Lover of fantasy, sci-fi, and BLTS

[fantasyinvader]

[fantasyinvader]

I think I figured something out about Edelgard’s death scene in SS/VW. It goes again to how she claims the fighting will end with her death, completely leaving out the existence of the Agarthans in the process. And I think it goes back to what she says following Lonato’s defeat.

“The commoners who allied themselves with Lord Lonato believed they were fighting for a just cause. It would be disrespectful to consider them simply victims when they died for what they believed in. Still, we have no choice but to eliminate those who cling to unreasonable ideas of justice. Even if our enemies are the gods themselves... we must never lose sight of our goal.”

ロナートに味方した民は 彼らなりの正義のために戦っていた。

"The people who sided with Lonato were fighting for their own idea of justice."

だから彼らを単なる犠牲者のように扱うのは、私は間違っていると思うわ。

"That's why I think it's wrong to treat them merely as victims."

私たちは相容れない正義を持つ相手を、排除して進んでいくしかないのよ。

"We have no choice but to eliminate those whose justice is incompatible with ours as we press forward."

その相手が、たとえ神のような存在であったとしても……。

"Even if that opponent happens to be a god-like existence..."

Note, she says this right after Ferdinand said that Lonato was a monster because he forced his people to fight for him, while Edelgard later in the same conversation says she would do the exact same thing.

“Really, I'm just like Lonato. I, too, will be the sort of ruler who's willing to risk the lives of my citizens in service of a higher cause. It's not possible to change the world without sacrifice. Dying for the greater good is not a death in vain.”

私は、きっとロナートと同じ。己の正義のために民に命を賭けさせる皇帝になる。

"I will surely be just like Lonato. I will become an Emperor who makes her people gamble their lives for the sake of her own justice."

そうしなければ大事は成せないし、その民たちの死は、無駄にはしない……。

"Without doing so, great deeds cannot be accomplished, and I will not let the deaths of those people be in vain..."

These serve as early examples of Edelgard’s worldview, more damning in the Japanese text. Edelgard is fighting against worldviews that are incompatible with her own, willing to sacrifice people for her own justice because she believes it’s necessary, but also that she has to win otherwise those deaths were in vain. That bit about the worldviews also foreshadows her fight with Rhea, and how in the Japanese text Edelgard makes it clear coexistence was never on the table.

エーデルガルト: 「裏切ったつもりはないわ。初めから……信じる道などなかった！」

"I have no intention of calling it a betrayal. From the very beginning... there was never a path where I believed in you!"

But Rhea, in that same conversation, diagnosed Edelgard perfectly.

世迷言を……！ 救済にあたわぬ愚者は、己が罪を見つめることさえできない……。

"Delusional drivel...! Fools unworthy of salvation cannot even face their own sins...

Edelgard is delusional, fighting against a Fodlan that only exists within her own head while ignoring her own wrongdoings and victims in the process (per the developers comments that the worldbuilding supports Silver Snow and Edelgard’s path leads to tyranny). And becaue this is all tied to Edelgard’s psychology itself, Edelgard can not be redeemed because redemption would break Edelgard’s narrative.

It would mean admitting that she was wrong.

It would mean existing with a “justice” that was incompatible with what she fought and gambled the lives of her citizens for rather than being eliminated.

It would mean the “justice” she started this war over was wrong, which in turn means admitting what she refused to see. She refused to see the influence the Agarthans had over the Imperil nobility (per Hopes), instead claiming the nobles were controlled by the Church behind the scenes. She claimed Aegir and the nobility were behind the experiments to create a strong emperor to rule over Fodlan (in the process ignoring that you don’t create such an emperor if you fight against the former emperor’s consolidation of power and end up stripping him of said power) despite Hubert indicating she knows Thales was behind them, Edelgard confronting Thales about the experiments in White Clouds as well as Thales explaining it (and Duscur) were done so that she may have the power to purge the surface of “beasts” and bring salvation to Agartha. She refused to acknowledge (again, per Hubert) that her father was a puppet of the Agarthans, instead she clung to the narrative he gave her that formed her “justice” that pushed Edelgard to reject the Church’s teachings as a means to keep the people weak and pointed her at Rhea.

To acknowledge the truth would mean that she was just a puppet of the Agarthans, so instead she constructs this final narrative where her death will end the conflict. The Agarthans will get away after everything she has done because she will take ownership of the war rather than acknowledge the power and influence they had over her. She dies with her own agency intact, while the game continues and paints her as just another one of Agartha’s victims. And in the case of CF, she follows Agartha’s plan right up until Rhea’s death, then she plans to wipe them out once she has absolute power as Fodlan’s hegemonic ruler.

Edelgard can not be redeemed, even when the symbolism is her starting to see the light after her defeat by those who have rallied around the Church in direct opposition to HER and her beliefs, because it would make everything she has done a mistake. She would rather die in darkness following her toxic ideology than walk in the light with those who keep offering her their hands over and over again. Edelgard is damned because her own trauma and beliefs constructed a prision she is unable, and more importantly unwilling, to escape from.

It also shows how black and white, how rigid and absolute, her worldview actually was all along. She thinks she will be the light of Fodlan out of the darkness according to her S support, but is really the darkness itself going by the use of light in the game.

[fantasyinvader]

To me, it feels like Edelgard is meant to say something that conflicts with Echoes. Like a response to Kusakihara’s own changes to the story of Gaiden, revealing a more nuanced belief that he can now articulate.

Edelgard is meant to represent hadou, using her power to assert her will upon the people. That she wants to stand above all others imposing her will to those below her. She wants to reshape society based on the beliefs she will force upon them, the people dying are deemed necessary sacrifices towards this vision and anyone who opposes her must be eliminated. The game basically demands the player ignore what she’s done and has been a part of up until the route split in order to join her, meanwhile she keeps her real beliefs hidden from the player outside of the parley in Azure Moon.

She starts a continental war, helps in experiments to turn people into demonic beasts for said war, is willing to lie and scapegoat her enemies, and it’s all based on this idea that what she is doing is necessary. But the devs themselves have stated the worldbuilding is done to support Silver Snow, and that one of the themes of Crimson Flower (aside from hadou and wiping out the opposition) is having different beliefs. But in that case, the Fodlan Edelgard portrays to the player doesn’t actually exist because the worldbuilding is done to support fighting her in Silver Snow, Azure Moon and Verdant Wind. Hell, Crimson Flower wasn’t even in the original plan for the game and was only added later with the twist that her route leads to a tyrannical outcome.

