#SORRY THIS IS SO LONG IF YOU CAN'T TELL IM DESPERATELY AVOIDING HOMEWORK

[mookybear12404]

Claude from FE3H for the character ask

How I feel about this character-

I LOVE HIM SO MUCH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HE IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER IN THE GAME 

All the people I ship romantically with this character-

BYLETH BYLETH BYLETH. Completely ignoring the fact that byleth is a stand in for you as the player, i feel like their entire relationship is that “my wife is a b*tch and i love her SO much” meme from john mulany. He admires her greatly and its adorable. I also love the contrast of the sunshiny, bubbly, extroverted claude paired with the dark, emotionless, badass byleth.

I love also that they fit the “battle couple” trope, and how much they’ve learned to work together on the battle field. They are both very tactical and calculating. The fact that Byleth can’t really express emotions, but Claude learned how to read her every little facial feature so that she’s practically an open book to him? And the idea of Byleth, who lost her own heart and can barely feel anything, learning to smile for the first time because of a joke Claude made? I LOVE. 

On a side note I’ve seen some people shipping him with Hilda and honestly? I can see it. 

My non-romantic OTP for this character-

HILDAAAAAAAAAAAA. they are literally the “partners in crime” trope and i LOVE it. 

My unpopular opinion about this character-

HMMMMMMMMMMMM i have so many hot takes on this character i could write many lengthy posts about it. Oh wait? ive already done that. BECAUSE THERES A LOT OF BAD OPINIONS ON HIM. 

I feel like so many people dislike or are indifferent to claude and its very sad. Most of it comes down to people never having played his route and putting him into the “haha meme dude” box, or the “flirty guy that jokes a lot” character. 

Claude is SUCH a complex and overlooked character. Claude is someone who acts really bubbly because he’s putting up a facade. He was deeply hurt and abused as a kid and learned from an early age how to defend himself. That’s why he’s so obsessed with “schemes” and poisons. He grew up being the weak and small kid, and had to quickly learn how to use his wits to get the upper hand. 

He was also the victim of violent racism from BOTH sides of his family. He’s the first (?) Bi-racial and bi-cultural character in the game, and one of the very few dark skinned characters in the franchise, and yet he wasn’t reduced to a side character.

And this plays heavily into his story. He was abused by the Almerians for being “weak and light-skinned”. When he finally ran away to Fodlan, he was promptly abused for being “barbaric and dark-skinned”. 

Despite all he suffered, Claude is someone who doesn’t blame either side for what happened to him. He is someone who believes that the racism he suffered was pure ignorance, and only took back his seats of power so that he could use them to tear apart the boundaries of his two countries and bring and end to their war.

And I feel like its such a GREAT story. Claude’s route was one I really enjoyed. But so many people are used to the edgy grimdark plots of the other two routes that playing with the ever-optimistic and hopeful Claude makes them decide “this isn’t dark enough so it’s badly written”. I wish people would not use the level of violence and tragedy in a route to determine how good the story is. 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon-

there is SO MUCH I WISH HAD HAPPENED AT THE END OF THE GAME. I feel like much of Claude’s story was pushed to the end of the game/the epilogue? A lot of his history with Almyra is only found through character conversations and easter eggs found outside the main plot. Like for goodness sake show us more about Almyra!!! Anything about their land or their culture!!! show us the battle in the epilogue of the Byleth x Claude ending where he rescues her!!! show us Claude having to deal with being a king and having to earn the respect of his people!!! WHY IS SO MUCH OF HIS STORY CUT OFF.

Also i would KILL even a SINGLE interaction between him and Dedue. It surprises me so much that they never had a single interaction, considering how much racism has affected both of their stories. I have a feeling Claude would be talking to him and would overhear another kid yell something nasty at him and instantly be like “alrighty give me three minutes and the strongest poisonous plant you have in your garden sir and you won’t be hearing from him again.” 

Also I would love to see more between him and Dimitri. I feel like Claude is so insightful, it would probably take only a few more interactions for him to look at  Dimitri and be like “is nobody else seeing this?? this kid is talking to ghosts and acting like he’s living in a walking nightmare how has nobody put him in therapy yet??????”

#SORRY THIS IS SO LONG IF YOU CAN'T TELL IM DESPERATELY AVOIDING HOMEWORK #long post #fire emblem #fe3h #claude von riegan #also thank you for the ask!! #Mooky's Asks