Not Only Do People Not Want To Acknowledge That Byleth Is Part Nabatean, Not Only Do They Think Byleth

Not only do people not want to acknowledge that Byleth is part Nabatean, not only do they think Byleth losing the stone that gave her life (as Byleth was stillborn) a good thing, but they actively act as though Byleth's nabatean heritage is a curse placed upon her by the evil Rhea.

There is this rather disgusting fanfic called A vow Remembered that is basically a Rhea hit piece. Later in the story, Byleth starts to develop draconic features that the story makes sure to point to Rhea as the culprit, having Byleth despairing over this body horror transformation, which is easy to interpretate as Byleth rejecting her nabatean heritage, even though that's her heritage.

The fic in general completely buys into Rhea being a villain and the church having hard power over Fodlan, neither of which is true to the game. The only thing missing is constants fanning over Edelgard because the fic is a Golden Deer route one. But don't you worry, there is some fanning over Edelgard, she's treated much more charitable than Rhea in any case. The fic isn't kind to Dimitri either. And Raphael, a core member of the deer, is sidelined to hell, too.

I just want to point this out.

In this year's Rider series the MC Shouma is half-granute, his father being an alien from another dimension and his mother being a human. The villains are Shouma's half-siblings, pure-blooded granutes who look down on humanity as nothing more than ingredients. They killed Shouma's mother out of this racism when their father died, using her to make dark treats, and even tried to do that to Shouma who was only saved because he was part granute. As such, he now fights to protect humans from his siblings and the junkies sent after him.

The reason why I bring this up is how people act that Byleth being part Nabatean is a flaw, and that them becoming entirely "human" is a good thing as they kill other Nabateans. People even act as though Byleth ISN'T a Nabatean, with them losing their power at the end just them returning to being "normal." Normal means rejecting the idea of coexistence, treating the other race as something to be disposed of simply because they are not the same.

It's a villain trope, one Houses inverts by making it so that the villains are actually all humans. Hell, that last one is pretty big considering how many games end with dragons, demon kings, Gods of Law, etc. Humans are the cause of suffering, the non-humans are just scapegoats for their shitty actions. Kinda sounds like something out of The Witcher novels really.

That's just the thing with Rhea in these godforsaken games.

They could've just added extra dialogue of Rhea giving her blessings just this one to use the hero's relic. To showcase that her feelings matter for once, especially when it comes to things that relate directly to her family.

But Rhea is just being denied by the game of this. She's just denied of everything by everyone.

Just look at how edelstands denied her of her anger, trying to say that she overreacted in the Holy Tomb, shitting on her for it and using that moment as proof that she shouldn't rule over Fodlan (even though she doesn't rule over Fodlan) and they minimize all the shit Edelgard has done up until that point to further sell the point that Rhea overreacted, doubling as a poor defense against Edelgard critiques to boot.

@zeroabyss replied to your post “Just thinking about it but - UO : MC learns the...”:

Using the relics is a Necessary Evil. Rhea herself isn’t complaining about doing so either. If it saves the day and they can help destroy Nemesis instead of helping his reign, that’d even be some positive to her to come out of the atrocity that created them. Just wanted to give my two cents on only that. The rest is valid.

​TBF that's what I was sort of ranting against, Rhea isn't complaining and we infer that she allows the Relic's use in this situation because it's Nemesis they're dealing with, and they need their power.

But it's not tackled in the game, we don't have Claude, in the light of this reveal, tell her that maybe he should let that Nabatean alone and doesn't want to use this bow anymore, where Rhea would tell him it's okay just for this once, because bro/sis who became Failnaught would surely have wanted to lend their power to defeat Nemesis and his Elites.

It's just, nowhere so while we can suppose a lot of things happen "off-screen", objective fact is, in the game without any indication like a NPC telling us they talked about it or something, the reveal about the Nabateans and the Relics amounts to nothing for the characters.

