#unless it was lysithea from fire emblem three hopes? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

alienducky · 1 year

Text

I've been having thoughts about Fire Emblem Three Houses/Hopes before game timeline, as in, how old Rhea and Seteth and the other Nabs are?

Someone else might have already figured this out, but I've not looked because I don't know what search words to use, and also I want to babble

Cut for very disjointed and meandering babbling about Nabataean ages, growth spurts, and eventual Sothis landing-war-now timeline

So in Hopes we got that cutscene/flashback at the start of a battle showing the Nabs fighting the Agathans, and they all look exactly the same then, 1,000 years ago, as they do now in game.

So with that, I think it's safe to say that they age a fair bit slower than humans do.

(There's also the Arval paralogue, where the only difference is the hair colour, but I'm willing to go with a crack theory of Arval being colourblind or something. Or that fight was before the other one and they didn't discover hair dye till afterwards. Made from moss, I guess?)

But anyway.

Seeing as they didn't age at all in 1,000 years, it must have taken a fair bit longer than that for them to go from being baby to adult. Possibly 2-3,000 years? Probably closer to 4-5,000, or more for Rhea and Seteth?

(Unless, and sorry for the tangent, unless another theory I have is right and Sothis didn't birth her children, but instead gifted powers to some of the human habitants of the world which then changed them into Nabs, kinda like how the Agathans "gifted" crests to Edelgard and Lysithea, and originally the 10 Elites. They had to get the idea from somewhere, right?)

But even if Sothis' children were converted humans, Flayn is next gen, and thus was born-born. So she at least has definitely grown from baby to vaguely teenage, which takes time. How much time is the question though. Because I don't think she'd also be several thousand years old at the war, because she doesn't seem that... Dunno how to phrase it. So I'm going to say she's maybe 200/300, and that the healing sleep doesn't age you, and then it takes a while after you wake up before you start aging again? Meaning she's due a growth spurt in the routes where she survives?

Another tangent, but I have to wonder what Seteth's plan was for that. Because while fine, adults don't change appearance all that much after becoming adults, teenagers do? And he's brought her to a school. Full of teenagers who are all growing. Was the plan to never let past students come back after they graduate? Hope that none of the staff who work there their entire lives notice that "Hmmm, that young Flayn hasn't grown an inch in the last 50 years"?!? Stay a year or two, then go away for a month and bring her back with a new hairstyle and claim it's her cousin??? What was the plan Seteth?!?!?!?

Ahem

So yeah. Working on the basis that the Saints were several thousand years old at the time of the war, that means that Sothis had landed in what is now Fodlan several thousand years ago, and had been ruling for a long time.

Which means we have:

- Sothis landing

- Sothis "having" children

- several thousand years possibly of Nabs living in relative harmony with humans?

- Agathans deciding nope and beginning their experiments (I swear I read somewhere that they started human experiments in order to get the same powers as the Nabs, but that might have been fanon?) or otherwise starting their rebelllion

- Sothis being horrified and stopping them

- big war where Agathans nuked Fodlan (possibly when those land masses from the Abyss book got wiped out?) before getting driven underground and Sothis did her "heal the land and make more people" thing before going to take a nap

(Which, as an aside, probably took a fair bit of time. To heal an entire country is going to take a bit more than a few psychics, and I know Sothis is capital P Powerful, but still.)

But all of that is a lot of time between Sothis landing in Fodlan and Nemmy showing up! Which, as the next point, wouldn't have been straight away after Sothis went to sleep. It would have been years, if not decades of silence from the Agathans before the Nabs believed they'd been wiped out and relaxed their guard on Sothis' resting place

Epi is in there... Somewhere. Doing weird experiments and making Arval. Was obviously around for the Hopes paralogue battle, but I'm thinking he got killed before the battle with Nemmy from the Houses opening battle scene? And I headcanon that Epi was the person behind the implementation of given humans crests. Because if it was common knowledge that any of the Agathans knew/could do, why were they still needing to experiment 1,000 years later with Lys and El and failing at it?

And then after Nemmy got to her, she wasn't turned into a sword overnight. That would have taken, what. Weeks, months? Sword of the Creator was the first relic, right? Unless... Unless it wasn't? And some other poor nameless Nabs had been nabbed before and experimented on for the Agathans to get the weaponfication techniques down?

And then when Nemmy had the sword and went to turn Zanado red... I doubt he got all the Nabs who became relics in one go. It probably took several months or years of fights and raids and ambushes to whittle the Nabs from thousands to just 9 (Rhea, Seteth, Flayn, Indech, Macuil, and the 4 Apostles. Possibly Anna?)

(Nice bit of angsty fanfic waiting there, pov of one of the Nabs who later became a relic, seeing all their friends get killed, then in the next fight feeling them in the weapon across the battlefield being used to murder their mutuals, and knowing they might be next, and then getting captured and meeting the "hero" who was going to wield them)

Also, when did Rhea start founding the Empire? Was it in the time between Sothis healing the land and Zanado, meaning she already had an army ready to go after Nemmy? Or was it after Zanado, and she was scrambling to defend what was left of her people?

Everything after this point is a little easier, since Nemmy died at year 0, and then Garrag Mach was finished in 85, and etc etc etc

But it's all that stuff beforehand that's making me wonder, just how old is Rhea? And how old are Thales and Solon?

#duckpond stuff #fe3h #few3h

10 notes · View notes

veebs-hates-video-games · 2 years

Text

In today's adventures in trying the last few random games I have on my 3DS because I was tired and bored because breathing is hard, I have learned:

HarmoKnight, a rhythm game made by Game Freak, is pretty good. Who knew they occasionally did stuff that's not Pokemon?

Stella Glow, a SRPG by the same people who made the Black Rock Shooter game, is both weirder and better than I expected. Although even though everything in it has been wholesome so far I can't help getting a vibe from it that at any moment it's going to ruin that with some sort of creepy and/or misogynist Anime Bullshit.

Shin Megami Tensei 4 is one of the most deliberate games I've played in a long time, like even just the timing of things in cutscenes feels very purposeful and sets the weird mood of it, and the setting is a lot more interesting than I expected. But also the difficulty is absolutely ridiculous and well into the "not fun or even fair" range, which unless there's a way to turn it way down will mean I'm not going to play much more. Like it's not just that I need to make better decisions about what I do, it's that I don't even have the information I need to make those decisions and both I and the enemies die in one or two hits, so it's just RNG and luck at this point as far as I can tell.

Also I did guess correctly why Horizon Zero Dawn was running so badly (after uninstalling it, which meant I got to wait to download 70 GB again...), and changing that one setting outside the game made it immediately jump from like 17 fps to 60. After a few hours of that one I'm pretty confident saying it's the best game out of anything I've mentioned in this post, but also I haven't touched it in a couple days because when it's hot or the air is otherwise bad running my computer at full power makes things enough worse that it's not worth it. At least the Switch and 3DS only use a few watts each, so those keep me company pretty well on those days.