To join Edelgard means rejecting reality in order to help her tilt at windmills. It means sacrificing real living people in the name of a hypothetical happier people of the future. It means putting Edelgard’s beliefs, beliefs she frames as “liberation” and merit,” above the well-being of the people. Said liberation comes at the people submitting to a leader that the game frames as a hegemon or being killed by Hubert in the dark, “merit” ultimately becomes about best serving said leader and not the people while said leader only wants token examples of commoners achieving status to serve as a fairytale for the rest of the population but will take no responsibility if a commoner they elevate fails. To walk with Edelgard would mean betraying others, working with monsters, trampling over the lives of innocents, all for some pie in the sky like promise of a better world.

And this can culminate with Byleth calling Edelgard “El,” the name of an ancient deity as well as a word for god. CF can end with us calling Edelgard god after we’ve given her absolute power over Fodlan to shape it as she sees fit, which aligns with how Silver Snow says she’s trying to replace Sothis with herself. Not only that, she uses the faith in CF against the Church, telling her people she’s not against the Goddess only the corrupt Church, restores the Church after the war under her control according to a few CF specific endings, as well as sets up her Southern Church in Hopes to preach a different message while demanding Dimitri and Claude accept it and reject the Central Church as part of her demands. Dimitri points out this is just her trying to gain influence in their countries.

Edelgard comes across as a false goddess, following the Agarthans viewing themselves as gods, and the game asks where do you draw the line. Do you reject reality to support your faith in Edelgard, ignoring her crimes and instead damning others based on her accusations? Do you fight for over the people who suffer under her rule and will suffer due to her beliefs while she herself views this suffering as justified? Do you give up your own autonomy to become her wings?

Silver Snow, therefore, is a more about rejecting those. You choose reality, you lead the people against Edelgard and become a leader yourself rather than expecting your lord figure to fix everything if they win. And this goes hand in hand with the route being more about Byleth’s origins and merit to rule because they support the masses alongside Rhea. Edelgard, conversely, is everything that Echoes warned about with the degeneration of Duma and Mila, and it’s not suprising Edelgard got a scene in Heroes talking to Mila, denouncing Mila’s beliefs because they “coddle” humanity and makes humans weak but then when pointed out Edelgard’s own beliefs are the same as Duma’s saying Duma is wrong because the people can’t rely on him for support. Edelgard can not have it both ways, but she still expects a society where the people don’t rely on her, the nobility or the goddess for support because she believes it will make them strong, but still is willing to damn the goddess for not supporting her while demanding everyone under her do so.

The irony that it takes blind faith in Edelgard after she’s been unmasked as a villain to fight the Church is lost on most people.

[electricprincess96]

A very well deserved win for Spain. The gap in quality between teams in that final was absolutely baffling. Argentina should never have made it this far and they were shown up royally.

[electricprincess96]

Like no joke Emi Martinez was the only thing stopping that from being a bloodbath. Cucurella had Messi in his pocket all match. Argentina got found out for their tactics that eventually backfired and resulted in Enzo Fernandez getting sent off. It was like cosmic justice playing out in real time.

[fantasyinvader]

My dad knows nothing about soccer, but even he couldn't believe how Argentina was playing. I mean, they had a strong defense, but what? Were they planning on just tiring out Spain before going on the offense themselves? Meanwhile, Spain didn't go on defense until they were up. They were winning, and just needed to hold onto that win rather than trying to hold on before going on to win.

It was interesting to see how my dad took to soccer even after Canada was eliminated, but it's not going to make him a fan like my uncle is.

[electricprincess96]

Who’s worse?

2010 remake freddy krueger or netflix dante?

Well I have only seen one of these so....

I have absolutely no interest in horror movies of any decade.

[fantasyinvader]

Well, let's see.

Reboot Freddy took a character that already sadistically murdered children in his backstory, a backstory the original movies kept adding to over and over again to the point it felt like a parody of a tragic backstory and the idea of Freudian excuses, wanted us to question the parents murdering him with the idea he could have been innocent. But then, the movie decides to drop that not only this version of Freddy was a child murderer, but a predator as well.

I mean, it sorta works. It's reestablishing how much of a monster Freddy is after the original series made him something of a joke. He was scary in the first movie, got more creative as the series went on, more of a wisecracker which made him stand out as a slasher villain, but by the end of the original continuity he became a complete joke. His antics became more Loony Tunes, focused too much on jokes and he got his ass kicked by Jason. You could technically make a case that The Dream Child was a decent film, but you can't do it for the Final Nightmare.

Compared to Netflix Dante, reboot Freddy is less of a problem. It's more back to basics, trying to undo all the crap the series kept shoveling onto him. I'm not against jump scares, as I feel they work when the audience is on edge so they're more a testament to the atmosphere, but the movie used them way too often to the point of annoyance. It's still lesser than the original film, but it at least understands it rather than whatever the fuck Adi is doing.

[fantasyinvader]

I can’t help but feel Dany was handled better than Edelgard. Dany’s downfall is a tragedy, as we see her go from idealistic revolutionary seeking to reclaim her throne to being broken, betrayed by her allies, other close allies killed, learns her claim is weaker than Jon’s, and ultimately the people of King’s Landing beg ring the bells to save them from Dany. The people of Westeros view Dany as the monster and Cersei as the one who can save them, and it breaks her leading to Jon Snow having to kill her at the end of the story.

Edelgard was breaking after the experiments, when she was fed propaganda and pointed towards the Church. She actively ignored information that went against her worldview, and because of her messed up worldview she viewed supporting others as encouraging weakness while her own attachment to Garreg Mach was her being shackled by the place. Her starting the war is her throwing away her humanity so that she may have power that answers to no one, a trauma response, and Byleth ultimately is supposed to fight their former student Obi-Wan-style. But because Byleth’s character is implied and their silence in CF taken as the game endorsing their actions, players miss how it’s ultimately the story of Byleth’s own spiritual damnnation.

Dany, as abrupt as her villain-turn is, at least had build-up to it and the show committed.

[emblemxeno]

Thinking about how Kusakihara said he doesn't consider Fodlan a continent and tried to make sure it was never called a continent, only for the English localization to immediately call it a continent in advertising and within the first half hour of the game

Page 13: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14euDrU97pz2WWOaHx2eJebRyLJUuu34L/view

Besides the fact that it's extremely funny how the fandom at large just calls it a continent anyway, it also is genuinely a fascinating look at what his thought process was, and how a lot of it boils down to "yeah this sounds cool."

