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teaveetamer · 3 months

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Considering Bernedetta is still up there while Alcryst isn't the top 5 of Engage characters but Diamant is, you can infer Bernie fans and Alcryst fans aren't merging. Ironically Leo and Takumi being in the top 20 could mean you're correct and fans of Takumi and Leo intersect with Alcryst thus he's not getting as many votes because Leo and Takumi are getting them. Look as a Fates fan I really don't get the Bernie love because Fates is a bunch of anime tropes but she's fine just rubs me the wrong way, but she has a hardcore base I suppose

Leo and Takumi have always maintained a top 20 position/top 5-10ish Fates characters so I can't say conclusively if there's any sort of real vote siphon going on. If anything, Alcryst is probably siphoning their votes because people probably figure he has the best shot to win this year.

Also keep in mind, the top 5 is not divided by gender. There are three women taking up three of the spots (Ivy, Yunaka, and F!Alear) so for all we know Alcryst could be the #3 Engage male character behind M!Alear and Diamant. The top five rankings are neat but I wouldn't take them too seriously.

But yeah I'll be completely honest: everyone who was predicting Alcryst would siphon votes from Bernie clearly do not understand the demographics of FEH/the primary target demographic of Bernadetta. And I don't mean this to be demeaning, but Bernie-as-a-character is written in a way that indulges in a fantasy primarily held by straight men. She's the "broken girl who only trusts you and needs you to protect her". That's why her Byleth supports go all in on "omg I'm usually such a mess but I feel safe with basically zero effort around you professor because you're special!" Alcryst, I would guess, was not written with that demographic in mind. He definitely has his appeals to his specific demographics, but I highly doubt there's a lot of overlap between who he was designed to appeal to and who Bernie was designed to appeal to.

Even if they were a 1:1 comparison just with the gender flipped, that doesn't mean they're going to appeal to the same people. The way they're perceived is going to be affected by their genders. For example, a lot of straight men probably find Alcryst whiny or feel like he needs to "man up". If we went back in time about 10-15 years I'm sure they'd even have some choice slurs for gay men to call him. That's no doubt because in our society we view men who are shy, overly apologetic, jumpy, lacking confidence or self-esteem, etc. as weak and shameful. Whereas with women, lacking confidence and self-esteem is not only expected but often desirable. So you can wind up with two characters who are exactly the same but one will be perceived differently based on gender norms and socialization.

Something similar happened with Corrin back in the day. While both Corrins got flack, M!Corrin, particularly M!Corrin in Conquest, got hit particularly hard with criticism complaining about how he was whiny, he was weak, he was stupid, he was overdramatic, etc. while F!Corrin (who Conquest was likely natively written around) slid under the radar more.

Honestly you could do a whole essay on Conquest v. Birthright, the way they were written/localized with a particular Corrin in mind, and what that says about how society treats gender (particularly how F!BR!Corrin doesn't get shit for taking on more """masc""" traits of being headstrong and violent, but M!CQ!Corrin gets shit for taking on the more """femme""" traits of CQ, such as making an "emotional" decision to side with Nohr, being all about pacifism and cooperation, and openly expressing strong emotions of sadness and regret). But idk if I wanna be the one to write it.

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imustbenuts · 8 days

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Who's your Delicious in Fire Emblem dream adventurer party-- We've talked meals, but who's gonna go diving into dungeons to hunt these monsters?

oooh this is a pretty interesting spin and tough to answer. theres so many characters in FE its a difficult to pin down. anyway throught process time

for this ask im going to interpret this into the following problem. 1) be good at cooking mons, 2) and be okay with eating mons.

theres def a lot of them who are objectively good at hunting, but the mon part will trip them up.

further, my problem with the majority of the FE cast is that i trust very few of these people to be both of those things. majority of these characters are also either too aristocrat-y or not adventerous enough in terms of food... at least in my head. more under the cut bc long post ;o

like i cant expect chrom to be all 'sure lets eat some fried lizards', dude grew up on fancy feasts and field rations. even if his STR is through the roof and eats unpeeled oranges hes just not really the type to be enthusiastic on monster food. alcryst would panic at the thought of it and ill spare him from this hypothetical. culturally, takumi might not be ok with eating mons bc they could be too 'unclean' for shinto. similarly, as capable as some cooks are, non-conventional monster parts on the chopping block is probably not something they'd wanna touch.

also for the purpose of this post im sniping bunet and frederick straight out of the pool bc both are such an easy pick. bunet bc he would absolutely respect the food to cook it perfectly, and frederick bc he'd be decent but will be a pain in the ass to deal with without blackmailing chrom or something. bam bam.

so ding dong the first victims of the fire emblem dangly ronply has been found. lets move on

so here are the shortlisted canidates: lukas, nephenee, petra, byleths, nyx and shez. not necessarily a party, bc personality might not gel well together :c, but at least one of these in a party and the run should have a decent chance of succeeding.

1. lukas

lukas is choosen here bc he would not be bothered too much by the idea of eating monsters. in fact, he would be okay at prepping a slain mon for food even if he cant cook decently. his inherent lack of strong emotions or feelings towards things is also going to be a big plus for this specific scenario. some people have interpreted him being a high functioning sociopath or just someone who has very repressed emotions.

either way he isnt too bound by conventional thinking. and also he'd be the party's tank and foward. lukas the tank engine. never forget.

2. nepheene.

she would probably squick a bit here at the thought of eating monsters not bc monsters are ick but bc society thinks the act of eating monsters is ick. so itd take some time getting used to it but she would quickly adapt in a dunmeshi setting given her country bumpkin background.

mon prep, no issues. i also think she might be good at foraging. cooking hearty meals might come easy due to her growing up with multiple siblings. shes also very tough in survival, so i think she'll do okay :)

3. petra

this girl's got it. shes good at hunting, good at trapping, probably okay at recognizing and disabling traps considering her perception honed from her hunting culture and skill.

mon prep isnt going to be a big problem. generally speaking, cultures where hunters are present typically try not to waste any part of their kills, and butchering is an essential skill to have. in terms of taste it might be a little difficult for others to get used to, but im sure she'll be a massive boon to any dungeon food party.

4. byleth / byleths

oh yeah. they are DEFINITELY not going to have a problem with this. considering they're mercenaries and are on the road often, hunting and cooking would be a basic survival skill. they wouldnt be picky about food either

given how they might be very objective orientated, giving them a mission of hunting monsters for food will not go wrong. i hope. as long as sothis doesnt get in the way--

5. shez

!!UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES PUT SHEZ AND BYLETH TOGETHER IN THE SAME PARTY WITHOUT PRIOR INTERACTION!!

to prevent sothis from activating, place a face down shez in defense position and summon a byleth in attack position. then, activate Tea Time and upon the appearance of sothis, activate Swords Of Revealing Light. this will lock sothis down while the two have a chat and realize they're exactly the same except where shez is suckier at general mercenary stuff, they're infinitely better at cooking

once that gets resolved feel free to put shez either solo or together with byleth. they're a squishier byleth but def will get the job done AND feed you yum yums.

6. nyx

nyx is a very very powerful magic user who embodies the lolibaba trope. but for her case, she doesnt follow conventional thinking, and is a very powerful mage who might appreciate taking a mission of dungeon monster hunting to train and get her abilities under control

above all, bc of her curse trapping her physical age to be a young girl, shes mentally an old lady, so shes mature and kind and seems to really want to act on those feelings. her bringing a bunch of dead mons for the youngins to eat might do her good for her mental health :D

further, i think shes the type to pick up maternal-ish skills like cooking and sewing for another person or poor meowmeows if she gets attatched enough.

and bc shes good at magic she can easily disable magical traps or detect magical BS. shes definitely a learned mage by the time we run in to her in fates

thats all folks (this took hours to write hrbrhrh)

#delicious in fire emblem #anon #ask

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onyxedskies · 2 years

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Could you talk a little more about the complexities of Blue Lions?

I agree that almost everyone puts them down and says they're simple, when in reality they're just as complex as the other houses.

i'm so sorry this took so long (homework is gonna be the death of me i swear) but oh my god anon i love you

in the reblogs of the original post i did expand on them a bit individually but i am absolutely happy to talk about it more

sylvain takes his duty seriously as the future margrave gautier, which is something not a lot of people talk about. he inherits the title in literally every single one of his endings in every route (you can fact check if you want) and it’s said that he does an excellent job helping fódlan regrow and protecting the northern border from sreng in every one of them. his only reservation about it is the existence of his crest and the shit he got because of it, both from strangers and from his brother. he’s also incredibly smart (see: his supports with annette (houses), shez (hopes), his three hopes a support with felix, his three hopes supports with ashe, his three hopes supports with ignatz) and a very caring person/good friend (see: his three houses supports with dedue, mercedes, bernadetta, lysithea, dimitri, and manuela, and his three hopes supports with ingrid, mercedes, felix, dedue, and dimitri). he’s reliable (there’s a ton of evidence to that, especially in three hopes) and it’s established that he’s one of the best tacticians out there. he’s passionate about devaluing crests despite benefitting from them to the outward eye, and is always ready to help when he can. he also has low self esteem and shoves his feelings out of the way. he throws himself into various engagements with women as a form of self-destruction, never allowing himself to actually fall in love with them and treating them like shit so he doesn't get attached. he doesn't see himself as worthy of love, and so he does what he can to taunt himself with the idea with it and then rip it away from himself (see: his supports with byleth, yes, he’s a flirt and that is a big aspect of his character, but it’s not the only aspect, which more people need to acknowledge.

