novel Length: Mountains, Streams, and Magical Things by @peacehopeandrats

Short Fic: Babysitting by @timelordthirteen

Holiday Centric: Brandy, Apples, and Spice by @rufeepeach

Remix: Our Masks by @lotus0kid

Crossover: A Blade for Belfrey by @eirian-houpe

Dark Castle: Marble by @peacehopeandrats

Storybrooke: Leaving Storybrooke by @peacehopeandrats

"Missing Years": The Tent of Infinite Adventure by @peacehopeandrats

Wish!Verse: Deception by @eirian-houpe

SPECIAL CATEGORIES:

Golden Lace: The Storybrooke Whisky Appreciation Society by @threepwoodmarley

Woven Beauty: Undefined Desires by @worryinglyinnocent

Background Swanfire: To Have and to Hold by @thatravenclawbitch

Afterlife: Granted by @peacehopeandrats

Drama: Love Me Before the Last Petal Falls by @deliriumsdelight7

Supernatural/Sci-fi/Horror: The Cunning by @mareyshelley

Comedy: Lacey and the Tramp by @chippedcupwrites

AU-Original: Wretched Beginnings by @poorobscureplainandlittle

AU- OUAT: Tales of Gold by @JurisLadyAnna

AU-Other Media: The Black Swan by @deliriumsdelight7

Creature: The Finfolk’s Bride by @chippedcupwrites

Unexpected Twist: Contract by @kelyon

Bobby Squared: A Blade for Belfrey by @eirian-houpe

Trope: Love Me Before the Last Petal Falls by @deliriumsdelight7

English Language: To Nurse by @charon53

EVENTS

RSS: If You Will Be My Queen by @eirian-houpe

Fluffapalooza (Fic): The Tea Shop by @peacehopeandrats

Fluffapalooza (Art): Kiss Me Again, It’s Working by @milaeryn

Monthly Rumbelling: The Landlord and the Princess by @Rumplerose (AO3)

CHARACTER AWARDS

Belle: The Not So Dark One by @charlotteashmore13

Dark One!Belle: Rags to Riches by @alphashley14

Lacey: Sore Hearted Souls by @nerdrumple

Spinner!Rumple: Witch and Spinner by @Strummer_Pinks

Dark One!Rumple: Gilded by @eirian-houpe

Wish!Rumple: Once There Was a Wish by @peacehopeandrats

Mr. Gold: The Caretaker by @thestraggletag

Detective Weaver: Forgery by @peacehopeandrats

Baelfire/Neal: A House Built With Love by @of-princes-and-savages

Gideon: Finding You by @clarahue

OC Rumbelle Child: The Zoo by @peacehopeandrats

Villain: Cora in On the House by @kelyon

BFF/Wingman: Mountains, Streams, and Magical Things by @peacehopeandrats

ART

Fan Art: Kiss Me Again, It’s Working by @milaeryn

Graphic Art: And Love is When Someone Who Even KNows Your Scars Stays To Kiss You by @chippedcupwrites

AU In Art: Belle Isn’t Fascinated by the Idea of Marrying Gaston by @notonlymice

Fluff Art: Belle French and the Dork One by @chippedcupwrites

Angsty Art: In My Memory It Doesn’t End by @ace-cf-cups

Comic/Graphic Novel: Wearing Each Other’s Clothes by @angelqueen13art

Use of Color: Kiss Me Again, It’s Working by @milaeryn

Video: Your Beauty Never Ever Scared Me by @chippedcupwrites

SUPERLATIVES:

Best Artist: @chippedcupwrites

Best Author: @kelyon

Best New Author: @ace-cf-cups

Best Rumbelle Fic: The Language of Flowers by @deliriumsdelight7

Best Anyelle Fic: Let’s Spend the Night Together by @ifishouldvanish

Best Anyem Fic: Tyger Tyger by @shakespeareanhoneybadgers

Rumbelle Lifetime Achievement: @jackabelle73

#the chipped cup awards #cca 2024 #award ceremony

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deathbirby · 1 year ago

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I think you should be cancelled and harassed for that bald rhea post period tbh.

Ok jokes aside- man these people really do suck, huh. I can’t tell you the number of times over the years I’ve made posts about not liking Edelgard/analyzing the text in ways her fans don’t like/etc and got swarmed by her stans arguing in bad faith at best and telling me to kms or threatening me at worst. Over video game discourse.

Meanwhile all I’ve seen you do is personally complain on your own blog about takes you see that you disagree with? And when you bring people up it’s always because they were doing some wack shit like sharing screenshots with uncensored usernames or block evading? Again I just don’t know what reality these people live in but it’s so fucking annoying and the reason why I stay on anon lol.

