#personally i would just completely remove the agarthans

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

Don't get me wrong, I like Three Houses, but the more time goes on, the more I realize how messy it is. It basically wanted to cash in on Persona's style of play and fell apart at the seams story-wise the longer you analyze it, nevermind how much of a slog replays for other routes are. If I rewrote it, it would go all in on the TWSITD conspiracy, making all branches connected to it. White Clouds would no longer be a full route split, it would just be a general thing with route split at the end with a simple choice and all the beginning seeds of the conspiracy laid out through plot for Blue Lions, Black Eagles and Golden Deer, allowing you to chase the leads as you pleased and clear data sending you back to that split. Rhea would be working with TWSITD with them preying upon her long-term grief, and her route would be as close to "golden" as you get, only unlocking once you do the other three and have knowledge from them to actually spot the larger conspiracy and alert Rhea to her being used by them to gain access to Crests. It would make much more sense of how she wields so much social, political and ACTUAL power and still has her school infested with them right under her nose, and allow a route still deeply tragic that allows you to have all three Houses work together against a centuries-long conspiracy and give Rhea a much less... Weird story where she seems to both be actually powerful but also an eternal victim and thus grant her more agency in her own story with the revelation that a promised Sothis revival was a lie. This would make the fact Rhea and TWSITD are both doing vaguely similar Crest experiments make sense IMO--they would have seemed genuinely apologetic of their past actions with it ALL being a lie, they just need access to those sweet, sweet Crests, and thus even Edelgard's route falls in line and makes complete sense why she's got such a personal grudge against the Church.

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[fantasyinvader]

The thing is, I also think that if Edelgard was telling Byleth to avenge her during her death scene, it better ties the game together. Recall that the game's creators say that the worldbuilding was done in support of Silver Snow. That the lore, backstories and events are all meant to prop up what that route is saying, even if the player doesn't initially realize this.

Silver Snow says that Edelgard was in cahoots with TWSITD, using them to try an achieve her own goals. Pretty simple, but the route also say that TWSITD are the ones behind all of Fodlan's problems and need to be defeated. If she really is supposed to have said to avenge her, and that killing her is Byleth's duty as the victor, it would tie into Hubert's letter where he says that taking out TWSITD is Byleth's duty as the victor and that doing so would be some form of tribute to Edelgard. It seems to confirm that Edelgard was another person they played, and considering we have Edelgard in BE White Clouds say the experiments were by Duke Aegir and the nobles, while Silver Snow says Aegir wasn't a monster. A shitty person, sure, but he's being blamed for what Arundel does so he's some form of scapegoat for Arundel.

Going into Flower, we also have Ionius saying it was Aegir. However, Hubert later explains that Ionius was a puppet of a group led by Arundel. A group that included Solon and Kronya, meaning that Edelgard's father was really a puppet of TWSITD who were also the ones behind the experiments. But this really shouldn't come off as a shock because Edelgard, as the Flame Emperor, confronted Thales on the experiments during White Clouds. She knows that TWSITD were the ones behind them, just like Hubert implies that she knows that TWSITD have been controlling her father. And then in a later scene, Edelgard explains that it was information passed down to her from her father, about how Nemesis wasn't an evil king and how her family betrayed humanity and more, that caused Edelgard to act. Cornelia dies saying that Edelgard is dancing to TWSITD's tune, but the Japanese says what really happened is that in reality TWSITD is the ones being used by Edelgard. The route makes it clear they are to be taken out after Edelgard has won the war and conquered Fodlan.

Flower also repeatedly makes it out that Edelgard manipulates people, takes credit for the work of others while using scapegoats to protect her image. There's the whole information campaign line removed by the translation, or the fact her ending with Dorothea shows her censoring the arts. She'll keep her allies in the dark about what's really going on, and with Hubert's line mentioned above, there's good evidence that Edelgard was lying to the player in order to sway her to side.

But then you have Azure Moon implying that there was another group behind the scenes, the ones pulling the strings to not just the war but stuff like Duscur as well. Dimitri says he'll investigate more after the war, but Hapi's endings talk about TWSITD's remnants returning. The organization has already been destroyed by Dimitri's forces by complete accident, since Arundel serves as a regular boss. Verdant Wind outright says that TWSITD manipulated Edelgard and the Empire into going to war. This serves to connect with what is revealed in Flower, that Edelgard was manipulated by Thales and her father appears to have been the medium to do so.

Hopes even took it further, using Aymr as a symbol of TWSITD turning Edelgard into their puppet in Azure Gleam and the player being able to unlock it in Scarlet Blaze. Even if Edelgard goes to war on her own, she's still their angry little puppet. Edelgard has been manipulated, this war is by Agarthan design.

Cornelia's dying words in the original text aligns with Silver Snow, Edelgard was tricked into starting a war for the Agarthans but since has turned the tables and is now the puppetmaster. The alteration, instead, makes it out that entire campaign is Edelgard being tricked before she has them murdered and then (with other changes) goes on to be a better leader than the Japanese text said. It makes it come across like while the player did serve the Agarthans, it was all in the service of a greater good.

In other words, the game does heavily support the devs comments. It is saying that Edelgard was tricked into starting the war… but is it denying her any agency of her own? That'll be next time.

[iturbide]

Ok, ironically I like Linhardt as a hero, and more then I like Caspar (Casper in Ashe’s supports left a bad tase in my mouth, even if I still like him), but villain!Linhardt? Would be brilliantly terrifying. The potential, the *betrayal* would all be amazing.

(Could you imagine that on CF? Edelgard, confident that everyone would go along with her because they’re loyal/too afraid to speak out, and suddenly- villain!Linhardt just goes “oh, by the way…” and reveals everything via casual villain monologue. [Even if- despite that he fears blood, and is one of the few characters that regret their first kill- especially since everyone seems at their lowest on CF, it would be easy for twisted to go “well, you’ve done this much, might as well make use of it” and Lin just goes “well that makes sense” and just get’s worse and worse.])

That's totally fair I know a fair few people who like Linhardt a lot, and I completely respect and admire that! I just personally don't care for his character as it's written in the game: I have to work hard to make him into a character I get enjoyment out of writing (which may account for how minor his roles are in my fics), whereas Caspar endlessly delights me and I enjoy bringing him into combat and writing him in my work.

(Funny enough, Ashe and Caspar's Support chain is one of my standout favorites in the game -- though I'll readily admit that I was certain I'd hate it after the C support. That one was really rough and left me feeling super uncomfortable...but then I got the B, and the tension broke, and the A where they realized that they were both doing the same thing was just a riot to me. I honestly think both of them needed to butt heads like that and recognize that there are flaws in their own logic: they were able to learn a little from each other, and ultimately find something they could even bond over. The idea of them becoming friends and sharing more and more, adopting the best parts of the other's approach and worldview, never fails to make me smile, especially in conjunction with the idea that they explore the world and befriend a ton of cats in post-canon.)

I think part of what fascinates me about the idea of VilLinhardt is that it doesn't need to be at odds with his squeamishness for blood. A lot of his research could be purely theoretical, based on records and recordings kept by the Twisted -- and if new experimentation is required, he could always develop the protocol and hand it off to them while either watching from a distance (where he can remove himself if he starts feeling faint or ill) or review the results afterward and make adjustments for the next phase of experimentation. He doesn't need to get his hands dirty, because the Agarthans are most interested in what his mind is capable of, and once they recognize the advantages that can bestow upon them they could easily facilitate any of his quirks -- especially if it results in him giving them full access to his work, which they can then use to their advantage.

[gascon-en-exil]

If we try and remove Byleth from Three Houses, who would likely be their replacement/s in the storyline? In AM, it will obviously be Dedue. But, what about in the other routes?

There's no easy answer that works for all the routes, because while removing Byleth completely undoubtedly would have made the overall writing of Three Houses stronger it would have also required a different focus and some extensive rewriting, especially where Sothis and Rhea are concerned. It'd also need the house leaders to become full PoV characters and also likely controllable in exploration, although that would have benefitted all three of them. Even if Byleth loses their self-insert status (and probably gender variability, in that case) and becomes a recruitable teacher like Hanneman and Manuela who only becomes central to the plot in Silver Snow, that would still require quite a bit of reworking...and would have lost the fans of Avatar dating sims, which has apparently been the most lucrative demographic of FE players for the last decade.

