#i kinda hate how some people write miklan | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

weirdopponent · 1 year

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"Hey, Sylvain, come here,"

Sylvain turns the small clam shell in his small fingers. It is the color of pale white foam or undyed fabric. It is filled with the earth, like a little bag of brown sugar. He drops it and brushes the sand from his palms. Miklan is a blurry figure further down the beach, but he'll still know if Sylvain drags his feet no matter how far away he is. Nothing good comes from stalling. Nothing good comes from running, either. Sylvain comes when he is called, but he still comes in no rush.

"Let's play here." Miklan says, pointing. The ocean is still under his index finger. It is in a splint. Father had not taken him to the hospital, so Miklan had gone to a local pharmacy. The money came from Sylvain's pocket. Miklan knows Sylvain cannot swim.

"I can't swim." He says anyway. Feels the hook through his cheek, bait in his throat. Sylvain isn't scared of the water. He's scared of -

"I'll teach you," there is a hand between his wings. Miklan kicks at the sand, it scatters out like sugar on glaze. The ocean is still.

Sylvain isn't scared of the water. It gets deep. They are at the cusp of the ocean's bowl, the shallows home to scuttling and pinching things that could make him bleed, but not die. The odds that Sylvain will ever know waters deep and wide enough that his muscles would fail to fatigue, and his lungs to the water, are low. Miklan pushes him forward, just a little, and his sandals get wet.

Sylvain wouldn't be able to run even without Miklan's hand on him, now at the back of his neck, small. Indefinably fragile. Sylvain knows. Sylvain knows if he runs, he will only bleed, the hook in his cheek, the bait in his throat. Sylvain isn't a very good fisher. Sylvain steps into the surf.

He learns lots of things from Miklan. He learns how long it takes for different bones to heal. He learns how bad it needs to be to risk nursing. He learns burning, and he learns breaking, and he learns how to be completely still and quiet when he is hurt. Sylvain learns how to hold his breath.

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dimiclaudeblaigan · 1 year

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Ah, so cool that Rodrigue gets his own week! Well deserved, he was a great addition to the playable cast in Hopes. Already liked him in Houses, but he really won me over completely with his supports and how much he loves to reminisce about his youth with Lambert and Matthias, aaw. That being said, I'm kinda surprised that OP didn't list Matthias as a one of the prompts. I don't ship them but I could see it more likely than... Hanneman or Nader lol, dunno maybe people dislike Matthias too much

Yeah, he was one of my faves in Houses too. Having him in Hopes was really fun with all the lore drops. In general as a character I love him too of course in Hopes, but it was really nice getting more content about the parents.

@recurringwriter MY NONNIE WANTS TO KNOW WHY YOU DIDN'T ADD MATTHIAS IN THE RODRIGUE WEEK! -waves you over with a flag-

Tbh for the most part I see more love for Matthias than hate. It could just be because of the circles I tend to find myself in on Tumblr, but I tend to have to fight to insist I don't hate Matthias simply because I'm critical of him... as I am of any character when needed. People will start defending him like I'm attacking him, like... no lol I don't hate Matthias. I made a half joke tag about it because apparently I had to reiterate it repeatedly at the time so people would stop taking a critical eye as hate.

I can see Nader, but personally I'd like Jeralt more than Hanneman myself. I'm salty we never got the Rodrigue and Jeralt friendship they both deserved. Their soldiers talk so highly about them and we hear about how they like to drink with their soldiers and be personable with them. Put Nader in and they may as well have a friend date to the local bar LOL.

I don't know if I'll end up doing anything for Rodrigue week since I have commissions, my constant dmcl ideas and Miklan weekend booking me, but I'll be happy to see what people come up with. Maybe I'll try to make something small, I dunno.

Inb4 I write a Rodrigue Dads DmCl fic where he dads them constantly and acts like they're his baby boys and embarrasses Claude for marrying his baby boy.

Also though I wanna write something with him and Sylvain bc... Sylvix good. 👁️👄👁️

If all else fails I could just... write some Rodrigue Loves Lambert... even though IS wrote a lot of that already. 😛

#DCB Ask

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loregoddess · 2 years

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Hit the halfway(?) point of Azure Gleam (to the end of Ch9 aka the final chapter of Part I), some some mid-game spoilery thoughts below

I’m...actually really disappointed Miklan died? I dunno if there’s a way to speed through the map and prevent him from dying although the wiki suggests his death is scripted into the story itself so...yeah. But I was really hoping for an honest effort from the writers at a proper redemption arc, but instead they fell back on the tried and true “redemption equals death” trope which is...honestly an exhausted and boring trope in my personal opinion. I wanna see a character who did terrible things suffer and work to atone for their deeds and truly move forward to become a better person, even if (or especially if) the people they wronged don’t forgive them, because that’s a much more interesting story to me than “actually they could have been a better person, but lost their life in being better (i.e. by defending something important to the protagonists)”. It’s just...eh. Miklan was so much more interesting in Hopes than he was in Houses, and his arc could have been so much more compelling, but instead I got stuck with this. Well, I suppose it’s better than the “actually he turns traitor and joins Edelgard bc she promises him whatever bc of her meritocracy-based ideology” which would have been objectively worse in my opinion, so there’s that I guess.

