Ferdinand and Hubert in the capital [FE3H spoilers]
I’m still working my way through the Silver Snow route, but I’ve just discovered what happens if Ferdinand fights Hubert, and I am distressed by this dialogue.
Running into you in the capital like this – I have to say, it’s almost sentimental.
(I have seen fanart referencing this line and I had no idea it was canon and that just makes it worse.)
First off, is this not a very clear signal that the mutual pining started long before their A support? In context of Hubert’s other dialogue in this scene… he’s scathing, almost calculatingly insulting to everyone else he attacks, but the moment it’s Ferdinand, he’s got nothing rude to say. Ferdinand does not even have anything to say to Edelgard, but these two have always had special lines together and that’s not even going to change when they’re enemies. Hubert and Ferdinand have A History that well predates their time at the Academy, even if that history was complicated and mostly involved annoying the hell out of each other.
But Ferdinand here. “It does not matter what I think. Those are my orders.” That line? Is chilling.
Because all Ferdinand’s ever worked for is to be a better man, a better noble, a better prime minister than his father. He never outright says it, but his obsession with nobility as an ideal is a direct contrast to his father basically being the opposite of that ideal in every way. This whole gruesome cycle that led Edelgard to start this war began with Duke Aegir masterminding the Insurrection of the Seven and reducing Edelgard’s father to a figurehead with himself as the head of state.
Ferdinand in Crimson Flower is forced to confront the idea of himself without nobility, without a title or the role he was raised for. Regardless of whether Edelgard is right or wrong, she challenges Ferdinand’s view of the world kind of profoundly, and it takes time to see that change. Just as importantly, Hubert and Ferdinand’s B support involves Hubert showering Ferdinand with praise – not of his importance or his role, but of the traits that make Ferdinand himself so valued. He learns to see himself as worthwhile even if he is not a lord or a duke.
In Silver Snow… he’s not challenged in the same way, because he never hears Edelgard’s reasoning or her plans, and he has no Hubert around to prod him on it. So he spends much of the route wanting nothing more than to regain the lands and titles she stole from him. He doubles down on his belief that he needs his nobility and his title, and that remains his motivation for fighting.
So when it comes down to this, he doesn’t approach Hubert as a friend or as an enemy. He approaches him as a prime minister. “Those are my orders.” All that Ferdinand’s worked to change, and he’s just another Duke Aegir taking control of another Emperor. He turned right into his father.
These two, they are truly their worst selves when they’re apart.
And lastly, in the scene afterward, when Byleth expresses doubt about wanting to kill Edelgard? Ferdinand’s answer to that is, “we’ve already killed Hubert.” After Hubert, what’s one more life?
