#post Crimson Flower route

[burr-ell]

"the tendency of this fandom to only engage with what THEY want these characters to be#as opposed to what their creators are trying to do and the stories they want to tell" slap this on a bumper sticker, you just summed all cr discourse (about PCs at least) in 2 sentences

It truly is maddening (and it's not by any means exclusive to the CR fandom). The reason why the discourse always goes the way it does is that at the end of the day, the loud fanwanky people only see what they would do, if they were self-inserted into the story, as a valid choice; and they are, more broadly, fundamentally disinterested in what others think or feel. There are several examples of this, and the variety of spaces within the fandom that produce these ideas is an indicator that this isn't endemic to one specific group of people.

-Keyleth is an important character whose feelings and choices are validated by the other PCs and cast even if they still disagree with them, in spite of how she and her preachiness get in the way of the Murderhobo Jubilee? It's not because the cast are all friends and they genuinely believe Keyleth is valid and are interested in how these discussions and choices can guide the story. It's because Marisha is the DM's girlfriend, and also here's my totally unbiased theory that my pet favorite players Sam and Travis secretly hate Marisha and Keyleth.

-Vax's presence is still felt and nodded to in the post-canon VM oneshots? It's not because he was an important character who mattered. It's because Liam wants to make everyone talk about his tragedy because he has Main Character Syndrome. Scanlan Wishes for Vax to appear at the wedding? It's not because he cares about Vex or because Sam and Liam wanted a sweet tribute to Vex and Vax's relationship and by extension Liam and Laura's friendship. It's because Liam thinks Vex's life should always revolve around Vax, and Sam wants to enable him and jerk himself off as the one who facilitated it.

-Beauyasha and Fjorester become canon? It's not because the players wanted it and it happened naturally. It's because there was a secret behind-the-scenes push to "force" those ships to become canon instead, and like, Dani Carr is some sort of shipping puppetmaster who made the players do it, and "they" (whomever "they" is) decided to sink Beaujester or Widojest because it was "obviously" going to become canon before the pandemic hiatus gave them time to "make the corporate-approved ships happen".

-Beau and Caleb try to reform the Empire and dismantle the Cerberus Assembly from within? It's not because it makes sense for their stories or that people who would take this position regarding a corrupt government might have a valid perspective that differs from your own. It's because the people at Critical Role Productions LLC are all spineless neoliberal cowards who won't commit to real activism. The best activism, after all, is violent, and violent revolutions have always resulted in stable aftermaths, and the real world has never demonstrated that this mindset is foolish.

-Relatedly: Caleb doesn't kill Trent personally? It's not because the most poetic justice would be to deny Trent the thing he wants most from Caleb. It's because "Limo Brain" is too obsessed with tragedy to have the stones to do "what needs to be done".

-Asmodeus, DnD Satan, turns out to also be CR Satan? It's not because it fits with the cosmology and the lore; it's because Matt Mercer is too attached to the "establishment", and the Prime Deities should have actually turned out to be the bad guys because of my personal baggage about Western religion and Christianity they're a little mean to my blorbo sometimes.

There's a pattern here: fans had expectations that they'd built up for themselves after projecting and building up fanon and deciding what players meant before they explained themselves fully, and when the players strayed from that, they were derided for all manner of reasons. I think we're seeing that same pattern play out in C3 as the story progresses in a way that fans dislike, and in fact we have seen fanwank spread whenever someone does anything that interferes with personally catering to a) the favored ship and/or b) the favored philosophy. (Orym, Ashton, FCG, Percy, Pelor...all valid when they affirm the Fandom Opinions and all disdained when they don't.)

Don't get me wrong, I think there's a place for comfort stories that deliver a personal catharsis. And I'm not going to dismissively say "well if you want it so bad make your own" because, as an artist, I am very familiar with the fact that creating is hard and draining and sometimes you just need to consume instead. But when you become so wrapped up in yourself and your feelings to the point where your perspective is the only valid one, someone else's feels like a betrayal when it isn't. It's always "They aren't doing what we wanted and here's why they're terrible people because of it" and never "Hmm, why is this what the cast wants? Let's examine that."

This isn't a new phenomenon, but I think it ultimately stems from not assuming that other people can differ from you in major ways in good faith. There are a lot of reasons for that (some more understandable than others), but I think you rob yourself of the potential to enjoy something new when all you do is demand what you already want. No matter what you're doing or where you are in life, you tend to become a better and wiser person when you open your mind to what other people have to say, no matter how mundane the subject matter. Sometimes the stories people have to tell are challenging—and the only healthy way to deal with that is to engage with them on their own terms.