Azure Moon does indeed fare the best without Byleth, helped greatly by it being the most traditional FE story and the one that trims a lot of the fat in Three Houses's undercooked story elements, ex. the Agarthans and the mystery surrounding who and what Byleth is. It's already got the best pacing, the clearest arc for its protagonist, the best relationship between its hero and villain, and the best sense of dramatic payoff in ending where it does. The Byleth-free version would be all about power couple Dimidue, with added focus on Dimilix as a second relationship that begins roughly but develops into one of equal significance. Dedue and Felix would grow into a dynamic comparable to August and Dorias toward Leif in FE5, or Soren and Titania toward Ike in FE9: a pair of advisors with vastly different views of the world and who care for their leader in very different ways and so are forced to come to an understanding. They'd be fully integrated into the plot, allowing them to participate in story moments like Rodrigue's death and the resolution of the Duscur mystery much more organically than they do in canon, not to mention be the ones along with Gilbert and Rodrigue to help Dimitri through his darkest moments. The golden ending is an orgy.

Would IS ever write that? Absolutely not. It'd be too overtly gay, even if the relationships were still only kept to subtext, and there's no plot-relevant waifu bait to be had. Fandom would decry that AM as even more misogynistic than Echoes, and not progressive enough because with no Avatar S ranks Dimitri's queer relationships wouldn't be "canon." They'd be no homo'ed just like Ike/Soren is...which they are now, only it'd be more prominent with no Dimileth taking up such a large portion of Dimitri's fanbase.

I have no idea how this reworked Three Houses would handle the Eagles route split, so it'd probably be better off without one. Silver Snow would follow Byleth as they (she? he? The former allows for a second female lead, the latter delves into magical genderqueer territory with Byleth as the incarnation of a goddess) teach the Eagles and gradually uncover Edelgard's nefarious plans only too late to stop them. Apart from Byleth now having a definite gender, voice, and personality - quite a lot, I know - not much of the actual substance of SS would necessarily need to change. It would certainly benefit from a second pass in the writers' room, Byleth or not, like handling the Gronder rematch in a less awkward way, actually working to develop the antagonism between Byleth and Edelgard outside of two cutscenes, and making the final chapter make any kind of sense and not just "Rhea succumbs to dragon degeneration because you need to fight a final boss, Seteth handwaves the whole thing with a line referencing something that got referenced once back in like Chapter 2." Just...some kind of effort there would be nice.

At any rate SS with Byleth as an actual character would be more strongly-written for it, allowing them to function as a genuine protagonist. (Alternatively, make Ferdinand the protagonist...but that would resolve in him and Hubert putting on an elaborately-staged musical where they work through their feelings in the middle of fighting on opposite sides of a war. You know what? Give me that version of SS instead. Way more interesting.)

For Crimson Flower, drop the pretense right from the start. Edelgard's your PoV character, she knows she's the Flame Emperor and what she's doing throughout the school year, and Part 1 is about her trying to maintain the façade of a normal student while she's planning a war on the DL. If they insist on keeping some of the mystery, that wouldn't be impossible as it's obvious Hubert is the brains of their operation and he keeps most of what he does hidden from Edelgard anyway. I'm not really sure how to work the waifu hot for teacher angle into a PoV version of Edelgard; as much as I enjoy it from the comedic standpoint of Hubert never getting any because his lady never looks at him twice I think CF would be stronger if Byleth stayed with Rhea and the route didn't bother with working out their relationship to the Nabateans. Just genocide 'em all as Edelgard conquers the continent and convinces herself it's all for the best. She can shed a tear over Byleth's corpse while Hubert brandishes a cleaver with even more relish than usual to extract that valuable Crest stone. The ending is basically the same minus the Edeleth, with it being even more obvious that the shadow war against the Agarthans is going to resolve in Hubert taking his place as the real Manfroy of this story.

And as for Verdant Wind, the whole route would need a rewrite, to give it a more distinct identity from SS and to make it work with a protagonist whose personality and arc revolve around revealing very little about himself to anyone else. Players would undoubtedly find out much more about Claude that way than they do in canon VW, and it'd probably work better if it kept Edelgard's war to the background and refocused hard on the worldbuilding discoveries and how they play into Claude's growing understanding of Fódlan. With or without Byleth, a better-written VW would be vastly different from the canon version.

So aside from the house leaders taking over Byleth's role as PoV characters and exploration avatars I don't see anyone else assuming their exact role in supporting said leaders. Dimitri has an abundance of male love and camaraderie, Edelgard gets all worked up over Byleth but is still completely willing to step over them to achieve her goals (also Hubert is there), Claude would likely see his background and beliefs teased out of him gradually by all the Deer in their own ways, and Byleth as an actual character could make SS all about their Nabatean family and the bonds, magically incestuous or otherwise, they can form with the surviving dragons.

[mommymooze]

Death By Association

Hubert approaches the woman who is bent down at the table, silently pouring through various tomes and books in the library. He coughs into his fist. “You have requested my presence?”

You look up suddenly and stand erect, making a respectful bow. “General Von Vestra, thank you so much for gracing me with a few moments of your valuable time.”

“Yes, my time is quite valuable. Proceed.” Hubert eyes the woman cautiously. He has seen her around for several months but does not recall working with her directly.

“I am a cleric, in General Von Hevring’s battalion. I also work in the medical tents treating the wounded. Sometimes Linhardt will discuss his research with me. This particular subject is one that he has lost interest in, however I believe this is something I must share with you.”

You advise that you have been studying plagues following wars throughout history. Making notes of transmission methods, symptoms, etcetera. You have been studying this subject for several years.  Thus far there have been no unknown illnesses or diseases that have affected the masses, however there is something unique you must discuss with him.

You look about the library seeing no others.

“I have seen six victims.” You begin, “the first a few years ago. The other five within the last year. It was quite gruesome. I have recorded the symptoms that I have been able to identify. Most concerning is as the illness comes to its end, the subjects begin to bleed profusely, their blood is hot, appearing to be boiling out of them. It is so hot that their clothing catches fire. Anything that was used to clean their blood begins smoke and catch fire as well. Needless to say it is a horrible death.”

“What interest would I have in this?” Hubert stares intently.

“The two most recent deaths were from your own battalion. The dark magic corps, correct?”

“Yes.” He mutters, still eyeing you suspiciously.

“The last battle at Gronder was horrific.” Your voice trembles, “Only those two were affected. Bleeding from their eyes and hands. Bloody noses that would not stop. We quarantined them. Their symptoms worsened quickly until their blood boiled out and they died. We pursued multiple ways to fight this affliction. Healing merely slows the process. We placed one subject in a deep bath filled with ice water. His temperature continued rising higher and higher. He burst into flames while submerged in the water.” You shudder, crying as you recall the gruesome deaths.

“Could it be…” Hubert abruptly stops.

Within the hour you are in a meeting room with Emperor Edelgard, Hubert, and Linhardt. Hubert provides a succinct summary of your findings.

Linhardt speaks. “It is obvious that it has something to do with the Agarthans.”

“There are quite a few in Hubert’s battalion.” You comment.

“How do you know about them.” Hubert stands, leaning over toward you and glaring.

“I am one of their failed experiments, courtesy of our beloved friend, Cornelia.” You subconsciously hug yourself, looking away.  

“How do you recognize them?” Hubert’s eyes still piercing you.

“I can smell them.” You snarl.

 The Emperor excuses herself after placing a high priority on obtaining a solution. The remaining three brainstorm on what is known, what is suspected, and what can be done. Tomes and books are brought in from Claude and Lin’s room as well as Abyss. Hubert assigns several of his spies to multiple battalions, other Generals battalions to monitor what occurs in his own unit.

Reviewing the data gathered thus far, it is obvious advanced magic is needed. The green haired cleric suggests Rhea and Seteth’s rooms. You split up, he takes Rheas quarters, while you take the other, agreeing to bring any items of interest back here.

You scour the books on the shelves of his office. There are a few tomes but none contain the desired spells. You search Seteth’s bedroom, moving every object you can.  You check the two bookshelves. One is easily pushed to the side, the other will not budge. You resort to removing all books from the shelves until you find a lever behind a book. Once pulled, the bookshelf swings into the room. On the back of the shelf is a recessed area shelving several unique and very old tomes. Snatching them up, you return to the meeting room.

Two books are historical, probably interesting to Hubert. One is written in a language that you cannot understand.  Two are filled with clerical procedures and spells. Some you’ve seen in practice as part of church services, some you have never heard referenced before.

Lin returns several hours later. Not that he had found anything particularly interesting, but he did take a nap in Rhea’s bed.

