#emblemxeno

[raxistaicho]

Woah, this one blew up since I first saw it, very interesting.

I thought sealioning was our thing, but Fewix (emblemxeno) decided to toss in his two cents. Badly, as is his won't, but oh well.

First, starting with something Fewix said:

Rhea's a genocide survivor and the "evil red lady" in question was grave robbing her dead family's tombs

As usual, Edelgard had no way of knowing Crest Stones are the body parts of Rhea's dead kin. Thanks to Rhea herself. From Edelgard's perspective, she was raiding a weapons cache hidden within a tomb, rather like how Rhea hid a Relic in her own casket. You can't desecrate a site that's already been desecrated.

and has been complicit in most of the tragedies and dangers that have befallen garreg mach during that year. Rhea should've done more batshit things actually.

She threatened to kill Byleth in an exceptional vicious and traumatic way, my dude. The death she prescribed for Byleth was brutality that would be right out of The Witcher.

We generally frown upon paying evil unto evil.

Also the devs said that Rhea's a cat lover which is why there's animals througout the monastery and there was a plan for her private quarters to be filled with cats/materials that cats love

No, she was planned to be an animal lover, but that got cut from the finished product.

Also nice to hear Rhea's swanky living space was also going to have a private bathroom. I wonder if it had proper plumping, too?

From Diaphin:

being a genocide survivor doesn't entitle her to hold an entire Continent of people hostage due to the notion of her own racial superiority based on her own ancestry. Especially after she chose to already activeöy reward the benefactors of said genocide.

I'm not quite sure I'd call it hostage, but Rhea definitely did believe humans weren't fit to govern their own affairs. The whole point of the Church of Seiros was to maintain order as a holding pattern until Rhea could bring Sothis back to life to continue ruling the land.

And funnily enough…isn't she a heretic to her own religion in CF? In CF, Edelgard gets crowned with Sothis living Vessel and chosen successor as her witness, who protects her from Rheas judgement in an act of divine Intervention. Rhea loses all authority as archbishop of Sothis the second she doesn't accepts Byleths judgement. According to the Central Churches own teachings, everything Edelgard does in CF is right.

Heheh, and I take full advantage of that in my fanfic, On Black Wings. Byleth grants Edelgard a lot of legitimacy in the eyes of the faithful thanks to Rhea spreading word of her divine status before the Holy Tomb.

But yes, basically all of that. It's actually a shame 3H proper doesn't go further with those implications. Yet another issue of project bloat due to having too many routes. Diaphin and I are in agreement it should've just been Crimson Flower and Azure Moon.

From Fewix:

-"Hold hostage" Incorrect that she's holding anything or anyone hostage, when two of the three sovereign nations remain without strict influence from the church in the current era.

Rhea and Seteth don't seem to have gotten the message.

If you're referring to tech advancement, there are in-game signs that she has voluntarily let her influence on such restrictions wane (autopsy, advanced crest tech, mass book printing, etc.).

Aight, so I made a big rant on this one, but I don't give a shit if Rhea later relaxed her bans. She does not have the right to decide how quickly society develops. It happens as it will happen, and it's not for her decide how quickly is too quickly. That more than anything else is a sign of her arrogant certainty that humans can't govern their own affairs. It'd be one thing if she only restrained weapons development, but medical advancements and book-making? Nah, she can fuck right off with that. She's got blood on her hands with just those two restraints, to say nothing of all the others there might have been.

-"reward benefactors of genocide" Rhea killed the ten elites and spared their children because children don't deserve to be punished for the wrongdoings of their parents

Everything up until that is above board (if a bit uncharacteristic of her). It's galling that Rhea chose to allow mankind (and by mankind I mean Faerghus and Leicester) to continue to benefit from their horrific deeds by giving them the Relics when they proved useful to her. She should have sealed the Relics away in the Holy Tomb and never took them back out. Allowing her slaughtered kin to be used as tools of enforcement of the church, Faerghus, and Leicester's hegemony is a disgrace to them.

-"Isn't Rhea a heretic" Nope, because 3H's theological narrative is ultimately to discredit the Divine Right of Kings ("god said it therefore I'm right") and to prop up Mandate of Heaven ("may the ruler be virtuous lest he be overthrown by the people") instead. Rhea's not a ruler of a nation so she can't be overthrown out of her own church, Dimitri is falsely sentenced by the agarthans and traitorous nobles (not the common folk), and Claude isn't ever overthrown either. Edelgard is the only one who can get overthrown by her own subjects in-game, and even in her own route's epilogue there is mention of revolts that Hubert's Secret Police puts down.

Holy shit, that's a non-sequitor stacked with using semantics as a defense. If you're still confused, Seteth said Rhea committed a huge taboo trying to bring Sothis back from the dead. Trying to bring anyone back from the dead is typically the action of a villain in this series.

