#( this is byleth and dimitri and no-one can take this from me )

[xenonsdoodles]

"He said he had too much work left to do and he couldn't go to bed yet. I'll give him your message when he wakes up."

[rorah]

Dimitriverse here. And I'll use it as pretext to talk about Hopes. 'In this essay I will ☝️...'/j I must be one of the few - if not, the only one- (who's not on board with the anti-church propaganda |Just in case: I grew up in an atheist house| and not a Byleth hater either) who actually liked hopes because it supports and enhances houses narrative view (contrary to the common belief that it's the opposite).

Hopes shows a constant comparison between both games. And we know that this universe plays a lot with the parallels between different characters, and relationships. Both similarities and contrasts. Hopes is a contrast, seen from Shez's perspective.

It is established from the beginning that they only see the superficial positive qualities of the leaders, just like general tone presented of this game.

Here I'm going to focus mostly on AM's goal and its contrast in AG.

In AM Dimitri achieves redemption and benevolence through forgiveness and acceptance. These lessons he learns from Byleth - the teacher/ the guide/ the enlightened one (the class enlightened one is mea to alude that who have more knowledge and greater understanding of something, who also aludes to the original aspect of the game. Nirvana. The JP Byleth class) in an indirect way. Byleth in turn gets it from the goddess herself but also their life lessons/experience from GM, and the people surrounding them. WC is an important and crucial stage in Byleth's development, as is the interaction they have with the diverse students they tutor.

The role of Byleth goes beyond a mundane "self-insertion" of the player. Byleth is meant to be a bridge between that goddess and humans: the path to Nirvana.

Both forgiveness and acceptance are mentioned in the game but can go unnoticed due to the level of subtlety they are mentioned, but they are core elements in Buddhism such as compassion and wisdom that serve as a path to inner peace and freedom (specially for the leaders who rule over big factions of people), and breaks the chain/cycle of suffering, anger, revenge, resentment, among others.

And that reminds me of Arval's constant words: "the cycle of this world". What does Arval mean? The cycle of this world… said by an Agarthan "deity", whose only role in the game has been to generate constant conflicts between the inhabitants of Fodlan and beyond perhaps? so that they kill each other. I don't know Joe, something here smells weird -wink wink- (Not to mention it also emphasizes the qualities achieved through Nirvana)

It's Important to understand the importance of Forgiveness and everything involved in the act. Understanding forgiveness, as a spiritual practice, goes beyond simply letting go of resentment. It involves cultivating mindfulness and compassion towards oneself and others. Since the game has heavily references and basis from Buddhism you can grasp it from there (more than Christianity, I'm sure different faits have somewhat different or similar approach to some concepts). But need to mention the act is also applied from a physiological and neurological perspective (in case you're not much of a "fait" person like me. I still like the Buddhism take tho, from a philosophical standpoint💖).

Anyway, Dimitri AM manages to learn those lessons and is not just "to learn to live for himself", which is also important, but it is only possible to achieve it through the through the acts already mentioned: forgiveness, acceptance, compassion, etc. Acts that acts that are practiced externally towards others but which are mostly an act towards oneself. Compared to Dimitri AG where the path chosen is revenge.

Misfortune always dogs the steps of one who gives way to the desire for revenge.

Does he get the answers he thinks he wanted? Yes Did it satisfy him? A Dimitri fan knows it didn't. Can Dimitri's friends help him? No, because they're in a similar situation or under similar believes, and this game displayed it.

Sopilers: No, they won't get anything from getting revenge and certainly doesn't help to move on. Much less Dimitri, who's mental health has only been addressed at the end of a couple of supports. Is Shez a bad person? No! but they help no one and just goes along with whatever the leader says. Is Arval/Epimenides a bad entity? This is where I think, the original concept of the game is applied, the one mentioning. There's no good or bad, only a matter of perspective. But of course, that's something arguable and extense that deserves its own analysis.

At the end of all 3 routes, the war continues (despite having finished off Thales in AG) because the cycle continues. The cycle of anger, of suffering, of revenge, of prejudice, etc. And in my opinion, I think that's beautiful (the comparison, I mean). Thanks for coming to my Ted talk

[butwhatifidothis]

I guess the ultimate thing that kills CF for me - or at least nudges it away from me saying I definitively like it - is just how much Edelgard is clearly written with the player in mind before she's written with her character in mind.

Because on all of the other routes, there's a power to Edelgard's presence. Even on BE, there's a sense that for as lonely as Edelgard might be, she still ultimately will do whatever it takes for her to get what she wants. Be that be killing her citizens (or otherwise letting them be killed), endangering her friends, assisting in kidnapping people, allowing Byleth to support her only when they have the Sword of the Creator, covering for TWS - no bar is too low for her to limbo under if doing so means she's even a step closer to her goals.

She's manipulative! She's deceitful! She doesn't care for the lives of her people! Even her friends are forfeit if they try to stand in her way! And this happens no matter how close you, the player, get to her, in the case of BE - C+ ain't stoppin' Remire, and going to the coronation ain't stopping the Holy Tomb.

And in the war phase, she is dominating the field. She has the Kingdom completely on the ropes, down to a few houses standing against Imperial rule, and the Alliance is stuck in neutrality - she may not be able to do much to it, but neither can they do anything to her (to say nothing of the Alliance houses who stand with her). She's far from the underdog in this race, and she shows off how threatening she can be.

CF? Her route?

She scweams at scawy rats. She gets embawwassed when you find her dwawings. She's just so wonewy, and she's just so gwad that you chose her. She somehow fails to capture Rhea, or frame Dimitri for regicide, and so now has to deal with that on the Kingdom's side of the war. But that doesn't stop Elly Welly-kins fwom twying to find her pwecious teacher, because you're just so important to her. She cwies and hugs you when you meet her in the Goddess Tower!! Because she missed you so much!!

It's like... Dimitri and Claude certainly show different sides of themselves on their respective routes. It's the whole point! You grow closer to them and thus see how they treat those close to them, as opposed to being the Kinda Neat Teacher they see run along every now and then. But, like... Claude doesn't become a blushing maiden whenever Byleth speaks with him on VW. Dimitri doesn't scream at scary rats and get called cute for it on AM. They don't get Basic Bitch Gap Moe Traits slapped onto them that are only ever shown to the player and only on their routes. Unlike Edelgard.

Dimitri's endearing trait is that he's this big huge dude who can bench-press forests and arm-wrestle god who still wants to learn to sew and who teaches kids to protect themselves and who buys candies for his friends. Claude's endearing trait is that he's this mastermind planner who has contingency and lie and obfuscation as three separate legal government names who still wants everyone to be safe and happy and hold hands and be friends.

Edelgard is strong, confident, and willing to do some of the shittiest things known to man for her goals. Her endearing trait is that her screams are cute. She's shy about her drawings of the player character. She blushes over the player potentially joking about having sex with her per her JPN version of her C support; you know, the one about how Byleth walks in on Edelgard muttering in her sleep from a nightmare about her tortured family? Perfect time to joke about fucking her! Dimitri and Claude's endearments are, well, endearing; Edelgard's are all straight up embarrassing for her.

Hell, even the smaller stuff is affected! Claude's passion for poisons and mushrooms are things he has no qualms about having others know about, despite how weird they are. Dimitri laughing at shitty jokes brings him no personal discomfort or embarrassment, despite just how loudly he laughs at them. They have traits to them that can easily be uwu worthy, and they don't care! Of the lords, only Edelgard does! Because, it feels like, the only way for a strong, resolute female character to come off as approachable is if she's knocked down a few pegs for specifically and only you, the player.

And that sucks ass! I'm sorry, but when I'm playing Edelgard's route I don't want to deal with her hiding herself away in her room for a month IN THE MIDDLE OF HER FUCKING WAR because she's just so embawwassed! It is so fucking insensitive that Edelgard is literally the only lord of the three who can have her trauma openly belittled at any point in the story by Byleth, all to have some cheap cutesy uwu moment about her fear of rats (calling her screaming in fear cute and INSISTING that it's really cute which is just. Fucking ew man)! Why can we fucking mock Edelgard's manner of speech during the MASSACRE OF REMIRE?

This shit doesn't happen to Claude or Dimitri! And saying "oh just don't pick those options then" is bullshit because no equivalent options exist for the male lords! It's piss-boilingly annoying that the second you choose to see things from the strong confident villainous ambitious female lord's perspective you can reduce her down to this bumbling moeblob just for you (sometimes unavoidably!) like!! Dude!

[burr-ell]

I know I've beaten this drum quite a bit, as have others, but I think it bears repeating that most people who dislike Edelgard would probably not find her so aggravating if the game didn't frequently and unsubtly let her abdicate responsibility for her actions.

Like, it's wild to me that White Clouds goes to great lengths to show how fucked up and horrible demonic beasts are—Miklan's transformation is horrific and agonizing, and Jeralt is clearly appalled to learn that the beasts attacking the chapel were students who had been transformed, with the story heavily implying that these were students who'd gone missing earlier. The game also explicitly identifies them with the Flame Emperor and the Imperial army; the Flame Emperor uses them to attack the Holy Tomb to steal Crest stones and they're frequently used by the Empire in the war phase. But as soon as the Flame Emperor is revealed to be Edelgard, the game never again remarks on it or tries to explicitly connect it to her. Hanneman has one Explore line theorizing that "the Empire" wanted Crest stones from the Holy Tomb to make more demonic beasts and then...no one follows up on that! A single missable line of dialogue is all we get; the fact that Edelgard is using victims of experimentation, knowing that at least some of them were kidnapped fellow students, is just sort of something you have to remember on your own time.

