#NPC; Catheryn

[kyogre-blue]

Started a low effort playthrough of 3H Golden Deer. I actually played part of Blue Lions a year? two years? ago and got up to the month where you choose the dancer, but then just kind of put it down and didn't touch it again.

This time, I'm going to play the least emotionally involved route (or so I hear) with the least politicking, no talking to NPCs, no looking up anything about anyone's optimal builds, minimal grinding, keeping the recruiting down. Hopefully, I'll be able to get through it this way.

So far, without the personal connection the Blue Lions had to the missions, the story slants much more toward the mythological aspect, with a side of "Claude is kind of sus, what's his deal."

The progression of lore is actually pretty clean and direct. Red Canyon is a long term mystery, then we see a Relic for the first time (via Catheryne), then we get our super-Relic (Sword of the Creator), then Nemesis is introduced and our Crest of Flames, then we find out that Relics have a dark side (turning people into Black Beasts).

It holds together pretty well as a fantasy adventure kind of story, so far.

However, it does run into the flipside - (non-Avatar) characters aside from Claude and maybe Lorenz feels entirely disconnected from the storyline. Every time we get a whole class group discussion about things, it's very... awkward, because these characters were dumped on you en masse from the very start, and none of them know each OR have anything to contribute. Even once you start getting their supports, they're largely so low-stakes and simple that they don't feel like they explain the class being adjacent to the Relics and Church storyline.

Additionally, it's not immediately noticeable if you're not keeping track, but the fact that we go to the Kingdom twice is weird. We don't go to Alliance (so far), we don't go to Empire... you're just arbitrarily leaving out two thirds of the continent, including your team's homeland.

And at the same time, the more Blue Lions related aspects weren't removed from the quests entirely. Catheryne name drops the Tragedy of Duscur in a way that is very specific and too detailed for an event that's nearly irrelevant for this route. It's good in Blue because you'll be hearing about Duscur a lot from supports and such, but on Gold? You hear about Almyra, but Duscur is just a mystery noun that feels important and yet isn't. Same for stuff like the Miklan chapter being named "The Gautier Inheritance" when you're quite likely not even keeping track of what Gautier even is, or him not having a Crest coming up out of left field depending on your dialogue choices (since you're not told why he was disowned unless you picked that option).

Even Edelgard becomes a weird kind of existence that isn't really present until she suddenly barges into a scene between Claude and Byleth, where she... really just serves a ham-fisted segue into listing off all the ways Claude is sus and him dropping on you that he has a totally selfless dream, promise.

The route format of 3H is really... it's just not great.

Minor notes I took while playing, nothing interesting:

Year 91 "do you remember the Red Canyon"

"you took everything I loved" lol what about your other siblings?

birthday day 25 of moon 12 lol

chose "dreamed of a girl", Jeralt says he doesn't recognize her, this is a recurring dream, which Byleth has told him about, wonder what he says if you choose you dreamed about a war

Jeralt doesn't know Seteth, wonder why

Jeralt tells Rhea that Byleth was born many years after he left the monastery. Presumably Byleth saying they don't know their age is to facilitate this lie.

the fact that you choose a house so early is sending me

three way battle is intended to gauge current progress... But presumably this refers to their starting level, since they haven't even been assigned teachers yet

tbh this game is kinda disappointing visually

voice acting is good tho

the houses are explicitly "for students of X nation" which makes the cross-house recruiting so ridiculous...

unlike holy blood in Genealogy or Awakening, Crests don't seem to have a physical mark on bearers. Hanneman uses a machine to check its shape and doesn't ask about any birthmarks

I saw a windmill in a panning shot, but I can't see it while exploring :(

"I had a bunch of other schemes too" other schemes?? You didn't do even one scheme, Claude

the announcer on the chapter namecards and the new month images is uh... I can't say it does much does much for me

sothis music is cool

why was Zanado renamed to Red Canyon, Claude wonders, it's not very red L M A O

For Lonato's mission, we're only handling the "aftermath" when the bulk of the fighting has already been done by the Knights of Seiros

Tragedy of Duscur was 4 years ago. There were accomplices within the Kingdom and one of them was Christopher, Lonato's son. The Church passed down judgement on in place of the Kingdom, which was in chaos. Supposedly. (This won't really matter on GD, I guess)

some soldiers slipped past the knights using the fog

Claude was only recognized as Riegan heir a year ago.

