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randomnameless · 2 years

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Here, have something stupid to think about that time when Adrestia was Great from the Nopes!Verse

Nopes!Willy had a shield with a lion’s face.

Because Rhea “borrowed” Seteth’s shield, so maybe Indech thought Lions looked rad, or he met some since he had his workshop in Faerghus, idk.

So here goes Great Emperor Wilhelm, with his Legendary armor, his lion faced shield and his dragon horns on his crown.

Guy looked like a chimera, but bar that?

In Modern Fodlan, Lions are associated to Faerghus, not to Adrestia (they prefer birds instead). So for nationalist Adrestia, who really really hates those loser from Faerghus who won their independance, it’d be pretty ironic that Faerghus “retook” the Lion symbol and imagery from Great Emperor Willy and used it instead.

It would fit with the Hresvelg’s loss of the mandate (and how ultimately, House Blaiddyd through Dimitri recovers it), and its slow but steady decline, Faerghus, through Loog, appropriates one of Willy’s symbols to mark his opposition to his current Adrestia, which was already nothing like the Adrestia that existed 700 years ago, Willy’n’Rhea’s Adrestia.

Now, why am I writing this?

I just thought about something :

The dagger Rhea uses to acupuncture Nemesis is, unlike other Indech-made weapons, rather plain.

There’s no distinctive crest or sign on it, it’s just a dagger.

And we know, through FE16 but also Nopes, that daggers have some sort of symbolism in Fodlan, especially in Faerghus - besically boy gifting a dagger to girl means he appreciates girl.

But what if, just like Lions, this “custom” was also imported from your old Adrestia?

Rhea’s dagger looking completely plain and random could be explained if it was a human weapon, maybe Willy’s random dagger he gave to “Seiros” thinking she could defend herself with this, before her big bro came up with the sword we all know.

I always found it interesting how the WoH kind of mirrored in some parts the central conflict in FE16 between Supreme Leader and Dimitri/the World - and while it might be completely coincidental, the close up on that dagger during this Tailtean Scene and the importance of Dimitri’s dagger in AM makes me draw parallels, maybe when they’re not supposed to be drawn lol

Seiros carved a new future for Fodlan using this dagger, just like Dimitri told Supreme Leader to do with the dagger he gave her.

Basically, Rhea had no idea saying “Wilhelm through this dagger helped me defeat Nemesis, he is the most wonderful Emperor of all times” would later be interpreted as “Emperor Wilhelm gifted a dagger to Seiros to seal their alliance”, which was later interpreted as “giving a dagger to the woman you love is just like replaying what happened between Emperor Wilhelm and Saint Seiros!” -

Ultimately ending up with Lambert giving a dagger to his first wife, and Dimitri (who compares himself to Willy during a certain scene in FE16!) doing the same to Supreme Leader.

Of course Adrestians choose to forget this part, and renamed the covenant of the white dagger and red blood in “covenant of the white sword and red blood” because penis size jokes irked them, also because only barbarians express their affection with weapons instead of sweet talk, poetry and songs (remember the very first Adrestian poet and her “ode to Saint Macuil”?) and after a few years they thought Church Sus.

Tl; Dr : Faerghus borrowed more Adrestian (Willy version) symbols than they thought, the very same symbols Adrestia (MAGA version) threw away while they were/are declining.

#is it the wilhelm hour?#FE16 #3 nopes #look honey about daggers and lion shields #funny how what we know of the guy seems to point more to a norther barbarian than to Leopold'n'Waldemar #hopefully there's still the adrestian mindest about conquest to keep up appearances #and fucking away in Nopes after his successor dies like dude #for the purpose of this blog Willy died in Gronder

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kanomitri · 3 years

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Dimitri vs Fleche Parallel

*SPOILERS FOR AZURE MOON CHAPTERS 14 AND 18 AS WELL AS (minor) SPOILERS FOR POST-GRONDER OF OTHER ROUTES*

Tw/Cw - Death, mentions of decapitation, trauma, and stabbing

Okay, but Dimitri and Fleche.