That said, aside from the hiccup of whatever the fuck is going on with Sothis’s characterization, which I lowkey hate, most of the character writing and story writing so far is really strong. I think it’s interesting the game allows you to recruit certain characters from the enemy army, but a few of them (mainly Dorothea) will call Shez out being like “sure, death or betrayal were my only options and I don’t want to die so I guess I have to betray the people I love what the fuck dude” which is...a bit more nuanced than what I’ve come to expect from any FE writing. But for the Lions kids in general, I really think the writing works well, especially for Felix and Sylvain whom I had mixed feelings about in Houses. I mean, everyone still needs like, fantasy therapy, but still, I like most of the writing so far. Kinda sad that Cyril isn’t playable still, and same goes to Hanneman since given how Sylvain’s writing is going, a support between him and Hanneman would have been fascinating, but the base game is immense, so I’m not unhappy.

Oh, but on the note of characters, Linhardt’s dad looks like a muppet. Also he’s too tall, why is he that tall. I’m loving the new unique characters (esp. since so many minor lords are just generic unit NPCs, rip), but some of these designs are uh...very much some designs alright. I don’t mean that in a bad way though.

Not sure how I feel about whatever is going on w/ Edelgard, since she seems a lot less present as a villain, but hopefully now that the writing team has an idea of what they actually want to do with her, maybe her writing will actually be consistent instead of whatever the mess of Houses’ writing was. I am enjoying the layers of conspiracy though, the Agarthans actually seem like proper villains with story clout now, and I am loving it.

Anyhow, I’m very excited to see where the story goes from here, the game’s been great so far and now that I’ve broken in the mechanics I’m having a lot of fun with the battles as well. Kinda disappointed I can’t fuse weapons at the smith like I could in other Warriors games, but I’ve been able to create some pretty powerful weapons regardless of the smithing limits. Can’t believe the game got me to actually use the expedition function either, since I never touched the tea party mechanic in Houses but once. Actually I suck at talking with characters, but there are some interesting bits of lore hidden in the expedition convos. Hopefully the scripts get lifted and posted somewhere so I can read them all at my leisure.

So now, onward, with...way more characters than I ever needed since the game keeps giving them to me.

#oracle of lore #don't let the disappointment I have w/ certain tropes fool you I am loving the game so far #also I did say I expected nothing from the writers but I have gotten quite a bit of actually decent writing so far #and the mechanics are fun!#so that's all I really need out of a game

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pastelsapphy · 5 years

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Why does Sylvian hates himself?

(This ended up being really long whoops)

*cracks knuckles* time to talk about my boy

[All quotes taken from the Fire Emblem Fandom Wiki, so there may be some slight inaccuracies]

Okay so first off Sylvain grew up in a shitty environment, to say the absolute least, and that fucks with your head.

First: his brother. He attempted to kill Sylvain on multiple occasions as kids because Sylvain had a Crest. And Sylvain just like, accepts that??? You can see that a lot in his A support with Byleth. He talked about being shoved in a well and being left on a mountain in winter by his brother, and almost immediately followed up with “I have no right to complain” because he, in theory, got lucky: he got the Crest.

And you figure, he would’ve grown up apologizing and made to feel guilty just for existing. You can see in his dialogue against Miklan, in chapter five:

Miklan: Hmph! Hurry up and die already. If not for you… If it hadn’t been for you…

Sylvain: Shut up! I’m so tired of hearing that. You’ve always blamed me for something that isn’t my fault.

He’s definitely been saying that since they were kids. That kinda stuff really fucks with your sense of self-worth after a while.

Then we have the rest of his family. We don’t hear anything about his mother, or much about his father, but we can infer some things about the latter: Margrave Gautier disowned, abandoned, and cast aside his first son in favor of the one with a Crest. Considering the dialogue about “everything being taken away” from Miklan, it’s possible that he was being raised to be the next Margrave, because someone had to inherit–with Crests becoming less common, who knows how long it would’ve taken to get a kid with one, if they got one at all? They needed a backup plan. And then Sylvain came along, with the minor Crest of Gautier, and suddenly Miklan didn’t exist. That’s fucked up, and it shows how little Margrave Gautier cared about his kids. I honestly doubt he showed Sylvain any kind of affection or attention growing up, and probably only interacted with him for inheritance- and Crest-related reasons. To him, Sylvain was a walking Crest, not a person (Sylvain’s fear of people only ever wanting him for his Crest, and not as a person in any respect, had to come from somewhere).

