Fire Emblem!

Spoiler: route shite continued continued

I like how we're doing them in reverse, there. I think you'll like the Church route, even with the tragedy.

And yeah, he developed pretty well, and his issues make as much sense as anyone's. Every damn kid in this game needs a fucking hug, I tell you what, except that for some of them hugs would not be a positive thing, but even so some kind of mental hug or other comforting option. I'm probably going to be fanficcing this game hard when I'm done everything because they are aLL MY STUDENTS and I wanna just TAKE CARE OF THEM.

 

Spoiler: ROUTES

Oh wow we're doing them in reverse? That's kind of hilarious...

My next route I think I'm going to do the Golden Deer next since I've heard that the maps in it are mostly the same as those in the church route. Dimitri like. Tempts me though. Because he is like ooh look at me I have some shit going on with Edelgard and know her super special super fancy nickname of importance that she told you you could call her only when she was all into you.

AND YES. These kids...They need help...I love them so much. And it's really cool getting to see them grow under your guidance...

 

Spoiler: roots?

If you do Edel -> Golden Deer then we will be literally doing them all in the reverse order, since I went Church -> Blue Lions.

It really is cool seeing them grow. I like how all of the characters are likeable? Even those I kinda disliked at first, like Lorenz, turn out to be precious babs I want to protect and guide.

Honestly, if I do write any self-indulgent fic, I probably need to grab some kind of outside force to be an enemy. Make it a crossover so I don't have to just have the war happen anyway, or be too one-sided with all of the students on the same team. Wish I remembered more of Awakening, the Risen might work okay for something like that.

 

Spoiler: rutabegas

MORE REASON TO DO CLAUDE FIRST THEN.

And yeah. That happened to me with a few of them. Like Ferdinand and Sylvain. And Edelgard herself even. Fucking turn around queen she is when it comes to likeability. Jesus.

Also. Crossovers reminds me that while I was chatting about rp shit with Petra they brought up that a Dragon Age crossover might be fitting in places. Because of shit like what the Tevinter get up to when it comes to experimentation on sapient beings and also their caste system. Very fucking fitting for Edelgard. That's a setting prime for war though...Still the idea of Edelgard going from a noble whose family lost all their power to a test subject in Thedas is a fun one since it matches up so well with what happens to her in Three Houses.

 

Spoiler: crossover talk

Alas, I have never played a Dragon Age, and so only know things through osmosis. It's a shame, as from what little I do know the setting would otherwise work fairly well as an external set of problems to add. It's actually hard to think of something that would work to provide enemies for Fodlan that wouldn't inherently bring more heroes with them or be too out of place tonally. Or that just don't fit into other settings so well.

 

Spoiler: General Act II spoilers

Uuuugh, I figured I could recruit more people in the second act, this time, and get to fight them first. Either that's just Lorenz, or something else needs to happen beyond having C/B ranks, and I wanna cry. I've had to kill so many of my precious students... even if I can only defeat the commander and spare them, they narratively seem to die anyway.

This is the worst. Don't be like me. Unless you want to have more interesting battles and make everything approximately 250x more tragic.

 

Spoiler: part 2 stuff

The tragedy of that all is something I like about the game but then I am a glutton for punishment. It also helped make the few I did manage to save feel much more impactful since it was like...I can't actually save everyone. It makes the tragedy feel more real because I can't actually save everyone. Like it was only these few I saved and that's extremely sad but it was a few! It matters! We saved people's lives and every little bit that way matters!

 

Three down! Just Edel's route left to go, now, and a delicious new difficulty setting to attempt that on. Seems appropriate.

I'm totally putting Ferdie in the loungewear, he's gonna look ridiculous.

Spoiler: Verdant Wind ending

By far the most uplifting, so far, but I'm kinda upset that last battle wasn't a thing in the other routes, especially the Church route where most of the other requirements are met and fighting Nemesis kinda makes sense. Either way, glad to see some undead, and kill 'em again. I also love the rest of the lore, there, Claude got a lot more out of Rhea than the Church route gave directly, and... it's lovely. So much story potential!