felix also takes his role as duke seriously, which is something a lot of people ignore. he does abandon his title in some of his endings, but none of them are AM endings. he cares about dimitri, as much as he is loathe to admit it. he's driven by emotions and sentimentality despite his inability to display emotions, hatred for outward sentimentality, and cold exterior, as proved by his three hopes supports with ingrid. and that cold exterior he developed was to cope with what felt to him like the loss of both his father and brother, and later dimitri (who he likely saw as a brother figure then). he says, point blank, that he is far from immune to emotion in his a support with dimitri in three houses. he's stubborn, yes, but not unbearably so, and he's a softy at heart. it's said in his b support with lysithea in three houses that he gave the cake she gave him to a kid, implying he doesn't mind kids as he could have just given the cake to sylvain or ingrid or another one of his friends. he's not a bad guy and doesn't spread rumors, as proved by his supports with annette in three houses. he's highly adaptable and reacts to situations in whatever way will compliment who he's with, as said in his a support with shez. his tactics can be wild but he's still incredibly smart and a vital part of their strategies both on and off the battlefield, as said by ingrid in their three houses c support and dedue in their three hopes support. he's a good friend, as said by ashe in their three hopes support and his actions before his supports in three hopes with sylvain. he's not just an emotionless swordsman who hates his dad.

ingrid isn't just a stickler about rules. she's sentimental and incredibly mature for her age (likely due to being so ostracized from her brothers and having glenn, felix, sylvain, and dimitri as childhood friends), and is willing to go to great lengths for her loved ones, even if it does go to the extreme sometimes. she saw bernadetta hiding in her room regularly and took it upon herself to help, as she had done the same thing after glenn's death. she knows felix well enough to be able to coax him to class in their c support. she was lead to believe something false, but rectifies that in her supports with dedue and realizes the faults in her ways beforehand in three houses and in three hopes gives up on that hate as more information is revealed about the tragedy. she's also very well-read and can separate her fantasies and ideals from her duties, no matter how much it pains her to do so. she's not afraid to ask for help when it comes to less personal matters, but is also fiercely independent and loathes bothering other people with her personal affairs, such as marriage proposals and her turmoil about being a knight vs being count galatea. it's clear that she loves her home, as she knows that she would likely be the best candidate for the role of count, but she doesn't want to give up on her dreams despite that. though she resigns herself to her fate in three hopes, she allows herself to get comfortable enough with byleth in three houses to reach a conclusion that combines her duty and her dream. she admits to sylvain that he's the one who dragged her from her grief after glenns death, and she allows herself to learn the truth eventually. she's far more complex than people give her credit for.

ashe is not your soft boy. i see so much shit about him being just some soft uwu boy when he so absolutely isn’t. he was orphaned, left to raise two younger siblings, and had to turn to thievery all before his tenth birthday and is still regretful for the things he had to do to survive. he is undeniably good. however, that doesn’t mean he’s soft and harmless and has to be protected. he wants to be a knight, even knowing what that entails. he becomes a soldier at 16 years old and has to watch as his classmates puts the man who saved him to the sword. he’s a general in three houses and a knight in three hopes, and he fights in the war in both games. yes, he’s incredibly caring, he can cook, he holds onto his fantasies, his ideals can be a bit naive. but he is not just some little boy you get to fawn over, when he’s been orphaned twice over and lied to about his older brothers death and still continues to smile and still hasn’t given up hope for the future. he is capable of making hard decisions, able to decide things for himself. he was the only one going into the lions who didn’t know someone else, and three months later it’s his father attacking the church, and yet he keeps smiling and keeps going and makes valuable bonds despite that. and, again, he had to do regrettable things as a child. he lived on the streets while raising his siblings. he’s seen it all, and i’m tired of people pretending he hasn’t. he’s also phenomenal at reading people (there’s a lot of evidence but specifically citing his three hopes support with felix). he’s not just your soft boy.

also, mercedes has been through hell!! and people never remember it!!! she had to watch as her mother was used to give count bartels a child with a crest and then was thrown out. she had to leave her brother behind. she said in her a support with byleth that joining the war was the first choice she had ever made of her own free will. after the timeskip, she is twenty-eight. and yes, she's a big sister character, and yes, she is extremely caring for all the other lions, but she's not just that. she's always excited to learn and is incredibly innovative (her supports with ashe, her supports with dedue (hopes and houses), her c support with dimitri, the fact taht she willingly went to the fhirdiad school of sorcery). she's smarter than people give her credit for and has brilliant people skills and does genuinely enjoy taking care of other people (her b support with ferdinand, her supports with jeritza, her supports with felix, her supports with cyril, her supports with hilda). she's very devout to her faith, but she's even more devout to her friends and family. she has never once lived for herself (a trend with the lions, truly) but never begrudges that. she's not a simple baker; she's smart and kind and has a terrifying side of mischief in her. she often teases her friends, including byleth, but is incredibly respectful of everyones boundaries (see: her supports with felix). also, back to the hardships she's been through, her adoptive father literally bought her because of her crest. she and sylvain bond over this and the troubles that their crests have brought them, and she was perfectly happy to let sylvain rant to her about it while also offering her own experiences to show him that he wasn't alone. she's such a caring character and such a good friend, which people often neglect when talking about her, and all of this is reinforced in three hopes. there is so much more about her but i'm cutting it off here because otherwise this is going to be far too long.

annette is not just ditzy and hard-working!! she is a multi-faceted character with so many different aspects about her!! she's carefree and allows herself to actually act her age. she lets herself be silly and carefree and have fun. she's highly artistic (see: her supports with ingrid, felix, claude, and kind of mercedes) and a good friend, and she knows how to go about things when they go south. she's good in an emergency - better than most, in fact - and has the determination to get her and everyone else through. yes, she's a bit of an airhead, but she's incredibly dilligent and hardworking despite that. it's established that she doesn't really know how to take a break (supports with byleth), and that her uncle is really rather strict which leaves her to deal with low self-esteem, which was undoubtedly worsened by the fact that gilbert spends so long ignoring her (directly: supports with dedue. indirectly: her supports with byleth and caspar, how her preferred method after getting a “bad” is to console her). she's also a highly competitive person (see: supports with lysithea, a little bit in her supports with sylvain). she loves helping people (supports with dedue, supports with ashe, supports with ashe in three hopes, solo ending, and endings with byleth, claude, linhardt, non-CF caspar, non-AM felix, dedue, mercedes, hanneman, and gilbert). she's also a powerful mage despite wind magic not necessarily being the strongest. she's afraid of letting people down and disappointing them, which she says straight-up in her supports with hilda. she's highly inquisitive and loves to learn, though tends to be self-conscious when it comes to taking up other peoples time with it (supports with lysithea and hanneman). people need to stop using her just as comedic relief when that's not all there is to her.

there is so much more to dedue than his devotion to dimitri, which people tend to neglect. yes, he's stoic and not necessarily the best conversationalist, but he's a deeply caring person and while he doesn't trust easily, once he trusts you he will be the best friend you will ever have (supports with shez). he loves kids and hates that he scares them (supports with mercedes in three hopes). he cares about his culture, as shown in his supports with mercedes, byleth, ashe, and sylvain in three houses and his general role in three hopes. he cares deeply, enough so that he's willing to distance himself from people because he is of duscur and doesn't want to risk tarnishing their reputation (almost every three houses support, supports with mercedes in three hopes). he doesn't begrudge those that hate the people of duscur, despite the fact that he likely should, and even seems somewhat surprised that him being from duscur isn't why felix hates him and is always surprised when faerghans don't hate him despite it all (supports with sylvain, ashe, and mercedes). he's clearly gentle, shown by the time he spends in the kitchen and greenhouse with materials that you cannot be rough with. he is willing to teach people (his supports with mercedes in three houses, his supports with sylvain in three houses, his supports with flayn, implied in his supports with petra in three hopes, his supports with annette in both three houses and three hopes) but he is also willing to be taught (his supports with mercedes in three hopes, implied in his supports with petra in three hopes, his supports with ashe in three hopes). he's truly such a caring person, which people always look over and neglect due to his stoicism and stern disposition. he is hesitant to talk to people, yes, but for good reason: so many people hate him just because of false information, so obviously he would rather not take the risk of someone attacking him for something he had no control over.

they are so much more than people give them credit for and it breaks my heart to see them simplified so often.

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beloved-blaiddyd · 2 months

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Mutuals:

Shiro [@leftdestiny-posts] [any]

Estella [@estellxli] [she/her]

Phitre [@a-dose-of-phitre @a-dose-of-memphis @a-dose-of-crempog] [she/her]

Navina [@navxry, @throw-letter-away] [they/them]

Mei [@meimeimeirin, @zhongrin] [she/her]

Ven [@vennnnn-diagram, @naraven] [they/them]

Esther [@mixed-kester] [she/her]

Jessamine [@jessamine-rose] [she/her]

More to be added (?)

Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd [S-Support]

One particular decision made by his professor and classmate had a significant impact on his life. To march to Enbarr instead of taking back Fhirdiad had made all the difference there was to be had. Though his clear epiphany required much more time, Byleth's cemented decision and Brynn's subsequent course of action deterred him from achieving his revenge-blinded goals. Not just his, but Claude's, Edelgard's, and even ex-archbishop Rhea's as well.

But what happened during the war is not the topic of conversation. To trace it all the way back, Dimitri and Brynn met prior to their enrollment in the Officer's Academy. Due to hair lengths and overall face structure, she mistook him for a girl, and he was assured she was a boy. Since Brynn was acknowledged as a noble by her mother's side, they encountered each other often on social events. She often led him isolated spots when the chatter got too loud. Brynn was his master escape artist.

But those interactions came to a halt so suddenly without explanation. The prince frequently wondered where the mysterious boy he shared plates was as time went on.

