#not all creators are off cf but I want to support getting out of it | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

yooniesim · 5 months ago

Text

As someone who has been on CF, had to use it longer than I wanted to due to extreme financial difficulties, subsequently stopped using CF, and fully supports boycott efforts... this post brought up some interesting thoughts for me.

(I go extremely off topic and rant for far too long for no reason, so feel free to ignore lol)

For perspective: CF was monumentally helpful for me during the time I used it. I didn't make a large amount of money, around $50-100 in the months I was active, but for someone who has a job yet is always in the red- the benefit of that couldn't be understated. CF helped keep me on my meds and without it I probably would be in a way worse state right about now. But at the same time, the way I was treated when I did use it was... pretty terrible. Getting told you support the genocide & torture of children, and feeling like you, personally, are the reason they are suffering because you're trying to survive yourself is fucking awful. (Not to mention the odd ducks straight up lying that I didn't support the boycott because I criticized the methods and pointed out misinfo, but that's another story) Which- mind- feeling bad doesn't compare to the suffering of Palestinian people by any stretch of the imagination. But I feel like people here don't really realize how normalized that was a few months ago, how disproportionate the reaction was compared to the "crime", and... frankly, how little it did to change anything. In fact, it actually kind of hurt the cause, because Overwolf got to put out that bullshit statement about how the boycott was full of bullying/harassment and misinformation. Which... it kind of was, so that wound up overshadowing the actual criticism. And they used that as a shield, and some people that left CF went *back* to it after everything was "cleared up". The impact of that effort was... minimal at best.

Some smaller (relatively) creators like myself stopped using CF or put alt links, either because the impact to income wasn't large or because of the obvious moral issue. But that is not the norm. All of the biggest creators on CF then, including the mod squad, are still there. They've been making money throughout. They haven't acknowledged shit so far, and they likely won't in the future. Them speaking out about this will do nothing (from their perspective) except attract negative attention to them, and they'll need to give up their sizeable income. They absolutely will not let that happen just because people on tumblr are putting them in lists and sending angry asks. They will block you, remove your reblogs, and move on. The age of anonymous blogs actually having the power to run people out of the community at a whim is over. Tumblr simply does not have the influence.

Shame can be a powerful tool, yes. But shame only works if you're invested in the community you're in- which most paywall creators are not, and have not been, for years. Especially not on tumblr. You have to actually care about the reaction of others to be ashamed, and if you're not even looking at it, how can you be? They also generally tend to have such reputations in the community- such as big script modders, creators that have been creating/popular a very long time like ah00b, etc- that they're a bit too big to fall. (Mostly because simmers are terrible at actually stopping using cc of problematic people, even scammers and doxxers, but I digress.) They've learned that they can weather any scandal simply by being quiet and collecting their checks. Which has, sadly, kneecapped most of the boycott efforts so far.

So what can we do? I think raising awareness about what the boycott is, why it exists, and who is using CF, isn't a bad thing. That's not what I'm saying. But I don't think it's solving the problem. Simblr, again, is very niche. We're a very small minority of even PC simmers now. There are people that only engage with cc through CF, patreon, and other sites. The continued posts here are mostly moving through the same circles of people that already agree with them. And... sadly, mostly funneling hate to smaller creators that depend on that income far more than the ones actually making bank & contributing the most to Overwolf. Those are the only people caring enough to stop using CF, and overall, I think more harm is being caused to those creators than Overwolf, income wise. The current method of boycott is messy, kind of confusing, and ultimately not hitting the targets that it should be. It's... well, it's very simblr, I'll say that much.

I think that the scope needs to be narrowed a little bit, and that that would actually widen the reach. Instead of making a wide list of everyone that uses CF, for the purpose of sending them messages until they stop using it, I think it should be more focused and easier to consume. And I believe EA should be at the very center. Let's not forget that the partnership with Overwolf wouldn't even exist without EA, and that they make more money from this than anyone else, cc creators included. And yet I see very little ire towards them for this compared to, I don't know, releasing hollow expansion packs or buggy patches. Why are there no posts about an EA focused boycott, possibly including/reaching out to sims influencers, youtubers, streamers, the biggest cc creator collaborators, etc? Why is it always just the occasional paragraph about how CF users are the worst human beings to exist on the planet ever, a half-assed list of tumblr cc creators, floods of asks, back and forth reblog spats, and an air of moral superiority? Is that still all tumblr can do in the year 2024? The best and most useful thing I've seen so far is the blog that re-uploads the files from CF. That was good work and I'm sure it's a lot of effort to maintain. The only limiter is that the reach is probably small, and it'd probably be handy to continue to encourage creators themselves to add alt links too.

...I also believe that bringing EA to the forefront will help unite a lot of people in the community. Everyone knows they're dog shit, and efforts towards a company are a lot easier to sell than individual creators- which may be tied to memories, parasocial relationships, financial difficulties, and who knows what else. Trying to get people to stop using cc, again, even by the worst of freaking humanity is like impossible for some reason. Especially if you try to get them to stop using ALL of their favorite stuff, which let's be frank, usually includes most of the people using CF. They MIGHT use an alt link (like from the aforementioned blog), but most people aren't going to bother when they're cc shopping, especially not for pretty much every single thing they're downloading from various creators. That's why I think the boycott should be focused on EA and a small list of cc creators- the mod squad, and/or the top five to ten earners/downloaded or something- and then maybe sprinkle in some of EA's largest collaborators across platforms, such as the highest earner youtuber, streamer, etc. Add in that not downloading from/using CF in general is *preferred*, but not a rule, and continue encouraging creators to add alt links rather than requiring them to move off the platform completely, and compliance will probably go way higher. If you let them add alt links, there's a much higher chance that the revenue will be split that way, to at least impact Overwolf some, than of the creator just removing all their content (spoiler: they're not gonna do it).

The general public likes clear goals that are easy to follow, not near impossible tasks like boycotting nearly every creator *and* EA *and* numerous other companies in their everyday life (as, let's remember, Overwolf isn't the only target nor the main target of any boycott list). I know it's tempting to just say "fuck it, comply with everything perfectly the way I want or nothing", but that's not realistic- and chances are, if you play it like that, you're gonna get the nothing. We gotta work smarter here, not harder. And like the OP says, focus our energy in alternative ways. Give people different options than just cutting off income completely, cos they ain't gonna do it. Or they simply can't do it. Will people contribute to causes like this, through donations and awareness, and even boycotting some companies? Sure. Will they do a complete boycott of everything they like, or sacrifice their entire (or a big portion of) income for it? No. No, they won't. That's not realistic and simply will not happen, no matter how much anyone wants it. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most of you wouldn't quit your job either, putting yourself in threat of homelessness or denying yourself medical care because of it, no matter what you say on the internet. (Y'all can't even stop downloading cc from bigots and doxxers, much less quit your jobs... but anyway) Whether that's the right or wrong thing for anyone to do, that's kinda just the reality of the situation. So, you have to change your expectations, your goals, your demands, to be closer to reality. Raise awareness, encourage alt links, download from other platforms, and lift up creators that don't use CF. And whatever amount of energy you spend doing that, put double into assisting in spaces outside of sims tumblr or other niche fandom spaces. It isn't that I think efforts here are pointless or not worth doing... just that, you'll probably have a lot more success making a difference that way.

I want to be clear re: Curseforge:

I am not justifying support for the IDF.

I am not here to flame/call out/cause hate or harassment to anyone.

I am not saying that anyone who has content on Curseforge is intentionally and actively supporting the IDF.

And I also believe that last part is vital for our community to consider.

My point to all this is... In this world in which we live, it's only going to get more and more difficult to ask people to part with what sources of income they can get their hands on. I want to urge our community to continue to put energy toward assisting people in need, and organizing IRL, as much as we are able; rather than putting energy toward future shame campaigns online that ultimately accomplish nothing.*

If someone chooses to stay on Curseforge, move on. Put their content on alternative sites. Focus your energy on spreading information and resources to help the people who need it.

Spend your energy on the people who need and deserve that focus.

*- listing creators that are on Curseforge and including alt links to their content is fine imo, as long as we encourage people not to go send hate. We can only hope that people will change their minds eventually, BUT, they are FAR LESS LIKELY TO DO SO if people demand immediate moral purity at the end of a torch and pitchfork. Those people are not the ones we should be angry at.

We've all been conditioned in a world where resources are precious. People choosing to stay on Curseforge is a SYMPTOM, not the CAUSE. Focus on actual lives that need our help, and on our IRL political and community movements.

64 notes · View notes

butwhatifidothis · 3 years ago

Note

So if it is MEANT to be a villain route...Why are the villanous actions NEVER ADDRESSED by ANY of the characters outside of "Huh. I wonder if there was a better way to do this."

Why did they have Rhea go insane and torch a city? Why make potray Rhea as a villain when you could potray her as the hero whos genuinely trying to do good? Why have a majority of the characters still be able to be recruited regardless of if it makes sense? Why have the ending narration mostly be possible? WHY have Edelgard succeed and somehow turn her tyranny into a society that "ensures a free and independent society fot all."

If it's REALLY a villain route, why is there not a single character ending mentioning things like rebellions and conflict? Hell, the ending narration shows not a hint of villainy and potrays its ending as heroic.

"Embracing her newfound power, Edelgard could at last set about destroying Fódlan's entrenched system of nobility and rebuild a world free from the tyranny of Crests and status."

Again, if it was TRULY meant to be the villain route, it would have been POTRAYED as such. Instead of a villain route, we got "A route where one of the villains is made the protagonist and her views and villainous actions are never questioned OR addressed and outside of the conquest and starting the war, everyone is mostly happy."

Alright so this is going to seem like a nonserious answer, but I'm 100% serious when posting this image as part of a genuine answer to this question:

On CF, your actions are never addressed because of ignorance. On the surface, your actions seem like they've helped Fodlan, but as soon as the player looks any deeper it starts to become evident that something isn't right.

If Edelgard made a free and independent society for all, why are the people spied on in Hubert's ending with Dorothea? Why are rebellions secretly being put down in his ending with Shamir? That's not free, in a general sense or from specifically tyranny. That's a direct contradiction from two of the characters that can only be played on CF, and this is only found on CF.

Rhea is portrayed as a villain because she is Nabatean, and Edelgard hates Nabateans, and you are playing a route that emphasizes her ideals - which include wiping out all of the inhuman, bestial, vile, cruel Nabateans that have been plaguing humanity’s world. Rhea goes insane on CF because unlike all of the other routes, where the player and the lord never go out of their way to trample and spit on their enemies' trauma, that's what you are doing the entire time you play CF to Rhea - for months once Byleth returns, and that’s being extremely generous and not counting the entire war. You help drive Rhea and the other Nabateans away from their homes when taking over Garreg Mach - like Nemesis did to Rhea after the Red Canyon Massacre! You're helping someone try to kill off the rest of her people - like Nemesis did at Zanado! You're trying to kill Rhea with the Sword of the Creator, her mother's mutilated corpse - like Nemesis did! You're doing so with the descendent of Wilheim - spitting on the legacy of the one human Rhea could trust during the War of Heroes! You're literally recreating the single worst moment of Rhea's life, all so that you can help the one who views her as less than human.

Portraying Rhea as "the hero who's genuinely trying to do good" goes against Edelgard's viewpoint of all Nabateans being evil, and you're never meant to question Edelgard or make her change her beliefs. You as the player are actively discouraged from talking back to Edelgard, as she will noticeably get upset whenever you do - many times you will even lose support points with her, and this is especially bad for specifically Edelgard because you have to get to a certain support level with her to enter her route, with you having less chapters to do so because she won't talk to you until after Byleth achieves the Sword of the Creator in Chapter 4.

Look at how Rhea, Dimitri, and Claude are portrayed on CF. Rhea and Dimitri are demonized, while Claude is given some leeway from Edelgard. Now notice who of the three of them always speak their minds over Edelgard's villainy to her face, and which of the three of them bends to Edelgard's view of them as the bad guy. Dimitri and Rhea never allow themselves to bend to Edelgard - they call her out and call her actions evil. Claude, on the other hand, will remove himself from Fodlan and then afterwards make himself out to be a bad guy whom Edelgard managed to take down. He puffs up her ego, and he gets to live, while the two that don't must die. Edelgard is the one always out for the kill, and only by submitting to her is anyone allowed to live - which, I don’t think needs to be said, isn’t very heroic of her.

I've had my fair share of complaints over the characters that can be recruited over to CF, but even with those complaints... look at how those characters behave on CF. None of them are Felix levels of negative character development, but they all act noticeably worse on CF vs how they are on the other routes. To name some notable examples: Ignatz goes from wanting to paint Garreg Mach as it stood five years before to preserve its beauty to wanting to paint the violent downfall of the Alliance, Lysithea wants to abandon House Ordelia, which is in direct contrast to her core character motivation, Ingrid is willing to throw away her lifelong dream of being a knight of Faerghus, which she herself says is her spitting on her dead betrothed’s dreams, Leonie works with Jeralt’s killers, etc. etc.. And mind, CF is the route that locks out the most units - there's the obvious ones like Dedue and Gilbert who were already route exclusive, but then there's Seteth and Flayn, Catherine, Cyril, and Hilda. CF is the only route to have even non-exclusive units be completely unavailable no matter what.

