#when will shez return from war

[coderiderr]

i cant believe they included possessed by sothis byleth but didnt include possessed by arval shez when theyre the protag of the game byleth gets possessed like that in im so mad.

[mitsubinyuri]

Fuck it, I'm bored.

Here's why YOU should ship Lornatz !!! 💚💜

(A needlessly long analysis)

(Note: I will be using she/they pronouns for Ignatz and he/they/she for Lorenz here because of my personal headcanons)

1) canon dynamic

I'll admit there isn't a whole lot of material for these two. We have a C-B support in the FE3H base game and an A support in Three Hopes. In their base game support, it's kind of similar to a few other Ignatz supports: Ignatz does something demonstrating her art talent/good aesthetic eye and then the other character glazes her for like 2 supports and they're like "omg haha what do you mean 😳😳 haha me really? thanks I guess..." On Lorenz's side, it's similar to a few of their other supports as well.

The support itself doesn't seem like anything special at first glance- just another case of Ignatz being all bashful and Lorenz does his "it is a nobles duty to provide guidance to those who need it" thing. Lorenz offers to take Ignatz as a knight into Gloucester service so that Ignatz may both become a knight, as her parents want, and have time to paint and work artistically.

Now, most of what I consider the substantial part of their canon relationship takes place in the spin off game. Lorenz and Ignatz's A support, given to them in Three Hopes, is a direct follow-up to the events that occurred in their C and B supports. Despite Three Hopes taking place in a different timeline, it is clear that the same general events of their storyline have taken place, and as the war begun, Ignatz has become a Gloucester knight. Regardless of route, at some point during the story, Lorenz will take up their father's place as Count Gloucester (more like Cunt Gloucester am I right cus they slay)

Now, you aren't able to unlock Lorenz and Ignatz's A support until after the game's short timeskip. After said timeskip, when everyone returns to the camp, you can talk to Ignatz, who will inform Shez that they had been traveling with Lorenz for the last few months. (At least I think I am remembering this correctly. Ignatz's camp dialogue is not fully filled in on their wiki quotes page.)

Finally, during their A support, Lorenz walks up to Ignatz, who is admiring the view. They begin to talk, and Lorenz comments on how Ignatz has grown and improved herself over the years-- from a bashful little merchant's child to a skilled leader in their role as a general in the army.

(Hubert also makes a similar comment when you fight and recruit Ignatz in Scarlet Blaze, saying something like "that ploy was very smart, we must be up against a talented commander" after Ignatz's trap is sprung. Ignatz basically says "wh-who? Me? 😳😳" after that and it's the funniest thing ever.)

Anyway, tangent aside, Lorenz compliments Ignatz's growth and also says some... definitely not gay things. (Literally one step away from calling them beautiful)

Lorenz then comments on the fact that Ignatz seems to be much happier now, compared to when they were just staying in Gloucester territory.

Ignatz reveals that the reason they have been feeling more alive is because they had been painting scenery that they viewed along their travels. The moving from place to place for various War Things(tm) may come with the unfortunate duties of battle (which Ignatz does not particularly enjoy), but still has the core travel element that Ignatz desires in their life.

It is at this point that Lorenz aplogizes. They feel as though their offer to take Ignatz into their service all those years ago was actually wrong, as what Ignatz really wanted to do was travel. In her mind, it was another Classic Lorenz Moment where she forces unwanted "help" onto someone because of perceived Noble Duty. Lorenz expresses profound regret for that action.

Ignatz responds to this by saying that Lorenz doesn't have anything to be sorry for. In fact, Ignatz meets Lorenz's guilt with gratitude for the experience they had working as a knight-- although parts of it were unenjoyable for them, it was an essential experience to them growing as a person, and it colored their perspective on life in a very real and good way.

2) analysis

Now, after my long ass summary, we move on to the deeper parts of their relationship. As a dynamic, it's not too complex, but it has enough to it for it to be interesting.

One of Lorenz's key traits is her outlook on life, mainly influenced by her father, saying that it it the duty of nobles to wield their power responsibly to help the common people. This worldview can sometimes cause conflicts in their supports (particularly, Leonie comes to mind) and due to FE3H's support system's limitations, it never really changes when it comes to how they act during the actual storyline.

This is a complaint I have with FE3H's writing but not particularly relevant to this post. And I actually think that Lorenz's Ignatz support is one of the better ones regarding this, in that Lorenz doesn't just make an "exception" from their worldview for one specific character. Lorenz regretting her original offer due to feelings of guilt around her perceiving her actions as causing unhappiness feels more natural and personal, and doesn't make it seem odd when she still says her weird, mildly problematic things about class that are baked into the main story's script.

One of Ignatz's main traits is being unsure of herself and feeling resigned to a future she knows she won't enjoy just to please her parents. In many of her supports, the latter of the traits is just addressed by her support partner saying "okay but just be an artist lol" and then her saying "okay maybe" and becoming one in whatever paired ending. Sometimes, it's not even really brought up, and her persuading her parents to let her be an artist is an afterthought in her ending card.

With Ignatz and Lorenz's supports, Ignatz actually undergoes a meaningful journey in figuring out their future. I'm not saying their other supports are bad-- I enjoy them all, and they're all unique and fun in their own ways. But in terms of addressing Ignatz's worries about their future, one of their defining traits, they can be hit or miss. I think that Lorenz's support with them is the best for this, in that is fully paints a picture of a years-long journey for Ignatz to figure out their place in the world. I truly think that this support does a lot for both of their characters.

3) fandom potential

OOH! On to the fun part: what about fanfiction? Fanart? Roleplays?

Well, I have good news for you. This ship is ESPECIALLY rich in fan material potential. As this post is already getting a little too long, I'm going to just put a bullet point list of compelling fic/art/rp ideas below.

It's finally time for Ignatz to leave Gloucester service, following their A support. Lorenz is sad and in his heart wants her to stay, but doesn't want to be an asshole when he knows Ignatz would be happier traveling.

Lorenz realizes, a year or two into Ignatz working as a knight for her father, that she is DOWN BAD. She tries to be smooth with gifts and flowers and such, and Ignatz knows the general usual connotations of such gestures but can't get herself to believe Lorenz would like her like that and tries to fight off her own crush that's now starting to develop.

Years after Ignatz leaves Gloucester service, they return to visit Lorenz and possibly paint something around the area (the gardens? Countryside? Lorenz himself?) Both of them see each other for the first time in years and mutually begin crushing on one another.

Cute few panel comic thing where Ignatz is painting in the courtyard and Lorenz looks down at them from their room (with gay intentions.) Ignatz looks up in passing, sees them, and waves. Then Lorenz is all ehadhahrhshshshs.

Also they're both transfem guys trust...

That's it! I hope I've convinced at least some of you!

[fantasyinvader]

More things hit me, things that should have been obvious. It explains Shez's arc, and the meaning of Hopes in general.

Remember what the Buddhism says makes human's human? What separates us from the animals is our ability to control our instincts and impulses, which allows us to use reason, have morality, and act in a humane manner. What happens when we take that and apply it to Shez?

Shez has two options in whichever route he picks. They can follow the plan at the time, focusing on completing the objective and putting the war ahead of their desire to avenge their previous defeat to Byleth. Or Shez can throw all that away to fight Byleth. In essence, the game asks at this point is Shez a human or a beast.

I mean, it's implied Shez is from Agartha and because of that they have Arval buried within them. If Shez keeps his impulses in check, Byleth will be recruited to Shez's side. However, because of this Arval won't be able to hold back his true nature, that of the Agarthan Epimenides. Epimenides takes control of Shez, and in the end it's a fight for Shez not only to return to Fodlan but remain in control of their body. It's Shez proving their strength to Arval in this regard. This earns a reward, as well as a nicer ending for Scarlet Blaze.

Alternatively, Shez can give into the impulse, kill Jeralt which in turn causes Sothis to snap. The implication seems to be that her Crest Stone contains not just her memories but her soul as well, and that Sitri wasn't a separate individual from Sothis. Sitri was Sothis without the memories, living life as a separate incarnation, falling in love with Jeralt before dying giving birth to Byleth. That is why she snaps when Jeralt dies, and why she wants revenge bad enough she'll take of Byleth's body, becoming a mirror in her rage to Epimenides. This ends with Sothis defeated by Shez's hand, Shez proving their strength.

Byleth doesn't give into the same rage at the death of their father, Byleth is the one to retain their humanity in this scenario and dies because of it.

A few more things to add is Shez's obsession with strength, how they'd do anything to be strong and best Byleth. This includes jumping off cliffs, which would have killed them prior to the start of the game if not for Arval. Shez's impulse would have killed them, but even then think about how strong Shez is. Shez is strong enough to take out all three houses by themselves in the mock battle, just because they were running around confused. Think about that compared to the likes of Dimitri or Edelgard, two powerhouses, yet Shez is still seeking further strength to avenge their loss. They can talk all they want about the mercenary life, how common death is and not being too attached to companions, it instead makes it sound like Shez's issue is simply because Byleth beat them rather to avenge their fallen comrades. That Shez's pride was hurt by this, so they seek revenge.

It's Shez being an Agarthan, even if they don't realize it. Meanwhile, killing Sothis unlocks the Epimenides paralogue, showing us the war of heroes from their POV.

But it's not as simple as saying “Shez keeping their humanity is good,” because just because humans have morality doesn't mean they always act in a moral manner. This is a Shez who can follow Edelgard without issue as she conquers the continent, fully knowing that she's oppressing the commoners, and whose path Houses made out as evil through the animal path symbolism as well as hadou. Shez can still support an immoral ruler, while in Romance of the Three Kingdoms the officials/generals/ministers of Wei are called out for that exact same thing. If Shez is good and keeps their humanity, we get the symbol of the Agarthans' control over Edelgard Aymr as a reward. Likewise, Claude can go full Sun Quan, in part because he follows Shez's advice, and Shez will still support Claude, unlocking Blutgang which has the same crest stone as Amyr, linking it to the devil arcana and the idea that Claude has become corrupted by Shez. Even Dimitri, falling short of the world arcana/enlightenment with a crest stone tied to the judgement arcana instead, and Dimitri goes on to wage a punitive campaign against the Empire over the war they started even with knowledge Edelgard was used... and likely goes against Claude when his attack on Rhea causes chaos and suffering in it's wake. Under Dimitri, Shez is their most moral but they'll still go along with the revenge ride even if they didn't give into their own desire for revenge.

Unlike Byleth, Shez is not a leader. Shez can have all this knowledge and skills, knowing life outside of being a mercenary, but they're only moral if they follow moral leaders. They won't lead the Eagles away from Edelgard or properly guide Claude and Dimitri, paths linked to enlightenment, meanwhile Byleth knows nothing except being a merc initially and yet they're meant to be one of Fodlan's best hopes for leadership provided they don't join Edelgard. And that's the other kicker, Byleth developing a bond with Edelgard would cause them to instinctively want to protect her and it's by going against this instinct that Byleth can lead Fodlan to a better tomorrow. Byleth giving in and protecting Edelgard is referred to as the animal path, meaning Byleth loses their humanity following her.

Meanwhile, Shez has no choice but to follow their lord and go along with their actions. Shez can't lead Fodlan to a happy ending.

[fireemblems24]

Chapter 8 of Scarlet Blaze

Spoilers for up to Ch 8 beneath the cut. This chapter fucking sucked.

Also, I know I tagged this as SB, but be warned this was pretty critical of it. If anyone is actually still browsing tag and thinks I should remove it, I will.

STORY

Hell, yeah, Dimitri was taking names.

This plot is . . . kinda stupid. I feel like Edelgard is just running back and forth the whole time, accomplishing nothing.

LAMO, Omg, she just straight-up blamed all the deaths from the previous battle on . . . Claude 😂

Edelgard really be like "Why did Claude make me hit him!"

I'm pretty sure the writers didn't intend for SB to read like a Monty Python skit, but Edelgard has less self-awareness than Sir Lancelot when he kept apologizing for slaughtering the wedding party because at least that he was aware enough to apologize.

Oh, Randolph. So how many times does he die this time?

So, like, does Shez want people to get executed if they flip sides? He's like, geeze, how dare Claude and Dimitri forgive people.

Shez is like "I don't understand a word you say Edelgard, but I'm helping you slaughter your way across Fodlan because you may rub off on me!" More "SB is a comedy in disguise" fuel.

I wish I picked F!Shez for every route. I like her VA a lot more. Plus, I've seen this personality on a male character in the countless number of shonen anime and manga I've watched/read, but not as much in a woman. And unlike M!Byleth who's gorgeous, M!Shez is alright, but not super hot or anything.

So Lindhart mentioned that the Kingdom and Alliance can rally against the Empire because of the relics and crests. And like, I don't see how killing Rhea will make that power vanish and people not desperately want it. I feel like so much of Edelgard's spiel is an edgelord's power fantasy with no basis in reality.

This soldier is like "Dimitri labeled everyone who sided with his uncle as guilty in the tragedy of Duscur!" Lamo. Except it's true. Would've been interesting if it wasn't and see how Dimitri handled that. I sometimes wish he got more grey situations bc the writing in Hopes so far he's just . . . the good guy. Like straight-up the hero, no questions. Which, I love because at heart that's what Dimitri is, but I wish the writing would corner him anyways.

Oh, fuck. It's Sylvain. Oh fuck. I don't want to fight him. That sucked.

Count Rowe is being a backstabbing moron. I love how it's always the evil ones that side with Edelgard. It's an underrated thing no one talks about.

And now I have to fight Rodrigue :( Feels bad, killing Blue Lions+ members for the crime of defending themselves.

Ok. It's an unquestionable fact that when you find yourself fighting Annette, you are the villain. This is just truth.

Pretty sure this is heading to a temporary truce between Claude and Edelgard. Which, Claude's (and the Alliance's) funeral, I guess, lamo.

SHEZ & PETRA B SUPPORT

Petra's asking Shez about mercenaries. Questions if Shez would work for the enemy if they offered more money. Aww, damn. You don't have an option to say yes. :(

At least it's somewhat based in trust on their employer (and to get future ones) and not just mindless fangasming. I wouldn't want that in GW or AG either.

DOROTHEA & HUBERT B SUPPORT

This is their only support.

Hubert has a letter from the opera company and wanted to talk to Dorothea, so he's giving it to her in person.

Ohhh, he's bringing up how Dorothea hates violence, but stays and fights in the war rather than returning to the opera.

Glad this is finally getting addressed. Letting Dorothea talk.

It's part wanting to fight alongside her friends and part wanting to represent commoners in Edelgard's army. But also to score a rich husband.

Honestly, much better than whatever the fuck their Houses final support was.

HUBERT & FERDINAND B SUPPORT

So other popular ships got amped up (Dimilix, Dimidue, Marihilda - strangely not Sylvix though). So did the gay get turned up here?

Ferdinand is up late and Hubert wonders why. Ferdinand is studying the law to try and get his father arrested.

Oh, Ferdinand brought up the fact Hubert's father died. Putting Hubert to the question about executing his own father and mad he didn't judge his father in public

Hubert argues that his father would never have been found guilty.

God, that was SOOOOO much meatier than "I wanna serve Edelgard the best!" "No I wanna!!!!"

Monica took over the "pathetic Edelgard simp" to Hubert's "competent Edelgard simp" so Ferdinand could finally fucking get to run.

Ferdinand so far is 10000% the best part of SB (I'd say Petra competes, but I like her better in AG so far).

SHEZ & FERDINAND B SUPPORT

Shez thinks Ferdinand is faking enthusiasm. Not like that. Lamo. He's just overcompensating for his father's failure.

Ferdinand feels powerless and useless. I wish he was the MC.

Shez just wants to help Ferdinand feel better.

Ferdinand wants to surpass his father.

It's a repeat of his stuff with Edelgard and Hubert, but it's by far the most compelling part of SB.

PETRA & HUBERT B SUPPORT

Hubert is checking on Petra to make sure she feels comfortable and temps her with staying in the Empire, but Petra's like "naw."

Worth noting that Brigid is still under the thumb of the Empire. So Petra's a hostage basically forced into this war in order to secure the freedom of her country.

