#seriously khalidstans go home

[themoomoorn]

The Flame Emperor not being a thing in 3 Hopes is pretty much why Dimitri won't see the worst in 'the Gard, as you said - what he has to deal with doesn't actually involve her directly aside from her having an Agarthan ally in Firdhiad (Cleobolus). The load also gets shoved of of 'gard because not only is there no Flame Emperor to whine "I had nothing to do with that!!!" while robbing a tomb, but 3 Hopes also implies that Rufus was the main force in causing Duscur, whereas 3 Houses heavily implied that it was 'gard's bio-mom Patricia who, at the very least, had a very heavy hand in it.

Meanwhile, you can make a case for Claude being a touch sentimental towards the Gard in 3H because of how he sees Byleth and how he spends a lot of time trying to dig up the underpinnings of the church, and while he still finds them incompatible beliefs-wise, even he will admit that maybe that, as those trying to bring about sweeping change (For better or worse), they sort of...(hard) maybe...have that in common. Hopes though? No church mysteries and tying that to his grandiose plans means Claude has negative sentiment towards her, and the fact that his fatherland actually does want to conquer Fodlan this time does not help, because Claude wants none of that. As khaloonies are convinced that they'd be besties/good romantic prospects, seeing him go ham on going against her is refreshing, to say the least.

As for Seteth, I can only chalk it up to deep denial at this point because he does the same thing in 3 Houses. Byleth can be explained by either being overly sentimental and likely experiencing troubling emotions over, well, having them for the first time ever, or if you played CF then it's also likely deep denial with a dash of self-loathing, although the latter is headcanon territory. And tbh, knowing that Shez is an otherwise ordinary merc who is 80% likely to be tied to Agartha in some way, the jury's still out on them.

I'm sorry but ever since someone pointed it out I can't stop thinking about it lol:

Seteth on SB: The Gard may be attacking us and driving us from our homes but she must have reasons!

Dimitri on AG: The Gard may be invading our lands but some of her reforms are so admirable!

Shez to The Gard in their supports: Your war might be ruining lives but you probably thought a lot about it and things were kinda bad in Fodlan anyway!

Claude on GW: IF IT'S A FIGHT SHE WANTS IT'S A FIGHT SHE'LL GET I'M NOT BACKING DOWN (with the "THE NERVE" voice line to back it up)

HILARIOUS how out of everyone in the routes, Claude is the one to take the most stout stance against The Gard's war, without anything trying to soften her up as "maybe not that bad you guyz" getting in the way. There's no "well maybe she has her reasons" there's no "well she's doing good here" there's no "well she's doing what she thinks is right" there is ONLY "She is bringing war to my land and I will not tolerate it." Not to overlook Dimitri's stance against her too - it's impressive in its own right - but it's nice to see someone finally not try to give her any slack after she's demonstrably proven she's not deserving of any. It's just a demo so who know what the full game will reveal, but in the meantime... so much for "Claude would totally side with her" lmaooo

Wanted to reach into the screen and RATTLE the Lion man because Dimitri !!!! What are you TALKING about! From what I can tell she kept the nobles where they are; she still has a church, and it's one he doesn't like--surprise surprise, because it's Imperial rule dressed up as religion. It seems like she's done literally nothing different from Three Houses--in fact, she's done more!--and we only have the context of her war without the explanation of her reforms. I'm sorry, but why am I supposed to care that she's reshaped her country and STILL decided she wanted to tear Fódlan a new one. I'm not gonna say she didn't? change Adrestia in an admirable way? Because I don't know what she did. But it's BECAUSE I don't know what she did that I can only stomach Claude's response lol. Like when someone is knocking at your door with the intention to invade the shit out of you, you don't care. You're going to fight them tooth and nail and you're going to make sure they know better than to ever show their face at your border again; that's how you keep your country intact.

Slightly off topic, but was I right to see that Seteth was all "because she established a church she made an enemy of us an not the faith!" My brother in Sothis...a church established by the state? Are we joking? 😭 Why are the writers so intent on giving her leeway when she has none. Really hoping he changes his tune when she comes for his ass when his only crime is being Nabatean.

What also gets me is that Claude is the only one who hasn't been irreversibly antagonized yet; his route starts in defending Myrddin, whereas SB starts PAST Myrddin, and Dimitri already has to take in refugees. And yet, Claude is the one to get scrappy with the Empir lol?? Dimitri does say that he's not going to tolerate the injuring of his people, or the war in general (they kept you intact, my baby 🙏🏻), so I'm curious to see if his appreciation for her reforms comes from the fact that he's dealing with quite the bit of infighting that anything looks better? Because I don't think Faerghus would be any better off for having changed to look like Adrestia.

