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hauntingofhouses · 11 months ago

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BRB thinking thoughts about Taigen's character, the TaiMizu ship, and a big chunk of fandom's perceptions regarding both those things.

(Inspired by @farintonorth's post related to this topic that just got my brain going brrrrr)

OK so let me just... start off by saying that I think that reducing stories to their tropes is seriously detrimental to the way some people are interacting with fiction, and while that honestly warrants its own post about the subject, I wanna talk specifically about how this affects the way some people in the fandom talk about Taigen and TaiMizu.

Because yeah, tropes are useful shorthand to refer to certain dynamics or archetypes etc, and they are indeed the building blocks to any story. But in a well-written story, characters and their relationships, actions, and motivations, are much more complex than just tropes. Because in a story that has characters who are more than just cardboard cutouts, their behaviours, backgrounds, motivations and all of that, are inseparable from the context of the overall story they exist in.

So like, sure, you can say Mizu and Taigen have an enemies-to-lovers or rivals-to-lovers dynamic. I also use those terms because it's easier. But I also think this is where things start to get a bit twisted, especially from an intertextual sense. Because "enemies-to-lovers" is also commonly used to refer to other ships in other media, whereby it tends to be rooted in an imbalanced power dynamic, such as oppressor-oppressed and bully-victim.

And while that's a whole can of worms that I won't be getting into because it can quickly derail into a whole separate sort of fandom discourse, I'd just like to make it clear that Mizu and Taigen, in particular, do not have an imbalanced power dynamic. They are not bully-victim or oppressor-oppressed. The only understandable reason why someone might actually think their relationship is imbalanced is if

A) they only watched the first episode, or

B) they cannot grasp the slightest bit of nuance in a character, or

C) they're being obtuse on purpose simply because the Mizu/Taigen relationship, or Taigen's character in general, just doesn't suit their tastes.

While yes, Taigen, along with his whole gang, had bullied Mizu when they were children, that dynamic does not exist between them whatsoever in adulthood. Whatever imbalanced bully-victim power dynamic that had once existed between them was decisively ripped apart the moment Mizu beat him in that duel in the dojo, and then completely obliterated by the end of the season.

Mizu is not a defenseless victim at Taigen's mercy. Mizu can beat Taigen's ass any time she wants (and she DOES, repeatedly in fact), and could even kill him if she felt like it. She taunts him openly and without fear ("I like your hair"; "I can beat you with any weapon you choose") and all he does is bark back, because that's pretty much all Taigen ever does. Time and time again, he yaps about how much he wants to kill her, but time and time again, his actions prove that all of it is just an empty threat. Because though his words say "I hate you", his actions demonstrate the complete opposite. He's shown how protective he is of Mizu, how unhesitatingly he sacrifices himself up for her, how loyal he is in enduring days-long torture to not give up information about her, how even when near-death and in pain, he's still willing to keep standing back up so he can fight by her side and help her win against her enemies.

And Mizu is not an idiot! She sees that too. She does not see him as a threat, an enemy, or even a bully. Especially not by the end of Episode 3, and definitely not by the end of the season. When she finds him in the dungeon in Episode 6, she smiles from relief, and doesn't think twice to take him with her. Mizu finds him, at best, an annoyance, or at worst, an infuriating hindrance on her quest for vengeance. Which is why, when Taigen is about to say, "It's a shame our duel's set for tomorrow; I have to kill you before you get your revenge," Mizu whacks him on the head without a second thought before he can even finish his sentence, and leaves him lying unconscious, face-down, in the snow.

And this further emphasises how he does not hold any power over her. There is no abusive power dynamic between them. She is more powerful than him, he knows this, and all he's ever done after they've met up again in adulthood is get his ass whooped by her, get mad about it and pester her and follow her around, get his ass whooped by her some more, and put his life on the line to protect her.

"OOoooOOoooH b-but he called her a demon at the end of Episode 7 and threatened to kill her again!!!" Oh my god. He called her that because he's calling her out on her selfishness to stay silent about her knowledge of Fowler's plans to attack Edo. Because to him, loyalty and honour as a samurai is more important than anything. So in his own brash-and-immature Taigen way, he felt betrayed that Mizu did not hold the same principles. That's why he got angry. He wasn't even that mad about letting Akemi get dragged off by the Tokunobu guards. It was about saving the Shogun and the Shogunate as a whole. That's why the first thing he does in Edo is not find Akemi, but try to warn the Shogun about Fowler's attack.

Look, I'm not defending his stupid ass, of course. Because calling her a demon especially after their cute little wrestling time was obviously rude and inappropriate, especially since words like "demon", "monster" and "Onryo" have had such a deep effect on Mizu throughout her life, and continue to contribute to her self-hatred. But like? That's the fun of realistic and flawed characters, and realistic and flawed relationships. They're not perfect, and it's why we as an audience root for them, wanting to see them work through their shit and find a way to prevail despite it all.

Also, him saying that was in the heat of the moment. He was angry, he felt like his initial belief of who Mizu was—a strong and loyal samurai, just like him��was shattered, and so he lashed out. Was it rude? Definitely. Was it immature of him? Yes, incredibly. But it's also very much in line with his character, because even though he's grown a lot over the course of the season, the show isn't over yet, so obviously his character arc is just beginning, as that is also the case for the other three main characters: Mizu is beginning to accept herself, Akemi is beginning to grow into her position of power, Ringo beginning to train under Master Eiji, while Taigen is beginning to simply be a better person.

On that note, when speaking of Taigen's immaturity, I think that's also one of the main things that people tend to gloss over when it comes to his character. Because when you boil everything down to its bare essentials, Taigen is, essentially, a boy. I've talked about this before, but to reiterate, Taigen very much behaves like an unhealed child. Even as an adult, he is insecure, prone to throwing tantrums, and is desperate to latch onto some material goal in hopes that it will make him feel better—initially he was chasing status/glory/greatness, and then when Mizu tells him that "Nothing comes from being a samurai but death," he immediately decides he wants to run away with Akemi in hopes that he will be happy.

And it's a big step, acknowledging that he doesn't truly want greatness, but had always just assumed it was his only path to a good life. But it's clear he still hasn't really figured it out. Because if he did run off with Akemi to get married and live in the countryside, he still wouldn't be happy. Because he still doesn't know who he really is, or what it is he really wants. Marriage at this moment is the last thing he needs, and as he is now, he would be a pretty awful husband. A simple life would be good for him, but would he be good at a simple life, when he still has so much he needs to work through?

So anyway, what I'm getting at here, is that he's trying and he is learning and growing. So yeah, he is flawed, but honestly? So is Mizu. And the funny thing is that they're flawed in very similar ways.

Because Mizu is also an unhealed child. That's why she's so angry all the time. That's why she pushes people away. That's why she, just like Taigen, is so happy when given the chance to playfully wrestle in the forge, laughing and rolling around like children without shame or pretense.

Again, this shows there is no imbalance between them. They had grown up together as peers from the same town. And while Taigen had had the upper hand back then, because he'd had a gang of other kids with him, that is definitely not the case anymore. Today, they are equally flawed, equally strong, equally skilled swordsmen, and equally bull-headed.

However, yes, Mizu is definitely leagues more mature than Taigen. But she still holds a lot of childhood wounds that mirror Taigen's own. And we see this especially in relation to her mother. Similar to Taigen who had an abusive and alcoholic father, Mizu's Mama was an opium addict and had hit her, berated her, had shaved her head without her consent as a child, and as an adult, had constantly emotionally manipulated and guilt-tripped her. Mizu's love for her Mama was what had driven her to a path of vengeance in the very beginning. And when she'd found out Mama was still alive, she had wanted nothing more than her Mama's love, and it was this alone that pushed her to agree to the marriage with Mikio in the first place. And now, knowing from Fowler that her birth mother is someone else entirely, is what makes her agree to keep him alive and haul his ass to London to seek answers.

Thus, integral to Mizu's self-hatred is also Mizu's intense longing for love and family. Just like Taigen, whose pompousness comes from his insecurity about being the son of a poor fisherman, Mizu's goals are also shaped by who her parents are. Remember, her vengeance is not against just anyone who's corrupt or evil, but specifically against the men who she believes had assaulted her mother, the men she believes had made her a monster, the men she believes had abandoned her to die and continue to try to kill her. Her vengeance is against a father, on behalf of a mother. In The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride, Mizu is not merely the Ronin, the Bride, or the Onryo, but also the Child.

This is also why Ringo is so good, not only for Mizu, but for Taigen as well. Ringo is wise and caring and considerate, but above all, he is in tune with his inner child in ways that Mizu and Taigen are not. He is always earnest and positive, he sees the world with childlike wonder, but is not naive or blind to its ugliness. His whole life has been a battle. Ringo brings out the best in Mizu, consistently acting as her moral compass and conscience, and Mizu's choice to save Akemi in the final episode is only because she promised Ringo that she would. Because it's the right thing to do. Ringo inspires her to be a better person, and to think outside of her narrow-minded goal of revenge. At the same time, Ringo also brings out the best in Taigen. While at first Taigen had looked down on both Mizu and Ringo ("Half-limb to a half-wit"), by the end of the season, he's proud to have Ringo as a friend and ally, he listens to Ringo's advice ("What would Master do?"), and asserts to the fucking Shogun that Ringo is a worthy warrior to have by his side.

Okay, I've gone on a bit of a tangent here, but my main point is that Mizu and Taigen are incredibly similar. They are equals. They are both flawed, unhealed children who are chasing some impossible outlandish goal in hopes that it will fill the void in their hearts. They also both have a long way to go in terms of character development if they were to ever build a healthy romantic relationship (either with each other, or even with anyone else). So while I believe things will be rocky (because duh, it's a story, we all live for the drama, etc), I think with Ringo's help, they'll get there eventually.

#blue eye samurai #blue eye samurai meta #mizu x taigen #taigen x mizu #taimizu #taigen blue eye samurai #mizu blue eye samurai #meta dissertations.pdf #im not a taigen defender. but i AM a taimizu truther #wank.mp3 #sorta #fandom.rtf #shut up haydar #like i KNOW we all love mizu and want her for ourselves but cmon. let's be real here for a second.#ahem. hear ye! put down the delulu for a mere moment!#and ask thyself. why am i beefing with this pathetic bald man? a man who is the definition of a wet rat?#thus. my brother in nerd ass shit. i beg thee put down thy weapon. this man is not worth beefing with! he is literally... just some guy.#yes...he is bitchy. however! he is also a loser obsessed with mizu. remember this. he is not thine enemy. but simply...one of us.#also lmao like jokes aside lemme be clear. you ARE ALLOWED to hate taigen and taimizu all you like!!!! feel free to do so!!!!#but please just acknowledge it's like. a preference thing. like it's just not your cup of tea! thats A-OK!#but please dont insist that the ship is toxic unhealthy abusive etc #but if you still feel the need to do so. then for the love of god just tag your posts as anti-[insert whatever here] so it helps ppl mute #i knew how to tag shit as anti-makorra since i was fourteen! 😭 like it's basic courtesy cmon

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divorcedfiddleford · 8 months ago

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Random but - if you were given an opportunity to rewrite Ford's character and his arc in the show (and later J3), how would it be like?

canon gay and trans

so the thing is that i think most of how ford himself is written is really really good! i just think that the writers (particularly alex) have a bias against him, and so a lot of the narrative ends up feeling like he's either being punished or being forced to atone for his past. so i'm gonna ramble and daydream for a bit but i want to be clear i actually really like how he's written in general (yes, even in the book that i have so much beef with!!)

there's very few moments of catharsis for him, and those that he gets are either short (reunion with fiddleford) or undermined by the writers' bias (the ending of journal 3 where he burns all his bill stuff but has to keep reminding us that he was stupid for trusting bill in the first place). so i think a lot of the problems i have would be resolved with tonal shifts and a few cuts, like that fucking scene in the stanchurian candidate with the mind control tie. the implication of reaganite ford is bad enough but then to have a guy who has very specific trauma relating to being mind controlled/not being in control of his own body just hand that over is really fucking stupid. then again i think that whole episode is stupid so i'd end up rewriting all of it lmao

i've said before but if i really had my way i'd cut roadside attraction entirely and replace it with another ford episode. i loved how goofy and fun dd&md was and i think if more of that lighthearted side of him was shown it would endear him to the audience more. a long time ago i had an idea for an episode where they go back to the bunker and ford basically does puppy talk to the shapeshifter who is actively trying to kill them. i never followed this idea through to its conclusion but i think it still sounds entertaining, plus it would also give more time for him to reunite with fiddleford so it wouldn't have to be squeezed in the finale.

speaking of the finale... my personal fantasy is that i'd love to have a scene stuck in there where stan apologizes to ford. it REALLY stood out to me that despite all their fighting, ford still at least says the words "i'm sorry" to stan. stan never apologizes for anything he did to ford - neither for breaking his project, nor for banishing him to the hell dimension for 30 years. i get that they were mistakes, but you still have to apologize for mistakes (and if i allow myself to get very self-indulgent for a second, i've often thought the whole story would be a lot more resonant if stan broke ford's machine on purpose). i had a whole section in here where i talked about what a scene like this would look like but it was so long... if people want to hear more about it i'll say more but it's the kind of thing that warrants its own post.

anyway. moving on from the show itself. so possibly my hottest take is that i think journal 3 should not have been published KJSHDFLGKHSDFGUIWEHRGJSDF. basically i think instead of trying to write the actual journal 3 they should have picked a handful of stories from his research era that they wanted to tell and made a graphic novel about that. i got WAAAAAAAYYYY off topic and wrote PARAGRAPHS about this but it's not related to the question you asked so i'll just summarize by saying i think it would play more to their strengths as writers, leave more to the imagination, and they could leave out all those fucking retcons that i hate

as it is, though, again, i think that ford is written pretty well in the journal. there are a few off-handed comments and lines that give me "he would not fucking say that" vibes but overall it very realistically portrays what it's like for someone to be manipulated, isolated, drawn away from his loved ones, etc. it's a very poignant story which resonated with a lot of people, myself included. again my main problem is that it's undercut with the writers being like "BROOOOO HE'S JUST LIKE ICARUS!! FLEW TOO CLOSE TO THE SUN!!!!!!!!" as though it's all his fault, and that it ends on a very moralizing "i learned my lesson" note. so really the biggest characterization problems i have with journal 3 have to do with fiddleford, but that's a whole other can of worms

anyway i hope this was... interesting? informative?? i hope i answered your question to your satisfaction. have a nice day :)

#gravity falls #tales of the wild zeep

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diaphin93 · 5 months ago

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Okay, so this post was brought to my attention and I considered at first, if I really want to react to it. On one hand I think it warrants a rebuttal and is a peak example of the general lesbophobia not only general fandom but also some queer men like to perpetuate, on the other hand I also originally didn't want to engage with his blogger anymore. For added context, Gascon is a blogger/youtuber who openly on this very websites has made some troublings statements and admissions leaning into the direction of Incest and Necrophilia. I will not go into further into detail about it, but it somewhat leaned into Lily Orchard levels of fucked up. And to rub salt in the wound, when I tried towarn people on the Edelcrit side of this guy and his takes, they immediately jumped into his defense and framed me as the bully here. Among other things, like very stupid and fucked takes which I personally don't stand behind anymore and which I did during a time when my mental health was on a really deep low, was why I took a break from Tumblr in the first place.