Rhea is admittedly sus about "I hope the students learn not to fuck with the church" but I've heard Things about localization changes, so I wonder if this was there in the JP script too.

The tone of the deer group discussions tho...

Hilda's brother beat "Nader the Undefeated" and Claude claims (unclear if true) that Almyra has been keeping quiet recently because they're wary of him.

Ignatz's family has received the patronage of House Gloucester

The Relics glow red when used by someone with a compatible Crest.

The Flame Emperor, at minimum, knows that the Crest Stones set in the weapons are part of their power, but I'm not sure if normal nobles do. Like, has a relic ever had the Crest Stone removed?

Nemesis was the King of Liberation. Weird that they let him keep such a positive sounding title, though I guess they're selling it as him being originally worthy of being given the goddess's power.

It's kind of implied he might have a bloodline (aka descendants) but we don't actually see any, right? I guess it's just an excuse for why Byleth can use the sword.

It's been more than a thousand years since he got his ass handed to him.

Fodlan was attacked by "wicked gods" lol

Rhea hasn't explained anything about Byleth to Seteth. Which is... a choice. Does she think he won't approve of her mom necromancy attempts

Sothis says the sword feels distinct from "other Relics we've seen" GIRL we've seen ONE

Claude "finally found" the sword... so he was looking for it?? He wanted to use it?!

Judith out of nowhere

This is very funny because Claude previously said his grandfather is disgustingly healthy. 4shadowing... OR--

Byleth's crest is too... big?? to be analyzed like other crests

students do the grocery shopping, cleaning at least some common areas... These are noble kids tho.

Raphael and Ignatz have known each other since they were kids. Notable that I think they're the only ones with history in GD

Hilda and Leonie C rank... Hilda complains about organizing the library, background is the woods. Something here is not right.

Claude is very interested that Miklan had been using the Lance without a Crest.... Which is very funny because I didn't get the dialogue path about why he was disowned and didn't talk to anyone else, so I think him not having a Crest just gets dropped here out of nowhere

Claude is also very funny going "oh, you're counting on me? How about you give me your magic sword then? Haha, I'm joking" after we already had the scene of him saying he had been looking for it before

no option to keep the Lance of Ruin, guess it requires Sylvain?

I don't remember this scene of Tomas being ominous and also sus

Edelgard out of nowhere. Kind of abrupt, especially since it seems just a segue into talking about Clayde’s lack of history

Claude used to have an uncle, his mom's older brother, but he died

[draconicroyalty]

*Vergil's phone rings*

Dante: *leans over* omg, you still have mom's name as mommy?? lmao

Vergil: *stares*

Vergil: *picks up the phone*

Vergil: hi Catheryn

Dante: *CHOKES*

[ald3r-wolfcak3]

And this is just an optional thing. I remember read the offical post you won't miss any important if you skip this, so this is actually pointless side quest....Idk really I just ignore the whole Catheryne thing like she was never mentioned.

Friendly reminder that SSO made a whole new questline, tons of collectable butterflies, brand new character models, several journal entries and cutscenes to basically say “Haa-haa. Bet you thought you were gonna get answers about Aideen, dumbass”

[tyrionslannister]

caitriona balfe

[ Send me a faceclaim and I’ll tell you who they’d be in my muse’s life as a NPC ]

I put a lot of thought into this because 1) I have lots and lots and lots of non-playing characters for Adelaide because she has a hell of a big family, being royal and all that but 2) I look at Caitriona and all I see is Claire Fraser, so there’s that.But I was going through Ade’s family tree, that by the way needs to be updated, and I finally found Caitriona a place in there as queen Catheryn Winston, former duchess of Somerset, who was the third wife of king Maximilian I and was Ade’s grandmother. Like her granddaughter she was also disliked by the people—because she was both english and protestant, but she converted to catholicism and gave birth to the first crown prince to survive childhood (and two more males, just in case he… well… didn’t) so they didn’t complain much about her. She died in 1550 at 47 years old which left her son, who was already king then, devastated.(And believe it or not this whole backstory had already been written like, one month ago!! Shoutout to past Laura for being productive in a way present Laura wish she could be c’:)

[draconicroyalty]

👀 But may we get some some of those Ver/Cath Mulan AU hcs?

👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀 good shit go౦ԁ sHit👌 thats ✔ some good👌👌shit right👌👌there👌👌👌 

ALRIGHT, HEADCANON TIME.

Mundus has invaded territory with his demon army

Sparda, the general and king, is all “w tf have you just done u lil bitch???”

Eva stays in the palace to make sure everything is going ok

A man of age from every family has to fight by his side to protect the kingdom

Daniyal is hurt ever since the last war and can’t fight properly but his son isn’t of age yet so he must go

Catheryn is just “no u fuckin don’t???”

She knows he will die in battle and that CAN NOT happen??? He has a teenager son and a baby girl to raise?? Her parents must stay alive, wtf

So, once they fall asleep, she steals her father’s armor and her mom’s sword and just gets on top of a horse and is like “bye fuckers”

Her ancestors are just like “this bitch”

They send this fire fox spirit to bring her back

Maawiya, however, is just “hum no she has potential imma help her out”

Sparda assigns Vergil as Captain and tells him to train potential new soldiers

Dante is jelly, but oh well, okay i guess?? asshole

Catheryn and Dante end up having…a little brawl before Vergil comes out and finds them almost clawing each other’s face off

Dante just “he started”

Catheryn has to hold herself to don’t kick him in the stomach

“What’s your name??” “Uuuuuh” “My brother asked you a question” “your brother? oh yes i noticed the similarity. you both look like someone spit in your fucking food”

She ends up saying her name is Hideo because ‘splendid man’ sounds good and she is out of ideas

Vergil is Tired ™ and dismisses them but promises Hideo/Cathy he will keep an eye on ‘him’

Next day comes and Cathy runs to the training camp with this huge ass sword and everyone is all “um buddy just how much does that weight??” “i dunno man, like, 3 full grown men?” “WHAT”

Dante rolls his eyes once his brother starts talking like a captain and telling them to behave

“Ohhh, tough guy” “Brother, thank you for volunteering” “COME ON”

Everyone tries to climb the damn tree trunk, everyone falls (Cathy goes a lil further than everyone but falls on her butt)

“It’s gonna be a looong day…”

LETS GET DOWN TO BUSINESS INTENSIFIES

During hand to hand combat training Cathy kicks Vergil’s ass

“wow ok stay still my beating heart”

As training progresses, Dante and Catheryn actually tolerate each other

One night Catheryn hears Sparda’s counselor, Agares, who’s a major asshole sometimes, telling Vergil the tropes aren’t ready

Maawiyaand Cathy just “no u fucking dont we worked HARD for this”

“i hold him, you punch him” “not necessary, but i appreciate it”

Genuine smile from the Captain?? wow??? WOW?

“You liiiike him” “shut up maawiya” “you doooo” “ok fine he’s cute, judge me” “uh uh tO YOUR TENT young lady”

Sneaky fox writes a message for Agares saying Sparda needs them as backup because fuck Agares and his notes

Marching sucks, it really does

The whole ally army is found defeated together with a village

Dante and Vergil are absolutely livid and trying to swallow down the pain as they set their father’s helmet near a cliff together with his sword

Basically Mundus’ army soon appears before them

“oh shit we’re fucked”

Catheryn, the super extra soldier: welp guess im gonna blow up a mountain lol

“also imma save the hot ass captain while this all goes to shit”

“oh fuck i got hurt”

“aaaand now they know im a woman. great.”

Vergil refuses to kill her because “wtf she may be a woman but she was the best soldier i’ve ever seen??? no, she’s still coming with us. stop yelling Agares u bitch”

Mundus basically tries to kidnap Eva and take over the palace after popping out of the snow like a daisy together with a few allies

Catheryn watches as the strong alpha males try to take the thickass, hugeass doors down with a statue….smfh

“there’s…pilars here we can climb”

“oh”

Eva is basically doing the equivalent of double middle fingers at Mundus for killing her mf husband

Badass brother duo ft. tall lady burst open the fucking doors behind Eva and Mundus

“why hello king of assholes”

Catheryn basically pulls Vergil back after Dante gets Eva tf outta there because “oh no this asshole is mine”

they…basically blow up the fuckin palace’s wall and part of the ceiling, smh

Eva: u fucking destroyed everything

Eva: but u also killed that fucker and saved us all so u cool

Catheryn just “neat can i go home now”

Dante basically hugs her good bye and whispers something about Vergil

Meanwhile the captain is just “uuuuh you fight good. see ya.”