Edelgard doesn't make a society that is "free," like I said above - having a secret police monitor the people's actions, or is ready to put down anyone who tries to rise up against her, is literally the opposite of free. Edelgard can and will ban plays she doesn't like - not free. Edelgard only allows state-sanctioned religion, if she does allow it - not free.

CF is a route that wants to make the player believe the lie that you're not the villain, because you are playing from the perspective of someone who herself doesn't think she's the villain, but like. Look at what you're doing. You're invading two countries for the express, explicit purpose of taking them over and making them your own. You're working with someone who's been trying to reunite Fodlan back under Adrestia as early as the prologue when she tried to have Dimitri and Claude assassinated. You're helping TWS. Your Imperial presence makes Church people flee - which, given that Edelgard wants Rhea and those involved with the Church dead, I don't blame them. You're working with someone who is starving her people so that she can carry on with her war.

CF lies to the player - Edelgard lies, constantly. She says she's willing to let Rhea live, but literally the scene before she says she seeks to fuckin' Exodia Rhea. She lies about Arianrhod. She lies - or is flat-out wrong, which isn't much better - about the Church hoarding wealth and about the Church splitting up the Empire. She lies about not knowing about TWS pre-ts. She helps spread the lie of Duscur being the ones who killed Lambert. She lied about not knowing where Flayn was when she was kidnapped. She lies to her people by making them believe she’s making the orders during the war, not Byleth. There's a student who doubts all of what Edelgard says right before the timeskip happens and who isn't sure about his decision to stay, and then there’s a man who calls Edelgard “a tricksy one” on the last explore section for lying about attacking the Kingdom capitol. She’s wrong about the history of Nemesis and Seiros, calling Nemesis killing all of Rhea’s family a “simple dispute.” She lies to her people about an entire war against a group who just a little bit ago were her allies. Lies and ignorance are staple points to CF as a route, it’s baked into it, so the idea of the CF going “oh no you totally are the good guys” literally as the city burns down around the players doesn’t come from nowhere.

And like... the ending narration “shows not a hint of villainy?” Um.

Her stepping on the flags of the Alliance and Church? Her recreating a painting of Napoleon - that little known imperialist - down to the hand of justice? Her denouncing gods constantly and then being ushered in by a statue with heavy resemblance to Nike, Goddess of victory? Hubert plotting away from the sight of the rejoicing people? Yeah, there’s a lot of hints to villainy.

Again, CF isn’t “portrayed” as a villain route because it’s you falling for the lies of Edelgard. You have a wool over your eyes. You accept everything Edelgard says as fact, even when she actively contradicts herself - sometimes as radically as in back-to-back scenes. You view yourself as a savior to humanity, even when you plunge it into darkness. You don’t think you’re the villain, so your actions aren’t going to be put in an explicitly villainous light - at least, not by anyone on your side.

This post showcases the difference between non-recruited characters fighting non-CF!Byleth vs CF!Byleth. Characters are mostly saddened by having to fight Byleth in the former, while they are mostly betrayed on CF. Byleth is very clearly seen as being wrong for having sided with Edelgard on CF by the non-recruited characters - Edelgard’s actions may not be directly criticized (save for by Dimitri and a few others), but it makes no sense for these characters to be this shocked and betrayed by Byleth siding with her if her actions were so good. Leonie deadass calls you a traitor to Jeralt, Ingrid says that you are not fit to rule Fodlan specifically for siding with Edelgard and the Empire after all she and they have done, and Dimitri questions you as to why you chose Edelgard and her “savage, bloody path,” just to name a few notable examples. You, as the player, are being criticized for siding with Edelgard. You say that the villainous actions are “NEVER ADDRESSED by ANY of the characters,” but what else are these reactions but characters addressing your villainous actions?

And like... “a route where one of the villains is the protagonist” bro that’s a villain route. Like. I’m not trying to be mean, but I am genuinely confused as to what you were trying to get at here.

Like. In a vacuum? I might can get the idea of CF not being a villain route a little better, were it the only route available (though even that is a very big stretch). But you have three whole other routes where there’s no conquest, there’s no working with TWS, there’s no using Demonic Beasts, there’s no killing/exiling the remaining (immediately known) Nabateans, there’s no continuous and long-standing lies that never get outed, the lords never stay flat out wrong about the events of the game, non-recruited characters aren’t shooting Byleth up the ass with accusations of being a traitorous lemming who’d follow Edelgard off a cliff... and they achieve peace. Those endings, with Dimitri Claude and “Rhea” (SS ain’t really her route even though it should’ve been but ye), lack the following in any of their endings:

Censorship

Spying on the people

Constantly putting down rebels in secret

State-sanctioned religion

(mind, this last one is in direct contradiction to CF’s ending narration that says that Church is destroyed)

None of this happens on AM, VW, and SS. They all have peaceful endings. They all have Fodlan see the light of dawn, and that is never contradicted in their endings. CF is the only route to have all of these things happen in it - I think that’s enough for it to be considered a villain route lol

#ask #anon #anti edelgard #Anti-edelgard #Edelgard discourse #Edelgard critical #just to be safe #Again really hope I don't come across badly and I'm sorry if I do!#like. I do see where you're coming from! A lot of times villain routes acknowledge you to be the big bad meanie bobeenie!#at least more directly than CF does - because CF does! Through the non-recrutied characters and through the subtext!#sure you can miss out on the former if you manage to recruit everyone but the latter is always present!#Fodlan is in a noticeably worse state in CF than on the other routes and you are actively questioned as to why you joined [lord's] side #by some of the characters you CAN'T recruit (Dimitri; Catherine)#which doesn't happen on the other routes - the other character just wish that Byleth chose them or don't want to fight Byleth #plus there's all of the actions you commit/are complicit in on CF vs the other routes #it just isn't flat out in your face with it because like... Edelgard doesn't view herself as the villain. A Byleth who chose to walk with #her doesn't view her as the villain - even while knowing all oft he heinous shit she's been a part of #so if Edelgard doesn't view herself as the villain and this Byleth doesn't view her as the villain and everyone trusts Byleth's word #who on your side is going to call you out?#hope I'm making sense!

150 notes · View notes

frozenartscapes · 3 years ago

Note

I think Verdant Wind being added as Silver Snow copy paste dragged down the development. If VW wasn't added, then SS, CF, and AM could have all been more fleshed out (so Edelgard could have been shown killing Thales personally and Dimitri's arc would be gradual instead of him going from batshit crazy to "good boy" instantly). So I think either VW should have not been made or SS was scrapped and Claude could actually get a story about him.

So here's what I'm thinking for Verdant Wind, because honestly if it were up to me it would be a total overhaul, and if put into the context of the game's development might have had to be a DLC or something if they were as pressed for time as it seems.

You pick Claude and the Golden Deer and the first half of the game follows many of the same story beats. (Though one thing I would like to see in White Clouds is more opportunities to interact with the other Houses outside of free time, like maybe a couple missions where two houses are sent to the same place to back each other up. This would then allow for supports to form between characters who might not necessarily be in the same house).

Shit goes down, Edelgard is revealed to be the Flame Emperor, war is declared, Byleth falls into a ravine for 5 years.

You come back and things are in a similar place as they start off in VW. You meet Claude at the monastery, he fills you in on what's been going on, and you decide that action needs to taken. However, that action is not "let's go to war too" but instead more of a diplomatic move. You decide to meet with Edelgard in a parlay at Grondor and she initially accepts, but when you both arrive you discover Dimitri has come with an army of his own. Not believing this isn't some sort of ambush on Claude's part, Edelgard calls the parlay off and initiates the battle of Grondor. However, this time you and Claude decide to stop Dimitri and successfully manage to intervene in the Kingdom's attack. Edelgard and her forces still retreat back to Enbarr but Dimitri is able to be captured and (eventually) reasoned with. (In this version Dimitri hasn't fully lost it like he does in AM. He still has some old friends and supports so he doesn't end up completely feral. He's still deeply distrusting of Edelgard but he at least agrees to help Claude find out a motive before killing her).

The attack on Fort Merceus is basically the same. You succeed in seizing it only for the whole thing to be blown up by the Javelins. Everyone manages to escape, though, including notable people from Edelgard's army. They are just as confused and horrified about the strike as you and your team.

Edelgard isn't up for talking this time around so you are forced to lay siege to Enbarr. This also plays out very similarly to VW, but the end cutscene is different. First, Claude is there. Then, rather than killing Edelgard, you extend a hand out to her, instead. She's hesitant, but Claude manages to convince her that there are no schemes this time. They just want to talk. He mentions the Javelins and how even her own army didn't seem to know what they were. When she blanches at the mention, he realizes that these "allies" of hers aren't exactly the most trustworthy of people.

Edelgard then reluctantly tells you, Claude, and Dimitri about Thales and TWSITD. She's hesitant because this is all sensitive information but she doesn't have much to lose at this point, what with Claude's army basically occupying Enbarr. She reveals what happened to her and her family, why she has two Crests, and why she's been forced to work with Thales. It's Dimitri who approaches first once she's finished, moving quickly and reaching out a hand before anyone can react. Edelgard flinches but instead of going for her neck, his hand comes to rest gently on her shoulder. "Where is that monster?" Dimitri hisses, "So I can tear his head from his body."

Once the three leaders form a tentative alliance, Edelgard reveals where Rhea has been hidden. She tells them all that she tried to keep her from too much harm, but she didn't have much control over the situation. Rhea is released and initially weak from imprisonment. She is also briefed on what happened to Edelgard, and why she started the war in the first place.

With a new target in mind, the alliance of nations storm Shambhala. Rhea has been healed up enough to aid in this battle. You defeat Thales, and he responds by launching all the Javelins he can. Rhea goes on to intercept them as she does in the game, but this time things go differently. Hubert points out that as long as Thales has a hand on the rune activating the Javelins, they'll keep coming. So Edelgard charges him along with Dimitri. The two cut through any mage who tries to stop them, and ultimately Edelgard sees vengeance for herself and her family by killing Thales herself. This halts the Javelins before they become too overwhelming for Rhea, and she returns, a little hurt but ok.

Everyone returns to Garreg Mach for celebrations, and also political discussions because there are a lot of things that now need to be covered. Rhea reveals everything about the Nabateans, Crests, and the Relics. Once she learns the true history of Fodlan, Edelgard makes her case for her own goals. She still believes that society should move away from putting so much importance on Crests, especially now that she knows where they truly came from. But she admits that uniting the land under one banner and disbanding the Church entirely would be taking things too far. Dimitri agrees with Edelgard, despite some protests from Faerghus officials. But he decides that the Hero's Relics have served their purpose and it is time they let the souls of the dead rest. Claude is insistent on Fodlan opening up to other nations, to which the other leaders agree, too. Rhea also decides that it is time she steps away from being Archbishop, but she does not appoint Byleth to the role.

A messenger then interrupts with news that a strange and powerful army is currently sweeping across Fodlan. They connect the dots and realize that it is Nemesis. They all decide to confront him as a group, showing off the might of a Fodlan united under peace. Rhea, fearful of mass casualties, tells Byleth what she did when they were a baby, explaining why they have the Crest of Flames and can wield the Sword of the Creator. There isn't a lot of time to unpack all of that because Nemesis is basically at their door, but Byleth still thanks Rhea for telling them.

They confront Nemesis all as one united front and defeat him. There are many parallels in cutscenes that call back the first cutscene of the game. The difference this time is that Rhea isn't facing Nemesis alone. In the last cutscene after defeating him in gameplay, Claude's arrow fake-out kicks things off, but it also includes Edelgard, Dimitri, and Rhea charging him alongside Byleth. In the end, Nemesis is run-through by the Sword of the Creator, the Sword of Seiros, Aymr, Areadbhar, and a bolt from Failnaught. He goes down, his army dissolves into dust, and victory is finally secured.

After that it's revealed what happens in Fodlan: each nation stays as their own land. Dimitri takes his place as the King of Faerghus and works on moving the kingdom away from knighthood and militaristic practices. He devotes more time and money to revitalizing the land and towns, building better roads between cities, and expanding education and other important services. Edelgard also works on fixing and providing social services like education and healthcare to the Adrestian people. She forms a strong alliance with the other nations, utilizing the fact that Adrestia has so much viable farmland to ensure no one goes hungry. She also grants Brigid its freedom, and works closely with Seteth and Rhea in Church reformations. Claude leaves Fodlan to take his place as King of Almyra, though he promises to visit often. Lorenz takes over the Alliance, and like the other two leaders works diligently to provide a better life for his people. Rhea eventually steps away from her role as Archbishop. She does offer it to Byleth, but you get a choice as to whether or not you want to take it. If you don't Rhea says she understands and that Seteth will take on a temporary position until a human can be found to carry on the legacy. She agrees that an immortal being shouldn't hold that kind of power forever.

There's one final cinematic cutscene in which every character with a Hero's Relic solemnly returns it to the Holy Tomb, with Byleth laying the Sword of the Creator last. They glance up at the Throne with all the characters visible behind them, and they smile.

