Okay I've talked about the tragedy of Laudna now let's talk about the tragedy of Imogen.
It’s been a while, but her moment in the Feywild truth exercise where she says "I think I’m tainted. I don’t know if I want to save gods that don’t love me" has really stuck in my mind. The thing is, I don’t think she’s specifically talking about the gods here, but rather summing up and projecting her entire experience as a ruidusborn. She isn’t thinking "Why aren’t I the gods' special little princess? Why haven’t they come to save me specifically?? You better love me or I'll let you die" (which we have seen does seem to be a common attitude in the Vanguard) This is her fear of being against her own will tainted by something evil. Her fear that, despite knowing how wrong it is, part of her longs for the power and belonging that comes with giving in to Predathos. It’s knowing that this thing is the antithesis of the gods, and that no matter what she does and how much she opposes it, it is still part of her. And because of that, the world doesn’t love her. Her mother left, her father can barely look at her, her own body will betray her with feelings and powers she doesn't understand, her community ostracized her, her allies view her with suspicion, the gods will not lend a hand in their own rescue when she asks despite Imogen putting herself and her loved ones in danger for their sake.
And Imogen is tired. Tired of being the bigger person, tired of resisting. Logically she knows the gods don’t hate her specifically but it ads up, and as the lure of Predathos does promise love and belonging part of her wants to give in because why should she risk so much to save a world that has never once tried to save her.
And that’s where she, as well as Laudna, get so interesting. They have deeply sympathetic reasons for their doubts and flaws, as well as for why they value each other so much higher than the entirety of Exandria (tl;dr because they have only ever gotten genuine understanding and unconditional love from each other). But that doesn’t mean it isn't flaws. It doesn’t mean Imogen, if she hadn’t met Laudna and the Hells first and realized the harm the Vanguard is causing and that their promises are ultimately lies, couldn’t have been drawn in by the Vanguard's ideas. It doesn’t mean they aren't wrong in blaming gods for bad things in their own lives, or in demanding special treatment. But it’s deeply understandable, which is the very reason they and people like them're such excellent targets for the Vanguard to convert. And once in the Vanguard, it doesn’t matter how tragic and sympathetic you are, you are still doing evil.
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Well, looks like even a broken clock's right at least twice a day; an edelstan on twitter was pissed a few days ago when they saw that Cyril's Meet the Heroes description described his time “working” for House Goneril as “some odd twists and turns”, pointing out that such vague wording was most likely used due to a combination of 3H not caring about Cyril's backstory and IS needing to sanitize Hilda's image so she can sell better in Heroes.
Hahaha,
It's funny because on SPE some people made memes, and you have angry people in the comments, being angry and basically lying or making up facts to either diminish Cyril's uh, "working conditions" in House Goneril, or try to sweep it under the rug to give some "Rhea BaD" takes again
Like :
(meme where Claude doesn't criticise his allies for keeping slaves, but blame racism on the lady who saved the child slave)
"Faerghus is the most violent country because they killed the emperor and enacted a coup while being backed up by mole people" to talk about that time when Loog got his independance
"Rhea BaD bcs Cyril can't learn how to read if you don't support him with Lysithea" even if he writes in the Post TS regardless of recruiting Lysithea or not
"Claude tries to talk to Cyril out of fighting but Cyril drives to a suicide charge with Rhea's blessing so Rhea BaD" in GW, with the source being, idk, since the person who came with that take never sourced it
"Rhea BaD she used the regicide in Faerghus to get rid of her political enemies" you mean the dude who tried to kill her?
"Supreme Leader wouldn't be able to continue warring if Rhea DeD bcs else she would be invading people and would lose public support" like the Supreme Leader? From the land of MAGA? Lose public support?? If she invades nations to restore Adrestia to its glorious past???
"Cyril never said he wasn't eating well in house Goneril" but the JP line says he was always hungry in PAlmyra and Fodlan before coming to the Monastery...
Anyways, as expected, even if FEH tries to sanitise some of Fe Fodlan's most, uh, contentious points, we will always have discourse because some people just prefer their fanon to canon, and while I can understand them to a degree (look Willy is basically fanon at this point) it's always hilarious to see people refuse to engage or even consider that the game they "love" says X when they prefer Y.
When it comes to, in general, Church related characters or Kingdom related characters, we see a lot of discourse like this popping up because while FE Fodlan shat on them (to an extent, for the Church related characters) FEH has to give them the minimum spotlight they give to other characters of the franchise, so yes, Hilda's popularity most likely is the reason why Cyril in MYH just had some "odd twists and turns" (tfw Begnion Senators aren't as popular :( so Muarim was mentionned to have been a slave) but his voiced lines has him mention he was captured as a "war prisoner"...
Putting everything it adds up and we have : Cyril was captured as a war prisoner when he was 11-12 by the Gonerils, was hungry there, complained about "work being hard" there (when Cyril doesn't complain at all in GM despite the huge workload he has!), and implies to Mercedes to have been mistreated in House Goneril because he was Almyran (which matches Hilda's prejudices in her C support about Almyrans).
Why is Cyril's backstory so "discourse rising" then?
Is it because Rhea BaD cannot rescue a child from slavery from a popular character's family/household? Or because Hilda's laziness and preference to let other people do her chores looks especially wrong if we take into consideration that those "other people doing her chores" at home might be children "kept as prisoner of wars and fed twice per week"? Or because it reflects badly on Claude (in both games) who wants to end discriminations and prejudices by getting rid of the institution that rescued an abused child, while working hand in hand with the family that abused said child based on his origins?
