#but it's always leopold bad bad bad never Supreme Leader who uh uses Brigid as fodder and not the Empire in general

[randomnameless]

Kaga had the idea of Verdane as a “barbarian nation” in mind when he developed it for Jugdral, but at least the idea is communicated that Jamke’s brothers are idiots, and Batu lost his way because Sandima was manipulating him. Houses Almyra was never really shown but we got the concept that it had its good sides and bad sides. Nopes? Nopes Almyra truly is a nation of barbarians, who pillage for fun, refuse to acknowledge the people it trods on (even its own people, like Cyril), populated by nobility who are incompetent and stupid (Shahid) and whose military has no respect for its own king (Nader). Invasions are treated like field trips and pillaging is given the same weight as strolling through a gift shop. Even Brigid was eggtivated and lolcalised to declare its oppressor a friend. I’m amazed Sreng was actually treated seriously and given legitimate gravitas compared to the asspull nonsense of the other two routes.

Now if only we can airlift the Church (and Byleth, sans their shitty drunkard of a father, since at least Nopes gives us a tiny crumb in the form of undeniably canon mint) out of Nopes and into Jugdral I will be content.

I'll be a bit less enthusiast about FE16's Almyra -

Where did we had any clue about Almyra having "good sides"? Of course, you can't resume a nation to what a bunch of people did, but even in FE16, Cyril depicted Almyrans in less than admirable terms, the paralogue does them no favours and Claude doesn't help in the slightest, being prejudiced as he is (but hey, Claude learns and reconsiders, something Clout never does) against Fodlan and its supposed "isolationism" and whatever beef he had against the Church of Seiros.

The only thing of interest about Almyra is their "bend the knee escape the noose" mindset - which seems to be very different from Fodlan's mindset which indicates the two countries have a different set of values - but at the end of the day (in an epilogue else the game would be good) we learn that they eventually managed to become allies.

(Yes, I also find it ultra weird that Nader the Undefeated, who always pulls back, would become BFF with Hilda "I said I would run away instead of defending the city... but I'm actually fighting to my dying breath to protect the city, its inhabitants, and Claude" 's brother but who knows, maybe they really were drunk when they signed their BFF charter).

Basically, FE16's Almyra is a country that has a different set of values, that is seen through rose tainted glasses and through mud tainted glasses, but that is seen raiding the border for reasons. It is BaD? No, but Claude has some serious self-reflection to do on his thoughts about international relationships.

Nopes?

As you pointed out, Nader, Shahir, King Dad, and Clout himself...

Well.

However, I partly disagree on Brigid, it was lolcalised, but not eggtivated. Eggtivated Brigid would mean that even in the JP script Brigid is always happy to fight for Adrestia - as seen in Tru Piss and non SS routes, Petra receives a lot of "information campaign" from the Empire, to the point where she thinks she's only the "will" of the Emperor, and nothing else.

But when recruited or in SS (even in her SS paralogue) the game (FE16 at least) made it clear that Brigid is a vassal state, under the heel of Adrestia and they are pretty unhappy about it.

Granted, for sure, the lack of close-up on Brigid's situation bar Petra's non Tru Piss paralogue can count as an exemple of eggtivation.

TFW a random named Leif who doesn't even have a personalised sprite is in the same situation, but his country isn't sidelined bcs "uwu" so it receives the gravitas it deserves.

Nopes really destroyed Jerry, didn't it?