#!answered. the golden rule.

[okiedokiegoosey]

@brothersteelknight ⫸ [ goodbye ] a heartfelt kiss when parting, showing affection and fondness

her name is lucy maclean. she was indoctrinated to believe she was meant to be a breeder. that isn't normal.

she knew better than to think this would last. they simply used each other for the shared growth of the moment, but it still broke her heart. she couldn't say she was in love with him. love, for her, was the most important emotion of all.

it didn't mean she didn't care for him. she did, but it wasn't enough. it wasn't a reason to give up on her answers from vault tec, or travelling with cooper, or seeing as much of the surface world as she could.

her name is lucy maclean. she was indoctrinated to believe she was meant to be a breeder. that isn't normal.

she stays just out of reach when she approaches, tears welling for a loss that didn't quite make sense to her. she wasn't in love with him. she cared, but it wasn't truly love. guilt settles in the pit of her stomach for leading him on.

and that's exactly what she did, isn't it? she led him to believe they had a shot, and all she felt was a fondness and a desire to have sex, because why? because he was there and because he was nice to her a few times? that wasn't healing. that was feeding the indoctrination, and everyone was right.

they used each other.

she doesn't think when she goes up on her toes. a press of lips, and she's conveying her every thought; her every emotion. she wants to apologize, to tell him he'll find the right person, to say she tried to be that person and it isn't her. everything rushed out, crashed against him, and still, it felt so insignificant to the hurt that's obvious on his face.

"i'm sorry. i can't do this. i care about you, but i don't think i'm the girl you want me to be." she practiced this. she could get it all out. "you'll find them, i know you will. but i have to go. i have to finish what i started, and i'll just keep stringing you along. i'm so very sorry, maximus. i can't-"

well, she tried to get it all out there. why was she crying? she wasn't in love with him.

[soaps-mohawk]

OMG WAITR

If reader has a bear plush to represent Price…..does she have plushies to represent the whole pack

I feel like she def has a little ghost plush with a cartoonish and adorably angry face to represent Simon. Idk what she’d have for Soap or Gaz tho 🤷‍♀️

— 🌘 !

Mmm I'd like to think she has stuffed toys that she's picked to represent each of them. Obviously Price has the bear that he scents for her (even though she's already nesting he just keeps doing it because she likes it and it makes her happy).

Lol Simon would hate the cute little ghost plushie, but he sees her cuddling it one time and his heart grows a size 😂

Kyle's is a wolf plush. (Yes this is because Elliot said Gaz would be a wolf if he were an animal). He loves it, probably picked it out himself. Sleeps with it occasionally just so it has his scent all over it.

Johnny...I feel like Johnny has a dog plush. Reader comes home from a shopping trip and tells him she found the perfect dog plush to represent him. He's expecting like a German Shepherd or a Doberman and then she pulls out like a Golden Retriever or a Corgi 😂 His ego is a little bruised, but she's happy so he can't complain too much. Probably tries to steal it constantly.

[bienmoreau]

I think why people want the Trojans to get a red card, specifically defending Jean against the ravens, is because it shows the Trojans breaking their moral code to defend Jean, which could be significant, and I think it would introduce an interesting dilemma of how far they are willing to go to protect him from the raven’s toxicity. Idrk tho

I guess I can see that.. maybe.

For me it feels like it undermines something fundamental about who they are (especially who Jeremy is; from what we have so far, how seriously he takes being a role model/showing up as his bast self in public) and how they are presenting Jean with a new world view and reality of how it's possible to be, and how to protect, support and care for others. The idea that the others don't resort to violence to protect each other and still smash the opposition is important. That they don't display violence as a solution means that it is never presented as a possibility that it will one day be used against Jean.

Yes sure the situation of protecting him would be specific (and if it was something like Andrew saving Neil in TKM then even more so). But once they have shown they can and will resort to violence as a reaction that means he is no longer safe with them in the way he was up until that moment.

It also basically nullifies the promise he has made to them by signing the contract and committing to learning to play their way! And the tacit promise Jeremy has made to him to get them to championships by playing their way with him as part of the team!

