I tag like .5% of the things I reblog sorry

[weeefe3h]

One thing that lowkey annoys me about Crimson Flower; if you kill Claude and Hilda you have no narrative consequences. Like yeah some of the Golden Deer get a little bummed (and I do mean a little bummed. As in some of them might throw in a line that they're sad Claude's dead (unless your Lorenz and you mock Claude for losing and get sad you can't call him an idiot to his face wow fuck you too then), nothing on Hilda at all since NotALord, and that's about it), but no one really acknowledges how bad a move it actually is.

Like.

Not only have you killed the crown prince of a hostile, enormous, neighboring continent (and he all but spells out for you that that's what he is by the way! And you let Nader, the strongest general of that continent, get away to relay this to the king and queen!), but you also kill the beloved daughter of the (explicitly stated) only house who are warding them off (and remember, Holst - the general in charge of fighting off the Almyrans - is repeatedly shown to love Hilda more than anything else. She defended the border once and he tries to give her his entire inheritance for cryin' out loud). This is on top of you fighting 1/3 of your land's people as well as a shadow force that you only kinda know the full strength of.

And remember, Claude only thought about what would happen if he won or lost, not if he lived or died (since he wouldn't think you would kill him, since he gives you a pretty big incentive to keep him alive). He only thought about lowering the Alliance's involvement in the war to a minimum if he and Hilda lived. He never thought to try and mitigate Almyra's chances of starting another war, nor of placating Holst in the case of Hilda dying since he was so sure she would retreat if things got too dangerous. But you just kill them both and nothing happens.

Like, dude, Claude isn't Dimitri! You can't just kill him and the nation falls, the dude is the prince. His king father and queen mother are very much alive and would be very much pissed that you killed their son, and now they have an older brother border guardian who 1) is undoubtedly enraged that he lost his beloved little sister and 2) can be persuaded to let them just barge in, if not have him join forces entirely.

Like, zoinks Scoob.

[weeefe3h]

WELL WELL WELL

[raxistaicho]

Why Edelgard didn’t JUST reform the Empire

A recent discussion-slash-argument I had on Gamefaqs brought to the forefront of my thoughts this classic take from Edelgard’s detractors: she should have just reformed the Empire and not invaded Leicester and Faerghus!

For several reasons, this wouldn’t have worked, and I’ll be hitting on the two most prominent reasons right here.

Note that I’ll be assuming Edelgard’s reforms work and that the Agarthans do not interfere or stir chaos in Fodlan elsewhere. The notion that Edelgard’s reforms would be successful is already dubious enough without their influence involved.

“Fodlan? Not my problem!”

The most immediate issues I take with this complaint is that it assumes Edelgard should just mind her own business and keep to the Empire. Or, as her detractors put it, she should respect that she doesn’t get to decide what’s best for other people.

This isn’t just inconsistent with only her character - she’s not the type to ignore injustice just because it’s outside the scope of her sovereignty - it ignores that ALL of Fodlan’s leaders, would-be or current, believe they know what’s best for Fodlan, and their intended reach extends beyond the scope of their sovereign boundaries.

Claude doesn’t just want Leicester and Almyra to come together in peace, he wants all of Fodlan to join hands with their neighbors, in Almyra, in Duscur, in Brigid, and in Dagda.

Dimitri wants to end the cycle of the strong oppressing the weak, and while he never explicitly espouses spreading that beyond the Kingdom, his nature as a man who can’t tolerate injustices would invariably lead him to want to enforce that desire beyond the boundaries of the Kingdom.

And Rhea seeks to shake Fodlan’s current society to its very core. Resurrecting the goddess Sothis and delivering Fodlan’s children back into her hands would almost certainly obliterate Fodlan as all those living in it know it.

For all three of these individuals, their ambitions leave no room for those that would deny the change they seek. Dimitri seeks to change the hierarchies of Fodlan, and Claude wants to oppose the bedrock of Fodlan’s society, and Rhea would return Fodlan to the days where it was governed by Nabateans. Would they halt their paths when innocents try to reject it? You don’t have to be evil to reject societal change, just sufficiently scared and uninformed.

Edelgard is only different from Dimitri and Claude in that she is willing to accept this truth and force her dreams to fruition. She is only different from Rhea in that her ambition is not a hopeless one.

Still against the world.

Even if she went about them peacefully and were done successfully, Edelgard’s reforms would still make her the enemy of the rest of Fodlan, and it all stems from how tightly the system of Crests, the nobility, and the church all tie together, and how Edelgard’s war upon the first two elements inevitably makes her an enemy of the third.

Firstly, for more details on how tightly-woven these three aspects of Fodlan’s foundational pillars are, I invite you to read a most excellent Reddit post by one Volossya. It would save me time to not have to re-iterate their arguments.

