#that's it. it's not nearly enough to justify what Claude does to them

[butwhatifidothis]

Ngl, I think "Claude that kills" is not inherently in and of itself uninteresting or bad. It is kinda basic as a "shocking character twist," but I could in some ways buy Claude being forced to "make hard decisions like these" in times where his foe absolutely refuses to back down and it being more prominent in Hopes - the guy might've offered mercy to Eddie, but she refuses and dies (by Byleth's hand, but still), and kills both the Death Knight and Hubert (plus Ladislava and Randolph) without really pausing.

...but they just... don't explore anything of that idea to make it work in Hopes. He's forced to kill Shahid when Shahid makes it clear he won't stop until he's dead, then... he aligns with Eddie (and while he pays lip service to not trusting her, he then proceeds to parrot her words and become Ede-lite...), callously abandons an ally to die just to make a fight easier (and then this is used to make him learn the lesson that he should totally trust and help Eddie in the future), and enflames a border conflict (which *should* really be a point he'd hesitate over, but naaaah...) just to make his invasion easier...

Like, I could buy a "Claude becomes more willing to kill to protect those he cares about," its a tad lame but sure, but... there's just nothing to explain why he would just become a much worse person in ways that don't make sense to his character. Or, put another way, "morally ambiguous Claude" is fine... But that character SHOULD still be Claude, not "Eddie but worse because we really whitewashed her this game."

Well, there's also to keep in mind that at least with Hubert, upon receiving his letter Claude does lament on being unable to talk with him due to Hubert's stubbornness, after admitting that Hubert might have been a better man than he gave him credit for due to said letter. And however much sense it makes for him to care this much about a classmate he barely knew, he did still get saddened over having to outright kill Edelgard. He was willing to kill them, but only because they were unwilling to compromise and they were so committed to inflicting violence - if he had it his way it would've never come to this.

But, yeah, I do see what you mean otherwise lmao - I didn't mean to say that there's no instance at all where Claude becoming more willing to kill is a bad thing. It's somewhat predictable, but it is one way to get a new experience from Claude for the player to appreciate. But here, it's just all over the place.

It's bad for Claude to sacrifice people who barely a week ago were trying to murder him and his friends and his people so that his own people get out a battle safely. He's throwing away lives, he's no better than nobles who see mercs as disposable, he's broken the GD's trust in him! Invading Faerghus? Bringing in Sreng? Those innocent lives that Claude actually threw away? That's fine - doesn't have to get chewed out for that! People might can mumble about being uncomfy about it in camp, but no more criticisms to Claude's face - not bad enough for that, unlike with Randolph which was obviously worse! /s

It's, like, backwards pretty much. I say that the Randolph Sacrifice is more about him breaking the GD's trust in him than it is about the sacrificing thing even though the scene is mostly about Claude being wrong to sacrifice lives... because that's the lesson that makes more sense to take from it in the long run. It's makes no sense for "sacrificing lives in needless conflict" to be the main cause for concern and upset from the GD regarding Claude's actions, when he goes on to sacrifice way more lives in way more pointless conflicts and they barely give a shit about it. The Sreng shit is fuckin' laughably and infinitely more serious than letting Randolph die, and yet they do not care nearly as much about the former as they do the latter.

And, like, the supposed catalyst for this change in Claude's demeanor is killing Shahid. The guy who was trying to violently conquer Fodlan and was trying to kill Claude in order to do so. So, like... instead of Claude going after Edelgard with this newfound violence - you know, the person who is trying to violently conquer Fodlan and tried to kill him in order to do so - instead he... goes after the Kingdom and Church. Almost completely ignoring the Empire, save for the one thing he does against it... which is the one thing he is actually criticized for doing in his route.

So instead of Claude continuing the fight he had with Edelgard - that fight he was doing pretty damn well in before he Becomes Violence - Claude just mindlessly believes her when she says that Church Bad and focuses all of his giga violence onto it. Isn't it convenient for Edelgard, that Claude had this drastic change in character that pretty much exclusively benefits her? Even with her behaving exactly like the supposed catalyst for Claude's violence, nothing happens to her save for a few generals dying - she even gets her ass saved from the hot water she threw herself in by Claude despite him being more inclined to violent/callous methods of winning now and despite her death allowing for Leicester (and Fodlan) getting peace, lucky lucky!

It's just, like, so obvious that Claude was written to service Edelgard? Like, very, very obvious. Damn near everything he does in GW's Part 2 does nothing to help him and everything to help Edelgard. This isn't a story about how Claude gradually grows more violent before becoming a better version of himself - like I said, he just becomes violent, stays violent, and stagnates completely. This is just the writers making it to where Edelgard can get what she wants at the expense of a group of characters they clearly did not care for

#ask #anon #clyde discourse #fire emblem warrior: three hopes spoilers #fire emblem warriors three hopes spoilers #like. the only thing the Church ''does'' against Claude is... be willing to take in minor noble houses #that INDEPENDENTLY chose to leave the Federation. since Claude's way of ruling made them toothless #that's it. it's not nearly enough to justify what Claude does to them #and nothing else in the story properly explains Claude's decisions or methods or conclusions #and why they differ SO drastically from his 3H counterpart #there IS a way to do that. it'd inevitably take away a charm to Claude's character but it DOES still exist #but that is DAMN sure not what Hopes did lmao not by a long shot

[travelling-on-the-octopath]

Okay, playing through AG with the sis, and can I say? How completely forced the distrust towards Claude feels? "I trust the Alliance allies, but CLAUDE'S a different story!" "Who knows what Claude REALLY wants with us, best to keep an eye on HIM!" "Can never be too cautious with CLAUDE!"

And I'm like... he... hasn't done anything? On AG? To warrant any of this? Like this would be an entirely different story if they were like this after Claude is replaced by Clyde, but like Claude at this point is just, like... not doing anything. It feels weird cuz, like, yes, the Lions are in fact technically correct to distrust Claude because atrocious writing morphs him into an entirely different character, but nothing in the narrative really justifies them thinking SO poorly of Claude’s character in AG yet?

(And given the tiny bit I know of AG, I'm kinda questioning if it's warranted... ever, on specifically this route lmao)

It's like the game trying to ease the player in on how FUCKED over Claude’s character becomes, because while in 3H there was also distrust thrown his way from the Kingom side on AM 1) it wasn't NEARLY this reinforced over and over, and 2) the distrust... was actually wrong? And Claude was genuinely a good dude? Meanwhile here he's the biggest asshole on earth. It's just very off-putting I guess lmao

(I hope to god you're at the point in AG I think you are lfgjdj I don't delve into major spoilers, but there is an itty bitty detail that I mention a couple times so . here's hoping </3)

This is why I say the Lions walked away only mostly unscathed, because this also had me scratching my head. Like. Yeah, okay, Claude is known for his plots and schemes . . . if you've known him long enough.

Which. Which the Lions didn't lol?

This game seems keen on forgetting that these students spent two weeks in each other's company. I suppose you could say Claude revealed his oh-so cunning nature during the mock battle, but . . . but to completely distrust his character based on a mock battle? Where he was all bark and no bite anyway? Come on. Because you're right; people are a little wary of Claude on AM, but they had spent a year together at that point, and I think there's a much different tension to stretching yourselves thin to go help a person who's known for always having something up his sleeve than . . . accepting help from someone who is fighting this fight so damn well he has resources to spare and who gains literally nothing from fucking you over anyway. Like the minimal distrust there was pretty understandable, given what we were exposed to about Claude's character, but here it's very shoehorned in. It's a good example of the story relying on . . . not even emotional payoff from last time, just facts told in the last story that can't remain true here. It's strange.

And it's not like Claude just sends grunts to bolster Faerghus' forces, the way the Empire does to just ~check up on things~ and ~report them to Her Majesty~ in the Federation. No, Claude sends four of his most esteemed and trusted generals. He cut his inner circle by more than half and sent 'em over to Faerghus to help fuck up the Empire. The Lions know who they are, and should, at the very least, know what it means for Claude's own army. And yet . . . Claude is scheming. Plotting. What is Claude planning! (I'll tell you what he's doing he's helping you win this damn war --)

The problem with treating Claude with the same (or worse) skepticism from Houses and non-AG Hopes routes is that all he does on AG is his fucking job. Like setting aside that we, as the player, know that Claude sent over four of his highest ranking generals and friends . . . Claude is . doing what Claude does. Protecting Leicester, keeping causalities to a minimum, working toward peace by helping the Kingdom keep their independence and drive out the Empire. He was winning this war so hard he had four generals to spare. He's like a cat that left not a dead mouse on your doorstep, but four very neatly clipped flowers which also have medicinal uses. Like he's just. I dunno man people were pointing the finger for things he didn't do dklfjdlkjg. This game does not have Houses' continuity no matter how much it wishes it did. Goddamn. Making Claude out to be no worse than he ever was on Azure Moon (in fact, making him damn-near benevolent) and treating him with the same skepticism you would on Golden-fucking-Wildfire is a very poor writing choice.

As someone who's gone through AG already: Claude is a fucking blessing to the Kingdom, through and through. I'll keep the details minimal for you, but . . . yeah Claude's a fucking miracle lol. I actually quite enjoyed him on AG; if I hadn't had GW as context for his character, I would have just waved away some of his lines of nonsense retconning (which it is anyway, but it's relatively easy to ignore on a route that's so thoroughly Dimitri-and-Kingdom-focused).

#yeah they were so heavy handed with the ''claude is suspishus!!!'' ting #thing* #can't understand why seeing as he's basically a saint for this army but #oh well #s responds #fe #fe3h (the remix) #fire emblem warriors: three hopes spoilers #fewth spoilers #fea-and-fehf-headcanons #as always anyone is free to correct me if i've said something wrong

[agent-cupcake]

So happy you but up the headcanons! All of them are gems and I love them so much. Rereading the Dimitri and Felix rivalry hc made me want to ask for claude and yuri rivalry, but dark of course because both of these boys are sane and logical and would move on if they both caught feelings for you and weren't attached to you by a dark obession lol.

Sorry, I know you asked for love rivalry but I simply could not help myself and got a little carried away with seeing the so-called rivalry to his inevitable conclusion :3c

~Not that it’s probably necessary, but I had to consider the timeline for this. A rivalry between them wouldn’t fit in the events of the game because of Claude’s ambition, but he leaves the country in most endings. My solutions would be to have Claude split his time between Fódlan and Almyra as a politically active prince such as in his solo ending or to propose that Yuri would spend a lot of time in Almyra. Reasons for this could be that he went in aid of his good friend and military commander Balthus (Yuri would make for an awfully good royally sanctioned spy) or that he’s abusing the newfound system of open-market international trade for his criminal enterprise. Either way, Claude is powerful Almyran royalty and Yuri is a shady figure of the underworld. Not too unlike a story I’ve written, but this is separate from that. None of this really matters, ultimately, but whatever I like to think of how this would work out.

~Both men are powerful and ambitious. Both of them are emotionally isolated despite (or because of) their positions. They’re friends, or at least on friendly terms so there’d be a lot of overlap in social circles. And, really, they are quite similar so it’s plausible that they’d go for the same type.  

~I’ve since changed my stance on reasons why Claude might develop a fixation on someone. He is concerned with the intrinsic value of a person. He values the thoughts, feelings, and especially the perception of people he is close with. Claude is also a loner, a fundamentally lonesome person who wishes to be seen and loved on his own merits despite the guard he puts up and the social games he plays. Not to say I entirely retcon my previous opinion, but I focused too hard on the idea that he would need to dehumanize you by zeroing in on utilitarian usefulness rather than be driven to darker feelings by his fear of being alone and need to find a connection.