Oh right, speaking of the Switch, I did play through the Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes demo too, or at least one route. I kinda hate the way it's structured and am kinda worried it's going to pull a Warriors All-Stars and make it so you have to do multiple separate playthroughs to see everything and won't let you just unlock everything on a single save file, at least not without NG+. Also kinda disappointing that it doesn't actually run any better than Age of Calamity did.

Aside from that it seems like it has a lot of potential though. Shez and Arval are great. After like an hour I was like Byleth who? Thank you for a fun protagonist with an actual personality again. And just like with BotW and AoC, I feel like the voice acting in FEW3H improves on the original somewhat. And of course the huge amount of flexibility in the combat and building characters could get really interesting. It doesn't feel as good to me so far as AoC did, but the endless possibilities for customizing characters has so much potential for silly shenanigans. I've already seen a video of someone running Lysithea in full platemail with an axe, and I'm full of Bad Ideas.

#harmoknight #stella glow #shin megami tensei iv #horizon zero dawn #fire emblem warriors: three hopes #mentioned:#warriors all-stars #hyrule warriors: age of calamity

5 notes · View notes

theofficersacademy · 2 years

Photo

Happy July, or as we like to call it, pre-anniversary month!

Housekeeping

Current Month in TOA: Pegasus Moon (February)

Additional tasks have been added to our mission board for the season! Check the whole list out here.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes released on June 24th, and so TOA will be implementing a no spoilers policy until further notice. All mentions of story content from the game should be tagged with #ThreeHopesSpoilers and kept in the #spoilers channel of our Discord server.

For brand new characters introduced in Three Hopes, there is a 2 week cooldown (until midnight EST on July 8th) before they can be reserved in TOA. This does not include characters who existed in Three Houses previously but were not expanded on (e.g. Monica, Holst, Count Bergliez). All characters from Three Hopes will also be classified as characters from Fódlan and not Warriors unless it’s made explicit that they come from other worlds. When reservations open, we will accept them on a first-come first-served basis and anyone wishing to pick up an additional muse for their roster will need to make sure that they have enough consistent activity to warrant it. We would hate to turn you down for that!

Due to a change in schedule, our Arena event is still ongoing! Silver round will end on July 3rd at noon EST and Gold round will end on July 7th at noon EST, after which we will post a closer and award you all with your skill points.

Signups for our upcoming anniversary event will open on July 24th. Stay tuned!

Please make sure you have your character name, house affiliation, and whether they’re a student or faculty clearly written in your blog’s description.

Please don’t forget to leave feedback on our feedback poll for this month! This month’s forms include questions about the Arena and what expectations you have for the big event in August.

Other

July Mun Birthdays: Lucius (11th), Nic (14th)

July Muse Birthdays: Kempf (5th), M!Kris (15th), Odin (15th), Claude (24th), Shannan (24th), Sitri (25th), Forsyth (26th)

First-year mun anniversaries this month: Tiff (9th), Vio (15th)

Second-year mun anniversaries this month: none

First-year muse anniversaries this month: Andrei (3rd), Lysithea (3rd), Micaiah (4th), Petra (13th), Saias (15th), Katarina (15th), Deirdre (17th), Arvis (19th)

Second-year muse anniversaries this month: none

Muses who have been in the group for a solid year will also be granted an Academy Brooch to put in their inventory. It doesn’t do anything. It just lets others know your character has been around the block. These characters are also granted a new opportunity to change houses if they wish to do so.

- The House Leaders

#toa newsletter #july newsletter

5 notes · View notes

alterwriting · 19 days

Text

for my muse roster, please refer to the pc or mobile version.

Notices for Characters.

⸻ HONKAI STAR RAIL ⸻

All characters can be found on their respective planet. For interplanetary interactions, they can accompany the Nameless temporarily if they don't have binding responsibilities on their own planet.

⸻ GENSHIN IMPACT ⸻

Due to reasons (her execution in Inazuma), La Signora is only available up until this point in the story. Alternatively - if you are alright with it - she was able to retreat after being struck. For more info, please refer to her headcanons.

⸻ FATE GRAND ORDER ⸻

All servants are available for summoning unless stated otherwise here. They usually reside at Chaldea or on a mission with their master. When interacting with other servants, I will refer to their Master as Ritsuka Fujimaru with they / them.

⸻ FIRE EMBLEM ⸻

All characters are on their respective path by default, with the following exceptions:

Byleth will be the Ashen Demon from Three Hopes, affiliated with Shez. When interacting with other characters, they will default to their path.

Dimitri is still in his crazed form prior to the beginning of his reconciliation with the past. For sane Dimitri, please inform me about your interest.

Rhea will default to White Clouds, but can also appear post timeskip if requested. Additionally, she can also be approached as Seiros or with the other Nabateans in her childhood in the past.

Felix, Ingrid, Lysithea, Mercedes, and Sylvain are also heavily encouraged to engage in Black Eagle AUs.

Catherine is not as radically loyal to Rhea as in the game. She is a faithful believer in the Church, but will not slay "heretics" without any hesitation.

Felix has made a sexist comment in the base game, and while I am willing to write people (ex. Ingrid) confronting him about it, I refuse to write him making more comments of this sexist sentiment.

Ingrid can only be encountered after having had a conversation with Dedue. She still struggles with reflecting on where her disdain for the people of Duscur stems from, but tries to learn from the experience. Being with Dedue might make ehr feel awkward since she doesn't know how to behave after their confrontation.

I am generally open for all characters to engage in any other-class AUs. Just let me know if you are interested.

#* // alterwriting ⤫ ooc.#* // alterwriting ⤫ ooc __ roster.#* // alterwriting ⤫ ooc __ notices.

0 notes

semi-imaginary-place · 6 months

Text

random fe3h tips

On classic a few characters have plot armor like Byleth, the Lords, and some of the retainers in certain conditions but for most characters, they become unplayable after reaching 0 hp. If in part 1 the characters will still be seen in the monastery but become unusable in gameplay they will die offscreen during the timeskip. If during part 2 unless they are special they'll die onscreen. Plot wise because of the death mechanic, pretty much no one is written to be plot essential, this isn't a Dragon Age game, there are a few plot decisions depending on the route but for the most part you are on a train ride and nothing is stopping the train. Because the game is designed so that almost anyone can die, no one besides the lords and Byleth is plot critical, so no one else is super involved in the plot but the in house students get lines in the cutscenes.

There is no story effects to recruiting, you are on a one way ride. The one real change is recruitment specific unique battle dialogue. This is a Fire Emblem thing from back when there were only battle maps. Getting the unique dialogue is for hardcore people as getting the dialogue is essentially giving yourself an extra goal for the map so most people don't bother to get it all, also it can be tricky to get. As for who to recruit just go with whoever you like best. You should be playing this game 4 times at least so you will eventually play everyone. Lords as can never be recruited onto different routes, some other characters have restrictions so you can not get every character or every supports in 1 playthrough. FE3H was always meant to be played in multiple playthroughs, don't try and do everything in one playthrough. That said my best recommendation for recruits is to go for people who have supports with the Lord and retainer. For Blue Lions this is Dimitri and Dedue so go check who they have support with that are outside of the Blue Lions.