Because think about it. Does he have a grand design in saying Fodlan isn't a continent? Was he going for a Christendom thing with Fodlan, where it's multiple different countries/lands all following an explicit rule set from a religious power?

Well, not really, since we see from the game itself that that comparison doesn't work. Leicester began with no approval from, crowning by or strict adherence towards the Church of Seiros. No matter how angry Rhea got about it when yelling at Claude in Three Hopes, it doesn't change the fact that it started and maintained itself as a kingless nation with no rulers and explicitly no religious power from its own church branch. For three entire centuries. And Adrestia booted out its own church branch a century before the game began with no lasting repercussions.

"But doesn't Rhea call Edelgard and the empire rebels after she starts her war?"

Yes, she does. However, authority is not a strict "X party controls Y party." Again, Rhea does not have supreme authority... over any of the countries, really. She has soft power, symbolically relevant, but ultimately not the be all end all. If you really want to compare this whole thing to the Catholic church, it'd be like the rulers of [Insert European nation here] going to Vatican City to study before sneaking their armies there to overthrow the church across Europe. Then after they capture Pope Leo and lock him in a basement, they declare war on surrounding countries in Europe because... before the Catholic Church was around and fucked everything up, Europe was one land with one glorious imperial ruler.

It devolves into nonsense, doesn't it? Because the structure of Edelgard's motives is nonsense.

We know she's wrong/lying about the church splitting up nations to control people, because even if Faerghus history could potentially be muddled, Rhea's newly introduced anger towards Claude and the Alliance in hopes proves she had no involvement in the Alliance's creation.

We know she's wrong/lying about the church raking in money, because the CoS doesn't take taxes. The Central Church operates on donations from nobles in the three countries. Shamir and Alois collect rewards from the Eastern Church in their paralogue, rather than take the reward from the Derdriu merchants. Hell, Mercedes confirms that the church she called home before being adopted was able to be successfully threatened with money from Random McMerchantGuy, so local churches either don't collect taxes at all, or not enough to hold socio-economic sway.

Alois may say the Eastern Church controls eastern fodlan (in JP he says they hold jurisdiction in eastern fodlan), but later in the same conversation, Alois says they don't have a standing army and Shamir says that they don't actually have a presence given they're caught between the Central Church and the Alliance lords. And the Southern Church, again, no longer exists by the time of the game.

By all measures, there is only vague similarities to Christendom when looking at the Church of Seiros in theory, and no similarities at all in practice.

So really, what was Kusakihara saying when he meant Fodlan wasn't a continent?

Well... he probably just did it for fun. He doesn't care to mention anything about Fodlan itself that would pertain to it not being a continent, aside from it being isolated enough to where the term "continent" isn't applicable because a continent would need worldwide recognition and acceptance, in accordance to post-Age of Discovery standards. And Fodlan's isolation is because its three nations are themselves extremely fucking volatile and terrible at doing anything with other countries, given what we know of Brigid, Dagda, Sreng, Duscur and Almyra. Not to excuse the other non-Duscur nations of any wrong doing on their part, since they also had a hand in invading.

But still, that and the fact that Claude in Verdant Wind is like "Um, actually looking at the Church tenets for more than 5 minutes shows that contact with the outside world isn't forbidden or sinful, guys", which should have been obvious given that Rhea let foreigners into her academy and into her personal retinue of knights; and the fact that a quest shows the Western Church hates the Central Church/Rhea because of her tolerance of foreigners... yeah, it's clear it's because each nation doesn't know how to actually treat foreign lands rather than Rhea or her church declaring non-Fodlan entities to be dangerous.

I digress. It's a similar technique to dramatic irony, where we as the readers are able to contexualize Fodlan as a continent in accordance to how we define what a "continent" is in the years 2019 and beyond. But the characters aren't meant to really... know or have awareness of those kinds of concepts.

Which naturally bumps up against, once again, the fact that there's internal contradiction in Kusakihara's statement. Yeah, of course pegasi and wyverns can fly and that's why it's easy to draw a map and stuff... does that not literally go against what you just said about isolation though? No force is shooting out every flying creature from going too far to discover what the fucking world is? There's detailed awareness of other landmasses, to the extent that there's knowlegde of other populations and even industries in these non-Fodlan places. Why then, would you try to stress to not call it a continent, before creating a world with lore that is extremely continental? "Realism" isn't an explanation nor an excuse, this is a game written by people in the past decade, striving for realism only creates issues in structure and presentation, as I just laid out.

TL;DR Kusakihara's writing is fucking weird, including when trying to intentionally make Fodlan "not a continent" before then making the rest of the world's lore extremely continent-coded.

[randomnameless]

Kusakihara's writing is bonkers - you're willing to tell me people could, thanks to pegasi and wyverns, look at fodlan from high enough to see it resembles a dragon's head (that'd be, quite far enough, like modern planes high enough!) -

But as the same time he writes one of his leads cry about isolationism when his comrade's dad got rich by trading with foreigners? When there are books all around depicting, as you noted, knowledge of other countries, isles and landmasses even down to their industry?

When one of his potential wives who's not from his country comes from a family that traditionally trades with a foreign country? (Anette and Albinea). When Enbarr is the largest harbour and a bustling center of trade?

Granted, the last two came from Nopes, aka after this interview - but even in Houses, this "IsOlAtIoNiSm" take smelt bad, I remember being bored during Covid and having written a post about recipes lol, thing being a third of Garreg Mach's recipes (iirc) include ingredients coming from foreign lands.

This suggests trade, at least frequent enough to have ingredients shipped to a monastery located in the center of the "totes not continent!". And this is supported by Edmund's description, being a land that became rich - to the point of buying their seat in the Alliance - thanks to trade with foreign lands.

So why is Kusakihara's writing so ass?

Why did he write that thing about isolationism, and three lines below, mentions there's trade? Or depicts Fodlan's neighbours as agressive assholes - save for the ones who were defeated/destroyed and the survivors welcomed in, apparently, the seat of "IsOlAtIoNiSm" itself?

Bcs, imo, the general writing makes me think of the three headed dragon meme, save that, in this case, they eat themselves.

Fraud's character is basically an isekai protag's journey : he goes to new land, new land is shit, tries to improve it, doesn't rule it but lets his bestie rule in the end, with his "improved" values.

Thing is... This story is also set in a verse where Supreme Leader and Dimitri's stories exist.

Supreme Story is basically lizards BaD and imperialism 101 to make Fodl Adrestia great again. But if the land has to be great "again" then it can't be as shitty as what Fraud's story suggests - he can't be the only one to bring "improved values", otherwise what would be the point of the Supreme Story? Isolationism doesn't exist in Adrestia they have overseas vassals !(whose princess was brought in as a hostage to make sure the vassals won't rebel).