~This all goes for Yuri too, although it’s easier for me to imagine Yuri getting his authentic feelings twisted up and dark. Yuri’s circumstances were somewhat similar to Claude’s, except that he was shown genuine affection by his mother and the old man. Therefore, he knows what it is to lose that. He learned early on what it is to have people die because of him, to shoulder the burden of guilt that comes with such profound loss. Yuri’s scarred by a brutal, painful upbringing where “love” was a commodity to be traded in for favors (even by his mother) and genuine, honest relationships became nearly impossible to comprehend. If he met you and developed those true, affectionate feelings, if he found a so-called light in the darkness, maybe it’d make sense that he’d do everything he could to keep it from losing it.

~Their similarities in this instance would work out for this scenario. Somebody useful to them, somebody authentic enough to appeal to their deeply ingrained sense of loneliness, somebody clever or interesting or fun… There’s a lot of reasons they could develop unhealthy feelings for you born out of an innocently platonic friendship.

~And it would have to be platonic on both counts. Yuri and Claude are too self-aware for them to make a move if you made a choice early on. Or, I don’t think it’d become as big of a production because they wouldn’t have emotionally invested so much in you. Leading them both on unintentionally just by having a normal human friendship is kinda sad but also kinda funny.

~They’d know that you were close with the other. Of course they would. Maybe it would hurt, but neither would express that feeling to you. Claude would ask pointed (but not direct) questions about your feelings and dazzle you with grand overtures. Yuri would work the seductive and sweet angle, trying to win your heart the old fashioned way. But, you know, with more uncomfortable subtext and innuendo.   

~Something that has not changed is my opinion that Claude would be obsessive about his darker feelings. Not on a consistent, all the time basis, but more like a hobby. A puzzle he couldn’t solve, an itch he couldn’t quite scratch. He’d search for all of the pieces of you in the hopes that the final picture would allow him to understand his increasingly dangerous feelings. Claude’s not stupid, he’s really self aware. Enough to feel guilt, enough to recognize that what he’s doing isn’t right, and enough to justify himself out of the responsibility of doing amoral things for the right reasons.

~Yuri, on the other hand, wouldn’t be so… aggressive about it. He’d want you to come to him, to return to him again and again to prove to himself that what he feels isn’t wrong, to ingratiate himself into your life in a way that validated everything he felt for you and put you on more equal footing. He’d internalize everything a lot more, feel a lot of guilt about the intensity of his feelings, but he’d find ways to keep you close. Or, for you to keep him close.

~Don’t get me wrong, though, you wouldn’t get so much of a glimpse of this weaker, more vulnerable Yuri. He’d go the opposite direction of his guilt or doubt, wearing an impenetrable smiling, sarcastic, playful mask. My main point is that I see him as being more emotionally wrecked by having these dark feelings due to his self hatred. I also think Yuri would be more generally sensitive to unhealthy romance dynamics, especially if it became physical at all. 

~In an interestingly twisted way, Yuri hypocritically recognizing Claude’s behavior as being dangerous would encourage him to be more proactive about his own feelings and feel less guilty about doing so. Being the protective type rather than the obsessive really just fits Yuri so much better, although I see it as one ultimately leading to the other.

~It’s not about winning. They’d be competing, clearly battling against each other for you in a way that would not only be creepily objectifying, but also emotionally strenuous, but they’d keep on insisting that it wouldn’t be about winning. They’d just want you to be happy, to be safe. They both would just want what’s best for you. And what is best for you? Just ask them.

~Claude’s argument: Yuri’s lifestyle is dangerous. He’s a good guy, Claude really does trust him, buuuuut he’s not exactly the type of man you’d be safe with, you know?

~Yuri’s argument: Claude’s not treating you right. He’s obviously manipulating you, how could you possibly miss that? You deserve better, don’t you agree?

~But in the same breath they’d both insist that if you didn’t want to be with them romantically, that would be fine. They both, truly and unselfishly, would just want you to be happy. Just want to stay close with you. Veeeeeery unselfishly. 

~Their interactions with each other would be amazingly fake and aloof. Making small talk and smiling all the while vying for your attention in a nearly juvenile tug-of-war. Still, I don’t think, even through all of this, that they’d dislike each other. It’s not about winning, right? It’s not a game, right?

~Okay, so, I know the whole thing with scenarios like this is an inability to face rejection, but if you were to chose Yuri over Claude or vice versa, that’s where it would end. Committing yourself to one of them still wouldn’t work out super well because that’s the nature of giving into such dark and unhealthy feelings, but it would no longer be a rivalry.

~Let me propose, then, that you would eventually reject both of them. At first, the whole thing would have been so fun and so nice. Getting all of this attention from two powerful and attractive guys would be exciting. You’d feel so lucky, they’re both charming and friendly and kind. But then things would have gotten more intense and there’s this weird love triangle that is incredibly trite and uncomfortable and you wouldn’t have wanted to hurt either of them so it’s better to just leave it, right?

~Yuri would be more likely to use his personal feelings as a tactic of manipulation, I think. Worse, he probably wouldn’t see it that way. He knows, he truly knows, how dangerous and terrible the world could be and he’d do anything to shield you from it and his feelings would reflect that. Granted, if he felt you weren’t getting it, I don’t think Yuri would exactly be above veiled threats or bludgeoning you with fear tactics and even a dash of shame for how you’d played with both their hearts.

~Claude would do his best to convince you that you didn’t actually want to go. You didn’t have to chose either of them, but you couldn’t leave, either. That was way too dramatic. Besides… wasn’t it a little selfish? This was where you were needed, he relied on you. He trusted you. Sure, Claude’s a visionary, but what does that vision matter if the one who he shares his dreams with is gone?

~Maybe that wouldn’t work, though. Long term, it probably wouldn’t. I mentioned before that they wouldn’t hate each other, so if it came down to actually losing you, why not work together?

~Love triangles are for chumps, invest in a horribly unhealthy three person dynamic with possible kidnap and very overt tones of mental and emotional manipulation.

~That would solve all the the problems, wouldn’t it? Why would you try and leave them after they made so many compromises for you? Really, would you be that ungrateful and callous? They would both care about you so much, love you, even. Yuri and Claude would be trying to make it work despite the fact that it came down to essentially a tie in this bizarre game, why couldn’t you do your part? Landing such attractive and powerful guys, having them lay their hearts at your feet, you’d have to be a really terrible and selfish person to reject that. Not that you’d be given a lot of choice, but the devils in the details and if you fought them on this, it probably wouldn’t end up very pretty for you.

~Not saying either of them would hurt you. Physically, I mean. Probably. 

~In some ways, the compromise would make the guilt easier for them to bear. The fact that they were also being forced to deal with something they wouldn’t necessarily want to would be a leveling ground for them to justify any of your unhappiness with the situation. Like, it was all an equal amount of compromise to make things work for all three of you. 

~Claude would know how much Yuri meant to you and feel like the fact that he hadn’t taken that away from you absolved him of a lot of the responsibility of the other things he’d taken from you. Plus, Claude’s a distracted guy who’d lose track of things sometimes, always getting caught up in whatever project he was working on at the time, so he’d know that you wouldn’t be lonely during those times.

~Yuri would see Claude as being, in many ways, a better person than him. More out of a horrible sense of self perception than fact. So Yuri could have his piece of you with the recognition that Claude was there to balance the worst parts of himself and make you happy in ways this dark, twisty version of Yuri might not think he could.

~I don’t think that either Yuri or Claude would ever truly get along because of how similar they are and the fact that they both kinda lost to the other but I also don’t think that would be a huge issue. Their verbal sparring would be entertaining, honestly. 

#claude von riegan #fe claude #yuri leclerc #fe yuri #yandere #yandere headcanons #claude von riegan headcanons #yuri leclerc headcanons #fire emblem three houses #fe3h #headcanons #i am trash garbage :) #yuri is so emo i hope it makes sense why

[weissicles]

Humanity and Catharsis: FE3H Crimson Flower Meta!

I finished the Crimson Flower route for Fire Emblem: Three Houses! Now it’s time for some meta. This isn’t spoiler-free and it’s pretty long... so read at your own risk! (Though, I’m pretty late to the party, so I’m sure you’re all way ahead of me...)

Byleth’s Ending

First and foremost, let me begin by saying that this ending has to be my favorite for Byleth. I mentioned in an earlier post that I am aware of the end results of the Azure Moon (AM), Verdant Wind (VW), and Silver Snow (SS) routes, despite still needing to play it. I still felt pleasantly surprised and very pleased to play through the CF route, especially for Byleth, because I truly believe this was the best ending for their character. Byleth loses their divine powers, becoming even more human than they were at the beginning of the game, and that’s pretty neat.

(Borrowed this image from r/Edelgard; thank you, u/BrilliantGenius)

I think the biggest reason why I love this ending so much for Byleth is because they return to being a real person. Throughout the whole game, the player gets to watch how Byleth, a traveling mercenary, realizes that they are connected to Sothis, the Goddess, and how they awaken their true powers. Byleth merges with Sothis in every route, but only in the CF route do they lose their divine powers, as killing Rhea results in the breaking of the crest stone in their heart. Why does this matter? Numerous times, Edelgard mentions how she wishes to end the tyrannical rule of the Children of the Goddess (CotG), particularly Rhea, because she perceives that humanity has moved past needing to be ruled by non-humans and the oppressive systems they’ve created. Edelgard is traumatized by her own horrendous past, which drives her to find ways to end suffering. She appears like any crazy, mad queen figure in the routes that cast her as an antagonist, but what remains true throughout all routes is her passion for finding ways for humans to be humans without unnecessary suffering. She desires to restore humanity to its dignified state by eliminating the CotG, which make sheep out of people.

That’s why Byleth--the one with divine powers, quite literally the Goddess Incarnate--returning to how she was at the beginning is so powerful. This person, who became a weapon to change the tides of war, now gets to be a normal human. The crest stone breaking and her heart beginning to beat for the very first time symbolizes the collapse of the crest system and the freedom from a system that hailed Byleth as a weapon rather than a person. What’s more, Edelgard, the lord fighting for ideals of humanity, is the first person to hear Byleth’s heartbeat. She is the first person to realize Byleth’s changes, to see how they become a person again. Her dream for Fodlan is realized first in the person she looks up to the most, the person who has fought by her side since the start of the story. If that’s not poetic, I don’t know what else to tell you.

Catharsis

Now, what about Edelgard?

Let’s not pretend that she isn’t controversial. She is, and for good reason. Presented as attractive and likeable regardless of your choice of house, Edelgard serves as the antagonist for 3 of 4 routes. She dies in every route except CF and that matters. She turns into a heartless, cold leader whose ruthlessness can no longer be justified as the bloodshed continues to worsen. In the eyes of the other lords and Rhea, there is no possible way for someone as crazed as Edelgard to live. And frankly? The way that she turns out without Byleth, that makes sense.

So, why does it matter that she lives in CF, and that we see her the way she is? In no other ending do we ever see Edelgard herself returning to a sense of being human. No other ending provides reason for why she should live. CF is the only route where we can explore her character in full, realize that she is just a girl after all, and that she is human, too. That is why it is only in CF do we see this: Edelgard crying.

Following the battle at Tailtean Plains and slaying Dimitri, Edelgard nearly cries when she talks about the fallen king. Now, this is just a headcanon of mine, but I imagine that she might have remembered something about him and their childhood at the mention of her nickname, El. (”To the fires of eternity with you, El...”) His death shakes her to the point of nearly crying, but she doesn’t. She even says that the Edelgard who sheds tears died a long time ago.

