#least of all King Dimitri so like... she can offer Claude and Rhea survival but refuses by any means to let Dimitri live | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

randomnameless · 3 years

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I write and write and make comparisons between a swimsuit and themes like tolerance and freedom,

But in this fandom, some people draw more dubious comparisons, especially ones regarding a certain game - and I warned (who?) at the beginning of the FE16 trend that while it wanted to have a Jugdral flair, it obviously failed. You have a sprinkle of Jugdral in FE16, but it’s only a surface image, or even a mirage.

“CrEsT SyStEM”? Holy Blood? No, those comparisons at least were made in good faith and had some merits.

One of the worst comparisons was noted by several friends, a certain someone, wanting to push a certain ship involving a certain character, managed to write :

“Every route makes one villain from Genealogy of the Holy War the hero, Edelgard being Arvis, Dimitri being Eldigan, Claude being Travant and Rhea being Manfroy”

This will not be a post about Manfroy’s hips, you are warned

Who is Eldigan (Eldie)?

A man who is the carrier of Hezul’s holy blood, Hezul being the founder of Augstria, a sovereign state. Everyone loves Eldie, he is good-looking, strong, kind, chivalrous and has the magic blood that makes him able to use his magic sword.

Is he the King of Agustria? No.

The King is a man named Chagall, who has an ugly sprite, doesn’t have Hezul’s magic blood and cannot use the magic sword. He also killed his father, and is really jealous of Eldie.

However, Eldie’s line (House Nodion) has sworn to support the royal line of Augustria (Chagall’s), so even if everyone wants Eldie to ascend to the throne, he will never accept it. Even if Chagall pisses on him, or imprisons him because he felt like it, Eldie will not rebel against his King. Eldie is seen as a Camus, because he will fight and die for Chagall, and his country, when Sigurd is... more or less attacking Chagall (because Sigurd’s forces are occupying Augstria and Sigurd’s orders are to bring peace to the land, Chagall doesn’t want peace and wants to fight to retake his throne). If everything ends well, Eldie will promise Sigurd he will try to talk one last time his king, try to convince him to accept a ceasefire and peace with Granvalle - but Chagall is an ass and beheads Eldie.

Dimitri... isn’t like Eldigan, at all. First of all, Dimitri is supposed to be the crown Prince, instead of being a mere knight sworn to serve the royal family. Secondly, Dimitri doesn’t die because his liege beheads him - Edelgard will never be his liege - he dies either by defending his borders against someone who is bringing war to his lands and wants his head, or he dies because he pursues Edelgard in a three way battle in Gronder.

We do not know what Rufus is like to his nephew, but I am pretty sure he is no Chagall.

The only common points Eldie and Dimitri have is their blond hair, and sometimes, their manner of death. there is also something about bonds with their sisters but we’re not here for that

Who is Travant?

Travant is the King of the Thracian Kingdom, a proto Nohr-like place, where farming is difficult, and the people living there are starving and often turn to banditry or become mercenaries to be able to earn some money.

Thracia’s neighbour, the Manster District (Manster) could export food to Thracia... but they do not, because, well, the people in charge of the Manster District do not like Thracians a lot (and use slurs to talk about them, but Quan is a special character). So Thracians raid the border, with hopes to reunite the peninsula, with the dream that, one day, they will seize the arable lands in the North.

Travant has an infamous line, which more or less went like “I will unite the peninsula for the sake of my people, and if that process dooms me to hell then so be it”.

And to hell he will go, because by Jugdral standards, ambushing Quan and his family in a desert (horses cannot move in sand, another example of gameplay and story integration!) with horseslayers, is despicable, especially since he leaves no one alive, even, apparently, killing Quan’s young daughter Altena.

(Travant ranks pretty high in the douchebag ladder).

With time, Altena grows, unaware that Travant, who adopted her, isn’t her real Father, Quan was. Things happen, Altena discovers the truth, and Travant finally achieves his dream by making a suicidal charge against Seliph’s forces (he doesn’t even bring his magic lance to the fight!), with him dead, finally, the peninsula can be united under one leader.

Claude? Also has a wyvern. And comes from another land than our hero (but which one?). And... that’s all.

