#fe16 imagine

[cparas-art]

Reunited

[randomnameless]

Why do we still have in 2024 stupid takes like Rhea created and enforces the crest system?

Bcs Rhea BaD anon.

More seriously,

FE Fodlan is one of one of the most divorced FE verses from its fantasy elements (see : Nabateans being as important as Ignatz's leather shoes) : Tellius has the Laguz existing, Archanea/Ylisse has manaketes hanging around and being a core point in FE Archanea, Elibe has its entire history involving dragons and the best ending finally be about acceptance between the two races, Magvel has zombies, Valentia has terrors and in SoV we have dragons and magic dragon blood, Fates has dragons (and laguz-like!) and even Jugdral have people with magic dragon blood.

(i ranted and ranted and ranted under the cut, so it's a bit long)

Unlike Fodlan, Jugdral's "people with magic dragon blood" are a key element to the story told at large, and it bleeds through the mechanics used to tell that story. FE4 wise, toddler!Seliph has a S rank in swords when Beowulf, even if he trains his entire life, will never achieve A rank in swords. Base!Julia with her holy weapon can smack Loptyr, when max!invested (at least lore wise) Forseti!Ced will never be able to kill him.

It's unfair for Beo and Ced, but that is how the verse works because, in that verse, some people are mc guffins or "the only ones" who are able to do something, or even, straight out, stronger/have more talent than others.

In traditional fantasy settings we have the "same" sort of rules, you have elves who do X and Y, humans won't can't, dwarves who can't either but they can do W, orc who can do J, etc etc.

Even for all of the "deconstruction of the genre!" gimmick ASOIAF has, according to some people, Dany is fire-proof and Jon most likely survives after being assassinated because he is a Stark and can use his doggo as a back up save, both things Edmure Tully will never be able to achieve.

Tolkien has Numenoreans being straight up blessed by the Valar/stronger/longer lived/etc etc than middle-earth humans, on top of also having elves, dwarves and ents.

Ergo : power inbalance is baked in the fantasy genre.

And yet, the writers often manage to tell some version of "the ones who have less power are no less important", like with Tolkien, it's a bunch of hobbits who manage to take down the greatest "evil" of their era, or some message like "having more power/being more important means you are bound to help the ones who have none" thingie.

In Fodlan, the "beings who have more power" than humans are the Nabateans (+ Sothis herself!). Sothis can create life, her daughter - through unknown means - can create artifical beings, one her children can control weather (the one who was turned in a milkshake for Charon!), one of them has monstruous strength (the one turned in a milkshake for Blaiddyd), one of them could communicate with animals (Timotheos iirc - if we assume he was a Nabatean or got his powers from his crest), her granddaughter can set up an AOE to heal what would otherwise be fatal wounds (it's heavily implied this is what Flayn did when she overused her power and went comatose) etc etc.

This is the original power inbalance in Fodlan.

Then some humans "stole" this power from Nabateans, and got a share of it themselves, which is what is later called "crest" : aka, some humans got a part of the super/magic powers that Nabateans originally had and thus, because, for all intents and purposes, "super-humans".

Now, Fodlan discourse started with FE16 being released in 2019, not that long after GoT's ending - which was trash - and in an era where fandom turned from "harmless fun" to "something that looks like activism and earns you point if you manage to use it to express your real life opinions".

In 2019, after Dumb and Dumber tanked GoT and removed most of ASOIAF fantasy parts to deliver "sex that sells" with a moldy plot, some part of the fandom started to conflate and harass people over what they like, and how it, apparently, reflected on their real life opinions ("if you hate this female character it means you hate women!"/"if you think X becoming king is a good ending, you don't value democracy!").

So, we have this fantasy setting with its inherent power inbalance... that quickly became something that is/was unacceptable, because IRL, power inbalance is based on bullshit and something everyone decries - so if your beloved media reflects on what you like IRL, you can't like a setting with an objective power inbalance, even if is justified by magic which doesn't exist irl like shooting eyebeams or some people being more "special than others" who can live up to 1500 years old.

Fodlan's power inbalance, for some parts of the fandom 2019, cannot be justified by traditional fantasy settings so, those settings/fantasy elements are straight out ignored.

Thus the "crests"' magic effects/powers are ignored, and dumbed down to, roughly, what a middle school student would think "nobility" is/was in the Middle Ages/Renaissance.

Jean-François Marie Pierre de Bourbon isn't inherently better at smashing things with a sword than Bob, or at healing than Roger, any "advantage" Jean-François Marie Pierre de Bourbon has over them is, maybe, that he started training earlier.

In Fodlan?

If Jean-François Marie Pierre de Charon has a major Charon crest, he can dance and clap in his hands to summon rain. Bob and Roger, no matter how hard they train, will never be able to do that. Jean-François Marie Pierre de Charon will thus be seen as having higher "value" or being straight up "better" than Bob or Roger, because as long as he is here, your crops will never suffer from drought.

But... we can't have that, because if you confuse fandom and real life opinions and aspirations, you cannot admit that some people in Fodlan are inherently "better" at something, only because of their blood, otherwise, what would it translate to IRL?

This is why, imo, part of the fandom (and the game sure doesn't help! Fodlan is no Jugdral and its gameplay lacks coherence regarding the in-game lore! Remember how Raphael can use a relic and only loses 10HP, when Miklan, plot wise, was turned in a demonic beast?) that loves this take, arguably, reduces crests to a title and family name.

