#I’m a byleth fan as you all know lol was just listening to the very cool ashen demon ost and thinking about this

[katiebell]

you know, I actually think the moment byleth steps in front of that blow meant for edelgard, an action that changes EVERYTHING about their fate, really is monumental, especially after warriors came out and added context

you have this mercenary who’s known for being stone cold, emotionless, and who can annihilate entire mercenary camps in minutes blank faced, as we saw with shez - by all means, they should never, WOULD never take a blow like that so carelessly for someone they don’t even know, much less with such an angry, determined expression - and yet.

the game draws some clear parallels between byleth and edelgard, and in all routes they have a connection that seems unbreakable - all of this starts at that very moment, when the merciless demon gets swept by a wave of emotion so strong that they throw rationality out of the window.

idk, one of my favourite fe3h analyses mentions the ‘literal divine intervention triggered by edelgard’ and that’s exactly what that moment is. not even because of sothis, but because that’s exactly when byleth takes their first step towards humanity and their freedom - i honestly think that byleth only fully regaining their humanity in crimson flower is the only outcome that makes sense, since that’s exactly what we see in one of the first scenes in fe3h. excellent foreshadowing, I’d say

[mistysharks]

get to know me tag meme

tagged by @hilarychuff !

rules: tag (8-10) people who you want to get to know better. (but i wont beacuse Im a rebel shh)

relationship status: coming up for 10 months married to a straight cis man can you believe (he lets me yell at him about how hard it is to write smut though so we don't hold that against him)

favorite color: really really varies but I've been in a soft pink mood lately

three favorite foods: Chinese hot pot from a place that's gotten waay too popular lately (I have to book like a week in advance! wtf!), vegan Pho and crepes at the moment! Any kind of veggie pie/tart has my heart for homecooked stuff tho

top 3 tv shows: oh that's hard i don't watch that much at the moment! Hmm.... well stranger things duh, Sense8 made me cry but in a good way and Orphan black is my all time favourite for sure!

top 3 characters:..look, sometimes you see a sweaty metalhead from the eighties and cant decide if you want to be him or fuck him and thats ok. So yeah, Eddie Munson followed closely by Wei Ying (the untamed) because goth gremlins from ancient fantasy china are also good and... Jaskier from the witcher. Because i'm also a fan of pathetic men lol (this list needs more women?? Honourable mentions to: Cosima(orphan black) Chrissy(ST), and Byleth(FE3)

what i’m currently reading: look I am a shame to my family of bibliophiles but I'm too busy reading fanfiction and last time i tried to read YA it was REAL BAD Last books I really enjoyed were Legends and Lattes and Iron Widow though

song stuck in my head: BUT ITS NOT REAL!! AND YOU DON'T EXIST!!! AND I CAN'T RECALL THE LAST TIME I WAS KISSED (cielings - Lizzy McAlphine I blame tiktok but also the song is great?)

last movie watched: God I've not watched a movie in ages apparently?? I think its still my neighbour totoro from like a month ago. I started watching the Kdrama Love to hate you on netflix though which is absolutely unhinged but very fun so far

last thing i googled: apparently its just "Valentines day" and I have no memory of this

last song i listened to was: Perfect for you by peach PRC

dream trip: I mean Iceland would be amazing, but I'm finally visiting Orkney and the Shetlands this year and I am EXCITED. Also I would love to go back to Venice one day and not be high on flu medicine pls thanks

time: 11:30 - enjoying my day off even though it did start with me having to get up at 8 for the shower repair man :(

anything i really want right now: a delicious free lunch that i don't have to make myself lol

tagging: Whoever sees this? Youre it now sorry thems the rules that I just made up

[mannatea]

some quick n dirty thoughts about Blue Lions Route (first playthrough)

i think overall the game was fun.

the story was...

the sToRy wAS...

THE STORY WAS KIND OF MUDDLED. by which i mean, so much was going on at literally every second that i felt like it fogged up the entire route to the point of it being a distraction. 

“play all the routes and then you’ll get it!” yes yes i know. shhhh. SHHHH. it breaks my immersion hardcore and is kind of depressing tbh. plus i feel like younger players would stop playing when they can’t make sense of the plot or feel like they’re lost.

i’m going to say something incredibly unpopular

prepare yourselves

deep breath!!!

this is why the old FEs with the simpler storylines and mostly linear narratives were fun to me. the story wasn’t trying to be particularly deep or insightful or interesting; they let those “deeper” things be smaller, character-centric points, and the main plot was simple enough to follow to the end. i think i prefer that just because it makes “play the game once and have a pretty solid grasp on things” a valid option.

this isn’t really a critique of 3H, because i’m just a fandom olde at this point and i don’t like change, so i recognize this is personal preference and Just Me

i felt like 9/10 was trying too hard to be deep and insightful and their allegories were fucking bad BUT the main story made plenty of sense and by the time you got to the end i think most curiosities were satisfied.

fwiw i still don’t want them to ever touch FE7 with Remake Ideals because i’ll die instantly from the rage. i prefer the older FE plots because it allows the characters to stand center stage moreso than the story, but the newer games feel like they’re going the other way more. 

and that’s okay because fe3h dragged a BUNCH of new people in, so clearly there’s a huge audience for that! which is great.

and fe3h has a fun cast of characters!

