Pandp's drawings and writing.

For a subtweet to be targeted, it has to give names, firstly.

Now, am I being caustic by being pissed with the racism in 3H? Particularly in the messaging of CF, a story that ends with the main character finishing off a genocide.

Yes, I would be. It's not fun, nobody likes it, and it's uncomfortable. The very essence of pointing it out is disruptive and flies in the face of positivity.

But congratulations, racism is not fun. Discussing the racism present in a character beloved by a queer community is not fun, but it's worth doing. Sometimes your comfort character does a bigotry. Sometimes it's bigotry that affects other people. Challenging bigotry is often negative because of the emotions and dirty work, but it should not be inherently. And when talking about queerphobia is a neutral act but talking about racism is not? That's a problem.

I'd say it's honestly downright reasonable to be pissed by the racism and to be pissed when seeing racism ignored and dismissed in the spaces that you're in. And being dismissed in itself despite multiple times explaining oneself in a way that has not been targeted at anything less than the source material, and being looked at in bad faith because someone might be turning those explanations into personal attacks on their character?

That is casually racist, a microaggression.

And yet it is not the one committing the microaggression being called out for that offensiveness, but the person who is upset at the racism getting called out for being disruptive.

Disruptive by making an untagged post on a personal tumblr that did not name any person or any server.

This ain't Domain Expansion, you stepped into my domain. Maybe someone showed a person my posts, but I think untargeted posts venting about casual bigotry are by more than reasonable since they're not saying "hey, go out and go after this person." You gotta make the choice to do something about it, putting yourself in the spotlight.

...So, with that all being said.

Let me quick fire round why CF can be seen as racist or bigoted. And some things that have racist implications.

To start:

The fact that the enemy is a religious genocide survivor who is being accused of being responsible for the racism and nobility system of the kingdom and land that genocided her people prior to her even having taken hold of power of a church. They built this racist system around her, and are pinning it on her.

The genocide that started it all, that took her people's corpses and fashioned weapons out of them to maintain hold of the power they attained using her people's stolen blood.

The accusation that she is responsible for Fodlan's current day issues when logistically and realistically, there isn't enough information to confirm that she is. The information that Rhea's Enemy has is compromised by the virtue of her being compromised by the cult who indoctrinated her that she still works with. That cult with an express interest in exterminating the Nabateans. There is the Grand Duke, and he is misinformed about his accusations which are the result of perceived biases that are corrected at the end of VW in what was a rushed elaboration. The GD may have suspicions but they aren't necessarily validated. The best we have is a Shadow Library explaining that she might be a technophobe, which the Shadow Library is not verifiable, while the many many encyclopedia of Fodlan that Garreg Mach houses are.

To continue on that point: There is so much evidence to support that the corruption is a product of the Elites and their patriarchal nobility. Starting with Duke Aegir who orchestrated Rhea's Enemy's kidnapping and torture, as well as Slither's long history of human rights violations, assassinations, and treachery as they implanted themselves into the three states, orchestrating disarray and then pinning it on the Church of Seiros.

And this is reinforced by developer interviews for those who care about the Word of God, who have stated that the worldbuilding was made to support Silver Snow, not CF. And logistically, the Church of Seiros goes down lightning fast in the other routes, and things are still shit. Slither is still active in both the Empire and Kingdom and in the 5 year gap, the problems are exacerbated by Adrestia and Slither's cooperation. The Church does not have the size nor power to be as omnithreatening as they are accused of while simultaneously being so feeble and weak as to be unable to reign in their own people. That is doublethink, 1984 Orwellian style.

The conspiracy theory that Fodlan is controlled in secret by the Church of Seiros and the lizard people in charge. (Scene: Whispers of War). That has antisemitic implications, and so does the blood libel.

The continued use of the Heroes Relics in the present day by the descendants of those who committed the genocide. (And Rhea cannot take them back without initiating war)

The commissioning of Aymr, by Rhea's Enemy herself. Because it was forged with a Crest Stone, a piece of the Nabateans, inferred to be the heart. The fact that Rhea's Enemy expressly ordered it. (See Description).

