#this is the kind of things i think of when i learned jeralt was from faerghus | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

raxistaicho · 7 months

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Something I feel is key to any discussion about why Jeralt might have acted so severely when it comes to Rhea is his personal experience with the woman, what he thinks of her, what he feels he owes her, and what she did for him that she didn't do for others, including Sitri.

In the first support with Rhea we learn from her personally that Jeralt would likely describe her as "frightening" and that she sincerely doubts Jeralt would ever call her "incredible." She's also hurt by the truth that he never mentioned her. Jeralt himself wrote that he thought the world of Rhea, but there is also significant evidence to suggest that Rhea is not close with anyone but Byleth. Catherine's jealousy of Byleth, Rhea's admission of lonliness, and Archbishop Rhea's event in Fire Emblem Heroes all speak to intentional personal isolation. Jeralt was probably about as close to Rhea as Catherine was. They don't actually know her, just her authority, strength, and how she saved them. (Faerghus born. You do as your leader tells you and dedicate yourself to them fully.)

300+ years by Rhea's side. Garreg Mach has existed for nearly 1000 years. Sitri is attempt 11 at creating a vessel for the Goddess. (12 is a significant number in this game, as it also relates to the Nemesis having 11 Elites, 10 known and 1 secret, Edelgard having 11 siblings, 10 known and 1 step sibling, and putting Byleth at 13th for the vessels, which breaks the trend, but still maintains associations with the Olympians, bad luck, betrayal, and the Death tarot card indicating a need for change just like with Sylvain.) Thematic trivia aside, even at 1 vessel every 100 years, Jeralt was witness to 3 attempts, possibly 4 (Sitri) at using Sothis' Crest Stone to create a vessel.

We don't know too much about the others, whether their lives were akin to Sitri's or if they died at birth, or even if they lived full lives. Two of those options, and assuming Rhea got better at making vessels over time, means Jeralt likely met some of them. This was, as stated by Rhea, her mission after all. That and keeping Fodlan at peace so she could bring Sothis back to it.

Jeralt doesn't seem the kind to really give a shit about the arcane or experimentation in general. I doubt he knows what the hell has been happening the whole time he's been alongside Rhea. He just knows that she is something very powerful. He warns Byleth not to trust her, and granted this is right after returning to Garreg Mach after running away because he doesn't trust her, it's equally important to recognise why Jeralt went back after all this time. He knows he doesn't have a choice. Alois found him and clocked that he has a child. That guy has a big mouth and Rhea would absolutely find out. Refusing her isn't something within his power to do or he wouldn't have stolen away into the night in the first place.

He doesn't really object to what the Church is doing, he did it for long enough, but he knows that he's outclassed by Rhea and doesn't have the power to refuse her. That's why he faked Byleth's death and informed Rhea before leaving instead of just taking the kid and running. (We know Jeralt doesn't leave until after the fire has been quelled because he is the one to tell her the news of Byleth's death.) She would have stopped them.

So what DOES Jeralt know about Rhea and her experimentation?

Well, a big thing is that Jeralt is very aware that he should be dead. That he died in a battle as a young man saving Rhea from death.

Rhea says that Jeralt was mortally wounded, and we don't know enough about what (pure) Nabatean blood can actually do to a person to say either way if a person needs to be alive for the resurrection to work, but the Elites and Nemesis were definitely dead if that helps confuse matters. (I mention pure Nabatean blood to disqualify Seteth, Flayn, and Seteth's brothers. We know for a fact that Rhea is directly related to Sothis, but neither Seteth, his brothers, or Flayn state a definite relationship to Rhea like they do with each other, or state a direct relationship to Sothis as Rhea does.)

Jeralt feels like he owes his life to Rhea right up until the events with Sitri and Byleth. She did save him after all and Faerghus goes a long way to instill ideas of eternal loyalty to a ruler/leader.

He knows, personally and for a fact that Rhea can bring people back from near death. Mortally wounded. Something seen as beyond exceptional in a world where 1hp is fixed up with healing magic no problem and Miracle exists. It also gave him a Major Crest. Something Jeralt doesn't seem as very keen on mentioning and definitely didn't make him start acting like one of the Goddess' chosen. He likely knew something was up even then, but not what it was.

Coupled with 300 years of working alongside a woman who also doesn't age, perpetuates a history of Crests being granted by the Goddess, which contradicts his lived experience, and the knowledge that Rhea is essentially an arbiter on who lives and who dies even from wounds so fatal that Faith magic was a lacking intervention. He's probably asking himself...

Why is Sitri dead?

What the hell could have happened in there that the Archbishop of over 300 years, the Goddess' most dedicated servant couldn't use Faith magic to prevent? What happened in there that was so severe the method Rhea used to save him all those years ago wasn't viable? Why didn't Rhea save his wife? He's been her Captain for several centuries! Sitri was akin to a daughter to Rhea! (Something very uncommon.) What profane thing could have stopped *her* from getting her way?

Then there's the matter of Byleth's heartbeat, how they don't cry, how they don't emote or fuss, or anything at all. Not to mention the fact that Byleth might possibly have a scar over their chest.

What does "traded her life for" *actually* mean? He doesn't know about the Crest Stone, but he knows Rhea can do *something* to save a life. But why would that be necessary? The line sounds like the death in childbirth was the exchange, but that shouldn't have killed someone in Rhea's care. Not according to all the information he has.

She has to have done something. He doesn't know what it is, but Rhea made the choice to exchange Sitri's life for Byleth's and now she's covetous of the child, telling Jeralt not to worry and having them watched.

Jeralt mentioning how Rhea reacted to Byleth's death is also telling.

"Lady Rhea was in a state over the news."

Lady Rhea wasn't in a state over Aelfric's death, or Jeralt's. I expect she wasn't in a state over Sitri's not because she doesn't care about her as much as she does Byleth, but due to the circumstances of Sitri's death, it was a request out of love.

So if Rhea is known to be hard to crack, and Jeralt believes her to be terrifying, and Rhea believes Jeralt should think she's terrifying, what other "states" does Rhea have? It must have been significant for Jeralt to be shaken and Rhea to understand that reaction even from someone who thought the world of her. It's probably nothing as severe as turning into the Immaculate One. But Rhea just lost access to her mother's Crest Stone. *The* thing she needs to bring Sothis back. The reason she's doing all of this! Echoes of "give it back" ring in my mind. She definitely did well to not degenerate right then. Possibly because Byleth's body would still be in Garreg Mach, and then later when she realised the deception, out there in the world guarded by the man who kept her safe for 300 years and loved his child enough to fake their death. The same man who cared for Sitri. Rhea would have needed to wait for Byleth to grow up anyway, and she, Jeralt and Byleth have nothing but time.

Back to Jeralt specifically. The veritable necromancer in his life didn't save his wife during a childbirth, seems to want to keep Byleth close, which can't be because they're Sitri's child otherwise, why not just save Sitri, y'know? So Sitri needed to die and Byleth is even stranger than their mother was.

Sitri also didn't emote to anyone but Jeralt (Crest of Seiros), but Byleth isn't emoting even for him. (*Heavy bias* but the trigger for Byleth was probably the proximity of another Crest of Flames.) So his child is even stranger than their mother, maybe even in the same way as the other vessels he incidentally met over the years.

Really the only conclusion Jeralt can draw is that Rhea did something to Byleth and Sitri. Traded their lives. Something beyond healing magic or whatever thing Rhea did to him. Something immense, beyond even the baseline be already has for her capable of granting an extended life and Crest. Something that might have been the reason Sitri could never leave the monastery. She was unwell, but Jeralt is a very capable man. Byleth seemed healthy, but the Church didn't seem willing to let them go.

It's not at all a stretch, even with the little Jeralt actually knows, to assume Rhea did something profound.

Not divine. At least not in any way she advertises.

Did she swap their souls? Something like that?

Did he find it strange later in life that Byleth didn't manifest his Crest of Seiros? Even if he didn't buy into the Goddess blessing, he must know through sheer exposure that Crests are inherited and that the further the bloodlines get from those originally "blessed" the likelihood goes down. As someone personally "blessed" with a Major Crest, Byleth not having one is an oddity itself.

Maybe that's what kept him away.

Jeralt didn't just leave. He stayed away. He stayed away for two decades, making the choice not to return every time he thought about it.

This wasn't just about whatever Rhea did, it was also about what Rhea might have done to Byleth, trapping them in Garreg Mach like she did to their mother, his wife.

And he was right. He saw the writing on the wall perfectly. Rhea actually giving such a shit about Byleth's "death" confirmed it in his mind. Rhea did something forbidden (confirmed by Seteth in FEH) and his child was the subject. He's even still fearful and that's why he lies to Rhea at first. "This is not Sitri's child. I know you care about them being Sitri's child. This isn't about me." Is basically what he's saying.

Make whatever excuses you will, but Rhea wasn't not going to try and have Sothis brought out in Byleth just because they stayed at the Monastery.

Imagine if Rhea had been the one to hear Byleth was dreaming of the war with Nemesis?

That kid is never ever leaving those halls. Jeralt be damned.

I think Rhea is a fantastic character, she's amazing, third only to Byleth and Edelgard in my mind. But don't for one second think her intention isn't Sothis first, Byleth second. That's why we went to the Holy Tomb.

Jeralt wasn't irrational. Rhea isn't suddenly "right" because the ritual with the throne didn't work. We actually don't even know if that's the case or if Sothis just beat Rhea to the punch and gave herself up to Byleth before the reverse was made to happen.

Her intention to have Sothis overtake Byleth was the thing Jeralt was detecting. The feasibility of that act is secondary to Rhea's sudden possible human sacrifice of the woman he loved. If someone looks like they're going to murder you, you don't say "let's see how this plays out." You take precautions, and his theory was validated enough by Rhea's reaction to Byleth's faked death and was enough to keep him away every day afterwards.

If the ritual at the Holy Tomb had worked, killing Jeralt might have been the Slither's most colossal fuck up, because he might have been the only person besides Edelgard to have enough knowledge to even think about intervening.

