Take as much time with this as you need of course, I'm sure you've got lots of other asks to get through, but if you find the time, what do you think the dynamics between an Ashegrid (Ashe and Ingrid) family would be? Baldr and Darling seem pretty different since she's so exuberant and he's so reserved for one, but I'd also be curious to see how you think Ingrid would handle Darling's storybook optimism and how Ashe would get along with Baldr given their similar penchants for archery but very different personalities. If you have the time I'd love to hear your thoughts! These characters are all so fun :D
Finally got here after many, many asks. Thanks for your patience!
🩶House Gaspard/Galatea💚
New hat! Since Ingrid doesn't have a specific pattern on her clothes, we'll assume she found the closest appropriate patterned fabric to sew into the lining.
🏹Ashe and Baldr🐾
First and foremost, the fact Ashe is adept at caring for children would make Baldr's early years fairly easy, even after the introduction of a baby sister during his "Terrible Twos." By default, Baldr is the kinda kid whose first word was "no." Like Ingrid, Ashe would teach Baldr the importance of caring not just for himself but for others as well. Having a little sister would give him a head start, for sure, but the training his received in archery relatively young would also aid him on his journey.
Archery meant hunting, hunting meant food, and food meant a healthy and satisfied family. From his father, he'd learn to be a provider to those in need, amplifying his default self-sufficient nature and the value he finds in hard work. Ashe would also, likely, encourage his son to take his sister with him and teach her as well, to be that big brother role model she needs. Much to his chagrin, Baldr would accept. Ultimately, this would work in his favor, as his little sister would not only learn to work hard, too, but also know how to provide for herself.
The last thing he'd ever want is his baby sister to end up like those damsels and princesses locked away in towers from their storybooks. If a mythical beast were to ever take her hostage, he's sure she'd be able to escape on her own. For as many opinions as he'd have of Ashe's tales of chivalry and heroics, those stories would still hold a special place in his heart, as would he.
🪽Ingrid and Darling⚜️
I imagine Ingrid being one of the few Blions mamas capable of taming Darling's eccentric nature. Some parts of heroic tales really should remain as part of the story and not copied word for word. The daughter of the king's appointed knight and dear friend being accused of thievery or trespassing? Regardless of her reasons, it's not a good look.
Darling wouldn't really understand well at first why her mother would return from a day on the job a little disheartened, but would do her upmost to cheer her up. Ingrid would not tell her why, focusing more on Darling and the family instead. Every now and again, though, a sigh might slip out here and there.
Behaviour like Darling's would likely reflect badly on her as a knight, and gossip spreads like wildfire among the army. Ingrid may find it difficult to explain what that all means to her daughter in the beginning. All Darling really would understand is that her mom is upset and it probably has to do with her. That would make her sad initially, but with time, she'd understand.
It's not that Ingrid would stifle her daughter's creativity. The importance of temperance would simply need to be cultivated alongside it. Having had experience dealing with the other members of the Faerghus Four - particularly one redheaded problem - she'd likely have to find the right way to work on a compromise.
Their stories showed examples of heroes who not only paid attention to the physical needs of the people, but also the emotional needs as well. So, if Darling wanted to be a true hero, she'd have to be careful that what she does in the name of justice doesn't trample the innocent - physically or emotionally. This would resonate with Darling a lot easier, and with time, she would have a better grasp on what she was being taught.
My Analysis of the Best Paired Endings in 3H (Part 20: Non-AM Ingrid/Ashe)
Felix: If I were to die here, would you say something like you did when it was my brother? "That's the true end for a knight."
First things first, I personally think Rodrigue's comment came off substantially worse in Japanese than it did in the localization. In English, his reaction came off more as passive acceptance. Like, "well at least he died so honorably". In Japanese, I don't think it was quite as passive. The part "だ" at the end of the sentence implied the expectation or ideal of what a knight's end should be.
Dimitri: …And you would hold up such a painful end as an ideal?
