#Rhealeth

[marthabuckart]

happy 5th anniv FE3H!

[witchy-lexx]

This meme except my two current comfort characters are from the same game, and they hate each other <3 rhea and edelgard, I know I know, I’m a complicated woman with complicated feelings

Also follow my art insta if you want !! Thanks for all the support I’ve been getting on tumblr!!!

[deathbirby]

[maybeathreat]

Kiss me softly, kiss me slowly

[mwezina]

Queen of Cups & FE3H

The Queen of Cups is the water of water. She is a figure who offers unconditional love and endless empathy, sometimes leaving herself vulnerable as a result. She sits by the sea, with her feet and clothing blending seamlessly with it, showing her deep connection to her inner emotions and the subconscious mind. Her cup is the only one that is ornamental and closed, showing the inherent mysteries of the unconscious mind and the depths of our emotions. 

The Queen of Cups is often selfless in her service to others and sometimes her actions seem difficult to understand or conflicting with her stated purpose. However, being the most family-oriented of an emotion-based suit, all she does will be in service of her community and her family. Just like the ornamented cup, she can seem materialistic, but only because she understands she is guarding something valuable. 

I connect this card to Archbishop Rhea. She is loving and extends her care to all the down-trodden. Garreg Mach is not just a city state, but also a place that takes in orphans and abandoned animals. Additionally, Garreg Mach gives asylum to foreigners and criminals, if Abyss is any indication. Even the grey throne the Queen sits upon reflects this, showing that she is unbiased and will pour from her cup for anyone that needs it. 

Lady Rhea also connects to this card in that she is always serving others, sometimes to the detriment of her own physical and mental health. We see this when she transforms into The Immaculate One to protect Garreg Mach and is injured as a result of that. We also see this in her declining mental health, but she continues to serve as Archbishop and maintain peace for the sake of the monastery. 

However, Lady Rhea does receive some respite through Byleth, and her inner child comes to life. We even see this reflected in the card, with the cherubs on the throne. 

The best part about this card is that the robe of the Queen of Cups is the same robe as The High Priestess. This makes it extraordinarily easy to connect it to Lady Rhea, as she has such a strong connection to The High Priestess already. So in a way, this is merely another look at Rhea’s mission to protect her family and her community.

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Next: King of Cups

[dvrtrblhr]

Somehow I still have more ships in my list? You people are too good at this lol

I'm searching for good Shez ships now, so I'd like to know everyone's favorites!

It should go without saying but please don’t be rude just because you don’t like a ship. If you want to debate or discuss a ship, do it in the tags/comments in a polite manner. This is supposed to be fun. Let’s all be mature adults!

If your favorite ship is not here, it’s probably featured in another poll. You can see all the polls by going to my blog and choosing the tag “valentines polls”. You can also just tell me in the tags or comments.

[diaphin93]

I'd love to read you breaking down Dimi/Rhealeth :)

Oh thats interesting, I'd love to do that. I will predominantly use she/her pronouns for Byleth just for ease, though I acknowledge that Rhealeth is a bi-ship for both Byleths.

Starting with Dimileth, its plain and simple, as a feminist and lesbian I just dislike the overall ship-dynamic of it, but I get the broader appeal of it. I mean, its basically a sizable portion of the contemporary published het-romance genre in a nutshell, you have a dangerous and unstable psychologically haunted men who hides a sweeter core and pair him with a kind and loving women who through self-sacrifice, selfless nuturing and tenderness fixes him and cures him of his ills. Its a super basic het dynamic and I personally really dislike it because of the very heteronormative, gendered patriachal dynamics involved in it, especially since the ship ingame strongly contextualizes Byleth as tender and fragile, in opposition to her characterization as a famed mercenary and powerful warrior.

I would argue that the ship is probably more favorable with Byleth as the PoV and Self-Insert character than the other way around, where it kind of can have incel-esque vibes and plays into issues of male entitlement towards a nuturing woman who acts as both a caretaker and a lover to a man. From a queer feminist standpoint, I dislike it either way, but there are individual pieces of fanart I can enjoy more than others, when they lean more into a physically strong and trained Byleth who appears as more of Dimitris equal. I guess I personally also get more behind it with Dimitris Post-Timeskip design in mind, which is one of the few male designs I find genuinly appealing, than with Pre-Timeskip Dimitri who is super bland in terms of personality and design for the most part. When I want to mock it, I call it 50 Shades of Fire Emblem, but I think there is not much more that needs to be said about the ship and my feelings on it.

