#(how could anyone side with Rhea over Edelgard)

[fireemblems24]

Azure Gleam 15 (Final)

As long as this has gone on for, I'm actually bummed to finish this one.

NARRATION

Those special chapters were so weird. It's kind of funny how the plot is like, just ignoring all of that and going back to regular programming. It's like in an old kid's show when they got a dog and then the next episode - no dog anymore. Like there's kinda no point to it.

Ok, so Thales talking to yeeted Edelgard. I will never not get over how funny it is that's the path the writers decided.

Yep, we're really just jumping back into the regular plot. That is so funny. The writing in this game is a clusterfuck at times.

Ok, so we're going to the monastery to save Rhea. MUCH better than saving Bernie's dad.

TWSITD causing chaos again. I feel this route targeted them more than the other two. Like they barely existed in GW.

Everyone's worried about Rhea.

Dimitri wants to wreck TWSITD and the Empire. Let's fucking go!

MAP

No side quests again! Guys, I'm sooooo close to beating this game I can taste it. Both SB and AG have very short final chapters.

Only Claude is annoying, which tracks how this game's gone so . . .

So I've gotten all the supports for: Dimitri, Dedue, Felix, Sylvain, Ingrid, and Rodrigue. Mercedes I'm only missing Jeritza. I didn't use Annette or Ashe, so they're missing a few, but I feel I did pretty good. Hopefully I can get Mercie and Jeritza this chapter.

Ugh, so I missed the opportunity to deepen my bond with Byleth :( Maybe next time.

So in another route, Ashe had no idea what he believed in anymore. In this one, he's confident about his sense of justice.

In another route, Yuri didn't tell me his history with Varley, in this one he trusted me with it.

Ingrid is a queen. She said it's the people who suffer in war, our leaders should reach diplomatic resolutions. Too bad only Dimitri believes in those :(

Aww, Byleth refused to kill Shez during their fight because he could tell she wasn't herself. I soooo wish I'd gotten their supports.

Ok, so I ran into Raphael again and agreed that I didn't like how we were fighting (which, imo, isn't true, but I wanted to see the difference). Shez thinks Edelgard is too cruel, Claude is too haphazard, and Dimitri is too cautious. She pretty much nailed it.

No Arval in the tent :(

Linhardt just said Caspar revels in bloodshed. That's fucked up.

My heart just broke and warmed at the same time. A Kingdom general asked a Duscur general how the people from Duscur pray. He wanted to learn because he lost a lot of good soldiers from Duscur in the last battle and wanted to pray for them in the way their religion would. It's details like this that make Hopes worth it.

Haha, Dedue was fairly chill considering I attacked allies and posed a possible threat to Dimitri. He brought it up, but didn't harp on it.

BYLETH & JERALT A

Man, I'm glad I got this unlocked in time.

Byleth gave Jeralt flowers. First time in Byleth's life lol.

He's trying to communicate his feelings, thankfulness to Jeralt for being his captain and father.

Aw, it's a throwback to Byleth giving out flowers at the Academy.

Lamo, Jeralt just said Byleth may have been a student or led seminars, but isn't qualified to be a teacher.

Jeralt's like, I knew you cared, kid. But I still appreciate it.

Byleth picked the flowers out himself. It's the same kind his mother liked :(((

Jeralt used to give these flowers to Sitri.

Byleth is being so sentimental and sweet. I can just imagine a voiced Byleth saying lines like that in Houses' supports and buying more into the character.

I swear, this game made me really get Byleth more and "buy into" the character. Also, I'm going to cry so hard when Jeralt dies. I still don't really care for Jeralt, but I'm going to just feel so sad for Byleth.

DIMITRI & DEDUE A

For anyone wondering, I purposefully saved this one and Felix A. I've had them unlocked for a while.

Dedue is worried because Dimitri keeps sleeping at his desk. He's grateful or else he'd get sore.

Of course, he had bad dreams about the past.

Ohhhh! Not the tragedy, but arriving home after. Cool to learn some tidbits about that part too.

A child cursed Dimitri after the funeral because his dad died in Duscur and was furious with Dimitri for not killing Dedue, but hanging out with him instead.

Dimitri just ignored him.

Then Dimitri talks about his duty to those who died, and asks Dedue what he would do if Dimitri begged for vengeance while he was dying. OFC, Dedue says he'd do it even if he died.

Then Dimitri asks the opposite, what would Dedue do if Dimitri begged him to live for his own happiness? Dedue said he couldn't.

"I cannot know happiness without you by my side." :(((((((

He'd seek revenge, for his own sake, not Dimitri's.

Dimitri's like, nothing I'd say would change your mind?

Dedue just flips the subject, asking if Dimitri can't just live for himself, and ofc Dimitri says no, he can't.

But imagines another life traveling around as a merc with Dedue or living as a farmer. Dedue's like, why not go?

Dimitri says obviously I can't do that.

So Dedue's like get some sleep.

It worries Dedue every time he sees Dimitri asleep like that at his desk bc he's worried Dimitri died. But Dimitri's like, not why you're here. It won't happen.

Dimitri's like, if I died, that wouldn't go well, so I'll listen.

GUYS. DIMITRI'S GOING TO SLEEP. SOMEONE TALKED HIM INTO SLEEPING. THE POWER OF DEDUE.

They're married, your honor.

DIMITRI & FELIX A

Starts with Dimitri apologizing and promising revenge, killing all of TWSITD no matter the cost.

Felix walks in, Dimitri almost calls him Glenn, but corrects, and apologizes again except to Felix for seeing that.

Felix is like "I've seen all there is of you to see." So, uh, what does that mean?

Dimitri explains that he suffers from a "waking dream," saying he sees the dead like they're real.

Then talks about the violent revenge the dead scream at him.

Felix asks when this all started. Dimitri says 6 years, but the voices started 4 years ago during his first battle? Not sure those numbers line up with lore and age, but I don't know how old they are this time. Anyways, started with Duscur, got worse when Rufus tried to have Dimitri killed by sending him to battle.

The man he killed that freaked Felix out was someone from Duscur, and the voices cheered when he killed the guy.

Felix is like, do you really think Glenn and Lambert would torture you like that? Telling Dimitri he's the one doing it, not them.

Dimitri's like, even if that's true, I can't forgive myself.

Felix talks about how if Dimitri loses his path, he's taking everyone down with him (so Houses, sans AM) and says "keep the whole removing their heads thing in check yeah?"

Felix says it'll be their secret.

"are you offering to let me unburden my heart to you when the time calls for it?" - Dimitri to Felix. Guys, I'm dying a little.

Dimitri credits Felix with the reason he hasn't descended into madness, and asks Felix to continue being his right-hand man.

Hahahah, OMG, Felix picked Dimitri up and is physically carrying him to bed. Dimitri is nearly laughing because he's so much taller than Felix his feet are dragging the floor.

Felix calls him a "sack of muscle" lol

Dimitri carried Felix like this when Felix twisted his ankle. And now is calling this a workout. Dimitri's still massively entertained.

They are also married.

Man, so Dedue got Dimitri to fucking sleep, and Felix got him to laugh.

Ok, this game is really Dimilix, the game. I swear a shipper on deck wrote this. It may also be why Felix was one of the few Blue Lions to survive SB. Writers' bias.

My shipping heart is so happy with both supports.

ASHE & FLAYN B

This is their final support.

They're fishing together. She's trying to reel in a big fish, but it's not working. Ashe gives her tips. And she got it!

Though, it seems like it was a bit of a struggle.

Flayn swore she'd not let go no matter what. Ashe says sometimes it's best to not let go, and suddenly understands Seteth. But still compliments her on her determination.

Flayn thinks her mother would be proud of her for catching this, which is part of the reason Flayn loves fishing.

She flirts with Ashe a bit too lol.

And now she's drooling over the fish.

Ashe says Flayn enjoys him of his sister and really had fun.

But then panics thinking of Flayn in the kitchen lol.

ANNETTE & CONSTANCE B

Constance compliments Annette's performance in battle.

Constance is a legendary alumni at the school in Faerghus.

Stories include turning bossy noble kids into horses. And she started using it everywhere.

She argued magical theory with teachers and won.

These make me love Constance, not going to lie.

Annette is nervous being around someone so famous. Constance calls Annette one of the most talented women in the Kingdom.

Constance loves a book Annette work, but it's mostly a cook book, so Annette doesn't make much of it.

Annette wrote a magical cookbook, and Constance is all about it.

Annette tries to give Mercedes credit because she's the cook.

They both want to get to know each other better.

This was really them geeking out over each other, magic, and Mercedes' cooking.

MERCEDES & JERITZA A

It came down to the lack fucking minute, but I got it. Thank you, Shez, for cooking the perfect dinner.

Jeritza finds and old letter from Mercedes' mother. Or, rather, she wrote Jeritza a letter after Mercie told her that they found him.

They both want to live with him after the war, but he says no.

He can't face her because of his past actions. Doesn't seem Mercie holds it against him. And says neither will her mother.

Then Jeritza talks about the Death Knight persona.

Mercie's like, naw, because you're fine right now.

Jeritza still doesn't give in though. He insists he must pay for his crimes, which he thinks he never can. He wants to get judged by the law, which, honestly, respect.

Mercie decides to support his decisions, even though it makes her sad, and that they'll be waiting for him. No matter how long. Even if they're both old ladies.

I really loved that support. Seeing Mercie support Jeritza's decision, seeing Jeritza take responsibility for his actions. All around good support.

ANNETTE & CONSTANCE A

Glad I got this one. I think Seteth/Shez A is the only other support still within reach.

Constance wants Annette's help conducting an experiment outside. Annette knows how Constance's mood changes when she goes outside. Annette's happy to help.

Obviously now Constance is being down on herself.

Annette volunteered before learning the experiment. Thankfully it's just to try and get all the cats from the area.

It fails :( I want a spell like that.

Constance is obviously moping, Annette gives her a pep talk, but it probably useless bc they're outside.

It attracted bugs, and Constance says the cockroach is a better sorceresses than her lamo. Then they attract angry birds lol.

Once back inside, Constance realizes her spell does sort of work, but they just didn't know how to get cats.

Aww, I really liked that support chain.

FINAL BATTLE

How can anyone not tell something is wrong with Edelgard?

It's so weird how they just ignore the special chapters.

Thales is making her fight.

Sylvain said he'll skip the class reunion if this is what they're like.

Ingrid is roaring to go after Thales.

No sign of Claude. Dimitri's trusting him, but I don't know about that. I wonder if he betrays you here too. Though Dimitri makes a good point that if Faerghus falls, Claude's ass is next.

On, cool image! Dimitri giving a speech. It's like a moment in Lord of the Rings before Aragorn and co march on Mordor.

I like this! Dimitri's talking about severing the past and moving on into tomorrow. Good to hear him talking like that.

I only got 40 points too. Guess Claude was the odd one out, getting more points for his battle than the other two.

Kyrona made an appearance.

Felt good to kill Varley for once.

Getting ready to face Thales now. Dimitri about to get his revenge against TWSITD. Feels good.

Shez is reassuring Dimitri that he's not alone. That his friends are here to help. :)

I think I just killed Kyrona for good this time.

Time to kick Thales' ass. Much better than killing Rhea. Again.

We also got to defeat Edelgard. Having a hard time feeling bad about that.

This battle is pure chaos. But in a fun way.

Oh, did I beat Thales? I'm at a cut scene. Shez stopped Edelgard; and Dimitri's marching to kick Thales' ass.

Haha, he just ignored Thales magic like it was nothing. What a fucking badass.

He's not even saying anything, just breathing, and the voice acting is still on point.

Edelgard remembered Dimitri? So he didn't kill her. And outside Rhea, Claude and the Blue Lions are waiting. And sun is about to come up.

This felt WAY more complete than the other two. I was expecting MUCH worse. Maybe if I played the other two first I'd be more surprised, but they set the bar stupid low.

We defeated the Empire, defeated TWSITD - I don't know what would even be left?

I love how hard the narration tries to make it sound like the Empire has a fart's chance in the wind anymore. It's just clean up now.

MVP time. It'll eventually turn into the Dimitri show like SB did Hubert and GW did Lorenz. I suspect it'll take longer though bc I wanted to use the other Blue Lions a lot.

Actually, I lie, it happened like the second I got Dimitri and not just Shez. I think I may just be a stan lol. He's also just so damn strong he killed so much easier and faster than anyone else.

You can tell the chapter Dimitri was missing for since Felix and Ingrid kept trading MVP. Then back to Dimitri.

Hey! Rodrigue got one!

I'm excited for Dimitri's letter. Still wish we got paired endings here though.

Dimitri feels reassured with Shez by his side. He's also the only one who asked Shez to stay in the Kingdom. It's nothing spectacular, but it was sweet.

I'm also a bit sad to see this one end. No more Fodlan unless I replay, but I guess there's still supports I didn't unlock.

Guys, I can't believe I finished. Now I'm finally "free" to play whatever games I want.

Def want to replay Engage and Houses, and some non-FE stuff too. Should I get the Engage DLC?

xxx

#azure gleam #fire emblem #fire emblem three hopes #three hopes #three hopes spoilers #azure gleam spoilers

[raxistaicho]

Something I feel is key to any discussion about why Jeralt might have acted so severely when it comes to Rhea is his personal experience with the woman, what he thinks of her, what he feels he owes her, and what she did for him that she didn't do for others, including Sitri.

In the first support with Rhea we learn from her personally that Jeralt would likely describe her as "frightening" and that she sincerely doubts Jeralt would ever call her "incredible." She's also hurt by the truth that he never mentioned her. Jeralt himself wrote that he thought the world of Rhea, but there is also significant evidence to suggest that Rhea is not close with anyone but Byleth. Catherine's jealousy of Byleth, Rhea's admission of lonliness, and Archbishop Rhea's event in Fire Emblem Heroes all speak to intentional personal isolation. Jeralt was probably about as close to Rhea as Catherine was. They don't actually know her, just her authority, strength, and how she saved them. (Faerghus born. You do as your leader tells you and dedicate yourself to them fully.)

300+ years by Rhea's side. Garreg Mach has existed for nearly 1000 years. Sitri is attempt 11 at creating a vessel for the Goddess. (12 is a significant number in this game, as it also relates to the Nemesis having 11 Elites, 10 known and 1 secret, Edelgard having 11 siblings, 10 known and 1 step sibling, and putting Byleth at 13th for the vessels, which breaks the trend, but still maintains associations with the Olympians, bad luck, betrayal, and the Death tarot card indicating a need for change just like with Sylvain.) Thematic trivia aside, even at 1 vessel every 100 years, Jeralt was witness to 3 attempts, possibly 4 (Sitri) at using Sothis' Crest Stone to create a vessel.

We don't know too much about the others, whether their lives were akin to Sitri's or if they died at birth, or even if they lived full lives. Two of those options, and assuming Rhea got better at making vessels over time, means Jeralt likely met some of them. This was, as stated by Rhea, her mission after all. That and keeping Fodlan at peace so she could bring Sothis back to it.

Jeralt doesn't seem the kind to really give a shit about the arcane or experimentation in general. I doubt he knows what the hell has been happening the whole time he's been alongside Rhea. He just knows that she is something very powerful. He warns Byleth not to trust her, and granted this is right after returning to Garreg Mach after running away because he doesn't trust her, it's equally important to recognise why Jeralt went back after all this time. He knows he doesn't have a choice. Alois found him and clocked that he has a child. That guy has a big mouth and Rhea would absolutely find out. Refusing her isn't something within his power to do or he wouldn't have stolen away into the night in the first place.

He doesn't really object to what the Church is doing, he did it for long enough, but he knows that he's outclassed by Rhea and doesn't have the power to refuse her. That's why he faked Byleth's death and informed Rhea before leaving instead of just taking the kid and running. (We know Jeralt doesn't leave until after the fire has been quelled because he is the one to tell her the news of Byleth's death.) She would have stopped them.

So what DOES Jeralt know about Rhea and her experimentation?

Well, a big thing is that Jeralt is very aware that he should be dead. That he died in a battle as a young man saving Rhea from death.

Rhea says that Jeralt was mortally wounded, and we don't know enough about what (pure) Nabatean blood can actually do to a person to say either way if a person needs to be alive for the resurrection to work, but the Elites and Nemesis were definitely dead if that helps confuse matters. (I mention pure Nabatean blood to disqualify Seteth, Flayn, and Seteth's brothers. We know for a fact that Rhea is directly related to Sothis, but neither Seteth, his brothers, or Flayn state a definite relationship to Rhea like they do with each other, or state a direct relationship to Sothis as Rhea does.)

Jeralt feels like he owes his life to Rhea right up until the events with Sitri and Byleth. She did save him after all and Faerghus goes a long way to instill ideas of eternal loyalty to a ruler/leader.

He knows, personally and for a fact that Rhea can bring people back from near death. Mortally wounded. Something seen as beyond exceptional in a world where 1hp is fixed up with healing magic no problem and Miracle exists. It also gave him a Major Crest. Something Jeralt doesn't seem as very keen on mentioning and definitely didn't make him start acting like one of the Goddess' chosen. He likely knew something was up even then, but not what it was.

Coupled with 300 years of working alongside a woman who also doesn't age, perpetuates a history of Crests being granted by the Goddess, which contradicts his lived experience, and the knowledge that Rhea is essentially an arbiter on who lives and who dies even from wounds so fatal that Faith magic was a lacking intervention. He's probably asking himself...

Why is Sitri dead?

What the hell could have happened in there that the Archbishop of over 300 years, the Goddess' most dedicated servant couldn't use Faith magic to prevent? What happened in there that was so severe the method Rhea used to save him all those years ago wasn't viable? Why didn't Rhea save his wife? He's been her Captain for several centuries! Sitri was akin to a daughter to Rhea! (Something very uncommon.) What profane thing could have stopped *her* from getting her way?

Then there's the matter of Byleth's heartbeat, how they don't cry, how they don't emote or fuss, or anything at all. Not to mention the fact that Byleth might possibly have a scar over their chest.

What does "traded her life for" *actually* mean? He doesn't know about the Crest Stone, but he knows Rhea can do *something* to save a life. But why would that be necessary? The line sounds like the death in childbirth was the exchange, but that shouldn't have killed someone in Rhea's care. Not according to all the information he has.

She has to have done something. He doesn't know what it is, but Rhea made the choice to exchange Sitri's life for Byleth's and now she's covetous of the child, telling Jeralt not to worry and having them watched.

Jeralt mentioning how Rhea reacted to Byleth's death is also telling.

"Lady Rhea was in a state over the news."

