#sengoku basara manga

[himuronanart]

I miss my silver haired blorbos

[oneesanmarket]

Sengoku Basara: Date Masamune & Sanada Yukimura -  Trading Stickers

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[witchysenbasacorner]

the power that datesana has that they even get referenced in another series

[flame-wing-dragon-phoenix123]

~Hyakkimaru~

[sotiredmostnights]

last night i dreamt i held you in my arms

[kittykittyhunter]

[Posted 19 October 2012] Defeat Your torn banner, bloodied and snapped by the wind. Swords are not shining headstones. They stand upright, watching the dead, better guardians than you. The claws of a dragon broken and blunt. Look upon them. Their bodies are circled with soil and snow. You cannot fulfil the vow to protect, you cannot grant their tomorrows no. One organ gouged, wasted, gone. There lies another.

[withered-rose-unbreakable-lotus]

Masterpost: Visual Kei movies & other types jrockers were involved

So, it came to my attention some of you want to watch more visual kei movies so I thought of listing what I know, in case you've missed any of those. Please feel free to add anything I've missed with reblogs or in the comments.

Thank you @kirk-goes-to-gallifrey for the three movie links! ^^ And thank you @waretamado for helping with the titles of Plastic Tree's movies! Btw most of the vkei only movies must still be available on YT guys, however not all of them will be on HD.

Visual Kei movies:

Seth et Holth (1993) (Hide) YT link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx_laJCEpew)

Moon Child (2003) (Gackt & Hyde)

Verte Aile/Bel Air (1997) (Malice Mizer) YT link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vdd58pTaK8A)

Bara no Konrei/Bridal of the Rose (2001) (Malice Mizer) YT link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1d_cFRnxs)

BeatRock☆Love (2009) (Takeru ex.SuG)

Number Six (2006) (Alice Nine)

Yuku Pura Kuru Pura... Edokawa Puranpo no 「Ougon otoko」~「Visual bako no bijo」 (Plastic Tree) YT link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81Bb-3L4l2E)

Yuku Pura Kuru Pura... Edokawa Puranpo no 「Onan tokage」~「Bishounen wo kuu bijo」 (Plastic Tree) YT link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAha6vDCE0Q)

Yuku Pura Kuru Pura...Edokawa Puranpo no「Angura Kaijin」~「Remon no bijo」 (Plastic Tree) YT link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pzt3ai5LSXc)

Ascendead Master (2009) (Versailles)

Onegai Kanaete (2011) (Versailles)

Oresama (2004) (Miyavi) YT link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcBvKQfVKNM)

Soundtrack (2002) (Sugizo) (I don't know if it's a vkei movie but since the theme appears to be music-oriented, I put it here)

Non Visual Kei movies jrockers acted in:

Kagen no Tsuki (2004) (this is a live action of a manga) (Hyde)

There is a movie that Takeru of SuG had played in for only a couple of scenes that was his first ever role, but I forget the name. I remember sth about "blue generation" or sth. If sb remembers it, please put it in the comments. Most people might remember the scene with the fluffy coat, him with blond hair turning to the protagonist with a menacing look, from the distance.

Paracelcus' Homonculus (2015) (this is an artsy film based off a photographer's exhibition) (Takeru of SuG)

Midori: the Camellia girl (2016) (live action of a manga) (Takeru of SuG)

Bunraku (2010) (Gackt)

Akumu-chan (2014) (Gackt)

Karanukan (2018) (Gackt)

Tonde Saitama 1 (2019) & 2 (2023) (Gackt)

Moshimo Tokugawa Ieyasu ga Sori Daijin ni Nattara (2024) (Gackt)

Furin Kazan (2007) (Gackt)

Mr. Brain (2009) (it must have been 1 episode or 2) (Gackt)

Tempest (2011) (Gackt)

Sengoku Basara (2012) (Gackt)

Time Spiral (2014) (Gackt)

BLEACH (2018) (live action) (Miyavi)

Hell Dogs (2022) (Miyavi)

Familia (2023) (Miyavi)

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) (Miyavi)

Kate (2021) (Miyavi)

Stray (2019) (Miyavi)

Unbroken (2014) (Miyavi)

There's a movie with either gangs or bands that Chiyu of SuG played after the disband. Papiko, shed your light cause I don't remember the title.

