#he was such a good ally in the game

[snurtsnurtcreations]

COD MW2 Rewrite, i guess

Anywho, I choose to be delusional and not accept how half assed the Graves betrayal was in Cod MW2. This is all based on some gripes I talked about in this post

Here’s what ACTUALLY happens in Cod MW2 (source: me)

Shadows assist 141 and Los Vaqueros and capture Hassan Zyani. Graves pushes hard to interrogate the guy, screw the laws, why else hire a PMC if not to forego those, right? No one needs to know besides the wilderness, yeah? Laswell insists that it would be a declaration of war, and the others reluctantly agree with her, following orders. Graves keeps pushing on it -even getting physical with Hassan- until Shepherd gives the final say-so to let him go. Graves is visibly irked and disappointed.

Laswell snagged info from Hassan’s phone on a possible location for where the missiles might have been, or currently may be at. Bam, ghillie suit mission. While there, 141 finds intel on where the second missile could be headed, a certain oil rig - however Laswell gets caught. Price and Gaz team up with ULF to save Laswell, meanwhile Shadows, Ghost, Soap, & Los Vaqueros are sent to the oil rig to capture or destroy the missile. Things go spectacularly, everyone's getting along, missile is destroyed, Laswell is saved, we get a lil hint at Russian involvement with the tracking thing or whatever… ok. There’s still one more missile, now we need to find either Hassan (again) or El Sin Nombre.

They find the house of one of El Sin Nombre’s lieutenants. It’s a fat chance, really, but it’s the only lead they’ve got at the moment. Soap volunteers to go, and Alejandro goes with him, Ghost sets up in sniper position, Shadow copters are on standby. But… something goes wrong. As soon as the guards find dead bodies (courtesy of Soap after the interrogation), Valeria makes a run for it. Soap and Alejandro follow, because that sicario is their main lead atm. They follow the lone car she gets into, but the copter sees a multiple other vehicles leaving the opposite way - and they assume that’s gotta be where El Sin Nombre went.

So the copter follows the car caravan, while Soap, Alejandro, and a disheveled Ghost dropping his sniper point to catch up to them follow the lone car into the wilderness… where radio signal gets choppy. The three lose contact with the Shadows, but they’re hot on the trail of Valeria. Through the wilderness and then into a small town, and unassuming warehouse… must be a safehouse or something. They sneak in, learn that Valeria is El Sin Nombre.

Meanwhile, Shadows followed the car caravan, and found it had nothing of value that would give them the intel they wanted. Now Graves is getting desperate, not to mention they’ve lost all contact with the 141 and Alejandro. A call with Shepherd, and the general is planting a seed of doubt that perhaps Alejandro was working with the drug lord… after all, look at all the corrupt Mexican military doing just that? What sets Alejandro apart from the rest? Hell, he might have killed the 141 and is living out his best life right now… wouldn’t they have gotten into contact with him by now if they were alive and well? Anyway, that’s besides the point, right now they need to find that missile. You were given a mission, Commander Graves, and I’d suggest you complete it at any cost. Take over the base if that’s what it takes.

Graves has a chat with Rodolfo and learns that Rodolfo and Alejandrio used to know and work with this Valeria character. And damn if that doesn’t settle it for Graves. He’s not about to let his Shadows be stabbed in the back (again).

So Graves has his Shadows capture Alejandro’s base (Rodolfo gets away). He starts going through every corrupt military personnel he can find, any corrupt police… they need to find Hasan and they’re going to do it, no matter the cost. He’s got no qualms about committing a few war crimes to get what he wants - he’s a PMC after all. He also puts out a little side note to all his operatives: if they catch sight of Alejandro, catch him dead or alive. They know his preference… (alive. He wants to have a good long chat with him, find out what happened to Ghost and Soap. Those were good men, damnit, they deserve a proper funeral at least)

The three out in the field don’t know this. They bide their time, check out what’s going on around the warehouse, what the security measures are… and then ghey strike. They catch Valeria and commandeer a vehicle to shove her into. Alejandro gets a vehicle of his own and drives ahead as lookout, they kill some cartel folks on the way there, it’s smooth going. Base is in sight. They get stopped at the gate. Alejandro’s incredibly confused about the Shadows manning his gate instead of his soldiers. What Ghost and Soap see from their seats is Alejandro coming out of the car a little irritated and confused, and then he’s suddenly being detained with guns pointed at him.

