#because he's not contentious like edelgard | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

arkus-rhapsode · 1 year ago

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Hey so thanks for taking the time to write this and be as cordial as you could. I much prefer this than seeing someone just like rage tweeting. So I see your points and Im gonna try and respond to them as best I can, it might not be as coherent as I am writing this without much prep time. I think this is going to come down to a matter of interpretation. So again, this is all just me, and how I feel about these topics. Im not going try and tell you that if you feel this way that you're invalid for feeling that. Im real happy you could enjoy or see this in a way that I couldn't. So everything I'm about to say is all in good faith. I don't believe you're trying to undermine me or something like that. I see as someone who saw my opinion I put out in the world and had their own opinion on the matter of the points I raised. So thanks for taking the time.

-So I agree with you to an extent about CF not really being about Byleth. Because in my opinion 3H as a story is really more about the lord characters. I find Byleth a somewhat contentious addition to the overall plot. I would have honestly been really fascinated without Byleth. But Byleth is a part of this narrative so while I think CF can be a story told without Byleth having that much effect on it, I feel like Byleth's inclusion warrants a examination on what role they play in comparison to each lord.

-I don't disagree with the idea that choice is a theme. But this is more tied into gameplay as a narrative. I wish I had more choice. And I wish it was an option throughout other routes. I really think FE as whole could be interesting having a more choose your own adventure type of adventure. So while agree with you it is a theme, its hampered in my opinion by the lack of options in the other routes makes this feel a lot more apparent.

-I can understand that. That her change is relying on other people. Again my issue is more when it happens. I think that this is something I should've seen after the time skip taking effect. Once again, I wouldn't be anal about this had it not been for the other routes having that sort of consistency between timeskips. Which is then altered by the presence of Byleth. So I do hear you and I think that her change as a more open person is good. I think the problem for me, is the timing and placement of it.

- So okay I don't want this to make this about Claude. Not cause I like them or don't. Its difficult to talk about about one route in 3H without acknowledging the others. In my personal opinion (Claude fans please understand this is not a attack on your boy) I actually he is the least interesting and weakest of the stories/lords. I honestly think he needs more content to both his characters and his plot. But again, this was not really a post about GD and VW. So I spoke about it more in the abstract. If you were to ask me who is just "objectively good" in how their route is written, its VW. But again, that's not really what I wanted to analyze. Maybe one day I will, because do have opinions on Claude.

-This is also kind of another one, I feel like in my good faith reading of everything, when I say questionable I mean more in the sense that the intent seems to be everyone is in some way flawed. And this was something that 3H was getting praise for was all the lords were capable of having pros and cons to their arcs (Again, I mean abstract sense). I think it is up for the player to ultimately decide where they stand. However, I feel personally that 3H as a whole suffers from leaving that choice to the player and tries to positively reinforce choice in the text. I can understand this choice again because of its social aspect mechanics, um I felt there was a hesitation to fully dive into that.

And I will agree with you CF does take interesting stance in that Edelgard's Flame Emperor actions have been called into question and her class will follow her. That is interesting. That is something that I feel like AM and VW really didn't capitalize on with its casts.

-I can see why Edelgard fighting beside her is more than important of "is her way just?" I think this is more going into a problem I have with 3H as a whole again not so much a CF specific problem. I feel like there is an importance placed upon the non lord class students, but given how relevant they are in the narrative, it does require to stretch. That's I focused more on the relationship between lord and Byleth because even while I have problems with Byleth it is a consistent thing that Byleth relationship IS relevant. From a gameplay standpoint, 3H is still Fire Emblem game, so there's a lot of writing accounting for characters to either be dead or recruited to other houses. And its not entirely clear. I would've really been interested if 3H went the extra mile with these class characters and devoted more plot relevancy to them so I can feel that they are more than just assigned units to a class. I would've gotten rid of permadeath and focused on more narratively intwined storytelling. This is less a flaw with CF, but rather a meta issue I just have with FE3H overall.

-So this one might be a little confusing, but the thing is I don't have a problem if you work bad people. I genuinely don't. I feel like I was cheated out of interesting things that could arise from Edelgard working with TWSITD and Cornelia and things like that. I think there was a "fear" when I wrote this that I'd get flack from people who were fans of Edelgard and tell me "you want her to act like an antagonist in her own route. Which is not the case. I am open to characters doing unsavory things in a war story. I think I was trying to please both extremes when I thought about that. Being Edelgard can still have her power play, but also avoid the backlash from people being like "oh no you can't do that because that makes her look to evil" (And I know when I write this all out, I begin to understand why some of the developers try to please some fans with these changes). I think if I am allowed to say another idea I had. Its perhaps still have the Dukedom established and Byleth comes there and you clearly get a sense of who Cornelia is and you and Edelgard defeat someone like Rodrigue in battle protecting it. And maybe get another scene with Cornelia. Again, leaving you the audience to wonder if this is "right" rather than it being an in text question.

My bad if it makes it sound like I was trying to make a moral argument. I honestly have no problem if Edelgard wants to work with "bad" people and use them for her cause. I just wish I got it in her route. My fault for not indicating that I'm okay with the Dukedom/empowering Cornelia for Edelgard in and of itself. I was trying to put myself in the shoes of trying to please everyone given the scenario. I should've included more scenarios in the statement.

-Im not saying she does not understand. This was more me looking at it from the perspective of what is Edelgard doing in this route that sets it apart from the other routes. while still trying to keep her goals as justifiable. Again this was probably just an issue of trying to please everyone and I apologize that's not the case.

-I also really want to get this out of the way, when I was writing this, I didn't want "flaw" to be something undermined the character's goals. Because I do think every lord is justifiable to an extent. I agree with Dimitri and Claude's want to an extent just as I do agree with Edelgard to an extent. I think ideally what you want to do in that case as Byleth is show that the character is justified while not undermining them. Because Dimitri being a mad king should necessarily negate that he wants people to be safe and not want people's death to be in vain. But he also learns as a person that how he might be going about it or rather a self examination of that is warranted. I don't want Edelgard in CF to be undermined in her wants. I think as a character, she should be able to make her choices and be justified in what she is doing. I think however, its fair enough to either have that same re examination as Dimitri could have while still maintaining her original goal. And I know that you can say "but she did that already and it was in part 1." And I can understand that I just personally don't find that as narratively satisfying as it would be in the post time skip. This is probably the root of a lot of my issues is believing this would be more appropriate to be explored in post time skip. I think maybe my message could've been clearer on that front. Its not that she "needs" to be called into question, I would just rather be interested in see everything from her angle given the same post time skip. I would like for the narrative of CF to be a world similar to that of the other routes, and show me it from her POV whether it is empowering someone Cornelia or working with TWSITD.

-So I hear you on the empowering. And I'm not trying to shut you down on that. This was just not meant to be a post that was a full analyzation of Edelgard the character. I wanted this be more of an examination Crimson Flower as a narrative. Supports I do believe are important for defining these characters, And if I was going to look the construction of Edelgard as a whole, I would've done that. But that was not my intent. My intent was to examine narrative with nothing superfluous which I included the supports in that. Once again I should've been more up front about that.

-Again I don't want to turn this into Byleth conversation. Because again that isn't what I was trying to look at, but I do see what you are saying that Byleth in CF still has a purpose individual to themselves as a character.

-Okay so now we get to Rhea. So I think I need to be a bit more clear here. Again, my mistake I will probably edit some of these changes in now that we are talking about this. For me, if you go through the other routes outside of CF, the Empire plays the more instagatorial role in the narrative. And that is by design. As they are the ones who started the war I don't think it would make like any sense for like the Alliance to be the active antagonists in Dimitri's story (Well obviously not counting the pro imperialist faction). I think in the case of CF there really shouldn't be an "antagonist" or rather "villain." Like when you fight Kingdom and Alliance soldiers in CF they are an "active antagonist" as the are an opposition. Rhea however takes a more up active role in CF picking a side and providing the Knights of Seiros and not being held captive. Rhea when I say is neutral during the war I mean she is neutral as in a player who is not available. I have no doubt if Rhea wasn't captured in VW or AZ we would see her actively participating as what Edelgard wants is fundamentally opposed to Rhea's wants. Obviously that's just speculation. We just don't know as that didn't happen in AZ and VW. So yes Rhea's attitude is not out of character. I do believe she makes sense within the context of CF and what we were provided. Im just not personally satisfied how that context was achieved. Again, I just do not enjoy the new post time skip Fodlan. I feel like it changes too much to get this scenario. Would I have been interested in exploring this Rhea? I would. I would've been interested in exploring her at all in any other route. But this is again my personal issue that is tied in with how much is changed.

-Again, Im sorry this is becoming repetitive, this was not supposed to be an analysis of Claude and I have problems with VW as a route. Trust me I do. I could probably make a post about all of that. But again that was not what I wanted to talk about in this one.

-So this one is going to probably come down more to interpretation. And look, I really want to just say Im not trying to undermine Edlegard, this was again more of an attempt to satisfy everyone. I want her to be able to do things on level playing field as the other characters had gotten post time skip. But I didn't want to propose something that sounded like I was saying "Why is she not the villain" because she is a complex character. The mere act of starting the war is already "questionable" like I don't want to make this a moral discussion I think we can all agree that war is bad, but FE is a war game so obviously to be that for there to be an FE game. But she is not an unjustifiable character. They create a world where Edelgard is clearly a character afflicted by loss able to make a world that is different even if she may be subjecting others to potentially suffering loss as well. That true systemic change can only come about through revolution. But of course you need to be able to show that there may be some attention to that darkness. She's not "wrong" in what she wants. She as character deservers to make her dream a reality. I think for me, I was unsatisfied with Byleth's role in that basically being done pre time skip as opposed to other lords where a lot of that is an examination of Byleth's effect on them is more focused, but also didn't like that again the world of post time skip CF was so different that it felt like I was being denied the ability to see what Edelgard could do with her acts like imprinting Rhea/making the Dukedom. Because if you play through AZ or VW or SS and you see that on the outside, it seems so bad or unjustifiable. But through CF we could see it from her point of view and understand it. Leaving up to the player to make decisions if this was okay or do not think its okay. Again a lot of my general issues with CF stem from such an alternate scenario not necessarily CF's fault.

-So I think I would be less critical of CF's scenario if every route had been different or altered Fodlan. Like it wasn't the same situation in AZ as it is in VW. There was a willingness to be consistent in that regard but not for CF. The hypotheticals posed were not supposed to be equivalent in size, it was more about the freedom the player had to alter things. I would love for there to be an FE that gave me more choice. Like I would love it there was more ways to effect the future and make more different futures. And create more unique routes. But that's just not what the game provides. Which I would be fine with had the only other real choice not be locked to Black Eagles route and it result in such a change. I don't what I could've done if I were to make one of those alterations to other routes. I think it would require just a group up reworking of 3H as a whole. Which again, I wasn't trying to do. I was trying to work with the content that was provided to me.