I'm actually more fond of it when it involves Male Byleth being paired with Dimitri. I'm usually really not invested into m/m ships, being a near exclusive w/w shipper myself, but I think its a good example of how even with genderblind writing, a narrative can't really escape strong contextual and subtextual differences due to changing gendered dynamics, explicitely in a game like 3 Houses, that has at least implicitely alot to say about gender. There is also the difference between vibes in F!Byleth and M!Byleth, M!Byleth coming off as much more serious and reserved in comparison. I think this really helps to recontextualize the scenes between M!Byleth and Dimitri and the potential ship dynamic, there being more of an element of tenderness and nuture that M!Byleth displays despite his more reserved vibes which I prefer, similar to me liking the dynamic between F!Byleth and Edelgard much more, because I think this social Awkwardness and kinda autistic vibes f!Byleth has match well with Edelgards openness and interest in her. For a while I was more in the camp of wishing Claude was also bisexual and viewing Dimitri from a more unfavorable cishet perspective, but I think nowadays, if I could only one of those two romancable by both Byleths, I would go for Dimitri, especially since I think that with the culture of Faerghus in mind, there are some interesting headcanons for queer Dimitri. I recently saw an interpretation of Dimitri as transmasc in the Edelgard server lol and that was one that really captivated me, so Transmasc Dimitri x M!Byleth would be a ship I really would find interesting and I kinda grew on the idea of both Byleths being present and f!Byleth going with Edelgard and m!Byleth going with Dimitri, lol.

When it comes to Rhealeth, I think I have less to say about those two. I really personally don't feel it and I think the ship is just too inheritly problematic for me to enjoy. It is another ship that is canonically Bi, but I personally really dislike both variants of it. I think with the entire context in mind, there is a very uncomfortable vibe between Byleth and Rhea in their supports and it reads strongly as grooming and lovebombing, especially since Rhea doesn't seem exactly interested in Byleth as a person, but more in them in relation to being the child of people she was close to and her being the vessel of Sothis. The former already makes she ship kinda yikes, because there is a clear incestious element in it all that goes far beyond even Fates Step-Sibling kink. For all intents and purposes, Rhea is Byleths grandmother. She created Sitri, raised her and openly expresses that she viewed her as a daughter, while also being close to Jeralt since he was a young man or outright boy. Her ending up marrying their child, who she helped to deliver, is really messed up on a level where its just plain problematic and I don'T see much room in looking past it or viewing this as something romantic.

Then there is the fact that Rheas behavior if you chose Crimson Flower puts into question how sincere she is during all of their supports. Edelgard and Byleth also can end up in opposing sides of the war and fight each other, thats sure, but Edelgard still never expresses outright hatred or malice towards Byleth, she always treats her with respect and adoration, them fighting because they chose different sides in a war. With Rhea its very different, its an immediate snap into outright malice and dehumanization in a way that is very ugly and uncomfortable. At best thats outright toxic and unstable BPD behavior, to immediately dehumanize and devalue every aspect of a person because you feel rejected. I saw people here actually encourage and support this kind of behavior, which is a massive red flag on those people for me. At worst, its basically just Rhea spending the first part of the game purely lovebombing her and when Byleth doesn't conform, she expresses immediate malice.

I think it can be interesting potentially, but not in this romanticized way people on this website would probably advocate for it. Rhea has strong groomer and cultleader vibes, her behavior towards Byleth is a good example of grooming and the same can be extented to everyone else she is in close contact with, who isn't an actual Nabathean. People get enarmored alot with her motherly, benevolent persona, but I always felt like it comes off as more uncomfortable, very superficial, very thin. And in the end, with her behavior in CF also taken into mind because as much as ArchFireemblem and his Tradcath gang want to deny it, its also part of Rheas canonical characterization, She comes off as an unstable womanchild who does play at the motherly figure, emulating t his flat and infantile idealized and flawed vision of Sothis she has constructed in her head, which just does not exist.