Assuming they’ve been betrayed, Ghost immediately backs up and screeches outta there (“Trouble in paradise?” Valeria snarks). A couple shots from the Shadows follow them out, and whaddaya know, one of the bullets hits a tire. The vehicle careens outta control, and the 141 boys decide to book it on foot, splitting up. Ghost takes Valeria, SOap tries to lead the Shadows away. He loses them in the streets. Cue the alone mission except as they leave Ghost has a knocked out Valeria thrown over his shoulder. They make it out of the city, peel out, and meet Rodolfo at the safe house.

Rodolfo tells them Graves has gone insane, siccing the Shadows on Alejandro’s troops, convinced they’re working with the cartel - supposedly with Shepherd’s approval. Rudy admits they’d thought the two had died. He’s… very surprised to see Valeria too. They decide they can’t trust anyone, they need to get Alejandro out, it’s their best hope at surviving this mess, not to mention cracking Valeria and getting that intel on the missiles.

Meanwhile, Graves has contacted Price and out of respect, as one commander to another, informs him about the loss of his two soldiers, and that they’ve got the traitor Alejandro in custody (“sick bastard won’t even admit what they did to ‘em”). This greatly perturbs Price, but with no confirmation of bodies he keeps his walls and hopes up, says he’ll be down there as soon as he can. Graves starts interrogating Alejandro, who is adamant about being wronged, that the two are still alive, and they got Valeria, and Valeria’ got info on the missiles, and they gotta stop wasting time on him when they’re all out there, and who the fuck do you think you are, Graves!

And then Graves gets a call from Shepherd. With Price on his way to Las Almas, he’s getting too close for Shepherd’s comfort to finding out why the missiles are out in the first place. The General orders Graves finish off the 141 when they get there.

And now there’s two routes we can take from here, the delulu Graves is still a good guy route, or the closer-to-canon Graves is bad guy route,

Either 1) Graves agrees and gets off the call, but he’s bluffing. He’s got no intention on following those orders. He realizes he never should have trusted Shepherd. He doesn’t care about covering up the lost missiles, it’s not on his neck if anyone finds that out. In fact, if he had gotten some reinforcements when he’d asked the General, they wouldn’t be in this situation and his men might still be alive, so excuse him if he’s a little salty about Shepherd’s whole plan.

He cares about the missing missiles because he knows how bad it’s gonna be in the wrong hands and he knows the target would likely be his home U S of A, and he’s determined not to let that happen.

He realizes Alejandro was probably telling the damn truth and Graves was too stubborn to listen. Graves lets Alejandro out, but not his men, still not quite fully trusting them. He entreats Alejandro to let him know where Soap and Ghost might be, but without his men’s freedom, Alejandro is standoffish and not willing to cooperate.

Soap Ghost and Rudy break into the place just like in the game, kill a bunch of shadows, break out the Mexican special forces, and Captain Price saves their asses near the end.

Later, Price receives a call from Graves “What the fuck, man? So many of my men are dead or injured!? Listen, this is all one hell of a misunderstanding. Not once have I knowingly fired on your men until they fired on us. Shepherd fucking put out a hit on your men just now and I chose to forego those orders. I’m trying to understand what the hell’s going on out here just as much as you are, Captain.”

Alejandro begrudgingly backs up Graves’ words - the man did seem to genuinely believe Alejandro had killed Soap and Ghost and he had come clean to him about the hit Shepherd put on their heads. Alejandro demands his base back and Graves  is cooperative, so long as he gets to stay on the mission and talk to Valeria. 

The shadows pull out of the base, only a small force remains, and Mexican special forces take back their posts in the base. There’s obvious tension between the two forces, some bad blood, but overall they’re still on the same team.

Price is positively brimming with anger. Gets on that call with Shepherd. Gets mad about the hit put on them, but doesn’t allude anything to them being in cahoots against Shepherd now.

The others go to interrogate Valeria. The 141 are trying to ask her but she’s not cooperating until Graves does the “before I show you the difference between military and me” line

They find out about the missile in Chicago and go save the day.

Or 2) Graves reluctantly decides to follow orders, since it is Shepherd who’s paying for everything. Graves doesn’t let Alejandro out. Focuses on trying to find Valeria or Hassan. Alejandro and his men get rescued, and while that’s happening, Graves and his shadows have found Valeria in the safehouse and have taken her in for interrogation. Graves now has twice the reason to kill the 141 - both due to Shepherd’s orders and because they’ve killed so many of his men. They attack his base just like in the game, and he tries to escape with the remote tank, just like in the game, and yadda yadda yadda.

