You know, when you consider Azure Moon as a self-contained narrative, the use of ‘unanswered questions’ and ambiguity as a reinforcement of the themes of the route are really effective. I honestly think having the route not address the Slithers was the best narrative choice IntSys could possibly have made given the themes of Azure Moon.

Like. The developers didn’t really expect people to actually play all the routes; they designed the game so ‘everyone would have a different experience.’ As a result, all the routes have very different themes and scopes. Azure Moon is the tightest, most character-driven narrative despite not being the shortest route.

And Azure Moon is about grief.

Grief hangs over the entire route; except for Mercedes, every single one of the Blue Lions is haunted by the Tragedy of Duscur and the unanswered questions surrounding it. Felix loses his brother directly, and his worldview and best friend to the aftermath. Ingrid loses her fiance, but also her sense of security; without Glenn, her people may starve, and her personal future is now uncertain. Sylvain and Glenn were the same age, so we can assume they were friends, though his loss is less direct; Sylvain is surrounded by people broken by loss, including his own father. Annette’s father leaves her family in disgrace over being unable to stop the tragedy. Ashe loses his foster brother to the aftermath; and later his foster father as well. 

Dimitri and Dedue lose everything.

All of them spend the whole route wanting to find answers and some kind of closure for this event. It drives the entire narrative for all of the Lions actually from Faerghus. Mercedes, meanwhile, stands as an outside observer to that tragedy - but she is also dealing with her own personal tragedy and unanswered questions about her brother, and that drives her during Azure Moon.

And the thing about grief is that sometimes you never get closure. But you still have to move on, anyway.

That’s the whole point of Azure Moon. Dimitri has to move on. All the Lions have to move on. 

Mercedes cannot regain her brother, whether you find out his identity or not in the route. She has to move on anyway. Dimitri cannot reconcile with his family, not with Rufus (Did Dimitri kill him? We the viewer can never really know for sure) and not with Edelgard. He never finds out whether Patricia wanted to kill his father, or whether she loved Dimitri at all (and we the viewer don’t, either). He has to move on anyway. The Lions never find out the cause of the tragedy.

They have to move on anyway.

Involving the Slithers at that point would not only add a bunch of last-minute narrative complications that aren’t necessary in Azure Moon, it would undermine the emotional impact of the route (in much the same way the last map of Verdant Wind does, honestly). The themes of Azure Moon not only don’t need to answer the question of the Slithers; not answering that question is the point. Bringing up the Slithers at that point would take all the air out of the personal drama the route takes its entire runtime addressing.

Dimitri hesitates at the end. He stops, and tries to look back, and Byleth stops him. He has to move on. He can’t keep looking back at Duscur. He’s got to walk forward. 

And that means leaving his questions unanswered. 

"Few knights are truer than you, Ashe. I bade you to keep living, and you have."

Scarlet Blaze, Ashe vs. Dimitri at Arianrhod

@edeltheaweek day 5: reunion

It’s so confusing trying to figure out where to start with all of the old art stuff. I still don’t have access to my previous artwork so it’s gonna be 2022 art only aka: Fire Emblem/dimlth hyperfixation era. The first thing i did starting this 2022 was to play the games i barely touched and FE 3 houses was right there.

fe3h doodls from the year....! mostly sylvain bc i love him a totally normal amount...

disappointing you with more fire emblem (lysithea)

…sooooo guess who had plans for a bunch of oc content to be my first post in a while only to try out a game I’d heard some good things about with a gift card I got for my birthday and wind up getting a new hyperfixation out of it

Anyway yeah enjoy some big fancy art of my 2 favorite characters from Fire Emblem Three Houses and then way too many doodles of various other ones lol

🎶 The makeup comes off and I'm a barefaced animal, I do it wild even if it’s ugly 🎶

byleth doodles ⚔🦴🌟

The only reason that I would tell you NOT to play Fire Emblem: Three Houses is that it might ruin voice acting for you forever. It’s just that good. There is no return.

the war at tailtean

Finished my first ever run of Fire Emblem 3 houses, had to doodle Dimitri my beloved!! 🤲

my beautiful wimfe... my beloved wife

fire emblem three houses has only been out for like 4 years now and yet the discourse about that game still manages to worm into my brain like a virus. Im talking abt political discourse btw not shipping stuff which is its own brand of annoying but ultimately ignorable to me (i have percie for that) Fire emblem three houses has dumb politics and all the fans want to make that my problem. Its incompetent at most times, and the routes wildly change the framing which makes people's opinions even MORE biased (of course you believe edelgard was right if you played the "Edelgard was Right" route)

M/M Shezleth where Shez survives his encounter with Byleth in the Three Houses timeline, but because he lives, the universe is consistently trying to “correct” itself and have him die/kill him because he’s not supposed to be there.

Maybe Arval isn’t here/awake, so Shez survives through sheer luck and there’s no one to “keep” the cycle alive like Arval does in Three Hopes, so the universe has nothing to stop it from trying to correct itself.

And Blue Lions!Byleth ends up becoming close to him and entering a timeloop to try and save him every time and failing because of their respective virtues and faults.

Byleth, despite his ability to guide others, is guarded (and unwilling to let others into the know), and Shez is too reckless and willing to rush into things to save his friends despite his outward flippancy. Just Byleth being willing to sacrifice other people to save Shez, but Shez not allowing him to and unwittingly/willingly defying Byleth’s will as the Asura.

Shez knowing Something is up, but he’s not sure what.

Just…”the goddess who is akin to a devouring devil and the devil who is akin to a saving goddess.”

It’s that same love that drives Rhea to try and to resurrect her mother being paralleled with Byleth and his inability to let the dead stay dead.

Call that an Greek tragedy.

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Ferdinand von Aegir/My Unit | Byleth, Ferdinand von Aegir & My Unit | Byleth, Caspar von Bergliez/Linhardt von Hevring Characters: Ferdinand von Aegir, My Unit | Byleth, Linhardt von Hevring, Caspar von Bergliez, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd Additional Tags: Blue Lions Ferdinand von Aegir, Blue Lions Linhardt von Hevring, Blue lions Caspar von Bergliez, Ferdileth - Freeform, Female My Unit | Byleth, Reader is Not My Unit | Byleth, POV Ferdinand von Aegir, Soft Ferdinand von Aegir, Simp Ferdinand von Aegir, Minor Caspar von Bergliez/Linhardt von Hevring, Pining, Mutual Pining, Romance, Eventual Romance, Eventual Fluff, Cute, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Romantic Fluff, Fluffy Caspar von Bergliez/Linhardt von Hevring, Flirting, Banter, Sweet, Childhood Sweethearts

Summary: Ferdinand was not certain of much but there were a handful of things of which he could be certain.

He was in love with the professor.

He had always known she would return.

There was so much more than met the eye where she was concerned.

He didn't know why but he was positive that he would follow her into the molten rivers of Ailell if she but asked.

[My take on this plot idea: https://www.tumblr.com/the-fab-fox/717687985773101056/okay-epic-and-honestly-go-ahead-and-write.]