Bonus Jeralt theory. Jeralt doesn't align with any nation anymore. He doesn't wear any of their colours. However, the closest match is the Alliance. Why? Well, Jeralt was born over 300 years ago and served the Faerghus military, however, his homeland very well might have been one of the ones that broke off into the Alliance after he had already joined Rhea.

Since he then goes on to live in Remire, Jeralt could be one of the only characters to have relevant ties to all three nations.

The separation of his homeland from the Kingdom might also has served to make him disinterested in the idea of sovereignty or the idea that Fodlan even has nations worth mentioning since they can just *change* whenever. Again, something we see happen in the game itself as Fodlan reunifies in what would have been his lifespan had Kronya not cut it... long? Either way, it explains why he does not care where he was from or bother to explain anything to Byleth, it's all immaterial if you live long enough. (Which also reflects Rhea's view of Fodlan.)

(Apologies for writing you another novel. I hope you don't mind, I'm incapable of brevity. I just think the idea Jeralt overreacted with the amount of context he had about Rhea's abilities, especially since he was 100% correct, is silly. Also the Crest of Seiros is The High Priestess and that's all about trusting your intuition, which is what he did, and he dies soon after he second-guesses his decision. Theming!)

Nah, don't worry, that was all very interesting! :) Thanks for sharing your thoughts and analysis!

#fire emblem three houses #edelgard discourse #edelgard positive #jeralt reus eisner #rhea #byleth eisner #sitri

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fireemblems24 · 4 months

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Azure Gleam Ch 13

Alright guys, we're getting close to finishing this thing - like 10 years later, but still here.

MAIN STORY

Ok, guys, the hard battle is over. Dimitri stomping everything is all I have left to do, I hope.

I wonder if I dislike Claude now. He's here and on our side, but I think "ew" and "ugh" when I see him now.

Claude suspects stuff.

Seteth is lecturing Hilda for whining lamo.

Seeing Claude, Rhea, and Dimitri all fight on the same side is cool, even if I find Claude annoying as fuck right now.

I wish Rhea would lead the knights herself, but instead she just gets sidelines so hard in AG. Hopes as a whole tgh.

Oh! No side battles! Not all that mad. Bc that means this'll speed things up a bit lol.

MAP/SIDE BATTLE

Sylvain is admiring Dimitri and Felix and how good of leaders they are. He's hoping he gets his act together soon too lol.

It's cool seeing Byleth and Jeralt around. Rhea's here too. The camp is packed with little blue and yellow dots.

There's a letter from Glenn on the table :(

Seems a bit cheap that Byleth only supports Jeralt and Shez, but can reach A with everyone. Like a cop out.

Honestly, neither of them have a ton of supports (Jeralt or Byleth). A bit bummed, but I guess you get them kind of late. Too bad this game never got a DLC. Byleth/lord supports would've sold that.

ANNETTE & DEDUE B

Annette needs help using Crusher. It's too heavy for her.

Annette thinks she needs to gain weight, but Dedue says that's not everything and is willing to help her out.

He helps her train with a bag of rocks and credits him with the motivation to try.

Dedue hesitates a bit when replying to her though, making Annette curious.

Pretty much a set up for part 2.

ANNETTE & DIMITRI B

Their only support this game.

Annette creates a disaster in the kitchen (or training grounds, unclear). With Dimitri's help. So . . . they tried cooking together? Yeah. That was never going to end well.

Dimitri and Annette both blame themselves. Dimitri "wins" though.

Dimitri wishes he were better with magic, but it runs in the family. He wanted to be a mage when he was younger.

"An old friend of mine would give magic demonstrations." - probably Edelgard?

Annette is willing to help Dimitri learn magic. She wants to get better at teaching. Dimitri really wishes he could learn magic.

Annette really wants to be a teacher.

She encourages him not to hold back. I think he made another explosion. Poor Annette has her work cut out for her lol.

INGRID & MARIANNE B

Horse girls final support.

Ingrid's been trying to figure out what her horse is thinking/wants based on behavior but is struggling.

Unlike Marianne, but, you know, she has help lol.

Ingrid's horse doesn't want to move again, so Marianne comes to help.

The horse/pegasus doesn't want to go to the battlefield because she's worried about Ingrid (and remembering Scarlet Blaze, that sucks, Fuck SB for killing Ingrid)

Ingrid is getting better connecting with her horse, and now will go get to save her friend.

When Ingrid's leaving, Marianne starts wishing for something but doesn't say what, Ingrid guesses horseback riding together and guesses right.

Ingrid credits to spending time with Marianne and getting to know her.

So Ingrid and Marianne are friends now. Good for both of them.

SHEZ & RODRIGUE A

Rodrigue is looking for a book on mercenaries.

When Shez asks why, Rodrigue skirts around it and Shez calls him out.

After a tough battle with Jeralt and co, Rodrigue wants to read up on mercenaries to make sure he understands their tactics better and avoid potential disaster.

Shez is impressed with Rodrigue for still studying after so long.

Rodrigue says he's not as smart as Gautier or courageous as Lambert, so he has too.

Shez says Rodrigue and Felix are close alike than either would admit - they both always want to improve themselves.

(and that Dimitri and Sylvain are like their dad's too)

Rodrigue still feels he doesn't measure up to the other two though :( But I'm happy Shez had such nice things to say about Rodrigue.

MERCEDES & ASHE B

Ashe turned pale while training. He plays it off as nothing, but Mercedes calls him out.

He got a minor injury, which reminded him of seeing a ghost.

Oh, poor Ashe, Mercedes starts playing 100 questions with him - wanting to know what it was wearing lol.

Ashe tells the story - he went looking for herbs to help his sick brother and saw a ghost in the fog. While running away, he got a similar injury.

Mercedes isn't scared of his tale. She's heard it before. In her tale, it wasn't a ghost though, but a shadow. Making Ashe think he saw his own shadow too.

Now Ashe thinks he lived in fear of his own shadow, lamo.

Ashe is like, you should hear this guy's story, and there's no one there.

But this isn't Ashe pulling on Mercedes, but him thinking he found another ghost because there was never anyone else around, lol.

FELIX & RAPHAEL A

Raphael wants to work out. Felix yells at him for being loud and giving him away.

Felix is boar hunting lamo.

Raphael talks about how Petra taught him a special technique. So now we have a Deer and Lion training, talking about an Eagle.

The boar they're hunting is wounded, but Felix is still weary of it.

Felix failed to hunt a boar before.

Dimitri once hunted so many animals that they couldn't fit them all on the sled lol. Felix struggled to get one.

Raphael gets confused when Felix is talking about boar, if he means a real boar or Dimitri lol.

Raphael wants to help Felix get revenge for the boar that got away.

And he attacks head-on, much to Felix's dismay, but he got it. Felix is a bit stunned it went down so quickly.

Felix admits that maybe working with friends helps sometimes. And Raphael is happy Felix called him friend.

This was actually way more entertaining than I thought it would be (Raphael supports can be . . . you know . . . dull or amusing, this one was amusing)

Plus I love hearing the story of Dimitri being an apex hunter as a child and Felix grumbling off trying to bag his own boar and failing lamo.

RODRIGUE & FELIX A

Rodrigue wants to talk. Felix tried to brush him off. And Rodrigue's like shut up and sit down, boy. But nicely.

He wants to talk because neither know when they'll die and don't want lingering regrets. Which, knowing what happens in Azure Moon . . . :(

Rodrigue apologizes for what he said about Glenn. Which I find a bit stupid because he was a grieving father so . . .

Thankfully, Rodrigue gets to explain his thoughts behind it. Acknowledging Glenn's agency in his decisions too.

Felix denies Glenn's agency and can only get Dimitri to say he caused Glenn to die :(

Rodrigue acknowledges that, but asks Felix what he would've done. Let Dimitri die and run away to save himself or do what Glenn did.

Felix gets angry at the idea that saving your own life is cowardice and that, when the time actually comes with something like that, you don't think - only act. So . . . he walked into Rodrigue's trap lol, who'll say then Glenn acted and choose to act that way.

Felix is such a dunce, saying "we'd both survive." Rodrigue rightly accuses him of wanting it both ways lol.

Felix says he understands Rodrigue's way of thinking, but dislikes Glenn's death being glorified.

Felix apologizes too, for his own bad behavior. For hitting Rodrigue.

Felix can't stand dealing with feelings anymore and leaves lol.

I'm sooooo glad this game let Rodrigue have a voice. It was always obvious to anyone with a shred of media literacy what Rodrigue meant, but Hopes let him spell it out.

DIMITRI & YURI B

Yuri's staring at Dimitri. Same. Same.

Yuri's impressed/confused at how quickly Dimitri blended in.

Dimitri's now thinking about the best way to help the poorest (we stan a good king, guys). It's something he's thought a lot about.

He thought medical facilities or investing more in the church (who do more to help the poor than anyone else in this game) would be best, but being around them made him realize that they should get the chance to take charge of their own "destiny."

He wants rulers to actually listen to what the people need best and actually do it rather than what's best for himself.

Yuri says education for everyone is necessary. Dimitri agrees.

But then Yuri makes the point that people won't care about education if they're starving or homeless. (so really, his earlier goals of building medical facilities where people get free/cheap healthcare isn't too far off).

So Dimitri wants to improve quality of life, then build educational reform on top of that.

But of course Edelgard's warmongering is draining money, so Dimitri can't make lives for the common folk better and needs to end the war fast so he can focus on helping people and not keeping little miss imperialist away.

Yuri says if money's the problem, he can use Yuri who can connect Dimitri to merchants and hitman lol. Dimitri's like "no working evil in my name!" He's also cautious about working with Yuri because he's backstabbed people in the past.

Yuri says he promises to honestly work with Dimitri, even protect him, because working with Dimitri will help his dream come true too. So he believes in Dimitri's leadership and vision.

Dimitri says he's grown to trust Yuri too.

Man, I need a sequel game where Yuri and Dimitri work on improving Faerghus together.

SHEZ & FELIX B

So . . . I had no idea I hadn't seen this support yet. I have their A unlocked for a while now too, though, I'll wait to see it since I'm getting support fatigue at the moment.