30-thirty (2000) Hakuei

The Legend of the The Stardust Brothers (1985) (Issay)

溺れる魚 / Drowning Fish (2001) (Izam of Shazna)

Other

REPO! The Genetic Opera (2008) (Yoshiki was involved with the music production of this film. Personally I learnt it years after I'd watched it)

Death Trance (2005) (It features many Dir en Grey songs in its soundtracks)

Hamlet (1998) (A rock opera version of the famous play, by Penicillin) YT link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hljXGPsUU1Q)

I hope you can find anything you like and enjoy!

[wanderersrest]

A Cheat Sheet to Gintama References

Have you ever said to yourself "I want to get into Gintama, but I want to understand all of the references?"

Well fear not, for I have a cheat sheet for a lot of the references. Not all of them, because I'd never finish this post. But there are a lot of references the series makes, and as non-native Japanese viewers, a lot of things are lost on us. That's not even getting to things that are lost due to the language barrier. So here it is: a (not so) comprehensive list of series that Gintama references!

Manga

Dragon Ball (Bonus points if it involves dunking on Yamcha.)

Fist of the North Star (Complete with a copyright-friendly version of You Wa Shock!)

Saint Seiya (an entire episode hinges on Gintoki being afraid of getting sued by Toei because of their constant Saint Seiya references)

City Hunter (I wouldn't be surprised if City Hunter was an inspiration for Gintama. Like Gintoki as a main character is what happens if you were to combine Kenshin Himura and Ryo Saeba into a single man. And then you gave said man Kakashi's hair.)

Rurouni Kenshin (Gintama is best described as the post Big 3 answer to Rurouni Kenshin. While One Piece and Shaman King are the true successors to RK, Gintama is the series most similar in terms of aesthetics... minus the modern tech in Meiji-era Japan.)

One Piece, Naruto, and Bleach (I'm folding all three into one line due to their nature as Jump's Big Three. Not helping things is that Gintama ran around the same time as all three.)

JoJo's Bizarre Adventures

Death Note

To Love Ru (Yes, really.)

SKET Dance (Not surprising as SKET Dance mangaka Kenta Shinohara was Sorachi's apprentice at one point)

Fullmetal Alchemist

Lupin III

Golgo 13

Kinnikuman (the thing Ultimate Muscle is based off of)

Doraemon

Sazae-san

Berserk

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K (Ask me about how Gintama helped screw Saiki K out of an English Dub for Season 2)

Anime

Mobile Suit Gundam (It helps that Sunrise/Bandai Namco Pictures produced the Gintama anime, because there are a lot of Gundam references in particular. You also don't get the Renho arc without Sunrise producing the anime.)

Mobile Suit Victory Gundam and Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (Specifically the fact that Shinpachi and Tsukuyo's voice actors are in each series respectively)

Neon Genesis Evangelion (Especially if it involves MADAO, as MADAO shares a voice actor with Gendo Ikari)

Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, and My Neighbor Totoro (I'm highlighting these three Ghibli movies in particular due to how often they are referenced throughout the series.)

The Brave Franchise (Specifically The Brave Express Might Gaine and The King of Braves GaoGaiGar)

Patlabor (Yes really, and SKET Dance is partially to thank for this one)

Video Games

Dragon Quest (Specifically DQ III & IV, this series gets referenced a lot once Tama is introduced)

Sengoku Basara (Specifically when it involves one Toshiro Hijikata)

Final Fantasy VII

Mother

Super Mario Brothers

Tales Of

Resident Evil

Yakuza/Like a Dragon (Not surprising, as both Like a Dragon and Gintama are set in and around Kabukicho)

Monster Hunter

Live Action Film & Television

Abarenbo Shogun (SHOGUN KA YO!!!!!)