Why should the Bourbon family rule over us, when they're no better than Roger or Bob? Isn't it unfair the Bourbons are still valued nowadays when the only thing to their fame is their name, and not what they are actually doing?

The game plays coy about crests - we know each of them has a specific power - but it never reveals what are those powers (lore wise!) save for 2 of them. So are crests superpowers, or just a family name with a particle, or both? Is the "system" (a friend made a post debunking any idea of "systemic" application of this notion in the three countries) based on bullshit, or on, objective superpowers?

Dimitri tries to tackle the issue, but only around relic usage : the Gautiers are valued if they have a crest because they can use their superweapon to protect the border. But what about valuing House Charon's ability to bring rain and guarantee good harvests? What is the other superpower tied to the crest of Gautier that isn't "use a femur and wreck havoc with it"?

If Marianne's ability to talk to animals is tied to her crest, why isn't it more developed? Instead of having useless shit like talking and befriending horses like a Disney princess, we could have Maurice-blooded people be masters of counter-intelligence, imagine if they can talk to birds/rodents and ask them to scout various areas or spy/ask them what they saw ! Hell, we could have had a situation where in a fog of war map, where Marianne, if, idk, through Billy fed enough animals in the monastery, would have a better field of vision than anyone else, with some blurb/one-line about her relying on the animals around to know and see what is going on! Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

FE16 eludes the question, because the character who "questions" a world centered around "crests" is the marketable asset of the game, and cannot be challenged in any meaningful capacity v- she feels it's unfair that her crest seemingly dictate her life, and only in the gacha game with ery serious writing like the Heavy Plate Corps or Sniddies, does she get a modicum of self-reflection - or at least someone challenging her - where she is told that she could use the superpowers she has to help people instead of blaming the world for getting one.

In a traditional FE setting, where some Lords question why they were born with power/or are in powerful positions, the answer is always that no matter what they were born with (or without in Leif's case!) what is more important is what they decide to do with that power. Elincia never wanted to become Queen? She will still fight and protect Crimea and its people. Marth is the last hope of Altea, even if it means leaving Elice behind. Seliph doesn't want to fight in Thracia anymore or feels like he's a fraud? He can turn tail and return home, while the world around him falls apart. Leif also feels like a fraud because he doesn't have superpowers like his cousin? Does that mean he should turn his thumbs and watch as his people are being caught/enslaved/sacrificed?

In Fodlan you have no reflection like this : Linhardt is, imo, the best example.

Dude hates blood and has a crest (aka magic powers) geared towards healing, you could make a case that for someone who has hematophobia, being a healer is difficult and this would be the reason why he refuses to heal/use his powers to help people around him... but no. Lin's laziness is played for laughs, and his refusal to do anything not related to his topic of interest is never questioned/analysed under the angle of, say, a head nurse who has no crest and laments that she couldn't save everyone who was hurt during an assault, who snaps at him for having the "gift" he has and not using it for the sake of people around him.

"What Lin decides to do with his power?" : Well, nothing.

Instead we have a reflection on his bright mind going to waste if he lazes all day long, culminating in his Supreme support where an Imperial facility is created specifically to cater to his tastes, that will enable him to research crests as much as he wants...

But still, nothing about his innate "healing" power!

In the end, it's no surprise that part of the fandom latched on that "crest = nobility title" because the Fodlan verse refuses to develop anything about its fantasy elements (hell, iirc Nopes swaps "crests" for "blood" and "titles" in its Supreme route ?).

"Sure, but where does Rhea fit in this nonsense?"

Rhea is, in this vision, the ultimate target !

For all of the "I ignore fantasy elements", Rhea is always (in FE16 at least!) turning into a dragon : no matter how hard you want to ignore fantasy, she's here to remind you tht, in this verse, dragons exist.

But most importantly, as Fodlan must be analysed through an IRL lens otherwise modern fandom cannot engage with it, Rhea, by virtue of being the lady in charge of a religious organisation called "Church", is also seen through a lens : Rhea BaD bcs Religion BaD and Catholic Church BaD.

FWIW, thanks to the five years of discourse we had, I learnt more about cultural values and differences existings between, here and the rest of the world - especially a place that is overepresented on fandom spaces - on organised religions especially the catholic church. Of course this bled on fandom takes and analysis, which projected some users' irl bias against the Catholic Church on the fandom organisation and entity that is the Church of Seiros. Combine this with secularism being now weaponised and used to ridicule people in spaces like r/atheism and you have a perfect recipe for "Religion BaD = Catholic Church BaD = fictional organised religion with a catholic flair BaD".

Granted, given how a certain loLcalisation team also originates from this place, it's no surprise that some "creative liberties" they took tried to hammer even more, let it be in the script or the fucking "what is this game about?" page on their website, how this fictional organisation is basically a squenix trope of "evil cult manipulating everything in the shadows and sekritly controlling the world".

Besides, the main heroine of the game (even if that comes with a twist!) opposes this faction (CoS and especially its leader!) and, by the way those games are built, as seen earlier, they cannot disavow her too much, else the entire gut-punch the devs were gunning for (you are betrayed by your beloved character! But unlike what happens in Baten Kaitos, you only are attached to her because she is your avatar's simp) will fall apart. So she must be, somehow, right and not motivated by more personal and heinous reasons, like not accepting "non-humans" to have powers over humans, or thinking the world is not a place for them (this was carefully scrubbed out in Nopes, btw!).