If Almyra raids every sunday, it is not because they are starving, but because they are doing it, per Cyril, for funsies. Claude pretends to be a schemer and underhanded, but he never does something on the scale of the Yied Ambush (the moment where Travant pulled out the horseslayers against Quan). Claude never takes a child hostage, and never orders his daughter to punish civilians.

If Claude wants to unite the two countries, it is not because he wants his people to finally leave their life as mercenaries and bandits behind, but because he wants people to understand each other.

Edit because I’m sleeping : Travant will die for his dream. Claude... always survive. Always. I am not saying he doesn’t believe in it, but he is not as desperate as Travant is.

Comparing Claude to Travant is like comparing... Virion to Iago. They are both male with long hair, and pretend to scheme. Bar that? Well... they both have hands...? I guess?

Who is Manfroy?

Manfroy is... both a mastermind and a plothole.

Manfroy was the one in the shadows engineering a war in Jugdral, not because he likes wars, nope, but because he wanted political instability to recreate the Loptyr Empire.

He will help a douchebag to conquer the world, and use him to sire Julius, the only person in Jugdral who can become a host for the dark dragon Loptyr. The last time Loptyr was there... well, apparently it wasn’t roses and sunshines, slavery was rampant and citizens were pitted against each other to make sure the strongest ones would become citizens of the Empire.

Why Manfroy does this? It depends on the sources, but it is heavily implied Manfroy is part of a sect (sect as in group of people practicing a religion, here the Loptyr religion/cult) persecuted by a lot of people in Jugdral - to the point where Agustrians were having witches hunts to chase them. Manfroy and his followers escaped the the Yied desert, touted to be an inhospitable land. His people had no where and no one to turn to, so they prayed to their God Loptyr (who doesn’t give 3 figs about them).

Manfroy is thus the Archbishop of the Loptyr Church. He also killed his son in law, for some reason, and planned to turn his granddaughter in a zombie. Manfroy also supports (and conducts?) the child hunts, basically the plot in the second part of FE4 and FE5 where the Granvalle Empire and the members of the Loptyr Church round up children, take them from their families (sometimes by killing said families) to send them to Granvalle, with the highly suggested goal of sacrificing them one way or another to Loptyr.

On the not-so bright side, Manfroy doesn’t kill Julia - when Loptyr/Julius expressly asking him to do so, because Julia is the only person, story-wise, able to kill him.

What a guy!

Now, Rhea?

There are some comparisons to be made, unlike Claude and Dimitri, but again, it reinforces how they could be seen as foils.

Rhea? Yes, also engineers the birth of a vessel.

However, unlike Manfroy who “forced” Arvis and Deirdre to marry and have a baby, Byleth’s birth, born from the union of Jeralt and Sitri, was completely unexpected. There is no trace in canon of Rhea arranging Jeralt and Sitri’s meeting, and future wedding.

Rhea? Also wants her granddaughter to “die”?

Well, not this one, since Rhea thinks Billy is actually an amnesiac Sothis. Billy would just recover their memories.

Rhea? Doesn’t start a war to build her Sothis vessel. Hell, the DLC is about her previous experiment to resurrect her mother - it was a failure, but someone supposes she fails because she did not want to bleed dry the Four Apostles. Rhea wishes to resurrect a benevolent Goddess (when Manfroy knows Loptyr is... far from benevolent) but will not kill to do so.

Sitri? Asked her to save Billy, by offering her own life.

The most interesting foil though is... how Rhea and Manfroy both belong to a community that was persecuted by others, the people they are supposed to live with.

Manfroy? Went the “if the world hates me, then I will hate it and burn it down” route.

Rhea? Doesn’t want to kill humans, hell, she and her brother disagreed because she didn’t want to kill children of the people who wronged her! She opens a monastery and offers guidance to anyone who needs it, a shelter for the needy and tries her best to protect peace and the humans living under her care.

They could have followed the same path, but didn’t. Manfroy rounds children to kill them, Rhea offers a new home to children who lost theirs.

They can also be compared with their “welp” points, Rhea gave CF!Billy the means to destroy her, just like Manfroy “forgot” to kill Julia - and yet, again, it is different. Rhea trusted Billy and never wanted to use them as a tool, in the other routes, it is because she trusted Billy with “those means” that Billy is able to save the world. Manfroy? Berserks Julia, wishes to use her as a tool and suffers when she regains some agency and beats her brother. But even without Manfroy, Julia would have recovered the Book of Naga to end Loptyr.