But she cries when she thinks Byleth is dying.

This is the moment when the Adrestian Emperor returns to who she really is: Edelgard. Unable to help herself, Edelgard experiences grief and reacts as any person might by crying for the person she loves. She does something she hasn’t done in years, probably since she’s been a very young child in the dungeons underneath the palace in Enbarr. Why? Because she loves Byleth and losing someone you love should break you. This scene goes to show how Edelgard cares deeply for her teacher to the point of experiencing loss. When she realizes that Byleth may yet be alive (since the crest stone broke), she presses her head to her chest, hears her heartbeat for the first time, and starts to laugh. Yes, she laughs! Quietly, and mangled with the sound of some tears, which we can assume are shed out of pure joy that their professor is alive.

Here we see that Edelgard, like Byleth, is returning to a more human state. She’s finally allowed some catharsis, a major resolution to her suppressed character. Throughout the whole game, Edelgard has been nothing but repressed, constantly wearing the mask of Emperor, bound by duty, unable to be truly free. Without Byleth, she becomes even more inhuman as she really becomes more tyrannical. But with Byleth, like her teacher, she becomes more human, able to express feelings, able to be warm, able to experience loss because she loved.

Now, this is my more personal take on it, but I have always liked the thought of Edelgard and Byleth being more romantic than platonic following the timeskip. It’s heavily hinted that Edelgard has always taken a keen interest on the professor. What initially begins as a hope that Byleth may side with her turns into an actual desire to walk with her and experience a new dawn with her. Interestingly, the Japanese version has Edelgard more explicit with her romantic feelings than in the English version. Regardless of whether you read their relationship as romantic or platonic, I think this ending makes it clear that Byleth and Edelgard are equal, humans, people who care for one another and work well together. Byleth fulfills their role as more than an advisor. They are a mentor, a friend, and even family (see their ability to call Edelgard “El”, a name only Edelgard’s father and Dimitri use in CF). In that way, this route’s final message is this: that to love is to be human, and to be human is ultimately to love. That is why I really think that this route is the best possible outcome for Edelgard and especially for Byleth.

Other Takes

While I was disappointed that it was only 18 chapters long, CF does take a more direct approach, as the tides shift significantly when Byleth sides with the Empire. I would have liked if Claude and Dimitri played a more prominent role, though I know that CF focuses mainly on Edelgard and the BE’s against the Church of Seiros. I really think there was potential for Claude and Edelgard to be something besides a warring emperor and a neutral leader. I will admit: Edelclaude is a crack ship of mine. But I find their similar views on the church, their dreams of a new dawn for Fodlan, and their odd interactions to be interesting enough. I understand why Claude either must die or leave (for Almyra). If he hadn’t, that could have changed the way the war turned out, ultimately lessening Byleth’s role. It’s an interesting thought for a canon-divergent story. And let’s be real: Edelgard and Claude somewhat flirting while they face off in Derdriu? Ain’t slick at all!

And Dimitri... Oh, poor Dimitri. My best friend and roommate just finished AM and was so defeated by Edelgard’s death because of her relationship with Dimitri. They’re a tragic set of people, Edelgard and Dimitri, and it makes sense that in both AM and CF, one of them must die. Still, I was so shaken by Dimitri’s last words before Edelgard personally executes him in CF. I would like to think that that was not easy for her at all. I would like to think that she remembered him, at least a bit, and that she felt something there as she killed him. I don’t know what else I would have wanted out of Dimitri in CF, but I know I wanted something more. AM does a great job of providing good angst from Dimitri’s side. It would have been nice to see that from Edelgard’s side as well.

----

All in all, CF was a great route and may remain my favorite route, as I’m very impressed by Edelgard as a character. We’ll see! It’ll be a while until I play another route, but suffice to say that I’m floored by FE3H’s story, characters, and world. What a beautiful game, through and through!

#fe3h #fe3h spoilers #crimson flower #crimson flower spoilers #bhu speaks #meta #byleth eisner #edelgard von hresvelg #long post #edeleth #honestly this doesn't have to be edeleth #but let's tag that anyway #analysis #personal take #bhu plays

[gascon-en-exil]

I'm genuinely curious about your "Black Eagles most to least favourite" list.

Here you are.

#1: Hubert

Could there be any other? I remember back when there was a promo introducing the house retainers (well, Lorenz for the Deer) and everyone was saying that Hubert looked so obviously evil that there had to be some deeper explanation, that someone who took design cues from a two-dimensional villain like Fates’s Iago couldn’t possibly be Edelgard’s retainer. Then the game came out, and we all realized that Hubert was exactly as advertised and then some: a cold and calculating murderer and war criminal with his fingerprints all over almost every terrible thing that happens over the course of the story, as comfortable with chloroform and a razor as dark magic and down to perform unspeakable experiments on innocent civilians to turn them into war machines and then backstab his co-conspirators because he will suffer no rivals for his title of the Most Evil Man in Fòdlan. And yep, he looks like Dracula and Severus Snape had a one-night stand and their mpreg love child went to an anime convention...but when Ferdinand looks at Hubert he sees Mr. Darcy and the Phantom of the Opera and Edward Cullen/Christian Grey, and soon enough that snake in Hubert’s breeches will be singing quite the aria indeed. You do you, Ferdinand.

Ok, I’ve already rambled at length on Hubert’s bisexuality and the interesting things it reveals about both him and his two primary love interests, but I do also have to admire the sheer audacity both of Hubert as an incel/Nice Guy-flavored romantic false lead for Edelgard who never had a serious chance because of the self-insert fantasy and of the decision to follow that up with a trope-laden queer romance that perfectly counterbalances Hubert’s attraction to Edelgard and puts Ferdinand firmly in the place he was destined to occupy by choosing to side with the Empire. It’s nearly as outrageous as just how casually evil Hubert gets to be, as well as the immense potential for dark humor that lies with that. You have to bend over backwards to say that Hubert isn’t unapologetically, irredeemably evil, and if you try there will be significantly more fans just waiting to tell you that you’re wrong - myself included. He’s the Manfroy to Edelgard’s Arvis but so much than that, and I look forward to the point in the CF postgame where he effectively takes over the Empire in true evil chancellor fashion and unleashes the full extent of his horrors upon Fòdlan. He somehow got even better in the DLC too despite being absent from CS and getting no new supports, because the Abyssians in CF just can’t stop talking about his nefarious antics down there. I just can’t get enough of how good this guy is at being bad, and I love that FE gave us exactly what was advertised here.

#2: Ferdinand

Now here’s a case of the opposite, where what’s on the packaging didn’t prepare me for what was to come. If I remarked on Ferdinand at all during pre-release it was only to think that he might be part of a Christmas knight duo with Sylvain since the game looked like it wouldn’t have one of those. Early on there wasn’t much else to be said about Ferdinand; he was like Claude in that his popularity ran off a meme (except just the one rather than several), and in appearance and personality he was basically Lorenz with less ridiculous hair. But then came his supports, and his post-timeskip look, and suddenly Ferdinand blossomed into the subtext-laden fem with very bizarre taste in men - see above - that he could have only dreamed of being if he’d stuck to such well-trod ground as the Christmas knight archetype. We learn of his love for opera, his complicated relationship with his father, his worship of the hot mess diva Manuela and how he learned swordplay specifically to imitate her roles on the stage, and - yes - how some backhanded compliments and expensive gifts of tea turn him into a blushing Regency heroine. It all casts his unusually rote romances with women in a performative light (as opposed to Lorenz who is similarly performative but seems genuinely interested in the marriage market), to say nothing of his one-sided rivalry with Edelgard that brushes against jealousy over Hubert’s devotion to her more often than against romantic attraction to her, and that toys around with gendered behavior in a manner complementary to Edelgard’s own bucking of the gender status quo.

And while not to the same extent as Felix, I do appreciate that Ferdinand has two distinct arcs depending on the route - and unlike some who feel that one or the other detracts from his character as a whole I personally find that they complement each other well. In SS and if recruited to AM and VW he makes the hard choice to oppose his homeland, spending the timeskip waging a solitary battle against the Empire with his private militia and then joining back up with Byleth’s army at Garreg Mach because he knows Edelgard is in the wrong even as it pains him to depose the Adrestian emperor and leave his own status uncertain...not to mention fight Hubert, which merits a curious boss conversation as well as some extra lines in SS (plus the infamous Huge Hole™ remark that I will never stop referencing because it is hilarious) that, while not elevating Ferdibert anywhere near the level of Dimidue in terms of cross-route canon endorsement, nonetheless are suggestive of something deeper between them that exists even if they find themselves on opposite sides of a war. In CF by contrast Ferdinand gives into his craving for the title and holdings that Edelgard has just stripped from his father and embraces nationalism and his long-held ideal of what the office of the prime minister should to do as a means of justifying the Empire’s conquests. Of course in the process he also succumbs to Hubert’s, er, charms(?) and becomes the charismatic bureaucrat who is presumably saddled with the task of putting a positive spin on the Empire’s dystopian atrocities while Edelgard and Hubert do all the actual work...and Hubert does all the actual actual work, which includes a lot of murder and kidnapping and all manner of other things that he doesn’t share with his pretty lover and about which Ferdinand quickly learns not to ask. Two Jewels of the Empire, indeed.

#3-4: Edelgard and Dorothea

I go back and forth on these so I’m not going to bother putting them in a definitive order, particularly because I like them for very different reasons that are difficult to compare. For Edelgard, it would be most accurate to say that I enjoy her potential much more than her execution; she gets some meaty material to work with as a lord and as the driving antagonist of the whole game outside of CF, and while I still prefer Micaiah for female lords there’s something darkly satisfying about her need for control and domination and her utter refusal to compromise or remain stagnant...except where Byleth is concerned, and Edeleth drags her down so badly that it would be painful if I cared more about that type of strong female character. Had the game axed the self-insert obsession (even if that meant axing her bisexuality along with it) and focused on her experiences during the Insurrection as the source of her worldview and motivations I’d be inclined to like the final product far more, because that’s a hell of a lot more in line with what she actually does and conveniently also maps to the life of a real world ruler with whom I’m relatively familiar and whom history regards in appropriately ambivalent terms.

Dorothea on the other hand is someone I can relate to on a more personal level, mostly as a sex worker. She’s similar to Primrose from Octopath Traveler, both of them prostitutes and playing coy with the implications of the RPG dancer class archetype, although Primrose hits a few more of my buttons for being former nobility and being motivated by revenge. Then again, I fully understand Dorothea’s anxieties about growing old without a man to take care of her, even if she loses me (and Yuri picks up from where she leaves off) when she dips into lesbianism as an alternative option. She’s got her ups and downs for me - I love that she brings up incest kink with Caspar as opposed to this series’s usual outright incest, while I love less her strange Ferdinand supports that are suspended oddly between friendship and romance and...something else undefinable - and I don’t have much to say on her life as an opera diva except that it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that she’s been turning tricks on the side and even got a sugar daddy to pay her way into the academy. Theatre and sex work have always gone hand-in-hand like that.

#5-7: Linhardt, Caspar, and Petra

This is why I couldn’t make up a list like this for the Lions or Deer, because most of their students would be in big clumps like this. I have no strong opinions on any of these characters; they each have their moments, but not enough to elevate them to where I actively like them or drop them down into real dislike. I suppose you could say I’m disappointed by how Caspar and Linhardt are visual allusions to Ike/Soren who do absolutely nothing else with that similarity except eloping in their paired ending...which is preceded by virtually nothing in the way of real chemistry. If I enjoy them for anything in particular it’s Linhardt’s wit and Caspar’s occasional bouts of emotional vulnerability, like his mini-arc in AM where he has to deal with his feelings surrounding Randolph’s death and then later gets an apology from Dimitri for it.