Like, with or without Rhea's infodump about the Relics, nothing about the upcoming fight would have changed, Nemesis is storming against the Monastery to do Nemesis things so Claude'n'pals have to kill him "again".

What was the point of that infodump? What kind of consequences does it have? Is it even closing a character arc?

:/

Feather Shields and Bows for the win!

You're absolutely right they're ridiculous, and super fun to use! And also kind of game breaking... which goes to show that sometimes the only way to balance something is by limiting your access to it. Think of Quick Riposte in Three Houses.

I do appreciate that the game gives you the option to let yourself go to your desire for vengeance, because it does make it more meaningful to choose not to and then be rewarded with the good ending. It's cheesy, but I like it.

I adore the final battle for the fact that everyone is coming together to defeat the big bad boss, even the zenorian people.

My final squad was Alain, Lex, Chloe, Scarlet, and Clive!

Despite still standing on the hill of Gryphon Knights being the best class, I ended up using Liza a hell of a lot. Arbalist/Shield shooters are jack of all trades, but rather than being average in what they do, they do everything competently enough that they are something greater than their sums of their parts.

I do need to make a NG+ run, I was terrible with managing my money, equipment, everything! It was straight up impossible to unlock all raptors and I think I was handicapping myself trying to get them all in a single playthrough. I'm having similar troubles on my first Engage run, and I did not have any of these issues in Three House because I was able to internalize from the very beginning That I couldn't get all the supports. The things I do to myself...

At the end of the day... I'll say my favorite character is Clive. He's my best boi.

What about yours?

WDYM only Alain can get the killing blow on Baltro???

TFW the Tricorns keep on whacking him to no avail, ditto with Magellan :(

even if plot wise it makes sense

@pandp-author Feathershields are absolutely ridiculous lol, Fodoquir basically exists and makes mage teams/teams where Sorceress try their "surprise you're frozen !" combo completely meaningless !

Sanatio's healing is completely stupid too lol, too bad we can't play more maps with the angels/feathered people, because they're fun to use!

I'll make a more detailed post about the epilogue later but plot wise for the final chapter, as expected, Gharnef Baltro backstabs the Red Emperor, it is revealed Ilenia - Alain's mom - survived in the prologue, but Red Emperor Galerius Galvius when defeated body/soul hopped on hers so she became his unwilling medium (which raises all sorts of questions here, when Alain kills Galvius during the "Rescue Scarlett" mission, did he aleady kill Ilenia and Baltro resurrected her, but she's somehow still alive and not a zombie?) but ultimately she is free when Baltro uses Galvius' soul to open the "gate to the netherworld" or something, to use the souls of the Zenoiran currently in limbo as fuel for his spells.

Given how Baltro notes that the Cornian Royal fam has the blood of the Maiden who survived the sacrifice of the Unicorn and its curse 800 years ago, I guess he implies that is the reason why Ilenia makes for a better host than the random Valmore - the previous human who was Galvius' host - but then it raises the question of Giethe hunting Virginia : wouldn't she have been used as a spare ? Granted, given how Galvius incarnates in the flesh of people who defeat him, the only way to incarnate in Virginia would be for either her or a random to kill Galvius while he's using Ilenia's body (and Virginia would later kill the random).

So I guess if Giethe brought her head Baltro would have been "you dumb fuck", but Alcina's plan to uwu with Gerard in Alain's body wouldn't put a dent in his plans, since he could get rid of Gerard in Alain's body to put Galvius instead if needed.

As cheesy as it was, I liked how the plot unfolded here - despite his "perfect lord" appearances, Alain still wants revenge for his mom and didn't forget what happened 10 years ago : if the player chooses to give Alain his vengeance, despite learning the plot and the truth about Zenoira, he... actually kills his mother, and Baltro is still Baltroing around.

If he acts as the better person and the "saviour", he tries to offer mercy to Galvius, despite him killing his mother and plunging the continent in a sea of blood, which gives Baltro the occasion and opportunity to betray Galvius, thus freeing Ilenia without killing her, and it gives the party the occasion to kill/banish him to oblivion instead.