The raiding of the Holy Tomb, pilfering the Crest Stones so that they may be used for war. Using the corpse parts of the Nabateans for power, something that The GD Leader gets out of the Flame Emperor on GD. (See Scene: The Holy Tomb, Japanese version. The original translation can be found at The Cutting Room Floor)

That Hubert expressly distrusts Byleth on the matter of their link and lineage to the Nabateans. (Hubert - Byleth A Support)

That Hubert consciously knows that Slither is responsible for the Imperial Kidnapping and Experiments, and still chose to push Rhea's Enemy into going through with the plan to target Rhea while working with Slither, the exterminators, because the enemy of the enemy is an ally to him.

The Bombing of Arianhrod and the framing up of the Church of Seiros on CF. Faerghus, an incredibly xenophobic country that has committed one genocide, now has another scapegoat to persecute.

The religious persecution of Church of Seiros members on Silver Snow. By Adrestia.

The conquering of Garreg Mach, which threatens the people and forces a refugee crisis that affects both Garreg Mach and Abyss.

The fact that Garreg Mach is one of the safer places to be a minority in Fodlan while being accused of the source of bigotry. (See Cyril's support with Claude, various lines of worldbuilding, documents in Three Hopes, the fact that the staff is one of the most ethnically diverse in Fodlan). When the bigotry is pervasive across all sectors of Fodlan, including the imperialistic Adrestia.

The continued vassalage of Brigid by Adrestia.

The Demonization of Rhea, a religious genocide survivor, in order to uplift Rhea's Enemy in order to validate her enemy's worldview. You know, Rhea is also a queer woman.

Not even giving a genocide survivor the benefit of the doubt upon being accused of being responsible for the racism of the country they're in. The Church of Seiros was not needed for the racism to be there, because the genocide happened beforehand. The Nabateans had to culturally assimilate into Fodlan, they would not have had the power to uproot all that bigotry as it spread over the millenia. And revealing that the Heroes Relics were made from their corpses would only have threatened their lives harder.

Clay probably whittled figurines of himself right after Jesse ran away and joined the Black Vipers too

Trying to map out the edges of himself, figure out who he was after he lost someone who was just a huge part of him

Messed them all up, just the same as he did post-Raimundo's betrayal. Pressed down too hard, chipped at the wrong details, cracked at the wood, nicked his fingwr

Part of the block evaded squad now. Thanks for my moot for letting me know he had the nerve.

I'm not even gonna go long about how using Hopes to "prove" that Sothis was a "wretched figure years ago" is the equivalent of using Crimson Flower to prove that Rhea is whatever Edelgard and red lady stannies think she is,

It's really the audacity to lecture me from across the bird app about "endless doubling down never made illusion real" when that's exactly how Edelstans like him operate.

Part of the block evaded squad now. Thanks for my moot for letting me know he had the nerve.

I'm not even gonna go long about how using Hopes to "prove" that Sothis was a "wretched figure years ago" is the equivalent of using Crimson Flower to prove that Rhea is whatever Edelgard and red lady stannies think she is,

It's really the audacity to lecture me from across the bird app about "endless doubling down never made illusion real" when that's exactly how Edelstans like him operate.

Part of the block evaded squad now. Thanks for my moot for letting me know he had the nerve.

I'm not even gonna go long about how using Hopes to "prove" that Sothis was a "wretched figure years ago" is the equivalent of using Crimson Flower to prove that Rhea is whatever Edelgard and red lady stannies think she is,

It's really the audacity to lecture me from across the bird app about "endless doubling down never made illusion real" when that's exactly how Edelstans like him operate.

You are staring down 40 and haven't moved on from the behavior of a teen edgelord. You are hate stalking people half your age over video game drama.

You are blasting people on a Nazi website that directly funds a Nazi who is using his endless bank account to hurt people so you can... engage in fandom wankery for attention you aren't getting in real life.

You do understand that's weird behavior, right? There are better things rto be doing when you're middle aged.