Years later, they reunite in Garreg Mach. With Brynn entering her first day wearing pants, Dimitri recognized "him" instantly. Brynn does not receive same grace and asked if he had mistook her for someone else. The confusion worsened when Seteth later holds a personal sermon on how the Academy's dress code works.

It was only through Felix that both Dimitri and Brynn got the clarity they required after the incident. He revealed that Brynn had stopped attending events when she had placed her tome studies above else.

From then on, most of their interactions were relatively... Chaotic. The two may not seem like it at first glance, but they are polar opposites. Dimitri was most certainly the type to follow strict plans while Brynn thrived in spontaneity. The headaches she had caused whenever she made up an entirely new but successful tactic on the field set him off balance. In his words: “Brynn does the job, yes, but can't she slow down a bit? This isn't a real war— they're just mock battles!”

Much like Felix, Brynn seemed awfully fond of dissecting his character in a more polite way. Knowing that the prince harbors strong emotions but fails to communicate them, each isolated moments would start with her deliberately setting up a conversation starter that would make him comfortable to voice out his thoughts. She opens with an oddly specific scenario and asks if he has ever been through a similar experience, despite knowing it is an issue he is struggling with. Still, Dimitri falls into this "trap" and enjoys her peculiar ways of bringing him out of his shell. It had become increasingly endearing after he secretly caught her reading a book on how to be a good friend.

At present, the two contact each other near daily. In his spare time, he visits Garreg Mach with the purpose of seeking Byleth's council and Brynn's entertaining discussions. As of late, the King often implies that he is in need of a wife and heir. Unfortunately, Brynn does not translate this the way he hopes she would. Dimitri is routinely faced with romantic advices and personality dossiers she selectively handpicks from all the people she had known. To this day, he had not read a single sheet in that pile. Not when he already had someone in mind.

“Visiting my office to collect more sheets that will inevitably pile up dust is no different from procrastination, Your Majesty. So Professor Ven and I are formulating a new course to develop your sense of attraction.”

“T-There's no need to go this far!”

Byleth Eisner [A-Support]

Their relationship is relatively simple to describe: great friends with passionate interests that they would silently mull over for. Byleth and Brynn are silent when together, but they understand each other completely— which is a great advantage in battle. This understanding is precisely what made Brynn the secondary tactician and Byleth's right hand man. She understands his subtle cues, and he shares the same change of plans when the situation calls for it.

Off field, nothing changed from when they were a professor and student. The two would still fish and chat over tea when able. Byleth is always pleased to send Brynn trinkets and clothes— especially the latter since he often sees her wear exactly what he had gifted. He sees her almost like his own "family". As a professor, when Brynn brought up she was interested in kite flying, the two spent the afternoon silently making one and letting it sour. As an archbishop, when Brynn brought up expanding the cafeteria menu to broaden its diversity, they spent weeks studying and surveying the staff and student's tastes.

“It's like those two shut other parts of their brain off whenever they're focused. It's kinda creepy how they work so well together. But it's even creepier when you hear them talk about their interests. The details they go on and on about when it comes to fishing and writing gets insane...”

“Phitre... The Archbishop and the chairperson are behind you.”

Felix Hugo Fraldarius [A-Support]

Best friends; greater rivals. Felix was seen as a prodigy for learning how to wield a sword before he could jot with a quill— while Brynn was known as a foolish and slow child. As both were born as the second and youngest children to two bright soon-to-be-rulers, comparisons were often made by parents and peers alike. Although their strengths are their counterpart's weakness, they practice sparring with both sword and magic twice a week. He was the only friend she frequently visited in her childhood. When Felix grew to be much colder than his childhood years, Brynn adjusted to match his demeanor.

And yet the two had always been close friends, especially in their adolescent years. Their philosophies on the social structure of Faerghus greatly aligned. Perhaps it was due to living near similar lives. Both prioritize personal freedom and loathe strict social conventions. There's no greater platonic confidant they trust more than each other. During the war, they were often paired to guard the other's backs. Their movements were almost always in sync— and even during conversations they cut through each other as though it was a rehearsed performance.

“I can't believe you just said that about His Highness— no, wait, I can.”

...

“You should've gone deeper and called him out on how he nearly got Ashe killed for being so engrossed with fighting off the traitors.”

“I've been thinking about that the entire time. Damn it. I should have.”

Annette Fantine Dominic-Fraldarius [A-Support]

Closer than ever, the competitive nature of their relationship had not decreased since they've been employed as professors in Garreg Mach. Though Annette is a part-timer due to her other arrangements, they make the learning environment livelier with their ongoing shenanigans. Not even the music professor was safe from their wildfires.

“Class who loses gets to weed the garden with their professor!”

“No way, Annie! You're on!!!”

The two often bicker playfully before one of their classes start. It's common to have the other intrude during a discussion to ask for chalk and other materials. During official school events, Annette would be the one to apply make-up on Brynn's face and pick her outfit while Brynn is the one to prepare their speeches. Most of Brynn's fashion choices are Annette's decisions while Annette's advices for students are Brynn's personal inputs. The trust they have for one another cannot be dismissed. They are more than work friends or a fellow soldier in the war— they're sisters.

Hubert Von Vestra [A-Support]

All they ever shared was bad blood for the other party, and yet they're as cordial as though they're decades old business partners. It seems as though Hubert knows something about Brynn that no one else had the privy to be aware of. Whatever it may be, this factor is what keeps their friendship afloat.

“Hello, Beloved.”

“Hello, prick. Here to get a copy signed?”

“I wish I could take that miraculous part of your psyche just so I can disassociate a disgraced tactician from a damn good author.”

“Yes, yes, you can retreat if you want to, coward, I hear you.”

Veritas Ratio [A-Support]

Surprisingly agreeable coworkers. While one is a mathematics and the other is a reasoning professor— they get along fairly well in matters of taste and methods. Even in their academy days, Veritas and Brynn had been each other's confidants despite belonging in respective rival houses. However, Veritas does not trust Brynn with numbers the same way she does not trust him to use dark and black magic wisely— even more so with faith magic. Rumor has it, Veritas's healing is the most excruciating kind in all of Fodlan...

Kakavasha/“Aventurine” [A-Support]

Coming from Sreng, Kakavasha once hated Brynn for her ancestry. Her mother's side had a deep history of pushing back potential immigrants. Though that has greatly changed overtime— especially when her mother and father were wed— Kakavasha had a disdain for Brynn since childhood. Thankfully, they've grown friendlier throughout the years. Some say Kakavasha once bet 10% of his annual savings to accumulate enough cash for Brynn's birthday. But... That's just not true.

“Please. It was MY chips he used. Without consent.”

#$ table of contents #$ support conversations

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reunionatdawn · 3 months

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My Analysis of the Best Paired Endings in 3H (Part 9: Caspar/Petra)

Catherine: When I told you I would cut down children with no hesitation, you looked disgusted. I take it that's the part you're struggling to accept? Caspar: Pretty much. I don't think I'd be able to do it, even if that meant disobeying orders.

Caspar and Ferdinand are the two most difficult students to recruit outside of their home routes because they can only get C-Support with Byleth before the time-skip. And this corresponds to how difficult it is for them to leave the Empire from an emotional standpoint. They can't even be recruited in Hopes. Caspar wasn't sure when to obey orders or act on his own morality. He got reprimanded for doing so in his C-Support with Byleth, and that single incident had a huge impact on his development.

Shez: You're taking this awfully well. Weren't you and Caspar childhood friends? Linhardt: Yes, but that is of little consequence now. He is not fighting for honor or any greater purpose. War is just his way of life, and he doesn't have the slightest intention of dying or losing.

Caspar has never known any other way of life but fighting and making a name for himself on the battlefield.

Caspar: Something is kinda bothering me. I was talking to someone the other day about how I want to distinguish myself in battle, and they said that meant I wanted the war to go on forever. Of course, I told them they were nuts… Then I actually started thinking about it. About what I'll be doing when the war ends, I mean. About what I'll even…be. Ferdinand: I do not think you have cause to worry. We may not know what the future holds, but you are delivering great results as a leader. Surely you will be held in esteem for such? Caspar: Sure, but doesn't that just mean my life is about nothing but fighting? I'm not a guy like you who's good at pretty much everything, so… Ha! Listen to me. I can't remember the last time I got in my own head like this.

He was more introspective about his circumstances in Hopes. But that only reinforced how unhappy he was with his way of life. It wasn't fulfilling for him to live only for war, but he had no real sense of identity other than as a warrior.

Caspar: Oh. Hey, Professor. I was just reading this letter from my father. Do you know him? He's a pretty big deal in the Empire. He only writes to ask how my training's going, or how many monsters I've killed. Stuff like that.

Caspar had a strong desire to punish evil in the world, but he possessed a very black-and-white sense of morality. That simplistic view of good and evil probably came from his father, the famous warlord Count Bergliez.

Caspar: My father was responsible for a lot of what happened to the Dagdans! Shamir: Are you responsible for your father's actions? Caspar: Well, no…but kinda? I know I wasn't there, but I gotta—

It is much easier to invade and conquer when you convince yourself that the enemy is evil.

Caspar: After we cross the Great Bridge of Myrddin, we'll be in my father's territory. We actually crossed it five years ago for the Battle of the Eagle and Lion. Remember? Ugh! This is terrifying! What am I gonna do? I gotta get a grip… Byleth: Don't worry, I'll arrange for your funeral. Caspar: You think we'll meet him on the battlefield and he'll kill me? The front lines cover a long stretch of land, you know! We might not even run into him!

Caspar was also terrified of his father. He didn't like the sound of thunder because it reminded him of his father yelling at him when he screwed up.

Caspar: All right! Off to the Kingdom's capital we go! What's the matter? Should I not be excited? I can't help it. Everyone's gotta have something to look forward to!

