#I also made sure to have Ashe kill Lonato! :)

[emblemxeno]

Meetcha half way: Miklan and Xander are both awful, terrible people.

You're allowed to think that way, I genuinely think whatever floats your boat is good, anon.

I don't share that opinion. Forgive me for the rant ahead.

Fates, IMO, made it clear what nuance it was going for. Aside from the little sisters and non-story important characters, there weren't purely good people. However, there were always clear hate sinks that the player was meant to despise.

War makes good people do bad things; evil people start or take advantage of war to benefit themselves; good people are taken out of the equation early on or don't get involved as often. Bam, that's it.

3H on the other hand, tries to justify every fucking action an antagonist takes. It tries to make everything an "I can see where you're coming from" situation, even when it falls on its face. For example, Lonato. No, actually, I don't feel bad for the guy trying to assassinate the archbishop in a plot of revenge for the execution of his son who was caught trying to assassinate that person already, especially when he's mowing town resistance in the process while knowing he could potentially harm or kill his other son in the process.

For fairness, Xander also does bad things and has no qualms harming a former sibling. But that was a fact established as soon as chapter 2, early in the story to intentionally give the audience a lasting impression. Yes he cares for his family, but his fear of his father outweighs that. The next logical step in analysis would be to discover why.

Lonato doesn't get that. He gets praised, shows that he's actually a douche, yet gets off the hook in various directions, excused by the Western Church (undeniably horrible group, but he himself shouldn't be exempt), the Central Church (should Ashe be on Crimson Flower because most of the cast isn't allowed to have a rigid backbone since they must be allowed to steamroll their own homes on Byleth's word), and even in Ashe's support with Catherine.

Miklan is no different, where they shift blame from the individual's actions to being about Crests, something that's contradictory to ingame information. He was disinherited well fucking after Sylvain was born, so it stands to reason that it's because he was an irresponsible, jealous, violent creep, and not because of Crests. But the game wants us to feel bad! He doesn't get a nuanced death because whining about Crests takes priority in the game's writing. Three Hopes cemented this by making him a fucking ally, highlighting that "oh he's actually a good leader even without a Crest!!1!" Yeah, I'm sure all the women he kidnapped, villagers he robbed, and families he tore apart will just be hunky dory with knowing that.

Xander meanwhile dies like a little bitch, taking himself out by letting Corrin stick a sword through him. That's thematically poignant, because he was the most common antagonist and a plot consistent hurdle that Corrin had been preparing to face ever since he made the choice to side with Hoshido. It's supposed to hit that it was really fucking easy, that Xander wasn't taken out through raw strength, but the weight of his own actions. That's exponentially more ingame acknowledgement of the wrong that Xander did, than any one character in 3H can manage to say about anyone they're fighting against besides maybe the Slithers.

[fantasia12]

Finished my first route of Three Houses last week, so here is my opinion on my units (spoilers of course) :

M!Byleth: Buddy could solo a whole map with the Sublime Creator Sword! Kept him in the Enlightened One class. (I also married Linhardt!)

Edelgard: Sadly, she wasn't exceptional. Still good but I excpected more (maybe I should have used Aymr more than 3 times). Was in her Emperor class in the Endgame and (surprisingly!) married Caspar.

Hubert: Very good! Was able to kill nearly everyone in his path! Was a Dark Bishop and had his ending with Ferdinand.

Ferdinand: Gave him the Chalice of Beginnings and he was unstoppable! Very quickly became my favorite unit. Was at end game still only a paladin, cause I didn't look up the requirements for master classes. Was conflicted if he should get together with Edelgard, Hubert or Dorothea. Also my Dancer.

Caspar: I liked him more than I thought I would! Was one of the few in a master class (War Master). Not the best, but still useful in gameplay!

Linhardt: My love! Was a Bishop and rather useless in combat (not that he would want that), mostly because of the lack of speed. Very useful to heal allies half across the map tho!

Dorothea: Very useful at spamming Thoron and Meteor!/j Made a very useful Gremory an secondary healer. Founded a opera company with Yuri. Also slayer of the Immaculate One.

Bernadetta: Sadly, cause of deployment limits she wasn't as useful as she could be. Did manage to make her a Bow Knight tho! Stayed single.

Petra: Very useful Assassin and lockpick! Her main strenghts were damage and crits. Also no paired ending.

Jeritza: He has to be useful since he comes so late! Was still surprised lol. Stayed a Death Knight. Wanna marry him on a second Crimson Flower run.

Yuri: My second lockpick! Was a Trickster the whole time and his main asset was dodging. Also, he nearly seduced me away from Linhardt!

Balthus: Better than Caspar. Was a War Monk and had a paired ending with Hapi (mostly since she was his only A Support).

Constance: My only flying unit! Needed more speed, but other than that very good! Stayed single.

Hapi: Like Constance, barely doubled. Because of that she was an Adjutant on the final map. Also a Valkyrie.

Manuela, Hannemann, Shamir and Lysithea (after sparing her) were benched.

EDIT: I FORGOT ANNA! She was useless. At most average in everything + the fact I already had 3 sword users and she was benched before the halfway point.

It was very fun! Also, while I played on Casual, only in the early chapters did some people die!

Started an Azure Moon run a few days ago (Currently at chapter 4). First of all, Early Game Hell is real. Second, I have to stop myself from recruiting Linhardt (only students from my house on my first run!). War phase is gonna be hell. On characters, Felix is a little bitch and Ashe is cute.

[randomnameless]

I recently saw some nice Cyril discussion/posts on the dash and I remember why, despite liking his Ashe support, it still rubbed me in a wrong way -

Sure it's a nice support where he ultimately finds a friend, but...

Ashe of all people?

Ashe's who's all "I want to be a model knight like Lord Lonato", the very same Lonato who tried to kill the person Cyril loves the most and came to see as a surrogate mother?

In the same vein, Cyril is the ward/son of the woman who gave the order to kill Lonato, and killed Christophe, Lonato's son and Ashe's beloved brother.

Considering Ashe might not be the kind of person who would blame Cyril for what Rhea did (even if CF!Ashe... well), would Cyril accept to be helped and ultimately become friends with him without having to tackle this issue?

Cyril "her enemies are my enemies" would be mature enough to engage in a conversation and friendship with the son of someone who wanted to kill Rhea?

Also, thinking about Ashe... Lonato became chummy with the Western Church after Christophe's death, and we know the Western Church hates the Central Church because they're not xenophobic enough.

So, Ashe's dad joins a xenophobic group, but the guy still strikes conversation with an Almyran (and a Duscurian)? Or he admires Lonato but dismisses his association with the xeno group as, idk, "ramblings" or not being something serious and doesn't follow/listens to him when he goes on Western Church rants about how Almyrans and Duscurians shouldn't be in Fodlan (or at least in Garreg Mach?) but then what is he admiring in the man?

Like, can we imagine Ashe writing a letter to his dad and gushing about Dedue and mentionning how he made an Almyran friend... or Ashe would know better than to write those things to Lonato since Lonato turned xenophobic after associating with the Western Church?

Likewise, if Cyril told Rhea he became friends with Ashe, would she be worried about it, because as Lonato's kid, he might want to target her through Cyril to get revenge for his brother and father?

I don't remember the "nickel meme" that well rn because it's late lol, but it's still weird how 2 of Cyril's support completely elude what I'd call "character essential writing" to give instead a generic support - Hilda learns how to not be racist anymore without adressing her House's issue with "captured Almyran children who are fed once in a blue moon but still have to work themselves to the bone to be able to eat", and Cyril learns what friendship is, without adressing the small issue of "the man you admire tried to kill the person I care about the most and is part of a group who hates people like me because I'm a foreigner".

Masterful character writing everyone.

i swear it's not like I have this scene in some AU plotbunny where cyril and ashe disagree about lonato in the lonato mission, and cyril believes that he has to be "there" for ashe because of this friendship thing and he wants to help/apologise after calling Lonato trash since he's somehow like "Ashe's Lady Rhea" so he joins the group during the Lonato mission

but like, in this AU Rhea herself went to confront Lonato because this nonsense has been going on for too long and it must stop before too many people die, of course Cyril is caught by Lonato's forces who try to pull the "a son for a son" nonsense (+ calling cyril with a racist slur), Rhea having none of his bullshit (tfw people pulled the same shit using Willy back in the days!) and ultimately crushing him to rescue Cyril because you.never.ever.threaten.her.family. (especially not her children! She couldn't save Lycaon so this time she'll protect (lel) everyone). More Rhea BaD shenanigans, Cyril and Ashe's friendship deteriorates (Ashe'd feel xtra guilty since he told Lonato in his latest letter that the CoS doesn't preach the same things as the Western Church does since his Almyran friend is close to the Archbishop herself!) even more, Dimi's ideal that peaceful/bloodless resolution of conflicts is in shambles but maybe a convo with Rhea that this ideal is something that should always be sought, and yet rulers should use force/authority when needed and it's up to him to learn when force is necessary.

[dmclemblems]

IMO Lonato is a symptom of the fact that the plot of 3H only works if communication does not exist. Lonato doesn't believe Christophe was involved in the tragedy of Duscur or involved with a plot to assassinate Rhea. But instead of really trying to discover the truth, he unilaterally assumes Christophe cannot be in the wrong therefore Rhea BAD therefore let's raise an army of civilians and march on the church. He's basically a mini Edelgard in his actions (no truth, only violence). Part 1/2

That's probably why 3H Edelgard even says she'd "do the same thing as Lonato" aka raise an army of civilians she doesn't care about sacrificing just to fight against Rhea/the church. And in Hopes, Edelgard legit saves Lonato unlike in 3H where she kills Lonato (as everyone does in 3H chapter 3). If you hate the church, that's really all it takes for Edelgard to think your life has value. Disagree? Then she believes you're an easy sacrifice to her goals too, just like with Lonato. Part 2/2

I think it really depends what part of the plot, since you’d still have things like TWS and Edelgard’s personal issues with the Church or what have you. To a point there’s still plot going on (and in Hopes Edelgard doesn’t hide that Thales killed Dimitri’s father from him and just outright mentions it). It’s usually when people are more in gung ho mode that there’s a lack of communication, like how even Dimitri was like that for a while until Rodrigue died.

There are definitely a lot of communication plots involved in the game though and ironically I think that’s what frustrates people. A lot of them are such extreme circumstances to not be making sure of what you’re (the characters are) getting into.

I’m not sure if Lonato did or didn’t care about the people he brought with him, but Edelgard makes it pretty clear that she’s completely willing to sacrifice the populace and commoners. For Lonato it’s possible he just didn’t care what the truth was and wanted revenge for his son regardless (because it was his son regardless of the facts).

I do wish they gave him more than they did even just a bit more because for him to be an important part of Ashe’s story, and in Hopes Catherine says Christophe was a classmate of hers. It feels like it should’ve been more in depth than what we got, but unfortunately Lonato was a black and white case of like... there’s no refuting his intentions. I feel like in that way communication for him was a matter of him not even caring by the time he made the decision to raise a militia. In theory it should be important, but... well, it’s Three Houses lol. Dimitri and Claude like communication but most people just... don’t really consider it (Rhea also isn’t really one for communication. Even if I like her, I mean, I can’t say she was willing to give people a fair trial even if they implicated that they were lied to by someone and acted out of believing what ended up being a lie).

[faroreswinds]

Azure Gleam - Chapter 5

Since I am literally going on a trip today, I am going to start doing chapter by chapter updates for now. Else updates will take a while. So I’ll post chapter 5 notes and answer some anons before I start my long drive....

Still working on the last part of my Golden Wildfire final review.

Has access to Gatekeeper’s paralogue

Sees level recommended

Lv130

Story

Lonato is very beloved by his people so they joined his cause by volunteering. However… they have no formal training. They will likely die

Cyril is here and… now he’s gone. Rhea is in a different city. :/ That sucks. At least Seteth and Flayn are here. And apparently, most of those in the other city are elderly. 

Felix doesn’t really have a preference of a response to his words, but…. he’s still being a jerk. :/

Despite being busy, Dimitri still trains every day with his men

Duscur people are fighting with us, that’s cool 

Mercedes points out 

Petra likes it when you say the Empire will be there alongside Lonato (but it could just be she likes your honesty). 

Someone killed an assassin who was going to kill Dimitri and hung his head out for all to see (… Dedue? Maybe? …. Not sure).

Count Rowe, the little weathervine

Dorothea appears in a side map

Similar map that we saw in SB, but kinda the other side this time. 

So... why IS Dorothea here? 

Miklan comes now?! Huh.... There wasn’t much build up for that. 

“I’d never betray my duty to the Kingdom” Yeah, about that Ashe....

And Lonato is ded.

Not the most exciting chapter

Ah, so Dimitri hired Miklan. Even Felix is like wtf. Miklan’s father even trained him after they captured him, lol. 

Dimitri has a point. They can’t rely on Relics forever or on them alone. 

Lol, Miklan does NOT have a choice. And at least Sylvain got a say. 

Yes, Dimitri’s reasoning isn’t undone, but Ingrid’s right that he still did the things he did, even if his life could have been different had he been born with a crest

Similar lesson here for Dimitri that Claude sort of had - “talk to your allies”. But not quite the same. “Let us in your scheme!” versus “don’t shoulder burdens on your own” are not equal

Byleth also was an enemy here, but it didn’t feel as impactful as the other routes yet. Or at least, not to me. 

God DAMN it we lost Count Rowe again. 

Hmm... Slithers? 

Yup, Slithers. 