I'm in the middle of my Azure Moon replay, soaking in EVERYTHING,

and I just hit the end of Chapter 14.

Uh, as a reminder, this is the chapter after you've just reunited with your students and the monastery is being attacked. What's most important here is the dialogue Fleche shares with Randolph (the enemy general of this chapter whom you must defeat and Fleche's older brother). The transcript is as follows:

Randolph: It would seem the report that the Knights of Seiros have returned was accurate. This is going to take some effort.

Fleche: Brother... I heard a rumor that there is a vicious murderer among our enemies.

Randolph: Who knows if there's any truth to it. Though I admit we have lost some soldiers recently.

Randolph: Whether he's among them or not, taking on the Knights of Seiros is extremely dangerous.

Randolph: You're not ready for the front lines, Fleche. Stay in the back and support us from there. Understood?

Fleche: No! I want to stay with you! I have to---

Randolph: I need you to understand, Fleche. I will come back, I promise.

Fleche: Fine. I trust you, Brother. Please... be safe.

Randolph: All units, prepare to attack!

(Source: The game itself. I copied it from the Log)

Now, aside from the fact that Randolph using Fleche's name while Fleche only says "Brother" is heavily reminiscent of Seteth and Flayn (wow, even the names are similar - Fleche and Flayn), I was listening to this exchange intently.

You see, last time I listened, I was clowning on them because - duh, they're gonna die lol. Dimitri is on my side 🤪🤪🤪 (I later learned that my Dimitri was NOT that powerful, as this was my first playthrough and I had little experience back then. My current Dimitri would absolutely demolish though).

This time, however, I recalled Fleche from last time - she was the one to nearly assassinate Dimitri, and accidentally kill Rodrigue.

Before, I saw this conversation as relevant simply because, "Oh hey, that guy's gonna die! Yup, there he is. Wait, Dimitri, calm down-"

I completely forgot Fleche, so when she came and claimed we killed her brother, my mind blanked. I thought similarly to the rest of the army - her brother must've been some soldier we killed. Oops. ╮(╯_╰)╭

Then, as the conversation closed, a small thought dawned on me:

That reminds me of Dimitri.

To be blunt, a lot of things do (I think about Dimitri just about 24/7 and thusly, I think about Dimitri parallels non-stop) but this was a first for me - and the thought stuck.

Yes, yes... Fleche was like Dimitri - seeking revenge for fallen family, a vengeance that would take her life.

She reflected what Dimitri could've been - and is - in another route. Another way the story could've been told.

Allow me to explain:

Firstly, Fleche was worried for her brother, and she survived the battle where he died.

This was, oddly enough, the first thought to come to mind to explain this, but hear me out.

In an earlier conversation (pre-timeskip), just after the Jeralt is killed, Byleth speaks with Dimitri, where the latter reveals more about his experience back in Duscur, as a way to empathize with the Professor - including some words about his stepmother, whom he loved as his own flesh.

Dimitri: ... My stepmother, the kindest person I had ever known, left me behind and disappeared into the infernal flames. ...

(Source: The Cause of Sorrow/Script - Fire Emblem Wiki)

Dimitri and Gilbert's C-Support reveal that Dimitri would not have lived were it not for an external influence.

Dimitri: (To Gilbert) ... You saved my life at Duscur. I have only gratitude for you, no blame to speak of. ...

(Source: Dimitri/Supports - Fire Emblem Wiki)

No doubt, Dimitri was extremely worried for everyone of the Kingdom during that battle - friends and family alike - but I focus specifically on his stepmother mostly because it's later revealed that she has something to do with the Tragedy, and I sometimes like to have a tragic sense of humor :]

Similar to Dimitri's concern for his stepmother, Fleche worries deeply for her brother, Randolph. Both of them are kept from the front lines and live the battle, but still bear witness to the murder of their family - for Dimitri, that included his stepmother, and for Fleche, that's her brother. Both survived where their beloved family fell, and they had a feeling it would happen.