I was really struck by Caspar's demeanor in CF. He only ever focused on taking out whatever enemies he was ordered to and barely had anything else to say.

Caspar: It's so awful to see the Kingdom capital go up in flames, but at least we made it this far!

He fought alongside the Death Knight and invaded other nations without question. It was as though Count Bergliez was hovering over his shoulder the entire time.

Catherine: You have a strong sense of justice. You have clearly defined ideals. But that's not an asset on the battlefield. Ideals slow you down. They cause inner conflict.

It was truly sad because that wasn't who he was. He had his own ideals and criticized Catherine for submitting her sense of justice to another person. It made me realize that CF!Caspar couldn't do anything else but focus on fighting because otherwise the inner conflict would have destroyed him.

Caspar: I think… I can't deny who I am. I know you were right five years ago when you told me not to chase after that suspicious guy… But I still can't get over the possibility that he might have hurt those kids. I would have regretted not stopping him for the rest of my life. There's no way I could forgive myself. It sounds awful to say, but the safety of those kids is more important to me than the knights we lost.

His character arc was about realizing that it's okay not to follow orders and that he should live according to his own sense of justice.

Caspar: I've been wandering on my own for five years. I won't go back to that house or my father, that's for sure!

And leaving his father was necessary for him to do so.

Caspar: We weren't related by blood, but Randolph was still my uncle… Seeing him end up that way was… Never mind. It's nothing. Byleth: That's how it goes with war. Caspar: This wasn't just about war. It was a grudge. Or are you gonna tell me you're on Dimitri's side? I'm sure he never trusted me, being born in the Empire and all.

Like Ferdinand, Caspar can only access his Paralogue—where he can confront the "evil" Death Knight—if he defects from the Empire. The game incentivizes you to recruit him in AM, too. Not only does he share his Paralogue with Mercedes, but doing so in AM unlocks an additional scene for her to say goodbye to Emile. I'd argue that he has the best arc in AM due to his connection to Randolph. It was important for him to see the war from the side from the Empire's victims, so that he could have his worldview challenged.

Petra: It feels like…a knife against my throat. That I am making my grandfather obey the Empire. Because I am a hostage, it is not an option to be giving up. I must be fighting and winning and staying alive. I must do anything to be making life better for Brigid. To be making Brigid and the Empire stand as equals. That is what my people are wanting from me…and what my grandfather, the king of Brigid, is wanting! Byleth: And what do you want? Petra: My want? I…I am not knowing of that. The wants of my people are something I have power to achieve. Their wants are my own.

As a political hostage to the Empire, Petra fought extremely hard to survive, not for herself, but so that Brigid could live independently and stand as equals with the Empire. But when Byleth asked her what she wanted, she didn't even know. She needed to figure out what she wanted for herself, not just what other people wanted.

Ferdinand: Do you not want to go back to your homeland? Petra: I do have the hope of returning one day, but Fódlan is also like a homeland to me now. I came to Fódlan nine years ago. I have been living half of my life here. My family is living in Brigid, but in Fódlan, I have new family and new friends.

So, what did Petra want? Well, she wanted to return home, but she also wanted to stay connected to her new family, and to use their political connections to improve relations with Brigid and Fódlan.

Petra: When this war is finished, I am wishing for you to be seeing my homeland. Dorothea: You…you are? Oh my. I'd love to, Petra. As soon as the fighting is done, I'd like nothing more than to see Brigid with you.

She wanted to bring her friends back home with her to visit. Whether you go for their romantic paired ending or are content to leave them as friends, her Support with Dorothea showed how important it was for her to maintain permanent connections with her classmates.

Petra: I am not having an obligation. I will only be marrying if I find a good person.

And she also wanted a husband from Fódlan.

Petra: My father was killed. By the Empire. By your father. And so I will be impaling you on this blade to be satisfying a deep wish of mine. Caspar: A deep wish… What are you talking about?! Petra: I am talking about my wish. Of course…I am also having another wish. An even deeper wish. I wish for you and I to keep being friends. To keep fighting and surviving together.

Petra had one other deeply held wish. She wanted to kill Count Bergliez. She always bottled up her true feelings and never expressed what she really thought. She was always gung-ho about fighting and said war fed her body and mind. She may have acted like she was fine with her situation, but she was really not. She didn't want to kill people in the name of the Empire that invaded Brigid and killed her father, and she had a lot of rage underneath her calm surface.

Caspar: Well, I guess even a queen can't push her feeling down forever. I can't imagine what it must've been like to go through what you did. But I think I can still relate. Petra: Umm… Caspar: Hey, here's an idea. From now on, take it out on me. Petra: No. This is silliness. There is no point in killing you. Caspar: I'm not talking about killing, Petra. What I want you to do is unload on me! Tell me off! Just talk to me about whatever it is you're feeling. If all your hate becomes too much, dump it on me. If you wanna hit something, I'm your guy. I just want us to keep being friends, alright?

Caspar was the only character she ever showed that side of herself to. In Hopes, she wanted to kill him, but he offered for her to take her pain out on him. He was the one person she could talk to and be open and honest with because he was the same. And Petra was more raw and emotionally vulnerable with him than anyone else.

Petra & Caspar Petra returned to her homeland of Brigid, and inherited the throne from her grandfather. As ruler, she declared independence from Fódlan, and renegotiated Brigid's diplomatic ties to Fódlan and Dagda on more equal terms. At every step along the way, she was accompanied and supported by her husband, Caspar, who had left Fódlan behind to be with her. It is said that the people of Brigid were initially suspicious of the union, due to Caspar's relation to a nemesis of their homeland, but that his tireless efforts on Brigid's behalf endeared them to him over time. It certainly helped that he made the queen very happy.

Petra didn't have an obligation to get married. She just wanted someone to share all of her heart with. Caspar was never particularly envious of his brother, and he always liked hard work. So, working tirelessly for Brigid is a better way to live than inheriting his father's position and becoming the new Minister of Military Affairs.

I don't think the writers necessarily pushed for either Caspar or Petra to be paired with anyone in particular. Many of their paired endings work just as fine. Still, the Caspar/Petra ending is one where Petra can have everything she wants, including someone who she can be truly open and honest with. And it is the only one where Caspar can directly address the damage caused by his imperialist father. So, I consider it the best one for them.

#fe3h #fe3h meta #caspar von bergliez #petra macneary

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heyitsresonate · 8 months

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It’s 11 in the morning, I haven’t slept, and I’m thinking about fe3h fanfic “what if” ideas

Like, Jeralt and Byleth were mercenaries. So naturally, when the Dagda and Brigid War in 1175 broke out, Jeralts mercenaries probably were located within the Adrestian Empire- after all, war is profitable for Mercs.

Sure, the conflict mainly targeted House Nuvelle and Barony Ochs territory. But considering the Adrestian capital of Enbarr is coastal, there would’ve been some level of concern to its safety.

So say that Jeralts Mercenaries are hired to patrol Enbarr- or better yet, the outside perimeter of the Imperial Palace.

What if Byleth, through happenstance, found one of the secret entrances to the Palace that led to the dungeons that Edelgard and her siblings were experimented on? Like one of the entrances the Prime Minister Aegir escapes out of jail from in three hopes.

We know Edelgard got out of her experimentations with the crest of flames somewhere around 1175-1176. So this would be the later end of the experiments- most her siblings would be gone, and those that remain would’ve likely be quite unwell. However, she wouldn’t have the crest of flames, and likely wouldn’t have the white hair either- I’m of the mind that it’s the second crest that turns the hair white, and so if the second crest isn’t there, then.. yeah.

Also, if the focus of experiments went by age, Edelgard and her two younger siblings would be alive. Fucked up, far from unscathed, but alive.

What if, upon finding these captive children, Byleth helps them escape? What if the three Hresvelgs go into hiding, by following Jeralts Mercenaries under different names?

And if events played out about the same past that point, what happens when Byleth and Jeralt gets summoned to Garreg Mach? There’s so many ways things would deviate.

Edelgard, at that point, wouldn’t be the flame emperor. Nor would her siblings. She wouldn’t have as heavy of a distrust in others, if she had family and friends in the form of her siblings and Jeralt/Byleth.

The Black Eagles would likely be led by Ferdinand. I think he’d still be a good person, but different focused as his mind would be to prepare to take over the Empire after graduating from Garreg Mach, rather than being a superior to Edelgard like he’s focused on in three houses.

Edelgard, driven not by a desire to destroy the church but to take back her nation from TSLITD, could possibly confide her identity with and ally with Rhea- considering her fondness for Wilhelm Hresvelg, and the whole ‘blood of my blood’ thing with the crest of Seiros. Though I believe she’d still have her strong anti- crest sentiment, she wouldn’t have the resources, the strength, or as much desperation to war with Rhea, and would as such have to find friendlier ways to find change on that front.

Monica wouldn’t have gotten kidnapped and killed- the only reason for that was to pave the way for Edelgard as the flame emperor. Without Edelgard, there would be no Kronya, at least no Kronya as Monica. Perhaps she’d be a library assistant to work under Solon.

There’s a possibility that the death knight, Jeritza, wouldn’t even be a factor. After all, it’s Edelgard that saved Jeritza and took him in.

Especially with the lack of hair change, there’s a good chance Dimitri would immediately recognize Edelgard- which he would’ve thought was a long dead step sister. Perhaps him refinding family could help the poor lad be a bit less traumatized. Dimitri would probably support Edelgards attempt at retaking the imperial throne, as well.

As for Byleth, she gets more emotional as the game goes forward- likely because she’s surrounded by people she deems family or friends. Having the three Hresvelgs in her Mercenary group could mean she finds her emotions sooner.

