#Byleth has personality propaganda

[rorah]

Byleth: 5% dragon, 5% goddess reincarnation/vessel, 20% homunculi, 30% human and 40% autistic (more or less).

The perfect creature 🫶 Anyone who says otherwise is jealous

-------------------

I read a book about autism because of her and, in the process, i found out i am autistic lol. Then went hard and deep into the research, only to solve the mysteries of my life ✨. Thank you Byleth. This chart could've been better but it's all i could do in my brain state :'D. Did this to commemorate I finally got my official diagnosis. And my self-diagnose was right (Except Maybe the Adhd Part bc They Think I'm Depressed, which it's a possibility but i am mostly in an autistic burnout :1). Wanna tank the ppl who helped me to get such diagnosis 🙏, I am still a lil bit dysfunctional and need more therapy to have significant improvement, but i am doing my part in the self-care department

[sleepyhead-poll]

ROUND 1A, MATCH 16 OUT OF 16!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Byleth:

swag

Bro went to sleep for five years and before that big eepy they made a promise with their students to all meet up five years from then and sure enough. They wake up the day of the reunion and are informed of what day it is and immediately rush to the appointed place. And for some reason although there's a war and shit all of their students come to the reunion anyway (despite it being extremely difficult for some of them with them having to literally sneak out of their territories in some routes) because they were just that cool and good of a teacher. Their sleeping also is the catalyst for the timeskip and I absolutely love timeskips. The FE3H timeskip in particular is very moving to me because of the tertiary theme of the game being growing up/the unstoppable march of time. I played the game right before entering high school and then another time before graduating high school (and I plan to play it again, as I graduate college) and let me just say it hit extremely hard. We view the change in the world through Byleth's eyes and then later come to see it through the eyes of the students in their monastery quotes and in the story. Their sleeping is the perfect way to do a timeskip and it makes the reunion with the students hit so much harder because it conveys how both so much and so little time has passed. So little time for Byleth, but enough time for the students for them to grow and mature and change in many ways (it got me thinking about how different I am as a person now than on my first playthrough) Also play FE3H during a transitional period in your life it WILL hit hard.

Alear:

People are mean to this game. Yes it's not the best but come on. It's not that bad. I love Alear's popsicle ass design too <3

[fantasyinvader]

I think I just reached a point of numbness with this whole thing. It just comes down to the fact these localizers saw the original script and for some reason decided to alter it. They tried to make Edelgard a hero in line with the rest of the game, that her route is all about the power of friendship and all that jazz... except they should have known that wasn't what the game was saying.

I think about the end of White Clouds, where Edelgard tells Byleth that she wishes Byleth could have been swayed by her words and actions. In the English, she says she WOULD have done anything for that to happen, but in the Japanese she admits she was trying to sway Byleth. It's the game admitting that whatever she said to Byleth in that route, she was attempting to manipulate them which backs up with Jeralt says earlier when he met the Flame Emperor. Her words were meaningless because they were never truthful.

Oh, right. They also changed Cornelia's “We thought Edelgard was dancing to our tune, but really she made us dance to hers” to just saying that Edelgard was their puppet in order to downplay the manipulation, but to try and downplay “Edelgard was tricked by a bunch of racist goth assholes into killing Rhea” by making the Church needs to be “rehabilitated” rather than restored.

And then there's her S support, where she says that up until that point she was walked the path of hadou. That's her saying she has used her power to impose her will on others, it's not meant to be a good thing. S supporting her reveals to the player that they chose to side with a tyrant after the route made it very clear that Edelgard lies and keeps her allies in the dark about what's really going on. But the localizers saw this and changed it to her walking a solitary path instead, invoking sympathy rather than smacking the players in the face with the cold hard truth. This leads into how that ending is supposed to reveal that Edelgard's reforms were designed to push people to be “independent” in the sense she wants them to self-reliant in spite of her big speech to Rhea. Her reforms invoke the same ideals she spouts to Dimitri in Moon, so instead it's changed to her striving for a “free and independent” people (Just ignore Hubert putting down rebellions in the shadows) to make it appear as though she had actual character growth thanks to Byleth, rather than her lying and faking it while hiding her true beliefs.

And of course, the example of the Japanese version of Verdant Wind having Edelgard admit her ideals AREN'T like Claude's. You know, Claude's “I want to create a world where people aren't othered based on their beliefs and places of origin.” Edelgard wants to impose her will upon Fodlan, getting rid of anyone who opposes her in what would be considered genocide. Her ideals are not like Claude's. Claude's are actually something good, so of course the localizers make it sound like Edelgard isn't too different from Claude despite being a genocidal dictator.