[torchvic]

me and the bestie @questionablesanity were being nerds and talking about what houses the paldean trio + BB academy besties would be in fire emblem 3 houses and also their classes so here's our list. feel free to agree or disagree

no explanation will be given for any of them because we were lowkey just having a good time lol this was fun

Nemona - Blue Lions, Swordmaster Arven - Golden Deer, Bow Knight Penny - Golden Deer, Valkyrie Carmine - Black Eagles, War Cleric Kieran - Blue Lions, Dark Knight Lacey - Blue Lions, Gremory Crispin - Golden Deer, Armored Knight Amarys - Black Eagles, Dark Flier Drayton - Golden Deer, Trickster

[latinokaeya-moving]

treated myself to the very short beginning section of three houses just now but i had to stop n turn off my switch when the game asked me to pick a house bc i started agonising over whether to go w edelgard first or just jump straight into the claude route

[calamari-inari]

I won't let you take away someone I hold dear for a second time!

Bad Ending - AU where the Black Eagles would lose against TWSITD post Crimson Flower route

---

This was drawn for the @hubertlovezine ! Leftovers are currently open ✨️

[kingkatsuki]

That bookshop, florist, bakery post going around made me think about this. Im gonna write something about all of them, but first I was thinking about owning a florists where Dynamight is your best customer.

Thinking about Pro-Hero Dynamight who is still very much a bachelor in his late twenties, and his PR team decide it’s time to try to fix his crass image by setting him up on a date with a famous influencer online.

Bakugou’s got no idea what she does, outside the few photos he was provided by his team and the videos that Sero sent him after he broke the news over beers that weekend. Needless to say he’s not happy with the situation, but with another negative story all over the front pages of tabloids and circulating the internet he’s got no choice but to try and fix the mess he landed himself in.

So he turns up at your quaint little flower shop close to closing time, the small bell ringing to signal his entry as you look up from the flowers you’re preparing to take home for yourself for the day. Eyes widening in surprise when you see the Pro-Hero Dynamight standing in your tiny shop in full hero costume. He mumbles that he needs to buy some flowers, and you’re trying to help him pick a bunch. Asking whether it’s for a birthday, celebration or maybe a gift for his mother.

“How about that one?” He points to the flower arrangement you’d just finished wrapping for yourself as you smile.

“Maybe she’d prefer a different combination if it’s for a first date?” You know a lot of the flowers arranged in your bouquet aren’t often favourites, “Maybe some carnations, or even a single rose?”

“Nah, they’re perfect.” He slams some notes onto your desk, far more than is necessary for the arrangement as you hurry to try and give him his change. But he’s already out the door, waving you off as he fists the flowers in a gloved palm.

The sight has you smiling as you watch him through the window, carrying the flowers at the end of his large grenade, following behind him to lock the shop for the night.

And you don’t expect him to come back, but he does. This time asking for different arrangements as you smile and ask if the date went well (which clearly it did if he’s asking for more flowers). Trying to ignore the ache in your chest as though you’d ever stood a chance in the first place as you busy yourself with making the arrangement he requested. Feeling his crimson gaze sear into you as you begin to wrap and tie the flowers, handing them off to him as he once again pays you far more than twice what they’re worth.

Dynamight quickly becomes your best customer, unbeknownst to him keeping you in business even when times are hard and your rent is overdue. Even coming in for flowers for his mothers birthday and Mother’s Day.

You hate the morbid curiosity that eats at you when you google his name, wanting to see the woman that he’s gifting the flowers to (as you wish it was you), and when you scroll through them on social media it looks like she really was the one to tame Pro-Hero Dynamight and have him settle down.

There are days Bakugou just comes in to see you, telling you that your shop is on his patrol route (even though he’s detoured six blocks away from it to get here) just to ask about your day.

The irony that he’s been forced into a high profile relationship to boost his ratings when he feels like he’s found all he’s looking for in a quaint little flower shop in Musutafu. He wants to tell you how he feels, that he hasn’t been gifting these bouquets to her and they’re instead blooming around his apartment. The scent of them reminding him of you at every second, allowing him to fool himself that you’re there with him. But he can’t.

The contract he signed burns through his skin as he regrets ever signing the stupid piece of paper, and he’s so close to the number one position he can taste it. The only issue is now the influencer is trying to push for proposals and engagements, and he’s still not number one.