In this vein, I think Rhealeth can be interesting in the way Makima/Denji from Chainsaw Man is fascinating and one of the most captivating and gutwrenching toxic relationships in contemporary media, as an analysis of a toxic and abusive relationship in which a powerful and mentally juvenile older woman grooms and manipulaties a socially isolated and impressionable younger woman she has a high level of power over into fulfilling her needs and constructing them into an idealized vision of an entirely different person.

So yeah, thats it. I think ultimately I'm really much more favorable and positive about Dimileth, even Het!Dimileth, than I'm to either version of Rhealeth. With Dimileth, I get the appeal and I can see how it is just a very popular and common fantasy which I personally dislike. With Rhealeth on the other hand, I just really can't see it in any other way but a very abusive and toxic instance of grooming and so far I personally found the kinds of people to whom that ship would appeal so far to be more than uncomfortable, which isn't necessarily my experience with Dimileth.

And hey, on the offchance that somebody reads this and gets Trans!Dimitri as a headcanon out of it, no matter with what kind of ship, just hit me up, I'm happy to read it.

[butchcraftwrites]

This just in today: when Byleth rescued Rhea from Enbarr, Byleth was smiling and Rhea was naked. It's not often that I receive new canon content about my favorite rarepair of a ship but my GODDESS

[diadoesart]

All my 2021 Pride patreon wallpapers are now available for purchase on my kofi! Link in pinned post

[oasologist]

that one cg but as magnet

[rektfordays]

[texts-from-3h]

[witchy-lexx]

ITS RHEA’S BIRTHDAY!! So here is a messy colored pencil sketch of her <3 to the woman that I have so many mixed feelings for (because I LOVE Edelgard but goddd Rhea is so pretty)

[deathbirby]

I don't know if Rhealeth is fully your thing, but like what are your thoughts

I eat Rhealeth for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I think they're neat. Being able to let go of a fantasy and truly see the person who was always there for you.

Also the meme potential... Jeralt tells Byleth to be careful of Rhea and Byleth completely ignores that and invites her to tea and yeeted gifts at her.

Or Byleth seeing Rhea reveal her true form and immediately going to help her when they see she is in trouble. They deadass do not care about what she looks like. Imagine them running down that hill while they're internally going "HOLY FUCK THATS HOT"

Or how Byleth is so fucking concerned for Rhea in SS (and VW) and just wants to find her. They're running around Fodlan looking under rocks and climbing in trees to find her you just know.

Oh and Byleth not escaping when Rhea blasts the nukes at Shambhala when they could absolutely do that. They're worried for their dragon pope...

Also Byleth running over to Rhea's unconscious form and holding them like that "you good?" "no" meme.

And before the battle they just look so sad when Seteth tells them they gotta ohko Rhea. They dont wanna do that damn ittt.

And then the final cutscene. Byleth deadass ran ALL THE WAY to the cathedral while SOMEHOW keeping up with this big fuck off dragon. They were determined to get to her in time. And then they hold her as she flatlines from peak fiction.

[maybeathreat]

I've been watching your world from afar

I've been trying to be where you are

I've been secretly falling apart...

[mwezina]

Ten of Cups & FE3H

The Ten of Cups signifies family and community. We see multiple generations dancing and entranced by the appearance of a rainbow, with greenery and a bright red house in the background. It shows a happy time spanning generations. It also shows the ending of difficult times, as rainbows frequently occur after a particularly violent storm. 

This card can also show that love and support extends to all in a wide reaching safety net. The house in the background is especially illuminating, as lush forests and winding rivers mean nothing without the people you love and care about. 

I relate this card to Byleth’s ending with Rhea in Silver Snow. Byleth has finally learned about their own heritage, and can finally have a place where they truly belong in this world: with their family. 

In their ending card, Byleth and Rhea rebuild the Monastery and the city state of Garreg Mach. Their work is said to have resulted in progress and helped the lives of many people throughout Fódlan. This demonstrates them working together to create a safety net that spans generation. 

I really like this card for Byleth and Rhea, as it shows the power of faith to provide enduring change.

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Next: Page of Cups