Paralogues can be route locked and lords are always locked to a single route. Some recruits show up in cutscenes but most don't. Some supports have route dependent dialogue but most don't change much or at all. The biggest changes are in monthly monastery dialogue where units will comment on the current or past situations, units will have several months of unique dialogue for each route. Units will also have unique dialogue when facing off against specific enemy units which of course will be route and recruit dependent.

3 Hopes is like a nice side dish it complements 3 Houses nicely but doesn't stand on its own merit. The writing quality is similarly good but the gameplay is completely different. I enjoyed the story and found that it added to 3 Houses. Try the demo and see if you like it. If you don't like the gameplay or don't like the price you can always watch a playthrough on youtube or something. Three Hopes really does remind me more of an expansion pack than a whole separate game. Hopes does not stand alone, you miss like half the story if you haven't played Houses first, it complements and enhances Houses but it can't exist independently of Houses. Hopes doesn't end and for an expansion pack that would have been fine as it'd tie into the main game's story endings but it doesn't work when the devs try to make Hopes its own separate game. And its a shame because I do think the writing that is there in Hopes is pretty good and the what if scenarios it presents are very interesting. Ideal scenario is having played all 4 Houses routes before staring Hopes, but as long as you've played at least 2 you'll get a lot out of Hopes. Please note that Azure Gleam the blue lions route in 3 Hopes is based on both AM AND SS.

The best dancer is the character you aren't using, your most useless unit, so whatever character you never use that should be your dancer. A dancer is primarily dancing not attacking so high damage characters like Hilda and Lysithea are wasted in dancer since they are better off killing enemies.

#fe3h

0 notes

stargazer-balladeer · 4 years

Text

Poly Relationship [FE: Three Houses]

Characters Included: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd & Claude von Riegan

Note: HAHA! I LOVE THESE TWO BOIS SO MUCH ;) I HAD SO MUCH FUN WRITING THIS! (Though I apologize for the short timeskip lol). I HOPE YA’LL LIKE THIS!

Reader’s Gender: Neutral

Warning: Spoilers

-If you thought this was gonna be an easy relationship to have, then you’re wrong. But I can assure you that not a boring day goes by, with these two around, it’s bound to get fun. Dimitri and Claude contrast each other very much, polar opposite even. Everyone is wondering how you manage to get these two in a relationship with you, well, here’s the story.

-You’re a new student that was entered the Monastery the same time as the Byleth twins. You immediately caught the eyes of Faerghus Prince and the mischievous Leader. You then choose your house, and that’s how you met either one of them or both of them at the same time!

-If you’re in the Golden Deer House, expect to immediately meet Claude von Riegan. He practically drags you around after meeting you and keep flirting you, subtly dropping hints to you that he’s interested with you. Claude manage to know about Dimitri’s attraction to you as well so he drags you away from the Prince when he’s in sight, which made Dimitri pout. But one way or another, you’ll meet the Prince soon enough :)

-If you’re in the Blue Lions, Dimitri would take his time to introduce himself to you while Claude stood there glaring at him, pouting at your chosen House. Dimitri would also take his time to get to know you and show you around Garreg Mach, unlike a certain trickster. Dimitri might not know about Claude’s attraction to you unless stated otherwise (he’s an oblivious boi -3-). So he lets you meet Claude, who squeezes himself to you and immediately befriends you.

-How you three got together, you ask? Well, you couldn’t decide who you want to be with. So why not get in a relationship with the two of them?! But to Claude and Dimitri? Not a chance, at first atleast. Since it doesn’t seem thrilling to them to share you with one another, and they always get into each other’s nerves. How would they do if they have share you with the other?! But soon enough, they warm up to the idea and decided to give it a try.

-It was awkward for Dimitri at first since he doesn’t know what to do, should he hold hands with you now?! Or wait till later?! Should I kiss them right now or later?! Yeah, he’s panicking in the inside. So you should be the one who makes the first move in this case.

-But to Claude? It feels natural and it seems like nothing change between the two of you, except for the label. Claude would still flirt with you and drag you around to prank people and cause shenanigans.

-I would love the idea of them slowly loving each other as well :3 (I’m beginning to ship them bc of the fanarts I see about them, and they’re all cute :3). Soon enough the three of you can be seen holding hands with each other through the Monastery and outside. Claude and Dimitri would also have their moment, and they drag you in it if you came to view.

-I would like the idea of them fighting over who can protect you the most in battlefield (though it always ends with them working together to protect you lol), even though the other is in the opposing side. But sometimes, they wouldn’t go easy on you. They want you to be strong enough to defend yourself but still can rely to them if you ever need some help. (Like the Mock Battle, just imagine them doing that while the others are just like, “what side are you on exactly?”)

-Dimitri would spar with you regularly with his lance if you’re a sword or whatever hand-held weapon you have. But if you’re a bow or magic-person, Claude will help you in those areas. He might not look like it but he knows a bit of magic, but he might just let Lysithea teach you just in case.

-The two Byleths ship the three of you so hard though, so they usually pair you up with either Claude or Dimitri. The others though? They’re supportive to neutral, but some other students saw this as a sin (of Lust).

-The students wouldn’t dare to criticize or degrade you if either Claude or Dimitri is there, but if you’re alone? Oh, they’re coming for you. They would make fun of you and spread fake rumors how you are a sl*t and a whore. Claude would immediately find out and also immediately seek the source out. When he finds them, he would prank them relentlessly and basically make their life a living hell >:)

-But he’ll also comfort you, since he’s been through the same. You know, since the Leicester Alliance’s leader doesn’t have a grandson or son and he suddenly appeared and announced he’s the next leader of the Alliance. Yeah, not everyone is accepting (Hell, even Edelgard is suspicious of him). He knows the feeling of hopelessness but he doesn’t let it get to him. But when it comes to you? He’ll be there and comfort you and whisper some comforting things in your ear.

-But what about Dimitri, you ask? When he finds out, he’s so angry-- no, furious that he wants to kill the one who spread those rumors. It’ll take Felix, Sylvain and Dedue to hold him back and calm him down. But it might be hard since he’s seeing red from the anger he feels. How dare they to spread those kind of rumors?! And to you, the love of his and Claude’s life?! They should not be forgiven!

-He’ll only calm down if you and Claude came and calm him down, which the three is thankful for because they don’t know if they can hold him back any longer. Dimitri would immediately pull you into a hug and whisper some comforting things in your ear.

-They know that these rumors and these kind of people wouldn’t immediately shut up and go about their way or accept them, so either one of them would accompany you anywhere you go. Go to the cafeteria? The two of them would be by your side. Going to practice? Either one of them would go with you. Going to the library? Dimitri, you go.