All that to say I’m *very* unwell, and will not be well until i get this out of my brain and into writing.

#fire emblem three houses

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randomnameless · 9 months

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If i may provide a lukewarm defense of Jeralt's initial reaction to Byleth, i don't recall there being any proof that Sitri lacked a heartbeat or struggled with showing her emotions to the same extent as Byleth does at the start of 3H; i don't find it unreasonable for him to be much more worried about a newborn baby being completely emotionless and not having a heartbeat than about a grown woman being introverted and stoic most of the time but still perfectly capable of showing emotions, along with having a functioning heart.

The defense ends here btw; him raising Byleth as a mercenary since they were a kid and stunting their emotional growth is pretty indefensible, especially when he could have tried to secure a more stable and peaceful job anywhere else in Fódlan, and the games not realizing how much of a neglectful father he was is a pretty big flaw with his writing.

No problems anon!

To be honest, yeah, it could have been just as you said, a difference Jerry noted between bby!Billy and the Citrus he know...

Sothis guesses Billy's lack of, uh, ability to "emote" came from her, because she was asleep (but then Citrus also had difficulties to emotes and yet managed to emote when she was a grown up).

Aelfie mentions Citrus had a hard time showing her emotions, but she smiled a lot in front of Jerry - is it because "twu luf" made her emote, but given how Aelfie knew her since a long time (they were both kids together?) I don't think it's retcon tied to "twu luf" but more something like, while growing up or interacting with "the world" she emoted more and more.

Still, it's kind of strange, Aelfie tells Billy Citrus had difficulties to emote but emoted with Jerry, and yet, we're supposed to believe Jerry didn't know Citrus had difficulties to emote?

Or wasn't interested in how she acted/behaved/felt when she was with other people than with him?

Because if Jerry knew Citrus only "emoted" with him, would he be so surprised about their kid not "emoting" easily? Jerry never met Citrus as a bby, would it be so strange to think Citrus might have started as Billy, and managed to "emote" better as she grew up? But if he indeed never noticed, as Aelfie did, that she had difficulties to, uh, "show emotions" then indeed, discovering Billy had this "specialness" to them would have been surprising - but in a way, only because he never noticed the same "specialness" in his wife, aka Billy's mom.

However, I'm always a bit puzzled at what is "reasonable" or not in a world like Fodlan, I know the fandom loves to project a lot of irl issues - hopefully we have the in-game doctor/nurse who said it's weird af that bby!billy had no hearbeat - but Jerry, as far as he knows, is a guy who is over 300 years old who got a major crest "after birth", something that is not supposed to be possible. Jury's also out on whether Jerry knew about the cardinal business or not.

So is the only reason Billy's "not normal" because Rhea did something to them, or because, as far as Jerry knows, Jerry isn't "normal" himself?

Jerry knows Rhea isn't "normal" either, since she's most likely older than him and didn't age (unlike him!), and yet he was, per his own words, still pretty chummy with her - but when bby!Billy isn't "normal", it's suddenly super frightening?

I can buy Jerry being afraid and going a bit out of rails after Citrus's death, but the "omg not normal" used as an excuse to run away from the Monastery when he knows Rhea and himself aren't "normal" either and yet pretty much alright really felt... imo forced.

(and the games don't want to tell us if Citrus' ears were pointy or not, or if she had a heartbeat too, we only know Rhea used the crest stone as her "heart" so we're not even sure if Citrus had a normal "human" heart or not...)

#anon #replies #thanks for your ask!#i might be harsh on jerry #sadly we don't know a lot about Citrus and her exact biology #were her ears pointy? Was she like bby!Billy when she was a bby too?#why only Aelfie noticed how she didn't emote with everyone save for Jerry but Jerry didn't notice?#did she manage to emote more with time or it was only with Jerry?#it'd make a nice parallel to Billy tho if Citrus by age 18 managed to show her emotions #but Billy at age 18 was still the emotionless at least outwardly ashen demon #is it only because Sothis was sleeping or because Citrus grew up in a more stable and welcoming environment?#I wonder if there are idk some stories about the elites and their first kids after receiving a crust #or for the Adrestians who bonded with Saints #like were children born to people who were +300 recorded as 'normal' or not?#i have lot of stupid aus now lol #FE16 #Citrus stuff

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kyogre-blue · 7 months

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SS continues. Seteth is handsome and I think I would be okay with this normally, but I played VW first and Claude was cuter.

Not to be mean, but that's pretty much literally the only difference so far. Off screen Claude even supporting character magics us into getting the same reinforcements in the same place and going to the same next map. (I tell Seteth I want to go to the Kingdom this time. Seteth says no. I feel like at least Claude didn't pretend I had options. Did I just agree with him on everything...? That is also possible.)

It's kind of... even some of Seteth's lines don't seem to be intended for him. I heard from interview that SS was written first, so I figured that playing it would make VW feel like a reskin, but I dunno if it's the order I did them in, but tbh VW so far feels a more "natural" progression, Edelgard stuff aside.

Aside from that, using church units on the church route has some funny effects like that one general going "your army of children," but I'm actually... using almost entirely adults...

Live blogging notes:

Oh, I didn't notice, but the "village" where we wake up is in ruins. There are burnt remnants and half-collapsed brick walls in the background.

Interesting point: I didn't keep track of the months before, but now I see we fell asleep in March 1181 but wake up in December 1185. I kinda thought it would be the same months, but it's not.

Edelgard's tone at the reunion is...... hum. Not very emotive? Don't get me wrong, Claude doesn't exactly get worked up much either, but Edelgard has a lot more personal stakes in all this, and she should really have a deeper investment in regard to Byleth. It was like this when they parted ways in Garreg Mach too.

Edelgard says "friend from our Black Eagle days have chosen to join me in the fight ahead." But that's... hum. First, why is it a fight ahead for her? She's been fighting for 5 years and is winning, according to the info dump. Second, did the students actually join her? I got them all killed, so I won't know either way, but my impression is that this is not actually the case to begin with.

Edelgard is using a wavy sword... Levin Sword?

Kinda meh sword battle scene.

The fact that Edelgard is older than Byleth now... haha. Claude switches to calling you "my friend" but Edelgard is still pushing the teacher angle.

The info dumps about the political situation post timeskip are slightly different all around, but the only real difference seems to be that Lorenz leads the Empire supporter faction in the Alliance, which iirc was not the case in VW. That checks out. Dimitri is still presumed dead and Faerghus is a Dukedom.

Flayn says she forgot something at the Holy Mausoleum, where we meet up with her... Not sure what this is about. (Update: She and Seteth hang around there later too. Really not sure why.)

SS savefile has the banner I presume Claude also makes you use in VW - kinda blue-grey background with a pink Crest of Flames.

Lol, I killed everyone, but the chapter crawl still says students from the Black Eagle house are working with the Church. Instead I recruited all the Church units, so they show up to help in the new month.

War phase SS has the same monastery music and yellow skybox as VW. Kinda disappointed, tbh. I was (vainly) hoping that each route would get something a little different.

I did notice that they have wooden construction equipment type structures in a lot of places, which I didn't realize before. I guess it's supposed to show how the monastery is in a rundown, damaged state, but even seeing it, I don't think it works too well.

Shamir says that Dagda was "destroyed" ten years ago.

Seteth has been refusing Hanneman's requests for 21 years. So even though Flayn came to the monastery very recently, Seteth has been around for long enough that his physical age is going to start looking weird lol (his info on Serenes Forest says he's physically 27). Notably though, he and Jeralt didn't know each other (iirc), so based on the timeline, Seteth came pretty much immediately after Jeralt faked Byleth's death and disappeared. I wonder if it was because Rhea would have been "in a state" about Byleth's supposed death (and the loss of Sothis's crest stone).

There are no records of anyone except Seteth having a Major Crest of Cichol. In fact, it seems like there's probably no one who has a crest of Cichol at all. Seteth says he is a commoner and has no idea how he ended up with a crest. Hanneman when Byleth says the exact same thing, while being just as sus:

There's some cliff rubble on the monastery defense map... looks like there was a rockslide during the Imperial attack.

The fact that I've forgotten half of VW already is making this a little more tolerable, but looking at the chapter list for VW, we did have a monastery defense map before going to get Judith's troops, and in SS we are...... also going to get Judith's troops.

There's some snippets about how Judith and Daphnel have mostly remained out of Imperial attention and how Judith is a devout follower of the Seiros faith, but tbh it feels out of place here compared to VW.

Oh, there's a spy. Man, was this in VW? I remember nothing.

I've seen this mentioned in fic, but the quest for the Almyran merchant in disguise mentions a Nader bear (which is an Armored Bear Stuffy in your inventory). The thing you give him is "Zoltan's Beast Idol" that mentions the famous craftsman Zoltan who was believed to have made only weapons. I wonder if there's some weapon in the game that was made by him?

Seteth repeats the legend about Ailell being caused by the goddess's wrath after a battle there long ago. Which... is a weird thing, given that he should theoretically know the actual cause -- Agarthan missiles getting deflected from the monastery by the protections on the Holy Tomb.

Oh, Judith suggests she's helping because Claude asked her to. My sus man <3

Reiterating that the Oghma mountains are to the south of the monastery and between it and the Empire. You can't enter the monastery from the Empire directly. You have to go through the Kingdom or the Alliance.

Why do they give you the choice between east and west approaches?? I picked west because I already saw the Alliance stuff, but Seteth just directly shoots you down...

Claude continues to be a proper side character by giving us a way to get into the Empire through the Alliance. "I don't know exactly why, but I feel that I can trust you," my dude, it's because you are a side character who exists to fill the needs of the plot. It's the damn bridge again. SIGH

Also, I was worried for a moment when I couldn't talk to Ashe, but apparently you don't need to. Just kill him and he magically survives. There isn't even a little scene about him coming back or anything...?

