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archaneanscribe · 4 years ago

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Eight Days

I tried my hand at expanding on and reimagining the detail's of Julian and Lena's first meeting. Part of the Archanea Chronicles.

The heavy iron door of the cell slammed shut with a dreadful clatter, but Julian could barely hear it over the ringing in his ears.

Hissing in pain, he rolled over onto his back on the cold, hard floor, the relief he felt at no longer lying down on his broken arm negligible at best. This is what happens when you betrayed the Soothsires, after all. You get beaten until you're black and blue, and are thrown away to rot.

"Bastards..." he growled under his breath once he had heard his former-allies-turned-captor's footsteps retreat a good distance, "I knew they were a bunch of animals, but they didn't even have the decency to kill me..."

"Are you in need of healing?"

If he were in better shape, Julian might have jumped out of skin at the sudden realization he wasn't alone. Seeing that he wasn't, he just twitched at the voice coming from his right, lolling his head in that direction with considerable effort. He couldn't get a great look at his cellmate due to the sideways angle and probable concussion he had, but he could make out a staff in their hand.

"Yeah, but why bother?" he replied, letting out a huff of air that was supposed to be a sigh, but was more of a pitiful shudder, "They'll just beat me again tomorrow."

"And I will heal you again tomorrow."

He diverted all his energy to focusing his vision in order to really see his companion. Red hair, white clothes, a staff... it was that girl! The girl who was the reason he was here in the first place.

She seemed tired of waiting for an answer, because a flash of light illuminated the grimy cell as a warm feeling washed over him. As a bandit, he was rarely on the receiving end of healing magic, so he silently marveled at the feeling of bone reconnecting and flesh pulling back together. It wasn't painful, but it was definitely... odd.

As quick as it began, it was over, and he was good as new.

Well, he felt more gently used instead of on the verge of death, which was good enough. He still ached, but he was able to sit up now. After doing that, he scooted backwards until his back rested against the wall. Feeling more human, he was finally able to see her properly. Despite having been in here for a week longer than him, the only things that seemed to be wrong with her were impressively dirty robes, and tired, tired eyes.

At the same time, she was appraising him as well, but with medical curiosity, "Are you feeling better?"

"Much," a beat, "Aren't you worried about what they'll do to you? They might be idiots, but it'd take more than an idiot to not figure out what happened here."

She shook her head, brushing some hair aside to reveal a small cut, "When this happened, your leader was quite angry with the man who did it. I am more..." her expression, which had previously been impassive, grew bitter, "...valuable, if I am undamaged."

Yeah. He knew exactly what she meant there.

"That's probably true. Never scuff up the merchandise," he said the last word with venom, "That used to just mean jewels and trinkets, not people."

Setting her staff aside, she cautiously moved closer to him, stopping an arm's length away, "Kidnapping women is not something you did before?"

"No!" he shouted defensively, forcefully snapping his jaw shut to regulate his volume, "No. We did plenty of unsavory things- we stole and we killed, sure, but we had our limits. But then Hyman took over. Bastard has been pushing those boundaries day by day. But he finally crossed the line when he," he gestured towards her, "You know."

She nodded, "Is that why you are here? You objected to your leaders actions?"

"I just couldn't let it continue. It'd have been bad enough as it is, but you're not just any woman," he pointed to her staff, "You're a cleric! A holy woman! A healer!"

Her face softened into a smile, and it softened his heart, to see something so beautiful in this setting. She closed that final distance between them, laying a hand on his forearm- her hands were small, but the skin was rougher than he expected, "You have a good heart."

While she had been on the money before, now she was as wrong as could be.

His shoulder was still tender, but he shrugged her off, "You don't know what I've done. Not being alright with selling people isn't anything special."

"You chose to stand up for what you believe in. Most sit back and watch, no matter how much they object."

"Look, lady-"

"Lena."

He looked at her like she had grown an extra arm, but her smile only grew, like a flower emerging from a crack in the cobblestone, "My name is Lena. What is your name?"

More than a little lost at the direction this interaction was headed, all he could do was blink numbly as he replied, "Uh, Julian. I'm Julian."

"Well, Julian, there is something you need to know. The other staff I have is Warp. It is very rare and valuable, worth much more than my life."

"Why-"

"If you are truly so blackhearted, you will call for one of your associates and tell them this. I'm sure they would let you go free if you did."