-I hear you. But I just would've preferred seeing Edelgard and TWSITD more in her route in her war effort. Again, this is just preference. I understand what you mean as she's changed so she doesn't need to rely on them, but I also can see it as a meta choice to not have this uncomfortable aesthetic of your side using the giant monster.

-I think a possessed antagonist can be satisfying. Lyon was great and Grima is just evil Robin from the future. I think it just depends on execution. But I agree with you, I wish Rhea as a character got to do more. I am deeply unsatisfied with how much of her is character is tied up in like lore dumps and such.

-Again this is more a matter of execution, we do "beat them" in the ending. But its just kinda unsatisfying to be told that after we got to literally kill the church dragon. I genuinely wish we got whatever chapters were missing from CF to spend like killing Thales or something on a unique map.

-I hear you. And know what maybe we can compromise. Still keep Rhea the final villain in this case, but maybe have a series of TWSITD fight before that. Then maybe instead of using whatever rage magic he uses on Rhea in SS, Thales just lets her out of her cage and Rhea in her own right mind still pissed at Byleth kills Thales or maybe briefly has a map where she has rallied some troops threatening the ability of what an Adrestia controlled Fodlan is like. Maybe even parallel it to how Adrestia did rule Fodlan and fought with Seiros and now Seiros has returned and this time going to break down Adrestia by establishing her crest system all over again. Only this time Byleth/Edelgard is the Nemesis. That way we still get the satisfying gameplay of fighting TWSITD, but also keep Rhea as the true final boss without possession

-I understand what you're saying and I don't want to imply that I'm saying an abuse survivor is at fault for working with the TWSITD. That isn't my intention. I was looking at it more as Edelgard as a leader who can verbally state they're evil even knows that we need to get rid of them after working with them. I think it was more not getting that actual in game closure was just unsatisfying for me.

So I hope I'm not trying to backpedal on my points. I think one of our issues is perhaps more my fault in framing. I should've been more clear that I was trying to satisfy everyone. But there only so much transparency I think I was able to give in this case of this post without it becoming stream of conscious with little structure.

I truly think this will probably be a different strokes different folks situation. And that's something I wanted this post to be. I didn't want speak with authority and dismiss what people thought that was contradictory to my own feelings. This was all just stuff that I could've seen making CF a more satisfying outing for me personally. Again I am glad that people do enjoy this route. And I was happy to have this conversation in a civil way looking at my criticisms and responding with your own. And once again, I don't think either of us are going to really change our over position on this. But Im glad that you took the time to list your issues with my points and I had the opportunity to respond to them.

That said in the future I do hope that if we are going to continuously have this conversation. Maybe we can do it in some format that isn’t Re blogs if this post is gonna get so long lol.

Thank you for your time.

I want to talk about Crimson Flower and 3H as a narrative

So... after FE3H discourse makes the round every other week, I end up thinking about it for a bit until I realize, hey maybe its better to not focus on a 4 year old game at this point and occupy your time with something else. Everything has basically been said about it at this point and you know where you land.

But this time my thoughts were just getting too strong for me to ignore, so that's why I'm writing this both get it out of my system and maybe just be another voice in the crowd that some people might want to listen to on the divisive topic that is Crimson Flower route.

Now I really hate that I have to put this disclaimer up front, but I feel like the well of this discussion has become so poisoned that I have to before I make my piece. I want to say that if you enjoy Crimson Flower, if you love Edelgard and believe she did nothing wrong and this is the right route, if you are a Black Eagles stan and you genuinely do not have any issues with Crimson Flower route as a whole-that is perfectly fine.

This will be a somewhat critical examination of the narrative choices about the execution of CF, which I feel like whenever 3H, specifically Edelgard is discussed, there is often very disingenuous arguments people make. Which I believe can create more defensive fans of a particular aspect of a story that we should be able to criticize freely. Which perpetuates this never ending cycle of discourse of legit criticism and defense against that criticism becomes drowned out by trying to decouple these very disingenuous claims from legitimate flaws. So I at least want to make it known that I am going to try my best to be in good faith with this post about this tricky subject.

I also want to just say, this is also going to be mostly an examination of narrative. The thing that I personally enjoy the most in an FE game, but we need to genuinely acknowledge that narrative isn't the only reason why people may like Fire Emblem. The ability to form parasocial relationships with fictional characters and being able to experience something the genuinely brings you emotional fulfillment is not invalid. Being able to enjoy fighting against establishments or ideologies you in the real world disagree with through the experience of a video game is not invalid. The same way someone who plays this game for the experience of gameplay isn't invalid when their primary enjoyment stems from the actual mechanics rather than the "logistics" of the story. The point I'm trying to make is that everyone will engage in media in different ways and will enjoy it other ways and that you don't want to invalidate those feelings someone had with their personal experience. So this is going to be about me and my experience as someone who primarily enjoys narrative.

I am just one guy with opinions who is going to layout what I had an issue with and how I think for me that could've been improved upon. You don't have to agree with me on that, and I'm not saying my way is legitimately better. This is all opinionated.

Buckle this is a long one

First things first Im gonna say Im not going to be using any information given in Three Hopes that may contradict what Im about to say. As in my opinion Three Houses came first and does not include the content from Three Hopes so I should think that Three Houses can stand on its own merits and the content that was provided.

Next thing is I want to catch people up on what in my opinion are the points I think CF did for me that ultimately left me unsatisfied

The post time skip Fodlan was too different and felt contradictory to Byleth's role

Edelgard's Characterization in CF in comparison to the other lord's in their respected routes

The role of Rhea

The role of Those who Slither in the Dark

SO the first thing is probably the thing I'm mostly going to have to defend if I haven't lost you already, but Fire Emblem Three Houses as a narrative provides us with a five year time skip in the game that depending on the route will change who is control of the monastery at this point in the war, with each route providing a lord the chance the forge their campaign. However, something I don't think is brought up enough is talking about the liberties that CF takes with their time skip vs the other three routes. Azure Moon, Verdant Wind, and Silver snow all paint a post five years Fodlan as one where the monastery territory has been abandoned, Rhea has been captured, the Alliance territory is split between an imperialist faction and an anti imperialism faction, and the Kingdom has been split with Cornelia making an alliance with the Empire to create the Dukedom of Faerghus as the houses of Gautier and Faldarius hold up the Kingdom.

There are obviously minor changes like Dimitri camping out in the monastery in Azure Moon rather than in the care of Kingdom Allies, but for the most part there is a consistently defined world between the three routes. However, Crimson Flower's post Fodlan is much different. With a grid locked Fodlan after five years with just the church territory falling under the control of Adrestia, Rhea wasn't captured and instead made it to Faerghus, The Alliance is still feuding amongst itself, but most importantly than all, Faerghus is a complete kingdom with Dimitri as King and no Cornelia's Dukedom.

So there are two main reasons why this bothers me.

The first is that Three Houses as a game wants to present you with three options at first, with the idea that your choices will effect the outcome of the war when Byleth returns, however there's enough consistency to imply that this is what Fodlan would be like regardless of whose House you would join, with the primary effect being your class making it to the church for the festival which in turn will make the monastery your new territory for which route. However, Crimson Flower decides to do away with the consistency, implying that the effect Byleth had on the situation is far greater than that of any other route resulting in a drastically shifted Fodlan. So this is more of a problem with FE3H as a whole with the consistency of choice. Fire Emblem has never really had a BioWare style choose your own adventure type of game. There's only one real choice you're given in the case of 3H and that's which house you side with, which you are essentially locked into. Black Eagles is really the only route that offers a choice beyond that with choosing to side with Edelgard or Rhea which will effect who the class sides with in the time skip. The reason I bring this up is that it essentially means that you the player are for the most part on rails for a predetermined plot where all the choices for the series have already been made. So the Fodlan post five years being consistent makes some sense as essentially mostly everything that happened in White Clouds was the same with the acceptation of the class. However, the Crimson Flower one not being consistent and being so radically different based on a game with so minimal choice feels more like an act of narrative convenience. That this is what happened because of a writer fully independent from me the player had decided that this is how Fodlan shall be for this story because it fits what they want to tell.

Somewhere I had once read that FE3H shouldn't be treated as one story, but since its a bunch of routes they're all a different universe. Everything might look the same but everything is fundamentally altered that you should accept it as an independent universe. And I can't necessarily say that's wrong as the concept of multiverses is to create a world/scenario that allows to explore familiar characters in unfamiliar settings and you could say that Byleth effect on Edelgard in picking this universe was just so much greater that it would result in such a different universe.

I personally disagree with that which brings me to my second point as I believe this one is going to be a more philosophical point on game design. But I feel like the effort to make three routes so consistent with each other with one so different seems to deliberately undercut the core themes of the game. Offering you a choice that this is who you get to spend your happy schools days with and it is what is going to result in them returning to the monastery one the day of your return. That is the true effect of Byleth on the characters. But as you play through white clouds you can't change what happens to other characters which will result in a brand new scenario. Byleth's presence can never stop Dimitri from going blood mad, Byleth's presence can't stop Claude from discovering the Immaculate One research, and Byleths presence can't stop Edelgard from declaring war. And that is a good thing for this type of on rails route story. Byleth while a player insert who can help their lord in the future, right now everyone is on a path that Byleth can only lightly change. With the characters acting independently of what Byleth and the player desire. And the post time skip Fodlan is a sign of that. Its Five Years without Byleth. This is what these characters would do, that they were always capable of doing and that is why Byleth's return and effect on them is important. This also gives us the ability to observe what a lord is like now after the war, and Byleth's effect on them but also see what a character could be like without that Byleth effect on them. Without Byleth Dimitri stays mad, without Byleth Claude always flees Fodlan, without Byeth Edelgard... well lets put a pin in that.

The only other true choice the player can make beyond the initial one is the side with Edelgard or Rhea which radically alters her. Which honestly feels kinda defeating in a game that has locked Byleth so much on a path and the one time it can deviate actively alters everything. It just feels very hollow as there are parts that make you realize how great the effect Byleth could have on people's lives could be if the game actively wanted to integrate choice with the plot. But it didn't. It wants to make one early choice then lock you in that route for several chapters then remove Byleth and then have their return effect real change on the future of Fodlan. Except for this one route. Its why Crimson Flower feels so much like an asterisk compared to the other route. And I don't just mean the lack of chapters, but this feels like a route that can only exist because it was the one that the developers bothered to create something overly deviating from everything else.