They're training. Felix insults Shez's footwork. What a typical Felix support lol.

Shez says she has a lot on her mind. Felix calls her a worthless partner if she's training distracted.

And then explains how Shez can't afford to do that on the battlefield (like a mercenary needs telling that lol).

Shez is surprised how much Felix has a read on her.

Felix wants to know where Shez learned how to fight because it's not like a knife or a mercenary.

Shez had a lot of teachers and just picked up stuff here and there. She doesn't use the playbook that knights or mercs usually use.

Shez says she has her unique style which is to her benefit. Felix wants her to teach him. But Shez thinks it's too reliant on the sword Felix can't use. Felix is like try me.

I can agree or refuse to teach him. Obviously I'm agreeing. (I would totally be an ass if it was character I didn't like lol).

Shez comments on Felix's style too - reacting to the say things are playing out.

Shez thinks she'll get stronger too.

I seriously can't believe I let these two sit at B for so long.

ANNETTE & DEDUE A

Annette comes across Dedue training. She insists he takes a break, but he insists on training still because he's not strong enough.

He feels inadequate because he can't use a hero's relic.

He admits he's jealous that others can use such powerful weapons.

Annette's surprised that he opened up, and appreciates that he opened up around her after he tried to dial back and apologize.

Annette talks about how impressed she is with him - his ability to cook and sow where she can't, and his sheer strength despite not using a relic. She thinks he'd be too good if he could use one lol.

Dedue talks about her strengths too - her optimism and how that lifts everyone up around her. Annette is happy if she can help anyone even a little.

Annette made dinner. The bottom of the pot fell out, but she insists that dinner still tastes great.

Someone tell Annette she's not destined to work in marketing lol.

Dedue still goes to eat dinner after hearing that. Brave man.

BYLETH & JERALT B

Definitely one of the supports I was looking forward too.

Byleth has a lot of blood on his clothing and is trying to wash it out and is failing.

Jeralt says washing blood out is more work than it's worth. Proof that man's never had a period.

Jeralt says Byleth reminds him of Sitri when they first meant. She had the same quiet composure and would rather clean a handkerchief she was cleaning than throw it away.

She never laughed or cried either, like Byleth, not at first at least.

Byleth asks why Jeralt is talking about all this now. Jeralt says he's feeling guilty of the lifestyle he's given Byleth - no home, no friends, always battles.

He says life would be different if Sitri was still alive.

Byleth doesn't regret his life and likes having Jeralt around.

It's nice to learn more about Sitri.

JERALT & SHEZ C

Jeralt comes across Shez fishing. Shez is weary. Jeralt tells Shez to relax, but Shez isn't used to it.

Jeralt is like, we're mercs, life happens, it's not personal.

Shez brings up the beginning where Jeralt's Mercenaries wiped out Shez's old company. Glad they're addressing this.

Shez is still upset about it. Jeralt understands now.

He asks if Shez has a grudge. I can choose yes or no. I'm gonna choose yes. I think this Shez would admit to attachments to other people, plus the conflict is more interesting, I think.

Shez talks about how much she liked that group and shares her goals of defeating the Ashen Demon.

Jeralt's like, you just have to let that go now.

Shez admits she's partly relieved because she couldn't defeat Byleth. Jeralt is like, that means you think you could beat me? Shez is like, well, I'd have to try first.

Then Shez helps Jeralt untangle his fishing string and comments on his lack of dexterity.

Jeralt then apologizes about what happened to Shez's mercenary company, especially since it was just too minor lords spewing.

He says he didn't originally plan on killing them, but she (the old captain) came charging in trying to use Jeralt to make a name for herself.

Shez understands, but still seems regretful.

Def hope I can unlock their A in time to see how this resolved (they don't have a B support).

MAIN BATTLE

No side battles this chapter. Onto the showdown at Ailell. Which means fire ground. Ugh. Gonna make everyone a flier that it makes sense for.

They're run into the Black Eagles. The Emperor's personal force.

Claude is there. Man, I gotta play Three Houses again. Every time I see him I'm like "ugh." I did NOT used to think that way.

Wait, is Edelgard actually here? I thought she was some kind of zombie whatever.

TWSITD is there (or mysterious dark mages). Claude is like "you know these people?"

Man, why is Dimitri trusting Claude. Telling him "don't let your guard down." Dimitri wants Claude about the mages. I wouldn't count on Claude's support if he was the only person left.

Even though this IS the only route where Claude's actions make any sense lol. It's definitely in his best interest to put a stop to the Empire's warmongering.

Arval's like, maybe we can learn something this time!

Arval's not upset if they never learn the truth and promises to be with Shez always regardless.

I gotta defeat Duke Aegir and Edelgard. Interesting that she's actually there.

Ohh, persuade Death Knight. They were setting him up to be here, but I didn't know I could recruit him. Makes way more sense than in Houses where you can't. Not surprised you need Mercedes to do it. I always bring her anyways.

Dimitri took out Ladislava right away lol.

Death Knight showed up. I'm beyond seeing him as a scary opponent though lol.

Mercedes defeated the Death Knight as an NPC. Is that automatic or just funny coincidence?

Aegir and Edelgard ran away. Really wish I could've killed Aegir. Killing Edelgard would stop the war too.

I killed Caspar and Bergliez so fast the dialogue didn't even finish lol. Dimitri too strong. They both ran away. Honestly, couldn't care less about killing this version of Caspar.

Oh, cool cut scene. And, ok, it's cool to see Claude and Dimitri fighting back-to-back.

Claude tells Dimitri to run after Edelgard while he holds off the Empire here. Not sure I trust him at all, but like I said, this is the only route where his choices make any sense.

Dimitri has 74 strength lol. No wonder he kills everything so fast.

Cool to get Jeritza though.

xxx

#azure gleam #fire emblem #fire emblem three hopes #three hopes #three hopes spoilers #azure gleam spoilers

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stergeon · 4 months

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Sorry if this seems sudden, but what are your thoughts on a Young Edelgard befriending a Young Byleth who canonically doesn't have friends due to how people are afraid and creeped out by her behavior?

Yea, the tragedy is how Byleth has nobody their age to connect with as well as most not getting them to the point of dehumanization until Garreg Mach, but it's neat to think of.

ohhhh tbh i love this… in my mind, young edelgard is very precocious, but also extremely coddled (comes with being royalty) and kind of oblivious/condescending without meaning to be. “aren’t all tutors dreadful? hm? you don’t have lessons? what do you do all day? what?? you work??? is that allowed????”

like, well-meaning with a strong sense of justice, and genuinely curious about other people’s lives, but without a frame of reference for anything yet.

and young byleth, as you say, would have been intimidating to be around lol. an eerie and serious kid who probably learned how to kill a man not long after she learned to walk. i see her as being affable in the sense that she just kind of goes along with whatever situation she’s in, without any investment in it one way or another beyond doing what she’s told, but she would definitely be confused by other kids and struggle hard with social cues, etc. until she gets sufficiently good at reading people as to passably mask. it’s a very lonely and difficult way to live.

i could absolutely see edelgard running into this weird little girl and adopting her on the spot. “why don’t people play with you. what do you mean, you don’t know how to play. we’re going to play a game right now; so there.” edelgard is nothing if not driven and dedicated to the causes she believes in (and her massive savior/martyr complex doesn’t help lol—she’s already adopted one local weirdo by becoming besties with hubert). so i think if she set her mind to being byleth’s friend, she would make it happen. this kid is now her personal project. they WILL be friends.

and i reckon that friendship would do wonders for byleth. she had so little interaction with anyone her age in her youth, and having one real friend might make all the difference for her. edelgard could help ground her, and help her better understand the world they live in, and keep her in touch with her humanity—or, really, help her discover it in the first place. meanwhile, edelgard could learn a LOT from byleth, who’s spent her life unhoused* and pretty much living paycheck-to-paycheck with jeralt’s band of violent (and likely alcoholic, per jeralt and alois) mercs. byleth could lend her some perspective and further shape edelgard’s love for the people of fódlan, as well as her understanding of what kinds of societal changes are needed to make things better for everyone.

who knows, that connection might even lead sothis to emerge earlier…

the concern, of course, is jeralt, who (for debatably valid reasons) never wants to stay anywhere for too long, and probably would get super freaked out by the idea of his kid hanging around one of the heirs of the adrestian empire. whether they’d actually have enough time to become friends… idk.

but kids are funny when they set their minds to something. i’d like to think edelgard would decide, day one, that they’re friends, and friends help each other, so that’s what she’s going to do. i’d like to think that when edelgard found out byleth’s group would be leaving again soon, she’d use that big brain of hers and coax her father into hiring the mercenaries on for a long-term mission or as a standing battalion. adrestia’s been on the outs with the church for a good while already, so jeralt might feel comfortable enough to consider putting down roots, even if just for a little longer than usual.

that could REALLY change both byleth and edelgard’s lives. in my little daydream, byleth starts training to be a knight and a personal guard for edelgard, and basically spends as much time around her as hubert does. and maybe, when the insurrection happens edelgard is taken to fhirdiad, hubert stands a better chance of finding her with someone by his side who has spent her entire young life in the woods and on the roads, tracking enemies and avoiding pursuers. maybe they find her. maybe they help prevent some truly terrible things from happening.

what happens from there, idk; so many of edelgard’s views are informed by her experiences and it gets too complicated for my tiny brain to realistically figure out what would occur and who she’d be if it went down like that instead.

but byleth would be changed just by knowing edelgard. having someone in her young life who is invested in her, who sees beyond the fog of the day-to-day, who’s interested in what she wants, who embraces and celebrates her quirks and doesn’t shun her for them, who grants her stability and some agency in her own life… someone who sees her as a person, not just as a sword or set of hands… how could anyone not be changed by something like that?

