meandering sword

hello, welcome to my blog! my name's maple, you can call me that or faerghusfucker. pronouns are he/him, and this blog is mainly focused on FE3H, though i often have other fleeting hyperfixations that may make themselves known here. at the moment, i’m really into tomodachi life and stardew valley!

I do fanart, fanfic, headcanons, and general yappage on here so like. idk talk to me abt the stuff i like lol. down here is some stuff i've made!

ALSO. if you wanna rp please dm me!! info is here

if you wanna give me money, here's where you do that

Commissions: Open!

Ask Box: Open!

art

disclaimer, i’m about to sound like such a pretentious little loser freak. i’m an Absolute Nerd for game art stuff and it’s what my degree is in and i just spent nine months as an art director so. it’s on the mind. and now i’m about to force it to be on all of your minds as well!!! i’m gonna rewatch the trailer and just stream-of-consciousness yap about everything i think about lol. let’s get into it

- they’ve got the shader DOWN in this!!!! holy fuck the lighting and the way the cel shading and the lineart play together is so beautiful, this is such an insane and beautiful step up from houses and hopes!!!!!

- the character designs are really beautiful but i am feeling like they’re a little. hmmmm. unfocused perhaps. but that could fully just be different characters from different regions having different aesthetics to them (houses also does this!) so this could actually be a positive in disguise

- my dear friend @diminand pointed this one out to me, they’re putting gradients in the characters’ eyes in this one!!!! you can see it the most on cai but they’ve all got a lil dark gradient at the top of their iris, which they didn’t have in the other fodlan games. i rlly rlly like this it makes their eyes look all shiny and like they’re actually 3D spheres in the sockets (sorry that just sounded so gross lmao)

- rlly appreciating the attempt at textured hair with cai!!! this is so rarely done in anime styles that i dont rlly have a baseline in my meager frame of reference to compare it to, but it looks REALLY nice and im so happy that he actually has texture in his hair unlike one claude von riegan. “my hair is actually curly lol” WHERE. NO IT ISNT

- THEY GAVE DIETRICH PALE EYELASHES AND I REALLY REALLY LIKE THAT!!!!!!! AUAUAUAUAUAUAUAUAUAA HES SO PRETTY HES SO PRETTY HES SO PRETTY

- there had better be an in-universe explanation for theodora being so gray 😭 like please. please. it’s 2026 we cannot be doing this. she is a queen i know she has lotion. i just won’t accept this lol im not drawing her with that skintone. it could definitely be a lot worse, and in some ways it does work well with the rest of her color palette, but it just doesn’t sit right with my soul lol. maybe that’s something i just need to get over though

- they animated leda so beautifully oh my god the way she moves!!!!! the way her head perks up all snappy and the way her facial expressions look is so fucking beautiful, it’s so expressive and lovely and a massive step up from the previous games. three houses looks so drab and flat in comparison to this game like oh my god!!!! the upgrade is insane!!!!

- the animated dialogue sprites. THE ANIMATED DIALOGUE SPRITES!!!!!! CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE FUCKING ANIMATED DIALOGUE SPRITES!!!!!!!

- no but seriously, can we??? one of the major flaws i’ve found in three houses is their over-reliance on stock animations, and how that deprives the player of any characterization that can come from things like body language or mannerisms or just, the overall way that the characters carry themselves and take up space. AND THIS IS SUCH A GOOD WAY TO INJECT SOME OF THAT LIFE INTO THE CHARACTERS!!!!!!! it makes me so happy that everyone moves in their own way and they feel so real and alive!!!! when you notice how many characters share animations and how many movements are just canned, it rlly makes you realize how hard three houses is carried by its VA performances. it’s AMAZING to see the art doing some of that heavy lifting with characterization!!!!!

- the UI is visually delightful. it’s so sleek and nice to look at!!! it’s impossible to fully judge a UI that i haven’t interfaced with of course, but like just from the look of things it’s quite lovely. i love a good serify font

- sorry i’m not over the lighting. im so sorry to keep harping on the lighting but good lord three houses is so UGLY in comparison shshdhdhdhd it’s insane how much lights and shadows actually make a difference. like oh my lord it doesn’t even look like they rendered three houses out of the engine!!!!

- i like how the camera moves a lot!!!! ANOTHER THING THREE HOUSES LACKS AUAUAUAUAGH THEY BARLEY MOVE THE CAMERA AT ALL!!!! i really don’t mean to bash on three houses but oh my god you can’t even compare these

- the sound effects in the battle and level-up screens are really juicy 🤤🤤🤤🤤 i love a good blade “shink!” sound, that’s such good shit

- they’re using some very extra particle effects on hit during battle and they make me happy lol. i love that sparks fly around it’s so fun, rlly makes you feel the impact of the hit

- the battle forecast taking up the entire bottom of the screen is an interesting choice, i quite like it!! having all the stat info more spread out and visible makes it easier to understand than having to page through it, at least for someone like me who is (embarrassingly) not very good at the more strategic dimensions of these games

I for one am getting real close to buying a switch 2............

I AM FEELING INSANE!!!!! AND ALSO CLOSE TO BUYING A SWITCH 2!!!!! i don’t have the money for it but like. i fear that when i get a job i will spend at least an entire paycheck on obtaining a switch 2 and fortune’s weave 💔

i have so many thoughts im gonna have to make like four different posts just to keep it from ending up as true incomprehensible yap. im gonna separate things out into characters, art, gameplay, and lore, since those are the main uhhh areas of excitement for me!!!! it was originally gonna all be one post but this will take several hours and so that warrants multiple posts in my book. LET’S GET INTO IT

characters

- I ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY FUCKING ADORE CAI!!!!!! he’s so so so adorable and i love his design and like!!!! oh my god i need to protect him i need him to save his father. cai you can be the first fire emblem lord to have a living father that you have a good relationship to, YOU CAN DO IT!!!!! and oh my god he has the crest of aubin so he’s connected to yuri in some way????? and WHAT IS UP WITH HIS EYES CHANGING COLOR WHAT IS THAT?????? i need to play with him i need to know everything. cai is my son and if anything happens to him then there will be dire consequences.

