Sunset Over The Ocean - Submitted By @123dragonstreet

Sunset Over the Ocean - Submitted by @123dragonstreet

#e8871e #edb458 #cee7e6 #227c9d #3d405b

I think the Edelgard/Claude are friends/compatible headcanon is partly responsible for her stans misreading the library scene in VW. The other is teacher theory. She 1. tries to assassinate him than 2. tries to dig up information that could get him removed from his inheritance- and she even states that would basically destroy the Alliance! No way she was there to find out if he was "trustworthy". She was there to blackmail him or out him. Good luck being friends with him after trying to out him.

How Edelstans interpret the library scene baffles me so much, like it’s very clearly another instance of someone not trusting Claude and trying to find out his secrets, it’s the game actually trying to show that Claude’s circumstances are strange to others and that he has to deal with random bitches questioning him outta nowhere (she literally butts into his conversation with Byleth just to question him and does so when it looks like he’s about to spill some beans about himself) and like you said on Edelgard’s end it was damn sure her trying to kick him out the running when her assassination plan doesn’t pan out, but APPARENTLY either 1) Claude was the one completely in the wrong for not answering personal questions from this near stranger and he was partially to blame for the war starting for not giving his trust to, again, this near stranger who randomly started to interrogate him and/or 2) he tried to get her to SwEAr FeALty to him and it ACTUALLY shows that HE’S a villain, not Edelgard

Here’s all that Edelgard does before and after that scene regarding Claude that we as players who’ve played the entire route know:

try to have him fucking killed

tell him that his random presence was the only thing keeping the Alliance afloat

call him a fool in the Holy Tomb when he calls her out for trying to steal the Crest Stones (look at that friendship they have!)

tell him to his face that she needs to kill him to achieve her righteous dream (her words, not mine)

But nah, we’re supposed to believe that this specific moment was where Edelgard was trying to reach out a hand in friendship, which apparently involves reminding the person you’re trying to befriend of the shit situation their nation was in and is still trying to recover from. Something something Teach Theory something something Claude’s the real imperialist/villain something something Edelgard suffered alone cuz no one helped her. Right.

How people think grey morality works:

How it actually works:

Self-portraits I did on my birthday!

K here are some terrible takes I have collected. Short thoughts for each one.

"Rhea intentionally caused famine by not sharing knowledge with Faerghus"

We have no idea what kind of knowledge she shared. And pick a side! Rhea has to stay out of human affairs because she's not human, OR she has to involve herself with human affairs because otherwise she's bad?

"The Church is homophobic"

Nowhere is it even implied that same-sex relationships are frowned upon in Fodlan. Hell, the archbishop, goddess, and many devout characters are queer, and nobody raises a fuss about their love lives in their endings.

Their holy book also says that the goddess does not deny love.

The whole crest stuff is not the church's fault. They tell you not to abuse crests, and had no hand in the creation of them. Humans did. And speaking of humans, Edelgard says that the people are the ones who elevate crest bearers, not the church.

The Church also has no control over the nobles, who would be the homophobic ones in this scenario??

"Cyril is Rhea's slave"

Cyril was an actual slave at House Goneril until Rhea saved him, something he is expresses his gratitude for by doing chores. He wants to feel useful in some capacity. This is a child who wants to feel useful and takes on extra chores because of that. He's a stubborn little lad, and we love him for it.

"Rhea keeps Cyril uneducated on purpose"

Cyril says in his and Lysithea's support that he keeps his illiteracy a secret because he doesn't anybody to feel like he's not up to a task because of it. AKA: He wants to help out!

"Seteth is doing propaganda"

I'm guessing this refers to the Shadow Library. Seteth removes books there that are either inappropiate or have information that's extremely dangerous if it got out. Some books talk about bans, but since those books are in the shadow library, that likely means they're outdated.

Or this refers to him calling Edelgard mean things?? She declared war against them; of course he's not happy.

"Byleth regains their humanity in CF"

Byleth was never human. Their mother is VERY much implied to have been a Nabatean, and their heart belongs to their (likely Nabatean) mother and the goddess.

Byleth also embraces their Nabatean heritage. Remember that Silver Snow is called Byleth's Route.

Byleth's Legendary Alt in FEH is their Enlightened One version.

Byleth's Brave Alt in Feh is Sothis's regalia, and they sing the Song of the Nabateans.

Byleth's Halloween Alt is a Duo with Sothis.

Byleth's Summer Alt is a Duo with Rhea.

Byleth's Khadein Alt talks about the Goddess's hand in events.

Byleth's Fallen Alt's Forging Bonds has Sothis taking over their body to protect them.

This argument also implies that it's bad for someone to be Nabatean, which is like... yikes.

"Seteth kills the western church members cuz theyre heretics"

"Indeed. The Western Church is attempting to seize sacred ground by force."

- They explain it to you in the exact same paralogue!

"The Nabateans benefit the most from the current state of events" / "The Nabateans are the ruling/top class in Fodlan"

How does the nearly extinct group benefit most from a system where their people's bones are used as WMDs?

They are walking on glass, y'all. If the truth (or even a lie) got out, they would get hunted down.