His PR team assure him that the plan is working, that he’ll hit the number one spot and then the break up will be amicable on both sides.

So instead, he just keeps buying flowers.

But as he lies awake in bed at night staring at the ceiling, he wonders whether that’s even want he really wants anymore.

Because now all he can think about is you.

[emblemxeno]

Fire Emblem Series Playthrough (Tentative Itinerary)

Three Houses: Cindered Shadows (Flower: Normal and 1/11 Birthday, Snow/Wind/Moon: Hard and 7/26 Birthday)

Three Houses: Crimson Flower

Three Houses NG+: Silver Snow (Recruit Lysithea and Leonie)

Three Houses NG+: Verdant Wind (Recruit Ferdinand and Linhardt)

Three Houses NG+: Azure Moon (Recruit Everyone)

The Sacred Stones: Ephraim Hard

The Sacred Stones: Eirika Hard

Blazing Blade: Eliwood Hard (Lloyd/Kenneth/Harken)

Blazing Blade: Hector Hard (Linus/Jerme/Karel)

Binding Blade Normal (A Route and Ilia)

Binding Blade Hard (B Route and Sacae)

Mystery of the Emblem Book 1

Mystery of the Emblem Book 2

Genealogy of the Holy War

Thracia 776 (East Route)

Thracia 776 (West Route)

Path of Radiance Normal

Path of Radiance Difficult? (Ike/Soren A Rank to Transfer)

Radiant Dawn Easy (Normal)

Radiant Dawn NG+ Normal (Hard)

Engage and Fell Xenologue (Birthday: 4/20)

I'm gonna play most FE games in the series as my main way to cope through tough times. I have a month long winter break, and only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays next semester. From Binding Blade until Engage, those games will be blind so that'll be exciting!

I'll do my best to post thoughts about things I found fun or worthwhile during each game.

Not playing the 3DS games because my 3DS is dying after a decade, and not playing New Mystery because I don't have enough storage for another emulator at the moment. Probably gonna enable Elite mode for Thracia as well for both playthroughs, but I'll get there when I get there.

(Also gonna change my pfp icon to fit the game I'm currently playing heehee)

[werewolfcave]

The Boiler Room. Get back up.

Grief Lessons: Four Plays, Euripides (Trans. Anne Carson) // Tumblr post, @/mclennonyaoi + Careless and 11 // Anecdote of the Pig, Tory Adkisson // Warrior Cats; Shattered Sky, Erin Hunter // @/petfurniture (twitter) // unknown + Wishes of Goro Akechi // I Won't Write Your Obituary, Nora Cooper // I'm not going to let you kill yourself // Tumblr post, @/khayriya // Fire Emblem: Three Houses; Crimson Flower Route (dev. Intelligent Systems & Koei Tecmo) // Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, Anne Lamott

[deathbirby]

What sucks about the fandom is that everybody usually defaults to make post-Crimson Flower fanfictions 'and they all lived happily ever after :)' which... sucks because CF is the most flawed ending out of all of the routes (Duscur is still believed to have killed the King, TWSITD are lurking around as seen in Edel's mural, sovereign nations were forcibly assimilated against their will into Adrestia, etc). All of these issues are ignored to default to a happy ending which is such a let down since all of these issues are SO interesting and genuinely could make really engaging post-CF fanfiction delving into them. That's not even going into how Edel's meritocracy is deeply flawed on further thought as it assumes equal opportunity (despite the nobility and the inter-generational wealth of said nobles), and an equal society where everyone is seen and treated as equals (the people of Duscur who are seen as traitors, Almyrans such as Cyril who were enslaved and forced to work, Nabataens and Edel's blatant racism towards them, etc). Let me make this clear; a meritocracy is better than feudalism or a monarchy outright. The issue isn't inherently with meritocracies, nor is it to dissuade changing the current system of Fodlan. The problems I have with Edel's meritocracy is the total lack of foresight and the refusal to engage with Edel's actions that brought in the system. Meritocracies can work but considering the broader context and political landscape of Fodlan: Edel's meritocracy was a system founded after violently conquering two sovereign nations against the leaders and the civilians wills. Many of these civilians do harbour resentment towards the government (as seen in Hubert/Shamir's ending where they act as secret cops 🤢), how Edelgard only really gives resources to people she knows aka nepotism (especially to Caspar and Bernie who are woefully not well suited for the roles the get). There's also the ugly turd by removing the corrupt nobles who kept her in check, there are no safeguards against Edelgard or future successors abusing their power (which Edel's use of her power is pretty questionable seen in Hubert/Dorothea gathering intelligence for the empire and Hubert/Shamir with being cops). ======== (1/2)