Rhea and Manfroy are definitely not parallels, but foils.

And the best for the end...

Who is Arvis?

Well... to summarise Arvis in a few words...

it’s impossible.

So, Arvis is the descendant of one Jugdral’s God-Crusader, Fjalar. Arvis is very proud of his heritage, but he also bears Loptyr blood, through his Mother. And yet, since the Loptry blood exists thanks to Saint Maira - the brother of the Loptry Host of that time, Emperor Galle, who rebelled and helped the Crusaders - he is also very proud of this heritage and his two brands.

Arvis’s familial history is a mess, his father was a womanizer and his mother abandoned him (which might have fueled his Freudian complex?). When his Father died, he exiled all of his bastard siblings, bar Azelle (his bastard half-brother, sired to his mother’s favorite maid). Arvis apparently wasn’t interested in women before he met Deirdre and fell in love with her...

But he had time to sire a bastard (on his best friend and confidante).

Arvis wants to build a world free of prejudice and oppression, and wants to build it by... associating with Manfroy, who blackmails him about his Loptyr blood (if Arvis is proud of his Loptry blood, sadly the Agustrian witch hunts are still a thing, and it will not be well seen in Granvalle’s nobility); however, he made it clear, to Manfroy himself, that he will never allow another Loptry Empire to be reborn. Arvis thus uses hiw fellow Dukes Reptor and Langobalt to set up a coup against Prince Kurth (the Prince of Granvalle) to kill him. Arvis grows close to Kurth’s father, Azmur and more or lesses takes care of everything in Granvalle, since Kurth has no heir left.

And, by chance, Deirdre, Kurth’s bastard daughter, thus rightful Princess of Granvalle, appears at his door. She bears the mark of Naga (the special blood of the Crusader Heim), so they marry, and if they have a son, their son will rule over Granvalle, Arvis acts as a regent until then.

(women can’t rule shit in Jugdral)

Then what? His plan is set into motion, all Granvalle Dukes die, he and Sigurd (plus his pals) are the only ones left, Sigurd dies after being lured to a welcoming party, and Arvis becomes the last man standing able to rule Granvalle, who became, through his plans and treacheries through the 1st gen, an Empire.

(and then his son becomes a Loptyr host, vaporises his mom and makes his sister disappear, wrestles power from him and he is reduced to a sad state (oldvis). He makes a last stand against Seliph, after delivering him Sigurd’s magic sword, and dies.)

Okay.

So, now, Edel.

Arvis managed to become the ruling... person in Granvalle by eliminating all of his rivals, and securing a nice marriage. Edel becomes Emperor... because Ionius gave her his crown, as her father.

So they do not rise to power the same way.

Edel never talks about her brands, but Arvis is proud to bear them and proud of his ancestors. Judging by how Edel speaks of Wilhelm I as a traitor who sold humanity to creatures, I am not sure she is proud to bear his blood.

Also, while Edelgard is extremely prejudiced against Nabateans, Arvis wishes to create a world... free of prejudice (his actions though...). He does not mind Manfroy preaching his stuff, when Edelgard will not allow anyone to follow the Seiros faith (friends put it better, but in several routes, the people who were followers of the Church of Seiros are missing in Adrestia...).

While both Edel and Arvis think they are making “sacrifices” for the greater good, as pointed out earlier, this greater good is different. They both ally with a death cult, but Arvis is naive enough to think Manfroy will not backstab him - he even wishes for him to preach his nonsense freely. Edelgard has been hell bent since day 1 on getting rid of Thales and friends.

By the time Arvis learns of the child hunts and Julius’s nonsense... he wants to stop it. He is however powerless to do so (or so we think! Apparently he and Ishtar managed to hide every children captured in a castle!) but, at least, he tried to do something.

Crest Beasts... are still used, no matter the path, and even after Edelgard became Emperor.

Now, if Manfroy had to capture children and round them up for execution to make sure Arvis would become Emperor, would Arvis have supported him? I... don’t think so. If children were captured during Arvis’s conquest of the world and it was a “necessary evil”, would Arvis have accepted it? We don’t know. Prideful as he is, I don’t think he would have agreed.

