It's breezy in here

Sup! Don't mind me. I'm just composing a few things.

[emblemxeno]

Claude has FINALLY gotten his figure it took far too long for him to get it Hilda and Dancer Byleth shouldn’t exist. Can we move on past Fodlan now? Azura with both her outfits was a nice surprise and as much as I’d love to see every Fates Royal that’s not realistic Fates is probably done. So idk do Chrom and Robin or smth then you’re done with Awakening too and give older games a dub with Erika or Ephraim since SS is on Switch

I’m fully aware Adult Sothis is probably next leading into FW spam but I can hope

THANK FUCKING GOD

Seriously, it's really something that only now is he getting a figure when he should've been next in line after Edelgard and Dimitri. It's apparent what kind of markets they appeal to beyond all else, even in spite of the raw numbers showing otherwise.

[brain-breeze]

It's gonna take me a while to truly move past Fodlan tbh... because... it's not hard to see why Hilda got a figure before Claude, right? Or why the fandom generally seems to just look past him? I guess it makes some sense, considering the market they're likely selling to, but at the same time... it kinda doesn't. He's on the same box art as the other two, after all.

It's just very very interesting how concepts like racism, colorism, and the like haunt this character wherever you look. These things are normally easier for me to move past, since that's just how the market and fandoms have always treated characters with the wrong complexions, but those very concepts (or rather, the broader concept of xenophobia) are strong themes in not just VW and Claude's arc, but in 3H as a whole.

[fantasyinvader]

If you really think about it, the animal path is basically the game trying to diagnose what is wrong with Edelgard.

She’s experimented on and given this spiel by her father about how the Church is bad and Crests are to blame for what happened to her. This forms the basis of her beliefs and worldview of Fodlan, the ideals, in her own words, that she would start the war in service of. In both Azure Moon and the Cipher card game, her Hegemon Husk form is said to be what lies at the end of the ideals she served, Edelgard turned into a beast unit.

Sevitude is part of the animal path as is the idea of a might makes right/law of the jungle outlook which coincides with Edelgard’s beliefs. That she should be the one to stand above humanity, forcing her will upon them and killing off those who deny her, all the while she removes support for the masses and appoints those she deems as having merit. The other routes in the game are very clear, the people are going to need support from their leaders in order to survive the chaos after the war, but Edelgard suppresses the chaos through applications of force either through her still-active military or Hubert’s knife in the shadows.

The Animal path is tied to one of the Three Poisons/Flames, specifically ignorance. Now ignorance isn’t just that Edelgard doesn’t know the truth, it covers clinging to false beliefs and delusions in the face of evidence to the contrary. And in Edelgard’s case, the world was created by the devs to support the narrative where the player fights her. She might believe she is doing the right thing because of her beliefs, but that’s based on a falsehood.

What’s more it also leads her into the other two poisons/flames. When it comes to the truth that undermines her, she ignores it. Scarlet Blaze for instance, has her admit she ignored how much influence the Agarthans had over the Imperial nobility, but she still starts a war against the Church? No evidence Aegir was involved with the experiments like her dad said despite ample evidence of his everyday corruption? According to Edelgard he must have destroyed it? The fact she hears Lambert was assassinated over his attempt to reform the nobility and knows this was done by the Agarthans, or that Dimitri reforms the Kingdom where able people are put into positions of power regardless of social status or birth? Or what about the Alliance’s roundtable government or even Ferdinand’s mention of how Imperial heirs who fail to meet their family’s expectations are tossed while knowing in Caspar’s case his brother gets everything because he’s the oldest? Or how Dorothea rose from street urchan to sought after songstress within the Empire, or how Bernadetta was raised by her father to be a submissive wife for whomever pays him a fat dowry despite her Crest? No, only she can bring about change to the world and make it so merit matters rather than birth, the nobility wouldn’t exist if not for Crests (ignore Petra being a foreign princess).

Hatred is another poison/flame, but it also manifests as aversion. Edelgard is averse to the truth, instead preferring to ignore it and spread lies to support her own narrative. The game even implies she knows her father was an Agarthan puppet, but still is acting on what he told her. That’s the level of attachment she has to what she has been told, attachment/greed being the last of the three poisons/flames. And with the case of greed, as the Hegemon Husk with all masks dropped from her, she says there can only be one ruler of the world. At the end of the day, this was all about her desire to be that ruler. A desire that was instilled in her by her beliefs.