Edelgard is the only one who can get overthrown by her own subjects in-game

Most of them being,

traitorous nobles (not the common folk)

and even in her own route's epilogue there is mention of revolts that Hubert's Secret Police puts down.

Don't look now, Fewix:

To foster trust, Claude frequently sent Balthus into Fódlan on missions to help quell revolts begun by Imperial loyalists.

Byleth needs foreign help to maintain their throne? Guess they lost the Mandate of Heaven, too.

Also, you got that nonsense on Divine Right of Kings and the Mandate of Heaven from Fantasy Invader, who I consider an anti-source: if he says it, it's probably false.

Also Sothis' crest stone disappears and Byleth's hair turns back to blue, so no, even by your reading, you're still wrong since Sothis took her divine right away after her daughter was killed

Yeah, you're definitely using fucking Fantasy Invader as a source, ye gods.

Yeah, Sothis definitely hated Byleth and wanted to punish them.

Diaphin went on for a bit, but I was more interested in smacking Fewix around a bit, so I'll leave it at that. Merry Christmas, everyone!

I think one of the funniest arguments I've seen in FE Twitter for why Nabateans should be ruling and hold authority over the inferior race is probably how their age and lived experience makes them most fit to rule when the US just went over the issue of its running candidates for leadership becoming increasingly old.

Like yeah, there are old people who through lived experiences and age have gained alot of insights and wisdom, but then there is also your insane grandpa who is angry at kids day and age playing with their Minecrafts instead of working in the mines from 4am to 10pm.

Rhea is a person who gets so insanely angry over her science fair necromancy experiment siding with the evil red lady and her now losing the war, that against every offer to surrender or resolve this war with her dignity and life intact, she instead has the biggest german kid temper tantrum in gaming history and orders to burn an entire civilian city she and her remaining troops currently inhabit and which gave them refuge for 5 years. I wouldn't trust Rhea to take care of my cat without burning the town I live in to the ground because he wouldn't let her pet him.

[raxistaicho]

“She started it!”

What better way to celebrate Engage’s release than with another Three Houses post?

So Emblemxeno a while back did a post that I found to be a really really useful springboard to tear into a defense I’ve seen bandied about by anti-Edelgard types for years. Some of you who’ve been with me for longer will partially recognize it from my “it was an accidental imperialism!” post from like last summer or so. Emblemxeno’s post was in reaction to the whole shitstorm that brewed over the ridiculous,

Tweet. I could make a whole post on this but it’s been argued to death already so there’s not much point.

Anyways,

That’s slander, sir!

Edelgard’s coup was bloodless. In Houses, at least. She just told Aegir what was what and the slimeball capitulated.

Aside from that you have the usual rap sheet I’ve talked about a dozen times. That said, nobody’s gonna deny she’s “directly violent” because uhh yeah, this be Fire Emblem, even Eirika and Corrin will be directly violent when they must.

As an aside, where’d this notion that Marth is a near-pacifist come from, anyways? Play Mystery of the Emblem sometime, Marth actually gets pretty fierce when it comes to it. Maybe it’s a Flanderization thing, New Mystery did soften him up considerably.

So yeah, notice how he put “you decided to attack first,” in italics? That emphasis is the crucial point around which his whole argument revolves. It only matters who starts the violence. Escalation isn’t a thing that exists, widening conflict doesn’t matter! With that pretty little meme at your side, you can easily rebuke the fact that recruiting enemies in Fire Emblem, in practice, often comes down to, “join us or we’ll have to kill you,” couched in flowery language.

And if you base you analysis of the morality of actions done during war with, “who started it,” as your starting point, you’re dead wrong and you’re opening the door to justifying pretty horrendous shit.

This is just to emphasize the point. Other Fire Emblem lords always act defensively so any counter-violence is fine in Emblemxeno’s eyes. That’s what makes them different from Edelgard for him.

Now in the case of Fire Emblem, villains are basically always so bankrupt of justification for what they do and the heroes tend to have such a spotless track record that it’s pretty easy to say, “well they started it!” Even the otherwise fairly-mature Tellius games have Daein in 9 and the Begnion Senate in 10 blatantly lacking any sympathetic qualities so the player never has to question their actions while they’re mowing down enemies for EXP.

Simple fact, the series just didn’t adequately prepare its core player base for gray morality, and the discourse surrounding Three Houses - the eternal effort to paint Edelgard black as pitch and Rhea and Dimitri white as the driven snow - is the result. Edea was wrong to categorize people that way in Bravely Default, people.

This part wasn’t very important, I just wanted to toss that in to remind everyone how many L’s Edelgard’s detractors collected when Hopes came out.

It’s cute how Emblemxeno tries to paint Edelgard, the one who most often offers her enemies terms of surrender, as the one who’s a hard-liner about her enemies surrendering.

Need I post, again, the whole “no quarter” line from Seteth during the Garreg Mach defense?

Need I post, again, that Count Bergliez had to offer up his own neck for his entire army to be granted quarter?

