#corrin i will miss your dumbass

[moonndust]

chapter 20, 21 and 22 were something… (part 1)

(includes fire emblem engage spoilers)

only alear, kagetsu, alcryst and merrin survived the griss hide n seek level

and i vividly recall alcryst always dealing the final blow.

atp if alcryst dies in-battle then it’s fuckin over for all of us

alcryst died once at some point and i immediately went to the time crystal

he’s like my only maxed out character and i am not risking the chances of losing a wet towel of a menace

one crit and its all over for the enemy

kagetsu had like 8% crit chance and landed on like more than 10 crits in a row.

i like but also dislike the lack of characters in each cutscene. like wtf was everyone else doing when griss was talking to alear? they were clearly right there??? right???

then get his ass. sneak up on that bitch and STAB HIM IN THE GUT OR SMTH.

it’s that easy.

this game has so many plot holes. way too many that i can’t even think of one.

like half of the casualties in the plot could’ve been avoided if we used that damn time stone. framme was so fuckin right about using the time stone to stop florra port from getting destroyed. use your brains y’all!!! USE IT!!!

ik it would make the game like longer but still‼️

i didn’t understand a single thing in veyle’s backstory (i wasn’t paying attention to all the “tell don’t show” shit)

my opinion on marni drastically changed when she immediately switched up. it really felt rushed but i really like how her va portrayed marni’s feelings.

marni’s death was like witnessing a child getting disowned and killed right after

mauvier’s character is great‼️ he’s just bland‼️that’s all‼️

the battle was pretty easy ngl. alcryst (as always) landed the final blow on veyle.

the cutscenes were awkwardly put together ngl. like the cutscene where veyle is crying over alear’s dead body, vander and alfred are just 🧍

i mean ig it could work as a parallel cutscene to lumera’s death but still.

why tf were they just standing there. they were most likely standing in shock but at least make them closer to alear’s body or smth omg.

anyways

the writing is dogshit but i somehow nearly cried in some cutscenes. don’t ask why bc i don’t know either.

i’m blaming the god tier va work for that. they put so much effort for such a shitty script that it works.

zephia, ik you’re hot n all, but i am this close to throw hands at your ass

“we’re all family here.” THIS IS NOT THE FOUND FAMILY TROPE THAT I REMEMBER

mauvier was just there. ngl he did a lot of work in the battle but he also didn’t do much at the same time??

i’m not done w/ the chapter 22 battle yet but goddamn that’s a lot of cutscenes.

ngl it would’ve been fun to fight the corrupted + corrupted veyle as the units w/o alear. that was such a missed opportunity for a good challenge.

i like corrupted veyle’s voice better than her normal voice…

oh no they took away marth’s blue hair and pronouns 😨

they took away everyone’s colored hair and pronouns 😱

now they’re all red and pronounless 😢

i started the battle in chapter 22 w/o knowing that alear was the only one who could get the rings…

so my dumbass made alcryst waltz to lyn’s ring and i realized that i fucked up

had to use the time crystal and go back 2 turns to the very beginning

and replay the battle from scratch.

pandreo (once again) was a fuckin trooper and carried everyone

the emblem rings i assigned the everyone was lowkey random but i let the ai do it for me since i am a lazy fuck

so there was uhhhh alear/roy, alcryst/lyn, kagetsu/lucina, pandreo/corrin (later changed to micaiah), seadall/byleth, rosado/eirika (changed to corrin), clanne/celica, zelkov/eirika, alfred/sigurd, merrin/leif (originally ike) and timerra/ike

i sorta did change timerra’s class to picket pretty late so she kinda died in almost everything but its ok i still love her

i wanted to play around w/ the change class mechanic on the benched units i had (i wanted to give diamant exposure therapy through sage class)

i actually have a good strategy that i didn’t even get to use and i’m pissed.

this is just a one shot alcryst centered strategy. 1) make alcryst engage w/ lyn and dispel doubles, 2) pandreo uses rescue and teleports alcryst close to him n seadall, 3) seadall uses dance on alcryst, 4) astra storm that bitch w/ those sweet chain attacks‼️

this could also help w/ lucina’s all for one skill.

seadall’s dance was a life saver in every battle.

alcryst, kagetsu pandreo and merrin are the biggest carries in my team atm

alear is just… there

in conclusion? always take out the villain when they least expect it.

griss in post-battle chapter 20 telling alear the big fell dragon thing? get his ass from behind.

hyacinth just standing there at chapter 10? pop his old bones

when sombron appeared before alear died? just yank the helmet off of veyle’s head. marni cracked it ffs.

oh yeah and use the time crystal like your life depended on it plot wise.

[artdumpss]

asra propaganda 

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Bad Things Happen Bingo: Worked Themselves to Exhaustion

Heeeey, @badthingshappenbingo​ is finally underway! @burtlederp​ asked for Worked Themselves to Exhaustion with Ryan as our POV/Main, so here it is! 

Bloodstains = requested, puppy sticker = completed

This is set post-rescue and post-trial. Tagging the crew: @spiffythespook​, @bleeding-demon-teeth​, and @special-spicy-chicken​!

CW: Very little, actually! Some references to parental abuse and implied/references past assault/violence, but mostly this is just Ryan being Ryan

Ryan woke up with a start to discover he’d fallen asleep sitting at the kitchen table, forehead resting on one arm and the other simply hanging loose down at his side.

He still had the mug of coffee he’d been drinking sitting next to him, his fingers loosely curved around the handle. He dragged his free hand up and over to find the ceramic had totally cooled, the coffee no doubt cold and stale inside.

He blinked, lifting his head slowly, wincing at the crick of pain in his neck. What time was it? How long had he been asleep? His phone was buzzing on the table next to him and he blinked, blearily looking over at it. Must've been what woke him. Fuck, was it really 9:45 already?

When he saw ‘MOM’ and the photo he’d set of he and Corrine at the beach a couple of years ago lighting up the screen, he groaned, hit the button to silence it, and let his head drop back to the table.

He was so fucking tired and he did not have the energy to deal with his mother right now. Maybe not ever again, not where Danny was concerned.

She would tell him to get an aide, she was always telling him to get an aide. Move out (you can move right back in the house with Dad and I until you find a place, no reason to linger there wasting your twenties), leave him and Vandrum with a full-time home health care aide.

You shouldn’t feel obligated to take care of him, Ryan.

But he did, and maybe if Mom had ever felt obligated to really care about Danny, he wouldn’t have ended up wearing a goddamn dog collar in western Canada.

Not that it was Canada’s fault, or anything. Ryan hadn’t ever realized how fucking huge Canada was, before he’d flown into Edmonton on the fastest flight he could find, rented a car, and then drove and drove and drove and fucking drove to the police station his brother was waiting in - only to realize it had been more hours upon hours of driving for Nate to get Danny there in the first place.

That cabin in the woods had been literally in the middle of fucking nowhere, and Ryan couldn’t possibly have known, right?

He should have, though. He should have, and maybe none of it would ever have happened if his mother and father hadn’t said all that shit to Danny five years ago about regretting adopting someone who didn’t want to be part of the family business, and therefore part of the family.

They might not see their obligations, but Ryan did. He was obligated, because while Danny had been up in those woods suffering, learning to believe that Denner fucker's lies that he isn't a person, that his body belongs to Denner to use however he wants, learning to call himself a puppy and give up his name and his body and his humanity to stay alive, Ryan had been looking in all the wrong places trying to find him.