And they can't even go public yet, fearing the citizens get pissed off. Man, the Empire must be full of bloodthirsty land grabbers.

Go Petra! She low-key threatens Hubert and forces them to uphold their promises. Nice seeing her have a backbone.

PETRA & FERDINAND B SUPPORT

Ferdinand sung to Petra to ask her to spar. It's really cringe. Like, realllllly cringe. I would've been embarrassed if I wasn't playing alone.

He thinks this is some Brigid custom, but song and dance is only involved with religious ceremonies. Petra calls him out for finding her country so silly.

It's a mistranslation

Petra owned Ferdinand in this support and we are here for it.

FERDINAND & LYSITHEA C SUPPORT

Talking tea. Can relate.

Lysithea was ready to eat the food and bail. Nice.

But Ferdinand wanted to ask her about joining the commoner class. Lysithea insists she's fine with it and wants to.

Ferdinand doesn't know any de-nobled nobles who are happy. Lysithea know he only knows ones who got kicked out, he's not wrong.

Then he's like, you can't join them! Then you can't change anything anymore. But like what is he fighting on Edelgard's side for?

She, of course, doesn't have a future.

MONICA & BERNIE PARALOGUE

Bernie's enjoying her socially isolated life when Monica needs her help with something because there's no one else around.

You can have Shez agree she shouldn't come, and he says he'll slow them down, lamo. Bernie is offended.

They need to rid bandits out of a cave.

So his Duke is part of it. And he's had problems finding the Fetters of Dromini because of a TWSITD spy. It's also related to whoever kidnapped Monica.

So all I get is Shez, Monica, and Bernie. Only Shez has even looked at a battlefield and the other two are level 1 an 2. I can make 1 an adjunct, but not both. Ugh. Gotta go level at least one up.

Oh, hey, Myson.

I forgot how good of a unit Shez is lol.

Seems like Bernie actually has a decent mom. Bernie just wants to hide in the caves though. Monica advises against it.

DOROTHEA & MANUELA PARALOGUE

This one is easier since they're both leveled up already.

Everyone is fangirling over them. Dorothea assures Manuela that time hasn't tarnished her beauty, but she doesn't buy it.

They wanted Shez as a bodyguard because he's not a crazed fan. I wish real life celebrities would just whip out daggers on ridiculous fans.

This one's more entertaining than the last one. Random thieves are fans and if you defeat them with whoever they're a fan of (Dorothea or Manuela) they join you, lamo. Good both of them are already leveled up too.

Aww, Hanneman showed up to rescue Manuela.

The bandits were swarming the town because of the war. It's nice to see more acknowledgement of how Edelgard's war is screwing over the common folk.

Glad to see Hanneman get a nice little shout out despite getting demoted to NPC. Dorothea and Shez basically told them to get a room, lamo.

STORY/MAIN FIGHT

Edelgard is the least effective conquer I've seen in fiction.

"Defeat Dimitri" - How about, no.

I see "persuade Mercedes." Does that mean I need to bring Jeritza? Because it's not like Hubert or Edelgard are masters of persuasion.

"Defeat Dedue." I hate this. Monica's like, "If Dedue's here, then Dimitri is too." Even SB ships them.

Haha, they flipped sides to Dimitri after he was like "I don't want to kill you, please fight for me instead." And like, no shit?

Aw, shit. Now I have to fight Dimitri.

Oh, now I get to fight Ingrid too. Guys, I'm having so much fun right now. It doesn't help at all that SB is boring as fuck.

Oh, shit. Fuck. What the fuck. Ingrid just died. 😭😭😭😭😭😭

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Oh shut the fuck up, Edelgard. "Oh, this is so painful." IDK maybe stop trying to conquer everyone who doesn't kiss your ass. You too, Monica. "Oh, she was loyal to the end."

I'm beginning to remember why I hated Edelgard so much in CF. She's such a self-righteous idiot incapable of taking responsibility for her shitty actions AND has no sense of self-awareness.

Dimitri and Dedue sound so sad 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Dedue and Dimitri both taking the credit, meanwhile prissy ass is like "oh, wow, so sad these people died. No idea why."

Shit, Dimitri just mentioned Glenn. He sounds so broken up. Glad Dedue is giving Ingrid the credit for her own choices and actions.

She died defending everyone she loved.

I bet Edelgard will find a way to blame Rhea for Ingrid's death rather than take any responsibility for all the death she causes.

Only Dorothea fucking cares about Ingrid.

"We are nowhere near achieving our goals in the Alliance or in the Kingdom." - Edelgard. I can't fucking understand how some people argue she's isn't an Imperialist.

At least she's admitting she's fucking stupid with her army leadership inabilities.

I'd tell Edelgard to go fuck herself, but that implies a level of pleasure she doesn't deserve. #JusticeforIngrid #StoptheImperalists

xxxx

[softdedue]

Rules: Post the first lines of your last 10 fics posted to AO3 (Sort by date posted.) If you have less than 10 fics posted, post what you have! 

Tagged by @dreamerinsilico!! Thank you!! 💕💕💕

1. mithridatism and other unconventional love languages “It seems our Prime Minister is quite lucky,” Hubert says awkwardly.

2. Marianne Marianne glances over at Hilda again.

3. coffee cup confessions “Lady Edelgard surpasses you in nearly every respect,” Hubert says. “But I think, when it comes to positivity, you may actually exceed her.”

4. you want to die for love, you always have Hubert is walking out of a war council when he coughs the first time.

5. I was given a name that doesn’t feel like it’s mine She’s been working on her gown all day, and Sylvie thinks she’s finally got the drape at the hips just right.

6. I’m not human enough to love you right now Hubert is worried about him. Hubert is worried about him.

7. There’s always time for a party Dedue doesn’t expect much from his 21st birthday.

8. after the storm It is three months after his return to Enbarr at the end of the war when Hubert receives an invitation to the Aegir estate.

9. What happens at the beach… The day has been long, and it’s something of a relief to see the sun dipping towards the horizon

10. what is there to answer if I’m the only one? What makes him happy? It has not left Dimitri’s mind since his conversation with Shez.

tagging @sebastianfantastic @indigowallbreaker and any other interested authors!!

[armatization-a]

( @galeforged )

Every bard worth their salt ought to embrace any and all opportunity afforded to them to shine under the spotlight. So they say, at least, but at this moment, Forwin would give just about anything to avoid it entirely. Right, he wasn't "Forwin" anymore. His years-long ruse finally had the rug pulled right from under it when Monica of all people was the one to confront him at the monastery. As relieved as he was for his old friend's wellbeing after the kidnapping... that picture-perfect memory of hers sold him out immediately for all to hear, among both the imperial soldiery and the Church of Seiros's Knights. Wyndell von Gerth, the prodigal son of and successor to His Grace Duke Roland von Gerth, had returned to the Adrestian Empire. No longer may he embrace the relative anonymity and simpler comforts that came with living as a commoner, as the Abyssian bard instead found himself thrust back up towards the apex of Adrestian society with all the privilege and pressure that came with his true name. All eyes were on him now, and it was not at all as pleasant as an expecting crowd of patrons down at the Wilting Rose Inn. No silly little song will bail him out this time. Many from Abyss who knew him as Forwin even looked at him differently, let alone started to keep some distance... and his cheek still stung from the palm of a furious Nuvelle heiress. "—ah! S-sorry, I didn't see you approach, Commander Shez...! Are you all right?" So distracted by his own despondence was the man who knew not who he was supposed to be anymore, in searching for somewhere peaceful and quiet while his own tent was being set up, that he hadn't realized he walked right into the purple-haired mercenary Edelgard appointed to lead them in battle. His poor lute almost fell right out of his hands and into the mud, were it not strung around his shoulder! Wyndell's hat, however, was not so fortunate. 'Shit,' his already crestfallen expression would say if it could speak for itself, just as he knelt down to attempt retrieving it...

Everything just kind of... happened.

Shez still couldn't wrap her head around everything. She was a mercenary. She was a student at Garreg Mach. Now she was a commander. Really, she couldn't wrap her head around it. Why her, exactly? Why did all this weird crap happen to her? She'd wonder aloud, like she used to, but she didn't want to discuss it with Arval. She missed being alone sometimes. Most of the time. None of this partners in destiny crap.

She was aware it wasn't just her life turned on its axis. This was war, after all. But still, what a shift - and what a pay boost. She just had to keep asking herself, why her? Maybe it was because of Arval, actually. Maybe she should be more thankful for them. Maybe-

"Crap! Sorry, are you okay?"

It wasn't like Shez to lose herself like that. She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to adjust back to reality. That was when she noticed the hat on the floor. She picked it up and dusted it off, before handing it over to him.

"Here you for, Forwin. Or, I guess it's Wyndell now, huh? I never took you for a nobleman." Then again, she was no commander, so who was she to judge? "I heard about what happened with Constance. Your face is looking a little red still, actually. Ouch."

[grandsonoflightike]

Grey Three Houses/Hopes P23: Torment of the Shadow Eagle and Light Lion

Background Music Announcement: The Ashen Demon Cover With Lyrics by The Muses’ Mire

Light Male Robin: Shadow Edelgard succeeds in containing Shadow Aegir's insurgency, and while she is concerned by the absence of the nefarious Shadow Thales, she prepares her army for the next step regardless. The time is nigh to crush the Light Kingdom and Grey Central Church's growing momentum and put an end to the war once and for all.

*At Grey Garreg Mach Monastery…*

Shadow Edelgard: I've gathered you here in Grey Garreg Mach because the time has come. We are returning to the front.

Shadow Caspar: Oh yeah, I've been waiting to hear that forever! Let's go wreck things!

Shadow Edelgard: For the next phase of our campaign, we'll be working with the Light Alliance's leader, Light Claude, to tighten our cordon around the Light Kingdom. Rather than try to advance on the western front, we'll join forces with the Light Alliance and press in from the east.

Shadow Hubert: This means we will be marching northeast from the monastery and infiltrating Galatea.

Shadow Dorothea: I hope we can finally end it this time. I don't think I can deal with doubling back again.

Shadow Linhardt: Agreed. This slog has slogged on long enough.

Shadow Edelgard: Worry not, friends. I'll not be blindsided twice— I promise you that. We won't rest until all of Grey Fódlan is united. We will fight tooth and nail for it—and we'll do so together.

*After Shadow Edelgard's briefing, Shadow Byleth and Grey Jeralt meet with Shadow Shez and Shadow Hubert.*

Grey Jeralt: So, we're finally dusting off our armor and going somewhere, huh? You must really want to end this war if you're letting the two of us loose in the Light Kingdom.

Shadow Hubert: Quite right, Captain Grey Jeralt. We will not accept anything less than the fall of the royal capital. You and your mercenaries will be marching with us. This is not a problem, I trust?

Grey Jeralt: Let's just say I have a history with someone at the capital and leave it at that. But if the time's come for me to sort that out, then so be it. In any case, we're ready to go. Right, kid?

Shadow Byleth: We'll earn our keep.

Shadow Shez: Gotta say, I'm excited to be fighting with you for a change.

Shadow Arval: …

*At Light Fhirdiad, Light Dimitri, Light Felix, Light Sylvain, and Light Seteth convene in the throne room.*

Light Felix: We made some headway on the western front once the Empire pulled its main force back.

Light Sylvain: What does it matter when their Minister of Military Affairs still holds Arianrhod? Even if we were in a position to keep throwing troops at those walls, we're never going to crack them.

Light Felix: But if we keep digging our heels in here, their main force will be on us again in no time.

Light Dimitri: It appears they have already dealt with the insurrection at Fort Merceus. If they don't come at us from the west, they'll soon waltz right in from the east.

*Grey Rhea enters, which makes Light Dimitri annoyed.*

Grey Rhea: Might I offer a suggestion, King Dimitri?

Light Dimitri: Of course, Lady Grey Rhea.

Grey Rhea: We should retake Light Garreg Mach. It is the only way to reverse our current fortunes. If I call upon the church's faithful, they will come running from every corner of Grey Fódlan to liberate the light monastery in the grey goddess's name. With Light Garreg Mach under our control, we will be able to keep the Imperial army in check. Additionally, it might convince some of the more fickle Light Alliance lords to reconsider their loyalties.

Light Dimitri: I mean no disrespect, Lady Grey Rhea, but this proposal hardly seems...

Grey Seteth: There is more. As you know, the bishop of the Grey Southern Church is currently seated at the monastery. If we remove him, it reminds the world anew that Archbishop Grey Rhea is the rightful head of the Church of Grey Seiros. I believe this will shake some of the more devout Shadow Adrestian lords from their Shadow Emperor's grip.

Knight of Grey Seiros: While their faith may waver now, Shadow Adrestia is still the cradle of the Church of Grey Seiros. There are yet many pious believers among their nobility. If we can pull them to our side, it may shift the war back in our favor.

Grey Rhea: We should strike while the iron is hot. I will get the word out at once.

Light Dimitri: Hold, Lady Grey Rhea. While I now concede that your plan to retake the Grey Monastery has some merit, I must ask that you alert no one.

Grey Rhea: And why not? I need only say the word, and an army of believers will flock to our cause.

Light Dimitri: Yes, and the moment the enemy shadow spies people flooding in from across hill and dale, they'll realize what we're planning and bolster their defenses.

Grey Seteth: You believe their defenses are mightier than the faith of the people? By the grey goddess, have our enemies truly become so powerful? In that case, what do you propose?

Light Dimitri: We entrust the eastern lines to Houses Light Charon and Light Galatea, then ride en masse toward Grey Arianrhod. The enemy will think we intend to assail the Silver Maiden. But instead, we break east.

Light Sylvain: East... Then we'll be attacking the grey monastery through the Grey Valley of Torment. I get your thinking now. If we attack from the west, Grey Arianrhod would be at our backs and the Shadow Empire could box us in.

Grey Rhea: Very well. I have no objections. My grey church members will assist in guiding your soldiers through Grey Ailell. The grey monastery is holy and precious to us—and by the name of the grey goddess, I swear it will be ours again!

Light Dimitri: Good. Then I'll ready the troops. Lady Grey Rhea? Grey Seteth? I place all of our futures in your hands.

*Back At Grey Garreg Mach Monastery, Shadow Shez Talks to Shadow Edelgard.*

Shadow Edelgard: It is not an exaggeration to say that we have dispatched nearly every obstacle in our path. Both within and beyond the Shadow Empire. All that is left is to vanquish the Grey Central Church and the Light Kingdom, who obstinately persist in their opposition to us.

Shadow Shez: I'm not so sure about that. We didn't completely wipe out those who shadow slither in the dark, right?

Shadow Edelgard: Yes, that is true. Even after we conclude our battle with the church... Our war with those who shadow slither in the dark may continue.

Shadow Shez Then Talks To Shadow Hubert

Shadow Hubert: We suspect Thales of being the leader of those who slither in the dark. I kept careful watch for him and Solon at Fort Merceus. But I saw neither hide nor hair of them. I am concerned as to what their ultimate goal might be. Do you truly not know anything?

Shadow Shez: I don't really know, maybe they're aiming for somewhere else? Like the Shadow Imperial capital or Grey Garreg Mach?

Shadow Hubert: What a surprise, you actually had a response. However, the Shadow capital is most certainly not their target. I preemptively laid a trap for them under the same assumption and came up with nothing.

Shadow Shez talks to Shadow Ferdinand.

Shadow Ferdinand: Yes, everything looks good here. Now, what should I do with that one message? Hm? Is something the matter? I do apologize, but I have not a moment to spare. Shadow Edelgard has ensured that I am quite busy! Hahaha!

Shadow Shez talks to Shadow Linhardt

Shadow Linhardt: Once again, everyone's convinced that the war will end soon. But I'm not so sure. They say bad things come in threes. That means more trouble is on the way.

Shadow Shez: Doesn't matter. We'll deal with anything that comes our way. We've handled any number of crises by now.

Shadow Linhardt: That's true. But don't forget that each one has been much worse than the last.

Shadow Shez talks to Shadow Caspar.