-But if they can’t be there for you (which is impossible by the way, just saying), they would be so worried. Bu they have nothing to fear because their House Members is here coming to your rescue! They all love you as much as their Leader’s love you, and they consider you their (Princess/Prince). (Yes. Even Felix consider you that. Oh and also, even the Byleth twins help you out.)

-If they’re the ones who need comforting though, no need to worry! You and the unsad one would come and comfort them! If Dimitri is sad, you and Claude is in the kitchen, preparing food to eat while comforting Dimitri. If Claude is sad (if he’s sad though, he would still fake a smile and tell you both he’s alright. You know better than to believe him though), you and Dimitri hold him and chat like nothing is wrong (which Claude appreciates).

-Ahh, here we go. Time for the Time Skip!

Time Skip

-Dimitri would distance himself from you and Claude, which hurt the both of you. But you persisted and continued to reach out to him, only for Dimitri to go further in the dark. There was no more light in his eyes, he really became the Boar Prince. When the Byleth’s appear though, a new light was shone among you all. You thought you could finally reach out to Dimitri.

-Dimitri’s only goal though was to kill Edelgard, while Claude’s goal is to bring peace to the nation. You were conflicted on what to do. Should you help Claude or Dimitri? I guess the choice is up to you.

-I guess that not all story has a happy ending...

[x] Main Page || [x] Fire Emblem: Three Houses Page

#fire emblem #fire emblem x reader #fe3h #fe3h x reader #fe #fe x reader #fire emblem three houses #fire emblem three houses x reader #claude von riegan #claude von riegan x reader #dimitri alexandre blaiddyd #dimitri x reader #dimitri alexandre blaiddyd x reader #claude x reader #fe claude #fe dimitri #self req❣️

141 notes · View notes

argent-vulpine · 4 years

Text

Play Stupid Games...

Fandom: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Rating: G

Characters: Sylvain/F!Byleth

Read it on AO3

He’d gone to bed alone for once, ignoring Felix’s dour stare and slipping into his room, decidedly not slamming his door behind him. Sylvain could admit to himself – and only to himself, in the privacy of his own room – that he’d messed up with the professor. And he’d messed up badly.

This was worse than the first time the professor had caught him mid-break-up with a town girl. At least then he’d only made a fool of himself by blatantly flirting with her, meaningless as it may have been. She was more than nice to look at, he had to admit, and it was worth a shot even if he knew it would go nowhere.

This, though… this was just… bad.

His mask had slipped. It was difficult to keep it up, but it was even harder to do around the professor. Something about her made him want to relax, and in that moment of honesty… he’d panicked.

Sylvain strongly doubted that she took it as a joke, even if he’d claimed it was. They both knew he’d been serious.

Groaning, he put his head in his hands and flopped on the bed.

He didn’t bother to get up or uncover his face when he heard the door crack open; there was only one person awake at this hour who would even bother.

“You’re an idiot, I hope you know that. Pull yourself together.”

Sylvain peeked through his fingers in time to see a dark head of hair turning away, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

Shit. Had Felix overheard his conversation with the professor? That was doubly bad.

Sure, he was jealous of the professor. Growing up as a mercenary, protected by the Blade Breaker, living life away from the church and nobility – all while having one of the most powerful Crests in existence! – and not having to worry about the sheer politics involved with it… she was lucky. And he was jealous of that luck.

Jealous because the Crest system had made his brother despise him. It had ended with him having to kill his own kin. It meant growing up being told how he had to choose wisely in order to pass on the Crest to a worthy heir.

And… a part of him really did mean it when he’d said he would make her pay. Collect on that debt. But another part…

Another part was calling him worse names than Felix ever did, because despite himself, he liked the professor. He admired her, even. Sylvain flopped onto his side, staring at the wall and really thinking about what he’d said, what he’d done… why he cared.

The professor had a solid tactical mind. Her refusal to use the Sword of the Creator unless absolutely necessarily was beyond admirable; she refused to rely on her Crest or the (dubious) perks that came with it. Her swordsmanship was excellent – he’d heard Felix attest to that on numerous occasions – and even her magic was solid, though he doubted she’d ever be – or want to be – as proficient as, say, Lysithea or Annette or even Dorothea.

She liked tea, played board games, was an overall amazing instructor, even so far as going out of her way to learning other styles of combat in order to better teach her own students. She didn’t mind going out of her way to returning lost items to her students; even Sylvain had found himself the recipient of such treatment, though he had to wonder, sometimes, how she’d known when an item was his.

And lately, he’d gotten better at reading her micro-expressions. Maybe it was because of being friends with Felix; you just had to learn to read the subtext, but with her, it wasn’t so much what she didn’t say, it was her eyes, the subtlest quirk of her lips when she smiled, the slightest tightening that was her frown.

Sylvain had come to value her smiles, rare as they might be, and today all he’d done was earn not just that frown, but a disapproving stare, and the narrowing of her eyes that he knew meant trouble.

He grabbed his pillow and pressed it against his face, releasing another long groan of annoyance with himself.

And the worst part was… he knew he wasn’t going to be able to suck it up and apologize. He’d just have to continue the charade he’d started.

No one could possibly have predicted the events that happened next.

In the wake of Jeralt’s death, the professor’s quest for revenge against Monica – or Kronya or whatever her name really was – and the girl’s sacrifice by Solon, sealing the professor in darkness only for her to cut through the sky and step out a changed woman (literally), there was no time to really apologize even if he hadn’t been so bent on sucking it up and playing the philandering asshole he’d been for so long already.

Then had come the disaster in the mausoleum, Edelgard’s betrayal, and… war.

He found himself at the professor’s door two days before the Imperial troops were set to arrive, a board game tucked under one arm and a pouch of tea in hand. Sylvain drew a breath, wondering to himself why he was even here, and knocked.

The door opened a crack, then widened when she saw who it was. “Hello Sylvain. Is something wrong?”

“Ah… no, Professor, not… not exactly. Are you free? I brought tea,” he said, lifting the pouch, “and a game.”

Her vibrant green eyes (he was still getting used to those) flickered down to see the game tucked under his arm. “Sure,” she finally said, opening the door fully and stepping aside to let him in. Her room was less than immaculate, which was a bit of a shock. Papers were strewn about the desk, map figures knocked over or placed haphazardly.

It was in complete disarray, and he knew he was right to come, despite his own misgivings. Was she nervous? It was almost too unreal to believe.

“May I?” he asked, gesturing at the little table in the corner. At her nod, he set the game on it and moved the entire thing to the middle of the room, somewhere between her bed and her desk, giving her the option of where to sit.

She’d already pulled out her tea set, setting out cups and saucers on the table once he’d put it into position. The professor even pulled out a small box of shortbreads she must have had tucked away, adding that to the growing collection of items on the little table.

Sylvain poured water from a pitcher into a kettle, heating it with a touch of magic before pouring hot water and tea into the teapot to steep.