He had looked for four straight years. He'd started looking the day Danny didn’t come home from his weird meetup with the older guy he was either just crushing hard on or actually dating, no one seemed to know, and he'd kept looking until the day the cops called and said We’ll know for sure once we’ve done the DNA test, Mr. Michaelson, but we’re pretty sure this man is your brother. He had never, ever stopped looking.

He had leveraged his parents’ wealth and influence to pull together private searches long after law enforcement had given up. He had kept looking even when the cops and the FBI stopped helping them find a living man and started focusing on recovering a corpse one day, maybe decades from now, when some dumbass hiker might trip over his brother’s bones in the woods-

Stop it. He survived. You brought him home. You couldn't have known where Denner would take him. You couldn't have done more.

Yes, he could have.

He had been looking, but he hadn’t looked hard enough. He'd looked in the wrong spots, he had missed clues, somewhere, somehow.  What if there had been a white hair in the bloodied car they missed? What if Denner had left a fingerprint on Vandrum's apartment building? What if what if what if.

What if none of it would ever have changed a thing?

No, his mother didn't understand, but he couldn’t ever give enough of himself to Danny's recovery to make up for what he had lost, for what he was still losing. For time suffered and time spent trying to heal.

His mother’s photo blinked away and the phone went back to empty black. Ryan sighed in relief… only to watch it light right back up as she tried a second time.

“No, fucking no,” He groaned, fighting the child’s urge to answer just because it was her, because he loved her, because she loved him. Him, but not his brother. The eternal hidden truth of the Michaelson family - one child loved, the other left out, chased off, and lost. "Leave a goddamn voicemail, Mom, come on."

He'd been up all night, for the third night in a row, and Ryan was tapped the fuck out.

One super fun discovery Ryan had made about bringing home two people who had lived in nonstop fight-or-flight-or-freeze mode for four years was that they never stop getting sick.

Danny's immune system had apparently just checked out at some point and left, and Ryan could usually handle it, but this virus or whatever it was... was bad.

Vandrum usually did his best to help, but he had caught the bug, too, this time. Which meant two grown men reduced to middle-of-the-night coughing fits and all-day fevers, two grown men essentially helpless, two grown men Ryan had found himself in charge of.

Ryan wasn't only taking care of his traumatized older brother who refused to let him touch him, even just to check to see if his fever had broken, but also his brother’s equally traumatized maybe-boyfriend who never flinched or pulled away but who instead stared at Ryan with glassy, frightened green eyes and gritted teeth as he simply put up with Ryan’s clumsy attempts at caretaking in silence, only breaking it with the occasional pl-please let Red sl-sleep, he can’t d-d-do chores today, I’ll d-do his chores f-for him, please...

One more day of this and Ryan might crack.

He's stocked the fridge with all the stuff he remembered Mom buying when they were sick as kids - ginger ale and Pedialyte (did adults drink that shit? Vandrum and Danny hadn't put up a fight when he brought it to them and God knew they weren't keeping any food down yet), chicken soup from the deli in little microwave-safe containers, some Gatorade. There were saltines open on the counter, from the only experiment with solid food either man had attempted since they first got sick.

Ryan had never seen someone throw up saltines before, but at least Vandrum had seemed decently ashamed of himself for it. Danny hadn't even tried them.

It's 9:45 in the morning and all Ryan wants to do is crawl back into his own bed and drift, but if he does he knows one of them will need him, and the only thing worse than not sleeping is finally, finally getting to sleep only to be almost immediately woken up by grown men so knocked out by some kind of virus that they could hardly stand on their own.

Ryan slowly sits up straight, feeling pops along his spine from having been slumped over the table for so long, wondering if twenty-four was too young to have his fucking bones crack when he moves, like an old man.

“One hour,” He says out loud, to no one in particular. “If they don’t need anything in the next hour, I’m giving up and going to fucking bed.”

He pours himself a fresh cup of coffee, which does absolutely nothing to alleviate his exhaustion. He listens to the voicemail his mother eventually leaves, after her third and fourth attempts go unanswered.

Here’s to hoping you’re sleeping, Ryan, and don’t worry, I was just wondering how you were doing and if you had any updates on how Danny and his, um, friend are doing. I can have Mrs. Verona over there to give you a break, poor dear, just say the word.

I was sleeping, Mom, Ryan thinks bitterly, rubbing at his forehead with the heel of one hand as he listens, ignoring for the moment that technically he had fallen asleep sitting at the table like a parent with a newborn and not an adult with a sick brother. Your fucking phone calls woke me up, congratulations, Corrine Michaelson, you’re a gold-star mom today.

No, that wasn’t fair. She was just worried, Mom knew he wasn’t sleeping enough since Danny came home. She was just trying to help, with the offers of an aide or of sending Mrs. Verona over for a day. 

She wasn’t trying to chase Danny off again, she wasn’t trying to make him feel like less-than even when he’d only just really started to get his feet under himself again. She just wanted to help Ryan, like always, and was so blinded by it that she missed that what helped Ryan sometimes hurt Danny.

She’d never meant to be awful to Danny, really, it had always just… happened.

Why do you always make excuses for her? Why don’t you just admit it, give it a name, and try to protect him from them while he’s still so fragile and so easily torn apart all over again? He needs someone who can stand up for him this time, and you never have, you always, always let them blame him. You let him run to Eureka to get away from them, so he was in this stupid town when that fucking psychopath came calling to pick his ex up again.

You let them chase Danny away, and it’s your fault he was here when Abraham Denner wanted a new victim. It’s your fault, Ryan, and you have to fix it, so stop whining to yourself about being tired and take care of the brother you couldn’t save when it counted.

You can start by calling what Mom and Dad do to Danny what it is, by calling it-

“Ryan?”

He’d been so lost in his thoughts he hadn’t heard anyone coming, but he looks up now to see Danny leaning against the open-framed doorway to the kitchen, staring in at him with stark surprise written across his face.

The wavy red hair is sticking to his forehead and the back of his neck and his blue eyes are fever-bright, two bright red splotches mark his cheeks. His face is otherwise chalk-white, freckles and the ring of half-healed scarring standing out in garish, nearly neon red in a perfect outline of that fucking thing Ryan can barely stand to think about.

“What’re you doing up? You look dead on your feet, man.” Ryan stands up, slowly so he doesn’t surprise him - Danny still doesn’t like it when people move too fast around him, and the fever definitely doesn’t help with that problem - and sets his coffee mug on the table. “Let’s get you back to bed.”

“I’m not s’posed to, to be in th’ bed.” Danny glances over his shoulder, then back, putting a finger to his lips. “Ssshhh. He must’ve… told Nate it was okay...” Danny’s eyes drift, aimlessly, to the side, looking with confusion at the window above the kitchen sink, with the faded, ancient little pleated floral curtain that had been in the apartment when Danny moved in.  “That’s not right. What d’you think he did to earn me getting to sleep in the bed?”

Something in Ryan cracks a little more, the way it always does every single time Danny says something else like this, some new piece of heart-deep horror that Danny doesn’t even seem to recognize for what it is.

“I don’t suppose it would help to tell you you’re home,” Ryan says, wearily, thinking longingly about the last few swallows of hot coffee left and whether it’s worth drinking it if it’s not going to even touch the fatigue. “Would it?”

“I wish I could go home.” Danny speaks the words so softly Ryan nearly misses them. “I wish, but there isn’t one anymore. I know all the rules. I’m so fucking tired, Ryan. Are you still looking for me?”

“Danny?” He’s so exhausted that it takes too long, far too long, for it to really sink in that Danny isn’t talking to him at all, but to some memory he’s having, that Danny’s lost in the woods again.