If Supreme Leader, who we are supposed to root for and whom the game ultimately rewards because "reforms" happen in the endings, says that the CoS is the reason why humans value superpowers, she must be right, or at least, not completely wrong???

Which raises the final point on this topic : FE16 came in 2019, which was election year in the US, and we all know that election time in the US means the rest of the world is also affected, even if the rest of the world, well, isn't the US. As I mentionned, the US is over-represented in fandom spaces, and fandom is far from being a safehaven from all the mayhem and passion that always boil during election time and its immediate following.

Coupled with the "my fandom faves define my real life opinions" thingie I already wrote about, and we had an explosive cocktail for bad takes, needless aggressivity, ridiculing people with dissident opinions because they are seen as "wrong", etc etc. And let it be something trendy or not, especially when (young?) people are arguing about "politics" in online spaces, but it always boils down to gross simplification of various complex issues and/or using catchphrases or "shock-value" words to win over whoever is reading/listening.

(et je ne dis pas ça parce que certains de nos politiques font des "immigrés clandestins ou pas" la source de tous les maux, ou le fait que nos députés font la même chose en ce moment, Jonluk et Marine main dans la main, pour paralyser l'Etat afin de pousser Manu à la démission et éviter la case prison pour Marine)

I always thought the "CEO of racism" was a meme, but through Fodlan discourse, I started to wonder if it was something started seriously by someone who really thought that "racism" is caused by one person.

And we finally get to the point : somehow, somewhat, Rhea is supposed to be responsible for people/humans valuing superpowers.

Forget that the same "quest to obtain those superpowers" led to the extermination of her kin, or how the devs themselves explained that people - at least in their setting - always want more power :

As a result, what would happen to humans who gained power... they would want even more power, and find a dragon much stronger to beat in order to collect materials forcefully, in order to make even more powerful weapons... and so that was the cycle that was born. And that was the birth of Fodlan's Ten Elites

Wait, kill that, those superpowers don't exist since the game and the characters (bar Catherine, but I agree with @9thwither here, Cat is one of the most overlooked characters in this fandom!) never talk about them, so they don't exist...

Rhea is thus the reason why people value bloodlines - especially since those bloodlines don't come out with superpowers.

It sounds better and closer to what you could "hear" irl, from someone who's discoursing on the internet to explain "why" some people are more valued than other, it's because of religion and the Pope! It cannot be because of, well, human greed or just the need to have more power (for good or wrong reasons), no.

"But random, the Church most likely promotes a "divine right to rule" doctrine and let the 10 Elites' families rule over their clans in Faerghus thus gain nobility!"

Sure, but everything is moot if you consider this : to make this take viable, we ignore the game and consider that crests are just bloodlines, and not, objective sources of superpowers.

So why are we, discussing about this hypothesis/theory, even arguing about what the game says and/or does?

Bob Blaiddyd can kill a giant lion/wolf with his fists at base level, is it because of a supposed doctrine that people rally and want to be in Bob's graces, or because Bob has the power to protect them all? Karen Charon can summon rain, are people siding with her because Rhea told them to, or because Karen can make crops grow?

In conclusion : why people are still, in 2024, sprouting those takes?

1- Because they refuse to engage with the game and realise that it is a fantasy game belonging to a very specific genre

2- Because fandom opinions reflect on your real life opinions and likes : so they must find a reason to oppose what their perceive as an unacceptable power inbalance otherwise it means that they support the various inequalities that exist IRL

3- Because Religion BaD and bar the "projected takes from transposing feelings about an IRL church on a fantasy one" more and more people tend to prefer an "easy to proceed" solution than think about multi-causal issues and find solutions that might not.

Of course, I can already guess that some people might argue that they don't "refuse to engage with the game" since this take is more a less a condensed version of the Supreme spiel, and as developed above, the game does - willingly - a shit job at demonstrating that her spiel is nonsense (they had to add the "greed" part in an interview released after the game and its only and final DLC!), just like her sockpuppet who supposedly learns how misguided he was in certain routes... only to end with the same ice cream, albeit with a different topping.

However, Dimitri and Sylvain mention how crestless children are disowned in Faerghus... when Dimitri's own uncle is ruling over a domain himself, Ingrid's brothers exist in the background and Gustave is still Baron Dominic's brother, on top of having been the royal master at arms for at least, depending on the route, 3 generations of Faerghan kings.

In a game where Dorothea can blame the Goddess for fighting in a war her bestie started - without anyone pointing this out - it's obvious this verse has unreliable narrators, but after 5 years and having played all routes in both games + a DLC + a dev interview explaining how and why some humans acquired crests...

Tl;Dr :

Reason 1- is most likely the most prevalent why this take exists anon, "because some people refuse to engage with the game" with the added topping of "save for what Supreme Leader and her sockpuppet say that I can use to demonise the characters I don't like".

[spadefish]

Steward, Jarl, Housecarl

[tiabwwtws-art]

FEH nonsense

[fayesdiary]

Rhea for the "send me a character" w/ the "first impression, impression now, etc." ask game!

Cringefail pope my beloved💚

First impression

The days of 3H pre-release are long gone, but from what I remember I didn't think much of her beside her being another Mikoto archetype which I didn't have any interest in. (especially because this was back when I was still on Reddit and by extension the Fates Bad™ circlejerk)

Then I think I remember seeing a screenshot of an official tweet that went something like "fight/destroy the Church of Seiros in Fire Emblem Three Houses" (nevermind it happens in only one of the four routes and the most villainous one at that) so I was something like "welp. guess she's the villain of another Evil Religion™, whatever."