Rhea created the the Church of Seiros, the mythology of Crests, and the bedrock of Fodlan’s noble class for two purposes; to maintain peace and stability in Fodlan until she could resurrect Sothis, and to protect the Nabatean survivors. Recall that Rhea believes the people losing faith in the nobility would lead all of Fodlan to chaos. Recall also that in the Seiros mythology, the Crests are a literal mark of the Goddess’s approval.

Would it not reflect poorly upon the Church of Seiros and the noble class in the other lands if Edelgard reformed the nobility, allowed hired ministers and uplifted commoners to have positions of authority in her Empire, and denounced Crests as a symbol of inherited, unjust superiority over the Crestless, and had her reforms work and lead the Empire to a brighter age?

Edelgard denouncing the gifts of the Goddess would inherently be a heretical act, for which Rhea would have to respond or risk the doctrine of the Church of Seiros, an organization she believes is crucial for upholding peace in Fodlan, being seriously questioned. After all, surely no nation that turns its back on the Goddess’s gifts could prosper.

The noble class in the Kingdom and the Alliance would begin to fear the commoners of their own lands beginning to wonder why THEY have to obey their noble masters if those in the Empire did not (there’s real-world historical precedence for this in that the other nations of Europe began the War of the First Coalition against France partly as a response to the French Revolution overthrowing its noble class and their fears that the same would happen in their own lands).

There’s a very real possibility that Edelgard peacefully reforming the Empire would still have led to civil war in Fodlan, whether by the the other nations attacking the Empire to quell the thread posed by a fallen nation led astray by a reckless heretic, or by the commoners in those other nations rising against their noble masters and the church.

In Conclusion:

No, not only would focusing solely on her Empire be against Edelgard’s character, it would not likely lead to peace in Fodlan. It would be a different war started by different people, but it would be war nonetheless.

[weeefe3h]

I hope you don’t mind me coming in, because I don’t really agree with what you’re saying here but I don’t want to come off rude.

I’m one of the people saying that Edelgard was wrong, but I also don’t think Dimitri was necessarily right in saying she should have kept to Adrestia either. Like you said, all three lords and Rhea in some way either want to extend their dreams to places outside their immediate sovereignty or it wouldn’t be the most out of character thing of them to try to help places outside of their sovereignty (this one mostly applies to Dimitri). However, and not to sound rude, the main issue with that is something you briefly sort of gloss over with a couple statements: 

“ she should have just reformed the Empire and not invaded Leicester and Faerghus! ”

Note the very key word here being invaded.

“ Edelgard is only different from Dimitri and Claude in that she is willing to accept this truth and force her dreams to fruition. ”

Note the very key word here being force.

Even if I were to agree that you’re right and Edelgard is mostly only different from Dimitri and Claude in that way (which, and no offense to you personally and for the sake of clarity, I don’t), that way is significantly important as to why she is in the wrong. That use of force? Involves killing innocent people, by her own admission. Unlike with Dimitri and Claude, who at least attempt to do things peacefully and with as little physical conflict as possible, Edelgard’s go-to method of enacting change is to declare war and put a lot of innocent people in danger. 

Regardless of whether she was “actually right” in going to war, that she never even attempted talking to Dimitri or Claude at any point in the game beforehand says a lot about her. There’s a reason why only Dimitri and Claude can team up during the war, and why Claude doesn’t team up with Edelgard even if he’s spared and supposedly shares the same ideals as her - it’s because her ways of going about change are fundamentally more destructive than they are able to reconcile with. Edelgard isn’t inherently wrong for wanting to enact change beyond her own borders, she’s wrong because of the means she chose to actually enact said change. Edelgard is wrong for “wanting to make change” for the same reason Rhea is wrong for “wanting to bring back Sothis” - the act itself isn’t inherently bad, but her means of trying to take Byleth’s life are what make her wrong. 

“ Would it not reflect poorly upon the Church of Seiros and the noble class in the other lands if Edelgard reformed the nobility, allowed hired ministers and uplifted commoners to have positions of authority in her Empire, and denounced Crests as a symbol of inherited, unjust superiority over the Crestless, and had her reforms work and lead the Empire to a brighter age? “

...Not really? The Kingdom had Ashe and Yuri be adopted into nobles families. In the Alliance there’s Margrave Edmund who rose to power through trade routes and good speech skills. Lambert was going to do apparently “radical” reforms to the Kingdom before he was killed. None of this is denounced by the church or is looked on poorly by the church. 

