#is not a cute look nor does it excuse you from moral culpability.

[vulpinesaint]

i need everybody ever to watch this video actually. the issue is not difficult but if you’re somehow still feeling uncertain in any way about hogwarts legacy watch the video. they say it well and they say it with confidence and i love them actually

[agent-cupcake]

Hey AC! I love your blog and was wondering if I could get your opinion on something. I've seen some people complaining that Ingrid and Hilda are treated by the fandom, with Ingrid stans saying that Hilda is also racist towards Almyrans (which, granted, she is) but doesn't get nearly as much hate about it as Ingrid does. But personally I feel like their attitudes and the way they react towards Dedue/Cyril are wildly different and Hilda generally seems less hateful/irrational about it. Thoughts?

This is... kind of a touchy topic... I like it though! It’s worth discussing, especially since I feel like it’s broke criticism to simply deflect blame onto a character in order to prop up another.  Full and obvious disclosure: I very much dislike Ingrid and very much love Hilda. That said, I don’t think it’s fair to compare them for the sake of which is worse. I fall into the trap of character criticism through comparison far too often and it's not really valid unless you can fully explore each character in their own right beforehand. Which is why, while writing this, I came to the conclusion that the ways these two characters are interpreted and the reason people view their racist tendencies differently has far more to do with the characters themselves than their actual beliefs.

From first impressions to subsequent playthroughs, this is pretty much how I feel about Ingrid: she brings up her hatred of the Duscur people and Dedue unprompted and uncontested several times at the very beginning of the game, putting it front and center to her character. This is important, it sets a foundational component for how I could come to view her. According to her introduction, she is honorable and respectful, a model lady knight trope. But, as mentioned, she's really racist. Literally standing around thinking about how awful it is that Dimitri would trust a man of Duscur because they are all bad people. Yikes. And nobody calls her on it. Again, this is very important for perception. People judge Sylvain for his bad behavior in a much more harsh way than they do Ingrid for her vitriolic loathing for another classmate who we have seen as nothing but respectful. It's weird. And then, despite the fact that her close friend Sylvain was able to reason out that it’s not possible for the Duscur people to be at fault for the Tragedy, despite the fact that the prince of the country she supposedly hopes to serve with unwavering respect and loyalty has made it clear that he does not believe that Dedue or Duscar are responsible for the Tragedy, and despite the fact that Dimitri, her close friend and the one most affected by the Tragedy (seriously, she lost a guy she might have married and he lost his best friend, mother, and watched his father be killed in front of his eyes) continuously insists that neither Dedue nor Duscur are at fault, she loudly and openly believes that the ensuing massacre of Duscur was deserved and Dedue is inherently culpable simply because of his race. Her motivations for this hatred feel even more cheap considering her dogged hero worship for Glenn was born out of the fact that she was promised to him, making the fact that she’d use his death as reason enough for the destruction of countless innocent lives even more unsympathetic in my eyes. I mean, seriously, she was around 13 and he was older than her, how close could they have truly been? Dimitri says they were in love, but she was a child. Abandoning my modern sensibilities about age of consent or whatever, kids at that age don't have the emotional or mental capability. Maybe this is just nitpicking, but I have a very hard time caring about that relationship. But, if her actual justification is because of what happened to Faerghus as a result of the Tragedy and feels duty-bound as a knight to find justice through the systematic destruction of the Duscur people, then it just circles back to confusion considering the future leader of said country doesn't hold Duscur or Dedue responsible. The importance of perception comes in because despite these paper thin excuses and her seemingly willfully ignorant hatred, she is never challenged on her racist beliefs. The reason she seems to change her mind about Dedue and consider that maybe excusing a genocide is wrong stems from guilt that Dedue continuously comes to her aid in battle at the potential cost of his own life. I can understand, to a certain extent, why she might feel the way she does. But, again, I have such a hard time with any justification when nobody that she's close to is even nearly as hateful as her, there is plenty of evidence (evidence that the people close to her have found!) to provide a very reasonable counterclaim to Duscur's guilt, and that none of that even matters when it would require her to openly contradict the prince of her country to make the claim that Dedue was in any way complicit in the Tragedy. Which would be fine if she wasn't established as the model Lady Knight archetype, which also brings us into Ingrid's moral high horse. Admittedly, I hate the Lady Knight trope. I have a significant bias against these types of characters. However, I really do think that this moral crusade is where she lost me completely. Without even a shred of empathy or self awareness, she lectures Sylvain about his shitty behavior even though their circumstances are at least somewhat similar and he has his reasons (bad ones, maybe, but ones worth understanding if she actually cares about him), she lectures Felix about not being interested in knightly endeavors (an aspect of his character that is born of the trauma she has appropriated), and she lectures Claude about behavior that is befitting of a man in his position. Not because she cares about the girls Sylvain is hurting, not because she thinks there are any grave stakes from Felix choosing to do his own thing, and not because she knows that Claude's behavior affects his ability to lead, but because she doesn't like these behaviors and thinks they should be fixed. Yet, at the same time, she believes Dedue deserved to lose his family, country, and culture based on his birth and nobody ever does anything to morally correct her, it is something she eventually is forced to acknowledge on her own. It's frustrating, infuriating even, that the game lets her get away with being so grossly hypocritical. And, all the while, she is being painted as sympathetic. Again, I have a hard time feeling sympathy for her about Glenn, and I certainty don't feel sympathetic towards her issues about marriage because there's never any actual tension there. Of course she won't be forced to marry, she's a Lady Knight. Beyond being unsympathetic, I also find her massively unlikable. Awful design, poor voice direction, food-loving-as-a-personality-trait, the fact that she's written as one of those stock "feminist" characters who hate makeup and girly things until it benefits them, and constantly butting in on other characters to give her opinion without taking any criticism herself are all aspects that I just personally dislike. Ultimately, Ingrid being racist is only a symptom of the many reasons her character is one of my least favorites. Most of these points can be countered by someone who doesn't take issue with the things that annoy me and to point out that Ingrid DOES get over her racist beliefs. It's not fair to say that she doesn't change but, for me, the damage was already done by the time she became tolerable so I still have a hard time appreciating her. My assumption would be that there are a lot of other people who feel similarly to me regarding their dislike of Ingrid so they focus on one easy character flaw, her being racist at the beginning of the game, as a reason to validate their dislike of her overall.