Impression now

fgdgdfgdfgdfgsdfgshfgifuhg

She's my favorite Fodlan character, something I never saw coming.

While I have my issues with how she's treated as a character (mainly being relegated to the red herring for Edelgard in Part 1 and the late Nabatean infodump only to then die in Part 2. You know, when she's not completely absent or treated as the scapedragon. In general she's treated with the "tell don't show" approach Fodlan writing loves) they are definitely mitigated by all the small details that make her so interesting. And while I find her lack of spotlight and moments where she shines at her best incredibly frustrating, I'll admit that digging beneath the surface and starting to see who she actually is as a person is quite fun in its own right.

She's a truly kindhearted, deeply flawed and quite cringe woman. Of course I love her.

Favorite moment

Funnily enough, her weed quest. Not just because the sheer concept of the pope indirectly giving weed to her students is hilarious, but because if you look closer you'll notice that every herb she gives seems to fit the specific students a bit too well to be a coincidence (for example Bernadetta's herb is said to give her the courage to strike a conversation, Marianne's gives her a more positive outlook on life and Ignatz's boosts his self-confidence).

This shows that while she feels unable to get close to the students on a deeper level, she's clearly paying enough attention to them to know the general things they struggle with and tries to secretly help them, and it's really sweet!

Idea for a story

I've been entertaining the idea of a Silver Snow rewrite (AKA a scenario where getting an A support with her changes the entire route instead of just the ending) where Rhea is rescued early and becomes the de-facto lord. Featuring character development where she finally starts to actually talk to the students and her loved ones, Dimitri in a secondary role because I think the dynamic between her and early-timeskip Dimitri, not to metion in a context where Edie's already dead, has some insane potential (also makes for a nice foil to CF).

Also changing from her requirement to survive from being A Rank with Byleth to being A rank with all of her support partners. AKA overcoming her fatal flaw allows her to not only survive, but live.

Basically her learning to stop compulsively keeping secrets, openly talk and get close to others again and rely on other people on a deeper level. You know, the good stuff!

Don't count on it ever actually getting written beyond a few posts though. I know my limits :(

Favorite relationship

Romantically with Catherine, platonically with Cyril!

Unpopular opinion

I mean, this is Rhea we're talking about.

Liking her to begin with and not treating her like she's responsible for everything wrong in Fodlan is already unpopular to begin with.

Also people severely overestimate the political power she actually has.

Favorite headcanon

As a joke headcanon: Rhea has been every single archbishop in the past as well, so to keep humanity from finding out she's a dragon she faked her death every few decades... in increasingly ridiculous ways.

It got to the point where the Seiros faithful believe the position of Archbishop is cursed, and whenever people act concerned about her because of it Rhea is grateful for it but at the same time is internally laughing her ass off.

[askferdinandvonaegir]

Clown. Juggle for me

Why do you call me a clown, in such a derogatory manner? I am no clown. I also do not know how to juggle, so I could not juggle for you if I wanted to.

[usaigi]

you know what, I'm just going to hype my own fic. I'm going to post the next chapter on Monday 2/26 so until then I'm going to yap about it.

It's a Dimileth (plus Rhea) fic so unfortunately Shez doesn't play a huge role. But, I find their dynamic hilarious and had to include it somehow. I just think it would be funny for Shez to have such an intense one side rivalry with a girl who doesn't even know his name. Shez is over here writing "I hate the ashen demon" with little heart all over his notebook meanwhile Byleth is like "I hate to say it, I hope I don't sound ridiculous, I don't know who this man is. I mean, he could be walking down the street, I wouldn't… I won't know a thing. Sorry to this man."

[violasgamingpalace]

Been theory crafting a version of Three Houses where Byleth makes the route choice at Chapter 12 instead of the prologue, and as part of that imagining the students picking their professor instead of the professor picking the house they want to teach. This is my attempt at figuring out your starting class. Wanted to keep characters similar to their canon personalities. (not the biggest three houses nerd so let me know if you disagree on placements)

Hanneman's Class

Linhardt- Crest research

Edelgard- crests research

Hubert- follows edelgard, but hanneman also knows reason magic.

Claude- Hanneman because he figures he'll learn the most secrets that way? (I'm sorry but no way he picks Byleth, merc knows NOTHING)

Hilda- follows Claude

Annette-Has a support with Hanneman?

Mercedes - Wants to go Hanneman to be with Annette

Ignatz-is here to be a Knight and Hanneman could help with that???

Manuela's Class

Ferdinand- looks up to Manuela

Dorothea- looks up to Manuela even more, obvious choice.

Lythesia- no to hanneman for crests, She likes Faith, so Manuela.

Lorenz- Noble man wants to go Hanneman, but does have support with Manuela? And means he can be with Ferdinand.

Dimitri-goes Manuela to follow Ingrid/Sylvain

Ingrid-manuela, I guess? No knight professor

Sylvain- Manuela? I guess? He has a support and does auto-join F/Byleth. Sylvain wanting to see boobs brings the Blue Lion friend group along

Caspar-Manuela, but just to have a place to be

Byleth's Class

Petra- Sword connection, and dont think petra REALLY would learn much from other profs?

Bernie- too anxious to sign up, so ends up with Byleth

Raphael- forgets to go to signups, Byleth it is!

Leonie- Byleth for sure. Jeralt connection and she wants to be a Merc.