Dante and Eva, probably: u fight good??? that woman just fucking saved us. go marry her.

Back at Cathy’s home, probs:

Lukah: she brought a sword, could’ve brought a gf…bf…smth

Vergil: um is this the meyumi residence??

Lukah: well fuck me

[draconicroyalty]

Dante: 7'5''ft is too tall that’s Too Much Woman

Catheryn: Sorry i can't hear you from down there

[draconicroyalty]

I have absolute zero self-control so I did another Vergil/Catheryn aesthetic. Aaaand I’ll probably do many more.

[draconicroyalty]

VerRyn Texting Be Like

Vergil: 🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️

Catheryn: omg stop texting dagger emojis, V

Vergil: they're Baby Yamatos

Catheryn: baby yama...

Catheryn: asdfgh youre such a dork i love you

[draconicroyalty]

I like to think in a Modern!AU Vergil would be a damn workholic and never relax, like "I know these papers are due next Monday but I gotta do them now, Dante. No, I do not have eyebags, Dante. Shut up."

Like, he's internally stressing out in college 'til Catheryn gets a hold of him and goes "Alright bitch you're taking the fucking weekend off"

And sincerely, watching movies til late and eating snacks from friday to saturday and going to a dance club at sunday feels better than sleeping at 10pm to wake up at 6am to study more

Vergil gets a studying schedule during vacation, Catheryn kindly takes it and basically makes him a HEALTHY studying schedule, not one based on coffee and having his head buried in books for 4 hours straight

Result? His grades actually go up. He already had good ones, but they actually go up. And he finally knows waking up at 1pm in a Saturday and eating cereal for lunch is not a sin.

[draconicroyalty]

Could we maybe get some VerRyn headcanons? I love them!

I love you, anon, I really do.

So, headcanons, lessgo!

I personally love, love the hc about people thinking Catheryn and Vergil get breakfast late because Catheryn doesn’t want to leave the bed but newsflash it’s Vergil

Seriously the man is a goddamn koala while sleeping

Once they get into a relationship, Vergil probably teaches himself how to relax because he feels safe enough around her to don’t be as tense all the time

They still spar a lot. And it involves mostly hand to hand combat

Their dates are either in fancy, expensive restaurants or in the middle of bloody battles because you gotta make do, right??

P e t n a m e s

God, Vergil hates those at the beginning

He actually thinks about smacking himself when hearing her call him “baby” or “sweetheart” starts feeling so, so right

He takes a while to do the same, and when he does it’s a muttered “sugar”

Catheryn almost cries

She eventually gets the poor guy a smartphone

She is…the kind of gf who sends loving messages all the time

Vergil would be lying if he said they don’t make him happy, tbh

He just doesn’t know how to answer…nor how to correctly use emojis

The day he answers with “… 💖“ Catheryn nearly lets her phone fall down

Probably screenshots it right away

Sometimes she has to go back to Hyrond and there’s time zones issues, cue video chatting where one of them is ready for bed while the other hasn’t even had lunch yet

“V, baby, isn’t it like 4 am there?” “Sigh…I miss your voice” “Awww, babe!!”

Demonstrations of affection by Vergil are rare because he feels awkward and shy but Catheryn cherishes every moment like it’s treasure

Vergil’s fave place to sleep is with his head hiding between Cathy’s neck and shoulder. That does mean he has to be on her lap but he stopped being flustered about that a long time ago

Once she approached him while he was in DT form and basically squished his cheeks and said “you’re adorable”

Sometimes Vergil goes jogging with Catheryn for the sake of making her happy and because at 7am there’s barely anyone on the street

Normally, the jogging turns into a chase when Catheryn looks back, sticks her tongue out and tells him to catch her if he can

And normally, they need baths afterwards because it mostly ends up with one or both being tackled down. Good thing their jogging is in the beach so it doesn’t hurt that much when they fall

The first few times Vergil got very mad at all the sand in his clothes and refused to go to the beach for two months

Catheryn is cheesy as all fuck so she brings Vergil expensive gifts or simply things that remind her of him

Most of the time it’s a flower of some kind or even a long, beautiful feather of some beast she hunted

She’s basically the only one who knows he’s ticklish and he has made her swear she’d never tell anyone

She might have told their daughter

Yep they’d have a daughter in the future

As soon as Catheryn mentioned the words “pregnant” Vergil would almost collapse

“What??? Pregnant? Baby??”

