#fe:16

[rainbowdonkee]

TAKE MY MONEY

I can’t believe FE remembers the 5th Anniversary for Fire Emblem Three Houses by announcing our first lord scale figure. Dimitri is best boy so I see you Instsys!!!

[dvrtrblhr]

some people, both old and new (mostly new).

[iubworks]

Annette Fantine Dominic

[four-loose-screws]

Hi! I’ve seen people people say that Dimitri speaks in an informal rude manner in Japanese so him being super polite in English is weird changes his character a lot, but I’ve also seen people say the localization is just fine. Could you clear up please? Thank you!

This ask has been in my inbox forever, and I know other ENG/JP bilingual FE fans have weighed in on this topic before. But exploring the nuances of Japanese formal vs. casual speech is always super fun, so I want to share my own thoughts too. There's always a chance there will be more to learn with each new person's input on the same topic. Plus, I discovered some things even I didn't expect! So, I'll still offer everything I have to say!

First, I'll explain the full background this ask is referring to. Japanese has 2 major distinct speaking styles - casual and formal. I was taught to call the formal style "distal" - because it is more about respecting distance in social standing than being formal specifically. But formal is the more common term, so I tend to stick with saying formal most of the time.

The distinction between casual and formal is made with pronoun choice, word choice, and other factors as well, but the fastest way to differentiate the two is to look/ listen for the use of desu and masu at the end of someone's sentences. Formal uses them. Casual drops them. This concept is entirely foreign to English speakers!

Dimitri drops desu and masu most of the time. His "I pronoun" is also ore, and his "you pronoun" is omae - both casual, blunt, and masculine choices. But does speaking casually to most of the cast make him rude?

Short answer is... no, not at all! There's 2 major reasons for this.

Reason #1 - the rules for casual vs. formal speech are a bit different in reality vs. fiction:

Partially, Dimitri speaks casually because he is showing his personality. He's got all those traits most standard FE protagonists share - he's strong, straightforward, and wants to connect directly on a personal level with everyone he meets. He tries to convince several characters that they can speak casually with him, because he sees people as people, and doesn't want social status putting distance between them.

Fictional characters generally speak more in-line with their personality more often, rather than following the socially acceptable speaking rules of the real world. (Though don't get me wrong - casual real Japanese people will speak casually in more circumstances than the average Japanese person.) This is simply the style that Japanese writers largely choose. And I think it is one of the great benefits of Japanese - anyone can start to pick up on a character's personality archetype almost instantly, thanks to their speaking style!

Reason #2 - Dimitri is a prince, making him of high social rank:

Here's the second nuance to this - it is absolutely standard for a superior to talk to their subordinates in casual style.

In modern times, this is shown in the workplace. Bosses and those in other leadership positions will frequently speak casually with the staff in a lower-ranking position than them. The president of the office I now work at is Japanese, and he speaks very casually with me - I have to be formal in response though, because he's at the top!!

But in the past, this would have been a distinction made between lord/ royalty, and those beneath them. Which is the case that is relevant in Fire Emblem's setting.

Dimitri can also speak casually without coming off as rude, because he is one of the highest ranking people across all of Fodlan.

-

Okay, so that's the answer in broad strokes - but let's get a bit more nuanced, go down Dimitri's support partner list, and confirm whether or not he always speaks casually!

Group #1 - Dimitri and the other citizens of Faerghus (8 other Blue Lions + Gilbert)

Dimitri has a multi-layered relationship with all of the other 8 Blue Lions. They are citizens of the country he is a prince of, therefore he is ranked very highly in social standing above them. But they are also his friends, classmates, and later, war allies; placing them on the same social level in that regard. So the way they speak to him comes down to a little bit of column A - personality, and a little bit of column B - which aspect of their relationship with Dimitri they feel is the "main" one.

Gilbert is also here in this category, as another person from Faerghus.

Dedue: Dimitri speaks casually, Dedue speaks formally, as they have a lord/ servant relationship. Dimitri wants Dedue to be a very close friend to him though, and wants Dedue to speak casually with him - this is a major source of tension in their supports. In the end, being able to mutually speak casually with each other and be friends, is a place they may reach one day. With other characters, Dedue speaks casually.