Which brings us to Edelgard's role in Crimson Flower as a whole. Now lets just get this out of the way. Im not going to be talking at all on the morality/realistic implications of what Edelgard is doing. I feel like the "Is she a fascist/authoritarian" conversation is not really helpful to talking about FE3H as a work of narrative and mostly exists to create a bunch of petty beef. This is also not going to be a deconstruction of ever minute detail of Edelgard as a character. This is an examination of her as a character in the narrative that we are presented. This will also involve comparison's to Edelgard and other series lords and I want it to be known that this is not a talking down to the only female lord in the game as being something "lesser" than her male contemporaries. I believe there is genuinely sexism when discussing Edelgard as a character, so I want to say that I am approaching Crimson Flower and Three Houses as a whole in a good conscious that there is not a "right route." That this is a game that where all choices have their pros and their cons. Because that's why we like this entry, right? That 3H would provide us some genuinely complex lords who were all capable of doing great and terrible things regardless of gender?

That's why I had such a long winded discussion about why the change in the post time skip Fodlan is so important both for narrative consistency, but also just generally keeping with the tone, but also it reinforced that Fodlan and its lords while all righteous in their own way can be dangers in their own way. Well that's when I return to the pin about Edelgard. So first I want to go through how the lords are characterized in non devoted routes.

Dimitri in non AZ routes is portrayed as someone so damaged by loss that his who response is to avenge and fight. To never stop making those pay for the damage it has brought on his kingdom as well as any lives lost during the tragedies in places like Duscar and Remire.

Claude in non VW routes is portrayed as a brilliant individual with a lot of charm but seems to be hiding something from everyone. He's a lot smarter than one could assume and that he has some mysterious tie to the kingdom of Almyra that he departs after leaving his land to the stronger kingdom that has come so far, be it Dimitri or Edelgard or the Church.

Edelgard in non CF routes is portrayed as a conspirator to overthrow not only the church but all rule in Fodlan as she believes the Crest based system is flawed and that the only way to enact systemic change is through a single rule. And while she is aware her ideals have costs, she believes that those costs are worth it when weighed against perpetuity of the crest system.

Now I want to talk about what happens to those lords as you play them in their routes.

Dimitri in AZ is portrayed as someone burdened by loss and his quest for vengeance has led to a neglect for his own health and his own actions. That his kill everyone attitude will perpetuate more loss of those he loves and that he needs to learn to rely upon others. That is his true responsibility as king.

Claude in VW is portrayed as an individual who is outside of Fodlan's system who has observed it more as a third party and believes it can be a great place if people work through diplomatically. He too is not a fan of inequality and racism and wishes to make a Fodlan that is more accepting and able to work through negotiation. While he still leaves Fodlan at the end, this time he has been able to implement real systemic change and make one that is sustainable beyond that of a ruler.

In CF we find out that Edelgard is a traumatized girl who was experimented on for the purposes of Crest Research. This makes her a conspirator to overthrow not only the church but all rule in Fodlan as she believes the Crest based system is flawed and that the only way to enact systemic change is through a single rule. And while she is aware her ideals have costs, she believes that those costs are worth it when weighed against perpetuity of the crest system.

Hey wait a minute, that's the same?

So this is where I get to the most glaring flaw for me in this case of narrative and why I think altering the post time skip so much did a lot of damage. Edelgard is a good character and a fascinating one, but in the practice of her narrative, her character journey in her own route isn't like the other lords. Rather she is "right" from the start of the time skip and with the world altering in ways to justify why she is that way.

Now look, I know right now someone could be saying I can't read, that its clearly stated in the text that Edelgard says without Byleth she may have turned into a complete monster to see her goals through to the end. This is referring to how in non CF routes she is on the backfoot getting beaten back and forced to take more drastic measures as whoever Byleth comes closer to ending her ideals. Unlike Dimitri or Claude there's not really a psychological arc she is working through with her sociological arc. Dimitri's arc is almost entirely hinged on him as a character changing in his route. And while Claude the character is also mostly the same, you get an understanding of how his continued participation in Fodlan's politics is so important as he effects sociological change. Claude also does the less stuff that could be considered questionable in Fodlan. He neither initiates the war nor does he intimate greater conflict that is tied into a character arc like Dimitri. Claude action's through the war are mostly to keep the Alliance fighting against each other with avoids giving one side a greater advantage. The truth is Claude real "flaw" is that by being an Almyra he is from a race outside of Fodlan that is inherently untrustworthy in society so his continued prescience in his expanded campaign is done with changing that mentality.

Now one could look at everything I said about Claude and say "well isn't that Edelgard though? She's not the one who needs to change but rather society needs to and this is you making it a fruition?" And I would agree however, then why did post time skip need to change and not Edelgard? So going back to the altered Fodlan, the Fodlan post time skip we see in non CF routes has what can be argued Edelgard's biggest moment of political conquest, making an alliance with Cornelia inside of Faerghus using her authority and influence to expand and bring over a chunk of the kingdom underneath Edelgard's wing. And this makes sense with what has been proposed before us-Edelgard had released a manifesto to lords that would side with her and become her allies in the war to come. This act of subversion is something that benefits her goals for conquering all of Fodlan. However, this is one of the key alterations in CF's time skip. Faerghus is not broken in half, with Edelgard having not empowered Cornelia over the five years. In fact, you do battle with Cornelia with her as a kingdom general.

So if Edelgard isn't a character who is subject to change, why did the world change? Well there is speculation in universe that perhaps Rhea fleeing to Faerghus didn't give her the ability. But I do believe the most likely reason is that narratively the writers of 3H wanted to avoid a scenario where while Byleth was gone Edlegard may have empowered and individual like Cornelia. One of the most objectively evil characters in the game. Now I won't go into to detail if I believe Edelgard knew Cornelia was a TWSITD or not, but as it is presented to us, she seems unaware. Instead I'll focus on the primary point is where they don't want to discuss that while in her route Edelgard was capable of doing something that would potentially cast her in such a negative light. After all, the point of her campaign is the while the bloodshed is worth it to make a new Fodlan free of crests, she's willing to show lenency to those who bend the knee. Again, an action not unreasonable for her character. However, I feel like this not happening in CF genuinely robs us from exploring the flaws of Edelgard's path/showing us what Byleth's effect on her truly is.

This is compounded by my issues with how CF is the only route in which you have an active choice beyond class. That by choosing to side with Edelgard when given the option in the tomb would result in this much radical history alteration. But also all of Byleth's effect on her not being as much conqueror over the last 5 years was all done pre time skip. That all that change was done at that moment rather than being something that prompted her to return to Garreg Mach where they'd remeet Byleth and then that would get them to claim it as a base of oppositions in their future war. In CF, Garreg Mach is already claimed rather than the formation of the Dukedom with no real progress. So it makes it seem as though Byleth's real effect on altering this lord's path was always possible in the short time they knew them before disappearing over five years. Of course this is again a bit miffling given that CF is the only route this is a possibility. We can't Change how Dimitri will act in the pre time skip. That he will make choices without Byleth even if they feel urged to remeet at Garreg Mach. But in the case of CF, Edelgard has apparently been changed despite the only real difference in white clouds fighting beside her in the tomb and against the church pre timeskip. But that has sociologically altered so much of Fodlan.

And maybe you genuinely believe that one extra change is enough. Perhaps that one extra choice is enough justification for such a radically new scenario. For me personally, I find that unsatisfying and feels more like the writers traded in a level of consistency for this new scenario that greater justified being on the side of someone who is portrayed as a more active antagonistic force in other routes (Reminder this not me saying the Empire route is an antagonist route. All routes are antagonistic relative to which side you are on).

This is where we get my first what I would've done to make it more narratively satisfying for me. Keep the same post time skip Fodlan as the other routes. Keep Edelgard having brokered a deal with Cornelia to establish the Dukedom and have Byleth find out about it. Be some that either Byleth or another character close to Edelgard questions the extremity of. Then have Cornelia do something evil like she's experimenting on people for TWSITD or maybe she's just abusing the power. Then have Edelgard clean it up. Have Edelgard realize that while she still wants to make her dream of a crestless Fodlan a reality she can't just back lords or nobles that are willing to go along with her for more power. She can still keep the Dukedom territory, but instead she'd be now more understanding what it means for there to be a ruler with a noble soul. So she continues her campaign of conquest but has realized that if she's going to be emperor, she can't just empower people arbitrarily.

In my opinion this not only would tie together some more TWSITD plot while also paralleling it to Edelgard's past and how there was no authority figure to step in and help her all those years ago. But now she is that authority figure. And while it doesn't call her method in question and like Dimitri and Claude she can continue her expanded influence over Fodlan, but now we actively see that Byleth has helped show her that her allies aren't just those pledging loyalty, she actually needs to empower those who are good. She gets to have her fight with Cornelia level and this won't stop her from killing Dimitri in the future.

Like I said, this is what I'd do. And in my opinion it would give Byleth's presence in CF more purpose beyond the bond with Edelgard is nice and fun. But also stay consistent with each route. Showing that there are flaws in Edelgard's sociological plan, but not undercutting what her actual goal is. You can still believe her quest is just and the only right one with her taking an active role in not making the mistakes she perceives Rhea as doing.

And if you are still with me up to my third point, lets talk about Rhea.

So Rhea as a character can best be described as a neutral evil throughout White Clouds. She doesn't really do anything but there is a lot of ominous foreshowing and presentation that Rhea may be up to something or at the very least complicit with many of her policies and tendencies. And when I say "evil" I don't mean she's bad (please don't skewer me Rhea fans). I mean that if the crest system is flawed and the church is emblematic of the systems maintenance of that flawed system. Then Rhea as the face/founder/head of that church bares some responsibility even if all she does is passive.

In all other routes, Rhea is captured by the Empire. Imprisoned in their capital. Anytime she is seen after she is characterized as somewhat docile or defeated, having been imprisoned for so long. VW goes a step farther to reveal what she did as Seiros and all of her actions leading to this point presumably all thanks to be imprisoned and rethinking her life over. CF is the only one Rhea is allowed to be an active player, she is now portrayed a ranting self righteous warrior priest who swears vengeance upon Byleth for being the reincarnation of her mother but not being a proper vessel as she intended and fighting against her. Naturally, if Byleth being the potential for the reincarnation of Sothis siding against her is what her drives her mad, that is believable, however much like the altered Fodlan Rhea in this version is not captured. This is now for Rhea to serve as Edelgard's true climatic opponent. With her symbolically killing the representation of the church and the power of crests being slain by Byleth and Edelgard. Its very poetic. But once again we reach my issue of the time skip altering so much in CF.