NHK Taiga Drama (The Shinsengumi drama in particular is a primary influence for Gintama)

Game of Death

Star Wars

Kinpachi-sensei (The series that the Ginpachi-sensei segments are based off of)

Doctor Who

I hope this helps if and when you decide to watch through Gintama. I'll try to update this post as I remember more references or if anyone messages me with a reference that I missed. Because good lord are there a lot of references. Oh, also remember: if this is your first time watching Gintama, start on episode 3. The first two episodes are filler.

[collectionconfiguration]

7/21,23/2023.

Rearranged bookcase3 to hold videogames, moved videogame manga to front layer shelves around videogames, tried moving figure display cases above where foam core board would cover when temporarily leaned vs bookcase3, moved PS4 to area where videogames used to be.

Moved my bluray slip cover for Sengoku Basara, to my Persona 5 figure boxes shelf, where Persona 5 Strikers used to be. It's a little mismatching, but now that I have my videogames on a more prominent shelf, P5Strikers should go with the rest of the videogames.

[yukikorogashi]

𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐈'𝐃 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑!

tagged by: @jizzlords tehe thank you sweetpea 🥰💕❤️

tagging: @bubblybabins @notoriya @peacehunted @mariotime @kuraikyu @distortedkilling @gyofukuki @soulscursed @epitaffia @crocifissione @shihouiin @amoriscustos @constellationcrowned @antinomos @shokutsus @honoosenshi @quirofiliac @thusspoke @storybounded @fearbend @howthesleeplesswander @ravusnightblossom @ultdete @wxtchpilot @heedingcalls @bubblybabins @streetslost @tenacquity 🥞🍳❤️💕

alias / name:  beckowsky / becky

birthday:  11th august

zodiac sign:   leo

height:   165cm

hobbies:   writing, drawing, singing, cosplaying, weight lifting, boxing, cleaning

favorite color: green and purple

favorite book: it's between coraline and the abarat series

last song:  gentle breeze

last film / show:   dungeon meshi

inspiration:  aside from whatever canon material i am able to gather about her (and lord is it already super scarce, when compared to the rest of the basara cast) as well as the history about the ainu and Jōdo Shinshū, i definitely take a lot of inspiration from other animes, especially of the magical girl genre (since her design is partially inspired by that). i also take inspiration from other games (like sengoku musou, onimusha, nioh, okami and kuon), anime (sword of the stranger, samurai champloo, gintama), manga (vagabond, lone wolf and cub and kaze hikaru) of the samurai genre. honestly, she's just an absolute algorithm of almost random things by this point (with sandy cheeks from spongebob also being a part of it)!

story behind url: it's just one of her attack names, which translates into 'rolling snow', her original blog was named rollingsnowsmasher, which was a combination of this attack's name and 'namahage smasher'!

fun fact about me: i own way too many silly looking sunglasses including these

[crepes-suzette-373]

I want to vent out this crazy craaaaaazy total utter reach that have been haunting in my brain for weeks.

Unlike my previous analysis posts this is not really a logical theory with strong basis, and I absolutely don't think Oda-sensei is actually doing this on purpose. It's just an observation of "this has the same vibes" that has been bothering me for a while.

In my Germa theory post, sangerie mentioned "what if they used to be good, but is now evil + WG propaganda nonsense made it worse", which is relevant to my crazy thought, so I decided I might as well just let it out.

There... there is actually someone like that in Japanese history and pop culture. A very famous someone who even little 4 year old kids (in Japan) would know who that is.

As in. In his lifetime this person was maybe not as bad (I'm no historian so I'm in no position to say), but over time he gained terrible reputation and decades of fiction just outright turned him into a demon.

His name is Oda Nobunaga.

