#three houses spoilers

[sonocomics]

Yuri continues to be the only one paying attention to Oddly Sus dialogue :x

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[azure-clockwork]

I love how actually shit the three houses characters are at keeping secrets. It’s very funny and so endearing. Flayn walks around hyping up Cethleann, Marianne spends her whole route talking about how she’s ‘cursed’ and ‘dangerous to be around’ and Claude straight up tells people ‘never underestimate an outsider’ when he wins fights. Guys. Please. You’re killing me here. I get that y’all are teenagers, and honestly Flayn is doing a great job keeping her secrets given her entire personality, but Claude. Really? You’re good at this whole scheming thing!! Why is Edelgard, begrudging doer of schemes, doing a better job hiding her whole second identity as the flame emperor than you are at just not telling people you’re from Almyra? Dude.

[communistcephalopod]

I am and always have been an Edelgard defender who believes she did basically nothing wrong, but her involvement with Kronya has always confused me a little tbh.

[the-eeveekins]

Man, both of my favorite ships did THAT to me, didn't they?

[fayessketchbook]

The Queen of Monsters

(timestamp below)

[frost-felon]

Musing on Sitri's corpse and death arrangement--it's been discussed before, but Rhea comes from Nabatean culture, which seems to have different death arrangements than humans. This is likely due to the corpses not normally deteriorating the way human corpses do. Even after a little over twenty years, Sitri's corpse does not display evidence of decay.

Moreover, having her kept on a stone altar allows Rhea and other family (like Byleth, later) visit her to pay their respects in a way that is just as tangible as visiting Jeralt's grave. But I thought of this because of a video on human skin books. The only ones who should have control over Sitri's death arrangements are her living family, assuming that she didn't have any specific wishes of her own...largely because her perspective is under-played or almost non-existent in Three Houses. If Byleth, for example, would not want her to be buried, then there would be no reason to do so.

Part of the problem with how portions of the fanbase view this matter is the suspicion towards Rhea's motives. Of course, White Clouds initially makes Rhea seem mysterious and someone you should be cautious around, but you learn that she is more of a complicated, overtaxed lady with way too much going on in her life. So this suspicion is directed at her even for the mourning she shows to her professed daughter-figure. That she would not have buried her is treated as a nefarious dealing--surely, she must have some ulterior motive! Or perhaps she's experimenting on Byleth's mother!

Note that Aelfric IS the one trying to use Sitri's corpse for his own ends. He was her friend, but also someone with a romantic attachment to her that never let go; and unlike Rhea, who also does not want to let go of any of her family, he takes this to the extreme, going against what Sitri would have wished for. In this way, not only are the Nabateans' death rites disrespected, but also Sitri's autonomy.

With the human skin books, one question posed is whether it can ever be moral to produce or own those books. Many of the people who had their skin used were victimized posthumously, and now, they are only remembered in the context of being the binding of a book. How the books are treated by library staff plays a large part in whether the deceased are believed to be respected now, potentially given a dignity they were not given at the times of their deaths (and perhaps, even in their lives). Private collectors have an even bigger responsibility, as the remains of the deceased can so easily be oggled at, given no context or memory of their lives. Treated as, "Ooh, macabre aesthetic."

Even for those who consented, perhaps even eagerly, to become 'immortalized' in this way, a level of care is often discussed. For any human remains, willing or not, much of their postmortem affairs rely upon the presence and awareness of any remaining family or loved ones they may have, should they even have any.

I'm kinda off my shits, not gonna lie, which has led to the rambling nature of this post. But I think a lot of the questions raised by human-remains bookbinding are applicable to Sitri's situation, as well as the fates of the Nabateans who were (very much unwillingly) made into Relics. Burying them, I think, may not be a respectful answer to giving them dignity in death, given what little we know of Nabatean customs regarding death.

[usarinnpa]

My dealer: got some straight gas 🔥😛 this strain is called “the crest of Flames” 😳 you’ll be zonked out of your gourd 💯

Me: yeah whatever. I don’t feel shit.

5 minutes later: dude I swear I just saw some Nabateans in the forest

My buddy Edelgard pacing: the church is lying to us

[mug-of-beans]

So here’s me just talking a bit about why something I like and think is really good is really good.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses has one particular sequence in it that over the last few years of my video gaming I would describe it as having some of the most impactful passive storytelling in all of video games.

First, I’m just gonna say upfront, I have a considerable bias toward female Byleth over Male Byleth. The two big reasons for this are that the female main character fits a bit more snuggly in with the theming of the game with the legwork they put in (male Byleth can have a goddess in his head too, there’s no issue with that, I just think the female protag fits a bit more seamlessly) and I generally like her facial expressions better. Although I will admit that her default outfit leaves a bit to be desired for me.

The hidden third reason for this however is that I like father-daughter dynamics, and while there is no difference in the tone and dialogue between Byleth and Jeralt depending on your gender, I like the way that all of that dialogue fits in my head-canon dynamic for Byleth and her father.

Another head-canon detail I will mention because it’s slightly relevant, is that I like to consider Byleth as someone somewhere on the autism spectrum. Maybe I’ll write more about this later, but I like to think of her as someone who is, through the course of this story, learning what meaningful relationships should look like for her. 

So getting to the thing I think is great. I think some of the most immaculate vibes I have seen in my time as a gamer come from the Academy phase in Three Houses immediately following Jeralt’s death.