The professor had chosen… the desk chair, to his surprise, which left him the only other seat available in the room: her bed. He swallowed a lump in his throat and settled down onto it, angling himself so that his long legs wouldn’t disturb the table between them.

The door, of course, remained open. No doubt a requirement by Seteth, but Sylvain was glad for it for once.

They set up the game in silence while the tea steeped, the professor arranging the board just so. Nervous fidgeting, he guessed, watching her tweak the board into position. He let the silence drag on for a while longer, carefully setting the pieces up.

Perhaps King’s Table wasn’t the best choice of games, all things considered, but he liked games of strategy, and the professor seemed to enjoy them as well. And this way, she could still strategize and hopefully relax a little all the same.

Why do you care? came the voice inside his head. He didn’t have an answer to that.

“King or attackers?” he said instead, gesturing to the board once it was set up.

“Attackers,” was the prompt reply. Sylvain was surprised, actually; she usually took up the more defensive position of the king. But he nodded and settled in for the game, pouring the tea for the both of them when it was ready.

They stuck to lighter topics, for the most part. Places they’d visited or wanted to, sweets they enjoyed, jokes they’d overheard. The professor’s sense of humor had surprised him, once, having been convinced she didn’t have one at all. The fact that it was somewhere between dry and bawdy had frankly been the most startling to him, but once he considered her mercenary background, it made a lot more sense.

She was relaying a tale from her days with her father’s mercenary band when she suddenly stopped, shooting him a puzzled look, her brows furrowing rather adorably. “Sylvain, are you okay?”

He blinked, then flushed when he realized he’d been staring. “Ah, yeah, sorry… you were saying about the horse?”

Her eyes narrowed slightly, as if gauging him, before she launched back into the tale, pausing only briefly to move one of her pieces on the board.

He glanced down as she finished her story, too shocked to register its end, though he knew it was amusing. He would have laughed, even, had he not seen that her finger rested on top of the king piece. When she knew she had his attention, she very carefully knocked it over.

He’d been surrounded and hadn’t even noticed.

“Sylvain, I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but I need your head in the game. I… I’m counting on you.”

He dragged his eyes back up to hers, clearly shocked at the admission. “Why?” She tilted her head, questioning. “Why me? I’ve done nothing but antagonize you all this time. Why would you count on me for… anything?”

The professor began to straighten the board, putting the pieces back into their starting positions, while she considered his question. After what seemed like an agonizing amount of time – though he knew it was only a few seconds – she spoke. “You try to hide it from the others behind this façade of yours, playing the fool, but every time we have tea, you play board games with me. Not easy games, either; you always bring something that requires serious thought, strategy, technique. You’ve even beaten me on numerous occasions.”

She toyed with her teacup, her thumb stroking along the handle absently as she thought of what to say next. “You – despite all your efforts to show otherwise – are one of the best tactical minds I have available. I think the only person who beats you, really, is Claude, and that’s just from how willing he is to play dirty.” A pause and then she sighed. “Okay, maybe Yuri as well, but for the same reasons. The point is, Sylvain, I need you. I need you to have your head on right for what’s to come, because I’m counting on you.”

The professor stood then, pacing around the little space in the back of her room. “Yuri has his orders; he’s preparing escape routes in Abyss for us, just in case we need them.” That drew a frown from Sylvain; it was the first he’d heard of that kind of contingency which meant…

“And Claude’s schemes can only get us so far.” She was worried. More worried than he’d thought.

“Professor…” She stopped her pacing and turned to face him. “I get it. I really do.” He gestured at the seat across from him. “Your tea is getting cold. We’ve got time for another round, don’t you think? Attack again. I think I know where I went wrong.”

This time, he paid more careful attention, knowing that this was, in a sense, another way for her to impart a lesson on him. She’d chosen to be the attacker for a reason, and he’d realized that too late.

She was counting on him to keep their people safe when Edelgard’s army attacked.

The thought sank into his gut, leaving him with a feeling of unease for the battle to come.

“Sylvain, find Claude! He knows the way to Yuri. Get everyone to safety!” It was the last thing the professor had said to him before she’d run off, sleeves flapping in the wind, sword glinting in the light as she cut down foe after foe, headed toward something that shouldn’t have been possible.

He did as she’d asked, herding his classmates, his friends, after Claude, lingering just long enough to see her fall. His heart clenched, a pang of grief he hadn’t expected, but he tamped it down. She was counting on him, after all, and he would not let her down.

#sylvain jose gautier #byleth eisner #fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #Golden Deer Sylvain #Golden Deer #mentions of C support #mentions of B support #Sylvain has FEELINGS

12 notes · View notes

crackimagines · 5 years

Text

Child!Byleth AU General Info/Trivia

This list was made in response to the ABSOLUTELY OVERWHELMING positive reception to Child!Byleth! I was not ready for this many people to request more of this smol boi, because honestly? Part 1 was intended as a oneshot of about 3 parts, not an entire AU.

Regardless, this is just a list full of info about the small professor, it’s mostly just trivia and fun facts, both in-canon for the AU and writing facts.

Hope you enjoy!

-----

In-Canon

LIKES:

Professionalism - Stems from being a mercenary

Cute Things - Mostly due to Jeralt getting him his stuffed bird, which he still has and loves to death.

Teamwork - Nothing cheesy like because it makes everyone bond, it’s because it’s more efficient and keeps morale for the men up. (Merc POV)

Sweets - Thanks to Mercedes and Annette. Unfortunately, this now means they baby him.

His Students - TOUCH THEM AND YOU’RE FUCKING D E A D

DISLIKES:

Being treated like a child - Stems from Merc days, as he’s worked hard to prove himself. Everyone in Jeralt’s merc group treats him as an equal, which he appreciates more than anything.

Selfishness - He despises anyone trying to work for nothing but fame and fortune. If he sees anyone getting anyone hurt for their own gain when it could’ve been avoided, he honestly thinks about killing them then and there.

FAVORITE PEOPLE:

Jeralt, Flayn, Dimitri, Edelgard, Claude, Bernadetta, Ashe, Shamir, Mercedes, Annette, Raphael, Marianne, Lysithea, Dedue, Petra, Ignatz, Felix, Ingrid, Sylvain, Catherine, The Gatekeeper, Sothis, Dorothea

NOT AS FAVORITE PEOPLE:

Leonie, Ferdinand, Lorenz, Alois, Linhardt, Hilda, Leonie, Manuela, Rhea, Cyril, Also Catherine, LEONIE, Seteth, Jeritza, Hubert, Caspar, ALSO MERCEDES, ALSO ANNETTE, Also Sothis, Hanneman, Gilbert, DID I MENTION LEONIE

TRIVIA -

- Doesn’t swear unless he’s very VERY VERY ANGRY

- Dimitri is the only one Byleth feels comfortable saying they’re like an older sibling.

- Is positive Claude is going to kill him in some horrific pranking accident

- Likes Edelgard, but think she’s too arrogant for her own good sometimes.