But yeah, at the risk of this firing back at me, I decided to make a blogpost engaging with his post. I'm a random nobody on this site, but I've noticed that at least some people seem to be interested in my takes and I consider a rebuttal to his takes important enough, as it goes into typical misogynistic and lesbophobic attitudes inside this particular fandom, but also fandom in general. So lets begin:

Initial ask and to be more of help than Gascon, the answer is yes. Naturally lesbians are wrong to be drawn towards a complicated and nuanced canonically queer female lead character with strong themes of abuse, vilification and loss of bodily autonomy, who tries to uproot an opressive social system that affects women in particular, duh. They should center their attention on a white man, of course. Didn't you know that good lesbians are supposed to produce male on male porn? Skits over, in all seriousness, whoever this anonymous is, if you ever read this: You're a fucking dipshit, what kind of asshole even asks a cis gay man whether or not lesbians and sapphic people should be allowed to like a female character. What a fucking imbecile.

He really had it with the first sentence, lol. I guess every dog has its day, but then he fucks it up. Though I somewhat doubt he is sincere here, considering my actual experiences with the f!Edeleth fandom, it really sounds more as a set up to weaponize and distract from the topic and push his male chauvinism and misogyny under the guess of feminism. First off, 3 Houses isn't mostly written by Intelligent Systems. Secondly, the issue lies in the fact that people like Gascon don't criticize misogynistic aspects in Edelgards character and writing which hurt her as a character, he is using performative feminism to instead bash aspects of the characters usually praised and appealing to queer women and feminist fans, as well as marginalize sapphic themes inside the game. Gascon is not only deeply fucked up according to some of his public tumblr posts which are visible to anyone, he is also just a plain hack. No civility politics from me here. This guy is practically the James Somerton of Fire Emblem Discourse, minus the plagiarism...maybe, don't know. But lets move on, just keep the reference to James Somerton in your mind for maximum entertainment.

Here is where things finally start to go down the gutter, rather early, by him already already attempting to dominish and marginalize the sapphic aspects of these games by chalking them down to male gaze titulation or flat comic relieve, while elavating the m/m subtext of his personal favs, Catherine and Shamir being the sole exception who he treats as the good token lesbians of the story, probably due to the attachment with the church of seiros, which he is super defensive and apologetic about, to my knowledge due to his own romanticization of patriachal concepts of chivalry which it supports and his catholic nationalism which I still clearly remember, trying to contextualize catholics as somewhat the most marginalized group in all of society.

I draw the connection to James Somerton, because ultimately his offhand misogynistic and lesbophobic attitudes combined with his androcentrism and male homosexual chauvinism feels just very reminiscent of him, Gascon falling into this trend of cis gay men who always push forward to center themselves and their identity in LGBTIQ+ advocacy and visibility, in what I call gay male main character syndrome. It plays into an undeniable history of cisgender queer men imposing male chauvinism and patriachal androcentrism into the LGBTIQ+ movement, pushing forward primarily their visibility while having historically contributed to the marginalization and invisibility of both cisfemale and trans queer people in broader society. I've seen another post of his where he gets somewhat pissed about anti-fujoshi discourse, one that is currently inside fandom explicitely pushed by sapphic women who are fed up with the andocentrism and male glorification inside fandom at the expense of sapphic characters and relationships which remain marginalized, with the self-serving comment revealing that his position is primarily founded in him being a beneficiary of the androcentrism and and female margilanization inside fandom. Though discussing all of this would probably go too far for this blog post, maybe I will come back to it later.

Whats clear is that Gascon here, to begin with the easy part, knows shit and makes just blanket uninformed statements about Fire Emblem 3 Houses development process and houses, as he credits IS for its writing, when the main scenario writers all were Koei Tecmo employees, 3 Houses being a collaborative Intelligent System and Koei Tecmo project and FEW3H being full on a Koei Tecmo game. They reference and build on older Fire Emblems, especially the Kaga era of Fire Emblem, alot but the game is mostly by a different company. And while it is not the team that developed the Fodlan Games, as a Studio Koei Tecmo actually as quite the history of including Yuri-Subtext into their games, especially Team Gust, which has titles like Atelier, Nights of Azure and Blue Reflection under their belt. So as a Company, Koei Tecmo is already an entire different beast and it really shows with 3 Hopes, that really ramps up the queer subtext or outright text alot compared to 3 Houses. Gascon is talking with alot of authority on the subject matter, yet displays not having done much research in who even developed and wrote these games. And going back into it, he again argues from a very dismissive and somewhat lesbophobic position of trying to play down sapphic subtext and text, especially as presented inside the Black Eagles. Is Monicas obsessive love for Edelgard often played for comedy? Yes, of course, many aspects of the game are played for comedy, even Dedues role as Dimitris caretaker is often played up from this angle. Is it it treated at her expense? Not really? Monicas Love and Loyalty for Edelgard have often a comedic undertone, mostly by being set up for jokes centering her photographic memory and Edelgard being overwhelmed, but they are also never mocked by the narrative and played as genuine, their support ends in appreciation for Monica. I think his own loathing towards sapphic characters and bias against Edelgard and possibly the black eagles (who are understood as somewhat of the gay house of the game) comes into play here. Monica does suffer alot from Hopes lack of supports and not having pre-existing Houses supports, which makes it rather unfair to compare her to Dedue, who benefits from Houses bigger library of Support.

As I mentioned in another post, its also a rather disrespectful downplay, as Monica is predominantly popular among queer women, with alot of dedicated Monica Fans I've seen being esplicitely sapphic trans women. It is obvious that she appeals alot to this demographic and it is easy to see why, Edelgard is a fairly big favorite and comfort character among queer female fans of the game and Monica, being basically the Nr. 1 Edelgard Fangirl, is a character they can immerse themselves strongly into. In this vein Monica also feels less like a mockery and more like a not to the yuri fanbase around Edelgard, after all, it is quite on your nose to make the new Black Eagles character the games only explicit lesbian. Btw, I also think one of the 3 scenario writers is a woman tbh, they at least have a female sounding name. I think Gascons argument becomes really weird and self-contradicting in this case, as he is really obsessed with dismissing the sapphic appeal and subtext of the game surrounding the Black Eagles, which leads to him dismissing the writers outright, which also plays into him basically claiming that the subtext he glorifies as superior and valid compared to the inferior ridiculous f/f subtext, is supposedly just accidental. He is also misrepresenting the scene to make his claim about the allegedly superior m/m subtext of the game. Because...like, its not the scenes which he quotes, it is a scene in which Dedue does lead Dimitris Hand onto his heroes relic and push him into fighting, which could be understood as more of an example of male machismo, lol.

I mean, I think there is legitimate queer subtext especially among Dimitri and Dedue, though their relationship has alot of problematic issues and context and there is the legitimate issue of Dedue being somewhat of a good token minority engaging in respectability politics, while there also being the context of him being a man of color genocide survivor who exists purely to be subservient and nuturing towards the leader of the people who commited said genocide, being made to crush liberation movements by his own people in favor of the genocidal Nation Dimitri leads. I think there is interesting potential inside their relationship, especially due to the themes of vengeance surrounding Dimitri, but the game does handle it by far more poorly than could be said even with the most criticial lense towards the obsessive fangirl jokes surrounding Edelgard and Monica. Something Gascon does not acknowledge, because he is operating under the double standart that the male queer ships he enjoys are supported, pure and true and that outside of one token example, the female queer ships he dislikes are just mocking or titulating. Because, and this is important to remember, Gascon is a gay male chauvinist mad at sapphic women. His language and arguments make this fairly clear.

And here we have it. All queer female rep and subtext in Fire Emblem, in Gascons mind, is his argumentation, at the same t ime in a blind spot but also exist purely as profitable male titulation. This is an extreme case of misogyny, in which queer sapphic fandom is just entirely dismissed and sapphic subtext depicted as something lesser, only serving men. Because you know that this chauvinist thinks that lesbians should instead spend their time focussing purely on male gay representation. It is also an argument which we see often inside broader fandom discurse and by Fujoshis to attack Yuri and reveals a deeply rooted lesbophobia inside fandoms. And this is a peak example in which falls into the James Summerton school of performative feminism underneath he hides a weakly disguised deeply misogyny that specifically targets sapphic women in an attempt to dismiss the notion of women existing decentered from men. It is a good example of how even a gay man can still participate in patriachy and misogyny, in perpetuating the notion that women can only exist in relation to men. What he also does is full on dismiss decades of sapphic subtext and reading inside the Fire Emblem Community, for example what is with Eirichel or the strong bisexual subtext surrounding Camilla, and the extremely strong queer female subtext inside 3 Houses itself, not only in the way Crimson Flowers overall themes and subtext works the best as a sapphic story between a female Byleth and Edelgard, but also the undeniable queerness of Edelgard and Dorothea, both to each other as well as in their relationship with other women. But no, for him, all queer female expression that isn't to his comfort and resigns to exist as a secondary behind male queerness is to be dismissed as pure cishet male titulation. This is a strong example of queer male chauvinism and lesbophobia.

Could be because Byleths support with Rhea is incredibly unpopular, probably due to Silver Snows general massive lack of popularity and its strong aspect of grooming, implications of being based on love bombing and the fact that for all intends and purposes, Rhea is Byleths grandmother and depending on Sitris genetic components maybe or maybe not somewhat like a biological half-sibling. Not that a guy who on this very website openly admitted to persueing incest irl while framing this as just a normal part of gay culture could grasp that one.

Ultimately, the issue is that this just moves the goalpost, as he does not engage with and instead talks around the fact that sapphic women inside the fandom gravitate towards Edelgard and are part of her fanbase, sapphic women inside this fandom gravitate towards Edelgard, which Gascon obviously does not want to acknowledge. Hell, we know that many of the more well known fanartis and writers outside of just Captain Flash are sapphic women and enbies. One of the most popular Edeleth Fanartists is a non-binary lesbian, we see on twitter how a large portion of sapphics engaging with Fire Emblem strongly gravitate to and center Edelgard. And the issue with Fujoshis and androcentrism is one that currently inside of fandom discourse is predominantly pushed by lesbians. It is often lesbians criticizing the way how female writers, often female writers who also identify as queer, center and prioritize male characters inside of Fandom over promoting female characters and sapphic relationships. And nobody even claims that Dimitri Fans are all horny fujoshis, only that the fujoshi community, and all of its problematic elements which certainly don't describe all fujoshis or even a minority but issues inside the yaoi genre itself, gravitates strongly towards Dimitri.

Hell, the m/m centric ships of the Blue Lions and Dimitri are predominantly criticized for being examples of androcentrism inside Fandom and the fact that Dimilix being wastly more represented than Dimidue reveals an anti-PoC bias inside the community. Something I even wrote about today, while he focuses on being the lesbophobe he always was.

thankfully, I have this guy blocked otherwise I would have to disappoint him, as I'm not a troll. I'm a clown. I might need some psychopathic Juggalo gang though, just in case somebody decides to call me a troll.

#fe3h #edelgard positive #edelgard discourse

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hogwarts-legacy-confessions · 6 months ago

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What is Hogwarts Legacy Confessions?

@hogwarts-legacy-confessions exists for fans to share your "confessions" related to Hogwarts Legacy.

For example:

you might have a crush on a particularly unpopular character.

you secretly love certain dynamics in fanworks that your friends would not approve of.

you may loathe aspects of the game that other people enjoy.

perhaps you have other insights or opinions that you feel would not be well-received.

Whatever you'd like to get off your chest - to say to fandom at large about the game and the characters is welcome to be posted.

Frequent Topics: Shipping Discourse (frankly, we've had enough of it), Smash or Pass, Polls, Ship it or RIP it, Hogwarts Legacy MC (and of course the usual character tags!)

Other themes you're encouraged to explore: Would You Rather, Fuck/Marry/Avada, Favorite Minor NPC, Discomfort Characters, Too Much Information, True or False, Two Truths and a Lie, Bookmarked Fics, Fucked Up Ships, Unpopular Headcanons.