The green haired healer peers at the spell book you wave in front of his face. His eyes widen as he reads through the runes and incantations that are recorded. The spell you have the greatest interest in is “Purifying Light.” The two of you begin to make notes, dissecting the spell into its component parts.

Early the next morning Hubert enters the room bringing coffee, which you graciously accept. You have been so absorbed in the research you had not noticed the sun is just starting to rise over the horizon. You and Linhardt have nearly completed the mapping and logic stream of the spell. Hubert, having very little experience with this type of magic, does not completely follow your cryptic writings, that does not stop him from asking many questions about the effects, the intent.

You explanation the dissection of the spell. “Its purpose is to banish the darkness from a person. A spiritual exorcism. If they are too far gone, it may simply end them, in a peaceful manner hopefully. The texts do not discuss unexpected effects or results. Primarily the intended target is a victim of a high level dark magic spell. If you are banishing the darkness, what will happen to those that have cast nothing but dark magic all of their lives? We still have much more to investigate. The Agarthans live in near total darkness. Surely a spell creating a pure light would have a pronounced effect on them as well as those that they have contaminated.”

The sun traverses the sky and begins to descend in the west when you finally decide your productivity level is too low and you need sleep. Heading to your room you think of Hubert. He has been helpful throughout the research, frequently checking on you, bringing food and coffee and insisting you take breaks, walking with you around the monastery getting exercise.

Several weeks pass, you are prepared to test the spell. Hubert is away on a mission, his battalion with him. You and Lin agree the timing is perfect, keeping the Agarthans unaware of this spell. The pair move to the magical training area, specifically the fireproof area. You cast the spell, the sigils glowing before you as you concentrate on the proper movement and sequence while reciting the verbal components of the spell, at the final words a bright radiance fills a glass sphere that is floating in a basin of holy water, the two physical spell components. The orb rises into the air and glows with a bright whiteness, the intensity of the light increases to the point of needing to shade your eyes. Suddenly the room is in complete darkness as the spell concludes.  

Blinking your eyes to readjust to the normal light in the room, both of you inspect the walls and floors of the stone structure to see if anything has changed. Besides feeling physically warm there is no affect to your person. The room smells…clean. You cannot see any traces of mold or mildew on the walls.

The components are reset. Linhardt casts the spell, it does not seem to be as bright as yours, his movements are not as crisp, nor did he care to be as precise as you. Still, you both feel warm. The room is unchanged. You casually wonder if it can remove that permanent funky smell in the laundry room.

Two nights later, Hubert warps into the monastery. He is accompanied by one of his spies hiding within his battalion.

“This man was standing next to an Agarthan when they were killed. As we have seen in the past, many of those that slither crumble to dust when killed, especially in the daylight. We had to wait until my man was separated from the rest of the battalion. I believe he is showing signs of the illness.”

The spy, now patient, is holding a cloth to his nose. Blood runs down his face and hand, pooling under his fingernails. The clerics don thick aprons and gloves, a table is moved to the spellcasting training area. The fireproof area is chosen again. Losing the infirmary to an explosion or fire would be devastating.

The patient is calmed and lying prone on the table. You remove the patient’s shirt, exposing more of his skin to the light that will be created by the spell. Fresh holy water is poured into the basin next to the patient, the glass orb is now floating.

Reviewing the spell a final time, you raise your hands to cast, warning everyone to shade their eyes.The patient uses one hand to hold the cloth under his bleeding nose, the other covering his eyes.

Casting the Purifying Light spell, you manipulate the sigils, then recite the verbal incantation, your voice more powerful than the last time as you have gained confidence having cast the spell before. The orb floats high into the air, the water pulled up into it to fuel the light, then a bright flash occurs, the spell ending with a distinct ‘pop’ and the room goes dark.

Uncovering your eyes, you run over to the patient, fingers to his throat. He still has a pulse! He removes his hand from his eyes, suddenly turning away from you, coughing and hacking viciously, then vomits. Linhardt takes a cloth to wipe the disgusting mess from the table.

Studying the expelled liquid on the cloth, Linhardt comments. “This is very black and fine. Much finer than blood in his system. It resembles a powder.” The green haired scholar surmises. “Like dead Agarthan dust.”

Linhardt checks the patient further. “He is breathing well, no longer bleeding. His fingers now look clear, no blood pooling.“ He asks the man on the table, “How are you feeling?”

“I feel warm. There are other things, but mostly warm.” He says with a smile, happy that he can breathe again.

You  turn to Hubert, bolting to where he was standing. He is now lying on the ground. You realize nobody had warned him it would be in his best interest not to remain within the room during the spell casting as you had no idea how it would affect him. You hastily sit him up, sitting on the floor next to him, anxiously checking him out. His pulse is fine. You put your ear on his chest to listen and see if anything is wrong.

“Mmmmm.” Hubert hums. “It is incredibly warm.”

“I’m so sorry, Hubert. Did you hit your head? Are you hurt?” Your hands brushing any dirt from his clothes. He looks to be a bit dazed. You pull his eyelids open checking his pupils, grasping his face to turn his head this way and that.

“No, I recall a bright light and then found myself on the floor. I am not experiencing pain.” Hubert says slowly, as if he has to think twice before speaking any word.

“When you are ready, I will help you to stand. We should take you to your room, as well as inform the Emperor of the current events.”

Hubert takes a moment to situate himself then takes your hand, with your assistance is able to stand.

Hubert looks down at your hand in his. “Your hand is incredibly warm. Not hot, not burning. Just…warm.” He at you. “You also appear to be glowing.” His brows furrow.

Linhardt interrupts without looking up from the patient, “Yes, she was last time she cast this spell too.”

You look at Hubert unsure if he is well. “Let’s get you to your quarters, General.” You turn him around to make certain any dirt from his fall is brushed away.

As you lead him to the door he takes your hand in his again. “Still warm.” He smiles walking toward his quarters holding your hand,

He arrives, opens his door, then waves causing several candles flicker to life. He ushers you inside and closes the door behind you.

“How are you feeling now? Any dizziness?” You cautiously ask, heaven forbid if you did anything to one of Adrestia’s greatest generals. You lead him to sit on the chair next to his desk.

Hubert thinks for a moment, rubbing his hands up and down his thighs. “I do not recall striking my head or falling. I recall the spell, the bright light and the popping noise. Then you were assisting me to stand. My hands feel oddly sensitive.”

You frown, quite concerned. “Hubert, please remove your gloves?”

“This has nothing to do with me or my hands.” Hubert responds curtly.

Well, that sounds more like him. “Humor me. I’ve seen them before.” Your voice stern, sounding more like the cleric you are.

The dark mage reluctantly pulls his gloves off his hands, you grasp his fingers in yours and pull them closer to the light. You notice the fingers are not as dark black as they had been, the purple streaks only going into his palms, no longer covering his wrist. You take your fingernail and scrape it under his pinky finger.

“Why did you do that?” he snaps at you hastily pulling his hand from your grasp.

“Because I could. Look.” You take his hand, showing him his palm.

Hubert stares, first at one hand, then the other. Touching his fingertips together. There is a look upon his face that you have never seen before, a look of awe.

“How…?” The man is mystified, staring as he clenches his fingers into a fist, then uncurls them.

“My apologies, Hubert. Linhardt and I had discussed that prior to performing the spell that we should ask you to remove yourself from range. We were not certain how the spell would affect you. Our error is serendipitous for you. It appears to have reversed some of the scarring.”

Hubert shakes his head. “I have not had this much sensation of feeling in my fingers for years.” His voice softens as he stares at his fingers again.

“We must report to Her Majesty.” You remind him. Definitely distracted.

“Absolutely.” Hubert stands, brushing himself off and then taking your hand in his as quickly guides you to the Emperor’s room and knocks. “Apologies, my Emperor, there is a matter we must discuss.”

He pulls you by the hand into her room, keeping it clasped in his. He explains his rushed return, the performing of the spell and that everything thus far is considered a complete success.

Emperor Edelgard peers at the two of you slightly squinting, spying that he is holding your hand tightly. “Thank you, Hubert. Anything else?”

“No, my lady, you will have your report in the morning.” The general bows and so do you. He shows you to the door, returning to his room’s interior, refusing to release your hand.  

He proceeds to sit on the edge of his bed, you stand next to him.

“Hubert, you should rest.” You whisper softly placing the back of your free hand to his forehead to see if he is warm. He’s not.

“I will take your recommendation under consideration.” He says, less curtly than usual.