And Dimitri's story is, well... a Fire Emblem story : Lord is ousted from his land and has to retake it as the legitimate ruler and beloved son of the previous one who was murdered, and improve on what existed before.

To show how benevolent and legitimate his, and his Father's, rule were, well, suddenly, his land isn't "IsOlAtIoNiSt" at all, Lambert went on a diplomatic visit to Duscur, Sreng people lead raids, there's trade with Albinea... Then everything went to shit when Red Emperor's faction - helped by the evil sorcerers - ruined everything. The world was fine - not perfect but fine and could be improved - before Red Emperor and her sorcerers ruined it.

"Imperialism 101" dragon head and "Fire Emblem" dragon head try to bite each other because they are not compatible with each other, and the "Isekai" head can only exist if the other two are down.

The game cannot favor (it shouldn't lol) a lead over the other two and so the writing is riddled with plot holes to have every protagonist, somehow, have a point (even if their point is shit).

And since there is no objective truth "were either of the three countries + the church promoting isolationism or not" the Kusakihara's writing should, sometimes, state X, then Y, and never, ever, refute one or the other, because that would mean reflecting on one of the three marketable heads.

[fantasyinvader]

I think the problem is, the game was written so that the players would play detective. Even if we weren’t supposed to play every route ourselves, the expectation was for us to immerse ourselves in the setting and begin comparing notes to figure out the big picture of what is going on, who is right and who is wrong. That we would start documenting all the lore revealed in various supports, or library books, or NPC dialogue, or just little details in the setting we may notice.

The problem is that mystery stories generally come to a moment of denouement. A scene where the truth is revealed, the villain unmasked, the “I’d have gotten away with it if not for you meddling kids.” Houses, since we the players are meant to be the proverbial Scooby Gang, does not have that. We are on the other side of the screen while the characters are repeating their lines like a bunch of wooden theater kids.

The characters don’t feel like they actually live in Fodlan or are even paying attention to the story. This is very damning, as it inadvertantly gives characters making claims that we are meant to find out are wrong apparent legitimacy. In a well-written game, if Claude tried his “the Church is keeping Fodlan isolated from the rest of the world,” a character would set him straight by pointing out stuff like international trade existing or that other nations try to invade Fodlan which may have something to do with it not liking foreigners. Hell, it wouldn’t be Claude himself to later point out the diversity at Garreg Mach. Same thing with Edelgard’s many claims, easily debunkable with just a casual glance of the world around her.

But instead, the game gives her her soapbox. Her actions stop being a major issue after the reveal, and everyone feels bad that they’re fighting her like they all forgot about the events of White Clouds up until that point.

It’s not a believable setup. With the things Edelgard has done, and what she is doing, normal people wouldn’t have a problem fighting her. Her accusations would be called out. But it’s not, because that makes the game too one-sided. It’s not vague enough, people won’t pass around notes to figure out the full picture if we can understand it just by following along with the stories of the routes. The world and story feel like they are separated by a wall rather than fully integrated with each other, and the stories can come off as nonsensical within the full context of the setting.

And I get it, some audience need exposition. A lot of people don’t like it when game’s don’t hand it out, look at FF13 for instance. It’s why a fish out of water protagonist works, it serves to facilitate that exposition and Byleth works as such a protagonist. But since Byleth is silent and their arc is implied, they don’t react like a normal protagonist would and people take their silence as the game endorsing whatever path they are on when one of those paths is meant to be a villain path. People project onto Byleth rather than see them as their own character through the bits of characterization we do get, effectively erasing them.

The game tried to be smart but did it in the dumbest way possible. And as a result of this, we have people who believe the route that leads to tyranny is a people’s revolution, while the people’s revolution route in addition to the one that empowers the commoners the most protect the status quo while the protagonist of the last route is locked by the fandom into his early game ignorant self who want him to join the villainess. A well written game wouldn’t be misread like Three Houses is, but Houses is with the localization only making things worse.

I’m possibly getting Fortune’s Weave because I dig the sword and sandals aesthetic. If we could get a Fire Emblem lord that could pull off a Conan, I wouldn’t hold out for an Elric, I’d play that in a heartbeat but at least in Fortune’s Weave Conan wouldn’t look out of place. Hopefully it tries to be more direct rather than just serving out more of that 10k years worth of lore that the devs couldn’t fit into Houses like they did with Hopes. They write all that crap, but it led to such a poorly executed game that presented itself as smarter than it actually was.

[crushednugget]

One more thing I need to say is that it is and should be perfectly fine to enjoy things that are problematic and "impure". Idk why, but there is a growing sentiment that the things you enjoy have to be the most morally perfect thing ever and it's exhausting. That's not how the world works. It's unhealthy to expect everything to be squeaky clean because nothing is, really. Enjoying imperfect things does not reflect badly on you. Just enjoy what you enjoy and be honest about what it is.

[fantasyinvader]

The one thing I find interesting with the original Conan stories by Robert E. Howard is, well, the treatment of women in them. Sure, there's a lot of textual naked breasts in it, the man knew what people liked. But at the same time, these one-shot women are also depicted as being oppressed by their supposedly "civilized" societies. They are treated like property, sold off by their fathers, and it's used as symptom of the evils of civilization in general whereas Conan may be a thief, a pirate, a raider, etc but at least he's honest about it. There are women who are villainous themselves rather than them all being innocent saints waiting to be saved, others are leaders and proud queens. Conan gets his life saved by the pirate queen Belit's ghost as a showing of how she keeps her promise to him. You could argue the depiction is still problematic from a modern perspective, sure, but considering these stories were written in the 1930's they were ahead of their time in this regard in saying a society that treats women as commodities is just lying to itself about it's true, hypocritical nature.

Or take my beloved Elric cycle. There is a lot of stuff in the saga that could raise an eyebrow, but it's still worth reading. Why? Because, to me, it comes off like an ancient myth (before Moorcock started tying it into his Eternal Champion concept) rather than a fantasy story. Like a surviving fragment of some bronze-age pagan epic that details the destruction of the last world and the birth of the current one. It's not just a comforting polytheistic mythology telling humans how great they are and there's a plan of some divine creator, it depicts Elric, the strongest mage in centuries (but not holding a candle to those of ages past) as, for lack of a better term, the bitch of powers far beyond himself. Caught in a conflict between two competing cosmological forces that don't exactly have humanities best interests in mind while using a demon posing as a black runeblade for strength that Elric can never break free from. It paints the cosmos as scary and unsettling, to the point you'd break out in a sweat if "fate" had some sort of plan for you.