Second, Fleche seeks revenge.

This is not a hard one to prove. In Chapter 18, as Fleche prepares to kill Dimitri, she shouts:

"[The pain of being stabbed is] nothing compared to what my brother felt! You will never be forgiven, you know. I will never forgive you!"

(Source: Blood of the Eagle and Lion (Azure Moon)/Script - Fire Emblem Wiki)

If that's not vengeance, I don't know what is.

Third, her vengeance is her death, but she does collateral damage in the process.

This one is also fairly obvious - after stabbing Rodrigue she's killed - but there's also a bit more to it.

Yes, Rodrigue's death is an important step in Dimitri arc as it caused him to view both life and death differently, but you can also use it as parallel fodder (as I have).

You see, during other routes (Verdant Wind and Silver Snow specifically), Dimitri comes incredibly close to killing Edelgard (they are literally on the same battlefield, and she's even severely wounded in the process!) but he fails to finish the deed. He severely damages the Imperial army (alongside the Kingdom and Alliance forces, as cited in the event, "A Visitor"), but Edelgard lives. He dies.

Similarly, Fleche comes incredibly close to killing Dimitri. She even does collateral damage (aka she killed Rodrigue) - but she ultimately fails. Dimitri lives. She dies.

In essence, Fleche is a Dimitri that would've been - a Dimitri that is - had he not been corrected. Ironically enough, she helped him - saved his life even.

And people give all the credit to Byleth. ┐(´ー｀)┌

Anyways, that's just a thought I had that I may or may not have put too much thought into haha. I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed it but that's my two cents at the very least.

TL;DR - fleche is lowkey a manifest of dimitri

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inspector-montoya-fox · 4 years

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#13 - Menace from the North, eh!

Setting part 1: i mean......... whatever, right? at this point, India got 2 levels and Prague got 2 levels so i’m like ok, let’s get this over with. and i genuinely believe this and Anatomy for Disaster are the game’s two weakest episodes, despite the great conclusion. look, SP... they fucking delivered. they served absolute excellence with episodes 2-4, but it’s getting redundant and Menace from the North, eh! is just Menace from the North, meh? (please forgive me Lord). the game takes a weird environmentalist turn, which i fully appreciate but am ultimately confused by, seeing as He Who Tames The Iron Horse had absolutely nothing to do with Jean Bison’s pollution aspect. it feels weird to return to a Canadian outing after the gang had such a successful run in the previous episode, which felt like a conclusion even with the absence of a bossfight. like, SP could have easily inserted a Bison bossfight at the end of He Who Tames The Iron Horse in order to add another Klaww Gang member for an extra episode or maybe replace Menace from the North, eh! with the lost Monaco episode. it sounds like i’m bitching a lot, and i actually am. what really takes me aback every single time i play this game is that after you complete the Rajan/Contessa saga, it all becomes so anticlimactic. and i can’t comprehend why. by the end of this episode, the stakes are so high but the drive just isn’t there. and it’s not because the gang is demotivated. Sly has been having so much fun throughout the game, even with Neyla’s backstab being a huge obstacle. so getting down, dirty and serious is a much needed mood change. but i feel like i speak for all of us when i say that episodes 5-7 are overshadowed by episodes 2-4. with a few alterations to the order of the episodes and some changes to the script, i really think we could have had an awesome Contessa vs Clock-La final showdown episode and have Bison come right after Dimitri. because, honestly, Canada feels like ‘second episode’ material.