(which is all kinds of wrong, the man can start wars and backstab friends, allies and turn his own brother to ashes, but hunting children is too much? Meh. And yet, Manfroy mentions something about his ways and his pride being an obstacle to the realisation of his dream).

Arvis is... a complicated character. A douchebag through and through, who tries to redeem himself at the end, but ultimately fails. He is rewarded for his actions in the 1st gen by the 2nd gen, where Julius becomes Loptyr and destroys his Empire. He had it coming? Yes. Is it painful to watch? Yes.

Edelgard... does not face any retribution for her actions.

Yes, she can also kill her (step) brother. But either she didn’t remember it, or only cries after it, and ultimately puts the blame on him - so it is not a sacrifice ?

People doubt her words? Well, it doesn’t matter, Linhardt, Yuri and Lysithea are still alive after their... interrogations. Reptor doubted Arvis’s words? Aida was sent as back-up (and... backstabbed him).

Ultimately, Arvis loses Deirdre (whose ghost chills with Sigurd’s), Julia and Julius, whom he loved dearly. Edel loses... Billy, and some randoms.

So, in a way, Edel feels like a discount Arvis, because she misses his ascension to power and his downfall. Arvis doesn’t mow down enemies on the front lines like she is doing, Arvis maneuvers to ensure victory.

Both fight for ideals, but Arvis seems to believe in them when I cannot believe a world for “humanity” involves continuous making of Crest Beasts.

Both betray the main character, but Edelgard is hit with the uwu hammer, thus cannot kill Billy - Thales does it in the non CF-routes.

So... short story, long story, Eldie is not Dimitri, Claude is not Travant, Rhea is a foil to Manfroy and Edelgard is a discount Arvis.

Also, I don’t know what kind of weed the person who wrote this take had, but labeling Eldie as one of FE4′s villain is as dumb as labeling FE7 Karla a villain because she appears as a red unit you have to fight.

where is edel’s bastard son

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jtavington · 4 years

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I'm having trouble sticking to any one 3H play through due to choice paralysis when it comes to house and who to recruit. So I thought I would try to articulate what cast I would include for each route if I were novelizing them and try to articulate for myself how I see each route. And just to be clear I'm not saying this is the right way to view any of this, just me thinking out loud. Also, I'm horribly biased in favor of CF and VW ;)

CF: if this route got anymore blatant about the power of love and friendship, it would be an 80s cartoon. Edelgard is our designated tragic villain who would be executed by even an impartial court in Fodlan. But Byleth cares for her student so much that she sees that there's more to her than her actions in part one. Edelgard rewards that faith a hundredfold and the villain becomes a hero while traditionally heroic figures become villains. The ending is like something out of a fairytale, with the woman who never cries finally weeping and her beloved teacher "coincidentally”being restored to life and humanity. It's Edelgard’s route that keeps the friends group together for five years and she who gets the climactic speech about friendship played completely straight without even using it as a distraction. This is the route where the Death Knight can heal and be reunited with his family. This is the route where, frankly, love wins. It's also the route of revolution, where those who have suffered under the system say that time is up for peaceful reform and the route that can be pretty bleak unless you’re willing to put in quite a bit of work.

So... My first rule would be not to break up any found family groups if they can be avoided. The second is to pick up those characters who have particularly suffered under the Crest system. Sylvain, Lysithea Mercedes. And they bring their close friends. So basically the entire recruitable Blue Lions, Lysithea, Alois, and the Wolves in their entirety. Childhood friends and family reunited and I can toss in favorite non-BE ships like Netfelix. Hanneman and Manuela also join to give El much-needed character development.

VW: if you forced me to pick a "true" route, this would be it. It's the route where you finally learn the truth about Seiros and Relics. Like CF, the old order is swept away, if more gently. Claude is an outcast everywhere and so is determined to create a world without outcasts. Existing institutions are subverted rather than destroyed. The people nobody wants, who Fodlan at large would dismiss as hated by the Goddess are the ones who destroyed the devil figure for good. It's a route where the other lords are undone by their own flaws, which is either tragic or justice depending on your point of view. Despite that, it's probably the most cheerful route.