The game makes a huge deal about how terrible the events of White Clouds were—bandits almost killed the house leaders; religious extremists invaded the monastery and used lethal force on students; kidnapped students were turned into monsters and died horribly; Flayn got kidnapped and experimented on for her blood; Jeralt was murdered by an assassin who'd infiltrated the monastery; Remire Village was nightmarishly razed and innocent people were slaughtered; a serial killer was wandering around abducting and murdering people and did so under the unwitting cover of the monastery for months. And then the game reveals to you that the Flame Emperor, who was connected to all these things and knew about them, was Edelgard...and then just sort of quietly ignores them for all of Part 2! She's allowed to give flowery speeches about how terrible the war is, and characters are willing to extend grace and airtime so the devs can make sure you know that oh she wanted to walk with you and make a better world, and not even in the parley with Dimitri does anyone bring up the fact that she's up to her eyeballs in complicity.

Even in the routes where you fight the Slithers directly, neither Claude nor Seteth engage with the fact that Edelgard knew about everything they did and did nothing to stop it. Not once is the game ever interested in telling her to take her precious ideals and shove them up her ass. And there's no reason why any of these characters shouldn't bring all this up (particularly Seteth and Claude), but they don't, and it couldn't be clearer between that and Edelgard's endless fawning over the player self-insert that it's because god forbid anyone think negatively of our precious, cute, oh-so-marketable El-chan.

And it's just a shame, because the game does have well-written female characters—Annette, Ingrid, Mercedes, Hilda, Leonie, Petra, Constance, Manuela, Catherine, Shamir, Rhea (when she isn't being sidelined and damselled), I would even argue that female Byleth is pretty solid! But they're all explicitly heroic characters, and the game absolutely does not want to engage with the idea of Edelgard having agency over evil, villainous actions. It would be great if she owned it—but she doesn't, and the game's writing suffers because of it.

[raxistaicho]

Felix's anger towards Dimitri in Three Houses is the most misunderstood aspect of their relationship and I will die on this hill.

Felix's problem with Dimitri isn't that he can't see that what Dimitri went through was traumatic. It's not that he's running away from his own trauma regarding the death of Glenn.

Its the fact that Dimitri uses the deaths of their loved ones as an excuse to be monstrous.

And the proof of that is in their A-Support.

Felix: Sometimes you have an animal's face, contorted with anger and bloodlust. At other times, a man's, with a friendly smile. Which is your true face? Dimitri: Do not waste your breath on questions with such obvious answers. They are both the real me. My father, my friends, Glenn… They all meant a great deal to me. And they were all brutally slaughtered. I alone survived. If I do not shoulder the anguish and regret they must have felt, who will? Felix: Hah. So, that's how you justify your atrocities.

Dimitri is so far into his own head with his grief and anger that he's using the dead as an excuse to go on his quest for vengeance, hurting anyone and everyone in his path and treating everyone around him cruelly. This desire for vengeance isn't for the dead. It's for himself.

And Felix rightly calls him out on that.

Felix: "I will fulfill my duty to the late king." My old man used to say that over and over, like a mantra. How nauseating. No one seems to understand. The dead won't acknowledge your loyalty. They don't care. What a load of bunk it is, pretending to serve a corpse. You're serving your own ego. Dimitri: You are wrong. Felix: No, I'm not. The dead are dead, the living are living. You have to respect that boundary. If you keep stringing gravestones around your neck, you'll snap.

Dimitri doesn't respect the boundary between the living and the dead. He doesn't understand it, and none of the people who should have been taking care of him made sure to teach him to respect it. And as a result, we're left with a man who uses being "the voice of the dead" to justify his cruelty.

And Dimitri is absolutely aware of what he is doing. He's not well, but he's still very clearly concious of what he's doing. And we know this because of what he says to Byleth following the death of Randolph.

Dimitri: If you do not approve of what I have become, then kill me. If you insist that you cannot...then I will continue to use you and your friends until the flesh falls from your bones.

Dimitri is actively choosing to be a dick. There is no kinder way to put it. He's being a dick, and using the deaths of Lambert, Glenn, and the people of Duscur as an excuse.

And it isn't like Felix doesn't understand on some level. If anything, he's one of the few members of the cast who CAN understand. Glenn was HIS older brother. Rodrigue HIS father. And despite the fact that Dimitri is considered more important and he was often left to the wayside, Felix still loved and cared about them. They're his family. And he knows they loved him too, even if it wasn't in the way he should have been shown (I have so many issues with the fact that Dimitri is more important to Rodrigue than Felix is but that's a rant for another day). If anyone should have the right to be angry about their deaths, it's him.

But he doesn't hold onto that anger. Not in the same way.

Felix: I'm not immune to emotion, you know. Far from it. I haven't gone a day without questioning why my father and brother had to die, while I survived. I'll bear this pain until the day I die, but I refuse to wallow in it. I have more important things to do than blubber for my whole life.

Felix does not and will not allow his anger and grief to allow him to cause atrocious acts in the same way. And he backs up his words with actions. Which is something Dimitri needs to do for their relationship to improve at all. Which is shown in Chapter 18 if you make sure their C-Support has been viewed.

Felix: Hmph. And how do you intend to make up for my father's death? Dimitri: Felix… I realize words alone are not enough to repent, but I fear they are all I have. Felix: I'm not after more empty words. I want you to speak through your actions.

If you don't have their C-Support, Felix won't say he'll agree to help take back Fhirdihad. He will, of course, as he's a playable unit. But because of both the actions of the player and, as a result, Dimitri's actions, Felix won't vocalize his support.

Dimitri can say he has changed and realized the errors of his ways and offer apologies, but for Felix, they mean nothing if those words aren't also put to action.

And THAT is what the entirety of their issues is.

Both of them lost many of the same loved ones.

But while one chooses to move forward, the other chooses to wallow back. While one chooses not use that pain to commit atrocious acts of violence, the other uses it as his justification.

And THIS is why it makes sense for Felix to leave. On top of just not liking being a noble with those kinds of responsibilities, his head of state is someone who he is diametrically opposed. They might have been "friends" once (and I say it like that because prior to the Tragedy their friendship looks very one sided), but friendship doesn't mean you accept and partake in torture and unwarranted levels of slaughter.

And Felix outright tells us this.

But both those around him and a lot of the audience do not want to listen.

Oh, that's good, thanks for breaking that down! :)

Like I've said, Felix is one of the characters I haven't analyzed super well, so I appreciate the breakdown from someone who knows him better.

[themisteriousentity]

Do you ever think about how perfectly the three house leaders embody the concepts of "past, present, future"? At least in Houses, it gets a little more muddled in Hopes

Dimitri heavily embodies the past and the way it can drag you down. He forgets the importance of the present and even when going to the officer's academy, he's only going to get access to church records to investigate the tragedy of Duscur, as evidenced by that one event where Dedue and Byleth happen upon him researching late at night in the library and he's investigating Arundel. Even by the end of Azure Moon, he's still not thinking about the future, only putting a stop the the present cruelty and focusing on trying to help that girl he knew in the past until he realizes he can't. It's not until the very end of the game that he breaks from the shackles of his past, but he's also never 100% in the present due to, in Azure Moon, the past never 100% being demystified, as shown by how those who slither in the dark are only eradicated in specific epilogues if you recruited the right characters + bought the DLC.

Edelgard easily represents the present. Her entire focus is on the events of her lifetime and the conclusions she came to based only on (incorrect) past and present information. She came to a conclusion very young and never waivered from it nor investigated it further and only looks towards fixing the problems of the present. The present is built upon by the past, and she perfectly shows that by holding onto past facts to influence the present, but she does not consider the long term future. A youtube video I watched but can't remember the channel name for (I will edit it in as a link if I can remember it) once pointed out that with a merit based appointment system, it'll fall apart as soon as Edelgard is gone and no longer there to maintain it. Not to mention that, like Azure Moon, Crimson Flower has the same issue of only borderline mentioning those who slither in the dark's ultimate demise, and we don't even get a satisfactory ending to that in Crimson Flower. (Side note, Silver Snow is better abut this but is not entirely relevant as that is a Lordless route).

Claude meanwhile is always looking towards the future, informed well by the past and present. He is, of course, aware and affected by the past and present, but like the future itself uses it to build the road to tomorrow. And unlike Dimitri and Edelgard, who have a single minded focus and don't plan for backups, understands that there's no guarantees in anything and is always planning contingencies when he can. And because the future is built from the past and present, he's also the character who most seeks out to demystify them in order to build that future, because even if you don't know a past event, it will still have ripple effect into the future. It's what makes it very important that, unlike Dimitri and Edelgard, Claude steps down from leadership of Fódlan entirely once he uncovers the full truth and realizes that, for all intents and purposes, his type of leadership isn't needed in Fódlan after what it went through and that his next best step is to go back to Almyra and start the next steps there. In fact, in Verdant Wind, they actually almost entirely take care of those who slither in the dark with the only remaining one being Cornelia, but even THEN he had a contingency when he came back to save Fódlan with the Almyran army in the epilogue. Even in other routes, he manages to always perfectly plan for both his demise and his victory, culminating (outside his own path) in Crimson Flower where he plans for his own death. He never stops thinking about the different twists and turns the future can take and plans for it.

This ended up a little bit Claude heavier but to be fair, he usually gives me more to think about.

[ashenlavellan]

Final Thoughts on my 1st Blue Lions Playthrough [4/4]

First off - my apologies for spamming, as well as the fact that I could've waited until I finished since I zoomed through it so quickly towards the end.

[MAJOR THANKS - to those of you who had interacted with my earlier posts and did not spoil the Blue Lions/Azure Moon route for me.]

So, shortly after Fort Merceus - I'm genuinely surprised that we didn't have the whole, pillars of light and all that bullshit. As soon as we claimed it, I was nervously waiting for everyone to scramble out of there as everything went down... but then, it didn't.