Starting from ignorance, Edelgard checks all three boxes. She is the antithesis of what Nirvana is supposed to be in serving the story the Argathans fed her and the beliefs it created, which taken to it’s end results in her becoming a beast unit. I’d say she stops being human at that point, except in a Buddhist context humanity is based on our ability to act with rational thought and in a humane manner. Edelgard is said by Ferdinand in VW to be like the feral Dimitri, in that she is consumed by her emotions. She isn’t really thinking, she’s just going on her instincts and impulses, and in the process is trampling over people’s lives.

Considering that Byleth and the player both enter Fodlan ignorant, it’s even a story point, the game is telling us to not be like Edelgard. The heroic option for the Black Eagles is to not blindly serve Edelgard but to oppose her, just like how the Blue Lions failing is if they follow Dimitri to their deaths at Gronder when his mental state is not the best. Dimtiri becomes the Savior King when he’s confronted with his own wrong beliefs, namely that his life is in service of avenging the dead, and instead corrects it by leaning to live for himself and his duty as king is to serve the living. Claude’s belief the Church and Rhea are the problem is implied to be based on his assumptions as an outsider entering Fodlan, but by the end of his route he realizes Fodlan needs a leader the people can rely on for support (in contrast to his earlier belief that people need to rely on themselves) just like they did Rhea. And Rhea, once she reunites with Sothis, needs to learn that she can be forgiven and that Fodlan doesn’t need Sothis to return to fix things, Rhea has to be more hands on.

The entirety of Three Houses, therefore, is structured as a message about how ignorance and blindly following what your leaders say can ultimately strip us of our humanity with Edelgard and her following of the animal path being the ultimate warning of this.

[emblemxeno]

Now with mister “everyone is a beast except only those who I alone deem intelligent” condescending prick Fabio I think Gonzalez from Binding Blade is now the one and only clearly conventionally unattractive playable character who actually has good and kind qualities.

God, the fact that they're repeating the fucking "calling someone I don't care for a beast" shit is so tiring.

And it wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem if people weren't immediately saying it's because he works for the Church of Seiros, when that is quite literally the only faction of people who never fucking call people beasts!!!

Dehumanization is one of the few things that comes close to a recurring theme in 3H, and there are specific and intentional groups and people who do it! Edelgard, Hubert, the Slithers, Dimitri before he starts his recovery (a key signal of his development) and those who are racist against the people of Duscur, Brigid and Almyra. But never Rhea, Seteth or Flayn. Not even Indech or Macuil!

That's an intentional connecting line. Still sloppy of course considering it affects 4 of the non-white characters in the game. But it's an intent nonetheless. It points to affiliation with a mindset that is never shared by the ones who actually run the church.

Regardless, it's not looking fun to experience a character who calls people beasts for not being as smart as he is. And considering he's a foreigner coming to a different land? Yeah, looking bad.

[fantasyinvader]

This is something I want to discuss . Anon said that every route has “it’s own justice,” but look at CF.

Per the game’s creators, they did the worldbuilding to support Silver Snow’s story. The Church are the good guys, whereas Edelgard is the villain. In their own words, the themes of Crimson Flower is having different beliefs and mowing down everyone who stands in your way. You are going around killing people because your beliefs don’t match theirs, and the worldbuilding is undermining your crusade and painting you as the villain. Because of that, Edelgard can scapegoat the Church for Fodlan’s problems despite knowing the Agarthans were behind Enbarr and Duscur so that she may attack the Church as their weapon. She can invade a neutral nation with intent to kill Claude because Claude prevented her from simply intimidating Alliance lords to defect to her side when she pressured them. You’re killing people because of a narrative she throws at you while her route is showing that she lies and withholds information from people, even you, and simply tells them what they want to hear for their support. Like her absolishing the nobility and implement a system of merit, but then allowing the nobles who bend the knee to her to keep their positions.