Setting part 2: i’m splitting it up because i don’t want my rant above to spoil the actual writing. the gang sticks around for another Canadian caper after some kooky stuff goes down with the environment and, mainly, the Northern Lights, which as we’ll soon find out, play a rather unexpectedly significant role in the grand scheme of things. and we’re treated to a log-chopping area, an off-the-maps secretive camp which really ups the ante, because Jean Bison is being such a jerk to nature. we’ve got deforestation, we’ve got melting ice, exploitation of wild animals, and Bison getting a raging red boner by literally destroying the environment in order to flex in the Lumberjack Games..... both the player and the gang have had enough of this dude, and i think SP used the fact that his only traits are being an angry idiot and a bigot to their advantage. instead of providing the necessary character development as they did with the Contessa and Rajan, Bison and his actions (especially his communication with the mYsTeRiOuS Arpeggio) are used as a prelude to Anatomy for Disaster. there’s not really a lot of dialogue apart from the final mission and bossfight, because the overall Klaww Gang plot begins to unravel, and particularly so by the time we find out about the lighthouse and its technological contents. in fact, if you think about it, Anatomy for Disaster starts with Clock-La’s shitshow and an info-dump at the beginning, which, if you’ve been paying enough attention to the details (i know that until i turned 12 and replayed the game as a young teen i hadn’t been paying attention to shit so it was all gasp!), is just the connecting of the dots. Menace from the North, eh! is essentially the last piece of the puzzle, before it’s all given to us in full detail by Arpeggio. i mean, apart from Dimitri serving dishes with drugs in them (i still can’t get over that at the age of 21), the rest is all things the player could pick up. and that’s this episode’s main focus. trying to prevent the inevitable under countdown, before Arpeggio’s blimp arrives to collect the Northern Lights energy. so it feels very anticlimactic and strange to put in all this effort without purpose. if you’ve played it before, you know it’s all for nothing since all the parts will be gone by the end of the episode. and it’s even more anticlimactic (although hilarious in tonal shift) to see how the gang scrambles under the pressure of preventing the Klaww Gang’s doomsday by hacking boats and having all these grandiose plans involving the lighthouse, just to then resort to taking part in the Lumberjack Games, without even a clever scheme but actually just cheating, and finally have Bison, an idiot, foil their plans by finding out where they’ve been hiding. and the bossfight is fine, but again, meh... i mean, woohoo Bentley! or whatever the fuck.

Characters: let’s talk about Jean Bison and his mistreatment as a character. we first meet him at Rajan’s ball, where Bentley introduces him as a Canadian shipping baron and says that he owns half the trains in Canada. later on, during the introductory cutscene for He Who Tames The Iron Horse, we get his backstory and how he’s risen from being practically dead, frozen since his time, and back with a vengeance against the environment. in my previous #episodeproject entry i said: SP plays up Bison’s savagery and gruesome nature by spotlighting how his plans affect the environment and even going so far as to call his house ‘the lair of the beast’. this is all true but is never put into practice. like, Jean Bison is all tell and no show, y’know? even the cutscene that plays when Sly gets caught in Bison’s cabin during He Who Tames The Iron Horse’s first mission shows Bison getting angry, but hunty, that’s about it. apart from the Lumberjack Games and his bossfight, it’s all oh Bison will get angry and oh Bison will kill us with the talons. well, where is it? where’s the fucking Canadian shipping baron with a vengeance against the environment? my baby heart was legit quivering when we had to steal Rajan’s blueprints as Bentley, and the Contessa was such a grand sleazebag of a woman, like what a douchebag - and you see that, although i’m often flamboyant in my writing (!!!), the way i describe these moments with these villains is both effective and relatable, because they showed up and lived up to their descriptions. Bison was written to be a ferocious beast of a villain but never showed that. and that’s on SP. whatever... let’s talk about the gang. now, despite the gang looking seriously badass in the opening cutscene for this episode (image below), they’re actually in a pretty good headspace. they’re only missing the talons and whatever Clockwerk parts Arpeggio had before collecting all of them. so it’s only natural for them to feel a bit cocky, and that’s actually gonna be their demise. before that, i just wanna mention that almost all the missions here (as with He Who Tames The Iron Horse) are group missions: Sly and Murray infiltrate the moose club in RC Combat Club, all three of them work together in Lighthouse Break-In, Boat Hack, and Old Grizzle Face. what really stood out to me every time i played this episode, is how, at the end when they take down Bison and they rush to the battery, each member has a different way of entering it, which is a small detail but important nonetheless. this further reinforces how united the gang has become since the Contessa levels and how their bond has strengthened. now, lemme circle back to how they’re cocky. i mean, apart from Jean Bison, Menace from the North, eh! doesn’t present any immediate danger or like trouble, seeing as both Neyla and Carmelita are absent. without any interference, the gang had lots of breathing space to plan ahead, even under countdown before Arpeggio’s blimp arrived. and they kinda wasted the opportunity because, as i’ve already mentioned, the operation was an absolute train-wreck. there’s no plan b, or like something clever or whatever. and usually, the operations tend to get disrupted by third parties, such as Carmelita or Neyla, but here, it failed because it was never smart. and it’s only natural for them to fall hard (by losing all the Clockwerk parts) after feeling all cocky (maybe i’m being too harsh). and all this directly leads to some more Bentley character development.... again. look, i’m all for character development, but the turtle already faced his demons when he busted Sly and Murray out of jail. i know we got Murray vs Rajan, but i don’t know, Murray was always kinda just there throughout the game. the hippo had his ups and downs (face-off with Rajan, imprisonment, losing the van), but not a fully realised story arc. that’s why, when Sly 3 starts off with his enlightenment and return, that story arc is instantly so iconic. i could go on about how Bentley gains self-confidence after defeating Bison, but um, we’ve already done that sis.