Now Sothis can finally rest.

---

A couple other fun things that could be included in this route:

Because of the mentioned supports between houses, it is possible to s-support any of the House Leaders, not just Claude in this route

To make things extra fun, every unit could potentially be playable in the final battle

Edelgard and Thales can have special dialogue where she basically tells him to go fuck himself before killing him with the axe he gave her

None of the Black Eagles who stay with Edelgard would actually die in the siege on Enbarr, but would have unique "oh no I've been captured" quotes

The cutscene with Edelgard's surrender could start exactly like it does in SS/VW so if people saw that first, they would at first think she was going to die. This would then make Byleth extending a hand out in peace that much more impactful

Every now and then Dimitri and Edelgard could make a comment about how odd it is to be working with each other, and how they are still surprised neither one of them died after all those years of war, a BIG wink to the camera regarding the other routes where one or both of them don't make it

Claude can bring in Nader and other Almyran reinforcements for the final battle, and as a result could result in unique battle quotes from Rhea and Nader with the two of them commending each other and realizing that tensions need not be so high between their nations

Because different supports can happen between houses, there isn't as much pressure to recruit everyone by the end of White Clouds

There could be different paralogues for characters, along with ones already in the game that might be route specific. Dimitri's paralogue where he takes on Cornelia can be a side event that helps strengthen the Kingdom's army in future battles. Bernadetta/Petra's paralogue would allow for allies from Brigid to join in future battles. Edelgard could get a new paralogue where they have to sweep out the last remnants of various TWS labs and lairs, and it's made clear just how bad it had been for her.

Like, I know this is a lot, and executing it as a playable section of the game would be a lot of work. This is all just hypothetical, of course. This would be what I would recommend for the game, but as I say this just know that I don't expect any of this to actually be made. These are just some ideas for how VW could theoretically be changed.

The game would still need a route for Claude, as he is one of the three main choices at the very start of the game. I don't necessarily think SS should be removed, either, because that choice of "kill or don't kill edelgard" is still an incredibly poignant moment that would be lost if SS was gone. But I do wish VW or SS played out differently or at the very least used different cutscenes. The fact that Edelgard dies the same way twice kind of sucks. (This, on top of Dimitri dying off-screen multiple times and Rhea basically being kneecapped and not useful in 3/4 routes)

But I like Claude's route being a Golden Route. It is the Golden Deer after all.

#look i might have an edelgard bias #but i honestly think there should be a route where none of them have to die #it would be super cathartic especially after playing the other routes #verdant wind fix #fe three houses #headcanons #au ideas #claude #dimitri #rhea #byleth #edelgard #long post

41 notes · View notes

fantasyinvader · 4 years ago

Text

@fireemblems24

Since @teaveetamer already posted their document on the game, I figured I’m going to go ahead as well since I promised you I’d do this. Part of it is me being impatient and just want to get writing this over with, I’ll admit, but it’s better than something I scribble at the last minute.

Okay, let’s start off with something simple. The route split. There is a meaning behind this you might not be aware of. See, Byleth’s personal class isn’t the Enlightened One in the original text. It’s Nirvana. While it does take some cues from Hindu tradition, namely fusing with the Creator God...dess, in Three Houses it’s tied to a more Buddhist outlook. Namely, the duality between enlightenment and ignorance.

Let me explain. In Buddhist tradition, when he was attempting to reach Nirvana, a being called Mara tried to tempt Buddha away from that using his daughters. In their mythology, Mara represents spiritual death and among other things making bad things look good. However, the story goes that Buddha did not fall for the trap and in order to celebrate this a flag is used as the symbol. This is known as the Banner of Victory.

In Silver Snow, Byleth is presented with a flag. Not only does this flag appear as the route’s save icon, it’s also confirmed to be the game’s Fire Emblem. In addition, the developers have also said that the worldbuilding of Three Houses was done to support Silver Snow. Silver Snow is supposed to represent truth.

But what does that mean for Crimson Flower? It’s meant to be this path of temptation. Even the Japanese name for the route reflects this, as Safflowers don’t represent love like the red rose mentioned in the opening theme but rather attraction. Attraction and used in bouquets to say “I’m trying to attract you.” Even in the game itself, the choices that unlock CF are presented as changing the story.

What’s more, there’s implications.After joining Edelgard’s army, a NPC will talk about how he doesn’t think he should believe everything she says. This is way after Kostas dying, saying he should never have listened to her. There’s another NPC who, in the Japanese, heavily implies Edelgard is using propaganda to try and sway the unsupportive public to her side. We have the aftermath of Arianrhod, with her lying to the Black Eagles. Hell, the full version of the game’s theme song reveals she lied to Byleth during the events of White Clouds. Likewise, there’s a lot of little tidbits hidden in the route that imply it is far less heroic than it initially appears. Stuff like how Edelgard is starving her people to wage this war, how she abandoned the war she started for five years to search for Byleth, how she’s still using Crest Beasts, the fact the troops you liberated at Brigid were Imperial troops rather than Brigid militia like in the other routes (and notice how Catherine says “we just asked Brigid to not support the Empire” in contrast to Petra saying they’re forcing Brigid to join them? Other routes reveal that Brigid would join Rhea in a heartbeat if Petra wasn’t under Edelgard’s control), all optional but they’re there. Just like how her route has endings that contradict each other all over the place, talking about giving the people liberty while Hubert’s imply it’s a police state killing those who don’t accept their new overlord. Or how the Church is still around post-war, just under Edelgard’s control. Or how Byleth’s solo ending makes it still sound like they can use the Sword of the Creator, while the Jeritza ending shows them using the Sword of Seiros. Various bits of information floating around the game also debunk her narrative, if you know where to look. Crests and the Church don’t have as much power as she makes them out to, the Empire was founded on meritocracy but those in charge used their power to oppress the masses, and the Empire’s split with the Church happened because the Southern Church rebelled against their leadership and was crushed by the emperor at the time.

There’s so much evidence that things are changing in Fodlan, with new power structures and attempted reforms, while the Japanese text makes it clear Edelgard wants to put things back to how they used to be. She’s not a reformer, she seeking restoration of the Empire.

Even Byleth’s romance with Edelgard is suspect in the Japanese text. Ferdinand and Hubert’s paired ending makes it clear that Edelgard is jealous of how close they are, while her supports with Byleth flat out say Byleth has become more distant (and likely undoing their development during White Clouds). In addition, Japanese Hubert and Byleth’s support ends with Hubert saying they can be two particular birds flying alongside the eagle that is Edelgard. This bird is from Chinese mythology, representing eternal love...and bringing death, destruction and misery. It has very negative implications, hence why using the mandarin duck is seen as more appropriate since it also means love without any of the other stuff.

CF is the path of ignorance. Hell, the Japanese script says as much when Dimitri calls you out on walking the path of the beast. Nirvana is meant to be extinguishing the flames of hatred, greed and ignorance within yourself, while the path of the beast is one of hatred, greed and ignorance. CF is the antithesis of what Byleth’s story is supposed to be, hence why they lose their powers in it’s ending and aren’t a leader in Fodlan despite having proven themselves capable of the task. Instead, various endings show Edelgard restoring the nobility, albeit with far more control over them. Hell, the Japanese script uses the words conquest a lot more than the English one, the devs even referring to it as such while Silver Snow is the Empire Route and that part of the meaning behind CF is simply getting rid of those who stand in your way. Nothing about liberty or humanity, just Edelgard taking all power for herself.

Or in other words, she’s the hegemon that’s referred to in Byleth’s CF title. This was actually confirmed to be a reference to China’s Mandate of Heaven, and is meant to stand in contrast to Azure Moon. The gist is that unlike the Divine Right of Kings, where a leader has a right to rule given to them by God and everyone else can just suck it up, the Mandate treats their rule as a privilege. If you’re a cruel leader, corrupt,you put yourself ahead of your subjects, or just simply an oppressive tyrant, then you’re walking the path of the Hegemon. The Heavens will then give signs to the people, telling them they need to overthrow you and install a new leader. That’s what Edelgard is supposed to represent, and her route has confirmed rebellions against her. Ironically, her portrait at the end of CF is based off of Napoleon’s coronation portrait, which was meant to emphasize his own divine right to rule. That hand staff is supposed to represent being given God’s approval to rule, it’s call the Staff of Justice...except what we see in the game is inverted from the real thing.

Meanwhile, Dimitri’s path is that of the Righteous Kings. He’s a benevolent leader, one who puts the people first, giving them power and by overthrowing Edelgard he enacted justice. Dimitri at the end of AM and during CF is meant to be the good king, while Edelgard is always the tyrant. Hell, the terms for these in Japanese are used as expressions. Hegemon has very negative implications, like a power-tripping middle manager, while Righteous King has positive ones and can even be used to say a particular way of doing things is the proper way to do things.

Also worth noting that Azure Moon is the only route where you can pretty much save everyone sans Edelgard, Hubert and Jeritza. It seems to be the route that most emphasizes compassion over learning the full truth (hence, it doesn’t feature the flag like SS/VW).

Hell, the same final boss theme plays at the end of CF and AM. It’s Edelgard’s theme, using her own musical cues and stuff. Rhea might be the final boss of CF, but the music makes Edelgard the bad guy. Likewise, there’s many cues in the game linking Rhea with light/dawn and Edelgard with shadows/darkness, even Rhea’s lilies represent purity compared to Edelgard’s safflower.

Claude also has light based symbolism, and the devs confirmed he’s a good guy. He’s supposed to be Fodlan’s new guiding light after Rhea dies and the collapse of Fodlan’s institutions. In essence, he’s a direct contrast to Edelgard. While Edelgard thinks she knows everything and won’t change her mind, Claude learns the real truth and his views change with the route (mostly implied due to his supports). Claude reveals said truth, while Edelgard will keep pushing lies that suit her. The endings were Edelgard loyalists and TWSITD rise up to try and retake Fodlan are less hidden than the rebellions against Edelgard. Claude treats Byleth as an equal, whereas Edelgard pulls rank and says she can only see them as an equal when they propose. Claude doesn’t fall for attempts by TWSITD to turn him against the Church in VW, which creates the impression that they were the ones responsible for turning Edelgard against Rhea for simply being not human.

Claude is legit, especially considering the fraud that is Edelgard. You can’t save everyone as Claude, since the story prioritizes the truth (with SS being in the middle) but there’s a case to be made that it’s meant to be Claude’s path to his own form of enlightenment so he can be your true equal and partner.

So, that’s kinda it. Each of the three main routes are meant to contrast CF in some way. AM is more focused on compassion and saving Dimitri from himself, at the cost of learning the full truth. VW pushes the truth more, but you’re not able to save those you could in other routes. SS is somewhere in the middle, where you can save everyone you take into your class, Rhea if you have supports with her, and Dedue if you can keep him alive. The language the devs used makes them all out to be hero routes, whereas CF is the villain route once you dig under the surface. It’s the route of lies, it leads to tyranny, it lacks sincere compassion, but it doesn’t tell you that because you’re meant to be ignorant because you decided to join her. You put Edelgard ahead of the good of Fodlan, leaving it in darkness while she talks about being it’s light.

The main thrust of the game is SS vs. CF, but VW and AM serve to further illustrate why CF is the wrong way of doing things.

The devs took it a step further in the Nintendo Dream interview. Take all of what I just said, and consider the fact they wanted the players to immerse themselves in Fodlan. They want people to see all the evidence against Edelgard, hence why fighting her = Enlightenment. BUT they also talked about wanting to play a trick on players, and when people complained about how hard it was to “walk with Edelgard” during testing they made it easier to access CF. CF is the trick my friend, it’s the player thinking they’re the good guy when in reality they’re playing the game’s villain route.

6 notes · View notes

dimiclaudeblaigan · 2 years ago

Note

In response to absolutely everything!!! Super long, so under the cut for me too.

Anon, you seem to have missed the absolute shitstorm of angry Claude fans. I can say with certainty that it's not people who just wanted Claude to team up with their faves who were angry with GW. I got many anons who were aggravated with how GW handled Claude and Almyra both, and most if not all of them were very strongly Claude fans for Claude himself, and mainly seemed to be people who considered him their top favorite or close to it.

At first in the Academy phase I would agree that Claude does what he does for his own benefit. He admits to using Byleth for instance, and the game actually forces you to let him see Jeralt's diary because he admits you either let him or he was going to steal-borrow it in the middle of the night. However, he grows out of that and starts to learn to actually care for people and call them his friends. Also, Lorenz in particular came to trust him enough to go against his own father to side with Claude and fight the Empire - something he never would've done in the Academy phase simply because he just did not trust Claude.

In AM, Claude says he makes moves that will benefit him, and yes, he still does that... but he isn't cruel about it. The important part to his character in AM is that he's not longer this self-imposed schemer and has opened his heart to trusting people, which is an extremely important part of his development. In AM we don't get to see his development happening in front of us, but he's changed a whole heckin' lot to be able to leave all of Fodlan, an entire half of his dreams, in Dimitri's hands, as well as his Fodlan family's heirloom relic.