“I have had a busy day as well.” You say softly, looking down. “If you do not mind…” you look to your hand in his.

“What if I do mind?” Hubert says, looking into your eyes. “I find your presence comfortable.”

You think to yourself, others have said many times of how Hubert’s presence is so frightening, how he gives off a scary aura, however you have never seen him to be that way, never felt cold chills at his approach or terrified should he look at you.

“As I do yours.” You sit on the bed, a bit of space between you.

“I wish to thank you for restoring some sensation to my hands. We have tried many different spells and cures. How can I thank you?” Hubert looks a little overwhelmed.

“I charge you one hug.” You shyly slide your hands between his arms and body, pulling him into a hug, putting your nose into his neck so he cannot see the bright red flush of your cheeks.

Hubert, not the most practiced at hugs, wraps his long arms around you one hand above the other at the center of your back resting his cheek on top of your head.

You hear the most beautiful sigh as you give him a little squeeze.

[holdharmonysacred]

@access-ark said:   Uuuuh she doesn’t want to kill the dragons, she only wants to remove them from power. If the former was the case, she wouldn’t keep Rhea alive in non-CF routes, or ask her to surrender in CF. She would also try to chase Seteth and Flayn, and the other Saints, but she does none of that.                            

I already made a post replying to someone else about the problems with saying “She just wants to remove them from power” here at this link, you can read that post there. In short, the Japanese text of the game repeatedly stresses that Edelgard does in fact want to destroy the dragon people, as collected in this other person’s post. Speaking of Seteth and Flayn, only Byleth can spare those two, if you send Edelgard against them she will kill them. Linhardt’s paralogue also makes it an explicit point that Linhardt doesn’t want you to bring Edelgard or Hubert along when he and Leonie go talk to Indech.

Linhardt: If we're going now, I do suggest leaving Edelgard and Hubert innocent of our quest. Lake Teutates is a place that concerns the saints of the Church of Seiros. It may become bothersome should the two of them find out...

Leonie: I'm not fond of keeping secrets from friends, but I guess we can tell them when we get back.

Edelgard only doesn’t chase after the other dragon people because Byleth and co. work behind her back to spare them. Edelgard keeping Rhea captive on non-CF routes and asking her to surrender on CF also doesn’t mean anything because 1. reportedly according to Abyss NPC dialogue, Edelgard kept Rhea captive as insurance against the Agarthans (though I don’t have access to said DLC and can’t find the exact dialogue right now), and 2. as the other person’s post above explains, it’s absurd to expect Rhea to actually surrender in CF given everything Edelgard has done up to that point and Rhea’s mental state (I’d honestly half-expect Rhea to start screaming “No one stops!!!!!!” during her boss fight).

In any case, like the other person who barged in on my untagged-outside-of-my-own-commentary post, you’re completely ignoring the actual problem here that the writers made the command decision to have Edelgard be really goddamn racist if not outright murderous towards the dragon people who are also genocide survivors, and it DOES NOT MATTER what Edelgard says in-story when that is the situation the writers have written out-of-story that hardcore edelgard fans are really goddamn weird about. There are DEEPLY uncomfortable undertones with this subplot (and this is being kind and assuming the writers were not going for full-on dogwhistles), and an absolutely MASSIVE problem of fans going “Hell yeah, Edelgard is right to be racist towards the genocide survivors!!!” (when it should be immediately obvious to anyone with sense that holy shit, what the fuck is that take, Yikes). Shutting this down with an “Um, actually” is really, really, really bad.

[teaveetamer]

Looking at Edelgards wiki page, and aside from all the spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes and horrible sentence structure, dear LORD is it filled with such vague, unspecific language to make her look better. Saying in "some endings" she passes on the role of Emperor to someone else while in others she "rules for an unspecified time" to support she steps down after the war, completely ignoring Lysitheas ending where she rules for the rest of her life and not clarifying the specific (1/3)

numbers of endings where she retires (I counted, its two, and even then only in her later years). Crimson Flower apparently ends "much faster" than the other routes instead of directly stating its three months faster. Saying she only spoke so harshly to Dimitri before executing him to allow him to "hate her" until the end (how compassionate of her /s, also I cannot find any proof of this in the script so either I'm missing something or the editor is just posting headcanons). (2/3)

All in all, Edelgards entire personality wiki section is a complete joke. The person that wrote it should have their editing priviledges removed. (3/3)

I mean we know who is making all of those edits. It’s our resident contrarian that people were sending a dozen asks about yesterday. It just comes off as another of many poorly thought out arguments, since they keep pointing to specific supports or text in the game when that’s... Not really necessary. We all played the game, you only do that shit when you’re trying to win an argument.

Honestly if I were in control of the page it’d look more like this:

Edelgard holds herself with a dignified air, but full of melancholy and solemn wistfulness. which can make her appear outwardly cold. As heir of the Adrestian Empire, she is an exemplary student and a natural leader. She keeps a modest stoic front. rarely cutting loose and maintains formality. She rarely cuts loose and maintains formality at all times. Her colleagues classmates (who the fuck calls the people they went to school with “colleagues”?) express great surprise whenever she does relax. While She is generally a private person, she does recognize the importance of her duties and expresses confidence and faith in the abilities of her allies. and she is rarely shown opening up to other people.(the previous line did not make sense, her recognizing the importance of duty has no relationship to being a private person).

She is a capable dancer, having taught Dimitri at a young age and has a talent for drawing portraits, though she is embarrassed to show them to others. (These really belong in a separate “skills” section but whatever the wiki doesn’t appear to have that category for this game). She has a personal nickname, El, of whom which she only allows very close individuals, namely her family, to call her.

Though she tries to keep it a secret, Edelgard is deathly afraid of rats, as they remind her of a past she is uncomfortable with. Edelgard is deathly afraid of rats since they remind her of a past she is uncomfortable with, though she tries to keep this fact a secret. She is also fears afraid of the ocean since because she cannot swim.

Edelgard is far more complex than she initially appears, as she had been scheming to dismantle the corrupt systems of Fódlan, namely the influence of the Church of Seiros, the oppression of the Crest systems, and the hidden machinations of the Agarthans. Driven by her desire to remove these influences, she is willing to sacrifice both her life and reputation as she believes that the only means of achieving her goals is through war and sometimes underhanded tactics. (Such unnecessary fluff). Edelgard will use whatever it takes to achieve her goals, using all three of the aforementioned systems begrudgingly as they are the current means for her to amass any sort of power and influence in order to instigate meaningful change in them. Edelgard is extremely driven, and she is willing to use whatever it takes to achieve her goals. This is evidenced by her willingness to work with Those Who Slither in the Dark, as she believes they are the only ones who can help her amass enough power to achieve her ends.

Edelgard strongly believes that the ends will justify the means if she were to win the war, as she despises the structure of Fódlan society and believes it has to be replaced by a more just system under which humanity can flourish. In the Azure Moon route she states she went to war after weighing all options and determined that it would be much faster with far fewer casualties than to continue on in the continent's current state. This is reflected through the Crimson Flower route that ends much sooner than the other two, albeit a later war is impending against the remaining Agarthians, where she manages to wipe them all out, compared to the other routes where the Agarthans survive to return at a later time. As a result, she does realize the gravity of her orders but chooses to remain steadfast in her belief in improving society for everyone. She also does not desire to remain Emperor for too long as according to a tea time conversation with her, Edelgard states she has no intention of handing the throne to any children she might have, instead planning to pass it on to someone brilliant and kind, which a few endings do, while others she rules for an unspecified time. (Literally this entire paragraph is unnecessary fluff.)

Dimitri has had a significant impact on her life as the two are step-siblings when her mother Anselma married King Lambert under the name "Patricia." In their childhood, neither were aware of their relationship to each other, but they were close nonetheless, with Dimitri affectionately calling her "El" which only those particularly close to her are allowed to call her. Dimitri gifted her a dagger which she held well into the present, which was symbolically meant to tell her to carve out her own ideals and face the numerous hardships she had to endure up until the present. If met at the Goddess Tower during the Academy Phase, she admits that her first love was a Faerghus noble who she cannot recall, implied to be Dimitri. Despite her past feelings towards him, it is heavily implied for most of the game that Edelgard no longer remembers Dimitri nor that he gifted her the dagger, possibly as a result of her trauma from the experiments. In the Azure Moon route, she accepts Dimitri's invitation to parley on a whim. Despite failing to come to an understanding with one another to end the war peacefully, she is nonetheless able to express her gratitude to him for the dagger and the strength it provided her when he reminds her that it was a parting gift from him. (Everything in this paragraph would really be more at home in a separate “relationships” subcategory, which this wiki also does not feature.)