As stated before, Rhea was presented as a neutral evil, in doing so she's not really a direct antagonist in any route. Except of course Silver Snow. Where she is deployed as a weapon against Byleth. In this case killing the immaculate one symbolically is cleansing the church of Rhea and allowing it to pass into the hands of the new archbishop. However, Rhea in that fight is under control. Rather than be conscious as an opponent, they make her more of a beast without choice. Thus making this less a flawed character meeting their end and rather a forced confrontation by the evil cult of evil. Now Rhea I think being kept a neutral party was ultimately a good choice. We are given enough about her to understand she has done things questionable and should possibly not hold the authority she has. But she also has not instigated any open any hostility. As such Rhea is more a symbolic player. By making her an active player, CF has to make Rhea more domino and more a threat. She can't portray constant neutrality in a war. But by making her the active antagonist, it makes her less of a symbol and more if just a rotten character who Edelgard is justified in wanting dead. And much like Cornelia and the Dukedom, this alteration comes off as an attempt by the writers to never truly challenge Edelgard's plans for Fodlan. That Edelgard has no flaws in her plan and the bloodshed is beyond justified more than just philosophically. Had Edelgard captured Rhea in CF this would lead to some genuinely uncomfortable questions of keeping her a prisoner. And to 3H's credit they were actually willing to make the player uncomfortable already in Dimitri's route showing him as a mass murderer. Once again, I want to express this isn't me saying Edelgard's quest or goals are wrong and the plot should undermine it. This is me saying that for a game that wants to genuinely have nuanced and uncomfortable political choices made by their character, this is the route where they opt to alter the scenario so that Edelgard is the most justified and does less things that one could find objectionable. Flattening a lot of interesting implications this would raise and what Byleth as a force in this route could possibly able to influence.

Now one could again say, well the reason Rhea wasn't captured because Edelgard didn't use crest beasts this time. Edelgard not using crest beasts is a sign Byleth is changing her and thus that greatly alters the future. Once again, I can see that as understandable justification, but again, my issue off only ever being able to effect this lord pre time skip comes in again. If it was possible to get Edelgard to not use crest beasts, then how come it wasn't possible for me to get Claude to have Almyra support? How come I couldn't stop Dimitri before the war? The answer is again as a game the only other narrative choice that could possibly alter the story happens in CF which is the side with Edelgard in tombs choice. And while I'm not against the idea of angry pope Rhea, but I feel making her CF's full on antagonist was almost making a straw man antagonist for your opposition.

As an aside we also know Arundel is still on Edelgard's side and he is Thales so while she might not know his entire deal, I hesitate to imagine he'd stop using crest beasts in the war over the two years Byleth was gone.

If I was going to once again alter CF to be something I would personally find more satisfying. Have Rhea captured and then have Arundel use the same rage stuff he uses on her Silver Snow. This way you can facilitate an Edelgard vs TWSITD conflict AND you still get your symbolic victory of Edelgard and Byleth killing the symbol of the crests and church. Again, Edelgard is able to do what she wanted to originally, but now we are also confronted with the role TWSITD did play in her life and allowing her to rectify it as well as truly killing the old world by getting rid of Rhea and Thales.

And final point TWSITD. TWSITD are bad. They've always been bad. And they genuinely damage the overall story of CF because this is beyond just a narrative choice, its very clear CF as a story wasn't complete. I feel confident in saying that given the numerous chapters missing compared to the other routes, but also the epilogue needs to say "Oh yeah there was totally a bunch of war against them. Totally." I know this point is probably the least controversial when talking about CF, but I still think its a glaring flaw.

So what's the tl;dr?

This is not an "I hate Crimson Flower or Edelgard post" I genuinely have no interest in debating people about characters that like or enjoy. Nor did I want to turn this into a moral argument about the implication CF. I feel like these topics do real damage to any real criticisms one can have for CF as a narrative.

Which for me, CF as a route fails to really mesh with the rest of 3H as a whole. It feels like it takes a lot of narrative ways out to avoid potentially making their lord seem objectionable, despite much of this game wanting to be about how tragically flawed everyone is. Im not saying Edelgard needed a come to Jesus moment of "Are we the bad guys?" No absolutely not. In my opinion we just lack seeing Edelgard change the same way post time skip as others have due to creating an entirely brand new setting that keeping her as a mostly the same character is not questionable. Nor does she have to do anything that could truly be seen as flawed. Things that Byleth's influence may overcome.

Edelgard is a good character and her goals are understandable. I just personally find the narrative bending to accommodate her in ways so different from the other time skips genuinely make it a weaker narrative for me.

If you enjoy CF as it it. More power to you. Please keep loving CF. This isn't supposed to be a dissuading post. This is merely me as one guy who likes a lot of FE because of the stories it can tell sharing why he personally didn't enjoy this one. Maybe I helped put it words for some who might feel similar. But this is just my opinion

If you have something you'd like to add or reply in the replies or tags please flee free, but for the love god, please be cordial about it. There is so much toxicity and disingenuous takes around Fire Emblem Crimson Flower and Edelgard and Rhea in general, that I would like for us to please be able to talk about this in good faith.

#fire emblem #analysis #reblog

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furry-emblem · 4 years ago

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I think another reason Edelgard is a contentious character is how impersonal her train of thought is. Dmitri is the polar opposite where his motives are purely personal and he has to learn to factor non-personal motives into his decision making, Claude's motives of making Fodlan a more open an accepting society stem from prejudice he faces, and Edelgard's goal of removing the Church and Crests has very little to do with what the Agarthans did to her.

This difference also extends to how they treat their allies when facing them in combat. She's the only house leader to not visibly mourn the deaths of her comrads. And those differences extends to her enemies. Dmitri shows little respect for his foes, Claude rarely mentions anything about them, while Edelgard makes a point to say that she sees them as lost potential rather than evil.

Edelgard just interacts with the world on an impersonal level, and it's hard for her to express emotion, and the relatively lack of personal reactions from Edelgard caused by her inability to feel on a moment to moment basis can definitely turn people off and make them assume she doesn't care.

The reason Edelgard can't feel emotions properly is because of the trauma she endured from TWSITD. Multiple lines of dialogue state that she the experience fundamentally changed her, specifically "The Edelgard who cried died a long time ago" and "The girl you knew died a long time ago." The death imagery in both of those statements is extremely interesting, especially considering how poor her memory from before the experiments are. Like a part of her quite literally died. But that's more speculation than canon fact.

It's more in Edelgard's supports that her inability to feel her own emotions is apparent. In her C support with Byleth, she talks about the death of her siblings and her being experimented on, but an interesting part of that support is how little the event looks like it bothers her, especially compared to Dmitri with the Tragedy of Duscur. It's not that she isn't traumatized by the event; she was just having nightmares about it and it caused her significant memory loss. But she can't feel that pain in that moment. In Bernadetta's B support, Edelgard tries to get her to talk to her without having a panic attack from the experience. She's able to be annoyed, but she doesn't seem to feel remorse for scaring her (like Hubert does) or concern for Bernie, she's just focused on trying to find a solution to the communication problem. Her relation with everyone else is more or less the same. Even with Hubert, she's concerned for him, but sees that concern as something to fix more than anything else. She fails to communicate that she values Ferdinand as a close friend until one of their late supports. None of this is out of malice or self-centeredness, she just can't feel these emotions or form intimate connections because of it.

And that contributes to why Edelgard is a big-picture thinker. It's really interesting how Edelgard chooses to work with the Agarthans to deal with the Church before taking them on, because Edelgard doesn't see her personal desires as important. This can also be seen when she turns herself into the Hegemon beast. It's ok to do potentially permanent damage to herself because her needs aren't as important as her ideals. At least, to her.

And this clashes in an interesting way with how personal the story of Three Houses is. You're literally pinning loved ones against each other. Three Houses is a game where everyone is personally motivated by something and that determines their actions, everyone except Edelgard.

#this specific aspect of her character means a lot to me #since Ive had to deal with shit thats led to my ability to access my own emotions being severely compremised #so the fact that edelgard can be the hero of her own story partially because of her being numb to her emotions means a lot to me #especially since I first played fe3h while I was still largely numb #edelgard #fe3h #edelgard discourse #fe3h discussion

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there-is-a-hero-in-all-of-us · 5 years ago

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Edelgard von Hrasvelg

Uhhhh hello

Welcome to my extended opinions on a fictional character that I don’t know if you heard of. Or if you expected to see this random person talk about. Months after release.

So Edelgard is my favorite character in Fire Emblem Three Houses, for months now she’s been called a tyrant, murder, some version of Hitler, etc.

This is something I have basically been going around asking about in great detail about because I do not get it.

But I remember this and maybe I can catch more disagreements here.

So takes of various temperatures coming right up.

My biggest pitfall when I have this conversation is I often find myself thinking of the opposition as “Anti-War/Violence” which can be reductive.

So let’s start with context see where we land and how much bias can be input in the simple set up for a thing.

The land is Fodlan, split into three territories Addrestia, Faerghus, and Leciester Alliance. Some of that is probably misspelled. The House Leaders are all heirs to thrones of the regions. They attend school at Garreg Mach which is run by the Church of Seiros which is set up to be the real power in the land. There is a system of nobility which prioritizes Crest. Crest are something you are born with based on bloodlines.

Uhh spoilers I guess?

So there is this Flame Emperor working with some people they seem to hate that do the equivalent of committing terrorist attacks on Garreg Mach while you’re there. Down with the Church and all that. Oh and the only other group to ever do that was like this old guy Lonato who seems to believe it was a false goddess and you got sent to put him down.

No blasphemy here.

Oh your protag is mercenary that works with your Dad, you both get roped into jobs at Garreg Mach and during one of the Flame Emperor attacks your Dad gets murdered by one of those people the Flame Emperor seems to have this weird “I hate my staff” relationships with.

(Yo imagine if I had clips and shit as evidence for this, no this is low budget just take my word for it fam)

So yeah terrorist attacks on the church, dead dad Flame Emperor guy no bueno.

Oh god oh no, they’re a student of yours. It’s Edelgard.

Bet you didn’t see that coming.

Edelgard is here to take down the false goddess and end the system of Crest!

Now if you’re a good egg who loves your students and you recruited them all and listened to a bulk of their supports you might come out more like me.

If you were like the fuck is a support I am here for gameplay not chit chat back to murder. You might be like what the fuck Edelgard you (your people) killed my Dad.

There is a third group that is like this Church is too down with this whole murder thing and I’m not with it, so I’ll go with Edelgard.

Oh and I guess all the people who are playing Blue Lions and Golden Deer count too. But like pffft a route with no choices is barely worth discussing. (Jk Azure Moon is second best written route)

Let’s take a step back, I previously mentioned being persuaded by supports.

So let’s talk about what we can learn about crest in the early game! So you’ve got Mercedes, sweet girl, she’s a healer, devout too. She and her mother were taken in by nobles and then kicked to the curb when her mother gave birth to a son born with a crest.

Well that feels slimy.

It has to get better though, let’s move on to Bernadetta.

She’s... anywhere from adorable and must be protected to oh my god you are the most annoying character ever what is wrong with you.