His eyes drifted over to where she had been sitting before, and true enough, he saw a staff that was much more ornate than what she had used on him. From there, his gaze moved back to her, a serene smile still gracing her face (which he was increasingly noticing was quite lovely).

"Why are you telling me this?"

"You stood against your comrades for my sake. I believe I owe you the honesty."

What a strange woman.

Seeming content that she had accomplished whatever her goals were, Lena moved back to the side of the cell she was originally in, sitting all too calmly for someone in her situation.

If she noticed him staring at her in bewilderment, she said nothing.

---

When their guard arrived later that night, he beat Julian within an inch of his life once more. True to her word, Lena healed him again.

He didn't utter a peep about her staff.

---

Julian really couldn't tell you why Hyman didn't decide enough was enough and just kill him properly, even as the days ticked by. Maybe he just lost interest. Maybe he thought that being in a cell next to a beautiful woman, unable to do anything with her was punishment enough (he would think that, the pig).

Or maybe, just maybe, he was smarter than Julian gave him credit for, and knew that his former subordinate was growing more attached to the cleric the longer they were imprisoned together, which would make her eventual fate hurt him worse than any torture.

It would be tough not to notice.

They never brought any food or water just for him, but Lena always offered him some of hers. He had turned her down.

On day three, his stomach had triumphed over his mind.

After that, he let the arrangement slide, so long as she agreed to eat more of it than she gave him. He was used to being hungry, after all.

On day five, they started to talk. The time before hadn't been entirely silent, but that had been most out of necessity, like asking for privacy when relieving themselves. It was the fifth day that she, almost speaking more to herself than him, began to recount her life story. The granddaughter of a nobleman who gave away all his time and money to help those who needed it, she chose to follow in his footsteps, renouncing her title and leading the life of your average cleric.

That was selling her short, actually. She walked paths hardened warriors refused to tread, such as traversing the Ghoul's Teeth to treat those who lived in the border villages, those who everyone else had abandoned as fools or unable to be saved.

"I am simply doing what I must as a cleric. I am no better than any of my sisters of the cloth."

He couldn't help but see her as much, much more than that.

So moved he was, that when she asked about him, he was more honest than he ever was to himself. He told her about his father, who on his deathbed had tried to impart good values on his boy. Telling him to protect those who need it, to be kind and fair to everyone around him.

He also told her how he, an angry sixteen year old boy at the time, had disregarded those teachings when a tough looking older man had taught him how to pick locks. There was no remorse in his voice when it came to him stealing to survive, nor was there any judgement in her eyes.

The regret came later.

It came in the times when he had stolen from those who had less than he had. When he has participated in raiding the nearby villages. The nights when he heard young boys cry out for their fathers amidst the flame and he didn't sleep.

On day five, he cried. As the tears came, she placed a soothing hand on his shoulder and let it linger.

---

On day six, he asked her if she could absolve him, as a holy woman.

"You can only find absolution through your own actions, Julian. Your soul is in your own hands."

---

On day seven, he asked how exactly the Warp staff worked. She said it couldn't take the wielder with it.

Later that night, they overheard their guard mention to another brigand that they finally found a buyer for their "prized merchandise".

---

On day eight, he leaned in close to her ear and whispered, "We're getting out of here, together."

On day eight, she smiled.•

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raxistaicho · 15 days ago

Note

Hey this looks like fun! This post gets into a lot of subjects on the series but Jugdral in particular, so if you don't mind I'll reply with some ranting and ranting and ranting of my own :)

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.

So you notice how most of those examples are post-Fe6, aside from the very early Valentia? That's because the series was already beginning to move away from the fantastical elements of the first two games as early as New Mystery of the Emblem. There's dragons in New Mystery, yes, but they're treated more like wild animals than anything else. In FE1, Marth fights dragons. In FE3, he's contending with having won the war but lost the peace. It's more of a human conflict. Dragons exist in it, but only as the pawns as human antagonists, be they the tribes of the north, or Gharnef.

FE4 moves further away. Holy Blood, despite its major gameplay relevance, mostly serves as an allegory for aristocracy and the divine right of kings. Loptous certainly exists in Genealogy, and dragons are important to the backstory, but the story of Genealogy itself is not about the dragons, it's about the powerful families growing corrupt and their successors having to atone for the mistakes of the past generations.