Point being, a person has to grieve, they don’t owe anyone a proper way to do. Byleth doesn’t owe Edelgard “moving on”, doesn’t owe Dimitri a need for revenge, and doesn’t owe Claude their father’s diary.

I’m alittle worried about how some here express real life sympathy

The 3H devs wanted to make the first ever playable red emperor, so what do they do? Surround her with stock baddies that do exactly what they're expected to do in 3/4 routes. Then in the 1 route where Edelgard is playable make it so that those stock baddies are really responsible for every questionable thing her side ever does. I'm talking not just the agarthans but a scheming evil sorcerer (Hubert), a black knight wannabe (Jeritza), a couple of good soldier red shirts (Randolph, Ladislava) and some mustache twirling violent killers (Kostas, Metodey). The agarthans get to be usual evil cult standing behind the red emperor even down to the mindless final boss they got on standby (zombie Nemesis).

The game gets a full roster of majority NPC bosses no one has to feel sad about killing, and Edelgard has plausible deniability from basically every direction. Nothing is ever her fault.

(Obviously I think this is a lazy way to do "moral grayness" but it's what we got.)

I just can't with her. at least hubert has the decency to be mwahaha maniacal camp villain that knows he's evil.

probably a massively unpopular and problematic take but I'm so sick of this route already. I had to turn it off to start another play through of any of the other routes - because at least then edelgards self righteousness and justifying her violence is seen for what it is: hogwash

sorry for doing this after the ask about not criticising edelgard but I had to rant after trying to finish the latest crimson flower chapter and didn't want to do it on main because I didn't want drama

And from a writing standpoint it's a stronger story if Dimitri is fixated on getting revenge against one of the main characters who is also his stepsister. Not the flat moleman villains nobody really cares about except to make sure none of the leads ever look too evil.

Well, yes! It is out of pragmatism.

I just personally think pragmatism viewed through a moralistic lens matters a lot on whether it like... works.

Even in the comparison you offer, while I do agree that Rhea is also responsible for hiding important information that had a ripple effect on Fodlan's history, I think it's still important to note the differences.

Rhea did it out of the belief that the origins of Crests would lead people down to become more power hungry and corrupt and murderous, most likely hunting down the last of her family. She spun a lie to try and influence Fodlan's people toward a direction that such powers are granted by chance and it should be considered a sacred duty to use those powers for good. It backfired eventually because people are people and just because some scripture says it, doesn't mean they'll follow. Regardless, the lies she told were anchored by a genuine moralistic belief.

Edelgard lying about Arianrhod though? That wasn't done for anything beyond covering her own shady allegiances. She'd lose support if it came out that she'd been allying with people like the Slithers (though to this day it begs the question why the fuck no one realized it already when they sided with her, and if they did, why they never give an explanation for why they don't care anymore), doubly so for having weaponry that can wipe out entire locales. And yes, that is a pragmatic choice. But it's one that's also attached to selfishness. In her dialogue, she's not taking account how the choice to lie about what happened will affect others in the future, she doesn't care about that. She lies simply because she requires full control of the narrative until her main goal-killing Rhea and conquering Fodlan-is done.

So like, yes, both Rhea and Edelgard lied for pragmatic reasons. But there's vastly different undertones to each that shouldn't be discounted.

When you join Edelgard against Rhea, a NPC will talk about how they don’t think they should believe everything Edelgard says. Edelgard herself, in the Japanese text, presents her manifesto not as something meant to open people’s eyes but as a means to prevent her enemies from uniting against her.

When we return after the timeskip, we get stuff like mentions of an information campaign to deal with unrest in the empire from a population who opposes the war, mentions that Demonic beasts are considered war assets implying their use off-screen, and even that people within the Empire believe Edelgard’s not against the Goddess but simply a corrupt church. Granted, that last one doesn’t hold up considering the first thing you do in CF is invade the neutral Alliance to kill Claude because he’s been preventing nobles from defecting to the Empire when Edelgard pressures them.