(And, if I can add a bit of an aside, I feel like this is the root of his philandering. Makes me think of the whole “even negative attention is better than nothing” kinda thing. You figure, Little Sylvain would have been incredibly touch-starved and desperate for attention. Humans are a social species and we literally need attention and affection to live well. I mean, he flirted with Ingrid’s grandmother when he was eight. I can only imagine what he said/did if Ingrid remembered it, considering she would have been five or six at the time. And kids that young don’t really know any better yet. Poor kid probably just wanted attention.)

(Additional aside that came to mind while writing this: I wonder if seeing the arrangement between Ingrid and Glenn affected this at all? Like yeah marriages in that kind of setting were purely political and such, but Ingrid was engaged to Glenn because (a) House Fraldarius was a powerful, well-to-do noble family and House Galatea really needed the resources, and (b) Ingrid was desirable as a wife because she had a Crest. Of course, we don’t know the exact circumstances of the arrangement, but we can infer from her other prospects. Sylvain still would have essentially seen Ingrid being used for leverage because of her Crest.)

So long before the events of the game, Sylvain is already pretty fucked up, emotionally. Trauma does that to you, especially when you have an “everyone else has it worse and I, actually, got lucky, so it doesn’t count and I’m not allowed to feel bad about it” complex. Survivor’s guilt is a hell of a drug lemme tell you. Sylvain has already internalized that,

He’s only good for his Crest

Any negative feelings about his Crest don’t matter, because those without have it worse.

No one will ever truly see him as a person–he’s just a Crest.

Already, that’s a pretty fucked up view of oneself.

By the time he gets to Garreg Mach, he has a carefully crafted persona set up: He’s an asshole, a liar, a serial flirt and cheater, dumb as a box of rocks, and a self-proclaimed “good-for-nothing.” In his B support with Dedue, you hear that people describe him as “indefensibly worthless,” which is followed by,

Sylvain: Indefensibly? Heh, that’s a bit harsh.

Dedue: I already knew your reputation concerning women. But these new rumors deprive you of all redemption. I did try to correct them. But I doubt I was believed.

Sylvain: Well, thank you all the same. Listen. You don’t need to worry what people think about me. As you well know, it’s not easy to correct misunderstandings or change people’s minds. And if I’m going to behave so badly, it seems misunderstandings are inevitable.

He doesn’t even argue, just kinda brushes it off and accepts that’s just How He Is (listen, Sylvain can definitely be an asshole at times, but I have to agree with that being harsh). He doesn’t want people to expect anything from him (well, not anything good). In his supports with Annette, he’s shown to be pretty smart, but admits he hides it because the pressure it puts on him is suffocating. He kinda goes out of his way to hide his more redeeming qualities like that. Also on that point, we have this bit from his B support with Ashe,

Sylvain: […] My advice on the whole thing is just to follow your instincts. That’s what I do. If someone’s in trouble, I help them. You don’t need to be a valiant knight to know that. Doesn’t matter if the person is an ugly old man or the cutest girl you’ve ever seen, you help ‘em.

Ashe: So, you’re saying…

Sylvain: Everybody’s the same, deep down. It’s our job to help anyone who needs it.

Ashe: Ah!

Sylvain: What? You’re looking at me funny. Did I say something wrong?

Ashe: No! No. I’m just surprised, that’s all. You’re actually a much better person than I thought.

“You’re actually a much better person than I thought.” Several of his supports have some variation of this line. Usually after he does something kind. And I mean, Sylvain is a kind person, under the philandering. Most of his supports involve him helping others out somehow.

He helps Dimitri with the girl situation (he kinda got him into it in the first place but I digress)

His whole C with Dedue is pretty much “racism is stupid and I’m going to be your friend, fuck what everyone else says.”

In his supports with Felix and Ashe, he helps them out in battle, at a detriment to himself (You can also throw Byleth in here, during their A support, but he was a jerk in their C and B).

In his Annette supports, she calls him out for going easy on her during training. He admits he was, but only because he didn’t want her to feel bad because she puts so much effort into her work while he “sorta gets by on [his] wits”

Okay I need to say how much I love his supports with Bernadetta???? He does genuinely try to compliment her work, and when he sees speaking to Bernie face-to-face won’t work, he goes out of his way to write a nice and well-worded review (a fairly lengthy one, according to Bernie) and compliment of her work–which Bernadetta takes to much better than she did talking in person. And this is one of the few supports where he doesn’t try to flirt. He’s just trying to give her genuine compliments on her writing and goes out of his way to do it without upsetting her.