Supports

Felix and Ingrid C- Felix carries around his bother’s spur. And he gives it to Ingrid? That’s sweet. And Glenn told Ingrid first about becoming a knight? Glenn…. He must have really looked forward to being her husband one day. 

Felix and Rodrigue C - Interesting that Felix can’t force the lords under the his territory to do things. And wow, the music changed at a drop of a hat. Wow, Felix… calm the fuck down. Rodrigue LITERALLY did nothing wrong, he just said he raised two capable sons and you went off the handle. 

Dedue and Petra C - It’s nice to see these two talk. Dimitri and Dedue taught each other their languages…. *cries a little* And Dimitri doesn’t want Petra to be neglected. Petra taught herself the language, and was made fun of by other nobles. Dedue as well, but Dimitri protected him from that and corrected him as he learned. *cries more*

Dedue and Shez C - Shez isn’t exactly a “newcomer” but ok. Dedue doesn’t really trust Shez, but he’s still nicer about it than Hubert was, anyways.

Felix and Sylvain C - I do like this support. Telling it as it is. Scolding each other and shit. I really am enjoying this more mature Sylvain. Confirms that Dimitri is reforming the social structure, and that they both need to support Dimitri. 

Felix and Mercedes C - Yes, Felix. Why do you have a cat. Felix’s face was the best too. The devs watched the memes for sure for this one. also, if the Bartels killed that cat.... I riot. Felix, fuck, this was a cute one for you. The cat won’t stop following him!

Lots of cats supports in this came in general. 

What do the devs have against dogs?

Flayn and Ashe C - Two cinnamon rolls talk. And fish. 

Flayn, seeing the fish - *drools* 

Books (as a reminder, these are not copied from the game word for word)

Old Letter Addressed to the Bishop

Written by Hans von Nilsson

... Not just my wife Claudia, who called the meeting, but all the women of House Daphnel seem to possess the same capable bravery and strong disposition to be renowned as “her”. You too are no exception.

Who could have imagined the Eastern Knights dissolving when Leicester is still so far from peace? Many lords understand your thinking and went along with the decision. However, you cannot ignore the series concerns others may have

Let our knights of our household be the Eastern Church’s shield, in place of the dissolved Eastern Knights, since you problem to abandon the sword but also abandon your shield as well.

If you accept, I believe you will avoid awkward inquisition from the archbishop, who has taken issue with your way of thinking. Also my wife, who considers you a sister, has been very concerned about you. Please consider my offer. 

Traveler’s Journal I

Author is unknown, but they experienced the placed first hand. 

Almyra

Great kingdom east of Foldan. Borders Leicester Alliance. The mountain range known as Foldan’s Throat acts as a dividing line. 

The people have a strong legacy of horsemanship and relish the thrill of battle.

Rish in fertile prairies, desert, and mountain ranges.

Albinea

Continent northwest of Foldan. Has a frigid climate that is home to numerous rare and valuable species of flora and fauna. 

Human population is very small due to intense cold and frozen earth, which is unsuitable to growing crops. 

Morfis

Name of the metropolis of magic to the southeast of Foldan, as well as the boundless desert that surrounds it. In the distant past, it was called the City of Illusion. 

Rumors of its profound and mysterious magic spread thanks to trading routes. 

Dagda

Continent so the southwest of Foldan. It’s relatively unknown due to its extreme distance from Foldan. Some think it’s a tropical rain forest, others think it’s a giant, frozen plateau. 

In truth, it’s so large it supports a large variety of terrain and climates. 

[fireemblems24]

Ok, so Dedue gets special treatment. I take no criticisms.

Honestly, having to wait to get them made it an event instead of getting to the first chapter of the time-skip and getting overwhelmed.

Here's me fangirling all over all his supports (sans Dimitri, whyyyyyy, I need Dimitri A-Supports too, and Shamir's is also weirdly time-locked)

Felix -

Holy shit, yes, Dedue is saying things I've wanted someone to say to this little ball of edgy angst .

"Is it really so unnatural to put one's life on the line to protect a brother in arms?"

Thank GOD there's finally another opinion about Glenn other than "He said he died like a true knight, so now I hate my dad."

Then Felix goes back to his dehumanizing and insulting (I love him, but damn he's soooo tonally stupid sometimes)

"Your insults are merely an attempt to avoid addressing me as what I am."

Another banger for Dedue. I haven't seen Felix put in his place this solidly since Seteth lol. But in a very Dedue and Seteth way (i.e. polite).

(really though, Felix is always deflecting complex emotions he's never learned to process by insulting people)

"But if you act like a fool and get yourself killed, I'll kill you too." Oh, Felix, never change. OMG he got so tsundere there at the end.

Though, I now headcannon CF!Felix decided to avoid getting killed protecting someone he loved by deciding to make sure there was no one he loved still alive to protect. Problem solved.

Annette -

Annette and Dedue are both so wholesome.

These two are actually well-matched. He'd give her a solid base, she'd force him to open up. He'd be calm when she panicked, she's brighten him up when he got too somber.

"I was hoping the food I made would bring a smile to your face." - That's like Linhardt levels of smooth. But then he blushes.

Dedue blushing 😊

Dedue is top-tier husbando material. I'm telling you. He can even cook.

Ashe -

So I had quite the unpopular opinion when my opinion of Ashe tanked seeing him fighting for Cornelia, who is ridiculously evil. But people seem to like Ashe/Dedue. I still don't because Dedue deserves someone who won't ever fight for the woman who murders him, but let's see how this goes . . .

By "father" who worked in a restaurant, he means his blood father, not Lonato, right? Because I just had a funny image in my head.

Dedue had a sister 😭

Ok - but Ashe on dead family - "That (a Heaven-like paradise) seems so far away. I'd rather they stayed here." - "On this episode of Ghost Hunters."

So their support is sweet and all but he still fights for Cornelia after she kills him, so, yeah, I can't ship it, sorry.

Ingrid -

So . . . this one should be interesting. I love Ingrid, but she needs to unlearn her racism.

Wow, she's chatting with him so normally. Good sign.

Dedue made a kid cry, lol. He's just a big teddy bear though - unless you threaten or talk shit about Dimitri.

Her opinion did a 180.

You know, I'm kind of glad this whole support chain wasn't about Dedue getting Ingrid to unlearn her racism. It was about Ingrid figuring it out by humanizing what she thought of as "other." It always seems icky to me when a racism plot line revolves around the victim having to convince the victimizer to stop.

No one called Dedue a "wonderful person" before. 😭

To be fair to everyone else, Dedue's made it very hard to know him since he avoids being friends. Someone needs to give this man all the hugs, and I will volunteer.

Flayn-

I expect more cooking lol

Called it, Flayn made more cooking disasters

OMG he told her to her face her food tasted awful, but knows she tried. He's so sweet.

So now Dimitri and Dedue are the only ones who eat Flayn's cooking

This was pretty adorable. Not sure I ship it but more like she's a little sister.

OMG her nicknames 😅😂, poor Dedue.

Mercedes -

So other than Dimitri, Mercedes had my favorite Dedue early supports, so I saved hers for last.

I love how Mercedes is savage to the people who deserve it, and so sweet to the people who deserve it (sans Felix, he needed a bit of the savage, but what can you say)

"For peace to come even one day sooner." Dedue stooooppp

Mercedes wants to visit Duscur 😭😭😭

Lol "I'm sure Dimitri will let me take a vacation." Like, I'm sure Dimitri will be ecstatic that Dedue actually asked him for something.

I love that they're both praying to both gods. It's nice seeing such a religious character be more open-minded about other religions.

These two are so sweet together. I really want them to pair up.

[philliamwrites]

The Dawn Will Come [Chpt.6]

Fandom: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Pairing: Dimitri x Reader, Claude x Reader, Edelgard x Reader, Yuri x Reader, Edelgard x Byleth, lots of minor pairings

Tags: #gn reader, # platonic love byleth & reader, #reader is a tactical unit, #angst, #slow burn, #subplots, #unreliable narrator, #pining, #remporary amnesia, #reluctant herp, #canon divergence, #lost twin au, #many chapters, #original content

Words: 5.1k

Summary: Waking up in a forest without any knowledge of your past and who you are, you join the house leaders of the Officers Academy to search for a way to return your memories. Unfortunately, the church has different plans for you, and Fate places you in the centre of a cruel game with deadly stakes. It certainly doesn’t help to fall in love with a house leader who is doomed to be your demise.

Notes: Chapter 5 | Chapter 7

Chapter 06: From The Beyond

Ah! It is well for the unfortunate to be resigned, but for the guilty there is no peace.

[Mary B. Shelley, Frankenstein]

    Thinking back on it later, the events during Garland Moon were probably what set the hare running toward its demise. Not that any of you could have known that. Not the students who joyfully spend their days in cherished halls where daylight passes through coloured glass; not Byleth with her gift to correct past mistakes with a flick of her wrist and change the course of time; not you with your foresight to see what dangers await in the future and prepare a different path for those you care for to walk safely.

    Thinking back on it later, everything that followed surely ascribed to and served Fate, and not even Sylvain could charm her with his silver tongue and golden wit, for Fate’s lover is Time and she does not look kindly upon those who enslave him.

    Maybe that is why things turned out the way they did for Byleth and you.

    But that future is still far away and every single one of you still believes the goddess has Fate tightly leashed to her side, her benevolence endless and spreading to every corner in Fódlan.

    That is why you don’t think too much about it when one day, Seteth disturbs your seminar, a deep frown settled in his features as you explain how to turn an ambush to your advantage to the students.

    “Apologies for the disturbance, Herald. Lady Rhea asks to see Ashe.”

    The boy gives a pitiful squeal but is up on his feet nonetheless. “Me? Why?”

    “You will see. Please come.” Seteth holds the classroom’s door open.

    You nod, a little worried about the frightened glance Ashe sends your way like he hopes you can actually say no and decline Rhea’s command. An encouraging smile is everything you can give him on his way before the door shuts behind him. Its sound wakes everyone else from their slumber and it takes a few minutes to reclaim order and their attention. It certainly does help that the Blue Lion House isn’t as chaotic as a certain other, not to name any names.

    Said house proves again to be more difficult to teach. Or tame. You didn’t have the courage to ask why they thought it was a good idea to see whose shoe would leave the darkest stain on Claude’s bedroom’s ceiling. Even days after their mischief students kept talking about how they have never seen Seteth this furious.

    “Herald, please,” Hilda cries, tragically draped over the back of her chair, a maiden in bittersweet agony over her loss of free time. “It was all Claude’s fault.”

    “Liars never prosper,” Claude calls from the far back of the room. He’s hunched over his papers, working vigorously on Seteth’s punishment. He ordered them to write hundred times I shall not throw footwear against any ceiling in the monastery. They’ve been at it for about twenty minutes and Claude’s quill hasn’t stopped its furious scratching against parchment at all.

    “I won’t mess with Seteth,” you tell them and lean dangerously far back on your chair to place your feet on the teacher’s desk. “And you deserve it. Or do they not teach you proper manners in your noble homes?”

    “Well, it’s not like anyone taught us not to do it,” Hilda chirps. You throw a glare her way and she quickly dugs her head and continues writing. Quills scratch on paper for about seven seconds before Hilda stops again.

    “Herald,” she says. “What do you think about Lady Catherine’s Thunderbrand?”

    You look up from your book titled Noticeable War Generals. Smile gone from her face, Hilda looks up at you with sharp curiosity. It’s eerily silent now, and a quick glance towards Claude shows he is listening as well.

    Catherine’s Thunderbrand. Its sight is still burned into the back of your closed eyes: Golden ivory forged into a grotesque sword, a blood red Crest Stone in its middle that seemed to pulsate—as if it breathed. As if it was a living thing with a heart. You had simply stared at it in awe and thought What a mesmerising weapon.

    “It’s … fascinating,” you manage. “A Hero’s Relic. There are more than just Thunderbrand, right?”

    “Ten exist,” Claude calls from the back. “Bestowed by the goddess upon ten heroes, they are passed down to their descendants. House Riegan and House Goneril have one in their possession as well.”

    “Then why don’t you use it?” You certainly wouldn’t miss a chance to own and wield a mighty weapon like that.

    “Wield that?”Hilda shudders in disgust. “No thank you. It looks so weird, pulsating and moving like an insect.”

    “And we’re way too inexperienced to use it in a real battle.” Claude puts his quill between his nose and upper lip and tries to hold it there. “They’re locked away anyway and hidden from those who might misuse their power.”

    Claude has a point. Nonetheless, you’d gladly take a look at them. Maybe even hold one … Did the Herald own one as well? A special weapon only forged for the Herald. A slight shudder runs down your spine at the thought of using it in battle.

    Ten minutes later, Claude jumps to his feet. He hurries towards you, slams his parchments on the table and leaves just as fast. “Bye Herald!”

    “No way!” Hilda pales. “How is he so fast?”

    You wonder as well and take a look at his papers. Instead of writing what Seteth has told them, Claude simply left poor drawings of their crime and promised with one sentence he wouldn’t do it again.

    And we of House Riegan never break our promises, reads the last line.

    You groan. Now it’s your turn to think about a good explanation to Seteth’s questions why you haven’t paid more attention.

    Month three passed within the blink of an eye. Garland Moon brought the sweet smell of white roses to Garreg Mach, a tradition much anticipated by the students. Everywhere you went, garlands and gifts made of white roses were given to each other as a sign of friendship or budding love. Some found their way to your desk, though your admirers preferred to stay anonymous whereas Byleth was busy to stow them somewhere—not a day passed without her receiving something or a group of giggling students following her around.