That is not justice. Hell, the devs said her route leads to hadou and with hadou, justice would mean removing Edelgard from power. The evidence is not on her side, and if a judge ignores the evidence it’s a miscarriage of justice. You did not act in a just manner when you sided with Edelgard at the Holy Tomb, you decided to join her villain faction and if you fight Dimitri, he calls you out on it.

先生。なぜエーデルガルトを…… 人の命を踏みにじる、畜生の道を選んだ。……残念でならない。 お前を殺さねばならないのが、な。

“Professor... Why did you choose this path—this path of a beast that tramples upon human lives? ...It is truly regrettable. That I must kill you, I mean.”

And considering that CF ends with Byleth losing the goddess's powers, which manifest through their Nirvana/Enlightened One class, the Buddhist context Nirvana invokes, the game is telling you you didn't follow an enlightened path, you followed a path that made you less than human. You trampled on people's lives in order to serve Edelgard. And considering the animal path is one of the evil paths in Buddhist tradition, Dimitri's words are basically the game laying it on the table. You choose a path of evil when siding with Edelgard, and the ending confirms this. You didn't act rationally or with compassion,you didn’t act like a human being you followed the vibes and it leads to tyranny while damning yourself for murdering Rhea.

That is not every side has their own justice, that is calling you a monster. How much more blantant does the game have to be that you were ignorant and as a result killed a bunch of innocent people whose only crime was standing up to Edelgard when she tries to force her will upon the entire continent? To create world she she doesn’t support the people and leaves them to survive on their own under the pretense of making them strong, which gets called out in Azure Moon as a world by the strong for the strong at the expense of the weak. And Azure Moon features Edelgard becoming the Hegemon Husk, a Beast Unit that you fight while Apex of the World plays. Apex of the World also plays during the final map of Crimson Flower, where Edelgard wins and now is uncontested in imposing her social Darwinist society while those who oppose her continue to be murdered in the dark by Hubert according to his endings.

You allowed Edelgard to be the apex predator of Fodlan rather than rallying the weak to oppose her in Silver Snow, where Byleth leads a Resistance army with people from all across Fodlan who seek to end the war and restore peace with Edelgard being the tyrant who stands in the way.

[fayesemblemring]

Hear me out. Rhea with moral OCD

[fayesemblemring]

"I'm doing too much. I'm not doing enough. Everyone suffering in Fòdlan is my fault. I am upsetting the students. I should have tried harder to make everyone feel comfortable in the academy. I teased Seteth too much and now I'm worried he hates me. I still remember Macuil telling me to fuck off. I am a disgusting person for lying. Why did I live instead of them. I am literally the worst person to ever walk the earth."

[9thwither]

The best part is you can get a load of this in her S-Support, the way she blames herself for the war, her cursing her own Immaculate One form, regarding her revival of Byleth as some curse that only brought them harm, questioning if she should still be alive?

All of them aren't true, espeically with the proper context, but given her experience in the recent 5 years and months, it makes sense for her to feel like she is at fault and is better off gone.

Additionally, there's aspects like her struggling to be open with the youth, to the point where it's one of her advice notes.

The fandom might unironically believe she's nothing but to blame and should be gotten rid of, but honestly? Its way intriguing and insightful when Rhea herself believes it, since it links back to her pain restricting from seeing her own sense of worth, one of the core points that prevent her from being a truly active person.

She hasn't stopped believing that she has failed as her goddess' daughter who has the best chance to succeed her mother, or as a Nabatean who had no easy options to protect what was left of her kin.

Rhea relies on gently guiding Fodlan and hiding her people's nature, partially because her genocidal trauma has left her fractured enough to doubt her inner strength and image.

[brain-breeze]

Nah bro... wtf did they do to Onion??

[rigorousetymologist]

DELTARUNE TOMORROW!!!

[goomyloid]

DELTARUNE TOMORROW (AGAIN)!

[emblemxeno]

Theory in the works: Edelgard Stans argue about characters, backstories and story information solely through the lens that they also experience and attach themselves to Edelgard.

Edelgard does not change or develop in a meaningful way in the story of 3H, no matter what route is chosen. This is an intentional writing decision as it relates to her archetype and role in the story.