We're always open to suggestions!

Rules & FAQs ↴

1. Nothing that targets a specific person will be published. This includes a specific MC, OC, fic, or other specific fanworks with the exception of praise or a recommendation, with the exception of discussing your own work.

2. Please avoid negative posts about fanworks or creators. We want to foster a positive environment in this blog while expressing our opinions respectfully. This includes all types of fanworks - not just writers and artists. 3. Please be polite when referring to members of the fandom (ie: us flesh and blood folks.) You can be rude, insult, and use profanity/slurs against fictional characters - that's fine. Just please avoid using them in reference to actual people. If you're criticizing an aspect of fandom, do it politely. If your post is worded too harshly, we may take the liberty of rewording it while preserving its message. 4. Please keep your responses to comments and reblogs. Please do not respond to confessions by submitting a new ask. If a confession prompts a topic you think warrants its own post, feel free to submit it, but I don't want this blog to become an endless cycle of replies on the same topic. 5. Provide details and avoid redundancy. We have confessions on many subjects already. For instance, don't just submit an ask that says "I hate __________ character," please provide unique reasons why you dislike them. Or why you like a hated character, for that matter. 6. I reserve the right to abstain from posting low effort confessions or those that come across as being purely provocative.

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ADMIN: Feel free to DM at any time with questions, comments, or concerns.

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TIMING: We will publish the current number of queued confessions from time to time. Currently, the queue is set to post every few hours, more or less in the order that the posts were received. We may adjust the queue frequency based on the number of queued posts.

TAGS: No trash-talking posts will be tagged for any specific character. Positive posts may receive more specific tags if warranted.

CONTENT: Posts are not checked for factual accuracy.

"Why was I blocked from this blog?" - Chances are you were blocked because you have the admin blocked or sent asks intended purely to stir drama or insult an admin. Kind of a no-brainer.

Pretty please

Try to post something positive on @hogwarts-legacy-hype if you post something negative here! Positive posts are also welcome here although they still need to fall under the realm of a "confession" - ie: something you would not say publicly.

This will help keep fandom morale up.

Why wasn't my post posted?

Unfortunately given the anonymous nature of posts there is no way for me to provide feedback regarding why a post was not approved. Here are some common reasons a post may not be posted:

It violates a rule above.

Off topic. It's not a confession of any kind (if the queue is low I might post non-confessions but at least make it interesting) and/or it's not about Hogwarts Legacy or its fandom.

Recently-exhausted topic. If your confession is similar to others posted lately, I might reject it or save it for a later date.

Have patience. Depending on the length of the queue, most posts will appear within 2 or 3 days.

Please don't post posts about why your post didn't post. (DM instead, I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.)

The Unrestricted Section discord is a good place to discuss posts.

#hogwarts legacy confessions #rules #admin #faq #tos

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deivorous · 2 years ago

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Hollow Society

Something's been tickling at my brain recently. The below is by no means a comprehensive review, and I don't particularly have any coherent thoughts, so anyone, please feel free to add your own.

Hueco Mundo isn't culture-less like the vast expanse of fandom portrays.

There are, in fact, at least three key pieces of evidence that support this.

Forms of government precede Aizen's involvement in Hueco Mundo.

There are multiple instances where hollows have been shown to exist in community structures, and at least one that involves an actual neighborhood.

Hueco Mundo contains ruins.

Government in Hueco Mundo

The first point is one that I believe we're all cognizant of. Specifically, Barragan was regarded as a 'King'. Whether he is actually perceived as one by the population of Hueco Mundo is debatable. However, he's exceptionally old, and has likely held his position for many many millennial. He also is describing the rather small gathering of hollows (they are all presumed to be adjuchas) as an 'army'. I wonder for what purpose he formed an army to begin with, and have determined that the most likely reason as consistent with his character is to create a sense of authority for himself.

Just a few quick observations to point out to you:

He's in possession of a OLD metal bell - it is in poor repair, but I warrant it is an item of great value because despite it's disrepair it's still afforded a prize location above the God-King's throne.

He's one of only a handful of hollows depicted wearing clothing (prior to Aizen). It's a tattered fur-collared cloak. The other item if clothing belonging to his servant woman and is just a plain tunic.

On the clothing note, the crown may or may not be part of his mask but an individual item as seen in the fact that its different after he becomes an arrancar.

She is in possession of a carafe. It could be water or something else - again the implication is that this is an item of luxury.

The scene we meet him in is 'Las Noches', and Tousen mocks him for the sorry state of it.

My main point with this is less the existence of Barragan's kangaroo court, and more the evidence of relics indicating a period before the existence of his reign (the bell, the crown. the carafe).

Secondly, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong (as I haven't actually read the novels myself) but I believe the espada pre-date Aizen as well. Many of the arrancar who have the titles of Privaron are naturally occurring arrancar, which afford them power beyond Barragan and his army of adjuchas. Their attempt to create an element of stability in Hueco Mundo (though ultimately a failure) is telling.

Hollow Communities

Barrangan's army, while small, indicates something other than his feeble attempt at control which is: Hollows naturally do come together in social settings. We see this as well with Grimmjow and his pack (and he's certainly not the only hollow in a pack). And a third time, glossed completely over, in Nnoitra's flashback - which is the most interesting of the three.

Neliel specifically refers to the location as a 'colony'.

The image depicts what looks like dwellings of some sort carved into the rock formations behind them. Hundreds of non-nomadic hollows were all living together in a community in some relative form of harmony, and their postal code (so to speak) is recognized by Nel, Nnoitra, and Aizen who charged them with exploring the colony and recruiting any Vasto Lordes present.

Nnoitra points out that there isn't one present, which indicates that all of these hollows came together despite their cannibalistic requirements, without the oversight of a stronger power forcing them to conform to a set of pro-social behaviors.

very interesting.

Finally,

The Negal Ruins

I've already touched on the bell.

Now I'd like to touch on the elephant in the room, which actually inspired this post to begin with. I don't know if anyone else has explicitly written on the topic - but this has to be one of the most fascinating things Kubo never touched.

Hueco Mundo is included in the Soul Societies genesis story - it was created, allegedly, by the Shiba family to house the hollows and prevent consumption of normal human souls. The sand is supposedly made of all the dusted bones of what must be billions of hollows when the Soul King, in a fit of rage and disgust, destroyed them all upon their banishment. While this did not prevent the creation of new hollows, it does contribute to the god-like lore of the Soul King. THe key take away is that Hueco Mundo is an artificial land - and hollows are not native to it, but rather were herded into it as a way to separate them from the humans and spirits (and forced them towards their cannibalistic diet, rather than preying on plus souls).

Despite this, the story never discusses the Negal Ruins.

My two quick-fire evidence points that this is a brand new, distinctly different location is 1) the architecture is drawn completely differently to that of any version of Las Noches and 2) it has a roof.

Barragan's Las Noches did not have a roof.

A roof implies a certain level of sophisticated engineering that it seems Barragans Hollows were not capable of. It implies a certain amount of education and cooperation.

Presumably the name of the ruins were related to Team Ichigo by Grimmjow or Nelliel (Orihime is the one who officially says the name) however Kisuke is the one that directed everyones (independant??) transit to the ruins. One can assume there would have been a reason for this (Kisuke seems to be doing some sort of research), Kubo never returns to this particular plot-hook.

What's specifically interesting to me, however, is how a ruin like this came to exist in the first place. While Kisuke has knowledge or Shinigami records of the location I doubt it's from Shinigami construction given HMs genesis story and the Shinigami's hands off approach to HM for the most part.

A hollow community of some sort must have constructed it at some point, and since then the place has fallen into disrepair. Whatever community, government, or sect may have built and maintained it is long gone - an entire era lost with nothing more than the bones of it's buildings left behind.

I don't have a neat, tidy point to finish with, so I leave you with this:

Even after Aizen's meddling, arrancar still reside within Las Noches. The community remained even without shinigami enforcement (I doubt Hallibel or Grimmjow were forcing them to stay). Hueco Mundo has an entire history no one knows about. It's population has a society.

In the wake of the Winter War and Thousand Year Blood War, it's a population that was completely decimated.

#long post tw #[ ooc || out of control ]#[ meta ]#???? maybe????#idk wher eim going with this just some observations #someone talk to me about it

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stephensmithuk · 8 months ago

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"You’ll be hearing more of this, Mr. P 34!"

Mackenzie is here referring to the poor police constable by a feature that most uniformed officers in the UK and Ireland have, namely his collar number. Although these days they tend to be known as shoulder numbers.

Permit me to demonstrate via this image:

This is Police Constable C 333. His actual name is not recorded in this c.1948, but we'll call him Robert Smith, or Bobby to his friends.

The letter C represents the division of the Metropolitan Police he is assigned to. In this case, C covered the West End of London. The Met has gone through a lot of command changes over the decades - today this would be Central West Basic Command Unit and he'd have AW on his shoulders, not his collar.

These numbers allow for identification of the officer; the public would know who to compliment or complain about. There have been cases of officers policing protests not wearing these, which caused a fair amount of upset when it was reported.

If he was using a radio, he would be Charlie Three-Three-Three. Or just "Three-Three-Three" for a local chat.

If he was to sign a statement, he'd be PC Smith 333 C. He would also put that in his email signature today.

Sergeants would have three V stripes on their sleeves and now their epaulettes outside of a dress uniform situation. They would also have their numbers on their uniform.

Police Community Support Officers (civilians wearing a uniform, basically) and Special Constables (volunteer officers with full powers, but unpaid) have shoulder numbers.

Inspectors and above just have their rank insignia, no numbers.

If Bobby moved to another division, he might keep his numbers, but he would have to change his letter. He would go down to two numbers if promoted to Sergeant.

****

Outside of London, you will usually just see four numbers, with no letters.

Bobby would also have a warrant card, akin to the US police badge, which he would use in a plain clothes or off-duty situation. If he were suspended for excessive force, he would have to hand it over.

****

Now P 34 is a bit outside his area.

This is the 1888 police divisions map, also relevant for Sherlock Holmes:

(Source: https://gmic.co.uk/topic/64457-metropolitan-police-divisional-areas-1888/)

The blue area represents the boundaries of the London County Council, although the City of London was excluded from that - it retains its own local government and police, who have their numbers on their sleeves today.

You can see the Whitechapel area under H and the Docklands area, plus points east under K.

The red area was the then boundaries of the Metropolitan Police District. You can see that it excluded my manor of Havering, then under the auspices of Essex Police. This went quite a way out, beyond even the modern Greater London boundaries in some places, although in 2000 it was aligned to match those. Havering was KD until recently, it is now part of EA.

As a further fun note, the MPD boundaries were also those of the coal tax area. Any coal brought within this area, which also included the City, was subject to tax until 1890, when this was abolished due to its unpopularity in the new suburbs. The boundaries were marked by obelisks or white concrete posts, many of which are still in situ, although not always easy to spot, to remind people of the tax. The railway or river transport companies usually collected this anyway.

Anyway, P Division covers the Camberwell, Lewisham area. Quite why Mackenzie has grabbed this bloke from there for this operation is a mystery. While P 34 could easily go outside his area for public order stuff, like a parade or dealing with a protest; during the miners' strike of 1984-85, Metropolitan Police officers were used in protecting those who were going into work from their striking colleagues, as well as beating up the latter.

Perhaps he was just doing it for the LOLs.

****

As a final note, police officers are also starting to wear name badges. This was somewhat controversial as some officers feared being targeted as a result.

#letters from bunny #raffles #the return match #police #British police #allo allo allo #what's all this then?

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oblivions-arts-culture · 2 years ago

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ENVY'S TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2022 -part 1

No one asked and none of you know who I am but I made SO MANY spreadsheets and lists about this, so!!!!!

Wet Leg’s breakout single Chaise Longue could have been their whole legacy, a novelty-adjacent one hit wonder who never captured that magic again. Except they did; and I actually think they did it better on a lot of the tracks on their debut album. The excitement around the Isle of Wight’s premier indie rock act is well warranted, and their debut LP delivers on the promise of their viral hit. The humour never runs dry, the energy persists through to the last note, and the fun never stops. It’s been a long time since a debut album made me so excited for the next one.

(yeah I couldn't choose. This is a top 11 xoxox)

It’s hard to pin down exactly what’s so captivating about this album. It’s enchanting on a surface level, a gorgeously written and utterly unique post-rock project filled with alluring idiosyncrasies. But I don’t have words for the beautiful, ethereal something in the heart of the album that keeps me coming back. Maybe I’m entranced by the swirling mix of guitars and brass. Maybe it’s the vivid but abstract tapestry of Isaac Wood’s lyrics, enthralling in their oddness but relatable in a way I don’t know how to describe. Maybe I’m trying too hard to make sense of my love for this album, but we all know snow globes don’t shake on their own.

I have very little to add to the discussion of this album, save to add to the chorus of people singing its praises. Though I can understand why Kendrick Lamar’s latest record has been somewhat divisive; it’s certainly not an easy listen, but it’s a deeply rewarding one. The strength of Lamar’s conceptual vision runs like a rich vein throughout, adding a theatrical element to even the musical arrangements that elevates the work without taking away its sting. Lyrically, the album touches on every touchy topic under the sun. It’s challenging, at times deeply uncomfortable, but also truthful, and nuanced in a way that so many attempts to diagnose our age have lacked. He’s also getting bonus points for the best song about Being Trans a cis person has ever written. Same Love by Macklemore this is not.