Lady Rhea wasn't in a state over Aelfric's death, or Jeralt's. I expect she wasn't in a state over Sitri's not because she doesn't care about her as much as she does Byleth, but due to the circumstances of Sitri's death, it was a request out of love.

So if Rhea is known to be hard to crack, and Jeralt believes her to be terrifying, and Rhea believes Jeralt should think she's terrifying, what other "states" does Rhea have? It must have been significant for Jeralt to be shaken and Rhea to understand that reaction even from someone who thought the world of her. It's probably nothing as severe as turning into the Immaculate One. But Rhea just lost access to her mother's Crest Stone. *The* thing she needs to bring Sothis back. The reason she's doing all of this! Echoes of "give it back" ring in my mind. She definitely did well to not degenerate right then. Possibly because Byleth's body would still be in Garreg Mach, and then later when she realised the deception, out there in the world guarded by the man who kept her safe for 300 years and loved his child enough to fake their death. The same man who cared for Sitri. Rhea would have needed to wait for Byleth to grow up anyway, and she, Jeralt and Byleth have nothing but time.

Back to Jeralt specifically. The veritable necromancer in his life didn't save his wife during a childbirth, seems to want to keep Byleth close, which can't be because they're Sitri's child otherwise, why not just save Sitri, y'know? So Sitri needed to die and Byleth is even stranger than their mother was.

Sitri also didn't emote to anyone but Jeralt (Crest of Seiros), but Byleth isn't emoting even for him. (*Heavy bias* but the trigger for Byleth was probably the proximity of another Crest of Flames.) So his child is even stranger than their mother, maybe even in the same way as the other vessels he incidentally met over the years.

Really the only conclusion Jeralt can draw is that Rhea did something to Byleth and Sitri. Traded their lives. Something beyond healing magic or whatever thing Rhea did to him. Something immense, beyond even the baseline be already has for her capable of granting an extended life and Crest. Something that might have been the reason Sitri could never leave the monastery. She was unwell, but Jeralt is a very capable man. Byleth seemed healthy, but the Church didn't seem willing to let them go.

It's not at all a stretch, even with the little Jeralt actually knows, to assume Rhea did something profound.

Not divine. At least not in any way she advertises.

Did she swap their souls? Something like that?

Did he find it strange later in life that Byleth didn't manifest his Crest of Seiros? Even if he didn't buy into the Goddess blessing, he must know through sheer exposure that Crests are inherited and that the further the bloodlines get from those originally "blessed" the likelihood goes down. As someone personally "blessed" with a Major Crest, Byleth not having one is an oddity itself.

Maybe that's what kept him away.

Jeralt didn't just leave. He stayed away. He stayed away for two decades, making the choice not to return every time he thought about it.

This wasn't just about whatever Rhea did, it was also about what Rhea might have done to Byleth, trapping them in Garreg Mach like she did to their mother, his wife.

And he was right. He saw the writing on the wall perfectly. Rhea actually giving such a shit about Byleth's "death" confirmed it in his mind. Rhea did something forbidden (confirmed by Seteth in FEH) and his child was the subject. He's even still fearful and that's why he lies to Rhea at first. "This is not Sitri's child. I know you care about them being Sitri's child. This isn't about me." Is basically what he's saying.

Make whatever excuses you will, but Rhea wasn't not going to try and have Sothis brought out in Byleth just because they stayed at the Monastery.

Imagine if Rhea had been the one to hear Byleth was dreaming of the war with Nemesis?

That kid is never ever leaving those halls. Jeralt be damned.

I think Rhea is a fantastic character, she's amazing, third only to Byleth and Edelgard in my mind. But don't for one second think her intention isn't Sothis first, Byleth second. That's why we went to the Holy Tomb.

Jeralt wasn't irrational. Rhea isn't suddenly "right" because the ritual with the throne didn't work. We actually don't even know if that's the case or if Sothis just beat Rhea to the punch and gave herself up to Byleth before the reverse was made to happen.

Her intention to have Sothis overtake Byleth was the thing Jeralt was detecting. The feasibility of that act is secondary to Rhea's sudden possible human sacrifice of the woman he loved. If someone looks like they're going to murder you, you don't say "let's see how this plays out." You take precautions, and his theory was validated enough by Rhea's reaction to Byleth's faked death and was enough to keep him away every day afterwards.

If the ritual at the Holy Tomb had worked, killing Jeralt might have been the Slither's most colossal fuck up, because he might have been the only person besides Edelgard to have enough knowledge to even think about intervening.

Bonus Jeralt theory. Jeralt doesn't align with any nation anymore. He doesn't wear any of their colours. However, the closest match is the Alliance. Why? Well, Jeralt was born over 300 years ago and served the Faerghus military, however, his homeland very well might have been one of the ones that broke off into the Alliance after he had already joined Rhea.

Since he then goes on to live in Remire, Jeralt could be one of the only characters to have relevant ties to all three nations.

The separation of his homeland from the Kingdom might also has served to make him disinterested in the idea of sovereignty or the idea that Fodlan even has nations worth mentioning since they can just *change* whenever. Again, something we see happen in the game itself as Fodlan reunifies in what would have been his lifespan had Kronya not cut it... long? Either way, it explains why he does not care where he was from or bother to explain anything to Byleth, it's all immaterial if you live long enough. (Which also reflects Rhea's view of Fodlan.)

(Apologies for writing you another novel. I hope you don't mind, I'm incapable of brevity. I just think the idea Jeralt overreacted with the amount of context he had about Rhea's abilities, especially since he was 100% correct, is silly. Also the Crest of Seiros is The High Priestess and that's all about trusting your intuition, which is what he did, and he dies soon after he second-guesses his decision. Theming!)

Nah, don't worry, that was all very interesting! :) Thanks for sharing your thoughts and analysis!

#fire emblem three houses #edelgard discourse #edelgard positive #jeralt reus eisner #rhea #byleth eisner #sitri

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

I find the whole premise of the war in Houses very sad.

Rhea is being targeted because "everything is the fault of Crests" according to Edelgard. Rhea has no power over Crests themselves, and the blood that enables Crest bearers to use Relics is dragon blood. The Relics are the bones of her brethren.

According to Edelgard, whose every ounce of information is fed to her by the Agarthans (why does she even believe anything her captors say again?), Rhea is an enemy... but why would Rhea condone anything related to Crests and Relics? Also, Edelgard didn't stop the Agarthans from kidnapping Flayn for her blood, allowing them to create demonic beasts. On top of that, she later uses demonic beasts for her war, so she uses Agarthan technology, etc, to turn regular humans into demonic beasts while saying that Rhea is the one at fault.

Rhea, who actively tries to stop Relics from falling into the hands of people who will turn into a demonic beast if they use them. She gets mad if Byleth says they won't turn over the Lance of Ruin to her, and it's one of the few times she openly gets mad at Byleth - because she knows the dangers of it falling into the wrong hands. Her only relief came from Sylvain - not Byleth - who said he would take the Lance of Ruin and assured her he wouldn't let it fall into anyone else's hands. He was also pretty convincingly honest about it, because she wanted him to remember the dangers of it and he says he "won't soon forget". Coming from him it was likely the most honest response she could've gotten out of anyone else in the monastery, so she let it go.

And also, here we are, with Rhea, one of the very last of her kind, being told she can't exist because she's not human, thus proving all her fears and worries about her identity correct. In CF, the last straw for her was that same person "taking" Byleth, Sitri's child, from her (i.e. even if Byleth "chose" that path, there was someone that was the cause of that decision. Without the war starting, Byleth wouldn't have decided that, so in Rhea's eyes it's Edelgard's fault, but she also isn't letting Byleth get away with it either).

It's also sad that Rhea's only chance to tell the truth (i.e. to Claude) was when she was already dying. There was no chance for her to tell the truth, be free of it and still feel safe. In this case she also wouldn't have died if the war had never started, because her five years of captivity by Edelgard left her weak and it kept her from being at her full strength when it came time to fight the Agarthans.

It's very frustrating for me too that we have Claude who does what he can to find out the truth, but Edelgard never does any such thing and just immediately believes what the Agarthans believe. Instead of her thinking her captors might be lying, she allies with them to kill Nabateans, which is exactly what they want. Why not try to find out the truth, or talk to Rhea to figure out what her side of the story is? Why just take the side of your tormentors both by information and in a war of your creation? Edelgard was a puppet on Thales' strings and willingly went along with it for years.

But somehow everything ever is Rhea's fault. See, even if Sothis was uwu BaD and stuff, I'm still not sure how any of that lands on Rhea, besides for her being Sothis' child and thus the children of the parent must die simply for who their parent is. Either way, it comes down to Rhea not being human, and thus Edelgard blaming her for every problem in Fodlan ever. It's sad to me because it really is that simple in terms of Rhea getting blamed for everything.

Rhea lied about the Crests and Relics, calling the people she hated heroes (something Edelgard could never do about the people she hated) to avoid more tragedy. It's almost like her lying for the benefit of humanity worked against her, which in an ironic way is like saying the humans were the enemies all along. She does good things for them and they just turn on her. It's kind of like, maybe she should've seen them as enemies all along, but she didn't. She accepted the ones who didn't hurt her or her kin. She accepted the people who had nothing to do with any of that.

Idk I just wanted to mention Rhea's place in the war because I've never really brought it up. It's just sad to me that she did everything she could to stay safe while not viewing humans as an enemy, but her kindness was part of her downfall. It makes me wonder if she'd told the truth eventually that people would've understood better. When she tells Claude, he realizes all the lies Rhea's been telling weren't hurting anyone, but instead allowing the power of the dragons to continue to exist in humans. If it had been her decision, she never would've allowed that because it was her family that was killed for that.

But like... apparently it's all her fault. Apparently everything is all her fault.

I know the Fodlan games have a huge glaring issue with victim blaming, but it's very sad to see that the victims are at fault right until their death (mainly on CF, but if you factor in Hopes, SB and GW too). They're blamed for their coping for how they suffered, and they're blamed for every little thing they do or don't do from then on. There's no winning. If you're a victim, you're a villain. Edelgard used to be a victim, but she stopped being a victim when she started making victims and siding with the people who tormented her in the first place.

Imo the story should've had Edelgard side with Rhea against the Agarthans and still have done four routes. Like... sometimes I think of what Edelgard could've been, how she could've turned on the Agarthans after pretending to work with them, and end up telling Rhea everything. She could've been a kinder person who had the same "ideals" (quotations because they're empty promises in canon) and could've been equally as resolute and strong.

She could've told Dimitri the truth that she hid from him despite having an entire year to tell him. She could've told Claude what she knew about Rhea after talking to Rhea, since he was looking for answers. She could've been a really awesome lead where CF/SS were similar routes with different perspectives (not necessarily identical), but those routes were her and Rhea working together. At the end, she could've taken responsibility for any time she worked with the Agarthans and moved on.

It's also sad how the fandom does the exact same thing to Rhea. She does something, she's bad. She doesn't do something, she's still bad. All she has to do is exist and she's still bad. If she reacts in any way because of her trauma, she's bad.

The fandom's views on trauma are pretty disgusting though tbh, because the general vibe is that if you have trauma you can only uwu about it. If you have any other reactions, including violent ones, you're horrible and need to be "put down" because you didn't have a "proper, correct" reaction to your trauma. If you don't shut up and deal with it, you're a bad person.

I feel like CF was a mistake with its writing and justifying the actions of ableism and imperialism both in one route. A mistake as in, now people actually believe that stuff is all well an good (despite the other routes saying otherwise).

Anyway that's it for this. I'm sure someone out there will call me a Rhea apologist now even though I'm not and even though she's not even remotely my favorite character lol.

#DCB Comments #and no I'm not here for arguments if someone somehow sees this in a for you page #I'm just expressing I find the premise of it all very sad and not here to argue about the reasons for the war #you all know that shit is old ass arguing that's been done for four years now #I like the game and want to talk about it without people boohooing that it's not completely in favor of their pixel waifu #Three Houses

[dragongutsixofficial]

Me again!!!!

What do you think of a roleswap AU with Edeleth? Byleth, being the emperor/empress who was tortured and has big plans that would tear Fodlan apart, and Edelgard, an emotionless mercenary who travels with Jeralt (or her actual father if you wanna go that far LOL).

I'm thinking of writing it! I just need to plan it out LOL

Mmmmh it sounds really interesting !^^ What do you envision yourself ? Would Byleth be the daughter of Ionius then ?

I think the way I see it, and that's just because I think there's a lot of potential regarding Byleth's struggle with their identity and how that can appeal to darker, more desperate aspects of Rhea, is that instead of having them be the future Emperor of Adrestia, Jeralt would have failed to run away from Rhea with them. Maybe she would have even pulled a reverse Uno on him and make him think his baby was dead when she discovered his plans to set the monastery on fire to make an escape. That would, in turn, leave her to mold the future reincarnation of the Goddess according to her wishes.

Now, Rhea is morally grey, but I don't see her physically torturing a child just like that, especially with how much she cared about Sitri (although very, very misguidedly. Keeping someone's cadaver in your basement is not a sign of a healthy bond). That being said, the depths of her longing for her mother might lead her to progressively start denying Byleth their individuality and freedom, which is its own kind of psychological torture in itself. Byleth pushing back, in turn, might lead her to more abuse to assert her dominance and narrative over them.

Eventually, like a lot of abused kids, Byleth would learn to play the long game. They would become an actor, and hide their true feelings. They would struggle with spontaneity in particular, because everything would be a careful calculation not to let anyone see through them. They would appear subdued and content with their fate and Rhea's guardianship, but they would just be buying their time and planning their escape- and downfall of the Church.

Jeralt, meanwhile, devastated by the loss of his child, would have still left the Knights of Seiros. As to how he would've met Edelgard, I'm not quite sure ! Maybe Ionius would've tried a last-ditch attempt at having his children escape from TWSTID instead of being the disagreeable, incapable pussy he actually is. Edelgard would be fucking traumatized because who wouldn't. But Jeralt would feel a sense of duty and attachment to this child after failing his first kiddo and raise her as his own- though it's never clear whether she reciprocates his filial affection.

The rest of the story would go on as it does in Hopes- Byleth would convince Rhea to let them learn how to fight at the Academy, and hire some bandits to scare off/kill off Claude and Dimitri: Jeralt's mercenaries would save the day, and Edelgard's scars and Crest would catch Rhea's attention. She would probably suspect that she's a victim of TWSTID, and maybe even who she truly is- and appoint her as the teacher in Byleth's class.

As to how TWSTID would tie into all this, I'm not quite sure. Though Byleth could reach out to them, they wouldn't have their hand forced like Edelgard did when she accepted their help, and TWSTID would probably just want to kill them to death or kidnap them for some more twisted experiments. Not to mention Byleth cares so much, they probably wouldn't see the appeal of getting them on their side without being coerced into it. So, I dunno !^^

#edelgard von hresvelg #byleth eisner #edeleth #fe3h #tw mentions of abuse #tw child abuse #tw helicopter parenting

[fantasyinvader]

I think one of the things we've been missing with Claude is how, even before the game starts, he's undergone what TV tropes calls motive decay. According to his supports with Byleth, he came to Fodlan in order to learn. He wanted something from Fodlan that he could bring back to Almyra and change their views on the people of Fodlan. But when Fodlan suffered from the same issue towards Almyra, he decided he would unify Fodlan and wipe out it's belief structure. This owes to him already having a hatred towards the idea of praying to a god rather than relying on yourself. White Clouds challenged Claude. He would have been his Hopes incarnation otherwise, willing to work with Edelgard when she starts a war of conquest even after she invades the Alliance. This is so that the Church of Seiros, the one Claude blames for Fodlan not being the place he wanted it to be, can be wiped out. Claude is only willing to work with Dimitri and Rhea if they were winning, and even then plans to betray and kill Rhea later on. This is the same guy who wants to create a world where people won't be excluded for being different. But that's the Hopes timeline. In Houses, Claude doesn't side with Edelgard because he disagrees with her methods as seen in White Clouds. Edelgard is persecuting the faith and there's clear evidence she has begun attacking the Alliance just prior to Byleth's awakening, but Claude remains neutral. In these scenarios, he either Only fights back against Edelgard as she's invading the Allaince, willing to hand it over if he is spared. We know nothing about how he feels with her invading other countries post-war according to Caspar's Japanese endings. But then again, Edelgard's own ideals are counter to Claude's, as Edelgard wants to reshape the world as she sees fit and eliminate anyone who resists. In Snow Claude offers to be a distraction for the Church as they retake the Great Bridge, but not meet with Byleth in-person or fight alongside them. This results in the Church taking heavy casualties and needing time to recover, unable to join the Kingdom at Gronder. Claude also marches on Gronder, and as a result the Kingdom and Alliance are rendered too weak to continue the war and unrecruited students likely dying. Claude, according to word of God, survives but leaves Fodlan. After Gronder in Moon, he works to unite the Alliance so that it can be handed over to Dimitri while he leaves. He even leaves behind his relic for the Kingdom army to use, something he wouldn't do in Snow. And this is all about Claude having faith in Dimitri after seeing him again at Gronder despite Dimitri being willing to kill Alliance soldiers if they got between him and Edelgard. Claude does not want to work with the Church, but he does so in Wind. And in doing so, while Fodlan is united it's done out of necessity not simply because it's part of Claude's ideal. He's willing to leave the continent in someone elses hands, and takes back what he learned from Fodlan to reform Almyra with stuff he learned from Fodlan, such as turning it into a trading country like the Alliance or working with the Church to bring the two countries together. Claude gets what he originally came to Fodlan for, and he's willing to leave Fodlan as an independent country. Claude's motive decay made him a hypocrite, he was already going down a dark path, and it's only through Byleth this can be amended. He doesn't really get over it in Moon either, he just has someone else he can support in Dimitri (just like how Rhea survives but can't be S supported, and therefore remains alone in the Red Canyon after being rescued). The really kicker is that Claude's trust issues make it so his original reason for coming isn't revealed until his A support, rather than his C support.

[dmclemblems]

A lot of Rhea's dubious actions are normally done in self-defense/reaction to something that happened to her and the people around her. And I guess for a majority of people, self-defense is no defense?

To be fair that’s... also how Faerghus gets treated in both games. In general these games have a bad message about being conquered. Rhea does a lot of stuff you could side eye, and a lot of that is from trauma caused by things TWS did... and surprise, Edelgard is allied with those same people and has their exact same views and ideas about humanity. It makes it easy for them to manipulate her when she hates Rhea as much as they do.