But that's just my thoughts and maybe my mind will be changed on this (v unlikely ngl). But If that's what Nora decides to have happen in some way I'm sure she'll be able to write it in a way that carries us to that situation meaningfully and believably. It just isn't something I feel is needed at all for this story I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[randomnameless]

I mean… fire emblem shouldn't be taking in consideration when making points about representing real world issues or using it as a crutch for sociopolitical arguments irl. One of the best examples in this franchise of "culture bias" and "covet bigotry" is Fates, where Hoshido is too pure, too good, and Nohr is the bad, bad, evil barbaric nation. And this goes so far as to make birthright's story a more watered down version of blue units vs red units story from shadow dragon.

In 3H now the good, pure nation is Fodlan, and those who surround it are either filler to make the worldmap look prettier, or barbarians that like to hunt the good guys for sport (Almyra and Sreng, and possibly Dagda), with Brigid being a repetition of the noble savage trope. Just bc there's a poc guy that wants to unite people and get rid of prejudice in story, doesn't mean that the developpers agree to that or support that.

(Also, let's not talk about Hopes and how Claude's altruistic dream turns out to be unifying two different nations and make the cohabit by force with him as sole leader of both. AKA the typical fire emblem trope of uniting different countries under one ruler, something that's not progressive in the slightest)

Mmh,

Speaking on eggshells here because Fates isn't really my area of expertise, but basically, iirc you can thank Pat for scrubbing the worst of Hoshido!

Fates' best route is Revelation (rip izana) where both countries accept to set aside their differences to work together, meaning that, obviously, Hoshido wasn't only "blue unit land" against Nohr's "red units".

Even through Birthrout, you can catch here'n'there, even in the Pat version!, how Hoshido isn't roses'n'daisies, it's the land where Mikoto takes her niece "hostage" ffs as a measure against Corn's kidnapping (you can't tell me she never guessed Azura was Arete's kid!), where Ryoma (idk if you were the same anon as back then?) as the crown prince ignores the plight of the nohrians and why they were attacking Hoshido because life in Nohr sucks and they're starving (idk if, much like the Leonster/Thracia conflict, Hoshido refused to trade with them and let them starve instead), the fuckery with Mokushu and Shura's backstory, or Hoshido being Misogyny Land (tm).

Heck Birthrout has you march on Nohr's capital city iirc, and fight in the streets - it's in Birthrout that Corn's obsession with taking revenge/defeating Garon leads to Elise' death - so it's not the the "blue unit waltz on red unit lands, routs the enemy and calls a day".

So I don't think the Fates writers really wanted to push the "pure unproblematic land" card with Hoshido compared to Nohr, but rather depict them as both flawed - in different ways - and needing to work together.

Now, I wouldn't say the nations of Fodlan are good compared to the rest of the filler nations that make up this verse's world - after all it's Adrestia who starts hostilities against Dagda'n'Brigid and Adrestia who most recently flattened Brigid and made it its vassal! - but in a sense you're right calling them filler, the FE series in general don't spend a lot of time to depict nations in general, they're just "the place character X is from" and for all of its, hm, reknown writting, Fodlan is following the trend, Albinea is no less different than Cheve (wait, we have one map set in Cheve! kill that) so bar flavor text, they're effectively just "filler".

I disagree about Sreng and Almyra being filler though, if Sreng could be seen as a ref to the Thracia situation or Norh/Hoshido fight for ressources, Almyra?

Is basically Verdane all over again - with the dubious honor of having a Verdanite Lord who, unlike Jamke has some relevance to the plot bar his introduction, but most important, seems to appreciate and want to emulate/import the values/methods of his country to the cast/main plot.

Can you imagine FE4 where Jamke suggests to kidnap Deevtar to seduce lure Andrei in a trap and rekt him?

Of course not.

Just bc there's a poc guy that wants to unite people and get rid of prejudice in story, doesn't mean that the developpers agree to that or support that.