“I wish I got to keep my name.” Danny whimpers the words more than speaks and then slides straight to the floor in one swift motion. Ryan can’t cross the distance in time to stop him and Danny thumps to the ground nearly bonelessly, still braced against the door frame, closing his eyes slowly and resting the side of his head against it. “You have to look in the woods, Ryan. We’re in the woods.”

When Ryan crouches in front of him, reaching out one hand, he doesn’t flinch or pull away, not when Ryan’s palm presses against his sweaty, boiling-hot forehead, not when he feels the rabbit-fast flutter of his pulse in the side of his neck. 

“Whatever you want,” Danny mumbles, eyes half-opening, then closing again. “Do whatever you want. I’ll be good.”

He’s going to have to stand Danny up, and he can barely find the energy to straighten his legs for himself. Three days - three days of the fevers that come and go, the coughing that wakes him up when he does sleep, his mother’s worried phone calls, Vandrum being fucking useless because he’s sick, too.

He just.

It’s just too fucking much and Ryan never realized how hard it would be to do all of this totally alone.

“Danny, I’m so goddamn tired,” Ryan says out loud, near tears himself. “I can’t keep doing this, I can’t keep taking care of you-”

“S’okay,” Danny slurs back to him. “Go back t’bed. I can make breakfast. I need to do chores… s’time, he can’t see I’m late, he can’t, can’t see-” Danny starts trying to push himself back to his feet, and Ryan is half-impressed, half-horrified when his desperately ill brother manages to make himself stand back up, knees locked, glittering, distant eyes fixed on the sink. Ryan stands with him, slowly, his hands out but uncertain what to do next. “Do dishes. Start with dishes. He has to see I’m still working…”

Danny takes a step and simply collapses forward, but this time Ryan is there to catch him under the arms in an awkward half-hug, and Danny shudders at the touch but he’s too weak to pull away or fight back, too weak to even try.

“Look in the woods,” Danny mutters, and his forehead falls against Ryan’s shoulder, thumping into it hard enough to make Ryan wince. “Look in th’ woods for us. Sssshhhhh… everything’s so fuckin’ loud…”

“You’re the only one talking here, buddy,” Ryan murmurs, closing his own eyes just for a second, feeling himself sway a little, a sort of dip in his brain where the white fog of tired takes over before his eyes jolt back open. “Shit. I, I have to sleep, Dan, or I’m gonna die.”

“Don’ die,” Danny mutters, without moving even an inch. “Don’ die. Mom’ll be mad at me.”

Ryan laughs, and after a second Danny huffs a sound that might be laughter, too, and finally Ryan braces himself, pushing Danny back up to where he’s taking at least a little of his own weight. “Okay, okay. I got an idea. Go back to my room, okay? We’ll lie down in there.”

“I have to start chores,” Danny protests faintly, his eyes dancing around aimlessly again, then landing back on Ryan’s face. “Can you tell Mom to call me in sick today? There’s no way I’m going to school. Abraham’s gonna be so mad at me... I can’t go t’school today...”

“You’re twenty-six years old, big brother,” Ryan grunts as he manages to get Danny’s arm around his shoulder to hold him up, taking his weight, his head pounding. He just had to get to bed. Just that far, not too far at all. “You haven’t been in school for a long time.”

“Oh.” Danny frowns, confused, and when Ryan starts trying to walk, he drags his feet along beside him, nearly shuffling. Their progress down the hallway is slow, but damn it, it still counts as progress, and Ryan can see his bedroom door getting closer with every step. “Did I graduate? I don’t remember that.”

Ryan sighs, taking a pause to redistribute Danny’s weight. He’s going to fall over right here in the hallway, pass out and sleep for a week. Right there on the floor. Maybe someone will drop an omelet or something for him to eat while he’s down there.

Who would make it, though, if Danny and Vandrum are both totally useless? Maybe if he called his mother, she’d send Mrs. Verona over with, like, a fucking honeyed ham or something.

“No, Dan, you didn’t. You were still one semester out. They sent you an honorary degree, though, I have it stashed somewhere.”

You know, when they thought you were dead, when everyone but me gave up.

“Honor degree.” Danny giggles, the sound eerie and unfamiliar, a high-pitched noise he’s almost never made in Ryan’s entire memory. “Degree for honor. What’s honor when you fuck like I do now?”

“If there is a God, may you never say anything like that ever again.” Ryan manages to get his door open, although only barely, and he stumbles a few feet into the room before simply letting Danny fall right into the bed, breathing hard.

“May I have permission to sleep?” Danny mumbles, eyes already closing as he mostly crawls his way further into the bed. Ryan’s heard him ask Nate Vandrum that question every fucking night since they brought him home, with the occasional lapse when he remembers he’s a human being and grown-ass humans don’t have to ask permission to fall asleep.

Just like they shouldn’t have to ask permission to shower or bathe or sit in a chair and not on the floor or eat with a fork or…

No. Too tired to be angry right now.

“Yes,” Ryan says heavily. “Yes, you can sleep.”

“Thank you for letting me sleep, Ryan.” The voice is soft and fuzzy, gentle and grateful, and Ryan fucking hates Danny’s stupid fucking rules and his stupid fucking puppy voice. And he hates that he’s so tired that he can’t stop himself from being angry that Danny still uses it rather than focusing on the fact that sometimes, for whole days, he doesn’t.

“No problem, buddy. Get some rest.”

He watches Danny curl up, turning his six-foot-two body into something shockingly small. His knees go to his chest and his arms curve over his head with his hands loosely splayed over his hair, a defensive position to ward off the blows that might be coming at any time.

He never slept like that before, he’d said to Vandrum one night early on, when they’d both woken up and caught Danny curled up like that on the floor next to the couch.

Yeah, w-w-well, your p-parents didn’t w-w-wake him up with head t-trauma, did they? Nate had said, and Ryan had hated him a little less, in the moment, when he’d seen the guilt written across his face. Nate was always guilty, and he damn well should be, but Ryan had plenty to be guilty about, too.

Plenty to make up for.

And he’ll be right back to that as soon as he gets some goddamn sleep.

Ryan sighs, swaying a little, and finally climbs in, sliding under the covers, unruly black curls falling over his face. He watches Danny, already out, curled up and ready to be kicked awake at any moment.

He falls asleep with one hand out, resting on top of the comforter within inches of Danny, not quite touching him.

[didsomeonesayventus]

ESSAY TIME I love a ship please come hang out w/ me on this dinghy or like. dont because fates is awful and I can’t blame u for dodging that bullet but i just wanna scream because i love them and they’re the fixation rn so 321 GO

i cant blame anyone for not really seeing this because their support is. Ok. Its alright. Not amazing, it’s serviceable, better options are out there in fates I'll concede. Corrin has like. At least 3 other love interests who feel more canon LMAO but this isn’t about them

It's more from elsewhere in their characterization that really made me adore them and, as I mentioned in tags, a lot of this comes from how I write them which. Is largely filed under rp stuff right now but more ramble time on how i write them i guess dont forget to mark your free bingo space for throwing out large swaths of fates canon and writing.  Also we're scooting their canon support gently to the side because it’s ok it’s not the most offensive writing this nightmare scrap heap of canon has to offer but a massive missed opportunity.

PART 1- One (1) Corn, With a Side of Emotional Neglect

*makes vague gesture at Disney's Rapunzel* Corrin would have been so much better recieved if the devs just took some notes from you instead of writing such a flat character i swear.