- Jeralt and Byleth rarely talk about things a son and father should, but they still care for each other as family.

- The only one who’s seen Byleth’s true colors is Flayn. On that note, she is the only one who can make him blush.

- He used to dual wield daggers but switched to a sword because he had to teach the students. Otherwise, he would’ve stuck to them, but dual wielding was deemed was too complex for the academy.

- Bernadetta amuses him a lot with how afraid she apparently is of him, but he does want to actually befriend her.

- Still doesn’t know who Cyril is despite him shouting his name to Byleth everytime.

- Spends some time with Lysithea talking about how to make people not view them as children.

- Thinks Leonie’s obsession with Jeralt and telling how much better she’s going to be as Jeralt’s apprentice genuinely creepy.

- He doesn’t say it, but he’s glad to speak what’s on his mind to Sothis without being judged (mostly).

- He’s never named his stuffed bird due to still being conflicted on what to actually name it.

- He sings to himself, but the only one he’s actually had the courage to sing for a little is Flayn. Anyone else, he’d have to kill them because if there’s witnesses, everyone’s going to flock to him.

- He hates being in fancy events like balls, because it’s the most boring thing he’s ever had to do in his entire life, without exaggeration.

Outside-Canon

- For the art I use for child!Byleth, this is where I got it from.

https://www.deviantart.com/orbiculare/art/Male-Byleth-808382426

I didn’t know what to do for a tiny Byleth until i found that, and yoinked it cause that’s EXACTLY what I had in mind for him. So, thanks to that artist for making the visual aids easier!

- Originally, I was going to plan to make child!Byleth based off of Tanya from Saga of Tanya the Evil (Or as I like to call it, My Little Nazi).

I decided against it because that’d be TERRIBLY edgy, and considering that adult Byleth wasn’t that much of a dick, it wouldn’t make sense if the tiny one was either.

- So instead of Tanya, I then based off his personality off of three people.

Robin from Fire Emblem Awakening:

The personality bits I took from him was his caring nature for teammates, and a bit of their stoic-ness(Is that a word?).

Laphicet from Tales of Berseria:

The last person I took inspiration for writing tiny Byleth is Laphicet. To put it briefly, he’s a very young boy and is quite unknown to things like emotions, but his eyes light up whenever he learns something new and well...acts like a child.

CZ2128 Delta (Shizu) from OVERLORD:

You have DEFINITELY seen me use her for the earlier asks of before this blew up. In OVERLORD, she is a battle maid, but is basically a robot. She is almost completely emotionless, talks like a robot, and their combat prowess is of a fucking beast. (Minus the fact she uses assault rifles). I took all these from her and incorporated into a child, (Laphicet) and eventually growing out of it into quite a caring person (Robin).

The love for little Byleth’s stuffed bird was directly inspired by Shizu. She loves cute things and will completely hug the SHIT out of them, and she also gives things she likes stickers. (This is planning to be in an short fic, so keep an eye out for that!)

In part 1, where Byleth is acting super mature but also like a robot was directly inspired by Shizu.

In short, without Shizu, there’d be no child!Byleth.

The rest of the traits come from Byleth themselves, (mainly being the brick wall for a face).

- If I had to choose a “theme song” for the AU, it’d probably be Overlord’s Second OP, ‘Go Cry Go’, the song lyrics being from Byleth’s POV

youtube

#child!byleth #fire emblem three houses imagines #fire emblem three houses headcanons #imagines #writing #fe3h #fe16 #byleth #golden deer #blue lions #black eagles

101 notes · View notes

maine-writes · 4 years

Note

Happy new year and good tidings, I was wondering, since you've played fire emblem three houses before, is there anyone you recommend recruiting for golden deer, it's my first playthru and I was hoping to hear your thoughts.

I was gonna say recruit everyone, since you'll also get all the side quests, but since its your first play, that would be difficult. (When you can, endeavor to recruit everyone. Sadly, cant get the retainers, Dedue and Hubert. Hilda is just slightly difficult.)

So here's my nice little run down of who you should recruit into the Golden Deer, the one Good House.

First let's look at who's in the Golden Deer already.

Claude, master archer.

Hilda, deceptively tanky.

Lorenz, can do magic, can do cavalier stuff. Annoying to fit into a role.

Leonie, starts out as a pretty good archer, can be pretty good as a cavalier-type too. (Just like Jeralt)

Raphael, the obvious damage and tank. Keep him likr that.

Ignatz, archer. Dont try moving him into a different role.

Lysithea, the mage. The most powerful magic. Power of angst.

Marianne, the healer. You can try giving her some combat ability later, if you feel confident.

Depending on your playstyle, you can either try to pick up more frontline characters from Blue Lions or magic character from Black Eagles. Lets look at the options.

From Black Eagles;

Bernadetta, pretty good archer. Unless you want another archer, I wouldnt try to hard to pick her up.

Caspar, melee character. Faster than Raph, not as strong or tanky. Dont worry about getting him.

Dorothea, cute. Rather flirtatious, perhaps tries too hard in that regard. Really good magic user, do pick her up for that sweet sweet magic.

Ferdinand, he is Ferdinand von Aegir. Cavalier-type. Good all-rounder, except in magic.

Linhardt, magic user, good as healer. Need another healer? Get him.

Petra, speed melee, good as assassin.

Next up, Blue Lions.

Annette, the team magic user. Good as mage, rather than healer. Daddy issues.

Ashe, speed archer. But starts off with Lockpick. I'd pick him up just for that ability.

Mercedes, healer. Just a healer.

Sylvain, well-rounded cavalier type. If you really need one, either him or Ferdinand.

Felix, brooding swordsman type. High crit, high speed. Definite recruit.

Ingrid, high speed and resist. Great as pegasus knight, anti-mage unit.

And do recruit every non-student character, you dont have a max character limit and they'll help fill in the gaps.

Everything depends on your playstyle. But the ones I recommend highly are; Dorothea and Felix.

#fire emblem #three houses

6 notes · View notes

fostersffff · 5 years

Text

Complete Black Eagle (read: Edelgard and Rhea) Thoughts

Now that I’ve finally finished both Silver Snow and Crimson Flower, I feel like I can put all of these thoughts out without worrying about a last minute twist. It’s entirely possible based on how much I’ve seen people talk about route differences that once I play Golden Deer and Blue Lions I’ll have changed my opinions, but barring some really wild and extreme stuff, I can’t imagine changing all that much. A ton of text under the break:

Edelgard

There was a Korean poll that was published recently where Edelgard was voted the #1 most disliked character in Three Houses... and also the #2 most liked character in Three Houses (behind Lysithea). It’s not a surprising result to see considering that she is the inciting antagonist, and that you don’t really understand why she does any of it unless you happened to start with the Black Eagles, but even then, IntSys felt it necessary to split Black Eagles into two routes, just in case you still didn’t want to side with her. But that’s what I think I found to be the most compelling thing about Edelgard: that she is a decidedly morally gray character, and how you feel about her comes down to looking at all of the things she does and asking “is this worth it?”