Fe5 goes a step further into a very grounded low-fantasy setting in which Leif doesn't really benefit from his special blood at all. Kaga somewhat backpedaled with Tearring Saga, but Berwick Saga was another low-fantasy tale, much like Fe5 and Three Houses. Fire Emblem as a series turned sharply away from the direction Kaga was taking it with FE6, which was more or less an FE1 remake in disguise and thus a soft reboot of the series. The series retained that level of fantasticality, only for Three Houses to bring it back more in line with the direction Kaga was taking it. In Three Houses, the gods are dead, the dragons are dying out, and the legendary weapons were made by humans and are just particularly strong and not divine and world-shaking.

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.

So here's the funny thing, you know how Crests and Relics in Three Houses aren't as impressive as Holy Blood and Holy Weapons were in Genealogy? There's a reason for that. It's going to tie into something you'll get upset about further down.

Anyways, the irony here is that Kaga then deconstructed the idea of Some People Being Better Than You No Matter How Hard You Try in the very next game. Leif is constantly underestimated by the villains in Thracia 776 because he cannot wield Gáe Bolg unlike his big sister, nor is he a borderline messianic savior, unlike his cousin.

And yet it's him, not Altena, who unites the peninsula. And he rises to greater glory than Seliph. Leif, the second son, who cannot "wield S rank swords like toddler!Seliph".

Oh, and, Ced doesn't have the right to complain about anything being unfair, he's a Jugdral Sage :p

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.

That's true, but allegory is a thing that exists in the world. Just telling a story about the unjustness of aristocracy is kind of boring for a series like Fire Emblem, you can't crit the living embodiment of the aristocracy for 90 damage with the trainee you spent all game grinding up. There's a reason Tellius just kinda stops being interested in talking about the unjust power disparity between the commoners and the nobility somewhere around the middle Radiant Dawn, and it's because while Lekain would make for a disappointing final boss, Ashera does not.

Okay I mean she is a bad final boss but there's other issues at play there.

Trying to explain the complexities of generational power and wealth is beyond the pale for a strategy rpg about killing armies with a squad of attractive youths, so IntSys used superpowers instead to make it easier to understand and follow, but the comparison is still there.

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.

So no one's saying Crests (why is "crests" in scare quotes?) don't afford a person an advantage. It's implied by Hanneman's support with Alois that Crestless individuals can't use magic, and while he's mistaken, it's worth pointing out that the number of Crestless characters with a Reason or Faith Boon or Budding talent can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Again, we're gonna get back to this, it's leading somewhere.

Jean-Fran��ois 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.

No, Bob and Roger (I'm guessing from their exceedingly simple names that these aren't real people or characters from some media I'm not familiar with, if I'm wrong then my mistake) didn't receive training, at all. Bourbon had tutors who taught them literacy, mathematics, politics, etiquette, strategy, and combat from as long as they can remember. Roger and Bob helped their parents till the fields.

You're oversimplifying the advantage of generational wealth to the point of being bad faith about it.

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.

You're referring to Catherine and Lysithea's C support:

If anything, it seems like the Crest of Charon is pretty worthless as a form of weather control since it gives you the opposite of what you want, assuming Catherine and Lysithea are even correct. Humans are subject to something called negativity bias, meaning we remember bad times more easily than good. It could easily be the case that all the times Lysithea and Catherine had their plans getting dashed by bad weather just stand out more starkly in their minds.

I mean, everyone has those moments where they feel like every red light on the street was out to get them personally, right?

On the other hand, I suppose this means it's Catherine's fault the Kingdom loses at Tailltean in Crimson Flower. Good job, Catherine! WASH AWAY THE ANGER.

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?

...Are you suggesting systems of unjust inequality are valid?

We went through this whole charade in our history. Peasants were once told that the nobility were Better Than Them, and then they realized actually the aristocracy were corrupt, useless, narcissists and all the institutional advantage they'd stolen throughout the years was wasted on them.

I mean hell, you know this, you're French! You guys are the masters of putting the aristocracy in their place, and I salute you for it!

And here's the funny thing, Three Houses agrees with this.

Lorenz is generally a butt monkey despite all his bluster and his privilege.

Leonie is a badass who can deftly outsmart and curb stomp Felix.

Shamir can save Hubert from assassins.

Alois, not Catherine, becomes Captain of the Knights of Seiros in non-CF runs.

Manuela and the original Cornelia (judging by her plain full name, Cornelia was probably a commoner) are (or were, in Cornelia's case) Hanneman's intellectual equals, and Manuela can become the goddamn Prime Minister of Adrestia.

Crestless Holst and Judith are the kickass top heroes of Leicester, while Holst's Crested sister is a layabout.