On the other hand, Hilda's racism isn't a main trait of her character. It's related to her overarching character flaws, but she doesn't bring it up unprompted and can actually be pretty much missed without the Cyrill supports. Like you said, Hilda does seem less hateful and irrational, it doesn't take willful malice and an active rejection of reason for Hilda to dislike the Almyrans, they pose a genuine and provable threat to her family and territory, seemingly senselessly testing the borders and throwing away lives for the sake of conquest. To be clear, her "you're not like those OTHER Almyrans" schtick is legitimately nasty. Her behavior is gross and condescending and it really underscores the fact that Hilda is ignorant, lazy, inconsiderate, and incredibly comfortable in her privilege. She accepts what she's been told at face value because she's too lazy to look into it further. Cyrill does tell her she's stupid to think that way, though. Which is satisfying because Hilda in those supports is insufferable, it really highlights the worst aspects of her character, dismissive, manipulative, and very selfish. However, for me, she's also very likeable. I'm not interested in going over my opinions on her like I did with Ingrid as I don’t feel it’s as important to my point but a few reasons I really like her is because I think Hilda has a fantastic design, cute supports, amazing voice work, and is secretly sweet in a way that absolutely tickles my fancy. I am sure many people do not agree with me, which is fine. Additionally, just as Ingrid grows out of her racist beliefs, so does Hilda. They both end the game as more tolerant and caring people. Still, for the same reason a person could argue that Ingrid is actually great and I'm being unfair, they could argue that Hilda is terrible and I'm too biased. That's fair and true..... but I think the fact that Hilda is more generally appealing in conjunction with the less obvious nature of her racist attitude makes people less likely to dismiss her as a racist in the same way they do Ingrid. Unless they dislike Hilda, in which case, it’s all fair game.

Anyyyways, a main takeaway from this is that I highly doubt people are truly arguing on the individual basis of who's more racist, but that they're engaging in the age old waifu war. As with many characters in this game, it's easier to argue moral superiority when you can't quite articulate what you like or don't like about a character. Or, even worse, when you're arguing opinion. Even now, as is clear by reading this, I am arguing my opinion of why I don't like Ingrid. Not because she's racist, but because of the character traits and writing choices that make her unlikable to me. I like Hilda because, flaws and all, I find her to be compelling and enjoyable. From the people that I know, at least, that is basically how the Ingrid stans v Hilda racism argument is structured, even if they dress it up in different language.

By the by Hilda never talks about how the Almyrans deserve to be wiped out. I think that probably sours a lot of people's opinions of Ingrid no matter what happened afterward but that’s fine we can just pretend that didn’t happen

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

So why don't you like Nozomi, if you DO like Asahi? I'm indifferent to her but I get why others hate her, she can be rlly annoying even if she means well.

For me, it was that Nozomi never felt like a genuine friend. 

(Letting you know upfront, this is going to be a rant.) 

For the most part, I didn’t mind her on my first play-through. (Barring a particular point in the story that I will talk about in a bit.) But on my second one, I started to notice things. Supposedly, she’s the Queen of the Fairies, and she talks about this a lot. Like, she never shuts up about it. But ever notice that she’s only in the Fairy Forest for like...5% of the game’s story? She totally abandons them and leaves no one to rule in her stead - after they were attacked by the Divine Powers, no less! I guess Napea might be ruling...maybe? But it’s not like she’s qualified. I know Navarre is supposed to be stuck-up for doubting her ability to be a photographer on the side, but she literally left for five minutes to take some photos, only to find the forest on fire when she got back. Apparently she can’t manage both tasks at once. I was almost rooting for Inanna to get her power back, because Nozomi’s insistence that she needs it to protect the fairies is a blatant lie. She’s not doing that. 