Even if I don’t agree with everything Rhea does, she’s in a similar situation to Dimitri and Claude when it comes to reacting to experiences that hurt them. Claude has been known as an outsider and hated for his heritage, and because of that he doesn’t trust people. Instead of being cheerful and fun, he just uses that as a coping mechanism while he takes advantage of people in the academy phase of Houses, even pushing aside people’s feelings for his own gain. His end goal is to attain power for his own desires and not anyone else’s out of the pain that came with being isolated in Almyra. Sometimes he’s pretty cold, but he’s like that out of being hurt and left in danger his whole life until recently.

During the timeskip and for a while post timeskip, Dimitri is completely closed off and stopped behaving like a normal human. He reached the point where he decided it wasn’t worth it and that he only needed to focus on revenge. Like Gilbert said, he was left alone too long with just himself and his guilt. Eventually the voices he hears drove him into so much guilt that he couldn’t handle it without killing the people who killed his family and the people from Duscur. After going through so much, he just snapped.

Similarly, Rhea had things happen to her just because. Just because she existed and wasn’t the same race as the Agarthans. Just because she existed and had been a child of Sothis’. Once the battle against Nemesis was over, she rewrote history, but it was at the detriment to herself, her family and other dragons. Nemesis was labeled a hero (meaning Edelgard believes the false history Rhea decided to put out into the world) and she left out the fact that the Relics are the bones of her siblings. When she was able to rule and had influence over people, she was quick to eliminate potential threats (ex. the Western Church). She reacts out of fear, similarly to Claude worrying after his own life because he knows if his heritage gets out, people will target him. Rhea, in the same vein, would be targeted if people knew her identity and hated for her race. With not many dragons still alive, she wanted to keep the last few innocent dragons left safe, and to do that she was willing to do shady things to prevent more tragedy.

People don’t like Rhea so they don’t compare her to the other lords or want to recognize that she’s very similar to them. Her story is a mash of Dimitri and Claude’s, effectively. It’s just a bit less in the forefront because she’s not a main lord. SS is “her” route (really more Byleth and Seteth’s route, but you know), and Dimitri’s ghost shows up to explain his feelings and regret to Byleth (Byleth specifically, who has a deep connection to Rhea).

In VW, Claude defeats Nemesis just like she once did, basically clearing Fodlan of her lie that Nemesis was a hero and in a sense, freeing the dragons from the forced lie she had to tell for the dragons’ safety. If Byleth and Claude have leadership over the new world that Claude was making, the dragons would no longer be outsiders and wouldn’t have to fear for their lives, even if the truth got out (especially because Claude understands what it’s like to be different and thus targeted).

In AM, Rhea retreats to Zanado and leaves Fodlan in Dimitri’s hands. Byleth only controls the Church, ultimately. If Rhea thought Dimitri’s rule would bring problems about, she wouldn’t have just left and lived quietly. Rhea was kind of like the guide for Fodlan to most of its people, and Dimitri strongly believes that a king is a guide for his people, not someone who is specifically meant to rule and have all the say. He believes the people are the future and should be protected, so his role is to be a guide for them to find the future they’re looking for. Rhea acted in a similar way, but her leadership was different because of her fear.

The only chance you have for Rhea to rule the same way as Dimitri is by S supporting her in SS, i.e. she reaches the conclusion of her story the same way Dimitri does in his own route (as otherwise she dies so the full, proper conclusion of her story changes slightly. She either dies in redemption or steps down and lets Byleth rule while ruling on the side with Byleth but in presumably a new way).

Rhea... really is not that different from the other lords. Unfortunately she’s Edelgard’s main enemy, and since Edelgard is super popular, loads of the Edelgard fans hate Rhea simply because Edelgard does (and yet may like Claude or Dimitri).

#DCE Ask

[randomnameless]

(voice line anon) Sothis says this when engaging Seteth in battle: "The Hammer of Judgment, hm? I see that time has not been kind to you." And this when she defeats him: "I see the weariness within. Too weak to lift your hammer now?" Her unique praise line for him is also interesting: "Do not deny your age and strength! Embrace your might!"

:')

Voice Line Anon (unless you want to be called something else?), you're saving me much trouble!!! Thank you!

Here goes!

my useless comments under the cut

I love how Seteth'n'Flayn have lines with random knights of Seiros lol

Seteth tries to train/tutor Catherine while they fight/train, but it's funny because Rhea doesn't and they just enjoy a good sparring (is it bcs Rhea's actually similar to Catherine and Seiros the Warrior used to Leeroy Jenkins her way when she was younger during the WoH?).

Is he joking here or sounding serious?

But he always has compliments for the random knights and a special one for Catherine, that's so wholesome, Seteth really tries to mentor/help the people from the KoS/CoS!

(Support Unit) Rhea - "Like this, Lady Rhea. Ha!"

omg Flayn - she's s trying to show the example to Rhea it's so cute

(Active Unit) Flayn - "Understood. Ha!"

And Rhea plays along 🥺 "Alone B4 U since Zanado + had no one with who i could be rhea" my ass

Cyril - "Do not hold back because I am your opponent, Cyril."

Cyril - "Are you hurt, Cyril? It is alright, you can tell me."

Flayn having a friendly exchange with her totally not-cousin 🥺

Knight of Seiros - "You know, in some tales the princesses defeat the knights."

What is a random KoS supposed to reply to this?

Rhea - "I have never seen anyone fight as elegantly as you, Lady Rhea!" 1,000 Enemies Defeated - "I know violence is not your way, but your strength is unparalleled, Lady Rhea."

But I thought Rhea had a hair trigger temper, of course violence is her way???

Catherine - "You are simply radiant, Catherine! I truly admire you."

You can't tell me Catherine isn't a member of their family at this point, Flayn looks up to Rhea, she looks up to Catherine and somehow, is proud to be Seteth's "sister"!

Jeralt - "I am certain that she would lament you and I crossing swords."

You don't say Rhea, but Sitri lamenting over Jerry's stupid actions would imply calling him out on his shitty general behaviour, and the Fodlan verse isn't ready for that.

Seteth - "We have not sparred in quite some time, Seteth." Seteth - "This reminds me of our friendly bouts in days long passed."

"Remember how I kicked your ass back then ?" "I let you win else you'd cry" "I totally and legit won every duel we had"

Cyril - "You have grown much, Cyril. You may even surpass me before long." / Cyril - "You are doing so well, Cyril. Your bravery is worthy of praise."

She encourages him it's so fucking cute 🥺

It's funny how she has a line for everyone, commenting on the fight or their growth, and then there's this :

Edelgard - "Wilhelm. If only you were alive today." Edelgard - "You bear such a resemblance to him.. It breaks my heart that I must defeat you."

With Supreme Leader she goes "WILLY :'("

-> no words about Supreme Leader's performance, or why they are fighting, or anything else, she's just a reminder that Willy's gone lol she even praises personally dimitri, but Supreme Leader? Nope

1,000 Enemies Defeated (same quote for Seteth) "We must strive to build a world where you need not dirty your hands in such a way."

It's interesting! Is Rhea Implying she's willing to dirty her hands to make a better world, but regrets having to involve those two?

Catherine - "Absolutely masterful, Catherine. It is a great comfort to have you with me." 1,000 Enemies Defeated - "Nothing is more reassuring than having you at my side."

Catherine is here to provide comfort and to be at her side, just another day for a Faerghus knight and her liege. Faerghus Chivalry at its finest here rhea abandoned Adrestian values to adopt the Faerghian ones? Or didn't download the Adrestian update since willy's passing?

Yep, I've seen on how you commented about Rhea'n'Sothis's VAs being different lol, but that's the lolcalisation for you/us hahaha. Is Rhea pausing after the "Wilhelm" in the line where she wishes he was alive? In PK we have suspension dots, but it could be similar to her FE16 line, her pause was longer in the jp version than in the lolcalised one (as was her tone but this is beating an undead horse now) but yeah, bar the ultimate WTF blunder between Flayn and Sothis, the lines seem to be similar!

(seem to because Sothis's lines sound way harsher in the loc version, and that's without having the VA delivery!)

...

If it's not too much to ask, are Cyril's lines also available?

#voice line anon #thank you so much!!! #3 nopes #lizard family time? #Catherine is just a part of the family #don't ask her 'role' in the fam she's just a part of it #let it be to be at Rhea's side or polish her armor or do the things knight do to their leiges #FE16 #I can't help but wonder with this anon you just made me realsie I don't need to buy Nopes anymore lol #granted it's so annoying that the only nabatean content is breadcrumb hidden in NG+ lines #deathbirby

[kob131]

Follow up: if you don't like Claude NOW you really won't like him in Three Hopes. Like legit, for a good couple of moments he singlehandedly ceased the Edelgard vs Dimitri discourse and united both sides against him. Funnily apropos in my opinion. If I could describe him, he's not necessarily AS ruthless as Edelgard but he's definitely just as dirty at least from a political angle.

I can 100% see that.

You know what, I'm gonna gather all my thoughts on Claude here and now so people can understand.

Originally I didn't mind Claude much in the Crimson Flower route. He and Dimitri, like Edelgard in Verdant Wind, were basically non-entities so I had no reason to dislike him. In the war period, he had far less time dedicated to him than Dimitri, who didn't have much in the first place. By the end, I thought he was an alright guy and given that I looked him up beforehand, I believed that the Verdant Wind route could make a good case for him.

I am currently at Chapter 14 and I highly doubt it. Claude is a deeply annoying and frustrating character. The guy early on has a few moments were he acts like he's going to do some shady and dishonorable shit but he never does. I'm guessing this is supposed to make him out to be the 'dashing rogue' type that he's designed as. But what it actually does is make Claude a dumbass because he knows people are biased against Almyrans and he wants to change that but these acts just give the people around him every reason to be biased against him even WITHOUT knowing his heritage. Just as well, I don't think Claude actually reveals his heritage to anyone in game outside of Byleth (though to be fair, he seems to imply it post-game for Hilda and Leonie at least). If he does in the main game I'll say otherwise but given his Byleth support- I doubt it.

And even if I were to ignore how Claude's general attitude shoots his own ideals in the foot, his goal is basically impossible. He wants to unite Foldan as well as the world to get rid of prejudice. Problem is- One would think that looking at the divided Foldan would hammer into his head: 'Hey...things aren't that simple, are they?' That maybe Claude would instead try to just start making the slow process of opening up the world so things can get better over time right? ... Nah, such complicated things are for lesser beings. Claude is Claude so even despite the fact that he's shooting himself in the foot all the time, he seems to come out on top no matter what!

And I do mean, no matter what. Because in any route besides hers, Edelgard will die. In any route not his, Dimitri will die. In most routes, Rhea can die without a high enough support. In all routes, Claude lives. No really, it's canon that Claude lives in all routes. A trait completely unique to him as a Lord. Going even further, Claude is by far treated with the softest touch by the narrative. In all routes, he's depicted, at worst, as just a good guy trying his best. In all routes, he's the one dragging you onto the dance floor as clearly the fun loving guy. In all routes, his foes don't like fighting him even though other people would make more sense (like Edelgard and Dimitri). This is the key difference between him and Edelgard. Unlike her, where she does show some kind of weakness or vulnerability on her route and outright negative traits on the others- Claude lacks that.

I'll be blunt- the guy comes across as a Mary Sue.

In a previous post, I mentioned that Verdant Wind reminded me of Devil Survivor's Law route. I'll explain here: In Devil Survivor's Law Route, not only do you get an unambiguously good, feel good ending but you also get a proper resolution to the backstory of how your protagonist came to get the power of Bel and their connection to Nayoa. Contrast this with the Chaos route (which lacks the happy ending unless you play the Overlord route in the 8th day AND lacks any major lore), The Neutral Route (which lacks any lore outside it's own characters) and the Atsuro route (which is unique). This alongside the fan favorite Amane being your ally as well as getting the character best suited for the Recarm Loop strategy for the Lucifier superboss. All of this despite the Angels being the worst of the factions, being the ones RESPONSIBLE for trapping you inside the Yamato circle and basically killing whoever doesn't fit their absurd standards while blaming everyone else.

It's the same here. Crimson Flower and (presumably) Azure Moon lack any major reveal of lore and it seems even Silver Snow is more solemn than Verdant Wind. It kind of feels like if you aren't doing the original Silver route, you're pushed to Verdant Wind and Claude. This in spite of the fact that Claude is the worst of the Lords and Rhea.

Could I be wrong and full of it? Completely yes and I welcome any rebuttals though I will push back if I feel that I was not proven wrong. But as for now: i can totally see the Dimitri fans with their better character development and the Edelgard fans with the whole rebel appeal setting their philosophical differences aside to beat the shit out of Claude.

[ac-liveblogs]

Fe 3Hopes: Scarlet Blaze

So I knocked over this route in about 2 days. Shocking myself more than anyone else, I think I enjoyed it more than Azure Gleam - both because Scarlet Blaze tells its story much more coherently than Crimson Flower does, aaaand due to Azure Gleam’s loss of momentum right there in the middle.

At this stage, I’m not sure whether my favourite depiction of Edelgard is Azure Moon or Scarlet Blaze. I think they’re pretty complementary at the end of the day - Edelgard on a victory march vs Edelgard with her back against the wall... though I did like how savage she could get in CF, while she gets to keep her hands pretty clean in SB. SB’s Edelgard doesn’t get distracted by her Miracle Romance with Byleth at all though, which allows the route to properly address her goals with her character intact - which, as it turns out, is a lot of fun. 

Scarlet Blaze is a lot less coy about Edelgard being a villain - while that her progressive-sounding goals and lack of remorse/genuine belief that she’s doing the right thing convinced her army (and some players) that her goals are moral and heroic, Edelgard is unabashedly straightforward about her disdain for the Kingdom and Alliance and her plans for both. I particularly enjoyed her telling Dimitri to his face that it wasn’t too late, just surrender the Central Church, you’ll be fine... after a full game of her quite clearly telling you she plans to unify Fodlan. And afterwards she can say straight-faced she’d prefer if the Kingdom didn’t exist. 

Though it is quite fun that while Edelgard is convinced only she holds the key to a better Fodlan, it’s repeatedly brought up within the route (most obviously during her support with Ferdinand) that, just like CF, she hasn’t actually thought through how her meritocracy is going to work once she puts it in place.  It was really funny when Dorothea tried to spin that Edelgard still hadn’t worked out how they were going to replace the functions of the nobility optimistically. “Edie and the others still haven’t worked it out yet!”

Step 1, get rid of the nobles. Step 2, conquer your neighbours. Step 3, reform the continent though ???? means. Step 4, profit - but trust us, it’ll be good. 

Hahaha... Fodlan is so screwed. 

I still like that Shez thinks Edelgard hiring them into such a high station and speaking so highly of them was indicative of her support of the commonfolk. Shez, no... it’s because you have superpowers...

There are a lot of fun parallels between AG and SB - Dimitri and Edelgard’s conflicting views on the morality of their respective invasions for one, or the Insurrectionists vs Tragedy Conspirators and Miklan vs Count Aegir situations for another. Or Edelgard and Dimitri’s regard for commoners, that’s a fun one. It’s just a shame that AG really lost it’s steam, and that despite the opportunity even less time was dedicated to developing Edelgard’s enmity with Dimitri - or literally anyone else, Christ, especially Rhea. 

Speaking of Count Aegir, while I was pretty lukewarm on Felix’ arc from 3 Houses functionally being scrapped, I really enjoyed Ferdinand’s subplot. Where Dimitri was side-eyed for trying to give Miklan a second chance, all of Ferdinand’s suggestions that his father be tried justly, that it would be nice to give him a second chance, that a sudden execution would be wrong... were met with Edelgard and Hubert’s disapproval, resulting in Ferdinand eventually conceding that yes, they were right, they should have just executed Count Aegir before he got a) a fair trial and b) before they actually proved he did half the things Edelgard accused him of.

Terrifying precedent for the Empire’s legal system, but the Ferdibert corruption arc was definitely fun. I loved Hubert wanting Ferdinand to kill his father, just like Hubert did, their excess dialogue about it and standing over Ferdinand’s shoulder, killing everyone except Duke Aegir, so Ferdinand could do the killing blow. I was kinda lukewarm on Ferdibert before now, but I’m really digging it at the moment. I gotta wonder how Hubert comforted him in his grief after all of that - the route is not quiet about shipping them.

Scarlet Blaze is really let down by it’s finale. Despite the opportunity, again - like AG, SB spends a lot of time dealing with internal threats or traversing the map instead of building up the confrontations with Rhea and Thales.... who knock each other out and fall off a bridge, which is a wonderful, bloodless win for the Empire. Edelgard getting to keep her hands clean at the end was... very odd for this route - like in AG, all 3 Lords survive to the end of the route. It’s super weird, and definitely brings the game’s momentum grinding to a halt when Edelgard’s conquest gets a To Be Continued. It’s like in CF, when Edelgard doesn’t deal with the Agarthans... except here, she doesn’t even accomplish her repeatedly stated goal of unification. Seriously...

I think the Agarthans actually got less focus here than in AG - Myson popping in to mutter dark nothings at Shez was absent. And the Church... I mean, you can’t really spend an extended amount of time with Cyril, Flayn and Seteth as enemies without pushing Edelgard into Absolute Monster territory (what we already got was bad enough), and Rhea... I mean, Edelgard barely had a leg to stand on before. I’m still shocked Edelgard didn’t want to kill Rhea, given how brutally she executes her and Dimitri in Crimson Flower. It comes off as extremely out of character given her attitude towards Duke Aegir - like she’s being defanged at the last minute.

Really kind of transparent that the Central Church is just a stepping stone, not a real threat. I would’ve liked the route to go harder on it. Seems like this isn’t even the worst Rhea will be getting; Golden Wildfire is next, and apparently that’s where the real stupid anti-Church rhetoric is hiding... can’t wait.

I have to assume Gleam, Blaze and Wildfire refer to how much of a trash fire Fodlan is once Dimitri, Edelgard and Claude have their ways with it. 

Like Azure Gleam, the route ends rather suddenly and feels pretty unfinished, so I have to assume DLC is coming in the future. Seriously, 3 Houses and 3 Hopes feel like two halves of one incomplete game at this point...

6.5/10 an enjoyable enough evil romp, but could have been eviler. Still felt like Edelgard was being held back - in the route where she’s more direct about her goals, she’s less brutal on-screen. Gotta keep her marketable though, I guess. Unlike AG's alternate path, this one really did just kinda feel like damage control on Crimson Flower overall..... Dimitri's mysterious survival and whatever's going on with Claude aside.

#ac plays fe 3hopes

[sage-nebula]

mannnnn thank you for validating my dimitri salt because the fandom take of (usually f!)byleth """saving""" him with their (usually her) """warm hand""" etc. etc. gives me the heebie jeebies. i get that there's a lot of young people in this fandom who haven't necessarily worked out yet that no one should feel responsible for "changing" their significant other! but seeing it everywhere is annoying and i'd rather be over here in my own private salt mine, thank you very much >:(

You are very welcome. Putting the rest of my response under a cut so those who don’t wish to see this don’t have to.