She doesn’t like interacting with people much, she mostly stays in her room. Why you ask? Why would anyone? Trauma friends. You see she has a crest and she made friends with one of those good for nothing crestless losers and her Dad was like “no talking to filth” and then uhhh proceeded to physically assault her only friend. And now she’s afraid to have them.

That didn’t feel better...

Everyone’s favorite flirt must be cool with crest? Sylvain! Instant joins your class if you play as the female protag because like why wouldn’t he, he’s a flirt, but what’s this? He is deeply insecure and flirts because he feels that all the relationships in his life are superficial because the people only care about his crest?

Marianne is such a sweet girl why does she seem down? Oh she has a crest, but she keeps it a secret? I thought this were the way to the high life? Oh people discriminate against her based on her crest being that of the “beast”.

I could keep going, but I think that covers a decent variety of examples

Oh wait! Let’s talk about the the main squeeze!

Edelgard!

She has a story too, oh she and 10 siblings were taken by the nobility against her fathers wishes where they were experimented on. Only she survived. Just so she could have another crest. And the people who did this? It was those guys she had that “I hate my staff” relationship with.

So at this point this student of mine is here standing against the biggest power in the country trying to destroy these crest and uproot the current nobility that at this point has proven to be... well, less than stellar.

But doing this starts a war...

This is about where things get pretty contentious.

Her actions will lead to change regardless of her victory or loss, people will most certainly die, is she wrong?

Well I guess that’s up to you.

But regardless of that I think it’s interesting how she is perceived. Like as a tyrant? Some variation of Hitler? Well her stated goal is to liberate Fodlan from the influence of the Church and allow humans to be in control of their fate. A land where the leaders are based on merit and who does and doesn’t have a crest.

Now if Fodlan superpower is the Church and they unite the others against Addrestia how can she be a tyrant when she doesn’t have full control...? I mean it seems like she”s more of a revolutionary if you will? A radical one at that.

And most times at this point people have made a few concessions. I understand why she did what she did, I just don’t agree with it.This is where I get a little on edge. You understand, but you disagree. Well, as you can see, herself and others are victims of the current system. When people have spoken out against it, they have been put down.You can argue the earlier group was violent and ready to fight, but there was no attempt to deescalate the situation. It was go and kill them from the jump.

You see wit the dependency on crest a system propped up and given weight by the church which is the core of power in the country there is no check.They have no reason to care or change the system that has put these people in the situations they are in.

Her direct challenge of that is the only way any change is able to begin.

I understand that violence is unsavory for a lot of people, that the death the war brings is a high price, but people were already dying because of the crest, it was just under the cover of the status quo. If we can create a future where people aren’t suffering because of something that they have no control over I think it’s worth fighting for instead of letting those in power, corrupt as they are continue to control the system that we seek relief from.

You can probably apply a modern lens at that last paragraph too if you think about it hard enough.

But yeah how does a character like this become the Hitler/Tyrant?

Goodness I haven’t even mentioned that the power of the Church is so great that she has to enlist the help of the people that she was tortured and experimented on by, the people that are the direct cause of the death of her siblings. That she openly hates them as much as the system she’s fighting to bring down but is powerless on her own. She states that once the war is done she will handle them next and find a person to rule over Fodlan in her place.

Which like giving up power once you’ve obtained isn’t very tyrannical.

#fire emblem #three houses #edelgard von hresvelg #post out of nowhere #tl;dr

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emblemxeno · 5 years ago

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(3H SPOILERS) Analysis of Main Characters in FE and the Western FE Community’s Perception of Them

In the midst of all the Three Houses hype, there’s a lot of contention with Edelgard as a character as well as her route in general with how it plays out.

With this, it’s given me some perspective on how the community feels about main characters and whether or not they are liked and/or well written. Since I am a Westerner myself, please always assume this is in the context of the western FE audience, as I don’t know enough about the JP audience to do comparisons or whatnot.

Now with this, there’s more or less a pattern with some main characters in how they’re received by western fans. (Sigurd, Seliph, Leif, Roy and Kris won’t be covered in this since I haven’t read enough of their games’ scripts to get a grasp on them)

The most contentious main characters by far are Eirika, Micaiah, Corrin and Celica (when I say contentious I don’t mean unpopular as they have many fans; however, though popular, they also have the most detractors).

These characters all have very defined flaws that get them in trouble in their games, are peace seeking in general and look for peaceful ways unless there is no other choice, and all do questionable things in their stories that call for doubt, discussion, and criticism. Most of their development comes from making mistakes and learning from them. They are also all known for getting into situations where they either need rescue or because of something they fucked up.

The least contentious main characters (compared to the four above, I might add) are Hector, Ephraim, Ike, and Alm.

They may or may not have noticeable flaws, but they hardly ever cause trouble for them. They may or may not seek peace at some opportunities, but are always willing, with no hesitation, to fight. They are all blunt and speak their mind, and though sometimes that poses situations where they could get into trouble, but they never really do. Most of their development comes from growth after bad things happening to them rather than something that they messed up.

In this, realize that main characters are the ones that people identify with the most, therefore, there’s a reason for certain characters to be less contentious than others. In particular, the reason for FE main characters?

It’s probably a little bitchy to say it like this, but it’s kind of power fantasy esque.

Hector, Ephraim, Ike, and Alm all have great authority/renown within their groups or territories and are always seemingly in control of the situation. They are hardly questioned, and when they are they are almost always proven right. In short, the players like these characters because they are validated as strong, intelligent, and almost always in control of the moment. Since these are the characters players identify with, the players themselves feel validated.

In contrast, compare to them Eirika, Micaiah, Corrin and Celica. They hold little authority (compared to the other four), are questioned and not always proven right, doubted at some points, they question and doubt themselves, they’re not as notably strong in various fields like the other four so they don’t get validated as the other four. Being main characters, these are also characters that players are to identify with, but since they have unattractive/undesirable qualities to them, (and because FE players always believe they themselves have the perfect solutions to everything) they are instead cast aside as being badly written, stupid, incompetent, and the oh so misused moniker, Mary Sue.

(Well, Celica doesn’t really get called that, but that’s because she wasn’t known by the audience that uses it frequently, and Echoes came out at a period when people stopped using it wrongly)

Again, I don’t wanna sound condescending, but power fantasy is really what I get from this.

Now there is sort of a problem with this theory, and that’s Ephraim, because he’s contentious in his own right because of the shit he pulls in FE8, but he gets less flack than his sister, Corrin, and Micaiah, so...

Anyway, besides the characters I intentionally left out because I didn’t know enough about them, there remains Marth, Lyn, Eliwood, Chrom, Robin, and the 3H Lords.

What’s notable about Mar-Mar is that his Shadow Dragon interpretation is very well received over here in the west. Marth in Shadow Dragon is written as being more blunt, and not really questioning himself, his actions, or anything that happens around him. Notice how this is very much unique to SD, as the original Dark Dragon script as well as Mystery and New Mystery portray softer, more idealistic Mar-Mars. Heroes also takes after those portrayals. Yet the audience here likes the SD portrayal the best; the one most similar to Hector, Ephraim, Ike, and Alm.

Lyn is in an interesting situation; she’s very much in control and she’s not as unimportant in the story as some say, but it’s still very much Eliwood’s story. Which makes it all the more weird that Hector shines over poor Eli. Had Lyn not been many players first Waifu FE lord, Hector would no doubt be the most popular one. Compared to Hec, Eli is peaceseeking and idealistic, though not to the point of the more contentious lords, so he gets passed on compared to his friends, but not to the point where people think he’s badly written.

Chrom and Robin are in an interesting situation as well, as the story is Chrom’s and then gradually become’s Robin’s story as it nears the end. (Some say they stole it from Chrom, but I would say it’s like the spotlight slowly drifted from him to them)

Chrom doesn’t have a notable flaw that gets him into danger, and is in control/has authority throughout a good deal of the campaign, but also very emotional and starts looking for peaceful solutions more often than say Hector, Ephraim, Ike, and Alm. Chrom tries to reason with Walhart, even, and those other four would never. So he’s kind of at an in between. Robin... is kind of hard to discern. They are supposed to be the character the player identifies with more since they are the avatar. We do see that they are in control as well and never makes to many mistakes. But they’re also batshit crazy for setting fleets on fire and fighting in a volcano. Having the player suspend their disbelief like that isn’t the best thing for identifying with a character, but it seems people like them enough for other reasons so indirect validation isn’t as prominent a thing with them.

Then come the 3H lords, and oh my, they do not fit into any sort of mold whatsoever; not perfectly anyway.

Byleth being a complete blank slate means they are truly in the middle on things; despite being the least customizable in appearance, they are the most avatar like of the FE avatars. The player can feel true, direct validation from the 3H cast as you get to pick which dialogue choices you want, and do other things at your own pace. (Unless you care about support points) As a character they’re not anything too special, but since they are a true avatar, they’re not seen as bad as say, Corrin, because the player can literally be who they want through Byleth and be validated by the story at the same time.

Edelgard, (the most discussed of the lords) is also unique. Never has a main character been so extreme in how they accomplish things. From what I’ve gathered from FE4, she’s Arvis like. And yet, she’s a protagonist in one possible outcome. She has the attractive qualities of protagonists like Hector and Ike, (being in control/having authority, speaking her mind) yet she’s contentious because unlike them her morality is very grey. The very definition of the ends justify the means. There’s a reason her title in Heroes is ‘The Future’. Because her goal and ambition is for the future, with no limit on what she’ll do to get there.

Dimitri is unique because he starts off as model prince, honor loving, sweet boy with bad hair. Then you gradually notice strange things about him, then Remire happens, then you learn he’s at the academy for revenge, then he goes feral at the Holy Tomb, and descends even further for 5 years, until he’s a revenge obsessed beast. He then begins his ascent back to being a proper king for his people (he’s more deserving of the title Restoration King than Ephraim, but that’s just me). There’s never been a main character in FE that falls so low and then climbs back up like that.

Claude himself is unique as well. Besides being the most well adjusted of the three lords, he’s actually pretty idealistic compared to them. He has big dreams and ambitions for Fodlan, and his main concerns are with the world at large, and his story doesn’t end with the major war among the 3 factions. He’s intelligent enough to not be blinded by emotion like Dimitri but also keen enough enough to realize that pure brute force isn’t the only option unlike with Edelgard. He’s very much a middle ground, but a middle ground that’s like a bell curve instead of a straight line, since Edie and Dima both fall hard and do messed up things, but are still not completely terrible people, whereas Claude is nowhere as extreme as they are and feels like a true balance.

If nothing else, 3 Houses achieves something very different with all of its main characters for once.

Anway, that’s kind of all I have. Sorry for the long post, but Fire Emblem is my #1 game series for a reason, so I get big into these passion analyses sometimes.

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megashadowdragon · 5 years ago

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I am ferdinand von aegir

ncfan-1 . tumblr . com/post/187898310567/i-am-ferdinand-von-aegir

The fact that Ferdinand says this every time you select him in battle in Part One is a meme for obvious reasons, but I’ve been thinking about it in a serious context for a little while, too.