His support with Hilda could go a few ways, but he did return the books for her and he did apparently get yelled at for something he didn’t do and didn’t even try to deflect that. And it seems that’s not even why he confronts her later: it’s because of how her actions were detrimental to other people (”And those books you left in your room for so long? Teachers and classmates needed those. So stop lying, and maybe stop being quite as selfish too.”). It’s not until she asks if the librarian said anything that he’s like “Oh, yeah, they yelled at me.”

And a fair amount of people still see him as “indefensibly worthless.” Sylvain often goes out of his way to help people, but he tends to brush it off and keep it lowkey.

I got a little off track here, but my point for this is Sylvain projects an outward appearance of being a really shitty, deplorable person. Almost everyone he has supports with is GENUINELY surprised when they realize that no, he’s not as bad as all the rumors about him imply. Sylvain just doesn’t really want people to know. And, as much as he plays it off like he doesn’t care, that kind thing gets to you after a while. So everyone except a handful of close friends seeing him in such a negative light? It filters in eventually, even if you’re not already emotionally fucked up.

Another thing I want to point out: A lot of times, it seems like Sylvain does not give a shit about what happens to him. A few of his support conversations involve him taking a blow in battle to protect someone else (and his attitude afterward is “better me than them”). Reading his A+ with Felix, “…protecting me like that. You’re so weak and yet you always… always…” this is definitely something Sylvain has a habit of doing. Additionally, we have one of his goal requests: “The best way to impress people is to save them by diving into harm’s way. That’s what a Great Knight does, yeah?” In true Sylvain style he covers it with “I just want to impress people” but he’s still devoting his training to being the guy who jumps in front of everyone else to tank the hit. Fully committing to that kind of thing takes more than just a shallow want to “impress people.” Then there’s his Monastery line to Byleth, toward the end of Verdant Wind I believe?, where he says he fights like he wants to die. Which…. yeah.

Another line of his that sticks with me: “burn until we meet again,” after defeating an enemy post-time skip. A friend of mine pointed out it might just be dramatic, but I think about that a lot. Does he think he’s going to the 3h equivalent of hell??? Does he think he’s that terrible of a person??

Uh this turned out to be a lot longer than i thought. So I guess to sum up:

Sylvain grew up internalizing the idea that he doesn’t have any worth as a person. Everything he is and has is related to his Crest. Everything that people feel towards him is related to his Crest and not who he is as a person.

He internalized the idea that because he has a Crest, that he’s not allowed to be upset about any of this, because he got lucky.

Growing up with Miklan’s abuse, he was definitely made to feel guilty about simply daring to exist. So he grows up hating himself.

He developed an outward persona that only reinforced these ideas–he makes and lets people believe he’s a piece of shit.

His attitude in battle shows how little he seems to care about himself.

tl;dr: Sylvain grew up without any love or affection, and was severely emotionally fucked up by his family, which complicated his relationships with other people and his view of himself as a person and his worth. He purposely projected an image of himself to support this, letting people believe he’s a shit person and doesn’t argue back because he feels it’s well-deserved. He doesn’t seem to think he’s actually worth anything. Sylvain, of course, like all people, has negative traits–that’s just part of being human. But his sense of self has been so warped and twisted over the years that he can’t seem to do anything but hate himself.

#fire emblem three houses #sylvain jose gautier #sylvain gautier #fe sylvain #fire emblem sylvain #three houses #fire emblem three houses spoilers #fe16 spoilers #three houses spoilers #fe16 #feth #fe three houses #asks #anon #mine #long post #i have a lot of feelings about sylvain okay #abuse mention #abuse mention cw

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agoddamn · 5 years

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Not exactly related to edgelord discourse, but what are your thoughts on Miklan? I see a fair amount of “poor baby deserved better, being disowned and all” around, and I thought the reason he was disowned was from repeatedly trying to kill his brother? The crest situation absolutely sucks and I’m not saying people can’t like him? But it just confuses me a little

Yeah, my opinion is about the same as yours. It does suck how the kid grew up neglected and belittled...but he also did try to murder a child. That's still on him.

It probably comes back to differing fundamental beliefs about responsibility, which I also think is the root cause of a lot of Edelgard discourse. I believe that there are points where someone is no longer responsible for their actions and points where they're trapped into a collision course that they can't stop...but I don't think either Edelgard or Miklan reach those points, thanks to poor writing and being a minor character respectively. Other people obviously have different feelings about that.

Honestly, for the amount of interest people have in Miklan I would have assumed he got a lot more fleshing out than one boss conversation, a death cutscene, and some retellings via Sylvain. He's pretty much an unrepentant dickbag. I kinda think much of it is just reflected interest in Sylvain; he makes Sylvain sad, ergo, he's worthy of attention. To give Sylvain a happy childhood in some AU, Miklan has to be nice, so people who like Sylvain want that.