    “I really don’t know what to do with all those flowers,” she told you one day during a tea session, a deep frown on her face. “They wilt. Then I throw them away. It’s a waste.”

    “Your students love it,” you replied but were glad not to be in her place.

    Another good deed Garland Moon brought with it is longer days and shorter nights. Students lounged outside in their summer uniforms after class, enjoying those last warm days before raining season arrived with fierce gusts and heavy pouring, forcing them back inside where they spent their free time inside the library or the dining hall, playing little games to kill time.

    For a change of pace, Byleth and Jeralt decided they’d hold a grilled fish dinner on every last day of each week and most of the invited either didn’t have the heart or the courage to tell them once every week was once every week too much.

    Everything happened too fast after that. Rhea informed the teacher’s faculty and her Knights of Lord Lonato Gaspard’s planned rebellion against the church. With that, the mystery of why Seteth had demanded to speak with Ashe was solved; it also explained why he spent so much time inside the chapel, praying and wondering himself about his adoptive father’s reasoning.

    “There is no question about it,” Rhea says in her cool, demanding voice once every teacher and Knight of Seiros gathered inside the War Room to discuss the matter. “We will send a troop to meet them halfway in Kingdom Territory. They will pay for mocking our goddess.”

    “Allow me to lead the Knights, Lady Rhea,” Catherine says. Even now, you can’t take your eyes off Thunderbrand strapped on her back. “I know Gaspard and what he’s capable of.”

    “We did not forget what you’ve done back when—” Seteth starts. Catherine silences him with one look, leaving no doubt she doesn’t wish to speak of it.

    “And that is exactly why I have to go.”

    Rhea nodded. “So be it. I know I leave this mission in your capable hands.”

    “But why is he leading this rebellion?” you wonder. “I thought the Kingdom is strongly devoted to Seiros’ teachings.”

    “Every flock has its black sheep,” Rhea says, sounding sad. “We will get our answers once we defeat and capture them.”

    “What about the surrounding villages and those who support Gaspard’s rebellion but don’t fight?” Byleth asked. Until now, you haven’t really thought of those not directly involved in it, but she does make a good point.

    Rhea squared her shoulders. “What about them?”

    “They’re not directly involved but might try to get in our way.” Byleth glanced at the strategic map laid out before her. There is a way through the forest for your units to approach Lonato’s stronghold. Surrounding villages are marked with a red pin. They surround the forest in a loose circle, making an intrusion possible, though sending Knights of Seiros out to watch them and stop them could be quite easy—

    “Everyone who supports this foolish rebellion should receive the rightful punishment,” Rhea says, her voice so cold it freezes your thoughts of how to make the villagers stay out of this. Your head snaps up as you stare at her. Byleth raises an eyebrow but remains silent just like everyone else. Something about that makes you shudder.

    “But they’re civilians, right? If we can avoid having them interfere—”

    “By joining Lonato Gaspard’s rebellion they pledge guilty to his cause.” Rhea looks up at you, scorn flashing briefly in her eyes. “I will not have them simply go if it opens the possibility for revenge one day.”

    If you squinted really hard, there was reason behind her words. Still, your stomach turned at the thought of endangering civilians even though it could be prevented. Without any protests, that was the plan for the operation.

    You sat this one out. There was much to prepare for the upcoming Rite of Rebirth, a ceremony when the Church of Seiros and its believers unite to pray for the return of the goddess. Even though you wouldn’t call yourself a believer—many find it strange that you remember the way of war but not the way of the Church as if you lived somewhere without Seiros’ teachings—your presence was of outmost importance as well. Though after you heard how the mission went, you really wished you had joined the Blue Lions fighting against Gaspard instead of sitting around and deciding which ceremonial robes fit better.

    Loud voices drift through the closed door of a classroom, voices you immediately recognise belonging to Dimitri and Byleth.

    “Are you insane?” You flinch back even though a heavy wooden door separates you from what is undoubtedly Dimitri’s wrath. “Those were civilians.”

    A reply is lost, too quiet for you to hear, but whatever Byleth said, it wasn’t the right thing. A second later, Dimitri storms through the doors. The distress in his features stops you from asking what is wrong, a flash of betrayal lurking in his eyes seals your mouth shut. You look after him until he disappears around the corner, only slowly turning towards Byleth. She is propping herself up on the table, learning on her strong arms and staring at the opposite wall, her mouth a grim line—solid rock that stands against the raging waves summoned by Dimitri, her grip on the edge of the table hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

    “Everything okay?” An unnecessary question answered by a simple shake of her head. You lean your hips against the table. “Do you want to talk about it?”

    Byleth is silent. Only slowly, like a tight knot finally coming lose, the tension in her shoulders dissipates and she takes a long, deep breath.

    “Dimitri told me about their mission. How they dealt with Lord Lonato’s revolt.” She finally steps away from the table and kneads the muscles in her shoulders. You imagine they’re hard like a rock. “They faced simple peasants who defended their Lord. Peasants who didn’t even know how to wield a sword without cutting their own thumbs off.”

    “And Rhea made quite clear how to deal with them,” you finish, summoning unwanted imaginations about a gruesome butchery in your mind. Byleth nods.

    “Dimitri asked for my advice,” she continues, her gaze drifting towards the door as if said young man might return like a bad haunting if his name is simply muttered. “If there was anything they could have done different. I told him there wasn’t.” She tears her eyes away from the door and fixes them on you. “I told him that is the way of war.”

    She is right, a part of you insists. Such facts cannot be changed and claiming anything different is foolish, naive. Yet, something stirs, a tiny tiny voice, a feeling, that challenges that thought. A feeling you didn’t expect to be part of you.

    “I don’t know about the details,” you say, shuffling from left to right, “but maybe it was avoidable. Lord Lonato must have known how his subjects felt about it. He didn’t need to involve them.”

    “I think they joined on their own. The students gave them a chance to lay down their weapons.”

    “Still—”

    “Still they decided to follow their foolish Lord,” a voice from the door joins, cold and imperious, chilling you to the bone. Rhea enters the War Room, her expression void of any warmth or kindness. “There is no place for doubt. We must punish any sinner who may inflict harm upon believers, even if those sinners are civilians.”

    “And you think to have the students punish them is right?” Byleth asks, earning a sharp glare from Rhea. She quickly, but somewhat begrudgingly adds, “Your Grace.”

    “I have heard that some students struggled with completing the task,” Rhea acknowledges, doing her best to show how unaffected she is by Byleth’s criticism. “I pray they learnt a valuable lesson about the fate that awaits all who are foolish enough to point their blades towards the heavens.”

    An icy shudder crawls up your spine, cold fingers tighten around your throat to keep you silent—a leash forged of obedience and intimidation, the mistress standing before you. It would be wise to keep your mouth shut, not draw unnecessary attention; keep your head low and nothing can slice it from your shoulders. But the words, burning hot on your tongue, demand freedom.

    “Fearing the Church isn’t the same as respecting it.”

    Something sharp flashes in Rhea’s eyes. “If fear is the only way to control them, then so be it. They are traitors to the holy teachings.”

    “They are people. People with families.”

    “People who would be wise to remember it was the progenitor god who gave them these lands and their life,” Rhea answers, growing impatient. She notices something in the way you look at her, for she takes a moment to collect herself by taking a deep breath. “I do not enjoy seeing those who wronged our holy teachings punished, Herald,” she continues, now much calmer. “But punish them we must before they hurt those who are dear to us.” Upon her last words, her eyes dart to Byleth, looking at her with so much fondness and care, a sting of jealousy in your chest forces you to avert your gaze to the ground. It isn’t the first time you notice Rhea’s palpable interest in Byleth’s wellbeing though no answer comes to mind why it is like that. If Byleth noticed the same, she doesn’t show it.

    After that, the incident is quickly forgotten, making room for the new incident occupying everyone’s mind: an assassination plot on Rhea on the day of the Rite of Rebirth found in Lonato’s possession. You aren’t the only one wondering why he’d carry something like that around where it’s easy to find. Multiple theories go around, one more farfetched than the other. One particular makes sense, its source none other than sharp witted Claude who thinks this plot is a simple distraction for something much bigger.

    “If security is focused on the Rite of Rebirth inside the Goddess’ Tower, pretty much anyone can simply stroll around the monastery and do who knows what,” he told you on the day Byleth and her class set out to discover what important places might become a target. Garreg Mach hides many secrets and treasures. Some of them even you are not allowed to see like relics passed down from archbishop to archbishop, guarded by the elite of the Knights of Seiros, tall and bulky men and women with grim mouths and determined eyes rooting them in place day and night in front of locked doors only Rhea knows what they hide.

    With every passing day, tension hangs in the air like a thick blanket waiting to smother you all. But it isn’t simply the anticipation for whatever the Western Church has planned. It is also the holy ceremony of the Rite of Rebirth, one you’ve practised under the stern eyes of Seteth who doesn’t settle for anything less than perfect. Every word, every step is engraved in your mind.

    On the day of the Rite of Rebirth the sun relentlessly blazes down at the monastery. Your ceremonial robes are heavy and woven from thick jacquard fabric lined with fine golden patterns that depict the Herald’s Crest on the back. You’ve barely finished preparing everything inside the round chamber inside the Goddess’ Tower but perspiration glues your hair to your forehead.

    A whole feast is prepared; food offerings and gifts from the townsfolk and priests served on golden and silver plates on long tables covered with white table clothes. In the middle Seteth prepared a small platform for Rhea to stand and speak in honour of the goddess that she may return to Fódlan and show its people her infinite grace. In short, you’d do anything to join the students who are securing the locations lacking in defence right now instead of standing around and waving at pilgrims. The only joy lies in Flayn’s bright presence and her never ending optimism. She’s a sweet girl and has been looking forward to the ceremony since the beginning of Blue Sea Moon. Looking upon her, it is hard not to catch her excitement and joy when the ceremony finally begins.

    Because of certain circumstances you couldn’t quite follow, the holy relic used for the ceremony, the Chalice of Beginnings, has been missing for a long time. Because of that, a mock chalice was prepared by the cardinals, a handful of high authority men and women who make it no secret they can’t quite decide if they like or dislike you and your position.

    “You must excuse them,” one of the cardinals says after a group of them simply shook their heads at you happily scooping tons of food on a plate. His dark hair falls to his shoulders and unlike the other cardinals, his brown eyes are filled with kindness. “They simply think in old patterns and value their old traditions. You are quite young, Herald. They don’t know how to handle that.”

    “But you do?” you wonder and notice too late how unfriendly that sounds. But he simply laughs.

    “I do frequent with young folk, yes,” he says. “They are my flock and I will do anything to protect them.”

    “That again, Aelfric?” Catherine joins you and slaps his shoulder just when he was about to drink from his cup. You pretend the pastries on your plate are far more interesting than watching him choke on wine. “You’re way too good for them, you know?”

    “Who is ‘them?’” you ask but Catherine just sways her hand as if he wants to get rid of a nasty fly.

    “Unimportant. You did a good job carrying the chalice to the podium.”

    “I did almost trip over these.” You pluck at the heavy robes, already looking forward to getting out of them.

    Catherine laughs but it is short lived. Out of nowhere, a knight hurriedly approaches and leans over to her, muttering, “They are after the tomb of Saint Seiros.”

    Glass shatters as her grip tightens around the fragile stem but without so much as noticing it she storms towards Rhea, fury blazing in her eyes. Something happened. Something far more exciting than playing a believer in front of everyone, so you follow her to listen in more.

    “Those dastards from the Western Church infiltrated the Holy Mausoleum,” she says. Rhea pales. “I will take some knights and go there at once.”

    “Go and be swift, Catherine.” Rhea’s words are barely a puff of breath, those news shaking her but she remains stoic in front of everyone to prevent panic. Her voice drops dangerously low. “Punish those heathens.”

    Catherine’s head dips in a slight bow. “I will, Your Grace.”

    “I want to help too.”

    Both turn around at your voice. Catherine narrows her eyes to sharp slits, but it is Rhea who says, “No. I need you here for the ceremony, Herald.”

    “Please, let me,” you beg. Something inside you demands to follow, demands to see what is inside the Holy Mausoleum that causes so much bloodshed. “I can’t explain, but I need to be there.”

    Rhea presses her lips into a thin line. Before she reopens her mouth to decline your wish, you whirl around and leave the ceremony room, Catherine in hot pursuit. You manage halfway down the hallway before she reaches you and grabs your arm hard.

    “Even though you are the Herald, I won’t allow you to show this disrespect towards Her Grace,” she snarls. “If she tells you to stay, you listen.”

    “I don’t expect you to understand,” you say, trying to free your arm from her bone breaking grip. “But something calls me to this place and I need to follow it.”

    Catherine isn’t pleased but she knows better than do you any real harm. With a crude nod, she allows you to follow. Several knights wait for you and together you make your way through the warm evening air towards the Holy Mausoleum that lies behind the chapel.

    You enter right before chaos erupts. At the end of the hall, its ceiling so high up it’s barely visible in the dark, Byleth stands tall and rises a sword that flashes in a bright red light. A throb goes through your body and brings you to your knees. It feels like an arrow drove into your chest, the stinging pain unlike anything you’ve felt before—no, it’s a pain you haven’t felt since the Crest appeared on your eye for the first time. And then that thrumming energy within you exploded, a sharp crimson that drenched every corner of your right vision, rushing through your veins.