Themes: He Who Tames The Iron Horse and Menace from the North, eh! should have been one episode and i truly believe that. they could have shared the same themes. for the former, i said there’s the speed theme, and that applies here too because the gang are under pressure. the countdown lights a fire under their asses and it’s all very destructive. again, there’s an antithesis between the calm Canadian atmosphere and the chaotic energy of the missions. but it’s not just speed theme anymore, it’s more like theme of ferocity. everyone’s kinda on edge??? Old Grizzle Face is a motherfucker and we get up close and personal with the eagles, lasers destroy huge ice pieces, there’s a mammoth, the destroyed oil manes create fiery air drafts... chaos. and it all results in the disastrous events and outcome of the Lumberjack Games, which make Menace from the North, eh! the straightest episode in the game. yuck. it only makes sense for the missions to become less sneaky and more destructive as the stakes get higher and the gang is in a hurry, and that kinda embodies the pollution motif/ environment motif. it’s less of a theme and more of a motif because it’s so story-centric, but that’s the other things the comes into contrast with the calm environment. saws, the buzzing, chopped-up logs flowing down the river, tree stumps spread across: these embody the pollution and the harm Jean Bison has been doing even though it’s a forced storyline in my opinion. and finally, size theme. it’s not major, but it feels like everything’s bigger in Canada... Sly feels so puny in this episode, like especially when climbing the lighthouse. the wild animals are huge, the structures are huge, Jean Bison’s house is huge. it’s just lots and lots of nothingness. if you took absolutely nothing and enlarged it by 10 times, you’d have this episode’s hub. and this is also seen in the bossfight when tiny Bentley takes on Jean Bison. so yea.

What I Like: gliding off the lighthouse and throwing fish onto already stinky guards before Old Grizzle Face rips them to shreds. also, those cute lil catfish-lookin viruses in Bentley’s hacking! they’re so adorable.

What I Don’t Like: erm... it’s not that i don’t like this episode, but i find it kinda boring? apart from interacting with the wild animals, the missions are meh. and i hate the Lumberjack Games...

Quote: Get too close and old Grizzle Face will be eating barbecued raccoon for dinner.