Need I post, again, Rhea saying she’d like to put the entire Adrestian army to the sword (which means executing them) herself (meaning personally) in Three Hopes?

It ain’t Edelgard who has issues with accepting surrender, Emblemxeno.

Now in regards to the Judith point, Judith was retreating, not offering surrender. They’re very very different things. Attacking an  enemy in retreat is justified under rules of war even to this day.

I also love how backed into a corner Edelgard���s detractors got over Seteth and Flayn now that it’s starting to become known that other units can non-lethally dispatch them. That Edelgard raises zero fuss over their survival, and in fact can let them retreat herself, certainly punches holes in the whole “she wants to genocide the Nabateans! D:” argument.

Finally, wow, three and a half years out and we’re still getting misinterpretations of her battle dialogue with Dimitri at Tailltean.

(Source)

Edelgard wasn’t going, “no you, you’re the one dragging this war out!” she was calling Dimitri out on the fact that if she fell, he would invade the Empire. She spent a few years in Faerghus with nothing to do, she’d have learned how Faerghus... uhh... reacts to misdeeds done to them. See what they did to Sreng. Twice.

Luckily, Fire Emblem as a series has gotten better about calling into question when the heroes begin to take defensive violence too far. Alm tries his damndest to avoid an invasion of Rigel and yet you’re still treated coldly by the commoners there unless you jump hoops and take out Nuibaba. In Three Hopes, the actions of Faerghus are frequently condemned once they actually invade Adrestia, and the player even ignorantly sabotages an effort by the western Adrestian Lords to rescue Edelgard from Aegir and Thales, which would have ended the war with much less bloodshed.

It’s almost as though the game was trying to convey that escalating the situation by bringing war to the Empire isn’t completely justified just because the Empire struck first. And then when this happened, Edelgard’s detractors threw a gigantic fit about it.

Something something “Edelgard can’t be cute and be serious at the same time.” “Why does Edelgard have no character development? Stop being a waifu.”

A male Edelgard exists: his name is Lelouch vi Britannia and I agreed with him too, Emblemxeno.

That’s because Conquest actually is naked imperialism, and of an intensely brutal sort, no less. Thankfully there’s no indication the Imperial army does anything even remotely close to Hans’s sacking of Cheve.

That’s because Micaiah was being coerced into assisting an out and out unabashed genocide attempt against the Laguz.

Sure feels like 2019 in here, seeing as how we’re back to deadass “why’s Edelgard going after the church? They didn’t do anything to her! D:”

There’s a reason Emblemxeno tends to lose arguments he gets into on Reddit. And then he flounces off for a couple months to fume about it.

And now we’re back to “Edelgard doesn’t know the true history(tm) of Fodlan!”

Now he’s just rapid-firing shitty anti-Edelgard arguments from ‘19 and ‘20 that got long debunked at us.

If only Rhea was just “creepy”.

So while we leave Emblemxeno impotently spewing out garbage points, let me make one more of my own.

So in Tactics Ogre, the game opens with two of the clans on the islands of Valeria, the Galgastani and the Walister, at war because the Galgastani have launched an out and out war of extermination against the Walister, whom they outnumber 7 to 1. Like an actual honest to god extermination campaign, with a forced labor camp and everything.

The protagonist, Denam, is fighting for the Walister resistance. At the end of chapter 1, their leader orders him to launch a false-flag operation against the Walister captives in a work camp and frame the Galgastani for it to unite the Walister and divide the Galgastani. Nearly everyone who learns of this becomes rightly outraged against Duke Ronwey.

Under this law of “who started it,” the Walister Resistance is a lot more justified in carrying out this kind of atrocity, since they’re only defending themselves against Galgastani “direct violence”.

That’s the peril in analyzing morality this way.

[introverted-trashcan]

People who's opinion we can disregard: people who cry over claude's hopes iteration. So sorry you fell for his funny upside down man persona masking the absolute ruthless efficiency a Scheming Tactician would have. Besides, Thropes is a what if for all three lords. What if Edelgard shook off TWSITD, What if Dimitri kept his crown, and what if Claude was less passive. His priority isn't answers anymore, due to losing time at the monastery and Byleth not piquing his curiosity, it's making sure the Alliance doesn't get run over by the three crazy people currently in charge of the armies way bigger than his.

[randomnameless]

Is it just me or is there something inherently wrong with the "They refused to humble themselves" sentence?

Given how dragons, in the Archanea verse, need to "downgrade" to Manaketes to live with humans, how is this even considered "humbled" ?

Is it correct to say "they humbled themselves" when you're basically depicting how they crippled themselves to be able to continue on living with humans and not turn mad ?