Anyways, everyone comes rushing back to Garreg Mach - especially once there is word that there is a man waiting for his sentencing from Dimitri, claiming to have been part of the tragedy that took place upon Duscur - including all of Dimitri's loved ones.

Honestly, as more time passed on and more information came to light, I can certainly say that Dimitri's stepmother is not as innocent as we initially believed. Not at all. But I can't fully dwell on it since there was nothing else left - Arundel was killed back in Derdriu and Cornelia was killed in Fhirdiad. Two of the people with connections to Dimitri, as well as what happened in Duscur - now dead.

Anyways, skip forward a bit and before the entire confrontation in Enbarr, we have a tense conversation - Dimitri and Byleth v. Edelgard and Hubert... It was quite intriguing hearing her reasons as to why this war had begun, as well as Dimitri calling her out and claiming that her method and approach is simply self-righteous - regardless of those who are weak and are unable to fight back. I knew for a fact that this wouldn't end peacefully, [otherwise it wouldn't be a Fire Emblem game] but the fact that both leaders somehow come to an understanding as to why they're doing what they're doing... interesting.

Skipping forward to the final confrontation - I was NOT expecting the lengths that Edelgard would go, but I kept being surprised and was somewhat terrified. Luckily, her attacks from a distance hardly damaged Byleth and Dimitri... the only nuisance was Myson [Those Who Slither in the Dark] and his spell that could lower any of my units down to 1HP. That was annoying AF.

Dimitri and Byleth managed to easily take down the transformed version of Edelgard and the cutscene was... Man, it was shocking to say the least. In one final attempt, he wanted to try and make peace - at least to some extent - but the fact that she wanted to take advantage of that, especially with the dagger that's tied them together, made my blood boil. Especially Byleth's, based on her reaction.

It was ironic, though, in the end. Dimitri had caught on that she was purposely letting her guard down and as the blade pierced his shoulder, he had swiftly thrusted his spear into a vital organ and she slumped forward - dead.

My heart broke a little as they began walking out and he hesitated, wanting to glance back, but Byleth had caught his hand and they had shared a look... They walked out together, hand-in-hand, and my god...

It's so fucking obvious that the chemistry is there, regardless if Byleth romances him or not.

Don't even get me started on his S-support - my fucking god, I loved it so much. He starts listing off all of the reasons why he cares for her and what she is to him, and then -

"That is true. To me, you will always be the one who guided me so kindly. My ally through all. My beloved... Yes... My beloved."

EXCUSE ME?

[Look, I know that by the end of the game I had... {checks his stats] around +50 Charm for him, but my god.]

I fucking squealed as he began blushing and getting flustered once he handed Byleth the engagement ring and she hadn't answered. I, however, chose the option as she hands him the ring Jeralt had given her -

"What is this?"

"I love you, Dimitri. Marry me."

The look on his fucking face had me cackling - he was so surprised and embarrassed by the turn of events and his response had me smiling.

"Yes. I see. Right. In that case, let us exchange them, shall we?"

But before I could revel in the fact that he was embarrassed, it changed the screen to the S-support image and I fucking died. He's holding Byleth's hand close, looking at her with such a tender gaze, and he continued -

"Your hands... Now that I hold them within my own, I see how small and fragile they are. These hands that have saved me countless time... Thank you, my beloved. Your kind, warm hands... May they cling to my own forevermore..."

Sir... SIR?!?

I'm so glad that I finally gave the Blue Lions/Azure Moon route a chance [especially since I've owned the game since it's release date and never played any other route] - I don't know if I'll ever be able to play Golden Deer and witnessing the scene/moment where Dimitri's still consumed by his inner demons and grief, getting him killed shortly after the fighting at Gronder Field. It breaks my fucking heart that he only survives within his own route, but dies in the other...

Man, all of you were right about the emotional rollercoaster, but I feel like no one mentioned the inner turmoil I'll now experience if I play Golden Deer again and have to witness his death... It will hit so differently now, after playing this route and pursuing his S-support.

P.S. -

Thank you to everyone for watching me experience this rollercoaster of a playthrough and how some of you may have been laughing at my confusion or even thinking "Oh, just wait..." - I hope you got a good laugh or smile at my confusion/shock/etc. with this playthrough... I can see now why so many of you enjoyed it and I thoroughly enjoyed it too!

Thanks again for being so kind to a hardcore Golden Deer/Claude girlie! I hope to publish some of the ideas I have running through my mind for both characters - Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd and Claude/Khalid von Riegan.

[fireemblems24]

Golden Wildfire Ch 11

On we go to ch 11. Things are . . . uh . . . interesting.

MAIN STORY

So if you didn't see ch 10, I failed to recruit Byleth. I retried the level a few time, but honestly I just want to finish this game so I didn't bother.

Plus, the reason I failed was that Claude just sat there instead of moving forward on the escort mission, which got really frustrating, and honestly I didn't want to bother.

Ugh, I don't want to fight the Kingdom.

So those Houses that wanted to defect to the Kingdom didn't because Claude's battle was that bloody in that fire map.

Poor Dimitri and co seems like he's just betting bullied for no real reason by two imperialistic maniacs.

I love how Arval is getting snooty over Shez getting credit for their tactics lamo.

Man, this dialogue is dragging.

So Nadar is going to cause diplomatic chaos by utilizing the Almyran army without getting real permission.

Wait, Claude riled up Sreng? So much for "ending racism" lamo. Wasn't having two cultures not be prejudice against each other like his MO? The writers really just threw him in the trash, hunh.

I feel so bad for Claude fans. He's really a piece of work in this.

MAP/SIDE STUFF

Everyone missing Judith has a lot more punch than Randolph. Even Monica was like "get over it" to Fleche (but nicely).

So, let me make sure I have this right. Mr. I Want to End Prejudice Between Cultures just provoked Sreng into attacking the Kingdom so Edelgard can take it over because Rhea is the reason for everything bad. Did I get that right?

Unlike SB, GW is entertaining as hell, but man is the logic here is just non-existant. And poor Claude RIP.

Like, I know I'm biased and all, but I don't see how you're supposed to be the heroes and not Dimitri here. The people just defending themselves are getting attacked on all 3 fronts for the crime of *existing.*

Not going to lie. I kinda wish Claude didn't side with you in AG either. It would've been hype to kick everyone's ass as Dimitri after getting cornered by all these land-grabbers.

GW!Claude is really just the mean girl's sidekick. 😂

If Felix and Rodrigue die in this chapter I swear to God . . . (I just remembered Rodrigue is dead in SB now 😭 - LET THIS MAN SURVIVE).

I had to fight Felix in a side mission. Lysithea said they had to "defend this place" - like, girl, you are invading.

When the challenge is "you can't dodge" but you're using Lorenz 😌👌 (FYI, he just does not take damage in this game)

SHEZ & HILDA A SUPPORT

They're talking about how Hilda exerted energy in a battle because she worried about Shez.

Hilda claims it's just self-defense bc she was cheering for Shez on the front lines and enemies were there (honestly, this is pretty boring so far)

It's the same-old Hilda claiming she's weak but that not being true.

SHEZ & CONSTANCE C SUPPORT

I know she's an Empire character, but whatever.

She wants to create new magics to restore her noble house and wants to research Shez bc of their weird magic

Lamo, Constance low-key called us dumb

Shez suggests she get her house back through military accomplishments.

Constance refuses to train right now, she wants to at night (it's her dual personality thing, right?)

CLAUDE & LYSITHEA B SUPPORT

Their first one. Claude's unhappy Lysithea charged in the last battle. But Lysithea kicked ass, so she's upset with Claude.

Claude calls her plan dumb and that he thought Lysithea was smarter than that. Lysithea still argues it ended earlier bc of her.

Lysithea doesn't back down.

Honestly, I side with her here. Claude's being patronizing. And it's rich of him not to care about all the other deaths dragging out the battle would cause and only Lysithea dying because she's *important*

CLAUDE & HOLST A SUPPORT

Oof, this one hurts. Claude accuses the church of creating all the systems to serve their own interests, because he doesn't know the truth here. That the Empire actually created most of it, and that all the church ever did was protect a genocided race from being murdered by more power-hungry humans.

It's also hysterical to hear Claude talk about wanting to improve foreign relations while instigating a war between two cultures.

Oof, Holst doesn't care about any of this. He's only worried Claude's going to send Hilda to marry a big, brown, scary foreigner. NOT a good look.

Holst says he cares more about Hilda's future than the whole Alliance. Yikes.

HILDA & HOLST A SUPPORT

They're preparing a feast.

Oh, it's nice to see Hilda's insecurities about Holst's "perfection" come up in this, bc so far she hadn't said much.

After that last support though, Holst is actually a pretty shitty leader.

Holst wants to make the feast all about Hilda instead of himself though. Hilda likes the attention.

Hilda basically had to set up her own feast lol.

HILDA & LINHARDT A SUPPORT

Hilda's cleaning, and Linhardt's honestly upset that he's lost a fellow lazy person.

Hilda claims she never pushes work on people. That, is a lie.

Linhardt is mostly worried how bad it'll look if he's the only one not working instead one of two.

All this support confirms that Linhardt is by far the superior lazy.

LORENZ & LYSITHEA A SUPPORT

Their only support.

So, not related to their support (and watch it counter it), but I find it pretty amusing how getting a leadership position faster matured Felix and Sylvain, but Lorenz is still a bit of a joke and the butt-end of every support he's in.

He's just bragging about how awesome his position and power is.

Lysithea says she's not inheriting her house. She claims it's because she doesn't like what comes with nobility, but we all know why.

She worried that the land will go to chaos without it's leaders though. Lorenz offers help (which, imo, he's actually mature here!)

Lorenz suspects she's turning it down for another reason and encourages her to rely on others to help.

RAPHAEL & LEONIE B SUPPORT

Raphael keeps snapping bows in half when he uses them. Leonie's shocked.