(different kanji from Oda-sensei's name, but I wouldn't be surprised if he feels conscious about the name sounding the same even with the different kanji spelling)

Nobunaga is evil/demonic in anime and games like Sengoku Basara and a ton of other media (movies, novels, other manga and anime, etc) too numerous to name. Sometimes literally not human at all, not just him using evil demon powers ("demon powers").

He was called Dairokuten Maou, or translated as "demon king of the sixth heaven" (hey look, number 6!!!!!), and this name stuck so strongly to the point that if you try to search just what is a Dairokuten Maou in Japanese you will just get pictures of Nobunaga all over.

But that's all just fiction. Not necessarily done out of malice, but maybe the original creators just thought "wouldn't it be cool if I do this", but the audience didn't know that and thought the fiction embellishments are real.

The true historical accounts supposedly says that he was, in history, someone who wanted to "conquer" the nation for the sake of bringing peace to the war torn nation (the Warring States/Sengoku period). His methods were extreme, even cruel, but the goal is "noble".

The story just gets distorted over time because of poor transmission of accounts, propaganda and fiction. Only recently do all these random ancient ancestral documents with more trustworthy accounts start popping up because now even the general public are helping to look out for them.

Again, I don't say Germa is consciously designed based on this, but gah, this is just driving me insane.

The reason why I started having this wild thought was that Judge's birthday is the date celebrated in Japan as "Nobunaga's birthday". Supposedly this came from a fan submission, but this is the one that sensei greenlit. Surely there must be others he could've picked? I just keep thinking, is someone just trying to be funny here or is this really purely coincidence?

Other vaguely thematic similarity is that Nobunaga's army was famous (in pop culture) for being the only professional soldiers of the time, when his rivals regularly have to conscript peasants for the wars (probably not actually historically true).

It's also (very erroneously) commonly thought that Nobunaga was more advanced-minded than his rivals, the first to utilise guns in mass scale in wars (this is also not true, but that's what a lot of people thought).

Compare this to Germa's advanced science and renowned military forces.

Judge hating Sanji's weakness/uselessness is also somewhat similar to the stories of Nobunaga also detesting worthless vassals. There were stories about how he mercilessly threw out vassals who have served him for decades because he thought they aren't useful anymore.

Like I said the connection is very flimsy, that's why I doubt there's relevance. Just thought I'd still mention it since I'm just throwing everything at the wall and hoping something sticks.

Also, the one vaguely relevant image I might be able to point to. Reiju's butterfly wings is the swallowtail butterfly. A rather iconic symbol related to Oda Nobunaga.

The butterfly could mean other things, though, that's why this is just wild flailing.

[cinnbar-bun]

Ur so girlypop ✨ 👀 what are your fave animes/mangas besides one piece and jojo yk

Omg yay 🥹🥹 I’m girlypop!!!

So I mostly read/watched a lot of shoujo/josei manga and anime.

My first anime was Ojamajo Doremi (we had it in 4Kidz as Magical DoReMi), and my local library didn’t have much manga at that time, but it had MY BELOVED CHOCOMIMI AND HAPPY HAPPY CLOVER… my loves…

I didn’t really consider myself an anime fan at that time since I was just a little girl vibing, but as I got older I got more into the CLAMP works like Cardcaptor Sakura and Magic Knight Rayearth, Sailor Moon, Pretty Cure, Vampire Knight (I love you Zero), Kamisama Kiss, OHSHC, Yumeiro Patisserie, Black Butler (I even have a Yana’s artworks), and Ai Yazawa’s works.

ALSO I DONT SEE MANY TALK ABOUT THESE BUT LIKE THERE WERE THESE TWO MANGAS THAT LIVED IN MY HEAD ALL THE TIME AND I THOUGHT I HALLUCINATED THEM UNTIL I FOUND OUT THEY WERE REAL 😭😭 Godchild and Angel Sanctuary boom- both by Kaori Yuki what a shock.