    “Kill them!” an enemy mage commands, fury fuelling him to a last desperate attack. With his remaining companions, they summon a giant fire spell you’ve only read about in books, a combination of spells into a group flame that covers a large area—the pre-stage to a much more fatal blaze that can scorch the land. Blaze or no, the effect watching the giant fire ball curling and sparking until it grows large enough to wipe out anything in its way is the same. Fear paralyses your body. Move, your mind screams, but you can’t. Your muscles have locked up; a high whine of terror fills your head and fizzes in your blood like poison, yet you do not understand where this fear of fire comes from.

    “Take cover!” Catherine roars but it is too late. The blast hits the ground right before you, dispersing your small group of reinforcements like wind scattering leaves in all directions. A loud crack beneath you makes your heart skip a beat, a rumble shakes the hall and before you can fully comprehend what is happening, the ground gives way.

    The last thing you hear is Byleth shouting, not Herald, but your name before you plunge into darkness.

    Wake up.

    You have to wake up.

    This darkness is terrifying, so utterly black and choking, curling around you like a tight fist. Like someone is holding you in their dirty, tainted clutches, smelling of death and horror. Wake up, you tell yourself, more urgent now, your mind struggling to escape from claws digging into your consciousness, their goal unknown but you don’t want to stay here to find out what they are after. What they want to take from you.

    Wake up, this time another voice, the voice, echoing like a sweet bell’s chime, the flicker of light in a darkness so black it hums. You have to wake up.

    Your eyes snap open, the sudden white ceiling hurting like a sudden flash of light. Once you’re used to the brightness, you realise this isn’t a room, this is … this is your consciousness—no walls, no windows. It’s just a space, and yet you can clearly determine borders. Somewhere is an exit you’re free to use, nothing holds you captive. It’s your safe place. Your haven. Which doesn’t explain how you’ve gotten here.

    All you know is it feels safe. It feels like a warm embrace, the feeling of hope, watching a budding flower embraced by soft, fragile hands—asteritrope, your mind provides out of nowhere, the flower always turning its head towards the Blue Star.

    It is like breaking a spell. First, everything is simply white, empty, a second later, you stand in a vast field of asteritropes, an ocean of purple, gently swaying flowers at your feet. Everything smells of sweet innocence, of honey dipped fingers and bittersweet regret. It is a familiar scent, one your body remembers and reacts to with a shudder so strong it rattles deep in your bones; a chill so cold it freezes you on the spot, the slightest movement threatening to shatter you entirely.

    What is this grief, this sadness? Is it your own or have you fallen into a sea of tears wept by someone else? Your chest is heavy with a burden, a pulling towards the unknown that is yet so familiar. It is homesickness towards a place you have never been but long to visit.

    The flowers shaped like little stars stretch beyond what you think are the edges of this place. If this is a dream, you don’t want to wake up anytime soon, relishing in this peace and quiet.

    A peace and quiet that lasts only a moment until you notice it. Not it, him. In the middle of the field, a boy sits, bent over something that demands his complete attention. Dark curls fall against pale skin, his brows pulled tightly together as his fingers work something in his lap. He is wearing a simple white robe, though it is unlike any of the religious wear you've seen on the priests and nuns; it seem ... too old for that. Only after you approach, you see he is folding purple flowers and green steams into a crown.

    “Hello?” you say, only now entertaining the idea you might have died and this is the afterlife, the first point before returning to the goddess’ side. It is a strangely tranquil thought. “Can you hear me?”

    The boy’s head snaps up, his eyes wide as he momentarily forgets his work, and you take a step back, struck by how bright his steel grey eyes are. They roam over you, up and down, back up again, as he slowly raises to his feet.

    “You’re here,” he says, awestruck. “You’re finally here. It is so nice to meet you after all this time.”

    His voice is like a punch to your gut. You recognise it immediately, the voice who pulled you back from the darkness.

    “You—” Nothing makes sense. “Who are you? What are you?”

    “There is nothing to fear,” he says, offering you his hand. The tips of his fingers are purple from handling delicate petals. The crown lies at his bare feet, forgotten. He looks strangely vulnerable.

    You take another step back, worry a steady, hard pulse against your neck. The air catches in your lungs. You feel like the ground is opening beneath your feet. “Are you … the goddess? A god?”

    The boy blinks, then throws his head back and bursts out laughing, the sound like sweet bells chiming in the wind. “You people love to call everything you do not understand god.”

    “Then what are you?” It comes out as a breath, and for a brief second you think it’s fear that seizes your body, but no. You should be afraid and yet instead of frenzy panic there is a calm spreading inside you as if you belong here. You can’t say if it’s the boy’s presence or the familiar scent of wildflowers.

    The boy leans his head to the side, his smile as vibrant as early sunlight casting away leftover shadows from a dark night. “Hmmm … the End, perhaps? Or why not just … a friend?”

    “The end? My end?”

    “No, the end is never simply the end,” he says, shaking his head.

    “Is that supposed to reassure me?”

    “It may be a rebirth,” he continues. “Or the passing into a new era. Into a new dawn.”

    “A new dawn,” you mumble. The realisation makes your knees weak. “Don’t tell me—” You suck in a sharp breath, unable to belief where your thoughts are hurling towards in lightning speed. You kneel onto the soft flowerbed, careful not to crush any flowers. “Why are we here … do you know me by chance?”

    “I … cannot say for sure,” he starts slowly, uncertainty turning his features even younger. “I have been watching you since you awoke four moons ago. On that day, I as well awoke from a deep slumber. But I do not know why it is you that I am bound to.”

    “Bound to?” Your head spins. “What do you mean?”

    “You must have felt it by now, have you not? I am here because of this,” he says, and lifts his hand to point at your right eye. You flinch back as if he smacked you right across your face.

    “So you are him,” you whisper, a shudder ripping through your body. “You’re the first Herald. You are Seiros’ Champion.”

    The boy smiles.

[violashe]

Interview

Dear Lonato,

I am writing to inform you that I made it! I have safely arrived at The Officers Academy. The journey went smoothly, without any unpleasant incidents along the way, and for that I am most thankful.

I am, naturally, also forever grateful to you for giving me the chance to enroll in this school and learn everything that I can to hopefully, someday, become a knight that can serve the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus well. Perhaps the kind of valiant, brave, honorable and powerful knight I have read about in many tales and books in your library is a goal beyond my ability, but it is nevertheless what I have in mind and shall strive towards.

How else can I repay you for everything you have done for me and my little siblings? You are the reason we were able to get anywhere in life, after all. Even more than that… I dare say that were it not for your kindness, we would not be alive today. If you had not taken pity on me that day six years ago, I would have likely been either killed or locked up in whatever institution handles juvenile criminals... and then Ailen and Darya would have no doubt starved to death. I shudder merely writing these words.

For this reason and more, rest assured that I will do everything within my might and ability to meet your expectations, as well as those of the Academy and my peers. Especially if my House leader is to be Prince Dimitri, heir to the throne himself! I admit I am a little nervous thinking about it, but I shall simply treat it as extra motivation to try my best.

Certainly, I can learn all sorts of useful skills here, combat or otherwise. I doubt that the ability to steal things is a desirable one here. Actually, I kind of hope it is not. Though I suppose being agile and quick on my feet will come in handy, will it not? I am not particularly gifted in the arts of magic or heavy armor, though naturally if it is required of me to practice in those fields as well, I shall do what I can not to disappoint. A sword, a light axe, a bow in my hand… those I think I can handle best. But I’m willing to do anything! Any and all abilities might be of use to a knight, after all, and maybe I will discover some hidden talents in me.

And yes, I know, you have already told me many times not to do everything on my own. I am aware that I have this unfortunate tendency to try to do that. I promise not to spread myself too thin. I still want to become the best I can be so that I may help as many people as possible… but I know that I have to learn to leave things to others sometimes. I swear I have taken your words to heart, and that you need not worry about me.

Do you think it overly ambitious and idealistic of me to have taken the perfect knights from our tales as my role model and the goal I have set for myself? I do not know if I will ever be able to achieve this kind of skill and glory, no matter how hard I try… And I am not sure if a great legendary knight is an image that would ever match me, anyway… But I still want to become someone Faerghus can be proud of. Maybe someday my name will deserve being listed among the knights of His Highness. That would be wonderful, I think. I hope that this dream and this ambition I have for myself is something you, too, can be happy for. After all - the heroes of our land’s stories are one thing, but you are my role model as well, and I will exert myself to ensure I do not disappoint you.

Please give Ailen and Darya the news of my safe arrival at the Academy. I hope they do not worry for me and do not cause any trouble for you. I shall keep you posted about my progress on a regular basis.

May the Goddess watch over all of you.

Ashe

[cursedfodlantexts]

Isn't there also a power imbalance that a number of the students could have Byleth executed at any time? Like yes they say they won't use their social rank in the school but it is a fact that they could do it without consequences

my brain is at half power atm because im trying to draw some art but sure ill entertain this stupid thought more than i have to

first of all why are you even trying to bother defending shipping a 21yo with 15-17yo’s. quite disgusting of you! 

second of all, just because a character holds a different kind of power doesnt mean theyre equal. the game doesnt even try to make the lords use their powers over byleth. the lords never once question byleth’s commands, even if their way of teaching is sending a bunch of kids straight onto the battle field with as minimal direction as possible where they can actually possibly die. so, actually, even if you want to discard the grooming factor, both the lords and byleth can equally kill the other. 

this point doesnt cover the students who arent or cant act on their nobility. ashe was raised by lonato but that doesnt give him any right to kill byleth without question. mercedes was adopted into a royal family but we know how that turned out for her. annette is the daughter of a knight of seiros but she holds no power over byleth. lysithea barely has hold on her land and is the last of her family’s name, she holds no such power over byleth. bernadetta pretty much cant enact anything under her name because her parents are the actual worst. duke aegir tried to do whatever he wanted and he was killed by his people, who would let ferdinand execute byleth without consequences. cyril cant hold power over byleth for the most fucking obvious reasons. i could fucking go on but i think my made my point here.

you’re also bringing this up under the assumption that the developers even bothered to take this into account. none of the nobles are even in their territory to take such an action. garreg mach monastery is canonically politically neutral ground, no one territory holds power over the other here. their power is relinquished to the school, to the church. the only people who hold actual power while theyre in class is the knights of seiros, rhea, seteth, hanneman, manuela, and (who wouldve guessed!) byleth. 

and to get this through your thick skull, lets compare this to a hypothetical but possible real life situation. lets say theres this private school, most of the students here are the children of politicians or some other higher standing jobs. lets say the student in question is the child of a cop. cops are corrupt, they frequently get away with murder because of their corrupt system. say this kid (lets go with around 17 years old) supposedly has the ability to kill their teacher (lets go with around 23 years old, the youngest teacher ive ever had), because of their parents job. does this make it okay for the teacher to groom their student? does this make their relationship equally balanced in power? Not even in the slightest. 

now do me a favor and fuck off, dont try to defend byleth/student on my blog ever again. 

[extremepineapple2]

After I discussed the problems with the Black Eagle and Golden Deer house composition, I thought about what would have been better. This is all assuming that I cannot make new students and have to use the pre-existing ones. I think that Blue Lions is great as is, but in the interests of making all of the houses better, some of the blue lions will be moved.

To do this, I looked at theming, how likely the characters would stay with the country of the house they started in and/or how much interesting drama could ensue. While at the same time making sure house has the same amount of students (8).

I do personally think that most (not all) students should still not be able to side with Edelgard, and you instead get more exclusive units in CF like Ladislava, Randolph, etc.

Black Eagles:

Edelgard

Hubert

Dorothea

Leonie: Commoner Leonie definitely has gripes with the nobility, including thinking they tax her village too much. She’s perhaps the most poor student. She’s a self-starter who wants to rise on her own talent. Natural fit for the supposed meritocracy of Edelgard. She doesn’t really belong anywhere else but Black Eagles. Not even Blue Lions - a mercenary is different theming than a knight. The fact that a slither kills her idol, Jeralt, makes for drama.

Mercedes: Has suffered from nobles, and her religiosity could also make for some interesting dynamics with Edelgard’s atheism. There’s also the obvious ties to Jeritza. Assuming she can side with Edelgard, her friendship with Annette should have to cause some drama, otherwise it should be removed.

Lysithea: See Marianne, except without the religion. Extra drama comes from the fact that Edelgard worked with the people who tortured Lysithea. The fact the actual game never addresses this in the supports is beyond stupid.

Lorenz. In the Golden Deer route, Lorenz served as a reminder of the arrogance of the nobles. However, since the route isn’t actually about that, I believe he is misplaced. Lorenz is the most nobility obsessed character in the game besides Edelgard, so the dynamic would be interesting in a route where Edelgard supposedly wants to get rid of the nobility system. He also already sides with Edelgard in non-GD unless re-recruited.

Sylvain: Other than being the childhood friend of Dimitri, Felix, and Ingrid, there wasn’t a ton of going for Sylvain in Blue Lions theming. His thing with girls is directly related to the nobility and crest system, and then there’s what happened with Miklan. Assuming he can side with Edelgard, his friendship with Dimitri, Felix and Ingrid should have to cause some drama, otherwise it should be removed.

This puts Black Eagles at a total of 3 commoners, the most out of any of these modified house compositions.

Golden Deer:

Claude

Hilda

Dedue: This was a painful choice to make, and I made it mostly because Ignatz [and Raphael] doesn’t fit anywhere besides Blue Lions (I honestly don’t think the merchant thing is that imporant in GD theming). The other part is that Dedue is “foreign.“ In this hypothetical, he might be devoted to Claude instead.