- leda is such a beautiful design I LOVE THE PONYTAIL!!!! she reminds me a lot of hapi, i can’t wait to see where her story goes. I LOVE VENGEFUL WOMEN!!!!!!!

- theodora gives me major edelgard vibes, which feels silly to say lmao. fe3h fan sees Another Female Monarch Character and says “getting major edelgard vibes here”. i find her design to be the least interesting of the main four but i am intrigued by her and eager to have my first impression proven wrong

- guys i fear we knew what my opinion of dietrich would be before the narrator opened his mouth to describe him. like we knew i would be so mentally ill about him. “an elegant swordsman who—“ IM SOLD!!!! YOU GOT ME!!!! HE’S PERFECT NO NOTES!!!!!! he’s so obviously related to mercedes and jeritza that it makes him look STUPID!!! white boy what’s wrong with you. what are you doing in dagda white boy. what’s that relic you have white boy. i NEED to know.

- SOTHIS. SOTHIS WITH AN AXE. CAN WE TALK ABOUT SOTHIS WITH AN AXE. WHATS THAT. WHATS THE SITUATION THERE. AND HOW CAN I GET HER TO DO THAT TO ME AGAIN. I NEED TO KNOW FOR RESEARCH REASONS

- the protagonist design on the cover art is rlly interesting, im rlly curious to know their whole deal. i don’t think i like the design more than byleth or shez but its def an upgrade from whatever goofy shit was happening with alear lol

if i interpreted the trailer right and there’s a route corresponding to each of the four main characters, i think the order i’m gonna play in is cai -> leda -> theodora -> dietrich. gotta save that white boy for last. that’s what i THINK i’ll do but emotions in the moment might cloud my decision-making.

also also keep in mind that these are all first impressions from a trailer and that my mind will almost definitely change lol. when i first played three houses i did NOT like dimitri at all and found the blue lions to be boring. i am so open to and excited for my mind to change on all of this.

okay so my thoughts are that i Adore this ending. as much as i enjoy the angst that comes with his meandering sword endings, this one is just. so incredibly silly. i love it so very much, i think felix loosening up eventually and letting go of his ego enough to accept this type of life is rlly beautiful. makes me wanna write some post-canon chilled out felix

i think his act consists mainly of sword tricks, like the ones flayn had him doing in those supports. chopping up fruit and firewood and such, doing funky tricks. i also imagine he and leonie do some stage combat type thing as well. generally it’s probably gonna revolve around skills he already has from being a fighter, since that’s all he knows.

THANK YOUUUUUUU it’s actually in game design!!! i’ve wanted to work in the game industry since i was like 15, but uhhhh considering the current State Of Things i might have to try my luck with indie dev.

fe3h actually has a lot to do with why i went to school for this craft 😅 it was one of the first games i got to see arab representation in and it made me want to be able to represent myself in even more games :3 when i say that this game is my eternal muse i really mean it lol.

my senior thesis was a fishing-themed rpg that i made with 14 other people, and i did the bulk of the 2D art in the project and also was the art director :3 it was a rlly unforgettable experience and rlly pushed me to my creative limits and like. introduced me to skills i didnt even know i had. this is kinda silly but i never thought i could be anything other than a pre-production artist lol???? like i thought my utility ended with concept art and that my animation and illustration skills weren’t strong enough for anything else. it turns out that this is not the case, and i will be carrying this new confidence into THIS BLOG as well‼️‼️‼️‼️ i have so much cool fe3h stuff i wanna make and show you guysss

my most immediate plan is to redesign the characters with my headcanons and then redo the formalwear series. i lowkey dislike how those designs came out and i think i can do a whole lot better now that im a better and more confident artist 🤭🤭🤭

also holy shit sorry for lying the day before yesterday LOL it ended up being way too hot for me to focus on tumblr 😭😭😭 they were BOILING ME IN THERE!!!! but that was my big university-wide graduation ceremony, then yesterday was the ceremony with my specific college where they actually acknowledge every grad by name and we walk across the stage and all that. that one was such a great time, i loved getting to celebrate with my friends and my professors 🥹🥹🥹 my overall experience with the university that i graduated from was not Great but the relationships i gained with my peers and mentors are so great and im so excited to be able to interact with them outside of Hell University

the potential of it happening is there right????

please pardon my lateness in attending to this ask LMAO

and. hmmmmm now disclaimer, im not a gacha guy and so i’ve kind of been filtered out of feh for that reason, my only real engagement with it is fawning over the new costumes my faves get every so often lol. this post is fully me talking out of my ass.

i don’t think it’s Impossible for them to release a canon glenn design but i would be incredibly surprised. i don’t know feh well so im not sure if they have a history of revealing previously unseen characters 😭 more than anything i would just be nervous if their version of glenn was significantly different to the one ive been imagining. i am open to a great many glenn variations and interpretations, but to me a Canon Glenn should have the following traits:

- CURLY HAIR!!!!! felix looks way too much like his mom and so i think glenn should get to look like rodrigue. give him that same luxurious hair

- LONG HAIR!!!!!!! are we really gonna break the iconic fraldarius pattern with the dead one???? absolutely not. give him long hair.

- blue. mf. eyes. again, lemme see those rodrigue features.

if these three simple demands are met then i will welcome a feh glenn reveal with open arms. otherwise uhhhh. i will consider my design to be canon 😊