started on the kdrama ‘twelve nights’ and i love it so much please go watch it guys i really need someone to spazz with me ;;
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It’s incredible to me how much of s14 is... s15 lite, like everything with Michael and his dreams of a monster apocalypse was just the more easily defeated version of Chuck and his dreams of a monster apocalypse.
I’m only up to 14.05 on the tnt loop (or how far I’ve jumped out ahead of the tnt loop...), but I honestly can’t get over how perfect s14 is, or just how much it’s paved the way for s15 and the final showdown against Chuck. We’re truly engaged in the final battle for free will.
But in s14, TFW was still figuring out the details, figuring out how to go from being controlled by Michael to taking control of Michael. Yes, Dean had to experience this for himself, going from “drowning” under Michael’s possession to taking control and containing Michael. It took the help of Sam and Cas to do it, though. He couldn’t have done it on his own. Oh, and while they were all dealing with Michael inside Dean’s mind, it also took Jack on the spot to kill the monsters invading the bunker, or TFW wouldn’t have survived the ordeal anyway. They would’ve been slaughtered while their bodies sat at the library table, not even putting up a fight against the physical threat in the room while they were wrapped up in an internal threat in Dean’s psyche.
Dean’s first struggle once Sam and Cas turned up at Rocky’s Bar? Accepting reality, separating out the illusion and discovering what was truly real. Kinda makes Cas’s assertion of “we are” in 15.02 incredibly poignant now. Because in s15, there is no illusion, no nightmare to snap out of with a clearly delineated border between real and unreal. Exactly as he’s been doing forever, Chuck has leveled up the stakes, taken everything at the core of the narrative and metaphorically brought it from subtext to text.
S15 is playing with the same themes, only there’s no more leveling up after this within Chuck’s story, because he’s dropped the pretense, and the only trick left is to understand what Chuck’s story is, and what THEIR OWN stories are.
Who would they be, and what would they choose for themselves if the cosmic interference really did come to an end. What would the world be like if they truly were free?
And Jack... is at the center of all of it. Chuck needed Jack gone from his story, because Jack is the “cosmic can opener.” On every level-- from character arcs and all of TFW (including Rowena here, because unlike Eileen, she actually has a mirror narrative with Jack, and fandom’s eagerness to just... shove Rowena aside and replace her with Eileen is a particular point of frustration for me here, in case anyone didn’t notice... Like Adam, Eileen’s return has too much “this is a plot device” around it and not enough of “this is true emotional connection with no overarching manipulation” for me to actually trust it yet... there’s no THERE there, and the show isn’t even seemingly attempting to create it... sorry... >.>) and what they’ve learned about themselves from guiding Jack through his entire journey of existence from nephilim to human to soullessness, to the metanarrative level of “controlling the story” the way Chuck can by changing reality itself, to opening portals between worlds.
And right now, as I’m watching 14.07 (and since I know how 14.08 will go as well), with Jack’s first confrontation with the Empty, and Cas’s bargain with the Empty, and everything TFW (yes, AGAIN including Rowena, because this episode will establish her connection to Jack directly) will do to defy death and Death to bring Jack back. They’ll all need to understand the cosmic mechanisms of life and death itself in order to gain the knowledge and understanding to see through Chuck’s final story and free themselves from it.
Heck, I didn’t intend to add this bit, but apparently I am a sucker for punishment, but I need to say this, because apparently it’s too easily forgotten. But SAM is never set up as Rowena’s “son replacement” figure. JACK is. This is her role in JACK’S story. Rowena is set up, throughout 14.07 and later in 14.14 and 14.18, as Sam’s PARTNER in all the ways that Dean and Cas are partnered in parenting Jack. I’ve been hitting myself over the head all season long trying to understand why people failed to see this parallel setup. Why people thought they’d tanked the entire destiel narrative. And I’m wondering if that’s because the people who stopped seeing it... aren’t parents... or perhaps aren’t middle-aged parents of adult children. Because this... is what being in a romantic partnership with a co-parent is like.
You sacrifice a LOT of yourselves and your partnership for your kids. Especially when your kid is... suffering the way Jack has. But if you survive it, if your relationship survives it, coming through the other side of it can bring you so much closer together. And because this is Supernatural, and we’re now in the final season of Supernatural, this sometimes means LITERALLY surviving Death and coming back, having rediscovered what’s truly important.