Dedue-Wants to go Manuela to Follow Dimitri but the school said the class was full (Feels vaguely racially motivated)

Felix-Byleth no question

Ashe-no Knight professor, but Ashe is just happy to be here, doesnt really care about professor.

Marianne- Horse girl wants to go with Hannerman but crests are to blame for going Byleth

Things I like- Wanted the Byleth class to feel like the weirdo group with very little going for them, and thats def this class. Everyone is either anti-social, a commoner with low expectations, or racially marked as other. Now white clouds focuses on you replacing them by recuiting the elite of fodlan society teaching to your student's strengths and making them capable.

Three black Eagles in class ensues that Byleth will have to fight their old students if they go on most routes, and if they go Black Eagles they'll still fight old students they taught

Ashe in class for Lonato Chapter

Things i dont like- skill proficiency wasnt set up with this in mind. While we have 1 tank and 1 mage, no one else can REALLY be trained as a reason mage, we have fourish archers, twoish lance users, two speedy sword users (three if ashe goes thief!), and a lot of units that want to go riding.

Its really hard to imagine Dimitri being so casually cruel to Dedue. Maybe we get a scene where Dimitri heroically sacrficies hanging out with Sylbain and Ingrid so Dedue can be with Manuela for a bit?

Edelgard and claude in the same class despite their total lack of connection. But! Edelgard and Hilda in the same class? Let us see how much Hilda HATES edelgard. It would be funny.

[randomnameless]

Uncle Arundel, before being body-snatched, spearheaded the Insurrection of the Seven, with Vestra and Aegir iirc.

Given how he made sure to secure Supreme Leader and Anselma to Faerghus, aka a place Ionius would never be able to reach (since apparently he can waltz in Leicester, experiment on members from an important house, and return home without any consequences).

Now, we know the Insurrection started because Ionius wanted to centralise power on himself, and remove privileges accorded to the consort kin like... Volkhard himself (who's the bro of a consort). I already mentionned how those privileges were most likely checks to prevent Ionius from, uh, seducing a woman, then throwing her away thus ruining both her and her family - given how Volkhard spirited Anselma and Supreme Leader away, was he afraid for their safety... at Ionius' hands?

We won't know, because the Supreme narrative paints the Insurrection as "fatso's falt daddy did nothing wrong" and Fodlan is not interested in telling the truth about said insurrection (Vestra Sr is killed off-screen in both games, when Leopold'n'Waldemar don't even mention said Insurrection at all in Nopes) so we're left with fog...

But from what this fog seems to appear, it looks like Volkhard, before being Agarthan'd, was someone who wanted to protect his family, even if it meant challenging Ionius himself and seeking help in Faerghus.

As for what Supreme Leader would think of him... since Daddy's the Greatest Ever, Volkhard was trash to take her away, and even if he did it for her sake, I supposed she'd adopt some "Hubert in his Hanneman support" reasoning and call him trash, or either don't care, because her path and blah blah blah so Volkhard should never have turned against Ionius.

Cornelia seemed to have been someone who genuinely wanted to help people and did so, before being Cleo'd which is why, despite doing, uh, Cleobulus things, we still have people following her.

Tomas was indeed recommanded by House Ordelia, then returned to Ordelia around the time Ionius sent his besties there for science, and returned as Solon.

Tomas was supposed to be a kind librarian and all - and Solon at least pretended to be that "kind Tomas" because Cyril mentions once iirc that Tomas was always kind to him and gave him sweets or something?

Granted, given how we see Tomas try to suggest that Church BaD bcs the Immaculate One and Cardinals exist... Solon-Tomas' acts of kindness ultimately had another objective in mind.

But yeah, post game(s) no one cares about the real Cornelia, Volkhard or Tomas (or Monica but... Nopes kind of soured her to some people) and it's kind of sad that their names and legacy is thrown in the mud because of what the Agarthan did while wearing/using their bodies, but hey, it's not like someone knows about the bodysnatching or how Agarthans change their appearances and could have told people that those people weren't the same people as the hosts they've hijacked.

Shaking everything like you don't understand I hate how 3H does not CARE about the people who the Agarthans took the place of !!! I hate that no one grieves for Arundel, Cornelia or Tomas !!! I hate that all that will be remembered of them is their desecrated corpses moved around like puppets and vomiting the worst shit known to man because the Agarthans do not care !!! Even the ones who do some sliver of effort to act in a similar manner to the ones they stole the identity for !!!!

Arundel was probably truly one of the rare person who cared for Edelgard and no one will know it because he's DEAD and THALES took his place !!!! This is fucking insane to me !!!!!!!

[randomnameless]

Why do the FEH devs insist on ignoring Nabatean lore so much?

I recently had a surprisingly cordial discussion on redshit with someone about the "nabateans = colonisers" take, and one of the main points raised was that the game was purposedly foggy around Nabateans/Sothis/their story because it would obviously favor a certain narrative (and thus make another narrative look, uh, not that marketable anymore).

To be honest, we still ended up with a product that had a lead go "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and yet that lead is still marketable enough to have raunchy cipher cards and 5 FEH alts, so I actually wonder if, while pissing on that lore had that purpose, it was ultimately pointless since Supreme Leader can still sell goodies despite her incarnation in FE16.

And not only Supreme Leader - but the entirety of WC where we basically have 70% of the cast crying/complaining about their "mixed blood" or lack of and basically adding their 10 cents to the "this race and its blood is the reason why the world sucks".