Edelgard's personality and ambitions are a result of tragedies that painted her view of the world. The traumatic imprisonment of her siblings and herself due to the experiments of Those Who Slither in the Dark created her hatred of Crests.  Edelgard’s personality and ambitions are a direct result of the suffering she faced at the hands of TWSITD. Her imprisonment and the subsequent experimentation on herself and her family were a key factor in her disillusionment with Fódlan and the Church of Seiros. (Don’t ask me how she got to that conclusion. Also take a shot for every time this dude uses the word “tragic”.) She also despises most nobility, especially the Adrestian Nobles, as they are partially responsible for the circumstances leading to said experiments, but also due to the fact that Crests are used as societal leverage by most nobles as a sign of their prestige. She even shows sympathy and pity to Miklan, whom she praises for becoming a leader despite being disowned and leading a group of bandits, calling his death "a waste". One of her main goals is to dismantle the current nobility system and having the people earn their position by merit rather than birthright, which she achieves in her ending in the Crimson Flower path. (More fluff.)

Edelgard has a complex view of the current Church of Seiros as her tragic history with the Insurrection of the Seven along with the knowledge given by her father regarding the truth of the War of Heroes paints her radical opinion. She bears a large distrust of Rhea due to her withholding of knowledge and context behind the history of the church, even pointing out some of the Church's hypocrisy of remaining neutral across Fódlan, yet allowing the Crest system to flourish that Edelgard despises. She does not fully dismiss the concept of faith however, even allowing it to continue to exist in her rule, though heavily monitored by the Empire. (Oh hey Edelstan is acknowledging her state run religion at least) She even tries to learn more about it from Manuela but does not plan on ever becoming a devout follower by any means. When as an enemy, however, she will cause those who are faithful to be afraid for their lives and flee the Empire. However, during Crimson Flower, several Knights of Seiros that have become unnerved by Rhea flee to the Empire, while those involved with the Church in the Empire flee for the Eastern, but then flee to Faerghus due to lack of a military. (Fluff.)

Despite this, Edelgard expresses fear and anxiety over the consequences of her actions her chosen path should Byleth side with her in Crimson Flower, as she understands that she would be her actions make her responsible for the deaths loss of countless lives. (lmao “the deaths of countless lives”) This is proven further when Randolph and Ladislava die defending Garreg Mach from the Church, and how she laments that another life is lost in the war because of her choices. She mourned Dimitri's death, letting herself be hated by Dimitri to the end by speaking harshly to him to let his perception of her remain, lamenting how she could not save him from Thales's manipulation. (wut) Dimitri's death struck her to the point that Byleth questioned if Edelgard was crying, which she denied, claiming that the Edelgard who cried had perished years ago.

Edelgard's relationship with Byleth greatly affects her personality and fate in the war. Edelgard admits in her support that she feared expresses fear that she would have become "a harsh ruler with a heart of ice" if she had to walk her path alone. In the other routes where she is not taught by them or where Byleth sides with the church against her, this becomes a reality and ultimately leads to her early demise. This is likely expressed in the conversation with Dimitri, where, in the Japanese version, she retorts Dimitri's statement over the lessons he learned with his friends and Byleth with her stating that he can understand that because he has what she lacks, referencing how Edelgard felt Byleth was the only one she could consider an equal that is not bound by status but simply as Edelgard. As her enemy, Edelgard will express regret that the two did not walk the same path and even find some semblance of closure falling to Byleth's sword in the Silver Snow and Verdant Wind paths. Should they choose to support her, she has a far easier time expressing kindness and regret over her actions over the course of the game herself. She will opt to force her enemies to surrender instead of wiping them out, where she even offered to spare Rhea and the Church followers if they surrendered, while the former was willing to sacrifice the city the final battle takes place in. (This doesn’t even make sense, she never forced Rhea to surrender she just half heartedly gave her the option of surrender). She also has several fleeting moments of peace and happiness, such as when she takes to drawing portraits of Byleth, which she is self conscious about due to their lack of quality in her eyes.

That attachment towards Byleth is even perhaps stronger than that of the other house leaders. When they teach the Black Eagles, she makes several attempts to get Byleth to understand her world view, even though Hubert advised her it would not be wise and personally invited Byleth to her coronation. In the Crimson Flower route, Dorothea notes that among the Black Eagles, Edelgard was the most emotionally affected by Byleth's disappearance. Edelgard's fondness for Byleth goes so far as to encourage Byleth to call her El and even let Byleth give her orders on the battlefield despite her dislike of not being in control. Despite her earlier statement that she does not cry, she openly cries at the end of the Crimson Flower route when Byleth supposedly dies after slaying Rhea, but is overjoyed when they are revived. Edelgard's bond with Byleth can ultimately result in the marriage of the two, regardless of their gender. It is in her proposal to them at this level where she asks that they stay close to her and that she will need them for the rest of her life. Regardless of her relationship status with Byleth, in the Crimson Flower route, it is through their influence that she ultimately achieves her goals and is remembered far more kindly than in the other routes where she perishes. (Again, would be more at home in a separate relationships section since it says almost nothing about Edelgard as an individual. You could maybe keep the bit about her disliking not being in control, but I’d combine it with an earlier paragraph since it doesn’t make much sense as its own thing.)

[arkus-rhapsode]

My thoughts of the Church of Seiros, Rhea and the portrayal of their teachings

So this is kinda a companion piece to a previous post I wrote on Edelgard and how FE3H handled perception. And much like that post, this will contain SPOILERS and a bit of rambling.

Now, the reason I felt like writing this is in my Edelgard post, I had stated that I found her a phenomenal character, but I ultimately reject her end goal. Instead preferring Claude’s answer of the church might not be perfect and at the very least it should reveal the true history of Fodlan, but it is preferable to a return to an imperial rule. But that of course leads to the question, do I support the Church of Seiros and its goal?

Now this was a question that I had a hard time answering because unlike the Duma Faithful or the Grimleal or even Naga, its not exactly specified what the “teachings of the goddess” are. With the Duma Faithful, we know that they embrace teachings of militarism and lack of empathy. As for the Grimleal we aren’t given the actual motives, but there is clear emphasis on predestination and considering they worship a destroyer, it can be seen as a form of nihilistic worship.

Then you have someone like Naga, that really humanity put on the pedestal of worship, but doesn’t take an active role of guiding humanity through teachings but rather provided mankind with godly tools like the Falchion. And this speaks to reflect each god’s personality respectively. Duma is a believer in strength of self, Grima is a living apocalypse, and Naga pulls herself away from conflict.

But now we get to the Church of Seiros. We do know the goddess Sothis protected all of Fodlan and had her race of children. So it makes sense that Seiros’s knights feel that need to overlook all of Fodlan or act as a mediating force. But knowing Sothis’s personality and what she did in the past, we don’t really know what her teachings are.

This is further compounded by Seiros herself. As she has spread the teachings of Sothis, but also distorted certain factors of history to benefit her. Its likely she did not receive a revelation from the goddess and more came to the conclusion of using her influence to temper the worst in humanity. Seiros having said that crests were gifts from the goddess and that the 10 Elites were allies of Seiros. This is all false as crests came about due to the Agarthan slaughter of the children of the goddess and using their blood to make crests and bodies to make the heroes relics.

Now we know Seiros and 4 of her priests survived and naturally had crest abilities and Seiros then allied with the first Adrestian Emperor and gave them her crest naturally. So this calls into question why?

Well as previously stated, its to temper the worst in humanity. And that makes sense as the Agrathan hubris nearly destroyed Fodlan and had led to making crests and empowering people like the Ten Elites. So it is very likely with this crest based society, Seiros knew that with the Ten Elite likely having descendants (because their lines are still present to this day) that she decided to lie about crests being from the goddess to convince those who would gain crests to use them for the greater good.

Unfortunately, its likely that involved inflating the egos of those who believed they were chosen by the goddess and thus allowed them to develop more power and reverence. But since those with crests weren’t banning together to form another Ten Elites and trying to ascend to godhood themselves, its likely Seiros didn’t care then. While it wasn’t Seiros/Rhea who said “Hey, Margrave Gautiar, your son doesn’t have a crest, disown him.” She still made an environment where that kind of mentality could happen.