"Giving them cause to fear and mistrusts Manaketes" -> Raxi-poo forgot the entire "enslaved/treated like dirt" manaketes (FFS Nowi, a manakete, is hunted by slave traders in FE13 aka 1k years after FE3/12!) and how humans attacked the ones living in peace, but given how Raxi-pee believes #nemesisdidnothingwrong I guess if dragons refuse to die or to bow their head to humanity and not interact with them because they are born different, they refuse to "humble themselves" and thus it's okay to slaughter them.

Once again Mr stalker raxy pal posted an ask of yours. What’s crazy about it this time is like? Dude edited it a bit I’m sure? Like? That is so crazy to me that effort is being put into this shit that you’d think these added seconds of time would help him reflect “hey maybe I should stop being a total loser and leave people alone”

Lol.

Conveniently leaving out this tidbit where...

Humans tried to exterminate manaketes after they had just protected them from degenerated dragons. Earth Dragons sucked for their pride and views of humans, but 1) they never chose to actively attack people, they degenerated and went feral, so 2) it's not equivalent to or worse than humans being fully aware of what they were doing when trying to kill manaketes and 3) none of what the Earth Dragons believed nor what they did once they were feral-i.e. not of sane mind-warranted innocent manaketes being attacked.

And the core foundation of the Archanea games is Marth, a human who's not a total fuckbag, stopping the dark cycle of hatred and retaliation. It's why his opposite is Gharnef, a human but also a fuckbag, who does awful things to people (causing both the War of Shadows and the War of Heroes) and uses dragons to achieve those things. It's why a major enemy is Hardin, a human who sunk into despair, sloth, rage, and jealousy due to his connection to Marth and Nyna. The reason why the War of Shadows got as bad as it did is because Camus was tragically attatched to his duty above his beliefs, and Micahlis had selfish, grand ambitions. It's almost like the pattern here is that humans do shitty things in the name of selfish ideals and good humans have to end conflict on behalf of the *remaining dragons wiped out due to aforementioned shitty things* and the other good people.

Similarly, Grima was made by a crazy fuck human who indiscriminately killed and sacrificed people for his own science project, and Loptous would never have even gotten to Jugdral were it not for Gair's power hungry ass.

Humans were also responsible for starting the Scouring and the Ending Winter, revising history to erase the Manakete involvement in Magvel, revising history and oppressing laguz in Tellius, and all of the fuckass business in Fodlan.

The only games that can be argued-though still with difficulty-to support his point are Valentia (which even then wasn't ashamed to whack the people themselves for feeding into their own reliance), Fates and Engage, the latter two he doesn't like, so... I reiterate, do they play any other FE games and not just screenshot stuff from wikis?

[teaveetamer]

who cares how young emblemxeno is if his ideas suck they suck

Yeah sure why don't we all just roll up to our nearest high school and start picking fights with the dumb 17 year olds there! Teenagers aren't allowed to make mistakes or have stupid thoughts, clearly they need a bunch of 30+ year olds to hunt them down and tell them how fucking stupid they are every time they express an opinion aloud! [Sarcasm hopefully communicated]

Seriously, are you for real anon? It would be one thing if ya boy was just like "oh yeah I don't really like Emblemxeno's takes" but that's not what he's doing. He's literally block evading, stalking him, taking screenshots of his content, and then posting it on completely different social media websites to try and poke people into mocking and harassing him. I'm not going to go into it, but it's not like this is the first time it's happened either. As for why we should care? I think the issue with "a 30 year old man bullies and harasses a teenager on the internet for disagreeing with his Fire Emblem opinions" should be self evident enough. That's a fucked up enough thing to do to another adult, but you're really going to argue that it's okay for a man in his 30's to bully high schoolers and barely-out-of-highschoolers because "they're stupid"? Even if I agreed that Emblemxeno's opinions from then were soooooo stupid and bad (which to be clear I don't), we all know teenagers are fucking stupid. That's exactly why we don't bully them. Everyone with common sense is well aware that teenagers are immature and they need to do more growing, and 30 year olds breathing down their necks acting like schoolyard bullies isn't exactly going to facilitate that.

[alizardjae]

@emblemxeno here, a collection of my cutest kitten pics from my fosters over the years!

[kplays]

Read @emblemxeno localization changes posts for a better look at the story as it was originally intended, and what changed

[rubywolf0201]

Adding something to this post because this is something @emblemxeno talked about and I’m kinda going to paraphrase on what he says (btw this is in regards to FE Fates localization):

A subtle reminder to everyone that even the most basic of alterations during localization-even for the sake of spacing and conversation flow-can change a conversation wildly, to the point where entire subjects of stuff can be harder to understand or even removed entirely.

It's why localization itself is a touchy job.

You need full comprehension of the subject matter, context, tone, etc. Not just what it translates to. When you put in minimal effort, you get stuff like this. And yet... effort was expended to change character personalities and scenes as a whole, like Effie, Hisame and Xander. For whatever reason, who knows. Maybe they thought some characters were too boring or were assholes and they wanted to make them "better" in their eyes.