Ferdinand places a lot of stock in his position as nobility, and in particular his position as successor to the Aegir dukedom, and what that means for his place in the Empire. He’s not the only student character in the game to place a lot of weight in his position—Lorenz, for instance, places a heavy emphasis on the fact that he’s a noble, and makes it clear even at the end of Part Two that he would make a better leader of the Alliance than Claude—but Ferdinand is unique in the sense that we can infer that the importance he places on his heritage and noble role is both something that was conditioned into him since he could understand spoken language, as well as something that is tied up in his sense of identity, and thus self-esteem.

Let’s back up a little bit.

Ferdinand is the only (or at least eldest) son of Duke Aegir, adviser to the current Emperor, Ionius IX. It’s known by everyone that Ferdinand is set to inherit the title and therefore the role and responsibilities of the current Duke Aegir, doing his part alongside Edelgard once she ascends the throne as it is also known that she will. This is a hefty responsibility, but one that Ferdinand feels confident he can take on, because he has been groomed for this since birth and has likely been assured that he will be able to do just as his father has done before him.

But what has his father done before him?

As far as Ferdinand is aware, his father has honorably upheld the status of Duke and has assisted / guided Ionius IX to leading Adrestia to prosperity. But what Ferdinand doesn’t know is that the current Duke Aegir hasn’t so much “guided” Ionius insomuch as he has controlled him, assisting other nobles into completely stripping Ionius of agency and torturing most of his children to death or insanity, and leaving Edelgard with her two Crests, shortened lifespan, and immense trauma. As of Part One, Ferdinand believes that his father is the image of what a noble should be: gallant, protective of commoners, and dedicated to assisting the current emperor and guiding him down the path of righteousness. For Ferdinand to believe this, he has to have been told this. And who would have told him this, if not for his father, the current Duke, himself?

To that end, I think it’s fair to assume that Duke Aegir was the one who filled Ferdinand’s head with the idea that he would have to “guide” Edelgard, no doubt using “guide” as a pleasant euphemism when what he really means is “control.” There is little doubt in my mind that the current Duke Aegir strove to groom Ferdinand to do the exact same thing to Edelgard that he himself did to Ionius IX: to not guide her, as an adviser would to his liege, but rather to control her as a puppeteer would to his marionette. Of course, he couldn’t outright tell Ferdinand to do this, so instead to impressed upon him the importance of guiding Edelgard, and more to the point impressed upon him that he was superior to Edelgard in every way. No doubt Ferdinand was told by his father since he was very, very small that he was smarter than Edelgard, more capable than Edelgard, stronger than Edelgard, and all around superior to her, and this was why he alone was set to “guide” her. If Duke Aegir made Ferdinand believe from essentially infancy that he was the one who would truly lead Adrestia to prosperity, then surely he would have no problem carrying on the noble Aegir tradition of stripping the emperor of all power and leading the country from the shadows. He would grow into the role pretty naturally, so long as Duke Aegir raised him to believe that Edelgard was misguided, weak, and ineffectual.

So Ferdinand grew up with his sense of self wrapped around this concept that he was superior to Edelgard in every way (and that this was a good thing, the right thing) and that he would lead Adrestia (and potentially the rest of Fodlan) to prosperity. His family was the most noble, the greatest, and he would carry the weight of Adrestia on his shoulders. He never doubted any of this because most children don’t doubt their parents when they’re very young, and with Edelgard constantly rebuffing his requests for duels, he had no reason to believe that he was anything but superior to her. (Note: I am not blaming Edelgard for any of this, I’m just saying that Ferdinand not getting knocked on his ass by her for so long did nothing to dash his image of superiority over her.) He was raised with the sole purpose of “guiding” Edelgard as Duke, and therefore never really branched out, considered what might happen if he wasn’t as superior to Edelgard as he was led to believe, or discovered who he really was …

… which is why the identity crisis hits him so hard in Part Two.

To be honest, it’s a bit unclear whether Edelgard ever actually tells Ferdinand what his father did to her (and Ionius IX) by the time Part Two rolls around. I think that if you’re on one of the other paths and recruit Ferdinand to those Houses (or if you’re doing Church Route), then there’s a good chance he never learns, and thinks that his father was unjustly stripped of his title and thrown in prison for no reason. But it’s also a bit hazy to me on whether he knows the truth on the Crimson Flower route either, because I seem to remember monastery dialogue from him at the beginning of Part Two where he says that his relationship with Edelgard is “contentious” at the moment, because of what happened with his father, which implies he doesn’t know (which … Edelgard, why wouldn’t you tell him?). But whether he knows or not, if you see Ferdinand’s supports with Byleth and Edelgard respectively, you see Ferdinand come to realize that he is not superior to Edelgard, and also that he now has to figure out what that means for him, and his role moving forward.

Aside from the fact that Duke Aegir never counted on Edelgard ascending the throne before Ferdinand could get her under his thumb, he also never realized that his attempts to condition Ferdinand to be just like him never had much of a chance of working, because unlike Duke Aegir, Ferdinand has a heart of gold. Ferdinand doesn’t take pride in his place as a noble because he legitimately believes that he’s better than others, but because he genuinely wants to help and protect those who need it. He sees commoner civilians get caught in the crossfire or suffering, and he believes it is not only his purpose, but his joy to help protect them. Setting aside the fact that Edelgard knew the truth of everything that was done to her father and was prepared to stop it, as well as the fact that Hubert would never conspire with anyone to manipulate and control Edelgard as his father did before him, I firmly believe that even if Edelgard hadn’t tossed the current Duke Aegir in jail and made it clear that those who conspired to control her would face similar consequences, Ferdinand would have never done what his father did. He believed, because he was raised to believe, that he was superior to Edelgard and that this was the way things were supposed to be, but he never held the malice toward Edelgard (or the greed for power) that his father held for hers. Ferdinand only ever wanted to work with Edelgard to ensure the best for their people, which is precisely what he ends up doing after coming to terms with who he is and what his true role within the Empire is, working as her advisor along with Hubert.

All of this is to say … I think it’s very telling that he stops declaring his identity on the battlefield all the time in Part Two. By the time Part Two rolls around, House Aegir is pretty much in disgrace due to his father being punished for his crimes, Ferdinand has most likely realized that he’s not superior to Edelgard as he has been raised to believe, and he knows now (since he’s fully out of his teenage years and has fought in a war for the past five years) that there is no honor that will be given simply based on what your name is or what House you hail from, but rather that honor is a result of your actions (and that even if not everyone knows your actions, that means nothing compared to the results your actions have). When he’s a teenager in Part One, Ferdinand declares his name on the battlefield because he thinks that telling the enemy that he is Ferdinand von Aegir, heir to the Aegir Dukedom, will be enough to make them quake in his boots and also let everyone else around know that they are safe and can rest easy because he is here to save the day. But when he’s an adult, he knows that his name in fact means nothing, and that if he wants people to know that he’ll protect them, he has to show them in action rather than just telling them in words (and also expecting them to know what those words mean, because as Byleth demonstrated when they first met, not everyone knows who Duke Aegir even is).

All in all, while Ferdinand shouting his name at the start of every battle in Part One is a meme for good reason (one that I myself laugh at), I also think it’s a subtle way to give insight to both his background and his character development given that he stops saying it in Part Two. Particularly when you see his supports with Byleth, Edelgard, and even Hubert, it’s clear how much he changes once he stops basing his entire identity and self-esteem around what he was raised to believe, and instead comes to determine a role and purpose for himself (which, incidentally, is what Edelgard wants and encourages everyone, Ferdinand included, to do). In that sense, it’s really wonderful and it’s something I’m glad is in the game, no matter how memetic it is.

#fire emblem three houses #fire emblem three houses spoilers #ferdinand von aegir #fire emblem ferdinand #fe16 ferdinand #fe3h ferdinand

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aethele · 5 years ago

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@wargains penned:

any 3 of your own choice :3

28. WHO DO THEY SEE AS THEIR BEST FRIEND ? THEIR WORST ENEMY ?

best friend : i’ve talked about it before, but ferdinand is very much one of those ‘many acquaintances, few close friends’ kinds of people. he’s on amicable terms with most of the academy students ( barring like, dorothea, hubert, edelgard, hilda … ) and he is very outgoing / always inviting people to tea and events. he’s social and friendly so he’s usually always around people, but when it comes to a best friend the only one that comes to mind is lorenz. they get along really well ( they aren’t horrifically annoyed by each other like so many are with them ) and they share basically all the same interests ----- tea, riding horses, being noble.

post-time skip, assuming he and lorenz are on the same side, they are still close friends. the only other one who compares is probably hubert, but that friendship takes a lot longer to cultivate and is still relatively rocky. if lorenz isn’t there, then it’s hubert. even more so when ferdinand is prime minister because hubert is practically his work wife. but ferdinand won’t admit the latter and if you ask him who his best friend is he will say his horse.

worst enemy : perhaps you were expecting hubert here as well. nay ! ferdinand’s worst enemy is his father. due to their disparity in moral views and what it means to be a noble, he has never gotten along well with his father. he says several times throughout the game that he has always known how greedy, arrogant, and unrighteous his father is.

this is the absolute biggest reason why his relationship with edelgard is so contentious after she unseats duke aegir. the territories and wealth is one thing, but more importantly ferdinand verbatim saw succeeding his father and holding him accountable / passing rightful judgement over him and being a better prime minister than he was as his “dream, [his] will, and [his] future.” and edelgard ripped all of that away with the ease of cracking an egg.

45. SUPERSTITIONS ?

ferdinand is quite the stickler when it comes to traditions and rules so i feel like that would, unfortunately, translate to superstitions as well. “of course i am not superstitious !” he will say while nailing a horseshoe ( of iron, that naturally fell off a horse and was not taken off by man, it will not work otherwise, this is a very important aspect ----- ) above his estate entryway.

he’s not really scared of such things per se ( not like lysithea and ashe are of ghosts and what not ), it’s more about upholding any sort of rules / traditions even if they’re a little bizarre. even if he doesn’t believe in it himself, he cannot pull himself to ignore / break tradition because obviously his ancestors did it for a reason ! the only thing that likely frightens him / freaks him out is dark magic. he really doesn’t like the idea of it and finds it unsettling, and the idea of curses makes him uneasy too.