I guess they agreed with the "get rid of prejudice without dealing with the dragon in the room" idea, but the main issue I mentionned and talked about in the other anon reply was the how, and what, doylist wise, it conveys.

"I'll unite people and get rid of prejudice by busting open your country to my people who are as prejudiced as you supposedly are, and I will bring you new values"

That's... not a good way to bring people together lol.

Even in FE16 I found Claude and Almyra's writing a bit odd : why asking Timmy first to stop shunning Bob when Timmy started to avoid Bob because Bob keeps on stealing his lunch money? Shouldn't you ask Bob first to, uh, not be an ass?

In Nopes?

Bob ruins Timmy's house, hits Timmy's toddler sister in the face and still steals his lunch money - but now, Bob has the nerve to tell Timmy that he's doing this to "help" him.

Also, let's not talk about Hopes and how Claude's altruistic dream turns out to be unifying two different nations and make the cohabit by force with him as sole leader of both. AKA the typical fire emblem trope of uniting different countries under one ruler, something that's not progressive in the slightest

Hmmm,

I don't know if you played the older games (FE1 to FE10), but as far as I remember, bar Archanea verse, we have different rulers for each countries and the world is never an unified entity -

And even then, Marth doesn't unify the world by making people "cohabit by force", as forced as it is, everyone gives him their crown.

Sanaki doesn't tell Elincia to suck it as she annexes Crimea in FE10, ditto with Innes and Joshua, or Ced and Ares in Jugdral... I can see Leif's unification of Thracia falling under that criteria, but even then, it's not so much by force than Travant making suicide by cop because he wanted the peninsula to be united and understood he couldn't be the one to do it.

Uniting the continent by force is, on the contrary, what red emperors do, and in traditional FE games, red emperors are defeated.

To return to your main point :

I mean… fire emblem shouldn't be taking in consideration when making points about representing real world issues or using it as a crutch for sociopolitical arguments irl.

Of course, and I totally agree!

The FE series has always been, as its core, a series where a "rightful ruler" returns home to rule "rightfuly" and better than its predecessors, by acknowledging what they did wrong and what they can do now.

That being said, a game is never written in a vacuum : that's the doylist side of various discussions : "What were the devs thinking, was what their reasoning when they decided to make the game this way?"

In 2004, real world persons believed that putting Devdan in their game was okay.

You can give them some flak because different cultural references between Japan and the US world (hell, western world at this rate because damn if Devdan hit "international" racist stereotypes boxes!) - and yet, can you really suppose the devs wouldn't have known, in 2004, that those stereotypes are harmful to real life people and Devdan was basically an insult?

But Devdan was just a living (as much as a fictional character can be alive, but you catch my drift lol) stereotype, the issue was just with Devdan existing.

It was 2004, 15 years later, we expect of IS - not your backwater company! - to never ever fall in the same pits, right?

(well, we had FE13 with the Feroxi main characters who love to fight being dark skinned... so the Devdan dev might still have been there :/ )

FE Fodlan, let it be for design or even names, took some inspiration from RL (it was funny upon release to catch all those links and nods!), and while i appreciated the aesthetic, it was bound to create another "Devdan" issue.

You have Almyra, designed with several RL inspirations (they weren't being subtle with Claude's battalion called the Immortals lol), from design (Claude's clothes and braids!) to units (mounted archers!) to, well, names.

Okay, in itself, it's nothing as insulting as Devdan's existence. But taken with the context?

The devs wrote that Fodlan's aesthetic was supposed to be the Age of Discoveries (1500s and onwards?) so yes, during that Age, you had people who were prejudiced as fuck against people from other lands/different cultures.

But in 2019, we know that those prejudices were full of shit, and either fueled by ignorance, or just, the need to find a good "excuse" to get new lands/manpower/ressources.

Maybe the devs wanted to showcase this part of history : depict the characters being prejudiced against "foreigners" and have them later learn that their prejudice was unfounded !

But... they took the inverse path

Hilda's racist stereotypes? They're shown to be....

True through both games!