#playing fire emblem

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dragongutsixofficial · 6 months

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Whenever I work with Byleth I have her be crap at magic.

Couldn't tell you why, I think she's quite good with everything else. Preference for the swords. Her being crap at magic just speaks to me I guess. She tries so hard at white magic though. All she wants is to be able to help her kiddos if they get hurt! She does get it eventually, but it is a struggle to get there. It'd be her budding talent I guess.

So anyway I was curious, how's Siyn on the weapons aptitude front? What's their boon and bane, if they got one?

(Assuming that is what Awakening calls it...)

HEY remember this ask ??? I've finally finished it !!! =D

Hehehe that's very interesting and also is gonna allow me to dive a little deeper into the physical manifestation of Siyn's character development.

First things first, when I first created Siyn, I decided it'd be interesting to translate some of the ways i played in-game to how her abilities would evolve. Right off the bat, i could see a few things i always did:

start with a sword as her main weapon

and immediately start practicing the bow on the side because archers are some of my favorite units ever thanks to Takumi.

This usually meant that by the time the timeskip rolled around, she was proficient enough in both weapons.

After timeskip though, I most always have a realization that although as the Enlightened One she should be able to do magic I haven't done sh*t in that regard.

This means that a significant part of the timeskip is spent working on her magic abilities, whether offensive or defensive (but mostly offensive since I have a number of well-prepped healers by that point)

So I had a few things to work with and with time she grew a lot. In the end, here's what I came up with, some of it purposefully, some of it not.

Siyn isn't the best at magic in general, and she doesn't necessarily try to be either. At best, she knows a healing spell or two, but nothing much.

However, Siyn loves tea, and drinks a lot of it.

What does that have to do with anything I hear you ask ? Well, as someone who drank a lot of tea before Byleth was even around and saw them as my kin because of said heavy consumption of warm tasty heavenly liquid, I know for a fact that I spend my time forgetting I've got a cup somewhere and by the time I remember it, it's cold. And I thought, it'd be very sad if Siyn was condemned to drinking cold tea for the rest of her life. So, I decided I'd give her the ability to warm her cup of tea with a really minor fire spell; nothing concretely usef on the battlefield. I came to really like this little detail about her because that is something she learnt to do entirely for herself, just because: which is important in Byleth's journey of self-discovery and an act of self-love. At that time, i didn't really think anything more of it.

In the end however, Siyn ended up blowing way out of proportion and out of my control. In particular, her identity crisis and conflict with Rhea made her a far more emotional character than I had anticipated- but she doesn't always know how to process emotions that strong.

She started using a bit of her fire magic on the battlefield, mostly as a way to enhance the damage dealt by her weapons or simply her fists. However, this didn't mean that it had to go any further. Until.

I think the anguish or concern she feels for her students would eventually make her snap and send her into an unimaginable state of anger and sorrow- and she'd want to burn those responsible for their suffering to a crisp, until the only thing left are ashes. And since fire needs to be incredibly hot in order to completely consume a corpse...

... This would eventually lead her to master blue fire (2500°C to 3000°C).

However, it's only after she finally comes to terms with her own nature and identity that she finally manages to master fire magic entirely, by making white fire (which the internet has told me is the hottest but I can't find it anymore, and even if it ain't it's a fantasy universe so i can do what i want), which is reminiscent of the Enlightened One's color scheme at the very moment she "becomes human again"- signifying her acceptance of both parts of herself.

#inter dragon discussions #sorry for the delay TvT

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fantasyinvader · 10 months

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I’ve been thinking. If we got Claude’s issue wrong all this time, that his main issue isn’t his ignorance but rather his hatred towards the Church, that’s going to echo through our analysis. Not just of Houses but Hopes as well. And I think Hopes, in it’s attempt to not invalidate Houses, is meant to be lesser endings for each route. That they’re bad endings, and I think if we consider how each House links to one of the poisons it shows how Shez falls short.

Scarlet Blaze, attachment: Shez does not lead the Black Eagles against Edelgard. There is no option to defect from her side, to oppose her invasion. Instead, it tries to paint it more as Shez earning Edelgard’s trust despite how in conversation with her shadow she trusts no one, while Edelgard can also enter into a partnership with Claude and the Alliance.

Azure Gleam, delusion: Dimitri lets his emotions take over during the second half, ending with him continuing the war after Edelgard/Thales’s defeat in order to punish the Empire. Shez might become more knightly but they’re not willing to step in and put a stop to it, the very thing Ferdinand calls out in Houses after Dimitri falls at Gronder. His fight with his shadow reveals that Dimitri is still somewhat suicidal.

Golden Wildfire, hatred: After his brother’s death, Claude lets his hatred of the Church and Rhea run wild. He’s willing to do anything in order to kill her, trying to find any reason to justify it but his shadow makes it clear he knows he’s not the good guy. Shez just seems to push Claude into taking more dramatic actions.

Every route is the result of clouded judgement.

Hopes isn’t trying to say these are good routes. They’re bad ends, inferior outcomes to what Byleth would accomplish in Shez’s stead. It’s the same thing Gundam IBO did, that the characters were going down dark paths but we were meant to agree with them no matter how self-destructive those paths are. There is no good ending to Hopes regardless of class joined or whether Byleth is recruited or not. Just the illusion they’re good endings and that the game is endorsing the player’s actions.

It’s, like, the antithesis of a fanservice game.

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spadefish · 10 months

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very mild headcanon but i like to believe that byleth didn't really do much if any journaling before joining garegg mach. when they gave him a journal for scheduling/finances/school notes/etc, he started actually journaling for the first time, and found that it was actually kind of nice to put his feelings down somewhere [especially considering his proclivity for keeping quiet normally]. writing was a good way for him to figure out a lot of his mental + emotional hangups and ultimately helped him become more open about communicating his feelings. Having something positive to write about DEFINITELY helped, since pre-academy it would have been a lot of the same stuff and also fairly negative. but now he journals and he's got happy stuff to write about. :)

#prof.pdf #uhhh i don't have a tag for this stuff #fe3h headcanons

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fireemblems24 · 2 years

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Did Rufus Get Ret-Conned in Three Hopes?

All of the below examines what Three Houses told us about Rufus and what happened to Dimitri between Duscur and going to the monastery and comparing it to what Three Hopes tells us. My goal is to see if there's any ret-conning, or if this is filling in blank spaces left by the original narrative. I hope that, through writing this, it'll help me (and possibly others) figure out how much these stories could co-exist or not and how "cannon" (if such a thing is even possible in a story with so many branching paths) all the new information we learn is.

Unrelated side note. Don't these writers just love bullying Dimitri? I never expected to do a write-up about Rufus, let alone make him the center of my first Three Hopes' analysis, but here we are. For better or mostly worse, Rufus got a huge villain upgrade in Three Hopes. Or did he?

Three Hopes early on dumps some surprising (but also unsurprising) information about Rufus and Dimitri's life post-Duscur, pre-Byleth. Revealed in the first few chapters of Azure Gleam is not only that Rufus put Dimitri essentially under house arrest and had him spied on (going as far as monitoring all his letters), but also attempted to assassinate his nephew and helped organize the Tragedy of Duscur.

While it seems like this information is too important to exclude from Houses, it lines up surprisingly well with what we knew and goes a long way to explain some of the unexplained. It's also hardly unsurprising for Houses to leave stuff out, as we never learned Claude's true name despite the writers wanting to include it in the OG game. This new info in Hopes could very well have been written in older versions of script but got scrapped for time or as the story changed. Let's see how well it all lines up.

Most importantly, this new information explains Dimitri's distance from his friends. Originally, it seemed like trauma alone separated them, which made sense, but the distance didn't seem just emotional but physical. It always felt like Sylvain, Ingrid, and Felix hadn't physically seen Dimitri in years, which always seemed at odds with the "childhood friends" backstory. It's all but confirmed by Dimtiri's statement that he hadn't seen Rodrigue in years, which, unlike Dimitri's friends, seemed to share a warm relationship from the get-go and is an adult with the means to travel. Rufus refusing to let Dimitri leave and blocking any attempt anyone made to reach out helps explain this. Each side likely thought the other was uninterested rather than organized by, well, an evil uncle.

It also explains why Dimitri and Dedue are so attached while being so de-attached to everything else. Again, it did make sense in Houses, but this adds more context. They were, apparently, literally all they had since Rufus got in the way of anyone else. Dedue witnessing (and likely help stopping) and Dimitri enduring multiple assassination attempts would push two people to become more protective and loyal to each other to the point of co-dependency. Dedue was likely "allowed" because he's consistently overlooked by others - Cornelia and Edelgard especially never anticipating his actions (breaking Dimitri out of prison and infiltrating the Enbarr/providing vital information on Enbarr's layouts to Claude/Byleth/Seteth, respectively - we stan a badass, guys).

This new information also gives better context for the rebellion Dimitri and Felix participated in putting down. Originally, it seemed simply like two young nobles from a warrior-like country starting to get their feet wet. But why so young? Why before going to military school? Why only Felix and not other noble children? And why risk Dimitri needlessly like that after Duscur? If the point the whole time was to try and get Dimitri killed, that answers a lot of questions. And if Rodrigue sniffed out what Rufus intended, it explains why he and Felix would go (and it seems their presence is credited for Dimitri's survival) and no other noble Faerghus children experience something similar.

It also just makes a lot of sense. Most of Lambert's supporters would've died in Duscur. It's always been implied Dimitri lost a lot more than Lambert, Patricia, and Glenn that day. That he would've been largely unprotected and targeted for assassination by anyone who didn't like Lambert makes more sense than the unexplained absense of such actions. If surrounded by enemies who disliked Lambert - and by extension Dimitri - it also explains how Cornelia could get away with imprisoning and scheduling an execution for a prince and heir.