But the ramifications of that are her stans now viewing every character in Fire Emblem Three Houses the exact same way.

So even though Dimitri, Claude, Rhea and almost every other character changes through Byleth's guidance through the academy and the war effort, Edelgard Stans will nonetheless argue through the assumption that they're still the same when Byleth first meets them (as well as sometimes sprinkle in the assumptions/views that Edelgard herself has of the characters she has an opinion on).

So Dimitri is still wishy-washy (they usually just cut the middleman and call him a centrist) and secretly deranged, violent and even racist and a cop.

Claude still wants to murder Rhea/wants her gone and believes the church needs to be abolished in order to open the borders to other countries.

Rhea is a secretive, manipulative megalomaniac and tyrant who must be taken down for Fodlan to be free.

Felix still hates his father and Dimitri and wants to be free of his house, Sylvain and Ingrid hate their obligations to being Crest bearers, Lysithea hates Crests first and foremost, Dorothea wants nobles to vanish, Caspar wants to dedicate himself to Edelgard, Dedue and Cyril see themselves as no more than tools of their white masters, etc., etc.

Because Edelgard Stans' favorite character doesn't change, they subconsciously assume the same must be for the rest of the cast.

That's why arguing with them is a lost cause, because while anyone else is operating with a cast that, by the end of any non CF route-actually, any route really considering CF's explicit negative character development-changes and becomes someone new, Edelgard Stans are operating with a cast that hasn't moved past first impressions and initial character flaws, coupled with their own biases for how these characters should talk and act.

There's no winning with people who are applying a, shall I say, "Chapter 1 Thesis to an Epilogue Debate." When they're convinced they know the correct and best interpretation of a character, as evidenced by how they attached themselves to a character intentionally written to not develop or change, that should tell you more than anything else could reveal.

[fantasyinvader]

Sorry to post again on this, but I think there’s another angle to this.

There’s a narrative framework called Promise, Progress and Payoff. It’s basically what it sounds like; a story is founded on a promise, such as a character arc or a mystery, we develop on that promise before finally landing at the payoff. But with Three Houses and Edelgard in particular, she is more of a subversion.

Three Houses makes it feel like the game is going to be this morally ambiguous affair, that each side is right from their own POV. But in practice, the worldbuilding was done in support of fighting Edelgard hence the more we know the less ambiguous it actually is. And with that, it establishes that Edelgard is not a heroic character but rather one of the game’s villains, which in turn fails the presumed promise that she would get better if we support her. She doesn’t lose her way or become evil if we reject her, she fell into darkness years before the game even started and the choice to join her is more like choosing to join her there. The Church is actually benevolent rather than evil JRPG Church #5694, Claude isn’t an ammoral schemer but actually more of a traditional hero and Dimitri’s hidden darkness doesn’t make him the bad guy here.

And we look at the original text of the game. Even if the localization tries to undermine it, it’s still present and if anything makes Edelgard into even more of a liar. She promises freedom, but enacts tyranny. Power to the people, but centralizes it on herself. Abolishing the nobility, but only gets rid of the nobles who won’t support her. She claims to speak for the weak, but forces them to fight for her with those that don’t being executed. To free Brigid, only to put it’s independence under her own thumb. Fights for the silent, but ends up silencing her opposition. Throwing down the Goddess, only to replace the Goddess with herself and takes control of the Church. She says she’ll tell you the truth, but keeps you in the dark.

She says she’s the good guy, but combined with the worldbuilding she’s not. That the Church are the villains behind society’s rot, but it’s really her allies the Agarthans. And this war was something the Agarthans engineered, including turning Edelgard into their weapon and pointing her at Rhea through manipulating Edelgard’s father.

This is the problem. People look at what she says and take it as a promise the game is making. That if you follow her, she’ll delivery you all of these things. But the game wasn’t designed to deliver on these things, she was meant to be the lady of deceit even if the localization changes things to make it appear she is delivering on those promises. And her fans see those changes as the intended payoff, and get mad at the original creators when they clarify things, because otherwise the game lied to them. She’s implied to not even be fully honest and upfront with Byleth, she can’t be talked down, and when she sees things that conflict with her own inner narrative she either tries to frame them (like the people who Lonato forced to fight for him were not “victims” because they died fighting for what they believed in) or simply ignores the truth. Three Hopes even added to this, showing that the Church doesn’t have problems with reforms and will help oust the Agarthans from the Empire, but Edelgard wants a bloody continental war anyway even if Dimitri’s own reforms (backed by the Church) are in line with her own.