Petra: She already has supports with Claude, and Petra would be able to give an additional foreigner prospective. She would fit easily in the narrative about racism and closed borders in Fodlan. Move Brigid’s location closer to the alliance.

Linhardt: Linhardt’s desire to learn the truth about crests, but not actually disliking crests, makes him a good fit for Golden Deer’s truth seeking. He also has a lack of nationalism, which seemingly fits in Alliance culture and Claude’s aims. It also means he wouldn’t be impressed by Edelgard’s nationalism herself.

Caspar: See his supports with Shamir: He feels guilty that his father had fought against Dagda. This fits into the foreign relation/racism theme of Golden Deer. This is basically capitalizing on the most interesting part of Caspar, because other than that is basically dumb guy who wants to fight.

Ferdinand: One big reason is that he already has supports with Petra, a character who definitely does not belong in Black Eagles. And those supports have to do with understanding foreign culture and warfare. Another reason is that there would be too much overlap between Lorenz and Ferdinand in the same house. In addition, while Ferdinand’s pride may have gotten on some people’s nerves (people who love Edelgard primarily?), I don’t think he was nearly as good an example of arrogant nobles as Lorenz was.

Ashe: Already has A supports with Petra and Dedue, showcasing Ashe’s interest/tolerance in foreign cultures. In addition, what happened to Lonato has a lot to do with the church lying about Lonato’s son. This fits into the Golden Deer’s theming about finding the truth about the church.

Blue Lions

Dimitri

Ingrid

Felix

Annette

Raphael: There’s not much to Raphael, but what is there is his desire to become a knight to help those who cares about, which absolutely does fit into Blue Lions theming. He doesn’t have a lot to say about racism/nationalism/crests/church/nobles, (other than not caring about that shit) so he’s not a good fit in the other houses. He also already has a support with Dimitri (and Ingrid).

Ignatz: Ignatz’ conflict about whether to become a knight to support his family or follow his dreams fits into Blue Lions. He feels guilty over what happened to his family, much like Dimitri, Ingrid and Felix. He also already has more supports with Blue Lions than he does Black Eagles.

Bernadetta: Bernadetta is not bad a pick to remain in Black Eagles as she suffered at the hands of nobles, but as I prioritize students who I could actually believe might be willing to fight on the side of the house they start in, Bernadetta ultimately does not belong there. What I could believe is if she had to fight, ie. in self-defense if her country got invaded by an aggressor (which happens to Faerghus). Thematically, Bernadetta is closed off due to her past, much like the rest of the Blue Lions. She also already has more supports with the Blue Lions than she does the Golden Deer.

Marianne: See Bernadetta. Marianne is also religious, fitting into the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. She also already has an A support with Dimitri and has more supports with Blue Lions than Black Eagles.

[withlove-so]

Okay so... Christoph and Catherine were classmates and friends back when Catherine went by Cassandra... And Christoph was a Good Big Bro who took his new little brother fishing and stuff and loved him Very Much... Could I get... Christoph talking to Catherine/Cassandra about how his dad just adopted this little thief and his siblings and he wants to get the kid to trust him?

I have no self control, but I really love this concept

Also, I wasn’t sure if you meant like hc’s or some other such thing, so I just made a little one shot, it spoke to me the best!

— — — —

When they first entered the Officers Academy, the pair was quick at becoming friends. First it was sparing partners so they could “see who was stronger” then it was a fishing contest because “I bet I can catch a bigger fish than you!” then eating together since “I know I can eat more than you!” And, well, you see where this is going. Every moment was spent together, whether or not they were competing. The pair was inseparable, and they knew everything about each other.

“Cassandra, do you have any siblings?”

Almost everything.

“Siblings? No I can’t say that I’ve got any. But haven’t I already told you this?” Christophe did tend to be a bit scatterbrained at times, so she simply assumed he’d forgotten.

“Well, yes, but, you know things can change. One moment you’re an only child, the next you’re a bro-” he cut himself off and cleared his throat before continuing, “you’ve got some baby sibling.”

Cassandra wasn’t going to just straight up tell him he was wrong, but his statement was just so strange. Since when did he even care about siblings, he hasn’t got any either! Curiosity got the better of her, she just had to know.

“Christophe, have you got some secret sibling you’ve been hiding from me? Cause if you have, that’s one hell of a secret to keep, ha! How have you been managing that!” She tried to keep her question light in tone, but even then it didn’t seem to calm his nerves. At her question, he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, avoiding her gaze.

“I mean... I wouldn’t say ‘hid him’ per say. Or I guess ‘hid them’- but ah, that’s not the point. Um, well you see-” Christophe’s attempts at explaining the situation were messy at best. It seems like he barely understood the situation himself. But by the Goddess, what was Lord Lonato thinking? Taking in some boy, a theif at that, into his family! He had nearly robbed him, and he decides its a good idea to keep him?

“Christophe, that’s dangerous! What if they boy robs you blind, or even killed your father!”

“No, no! He’s just a kid, I can’t imagine he’s any older than 9 or 10 years old. And his brother and sister are even younger than him! They looked to be in pretty bad shape too... I would rather he stole all our possession if it meant father didn’t kick him back onto the streets.”

Christophe really is kind to a fault. One of these days it’s going to get him killed. But, she supposed she was just going to have to make sure it never got to that point.

“Why’re you worried about all this anyways? You sound like you’re more than happy with him there, what’s the problem?”

“There isn’t really a problem more so that he’s,” he took a moment, slightly chewing on his nail from the nerves, “it’s just that he doesn’t seem to trust me. Or father really, despite us taking him in. And, honestly, I don’t know what to do.” Damn, this kid really has the Gaspard family wrapped about his finger, didn’t he? He’s only been in their home for a few days, and Christophe is already worried about him!

Cassandra let out a little chuckle that seemed to only heighten Christophe’s worries, “Cassandra please! I’m being serious for once, I really want him to like me. This kid has had it so hard, and I want to help him, but how can I when he won’t even talk to me?”

“It’s simple. You’re over thinking this way too much. You said that this little boy, Ashe right? You said that Ashe liked that book he tried to steal from you right? Well, he’s gotta think something of Knights right?”

“Well, I suppose so. How does that help-”

“Gods, do I have to spell everything out for you? You’re a knight! Just tell him about knighthood and teach him some combat techniques. He doesn’t have to talk for you to do that anyways.”

“Cassandra he’s 9!”

“And?”

“AND I won’t do that! Training him, that just seems kinda extreme.” It seemed even having that conversation taken a few years off his life. It was almost like he didn’t like her advice! After taking a moment to gather his thoughts, he continued, “Maybe I could take him fishing. Like you said, he doesn’t have to talk to go fishing, and I can show him the ropes. Plus, it’s not dangerous.”

His gaze looked so soft when he spoke about that boy. She hadn’t seen him look like that in so long... perhaps he’ll be good for Christophe.

“Hey, Toph?”

“Yea?”

“... You should take me with you. I’d like to meet the boy who’s made you such a sap!”

“Heh, so I’m a sap now? If you can beat me in a sparring match, then we’ll see! But I’ll make sure Ashe becomes such a great fisherman, you won’t even be able to combat him!”

“I’d like to see him try. You’re on!”

[langwrites]

Lang Plays Fire Emblem: Three Houses

So a while ago I said I was planning on playing the story routes in this order: Blue Lions, Black Eagles, Church of Seiros, and then Golden Deer.

The Golden Deer made a liar out of me.

So, here’s an approximation of What Happened During Verdant Wind.

So many spoilers below the cut, you guys. I do a lot of route comparisons.

Okay, I’ve been staring at the “which house do you want” selection screen for an embarrassing amount of time.

This shouldn’t be hard. I had a plan.

But no.

I clicked the Golden Deer, just like that. What the fuck, Claude. I blame you.

Immediately upon talking to this rop of students again, I can feel the difference in the social group from what the Lions were like. The latter were really a bunch of noble kids around their prince, and they felt really tight-knit. Classic Fire Emblem starter crew.

The Golden Deer is the fucking Scooby Gang.

First impressions of individuals:

Raphael, thank goodness, is the one character who absolutely has his shit in order. Sure, he’s bad at book work and thinks everything comes down to MUSCLES, but all of his emotional issues are handled by the time he arrives at Garreg Mach. He’s the brightest of sunshines.

Ignatz needs some more confidence in his art, and also I want to see his painting of Seiros. Now, if only both of his offensive stats and growths weren’t incredibly bad.

I was so close to making him my dancer. Just because he sure as hell wasn’t gonna be useful anywhere else.

Lorenz! I don’t like him. His haircut is a monstrosity.

Leonie! We are going. To be. Besties. Even though the timing of your support conversations are incredibly bad.

Marianne no please don’t be sad everyone loves you

Hilda is the greatest enabler I have ever seen. By which I mean she enables other people to do all her work for her.

Lysithea is going to have the last word with God. And especially he Death Knight.

And finally Claude! Teamwork makes the dream work, so obviously meme work does the same.

I’m sorry.

PRE-TIMESKIP

Mock battle! Marianne’s great and I love her and also the only healer oh god.

OKAY. I have access to New Game+ bonuses. What do I do first?

Immediately crank the Professor Level stat to max to avoid ever having to run short of activity points again.

Next, raise all skills I can’t easily get to at least Rank D+. HEAVY ARMOR IN PARTICULAR.

Third: Boost supports with people whose support ranks are an absolute pain in the ass to earn. Lookin’ at you, Rhea.

Also, put glasses on Byleth (named “Yuri” for this playthrough). Glasses are the bomb. I am the evil genius.

LEVEL GRINDING TIME.

It’s a lot harder with Blacksmith access being story-locked, but I can do this!

As a direct result, every single battle after this point is a complete curbstomp in my favor. Because the grind don’t stop.

I broke a lot more weapons than last time, though.

I will befriend Leonie and Ferdinand if it’s the last fucking thing I do. I will befriend everyone, and I will not get timeskip-locked out of supports! >:(

Ferdinand was my first recruit. Oh dear.

Okay, there are like five born cavaliers in this game. Leonie, Ferdinand, Lorenz, Sylvain, and I guess Dimitri if you’re on the right route.

Last time, Sylvain was a great paladin and a decent Dark Knight before he started getting one- or two-stat level ups for like thirty levels. Similarly, Dimitri was great until all his ultra-secret-awesome promotions didn’t use a fucking horse.

Contrast Leonie who, despite sitting out 99% of the game out of spite from me getting locked out of her support chain, went to endgame with a ten-level deficit and still rocked.

Ferdinand didn’t count since I failed to recruit him last time and he died. These two facts are directly related.

I didn’t use Lorenz at all; I recruited him to keep from having to kill him later.

This time, Lorenz straight-up sucks, Sylvain did the terrible level dance for like the entire game, and Dimitri’s not recruitable.

Contrast, again, Leonie. Her support chain with the player character is hot garbage, but she plowed through most of the game as a mainstay of my team and made it to Bow Knight first out of anyone.

Bernadetta and Ashe as Bow Knights don’t even come close to being as durable as she is, except for Ashe’s absolutely bananas Resistance. 29?! WHY?!

And Ferdinand is also awesome. His only real weak point is Resistance, but he doesn’t need it. He dodge-tanks everything, is faster than Leonie, and has two Saints’ relics he unknowingly stole from Seteth.

He still talks in MLA format, though.

I started putting off recruiting people so I wouldn’t have to level-grind them up to par with the rest of my team.

But if these people wanna join, of course I’m saying yes.

Lord Lonato’s rebellion and Miklan yoinking the Lance of Ruin feel way less relevant on a Golden Deer playthrough than on a Blue Lions one. None of the Herd really know who the hell these people are.

I say that despite having already recruited Sylvain for this playthrough and deploying him in the relevant level. He wasn’t treated as there by the game’s preamble cutscenes.

At least the Holy Mausoleum stuff feels more...handled? Claude actually asks questions about rebellion and about the “assassination plot,” where Dimitri didn’t really.

OKAY SO there’s this whole plot thing where Flayn goes missing for a month. With the Blue Lions, this is handled like a manhunt. Dimitri’s seriousness about the issue rubs off on everyone except Sylvain, and Felix actually correctly identifies the culprit almost instantly. He doesn’t know he’s done it, though, because basically everyone is just throwing out accusations. Manuela is the real MVP.

CONTRAST THE DEER. The very first meeting reads like a Scooby Doo episode, when they’re piling up clues and throwing out suggestions like the gang of goofball teenagers they are. Claude’s got this group running like Persona 4′s Investigation Team. None of them are jaded or frantic, they’re just doing this.

Why did Rhea entrust the investigation to a herd of teenagers.

Anyway, the rest proceeds as usual.

I don’t know why the game tries to drop the same set of hints for each route. “OoooowoooooOOOOoooo, your house leader might be the FLAME EMPEROR.”

The Flame Emperor wears heels. And is still too short to be either Claude or Dimitri. Especially Dimitri. Who the fuck let this kid get so tall.

The only real result of all this bullshit is that my wyvern-riding sniper of doom is not available during the first map where Yuri personally beat the Death Knight into the ground.

Which, by the by, was hilariously cathartic.

It doesn’t exactly matter, since the only unit who can make real use of the Dark Mage and Dark Bishop classes is unrecruitable, but bragging rights.