Leonie seems to actually make one and invites Raphael to test it while on guard duty with her.

IGNATZ & MARIANNE B SUPPORT

Marianne found his picture. He puts it down, but she likes it (it's a horse, well a pegasus, but of course)

Ignatz gets carried away talking about it, but Marianne finds it cute.

Ignatz finds Marianne loving pegasus cute. She blushes.

He wants Marianne's help, helping him paint a pegasus bc they don't like men, but if Marianne is around he can get closer and get a better painting. She's happy to help.

Honestly, this whole support is really cute.

MAIN BATTLE/STORY

It sucks having to attack the Kingdom over and over again when all they want to do is exist in peace.

Oh, joy, Nadar wants to plunder Faerghus. I can see why Fodlan is so evil for not wanting to let them do what they will.

GW really had a chance here to finally do something interesting with Almyra. It even marketed itself as a route that WOULD. But instead it's just doubled-down on Almyra being a one-note lawless place full of barbarians. At least we have Brigid and Duscur so the only brown country isn't some racist stereotype. Since it's only 1 of 3, it's not AS bad of a look.

Fuck. I don't want to kill Felix and Rodrigue. It would be one thing if the Kingdom actually provoked this, but Felix and Rodrigue haven't done anything to deserve this.

I get to recruit Ashe again. Is he miserable here too?

Ugh, I was hoping Felix and Rodrigue weren't here. It seems vastly unfair that it's only Kingdom characters who die for reel in this.

Wow. Claude's really an A-class asshole. He told Ashe to surrender because Dimitri wouldn't want him to die. Maybe don't invade for no reason then?

Is Claude also going to single Felix out as a citizen of Faerghus who deserves to live? Or does only Ashe count and not the nobles and unnamed grunts he's slaughtering because he decided to team up with the person who plans on taking over his rule? (not hate to Ashe at all, I honestly feel awful for him in this game)

Ok, so fighting Felix is just a side quest. I'd rather fail a side quest than fight Felix so, going to try to avoid having to kill him. Ugh, he's attacking the engineers. And he's damn right saying he has every right to kill the people who are invading his home.

Thank God, he just retreated.

I still love how Claude got bent out of shape over Ashe, but Lorenz alone has killed 500 citizens of Faerghus this chapter so . . .

Felix is so worried about Rodrigue. I swear the writers wanted you to feel like shit playing this route.

Oh, fuck. Just when I thought I was finished killing people for defending themselves, Daddy Gautier shows up :( He's sacrificing himself to safe Felix and Rodrigue, isn't he?

Oh, fuck. He died for real 😭

It's really hard to like these characters, making mindless chit-chat after killing Sylvain's daddy. I hope Sylvain fucks them up a new one.

I've never wanted to slap a character more than I'd love to slap Claude right now. The moron has the audacity to be surprised people are going to die while he's invading a foreign country. What a fucking stupid moron.

He's also blaming - get this right - chivalry.

I'm like. I'm speechless right now.

That's right guys. Margrave Gautier died defending his king, his country, his home, and most importantly one of his fucking best friends from an asshole invader. But it's CULTURE'S fault he died.

I'm really confused what the hell Claude thinks he's doing. Does he REALLY think killing Rhea will magically allow people to live as they please? Didn't he grow up in another country where they had princes and shit and NO Rhea?? All he's doing is making Edelgard's take over easier.

This is starting to feel like a borderline spoof. Look at us end the war by invading another nation!!! I mean???

What's his plan? Kill everyone in Faerghus - profit - "freedom" from Rhea - Edelgard takes over - no profit???

The writing in this route has gotten really fucking stupid. Like, I LIKE the idea of evil!Claude. Either a Claude who wants to take over all of Fodlan or one who's ruthless and will do anything to preserve Leicester.

But what I don't like is really fucking dumb Claude, which is what GW's devolved into.

Oh, God, now we get a flashback between father and son. Sylvain and Gautier :(

Sylvain better not be fucking recruitable in this route.

Now Sylvain's in charge 😭😭😭😭

I'm convinced someone who's a major Edelgard stan wrote the larger plot of this, but then a Dimitri stan wrote the actual dialogue 😅

We really go from one moment Claude being like - it's Rhea's fault Gautier died bc Kingdom culture bad because church bad to Sylvain being like, naw, he died defending his friends.

At the very least, I'll give Hopes credit here. At least they didn't write anyone opposing Edelgard as either evil or like they're idiots for resisting invasion, but I almost feel like they made the Kingdom especially too sympathetic which makes Edelgard look more interesting (since SB is more honest than CF) and Claude just look like a bozo. Rhea just doesn't look like anything since she's not even here.

Though, I REALLY wish Claude didn't side with us in AG. I really wish we got to see Faerghus backed into a corner and kick everyone's asses. They've very much the underdog and watching them do that would've been awesome.

Felix and Rodrigue are beating themselves up over this.

See, this is what I mean - Sylvain just said he's reserving all his hatred for the foreign invaders who take everything for no reason - I really feel like a Dimitri fan saw how everyone collectively decided to take a dump on the Kingdom in the big plot and got revenge by making everyone look like villains (or morons in Claude's case) for doing so in the writing.

xxx

[gascon-en-exil]

Considering the undeniable fact that Edelgard was written for men and not them, what do you think that says about her lesbian fans? Are they following the wrong character? Or better question, does she truly have a significant sapphic fandom to begin with?

This is a difficult question for me to answer directly, because I'm not a lesbian. I've gotten a variety of comments from queer women addressing issues related to this on my relevant videos, with the range of responses being overall mixed. Even those who can enjoy Edelgard as a bi option (and/or her other F/F prospects) are usually still aware of IS's blatant misogyny in the way they handle their female characters, and acknowledge that these conversations are useful to have.

I think Monica's writing in Hopes sums up very well just how little the writers of these games are thinking about lesbians when they craft these characters and situations. Monica's attraction to Edelgard is treated as one long joke at her own expense, one that Edelgard appears to humor at best but never really understands. It's especially galling because this is the same game that takes a remarkably sober approach to Shamir's attraction to women, both in general and to Catherine specifically. There's also the matter of the M/M subtext, which as ever exists in a blind spot of straight male writers. With Dimidue alone, we have a situation where men are saying stuff like "You are irreplaceable, cherished" and "I cannot know happiness without you by my side" and holding hands and each other's gazes for something like fifteen seconds in an animated cutscene...and still expect us to believe that that's only platonic devotion. (As far as lord + retainer ships go, hold up Monigard and Dimidue side-by-side, and it's very obvious that IS is laughing at the former and isn't aware that the latter could even have romantic dimensions.)

The majority of IS's sapphic material exists in a different, though comparable blind spot: that lesbians exist as profitable titillation for straight men, and are always subject to the male gaze and the potential interposition of a male proxy for the audience (the Avatar, usually) because women's attraction toward one another isn't something to be taken seriously. Out of the various examples of F/F subtext and text in the entirety of FE, I feel like I could claim Heather from Radiant Dawn as maybe the only instance where the writers were thinking of actual queer women - and even then Heather is still mostly mild comic relief.

(As far as "following the wrong character" goes re: the fandom faction wars, there's always been the consistent irony that Rhea is subject to much of the same open objectification, ex. her summer duo alt with F!Byleth, and even gets to be a same-sex S rank as well. Humorously, this parallel or its implications is pretty much never brought up whenever Rhea's getting roasted as the Worst Ever.)

It's difficult to tell exactly how much of Edelgard's fanbase is sapphic. Of course Tumblr and AO3 skew queer as a rule, but those are just two sites; there's also Twitter and Reddit and SF and GameFAQs and 4chan and art sites like Pixiv and DeviantArt. We also know for a fact that at least two of the most prominent and combative elements in the pro-Edelgard side of the fandom are straight/bi men producing F/F Edeleth fanwork...which I remark on only as a counter to the frequent accusation that Dimitri fans are all horny fujoshi. How that does or doesn't play into what you're asking is hard to say - although one of them tends to get rather pissed when anyone brings something like that up and may still be stalking my blog.

It'll be interesting to see what troll anons I get now.

[fe-fictions]

Dimitri with a pregnant Byleth who's feeling super clingy 🥺 like, notices as soon as he gets up from bed, wants to cuddle with him even when they're seated for dinner, always clinging onto his arm when they walk 🥰 she just love husband...

(This was such a cute one!! I had to write it as quick as possible ;;;)

He was starting to notice a strange pattern in the days since you announced your pregnancy. You were still as quiet, calm and reserved as ever, but something notable had changed.

You did not seem capable of leaving his side. 

Dimtri would wake up before dawn, always careful not to rouse you since your day would always start a little later than his. But even in his stealthy attempts to ease from the bed, your arms would wrap around his waist and prevent him from moving any further.

“Must you go so early…?” You mumbled into his nightshirt, nuzzling into his back. Dimitri blushed, startled by the sudden onslaught of affection so early in the morning. But he nodded and smiled softly, covering your hands with his.

“I wish I could stay with you, Beloved. But I cannot; I must maintain my strict schedule, at least for today.”

“Can you alter it later so that you can spend a little more time with me?”

“Do you feel I spend an inadequate amount of time with you?” He paused, turning to look back at you when you slowly slipped away.

Your expression was unreadable, but if he didn’t know any better…there was a pout on you rlips.

“I…just want to spend more time with you.” You managed to mumble,. It took all of Dimitri’s will not to give in and stay right then and there.

“I shall make the neessary arrangements so that we can have more time togehter, than apart. I know we both have unforgiving schedules, but given the current circumstance, I’m sure we can convince our handlers to be a little generous.”

“I would like that,” You smiled up at him, taking Dimitri’s hands into yours. “Will you come back once you finish training?”