Shadow Caspar: My shadow brother was in charge of Fort Shadow Merceus. It doesn't matter that he was standing in for my shadow father. Guess that means he'll have to be held responsible somehow. Ugh, I just don't know what to do.

Shadow Shez: If your brother loses his right to the Shadow Bergliez title, would you become your shadow father's heir?

Shadow Caspar: No, that won't happen. I haven't had the necessary education on how to govern a shadow territory. But maybe...this could be our chance to make Shadow Edelgard's vision a reality. You know, separating shadow titles and shadow territories. It doesn't seem completely out of the question right now, does it?

Shadow Shez talks to Shadow Bernadetta.

Shadow Bernadetta: My shadow father's at Grey Garreg Mach, which means I might have to see him again. Though it sounds like he's shut himself away, so the chances of it are probably pretty low. It'll be OK...right?

Shadow Shez: Yeah, we're pretty far from the grey monastery now, so you shouldn't have to worry.

Shadow Bernadetta: Right? I thought so too!

Shadow Shez then talks to Shadow Dorothea.

Shadow Dorothea: Fighting a pompous noble was way easier than going against a former classmate. Though really, that shouldn't change the fact that they're all people with families and lives.

Shadow Shez: Well for me, it doesn't make a difference who I face on the battlefield.

Shadow Dorothea: Then honestly, I envy you. At least I know I can always count on you.

Shadow Shez talks to Shadow Petra.

Shadow Petra: I am having one memory of the previous Duke Shadow Aegir. But it is a bad one. When we were first coming to the shadow Imperial capital, he had insults for my shadow father. I became angry and attacked, knocking him off of his feet. I am having much to reflect on.

Shadow Shez then Talks to Shadow Monica.

Shadow Monica: Between Viscount Shadow Essar and Baron Shadow Gillingr... Many Shadow western lords showed sympathy towards the former Duke Shadow Aegir. And there may be more who secretly oppose Her Shadow Majesty's plan, even if they show outward support.

Shadow Shez: It's been nearly three years since Shadow Edelgard ascended the throne. That kind of opposition can't be allowed to linger. We need to stamp them out.

Shadow Monica: Oh my, I never thought I'd hear you say something like that. I feel like a proud shadow mother watching her shadow child blossom into a fine shadow adult.

Shadow Shez: …

*Shadow Shez talks to Light Lorenz.*

Light Lorenz:  We have been subjected to an unnecessary amount of detours, but the time has finally come to settle things with the Light Kingdom. And with the Light Alliance coming to our aid as well, we will no doubt achieve victory. The issue is what happens after we win. I am concerned about the relationship between the Shadow Empire and the Light Alliance

Shadow Shez: That's a good point. It's hard to imagine Light Claude and Shadow Edelgard suddenly becoming best buds.

Light Lorenz: Precisely. If relations sour between the two of them, I will once again face a difficult decision.

Shadow Shez Talks To Light Claude.

Light Claude: The Truth is soon coming out.

Shadow Shez: What do you mean, Light Claude?

Light Claude: Nothing you need to worry about?

In The Background, Light Timmy and Light Male Robin talk.

Light Timmy: Light Claude almost let it slip.

Light Male Robin: It’s Okay to let it slip a little to Shadow Shez.

Shadow Byleth: What do you mean?

Shadow Scileth: Yeah I got to ask that as well.

Light Male Robin: You will need to face the one trying to kill Grey Sothis for Grey Nemesis who is Shadow Arval’s Creator.

Light Timmy: Shadow Arval?

Light Male Robin: Shadow Arval is the voice inside Shadow Shez like Grey Sothis is for you guys but she is a Shadow Argathan and so is Shadow Shez.

Shadow Byleth: Then Why isn’t he with those who shadow slither in the dark?

Light Lucina: *Appears* I did some digging into that and it turns out he doesn’t know his past like the original robin does in the games.

Shadow Byleth: How sad.  Then Let’s Do Our Best To Help him when he comes.

Light Male Robin: That time is next mission when he attacks Grey Bileth.

Shadow Byleth: What? he is going to attack my sister?

Light Male Robin: Yes but because Shadow Arval possesses him thanks to Shadow Epimenides becoming One With Shadow Arval but Shadow Arval regrets it still.

Shadow Byleth: You want Us three and My Sister to Jump Into The Portal Shadow Epimenides Spawns is what I think he is going to do?

Light Male Robin: Ah you predicted right on the spot. Also Yes, Please do. I’ll go tell Grey Bileth That.

Light Male Robin and Light Lucina leave to talk to Grey Bileth.

Shadow Byleth: Let’s Hope My Sister survives.

Shadow Scileth: Us three are supposed to talk to Shadow Shez.  Don’t mention this conversation. Got it?

Shadow Byleth and Light Timmy: Got it.

Shadow Shez Then Talks to Light Hilda.

Light Hilda: I heard your conversation with Light Lorenz.  I am also worried Light Claude and Shadow Edelgard won’t get along in the end. But I am also worried that they will get along too much.

Shadow Shez: Are you jealous of Shadow Edelgard? I suggest you tell me honestly and I tell you something I know honestly.

Light Hilda: Deal.  The Truth Is Yes because I am in love with Light Claude.  That is why I want My Brother to like him.

Shadow Shez: Then I got both honest knowledge and some advice.  The Honest Knowledge is Shadow Edelgard and Shadow Byleth really like each other as lovers. The Advice is bring Light Holst and Light Claude in a room together with you and tell them your honest feelings for Light Claude.

Light Hilda: What? Shadow Edelgard and Shadow Byleth a couple?  Then I take your advice after we settle things with Light Dimitri here.

Shadow Shez Then Talks to Light Raphael.

Light Rapheal: If we're fighting the Kingdom, then I might get to face Light Dimitri, right? I've heard he's ridiculously strong. I wonder which of us would come out on top.

Shadow Shez: Light Dimitri's probably stronger. They say his strength is inhuman, like some kinda monster.

Light Rapheal: Huh... I wonder what his training regimen is. Maybe I'll ask him once the war's over.

*Shadow Shez Then Talks to Light Ignatz.*

Light Ignatz: Lately I've felt off for some reason. Like I'm not myself. I used to be a timid person who'd get so nervous before battles he couldn't sleep. But now I feel strangely calm, even though we're facing a major fight.

Shadow Shez: that just shows how much you've grown. You've been doing a great job.

Light Ignatz: Hah, you're going to make me blush. I'm not so sure about all that, but I appreciate you saying so.

*Shadow Shez then talks to Grey Lysithea.*

Grey Lysithea:  As maddening as it is, we have no way to fight those shadow who slither in the dark so long as they remain in the shadows. Which means all we can do is try our best to put a halt to their ambitions.

Shadow Shez: If their aim is to throw Grey Fódlan into chaos, then the best way to stop that would be to unify Grey Fódlan, right?

Grey Lysithea: Yes, and also to reform our systems of power so that peace is sustainable. That's the only way to ensure they won't meddle with us again, and that the same tragedies aren't repeated.

*Shadow Shez then talks to Light Marianne.*

Light Marianne:  I received a letter from my adoptive father. He said that I've done this long enough and should come home now. It's a little late for that, though. There's no way I could abandon everyone after we've come this far. I wouldn't be of any use back home anyway. I have no idea what he's thinking.

Shadow Shez: Maybe he's just worried about you. He's still your light father, even if you're not blood-related.

Light Marianne: Do you really think so? But even if that's true, I have no intention of leaving.

*Shadow Shez then talks to Light Leonie.*

Light Leonie: The Brother Of The Ashen Demon is having a pretty in-depth conversation with SHadow Scileth and Light Timmy over there. I'm a little put out he didn't include me, but I'm not gonna sulk about it. It's not my place to butt in on family discussions, even if Grey Jeralt considers me as his first and greatest apprentice. 

*Shadow Shez then talks to Grey Yuri.*

Grey Yuri: I wonder if the Kingdom would abandon the Church of Seiros if we dealt a big enough blow to the Central Church. I doubt the king and lords in Faerghus are so hardheaded that they'd keep fighting a losing battle. I have friends and family in the Kingdom, so I'd like to avoid stoking the flames of war any higher.

*Shadow Shez then talks to Grey Balthus.*

Grey Balthus: How you been holding up? Nothing but some shady battles lately, huh? I've had a hankerin' to really let someone have it. And it looks like I'll be finally getting my wish.

Shadow Shez: Yeah, you're right. We've just been cleaning up other people's messes rather than actually fighting.

Grey Balthus: See, you get it. I need an opponent I can really unload on.

*Shadow Shez then sees Grey Constance And Grey Hapi Arguing.*

Grey Constance: Grey Hapi, it is unnecessary for you to shoulder this burden. My dream is my own responsibility.

Grey Hapi: It's not a burden. I don't really have anything I'm aiming for myself, so I figure I might as well fight for what you want.

Grey Constance: No, I will not allow it! Haven't you always spoken about wanting to find your own goal in life?

Grey Hapi: Yeah, which is exactly why I decided to help you. I dunno how much I can really do, though.

Shadow Shez: Helping others achieve their dreams is an admirable goal in its own right. Especially since you two are so close.

Grey Hapi: Yeah! See, Grey Coco?

*Shadow Shez then talks to Light Manuela.*

Light Manuela: It looks like a lot of the Knights of Grey Seiros are going to join the battle. But Lady Grey Rhea wouldn't possibly appear on the front lines herself...right?

Shadow Shez: She very well could. It would really boost the Grey knights' spirits.

Light Manuela: Yes, I suppose that's true. My goodness, this battle becomes more daunting by the second.

*Shadow Shez then talks to Shadow Jertiza.*

Shadow Jeritza: We failed to wipe out those Light maggots at Fort Shadow Merceus. A pointless battle. I hope the next will satisfy me.

Shadow Shez: There are plenty of strong fighters in the Grey knights and the Light Kingdom. You'll have a good time for sure.

Shadow Jeritza: Let us hope so.

*Shadow Shez then sees Shadow Byleth, Shadow Scileth, and Light Timmy talking.*

Shadow Scileth: So that's why Grey Jeralt quit the knights?

Shadow Byleth: Yeah. And also why He's trying to avoid Lady Grey Rhea as much as possible... Hm?

Shadow Shez: Sorry, am I interrupting?

Light Timmy: Nah, don't worry about it. It wasn't important. Anyway... You feel like you're ready? This is gonna be our toughest battle yet.

Shadow Byleth: We'll show them what Grey Jeralt's Mercenaries are made of.

*Shadow Shez Walks away to see Grey Jeralt.*

Grey Jeralt: They were talking about Why I quit the Knights?

Shadow Shez: Do you mind telling me? I want to know more about The Ashen Demon and her family and why they are mercenaries.

Grey Jeralt: When I was a knight, I fell in love with this beautiful woman who is Shadow Byleth and Grey Bileth's Mother. She turned out to be a homunculus who was supposed to host the resurrected Goddess.  When she failed to do so, she was killed.  This was why I left the Knights.  Grey Bileth's Was like her Shadow Mother and would have been picked to be part of the way to bring back The Resurrected Goddess and turned out she couldn't do it because of Shadow Edelgard's rebellion and then Shadow Byleth Sided Shadow Edelgard for you know the reason and Shadow Bileth sided with Grey Rhea and The Light Kingdom but recently she hasn't been trying to take the lives of her enemies on our side and the alliance's side. It's almost as if she and those 3 know something we don't.

Shadow Shez: So You think your children are hiding something from you?  Tell me if Grey Bileth was ever attacked with death in mind, would you fight or would you have her brother fight?

Grey Jeralt: Her brother because I think they are hiding something from me.

Shadow Shez: Interesting Thanks For telling me.

*Shadow Shez then talks to Light Alois.*

Light Alois: Hmm... So we're finally facing off against the grey church. I thought I'd already prepared myself for this when I decided to join Captain Grey Jeralt, but... I admit I'm a little hesitant about fighting old comrades.

*The Major Players Then Decide to discuss The Enemy's Aim.*

Light Claude: Long story short, the Light Kingdom is preparing to ride west with a huge army. It looks like they're gonna throw everything they've got at Grey Arianrhod.

Shadow Hubert: Yes, we have received similar reports.

Light Claude: It's a pretty strange thing to do. I don't trust it.

Shadow Hubert: Then you believe it to be a feint? Interesting. Well, if true, there are only so many places they could go. They cannot ignore our troops and attempt to take Grey Derdriu. That would be folly. So the only other place I can imagine they would be after is Grey Garreg Mach.

Light Claude: That's what I was thinking. So what's our play?

Light Edelgard: We can't risk losing the grey monastery. We'll have to send more troops to defend it. But at the same time, we can't unclench the fist we are trying to bring down on the Light Kingdom. Our only choice is to mobilize the full resources of our regions.

Light Claude: Spoken like a woman with might to spare! I'm afraid we in the Light Alliance are already at our limits. But hear me out for a second... If the Light Kingdom really intends to attack Grey Garreg Mach, they won't approach from the west. That would put them smack between your forces in Arianrhod and the monastery. It'd be suicide. That leaves them with only one option.

Shadow Edelgard: You're saying they'll take the northern approach through Grey Ailell.

Light Claude: Yep. The Grey Valley of Torment—which just so happens to be the route we were planning to use ourselves. The Church of Grey Seiros will likely mobilize every knight they've got—and that is a very big army.

Shadow Hubert: Supposing you are correct. What do you suggest we do in response? Should we change our marching route to avoid clashing with them?

Light Claude: Nope! In fact, I vote we do the opposite. The Kingdom will catch on no matter how we try to deploy our troops, so I say let's meet them right there in Grey Ailell.

Shadow Hubert: Interesting. But the valley path is treacherous and difficult to navigate, which will blunt the impact of our superior numbers. Why would we play into the enemy's hands like that?

Light Claude: Because sometimes trying to claim every advantage can be a double-edged sword. Leveling the playing field can often be the key to bringing an opponent down, especially if you know you can handle 'em. Besides, what better way to keep casualties to a minimum than by finishing them off in one battle?

Shadow Edelgard: You know how to convince me. Very well. I can get behind this plan.

Shadow Hubert: Hm. Is there anything you would like to add, Light Hilda? You appear to be deep in thought.

Light Hilda: Huh? Who, me? Nah, I'm good. I'm just standing in because Light Claude asked me to. If it brings the war to an end quicker, I'm all for it. *Thinks* I got to take Shadow Shez’s Advice but when?

*Before the Final Battle, at Imperial Army Camp in Ailell.*

Shadow Edelgard: We will reach Ailell soon. The Light Kingdom and Grey Church approach from the west, and our friends in the Alliance from the east. We know their movements, so we need to assume they also know ours. This final battle will be intense—and bloody. But no matter what happens, we must emerge victorious.

Shadow Monica: At the very least, we have numbers on our side! Though, the Light Kingdom has all of those Heroes' Relics. That can't be good for us. We must keep our eyes open, and we must stay on the same page. We can't have anyone rushing ahead to fashion themselves a hero.

Shadow Caspar: I'd say things are really heating up, but that's just the ground literally burning.

Shadow Linhardt: It's sweltering... Whose idea was it to wage a battle in this place again?

Shadow Petra: I will take heat over cold every day—cold has its way of slowing you down.

Shadow Bernadetta: I'm fine with hot or cold, so long as it's in the comfort of my own room with the door locked.

Shadow Ferdinand: Do the words "final," "bloody," or "battle" not make you even the slightest bit nervous? Take this seriously! Show your pride as members of an army which serves the greatest Shadow Empire the world has ever known!

Shadow Dorothea: No need to get everyone worked up, Ferdie. When you dislike war as much as I do, you start to appreciate the lighter moments.

Shadow Hubert: Heh. I am inclined to agree. Now, what do you say we show these adherents to the status quo a taste of true power?

Shadow Shez: They don't stand a chance.

Shadow Edelgard: To arms, then! Today we claim our victory for the good of all!

