#Post SS when Rhea is fully recovered they have a Zanado fruit meeting once per month

[randomnameless]

As im also a big rhea fan i do have to admit i also don’t like “alone b4 u” and at least enjoyed the church moments in hopes. However, i think that can easily be fixed with a few lines of dialogue (instead of the huge revisions ykb needs lmaooo): everything was normal between seteth and rhea and flayn until the eisners arrived, and then rhea started acting strangely; she started pulling away from seteth and flayn, being distant and weird and withdrawn. It can even tie into the diary scene/seteth questioning her, since he and flayn were obviously not privy to her homunculi, until the magic green hair dance happens and they suddenly understand. It can also fix a certain s support by reframing it under “i lost sight of my present and future by focusing on the past” instead of Alone B4 U. It doesn’t even need to change the game’s timeline of events or routes!

As an aside i’m still mighty pleased beach rhealeth is a canon duo and they like spending time together with the sand and the fish. All we need now is duo beach seteth n’ flayn to match them (and cyril but feh is mean to male characters so we’ll have to settle for him being a tempest trial unit i guess) and it’ll be a fun family beach episode 🐉🐠🌴

Oh,

AG is kind of an AU in an AU, but yes, in FE16 proper, I think even with Seteth who returned 20 years ago and Flayn who woke up last year, Rhea's still kind of closed of.

Like, she can goof around them because they are her family and she loves them, but there are still things, imo, she wants to do herself and she doesn't want them to know of, especially the "Rez Sothis" project.

Something like, she's more open with them than with the rest of the world and all, but they have been separated for so long that she and Seteth aren't as close as they were in Zanado, or even, in the War of Heroes.

Also there's something I noted thanks to voice line anon on their transcript of her lines in Nopes, at one point, she says this :

Flayn - "You have been working hard, Flayn. You have my utmost respect." 1,000 Enemies Defeated (same quote for Seteth) "We must strive to build a world where you need not dirty your hands in such a way."

(on pk in the jp version she says this instead "あなた方が手を汚さずに済む平穏な時代を築かなければ……" which more or less means the same thing?)

Coupled with her lines both in Golden Shower or Tru Piss - when she urges them to run away or, in Tru Piss, expected them to run away - this imo tells me Rhea takes her "duty" to protect and guide Fodlan personally.

It's not something Seteth and Flayn should do, and they shouldn't "dirty their hands" to make a better world, her own hands can be "dirtied", but theirs? She doesn't want that.

So yeah, in that sense, Billy's return and existence is somehow tied to her own duty - the one she cannot share with Seteth'n'Flayn - of watching/looking/guiding Fodlan.

And we know Rhea is desperate, because she thinks she's doing a crap job, but instead of complaining about it, she keeps it bottled. A bit like that meme "everything's fine" when the house is on fire, and Rhea has to keep pretening everything is fine, because it's her duty to watch over Fodlan, and Seteth'n'Flayn shouldn't worry about it - she's the one burdened by that, not them. Billy popping up would be her lifeline "it's fine everything is fine look Mother returned and at the end of the month everything will return to the way it was supposed to be, Sothis will fix everything wrong with Fodlan since I'm not able to do so"

and I could see the devs thinking this...

But - and this the biggest "but" - Rhea's lack of supports and ties to characters can't decently be erased by a mere "she ignores them because she hyper focuses on Billy", Rhea's close to her "brother like" figure, dotes on her niece, trains with her knight and protégée, and she'd just ditch them all due to this hyperfixation?

I don't buy it.

As you said, she could be acting weirder and weirder with Billy's signs they're awakening as Sothis's host, or something.

Maybe they could have made supports where Rhea avoids like plague to talk about the "current situation" and big events going on, and just talks about random stuff, like memories, training or picking on Seteth, encouraging Flayn and Cyril to make friends, etc etc...