They had these kinds of things, stuff that should clue players in that Edelgard is not a good person and needed to be stopped... and they decide to try and say “No, she's a good person. She'd be just like Claude and Dimitri if you help her. This is morally grey everybody.” Except the game wasn't meant to be morally grey, Edelgard was the villain all along. Trying to change that messes up the messages, themes and whatnot of the game even if the localization tried to erase the themes. Hell, they even tried to alter the script and blame the Church to back up Edelgard's fraudulent claims when the game has themes about seeing the truth and not being swayed by propaganda. And in the process, they inadvertently gave justification to the Agarthans even when they were supposed to be nothing more than Saturday Morning Cartoon villains.

I swear to god, the translation was pretty much a fanfic itself, and not a good fanfic either. It's like one that misrepresents the source material, like stories where Shinji Ikari is a complete badass outside of Super Robot Wars.

[hubristicassholefight]

Hubristic Assholes Tourney round 1 part 2b

Propaganda below the cut (Spoiler warning!)

Richard III

HES A LITTLE BASTARD BITCH AND I HATE HIM BUT HES SO FUNNY. WITHOUT ANALYSIS HIS MOTIVE IS "NOBODY WILL FUCK ME :( IM GONNA KILL THE KING AND USURP HIS POSITION (ILL HAVE TO KILL HIS CHILDREN AND MY BROTHER TO DO THIS)." HE THINKS THIS IS GOING ALL FINE AND DANDY UNTIL HIS DUMBASS IS BETRAYED BY HIS VASSALS, UNHORSED IN BATTLE AND STABBED THROUGH THE HEAD. HE HAS PROPHETIC DREAMS ABOUT HIS DEATH AND STILL CHARGES INTO BATTLE. HE THINKS HE CAN FUCK A WOMAN WHOSE HUSBAND HE KILLS. HE SEDUCES HER OVER HIS FUCKING COFFIN. SHE KNOWS HE KILLED HER HUSBAND. HE THINKS HE CAN GO "OH HA HA I'LL GIVE YOU ALL THAT LAND LATER (I AM UNTRUSTWORTHY AND A BASTARD)" TO BUCKINGHAM AND EXPECTS HIM TO STAY LOYAL (HE DOESN'T). HUBRIS UNLIMITED

Nemesis

Nemesis is a historical figure in Three Houses, and is known as "The King of Liberation." He is accredited with using the Sword of the Creator, said to be the gift of the Goddess Sothis, to save Fodlan, only to become corrupted later on. This ends up in Seiros killing him. He is also the only recorded person to have the Crest of Flames until Byleth comes along. In reality, Nemesis never saved Fodlan, and he got his powers by killing Sothis and making the Sword of the Creator from her bones and giving himself the Crest of Flames with her blood. He and his group of bandits went on to massacre the Nabateans (a race of dragon people said to be Sothis's children) and did the same thing Nemesis did to Sothis. Seiros, one of the survivors, then led a war to avenge her mother, and ended up doing so. Nemesis's corpse was stored by the Agarthans, and during the events of Verdant Wind, they manage to revive him, and Nemesis attempts to kill Seiros and take over Fodlan again. This time, Byleth, who wields the Sword of the Creator in the present day, and their army successfully defeats him for good; Has a kick-ass final boss theme. Seriously it's just iconic.

[pennysperfectpolls]

Preliminaries round 2 match

Leonie Pineli (Fire Emblem Three Houses) vs Penny Proud (The Proud Family) vs Penny Nichols (Ace Attorney)

Propaganda under the cut

Leonie Pineli (Fire Emblem Three Houses)

• I started calling her Penny as a joke and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. Badass mercenary who loves fishing and hunting. She has a fun sibling/rival relationship with Byleth and pretty much everyone else she meets.

Penny Proud (Proud Family)

• No propaganda given

Penny Nichols (Ace Attorney)

• Similar to Phoenix himself, she's a very normal and plain person on the surface, but deeply weird when you're not using the rest of the cast as a measuring stick.

[semi-imaginary-place]

answering more questions from reddit: why did edelgard start a continent wide war?

The two main parts to this are Edelgard's personality and her backstory. As well as that well, she was right in that the Church, nobility, and crests have got to go.

Edelgard is extremely determined this is both good and bad once she's decided on a path its my way or the highway and the more she'll challenged the more she will dig her heels in. Once she is committed she is committed and this sees her achieve impressive feats but also means she won't give up even when she should take a moment and reconsider her plans. She'd the type willing to break a bone to mend it, she doesn't like the war but sees it as a necessary cost (I think she's wrong but that's another matter). It is important to note that Edelgard DOES NOT THINK WAR IS EXCUSABLE, she thinks its pretty reprehensible to cause so much suffering but she's also willing to play the villain because she thinks this is something that must be done and if someone must do it it might as well be her.