*A flyover of the lava flows of Grey Ailell, then cuts to a procession of Shadow Imperial armored and infantry soldiers marching in formation, with Shadow Shez, Shadow Edelgard, Shadow Hubert, and Shadow Monica at the center.*

Shadow Hubert: The Shadow Empire, the Light Alliance, the Light Kingdom, even the forces of the grey church... To think we would all meet in such a cramped locale.

Shadow Monica: Hold on. Does anyone actually see the Knights of Seiros amidst all this? I wonder if they're not even here to begin with.

*On the north side of Ailell, a formation of Light Kingdom cavalry readies for battle, with Light Dimitri and Light Dedue at the lead.*

Light Dimitri: We strike at the Shadow Imperial army today. Do not let the Light Alliance distract you.

Light Dedue: Yes... As you command.

*On the south side, Light Claude looks down from a mountaintop.*

Light Claude: The party's already starting, huh? It's too bad we couldn't throw it for something a little more civilized.

*Light Hilda looks up at Light Claude while Light Alliance archers and snipers ready their bows*

Light Hilda: Would it kill you to be serious for once, Claude? *Thinks* I an starting to learn why Light Holst doesn’t take him seriously, but that is part of his charm.

Light Holst: *Thinks* She says That but she still has a loving look toward him.  Wait a minute… Could my sister be in love with Light Claude? I think it is perfect for her to find a noble to love.  To Think Light Claude is who she chose to love.  She must think I disapprove.

Shadow Shez: *Heards Light Holst’s Thoughts and prays to whatever the true gods are that Light Holst can reveal to Light Hilda and Light Claude that he approves of their relationship.*

Light Male Robin: If that is what you want, Shadow Shez. I will help. *Light Male Robin sends a certain message to Light Holst through a wind gust writing something.

Light Holst: *Sees The Message On The Ground and reads it* “Prove that you approve of Light Claude and Light Hilda’s Relationship by protecting Light Claude in this battle. From The True Gods Of Grey Fodlan.” I’ll do that. *Thinks* Thanks to whoever sent a prayer to help me. *Support points increased between Light Holst and Shadow Shez.*

*One of the church's falcon knights flies overhead, with Light Seteth trailing behind her on his wyvern. Light Flayn runs up to him after he lands next to her.*

Light Seteth: For the last time, Light Flayn, I am against this. It is not too late to retreat.

Light Flayn: And for the last time, I intend to fight. Besides...it would seem the battle is about to begin.

*Back at Shadow Edelgard's army.*

Shadow Shez: Well then. Just give the command, Shadow Edelgard.

Shadow Edelgard: Good. Our very hopes depends on you.

*Shadow Edelgard steps forward to address her soldiers, going to Light Dimitri, then Light Claude, and then to Light Seteth and Light Flayn.*

Shadow Edelgard: Brave warriors of Shadow Adrestia! The time has come to demonstrate the Shadow Empire's valor! To prove our supremacy! Any who dare stand in our way must be cut down. *She raises Shadow Labraunda in the air.* Now...as one, attack!

*The Shadow Imperial army charges into battle.*

Shadow Edelgard: I'll be counting on the Light Alliance's wisdom and strength this day, Light Claude.

Light Claude: Don't worry! Our brilliant teamwork will send them scattering.

Shadow Edelgard: Shore up our defenses, then advance on the enemy's forward position.

Shadow Hubert: So far as we know, the enemy's objective is to breach our defensive line and pass through the valley. We must not let that happen.

Light Kingdom Soldier: Riders, charge! Tear their defenses apart!

The Light Kingdom deploys two Light Holy Knights and a Light Great Knight, who march toward the allied defense point.

Shadow Linhardt: I've heard troubling tales about Faerghus' cavalry. We'll be in deep trouble if we don't take them out soon.

*Light Felix appears after seizing one of the vanguard's strongholds.*

Light Felix: My turn. I'll carve my way right through them.

Shadow Caspar: Not on my watch, pal!

*When Someone steps on lava…*

Shadow Ferdinand: Watch the ground! Even a single wrong step will cause undue pain!

*After seizing two of the vanguard's strongholds, some Light Mortal Savants appear to the east and march toward Light Hilda at the Grey Lava Cave Interior.*

Light Mortal Savant: Hit their right flank! That's where the Light Alliance army is weakest!

Light Hilda: Ugh! They're gonna come all the way over here? No fair!

Shadow Edelgard: We can't let the enemy create holes in our defenses. We must head over and assist!

Light Claude: Our wyvern company stands at the ready! Deploy them if you think Light Hilda is in danger.

*Light Hilda Gets In Danger by the Mortal Savants…*

Shadow Edelgard: Send the Alliance's wyvern company to cover our right wing.

*After seizing the vanguard's strongholds…*

Shadow Edelgard: We've gained the early advantage. Well fought, one and all!

Light Hilda: Thanks for coming for me. That could've really gone either way there.

Shadow Monica: We're short-handed enough as it is, Light Hilda. We both need to be more careful.

*When Shadow Caspar encounters Light Felix…*

Light Felix: All right. You'll do.

When Light Felix's HP reach <= 50%...

Light Felix: I'm still on my feet, and I can still hold a sword...which means I can keep fighting.

*When Light Felix is defeated…*

Light Felix: Ha! You think a few nicks and scratches will send me packing?

Light Sylvain: Stand down, Light Felix!

*Light Sylvain takes Light Felix's place as Light Felix retreats.*

Light Sylvain: *to Light Felix* It's a wonder you can still stand. Now would you please let us handle the rest?

Light Felix: You better come back alive, Light Sylvain—or else! (retreats)

Sylvain: I hope you're watching, Light Ingrid—today is the day I see you return to glory!

*When Shadow Shez encounters Light Sylvain…*

Light Sylvain: I hope you're ready to part with your head, because I mean to lay it at my friend's feet.

Shadow Shez: I don’t Think Light Ingrid would like that.

Light Sylvain: What would you know about that, Shadow Mercenary?

*When Light Sylvain's HP reach <= 50%*

Light Sylvain: This is nothing compared to the pain she felt!

Shadow Shez: Light Ingrid retreated because she believed this could end another way. I convinced her.

Light Sylvain: What?  Why did she listen to her?

*When Light Sylvain is defeated…*

Shadow Shez: Because Your Majesty said to listen if I tried to convince but not join my side, according to Light Ingrid.

Light Sylvain: Is this true, Your Majesty?

Light Dimitri: Yes, just trust me okay?

Light Sylvain: Then May fortune favor you in battle.

Light Dimitri: What am I supposed to do now?

Shadow Edelgard: If we keep this up, the battle may be over before it can even begin.

Shadow Dorothea: It's unnerving how well we're doing. I hope that means we're headed for a quick victory.

*Grey Flayn appears when a Enemy unit enters the Lava-Covered Path, casting Resonant White Magic to heal some enemy soldiers.*

Grey Flayn: *to her soldiers* I will heal your wounds. Please, be careful out there.

Shadow Hubert: What is this, the second coming of Saint Grey Cethleann? Strike her down and put an end to it already!

*The camera pans over to a boulder blocking Grey Flayn's hiding spot.*

Shadow Monica: Say, check out that boulder. I wonder if we can use it to block the lava and reach the other side.

*After using the rock to stop the lava*

Shadow Ferdinand: Our way is clear! Onward!

*When Shadow Ferdinand approaches Grey Flayn…*

Grey Flayn: Why must we hurt each other like this? You are all brothers and sisters!

*When Grey Flayn's HP reach <= 50%...*

Grey Flayn: I cannot take much more, yet the others will be in grave danger if I flee...

*When Grey Flayn is defeated…*

Grey Seteth: Grey Flayn, no more! Get to safety!

Grey Flayn: Very well, Brother—but you must swear not to put yourself in unnecessary danger!

*After seizing one of the rear guard's strongholds, some Light Kingdom Gremories appear and attack the defense point with magic.*

Light Kingdom Soldier: Let's light 'em up!

Shadow Monica: They're attacking our defensive line from afar! We have to stop them!

*When a unit approaches the Crater, Shadow Monica spots another rock that can be used to stem the lava flow.*

Shadow Monica: We can probably secure a crossing if we find a way to stop the lava.

*After using the rock to stop the lava near the Crater…*

Shadow Monica: We should be able to take our troops across now that the ground has cooled.

(After Shadow Monica supported by Shadow Shez stop the Light Kingdom Gremories' magic attack)

Shadow Dorothea: Looks like that particular storm has passed.

**After seizing two of the rear guard's strongholds…*

Light Kingdom Mortal Savant: Use the boulder to dam the lava and create a path!

*...a Light Kingdom Mortal Savant blocks the lava flow to the southeast.*

Light Kingdom Soldier: We have a direct path to the enemy! Attack!

Light Claude: That's one place to build a road. I'll try to stop them, but I can't do it alone.

Light Holst: I will be joining you.

*After seizing three of the rear guard's strongholds…*

Light Dedue: You will go no further.

*After seizing all of the rear guard's strongholds…*

Shadow Bernadetta: I'm in way over my head, but I'm not letting up until it's over!

*When Shadow Ferdinand encounters Light Dedue…*

Light Dedue: In the name of His Majesty, you will perish here.

*After Light Claude, Light Holst, Shadow Shez, and Shadow Monica seize the Lava Cave Depths…*

Light Claude: That should keep them from attacking the eastern front.

Light Holst: Good Thinking, Light Claude.

*When Light Dedue is defeated…*

Light Dedue: Ngh... I'm not finished yet!

Light Dimitri: Fall back, Light Dedue! Please! I cannot afford to lose you!

*Light Dimitri appears and makes an unstoppable charge toward the defense point.*

Light Dimitri: I take the field. Every last one of them will yield to me...or they will perish.

Shadow Edelgard: Courage, now! The time has come to bring our war with the Light Kingdom to its end!

Grey Seteth: King Light Dimitri is keeping the Shadow Empire busy! Break through their defenses!

*Grey Seteth and some grey church soldiers launch a surprise attack on the Defense Point.*

Light Hubert: They coordinated that well. I'm almost impressed. Move to intercept at once!

Light Claude: I was wondering when Seteth would show up—and wouldn't you know it, there he is.

Shadow Shez: You Know what to do, Light Claude!

Light Claude: Take careful aim, now. Don't let any of them breach the defensive line!

Light Seteth: Archers! No...they must have seen our attack coming.

*When Shadow Edelgard approaches Light Dimitri…*

Shadow Edelgard: It is not too late, Light Dimitri. Sever your ties with the Grey Central Church and return to your people.

Light Dimitri: And I'm to believe that will end your aggressions? You'll come for me anyway. Your thirst for blood is unquenchable.

*When Shadows Shez approaches Grey Bileth…*

Grey Bileth: Why are you so focused on me?

Shadow Shez: I'm up against the Grey Ashen Demon herself...but I'm not about to back down! As This is my destiny

*When Grey Bilethi's HP reach <= 50%...*

Grey Bileth: Seems you are quite strong but your destiny isn’t to defeat me.

*When Light Dimitri's HP reach <= 50%...*

Light Dimitri: I will sacrifice my own body if I must. Every ounce of my being I offer for the future of Light Faerghus!

*When Grey Bileth Is defeated…*

Grey Bileth: The truth is Your destiny is to help me. Retreats

Shadow Shez: Get Back Here. Leaves The Battlefield, Leaving Shadow Monica alone.

Shadow Monica: He is so focused on defeating Grey BIleth.

*When Light Dimitri is defeated*

Light Dimitri: Right when I was so close to ending her...

Shadow Edelgard: He came at us like a maelstrom, but we managed to take the wind out of his sails.

Light Claude: We drove off the Light Kingdom and the Grey Central Church. It's a start, but...

Shadow Edelgard: But this war is not over. We will hunt Light Dimitri down and put an end to this struggle.

*At Grey Ailell, the Valley of Torment*

Light Randolph: Urgent report, Your Majesty! After his failed charge, Dimitri forced his way south in retreat! He has fled the battlefield! And the archbishop's right-hand man Seteth has escaped to the north! We've lost sight of him and his troops!

Light Claude: Light Dimitri's the one to go after—things will get complicated if we let him get away. We can move the fastest, so leave the pursuit to us. Just don't forget to send reinforcements, all right?

Light Claude leaves.

Shadow Edelgard: *to Shadow Byleth* I want you to follow Claude. It's not that I don't trust him, exactly. I just want to make sure we're the ones who apprehend Light Dimitri.

Shadow Byleth: Leave it to me.

*Shadow Byleth leaves.*

Shadow Edelgard: Now that I think about it, there's something else to be concerned about. Where was the grey archbishop? Where was the main force of the Knights of Grey Seiros? Grey Rhea would've relished a battle like this, yet she was nowhere to be found.

Shadow Ferdinand: No! Shadow Hubert, let me ask you something. When the archbishop escaped from Garreg Mach, we found no evidence of how she managed to reach this valley. Correct?

Shadow Hubert: Indeed. We searched high and low, but it was only by chance that we picked up her trail in Ailell. That is how we knew she had entered the Kingdom. Without that clue, she would have been in the wind.

Shadow Ferdinand: Just as I suspected.

Shadow Hubert: What is it, Shadow Ferdinand? Is Grey Garreg Mach in danger?

Shadow Ferdinand: I fear so. There could be a secret path between this valley and the monastery that only the Grey Church knows about. And in that case, the grey archbishop might be using it to stage an attack on Grey Garreg Mach!

Shadow Edelgard: It's certainly possible. Hubert, your thoughts?

Shadow Hubert: I will look into it, but I am almost certain that Shadow Ferdinand's theory is correct. We should assume this is the case and take action immediately.

Shadow Ferdinand: Of course it is correct. Very wise of you to see that.

Shadow Edelgard: In that case, we'll divide our troops. The main force will proceed with occupying Grey Galatea. We'll lead the remaining third south to Garreg Mach, and continue our pursuit of Light Dimitri.

*With Grey Byleth who has located Shadow Monica who is separate from the meeting…*

Shadow Byleth: What Are you doing here, Shadow Monica?

Shadow Monica: During the Battle, Shadow Shez charged after Your sister as soon as the two of us made her flee and now I am wondering why.

Shadow Byleth: So he has chosen now to strike.

Shadow Monica: What is that supposed to mean?

*Then Shadow Byleth points and Shadow Monica looks where he is pointing and they see Shadow Shez attacking Shadow Byleth.*

Shadow Shez : *Chuckles Evilly*

Grey Bileth: What's wrong with you?

Shadow Shez: *With Shadow Arval's voice* Oh, nothing. Just thinking how the time has finally come.

[yulgurr]

I haven't drawn my girl in so long but I love her so much!! 😭 I'll take this opportunity to talk about her

1. Fave tea: Bergamot! It's also Sylvain's favourite and they are twins. As for snacks, anything sweet, she loves sweet things!

2. Her table manners indeed live up to Lorenz's standards, she's a noble lady and knows proper etiquette. She actually lives up to all Lorenz standards

3. She's not very sociable, so when it comes to sleepovers it would probably be with Mercedes and Annie. Camille is somewhat friends with them; they don't talk much though.

4. Cami likes to study with Sylvain, pre-timeskip Cami is most comfortable with him (out of all people💀) and with Dedue, as both don't really talk much and don't need words to communicate. As a girl liker she's really awkward with ladies

5. Least fave chores of her would be attending to pegasi and horses, mostly pegasi as she's terrified of heights. Fave chore would be either weed eating plucking or anything in-door really.

6. Between Shez and Byleth, kind of both? But I'd say Shez. In 3 hopes they would be girlfriends🥺

7. She did grow up in the CoS faith and she follows it, post-timeskip is not as religious though

8. She would do pretty well at fishing tournament actually! It's her side hobby

9. She carries around a "suspicious tome" with suspicious spells in suspicious language. She is curious to translate it and learn cool spells but she keeps this book a secret as it. well it looks suspicious and is usually on fire

10. She wanted to live a life different from a standard fate of a noble woman with a crest, and she actually manages to do so! When the war began she gathered the courage to run away instead of returning to the Gautier territory

11. Her dream class would be brawler! She wanted to be a strong woman.

12. She'd love to keep fish. A big tank with fishes. Or an owl, as long as she doesn't have to do much to look after it

13. Camille is not made to be a mounted unit, but in my 1st playthrough Sylvain was a mounted unit and she'd name his horse something silly like Mr. Boop or something.

ok i'll continue some other time, i just wanted to talk about her

Questions for people with FE3H oc's, in no particular order:

1) What's their fave tea, and do they have a fave snack to go with it?