Some schools even teach Lord of the Rings is problematic. Lord of the goddamn Rings.

What I'm saying is that you're not going to experience new things, be exposed to new ideas in order to think new thoughts, unless you leave what you are comfortable with. Sometimes, you need to read something a little problematic, something that makes you feel like a kid hiding a copy of a Friday the 13th film. You don't have to agree with what it's saying, lord knows I don't agree with Starship Troopers despite loving the story, but just be willing to experience it.

Though, I do admit Stranger in a Strange Land made me feel uniquely dirty for reasons I can't properly explain.

I know of Moorcock's Epic Pooh essay, and while he does get Tolkien ass backwards I do feel he has a point when it comes to literature written simply to comfort the audience. It can lead to infantilization of said audience, however I would argue the issue lies more with audiences who do look for that comfort exclusively. I mean, after doing a lengthy or dense text I tend to jump on a book or two of lighter stuff afterwards. Some pulp adventure or something, but I do go back for the next big read. Like, I'm thinking of following up The Once and Future King with something different, like maybe The Republic. And the fact is, in terms of my favorite books I would probably make the Elric Saga and The Silmarillion share the third place spot on the podium for both having genuine mythological feels to them even if they are complete opposites otherwise.

Reading just things that comfort you, that align with your own values, isn't healthy. It's constraining yourself to an echo chamber. So, read things that may feel a bit icky. You'll be better for it, just remember that depiction does not equate to endorsement, and to keep in mind the era of which the stories were published. It's sad to damn a story that was ahead of it's time simply because it doesn't meet modern standards, not to mention how it fails to appreciate the progress towards those standards in the first place.

This goes for all media consumption.

[crushednugget]

Fortunes Weave is beginning to feel just as sexist as Kushikuhara’s Echoes but with racism (and possibly ableism?) on top of it. Echoes was an old game from the 90’s remade (the excuse people give it) what the hell is the excuse for this brand new game in 2026?! Did Kushikuhara have anything to do with Engage? If not that may be why I liked it. If so can we go back to that? Because FW sounds like 3H mixed with Echoes in the worst ways so far

You are correct! Engage does not have Kusakihara's name to it and you can absolutely feel it.

Honestly, similar to 3H, Echoes gets away with so much bs just because people like the game. That the misogyny in Echoes comes from its status as a remake of Gaiden is cope. Yes, some of Kaga's own sexism transitioned into Echoes, but Kusakihara and the development team added a lot of their own, too. For example: Celica being reduced to Alm's support instead of being an equal lord (and she is made dumber in Echoes, too), Berkut torching Rinea, women being glued to the ground in sexy positions, the witches all being victims (in Gaiden they were just there tbh), Faye's whole existence, Conrad stealing the show from Celica, Nuibaba's new sexy design (in Gaiden "she" was an ugly old man), and there is probably more.

Similiar with the tone deafness in regards to race in 3H. Almyra has always been a tone deaf portrayal of an oriental country. Their "culture" is to regularly invade their neighbouring country to flex their muscles. Oh, and in Nopes Nader wants to loot Faerghus (a country he helped getting invaded unprovoked) and he needs to be told by Lorenz, (you know, the white civilized noble) that looting is a big no-no. For some reason, 3H got away with it.

The signs that Kusakihara's writing has massive issues were always there. People chose to ignore them. It's not surprising that FW looks the way it does, assuming he was involved in writing FW that is...

[fantasyinvader]

I feel like it’s the result of another one of his gotcha moments.

People assume Fodlan is a stagnant society because of the crap that comes out of Edelgard and Claude’s mouths, but it really doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Fodlan has changed as the empire has splintered, the Alliance developed it’s unique power structure, and even the Insurrection of the Seven results in the Empire going from an absolute monarchy to an oligarchy with a figurehead monarch. But going back to the misconception, people also assumed that the Church had done Evil Church Thing #24 and prevented the advancement of technology to keep society in a medieval stasis. Once upon a time, people genuinely thought that Fodlan was meant to be backwards compared to the rest of the world. We get the DLC and the bans mentioned in the Shadow Library, but people were also pointing out how we can see those technologies being used in Fodlan despite the ban. We also had Flayn’s supports revealing opera wasn’t around at the Empire’s founding, or Petra’s with Ignatz wondering about his glasses.

People kept trying to frame Fodlan as being stuck in the dark ages, but we kept getting examples of it’s technology being around the early renaissance. Knowledge of the speed of light, for instance, didn’t come about until 1676. Eyeglasses with arms like Ignatz’s didn’t show up until 1727.

But then you had Almyra’s portrayal, and Brigid’s. Duscur got off light, and we had very little to go on about Dagda. The books in the library made the rest of the world look like it was much harder to live in than Fodlan as well. But people pointed to the ships in the Alliance capital having cannons and how they must be the pirates posing as the Almyran navy. Could very well have just been Alliance ships.

In the Nintendo Dream interview, the devs did own that Rhea tried to throttle back the speed Fodlan was advancing through it’s tech tree. That there was something unnatural about it, so she played it safe and tried to restrict technologies that could cause harm. But now with Fortune’s Weave? We’re seeing Dagda looking like some sort of sword and sandals setting where the likes of Conan the Barbarian or Elric of Melnibone would not look out of place rather than high fantasy like Middle-Earth.

If anything, it feels like it was always meant to be that Fodlan, due to Agartha speeding up it up, is more technologically advanced than the rest of the surface world. At least for humans. That it was something we were meant to pick up on from the clues available, and how it comes across as unnatural because of it.

But we never got to see much outside of Fodlan before this. A paralogue or two to Brigid or Sreng, but that’s it. We never got to see much whereas we were meant to immerse ourselves in Fodlan. Likewise, the characters did not talk at all about how advanced Fodlan was. Shamir didn’t, just how Fodlan is a more regulated but less conflict-prone. Cyril didn’t, he just talks about how Almyra doesn’t look after it’s people. Dedue doesn’t, Petra again comments on Cyril’s eyeglasses, and you would think Claude of all people would be gobsmacked by it but he’s not despite everything we know about Almyra paints them as this warrior culture that raids for funsies.

So this Fortune’s Weave feels more like a natural reveal given the few clues we got… but it feels like those clues were meant to be more important than what they ended up being. A sign of faulty writing to be sure.