Anyways yeah I just think that would fix so many plot holes about motivations and whatnot that I had a hard time wrapping my head around in the game. Like the original Graves betrayal scene made zero sense to me. Like they could have made it at least understandable what the motivations are but noooo. We could have gotten really interesting looks into how an ally can become an enemy through assumptions, miscommunications, clashing values and goals- looked into how different ways to reach the same goal causes conflict…. It could have been really cool if they’d focused on that a bit more instead of just very, very suddenly forcing the Shadows to be bad guys for… no particular reason, really? 

This way, we leave off on tense but kinda sorta allied terms with Shadow Company, Shepherd is still a traitorous ass, the 141 are the heroes that save the day, hip hip hooray, and then we introduce Makarov back in.

[cuubism]

brandon sanderson wrote the most unhorny book series ever written (stormlight archive) and yet somehow developed the hottest fictional man in the world (adolin kholin)

[leashybebes]

snippet saturday

ty for the tag @momotonescreaming 😘

quick preview from the next chapter of allying. context: post the promised 'i can teach you' workout. additional context: evan buckley you fucking idiot, but we knew that anyway

Evan feels that familiar hot prickle of - jealousy, he guesses, although it's a nicer feeling than he usually associates with that particular emotion. Maybe it's that the envy he gets around some guys - cool guys who look stronger than him - is easier to handle when said cool guy is actively trying to help Evan get stronger, maybe it's just that Tommy makes him feel comfortable, maybe it's that his status as Tommy's wingman that makes him feel less like he's the only one with room for growth than he usually does when confronted with a guy he admires and is jealous of in equal measure.

"Can I use your shower?" He asks, instead of saying any of that.

"Sure," Tommy says. "Someone should be doing yoga on the yoga mat, anyway."

"Wait, you do yoga too?" Evan had kind of assumed the mat was for something soft as the base for crunches or push ups or something.

"Sure, for a little while now," Tommy says. "It's really good for flexibility and strength."

Evan thinks about the yoga instructor he spent several happy nights with at a resort in Peru. That makes sense.

"Bathroom's upstairs, second left. Spare towels under the sink," Tommy continues.

"Cool, thanks."

Evan takes the stairs two at a time, thinking about how his yoga instructor - Valeria, he remembers with sudden, happy clarity - could put her legs behind her head. He wonders if Tommy has mastered that pose yet and, if so, whether he's thought to mention it to any of his hookups. If Evan could do that and he was a woman or a gay dude it would totally be front and center on any hookup app profile he ever made.

no pressure tagging for @bidisasterevankinard @ambernotember @setmeatopthepyre and @rcmclachlan if any of you have any goodies to share

[moeblob]

The extremely niche crossover only I want to see... Kingdom Hearts x Monark.

[slymanner]

Look all I'm saying is if that a shadow game can work THAT well and be so well designed story wise and gameplay wise

HE can work

[lunarharp]

hehe. almost christmas!

[wendeeesaucy]

"Nobody in House Dellamorte kneels."

[penisbutterjellytime]

Probably isn't what you expected (also sorry for responding so late lol)

But anyways lol there's two ways this could go

I think she'd either have PCOS and keep the beard. Or she'd have transfem butch swag. Beard could be a safety thing (passing as a man) or maybe she doesn't shave it off because she feels it doesn't take away from her identity so she keeps it. Maybe a bit of both.

Anyway, Butch Kieran Duffy be upon ye

[tovaicas]