2) Do their table manners live up to Lorenz's standards?

3) Who would they have a sleepover with, and what would they do during it?

4) Who would they most like and most hate to study with and why?

5) What's their fave and least fave chore?

6) Would they get along with Byleth or Shez better?

7) Did they grow up in the CoS faith, and do they follow it now?

8) If at the monastery at the time, would they take part in the fishing tournament, and how well would they do?

9) Do they have any sentimental keepsakes they carry with them?

10) As a child what did they want to be when they grew up, if different to the path they ended up on?

11) What combat class do they secretly wish they could be?

12) What animal would they keep as a pet? (Ignoring allergies, I'm asking what they'd like not what they could have) - mounts don't really count for this

13) If they're a mounted unit what would they name their mount?

14) Do they prefer form or function?

15) If they could visit a country outside of Fodlan, where would they go?

16) Who could they win an arm wrestle against? A game of darts? A game of chess?

17) What sort of things do they find funny?

18) Are they an early bird or night owl?

19) Sweet or savoury?

20) What are they afraid of? Including phobias

21) Are they more likely to get laugh or frown lines?

22) How did they decide on their personal/post skip outfit, and was the price or the aesthetic a bigger factor in their decision?

23) What skill or ability are they proud of that they don't get to show off often?

24) What is their fondest most treasured memory?

25) In a modern FE3H au, what would they be instead?

[sunstone-smiles]

The Great Golden Deer Tickle Fight

In honor of me completing the Golden Wildfire route in Three Hopes recently, I have written a fun fic for the Golden Deer characters! In the game, Shez’s profile says they like making their friends smile so I thought this would be a cute idea that I just had to do. I had a lot of fun with this one (as you can probably tell by the word count), so I hope you all enjoy!

Series: Fire Emblem Three Hopes

Characters: Shez, Claude, Lorenz, Raphael, Ignatz, Leonie, Hilda, Lysithea, and Marianne

Word count: 3,574

Summary: When Shez sees Claude feeling a bit down, she comes up with a strategy to help him smile, but the plan soon escalates when the rest of the Golden Deers start joining in. (Note: There are no spoilers that are mentioned, so please enjoy!)

—

With the war raging on across Fódlan, the Leicester territory has their hands full trying to protect their land. Battle after battle, decision after decision—It leaves very little time for rest and relaxation. However, those residing at camp today fortunately have a few days to spare before they head off for their next fight.

One of the commanders of the Leicester army and highly skilled mercenary, Shez, sits outside in front of her private quarters organizing equipment, such as plates of armor and bladed weapons they may need for the road ahead. She places them into small piles near the tent of her quarters, so that no one will trip on them if they’re passing by.

“Hey Shez,” a familiar voice greets her from behind. She lifts her head up from her work and turns around to see her friend.

“Hey Claude,” Shez returns a greeting to the Golden Deer leader and dusts herself off of any grains of dirt that may have caught onto her legs while she was kneeling down on the ground. Since the day isn’t as busy as usual, she’s not wearing all of her regular armored mercenary attire, but still has on her black undershirt and shorts. Similar to Shez, Claude is also out of his usual armor, and is wearing his long sleeved undershirt with his ruffled cravat around his neck. “What are you doing?” Shez asks with a friendly smile.

“Oh just roaming around camp. Taking care of the wyverns, managing supplies, preparing for our next battle that could greatly affect the tides of the war. You know, the little things.”

“Seems like you got your hands full,” Shez returns a lighthearted quip. “You doing alright?” she asks in a more serious manner.

Claude shrugs. “Yeah, I’m alright. Just got a lot on my mind, you know?”

Shez lets out a short sigh when she hears those words. Over the course of this war, Claude has been able to communicate some of his concerns to her so he could have someone to talk to. Around camp, he seems to handle it well and always puts on a brave face, but Shez knows that on the inside—there’s a lot of worries that are going through his mind. She wants to help him out in any way that she can, and right now, Claude needs to genuinely smile. She takes a moment to think up a plan that could help—jokes, an expedition, or maybe a meal—but one other idea sticks into her head that may just be the strategy she’s looking for. Now all she has to do is to put it into action.

“You know,” Shez attempts to hide the mischievous grin in her voice, “I actually know a perfect remedy that can help you get your mind off things.”

“Really?” the leader responds with interest, yet still a bit skeptical.

“Yeah, there’s a special method to it, but it seems to always do the trick.”

Claude thinks it over for a moment. “Alright, I’ll bite. How does it work?”

Perfect, he fell for the trap. “So first, close your eyes and think about a relaxing place. A mountainside, open plain, waterside area, anything that makes you comfortable.”

Claude follows Shez’s instructions and closes his eyes. “Done.”

“Great, now just keep them closed.” The mercenary walks over behind her friend. “Now lift your arms up just a little bit,” she slightly moves his arms away from his body. “Perfect. And now for the final step…” Shez smirks and positions her hands below Claude’s arms. Knowing that the leader is completely unaware of her actual plan, she quickly starts wiggling her fingers under his arms to tickle him.

“Hehey!” Claude darts his arms down and starts giggling from Shez’s sneak attack, “Hahaha! I shohould have seen thihihis cohoming!”

“I’m surprised that you didn’t,” Shez grins and keeps a hold on the leader trying to squirm away. “Actually, I’m surprised that this is working so well. I didn’t expect you to be this ticklish.”

“Well, yohohou got mehehe!” Claude admits and arches his back with a yelp when Shez moves her hands to wiggle into his ribs. He slides to the ground and collapses into giggles, while Shez follows him down to continue her plan. She switches from his ribs to his sides and belly, scribbling into the fabric of his undershirt that offers little protection from her attack. Claude wriggles around as he’s reduced to a giggling puddle, trying to playfully shove Shez away while also attempting to defend his ticklish spots. He probably wishes that he was wearing his armor now, but if he was, Shez wouldn’t be able to see the genuine smile currently glowing on his face. 

“Ahem. What is going on here?” a refined male says across from them, snapping Shez out of her thoughts. She momentarily glances over at the source of the voice and notices a few of their teammates, Lorenz, Raphael, Ignatz, and Leonie watching them. Like Shez and Claude, they also have on more comfortable wear that corresponds to their usual fashion color, rather than their armor.

“Oh, hey Lorenz!” Shez casually greets him as she continues to tickle Claude.

Lorenz pinches the bridge of his nose, unamused with what he’s seeing. “What, may I ask, are you doing?”

“Well, Claude needed some cheering up, and what better way to do that with some good ol’ tickling,” Shez punctuates her sentence by scribbling her fingers into Claude’s belly, causing the leader to jump with more giggles.

Ignatz chuckles. “At least now the reasoning for the laughter we heard makes much more sense.”

“And you can’t argue with that logic,” Raphael agrees.

“Do not encourage them!” Lorenz exclaims. He turns to the purple-haired mercenary. “Shez, this is inappropriate. Claude is our leader and should be respected as such. Plus, what if there is an enemy spy lurking nearby that can use this information against us?”

“Aww, come on Lorenz. They’re just having a bit of fun,” Leonie chimes in. “Besides, the perimeters were checked this morning for any spy activity, and nothing was suspicious.”

“Yeah, maybe you should loosen up a bit Lorenz,” Raphael says with a mischievous tone behind his words.

Lorenz scoffs. “Oh please, I do not need to loosen up—AH!” The purple-haired noble suddenly yelps and clamps his arms down when Raphael sneaks behind him to tickle his underarms. Lorenz closes his mouth shut with a wobbly smile and poorly attempts to keep in his laughter, but his efforts to hold it in soon falter when he can’t help but burst into giggles. “Hahaha! Rahaphael!

“See Lorenz? It’s fun!” Raphael grins at the squirming noble.

Leonie giggles, “Here, let me help!” 

“No! Noho! Leohohonie!” Lorenz flails his arms to stop her, but his giggles only increase when Leonie starts scribbling into his sides. “Hahaha! Ignahatz! Sahave mehehe!”

Ignatz chuckles again, “Alright, alright. I’m coming.” He moves over behind Raphael and peaks around the burly man, then darts his hands forward to tickle his friend’s sides. Raphael jumps with loud bouts of giggles and slightly bends his body forward, all while still trying to keep a hold on Lorenz.

“Leohohonie!” Raphael calls to his friend, “Dohon’t let Lorehehenz escahahape!”

“I’m on it!” she nods and dashes behind Raphael. When she sees his attacker, she mischievously smirks at Ignatz and wiggles her fingers in the air. The green-haired knight’s eyes go wide and he backs up while putting his hands up in defense.

“L-Leonie!” Ignatz panics when she takes a few steps closer, “Wait!” He turns to run, but Leonie quickly catches him by wrapping an arm around his torso and wiggling her other hand into his side. “AH! Nohoho! I’m reheheheally ticklish! Hahaha!”

“Works for me then,” Leonie teases the wriggling Ignatz. The knight crumbles to the ground in a giggling mess as the mercenary keeps up her attack, preventing Ignatz from escaping so he can’t help Lorenz.

Shez giggles as she watches her other friends join in on the lighthearted fight, but while she is distracted, Claude takes the upper hand and shoves Shez onto her back. She gasps when she looks up at a smirking Claude, and before she can escape, the leader starts scribbling into the mercenary’s sides.

“AH! Ahahaha! Clahahaude!” Shez bursts into bubbly giggles.

“You can’t out scheme the schemer, friend,” Claude smiles, “I was just waiting for the perfect chance to strike back!” He scribbles into her belly, causing even more bubbly laughter to be released from the mercenary.

Just then, the rest of the Golden Deers in their comfortable attire, Hilda, Lysithea, and Marianne, stumble onto the silly scene.

Hilda puts a hand up to the side of her face to think. “You know, when I heard all this laughter, this is not the sight I expected to see.”

“Yes, quite immature if you ask me,” Lysithea remarks.

“Blahame Shehez and Clahahaude! Thehehey started ihihit!” Lorenz exclaims through his laughter.

“In my defense, Shez tickled me first,” Claude states over his shoulder. 

The purple-haired mercenary playfully tries to push the leader away from her. Knowing that her plan has backfired, she’s going to need some assistance to get out of this mess. “Hildahaha! Hehehelp mehehe!”

“What? Me?” Hilda then shrugs, “Alright, why not.” She turns to the other girls beside her. “Want to join me?”

Lysithea crosses her arms. “Absolutely not. There is no way I am getting involved in such childish behavior.”

“Suit yourself,” Hilda grins. Before leaving, she gives a playful squeeze to Lysithea’s side, causing the white-haired girl to let out an unexpected, high-pitched squeak. Lysithea slaps her hands over her mouth and shoots daggers in Hilda’s direction as the pink-haired woman walks away. While Lysithea is still in her flustered state, Marianne quietly laughs beside her, using a hand to cover her own smile.

Lysithea narrows her eyes at the blue-haired girl. “What are you laughing at?”

“I’m sorry. It’s just that—hehehe!” Marianne can’t help but giggle after witnessing Lysithea’s squeaky reaction.

Lysithea growls at her. “Oh, you think that’s funny, do you? I’ll give you something to laugh about!” With that, Lysithea lunges forward and starts clawing into Marianne’s sides, immediately causing the other girl to break out into adorable squeaky giggles. 

“Eep! Lysitheahaha!” Marianne squeaks, and soon slides down to the ground to curl herself into a giggling ball.

Meanwhile, Hilda attempts to tickle Claude from behind, but he braces himself when he sees her coming by squeezing his arms to his sides so that she can't find an opening. Hilda huffs and puts her hands on her hips. “Ugg, you’re making me work harder now? Well let’s see how you like this!”

“Huh?! Hilda!” Claude exclaims when she grabs both of his wrists from the front, pulling his arms above his head and yanking him backwards onto the ground. Shez quickly scoots away now that she’s free, while Hilda scribbles into Claude’s ribs before he can defend himself, sending the leader into a fit of laughter once again.

“Thanks for the assist, Hilda,” Shez says while she catches her breath.

“No problem. It’s not every day I get to see our ‘oh so great’ leader loosen up like this. He gets so tense when he’s stressed out.”

“Hildahaha!” Claude tries to squirm away from her wiggling fingers, “Cuhuhut it ohohout with the teheasing!”

“Aww, but I can’t help it. It’s just too hard not to.”

Now that Hilda’s taking care of Claude, Shez looks over at Lysithea and Marianne, who are still currently in their own tickle fight. The mercenary grins, then picks herself up to sneak up behind the white-haired noble, making sure Lysithea doesn’t sense her presence. When she’s right behind her, Shez shoots her hands forward and squeezes Lysithea’s sides, causing the girl to let out another uncharacteristic high-pitched shriek. Lysithea stops tickling Marianne and whips around to snarl at a smiling Shez. With a chuckle, the mercenary starts running away, knowing that Lysithea would want revenge, which proves correct when the white-haired noble immediately gives chase.

The two dash around the area, circling around their other friends. Lysithea throws her arms forward to catch Shez, but she misses the speedy mercenary and stomps her foot on the ground in frustration. She prepares to take off after Shez again, however, while she’s stopped, Lysithea realizes that their chase led her right behind her original attacker. Lysithea smirks and switches her target over to Hilda, quickly scribbling into the pink-haired woman’s sides.

“AH! Lysitheahaha!” Hilda shrieks. She holds herself up with one arm while Lysithea enacts her revenge, allowing Claude to slip away and join the white-haired noble in her quest for payback. Hilda tries to turn around and playfully push the two away, but she plops onto her back when they both work together to go after her sides and belly. 

In the background, Shez leans over on the pole of her tent, now that she’s not being chased anymore, and enjoys herself as she watches this play out.

“Thanks for the help, Lysithea,” Claude looks over at his teammate. “But what ever happened to not joining in since it was childish?” he purposely teases to rile her up. Lysithea freezes and narrows her eyes at Claude with another growl. 

“I’ll show you!” she exclaims, then lunges herself at Claude.

“Whoa!” The leader quickly dodges out of the way. “Not this time!” Claude counter-attacks by digging into Lysithea’s sides, making the girl break out into bubbly laughter and flop onto her back.

“Clahahaude! Youhou are gohoing to regret thihihis!” Lysithea giggles and tries to wriggle away.

“Well then, I’ll deal with that when the time comes,” he grins.

On the ground close by, Marianne finally lifts herself upright, only to see that all the attackers have switched. Although Lysithea is the one that tickled her first, Marianne dashes over to try and help the white-haired noble. She kneels herself down behind Claude and holds her hands up to get him, momentarily hesitating before she does since she’s still a bit shy, but she’s only able to get one squeeze in on his sides before she’s quickly snatched backwards into Hilda’s arms.

Marianne looks over her shoulder with big eyes. “Hilda, what are you—Eek! Ahahaha!” Marianne explodes into high-pitched giggles again when Hilda wiggles her fingers into her ribs.

“Sorry Marianne, but I can’t have you helping the person who’s trying to go after me,” Hilda says to the squirming girl in her lap. “Besides, I want to see that adorable smile of yours again.” Marianne attempts to respond, but anything she tries to say gets flooded by the airy, uncontrollable giggles pouring out of her.

While this little squabble is going on, Shez can’t help but smile at the heart warming sight of all her friends like this—giggling, smiling, loosening up and just letting their guard down while they have fun with one another. These moments are more sparse ever since the war started, but it’s uplifting to see this side of them come out after everything they’ve been through.

But enough standing around, Shez wants to get back into the fight. She looks over at the other half of the group—Lorenz, Raphael, Ignatz, and Leonie—that have been dueling it out since the beginning, and decides to join them. Lorenz hasn’t escaped once since this whole ordeal started, so Shez’s assists him by dashing behind Raphael and swiftly ticking his sides. Raphael clamps his arms down from the unexpected attack while still trying to hold on to the noble attempting to escape, but as Shez’s continues wiggling her fingers up to his ribs, Raphael’s grip weakens and Lorenz finally wriggles free. 