[fantasyinvader]

I just got to the end of the Geppy-X demo.

They fucking gave the first half of the game away as a demo. You play the first 2 disks of the game (which isn't much because of how many anime cutscenes, voice clips, and each stage having it's own theme song with lyrics), get to the route split where one of your pilots sacrifices himself, and that's where the demo ends. The only thing I can complain about is how the demo didn't allow me to save right there (you can actually save after each level!) to continue my progress.

Gameplay wise, it's okay. Typical Japanese shooter, my character is a bit too big but changing between forms allows me to dodge damage, and you have to do this in order to avoid some attacks while getting hit cancels charging your shot. It's really a case where the presentation of the game is everything, but damn if it didn't go all out in that department.

[fantasyinvader]

Onto the second book of The Once and Future King, and right off the bat it’s making Merlyn feel sinister. Like, not the whimsical magician he was in the first book, here we have him helping Uther rape Arthur’s mother and kill her husband, while telling Arthur himself that rebellion is wrong for some pretty troubling reasons.

1) The king can’t be the aggressor in the conflict because how can one be the aggressor against their own property?

2) Siding with the people’s problems against the lord is like a murderer trying to justify themself because their victim was rich.

It doesn’t even feel like Merlyn is defending feudalism, where there are checks and balances in terms of duties and responsibilities that go both ways. If anything, it feels like he’s promoting more authoritarianism (Arthuritarianism?). And then you go back to the lessons Arthur was to learn from his animal transformations back in the first book. How the fish pushed a might makes right mentality the rest of the novel examines, how the hawks had this rigid hierarchy, how the ants were mindless workers who went to war when they were told, how the geese see no lines on the map, and how the badger’s tale justifies man ruling over all other beasts despite their origins in heaven.

This is supposed to be Arthur’s education before he becomes king, an education that Kay is not given because Merlyn said so. And going back to where I am in the book, Merlyn is trying to say war is bad unless the other side is the aggressor while shooting down more nuanced interpretations of it, like the other side’s aggression as a consequence of our actions. This is the guy who supposedly experiences time backwards, mentioning the likes of the Victorian era because of it, yet his mindset just does not feel like it reflects it. If anything, it’s justifying the might makes right mindset because Arthur is supposedly the rightful king because his father conquered Britain, and the people aren’t supposed to fight against their lord for the above mentioned reasons.

It feels like Arthur’s education was flawed from the getgo, and will lead to his tragic downfall… all because of Merlyn.

[fantasyinvader]

I finished the first part of The Once and Future King, The Sword in the Stone. Going from Tolkien's Simarllion to this was a big shift. I can only imagine the professor tearing his hair out at it, and part of me wondered if I should have started with my copy of Le Morte d'Arthur instead (but that wouldn't fit in my bag as well, and bringing a leather-bound book with gilded edges and a ribbon bookmark seems a tad pretentious even if I spent months chipping away at Les Mis during breaks there. I just thought the edition looked nice).

It was like reading the script to a Disney movie... no surprise Disney did end up adapting it. But I hear the later books in the tale grow progressively darker, so I might end up missing the Disney-like elements going forward. Made me want to rewatch Errol Flynn's Robin Hood though I don't need much of an excuse for that. It's a fantastic film, a perfect double-feature with The Mark of Zorro (1940).

[agoddamn]

Like what would Edelgard even do if someone sat her down and told her that humans invented Crests–humans actually stole Crests. 

Her entire conspiracy theory is that the lizard people are controlling us through Crests but we made Crests AND we decided that Crests have value. Crests were ALWAYS gonna have value because they do things that people consider useful, like the Gautiers having a massive Crest boner because they’re border guardians. Sure, realistically it’s possible, even probable, that a Gautier could control the border without a Crest–but a Crest will most likely be a nonzero amount of help. It’s not like the benefits of a Crest are imaginary. Dmitri is physically a fucking gorilla capable of ripping heads off with his bare hands because of his Crest. It would not be much exaggeration to venture that Dmitri survived the five-year gap partly because of the strength he got from his Crest. They have objective value.

Crests have a tangible usefulness that is always gonna have significant value in a medieval society largely concerned with combat. The perceived social value of Crests is not the Church’s fault when it was always gonna happen.

If Nemesis had killed Rhea on the field and the Church of Seiros had never come to be, Fodlan would have the exact same type of society that strongly valued Crests.

[sophitia-lune]

Edelgard’s hatred of Nabateans is so confusing to me. She blames them for everything even when it’s straight up not true. Why does she hate them more than she hates the Agarthans, who tortured her when she was a child?

And if it’s because she was brainwashed by the Agarthans, why does such a large chunk of her fanbase believe she was 100% correct in being racist against Nabateans??

The devs wanted her to simultaneously be a brutal conqueror and a brainwashed victim, and it makes for a very messy character imo.

[fantasyinvader]

It's something that got lost in the translation. To not go too deep into it, the game implies that Edelgard ignores the truth when it goes against her narrative. That her path is one of willful ignorance.

She was told the nobility was backed by the Church and behind the experiments, but she also has a scene with Thales where she makes it clear she knows Thales was behind them and Thales explains what they were for. You can access the C+ support required to enter Crimson Flower after this scene, where Edelgard repeats her narrative to you despite the game showing she knows the truth. In Hopes, Scarlet Blaze even had her admit that she ignored the Agarthans' influence over the nobility of the Empire and is confronted with there not being any evidence to back up her claims against Duke Aegir. Meanwhile, in Crimson Flower there's a scene with Hubert where he implies the Agarthans being behind the experiments, Edelgard's father was an Agarthan puppet and says that Edelgard must have already told you all of this.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Edelgard was told the Nabateans were to blame, that they were ruling Fodlan to the shadows, and if you present Edelgard with evidence to the contrary she would likely just ignore it. Likewise, the Japanese text is a bit more clear what her reforms involve, she believes that people needing to rely on others is a sign of how "twisted" the world is, so she wants to remove systems that the people can rely on such as the Church or the nobility's duties to the people so that the people will be forced to rely on their own strength in order to survive. Rhea providing support for the people, in Edelgard's eyes, just serves to encourage people to remain weak and dependent. And through it all, Edelgard centralizes power on herself if she wins rather than give power to the people, and those she gives power to are expected to focus on serving her.

[fantasyinvader]

I noticed something.

In Edelgard's Goddess Tower event, she says regarding the story of her parents meeting:

English: Isn't it? It's a shame that the lovely stories ended after I was born. For as long as I can remember, my mother had already been exiled from the capital.