#He Who Tames The Iron Horse and Menace from the North eh! should've been one level #good morning #episode project #sly cooper

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raidenenthusiast · 3 years

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ur thoughts are really good and i wanted to ask if u have any azure moon ones on ur replay [big eye emojis]

oh my god HELLO!! ur thoughts are also very good thank u—half my posts are literally just me reblogging ur posts. and YES i am always up for an excuse to blab about am!! i'm on chapter twelve, or eleven, i believe, i forget which, so i haven't quite hit the timeskip again yet. i am preparing myself ngl.

one thing that really hit me replaying am right after i banged out vw in five days is how much i FUCKING MISSED DEDUE. i'm getting his support chain with flayn for the first time and i'm so...help me??? crying my way through it man.

i also just got to the scene in the goddess tower with dimitri—i was GONNA do one with yuri, but apparently they didn't add goddess tower scenes with any of the ashen wolves...i feel so cheated about that one!! and i've done this scene with dimitri before, but i guess i didn't notice the other times as much? bc it kind of struck me, the lines he has about the goddess. about how he's sure that she's resigned to watch over from above, and how she won't intervene, no matter the hardship that she witnesses. first of all, it was raw as fuck. but it got me thinking about how the reason he thinks that way is bc if the goddess WAS able to intervene, then why wouldn't she have saved his father, or the people of duscur, or anyone else who died that day? it's easier to believe in a goddess who can't reach out her hand rather than a goddess who can, but won't.

and this. *thinks about the timeskip* oh baby have u got a storm coming.

i'm also trying different classes for people! sylvain is on a wyvern rn, which i highly recommend—he's doing a great job. i'm training felix in reason instead of sylvain to fill the absence of the fact that i usually make sylvain a dark knight, and ironically, felix is kind of better at reason than sylvain, whoops. i have him classed as a dark mage rn to raise his reason since his sword is already so high, and MAN is it fucking fun and sexy—he learns black magic crit +10 from his budding talent in reason and he's already streamrolling with it. i am SO excited to do mortal savant felix for the first time bc i'm so used to just keeping assassin felix. yuri has also taken up a permanent slot in my roster bc...bc i love him. help.

this isn't specifically related to the playthrough exactly but i heard a song yesterday, and i've been thinking about it as a duet between dimitri and edelgard ever since. and my theatre brain started WHIRRING and i can't stop picturing it how it would look on a stage. i have reached peak nerd no one can stop me now!!

i will be. flooding this account once i get to the timeskip, most likely. it's been like, a year? since my original playthrough (and even longer since i watched playthroughs on youtube) and vw was fun and all but man. i missed this route so much.

#fe3h

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hotheadhero · 4 years

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Jouska: A hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head.

@thefetchingfletcher asked this also!

It’s been a long time since I reblogged the source ask (misread it from the very beginning too) and I’ve been thinking about Azure Moon recently, so I’m going to be lazy(?) and answer this as if I’m writing a drabble for just Caspar. Spoilers for Azure Moon Chapter 14, major (albeit offscreen) character death, and sheer length. Hints of monachopsis, rubatosis, nodus tollens, and lachesism scattered throughout (arguably also mauerbauertraurigkeit, albeit indirectly). There are also hints of suicide here and there if you know where to look (disclaimer: I have encountered very little of it myself and am making it up as I go).

Whatif I had stopped him?

Whatif I had intervened then and there?

Theywere weeks out from the event, yet Caspar couldn’t stop replaying his uncleRandolph’s final moments in his head. How he’d begged for mercy, tried in vainto appeal to Dimitri’s sense of reason and his heart. How Dimitri merely shuthim down, dug the nail in deeper, until Randolph’s very voice bled with tormentand he cried out for the mad king to stop. No doubt his uncle had imagined all of the men he’d fought with, dyingbefore his eyes even as he lay helpless to stop them. Imagined Fleche there onthe guillotine with them, eyes wide and panicked and accusing in their finalmoments. Why didn’t you save me, brother? those cyan eyes demanded. Whydidn’t you try harder to save your people?

Perhapshe was merely imagining those things, for Fleche was not here now; and byvirtue of not being here, she could not be dead. Perhaps he was merelyprojecting his own thoughts onto another, in some… futile attempt to come togrips of exactly what it was that he was enabling.