With Miklan, though, I get the feeling that even if Crests didn't exist he'd have some other fundamental insecurity that would ruin him. It's not like this metaphor doesn't exist already, you know? Younger child is smarter and more talented than the older, older hates them for it. And Sylvain is, indeed, very intelligent. The ingredients for Miklan destroying himself in a jealous rage are still there even without magic.

#3h asks

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gallantgautier · 5 years

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Ooc, what are Sylvains most positive traits and strengths?

ooc: I’m so sorry this took me forever to answer, I got distracted. And when the mun gets distracted they forget about things sitting in their inbox. But considering the sheer amount of Sylvain angst I’ve been writing, both in threads and in meta, I feel now is a good time to get into this. Under a cut that I stealth edited in because this got long.

Strangely, this topic is actually a little harder to talk about than his flaws, and it probably has a lot to do with the fact that those flaws are so deeply intertwined with the positive aspects of his character that, as far as examination goes, they get overshadowed by the act of actually unravelling his personality to get to them, it’s what makes Sylvain such an interesting character, really.

That, and I think one of Sylvain’s biggest strengths of character is that, despite it all, despite his disillusions, insecurity, bitterness and inner conflict, he doesn’t let it completely consume him.

Let’s briefly touch on a big aspect of Sylvain Meta I have been focusing on a lot lately, both in previous character examinations and in my head because damn if the bug hasn’t bitten me hard. I won’t get too much into it, there’s a whole lot over here if you’re interested, but it focuses on the negative and that’s not what we’re doing today.

Miklan.

All that stuff considered; it would be so easy for Sylvain to hate Miklan. (He says he does. He doesn’t.) It would be so easy for him to hate the world, and I suppose he does in a way. He hates the world that’s put so much stock into Crests and those who bare them. In general, it would be so easy for Sylvain to hate everything and lash out.

Yet he doesn’t.

Now, an argument can be made that he lashes in, and he does, in a big way. It results in his interactions with people – mainly women – being fake. It results in his lack of trust in people in general, evidenced in that, if we don’t include Byleth seeing as they can reach S rank in all their supports across avatar gender choice, Sylvain only has four supports that go higher than B. Only two of those go to A+, and they’re both with people he’s known all his life.

And yet, Sylvain is very genuine in his friendships. Sure, there’s a colouring of playing around, and while he may not fully trust other people in his life he calls friends and may never let them see the person underneath, he cares and it shows.

I present to you exhibit A; his support with Bernadetta.

Now, this is a subject we’re probably all close to, receiving praise for your writing is forever going to be awkward, but we can see in this conversation that he isn’t just saying “Yeah! This is really good!” Sylvain makes a point of highlighting the details he enjoyed, and more importantly, why he enjoyed them. He also states in his letter that he hopes he inspires Berie to write more, and when we consider how little Sylvain thinks of himself, it’s hard to imagine that he’d think of his opinions as ‘inspirational.’ We can conclude, then, that Sylvain is sharing his thoughts not because he thinks anyone would be interested in hearing them, rather that he thinks having them heard will help.

Let’s move on to his second positive trait. He’s very insightful.

Now, we all know he’s smart, way smarter than he’d like to let anyone think. We see this easily in his supports with Annette, not just how easily he understands the text she’s studying, but also his recognition that the formula is over-complicated. It’s proof that he really does understand the subject and hasn’t just memorised it.

But that’s a display of his intelligence, not insightfulness, that comes later in the support with “Guys like me who hate hard work and sorta get by on our wits? It all falls apart eventually.” Now, I suppose this is a somewhat weak example, as it’s more self-awareness than insight, still, I do think it’s a bit of both, to know that he can’t just get by on luck forever.

Still on this topic, but in radically different context, I’d like to point your attention to Sylvain’s support conversation with Dedue, where he comes to the conclusion that the people of Duscur are innocent. Now, Three Houses intentionally halts certain supports from progressing if they contain story spoilers or if they require certain events to have occurred before them, either because the support itself references those events, or so that the player has context to understand the gravity of what happens in the support.

As such, this statement from Sylvain can happen incredibly early in the game, and potentially is one of the first occasions where a student alludes to a third party pulling some strings. Now, Sylvain doesn’t go that far in his conclusion, doesn’t even have a conclusion, really. But the fact that he even questions it, that he’s looked at the evidence and found that something doesn’t add up, speaks for an insight that, so far, I haven’t really found in the “supporting cast” for lack of a better term.