Japanese: That’s true. It’s a shame it happened before I was born. By the time I was old enough to remember, my mother had already been exiled from the imperial capital…

So, Edelgard actually has NO memories of her mother Anselma. Anselma might as well be a stranger to her. It explains Anselma's desperation to reunite with her leading to the tragedy of Duscur.

But this spells out Anselma was exiled just after Edelgard was born, 9 years prior to the Insurrection. This puts the exile closer to the death of Dimitri's mother and the Agarthan posing as Cornelia infiltrating the Kingdom, where she would invite Anselma to come and introduce him to King Lambert. It means that Dimitri spent years with Anselma prior to the Tragedy of Duscur, explaining why he picked up her habits.

It also works with the Insurrection. Ionius tried to take back power from the families he took his concubines from he gave them in exchange. Anselma was exiled, which soured relations with her family House Arundel. But Ionius was already at the point of Anselma's exile, or at least shortly thereafter, beginning to consolidate power within the empire at least since Mercedes being born 4 years before Edelgard. So, why would Ionius stand by and let his supposedly "favorite" consort be exiled, an act that likely pissed off her family in addition to trying to take back the power he gave them?

Ionius is Edelgard's only source for how he met Anselma, a woman she never met. Ionius tells Edelgard he was a former student at Garreg Mach and met her mother when returning there... when it's revealed early in the game no imperial heir has attended in a long time and the fairytale Edelgard tells you is a legend that is said to have happened long ago (and what kind of fairytale romance ends with the woman becoming a consort exiled shortly after birthing their daughter, who then ends up marrying a foreign king?). Ionius is also Edelgard's source blaming Aegir for the experiments (despite Thales telling her directly why they did it), as well as Edelgard's version of history while Hubert confirms he was an Agarthan puppet. So, just another piece of misinformation Ionius tossed Edelgard's way.

So either Ionius exiled Anselma after Edelgard's birth, or it was Hubert's dad, who oversaw the harem and appointed Hubert as her vassal prior to the Insurrection and whose family's battalion just happen to wear Agarthan robes, who did it. This in turn pissed off Arundel, who would later join the Insurrection against Ionius but end up fleeing to the Kingdom at Cornelia's invitation. Lambert and Dimitri met Edelgard at Arundel's house, according to this scene

Childhood Memories (Blue Lions) - Event Gallery

Childhood Memories (Blue Lions) - Event Gallery

but Arundel was later body-snatched by Thales where he returned to the Empire while Cornelia turned Anselma against Lambert to set up the Tragedy. Anselma's joining this so she could meet her daughter for the first time since pretty much since Edelgard was born. And with the Japanese text making it clear that child!Edelgard being spoiled and stubborn was not a facade like the English text says, it gives us a bit of a profile about who Edelgard was before the experiments as well.

You take such a child, crank up the trauma, feed them misinformation and point them at your enemy and boom. You have Flame Emperor Edelgard.

[fantasyinvader]

I was thinking.

If the Hegemon Husk is Edelgard going mask-off, with Apex of the World serving to link her Azure Moon self to Crimson Flower, then what does it say about Azure Gleam and her transformation into said form?

I mean, if the Hegemon Husk is basically Edelgard laid bare, stripped of her cute girl exterior and false promises to reveal how monsterous she and her beliefs are, then in Hopes it basically making it clear. Edelgard is the same in Azure Gleam as she is in Azure Moon, which in turn makes her the same as her Crimson Flower incarnation under the hood. That Edelgard is still walking the animal path, as mentioned in Crimson Flower, in service to her ideals which would reveal she lost her humanity long ago. And the animal path isn’t just that Edelgard is ignorant of the truth, but actively ignoring it which aligns to Scarlet Blaze.

Edelgard admits she ignored how much influcene the Agarthans had over the imperial nobility, but still starts the war against the Church the Agarthans wanted her to.

Reforms are happening in the kingdom that align with Edelgard’s own reforms and are backed by the Church, but Edelgard still starts the war supposedly over a desire for a world of merit.

There is no evidence linking Aegir to the experiments, but Edelgard wants to punish him anyway.

Three basic points right there, before Edelgard starts the war, that dismantle her narrative but Edelgard still decides to wage the war anyway. And it gets even worse when you look at Shez.

You get the supports with Hubert, which reveal how much of a sham Edelgard’s reforms actually are with Edelgard only seeking token commoners while still favoring the nobility. You have missions such as “attack the merchants to conscript them.” The route makes it very clear that if Edelgard appears to act benevolently, it’s done with a transactional mindset that says that doing this benefits her. And finally, there’s her saying she will let Dimitri go if he stands aside, but then continues the war afterwards especially with the good ending mentioning the conquest of the Kingdom.

In Crimson Flower, there’s more of a case for Byleth/the player not knowing what they are doing. In Scarlet Blaze, there’s less of a case for it as Edelgard isn’t trying to sway Shez but rather just bought his services. And this just goes into how Shez is not a leader but a follower despite their potential character arc when recruiting Byleth and fighting off Epimenides for control of their own body. In Scarlet Blaze, Shez follows Edelgard when she’s a villain from the start. In Golden Wildfire, Shez follows Claude even after he becomes a villain partway through. In Azure Gleam, Dimitri’s fall happens after the game is over with his punitive campaign the Empire for the war and Shez once again follows. If Byleth returing to fight Edelgard in Houses is framed by the game itself as the dawn, Shez’s battle theme being called Dark Dawning serves to illustrate that Shez’s presence is Fodlan down a darker path no matter which lord they end up serving. No leading the Black Eagles in opposing Edelgard, no helping Dimitri realize his duties to the living and how to live for himself by being a king that supports the people, and no helping Claude realize he was wrong about Rhea and the Church while seeking non-violent means to unite the world as per his dream.

And as for Edelgard, she’s the same across every route in the Fodlan games. She doesn’t grow, change, she just keeps walking her path despite the evidence speaking out against her. She’s already a monster, and Aymr’s inclusion makes it clear it was the Agarthans who turned her into a monster long before we ever encountered her. It’s not becoming the Hegemon Husk that finally strips her of her remaining humanity, she began to lose it long ago with the experiments and her decision to conquer Fodlan. In Houses, the animal path symbolism made her out to be a slave to her goals but there was still the mentions of how she wavered at Garreg Mach before deciding to go through with the war. By starting the war, justifying the suffering she’s going to cause by saying things will be better once she has absolute power as a hegemonic autocrat. By starting the war, that was her loss of humanity. It’s when she stopped having the capacity to act benevolently or rationally, instead pursuing her desires while ignoring the blood on her hands, and needs to be imposed by Byleth, who represents the dawn and Nirvana. And even when defeated, Edelgard will choose the darkness and oblivion rather than walk Byleth’s path in the light.