Corrin in particular with how I write her is getting a pretty massive rework in the emotionally stable department because honestly I don’t believe she would be. like. She's not dumb, but she is naive, important distinction, and it ends up coloring her views a lot and I have a ramble on that over here on the inverse graph that is Corrin’s confidence but to dissect where her attitudes came from:

Her family was limited to visits, and she has been directly/implicitly blamed for this for roughly a decade and a half, at least a decade, by not being an insane king's definition of strong enough to be with them. Bad memory makes her frail, swordsmanship isn’t up to par, doesn’t seem to offer much else in terms of skills unlike Xander, a Certified Badass(tm), Magic-oriented Leo and Elise, and Magically gifted but just plain ruthless Camilla. She’s held at arm’s length from her family, and while her siblings may have always loved her and expressed that love as often as they could, they’re not always there or a good yardstick to measure her progress with, and she had to always watch them go and likely wonder when they would come back, or if they even would.

As for our beloved butler and maids, being surrounded by servants was probably her most constant and consistent source of contact, and she does love them, but it can be very easy to wonder if they love her because they do or because it's their job to.

Corrin's faith in everyone around her and unwavering trust is there because any sort of doubt is basically redirected to. her. Because she is the dumbass who's still figuring the world out. She's hyper aware she's still learning and making naive decisions and she overcompensates that with "well what do I know" and not feeling really all that worthy to be Special Protagonist. She doubts herself before almost everything else.

Brief mention of Dragon arc because fates was dumb and neglected an entire arc for dragon feelings beyond chapter 5 and foreshadowing for Dad(tm) but I also write in an arc of the Dragon Is A Metaphor For Loving Yourself Faults And Trauma And All Love Yourself And You Can Control Yourself Dammit.

*Corrin hurt herself in her confusion!*

The way I write Corrin is not nearly as put together and confident as Canon™️ Corrin is, at least for a good chunk of the plot. She fakes it till she makes it because she is a leader and being mopey will not get things done but she’s also very self critical and mopey on the inside and quite paranoid that people don’t actually like being around her and just. ball of stress and anxious hidden under Many a uwu that she doesn’t want to talk about because why should she complain her childhood wasn’t That Bad and if she’s mopey how can she set a good example and people don’t like debbie downers and look its fine its fine lmao

PART 2- Mr. Perfect

As for Mr. Subaki he puts a lot of time and effort into looking perfect. I emphasize that because he may very well have natural talent, but honestly it feels like a large amount of his perfection is just. Stressing himself out by planning for and rehearsing everything possible! God this anxious idiot I love him!!! He's sociable and agreeable, but I think with basically everyone it’s. Skin deep. He’s charismatic Enough, and he digs a bit into the other’s history and personality if he’s interested, but he never really lets the other reciprocate like a magician never revealing his fraudulent secrets.

Biggest problem with that is he can't open up and vent because that is to admit a flaw and no no cant have that we cannot have that so he's just. Not sure who to turn to and has trouble being emotionally honest- even to himself. He just! Doesnt let himself have fun or relax; all perfect all the time baby. There’s basically no one who he could consider a close and trusted friend who can love him flaws and all. The closest would be Sakura and Hana and welp. gotta keep things professional and it’s not like Hana really expresses a sense of understanding and patience when they’re fiercely competitive with each other.

There’s probably a lot of muttering to his pegasus while he’s cleaning her hooves or braiding her mane, or staying up late thinking about how narrowly disaster was and wasn’t avoided that day but he. Also doesn’t really vent and also feels that imposter syndrome of “I’m honestly awful how did I even make it here.”

and it stinks because I think at his core he is a very sweet and caring guy and a massive dork, but he just plops himself on the edge of a pedestal and gives himself no room to be himself or anything less than perfect and is likely on the cusp of impending burnout.

you dumb anxious idiot i have S-Ranked you every fucking time I open this godforsaken game I didn’t even fucking plan for this

PART 3- (Patrick Warburton impression) “Oh yeah, it’s all coming together.”

So our characters and stage are set. We got FE Fates (I’ll default to Rev), we got my views when writing these two, so what next? What is the general plot I imagine since we’ve gently scooted aside the canon support chain?

The dumbasses-to-be think they’re out of each other’s league.

For Subaki, it is plot-irrelevant background character falling in love with the protagonist, which yields the exact sort of pining you’d imagine: man you are super cool and hit all my standards but I’d be dreaming if you felt the same about me. She’s sweet, she takes charge, she can fight for herself well enough, has he mentioned she’s sweet? He can actually relax a bit around her which is really odd but I guess that’s what happens when your personal skill is literally called “Supportive”. Oh yeah and also his Lady’s older sister which oof. Sakura? In law???? Hinoka in law???? Takumi in law?????????? ryoma in law oh gods.

For Corrin, it’s Mr. Prince Charming right there and he’s very nice and Sakura is saying so many nice things about him but wow she’s. a princess from a country that has consistently terrorized his and on top of that might a well have been raised under a rock!!! And she picks up details and nuances in people remarkably well, but she overthinks them. She can pick up that Subaki- while very polite and friendly -isn’t being entirely forthcoming about what he’s thinking or feeling, but she can’t pin down exactly what it is, and makes the educated guess that he's just being nice because she’s Sakura’s sister or something.

And they’re friendly. They help each other out a bit. There’s tension, sure, but no one really comments on it (except for everyone making bets in the bg). They don’t really yield on their internal messes because Corrin knows she’s a leader and can’t really do that and distracts herself with believing in everyone around her, Subaki just flat out would rather do literally anything besides admit he’s messed up anywhere or open up. So feeling are put on a low simmer for awhile.

Of course they fall in love, and it almost gets messed up because when Subaki requests to talk with her in private to confess, she immediately assumes he’s going to tell her that he’s not interested. Her simmer roars into a boil because she’s been under Protagonist Stress ON TOP OF having a crush she’s confident won’t be reciprocated, so she snaps quite a bit because that has all been shoved in a bottle and she just wants to get the mess over with if he’s just going to tell her very nicely that her company is lovely but hes not interested it hurts a lot to think that but its fine you don’t have to settle.

But the thing is being emotionally vulnerable like that, pointing out she’s scared too of always not being enough and living up to expectations, to finally get that off her chest, spurs him into it, too. Because she gets it. She honest to god gets it even if she bought into the lie he’s perfect she understands. Oh, yeah, she also reciprocates feelings that’s really excellent too. Like Subaki probably makes a lot of fuss about a bunch of ultimately meaningless details and having “standards” and yadda yadda gods help whatever poor soul asks him to pull out the list of traits of his ideal partner, but I think at the end of the day if he’s looking for love most of all, like a lot of people he just wants someone who he can just. be himself around. Who likes it when he’s being himself!

And they both learn that yeah maybe they’re more flawed than they’ve been lead to believe, but it starts to not matter at all because they still try really hard and everyone makes mistakes. They’re both here to say it’s ok your best is enough, YOU are enough. They both think they’re amazing regardless of their mistakes and love to see each other smiling and succeeding and just make. a nice little bubble of comfort. They’re stubborn and supportive, they learn how to poke and prod the bad moods away be it making a nice cup of matcha and talking it out or laughing at a tiny, meaningless mistake and repeating it to keep that feeling of dread away. Also they both spoil their partners regardless of who they end up with you can’t @ me on that they both do it which means guess what mega spoil time. And long hair on both just means they can braid each other’s hair no problem... waaaaaa.... Also early rise Subaki and late rise Corrin so there’s always a sleepy fight in the morning because UGH this is early you keep saying i’ll get used to it but im not i need a kiss first if you want me to be up this early. Subaki is better at logic and planning than Corrin, and Corrin keeps things optimistic and has a good gut for when to take an improvised risk. They’re always swapping places on who’s holding the other back from a fight that isn’t worth it because some asshole insulted the other, they mediate each other and will fight anyone who even harms a hair on the other’s head. They give and they give back and they work together perfectly.