The final positive trait I want to bring up, one that he doesn’t attempt to hide because honestly he has no need to by virtue of the reasoning I’m about to get into; how important promises are to him, how lightly he doesn’t make them, and how he keeps every single one. He doesn’t hide this simply because it’s a rare occurrence that only happens around people he trusts.

I’ve trawled through Sylvain supports, the word “promise” comes up a grand total of 13 times across all 17 characters (that’s a total of 42 separate conversations.) You’d think for a guy who is personified as being a cheat would make a helluva lot of empty promises, wouldn’t you?

That number isn’t even accounting for the fact that half of the time in these supports, it isn’t even him saying the word.

Let’s discount one of these right off the bat. He says it, but it’s to Hilda, and half of it is a joke, where he tells her to “stop lying, take responsibility, and fall madly in love with him.” He asks her to promise him these things in exchange for forgiveness for taking a tongue lashing from the librarian that was meant for her. None of this is overly important to my point, save the fact that it’s the one time where the word doesn’t carry all that much weight, but it’s not an exception to the rule and still a reinforcement as he’s not the one making it.

Two other occasions I want to bring up next are his supports with Byleth and Mercedes. These aren’t like the previous where it doesn’t carry weight, quite the opposite, but he says the word only once for each. For the former it’s right at the end of his marriage proposal so… Kinda a “well duh” moment, doesn’t really require any analysis. The latter is also at the end of the final support conversation, and it comes in response to Mercedes asking if he will “protect her in turn.” Considering this is a support required for their paired ending, we can sort of take this as a marriage proposal too, but I place more emphasis on the fact that during this portion of the conversation, Sylvain has let his guard down around Mercedes, to the point where he actually cries. That’s pretty significant.

The remaining ten mentions of “promise” come in his supports with his three childhood friends.

Let’s look at Dimitri first, as he only has half of the number of conversations with everyone’s favourite philanderer that the other two do. The word comes up, across both conversations, four times, and only once by Sylvain himself, in which he promises to “do better” and focus more on his studies etc. The other three occasions come from Dimitri, first questioning whether Sylvain will keep to his word, the second is in the B support where he confirms that Sylvain actually did, and the last is Dimitri promising to help Sylvain out with “…something he knows how to help with.” (The last isn’t all that important really, save for keeping count.)

So that leaves the final six, considering we discounted one at the beginning, that’s half. And wouldn’t you know, as well as being part of the Original Childhood Friend Quartet, these two are the only people he can obtain an A+ rank support with. Coincidence? I think not.

Between Ingrid and Felix’s supports, Ingrid’s contain the majority with four, but unlike with Dimitri, it’s Sylvain saying it three out of those four times. However, this time we have the one occasion where he doesn’t completely stay true to his word. Like Dimitri’s support, his first promise to Ingrid is in regards to his behaviour, but, despite his own opinion on the matter, Ingrid expresses exasperation that he’s still playing around. However, it’s worth noting that this promise comes after Ingrid has chewed him out for events that happened a number of years ago, in public, and in a manner that by all accounts is pretty belittling. It’s probably the one occasion he’s made a promise out of frustration and to just end the conversation, evidenced by how he tacks “ Are you happy now?” on to the end. This, I think, is the exception to the rule, rather than the occasion with Hilda, but an exception I think proves the rule.

The second mention is from Ingrid asking Sylvain to stop acting so nonchalant about getting hurt or killed,” and the third is him making that promise right after. It’s never strictly mentioned if he actually does keep it, however, his following support with her involves scenes with him taking his training and combat situations seriously. I believe this is him making an attempt to minimise the possibility of getting hurt in the first place. It’s a roundabout way of keeping his promise, sure, but one that definitely works, dealing with the root cause rather than the surface issue, as it were.

The last comes with “It’s not a joke that you’re beautiful, but I wasn’t trying to hit on you or anything. Promise.” This one, at first glance, doesn’t seem much to read in to, and at face value, there really isn’t. I think this ties in more to the way Sylvain regards promises, and that (hopefully) Ingrid knows that aspect of him too. It’s an emphasis on him being genuine, that he truly means what he’s saying.

Lastly, we have Felix, arguably the most important one. I have a lot of headcannon surrounding this, we’re not going there today, we’re going to stick with what we know.

It’s only mentioned twice, both by Sylvain, and it’s a reference to the same promise, that they’ll “stick together, until they die together.” It’s worth noting that he brings it up specifically on the second mention, but on the first, it comes after Felix being concerned (angrily, because it’s Felix) that Sylvain actually will die, and Sylvain stating “Nah, I won’t die on you. I promise.”

At first, it’s a bit of a throwaway line, until later in the support he talks about The Promise, it paints the first line in a whole new light, that in reality Sylvain is saying “I’m not going to break my promise.” And if you get their paired ending in the Azure Moon route, he really doesn’t.