2/2 ==== I wanna bring up how Petra was treated; poor girl was kidnapped from her home, tossed into a hostile foreign land where she didn't speak the language and received no support at all from her peers. Going so far as Hubert calling her an animal (we love microaggresions if not outright aggresions to poc). Edelgard assumes her and Petra to be equals, that Petra is completely fine but Edel is oblivious or callous towards the gross power imbalance between the two. Petra is constantly trying to appease society by learning the local tongue, constantly trying to appease Edelgard and prove her own independence to ensure Brigid doesn't appear weak. Edel does show concern, I'll give her that, but she really doesn't do anything to truly help Petra. Iirc, Petra had to learn the entire language by herself without ANY help from anyone, not even Edel nor Hubert stepped in (tho Hubert can gawk at Petra like shes an animal). How is it unfair to assume that if Edel can't even address blatant inequality and oppression towards Petra, something that was in her face, how can she ensure that her meritocracy won't perpetuate further inequality and oppression on a wider scale? I really wish the fandom weren't so scared nor so adverse to exploring these issues in a post-CF fan fiction and really take a deep dive into Edelgard's rule outside of 'Fodlan was super corrupt, Rhea is the absolute fucking worst and Dimitri was just a Rhea Stan, Claude was aaaaalmost cool but he didn't want to work with Edelgard which sucks because they would SO be besties (even tho Claude experienced violent racism and would not tolerate Edel's pasty ass spewing vitriol how Nabataens are inhuman beasts) but its soooooo sad he didn't see Edelgard's goals, BTW CRESTS ARE THE FUCKING WORST :3'. Like, the only thing I have ever read to addressing the flaws Edelgard's rule was To Those Who Are Never Going Home by MadameHyde (but stiiiill doesn't hit the spot for me since its more focused on Garreg Mach than the wider society of Fodlan on itself). I believe in women's wrongs and Edelgard did SO MUCH shit wrong, let👏Edelgard👏be👏pointed👏out👏in👏the👏wrong👏. It sucks that nobody wants to engage or even play with that side of Edelgard, so I'm now stuck developing my own post-CF fanfiction/AU exploring an Adrestian-Garreg Mach and the world of Fodlan moulded by Edelgard's rule lmfao. I really want to explore a politically unstable and balkanized Fodlan, and it's so sad that nobody else sees the vision 😔 Thanks for reading my entire infodump about Edelgard and sitting through this entire essay lmfao. — 🍑 Anon

Oh dear goddess have mercy on me

CF's ending makes no sense when you realize that TWSITD can just nuke Fhirdiad right then and there and win. Thales can also just... brainwash Edelgard and turn her into a puppet according to hopes. It's the least logical ending.

Edelgard's system ultimately would only benefit the strong. The 'weak' (sick, elderly, poor, disabled, etc.) just have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps according to our emperor, but we all know how well that will work.

And yep, the nepotism runs strong with her. Caspar and Bernadetta are NOT fit to rule. We know from one of the endings that Caspar acts recklessly and dangerous on military campaigns but people just ignore it. That is a very bad look for Edelgard who just tolerates it.

Petra's whole situation deserves her own post tbh. She's a political hostage who gets treated like dirt. Edelgard couldn't even help her learn the language despite the fact that she has all of the resources to do so.

let👏Edelgard👏be👏pointed👏out👏in👏the👏wrong👏

write this on my gravestone lol

[pandp-author]

Fire Emblem: Three Houses, recruitment overhaul. Route availability.

Recently, I did a thread on Twitter explaining the changes I would've made regarding the recruitment of the students in Three Houses, which could be boiled down to drastically limiting the number of students that can be recruited out of houses, and making the recruitment of some students a more involved process.

This was done for three reasons:

To keep characters in characters. Something that often goes undermined is the fact that the vast majority of students are nobles. With responsibilities. They can't just up and leave. And for other characters, they WOULDN'T up and leave. I honestly think it would strengthen the narrative of each route if only certain units were available in them, with the biggest beneficiaries of such change being Silver Snow and Verdant Wind.

To encourage the player to use different units.

It's fun.

Starting with the Black Eagles, they all canonically have two paths they can go down to: Silver Snow and crimson flower.

Edelgard: cf.

Hubert: cf.