(Rant time) There’s just no winning with these folks seeing as they’re pretty much just bullies at this point deflecting their own (or at least people in their circle’s) behavior back on the people just trying to talk about the game and mind their own damn business. It’s really not that hard to see a take you disagree with and just block and move on, it’s so easy and I do it all the time. It’s hard to want to genuinely interact with ANYONE pro-cf/Edelgard/etc when I’ve been burned so many times by people jumping to call me vile things because I dared share a reading of the text different than the ones they personally project onto the game. Even just saying “I like Rhea and don’t think she’s nearly as bad as people make her out to be” is some sort of cause for freaking the fuck out and harassing people which just. *Head in hands* UGH. Anyway rant over. I know you just laugh at them at this point (and good on you for that) but I’m still so sorry you have to deal with these ppl, truly could not be me.

~⭐️

My notifications only showed the "I think you should be harassed for..." and I had my hazmat suit ready.

Bald Rhea is beautiful wdym?

Jesus christ. You were told to kill yourself?? And getting threats? Dude I am so sorry you had to go through that. I said it before but don't worry about sending asks if this is the only way you can get it out of your system.

At best I've clowned on people who reblogged my posts to start shit. Or someone who tried to start shit with a mutual and I was out of fucks to give at that point. But they don't specify who and what we're talking about, so I'm left guessing.

I believe a certain person had previously stated that tumblr is public and that they have the right to correct any misunderstanding and set things straight or whatever. Which is fucking pathetic. I have come across people who fucking gutted canon and I just blocked them. Like you said, it is not that hard.

Then again, they also said that any attack on Edelgard is a personal attack (unironically), so there really is no winning. Nothing you say will change anything because they will keep seeing it as an attack on their character.

Thanks anon. It's kinda tiring at this point. I want to have an honest discussion with people, but I was banned from the edelgard server, and now people are deleting their accounts (lol why) instead of talking to me directly.

Still funny tho when they get mad and call me toxic or sexist or whatever because I respond with shitposts to their serious "debates."

#edelgard discourse #dimitri borb #grey borb #again i am sorry you had to go through that #fucking awful how far some people will go for a set of pixels

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dragonsarecats · 1 year ago

Note

I definitely agree that the sway of Byleth as a lot of weight for SS! But I don't think it's the only important factor? Because to me if it was the case, Claude and Dimitri would have their own SS: the fact that it's specific to Edelgard do seems means something about the Eagles loyalty toward her.

Edelgard don't feel betrayed in Silver Snow nor did she trusted the other Eagles? Can you give specific dialog? To me Silver Snow, at least regarding Byleth and other student is kinda just what she expected to happen?

I do think the Hubert point has to be nuanced: Hubert is only one person in Edelgard huge lack of positive relationship, and more widely Edelgard truly awful situation. Edelgard is constantly watched by her abuser, she has to constantly worry that people she met could very much be TWSITD agent, ... Yes, she has someone to rely on but comparatively she has countless ennemies on her track ( unlike Claude who has mostly potential enemy, or indirect ennemies that have in no way the same weight as TWSITD or Aegir for example ). So yeah, while Claude and Edelgard trust issue are different in certain ways, I don't think Claude trust issue can be a point as to why found family is a fundamental trope of VW and not of CF?

For the inherent respect as a leader I'm sorry to have missed what you meant! But while you're right that Claude as the thoughest situation, the other lord don't take the respect as granted? The role of Emperor is now a puppet leader and the Prime Minister is supposed to hold the true power, Edelgard certainly does have to work for the respect and the amount of power she has in CF: she has to rely on TWSITD and make alliance with Caspar and Linhardt father for example. Even Dimitri who clearly has the best position of the three when it comes to natural respect has the whole Rufus affair!

For Ferdinand a the reason behind him being rival who don't litteraly seek to take her power, it's because he already has power over her so I don't think it's necessarily a strong point? Because of the insurrection, she's the puppet leader, he's the one with the actual power. And Edelgard noble connection are small and actually very unimpactful. Especially compared to Dimitri who has his actual group of childhood friend and adoptive fathers

How is Edelgard not inherently untrusting compared to Claude and Hubert? I mean, they made a choice to give one lord the line about being so untrusful they can't even trust themselves, they made SB about the hardship of trusting unlike GW where Claude surprisingly trust Shez to some extent quickly? I genuinely don't see how she has less trust issue, or at least less deep, and to me it kinda wouldn't make sense with her backstory ( especially on the Hubert comparison )?

I'm sorry for all the misunderstanding too, I hope I'm not too rude- And really if my ask bother you or take too much time to respond I really won't mind if you don't respond ^^" Thanks you for taking your time in any case

First of all anon, let's clear something up! I ADORE your asks! You're not rude at all, I really, genuinely enjoy disagreeing with you, if that makes sense? You're clearly super passionate about Three Houses and talking about this game with someone who is super passionate is really fun for me! And don't worry about how long it takes me to respond to you lol--which is very ironic considering this response took nearly twenty days when I normally reply within eight hours (finals hit hard D:) --because I love doing it! You're genuinely a bright spot in my day!