The direct line Dean has to Michael in 14.07, the connection activated when Rowena says “archangel” and when Sam says “shaman,” is like the Chuck-Lite version of Sam’s s15 connection to Chuck. Cas’s resulting trip to visit Sergei the shaman was entirely arranged by Michael... manipulation and all. Just like Sam’s nearly dying in 15.07 where Sergei again entered the picture and nearly killed Sam... it’s all just another manipulation (that Cas fortunately learned from the last time enough to have leverage this time around).
Rowena on parenthood in 14.07:
Sam: Somebody is sick, all right, but… Listen, I-I don't know how well you got to know our -- our -- our friend Jack with everything that was going on when you were here, but we've sort of been taking care of him, and, uh, he's, um… Lucifer's son.
Rowena: Goodbye.
Sam: No, no, no. Stop, stop. He's a great kid. His mother was a fantastic human being, a-a-and he wanted nothing to do with Lucifer, w-who is dead, as you know.
Rowena: I hope he's rotting.
Sam: Yes, but Lucifer stole Jack's grace, so he's powerless now, and -- and something's going on with him, and he might die.
Rowena: Oh, splendid! The sooner the better! From what I know of the father, the world will be better off without the son.
Jack: You might be right. We're all still figuring that out. I'm Jack. And I know people have a lot of strong feelings about my father, but I'm --I'm trying hard not to be like him. Sam and Dean, they -- they say such nice things about you.
Rowena: They do?
Jack: You saved all of us -- from Apocalypse World.
Rowena: Well, that's true.
Jack: So, before you go, I -- I just wanted to say...thank you.
And, boom. She and Sam are co-parenting now. She never again questions or doubts in Jack. That’s all it took to win her over.
and from the same episode, Cas on parenthood (because parallels are nice):
Castiel: If this "Sergei" has anything even remotely useful to offer, I'll call.
Sam: Yo, Cas, wait. Are you sure you wanna handle this alone?
Cas: I, uh… I feel the need to do something. And I think Dean's right. We can't afford to overlook any possibility. He seems to be taking this particularly hard.
Sam: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he -- he, uh, was pretty rough on Jack at the beginning, and...I don't think he's forgotten. And I know he hasn't forgiven himself. You know, he's lost people, we've all lost people, but, um…
Cas: This feels different. Losing, um...a son...feels different.
and in turn, it’s always been Jack teaching them what’s truly important, reevaluating what his own definition of “paradise” could be:
Dean: Well, bait and beer. You are a cheap date. This certainly isn't Tahiti.
Jack: You once told me you and your father did the exact same thing. It was your happiest memory of him.
Dean: I didn't say that.
Jack: It was how you said it. I could tell. I guess my point is that… if I don't make it... The stuff I'd miss -- it wouldn't be things like Tahiti. Or the Taj Mahal. I'd miss more time with you. I'm getting that life isn't all these big, amazing moments. It's time together that matters. Like this.
Dean: Well, who'd have thought hanging out with me would make you sentimental?
Jack: I've had a good life, Dean.
THIS is what’s truly important. THIS is what TFW (yes, including Rowena) has always fought for. THIS is what they deserve at the end of the story.
This is what they’re fighting for in s15.
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new york’s very own guiliana rasananda was spotted on broadway street in gucci marmont logo - embellished leather sandals . your resemblance to lalisa manoban is unreal . according to tmz , you just had your twenty third birthday bash . while living in nyc , you’ve been labeled as being doctrinaire , but also pragmatic . i guess being an aquarius explains that . three things that would paint a better picture of you would be the lingering scent of her perfume after she’s long gone , a fenty beauty gloss bomb as her staple to any makeup look , and the glitter of diamond encrusted jewelry on tanned skin .
hello ladies , gents , and nonbinary pals ! my name’s jin and i’m super stoked to be here ! i’ve seen this group in the tags over the years , and i decided that it was high time for me to slide in ( and now that my school’s closed .... indefinitely .... i’ve got the time ) . giuliana is fairly new so i’m still working out some kinks that may arise , but i have a pretty good idea of the direction i want her to go in ! i can’t believe that this is my first time playing lalisa in a couple of years , but since the chance arose , i decided to take it . i won’t chat too much , and i need to make a new d.iscord since i forgot the password to my old one but if anyone wants to plot , feel free to slide into my dms ( or i’ll slide into yours ! )
basic information .