And the church itself doesn’t like that Crests are used to gain power. From the Book of Seiros, Part II: “The descendants of the Heroes sought their ancestor's power, and thusly their blood. In time, they amassed Crests, Relics, land, and wealth, using all to set the land aflame with war. The goddess's power, intended to stem the flow of evil, became a tool of destruction, all because of the greed of humanity. The goddess grieved and, heartbroken, hid herself in the heavens from whence she came...”

And from the Book of Seiros, Part V: “ Dare not abuse the power gifted to you by the goddess. “

There’s only ever any Crest-based nobility because of humans, not because Rhea or anyone from the church made it so - they explicitly denounce the idea of using Crests for such means, but the nobility ignore that and do it anyway. So Edelgard doing all of what you said either wouldn’t be criticized by the church or would in all likelihoods be praised by the church for finally stemming the use of the Goddess’ power as a tool of destruction and greed (which made the goddess weep and leave Fodlan, according to the doctrine). 

Rhea is only worried about what the people would do without the nobility, but if Edelgard’s reforms prove to not sow discord Rhea would be more relieved than anything - after all, it’s a sign that humans are finally trying to stop benefiting from her family’s massacre. If anything, Edelgard, if this idea is followed, knocks down two birds with one stone - she proves the people don’t need nobility to stay orderly and gets rid of the notion of Crests being viable tools for garnering power.

“ Edelgard denouncing the gifts of the Goddess would inherently be a heretical act, for which Rhea would have to respond or risk the doctrine of the Church of Seiros, an organization she believes is crucial for upholding peace in Fodlan, being seriously questioned. After all, surely no nation that turns its back on the Goddess’s gifts could prosper. “

But as seen from the actual doctrine, Edelgard denouncing Crests is pretty well in-line with what the church actually wants. Nobles were the ones to make Crests as they are now; the church never wanted them to be used as tools of greed in the first place, only to help stop evil. Edelgard delegitimizing Crests and the Church of Seiros still standing are two things that could very easily coexist with each other. 

“ The noble class in the Kingdom and the Alliance would begin to fear the commoners of their own lands beginning to wonder why THEY have to obey their noble masters if those in the Empire did not “

Why would those of the Alliance do so? They may not have had hired ministers, but they did already have the idea of nobles who started off as commoners rule over them be a familiar one (Edmund) so Edelgard doing the same for Adrestia wouldn’t be anything new to them. 

And on top of that, Edelgard taking Adrestia’s throne comes with Dimitri taking Faerghus’ throne and Claude inheriting the title of duke soon afterwards, so if Edelgard bided her time to wait for at least Dimitri to ascend to the throne she could talk with him about reforms. And them teaming up (while waiting for Oswald to either die or hand over the title of duke to Claude) would give both Edelgard and Dimitri a strong international ally to work with in helping the people, something that wasn’t true for Lambert or Ionius and could help immensely in warding off things like a Tragedy or Insurrection from happening again. 

Plus, Dimitri and Edelgard are able to use the experience of having a Tragedy and Insurrection happen to them to be able to watch for warning signs or to ready themselves against any plots against them, and Claude already has experience with people trying to assassinate him specifically. They’d be more prepared than Lambert or Ionius (or Godfrey) were in protecting themselves from nobles plotting their deaths/downfall.

So if Edelgard bides her time for Dimitri and Claude to ascend to their own positions of power (which, for Dimitri at least, would be maybe a few months to a year at most since he’d be of age to ascend), and they all come to an agreement about what to do to help commoners (which is all something they, following this idea, want to do), and if Edelgard getting rid of the notion of using the goddess’ power as merely a means to amass more power is something that the church itself espouses as just, who would have an issue with it? If the Adrestian commoners wouldn’t rebel with Edelgard’s notions and it’s only an issue with the Faerghan and Leicesterian commoners wanting what the Adrestian commoners have, then the three lords coming together and just doing exactly that wouldn’t cause any issue with the commoners. 

The only hurdle would potentially be the nobility of each region, but with the backing of the other two leaders of Fodlan behind them and with at least one of them being able to simply get rid of nobles who try to fight them (Edelgard) as well as standing up against the allies the leaders would have regardless, any opposing noble would likely think twice about going against these reforms in fear of retaliation from the other two leaders.

“ There’s a very real possibility that Edelgard peacefully reforming the Empire would still have led to civil war in Fodlan, whether by the the other nations attacking the Empire to quell the thread posed by a fallen nation led astray by a reckless heretic, or by the commoners in those other nations rising against their noble masters and the church. “

That’s only if Edelgard is incredibly rash and started immediately enacting her reforms without waiting for Dimitri and Claude to gain their positions as king and duke. They would have not only each other as allies, but whatever allies they’d already have teaming up together as well (such as Fraldarius and Gautier for Dimitri and Goneril and Daphnel for Claude, for example). They’d have no reason to attack Edelgard first since she wouldn’t be hurting anyone and would be doing what they also want to do (helping the commoners). The commoners “rising against their noble master and the church” seems unlikely to happen in either the Alliance (with its precedence of having commoners rise to high positions of nobility) or even the Empire (since it hasn’t had direct church influence for over a century). It’s debatable that even the Kingdom commoners would care that much, as people didn’t seem to care when Ashe and Yuri, two street rats, were adopted by well-respected families. On top of that, the church likely wouldn’t interfere with Edelgard as she would be doing what they want (stopping people from misusing Crests for greed and power).