Lorenz clutches his torso while he catches his breath, gesturing a silent ‘thank you’ to Shez. After he takes a few moments to recover, he growls at Raphael and thrusts himself towards his friend to join Shez on the offensive.

“This behavior might not be fitting for a noble such as myself, but I will make an exception for this!” Lorenz playfully remarks as he wiggles his fingers into Raphael’s right side, while Shez moves over to his left.

“Ahack! Leheheonie! I need hehehelp again!” Raphael giggles as he tries to wrap his big arms around himself for protection. 

Leonie lifts her head up, still with Ignatz squirming below her fingers, and notices Raphael’s situation. “I’m coming!” she calls out and leaves a breathless Ignatz on the ground to dash towards Shez.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Shez whips around to quickly retaliate and scribbles into the front of Leonie’s sides, catching the orange-haired mercenary off guard.

“Gahack! I’ve been hihihit! Hahaha!” Leonie hugs her torso and folds herself forward. She twists around to squirm away, but she ends up losing her balance and flopping onto her stomach, allowing Shez to kneel down and keep tickling her unguarded sides. After finally recovering from his previous attack, Ignatz sits up nearby and observes from the sidelines, watching Leonie kick and pound her fists in the dirt with streams of giggles as she tries to escape.

Claude looks over at the other group and chuckles at the entire situation. He also notices that Shez is once again distracted, which gives him one last sneaky idea to use in this fight. “Looks like it’s time to end this!” he states and gently releases Lysithea from his hold, leaving her in a breathless giggly pile. He then calls out to some of the members of the other group, “Lorenz! Let go of Raphael! I have a plan!” Once he hears Claude’s words, Lorenz stops tickling Raphael to allow the burly man to catch his breath.

“I don’t know where this is going, but I shall go along for now,” Lorenz responds while Raphael and him wait for the leader’s next move.

“Perfect,” Claude says and gets up to advance over to the middle area, “Now Raphael, grab Shez and bring her out in the open!”

“You got it Claude!” Raphael answers and turns towards the purple-haired mercenary.

“What!?” Shez exclaims and immediately releases Leonie. She tries to run, but Raphael grabs her from around her waist and lifts her into the air. She gleefully squeals when her legs leave the safety of the ground, flailing them around to try and get away.

“Raphael! Let me go!” Shez giggles as she’s carried a few steps to the less crowded area. With his arms still wrapped around her, Raphael places her back down in front of a smirking Claude.

“Now then!” Claude exclaims, “Everyone, get Shez!” Upon hearing their leader's mischievous plan, all the Golden Deers perk their heads up and look towards the purple-haired mercenary.

“No! No!” Shez gasps with a playful smile and tries to wriggle away from her friend’s hold, but she erupts into hysterics when Raphael and Claude start tickling her from behind. She slides down to the ground to escape, but soon after, Hilda and Lysithea join in on her right, while Leonie and Lorenz join in on her left. The other two remaining Golden Deers, Marianne and Ignatz, sit themselves besides Shez’s legs to just watch the rest of their friends, but they participate a little by adding a few light scribbles into Shez’s knees. The mercenary shrieks with joyful laughter while she, unsuccessfully, tries to squirm away from all her friends. 

“Okahahay! Mercy! Mehehercy! Hahaha!” Shez puts her hands up in defense to surrender. Immediately, the Golden Deers all move their fingers away from her, leaving a winded Shez sprawled out on the ground as she lets out residual giggles. Claude carefully helps her sit up and face the rest of her friends circled around her.

“You alright?” Claude asks the exhausted mercenary.

“Totally fine,” Shez turns her head to him with a big grin. “How are you holding up?”

Claude returns a warm smile,  “Better thanks to your method.”

Shez nods. “I’m glad. Although, it definitely escalated to a point I wasn’t expecting.”

Lorenz crosses his arms. “Yes, I don’t think any of us were.”

“But we had fun though, right?” Raphael gives Lorenz a friendly nudge.

“Of course we did,” Hilda answers for the stubborn noble. “Usually I wouldn’t get involved, but this was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up.”

“I will admit that as childish it may be, it was quite amusing,” Lysithea agrees.

“It was nice to see everyone so happy,” Marianne cheerfully mentions. 

“Yeah, I don’t think we’ve laughed like that in a long time together,” Ignatz reminisces.

Leonie chuckles. “I don’t know about you all, but my favorite part was seeing Lorenz flailing.”

“I was not flailing!” Lorenz exclaims. “I was simply protecting myself.”

“I don’t know Lorenz, it looked like flailing to me,” Claude pokes a little fun at him.

Lorenz glares daggers at the leader. “That’s coming from someone who was clearly squirming when I first walked over here!”

“Hey, I didn’t say that I wasn’t!”

Everyone laughs and all the Golden Deers join in on the playful discussion about their favorite moments during the tickle fight. Although the original plan was intended for Claude, the heartwarming play they all had also allows Shez to feel like a weight has been lifted from her chest. It may be only temporary, but this little method of hers really did help to get her mind off of things. She looks around at her friends' smiling faces. Her strategy seemed to help all of them too.

[laulink]

So, as I said in my earlier posts, studying the designs of Edelgard and Dorothea’s outfits in Three Hopes and what they mean gave me some Edelthea feels, so I’m gonna share. Be aware, this is mostly extrapolation based on y previous deductions and small details, so it’s meant to be taken lightly.

First off, as I said in my post analysing Dorothea’s outfit, part of the changes can be attributed to the age difference between her character in Three Houses and Three Hopes and the fact that she hasn’t been at war for the past 5 years when we discover her new look (notably the fact that her outfit is of a lighter shade of red in Three Hopes and has a lot less black) while other changed made to her outfit and a few lines in the reunion scene and her paralogue with Manuela hint at the fact that she’s spent the last two years working for Edelgard as something other than a songstress and even though we don’t know what exactly she did, the idea that she might have been an advisor or civil servant of some kind personally hired by the Emperor is plausible and would have put her under some scrutiny from the Court, which would explain why she altered her appearance as a way to better serve Edelgard’s plans and policies by acting as a good example.

The important parts to take from that are that 1) Edelgard and Dorothea have been working more or less closely together for two years and 2) Dorothea spent that time going out of her way to further help Edelgard through means Edelgard would have never, NEVER asked her to so much as CONSIDER (and Hubert has no eye for fashion so he wouldn’t have so much as thought of it and Ferdinand had other things to do), so this all came from her, as did her decision to fight on the frontlines to ALSO further push Edelgard’s policies even though she hates it and could help in other ways.

First off, gay.

Second off, that means they’ve had two years to grow particularly close by way of working together on a daily basis, in a way that Edelgard couldn’t enjoy with most of the other Black Eagles : Petra had returned to Brigid, Bernadetta was holed up in her room, Ferdinand was trying to gather proof against his father’s crimes and we don’t know what exactly Caspar and Linhardt have been doing, but it’s implied they didn’t spend much time in Enbarr while Monica outright says, in her supports with Hubert, that she wasn’t able to linger long in the palace and often had to go back to Ochs territory. Dorothea, however, implies that so far she had been serving Edelgard in Enbarr, making her one of the only Black Eagles, aside from Hubert and Shez, that Edelgard was likely to work with daily and really grow close to.

So our ship was in close proximity and regularly working together for two years with little to no other friendly faces around in the new government, which is already great grounds for shipping. BUT THERE’S MORE ! This time directly linked to the character design.

If we look at Dorothea’s portrait in Three Houses

and the one from Three Hopes

Aside from the differences we’ve already mentioned concerning the sleeves and lace, we can notice that some details have slightly changed, but are still extremely similar, namely the little silver brooches on her chest (basically the same), her earrings (a bit smaller and less adorned in Three Hopes), the brooch on her collar and Dorothea’s hairstyle. What I find interesting are those last two things because they are changes that we see partly reflected in Edelgard’s design.

In Three Houses, Edelgard had no particular decoration on her collar, only some sort of cut in the top layer of her dress with crossing golden threads

But in Three Houses, while she is wearing armour and therefore can’t add a brooch to it, we can easily notice a more decorative element to the armour at the base of her throat

It’s heart-shaped and red, of course, but hey, doesn’t that look similar to Dorothea’s brooch ?

In Three Houses Dorothea’s brooch was shaped like a diamond and rested on her throat, reminiscent, in its position and form, of the choker she wore at the Academy

If we consider her Three Hopes design to be a “mid-transition” look for her, which I already said doesn’t make sense to me, then it doesn’t make sense for this brooch either because if it has the same shape and position in the Academy phase and in Three Houses’ post timeskip phase, then there’s “no reason” to change it in Three Hopes... EXCEPT if Dorothea’s Three Hopes design isn’t a mid-transition look and she’s decided to make those changes for a reason which, in this case, would be to have something in common with Edelgard in their outfits.

Lastly, we’ve seen Edelgard with multiple hairstyles thanks to the timeskip, flashback and DLC but, while she’s always had at least part of her hair tied, she’s never braided them, even partially. We’ve only seen two hairstyles for Dorothea in Three Houses but, in a similar yet opposite way, we’ve never seen her with her hair tied at all, so the braid is also a first. And it’s a bit of a coincidence that the first time we see either of them with braided hair is for the same period outfit, after two years of working together, isn’t it ? Yeah, I’m really pulling at straws, but it’s still fun.

Not a lot of characters braid their hair in the game : Annette, Ingrid and Petra are the only ones that come to mind and, among them, Petra is the only one they’re close to in Three Hopes, but even then, she spends those two years away in Brigid, so it’s unlikely that the hairstyle change is linked to her. The reason behind the different hairstyle isn’t important in itself, what is is the fact that they’re both styling their hair in a different, yet connected way.

[faroreswinds]

Golden Wildfire - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8

Notes!

Story

Linhardt’s not exactly too happy to be here but not terribly upset either.

Marianne wants to be able to put their weapons down. 

I mean, I get it but.... Like, the war won’t stop that way. I’m not saying invade back, but like.... the Empire is just going to try again

Gatekeeper wants us to get back at the Imperial Army for attacking the monastery. 

Why are we forcing Bernie to fight? Tbh, so fair, I’m more convinced by the SB  recruits than the current GW recruits. 

This is the first time the Alliance is invading, ever in history. Makes sense. The Alliance is the youngest nation here, and hasn’t really been in a war since the seceded from the Kingdom. 

Metodey appears in a side chapter here. Frankly, it’s disappointing that he’s just a bandit and not some crazy empire general. 

Count Bergliez is like “Damn, they really coming?”

It’s interesting that in SB, Jeralt’s mercenaries failed pretty much every task handed to them. But they were successful in getting Ferdinand out.

So we are fighting at Gronder. How ironic, the battle of the Eagle and the Lion now the battle of the Eagle and the Deer. 

Oh shit, Nader. Shahid is looking to do something for that throne desire of his. Guess a battle is coming with the Almyrans. And they themselves are in a tough spot. 

Claude is apparently the king’s favorite kid. Rough for the rest, I guess. Apparently, he can’t king right without his favorite son around. 

Shahid is an idiot. And Nader thinks it’s “not fun at all” and worries about looking like barbarians. But like... you ARE invading, ya know. For fun, apparently. 

Then Nader wonders where Claude is because it’s not fun without him. (He just says kiddo but we know who he means). 

Took Claude on another “date”. He can say all the 5 Great lords are formidable in their own way. But, he likes it if you question if he’s being serious. Hm. 

Ferdinand appears in a side map

So we face Caspar’s father’s giant force and Jeralt’s mercenaries in the big chapter. 

Ooohhh, we can persuade Petra in this chapter! (damn, she’s being forced to fight with her father’s killer again, huh?)

Aw, they took Holst away from us for this battle. 

Oh, Monica is here. 

There he is. The Count.

Lol Lorenz. “We can do this!... Probably!” I love him sometimes. 

Caspar’s here too!

So we trap both Byleth and Caspar’s father in strongholds (Byleth wonders if his father’s defeat had him shaken up, I guess). 

I kinda understand Berdadetta and Linhardt’s.... reasoning to fight back here? I put them in battle. Linhardt’s even like “Fine, I won’t back down Caspar” but literally a few battles ago, Linhardt saved Caspar’s life and Caspar want to rescue Linhardt in return. Why suddenly so... gung ho about fighting each other?

Ah, we get to play Holst now. 

Holst has no Crest but he can stand toe to toe with Caspar’s father. That’s more impressive to me personally. 

Why did... they just stop fighting each other and not kill each right there and then? Like... literally their weapons were at each others throats. 

Why are we suddenly falling back? 

And WHY does the Count ALSO just let us go? 

Ok, this is when Sothis awakens in this chapter. Byleth escapes and goes on the attack again. And now Sothis is awakened. 

Claude REALLY sounds panicked here though.

Ah, the Almyrans are attacking, I kinda figured. It’s a huge force, biggest one yet... and the one two years ago was the biggest one in a century as well. 

Oh yeah, Shez wants to hire Byleth this early on. 

Jeralt is so nonchalant about his child’s hair and eye color changing color. But he’s old so... whatever, I guess. 

Caspar has a point to go after the Alliance.... Oh, that makes sense why the Count let them go. It’s because he doesn’t want to ruin their grainfield. 

And he thinks the war against the Alliance has gone long enough... already? It’s only been a few big battles! 

Hubert doesn’t like that, lol. He thinks only the emperor should have the discretion to make... decisions in general, really.

Edelgard thinks they should stop trying to conquer the Alliance through military means. 

But... through military means only. 

Chapter 8

Count Gloucester cares less about the Alliance and more about the wellbeing of his people. 

But... he’s still shewed. He figured the Empire would stop attacking and that’s why he volunteered to protect the Great Bridge. 

I went back and used Shamir to to kill Petra. Some interesting dialogue. Shamir comes to think Brigid joins with the Empire. Petra refuses to answer (kinda implying that no, it’s not willingly.). When she dies, she says she doesn’t want to die on foreign soil. 

House Edmund is not sending troops, only supplies (much to some people’s anger)

Oh, an NPC talks about Cyril (sort of, he doesn’t actually name him though). The NPC says he served Hilda’s house and there was a young Almyran boy there, and that he went to the monastery later. They aren’t going to actually talk more about that here though... are they?

Linhardt wants the Empire and Alliance to strike some sort of agreement just so they stop attacking.

Petra isn’t too happy to be fighting the Empire. Says Edelgard gave her blessing before she surrendered too. 

An NPC talks about the story of Claude’s parents (an Almyran prince had snuck into Foldan and met a daughter of a noble, and they feelin love. She left to become his queen). 

Shamir reminds us that the Empire’s goal is to destroy the Central Church. Which, the story JUST told us that from Edelgard’s point of view that they want to conquer the Alliance too. I mean, it’s not like the characters would know Edelgard’s mind per say, but they LITERALLY attacked the capital, wouldn’t that signal they want the Alliance too? 

Balthus... who is “he” and why would he be in trouble? 

Oh wow, there are no side maps for this one. Like SB saw with the chapter against Enbarr. 

Nader is ready to drop Shahid, it seems. Shahid is an idiot.

Lots of princes apparently.

Wait, Claude has been working with Nader? Since when?

Claude really doesn’t want to kill his brother, just wants him to surrender. But of course, Shahid won’t. And so.. he killed him.

Also, why did... why did Shahid recognize him NOW after all this time. 

Shez has kinda figured out who Claude really is

And no one else can put two and two together. 

So, Almyra isn’t as as unified as it seems. Nader serves the king personally but had no obligation to work for Shahid and been trying to stop Shahid’s war (unsuccessfully). 

Also turns out, Claude reached out Nader 2 years ago in case something like this happened again. 

Holst also knew him personally for a while now. Even drinking together. 

Time for the Almyran feast time! 

How does Leonie not know who Dorte is?! 

Arval’s like me right now “Buddies, there is still a war going on, you know”. 

Arval’s also right, Claude hasn’t told us anything he has done with a lot of his plans. 