Don’t let the minimalist album cover or the lofi, rough-around-the-edges production fool you: Adrienne Lenneker has fit the entire universe into this double LP. Big Thief step well beyond their comfort zone on this record, and out into the cosmos beyond with swirling, almost shoegazey guitars that blend seamlessly into more straightforward folk and country without missing a beat. This is an album about finding the small, mundane joys in life, and filling them with love until they expand into the celestial. But in spite of the grand scope, the album art still sells the vibe; it’s the whole universe, but it’s about the view of it all from beside a warm campfire, surrounded by friends. It’s sweet, it’s heart-wrenching, it’s at times bizarre, and it’s in a league all of its own.

If Big Thief takes the beauty of the mundane and makes it celestial, Friendship has chosen to preserve the mundanity in its retelling. That may sound like a criticism – and certainly more cynical listeners may write the album off as boring – but I promise you it isn’t. Appreciating the little things is not always about finding a life-affirming revelation in every cup of coffee. Sometimes it’s about taking things as they are, no matter how boring or unglamorous. There’s something deeply comforting about Friendship’s expression of this reality through stark, alt-country instrumentation and the blue-collar emotional truths in the blunt imagery of their lyricism. As the year went on I found myself returning more and more to this album’s down-to-earth roots.

From the year’s least-flashy album to perhaps the year’s boldest stylistic statement. The quality and creativity of the production alone on Death’s Dynamic Shroud’s latest LP would have been enough to land Darklife a spot on this list; there really is nothing like the sound of this sprawling tapestry of experimental electronica. But what keeps me coming back is the strength of the songwriting that production is draped around; each track is its own world, with multiple ideas bouncing off of each other in ways that at times sew mesmerising chaos and in others offer striking, impossible moments of cathartic clarity. This is an LP that is begging to be experienced as an LP, a project even grander than the sum of its parts. If you want just a taste though, Judgment Bolt is the year’s biggest banger.

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whatsonmedia · 7 months ago

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The Path of Mindfulness in The Mind

There Are Moments When Even I Can Struggle to Find The Balance at Times On of the things that I have occasionally spoke quite openly about, and without any shame or remorse I might add simply because I didn't feel any when I first started talking about it. And I still don't know. I am in fact banging on about both our Minds and Mindfulness. The topic of Mental Health. Over the past year or so when I have sat down and watched TV, listened to conversations about work or anything else that's just happened to grab my interest. Even Roman Kemp's mentioned it many times and I think it's good that he's actually being so open and honest about it and not treating it as a taboo topic. In the interests of our minds, I just say, to hell with typical attitudes and get talking. The worst-case scenario is mental breakdown and/or death, and by that, I mean suicide. Other outcomes are a long and painful road of mental and psychological troubles For me, this is something that I have rarely spoken about, from a personal perspective that is, though thankfully it didn't lead down a dark path. Though i did go through a merry-go-round of moments with anxiety. When I watched a TV programme, Countryfile to be exact, the subject of Mindfulness was frequently mentioned. Well apart from having its own website the techniques of the process have been talked about. They involve The 5 Steps - - First Mindfulness Exercise: Mindful Breathing. - - Second Mindfulness Exercise: Concentration. - - Third Mindfulness Exercise: Awareness of Your Body. - - Fourth Mindfulness Exercise: Releasing Tension. - - Fifth Exercise: Walking Meditation. From looking at the list I have only ever used the 2nd one the most, the fifth I only ever used if I was out and about somewhere but I suppose you could argue that that also counts. The 1st and 3rd I barely used at all, not because I questioned about whether they'd help, but because I just couldn't be a***d. The last time I used these was not that long ago this year but also over 5 years ago when I was between jobs and wondered if I'd ever get myself back into the working world. I even made a little post about it in my blog Adam's Journal when I was in a somber and something depressing place and genuinely wanted somewhere that I could just type my thoughts and leave them until I felt ready to revisit them again Adam's Journal In the post I spoke openly about the Anxiety I coped with for two months whilst between jobs. The mental anxiety of suddenly being unemployed after over a decade of being in a job (but necessarily one I enjoyed or felt any kind of fulfillment in) to suddenly not having anything. The anxiety of having to sign on (not something that even I would recommend lightly just so you know) whilst looking for work and having to have weekly meetings at the Job Centre to prove that I was actively seeking work. To balance it out there was the upside with getting interviews but then there was the downside where I talk about the seemingly never-ending rejections. To cut it short there ending, for back then, was positive but the general gist of what I am trying to point out here was all the roller coaster-esque moments I was dealing with in my mind According to mental health charity, Mind, around 1 in 4 of us do suffer with mental health related issues but haven't been able to get support. Though the support is out there I have never sought any, not because I felt too ashamed or considered it too much of a hassle, but because I didn't view my issues as that server. Don't get me wrong, I know that there are many people who'll have thought that their mental state wasn't that enough to warrant it, but for me I knew what my anxiety causing problems were. Just a case of dealing with the prime idiots who I considered to be my Grief Mongers. Basically, the eejits who were the cause of my problems. But having said all I do take my mental health quite seriously, and I think some of it comes from a variety of places; watching multitudes of people linger over the heads of friends and family and seeing how it affected them; my own life experiences and slowly realizing that unless I spoke our nothing was ever going to happen; and of course slowly arriving at the actual realization that the so-called infamous British Saying 'Boys don't cry', 'man up' and the term 'stiff upper lip' were basically just complete and utter garbage. If history has indeed taught us anything it's that ignoring the problems that haunt us mentally does us way more harm than we realized. Also, sticking your head in the sand like the Ostrich isn't even remotely helpful either, the trouble is still there and doesn't shift because you've buried your head. In other words, we shouldn't be shoving our heads in the earth and we should just do away with the so-called British traditions of 'boys don't cry', 'man up' and 'stiff upper lip' Co's let's face it, they're complete and utter rubbish and belong in the bin. Sources Read the full article

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horseshoegirl · 1 year ago

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Set Me Alight: Part 2 - Abracadabra

📜Hey, All 💛I didn't intend for there to be a gap between this part and the last, but I had to take some time away. Unfortunately and sadly, my grandmother passed away two weeks ago. She had been ill for some time, and I had been helping to support her care at her home since I last posted.

Anyway, thank you all for the support on the first part!!! I love how you all have taken to Midge! I've changed the lineup a little bit as I decided to make this its own part! It's like I said, I'm just letting my mind take me where it wants to go for this one!

❗️+18, Strong Language, Enemies to Lovers, Original Female Character, Short OFC, Bradley Bradshaw x Natasha Trace, flashbacks to college, strong language, insecure Midge, Alcohol, Halloween, mentioning stereotypes and pranks (scaring someone).

#3.6k Words

Part 1 | Masterlist | Part 3

*THAT Morning Four Years Ago*

It wasn't one of Natasha's brighter ideas. No, it was probably one of the most foolish things she could have ever come up with since deciding to come live with you. But you suppose, in the end, you understood why she wanted to do it.

Your shared apartment off campus was ideal for this type of thing. Away from prying eyes, away from campus security and the head of the dorm rooms. It belonged to your Aunt, once a warehouse now completely renovated into an industrial apartment. So Space was never an issue and you had no neighbours, hence why she wanted you to stay here as you completed your fine arts degree - every college frat boy and popular girl's dream come to life.

It was also probably one of the reasons why Nat came up with this idea, wanting to get you up and out of your studio long enough actually to meet people. If you weren't going to detach yourself from a paintbrush, from your school notes, she was going to take matters into her own hands and bring people to you.

Halloween became her perfect excuse to do just that.

When she broached the topic of throwing a party one night as you stood in front of a massive canvas, you immediately wanted to throw your painter's palette at her head. Take college and a party on a night where anyone had any excuse to dress up as who they wanted and drink whatever they wanted to spooky season-themed music and put them together?

A terrible idea. Plain and fucking simple.

It warranted trouble and unnecessary drama. Drama you wanted no part in. These things always got out of hand without meaning, too, and you knew someone would manage to hook up in either one of your bedrooms or even the bathroom before the night was over. Or passed out drunk on the floor.

She didn't protest when you said no. In fact, she left it alone for the rest of the week.

Then came the subtle bribes.

A cup of coffee in a new Halloween-themed mug was in her hands as she woke you up one morning to ensure you'd make it to class on time. When you came home from working at the campus art store, there was a new set of black and orange acrylic paints sitting on the kitchen island. She had even planned a Halloween movie night - Practical Magic and Rocky Horror and Beetlejuice - with all the fixings and morsels of candy you could eat.

She asked you again two weeks to the day. While you were slightly more willing to agree that it might be a nice idea, you were still cautious about having a party... particularly about who she would invite.

While she might have left her sorority after all that drama, Nat still had friends in that community she was close with. Friends, you were positive, talked shit about you behind your back without really knowing you. The question of why Nat would befriend someone like you was probably the main course for the dishing of gossip.

Bradley would also come, which you didn't mind whatsoever. You liked him, and he treated Nat well. But Bradley's presence would warrant an invitation to his friends - literally the entire football team. And their friends. And their girlfriends.

Your answer was the same.

"Still no."

But the bribes didn't stop there. No, they extended into multiple drives to Party City while saying the two of you could go to the big art store on the corner of Brant Street - the one you always said you wanted to go to but never had the time. It was in the Amazon orders that showed up at the door, and it was in the pack of Lime White Claws she'd bring home from the liquor store. It was the playlist full of instrumental Halloween covers, almost always on repeat as the two of you studied together.

Nat had been conditioning you to give in all along, slowly wearing you down while she prepared for the eventual, forthcoming yes.

When you finally figured it out, you were mad. Mad that she would do something behind your back like this and think she could treat you like that. But it didn't last long. Instead, you came to the realization that maybe she had been missing the social interaction that came with living with a sorority. That she had been missing her friends. She was living here now, and despite your best efforts, she still needed to know this place was hers as much as it was yours.

Maybe hosting a Halloween Party wouldn't be a bad thing after all?

The morning of the party, you had woken up early. Earlier than Nat. It was still dark out as you dragged the many boxes of supplies and decorations out into the living space. You had thrown a few pieces of rolled-up fabric over your shoulder and tossed them into the big armchair once you figured out what boxes held what decorations. The first box had the string lights the art department had loaned you, and when you opened it up, readying yourself to untangle the monstrosities, you had the surprise of your life: uncovering a realistic spider thrown into the mix.

Curse the bloody art department for playing a prank on you.

When Nat finally got up that morning, sunlight now streaming through the windows, she was welcomed to the sight of said lights having been strung along the ground, ready to be put up and hung from the wall. She had to step around carefully and through the wires, worried about stepping on a light bulb, as you had aligned them all with the wall sockets, already attempting to daisy chain the hell out of them.

"Maeve?"

"Over here!" you called out.

Nat followed your voice down the hall, only to find you standing on a ladder, plastering the stripe of LED lights into the edge of the wall and ceiling. The piles of fabric had been pooled on the top step, and she figured out you were attaching them at the same time as the lights, letting the material fall down the wall to create an interesting ambiance for tonight.

"This is..." she trailed off, looking at all the boxes and materials you'd spent your waking hours organizing. You turned on the ladder, holding on to the edges of a black piece of fabric.

"It's a lot, I know," you quickly answered her. "But you told me to go crazy with decorations, and I am an artist."

"It's not that..." she trailed off, reaching down to scoop a handful of spiders into her hand, letting them fall back into the box. "I'm just wondering if we should have started yesterday."

You placed your hands on your hips, eyeing her carefully. "We couldn't have. You had that test, and I had that art project to finish."

You may have gone overboard for a simple Halloween party. But you wanted this to be special... and you ever half-assed anything in your life if you could help it.

"We can manage, don't you think?" you tried to convince her, turning back to hook the piece of fabric in your hand into the ceiling.

Nat reached into the back hem of her sleep shorts, finding her phone plastered up against the skin of her back. "Nope, I'm going to call in the cavalry."

"The cavalry?" you questioned aloud. The second you let the black fabric fall to the ground, you realized who she was talking about.

"Oh, no way!" you shouted out, immediately stepping down from your advantage point to stop her from sending that text. Already, Nat had stood in the process of writing out said message when you hit the floor. You cursed yourself for leaving out so many tripping hazards as you raced to stop her.

"As much as Bradley would help because you asked him to, all the other guys on the team are going to scoff and laugh and not see the worth in something like this!"

Nat only laughed at your protest, hitting send and holding her phone out of your reach as you lunged for it. "You clearly don't know them like I do."

"No, I don't," you argued back, trying to swipe at her phone, hoping once you managed to get it, you could hit resend on the message before Bradley saw it. "I'm a small geek of a person that doesn't do all the popular group shit. I'm not even in their league!"

"That's not true, and you know it!"

Nat used your height to her advantage, holding her phone high above her head, well out of your reach. You even tried to jump, but Nat quickly saw what you were attempting to do. "Maeve, stop it," she chided playfully but with an undercurrent of seriousness. "You always sell yourself short. Those guys aren't the judgmental jocks you think they are. You need to meet people! Mingle!"

Giving up on the battle for her phone, you dropped your hands to your hips, cocking your eyebrow. "Really? Sell myself short?"

Nat grimaced, dropping her hand. "Sorry, poor choice of words."

You weren't mad. Not really. Cause the second you dropped your hand, you lunged, successfully grabbing her wrist only to peel her phone out of her hand.

"Maeve!"

You knew each other's passwords, so getting into her phone wasn't an issue. But it was too late. As you went to swipe for the message, there, on her screen, was a reply from Bradley.

We'll be there after lunch <3

"Shit!" You shouted out, dropping your head back on your shoulders. With your eyes closed, you held out her phone, urging her to take it back. She stood there with an amused smile on her face, crossing her arms as she took you in.

"It's not going to be that bad, Maeve."