↳ ꜰꜰxɪᴠ — ᴅᴇᴛᴀɪʟꜱ + ᴅʀᴀʜᴍ ᴋᴏʜʀ

ᴅʀᴀʜᴍ ᴋᴏʜʀ (ꜱɪʟᴇɴᴄᴇ ᴇᴄʜᴏ) ɪꜱ ᴀ ᴅʀᴀᴠᴀɴɪᴀɴ ᴡʏᴠᴇʀɴ ᴏꜰ ɴɪᴅʜᴏɢɢ'ꜱ ʙʀᴏᴏᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ꜰᴏʀᴍᴇʀ ᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅʀᴀᴠᴀɴɪᴀɴ ʜᴏʀᴅᴇ, ꜱᴘɪʀɪᴛᴜᴀʟʟʏ ʙᴏɴᴅᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʀɪᴅᴇʀ ʀᴏᴜᴠᴀꜱᴛʀᴇ ᴅᴇ ʟᴇᴜᴠᴇᴄʜɪᴇʀ ꜰᴏʟʟᴏᴡɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇɴᴅ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅʀᴀɢᴏɴꜱᴏɴɢ ᴡᴀʀ. ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴜᴄᴄᴇꜱꜱᴏʀ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴏᴜʟ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴜɴᴡɪʟʟɪɴɢʟʏ ꜱᴜʙᴊᴜɢᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴅʀᴀɢᴏɴ ᴏꜱᴋʜ ꜱᴛʀᴀʜ, ꜱʜᴇ ɪꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡɪʟʟɪɴɢ ꜱᴏᴜʀᴄᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇɪʀ ᴅʀᴀɢᴏᴏɴ ᴀʙɪʟɪᴇꜱ ꜰᴏʟʟᴏᴡɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴛᴇᴘꜱ ᴏꜰ ꜰᴀɪᴛʜ. ꜱʜᴇ ᴡᴀꜱ ɪɴᴛᴇɢʀᴀʟ ᴀꜱ ᴀɪʀ ꜱᴜᴘᴘᴏʀᴛ ᴅᴜʀɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴛᴛʟᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ᴅᴏᴍᴀ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇꜰᴇᴀᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʀɪᴍᴀʟ ꜱʜɪɴʀʏᴜ ᴅᴜʀɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴛᴛʟᴇ ꜰᴏʀ ᴀʟᴀ ᴍʜɪɢᴏ, ꜱᴜᴘᴘᴏʀᴛ ᴀɢᴀɪɴꜱᴛ ɪᴍᴘᴇʀɪᴀʟ ꜰᴏʀᴄᴇꜱ ᴀꜱ ᴡᴇʟʟ ᴀꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴇꜱᴄᴜᴇ ᴏꜰ ᴀɢᴇɴᴛꜱ ʜɪᴇɴ ʀɪᴊɪɴ ᴀɴᴅ ʟʏꜱᴇ ʜᴇxᴛ ᴅᴜʀɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰɪʀꜱᴛ ʙᴀᴛᴛʟᴇ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ɢʜɪᴍʟʏᴛ ᴅᴀʀᴋ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇꜰᴇᴀᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʀɪᴍᴀʟ ʟᴜɴᴀʀ ʙᴀʜᴀᴍᴜᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴇᴅ ᴛᴇʟᴏᴘʜᴇʀᴏɪ ꜰᴏʀᴄᴇꜱ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴇʟᴘ ᴏꜰ ᴛɪᴀᴍᴀᴛ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀꜱꜱᴀᴜʟᴛ ᴏɴ ᴢᴏʟᴍ'ᴀᴋ, ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴡɪꜰᴛ ᴅɪꜱᴛʀɪʙᴜᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏꜰ ꜱᴜᴘᴘʟɪᴇꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ᴀᴇʀɪᴀʟ ʀᴇᴄᴏɴɴᴀɪꜱꜱᴀɴᴄᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇᴏʀᴢᴇᴀɴ ᴀʟʟɪᴀɴᴄᴇ ᴅᴜʀɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ɢᴀʀʟᴇᴍᴀʟᴅ ᴏꜰꜰᴇɴꜱɪᴠᴇ, ᴀɴᴅ ꜱᴡɪꜰᴛʟʏ ᴛʀᴀɴꜱᴘᴏʀᴛɪɴɢ ᴇꜱᴛɪɴɪᴇɴ ᴠᴀʀʟɪɴᴇᴀᴜ ʙᴇᴛᴡᴇᴇɴ ᴀʟᴅᴇɴᴀʀᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ɢᴀʀʟᴇᴍᴀʟᴅ ʙʏ ᴀɪʀ ᴅᴜʀɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ɪɴꜰɪʟᴛʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏꜰ ɢᴀʀʟᴇᴍᴀʟᴅ. ꜰᴏʟʟᴏᴡɪɴɢ ᴛʜᴇ ᴇᴠᴇɴᴛꜱ ᴏꜰ ᴜʟᴛɪᴍᴀ ᴛʜᴜʟᴇ, ꜱʜᴇ ʜᴀꜱ ᴍᴇᴛᴀᴍᴏʀᴘʜᴏꜱᴇᴅ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴀɴ ᴀʟᴛᴇʀᴇᴅ ꜰᴏʀᴍ ᴏꜰ ᴀɴ ᴇʟᴅᴇʀ ᴡʏᴠᴇʀɴ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪꜱ ʙᴇᴛᴛᴇʀ ᴀᴅᴀᴘᴛᴇᴅ ꜰᴏʀ ᴍᴀɴᴇᴜᴠᴇʀᴀʙɪʟɪᴛʏ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀɪʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄᴏᴍꜰᴏʀᴛᴀʙʟʏ ᴄᴀʀʀʏ ᴀ ʀɪᴅᴇʀ ᴜᴘᴏɴ ʜᴇʀ ʙᴀᴄᴋ.