“I shall return just as you awaken, again.” He promised, “So please, rest easy. Your body needs it.” He kissed you then, soft and swe. He couldn’t help it; you were positively adorablke!

But sure enough, the cuteness wouldn’t end there.

No, ever since the pregnancy rstarted to become more and more visible, you were spending more and more time with him.

If Dimitri had a meeting, you were present. If he needed to be somewhere for some inane thing in the village, you would acaccompany despite Seteth’s many protests.

In the mess hall, your hand was squeezing his tightly below the table; and on your walks in the gardens and hte courtyard o the monastery, you were resting your head on his arm, your own wrapped tight around his bicep.

It seemed impossible for you to detach from your husband.

Dimitri wasn’t the only one who noticed, of course; the other Lions had started to see it, too. Sylvain was the first one brave enough to mention it, once the king escorted the Bishop-Queen from their counsel meeting for some much-needed bed rest.

“Soo…the Professor seems to be in a strange mood, lately.”

“Well, she’s starting to really show now, isn’t she? It must be the pregnancy that’s affecting her behavior.” Annette figured, watching as the happy couple continued on their diwb tge cirridor. ‘I know tha tpregnancy hormones can have a big impact on having a child. Maybe Byleth becoming more adorable is part of that!”

“Don’t you think it’s a little weird? I don’t think I’ve seen them so much as hold hands in the last two years.” Sylvain insisted. Mercedes simply shrugged, a warm smile on her lips.

“It might be any number of things. Pregnancy hormones have a notable impact on the body and mind; not to mention that she may feel insecure undergoing susch a serious life change. Can you imagine what it must feel like, to go from being an independent mercenary to the queen of a country, and archbishop of a continent. An dnow, she’s an expecting mother, too?”

“Well, when you put it like that…” Sylvain sighed, “No wonder she’s feeling a little clingy.”

“You’re just jealous she’s not snuggling with you.” Ingrid rolled her eyes, “Now enough chittering about the Professor. The least we can do is afford them some grace and respect while they navigate this….new dynamic.”

“So considerate of you, Ingrid,” Annette giggled, garnering a soft blush from the knight.

I the maentime, Dimitri was practically floating in the air, his arm was linked with yours, your head rested on his shoulder, and you were enjoying the sights and sounds of the monastery courtyard in the blissful glow of sunset.

It was like a dream.

“How are you feeling, BeloveD?” He asked in that gentle, warm voice that made you feel soft and safe.

You nodded, resting a hand on your baby bump.

“I feel a little bit hungry, but…I don’t want to move from this spot for a while. It’s beautiful.”

“Shall I go and fetch you something from the mess hall? You needn’t lt yourself be hungry just to satisfy stay in my company. I’d rather you feel full than otherwise while you’re still going through changes.”

“I’m only a little hungry.” You insisted, “Nothing to worry over. I just want to stay with you a while…then we can go eat.”

“Very well. If that is what you wish.” He kissed the top of your head, prompting you to snuggle closer to him. The slight chill in the air nipped at your noses. He draped his cape over your shoulders, drawing you into him as much as possible.

“Please tell me if it’s too cold. We will go inside right away.”

“And risk losing thi stime together? Not a chance.” You shoook your head, “If we go back inside, someone will snatch hyou away for some important thing. I want to stay here as long as possible.”

“You know…I can order them away if they’re truly too demanding of my time, dearest.” Dimitri offered, but you shook your head.

“No…because then it’d seem like you’re shirking your duties. Social convention is so exhausting.” You huffed, making him chuckle.

“Is that why you’ve been staying so close? To try and balance the expectation of being a prominent figure with wanting to be with me?”

“Perhaps. I just…miss you. I wish we could spend time like this together, always. Especially with the baby on the way.” you added, looking down at your belly.

Dimitri looked at you fully, finding the slightest pout on your lips.

“My love?”

“I just…I just want to be a husband and wife for a moment. A little family; no titles or expectations or…anybody else. Just us. Is that selfish?”

“I suppose when you consider our positions, it’s difficult to be selfish. I do not fault you for wishing to be a little indulgent right now.” 

You sighed heavily, “It’s going to get worse once the baby is here. We’ll have to divide our time even further, betwen our duties, each other, and the child.”

“We will make time.” He assured you, tightening the cape around you when another chill blew through the garden. 

“Are you sure? I don’t want to raise the baby without being present. My father was always there…I feel it would be wrong not to do the same for my child.”

“It will be a challenge.” He murmured, “And I worry I may not be as capable a parent as your father was. But it is a challenge we will face together…which I believe we will be able to overcome.”

“Really?” You looked up at him so hopefully, it made his heart skip a beat. He beamed at you, pressing a kiss to your forehead.

“Of course. I will have to convince some royal council members, and I’m sure the Prime Minister will have some thoughts on the matter.” Dimitri thought aloud, already anticipating Seteth’s displeasure at the thought of the Archbishop spending less time doing her duties.

“So long as we can spend as much time as possible with them…that’s what I want. I want to be with you.” 

His gaze softened at your quiet confession. You were so terribly lovely. How he was able to find his way into your heart would forever elude him.

He cupped your face tenderly, unabel to resist kissing you fully and sweetly.

“I wish to spend every second with you as well, Beloved. And once our child is born, I will feel the very same about them.”

“I’m glad.” You smiled, squeezing his hands when they fell from your cheeks. “Until then, will you…keep indulging me?” 

He laughed, drawing you back into his warm embrace. 

“I shall not leave your side until you cannot stand me any longer! I promise.” 

The two of you remained in the courtyard a while longer, wrapped in each other’s arms and relishing the soft moment as a precious memory.

At least until your stomach growled…then Dimitri gladly escorted you to the mess hall (where you held hands the entire time, much to the chagrin of Felix, who had to sit next to you).

[stormsbourne]

the real thing of it for me is that I played cf first and as a result I can kind of understand, a hair, a sliver, where this stuff comes from because, since cf was a last late addition, there's just a lot less meat on the bones and more space to fill in and some people have chosen to do that with 2010-20s politics that do not gel at all with the few times edelgard tells you her plans and goals

and I mean a lot of properly understanding every character in the game (but especially the lords) is seeing what happens with them in other routes. in cf dimitri has not even lost an eye and seems like he is doing at least a little bit better than he is on the other routes as he hasn't been in feral hiding mode for 5 years and he's had his support system intact. meanwhile on other routes edelgard is using forcibly transformed demon beasts and actively working with the actual villains of the game -- and no I don't think the slithers are just an addition to fool normies into centrism ala your daisy fitzroys or whatever, because that is not something this game is concerned with lol. feel like people deploy this accusation about centrist both sides bad villains every time ever since they saw it done in a youtube video and it's just not something that applies here

and also I'm sorry to say it but cf is just unfortunately not super good. it's shorter than the other plots, the characterization sometimes involves a lot of idiot ball carrying, there's sometimes a severe tone problem like the bit where the game goes from edelgard lying and telling everyone rhea blew up fort merceus (it's weird how nobody ever brings this up!!!) to anime shenanigans from the other beagles. who btw are written way more seriously and with much more depth in silver snow, the route that was originally intended for them before cf got added in at the end. there's no fucking reunion anime clip after the skip?? it's actually vaguely unclear byleth even falls into the crevice or whatever because edelgard just suddenly shouts as byleth goes off screen?

also again, the delightful complexity of edelgard believing the ends have to justify the means or her suffering meant nothing, I find that super interesting. but that's not the character people want to write and while I -- kind of -- get it I do think that it's just less compelling

I'm editing this to add another thing which is that each route has at least one commoner in the pre-recruited class to provide the working class take on what's going on and dorothea, the ONLY pre-recruited commoner for cf and ss, has never been less happy with the war than she is in cf

anyway

conflicted complicated morally gray edelgard is just a more fun concept to me

[sieglinde-freud]

grabs ur hands dm ur reasoning rn *looks at you with my big eyes*

YOU GUYS ARE PEER PRESSURING ME WTF... but ok im just gonna post it here then hi tc thank u for the ask :) going under the read more because my initial ramblings were literally 3k but let me see if i can chop it down. cw: LONG. also pic for reference so we know what im talking about

so the placements all assume the only headcanon thats real going into this is that the morgans are siblings. no canon second parents which means no chrom!inigo or anything like that they all have single moms or whatever idk not important but just clarifying none of that is impacting their placements because i dont want to think about that

black eagle placements were the most fun because the fun thing about that route is that it splits into two more! one thing thats always bothered me is that when that route splits, the only thing that changes is that you either lose edelgard or hubert or you lose flayn. are you really telling me those are the only three students with enough free will to not let byleth pick the rest of their life for them? ferdinand would NOT go to the church i dont care!!! this is something they fixed (kind of) in warriors but in general when picking the black eagles i wanted to keep that in mind too

so kjelle was the first character i looked at and went “i know where you go.” i think she looks at edelgard and goes “you are everything i want to be and more” because what edelgard fights for and how she accomplishes it. kjelle is a very “the strong must protect the weak by any means necessary” which is kind of harsh when its presented to the player in awakening but it is literally edelgard’s whole philosophy. and kjelle is very egotistical (not hate i love her ass so much underrated fav!!) she thinks incredibly highly of herself so for her to bow down to anyone they would have to 1) echo her ideals and 2) be stronger than her. sorry shes never bending the knee to dimitri and claude i dont give a fuck she doesnt like those men. i think she’d understand edelgard’s idea of putting power in human hands and fully commit to the ends justify the means. this isnt really a gameplay rewrite thing im trying to do but if byleth picked the church she would leave. also… please. please please consider edelkjelle… okay guys… for me……..