Ferdinand: SS and cf.

Lindhardt: Universal Recruitment* (UR)

Caspar: UR.

Bernadetta: SS and cf.

Dorothea: UR.

Petra: SS and cf.

Edelgard and Hubert are exclusive to crimson flower, obviously. Ferdinand, Bernadetta and Petra can only go one of two paths. Caspar and Dorothea are universal recruitments, meaning they can go to all four routes. Linhardt is UR as well, but you need to have recruited Caspar beforehand, and they need to have reached their B support rank as well. Failure recruit any of them in part 1 means they will appear as enemies in their respective maps and die.

Dorothea, as a commoner, has nothing holding her to the black eagles, let alone Adrestia, and so her leaving is easy to justify. Caspar is a noble, but unlike Ferdinand he doesn't put as much importance to his position, especially given how he won't inherit anything as a second son. Not only that, given Caspar's strong sense of justice, it's easy to imagine him siding against Edelgard after it is revealed that she's been behind nigh everything that happen in White Clouds. Linhardt also doesn't put much importance to his status as a noble, but he also doesn't care much about going out of his way to switch sides, hence why you need Caspar to recruit him.

The situation with Ferdinand, Bernadetta and Petra is more complicated, as they're now locked into the Black Eagles routes. For Ferdinand is a straightforward case of him being a noble and can't just up and leave, added to the fact that he takes his duty very seriously so he wouldn't in most cases. Bernadetta may not put much stack on her role as a noble, but she's still one. Her social anxiety prevents her from transferring to another house and it's not difficult to imagine her fighting in the war because she was dragged into it. For Petra, I wanted to lock her into the BL routes to highlight her grim situation. Petra is a political hostage, and her people are being used to keep her in line. Silver Snow is the only way for her to set herself and her people free, otherwise she'll remain under the Empire's thumb, or will die for her oppressors. The fact that Silver Snow is the only way for Petra, Ferdinand and Bernadetta to defy the empire adds to its uniqueness, now, which it arguably needs more than the other routes in order to differentiate it from Verdant Wind, and the same principle applies to Verdant Wind as well.

This does mean that Petra loses her support with Claude, but I'll address that in another post.

Onto the Blue Lions:

Dimitri: AM.

Dedue: AM.

Felix: UR.

Ashe: UR.

Sylvain: AM.

Mercedes: AM, SS and VW.

Annette: AM, SS* and VW*

Ingrid: AM.

Once again, Dimitri and Dedue remain exclusive to Azure Moon, but this time, I've decided to make Sylvain and Ingrid exclusive to the route as well. Ingrid is probably the easiest to justify, I'm kind of impressive she wasn't exclusive to begin with. But I think it's not that hard to see Sylvain as exclusive to AM as well, given his loyalty to Dimitri and his duty as a noble (Side note, but Sylvain and Ingrid being exclusive to AM would actually give the let's ignore Dedue Faerghus Four legitimacy given how they now always stay by Dimitri's side, rather than leaving him for the fisheyes professor, doubly so for Sylvain, given that all Byleth needs is being female)

Felix being universal fits his character, even though I would make a point in highlighting how he's abandoning his nation for what amounts to a temper tantrum. Ashe is fine as he is, and I like that you have to re-recruit him in SS and VW. I do have to wonder why he appears in the final map of cf as an enemy if unrecruited when he's forced into the empire side in the other routes... Mercedes is recruitable in VW but has no desire to going back to the Empire. The only way for her to join the Black Eagles is in Silver Snow, where Byleth chooses to side against Edelgard. Mercedes is the new Hilda now. Finally Annette. Much like Linhardt with Caspar, Annette needs Mercedes in order to be recruited, meaning Annette is also locked out of cf (Annette is also the new Hilda, now). They need to have reached their C support (and I honestly would also lock their B support to Part 2)

Much like their Black Eagles counterparts, Mercedes isn't a noble with responsibilities tying her to her current nation (only painful memories keeping her away from her original one) Felix puts his own feelings above her duty as a noble like Caspar (only unlike Caspar, this is explicitly a bad thing) Annette needs a strong reason to want to leave her home. Ashe's circumstances are unique.

Now, the only way to save Ingrid and Sylvain is to join the Blue Lions, because otherwise they'll follow their king to their untimely deaths in SS and VW, and they, alongside Mercedes and Annette, will die defending their homeland from the imperial invasion of Adrestia.

Mercedes also loses her support with Jeritza. And Sylvain and Ingrid lose their support with Bernadetta. Ingrid also loses her support with Claude.