They thought they were championing a revolutionary against a corrupt system.

Instead they were delivering Fodlan into the hands of a dark lord.

And that’s not what they signed up for.

The developers have outright said she was given the role of villain. If we're meant to play as the hero, then we are meant to stop her. The worldbuilding backs that up, as well as the other routes showing the stuff she desperately wants to keep hidden. And the developers have even pointed to that being the intent, that we were to compare notes across different routes to see the truth and solve the mysteries.

Edelgard being a hero wasn’t what the game was actually promising. Right from the get-go, even before we start dealing with the Agarthans manipulating Lonato, we learn about the Flame Emperor being behind the attack in the prologue. We assume Edelgard will be our ally if we teach her class, but then we find out that she IS the Flame Emperor. The devs have even said that the idea behind Edelgard was a lord figure who betrays THE PLAYER. The game established early on that the Flame Emperor was a bad guy, then it established Edelgard was really the Flame Emperor and a villain. That’s how the mystery of the Flame Emperor progressed, and the payoff is meant to be fighting our former student/schoolmate.

We spend White Clouds seeing the damage the Flame Emperor and the Agarthans are doing to the world while we back the Church, but in the Black Eagles route we can betray the world to stand by Edelgard’s side. But the progress of the game is still clear, to do this is a bad thing and the routes in various ways show why. Silver Snow keeps things the most basic, Edelgard has created chaos and order needs to be restored to end the suffering. Crimson Flower shows Edelgard as a liar, Azure Moon explains what her real beliefs are, and Verdant Wind explains who her backers really are. The routes where we pick a House leader all back up Silver Snow’s story in their own way.

So it’s not that the game didn’t deliver on it’s promises if Edelgard is a villain. It’s that the players misunderstood what the promises even were.

To put it in fantasy terms, they decided to join a Sauron-figure because they fell for her Annatar-like exterior, and now they’re left trying to justify what they did without realizing.

[kamekaswoosh]

*grabs mic*

For a subtweet to be targeted, it has to give names, firstly.

Now, am I being caustic by being pissed with the racism in 3H? Particularly in the messaging of CF, a story that ends with the main character finishing off a genocide.

Yes, I would be. It's not fun, nobody likes it, and it's uncomfortable. The very essence of pointing it out is disruptive and flies in the face of positivity.

But congratulations, racism is not fun. Discussing the racism present in a character beloved by a queer community is not fun, but it's worth doing. Sometimes your comfort character does a bigotry. Sometimes it's bigotry that affects other people. Challenging bigotry is often negative because of the emotions and dirty work, but it should not be inherently. And when talking about queerphobia is a neutral act but talking about racism is not? That's a problem.

I'd say it's honestly downright reasonable to be pissed by the racism and to be pissed when seeing racism ignored and dismissed in the spaces that you're in. And being dismissed in itself despite multiple times explaining oneself in a way that has not been targeted at anything less than the source material, and being looked at in bad faith because someone might be turning those explanations into personal attacks on their character?

That is casually racist, a microaggression.

And yet it is not the one committing the microaggression being called out for that offensiveness, but the person who is upset at the racism getting called out for being disruptive.

Disruptive by making an untagged post on a personal tumblr that did not name any person or any server.

This ain't Domain Expansion, you stepped into my domain. Maybe someone showed a person my posts, but I think untargeted posts venting about casual bigotry are by more than reasonable since they're not saying "hey, go out and go after this person." You gotta make the choice to do something about it, putting yourself in the spotlight.

...So, with that all being said.

Let me quick fire round why CF can be seen as racist or bigoted. And some things that have racist implications.

To start:

The fact that the enemy is a religious genocide survivor who is being accused of being responsible for the racism and nobility system of the kingdom and land that genocided her people prior to her even having taken hold of power of a church. They built this racist system around her, and are pinning it on her.