Arval has Claude pinned - Claude is claiming to be doing this for everyone’s sakes but likely has ambitions of his own. 

Wow, Shez calls Arval out for his obsession to fight the Ashen demon. 

Wait, we are at the time skip now?! A chapter earlier than SB. 

So, uh.... the Federation, huh? It’s not AS bad as I expected. I mean... getting rid of what was basically a republic and into a monarchy.... sucks. However, it was put to a vote at least... although Claude suggested it in the first place.... 

Can’t help but get these vibes: 

Claude doesn’t even tell Shez anything about it. 

So three territories are having issues. They didn’t want the Federation. They want to defeat to the Kingdom. 

And the Knights of Seiros are there. 

Claude is immediately ordering deployment to those areas. Now he can do whatever he wants as king. 

Paralogues

We get our first paralogue with Holst, Hilda, and Balthus. 

These people are too nice to Balthus and his shitty vices

Hilda likes it when you suggest that we should go led her brother a hand

See? I think that’s called “character growth”.

I liked this paralogue. Balthus’s step-mother sent assassins to kill him because she was worried he would take over the House instead of her own son. Despite the fact that he didn’t WANT to be a noble. 

Holst being worried about Hilda for a second, only to be like “never mind, that’s not enough enemies to take my sister” was funny. 

Balthus’ little brother is a good man, the reason why Balthus gets to live his life of freedom. 

Balthus is ok with her focusing on trying to kill him though, since it means she’s not going after his real mother (living in hiding in the mountains) or his father. 

Chapter 8 paralogues

Paralogue with Leonie and Shamir

I’ve... already done this paralogue in SB. So, I won’t really talk about it here. Nothing more to add to that. 

Books

One thing I did not cover at all... were the books and notes you could collect throughout your playthrough. I thought it would be interesting to jot some notes down about some of them. I’ll probably go through more later, but here are a few for now.

Imperial Territories of Adrestia: Book One (1180 Edition) - Can be checked out freely

Hresvelg

Emperor’s home domain.

Has an extensive coastline with a temperate climate

Imperial capital of Enbarr is one of the few ports in Foldan

Capital provides woodlands to the east for lumber and hunting, and the capital also provides strong commerce and fishing industries

Aegir

A duchy

It’s capital is Boramas, a fine port equal to Enbarr, Trades with lands to eat, including Morfis

Has robust fishing and agriculture industries, known for imported goods and crafts utilizing technology from the eat. 

Bergliez

A county from Fort Merceus to Airmid River, encompassing the lion’s share of Gronder Field. 

Has robust stables that provides an important pillar of Imperial warpower. 

Has fertile soil for mass cultivation of grains.

Known as the Empire’s breadbasket

Varley

A country made of Gronder Field and the Oghma Mountains, which has Varley’s famous iron mines

The Southern Church had its own independent region on the border with Hresvelg which has since been assimilated into Varley. 

Hrym

A viscounty is limited in development by a preponderance of mountains and wetlands. Situated between the Airmid River and Pearl Sea.

A number of ruins have been uncovered in the mountains to the north and are actively being investigated. 

Fenja

A viscounty in the very south of Foldan. Claims a number of islands to the east but has no actual control over them. 

Has a warm and dry climate for the cultivation for a number of crops

Major producer of bacchus and cooking oils

Imperial Territories of Adrestia: Book Two (1180 Edition) - Can be checked out freely

Hevring

A county stretching from Oghma Mountains to the Mach Coast in the west.

Contains Mach Way, linking the Empire east to west with Hevring’s capital in the center, stronghold city Mozghuz. 

Lacks fertile land, but boasts abundant natural resources and opportunities for trade

Gert

A duchy known for its relatively cool climate in the Empire. 

Assimilated Nuvelle after it fell during the Dagda and Brigid War five years ago

Former Arundel Territory

A former grand duchy now under direct Imperial control. 

Has famous Black Woods and abundant rivers and lacks

Gillingr

A barony. Boasts precious mineral resources

Ochs

A barony in a northern part of the peninsula known as Foldan’s Fangs. Has plains and rivers, and mountains and ports. 

This diversity means no industry stands out, so only has seen modest developments

Essar

A viscounty with an expansive basin surrounded by mountains. 

It’s capital is the finest city for academics in the Empire besides Enbarr - magical studies have flourished there. 

Lochin

A viscounty known for its wool and textile products, much like Hymir to its west.

Hymir

A viscounty known for wool and textile products. 

Menja

A viscounty encompassing the west of the Mach Coast. Boasting a robust fishing industry.

One of the largest producers of sea vessels in the Empire.

Martyn

New barony

Barnabas

A barony west of Garreg Mach. 

Composed chiefly of rugged mountains and woodlands. Famous for its woodcrafts and orchards. 

Dagda War Journal Excerpt

Great Tree Moon, Imperial Year 731

Writer departed Brigid without incident, blessed with calm seas, and they came upon Dagda with a white beach and dense woods beyond. 

There was supposed to be a settlement nearby but there were no signs of people or boats or structures. They pondered what to do next

Then there were a flurry of arrows, being shot through the trees. Men died, but it soon was realized the arrows lacked in both number and force. 

Dagda had lost many soldiers in Mach and Brigid. Had the strength to mount a defense of sorts but seemed easier to attack than the writer had originally thought

Viscount Hyrmir’s son lead a third fleet that was drawn into a trap in an inlet. 

The ships had nowhere to go so careened into each other due to intense fog hiding a coastline. The lead ship capsized. 

... The sea was aflame. The flames shot across the water like sorcery. In the open sea, an enemy fleet surrounded them. Escape would be hard, but considering how the emperor would react to their defeat, it might be best if they died there anyways. 

... Brigid turned on them and suck half their ships when they attempted to dock in Brigid ports. They are now on the run. Brigid had only threw in with them after Dagda’s losses. Now with the tides turning, Brigid turns back to Dagda. 

Writer has returned to Nuvelle, having survived to tell the tale. Only a tenth of their ships that sailed from Ginnung left. 

The Dagdans are fearsome-  they dance in the air and set fire to the sea. One moment they frolic in the woods, the next you see their fangs. 

Alliance Nobles (1179 Edition) - Official Church use only, students may not read or remove

House Riegan

Leading house of the Leicester Alliance. Descendants of one of the Ten Elites. 

Crescent Moon War of 881, they spearheaded the move towards independence from the Kingdom, and the establishment of a republic by its former vassals. 

Have held the responsibility of leading the Alliance roundtable ever since. House of dukes, which relies on the noble rank bestowed by the Kingdom well before the Alliance’s founding. 

Current Duke Riegan’s heir, Godrey, died in an accident on duty. Left behind a surviving daughter, whom is presently accounted for. 

House Goneril

Military House tasked with military strikes and defense against the Almyran army. Descendants of one of the Ten Elites. 

Lord Holst, next head of the house, is renowned as Alliance’s bravest general. 

House Ordelia

House of counts. 

In 1167, was involved in House Hrym’s rebellion, and the Empire retaliated by repeatedly meddling in the house’s internal affairs, leading to a sharp decline in its noble standing. 

House Gloucester

Descendant of one of the Ten Elites. House of counts. 

Current head of house is ambitious, excels at public relations, and has an influential voice among the five noble families with voting rights at the RoundTable, second only to Riegan. 

House Edmund

House of margraves

House was awarded a great deal of clout due to its beneficial trade policies with fair use of its personal harbors. Eventually accepted into the ranks of the Give Great Lords. Current head is a renowned orator. 

House Daphnel

Descendant of one of the Ten Elites and formerly among the Five Great Lords. Lost power due to internal discord. 

For the last several generations, no head of house has been borne a Crest. Still maintains its status as a noble family regardless. 

Piece of an Old Note (Someone’s journal. Likely belonged to a person of some station. Pages are torn out)

15th day of the Lone Moon

Southern Church’s Crimson Knights may be up to no good.

There was an Imperial coronation only last month, but that may be why. The writer wonders what these knights are after, and if the Central Churhc is involved. The Crimson Knights were once Knights of Seiros and the archbishop is absent

19th day of the Lone Moon

The newly titled Victoria von Hrym is involved. She is Count Varley’s daughter, and was born with a crest. But so was her older brother, so he was made into heir. Since Hrym had no Crest-bearing heir, she married in and assumed title. She may also be the Minister of Religious Affairs in the future. 

20th day of the Lone Moon

The Crimson Knights staged an uprising along with knights from House Hrym. The leaks accelerated their plans. They want Count Varley under house arrest and for Victoria to become the Minister. But the emperor is too proud to condone a militant uprising at his doorstep...

7th day of the Great Tree Moon

Count Varley had a secret pact with the previous emperor - they agreed to make his son heir in exchange for the late Victoria becoming Minister. When that emperor died, the count reneged on the deal. Regardless, Victoria still conspired with the southern bishop. 

12th day of the Great Tree Moon

The southern bishop has been exiled and Southern Church crushed. This will affect the entire Empire. The Central Church will surely have objections, but the emperor wished to put distance between them anyway. Under these circumstances, Count Varley’s stepping down and Viscount Hrym’s succession are no longer a certainty. 

[dpsisquared]

Man just about any AU you can think of, amazing Dimileth authors are ON IT! Now I need to watch this movie and read all these!

May I present:

***A (probably abridged, bc I searched for like one min) list of Dimileth Anastasia AUs.***

(There appears to be a ballet and a movie? I've never seen either so idk if that's the same story)

(By my friend qoboe and I've never even seen it, what!!) The war is over, and Byleth Eisner is now Archbishop of the United Kingdom of Fodlan. Edelgard is dead, Claude is missing, and Dimitri is assumed dead. Heartbroken, she offers a reward for the lost prince. Meanwhile, Claude has been hiding out with Shez and sees the reward as an opportunity to get out of Fodlan finally. They find an amnesiac named Alexei who bears a likeness to the prince and set off for Garreg Mach.

A Silver Snow Anastasia AU

(This is the one I actually remembered. It's very cute! You even get a bit of Edelgard's POV) After the assassination of the Blaiddyd family, Imperial Princess Edelgard Von Hresvelg has seized Faerghus as her own. She promises the people of Faerghus a new life, but it seems that not much has changed.

Con-artists Byleth Eisner and Sylvain Gautier are looking for a one-way ticket out of Faerghus, and what a better way than to pull off the con of the century?

After the battle in Fhirdiad, Dimitri and Byleth share a dance in the destroyed Ballroom of Castle Blaiddyd.

Dimileth Version of "Once upon a december" of Anastasia (1997)

(This one appears to be the reverse, where Byleth is the amnesiac!) Byleth's small world falls apart when she is 21 and a ball is hosted to celebrate the prosperity of her lineage. The enemy crashes the party and places a curse on the Eisner line. Although she barely escapes the immediate danger brought by this, Byleth is now tasked with restoring her past. With the help of con artists by the names of Dimitri, Sylvain, and Claude, what can go wrong? A lot of things, actually. (An Anastasia AU)

Byleth Eisner and Claude Von Riegan, con-artists in Enbarr hear of the story of the lost Prince of Faerghus and of the Duke Fraldarius offering a reward for his return. They find a one-eyed amnesiac worker in the street looking strikingly like him who wants to escape the Empire and they drag him in a scheme to get the reward from the Duke. But during their journey, memories come back and romance blossom.

Eisner found family AU!!

Unhinged weird kid Byleth who keeps bringing orphans to Jeralt as if they were stray kittens.

Orphan they found trying to steal from them? You are now Ashe Eisner!!

Orphan they found who escaped Cornelia? You are now Hapi Eisner!

Orphans they found escaping Duscur? You are now Dimitri and Deudue Eisner!!

Byleth, finding another random child: [insert Fire Emblem Garon my child now meme]

None of them change their last name or officially join the Eisners, but Bylie just holds them dear to her.

Jeralt: Why are you scratched up and why are you holding that blonde child?

Byleth, holding a tired Dimitri: He was resisting adoption. 👁️👁️

I love this one 😅 Actually one of my favorite Sylveth (romantic or platonic) AUs is "Sylvain manages to escape from his father and Miklan and becomes a mercenary".

I've never thought about finding Dimitri and Dedue after Duscur, but that's a really good idea too. The question is, does Dimitri remember he's a prince, and if so does he tell them? Jeralt would try to return to their family, but maybe when he gets to the castle and meets Corny and Rufus, he smells a rat and doesn't reveal Dimitri. Hmmm 🤔

[fantasyinvader]

The fact they named an Agarthan Epimenides...

Epimenides is known for his paradox. “Epimenides was a Cretan who made the immortal statement: "All Cretans are liars."" The paradox is that Epimenides is a Cretan who says all Cretans are liars, therefore him saying all Cretans are liars would itself be a lie meaning that not all Cretans are liars, but does that mean that Epimenides was telling the truth? Because if Epimenides was telling the truth that all Cretans are liars while he himself was a Cretan, that would mean him saying that would be a lie meaning that to him not all Cretan's are liars and... you get the idea how this goes around.

Think about what this means in Houses, and the fact that Edelgard admits that she did and said everything she could during White Clouds to sway Byleth to her side. Yet if we join Edelgard, we get her taking credit for Byleth's leadership to make herself look better, the information campaign line that was cut, Hubert contradicting the backstory Edelgard told you, Edelgard keeping her soldiers in the dark about attacking Arianrhod while giving a false target, Edelgard blaming the Church for the aftermath of Arianrhod, Edelgard privately saying Rhea needs to be destroyed while publicly offering her a chance to surrender, Petra going to her paralogue after being told the Church is trying to strong arm Brigid for support only to free Imperial troops while the Church says they were there to keep Brigid out of the war, Imperial history making it out that Byleth lost their powers due to an injury and kept using “their sword” despite switching to the Sword of Seiros, or Edelgard giving her big “power of friendship speech” when defeating Rhea before turning around and instituting reforms based on ideals directly counter to it.

Other routes have more, like Aegir being blamed for Arundel's rule, Edelgard's manifesto being designed to keep people from uniting and therefore weak against her, her trying to convince Dimitri she knows nothing of Duscur AFTER he saw her be told it was for her benefit.

There's a lot of evidence that Edelgard is a liar, so the issue is when do we actually believe what she says... if ever? If everything she says is a means to try and gather support, then nothing Edelgard says should be taken at face value, much like Seteth saying that it's a big mistake not to see what her true, evil intentions are. Even in Hopes, there's this arc about her learning to trust Shez despite her suspicions of their real heritage. However, doing the “good” version of her route has her saying in the shadow realm that she can't afford to trust even herself. Edelgard doesn't really trust Shez, while at the same time highlighting how she herself can't be trusted. Heroes even has it's moments, where Edelgard learns that none of the other lords think like she does and acts like she has something to consider. She'll still return to her world the same tyrant she was. Likewise, we see in her interaction with Mila going on with how gods are bad because they provide for the people and make them weak, only to say they're bad for not providing for people when Mila points out Duma and his teachings. Edelgard also makes it out like she saved her world in Engage, just like Claude and Dimitri despite her actions being diametrically opposed to theirs as they needed to stop HER.

Is there any point where we can believe Edelgard actually tells the truth? Do we ever see a real Edelgard, or is her entire character just lies.

This would mean that Epimenides was a name with deliberate meaning.

[travelling-on-the-octopath]

S Plays 'Golden Wildfire' - Part 5

Chapter 8 - What Makes a King

There's not a whole lot of differentiation here between battles and content, so it's just one big post here.

Oh? Fun; there are no side battles or anything here, just fighting Almyra.

Hm. Claude: "That doesn't change the fact that messing up now could mean the end of the Alliance. All because of my miscalculation."

Getting very worried at how uncertain Claude is in his own abilities . . . because it would have been a compelling trait in Houses, now it just makes me nervous.

Judith to Erwin: "You can drop the traitorous villain act. I know you've done more for the Alliance than anyone else."

Erwin to Judith: "You give me far too much credit. All that has ever mattered to me is ensuring the well-being of the commonfolk in my territory. Not the Alliance itself."