This is a huge contrast to Academy Claude, who in GD brings up wanting to use the Sword of the Creator himself - again, reminding us that he's working with Byleth because it benefits him directly. Here in AM, he's literally handing off his most powerful weapon to someone he trusts and leaving the lives of his Fodlan people and his friends in someone else's hands. Does it benefit him? Sure, - but at no emotional or physical harm to anyone at all. He even mentions not wanting gratitude.

Fact is, everyone in life does things to benefit themselves, but Claude grows out what he refers to himself as in the very beginning of the game - "the embodiment of distrust". In GW, he never grows out of that and is called out multiple times on not having any trust in his supposed friends, and Hilda even voices concerns about having a central authority, i.e. a king, in her and Claude's supports.

Yes, Claude and Dimitri are different people, but they're not so different that Claude was afraid to leave half his dream under Dimitri's watch while he left. They have different ways of getting to the same goals. In CF/VW, Edelgard and Claude can't agree at all because he doesn't agree with her methods/behavior, and she refuses to leave Fodlan in a foreigner's hands. In GW/SB she doesn't care about all that because Claude is her "ally" (officially, though he baaasically makes comments about planning to backstab her and actually can in SB).

She's not going to get in his way and isn't actively opposing her. In Hopes in general she is very vocal about crushing any opposition to her goals (example, her supports with Balthus). In Hopes, Claude stops doing that so she leaves him alone when he stops. However, the amount of people dying due to their alliance is something Houses Claude would be against. The idea of Hopes Claude is that his moral compass is questionable.

Being an opportunist though doesn't mean you need to take the dangerous route. It doesn't mean people have to get hurt in the process. He's an opportunist in AM too, but because he took the opportunity to get help for his country when he became aware that the Kingdom was fighting back in their capital, thus informing him Dimitri was out of his own head. He took advantage of the Kingdom's strength, and yes, he took advantage of knowing him and Dimitri had similar ideas for the future to be able to leave poor Dimitri with all the Alliance's paperwork... but this opportunist behavior wasn't done by having to hurt anyone. Claude doesn't choose the violent path unless it's the last resort available to him, and considering Dimitri wants all the same things as Claude does, there's no reason to fight him.

As for Claude teaming up with Edelgard in GW, that's where things fall apart entirely. It did not benefit him to do that. In GW, you're playing the winning force. He had no reason to team up with her, and yes, that includes to keep causalities to a minimum, because what did he do by teaming up with her? Caused more people to be killed in the long run, because he continued fighting a war and getting his own people killed to fight her war, as well as killed many Faerghus citizens because ???

And by all things in the world don't you dare be that anon that came to me telling me "it was just soldiers" that died, implying they're not people and citizens too. Being a soldier doesn't suddenly make you fodder to die, and if you believe that you're disgusting. If I sound extremely specific, it's because my sister was in the army before and thus a soldier (who got promoted! She ranked pretty high by the time she left!) and if anyone thinks her life was just fodder and that she would've been an acceptable loss if she died, I hope you burn in the deepest depths of hell and never know peace. I sincerely mean that. :)

So yeah, Claude basically got his own soldiers killed again and again by going into fights he could've avoided by making demands of the losing force - the Empire - in GW. Yes, maybe Edelgard would've continued attacking, but at that point he could just, you know, do what he did in AG, and get help from the entire rest of Fodlan fighting against her too instead of causing an immense number of people to die by helping the Empire (his own people fighting for her, the Kingdom's people fighting against her, and the Church goers who were being attacked by the Alliance for reasons they didn't understand and were just trying to protect themselves). In AG he will of course lose some of his own soldiers, but not at the cost of his soldiers, Faerghus' soldiers and the Church's soldiers collectively. Yes, they will all have losses, but at the cost of trying to defend their freedom as allied forces.

Edelgard can give all the reparations she wants - it would never amount to what Dimitri and the Church would do to help the Alliance people in need, and that's because Edelgard is only helping them enough to use their forces to power up her own for her war. If they didn't ally with her and thus fight with her, she would not do that. If Claude didn't fight for or against Faerghus, they would've still helped the Alliance if they needed help... and oh wait, that's AM. Hence, proving Edelgard was only giving some assistance to continue her war, but the Kingdom doesn't have strings attached to their help.

AM Dimitri was going to just leave the Alliance after helping them so he could continue fighting back against the Empire. Claude was the one who freely gave his army to Dimitri to support him in the war. Dimitri didn't help him expecting favors. Edelgard would've kept fighting in Hopes if Claude wasn't allied with her because her help had strings attached. Also, since her goal was unification, Claude not only expected to return to war with her post obliterating the Church, but she would still consider the Alliance to beneath the Empire and would want them to, effectively, become part of the Empire (hence, unification).

So, what does Claude get from this? An extended war. He'll end up having to fight the Empire again anyway when they refuse to submit and become part of the Empire - except this time there's no way Faerghus is going to help them (and Hapi expresses in GW that she knows Faerghus is never going to forgive them. Also, she explicitly calls them scummy at one point because she realizes they would've killed her and Constance if they didn't submit to them, which is... exactly what the Empire does).

Ultimately, Claude and Edelgard don't want to eliminate the same threat. Edelgard wants to wipe out the Nabateans, and GW Claude thinks Rhea BaD and doesn't care one whit to actually look into things to figure out if anything he's worried about is correct. He also knows the Kingdom is not in a position by any means to go against the Church (the Church has helped them in times of need, they need the manpower to fight the Empire, and Dimitri doesn't want to risk a civil war after they just got out of one. Felix was also the one to cut their conversation short from going in circles to be like hey yeah we're going to war against the Empire plain and simple, there are no other options). Instead of trying to snoop for answers and maybe even ally with them to get closer to Rhea and co to figure out what was going on, he makes assumptions and runs with them (which is completely uncharacteristic of Claude and a huge reason why his fans were so angry by this).

NOW as for what the other folks here had to say, obviously I'm in agreement with them, but for additional details...

Like the initial response, I've gone over that siding with Edelgard doesn't end the war faster. Actually, again, it just lengthens it, because one Rhea BaD is out of the picture, the Empire will still be gunning for unification (and Hopes mentions through Duke Aegir that the Empire has attempted this for generations. In other words, Edelgard won't stop at it either. The Empire has been trying to overthrow all of Fodlan for a very, very long time). Once the Alliance doesn't submit, they're back at war, except this time there's no Faerghus to help them, and in fact, Sylvain might even initiate an attack on the Alliance while they're wrapped up in war against the Empire.

Yes, Faerghus' forces were hurt, but Sylvain is a man of vengeance as much as Dimitri, and doubly so in Hopes. He's almost a mini early AM Dimitri with how vengeful he is. Would he plan out an attack against them while they were weak to avenge his father? Yes. He would. I absolutely believe he would. Why would Claude risk that? ...Oh right. Because he didn't think it through. At all. And since Sylvain's in charge over there now, I can assure you Miklan would end up in a position of high power/authority, and evidently he's too OP in GW/SB to be defeated, so now Claude has brains and brawn that could beat his ass to the moon and back.

What, did you think I wouldn't insert Miklan into a post where it was applicable? You silly readers!

But it's true.

As OP said, in Claude's viewpoint it wouldn't be justified to keep the war going even on Edelgard's end... but that uses logic from his own perspective and not hers. In her justification, well, it's still justified.

ALSO as OP said, Claude blames the Church because lel why not. In fact, he blames them for Faerghus' woes, which is A: none of his business, and B: things he clearly has zero understanding of. Might I remind you that Lambert was veeeery actively negotiating with foreign lands (enough that he was willing to personally go to Duscur despite being another land's king and having his right hand man personally against the idea that the king himself went exactly for the reason of what happened) and that Rhea didn't do anything to stop him. Now, might I remind you with the fact that the reason Dimitri doesn't pursue this immediately upon becoming king is because he learned his goddamn lesson when his father was murdered for attempting "radical changes" and far too quickly.

Might I additionally remind you that the people who are against Rhea/the Central Church, i.e. the Western Church, were spurred to action by TWS. It was never Rhea who tried to shut down the changes Lambert was making. While yes, Rhea is worried about what people might do if they knew she was Nabatean (oh look Edelgard proved her whole ass point and all her paranoia and reasons for doing what she did absolutely correct), she very much allowed foreigners into her own home and even allowed them to school there. Hell, even despite people hating Dedue and not trusting Cyril, she didn't give a fuck. It was her home and her say, and she trusted them and let them in. Obviously they're not all the foreigners allowed at GM, but they were the least trusted/most hated and she did not give a fuck.

But... as OP said in their continued response, all those reasons just make Claude look so stupid and thoughtless. No thoughts, head empty. That's it. That's Hopes Claude. Otherwise he would reason that the Church isn't the reason for all of Fodlan's woes. Also, how dare Rhea adopt a fellow Almyran and care for him so deeply (do you need me to get that post? Do you?)? How dare the Almyran boy she saved from Goneril (right hand family to Claude's family, and we oop!) slavery care enough to protect her with his life! ...But see, there's another issue. Claude doesn't even think twice about why an Almyran boy is defending Rhea with his life. Again - no thoughts, head empty. It's just reeeeally extreme in this case.

As per the second response...

things like that are natural character progression in writing. They may have planned him to be a certain way at first, but eventually he developed beyond that. Honestly, where they were going with him kind of is who he started out as, but that's the whole idea of storytelling. He started that way and grew out of it. While he was relatively harmless and made non-lethal poisons, he was still emotionally manipulative and just downright mean sometimes.

Here's the catch though. Claude was still extremely intelligent. He was manipulative and sometimes pretty mean/cruel, but he wasn't a dumbass. He could get what he wanted no matter how awful it appeared to be, and being charismatic was part of that. He could do the nasty things while smiling and being polite, and that was the crappier side of him early on. However, he didn't make stupid decisions while being a bit mean because he knew how to manipulate people's emotions. He knew how to get what he wanted while not risking people turning against him.

The ice queen heart he had in the Academy phase was healing with time in Houses, so while he was initially intended to be basically more cruel and whatnot, well, he was, but he got past that. It would've been annoying if he didn't get character development and growth and just stagnated as a character to fulfill that initial viewpoint of what they wanted him to be.

That's where Hopes fails. They didn't have the time to give him his Academy phase development, and evidently they didn't know what to do with him because of it. Yes, in Hopes, because of his lack of character growth, he remains cold and distance, yadda yadda. However, again, Claude wouldn't make dumb decisions that put his wants as risk. He would know to be persuasive and get people to like him. Making all of Faerghus and every surviving Church member his enemy is not that. Remember, Seteth survives in GW. How does he know Seteth won't come back with a vengeance? How does he know the two biggest brains in all of the Church and Faerghus, Seteth and Sylvain, won't come together and make plans to, rightfully so at this point, wipe out the Alliance?

He doesn't know, because he didn't even consider it. Local man did not think five steps ahead when he attacked them.

Also, continuing with what the second responder said, yeah - Claude is a pretty nice guy who understands people's pain (ex. his supports with Marianne in Houses). He covers that up because he's Seen Some Shit and Been Through Some Shit, and he doesn't want to risk being too nice or letting his guard down.

But see, that's why he's so interesting in Houses. He's calculating and sometimes cruel about it and not the nicest guy... but that closed off part of him is because he's been through what he has. He's a nice, sweet, fun guy, but also has flaws and is trying so desperately to reach his goals that sometimes he has to be a big meanie to do it, given that it won't actually take any lives. No, he was not going to murder Byleth to read Jeralt's diary, but yes, he was going to sneak it in the middle of the night to get his hands on it regardless of how Byleth felt about that.

Also, he originally thought Lorenz being in charge boded ill for his dreams, but he eventually got to know Lorenz and realized that wasn't the case. Lorenz's issues were with Claude specifically because he had reason to distrust him, and Claude knew he wasn't the most honest and up front person. Claude was giving good reasons for Lorenz to be wary of him.

Again though, Claude was doing those crappy things and giving himself a bad image, but his heart was somewhere else entirely, yearning for a happier life. He was a complex human being of a character - not a prop for Edelgard to fight her war. He had moments where even in Houses, I'd be like wow that's not cool Claude. I can still love him as a person, but his story is interesting and complicated, and that story shaped who he started out as and who he became.

Hopes said yeehaw we don't want any of this complicated and complex human being stuff, and that is also true in Dimitri's route. He's basically the perfect version of Dimitri with significantly fewer internal struggles. Hopes did that to Claude too, he just... got the worst end of the stick and Dimitri was given a good story to make up for his lack of internal struggle.

I've mentioned this before, but yeah, the Almyran stuff was very uncomfortable. I have no issue with Lorenz telling people not to pillage and all that because it's true to his character to voice an adamant and firm stand on being against that, but it's the manner in which that scene happened that becomes uncomfortable. Suddenly the brown people all love to pillage and go home and brag about it, to which they receive a positive reception for it. Cultured white man has to tell the brown people not to pillage, because the other brown guy in the scenario (Claude) won't do it instead, despite Claude supposedly being against that stuff too (so why didn't Claude say it instead of Lorenz, when Claude is supposed to be the top person in charge?).