The second part of this is that the Agarthans have been manipulating her for years. They tortured her and they know she hates them but she also needs them for their power and influence in Adrestia. Not only that but besides the Adrestian Enperor game of telephone, the Agarthans are her primary source of information on Rhea, the Church, and the Children of the Goddess so they have had well over a decade to tell her propaganda about how Fodlan is secretly ruled by monsters with no care for humanity. Now their information probably wasn't mostly lies but comparing what Edelgard tells you in CF with what the player can see for themselves in VW it's obvious that the Agarthans were slanting the story in their favor and against the Church.

Part of the context you might be missing is that as a lot of characters point out (Claude, even Dimitri, etc.) Edelgard has a lot of good points, the Church is super shady, very unjust, oppressive, and has indeed been meddling with international politics to maintain its own power for centuries. We see this in game when Rhea sends out Byleth to assassinate opponents of the Central Church for the high crime of daring to be a threat to Rhea's authority. Even the leaders of at least 2 nations (Adrestia and Faerghus) derive governing authority from the Church. The Church wields massive overarching, unilateral, and unchecked power over Fodlan and uses this power not for the good of the people but to maintain its own position, suppress progress and innovation, keep Fodlan isolationist, and enforce the crest and nobility system. The last one was more of a side effect but Rhea sure didn't do anything to stop it. And the whole game is about how much the crest and nobility system suck, it's massively corrupt and exploitative.

[a-pale-azure-moon]

Ask game 🙌 Okay I'm just doing propaganda bc this idea has been haunting me recently and need to spread the memo 👉👈: Have you watched (or read) "the last unicorn"? That but it's the Last Dragon and of course such dragon is Byleth and all of the Nabateans are gone thanks to Supreme Leader who turned into a monster with those sheep horns. Dimitri situation is a mix of Snow and AM where he just lost his kingdom and instead of vengeance, he keeps a low profile as any commoner and works for Cornelia who collects random animals to make them pass as "Mystical creatures" with magic and fool ppl. And of course, she captured Dragonleth but everyone mistakes her for a wyvern. She turns into human at some point. I imagine this could be by Annette's magic (and Felix helping the one who he suspects is the lost prince and his "wyvern" friend)

I love that movie! I think I was maybe five when I first saw it and the Red Bull scared the crap out of me, but I loved it all the same. Been a long time since I've seen it though, so my memory of it isn't the greatest.

I do remember the part that only a few people could recognize the unicorn for what she was; most people just saw her as a pretty horse. I also remember that when she gets turned into a human, she slowly starts to lose her memory of being a unicorn.

Maybe this is something Dimitri and Byleth share. Nearly everyone sees her as a wyvern, but Dimitri recognizes her as a dragon. Meanwhile, Cornelia cast an enchantment on him so no one recognizes him as the prince (maybe he's not even human), and he's even mostly forgotten it himself. But Byleth recognizes him for what he is, and maybe they both try to help each other, her with helping him reclaim his lost kingdom/regular form, and him with helping her find out what happened to the rest of the Nabateans.

Maybe Dimitri's enchantment breaks after they kill Cornelia, but even with his memory back, he's more concerned with helping Byleth than reclaiming his throne. But it turns out the two are connected, as the person who usurped his throne is the same person responsible for all the dragons disappearing.

They meet Felix and Annette along the way and learn about the Red Emperor keeping all the Nabateans imprisoned. Annette unintentionally turns Byleth into a human in an effort to protect her from the Red Emperor. Human Byleth falls in love with Dimitri and starts to forget about her original mission, and Felix has to be the one to keep them both on track with their respective goals (much to his eternal exasperation).

I imagine Thales would have to be King Haggard in this verse. If we want to get darker, he's keeping the dragons imprisoned so he can use their blood for nefarious purposes. Faerghus has been reduced to a barren hellscape and people get turned into Crest beasts.

Dimitri is wounded (or temporarily killed) protecting Byleth after they find the Red Emperor, and she becomes a dragon again and kills the Emperor. The dragons are released and they kill Thales and free Faerghus, and Byleth uses her dragon magic to save Dimitri and he can reclaim his rightful place.

...But in the movie/book, the unicorn and the prince don't get to stay together at the end! So um...maybe after freeing the rest of the Nabateans, Byleth learns how to shapeshift so she can be both human and dragon, and that way she and Dimitri can have their happily ever after!

[izzythebananaqueen]

~ Incoherent Rambles of me reading Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd from Fire Emblem: Three Houses as autistic ~ :)

Context: This is now a separate post because this was initially a response to another user.

Anyways, as an autistic woman who played Three Houses the week it initially came out, I always personally kind of read him as autistic-coded (or at least something that made me project onto him) and for the three years that this game existed I’m kind of shocked that this reading or headcanon is not that popular or hasn’t really been talked about that much.