First off, as a disclaimer, I just want to say: I don’t think you necessarily have to be young to be attracted to the “power of love saves all” trope, and I am also a firm believer that you can enjoy something in fiction without endorsing / liking it in real life. I myself am a fan of some dark tropes; I love drama and angst, and I have been known to put characters into downright awful situations that I would never want anyone to suffer through in real life. Fiction serves many purposes, but one of those purposes is to allow people to explore ideas that are dark or terrible in safe avenues that hurt no one. This is why there has been fiction that depicts things like gruesome murders, for example, for centuries. People who write books about murderers (usually) don’t actually murder people themselves, nor do they want anyone to be murdered. They’re just telling a story they thought might be interesting, and others who enjoy that type of story (but also probably aren’t murderers and wouldn’t want to murder anyone in real life) are reading it. So it’s entirely possible that people who are drawn to the idea of F!Byleth “saving” Dimitri from his “darkness” with the power of her love are adults, and are also people who wouldn’t go for that sort of thing in real life. That’s completely possible, and I don’t begrudge those people for it. You do you, and all that. If that’s your type of thing, great. More power to you.

But as you’ve gathered from your posts, I personally don’t like it at all.

I haven’t finished Azure Moon yet, but so far I hate … pretty much everything about the way Dimitri’s character has shaken out, and how his relationship with Byleth is being forced now. Because let’s get one thing clear: Dimitri’s feelings that Byleth “saved” him are almost as much of a 180 as his feelings regarding not wanting to kill Edelgard, with potentially even less explanation if you can swallow that he, for some reason, believed that Patricia was the first Flame Emperor because Cornelia (enemy and known liar) said so as she was dying right off the bat without any proof to back up the claim. When Dimitri first saw Byleth after five years, he at first thought they were a ghost, and then accused them of being a spy, and THEN went on to say that he didn’t really care either way so long as he could keep murdering people (and still later said that he would “use [Byleth] and [their] friends until [their] flesh fell from their bones” so, yikes). It wasn’t until Dimitri saw Dedue that there was any sign of his behavior changing even slightly. Dedue’s reunion got the romantic sounding music. Dedue brought out the softness in Dimitri. Dedue comes across as a far more natural love interest for Dimitri than Byleth ever could. Once Rodrigue kicks the bucket, Dimitri still pushes Byleth away until he breaks down into a Woe Is Me speech and Byleth offers their hand. At that point Dimitri’s gratitude and fondness for Byleth begins being pushed very hard, in a way that feels unnatural and unrealistic given how he’d behaved up until that point. If Dimitri had been more broken up and touched at Byleth’s reappearance after five years, sure, maybe. But as it stands it feels unnatural, and leads me as a player to believe that Byleth flat out just did not mean as much to Dimitri as they meant to Claude or especially Edelgard.

But all of that—the bad writing, of which there are other instances in Azure Moon, to the point where in my opinion this feels like the Conquest of Three Houses—is a minor issue. The bigger issue is the fact that the game pushes that we’re supposed to sympathize with Dimitri and see him as a tragically heroic figure when I … don’t, at all, for multiple reasons.

The first, and perhaps biggest, issue is the way his trauma and mental illness is being used by the narrative as the defining reason for why we should sympathize with him. Dimitri was traumatized when he was about fourteen by seeing his parents, friends, and others killed brutally in front of him during the Tragedy in Duscur. (Note that in this same incident Dedue witnessed GENOCIDE CARRIED OUT ON HIS PEOPLE, HIS FAMILY MURDERED RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM, but the trauma that he should have from this is basically never touched upon, and instead he acts as though people from Faerghus—you know, the kingdom that COMMITTED GENOCIDE AGAINST HIS PEOPLE—should not associate with him lest it stain their reputations. Hmm. Hmmm.) Somehow, at the tender age of fourteen, Dimitri went on a brutal killing tirade during this incident, delighting in bloodshed, which understandably disturbed and traumatized Felix (whose own brother was slain during that incident, mind, albeit not by Dimitri obviously), who then cut ties with him, not wanting to be friends with someone like that anymore. (Note: Everyone acts as though Felix was the bad one for this, rather than thinking it reasonable to not want to be friends with someone who delights in murder and bloodshed.) As a result of all of this, Dimitri regularly hallucinates the ghosts of his dead relatives and friends, and devotes his entire life to avenging them by murdering whoever was responsible for the Tragedy of Duscur, as well as whoever gets in his way of accomplishing that. (Note: “Who was responsible” is something Dimitri will accept with basically no evidence. He believes Edelgard was responsible because she called herself the Flame Emperor and wore a similar outfit to the one he saw back then. Never mind that she is his age and thus was also a fourteen-year-old child at the time; no, he believes she must have magically made herself the size of an adult and was capable of killing not only her own mother, but also his father (who carried a Hero’s Relic!) and countless others. Because that makes sense.)

So. It’s clear that Dimitri has deep-seated trauma, and it’s understandable that he would have trauma from such a grisly, horrible event. It is also true that not everyone reacts to trauma in the same way, and that there is a definite stigma against those who don’t react to their trauma in ways that people can twist to be “cute” or “endearing”. I’ve talked about the Good Survivor vs. Bad Survivor dichotomy among fans on my blog before, and I stand by everything that I said. However, there are several key points to keep in mind:

Not all behaviors can be classed as just “Good” or “Bad”, and furthermore, even if two behaviors are agreed upon to be “Bad”, that doesn’t mean they’re on the same scale. Being asocial and snapping verbally at people isn���t the behavior of a “Good” Survivor, but it’s also not nearly as bad as actually murdering people and doing it as slowly and painfully as possible. Getting on someone’s case because their trauma makes them reluctant to socialize or trust isn’t the same as calling them out for torturing people to death. This shouldn’t have to be said, but this is tumblr, so I’m going to say it.

Succinctly, a shitty past does not excuse a shitty present. Yes, Dimitri was traumatized. No, this DOES NOT justify his actions even before the timeskip, much less after it. Similarly, Dimitri lampshading that his behavior is bad and calling himself ~a monster~ doesn’t make it better, either. If anything, it makes it worse, because Dimitri knows that what he’s doing is horrible and he continues to do it anyway. Just because you’ve been traumatized (rather through a single incident or years of abuse or whatever) doesn’t give you a free pass to do whatever you want. You are accountable for your actions and behaviors, always. Trauma may explain why you behave the way you do, but it does not excuse it.

The problem with the narrative portrayal of Dimitri on Azure Moon (and arguably Verdant Wind as well, since we had an Alas Poor Dimitri moment when he was killed on Verdant Wind despite him literally calling for the deaths of everyone on the field in that path, straight up telling Claude to his face that he was going to kill him) is that the game pretty much flat out tells you that you should sympathize with Dimitri because of his trauma. Oh sure, Felix calls Dimitri “the boar prince” and routinely chews him out, but if you tell Felix that you’re not going to talk to Dimitri shortly after the timeskip, Felix tells you to “not give up so easily” and that Dimitri surrendered his humanity in pursuit of becoming a better killer, as if that’s supposed to make him sympathetic. Rodrigue tells Byleth that he wishes that he had the courage to “scold” Dimitri, but doesn’t actually do anything about it. And every single person present, including both Rodrigue and Gilbert, go along with whatever Dimitri wants, even when what he wants ignores the problem of the fact that Faerghus citizens are starving to death in the streets because of the situation in the capital. Dimitri flat out tells EVERYONE that he is all but abdicating his duties as king in the name of revenge, but rather than Rodrigue or someone else experienced coming to the logical conclusion taht he is therefore no longer fit to be king and relieving him of those duties (not necessarily violently; I doubt he would have put up an argument), they instead just go, “welp, nothing we can do about it we guess” and go along with what he wants, leaving the people to suffer, because Dimitri is of the Blaiddyd bloodline and, well, he’s a sad boy and they feel bad for him.

I shouldn’t have to say it, but I’m going to: This is disgusting. It’s disgusting that Dimitri’s trauma is used as a way to try to make the player feel bad for him despite the atrocities he commits time and again right there on screen. When Byleth first returns to the monastery after five years, it’s to find that he’s decorated the place with Empire soldier corpses. Byleth has to mercy kill Randolph before Dimitri can rip out his eyes, something Dimitri grows angry with them for. Dimitri says, immediately after that, the line that has stuck with me: “I’ll use you and your friends until your flesh falls from your bones.” He’s told that the people in Fhirdiad are starving and dying in the streets and need help and he flat out says he doesn’t care. He relishes in bloodshed and crows at every opportunity about how he wants to kill. While both Claude and Edelgard look regretful about the battle at Gronder Field, Dimitri just once again roars about how he wants his soldiers to kill every single person present. And through it all, we’re told that this is okay and we should forgive and feel sorry for him because he’s traumatized. It’s not really his fault, it’s just, ooh, that darn trauma!

As someone who has C-PTSD from years and years of abuse, I can’t begin to tell you how much narratives like this infuriate me. Those of us with trauma aren’t mindless infants who are unaware of our surroundings and incapable of controlling our behavior. When I say “a shitty past doesn’t excuse a shitty present” and “traumatized individuals are responsibel for their behavior,” I say that from the perspective of someone with trauma that affects me to this day. My abuse was such that sometimes I still have nightmares about my biological mother that leave me dazed and distracted for the whole day. I’ve really been through it. But I’m also 100% responsible for my own behavior. It’s my responsibility, and no one else’s, to make sure that I don’t hurt others. If I do something wrong, that’s on me, and my trauma will never excuse or justify it. 

So for the narrative of Three Houses to act as though Dimitri’s rampant murder, (attempted) torture, and love for bloodshed and violence is excusable and forgivable because of his trauma is infuriating to me. It’s infuriating to me how, after that insipid ~warm hand~ moment, Dimitri launches into constant Woe Is Me speeches where we’re meant to reassure him that it’s okay that he committed so many murders for no reason other than to quench his blood thirst, it’s okay that he wanted to use his former friends as meat shields to get what he wanted, it’s okay he abandoned his people to die in the streets, that he’s still a good and worthy king and ~just what Faerghus needs~. We’re supposed to see his return to Fhirdiad as a good thing, an inspiring moment. We’re supposed to side with him when he (I assume) later acts the hypocrite by telling Edelgard that People Dying Is Wrong and that she should surrender to him instead. (Never mind that deaths caused by Edelgard’s actions were caused as a result of a war that was necessary to take down the Church of Seiros, which actually had been ruling all of Fodlan under the guise of letting the different territories rule themselves for ages, while Dimitri just killed Empire soldiers for his own blood thirst and revenge, but you know. If you ask most of the people in the fandom, Saint Didi can do no wrong.)

But the thing is, all of that is bullshit. It wasn’t okay that he committed so many murders for the sake of his own revenge fantasies and blood lust. It wasn’t okay that he wanted his former friends to be his meat shields. It wasn’t okay that he abandoned his people. None of that was okay. And I don’t want to sit here and console him and make him feel better just because he apologies and cries about how he’s The Biggest Monster Ever as a result of his actions. Because a.) his actions were monstrous, and b.) that’s an emotionally manipulative tactic, and I’m here for none of it.

Before I go any further, let me state flat out: I’m not calling Dimitri an emotional abuser. I don’t think that was the intent behind those Woe Is Me pity parties of his, from a writing standpoint, and therefore that’s not what he’s thinking he’s doing when he goes on them. I will call Dimitri many things, including a murderer, but I won’t call him an emotional abuser because I don’t think that was the intent in the writing. However, regardless of whether that was the intent in the writing or not, it doesn’t change the fact that one of the oldest tricks in the emotional manipulation book is, when emotional manipulators / abusers are called out on their behaviors and forced to answer to the things they’ve done, they’ll flip the script and start degarding themselves and talking about how awful they are so their victims end up comforting them. A very basic demonstration of what I mean:

Victim: “It really hurts me when you act like you can’t trust me and go through my phone to see who I’ve been talking to. I feel like my privacy is being violated and like you think I’m dishonest.”

Manipulator: “You’re right, I know I should trust you more. I just get so insecure and scared that you’ll leave me.” 

Victim: “I know you deal with insecurity, but that doesn’t give you a right to go through my things. It really upsets me when you do this.”

Manipulator: “I know, I’m such a horrible person. I’m the worst partner. You deserve so much better than me, I understand that you hate me, I’m just the worst and am absolutely useless and terrible and not fit to be even your friend, much less your partner.”

Victim: “No, wait, that’s not true …”

And on and on. Even if they pepper in “I’m sorry”s in there, it’s never once a genuine apology, because they spend so much time tearing themselves down in an exaggerated fashion that the victim feels like they have to comfort the person who hurt them. Similarly, when Dimitri goes on his speeches about how he’s ~unworthy to be king~ or a monster or whatever, the answer choices given are Byleth comforting him one way or the other. We’re never given an option (beyond telling Felix we won’t talk to Dimitri right after the time skip) to tell Dimitri that he is awful, that he doesn’t deserve to be king, or really to revoke our support in any way at all. And because Byleth is not given that option, the narrative is telling us that the correct “choice” (because there really isn’t one) is to sympathize with and empower Dimitri despite how heinous is behavior is. Because Dimitri was traumatized, poor thing, and thus it’s okay that he brutally murdered all those people for no reason other than his own satisfaction. 

(Note: The game never once says “revenge is wrong because it just breeds more revenge.” Even though it seemed like they were going that way with Randolph and Fleche, it’s not Fleche wanting to murder Dimitri that makes Dimitri realize that what he’s been doing is fucked up, it’s Rodrigue dying defending him from Fleche. So even if you wanted to say that Dimitri being blood thirsty and out for revenge was meant to teach him a lesson about how he should behave, it’s not, because that’s not a lesson he ever actually picks up on.)

And that finally ties into what I think you were driving at in your ask (boy, I’ve been at this for a long time), which is the narrative of someone “saving” someone else with their love. By telling the player that they, as Byleth, should excuse and forgive Dimitri for his atrocities because he was traumatized and sad, the narrative (and all the characters in the narrative) are basically pushing Byleth to be Dimitri’s therapist. And as I said in the tags on one of my Azure Moon hate posts (or maybe on twitter, I can’t remember, it all blends together), I am not here for that.

Aside from the fact that both Edelgard and Claude seem to genuinely care for Byleth the whole way through, the other primary difference between them and Dimitri is the fact that Byleth doesn’t have to play therapist for either of them. Claude, for the most part, doesn’t have any major traumas; he did have to grow up being outcasted for being mixed race, and that is its own kind of trauma which I am in NO WAY diminishing, but that trauma he faced was the more realistic type of trauma that people in real life face every day. He is still the most well-adjusted of the three. As for Edelgard, she is in my opinion even more traumatized than Dimitri, but not only is her trauma handled in such a way that it’s never used as an excuse for her behavior (the experiences that traumatized her helped her form the beliefs that spur her actions, but her actions always route back to those beliefs, not to “ghosts made me do it”), but she also pretty much keeps her trauma to herself as best she can and never hinges her emotional stability on Byleth. Yes, Byleth’s presence helps balance Edelgard since Byleth is a secondary confidant and can therefore offer counter-influence to Hubert’s toxic influence (not bashing Hubert here, I’m just saying, he is the WORST influence), but although it’s made clear that Edelgard deeply missed Byleth for the past five years to the point of lamenting about it constantly to the rest of the Black Eagle Strike Force, she also kept her shit together and didn’t wantonly murder people as a result of Byleth’s absence. When she comes to Byleth with issues, they’re usually tactics or strategy related. Byleth is only ever able to learn about Edelgard’s past in late night moments of emotional vulnerability, such as after a nightmare. And even then, Edelgard sharing those moments is less “HEAL MY PAST TRAUMA AND MAKE ME BETTER, PROFESSOR” and more “okay, I trust you enough to tell you this.” It’s not about helping stabilize Edelgard, it’s about earning enough of Edelgard’s trust to learn of her past.

This is in stark contrast to Dimitri, who, again, is completely off his shits, and him being off his shits is treated as a problem that Byleth (/the player) needs to “fix.” Felix tells you to do something about Dimitri. Rodrigue asks you to steer Dimitri in a better direction. Gilbert and Dedue both thank you for “saving” Dimitri even before he finishes being off his shits. The Azure Moon route is about forcing Byleth into the position of therapist and having them do emotional labor for Dimitri, which is hilarious if you think about how Byleth didn’t even start having emotions until teaching at the academy, but also unbelievably aggravating to me, as a player, because I don’t want to be a therapist for a murderous sadboy. I don’t like Dimitri. I don’t approve of his actions or behaviors. And I don’t give a shit what his reasons are for it. I’m not here to be his therapist or do that emotional labor, and I shouldn’t have to be. No one should have to be, except a paid therapist, and only because they’re being paid and have agreed to take on the job. But even then, Dimitri is still his own responsiblity. He is a grown fucking man. It shouldn’t be my or anyone else’s job to do this for him. Neither Edelgard or Claude (or Yuri, for that matter, in Cindered Shadows) required this much emotional labor and bullshit, for fucksake.

But of course, in all of this, I think what gets me more than anything present in the entire game is the fact how, from what I’ve seen, people in fandom by and large worship Dimitri and bend themselves into pretzels painting him as heroic while simultaneously spitting bile at Edelgard and making her out to be a villain. The contrast in their respective pages on TV Tropes is stark. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, given that Edelgard is a woman (and a queer woman, at that) and Dimitri is a blond white boy, and that’s just the way these things tend to be, but it still pisses me off and frustrates me to no end. Fandoms are simultaneously the best and worst of times and this will likely never change. (But honestly, if Edelgard’s role was filled by the blond white pretty boy while Dimitri’s was filled by the woman, I guarantee you that reception to them would be flipped right around. Guarantee.)

Anyway, this turned into a huge rant. I didn’t even expect it to be this long when I started writing. But suffice to say that while I’ve not yet finished Azure Moon, it’s currently my least favorite of the routes I’ve played (best is Crimson Flower, then Cindered Shadows because shut up I’m counting it, then Verdant Wind, and then Azure Moon; I’m ignoring the existence of Silver Snow since I cannot imagine ever not siding with Edelgard when I’ve chosen the Black Eagles), and I cannot stand Didi. He is the worst of the House Leaders by far. Considering how much he has in common with Rhea, it shouldn’t be surprising I feel this way about him, but boy, do I feel this way about him. So go ahead and feel validated, anon. You will not find Didi or Azure Moon love on this blog. You are not alone in this, trust.