"You don't know that," you cried out. "I don't want our place to turn into some frat house blowout."

"Frat house blowout? Really?" she laughed, taking her phone back from you.

"You know what I mean."

You finally opened your eyes hesitantly to see a soft expression across Nat's face. Her optimism was infectious, one of the many things that drew the two of you together as friends. It brought you back to that moment in time when the two of you realized that in that small corner of the library, you'd have to pull an all-nighter to get your assignment done.

It was that same face staring back at you, wide and hopeful, asking you to trust her.

"The football team isn't that bad. It's only Bradley's friends who are coming to help out. I promise they will behave and at the first sign of trouble, or the first art diss, they will have to answer to me, okay?"

You bit your lip, working the soft flesh hard between your teeth. "The first art diss, I don't care, I'm unleashing my wrath."

Nat punched the air dramatically, her eyes sparkling with excitement and sheer amusement. You shook your head, wondering if you were going to come to regret this.

"Besides," she added causally. "A lot of them are single?"

You grumbled out a string of words, stomping off as best you could with the lights in the direction of your room, willing whatever you needed to get through the rest of the day would grace you with its presence.

Nat was still laughing when you slammed the door.

—

"You got your costume ready?"

You smirked at her words, knocking her shoulder as she sat next to you on the couch. You teased out, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

All had been forgiven once you remerged from your room, realizing that maybe a little help wouldn't be such a bad thing. The feeling didn’t last long, though, your head now full of completing thoughts such as, “They are not going to like me,” and “They are going to fuck up your decorations so bad nobody is going to want to come back.”

Maybe your guests will get too drunk to notice.

Nat smiled at you, all toothy and wide. "Maeve! You spent hours at that sewing machine. And here you were, so against having a Halloween party. Come on... I know you... you're excited!"

Hiding your emerging grin, you shook your head, pinning another spider into the fake cobwebs. "It's an art cliche, according to your standards."

She pouted, handing you another handful of the tiny black things. "Just tell me, please?"

Cupping the creepy fake things into your hand, you regarded her sad expression with a shake of your head, knowing you'd have to give her a little bit of detail if you wanted to get out of this one without completely spoiling the surprise.

"It's orange and inspired by a piece of artwork. That's all I'm going to say on the matter."

Nat dramatically stopped her foot out of good fun, making you chuckle.

"You're the one who didn't want to take that bird art history course I recommended. The orange would have been a dead giveaway."

"If it's anything like the dress you helped me make for mine..."

You shushed her, handing her the cobweb so she could put it in one of the boxes next to the couch.

The two of you were trying to organize the decorations for what you wanted into boxes and spread them across the apartment to make it easier for the guys. The hallway to your bedrooms, the bathroom, the kitchen, the living space, everything save for the things you wanted to tape to the ceiling and the lights, all had multiple piles.

After you finished with the cobwebs, the two of you decided to cut lengths of streamers and start taping them to the ceiling in intricate patterns. Standing on a ladder, you reached out for a couple at a time from Nat, who was handing them to you with ease. You had your earphones in as you worked, as did Nat, who routinely counted out the same lengths of black and orange streamer each time.

She suddenly tapped you on the leg, and you twisted on the step, pulling out an earphone.

"I'm going to make sure the drinks are ready for when the team arrives."

You waved her off, pushing the tiny device back in, hearing nothing but music as you stretched to pin the end of the streamer up against the junction of the wall.

You worked for a little bit more, alternating between the orange and black material, hoping it would look like what you pictured inside your head when all was said and done. That was until you felt another tap on the outside of your thigh.

Twisting on the ladder, you half expected to see Nat handing you another cutting of orange streamer. Only, you came face to face with Bradley, way too close for comfort, a shit-eating across his face. You shrieked, and the action was enough to make you lose your footing on one of the higher steps.

Unfortunately for you, you lost your grip on the side of the ladder, and you flailed out your arms in some last-ditch attempt to save yourself. Your eyes instinctively slammed themselves shut against your will, and no matter where you flung your arms out to grab onto something, your arms only cut through thin air.

It happened in a matter of seconds, and you were hopeless to do anything but fall.

Awaiting the impact of the hard floor, you stocked up, bracing yourself for the pain. Instead, you were surprised when you hit a pair of soft, strong arms, your body being cradled sideways across a massive chest.

It took you a second to realize there was an actual hand gripping your waist. And another holding your legs. The grip is tight, and whosoever arms you in, they feel secure, protective even. You even go as far as to say the chest you're pressed against is also reassuring, the sensation of firm muscles beneath the fabric of his shirt expanding and contracting against your body grounding.

With the knowledge you weren't going anywhere, nor were you falling to your demise, you opened your eyes up to the face of your timely saviour. But it wasn't the outline of his nose or the sharpness of his cheekbones that drew you in. It wasn't the colour of his hair or the smile stretching across his face either. It was, to a pair of eyes, the greenest shade you had ever seen.

His mouth was forming words, but you couldn't hear what he was saying over the music blasting in your ears. Panting hard, you shifted in his arms, leaning down so he'd set you back down on your feet gently. Your fingers trailed down his arms, feeling the strong muscles flexing underneath your touch as you regained your footing.

You pulled your earbuds from your ears, gasping out, "What?"

"He said I shouldn't kill one of our hosts," Bradley pipped up from behind you, fiddling with one of the remaining balls of the streamer.

There was a quip forming somewhere in the back of your mind, readying itself to be unleashed on Bradley. Something along the lines of, “You don’t say?” or the more vulgar, “What the fuck were you thinking scaring someone on a fucking ladder?” but they never came.

You were too entranced by the man currently standing in front of you, a self-assured smirk across his face.

“Thank you,” you managed to exhale instead. The man dramatically bowed, holding out his hand palm up in a grandiose gesture that reminded you of a gentleman from a period drama. Still leaning over, he lifted his head, the same smirk still plastered across his face.

“Jake Seresin,” he offered coyly. “Your saviour.”

You laughed softly, trying to stop the shake in your hand as you reached for his. “Saviour, huh? Are you in the business of saving women from falling off ladders?”

Jake's reply came with a twinkle in his eye and a soft squeeze of his hand, "Just the pretty ones."

Warmth spread across your cheeks, and embarrassment flooded your chest. You hoped the blush wasn’t too noticeable or that your pulse wasn't jumping out of your throat.

“Oh, don’t fall for his charms, Maeve. I mean, he has some redeeming qualities, but Casanova here is hardly worth a catch,” Bradley remarked with a casual smile, catching the ball of streamer he tossed up only to throw it at Jake.

Jake’s hand flew up, grabbing the flimsy material effortlessly somewhere behind you. Standing there, you couldn’t help but feel a flutter in your stomach as he brought his hand between the two of you, handing it to you. You took it without bothering to look at his hand.

“Maeve,” he rolled the name off his tongue. “You don’t hear that name that often. It’s that Irish?”

You opened your mouth to reply with something about how it literally meant, ‘she who intoxicates,’ when Nat suddenly turned on a speaker, the apartment literally sounding like something out of a nightclub to remixed Halloween music. She ran towards you, and Bob, Ruben, Javy, and Mickey were on her heels. The second she was within arm's distance, she hooked her arm through yours, calling out, “Shots!”

You shot Jake a desperate look, mouthing, “Help me,” as you let Nat drag you away from him. Jake chuckled, following the pair of you to the kitchen with Bradley making a grab for the hair on the back of his head, successfully pulling him into a headlock only to mess up his hair.

Nat let you go when the pair of you reached the counter, making for the tequila first before Bradley. As the others crowded your kitchen island in search of a drink, Jake placed a gentle hand on your back, guiding you to the empty side of the counter. He seemed at ease as he carefully swiped two tiny red solo cups from under Nat's nose as she started taking orders from the rest of the group and placed them down on the counter.

Jake reached for the bottle of whiskey and held it out between the two of you. He shook the glass bottle, making the brown liquid slosh around.

"Wanna shot?"

You nodded once, watching admiringly as Jake expertly twisted the cap and poured out two shots into the tiny red cups. From behind his frame, you could see the pumpkin Nat and you had carved a few nights ago into a Jack Skellington face, silently judging you. Setting the bottle aside, he handed you one of the cups, and you fought with yourself not to fumble it.

He held his up as you let your hand remain frozen mid-air, a toast on his lips. But somebody shouted out, "Wait!" and Jake dropped his hand, turning to face them with a scowl.

"Everyone get over here!" Nat yelled out, pulling you away from Jake by your arm again before you could even utter a thanks. She made sure everyone gathered around in a circle with their chosen drink in hand before she lifted her cup up high.

"Cheers!" she shouted. Everyone mocked her shout, lifting all the tiny cups up to hers. The plastic crunched as they touched, liquid sloshing over the sides. Your laugh echoed Nat's as your hand became soaked, and on the opposite side of the circle, your eyes caught Jake's as he grinned at the sight of you.

You smiled right back, never taking your eyes off him as your lips met the tiny rim of your red solo cup.

She doesn't hate him yet!

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-Lucky/Wickett/Em

Part 3: You're so Vain - In progress

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arkus-rhapsode · 1 year ago

Text

Hey so thanks for taking the time to write this and be as cordial as you could. I much prefer this than seeing someone just like rage tweeting. So I see your points and Im gonna try and respond to them as best I can, it might not be as coherent as I am writing this without much prep time. I think this is going to come down to a matter of interpretation. So again, this is all just me, and how I feel about these topics. Im not going try and tell you that if you feel this way that you're invalid for feeling that. Im real happy you could enjoy or see this in a way that I couldn't. So everything I'm about to say is all in good faith. I don't believe you're trying to undermine me or something like that. I see as someone who saw my opinion I put out in the world and had their own opinion on the matter of the points I raised. So thanks for taking the time.

-So I agree with you to an extent about CF not really being about Byleth. Because in my opinion 3H as a story is really more about the lord characters. I find Byleth a somewhat contentious addition to the overall plot. I would have honestly been really fascinated without Byleth. But Byleth is a part of this narrative so while I think CF can be a story told without Byleth having that much effect on it, I feel like Byleth's inclusion warrants a examination on what role they play in comparison to each lord.

-I don't disagree with the idea that choice is a theme. But this is more tied into gameplay as a narrative. I wish I had more choice. And I wish it was an option throughout other routes. I really think FE as whole could be interesting having a more choose your own adventure type of adventure. So while agree with you it is a theme, its hampered in my opinion by the lack of options in the other routes makes this feel a lot more apparent.

-I can understand that. That her change is relying on other people. Again my issue is more when it happens. I think that this is something I should've seen after the time skip taking effect. Once again, I wouldn't be anal about this had it not been for the other routes having that sort of consistency between timeskips. Which is then altered by the presence of Byleth. So I do hear you and I think that her change as a more open person is good. I think the problem for me, is the timing and placement of it.

- So okay I don't want this to make this about Claude. Not cause I like them or don't. Its difficult to talk about about one route in 3H without acknowledging the others. In my personal opinion (Claude fans please understand this is not a attack on your boy) I actually he is the least interesting and weakest of the stories/lords. I honestly think he needs more content to both his characters and his plot. But again, this was not really a post about GD and VW. So I spoke about it more in the abstract. If you were to ask me who is just "objectively good" in how their route is written, its VW. But again, that's not really what I wanted to analyze. Maybe one day I will, because do have opinions on Claude.

-This is also kind of another one, I feel like in my good faith reading of everything, when I say questionable I mean more in the sense that the intent seems to be everyone is in some way flawed. And this was something that 3H was getting praise for was all the lords were capable of having pros and cons to their arcs (Again, I mean abstract sense). I think it is up for the player to ultimately decide where they stand. However, I feel personally that 3H as a whole suffers from leaving that choice to the player and tries to positively reinforce choice in the text. I can understand this choice again because of its social aspect mechanics, um I felt there was a hesitation to fully dive into that.

And I will agree with you CF does take interesting stance in that Edelgard's Flame Emperor actions have been called into question and her class will follow her. That is interesting. That is something that I feel like AM and VW really didn't capitalize on with its casts.

-I can see why Edelgard fighting beside her is more than important of "is her way just?" I think this is more going into a problem I have with 3H as a whole again not so much a CF specific problem. I feel like there is an importance placed upon the non lord class students, but given how relevant they are in the narrative, it does require to stretch. That's I focused more on the relationship between lord and Byleth because even while I have problems with Byleth it is a consistent thing that Byleth relationship IS relevant. From a gameplay standpoint, 3H is still Fire Emblem game, so there's a lot of writing accounting for characters to either be dead or recruited to other houses. And its not entirely clear. I would've really been interested if 3H went the extra mile with these class characters and devoted more plot relevancy to them so I can feel that they are more than just assigned units to a class. I would've gotten rid of permadeath and focused on more narratively intwined storytelling. This is less a flaw with CF, but rather a meta issue I just have with FE3H overall.

-So this one might be a little confusing, but the thing is I don't have a problem if you work bad people. I genuinely don't. I feel like I was cheated out of interesting things that could arise from Edelgard working with TWSITD and Cornelia and things like that. I think there was a "fear" when I wrote this that I'd get flack from people who were fans of Edelgard and tell me "you want her to act like an antagonist in her own route. Which is not the case. I am open to characters doing unsavory things in a war story. I think I was trying to please both extremes when I thought about that. Being Edelgard can still have her power play, but also avoid the backlash from people being like "oh no you can't do that because that makes her look to evil" (And I know when I write this all out, I begin to understand why some of the developers try to please some fans with these changes). I think if I am allowed to say another idea I had. Its perhaps still have the Dukedom established and Byleth comes there and you clearly get a sense of who Cornelia is and you and Edelgard defeat someone like Rodrigue in battle protecting it. And maybe get another scene with Cornelia. Again, leaving you the audience to wonder if this is "right" rather than it being an in text question.