FULL NAME : guiliana kanya rasananda .
NICKNAME(S) : gigi , lia , liana , ana .
BIRTHDATE + AGE : february 12th + 23 .
ZODIAC : aquarius .
HOMETOWN : new york , ny .
GENDER : cis female .
NATIONALITY : thai - american .
ETHNICITY : thai .
HEIGHT : 5′6″ .
LABEL(S) : the amaranth , the vixen , the trust fund baby , and the princess .
ROMANTIC ORIENTATION : biromantic .
SEXUAL ORIENTATION : bisexual .
LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN : english , thai , japanese , and learning spanish .
OCCUPATION : socialite , ‘ model ’ , and youtuber / social media influencer .
POSITIVES : clear - headed , assiduous , self - reliant , pragmatic , and cosmopolitan .
NEGATIVES : disputatious , exigent , doctrinaire , selfish , and unscrupulous .
PLAYLIST : roxanne / arizona zervas , bad guy / billie eilish , body / loud luxury ft. brando , nasa / ariana grande , mother’s daughter / miley cyrus , sway with me / saweetie w. galxara , say so / doja cat , mad at me. / kiana ledé , apeshit / the carters , elastic / joey purp , watermelon sugar / harry styles , ain’t my fault / zara larsson , lemon / n.e.r.d. ft. rihanna / nice for what / drake , sugar / brockhampton , icon / jaden smith , zimzalabim / red velvet , come thru / joji , in my head / ariana grande , broke bitch / tiny meat gang , honey / lay , deserve / kris wu ft. travis scott .
biography .
let’s see if we can keep this short , am i right ladies ?
ratana saelim has humble beginnings in bangkok . her parents owned a small restaurant in their neighborhood , and they lived comfortably , but ratana still had to work hard to ensure that she got into college and could stay in college . she often did her homework behind the counter of the restaurant , and eventually went on to attend bangkok university .
she met her future husband at bangkok university , a fellow student named kamnan rasananda . he was studying business while she was studying law . in contrast to ratana , kamnan grew up in an extremely affluent home and was set to inherit his family’s company . he was a year older than ratana , and the two got married after her graduation with her master’s degree . they settled in bangkok following their wedding .
the years passed , and the couple established themselves in their respective fields . kamnan started his own business in real estate and construction , so they decided to expand out of asia and into the states . they made their home new york city , and settled easily into a multi - million dollar penthouse on the upper east side . since they were to focused on their careers , it wasn’t until they reached their mid - thirties when they had their first and only child , a daughter they named guiliana .
guiliana was a beautiful little baby who has an infectious personality while growing up . ratana and kamnan may have been busy people , but they never had an issue with putting work on pause to spend time with their daughter . the couple supported their daughter in everything that she did , and that even included when she turned fourteen and decided that she wanted to start doing youtube videos .
going through high school , guiliana had been a member of the photography and yearbook clubs , and this was at the same time that she started to truly focus on her channel . of course , her content at the time was quite cringy ( shoutout to that one song that everyone used in morning routines ) . as the years passed , she obtained the right equipment to make her content better .
by her senior year of high school , her channel grew to massive numbers . she dropped the makeup videos since she found that she was more interested in fashion than makeup , and was comfortable with sharing her personal style . she got a lot of backlash because she grew up rich and people often felt that she was ‘ flaunting ’ her lifestyle , but really , most of her clothes from the places that were often the rage at the time ( urban outfitters , brandy , etc ) with the occasional luxury piece like a purse or something .
now , she isn’t that active on youtube anymore since she’s grown into more of a socialite , but she’ll still do weekly vlogs , catching up videos , and her fashion videos . despite not being that active , her channel is still growing and has now amassed five million subscribers .
personality .
guiliana has been a part of youtube since she was a fourteen year old , so she’s been able to start ignoring the haters ! quite honestly has the most idgaf attitude towards people who have anything to say about her only showing luxury outfits and such on her channel . that’s all she knows since she grew up in that , but quite frankly she doesn’t care !
out of all of her labels , i’d say she mostly resonates with the trust fund baby . outside of her youtube channel , guiliana doesn’t do much other than spend money and sleep until eleven so don’t expect her to be out there making businesswoman moves .
don’t give her a compliment because what’s the saying ... give her an inch and she’ll take a mile ? that’s guiliana to a T ! she knows that she’s cute and her parents have only ever praised her , so she’s got something of an over inflated ego at times . she can go on and on , so please tell her ass to shut up if she starts taking it too far !