Finally, the Golden Deer:

Claude: VW.

Lorenz: VW, SS and AM*.

Raphael: UR.

Ignatz: UR.

Lysithea: VW.

Marianne: VW.

Hilda: VW.

Leonie: VW, SS and AM.

Claude is self explanatory, but I decided to expand the VW exclusivity to Lysithea, Marianne, and Hilda. Once again, they're nobles, they can't just up and leave. In Lysithea and Hilda's case, they wouldn't want to leave. All Lysithea cares about is helping her parents and she would not leave them behind. Hilda will want to stay by Claude and her brother's side. Marianne may not put as much importance to her noble status, but she wouldn't be swayed to join another side either, much like Bernadetta.

Much like Ashe, Lorenz has unique circumstances at play. He's a noble that couldn't and wouldn't leave his homeland, but that doesn't stop Byleth from supporting him in part 1 and, come part 2 of SS and AM, Byleth can officially recruit Lorenz to her cause.

And finally, the commoners: Raphael, Ignatz and Leonie. With nothing hard tying them to the Alliance, they can be recruited to the other two houses. The only difference is that, unlike her fellow deer, Leonie will not join you if you choose to side with Edelgard, because that would be siding with the people who murdered Jeralt. Unlike Mercedes, however, there is no reason for her not to join the BE right away, so after joining you, Leonie may leave you come the last chapter of White Clouds, as Flayn has.

This means that Marianne tragically loses her support with Dimitri, which is one of the best ones of the entire game. She, alongside with Hilda, loses her support with Ferdinand, too. Lysithea loses her support with Edelgard and loses her role in Ferdinand's paralogue as well. Leonie is the only Golden Deer Girl to not lose her support with Sylvain.

(Damn, the Deer suffered heavy losses here, lol)

The only way to save Lysithea from dying in Gronder is to choose the Golden Deer house. This is also the only way for Lysithea to get justice from the empire and TWSitD after what they did to her family.

I'm not changing the recruitment of the faculty members, they're fine as they are.

Same with the Ashen Wolves, though it I wanted to make it a little strict, then I'd make it that you need to recruit Yuri first to recruit the rest of the Wolves, otherwise you'll lose them forever.

My next post will talk about the support chains these changes will bring about.

Expect heavy favoritism towards Raphael.

[cyranonic]

Just read Lex Talionis (very good by the way!) and I was really interested by how you portrayed Edelgard in it, so I was curious as to what your thought/opinions were regarding Edelgard/CF in general?

Hello and thank you! Glad you enjoyed the fic!

My thoughts on Edelgard and Crimson Flower Route are definitely complicated. I really love Edelgard and the Black Eagles as characters and I would rank CF as my second-favorite route (my main issue with it being the classic take of 'it feels kinda unfinished and needed 3-4 more chapters dealing with the Agarthan plotline).

The complicated part for me with Edelgard and CF is that I think it is a really good story, but I think some interpretations of her arc tend to simplify and flatten her in frustrating ways. Part of why I like her is that she is this courageous, radical, person who is willing to make huge sacrifices for her own convictions, but she is also very human and able to make horrific mistakes in certain circumstances. I feel like her fate in AM and VW routes really demonstrates the problem with her unwillingness to compromise and her "ends justify the means" approach to the Agarthans.

But I don't think that those flaws make her a bad character at all and I would even say that I find her very likable and relatable! I've written a few fics from her POV and I tend to see her as someone who puts pragmatic concerns above her own feelings, but she definitely has this softer, more vulnerable interior world. It is delicious and good drama when stories put her in situations where she is trying to maintain her stoicism, but she's also dealing with her own messy emotional state and the unresolved trauma of her past >:D

Final point: I find the idea that CF route results in the best overall worldstate for Fodlan pretty dubious. While I think the idea of destroying the Crest system is portrayed as unambiguously beneficial, I find myself unable to take the game entirely at face value when it suggests that taking 3 independent nations and unifying them forcefully into a single Empire is going to work out in the long run.

I know that I'm reading a bit against the intended meaning of the text here, but I find too many parallels between the Adrestian Empire in CF and real-world historical events wherein former Imperial powers try to reclaim independent territories in the name of restoring a strong, centralized government.