Ingrid: Painful end…? Even if it's Your Highness speaking, I cannot let that pass. Glenn gave his life for you. Yet, to put it that way…!
Dimitri: You didn't witness his final moments. …That's why you can say that.
Ingrid: …No matter what Your Highness says, he will forever be the ideal knight to me, the person to aspire to.
That was also what Ingrid thought of as the ideal death. It's how she hoped to die, when the time came. And at the very least, that probably seemed better to her than dying as a bored and lonely housewife to some nobleman she had to marry for financial reasons.
Ingrid: Now that I have parted ways with my father, there is nothing to hinder my dream. However, even if I become a knight in the future, deep inside my heart… I feel like something will always remain blocked. As someone born not as a knight but as a noble, I wonder if there was a role for me to fulfill…
In VW, Ingrid runs away from home to pursue her dream of becoming a knight. The Japanese word she used in her A-Support with Byleth was "つかえる" (tsukaeru). It means "to be blocked" or "to be obstructed." In this context, it conveys the idea of being unable to move forward emotionally or mentally. She says this no matter what route you choose. Even in AM, she had doubts about knighthood.
I believe AM!Ingrid is probably pretty happy. The Kingdom doesn't collapse, Dimitri survives to become a righteous king, she stays on good terms with her father, she can pursue her own goals instead of just getting married, and her childhood friends Felix and Sylvain are alive and well (unless you let them die in Classic Mode, I guess).
However, I also know that her non-AM endings—where she doesn't become a knight—are very popular and many consider them better than her AM endings. I completely understand why, and I actually agree with that notion very strongly. I don't think Ingrid becoming a knight after the war is necessarily terrible, especially if she has a life partner. I just think she probably experiences more positive character development and personal growth in Verdant Wind than Azure Moon.
Ingrid: ...Your Highness. I will not throw away my life for someone else's sake. ...However, would you permit me to live for someone's sake, Your Highness? Not in the sense of throwing away my life — I want to dedicate my life to you.
Dimitri: ...Wait. How should I interpret that?
Ingrid: ...? However you like, Your Highness.
In Ingrid's A-Support with Dimitri, you learn that her dream of becoming a knight was probably influenced heavily by her feelings for him. She probably had a crush on him ever since they were kids and she fantasized about being the Kyphon to his Loog. She probably thought that if she pledged her life a knight, she could be by his side, almost like a wife. And she sincerely thought that she wouldn't mind dying for him, either. It'd just be dying for the person she loved.
Dimitri: Ingrid. Once this battle is over, I want you to… ………………。...As a knight, I want you to support me. … I've been thinking of saying that for a while. We get along well, don't we?
Ingrid: … As a knight? Um, well, no! It's nothing! Of course, even without being told, I intend to fight for Your Highness… I mean, for our country.
In her A-Support, she told Dimitri that she was finally able to move on from Glenn's death now because of him. And she basically proposed to him. But he turned her down, only asking her to be his knight, not his wife. She was disappointed, but still accepted. And she serves as a knight to House Blaiddyd in most of her AM paired endings.
Ingrid: Whatever the path, I will fight for my lord and believe in him. ……!
In VW, Dimitri was going down a dark path, and he was willing to sacrifice all of his childhood friends just to satisfy his personal grudge against Edelgard. An unrecruited Ingrid still clung to her dream and chose to go along with whatever path her lord chose. And it's definitely portrayed as negative development for her.
Ingrid: I apologize, Your Highness… I am not… like that person…
Dimitri: Ingrid…….
I don't know why the localization changed Ingrid's VW death quote so much. But in Japanese, it gives off a completely different meaning than in English. She was, of course, referring to Glenn. It implies that she didn't feel like she could live up to being the ideal knight. When it truly came down to it, she realized that ideal wasn't what she aspired to, and she really wasn't content to lay down her life for Dimitri.
Felix: Those who want to die, step forward. …I'll cut you all down at once.