#this got so long wow #but i mean every word #fucking hate azure moon and cannot stand Dimitri #this is a Didi Alexandre hate blog #(well not really since dedicating a blog to hatred for a fictional character is stupid but) #(you know what I mean) #also it really is fucked up how Didi's trauma over the Tragedy at Duscur is highlighted so much #and he's treated as being so tragic because of it #but Dedue watching his people be genocided and then being discriminated against for his race #is like . . . completely glossed over #and he's OKAY with it and encourages The Whites not to interact with him lest their rep be tarnished #and also is okay with it bc of White Savior Didi #g o d #fucking nasty #worst route #(again not counting Silver Snow in rankings bc I won't play it bc what is the point) #(how could anyone side with Rhea over Edelgard) #(that route doesn't exist tyvm) #anyway #rant over now i promise #fire emblem: three houses #dimitri alexandre blaiddyd #Anonymous #meta

[fireemblems24]

Azure Gleam Ch 6

Dimitri fans stay winning. The only route where I actually feel the need to put spoilers in the title - at least for anyone who's played Three Houses.

STORY

Oh, wait, we DON'T fight at Arianrhod battle? Count Rowe falls off screen? Man, Edelgard taking Ls all over the place.

I love how Arianrhod is unconquorable but fell right away. Lamo.

Is Edelgard keeping Aruendel imprisoned? I thought she had no clue where he was.

Dimitri struggled with his revenge issue for a moment there.

Annette is so smol. 😭

The way Dimitri says "Imperial snake" with so much venom.

Someone came with terrible news. Count Rowe escaped. Should've just killed him.

Oh, wait, they got attacked by mages. That's TWSITD? And Dimitri knows they're behind Duscur? Suspecting Cornelia is behind it. Glad that we'll get to deal with her again. She's a great villain.

MAP & SIDE BATTLES

Mannnn between the hurricane, not having internet, and last week being a nightmare for work, it's been sooooo long since I played AG. I had most of GW Ch 6 done when the hurricane came through, so it really has been like 2, 3 weeks? (not that I'm complaining, the flooding is just getting even worse in some areas)

Ahhhhh, I'm always so happy when I remember Flayn and Seteth are on this map.

Man, thinking about Post-CF Flayn makes me so sad. Like I know some people think it's oh so great she and Seteth can live, but they'll spend the next few hundred years on the run, terrified to trust anyone with their true identity. And Flayn hates that. She wants to hang out with friends and go to school. The fact she gets that teased and gets tossed into an even worse way of life if she survives CF is so sad. And she has to see everyone celebrate Rhea's death and act like her race is responsible for human greed too.

Ingrid knew Miklain was abusing Sylvain 😭

Dimitri's no nonsense. He's like "if Miklain acts up, kill him" to the soldiers. Like, that's hardcore.

Mannnn, Sylvain is interesting here. He's supporting Dimitri's decision with Miklain I'm betting in no small part because he wants to undo the reliance on crests and knows Miklain could help that.

The bubble over Felix says "It really pisses me off." So Felix being Felix. Annnnd Felix is annoyed with Dimitri for not telling him everything. So more Felix talking about Dimitri, lamo.

Man, the Blue Lions are always so intense. Everyone here is talking about Miklain or Ashe finding a way to deal with Lonato's death or Duscur generals talking about murdered family. AG goes hard.

Ohhh, if Dedue trusts Duke Infan, than I do too.

I was right about Dimitri and Count Gloucester, he just admired Rowe for surrendering quickly and sparing the people.

I get to kill Count Varley. Cool.

Why does Dimitri know so much about which plants you can eat 😅

ASHE & DEDUE C SUPPORT

Ashe is such a cinnamon roll. He's already wandering around while it's late outside and stopped to pick some yarrow because of its healing properties.

Gardening bonding incoming. Ashe noticed Dedue's hobby.

They're both missing the greenhouse :(

Dedue wants to visit Lonato's garden. He also wants to know why Lonato knows so much about herbs. Good question.

Dedue's into medicinal herbs.

These two are too sweet 😊

FELIX & MERCEDES C SUPPORT

He better be nicer to her than last time. I'd love to see her chew him up, lol.

Ohhhh yesss, we're finally talking about Felix's cat thing. Felix really is a cat in human form.

Felix taking in injured stray cats 😭. Mercie and Jeritza did too 😭😭. And they had to hide it because they wouldn't killed it 😭

Mercie "We left my brother behind. Next sentence. "Still, I wonder what happened to that cat." 🤣 Jeritza found dead.

Cat is attached to Felix and won't leave. 🤣🤣🤣 People (and cats) ignoring Felix's being tsun is what I live for.

Mercie is like "quit whining, Felix. You have a pet cat now." lamo.

FELIX & SYLVAIN C SUPPORT

Oh, this time it's Sylvain calling Felix out for fighting reckless. It's a reverse uno from their Hopes' supports.

"You don't look like a man who's achieved some fantastic new enlightenment." Sylvain just slayed Felix.

Now they're arguing about who got in trouble more as kids. I love that, lol, makes them really feel like childhood friends.

Ten bucks says Felix got in the fight defending Sylvain's honor (or Dimitri's).

Sylvain's like you can't die because you mean too much to Faerghus and Dimitri. And then talks about how much Felix means to Dimitri.

Wait, wait, wait - important line here "reforming the entire social structure of pretty much everything . . ." Sylvain on Dimitri. Eat shit "StAtUs QuO dEfEnDeR" argument.

Soooo the "Sylvix" support so far is all about . . . Dimilix 😅

I don't mind this in the slightest, but I suspect someone on the writing team was a shipper on deck OR they were as sick as I am of people saying "CF Felix makes sense because he HaTeS dImItRi."

Felix throwing the same arguments at Sylvain. Good on him.

"You're the complete opposite of integrity." Felix, that's your friend 😭😭.

So Sylvain did some growing up it seems.

SHEZ & RODRIGUE C SUPPORT

Finally got Rodrigue's C support. Took long enough.

Shez complaining about the cold brings back memories lol. I used to live in the North.

Hearing her talk about lamp-lit streets covered in snow makes me miss winter sooooo badly.

Cool detail that messengers ride pegasus during the winter. I think someone mentioned that on here before.

Lamo, Dimitri and Felix followed a pegasus and nearly froze to death as kids. Poor Rodrigue.

Man, this is why the Blue Lions are the best. All these little stories from the past in the supports. Other houses don't get this.

SHEZ & DEDUE B SUPPORT

Shez looking out for Dedue. Good.

Soldiers giving Dedue shit 😭😭.

Shez can sympathize with the soldiers. Wtf. No way. I'm questioning them. (I could either agree with them or question them)

Dimitri put Dedue in a position often given to nobles. Good. Deserved.

Shez says she naturally get's under people's skin, and Dedue's just like "true." lamo.

Commoners bonding over the resentment nobility feels towards them for Dimitri elevating them.

I like how Shez's solution is to just prove themselves. It feels very shonen lead and like what Shez would say.

This was a good support balancing being about both characters.

FELIX & INGRID C SUPPORT

Nooooo, not Glenn 😭😭😭😭

Ingrid found a spur. It's Felix's, but actually Glenn's.

Ingrid's calling Felix out for being a softie for keeping hold of a memento.

And now he wants to give it to her 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 I'm actually tearing up in real life over this. I'm so over attached to this group.

Glenn told Ingrid before anyone else about his promotion 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

I was not expecting that support. That support needs a warning. How did that??

Felix being sweet is my weakness, though.

Not going to lie, sometimes going through support after support feels like a chore. But never with the Blue Lions lol.

SHEZ & SETETH C SUPPORT

Fodlan's #1 husbando support incoming.

Seteth thinks Shez could've impacted Fodlan's future if she continued to study at the Academy and it wasn't shut down.

Seteth admits he's suspicious of Shez. Which . . . I mean it's Seteth.

Man, every time someone doesn't trust Shez, it just makes me love Dimitri's take on her powers even more.

Seteth defending Rhea. You love to see it.

Lamo, he wants Shez to stay away from Flayn and Rhea.

What's funny about that is Shez doesn't have a C support with Flayn (B & A though), so it's almost like she listens until they're more familiar with each other. And OFC Rhea doesn't have supports . . . . again . . . .

MAIN BATTLE

I love how Byleth sides with whoever you're not playing as lol.

Dimitri wants to help Shez achieve her goals (defeating Byleth), and Shez is like "appreciate it, but focus on the war" lamo.

Dimitri is obviously projecting. Shez is explaining how they're not THAT upset about Byleth killing their former teammates. And she's like "you gotta get used to death when it happens all the time or it's too much weight." I think we ALL know where this is heading.

Shez is like "you've let things weigh on you too much" too true.

Though it's kind of sweet that he's trying to help Shez out lol. In his own way.

Awww, yeah, Dimitri over here suggesting they recruit Byleth now. I'm pro-Dimileth, tbh. Even IF I may prefer other ships a bit more, I still think it's pretty sweet.

Dimitri's like "what if we pay more than the Empire?" Like, Dimitri, WHERE ARE YOU GETTING ALL THIS MONEY??? Lamo. He's already in the poorest nation taking in all the refugees from Edelgard's mess and paying an army. Like he must have a finance genius working for him or something.

Kinda cool that AG suggested recruiting Byleth first.

Time to recruit Bernie. Never again will I leave her alone with Edelgard when I'm not monitoring her.

I feel like this is the most tactics I've seen a Fodlan leader use in a map battle ever. Dimitri's giving orders to explicitly ignore Byleth, which is different from every other route that says to attack Byleth before pulling back. He's doing it because he knows Byleth is too strong. Same for the Death Knight, who they trapped. It's pretty cool, actually. No one else has done anything like this.

Dimitri forced Jeralt to retreat right away, lamo. And then beat up Alois. I think . . . my Dimitri might be a tad over leveled. He's level 30. Everyone else is level 20. I may . . . use him a bit more than the others lol. But he just . . . kills everything.

Pretty smart tactics actually. Dimitri had all the strongholds captured, then focused on getting the Death Knight, then on Byleth. So securing the area, then picking off the threats.

Oh, cut scene. Sothis! I think Shez woke Sothis up. But let's be real. It was actually Dimitri who did all the work. Legit I had everyone else picking off Jeralt's reinforcements. My Dimitri took Byleth on by his lonesome.

Oh, Byleth and Sothis fighting??? Ohhhh. What's going on?

Sothis kicked Arval's ass lamo.

I'm sure I'll eventually get this discussion on the other routes.

Shez's rivalry seems so low key. Shez prioritizing recruiting like Dimitri suggested, lol.

Sothis is being a dick to Byleth. ngl. Kinda treating Byleth like a car she's driving.

Arval and Sothis seem to hate each other more than Shez and Byleth do.

I just . . . can't get beyond Alois abandoning his family to follow Jeralt around.

Oh, Byleth hair-color changed. Don't know if that just happened or not. Yep, Byleth just said something. Jeralt seems alarmingly unbothered his kid now has mint-colored hair and eyes for no actual reason. Like what if you woke up one day and -bam- you're a redhead. Wouldn't you be a bit, um, concerned?

Alois saying nothing about having to fight his old friends. Oh, there it is, finally. Man, they really stripped Alois of all his character and turned him into what the fandom claims Leonie is, a mindless Jeralt simp. But he has his jokes, I guess??

Nice to see Jeralt isn't interested in fighting Rhea. Just ignoring her. Fair enough.

Wait . . . Dimitri is leaving? Does that mean I don't have him? OMG. I need him. He's my OP unit. No.

Oh, Sreng. That's cool. They're actually getting involved. And Gautier is in trouble :( Will Sylvain leave too? Or is this the next battle?

Ohhh Annette called them peaceful. Ouch. Sylvain was quick to correct her, though. Poor girl just didn't know. Appreciate they gave them a realistic reason to attack though. Needing fertile lands was a real world reason stuff like this happened.

Yes, Shez, tag along. Please. Don't make Dimitri leave all on his own. I need him ahh. Oh, great, that's not where this is going.

DEDUE AND RODRIGUE. NO. Why. This sucks. Ugh. I lost 3 units this chapter???? WHYYY? Unless I am with them?

Leaving Felix in command is cool, though.

Dimitri just said "protect every last one of them." Oh, the change there lol.

Annette comes to like Dimitri's elbow lamo.

XXX

#azure gleam #fire emblem #fire emblem three hopes #three hopes #three hopes spoilers #azure gleam spoilers

[raxistaicho]

you know on that ask about how the son of nemesis flung into the future being traumatized due to the death of his mother (especially) and family on his mothers side etc while not caring about the father due to either not knowing him or knowing/finding out he was a bad man etc like via reading rheas mind etc the idea of son of nemesis going after rhea due to her killing his mother and family ( blood or not) would be funny given that rhea went after nemesis for that very reason with her being effected by the death of her mother the most.

on the idea of rhea getting caught in the cycle of revenge due to her attempt to kill nemesis son ending in her killing his family like his mother with him surviving via time travel through crest stone of flames like the boy using a spell he developed and using crest stones power etc it would be interesting to see the development of the boy and him at first trying ot gain knowledge of whats rhea has been doing/hiding anyone who would resent the order she established , to find a way to kill her and survive. and him in the end being willing to offer her mercy as long as she just steps down from power paralleling the parley with dimitri and edelgard in azure moon

speaking of which it would be fitting if the guy could read minds due to a spell

The idea of Rhea getting caught in a vengeance cycle would be fairly ironic, but in a manner of speaking she ends up bringing about her own downfall anyways. In so carefully watching over humanity to ensure another Nemesis never rises, she only provides Edelgard the social impetus to do just that.

[butwhatifidothis]

i just found your blog but god thank you for pointing out that claude and edelgard wouldnt get along, its so dumb to me that fandom has this weird idea about how if they just talked claude would be super on board with edelgard and her methods and do everything she wants. Like??? why would claude, who is very hands off about fodlan join edelgard's war for edelgard's ambitious for edelgard's empire??? They take a small thing they have in common (claude thinking the church is sus) and make it literally his entire character, make him her yes-man and a simp its fucking gross

And like, the thing is is that Claude is invested in Fodlan! He wants it to change its stance on foreigners (that, bare minimum, the Western Church genuinely has a problem with)! But he wants to do that as peacefully as possible. Edelgard's methods are something he explicitly says twice are way too bloody and violent to be compatible with his goals. He thinks forcing people to "change their minds" won't actually change anything, just breed more resentment. And Claude even says that he thinks just blindly exposing the Church might not help anyone pre timeskip, and he comes around to Rhea by the end of his route!

Like, even ignoring the whole "Claude doesn't like racism and Edelgard is very unapologetically racist" thing that could maybe possibly hinder any friendship they might have just a tad, that Edelgard is willing to "sacrifice" people's lives for her own goals? Immediate deal break for Claude. Claude, Mr. Embodiment of Distrust, Mr. Looks Out For Himself, will literally sooner use himself as a shield to protect the citizens of Derdriu before he ever thinks to "sacrifice" them for any reason. Edelgard's methods - the ones she will not budge on - cannot coexist in a friendship with Claude, period.

There's a reason he gives over Failnaught to Dimitri and not Edelgard. There's a reason he got the Alliance to willingly follow Dimitri, and why he feels the need to beg Edelgard to go easy on the Alliance. There's a reason why, despite supposedly having such similar ideals, Claude never sides with Edelgard under any circumstances once she starts her war. There's a reason why so many of Claude's comments to Edelgard specifically are so barbed. Claude does not trust Edelgard. He does not like Edelgard. He'd never be her friend, or ally, because he could never trust her.

And frankly? The feeling's mutual! Edelgard doesn't want to work with Claude! She's wants his ass DEAD! He's just a thorn in her side, getting in the way of her conquest by simply existing. Because remember, she knows for a fact that if it wasn't for Claude the Alliance would be "shaken" - just like another nation, where Edelgard used its instability to more easily conquer it. She views him as incompetent to rule, even after he's literally back her in a corner, supposedly shares similar ideals to her own, and he fits her criteria of a "brilliant outsider" (or stranger, in the JPN ver.) that she'd pass down her rule to. She argues that he must leave Fodlan/must die - no attempt from her end to sway him, he has to go away in some way (again, despite their "similar views”).

That people try to say that these two would totally be friends iF tHeY oNlY TaLkEd is just. Funny lmao

#ask #anon #exqueuese me princess #anti edelgard #anti-edelgard #edelgard critical #edelgard discourse #just to be safe #like it comes from a VERY big misread of BOTH of their characters #it ignores SO much context and hyperfocuses on ''same ideals!'' and ''they flirt with each other!'' #it's just annoying like holy hell these bitches do NOT get along #ship 'em if you want but like. that's just facts lmao #also yes the most annoying thing is that it is NEVER Edelgard that changes her mind #but ALWAYS Claude that loses his entire character and just nods along with everything Edelgard says #which is probably the most disappointing thing right #cuz imagine if Claude DID succeed in genuinely changing Edelgard's mind? That'd be SUCH a big step in his dream #since he wants for unfair prejudices to naturally be beaten back and healed from and forgotten #imagine if he genuinely got Edelgard to let go of her hatred of Nabateans? That'd actually be interesting to see #but that can't happen because he'd be too busy eating the dirt she walks on. sad as shit

[strawberry-crocodile]

I swear some Edlegard stans only like her cause they hate anything pertaining to religion. Yeah Rhea did some fucked up shit trying to revive Sothis (who she technically thought could lead instead of her, like deep down she knew she couldn't keep going how she was but if Sothis took her place as leader everything would be "ok") but people forget she is just a traumatized as Edelgard (sitting back and having to watch the desendents of the ones who slaughtered your family use weapons of their bones would reasonably screw with anyone) and people simply label her as evil/crazy (like Rhea/Dimitri stans do Eldelgard) just cause she is a figure of the church (who have done so much good, many of the "bad" they did was because of Rhea unhinging to Serios).

Like people are so "anti-religious" they hate Rhea just cause instead of actually seeing her as separate of that. I will admit, I love Rhea slightly more than Edelgard but still, dont reduce a character down to the bare minimum just to hate on them.

Anyway, Byleth has to wlw hands that can hold both Rhea and Edelgard, let them get revenge on the molepeople who took everything from them.

I kinda appreciate the point your making but not so much your tone. The Church of Seiros is not just "a religion"; it is a Church with cathedrals and saints and an authoritative leader that gets involved with monarchies and nobility and control over information and technology. This is not a stand in for religion in general, this is specifically The Catholic Church. And yes, I think it is 100% justified to hate the Catholic Church. Edelgard isn't an Enlightened Atheist, she very much allows worship within her empire, she is specifically opposed to a central church whose dogma is directly involved in politics. Its dogma directly ties crests to the blessings of the Goddess, and it has the authority to claim Hero's Relics, which are POWERFUL tools of war, and the crest system it supports leads directly to some major misogyny (see Ingrid and Mercedes). The Church of Seiros is not just a religion, it is a major political entity, and Edelgard treats it as such.