While we get get this whole spiel in the supports that your support will prevent Edelgard from becoming cold and ruthless, her actions reveal that we have failed that. Hell, there’s a story scene with Hubert where his dialogue basically implies Edelgard lied or withheld information from you concerning her backstory and Agartha’s involvement and opposition to the Church. And if you complete Edelgard’s S support, she reveals she has walked the path of hadou, tyranny, opression, conquest, hegemony… that sort of thing. This hasn’t been a war of liberation. Edelgard’s own paralogue even has her try to claim the empire will get along with Almyra because Almyra don’t believe in the Goddess, acting like the faith is the cause of the conflict between them in a reskin of Hilda/Cyril’s paralogue, characters who can not be recruited to Edelgard’s side so you can’t see said paralogue, make it clear Almyra invades for fun rather than religious differences.

And that’s the tip of the iceburg of worldbuilding that does not match what Edelgard says, as the games own developers said they built Fodlan to support Silver Snow’s story.

Arianrhod’s chapter begins and ends with Edelgard lying, first t o hide her true target when marching her troops and then about the Church nuking the place. Cornelia’s dialogue, in the Japanese text, makes it clear that Edelgard is manipulating the Agarthans as well. After this happens, we get the final exploration event, where some NPCs express worries that Edelgard is keeping them in the dark.

Arianrhod implicitly titles Edelgard as the Lady of Deceit.

In the final battle, Edelgard privately says that Rhea needs to be obliterated and in her S support cheers the destruction of the Children of the Goddess, but publically offers Rhea a chance to surrender (in the Japanese script, however, she publically says she doesn’t seek genocide unlike Rhea when doing so, but again she cheers for the end of an entire race.) She gives the speech about people standing strong and supporting each other, but then in the Japanese text it’s shown she centralizes power on herself, implements reforms where she cuts off support for the people in the name of making them self-reliant (while her paired ending with Byleth reveals she becomes even more reliant on their support), and Hubert’s endings make him out to be feared by all and a pillar of the empire because he’s going around eliminating opposition to Edelgard. The nobility contiunes to exist into the next generation because this wasn’t about empowering the commoners or anything, it was about eliminating nobles who won’t go along with what she demands and her reforms match the social Darwinist beliefs she expresses in Azure Moon where the player fought her as the final boss with Apex of the world playing.

Apex of the World also played in Crimson Flower’s final map. Edelgard’s final boss theme was the one playing, not Rhea’s.

Edelgard says she will now walk a path together with Byleth in her S support after dropping her walking the path of hadou alone is over in the Japanese text, but her creators say that her ending leads to hadou. She’s not walking a different path or becoming benevolent because of you, you’re walking the path of tyranny with her.

And that is a fundamental difference between the Japanese and English texts. Arianrhod isn’t just her being pragmatic, it’s the game laying on the table what it’s been building up this entire time: Edelgard is two-faced, and even her relationship with you isn’t honest. She knows how to play you, and if you don’t go with her on the S support she just cuts you out of her life entirely. She’s not going to offer Byleth any power or influence, just that they can stand at her side and serve her if they decide to. The English text is massively off here, you can’t save Edelgard from herself as she is meant to sway you instead to the dark side.

Arianrhod takes place around the same time as Gronder does in the other routes, where Dimitri or Claude’s character development kicks in as a result of the horror of the battle. In Byleth’s case in CF, the game makes it that Edelgard is the Lady of Deceit, and afterwards Byleth just goes along with her. Does not intervene to save Dimitri like they can Claude, Seteth or Flayn. They will seek true peace through the destruction of the Agarthans while Edelgard’s empire is supported by the silent elimination of any opposition while the Imperial army marches under Caspar’s command. That they believed they were fighting for freedom, only for Edelgard to call her path hadou in the S support… and they support her even more after the S support. That they are freeing the world from gods, only to put it in Edelgard’s hands calling her El, an ancient word for a god, with endings reveals she didn’t destroy the Church but put it under her own control when other routes call her out on seeking to replace the Goddess with herself.

Sothis with an axe wasn't something I expected -

Theodora's official art makes it a new contender for eschergirls:

Le sigh

An Evil green haired pointy ears is shown :

She will bring forth destruction! Muahahaha!