Part of what makes her so compelling to me is that no one understands her role better than Edelgard herself. She has no delusions about what she’s doing, and she never even makes an attempt to sugarcoat it to anyone around her. I made a post back when I first started the game about how I thought it was weird that her first support with Byleth ends with her talking about how she’s prepared to go down in the history books as History’s Greatest Monster without any context, but as the blanks fill in and time passes, it’s clear that she’s completely and utterly true to her word. "The ends justify the means” is the best description of her philosophy, but unlike a lot of characters (and people) who use that to justify their actions, she doesn’t take any solace in it, or use it as a way to offset the responsibility for all of the lives lost in the war. The end may justify the means, but it doesn’t make the means any less horrific, and even if the end result is a better world, it’s a small comfort to the countless people who died for it.

I think something crucial to sympathizing with Edelgard is that as far as she is concerned, she didn’t “initiate” hostilities with the church. When she kills Dimitri in the Crimson Flower route, she says “if only we were born in a time of peace, you might have enjoyed a joyful life as a benevolent ruler”, which sounds comically hypocritical in isolation coming from the person who declared war in the first place. But it’s because as far as she’s concerned, the systemic oppression resulting from the Church of Seiros’s influence on every Fodlan society means that true peace simply hasn’t existed since long before any of them were ever born. To Edelgard, there’s been a cold war between the Church of Seiros and humanity for a thousand years, and she took it upon herself to finally make it hot.

“Cold war” might sound exaggerated, but there’s something to that idea going on the evidence we’re presented with. At best, the church is ignorant to and/or idle on the suffering of the common folk and the corruption of the nobility all across the continent that exists because they grants noble status and political power to families that happen to have Crests. At worst, the church is intentionally passive about those problems because preserving the status quo and their absolute control is more important, and to act in any way to try to fix those problems directly could threaten their status as the center of power in Fodlan. Speaking of their control: isn’t it odd that the Church of Seiros was involved in each war for independence, maintaining their foothold in the old nation while also branching out and ensuring they were the dominant religion in the new ones? That the only time the church acts on their own (outside of an immediate threat like bandits) is when they are made aware of heresies, however mild, at which point they act decisively and without any shred of mercy, sending a sign to anyone who would dare try to cross the church? That, with the exception of Seteth and Flayn, the most devout members of the Knights of Seiros and the church have a fanatical devotion to Rhea specifically, and not Sothis or the doctrine of the church? The most insidious thing is that even if someone with the power to pose a threat to the church wanted to fight against them, the only people who could realistically muster up enough military might to challenge the Knights of Seiros would be nobles, and the fall of the church would also mean there would be nobody to legitimize their claims to nobility. Nobody would be willing to risk their noble status, and all of the perks that come with it, like that.

Except Edelgard.

This is actually what I like most about Edelgard, and why I was right to compare her to my favorite Fire Emblem villain: Zephiel. Zephiel’s goal in Fire Emblem 6 is the complete eradication of humanity and giving the world over to dragonkind, because he believes that humanity is a blight. He never says “I will lead this new world of dragons” or “My followers and I will live on to see the world of dragons”, which always led me to believe that he would eventually turn his sword on himself*. Edelgard, like Zephiel, does not intend to just conquer Fodlan and then just enjoy the spoils- once all of her affairs are in order (dismantling the church and nobility, re-establishing the church and turning nobility into a meritocracy, eradicating the Tunnel Snakes**) she finds a suitable successor (read: not her child) and then retires into the sunset (at least in the ending where she marries Byleth). And, if you don’t like Edelgard- or even if you do- this happy ending might rub you the wrong way, because even though her resolve was unshaken and she walks her path to the very end, it was still an incredibly violent path. This leads to another question that I’m sure people can argue forever: does Edelgard deserve to have a happy ending?

I’ve seen Edelgard described with a lot of terms that I don’t really think apply to her- like, at all- but I’d never seriously argue that she did nothing wrong. She is a dictator, and a warmonger, and regardless of which route you chose a tragic amount of life is lost as a direct result of her actions. Her alliance with the Tunnel Snakes is an entire can of worms of its own, because despite the fact that she has no control over what they choose to do on their own time, she is effectively still condoning their actions by relying on their power. The worst of it, as far as I’m concerned, is lying to her own people about who caused the destruction of Arianrhod and the loss of life there to prevent an internal conflict. I think with all that in mind, there are a lot of people who are locked into the conclusion that no, she doesn’t deserve to have a happy ending.

But! To create the world she envisioned, one where Rhea was no longer manipulating the world from behind the scenes, a world that would improve the quality of life for everyone in future generations, she was never going to have a choice in how she did things. Think of how openly and casually Rhea talks about how enemies of the church must be eliminated, without any room for discussion. Would a diplomatic call for the Church of Seiros to disavow the current system of nobility based on the possession of crests and for Rhea to step down as archbishop be met with anything other than hostility not only from the church, but from the Kingdom and Alliance as well? Even something as simple as publicly renouncing her own faith to try to motivate a cultural change just within the empire would’ve probably had Rhea dispatching Catherine to cut her down for heresy, just like she did for Lord Lonato. And the final, most passive alternative- returning to the empire after graduating from the academy, ascending her father to become the next puppet of the cabinet, hoping that she eventually bears a child with a major Crest or else watch her own children undergo the same torture she and her family went through. That’s just completely unacceptable, especially when that kind of self-sacrifice is only to the benefit of the nobles and the preservation of a rotten status quo that also only benefits those same nobles- and Rhea, of course. No matter what, she was going to have to sacrifice, and while what she chose would involve the most bloodshed, it also had the best chance of making things better for the greatest number of people when all was said and done, so her getting to have at least one ending where she is completely successful and is rewarded on a personal level doesn’t strike me as inappropriate at all.

A lot of what I’ve talked about with Edelgard has to do with the church, which is inescapable considering every single action she takes is motivated by the church. So ultimately, one of the most important questions to consider when asking “is all of this worth it” is “is Rhea really that bad?” Well...

Rhea

This bitch is fucking insane holy shit.

It’s kind of a nice feeling to feel suspicious of a character from their introduction, only for things to actually be way worse than you could’ve ever expected. For what it’s worth, this isn’t a case of me hating the character on a writing level, it’s just that I find everything about her character to be loathsome even under the best possible circumstances.

What makes Rhea so despicable is how simple and selfish her entire motivation is. Every single action she takes and emotion she expresses can all be traced to an obsession with her mother. It’s not that she believes she needs Sothis’s guidance to deal with a problem that neither she nor the whole of humanity can’t deal with on their own, or that the world will only be at peace if Sothis is around to protect it, it is literally just for her own sake. And on its face, I can deeply sympathize with going to crazy lengths to want to see your mother after she was tragically taken away from you. I also love my mom! But there’s a bunch of lines- both explicitly stated and implied- Rhea sprints past at an Olympic pace that I (and hopefully most other people) would not cross. These include:

Having twelve children*** and trying to turn all of them into your mother.