Beyond that, a lot of people have some serious trauma about Christian dogma, and Catholic dogma in general. To be able to destroy a church not because it's summoning an evil god, but because it's a realistic analogue to a real institution that did very real harm but people just kinda accept, is incredibly cathartic. To side with a traumatized abuse survivor to bring real change to the world is so wonderful. Boiling it down to "grrr religion bad" is just... very reductive.

That said I do agree that CF/Edelgard fans can be very harsh with Rhea. I like her, she's a super interesting and understandable character. Personally I enjoy the payoff to her creepy behavior in Part 1 that Crimson Flower gets, in the other parts we get warnings from Jeralt and suspicion from Sothis and the creepy lullaby scene, and then she just shows up as this sad defeated woman and it's a weird swerve. I believe that her leadership of the church was ultimately bad for Fodlan, but she is definitely not a straightforward Evil Psycho Villain.

#dalucaray #fe16 #fe3h #rhea #saint seiros #edelgard

[mommymooze]

A Cleric and a Prince

Dimitri x Reader

Cannon typical violence, deep splinters, personal threats

Being a healer at Garreg Mach is a challenging job. Working with Manuela in the infirmary is a mixture of emotions. Happy to help others, sad that she has so many personal issues, anxious when someone arrives with serious wounds, hilarious when the students tell you exactly how they become (not seriously) hurt before arriving in the infirmary.

You have not yet been instructed regarding the fine points of battle. If the students need healing battalions, you are part of the Seiros Sacred Monks, helping Mercedes. Your group frequently accompanies the Blue Lions in battles as well as working with them in the monastery, being available to heal them after rough sparring sessions and general needs.

Eventually, a few members of your battalion are assigned to specific members of the class. You are assigned to Dimitri and Dedue. You cannot handle Felix’s antagonistic personality. Sylvain, well, he was given a male healer so that he will focus on what is hurt versus being Sylvain.

After a few battles Dimitri and Dedue realize that you are their assigned healer. It is not announced to the troops, however they notice the same healers heading to assist the same team members. Dimitri asks you to sit with him and Dedue during meals quite often. Dedue speaks with you frequently during your time together in the greenhouse. Healing herbs don’t plant themselves.

You’ve become good friends with both of them. Cheering them both on when they enter the lance tournaments. Joining them in the training grounds, healing their injuries, or the injuries of their opponents more likely, after a long sparring session.

Things fall apart after the battle that occurs in the Holy Tomb. Dimitri is acting strange and distant. Dedue shields you from him at times. Dimitri’s health is suffering, you can tell that he’s not eating and sleeping properly. You help Dedue mix other herbs into the prince’s tea, hoping to get him to sleep occasionally. You find out about Dimitri’s ageusia and load up on the sleeping herbs. Dimitri is a big guy and there are enough herbs in this batch to knock out a horse. He finally sleeps for a night, Dedue cannot force the tea on him every day, he gives it to him as often as he can.

The battle when they lose the Professor is devastating. Dimitri is seriously injured, you keep him from the brink of death. As soon as he is mobile, Dimitri disappears with Dedue following him.

Remaining with the Knights of Seiros you are trained to fight like everyone else. Nearly five years are spent searching for Rhea, fighting Imperial troops, and thieves. Returning to the monastery after the anniversary of the millennium festival, the place is a mess, in worse condition than when you marched away with the rest of the Knights. The Blue Lions return. Dimitri is with them, at least the shell of him is here.

You attempt many times to speak with him while he keeps his vigil at the base of the shattered statue of the goddess.

“The Dimitri you once knew is dead, only this repulsive blood-covered monster remains!” he screeches at you as you enter with a tray of food from the kitchens.

You have learned to bring things that can survive his rage. Any food or drink you bring near him is immediately upended or thrown against the wall. In times of true hunger, the Boar forages, grabbing the chunk of sausage or meat skewers, now stale bread and raw vegetables from the floor.

The times that he is lucid are few. Infrequently, the Professor can have a partial conversation with him. If you catch him while he sleeps or as soon as he wakes, he may let you approach to clean a few wounds and heal him.

Felix scoffs at you, telling you that you are wasting your time and effort on a beast, a worthless animal. Yet Felix is there, every day, just like you, watching over him.

The army heads for Ailell, obtaining additional troops and Rodrigue joins them. Rodrigue can have a few conversations with Dimitri, however Dimitri’s anger still controls him. It is only when they take over the Great Bridge at Myrddin that a change is sparked in him, when Dedue rejoins the Blue Lions.

Now, when food is brought, it is handed to Dedue, who will not allow his highness to throw the trays. Dedue directs the prince not to use his rage upon those that come to aid him. He even convinces Dimitri to remove his armor, a few pieces at a time, to be cleaned and repaired. Dimitri allows the Professor or you to approach, assisting with cleansing his wounds, healing, and clearing his infections.

The army marches for Gronder Field. You stand amongst the troops in his battalion, waiting for the order to proceed. Suddenly it is time to advance. Dimitri and Dedue sprint far ahead of their battalions, they are immediately surrounded by enemies. The battalions fight their best, you alongside them. Perhaps nobody will notice if you cast physic on Dimitri. Dedue is a brick wall, or at least is made of stone, he does not get injured often. The Blue Lions fiercely move forward, Dimitri is determined to reach Edelgard and end her life.

Dedue assists by clearing the last armored Imperial fighter in Dimitri’s way as the leaders of the opposing troops battle. You are fighting Edelgard’s battalion members, preventing them from attacking Dimitri and Dedue. A sudden roar comes from Dimitri as Edelgard is warped away by Hubert. His prize taken from him, Dimitri lashes out at her remaining battalion members, crushing heads and ripping off arms, rending flesh.

The sounds of battle dissipate. You are called to the medical tents to assist with healing. Suddenly the word spreads around camp that Rodrigue has fallen. You cry, not just for Rodrigue, but for Dimitri, whose rage was calming due to Rodrigue and Dedue’s work, and for Felix, who is now alone.

Dimitri solemnly returns to Garreg Mach, Dedue at his side as they escort the body of his dear departed friend.

After the funeral, you march to the Cathedral, arms full of bandages and cleansing cloths. Dimitri would not let you treat his wounds after the battle, during the march or the service. Dedue convinced Dimitri to bathe for the wake. You approach them both as Dedue helps you undress Dimitri from the waist up. As you clean his wounds to avoid further infection, heal him, apply salves, and bandage him, Dimitri looks at you for the first time in forever.

“I am sorry for your loss. I know Rodrigue was like a father to you.” You tell him softly as you wrap a bandage around his left arm.

“He told me I should live for my ideals.” Dimitri swallows, his voice trembles, “Rather than stay shackled by the ghosts of the past.”

“Learn from the past, live for the future.” You smile at him, smoothing some salve to his left ribs. “I know you can do it. Rodrigue believed in you. I do too.”

“My apologies for any problems I have caused you.” He says then hangs his head.

Tying off the bandage on his chest you hug him. “All is forgiven. Rest easy.” You whisper.

He’s not sure what to do, he lifts you into his lap and surrounds you with his arms lightly touching your back, fearful of his great strength. He sobs into your shoulder as you softly whisper comforting words to him patting his back and rubbing his shoulders.

When his tears end, you ask Dedue to get a small towel wet. You place it on Dimitri’s face to cool his forehead eyes and nose. While pressing it to his face, you cast a faith spell to reduce the pain and swelling from crying. After a few minutes you peek underneath the cloth over his good eye.

“How’s it going?” You softly ask.

His blue eye looks at yours. “Better.”

You climb from his lap and he stands, taking a deep breath. “I should probably speak with Byleth.” He coughs into his hand. “Thank you.” He says bowing.

“I’m always at your service.” You smile.

The battle in Fhirdiad is awful. You had not been to the capital of Faerghus too frequently, it is painful to see so many lives ruined, buildings and homes demolished. The citizens are rebelling against the Imperial army, doing their best to help. Although the commoners are brave, you cannot help but feel grief-stricken when they are killed. The people are not trained fighters, however they feel so heart strong for their land and kingdom.

The battle against Cornelia is harrowing, under the tactical eye of Byleth and strong will of Dimitri, the Blue Lions are triumphant. Bells ring throughout the city proclaiming the victory. Citizens are jubilant, dancing in the streets. A celebratory feast is held in the castle.

You are in the infirmary, healing and patching up anyone that comes for treatment. Working long hours into the night, you collapse into an empty infirmary bed for a well-deserved rest. The morning comes quickly. Dedue arrives asking for assistance with Dimitri’s wounds. The serious injuries for soldiers have been addressed, ensuring that the soon to be King is healthy is the next item on the priority list.

“Thank you for coming to my aid.” Dimitri humbly addresses you as you enter his room. “I did not see you at the feast. I was told you were working with the other clerics, healing those that could be helped. I feel guilty asking for your assistance.”

“We need you to lead us.” You smile. “It makes no sense to let you become ill from infection.”

As you treat his wounds and bandage him, you tell him stories of his brave people. How they worked together to aid in the fighting, putting out fires to save buildings, pulling other citizens away from the battles, and how all of them support him.

Dimitri again lets his thoughts go back to when he was lost and out of control. You reassure him that the people have forgiven him. They cannot lead themselves, not yet anyway. Everyone can heal together. Rebuild the city, rebuild the people. Put people into place that are good rulers, good people to look up to and respect.

The conversation goes on, you did not realize that the two of you are talking for hours. It is quite late, he should probably be asleep.

“Come Dimitri, it is time for you to go to bed. Get dressed and I will tuck you in and tell you a story.” You grin at him. He holds you to your word. He calls to you after he is dressed in his nightclothes and under his covers.

You gently tuck him in and blow out all the candles but one. You tell him a fairy tale about a boy, magic beans, an evil goose, and a giant. Your hand is on the bed next to him. Gently he places his on top of yours before the story is done. You take his hand in both of yours, rubbing it warmly between yours as you tell him another story about silly animals that think they can sing and their adventures. When you know he is asleep, you take the candle with you as you leave.

The rest and recovery time in the capital is short lived as the army heads out to Derdriu to assist Claude, the city is under siege. Byleth leads the troops just in time to rescue them. The army turns south to head to Enbarr. One last attempt in negotiating for peace is held with Edelgard, however neither side would give in. Battle is the only way to finish the war.

The battle goes through the streets and heart of the city. So many dead, so much blood everywhere. Everyone gave their all. Edelgard refuses to stand down and her life ends. Dimitri, Byleth, and the rest of the army claim the final victory in the war.

You hound Dimitri for thirty minutes before Dedue steps in, helping remind him that he is injured from the battle and needs treatment. Taking him to a quiet and safe room inside the castle you cleanse his wounds, stitching what he would let you and healing him. You then force him to drink water.

“May I finally return to my duties?” He grumbles.

“Yes, now that I feel like you will not fall over in the middle of them.” You answer. Turning to Dedue you instruct him, “Do not let him stay up all night. He needs to try to eat and sleep.”

“As you wish.” Dedue nods as he follows his liege.

“Wait, you have not been healed as well. Sit and show me your wounds.” You direct him to a chair. Soon Dedue is allowed to follow Dimitri to the multiple destinations on the agenda for the evening.

You head to the temporary infirmary, healing and tending to all the injured, be they from your army or citizens of Enbarr.

Finally, the army leaves for Fhirdiad at the beginning of the Verdant Rain Moon. Everyone is happy to be in the cooler temperatures in the northern part of the continent. You settle in the castle, working in the infirmary, staying in the residence for the healers. In your spare time you volunteer healing the hurt and ailing citizens, working alongside them to help rebuild and recover.

Dimitri’s coronation is a grand affair and a healing event for the city. It is a celebration that proves things are well and that prosperity is just around the corner. You sneak out of the infirmary to watch Dimitri be crowned as King. The cheering of everyone brings tears to your eyes. Their hopes and dreams are now resting on his shoulders.

Finishing work, you arrive at the celebration long after the food has been served, someone had been kind enough to send trays of food to the infirmary and it was shared with the patients that remain there as well. Even the spirits of those still suffering injuries are high and in a celebratory mood.

You clean up, wearing clothing proper enough for a meeting with the king, not really fancy enough for a royal party, it is enough you think as you arrive at the festivities that are ongoing. Dancing, singing, drinking and toasts will most likely continue for the entire night. You look over the crowd, finding Dedue is not difficult, he towers over everyone. You wind your way through the other happy celebrants to stand by his side.

“Good evening, Dedue. Is everything going well?” You ask him.

Dedue leans toward you, whispering. “I am well. His Highness has been quite swept up in the events of the day and should move to retire soon.”

“I agree. It looks like he is being cornered by quite the crowd of potential dance partners, let me see if I can intervene.” You answer with the slightest bit of a grin.

Walking up to the King with an air of authority, you bow and wait for the opportunity to address him. Dimitri appears happily surprised at your presence.

“I am pleased to see you are able to join us. Is there anything I can do for you?” Dimitri smiles, but it appears to be a bit weary.

“My King, as your personal physician, I must remind you that your health is quite important and request that you retire. Your schedule is full of meetings tomorrow and will need your complete attention.” Your attitude and stance are such that nobody wishes to question your authority.

“My apologies, ladies. But I must leave the festivities for now, healers orders.” Dimitri smiles sincerely as the women surround him groan in disappointment and disburse, looking for another noble to taunt.

Escorting the King to Dedue, the three of you leave the venue, proceeding toward the King’s residential area of the castle. Once the three of you are far enough away, he stops.

“Thank you so much for rescuing me.” Dimitri gasps. “I felt like the last piece of meat at a butcher shop.”

“Living up to your name, Di-meat-tri.” You succumb to the terrible pun.

He laughs as you head to his quarters. You excuse yourself as you reach his door.

“No, please, come in.” Dimitri opens the door for both of you. He heads straight for a chair and holds his leg up for Dedue to pull his boots off.

“Ahhh!” Dimitri gasps. “My feet are killing me! I have been on them all day.”

Pain? He has pain?! We can’t have that. You procure a stool and sit at his feet. Grabbing a leg you place the king’s foot on your lap and massage it, noticing the slight swelling at his ankle from being on his feet all day. Using a bit of faith magic and expert fingers, Dimitri is content. You turn and take his other foot in hand for some healing and muscle manipulation. When you are finished, you look up to see one very asleep Dimitri.

Dedue smiles and you let yourself out the door as he takes Dimitri to his bedroom.

The castle calms down over the next few days, a comforting routine takes over. Dedue unexpectedly calls you to the King’s quarters, there was an accident in the training grounds when Dimitri was sparring with Felix. Dedue advises you of the situation and you bring the necessary tools to come to the King’s aid.

Entering his room, you find Dimitri seated by the window at his desk, looking over paperwork.

“My apologies for having to summon you. It is a trivial matter, however Dedue is concerned about infection.” Dimitri looks embarrassed. He is in his undershirt, his left shoulder and upper arm covered in dark streaks, debris, and blood. Imbedded under his skin are many long and deep splinters.

“This doesn’t look like it came from a weapon.” You observe.

“No, Felix knocked me over and I fell into the wall. I did not know the wood had weathered and well, here I am.” Dimitri says sheepishly.

“A steady hand and some antibiotics will take care of this.” You nod, unrolling the pack of sharp tools and tweezers.

Beginning with a bit of faith magic to numb the area, you take into hand a sharp scalpel, cutting along the length of some of the deeper splinters to make it easier to remove them. A tool in hand with a needle like point lifts the imbedded wood while the other hand manipulates the tweezers pulling at a large piece of wood. The easier pieces to remove are no problem as you place splinter after splinter on a piece of cloth on the table. Next it is time to work on some that are deeper in his flesh.

“Come on, nice and easy. You can do it. Mmmmmm” You softly say, coaxing the splinter from his shoulder. “Yessssss.” You mutter with satisfaction as it comes out in a single piece.

Laying the bloody wooden spike on the cloth you look up at the King, rubbing his forearm. Dimitri listens raptly to your chatter as you work. You are talking to splinters, but some of the words and how you say them are…sultry.

“How are you doing Dimitri? Need me to take a break?” You look into his blue eye that is staring at you, not paying any attention to his papers.

“I’m…I’m fine.” Dimitri stutters as he grabs a paper, holding it up to read, hiding his blush from the enticing words you are using to help coax out the splinters.

You nod, getting back to work. “You naughty thing, stabbing our King. Right there, yes, come out.” You beckon the splinters out as you dig them from his shoulder. Giving a happy sigh you place another large piece of wood onto the cloth.

“I’m going to tear apart the training grounds and find every splintery piece of wood and give them a piece of my mind.” You grumble as you go after a smaller splinter. Moving Dimitri’s shoulder and arm, you place his hand on your knee, giving the right flex to his arm to get to the next splinter.

Dimitri turns his head and coughs a few times. “Ahem.” He is quite embarrassed. He tries very hard not to think about his hand and where it is. Papers…supposed to be reading papers, right.

“Are you feeling okay?” You lean forward to rub circles on his back. “You’re not coming down with a cold, are you?” Your voice is terribly concerned.

“No.” Dimitri shakes his head trying to clear his thoughts. It’s hard to think while his back is being rubbed. “You can continue.” He holds the paper closer to his face so you cannot see the pink tint return to his cheeks.

You continue to verbally coax the splinters from his arm, occasionally giving a squeal when you successfully remove a piece without it breaking. Applying an antiseptic salve, you rub it into the wound.

“I don’t want to heal it quite yet. I’d like to check later and see if anything is left in there. I’ll bandage it for now and check before you change for bed.” You announce as you pick up his arm and place his hand on your shoulder.

“Hold it right there so I can bandage you.” You demand as you begin rolling the bandage around his arm several times to keep the salve on his wounds and prevent it from soiling his clothes. You sit down and slowly move your hands down the rest of his arm, lightly massaging it as you go. Massaging the center of his palm you are satisfied that you have removed them all.

“Is there anything else I can do for you, Dimitri?” You stand and slightly bow to him.

He clears his throat, “No, that is all.” He says in his normal deep voice. Then adds a soft, “Thank you.”

Later that evening you knock on Dimitri’s door, beckoned in you see both Dimitri and Dedue looking at the King’s already unwrapped arm.