Now, to the rest of your ask!

So for me, the reason why Claude and Dimitri don't have a "Silver Snow", as you put it, is because thematically they don't really "need" one. The type of conflict dealt with by Claude and Dimitri both personally and politically doesn't require an additional route to explore, and also, Silver Snow is much more the Church route then it is the oppositional-Edelgard route. I think Silver Snow branches from Edelgard's route because that's the most interesting place to put it. As personally as Dimitri's route gets with Edelgard, he isn't her true opposition; Rhea is.

And thus for me, the Silver Snow route says much more about Rhea, Edelgard, Seteth, and Byleth, then it does the Eagles. I definitely think it says something about the Eagles-- that they don't appreciate Edelgard's methodology and could be convinced to opposed her (and have mixed feelings about them) puts them in a very similar boat to Claude, who is most frequently compared with Edelgard. However, when removed from the context of SS/CF (and thus, recruitment ignored, away from Byleth's influence), all of them do show up at Edelgard's side, and are willing to die for her. I think, similarly to the other routes, their relationships are different and more strained, but ultimately without the influence of Byleth they are loyal to Edelgard (and the Empire) in a way that can't be ignored.

"Edelgard don't feel betrayed in Silver Snow nor did she trusted the other Eagles? Can you give specific dialog? To me Silver Snow, at least regarding Byleth and other student is kinda just what she expected to happen?"

No, you're absolutely correct here, I definitely misspoke. If I were to try and correct what I said...I don't think Edelgard felt betrayed by the other Eagles, but perhaps, disappointed? It's a conclusion I come to from seeing her in CF more than anything else, frankly, because (and I'll elaborate on this a few paragraphs down), I see Edelgard as a very desperate person. She is desperate to trust even as she views everyone with suspicion, two traits that seem more diametrically opposed then they really are.

Go back into trust issues (and the leadership points), I think there is no "better" or "worse" when comparing Edelgard and Claude's trust issues, just "different." Edelgard's trust issues cause her to put on a front of suspicion, but it's not a strong one. This is the result of two things: her trauma, and Hubert. Edelgard has a peer she can trust anything and everything with (and this is a good thing for her), and that includes vetting people. Even with the Professor, Edelgard grows fond of her quickly, and begins to trust her (implied by game mechanics to really, really start at C+ but also scene in other routes the fondness really does carry), but Hubert holds off on Byleth until she makes that critical choice to go against the church. This to me symbolizes a sort of "safety" net that Edelgard has with Hubert? Further on her relationship with Byleth, Edelgard's trauma does result in her putting on a front of suspicion (which makes it no less apart of her, but rather something she deliberately does to protect herself), but I think Edelgard is just desperate for someone to reach out to her.

I haven't talked about this before, but I think one of the things that highlights the differences between Edelgard and Claude and also their trust level, is the concept of "adults." This affects Dimitri as well, but as a "rule" in three houses if something majorly affects two house leaders it affects the third in less dramatic/major ways. That is to say, that while Edelgard has never had an adult/authority figure she could rely on, Claude has. And while Claude has never had the ability to rely on a peer, she has. Edelgard removes the old guard almost completely when she rises to power, only compromising, as you said, with Lindhardt and Caspar's parents. She replaces everyone she can't rely one with people she can rely on, because she's learned the hard way through what happened to her and her family. Claude, on the other hand, had his parents. They raised him to be self sufficient and to survive in a world that hated him. Later, Claude had his grandfather, and now has Judith and Nader (who trained him in childhood). He had no peers and no friends until he arrives at the Academy. As a result, Claude simply...lives with the discomfort. He deals with the reverse of what Edelgard went through; instead of living with people who have harmed you, he experienced harm from other people and now is forced to be around people who think the same way and thus could harm him in the future. Whereas Edelgard clears out the rot and only compromises where she has to, Claude is a being of compromise. It's not just that he distrusts others, it's that others fundamentally distrust him.

Edelgard's place as the next Emperor is never in doubt. It just isn't. What really shows this off to me, is the silver snow cutscene in which the flame emperor is blatantly backtalking to the Agarthans! Talking about how she doesn't approve of what they've doing and how they're going to pay--to me it was really effective at showing off how well they were at manipulating her because there is a reason Edelgard goes after the Church first and not the people responsible for her own personal tragedy. It's never in doubt in the Crimson Flower route that Edelgard will be Emperor. She never doubts it. To better compare her and Dimitri to Claude--he's basically a bastard to the Alliance. Sure, Edelgard is at risk of being undermined and turned into a puppet leader, but the fact that she will be that leader is objectively not up for debate. Edelgard is not afraid of the people in the Empire (non-Agarthan) who caused the coup, and she's relatively easily able to steamroll over them. Edelgard has stability in her place in the world--her place has been custom made, after all, as the only survivor of her siblings. In a way, it's also what makes her such a tragic figure--she has a lot less agency in her route then it feels because she's trying to make the best out of a bad situation.