My bad if it makes it sound like I was trying to make a moral argument. I honestly have no problem if Edelgard wants to work with "bad" people and use them for her cause. I just wish I got it in her route. My fault for not indicating that I'm okay with the Dukedom/empowering Cornelia for Edelgard in and of itself. I was trying to put myself in the shoes of trying to please everyone given the scenario. I should've included more scenarios in the statement.

-Im not saying she does not understand. This was more me looking at it from the perspective of what is Edelgard doing in this route that sets it apart from the other routes. while still trying to keep her goals as justifiable. Again this was probably just an issue of trying to please everyone and I apologize that's not the case.

-I also really want to get this out of the way, when I was writing this, I didn't want "flaw" to be something undermined the character's goals. Because I do think every lord is justifiable to an extent. I agree with Dimitri and Claude's want to an extent just as I do agree with Edelgard to an extent. I think ideally what you want to do in that case as Byleth is show that the character is justified while not undermining them. Because Dimitri being a mad king should necessarily negate that he wants people to be safe and not want people's death to be in vain. But he also learns as a person that how he might be going about it or rather a self examination of that is warranted. I don't want Edelgard in CF to be undermined in her wants. I think as a character, she should be able to make her choices and be justified in what she is doing. I think however, its fair enough to either have that same re examination as Dimitri could have while still maintaining her original goal. And I know that you can say "but she did that already and it was in part 1." And I can understand that I just personally don't find that as narratively satisfying as it would be in the post time skip. This is probably the root of a lot of my issues is believing this would be more appropriate to be explored in post time skip. I think maybe my message could've been clearer on that front. Its not that she "needs" to be called into question, I would just rather be interested in see everything from her angle given the same post time skip. I would like for the narrative of CF to be a world similar to that of the other routes, and show me it from her POV whether it is empowering someone Cornelia or working with TWSITD.

-So I hear you on the empowering. And I'm not trying to shut you down on that. This was just not meant to be a post that was a full analyzation of Edelgard the character. I wanted this be more of an examination Crimson Flower as a narrative. Supports I do believe are important for defining these characters, And if I was going to look the construction of Edelgard as a whole, I would've done that. But that was not my intent. My intent was to examine narrative with nothing superfluous which I included the supports in that. Once again I should've been more up front about that.

-Again I don't want to turn this into Byleth conversation. Because again that isn't what I was trying to look at, but I do see what you are saying that Byleth in CF still has a purpose individual to themselves as a character.

-Okay so now we get to Rhea. So I think I need to be a bit more clear here. Again, my mistake I will probably edit some of these changes in now that we are talking about this. For me, if you go through the other routes outside of CF, the Empire plays the more instagatorial role in the narrative. And that is by design. As they are the ones who started the war I don't think it would make like any sense for like the Alliance to be the active antagonists in Dimitri's story (Well obviously not counting the pro imperialist faction). I think in the case of CF there really shouldn't be an "antagonist" or rather "villain." Like when you fight Kingdom and Alliance soldiers in CF they are an "active antagonist" as the are an opposition. Rhea however takes a more up active role in CF picking a side and providing the Knights of Seiros and not being held captive. Rhea when I say is neutral during the war I mean she is neutral as in a player who is not available. I have no doubt if Rhea wasn't captured in VW or AZ we would see her actively participating as what Edelgard wants is fundamentally opposed to Rhea's wants. Obviously that's just speculation. We just don't know as that didn't happen in AZ and VW. So yes Rhea's attitude is not out of character. I do believe she makes sense within the context of CF and what we were provided. Im just not personally satisfied how that context was achieved. Again, I just do not enjoy the new post time skip Fodlan. I feel like it changes too much to get this scenario. Would I have been interested in exploring this Rhea? I would. I would've been interested in exploring her at all in any other route. But this is again my personal issue that is tied in with how much is changed.

-Again, Im sorry this is becoming repetitive, this was not supposed to be an analysis of Claude and I have problems with VW as a route. Trust me I do. I could probably make a post about all of that. But again that was not what I wanted to talk about in this one.

-So this one is going to probably come down more to interpretation. And look, I really want to just say Im not trying to undermine Edlegard, this was again more of an attempt to satisfy everyone. I want her to be able to do things on level playing field as the other characters had gotten post time skip. But I didn't want to propose something that sounded like I was saying "Why is she not the villain" because she is a complex character. The mere act of starting the war is already "questionable" like I don't want to make this a moral discussion I think we can all agree that war is bad, but FE is a war game so obviously to be that for there to be an FE game. But she is not an unjustifiable character. They create a world where Edelgard is clearly a character afflicted by loss able to make a world that is different even if she may be subjecting others to potentially suffering loss as well. That true systemic change can only come about through revolution. But of course you need to be able to show that there may be some attention to that darkness. She's not "wrong" in what she wants. She as character deservers to make her dream a reality. I think for me, I was unsatisfied with Byleth's role in that basically being done pre time skip as opposed to other lords where a lot of that is an examination of Byleth's effect on them is more focused, but also didn't like that again the world of post time skip CF was so different that it felt like I was being denied the ability to see what Edelgard could do with her acts like imprinting Rhea/making the Dukedom. Because if you play through AZ or VW or SS and you see that on the outside, it seems so bad or unjustifiable. But through CF we could see it from her point of view and understand it. Leaving up to the player to make decisions if this was okay or do not think its okay. Again a lot of my general issues with CF stem from such an alternate scenario not necessarily CF's fault.

-So I think I would be less critical of CF's scenario if every route had been different or altered Fodlan. Like it wasn't the same situation in AZ as it is in VW. There was a willingness to be consistent in that regard but not for CF. The hypotheticals posed were not supposed to be equivalent in size, it was more about the freedom the player had to alter things. I would love for there to be an FE that gave me more choice. Like I would love it there was more ways to effect the future and make more different futures. And create more unique routes. But that's just not what the game provides. Which I would be fine with had the only other real choice not be locked to Black Eagles route and it result in such a change. I don't what I could've done if I were to make one of those alterations to other routes. I think it would require just a group up reworking of 3H as a whole. Which again, I wasn't trying to do. I was trying to work with the content that was provided to me.

-I hear you. But I just would've preferred seeing Edelgard and TWSITD more in her route in her war effort. Again, this is just preference. I understand what you mean as she's changed so she doesn't need to rely on them, but I also can see it as a meta choice to not have this uncomfortable aesthetic of your side using the giant monster.

-I think a possessed antagonist can be satisfying. Lyon was great and Grima is just evil Robin from the future. I think it just depends on execution. But I agree with you, I wish Rhea as a character got to do more. I am deeply unsatisfied with how much of her is character is tied up in like lore dumps and such.

-Again this is more a matter of execution, we do "beat them" in the ending. But its just kinda unsatisfying to be told that after we got to literally kill the church dragon. I genuinely wish we got whatever chapters were missing from CF to spend like killing Thales or something on a unique map.

-I hear you. And know what maybe we can compromise. Still keep Rhea the final villain in this case, but maybe have a series of TWSITD fight before that. Then maybe instead of using whatever rage magic he uses on Rhea in SS, Thales just lets her out of her cage and Rhea in her own right mind still pissed at Byleth kills Thales or maybe briefly has a map where she has rallied some troops threatening the ability of what an Adrestia controlled Fodlan is like. Maybe even parallel it to how Adrestia did rule Fodlan and fought with Seiros and now Seiros has returned and this time going to break down Adrestia by establishing her crest system all over again. Only this time Byleth/Edelgard is the Nemesis. That way we still get the satisfying gameplay of fighting TWSITD, but also keep Rhea as the true final boss without possession

-I understand what you're saying and I don't want to imply that I'm saying an abuse survivor is at fault for working with the TWSITD. That isn't my intention. I was looking at it more as Edelgard as a leader who can verbally state they're evil even knows that we need to get rid of them after working with them. I think it was more not getting that actual in game closure was just unsatisfying for me.

So I hope I'm not trying to backpedal on my points. I think one of our issues is perhaps more my fault in framing. I should've been more clear that I was trying to satisfy everyone. But there only so much transparency I think I was able to give in this case of this post without it becoming stream of conscious with little structure.

I truly think this will probably be a different strokes different folks situation. And that's something I wanted this post to be. I didn't want speak with authority and dismiss what people thought that was contradictory to my own feelings. This was all just stuff that I could've seen making CF a more satisfying outing for me personally. Again I am glad that people do enjoy this route. And I was happy to have this conversation in a civil way looking at my criticisms and responding with your own. And once again, I don't think either of us are going to really change our over position on this. But Im glad that you took the time to list your issues with my points and I had the opportunity to respond to them.

That said in the future I do hope that if we are going to continuously have this conversation. Maybe we can do it in some format that isn’t Re blogs if this post is gonna get so long lol.

Thank you for your time.

I want to talk about Crimson Flower and 3H as a narrative

So... after FE3H discourse makes the round every other week, I end up thinking about it for a bit until I realize, hey maybe its better to not focus on a 4 year old game at this point and occupy your time with something else. Everything has basically been said about it at this point and you know where you land.

But this time my thoughts were just getting too strong for me to ignore, so that's why I'm writing this both get it out of my system and maybe just be another voice in the crowd that some people might want to listen to on the divisive topic that is Crimson Flower route.

Now I really hate that I have to put this disclaimer up front, but I feel like the well of this discussion has become so poisoned that I have to before I make my piece. I want to say that if you enjoy Crimson Flower, if you love Edelgard and believe she did nothing wrong and this is the right route, if you are a Black Eagles stan and you genuinely do not have any issues with Crimson Flower route as a whole-that is perfectly fine.

This will be a somewhat critical examination of the narrative choices about the execution of CF, which I feel like whenever 3H, specifically Edelgard is discussed, there is often very disingenuous arguments people make. Which I believe can create more defensive fans of a particular aspect of a story that we should be able to criticize freely. Which perpetuates this never ending cycle of discourse of legit criticism and defense against that criticism becomes drowned out by trying to decouple these very disingenuous claims from legitimate flaws. So I at least want to make it known that I am going to try my best to be in good faith with this post about this tricky subject.

I also want to just say, this is also going to be mostly an examination of narrative. The thing that I personally enjoy the most in an FE game, but we need to genuinely acknowledge that narrative isn't the only reason why people may like Fire Emblem. The ability to form parasocial relationships with fictional characters and being able to experience something the genuinely brings you emotional fulfillment is not invalid. Being able to enjoy fighting against establishments or ideologies you in the real world disagree with through the experience of a video game is not invalid. The same way someone who plays this game for the experience of gameplay isn't invalid when their primary enjoyment stems from the actual mechanics rather than the "logistics" of the story. The point I'm trying to make is that everyone will engage in media in different ways and will enjoy it other ways and that you don't want to invalidate those feelings someone had with their personal experience. So this is going to be about me and my experience as someone who primarily enjoys narrative.

I am just one guy with opinions who is going to layout what I had an issue with and how I think for me that could've been improved upon. You don't have to agree with me on that, and I'm not saying my way is legitimately better. This is all opinionated.

Buckle this is a long one

First things first Im gonna say Im not going to be using any information given in Three Hopes that may contradict what Im about to say. As in my opinion Three Houses came first and does not include the content from Three Hopes so I should think that Three Houses can stand on its own merits and the content that was provided.

Next thing is I want to catch people up on what in my opinion are the points I think CF did for me that ultimately left me unsatisfied

The post time skip Fodlan was too different and felt contradictory to Byleth's role

Edelgard's Characterization in CF in comparison to the other lord's in their respected routes

The role of Rhea

The role of Those who Slither in the Dark

SO the first thing is probably the thing I'm mostly going to have to defend if I haven't lost you already, but Fire Emblem Three Houses as a narrative provides us with a five year time skip in the game that depending on the route will change who is control of the monastery at this point in the war, with each route providing a lord the chance the forge their campaign. However, something I don't think is brought up enough is talking about the liberties that CF takes with their time skip vs the other three routes. Azure Moon, Verdant Wind, and Silver snow all paint a post five years Fodlan as one where the monastery territory has been abandoned, Rhea has been captured, the Alliance territory is split between an imperialist faction and an anti imperialism faction, and the Kingdom has been split with Cornelia making an alliance with the Empire to create the Dukedom of Faerghus as the houses of Gautier and Faldarius hold up the Kingdom.

There are obviously minor changes like Dimitri camping out in the monastery in Azure Moon rather than in the care of Kingdom Allies, but for the most part there is a consistently defined world between the three routes. However, Crimson Flower's post Fodlan is much different. With a grid locked Fodlan after five years with just the church territory falling under the control of Adrestia, Rhea wasn't captured and instead made it to Faerghus, The Alliance is still feuding amongst itself, but most importantly than all, Faerghus is a complete kingdom with Dimitri as King and no Cornelia's Dukedom.

So there are two main reasons why this bothers me.

The first is that Three Houses as a game wants to present you with three options at first, with the idea that your choices will effect the outcome of the war when Byleth returns, however there's enough consistency to imply that this is what Fodlan would be like regardless of whose House you would join, with the primary effect being your class making it to the church for the festival which in turn will make the monastery your new territory for which route. However, Crimson Flower decides to do away with the consistency, implying that the effect Byleth had on the situation is far greater than that of any other route resulting in a drastically shifted Fodlan. So this is more of a problem with FE3H as a whole with the consistency of choice. Fire Emblem has never really had a BioWare style choose your own adventure type of game. There's only one real choice you're given in the case of 3H and that's which house you side with, which you are essentially locked into. Black Eagles is really the only route that offers a choice beyond that with choosing to side with Edelgard or Rhea which will effect who the class sides with in the time skip. The reason I bring this up is that it essentially means that you the player are for the most part on rails for a predetermined plot where all the choices for the series have already been made. So the Fodlan post five years being consistent makes some sense as essentially mostly everything that happened in White Clouds was the same with the acceptation of the class. However, the Crimson Flower one not being consistent and being so radically different based on a game with so minimal choice feels more like an act of narrative convenience. That this is what happened because of a writer fully independent from me the player had decided that this is how Fodlan shall be for this story because it fits what they want to tell.