I’m shy when it comes to interacting with people, speaking my mind, and I’m WELL aware with how toxic the discourse over this game specifically has gotten. 

But you know what? 

Screw it. 

If no one else is going to start spreading the Autistic!Dimitri propaganda then I will... three years later than never.

Disclaimer: Despite me being autistic, not everyone experiences ASD the same way, and not all of the stuff I’m listing are symptoms of ASD specifically. Some of these are just me projecting, and if I get some things wrong please correct me and feel free to add input! (but please be civil, I know this game with anime chess and tea parties brings out a lot of bad blood in people... for some reason)

- General social awkwardness. He’s socially awkward even as a kid pre-tragedy.

- His “romantic” speaking manner. As in, at least in English he’s definitely more...uh... eloquent in with his words compared to the rest of the cast...? If that makes sense?

- Not being good at facial expressions and feeling the need to present himself in a “socially correct” way

(Dimitri calm down we’re just drinking tea)

- He’s clumsy

- Generally just apologizing for... everything he does, and being afraid of “messing up”, and then shaming himself when he does. This is probably not an ASD-rooted thing and more of some sort of trauma response but it’s still something I find relatable.

- Having some sort special interest in combat, training, and of the sort.

- Speaking of said interest in training... people with ASD tend to stick to daily routines and habits.

- Him adopting mannerisms from other people (such as Anselma)

- Finding “unfunny” humor, such as puns hilarious, because like, same.

- His dislike for the heat. People with ASD can experience heightened senses such as heat intolerance. I, for one, cannot stay outside during hot summer days for more than five minutes!

said heightened senses is also why people with ASD tend to be picky about certain textures or what they are wearing, which could explain this lost item description:

...and also why he points out how Byleth’s hands are specifically warm...

- Heightened empathy and compassion towards others (even if he’s not always good at expressing his feelings or knows how to best react to the situation)

That’s all for now! Again, feel free to correct me for inaccuracies because I know that there probably are some, I just wanted to share my perspective/headcanons on one of my all time favorite characters.

[voxmilia]

alright, propaganda for the three sapphics and their rat man

literally every single combo works.

edeleth speaks for itself. emperor with the weight of the world on her shoulders x the person she sees as an equal who guides her to be better? amazing, 100/10, no notes

the edelgard and dorothea supports are so refreshing, it's two obviously queer women who talk about their attraction to each other, admit that a future together would be interesting. And in their A support, it's that great cliche where edelgard is like "i haven't seen you trying to get a husband in a while" and the very clearly smitten dorothea is like "oh uh, yeah it's just easy to forget about that when we're talking like this."

dorothea who has a carefully crafted persona, desperately searching for a spouse to give her the love and security she's always wanted, and byleth who unintentionally sees straight through her in a way she doesn't know how to deal with. eventually choosing to bear her soul on her own terms when she recognizes byleth doing her best to make dorothea comfortable. and how, when faced with the future she's always wanted, not knowing how to process it, giving byleth so many reasons why they could pick someone else and then lighting up when they insist on her.

and there's something so powerful about the devotion that surrounds hubert's interactions with all three of them!!

firstly: liege x retainer? iconic always. that man fought soldiers off for three entire days as a ten year old child because she was taken from him. his entire existence is meant to boost her up and do the dirty, bloody work necessary to help her ascend the throne. like???? come on.

but let's not forget dorothea who looks at hubert's devotion and can't comprehend it, tries so hard to grasp it, and decides that she wants to be at his side forever to understand even a fraction of how he operates, to understand this feeling that goes beyond loyalty, beyond love. also also their ending has them running mittlefrank as a covert spy operation and idc what anyone says, that's sexy as hell

and i cannot understate the power of hubert's suspicion for byleth melting slowly but surely when she chooses edelgard and then comes back to them. how his threats to kill her end up in an a-support where either he admits he trusts her with his life, or he infers that she trusts him to end hers should she lose herself. openly admitting to a woman he spent years ready to destroy that if he had a second life, it would belong to her. insane behavior.

also also, hubert literally admits to talking things over with edelgard in his s support so like. our mans cleared it with their mutual girlfriend before proposing which is very considerate.

Please old hubba, can you do fem!byleth x edelgard x dorothea x hubert? My first three cf playthroughs, I just rotated those four in every combo, they're my favorite quad

FE: Should they kiss?

Byleth x Edelgard x Dorothea x Hubert

[lochnessies]

edelgard isnt racist her referring to rhea as a monster ( isnt her being racist against nabateans she isnt targeting rhea because of her race she is the leader of the church ( she is using her words like that to differentiate rhea, seteth ( she probably assumes the cardinals are nabateans) from the other people in the church who arent in the now she had no problem sparing letting rhea live if she surrendered ( she wanted rhea and co out of power not dead) you can spare flayn and seteth 1/2

edelgard isnt racist her referring to rhea as a monster in cf and edelgard doesnt have a problem with them surviving

in what fucking world do you live in where calling someone a monster specifically because of their race isn’t racist. and yes, it is because of her nabatean heritage

she is the leader of the church ( she is using her words like that to differentiate rhea, seteth

look above she also uses these words against seteth and flayn.