Just for the sake of being transparent, when I criticize the Treehouse localization of Fates, it is 100% from a storytelling/ characterization perspective.

Things like changing a character's personality, adding lines that were not in the original script that contradict the story, removing worldbuilding aspects, etc. Those are the things that I focus on when it comes to Treehouse's work on Fates (and also Three Houses).

However. When it comes to creative humor (that isn't inserting internet memes into random places) and making dialogue less stiff and awkward for a Western audience, I find that Treehouse did a fine job. I think the humor they added in makes many supports and certain story moments more charming that they would've been otherwise if it had been a direct translation.

So yeah, localization is kinda of tricky in some ways in that if you try to insert in whatever dumb shit the localizer think it’s ‘cool’ or ‘rad’ for the current generation to understand, then a lot of the nuances and the context behind the story is going to be lost because of those changes.

The localization/censorship debate and why people need to do their damn job

… I know I’ve been making too many posts for someone who’s supposed to be on break. I may have to modify it to “I won’t be engaging with anyone right now and I may just pop in once in a while to talk about issues going on”.

Because right now, this issue is pretty important and as you all know, I hate censorship or dishonest localizations. That was my big issue with Fire Emblem Engage, and you can find my post with the video from Censored Gaming here: https://childofaura.tumblr.com/post/711372254663131136/so-as-ive-been-playing-engage-with-the-japanese

ANYWHO, there has been a MASSIVE shitstorm in the anime/localization community happening the past week or two. This has actually been brewing over several years but it’s now been gaining traction. And right now I’m here to divulge it to Tumblr so people understand what’s going on. Putting a Read More because this could get lengthy.

So as far as I can reach back to see where this recent maelstrom of drama has started, it began with this recent announcement:

(Sorry, had to post the IMDB article, the official tweet doesn’t mention AI)

Now personally, I still stand firm by my AI stance, but I don’t defend official localizers. If I can make the decision, I’d go with fansubs; I’ve watched Ginga Densetsu Weed and currently am watching the OG Urusei Yatsura anime with fansubs (fansubs are charming and I appreciate the context they provide with translator notes. Yeah we all clown on the “According to keikaku” meme but it’s harmless to the overall sub).

Personal note aside, this has caused many localizers to start flipping their shit on Twitter, and somehow infamous “localizer” Jamie Marchi, the one who was responsible for the cringy and insecure “pesky patriarchal societal demands” and the infamous rewrite from “But we’re girls” to “But I don’t like girls” (which from general consensus comes off as a homophobic rewrite), catches wind of this. And she goes apeshit over people calling out her horrible line rewrites:

Constantly ignoring better suggestions, the story’s own canon, and just generally throwing a huge hissy fit over the fact that people (like me) don’t fucking like their product being tampered with.

All of this was sent to a Youtuber named Asmongold TV. I don’t know who he is, I’m not familiar with him, but apparently he’s got a pretty big following, and a big Japanese following too. Thus, this video was made:

And this caused a HUGE outreach; even people in Japan are taking notice and this is spreading like wildfire:

So now it looks like people are REALLY taking notice of this issue that’s been underlying the anime/manga community.

My thoughts on it:

This is why people who inject Western culture, slang, or politics into subtitles should have just stuck to their fucking jobs. This isn’t a general statement to all localizers because I know there’s probably a few who actually care about preserving the context of the original media, but this is what happens. You have shitty players in this game who not only ruined it for themselves, but for EVERYONE. This was self-inflicted. And I’m glad that it’s starting to spread like wildfire, because accurate translations should be expected and the norm. We shouldn’t even be here in the first place.

[fantasyinvader]

@emblemxeno

I feel like if you look at Engage, while not mentioning her the game is pretty good to Rhea. As I mentioned before, Byleth's trial theme song uses tracks that associate it with Silver Snow. Song of the Nabateans, pointing to Byleth's draconic heritage, Edge of Dawn, a song that depicts Byleth and Edelgard's relationship as they end up as enemies and isn't used in it's full version in Flower, and Paths that Shall Never Cross, referring to Byleth and Edelgard goin their separate ways.

This is all associated with a Byleth that's held in the same esteem as Revelations-Corrin and True Ending Roy, in addition to every other past FE lord.

While the House Leaders do get their bracelet, they don't get much else. No paralogue chapter like the other DLC emblems, nor do they show up in the xenologue. Nothing, just a cutscene where we get them for free. Considering how the Cipher card that came with Houses in Japan mentions that it's your story, it's ultimately Engage saying that the game is Byleth's story above all else. Not Claude's, not Dimitri's and not Edelgard's, Byleth's.

Edelgard also says that the three lords protected their worlds, but anyone who has played Houses would see that her route goes in the other direction, working with TWSITD, killing/exiling the other lords and killing Rhea. What Edelgard did to protect the world is the exact opposite of those routes, so who really protected the world?