Felix: As royalty above Felix's noble house, Dimitri speaks casually. Felix is Felix, so he speaks casually too. I imagine he sees Dimitri quite literally as more of a wild boar than a human being, much less royalty.

Ashe: Dimitri speaks casually, Ashe speaks formally. However, pretty much the whole point of their supports is Dimitri attempting to get Ashe to speak casually with him.. Ashe tries in earnest to switch, but in the end sticks with speaking formally, otherwise he feels too uncomfortable. His view of Dimitri as his prince is too strong for him to let go and speak casually.

Sylvain: Dimitri speaks casually, and Sylvain speaks casually more often, but actually switches to desu and masu more than once. When a relationship is "in-between" higher/lower social standing and friendship, it's not uncommon for at least one person to switch back and forth between casual and polite speech, depending on which side of the relationship they are appealing to more at the moment. This happens in real life too as people shift from strangers, coworkers, etc. to friends.

Mercedes: They both speak casually. In Mercedes' case, I think she's speaks more in-line with her personality rather than paying attention to social status.

Annette: Both speak casually, but Annette is well aware that there's something a little wrong with that - her father would never let her get away with it if he knew!

Ingrid: Dimitri speaks casually, Ingrid speaks formally. But I think Ingrid speaks formally with everyone.

Gilbert: As you can probably guess based on my comments in Dimitri and Annette's analysis, her father most certainly speaks formally with Dimitri! He is very formal and takes social heirarchy very seriously. Dimitri, as the prince above him in social status, speaks casually.

Group #2 - The other characters at the monastary:

Since the remaining characters are not from Faerghus, Dimitri is not their prince. They'll be more likely to view him through the lens of a different relationship than royalty/ subject.

Catherine is originally from Faerghus yes, but she has cut her ties from her homeland completely to serve Rhea, so she fits into this group now.

Raphael: Both speak casually. I think Raphael treats everyone like a life-long friend!! He at least attaches san or sensei (teacher) to the names of his instructors, but that's about it for formal language for him.

Marianne: Dimitri speaks casually. Marianne speaks formally, as she does with everyone. I think she even attaches san to everyone's name, conveying how much she keeps her distance from people, trying not to form close relationships.

Flayn: Dimitri speaks casually. Flayn speaks formally, as I think she does with everyone.

Hapi: Both speak casually. I think Hapi speaks casually with everyone.

Alois: Now *here's* where things get interesting! At this point, I really thought I would discover that Dimitri speaks casually with everyone. But alas, he does NOT! Dimitri speaks formally with Alois, while Alois speaks casually to him. Why? Well, while Dimitri is a prince, he's also a student at Garreg Mach (in Part 1 of course). In this way, he is below all Garreg Mach staff and professors in social standing. So it makes perfect sense that he'd speak formally and Alois would be casual in this case.

Catherine: Same situation as Dimitri and Alois - as someone who serves as an instructor at Garreg Mach, all students like Dimitri are below her in status at the monastary. So Dimitri speaks formally, and she speaks casually.

Byleth: I left Byleth for last, because while Byleth is a professor at the monastary... Dimitri speaks casually with them. I imagine this has more to do with Byleth being the self insert than anything. Everyone bonds to Byleth on a deep level faster than magnets stick together.

And that's all I can think of to say for now! This is a super fun example of how nuanced Japanese's casual vs. formal language can get, and showcases one of the many reasons why Japanese has such a high barrier of entry for anyone learning it - including young native speakers! You don't get all this desu and masu stuff, until finally you just do.

Let me know if I missed anything, or if anyone has any follow up comments to make!

I apologize it took me so long to respond to this one! Thank you anon, and all readers, for waiting! I hope it helped explain even more of the trickier nuances of Japanese.

[butwhatifidothis]

I just wanna just. Say something real quick, with the year ending soon.

3H is the one saying that the Nabateans were nearly all killed off.