headcanons .
a born and bred new yorker , guiliana doesn’t possess a driver’s license . she gets driven around in a bentley bentayga and when her driver’s not available , she exclusively uses uber black to get around the city .
her style is pretty similar to lisa’s where one day she’s exclusively wearing streetwear , another day she’s a bit more feminine , and then sometimes she’s wearing pieces straight off the runway ! when it comes to her more feminine style i think of the youtuber kerina wang .
she’s most comfortable when she’s in her apartment . usually , she’s only wearing a lingerie set ( not the entire thing ) and lounging around . she’ll throw on a robe or something to answer the door , so just call her ahead of time .
i can’t make up my mind on how guiliana usually has her hair ( since lisa switches between long and short ) so we’ll just say that she gets extensions a lot ! currently , i love her long brown hair so click for reference here .
she has no real plans for the future ? she’s kinda of taking it day by day and enjoying her twenties while she has them . right now her main focus is her instagram and her youtube , and she has no real aspirations to do anything outside of that at the moment .
never leaves the house without wearing a pair of heels ? even when it’s cold outside , she’s wearing ankle boots with a heel or the ever elegant over - the - knee boots .
her go - to drink from starbucks is a cold brew with vanilla sweet cream . she doesn’t drink coffee with sugar .
wanted connections .
i’ll more than likely end up reblogging things into the tag i made for these , but since there’s nothing there right now , i’ll just list off some specifics that i’d love to have ! if none of these are to your taste , we could always brainstorm , work off chemistry , or let me know if there’s something that you think guiliana could fill !
i might end up sending this in to the main , but i’d love to have the fiancé that she left at the altar ! truth be told , i kind of feel as though she may have done it simply because she finally realized that things were moving too fast and she kinda of needed to pump the breaks ? she definitely didn’t do it in the best way , but it could be an interesting relationship / dynamic to explore .
she’s been in new york since forever so i just imagine there being a slew of connections stemming from that ? friendships , rivalries , and romantic connections ! idk why i love them so much , but i’d really love for her to have an ex best friend . we can determine why their friendship ended , but i really love exploring the demise of relationships .
my brain is blanking so 🤠 .
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chicago’s very own auriella yates has been spotted on madison avenue driving a porsche 718 spyder , welcome ! your resemblance to jasmine tookes is unreal . according to tmz , you just had your twenty - fifth birthday bash . your chance of surviving new york is uncertain because you’re guileful , but being unadulterated might help you . i think being a virgo explains that . three things that would paint a better picture of you would be the lingering scent of her perfume on crisp white sheets , the soft touch of short satin dresses against her thighs , and the soft glistening of diamonds during golden hour .
hi again , kitty gorls ! it’s jin showing up on your dash for the last time with my sweet peach miss auriella yates . she’s a rendition of a hailey b . chara that i have , so she’s quite the mess , but as lovable as ever ! as you’ve probably figured , i didn’t have much muse for guiliana anymore so i decided it was best to let her go and bring someone else ( also , i’m really sorry about not fulfilling that starter call . please don’t hate me 🥺 ) . my muse is soaring for auriella so be prepared for me to slide into your dm’s for plotting up a storm ! that being said , here’s another long one !
basic information .
FULL NAME : auriella kaia yates .
NICKNAME(S) : auri , mostly .
BIRTHDATE + AGE : september 9th , 1997 + 22 .
ZODIAC : virgo .
HOMETOWN : chicago , il .
GENDER : cis female .
NATIONALITY : american .
ETHNICITY : african american , brazilian , west indian , barbadian , and european .
HEIGHT : 5′5″ .
LABEL(S) : the harlequin , the trust fund baby , the vainglorious , the coquette , and the sovereign .
ROMANTIC ORIENTATION : biromantic .
SEXUAL ORIENTATION : bisexual .
LANGUAGE(S) SPOKEN : english and learned basic french in high school .
OCCUPATION : socialite , makeup artist , and businesswoman .
POSITIVES : impulsive , alluring , unadulterated , facetious , and melodious .
