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#which from what I heard is *already* the standard for musuo games anyway
butwhatifidothis · 2 years
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Three houses has repeatedly stated that Edelgard's and Claude's goals aren't that different. (Even if they really are pretty different???) Has Claude be willing to surrender in favor of helping out the empire later when he's got an axe to his throat. Seems to me it's less "This is out of character and bad writing" and more "This isn't isn't what I expected and I don't like it." Also you can't really go "This isn't canon" When it has writers from three houses writing for the game lmao
spoiler talk, mostly for GW and a bit for SB
Nonnie. Pal. Buddy.
If 3Hopes Claude was written in line with 3H Claude, and he is ready and willing to join Edelgard - for whatever reason, even if to backstab her - then why doesn't he... do that. In 3H. Like on CF or AM or SS, where Byleth isn't around to *~guide him~* (which is the most common explanation I’ve seen given to his character portrayal in 3Hopes, but also applies to other possible explanations).
What part of that makes any sense? What stopped him from doing that in 3H, outside of 3Hopes writing his character badly? Why is it when Byleth has no influence on him in 3H, or when he doesn't trust the Church in 3H, or when he doesn't have many friends/bonds in 3H - all those things that are the same in 3H as they are in 3Hopes - does he not do in 3H what he does in 3Hopes? In fact, why does he not flat out join Edelgard genuinely on CF, since he's apparently oh so willing to join Edelgard and/or kill Rhea and on CF there's Byleth to act as a Stamp of Approval?
I mean, I could tell you what stopped him from doing that in 3H; his base, core moral standards, that he always has as part of the foundation of his character. He does not like causing needless bloodshed and always avoids doing so whenever possible, he does not like Edelgard's methods and thinks them too harmful, he does not trust Edelgard in general, his curiosity over the Church's/Rhea's secrets stops him from ever outright destroying it/killing her (along with his acknowledgement that both the Church and Rhea - or someone in her position - are needed for Fodlan). You cannot write Claude properly without keeping in line with these base facts about his character, unless you've established a pretty damn in-depth character arc that dissolve these traits off of him.
So, yes, when I see him cause needless bloodshed, utilize similarly harmful methods like Edelgard, trust in Edelgard's word and nothing else, reject any curiosity he has for the Church/Rhea in favor of just killing Rhea without getting any answers (because Claude certainly gives no shit about answers to mysteries amiright), yeah, I'm gonna call it out of character and bad writing. Because it is out of character and bad writing.
Cuz, like, "[3H] Has Claude be willing to surrender in favor of helping out the empire later when he's got an axe to his throat" those circumstances - and the results of them - are nowhere near comparable to what happens in GW, and is (and sorry if this sounds rude) a bad description of what happened in CF. Claude in CF surrenders and agrees to leave Fodlan entirely and pleads with Edelgard to leave the Alliance - and his friends - alone because he swears they'll be cooperative. Maybe I'm stupid, but that doesn't sound anything like "hey Edelgard let's team up and invade the Kingdom because Rhea Bad lol” or “I think it’s a good idea to instigate conflict between Faerghus and Sreng to make the Kingdom weaker (you know that thing TWS did for Edelgard with Duscur).”
Claude in 3H does not actively help Edelgard at any point in all of 3H. Ever. The most he does to "help" her is, again, swearing that the Alliance won't stand up against her, and that wasn't to help Edelgard as much as it was him trying to keep the Alliance safe. Because that goes back to his want to keep the bloodshed to a minimum. That core character trait of his that is completely absent in GW, because siding with the one causing the bloodshed and himself causing the bloodshed does literally nothing to stop the bloodshed as 3H!Claude shows is his belief because he never sides with Edelgard *specifically because of her blood-filled methods.* The ones that he is literally replicating in GW.
Because, again, there is literally. No. Reason. Why, if it is in-line with Claude’s character to side with Edelgard, that he wouldn’t just side with Edelgard in 3H (or do the equivalent of that like he does with Dimitri, like giving over Failnaught), because there are exactly zero things that differ between the two games that would explain him not doing that in CF for 3H. In CF, he does not have Byleth to help him open up to others. In CF, he would have Byleth actively feed into his distrust of the Church because of their decision to side against it. In CF, he wouldn’t have many bonds with others. And yet and still, he does not join Edelgard on CF, he does not harm the Church in any way on any route (higher ups or not), he only “invades” the Empire after it’d already made multiple assaults against the Alliance army and never invades the Kingdom in any way - on and off his route we see time and time again him make a resolute stance to not assist the Empire/Edelgard in any direct way, to not cause undue bloodshed, to keep fighting to the minimum he can, and the one “exception” is still not meant to help Edelgard or to take down the Church/Rhea but to keep his people safe from harm.
And it’s just because in 3Hopes, Claude is not written in character. He is going against multiple core facets of his character that was established in 3H with no development - positive or negative - to explain why that is. And given that this is literally a self-described “alternative storyline” - AKA, it is not 3H - then I can in fact say that this isn’t canon because it literally isn’t. I accept 3Hopes as its own story separate from 3H as that is 1) what it sells itself as, and 2) the only nice way to explain away all of the blatant contradictions between it and 3H. Which include Claude lol
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