Honestly, it just kinda makes my stomach turn thinking about the implications of how Almyra was handled the more I talk about it. Unfortunately, Claude was part of that and was not used as a character to try to fix that image (again, having been the central authority, he should've been the one to tell Nader not to pillage, but for some reason local white man has to do it and local brown man just listens and accepts it). Then there's that NPC who was absolutely baffled that pillaging wasn't allowing in Leicester and just "figured they had different rules". Ummmm, YIKES?

Local brown man Claude being extremely intelligent, handsome and well meaning was super awesome. Hopes took all those qualities and threw them out the window, but also just made him stupid and prone to resorting to violence before anything else to boot (imagine if he'd just sent a messenger to Dimitri directly to talk to him before invading instead of immediately assuming that was out of the question???).

And yes, Claude is his own character. He doesn't exist to prop up Dimitri or Edelgard... but well shit, there's our problem! That is what he exists for in Hopes. VW Claude has his own separate story where he makes his own decisions. He doesn't vibe with Rhea, but he's understanding and reasonable with her. He got mad at her one time, but he was otherwise very considerate with her given the severity of the situation and how quickly they needed answers. He was as kind and reasonable as he could be. He eventually got impatient, but he didn't treat Rhea poorly simply because he didn't understand her initially.

Also worth mentioning that Claude and Seteth had a somewhat negative relationship in the Academy phase. It was not Rhea he had a poor relationship with. He was suspicious of her, but it was Seteth he got aggravated with. Mind you, they got past that when Claude grew up more and they worked together very well! They had development together and they didn't hold their old misconceptions about each other against each other. People almost always insist Claude and Rhea didn't get along and all that, but no, they were always pretty neutral to each other. It was Seteth that Claude had more obvious eh feelings toward, and lo and behold they got over it. They joined forced in VW to fight against the Empire despite that "he hates the Church", so uhhh... he probably doesn't hate the Church!

So uh, yeah, in stark contrast to what anon was saying about "Hopes Claude just doesn't exist to prop up someone's fave", well, uh, yeah actually. That's all he's there for. In AG he gets a little more freedom where he's allowed to be part of the conversation and they all make plans together, and gosh jolly look at him and Rhea making plans together and complimenting each other. Gosh jolly, look at Claude not giving away his plans to Dimitri and co and showing up "late" because it was part of the plan. AG Claude at least wasn't a puppet to anyone's goals and was treated as an equal.

Claude didn't seem to trust Rhea in AG either, but he never makes a big stink of having to eliminate her in AG because he's most likely come to the conclusion that things really aren't as bad as he feared and that Dimitri does actually have things under control. Just because he's not making the same mistakes his father made doesn't Dimitri isn't attempting change.

That's also why the "golden route" chapter conversation with Dimitri and Claude is so incredibly left field in AG. It's entirely out of nowhere that Claude starts talking about that stuff and suddenly Dimitri is worried that Claude might turn on them later, even though up to that point he had wholehearted faith that Claude was on their side and not going to trick them. Might I remind you that immediately after that chapter Dimitri goes right back to unconditional trust and faith in Claude, even while all his closest allies/friends express very vocal doubt that Claude will even help them.

Again, it puts that conversation in a void even weirder than the void it happened in, because Dimitri just randomly, for no given reason, has doubts about Claude's intentions wholly isolated to that conversation in contrast to literally anything else he's ever done and said to/about Claude in AG. He was stated by Dedue to have been up all night situating the Alliance when they first arrived, and Claude gave some of his best officers to the Kingdom army as a sign of good faith from his end.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, that chapter happens and Dimitri is like well hm, I sure shouldn't trust Claude for like a solid three minutes and openly doubt him even though he's been honest and upfront with me until now. It's just stupid and exists to put GW Claude into perspective about how untrustworthy he is there, because that conversation fits for GW Claude - not AG Claude.

Onto the last response...

Likewise, Claude didn't agree with Edelgard's war but remained neutral because it benefitted him/his people. It's not where his heart was, but he had to do it and could offer no help to any side for five years. It took everything he had to keep the Alliance together. If he had known Dimitri was alive, maybe he would've sent out scouts to locate him like the Kingdom did. Maybe if he'd known they could get help, he could've spoke to the Roundtable that he wanted to try finding Dimitri and give them a chance to fight off the Empire and actually have the manpower to do so. He had no choice but to stay out of the war because the Alliance wasn't known for its military might. They would've gotten crushed.

The Kingdom was, unlike in Hopes, in total disarray, so the Empire didn't need to fight as hard against them. They could've put all their effort into the Alliance, and they could not have withstood that. Thus, Claude stayed out of everything because it was the safest option for the whole Alliance. He put up the neutrality front even though they were actually split because if he let that get out, it would just be a disaster and put the Alliance at war with itself with some of its people fighting for Edelgard and some of them fighting for independence, and in this case, without any outside help because there was nobody to help (insert Bob meme here).

Claude didn't make a move outside of neutrality until he had enough manpower to do so - that is, in VW or in AM's case after he realized Dimitri was alive, and further so when he found out they were fighting to take back their own capital. It told him that Dimitri was becoming more stable again and that he could actually ask for help this time, and he knew (which he expressed to Judith) that if they'd taken their capital back, they'd definitely show up to help the Alliance with their capital.

In AM, he remained neutral until he couldn't anymore (Gronder had to happen somehow for the devs to stick in their three way battle ¯\_(ツ)_/¯), and then as soon as there was hope for an alliance to fight back, he jumped on it. In other words, he held out against the Empire and never joined forces with them at all no matter what... and as soon as the opportunity to fight back against them presented itself, he took it. He even admitted it was riskier than usual - that's how quickly he jumped on that opportunity.

In Hopes, he doesn't need to hold out in GW because they were literally winning, which makes sense for Hopes because the Kingdom was not in any disarray, had a king for a central authority, even had the added assistance of Duscur, and the Empire literally could not get past Arianrhod for the life of them. In other words the Empire wasn't having smooth sailing but actually struggling against the Kingdom, which helped the Alliance to win against the Empire.

So... Claude had no reason to join forces with the Empire. At all. If anything he could've either stayed neutral and told them to cut the shit or they would just lose more battles against the Alliance, or he could've joined up with the remaining forces in Fodlan and ended the war much sooner. Like yeah, the odds of ending the war sooner are more in the favor of the Alliance, Kingdom and Church versus the Empire than it would be two on two. The Kingdom is also known for its military might and Arianrhod, which they still had both of.

What point is there in literally ever siding with the Church or the Kingdom, if siding with Edelgard was on the table?

Exactly this. He went through presumed headache after presumed headache to keep things looking neutral. He could've just sided with Edelgard and she would have stopped attacking them. He held up because he believed in what the Alliance stood for and didn't want to lose everything they'd made for themselves by submitting to Edelgard. The Kingdom and Church were losing the war in Houses, so it would be more reasonable to ally with Edelgard. He doesn't though, because that's not what he wants to do and not want he believes in. He holds out, struggling, until the very moment any spark of hope (no pun intended lord almighty) pops up for them to fight back. In VW it's Byleth/Seteth, and in AM it's Dimitri.

In CF and SS, he leaves and goes back to Almyra (assuming he's spared in CF of course), basically giving up because they've lost and not wanting to push things further when there was no going back up from there. In the one chance he has to actively ally with Edelgard, i.e. when he speaks to her post battle in CF, he doesn't. He just... leaves the continent entirely. He tells his soldiers to fight for the Empire because he doesn't want them to keep up the struggle and die over it when they've already lost. He, personally though, does not ever side with her and instead will sooner leave the whole continent and go back to the land full of people who attempted to take his life as a child over siding with her. Yyyyikes.

While I don't think Claude explicitly lies about doing things for his benefit, he frames it to sound a lot worse than it actually is. What he does "for his own benefit" is typically also for the Alliance's benefit (which siding with Edelgard would not be because they'd be risking their independence). If he was doing everything for his own benefit, he could've given the Alliance to Edelgard and said here, take it, I don't want to die for them.

The reason he gives the Alliance to Dimitri though in AM is because Dimitri isn't out for conquest. Rather, he just knows Dimitri will take care of those lands in Claude's absence. Edelgard was after unification from the get go to make Fodlan only known as Adrestia again - i.e. her intention was to remove their sense of self. Again, that's apparently been a thing the Empire has done for a very long time. Dimitri never had the intention to rule the Alliance or Fodlan.

Claude wanted to continue with his ambitions though, which yes, in a way is selfish! He gives the Alliance to Dimitri despite them trying to stay independent... but he proooobably also realizes Dimitri wouldn't strip them of their identity. Claude had to do that himself to prevent any issues down the line (such as "we're independent from the Kingdom and Dimitri has no rule over us), but it's worth noting that his soldiers still refer to themselves as Alliance soldiers and continue to wear their own colors while in Dimitri's army. Yes, it's kind of still selfish of Claude to do all that, but he at least managed to convince the Roundtable that it would be okay, which he could not do when it came to the Empire. That was why there was infighting - some wanted to surrender and minimize causalities, and some wanted to fight for independence.

But... look at that. In his most selfish act as a leader in a non VW route, he sides with and gives the Alliance to... Dimitri. So, in his most selfish, "I want to do this because it benefits my desired future" moment, it ends up being Dimitri who he drops all of his paperwork on (poor Dimitri! He has eye strain from paperwork, Claude! D: im kidding. for those people who will actually take that seriously and think im mad at claude. i know they're out there.)

Innnn other words, he would never for any reason side with Edelgard, logically, and that's why it makes no sense in Hopes. It's not him, it's not what he wants, it's not what he'd even do in his most selfish of moments. It's just... not him. Dimitri is the best person to help him with his dreams, so in AM he takes advantage of that. In VW Dimitri is dead so he can only rely on Byleth. In CF his dreams are just dead and gone and he seems to realize that.

No, he's not heartless, but yes, he does still gun for "Dimitri is what's best for what I want", so what I'm saying is that even in his most selfish moments to achieve his own personal goals, he sides with the group opposing Edelgard. This includes the Church, btw. Even though they're not Dimitri level of wanting the exact same ideals for the future, they're the best chance of him having a future that involves open borders and-- OH DEAR ME, DID I SAY THAT? SIDING WITH THE CHURCH WOULD ALLOW HIM TO SEE HIS FUTURE VISION COME TO LIFE WITH OPEN BORDERS? Wow, it's almost like... Claude realized the Church wasn't... the source of all of... Fodlan's problems... Damn, he needs to have a sit down talk with Hopes Claude!

HOWEVER, yes, I do agree that Claude does put up a front. He makes himself out to be worse than he is.

but, hey, he SAID one thing, so LITERALLY EVERYTHING HE EVER DOES THAT GO AGAINST THIS IDEA must not mean anything!

This is one of the biggest problems in this fandom, unfortunately. They take words at face value and don't bother considering that people do lie or withhold truths. Felix is one of those people. People are so insistent that he actually hates his father because uwu he said he does so it's obviously true. Meanwhile Felix is finished writing and about to submit his advice box note about regretting hitting his father as a child and wishes he could take it back but knows it's too late. Felix then goes onto the internet and sees people taking his words at face value and groans and slams his head on the desk.

Hopes was written by a group of meth-addled giraffes banging their heads against keyboards.

That is... the most wonderfully colorful description I have ever seen about this and I thank you for it.

Were those words meant to just be cute?

Yes because they have him siding with uwu supreme leader. Ofc they're cute. They're adorable, surely. I mean, the stans do think so...

See, I like Claude siding with Dimitri... because... it... works best for his character! It... hold on, gotta check my notes... makes... sense, wow!

Inb4 someone is like "you just want Claude to side with him bc you ship them". Like, actually, no, I ship them because of reasons handed to me by canon, so... can't help ya with that assumption.

The end of GW is her getting Fodlan on a fuckin' golden platter

That's why it's called Golden Wildifre. Didn't you hear the devs talking amongst themselves about it? They leaned over to each other and whispered all about it!

Anyway, I love how we tried to be civil about it even though Claude fans are annoyed by these repetitive takes but prev responder was just not having it at this point lel.

Like, yeah, we're mad that Hopes Claude was made to be a prop for someone's fave, because Houses treated him much better.

It's just so hilarious to me that people will say that kind of thing to Dimitri fans simply because he allied with him in AM. These people will also say shit like "you're mad he sided with MY fave instead of yours". Like... that's basically what you're saying here anon, even if you don't mean to (even if she's not your fave, you're still implying it's better that he sided with her over "someone else's fave" and that that's all there is to Claude's character despite trying to say otherwise by defending his decision to side with her the way you are). That's exactly what the stans are saying. He was written in Houses to be a full character in and of himself, but he's just not that in Hopes. That's why his fans are so angry with the writing, let alone all the racist implications that make our stomachs churn.

People like him siding with Dimitri instead because... it's actually in character for him to do so. It's in character for him to learn about and understand the Church and not see them as enemies. It's not in character for him to invade Faerghus without even making the attempt to reach Dimitri for a message first, because if he had, he would've learned the truth up front and could have even requested for Rhea and Seteth to show up to hear things directly from them.