NEGATIVES : complaintive , acquisitive , guileful , starry - eyed , and bellicose .
biography .
auriella yates is the sixth child of eight , born to simone and joshua yates in the windy city of chicago , illinois . she has three older brothers ( chance , charles , and clark ) , two older sisters ( adriana and amelia ) , and a younger brother and sister ( calvin and aurora ) . patrick and simone for some reason found joy in naming their sons with c names and their daughters with a names , but it works for them nonetheless . the family could afford such a grandiose lifestyle in chicago thanks to simone’s lifestyle and wellness brand called honey & lemon ( goop , who ? ) that has since expanded from a newsletter to e - commerce , pop - up shops , a magazine , and a podcast . patrick , on the other hands , is a famous vegetarian chef that has launched three cookbooks while also having his own cooking series on the food network along with a cookware partnership at target . together , they own a vegetarian restaurant in downtown chicago called lemongrass .
growing up , since auriella had so many siblings , she never had an uneventful day . their parents strongly believed in their children playing outside instead of being stuck in front of the television all day , so they often took advantage of their large backyard when they lived in the suburbs of chicago . they were the parents who let their rowdy bunch ruin their perfect grass because they wanted to play in the mud . their parents may have afforded them luxuries that others didn’t have and while their parents had been busy people , patrick and simone refused for their children to be raised by nannies . they were heavily involved with everything that their children did , ranging from their pre - school graduations to their high school proms .
auriella had always been a rather outgoing girl throughout high school , and she knew she was cute so she started an instagram page when she was about thirteen or so . originally , her pictures were just cringey dirty mirror pics and photos with her friends , but as she explored the app more and more , she discovered makeup and her love for it ! so , despite the terrible youtube - tutorial makeup that she tried to recreate , auriella never gave up on her ability to do better . as she moved through high school , her makeup skills got better and better , so once she graduated , auriella knew what she wanted to do in life !
she went on to attend make up first in chicago , and obtained certificates in basic makeup i + ii , media makeup , and media: runway , editorial , and fashion . once she was finished with her schooling , auriella went on to grow her brand and get her name out there . she used instagram a majority of the time , and thanks to that and word of mouth , she grew a significant following and went on to have a few celebrities under her belt . thanks to the help of her parents , auriella decided that she wanted to get into the makeup business entirely , and decided to stick her foot into makeup production .
the brand originally only focused on her favorite thing : eyeshadow palettes ! the palettes were originally rather small , consisting of four to six colors as they perfected the formula . she eventually began to receive rave reviews and decided that it was time to expand into everything else : mascaras , lip products , foundations , blushes , highlighters and everything else under the sun . from there , kaia beauty is now being sold in sephora , ulta , and on kaiabeauty.com ! she had the second largest foundation drop ( following fenty beauty because we stan miss rihanna in this house ) .
that being said , running her own business is one that auriella is still getting used to despite it being two years since the launch . she’s thankful for the expansion of her brand and she’s still working out of her townhouse because she hasn’t found the perfect space for a headquarters just yet ! it’s one of her biggest dreams at the moment and she wants to expand kaia beauty into skincare but the end of the year .
personality .
the label she mostly identifies with would definitely be the harlequin . she can be really loud and playful at times , and she can easily get called out for not taking things seriously .
at the same time , though , she can be pretty sexual in her speech . she has no problem with people looking at her differently for doing so . she really lets a lot of things roll off of her shoulders , but she’d be a liar if she said that some things didn’t get to her .
auriella can be really full of herself and simple compliments can typically leads to her going on and on about herself , so please feel free to shut her up at any given time ! much like anyone her age , she can be found prowling around on instagram or twitter and can never go shopping without taking at least three to seven mirror selfies .
headcanons .
she lives in a beautiful townhouse on west fourth street and she’s really proud to say it because she bought it with her own money ! she likes to be different so she really hates range rovers and instead drives an audi q5 ! sounds kinda dumb since she lives in nyc , but she likes it because it gives her freedom to go where she wants when she wants to .
she never leaves the house without a purse and never without a pair of earrings on ( she thinks she’s ugly without them ) . she’s obsessed with all things cartier and she loves to accessorize , but not to much . she keeps scrunchies in her purse at all times , so if you need one just ask !
when it comes to her style , i draw a lot of inspiration from instagram if i’m being honest . she wears a lot of denim shorts , oversized tees , cropped sweaters , bodysuits , chunky sneakers ... honestly , the whole nine yards . for some examples click x , x , x , x , x , and x .