VW was absolutely NOT Felix's ideal death. His ideal death was to spend his life with Sylvain and grow old and die peacefully alongside him. Sylvain is actually the only partner Felix can't end up with in VW because he feels too guilty about living for himself. But left unrecruited, Felix will fight very hard to survive.
Felix: Gasping for air…… This place ……My place to die……
Dimitri: ……Felix.
Felix's VW death quote is very interesting in Japanese. The first time he used the word "place" he used "ところ" (tokoro) and the second time he used the word "場所" (basho). "Basho" primarily refers to a physical location. "Tokoro" is more flexible and versatile. It is often used in expressions related to time or states of being.
Sylvain: Finally… I can go to the place where they are…
Sylvain also used "tokoro" when he died in CF. This is the way I interpreted Felix's Japanese VW death quote. He was having a vision of being someplace else. Like an afterlife place. And he realized that the physical place he was in was where he was going to die.
Sylvain: Well… this is fate for you. Sorry, but… quietly accept it.
Sylvain's VW battle dialogue is a bit colder in Japanese. He tells the enemy to just accept their fate, the way he thought he had to when it came to his arranged marriage. He realized it's kill or be killed. And he didn't want to die. He apologized with the word "悪い" (warui). Specifically, the word translates to "bad" or "evil." But it can also describe moral judgments or expressions of regret. Like "my bad".
Sylvain: Hey, Your Highness… enough…let's put an end to the bad dream, yeah……?
Sylvain's unrecruited death quote in VW is completely different in Japanese. In English, they just reused his Classic Mode death quote for some reason I can't understand. But in Japanese, it's interesting because the standard word for "nightmare" is "悪夢" (akumu). It is the common way to refer to a frightening or distressing dream during sleep. But Sylvain used "悪い夢" (warui yume).
While grammatically correct, it's not frequently used to describe nightmares that way in everyday language. Sylvain's dream was to die alongside Felix. But not THIS way. And in Japanese, he could only cope by telling himself that it was all just a bad dream.
Dimitri: ………………。
There are many ways to interpret Dimitri's response to Sylvain's death. Unlike with Felix and Ingrid, he didn't say his name out loud. But I don't think it was because he felt less emotion when Sylvain died. Because he also just says "……." for Mercedes. But with Sylvain, it's a much longer ellipsis. Personally, I think that Sylvain's dying words were so disturbing that he was just rendered speechless.
Felix: …I've known that boar prince since before birth. Before I knew it, he was always by my side… Maybe he was even my close friend.
Byleth: Maybe?
Felix: …I didn't understand his hatred or his agony toward the Empire at all. If it were me… Could I have saved him? Could I have stopped him?
After Dimitri's death, Felix used the term "親友" (shinyuu). It means "close friend" or "best friend." The localization chose "best friend". But in this context, I personally believe he was using it to mean "close friend". "Shinyuu" implies a close friendship, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they are your single closest friend like "best friend" does. Felix was saying that he used to consider himself to be close to Dimitri. But in hindsight, maybe they were never really as close as he thought they were, because he never truly understood his feelings.
Sylvain: There's nothing left after he wields his lance. It's like being hit by a great storm. …What drives him to that extent is probably his hatred toward the Empire, after all.
Byleth: Wasn't he different before?
Sylvain: Yeah... Maybe it's just that we didn't know him back then.
Sylvain has a similar line in CF where he admits that maybe they didn't really know Dimitri that well, after all. He used "we", so he was definitely including Felix and Ingrid along with himself.
Ingrid: I have known His Highness since childhood, but… I have never seen him like that before. The person we have known until now seems completely different…
And after the Holy Tomb, Ingrid admitted that she'd never seen that side of Dimitri before. She may have thought she was in love him, but she was in love with an idealized image of him based on who she knew as a kid. Not the person he really was as an adult.
Ingrid: Among the soldiers we captured in the previous battle, there were quite a few who served His Highness. One of them told me that the Empire was involved in the "Tragedy of Duscur." If that's true, then perhaps I should have fought alongside His Highness in the army as well…
(Option 1) Byleth: Why?
