Dorothea/Petra, flower language/symbolism, idol/celebrity/vtuber AU, social media AU
For @cupofcolors on FE Artscuffle 2023! Special thanks to @alrest for writing the comments/text! Couldn't have done it without you!
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I've talked quit a bit about the misogyny in the world of Three Houses, but today I'd like to instead talk about a country that seemingly does not have these misogynistic standards: Brigid.
Obviously we don't hear too much about Brigid compared to the three main countries in the game, but we do know this: Petra was expected to be the next ruler of Brigid, not her future husband.
Petra pretty confidently asserts that she will be the Queen of Brigid.
There is no uncertainty in her statement, she does not say she "may be" the queen, she says she "will" be the queen" Petra also at no point seems to feel any pressure to get married. She expresses interest in romance, yes, but it is not a necessity for her the way it is for some noble women in Fodlan such as Ingrid or Bernadetta. While Petra was trained to be a good leader, these women were trained to be good wives.
Notice the way Bernadetta's father emphasizes her being a "good wife" or getting a "rich husband." The 'skills' her dad 'taught' her had nothing to do with diplomacy or leadership or other skills that would be important if you were a noble who ran a territory. This is because the expectation was never for Bernadetta to be the one who inherited her territory, instead it was assumed that would eventually go to her husband.
Ingrid's situation is more complicated than Bernadetta's. Her father's mentality is not simply "woman = wife, man = leader." I don't have time to fully dive into the complexities of their relationship here but I do believe that her father's expectations are rooted largely in misogyny and if you're curious about my thoughts on their relationship, you can look at this post I wrote about them. That being said, I will focus on one quote from Ingrid's support with Mercedes.
There are ways to interpret this situation that don't involve misogyny, but I do think it's important to note that Ingrid has had the expectation of being with a man placed on her from day one. While Petra is giving the freedom to just be an individual, Ingrid is told she must be a wife, a role she obviously feels very boxed in by.
I also want to mention a character who is not brought up as often in this discussion, Marianne:
Marianne's story is not as directly tied to marriage as Ingrid and Bernadetta's, but we can see here she still has this pressure placed on her (the 'he' she is referring to is her adoptive father). Marianne was not sent to the Officer's Academy to become a good leader or a good knight, she was sent to find a husband, another example of a noble woman in Fodlan being expected to focus on learning to be a good wife instead of a good leader.
Compare this to how Petra discusses romance and/or marriage, when it is brought up in her supports her desire and emotional connection to the other person is centered.
I could not find an instance of Petra discussing romance through the lens of duty or responsibility the way the other women I mentioned do. She only discusses romance when it is with someone she feels a genuine connection to and doesn't indicate that she feels at all pressured to pursue that path if it is not what she wants.
Petra's freedom to be both a leader and a woman is further reinforced by her endings. Whether she is paired with a man, a woman, or no one, she is the person who inherits the throne (her Byleth ending is an exception but Byleth endings tend to be more focused on player pandering than world building).
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