3H is the one who has the Agarthans be the ultimate bad guys in every route and have them be defeated in some way in every route.

3H is the one saying that the Nabateans were defending themselves against power hungry humans and were the ones to restore everything power hungry humans destroyed.

3H is the one saying that the Agarthans knew that Nemesis was just a bandit who cared for nothing but power - that Nemesis was not some freedom fighter, but a genocidal tyrant.

The creators of 3H are the ones saying that the Nabateans never tried to "control" humanity, only that they ruled over them.

The creators of 3H are the ones saying that Nemesis and the Agarthans killed the Nabateans for power.

The creators of 3H are the ones saying that Rhea never tried to control humans when she made the Church of Seiros and rewrote history.

The creators of 3H are the ones that made the one route where the Nabateans are specifically targeted as enemies who "need" to be gotten rid of and the one route where you work with the Agarthans in any way the one route they explicitly say is the villain route.

There is no ambiguity in 3H that is enough for the interpretation of Nabateans being evil and the Agarthans being good to hold water. None. Both within the game itself and through the words of the creators, everything makes it clear that the Nabateans are the victims who are generally a source of good and that the Agarthans are the victimizers who are generally a source of evil.

And there is a reason that the people who insist otherwise have to lie about what the Nabateans have done in order to make them look wrong. There is a reason why they have to turn to the noncanonical spinoff game to get anything more to "back up" their claims - and why they still have to lie about what that game says anyway. There is a reason why they would rather support a group of characters who have proven themselves willing to instigate genocide against innocent people for power even when not accounting for the Nabateans, regarding the Tragedy, than say there is anything good about the Nabatean race at all. There is a reason that, in their reasonings and explanations as to why the Nabateans are evil, in their rush to say what they think should happen to the Nabateans, these people always fall back on real life, genuine racial supremacy rhetoric.

There is a reason why, even when directly told by victims of this racial supremacist rhetoric that what they're saying harkens back to racial supremacy, they continue to say the racial supremacist rhetoric - why they defend the racial supremacist rhetoric as "not being the same" because the Nabateans' race "doesn't actually exist." There is a reason why they insist that their racial supremacy rhetoric that is the exact same as every other racist's supremacy rhetoric about actual, real life races of actual, real life people is just being "taken out of context" - why they not-so-subtly imply that racial supremacy rhetoric has contexts in which they are okay to say.

At this point I'm not really going to sugarcoat it: if you see someone try to make the point that Nabateans are all evil and deserved the genocide that fell on them - or that what happened to them wasn't a genocide because they are all evil, or there totally weren't that many of them so it isn't a genocide, or there's totally more in some unseen unexplored location we just never see or hear about so it isn't a genocide - and/or that the racist, murderous, genocidal Agarthans were the good guys who "the writers failed to make look bad," despite everything directly pointing towards the opposite reading in every context of the game, know that they are almost certainly not doing so with any good intentions. They are almost certainly using the fictional nature of the Nabateans' race to use as a shield to spout racist rhetoric they know they "aren't allowed" to say about real races. This is far from the first time racists have done this regarding fictional races, and it will not be the last time either. At the absolute best, they are uncaring about how they are rationalizing rhetoric used to dehumanize real life people just to make some point about fictional characters, which is frankly not that much better.

This isn't about discourse, it isn't about whether people think Edelgard or Dimitri or Rhea or Claude or any other character did this or that, it isn't about war criminals, it isn't about theories or meta or what have you. This is about the real world rhetoric people like this slip into the fandom sphere in order to normalize it. This is about how these people set themselves up as pillars of their communities so that they can normalize this rhetoric without anyone able to stop them from doing so or stand up against them. This is about how these people silence the few who do speak against them if they're able, and set up anyone who speaks against them that they can't directly silence as "attackers," "spies," these dangerous interlopers who are trying to shut down a "safe space" for "no reason." This is about how they've been doing this for years now.