"Lonato is a good man"

He incited an armed rebellion against a church and would've mowed down villages to get there. He also goes around the knights to attack the students. No, he is not a good man.

"Nabateans ruled over humans in the past and their rule was bad" / "Nemesis did the right thing by taking out the Nabateans"

The word the devs use for the Nabatean rule is apparently something like "cure."

It is also NEVER stated that their rule was bad? Just that the Agarthans hated it (because they hate everyone).

Even the Agarthans talk shit about Nemesis. Nobody liked him.

And you can't... justify genocide? What?

"Sothis and her kids are colonizers and the Agarthans are the natives who got wiped out"

Fun fact! Despite all my theories, it is never made clear whether or not humans already lived on Fodlan when Sothis got there! The beginning cutscene flashes (Sothis's memories) show us a gorilla first, which implies that either life was not advanced, or humans did not exist by then.

Let's say humans did exist then. Sothis landed there and just started her own family. She never took any land by force? She shared knowledge with the humans which allowed them to build modern cities. That's not colonization. Please look up cases of actual colonization; I beg of you.

Sothis is more accurately an immigrant who shares her own culture with others.

"Sothis is not a god but a space alien"

It's never confirmed if Sothis is a space alien so that's actually just theory/headcanon.

Even if, all of her feats (and the dev's words) say that she's a god.

There are many more takes like these, but these are the ones I remember from the top of my head.

Rant About Gray Morality and How The Story of 3H Really Isn’t That Morally Gray

This hasn’t happened recently, but just so I can get it out there: I never want to hear “3H is about Gray Morality, all of the people have done bad things and no one’s truly right!!!” ever again for as long as I live.

Hardly any story, much less a Fire Emblem story, is about ‘Gray Morality’. It’s not a main narrative goal or a signature thing that you’d find on a review or whatever. It’s just a neat moniker for when the author decides to humanize characters or make situations less “Dragon killed king, now the prince kill dragon” and more “Territory A declares war on Dominant Territory B and invades because Territory B is imposing heavy taxes and works commoners from Territory A to exhaustion.”

Though again. Stories are hardly ever about the ‘Gray Morality’ aspect. It’s seasoning on the main meal, which is the narrative. I.E., the story wouldn’t really be about the aforementioned reasons why Territory A declares war on and invades Territory B, but it would be about the war itself. Probably about what the protagonist in that story is doing in regards to that war.

The same applies to 3H and FE stories in general. Gray Morality is used to make the story more interesting, but the narratives are never really about that.

And even if 3H’s story was about Gray Morality… I’d say it did a pretty bad job at it. Rhea and the Church did nothing to the Empire or Edelgard. Dimitri and the Kingdom did nothing to the Empire or Edelgard. Claude and the Alliance did nothing to the Empire or Edelgard. Yet Edelgard and the Empire declare war on all of them regardless.

Edelgard’s main grievances are with the nobility of her territory, with how Crests decide merit, and with the devout. The people who did terrible things to her and her family are Those Who Slither in the Dark.

She persuades some imperial nobles to join her, has a couple others put under house arrest and one other is assassinated. She has full control of the empire when she’s crowned, but instead of implementing new reforms, she decides to attack other territories because…? She knows jack shit about the Kingdom, other than how she considers House Gautier to be foolish to disinherit bandit, murderer and woman abductor talented leader Miklan. And she quite literally knows nothing about the Alliance, otherwise she would praise the Alliance for not really adhering to the “Crest = Merit” ideology, since Margrave Edmund doesn’t have a Crest yet has a prominent rank and influence. The church openly preaches not to abuse “gifts given to you by the goddess” i.e. Crests, and people do it anyway. And yet she blames the church for this. In essence, she’s blaming the preacher for saying one thing, because she believes that what the preacher said justifies a completely different topic, said topic being something the preacher is against.

She has no good reason to declare war on these three powers. Other than possibly her rampant and violent nationalism, hatred of religion/the devout, and anti-dragon racism. All of which are incredibly personal and self righteous reasons, rooted in deep prejudice and resentment. I.E. not morally gray at all.

Her political and systemic goals for the future of her Empire, along with telling people in her own territory not to rely on Crests could’ve been done when she ascended the throne. Dimitri even flat out says to her “You could’ve done something in your own territory instead of doing something like this.” She answers with a sense of entitlement, about how she believes the world is corrupt and will claim more victims and that only her way could fix things, and that only she is qualified, and she has the right to do so. And this is consistent to how she shuts down Claude in both CF and VW as well.

Those are her reasons for trying to conquer and assimilate independent territories (besides the aforementioned nationalism and stuff)? Because she feels she’s entitled to solve all the whole world’s problems herself through warfare, when no one asked her to? That’s also pretty fucking black-and-white to me.

Compared to Claude who’s basically squeaky clean in all aspects? Dimitri whose only crimes are killing his assailants in a brutal manner and being mean to his friends before he begins his recovery? Rhea who decided to propagate a false history and slow progress in order to explicitly keep the peace (since she’s experienced firsthand what out of control tech advancement can end up doing) and only killed people who were out to kill her first?

Yeah, this story is not gray in the slightest. Much less is it about Gray Morality in the first place.