It’s also brought up outside their supports, if you recruit one and not the other, they talk about it pre-combat if you set them against each other. Please don’t do that. It’s rather poignant, I think, that game mechanics are the only way to get Sylvain to break a promise.

To summarise, Sylvain’s strengths of character manifest in how much he truly cares about people. How he can find the strength to lift his friends up despite the weight he puts on his own shoulders. How he might be crumbling but ultimately will not break. And just how dependable he is by virtue of how he won’t ever make a promise lightly, nor will he break one.

#Sylvain Jose Gautier #Meta #positive traits #character strengths #me: It's hard to talk about this because xyz reasons #also me: 2k of meta later #Anonymous

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lesguin · 4 years

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I finally finished the original four routes of Fire Emblem: Three Houses!

I’ve really enjoyed the game so far, but some things remain a mystery so I probably will be playing the Ashen Wolves route to see how much is answered, haha. Compared to the last couple of Fire Emblem games, the characters were much more fleshed-out and interesting, which was a big draw for me. I also enjoyed the monastery explore sessions, and the gameplay was as fun as always.

My favourite route was easily Azure Moon, I’m a sucker for childhood friends, and I enjoyed that most of the characters already had history with each other, it’s also the route where we actually meet a significant amount of family members, which I felt really could have enhanced the other routes (For the Black Eagles we only ever see Edelgard interacting with her father, and we meet Ferdinand’s father briefly. For the Golden Deer, we meet people who serve as role models/parental figures for Claude, but no one’s family). I found it really added to the emotional impact of the story to have Lonato and Miklan as enemies, and it was interesting to see directly the relationships between Annie and Gustave, and Felix and Rodrigue (One of the things I did like about Crimson Flower was the Merceds & Jeritza support).

I also found Dimitri’s personal story arc the most compelling, well-written and satisfying. He was also easy to relate to, had some really good support chains and made me cryon multiple occasions. I enjoyed Claude’s too, but his progress is very linear, whereas I liked that Dimitri has to take a step back before he can go forward.

I felt like Edelgard’s character development was essentially non-existent, which was a shame, she’s a character with a lot of potential that was kinda squandered. I think the intention was for her to be a narrative foil where Dimitri is the reformist and she is the revolutionary, but the fact that she’s a princess who’s happy to sacrifice countless lives for her own ideals and her ending is no more or less progressive than the others makes the whole idea fall flat.

I still have problems with Azure Moon, as I did with all of the routes. Ultimately, I think the game would have benefited from having all three of the lords come together to fight the Agarthans and Rhea (I like that Rhea recognises and apologies for what she does in her S support with Byleth, but she’s still got a millennium of tyranny behind her so). It really frustrates me that Dedue and Dimitri never find out who was truly behind the Tragedy of Duscur and just kill Thales by accident, they really should have been able to get justice for what happened.

Ultimately, my favourite characters were Dimitri, Dorothea and Dedue (character’s beginning with D are the best apparently) but the only character (sans enemies) I truly hated was Gilbert and I think the game would have been a lot better without the self-insert player character, especially for Azure Moon, where Byleth being Dimitri’s emotional support seems very shoe-horned in when Rodrigue, Gilbert, Dedue, Felix, Ingrid, Mercedes and Sylvain can all fill that role so much better.

Anyway, just a couple of Thoughts, I’ll probably write some more specific posts at some point but just wanted to do a little summary~

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gallantgautier · 5 years

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Unsaid, pt.1

((ooc: A drabble I promised Rai regarding how Sylvain went from “he’s my friend” to “oheck I have a crush” to the almost quiet resolve his feelings eventually become. Only I still have 5 years to traverse and it ended up 1k+ so it’s gunna be a series I guess???))

Sylvain doesn’t say everything he thinks, so, he writes. He writes letters he never intends to send.

Great Tree Moon – xx – 1180

Hey buddy,

You know, it probably wasn’t much of a reunion, was it? I was my usual annoying self. You were, well, you. I know I make fun of you for it, but really, I kinda appreciate it.

Sorry I haven’t changed. I guess you hadn’t expected me to, you didn’t look any more exasperated than normal, so I’ll take that as a win.

Anyway, all I wanted to say was that it’s good to see you again.

See you in class,

-S.

Harpstring Moon – xx – 1180

Hey,

You know, it’s probably a good thing that I have absolutely no intention of ever sending any of these, this one is going to confuse the shit out of you.

Met a new guy, caught me playing the piano, went about as well as I could have expected I guess, which is not well at all. Thinks I’m good at it, would rather he didn’t, even if it’s true. And then Mercedes found out, but I think she’ll keep it secret. Pretty sure she will.

I promise I’ll play for you one day, I told myself I wouldn’t until I got really good. It’s a long way off though.