Dedue stands behind his arm as you approach. Dimitri is seated in a chair pulled close to a large candelabra providing sufficient light. Dedue points out two areas that are redder than the rest, some deep hidden splinters as you had feared. Dimitri’s shoulder is a bit warm to the touch, another sign of an infection brewing. You hand Dedue your tools, there is no table nearby. Casting numbing faith magic, you take your scalpel and cut a small slit into one area that is bright red. Holding the flesh apart with the scalpel and edge of the tweezers you see a black bit that must be another splinter. Quickly you grasp the end with the tweezer and pull out an inch long piece of wood.

“That would have festered into a terrible mess. Let me flush it with some antiseptic.” You pour some liquid from the bottle onto the wound, wiping the excess with a cloth to not cause a mess.

The second irritated spot is more difficult to see. Changing the angle of Dimitri’s arm helps, you take his hand and place it around your right hip.

“Keep your arm there, Dimitri. Don’t move while I have this knife in hand.” You warn as you cut into another deep area where you’ve already removed some splinters.

Dimitri doesn’t move, he’s frozen to the spot. So close, his arm is wrapped partly around you and your hip.

You hand the scalpel to Dedue as you carefully pull with the tweezers. This splinter is not as long, but already showing signs of infection, a pocket of pus surrounding the bloody wood. Pouring antiseptic in again to flush it clean you dab the spot.

“I hope you don’t mind a couple stitches.” You announce to Dimitri as everything happens at once.

Felix slams the door open to the King’s chambers, asking the boar if he ever got the splinters out.

Dimitri panics as his arm is around a woman when Felix enters the room, thus he stands up, pulling his arm into you knocking you backwards. Dimitri and Dedue both lean forward to reach for your falling form at the same time, smacking their heads together, hard. Dedue stays on his feet. You fall onto your back onto the carpet, followed by Dimitri who falls crosswise across your chest grabbing his head and preventing it from hitting the ground.

Felix stands with his mouth agape as you ask him, “Did you get any splinters, Felix?” looking up at him from underneath Dimitri’s prone form.

“Tch. No. But you may want to check to see that he didn’t hit his head as well.” Felix grumbles as he backs out of the room, closing the door behind him.

After a moment you heartily laugh at the whole situation. Dimitri and Dedue join in as everyone scrambles to their feet. You make them take a seat as you feel the bumps on their heads. Healing their heads first then stitching and healing Dimitri’s arm you ask if there is anything else needed this evening.

“No, that will be all.” Dimitri says with a soft smile.

You smile widely back at him. “Thank you for letting me serve you, my King.” You bow and leave the room.

The next day you are up early in the training grounds with two carpenters and their wood planes, smoothing every visible piece of wood in the grounds. Returning to the infirmary you continue healing those injured in mishaps around the castle. A young page knocks on the door and hands you a note and a bouquet of flowers. You are invited to tea with Dimitri this afternoon. You advise the page you accept the invitation.

The infirmary workload is light today. Things are slowly settling down after the coronation. Visitors have left and reconstruction is not as desperate as before, thus less injuries. Leaving the infirmary you head to your room, changing into a nice dress and fixing your hair a bit. You are eager to find out what business the King wishes to speak with you about. Heading to his personal wing of the castle, you knock at his door.

Dedue answers, inviting you in. As you enter, Dedue exits, closing the door behind him. Dimitri is dressed casually, no coat or jacket, simply in his shirtsleeves. As you enter the room, he stands to greet you.

“Please, join me.” Dimitri smiles, holding out his hand as he sits at one end of the settee, a large table with a tea service and sweet treats piled high on a tray. You take a seat on the other end, Dimitri pours tea for you.

“I believe Bergamot is a tea you favor, is that correct?” He smiles as he gently and carefully hands you your cup and saucer.

“Yes. It’s my favorite.” You return the smile as you reach for the honey, letting some drip into your cup, leaving the tea on the table as the contents are still too warm to drink.

Dimitri clears his throat. “I suppose I should get straight to the point. I am sure you are wondering why, out of the blue, I have suddenly invited you to tea. Things have been quite busy with ending the war and then plans for the coronation and the coronation itself. Of course, things are always busy as one is trying to set up the government again after so many years of chaos. It seems like there is a never ending list of meetings and consultations and conferences. And I’m rambling, aren’t I?” He coughs into his hand and swallows, taking a deep breath.

You reach out and touch his hand that is sitting on the settee between you. “Dimitri, we have known each other for years. We have fought together in a war. I have seen you at your worst. I am so happy now seeing you at your best. You can tell me what is on your mind.” You smile at him warmly.

Dimitri relaxes a little and takes a deep breath. “Yes. We have known each other quite some time. You have been by my side, helping me and supporting our efforts. You were there when I was so terribly lost. I thank you for that very much. You believed in me when I needed it the most. Now…” He takes your hand, softly as he can between both of his, staring at you intently, his hands begin to tremble.

Time stops as you look at each other in silence. His voice is soft and low as he speaks, “Would you…would you allowmecourtyou?” He sighs heavily, searching your face desperately for your answer.

First you smile, then you nod, he still looks at you. Figuring he wants to hear your answer you lean forward a bit.

“Yes.” You gasp, bringing your other hand over his hands that still hold yours.

“Yes? Oh yes! Thank you.” He grins happily. If he were a puppy his tail would be wagging hard enough to knock everything off the table. He had been expecting a no, so the yes took a few seconds to register. His cheeks are red, his eye sparkles and he laughs a bit with glee. “I’m just so happy. I don’t know what to do with myself. I had been worried and fretting over your answer, I had no idea what to think if you actually said yes.”

“Well, right now we can sit and chat and have some tea. Perhaps you can tell me of some things that you would like me to do to help you. Your day is filled with doing everything for the country. Perhaps some time can be carved out for doing things for you.” You reach for your teacup, taking a sip.

“Going outside sounds amazing. I’ve been cooped up inside the castle every day. I want to get on a horse and ride. To no place in particular, just feel the wind on my face and sun on my back.” His look is far away with a relaxed smile.

“If it is a nice day, we can take tea together in the gardens. The King should have the ability to make time for a ride at least once a week, if it is a nice day. If they give you too much trouble, I’ll ask your clerics to write a note prescribing a required amount of sunshine for your health.” You smile then take another sip of tea.

The next few days both of you take tea in the gardens together. You are happily surprised when he identifies several different plants.

“My interest in plants came from Dedue. He is always gardening in his free time. I insisted that we include some flowering plants from Duscur in the gardens. I would love to see plants from all over Fodlan here, growing together, just like the country.” He holds out his hand so that you can take his. He is still too cautious of his strength to touch you on his own.

The Harvest Festival calls for the city to be decorated in oranges, reds, yellows, and gold. Many displays and booths line the streets to celebrate the great harvest now that the land is at peace. Dimitri invites you to the event and you arrive alongside him in the royal coach. The path before you is cleared by soldiers surrounding the king for his protection.

Dimitri graciously offers compliments and accolades to all that have worked so hard providing food for everyone. His eye goes wide at the size of some of the pumpkins entered in a competition to see who could grow the largest. Often the two of you stop to admire a street performer entertaining the crowd. One of the rear soldiers drops multiple gold coins into each of the receptacles of the performers.

Suddenly you hear a shriek followed by a wailing cry. You dash off into the crowd, your medical instincts taking over. At the base of a tree, you find a woman crying over her son. The rambunctious six year old had climbed the tree, much to his mother’s dismay, to have a look at the King as he walked past. Unfortunately, the boy did not know the branch he was standing on was weak, it broke sending the child tumbling to the ground. Mother and child are crying as you kneel next to him.

“What is your name, young sir?” You ask him calmly.

He stifles a few tears enough to answer. “Jakob.”

“May I see where you are hurt?” You smile a bit, holding out your hands.

He points to his arm, his wrist is already swelling. He tries to lift it and lets out a wail.

“Shhhh. Hold still.” You hold the arm and wrist in yours as faith magic works into his injury. You hold his arm straight and begin ordering anyone nearby to provide splints and bandages. Immobilizing and wrapping Jakob’s arm, you give instructions to his mother. As you stand, you notice Dimitri is at your side.

“King Dimitri, may I introduce you to my newest friend, Jakob. Jakob, this is King Dimitri.” You smile.

Jakob has the biggest smile across his face as he stands and bows before the king. “It is my pleasant honor to meet you King Dimitri.”

The King bows to Jakob, “It is my pleasure to meet you as well. I suggest you heed your mother’s warning when it comes to climbing trees.” He smiles as he ruffles the boy’s hair.

“Yes sir, King Dimitri sir!” Jacob stammers.

“Please bring him to the castle tomorrow morning so I can check his arm.” You tell his mother. She thanks you several times.

You return to walking along the street with the King, admiring the displays and visiting with the people. A street vendor hawking his booth loudly calls out your direction.

“Oi! Your Kingship! Have a try at me booth! Just one throw is all I ask!” The man’s voice calls out over the crowd as he stands juggling coconuts.

You bump your shoulder into his and giggle as Dimitri shakes his head and concedes. “What is it that you ask of me?”

The man bows so deeply his head nearly touches the ground. “Ahh, Your Kingship! So wonderful to be graced by your presence. I only ask that you throw one of these coconuts at the stack of milk bottles at the rear of my booth. Should you knock them all down, you win!” The showman raises his hand to the target with a practiced flourish then both hands in the air as a sign of victory.

“Go on.” You nudge him again. He looks so cute when he’s put on the spot.

“Very well.” King Dimitri takes one of the offered orbs, staring at it for a moment, then hurls it at the stack. Milk bottles fly in six different directions, most of them landing far from the booth as the target is destroyed, the coconut breaks open on the rear wall of the booth and falls to the ground, shattered.

“What an arm! Your Majesty! Congratulations!” The showman scampers over to a special box and removes a beautiful hand crafted stuffed blue lion in all its majesty. A collar around its neck proudly displays the shield of Blaiddyd. “Me wife crafted it herself, she did. She said if you see the King, you must gift it to him, she said.” He bows as he offers the regal stuffed beast.

King Dimitri bows and thanks him for the beautiful gift, handing it to a nearby soldier to monitor while he continues his stroll. At the end of the lane where the festival ends, the King gives one final wave, thanking his people for their faith and hard work.

Returning to the castle, Dimitri must attend meetings, leaving you to your own business. Taking the stuffed lion in hand you dash to the servant’s quarters, asking for a few specific items. You then head to the infirmary to notify them to find you when Jakob arrives tomorrow so that you may personally check on his wellbeing. You trust your replacements in the infirmary, you had chosen them yourself, however Jakob is a special patient.

Returning to your quarters, which now are close to the King’s own rooms, you find the requested items. With a bit of assistance, you complete the project and request it be delivered to Dimitri’s chambers.

Joining the King and the current guests in a large meeting room, representatives of the former Alliance region are here to discuss their budgets and new laws for the expanded Kingdom. There is a break for dinner followed by discussions continuing until late in the evening. The conversations finally wind down and you know that Dimitri is quite exhausted.

“I believe everyone has made great progress today. Let us all sleep on this and take this up again in the morning.” You announce.

Everyone in the room nods as you escort Dimitri to the exit. Walking down the hallway, your hand in his, Dimitri yawns not once, but twice from exhaustion. Dedue opens the door for the both of you. Following you inside the three of you sit and enjoy a cup of chamomile tea, a lovely habit you have incorporated to get him to wind down before bed. You must leave soon, his eyelids are getting heavy, you hope he sleeps well this night.

“Come with me.” You smile as you take his hand and lead him to his bedroom. Dimitri blushes and looks quite confused as you lead him inside the doorway. You point at his bed and then he notices the stuffed blue lion. It is adorned with a small crown, eyepatch and a cape that resembles his.

“It’s adorable!” he exclaims as he puts his hands on your cheeks and plants a sudden kiss on your lips.

“Come again?” you gasp, your eyes wide.

Dimitri stops and blushes in his sleepy stupor as you pull on his collar and place a brief sweet kiss to his lips. Dimitri’s cheeks are a bright red as you step back and bow.

“Good night, my sweet.” You tell him before leaving the room.

“The tea was lovely, thank you Dedue.” You announce as you leave the king’s quarters, walking normally. This is a normal pace? Right? Sure it is. You see yourself out the door. Running into your room you fall on your bed and scream into your pillow. He finally kissed me!

The next morning you stop Felix on his way to bang on the King’s door wishing to drag him out for a morning spar. You require his assistance in accompanying you on a trip to the harvest festival area. He complains the entire trip switching between arguing that he is wasting his time doing this and you must stay closer to him, any madman with a blade could try to attack you. Once your mission is complete you purchase three heavily spiced meat sticks for him to enjoy while you head back to the castle.

Upon your return you are delighted to meet with Jakob and his mother in the infirmary. Jakob chatters the entire time that he is bragging to all his friends that the King had messed up his hair and he is going to grow up to be a knight to protect King Dimitri. Changing his bandages, you are pleased with his healing progress, he can take the bandages off in two weeks as long as he behaves. Before they leave, you had a large basket to his mother, filled with fruits, smoked meats, bread, and cookies.

“Share the cookies with all of your friends and neighbors.” You remind him as you wave goodbye.

The visitors with the king leave after a final meeting, heading back to warmer territory as quickly as possible before the snows cover the land. Certainly, it is not today as the sun is warm and the weather is beautiful. You work on a few projects when there is a familiar knock at the door. Dedue has arrived to fetch you for lunch.

“It is so nice out, I thought Dimitri would want lunch in the gardens today.” You mention.

“His Highness said he prefers to have it in his chambers today.” Dedue answers. He opens the door so that you may enter, then closes it behind you as he remains outside of the room.

Dimitri is immediately on the other side, looking a bit flustered.

He reaches for you, ever so lightly placing his hands on your shoulders, his eye searching yours. “Tell me, I cannot remember if it was real or a dream. Did we k-kiss last night?” His face flushes red.

You nod as pink dusts your own cheeks. “Yes.”

“May I kiss you again?” He asks as he pulls you close. His voice is so deep, with your chest pressed against his, you’re not sure if it is the vibration of his words or the shudder of a thrill racing up your spine.

“Please.” You beg him, your hands sliding up his chest around his shoulders pulling him down to meet your lips. It is a bit awkward, slightly messy, and the best kiss you’ve had since the night before. You hold him tight to your chest as he slowly wraps his arms around you as lightly as possible, resting his cheek on your forehead after the kiss. You sigh happily into his chest.

You try to step back, however he has no intention of letting you go.

“We should eat a bit.” You suggest.

“I am hungry for your lips.” He mumbles into your hair.

“They are not very nutritious.” You tap him on his back.

“You would deny a starving man who has just had a small taste of the most delicious thing he has ever had in his life?” He chuckles.

“You are always negotiating. Would you agree to lunch then perhaps kisses for dessert?” You look up at him and grin.

“One now, then lunch.” Dimitri brings his lips to meet yours once again.

After the most hurried lunch you have ever eaten, you find yourself on Dimitri’s lap exchanging kisses.

A knock on the door alerts the both of you to Dedue’s presence. “Your highness, you have a meeting to attend.” He announces.

Dimitri sighs heavily, “The duties of a King are never done.” He bemoans.

You giggle as you clamber from his comfy lap. “Let me get a comb to make you more presentable.” You offer. After combing his hair and straightening his clothes, you send him off to be bored for the remainder of the afternoon.

Things are busy rebuilding the kingdom. There is always another emergency, an urgent need or any excuse for a meeting. He has been in meetings from early dawn, only returning now very late in the evening. He eats little, his head is pounding from the stress of the day. He hesitates to call you, however he has another meeting filled day tomorrow and must try to get some rest.

You ask Dedue to please prepare tea for the three of you this evening. Directing Dimitri to sit on the couch, you stand behind it and apply gentle faith magic to relieve some of the pain in his head and jaw from being so tense. You then place the footrest at the far end of the couch, coaxing him to lie back and place his head in your lap.

You ask for his right hand and massage the point just above the thumb where the index finger would be carried down. Applying pressure first, then rubbing circles with your thumb in each direction. Placing his hand on his chest you do the same with his left hand.

Next you squeeze the spot on each side where the bridge of his nose meets the bridge of his eyebrows. Applying steady pressure there, then releasing and repeating. Finally reaching around to the base of his skull in the parallel hollow areas between the two vertical neck muscles, you press upward to the top of his head briefly release and repeat.

Removing the hair tie from his hair you run your fingers through it, gently scratching his scalp. You watch his face visibly relax and a soft smile is on his lips as you continue to card through his hair.

“Better, sweetheart?” You softly coo.

“Mmmm, yes. Thank you.” He relaxes.

Dedue brings in the tea service, placing the cups and saucers for three at the table.

You tap Dimitri on the nose. “Diiiimmaaaa. Tea time!”

He sighs then sits up. “Whatever you did was amazing. My headache is gone and I think I should be able to sleep some tonight. Thank you.”

Dedue pours tea for everyone.

“Thank you again Dedue, for a wonderful tea.” Dimitri smiles.

“You’re welcome, your Highness.” Dedue answers.

You take a cookie, taking a bite. “Oh, did you make these Dedue?”

“Yes, I had the time this afternoon.” Dedue nods.

“They are delicious. Hmm, anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, pecans, ginger, clove, molasses. An amazing group of flavors mixed in with love. Thank you so much, Dedue.” Your appreciation shows in your smile and warmth toward the man.

Teatime is very much enjoyed. Dimitri looks like he is relaxed enough to go to sleep peacefully and without a headache. Dedue looks away so you can give Dimitri a sweet good night kiss.

Sunday is the lightest day of work for Dimitri. No meetings if there are no visitors in the castle. The weather is beginning to cool a little more every night. It won’t be long before snow covers everything. Dimitri wishes to take a long horseback ride and invites you to join him. You’ve never really learned the skills of being on a horse, Dimitri is more than excited to educate you. Lifting you up straight into the saddle, he climbs up behind you. Accompanied by a few knights on horseback everyone rides out past the city and into the countryside. His destination is a small area of woods that has a cliff overlooking some of the lands of Fhirdiad. Dimitri discussed the location with Dedue, this spot would provide some privacy, enemies could only approach from one side and the guards could stay far enough away, yet still protect their King.

Dimitri dismounts, lifting you from the saddle. He then unties a picnic basket from the back of the horse and tethers the steed to a tree. Spreading out the blanket you unload the basket to find a delicious lunch, complete with sweet tea.

“This is beautiful, sweetheart.” You smile at him as you place food on your plate. “A gorgeous view and beautiful scenery too.”

Dimitri blushes once he realizes the compliment. His mind then heads straight to places it should not go at such a lovely scene. “I am a beast. I have done horrible things. How can you trust yourself to be alone with me?”

Placing your food on your plate you reach out to cup his cheek. “I have seen you at your worst. I have seen you at your best. You are not a beast. You have come so far making amends for what was done and you will continue to improve. I will be here for you as long as you wish, to help you become the best you can be.”