she’s been vegetarian since she was a kid because that’s all her dad ever cooked ! sometimes the scent of meat makes her sick and sometimes she fakes it so people will leave her alone . she’s definitely the one who shows up to the function with her fake burgers , but you know she has a bottle of vodka along with it .
finds joy in doing the little things ? she’s not the greatest at art but really enjoys buying a canvas and trying her best to recreate or create something ! probably gets a lot of art ideas from tik tok ( those kids are seriously talented ) and really likes to do her makeup even when she has no place to go . she loves laying on her couch and doing nothing ( and sometimes she might be kinda naked when she does it ) .
secret .
okay so , auriella’s secret is that an ‘ anonymous ’ source leaked her nudes to the press , but her parents paid off publications from releasing them . that was mostly done because she was about 17 / 18 in those pictures but of course they’re not age on them so there’s that ! the source of course wasn’t that anonymous and it turned out to be an ex ( which is really gross so this won’t be a wanted connection ) , but she’s not ashamed of them by any means !
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The Byleth Diatribe
clickbait title: if you thought Byleth was creepy, wait until you read this!
Intro
In the past couple months it's really gotten my attention the fact that some people cannot stand looking at images that depict the teacher character from fire emblem three houses (Byleth) with their students in a romantic manner. They arrive at this disgust due to the parallels it traces with real life teachers who take advantage of their students. While I don't share this sensibility, I do think it's an interesting topic to think of so I'd like to explore why these people are correct in their conclusion that Byleth is creepy, but entirely wrong in their logic-path to it.
1) Byleth is just not an actual character
To address the elephant in the room, Byleth is literally a non-character. In a game filled with wonderful dialogue that fully exposes character motivations for a massive cast, it's hard to think of this one silent teacher as a real character that normally exists in that world. Byleth's "character" is purely an afterthought to their role as the Player Avatar. Surely enough in previous installments of the series you had Robin, Corrin and Kris, but their situation was partly different.
Robin and Corrin were proper characters as much as every other character in their game. They held conversations with the other characters, they expressed themselves in regards to the events that happened to them, some would even dare to argue they were better written that some other characters in their respective games if only because their heightened importance to their respective plot lines inevitably helps them have more dialogue, and even a bad writer has to stumble into writing something good eventually which means in some scenes they’re able to overcome the barrier of being bland by design.
Byleth however has none of this. At best they're given 2 or 3 text choices at any given time, and any bipartisan conversation that involves them is more of a soliloquy by the other character, with the player input being largely irrelevant to the flow of the conversation aside from changing the very immediate reaction that follows that same input.
As such, the notion that Byleth is a creepy teacher who's grooming their students to be their personal sex slaves is misconstrued in the fact that Byleth simply has no real motivations, hence no intent. It is equally as valid to assume they could be a straight laced no-nonsense teacher or a deviant who preys on children, because no conjectures can be traced to their personality, as it doesn't exist. We can't deduce what is it that Byleth wants out of life because the avatar has no life and exists purely as a videogame terminal. We don't know what they enjoy outside of the very few things we the players are allowed to do as the character, which is why so much Byleth fanart involves fishing, cooking, or drinking tea, the few hobbies we indulged in while playing as them.
There is however something innately perverse about Byleth, it's just not the fact they're a teacher, but rather the fact they're the player.
2) Player avatars are inherently creepy, and so are dating sims
Fire Emblem is a fantasy game. In Fire Emblem games you will not only find unreal things like dragons and magic, but also straight up impossible things such as kind-hearted rulers that care about protecting and improving the lives of their constituents. The three real main characters in this game all have pure motivations and genuine desire to improve the world (yes... even Edelgard). As such, we can expect the same purity and lack of reality from a hypothetical Byleth that has a personality. It's fair to assume they'd be legitimate teachers with no creepy intentions who, through the vicissitudes of life, end up inadvertently falling in love with their students. In a fantasy land where every "good guy" is pure in nature there is no concern of Byleth grooming Dimitri, or of Edelgard forcing some ill intentioned quid-pro-quo with her right hand strategist whom she is obsessed with, because it's simply fantasy where everyone is nice and pure so things just magically always work out.