I don’t watch much shounen/seinen so I never watched DBZ/Naruto and stuff like many others. I did read and watch a lot of Sengoku Basara and Soul Eater, though.

If you want my actually favorite anime ever it’s Jojo, though. I don’t think anything can top its art, concept, characters, or story to me. Even if I’m focusing on other things I will pretty much always consider it peak fiction to me.

[oneesanmarket]

Sengoku Basara:  Character Card -  The Last Party- Warlord Plate Jumbo Carddass EX

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[witchysenbasacorner]

[himebushou]

HI – I am finally watching Shaman King 2021!

The 2001 anime consumed my head and my heart (many a Maths lesson was spent discussing what had happened in Last Night’s Episode), so I’m happy to be diving in at last!

I’m grouping my rambles for convenience.  Here are some squiggly thoughts on Episodes 1-9!

Episode 1

Ep 1 of Shaman King and I'm getting emotional – the way Anna and Yoh go up against Hao in the opening sent a chill down my spine!  And wow, they didn't waste any time establishing the twin connection, huh?

There's definitely a lot packed into Episode 1, which means that it goes super fast but hey, that's fine!

It will take me a while to get used to the voices because I love and adore the 4 Kids dub – but I'm watching this subbed and having fun so far!

Episode 2

AMIDAMARU IS ADORABLE.

SHAMAN KING is one massive eco message and I loooove iiiiiit!  Having Ren spend all that time staring up at the stars rambling on about air pollution… you tell ’em!

Episode 3

Phew, the bit in the Lee Pyron episode where he starts crying... that takes me back…  (Though I think they missed a trick here by sticking with ‘Lee Pyron’ in the dub; ‘Lee Pai-Long’ made a lot more sense to me, back in the day.)

Anna literally slapping sense into everyone, including Jun fhdjdn

AND WATCHING HER USE THE BEADS GAVE ME CHILLS YAHHH!!

Episode 4

Episode 4 is my favourite so far – the introduction of Tokageroh!  There was a proper laugh-out-loud moment as well as plenty of action... though I have to ask how in the world baby!Mosuke was making swords, lol.  Him and what resources?  The knife from his father? Gosh.

Tokageroh’s backstory was delivered pretty quickly… I also appreciated Ren in this episode.

I wish that the English dub had stuck with 4Kids’ term ‘sacred hang’ – that had so much flavour.  Ryu talking about a ‘happy place’ doesn’t really have the same pizazz.

However!  Amidamaru referring to Yoh as ‘Lord Yoh’?  Amazing.  Splendid.  Beautiful.  I believe it was ‘Master Yoh’ back in the 2001 days.

Episode 5

SCREAMS

THIS

THIS IS MY FAVOURITE ONE

First of all, starting off with Ryu was cute!  Though I don’t understand how Anna summoned Mosuke to fix Harusame considering that he's dead dead (having passed on at all), but hey, I think we'll have to let it slide…

SILVA IS HERE!  I had to skip back and watch most of the episode in English because hi, DAN GREEN, HI.  He was so great and I just felt so happy hearing his voice again after all this time~ it helps that Silva is an AMAZING character and so much fun!

I cracked when Yoh lobbed Amidamaru like a baseball and tfjfj the bit where Amidamaru's spirit nearly ascends is so good –

I actually squealed when Over Soul started playing, sheesh.  Oh well.  It wasn’t too late, so I’m sure my neighbours were fine.

And man, Ren is such a lil creep at this point... The Tao family give off serious Zoldyck vibes, tbh.

(Shaman King 2021 is still super fast and I think it’s okay for people who’ve got 2001 or the manga as a baseline, but if I were completely new to the IP, I would be LOST.)

Episode 6

Horohoro is so cute.

That’s pretty much all I have to say!

Episode 7

Faust the VIII is a FREAK what the hell!