I don't think Edelgard is evil, but based on my own personal politics, I do not see the society she creates in Fodlan as destined to succeed. I recognize that all of the routes in 3h love ending with this weird "all 3 nations unified" trope, but Edelgard is the only Lord who intends to take over other nations and actively pursues that goal. That's why I like writing about her having to confront this problem in a post-game setting; I think it's a really interesting continuation and a fun moral problem for her to grapple with.

tldr: Edelgard is a wonderful, complex character who I love to write about, but I dislike it when CF is portrayed as utopian/the only good outcome for Fodlan because I think too much about irl imperialism

[loola-a]

cass sketch dump woo hoo

through out all of the academy phase there are hints of cassandra’s “isolated childhood”, and eventually post ts it’s revealed that she’s actually an agarthan… ooo drama…..

the way it’s revealed depends on which route you pick! in the actual Ivory Swans route it’s revealed through her supports and also when you fight in shambhala close to the end. In routes where u fight cornelia (her mother!) like azure moon or crimson flower, she appears as an enemy alongside her. In routes where u don’t fight cornelia like verdant wind or silver snow, she shows up as her true form in shambhala!

[fairyboyfraldarius]

I don't have anything creative to make the caption 😭

Crimson Flower post-game... What if they made a statue of Dimitri?

Drew this after thinking about Felix defeating Dimitri at Tailtean Plains... I wish we learned how Felix felt about CF Dimitri's death like we do in the other routes. So here's this :D

[cotharach]

hc + father :D

headcanons (accepting!)

it should come as no surprise that seteth has had a lot of influence on flayn but i think what's endearing to me is how it translates quietly in a lot of the skills that flayn has. like it's never outright mentioned that flayn learned all this from him but we can guess it based on the things that we Do know from the both of them.

for example: she mentions having a talent for storytelling in her manuela support. we know seteth writes a lot of fables so there's no doubt in my mind that flayn got this skill from him. her lost item, dusty book of fables, mentions how it must belong to someone with fond memories of the book... so she very clearly grew up with seteth literature and learned how to tell stories from that....

there's also my favorite example of flayn starting out with a D in flying despite having no proficiency in it because it makes me think that maybe seteth takes her flying a lot, enough for her to have gained a basic understanding of it (a D rank understanding of it, at least!) not to mention how flayn is also proficient in lances despite having an abysmal str stat. guess who starts out in your army with a b+ in lances? our green man, of course! ack, i'm so very fond of it... seteth teaching flayn how to go stabby stab is a very cute image....

there's plenty more examples like this that i can cite but, to save this post from becoming too long, i'll just conclude everything with this: seteth is flayn's only remaining family (and this becomes especially true in routes like crimson flower where they both decide to flee from the church) and i think it's really nice how we can see how it shapes flayn in such a tangible way. it's very clear within the story how much these two mean to each other, but i think it's the smaller details like this that really show just how close they are.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

I'm doing a challenge run that's not really a challenge run? I'm basically doing a fe3h run where I have to have only gay paired ending cards by the time I reach the credits. No single endings. All gay A's

The only route you can do this on is crimson flower because every member of the black eagles has at least one "gAy" support within their house. I aim to get as many gAy report cards as possible, so I'm recruiting Mercedes, Annette, Felix, Sylvain (derogatory), Ignatz, Raphael, Leonie, Shamir, and the ashen wolves. Due to Jeritza's post timeskip recruitment and being bisexual while in my presence, male byleth it is.

I haven't gotten very far yet, but limiting my character choice during this playthrough has been pretty fun!

.

[stormsbourne]

hello! i’ve been seeing a few of your fe3h posts recently and i’m a bit curious about something. i believe you mentioned that crimson flower was your first route and i’m just kind of curious… why? like, what motivated you to side with edel and what changed your opinion later on? it was the route that i played last (and enjoyed the least lmao) so i just kind of want to understand what that was like as a first impression of this game. thanks for your time, have a nice day.

Quite simply I decided ahead of time that I really liked her vibe and the vibe of some of the other Eagles. At the time I played I was under the impression that the route would be very different than it ended up being and that it would explain her pov. And it did do that a little bit, but not especially well. I really wanted to go with the female lord option because there's not many of those.

But unfortunately it's just not a very good route! As a first impression of the game it's not good! Multiple times I asked my friends (who were playing Lions) about clarifications of something that made no sense to me, like how sloppy the pre-timeskip scene was in CF or why specific other things happened that were poorly explained in CF. It's shorter than the other routes and the writing is all over the place. The pacing also isn't very good and the fact that you're already established in the monastery with a standing army post-skip feels bad compared to the other routes because there's no moment where your team comes to help you clear it out. They're all already there and are just like hi professor! Glad you're not dead from that cliff incident that wasn't clearly shown in this version!