Petra is awkward all around as the game dances around her delicate political situation, and I also happen to agree with the VA who (if I recall) thought the character should have some sort of accent but wasn’t allowed to do one. (If anyone is wondering, based on her last name and Brigid being an island nation I headcanon it as a Celtic-derived culture, but as with my personal reading of Dedue and Duscur I know that doesn’t play well to the fandom at large).  All in all Petra feels like a more self-aware rendition of the exotic swordswoman archetype begun by Ayra in Jugdral, but there’s clearly still some work to be done on that front.

#8: Bernadetta

Ugh. With apologies to @capriciouscorvid for explaining how even unintentional disability representation can be taken as a positive, I just don’t see how Bernadetta’s character could possibly be considered a good thing when she’s so grating in almost all of her supports and most of her story and exploration presence outside of CF. All the screaming and high-pitched pronouncements of impending death get very old very quickly, and the part where she’s meant to be romantically appealing in her neediness and isolation is as lost on me as it would have been had it stemmed instead from a massive rack. Her supposedly sympathetic backstory doesn’t help much either, as it leaves me mostly with the thought that her father is an idiot because his methods obviously did not make her suitable to be a good wife. I also don’t care for how she’s one of several characters used to soften Jeritza (and that the way she does so is I think rather insulting to people with social anxiety, to liken it to a compulsion to commit murder), or even worse that people point to her Hubert support to try and say that he’s not such a bad guy and they’d be total besties just like Ferdinand and Dorothea (another pairing that doesn’t exactly scream BFFs). I mean, really....

#Fire Emblem #FE16 #Fire Emblem Three Houses #Black Eagles

[ameliasnormandy]

New Artifacts

………………..

“So, who do you think owned this artifact?” Pete asked.

“Must have been someone extremely powerful,” Myka stated. “To bring people back from the dead like this. I just hope we find it. It could be dangerous.”

“Coming back to life?” Pete asked.

“It’s not natural.”

“Steve did it.”

“Steve was a rare case. He got lucky.”

“Maybe this guy did too.”

“Not this lucky.”

              “How do you know?” Myka asked, her voice wavered slightly.

              “I don’t,” Pete said. “Just want to believe it for the moment.”

              “I guess you can.”

………………….

              We can all believe in small things. We can all believe in the bigger things. We can all believe in something. That has never been the problem. Believing. It’s proving that your belief is justified. I have often wondered what beliefs can be justified. At least lately. I have tried to forget the beliefs that I used to hold, but the beliefs that are deeply ingrained are hard to forget.

……………….

              “My nurse said you were looking for me,” a man said, walking over to them. He was wearing a lab coat, and had skin sunken in on his face. He wore a bowtie and his shoes were perfectly polished. He was wearing glasses pushed down the bridge of his nose.

              “We were sent here by Arthur Neelson,” Claude said, looking around the room.

              “I see. What does Arthur want?” the man said, tapping his hand against his chin.

              “He has reason to believe that the item that he was storing for you has been stolen,” Steve said, realizing that Claude was having an issue talking.

              The man laughed. “Mr. Neelson has been paranoid about losing what he gave me to protect since he put it into my protection. I don’t know why he didn’t come check himself.”

              Steve looked the man over for a moment before he spoke, “I am not sure, all I know is that we were supposed to come here and grab an artifact from you..”

              “What you are looking for, I can assure you is still here with me,” the man said, looking at the two of them. “But I hardly think that my assurance will be enough for Arthur, please follow me.”

              Steve and Claude both followed the man. “I have kept what you are looking for safe for years, there is nothing to fear.”

              Steve looked at Claude. “He seems causal about this artifact. What do you think it is?”

              “I’m not sure,” Claudia responded. “It has to be something that isn’t that dangerous.”

              “Arthur thinks all artifacts are dangerous,” Steve said, as a rebuttal.

              “Agreed, but he is hiding this one outside of the warehouse,” Claudia stated, shaking his head. “He must think that this one is too dangerous for the warehouse.”

              “Too dangerous for the warehouse?” Steve asked. “Nothing is too dangerous for the warehouse.”

              Claudia looked around, something must be too dangerous for the warehouse.

………………..

              Too dangerous. I have been labeled that all my life. Too dangerous. I know that they weren’t looking for me. I made things better. I made things better for myself. That is all that we are left with at the end. It is not about the decisions that we made in our life. It is not about who we cared for. It is not about who we lost, or how we lost them. No, it all boils down to simply the idea that we are on our own. We are by ourselves in the end. I learned that too late.

…………………

              Pete and Myka are standing in a hospital. They watch the people walk by them. They watch people pacing. They watch people walk by them. “They don’t seem as scared as they should be for watching someone raise from the dead,” Myka says.

              “People can tolerate a lot if it doesn’t go with their view,” Pete stated.

              “The way you say that so assuredly worries me,” Myka said, turning away from him.

………………….

              Nothing is so completely fallen as that of those who are so assure that the world cannot fall. I have been told that on multiple occasions. Nothing is so completely fallen as that of those who are so assure that the world cannot fall. That is something that I have seen firsthand. The idea that those so sure that they can not fall, fall the hardest. It’s just the truth, and if I was smarted I would protect myself from such nonsense.

………………..

              “I am not able to find her,” the doctor said to himself, well more to himself than to Claudia or Steve.

              “Her who?” Claudia asked.

              “We were told that we were picking up an artifact,” Steve said.

              “The artifact that you are looking for was kept in the room with one of our patients, but this patient seems to have disappeared.

              “You lost a patient?” Steve asked.

              “I don’t know that for sure,” the doctor said.

              “How do you not know?” Claudia asked, getting more impatient by the second. There was clearly something that was not right here.

              “She could have easily been moved to a less secure wing of the hospital on accident. She blends in with the general population well. Some nurses of been debating me for years that she should be moved to the general population.”

              “Why not listen to the nurses then?” Steve asked, grabbing Claudia by the shoulder.

              “I would have, but some people believe that she is a danger to society, and to herself, and for that reason I kept her away from the general population,” the doctor said, walking up to the computer.

              “That however doesn’t mean that they would have listened to me and not tried to convince another doctor.”

              “How would any of that be possible? Wouldn’t you have known?” Claudia asked him.

              “This isn’t my psychiatric hospital,” the doctor said, looking at the screen.

              “What is the danger of her?” Steve asked.

              “I don’t know,” the doctor said, scanning the computer. “All I know is that there is something connected to her that everyone has always found dangerous.”

              “How dangerous?”

              “Lives were lost.”

………………

              Lives were lost? They make it sound like a war. It was, but no one needs to claim that. No, one actually needs to claim anything about it, because well, it’s supposed to be forgotten. No one is supposed to remember it. And I had thought that the lives that were lost meant nothing. And they didn’t. Lives were lost only because people made mistakes, and because people made mistakes I paid for them. That is the truth.

              Lives were lost. That statement is one that I know too well. It’s not like I didn’t realize that lives were lost, and I could have stayed there forever if that would have meant that those lives would come back, but the truth is that those lives are never coming back. They can’t blame me for that.

              Lives were lost! I would give up everything, including my own life to know that those lives were not lost in vein, but I don’t get that luxury. Lives gone, but I can promise that they were not forgotten.

………………

              “It can’t be,” Artie said, into the Farnsworth. “It can’t be.”

              “The doctor just told us that they released her about four years ago,” Steve said, looking over his shoulder to see Claudia pacing.

              “Four years ago?!?” Artie were nearly foaming at the mouth at this point. “How is this even possible?”

#warehouse13 #Myka Bering #Pete Lattimer #Claudia Donovan #artifacts #Artie Nielsen #steve jinks #fanfic #fanfic oc #oc fanfiction

[kcrabb88]

Portrayals of Masculinity in BBC Les Mis

All right, well, I woke up this morning and realized I wanted to talk about portrayals of masculinity in BBC Les Mis because WOW WOW WOW there are Some Major Problems. Andrew Davies has managed to make nearly every man in the series full of Bad Toxic Masculinity Tropes. If a man is not shouting, is he really a man?? Not in this adaptation. 

Let’s start with Valjean because god, what a fucking injustice, what a CHARACTER ASSASSINATION. I thought it was bad before, but then I watched episode 5 and it was worse! Who knew it was possible. In the end, Davies has replaced sweet, shy, awkward Valjean with this monster who manhandles and shouts at his adopted daughter, a victim of terrible childhood abuse and trauma. This is bad enough, on its face. But it’s made worse by the adaptation framing this as Valjean being ~protective~ so in the end it looks like abuse = just protecting someone, which is honestly how so many abusers justify their actions.

A lot of Les Mis is in fact ABOUT abuse. The abuse of children like Cosette, and later, Eponine, by the same set of people. Marius’ emotional abuse at the hand of his grandfather. The abuse of women pretty generally, and on many levels, like we see with Fantine. Society’s abuse of convicts with Valjean. Society abuses children by letting them live on the street like with Gavroche. The abuse of the poor. In the book, not only do we see abuse combated by love on a personal level (Valjean and Cosette and their relationship, two abused people who learn to love each other) but on a societal level also (Les Amis combating the abuse of society through revolt).You could also argue that Javert, raised by the state in what I’m sure were abusive conditions, can never even recognize the abuse for what it is, because there’s no one there to combat it. He was a poor kid who was taught to hate other poor people. Javert makes his own choices, as well! Definitely not arguing that, but there’s some abuse at the core of that, too. 

ANYWAY. BBC Valjean excuses his violence and emotional abuse toward his daughter by saying he’s protecting her from a bad world. Like, hello Jean-Claude Frollo, are you serious?? But Valjean is just being a man protecting his daughter, I guess! Can’t do that any way OTHER than shouting and seizing people’s wrists in this adaptation. If Valjean were a villain, this would be a different thing. But he’s the hero. The abuse is not framed as abuse, and that’s the problem. Confusing, given that the Thenardier’s abuse was framed as bad, but honestly Valjean at this juncture is barely better, it just manifests differently, and I can’t believe I am typing that. Talking about the shades of abuse through fiction is an important thing, but Andrew Davies has made our hero the abuser and I just am shocked. 

Now, to Enjolras. God, I just. I said I wasn’t going to even bother getting mad about the Amis cause so many adaptations that aren’t the musical get it wrong, but here I am anyway. There was one, brief, shining moment where Enjolras grasped Courfeyrac’s hands and they rested their foreheads together that I thought “yes, here we are, I can get past the stupid mustache for this” and then everything went to hell. This Enjolras can’t manage to do anything other than shout or lecture or say things like “there might be some rough stuff.” Instead of things like “if liberty is the summit equality is the base” or “here day embraces night and says you will die and be born again with me” we just get “let’s make this city ungovernable!” like he’s an armchair activist who read Marx one time or something and decided that was enough to start a revolution. This is not the serious, quiet young man who loves his friends so deeply and wants to change the world, this is just a dude wanting to start shit.

I guess I should be grateful they knew enough not to send Enjolras to the brothel, but that’s the only thing I’m grateful for. The bit that upset me most was when he shot the soldier who shot Eponine without even LOOKING at him. This would be one thing if they were in the heat of battle, where killing people without having time to think on it is a thing. But this was like a mashup of Le Cabuc and the sergeant, and it was Done Badly. There’s no “pray or think” there’s no tear, there’s no GRIEF at having to do this Hard Thing because revolutions are bloody affairs. But Real Men don’t care if they just shoot people point blank without thought. 