And when it comes to the kids that bubble expands and they make sure they all have the tools to just take a deep breath and remember it’s okay Mama and Papa love you so much and you’re going to be amazing no matter what you do. Corrin’s got the best stories to tell and Subaki tucks the blankets in just right. They’re good parents with a lot of patience and plenty of mental health wisdom which is good because, as my mom would say, “bad brain chemistry is my bad”.

Like UGH I love them. I love them a lot. A good chunk of this is me making canon better thank me fates devs

Part 4- Katie All of This is Out of Your Noggin What About Canon

(DBZ abridged vc) WHAT ABOUT CANON but ok here have some canon quotes

“The two spent the rest of their lives together. Corrin ruling as the wise Queen of Valla. Subaki adapted quickly to royal leadership and became a great source of support for his wife. “ - Revelation route ending

“I feel like the pressure's off when I'm with you. I don't have to be perfect.” “You'll never be lonely as long as I'm around. Just call me and I'll come running.” - Friendship bonding quotes but also consider waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

“This might sound corny, but I think you're my soulmate.” - What he says when he is married to you and yes that is corny and its perfect

hot spring is dumb fanservice BUT if you can get the good RNG to get them both in there   “A shared bath warms not just my bones, but my heart as well.” “I-I suppose so...I just wonder if it's right to be so happy...” (emphasis mine) IT ABSOLUTELY IS BE HAPPY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

also one of his quotes when u stop by your quarters is  "Ah, welcome home, dear. Kick off those shoes and relax. You're with me now!" and you absolute himbo your wife doesn’t fucking wear shoes!!!!!!!!!

Part 5- I’m done I’ve yelled into the void good night enjoy a ship please be excited for the fic I have on the backburner that I will get out there one of these days but I want it to be perfect so RIP me I guess

[irisandlily]

Okay what makes me so irrationally upset and angry is the fact that fire emblem fates has so many plotholes and problems that could easily be solved by corrin not being a fucking dumbass but whatever I guess. I’m addressing some of these problems in this short fanfic about my MU Eliza. Set between Chapter 4 and 5 of fates, and my MU leaning more towards the Birthright route. Also featuring Takumi cause I love him

Summary: Eliza thinks back on the past week she has spent in Hoshido, and begins doubting her life as a ‘Nohrian Princess’.

Eliza had been wandering the Hoshidon palace, lost in her thoughts. Grasping at fleeting, vague memories. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess. Why was it she could barely remember anything from her childhood? It was like trying to put together a puzzle where all except one piece was missing. It made her head hurt.

She had no reason to believe Queen Mikoto was lying to her. The queen had been nothing but kind and patient during her stay, and Eliza couldn’t deny she was happy in Hoshido. Happier than she had been inside the Northern Fortress.

She also couldn’t deny the distinct similarities between herself and the queen, in regards to physical appearance. Similar facial features, such as face shape and jawline. While they had the same hair color, Eliza could easily dismiss that to a coincidence. Their eyes were different, the queen’s being a beautiful ginger brown with a tint of red in them. That was what Eliza had first noticed upon meeting her, along with how beautiful and regal she was. Eliza’s eyes were red, a mix between ruby red and wine red, as Camilla often described them.

She had never liked the color of her eyes before. ‘Like pools of blood,’ she recalled her father saying to her. She had been nine, and she had trembled at those words, rooting a deep fear and hatred in her for the color of her eyes.

If he had been trying to make her feel better, it hadn't worked.

Her father… if the queen was telling the truth… had her ever truly loved her? Cared for her? He had always been a distant man. And she had never heard any affection in his tone the few times he visited and spoke. To her or her Nohrian siblings. Xander had told her duties as King required their father to remain distant from others, even his own children. Eliza would be lying if she said she “loved” King Garon. There wasn't really… anything she could love to begin with.

And Xander… She was starting to suspect he had known. Known she was not his sister, not in blood at least. Thinking back on it, the older brother had always behaved… odd, whenever she had asked about her mother. Unlike Elise or Leo, she had no memories of her mother. Nothing of comforting hugs or kind smiles. Only that she died when she was young. That was what Xander had told her. But the answers were always the same. Always short. Never an answer of substance or significance. She had often seen a strange look in his eyes when she asked. Even Camilla had been unable to answer any questions about Eliza’s mother. Even historical documents had no trace of her mother. As if she had never existed.

“...How come Xander and Father won't tell me about my mother?” Eliza had asked Camilla one day, as they sat in the library of the Northern Fortress, reading. Camilla looked a bit surprised at Eliza's question, but calmly put down her teacup. Courtesy of Jakob and Flora.

“With Father, I suspect because he doesn't like dwelling on the past.”

“I don't know anything about my mother, and Father rarely visits for me to really ask him, and Xander… He knows something about my mother but he just won't tell me.”

“Perhaps he'll tell you when you're older.” Camilla suggested, “Or when Father lets you leave the Fortress.”

“Maybe…” Eliza looked down at the book in her lap, “But I’m 17… That should count for something.”

Eliza felt a hand grip her arm, pulling her back with a jolt, breaking her out of her thoughts. Her feet had led her outside. She stood at the beginning of the stone path that lay over a pond and realized with panic that she had nearly walked straight into the water.

“Be more careful.” a voice sounded behind her, and she turned around swiftly to see Takumi, his hold on her arm tight, pulling her back from the pond.

“I- Prince Takumi!” she stared at him in surprise. And nervousness. The last time they had spoken had been nearly a week ago when he had made it very clear he didn’t trust her one bit. Didn’t view her as his ‘supposed’ sister. When Sakura would give her a soft yet nervous smile, and Hinoka would talk animatedly about something, and she would see him staring, from the corner of her eye, his expression always neutral, even when no one else was in the vicinity. Though his eyes had contempt and loathing always inherent in them, in those moments. 

But there were times when she would catch him staring at her from across the room and he’d turn away. She thought she saw something else in those instances. Something other than suspicion and scorn.

It was the same look he was giving her now, and Eliza realized embarrassingly that she had been staring into his amber eyes, her mouth agape. She immediately yanked her arm out of his grasp with a flow of apologies and stumbled backward… into the pond behind her. She landed with a splash and looked up at Takumi who stared at her with stunned silence. Eliza despairingly realized that water had splashed all over him.

“I'm so sorry!” as if she needed to give him more reasons to dislike her. He sighed.

“Come on.” he held out his hand, and after a confused glance, Eliza took the offered hand and stood up all too quickly. That had been a mistake, she began to realize as she began slipping back into the pond. Oh no. Was the thought that flashed in her mind when she unintentionally dragged Takumi with her. All she could do was stare with increasing horror at what she had done. This was the end for her. Her life was over. She began spilling out apologies, her head bowed until she heard a laugh.

She looked up to see Takumi was smiling. Not only that but laughing.

“You don't need to keep apologizing.” he stood up and helped her up as well. “I actually- I wanted to apologize for what I said to you last week. It was rude and uncalled for. I'm sorry.”

“There’s nothing to apologize for.” she said with a shake of her head, “What you said was understandable, and I don’t blame you for it. Even if I am your sister, I grew up as the daughter of a King who killed your father. Anyone would have said those things in your position.” she smiled, “I'm just glad you're talking to me.” Takumi stared at her with a confused look before turning away, and Eliza swore she saw his face tinged pink. Was he- “Are you embarrassed, Prince Takumi?”