The genocide that started it all, that took her people's corpses and fashioned weapons out of them to maintain hold of the power they attained using her people's stolen blood.

The accusation that she is responsible for Fodlan's current day issues when logistically and realistically, there isn't enough information to confirm that she is. The information that Rhea's Enemy has is compromised by the virtue of her being compromised by the cult who indoctrinated her that she still works with. That cult with an express interest in exterminating the Nabateans. There is the Grand Duke, and he is misinformed about his accusations which are the result of perceived biases that are corrected at the end of VW in what was a rushed elaboration. The GD may have suspicions but they aren't necessarily validated. The best we have is a Shadow Library explaining that she might be a technophobe, which the Shadow Library is not verifiable, while the many many encyclopedia of Fodlan that Garreg Mach houses are.

To continue on that point: There is so much evidence to support that the corruption is a product of the Elites and their patriarchal nobility. Starting with Duke Aegir who orchestrated Rhea's Enemy's kidnapping and torture, as well as Slither's long history of human rights violations, assassinations, and treachery as they implanted themselves into the three states, orchestrating disarray and then pinning it on the Church of Seiros.

And this is reinforced by developer interviews for those who care about the Word of God, who have stated that the worldbuilding was made to support Silver Snow, not CF. And logistically, the Church of Seiros goes down lightning fast in the other routes, and things are still shit. Slither is still active in both the Empire and Kingdom and in the 5 year gap, the problems are exacerbated by Adrestia and Slither's cooperation. The Church does not have the size nor power to be as omnithreatening as they are accused of while simultaneously being so feeble and weak as to be unable to reign in their own people. That is doublethink, 1984 Orwellian style.

The conspiracy theory that Fodlan is controlled in secret by the Church of Seiros and the lizard people in charge. (Scene: Whispers of War). That has antisemitic implications, and so does the blood libel.

The continued use of the Heroes Relics in the present day by the descendants of those who committed the genocide. (And Rhea cannot take them back without initiating war)

The commissioning of Aymr, by Rhea's Enemy herself. Because it was forged with a Crest Stone, a piece of the Nabateans, inferred to be the heart. The fact that Rhea's Enemy expressly ordered it. (See Description).

The raiding of the Holy Tomb, pilfering the Crest Stones so that they may be used for war. Using the corpse parts of the Nabateans for power, something that The GD Leader gets out of the Flame Emperor on GD. (See Scene: The Holy Tomb, Japanese version. The original translation can be found at The Cutting Room Floor)

That Hubert expressly distrusts Byleth on the matter of their link and lineage to the Nabateans. (Hubert - Byleth A Support)

That Hubert consciously knows that Slither is responsible for the Imperial Kidnapping and Experiments, and still chose to push Rhea's Enemy into going through with the plan to target Rhea while working with Slither, the exterminators, because the enemy of the enemy is an ally to him.

The Bombing of Arianhrod and the framing up of the Church of Seiros on CF. Faerghus, an incredibly xenophobic country that has committed one genocide, now has another scapegoat to persecute.

The religious persecution of Church of Seiros members on Silver Snow. By Adrestia.

The conquering of Garreg Mach, which threatens the people and forces a refugee crisis that affects both Garreg Mach and Abyss.

The fact that Garreg Mach is one of the safer places to be a minority in Fodlan while being accused of the source of bigotry. (See Cyril's support with Claude, various lines of worldbuilding, documents in Three Hopes, the fact that the staff is one of the most ethnically diverse in Fodlan). When the bigotry is pervasive across all sectors of Fodlan, including the imperialistic Adrestia.

The continued vassalage of Brigid by Adrestia.

The Demonization of Rhea, a religious genocide survivor, in order to uplift Rhea's Enemy in order to validate her enemy's worldview. You know, Rhea is also a queer woman.

Not even giving a genocide survivor the benefit of the doubt upon being accused of being responsible for the racism of the country they're in. The Church of Seiros was not needed for the racism to be there, because the genocide happened beforehand. The Nabateans had to culturally assimilate into Fodlan, they would not have had the power to uproot all that bigotry as it spread over the millenia. And revealing that the Heroes Relics were made from their corpses would only have threatened their lives harder.

