#phase that early bls had to suffer through

[panncakes]

it is still so wild to me that the first full thai gl we got was filled with so many different types of kisses and sex scenes and explicit wlw love making i thank the stars every day for freenbecky

[ac-liveblogs]

How was the Edelgard and Church Route? And are they better than the Golden Deer Route?

oh boy. black eagles. yes.

In terms of pre-timeskip, Black Eagles in general is just more fun than Golden Deer. I’ve said this before, but GD pre-skip is boring as hell because nothing interesting is happening nor is anything interesting being set up, but BE had a bit more happening, so that was fun. The class dynamic is also hilarious, and the Edelgard-Hubert-Ferdinand trio is a lot of fun. (being hubert is suffering) Early on, I had high hopes.

…boi.

I played Edel route, then Church, but I have less to say about Church, so:

Church and GD are basically identical up to a point, but Church works better imho because it’s framing is more relevant to CF and BL. I know the point of GD is that they’re outsiders, but GD has virtually nothing else going on that lasts longer than ten seconds, so Church is a bit stronger by that tack alone. Also, I prefer the BE students to the GD students, so there’s that. I think GD ends on a much, much better note for Fodlan in general - Church ending is probably my least favourite in terms of Fodlan’s future - but Church route probably trumps GD imho.

Edel route though! Oh boy.

The two biggest issues I have with Edelgard route are basically Edelgard’s character and resolution, and the fact that this is the only route that goes full AU timeline on you and plays out completely different to every other path. 

Or in laman’s terms; it’s an Edelgard dating simulator. I hope you wanted to date Edelgard. 

One of Edelgard’s biggest issues is her constant inability to explain her motivations coherently. This was a problem when I had no idea what her beef with the Church was when I initially defected to her, and continued to be a problem when I realised I had no idea what her feelings about all of this were. Or why the Church was so bad, since she never explains that properly either.

 You can piece this all together over the course of this route and others - especially re: why the Church is bad - but it makes Edel as a character look unfocused. I assumed she was heavily groomed by Those That Slither to get such an unfounded yet extreme outlook, but this is never confirmed nor denied. Edelgard says Rhea wants to do “monstrous things”, but what those monstrous things are is never explained, nor is why Edelgard had a reason to think she would.

 Also if Edelgard is standing next to me I shouldn’t need to go digging through other routes to work out what the hell she’s talking about.

Her only response to Dimitri asking why she’s conquering his Kingdom and killing his subjects is to say “well why are YOU trying to take it back? checkmate, you’re just as bad as me”. It is a real problem that when Dimitri tries to ask what Edelgard’s deal is she won’t tell him, when that would solve a lot of fucking problems. 

also is edelgard actually six years old? what kind of fucking response is that??? 

Your class literally has no reason to be there besides loyalty to you. This is really uninspiring.

Edelgard is in love with you. This is not a secret. This is a problem because her being in love with you apparently radically changes her character - it’s pointed out immediately in War Phase that she would be a lot crueller if not for you (but why? You’ve never changed her mind on anything), and that she needs YOU to win the war (why? She was perfectly competent in every route without me.)

This might be a weird complaint, but I did not walk into CF expecting to have the horrors of what Edelgard’s doing dulled while the fact that she’s REALLY CUTE AND IN LOVE WITH YOU played up. The game tells you your her morality pet and that’s why she’s like this, but… it’s really sudden, badly explained, and incredibly unsatisfying. 

CF never acts like Edelgard’s doing anything wrong. Edel herself smugly points out how generous she is by not killing any many people as she should - which is a problem, because this is evil route. I wanted something far more morally grey - I expected a reflection of BL, not what feels like the game intentionally softening Edelgard because she’s supposed to be your waifu.

Crimson Flower is a complete AU timeline to every other route. In BL, GD and VS, the empire is on the edge of victory, while here it’s been locked in a stalemate for five years. Immediately this sets up Edelgard as the underdog, not a monstrous, victorious warlord, and that immediately changes her character. So if you walk in expecting CF to fill in the gaps for any other route, you’ll already be sorely disappointed.

One of the biggest losses is that Edelgard never got a foothold in Faerghus, which means Rhea is free and Dimitri is already king. This means Dimitri isn’t feral, which… already removes one of the most interesting things Edelgard could have to deal with - i.e. a broken man rallying his forces to stand against her, which would actually have been a pretty morally grey thing to have to deal with.

It’s also noteworthy that Dimitri is so far as we can tell completely sane. This is a problem because the chapter dealing with him acts like he’s still an irrational monster - Hubert says at much, and Edel’s crowning speech of “awesome” is her wrecking Dimitri for being obsessed with her or blaming her for things she didn’t do… which he has not done in this timeline. Due to this timeline not having Gronder Field (despite the fact it would’ve made a lot of sense to include it), all of this is pulled completely out of their asses. Telling, not showing, is a problem here. 

You also don’t have to deal with Rhea in any unique capacity - you wanted to see Edel and Rhea actually talk to each other, you’re out of luck.

This AU timeline immediately removes a lot of the things that I wanted to see explained about Edel’s perspective in every other route, which is a massive shame, given the way the other routes are set up.

Those That Slither In The Dark get no resolution in CF. And yeah, I know, beating them is a Church/GD thing, we had to give Claude something to do, but CF spends a decent chunk of time establishing the upcoming fight with them only for it to cut off early for no apparent reason. “Yeah we’ll deal with them later, lol”, leaving Edel’s state of mind as a result of them hanging, as well as what should’ve been the real conclusion to this arc. Given CF has 18 chapters while the others have about 22, this just feels lazy.

basically; i was rooting for you edelgard. cf sucked, edelgard. why this, edelgard.