#or having done more with Nader and Shahid and show a real conflict between Almyrans who want peace and the ones who want to raid

[randomnameless]

Re: Almyra, yes! YES! After Nopes especially, I'm so baffled that Claude (and I guess his fiercest stans?) wants to change FODLAN so they welcome Almyra. Like, he really is looking at Fódlan's Locket, its history (all three nations coming together to build it), the very real situation of Almyra constantly attacking and trying to invade Fódlan, as well as (once he meets Cyril) the reality of the Almyran army leaving kids to fend off for themselves on the battlefield/after a loss

And he just shrugs and says it's the Church's fault?

If he ever wanted peace between the two, he'd need to work on Almyra's favorite pastime first. Which I suppose he can only do once he's king, which doesn't seem like a soon-to-come opportunity. Not that he looks interested in changing Almyra, anyway. I don't think he ever mentions changing the Almyrans' mentalities?

It's always "Fódlan needs to open its borders, Fódlan needs to keep an open mind, Fódlan needs, Fódlan needs". We know Fódlan HAS open borders with others, at least enough so that have actual regular trade. (I could buy the Alliance not knowing too much about Brigid, Dagda and all because they're at the other side of the map, but the Empire trades with countries on the east, too. How is Claude not aware of that? It has to leak into the Alliance too.)

Sorry, I have a lot feelings about Claude's obsession with opening up Fódlan to people who regularly attacks it. (Considering he uses Sreng in GW to attack the Kingdom, it looks like a pattern lmao.)

No worries anon, you can rant away!

If it's any indication, after playing two games and looking at the script with more hindsight/in a more neutral way, some other players also noticed how this obsession - even in FE16 lol - was ridiculous lol

Correct me if I'm wrong friends, but iirc, Claude in FE16 isn't the first in line for the throne, or something like this? And it's only after helping Fodlan, and then returning to Almyra, that he can become king?

So much like Dimitri, I'd understand if, during the course of the game, as a random who has no real power in Almyra, he cannot do a lot of things to change their mindsets - even if he is still able to ask for Nader's help, who's far from being a random nobody in Almyra!

Maybe we could have had some scenes where he asks Nader what he thinks of Fodlan, and if he doesn't think it'd be nice if they stop raiding and start to interact and trade under more amiable terms, with Nader accepting after some persuasion (idk, witnessing how the so called Fodlan cowards are brave enough to fight 1 to 10 against an Empire who could fold them in two and uses mutated humans) even if that'd include retconning the Nader the devs had in mind that was revealed in Nopes lol

And when Nader's finally on his side, he can try to convince the GD - maybe some members would straight out refuse to help or ditch him, and have to be recruited later on (or persuaded if they got an A support at least with Claude thus no ditch him), with a special subplot regarding Hilda because she's a member of House Goneril and her House has bled for many decades to fend off against "invasions for funsies" - ultimately bringing more to his friendship speech against Nemesis than, this speech just being a Wedon speech thought in the spur of the moment that sounds cool (Nemesis symbolising, after the infodump, the culmination of Fodlan's rejection of "others", in this case, Nabateans, who weren't considered sentient beings but just "things" to be looted").

But no, instead we have church BaD, Rhea BaD, then Church not so BaD but Rhea's doctrine BaD, to Rhea's not so BaD but she still dies conveniently offscreen, and Church was still kind of BaD since it's ultimately reformed (how?) by King/Queen Billy.

Yay!

In a way, I'm wondering that even if the devs said they re-wrote Claude to fit Nopes, if FE16!Claude's mindset wasn't already that closer to Supreme Leader's than we first thought, especially if they're both wondering, basically "why are those people unhappy that I/we are invading them and fighting to prevent us from getting in?".

Supreme Leader does it when she invades and laments the "useless" deaths from people who die defending their lands, and Claude basically does it when he wants to "open" Fodlan to people who want to invade them (but ultimately manages to convinced them to sign a treaty at the end of his route, off-screen).

Also, anon, acknowledging the Empire, the Kingdom and FFS the Alliance trades with other countries in this verse would remove a part of the Church BaD/Rhea BaD spiel - and we can't have that :(

idk if it was on purpose, and we still don't know what Varley is preaching in Nopes, but I love how Gilbert is the first one who says Varley's teachings are full of shit and is basically the one who tells the cast that Varley's words are nonsense, because if they are close to what Claude is telling us about "uwu isolationism uwu", Dominic, in Nopes, is revealed to trade a lot with Albinea lol

Of course Gustave can't say this loud, otherwise no Church BaD and characters who are supposed to be loved looking like asses wouldn't look that rad (even if Claude already has a moment like this with Barney lol) - but imagine Claude saying "uwu church enforces isolationism and forbids foreign trade" and Annette shuts him up "what are you talking about? We've been trading with Albinea since the days of Loog, and the Central Church never asked us to stop?".