Tiana and His Majesty: The Origins? Alliance Soldier: "I heard a story once about the daughter of a certain noble falling in love with an Almyran prince who had snuck into Fódlan. She abandoned her home and returned to Almyra with him to become his queen. Or so the story goes. It's terribly romantic, don't you think? Though I doubt it's true."

Mercenary: "We were initially supposed to defend the Great Bridge of Myrddin. But then our employer told us to go fight Almyra instead. You wanna know who our employer is? It's Erwin, the head of House Gloucester."

Alliance General: "Viscount Nilsson is tasked with a special duty within Leicester. Which is why he's traditionally been overlooked when it comes to supplying military aid to the Alliance. But this time the viscount reached out to the Alliance leader of his own accord and sent us to help. After all, House Nilsson can't fulfill its duty to the Alliance if Almyra invades Fódlan." I don't know what any of this means but that only makes me curious.

Nader growing tired of Shahid's shit and debating jumping ship. Good for him.

Claude is very clearly not happy about this fight gjdflkgj my baby

Okay is it just me or is this battle DIFFICULT?

Changing the difficulty from difficult to easy for my GW playthrough to save myself the headaches and time; AG remains on normal.

:(((((((((((((((((((( Clauuuddee :(((((((((((((((((((((((

Well, yeah, he sent Shahid over a cliff. He told Shez killing him was his burden to bear, and referred to him as his brother right before he let the arrow fly. I'm really glad I watched it with the JP voices because it just Hit. My heart hurts for him :(

"You know, I thought a guy like me would be impervious to this king of thing. Looks like I don't know myself as well as I thought. But now that I know, I won't make the same mistake again."

And this folks is the scene that does in his character, apparently.

Claude: "It turns out Almyra isn't as unified as many believe." Yeah no fucking shit it's the size of Fódlan and apparently one kingdom.

Nader: "You see, I sere the king of Almyra directly, as a retainer I was never obligated--or inclined--to obey Prince Shahid." that just makes me love Claude and Nader's dynamic more to be honestfgdlkjgdf

Holst and Nader are friends once more in this timeline. Cute.

ARE YOU TRYING TO FUCKING TELL ME RAPHAEL WAS THE FIRST TO PIECE TOGETHER THAT CLAUDE'S ALMYRAN?????????????????

It doesn't go anywhere by the way. Claude breezes past it.

Nah now hold on are they ALSO trying to tell me that Holst is enough of an idiot to actually eat bad mushrooms not once, but TWICE?

Arval: "[Claude] harbors many secret ambitions. I wouldn't expect him to back away from this war any time soon."

Uh-huh. Okay.

And that's the end of part one!

[gascon-en-exil]

Have Some Three Hopes Story Predictions

I don't usually like to make predictions for upcoming content, but with Three Hopes only a week away and with plenty of material already from which to build ideas I decided to take a crack at it. Beware of extensive spoilers from datamined info.

Scarlet Blaze

Edelgard conquers All The Things, as is her wont.

Probable battlefields include the Great Bridge (Chapter 6, when the Empire is retreating back across it after taking Garreg Mach?), Arianrhod (Chapter 8), either the palace again or the streets of Enbarr (Chapter 9), Shambhala or another Agarthan holdout (Chapter 12 or 13), and Fhirdiad during endgame.

During her conquest Edelgard discovers and kills Thales and Kronya. Solon is also a possibility, while Cleobulus is more of a longshot for this route. This will be used to retroactively validate the war for continental conquest; Shez may possibly be allowed to question this, but nothing will come of it.

Around Chapter 9 Aegir and Varley will return to the story as antagonists, and Edelgard will have to kill them both to solidify her hold on the Empire. Ferdinand and Bernadetta will not be named as ministers in their fathers' places, however, because apparently only cold-blooded patricide nets you that honor.

The final chapter is "Torment of the Eagle and Lion," indicating that it either takes place at Gronder Field or that Dimitri is a final boss alongside or - less likely - in place of Rhea. The latter seems much more plausible from a geographic standpoint.

Azure Gleam

A standard FE plot with the invading red emperor and counterinvasion by the lord, with bonus homoromanticism.

Probable battlefields include Arianrhod (Chapter 9), the Rhodos Coast and Lake Teutates (see below), Merceus toward the end, and Enbarr and/or its palace in endgame.

Ongoing civil conflict with the western lords of Faerghus will create issues, and bring out Gwendal and possibly even Lonato as antagonists. Cleobulus will likely be involved here, and will in any case be addressed on this route.

The Western Church will also be an antagonist per foreshadowing in SB that they still have a contact with the Empire, which leads to them attacking the Rhodos Coast (which may also be where Seteth and Flayn pop in to become playable). This may be source of the Chapter 10 title "Fanaticism"...or it may be a reference to the nationalist and or/anti-Nabatean propaganda of the Southern Church which AG builds up as more of a threat.

Lake Teutates is located in the Kingdom, so it's likely that one chapter will involve either visiting Indech or protecting him from the Empire. This could dovetail with the anti-Nabatean push above...and will absolutely drag up old discourse re: the equivalent paralogue in Three Houses if true.

If Gilbert is not in fact playable then he may fully take Rodrigue's place and die during the course of the story, although based on Annette's description if he does die it won't be until near the end.

In Chapter 14 ("The Absent Emperor") Edelgard will pull an Ashnard and not be there when the Kingdom army reaches Enbarr. Instead, they'll be confronted by the demented duo of Hubert and Ferdinand, the latter getting to live however momentarily his dream of standing in the emperor's place. Ideally I'd want this to as fabulous and melodramatic as possible, and the Lions to feel like a leather convention that accidentally wandered into the most evil drag ball in the world.

This is followed by a fight against the Hegemon in some other location, except she's probably even more conventionally appealing here than in Heroes because marketing, and it's all so very tragic that Edelgard didn't have a self-insert to reach for her hand. Monica is also in this final battle, having at last usurped Hubert as Edelgard's #1 minion after she was totally on board with the Hegemon thing: she's totally down with monsterfucking, but Hubert (very ironically) is not.

Golden Wildfire

Foreshadowing plus the opening of the war arc of SB suggest that Gloucester will betray the Alliance early on, allowing the Empire to cross the Great Bridge to attack Garreg Mach even after you defend it in Chapter 4. This contributes to by far the largest political shakeup in this game that we're aware of -

Halfway through GW Claude dissolves the Alliance and names himself king of Leicester. Gloucester is definitely not on board and is apparently killed off after this, possibly as an enemy, making Lorenz the new count. This new show of unity may be the explanation for the Empire not outright conquering the Alliance, or failing at it since the chapter titles seem to swerve away from that storyline.

Of course Shahid will return as an antagonist, and Thales (maybe Solon?) is also likely with Shambhala in Alliance territory. I would also be surprised if Nemesis didn't make an appearance in GW, likely as the final boss, to tie it all back in to VW.

Chapter 12 ("The Two Kings") will see now-king Claude and Dimitri either fighting each other or teaming up - could go either way.

There are a few chapter titles in GW that could indicate a continuation of Shez's story, although alternatively one of the unaligned chapter titles is "The Hour of Vengeance" which could be just for them squaring off against Jeralt's Mercenaries again as a side bit in all routes.

Speaking of, there are a handful of other such titles that could either be postgame content or some sort of lategame branching path, but the latter is less likely for all routes given the massive story divergence. Maybe "The Path Forward" is the title setting up New Game+, and when you choose that option Sothis breaks the fourth wall in a Clue-style "That's what could have happened...but how about this?" transition kicking you back to the house selection at the start of the game, only with the route you completed removed as an option (or alternatively Arval complains at you if you try to pick it again). The second time this happens you're railroaded into the third house, and after that you can choose any of them again.

[fantasyinvader]

Just a reminder folks, Caspar's Japanese ending with Dorothea for Flower specifically mentions military expeditions.

"Caspar is recognized for his achievements in the war and becomes Minister of War in the new Adrestian Empire. Entrusted with full authority over the military, he often went out of control, but he often led the army to solve many difficult cases. Every time he returned from an expedition, there was always a place to go. Dorothea's house. Dorothea returned to the Mittelfrank opera company immediately after the war and was instrumental in its reconstruction. When the troupe eventually regains its vigor, she relinquishes her diva role to her successors, and she disappears from the stage once again. After that, it is said that the two lived together until the end of their lives, but there is no evidence to prove it."

" American joint doctrine defines an expedition as “a military operation by an armed force to accomplish a specific objective in a foreign country” and an expeditionary force as “an armed force organized to accomplish a specific objective in a foreign country”." https://www.cfc.forces.gc.ca/259/300/gongora.pdf

Wikipedia lists expeditionary warfare as invading another country.

Hubert and Shamir's ending in Japanese states they fight all who oppose the empire, with the English mentioning putting down rebellions in the dark. Likewise, look at Edelgar'd support with Balthus.

"

"I've set out to unite all of Fodlan. I've started a war over it. That means destroying any who oppose me and protecting all who stand with me. If you believe in me and share my ideals, I will never abandon you." - Edelgard

Hmm. So any who oppose Edelgard will be destroyed. Hubert is taking care of things within Fodlan, to the point where in the Japanese it's said he was always on the verge of death, while Caspar is going around invading other countries for Edelgard where his troops go out of control. I'm sorry, but where is "fighting for humanity" in any of this? Edelgard is going around killing everyone who doesn't bend the knee to her, and Shez himself says in Scarlet Blaze that Edelgard's reforms oppress the commoners in their C support.

"So coddling the elites means the commoners end up oppressed, while hoisting commoners up only agitates the elites. Glad I'm not the one who has to rule the Empire. This whole thing sounds like a total mess."

Which lines up with the Houses' devs saying that Flower is supposed to lead to tyranny and oppression under hadou.

Seems to me it's more fighting for Edelgard, the wannabe god-emperor of the world.

Lord Arundel/Thales: When this fight is over, a world completely controlled by the Empire will be upon us.

Edelgard: Not completely… I will only do what I must. - Crimson Flower

Which includes invading other countries after the war. And less we forget from Azure Moon:

Edelgard: They are here… But my progress cannot be stopped, no matter how many people try. The war's end will spell destruction for one of us. There can only be one ruler of the world…

Yeah, we're fighting for a super villain here by fighting for her. Let's hope it's woth it.

I'm having a really hard time fathoming how some people consider SB to be a righteous/heroic route or a route where we're the good guys. The route where:

You invade two independent nations under the pretence of "saving their citizens from oppression" (though I guess you can't be oppressed anymore if you're dead lol) even though Her Majestic Hypocrisy repeats a bunch of times that she's in for conquest and that she'd obliterate anyone who stands in her way.

The cast keeps victim-blaming the invaded parties for *checks note* defending their countries. 

The death toll is the highest. You have to kill Ingrid, Rodrigue, Gustave and Sylvain. And you can also kill Ashe, Mercedes (btw, if she dies, the cutscene where Dimitri and Dedue grieve changes slightly, which is nice), Annette, Shamir, Ignatz, Raphael and Marianne (how does Margrave Edmund feel about Claude's alliance with the empire knowing his daughter was killed by its army?). 

IIRC, this is the only route where you conscript merchants into the imperial army. No wonder the empire has the biggest army.

Based Rhea who, despite being hunted, still thinks about the safety of the continent first in the final chapter. It's hilarious how characters like Edespot or Clyde harp on about how Rhea is the big bad, and in the few scenes you have with her, she's just kind? Anyway. Rhea based.

In the C support conversation - which happens right after Felix got seriously injured and Sylvain got killed- there's this bit where Dimitri is like "I don't know if I can talk with like everything is normal, so many have died already" and Edespot's response is basically "yeah I don't see it that way. Let's agree to disagree". Also, I believe she wonders if she shouldn't just kill Clyde and Dimitri once they're out. Even though Clyde is her ally at the moment. You bet on the wrong lord, Clyde... 

I probably forgot a few stuff, but... oh well.

To be honest,

The only things I like about Supreme Bullshit are :

Its ending! Supreme Leader and Barney (well, at least they throw a sword?) being sitting ducks while Rhea steals the show, and sacrifices herself in an epic shonen scene to get rid of the real threat, aka showing that unlike someone, she knows how to prioritize, and it ends up in an explosion. It matches the ending of the F-Zero anime (at 0.48!), Rhea/Falcon rushes to deal a blow (a Falcon punch and a Seiros strike I guess?) to their mortal enemy, there is a giant explosion, and both Rhea/Falcon fade away in a blinding light. Too bad the Supreme Bullshit BGM is eons away from "Searching to the Truth" :(

The reveal that Rhea kept the keys to the sekrit passages in the Imperial Palace - or Rhea knows more about Enbarr and its castle than the current Emperor and her aides...

Doro's paralogue being incredibly tone deaf about, uh, soldiers being "too busy" by the Mittelfrank troupe, that they can't basically protect the dancers/performers from bandits, when the paralogue happens in an area that is expressedly supposed to be full of soldiers!

If starts align in a certain way, it's the only route in Nopes where Clout dies!

Leopold! He's like Victarion Greyjoy, only if he was taken seriously. But we, as players, know better! Also he's a living retcon, from having a major cichol crest to gift to his son because he fought well (and not to, say, Big B or even Ferdie) a sacred weapon despite the route being all about muhritocracy!

Supreme Leader plans and plays with the cards she has in her hand - from trying to get good PR to get rid of people (Varley sr) by pitting them against her next target (the CoS)!

An entire game full of new Supreme Replies (tm)!

For shippers around, it has a Cathmir scene where everyone knows Shamir will prioritize Catherine's life over her allegeance! too bad this is a Supreme Leader route, so no, Shamir won't fucking try to kill her for blackmailing her and can even kill Catherine herself later on....

That's not a lot lol, and most of it are breadcrumbs because for the proper plot...

Yeah, it kinds of sucks.

Supreme Bullshit is even more tone deaf with the War and its realities than Tru Piss (and that's a feat!), Ferdie being completely, uh, off the mark about everything (invading lands and rekting people, and then saying those people's fears are only in their heads! Pal, one of the first missions in the SB exclusive chapters is to rout refugees??? + the nonsense about the Kingdom having more crested generals, when data shows the Empire has more crested peeps than the Kingdom!), Caspar being turned in the worst version of himself who dgaf anymore about protecting "innocents" and "justice", and, uh, everything with Monica.

Victim blaming is the norm with Fodlan games, but yeah, it really feels odd that suddenly, in the Zahras chapters, Dimitri's all "okay" when his closest friends either died or were grievly injured and the game proceeds as it does when, come on, why wouldn't Dimitri kill her the second they're out of the Zahras verse??

I really disliked how Supreme Bullshit yeeted Ionius from Adrestia, or how it didn't explore in more depth the Insurrection of the Seven, especially since we side with Leopold'n'Waldemar against Ludwig, who used to be allies! Also, as far as I remember, no one mentions anything about Arundel, why he ran away to the Kingdom with a young Supreme Leader and how he changed when he returned, or something?

If Ludwig is pushed by Supreme Leader, reciting her Dad's words, as the one who led the insurrection and the experiments on her, why the fuck no one else mentions them, as Leopold and Waldemar were on Aegir's side back then? They don't even mention "Arundel" participating, like, Volkhard sides against Ionius and hides his niece, but 3 months later, he returns and offers her as a guinea pig?

As is the norm with the Supreme Leader routes, the "truth" isn't what we're looking for, because we know Supreme Leader pushes a narrative she will follow to reach her goals, but where Tru Piss gave hints here and there about her narrative being, uh, rubish, we have no clues here, and Leopold prefers to flash his loincloth than giving us anything meaningful about that incident.

When you compare them to Matthias and Rodrigue (and Gilbert?) who often mention Lambert "back in the days", it's more and more obvious that... we're not supposed to ask questions in Supreme Bullshit, and just go with the flow.

And it ends with a high five.

I'd say it deviates less from Tru Piss than Golden Shower does from Verdant Winds, but it's an "expected disappointment".

That's why my only higlights are not plot relevant (save for the Captain Falcon - Rhea parallel) - because we know the plot will never deliver something meaningful in a Supreme Leader route.