#i have another about felix and dimitri bc ive recently realized theyre estranged brothers not estranged friends

[pathetic-gamer]

Ok I literally just made a different post about this, BUT: time to get emo about it, baby!!! Ashe and Felix's relationship is actually extremely complex and carries a surprisingly hefty amount of character development for both of them, for a pair with only two supports.

The central thesis here: Ashe + Felix is Felix + Glenn 2.0

This ramble breaks down the ways that dynamic matches and what it means for Ashe. (I've already gone into Fe's a while back, so he's not really the focus here.)

This got long and I have feelings. A gift from me to you: courtesy cut.

Hello and Welcome to Blue Lions With Dead or Missing Siblings Anonymous. My name is Sylvain/Dedue/Felix/Ashe/Mercedes and I haven't seen my sibling in 5/<9/9/9/~15 years. These kids need help.

First things first, I don't think this is Replacement Brother Syndrome. Rather, I think their dynamic mirrors Felix and Glenn's but as a distinct relationship for both Felix and Ashe, because neither of them is going into this in the exact same role as they had with their own now-dead brothers. We know that, as a kid, Felix was idealistic and clingy and looked up to Glenn and his role as a knight with his whole heart, but Glenn was also somewhat abrasive and cynical, and now Felix is, too. Meanwhile, Christoph was focused on teaching Ashe trust and chivalry up to the very end, and Ashe still lives by that. Felix doesn't match that role at all, and Ashe doesn't expect him too. A new and different brother doesn't count as a replacement brother.

According to Dimitri, Glenn was sarcastic and rude and liked to pick fights, but despite that, Felix admired him and wanted to be strong like him and says he was a great knight. (Note that he gets mad at his father treating Glenn's death like it was heroic, but he at no point does he argue that Glenn wasn't a strong and good knight, only that Glenn was reasonable in his commitment to his ideals. This is a surprise tool that will help us later.)

Felix is ALSO abrasive and likes to pick fights, but Ashe admires him and his strength and says he's like a great knight.

Glenn teaches Felix to think for himself and not blindly take orders. Felix tells Ashe very bluntly to think for himself and not get himself killed in his blind enthusiasm.

Later, Felix amends that statement to say he doesn't want Ashe to abandon his ideals, just to be reasonable. That matters, because Felix said he learned from his brother, but his brother was the one who read him the tales of chivalry and bravery and knighthood and all of that in the first place. Glenn taught him balance, not cynicism, it just took him some time to grow into it. Once he did, he tried again to pass it on to Ashe, but properly this time.

"It's OK to be who you are" FELIX PLEASE I'M GOING TO CRY

Meanwhile, Ashe's older brother, Christoph, didn't. He was about trust and chivalry through and through, and it's what got him killed. Look at these exchanges with Catherine.

(Side note, I'd argue that Catherine's support chain is the one that carries Ashe's character development on its back, but Fe comes in second place, followed by my archnemesis Gilbert. Meanwhile, Ashe carries Fe's, together with Ingrid and Seteth. I know that every single one of you is going to disagree w me on this, and I'm OK w that and would not be upset if yall came into my ask box to demand an explanation, since I love to talk lmao)

Cynicism couldn't save Glenn, trust couldn't save Christoph. So Ashe had to learn cynicism from Felix, and Felix had to make sure Ashe knew to keep it in balance with his own beliefs and ideals. Thats... a lot.

What really makes it stick for me, though, is this exchange after Felix tells Ashe that Glenn used to read him tales of knights and chivary:

Like, tell me that's not a conversation baby Felix had with Glenn at some point. I'm so upset right now lol

Idk, there's no point to this, I was just reading supports, as I tend to do in my spare time, apparently, and it came to me in a divinr revelation. Also, it's weird that they max out at b-support, since they have paired activity dialogues and the only other person Fe has paired dialogues with is Dimitri. (Who, by the way, I have a whole other spiel abt, in addition to the spiel I posted a while back, bc I think their relationship is a whole ass case study on family dynamics and I didn't quite get into that in the first one.)

A lot of Fe and Ashe’s B-support could honestly be an A-support, so if I were adding a third support, I think it would have to go between the current C and B? I have no idea, I just want to see more of it lol. Maybe let them have an unrelated conversation and then come back to the book in the A support, now with more of a friendship in place so it doesn't go from "your book is stupid" straight to "hey, let me give you some life advice that shows my character growth more clearly than literally any other scene in this entire fucking game" with nothing in the middle.

-fin-