The usual "follow the plot = you're rewarded + vengeance is meaningless" trope.

Of course I can't talk about the final map without ranting about the green NPCs that are here to "help" you - nice nod to have them be Drakengardians to echo Gilbert's earlier (at the end of arc 2!) words of sending Drakengard's help to help Cornia when it will be needed - sure his help is green units + Hermann (one of his retainer that is blue this playable \o/) but it's a nice nod to the former plot and you can honeypot about the political ramifications of this move (the Liberation Army led by the Cornian prince helped free Drakengard, so now the Drakengard Army will help the Cornian prince to free his country?).

No such lines about the enemy Bestrals - who as Bestrals can't be soul snatched - who are recruited by Dyna who basically tells them "wtf dudes stop fighting with them and join us instead!" but I confess I laughed at their names (il y en a qui s'appelle Paulo mdr, pourquoi pas Bébert pendant qu'on y est?).

Too bad the named minibosses aren't more developped, but I wonder if in the Norbelle aka worst ending we get to fight Reimann and pals instead.

Oh well, I'll have other occasions to replay that map to get the different endings - at least the normal one on this PT (the one where Alain kills Galvius but fights off the possession thanks to his magical plot ring that resonates with the plot ring of his partner).

@pandp-author replied to your post “Just thinking about it but - UO : MC learns the...”:

@themoomoorn If it's not too much asking, what is it about Petra's support with Claude that you don't like? I'm rather curious.

​If I can jump in, for me it'd be this :

Petra : Harming Trees is bad because they have spirits and it's important, the tree gives us food and shelter but it also needs us. We live in harmony, all those things.

Clout : Ah yes, you're close to the nature, unlike those stupid Fodlan people who believe everything comes from their goddess and forgot nature.

Petra : Remember when I said Billy-sensei turning green looks like the spirits I am often talking about? And how the Fodlan Goddess basically made and created those spirits? - Who am I kidding, I can't tell you this, we're in a Fodlan game, you must always have a point and Church BaD.

Clout : Of course!

Clout : I mean, imagine if the Hresvelgs could trace their lineage to Saint Seiros herself, who is said to be, in her own scriptures, a Child of the Goddess aka not a human herself or at least a divine being. I'd look like an imbecile, right?

Also fun how "uwu nobility isn't a matter of birthright, status doesn't matter uwu" when the same guy tells to Cyril :

"nobility doesn't matter we're all equals uwu except when I could use my status to compel a random to do things he doesn't want to".

But back to the Petra support :

Clout : I've heard Hanneman say the same thing to Doro.

Petra : Wow you're so strange for saying those things! And you are a noble who can climb to trees! So weird!

Clout : Are we sure Caspar can't do the same? He knows how to pummel someone to death with his fists, maybe he'd also know how to climb trees or something, given how he didn't receive any education befitting a heir of a house, since his brother is the heir and he is naught but a spare. But hey, I'll totally call you strange because you are a princess of Brigid, nevermind the link I cannot tell you about between you being the princess of a foreign land and me.

Petra : But you know how to climb trees and take care of your equipment ! I'm so impressed, I've never seen any noble take care of his own stuff before. What is that? Ferdie oils his own weapons and armor? Who is that Ferdie you're talking about?

---

Granted, given how Petra was trashtalked by Hubert (or trash thought) when he first met her and was around the most, uh, decadent part of Adrestian Nobility, I can't fault her for thinking Claude climbing to trees and tending to his own bow is extraordinary - but I suppose if she ever went to see any BL what she finds "abornmal in Fodlan and totes only Adrestia because that's the only place she visited" wouldn't be so... abnormal.

You have no idea how happy it makes me to still see Lindsay fan art.

Thank you for this!

Admiral Lindsay Her Hotness 🫡⚓️

my pieces for fodlan's fables (inspiration from little briar rose, jack and the beanstalk, twinkle twinkle little star respectively). 2020