( she probably assumes the cardinals are nabateans)

head canon

from the other people in the church who arent in the no

the faithful are forced to flee from her in all routes if you talk to npcs

letting rhea live if she surrendered ( she wanted rhea and co out of power not dead) you can spare flayn and seteth 1/2

once again look above

( byleths presence being there just reminded them of their debt to him and lowered their will to fight which is why you can spare them with byleth

that’s your head-canon and is never mentioned in game or even implied

( lets be real here all 3 routes are morally grey there is no villain route 2/2

only one route has you side with the person declaring war unprovoked, working with terrorists, kidnaps children, is targeting a specific race, demonizes a religion, starves it’s citizens, use human experiments, lie and use propaganda, and uses a serial killer. cope harder.

[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

[sleepyhead-poll]

ROUND 3A, MATCH 4 OUT OF 4!

Propaganda Under the Cut:

G'raha Tia:

He learns a lot in his time from hibernating and when he wakes up from hibernating. He's a sweet boy and has great leadership skills. He's also an idiot (affectionate)

(Spoilers ahead) He is a catboy who is your (as in the player character's) biggest fan. He's a nerd and a geek. He tried to pretend to be evil but failed miserably because he's a terrible liar and also such a good boy. Most of his plans involve self-sacrifice. He decided to put himself to sleep as the guardian of a magical tower, to be woken up from stasis one day in the far future. Anyways then he ended up traveling back from that future in order to stop a calamity, became the leader of a society in a land teetering on the edge of an apocalypse, accidentally kidnapped the souls of some of the player character's allies, and eventually ends up merging with his original self, waking him up from stasis in the process. Also he's technically royalty. So vote for him!

Byleth:

swag

Bro went to sleep for five years and before that big eepy they made a promise with their students to all meet up five years from then and sure enough. They wake up the day of the reunion and are informed of what day it is and immediately rush to the appointed place. And for some reason although there's a war and shit all of their students come to the reunion anyway (despite it being extremely difficult for some of them with them having to literally sneak out of their territories in some routes) because they were just that cool and good of a teacher. Their sleeping also is the catalyst for the timeskip and I absolutely love timeskips. The FE3H timeskip in particular is very moving to me because of the tertiary theme of the game being growing up/the unstoppable march of time. I played the game right before entering high school and then another time before graduating high school (and I plan to play it again, as I graduate college) and let me just say it hit extremely hard. We view the change in the world through Byleth's eyes and then later come to see it through the eyes of the students in their monastery quotes and in the story. Their sleeping is the perfect way to do a timeskip and it makes the reunion with the students hit so much harder because it conveys how both so much and so little time has passed. So little time for Byleth, but enough time for the students for them to grow and mature and change in many ways (it got me thinking about how different I am as a person now than on my first playthrough) Also play FE3H during a transitional period in your life it WILL hit hard.

[izzythebananaqueen]

You know what?

Screw it.

I’m an autistic woman who has loved this character for three years now and I’m SHOCKED that this headcanon isn’t more popular or talked about. Maybe it’s because I’ve been too shy interacting with people but I’m going to take matters into my own hands and compile Dimitri things that I personally read as being autistically-coded, or I guess it could just be me kind of projecting onto him-

(Disclaimer, despite being autistic myself I don’t know if any of the things listed are actual traits or symptoms of ASD or something else entirely, feel free to add input or correct me!):

Unorganized Compilation of me reading Dimitri as autistic:

- General social awkwardness. He’s socially awkward even as a kid pre-tragedy.

- His “romantic” speaking manner. As in, at least in English he’s definitely more...uh... eloquent in with his words compared to the rest of the cast...? If that makes sense?

- Like you said, not being good at facial expressions and feeling the need to present himself in a “socially correct” way

(Dimitri calm down we’re just drinking tea)

- He’s clumsy

- Generally just apologizing for... everything he does, and being afraid of “messing up”, and then shaming himself when he does. This is probably not an ASD-rooted thing and more of some sort of trauma response but it’s still something I find relatable.

- Having some sort special interest in combat, training, and of the sort.

- Speaking of said interest in training... people with ASD tend to stick to daily routines and habits.

- Him adopting mannerisms from other people (such as Anselma)

- Finding “unfunny” humor, such as puns hilarious, because like, same.

- His dislike for the heat. People with ASD can experience heightened senses such as heat intolerance. I, for one, cannot stay outside during hot summer days for more than five minutes!

said heightened senses could also be why he’s picky about armor

...and also why he points out how Byleth’s hands are specifically warm...