But regardless of the distortion of history and we do see that there are times for this church. It acted as a mediator between Adrestia and Faerghus after the war of the eagle and lion. And in that situation where Loog had thoroughly triumphed against the imperial forces. If Adrestia continued fighting instead of negotiating, its likely that many more would’ve died in vain of reclaiming Faerghus. So having Seiros act as a neutral bastion was beneficial in that time when the empire ruled all of Fodlan. We also see humans who do believe in what the Goddess taught. Lonato and the Western Church are clearly pious people. But they reject Rhea as overseer of the Goddess’s teachings.

And that brings us to Rhea/Seiros herself. Now I had stated that I was okay with the Church of Seiros existing for many of its positive aspects, but I believed the people deserved the true history and that Rhea herself should not be leading the church.

Now like Validar and Jedah, Rhea is a character and thus you get a more solid picture of who they are as well as how their relgion may be reflected through them, instead of the complex vagueness of the practices of a church we don’t fully know. Rhea does assign students to attack bandits and those who turn against the church, but most of time, those like Kostas are actually bad people. But there are people who are mercenaries who Rhea doesn’t seem to persecute or preach that they’re wrong.

So it shows that Rhea has absolute authority in the church, she is not as totalitarian as Jedah However, she is still guilty of human experimentation to revive Sothis and hanging onto Agrathan technology for her own use. Now it seems to be that other members of the church have no idea about this. That Rhea herself was acting without the church knowing.

Which goes to the idea that put forward that the church’s existence is not bad, just the actions of their leadership in their personal time is bad. Because whatever way you wanna slice it, that Rhea didn’t invent the Golems or she didn’t originally come up with the crest making process, she did still selfishly utalize them.

Now, to be fair, while she has ushered in a society that values crests (which could be considered still possible without the church of seiros as both the Adrestian Emperor and the Ten Elites would have crests no matter what), she was not sending armies of golems to enforce this totalitarian regime. So while she’s willing to use the abhorrent tools of the Agrathans, she’s not going using them to the extent of which they would use them.

So that’s why, I believe that the church itself is not a bad presence. Unlike Edelgard, there are people who value teachings of Sothis while still opposing Rhea as the head. And that is something that can be expected because of organized religion. You’ll get teachings that are ultimately good, but you can still get someone at the top who using it for their own agenda. If Rhea was removed and replaced with a devout believer like Catherine or Lonato, who believe more in the teachings of the goddess and not using it for their own gain, I can totally vouch for its existence. And consider that a more palatable reform than declaring war on it to completely remove its influence.

However, it still does lack definition of those teachings. Unlike the Duma Faithful or Grimleal, I understand what their religions are about and I can say those are beliefs systems I wouldn’t want to practice. But it seems very likely that was intentional as Duma and Grima have very basic teachings that you can glean what its like and have a simple acceptation or rejection of their beliefs. So under the assumption that the teachings of Sothis are ultimately ones of love, virtue, acceptance and neutrality, I again stand with Claude’s answer of telling people the true history of Fodlan and letting them have the freedom to choose if they wish to continue following the Church of Seiros.

[crystalelemental]

To me, Edelgard vs Dimitri is the difference between gradualism and revolution. I dont hate Dimitri, but I think his beliefs are nonsense. To think that forcing your beliefs on others is just self-indulgence... sometimes, forcing your beliefs on others is the only way to save the people those others are hurting, imo. I think Claude is also right, of course. It's just that class inequality isn't really a main focus of his, but regional/racial inequality. Which is also very worth addressing.

There's a lot to this, and I'm gonna do my best at it.

I think it ties in a lot to that sense of "what are the limits of free speech?"  If someone is actively causing harm with their speech and beliefs, then is it acceptable to let them continue?  No, of course not.  Unconditional freedom will eventually lead to restrictions placed on the most vulnerable.  In a scenario like with the Church, they are fairly permissive.  People can sort their own shit out, as long as their shit sorting doesn't rock the boat too much.  Which, by inference, means that things like the Tragedy of Duscur and blood experiments taking place in the wake of the emperor's loss of power, were permissible.  They're allowed within the Church's framework.  The Church itself may not condone the actions of the seven noble houses, or of Faerghus' decimation of the Duscur people, but those in power didn't intervene and indirectly permit these atrocities.  Allowing that to continue is definitely the wrong course.

In terms of how each route handles it, I still think Claude is the most correct of the three.  But I'm going to go in reverse order.

Dimitri's absolutely the least interesting, and frankly, least correct of the bunch.  He's purely the status quo route.  Nothing at all is addressed in his route aside from the immediate conflict.  None of the context that addresses what happened is ever talked about, the route solely focuses on Dimitri and his trauma.  Which...is weird, considering how much trauma every other kid in the house should also have, but never really gets to express in the main story.  Particularly with Dedue, but that's a different talk for a different post.  Dimitri's route just doesn't actually address anything.  It's a powerful personal story, but for the world at large, his outcome is the worst.  Nothing with the church is addressed.  Nothing with the Agarthans is resolved.  Nothing changes, at all, aside from a very standard "good guy beat bad emperor" ending.  Which in any other game would be fine, but in this game stands out as the least compelling.

With Edelgard's route, I see what you're saying, and agree for the most part.  You can't let injustice keep happening, and sometimes you do have to push for change.  Taking it to war is the extreme route, but is Edelgard's inherent philosophy incorrect?  Well...no, not really.  The people of the church are generally all nice people.  I like Rhea, I love Seteth and Flayn, and a lot of the knights are interesting too.  But an institution that's going to sit back and allow tragedies to occur, solely because they're about not intervening beyond what directly challenges them?  That can't be allowed to stand as a power, and Rhea's made very clear that she's not about to let go of that control, unless it's passing the baton to someone else who would continue to hold that control (Byleth in pretty much every ending).  I think Edelgard's right in that the Church needs to be dismantled, or at least its control over Fodlan removed, but...I think Claude did it better.

You mentioned that Claude's racial inequality wasn't the main focus.  And that's true.  But that's because, like he states, the story is taking place within Fodlan.  Fodlan is incredibly wrapped up in its own internal politics, and doesn't interact with the outside world in any capacity.  Hell, Claude even comments that the Church preaches against coexistence with other nations, likely so Rhea can keep Fodlan as a safe haven for the remnants of her family.  Outside interference could mean humans seek power again, and that could lead to harm for the few that remain of her people.  So it's understandable why Rhea's like this, but it's not the correct course of action.

I'm getting off-topic.  My point is, consider Claude's goal with opening the borders.  Free flow of goods, but also of ideas.  Of philosophy.  Almyra has its share of troubles, but also has things going well for it.  Claude believes that, if Almyra and Fodlan could make peace and communicate with one another, that they'd not only come to understand each other, but also the systems they live in.  Think about that.  For an isolationist territory like Fodlan, they'd have no means of grasping what could be different.  This is just how things are, you either continue to follow what's been done (Dimitri) or, as a radical with no outside reference of what's needed, go full on anarchy and decide the only thing to do is smash the whole system (Edelgard).  Claude offers a compromise that can avoid this binary choice.  Open your frame of reference.  The Almyrans don't have the Church.  They don't have strict doctrine.  Nor did the people of Duscur.  Yet they're societies, with some kind of power structure that, while it has problems, is working in other ways for them.  If the ideas are communicated freely between territories, perhaps the people of Fodlan can find that, hey, this other place is doing really well in this area, why aren't we doing that?  Instead of a pure "Smash the system" approach, there could have been a non-violent way to approach the problem, as Claude believes.  Better still, his solution, if it works, is one that helps expand the worldview of the populace.  If successful, it's not just expanding ideas about race relations, but about all sorts of issues, effectively allowing people to address every issue in due time.  His immediate concern isn't exactly the same as Edelgard's, but I feel like Claude's solution would eventually lead to a solution for Edelgard's problem, while Edelgard's solution would not do the same for Claude's.

For Edelgard to purely be in the right, I think what we'd need is the proof that the populace of Fodlan seeks that change, but the Church refuses.  That the Church is an active authoritarian structure itself.  But that also completely changes the context for Edelgard's character and actions, and I'd think for the worse.  That would create a simple black/white morality binary, and that's not what makes this game so good.  It's the fact that everyone has a point but also has their faults.  Dimitri's well-intentioned and thinks very carefully about the lives of his people, but that comes at the cost of ignoring pretty much every societal issue in Fodlan.  Edelgard recognizes society's problems and is willing to do whatever it takes to change them, but at the cost of instigating a war for the entire continent.  Claude's route seems the best on the outside, but I think his drawback is that his solution is based on a lot of faith.  There's no guarantee it will work.  People may not assimilate well, and exchange of ideas may not result in mutual improvement, but could become mutual digging in of heels that their way of life is better, and reinforcing the isolation.  Claude's route is correct in the moment, but long-term it's hard to say.  Edelgard's addresses the problem immediately, but...well, barring the ending cards (which I don't believe), would likely create equal problems with a central, unchecked locus of power for the entire continent once she dies.  Successors could easily unmake all her progress.