“N-No!” his voice cracked. He was definitely embarrassed. “W-We should go and change before dinner.” he glanced at her and began to walk away, “Mother will worry if she sees us like this.” Eliza stared at him, dumbfounded, before smiling to herself and catching up to him.

[lucisevofficial]

Good GOD this was a lot longer than I expected it to be Here, have this character analysis/defense of Corrin, drawn from plot, DLC, support conversations, the drama CD, and a couple headcanons thrown in for fun. Enjoy?  @chikoriti @bitrockshooter @gyakusai 

As a disclaimer, I think a lot of the reason Corrin resonated with me on a personal level is that I’m a chronically indecisive (to a nigh-harmful extent), transgender child of divorced parents with four siblings of varying ages, two of which are sisters and two of which are brothers (not to say that Corrin is trans [unless that’s your thing {which is is mine}] but I related to the sort of rift between two identities and the game-wide theming of whether identity is forged through birth or action). 

So what I’m saying is that Corrin struck all the right notes to be incredibly relatable for me, personally, but I get that that’s pretty much a unique position that I’m in. So bear in mind that I came into Fates with a positive, open position on Corrin already, and that probably informed how I felt about them throughout the game. Okay? Okay.

[Actual confirmed canon is gonna be standard text, strongly implied story/subtext will be italicized]

EARLY LIFE

So let’s start at the beginning. Corrin was born in Valla to Mikoto and Anankos shortly before Anankos’ insane form ravaged the country. When Valla was destroyed, Mikoto and the infant Corrin fled, eventually making their way to Hoshido where Mikoto became Sumeragi’s queen consort (an important distinction because while she held the title, she held no actual power).

So right off the bat Corrin’s starting off on a rough foot – a displaced refugee from a ruined kingdom who was lied to from day one – only his mother, Sumeragi, and Ryoma knew he wasn’t blood-related and for some reason they elected to keep this a secret (likely because of the heavy Hoshidan focus on bloodlines and station of birth – no better way to reject a prince than to reveal he’s actually just some random kid. Corrin wasn’t a prince in Valla, he was the son of a commoner and the queen’s sister. And besides, Valla is in ruins – there’s nothing left to be a prince of.

As tensions between Nohr and Hoshido escalate, the pivotal event happens, where Garon murders Sumeragi and kidnaps Corrin. Corrin’s memory of anything prior to the attack is erased and Corrin is sealed away, locked in a tower in the Northern Fortress. Corrin was convinced that Garon is his true father and that the Nohrians are his true family. Even now, Corrin is consistently lied to – not just about his heritage, but about why he is imprisoned in the fortress – Garon claims it’s to protect him – that he’s too weak, and to venture outside the “magical barrier” of the fortress would invite certain death. This is a common abuse tactic – to insist that any limitations or manipulations are done for the victim’s own good, and that the abuser has their best interests in mind.

THE NORTHERN FORTRESS

And so Corrin begins life at the Northern Fortress – a life of isolation, suffering, and abuse at the hands of his so-called ‘family’. Supports with Gunter reveal how he is treated there, with particular attention being drawn to being starved and being physically abused (being whipped is the example given). On top of that he spends most of his time there alone, with only occasional visits from siblings.

Corrin’s only constant companions are his ‘retainers’, an entourage which includes two prisoners-of-war-turned-practically-slaves. Flora and Felicia were taken in as children to essentially be used as tokens to ensure the Ice Tribe’s submission to Garon’s rule. Flora clearly shows outright disdain not just for Corrin and the Nohrians, but even for her sister for treating Corrin kindly – Flora views any concessions to any Nohrians as turning traitor, despite the fact that they are in similar positions to Corrin themselves. All three are prisoners, not for their own acts but as bargaining chips in a grander political scheme.

Jakob, on the other hand, is pretty much the opposite of Felicia. He’s rude, unsociable, and often blunt to the point of needless cruelty (often making Felicia cry). According to supports, the only reason he softened his heart at all is because of the kindness Corrin showed him.

So these are Corrin’s companions for the majority of his life. (Doing a bit of number fudging, my guess is that Corrin lives in the Northern Fortress for around fifteen years? He’s kidnapped when Hinoka is seven, meaning he’s probably around five, and during the plot of Fates I’d guess he’s in the 17-20 age range). Other occasional visitors included Xander who trained him in swordplay; and Silas, who was very nearly executed for the crime of simply taking Corrin out of the fortress a single time, only being spared by Corrin’s own opposition to the execution. Silas was forbidden from ever returning and Corrin forgot entirely about him – about the only outsider who genuinely tried to be friends without being there by force.

Because it’s important to remember that Jakob, Flora, and Felicia were all there by force – they had no say in who they served. I’d have to imagine that wears on your social skills a bit, right? Like, your only friends are people who are FORCED to be your friends. How can you really get a sense for how people feel or act in a situation like that? Flora despises Corrin yet puts on a happy face and serves him with the utmost care and attention. Felicia does the same but truly loves him. Same results, vastly different motivations.

Some of the supports are kind of startling if you think about them – often they’re played as jokes, but they’re really telling of the sort of childhood Corrin had. Corrin’s life goals were to see things like “a town plaza”, a “street food stall”, and “bugs”. Imagine spending your entire adolescence in a single building, with only a handful of friends trapped there with you. It’s entirely likely Corrin’s missing a whole subset of normal skills and knowledge. Does he know what the ocean looks like? A forest? All he can see is the desolation of northern Nohr, so he only knows about the beauty in the world through stories and pictures.

ACTION ANALYSIS

And I think that childhood informs a lot of the rationale behind Corrin’s foolishness. It’s not just naïveté; I don’t think that’s a strong enough word. It’s aggressive ignorance. It’s the result of a childhood of abuse, manipulation, and isolation; of just as many lies from loved ones as from enemies. It’s the culmination of years of social deprivation and a fundamental lack of understanding of how humans interact, of the true nature of what humans do.

(I like to headcanon this is why Corrin is so quick to fall in love – anyone showing him genuine kindness and love without prompting is a marriage candidate in his mind, so unused to such affection is he.)

If I’m allowed to touch on some slightly-outside-game-canon stuff, remember that during this time the Concubine Wars were in full swing – Garon’s children were literally murdering each other while vying for power, to the point where the pool of candidates narrowed down to just four. Did Corrin have other siblings that visited him? Did those siblings just stop coming one day, vanishing forever without explanation? Did those siblings die at the hands of Xander or Camilla, both fearsome warriors with unmatched skill? It’s never really answered in canon, but it’s an easy assumption to make.

So you get a Corrin’s who’s just a fucking dumbass. An unapologetic, unreasonably ignorant fool who constantly thinks that every single person in the world has light and goodness in them. And in that sense, I fucking adore Corrin. I love him so much. I love that he’s a character who has endured all the worst the world has to offer – going from refugee to political prisoner, suffering abuse, starvation, all manner of intense cruelty, and yet he still believes in the good in everyone. Everyone has a chance for redemption, everyone has a shred of good in their soul that can be brought out through peaceful dialogue – even unrepentant bastards like Hans and Iago.

And I love that the game throws it back in his face. His belief in good gets him into a heap of trouble time and time and time again, but he refuses to stop believing people are good. And I love that so much. So many (male, especially) FE lords are characters whose arcs are essentially them learning that strength needs to be tempered with compassion – look at characters like Chrom, Ephraim, Hector, and Ike. Their characters usually start off as these rough-and-tumble rowdy boys, and they must slowly learn responsibility and kindness over the course of the game.