* with the exception of Whatever The Fuck she was doing while jeralt was parading around in leonie’s village for however long. this is my least favorite plot hole in the game, namely because leonie acknowledges it. “huh. i don’t remember you being there, and you don’t, either. maybe you were with a relative”??? what relative, IS?? how many living relatives does byleth have that aren’t trying to turn her into a mommy-god??? why fake your kid’s death and disappear “for her safety,” just to ditch said kid somewhere with someone for months?????

WHERE WAS YOUR CHILD, JERALT??????

ok i’m done yelling lol. thank you for this ask, this was really fun to think about <3

#fire emblem #fe3h #i love them girls.#as someone who is neurodivergent i vibe hard with neurodivergent byleth takes #but i’m also reluctant to go along with them as the writer of a fic where byleth gaining her heart also turns on The Emotion Fountain #i hate to potentially imply that she ‘got better’ from being neurodivergent.#hopefully it does not come across that way in my fic lol. to me it’s all plot-reasons #but also as someone who was a weird kid who Did Not Get It socially: it resonates #kids are so interesting and so funny #sterge.eml

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dragongutsixofficial · 11 months

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I was thinking about Dorothea singing Edelgard back to sleep after a nightmare and now I'm curious about what your Edelgard's relationship with Siyn looks like

Thanks so much for the ask !! ^^ I have to note that I'll have to elaborate more on Siyn to answer that to the best of my abilities. Here we go:

First off, one important thing about Siyn is that like all Byleth-s, she has always been motivated by love and her desire to connect with others. At the same time, she has never really had the occasion to connect with her own emotions and learn what they meant before the Academy- first off because they were a bit tuned down from the start (what's with Sothis and all that), but also because she grew up pretty isolated with a father who definitely didn't know how to care for an autistic child (sorry Jeralt xD). So, she's kind of always wanted to get the occasion to develop meaningful relationships before she knew she did, although she's always struggled with analyzing her own feelings in the first place. She was actually a bit miserable and numb alone.

So, when she finally got the chance to be around new people, people whose safety and lives she was entrusted with, this new responsibility gave her wings (of the hegemon, lol). Her students were people her own age, who didn't judge her because she was aloof or ignorant of fodlanese history; and they confided in her because they trusted that they could rely on her. She felt true happiness for the first time and immediately fell head-over-heels for them. And within them… was Edelgard, of course. Edelgard, who slowly started to think of Byleth as one of the rare people she could possibly rely on later on- as she felt safe enough to start sharing her past trauma with her.

Their bound grew a lot stronger during their year at the Academy, due to the trust they both developed in each other and the obvious care Siyn has for her students. She was never afraid to give Edelgard responsibilities in battle, and they still often function as battling partners (with Siyn delegating to her): but most of all, she always went out of her way to meet with her students whenever she had the time. One of my funny little headcanons about her is that Siyn always has a few owl feathers in her pocket in case someone needs it- which makes for the funny sight of the professor collecting anything she sees in the dirt and keeping it as a potential gift. And the second she found out Edelgard liked teddy bears, it was over. She buys Edelgard a different teddy bear at least once a month, without fail: an habit that she developed during White Clouds and keeps going throughout their relationship. On another funny note, Siyn is a BIG tea lover, and actually starts learning fire magic as a way to heat up her cold cups of tea. Since she goes out to drink tea with Edelgard at any possible occasion, bergamot quickly became her default blend, which Edelgard took to mean that it was also the professor's favorite. But… Siyn doesn't even really like the taste of bergamot tea. When asked, however, she is adamant that it is her favorite, because she has so many good memories and emotions affiliated with her teatimes with El. And she doesn't understand why Edelgard is (affectionately) mad at her when she finds out Siyn dislikes the taste of bergamot well after the war, nor why she starts making her try every tea under the sun to find her real favorite.

A pretty weird point in their relationship would be when Siyn straight out says yes to joining the Flame Emperor, because so far she isn't a big fan of the Church which admittedly likes to kill people a bit too easily for her taste. She doesn't yet know what that mysterious figure wants, however she figures that they might have a point. This makes for a pretty interesting exchange when Edelgard not so subtly asks her if she was serious, and she flat-out tells her that yes, and why would she lie. El is left confused by the whole situation, but a little more hopeful. In the meantime, she is more than happy to let herself relax a little and hang out with her professor as she gives out scrapes of her unfinished meals to the monastery animals.

I might also be one of the rare people who loved Edelgard's little wake-up speech at Jeralt's death, and I believe it helped Siyn a lot : a mix between hearing about how it was possible to keep going from a person who had lost so much, but also realizing that if she wasn't there to protect her kids, she might lose them as well. It was a little bit of clarity at a time where she was experiencing extremely strong and unfamiliar emotions due to grief that she didn't know how to process or even express verbally. Maybe she could find solace in her sense of purpose (and then, spend as much time as possible with her student and dear friend before she leaves the Academy to rule in Enbarr).

The real drama in Siyn's character development comes after she fuses with Sothis, whose powers she accepted with the sole aim of going back to her students as fast as possible. She doesn't have a lot of time to think about it on the spot, but… then there's Rhea. Personally speaking, the scene where she sings to a barely conscious Byleth has always sent shivers down my spine (though I totally understand that's not the case for other players ofc!). And that overt change in the Archbishop's behavior (like the first time she engages in physical contact without asking for Siyn's permission, which makes her feel very uncomfortable) hammers it in that something within her has changed. At the precise moment where Siyn had become a person she really did like being. Her hair changing colors and Rhea's whole plan to put her in the prophet outfit and make her have a "divine revelation" worsen Siyn's state : is she really herself anymore ? was she ever meant to be her own person ? The wave of relief when she feels nothing happen on the throne is cut short by Edelgard going full Revolution™, and she finds it so hard to wrap her head around the whole situation that she follows the movement and defeats her in combat.

And then… Rhea asks her to kill Edelgard.

Edelgard, the brave girl who bared her heart to Siyn in her darkest moments. The brave girl who, even though she herself struggled with control issues, always trusted her to protect the Black Eagles and trusted in her decisions. The same Black Eagles who had become her family, who had given her the chance to truly exist as herself for the first time.

It was never a choice.

Siyn protects Edelgard.

Rhea breaks down. Admits that she was just another failure. That she will take back her heart herself, no matter the cost. The class manages to get away.

And then, all of a sudden, it's them against the world.

Edelgard is in absolute disbelief over Siyn caring enough to choose to walk her crimson path, but her teacher won't hear any of it. I think it's the first time El realizes how much she means to Siyn… and that she won't ever give her up. At that moment, she starts, slowly, to truly fall for her: although she doesn't realize it fully on the spot.

All the while, Rhea's words gnaw at the corners of Siyn's minds, but she can't dwell on them. She must protect Edelgard. She's been ready to die for her - for any of them, really- for a long time now.

And then, she falls.

Absence makes the heart fonder, they say. That certainly is the case for Edelgard: during those five years, she realizes that the way she feels about Siyn might be romantic. Siyn falls for Edelgard almost immediately after coming back: seeing how much Edelgard has changed, how much she missed her, how courageous and brave she still is after all this time- it makes her feel a way she's never felt before. There's pride, affection, but something else she can't understand. Something she doesn't feel for anyone else. Something that makes her melt and hug back when Edelgard holds her, instead of making her uncomfortable. Reunited, the both of them turn their focus towards the war at hand.

Siyn struggles a lot during this time period with her sense of self and her self-esteem starts plummeting. She starts resenting her divine powers and stops using the Sword of the Creator. Starts wondering if Sothis is gonna completely take over at some point. Starts wondering if it would be better this way; after all, didn't her failure to protect her students put them through five years of unneeded suffering ? It's only after she ends up breaking down again, and has to at least try to communicate her feelings because everyone is getting worried about her, that she starts realizing that… her and her students' relationship isn't a one-way street. They're here for her, too. Edelgard is here for her. And though it's complicated, she starts slowly getting better and trying to convey her feelings to people more, as well as understand them. Slowly, that leads her to accept her divine part, starts being more sure of herself and starts to think about the future- about her future.

She's still pretty clueless about the nature of her attraction to Edelgard. But she knows that no matter how, she wants to spend every day in her company, and make her laugh, and give her the leisurely sweets-filled days she deserves. People kind of have to lay it out for her that what she feels is most definitely romantic love. The feeling and concept still feel a bit foreign to her, especially since she's basically got no relationship experience, but she's ready to give it a try. She realizes she literally wants to be Edelgard's- El's- life partner. She makes up her mind to propose, and she does. However, she doesn't do it with Jeralt's ring: that one she keeps for herself, because she finally loves herself fully. She engraves a little bergamot flower on El's engagement ring, though.

And now, they can have all the fluff they need. I'm pretty sure Siyn would take it extremely overboard at first: she'd read any and all romantic book she would get her hands on for research and apply them to real life. She'd lay so many petals on so many beds and floors on date nights. She'd do super corny stuff and Edelgard wouldn't even have the heart to tell her it's too much. She'd also have some time to spend focusing on herself, which would slowly lead her to the realization that, well… gender's never really been her thing ? and she's never really felt like she had any. She's always just gone with the flow and whatever people called her. So… yeah basically El walks her partner through her agender awakening. xD Siyn does keep she/her pronouns though, because she's most used to them- they tried others but she just never got used to them.