19. WHAT DO THEY THINK ABOUT BEFORE FALLING ASLEEP AT NIGHT?

#❂ ┊ ❝ 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 ! / headcanon.#hope u don't mind my artistic interpretation of the last question #THANKS FOR LETTING ME CHOOSE HAHA #wargains

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archer3-13 · 5 years ago

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My Poor Thoughts on The 3H Lords:

in no particular order

Byleth: the best functional avatar of the series, if the least interesting as a character in many regards. which is a bit unfair because they do have a personality and sense of growth as an individual, it just so happens that the personality and growth is tied into being emotionless. Regardless they remain my favorite of the avatars since they do what avatars are suppose to, provide a vessel for the player to interact with the world of the game and story from something of an outsiders perspective well providing a feeling of pride and accomplishment. That way if you need to explain something to the player, you can do so without it being to weird because you arent talking to a character but rather to the player directly. That said character wise, they rank near the middle being below kris and corrin and above mark and robin, for me personally anyways. their arguably speaking cannon personality works just fine for me as does their character history, but their responses and especially some of their alternate gag ones are bizarre and stupid in a bad way and there is little in the way of actual consequences for your decisions aside from making characters occasionally upset and choosing a route on the BE path. If avatars are just going to be a thing from now on, this is closer to how i feel they should be done but it would also be a good idea to cut out the wank and make decisions actually matter more rather then pander to lame dating sim mechanics.

Dimitri: best written of the bunch undeniably, his character never reaches incredibly lofty heights in terms of quality but he clearly had the most thought and planning put into who he is and where hes going as a character. plus hes fairly unique as a protagonist in the fe series as a whole, and is arguably even something of a deconstruction of the average fe lord of both the soft marth and loud alm variety. Hes not my fave of the series, but he gets to be high up there.

Edelgard: intentionally contentious or not, taking a step back from her fuckability/waifu qualities which the game wants you to pay more attention to then anything else arguably her characters something of a dropped ball. Cobbling together elements of arvises backstory and emperor hardins visual motifs, she has a strong foundation in there as both a well written female character and villain protagonist but then presumably someone became scared and decided she needed to be more sympathetic less anyone not want to fuck her and thus drive down sales. either that or it was a failed and mishandled attempt at making things more morally grey. regardless what should have been a tragic figure whos past trauma causes them to develop into an aggressive authoritarian with an ends justify the means mentality that pushes them over the line multiple times and whos attempts at gaming the system ultimately backfire due to who they ally with leaving their dreams of peace shattered by their arrogance thus teaching the valuable lesson that the ends dont always justify the means and be careful who you make bedfellows with in pursuit of power, is instead a figure who stupidly allied with the people most directly responsible for their suffering went and attacked someone else for incredibly shaky reasons and sat on in silence well their tormentors did horrific acts with only a shaked fist and stern warning in response well doing their own morally dubious acts on the side and who managed to get away with it all because she pouted a bit. and as a villain on the other routes i dont find her particularly engaging either. which is a shame because she does rock a sweet emperor hardin cosplay.

Claude: third wheel, but not an awful one. he basically does the standard fe routine really with a bit more playful sass then normal. not the best of the lot in that regard in my opinion, sure hes more tactics then some of the others but he also feels fairly static and ill defined at times, and he feels like hes only there out of contractual obligation to have three lords instead of two. he has a story, but its not particularly his story outside of a few beats and is more so the settings story then anything else. remove him and spread the important lore bits to the other routes and you wouldnt be missing much. Hes fun but hes less complicated then he pretends to be and thats what i resent about him if anything. Basically, i feel he needs a better narrative to his name then what he ended up getting.

#fire emblem #fire emblem 16 #fire emblem three houses #fe16 #fe3H

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alteredphoenix · 5 years ago

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Some random WoW/Fire Emblem: Three Houses X-Over I came up with on the fly (WIP)

A/N: I’ve never played Fire Emblem; seeing the characters appear in Super Smash Bros. Melee onwards always felt like an inclusion - at least, to a younger me - that felt peculiar at the time. (Also, I am quite awful at RTS games that aren’t online hero brawlers, and it’s the one reason why I haven’t touched Stronghold HD in years, but that is beside the point.) I never caught on with the games as I grew up, my interest was that ambivalent.

But then I started taking note of all the fan art of Three Houses on Twitter over the past month and became curious. To me, this game seemed - and would eventually, given its reception - as if it would be the most notable in its franchise. I don’t have a Switch to access it (and would rather not have to cave in and just hit up YouTube for a quick fix), but I had felt compelled to write something even if there is a good possibility my characterization might be off the mark.

So the first thing I decide to write - but certainly not the first: that’s reserved for FE3H fic where dogs are endangered species, the houses have to sponsor one breed to get them repopulated, and Edelgard decides to set the fucking world on fire just so she can gain fem!Byleth’s love by acquiring the fantasy equivalent of a Siberian Husky (because Byleth adores huskies and carries a tin full of husky/wolf figurines as tokens of good fortune, but said huskies are allegedly presumed extinct, so Black Eagles are the only house to be universally ridiculed for sponsoring an animal that may no longer exist) - is fem!Byleth winding up in World of Warcraft during the timeskip, becomes a fisherman, and inadvertently becomes the Pack Leader of all the hunter cats in Booty Bay because she feeds them bear tartare, raw fish, and kitty kibble on a daily basis, as seen through the eyes of a pair of human and goblin OCs running a fishing shack.

There was slightly more to this than what you see here, but the power got knocked out due to a strong thunderstorm passing through my area so consider this piece very WIP. (I still think about the “Vereesa embraces her inner troll and murks an innocent blood elf during the Purge of Dalaran” fic that got completely nuked a while back, and feel remorse for not saving the damn document.)

“Hey. Brody,” Melanie’s voice called, and when Brody looked up from where he sat at the desk it was to her stepping into the tiny office with a box full of bolts of cloth and other materials she had acquired all over the Bay. “Brody.”

“What?”

“She’s coming ‘round again.”

“Who?”

“You know.”

He blew a sigh upward, sending his long locks flying uselessly and getting in his eyes. “No, I don’t. When you say ‘she’, you could mean anyone.”

“Brody, you know exactly who I’m talking about!” Melanie plopped the box on the floor, put her hands on her hips, and leaned forward for extra emphasis on what she said next, in as diplomatic a tone as she could muster: “No-Face is coming.”

“Oh yeah,” Brody said, lazily twirling the pencil in his hand. “No-Face.”

This was how Brody Hookbane and Melanie Hampton’s conversations started off, ever since the woman Brody had come to dub as ‘No-Face’ strolled through Booty Bay three weeks ago. The war between the Alliance and the Horde over the azerite wounds popping up all over the planet had driven Baron Revilgaz to ramp up security and make the official declaration that – once again – no matter what faction colors you wore or what flag you flew, you still had to abide by Booty Bay laws; if you wanted a fight, why, it was better to take it outside and die like the dogs they were. This made flight schedules from Kalimdor Airlines and Southern Skies Platform extremely contentious for the first few months, once word about Teldrassil and Undercity got out, and it was when the fights spilled out from the bars and rival adventurer guilds tried to wrest control of the docks and the entrance from the guards did the Baron sic the Blackwater Raiders on them and declare martial law. If you wanted in on Booty Bay, then you had to say what you wanted to say and keep your hands to yourselves. It was only until just recently, some time before Old Man Heming tasked Brody and Melanie to run The Happy Bobber while he was away at Mechagon Island to ‘cull the population’ of ionized minnows that the imposition was lifted, and people from all walks of life were allowed to come and go as they pleased so long as they went by the rules (which, in all seriousness, the rules were no different than when Azeroth’s superpowers were butting heads, and that in itself was an everyday occurrence).

No-Face was not Alliance. She was not even a hired hand of the Horde, as much as Brody had heard the stories of Thrall employing human sellswords to inform him of events happening in the world as he managed affairs in Orgrimmar. In fact, Brody had learned, from a friend of a friend (who learned from another friend’s cousin, who heard it from that cousin’s third cousin on his third mother’s side of the family), that No-Face did not know there was a war going on. “Don’t know how she got here, she says,” the friend said. “Just shewed up in Stranglethorn and started walkin’ south, lookin’ for answers.” That had been three weeks ago, and seeing that she was still hanging around Booty Bay and the wilderness, Brody and Melanie made the obvious connection that No-Face still hadn’t found the answers she was looking for.

“Maybe she’s an alien,” Melanie said, one day. “You know, like the draenei and the orcs.”

“Nah,” Brody said. “She looks too plain to be an alien. You could put her in a room full of humans and she’d fit right in with all the bluebloods.”

“How do you know she’s a blueblood?”

“I dunno, she’s got the look of a blueblood. Big Nose McGee in Stormwind looks more like a member of a boy band than a king.”

“Maybe she’s an adventurer.”

“She can’t be. Most adventurers I’ve seen wear slutmogs.”

“You call a badass coat a ‘slutmog’?”

“No, the rest of her is all...Look at her. She wears fishnet stockings, Mel. Fishnet.”

“So?”

“So?! That’s something you don’t see your average female adventurer wear! They dare to go bare; that’s the slutmog way! It’s all skin with the low-cut breastplates that are one inch away from having those puppies come out, and-and-and those really thin G-string plates that make their asscheeks look like a pair of balloons you gotta pop at the Darkmoon Faire!”

“All that talk of women, and no men? Have you seen the night elves? They’re wearing thorns, Brody! Thorns!”

“Bah, thorns, shmorns!”

“At least thorns are creative! Someone could try to get up close and personal and, and, I don’t know, maybe they’d get pricked just touching them. Because nothing says distraction like having your eight-pack abs and your noodle jammed in an overstuffed speedo on display for all of Azeroth to see.”

“That’s because you see barely see guys strip down to their birthday suits and use that to seize the day! Women have a more profound effect because it’s expected of them!”

“But now you have all the guys coming off the boats looking like they came out of Uldum, with their fancy feathered helmets and half their chest sticking out from their girdles and skirts. It’s a step in the right direction!”

“And I say good for them! It’s a step in the right direction! Sometimes less is more, Mel. Sometimes you just need a little glitz to make yourself stand out! Not,” and he had waved his hand around, “you know, like that.”

“There’s no shame in looking like that! Everyone has their own way of utilizing sex appeal to their own advantage. Oh, by the way, she has a belly window, too.”

“Ya see what I mean?!”

Melanie did, and they had bickered back and forth on this very topic, as well as the topic of her hypothetical bluebloodedness, for every day No-Face was in town, and preferably once she had her fishing supplies together and was way, way out of earshot.

#world of warcraft #battle for azeroth #fire emblem three houses #byleth #fanfiction #preview #my writing

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iturbide · 5 years ago

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Hfjdhjf can I please have more information?? I think the reason I managed to float by so spoiler free was half because up until recently I never was super interested in Three Houses, and my knowledge was limited to what I was told about the routes. WHICH WAS APPARENTLY VERY LIMITED. V E R Y.

friend of course you can have more information

legit though I am so impressed that you’ve managed to stay spoiler free regardless of the context, I am massively spoiled for fandoms I’m not even in and yet you’re managing to come at it fresh like I did when I started my Golden Deer playthrough.

also this came in and frankly your wish is my command

But okay. So.

