#iirc Rhage make several sensible points in it which are of course defeated by power of fanfic but still

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Plz bring piss to Poor Momo's soul :'(

More seriously,

It's less "trauma olympics" but more than... some complains sound ridiculous, or pretty privileged as in Karen complaining that her mom sucks because she only bought strawberry flavoured poptarts instead of buying vanilla flavored to the point she'd rather have no parents at all, to her BFF who happens to be an orphan who lost her parents and had been living in an orphanage since age 9.

(shit, isn't it basically what happened in the early chapters of a certain manga, to explain how two male characters have a bond while making the female one look like an insensitive jerk?)

FWIW, Hilda's "why should I work I have so many expectations to meet I'm afraid of disappointing people can't I let the slaves do the work I am supposed to do instead?" nonsense isn't related to Crust, but the biggest offenders of the "wah-wah crust system :(" are... "wah-wahs" that can/could be tied to the "traditional" woes of nobility, aka finding a suitable spouse to protect/nurture/strengthen the family and/or being seen as "entry gates" in the world of nobility, or as ways to climb a social ladder.

Remember Sylvain* blaming crusts because they made him the heir of House Gautier and now apparently women only want to sleep with him to become "Lady Gautier"?

UO's Alain had a similar reflection in one of his rapport conversations, wondering if people saved and cared for him because he was him, or because he was the Prince, but Alain doesn't suddenly blame the Unicorn or the Maiden for blessing his family!

Ingrid's woes are less about her crust, and more about her desire to be a knight, apparently clashing with her perceived duties as the heir of House Galatea - sure she's picked heir over her bros because she has a crust (iirc?), but can we say her bros wouldn't, if they had a crust, feel the same? It's the same Ephraim dilemna (swap mercenary by knight though), they want to do something, but have a responsability to their people, and in their endings the accept their responsabilities, because they can't condemn thousands (or even just hundred or dozens) of people due to their (perceived?) selfishness. Ingrid can even have her cake and eat it in some endings, especially the ones in the routes where she can talk to her dad, who supports her all the way.

Mary-Ann's story would be the closest to the Nabs... save that by this game's design, she can never know who was Blutgang and what crime Momo committed to become "cursed", so praying for his soul and/or salvation comes off as really upsetting (especially since Flayn'n'Seteth can be deployed in the same paralogue, and Worst Mom is still chillaxing in Billy's head).

Fodlan tried to scapegoat crusts for, well, classicism, nepotism, sexism (especially the Adrestian brand of sexism, remembers crusts bad bcs getting a bby with a crust was so important that Hanneman's sister died, but he and his "crust potent" sperm can leave Adrestia and still be a bachelor at his age without any issues coming from his family!)

But after realising "crust" is "nabatean blood" and, well, living Nabateans are targets for Supreme ideologies or Agarthans, it sure feels like Sylvain is complaining about poptarts when Flayn is sure that no one would ever want to befriend her because her ears are pointy, or how her Father and Aunt (?) hide their nature and try to protect themselves from people who will pull out the race card to explain why they're "BaD" and "cannot rule over humans", or why their race needs to be erased to "change the shape of the world".

We could have had Flayn pull a Ninian (aka building a relationship with a partner, but then freaking out at the last moment and saying it's impossible because of "reasons" and feeling like dirt for not telling everything/the truth to said partner) with something similar with Seteth (not revealing everything about him, and being distant/pretending to be obtuse because he cannot trust humans)...

But that'd imply giving more spotlight to those green-haired creatures masquerading as humans, and erasing them means HuMaNiTy would finally be free, so we can't develop them much, or develop on their "otherness" because, you know, everyone needs a nice, warm cup of tea.

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*Sure Sylvain isn't his dad, and I'm glad this part of him was erased in Nopes, but man, imagine him having those kinds of thoughts when his mother is still pretty much around and became Matthia's second wife after the first one died to a Sreng invasion? Also, it's exposed that Matthias loved his first wife pretty much, so where the "wah wah women don't love me they just want the crust" comes from? Is he insulting his mother, or his step-mother ?

The more I think about the nabateans... the less I give a fuck about the crested students problems.