In general, Nozomi has a very insufferable habit of interjecting herself into other people’s conversations to prematurely end them. She is so dismissive. Seriously, how many times do people bring up valid points, only for Nozomi to go “Don’t worry about it, let’s just focus on A” or something similar. Again, it’s not a big deal, but it happens all the time. I didn’t notice until I played through a second adventure, but it’s constant. She clearly fancies herself as the leader of the team, when everyone else is pretty clear that it’s Nanashi. Her attempts to parent the others are cute, but she’s only 21, and they range from 14-18 so...it kinda falls flat. Hearing her try to I.D. card Hallelujah for drinking underage... in a post-apocalyptic society where people eat demon meat is just kinda...cringe.

There are other lines are well. Like when she glares at the male characters and warns them not to peek at the females changing...even though none of them sans Navarre have ever given any indication that they would. How she takes one look at Boss, and says, “He’s not going to make it.” Gee Nozomi, how about we let an actual Doctor make that call? How about we try to save Boss anyway, y’know, just on that off chance? CPR, maybe? Or the time that she suggested she might need to one day kill Nanashi, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that...two minutes before offering the hand of friendship. And you gain anarchy points for refusing. Dude, literally why would I want to be friends with someone after they threaten to kill me? I mean, it’s laughable that Nozomi thinks she can, considering Nanashi’s already dead, but still, the sentiment matters! Why is Ashahi so on board with Nozomi after that? Is it because the game doesn’t let you tell her about Dagda, nor does it let you comfort her when she finds out - so Nozomi gets to instead? Because I think that’s why, and it’s just cheap. 

But these things are small potatoes compared to Nozomi’s greatest sin. 

The whole sequence where she sells out Nanashi and Asahi to the Hunter Association. 

How is that she can recognize that Krishna is trying to divide the group and turn them against each other...and then proceed to do his work for him? How does Nozomi justify turning them in, when she ought to have known that no good would come of it? Nanashi and Asahi were tricked, (Depending on your choices, Nanashi might have been physically forced to open the Ark) and they’ve been trying to stop Krishna ever since. So how does Nozomi justify it?  “You both need to step up like adults and take responsibility for your actions.” Okay, first of all, that’s exactly what they are doing. Turning them in and potentially getting them into trouble is only going to make it more difficult for them to do that. Second of all, considering that she constantly tries to parent them, she doesn’t get apply adult levels of responsibility in this one instance. Asahi and Nanashi are not her children to discipline. They’re her teammates in a war, and she’s throwing them under the bus. “Now that this is all out in the open, we can try to get past it and move on.” Well no, evidently we can’t. How dare she say that after informing Nanashi and Asahi that she’s selling them out?

By the way, I would at this point like to remind you that Nozomi knew about Dagda for the entire time she knew Nanashi! That was why she threatened to kill him in the first place. She is just as culpable in all this as the others - oh, not to mention that she’s been sharing her body with Danu for even longer! She pulls some nonsense about how “Look, when I first met you guys, I didn’t realize how messed up all this was.” What is that weak excuse? She knew the whole time, and she kept it a secret from the Association. She’s been in on this for too long to back out now and claim moral superiority. There’s no option to even call her out for being a hypocrite - not that she would admit to it if you did. 

Nozomi later claims to understand that it wasn’t their fault. She defends them at the riot trial, has the nerve to comfort them like it isn’t her fault that they’re all there. Ironically, in speaking out for them, she also pretty much outlines all of the reasons why she was wrong to betray them in the first place. “Demons played them, the ones you should be mad at are the Divine Powers.” You...you couldn’t have figured that out twelve hours ago, Nozomi? You just had to wait until now? If that’s true, and she knew that, then why turn them in? She laments in a text message about how she “doesn’t want to” but “has to” report this. Like...no you don’t, Nozomi. You are making this decision all by yourself. You could choose not to do this. If you really don’t want to, then don’t.

I think this must be how Skye-Parkin-Antis felt during Season 1 of Quidditch. Because even on my first play-through, it was infuriating to me that Nozomi did this, and no one called her out on it. She kept acting like she was Ashai and Nanashi’s friend throughout it all. Continued to comfort Asahi as though she wasn’t the one causing Ashai’s pain. There is no point where anyone even proposes the idea that Nozomi was wrong to do this, not even Dagda. And I never really forgave her for that incident. I didn’t like how it was just swept under the rug. Ironically, knowing what a sap I am, I might actually have chosen to forgive her if there had been a choice. But there wasn’t. She just carries on as one of your friends like she didn’t totally stab you in the back and pretend it was justified. 

As devastated as I was to play through the Anarchy Ending...and as much as I tend to be a soft cinnamon roll...getting to betray Nozomi was a tad bit satisfying.