This post is getting very long, but here's an ask I answered about the disagreements Edeleth would face that also totally work for the both of them and this one about them having kids that completes it pretty neatly !!! Thanks again, hope you enjoyed =)

#fe3h #byleth eisner #edelgard von hresvelg #edeleth #siyn eisner #ask #dgix thoughts #agender

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randoimago · 5 months

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fire emblem three houses for the ask game please

Got two people sending in requests for me to do FE3H so here it is!! I didn't add the fav headcanons to this one cause my brain is soup rn and I don't want to think

Ask Game Here

3 male characters I love: Ashe (my baby), Dedue (I married him🥰), oh god i'm limited to three Linhardt

3 female characters I love: Lysithea (I always try to recruit her, she's my MVP), Bernadetta (also my baby), Marianne

3 romantic ships I love:

Yuri/Bernadetta (childhood friends where one is an assassin that's supposed to kill the other?? I want more of that dynamic ngl)

Mercedes/Sylvain (the support these two have always makes me smile, they're so cute)

Dimitri/Marianne ("I would not trade our time together or the happiness we knew for anything." 😭)

3 platonic dynamics I love:

Annette/Mercedes

Sylvain/Felix (I know these two are shipped a lot and I like seeing them shipped too, I also just like them being brothers and supporting the other when they lost theirs)

Hapi/Constance (they're adorable)

3 favorite moments in canon:

I haven't played this game is so long so I'm trying to remember the different supports and canon events >.<

Flayn and Seteth's paralogue was so good. Idk, I'm a huge momma's girl so learning that they're Father/Daughter and visiting the mom's grave hit me in the feelings. (I also always like watching characters visiting the graves of those they cared a lot for, idk it's a small thing that I enjoy seeing)

As sad as losing Jeralt was in game, the fact that there were so many characters giving support to Byleth was really nice to see. Even if they weren't recruited, it was cute. (Bernie coming out of her room to visit the grave?? 😭😭)

Not really a moment, but I really did enjoy the cast of characters and how different they all felt. Like none of them felt like a copy/paste or lesser of other characters to me. It was nice. And while I might not have connected with some characters over others, I know that they still got their love from others.

3 least favorite things about it:

The DLC boss fight oh my god fuck that guy

Kind of unfortunate that there isn't a "Secret" route where everyone is united and they all fight together. I mean, I know they made the Warriors-esque game, but I'd like to keep playing as Byleth and recruit everyone and see the supports of characters that you normally can't really see supports of from choosing certain houses over others.

I really wish there could've been better supports/endings for some characters. I'm still upset Ingrid and Dorothea only got to B rank. They're best friends and Dorothea so very obviously cares for her and they only make it to B?? I would've just liked more romantic endings over "And they stayed best friends forever"

#honeyandbiscuitandtea-cafe #behindtherando

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childofaura · 10 months

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Since I asked about your favourite 3H characters, who are your top 10 least favourite characters or characters that you absolutely hate?

Uhhh I’mma go ahead and tag this one out as discourse, because yes I do hate Edelgard. But at the same time I usually do my best to either not just spam Edelgard hate (besides my anti-Edelgard posts for FEH, which I actually feel is pretty valid because I’ve had so many people agree with me that Edelgard gets a stupid amount of favoritism in FEH; even people who LIKE Edelgard agree with me), and I do respect people’s opinions for liking Edelgard, even if I vehemently disagree with it.

So with that being said, I’ll list my least favorite/hated characters for 3H. Some I hate for character/story reasons, and at least one I hate for gameplay reasons (though I like him as a character). These will also be in no particular order but number one is definitely number one.

Edelgard. Won’t elaborate because I’m not here to start arguments.

Kronya. She killed Jeralt so she can eat shit >:(

Hubert. I get he’s filling the role of retainer, but man the shit he pulls and how he treats other people… he’s the exact opposite of Dedue.

Yuri. I admit to probably over-exaggerating how bad of a person Yuri is, but he still comes off as super annoying to me. He’s just not very personable or friendly, which isn’t a problem by itself but it’s more that you’re SUPPOSED to like him despite being all nonchalant all the time. And I really don’t.

Byleth. Yes, I don’t like the main character of Three Houses themselves; Shez was better executed as a character. Byleth is quite fully a Mary Sue/Gary Stu. Everyone’s infatuated with them, they’re practically undefeatable and don’t really have much to learn or grow from, they almost never make any kind of mistake, and they carry Sothis’s blood and crest; these aren’t necessarily an issue on their own, but altogether it makes for an incredibly boring character. And they’re so bland and expressionless.

Gilbert. I don’t hate him for his story, or his character. I think he’s great in those regards!… No, it’s because THIS MOTHERFUCKER is an IDIOT in Chapter 5. Runs right in range where the archers are located without moving into a safer position. There is no plausible way to keep this dipshit alive in Maddening Mode.

Sothis. I don’t HATE her, but I am definitely sick of her “incomplete” form. We should have had her regain her memories and become an adult again, that could have resolved SO many plot issues that were left open-ended, like with Rhea and maybe Nemesis and TWSitD. Maybe someday we’ll get Ascended Sothis in her original form from the mural.

Mathias. I ENJOY his story. I ENJOY the role he plays. Between the stalwart nobles and royalty that is Lambert, Rodrigue, and Gilbert, Mathias is the exact dark underside of the crest system that Dimitri believes is unjust. That being said, it’s still pretty fucked up how he treated both Sylvain and Miklan, and he’s decently responsible for how Miklan turned out (not to say that Miklan deserves no blame for his choices, he absolutely does. He willingly made his own choice of being a brigand and treating Sylvain like shit).

Dorothea. This one I’m mixed on because I don’t hate her or even strongly dislike her. But if there’s one thing I really don’t like about her, it’s how she gets really creepily seductive, especially in the Byleth supports. And in Ingrid’s support she straight up tells Ingrid she’s gonna physically sexually harass her (and she’s already verbally harassed her). Which is kind of stupid considering how gross she feels when people only view her for her physical beauty. So yeah, to some degree I dislike her enough to put her on this list.

Monica, actual Monica from Three Hopes. I’ve already mentioned how her character is poorly written into being yet ANOTHER character who ass-pats Edelgard for no plausible reason in the other routes. If Dimitri or Claude are the ones who save her in their respective routes, why is she so strictly loyal to Edelgard? Especially considering how Edelgard was fully aware of the Kronya plan in Three Houses which means she essentially let her die for her cause. I’ll never understand it.

That’s pretty much my whole list, this time I had to include Three Hopes because I actually wouldn’t have had ten characters otherwise for the list. And it goes without saying but this is obviously my subjective opinion and I respect that these are people’s favorite characters.

#discourse #Fire Emblem #anti-Edelgard #Throwing that one in there just in case

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randomnameless · 1 year

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Any headcanons on what would life had looked like if rhea told jeralt to piss off and she raised the baby herself?

Ooh!

I think Rhea would have come clean to Seteth (who still returned with a sleeping Flayn) earlier, still being shocked about everything and the "sin" she committed by creating homonculi, but Sitri asked her, from her own will, to look after her child - can she really continue creating people instead of creating vessels for the Progenitor God?

But Billy's here, and they're born from Sitri's will and actions, so whatever she wanted before or whatever Sitri was supposed to be, it doesn't matter anymore, and she's going to look after them.

Seteth thus understands how desperate Rhea is and tries to support her, to the best of his abilities, and maybe help her move forward and abandon her dreams of meeting Worst Mom again.

Billy grew up with the most ridiculous handsewn uniforms, but they still had difficulties to emote. Rhea didn't really care, and they could often be spot eating zanado fruits on the star terrace, whenever Rhea had free time from her duties.

Rhea's actually reluctant to let them learn how to fight, because she doesn't want them to be hurt. But they can learn how to heal if they want, and Billy's kind of happy to heal people around, and help around the Monastery, being the Archbishop's "ward". Seteth'd teach them how to ride a wyvern too, and actually impart wisdom from Saint Cichol or something.

They fish together, and Seteth sometimes takes them out for "fishing trips" outside GM.

One thing leading to another (maybe the 15th assassination attempt against Rhea), Billy wants to learn how to fight to "protect" their family, they get in their first argument with Rhea, but when they tell this is what they want to do, to protect their family, the monastery and all the things they love, Rhea relents.

When Cyril is brought to Garreg Mach, Billy takes upon themselves to help them settle here, and isn't bothered the least when Rhea expresses satisfaction at how nice it is that they are getting along like good siblings. Cyril is still completely puzzled, but he still has a lizard fam like in canon. Flayn calls them "cousin" and they try to discover the "modern" world together, rather, Billy tells her all about they know, and Flayn coaxes them to learn more about "romance", asking them to borrow books for her.

Rhea told Billy the truth about their mother - part of it anyways - how she died in childbirth, how Sitri was her daughter and how she wished for them to live and to be happy. She lies about Jerry, saying he was a most formidable knight, a legendary captain of the knights, who tragically died while rescuing people from a disaster - she asked Alois and the rest of the KoS to "lie" to Billy about Jerry, and they agreed because it's better for them to believe their Father died than to learn their Father "ran away" from parenthood because his baby was "not normal".

Sothis wakes up and Billy immediately tells Rhea about that weird gremlin in their head - discussions happen and Rhea tells them more about "the truth", how Seteth, Flayn and herself are called Nabateans, and are from a race of people who were created by Sothis, different from humans. And how she created Billy's mom to be a vessel for Sothis, but Sitri was her own person, and then she fell in love with a human, and Billy was born from their union. Rhea then apologises, because it was her desire to meet Sothis once again that led her to create Sitri, and which ultimately brought Billy, but Billy cuts her, she has nothing to apologise for - no matter the reasons why Sitri or they were born, they're happy to exist and live in this world, and want to help everyone, Rhea herself, included.

Billy thus enrols in the Officers Academy, but as a teacher, to gain more experience about the world and help the various nations, with Rhea's blessing - she thinks that with enough experience, if of course they want, Billy could take over her role and guide/help the people.

Sothis doesn't want to get the job, but wonders what her host will do, and she found it very interesting how they the product of human-nabatean breeding, and wants to see what they will do, can they build a peaceful world or not?