At this point, I’m flip-flopping between the sub and the dub based on whether it’s a Silva screen or not dndjkd but Faust sharing a seiyuu with Saurtobi Sasuke (from Sengoku BASARA!!) is making that complicated!

THIS EP IS FULL OF TWISTS AND TURNS

YOH LOSING

REN COMING TO THE RESCUE WITH "I DRINK THREE GLASSES OF MILK A DAY"?

SILVA'S COOL SPEECHES

AMIDAMARU INSPIRING YOH AND ANNA GETTING JELLY –

Also, the soundtrack is perfeeect for Shaman King I loooove it

Episode 8

Manta comes from money?? I don’t remember all of that stuff with his family from 2001 at ALL.

Also, the funny thought of Ryu going to America to train as a sushi chef like... surely it would be more prudent to stay in Japan?  lol

I'm pretty sure Amidamaru uses "de gozaru" when he speaks, which is super cute

This episode introduces Tamao!  I think she might be a little younger than Yoh and Anna (11?). Ponchi and Conchi were absolutely vile which was definitely, definitely left out of the dub.

I feel like we could have had more of Yoh's struggle in Yomi Cave, for sure, but that’s 2021's breakneck pacing again!  Also, I really have to question the tournament format considering that something like 10 days have passed since Yoh's loss to Faust – there wasn’t any mention of how long the qualifiers would last.  I love tournaments in anime, but they MUST be well structured!!  Or I get mad!!

Bason is adorable...... Also, I completely forgot that Ren disdains the Tao family?  What a dweeby child.  I love him.

How is it that Tamao has an Over Soul but Yoh didn't even know what it was called nfjfjd Just HOW slack was Yoh in his training??

Episode 9

YOH'S REMATCH AGAINST REEEN

THE HORSES ARE COOL

I love how much this episode focused on Yoh saying things like, “I'm not going to force myself" djdj I wish he was the shounen protag whose example I'd followed… Yoh says such important things about not working to death that many of his peers could listen to!  And me too sigh sighs

Once again, the timeline is whack – the preliminaries are over but Ren’s only had two battles?  Huh??

[mysticdragon3md3]

...

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6:14 AM 4/26/2023

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I still like to read El's fatal flaw as her unrelenting Resolve. The same ideal that's advocated by so much Shonen Manga and anime in general, shows off it's negative, flip side in FE3H through her. As I've said before, she never doubts herself, but that also means she never checks herself. She is always moving forward, unquestioning her path. In my opinion, it's also why she neither seriously considers changing her overall strategy, nor questioning the costs/"ends justifying the means". She laments the costs of her path, but she never lets it change her---which I think is the big difference between Dimitri's past of "villainous deeds" vs her past/present of villainy. (She's the villain of 3 out of 4 routes, the character designers put horns on her head and dressed her all in red like a devil, and then named her house "black" like darkness even though her house color is clearly red. FE3H did a lot to hint she's the villain. But that doesn't mean she still can't be the hero of her own story, and I think the FE3H devs honestly wanted that too.) I think it's symbolic that at the end of Azure Moon, she tries to kill Dimitri with the dagger that he had given her once in their childhood, which she says encouraged her to move forward, and a second time as adults, while Dimitri told her to use it to cut her own path. At the end of Azure Moon, El is defeated and Dimitri offers her a truce. But she is so myopically focused on her predetermined path, that she brings out the dagger that symbolizes her moving forward with her plans, no matter who/what she has to cut through or at what costs. And she uses it to try to kill Dimitri, because she honestly thinks she can still win. She can't see any other path for herself, besides the one where she wins thru force and conquest. But as admirable as Determination and Resolve are, in and of themselves, she demonstrates their tragic aspects by not even considering the alternate path of cooperation and drastically changing her strategy.