If I get flak for this, I don't care.

[emblemxeno]

Theory in the works: Edelgard Stans argue about characters, backstories and story information solely through the lens that they also experience and attach themselves to Edelgard.

Edelgard does not change or develop in a meaningful way in the story of 3H, no matter what route is chosen. This is an intentional writing decision as it relates to her archetype and role in the story.

But the ramifications of that are her stans now viewing every character in Fire Emblem Three Houses the exact same way.

So even though Dimitri, Claude, Rhea and almost every other character changes through Byleth's guidance through the academy and the war effort, Edelgard Stans will nonetheless argue through the assumption that they're still the same when Byleth first meets them (as well as sometimes sprinkle in the assumptions/views that Edelgard herself has of the characters she has an opinion).

So Dimitri is still wishy-washy (they usually just cut the middleman and call him a centrist) and secretly deranged, violent and even racist and a cop.

Claude still wants to murder Rhea/wants her gone and believes the church needs to be abolished in order to open the borders to other countries.

Rhea is a secretive, manipulative megalomaniac and tyrant who must be taken down for Fodlan to be free.

Felix still hates his father and Dimitri and wants to be free of his house, Sylvain and Ingrid hate their obligations to being Crest bearers, Lysithea hates Crests first and foremost, Dorothea wants nobles to vanish, Caspar wants to be free to cut his own path, Dedue and Cyril see themselves as no more than tools of their white masters, etc., etc.

Because Edelgard Stans' favorite character doesn't change, they subconsciously assume the same must be for the rest of the cast.

That's why arguing with them is a lost cause, because while anyone else is operating with a cast that, by the end of any non CF route-actually, any route really considering CF's explicit negative character development-, Edelgard Stans are operating with a cast that hasn't moved past first impressions and initial character flaws, coupled with their own biases for how these characters should talk and act.

There's no winning with people who are applying a, shall I say, "Chapter 1 Thesis to an Epilogue Debate." When they're convinced they know the correct and best interpretation of a character, as evidenced by how they attached themselves to a character intentionally written to not develop or change, that should tell you more than anything else could reveal.

[fantasyinvader]

To add to this theory, let’s look at another theory. The Teacher Theory, whose creator admitted he created it because Edelgard’s actions in the prologue went against his reading of her.

Let me rephrase that, Edelgard did something in the prologue that the theorist believed she wouldn’t do, so he created a theory to explain it while maintaining his understanding of the character. Not that the reveal that Edelgard was the Flame Emperor reframed how he saw her, he tried to reframe the actions of the Flame Emperor based on how he saw Edelgard.

To quote True Detective

"You attach an assumption to a piece of evidence, you start to bend the narrative to support it, prejudice yourself." — Detective Marty Hart

And that’s what the Teacher Theory was. It was a player bending the narrative to support his own prejudice. That everything that the game said had to conform and meet that. And considering his fanfic, it extends to the entire game. The entire game serves, in his mind, to justify Edelgard’s actions yet when the game’s own creators, the actual writers, explicitly said that the game’s worldbuilding was done in support of Silver Snow, where Edelgard is the villain hence why they say they gave her the villain title and why her route leads to tyranny. In other words, the creators themselves confirmed that this theorist was wrong, but the theorist then proceeded to encourage people to not listen to them via a misunderstanding of death of the author.

Same thing happened when this theorist wanted to erase Dimitri’s mental illness, saying Dimitri’s problem was that the kingdom’s culture was toxic. His example was a line he said was meant to show Dimitri was really rude in the Japanese text, but when that example was debunked he ignored it, saying that others had the job to debunk his stuff in a way he would accept. Even if you could prove him factually wrong, if he isn’t willing to accept it then he will still claim that he’s right rather than proving his work.

And this was one of the biggest voices championing Edelgard and spreading misinformation.