(lol@the "but Faerghus BaD" bonus point in the earlier SPE thread I mention, I don't even understand why it was brought up lol)
Back to your post, it's hilarious how this edelstand was pissed becayse FEH whitewashed Cyril's backstory to maybe sell more Hilda alts, when Pat'n'pals try their hardest (in FE16, Nopes and even FEH!) to "alter the script" to shit on Rhea, Dimitri to make Supreme Leader alt'able.
Maybe there's hope for this twitter/X stan?
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I havent seen any posts about it yet so figured I would. Gerard dressing as Diana is so important in so many ways. The main narrative I keep seeing on my dash is about how she was vilified and sacrificed by the media and thats so fucking true. And honestly probably what gerard was going for.
But also. Diana is an extremely important person in lgbt history. She did a lot to end the stigma and vilification of people with AIDS and the queer community at large. At a time when not many were willing at all. And in direct defiance of the Queen telling her not to.
Diana wasn’t just vilified by the media because she was a woman, or because she liked sex. Yes those were absolutely some of the reasons but she was also eviscerated for her explicit and radical support of lgbt people and other marginalized communities when no one else would and against the wishes of just about everyone around her. She is a major gay icon and since her death has been repeatedly remembered and awarded as such.
Gerard is old enough to remember her work. He should be aware of our queer history with her. She’s not just a woman sacrificed by the media.
She’s a woman sacrificed by the media for daring to shake hands with AIDS patients and raise money for them and they used her femininity and womanhood against her to do it.
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v self indulgent sirius-spoiling-harry fluff. eternal credit to dr grey for the ‘babe’ that i cannot stop using now.
x
“You spoil him too much,” Molly Weasley stated in not-very-mild disapproval one day.
Sirius followed the direction of her pointed look, seeing Harry unwrap the top-of-the-line broomstick he’d bought him the other day, a smile automatically blooming at the joy on his godson’s face. There was no special occasion, the Firebolt was still in perfect working occasions (not that that was a surprise—Sirius had seen how meticulously Harry took care of it) but he’d seen it in Diagon and immediate bought it on the spot. Merlin knew he didn’t need an excuse to give gifts to Harry and this was no difference. Why shouldn’t he have the best on the market?
Of course, some people didn’t understand that impulse.
“Yes, and?” he replied after a brief pause, not looking away from Harry, who was now reverently running his fingers over the sleek brown wood.
“That’s not good for a child, Sirius,” Molly chided and Sirius had to work to keep the frustration off his face.
“I’ve twelve years of neglect to make up for, I’m sure a few gifts here and there won’t make a lick of difference to Harry’s character.”
“You don’t know that. Kids need to have boundaries and taught restraint, otherwise they’ll get out of hand.”
Sirius’ fist clenched at her words. He knew it wasn’t her intention but his mind immediately went to his own childhood, when ‘boundaries’ and ‘restraint’ were some of his parents’ favourite words. Being a Black came with many restrictions, more so than people could probably imagine, and there was a reason he was thoroughly sick of following rules by the time he came to Hogwarts.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said tightly, with no intentions of ever doing so. But this wasn’t the place to start a fight, nor did he want to, so biting his tongue it was.
Molly humphed as if she didn’t believe him (big surprise there) but thankfully, didn’t say anything.
Sirius took the opportunity to get out of there, not even sure how he’d ended up beside her in the first place, and went straight to Harry.
“You like it, then?” he asked, as if he couldn’t see the answer for himself.
“Sirius!” Harry exclaimed, cheeks flushed with happiness, “I love it! But you didn’t have to—The Firebolt still flies wonderfully—“
“Uh uh,” Sirius cut in with a wagging finger, “That doesn’t mean you can’t also have this one. It just means you have two excellent brooms to fly on instead of one, s’all.”
Harry bit his lip, clearly torn between wanting to protest some more but also accepting the gift. The latter won out, though, because he carefully placed the broom back in its box before launching himself at Sirius.
Sirius wrapped his own arms around the boy with a muttered ‘oof’ at the force, pressing a quick kiss to his messy hair.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you, you’re the best,” Harry chanted, voice a bit muffled from where he was buried against Sirius’ neck, puffs of warm air hitting his skin as he spoke.
“Hey, now, I’m your godfather, yeah? That means it’s my duty to give you anything your little heart desires,” Sirius teased.
He could feel more than see his godson shrugging and leaned back a little so he could see Harry’s face. His slightly bright eyes were fixed on a point just above Sirius’ collarbones, and he was very determinedly not looking up.
“Harry?” he asked softly, one hand cupping the side of his face, thumb grazing his cheekbone.
“It’s just—I’m not used to—No one ever—,” he broke off in frustration, a scowl forming on his face. Sirius used his thumb to smooth out the lines on his brow before he spoke.
“You’re too young for all those wrinkles, babe,” he joked lightly, “Leave it to old men like me, huh?”
“You’re not old,” was the immediate response, thought it sounded more instinctive than anything and Sirius just felt unbearably fond of his kid in that moment. Feeling conflicted and still trying to make Sirius feel better.
No, a gift (or two…hundred) certainly wouldn’t make a difference.
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