Sylvain just kinda drifts through life, unlike the more hardworking Leonie, Ashe, or Dorothea.

Felix and Lorenz are impressively stubborn and unwilling to acknowledge other viewpoints, Raphael, despite being a meathead, is mature enough to realize he needs to buckle down and study.

The whole story happens because the nobility got drunk on their supposed superiority and became corrupt and useless. There's so many examples even in the main cast of the commoners being more open-minded, flexible, and hardworking than their noble peers.

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.

It's like I said, the point flew over your head.

Relics aren't the same as Holy Weapons, they aren't as selective and they aren't as powerful.

Dimitri, for all his glorious Crest-born strength and the cruel bite of his Relic, can get killed by Imperial scrubs because he ran out ahead and tried to 1vall.

Leonie would have killed Felix, one of the strongest swordsmen lore-wise in the game, with almost contemptuous ease if she wanted to in their support line.

I love that things like this happen, it's a huge reality check on the supposed indomitable might of the Crested Relic-bearers. It's gameplay integration, not segregation.

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?

And here we get back to the point: you're arguing that because it appears to make sense that Bourbon rules over their subjects, it's fine that they do. Because things are this way, it's how they should be. But that's not how the course of human history has been, we've checked our own ignorance and learned from the mistakes of our predecessors time and again. Just because the people of today think something is right, doesn't mean it is.

There's people in Fodlan who value Crests but can't make use of the great strength they offer. Why would Ingrid's would-be suitor from her paralogue want his children to bear a Crest? Is he intending to make them super-soldiers, or does he want the social influence that comes with Crests? That comes with Crests being the mark of the goddess's chosen?

Having a Crest means the goddess gave you sacred blood. Imagine how much more arrogant the high-born would be if they think their blood is literally better than that of the unwashed masses, and that the continent's only religion says so.

And of course here's where you'll probably mention how Church doctrine states that the goddess was very very sadge at people abusing her gifts and hid herself from the world, as if someone reading through things only part way and declaring they aren't like those awful other people isn't just part of human nature.

It might not have been Rhea's intention, but she laid the groundwork for the veneration of the Crested simply because they're Crested.

Is the "system" (a friend made a post debunking any idea of "systemic" application of this notion in the three countries)

Please tell me it wasn't Fantasy Invader.

based on bullshit, or on, objective superpowers?

It's actually based on the church's doctrine.

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?

I really wish you'd actually read that support instead of getting excited at the idea that the Crest of Charon allows you to control the weather, because it seems to me Catherine is more likely to flood the fields than she is to bring good harvests.

What is the other superpower tied to the crest of Gautier that isn't "use a femur and wreck havoc with it"?

There isn't one. The idea of Crests imparting unique powers and abilities is so vague and undeveloped that it's borderline fanon, which is part of why I hate that Reyna went whole hog with it in Queen of Liberation. Nabateans might have had unique powers, once, but that's so far removed from what Crested humans can do that it's totally different matters.

There's two possibilities that I can think of, either Catherine's wrong due to how mythologized Crests are in Fodlan (this would be in keeping with the idea of Crests being Holy Blood but deconstructed) or it's just a case of there being too many cooks in the kitchen. A few of the writers had the idea of Crests having superpowers, but not enough to properly develop the idea.

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.

And you know why it wasn't to be?

Because Marianne can't talk to animals!

She's good at empathing how they feel, but that's not a superpower, some people are just good with animals, as she happens 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-

Oh perhaps she isn't questioned because the writers didn't disagree with her ideals?

Her methods are what the writing question, not her ideals.

But sure, it's all a conspiracy to keep her marketable.

Good god, try some Occam's Razor sometime, would you?

Either:

The writers agree with Edelgard's ideals and she's not intended to be an evil racist imperalist and the people who thinks she is are misinterpreting her character.

Or:

Actually she was always meant to be a conquering racist but the devs realized they did an oopsie and she wouldn't be marketable anymore even though villains are perfectly marketable so they had to walk that back only they left all these clues everywhere and in interviews for people to find if they squint really hard and apply motivated reasoning because the writers were inspired by The Riddler and IntSys thought it'd be cool to gamble on Edelgard's marketability so they could see who's clever enough to peer through the veil and they never bothered correcting the people who were wrong even a half-decade later after getting all their skin money and in fact they just carried on presenting her as a hero in Engage because they're just having a laugh at this point.