There is however an insidious factor lurking over this fantasy land, and that is the player. An omnipotent being who decides who lives, who dies, who gets married to who, and who stays alone because we just don't like them that much. The player can send Ashe to get the last hit on Lonato, just out of morbid curiosity to see what is the special dialogue that they have in that situation. The player can recruit Felix and then have Felix kill Rodrigue in the crimson route, just to see what hilarious quip will the son bark at the father. And of course, the player gets to decide who gets married to the lifeless slab of meat and bones with no emotion that is the Player Avatar. If anything breaks the idea that these characters are well written or realistic, it is the fact that they can all fall in love with someone who cannot communicate with them, all because of the emotions they magically choose to believe the avatar has, or rather, we choose to make them believe it.
In a "set" story like fire emblem echoes or path of radiance, the epilogues have little to no variety because the characters will just be themselves regardless of the player's input. No matter how much you want to see Celica's reaction to Faye getting together with Alm, that is simply not going to happen because their bond is set in stone, it cannot be altered, it is a "set" story. Likewise Nyna in new mystery of the emblem will never, ever fuck Sirius regardless of what she or the player wishes. Three Houses on the other hand is more like a playground than a book, the player will mess with the lives of these characters until they get bored of them, seeing every possible unlikely combination programmed into the game just out of curiosity to see what the characters will say, to squeeze out every last bit of "Content" that the game has until they get bored of it and move on to something else, effectively reducing the characters from "characters" to mere consumables.
Hence why I can't help but laugh at the notion that Byleth is creepy by nature of being a teacher when they're so much more than a teacher and so much more creepy than a creepy teacher. They're an in-game god (hell, lore-wise they're also a god in every ending except crimson). Byleth can quite literally mind control other characters into loving them as long as they're given enough flowers and tea. Look at Sylvain's C support with Byleth and tell me if it's natural for a guy like him to fall in love like that after saying he wants to murder Byleth (surely enough, it's even creepier for players to fall in love with him because of that support, as Sylvain is an extremely interesting character but only in his other supports).
This is why you see people saying that Felix and Annette are a great couple, or that Marianne and Dimitri are made for each other, but you don’t really see people saying that Byleth’s pairing with x is cute. When two proper characters interact all the way to their A support and fall in love that way, you’ve actually seen their story develop, you can feel happy for them. Pairing Byleth with a proper character fulfills your desire to monopolize that character and get a neat special artwork of them, but has it really been a good story and feel like this is a good conclusion for them? No. (I’d be willing to say Byleth and Dimitri do make a somewhat good couple though, but that point would be much easier to defend if Byleth could actually communicate properly)
It wouldn't matter if Byleth was a 15 year old teacher, or a 17 year old student that's a peer to the classmates, or if all of the classmates were older than Byleth AND teachers instead while Byleth is a student. By the mere nature of the player input and Byleth's lack of character, the pairing is screwed up to begin with.
What I'm getting at is that pairing Byleth with Catherine or Shamir is equally as fucked up as pairing Byleth with Dimitri (I would argue moreso because come on... Shamir and Catherine are totally girlfriends and you're just squeezing yourself in, have some respect).
In other words Byleth is only creepy because you are creepy. You're playing a game where you can date people who cannot possibly refuse you. Even if you remove that factor, you'd still be playing at making children fuck each other in whatever way you see fit. Something is wrong with you. You're the only impure factor affecting this game.
3) Fire Emblem will always suck
This is my favorite series of games but come on guys, you know fire emblem will always suck if you care about this kinda thing. In fire emblem fates Corrin has a wide variety of about 9 flavors of incest to choose from. In fire emblem awakening Robin can marry an amnesiac woman with head trauma who can't even speak complete sentences and is entirely dependent on him to subsist. The fanbase has grown so twisted they actively wanted Byleth to get married to Alois, a married man with children, and were disappointed when they didn't fuck in that paired ending (though I understand getting upset about the lack of gay supports, but hey that's just yet another way in which fire emblem chooses to suck).
Hell this is the fanbase that considers Berkut and Rinea to be a cute couple, what the actual hell guys. Go ahead and criticize the games but as long as the shipping simulator is included in the series, the games will always be creepy in their very nature, and guess what: the shipping simulator happens to be one of the most popular features and the one that people say it's the best written part of every game, so go figure if they're going to remove that.
ps: if you want a fire emblem with no paired endings, path of radiance has your back, it is my favorite! and if you want to avoid supports altogether, try Radiant Dawn, that's some good stuff.
4) Just for fun: the actual most fucked up ships in the game
-Lysithea with Linhardt, Byleth or Hanneman, or anyone.