Yes, I understand that Claude made bad decisions because he was stressed and overwhelmed. However, so was Houses Claude, and that Claude still kept the Alliance neutral by outward appearances. Yes, I understand that Hopes Claude was a few years younger and that leadership was consequently more difficult for him, but Houses Claude held the line for five years, starting sooner than his Hopes counterpart because Edelgard began the war two years earlier in Houses than in Hopes.

In other words, Claude was even younger in Houses when the war started. He was thrown into it sooner at a younger age and still managed to step up and keep things on the down low for the Alliance without giving in to the pressure of trying to lead during a war.

is GW's direction really that crazy when you think about it? feels more like people are just salty that Claude didn't team up with their faves on his route because people look at Claude as a third party that validates their side. But what I saw in Hopes fit what I thought about Claude from Houses Claude does whatever he feels most benefits his goals at the moment regardless of morals. He teams up with Faerghus when he feels it benefits him most, he teams up with the Church when he feels it benefits him most, he teams up with the Empire when he feels it benefits him most and he throws his allies to the dogs when he feels it benefits him most. Like in Houses, Claude tells Dimi before leaving in Azure Moon that this is how he operates and that he only makes moves that he thinks benefit him. That's the story trying to communicate how Claude and Dimi are different. Do fans think he's just trying to be cute or that his words mean nothing? Claude's not a man of rigid principles, he's an opportunist. He, the other characters and supplementary material repeat that same message about him over and over again too. like Claude's not supposed to be a uniformly kind person, he's friendly and pleasant to talk to but someone that can be amoral or moral depending on the circumstances. And in GW, an alliance with Edelgard was more personally beneficial to him than trying to team up with Faerghus. They have the bigger force, they're paying Leicester significant reparations, they're getting stability at his southern border and they want to eliminate the same threat.

I mean.... It kinda is a crazy direction.

The issue isn't just the differences between Hopes!Claude and Houses!Claude. That could be a whole other explanation on its own, but since you have framed it as in-character, let's go over the other reason why it is a poor direction on its own.

The biggest issue, anon, is that Hopes!Claude... is an idiot.

Nothing he does or says makes much sense when you add up all the worldbuilding elements together into one big pile.

For example, he decides to side with Edelgard and wipe out the Church. He believes this will end the war quicker, and remove Edelgard's justification for war. And if that justification is gone, then Edelgard will have no choice but to cease her aggressions, or else the war is no longer justified.

However, this logic ignores sooooo many things. The first is that Edelgard publicly declares that the Kingdom and Alliance are false nations that only exist due to meddling forces. That should be a red flag right there and then. Not only that, but Edelgard invaded his nation and beelined for the capital. That should have been another red flag. If Edelgard didn't wish to take over the Alliance, she would have had no need to go for the throat.

Claude even admits that Edelgard might not stop her war. He should know that someone may not stop a war just because it is no longer "justified". And yet, he continues to side with her.

Here is another one. Claude puts a lot of blame on the Church for... basically everything wrong with Foldan. Forced marriages. Fierce border protections. The existence of nobility. The lack of freedom for nobles. I mean, just everything and anything you can think of, in his eyes it is the fault of Rhea and her Church.

But how can he come to that conclusion? Does he live under a rock? Is he not the leader of the Alliance? Does he not know that Edmund, within his own Alliance territory, makes trades with other nations outside of Foldan? When he went to school, did he not see how people of Duscur, Brigid, and Almyra got places in the classroom? How a woman from overseas got to be a Knight of Seiros? Even if he only spent two weeks there, surely he saw something, no?

He is also a prince of another nation. A nation with no Church, and no Crests. And they still have a King and nobility of their own. So why is he blaming the Church for such things? He literally is from another nation.

Hopes!Claude feels like he was written by a young author who is just starting out. There is no logic to his thinking. He just hates the Church because the writers needed him to.

And what makes it worse is that Claude is supposed to be the smart one. He is lauded as the brilliant tactician. The guy who thinks 5 steps ahead in every chess match. But he comes across as the most ignorant of the three lords, who cannot see past his own nose.

So yes, this is why is it a crazy direction. It's not just because of any misalignment of his character from Houses. It's because within Hopes itself, Claude is just a moron that it is hard to take him and his thought processes seriously.

#Claude #Three Hopes #Three Houses #FE16 #Fodlan #is this the longest thing i've ever written on this site? very well might be!

90 notes · View notes

gascon-en-exil · 4 years ago

Note

yeah I’m gonna have to hard disagree with you. Dedue solely exists as a plot device for Dimitri. The Tragedy of Duscur isn’t about Dedue’s feelings it’s about Dimitri’s. The genocide of a group of brown/black people solely exists so Dimitri can have some white boy angst. I don’t think people not liking the Dimidue ship is because they don’t want Dimitri to be anything but straight. It’s uncomfortable because of the racist white savior bullshit and I honestly can’t see how you don’t see that.

First of all, the term “Tragedy of Duscur” in game refers to the assassination of Lambert and his knights by the Agarthans and their co-conspirators, while the genocide of the Duscur people was a separate second event performed in retaliation by Faerghus and spearheaded by House Kleiman. Fandom seems to frequently conflate the two, but it makes sense both in-universe and out why Lambert’s death would take precedent. It plunged the Kingdom, one of Fòdlan’s three large nations, into political instability for nearly a decade, and it’s narratively more significant because of how it plays into the plans of Edelgard and her allies to conquer Faerghus by weakening it from within.

Relatively speaking the Duscur genocide matters only to Dedue, and because he lacks plot armor past Part 1 of AM (at which point he’s killed off by default in service of self-insert romance, i.e. Dimileth - again, interesting that the racist undertones of that writing choice are never brought up...is the game’s most popular ship too big a target?) that can’t extend much beyond his supports and endings. That prioritization is just how lord/protagonist privileges work; Edelgard being experimented on matters more than the same thing happening to Lysithea, Claude’s perspective on Almyra matters more than Cyril’s, Byleth’s reaction, such as it is, to Jeralt’s death matters more than Leonie and Alois’s. That part isn’t even a quirk of FE’s writing like the plot armor and permadeath issues, but standard storytelling - characters that are more important to the plot (and here also gameplay and marketing) get more focus.

The Tragedy hit all of the Lions except Mercedes with some kind of trauma from the people who died or disappeared in its wake, and it is reductive and obviously wrong to suggest that all of Dimitri’s grief comes from the genocide and not also from the deaths of his father (and presumed stepmother), his friend Glenn, his estrangement from the childhood friend trio, and the resulting strife and turmoil this threw the Kingdom into for years afterward and for which he feels responsible...and then the knowledge that his stepsister who doesn’t remember him has allied herself with the people who arranged the assassination in her own bid to seize power. It also ignores why saving Dedue was so important to him in assuaging his considerable survivor’s guilt, making him not so much a plot device as an emotional crutch. The feeling is mutual however, and you can see through their interactions across the game that Dedue is just as emotionally codependent on Dimitri as Dimitri is on him. That’s why he goes on a quest for revenge in VW/SS (alluding back to Finn doing the same for his beloved late lord Quan in the Jugdral games) and is willing to throw away his humanity to protect Dimitri in CF - but just as willing to die peacefully with him should the player defeat him before he can transform ignoring of course that the player kills both of them either way by propping up Edelgard’s conquest - CF is so much more fun if you own the villainy. Calling them a white savior pairing is still a misrepresentation that ignores their actual dynamic and the substantial amount of development they undergo.

(It also presumes the insertion of US racial politics into a game by Japanese developers set on a pseudo-European continent. Tropes derived from colonialism thus poorly capture likely creator intent as well as more likely analogues for Duscur in any number of indigenous European ethnic/cultural minorities. My own headcanons come from my knowledge of such communities in France because Faerghus is loosely pseudo-French, but as it’s also pseudo-Russian with a bit of Celtic flavoring there are other directions one could take it.)

#Fire Emblem #FE16 #Fire Emblem Three Houses #Dimidue #Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd #Dedue Molinaro

42 notes · View notes

anankos · 5 years ago

Note

yeah so uh... crimson flower amiright? aka: hi what if edelgard got fucking destroyed at tailtean and only byleth survived. like reasonably seiros/rhea would probably make due on her promise to rip out the heart. but then like. as shown with the end of crimson flower it won't kill byleth. so is byleth just here. is he then executed? is he kept as a prisoner? and since dimi is the most stable in crimson flower, would he look at rhea's treatment and then stop the church due to it's corruption?

so, there’s several points to talk about here!

1. I have to wonder, in this hypothetical situation, what the hell Dimitri would think seeing Seiros/Rhea plunge her hand into a professor’s chest and ripping out their heart. Like. Uh. I would be rather concerned, especially because I don’t doubt he noticed Rhea spiraling rapidly the closer Edelgard and Byleth approached, because it’s very off-putting. (Also there’s that comment about the Blaiddyd bloodline living on if he falls which can be interpreted in so many ways. I want a n s w e r s.) 2. I really, genuinely don’t think Byleth would survive the crest stone getting ripped out. It’s a known fact I think the ending after the final boss in CF is..... nonsensical, to put it kindly. Literally makes 0 sense in ANY of the pre-established universe lore.

But, there’s nothing stopping anyone from talking about it as a thought experiment! So let’s say Byleth survived, that perhaps the fusion between Sothis and Byleth made the crest stone superfluous, that Sothis’s old heart is just a pretty rock glued into Byleth’s chest, and her real heart is now one and the same as Byleth’s (using the word ‘heart’ here entirely literally). Let’s say Dimitri fells his stepsister, and before he and Byleth set their sights on each other, Rhea blindsides them and does her heart-ripping routine.

Rhea- Seiros- walks away with her bloodied prize and the Creator Sword, commanding her entourage to continue routing the Adrestian forces. When he asks after Rhea, she simply waves him off, saying he may do what he wishes- she got what she came for- the death of two traitors. She is concerning herself only with the reclamation of Garreg Mach and the strengthening of the church.

Which like. Whoof. That’s a lot. Adrestia has pretty unambiguously lost the war at this point, the Alliance has pretty much imploded and been sucked in by the empire, and the amount of territory Faerghus has to reclaim to keep their original borders is not insignificant. And that’s not even talking about what on earth is going to be done with the territories of Adrestia- one of the Gonerils are likely to inherit a restructured Leicester, but what the hell happens to Adrestia? There are no imperial heirs, and more than half of the noble houses are dead. So the result is three wrecked countries, an archbishop that has yet to regain the sense of stability she once exuded, and a dreadfully hollow feeling of fulfilled revenge that culminated into no satisfaction. Yeesh.

In taking care of the battlefield- all the messy stuff like counting the dead, giving the grievously injured the mercy of the sword, taking those hale enough to survive as prisoners, and then deciding what to do with those prisoners- Dimitri finds out holy shit. Byleth is alive? What the hell.

Byleth’s imprisonment in Fhirdiad is... less imprisonment, and more recovery. They’ve got a fairly cushy position, considering their position of power and personal connection to the king. Said king isn’t inclined to tell Rhea the news because she seemed... very intent in killing Byleth, and he would Rather Not have that happen.

So now the number of depressed bastards in Castle Fhirdiad has increased by one. Woo-hoo. So there’s... gonna be a lot of mutual self-loathing between Dimitri and Byleth honestly. Crimson Flower wasn’t kind to anyone.

I think it would take a while for Dimitri to turn his attention back towards Rhea and the church, simply by nature of his priorities; take care of his shattered country first, account for the aftermath of the war (and I mean that ‘accounting’ part literally. A lot of war is economics- people tend to forget about all the support and stuff going on in the background of battlefield clashes), address new borders and laws and etc etc. But it doesn’t take long to notice the fact that Rhea is taking a more hard-power approach to her position as Archbishop, rather than the previous soft-power. It’s very concerning...

I wouldn’t know where to go with this, but it would be very, very messy. And since this is CF, Thales is still alive... oof

#fe16 #dildodragon speaks

6 notes · View notes

astraseason · 5 years ago

Text

hello naughty children i’ve been having brainworms today so i present to you: a twist on this super cool au concept by oneirio on twitter! thank you katya for helping me with a lot of plotting uwu

something strange happens when lilim first uses divine pulse to save edelgard from kostas’ axe: in a strange flux of divine power, leraie sees the events and end results of all four routes of three houses. with that vision comes his ability to emote and empathize.

realizing a war is coming with no way to avoid it -- and that the end result sees at least two of three of these innocent children dead, and fodlan only marginally better for it. ... cf aside, but like, again, iNNOCENT KIDS DYING -- he takes it upon himself to become a common enemy the nations of fodlan can unite against. to this end, he becomes a member of those who slither in the dark-- he plans to take advantage of edelgard’s end goal of destroying them when the church has been dismantled. he claims he is the sibling with sothis’ crest stone inside of him. with his ability to use the sword of the creator, leraie also bearing the crest of flames, and the fact that he even knows of them at all, they buy this.

he spends the school year setting up in secret: distancing himself from his sister, his father, the knights, and the students-- that way, when the time comes to face him, they will not hesitate. he’ll just be another enemy to them. come chapter 9, he stops kronya from killing his father, but openly turns on the group instead and leaves with her and thales.

he lures lilim into a trap, allowing her to fuse with sothis-- likely citing a pair of sacrifices being needed to do so, to throw tws off the trail --and deliberately acts very confused when she survives and escapes the darkness. ( this bit is a wip, honestly, but look if intsys can ass pull, i can do it here too. it’ll get better. )

from there, he sets up the exile of edelgard and hubert from adrestia, and deliberately fails to assassinate hubert in particular-- leraie knows full well how vital he is to there being any chance of tws being defeated, and attempts to steer them into hiding out in alliance territory; he knows cornelia must enact a coup of the kingdom, so hiding there would be fruitless.