It's kind of ironic that she is so tied to her predetermined path of solving all of Foldan's problems through conquest, even if that path was determined by herself. Because she has so many moments where she almost sighs forlornly up at the sky, like at Gronder, and simply moves forward saying "And so we fight on", as if she's so sad about fighting all her old classmates, but helpless to stop it---or worse, willing to push down and ignore those feelings of dissonance and compassion, in order to make their deaths acceptable costs. And that latter is supposed to be "strength"??? El demonstrates a lot of good questions that the writers probably want us to ask, but blindly following her like she "did nothing wrong" deprives people from those productive questions. As I understand it, she has many moments throughout her route, of feeling bad for what she "must" do. But for all her "strength" in following her Determination and Resolve, she seems more helpless against it and powerless because of it. The ironic thing being that it is within her own power at any time to stop the war, cooperate instead, and/or pinpoint her attacks onto specific problematic authority figures (whether Rhea, the Agarthans, or those Faerghus nobility she mentioned, I think in 3Hopes, who were too tied to the Church). But instead, she is helpless against a predetermined path of her own making…knowingly, because she thinks it gives her strength.

(Not to bring up Sengoku Basara 2009-2011 again, but… This is just like Toyotomi Hideyoshi, thinking he has to prove his Resolve to himself, and thus his commitment to becoming "stronger" or his Resolve in being "strong", by killing the person he loved the most. As if killing those you care about are proof to yourself that you can achieve Resolve and walk a path towards "strength". But is it really Strength when you're killing off your compassion towards others? Making calculations weighing some lives as worth the nebulous "better future world" you're still speculating to make?)

Anyway, another thing I thought interesting was how each of the 3 main lords seem to represent different paths by contrasting each other.

People often say they don't understand the point of the Golden Deer, as if Claude's route seems too unrelated to the personal drama between Dimitri and El. But I think Claude was a vital contrast to El. Not only was he someone who was shown in his Supports to question himself, when confronted with being wrong, immediately pivoted to fix his flaws, but also when confronted with his blind spots, he took them in earnestly and head on. He is not someone who only finds Strength in rigid Resolve, but also in flexibility and adaptability. He also constantly reminds us that there are better ways than war to get even the dirty jobs done. I find it so strange that we have one lord, El, who acts like war/conquest is the only solution, while we have a prominent lord character, frequently reminding us that poisoning, subterfuge, and manipulation ARE A THING. To paraphrase an old ninja saying, a general killed in his bed in his sleep, is just as dead, as if you had sent hundreds of your soldiers to die on the battlefield, trying to take the general down. It is continuously ironic to me that El worked with subterfuge practitioners like Hubert and the Agarthans, and yet she is too set in her ways to consider making full use of such tactics.

The 3 main lords tell 3 different types of stories, which are made more interesting in how they clash and contrast with each other. El is on the anti-hero path in her route and the villain path in 3 other routes. She is in a tragedy story, because she refuses to acknowledge or change her flaws; she does not change/Grow. Dimitri is on a more typical hero or anti-hero route. He has a fall and does a lot of terrible things for a long time, but we witness his journey through that, towards repentance and redemption. He CHANGES and is the one forever bringing up his commitment to change and repentance. Claude on the other hand is on more a paragon story. He has already done almost all his Growth before the main story even starts. By the time he reaches Fodlan, he has already settled into an ideal of turning his tragic experiences into fuel for constructive change in himself and compassion extended outward to others, while not letting his past bog him down into sadness or obsession. And his plans to extend his compassion outward, also takes into consideration, respecting others' differences and accepting the hard work it would take to persuade dissenters without always resorting to violent force. He is already mature enough to not be looking at only himself and his past trauma, unlike the other 2 main lords. Meanwhile, we experience with Dimitri, his obsession with his past trauma, his reconciliation with his past trauma, and his eventual mature state of mind, focusing his efforts more on others than on his revenge, just like Claude. Meanwhile, El uses it as motivation for all her actions, which could be said to be pretty much revenge against the Church, the Agarthans, her past, the systems of Adrestia, and the whole world. She does all this self-focused mindset and actions, while refusing to acknowledge how she's centering everything in her world around her trauma and in a non-constructive manner towards others, thus still actually making everything about herself and her trauma. Meanwhile, Claude has already looked past his trauma and focuses more on others, and Dimitri's entire story is about his process of working to look past his trauma, to focus on others instead. As someone mentioned once, the majority of Claude's Supports are him offering help to the Golden Deer and solving their problems. Similarly, Dimitri takes on the mantel of king as a responsibility to serve his people, taking it as even more important than whether it's a position he deserves or if his past crimes can ever be redeemed.