When I recruited Lysithea in my first playthrough I didn't know she was a strong unit, instead I simply did it because I saw this sassy lost child wandering the halls and just really didn't want to kill her. I wanted her to live on and see her have a happy epilogue. Imagine my surprise when I reached the epilogues and it turns out she just simply dies shortly after the story if you don't pair her up with anyone. The exact one thing I wanted to avert was having her meet an early death, yet the game simply has her die anyway.
At the end of my deer playthrough I was all set to click on Hilda when I realized, wait a minute, Lysithea is going to die if I do this, right? And that is in fact the case. She can only live by supporting Hanneman, Lindhart or Byleth, and I had not recruited those two. So I click on Lysithea but it's kind of a tainted click isn't it? Not that I dislike her or anything, but once you throw in that additional motivation the scales have been irreversibly tipped in an unpleasant manner. I have effectively been guilted into picking her.
On to a third playthrough. I see Felix has really cute supports with Lysithea, but I can't have them supporting each other because I know she still meets an early death with him. And Lindhart, well his supports aren't bad and he's a great guy but they're certainly not as fun supports as Felix's. Hanneman fortunately doesn't seem interested in that way when you pair him up with Lysithea (not that he has any restraints when it comes to his supports with Dorothea...) so you can still have that as effectively a "solo" end for her in which she lives, but it's still kind of messed up. By giving her the Hanneman ending I'm condemning her to miss out on love for the rest of her life so that she can live on, but isn't love the reason we live on to begin with? Overall, I'd say Lysithea x Lindhart or Byleth is certainly a creepy support in the very nature that you have to do it or else you're a murderer, because you had the power to prevent this death and chose not to.
-Flayn with literally anyone
Imagine if a grown adult man could disguise himself as a high schooler, infiltrated a school and got married to a girl less than half his age. People would hate it, people would riot, Intelligent Systems would be over. But that is Flayn everyone! Fire Emblem is no stranger to the stupid trope of "little girl who's actually hundreds of years old", but I'll argue that Flayn is markedly different from Nowi. Nowi is most definitely a cartoonish fantasy character, who still acts like a little girl despite being hundreds of years old. She's literally bait for pedophile nerds with a flimsy shield in her supposed age, which she and her fans openly flaunt as if it really meant anything when the intent of her character is so transparent.
Flayn on the other hand is a legitimately mature character (as far as maturity goes in this game...) who is pretending to be a high schooler to get hitched with a student, all while hiding her real age entirely on purpose. An actual wolf in sheep's clothing (or dragon in sheep's clothing in this case...). And she can s-support literally every single male student except for Hubert (for story reasons) and Sylvain (for Sylvain reasons). Not only that but she doesn’t support any females other than Manuela, her fellow cougar, and she doesn’t support any of the older men like Hanneman showing she’s only interested in young blood.
But hey everyone! Flayn is just the little meme fish girl trapped in the mcdonalds playplace so we all give her a pass right. Overall though I'd say her creep factor is still significantly lower than Nowi's if only because her design isn't a chore to look at.
-Rhea x Byleth
This is some galaxy brain 5D chess grandmaster type of shit I tell you. Capitalizing on the sickening mommy fetish that's been rising up recently internet the crackhead team of geniuses at intelligent systems decided to pull Joker's Trick on people who are into that kind of thing. First they have her be the oldest non-wrinkled character, then they give her Kikuko Inoue as a seiyuu (famously known for often playing mom roles), then they give players that one scene where Byleth rests on her lap like their kid, and then? Then the game tells you Rhea is the daughter of Byleth. Wait a minute, what the hell? I can't even begin to think this one out because at this point my brain has turned to tofu and I am forever perplexed by this turnaround, hats off to intelligent systems for their ultimate jest.
After fates and this I positively cannot wait to see what new incestcoaster they'll turn my guts inside out with in the next entry of the series, Fire Emblem is truly the finest series of horror games disguised as jrpgs.
Obviously, this post was written in jest. I don’t actually believe you’re an inherently creepy person for playing fire emblem, nor do I think Flayn is a predator deviant (hell I don’t even think Nowi is that bad). I just found it truly interesting how people’s sensitivities can activate in these fictional settings (and do think those sensitivities should be respected) but when I try to activate those neurons my mind ends up in a whole different place. So yeah, just having some fun.
Also check out the rest of this trilogy with Three Houses sucks actually and Three Houses is good actually. I seriously hope I never feel like writing anything about this game ever again.
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