( he finds an unexpected ally in hubert’s father, who recognizes his silent loyalty to edelgard over tws and has decided to support it. )

finally, with arundel seizing control of the imperial army and declaring himself emperor, those who slither in the dark march on the church of seiros. war still descends upon fodlan. rhea is still captured. lilim vanishes. five long years of a desperate defense effort drag on, until lilim re-emerges.

leraie secretly meddles in cornelia’s coup of faerghus, again ensuring that when dimitri ( and dedue! ) escape, they are driven to where claude can find them.

claude has been hiding edelgard and dimitri in leicester territory ever since discovering them there, and once their old professor returns to them, he deems now as good a time as ever to finally fight back, reclaim adrestia and faerghus, and ultimately be rid of those who slither in the dark. knowing that despite having the church’s and what remains of the kingdom loyalist’s support will not be enough against the empire and tws, he enlists almyra’s help.

in the end, leraie is faced as the final boss. he carries a dark verson of a hero’s relic, a lance-- though a unique one, not a dark lance of ruin or luin or even areadbhar. the name is pending, though. having been stuck with the slitheries for five years, he has also been subjected to numerous experiments-- he has been given not only one more, but two: the crests of riegan and blaiddyd, harvested from godfrey’s corpse ( as the slitheries are heavily implied to be involved with that death ) and a crest-bearing cousin of dimitri’s that was abducted during rufus’ murder. ( in cf, dimitri mentions there are more blaiddyds out there; given rufus was never killed here and there’s no way dimitri of all people had a secret kid, that means he likely has cousins with a crest. )

to ensure absolutely nothing will threaten fodlan’s future with the three lords at the helm, he kills the captured rhea before their eyes. he consumes her blood, taking on a fourth and final crest-- he knows full well that now he only has hours at best to live by doing so but also that it will incite the church into acting, at least.

if two crests are too much for a body to handle, and extensive experimenting by those who slither kept him... relatively stable with three, four is out of the question. leraie corrupts, becoming a beast-- the class would be called supernova. knowing he’s done all he could at this point, leraie turns on the slitheries in his vicinity and attacks them; tearing through them until there’s none left. when none remain, he turns on lilim’s forces in an effort to get them to put him down.

he cries in this monstrous form. cries for the pain he is in. cries for the pain and suffering he has inflicted on his loved ones, especially lilim, alois, and jeralt. cries because he knows he has done horrible things in the name of this bright future he so desperately wants to see... and cries because in the end he knows he won’t even get to see it.

upon his defeat, he apologizes for all that he has done, but states that he does not regret it and that it’s up to the three lords to ensure none of this was in vain. he then passes away in his sister’s arms, his mission complete at long last.

#long post //#ask to tag /#✽ ― 𝐤𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬. ﹙leraie | headcanon.﹚#✽ ― 𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐞. ﹙claude | headcanon.﹚

5 notes · View notes

yooniesim · 9 months ago

Note

I REALLY don't want to come off as mean because I understand what it's like to struggle financially and the stress that puts you under, but I really really think it'd be for the best if you stopped using curseforge, Ceci.

Please do early access if you must! We get that it's not a matter of greed but rather a matter of survival, but please please use the means less damaging to others while keeping yourself healthy. Sims politics is nothing compared to a genocide. I hope you think about it, and I hope you can meditate on this choice. My thoughts are with you and your family 💜

Thank you for this kind comment, nonny! 💜

Honestly, I have considered it. Having a paywall is the last thing I want to do, but after living under this much financial strain for around a year now... well, it's weighing on me. As is using curseforge in the first place. I'll be honest- this month, I'll get $50 from cf. For the whole month. Sometimes it's more if I have points leftover from the previous month (so like $100 in one month), but usually that's the average. Having to use it for such (relatively) little money and dealing with the guilt of using it and the hate that results is pretty damn tough, I'll tell you that much. Like, curseforge fucking sucks and even beyond the boycott I resent the hell out of it at this point. I literally hate it and want to delete it so bad but it's the reason I was even able to even buy my meds this month. I've been working on making my patreon have better benefits without having an actual paywall, and some amazing people have kindly donated, but the amount per month varies so much it's tough to rely on. I'm really getting to be at a loss of what to do at this point. I've been exploring every other possible avenue of extra money I can that fits with my current job schedule, I do other freelance work online on top of that and cc making, and sell any stuff I have left from my collecting days. But I'm still in the red every month and it fucking sucks man. And then to come on here and have people say you love/support genocide, while researching and finding out even more about how Overwolf fucking sucks and trying to figure out how to help the boycott, then people just straight up lie about what you said so others will gossip about you publicly like middle schoolers- it's seriously awful all around. Sorry to vent at you nonny, but it's honestly depressing.

I'm on the verge of just saying fuck it, but the truth is, I'm scared to. The bottom line is that I can't function without my meds, and no one here on tumblr is gonna be with me irl to help me or pick my ass up, you know what I mean? When I log off here, simblr doesn't matter, I'm the one that deals with my own life and any negatives of that. And no matter what I do online or irl activism wise, I have this shit haunting me in the back of my mind. It feels like selling your damn soul for 50 fucking dollars, man. And how pathetic is that, you know? I guess it probably sounds like a simple choice to everyone else, but it isn't. I'm still deciding what to do and hoping, praying, that a few opportunities I'm trying to get irl yield some results. Cos like, even with CF, I'm kinda screwed either way at this point lol. I don't know. What does it even matter, right? I'll consider the early access option, but it's more probable I just quit CF and not do any paywall/CC making in general before that happens. I think if I did early access all my want to be a cc creator would suck out of my body even more than it is now. And boy has it fucking waned ever since I started posting on CF. I don't know. It's literally midnight and I think I need to sleep on it- I was supposed to already be asleep, but I saw your ask and had to answer it, oops. Sorry to ramble, nonny. Thanks again for the ask and being understanding 💜

#asks #ceci speaks #anonymous #negative #on my part not yours #highkey depressing sorry lol #hopefully ill have a better plan tomorrow/the next few days

6 notes · View notes

pklcha · 6 years ago

Link

follow the link and read that wonderful post to see what I’m answering to because I refuse to reblog this ;)

Ok. Ok hold on one FUCKING minute please :)

As a french person, I am not to be insulted without answering ok ?

Alright, let’s take that little thing down from paragraph to paragraph.

For the sport part ?

I cannot disagree. Media have been spamming non stop about football even tho half of the population do not give damn.

There is actually 3 types of people in here. Those who love football, those who do not, and those that are just following the flow. I am personnally of the second type and I was rooting for Crotia because I knew it would only cause issues in the general life. (big shock, it did. Sexual aggression, explosions, looting ect).

BUT BUT BUT

From what I know : Kylian Mbappé and some others membre of the football team actually give their mony to charity.

Mbappé gives money to the association ‘Premiers de cordée”, an association for hospitilized children to help them do sport. This association also helps sensibilize schools and big companies to handicaps.

Florian Thauvin, right ailier, goes to Marseille’s Hospital to go to children.

Also, the team and the FFF (Fédération Française de Football // French Federation of Football) decided collectively to take some of the money to give to a comon wallet for all the other members of FFF that came with them in Russia. (Water people, Doctors, Organisators ect.).

So, that’s the Football part done. And despite how much I Hate the sport, media-spamming and community, I cannot take that away from them.

Onto the next one.

“France is one of the most nationalist countries in the world”.

That is both true and incorrect.

France has a lots, LOTS of ethnicities. Making it multi-ethnic. Mostly african-french and arabico-french. I am personnally part french, part Kabil ( a region of Algeria) and Part Italian. I am proud of what I am and also proud of my country because mine was the only one that went on and said ‘fuck off king, yu done doing shit to us.’ America ? They couldn’t have done it without our support and they were not directly in link with their ‘home country’. As for England, there was a revolution, yes, but it was a ‘gentle’ one. Us ? Pfrr who cares ? King, Chruch and Nobles don’t listen to us ? Ok, get the Mofo Guillotine !

Also, do I need to mention that we’re one of the rare country where Chruch and State are separated ? :) (no, America is not church and State separated. Cf the movie Spotlight, aaptation of a true story).

“They even refuse to learn other languages”

Also Incorrect. We have no other choice but learn at least ONE forign Language. That is english.

English is picked up in primary to Middle school with NO CHOICE. You want to pass ? You need to learn English. AND you also have to pick up a SECOND LANGUAGE that is also obligatory (either Spanish or German.). You have also in some places the choice to learn Latin.

Later on, depending on the highschool you go to, you can pick up another languages. I personnally picked Italian.

Fair enough the teaching level is just TERRIBLE. I’ve personnaly learned more and became bilingual in english by watching cartoons and playing games with natives. BUT you are forced to learn a language in school.

Also, France has idiomas. Other antic languages from the country itself, such as Breton, Langue Doc, Alsacian that or taught in some places.

Also, not to forget one point : Anglicism. France nowadays s FULL of anglicism. (word that were english but are used and frenchisized, if you will).

Also, did I mentionned that France is one of the 5 creators of Europe and that our current president, Emmanuel Macron is pro-europe ?

next one :

“French autistic children are being shoved into freezers”

This, is called ‘Packing’. A medical technic that would use the hot/cold balance to try and treat anxiety attacks.

Ok. So this is a real thing.I cannot deny it. BUT. Panixc attacks can also be controlled by cold. And even if it’s unfit for a lot of people, the most controversial part of this medical practice is violent because the patient is usually trashing. (fair enough tho :’)). But ‘freezers’ ? That sounds a little too big. Especially as the article someone sends is from 2011. It’s been 7 years ! This is NOT A COMmON USE IN HOSPITALS ANYMORE (My mom is a nurse who’ve orked with autistic children for 3 years)

Guys like Charco and all these lads are not an actuality anymore !

Medical practice have evolved since then ! Autistic Children are now accepted in schools and have a better surveillance/helps/more competent people to take care of them.

“ a vast majority of autistic adults are unemployed becore of job discrimination”

There is a LOT of job discrimination. Last year ? I’v setn around 17 job application and only got one by the end of summer and in a shithole where I almost got punched by clients.

The current year ? I’ve sent 20. No responses.

YOUNG PEOPLE such as fresh diplomed folks OR students can’t find a job either because of their lack of experience. I want the FACTS. I want TESTIMONIES of the said enemployed autistic people. Because I want to compare. I’m more than not certain that if they’ve been receiving ‘job discrimination’, it’s because they do not have experience. And the rule in the world we live in ? “You need experience to have a job but you need a job to have experience.”. It’s sad, but it’s true. Being autistic, handicapped or simply a student does not make it worse or better. It’s everybody in the same pack.

“This shit is happening because France is too blinded by nationalism to qustion their own government”

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I’m sorry. this was immature but...really ?! REALLY ?!

Oh excuuuuuse me when it’s been 4 months that train workers are hitting a strike against one of the governments’ reforms (that I personnally don’t find that bad)

When some students couldn’t go to their univeristies to pass their exams because some assholes strikers blocked the access to the university.

when hospitals keeps striking in the streets for more funds, along with inhales : policemens, prison gardian, teachers, retired folks, the army, women,other students, factories workers, firefighters.

also, ever heard about ‘ElKomri’ law ? It’s a reform about work. yeah. That one ‘caused RIOT. To a point where we all thought that it was time for a new republic to rise.

And again, I point you back yup to the second paragraph of this one sighted discussion. Nationalism here means that we are ready to kcik the shit out of anyone trying to shit on us. It’s how French folks work.

So please. People. Do your research. Don’t insult. Ask questions, DEBATE ! Check for FACTS. Live in your time. Compare the news.

But stop being dumb :’)

#an answer #french people

2 notes · View notes

mollyyorkdocumentary-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Independent Creator Docs - Bertie Gilbert: MY SISTER - being learning disabled and getting on with it

vimeo

Notes:

Brightly lit and very colourful, reflects her personality and indicates she is a bright young person. Also a reference to her hobbies and drawing, with the inclusion of her writing on screen.

Similar style in how I would like to approach and film my own documentary. I particularly like the framing for the interview and use of depth to convey their surroundings, rather than just using a flat wall.

He uses this story to tell who his sister is, rather than her learning disability. Although this is touched upon more so by his mother and clips showing her interacting with the world, it presents her in a normal light and shows off their relationship and her personality.

Quite poetic in its storytelling, whilst also being participatory through its use of interviews and the underlying playful and positive tone.