Jerry returns to the Monastery, and while Billy at first thought he was a poor soul who needed counselling, they come to realise this person is the father who abandonned them - Rhea lied, yes, but they understand why - and might decide, or not, to have some sort of relationship with Jerry.

the end

#anon #replies #what happens with the lords is up to you #FE16 #fodlan AU #i still think in this AU Rhea would come clean earlier to Billy #since Billy was raised as her kid #she'd have had more time to realise they're not Sothis they're Billy the child she raised #just like Sitri in a way #when sothis wakes up rhea knows there are 2 souls in the body #in rhea's best world billy would have become a gardener or maybe a cook or a fisherman #But Billy prefered to heal fight and help randoms around like her #billy wasn't called the ashen demon in this verse #but something stupid like the big tuna or the biped cat courtesy of flayn and the monastery children #they didnt' mind

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emblemxeno · 2 years

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Ngl the CYL discourse this year is killing me. You have people complaining about Byleth being in Sothis' garb and saying she should have been based on her father Jeralt, while also claiming Seliph being based on his father is 'boring', and that Tiki being based on her young self is the worst thing that has happened on planet earth and she should have been based on her mother, while Chrom being a promoted class lance cav is a huge missed opportunity and he should have been based on (1/2)

his sister - but last year B!Eirika being based on her brother was boring, predictable and all around terrible. So what we can learn from this is that the fehdom wants Brave characters to be based on their relatives, except for when they dont. Easy peasy. (2/2)

I can see that yeah. Just coming from me, what I think is that people want to see something that isn't seen often, or that's so different to the character that it'd be interesting to see how they'd rock it.

Eirika being based on Ephraim for example? Kind of boring because we already have seen Ephraim's design many, many times, and Eirika was already being treated as attached to Ephraim's hip as it is. In comparison to Chrom dressing as Emmeryn, whom he's not as shackled to and with vastly different weapons and clothes? It'd be cool.

There's also the fact that, for a good chunk of the male characters anyway, it seems like they're genuinely afraid to step out of boundaries. Roy and Ike? Based on their fathers instead of important women in their lives. Ephraim? Based on his father instead of Eirika. Marth? Based on Anri instead of Elice, Caeda, Nyna, etc. Seliph takes from his father instead of his mother or Julia.

Aside from CYL4 (which itself is still the most uninspired and boring of design and weapon choices), the male winners seem relatively strangled by what they can wear, in that it's only "what you've seen them wear before" or "male relatives/historical characters". The women on the other hand? They get to wear clothes inspired by opposite gender relatives, designs based on alternate continuities, stuff like Marianne taking on dancer (for as unchanged the design was, it still was a neat choice).

And considering that, while it would've been nice to see F!Byleth dress as Jeralt, people should know damn well that because of IS's probable fear of emasculating their male characters, it's going to M!Byleth instead if/when he wins.

#queue #feh #fire emblem discourse

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kokomiin · 2 years

Text

i beat Golden Wildfire (for the second time) last night, time for my thoughts. general spoilers on this route. this post ended up way longer than I meant it to be

overall I really super enjoy this game, I feel like it fleshes out the world of Fodlan even more and I have a lot of fun with the gameplay loop since I’m a warriors fan to begin with, combining that with 3H’s way of growing characters made for a satisfying experience. I was surprised by how good the support convos were even though some of them are quite fanservicey, they were still enjoyable. Marianne and Bernie’s support was just plain sweet.

I loved Holst and Lorenz’s dad Erwin, they were really strong additions to the cast and story which makes me excited to see the equivalents to them in the other routes. A lot of Golden Wildfire felt great for Lorenz as a character, and it was interesting to see how the characters acted differently when being thrust into positions of power earlier than they were meant to.

but that brings me to an important topic I wanna talk about which is Claude, i knew some people would not be happy with the direction his character is taken in this game but I didn’t expect them to go THAT crazy over it. Having finished it twice by now, I think he’s perfectly fine. To me Golden Wildfire shows Claude struggling to learn how to be a leader that can both trust and be trusted by his subordinates, and learning from the consequences of taking too many risks for a scheme. I’ve seen some people call what happened to Randolph a result of Claude being evil and fucked up or some shit when it was clearly a very reckless mistake, it is one of the first things that happens after he gains the power of being king and he just failed the people who were relying on him. they make a point to talk about how they are all younger than they should be to be inheriting leadership of their houses, so I think this kind of character flaw isn’t strange at all.

there are also a lot of people who felt like it didn’t make sense for Claude to go after Rhea because of what he’s like in Verdant Wind, but in that case you need to think about why he was sympathetic to Rhea in that one in the first place. He was very close with Byleth, and Byleth wanted desperately to save Rhea as well as having some clear connections with her and the goddess. aside from wanting to do right by Byleth, Claude was mainly motivated by wanting to learn the truth about the world through Rhea which he was pretty adamant about. In Golden Wildfire he’s more focused on gaining security for Leicester and not being swallowed up by Adrestia or Faerghus, since the kingdom was already harboring Rhea and Claude had spent next to no time to know her because of the events of this game he had no reason to save her or sympathise with her.

when it comes to the things I do agree are issues though, something about 3hopes is that because they expect you to have knowledge on all the rest of 3 houses there are some big plot points that are kind of glossed over, one of them being the reasons why the empire think rhea bad in the first place. Claude mentions it as one of the reasons why he wants to take her down but he doesn’t go into any details so it feels a little superficial. I will also say that I miss the curiosity aspect of Verdant Wind in this game, although I enjoyed the route a lot I can’t say it lives up to that one.

I spent so long talking about Claude I forgot to talk about the ending, it SUCKED, I mean the final battle was awesome but what the heck is the deal with it ending so vaguely? There is no epilogue or true conclusion, the characters are constantly talking about how it’s ‘not over yet’, and even in the route where you get to learn (most of) the truth about Arval there are plenty of unanswered questions. It’s not the same as like Fates’ endings for example where they at least actually end the war and have closure and a final scene, then leaving off with some intrigue. Narrator Jeralt is literally just like “Claude suggested that Edelgard and Dimitri stop fighting but things are still unsure! the end” like what the fuck dude

#dess #3hopes spoilers

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raxistaicho · 8 months

Note

Just on the topic that Sothis might magically reconstitute herself and do a bunch of Goddess stuff, including overthrowing Edelgard like her detractors seem to think she will, Fire Emblem Heroes gives some context on what is actually happening with Byleth, courtesy of Seteth.

Fallen Rhea: I believed that if I could resurrect

my mother... I could regain all that had been lost...

Seteth: Your mother? Lady Rhea, you know

full well that such a thing is

forbidden, and yet...

[Alphonse asks what is happening, Seteth explains Rhea's deepest most secreted desire is to bring Sothis back to life.]

Seteth: Day by day, year by year, that desire must have grown, but...it would be the greatest affront of all.

For it was Sothis herself who forbade any and all attempts to return her to life.

Is this the consequence of Lady Rhea’s attempting to break that stricture?

If so, her words can mean only one thing...

1. Seteth says that it was Sothis herself that told the Nabateans not to bring her back to life.

This means she knows it's possible and DOES NOT want it to happen. (I personally have a theory that Sothis was attempting to tell Rhea to become the next "Goddess" to lead Fodlan onwards as their protector and guide when she speak to her in the Holy Tomb before she meets Wilhelm. This would make sense as Rhea says that the name Seiros was given to her in VW, which seems confusing at first until you remember that her birth name is likely "The Immaculate One" or "The White One," in the same way Sothis' is "The Beginning," and Byleth "The Enlightened One." Seiros being a name that references Sirius/The Blue Sea Star and Sothis herself, along with the entanglement of the Crest of Flames and Seiros being the first and last tarot card numbers to actually appear in Three Houses. But I digress.)

2. Not only were the Nabateans told not to bring Sothis back to life, Seteth readily assumes that Rhea is being PUNISHED for attempting to do so. Obviously he's wrong, but it paints a picture of the person Goddess Sothis was and just how taboo this act is.

3. We learn later in this event that Rhea's degeneration is caused by her despair at not being able to resurrect her mother, which obviously matches the in game reasoning. (It also heavily implies that this is THE only thing keeping Rhea from degeneration. She has no other purpose left, which I feel is why she is so so strangely distant, distracted, and unreachable throughout the game. Sothis even criticises her lack of observation that lead to Solon's presence in Garreg Mach. Detachment is clearly not a trait Goddess Sothis would have tolerated in her children. The Nabateans are often hinted at being warriors or at the very least militant by TWSitD and the Shadow Library records, combined with Seteth's intense nature, Rhea's reactions to opposition, Seiros' actions in battle, and the combat oriented nature of Crests. They're all obviously caring, but in the Greek Pantheon/Old Testament kind of way.)

All of this is to say that it's not Byleth or Sothis' heart that "breaks" at the end of Crimson Flower, it's Rhea's.

She's begging and demanding Byleth give her mother's heart back.

We know Sothis is still around. Her essence is in Byleth's soul ever since they merged.

Sothis also says the Crest Stone is nothing but a decoration in every ending of the game, the thing has been empty ever since that point. The only thing keeping it around was Rhea's magic.

There's some heavy implication there that even IF Rhea had been able to retrieve the Crest Stone from Byleth, there wouldn't be a Sothis within it to revive.

Sothis herself didn't just put herself into Byleth, she very likely, and intentionally, made it impossible to revive her from that point onwards.

Now, obviously Rhea can die in SS, but that's also the route where Byleth chooses divinity, that doesn't mean the Crest Stone is still actually doing something when Byleth absolutely should have the Major Crest of Seiros as Jeralt's child. It's literally the X factor Rhea claims to be the difference in Byleth compared to the other vessels. Byleth herself might be keeping the Stone whole, not intentionally, but subconsciously. The same way we all beat our hearts.

Just some thoughts. Rhea is the only one who wanted Sothis back, including Sothis herself. I mean Byleth also wants that, but they get what they want with soul merged Ghosthis.

Also, if Sothis didn't want Edelgard alive, why the hell would she help Byleth wake up? Or bring the rain in CF, or allow Byleth the ability to run through these cycles at all, which her opening dialogue of "It is almost time to begin" and "Drift through the flow of time to find the answers that you seek..."

Considering the Black Eagles is the only route where greater context and knowledge actually enables you to alter the outcome, these quotes show an awareness of that fact. Especially since AM requires the LEAST knowledge of grander events.

Sothis supporting Edelgard and not wanting to be revived is also supported by how "To the End of a Dream" serves as a reference to Rhea's dream to resurrect Sothis, Sothis' constant sleeping, AND Byleth being "The End/Ending" to Sothis' "Beginning."

Sothis canonically, endorses Edelgard through her opinions, actions, foreknowledge/hindsight, and the meta of the game.