I'm trying not to be harsh because...demo. but also. I'm so not in the fucking mood to explain away her violent conquest. Here's hoping they don't do that 🙏🏻

[themoomoorn]

This is speaking from someone purely as an outsider, but having met people in far more ethnically diverse places, I feel like fan conjecture about Claude’s appearance, on top of carrying baggage that feels very American-centric, also ignores just how different any person who has any kind of mixed ethnicity can be, and this especially applies to people who are Eastern European, West Asian, and especially North African (I.E the Middle East, or MENA, aka the group that Claude and Almyra are drawn off of in real life).  Someone who looks like Claude (medium skintone with green eyes) is far more likely in real life than people think it is.  

Heck, even in the game itself, we can see that reality seep in with the presence of Nader, whose own skintone and appearance are similar to Claude, but Nader is fully Almyran.  And Cyril himself is quite distinct compared to the both of them.  

One cannot also underestimate the hatred of Claude stemming not just for his mixed race, but by the fact that Fodlan and Almyra mutually hate one another - you have this firebrand of a woman upright run away to a long-standing enemy nation and throw herself at the king, and he marries her and makes her his official queen!  There are siblings already present within the family when Claude is born, so imagine the political shakeup that would’ve caused.  There’s also the fact that in real life, centuries ago, what one deemed an “outsider” was quite different compared to now.  Lines between religious denominations, even among those of the same ethnicity, was sacrilege to cross unless conversion occurred, and the naming of other groups was a hot mess in and of itself.

Sometimes, the clownery surrounding Claude can be on par with Edelgard, I feel.

Also something I don't like about the fandom, a lot of people complain that Claude isn't darker skinned but isn't that, like, the point? Like the artists that intentionally darken his skin as if to validate his identity as a POC is, I hate to say it, racist? Erasing the experiences of biracial POC who can pass is awful. Lightening his skin tone is bad, but on the other hand, so is darkening it?

Now this was the ask that had me broiling (again tho you’re fine nonnie!) lmao

I figure everyone in 3H’s fandom has that one aspect of it that fucking actually makes them Actually Mad, For Real, and for me this is absolutely it.

I’ll say it right now: the fandom - hell, a shit ton of his fans - don’t see Claude as a mixed raced person, they see him as a mono-raced POC despite the fact that if he was he literally wouldn’t be facing any problems whatsoever. Because he wouldn’t be in Fodlan. Because he wouldn’t feel the need to escape Almyra. Because he’d be accepted as a prince by Almyra. Because the entire center of his conflict is the fact that he is of mixed race, not non-white race, and people are too chicken-shit to just admit it when it’s literally true.

I’ve made a post pertaining to this exact thing, back when his Legendary alt dropped in FEH, but yeah, no, no one fucking cares. They make him darker so that he can be a real POC - because his skin tone isn’t dark enough, and his eyes are the wrong color, because realistic POC actually look like [x]. A light skinned mixed person with non-brown eyes is not realistic. The artist is fixing him when they make him what he really ought to be (purely mono POC, of course). He can’t be here looking like a zebra- I mean oreo- I mean dark white- I mean fake POC- I mean... unrealistic now, can he? When people make him lighter that’s erasing his heritage and that’s bad, but when they make him darker that’s properly representing him as the POC he is, and that’s good! It’s so fucking good guys! Really fucking banger that we’re okay with erasing heritage if it’s the right heritage, amiright?

I’m very heated, which I kinda try to not be in these posts too often? But like... this shit. I used to hear this kind of shit all the time growing up. Not a POC but not white either, even though I’m both, getting fucking “tested” by POC to make sure I was “actually POC” or just a whitey in disguise, having the fact that I’m part white seen as some sort of defect (and oh ho ho don’t worry the opposite was true too with being part black but holy fucking shit was I, in my personal experience, treated infinitely fucking worse for being part white by my POC peers, because I was fucking “lying” to them). 

People actually think this kind of shit. People unironically think that mixed race people or light skinned POC aren’t really POC, partly or otherwise. The people who think the stuff you listed nonnie? Think we’re just concepts white creators think are ~*exotic*~ but we don’t actually exist. Me and my siblings’ light skin? The mixed kid I came across in the dollar store down the fucking block with green eyes? Nope, don’t real, not accurate depictions of POC, the creators are just “scared” to showoff “actual POC,” which none of us are, of course. 

Yeah no, don’t hate to say it nonnie, say it with your full chest, these people are racist as hell. They wanna throw around their fucking whiny “waaah, the creators are racist, they didn’t make Claude look like the POC I think he should be to *really* be POC therefore they’re bad!” fuck them, their lack of self-awareness is frankly nauseating.