on the opposite side nah was my second immediate “ohh i know what im doing with you” and its because if byleth picks edelgard, shes out!! granted, i could just put her with lions or deer but how is that fun. its not. nah, being a manakete, would probably be much more understanding of rhea and willing to reach out. being a manakete is probably a pretty isolating experience for her, ylisse or fodlan or otherwise, so i think her finding solace with rhea and flayn and seteth during her time at the academy would allow her to get closer to people more like her, and understand on some level why rhea is the way she is and why governs the way she does. though, still being housemates, she’d befriend edelgard and i think she’d admire edelgard’s conviction and maturity during the academy arc. but when edelgard betrays the church i think she’d take that very hard, and i dont think anything edelgard would say to her would get her to turn on what is basically the family she never got to have (theres also second gen angst potential in here somewhere…)

inigo was interesting to think about and i did almost saddle him in with golden deer but i like the potential of him with edelgard a lot more when i really sat down and thought about it. im pulling more from his characterization as laslow i think but at first i wasn’t really sure if i had a case for him picking between the empire and the church but i decided to go with the empire because i do think in the time he has with edelgard, he’d be a voice of reason for her (to hubert’s dismay). edelgard’s problem is that she has literally no outsider pov and is going based on her own sense of justice that, while its based in good intentions, has a lot of unintended consequences and failure to acknowledge how it impacts everyone else. i think inigo could take a unique role, similar to ferdinand (or lorenz to claude, felix to dimitri) in that he challenges edelgard but on a much more friendlier level. the thing about how that role normally plays out is that its formed on some personal grievance rather than genuine better interest of the people, and i think of all the lords, edelgard needs a friend the most (its why shes so attached to byleth???). and just looking at how hes able to handle xander in fates and how much more introspective he becomes, i think it’d play out similarly here. also i think with the forces of him and dorothea combined they would give ferdinand the worst bisexual panic of his life. ik i mentioned felix/inigo WHICH I STILL LIKE but imagine the layer of angst if they are on opposing sides… ok thanks

was on the fence about gerome until beloved mutual (hi woocy :3) convinced me he would be beagle and im completely down with that. for me, i struck out blue lions immediately. so after that its just a matter of do i think he fits in better with BE or GD and quite honestly. for some reason golden deer gets the rep of being the meme house but aside from lorenz looking a little funny anf claude putting up a facade YOU ALL FELL FOR this straight up is not true. the funny house is black eagles and by GOD it would piss gerome off to be there. i dont think they chose their houses, by the way. i think they got to fodlan and rhea vibe checked all of them immediately so he didnt have a say in this. not only is he stuck with inigo, hes stuck with watching kjelle—the strongest warrior ever probably the only one in the second to match him in terms of raw strength—stumble over herself over their house leader because wwaauuw women pretty LIKE COME ONNNN. though, i do think he’d respect edelgard for her strength, and theres a lot of interesting dynamics for him to explore. dorothea pissing him off, bonding with petra over their enjoyment for wildlife, he would definitely be training partners with caspar, and i think he’d actually be like. really good at talking to bernadetta? maybe seeing her reminds him of how he was when he was younger. maybe he gets her out by introducing her to minerva. much to think about. but in general he would keep mostly to himself with standard gerome “cant get close to people that i cant guarantee will stay with me” fashion i think he probably wouldnt be as close as say someone like inigo or nah would be with the house. so when the time to choose a side comes… i dont think he’d have the relationship with edelgard to pick her. i think he would oppose her ideals, and go with nah, if not flee fodlan entirely because omfg who careeesss…. WHO CAREEESS his ass is in wyvern valley (no i think he’d fight. but he’d def consider dipping)

m!morgan is here because i think it would challenge him. guy who is so cute so earnest so ready to be happy in school learning everything hes ever wanted hoping to come home and make momma proud and oh my god he got put in the most crazy house imaginable. whoever his professor is is probably like wow morgan you have a gift for tactics! why dont you try managing the class for a mission? and being morgan he’d go YES ABSOLUTELY!!! unfortunately this house has hubert. and ferdinand. and bernadetta. and linhardt. and caspar. the thing about robin and the shepherds is that most people immediately respected robin as their tactician and robin was able to connect and befriend most of them fairly easily because they were mostly all sane and normal people. the black eagles are most definitely not and have you guys seen that black eagles seating chart post? well. i just think it’d give morgan a hard time and between him and f!morgan its funnier if its him. also splitting him from the justice cabal for timeskip angst sorry. also i think it’d be cool if he took edelgards side. i dont actually know which way he’d lean thats a tossup like this is a character that i could believe would trust byleth’s judgement and go with them but if its edelgard i think that could set up fun conflict between him and nah. grima vs naga part 2!! though i actually did have him for blue lions first if only because of the three houses the blue lions probably need a tactician type the best but. i like this one better.

so for blue lions i immediately clocked owain like look at this guy. i think owain would see the house of cool knightly chivalrous types fighting for justice and being cool and having swords and i just think he’d be in heaven. i also think, to him, dimitri would be a figure to look up to similar to lucina, but with the difference that they are not family and owain might put him on an even higher pedestal because theres this sense of familiarity he had with lucina thats not really there anymore? kind of similar to ashe and dimitri. and when the timeskip comes, i think he’d be endlessly devoted to dimitri even still, never forgetting who he was before and striving to bring him back, still thinking of this idolized version of him, even if it puts himself at risk. i also think in general, owain would thrive in the blue lions house. felix, ashe, ingrid, dedue, annette— those are all prime support partners for him that have a lot of potential. the blue lion house is very… the way that they are. and something owain shows in fates is that though hes very good at using his theatrics to ease people, whether that be on purpose or otherwise, and by god do the blue lions need it. look at them… jesus.

cynthia is in the blue lion house for similar reasons but i think she has a key difference from owain. while i think owain is the type to go down with the ship, i think cynthia might actually serve as an opposition to dimitri and potentially go against him in a similar fashion to felix and annette in thats hidden in the games files and was never put in the game (WHEN IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN. dimitri doesnt get enough push back in azure moon!! another post for another time though). in their time at the academy, while owain is fangirling over dimitri, i think cynthia would too at first. but fodlan is very different than ylisse, and in particular faerghus treats its knights and specifically women knights very differently than cynthia wouldve otherwise been treated. i think this would push cynthia into questioning faerghus’s ideals (especially in getting close to ingrid who im sure she’d find friendship in) and eventually dimitri in how he seemingly upholds those ideals. when he goes down a darker path in the timeskip, she’d probably take felix’s more critical approach, and i think she could turn on him. for the empire? probably not. but i dont think she’d be as down as owain or ingrid to keep following him when hes not taking accountability for what hes doing. she might find her way back once hes come back to himself but who really knows. not me (<- girl who is writing all of this)

yarnes a funny pick because lions are supposed to be brave and fearless and hes a Rabbit. but obviously yarne would be very aware of that irony and i think it could serve as a push for him to come into that bravery, and thats something i think the lion house could help him do. i think he’d look to dimitri for solace similar to how he does with lucina, and dimitri would be very happy to provide that for him. when the timeskip comes and dimitri is lost, i think yarne would have to find it in himself to abandon that anxiety for a bit to come help ease dimitri, sort of repaying him for his initial kindness (read: i want eyepatch scary dimitri to find stress relief in petting a big ass bunny). also i dont need yarne to be in the same house as petra and marianne for him to interact with them. dont worry thats a thing. also if youre a real one you recruit marianne to blue lions everytime. no i dont know how they’d handle bringing a taguel to fodlan i dont really care either

for severa i think, even if she would rather not admit it, justice and loyalty are very key parts of her character. its buried underneath her mean girl attitude and like five pounds of trauma but its there. and what are the blue lions if not loyal knights with very LOUD auras of sadness? she would be similar to felix in terms of their views on knighthood, and obviously her whole thing with cordelia would put her at odds with the whole dying for your king/for glory thing faerghus has going on. similar to cynthia she’d be very critical of faerghus and dimitri except she’d be that way to his face. she doesnt have the same personal beef with him the same way felix would, and might be a little more like how i imagined inigo would be to edelgard, criticism with the better interest of the greater good rather than formed of personal beef. in the end though, i think she would stick with dimitri. also i think she’d have insane sexual tension with ingrid like i dont think theyd like eachother but like. my vision… do you see it.

bradys in lions partially due to mutual influence (hi zorua) but also because i ended up liking his potential with the lions as opposed to the deer or eagles. he’d have a very cute friendship with mercedes and annette i think, playing violin for them and having tea party gossip sessions. i think he and dedue could bond over being kinda scary but doing what they can to ease people’s fear of them. since thats an insecurity for both of them that brady purposefully takes steps to get rid of (ex: him hunching over is so that he can be eye level with children and people shorter with them so as not to come off as intimidating or more powerful) i think brady could help with that. though if im being so real i dont think he would like dimitri. i think he would stay and stick around and help dimitri get better. but i dont think he’d approve of his bloodlust and be very open with his issues in regards to how dimitri handles and carries himself. sorry guys im not meaning to have dimitri catch so many strays here 😭 i love the guy i just also like when theres conflict here i promise

laurent is in the golden deer because i think he and claude would be very like minded people in terms of trying to discover the secrets behind fodlan and what that means and how to better navigate fodlan as uncharted territory. theyre both foreigners, as are all of the second gen kids, but thats something claude keeps under wraps that i think laurent would be able to tell very quickly (not that it was hard. claude doesnt hide it well its just that everyone in fodlan is either stupid or all the smart people are kept away from him) that claude is from almyra. i think this knowledge could help him serve as something of a confidant to claude. obviously he wouldnt tell laurent everything but when claudes supposed closest allies are lorenz (guy who hates him and prays for his downfall) and hilda (girl who is racist and from a racist family) its just like. well maybe claude should have another friend who is normal adjacent at least, and laurents not the type to go blabbing anyways. obviously both lorenz and hilda (eh. well.) get better about their mindsets post timeskip but i think in the time of the academy laurent would be a very valuable friend for claude and vice versa. in general laurent would do well anywhere because i think most of his interest would be with the technological and scientific advancements of fodlan which is flexible, but i think, with rhea purposefully halting progress and claude being the main guy who wants truth above all else, this is the best spot for him. could hear an argument for him going to edelgard (potential recruit out of house recruit fs) but i do like him with claude a bit more. gerolau angst also.