 

Ok so I was looking at paired endings and I regret to inform that, purely textually, Claude ia the straightest lord. I know. It seems like he shouldn't be.

 

This man has failed me more times than I can count. Edelgard meanwhile came out of left field and satisfied in far more areas than I initially expected of her. My initial impressions have never been more wrong.

jesus

 

Spoiler: Vague part 2 spoilers

someone online said something like "Claude's one of those guys who goes, "if you're treated bad for being gay why not just move to California?'" AND

 

Spoiler: response to the above

move to my expensive hell state that likes to pretend it is not violently racist!

(we do have some very nice things going for us but really california is too self righteous for how shitty it is to mexicans and other groups)

 

Spoiler: Response

trust me I am in same hell state. We love our queers as long as you're a rich enough to live in the bay area!

 

Spoiler

The cost of the Bay area makes me quietly pray for the Big One sometimes. So that is A Known Feel.

 

Haven't finished Crimson Flower, yet, but the big differences I've seen that aren't wholly attributable to the prof's presence:

Spoiler: spoiled for those that wanna avoid ending stuff

...they pretty much all come down to the very end. The overall situation is more or less the same in the Moon, Snow, and Wind routes. In Azure Moon, Edelgard transforms into a monster of some sort when the palace is invaded (at the behest of the Agarthans?). In Silver Snow, Rhea's fight against the rods from god ends with her going berserk along with everyone that's accepted her blood/crest. In Verdant Wind, she doesn't lose control like that, but Nemesis emerges from the Agarthan base and wages war against Fódlan once again.

Everything else is remarkably consistent, overall, thus far. Though I imagine that for obvious reasons Crimson Flower will be... different.

 

Spoiler: Crimson Flower route shit

Most of the big differences I can think of in CF are attributable to the professor's actions. Rhea goes absolutely fucking bonkers in the route because of her decision resulting in Rhea being the war crime-y one in the route. Anything regarding Edelgard is also due to the professor's presence since she literally seems to be the woman's morality leash. She even suggests as much herself after you solidify the decision to stay with her saying, 'If I were alone, I might have lost perspective and become a harsh ruler with a heart of ice. But I'm not alone. With you by my side, I'm somehow free to be not only a leader but... simply Edelgard.' So Edelgard doesn't like set people on fire and actively tries to spare as many lives as she reasonably can, and can even be told to not execute Claude by the professor. She goes from villainous behavior to being more an anti-hero in the route because the professor is around to make her realize the value of human life and also that it is ok to just be a person sometimes who does selfish shit like eat lots of cake with a girl they think is cute.

Oh. And Dimitri never gets framed for murder and tossed in prison and never really goes like fucking bonkers so he retains both his eyes. This doesn't really seem to have anything to do with the professor's presence or lack thereof from what I can gather? He's still very vengeful and even as he's bleeding out he still won't back down on his 'I need to kill you you fucking bitch' stance. Unless you save Dedue in which case he is calmer but still unwilling to back down and thus dies anyway.

 

Unrelatedly, looking at the differences in waist size between regular and lounge attire, Linhardt wears a corset. Felix may, it's a little harder to tell.

Spoiler: Byleth's sleep schedule

Does it read to anyone else like Byleth just... doesn't sleep much, but then can sleep for a long time (especially when hurt)? Fits with the Children of the Goddess thing, and Sothis' influence. I wonder if that's where they were when Jeralt visited Leonie's village, asleep the whole time. It also makes how many of the support conversations take place at night with someone going "wait, shouldn't you be asleep?" make more sense, too. If they rarely/never sleep, well... it kinda fits?

Interesting, too, that Linhardt says his sleep cycle is out of sync with everyone else's, too, sleeping two days for three awake. Even if that's just proportional and he means he's just naturally nocturnal, it's neat how he's the only (other?) green-haired regular human and yet shares that trait.

 

Spoiler: CF and Dedue

To avoid killing Dedue you have to kill him in a single turn before he's able to trigger his transformation. If you don't kill him fast enough he transforms and that means he is like dead-dead. As opposed to alive to sit with Dimitri during his execution while El gives her speech.