[randomnameless]

The quintessential problem with Claude and the deer is that they should not have been involved in the war at all, or at least not Claude. What does he have to gain participating on it? Nothing, and he makes it even more explicit in azure moon when he dissolves the alliance. He could've pretty easely given the power to Lorenz or Hilda and nope out of there (what he does in silver snow), as it is clear througouht white clouds that he doesn't have as much of an attachtment to Fodlan as he does Almyra. And it isn't like the devs couldn't take the deer studients out during post-TS, when Marianne unless recruited is pressumed dead, and Lorenz unless recruited joins the imperial forces and dies helping the empire.

Outside of the problems with racism and the bigoted tropes related to "savage cultures" the Fodlan games perpetuate, the devs did not know how to use one of their house leaders for the main plot of "church vs empire", and idk if that's because they bit more than they could chew, or if it was intentional taking into account who gets the short end of the stick in both games happens to be mixed and from one of those "savage cultures".

TBH...

It's on the devs for having wanted to add a third lord to their game, but failing to, well, link him to any of those plots.

Supreme Leader's war of unification?

Well, Nopes gave him a part this plot - and yet there's no third choice in this plot : you bend the knee or you die. Nopes' wise, Clout decided (in his route) to bend the knee with his "alliance" that is totally supposed to make Supreme Leader reconsider her desire to roll over Leicester and make it part of Adrestia again!

(Granted, Nopes don't tell us how his plea to stop the war after killing the evil lizard lady will play out and leaves an open ending...)

In Houses, well, he doesn't want Leicester to be flattened, and goes on the offensive (counter offensive?) when Billy pops up with basically what is the plot events of Silver Snow (down to using the same strategy with disguises) with the Gronder Map.

And that addition radically changes... well, everything regarding Claude's relevance : he cannot form an alliance with the Blue Lord or the Kingdom to get rid of the Empire because "plot convenient myopia" and apparently Dimitri BaD enough that he attacks Alliance troops for no reason.

Forget SS, GW (and AM, in a way) is just using plot contrived excuse to... not have an united from to face the Empire. Why? IDK. Each Lord must be the hero of his story, or the unification boner means only one of them can "win" an unified Fodlan i'd guess.

Nabateans and the plot ?

No one gives a fig about that "plot", so it's basically pursuing a side-quest for no payoff.

Now, as @fantasyinvader wrote, Claude's story and journey as one who is ignorant and gets to learn and clear his misconceptions + the background of the land we're living in could have been interesting, doubly so given how Billy is voiceless and cannot play the "protag discovers the world at the same time as the player does" role.

But it has... no payoff.

Much like Rhea's infodump about the World, Relics and Nabateans... Claude reacts to the mention that Billy has a rock for heart, and not about his crest, his shiny bow or the fact that Rhea also had a vested interest in, uh, getting rid of prejudice against people who are perceived as "different" because her family was genocided for that.

Hell, the entire "prejudice" angle from Supreme Leader's war is swept under the rug, so we can have the Deers say nonsense like wanting to rekt Thales for Supreme Leader's sake, while only Flayn and Seteth can hear her "nabateans shouldn't have power over the people"...

There's no parallel drawn in the game about Claude and Rhea's situation - since she's at the center of this subplot - about being perceived as "outsiders" and not being able to do various things from existing to "rule over the people" because of what they are, or even faking their identities and building metaphorical walls between them and the people they're living with because they are afraid of rejection.