But really, it happened because the fandom allowed it to happen. Because the fandom wanted it. They didn’t want Edelgard to be an anti-villain, they wanted her to be right against Rhea while still claiming that the whole thing is morally grey. They wanted a golden ending to include everyone supporting Edelgard to kill Rhea, not pulling Edelgard’s head out of her own asshole. Because if Edelgard is a flat out villain, that all her rhetoric is merely propaganda hiding her real intentions, the game isn’t morally grey. It means that by siding with Edelgard, the player played a villain route which in turn means that the Church are the good guys in this conflict. That Rhea’s a hero.

The fandom doesn’t want that. They don’t actually want Three Houses as it exists. They want to erase and rewrite so much of it simply because it doesn’t say what they want it to. Claude’s stans are the same, ignoring the truths Claude learns in Verdant Wind and instead championing his own fall to villainy in Golden Wildfire as “the real Claude.” Dimitri gets vilified because it’s clear he will never support what Edelgard is trying to do and holds her accountable. They believe Flayn should join the Black Eagles in working with the Agarthans to kill Rhea because they’re supposedly Flayn’s friends, ignoring that Hubert and Edelgard were involved in her kidnapping and the human experiments.

The fact the fans are willing to try and defend so many atrocities Edelgard does really makes one think they don’t actually understand how bad her actions are from a real world perspective.

[sketchyvero]

HES BACK. RUN

[fantasyinvader]

I think the biggest thing, for me, is the claim that “if Edelgard was a man, you won’t have a problem with her,” because I know of a male Edelgard. Ulfric Stormcloak. Like, I’ve done this dance before. I joined the Stormcloaks my first time, but I didn’t pay attention to the worldbuilding. I just picked the rebels for the civil war questline, ignorant of how much evidence spoke out against Ulfric because I wasn’t paying attention to that.

I didn’t pay attention to how his “Skyrim for the Nords” rhetoric comes with him ignoring the plight of non-Nords within it’s boarders, nor how reliant Skyrim is on trade in order to survive. I didn’t pay attention to how the Empire didn’t actually enforce the ban on Talos worship until Ulfric’s actions made it required to act. I didn’t understand the whole situation with the former high king, how Ulfric used the dragon shouts when the dragon shouts aren’t meant to be used in combat except by the Dragonborn, so even if it was an honorable duel Ulfric betrayed his training as a greybeard to kill the high king and declare himself the new one when Skyrim doesn’t operate like that. There’s the whole moot thing where the Jarls elect the new high king, and at the end of the questline the civil war results in Ulfric having eliminated every Jarl who wasn’t a guaranteed vote for him, even the neutral ones, and he’s still dismissive of the moot. And to top it all off, his actions were what the Thalmor wanted even if they didn’t want him to win. He weakened the Empire, and splits Skyrim and the Nords off from the united defence needed against the Thalmor. And the more you dig into his allies, the worse it looks with the slavery, racial discrimination, ties to organized crime and just plain incompetence.

I just saw rebels and empire, doing what our culture has taught us to do. But under it all, Ulfric wasn’t the hero I thought he would be and I gave him the throne. The man who talks about Skyrim’s traditions but undermines them whenever they get in the way. The man who saw the return of Alduin, the end time prophesy of his people, and focused on the war when said war is part of the prophesy. The man who doesn’t give a shit about the mythical Dragonborn being right in front of him unless the Dragonborn will bend the knee to him. A Nord-supremacist who sets his homeland on fire so he can have the crown.

Ulfric is the male equivalent of Edelgard, except he’s actually a rebel rather than an emperor. Slight variation, but ultimately the same song and dance.

[deathbirby]

tf you mean the dagdan empire was entrusted to the divine sovereign by sothis?? 😭

[9thwither]

WHAT COMPARISONS??

[emblemxeno]

I love how people use real world genocides and atrocities in their bid to get gotcha points on the internet rather than as sensitive historic examples for why storylines may be similar, I love it, I love how they critically think with their fucking heads up their asses and call it serious analysis :)))))) /s

Free us from these fucking idiots, whatever higher power is out there, holy shit

[9thwither]

I'm tired, boss

[depsidase]

[emblemxeno]

Maybe her kingdom was buried underground until recently and the citizens want to get proper sunshine to reclaim their ancestral melanin and that's why they all dress like whores and sluts (complimentary)

[contemptible-scoundrel]

fuuuck I could use a mysterious benefactor right now

[brain-breeze]