Somewhere I had once read that FE3H shouldn't be treated as one story, but since its a bunch of routes they're all a different universe. Everything might look the same but everything is fundamentally altered that you should accept it as an independent universe. And I can't necessarily say that's wrong as the concept of multiverses is to create a world/scenario that allows to explore familiar characters in unfamiliar settings and you could say that Byleth effect on Edelgard in picking this universe was just so much greater that it would result in such a different universe.

I personally disagree with that which brings me to my second point as I believe this one is going to be a more philosophical point on game design. But I feel like the effort to make three routes so consistent with each other with one so different seems to deliberately undercut the core themes of the game. Offering you a choice that this is who you get to spend your happy schools days with and it is what is going to result in them returning to the monastery one the day of your return. That is the true effect of Byleth on the characters. But as you play through white clouds you can't change what happens to other characters which will result in a brand new scenario. Byleth's presence can never stop Dimitri from going blood mad, Byleth's presence can't stop Claude from discovering the Immaculate One research, and Byleths presence can't stop Edelgard from declaring war. And that is a good thing for this type of on rails route story. Byleth while a player insert who can help their lord in the future, right now everyone is on a path that Byleth can only lightly change. With the characters acting independently of what Byleth and the player desire. And the post time skip Fodlan is a sign of that. Its Five Years without Byleth. This is what these characters would do, that they were always capable of doing and that is why Byleth's return and effect on them is important. This also gives us the ability to observe what a lord is like now after the war, and Byleth's effect on them but also see what a character could be like without that Byleth effect on them. Without Byleth Dimitri stays mad, without Byleth Claude always flees Fodlan, without Byeth Edelgard... well lets put a pin in that.

The only other true choice the player can make beyond the initial one is the side with Edelgard or Rhea which radically alters her. Which honestly feels kinda defeating in a game that has locked Byleth so much on a path and the one time it can deviate actively alters everything. It just feels very hollow as there are parts that make you realize how great the effect Byleth could have on people's lives could be if the game actively wanted to integrate choice with the plot. But it didn't. It wants to make one early choice then lock you in that route for several chapters then remove Byleth and then have their return effect real change on the future of Fodlan. Except for this one route. Its why Crimson Flower feels so much like an asterisk compared to the other route. And I don't just mean the lack of chapters, but this feels like a route that can only exist because it was the one that the developers bothered to create something overly deviating from everything else.

Which brings us to Edelgard's role in Crimson Flower as a whole. Now lets just get this out of the way. Im not going to be talking at all on the morality/realistic implications of what Edelgard is doing. I feel like the "Is she a fascist/authoritarian" conversation is not really helpful to talking about FE3H as a work of narrative and mostly exists to create a bunch of petty beef. This is also not going to be a deconstruction of ever minute detail of Edelgard as a character. This is an examination of her as a character in the narrative that we are presented. This will also involve comparison's to Edelgard and other series lords and I want it to be known that this is not a talking down to the only female lord in the game as being something "lesser" than her male contemporaries. I believe there is genuinely sexism when discussing Edelgard as a character, so I want to say that I am approaching Crimson Flower and Three Houses as a whole in a good conscious that there is not a "right route." That this is a game that where all choices have their pros and their cons. Because that's why we like this entry, right? That 3H would provide us some genuinely complex lords who were all capable of doing great and terrible things regardless of gender?

That's why I had such a long winded discussion about why the change in the post time skip Fodlan is so important both for narrative consistency, but also just generally keeping with the tone, but also it reinforced that Fodlan and its lords while all righteous in their own way can be dangers in their own way. Well that's when I return to the pin about Edelgard. So first I want to go through how the lords are characterized in non devoted routes.

Dimitri in non AZ routes is portrayed as someone so damaged by loss that his who response is to avenge and fight. To never stop making those pay for the damage it has brought on his kingdom as well as any lives lost during the tragedies in places like Duscar and Remire.

Claude in non VW routes is portrayed as a brilliant individual with a lot of charm but seems to be hiding something from everyone. He's a lot smarter than one could assume and that he has some mysterious tie to the kingdom of Almyra that he departs after leaving his land to the stronger kingdom that has come so far, be it Dimitri or Edelgard or the Church.

Edelgard in non CF routes is portrayed as a conspirator to overthrow not only the church but all rule in Fodlan as she believes the Crest based system is flawed and that the only way to enact systemic change is through a single rule. And while she is aware her ideals have costs, she believes that those costs are worth it when weighed against perpetuity of the crest system.

Now I want to talk about what happens to those lords as you play them in their routes.

Dimitri in AZ is portrayed as someone burdened by loss and his quest for vengeance has led to a neglect for his own health and his own actions. That his kill everyone attitude will perpetuate more loss of those he loves and that he needs to learn to rely upon others. That is his true responsibility as king.

Claude in VW is portrayed as an individual who is outside of Fodlan's system who has observed it more as a third party and believes it can be a great place if people work through diplomatically. He too is not a fan of inequality and racism and wishes to make a Fodlan that is more accepting and able to work through negotiation. While he still leaves Fodlan at the end, this time he has been able to implement real systemic change and make one that is sustainable beyond that of a ruler.

In CF we find out that Edelgard is a traumatized girl who was experimented on for the purposes of Crest Research. This makes her a conspirator to overthrow not only the church but all rule in Fodlan as she believes the Crest based system is flawed and that the only way to enact systemic change is through a single rule. And while she is aware her ideals have costs, she believes that those costs are worth it when weighed against perpetuity of the crest system.

Hey wait a minute, that's the same?

So this is where I get to the most glaring flaw for me in this case of narrative and why I think altering the post time skip so much did a lot of damage. Edelgard is a good character and a fascinating one, but in the practice of her narrative, her character journey in her own route isn't like the other lords. Rather she is "right" from the start of the time skip and with the world altering in ways to justify why she is that way.

Now look, I know right now someone could be saying I can't read, that its clearly stated in the text that Edelgard says without Byleth she may have turned into a complete monster to see her goals through to the end. This is referring to how in non CF routes she is on the backfoot getting beaten back and forced to take more drastic measures as whoever Byleth comes closer to ending her ideals. Unlike Dimitri or Claude there's not really a psychological arc she is working through with her sociological arc. Dimitri's arc is almost entirely hinged on him as a character changing in his route. And while Claude the character is also mostly the same, you get an understanding of how his continued participation in Fodlan's politics is so important as he effects sociological change. Claude also does the less stuff that could be considered questionable in Fodlan. He neither initiates the war nor does he intimate greater conflict that is tied into a character arc like Dimitri. Claude action's through the war are mostly to keep the Alliance fighting against each other with avoids giving one side a greater advantage. The truth is Claude real "flaw" is that by being an Almyra he is from a race outside of Fodlan that is inherently untrustworthy in society so his continued prescience in his expanded campaign is done with changing that mentality.

Now one could look at everything I said about Claude and say "well isn't that Edelgard though? She's not the one who needs to change but rather society needs to and this is you making it a fruition?" And I would agree however, then why did post time skip need to change and not Edelgard? So going back to the altered Fodlan, the Fodlan post time skip we see in non CF routes has what can be argued Edelgard's biggest moment of political conquest, making an alliance with Cornelia inside of Faerghus using her authority and influence to expand and bring over a chunk of the kingdom underneath Edelgard's wing. And this makes sense with what has been proposed before us-Edelgard had released a manifesto to lords that would side with her and become her allies in the war to come. This act of subversion is something that benefits her goals for conquering all of Fodlan. However, this is one of the key alterations in CF's time skip. Faerghus is not broken in half, with Edelgard having not empowered Cornelia over the five years. In fact, you do battle with Cornelia with her as a kingdom general.

So if Edelgard isn't a character who is subject to change, why did the world change? Well there is speculation in universe that perhaps Rhea fleeing to Faerghus didn't give her the ability. But I do believe the most likely reason is that narratively the writers of 3H wanted to avoid a scenario where while Byleth was gone Edlegard may have empowered and individual like Cornelia. One of the most objectively evil characters in the game. Now I won't go into to detail if I believe Edelgard knew Cornelia was a TWSITD or not, but as it is presented to us, she seems unaware. Instead I'll focus on the primary point is where they don't want to discuss that while in her route Edelgard was capable of doing something that would potentially cast her in such a negative light. After all, the point of her campaign is the while the bloodshed is worth it to make a new Fodlan free of crests, she's willing to show lenency to those who bend the knee. Again, an action not unreasonable for her character. However, I feel like this not happening in CF genuinely robs us from exploring the flaws of Edelgard's path/showing us what Byleth's effect on her truly is.

This is compounded by my issues with how CF is the only route in which you have an active choice beyond class. That by choosing to side with Edelgard when given the option in the tomb would result in this much radical history alteration. But also all of Byleth's effect on her not being as much conqueror over the last 5 years was all done pre time skip. That all that change was done at that moment rather than being something that prompted her to return to Garreg Mach where they'd remeet Byleth and then that would get them to claim it as a base of oppositions in their future war. In CF, Garreg Mach is already claimed rather than the formation of the Dukedom with no real progress. So it makes it seem as though Byleth's real effect on altering this lord's path was always possible in the short time they knew them before disappearing over five years. Of course this is again a bit miffling given that CF is the only route this is a possibility. We can't Change how Dimitri will act in the pre time skip. That he will make choices without Byleth even if they feel urged to remeet at Garreg Mach. But in the case of CF, Edelgard has apparently been changed despite the only real difference in white clouds fighting beside her in the tomb and against the church pre timeskip. But that has sociologically altered so much of Fodlan.

And maybe you genuinely believe that one extra change is enough. Perhaps that one extra choice is enough justification for such a radically new scenario. For me personally, I find that unsatisfying and feels more like the writers traded in a level of consistency for this new scenario that greater justified being on the side of someone who is portrayed as a more active antagonistic force in other routes (Reminder this not me saying the Empire route is an antagonist route. All routes are antagonistic relative to which side you are on).

This is where we get my first what I would've done to make it more narratively satisfying for me. Keep the same post time skip Fodlan as the other routes. Keep Edelgard having brokered a deal with Cornelia to establish the Dukedom and have Byleth find out about it. Be some that either Byleth or another character close to Edelgard questions the extremity of. Then have Cornelia do something evil like she's experimenting on people for TWSITD or maybe she's just abusing the power. Then have Edelgard clean it up. Have Edelgard realize that while she still wants to make her dream of a crestless Fodlan a reality she can't just back lords or nobles that are willing to go along with her for more power. She can still keep the Dukedom territory, but instead she'd be now more understanding what it means for there to be a ruler with a noble soul. So she continues her campaign of conquest but has realized that if she's going to be emperor, she can't just empower people arbitrarily.

In my opinion this not only would tie together some more TWSITD plot while also paralleling it to Edelgard's past and how there was no authority figure to step in and help her all those years ago. But now she is that authority figure. And while it doesn't call her method in question and like Dimitri and Claude she can continue her expanded influence over Fodlan, but now we actively see that Byleth has helped show her that her allies aren't just those pledging loyalty, she actually needs to empower those who are good. She gets to have her fight with Cornelia level and this won't stop her from killing Dimitri in the future.

Like I said, this is what I'd do. And in my opinion it would give Byleth's presence in CF more purpose beyond the bond with Edelgard is nice and fun. But also stay consistent with each route. Showing that there are flaws in Edelgard's sociological plan, but not undercutting what her actual goal is. You can still believe her quest is just and the only right one with her taking an active role in not making the mistakes she perceives Rhea as doing.

And if you are still with me up to my third point, lets talk about Rhea.

So Rhea as a character can best be described as a neutral evil throughout White Clouds. She doesn't really do anything but there is a lot of ominous foreshowing and presentation that Rhea may be up to something or at the very least complicit with many of her policies and tendencies. And when I say "evil" I don't mean she's bad (please don't skewer me Rhea fans). I mean that if the crest system is flawed and the church is emblematic of the systems maintenance of that flawed system. Then Rhea as the face/founder/head of that church bares some responsibility even if all she does is passive.

In all other routes, Rhea is captured by the Empire. Imprisoned in their capital. Anytime she is seen after she is characterized as somewhat docile or defeated, having been imprisoned for so long. VW goes a step farther to reveal what she did as Seiros and all of her actions leading to this point presumably all thanks to be imprisoned and rethinking her life over. CF is the only one Rhea is allowed to be an active player, she is now portrayed a ranting self righteous warrior priest who swears vengeance upon Byleth for being the reincarnation of her mother but not being a proper vessel as she intended and fighting against her. Naturally, if Byleth being the potential for the reincarnation of Sothis siding against her is what her drives her mad, that is believable, however much like the altered Fodlan Rhea in this version is not captured. This is now for Rhea to serve as Edelgard's true climatic opponent. With her symbolically killing the representation of the church and the power of crests being slain by Byleth and Edelgard. Its very poetic. But once again we reach my issue of the time skip altering so much in CF.