Dunno why I’m telling you all this, just feels kinda right, y’know?

Heh, who am I kidding?

See you in class,

-S.

Garland Moon – xx – 1180

‘Sup?

You know, it really was pretty surprising to see that you’re gunna enter that costume contest. I know I dared you and all, but you know me and being serious? Never happens. Didn’t think you’d rise to it.

I’m actually really glad you did though.

Really, I mean it. Helping you out, even if it’s just making a dumb costume, it kind of reminded me of old times, y’know? Remember when we used to play knights, and Ingrid refused to be the princess, so I had to, even if I wasn’t happy about it because I wanted to be the dragon. But you’d always be the one ‘rescuing’ me so… Guess I didn’t mind all that much.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, I had fun today. Kinda wish we could just hang out more.

I’ll be cheering you on when the judging starts.

-S.

p.s. The braids suit you.

Verdant Rain Moon – xx – 1180

Miklan,

I thought I hated you. I told everyone I hated you. You were awful. You tried to kill me, repeatedly. I was just a kid Miklan, I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t ask to be born. Who does that? Who tries to kill a kid? Their own little brother?

I used to think I wished Glenn was my brother instead. He never hurt Felix, didn’t throw him down wells, leave him on mountains, come at him with knives, look at him as less than dirt under his shoes. I used to wish you were Glenn.

Mostly, I wish I could have helped you. Maybe if I could, you would have loved me back.

I don’t hate you.

I’m sorry.

-Sylvain.

------ Moon – xx – 1180

Hi pal,

This is probably the weirdest one of these that I’m ever going to write, but I just gotta ask. Have you… Changed something lately? Are you doing your hair differently? Not super different, it still looked the same but, maybe you’re using a new method?

Or, maybe you started wearing cologne?

I dunno man, something is different about you. I can’t put my finger on it, and it’s weirding me out.

It’s kinda distracting.

Quit it.

-S.

------ Moon – xx – 1180

Dear Mercedes

Thanks for listening to me today, Goddess, I was a mess. I’m not sure if you’re right exactly, but talking about it helped. I swear, you must have been a saint in a past life.

I owe you about twelves pastries. They’ll have to be bought though; I have no idea how to make them. Maybe you can teach me someday?

…Savoury ones? Maybe we can make them spicy. I think he

Fuck. You’re right.

Fuck.

------ Moon – xx – 1180

Felix,

Sorry I ran out during training. I know I got all weird. Won’t happen again. Promise.

-Sylvain.

------ Moon – xx – 1180

Felix,

It happened again. Well, I guess if I’m gunna break any promises to you, at least it’s one you don’t know about.

-Sylvain.

------ Moon – xx – 1180

Dear Mercedes,

I need your help. I can’t keep going on like this. There has to be some way to just forget about all these stupid feelings, right? I mean, at worst, they’re a liability. If I keep getting distracted this badly, it’s only a matter of time until it happens during something important. What if someone gets hurt because I’m too caught up in being a moron to help them?

Ah nevermind. I know what you’ll say. And you’re right, I know you’re right.

But it scares me.

-Sylvain.

------ Moon – xx – 1180

Felix,

I should have been there. I should have helped.

You’ve got to wake up. Don’t leave me. Don’t go where I can’t follow.

You promised.

-Sylvain.

------ Moon – xx – 1180

Hey Fe,

Sorry if this one is a mess, it’s hard to write neatly after only… Actually, I have no idea how much I slept over the last few days. Not much. Don’t yell at me for it, I needed to be there when you woke up. I’m glad I was.

I’m sorry I yelled, but I’ve never been more terrified in my life. I’m really, really glad you’ll be okay. I wanted to stay, but Manuela wouldn’t let me.

I thought I lost you buddy, I even prayed. Yeah, me, praying. Who would have thought?

I can’t remember who said it, but someone did; ‘you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.’ They neglected to mention that you notice it when it’s almost gone too. You were almost gone Felix, I thought-

I’ve never seen you so still, I’ve never- -I don’t know what I would have done if-

Dammit, sorry, I thought I’d be okay.

Don’t ever do that to me again Felix, promise me that you’ll- -promise me that- -we sti- -until we- -gether. Promise me.

I think… I think I-

I know that doesn’t mean much from me, since I’ve said it to so many other people.

But I really think I do. Maybe.

Is this what it actually feels like?

Kinda hurts. Not sure I like it.

You’re probably asleep right now. I hope you’re comfortable. I hope it doesn’t hurt too much. I hope-

Sleep tight.

Yours, always.

-Sylvain.

(Much of the ink on this parchment is illegible, patches suggesting moisture damage is responsible.)

#Drabble #(?)#It's in a weird format but yeah totally is #fluff and feels all in one (not) neat package!

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