Having a grandchild and trying to turn them into your mother.

Maintaining direct control and influence over multiple sovereign nations over a span of a thousand years so you can continue to try to bring back your mother without anyone bothering you.

Keeping your closest friends/relatives/allies out of the loop on all of your completely unethical experimentation because deep down inside you either know how fucked up it is, or that they would try to stop you.

Ordering your subordinates to burn down the city full of innocent bystanders you are currently occupying to try to kill the grandchild who you put your mother into.

The one that disturbs me the most is what’s implied by the ending of Crimson Flower. In Silver Snow, Rhea tells Byleth that they were stillborn, and that their mother begged Rhea to put the Crest Stone into Byleth to give them a chance to live. But at the end of Crimson Flower, Rhea’s death causes the Crest Stone on Byleth’s heart to fade away, which should result in their death. But after a few moments, their heart starts up normally and they go on living as normal. They lose Sothis’s power in the process, but they’re just as healthy as they were before they obtained it. This leads me to believe that Byleth may have actually been born healthy and that, after their mother had passed from complications due to childbirth, Rhea placed the Crest Stone on their heart anyway. Or- it’s even possible that Rhea killed the mother herself, removing her Crest Stone heart after sensing that Byleth might be a better vessel because of their parentage. After all, Rhea is the only person who truly knew what happened in there. Jeralt had no idea about the exact nature of Byleth’s heart, only that they had no heartbeat, and Seteth and Flayn didn’t know about anything at all. Obviously, that’s all just speculation, as far as I’m concerned something like this is totally in line with Rhea’s character.

Now, to revisit the question of “is Rhea really that bad”, Edelgard doesn’t know about any of Rhea’s personal fucked up shit. What she knows about is what the church has done and what has happened under their watch and thus with their implicit blessing, that Rhea is actually The Immaculate One, and that she has been the sole driving power of the Church of Seiros since the church was initially founded. On a personal level, her own life and the lives of all of her family members were destroyed by the Church of Seiros’s influence on society via crests. And it should be noted that Edelgard’s not stupid; she’s very likely aware that the Tunnel Snakes are the ones who performed the blood reconstruction on her and her siblings at the behest and/or with the consent of the Empire’s cabinet and Lord Arundel, and she even addresses how awful they are and that she really wants no part of them when she approaches Jeralt and Byleth as the Flame Emperor. But, back when I first suspected that Edelgard was the Flame Emperor, I made a joke about how she has to deal with the fact that the Tunnel Snakes are dabbing on a mountain of corpses while Rhea is cripwalking on an even bigger mountain of corpses. But that wasn’t accurate- it’s not just that Rhea’s mountain is bigger, it’s also composed of people who are still alive, but suffered because of the Church of Seiros: Dorothea’s childhood spent as a wretch because she was born a commoner, the abuse Bernadetta endured from her father to make her noble wife material, Caspar and Sylvain’s brother being shunned from their families for the crime of being born without a Crest, Lysithea suffering the exact same procedure as Edelgard to increase her family’s noble standing, Hanneman’s sister dying from trying to bear a child with a Crest, to say nothing of the characters I haven’t seen the stories of yet. In the grand scheme of the game’s universe, this is only a sample of about 30 characters: what about the potential hundreds of thousands of other lives with stories similar to- or possibly worse than- the main cast? And what’s more, Rhea is not gloating about how big her pile is. She’s so utterly preoccupied with her mother that doesn’t even notice the mountain beneath her, and that might actually be worse.

Both

Finally, I want to briefly touch on the way both characters interact with Byleth, and how they handle things when they’re made into the villain. No matter what route the player chooses, Byleth does something for Edelgard that she has never experienced before: unconditional protection. She was prepared to fight the bandit, and she saw him coming from a mile away so I imagine she could’ve handled it, but Byleth still jumps in front of her to protect her. This is why Edelgard puts so much stock into Byleth, much to the chagrin of Hubert. It’s not that she doesn’t trust that Hubert and the rest of the Black Eagles are capable of helping her, but to them, she is Edelgard von Hresvelg, heir apparent of the Adrestian Empire. Even if their friendships with her would suggest otherwise, there is an ocean of difference between them because of their stations. But to Byleth, she was “simply Edelgard”. She has never experienced that kind of interaction in her entire life, and especially not when there was danger involved. This is so ingrained in her that even in the route where you most directly oppose her, after having spent a full year getting to know and understand her and still choosing to fight against her, her last words are “I wanted to walk with you.” Even that phrasing- that she wanted to walk with them, not that she wanted them to walk with her- says so much about how strongly she feels about Byleth. Is it waifubaiting? Oh baby is it ever, but it doesn’t make it less solid

On the flipside: something I really genuinely hate in games (and stories in general, but it crops up the most in games) is when people have unflinching, unwavering faith in the player character for no good reason. It’s why I think Persona 4 is a worse game than 3 despite being better in almost every other meaningful way. This almost certainly has to do with me not liking Rhea from the start: appropros of seemingly nothing, she is as dotting as any mother would be, she entrust you with an entire class of students lives with zero credentials, and in addition to that she is constantly assigning Byleth the most important tasks because she just has so much faith that they’re destined for greatness. Unlike the situation with Edelgard, helping fight off some bandits is not reasonable precedent for trusting someone this much. And the biggest reason I appreciate Rhea as a villain is because all of this turns out to be a ruse. All of this is in service of currying Byleth’s favor, to get them to trust her, to make them feel special, so that when she asks them to sit on the throne so Sothis can take over their body, they wouldn’t think anything of it. And you know it’s all been a ruse because of how unbelievably fast her turn is if you side with Edelgard. There’s no consistency between the Rhea who gently stroked your hair and sang you a lullaby when you were recovering from your trip to the shadow realm and the Rhea who calls you a failure and is going to rip your heart out of your chest.

*I’m extrapolating a lot of information about Zephiel and the world of FE6 in general because we just don’t have access to as much lore as we do in Three Houses, but I think what I’m saying are reasonable conclusions

**I call Those Who Slither In The Dark “Tunnel Snakes” for a number of reasons: it’s shorter, it functionally means the same thing, and it’s funny to me

***I refer to the vessels Rhea created as her children because that’s what I understood them to be when I first played Silver Snow, but upon rewatching the cutscene what she actually says is “I tried to bring her back by creating a body, and then burying a Crest Stone within it”. This could mean her own children that she bore, but it could also mean a number of other things, like vessels “created” from normal humans she acquired. For my own headcanon, the utter detachment she shows for Byleth when they side with Edelgard leads me to believe that they are, in fact, her biological children, but she refers to them so clinically because she felt nothing for them except disdain for not being able to house Sothis.

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem Three Houses #FE3H #Edelgard #Rhea #Nintendo #video games #seriously this is the most analytical writing I've done since college what the fuck IntSys

24 notes · View notes