Even Dimitri's own negative self-image lines up with what we've learned in Hopes. Rufus uses the exact same language to describe Dimitri that Dimitri does - flat-out dehumanization as a violent, mindless beast. Originally, Dimitri's trauma in Duscur seemed the likely culprit (and likely did still cause this), but continued abuse under Rufus would only make it worse and reinforce it. It also lines up with Dimitri's tendency to parrot what he witnessed or endured, especially something he does concerning violence and other negatives. It also can't be good for your mental health to get cut-off from everyone alive that still cares about you (sans Dedue, see their codependency discussed earlier) and to suspect your step-mother and uncle tried/are trying to kill you.

Hell, it even goes a long way to explain why Dimitri wears armor literally everywhere if he expected more assassination attempts.

As for Rufus' involvement in Duscur? Why not? Houses infamously didn't give a whole lot of details about Duscur, just vague implications about Patricia, Klineman, and TWSITD's involvement. Why not add Rufus to the "party"? The motivation is already there with him getting passed over as King for Lambert. He was dead by the time AM touched on Duscur, and Cornelia wouldn't have used his name to taunt Dimitri because they had a bad relationship.

One unanswered question, though, is why wouldn't any of this have come up in Houses? You'd think Dimitri would mention house arrest and assassination attempts. But you'd also think he'd talk about his lack of taste or headaches or insomnia or voices in his head or how he lost his eye or - I think you get the idea. Dimitri almost never mentions his own horrible experiences. Every time we do learn something, it's someone else observing it or an admission out of guilt. Even the bit we learn about Duscur from his POV was focused solely on what happened to Glenn and Lambert. It's through a flashback between Gilbert and Rodrigue that we learn another surprise - Dimitri was so badly injured that he almost died too! Something he never tells anyone. Also, Dimitri hates admitting when his family works against him. He doesn't really ever address that Patricia likely tried to have him murdered and turns a blind eye to his suspicions about Edelgard until he absolutely can't deny it anymore. It seems almost too perfectly in-character to have an uncle who tried to kill him that he never tells anyone about.

It doesn't all line up well, though.

For starters, this runs counter to Thales claiming he wanted to use Dimitri against Edelgard. Though, this never made sense in just Houses either, as TWSITD tried to kill Dimitri in Duscur, before the time-skip, multiple times in AM, and never lifted a finger to help him survive long enough to kill Edelgard. So if the line doesn't even make sense in Houses, it seems unfair to seriously consider it a knock against cannon in Hopes.

One thing, though, that really does seem possibly ret-conned is Rufus himself. In Houses, he was painted as a worthless womanizer, disliked by basically everyone. In Hopes, he's ret-conned into political savvy person who has many supporters . . . but even this can work. It's not like someone can't be both a womanizer AND politically intelligent.

We only hear about Rufus in Houses from people who don't like him and would've supported Dimitri. Rufus' supporters seem limited to corrupt nobles against reform and TWSITD. Commoners seem to support Dimitri more, which does line up with "everyone" wanting Dimitri to rule instead, just "everyone" here unfortunately being mostly unpowerful nobles and less. Rufus' "political acumen" could also be Cornelia's, who's time and time again demonstrated she's (?) the only member of TWSITD with two brain cells.

To create a version of Rufus that fits both stories isn't hard. He's a man with some level of political acumen, who gained the support of nobles who hated Lambert, which now make up the majority of the powerful as many of Lambert's supporters died in Duscur. However, the majority of the populace and people we visit in the Monastery prefer Dimitri. Rufus dealt with his guilt over Duscur and treatment towards Dimitri by drowning in women, earning his reputation as a womanizer, used as an argument by people who dislike him and support Dimitri. As for people calling Rufus an idiot while others acknowledge his political intelligence, well, you have seen how people treat the political figures in the opposite party, right?

Overall, there's really nothing in the new information in Hopes that runs counter to Houses, outside one line in CF that never made any sense in Houses in the first place. So I think we can accept the new info we learn as valid across both stories. That they take place in the same universe, but once the lords run near Remire, different paths start branching into seven different "cannon" endings.

#fire emblem #fire emblem three hopes #dimitri alexandre blaiddyd #three hopes #azure gleam #azure gleam spoilers #three houses #fire emblem three houses

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nozoomie · 2 months

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Byleth doesn't get paid enough for this. Frankly speaking, she doesn't think the loose change she loots from bandits on weekly missions can really be called a salary but that's neither here nor there.

What she does know, is that she was employed as a professor of Garreg Mach as a combat and tactics instructor.

Not... not whatever this is.

"Oh Professor, I don't know about this... What if she says no?" Dorothea drapes herself across the desk, sighing forlornly. "I don't think this is a good idea anymore..."

"Hm." Byleth purses her lips. Caspar misspelled his name again.

Dorothea pulls her hat down over her face and continues, "Ugh! I know this isn't like me, but... this is the first time I... I actually like the person I'm aiming for. What if... what if this ruins what we have...?"

"Mm." Byleth scrunches her nose looking down at the answer sheet before her. It truly is a blessing that the practical exams are weighted so much more heavily than the theoretical ones. What does 'give them a bam, boom, pow' even mean? Byleth shakes her head and adds a large question mark next to the section.

"No, I know... this wouldn't make Petra hate me, she's too sweet for that. But this is a Fódlan custom, would she even know what I mean when I give her the chocolate?"

A pleased smile emerges on Byleth's face and she nods in satisfaction as she marks an answer correct on the sheet. At least she won't have to tell Caspar he got a 0.

Dorothea gets up suddenly, slapping her palms on the desk. "Yes, you're right! Fortune favors the bold after all! My feelings will get through to her one way or another-- I'll make sure of it!" Revitalized, she skips her way out of the classroom, with a cheery wave and a "Thanks for everything Professor!" called as she leaves.

Byleth gives a half-hearted wave as Dorothea exits. When the door clicks shut she lets out a sigh and leans back into her chair, pinching the bridge of her nose. For the past week students have been coming to her for "advice" with regards to the upcoming St. Cethleann's day.

Apparently due to her young looks, neutral disposition, and relatively sound mental faculties, she has been singled out as the best authority figure to appeal to for romantic wisdom.

The idea baffles Byleth for many reasons, but namely for the sole fact that she has never given love advice to anyone.

The first of her students to approach her had apparently been Bernadetta of all people. When this had happened, Byleth has no idea, but apparently at some point within the week little Bernie had an inspiring conversation with her about taking charge in her love life.

Word had then gotten out that she was offering such a service to any love stricken students and Byleth hasn't had a moment to herself since. She thought that ignoring the issue would make people realize she had no nuggets of wisdom or encouragement to offer, but somehow that has been working to her detriment. She's toyed with the idea of giving some actually bad advice, but as bothersome as it is, she doesn't want any of her kids to be miserable.

So. Emotional sounding board it is then.

Byleth can at least take solace in the fact that the day of reckoning is nearly upon them, and these counseling sessions will finally end.

A knock at her door disrupts her moment of peace and she suppresses a groan.

Soon. It will all be over soon.

Byleth takes a breath and composes herself. "Come in."

#vriting #fe3h #byleth eisner

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kumeko · 8 months

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A/N: For the Paradise zine! I wanted Byhardt slow burn throughout the years. Slow because they’re both a little dense.

…

Linhardt yawned. It was bad enough that he was forced to come to the Academy, his classes interfering with his personal research and studies. Now they were interfering with his sleep. Maybe he should take a page from Bernadetta and hide in his room, only coming out for food and books.

“Hurry up already!” Caspar growled, his strong fingers wrapping around Linhardt’s wrist and yanking him forward. “We’re gonna be late ‘cause of you.”

“And that’s a problem why?” Linhardt sighed. Even if he did hide away in his room or the library or some cave in the middle of nowhere, he had no doubt that Caspar would find him there and then drag him out. There was no reprieve for him.

“We’ll miss the class.” Caspar glared at him as he hurried them down the path to the training grounds. Despite his small body, he was a powerhouse, and Linhardt went limp as he let Caspar drag him away.

“That would be a dream come true,” Linhardt drawled.

As they got closer to their destination, the sound of swords parrying, their blades clashing and bouncing off armour, grew louder. When they stepped in, the air was thick with the sickly sweet smell of sweat. Linhardt wrinkled his nose. Another reason he hated training. It was disgusting.

Inside, Dorothea sat on the ground, leaning against the door, her chest heaving as she tried to regain her breath. Petra and Ferdinand stood, but just barely, their limbs shaking from the effort. Only Hubert looked unaffected as he passively watched the battle before them.

And it was a battle. Edelgard crossed blows with their new professor, using a heavy broadsword in lieu of her usual axe. The professor easily countered. Linhardt couldn’t remember the last time Edelgard had difficulties in weapons practice.

Even Caspar was amazed. “She’s strong.”

Edelgard lunged and the professor dodged, her hair flying wildly behind her. She stepped to the right. A blunt blow to the wrist and Edelgard let go of her sword with a sharp breath. Her blade fell to the ground with a heavy thud, the professor pointing her own at Edelgard’s throat.

A defeat.

That was something utterly radiant about the professor’s smirk as Edelgard yielded.

“Fascinating,” Linhardt breathed, transfixed.

ii.

“Professor.” Linhardt padded steadily to Byleth’s desk. By now, the rest of the class had cleared out, the classroom empty save for the two of them. “I have a question.”

“What is it?” Byleth asked, looking up from her papers. “I—”

Realizing it was him, her lips set into a thin line. She leaned to the right, to the left, and sighed when she realized that he was the only one here. “A question about class, Linhardt?”