Remire Village’s drama is about as bad while playing as the Golden Deer. One of the foreshadowing cutscenes, though is excellent:

Claude actually finds a book that depicts The Immaculate One before its debut, only to have it confiscated by Seteth and learn that it wasn’t a library book at all; it belonged to “Tomas.” Like, all of his suspicions--which he shares with the player--start lining up. Censorship! Monsters! Sword of the Creator! What the hell is going on here??

Dimitri’s version of the cutscene involves him being caught investigating Lord Arundel by the player and Sothis. Which--since his route doesn’t meaningfully deal with the Morlocks faction aside from steamrolling them as incidental opponents--seems kinda useless.

Kicked the Death Knight into submission again out of spite.

Sylvain was useful! Mostly because I had him sit there and distract the incidentals while Claude and Lysithea cleaned house, but still!

Claude is the only lord character who seems to understand that the transforming Morlock faction probably needs to be taken more seriously. For the remainder of Part One, no one does so.

Rhea you’ve got some ‘splainin to do.

Marianne’s my team’s dancer this time. She’s a sweetheart. She seemed happy to be asked and to pursue the lessons, and being able to use Physic is a good trait in someone who’s nearly always going to be waaaaay behind the rest of the group.

Dad-stabbing happened.

Again.

Boop boop Solon’s dead.

Again.

Dear diary: I learned the definition of irony and set the Flame Emperor on fire.

I kid.

But Claude took her out in one completely overpowered shot, because crits are a thing, Flame Emperor class skills don’t reduce damage enough to survive it, and his Dex stat is through the fucking roof. And he was on a wyvern at the time because fuck it, why not.

Claude’s reaction to all of this is a minor letdown compared to the fully-rendered cutscene in the last route.

This would become something of a trend--taking out OP bosses with unexpected critical hits.

I didn’t expect to like Lorenz and now I do. How.

This is hilarious simply because he seems to be the only character that Mercedes hates. What the fuck, man.

Once again, Edelgard invades! Once again, I drop someone unexpected on her head!

Not really. It was Yuri.

Yuri does the timeskip shuffle and we’ll see everyone again after a nap.

FIVE YEARS LATER.

Aw, Claude was waiting for Yuri to show up. Adorable.

The post-meetup fight is actually harder than it was in the BL route, despite excessive level-grinding. This is due to three factors:

Claude is automatically on a wyvern, meaning that he has inherent class vulnerability to archers on a map with at least five of them. And less range than they did, for some fucking reason.

Lorenz and Ignatz started out on the same corner of the map and both of them are shitty offensive units who could barely kill a mage between them. (Neither of Ignatz’s offensive stats cracked 20 for another thirteen levels.)

I don’t have Ashe and his personal skill Locktouch, and nobody started with a Chest Key or Door Key, which meant I had to keep various enemies alive long enough to steal all of their stuff. And the enemy item drops came up one short of the number of chests on the map. I want my stuff, dammit.

LET’S MAKE A SCENE.

Randolph, as a boss in Verdant Wind, did not get any better at figuring out when he’s outmatched. Therefore, I killed him with Raphael again.

At least he straight-up died this time.

Claude didn’t even get to set the damn place on fire.

Ingrid is turning out to be way better of a unit this time than she was last time. She’s a little slower, but a lot stronger.

FELIX, WHERE THE FUCK WAS ALL THIS STRENGTH HIDING LAST TIME. YOU’RE TEN POINTS AHEAD OF THE GUY WHO HAS STORY-BASED SUPER STRENGTH.

AND SPEED.

Iiiiiiiiit’s JUDITH!

She only shows up on one map in the entire Azure Moon route, and that’s a damn shame. She’s so cool in Verdant Wind.

A lord-class character who isn’t also a Lord! WOO!

Also her spies are better than anybody’s apparently.

I am choosing to believe that because Ingrid’s family is related to Judith’s, her badassery in this route is the direct result of meeting her distant cousin and absorbing badass radiation.

There’s something funny about having to pull one over on Lorenz’s dad to get anything done. The Great Bridge falls not to power, but Claude baiting Count Gloucester’s entire army to be somewhere else. (FEAR THE DEER.)

As a result, Ladislava dies alone. (As opposed to taking Ferdinand with her due to plot shenanigans.)

Lysithea and Ferdinand’s paralogue was really quite sad, for all that the only named guy who died was deeply unsympathetic. Ferdinand’s dad was an asshole, but he wasn’t the asshole for this particular scenario, and now both of his parents are gone. :(

Felix...hasn’t heard from his dad in a while. Worrying.

Oh, and Caspar’s uncle is still dead, in case we were keeping track of that.

Dorothea’s happier with Ferdinand alive. She did an impression of the Gatekeeper. :3

Gronder Field! FUCK.

I delayed playing this chapter for two solid days because I already knew what was gonna happen. Specifically: Edelgard gets injured and evacuated, and Dimitri drops of exhaustion just in time to get run through like ten times by the Emperor’s rearguard.

I eventually got my shit together enough to do the thing.

Marianne, Raphael, and Ferdinand went after the Kingdom army first. Leonie and Felix hung back and then reinforced them after taking out the archer on the central hill.

Claude killed everyone in the center of the map, which meant Edelgard set the entire hill on fire and if Bernadetta had not been recruited she would’ve burned to death there on the spot.

Ahem.

I sent Yuri to clear the entire left side of the map by herself.

She succeeded.

Raphael KO’d Dimitri with a luck Gauntlet crit, got blasted down to half health by a Warlock, then plunked ineffectually at Dedue until Marianne used her Levin Sword to sort him out.

Ferdinand killed everyone else on that side of the map.

Claude once again got the kill on Edelgard with a lucky crit, after Yuri had killed everyone else (up to and including the Demonic Beasts) single-handedly.

And then the plot moved on. Hilda’s account of Dimitri’s death was awful, Dedue’s reaction was worse, and off we go to punch Edelgard’s teeth in.

Again.

Annette’s dad is probably dead now.

Felix’s, too.

(I THOUGHT WE WERE DONE WITH THE DAD-STABBING.)

FOOOOOORT MERCEUS.

No matter how many times I think about it, Claude’s Almyran army reinforcements only make so much sense. How the hell and fuck did he manage to sneak an entire foreign army across a whole country to help with one battle?

But hey, they’re here, and Claude almost admitted the reason why he could do that. And the arrow greeting between him and Nader was cool.

(Spoiler: On top of being the Alliance’s leader, he’s also the crown prince of Almyra!)

The Death Knight had the gall to run from my army.

Yuri punched his ticket for the third time, which was not the charm.

And then Fort Merceus took an intercontinental ballistic missile and suddenly defeating the fort’s garrison feels a lot less triumphant.

Spot the miscolored eyes in this cutscene!

Welp. Fuck it, we’re off to Enbarr. Time to also punch Hubert this time! What a change of pace.

Eyyy, it’s the Enbarr map. I totally forgot to bring Seteth and Flayn along to check out the opera house, despite a whole bunch of characters talking about how they totally wanted to check that place out at some point. No room for deadweights in a map that has SO MANY ARCHERS.

Managed to get the special dialogue between Ferdinand and Hubert, and now I’m sad again.

Killed Hubert with Claude.

And because this is a two-part map, we immediately run off to chase down Edelgard. Due to the player army not doing a really weird 180 in the middle of the plot to kick Cornelia out of Fhirdiad, she didn’t have time to turn into a giant demonic thing! She just has WAY TOO MANY MAGES.

Strategy: Forget what Door Keys are, split the team by Avoid rating, and go to town.

Claude nearly died thanks to a critical mass of Gremories and Mortal Savants (and still, what the fuck is that name), but Dedue-as-guest-character didn’t, so I count that as a win! His defense was so high that the Giant Demonic Beast couldn’t even scratch him.

Claude, Petra, and Ingrid all having Alert Stance as a skill means dodge-tanking is hilariously easy.

Also, Ingrid was supposed to just take a chunk out of Edelgard’s HP bar for the final assault and ended up crit-killing her on the first attack. With a bog-standard silver lance.

Weird as the situation turned out, I guess that means one of Dimitri’s friends really did avenge him after saying they would. Even if Dedue was the only one who had a special cutscene about it.

We rescued Rhea! And the characters being happy about it doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. I want answers, same as Claude, and being forced to RP Yuri being oh so worried about Rhea’s safety felt incredibly disingenuous.

Claude actually yells at her over the “...” she seems to think is an explanation. THE TIME FOR SECRETS IS PAST.

WHY DID ALL THIS SHIT HAPPEN.

WE’VE BEEN AT WAR FOR FIVE YEARS.

A WHOLE BUNCH OF PEOPLE DIED HORRIBLY FOR BASICALLY NOTHING.

Incidentally, this is why I didn’t end up playing Edelgard’s route as planned. Her logic for kicking two other sovereign countries in the balls felt incredibly self-centered.

At least Catherine’s happy. Same with Alois and the rest of the Church crew.

They are soon going to be not as happy.

I’m filling out the ENTIRE support log before endgame. I have absolutely no idea what characters are going to end up together as a direct result.

The last conversation? Seteth and Manuela’s A+ support!

Because so many of the support conversations are romantic at A/A+ level, I guess we’ve managed to turn this ragtag army into a polyarmory.

Oh boy, Thales sure is a sore loser.

I say, as though I didn’t kill EVERYONE he knew over the course of an hour and also split his skull open under Seteth’s axe. His racism would have keeled his ass over before death set in.

That sure is a ICBM.

GOD DAMMIT RHEA, THERE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A Q&A SESSION AFTER THIS.

WHY DOES EVERYONE WHOSE JOB IS EXPOSITION UP AND DIE.

Meanwhile: THE UBER-DEAD PEOPLE.

Claude, your route is batshit. What is this genre anymore?!

I wanna point out that, despite seeing Rhea/Seiros do the dragon thing, the player character never told Claude what the fuck that was about. I feel like one of the first things I would have done after the class reunion would be going, “By the by, did anyone else notice the fucking dragon?!”  WHO IS ALSO THE POPE???

Bah.

ANYWAY. Looooong-overdue exposition time!

I notice that Rhea didn’t out Seteth or Flayn, which was nice of her.

Claude, she can turn into a fucking dragon. I don’t think immortality is that far from being plausible.

GOD DAMMIT NEMESIS, CAN YOU FUCK OFF FOR TEN MORE MINUTES.

Uuuuuuugh fine, fuck everything, I’m putting your head on a pike.

CLAUDE, THE SWORD OF THE CREATOR LOOKS LIKE A SPINE.

OF COURSE IT’S MADE OF BONES. A BUNCH OF THE HEROES’ RELICS MOVE ON THEIR OWN!

The frantic music is not helping.

Time to kill a bandit king.

“My flabber is completely gasted by now.” Okay, that made me laugh.

Nemesis’s boss mechanic is pretty neat. To kill him at all, you need to kill all of the minibosses in the level and take down his friendship-based-plot-armor.

Or it would be, if I didn’t already make a habit of steamrolling everyone else on the field before tackling the boss at the end.

CUTSCENE.

Cutscene lesson: “Fuck honor duels.” It’s time for CHAIN SWORD LIMBO.

Claude, your bow shoots LASERS. SINCE WHEN.

Also getting kicked across the field by a dude twice his size didn’t seem to actually affect his mood much.

Awww, Yuri smiles now. Adorable. :D

AND THAT’S A WRAP.

Pairings: Yuri/Sothis (mostly to get them out of the way and see what everyone else would do), Claude/Petra, Raphael/Marianne, Catherine/Shamir, Lorenz/Mercedes, Ashe/Annette, Felix/Sylvain (bad end; the former straight up disappears), Seteth & Flayn wander off, Manuela/Dorothea, Lysithea/Linhardt (again), Leonie/Ignatz, Ferdinand/Bernadetta, Caspar/Hilda, and a couple of people are alone. Cyril gets to actually be a student after the story’s done, though!

Whew, that was fun. Gonna mix up the pairs a bit next time I play through the endgame and see what happens.

[randomnameless]

Finished AM !

So...

Crazed!Edel doesn’t have line with the dragons, just like Myson (whose Hell doesn’t summon naked women).

Too bad, Myson’s calling us beasts, but is he calling the humans following Seiros’ beasts or just, humans in general, or in “us”, the guys following Billy who isn’t really human??

I don’t even know if Edel was conscious after reverting, she smiled when she tried to throw the dagger at Dimitri so... Was she still seeing him as an enemy, why smiling? idk.

The scene where she dies was anticlimatic as fuck so...

Dimitri tries to return to the throne where her remains lay, but Billy urges him to press forward and meet cheering randoms, it felt nice, thematically speaking - Dimitri shouldn’t be tied by the past anymore, he has to be a king for the people living right now.

When Myson died, everyone escaped, it was funny. The Agarthans are totally not dead, they’ll just wait another millenia to stir up trouble, I guess.

Edel was totally a pawn to them. Too bad for her who loves being in control. Funny how she attacks with the power of Flames and the power of Seiros, it wasn’t on purpose, i’m sure, but she never managed to touch Seteth and Flayn with her “Seiros” attack^^ They know the real deal, Seiros doesn’t attack with magic, she uses her fists

Rhea’s supposedly fine, even if I suppose she must be bothered by Catherine and Caspar constant fighting (is it really fighting though) in Zanado.

Gilbert looks after Dimitri’s kid, Flayn opens a restaurant with Dedue, Billy the new archbishop is married to Mercedes who is a nun...

Raphael and Bernie ended up together it was... refreshing.

Sylvain and Ingrid’s kids don’t have any emblem which is a pretty roundabout way of avoiding Jugdral genetics about determining which crest the kids are supposed to inherit (and also provides a non-answer to the question “can someone with two crests occur naturally if two crested people were to have a child”).