- Heightened empathy and compassion towards others (even if he’s not always good at expressing his feelings or knows how to best react to the situation)

Okay that’s all (for now...???), sorry that this is so unorganized and maybe factually wrong at some points, but I just wanted to spread some Autistic!Dimitri propaganda. 

Have a nice day, fellow internet stranger! :D

Okay getting into this fandom three years late so this might have been talked to death already but—is it fanon that Dimitri is autistic? He talks about not being “good” at facial expressions, about social situations like there’s a clear right & wrong way to do them that he’s just missing, and one of his lost items says he’s picky about his armor?

[fantasyinvader]

Hmm... the devs said that one of the themes of Safflower is having a different set of beliefs, but they also said that the worldbuilding was done in support of Silver Snow.

I was thinking about this, and how a few things fall into place.

For starters, Edelgard believes she is the hero because of the story she was told by her father, and uses that to justify her own actions. However, Edelgard's father was an Agarthan puppet and Edelgard seemingly is ignoring that, just like how she ignores Thales telling her to her face what the experiments were for. Azure Moon has Dimitri say she ignores her victims, while Hopes has she herself say she ignored how much influence the Agarthans had over the Empire.

Now go back to the worldbuilding. Even in Safflower, the game keeps dropping information that contradicts Edelgard's narrative. Do you ignore stuff like Hanneman mentioning the war assets, or that Edelgard orders an attack on a neutral nation while wiping out any of it's leadership that doesn't surrender to her? Or is it a matter of the player not being aware of stuff like Lorenz saying the nobility only pays lip service to the Church, the Southern Church being dissolved a century prior, or Apex of the World being Edelgard's final boss theme and not Rhea's

In the Japanese, Dimitri calls Edelgard's path the Animal Path, one of the evil paths in Buddhism, leading to a realm of suffering due to evil actions. It is also defined by the poison/flame of ignorance, something that needs to be extinguished within oneself in order to achieve Nirvana which is also the name of Byleth's personal class that they lose at the end of the route. Likewise, that poison/flame can also correlate to incorrect beliefs. According to a Buddhist dictionary, it is defined as such:

“One of the three poisons, or the three sources of vice and suffering, the other two being greed and anger. It is also interpreted as delusion, illusion, ignorance, or error, and indicates the unenlightened state that causes one to take the false for the true and the seeming for the real, and thus prevents one from perceiving the true nature of things or from discerning the truth.”

Adding onto this is the fact Edelgard is shown as a liar throughout her routes. She knows how to use propaganda, withholding information from allies, spreading misinformation as well as creating an image around herself in order to further her own goals. Hopes even has her say she couldn't even trust herself, and by the end of Safflower her own allies are uneasy about how she's keeping them in the dark after Arianrhod. Keep in mind how Edelgard says she's waging this war for her ideals, ideals formed from what her father told her, her father being a puppet of the Agarthans and how they manipulated her into starting this war according to Verdant Wind. Bonus points for how in Verdant Wind Claude realizes the Agarthans were trying to feed him information as well.

So this idea that Safflower is about having a different set of beliefs seems to be routed in the greater theme of ignorance, either innocent or intentional. But really, it leans more towards the latter considering the events of White Clouds and how the player must choose to align herself with Edelgard in spite of them. The player deliberately ignores the story thus far to side with someone working with those you've been fighting against, in addition to seeing and learning about the tragedies that happen in order to help Edelgard's war effort. The player ignores that, then it begins revealing the route's lord figure is a manipulative liar while giving evidence to contradict her story. But even then, the player still presses on.

Is this really heroic? I don't think the game is saying so, especially when Azure Moon does it's thing. If Edelgard started the war for her ideals, it only makes sense to sit down and actually talk to her about them and it's at this point that the game actually addresses them. It lays out that her ideals benefit the strong and will only create more victims, but Edelgard's devotion to them leads to her deliberately ignoring the consequences of her actions. It's actually ironic that in Japanese Hubert tries to call Dimitri out as “the king who saves people by killing them” when that's exactly what Edelgard is doing, Really, it's a reoccurring element in Moon that people can do horrific things in their own interest yet still act like they are the good guy.

So the supposed heroism of Flower is based on ignorance, believing what your lord tells you in spite of the red flags, and just declaring you're doing this all for a good reason. Yet people were upset when the Japanese script revealed that Edelgard consolidates power to impose her will upon victory, because that was the very thing they were fighting against. The endings also indicates various hypocrisies from her, from creating her own false history to continuing to push her ideals in spite of seemingly going in on people supporting each other, to her sending troops to march on other countries. Her S support, the closest you can get to know her in line with Verdant Wind's message about doing that to clear up misconceptions, in Japan even has her say she's been a dictator. The more you get to know Edelgard, the more villainous she is supposed to become in contrast to her initial appearance.