For me, I think Claude's the most correct in terms of context for this reason.  The Church does seek to keep Fodlan under control, but hasn't turned against the people's wishes just yet.  A non-violent approach is preferable in this situation.  If it didn't work, or if the Church tried to reinforce its authority by rejecting these changes, then Edlegard's route would have a bit more merit.  But I think setting up a situation in which she in the right, is only possible when the other sides aren't, which ruins the balance of morality the game is playing.  It's far more interesting to have the extreme approach pulled at this point in a societal change, because it raises that question of when a revolution is appropriate, and when is it something that’s just serving whoever’s going to inherit power in the aftermath?

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

"I would just remove the Agarthans" See that's a possibility, but I can't imagine how you'd even DO the plot because of how ingrained the Agarthans are. It's just easier to go all-in on the conspiracy plot at that point. They're so deeply involved in the multiple routes and why everything is the way it is, that I don't know how to even have most of the routes without them. You'd have to come up with a compelling reason to even side with Edelgard if you remove her Agarthan-adjacent backstory, nevermind that Rhea's and Claude's entire routes go DEEP on that front so would just... Have to be rewritten from scratch and I can't imagine how they'd even go at this point. Dimitri's about the only one I feel could be most easily extricated from that because he's ALMOST a bog standard Fire Emblem protag. But that would leave three entire routes of complete rewrites, most of them not easy while maintaining a delicate balance of "each character has A Point but boy are they all too messed up to work together, and too blinded by their various biases to see they eventually want the same thing--except Rhea who just wants her mom." (Also staying anonymous because 3H fandom is... Passionate and I really don't feel like dealing with spam in my inbox for these opinions unanon.)

Edelgard's (and Lysithea's) backstory are easy to fix imo, just make those experiments done by crest scholars. This keeps her the motivation to remove the importance of crests in society by removing the church's power.

Idk about how to fix VW and Slightly Worse VW personally but if i were a writer i would definitely figure something out.

[gascon-en-exil]

what do you think of the homoeroticism between felix’s dad and dimitri’s dad? like, Rodrigue is obssessed with Lambert to the point he neglects his own living son to parent this dead dude’s child as his own. it’s like how Gilbert was also obsessed with Lambert but even more and I feel like it goes beyond normal King/Shield behavior and that every man in farghus is hopelessly gay but what do you think?

Funny that you should mention them, because just the other day I came across some Rodrigue/Lambert porn on AO3 and was momentarily baffled by its existence until I realized that, yeah, it’s not that surprising at all. It’s a type of relationship subtext FE has explored before; Elihec is much the same in its later years, and Genealogy’s Gen 1 lord trio - the group whose school days inspired the basic premise of Three Houses, at that - carries hints of it as well. 

I’ve brought it up before when discussing the route, but Faerghus and Azure Moon are so heavily gendered in a way that feels like it’s deliberately picked up a bunch of disparate threads of male intimacy in wartime that the series has played with previously and woven them together into a narrative that is unmistakably homoerotic, both for good and for ill:

Dimidue, Dimilix, and Sylvix all reflect the martial culture in which these men bond with each other, whether it’s cherishing battle scars or making vows to die together or coping (or not) with trauma born of violent military action. Dedue/Ashe is the odd one out, as both characters are on the outside looking in at Faerghus’s cult of knighthood.

As you said, Rodrigue and Gilbert go above and beyond in their devotion to Lambert and his son to the point of neglecting their own families. In Rodrigue’s case - and later, Felix’s - their intimacy explicitly belongs to a tradition enshrined in the near-mythical bond between Loog and Kyphon.

Dedue specifically represents a partial subversion of the status quo right from the beginning, as he replaces Felix as Dimitri’s shield and retainer figure on account of the tragedy of Duscur throwing everyone and everything in the Kingdom off. I would also argue that the Dimidue ending is the most transgressive of the four Lions M/M endings, with Dimitri taking no queen and instead having Dedue as his consort in everything but name. Fandom has been quick to establish that fanon!Fódlan has marriage equality for every popular pairing, so it can be easy to forget that very few of the same-sex paired endings imply, much less state outright, anything as close to a publicly-acknowledged union as this one.

Annette and Ingrid represent two different viewpoints on how women are damaged by all this furtive male bonding running side by side with standard heteronormative patriarchy. Annette’s father cares more about his duty to his king - and might possibly be a heavily repressed gay (but see below) man himself - than his duty to his family, while Ingrid struggles to reconcile her dreams of breaking into the male-dominated world of knighthood with her duty to marry as imposed on her by her father. Sylvain meanwhile takes his resentment of the Crest system out on the many women he pursues, in a take on compulsory heterosexuality that’s pretty hard to take sympathetically.

It would not be unreasonable to headcanon that Faerghus’s culture not only condones but encourages romantic and possibly sexual relationships between noblemen provided they also marry to pass down their Crests. That’s why I left a note on calling Gilbert gay above - standard sexuality labels don’t work very well for a culture like that, which is neither strictly heteronormative (for men, at least) nor fully egalitarian. We have very little idea how much of this would impact commoners, removed as they are from both the institutions of knighthood and personal vassalage and from the need to make Crest babies. We also don’t know if Faerghus is more or less accepting of female homosexuality than Adrestia where it’s apparently the norm; Annette/Mercedes, like everything else involving Mercedes who is herself not from Faerghus, feels removed from the Kingdom’s culture. I sometimes wonder actually if Mercedes was an Eagles character when first designed and was only moved to the Lions when the developers realized that A) a sincerely pious Adrestian such as Mercedes would absolutely not ally with Edelgard by default, B) the Lions needed a primary healer and/or another woman, or C) both.

I’ve seen some of my Tumblr mutuals remark that they sometimes feel like other fans played a completely different game from them, usually in regard to Edelgard. I’m of a similar mind with the Lions and how outside my own circle and a few other little corners of the internet the most common consensus is that Dimitri is a straight guy healed by f!Byleth’s loving hand, the Lions is the house with all the bromance, and Azure Moon’s biggest missteps are ignoring the Agarthans and Rhea (and also presenting Edelgard at her most supervillain-y, for her fans). Well, I would be, but then the game does such a good job of anticipating the way some players as well as the in-game historical record will glide over the subtext that it’s easy to dismiss it when Byleth’s romantic same-sex S ranks exist.

Tl;dr, do I think every man in Faerghus is gay? I wouldn’t go that far, but I think it’s not a big deal for Faerghus noblemen so long as they take time out from plowing/getting plowed by their buddies to make a Crest baby or two. The obsession with passing down Crests is something that’s lessened by gradual reforms in the AM endings, so presumably things just get even more openly gay from then on - especially if the king is publicly getting in on the action.

[gascon-en-exil]

If I had to guess, I'd say that Dedues unique conditions for survival would have played into the scrapped route split in AM. He's the only character that can die from you not fullfilling a sidequest requirement (his paralogue) and that alone seems like it should've played into something bigger (then again, Kazes potential plotline death in Birthright doesn't really lead anywhere storywise either so maybe not).

We only have the barest bits of information on that route split, and as what little we do know appears to be centered around Felix and his reaction to his father’s death I don’t know how Dedue dying or not would play into it when the two just come around to a prickly understanding in their terminal B support. Even if the scenario were that Dedue’s survival were a requirement for the defection, that would require Dedue to have more than about three lines in the main story after the scene where he returns. No, my money’s still on it being a late stage addition once one of the writers realized that they weren’t going to get a vengeful and self-destructive Dimitri who’d cut himself off from everyone who cared about him without removing Dedue from the picture. It’s so badly plotted, too. Consider the following:

Cornelia’s coup happens about a year into the timeskip if I remember correctly, but it takes over four years for Dedue to come back from hanging out in Duscur and apparently not searching tirelessly for Dimitri as would be in-character for him (see also VW and SS, when he travels all the way to Enbarr by himself for the express purpose of killing Edelgard and taking vengeance for his late lord/lover).