As stated before, Rhea was presented as a neutral evil, in doing so she's not really a direct antagonist in any route. Except of course Silver Snow. Where she is deployed as a weapon against Byleth. In this case killing the immaculate one symbolically is cleansing the church of Rhea and allowing it to pass into the hands of the new archbishop. However, Rhea in that fight is under control. Rather than be conscious as an opponent, they make her more of a beast without choice. Thus making this less a flawed character meeting their end and rather a forced confrontation by the evil cult of evil. Now Rhea I think being kept a neutral party was ultimately a good choice. We are given enough about her to understand she has done things questionable and should possibly not hold the authority she has. But she also has not instigated any open any hostility. As such Rhea is more a symbolic player. By making her an active player, CF has to make Rhea more domino and more a threat. She can't portray constant neutrality in a war. But by making her the active antagonist, it makes her less of a symbol and more if just a rotten character who Edelgard is justified in wanting dead. And much like Cornelia and the Dukedom, this alteration comes off as an attempt by the writers to never truly challenge Edelgard's plans for Fodlan. That Edelgard has no flaws in her plan and the bloodshed is beyond justified more than just philosophically. Had Edelgard captured Rhea in CF this would lead to some genuinely uncomfortable questions of keeping her a prisoner. And to 3H's credit they were actually willing to make the player uncomfortable already in Dimitri's route showing him as a mass murderer. Once again, I want to express this isn't me saying Edelgard's quest or goals are wrong and the plot should undermine it. This is me saying that for a game that wants to genuinely have nuanced and uncomfortable political choices made by their character, this is the route where they opt to alter the scenario so that Edelgard is the most justified and does less things that one could find objectionable. Flattening a lot of interesting implications this would raise and what Byleth as a force in this route could possibly able to influence.

Now one could again say, well the reason Rhea wasn't captured because Edelgard didn't use crest beasts this time. Edelgard not using crest beasts is a sign Byleth is changing her and thus that greatly alters the future. Once again, I can see that as understandable justification, but again, my issue off only ever being able to effect this lord pre time skip comes in again. If it was possible to get Edelgard to not use crest beasts, then how come it wasn't possible for me to get Claude to have Almyra support? How come I couldn't stop Dimitri before the war? The answer is again as a game the only other narrative choice that could possibly alter the story happens in CF which is the side with Edelgard in tombs choice. And while I'm not against the idea of angry pope Rhea, but I feel making her CF's full on antagonist was almost making a straw man antagonist for your opposition.

As an aside we also know Arundel is still on Edelgard's side and he is Thales so while she might not know his entire deal, I hesitate to imagine he'd stop using crest beasts in the war over the two years Byleth was gone.

If I was going to once again alter CF to be something I would personally find more satisfying. Have Rhea captured and then have Arundel use the same rage stuff he uses on her Silver Snow. This way you can facilitate an Edelgard vs TWSITD conflict AND you still get your symbolic victory of Edelgard and Byleth killing the symbol of the crests and church. Again, Edelgard is able to do what she wanted to originally, but now we are also confronted with the role TWSITD did play in her life and allowing her to rectify it as well as truly killing the old world by getting rid of Rhea and Thales.

And final point TWSITD. TWSITD are bad. They've always been bad. And they genuinely damage the overall story of CF because this is beyond just a narrative choice, its very clear CF as a story wasn't complete. I feel confident in saying that given the numerous chapters missing compared to the other routes, but also the epilogue needs to say "Oh yeah there was totally a bunch of war against them. Totally." I know this point is probably the least controversial when talking about CF, but I still think its a glaring flaw.

So what's the tl;dr?

This is not an "I hate Crimson Flower or Edelgard post" I genuinely have no interest in debating people about characters that like or enjoy. Nor did I want to turn this into a moral argument about the implication CF. I feel like these topics do real damage to any real criticisms one can have for CF as a narrative.

Which for me, CF as a route fails to really mesh with the rest of 3H as a whole. It feels like it takes a lot of narrative ways out to avoid potentially making their lord seem objectionable, despite much of this game wanting to be about how tragically flawed everyone is. Im not saying Edelgard needed a come to Jesus moment of "Are we the bad guys?" No absolutely not. In my opinion we just lack seeing Edelgard change the same way post time skip as others have due to creating an entirely brand new setting that keeping her as a mostly the same character is not questionable. Nor does she have to do anything that could truly be seen as flawed. Things that Byleth's influence may overcome.

Edelgard is a good character and her goals are understandable. I just personally find the narrative bending to accommodate her in ways so different from the other time skips genuinely make it a weaker narrative for me.

If you enjoy CF as it it. More power to you. Please keep loving CF. This isn't supposed to be a dissuading post. This is merely me as one guy who likes a lot of FE because of the stories it can tell sharing why he personally didn't enjoy this one. Maybe I helped put it words for some who might feel similar. But this is just my opinion

If you have something you'd like to add or reply in the replies or tags please flee free, but for the love god, please be cordial about it. There is so much toxicity and disingenuous takes around Fire Emblem Crimson Flower and Edelgard and Rhea in general, that I would like for us to please be able to talk about this in good faith.

#fire emblem #analysis #reblog

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anonymous-dentist · 3 years ago

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Truth in the Tales: The Town That Went Mad (Parts 1 & 2), Witches, and Jamestown

So, this one’s topical! Definitely not for any political reasons at all (no, not at all), but because we just got a non-canonical sequel!

Hi, I’m A.D., I’m a history student, and this week’s Truths are about two European (specifically English) settlements in the New World that went fucking insane. The lessons won’t be completely comprehensive, but I encourage those interested to go on their own dive, and I’m always willing to explain more in detail if asked.

Once again, I’m using the Tales from the SMP carrd to get these episodes. The carrd is credited to @discduo on Tumblr, but if that’s not right, I’ll figure out who it actually is and link accordingly. With all the credits and citations I’m fixin’ to use, it’ll be a wonder if this makes it into the tags at all...

(Painting: Examination of a Witch by T. H. Matteson.)

The episode stars Karl Jacobs, BadBoyHalo, Corpse Husband, Dream, GeorgeNotFound, LazarBeam, Ponk, Quackity, and Tubbo. The episode takes place hundreds of years in the past and follows the village of "Not A Very Good Town" as its inhabitants (all except Karl) roleplay the game Town of Salem (also known as Mafia). The stream was comprised of two rounds, one practice round and one canon round.

Part One: The Salem Witch Trials

(Note: Most of this section comes from my own memory. I was a weird child.)

The Town That Went Mad is, as the episode description says, based off of the game Town of Salem.

(Image courtesy Steam.)

Town of Salem is (again, as the episode description says) basically the card game mafia. There’s a group of people, and they have to find the witches/the mafia and vote them out before the mafia kills them all.

Now, there wasn’t a mafia in the village of Salem, Massachusetts, in the final decades of the 17th century. What there were a lot of were what we call WASPs these days. That is to say, White Anglo Saxon Protestants. More specifically, these people were Puritans. And the Puritans were bad news. Imagine the most hardcore Christians possible, then make them more hardcore. They didn’t have funerals for their deceased until the mid-18th century because they believed funerals to be unholy. They were heavy believers in the patriarchy. A woman’s place, to a Puritan, was in the home having children and taking care of children. But not too many children, for having too many children would be a sign of dealing with the devil. And not too few children, either, for having too few children would be a sign of dealing with the devil.

The Puritans left England for the New World because of religious persecution. That is because they were so unpopular in England that they got chased out of the country. I am saying this because it is true, not as any part of a political statement. The English fucking hated these guys.

So the Puritans (among other New World settlers) ended up in what is now the northeastern section of the United States. Namely: Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Maine. Rhode Island and Connecticut are outliers and should not be considered for the sake of this post, and nobody gave a fuck about Vermont even back then.

(Map: Salem’s location in Massachusetts.)

Cut to the year 1692. Fresh out of a British war with France in 1689 and a smallpox epidemic, the settlers of Salem Village were on edge. Add to that general Puritan paranoia (you didn’t know who would end up being an agent of the devil) and the villagers’ hatred of outsiders, and maybe some poisonous fungus, and you have the set up for one hell of a year.

In the January of 1692, two young girls- Elizabeth “Betty” Parris and Abigail Williams- began having fits. Imagine a stereotypical demonic possession: coughing, twitching, spasming, uncontrollable screaming. Soon, more and more young girls began showing the same signs of “bewitchment”, including one Anne Putnam, Jr., which will come back up in a moment. In February, an arrest warrant was put out for local minister Samuel Parris’s Caribbean slave Tituba as well as two other women: a homeless beggar named Sarah Good and an elderly woman named Sarah Osborn. See, the women were witches. That was the only reasonable explanation.

From there, things only got worse.

During their trial, Good and Osborn pleaded not guilty. Tituba, likely trying to get off with a lighter sentence, claimed that there were other witches besides her in Salem. And that’s where the fun part began.

(Engraving: Unattributed.)

Beginning in the May of 1692, the Salem Witch Trials proper began. Over the course of the next year, 19 people were hanged upon suspicion of being a witch, 5 people died in prison, and one man, Giles Corey, was pressed under heavy stones until he was dead. Not all of the convicted were women, but the men who were suspected-slash-convicted-slash-killed were all related to the women accused. Interestingly enough, many of the accused were enemies of the Putnam family, with Putnam family members and supporters accusing even upstanding members of the village of witchcraft so long as the accused were people the Putnams were not in favor of.

I could go into long and heavy detail about just how this all went down, but, frankly, it’s a lot of legal bullshit nobody would be interested in. Needless to say, it didn’t reflect well upon the colony of Massachusetts that a single village had managed to spark a hysterical sweep of witch mania across the entire New World.

The Witch Trials ended in the May of 1693 when Governor William Phips stepped in and shut the whole thing down.

To this day, a witch hunt is used to describe a collection of pointless and generally-evidenceless accusation. Former President Tr*mp used the phrase a lot, though he used it incorrectly.

Part Two: Jamestown

There was originally only going to be one part to this post, the Witch Trials, but since Karl gave us a non-canon sequel to the episode, I think it’s only fair that I get to talk about something else neat from this time period as well.

So let me tell you all about the English colony that nearly ate itself to death.

(Note: Most of this section comes from my memory. Again, I was a weird child.)

(Map: Jamestown in relation to other English colonies.)

Jamestown is probably one of the more famous colonies from the time period. It was founded in 1606 by the Virginia Company and, despite going through many hardships, became the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Prior to Jamestown was the failure colony of Roanoke, famous for its bullshit “disappearing colony” story. You all might remember Jamestown best for one of its leaders, a mister John Smith, who was absolutely nothing like how the Disney movie Pocahontas portrays him.

(Engraving: Jamestown: Massacre, 1622.' / 'The Massacre At Jamestown, Virginia, 1622.)

But this isn’t about John Smith. No. Because he actually went back to England in the winter of 1609, leaving the colony to fend for itself in the harshest winter its settlers had ever seen.

The winter of 1609-1610 is now known as “The Starving Times”, and for good reason! Things were fucked! There was famine. There was snow. There was sickness. Jamestown depended on outside trading for food for the most part, but their main trading partner, the local Powhatan tribe, refused to trade after food supplies began running low on their end after a 7 year famine. On top of that, the settlers were too afraid to leave their homes for fear of getting killed by the Powhatans , and for good reason. See, tensions had only been growing between the settlers and the tribe. It had gotten to the point by winter 1609 that the settlers, after trying to basically steal the last of the Powhatans’ food stores during a famine, had pissed the Powhatans off for the last time. They were killing any and all Englishmen found outside of the settlement, even, so nobody could go hunting. But that isn’t important. What is important is the fun bit that’s about to happen, and one of my favorite topics to talk about: cannibalism.

It starts like this:

You don’t have any food. The ground is cold and dead, and you can’t grow food. You can’t leave your homes to hunt for food. Because of the lack of nutrients, sickness begins sweeping across your village like crazy. Typhoid, mostly, but also colonial favorite dysentery. People start dying. Houses were torn down to be used as firewood.

Settlers, starving, began eating shoe leather and butchering horses. They ate dogs, cats, vermin, anything they could get their hands on. Insects, or whatever insects were hanging around in subzero temperatures in Virginia. Snakes. Rats.

But then they ran out of even that.

One man, George Percy, wrote what came next.

“[Settlers] Licked upp the Bloode which ha[d] fallen from their weake fellowes.”

Settlers dug the dead out of their graves, according to Percy, and there is forensic evidence of at least one person- a 14 year old girl- having been butchered and cannibalized, though it’s assumed that she was already deceased at the time.

(Photo courtesy the National Post.)

The winter was long and tortuous, and it nearly wiped Jamestown off of the map. If it had, then the United States of America might not even be a country, or it wouldn’t be as Anglicized as it is.

But, well, it didn’t disappear. Ships came in 1610 with supplies for settlers, and what came after was a relatively good time for English colonization. Unfortunately, that had horrible consequences for the local Native Americans. And from there, it’s all history.

Part Three: Conclusions?

Now, I originally wanted to do this post on torture devices because I know a lot about those, but I decided against it.

But back to Tales.

The Town That Went Mad is, again, purely Town of Salem. The way that the trials are carried out played out surprisingly close to the way that the original witch trials went. The accused were accused by their own friends and neighbors, people they had previously loved and cared about, and they were shown little to no mercy.

The episode itself has uh. Nothing at all to do with Jamestown. I just think Jamestown’s Starving Times are neat. I could talk all day about cannibalism, and I will when we get to the Wild West episode (if anybody has seen the Donner Party episode of Puppet History, you know what I’m talking about.)

Anyway.

Next ‘Week’: The Beach Episode and Actual Goddamn Motherfucking Piracy

#mcyt #dream smp #dsmp #tales from the smp #tftsmp #dsmp analysis #karl jacobs #truth in the tales #long post

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