I've personally given the benefit of the doubt to others who've genuinely ignorantly done things like this before, but this is too consistent, insistent, and long-standing for it to be anything else but racism from those who peddle this rhetoric, whether due to being racist themselves or through their indifference to the topic of racism. Regardless of the whys of the matter, it had led to the 3H fandom to housing cesspits of unopposed racism that breed hostility and harassment to others; at the absolute least, the harm and danger of this mindset and everything it leads to and has already led to should be made clear

[avi-cadavi]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SETETH 🥳 🎂 🎉

[chiisanajimi]

baby chrobin feh banner got me thinking about this arranged marriage au i made years ago and never wrote

(if it's not clear, f!chrobin are publicly betrothed and they are good friends but m!chrobin is the endgame ship)

[moocar0n]

Edelgard!! ❤️❤️

[lyn1catz]

[lavenderarie]

The temptation to make a huge meta post about Caspar is insane… like I was trying to write a fanfic from his pov and I felt like I was making him too analytical (cause I’m too analytical and I project onto characters I write) so I did a little character study… and then did further character studies… and I was like… wait… why is Caspar so fucking interesting????  Like I already liked him…he’s half of my favorite ship for a reason…but like…holy shit…the development put into his character is insane…. 

Like how he’s not that close to his family but feels personal guilt over his father’s actions… or how incredibly observant he is…or how he cannot pick up on people’s emotions at all…but he’ll notice subtle changes in behavior…which makes his intuition sharp as hell…or how he acts impulsively based on what he believes to be right in the moment without considering consequences…but will reflect on consequences after the fact and take other’s advice into account when he recognizes he needs to change something…

Or how I am super certain he’s not into girls just from the lack of awareness of multiple girl’s romantic feelings towards him…and the fact that the two biggest female charmers (Hilda and Dorothea) don’t even try to charm him because they know it won’t work… or how two separate guys will travel with him to the ends of the earth post-game…

Like I’ve seen so many people call Caspar stupid…like SO many…I even thought of him as “simple”…but like…being impulsive and having straightforward values…isn’t stupidity????  They’re character traits???  I am the dumb one for thinking less of him!!!  Caspar is a fascinating character!!!  What the heck!!!

[cupofcolors]

🎃 HAPPY YAOIWEEN 🎃

[sspookyspoonss]

All I’m saying is it’d be very funny if FE3H gave you the option to marry characters without A rank. However, instead of accepting your proposal they just reject you in the cutscene after the final battle.

[fe-fictions]

Can you write something for Byleth and Felix? She’s pregnant and every time he tries to cuddle with her or be romantic or intimate, the baby kicks. Perhaps the baby is jealous like his father?

(Felix's unborn child would be an absolute menace and we all know it)

The springtime in Faerghus was surprisingly mild. It was something you discovered on your first visit to the kingdom on your honeymoon.

It was not long after your return to the monastery that the clerics deduced the Archbishop had a baby on the way.

You and Felix were both over the moon, and had begun meticulous planning for the birth and recovery;  by the time the baby was ready to come, it would be spring once again.

Both of you knew the perfect place to have the child. Not that Felix would have it any other way; he had prepared the Fraldarius estate for the birth of his first child with a feverish attention to detail.

“Byleth!” 

Said lord of the manor was just returning home, the dawn barely having broken over the mountains. 

While he did miss his sparring partner greeting him with blade drawn and ready to trade blows, he did not mind coming back to his bedroom to find his very pregnant wife still fast asleep and nestled in a swathe of blankets.

It was hard not to smile to himself when he made it to the bedroom, though he was quick to wipe it away in case someone other than his wife might see it.

He closed the doors behind him swiftly, removing the sword and scabbard from his waist. Calling for you when he headed towards you from the entrance did not seem to rouse you, but the sound of belts clinking and heavy coats thudding to the floor appeared to do the trick.

You hummed softly, shifting beneath the heavy quilts to address your husband. Stripped down to his much more casual tunic and trousers, he crawled up onto the bed behind you, leaning over your shoulder.

Lazily your hand went up, holding your index finger up. Felix smiled, crossing his pointer against yours. That was the best either of you could get in terms of a duel until the baby was born.

“How was your day?” He asked, kissing along your neck as he settled in behind you. His hand slid down your side, settling on your hip with a happy sigh.