I mean, can you imagine Sylvain selling any goodies and alts if Flayn replied to his "wah wah people only are kind to me and want to fuck me because I have Nabatean blood :(" by some uncharacteristic "good for you, I have to hide my ears, had to dye my hair, have to lie about my family because if the truth is found out about my identity, I will be hunted and vivisected like an animal and harvested for parts by people who call my kin abominations - just like what happens in the game where the same people who call my kin "abominations" ally with a classmate who calls me a creature and pretends I am incapable of human feelings based on my race".

FE Fodlan's main selling point is its cast of students, for various reasons, but even if I tried to kid myself, Nopes and FEH made it clears : students are the main selling point.

If you spare more time and attention to the Nabatean plot/lore, the students either grow from "likeable" to "despicable" or worse, you won't gaf about them because yeah sure, Hilda might be upset because people expect things from her due to her crust, but it would feel like a "peanut" compared to Seteth's irrational (granted, it's not so irrational since GW exists) fear that Flayn's newest friends would dissect her if they learnt she was a Nabatean, and being conflicted by finally letting her have human friends and form bonds she crave, or protect her due to the trauma from the genocide of their species.

Don't get me wrong, I love peanuts, I mean, not everyone can have a tragik of loaded backstory!

And yet, given how this verse's DNA is "can you fight against the red emperor who uwus about you", they had to add copious amounts of Earl Grey to their games so there's no clear-cut factions :

The "Your alien blood and its influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command" vs "I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

is turned to :

"Your alien blood Crests and its your church's influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command"

"I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

Sprinkle with the cast's hammering here and there that the "reforms" might be needed - but never develop on what they are - and add a few baseless and groundless takes as a toping (basically everything Claude says about tolerance and the general "isolationism/foreign policy" stuff) and you get FE Fodlan where the Red Emperor's war isn't seen as the catastrophe it is in the other entries from the series!

Now, for FEH...

FWIW, the F!F!Billy's trailer had them try to explain that Sothis was a bit pissed about her slaughtered/massacred children when Nopes never gave any reason about why she was pissed - maybe on Billy's behalf bcs Jerry's dead, but come on, she would indeed deserve the medal of the worst parent in the franchise if that was the case, since Billy can murder her daughter without Sothis taking over ! - but given that they cannot write/go against the source game those characters are from.

They tried a bit, with B!Supreme Leader and Hegemongard's FB, but then it stopped (because she had no "new unit" released since then lol) and I can understand why : Hegemongard came out before the Supreme Emblem, and Hegemongard hates dragons who are seen/perceived as gods by some of their human followers. Come FE17, and now Supreme Emblem accepts Alear because they are "one of the good ones". We can come up with HCs and details and talk about what are emblems or if Hegemongard's views were only hers at the end of AM all day long... But imo, Doylist wise, it still feels it's a retcon because the devs from the main games tried to scrap and remove the most "controversial" traits she had.

For the other characters... Well, you see what Marianne is in FEH (but even in her base games), she's one of the few characters who reacts - in a way - to the partial history about relics and demonic beasts and all... only to give sad uwus to Maurice.

FE16 (and Nopes) refused to have any "student" character react to the Nabatean lore/reveal, about what are relics and all. There are no lines, Claude shared some knowledge in the explore section of VW's last chapter, but we don't have anyone muse or think or even talk about what are relics, what are crests, and what kind of fuckery their ancestors or the ancient humans of Fodlan did.

With that in mind, FEH can't do much : either they write Marianne in a retcon-y way like what happened for Hegemongard (and they're not afraid to piss on characterisation, look at Lyon!), or they flanderise her "character" and develop her around 3 lines she had in the game in her paralogue, and continue to give sad uwus about Momo when he was at best a guy who slaughtered and murdered so much that he abused the Nabatean turned into a relic to the point where he turned in a demonic beast even if he had a matching crest, or at worst, had been part of Nemesis's piñata party in Zanado and was something of a genocider.

Tldr :

Why FE Fodlan never gaf about Nabateans : earl grey + the marketable cast has to stay marketable and you can't sell peanuts at the same price you'd sell swordfish

Why FEH dgaf about Nabatean lore : they can't afford to retcon characters + they have to sell peanut alts with the same seasoning they had in their base game.

For what it's worth though, I think FEH is more daring than the base game(s) given how they gave more lines and screentime to Rhea - through her different alts - than GW. And they even designed her Halloween!alt's lines to piss on some of Claude's assertions, while the various FB involving members of the church also - indirectly - reply to some accusations thrown their way in FE16 when, FE16, never gave them an opportunity or lines to explain that those takes were full of dung.

*"but random, maybe she doesn't know that the crests she often decries is "dragon blood"!"

It's highly debatable, especially given what she and Hubert throw to Billy in CF - but even if she doesn't, Doylist wise we still have a character who, knowingly or not, says "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and who is never called out on her prejudice. That's more of an issue regarding the general writing though, she has to be a red emperor and took pages from Ashnard's book, and yet, the player must still feel bad and want to romance her, so her mindest/goal cannot be looked at too closely, because, I guess, even the devs thought it would be difficult to romance her (thus sell goodies!) if more light was shed on the "blood from this race corrupts our people" schtick -> which in turn would also make characters whose backstory and gimmick rely on "crying about crests" be way less likeable, thus marketable and able to sell goodies.

[gascon-en-exil]

Everyone says Three Houses has the best story, but I couldn't disagree anymore than I already do because that game somehow did all 3 of my biggest writing pet peeves

To make matters worse, they did the one I hate the most three separate times

Not knowing you or your peeves, I'm not going to guess at what those are.