Notice how one option involves them being insane and the other doesn't?

she feels it's unfair that her crest seemingly dictate her life,

Yeah, how dare she feel bitter than her life got ruined and her family slaughtered because certain people valued the idea of a puppet emperor having the Crest of Flames!

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.

I can't comment on Heroes because I don't play Gacha games and I think anyone who does is making a terrible mistake, but the idea that Edelgard doesn't use her gifts to help people is kind of ludicrous given that's exactly what her whole movement is about. She knows the truth, she has the ability to act on it, so she feels she must.

Also, another theme of Houses and Hopes is that while some people wish they had Crests and Noble status, almost as many people don't. Mercedes, Sylvain, Bernadetta, Linhardt, and Marianne suffered for the expectations placed on them by virtue of their heritage. The idea that people born into power shouldn't be forced to shoulder those expectations if they don't want to is a radical one for this series, but it's something that needs to be said. You really don't want to put somebody in charge if they with their whole heart don't want to be in charge. It's why Edelgard's supports with Linhardt and Bernadetta carry a theme of meeting them where they're comfortable.

The idea that people should be able to live the kind of life they want goes both ways. It means commoners who want to rise up should be given the chance, just as nobles who want to live quiet lives should be allowed to. It'd be hypocritical of Edelgard to extend the former opportunity while denying the latter.

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!

So I just had to quote that block in its entirety, because it's the perfect encapsulation of how we come at this from different angles, and frankly how you just disagree with the character arc the writers intended, so you decide it was poorly-written.

So... no, Linhardt letting his talents go to waste is a major part of a few of his supports. They may not reach the conclusion you seem to think would be best, that being one where Linhardt sucks it up and becomes a cog in the machine, but they do exist all the same.

You seem to think Linhardt having a healing Crest means he's obligated to become a healer, which is just... oh wow you're really suggesting Crests should dominate a person's life. That's so outside the scope of what Three Houses has to say it's no wonder you think the game is poorly written, you just disagree with its baseline point.

Also, the funny thing is that the best physician in the game is Manuela, a Crestless commoner who worked her ass off to become a doctor and seems to be quite good at the job (when she's awake, anyways).

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 ?).

That's because Crests are limited by their nature. They aren't Holy Blood, they don't grant cool abilities, they're meant for warfare and destruction first and foremost.

For all that healing Crests exist, the top healer in the lore in modern day doesn't have a Crest.

For all that I've seen people say, "well what about people with Crests being laborers!" nobody actually does that. Reyna had this... adorable idea that Dimitri just roamed Faerghus like a Knight Errant, using his Supah Strength to help people in need, when the only thing we see Dimitri doing with his strength is killing people in Three Houses.

"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.

The funny thing is, Rhea's brute strength as The Immaculate One is arguably her most lacking "power". Rhea the Archbishop does more than Rhea the Immaculate One, who gets beaten nearly every time it appears on screen.

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.

Yup, here we go. The contemptibly cowardly strategy of crying all Edelgard fans just hate religion and have religious trauma. We can't have a rational reason for disliking Rhea, we just can't! It's similar to the equally pathetic "atheists do believe in god, they just want to hang on to their sins" argument.

So I was not raised in religion. I have no negative experiences with religion or churches, and my Angry Atheist days are about a decade behind me. I still think Rhea's wrong.

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".

The funny thing is, you seem to be the perfect example of the opposite phenomena taking place. I've deadass seen you get incensed that the fucking Holy State of Hyzante is treated like the greater evil compared to Aesfrost in Triangle Strategy, mostly because the religion is false.

I guess Hyzante being an oppressive society built on a foundation of institutional racism and slavery would be fine if it was a legitimate religion?

You're so reliably infuriated by any negative depiction of religion in media that it seems to me like you want to believe religious bodies are better than they're intended to seem. There's a reason Japanese media tends to portray conflicts against god, and it has a lot to do with their cultural background of religions being imposed on them by people in positions of power, rotating with the rise and fall of oppressors, both foreign and domestic.

Also, it's probably for the best that you don't play Romancing Saga 2, which features an extremely Judeo-Christian coded villain with an androgynous, angelic appearance who lives in a castle built like a cathedral and who is attempting to conquer a very Japan-coded region. Japan's had experiences with western religions trying to interfere with their lives by guile and by force, let's just leave it at that.

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???

As I believe I've demonstrated by now, people in Fodlan don't value Crests because they grant superpowers.

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.

2019 was not an election year.