Hopes uses Nemesis as the big bad for Fodlan, not Rhea. Nemesis, who Edelgard makes out to be this champion of humanity, is the one held to the same level as Loptyr, Grima, Ashera, Duma... Nemesis was the bad guy, Rhea killed a bad guy and Edelgard killed her while praising the villain. Claude's route is the one that tackled the supposed big bad therefore it's the one more in-line with past FE heroes, and by extension Dimitri and Byleth's routes. They're the ones who protected the world, Edelgard instead goes on to conquer it when not stopped by them.

Even how we get Byleth's ring calls back to Silver Snow. Hortensia was an academy student, a princess borne of a concubine, her father was manipulated by Sombron's forces into doing their work, her former classmates defect to the Divine Dragon's side and she does as well in the end even if it means fighting against her former country. Compare this to Edelgard, who joins the academy, is a princess borne of a concubine, implications Ionius was a puppet for TWSITD to push Edelgard into stating the war to kill their ancient enemy, her classmates defect in Silver Snow despite fighting against their homeland and possibly their own families while Edelgard...continues attacking the rest of the continent using the monsters that were once men TWSITD provided her. Her own version of the Corrupted. Bonus point is that Hortensia prides herself on being a "cute" girl, while Edelgard's depth comes from her both being a violent conqueror...and a cute girl.

If anything, Hortensia went down the path Edelgard refused to do, hence why she's a hero in the end.

Lumeria being a dragon living at the center of the continent, worshiped as divine? GOOD GUY. Doesn't matter that she did something to Alear that changed them, it saved Alear's life and not treated as a bad thing. Alear's hair changing color is also seen as a good thing, with it returning to it's natural red is the bad ending. Meritocracy isn't so good when people are tossed away for not serving their master well enough, people without merit being labelled as defects.

If anything Engage, a game meant to celebrate the franchise, shows for out-of-line Flower is from the franchise. It's everything players have fought against in the past, while other routes are held up to the same standard as past heroes. Doesn't really surprise me Houses discourse hasn't died down after Engage, Engage made Edelgard look like shit.

Especially compared to Hortensia.

[rubywolf0201]

You know I gotta thank @emblemxeno for helping me give a new nickname for Micaiah: Miccy!!

I think it has a nice ring, don’t you think?

Now I’m tempted to draw her in Mickey Mouse and Friends style

[nowis-scales]

I posted 842 times in 2022

That's 309 more posts than 2021!

234 posts created (28%)

608 posts reblogged (72%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@fayesdiary

@aegisarfefb

@nowis-scales

@emblemxeno

@birbtactician

I tagged 387 of my posts in 2022

#koto plays sov - 65 posts

#koto plays 3h - 61 posts

#3h spoilers - 44 posts

#fire emblem fates - 21 posts

#fe14 - 14 posts

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#shut up about del - 10 posts

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#six sentence sunday - 7 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#imagine showing up somewhere and there just being a copy of you and everyone’s like ‘oh yeah that’s just evil takumi don’t worry about him’

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Poor Lorenz

75 notes - Posted January 18, 2022

#4

The third and final set I did for my Instagram treats, Three Houses Pride Month Headcanons! You can find the Awakening and Fates ones here.

Please be kind and remember that it’s all in the name of celebration — it’s okay to not agree with my hcs (sometimes I might not, too — I fluctuate on some of these!), but be polite about it. There’s room for everyone in need under the rainbow. Thank you!

126 notes - Posted June 28, 2022

#3

See the full post

146 notes - Posted July 30, 2022

#2

Three Houses fans, now enjoying Three Hopes — if you have any extra love to give, please consider giving it to the loved ones of our very own Ferdinand von Aegir, Billy Kametz. After a fight with stage IV colon cancer, he unfortunately passed earlier this week.

I can’t say that I’m the best person to speak on Mr. Kametz, but what I did know of him was that he was a joyful soul full of laughter. An excellent voice actor and a good friend, I’m sure that he will be missed by many. The outpouring of support from his fans and friends all across social media assures me that these perceptions are the case. He is said to have passed peacefully, knowing that he was loved and cared for.

All contributions to his existing gofundme will go towards funeral expenses and celebration of life. It is still open for contributions if you’re interested, but otherwise, his family also says contributions to the Colon Cancer Coalition would be equally appreciated.

May he Rest In Peace.

210 notes - Posted June 11, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Texts from Felicia’s friends

281 notes - Posted February 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[raxistaicho]

Edelgard fans don’t have to apologize for Adrestia

So something I saw but didn’t really comment on in yesterday’s post was Fewix’s (if anyone’s curious why I keep calling Emblemxeno that, it’s because his Reddit handle is just Felix’s name but spelled all cutesy and I think that’s kinda funny. The only reason I even know Emblemxeno and Fewix are the same person is because his reddit has links to his tumblr right on the front page) efforts to portray the Empire as the real sexists in Fodlan.

