#themoonmorn

[randomnameless]

I’ve been saying it since day 1 (uhh rather day 1000), but Fodlan’s main issue is that it says things contrary to what we see.

Emperor Otto 5′s “punishing” his soldiers was so fearsome that they considered being roasted alive as a better option - but somehow the land of barbarians who fight to death to protect their lands is oh so backwards and need an express dose of Almyran pilfering to save themselves from their stoopid traditions.

We see people, regular humans, doing shit in Fodlan and ruining the land, but uwu no, instead it’s all about Thales and those evil lizards, else a world “for HuMaNiTy” might not be the most awesome thing since powdered sugar and we can’t have that.

Heck, Nopes yeeted out Ionius from the scene to make the Empire likeable - even if the metric is completely skewed by Leopold’n’Waldemar pissing on Aegir for no plausible reason after joining him to body Ionius out of the throne, but ssh.

Also, it’s never the Empire’s fault for starting the war, save when characters are allowed to say it because the Empire’s already dead or have no ties to it (I think Hapi in Houses mentions how the current war and the Pre TS Fodlan are like night and day?), so everyone must take their share of the blame, else the sailor fuku’s shoulder pads would crumble under that “uwu weight”. This time, Uncle is put to contribution.

Claude snipes Rhea to get good PR because it’s her fault if people in Fodlan are xenophobic, or marry each other, or put lids on their jars - but Hilda’s house who “hires” Almyran servants is never alluded to, hell Holst “Cyril is one of the good ones?” is treated with kid gloves, when Ingrid is allowed to grow up, confront her past self’s views and ultimately evolve.

But now that I think about it, in FE16, Rhea always dies to Agarthan weapons (Aymr or Nukes) or to her sorry excuse for a parent (SoC in the face).

In Nopes, Claude can snipe her with her older brother’s collar bone, and for what’s it worth (because the game really don’t want to highlight how Supreme Leader in a Sailor Fuku’s last moment on-screen is a highfive as her two enemies kill each other, but we swear she’s fighting using her own powers!!), Supreme Leader is hunting her and hacking her with something Rhea most likely commissonned for her crest bearers, either Willy (but I don’t think so) or Lycaon (who might be her own son?).

In Nopes : Rhea is killed/opposed by people using her family members against her (or her closed ones).

\o/

Vaguely Autistic RN Goes Back On Their FEW3H Bullshit despite having completed FEE: Azure Gleam Edition

This won't be a full-blown advertisement for blood pressure medication like the Scarlet Blaze(d) series, but I also got to the parts of Azure Gleam where I can now comfortably agree with some opinions of it having some really stinky parts.

Of course, the Azure Smell was slung on it in poo form by the other two routes, alongside Koei/IntSys because they're really trying to sell this plausible deniability and and and

uh

Anyway

So 3/4ths of Sreng is a winter wonderland, but designated corner where Macuil dwells is pure desert. Why not just make the place a snowy cold desert like the Katpana Desert and call it a day?

Ingrid continues to display her awareness and shame over her misplaced xenophobia, yet there's still static over House Goneril's racist history with Almyra being erased or...a lot of crap with Adrestia and how they view Brigid and Dagda...

Claude: Continues to scream about how Flayn and the church actually killed his half-brother while ranting how trade is apparently illegal despite plenty of evidence to the contrary

Dimitri: "Y'all hear sum"

Lambert's pitch of trying to play nice with at least one more neighbor, especially regarding the whole continued antagonism with another, is tyrannical madness to these limp-dick fuckheads. Please remind us why we should sympathize with both the western nobles or the western church, again???

Flayn continues to display Clark Kent-levels of disguise failure, but I suppose it can easily be passed as her being eccentric. On the other hand, this is yet another display of this universe's carelessness with its continuity, since Houses clearly established Macuil being the one blacksmith. On the other other hand, Indech is also established as being good with his hands, so them working together to craft stuff works just as well.

Still doesn't explain the logistics behind the Sacred Weapons though. Or how Labraunda wound up in some stockpile that the Empire plundered because they suck.

Miklan is a fantastic example of how these games run on the accidental theme of responsibility and how laying blame on one factor doesn't mean anything if the person laying the blame is a sack of doodoo, which is exactly what Miklan is.

Miklan was disinherited, but he was also always a dick, he was the son of Matthias' beloved first wife (her death being the catalyst for his cynicism), Matthias let him stay at House Gautier until his abuse of Sylvain went too far (which is arguably a dick move in and of itself since Sylvain had to put up with it for years), and Miklan himself here made the final move in fully severing his ties to the House. And he still blames Sylvain for his lot in life, as we see in Houses 5.

Eff Miklan.

So here we have one of the straws that broke the camel's back. Just as Dimitri is about to defeat and imprison Edelgard, Thales hijacks the scene, chucks a Crest stone of Maurice(!?) at Edelgard, turns her into the Hegemon Husk, and after that she lays waste to Arianrhod and is whisked back to Enbarr. During this scene, Edelgard accuses Dimitri of allying with Thales before it's shown that obviously isn't true. Oh, and she also throws out there that Thales killed his father, which is kind of manipulative given how she gives negative fucks about Duscur or how a later scene shows that yes, her mommy was one of the conspirators in the Tragedy after all (something that Houses waffles on).

It's also at this point that the game robs her of her agency and tries to convince the player that Agartha is behind everything, even when we get clear displays of Edelgard and the Empire clearly wanting to go Napoleon/Genghis on the continent for reasons divorced from what the Agarthans want.

Case in point.

Keep in mind that Edelgard gets a whole Support scene with Balthus that she's more than content in carrying out this war, because of Empire supremacy. Or how she tells Claude to his face in Zahras that no, she won't stop playing conqueror even once the church is stamped out. Or that she tells Monica, to her face, that her life is ultimately disposable to her and that if she had died like she did in Houses, then so be it.

You can put as much lipstick on a pig as you want - it's still a pig.

Between this statement and Edelgard's and Ionius' in Houses and this journal entry about the Dagda-Brigid war, it's plain as day that Thales' manipulations aren't as all-encompassing as people want them to be. It's ridiculous to try and pass the buck when there's so much evidence proving contrary.

Clyde may be more opportunistic than he was in Houses, but in AG his one braincell stops shitting itself for five minutes and he actually does the sensible thing by teaming up with Faerghus. We even get a decent scene of these three strategizing how to retake Garreg Mach out of it.

I've heard criticisms about how the lack of trust in Claude is unwarranted here, but after actually playing this for myself, I'm inclined to disagree, as there's a clear scene before the Arianrhod battle showing outright that Claude's going to side with whoever winner of that battle is, even if one of said options could care less about his country's welfare. But then again, Claude looks down on his people half the time anyway, so meh.

And now for some positivity...

Ayo? 🏳️‍🌈

AYO!?!?!?!?!? 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

Ay-Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

🏳️‍🌈???

Balthus, at this rate you should probably consider a career change if that's what you like doing.