Itwas no secret to any of them that Caspar hailed from the Empire. He was the only one of them hereif one excluded the runaways who’d fled Emperor Edelgard’s iron grip on the southern Adrestian lands. Everyday he expected one of the Lions of Faerghus to come for his head, to lop it off as theyhad Fleche’s in his vivid nightmares, laughing scornfully, maniacally, justas Dimitri had done before Byleth intervened and killed Randolph with one blow. Byleth was no better, either—the Ashen Demon come back to life, murdering Caspar’s blood relative as coldly and emotionlessly as Caspar might take out the trash. Itdidn’t matter what they’d said to Dimitri after that. How they missed theDimitri they once knew. It was all a ploy. A feigned attempt at emotionality, at humanity.At least Dimitri had been obvious about how he’d felt, and confirmed outright thesuspicions Caspar had had of him since coming back to the monastery and theLions last year.

Andyet… Had anything Dimitri said truly been wrong?

Justbecause the one who’d delivered the message was clearly unsettled did not meanCaspar could dismiss it out of hand. The mad king had a point. Even if this waswar, with every life they took, all of their hands turned redder and redder,the poll of blood widening at their fingertips, soaking into their skin, so that noteven the most vigorous of scrubbings could clear the taint away. And Caspar hadbeen so eager to prove his worth on the battlefield, so ready to kill anybodywho stood in his way, allegiance be damned. Was it truly justice if he had tokill and murder friend and foe in order to achieve it? He’d deserted his house to be here; hisfamily, his country, the princess. He’d slain countless citizens of theEmpire as Dimitri’s and Byleth’s willing pawn, even enjoyed it—did that makehim any better than his friends in Faerghus, who at least had the ties of (separate) country binding them? What must they think of a deserter who readily killed those hailing from a country he once called home?

Werethey too waiting for him to snap? To take his revenge upon Dimitri, as nephew tothe slain?

Hecouldn’t deny the hatred he felt burning in his bones, threatening to overwhelm him in afever pitch if he just closed his eyes and gave in. And yet Caspar couldnot so easily shake his memories of the Faerghus prince from five years ago,the first of his house to extend a welcoming hand to the new transfer, one with whom he’d laughedand cried and joked and sparred countless times in the past. The memories feltso far away now; but they were as much a part of him as his very name. Could hereally leave all that behind, even for the sake of justifiable revenge? It washis duty as a Bergliez to avenge the death of his uncle; yet impossible hope against hopestayed his hand. He had to believe the Dimitri of old would come back one day,or else everything he had fought for up to this point would be for naught. Hewould be nothing but a traitor, a fool who mindlessly killed for his homeland’s enemy, a monster smiling but not the less grotesque, carrying out the dyingwishes of a mad king, a walking corpse.

Hecouldn’t bear the idea of facing Linhardt now, even as he wished his old friend could be here right now to comfort him and tell him that he was doing something right.

(Yethe knew Warp magic did not work that way; they’d tried plenty hard five years before—)

Therewas so much he wanted to ask Dimitri. What happened, what insult had the Empiredealt him so long ago that he would chase after them so single-mindedly now, whatif anything he could do to make it better. But Caspar had no doubt in his mindthat if he were to approach Dimitri now, he would simply order his head cut off,or maybe simply his tongue so that Caspar could neither protest nor questionhis orders. If he persisted, Dimitri would do worse—just as he would have doneRandolph, had Byleth not intervened.

(Worse yet, he did not know that even his death would cheer the prince of Faerghus up. He’d heard in Dimitri’s voice that some part of him was still horrified by all the death he invited and caused, even if the greater part of him thrilled in it and wanted more. In other words, if he confronted Dimitri now, his life too would be in vain, just as his uncle Randolph’s had been before him.)