A baby in your girlfriend? It’s more likely than you think

He’s actually happy because he’ll get to raise her and be the father he wasn’t to Nero

Although Nero is cool with that

Nero also calls Catheryn mom by the time Vergil and her get together because the similarities are too many to believe she isn’t his biological mom

Dante still wants a DNA test because Nero and Cathy both have snark, snowy hair, a desire to punch enemies and an immense love for memes

Basically they’re a very loving couple who works out nicely even though they started out wanting to claw at each other’s face

[draconicroyalty]

Naughty Or Nice?

“Why, thank you, Santa!” Is genuinely surprised. Thought murdering those dragon hunters in cold blood would get him in the Naughty list. Seems Santa knows they were bad people!

I did one for Catheryn too because I’ve been talking so much about her...Who knows, I may add her as a muse.

“Can’t a girl talk about how much she loves ass nowadays?! Santa has a stick up his ass for sure!”

Tagged by: @daughterofnero

Tagging: @iceflowers @s-xint

[draconicroyalty]

At one point in my fanfic Vergil will be seriously hurt and that, my dudes, that will be the moment we will understand Catheryn was holding back her abilities until that moment.

[draconicroyalty]

Okay, okay, okay, but imagine Vergil and Dante observing Catheryn’s relationship with Chiyuu. Who act as twins even though they’re five years apart. How that woman messes with him yet is caring just like an older sister and how he teases her yet looks up to her just like a little brother. A flawless relationship, almost. It’s like...obvious they’d give up their life for the other.

Dante probably sees Catheryn fretting over Chiyuu anytime his training or robot building goes wrong and ends up with him getting injured. How she motivates him, cares for him but never holds back an “I told you so” or “I warned you about this”.

Vergil watches Chiyuu looking at his sister with wonder, interest, pride. He looks up to the powerful woman his big sister became. How she is feared yet adored, lethal yet loving. He notices every single detail of their relationship, how siblings should behave.

Consider that kind of hurting Vergil and Dante because they don’t have that kind of relationship yet.

[draconicroyalty]

Catheryn when someone threatens Vergil.

[draconicroyalty]

I was...looking for references for Catheryn. And I’m...sweaty.

Fuck.

[draconicroyalty]

So, hcs about Ver/Ryn sparring?

Anon, I love you.

So, they don’t do half-assed sparring

No, no, no, they fight hard

Literally ‘fight like you want to kill me’ right there

Swords, phantom blades from Verge, fire magic from Cathy, hand to hand combat, switching weapons, they do everything

Their fave part is the hand to hand combat really

It’s personal, it’s intense, it makes adrenaline rush through their veins

They mostly do it in clearings, in the middle of forests, similar to when they first fought

They have done it in other places though, including Hyrond’s training quarters, an abandoned parking lot and even the beach

Sometimes their sparring sessions last from sunset to sunrise or more

They’ll never admit they do very much enjoy the view of the other’s hair sticking to their skin and the panting and the tired grins and the deep breaths before they get up and get at it again

It basically gives the same vibe as hate fucking almost

Vergil mostly ends up with bruises around his ribs from her powerful kicks, maybe a black eye and marks around his neck

Catheryn mainly gets scratches, a bloody mouth and bruises on her back

They spar at least once a week and actually help each other heal afterwards (Catheryn, of course, initiated that and Vergil just agreed with a groan)

The first time Vergil DT’ed to fight against her, Catheryn simply smirked and observed with interest

Before shifting into a large canid beast with huge teeth, claws and dragon horns

Her movements were slow due to that shape but goddamn did those paws smack him against a wall real hard

His DT has a few scratches on it’s ‘armor’ around the waist from being bitten by her in that form actually

During sparring one night, a bunch of demons walked into the field and they actually found out a nice way to combine their moves

By nailing her sword into the ground and controlling the earth below her, heating certain areas up to insane temperatures, she’d knock the demons up with lava, burning them

Meanwhile, Vergil would take the second they were in the air to slice them all apart

Catheryn’s cheesy as all fuck so she called it Burning Breeze

Dante gets to watch them go one day and he is legitimately scared they’ll kill each other

“STOP TRYING TO KILL YOUR BF/GF” “WE’RE NOT DATING”

Sparring against each other actually made their combined fighting get better and better over the years