Uses shots positioned to left and right of screen in keeping with rule of thirds for interview. Close ups are used to show her personality and hobbies and other shots showing her off on her own or with her brother are wider and more central. All of these shots use depth to their advantage and natural lighting to give a higher quality and more raw and realistic vibe.

I like the overall bright and high-key lighting in every shot and the primary colour palette throughout to reflect both siblings.

There isn’t a narrator as such, it instead uses the voices from the interviews and includes Bertie (who has made the short). The voices are quite soft with elements of comedy to show their close relationship and convey true emotion throughout so the audience is able to connect to the story.

Bertie doesn’t want you to feel sad for the girl, rather admire her for getting on with her life and showing off her aspirations of living on her own and getting on her feet. It shows the context of her living at home and their mother being protective, yet also shows how beneficial this would be for Gene. Through the cinematography, cuts between interviews and hobbies, and information about her and special qualities she has, Bertie manages to convey a happy emotion and allow the audience to be happy for Gene and all her achievements, feeling sympathetic yet admiring her goals and drive. This is similar to what I would like to achieve with Siobhan, highlighting how she is so much more than CF.

The structure of this piece: Introducing Gene, introducing her mother, characteristics of Gene, cutting back to Gene to demonstrate the response to her mothers answer, back and forth between this and her mother and visuals to demonstrate. Mentions how she lives at home still and her admiration for her mother. Mentions about ‘Genevieve test’ (special part of her personality, music stops here as serious point and emotional). Gene on topic about learning difficulty and how she feels about it. Mother’s opinion of her and her traits and how she is with the disability. Notes of time in hospital and realness of the disability and how she feels about that. Mum’s opinion on young people now and being educated on topic. Gene on communities shes part of and how she is supported. Draws on brother being included and part of interview and their relationship, mentions her moving out and how she is progressing to move out. Mother’s opinion of her leaving. Gene’s opinion. Ends on facts of her leaving.

The structure of this piece is something I want to use within my own piece, using the mix of questions and breaking these apart with voice-overs and showing shots of Siobhan using her medication. I will also be using the framing and colour to match the mood and personality of her. I want to use a poetic and participatory narrative, alongside cinematic shots and handheld nature, keeping this as a day in the life as well as interviews.

Shots for later referencing:

Reference:

Bertie Gilbert (2018) MY SISTER - being learning disabled and getting on with it. Available at: https://vimeo.com/278958260 (Accessed: 11 March 2019)

0 notes

pctestbench · 5 years ago

Text

Introduction

Lexar’s SL100 Pro portable SSD fills an important niche where users need to keep their data close and access it quickly. Whether you are a content creator sitting in a coffee shop editing video or a professional working with large data sets between meetings, the need for high-speed access to your data is at an all-time high. While it seems everything now has a cloud-oriented solution, today’s mobile-oriented world doesn’t always allow the level of access you need. Lexar’s SL100 Pro provides pocket-sized access to everything you need at speeds that leave most USB drives far in the rear-view mirror. The SL100 Pro utilizes SuperSpeed USB 3 10Gbps to enable sequential speeds of over 900MB/s in both reads and writes.

PC Test Bench would like to thank Lexar for providing us with a sample of the SL100 to test out.

About Lexar:

Lexar was split off from Cirrus Logic in 1996 in San Jose, California, and manufactured flash storage products including SD and CF memory cards, USB flash drives, and Solid-State Drives. Lexar was later acquired by Micron in 2006 and continued on until 2017 until parent company Micron announced it would discontinue its retail removable media storage business and put it up for sale. Lexar branding and trademark rights were purchased by China-based memory company Longsys.

Superior speed when accessing your content on-the-go

Quickly and securely store and access your content anywhere with the Lexar® Professional SL100 Pro Portable SSD. With sleek, slimline styling and a premium aluminum finish, it provides superior performance on the go, with speeds up to 950MB/s read and 900MB/s write. Available in 500GB and 1TB capacities.

FEATURES

Superior SSD-level performance, with speeds up to 950MB/s read and 900MB/s write1

Sleek, slimline styling with a premium brushed aluminum finish

Durable, portable design resists harsh temperatures and vibration

Includes 256-bit AES encryption software solution to protect files securely

Features a USB Type-C port, and includes both USB Type-C to Type-C cable and USB Type-C to Type-A cable

Three-year limited warranty

SPECIFICATIONS

Color Black

Capacity 500GB, 1TB

Interface USB 3.1 Type-C

Speed Up to 950MB/s read, up to 900MB/s write

System Supported Mac® OSX 10.6+, Windows® 10/7/8

Standard USB (Type-A or Type-C) port

Operating Temperature 0°C to 70°C

Storage Temperature -40°C to 85°C

Dimension (W x L x H) 55 x 73.4 x 10.8 mm / 2.165” x 2.89” x 0.425”

Weight 70.5g / 0.155lbs（Without Cable）

A Closer Look

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

One of the first things you notice about the Lexar’s SL100 is how small it is. The packaging is barely big enough to hold a standard 2.5” SSD.

Inside, you’ll find the SL100 Pro portable SSD and a pair of USB cables. The drive itself uses a USB Type-C and comes with a cable to connect to other USB Type-C devices as well as a standard Type-A for compatibility with almost everything you’ll come across.

The SL100 Pro is tiny, measuring about 2 inches by 3 inches, or 55 x 74mm and less than 11mm thick.

The outside is mostly black anodized brushed aluminum, with chrome end caps. The Lexar logo is silk-screened on in white.

The back has the capacity and serial number, as well as some regulatory markings.

One end has the Type-C port, as well as a tiny pin-hole that lets a blue power and activity light to shine through in use.

Under the Hood

Lexar’s SL100 Pro really isn’t meant to be user repairable. There are no visible fasteners, you have to peel the metal stickers off of each end to get to the 4 screws that hold the internal sled into the one-piece extruded metal shell.

The internal PCB has a piece of felt on the side with all of the chips initially to prevent shorts against the aluminum shell.

The backside has a thick thermal pad covering most of the PCB.

Although, there is almost nothing under it. The 500GB model only has two 256GB NAND modules on the front, but there are two pads here for another pair for the 1000GB model.

On the front side, a JMicron JMS583 USB 3.1 Gen2 to PCIe/NVMe bridge IC provides the bridge from USB to PCIe. A Marvell 88NV1160 quad-channel controller takes advantage of the provided PCIe 3.0 x2 interface to connect to either TLC or QLC flash, in this case, the former.

A pair of 256GB Micron 64L TLC NAND flash chips hang off of the Marvell controller to provide 512GB of physical capacity, before 12GB of overprovisioning.

Software

ENC Security’s ENCDataVault Lite

Like most people, you keep a treasure trove of private information, on your computer or other storage devices, that may include important documents, photos, videos, financial records, and other sensitive data that make up your digital life, and that deserve the protection you would want to have for any property you own.

Each and every day, cybercriminals are at work, hacking into computer systems and making off with private files and sensitive information. Now, with ENC Security Software, you have a simple to use program, with all the tools needed to protect your important files and data from unauthorized access and malicious or criminal misuse. The possible consequences of information falling into the wrong hands: identity theft, embarrassment, job loss, or worse… will no longer be your concern, when you take the few seconds needed for ENC Security Software to permanently secure all your important documents and sensitive data.

Whether you are securing your vital information on your desktop, laptop, flash drive, or some other storage device, With ENC DataVault Security Software you can now have peace of mind and full control of your digital life.

When you first run the portable ENCDataVault, it will ask you to set a password and reminder phrase. Subsequent runs will ask you to log in.

Once inside, you’ll see your ‘Flash Drive’ Vault Door on the top. Double-clicking it will open the secured area of your SL100 Pro.

Once inside, you can drag files in and out.

Your encrypted files will show in the window while logged in, but nowhere else.

Under Tools > Options, you have the option of different encryption levels if you have the full version.

We all know things can happen to portable drives, whether it falls under the car seat or you leave it at your work desk, sometimes you need your files still. ENC keeps a local copy of your data backed up, or multiple revisions if you want.

If you want the increased feature set, hitting the button top and center in the window will take you to the ENCSecurity website where you can buy the full version.

Testing

Test Platform: CPU Intel Core i9-9900k Mobo Asus ROG Strix Z390-I Gaming RAM G.Skill TridentZ RGB GPU Nvidia RTX 2080Ti FE OS SSD Samsung 960 Pro 2TB

Comparison Drives: Crucial X8 1TB Orico GV100 512GB

Out of the box, Lexar’s SL100 PRO 500GB drive comes with 465GB usable space under its default exFAT formatting with the DataVault software occupying a scant 25MB of that.

CrystalDiskInfo

USB Mass Storage drivers are very universal but are garbage for performance. We are pleased to see that Lexar’s SL100 Pro can take advantage of USB Attached SCSI Protocol (UASP) to encapsulate NVMe for maximum performance. A couple of quick tests warms the drive up very quickly to the mid to upper 40C range, but it levels out quickly and stays there, which is a good thing for NAND longevity, it likes to be warm. Not hot, but warm.

Sequential Testing – Variable Queue Depth

Sequential speeds start around 425MB/s for reads and around 390MB/s for writes at QD1. We see a slight dip at QD2 and then things shoot up at QD4. Most users will never get above QD2, and that’s mostly while writing and reading from the drive simultaneously.

Random Testing – Variable Queue Depth

Random performance is really good on the write side, but reads don’t climb with queue depth. Simultaneous mixed-use, made up of 70% read and 30% write is also held back by reads. We would expect the larger 1TB model to perform better on reads as it has more NAND flash modules to distribute the commands to at one time.

CrystalDiskMark 7.0

“CrystalDiskMark is designed to quickly test the performance of your hard drives. Currently, the program allows measuring sequential and random read/write speeds.”

Since not every computer has USB gen 2 ports (10Gbps) available, we also test on a 5Gbps port. The reduced USB bandwidth really doesn’t have much of an impact on random performance, but realistic QD1 sequential performance will show a noticeable impact.

We see random write performance climb pretty significantly, with sequential performance coming in at respectable levels at both USB 5gbps and 10gbps speeds.

Mixed testing is tough on many drives and we see a noticeable impact. USB 3.x has an advantage over older drives as it supports Full-Duplex communications in contrast to older USB 2.0 drives that can only handle half-duplex. The controller on the SL100 Pro doesn’t handle this quite as well as some competing (and more expensive) models but still provides respectable performance.

PCMark 10 Storage Test

PCMark 10 introduces a set of four storage benchmarks that use relevant real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to fully test the performance of the latest modern drives.

The Full System Drive Benchmark uses a wide-ranging set of real-world traces from popular applications and common tasks to fully test the performance of the fastest modern drives.

The Data Drive Benchmark is designed to test drives that are used for storing files rather than applications. You can also use this test with NAS drives, USB sticks, memory cards, and other external storage devices.

Lexar’s SL100 Pro does a decent job on both PCMark 10 Storage tests we use. The System drive emulates common tasks from real-world programs and will make heavy use of random mixed transfers. Here, the SL100 Pro averages ~115MB/s while the more sequential oriented ‘Data Drive’ testing patterns creep up to nearly 140MB/s.

ATTO Disk Benchmark

ATTO indicates higher than rated performance on reads and close to rated performance on writes. It’s always nice to get a little more than you were expecting!

Anvil’s Storage Utilities

Anvil’s Storage Utilities has been around quite a few years now, but still provides a good look at many aspects of SSD’s including latency and IOPS. It provides a benchmark score that is easy to compare between drives.

Black Magic Disk Speed Test

Disk Speed Test is an easy to use tool to quickly measure and certify your disk performance for working with high-quality video! Simply click the start button and Disk Speed Test will write test your disk using large blocks of data, and then display the result. Disk Speed Test will continue to test writes and reads from your disk so you can evaluate both performance and readability over time.

One real-world use case of a portable SSD is content creators editing video on the go. This requires a minimum sustained performance level specific to each codec and resolution. Black Magic’s Disk Speed test checks many common ones and Lexar’s SL100 Pro easily sustains enough read and write performance for all of them.

Drive Thermals

It took about 30 minutes of continuous testing to get the SL100 Pro to the hottest temp we saw, around 60C. It wasn’t enough to throttle, but was noticeably warm to the touch, enough so you wouldn’t really want to put it in your pants pocket immediately after use.

Final Thoughts & Conclusion

Lexar’s SL100 Pro is one very capable solution to needing performance on the go. In many scenarios, the SL100 Pro exceeds the rated speeds. While low queue depth performance is a little lower than some comparable drives, the price is too. The 500GB model brings around $100 on the street with the 1TB version landing around $190 or so. Even though it didn’t top the charts on every test, it still was no slouch either. The performance was consistent with only the most brutal sustained workloads heating up the drive, but it never reached the point of throttling. The tiny size, even smaller price tag, and solid performance make the SL100 Pro easy to recommend to anyone needing flexible, portable, and high-speed storage.

[sc name=”award-recommended” ]

Lexar SL100 Pro Portable SSD Review Introduction Lexar’s SL100 Pro portable SSD fills an important niche where users need to keep their data close and access it quickly.

#Lexar #Portable SSD #SL100 #SL100 Pro #SSD #Type-C #USB

1 note · View note