But too often this fandom seems to conflate having good writing with being good for fanwork* which are indeed very different things. See, as a prominent example, Supernatural: the bedrock of Tumblr fandom culture, based on (by all accounts) a thoroughly mediocre TV show. Disjointed messes are playgrounds for fandom, and Three Houses's writing has plenty of gaps in it that are ripe for exploration in fanwork. It also comes with a malleable and somewhat relatable premise - the special school setting with the prominent branding, the same thing that helped make Harry Potter big - that fans can easily adapt however they choose, and that IS loves to plug as the most prominent element of the game's legacy.

All the same, that there are still people arguing over basic plot points over half a decade after the game came out does not speak to its writing quality. If it eases your frustration, pretty much everyone who still claims that FE16 is well-written would actually agree that it isn't....provided they're talking about the routes they don't like which for some reason aren't counted against the game's overall writing quality.

*I imagine at least some of this stems from curatorial fandom and its impulse to catalogue and justify the quality of canon, in contrast with transformative fandom which grows out of dissatisfaction with the failures of canon. Yes, oftentimes those failures can be summed up as "needs more/better sex," but a failure is a failure.

[airlock]

so I found myself thinking about Byleth

I should make myself clear: Byleth is not a character that I find interesting or compelling. thing is, though? the more I think about it, the more I realize that there's a point of view from which to argue... that making Byleth a boring character was a feat. an accomplishment in shitty writing that defies the sheer potential of the premise.

I'll start rambling under the cut

let's get one thing out of the way promptly: I am not, whatsoever, referring to the way that Byleth's Mute Protagonist Syndrome is diegetic and woven into, even justified by, the plot. this is not a new thing that Three Houses did. it is, in fact, an observable and increasingly common tendency in games these days, because audiences still generally like their silent protagonists, but not if they don't have some spark of actual character somewhere to distinguish them from the myriad other silent protagonists that the medium is peppered to the gills with. this is even, in fact, one of the things that draws comparisons to/accusations of bandwagonry of Persona 5, whose Joker is as silent his two predecessors in the series, but absolutely oozes personality through motion alone -- and is, multiple times in the story, described by others as quiet, but determined.

but if this isn't the part of Byleth's character that I'm referring to, then, well... what's left? but again: what I'm increasingly finding mystifying is the empty space that ended up where something more substantial would very easily have been. and it starts with this: Byleth is a teacher.

we never thought much of this idea, did we? the premise of Three Houses is that this is Fire Emblem, but (partially) in a school setting. obviously, if you're going to be inserted into that story in the role of strategical leader, a la Robin; if you're going to have mechanics that turn this school setting into the ultimate unit customization gameplay -- then making the player insert character a teacher is such an obvious idea, it borders on braindead, right.

well... is it actually that obvious?

there's an endlessly immense amount of media that takes place in a school setting -- but very little of that media is about school. which makes sense. school is, famously, not interesting. school is something that the primary target audience for media with school setting is actually looking for an escape from. school settings are relatable, but relatability without adventure is, what -- a sitcom? not even that. even mundane, slice-of-life stories draw their adventure from somewhere -- but studying for midterms is not an adventure that can trivially be rendered exciting to watch.

(in fact, even if we once again look at FE16's ostensible inspiration in Persona 5, we're not really looking at a school story. the first arc of Persona 5 is about school; after that, though, the plot's scope expands, and school becomes a small appendage of the game. Joker stops attending school altogether in the final arc (as he goes into hiding), and the only difference it makes is the removal of three minuscule and intermittent mechanics -- of which one is the commute.)

all of this is to say -- despite all of the school settings, how many modern stories do you know, where the main character is a teacher?

I'm not saying there are none, but I'm just saying, I can only think of three off the top of my head, and I never actually watched the other two.

makes sense, after all -- teachers are almost invariably satellite characters. if the story is absolutely only using school as set dressing, it will make the teachers uncomplicated and competent, the sort of person you can imagine putting in charge of children without scratching your head, barring maybe one funny quirky to prevent them from being completely boring. if the story does want to dig its fingers into the school life somewhat, then the natural move is to take a look into when relations between students and teachers are tense, whether it be because the teacher is in fact a cartoon villain, or because the teacher is not readily well-liked but has hidden depths. in every piece of this equation, though, the teacher is an Adult as seen from afar, and not the Human who must embody this Adult in spite of all the adversity.

Byleth, of all people, is put in the unique position of embodying that struggle. and that's not a peculiar reading of the text or a fanonical backfill; it's something that the game actually tries to pitch as a conflict, for a brief lull.

say we forget for a moment that Byleth is Byleth, and picture this: a story about a young manwomanthing, given work as a teacher because of the, let's call her that for simplicity, headmaster's ulterior motives. work that our womanmanthing keeps being told they can do just fine, because they have a relevant skill that they've honed and could instruct the students in -- but they're sheltered and inexperienced in much outside of that one skill, so being a guide to others is not something they ever imagined themself doing. as the days go by, though, they take to the role with a natural affinity, finding it even to be something of a true calling; indeed, the longer they put in the work, the more alive they feel. by teaching others, they become enlightened.

how did intsys manage to make that story suck?

[randomnameless]

Jumping in,

I know AM ends with Dimitri trying to take her hand but come on, I'm not talking about Dimitri from the debate club offering his hand to someone who beat him last semester.