The next election happened in November of 2020. Three Houses predated the 2020 election season by about a year, just as it predated Covid lockdowns by about 9 months.

I was there, Edelgard discourse started within weeks of the game coming out. Elections and Covid might have fanned the flames, but they didn't start it.

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

And again, what people value in Crests isn't the power they grant, at least not outside a few specific examples. Their true influence lies in the cultural power they represent, and the Church is responsible for granting them that cultural power.

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

Funny how you stripped some context out of that quote. Here, I'll provide the full thing:

Those Who Slither in the Dark wanted to overturn this state of affairs (of the Nabateans as rulers) and as such, they devised schemes. They granted humans the technology to make powerful weapons from the corpses of the citizens of Nabatea, or so was their plan that they enacted, to which they went forward with this plan using the human, Nemesis. 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.

The power they're referring to is the making of Relics, but the only House that truly seems obsessed with Relics in modern times is House Gautier (and possibly House Blaiddyd).

What Relic was Hanneman's sister's husband hoping to gain control of? Or how about when Bartels was looking to r*pe Mercedes? Was he planning on having Mercedes's child and Emile take turns with the Rafail Gem?

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...

I'd say they don't exist because the game doesn't make a particularly strong case for them existing. Or if it does, it only demonstrates why the powers they grant aren't particularly useful, and are seemingly easily warped to be a detriment instead of a boon.

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

Now we've completely swapped subjects, but she still lies at the root of it. The Church of Seiros lies at the foundation of Fodlan's system of nobility, and Rhea wouldn't allow that to be swept away until Sothis returns.

And yes, hierarchies exist elsewhere, but we aren't talking about elsewhere, we're talking about specifically Fodlan's system of hierarchy.

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.

That you think religion and human greed are separate is very revealing.

Also, the funny thing is for all they cry that she dehumanizes the Nabateans, Edelgard's detractors sure dehumanize them as well. Only it takes a different form, a form in which they simply refuse to believe Nabateans possess the same flaws humans do. They aren't motivated by bias, prejudice, ignorance, or greed! Not ever! They're just pure little lizard bois and gurlz, totally benign and only wanted to improve the world! Heads empty, only good thoughts.

Bob doesn't need to be a king to do that, nor will Bob be there every time a giant wolf strikes.

Karen Charon can summon rain,

No she can't.

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

Maybe because they have some merit?

1- Because they refuse to engage with the game

Oh god, the irony. The unmitigated irony.

and realise that it is a fantasy game belonging to a very specific genre

The only refusal I see is the refusal to acknowledge that Crests and the Nobles who wield them aren't automatically Better Than You. Advantaged, yes. Privileged, yes. But this privilege has corrupted them and made them lazy, which is part of why Fodlan is rotting. Unfortunately, Rhea's only solution is to let mommy fix everything, so that means in the meanwhile she needs the church intact despite the fact that the church stands at the root of Fodlan's system of nobility.

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

No - what? What is this nonsense? People aren't robots, they aren't capable of just ignoring what they personally find abhorrent. If they see an unjust power imbalance they're going to oppose it, because they see it as unjust. Not because we're worried if they don't oppose it they actually like it, that's not how the human brain works. We're slaves to our own biases, which are often extremely difficult to rationalize our way out of.

3- Because Religion BaD

Yeah we had to get back to this bit of cowardice, I guess.

Of course, I can already guess that some people might argue that they don't "refuse to engage with the game"

Imagine someone doing that!

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

You ever stopped to ponder why that is?

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.

Who're you talking about? Hubert?

However, Dimitri and Sylvain mention how crestless children are disowned in Faerghus...

Mind dropping the quote on that? I don't remember them saying that myself.

In a game where Dorothea can blame the Goddess for fighting in a war her bestie started - without anyone pointing this out -

I don't think we're meant to agree with Dorothea there. She's at her most desperate and bitter in that moment, and Dorothea can be a very bitter person when the chips are down.

Tl;Dr : Reason 1- is most likely the most prevalent why this take exists anon, "because some people refuse to engage with the game"

That is certainly true!

Well, that certainly ran on for a while, even with me increasingly cutting stuff to the end. Thanks to everyone who made it this far!

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

Bcs Rhea BaD anon.

More seriously,

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

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!").

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.

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?

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!

"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.

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!).

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 :

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

"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

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".

#fire emblem three houses #edelgard discourse #edelgard positive #edelgard von hresvelg #fire emblem three hopes #randomnameless #reblog

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