Jeralt’s death itself is a perfectly fine sequence. Although I would like to draw attention to Byleth’s expressions both the first and second time Jeralt is stabbed. Perhaps it’s just the way the angles are played with, but you may notice an expression of much greater shock on Byleth’s face the second time, after she has already expended her divine pulse. The first expression seems a bit more clinical, as she already knows she can turn the clock back and rescue her father. But the second time her composure completely breaks. A fine scene.  Pretty good even, as far as death scenes in Fire Emblem go.

What’s really noteworthy to me however is the immediate aftermath. Perhaps one of the most striking things about losing a loved one is that even though it feels like the world is falling apart around you, it keeps moving on regardless. Eventually you’ll go back to work, or back to school or back to whatever your day to day routine was. But some thing will feel different. You might feel like an entirely different person from who you were before that. And many times, you may not have even finished processing that loss.

The academy phase in Three Houses is a fun way to abstract the way you interact with the numbers that you manage in this game. in practical terms it is effectively an elaborate means of interacting with something you would normally do in a menu. But by turning it into a regular chore, Three Houses injects a sense of fantastical mundanity to the game. It helps sell the experience that you are playing the role of someone who has a job here. You are a teacher at this place of learning.

In light of all of this, I consider one of the most brilliant things that Three Houses does to be putting you back into the academy phase  almost immediately after Jeralt is killed. Everything has changed for Byleth. She’s kind of followed her father her entire life, and now he’s just gone. And now she has to go back to work.

Everything the game does in this phase is excellent in how it conveys the essence of someone having experienced a major loss, but doesn’t know how to process it yet. The Academy is unchanged, but all of your students and colleagues can only express their heartfelt condolences. more than anything else, the soundtrack in Garreg Mach for these phases perfectly captures the empty aimlessness you might feel in moments like this. It is the sound of pure undiluted melancholy. And through it all, you’ll do the things you’ve been doing the entire game. You’ll tutor some of your students, maybe sit down for a few meals, do some inventory management, maybe even try to find some time to go fishing. But all of it feels different. Nothing has changed, and yet everything has.

I just find it so impressive the way this chunk of the game so effectively puts you in the shoes emotionally of your character. I love this game, it’s easily the fire emblem game I have put the most hours into. But when I think of this game, and I try to remember what moments stand out most vividly in my memory, it’s not any particular battle or any major plot beat. It’s going around the monastery a week after Jeralt’s death, and reflecting on the headspace of this person who doesn’t know what to do next, so she falls back on routine. She goes back to work.

[pansexualtimcurryvampireelf]

3H Pre-Time Skip: haha we're at school and we're having so much fun!

3H Post-Time Skip: Did you have a nice nap? Well guess what? The world is going to shit and now you have to kill your friends.

[flower-of-knighthood]

Obviously the TWS are a death cult but we don't know anything about what the ancient Agarthans are like. Sothis also has colonist vibes (technologically advanced foreigner "enlightening" primitive natives, being worshiped as a god and setting up those like her as governors over the people).

First of all, thanks for the ask. Actually we do know some things about ancient Agartha, thanks to Romance of the World's Perdition which is heavily implied to be from an Agarthan perspective, introduced in the DLC of Three Houses. The details revealed include that the people of Agartha are most likely to have had a pantheon of gods. However, the details relevant to your ask are that the author admits the reason Sothis was mad at Agartha was because of the blood they shed which backs up Rhea's testimony of Agartha being a war mongering nation, and that it was Agartha that was ultimately responsible for the destruction of the old world, requiring Sothis's sacrifice to revive.

Now you make the claim that Sothis has colonist vibes, however nowhere in Romance of the World's Perdition is the claim that Sothis oppressed the Agarthans supported. Sothis shared technology, but she did not invade the native nations of the world, which is what colonialism would entail. Last time I checked being worshiped as a god doesn't fall under colonialism either. Finally it is quite likely considering that Sothis fell into a healing slumber after healing the world, Her children began governing the world in her absence.

[cobwebinthecorner]

The other night I got back into my first playthrough of Three Houses, and I feel so much more confident about it. I've started planning my units ahead of time (or as ahead of time as possible considering I'm on Chapter 12 rn) and I understand a lot more about everything. I'm still really liking the story, too, and I can't wait to finish this chapter's main battle tonight and get to the timeskip.

Edit: also it was just on my mind all day but is there an actual reason why Enlightened One is part Brawl class? Like, who was high at Intelligent Studios and looked at this goofy-ass motherfucker and went, "you know what would be really fucken funny? if this awkwardly-stanced wizard guy threw hands."

[sonocomics]

A really awesome dodge from a unit being followed by the enemy dodging is one of the biggest whiplashes while playing this game ;v;

Click HERE to check out the masterpost for more Fire Emblem 3 Houses comics!

Commissions Info | Comic Guide | Patreon | Check out my patrons!

[i-hate-smile-files]

Just finished Verdant Wind, and married a manwhore. Too bad my baby boy died offscreen

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Unsolved Mysteries.

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[andi-o-geyser]

local gang of dnd players intimidate and viciously bully game show host sam reich, threatening to push his ass down the stairs like he's a 90-year-old grandma in a retirement home. more at 8

[fayessketchbook]

The Queen of Monsters (WiP)