What changed my opinion later on was playing Lions right after and also discussing things with my friends who were already in it. The deeper I got into lions the clearer it became how much was missing from cf. I think some people really want to believe cf has the best writing and is the secret "true ending" since you have to jump through some hoops to get it, but it turns out it was actually intended as a bonus extra villain route and was supposed to be more difficult to get to accordingly, like an unlock you'd only do after you understood the rest of the game. It also had less budget and time and it shows. Once you've played a different route the things you're missing in CF become like a slap in the face. No reunion cutscene? Nope, ss has that one for the Eagles route. No level where you scrap your way through until your dudes start to show up again one by one? Byleth goes off screen and Edelgard yells MY TEACHER and it's not even clear you fell off a fucking cliff! There's no anime cutscene for the siege of the monastery either! Absolutely insane! It is just a worse route!

I think people who played it first or only played it and no other routes feel like they need to defend their choices by making it out to be the best one and the correct ending for Fodlan. And you know what, it's fine to like the route you did first, but often they say things about the other characters or routes that just really indicate they haven't touched them or all their understanding of them is filtered through the Edelgard route. I did this too for a bit! It's also completely true that thanks to the budget, deadlines, etc. there is a LOT more space to fill in with your own interpretations of what going on, which is where you get the Edelgard as socialist revolutionary from, even though she is very much not that and tells you as much in her supports. There's a level of sports team to it which, who fucking cares, but it would be nice if they didn't repeat "dimitri murders women, not just kills but murders" level nonsense and then argued that if you say otherwise you're like, the bourgeoisie or something. I'm trying not to call some of these arguments twitter brained, but they really are lmao

[raxistaicho]

Why do you think so many people consider Crimson Flower to be poorly written?

The vast majority of them that I've seen just don't like the route because they disagree with Edelgard, or they confuse a route being shorter than the rest with it being unfinished or poorly-written.

For my own part, I think the pacing of the other routes sucks and a lot of chapters are just about approaching the Empire and have nothing to do with advancing the plot. The Great Bridge, Garreg Mach Defense, and Aillel are good examples of this.

Hunting by Daybreak is really nice from a thematic standpoint, but from a gameplay standpoint it's fucking awful. Then you have Gronder II, which was created purely for trailer bait because it's totally missing from half the routes and the actual battle itself doesn't matter. No, not even in Azure Moon, honestly, because they could have had Rodrigue get shanked in just about any map and it's all the same in the end.

Like seriously, would Crimson Flower be any better if it had a Hunting By Daybreak, Gronder II, or Aillel analogue, which would equalize its chapter total with Silver Snow? Fuck no, lol.

And of course, to refute the "unfinished" argument, Crimson Flower has the most unique set of maps after chapter 11, and it's very clear the developers put a lot of work into rebalancing the campaign around its shorter length (there's a pretty well-done Reddit post that goes into this in more detail). Contrast that against Silver Snow where they did baffling shit like have Edelgard take her deployment slot with her when she left and put Miracle on about half the units in the endgame.

People complain about the lack of fighting the Agarthans, but they forget the Agarthans in and of themselves are always only fought and dispatched in a single chapter after the time skip (CF 16, AM 19, SS 20, and VW 21) and the actual fight with them is always a narrative afterthought (Dimitri doesn't even realize he fought them, in VW they're fought to justify Nemesis's return and in SS they're fought to put Rhea at near-death so Byleth can take over), so it's clear the writers considered them a distant second to the conflict of ideals between Edelgard and her adversaries.

The Agarthans are there to escalate the conflict and serve as a red herring that Three Houses is going to be an FE7-esque story where the conflict is a low-key one against an evil cult before chapter 11 changes everything, not to be the true villains of the story.

Just about the only problem I think is cogent is the lack of high quality cutscenes in Crimson Flower. It could really have stood to have one more (either Rhea striking down Byleth or Byleth reuniting with Edelgard) cutscene to equalize it with the number of unique ones in AM (Dimitri's freakout and Byleth's reunion) and VW (Byleth's reunion and Claude and Nader... shooting at each other.), but much of the problem is it can't reuse the shared cutscenes the other routes have for obvious reasons.

Then there's the nonsense, "Edelgard has no character development in Crimson Flower!" argument which just confuses character development they didn't like for not having character development at all.

Good question, thanks for dropping it!