Corrin’s character arc is the opposite – he starts off believing in the good in everyone, showing compassion for everything from wounded animals to enemy soldiers to fucking monsters. It’s an attitude only a sheltered Disney prince could possibly have. He’s an avid reader, so he likely spent his childhood reading about grand heroes who solve problems neatly, who always save the day and get the girl. It’s not until he leaves the Northern Fortress that he learns that war is real, painful, violent, and never, ever happy. There are no happy endings to be found in Fates – each victory is a loss for someone else. Whichever route he chooses means a single, straight march of blood and death and violence that culminates in the murder of his siblings and the death of his father, the only father he has ever known.

Literally the first thing that happens when he leaves the fortress is that Garon hands him a sword and tells him to kill two unarmed prisoners. He of course chooses to spare them, leading to the plot of the game, where he is forced to confront the foolishness of his idealism time and time again – The death of his mother, Hans attacking the Hoshidan soldiers, the execution of the Chevois rebels, Iago slaughtering the townspeople in Shirasagi, etc.

One important note is the Zola subplot in Birthright – even after Zola tries to kill him, Corrin still believes Zola’s lies about wanting to assist him. And he’s betrayed, stabbed in the back again. But it doesn’t stop him from believing that people are good! No matter how many times it comes back to bite him. Essentially half the plot is “sheltered dumbass doesn’t understand how war works, majorly fucks things up for everyone else”.

And remember that Corrin’s loyalty to his “father” isn’t unreasonable – even despite the cruelty he endures, he’s forever in pursuit of the praise and love of this man who he believes to be his father. This is fed into by Xander, who insists that “Garon wasn’t always like this.” Again, a common thread for abuse victims is for them to insist that it hasn’t always been that bad. In this case, Garon used to be a good man – the transition from man to monster was so gradual that it’s entirely understandable that Xander went along with it. Where is the line between strict king and tyrant? Nohr is a hard land, and austerity is necessary for survival. At what point did that austerity become cruelty?

So Corrin can scarcely even see the manipulation he endures – he sees Garon’s wickedness but is assured that it’s necessary. That father knows best. Nohr is strong, even if its people suffer, so Garon knows what it takes to rule. And Corrin accepts that – he hears his siblings talk Garon up so much, so Garon’s disdain for him must be a personal failure on his part. And he works desperately to rectify that and make his father proud.

META-GAME STUFF

I get people not relating to Corrin’s decisions, but I think Corrin isn’t meant to be as relatable as people think. I never really understood Corrin to be a self-insert as much as his own character, with thoughts, ideas, and motivations separate from the player. And I can see that being grating for people who are used to controlling an avatar, not a character. Even Robin is more of a mix of the two – think about all the decisions you make in Awakening compared to the single, all-important decision you make in Fates.

As for how incredibly Corrin-centric the game is, I do think that’s a bit of a misstep, but I think I get what they were going for. Take the Nohrian characters – even at their relatively young age, the older siblings are stained with blood: they are perpetrators of murders both on the battlefield and off. I think the obsession with Corrin comes from a view that Corrin is Nohr’s light – the last hope of goodness in a royal family wracked with pain, misery, and treachery. 

Corrin was in the Northern Fortress, free from the concubine wars and being trained as a soldier, so Corrin reached adulthood without getting blood on his hands – likely the only Nohrian royal other than Elise who did. Nohr is a dark land, ruled by dark, hateful people. It’s a land of famine and plagues, of bandits and monsters and murderers. Almost every single Nohrian character has a bloodstained past – except Corrin. Except this naïve little prince with his heart of solid fucking gold.

So I get everyone being obsessed with him – Xander seeing Corrin as a chance for Nohr’s rebirth into a kinder, gentler kingdom, and Camilla seeing Corrin as a precious treasure to be protected at all costs.

As for the Hoshidans, I think the drive comes from the honor-and-duty-bound nature of Hoshidan royalty. It’s heavily modeled on feudal Japan, and I think the loss of Corrin was seen as an immense, irredeemable failure. I love Hinoka with my whole heart, so let’s take a look at her – Corrin’s loss drove her into spiraling depression and then reckless, selfless heroism. She became a soldier at age seven, vowing to never again fail to the extent to which she failed Corrin.

Seven years old! And already such a strict, unbreakable sense of honor and pride. An entire life lived in pursuit of fixing a single mistake. And you see that elsewhere – Ryoma’s ritual suicide and Takumi’s possession being the result of his unending grief and abysmal self-image.

And again to touch on my own life experiences, I don’t think that’s unreasonable – having four siblings creates this sort of mob-mentality protectiveness. Any slight against a sibling is a slight against the whole family. Corrin is not just himself, but a symbol, and the focal point of the conflict between both the two nations and the two royal families (which are two separate but interlinked conflicts).

DRAGON BLOOD

The last thing I’m going to touch on is Corrin’s dragon heritage, because I think that’s an important facet that isn’t explicitly touched on a lot in the game.

Corrin is the first manakete lord in the series (which is fucking AWESOME I love shapeshifters and manaketes most of all), and is also the first time we really get to see a manakete’s early life unfold. Characters like Nowi, Tiki, Xane, Myrrh, etc, are all thousands of years old, despite their appearances. Corrin isn’t – he’s like twenty. He’s young and foolish – exhibiting the same foolish childishness as dragons like Xane, Nowi, and Young Tiki. Despite the burden of war on his shoulders, he likes to read books and play games and learn new things. Half of his my room dialogues are him inviting people into his treehouse to play games with him, after all!

But he’s also not human – there’s a disconnect between him and others, even if he doesn’t fully understand it. Everything, even his character design (pointed ears, reptile eyes, fangs, bare feet) puts him apart from “normal” humans, and with no explanation given to him, he’s likely left to assume that’s his own fault. That he’s a freak and a monster. Does he notice that when he’s in the Northern Fortress? Does he think that he was locked away because of his monstrous nature?

If we take Corrin to be a half-breed in the same sense of characters like Nah, then it’s likely he suffers the same problems that all manaketes do. The softly advancing madness, the uncontrollable destructive urges that he needs to balance with his own internal desire to be compassionate and kind. A desire to do good despite the ever-present sensation that he is not normal, nor is he even human.

Honestly I just think making him a dragon was an interesting narrative choice, but the details were all lost in the grand scope of the rest of the plot.

CONCLUSION

Okay this is finally wrapping up and I hope any of that made a goddamn lick of sense. I adore Corrin not just for what he is (his fantastic character design, his viability as a unit regardless of chosen class, etc) but for what he looks like in the grand scheme of the series. He’s a pretty unique lord, all things considered (not just because he’s a manakete) – he has a character arc that runs counter to many of the popular lords and in fact has more in common with characters like Eirika and Lyn, and I think we need that. This series in particular needs that.

At the risk of using a term like “softboy”, I adore that we have a both soft and monstrous protagonist – a half-breed, vicious monster who is defined chiefly by traditionally “feminine” traits (at least in the series history) – staunch pacifism, compassion to all, a belief that diplomacy comes before action.

I love that we have a character who overcomes a childhood of abuse and manipulation to be a fundamentally good person. We can see that Nohr twisted the royal siblings into monsters (again, barring Elise, who is Small) – Leo, Camilla, and Xander all say and do despicable things if you choose Birthright. And if you choose Conquest, they sit by and watch atrocities happen without intervening.