And the story happens in Dagda!!!!

Ruled by... Gods????

Quick, somehow intervene and invites Thales and his pals to nuke and genocide those pesky lizards!

But wait, if Theodora is the queen of Salamis - is her quest all about getting rid of the stinky pointy ears in charge, to lead her people to a Salamis made for humans and by humans?

Not!Emile mentions his relic was given by "forebears" in Fodlan!

Ten to ones the origins of Relics will never be mentionned!!!! Even if Sothis is here, because who gives a fuck about her lol

Smite the gods who occupy Dagda not!Emile! We believe in you!

Jeez, how to kill my excitment lol

Edith :

1) Considering Fortune’s Weave was originally said to take place concurrently with Three Houses, we now know where it takes place. This is happening while Edelgard is trying to conquer the continent. And considering it’s Dagda, we know from Houses that members of the Elite’s clans fled to Dagda at the end of the War of Heroes and taking some relics with them. If we put this together, we get that Crests don’t just exist in Fodlan and some of those Crests still have Relics they can use. Diedrict then could be seen not as Jeritza’s descendant, but a distant relative whose side of the family kept the sword when they fled. Theodora also provides more evidence that royalty and nobility exist outside of Fodlan as well.

2) At the same time, it debunks the idea that Fodlan is some ignorant, backwater continent. I mean, we already had some examples we could gleam that the rest of the world wasn’t as developed as Fodlan, even more barbaric (with Dagda being mentioned as having more conflicts that Fodlan because the people are “freer”, hence why you can travel the continent for EXP), but here we have the continent on the other side of the sea being a sword and sandles setting compared to the late Medieval/early Renassance Fodlan is in. And since the Nabateans here are implied to be more active leaders than Rhea is, Rhea’s more hands-off approach when it comes to humanity played a part in it because we see Nabateans with GUNS in Dagda against a bunch of extras in a Conan film. Granted, the magic we see Cai use in the trailer to take out multiple units at the same time is pretty broken by Fodlan standards.

3) We still don’t have a full idea of what Sothis is doing. Is she calling a Byleth who sided with Edelgard, or is she talking to some avatar the game is hiding from us who earlier led an upheaval hence we were the figure with angel wings? We also see an evil Nabatean, which likely coincides to the statue in the Abyss we see in Houses. But the thing is, it’s clear that Edelgard’s quest to wipe out the Nabateans is meaningless because they are not just in Fodlan. They’re across the world, in various legends and their influence can be see in architecture. So if Flayn and Seteth are spared and go into exile, they have potential family to take them in or avenge them.

Well,

People can stan and like whatever character they want lol, and we don't even know what is Leda's story !

Dimitri is more than "revenge" oriented, and I guess some devoted fans hated him because he was, along with Rhea, the one who always opposes Supreme Leader, so he's automatically hated.

It has never been about his traits - revenge - or whatnot, just about who he opposed.

Then the mayonnaise started, Supreme Leader being touted as one bringing imperial "revolution" to the masses as opposed to Didi apparently being a centrist (mdr Dimitri qui rejoint Bayrou) and all those smelly takes about Faerghus masculine toxicity, the country being a feudalist hellhole and all...

Are just, idk, crunchy bits added on top of an existing ice cream : Dimitri BaD bcs he doesn't like Supreme Leader and opposes her, but the outrage must be justified by something else, so he's cray-cray, murders women, hates the people, is racist/sexist etc etc...

I won't call devoted fans misandrists because I don't believe it's true, but the Dimitri hate really, first and foremost, came from the fact he doesn't, and will never, support Supreme Leader.

Fraud is a mixed bag, but he gets a pass from, I guess, some "performative" mental gymnastic because he's a poc so hating him with the same vitriol won't reflect well and he had always been more aligned with her vision...

I just hope, for this fandom's sake, they won't return to their most odious behaviour by bullying, threatening and harassing fans who don't share their ideas, because let's be right, it had never been an issue with the character they're stanning, it has always been a behaviour that was seen, at one point, as allowed or worse, justified by some fans who wanted to harm real people because they didn't agree with them!