I would include those characters from other routes who are outcasts in some way. Definitely those who are people of color. Petra, Cyril, Shamir. The entire Wolves. Also the scholars Hanneman and Linhardt. Maximum number of Saints encountered: check.

AM: I have a love-hate relationship with AM. The students themselves rival the Eagles as my favorite, as you can probably tell from twisting myself into knots to recruit all of them that I could on CF. But I hate the idea of magic blood and rightful kings, and a lot of the stuff I like about White Clouds was just dropped. So keep that in mind.

But I'm dealing with the route I have, and there’s still a lot to unpack. In some ways, this is CF’s opposite. Dimitri is far from disinterested in the state of the world, but his concerns are more personal than the other two. He wants to keep the social order in place and reform it, mostly by making sure good people are in charge. And since the cost of social disruption disproportionately falls on those least able to bear it, that's not nothing. And it works, more or less. Dimitri, Sylvain, and Felix all accept their chosen roles and the world is better for it.

It's also, of course, a story of redemption. Dimitri looks too far gone to be saved, but the potential to be the Savior King is still within him. Recovery is possible for anyone, but they will have to work at it. And yet, there are some things that can't be changed. Arundel’s dying curse that either El or Dimitri will kill each other is fulfilled despite the fact that Dimitri loves her and his best efforts to prevent it. The best Mercedes can hope for is for Emile to die in her arms. Heck, even Dimitri's beloved stepmother who raised him is all but confirmed to have nearly got him killed. Love cannot overcome everything and the scars of the past will never be fully healed, but the world is still worth fighting for.

Caspar is recruited mostly to unlock his and Mercedes’ paralogue, but I’d also be inclined to make him kill Linhardt just to keep the doomed childhood friends theme going. Marianne as well for her depression improving and her supports with Dimitri. Catherine for her support with Ashe, which is a beautiful example of letting go of the past and forgiving even when it's hard. Ferdinand as the best of what the current system has to offer. And Dorothea to give another mentally scarred vet a break. Everybody but Balthus from the Wolves and he isn't out of the question.

Silver Snow: The only route where I was glad I was on antidepressants. Byleth fully embraces the role as Sothis’ second coming and boy do they pay for it. One thing that struck me was that several times they say that they want to run away or otherwise avoid fighting, other people tell them they can't, and those other people are right. Fate cannot be denied and that fate mostly involves people dying horribly and nations falling apart. You spend most of your time looking for Rhea, she finally sees you as your own person and regrets her actions, only to have it yanked away from you by her going mad. No one wants the final battle and yet it must be fought to music that’s a funeral dirge. There's the smallest possibility of light in the end of the tunnel in Rhea's surviving and truly becoming what she claimed to be, but you will really have to work at it.

The snarky part of me says that I shouldn't recruit anyone. If I'm so committed to destiny, I should take what the game gives me and like it. But that's unnecessarily grim and a pain to play. I would pick up Lysithea because Retribution is my favorite paralogue and really fits here. The faculty because why not and I insist on having one route where Seteth/Manuela is a thing. Constance and Yuri only from the Wolves because I won’t force Hapi to work with people she hates that much.

#meta #fe3h #azure moon #crimson flower #verdant wind #silver snow

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bloomandcoffee · 4 years

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Is it possible that Dimitri and Edelgard could be foils in regards to their trust issues and the progression of their character in their respective routes? I remember there was a big post a while ago about Edelgards line in AM where she meets with Dimitri and ends up talking about how there is no way someone like Dimitri can understand the poor (a very out of left field line). Then it turns out that her actual japanese line translates to the following: (1/7)

“Someone who was fortunate enough like you to have those things, will never understand those of us who don’t have those things. ” I’ve seen people act like this entire line changes a lot about Edelgard and the scene in general, and while I agree that it makes more sense in context than the english line we got, I also dont think it puts Edelgard in a more favorable light. The problem is, Dimitri here is saying that he belives that even weak people are capable of supporting and (2/7)

lifting eachother up (in response to Edelgards ideals that people have to be strong on their own to survive), and that he has learned this from his friends and Byleth helping him when he was at his worst. So, the ‘things’ in Edelgards line can be replaced with 'the support and trust of ones friends and Byleth’, because that is what Dimitri has that Edelgard claims she herself doesn’t. The problem is pretty obvious at this point because this line doesn’t change wheter or not (3/7)