And with the events of the game happening, her support convos could become more troubling, having supports where she refuses to talk to Seteth about "the demonic beasts" investigations, what's going on in the Empire and all, maybe with the final convo happening just before Jerry kicks the bucket, Seteth would try to grill her one last time, asking her to please let him in, he wants to help, and Rhea considers for a moment (with meaningful "..." points) but she doesn't and say everything's fine, Seteth seemingly abandons, saddened and when he's gone Rhea says she cannot allow him to help her again, it's her burden - (when he discovers the homonculi projet thanks to Jerry's diary he puts 1+1)

And the similar thing with Flayn would be just before the Holy Tomb map - Flayn worries about the "current state of things"and those people who took her blood, but Rhea oddly starts to talk about a celebration for the millenium year festival, how they could celebrate in the Monastery - Flayn could invite her new friends, and then she namedrops Flayn's mother who could also join, to Flayn's surprise, what the fuck is she talking about her mother's dead is she alright?? "yes everything is fine at the end of the month everything will be fine" -

And we know how it ends lol

In the end Rhea's revelation would be something more classical in the lines of her "relatives" pinching her cheeks saying she doesn't need to do everything alone, they can help her too - maybe with them telling her that both back then and now, they help her and Fodlan because it is something they want to do, not because she asks them to.

Maybe they'd tell her to stop feeling bad for what happened during the WoH, sure they lost people dear to them, but they do not regret it at all (with a bonus "Rhea feels like crap because if she never asked for their help during the WoH Cethleann would still have a mom and Cichol a wife and this ate her for 1000 years").

As for Billy -

instead of the "alone b4 u" maybe we could get a Billy centric piece about them feeling kind of bad Rhea apologises for... their existence? No matter the reasons behind their birth or heart transplant, they exist thank to her, right? So they'd tell her thanks, and it breaks her, because everything she thought she did wrong and her biggest sins - creating life - weren't sins since the people who were created were and are grateful to be alive?

I like your idea of "stop being so fixated on the path, look at the present and the future" and it's doubly nice if Billy is the one to say it, because they're Billy, not Sothis!

And it'd make a nice parallel in Nopes - Nopes is supposed to be a kind of bad AU where people don't develop as ideally as they do in FE16 without Billy - because in Nopes Rhea's all on the nostalgia trip, which prompts Seteth to remind her that 1000 years passed since she "borrowed" his shield or since Indech was last here (or since Willy died), they have to focus on the present.

Back to Billy, I'd think they'd be important as the person who tells Rhea that no, she didn't "royally screw up" since they exist thanks to her, and they're grateful + she can rest now, they will take up her job, or even better : since no one can guide the world etc etc alone, will she help them?

Revamped SS without "alone b4u" would still imply slightly tweaking some CGs and cutscenes, instead of having only Billy be present, Seteth and Flayn are here too - when she tells them they're in charge before transforming? Have Seteth with her (maybe saying Flayn already ran away, so what the frick is she doing, they should go, and Rhea nods, talks to Billy, and transforms). The cutscene when she's freed from the prison? Have Seteth pick her up, instead of Billy, maybe Flayn working some sort of magic, and Billy in the scene, visibly relieved as she thanks them and everyone for coming to rescue her. Shambala? More scenes with Cyril and Catherine, asking her if she's alright, if she needs to rest, maybe a CG of Catherine supporting her to walk or something similar with Cyril.

The final scene in the Cathedral ? Seteth enters first with his weapons, because he is the one who said they should kill her (even if i hate this plot mandated fight lol) so he feels like he has to be the one to do it, but Billy catches her and the scene goes as it does in the game.

Anyways - yeah I also like how FeH, Engage (and Cipher to a lesser extent?) represent Billy as liking to be with his lizard family, popping up with them, let it be for a swimsuit alt or for a Halloween alt - sure Gremlin!Sothis ruins the thing - but M!Billy's still on a event with Rhea, just like F!Billy. In canon they need to work a bit on their relationship, but there's no mistake were intended to be on good terms!

(even if in canon you have to be sad to fight against Supreme Leader, so Rhea must be sus, and everyone must tell you Church BaD else Rhea won't be sus, and Supreme Leader might not have a point, and we can't have that + FE16 made Billy the avatar/self-insert so they have to be empty enough to be able to pick each route and support every character)