As you put it, Almyra are the "barbarians" who : attack the land the characters are from when they're at their weakest, for no reason than to get a good fight - even if it means dying which in turns create several orphans they don't give a fuck about - pillage and "rampage" in cities, let their allies die after accepting a "mutual support" alliance with them, and ultimately rave and scream at their "outdated" values and how you're going to bring them yours.

"You see those people who were derided as savages and barbarians back then in RL - and still are in some parts of the world because the early 2000s happened and in general because racism exists? - Well I'm going to base my fantasy "token barbarian country who is untrustworthy and backstabs everyone" based on them!"

:/

I know you can't compare tomatoes to watermelons, but the Baten Kaitos franchise also has a nation who's, more or less, full of assholes, racists and imperialist pieces of shit. But the devs in those games designed each island/country from scratch, there is no nation that immediately calls back to "RL country X or culture Y"!

you can make a farfetched point about the people wearing ceremonial masks and having totems being a mix of several RL inspirations or at least being a call back to them... but they're part of the most OP people of that universe!

So why? Why, doylist wise, FE Fodlan designed with care - you can't tell me those costumes and outfits were designed in 10 minutes! - Almyra and its characters... only to have them act out as what an english book from the 1780s depicted "oriental" people ?

Unlike Devdan, the racism doesn't ooze out from the way the characters/country was designed, but what role they fit in the story.

It's not a sociopolitical commentary or representing real world but more like another jab at IS for being as prejudiced against non western/japanese cultures and civilisations as they were when FE4 was released, which is problematic in 2019/2022.

(and then you have Square Enix giving us Hyzante in Triangle Strategy, which is even more in your face with the dubious parallels)

[tyunclouds]

Fun poll idea for today since I'm pretty confident in who ENHYPEN's center is, in my opinion, but it isn't technically official, so:

[unmaskedhero]

Are there any sort of divine consequences if you don’t do what you’re supposed to? (In other words are you a guardian by choice?)

I was sealed in a mask for eons, serving no one in a silent abyss, and I still retain godship. If that didn’t stop me, I’m not sure what will.

[little-tyrant-gortash]

You should kill them before they end up killing you. Be careful Gortash

"They are my ally. I will not kill them. And while your concern for my well-being is appreciated, I do not require it. With this in mind. Get out."

[heartsdefine]

↪ memes — accepting!

@faultyconscience (moldaver) said: “i don't think you've changed much.” - to Lucy

        “Don't...” Lucy turns away from her father to face Moldaver, wiping a few stray tears from her cheek with the end of her dirtied sleeve. “Don't do that, please. You knew my mother.” She shakes her head. “You don't know me.”

[scrawnytreedemon]

What stupid names? Can I know the names?

Ghirahim, Sephiroth, Zant, Kirby... I'm blanking but I know I have so many more.

(shout-outs to Cris!!! love ya buddy xoxo)

Micolash is a perfectly respectable irl name(a Hungarian variation of "Nikolas", iirc), but on him it has such a Vibe but then again I am writing Him. The name is the least outrageous thing here lmao.

In general, I tend to like villains, and villains tend to have "stupid-as-fuck-on-a-real-person" names. They might be perfectly serviceable with titles, but the moment you take them into a more intimate setting it's just... Bro. You're getting called that, on a day-to-day basis?

God, so sorry for blanking out on the more ridiculous names, I know I have more... But I think the grandiosity of the first two should do plenty well.

[okiedokiegoosey]

↳ @brothersteelknight → trust me, this isn't gonna end well. [x]

he may be right. it might not end well, but it could go the opposite way. she's willing to give it a shot. eyeing the man once more, she only hums, nodding as if she hasn't already made her mind up; as if she isn't about to walk right up to the traveling trader and ask to buy something to get him talking.

"sure." she placates, studying the side of his face before turning on her heel.

"hi, my name is lucy. how much for the book?" she starts, beaming the entire time.

he could be right, or he could be wrong. that's what's left to be determined. she makes her way back to him after gaining absolutely nothing but odd glances from the trader, shrugging at maximus as she keeps on their chosen path.