“Why? Why would anyone want to help me? Some days I feel so useless, that I can’t be the King everyone expects me to be.” He is trembling under your touch.

“I help you because I love you. I know you are a great King, Dimitri. We all know.” You smile, using the thumb that is close by you wipe a tear from his eye.

“You…love me?” Dimitri is shocked.

You fold your hands into your lap and look at them. “I must not be doing a very good job of showing you that I do.”

“Wait! Please, take my hands.” Dimitri begs you. You reach out to hold his hands in yours.

You look into his eye, confused.

“I never thought I could be loved. You have always been there since we met, haven’t you? I have been a monster to you, yet you still came to feed me and heal me. When I had asked permission to court you, I thought you would decline. Every day I wake up and think you would reject me this day. I can’t believe you are still here, with me.”

Dimitri bends forward and pulls you close. Placing a sweet kiss on your lips. Your lips are barely touching his as he whispers. “I love you.”

The next few kisses are not as chaste as the previous one. Plates and food are scattered about the blanket as you hold each other close.

Dimitri’s stomach growls loudly, causing you both to laugh.

“I think we should finish our picnic before you begin digesting your internal organs.” You laugh.

“Can that happen?” Dimitri innocently asks with a look of surprise.

“No. Just joking!” You laugh.

“You are a cleric and an expert on those things. I suppose my sense of humor needs a bit of work.” He smiles sheepishly as he helps you straighten out the food. Finishing the picnic lunch, he packs the basket onto his mount.

“Wait. I need to get on this thing without your help.” You announce.

Placing your foot on the stirrup you attempt to hike yourself up onto the horse. Mentally you remind yourself you need to do a lot more squats. The third hopping jump you manage to jump/haul yourself up and stand with your left foot in the stirrup, you haul your right leg carefully over the horse and sit crookedly on the saddle, gently moving and wiggling yourself to center while trying not to upset the steed. Dimitri’s long legs are great for having the stirrup low, but then you had to overcome the length of your legs versus his. Maybe if you had a horse of your own it could be shorter. Maybe a pony? You suddenly notice a snickering man next to you.

“What?” You snap at Dimitri.

“Nothing.” He smiles at you, easily getting up and into the saddle as if he flew on wings.

You turn around to look at him again, he still has that silly grin on his face. “You look like the cat that ate the canary.” You frown.

“It is just that when you have your mind set on something, you can be very stubborn.” Dimitri whispers in your ear. “It is very endearing, my beloved.”

Those two words at the end send a shiver down your spine, followed by a second when he kisses the top of your ear peeking through your hair.

Winter in Fhirdiad is cold, nobody can deny that. Early winter the snow falls, then melts and this repeats as the weather has not quite made up its mind. By the end of Red Wolf Moon, the snow is here to stay for a while. Wagon wheels get stuck, so sleighs are used to cart things around in the northern parts of the kingdom until the snow is too high to move anything.

Although it is cold outside, with enough warm blankets, perhaps a warming box under the seat filled with live coals to keep your feet, legs, and posterior warm, you agree to go on a sleigh ride with Dimitri. Wearing your fluffiest warmest winter hat and coat, you are surrounded by blankets and your boyfriend as Dedue drives the horse drawn sleigh through the city and countryside. Dimitri entertains you with stories of snowball fights and building forts and snow houses with his friends.

Dedue even joins in, sharing his experiences growing up. With the water surrounding Duscur, the snow would be so deep that they had doors on the roof of the house so people could get outside and carry on business or shop or just leave the house to play. Winter is also a time for handcrafts, baking, soups and savory stews. Before the end of the ride, he promises to make a Roasted Root Stew for dinner in the next day or two.

The sun sets quickly in winter, the moonlight giving a bluish tint to the snow as it sparkles all around. The trees look like they have their own coats of white covering every branch. A rabbit scampers across your path, its fur turned snow white to help with camouflage. The most amazing thing about snow is the quiet. Not many birds stay around in the winter. Once it is night everyone goes inside as the little bit of warmth from the sun is gone. The only sound is the horse tromping through the snow and the swwishhhh sound of the sleds sliding across the snow. The quiet is peaceful, beautiful and filled with the air of calm.

The snow piles higher and higher around the castle. Time marches along as the citizens and lands rest, healing from the war. The King is healing as well. His nightmares are not nearly as frequent, he does not seem on edge and full of angst by the end of the day.

Dimitri’s birthday is tomorrow and a small celebration is planned. Several of the other Blue Lions will be attending, easily able to traverse the snow. Dedue is pouring chamomile tea as you review what has happened today.

“I was called to the kitchens again this morning,” You dribble some honey into your tea. “The cook’s new apprentice burnt her fingers again. That is the third time this week.” You frown.

“Perhaps you can provide her some training?” Dedue offers.

“I would like to sew gloves permanently on her hands!” You chuckle. “Perhaps we can set up something to develop her awareness.”

“The meetings were light today. Not too many complaints when people have difficulty making it through the snow.” Dimitri muses.

“Tomorrow is the big day, not everyone will have problems getting here tomorrow, I hope.” You smile taking a sip.

“Felix and Sylvain will have no trouble whatsoever. Mercedes and Annette will arrive with them.” Dimitri’s eye shines brightly as he goes through the list. “Ingrid will be on Pegasus, so no issues there. Of course, Ashe is a knight here, so the only concern would be Byleth’s arrival in time.”

“Am I spoiling you if I want to be the first to give you a birthday present?” you ask him just before he must go to bed.

“Sometimes, my beloved, I have noticed that you are not the most patient of women.” Dimitri grins. “I will allow this, only for you.”

You happily pull him to his bedroom door and open it so he can see it.

Normally the proud kingly lion sits in the center of his bed, awaiting his return. Tonight, he sits opposite a beautiful female lion. She is adorned with a circlet of flowers around the top of her head and ears, long ribbons down her back and a clerical cape like yours. The lions face each other, touching noses.

“They are adorable.” Dimitri smiles.

You bend down to the bed patting the lioness on the head. “Oh, what is this? I think she has a present for you.” You softly say as you get down on a knee to reach and obtain a box that is sitting between her front paws.

Dimitri comes closer to join you, only for you to stay on one knee and turn to face him with the box in your hands.

“Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, will you marry me and make me the happiest woman ever?” You ask, your eyes welling up with tears.

Dimitri gasps and falls to his knees in front of you. “What? Oh yes! Of course, yes!” He declares as he takes you in your arms and kisses your lips and face urgently. Eventually, the two of you have to break apart to breathe.

“You definitely have an impatient side to you.” He laughs, placing his forehead against yours.

“What? I have the patience of a saint.” You giggle. “Saint Cethleann was very impatient.”

“I suppose you are entitled to this.” Dimitri walks to his desk and opens a drawer. He brings a small box to you. “Just to be certain, will you marry me?”

“Let me think.” You chuckle. “Yes. Without hesitation.” Pulling him close you kiss him again.

The day of Dimitri’s birthday is a joyous event for everyone in the castle. Guests arrive and are settled in their rooms. Felix, Sylvain, Annette and Mercedes make it without incident.

“Come on Boar, spar with me. We have time before dinner.” Felix grunts as he shoves Dimitri in the shoulder

You have a cup of tea and cakes with Annette and Mercedes in your parlor, catching up on the latest gossip. You are relieved that they are wearing gloves, you have not had much experience in the high circles of society. It is cold in the hallways, and they certainly help.

“Teaching at the School of Sorcery full time really keeps me busy.” Annette says as she places her teacup down. “It is fun to see the wide eyed new faces get excited about casting their first spells.

“Annie, that is so sweet.” Mercedes laughs softly. “Things are going very well at the new orphanage we started in Fraldarius. We have a huge building and a room for each individual child. We really appreciate the help from Dimitri and Felix. The children are going to write thank you letters soon. I hope you get to see them.”

“That is wonderful to hear. I am sure Dimitri will be well pleased with the news.” You thank them. “Getting the country back on its feet and prospering is his main goal, of course. I hope to see some of these places myself when it warms up in the spring.”

“That would be awesome if you can come visit!” Annette gasps excitedly. “We could have the students show off their talents. Many are working hard to take existing spells and making them useful in every day life.”

“Can someone look into a spell to cast on ordinary items that resist breaking?” You giggle. “I know someone that would appreciate that spell for sure.”

The table erupts in laughter. Girl talk continues as Ingrid joins you. Byleth’s arrival is announced, and everyone heads to one of the comfortable dining rooms that is prepared for the lavish feast the cooks have prepared.

Dinner consumed, the reunited Blue Lions retire to the King’s wing of the castle in a parlor fitted with plenty of furniture to accommodate everyone comfortably. Chairs, lounges and couches are scattered about the room as well as bowls of fruit, trays of cheese and sausage for snacks. A well-stocked cupboard carries glasses, wines, ciders and hard alcohol.

Sylvain makes himself right at home pulling out a large bottle of brandy and filling a few glasses. Annette picks out a fruity wine made with blackberries and between the two everyone has a glass.

“May I propose a toast?” Byleth spoke up and everyone shushed. “Happy Birthday to Dimitri, King of United Faerghus. May he have many happy and peaceful birthdays to come.”

Sylvain let out a whoop, most others give a respectable cheers! Everyone settles into little groups chatting amongst themselves. You lean on the arm of a comfy sofa, talking with Byleth about what is going on in the monastery.

“The rebuilding and repairing is going well.” Byleth shares. “The classrooms are functional, and all of the dormitories are repaired. We are rewriting the curriculum to teach mathematics, reading, writing and other necessary classes for the public. We want it to be a school for the children to learn, leading into better careers than just becoming knights or fighters.”

“That is wonderful to hear!” You excitedly clap your hands together. “A well educated people is a boon for everyone.”

Dedue is on the left side of the room with Ashe and Mercedes discussing recipes. Ingrid, Felix, Dimitri and Sylvain are discussing some recent merchants that arrived in Fhirdiad offering impressive and finely made weapons from Dagda and Brigid, the styles of weapons being the main topic of conversation.

Mercedes sits next to you for a while, speaking with you and Byleth about a recent idea you are testing. Setting up healing clinics in the city in several areas to assist in keeping the people healthy. Byleth approves of the idea and may test some clinics in areas around Garreg Mach.

Sylvain has been keeping everyone’s glasses full. He notices that he really hasn’t had to fill your glass much, however the glass of water next to your wineglass is nearly empty. Leaning over the back of the couch he starts massaging your shoulders.

“Hey.” Sylvain bends over and speaks softly close to your ear. “If you don’t like the wine we have other drinks. Loosen up and have a good time, beautiful. Get relaxed. “He grins at you and then winks.

Before you can turn your head to tell him no, Dimitri marches over and sits next to you on the couch removing Sylvain’s hands.

“Refrain from manhandling my fiancée.” Dimitri growls at him. He then gently places his hand on top of yours that is sitting on the couch cushion between the both of you.

You blush at him as several gasps utter in the room.

“Fian- you’re getting married Dimitri? Congratulations!” Sylvain nearly shouts, slapping him on the shoulder. “Didn’t know you had it in you! When did this happen? Tell us all about it!” He runs around to the front of the couch to take a seat in the chair directly opposite Dimitri so he can watch his friend’s every move.

“I-well. It just happened. We aren’t quite ready to announce it, but then Sylvain…” Dimitri hangs his head down, shaking it while blushing profusely.

You decide to swoop in to save him. “You see Sylvain, when two people like each other and get to know each other well, spending time together, sometimes something special happens. We have been courting for quite a while you know.”

“I know, yeah. But he’s Dimitri! He has no idea how to flirt or capture ladies’ hearts. Has he even kissed you?” Sylvain looks quite shocked.

Dimitri’s face is red all the way to his neck. You take his hand in yours and squeeze it tightly.

“We have kissed. He kissed me first and everything else is our business. Change the subject.” You give him your evil eye look.

“Wow.” Sylvain laughs. “Wah-hah-how.” He stands up and walks to the alcohol cabinet. Felix gives him a punch in the shoulder.

“Shut the fuck up, idiot.” Felix mumbles.

“Felix, do me a favor.” You smile slyly. “Take Sylvain to the training grounds with you early tomorrow morning and give him a good workout. I’ll even tell them to lock you two in there so he can’t escape.”

“It would be my pleasure.” Felix gives a courteous bow and Sylvain a side eye.

“Speaking of sparring,” Byleth says loudly. “I have a few new swords I’ve brought if you want to have a look at them Dimitri. Fantastic workmanship. I hear this weapon maker has some amazing materials that are being shipped in from Dagda.”

You get up to move about the room, talking with Ingrid about improving farming techniques in their territory.

“We always thought Galatea had poor soil because certain fruits and vegetables would not grow well there.” Ingrid sips her wine. “We kept fighting with the land, trying to make it grow what we wanted. Finally, we’re growing what the land wants, what grows in our type of soil in the first place. This is the third year for cranberries and the bushes are loaded. Rethinking our ways has improved things a hundred fold.”

“I love cranberries.” Annette croons. “They make a really tart sauce that is great with bird meat.”

“I like the juice for breakfast, it certainly is an eye opener!” You add.

The conversation quietly moves to anything and everything except for the engagement. Annette heads over to speak with Felix, Ingrid heads to Ashe to discuss something.

Sylvain stands close, but not too close to you. His grin is full of mischief. You dread what is going to come out of his mouth.

“So, when you planning on having kids?” Sylvain not so innocently inquires. “The council has been dogging him about heirs since the day after his coronation.”

“One more word from you and I will have Felix take you to the training grounds now, followed by Byleth, Dedue, Ingrid, Ashe and myself. Am I making myself perfectly clear?” You give a smile through gritted teeth that makes him cringe down to his toes.

“Yes Ma’am.” Sylvain whines as he backs up and heads to the farthest side of the room, only to find Dimitri there, so he splits the difference and heads to a corner furthest away from the both of you.

Sylvain stays in his corner. Ashe approaches him, asking a question. As he opens his mouth you stare at him. Sylvain dutifully closes his mouth and only answers by nodding yes or no. His voice is not heard throughout the rest of the evening. It is a fine party indeed for Dimitri’s birthday.

#fe3h #fe3h fanfiction #fire emblem three houses #fe3h x reader #dimitri alexander blaiddyd #blue lions #fe16

[dmclemblems]

Shahid, entirely new character, could've done anything with him: *is a stupid, violent brute*

Nader, a character who had liked battle but was overall just pretty chill: *is a pillaging, violent brute*

Claude, whose entire character relied on diplomacy over violence, looking for the truth whenever possible, and only using violence as a last resort: *is an ignorant, violent brute*

Cyril, the one named Almyran who avoids the above three's characterization: *isn't playable, gets killed with no one on the player side giving a shit*

House Goneril's enslavement of Almyrans: *never once mentioned*

Nader's pillaging: *had to be denounced by a Fodlan character, not an Almyran one*

okay so like um when can we admit that maybe Hopes' writers are Just Racist and that's why Claude got so fucked over since he didn't fit into their obvious opinions about how he (as an Almyran, who are heavily inspired by Middle Eastern/East Asia influences and who are typically written with these exact stereotypes) "should" be. of course not saying that everyone who like Hopes Claude is a racist, but i'm sorry i just can't give that benefit of the doubt to Hopes' writers when their treatment of Almyra is THIS consistently bad throughout the game

Tbh I always try not to get into the racism issue because I know it’s a sensitive topic for a lot of people, but as someone who is part Middle Eastern it’s definitely been jarring to see. I try not to get super irritable about it because it’s a video game made in Japan (and they’re definitely not as open minded as the west is with this stuff and are often ignorant of actual facts, even if they mean no harm by stereotypes because it’s what they know. I know a series that I’ve loved since childhood and still do love as much as FE, but it’s a 90s series with stereotypes all over the place. I don’t believe the creator actually did it as an insult, but that he didn’t know any better (especially since the recent remake did try to improve on some of it). For this game in particular I’m not sure what their mindset was when making it, if they’re just ignorant and/or just didn’t care.

Lots of people were also angry when the leaks came out, and it frustrated me how people kept saying “stay calm, we don’t know if the leaks are true!” because I checked the script that had gone public (literally the entire game script was leaked, so people saying that were either just in denial or didn’t want to accept the fact that it was happening this way). The fact that people looked away when a lot of us were angry at the obviously true script still pisses me off to this day tbh, because so many people were just shoving down anyone’s concerns about what was leaked.

Personally, I did go through a good bit of the script (which I still have somewhere) and I actually stumbled on Claude declaring war on Fodlan from the bad SB route. It made me so angry how people kept trying to deny what was obviously there, and there’s no way anyone was so dedicated to writing that massive of a script to fake a leak. The amount of files was absolutely batshit, and it was also extremely messy and unclear as to who the speakers were, just the way you’d expect a bunch of files like that to look.

What angered me about it wasn’t just that Claude’s character got fucked by a cactus a few double digit times until he was unrecognizable in the second half, but that the only main brown character was the one who is arguably the worst of the three lords. In this game in particular the devs tried to keep Edelgard’s hands clean as much as possible, presumably because of her popularity, and so made Claude the one where players could lay blame on the misfortunes of the game. There’s only so much that Rhea can blamed for in a game where she’s hardly even present, even in the one route where you’re allied with her.

If it was only Claude I might have eventually just figured maybe it was an extremely unfortunate accident, and since we already knew Claude had a lot of problems growing up and that he was basically The Estranged Child, I could’ve passed off Shahid’s behavior. When it got around to Nader’s characterization being butchered and the Almyran NPC saying normally they could pillage and all that but he “guesses the Alliance’s rules are different”, that’s when it was just totally in the territory of not giving a shit about the Almyrans’ writing for me.

When things come from Japan, there’s an amount of tolerance I’ve built up for any unfortunate stereotypes and whatnot, but when it’s very clearly every character from that location, it goes into the territory of believing some places’ people all behave the same way.

It’s sad for me because I love Three Houses’ characters and I want to love Hopes’ new characters, but considering what a dumpster fire everything but AG was, it’s kinda a bitter aftertaste.

#all these new dads come walking into the game like WHAT'S UP I'M IMPORTANT TOO #and Rodrigue and Gilbert sitting here like nah sit down we were here first and we actually mattered it's time for MORE DEVELOPMENT #I like most of the new dads but knowing they came from Hopes is a little meh #actually speaking of Hopes characterization Joe Z actually mentioned in one of his streams #that Judith was pretty mean in this version so... yeah. they certainly had a field day messing around with characters #Rodrigue and Gilbert were lucky they got better writers bc they escaped annihilation and only walked out with profit #DCE Ask