AndByleth was no better either—willingly letting Dimitri use them “evenshould the flesh fall from their bones” even though their blood ties were nomore tightly-hewn than his. Caspar had almost forgotten just how it was that Bylethhad earned the nickname they’d held before leading the Blue Lions. Now hewould never forget.

Norcould he confide in any of the other Lions who followed Dimitri; not Mercedes or Annette, not even Sylvain or Felix. Caspar had no way of knowing how many of themapproved of Dimitri’s mad tirade, how many of them had their ears peeled foreven the slightest hint that he was cracking under the pressure of being alone. And so Caspar had no choice butto bear it alone, even as it wounded him, bent his back and shoulders and tore athis guts until he was little more than a throbbing mass of pain andconfusion and regret. What must Linhardt think of me now? Caspar thoughtmiserably. He knew before anyone else that I wanted to switch houses. Doeshe still think of me when he hears news from the battlefront? Or does myface morph into Dimitri’s now, laughing maniacally while mowing hundreds of enemy soldiers down?

Goddess,he was even starting to think of the Empire as his enemy now. Were the ties ofblood and old friendships really so tenuous?

Caspardidn’t remember sitting down or dropping his head into his hands; but helifted his head now with a shuddering, despairing laugh. Maybe he shouldgo confront Dimitri, he thought to himself; put an end to this stupid farce once andfor all. It was as clear as day that he did not belong here. A lone Adrestian amongFaerghans, a red wolf lost amid the blue. At least death would be better thanthis uncertainty; and even if Dimitri made his end neither swift nor merciful,there would be no more of this unbearable tension. Just one clean stroke, andhis life would be over, especially if Byleth intervened again to spare him thetorture.

Itwasn’t as if he’d made much use of his life anyways.

Aturncoat hiding amongst the wolves. His pulse quickened in his chest; Casparimagined it was trying to burst clear out from the bones that caged it in. Anaccurate analogy for one such as he, chained by the corpses piled at his feetto a false ideal, far from everything he had once held dear. He didn’t have tosee the bodies to be certain that his older brother and his family lay deadnow, as did his father, the indomitable Minister of Military Affairs. They wouldhave gone after him first; Count Bergliez was too dangerous a target to letwander free. Perhaps some part of him yet wanted him to stay alive for the sakeof the fallen, to procure revenge if at all possible and flee with his life ifhe could not. And yet, when had Caspar ever behaved like a proper heir? Howfitting it would be if he died as he lived, a rebel to the very end, spittingon the face of his lost inheritance as surely as he’d spit upon his country andhis family. For even if he hadn’t killed Uncle Randolph himself, his inactionhad killed him as surely as if he and not Byleth had wielded the blade. Casparwould never forget the look on his face as he died, as surely as he wouldn’tforget the smile on Dimitri’s face as he spoke so callously of gouging Randolph’s eyesout and dragging him down to his level—

Casparhadn’t even realized he’d started laughing again in earnest. Quiet though thesound was, it was inhuman, not even his own. The cackling of a monster. Howcould he ever have thought he’d make it through this war whilst keeping his idealspure, wings white, hands clean?

Perhapshe would go seek Dimitri out after all. Caspar never had been one forinaction; none of the Bergliezes were. No doubt his aunt Fleche would do thesame in his shoes, if she learned of the fate with which Uncle Randolph had met.

Hecouldn’t let her throw her life away like that; for if she lived, she was theonly living relative he had left. He couldn’t lose another relative when somany of them had already fallen. All of the tragedy that had befallen theirfamily was his fault—and it was his responsibility to end it.

The laughter continued, brokenand despairing. If it would silence these coward voices, then by the Goddess,he would act.

#ask #drabble #heirofhresvelg #thefetchingfletcher #3h spoilers #tw: death #tw: suicidal ideation #// oblique ideation but still #// thanks for the ask!#// 5000 years later #// sorry i didn't quite follow directions but #// i got this irresistible idea and it sets good groundwork for any azure moon threads i do #answered #war phase

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