Felix and Dorothea fight side by side (lolwut) and she ultimately makes an opera.

Annette and Ashe ended up together, again, it wasn’t expected but it felt nice (two cinnamon rolls together?).

As for AM as a route...

Well, it’s not a secret that I am fond of the Nabatean/Reptile interactions, and the game doesn’t give us any, save for SS.

AM felt more like the classical FE, even if Dimitri’s boarness was a... welcomed change? Still felt forced though, especially the supposed atrocities he commited and the blood on his hands - it’s weighing a lot on his psyche afterwards, but what are we talking about?

For sure, we don’t see Dimitri torturing someone to death (Billy’s here to prevent that) and we don’t see Dimitri pulling a Leif and sending half of his army to death (even if Leif wasn’t fueled with negative emotions/sent his army to have his revenge).

The choice between routing Edel or saving the people from Cornelia also felt forced, I pointed out FE9 earlier, but FE8 wise, the real turning point when Ephraim starts to accept his duties as the King is when he returns to Renais, not when he kills Vigarde in Grado.

So it made sense for Dimitri to go to Firdiad (i will never get this spelling correctly :’() when he starts to become King Dimitri - but Boar!Dimitri wanted Edel’s head the most. But even if Dimitri takes responsability for things that weren’t his fault to begin with (as a king i should have protected my subjects?) people in Firdiad being miserable is first and foremost due to Cornelia’s actions. So Corny, Thales and Edel are the number 1, 2 and 3 liable for Firdiad being a shit place, not Boar!Dimitri.

Maybe the “blood on his hands” he is lamenting isn’t about the Empire peons or the bandits he killed during his years in exile, but the Battle of Gronder? I’m still not over Leonie’s death being plot mandated because Claude had ponctual myopia - or, story wise, because there’s fog. If Boar!Dimitri had been King!Dimitri, they would have allied, worked together and killed Edel there but...

No, the biggest cucumber point in that route is Billy - i know CF plays a lot on avatar!wanking, SS does too but it could be explained by Billy being super important to the Nabateans because Billy is Sothis, but here?

Dimitri has a ton of reliable friends, vassals who could have talked to him, who, i’m sure, would have been able to pull him out like Billy did, but they weren’t allowed because, uh, Avatar worship.

I will forever not be okay with Gilbert’s A support being unlocked after Rodrigue’s death. If Gilbert pulled this card while Dimitri was still a Boar, idk, but maybe Rodrigue wouldn’t have to die?

Ingrid knows how it is to lose a loved one, Felix knows how it is to inherit all of said loved one’s duties and expectations (and it pisses him, he isn’t Glenn), hell, Ashe lost his Father and strives to be a good and just knight, for Lonato, but also for himself. Mercedes is overwhelmed with guilt about what happened to Emile, she couldn’t save him.

But nope, only “Sensei” is allowed to have lines and interactions with boar!Dimitri. Eww.

The only ray of sunshine in this Billy centric arc is Dedue. Dimitri snaps out of the Boar!mode when Dedue returns.

Tl; dr : Fig Billy.

[trying-write-fanfics]

AsheXReader the price of war

Authors not: this little part is more of a teaser. It’s gonna be multiple parts, but I might set it back further in the timeline or use flashbacks. Not totally planned yet.

It’s an angsty fanfic

Warning: there is death, depression, eating disorders, ptsd that will be in this story

Some things are changed from the canon plot a lot

this is my first fanfic in a long while, so I may be a little rusty.

——————————

It didn’t matter how hard he tried, how well he cooked, or how much he loved you. You were gonna break and collapse under this stress that the war has put on you for the last five years.

He watched every movement you made, trying to dazzle the other nobles. He stared predicting something bad was going to happen any minute. Just looking at you made him feel sick. 

The old dress you wore fit loose on your fragile figure. Finger nails brittle and weak as you stroked someone’s shoulder, coaxing them to listen. The (color) hair was left down because if you brushed too much too much would fall out. You shivered and shook with every movement. The only calories he knew you had was the wine you drink at this party. It was the only fattening thing in you consumed all day.

Trying to win the support of other nobles was difficult. She was trying to get nobles to send their brigades to fight for the kingdom, maybe it worked, maybe it didn’t. Despite wanting the kingdom’s victory, surely there had to be a better way. The money she made went to the war effort and Ashe’s siblings. He was grateful but also felt guilty for her help. Even in her state she helped him more than he could help her.

When the guests left he helped her walk to her bedroom. The mask of stability began to untie itself. She spoke of how well the turnout for the party was and she hoped to help Gilbert’s efforts against Cornelia. Taking off her earrings and necklace she avoided looking in the mirror. 

In this drunk state Ashe would get to indulge in their mutual feelings. It would be the only time she would be honest with herself. She sat on his lap and rubbed noses. The warm air would leave her nose and tickle his skin. The weight of her on him, the hand on his shoulder, how he loved to feel her. Reality would set in and so would the guilt. Fate had been trying to tear the two apart ever since their confessions.

Ashe helped the woman out of her dress and into a nightgown. He would always close his eyes. He tucked her in under the few blankets. It was painful to look at her and how he failed to be her knight. Still drunk she reached for his hand and pleaded for him to stay. He kissed her forehead and left her. Outside her door he choked on his sobs. He continued to fail everyone important around him. How long would they get to hide in peace? How long does his siblings safety last until the time is up? It was hard to find anyone opposing the empire, especially in secret.

Right after the war was announced and students were leaving Garreg Mach, Y/n asked if Ashe could accompany her to her family’s estate to see how they were holding up. Her land was near the boarder of the empire. Since where his siblings were staying far from where the fighting was, he agreed to go. There was another reason close to his heart. 

Y/n had become one of the best people he had met at his time at the academy. She was easy to talk to, and took a minute to realize she was a noble. When lord Lonato died, she was there comforting them. He thought he would never be the right person to be by her side, but luck had been in his favor. After regaining himself he accepted he had feelings for the girl. Being a vassal house noble, youngest crest holder of her siblings, it was not a big deal for her family to marry rich. Her older brothers already secured in marriage, she was free to do as she pleased, as long as she would become successful. 

How he fell for her happened slowly and then all at once. He couldn’t remember who started talking, but once they did they couldn’t stop. Even though not all their interests lined up, they both listened to each other talk for hours. He even tried to teach her how to use a bow. She was never nervous to throw a compliment his way or playfully tease him. She was a vibrant woman with an interesting mind.

The family was throwing a ball at their estate which was a surprise. They were pretending not to be scared of the empire. Fools. He borrowed some of her older brother’s clothes she loaned him. He didn’t want to stick out and feel silly. He got to feel her life for a moment. Since everyone was trying to be lax about the war, he even got to dance with his crush. She held him, giggled, and then brought him out to the balcony. They shared a tender confession, which she surprisingly confessed first. Their happiness was short lived. Few moments later her mother found her, crying hysterically. Y/n’s brothers had died and she was the next future head of the family. With this new status she couldn’t introduce Ashe as her boyfriend, but rather a  recommended knight. His stomach sank, bearing no ill-will to the girl, but hated what the war had brought.A huge tear in the relationship. He had lost so much since all the strange events came along to only have one perfect moment ruined. The death of her brothers not only meant a funeral, but her freedom to marry who she would like.

Ashe Ubert didn’t leave Y/n’s side though. He would be her knight and she would help the remaining kingdom forces. Her skills were faith, lances, with some riding experience. However she didn’t want to get too violent because the Empire was always in her backyard. That and the tragedies making her hands too heavy to raise against the Empire. She wanted to help next best way. Raising funds, dealing with death, and having to find a rich noble husband was killing the poor woman. She once asked Ashe if he wanted to go to the front lines, but there was nothing there waiting for him but defeat. Not yet.

 Ashe’s cooking skills were amazing, but Y/n couldn’t eat. In the beginning she would try hard to eat, but she would throw up almost anything. When she was sobered she would cry and when she was drunk she would be lying to herself. She lost so much weight, her hair fell out all the time. When no one was around, Ashe would hug her from behind to keep her warm. She was a vibrant girl who stood by Ashe’s side through everything. Now he could hardly force herself to take care of her body.

The hardest part he has to deal with was the dating she had to go through. Even though he truly didn’t want her with another man, he thought if she found one he might be able to move on as well as herself. He enabled all this behavior because he didn’t know what else to do. Another man would probably be able to save her from herself. Her parents would write her letters of finding the perfect man for their daughter, and the dates never lead to a second. Though some head over heels, her heart remained unchanged. Sometimes she would sob into the pillow she was a failure to her family and everyone else. Ashe would always comfort her. 

Y/n would suffer from night terrors, and she had the same couple nightmares. She was afraid of losing Ashe. The war setting her family estate on fire. During these nightmares he would loosen his morals and stay the night in her bed. He would press her into his chest and it would be the only time she would sleep through the night. The more he felt her the more guilty he felt. How much longer can she last like this? It was part of his fault for letting this go for so long.

The next morning he woke up before her. Leaving her alone in the bed, he gave her another blanket so she wouldn’t miss his warmth. He went to the kitchen and started cooking. He hadn’t really cook for two in awhile, all she would ask for was peeled vegetables or water downed soups. He hadn’t made anything with real pleasure, but soon he would have to leave her. If she had a little more food in her, he would for better about leaving her for a couple days. It was going to be the millennium festival, even if no one was celebrating. They had promised their classmates they would meet up five years later. He wasn’t sure if anyone would be able to show up, but he hadn’t lose hope. As much as he would want Y/n to go, she might not be strong enough to go back to Garreg Mach.

“You’re cooking?” Y/n asked lowly, still tired from waking up .

“Yeah, take some.” He offered as if he did not just make that for the both of them.

Y/n took a seat at the table and he handed her a plate of all the food groups. She stared at it like he had served her severed heads. Used to this reaction too got a plate and sat with her.

“The millennium festival is coming up.” He told her.

“You think the professor would be there?” She jest. “I bet Annette and Mercie would be there.”

“I’m thinking about going.” Ashe informed.

Before Y/n could have a reaction the front door was met by some desperate fists. She was quick to the door to find a messenger. Ashe followed to make sure they were not a threat.

“Are you lady (full name)?” He asked out of breath.

“What’s the matter?” She asked, not revealing her identity.

“If she’s here, tell her to flee her land. We got intel that the empire is after her for funding the kingdom’s army.”

“I’ll let her know.” She shut the door. “Oh no…”

The woman hugged herself and pressed her frail frame against the door. Her arms shook, knowing now the real danger of her deeds. Reality set in and now her neck had a target on it. It was now Ashe had to offer the last resort.

“We should go to Garreg Mach together.”

[faroreswinds]

I just saw your post mentioning the whole Dimitri/Claude needing heirs thing, and it's possible I'm misinterpreting, but in CF Dimitri says something to the effect of 'the Blaiddyd bloodline will continue even if I die' - so I wonder if Dima, at least, would face that much pressure for an heir, given his focus on orphans and his uncle probably having had a family. I'm blanking on his unpaired AM ending but Faerghus is shown to be v traditional so who can say for sure I guess. :o

Oh my goodness, a message! I almost never get these so I had to rub my eyes a few times to make sure! 

To answer your question, it’s honestly really hard to say either way. In the post I believe you are referring to, I made mention of heirs because that’s probably the excuse IS gave to themselves when deciding that the male lords will be not be bi options, while Edelgard (the only lord who doesn’t need an heir after she changes the system) is bi. If you take a quick look at all the bi options, there is kind of a pattern. Linhardt doesn’t care about anything and in almost all his endings, with two exceptions, rejects any role or his title. He doesn’t need heirs because by virture he simply doesn’t want to be next in line. Dorothea is a commoner, so is Mercedes and Jeritza. Rhea also doesn’t need children, and Sothis is... Well, you know. IS made these characters bi not out of characterization, but because these characters, by nature, have no need to be having any offspring. 

Anyways, Faerghus is traditional in the sense that they uphold a lot of old values and beliefs that even shape their way of thinking (i.e. Gustave and Rodrigue) but not so traditional in that change isn’t an option. Women like Ingrid, for instance, are still able to become knights with relative ease. Lambert himself was actually about to make radical reforms. We don’t know what that means, unfortunately, but if we consider Dimitri’s values a window into Lambert’s values, we may get an idea. And remember, Mercedes may be from the Empire but she lives in the Kingdom. We are given no indication that the Kingdom is against same-sex partners, and Mercedes can even declare her love for you before you ever become archbishop. 

His unpaired ending is weird, however.  His unpaired ending makes absolutely no mention of any wife, consort, or queen. He lives to make orphans’ lives better; we even see him playing with them in his ending card. However, Gilbert’s ending is sort of tied with Dimitri’s. His unpaired ending tells us that he coached the “young prince” in the art of combat, meaning that Dimitri did have a son at some point. This prince could be adopted, but considering that Dimitri married a woman in his paired ending with Felix, it’s likely the child is his flesh and blood. 

However, it is also entirely possible to avoid any mention of a child at all. Pair Gilbert with Annette or with Byleth (or just... let him die), then you can completely avoid hearing about Dimitri’s son. 

Dimitri does change his government, but inheritance is still a thing, based on the ending cards in AM. So I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some pressure for him to establish a bloodline. People really cared that Dimitri was the heir to the throne. They wanted him back; it HAD to be him, in their minds. But honestly, if anyone pressured him it would have been Gilbert. Felix would have told him to fuck the traditions. But I’m more inclined to believe that Dimitri had a child out of love, not out of need. 