This is part of a trend of repurposing arguments from our side that I’ve seen out of Edelgard Critical. A really cute example of this is the Analyzer using the Byleth is a Bodhisattva in Crimson Flower argument (a Bodhisattva is a being that has achieved enlightenment but chooses to remain in the earthly realm to help others achieve enlightenment as well. It’s a refutation of the idiotic “Byleth loses nirvana in CF” claim) to say that ackshually, Byleth’s only REALLY a Bodhisattva in Azure Moon! You know, the route where Byleth embraces their divinity and becomes the archbishop.

Yeah, are you starting to see why my nickname for him is more an insult than anything else?

But I digress. Edelgard Critical is trying to steal our arguments because they haven’t had a cogent new one in about two years.

Technically Mercie wasn’t thrown out but instead ran away, but that’s quibbling. Fewix actually neglected to mention Hanneman’s sister. Also the first point is amusing because Fire Emblem’s long had a trouble spot with not allowing women to inherit positions of authority on their own (even in recent times, with Hinoka being implied to be third in line for the Hoshidan throne behind her younger brother Takumi, and Camilla passing the throne of Nohr to her younger brother Leo) and yet it’s not our side that has to flee to series tradition when stating our case. And it’s not even true given whether or not Edelgard will inherit the Adrestian throne is never in question. Fewix seems to be blowing up the solitary case of Bernadetta to encompass all of the Empire (and Bernadetta does keep her house anyways, so...).

So yeah, you can certainly find some cases of Adrestia’s conduct being shitty in the past. And yet this isn’t the winning argument Fewix thinks it is because, unlike with Faerghus, excuses are never made for Adrestia’s past, the player is never asked to ignore their misdeeds, and Edelgard fixes their problems.

Dorothea’s mysterious father? Never treated as anything but a scumbag who kicked out her mother and condemned Dorothea to her miserable early life (and it’s real cute seeing Edelcrit suddenly becoming Dorothea stans when it suits them).

Bernadetta’s father? Treated as nothing more than a figure of scorn and contempt. He’s put under house arrest by Edelgard in Houses and given a gilded cage in Hopes that he spends almost three years occupying in a state of perpetual mortal terror. Hopes even doubles-down on this, by stating clearly that keeping Yuri from assassinating Bernie when they were younger was not an act of love and Bernie doesn’t forgive him because of it.

Baron Bartels? An unambiguous monster who abused Mercedes and her mother and created the Death Knight, leading to his unmourned death.

Petra’s treatment and the treatment of Brigid? An injustice Edelgard is working to correct, with Three Hopes going much further into detail on it.

See where I’m going with this? Every Adrestian crime is treated as a crime, every Adrestian abuser is treated as an abuser. Edelgard is working to correct the system that enabled these injustices. The Adrestia that did these things is not her Adrestia.

Now how about Faerghus?

The Faerghan Lords and soldiers that committed the genocide of the people of Duscur? Largely ignored in Three Houses, because Azure Moon is only interested in Duscur insofar as it can serve as window dressing for Dimitri’s personal tragedy, around which all of Faerghus and all of Azure Moon revolves. For fuck’s sake, in Three Houses you even help racist Faerghan jackboots suppress a justified Duscurian rebellion, and if you don’t join in on this crackdown you’re punished by losing Dedue.

The conquest of half of Sreng by Faeghus? What conquest? Three Houses doesn’t give a fuck (because it’s got jack all to do with Dimitri), and Three Hopes just makes Faerghus look even worse!

Matthias Gautier, who joined with King Lambert to beat around the people of Sreng until Macuil knocked the invaders back in their place, and then kept a Srengese prince prisoner for years and in modern times only disparagingly refers to him as an ungrateful “prisoner”? Treated as a troubled man and a bit of an dishonorable schemer, but still a good man at his core.

Dimitri never takes measures to correct the cultural norms that enable Faerghus’s worst behavior because they’re never treated as a problem to be corrected. That’s why Faerghus stans have to defend, ignore, or sidestep Faerghus’s misdeeds. The crimes the Adrestia of the past committed are indeed crimes that Edelgard is working to fix.

Therefor, criticizing Adrestia as a means to criticize Edelgard or defend Faerghus isn’t the strong argument the other side believes it is.

[emblemxeno]

why don't youlike soleil?

Short answer: Her character was written based on an outdated trope that's honestly pretty offensive for lesbian/sapphic women nowadays and she repeatedly harasses and assaults others. I'm also bitter that there are so many people who still think she's good queer rep considering the awful shit she does and those same people continue to perpetuate the lie that Fates had a conversion therapy support.

Long answer:

https://www.tumblr.com/emblemxeno/632712846771388416/interesting-to-see-some-semblance-of-soleil

[fireemblems24]

On your note that Arvis inspired Edelgard, I've seen a few posts that actually point out they make pretty good foils if anything, and its a pretty interesting read. I had to dig a bit to find one of the posts because its been a while but one anon brought it up on emblemxenos tumblr here: post/676301807707881472/idk-i-feel-like-ladle-and-arvis-are-more-like

Prettying interesting points the anon made, thanks other anon.