Nah, we can't have that, Rhea must be irrelevant to the possible, while also being the biggest scapegoat/dragon of this saga at the same time as a nebulous red herring to sell pots of tea.

Ihthe "fight against prejudice and make people accept each other" angle was that relevant to his route, Claude would have most likely talked or interacted with Dimitri and learnt of his plan to cleanse Duscur's name in his Father's assassination, raised a brow at Petra being a hostage and done something else than give a surprised pikachu face at Rhea's infodumps.

He could have reacted at her reveal that if you might want to live in peace with some people, if those people don't want that and label you as nothing more than fodder or things to be looted, it's not going to work.

And of course, gave a reaction at your second in command (unofficially?)'s reveal that, uh, her house keeps identured Almyran children as war prisoners?

Some people already made some AUs or "what ifs" routes for a proper Claude route and not the nonsense that we got in FE16 where it's basically "I react to the same plot events that happen in the other routes but top it all with a zombie".

The Deers could have been "better introduced" in a plot about getting rid of prejudice, or learning the causes of this prejudice : Marianne was/is hunted because of her blood ties to Maurice - not because what she did, but because what Momo did back then! - Lysithea was treated as a guinea pig and her house rolled over by Adrestia who has a less than rosy views about the "offshoots" that are called Leicester and Faerghus, Lorenz could explain that prejudice, just like piety, are tools used by people whenever they're relevant, like, some people being pissed at foreigners and some who aren't because they make money through international trading like Margrave Edmund does, Hilda justifying her House's animosity towards Almyrans because they lost many people in those pointless skirmishes (maybe a closed ones? Her mom or Uncle or whatever?) which would make Claude realise that "ending prejudice" is a much more difficult quest than, idk, just killing one or two randoms.

The commoner trio might share Claude's views about prejudice and welcoming foreigners, but have more "mundane" worries like being able to have a roof and food to eat, which might be the case of some people in Leicester, or tell us more about Leicester and how it works (give us more insight about the different countries if Fodlan ffs).

Maybe we could have add a Claude who learns and discovers Fodlan, and along the way, starts to love the land as much, if not more, than Almyra and really wanting to protect this land from whatever Supreme Leader's cooking, or becoming an Almyra v.2.

I don't think making Claude the third wheel of the plot was maliciously intentional because of the, uh, implications with RL cultures and Almyra, but more like they didn't know where to put him.

I noticed you wrote the conflict as one that is "the church vs the empire", but I do not really agree - if that was the case, the war would have stopped in VW/AM/SS the second Rhea was caught.

The main conflict is Supreme Leader's war of conquest - with the twist that the devs were really banking on their brilliant idea of making the red emperor the titular waifu of the game that each person/lord/whatever Rhea is must find a way to excuse and/or justify her actions.

With this in mind, AM is basically Dimitri's fall (and rise!) because of his ties to Supreme Leader.

In VW? The game cannot explore too much outside of the Supreme Leader scope so we're left with.. well, what VW was.

Claude cannot go on a journey to discover Fodlan and get rid of his misconceptions... because part of those same misconceptions are used by Supreme Leader to start her war, or the sheer concept of a conquest, aka a nation being rolled over by another is anathema to his, supposed, ideal of wanting people to accept each other despite their differences.

I ranted about it since day 5, but the Nabatean subplot (and Fodlan in general) is accessory to Supreme Leader war, there is no point aka no payoff for learning all of that, because you cannot challenge the one who wants to unify the continent.

As such, Claude cannot deviate too far from this plot - while receiving infodumps about "the lore" - and we end up with third wheel of a bike and characters who, at first and second glance, appear to be irrelevant.

Fodlan ends up unified despite starting as three separate countries, we feel bad for Supreme Leader and mourn her unknown ideals, Rhea is gone and the Agarthans aren't a problem anymore.

the second the devs said leicester was a republic, claude was doomed. Merchant republics are always irrelevent or straight up useless in the FE series!

[funuya]

i kept joking about fire emblem while reading danmaca

[zanzanne]

[silveryinkystar]

i am CRYING the metanarrative of this episode was so fucking funny

[sexologii]

Joseph woulda been running the table, fuck you angela

[scottmcstark]

.

[mcybree]

I'm really sorry to say this but I got scott vibes from your beast posts too

Im deactivating