i am not a dimitri fan tho lol

but i came away liking a few characters, or at least...i was intrigued by them, and interested in reading their supports with others. so that’s a good thing. it’s not like this change  to story/plot>characters alienated me entirely. it just alienated me for a couple years hashtag adhd “can’t start a new thing yet” was the real villain here though

they repeated place names too much and/or had stupid nicknames for places that just muddied things up further for no reason. that info could have been in literally any support conversation for flavor and it wouldn’t have had to take up place in actual main dialogue. but they were constantly like [proper name], [nickname] about half the locations and/or “do you remember this location?” SHHHHHH stop that’s so boring you’re boring me to death

i am REALLY exhausted by all the dialogue and for about the middle third of the game i read it and hit A as soon as i was done and didn’t listen to the voice acting. like there’s just *so much dialogue about everything*

i think i’d be fine with the dialogue if byleth had more spoken lines and/or their lines were spoken aloud when you chose the dialogue options. the large batches of rambling followed by [choice option being clicked sound] followed by another long VERY ONE SIDED dialogue sequence was just hard to hear.

the voice acting is great though. like, it’s really good. thoroughly enjoyed that and wasn’t sure if i would or if i’d find it unnerving somehow.

i wanna be real clear: i don’t have any solid critiques or anything right now beyond the overwhelming amount of dialogue.

and maybe some side eyeing how boring the monastery stuff was lol. it was cool the first maybe...four times i did it and then i was like, my god... more story beats each month would be great. force us into paralogues or something...idk.

i think the gift-giving stuff is neat. the ability to poach students from other houses if you don’t suck like me is neat.

i like byleth actually. by which i mean. byleth is a HUGE HUGE HUGE improvement over corrin and robin. this is not my humble opinion, but rather, my annoying correct one. ;)

i still have criticisms about byleth but for now, i really like them. by which i mean her. female byleth is the only canon byleth in my head.

i’m also glad they used this opportunity to make things like classing/reclassing make more sense, though i dislike how reclassing on a whim does away with letting the class be a part of their identity. 

THAT SAID, most of the characters are pretty open-ended in that regard. it’s only really weird with characters who are well established. i was shook to find out seteth was a wyvern rider because the game never showed him on it, or talking to it, or interacting with it...which makes some sense, because he can be reclassed out of it later, but it’s still kind of weird.

if you couldn’t tell, i basically never reclass, but especially not into something that doesn’t make sense for the character. i’m here for them, after all, not the gameplay. :>

and i also love seeing characters’ classes play into their supports more, like how farina, fiora, and florina in fe7 all had names for their pegasi and we got to know them.

also, i enjoy the music/the remixes of old familiar songs. that’s great.

my brain is empty now so ... eh. new game+ or something now? maybe so

[anajenna]

Thoughts on Cindered Shadows (Spoilers!)

Despite reading all I could about it before it was released like the datamines and fan theories I was still surprised about how things played out and the personalities of the Ashen Wolves. They are somehow even more likeable then I expected.

I was not expecting to learn about Byleths mom Sitri or deal with a character so distraught by her death that he formulated a plan that involved using the Ashen Wolves to resurrect her! [Meanwhile Jeralt is completely unaware of all of this...]

I was really happy to see the three house leaders working together. Especially Dimitri and Claude since Dimitri is my fav and Claude is my second fav FE character. I feel like if this was canon for all the routes it would have effected how the stories of each of the routes ended...I dont think its completely canon or at least it isnt directly part of any route and it's own thing with canon info. For starters Byleth has a C support with all the house leaders, that's not possible to have in any of the routes. I know the creators said in an interview there wouldn't be a golden route so I guess this is as close as it gets. I get it the whole point is to pick a side, there are many different paths just like in life. I'm just a sucker for happy endings and I see a lot of things getting resolved if the house leaders just spoke more to eachother... I mean again life is like that too we'd probably all get along better if we took the time to talk, listen and empathize. With that being said....

I got really excited when I saw Dimitri and Edelgard talking during the exploration. Agh I just wished they had said more...

The cutscenes were enjoyable Claude and the Ashen wolves were hilarious, also Ashe (3rd fav) and Dimtri were awesome as usual. I like how they're both so polite. Im surprised how well I know them when I thought oh they're probably going to say something they did. However I wasnt expecting Dimitri to comment on how even he couldn't get the gate to open in that one chapter. I actually said out loud not even you!? I kind of find that hard to believe considering he can break swords( idk maybe that's not comparable.)

Speaking of dialogue why the hell do some people think Dimitri admiring the abyss is a bad thing? Or cutting off Claude who was being rude? ( yeah sure claude makes a bit of valid point but they're doing their best.) It's nice for people to have somewhere to go when they have no where else it's not ideal but its something. Dimitri's all about helping the less fortunate plus I feel like it would've made sense if he ended up there during the timeskip considering he's a fugitive. It is canon at least in Azure moon that he lived in the slums ( as he says in one of his advice box questions) so I think this place would be a step up.

Oh yeah and it was so weird how Claude said that his name is a common fake name because on that same day I watched Modern Family and Phil gave himself a fake name and it was claude.

On a somewhat related note the abyss reminds me of where Levi in attack on titan no regrets lived.

Anyways it was fun to play and hard. I started out on hard but I really just wanted to know more of the story so I switched to normal. I relied way too much on Dimitri he was just really good at one shotting things and ended up being way higher leveled than everyone else by the end of the game lol. Overall very fun it took me 10 hours to finish just like they said it would. I cant wait to unlock the shadow library. I've played through all the routes and I'm doing my second run of the blue lions route on hard but havent reached the timeskip yet which is when I can unlock that library of secrets. I'm just as excited Claude and Linhardt to read the books in there. I'm trying not to spoil myself on tumblr about what's in there I already did a little bit though.