Only Related To A Post I Saw But It IS Wild That

Only related to a post I saw but it IS wild that

Things that Dimitri Fire Emblem can rightfully be criticized for:

Using excessive violence against his enemies

Dedicating a massive amount of his life to revenge

Actively seeking death when he’s made promises he needs to be alive to keep

Leading people who loved and were loyal to him on what is essentially a suicide mission

Being a dick to people trying to help him

(All of which are acknowledged by the story and he changes)

Things Dimitri gets criticized for:

Defending his home country against imperialism

Some bullshit “status quo” argument

Being mentally ill

You know, when I first played the game, I held both Rhea and Edelgard in high regard, Edelgard perhaps more so by virtue of Crimson Flower actually showing Edelgard in all of her blood-soaked glory. Then I saw the vitriol people threw at Rhea while defending Edelgard —while accusing everyone else of doing the opposite— and decided to revisit my stances on both characters. It won't surprise you that I ended with a more positive and negative view of Rhea and Edelgard respectively.

I guess it goes to show how Edelgard can leave a positive impression on people when taken at face value, same with Rhea on the negative side. I remember feeling exactly like Byleth when the prospect of killing Edelgard showed up in my first playthrough of the game: Silver Snow.

But it's starting to become more apparent, with these conversations I'm having with you and Fantasy Invader, that Claude has failings of his own. His interactions with Cyril never sat well with me, I was thinking what the fuck Claude's problem was, leave Cyril alone??? I didn't pay much attention to how outspoken he was on Shamir and Alois paralogue vs being dead silent in Cyril and the pink haired slaver paralogue, it was only recently that I realized how poorly that spoke of him, especially in the greater context of "Rhea keeping Fodlan isolated" debacle (she does not). His support with Petra was sweet enough, I was focusing on their attempts to bond with each other as fellow strangers in a strange land, and not in how he didn't miss the chance to throw shade at the Religion of Fodlan (Now that I think about it, doesn't he do the same on his Leonie and Ignatz supports?)

Claude: True. The people of Fódlan believe everything is a blessing from the goddess. They've forgotten to be grateful to nature too.

Claude: Nature gives us life. Sustains us. Without it, we couldn't breathe. Couldn't live. It's everything.

Claude: It's fine to pray to the goddess, but we have to respect nature too. Don't you think?

Claude, you said it yourself, the people believe everything is a gift from the goddess, which would of course include nature. As far as you know, i.e. next to nothing, people are grateful to the goddess for her gift of nature and they showcase their gratitude by treating nature with respect, because they otherwise fear that they may upset the goddess the same way the people of Brigid fear they may upset the spirits. You fucking moron.

@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.

That's the thing I think a lot of people miss, or intentionally leave out, when it comes to the outcome of the war of the Eagle and Lion. Rhea's interference was ultimately for the EMPIRE'S benefit.

Remember, Rhea only intervened in the aftermath, except she didn't intervene as much as she was brough along, and she only brough along after the to be kingdom WON. After Loog WON. When you take that into consideration, it would be more likely that Rhea tried to convince Loog into accepting his victory without asking or taking much more from the empire, because honestly, what was stopping Loog from keep going and rename the entirety of Fodlan into the kingdom of Faerghus? His sense of honor? Not that the empire would understand...

WHY Loog needed the church to recognize the newly founded kingdom's sovereignty is a topic for another conversation, but it doesn't change the fact that it was the better outcome, because otherwise Faerghus would've steamrolled the empire until every fighting man died, as they already proved they were too much for Adrestia by beating their asses and then go to the church to make it official to further rub it on their loser faces.

But the empire, and specially the fandom, doesn't understand this. Instead, they view it as one of the reasons why they resent the church, resent Rhea, so much. They probably thought Rhea should've come up and tell Faerghus that their victory doesn't count or something, getting angry at her for conceding, even though they couldn't have done anything about it because they just lost. If they didn't want Rhea to "divide the masses to make them bicker among themselves", the empire should've thought of that before losing the rebellion.

In fact, if they didn't want a rebellion in the first place, the empire should've thought of that before severely mistreating the people of the north.

For ME one of the craziest takes I've seen float around is that Rhea Bad for helping Loog and Faerghus as a whole gain independence from Adrestia because Wilhelm Existed. Like, just because Rhea was Wilhelm's friend and Adrestia was close to the Church, fuck Faerghus' freedom. That's so fucking wild???

Wot? That's a take? Fr? On Sothis?

Was she supposed to not mediate the situation and let Faerghus steamroll the Empire or something? Was she supposed to side with the empire when she only had the KoS and Faerghus had a shit ton relics?

For Wilhelm my ass. That dude gave up ruling before he died lmao.

Mini comic sketch for James, featuring Scarlett and Fodoquia 🥛

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).

not a fan of how EVERYONE acts like this exchange didn't exist

"Claude was right about Rhea and the church promoting isolationism"

okay, Frieza.