Kinda makes me wonder if Shez’s lack of appearance in Three Houses proper will be explained by him being in Dagda during Fortune’s Weave.

[fantasyinvader]

Fuck you Nox, you vague-posting bastard. You knew that The Lady was possessed by Phantom, who was threatening to take her over. Yet you agreed to work with her to destroy CODE, the organization trying to fight the Nightmares. In the premonition, you betrayed your whole "hate the organization, not the agent" thing after you infected a bunch of kids with Nightmares in order to bring about a disaster and killed Agents 5 and 6. Now in this timeline? You decided to attack CODE HQ when the Catastrophe Nightmare is attacking, not bother to explain yourself to Baku leading to Zero dying, all so you could destroy CODE's technology… the technology that is able to fight back against the Nightmares now that they're invading the real world.

And you decide "I'm done, I'm not fighting anymore"? You pathetic POS, how are you a worse shitstain than Kusaka? Like seriously, you know The Lady has merged with the Phantom Nightmare and you just don't think "Gee, maybe her pushing me to destroy CODE had something to do with her being partially possessed by this Nightmare to the point she canonically hasn't slept in 20 years. And that's the thing, if Zero not providing back-up to you on a mission is why you decided to do this, how petty are you? You go on and on about how evil this organization is, but you were still the bastard who would decide to sacrifice a bunch of children in order to take them down in the premonition AFTER you acted as the teacher to indoctrinate Baku and 6 when they were kids.

Sure, you could argue that CODE's attempts to use the power of Nightmares to fight them is what caused a bunch of this shit, but you have actively made things worse in both timelines and now you think you can just walk away while Fujimi is willing to help hide your crimes in order to get you to fight?

You are, without a doubt, the worst secondary Rider ever. I wish we were still in the early Heisei era where the show would brutally kill you off near the end but this is Reiwa so you'll be redeemed and given a new power-up to show you are no longer powered by darkness or something and we're supposed to ignore your sins.

[fantasyinvader]

I mean, I defend Michinaga from Geats, considering how the show validated fighting against the Desire Grand Prix while Tycoon wanted to keep it going until he got his wish granted. Michinaga was willing to side with the villains to burn the DGP down because he was the guy who realized how rotten it was from day 1, and even when he was siding with the villains he was using their assumption he was just an idiot to play them whereas while Keiwa seemed nice the show did set up his inner darkness and how he seemed to lack some level of empathy when he wanted everyone else to sacrifice their chance at a wish during the kick the can game while being surprised they called him out on it. Keiwa couldn’t understand that others may have wishes they wanted to see fulfilled that weren’t simply them being greedy.

But with Nox? The guy goes on about how there’s a darkness within CODE and the organization needs to be destroyed. It’s pretty well established his own nightmare is darkness, so really it seems like he had a pretty black and white worldview when he was an agent. When CODE refused him backup, he decided the organization were not good guys, so began working to dismantle it. The fucker knows Nightmares killed the dinosaurs and have wiped out civilizations. In the premonition timeline, he had no problem with a nightmare that would cause a meteor that would wipe out the human race to hit Earth, not to mention infecting a bunch of kids traumatized by natural disasters with a nightmare to manifest a really strong nightmare in the real world to help take down CODE.

3 was a fucking lunatic on a powertrip, believing in brainwashing for the greater good, but the show never wanted us to like 3. Nox is completely different. This is the guy who uses the power of his shadow nightmare, evolved it into Midnight Shadow, but still tries to view things as black and white. CODE had darkness so it must be destroyed, it’s technology must be destroyed because it uses the power of nightmares to fight them, and in the worst case scenario he’s willing to sacrifice children to take CODE down. The show makes it clear that there were good people in CODE as well who were working to protect the world, but once CODE is taken out Nox just calls it quits despite the lingering threat of CODE Somnia uniting everyone’s dreams which is allowing the nightmares far more power to act. As far as I’m concerned, Nox is just as bad as in the premonition timeline and hopefully someone smacks some sense into him... if not get his neck snapped like Kusaka.

With Faiz, Kusuka used the cast’s inability to open up and communicate with each other to his own advantage. He created the misunderstandings people fought over, and in the end dies alone with Kiba stealing his belt. But Nox? He could explain himself yet doesn’t, just vaguely says stuff about the darkness within CODE while expecting others to pick up his hidden meaning. He’s the one refusing to communicate like a normal fucking human, even in the indirect way Japanese people are known to do that Faiz used as a plot point, all while escalating his actions to the point in any other season he would be a straight up villain.

[fantasyinvader]

Fuck you Nox, you vague-posting bastard. You knew that The Lady was possessed by Phantom, who was threatening to take her over. Yet you agreed to work with her to destroy CODE, the organization trying to fight the Nightmares. In the premonition, you betrayed your whole "hate the organization, not the agent" thing after you infected a bunch of kids with Nightmares in order to bring about a disaster and killed Agents 5 and 6. Now in this timeline? You decided to attack CODE HQ when the Catastrophe Nightmare is attacking, not bother to explain yourself to Baku leading to Zero dying, all so you could destroy CODE's technology… the technology that is able to fight back against the Nightmares now that they're invading the real world.

And you decide "I'm done, I'm not fighting anymore"? You pathetic POS, how are you a worse shitstain than Kusaka? Like seriously, you know The Lady has merged with the Phantom Nightmare and you just don't think "Gee, maybe her pushing me to destroy CODE had something to do with her being partially possessed by this Nightmare to the point she canonically hasn't slept in 20 years. And that's the thing, if Zero not providing back-up to you on a mission is why you decided to do this, how petty are you? You go on and on about how evil this organization is, but you were still the bastard who would decide to sacrifice a bunch of children in order to take them down in the premonition AFTER you acted as the teacher to indoctrinate Baku and 6 when they were kids.

Sure, you could argue that CODE's attempts to use the power of Nightmares to fight them is what caused a bunch of this shit, but you have actively made things worse in both timelines and now you think you can just walk away while Fujimi is willing to help hide your crimes in order to get you to fight?

You are, without a doubt, the worst secondary Rider ever. I wish we were still in the early Heisei era where the show would brutally kill you off near the end but this is Reiwa so you'll be redeemed and given a new power-up to show you are no longer powered by darkness or something and we're supposed to ignore your sins.