lucina is in golden deer because i dont want her in the other two houses but also because i do think, similar to laurent, she’d be very valuable to claude and vice versa. awakening world building is horseshit but from what little we do know there is quite a bit of political discourse that lucina probably knows quite a bit about. even if her timeline was thrown into war when she was young, she probably had some form of royal training and can help claude navigate fodlan a little bit. i also think coming to fodlan would just be a very refreshing experience for lucina as the burden of everything is no longer directly on her shoulders, and i think she’d be looking for a broader perspective on life and finding another purpose for herself now that grima is dealt with. i think claude would be able to help her with that and i think she’d be genuinely interested to learn of his homeland once she figures out where hes from (i do think laurent beats her to the conclusion but not by a lot. remember this is lucina aka marth aka woman her disguised her own royal status and was very successful at it. just saying). also while i did say that golden deer is in fact not the meme house, i think they are more light hearted overall in terms of character (does NOT mean meme house or funny house. look me right in my eyes and say the house WITHOUT hubert and linhardt is the meme house. fucking liar) and i think lucina would love that. i want her to get the chance to be silly and childish for a little bit. characters like raphael and marianne and lysithea might help her heal that inner child that she never really got to let out and i just think the golden deer house would be the best place for her

morgan is here because i didnt want her and marc in the same house thats too easy. but while i think claude is the least in need of a tactician type character, him and morgan would be sooooo funny so cute and i need someone who can keep him on his toes. i think he blurts out a plan and morgan goes “ermmm ackchully” and half of the time her rebuttals are complete nonsense she just wants to argue. i think they both enjoy it. i also think, similar to lucina, a light hearted house would be a little better for her. shes much more prone to mischief than m!morgan is i think and i think the deer would benefit from that if only so she can target lorenz and make me laugh. i also think separating the twins would make for fantastic angst down in the timeskip but for now shes just hanging out having fun being a piece of shit. #girl also i think its funnier if one morgan is absolutely thriving and the other is barely keeping his shit together and by god it is way funnier if its f!morgan getting away with everything

noire is here because. i. could not think of a reason for her to go anywhere else! i thought about putting her in beagles but i dont think making that choice between the church and edelgard would be as interesting for her? and i dont think putting her in lions would do anything for her. i think the best lord and the best house at helping her through her issues and being understanding of her mood changes is probably claude and the deer. i could see hilda and leonie reaching out to her, or ignatz and her getting on pretty well, but im not quite sure on the specifics of that. my least thought out placement but also it doesnt matter because it keeps the placements balanced to put her here. i’ll have to give this one more thought…

anyways if you can believe it this is the cutdown version. i know right. i hope i didnt forget anyone that would be really embarrassing

[rorah]

The mentally stable Dimitri Fire emblem 3 hopes.

It surprises me that there's still ppl claiming so, but then I remember we're talking about 3h interpretations and I have to make peace with it.

But that doesn't stop me from venting a little bit in this little space I have lol. Actually, it dries me and makes me feel bad to bring this up because I will have to talk bad about Dedue, and I don't want to talk Bad about Dedue. He's a genuinely good boy. But "Human" nonetheless, which means Flaws. I like Felix too but he's become some sort of a clown that doesn't make me feel too bad. I like Felix tho, In a different way.

Mostly talking about these two because the take that "Dimitri has better support system" baffles me because, technically, these two are his support system in HopesVerse. The persons who Dimitri relays on and seek solace/advice/support. The rest doesn't really tackle any of his personal struggles (aside from the Mage!Mitri frustrated dream, but that's out of the bad equation in our 'mentally unwell' set of pixels, and Shez only has a glimpse). Contrary, to Houses verse where the whole blue lions cast knew about his shit, didn't know what to do, but didn't leave either.

I tackled this topic with other person on Twitter who was (or still is) on board with this take and the phrase they used was They contained him better, which of course I agree and remarked that was exactly the problem. Contain him is gonna be contra productive. I used a water dam analogy, where the structure of such dam is damaged, and the pressure of water keeps accumulating. Causing a foreseeable damage for the dam itself and the surroundings. You don't need to be a genius to understand it, you need experience or knowledge for mental ill topics tho.

I really don't want to extend so much on here because it's mostly just, rant format more than a proper analysis so I just want to point out these two things in their support conversations.

First, Dedue. Encourage him to keep on the vengeful path. Which we know was the final goal of Azure Moon and if you payed attention to 3 houses message. The whole Vengeful argument was something Bad, to keep it simple. Despite Dimitri actively looking for answers/guidance for something that, in a rational state he can see clearly like vengeance will consume his life (also Shez and Felix called out this behavior). Dedue answer only encourage him to keep on that path, because he would do that 💔. Presenting 2 oposite views is a great formula for confusion and disorientation. Now, Dedue's role is primary SUPPORT, not guidance nor orientation. He will support his shit no matter what, and we are quite aware of that if played Houses.

Second, Felix. Felix is a special case. He is smart but also an idiot lacks A LOT of soft skills to actually be of help. He's the only one who knows in this verse about Dimitri having a mental issue. In their A support to say the least, so they don't close or solve anything. What makes it more worrisome is the fact that Felix conceals the issue as a secret.

"So try to keep that whole "removing their heads" thing in check, yeah? We can just call it our little secret."

this extract here makes me feel so unwell 😭help

The whole burden falls over him and his lack of skills and wisdom on the matter will be too much for him later on. He at least, will be able to recognize that the problem is beyond of his capabilities and will look for help. Felix himself has his own issues and journey where he needs to learn. He's forced to get pass beyond some of his angry teen behavior but hasn't completely get over it.

There is a lot more to tackle, but that requires more work and time. What are the topics some of you think is important to cover around understanding the Hopes verse resolution? Dimitri's route? something? Do you think the route without Byleth is better? With that being said, I would like to delve deeper into character analysis, and the role each played for the Lords too. That also requires to talk about the Byleth and needs a whole analysis on their own, which requires time (which i don't have much lol) To end this vent, I would like to encourage people to do a little research for the terminology they're using like "Support System". Who makes it up and how it operates successfully. The fact that ppl saying "he has better support system" only because he didn't go feral on the run alone is not entirely valid. A reminder that people can feel alone with or without people around them. And containing the issue within doesn't solve any problem. At best, it's presented later. At worse, it gets worse.

[fantasyinvader]

I think the translation was hiding the truth about Edelgard. You guys know me, how I've been trying to piece together what her character was supposed to be before the localization happened, where we have her coming off as harsher initially, downplaying her lying to and manipulating others as well as it could, before finally making her seem better in her ending. I mean, it does lead into a very questionable ends justify the means due to the translation trying to downplay Edelgard's oppression of the people and instead make her about freedom.

Looking at those changes, anything Edelgard says she's fighting for can be eliminated as in the Japanese script she outright confirms she was attempting to sway Byleth. Like when she says that this war is about restoring the Empire, yet she's defending Nemesis, making Wilhelm out to have betrayed humanity, and denounces the faith that helped found the Empire in the first place, Edelgard isn't restoring the Empire into what it once was. If anything, she's everything her ancestors fought against, which could explain her saying she didn't want to betray Rhea in the JPN as she knows Rhea is supposedly her ancestor. She says she'll fight for freedom yet subjugates and oppresses the masses, she's against corruption so she'll just eliminate every noble who refused to bow down to her while maintaining the positions of those who do, she's against the Goddess yet will make her own messages out to be the teachings of the Goddess, against the false history yet spreads lies and misinformation for her own benefit, for meritocracy yet steals credit for Byleth's leadership and assigns Caspar to controlling the military when he can't even keep the army under control as the Empire invades other nations, world for humanity yet turns herself into a monster, champion of the weak and silent yet only rewards the strong while silencing her critics... Edelgard says one thing, does another just like when she offers Rhea a chance to surrender publicly yet in private says she needs to be destroyed. And this came right after Arianrhod, where she lied and scapegoated the Church to her her entire army.

Taking that into consideration, it becomes clear that Edelgard isn't fighting for what she says she is. So what is this all about really? The answer is simple really, something that the translators changed. She wants POWER, uncontested power so that she can reshape Fodlan as she pleases. And this clicks well on so many thematic levels.

There's the whole Nirvana thing. While the BE route is meant to be Byleth's route, where the Flame of Attachment can cause them to go off script and lose access to Nirvana in the process. However, Attachment can also be seen as greed, and with Edelgard's true goal simply being to conquer Fodlan and install herself as a supreme, uncontested ruler, this can say it is ultimately her fatal flaw that prevents her from reaching her own form of enlightenment. Her ideals are simply a by-product of that greed, which in turn leads to her abandoning them when convenient despite her saying she started a war for them.

It would also contradict Byleth being reluctant to rule Fodlan but doing so out of necessity, Claude leaving Fodlan in Byleth or Dimitri's care, and how the people rally around Dimitri. Meanwhile, in addition to manipulating others into supporting her Edelgard also conscripts civilians to do so and when they resist they are executed. Rather than people supporting her and pushing her to the top like the others, she imposes her will upon them then blames the people for her actions against them.

Her turning herself into the Hegemon Husk, throwing away her humanity in exchange for power. This is after her parley with Dimitri, where she explained her ideals and was happy when Dimitri called her “strong.” Dimitri, like Byleth and Claude, his strength comes from people rallying around him. The people give Dimitri his strength, the same people Edelgard is willing to sacrifice to empower herself.