Dimitri is honestly fascinating and a tragic, deeply flawed character in his own right. But understanding his break requires backstory. His mom died when he was still pretty young due to a plague that swept through Faerghus, and when he was around ten his father re-married an Imperial woman named Patricia von Arundel (who is also Edelgard’s mother, hence the step-siblings thing). Edelgard, as it happens, had come to the Kingdom with her mother and uncle, Volkhart von Arundel, in order to escape the chaos caused by the Insurrection of the Seven, where the Imperial nobles seized power from the Emperor (Edelgard’s father), and the two became friends: she taught him to dance during the three-ish years she was in the Kingdom, and just before she left Dimitri gifted her a dagger, symbolic in the Kingdom of a hope for someone to cut their own path forward.

Two years later, Dimitri’s life basically becomes hell. While he and his family are traveling through the neighboring lands of Duscur, their caravan is attacked: his father Lambert and his bodyguard Glenn are both brutally murdered, his step-mother goes missing, and he is the sole survivor. He witnessed the people responsible, but although he tried to tell people what happened, the people of Duscur were blamed for the attack, and the genocide soon followed. The whole incident came to be known as the Tragedy of Duscur, and it left Dimitri with massive trauma that went completely unaddressed: he suffers from survivor’s guilt and PTSD, he completely lost all sense of taste, he’s had a constant headache since the incident...oh, and also he sees hallucinations of the people who died. So there’s that.

Now, because Dimitri was only 14 at the time and he couldn’t take the Faerghus throne until he reached his majority at 18, his uncle Rufus stepped in as regent in the meantime. Rufus is pretty fucking terrible! In fact, he sent Dimitri at age 16 to go put down a rebellion in Western Faerghus -- and again, Dimitri is a traumatized teenager who’s been getting no help or support. The people around him, notably Gilbert and Felix’s father Rodrigue, are trying to foster him into the next King of Faerghus rather than tending to his very real mental and emotional needs following the events of Duscur, so Dimitri has been silently bottling up all of his problems for the better part of two years. He...kind of snaps during that rebellion, and it ends up as a brutal slaughter; Felix bears witness to it, and ever after he treats Dimitri like a wild animal, calling him a beast and a boar.

This is all just piling on the trauma, as you probably noticed. He manages to hold it together and keep up a calm exterior, though he’s deeply afraid of the darkness within him, and does his utmost to bury it and keep it under control. At age 17 he comes to Garreg Mach, and over the course of the school year things just get progressively worse: he starts slipping and growing more violent over the course of repeated encounters with the Flame Emperor, since he recognizes the masked mages from the attack on his family’s caravan in Duscur and believes that the Flame Emperor must have been responsible for the Tragedy. But he pretty much snaps during the revelation at the Holy Tomb, where Edelgard is unmasked as the Flame Emperor -- in the Blue Lions route, he literally crushes an Imperial soldier’s skull with his bare hands in his attempts to get at Edelgard. It’s shocking, especially since up to that point the super strength that came from his Crest was played for laughs more than anything else.

He continues slipping in the weeks leading up to the attack on Garreg Mach, publicly alluding to his hallucinations and how they whisper to him and vowing to take Edelgard’s head himself. CF is the only route where he actually stays pretty sane, so we’re going to focus on non-CF routes: in the battle for the monastery, Edelgard’s forces end up victorious, and he’s forced back to Faerghus, expecting to take the throne and rally a counterstrike against her...only to arrive and be accused of regicide when it’s revealed that his uncle Rufus has been viciously murdered. Cornelia (who is, in fact, a Twisted agent) takes power in the Kingdom and basically hands it off to Edelgard as the ‘Dukedom of Faerghus,’ then orders Dimitri be imprisoned and later executed; but before he can be killed, his vassal Dedue manages to break him out of prison, though the escape attempt apparently costs him his life (he can be saved by other Duscur survivors depending on the results of an earlier paralogue, though -- the important point is that Dimitri thinks Dedue is dead). After that, Dimitri spends the next four-ish years wandering alone in the Faerghus forests, the isolation exacerbating his already poor mental health until he’s openly conversing with his hallucinations; he also starts attacking Imperial forces he comes across in Faerghus and basically ripping them apart, leading to a lot of rumors about a wild beast on the loose. Also, somewhere in this five year span he loses an eye. No, we have no idea how. Fandom burns for answers.

Now, Dimitri’s fate varies significantly depending on playthrough here. In Silver Snow and Verdant Wind, he’s literally consumed by his rage and guilt and his desire for vengeance on behalf of those taken from him, and he ends up dying in pursuit of it. In Azure Moon, he’s lost any real ability to tell reality from hallucination, and believes even Byleth is nothing more than a figment; he continues his single-minded pursuit of Edelgard, committing atrocities of his own and admitting to being nothing but a base murderer, the beast Felix accused him of being so long ago. But eventually, through the intervention of Byleth and his classmates, he starts to come around a little more -- though it takes Rodrigue’s death and his final words, encouraging him to live for himself rather than those who have already gone, to really wake him up and get him moving forward. The game takes the turn a little fast, but it’s still really touching to see Dimitri coming back from the edge and recognizing the importance of his own desires. The campaign continues, they retake Fhirdiad, there’s a parley with Edelgard where she refuses to back down and continues to insist that war is the only option, things get crazy with the final boss like holy shit, but in the end after Edelgard’s been defeated, Dimitri offers his hand to her...and her final act is to throw the dagger he gifted her when they were children at him, and he instinctively kills her in retaliation.

Look, Dimitri doesn’t come out of this smelling like roses. He killed a lot of people in very, very violent ways. But he recognizes that what he did, even if he wasn’t mentally sound at the time, was pretty atrocious and spends the rest of his life seeking peace with as little bloodshed as possible.

But okay I have gone on for a long time about Dimitri so if you’re still here, congratulations let’s talk about my favorite Lord.

Claude is a mystery wrapped in an enigma. That’s literally how he’s presented in the game, and it’s great. He’s sociable, amiable, friendly, mischievous, and has a reputation as a schemer. He jokes about his own reputation a lot, especially when he’s called out, but he’s wickedly smart, especially where tactics, information gathering, puzzles, and secrets are concerned. We literally go through the whole first half of the game getting only the tiniest hints about him personally and what his aspirations are -- we don’t even know where he came from, he legit just showed up out of the blue when Duke Riegan named Claude as his heir -- and meanwhile he’s out there trying to unravel the mystery behind Crests, the Church, and the Flame Emperor -- and while he doesn’t manage to succeed before the timeskip hits, he manages to uncover an alarming amount of information. Also, despite his reputation as an untrustworthy trickster, he cares deeply about the people around him and does his best to keep them safe, even if it means resorting to underhanded (but ultimately non-lethal) methods.

Once we hit the timeskip, we find out more of the secrets that he’s been hiding. For context, Fodlan’s neighbor to the east is Almyra, and relations between the two nations have been...tense, to say the least: a few hundred years ago Almyra invaded Fodlan and a bad time was had by all. In order to prevent it from happening again, the Alliance built a fortress called Fodlan’s Locket in the pass connecting the two nations (the pass being called Fodlan’s Throat). Presently, the Alliance is headed by a communal council of nobles from the major families, who meet at regular round tables in order to debate business that affects their territories and pass legislature; the round table is headed by Duke Riegan, who had two children, a son set to inherit the title and a daughter who went mysteriously missing years ago. Unfortunately, House Riegan and House Gloucester have never been on the best of terms, and when Duke Riegan’s heir was attacked and killed on the road while traveling to visit Duke Gloucester, there were a lot of rumors that Lorenz’s dad might have been involved, though nothing was ever proven in that regard. It left Duke Riegan in a tough spot, though, since he was getting on in years and suddenly had no heir...at which point, Claude ‘miraculously’ steps in with his Crest and is named heir to House Riegan.

Turns out? Duke Riegan’s daughter didn’t go missing: she eloped with an Almyran. And that Almyran, as it turns out, became king of Almyra. So Claude’s an Almyran prince. Turns out, he didn’t exactly have a great time growing up, though: Almyrans view the people of Fodlan as cowardly and weak, so they viewed Claude’s mom as such...and Claude himself, too, since he was half-Fodlan. No matter how much he argued or fought, it never seemed to matter. He got bullied a lot, and started picking up tactics and poison mixing as ways to defend himself...but more than anything, he hated how small-minded Almyrans were when it came to him and his mother. Then Duke Riegan’s heir died, and his grandfather reached out to his daughter, hoping to have Claude tested for a Crest -- which, as it happens, he bore. Claude was so excited, believing that things in Fodlan would be different, better...

...and instead, he found that things in Fodlan were exactly like they were in Almyra. People hated him for half his heritage -- just this time, it was for his ‘savage’ Almyran half instead of his ‘cowardly’ Fodlan half. It was hilarious, in a sad way, how alike the people of Fodlan and Almyra were when it came to hating things they didn’t know...and that was how he decided on his goal. What Claude wants to do is destroy the borders between people and forge understanding between them. He found through hard experience that people always fear the outsider -- but if you break down the walls, there’s no ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ anymore. There’s just people. What he wants to do is unify the Alliance, then Fodlan, then perhaps even the world...not through force or subjugation, but by bringing them together, uniting them through what they share in common and helping them understand and find value in their differences. His aspiration is to ensure that no one has to suffer like he did growing up.

And so, once things are all settled in Fodlan (and he’s assured that he managed to achieve his goal in small scale with his friends in the Alliance), he leaves Byleth in charge, forgoes leadership in the Alliance, and heads back to Almyra to continue working toward that aspiration. He becomes the king of Almyra so that he can start working toward that larger goal from the other side of the border, intending to open roads toward peaceful diplomacy and trade with Fodlan. He knows their bonds are strong, even when they’re apart, and he knows that they’ll all be reunited someday. Also Claude is the only Lord who has the possibility to live in all routes (barring Silver Snow but he’s only listed as ‘missing’ not ‘dead’ so I hold out hope) which I think says a heck of a lot about how great he is. He’s just so good and so kind and cares so much about people and he makes my heart warm and yes I’m done yelling about how much I love Claude for a moment.

So hopefully that fills you in a little on the other Lords at least in part please enjoy my novel-length ramble.

#answered #anonymous #fire emblem: three houses #fe:3h spoilers #i tried to cram every pertinent bit of information i could remember in here #boy there's a lot isn't there #so much backstory is required to understand these people #like holy shit #also for the record edelgard was not involved in duscur #that was all the twisted #but please understand how much i love claude he's so great #and i feel like he gets passed over a lot #because he's not contentious like edelgard #or tortured and traumatized like dimitri #but he's so incredibly good he's absolutely my favorite of the lords #i love dimitri too don't get me wrong but claude is such a treasure

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