Ingrid: I also… lost the person who was most important to me in that incident.
After the battle at Gronder in VW, Ingrid made it clear that Glenn was the most important person in the world to her. He was the reason she felt guilty about not fighting alongside Dimitri with the Kingdom.
(Option 2) Byleth: Do you regret it?
Ingrid: No, not now. I actually think it's better that I'm part of this army. We will carry on the wishes of those who perished. We won't let the Empire's atrocities happen again.
You gain Support points if you ask her if she regrets her decision. And she doesn't. She's glad that she survived. She spent so long idealizing a knight's death. But when it came down to it, she was glad that she didn't die mindlessly following the orders of her king. This is especially poignant if you didn't recruit her childhood friends Felix and Sylvain, who did die painfully, never fulfilling their own dreams.
Ingrid: What will happen to Faerghus… to Fódlan, once this battle is over?
Byleth: There will be peace.
Ingrid: Peace… you say. I don't wish for such grand things. But… I just want a world where people are no longer dragged into conflict and schemes, where there is no suffering, no loss of life. No… I believe it's our duty as survivors to create such a world.
Ingrid experiences very positive character growth when she lets go of her childhood dream to become a knight and finds a new purpose.
王道 (Ōdō):
-王 (Ō) means "king" or "monarch," while 道 (dō) means "way" or "path."
-王道 generally refers to the "right" or "proper" way of doing things, often associated with traditional or conventional norms, values, and principles.
-It can also refer to the "path of the king" or the ideal path of leadership that embodies virtues such as wisdom, benevolence, and justice.
-王道 emphasizes legitimacy, morality, and adherence to established rules and traditions in governance or leadership.
The developers said the CF represented 覇道 (Hadō) and AM represented 王道 (Ōdō). In that case, VW would be somewhere in-between. 王道 emphasizes moral, legitimate, and traditional leadership principles, whereas 覇道 suggests a more aggressive pursuit of dominance, often without regard for moral or ethical considerations. The positive side of AM is that Dimitri eventually does become a benevolent monarch.
Dimitri: Ashe, what do you think a knight is?
Ashe: Huh? Someone who risks their life to protect the people, the king, and ultimately, the country…?
Dimitri: Indeed… Many say that's what a knight should be… But the reality isn't so beautiful. Ultimately, a knight is someone who kills. The chivalric code preaches loyalty only to control knights and prevent them from betraying their liege.
But the downside is perhaps that it ends too conventionally. AM overall sticks to the "proper" and traditional way of doing things, which Claude was opposed to. And I would say that Claude was opposed to those traditions for good reason.
Ingrid & Ashe (Non-AM)
Ingrid pleaded for the survival of the confiscated Galatea territory and was appointed its new lord. To support her, Ashe headed to Galatea territory. There, he faced the cold gaze of the people directed towards Ingrid, who had once fled from the Galatea family. Ashe supported Ingrid devotedly and worked hand in hand to reform the territory and improve agricultural techniques. Gradually, as people witnessed their efforts, the attitude of the residents softened. Eventually, the two, who had come to love each other, received a grand blessing from the residents and held a simple yet lively wedding ceremony.
I still think that Ashe is a fantastic partner for Ingrid in VW. And from an objective standpoint, I do think that this is a better ending than their AM counterpart. I think that helping Galatea become more fertile would be more fulfilling for both Ingrid and Ashe than becoming knights. But in VW, Ingrid's childhood friend group is pretty much decimated, which is a high price for her to pay.
My Ingrid/Ashe piece for the Color-Me-Fodlan zine! They were in the add-on ship zine.
I had so much fun with this! I really challenged myself on the pose and background for this one. And what's more romantic then giving your crush their favorite book with a beautiful rose inside to show your interest, hmm? 😉📖🌹
Thanks so much for letting me be a part of this project!