Also, I like how they made Enjolras look more traditionally masculine here, and yet made him less of a talented fighter and strategist. Can’t have the guy who looks as fresh-faced as a 17-year-old girl with glowing fair hair be a badass, no way! He looks Too Feminine to accomplish that, and as we know, women in this show faint in gardens at the sight of their crush because they Just Can’t Handle Things. So any vaguely feminine looking man is Not Correct, screw the pages of description Victor Hugo gave, who cares about that guy? We Respect The Author Not At All in the House of Andrew Davies. 

Even Marius, who is not my favorite, falls prey to the bad masculine tropes. He’s not awkward or Pontmercying around, he’s just mostly uninteresting and sometimes kind of an asshole who has sex dreams about the poor abused girl who lives next door and treats Cosette like a possession as much as Valjean does. I mean, there’s issues with both Valjean and Marius and the agency they give Cosette in the book, but not like this. Not at all like this. There is real love there, and a desperate desire by both of them (though especially Valjean) to see her happy. 

The interesting thing about Les Mis is that there are some truly great male characters that are so refreshing in comparison to the way a lot of male characters are written in current day. Are they perfect? No, they fall prey to period-typical sexism, etc., but Valjean and Enjolras are loving! They’re sweet! While still being freaking badass in their ways! That’s complex masculinity, not whatever this crap we’re getting now is, and that’s my Ted Talk for today. 

#BBC Les Mis Miniseries #Long post #KCrabb rambles #BBC Les Mis spoilers #Les Mis

[fillogree]

into the snake's den

this is an in-depth hodpodge of character analysis, theory and headcanons for the sides. this does get a little darker and includes some extremes for the sides personality. please proceed with caution.

so we’ve seen that being in the other sides’ rooms effects the other sides’ personalities, & i do very much like the idea of the others growing scales from prolonged exposure in deceit’s room, but i’d like to add onto the theory of lying.

in ‘can lying be good’ we got a number of manipulation tactics from deceit– this was the antagonist that i adored, rather than his scooby doo villainy & opposite day lying. so i’d like to add those types of manipulation to the sides.

Logan:

deceit!patton’s main method of manipulation suits logan the most. he backed up the idea of lying through proof. referring to immanuel kant’s argument. we’ve seen logan use reasoning to describe why the world is beautiful, & why progress and hard work are necessary. so using logic to justify a situation he feels is more beneficial would be his go to. he already does this now.

“it actually would make sense for you to place your dreams on hold, thomas. while they do bring you joy, there are so many more other things in this life you could focus on. moreover, if you pursued a career in this field of study instead, you’d find yourself more financially stable. moreover your schedule would be more consistent, you would sleep & eat better. the pros of placing a stop to your creative endeavors & pursuing something more in line with what you had previously planned greatly outweigh any cons that would arise from the transition.”

not a lie, necessarily. but presenting evidence as irrefutable fact in order to preserve the values logan finds most important.

continued exposure in deceit's room would drive logan not only to get others to see his point of view but get frustrated when they couldn't. he'd become more and more critical, and self righteous. at his very worst his personality could become obsessive. severe and hyper critical of others while rationalizing his own mania and delusions of righteousness.

Disney Hero: Milo Thatch - (Atlantis) Disney Villain: Judge Claude Frollo - (Hunchback of Notre Dame)

Roman:

roman already admitted deceit always had nice things to say about him. we also know that roman is our dramatic boy & gets easily carried away. we’ve seen how thomas gets swept away in roman’s enthusiasm as well from the video 'why do we get out of bed in the morning?’ i don’t think our prince would realize he was even lying because he would speak with such hyperbole & enthusiasm as he already does.

“thomas! how could you even think for a moment that what you were doing is wrong?! look at your adoring fans! look at the fandom you’ve created just by being yourself! you’re a celebrity! practically a legend! you are adored internationally! fame is basically your birthright, you have been in front of a camera since you were a child after all! sure there are other things that should be focused on, but they could get done at literally any time! you have to do this now! there has never been a better opportunity to do this, & anyone who gets slighted now will understand in the end! your friends adore you always, no matter what you do! their feelings couldn’t possibly get hurt in the wake of all the joy you’ll be bringing into the world! you have to do this!”

roman’s lying would be the inverse of logan’s. rather than presenting facts he would rely on thomas’s feelings & joyful experiences. using the feeling of accomplishment & happiness to blind him, in a sense, of any potential fallout or reasons he shouldn’t listen to him. hyping him up to the point of unchecked confidence & enthusiasm.

continued exposure to deceit's room would twist roman from ego to pride, to narcissism. continued excitement and hyping up this confidence to an elevated but false sense of self could lead to a more histrionic personality type and a god-complex at his very worst.

Disney Hero: Timothy Q. Mouse - (Dumbo) Disney Villain: Jafar - (Aladdin)

Patton:

not to make this an angst fest, but we all already know– patton is the best liar there is. he would use the same little white lies he always does, only moreso. this was deceit!patton’s very first 'lie’ “logan! everyone’s favorite character! little lies like these are the ones we’ve learned and told ourselves and others since childhood. it’s the very reason why being deceitful can be considered an act of self preservation. lies like these are the ones we tell to avoid any potential bigger problems & patton is exceptional at it. lies like these, constantly told can be incredibly detrimental. these would be the worst types of lies for patton to form a habit out of because he values relationships & happiness more than actual goals in comparison to the other sides.

"hey there, kiddo! i know it’s been kind of a rough day, but dahlia said she could use someone to talk to. just tell her you're a little sleepy but you'd love to have her over! she needs ya!"

"uh-oh! you're not really going to tell camden his shirt is ugly, are you? that would hurt his feelings! tell him you love it! it would make him smile!"

"yikes! you slept in, instead of hanging out with valerie? just let her know it was a crucial day for filming! she'll understand. we can hang out next time and bring her present to apologize, right?!

lies like these are the reason deceit took patton's form, because little baby white lies don't seem like trouble at all until you twist them to delude yourself.

"anxious? no way! this seems like a perfectly safe thing to do, it could be fun!"

"leo couldn't be mad at ya, kiddo! he's probably just tired! just leave that message on read and let him get some rest!"

"sad? not a chance! we'll just watch something silly and not think about it!"

continued exposure to deceit's room would have patton continually minimizing his and thomas's problems. he'd start to become stubborn in his "everything is fine!" phase. this could lead to dissociation and retreating mentally. leaving patton repressed and probably unable to even speak his true feelings properly, even if he wanted to.

Disney Hero: Giselle - (Enchanted) Disney "Villain": Peter Pan - (Peter Pan)

Virgil:

oh boy. if you thought virge in his own room was bad, keep him out of deceit's. virgil and deceit are two sides of the same coin, and that's self preservation. the only difference between the two is intention.

anxiety is a worry that you can't really control. it's what makes you double check if the door is locked and review your test answers one more time. deception is the same thing but a but more selfish. both usually stem from that increase of adrenaline and nervous fluttering of butterfly wings in your tummy.

anxiety is: oh no! okay. what do we do to make sure this okay and safe? deceit is: ..!! what do i do to make sure i'm going to be safe?

in deceit's room virgil's anxiety is heightened. being hyper vigilant he would see the changes in the others right away. his lies would start off cutting and sharp to break any illusions the other sides had about themselves. lies that hurt, but would help his friends.

"no. logan, you're wrong. that doesn't make any sense at all."

"you're foolish for even thinking that, princey."

"i don't like any of your ideas at all patton. they're all horrible"

if the others were straying towards their worst selves, his lies would be almost delusional in his desperation, and he would basically become the embodiment of paranoia.

"everything that they said is right. you did do a bad job. you are a bad friend. you did fail that test. you aren't funny, clever, or creative. this is a mess. this is all just a mess."

"we have to leave right now. roman is going to get too excited and tell thomas to jump off a cliff. he's going to kill all of us"

"logan, if you keep feeding thomas that twisted logic he's going to believe it every single time. then he'll think all lies are the truth. you're ruining his mind, logan."

"patton. patton stop it. just stop it. you're the reason we're here. you're going to ruin everything. we're never going to be happy again."

prolonged exposure to deceit's room would take virgil from worried, to paranoid, to delirious mania. his worries would be amplified, the fear in his own mind would be loud, and the fear for his friends would be louder, but the thought there was nothing he could do would be thunderous. if not pulled from deceit's room quick enough, virgil could become catatonic in a last ditch effort to save himself and thomas.

Disney Hero: Flounder - (The Little Mermaid) Disney Villain: Robert Callaghan - (Big Hero 6)

Deceit:

deceit on his own in his room isn't nearly as bad as the sides in their worst states. he's just constantly looking out for number one. himself & thomas. like roman & logan his focus would be on accomplishment. he's got goals, drive & ambition, & he's not going to let thomas be inhibited by outside or inside forces.

he'd push thomas towards his goals & carefully construct each lie, pick out the right words, & subtly slither past any obligations that would keep him from them, all the while constantly reassuring thomas they're doing the right thing.

in his best state, deceit is a subtle manipulator utilizing roman's passion, & logan's sound reasoning as a basis for why thomas should do things. patton's love for those around him and virgil's worry would be warped into a basis for why it would be okay to be deceptive.

"what if your friends get mad? you can't hurt their feelings!"

in his worse state deceit has the power to make everyone else do what he wants. amplifying roman's enthusiasm, skewing logan's reasoning, blinding patton's sense of morality, and silencing virgil. there's nothing to worry about, because nothing is wrong. now do as i say.

Disney Hero: Captain Jack Sparrow - (Pirates of the Caribbean) Disney Villain: Mother Gothel - (Tangled)

#mine.txt #ss analysis #episode analysis #character analysis #sanders sides analysis #virgil sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #roman sanders #deceit sanders #sanders sides

[mrclaudeknowsbest]

Dogs are Smarter than Most Humans

Hi, my name is Claude yet I passed away a year ago. Irrespective of if or where I am reincarnated, my former ‘master’ Geoff believes that I still resonate in his life. What weight should be afforded to the belief that my wisdom, and life’s experiences, still guide his actions?  

There appears to be ample evidence that most societies are fracturing to polar opposites on just about anything. In this context Geoff is aware that the mindset of dogs and cats is similarly divergent. Whether this is an aphorism, metaphor or parable (”AMP”) for human society raises the possibility of other significant relationships, such as those with horses or birds. I met these other creatures and found them worthy. Maybe this allows human society to engage with a reflected reality to the one I have accepted. Perhaps human society is flexible enough to tolerate small subsets to their complexities within the middle ground. Yes, the condition precedent is that humans can be equally open to innovation as most dogs that I have encountered. Any smart dog appreciates that Pit Bulls are hard to rehabilitate if their master’s training reinforces their violent streak. Similarly, many breeds favored exclusively by ‘The Aristocracy’ may be incapable of understanding the lives of the underprivileged. Who initiated these AMPs is not important. Having a relationship of trust, both of us accepted that we enabled each other's growth on the issue. It was the resonance and mutual support that facilitated our moving forward to a ‘greater good’.    

Geoff appreciates how fortunate our unlikely union was. Actually, I was purchased, on-line from inter-state, by his now estranged wife. My sister and I bonded with the wider family. There were frequent re-locations, yet we accepted all changes of home base with dog-like equanimity. Geoff traveled overseas for more than three months every year. Any reunions were treated as festivals of joy, as is the norm for any pack-based species. Sadly, my sister Cocoa and I both died of cancer. She passed away three years before me. Therefore, I was removed from constant dog to dog interaction, to a mostly dog to human relationship. Geoff performed outstandingly as a surrogate and grew significantly through the experience. Many narcissistic, willfully blind, hypocritical and cognitively dissonant characteristics ("the bad values') were eased aside by my constant support and love. At the beginning it was a rough ride, yet persistence and patience yielded results. Geoff acquired many dog-like values and was even able to escape from the grasp of his high performing family. Their overbearing and controlling tentacles were released through years of my sustained effort.