"it could've been bad, but what's the worst that could happen? we've already been shot at, taken hostage, and probably drugged in the last oh, i don't know, two weeks? sometimes you have to have faith in people, max." she grins, but she definitely spoke too soon.

there was a reason the trader kept staring at her wrist, and she'd just walked them right into another fiasco.

[couldneverhurtusnow]

So, they were just making false news, so people come to their site (paul is hot commodity right now), so they will make more money, right?

that’s what tabloids do though. & clearly people are interested in paul, which is evident when you take into account how quickly people latch onto every piece of information/rumor about him.

paul is also notoriously private, which in my opinion makes people take even more interest in his personal life, because it’s kind of off-limits.

maybe he is currently dating around, maybe he is in a committed relationship with someone, maybe he’s enjoying being single & is dedicated to his job — the fact is we don’t know unless he says something himself; & the tabloids & internet (where anyone can make up anything) are quite honestly the last place to get that information from.

[fgo-husbandry]

If you lock your Dantes up in its Chateau D’If every time you leave the house you’ll literally drive it insane fyi. I shouldn’t even have to say it but like- lmao there do be some inexperienced ass masters out there

True! You should maybe consider letting him loose on a local coffeeshop, or perhaps a library. Maybe a dispensary if you’re really out of options.

~Mod Zerker

[quibbs126]

What are the chances that there may actually be a revolution in GC’s kingdom happening at some point? The art book states that she controls EVERY aspect of her citizens’ lives down to the smallest details, plus something tells me she may have forged/altered the story of her Vs Cheddas.

The odds of the Cheese Puff Orbs collectively deciding that they’ve had enough of her crap are high, but the chances of them winning the war by themselves…is debatable.

You know, I’m not sure, but honestly I kind of doubt it

I mean, in this scenario, it sort of paints Golden Cheese as the villain to the Cheesebirds, and while yeah, she can be a flawed character, she is still supposed to be an Ancient Hero. Yeah you could say she learns the error of her ways, but at the same time, it’s not a very flattering image for one of the heroes to be portrayed as the bad guy

[fairymint]

14. What aspect of your life are you most delusional about? (For Felix)

".....i don't think i have delusions. .....is this question, like, abeleist...?" Probably. "Mere thoughts and dreams are not really those, More like illusions, so." A soft sort of nod; but we know what this question means, anyways.

Consternation as he remembers daydreams, real dreams, fantasies.....hm. Paranoia, even if short lived, too. "i dunno. I really like to have a sense of what is real, i think that's helpful. My mind in my head cannot push aside or even predict people. People often don't like to be predicted..."

But that's really a non-answer. "mmmm, porn, sorta. sex, if you will. that's the closest kinda thing, but would I even know if I were delusional and wrong? Would it even matter, if I can make what I really want happen?" Food for thought. Romance, too, more than porn, but he won't admit that one. Breaking the illusion that his crushes would act out of character is all too easy, when returning to a dose of real life.

[silver---linings]

(Sorry, should have asked if you were ok with OC interaction before throwing you off the deep end)

Phoebe! Phoebe the Parrot. I was mostly just passing through and thought you looked kinda neat so I wanted to say hi. Sorry if I was awkward, I'm not the best at talking to people.

- @phoebe-the-metarot

"Just passing through, huh?" That seems a little too convenient, and why would anyone want to say hi to him just because he "looked neat"? Well, those gray Mobians with sunglasses probably did, but that doesn't matter.

His eyes narrow as he looks the parrot over. Something about her doesn't seem right, he knows it. "Well, Phoebe, for not being the best at talking to people, you sure had no problem talking to me, someone you just met."

"How about you tell me more about yourself." He gestures for her talk about herself. "Start with telling me where you're from." He hopes that by acting interested, he can get her to come clean and reveal herself.

[heartsdefine]

↪ memes — accepting!

@paigeatyourservice said: “it’s not the first time i was tossed out of a window, and it won’t be the last.” (for lucy)

        “You've been tossed out a window...before?” Lucy asks, only to stop and shake her head. “I mean, are you all right? That was an awful far way to fall.”