I'm not up to date enough on my Holy Wars lore (or really more past FE games, for the most part it's been a few years since I played them), but it would be really interesting if someone wrote up a cross comparison of like Arvis, Edelgard, Walhart, Ashnard, and anyone else who fits the trope.

[rubywolf0201]

For sure, you can look at @emblemxeno's blog to see more on the localization changes made to Fates compared to the original.

Not to bust out another question after the last one but I got a big question…

Why did you state that you hate Niles? I thought he is a pretty decent character, slimy comments aside.

Hoo boy… so first off, I do apologize. I know Niles is very popular, so I’m not trying to rain hate on him. As a character, he’s well written.

On a personal level to me though, he’s an incredibly awful person and hasn’t seemed to really seek to change himself. Like for example, one thing I’ve adored about Shura is that he actively loathes the lows he’s reached in order to survive, and despite his hardships he treats others (from what I’ve seen in the F!Corrin support at least) fairly and with respect. Plus, he doesn’t squander this godsend of a second chance and acts accordingly in the army.

Now Niles… despite the fact that he’s loyal to Leo and drops the banditry, continues to be an incredibly shitty person to others. Especially in his support with Camilla where he mocks her love for Corrin and essentially calls her a privileged princess, while assuming she’s never known any kind of hardship or sadness. Of course, Camilla figuratively goes for the throat:

And even after all this, Niles can’t put his masochism aside and begs Camilla to flog him, it’s a super inappropriate response to what she just told him. Also, he tries to judge Corrin the same way before Corrin tells him about their childhood trauma. Plus he gets mad at Arthur for judging him based on his life despite him doing the exact same thing.

But I think the worst part of it, is Nina. Despite the fact that he was scorned by having a dead-beat, piece of shit dad… he inflicts that exact same heartache on Nina, and then tries to pretend like he has authority over the things she does (while also taunting her, which he has absolutely no place in doing so). There are characters who don’t visit their kids as much, that is true; off the top of my head I can name Arthur, Hinata, and Hayato. But for the first two, I can give it to them that Arthur stole a wyvern egg with his bare hands so Percy wouldn’t be alone, and Hinata actually saves Hisame instead of fighting him while apologizing for his absence. Meanwhile Niles didn’t even know that Nina had left the Deeprealms. I commend him for apologizing and resolving that, but it doesn’t erase that he never visited her.

That’s pretty much all my feelings on Niles and his character. I like asshole characters SOMETIMES, like Azama, but even Azama has redeeming qualities to his character, like a genuine duty to help heal people (while putting aside his snark in that regard) and being an actual balanced father to Mitama. Niles is just a mess of a human, and not in a fun way to me. But again, it’s just all my personal feelings on it.

[teaveetamer]

'I turned 19 the April after Cindered Shadows released'

That was 2020 and the time Emblemxeno threw a fit losing an argument on reddit and screamed that Edelfans only like her because they want to fuck her happened was in 2021, so he was 20 and wasn't a teenager anymore when he was in famous in the discorse. And he's 22 now and he still can't handle losing an argument or watching Fates get criticized . when do you people just accept responsibility for your conduct

Okay? 1) I’m not entirely certain if you’re actually referring to something EmblemXeno did because y’all have accused numerous completely random fucking people on Reddit of being people on Tumblr with absolutely no evidence whatsoever. 2) Assuming it was actually him, oh wow the 30+ year old man is hurling abuse and stalking a 22 year old for something they said as a 20 year old instead of a 19 year old, that makes it sooooo much better? He shouldn’t be doing that to anyone. Why don’t you ask yourself why a 35 year old man still cares so much about some petty fandom shit that happened over two years ago now, to the point where he’s literally still stalking them and attempting to harass them to this day.

Also it is WILD to me that y’all will defend people who said literal Nazi rhetoric this month as being “old news” and “maybe they’ve changed” but you’ll point to someone allegedly (because again, I have no idea if it actually was him given y’all’s penchant for accusing random people of being other random people you don’t like) getting heated and reacting immaturely to an argument about a video game three years ago as an excuse to keep harassing them. Are we not allowed to bring up anything that happened in the past because “they might have changed” or are people doomed to suffer the consequences of their past interactions with you indefinitely until you feel better about yourselves? Pick one already.

And I cannot stress this enough, but y’all are not engaging in behavior that expects people to “take responsibility for their conduct”, and acting like you are is a farce. How is dragging someone’s random post about FE7 on a completely different social media website without their knowledge in any way connected to wanting any sort of apology or responsibility taken for an interaction that might have happened over FE16 on another completely different website three years ago? If you want EmblemXeno to take responsibility for a past action the first step should usually be directly asking him to, not whining about an opinion he has about FE7 on a completely different site, right?