The irony of life remains that having facilitated Geoff’s evolution towards being reunited as a dog-like person, I was torn asunder to an uncertain future. This left him unsupported, as a work-in-progress, and vulnerable to regress. Others are required to evaluate my success? My sixth sense suggests that the trajectory of growth continues until today, as evidenced by the preparation of this blog.

So, what are these commonalities that permit dogs and humans, and other similar relationships to flourish. Clearly, I only have standing to elucidate and advise on the dog/human symbiosis. Other so called 'whisperers' can complete the picture in their own learning or teaching space. I have already mentioned the sixth sense of many animals, that even skeptical humans accept to justify our leaving unsafe human built structures before an earthquake. Much scientific research has established that dogs concentrate our attention to the human eye that correlates with the emotional side of the frontal cortex. Yes, unlike some former Presidents of the USA, we can look into a human’s soul and much more. The bonds we create are stronger, and longer lasting, than the pseudo-sexual or other mating-urges to procreate between human genders. There are other unusual emotional combinations, and these emerge more significantly as the progression from The Great Apes selection process evolved yet does not form any part of this treatise. Any salacious suggestion for ‘grandstanding’ can be explicitly excluded.

The bond of unswerving loyalty over time is worthy of examining. Dogs give the appearance of forgetting human wrongdoing after a short time. May I suggest to you that this may be a mask. Millennials, and other younger folk, have coined the phrase "now moving on" or ""so moving forward". What does this mean in dog parlance? Have humans really forgotten the offending issues or are they bluffing? So which model of behaviour is preferable. May I suggest that loyalty and trust enable temporary harm to be safely parked with just a good lick to taste the actual pheromones being released, and then quickly followed by a good rub up by us. The human will nearly always respond with a thorough pat, comprehensive rubbing over, and often a cuddle. We have trained humans well, although they are only now, with expert evaluation, starting to accept that many species baulk at the last gesture. Yes, it may take more time for humans to test the reaction of each dog and determine if they like being hugged or not. Maybe if humans licked us, or maybe sniffed our butts occasionally, they may learn something.  

Now to the real 'elephant' in the room, namely cats. Just to clarify, not many dogs experience the bond between elephants and their mahouts. However, it appears that this interaction, although rather unequal, is worthy of mention. I just cannot understand why a metal spike is required. I suggest to this small subset of humans - give love and encouragement a chance, instead of violence and inflicting harm to coerce compliance. I have heard domesticated rabbits call this the "carrot and stick strategy". I am merely a dog and find multi-faceted conditioning hard to understand with other species. You may have noticed that is easy to drift away from complex issues, such as mutual distrust, that may escalate to outright hatred. Yes, I return to the vexed issue of cats, and how to deal with them. I intend to start with the premise that cats resemble those humans with greater "bad values". Yes, it is my observation, which may be slanted and capable of causing discussion. Hey, I can speak for myself and can deflect challenges and disdain from cat lovers. Cats are so slinky and may wish to spend most time away from their human captors. Maybe I can accept that the last description is is too strong a pejorative, yet we are speaking about cats. I confidently believe that the dog/human relationship is stronger due to our ability to actually see into the mind and should of our human symbiote, while cats can only relate at the surface contact level. This should justify why dogs can spend much longer and sustained contact with humans than cats can. These lesser creatures are often called felines, which sounds slimier. They frequently prefer to retreat into their own world, sometimes with others of their species or just to be alone. Why, I had no trouble going to sleep tucked up next to Geoff for most of the day. This was even more comforting as blindness and deafness increased over my last couple of years. Humans, please do not cut the hair from over our eyes or provide us with the sunglasses you use. Sadly, our lenses cloud over, just as yours do. Maybe the hearing issue was caused by the TV and stereo being too loud for my much more sensitive ears. Dogs' tolerance and loyalty may be tested by the unintentional harms done to us. Our equanimity overlooks the reality that humans know, or should know, that our hearing is much more acute as the use of high pitched whistles suggest. So why don't our loving 'masters' consider this. Dogs accept, ïf you can't have it all...just a taste will do."  

So, what about cats - yuck? Maybe I can compromise and acknowledge that if pups are introduced to kittens, then some form of relationship does develop. However, it is nowhere near as strong and permanent as inter canine or the dog/human bond. It is doubtful that this will satisfy cat-people, yet that is not my "concern, or new age speak - "not my problem." Surely, I have done enough for one dog life, and do not have the luxury of nine lives.

[butwhatifidothis]

But...Byleth wasn't unemotive because they were a mercenary, they were unemotive because of the fact Sothis hadn't woken up. Like I said, you're injecting a negative viewpoint where there isn't any.

As much as people would LIKE for it to be Crimson Flower is NOT a villain route, as villain routes usually have you as the bad guy. The villainous actions are addressed. Instead you're potrayed about as much (if slightly less with the whole conquest thing) of a hero as the other routes, complete with the Black Eagles becoming the underdog and being short on troops, and Edelgard fighting directly on the frontlines. Sure we can call it the villain route since Edelgards the villain in all the other routes, but it isn't played as if it were one. There's no "Look at the horrible thing you've done!" or "Edelgard's empire crumbled and she was killed in a coup after TWSITD were defeated". or even a "Edelgard's lies get exposed' moment. She's just potrayed as the hero the entire time.

Also, Edelgard doesn't think Byleth is completely without emotion, she thinks byleth is DETATCHED. As in, not showing emotion often. She also agreess if Byleth says that Edelgard is also detached. That entire part of the conversation is brought on because Byleth says they are jealous. The entire thing of "Edelgard thinks Byleth has no emotions" is from a conversation in which Edelgard is GLAD that Byleth os showing emotion.

"I'll admit, I think of you as rather detached, so to hear that you have emotions such as jealousy is... something of a relief."

Also I forgot to ask...where is it STATED or SAID that Byleth WANTS to be a guiding hand for Fodlann? Like I'm not sure where that came from since it's not as if Byleth actively pursues a position of power, it's usually something they just sort of get given at the end of the other routes since Rhea either gives them said position, or is dead and Byleth ends up filling that role

Imma ask this: if being a mercenary was completely fine, if that had absolutely no negative impact whatsoever on Byleth... why didn't Sothis wake up earlier? Why did she only do so right before the lords - who give Byleth the chance to grow - meet with them? If they don't want to be a guiding hand in Fodlan, why don't they reject the leadership position given to them - especially on AM, when Rhea and/or Seteth could take over as archbishop?

It's because being a regular mercenary isn't good for them. It's because there's a consistent theme with Byleth that leadership as well as the Church are good things for their character, as well as for Fodlan - it's in the routes the Church is standing and Byleth earns a leadership position that Fodlan is at its most peaceful in the endings. It's not me being negative when it's this consistent within the game itself that being a leader and having a purpose beyond being a sword hand is what is best for Byleth.

To give the short answer to the "CF isn't a villain route" idea, here's this post I made detailing many of the ways CF is by far the most morally bankrupt route of the four of them, regardless of surface level framing. CF isn't a villain route in that "oh ho look at you, being evil!" It's the villain route because you are actively helping the villain get what she wants. You are the reason Fodlan falls into tyranny. It's your fault, as the player, that Fodlan is engulfed in war again when that isn't necessary in the other routes (where TWS are just taken care of with no need for a "long, arduous, bloody war"). It's because of you that the people of Fodlan must live under Edelgard's cruel leadership, being spied on by the secret police and having any rebellion they try to muster be put down in secret by Edelgard's evil butler.

You say CF isn't the villain route because Edelgard's villainous actions aren't addressed, but I'm sorry, I have to disagree with you with what qualifies as a villain route. You help plunge the continent into war by backing an imperialistic warmonger. You help spread outright lies about the Church. You keep up these lies even to your friends and let them believe the Church just nuked Arianrhod, without ever setting it straight with them. You work with a murder cult hellbent on killing as many people as they can. You comply with someone who is keeping an independent country (Brigid) under her thumb by keeping Petra as a hostage, which she herself refers to herself as on CF. You use Demonic Beasts as "war assets." You invade a neutral nation that's kept out of the war entirely. You help try to finish a genocide against the Nabateans - or, at best, work with someone who wants to finish it. You are the villain.

CF has you as the underdog despite it always being the one with the advantage in the beginning of the war phase because it is deliberately breaking from the worldbuilding of 3H, as said by the developers. Byleth is supposed to stand against Edelgard, not walk with her, hence the warping of the story when they do. It doesn't have to directly, explicitly say it's the villain route for it to be clear that you are not the good guy here.

Like, "you're portrayed about as much (if slightly less with the whole conquest thing) as much as a hero as the other routes-" no! Not slightly less! That is in large part what makes it villainous! You aren't fighting to defend yourself and to take down the one who plunged Fodlan into war - you are the conqueror! You are the one doing the plunging! For completely selfish gains, at that! There's no explicit "wow bitch you fucked up here" because the sign of you fucking up is the state your actions leave Fodlan in. It's Byleth losing the Crest Stone and going back to the beginning of their character arc. Edelgard, the villain, won - she got to have her happy ending on the graves of countless innocents lives she deemed less worthy than her ambitions, and it's all because of you. Edelgard getting exposed and her empire crumbling down is a good thing, which CF is not. You don't get to have Edelgard face the consequences of her actions like you do on the other routes where she dies, because she won. The bad guy won. You helped the bad guy win, so no, you aren't going to get the satisfaction of watching Edelgard fall - you play the other non-villain routes for that to happen. Why should there be? This is what you as the player wanted! You chose to side with Edelgard, even after being shown her involvement with nearly every bad thing that happens in WC, because you wanted her to win! You’ve reapt what you’ve sown!

And imma just ask... why is Edelgard relieved to hear Byleth has emotions such as jealousy? And why does she insist that Byleth is detached if you try to deny it? Why does Byleth have to directly tell Edelgard about them feeling emotions for her to know it - why doesn't she just know already? You never hear this sort of doubt come from Seteth, Claude, or Dimitri on SS, VW, and AM - hell, Claude will even outright say that Byleth has gotten far more expressive lately during tea time conversation! Why is Byleth detached in CF - why aren't they closer to the lord? Why is the lord doubting the connection between Byleth and others in their A support? Why is it only on CF that Byleth is ever called detached during post ts? Why is Byleth not showing emotion often? Enough to make Edelgard question whether they have emotions? 

It’s because Byleth is regressing on the progress they’ve made in being able to emote - they act in ways that are similar to how they act in the beginning of the game because CF is a negative influence on their character. Edelgard calling herself detached like Byleth is not a good thing - Edelgard’s detachment from other people is what lets her sacrifice innocent civilians for her goals. It’s what let’s her believe that her imperialistic dreams are worth the bloody path needed to make them come true. She is not connected to those around her, hence her being able to justify killing anyone to get what she wants, up to and including her Black Eagle classmates (Bernadetta on Gronder). Byleth being compared to someone like that is far from a positive thing, especially when all other routes have them have that connection with others and all other routes having a more positive, peaceful ending for Fodlan than CF. 