Really, the game is about realizing and accepting Edelgard is the villain. Ignorance is not an excuse, it just shows a flaw in your judgement. Just because she says she's the good guy doesn't hold up to her actions, and even then she's not someone to be trusted. And her ending is so overt about this the translators tried to tone it down. And even then, the game's own creators flat out told us that Fodlan was built around supporting the story where the player doesn't side with Edelgard and instead fights her. That really informs the game's morality despite the translator's attempts.

[hubristicassholefight]

Preliminary Round: Fire Emblem

(Altina's official art didn't want to upload so now she's tiny)

Propaganda below cut

Lucina

She has a legendary sword from an alternate future where the world was basically destroyed and everyone she loved died so she does a little time travelling and goes back to fight destiny and kill dragons and all that cool stuff; I think her story is really good and gets really emotional at parts, like the fact that she goes back despite the odds and sees her dead family alive and well and works alongside them despite knowing what has to happen to them in her reality is messed up yknow. In general she's just a really cool and interesting character. And she has a cool sword of course 💯

Has a cool dragon slaying family heirloom sword; Cool Time Traveler

Eirika

there’s a lot of sword ladies in fire emblem, although they’re usually side characters and/or also do something else. eirika is all swords all the time. both her base and promoted classes exclusively use swords, she gets both the series staple rapier and a legendary sword only she can wield

Lyn

She gets not one but TWO ancient, powerful, evil-slaying swords. The Mani Katti and the Sol Katti. She is very fast and will stab you.

Altina

yknow how ike's like renowned for wielding ragnell with one hand despite it being a two-hander? well she dual wields it AND the alondite - another blade just as heavy as ragnell; she's a backstory character so unfortunately doesn't show up in the present day but she is SO cool. dual wields gigantic fucking swords, is in a girlboss/malewife relationship with a prettyboy heron man, is renowned as one of the setting's three heroes alongside a giant lion and a dragon, and in the flashbacks we see had a cool head. also she looks so cool please i love her so much

Byleth Eisner

After protecting Garreg Mach Monastery's Holy Tomb from raiders, Byleth discovers an ancient sword called The Sword of the Creator. TSotC (as I'm shortening the name to) is a Heroes Relic, a legendary weapon from the begining of Fódlan's history that was wielded during the War of Heroes. The Church's fabricated story about these weapons is that the Goddess bestowed them upon her holy warriors to defeat an unnamed evil before they eventually turned on themselves. In actuality, the Heroes Relics were crafted out of the corpses of the Nabateans, the children of the Goddess, with TSotC being constructed of the Goddess herself. Heroes Relics, thousands of years later, still resonate with the power of the Nabateans and only those who have Nabatean blood in their veins can wield a Heroes Relic without being turned into a monstrous beast. Byleth, however, was never told that she had Nabatean blood within her. Due to shady Church business she was born with a Crest Stone within her. Crest Stones power Heroes Relics but only if they're matching with eachother and the blood of the weapon's wielder (who tend to be nobles and royalty) but Byleth is just some stranger who happened to be at all the wrong places at the wrong time. She has the Goddess' blood from her father, the Goddess' Crest Stone from her mother, and a sword built from the Goddess' remains as her signature weapon. Since her Crest Stone is implanted within Byleth and unable to be placed within TSotC itself Byleth is the only person who and use it to it's full ability; She has a legendary sword made out of the Goddess' corpse but only she can use it because the Goddess' special organ rock was implanted in Byleth. It's a sword, it's a whip, it's a dead body!

[semi-imaginary-place]

my favorite version of edelclaude is canon compliant with verdant wind hahahah. yup doomed romance and the tragedy of what ifs. I’ve seen two comics about the two meeting the night before they meet in battle in enbarr (not necessarily romantic). the one on tumblr has them in one final dance, and the one of twitter is about the exchange of a rose. both very good.

so to quote from my earlier fe3h posts:

Thinking about claude and edelgard. On one hand their personalities, ideals, and ambitions complement each other. On the other hand Edelgard doesn’t understand how people work and Claude is a manipulator, guarded, he never lets any one in. Claude can read her, but Edelgard reacts poorly to criticism and dissenting opinions…. Claude has no faith. Not in his dreams and not in himself. With out a push, he’s not proactive. Edelgard charges straight ahead while Claude takes the circuitous path. “Defensive” thats the word for edelgard, she so easily thinks people are out for her. Whereas claude deflects. Both are fueled by a sense of justice. The point is the the tragedy that they would make great friends! But thats not happening in this universe! Because edelgard’s bull headed and claude wont open up!