Dimitri is the leader of the allied forces who bonded together and revolted against her imperial subjugation of Fodlan that lasted 5 long years and killed thousands.

Even if Elincia offered her hand to Ashnard and, assuming he hit his head on a rock, he accepted - what was going to happen next? Letting him scot-free? Wouldn't Dheginsea immediately call for him to be brought to Goldoa to be Ire'd to oblivion for destroying his family? Would Tibarn offer him fruits and nuts after witnessing Gritnea? Hell, how would random Crimeans/Begnion/Laguz people react?

Back to @slotumn's post, while Nopes gives the AG cast some semblance of what you mentionned, aka self-awareness that they are invading and Adrestians will most likely despise them for generations to come (even if, iirc, the plot tells us that apparently Adrestia became a lawless place where people are killing each other because Agarthans are promoting chaos and destruction or something??) the game encourages the player can compare their reaction to the ones the Deers and the Eagles have in their respective routes (special mention to Lorenz who wants to visit the Firdhiad's School of Sorcery, as he is invading the capital!).

But I agree that there's no way the war can end without any "counter-invasion" or at least taking the capital/seat of the Red Empire who invaded.

AM (and FE16 in general) can't be assed with showing and telling us how characters feel about invading lands, or how the ones being invaded feel, but AG does (a little bit, we're still in a Fodlan game after all!), and yet, fwiw, I'm pretty sure the random Adrestians in AM also feel the same as they do in AG regarding the Kingdom's forces.

I mean, the Kingdom, in both routes, rolls over Adrestia and heads to Enbarr.

The only difference is the focus... on Supreme Leader.

AM!Dimitri doesn't want to kill her while AG!Dimitri dgaf about Lobotogard.

Guess which one is ultimately called the "Saviour King" and which one is a "worse version" of himself since he wasn't enlightened by the Goddess' avatar?

Honestly I think one thing a lot of 3H fans, especially the ones I suspect are American, underestimate is: how badly attacking and taking over another country will sour that population's opinion on you.

Doesn't matter how righteous the cause is. Doesn't even matter if it was a counter-invasion to another invasion/aggression. If you invade another country and bring bloodshed to their soil, people there will fucking hate you. Maybe they'll also blame their leaders for being incompetent or losing too, but they will definitely hate the invaders. Even if they understand that not all the people from the other country supported the war, whichever leader was heading the assault will be despised for decades to come, if not centuries.

And I know canon endings themselves push for this/not everyone wants to see or depict the more fucked up parts of losing a war/people can make whatever fanworks they want and blah blah blah, but the whole "my fave wins (militarily) and everyone on the continent more or less accepts their rule bc they're obviously morally correct" thing is like

no they fucking wouldn't.

They really, really, wouldn't.

[teaveetamer]

After finishing FF16 demo, I'm starting to feel even more frustrated with how much FE16 held back. Had only IS didn't sugarcoat the brutality of the war, experimentations, and massacres, I think FE16 would have the betrayals punch the players harder and more effectively.

But I guess it's the rating that has to be blamed here. FF16 is M. FE16 is just T.

Oof yeah I've heard about the FF16 demo. It sounds pretty intense.

But anyway I feel like this is something that gets lost in the conversation about FE's story. It is a game series that is made to be consumed by children and young teens. That doesn't mean adults can't like it, but it was written with a more restrictive age rating in mind. That is done on purpose. There is no possible way you could go in intending to write an M-rated game and have it wind up being E10+ by accident.

There are some places it is just never going to go, and I think that's something a lot of older fans (I mean in terms of age, not how long they've enjoyed the series) struggle to reckon with. The series is not going to grow up with you, no matter how much you want it to. See also: some older members of the Pokemon fandom getting annoyed that the games have kiddy stories, or adult fans of kids cartoons who get mad at the kids cartoons for not being darker/more serious.

Older games were a bit more intense in places, but guys... Genealogy of the Holy War released in 1996. The CERO rating system used now now wasn't established until 2002. FE4 was only retroactively given a CERO A (equivalent of an ESRB E) rating when it came to Virtual Console in 2013.

And honestly, I'm willing to bet that the low rating has more to do with the technology of the game being so far behind what the tech of the time a remake would be capable of. The implication is bad, but all the Belhalla BBQ really is are some fire sprites and some scrolling text saying everyone died. The horror really comes from what you're imagining happening.

They would not be depicting the Belhalla BBQ in 4k hyper-realism in a remake. It would very likely be toned down to whatever would get them that E10+/T rating.

And really I think that's why I have more fun with the entries that aren't trying to be super serious or deep. Not everything has to be!

[rlyehtaxidermist]

i haven’t played fe16 yet but every time i see “engage” i naturally read it in the voice of jean-luc picard. every time I see “engage spoilers” i imagine the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) with a retractable spoiler slowly rising from its nacelles

[halcyon-writings]

Who do you think are the best characters to destress with in FE3H after exams and basic education nonsense? (I just finished a college midterm and my sanity hurts lol)

me: :(

few3h: drops a new trailer

me now: :)

i definitely feel u tho bestie, school is kicking my ass with writing all these papers and exams

nav.

the lists here are also not in any particular order!

Who is the best to help destress, you ask? Here you go!

First with the Black Eagles we have:

Edelgard

Dorothea

Linhardt

For our Lions:

Dedue

Ashe

Mercedes

Sylvain

Now for our dear, well, Deer:

Claude

Hilda

Raphael

Last but certainly not least, the underground meow meows wan wans

Hapi

Yuri