Corrin doesn’t stand for that. For him, everyone deserves happiness. Everyone deserves a second chance, and a third chance, and a fourth chance, and he would willingly let himself die rather than stop letting people try to be something better. And I just love this fucking idiot dragon so fucking much sajhfdkjasdf

Sorry this was so fucking long I have a lot of thoughts about Fates and when people trash Corrin I just *knife emoji*

Anyway I was listening to Mechanical Minds by Nordic Giants as I wrote this so I’m gonna drop in a relevant section of lyrics as my parting words:

More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

[shadowlink720]

FE: Birthright Randomised Chapter 18

(aka ‘I swear I’ll randomise Revelation at some point, you’ll get your spotlight one day Owain :’D’)

aiight let’s fight Leeeeeoooooo

off to the woods that for some reason have graves in them! :’D

I think we can all see that very clearly, Corrin

wait I just realised; imagine a forest map like the Lost Woods or smth it would be annoying as all heck, but it could be interesting .... aesthetically; at least hahah;;;

yes Azura, we know you’re Azura, we’ve known you’re Azura since like; the prologue :V (her voice line was ‘I am Azura’)

i just had this mental image of Leo just poking his head through some shrubbery or smth like that one meme and just ‘Are you sure about that?’ Idk I’m just procrastinating on fighting Owain auhdigduaygdaf

yeah then we’re all Skull Kids ... or Stalfos iiiidk it’s to do with ages right-

huzzah

did you like, disturb the dead or what-

pretty much

... ok i think that cutscenes just take a while to load and I’ve never noticed until I’m thinking every time it’s frozen-

this really is the lost woods, isn’t it? just follow the lamps you’ll be fiiiine .... that is, if this is botw logic-

tbf if you aren’t paying enough attention and are just walking in a direction, forests can look exactly the same-

oh you know, just Leo

o h y o u k n o w j u s t L e o

gdi stop gawking and r u n

then why are you still just standing there :’’’’’’D

oh wait it’s the Misfits! :’D wait... no those were red, weren’t they? not blue besides, Devil isn’t around lmao

about time

i sWEAR TO NAYRU

did you.... seriously not see any gravestones until just now? :’’’’’D

boom, Faceless

just how bad is your eyesight, Corrin-

finally the meme prince arrives you took your damn sweet time, Leo :V

oh get off your high horse, Leo like, actually get off of your horse and fite me ya gremlin >:y

boi I appreciate your desire for symbolism but c h i l l

ohoooooo snap come at me, b r o

excuse u she’s got a sticky bomb in the form of a tree branch just WAITING to be detonated >:3cccc

sucks to be you, Felicia has Pass

actually it would since you’re a Swordmaster but ok-

is now really the time for that ok-

idk man birthright’s late game chapters don’t make me want to Die as much as conquest’s-

aiiiight we’re at the battle prep

I should probably take more nohrian units in w/ me but meh :’D

ok I think I’m all ready let’s go

aaaand there’s all the Faceless ahahahahh;;;;

pfft yeah we’re fine

wow, Felicia had a 96% chance to hit and she missed good thing she doubled the guy o<o;;;;

we just gottaaaaa be really careful who we place in the bogs-

oh man since Azura’s a Hero she can just go right into the bogs >:3cccccc

ok but I’ve been training Hana up behind the scenes and she’s already capped her defence lmao her hair keeps clipping through her face tho lol I’ll see if I can get a screenshot of it eventually

welp B y e

ayyyyyyy she wouldn’t have killed the guy otherwise :’’D

aaaand another criiit >:3c I love these branches; they have such a high crit rate lmao

oh hey Hana proc’d Pavise :o

oh my Farore none of these Faceless can touch my dudes :’’’’D

he had a 10% chance to crit :’’’’’D

oh wait Azura does get hurt by the bog? huh

also that’s the thing that Hana’s hair does-

oooh Hinata’s weapon level went up!

ok I’m pretty sure that Owain and Niles move before Leo :V kinda I think idk ahahahh;;;;;

I’ll move Kaze into the range and have him equip the Javelin to check :V

oh nvm more faceless just spawned ok

d e s t r o y e d

right let’s move Kaze into Odin’s range and see if we can draw him out

Hinata can deal with the Faceless no problem, the Beastrune is great

OH OK Leo’s just decided to move and use that dragon vein k at least these Faceless are doing no damage at all

OWAIN I DON’T WANT TO FIGHT YOU

aaaand a shit ton more faceless g r e a t

sigh it didn’t have to be this way, Owain u nerd roleplayer

blech- I’m so sorry, man

oooh, level up for Kaze and we got a Horse Spirit :V

... the music stopped for a while there ahahahah;;;;;

meanwhile Hinata’s destroying every faceless that comes his way-

ayyyyy also I just realised that these guys prroooobably have Lunge, or at least on higher difficulties ahahahah;;;;;;

aiight Fight me, Niles

w o w

Kagero gets a lotta crits :V

COME AT ME NILES

oh Leo’s going after me as well welp Fite me irl, bro

oohhh, I was wondering why Niles has so much avoid, it’s because it hasn’t been 7 turns yet

hmmmmm hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I can easily get rng screwed here

but he can’t do shit against Silas >:3c let’s do it-

I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to try- aaaand she missed both times Fun

geh Niles just give me your Silver Bow dang it

how about this, you fool

yeeeaaah, sorry about that now give me that Silver Bow, thanks

I could kill u right now the question is, should I mmmmmmmmmmmmmyeah let’s go

get rekt, ya meme gremlin now give me that Energy Drop >:V

ok the cutscene just took a while again- I keep getting so scared ahahahahh;;;;;;

rlly now how about in Conquest when Garon was about to have Corrin excecuted the moment they come back-

I wonder if, had she been wielding the Yato, that she’d end up with the Grim Yato lmao

‘kill me, like, actually just kill me’ ‘wh-’ ‘just do it, Corrin’

yeah just more vanilla text yadda yadda

gimme that sweet conquest music heck yeeeaaaah the music is like, the only thing I like about conquest that isn’t the characters hahahahh;;;;;

yeah that’s not happening, Corrin :V

oh yeah that convenient plot device that’s only ever explained in one scene in Conquest hahah;;

‘have fun learning about Valla and not being able to talk to anyone about it and Suffering with me lmao’

uhhh yeah

uhhh no heck your siblings are only half siblings because Garon has approximately 0 chill

nor will ya get the chance to hahah;;

magic, bro

tbh it’s perfectly understandable why lm a o

trust me I highly doubt he’s as broken as Azura hahah;;

nope, but he sure can be a dumbass :Y

‘oh wait, guys, we don’t have any places we can have the party go to the rainbow sage to get a better yato’ ‘o h, uhh, just have leo give them a warp spell, it’ll be fine hahah;;;’

Felicia still has some shade to throw around lol

meanwhile Takumi is actually chill for once-

well not that one, at least :’D

aaaand that’s chapter 18! ooooh and we can finally upgrade the Hot Spring! ....... I’ll quickly do a challenge and we can see how Reina is-

alll riiiight, she’s a Paladin, sweet her personal is Nohr Enmity, so +3 damage to nohrian units she also has Even Keel, which means she takes -4 magic damage on even numbered turns ... whether that’s her dealing or taking the damage i have no idea ahahahah;;;; aaand she also has Lucktaker, niiice! (Growths: HP - 30, Str - 15, Mag - 35, Skill - 35 Spd - 55, Lck - 45, Def - 45, Res - 35) (Heart Seal: Ninja)

aiight well, that’s that :V