The other former students assemble at Garreg Mach in all non-CF routes because of the class reunion idea and just happen to run into Byleth who chose to wake up at that moment. Dedue skips that reunion and only shows up four months later because….

He does so at the Great Bridge of Myrddin, hardly a logical place for a meetup. Did he stop at Garreg Mach on the way and ask somebody where Dimitri had gone? How would he know to do that, or that the monastery was even properly occupied and not still overrun with bandits?

This plot point is not referenced at all in VW or SS, yet Dedue survives both. In VW it’s treated as a huge surprise when Dimitri shows up alive at Gronder, while in SS I think the most the player is told is that Dimitri was supposed to have been executed but Dedue rescued him. Because Dimitri in these routes physically and mentally resembles the Dimitri of early AM he and Dedue had to have been separated (if not he’d act as he does in CF - see, CF has its uses for characterization too), but apparently he just survives whereas for AM Byleth/the player has to choose to intervene in the Duscur rebellion to make it happen.

We can’t assume that Dedue’s survival is the default for AM either, because several plot points after his return were obviously written with him not in the picture. Why isn’t he defending Dimitri when Fleche attacks? Why does he have only one line of interaction when the army learns that the Agarthans were behind the Tragedy, and he’s not even present when Dimitri learns the full story from Kleiman’s man? Hell, why isn’t he out there in the rain when Dimitri’s having his big dramatic turning point, instead of a theoretically sapient paper doll with attached hand motif? I’ve already explored the possibility of the two of them not being separated from the start still being able to lead to a similar arc for Dimitri, but the problem is that in that scenario S ranking either of them would just mean that Byleth gets to give one of their creepy smiles and nods at their massively scandalous wedding.

It’s just a badly integrated plot point all around, albeit a necessary one for the sake of self-insert romance. I very much doubt it has any connection to any deleted material from AM, which based on plotting alone appears to have been conceived earlier in the writing process. It irks me to no end when I see people complain about Dedue’s canon writing and it’s never this, just more US racial politics slapped thoughtlessly onto political and personal relationships that don’t reflect them well at all and willful ignorance of the homoerotic series tradition of lords and their vassals to which Dimidue belongs. Dedue’s writing is deeper than his skin color - and in one case at least it’s bad writing for completed unrelated reasons.

[gascon-en-exil]

FE16 Golden Deer Liveblogging

Chapters 21-22. Magical ballistic missiles, EDM, and zombies - it’s like they threw every random thought they could come up with at the wall to see what would stick.

Now that I’m finished with them I can say that the Deer do have overall more complicated map design than the other routes (and I know I haven’t done the church yet, but I’m pretty sure all but their last map are reused from one or more other routes), but for these two “complicated” did not mean hard. Chapter 21 reminded me of Shadow Dragon’s endgame, with your army split into the four corners and the boss in the middle, but even with that division and all the same gimmicks from the Fhirdiad chapter of Azure Moon - the giant mechs, the lightning turrets that in this case you can’t deactivate - it was pretty simple to tackle. I got surprised by Thales’s Quake spell killing Raphael from halfway across the map as soon as I opened the door to his room, but that’s what Divine Pulse is for.

And for all that I’d heard bad things about Chapter 22, it was the easiest last chapter of the three I’ve played so far (although I did have three fliers...). You can remove the poisonous swamp covering most of the terrain by killing one of the casters in the north, and killing one in the south cuts off the beast reinforcements. The reanimated Ten Elites were for the most part not very threatening either, and once they’re down Nemesis has only one HP bar and is locked to the attack range of a normal unit. He’s more in line with how FE typically handles its final bosses, in that they’re far from the hardest challenges of their respective games.

Oh, this was something I forgot to nitpick for Crimson Flower, but what is it with this game sticking treasure chests in its final chapters? I could understand if there were a postgame, but there isn’t - and I’m going to wager DLC isn’t going to add one somehow. What’s even the point?

Story/Character observations

Alright, let’s tackle the Agarthans, which is what I’m going to call them from now on in place of Hubert’s stupidly clunky title. After some thought it doesn’t bother me that Shambhala is a metallic monstrosity of LED lighting, robot mechs, and some kind of techno rave backing track. This is for a few reasons: one, that it distinguishes them aesthetically from the numerous other dark cults in the series (particularly the Loptyrians, with whom they share a similar backstory of seeking revenge after being driven underground long ago), and two, that the other characters in the game see their technology as alien and nearly impossible to put into terms they understand. The playable cast consistently refer to the missiles as javelins of light, Lorenz looks upon Shambhala and declares it impressive but not beautiful, and Claude can’t find a word for the Titanus mechs other than “things.” And anyway, repackaging modern technology as ancient to squeeze it into pseudo-historical settings is a time-honored gaming trope. For another recent example, Breath of the Wild provides the same handwaving excuse to all its ancient Sheikah technology - tablet computers with cameras and GPS, laser-touting killer robots, and all.

Now, when Thales’s secret Plan B is revealed to be an army of corpses led by Nemesis and the Elites, all complete with replica versions of their Relics, that’s classic Fire Emblem right there. It’s specifically a callback to Jugdral’s Deadlords, which saw later revivals (pun intended) in spirit if not always in name in Blazing Sword, Awakening, and Fates. Odd how the Elites manage to be less threatening than the Deadlords of Genealogy and Thracia even with fake versions of legendary weapons....

The jury’s out on whether Byleth being named ruler of a united Fódlan in this ending is more or less stupid than Corrin becoming ruler of Valla (plus territory from the other two nations arbitrarily gifted to them) in Revelation. At least Fódlan is in the position of needing a ruler and not an empty, desecrated country in another dimension where the laws of physics are kind of screwy. Of course Byleth is unqualified, but everyone loves them and Rhea (whose fate in this route is uncertain, but it never says she dies?) probably put in a good word with everyone. Make no mistake, it is still stupid, but in my opinion there are fewer leaps of logic required.

As for Rhea, she surprised me by spilling her true history and the origin of the Relics and the Crests in this story, and even that Byleth has Sothis’s heart/Crest stone inside them. The whole spiel doesn’t absolve her of the large-scale deception she’s been perpetrating for centuries and I can absolutely see why she’d step aside in the epilogue after blowing her cover to someone with Claude’s particular ambitions, but it does make her more sympathetic. It also puts an even worse spin on the entirety of Crimson Flower, with Edelgard instigating her rebellion based on a bunch of misinformation that she never learns about because she kills Rhea before the truth ever becomes known. But at least she gets Byleth’s heart beating? Not that I care, naturally.

If Verdant Wind makes Edelgard’s crusade and death seem utterly pointless, it’s even crueler to Dimitri, dying offscreen in a feral rage and leaving his vassal to carry out his vengeance. Dedue’s fate - destroying Edelgard’s body, then leaving for Duscur or parts unknown - is approximately equivalent to Finn wandering the Yied Desert after the war, except he would have nothing to come back to even if he ever does*. In hindsight I’m glad I played these three routes in the order that I did, because with each one the scope of the story has gotten successively larger. That’s not to say that Verdant Wind’s story is more satisfying than the other two, but it’s got the narrative space to look beyond the heavy personal dramas of Dimitri and Edelgard.

In the end I still don’t buy that Claude is selling exactly what he claims to, and that he doesn’t have some further scheme to control Fódlan himself after the credits roll - hell, several of his endings including the all-important S rank with Byleth imply just that. But I think that’s part of his charm, witty and inspiring even as he’s manipulating everyone around him. Claude is unique among FE lords; what a shame he’s straight.

(But if you asked me if I would rather have not had all the heavy subtext surrounding Dimitri in exchange for a romantic S support between m!Byleth and Claude, my answer would always be no. Even setting aside that Byleth is a non-entity to me, I don’t see Claude’s big ambitions not including a wife with whom he can produce heirs to rule over whatever the scope of his eventual dominion turns out to be - and Three Houses already features two instances of Byleth not being allowed to be a homewrecker.)

Speaking of which...Alois’s S support. It’s not even slightly romantic, or interesting. Their ending in Verdant Wind doesn’t see Byleth marry someone else, but that only means it’s about as romantic as their paired ending with Gilbert.

*There’s room for a fix-it fic where the ginger warlock NPC who tells you what happened to Dedue tracks him down in Duscur after the war, and the two of them establish a rapport where Dedue learns to love again and ginger warlock learns to love being a size queen. Hey, if everyone’s going to stan the hell out of that unnamed gatekeeper the sky’s the limit right?