I once said of Sengoku Basara 2009-2011's Date Masamune that his infinite Strength came from his heart being externalized outward. He seemed invincible because the thing he cared about most, wasn't obsessing over his past trauma or his own selfish wants---which he demonstrated in episode 1 he was willing to forgo for the sake of others. The thing he cared about the most, were his soldiers, the normal people of Sendai, the normal people of his entire country, who just wanted to live peaceful lives. There are only 2 times in that series when he actually puts his hand to his eyepatch, as if his traumatic lost eye was actually painful to him: When he worried about endangering the lives of his soldiers. A warrior of Strength and maturity, extends their concerns outwards, not centered on themselves. A general, waging wars to prove their own "strength" to themselves, to become "stronger", to avenge their past traumas, all while ignoring how it effects the normal people, who shouldn't have to be soldiers, is not a good leader. Whether Toyotomi Hideyoshi or El.

But since El is all about "the ends justify the means", why not interpret this by her own terms. She's doing all this horror, in order to establish a system that will supposedly be more beneficial for all. And that's where I think the contrast with the other main lords becomes interesting again. Claude is repeatedly said, within the canon text, to have the same goals and interests as El. Yet they contrast in their methods to achieve those goals. In a war story like Fire Emblem, it would be very easy, and often is the case of such stories, to just assume war as the only option. It's how the plot happens for the expected genre. But it's very interesting that we have a 3rd lord like Claude, who comes in to remind us that not only can conflicts be resolved through negotiation, but he is often spoken of (and in 3Hopes, shown) to be actually doing the hard work of negotiation with other authority figures, until he can convince them to his side. The best part being that Claude is flexable enough that we can trust him to be open to compromise, rather than rigid stubbornness in his positions. We've seen him admit mistakes and blind spots in his Support conversations. He knows how to meet conflict with a laugh, then actual practical argument points (see his Support with Lorenz), as well as pivot to integrate what he can learn from those that he has had conflict with. Even with people he conflicts with, Claude is always smoothing things over and encouraging cooperation. (Not just in his Lorenz support, but also in his Fire Emblem Heroes conversations with El. He is always luring her in with agreement, but then sliding in a contradictory point to consider, with the least amount of intimidation, until he moves the conversation the way he wants it to go.) Claude demonstrates that El's methods are unnecessary and methods more true to Compassion can achieve the same goals.

(And anyway, as the video essay "Edelgard Will Always Lose" by BOOFIRE191 noted, she is essentially creating the same system and similar problems as Rhea. A pure meritocracy always sounds nice, until you realize it's ignoring needed equity, for twisted versions of equality, while pretending external misfortunes don't exist, as if everyone in misfortune deserves it for not "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps". Or as Dimitri said, "It is the path of the strong, so it can only benefit the strong.")

Anyway, that was too much rambling about my problems with El. I guess I had stuff to get off my chest for a long time. As someone mentioned, Claude's flaw was being too secretive and still having a little more Growth to go, towards being as open to forging bonds with other people, as would have ideally better facilitated cooperation. Maybe some people wouldn't have felt the need to start wars if they were earlier and better made to feel they could collaborate with and trust others. Who knows? And Dimitri's flaw was his obsession with his revenge. We know that; we saw his entire Growth through his story. But that's as even as I'm willing to get about the 3 lords' flaws. I still have more problems with the Emperor, than the other 2 lords.