Her tone implied she doubted that to be the case.

“Absolutely not.” Linhardt kept his eyes focused on her as he talked, catching the minute changes in her expression. “It’s about your crest.”

Her expression somehow grew flatter. It was utterly fascinating—he had long considered Byleth expressionless, but clearly that wasn’t the case. No, she still had emotions, but subtler, harder to spot. He wondered what it’d take to get a big reaction out of her. He wondered what it’d take to make her smile.

“Between you and Hanneman, is there anything left to ask?” Byleth raised a brow, mildly exasperated. “No one in my family has it, I don’t know who my mother is, I have not come across anyone else with it, and no, it doesn’t provide me with extra strength or skill.”

Linhardt smiled, unfolding a piece of paper. Perhaps Byleth didn’t understand the fundamentals of a researcher, but there were always questions to be asked, hypotheses to be tested, and tests to be run. “You said you haven’t met anyone. Could you tell me all of the places you’ve been?”

Byleth stared at him. Her long fingers rapped on the table steadily before she sighed once more. Opening a drawer, she pulled out a scrolled paper and spread it across the table. It was a map of Fódlan. “You might as well grab a seat,” she added, pinning the map open.

He plopped down immediately. He had a lot of questions to ask, after all, and his feet were tired already.

iii.

The stone wall was cold. Linhardt focused on that one fact, that one sensation. Cold. Wet. Steady. It was strong in ways his roiling stomach wasn’t. His lunch tried to force itself up his throat and Linhardt closed his eyes, leaning against the wall as he fought it back down.

The stone wall was sturdy. His sweat was sticky. The faint scent of iron filled the air. A hand rubbed slow circles on his back. Linhardt opened his eyes, his gaze flicking to the presence to his right. Blue filled his vision and his eyes widened as Byleth leaned forward, concerned.

“Are you alright, Linhardt?”

Her other hand held a sword, still slick with blood. He couldn’t look away as a droplet slid down the blade, dropping to the dirt floor silently. That blood was on his hands too. His stomach heaved, eager to empty itself in this desolate tower.

“Breathe,” Byleth murmured, still massaging his back. Her hand was warm. He felt cold. “In the nose. Out the mouth.”

Linhardt tried. In the nose. Out the mouth. He kept his gaze on her, because if he looked anywhere else, he would see the thugs they’d just killed. There was a reason he had never wanted to come to this academy. Despite his duties to the empire, he wasn’t a fighter. He never had been. And now there was blood on his hands.

“Breathe,” Byleth commanded, harsher now.

He hadn’t realized he’d stopped. Linhardt stared into her eyes, the blues even darker in this moonlit ruin. In the nose. Out the mouth. The wall was cold. Byleth’s hand was warm. His stomach settled, just enough, and Byleth helped him straighten up before pulling back.

He still didn’t look away. He wasn’t ready to.

“Good. The first time is always the hardest.” Byleth flicked the blood off her sword impassively before sheathing it.

The first. His stomach churned at the thought. There would be a second. A third. Who knew how many? Linhardt curled his hand into a fist, his nails digging half-moons into his palm. The pain steadied him. “Does it get easier?”

“Sometimes.” Byleth looked away, studying their surroundings before turning back to him. “It depends on the person. It depends on the death. It’s probably better if it doesn’t.”

“Is it easier for you?” he asked.

She didn’t answer. For once, Lindhardt wasn’t sure if he wanted to know.

iv.

Byleth was dead. Or maybe just lost. Linhardt didn’t know what to think about that, what to feel about that. One moment, she had been there, leading the fight. The next, she had disappeared, swallowed by the chasm of which there was no escape.

He didn’t know how to react, so he didn’t. The Empire was entering a war, and there was always something new to study. Linhardt buried himself in his research, trying to ignore the empty spaces where Hanneman would push him, where Annette or Lysithea would tear into his ideas and rebuild them stronger.

There was an emptier spot where Byleth used to sit across from him, her expression torn between fondness and exasperation as he had yet another list of questions.

He couldn’t ask those questions anymore.

Something heavy settled in him.

He didn’t want to think about it.

Byleth was alive. Caught in the heat of battle, surrounded by classmates he hadn’t seen in a while, Linhardt hadn’t had time to process the news before he’d plunged into battle with a legion of bandits. Now, after all was said and done, he had a moment to realize what it meant.

He wasn’t imagining things. Even pinching his thigh didn’t change the fact that Edelgard and Byleth were walking down the stone steps, Edelgard’s arm wrapped around Byleth to support her. Their former teacher looked exactly the same as she had all those years ago, her moss green hair somehow glowing in the early morning.

Lindhardt took an involuntary step forward. Byleth was here. A tension in his belly eased.

As ever, Caspar blurted out all of their feelings. “You’re alive?”

Byleth lifted her head lightly and nodded weakly. “I didn’t die.”

“We thought you had, Professor.” Ferdinand looked as confused as Linhardt felt. “It has been five years—what were you doing?”

“I…” Byleth pursed her lips, wincing as she tried to answer. Her eyes scanned them all, before landing on him. Smiling weakly, she answered, “I thought I’d listen to Linhardt and sleep for once.”

Linhardt’s shoulders relaxed, a weight he didn’t realize he had leaving. “You slept too long.”

She chuckled. “I don’t want to hear that from you.”

vi.

Linhardt found Byleth in the long-abandoned Black Eagle’s classroom. He wasn’t sure where he had expected to find her after today—not the church, the time for a goddess had long since passed. Not the food hall, it was well lit and always fun, with little room for privacy. Not the gardens, which weren’t free of prying eyes.

It had been luck she was in the fourth place he checked. Outside, it was dark, the moonlight seeping through the windows. The hearth had long since been put out, no new kindling to provide any light. That was fine; he’d brought a lamp of his own.

At the other end of the room, Byleth sat at her desk, her expression pensive as she stared at the half-erased chalkboard. She didn’t turn as he entered, didn’t do anything actually. Linhardt set his lamp on her desk and pulled a chair over to sit in front of her. They’d done this so many times before, in the time when he had been just a student, and the war wasn’t even a pipe dream.

Today, he didn’t have any questions but one: “Are you okay, Professor?”

She started. Her eyes slid to and then past him, at the rest of the classroom, before her shoulders slumped. He wasn’t the only one remembering the past, remembering the classmates that flitted in and out of their doors.

“I thought they would retreat,” Byleth whispered, her voice raspy, as though anything louder would shatter the moment.

“It’s a war,” Linhardt replied kindly, lowering his eyes. His fingers dug into his thighs. He had five years to get used to fighting former classmates. She had only weeks. “No one wants to—no one can retreat.”

Byleth inclined her head, gazing at her hands. She clenched them, as though she was holding her sword. “I suppose so.” Letting out a shaky laugh, she looked up at him. “This won’t get easier.”

The wording triggers a memory, long ago, of his first kill. Of him asking a question with no answer.

He hadn’t needed one. He definitely didn’t want to find out this way. Quietly, he leaned forward and squeezed her hand. “It hasn’t for me.” Linhardt paused. “Byleth.”

Her eyes widened fractionally before her expression crumpled, and she shuddered. Byleth’s sobs were silent things. He wasn’t sure how he had ever thought of her emotionless all those years ago. She clasped his hand like a lifeline and he clung back tightly.

vii.

There wasn’t an agreement, a formal declaration, but somehow, Linhardt kept joining Byleth for her nightly patrols. Somehow, they kept meeting in the abandoned places of their youth, surrounded by the ghosts of had-beens and could-have-beens. There was something utterly natural about the way he slipped into place beside her, about his scant questions and her quiet replies.

Tonight was no exception. He found her in the grand hall, his feet knowing where to go even if she hadn’t told him where to meet. The hall was large, dark, and looming. A few holes in the ceiling revealed a bright night sky, filled with stars. On one side, Byleth sat in a window alcove, a lantern at her feet as she stared out the window.

“Byleth.”

She looked up at the sound of her name, the light casting shadows on her face as she turned. Even in the dim light, her hair still glowed like a fire, her eyes as bright as the stars above. In the night, Byleth seemed less a woman and more a goddess, an ethereal being that would disappear if he looked away too long.

It was an irrational thought. He had watched her for years and he knew just how all-too-human she was. Her arm even had a bandage from a recent skirmish, an injury that was healing far too slowly for his liking.

It was an irrational thought, but he felt it all the same. Byleth lips curved slightly and he couldn’t look away, mesmerized as she picked up her lantern and approached him. “You’re late,” she said.

“You look tired,” he replied. It was true, she looked worn in the ways that he felt, in the ways that war wormed deep inside and refused to leave.

“We all are.” She turned, heading down the hallway.

He slipped into space beside her, as usual, as always. No, not always, he had seen her die, seen her come back. It could happen again. Linhardt felt his hand brush against hers, and the urge to grab it.

Linhardt froze. He wanted to grab her hand.

Noticing he wasn’t beside her, Byleth turned around, raising her lantern high. “Linhardt?”

Linhardt wanted more than to grab her hand. He wanted that always, that forever. He wanted those quiet questions in a study, wanted lazy afternoons and long naps. A world without war was ideal, but a world with Byleth was all that he really needed. His skin flushed, his heart beating like a rabbit’s, and he was glad it was dark, that the naked desire that must have been clearly etched across his face was all but invisible.

“N-nothing,” Linhardt stuttered, forcing his feet to move again.

He loved her. He might have loved her for a long time now.

It seemed he had a new line of questioning to try out. One that started with a ring and hopefully ended with a yes.

#byhardt #byleth eisner #linhardt von hevring #byleth x linhardt #fe3h #fire emblem three houses #fanfic

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