Personally, though, I would love to know from IS if his son could potentially be adopted. How poetic would that be? Bloodlines are not so set in stone that someone like Ashe couldn’t inherit Lonato’s house. But I suppose the Royal Family might have different standards. 

I would say there is more of a focus on bloodlines in the Kingdom, but we lack all the nuances of the kingdom’s culture to say for sure if they would be open to Dimitri adopting. Dimitri holds some core values of his nation such a loyalty, but not all of them (such as valuing Crests so highly) and makes a lot of changes. With the exception of Edelgard’s ending, Dimitri’s ending makes nobles the weakest in power out of them all (And in Edelgard’s ending, that is only because all the power is in the emperor’s hands; in his ending, even his own position could arguably be weaker due to setting up what sounds like a constitutional monarchy). 

As for the line from CF, I do believe he’s referring to Rufus. Rufus may not have a Crest but he’s still his uncle, and could keep their bloodline alive. I have a hard time believing that Dimitri went and got a woman pregnant. Rufus is said to be a skirt chaser and since he’s not the one on the front lines defending the kingdom, probably has more time to get dirty. Plus, there’s no mention of Rufus dying at all in CF (since Cornelia never killed him). 

I’m not sure if that line exists in the Japanese version, though. There are MANY times where the English has changed the Japanese quite a bit. One is where Felix calls Dimitri a monster in CF. Yeah, that never happened in the Japanese version. 

I hope you do not mind, but I’m going to post this question. If anyone has anything to add or thoughts, please feel free to share. 

[supergenial]

The Byleth Diatribe

clickbait title: if you thought Byleth was creepy, wait until you read this!

Intro

In the past couple months it's really gotten my attention the fact that some people cannot stand looking at images that depict the teacher character from fire emblem three houses (Byleth) with their students in a romantic manner. They arrive at this disgust due to the parallels it traces with real life teachers who take advantage of their students. While I don't share this sensibility, I do think it's an interesting topic to think of so I'd like to explore why these people are correct in their conclusion that Byleth is creepy, but entirely wrong in their logic-path to it.

1) Byleth is just not an actual character

To address the elephant in the room, Byleth is literally a non-character. In a game filled with wonderful dialogue that fully exposes character motivations for a massive cast, it's hard to think of this one silent teacher as a real character that normally exists in that world. Byleth's "character" is purely an afterthought to their role as the Player Avatar. Surely enough in previous installments of the series you had Robin, Corrin and Kris, but their situation was partly different.

Robin and Corrin were proper characters as much as every other character in their game. They held conversations with the other characters, they expressed themselves in regards to the events that happened to them, some would even dare to argue they were better written that some other characters in their respective games if only because their heightened importance to their respective plot lines inevitably helps them have more dialogue, and even a bad writer has to stumble into writing something good eventually which means in some scenes they’re able to overcome the barrier of being bland by design.

Byleth however has none of this. At best they're given 2 or 3 text choices at any given time, and any bipartisan conversation that involves them is more of a soliloquy by the other character, with the player input being largely irrelevant to the flow of the conversation aside from changing the very immediate reaction that follows that same input.

As such, the notion that Byleth is a creepy teacher who's grooming their students to be their personal sex slaves is misconstrued in the fact that Byleth simply has no real motivations, hence no intent. It is equally as valid to assume they could be a straight laced no-nonsense teacher or a deviant who preys on children, because no conjectures can be traced to their personality, as it doesn't exist. We can't deduce what is it that Byleth wants out of life because the avatar has no life and exists purely as a videogame terminal. We don't know what they enjoy outside of the very few things we the players are allowed to do as the character, which is why so much Byleth fanart involves fishing, cooking, or drinking tea, the few hobbies we indulged in while playing as them.

There is however something innately perverse about Byleth, it's just not the fact they're a teacher, but rather the fact they're the player.

2) Player avatars are inherently creepy, and so are dating sims

Fire Emblem is a fantasy game. In Fire Emblem games you will not only find unreal things like dragons and magic, but also straight up impossible things such as kind-hearted rulers that care about protecting and improving the lives of their constituents. The three real main characters in this game all have pure motivations and genuine desire to improve the world (yes... even Edelgard). As such, we can expect the same purity and lack of reality from a hypothetical Byleth that has a personality. It's fair to assume they'd be legitimate teachers with no creepy intentions who, through the vicissitudes of life, end up inadvertently falling in love with their students. In a fantasy land where every "good guy" is pure in nature there is no concern of Byleth grooming Dimitri, or of Edelgard forcing some ill intentioned quid-pro-quo with her right hand strategist whom she is obsessed with, because it's simply fantasy where everyone is nice and pure so things just magically always work out.

There is however an insidious factor lurking over this fantasy land, and that is the player. An omnipotent being who decides who lives, who dies, who gets married to who, and who stays alone because we just don't like them that much. The player can send Ashe to get the last hit on Lonato, just out of morbid curiosity to see what is the special dialogue that they have in that situation. The player can recruit Felix and then have Felix kill Rodrigue in the crimson route, just to see what hilarious quip will the son bark at the father. And of course, the player gets to decide who gets married to the lifeless slab of meat and bones with no emotion that is the Player Avatar. If anything breaks the idea that these characters are well written or realistic, it is the fact that they can all fall in love with someone who cannot communicate with them, all because of the emotions they magically choose to believe the avatar has, or rather, we choose to make them believe it.

In a "set" story like fire emblem echoes or path of radiance, the epilogues have little to no variety because the characters will just be themselves regardless of the player's input. No matter how much you want to see Celica's reaction to Faye getting together with Alm, that is simply not going to happen because their bond is set in stone, it cannot be altered, it is a "set" story. Likewise Nyna in new mystery of the emblem will never, ever fuck Sirius regardless of what she or the player wishes. Three Houses on the other hand is more like a playground than a book, the player will mess with the lives of these characters until they get bored of them, seeing every possible unlikely combination programmed into the game just out of curiosity to see what the characters will say, to squeeze out every last bit of "Content" that the game has until they get bored of it and move on to something else, effectively reducing the characters from "characters" to mere consumables. 

Hence why I can't help but laugh at the notion that Byleth is creepy by nature of being a teacher when they're so much more than a teacher and so much more creepy than a creepy teacher. They're an in-game god (hell, lore-wise they're also a god in every ending except crimson). Byleth can quite literally mind control other characters into loving them as long as they're given enough flowers and tea. Look at Sylvain's C support with Byleth and tell me if it's natural for a guy like him to fall in love like that after saying he wants to murder Byleth (surely enough, it's even creepier for players to fall in love with him because of that support, as Sylvain is an extremely interesting character but only in his other supports).

This is why you see people saying that Felix and Annette are a great couple, or that Marianne and Dimitri are made for each other, but you don’t really see people saying that Byleth’s pairing with x is cute. When two proper characters interact all the way to their A support and fall in love that way, you’ve actually seen their story develop, you can feel happy for them. Pairing Byleth with a proper character fulfills your desire to monopolize that character and get a neat special artwork of them, but has it really been a good story and feel like this is a good conclusion for them? No. (I’d be willing to say Byleth and Dimitri do make a somewhat good couple though, but that point would be much easier to defend if Byleth could actually communicate properly)

It wouldn't matter if Byleth was a 15 year old teacher, or a 17 year old student that's a peer to the classmates, or if all of the classmates were older than Byleth AND teachers instead while Byleth is a student. By the mere nature of the player input and Byleth's lack of character, the pairing is screwed up to begin with. 

What I'm getting at is that pairing Byleth with Catherine or Shamir is equally as fucked up as pairing Byleth with Dimitri (I would argue moreso because come on... Shamir and Catherine are totally girlfriends and you're just squeezing yourself in, have some respect).

In other words Byleth is only creepy because you are creepy. You're playing a game where you can date people who cannot possibly refuse you. Even if you remove that factor, you'd still be playing at making children fuck each other in whatever way you see fit. Something is wrong with you. You're the only impure factor affecting this game.

3) Fire Emblem will always suck

This is my favorite series of games but come on guys, you know fire emblem will always suck if you care about this kinda thing. In fire emblem fates Corrin has a wide variety of about 9 flavors of incest to choose from. In fire emblem awakening Robin can marry an amnesiac woman with head trauma who can't even speak complete sentences and is entirely dependent on him to subsist. The fanbase has grown so twisted they actively wanted Byleth to get married to Alois, a married man with children, and were disappointed when they didn't fuck in that paired ending (though I understand getting upset about the lack of gay supports, but hey that's just yet another way in which fire emblem chooses to suck).

Hell this is the fanbase that considers Berkut and Rinea to be a cute couple, what the actual hell guys. Go ahead and criticize the games but as long as the shipping simulator is included in the series, the games will always be creepy in their very nature, and guess what: the shipping simulator happens to be one of the most popular features and the one that people say it's the best written part of every game, so go figure if they're going to remove that.

ps: if you want a fire emblem with no paired endings, path of radiance has your back, it is my favorite! and if you want to avoid supports altogether, try Radiant Dawn, that's some good stuff.

4) Just for fun: the actual most fucked up ships in the game

-Lysithea with Linhardt, Byleth or Hanneman, or anyone.

When I recruited Lysithea in my first playthrough I didn't know she was a strong unit, instead I simply did it because I saw this sassy lost child wandering the halls and just really didn't want to kill her. I wanted her to live on and see her have a happy epilogue. Imagine my surprise when I reached the epilogues and it turns out she just simply dies shortly after the story if you don't pair her up with anyone. The exact one thing I wanted to avert was having her meet an early death, yet the game simply has her die anyway.

At the end of my deer playthrough I was all set to click on Hilda when I realized, wait a minute, Lysithea is going to die if I do this, right? And that is in fact the case. She can only live by supporting Hanneman, Lindhart or Byleth, and I had not recruited those two. So I click on Lysithea but it's kind of a tainted click isn't it? Not that I dislike her or anything, but once you throw in that additional motivation the scales have been irreversibly tipped in an unpleasant manner. I have effectively been guilted into picking her.

On to a third playthrough. I see Felix has really cute supports with Lysithea, but I can't have them supporting each other because I know she still meets an early death with him. And Lindhart, well his supports aren't bad and he's a great guy but they're certainly not as fun supports as Felix's. Hanneman fortunately doesn't seem interested in that way when you pair him up with Lysithea (not that he has any restraints when it comes to his supports with Dorothea...) so you can still have that as effectively a "solo" end for her in which she lives, but it's still kind of messed up. By giving her the Hanneman ending I'm condemning her to miss out on love for the rest of her life so that she can live on, but isn't love the reason we live on to begin with? Overall, I'd say Lysithea x Lindhart or Byleth is certainly a creepy support in the very nature that you have to do it or else you're a murderer, because you had the power to prevent this death and chose not to.

-Flayn with literally anyone

Imagine if a grown adult man could disguise himself as a high schooler, infiltrated a school and got married to a girl less than half his age. People would hate it, people would riot, Intelligent Systems would be over. But that is Flayn everyone! Fire Emblem is no stranger to the stupid trope of "little girl who's actually hundreds of years old", but I'll argue that Flayn is markedly different from Nowi. Nowi is most definitely a cartoonish fantasy character, who still acts like a little girl despite being hundreds of years old. She's literally bait for pedophile nerds with a flimsy shield in her supposed age, which she and her fans openly flaunt as if it really meant anything when the intent of her character is so transparent.

Flayn on the other hand is a legitimately mature character (as far as maturity goes in this game...) who is pretending to be a high schooler to get hitched with a student, all while hiding her real age entirely on purpose. An actual wolf in sheep's clothing (or dragon in sheep's clothing in this case...). And she can s-support literally every single male student except for Hubert (for story reasons) and Sylvain (for Sylvain reasons). Not only that but she doesn’t support any females other than Manuela, her fellow cougar, and she doesn’t support any of the older men like Hanneman showing she’s only interested in young blood.

But hey everyone! Flayn is just the little meme fish girl trapped in the mcdonalds playplace so we all give her a pass right. Overall though I'd say her creep factor is still significantly lower than Nowi's if only because her design isn't a chore to look at.

-Rhea x Byleth

This is some galaxy brain 5D chess grandmaster type of shit I tell you. Capitalizing on the sickening mommy fetish that's been rising up recently internet the crackhead team of geniuses at intelligent systems decided to pull Joker's Trick on people who are into that kind of thing. First they have her be the oldest non-wrinkled character, then they give her Kikuko Inoue as a seiyuu (famously known for often playing mom roles), then they give players that one scene where Byleth rests on her lap like their kid, and then? Then the game tells you Rhea is the daughter of Byleth. Wait a minute, what the hell? I can't even begin to think this one out because at this point my brain has turned to tofu and I am forever perplexed by this turnaround, hats off to intelligent systems for their ultimate jest.

After fates and this I positively cannot wait to see what new incestcoaster they'll turn my guts inside out with in the next entry of the series, Fire Emblem is truly the finest series of horror games disguised as jrpgs.

Obviously, this post was written in jest. I don’t actually believe you’re an inherently creepy person for playing fire emblem, nor do I think Flayn is a predator deviant (hell I don’t even think Nowi is that bad). I just found it truly interesting how people’s sensitivities can activate in these fictional settings (and do think those sensitivities should be respected) but when I try to activate those neurons my mind ends up in a whole different place. So yeah, just having some fun.

Also check out the rest of this trilogy with Three Houses sucks actually and Three Houses is good actually. I seriously hope I never feel like writing anything about this game ever again.