Again, I hope I don’t come off as rude or anything, but I just don’t understand how Edelgard is against the world when she is doing things neither the commoners, Dimitri and Claude, or the church would hold anything against, nor do I agree with the idea that the “only” difference between her and (at least) Dimitri and Claude is so minimal and easily dismissible. 

[branchofcinnamon]

Claude: Teach what are you doing in my room-

Byleth: Damn bitch you live like this? 

[ashendemon]

[tooruyama]

「 ❝I am finished with thoughts like that. I am finally able to go on living without clinging to hate.❞ 」 

[fujitastatara]

x

[yks160519-deactivated20200324]

some Q&A answers I thought were interesting (from Nintendo DREAM 2020/05 issue)

Major spoilers if you haven’t played the game and DLC (and beware of spoilers that weren’t in the game)

& Major Claude Spoilers 

please go and buy the e-book. https://bookwalker.jp/de0a373ccf-9148-4b2d-8f8e-c06b02239901/

Keep reading

[nephenees-lance]

I’m not shitting on the ship or anything, nor do I even really dislike it, but I just can’t get into Claude x Hilda as a romantic pairing. The two are so bro-y to me. Their vibes will always come off as platonic. Again, nothing against the ship or shippers, I guess it just isn’t for me.

[spectrealenko]

None of Dimitri's goals line up with Claude's at all considering one sides with the church and the other hates it- Edelgard and Claude would be unstoppable, though.

okay but get this: claumitri rights

[ezralahm]

Claude doesn’t even hate the church.  He knows they have a secret, finds it out, and goes “oh okay that’s kinda fair.”

And Dimitri can always use more boyfriends he doesn’t have enough yet.

[electricprincess96]

Um Claude sides with the Church as well or did I imagine Seteth appearing in your army in Verdant Wind or the fact rescuing Rhea was a priority. Claude doesn’t trust the Church but Claude doesn’t trust anyone (he doesn’t tell anyone, not even Byleth in their S Rank, that he’s Almyran for example). His whole deal is discovering the truth, and he does, and he realises it’s a pretty fair thing to hide all things considered.

[electricprincess96]

What is your thoughts on Female Byleths design and the over sexualisation of women in FE?

I don't give a fuck about sexy female designs and anyone that's followed me since Fates will know that. I liked Camilla's design and I defended it because it was unique and largely her own, it fit her well and it was aesthetically pleasing. Same with Charlotte, same with Orochi etc.

However... I don't dislike Femleths design because it's "sexy", as I said above I actually often defend more fanservicey designs, no I dislike Femleths design because it's ugly, it's not aesthetically pleasing in the slightest to me. Like from just a design standpoint it's not nice looking, her armour over her breasts looks silly (like at least when Kozaki did boob armour it didn't look like the metal was bendy the way Femleths does, it looks cartoonish), her tights are an eyesore and most importantly Byleth isn't a character so I can't even argue on whether or not it's "in character" for them. Coupled with the fact her cutscene model is terrible (but then again Maleths isn't anything to write home about either, both of their faces just look so weird like why is everyone in this fucking monastery wanting to fuck these guys?!) it's just overall a mess in my opinion.

Like put it this way, I would be willing to cosplay Camilla. I'd even be willing to cosplay Charlotte provided I had 100% guarantee it would be a nice day that day.... I wouldn't cosplay Femleth.

Like did Fates have plenty of dumb panty shots? Sure but they weren't hurting anyone plus Fates was pretty egalitarian on the sexy designs front, plenty of topless or near topless men running around.

[psiioniichearts]

I found out Ferdinand’s voice actor also voiced White Blood Cell from Cells at Work and I couldn’t stop thinking about this. 

Ferdinand but he goes hard

[kokomiin]

I wanted to draw something zero-esque of rhea, it ended up differently than what I originally thought of but I found that drawing her is pretty satisfying

[megamog]

“Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind.”

[nephenees-lance]

Hilda x Caspar is easily one of my favorite ships in the game. I wish it got more love.

[hyakunana]

“Let’s promise to meet again. And when we do… don’t be too hard on me, Your Kingliness.”

[lynarc]

Rhea

[fishuus]

gazes