The whole “animal path” theme of her route does have a survival of the fittest aspect, where the strong prey upon the weak while the weak hate the strong. Her going after Rhea for being a Nabatean, a long-lived and powerful being, as well as saying she could never trust her hints to Edelgard acting on some level of fear to those she viewed as stronger than her. This would tie into the Hegemon Husk transformation, showing Edelgard's desperation in the face of a superior foe.

In Verdant Wind, Edelgard is said to be running amok much like Dimitri by Ferdinand. However, I think this ties into how she's been consumed by her desire for power. In the JPN version of Caspar's endings, it's stated that the Imperial army is conducting expeditions into other countries (where they are “often out of control”). This would point to Edelgard not being satisfied with just having power over Fodlan and sets her sights on the world afterwards. This would stand in contrast to Claude's character growth, how he wants to bring the world together but ends up rejecting forcing it upon the people and his own goal for this extends to the world. It would also link to Edelgard telling Claude during her final battle with him that she doesn't believe their ideals are the same. What's more, this also puts her closer to being like the Agarthans and how they pissed off Sothis with their warfare (Hell, Hubert even calls his forces Those Who Rule The Shadows, the cycle is continuing).

Then there's Rhea losing control of her power at the end of Silver Snow, becoming a threat that can't be talked down to by Byleth and must be defeated. Rhea becomes like an animal at that point, but is able to be saved thanks to Byleth's support allowing her to meet Sothis once again. Comparatively, we have Edelgard consumed by not just her power but her desire for it, can't be talked down, the whole animal path thing, and she doesn't get any salvation for this. Whereas Rhea lost herself due to protecting others, Edelgard lost herself and began sacrificing others.

According to the devs, Edelgard's depth came from her having two distinct sides to her. A surface level version of her we're introduced to, the noble girl, and the twist reveal that she's the game's red emperor. That once you looked path the former, you'd see that she was really the villain all along. The fact that Treehouse needed to essentially rewriter her character, to attempt to make her ends justify her means, it does show that the Western Edelgard and the Japanese version are essentially written as two different characters. It's the Marx/Xander dichotomy all over again.

I mean, I can understand why they'd probably want to change this. There was the whole MeToo movement going on, and having a story where the female lord is the villain lying to the players could attract controversy. That's exactly what happened with Rising of the Shield Hero at the time, people saying that it was an incel fantasy because the MC is falsely accused of rape at the start of the story and how wrong it is to release such a story at that time (meanwhile, there as no such controversy in Japan).

But at the same time, was it appropriate to try and justify human experiments, imperialism, lies, secret police, government censorship, genocide, oppression, and more? If anything, the translation has aged the game in a different manner that the memes of Awakening and Fates.

The truth about Edelgard is simply she's power hungry and is willing to do anything to feed that hunger.

[burr-ell]

If it's alright, can I ask why you like the Golden Deer house more than the Blue Lions or Black Eagle houses? Like, what caught your eye about them over everyone else?

So I actually got into FE3H through a friend of mine, @dar-draws, who I already knew through mutual good taste (Dickkory), and fanarts like this one, this one, and this one plus the way she talked about Claude and Claudeleth caught my attention. I watched a couple playthroughs of the Golden Deer route on YouTube and absolutely fell in love (before finally getting a switch just to play it myself, for which I was violently bullied here). So like, I was already going into the game biased, which is part of why when I got it I went ahead and played through Golden Deer before doing all the other routes in turn; it was genuinely important to me to personally see all sides of the story. But even as I've played the other routes and replayed SS and AM and gained even more of an appreciation for them, I'm still always sort of drawn back to VW and the Deer.

I think it's ultimately vibes-based, but I'll try to articulate it. I'm not really a big fan of "cozy" sorts of games—I've played and enjoyed ACNH, but the things I most enjoyed about that game were finding things to do and goals to complete, like completing the main quest line or filling up the museum. So it's not so much that I find the Golden Deer to be cozy so much as adventurous. They're not inherently personally invested in the conflicts of White Clouds (they don't know Lord Lonato or Miklan, and their house leader isn't [gestures generally]), but they're also not just ping-ponging through the story. They go through the same events as the other two houses, but they're coming at it from more of an outsider's perspective, and their choice to get involved and react and respond feels more active.

The Deer also don't have any real reason to follow Claude, either, and in the early game they make sure he knows it; none of them are really all that concerned that they're speaking to the future Grand Duke of their country. Lysithea snaps at him, Leonie shoots the breeze with him, Raphael is jovial with him, Lorenz undercuts him, Hilda is blase with him, Marianne tries not to talk to him, and Ignatz gets into theological debates with him. Over the course of the game, they develop the same loyalty to Claude that the other house members already have for their leaders almost by default, and it feels a lot more earned because we see it happen. And that in turn makes scenes like the one at Myrddin, where Claude reveals his true goal of opening the border with Almyra and embracing foreign cultures and the other Deer are surprised but trust Claude and follow his lead, that much more satisfying.

I was a little surprised, when I played through the other three routes, that aside from the designated talking-with-the-cast scenes every route gets, the characters who aren't house leaders or retainers don't really have all that much to do in the story. On Verdant Wind, you pretty consistently have members of the Golden Deer appearing in other cutscenes and giving their two cents; there's even a unique scene where Lysithea realizes there's something up with the Empire's mages because of her backstory and approaches Claude and Byleth about it. It's nothing too obtrusive—they do still have to accommodate the potential for character death—but it's those small details that make a difference to me. Every house has a particular dynamic with odd silly quirks, but the Deer being just that little bit more integrated into the story really helps sell the idea that they belong here and they're making this story their own.

There's also the matter of where specifically their adventure takes them. I respect the choice to focus on Dimitri in Azure Moon, because it does handle his character and arc very well and I think also does the other Lions justice (with the exception of Dedue), but it's also focused largely on Dimitri's personal arc and the Tragedy of Duscur and doesn't really follow through on a lot of the events of White Clouds. (Which some Blue Lions stans have been okay with because they think the Agarthans are bad villains, which...that's valid, but stories still have to like, address plot elements they set up.) Verdant Wind, by contrast, does actually pull back and try to figure out the real impetus behind the whole conflict, and it ends with them beginning to properly lay Fodlan's true problems to rest.

So while the route isn't flawless and I do think there are issues with how characters are written that are part of larger trends within the game and the series as a whole, there's a very specific kind of fantasy adventure energy with the Golden Deer that I enjoy. I think the stories I'm most drawn to are the ones that keep their eyes on a specific goal but still make you feel like the characters would bring that same energy to goofing around with each other, and I think that's something Verdant Wind does very well.

[yellowocaballero]

⭐️ for either of the fe3h fics <3

ROSETTA HEADSTONE!!!! A fic that was very messy and all over the place but one that I am actually very fond of and that was slightly slept on.

“You’re the other half of me.” Byleth spoke slowly, but for the very first time there was a hint of emotion in her voice. It was wonder. What an amazing first emotion to feel. How lucky! How magnificent! “I’m the other half of you.” Claude smiled. She was so wondrous. So beautiful and special. She’d need a lot of help. Dimitri would provide what he could, but Claude would have to pick up the rest. “You’re the other half of me. And I’m the other half of you. I’m you, and you’re me. Wonderful, isn’t it?” [...] “Is that a friend?” Byleth asked seriously.  “If you want. It’s anything you want.” Her hand was still on his chest, and Claude reached up to softly grasp her hand, pressing it softly against his chest. “Tell you what, Byleth. I’ll trust you completely if you trust me completely. Give me anything you want, and I’ll give you all of my own. Is that fair?”

There's a few different relationships that were very influential for this scene. SSS Class Suicide Hunter's Gongja/Raviel was a big one, but Full Metal Alchemist's Ed/Winry were too: when Ed tells Winry that he'll give her half of his life if she give her half of hers, and she tells him that she'll give him all of her life. Khalid and Byleth are platonic, but there's still something so Relationship about it that makes me go crazy.

I got fond of the character I had created over the course of this story. He started out a lonely, isolated, self-centered person. He was a chronic liar who was fundamentally impossible to understand. He used his separation from others as a microscope, a way of studying and trying to dissect them down into pieces that he can understand. He's the kind of person to brag about this, and a significant percentage of it is self-inflicted, but I felt bad for him. He and Byleth's disconnect, their inability to work together, inadvertently resulted in her death. His first time investing whole-heartedly in somebody was in a dying woman, who had been dead to begin with.

It was what made this moment special to me. He's not psychoanalyzing or dissecting her in this scene - he's just caught in the beauty of this imperfect and banal moment. He sees how amazing it is to have somebody to truly understand. Giving away all of himself is an act of intense vulnerability, the kind he once never would have tolerated, but he does it willingly here - because you can't get if you don't give, and if you give somebody all of you then you can have all of them, and what is shared is doubled.

I wrote Byleth very 'Dead Anime Mom' - everything she said had to be incredibly significant and meaningful. She was perfect and untouchable. It's only in the epilogue that we see her humanity and vulnerability, that she feels remotely on the same level as Khalid. She doesn't understand him and he doesn't truly know her - how fantastic, that there's so much to discover about each other! How miraculous, that this person is about to take her first steps into becoming a human being, and that you're lucky enough to guide her on that path! That you get to become a human being with her!

It's a unique set of emotions that I hope the reader was able to feel alongside Khalid. Both Weekenders and RH were stories about the protagonist joining humanity, and both of them had to do it through confronting the twin calamities of death and love, but I'm a bit more fond of how it happened in RH. I think it may have been the strong The World Ends With You influence, which is a game that splits open the mind of the depressed misanthropic fifteen year old. I remember the first time I felt lucky to exist in the world. It felt like an important part of growing up - and maybe a pre-requisite of survival. It's hard to survive never feeling that sense of wonder. It was great to write somebody experiencing it for the first time.