Me, a fool: "Man I sure hope Three Hopes gets into Ashe's central character conflict: how his sense of justice and right clash with his loyalty to his friends and his dream of being a Knight. It felt like there really should have been more, especially for Crimson Flower Ashe."

The Monkey's Paw, Curling:

"ディミトリ"

I think that it plays a role in why Edelgard meant to be the villain. Her version of "helping" people involves her asserting her will, her "self," onto Fodlan as she forces people to follow her ideals. This not seen in the best light in Japan, Digimon Adventure Tri is another example of this in action where Mimi was presented selfish for forcing her ideas on her class during the cultural festival and her believing what SHE believes is best is the best for everyone resulting in her accidentally making things worse. The fact that Edelgard is willing to cause untold suffering in the pursuit of this only makes it worse, as causing suffering is not virtuous in Buddhist beliefs.

Edelgard seems to be built around the non-virtues of Buddhism: greed/covetousness, harmful intent, wrong view by denying cause and effect, lying, divisive speech, harsh speech, pointless gossip, killing, stealing and sexual misconduct. The first three are of being of wrong mind: Edelgard's desire to rule over all of Fodlan because she believes it's rightfully hers, her intent to start a war in order to reclaim Fodlan and shape it to her will, and her unwillingness to divert from this route despite any evidence such as how she supposedly knows her father, her cited historical source, was an Agarthan puppet. The next four, her lying, her harsh tone, her divisive speech while also peppering it with what amounts to gossip, is wrong under wrong speech. The fact she's willing to have people killed, steal, and even her trying to push her student/teacher dynamic with Byleth as a romantic one would put her into being wrong body.

And that's on top of the Three Poisons/Flames.

In terms of Three Houses, Edelgard is not presented as the virtuous young lady she's initially presented as, and that's one of the misconceptions the player needs to clear up for themselves by getting to know her.

In contrast, the virtues she opposes that Byleth is meant to represent are as follows. With mind, Byleth is supposed to be generous, have a loving kindness and the correct view of reality. In terms of speech, Byleth is supposed to speak honestly, pleasantly, with meaning in a way that helps reconciliation between groups. And in terms of body, the protection of life (which is mentioned in SS's Japanese ending, not Byleth judging every soul), giving generously to people while also maintaining self-discipline. Buddhism does accept that there are times when you would need to engage in the non-virtues in order to prevent suffering, but we should be aware of why we are doing so. If we're ultimately doing it for selfish reasons, for our own benefit, then the act is rendered non-virtuous.

no title just fite me >:V she may not have a voice propper but she’s got so much going o n

Revisiting Yuri and Dee's support in Nopes :

It has bonkers things like :

What are you talking about Dee? Medical facilities aren't anything like "salvation", it's just a place where people are healed?

Sure, some people want to participate in their life, decisions and politics so to associate them to those processes is an interesting thing... but they'd still need somewhere/someone to help/heal them, right?

And it's really where Yuri shines - and reminds us that this support can only happen in AG - because he completely corrects Dimitri, if Dimitri wants to associate commoners to decision-making, they should at first receive education :

I love this last sentence, because man does it ring differently when you consider Yuri was the de facto guy in charge of the Abyss - where people complained in every explore section about Church/Nobles BaD - special mention to Hapi "CoS BaD they promised me they'd cure me but it has been a year since I'm here, I know I am a danger to the people living on the surface, I most likely never told them who experimented on me nor where she was nor what kind of stuff she did to me, and I haven't been cured since!"

Thoughtful opinions on policies and decisions uh?

I know some politician I love to joke about once said "morality don't feed your belly", but this is in the same vein - people can think about education/doing the "right thing" and whatnot... only when their lives aren't in immediate danger, like, say, because they're starving or on the streets.

That's where I think we have the closest "thoughts" Yuri has about the Abyss - sure it's not all roses and daisies, far from that, but it's still a place where people who have nowhere to go, well, can go, and eat.

Regardless of the Abyss...

Yuri is here to remind Dimitri that people still need to survive before receiving proper education, aka, they need "support" to be able to walk on their own legs, or decide to do what they want.

Compare this to Supreme Leader's "if the weak remain weak it's because they're too used on rely on others" and while I really dislike how Dimitri was teetering to close to that edge on his own and only reconsidered when Yuri reminded him of, uh, something that should be common sense - for a Fodlan game, I still find it very nice that this issue was adressed (and it even recontextualises the Abyss from FE16, something FE16 couldn't do bcs, Church BaD).

Now, I know Yuri can join Tru Piss and Supreme Bullshit, but is it any wonder that his paralogue is AG oriented, his supports are AG oriented (save for the ones who are always available + Marianne) and he has no interaction with members of the Empire?

Mmh...

Tired Dimitri ♥

and I feel Love in this chili’s tonight 

-Lisbeth

Instagram/ Redbubble/ Youtube

I think calling Byleth's personal class “the Enlightened One” was a mistake. Being “enlightened” means that Byleth's outlook is rational, modern and well-informed regardless of which route Byleth picks. In a way, it makes every route sound more equal. And if we think about this from the Western perspective of the Enlightenment era, it would carry implications of being more individualistic, reasonable, and breaking away from tradition which would lean more into supporting Flower. The spiritual awakening aspect is a lot further from people's minds.

Byleth can side with Edelgard, which results in them no longer being enlightened at the end of the route, but the path there still would come across as Byleth having chosen that because of the aforementioned outlook.

