All That is Beautiful: a FE3H meta
I have been watching Kita Nash's excellent stream of the Scarlet Blaze route in Three Hopes, and there was a support conversation that got me thinking about beauty, goodness, and body image in Fódlan.
The Ferdinand and Bernadetta support in Three Hopes is very funny and cute. Ferdie challenges Bernie to a plant collecting contest, and like the most precious little fool in the world, he collects "edible plants" based purely on whether they look pretty.
This is, of course, extremely silly. But if you think about it, Ferdinand's belief that any plant that is beautiful must also be good actually follows directly from what he would believe as a devout follower of the Church of Seiros. There is a line in the Book of Seiros that reads as follows in the English edition:
"The goddess cares for and protects all that is beautiful in this world."
The excellent Teaspoon Translations gives us this direct translation of the Japanese edition:
"The Lord considers all beautiful things to be good."
If Ferdinand truly believes in this teaching, then it would actually follow that because the plants are beautiful, they must be good. And then I thought, what are the other implications of this belief? How does this apply to people, rather than plants?
It is implied that both Edelgard and Hubert consider themselves to be ugly. They both keep themselves completely covered below the neck at all times. Even in her "Summer Edelgard" art, unlike all the other FE girls, she wears a one-piece bathing suit, not a bikini. In Fire Emblem Heroes, Edelgard refers to her power as "hideous strength." In his support chain with Bernadetta, Hubert says that he knows his appearance is frightening, and if you choose him as the competitor for the White Heron Cup, he describes the sight of himself dancing as "grotesque." As former devout believers in the Church who have now turned against it, they likely believe that because they have forsaken the Goddess's protection and care, they have forsaken their beauty, as well.
If the Goddess cares for and protects everything that is beautiful, then if you stop being beautiful, what happens to the Goddess's care and protection? Likely many Fódlaners raised in the Church of Seiros live with the fear that if they lose their beauty, they will lose the Goddess's favor. Manuela, a devout believer, is preoccupied with the supposed loss of her beauty. Ferdinand says at teatime that he grooms his eyebrows every day. Many of the supports among female characters (Hilda/Lysithea and Dorothea/Ingrid come to mind) are about makeup and the quest to look pretty. Of course, some of this has to do with the importance of marriage for the livelihood of women in Fódlan, but even characters like Lysithea and Annette who don't have marriage on their minds are pulled into the obsession with beauty.
In conclusion, I think body image issues and an unhealthy obsession with appearances are rampant in Fódlan because of this particular teaching from the Church, reflected in people like Edelgard and Hubert who think they must be ugly because they have turned away from the goddess, and in people who want to earn the goddess's favor by being as beautiful as they can.
(Naturally, all of the beautiful plants that Ferdie picked were poisonous.)
It could also be said that some of this is seen in Dimitri. It's less blatant, so this is more my own opinion based on his appearance than anything obliquely supported by canon, but - consider his hair and the differences in how it looks through his life: in his childhood (neat and maintained, likely by someone else - "beautiful"), then in his adolescence as he struggles with his own doubts and demons (a bit disheveled, though clearly he is trying his best, and presumably now doing it himself and not entirely confident in his own abilities), and finally, after his breakdown and descent into mental darkness and despair (wild, unkempt, uncontrolled). As he mentally strays further from the light of faith/goodness, his appearance reflects the same. (And it's interesting that he never makes an attempt to control it even in the latter chapters of Azure Moon, though that may just be due to game/development time constraints.)
(And more than just with Dorothea, in Ingrid, we see her fear of being forced into a loveless marriage due to her Crest reflected in her uncertainty of doing those things society says will make her more beautiful - particularly when she resists being "prettified" by Mercedes and Annette. In her mind, being pretty is part of what is expected of her as a desirable marriage candidate [exactly what she does not want to be, but also knows she must dutifully accept if told], and the only resistance she feels she has in her power is keeping herself "plain" [by the standards of those around her].)
...Sorry to add so much rambling, but I loved your thoughts too much not to chime in with my own!