“As well as it could be…” You hummed, tilting your head back, “Annette confined me to bed rest until the end of this trimester. Apparently the baby is insistent on coming early.”

“That’s probably my fault. Impatience runs in the Fraldarius family.” He said apologetically, running his hand over your baby bump.

As if the baby heard him, a tiny foot suddenly tapped against his palm. Felix’s eyebrows rose, shifting his hand away.

“Huh. When did they start doing that?”

“The kicking? I’m not sure…every now and then they’ll kick me, but they’ve been pretty calm the last couple days.”

“That’s amazing.” Felix breathed, and carefully resettled his hand against you. Within seconds, another little pop connected with his hand. Both parents made a surprised noise, this one having been a little bit stronger. 

“That was a significant strike.” Hearing a smile on your lips made him chuckle softly, pulling his hand away once more. “Perhaps they’ll be a fighter like their father.”

“Perhaps. Although it’ll take a lot more than that to scare me off.” Felix replied, challenging. You ran a gentle hand over your stomach, running soothing circles over where the baby had launched its attack. 

To your mild surprise, you did not receive a kick in return.

“Huh…they won’t kick for me.” 

“Really? But just a moment ago…” He trailed off, replacing your hand with his own. And within a single second there was another bump against his palm. “I wonder why they won’t kick for you, now.”

“I wonder if they’re not a fighter at all,” You grinned to yourself, leaning your head back to look up at him, “Maybe they just don’t want to share with you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” His brow furrowed, frowning in confusion. Your smile widened, reaching back to pinch his cheek. 

“I think the baby doesn’t like when you cuddle with me. They want me to all to themselves.” 

“What? That’s ridiculous.” He rolled his eyes, but the evidence was damning. When he barely touched you once more, yet another kick struck.

He glowered when he heard your failed attempt at suppressing your laughter, rising on his arms so that he could tilt his head over your side and address the offending fetus directly.

“Hey, you- what gives? I already have to share her once you’re born. Why are you trying to keep her all to yourself now?”

“I don’t think they can  hear you, my love.”

“If they can kick me, they can hear me.” He grumbled, pressing a soft kiss to your baby bump in spite of his grumpy tone. “Listen up, runt. You’ll have to share your mother with me whether you like it or not. So don’t think you’ll be able to fend me off with a few measly kicks, got it?”

“Mm, very fierce indeed.” You mused, “I’m sure threatening your unborn child is very intimidating to them.”

“Shut up.” He snapped, nipping your ear (gently) before he returned his attention to the child still attacking his hand. “Now you calm down…you’re gonna have to deal with me for a long time, so you might as well get used to sharing your mother.”

You snuggled back into his chest, feeling both his arms snake around your waist and draw you as close as he could. Despite the periodic taps against his fingers, the two of you were utterly delighted that the baby was kicking at all.

“They’re gonna be an awfully strong-willed one, aren’t they?” You asked softly, sinking into his peppering of wistful kisses. “Think we’ll be able to handle it?”

“Please. All they’ll be able to do is cry and squirm around once they’re born. We can handle it. And I’m definitely not gonna lose to someone who’s trying to cause trouble before they’re even born. You hear me, kid??”

“Felix, babies can’t talk.”

“They’ll figure it out real quick if they don’t stop kicking me.”

It wouldn’t be long before your wild child was born, squalling into the world and unhappy as can be. At least until he was held by his mother and father. 

Though within the first 24 hours of having a newborn, the two of you realized that no, you  couldn’t handle it nearly as flawlessly as Felix had stated before.

You may or may not have cast him many “I told you so” looks throughout the first few months of raising the young Fraldarius.

[cern1cal0]

...and then at last, your sword piercing my flesh

[rainbowdonkee]

Full art for Claude - Golden Breeze!

Artist: Nishiki Areku

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

Framme is the cringey little girl representation the world needs. Whenever she's on screen I point and go "That was me :D! I was like that once :D!" In this essay I will argue why Alear should be able to adopt Framme and Clanne-

.