I will say though, it seems as though Byleth never seems to explicitly say that they want to be a guiding hand - that's a fuck up on my end and I apologize for that! But it's almost undeniable that that is the intended good path for them, versus CF where they don't have that happen. In the ending cutscenes of AM, SS, and VW, Byleth and the lord of that route (+ Rhea for SS) are bathed in the light (with Rhea being able to live on SS if she is close enough with Byleth), and Edelgard dies in the light. In CF, Byleth and the lord of the route are shrouded in darkness, with only the flames of destruction lighting them, and it's this setting that Rhea dies in. Edelgard can't survive in the light, and Rhea can't survive in the dark - and then the endings that correspond with these two scenarios match as well. The endings where Edelgard dies in the light and Byleth rises to become a guiding hand for Fodlan are the ones where peace is achieved, and the one where Rhea dies in the darkness (the one time Rhea always dies, unlike SS) is the one where Fodlan is fucked.

#ask #anon #exqueuese me princess #anti edelgard #Anti-edelgard #Edelgard discourse #Edelgard critical #just to be safe #think I came across kinda standoffish... I'm really sorry about that! I just wanted to be really clear on what I meant #Edelgard made of the surface-level portrayal of being a hero but she is most definitely still the villain #*may have #she still very much does villainous actions they're just given a nice coat of Hero Paint to hide how bad she is #It's why she's constantly putting down Claude Dimitri and Rhea as some sort of dubious/craaazy/evil force that absolutely MUST be taken down #she knows how to make herself look better - by making others look worse in comparison #Claude is throwing the Alliance into chaos (ignore Hubert who says the literal opposite) #Dimitri doesn't know the words ''fair fight'' now (ignore how he took the fighting away from the Kingdom capital where the citizens were) #Rhea... just about everything Edelgard says about Rhea is a lie lmao #etc. etc.

[thrashermaxey]

Cage Match: Jonathan Drouin vs. Jake Guentzel

Among the two most hyped players coming into 2017-18 were Jonathan Drouin and Jake Guentzel. Both ultimately disappointed, failing to reach even 50 points and likely putting poolies who owned them at a major disadvantage in their leagues. Yet Guentzel has caught fire in the playoffs, and Drouin now has a season under his belt in Montreal. So could either or both be poised for a big 2018-19? Let’s see what the numbers tell us – Cage Match starts now!

Career Path and Contract Status

Drouin, 23, was selected 3rd overall in 2013 by Tampa after a 105-point-in-49-game QMJHL campaign, which he then proceeded to better in the form of 108 points in only 45 games upon returning for his age 18 season. As expected, that earned him a ticket to the NHL for 2014-15, where he finished with a decent but far from spectacular 32 points in 70 games.

The 2015-16 season saw Drouin relegated to the AHL in January after an injury-plagued 19 NHL games, leading to all hell breaking loose, from Drouin requesting a trade, to not reporting to the AHL, and then ultimately to being suspended. Cooler heads prevailed by March, with Drouin indeed reporting to Syracuse, where he posted 13 points in 17 games. That earned him a ticket back to the NHL just in time for the playoffs, where he excelled (14 points in 17 games). He then tallied 53 points in 73 games in 2016-17, but nevertheless was traded to Montreal in the offseason and proceeded to see his production drop to only 46 points in 77 games in 2017-18.

Guentzel, also 23, was grabbed 74 picks later in the same draft, then spent the next three campaigns playing college hockey and seeing his production inch upward each season. Ticketed for the AHL to start 2016-17, Guentzel flourished with 42 points in only 33 games then didn’t miss a beat when promoted to the big club, finishing with 33 points in 40 games and tacking on another 21 in 25 playoff contests. With that, big things were expected for 2017-18; yet Guentzel only managed double-digit points in one of the season’s first four months before finding his groove with 17 points over his last 19 regular season games and scoring in droves during the playoffs.

Drouin’s $5.5M cap hit (through 2022-23) dwarfs the $0.734M that Guentzel is set to make in 2018-19 on the last remaining season of his ELC; however, Guentzel likely will receive a healthy raise as an RFA, so the gap should shrink considerably by 2019-20.

Ice Time  

Season

Total Ice Time per game

(rank among team’s forwards)

PP Ice Time per game

(rank among team’s forwards)

SH Ice Time per game

(rank among team’s forwards)

2017-18

17:36 (J.D.) – 2nd

16:29 (J.G.) – 5th

3:16 (J.D.) – 1st

1:46 (J.G.) – 5th

0:07 (J.D.) – 12th (tied)

0:14 (J.G.) – 10th

2016-17

17:42 (J.D.) – 6th

15:53 (J.G.) – 7th

3:05 (J.D.) – 3rd

1:22 (J.G.) – 8th

0:00 (J.D.)

0:00 (J.G.)

2015-16

14:27 (J.D.) – 8th

2:01 (J.D.) – 9th

0:01 (J.D.) – 12th (tied)

2014-15

13:14 (J.D.) – 10th

1:55 (J.D.) – 9th

0:04 (J.D.) – 12th

The good news about Guentzel’s Ice Time is it leaves room for gains; however, to expect those gains to indeed occur – particularly on the PP – would be a tall order. A constant throughout the Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin era in Pittsburgh has been a big body on PP1. For a while it was Chris Kunitz and/or James Neal, and recently it’s been Patric Hornqvist — the same Hornqvist who just recently re-upped with the Pens for five more seasons. With a PP1 consisting of Hornqvist occupying the front of the net, and Malkin and Crosby plus Phil Kessel, the Pens finished third in PP% in 2016-17 then improved to first for 2017-18, which likely played a large part in the decision to re-sign Hornqvist.

Where does that leave Guentzel? On the outside looking in. And the ramifications are huge. That’s because a spot on PP1 is tied to being able to produce as a Pens’ forward. Need proof? Not only have there been just four forwards other than Crosby, Malkin, and Kessel who’ve scored 60+ points (two of the four – Kunitz and Neal – did so twice) for the Pens since 2005-06, only one did so despite tallying fewer than 22 PPts, with the average number of PPPts among the six instances being 25. Moreover, the PP Ice Time per game among the six instances was 5:11, 3:53, 3:56, 3:31, 3:38, 3:50, which are all at least double what Guentzel has received in his first two seasons with Pittsburgh. It’s a sober reminder that talent can only go so far; it’s opportunity that holds the biggest key to fantasy success.

As for Drouin, although he was immediately thrust into a top role with the Canadiens, we can see he received roughly the same ice times as he did with the Lightning in 2016-17. For that poolies can thank the coaching philosophy of Claude Julien, who rarely gives any forward – even stars – 18:00 of non-shorthanded ice time per game. The good news is we know Drouin was able to produce 53 points in 73 games in 2016-17 with nearly those exact Ice Times; however, that was for a more potent Bolts team than what figures to be iced n Montreal in the near future. Of course there’s still the chance Drouin was unsustainably unlucky this past season, on top of the Canadiens struggling as a team, so we’ll check on that below.

Secondary Categories  

Season

PIMs

(per game)

Hits

(per game)

Blocked Shots (per game)

Shots

(per game)

PP Points

(per game)

2017-18

0.39 (J.D.)

0.51 (J.G.)

0.71 (J.D.)

1.73 (J.G.)

0.35 (J.D.)

0.56 (J.G.)

2.13 (J.D.)

2.08 (J.G.)

0.28 (J.D.)

0.14 (J.G.)

2016-17

0.22 (J.D.)

0.25 (J.G.)

0.68 (J.D.)

1.52 (J.G.)

0.22 (J.D.)

0.45 (J.G.)

2.50 (J.D.)

2.02 (J.G.)

0.35 (J.D.)

0.07 (J.G.)

2015-16

0.19 (J.D.)

0.85 (J.D.)

0.09 (J.D.)

1.19 (J.D.)

0.09 (J.D.)

2014-15

0.48 (J.D.)

0.78 (J.D.)

0.23 (J.D.)

1.08 (J.D.)

0.08 (J.D.)

Guentzel is the more physical player of the two for sure; however, he failed to up his SOG rate as a sophomore, which is not a good sign. Guentzel did manage to produce decently on the PP given his minutes, and nine of his 12 PPPts came when he was inserted on PP1 during games in which Malkin or Hornqvist missed. Yet that means he only managed three PPPts as part of PP2, which, as noted above, is where he’s stuck until/unless there’s an injury to one of the PP1 stalwarts.

Even still, with Malkin’s injury history and Hornqvist missing 12 games each of the past two seasons, Guentzel could get enough time on PP1 to salvage his PP scoring. Unfortunately, it won’t be enough to put him in the same category of past 60+ point Pens scorers, so this is more bad news than good.

What jumps off the page for Drouin is his PP scoring rate, as over the past two seasons 48 of his 99 points came on the PP. Only three other players in the past two seasons also had less than 100 total points but more than 40 PPPts – Kyle Okposo, Kyle Palmieri, and Wayne Simmonds. And going back to 2006-07, those who met both criteria were either aging veterans when doing so (Milan Hejduk, Tomas Holmstrom, Brian Rolston, Mike Modano, Patrick Marleau) or never ultimately amounted to anything fantasy-wise (Todd White, Ales Kotalik, Chris Higgins, Jarret Stoll). There were a couple of exceptions who, like Drouin, did so in seasons before turning 25, namely Joe Pavelski, who went on to be a star, and Jiri Hudler, who had his fair share of fantasy success; however, when looking at all its members, this is not a club that one wants his or her fantasy team members to be in.

Beyond that, Drouin’s SOG and PP rate both dropped in 2017-18 despite comparable ice time and a more prominent role. In those cases, however, there’s room to forgive those numbers due to it not only being his first season in Montreal but the team as a whole doing very poorly on offense.

Luck-Based Metrics  

Season

Personal Shooting %

Team Shooting % (5×5)

Individual Points % (IPP)

Offensive Zone Starting % (5×5)

Average Shot Distance

Secondary Assists %

2017-18

7.9% (J.D.)

12.9% (J.G.)

5.59% (J.D.)

6.53% (J.G.)

56.5% (J.D.)

73.8% (J.G.)

64.8% (J.D.)

62.1% (J.G.)

32.3 (J.D.)

24.4 (J.G.)

48% (J.D.)

42% (J.G.)

2016-17

11.5% (J.D.)

19.8% (J.G.)

7.20% (J.D.)

10.98% (J.G.)

57.1% (J.D.)

70.2% (J.G.)

67.1% (J.D.)

60.5% (J.G.)

30.9 (J.D.)

20.1 (J.G.)

47% (J.D.)

17% (J.G.)

2015-16

16.0% (J.D.)

14.4% (J.D.)

58.6% (J.D.)

62.5% (J.D.)

29.9 (J.D.)

33% (J.D.)

2014-15

5.3% (J.D.)

7.77% (J.D.)

58.5% (J.D.)

68.1% (J.D.)

25.5 (J.D.)

43% (J.D.)

Drouin owners can’t like what they see here. Not once has his IPP been above the 70% threshold normally associated with skilled and highly productive players, even with a very protected average OZ% of 65% over these four seasons. Moreover, in each of the three full seasons his 5×5 team shooting % lagged below 8.0%. If that wasn’t bad enough, although his SOG rate declined from 2016-17 to 2017-18, his ASD increased. And in his three full seasons he’s barely had more primary assists than secondary.

These things on their own are discouraging, but when weighed together are downright alarming. Plus, it’d be one thing if we were talking about a teen who had one season under his belt; but Drouin is 23 and a veteran of 241 NHL games. And while Montreal was indeed a tire fire this season and Drouin was somewhat lost in the shuffle in Tampa, those excuses aren’t enough to justify what we’re seeing here. Top players find ways to show they’re top players, and these metrics suggest Drouin is not a top player, and, more concerningly, might not ultimately become one.