Edelgard Claude foiling. Both see that the world is wrong and that motivates them to make it better. Claude listens to people, Edelgard listens to herself. Claude reflects and introspects, Edelgard doesn’t and continues to charge ahead believing only she is right. 

its about the silent grief of missed opportunities despite their compatibility

Edelgards biggest flaws are her desire for control and her stubbornness or the way she will double down on a decision and refuse to budge. Claude’s biggest flaws are his inability to trust, and showing his hand too late. A bit more on that last part. A large part of Claude’s strategies involve downplaying his side and biding his time. This strategy is especially weak though to an aggressive opponent like Edelgard who can bulldoze him before he has time to play out his plan. Part of the problem is that Claude is very reactive but not very proactive (its one of the reasons I like pairing him with Edelgard and Petra). He won’t just go for something the way Edelgard does, he’s wait for the right opportunity. This difference you can also see in how the deal with the Church. Edelgard declares war on them because she thinks they are the root of Fodlan’s social problems and need to be taken down. She makes a decision she believes in and readies herself for the consequences. Claude actually believes much of the same (The Church is the root of Fodlan’s problems) but would much rather avoid those consequences (fall out with the Church). You see in Verdant Wind he will make use of the Church because the are useful. He’s even willing to spout Church rhetoric and propaganda (Byleth as a Church symbol) if it suits his end goal of transferring power to an individual who will shape Fodlan’s future to his liking (he does have an altruistic and humanitarian goal much like Edelgard). However in doing so he risks empowering the Church even more. In short Claude will put up a facade that he doesn’t agree with on an ideals level and so is always in danger of that facade becoming real and failing his goals. yeah so claude character development has him learning to trust and being more proactive in his goals. so i like pairing him with characters that put him on a similar growth trajectory like petra or edelgard.

For me at least the appeal to Edelgard and Claude forming a supportive relationship whether that is a strong friendship or a romantic relationship is the great potential for personal growth. The two of them are the type of take inspiration in one another and together they shore up each other’s weaknesses, Edelgard’s difficulty in adapting long term plans to new information and a changing situation, and Claude’s inability to take a more direct path towards his goals. Claude expands Edelgard’s world view and she gives structure and directed action towards his dreams.

After Jeralts death both Claude and Edelgard both tell you that the world will continue spinning regardless of what befalls you personally but they do so in rather different ways. Edelgard phrases it like pull yourself together or the world will leave you behind. Claude phrases it like personal tragedies are such a small thing in the face of the world. You may have suffered a loss but there is so much to the world beyond that. There are still worthwhile things in the world. Both of say the world doesnt stop for you but mean different things. And both are trying to motivate you to pull yourself together for the world will not stop turning. Whereas dimitri is like: you want vengeance? You should go for vengeance. I’ll help you rip them apart. I’ll kill for you.

Because at their cores, Edelgard and Claude operate in similar sphere’s. Neither is shackled by what is or what was (edelgard’s line about how the Church has “only existed for a mere 1000 years” which she means to say that it is finite and small on the scale of the universe and thus it is very possible to take it down), both are mostly live in the realm of ideals and possibilities,  what the future could look like instead of believing that what currently is is best like Law and Order Dimitri does

In the novel in my head that will never get written. they never even enter a romantic relationship in this timeline its all unrecognized pining (by both the self and the other) and realizing too late they could have been a good thing together! They strike up an unlikely friendship in the academy despite hubert’s vehement disapproval and just as they are truly starting to open up to each other, the deadline for edelgard’s plans arrives and she chooses to proceed as planned. the juicy unrealized potential!

Part of this is also especially during white clouds, romance is at the bottom of each of the lists of priorities. Edelgard is busy plotting a war and doesn’t think she has time for such things. Its an interesting shift actually between part 1 edelgard who is serious business 100% of the time and takes everything seriously and wants to be taken seriously and part 2 edelgard who realizes on a personal level what the responsibilities of ruling entails and longs for simple days. Meanwhile part 1 Claude is still scoping out the situation in Fodlan, he’s wary, his position is insecure, romance is also the furthest thing from his mind. Teenage Edelgard and Claude would both be rather bad with affection and emotions too. In edelgard’s supports you can see she’s very defensive and thinks byleth teasing her is them insulting her, and she reacts to embarrassment with anger. While Claude had many difficulties in his childhood, he did have 2 living parents and seems to get along pretty well with them and it shows since he’s the most well adjusted of the lords. Still, his attempts at connecting with others are guarded and clumsy, you can see this very well in his supports with Marinne. He’s well intentioned and genuinely wants to help people, but he’s got so many defense mechanism built up that it creates a distance with people.

also claude and edelgard teaming up would be too powerful. they would break the game, the church, and every unjust social, economic, and political system. i mean between the be and gd you are going to have society proceeding at the speed of light. too powerful.