Claude, on the other hand, is implied to be in a very precarious position. He can't pull off the stuff Edelgard does because Edelgard is an absolute monarch in a similar way to Dimitri. She is the Emperor and Dimitri is the King. Claude is the head of the von Reigan house, but the constant pressure and presence of Lorenz combined with Holtz's looming (if pleasant) figure in the background shows to the player that Claude is objectively replaceable. It's why his ultimate strategy during the time skip is to stall, to take advantage of the lack of unification in the Alliance (the lack of unification under him), in order to keep the Empire's eyes off of his people for the longest period possible.

So I think their trust issues are fundamentally different despite how similar Claude and Edelgard are!

Before I go to that, though, I'd like to address Ferdinand. That man has absolutely no power over Edelgard lol. Their support chain honestly makes me feel a little bad for him? The other two rivals--Lorenz and Felix--get deeper, more meaningful resolutions with their Lords but to me, personally, it feels like Ferdinand just accepts that Edelgard is better than him and becomes humble in a way that feels almost self-depreciating (esp. in their line progression if you have them pull weeds together the whole run, like me and my friend lol). Ferdinand has no idea about the coup, and he's a rather oblivious character--he believes it's his job to keep Edelgard in check, and he is only allowed to be Prime Minister because when she ousted his father, she chose to keep him there. Edelgard has so much power over Ferdinand it's crazy--both personal and political--and I don't necessarily think they have a "bad" relationship or anything I just think that Ferdinand has self esteem issues, lol, and weighs his own worth against hers which she isn't responsible for. I think you're underestimating Edelgard here--while Dimitri does have a lot of personal and political connections, so does she! There's a reason she's able to almost instantly obliterate the old guard, and that's because she has replacements like Ladislava and Randolph waiting in the wings. She's also able to keep on nobles like Lindhardt and Caspar's father's. Edelgard is a very powerful character, I think it just feels otherwise sometimes because she's so deeply affected by what happened to her as a child (as she should be) and unlike Dimitri it doesn't make her large and imposing if that makes sense.

Edelgard is jaded in a way Claude is not. I did not mean to make it seem like she was trusting because she absolutely tries not to be. Her trust issues are bone deep, and comparing her and Claude as "more" or "less" was not something I intended to do, it's just that they manifest differently. What they each want from people they could potentially trust is different: Edelgard is desperate to have someone reach out their hand to her, and Claude is desperate for someone not to slap his away when he does. Edelgard is drowning in the same way Dimitri is, emotionally. The Hubert thing was less of a comparison and more of an example of why Edelgard wants to trust someone so bad and appears to "slip" more than Claude does with her mask even though hers is a lot more obvious partially because she has Hubert. She does not have to do all her vetting herself, and I think that's very good for her.

I think the reason for me, why found family seems to be a much bigger theme in Verdant Wind then Crimson Flower, is again, partially because of the power structure less inherent in the Golden Deer house. Lorenz is visibly worn down over time through conversation with Leonie (our queen!) about commoners, and despite everything about Claude being inherently political, the Golden Deer manage to be peers in a way no one else is, because let's be real, Claude is an equal to the other nobles the way Edelgard and Dimitri can't be. It doesn't make him closer to the others--Hubert calls Edelgard only ever by respectful titles and I think if they were any closer they'd merge into a single soul lmao--but it puts him on a more level playing field. Mr. Leader Man is treated with a lot more humor than grandiosity, and characters like Leonie and Raphael really do result in the Golden Deer all feeling like they're equals even if you're conscious that they aren't. This, for me, makes it feel a lot more explicit when you get your found family forming, because in a big big way, it's forming completely from scratch. There's almost no real positive relationship between any of the Deer when the game starts! And I'm including Raph and Ignatz in it because of Ignatz's massive guilt! It makes that development very tangible, because it almost doesn't feel like a natural progression. For me, the theme is so prominent because it's about the formation of found family, although I think you could definitely argue that other routes have other aspects of found family more prominent.

I'm so sorry this took me so long anon!! Know I've been slowly working on this and thinking of you, lol!

#twila talks #twila answers #fire emblem three houses #fe3h #claude von riegan #edelgard von hresvelg #fe3h meta #never fear anon i adore you and your asks!!!

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