It's no mistake that VW and CF titles make allusions to dawn, waking, change and spring, while SS and AM reference night, dreaming, conservation, and winter. The game and Sothis both have a preference.

(Sorry for the essay, I got carried away. I have a lot of thoughts on all four of these ladies.)

Not at all, that was a really interesting bit of analysis! I especially liked point 3 and the point on Sothis acting against Rhea in CF. I broadly knew most of the details from Heroes, but I didn't quite know all the specifics, so I appreciate you sharing them.

#fire emblem three houses #edelgard discourse #edelgard von hresvelg #edelgard positive #Sothis #Rhea #crimson flower

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gay-kurapika · 1 year

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I know other people have said similar things about Edelgard, but I think a very important part of the way you should read her interactions with other characters before the crimson flower route starts is that she believes everyone will oppose her for choosing to fight the system, so she doesn’t think she can make any deep connections with anyone. Her past was seeing her siblings killed by genetic experiments and her father slowly dying. She was part of these experiments herself and learned not to trust anyone, clinging to the love she believed she saw between her parents, which was distant at best and politically motivated. When she tells Hubert she believes he should have pursued love for himself instead of devotion for her, it’s because she wanted to protect him. She wanted him to choose a life that had nothing to do with her. She purposely keeps herself distant from everyone, to the point that she gets called arrogant frequently, which is pretty inaccurate to her actual beliefs, which center around merit being the primary reason for leadership, getting rid of corporeal punishment, and the end of the nobility system. And I firmly believe that when Byleth’s father dies and she tells Byleth to stop crying about it and continue to live their life it’s a combination of her own trauma and her own desire to push others away to avoid getting hurt thats really talking. Because when Byleth mentions wanting revenge, she’s pleased. There’s a scene with her in her flame emperor disguise talking about the people who killed Jeralt facing justice for their actions. She didn’t want Byleth to move on, she knew how it felt to experience that kind of loss. But she still feels the need to protect Byleth by pushing her away

#anyways…#I honestly really have a special interest in this game I can play it all day

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unmeiokaemasu · 2 years

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dammit 3 hopes has all the issues I thought it’d have & it’s also fun and I’m enjoying myself OTL

I mean the only issue is that I wish. I wish it wasn’t a remix of the 3H story? I’m so done with that story. Not even necessarily the characters; I fully fresh story like a full-on au might be nice, but this ain’t that. Also I’d rather be playing as Byleth, they’re to date my favorite player-character in an FE game, and I completely do not jive with the new player character having a vendetta against them.

OK. That said. I like pretty much everything else.

I kinda freaked out when right off the bat there was not only a difficulty option, but a casual/classic option?? Permadeath in my warriors game? Excuse me? FEW has difficulty levels each level so you can choose each time which difficulty you’re beating it on, and you get rewards ever time you up the difficulty. And no permadeath, what? What do you think you are, Fire Emblem?? ...so yeah I picked easy/casual despite having played warriors games before, and even left the tutorials on, which I’m glad I did; they’re really easy to skip if I don’t need them, but some functions have been remapped from the old FE Warriors, and there’re some new functions as well.

I think the UI has improved over FEW; I like that it tracks who you’re locked onto, and unless I’m mistaken it shows when a major enemy is targeting you? I also had an easier time locating new threats as they were added to the map. I think there was more than that because I found it really easy to jump into.

That said, I’m sure if this is someone’s first Warriors game, it comes with the usual map-reading frustration. I still sometimes found it difficult to location the character I was currently controlling on the minimap. In the previous game the adjuncts (or w/e they were called them, I always called them adjuncts cuz I played 3h first lol) didn’t have full character icons, which did make them a bit harder to spot as colored dots, but unclutted the map. idk other folks will have to weigh in and tell me if this is your first warriors game how the map reading experience is.

And yeah...I enjoyed ditching Shez the first chance I got and playing as my old favs. It’s a shame, I’d’ve loved to like some new characters. Most of all I’m meh on the new characters. I think it’s profoundly dumb that they repeated the “there’s an amnesiac being with godly powers in my head” plot, but I really like Arval. And I’m playing Claude’s route (I was going to start a elsewhere but it’s like...tradition at this point), and I like his evil brother a lot.

Um...I like the dialogue options for Shez, They really feel like expanded versions of the options from 3H, with a wider variety of tones and emotions. I don’t have a consistent way I’m playing them, but being able to pick options that aren’t the most annoying arrogant makes me like the character more.

One weird thing, I’m playing this on Japanese voice options, and Shez’’s Japanese VA sounds A LOT like Leonie’s, so it’s really weird to hear her talking about fighting “Jeralt’s mercenaries.”

Oh yeah, the actual fighting? I mean, standard warriors stuff. You can really get into a zone. It’s designed to occupy your full attention what with keeping track of the whole map and multiple failpoints and objectives, but it’s still kind of meditative. Assuming you don’t fail because you somehow didn’t hear an objective and didn’t realize a base was threatened or something. (The most frustrating version of that I encountered was in Age of Calamity, but again, I think that’s where I actually learned to read the ding dang maps)

I...I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to trying out guy Shez. Probably not. Traditionally I always liked playing the girl character because it’d uncover little biases in the writing that made it seem like it was written with a male player character in mind, but 3H doesn’t do that as much I think? With Byleth it was because they straight up don’t speak much, but...yeah, y’know what, I think that’s what it is. Shez is fully voiced, and has to like, emote, so all her lines had to make sense as a girl, and they gave her the same dialogue as the guy. So none of it feels like she’s an afterthought genderswap, at least not on this first cursory impression of it. If I wanted to analyze it I should also play as the guy, but. Nah. Not rn anyway.

Soooo yeah. I haven’t finished the last map that’s available in the demo, but, as per tradition, I think when I pick it up again I’m going to start over. I think I’ll do normal/casual bcs again permadeath in a warriors game is like ??? but maybe I’ll try it eventually. And I wanna try a new house obvs.

#catfishchat

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edelegs · 3 years

Text

a very unfocused analysis on why edelgard stans are mostly lgbt

I am constantly thinking about how Edelgard just doesn’t seem designed to appeal to cishet men. Like the joke is that Bleagles is the Gay House, but everything about her feels deliberately non-hetero. She’s dressed in sharp outfits covering her upper body, with proportions that don’t seem exaggerated. Her poise and the way she effortlessly flourishes her axe exhibits an air of coolness. While titties out =/= character of no substance, Edelgard being dressed more modestly suggests that she wasn’t designed with male-centred fanservice in mind. And she still looks absolutely stunning in her more modest attire (like seriously, I haven’t felt the need to return to cosplay in years but I want to do her academy look so bad).

Edelgard is intense. She does not mince her words and she is constantly evaluating you. Though she tries, she has a difficult time understanding her peers initially. Early on, she talks about how she would sacrifice herself and others in the name of some greater good. She is terrible at communicating with her peers. She has to be seen as infallible. Her heart has been hardened for years and she assumes she has to stay that way. She also assumes everyone mourns the same way she does - which is why she (kind of insensitively) insists you move on when Jeralt dies. Because to her, grief has to be channeled towards action, or else you’ll get lost in it. This attitude is demonstrated time and time again as she presses on. It can make her come off as cold and unfeeling - but look closer, and she’s anything but. Her story is ultimately about her realizing that to achieve her goals, she needs to let people in and allow herself to want things like cakes and tea parties and lazy days in peace. The game leaves the player guessing as to how involved the Flame Emperor was in each Part I event, makes you feel hurt by her betrayal, and leaves you with a choice: do you follow the orders of the woman who tried to make you a god without your consent, or a young girl with questionable morals about to throw the world into upheaval?

Choosing her of your own volition (not for completionist reasons) requires the basic ability to sympathize with a woman’s pain. It also requires the player to read beyond her unwavering will and dubious methods to get a sense of how deep that pain goes and how the theme of humanity relates to her differently in each route. The player must be able to see a young woman’s desperate resolve to change the world so it stops exploiting people and ruining lives. They must be able to accept the fact that women can make the same morally wrong and ambivalent decisions that complicated male characters get to make all the time and still be the one to root for. This is not unique to LGBT+ people, but this population is likely to understand why Edelgard feels so strongly about why she has to change the system.

I don’t think “Edelgard gets undue criticism because she’s a woman” captures the full picture. An important aspect of her treatment by certain parts of the fandom is that she’s a radical woman. Her hatred of the Church and the Crest system resonates way harder with people who have been hurt by institutions that are deeply engrained in our society. Siding with her means siding against the Church - which, while different from real world religious institutions, still invokes language about “sin” and “punishment. Choosing Edelgard will likely hit different if homophobic and transphobic Christians used that rhetoric against you. I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that the reason F/F Edeleth is the more popular iteration of that ship because most people who would choose to S-support Edelgard are LGBT+ themselves. This is not a revelation. To anyone in the community, it’s fairly obvious.

Crimson Flower was my first route. I went into the game knowing absolutely nothing. I played it during the last week of 2020 and hoo boy was it cathartic. I felt like I was living out a gay revolution power fantasy, where I could truly change systems of oppression while fighting alongside a group of troubled students I’d shaped the lives of. Through your unwavering support, Edelgard learns that she needs to be human, that she must listen to her friends, and that she’s allowed to enjoy the world she’s creating. I love this character so much. It has been six months since I first played and I am still analyzing her, because there’s so much depth. Yet so many people fail to see that depth and dismiss her as evil, because they never had the will to understand complicated women in the first place.

#on edelgard day i'm gonna post this potentially controversial analysis that's been in my drafts forever #edelgard von hresvelg #character analysis #long post #pro-edelgard #tldr: they hate to see a girlboss winning

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lysissisyl · 3 years

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The most precious gift

Late evening. Byleth was sitting is her room, thinking about all that day had brought her.