the players nabbed any Black Eagles from the Empire, so Edelgard says this even though its very possible she still has the support of her former classmates. It all just comes down to Edelgard going “Well, you were fortunate enough to have the professor to with you (that taught you those things), and you will never understand those of us that don’t have the professor (to teach us those things).” ('those things’ being trust in other people). Edelgard is basically stating that since she has (4/7)

no one she can trust, thats her motivation for going to the extremes she does, and compared to Dimitri she’s unfortunate (despite the fact that her war ruined his life) because he has Byleth by his side and she doesn’t. This sort of give a basis for a potential change in her if you play CF that actually doesn’t end up happening. Because compared to Dimitri, who does eventually try and reach out to his friends and rebuild their relationship despite him being a dirty murder hobo (5/7)

for over five years, in her route Edelgard never tries to reach out or justify herself to anyone that isn’t Byleth. She keeps everyone in the dark about her past, her motivations, and her connection with TWSITD. She still goes to the same extremes she does in any other route as confirmed by several NPC dialogues. Edelgard is a static character that never overcomes her lack of trust in others even with the help of the player (who is the sole exception to the no trust rule), (6/7)

while Dimitri overcoming his lack of trust and reaching out to others in AM (compared to Edelgards route constantly having others reach out to her instead) is arguably the biggest character development in the game. (7/7)

There are translation issues abound, not only in regards to our imperial lord, after all a key part of Dimitri’s and Dedue’s relationship in CF was cut off by the translation. Nevertheless, that is a wonderful point anon.

She’s never open to trust, nor does she try to reach someone else. Not even with Lysithia who is someone that suffered the same as her. Be it a product of bad writing, trauma, waifu MC-sexual bait, whatever you want to call it; fact remains that she doesn’t reach out, and in fact openly deceives even if Byleth is with her.

The fact that she only does it with Byleth is more suspect than genuine. At least to me. For a route that advertised you reaching for her hand, there was an absurd lack of imperial Majesty genuine hand offering to those around her.

I always remember how in VW she gets this whole “I wanted to reach for your hand :C” after taking over Enbarr, and I only thought how self serving of someone who used her people as human shields and benefitted from crimes against humanity, to lament about not having support or trust.

It also comes to mind that in CF Dimitri is in a far better headspace than he is in all the other routes, and that he has both the trust and support of his people. After all, Kingdom soldiers (aside from Dedue) go behind his back (taking Dedue’s lead!) to transform into crest beasts in order to both protect King and Country.

Byleth isn’t with Dimitri, heck all the BLions may be recruited, but with Rhea’s help he pulled through and avoided Cornelia’s backstabbing. He still has issues, of course, but he’s in a much better headspace, and has earned the loyalty and love of his people. The fact that Kingdom Soldiers follow the plan made by a man from Duscur? It speaks quite a lot about the kind of cultural shift that ought to be in motion in Faerghus all those five years.

Dimitri (and Dedue!) reaching out, establishing trust and support with other people can happen even if Byleth is not with them. It’s just a matter of circumstances.

Byleth is in fact key essential for Dimitri’s and Dedue’s survival. Yes, throughout the route they help the lions bond more, but the social networks they create carry their own weight aside from Byleth.

I have to say however that, as beautiful and tempting as his CF state of mind is, Dimitri’s journey in AM is far more poignant. Not only because of his trauma, establishing connections, fall from grace, resolution and eventual clawing back –but how brutally honest it is with him and all those around him. It’s a feedback loop of connections and supports that go both ways, and how it can both harm and heal. Heck even recruited units react to him, and comment on him, his behavior, and what they expect of him regardless of possible supports or not.

Trust and support is a two way street, and IS allowed Dimitri to interact with the world and the world to interact back.

Also, as a funny trivia, when Dimitri talks about trust and not looking for deceit behind every word, he’s in fact the only lord who hasn’t done a betrayal of his fellow lords at that point.

Edelgard had hired Kostas to assassinate her fellow lords and future leaders of foreign nations. Whereas Claude, though his betrayal is nowhere near Edelgard’s extreme, had tried to bail out and leave them for dead.

#ask #anon #fe dimitri #fe3h #fe meta #fe edgelord #Anonymous

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