It’s a brighter picture for Guentzel. Yes – his 5×5 team shooting percentage in 2016-17 was off the charts; however, it was essentially as low for 2017-18 as it was high for 2016-17, and if we average the two seasons we get 8.75%, which is right near the 9% number usually associated with scoring forwards. But perhaps the key is that Guentzel, despite skating for more than 60% of his even strength shifts both this season and last with point magnets like Crosby or Malkin, he nevertheless managed to have an IPP over the 70% threshold in both his seasons. That means he has a nose for scoring and should be able to make the most of his situation (i.e., at least come close to scoring 60 points per season) despite being relegated to PP2.

Guentzel also has a very low ASD, which is a marker for success, as included among the 14 players who suited up for more games than him in the past two seasons and had a lower average shot distance and higher shot total are the likes of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Anders Lee, and Bo Horvat. Of course none of this changes his PP dilemma; however, it shows that Guentzel is better than he was in 2017-18 even if his regular season PP Time and opportunity likely continue to be limited.

Who Wins?

All I can say is if you’re a Drouin owner, I’m sorry to be the bearer of what looks to be pretty bad news. But it’s not me telling you this – it’s the numbers, and nearly all of them suggest Drouin is not on a path to fantasy success in the near term, and perhaps not ultimately ever. Thus, although Guentzel might indeed have a 60 point ceiling due to being relegated to the wasteland of the Pittsburgh PP2, that still should be better than what Drouin produces.

Normally I’d advise Drouin owners to sell, but his value probably could inch higher as the offseason goes on, particularly if the Habs bring in one of more high profile talented forwards via trade or free agents. Once you can get a decent price for him – and by that I mean a proven 60+ point scorer or even a young player with good upside, I’d pull the trigger. As for Guentzel, based on his playoff scoring explosion he’s a definite offseason sell, since if you keep him you risk being disappointed again — not as much as you were in 2017-18, but definitely disappointed. Moreover, you should have no shortage of takers who are clouded by his tremendous postseason success.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/cage-match/cage-match-jonathan-drouin-vs-jake-guentzel/

[butwhatifidothis]

Look what I nice quote I found: "The truth is that Edelgard's actions are not even remotely controversial, at least when compare to the questionable things that Dimitri and Claude did."

"not even remotely controversial" uhhhhhhhhh I wanna ask this person what part of "starting a continent spanning war for half a decade" is... not controversial?

Like, okay, let's step back, that is controversial. You can have the purest mindset and the nicest personality and the best of intentions - that is controversial. You could try to otherwise leave out as many people as possible from your war - that is controversial. You could set out to do what you started your war for the millisecond your war ends - that is controversial. You still started something that will by definition, at the time the war was set in, end the lives of countless innocent people and ruin the lives of even more, unsettling the landscape and forcibly destroying the way of life of every single person in the place the war takes place in. You still purposefully did this.

And like. Edelgard is none of those things listed lmao. She doesn't have the purest mindset - she banishes those of the Seiros faith and deems them as unable to have meaningful dialogue with, with her supports from Manuela showcasing that when she started the war she thought them as weak of spirit and unable to live on their own.

She doesn't have the nicest personality - she only ever shows genuine respect to her father, as even Byleth isn't ever considered her equal until their S support, she doesn't believe in compromise and directly berates people for compromising in CF instead of fighting to the death for what they believe in.

She doesn't have the best intentions - she thought of exactly 0 things that would help commoners' quality of life even though she supposedly started the war for exactly that reason, and her philosophy directly prevents them from rising as it's based on the belief that people should only use their own strength to rise, something that commoners... can't exactly do save for the rare exception (in fact nearly every commoner we see in the game is only in Garreg Mach because of kindness from someone else - Dorothea might be the only exception to this, and even then you could argue her friends in the troupe helped her be able to attend).

She doesn't try to leave out as many people as possible, as much as she and her stans (and Ghast lmao) claims she does. She allows for conscription of her citizens into her war, she hunts down Judith after she gave up and started to retreat, she prefers to kill Claude, she always kills Seteth and Flayn if given the chance, she doesn't evacuate her citizens in AM and VW (and yes, I know that the VW calendar says the assault on Enbarr is a sneak attack, but that directly goes against what is said in VW's story and also happens to be exactly what SS' calendar says happens, where it is explicitly called a sneak attack. I think it's a genuine oversight when they were building VW off of SS), she sends threats of force to Brigid if Petra isn't recruited on non-CF routes, she herself says that she's willing to sacrifice the lives of her people to achieve her goals.

The only one you can kind of argue she does do is set off to do what she wanted immediately after the war, but the changes she apparently wanted to implement - no more nobility, no more unfair inheritance, no more centralized power - are all very present and are never stated to go away.

Like, here are the things I can think of for Dimitri and Claude that are genuinely controversial/are the most controversial things they've done.

Dimitri:

Wish for the Church to be stricken first in the battle at Tailtean Plains in CF

Attempt to torture Randolph in the beginning of AM

Relentlessly kill Imperial soldiers in the Kingdom in non-CF routes

Be too indifferent to the lives of those following him on VW!Gronder

Claude:

See Byleth as a tool to be used and not a person in the beginning of his route

Digging into people's pasts while hiding his own

Scapegoating Cyril at Fort Merceus

Not dig deep enough into the racial tensions of Fodlan

Bringing in Almyran reinforcements without letting his friends know he would do so

These two aren't perfect! They do some things that can be argued whether they were good or not, justified or not, all that fun shit! But note how none of these can really match Edelgard starting war. And that's just the most immediately controversial thing she does! There's p l e n t y of other things that can be considered such. When you compare the three of these people together, when you compare their actions against each other, Dimitri is barely questionable and Claude is damn near squeaky clean when compared to:

Starting a war

Staging an attack on an institution filled with people who can't fight back, such as orphans and the elderly

Allowing the creation of what is the result of human torture and experimentation

Using the result of human torture and experimentation

Sneaking in assassins

Invading neutral nations

Never clearing/help clear the name of a persecuted minority from a crime she knows they didn't commit

Conscription

Using human shields

Using Rhea as a bargaining chip when she captures her on non-CF routes

Hiding Rhea in such deplorable conditions that she very clearly extremely weakened

Allowing Flayn to be kidnapped and helping her get kidnapped

Trying to finish off the Nabateans genocide attempted a thousand years ago

"Not even remotely controversial" stop!! Being so ridiculous!!

#ask #anti edelgard #anti-edelgard #edelgard discourse #edelgard critical #just to be safe #like that's a mighty bold claim for even a stan to say #''not even remotely controversial''? do they like... know what controversial means #cuz like I can think up reasonable explanations for Dimitri and Claude's questionable actions but they'd still be controversial

[butwhatifidothis]

Sometimes fandoms still kicks me upside the head. Some of the most unpopular characters in Three Houses - Leonie, Cyril, Ingrid - make mistakes that yes, range from annoying as hell to actually shitty, but are never allowed to grow from, according to fans. Even when they apologize for doing so or even when what they’re “guily” of isn’t even that bad.

Leonie can never grow past the fact that she calls Byleth underserving of their father Jeralt directly and specifically after he dies (as in, the supports is only available in the timespan immediately after his death), despite the fact that she herself was extremely emotionally unstable over the fact that her childhood hero who saved her village and gave her her life-goal was murdered for no reason and despite the fact that she apologized profusely for every saying that to you.

Cyril can never grow past being extremely rude to nearly everyone around him and idolizing Rhea as much as he does, despite the fact that he was a literal child soldier and after that a slave of the Gonerils and Rhea saved him from that life to live one where he is fed everyday, has safe shelter, and in return only has to do chores that everyone else has to do.

Ingrid can never grow past telling to Dedue’s face that the massacre of his people was justified, even though Faerghan culture has told her that since she was an emotionally scarred teenage girl that his people are the reason her and her friends’ lives were ruined and despite the fact that she still afterwards realized what she said and her actions towards Dedue were horrific and had no justification.

These characters are completely irredeemable in the eyes of so many fans... but Edelgard, in comparison, is alright.

Now not to say Edelgard doesn’t have a lot of people hating her, but we have to admit she is infinitely more popular than the three listed above, consistently ranking at least top 10 in popularity polls with countless people trying to justify her actions and say that she’s an amazing person. This is despite the fact that she AT MINIMUM:

-at least wants to exile all the Nabateans from Fodlan because they “are incapable of humanity”, a reasoning that is the literal, actual motivation of nearly all of the villains in the Tellius games (I say at least since so many people are hellbent in denying that she wants to kill them all... despite the fact that Flayn and Seteth can’t be spared by her, only by Byleth, unlike Claude and Lysithea... and that Linhardt doesn’t want her finding out about Indech in the Legend of the Lake paralogue because it “concerns the Saints of the Church of Seiros”... and she expresses contentment at “getting rid of all of the children of the Goddess”... but sure, she just wants to exile a race of people who’ve lived on Fodlan longer than her ancestral line started, that’s all)

-dresses as the committer of the Tragedy of Duscur in front of the sole survivor of the massacre. Multiple times.

     - in relation to that, works with the people who committed the Tragedy of Duscur, and calls the sole survivor “delusional” for thinking someone who dressed in the specific garb of the person who committed the Tragedy and works with those who actually committed the Tragedy was the one who committed the Tragedy. But nah, Dimitri is just a loony for thinking that, no basis for him to think that at all.

-demands for a relic weapon to be made for her specifically, despite knowing how they are made  

-attacks and kills Judith, even if she surrenders and retreats

     -invades a neutral territory

     -(potentially) kills Claude, even if he surrenders

-directly and explicitly says she is willing to put her civilians’ lives at risk if it meant furthering her goals and calls herself “just like Lonato”

-covers up Jeritza kidnapping Flayn and Flayn’s torture by TWS

-uses Demonic Beasts as war assets, meaning she allows for the kidnapping, torture and mutations of innocent civilians into mindless monsters. This is despite knowing how horrifically painful it is to have this done on someone.

-is willing to sacrifice her soldiers on the battlefield (Bernadetta at Gronder) to get a slight upper hand.

     -Imma dispel anyone trying to compare this to when Claude used the fire bomb at Garreg Mach, since I’ve seen people try to justify this specific action by doing that. Claude 1) warns that he’s going to use the fire bomb and gives ample time for people to get out of the way, unlike Edelgard who gives no warning to Bernadetta and 2) this is a defense mechanism built into Garreg Mach’s infrastructure that Seteth and Gilbert also use, unlike Edelgard’s impromptu burning of the Central Hill.

-is willing to use her civilians as human shields to try and dissuade the opposing army’s attempts at getting to her

-says she’s for a meritocracy where people earn what they earn and not what they were born into, but doesn’t allow Byleth to take their credit as the leading force because it would look bad on her (literally) and people gaining titles they have no qualifications for (Bernadetta, Caspar) simply because she, personally, thinks they deserve it

Off the top of my head, this is what Edelgard does that people will look over in favor of liking her, because apparently “she had good intentions” is a good enough reason to look away from mass murder, mass torture, hypocritical beliefs, active treason to those she is supposed to protect and to her “friends”, constant lying, and just an absurd amount of self-righteousness that allows her to justify to herself that she is right and literally everyone else is wrong, actually. 

But nah, Cyril’s a rude kid so he should be hated.

okay

#anti edelgard #just to be safe #Edelgard discourse #Edelgard critical #fire emblem three houses #and this is from someone who hates Ingrid and is mehhh on Cyril #they get shit on WAY MORE for doing things that aren't NEARLY as bad as what Edelgard does #and of course not saying you can't like Edelgard it's just it astounds me when people say 'i don't like ingrid cuz she stinky racist ;(' #meanwhile Edelgard is literally omega racists towards Nabateans #to give a direct example of the hypocrisy people have in regards to her #Anti-edelgard