Her students had all brought a little token or organized something nice, even some of the students from the other houses had decided to join the celebrations. Mercedes had made a cake (even if Lysithea had eaten at least half of it before Byleth could even try it), Dorothea had written her a song, that her and Manuela had singed for her at lunch. Caspar had sharpened her sword and made it shine (with a lot of help from Felix, who had totally refused to take any credit for it and had left the room grumbling when it was mentioned). Petra had caught a deer that Raphael had helped roasting, a scene that had earned some snarky comments from Claude. Hubert had prepared a special poison to apply on her weapons that Byleth had to find a very high and safe spot for, while Ferdinand had decided to try helping her learn about her origins and family tree, at least before Jeralt remembered he had something very important he needed to discuss with him. Linhardt had brought a lot of books and ancient parchments with scattered informations about her crest, some of which had been taken by Seteth during a very strangely timed dorm inspection, even though they weren’t actually in the dorm... Oh, well. Bernadetta had brought her a plant she had been growing for her for a while. She had actually left it in front of her door with a note while everyone else was celebrating, but it counted anyway.

Byleth still felt very confused about it all. As a mercenary, for her birthday she had never done anything that strange or fancy. Jeralt had always made sure she had one of her favorite foods for each meal and they had always camped somewhere peaceful (or at least relatively peaceful, depending on their current whereabouts). The other mercenaries had offered her a chance to try their weapons as a kid or invited her for some sparring as an adult (that’s actually what her and Jeralt had done that morning before class), but that was more or less all there was. The gifts, that kind of gifts at least, were new and Byleth wasn’t sure how to to feel about them yet.

Of one thing she was sure though: she knew which one was her favorite. It wasn’t something fancy or something peculiar per se, but she had put it on her desk, somewhere she could see it from her bed, because something inside her told her that was one of the most precious things she owned now.

It was a letter. A very short letter, written on some high quality but very simple paper.

“Dear professor,

I heard today is your birthday and I’ve been thinking for a while about how to make it feel special.

I heard from Leonie that you had never had a party, but I’m not exactly an expert either and, forgive my arrogance, i don’t think you would enjoy it. She said you enjoyed sparring when you worked as a mercenary, but I didn’t want it to feel like I was asking for some special training. Jeralt told me he used to tell you stories, both about the battles he fought and the history of these lands. He said he had stopped far before you could remember them, before you were even able to talk, but you seemed to enjoy them a lot.

So...would you meet me in the Goddess Tower tonight? I’ll tell you a story.

Kind regards,

Edelgard von Hresvelg."

Byleth ran her fingers on the words, something she had already done multiple times that evening. There ws something in those words and in the way they were written; maybe the calligraphy, so round, sweet and smooth compared to what most people would have expected from Edelgard. Or maybe it was the thought that she had probably done that same gesture too, touched that same paper, maybe with the same doubts, the same uncertainty.

Byleth shook her head, then folded the letter again and gently put it back on the desk, before grabbing her jacket and heading toward the door. The Goddess Tower... She was curious to hear that story. Her story.

#Edeleth #Edelgard #Byleth #FE3H #Fire Emblem: Three Houses #RedInk #Because someone wrote me a gift for my birthday once and it was the most precious thing I received that day #Because I have a precious letter I save #Because I know how precious stories are

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lochnessies · 3 years

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ok here’s a dissection of a post an anon sent me the link to and bc i have the worst time management possible and i completely forgot i had it lol so sorry anon here you go ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

I am constantly thinking about how Edelgard just doesn’t seem designed to appeal to cishet men.

i hate to be the one to break this news to you op but just because a character doesn’t show skin like charlotte fire emblem doesn’t mean she isn’t designed to pander to men. she’s very much designed to pander to the (majority straight male) player base with her ‘uwu i only trust you professor omg did u see that rat? pls don’t look at my painting of you uwu’.

then there’s the whole edelgard c support in japanese where byleth makes reference to having come to her room for ‘yobi’ which is

there’s also the scene where byleth can make an unsolicited comment about edelgard’s breast size. which is… uhh… gross.

edelgard also has cipher cards that go from slightly fanserviceie to full on suggestive

and also her breast armor that my sister relentlessly mocked lol

and here’s a chart from the 3h subreddit about gender/sexually in regards to edelgard and edeleth. it’s extremely straight male. op might have just overlooked this since they probably don’t go on reddit and stay on tumblr (which unlike reddit is mostly female and has a high lgbt demographic).

Like the joke is that Bleagles is the Gay House, but everything about her feels deliberately non-hetero.

i don’t like where this is going…

She’s dressed in sharp outfits covering her upper body, with proportions that don’t seem exaggerated.

so women who cover up must be lgbt because straight women are naturally more revealing? oh y i k e s

Her poise and the way she effortlessly flourishes her axe exhibits an air of coolness. While titties out =/= character of no substance, Edelgard being dressed more modestly suggests that she wasn’t designed with male-centred fanservice in mind.

“titties don’t equal no substance but here’s my post on how she has more substance because she doesn’t show titties” ok

And she still looks absolutely stunning in her more modest attire (like seriously, I haven’t felt the need to return to cosplay in years but I want to do her academy look so bad).

yes she does. amazing design 10/10. i have a feeling this is the only part i’m going to agree with

don’t really have anything to say at this part. it is pretty on the nose though i would slightly disagree with that last sentence a bit. i wouldn’t say she’s as i feeling as hubert is but all of her talks of the war boil down to how she feels and never her victims.

Her story is ultimately about her realizing that to achieve her goals, she needs to let people in and allow herself to want things like cakes and tea parties and lazy days in peace.

????? what ????? her goals include imperialism, ethnic and religious targeting. her story is about having a set of beliefs and mowing down anybody who stands in her way. that has nothing to do with tea, friends, and lazy days. also am i supposed to be sad that she has to get up everyday and work? i do that and i didn’t start a war and only throw a pity party for myself

The game leaves the player guessing as to how involved the Flame Emperor was in each Part I event, makes you feel hurt by her betrayal, and leaves you with a choice: do you follow the orders of the woman who tried to make you a god without your consent, or a young girl with questionable morals about to throw the world into upheaval?

this isn’t an ideal situation but i think i’m going to stick with the woman who tried to make me a god since i’m not selfish and i know it’s not only my desires and life at stake here. plus the green hair slaps ngl

i’m not going to touch this since @nilsh13 made a post on it that i’ll link here. i agree with everything he said so to repeat it would be redundant.

The player must be able to see a young woman’s desperate resolve to change the world so it stops exploiting people and ruining lives. They must be able to accept the fact that women can make the same morally wrong and ambivalent decisions that complicated male characters get to make all the time and still be the one to root for.

literally the same reason i love rhea lol her goddess experiments are dubious at best but her reasons are the same you mentioned. i would say that i like this quality in edelgard too if her ending, while bloody, actually ended in a good outcome for fodlan.

This is not unique to LGBT+ people, but this population is likely to understand why Edelgard feels so strongly about why she has to change the system.

i understand wanting to change a system, i really do. like edelgard, i’m an opinionated bisexual woman (who’s also physically disabled) so yeah i get it. and change can be good but it can also be terrible. even if the church was the boogeyman edelgard treats it as she still replaces it with her own shit regime. so it’s the same circus just with a new conductor.

or maybe she does some pretty fucked up shit and it goes unacknowledged in her own route. and yeah she’s radical but in all the worst ways.

Her hatred of the Church and the Crest system resonates way harder with people who have been hurt by institutions that are deeply engrained in our society.

and what about people who have been hurt by systems where their ‘merit’ didn’t measure up and they were left behind? what about people from nations that experienced imperialism?

Siding with her means siding against the Church - which, while different from real world religious institutions, still invokes language about “sin” and “punishment.

yeah the ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ are used in relation to attempted murders which i think everybody can agree is a bad thing that needs to be condemned.

Choosing Edelgard will likely hit different if homophobic and transphobic Christians used that rhetoric against you.

it has literally nothing to do with ‘sins’ and ‘punishments’ in regards to being gay or trans. that’s you projecting. especially since the church has 2 canon gay characters and two coded ones.

like i can understand why having a church condemn you can be uncomfortable but i’m begging you to please look at the context of what’s happening.

I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that the reason F/F Edeleth is the more popular iteration of that ship because most people who would choose to S-support Edelgard are LGBT+ themselves. This is not a revelation. To anyone in the community, it’s fairly obvious.

i was talking to nilish and he said

so yeah… while there is definitely sapphic femleth shippers out there, there’s still a whole lot of weird fetishizing going on from straight men about edelgard.

Crimson Flower was my first route. I went into the game knowing absolutely nothing. I played it during the last week of 2020 and hoo boy was it cathartic.

i can tell. this wasn’t supposed to be a dig but it came out that way and i’m not taking it out.

I felt like I was living out a gay revolution power fantasy, where I could truly change systems of oppression while fighting alongside a group of troubled students I’d shaped the lives of.

so a gay revolution power fantasy (cringe) goes hand in hand with imperialism and installing a dictatorship? also the war had nothing to do with sexuality.

Through your unwavering support, Edelgard learns that she needs to be human, that she must listen to her friends, and that she’s allowed to enjoy the world she’s creating.

edelgard gets to learn how to be human all while hunting those who don’t. and she doesn’t listen fo her friends. she doesn’t even trust them. she’s willing to talk to byleth but keep the people who’s been by her side for five years in the dark about everything. and yeah she gets to enjoy her new words since she’s on top. hate to be a commoner under her rule after she burned down my village in her war.

I love this character so much.

clearly. and i honestly don’t care if somebody likes her. i do as well even if my sometimes scathing words can make it seem otherwise.

It has been six months since I first played and I am still analyzing her,

me too. please help me escape i’m losing my mind

because there’s so much depth. Yet so many people fail to see that depth and dismiss her as evil,

i mean, she does some fucked up shit that goes beyond any of the less than desirable actions of the other main characters and does an extremely poor job in trying to make herself seem innocent. i personally don’t think she’s pure evil but i completely understand where the people who say she is are coming from.

because they never had the will to understand complicated women in the first place.

that’s big talk from somebody who implies that a gay pope is comparable to homophobic and transphobic irl religions and that leads an oppressive regime all because she uses the vague terms of sin and punishments that you have to gay power fantasy your way out of

#i finished this at 1am so sorry if i’m incoherent #mine

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