Nirvana, on the other hand, reflects Byleth's spiritual state, and the overall messages of the game. It means overcoming attachment, not letting your positive feelings toward something or someone prevent you from doing the right thing. The opposite is true as well, you don't let your own personal aversions or hatreds get in your way as well. It means that when you're presented with information that contradicts your beliefs or even disproves them, you adapt your way of looking at the world in response. Focusing on the self, the more individualistic outlook, can trap people in a cycle of suffering for these reasons. Eastern philosophy focuses more on the good of the group rather than the individual as a result, in addition to knowing your place within society. You are expected to be benevolent to those who you hold power, influence or authority over, while also being dutiful to those above you.

Honestly, how Rhea and Edelgard are presented makes sense on a thematic level. The game tries to make the player adverse to Rhea early on, but she ends up being revealed the good guy with legit reasons for doing what she does. We are supposed to let go of our earlier perception of her as we learn more about the world, and the game puts that at the feet of the player to do so. Edelgard is the opposite, the game tries to make us like her, become attached to her, only to drop info that contradicts her claims in addition to her being the bad guy. And if we let our attachment to her get in the way of making the right choice, we prove that we are unworthy of bearing the title of Nirvana.

But divorcing the game from those themes, like the Western translation does, ultimately screws up the message.

And, you know, I read the translation notes for The Three Body Program, where Ken Liu talks about how translators need to get the point across regardless of cultural barriers. That it's not just about translating the story, but also the mindset of the creators. That the best translation don't make the work sound like it was originally written in English, but rather allow the reader access to the thinking patterns of it's native culture. By trying to make Houses more Western in it's messages, the translators failed their duties.

New fic!

Encyclopedia of Fódlan's Insects

After the death of her father, Byleth finds herself out of her depth in the complex web of Enbarr's social season. Her savior arrives in the form of a foreign Duke with a mysterious past. Neither is exactly who they seem to be, but together they navigate both the intrigue of the ton and the threat of an ancient enemy that could rip Fodlan apart.

Regency Empire Won AU Duke!Dimitri x f!Byleth 💙💚

Cover art by @/tastysemochka

I'm really nervous to finally put this out in the world, so I'd love to know what you think! 🙈

My Analysis of the Best Paired Endings in 3H (Part 2: Dimitri/Byleth)

Despite the popularity of some of Dimitri's M/M ships, he seemed to be a typical heterosexual man to me. However, his straightness was actually part of what made his character so interesting, ironically. He spent his youth absorbed in masculine activities like hunting, training, and practicing with the sword.

He was willing to TRY and take Sylvain's advice to pick up girls. But he was very inexperienced with women. Chivalry definitely promotes homoromantic social bonding among men. And perhaps because of that very male-dominated culture he grew up in, he deeply yearned for a relationship with a woman.

My Analysis of the Best Paired Endings in 3H (Part 1: Edelgard/Byleth)

The story of 3H pushes Byleth with the lord of each route so hard that it almost felt pointless to add the self-insert dating-sim elements with the other students. In Persona 5, you could date whatever girl you wanted with no effect on the main story. But in 3H, it felt more like Final Fantasy X where there the love story was the main story.

This pairing absolutely felt "canon", at least in CF. As both of them bore the Crest of Flames, I strongly suspect that their relationship was meant to represent the concept of "twin flames". A twin flame is a deep soul connection between two people. They are actually thought to be twin souls inhabiting two bodies. Twin flames seem to mirror one another, have shared similar life paths, history, and sometimes trauma. They are naturally drawn to each other. This description certainly applied to Byleth.

My Analysis of the Best Paired Endings in 3H (Part 4: AM Alois/Byleth)

Maybe this is cheating. I already chose Dimitri as the best partner for Byleth in AM. And you can't get both Byleth paired ending with Alois at the same time as the paired ending with Dimitri. But hear me out.

Obsessed with characters who portray themselves as worse than they are. Who are lying to everyone including themselves about it. People generally assume if someone's lying about themselves they're trying to look better but sometimes they're trying to look worse. They attribute agency to where they had none, add intend to accidents, try to convince everyone that this is something they did instead of something that happened to them.

『 Fire Emblem Three Houses - REFERENCE MASTERPOST 』

lots of ref material gathered together, partly collected from others as well as my own! feel free to use and share!! 🤗💗

See my original twitter post here (plus replies) if you’re interested in what is still to be added later/missing atm!

____________________________________________________________

1. CHARACTER REFERENCES

✧ ARTBOOK

✧ PORTRAITS

✧ SCREENSHOTS PART 1

✧ SCREENSHOTS PART 2

✧ S - SUPPORTS

✧ 3D MODELS

✧ ROSTER TEMPLATE - Character DIY Sheet made by twitter user @RushireChi

____________________________________________________________

2. INSIGNIA

____________________________________________________________

3. WEAPONRY & ACCESSORY

____________________________________________________________

4. INGAME CINEMATICS

____________________________________________________________

5. CRESTS

✧ CREST VECTORS made by twitter user @melshardae

____________________________________________________________

6. SAINTS

____________________________________________________________

7. FE:HEROES

____________________________________________________________

8. CIPHER CARDS

____________________________________________________________

9. FE3H SOUNDTRACK

✧ OFFICIAL

✧ RIPPED FROM INGAME

____________________________________________________________

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

Things that Dimitri Fire Emblem can rightfully be criticized for:

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

Things Dimitri gets criticized for: