chivalrous.

     though she takes some ounce of pride in knowing her old habits are slowly slipping from her grasp, bernadetta can’t help feeling the pinprick of desire to shirk away from the sound at her door. she could remain in quiet solitude, simply pretending not to be there until whoever wanted to intrude gave up & left. many people would do so easily, as she’d so often experienced before the monastery fell into despair. bernadetta grasps idly at the hanging fabric of her shirt sleeve as ingrid’s voice filters through the door, & in a moment of time slowing in tandem with the racing of her thoughts, she decides to fight against the fear building in her gut.

     a length of time passes with no sound from the room within, & to some it might appear as if bernadetta had resigned herself to once again remaining alone in her room while history unravels at the seams outside her door. slowly, the faintest sound of shuffling feet approaches the door, followed by a creak as it’s opened, partly revealing bernadetta’s cautious, concerned visage from the other side. ‘ …… y – you really did come back, ‘ she murmurs, one hand curling around the door.

         ingrid’s heart thuds in her chest when she spots and hears the door creak open, like she’s about to lay her eyes on something she isn’t supposed to see.  she supposes the obvious assumption would be that she stayed home, that she’d fight for lord and kingdom and family ( ah, she’s still working on that one ).  but it felt wrong to abandon her black eagles classmates, to deny the fact that her chest swelled like a balloon breathed to life when she read edelgard’s manifesto.

i did initially, and i can see where you’d get that at first glance, but if you look deeper, it’s... not really?

i portray her as having some self-hatred about being gay because of glenn’s importance to her and what they were meant to be together ( husband and wife ), but not outright homophobic all together. additionally, i interpret ingrid as not only being a lesbian, but nonbinary. in a lot of her supports, she is not comfortable with traditional femininity, and even in the exploration dialogue in the chapter of the dance, ingrid expresses that she’s hiding from mercedes for pinning her down and putting makeup on her. 

let me start by saying i’m not trying to paint dorothea as a bad guy here. i love her as much as the next person! but if you really look at the text of the dorogrid supports, ingrid is clearly uncomfortable with the idea of ‘ dressing up ’ ( which i’m sure in ingrid’s mind means wearing a dress and putting on makeup, i don’t even know if she thinks she has the option of dressing masculinely in a suit or tie or anything ), which dorothea pushes on her several times ( and even shuns her for not having experimented with dressing up in the past ).

end of the C support:

Dorothea: If you don't dress for the occasion, no one will take you seriously. But don't worry about a thing. I'll happily work my magic on you. When it's time, I'll meet you in your room. We'll make you the most beautiful woman in the theater.

Ingrid: Oh, goodness. OK...

does that sound like the response of someone who’s comfortable with being, or even wants to be ‘ the most beautiful woman in the theater ’ ?

end of the B support: 

Dorothea: My real point is that you're quite lovely even before getting all fixed up. Absolutely bewitching, in fact. So when I'm finished with you, well... Someone looking at you could be forgiven for...wanting to pounce.

Ingrid: Could they be? I don't know that I'd forgive them.

yeah, honestly i can see ingrid maybe exploring femininity if she was given the freedom to on her own, without the idea of needing to dress up for someone with it. she expresses excitement at the thought of just exploring on her own, without the desire to impress someone. dorothea then immediately says that you dress for the occasion to impress someone, which irritates ingrid. so dorothea has placed dressing up and makeup in a context that ingrid would be doing so to impress someone, directly against her comfort. here’s the thing: ingrid doesn’t want to be hit on by anyone, boy or girl. romance isn’t really her priority given her desires to be a knight. that said, she especially doesn’t want to be hit on in a context in which she is uncomfortable and not herself.

moving on...

Dorothea: Oh, I know. That's just before I lunge, I'm gonna ask permission.

Ingrid: Permission is not granted–ever! Just back off.

so despite the discomfort that’s accumulated through these two supports, dorothea still persists so far as to suggest she’ll be hitting on ingrid. ingrid feels so disrespected and ignored that she impulsively lashes out. the conflicting feelings of feeling guilt for her sexuality in general as dorothea hits on her combined with this reinforcement that ingrid needs to dress up and wear makeup to be wOmAnLy ( or to look nice at all! ) really puts her off.

so, in summary. dorothea has good intent and thinks she’s doing ingrid a favor! which is kind of her! but in that, she doesn’t listen to ingrid. dorothea 1. doesn’t respect ingrid’s wishes and discomfort and actually just tries to sweet talk her into wearing makeup and 2. proceeds to hit on ingrid immediately following that manipulation. ingrid’s last, harsh line of the support is a culmination of that discomfort into an outburst. was ingrid overreacting in the moment? yeah, sure. she could’ve handled the situation more calmly. i’d love to explore an A support for these two in which they talk it out more deeply. that said, it’s apparent to me that calm wasn’t really going to cut it for getting it into dorothea’s head that ingrid didn’t want to take part in this the way dorothea wanted her to. it’s also like... rejection itself isn’t outright homophobic, either? gay people don’t say yes to every person that asks them out? if ingrid’s not interested, she’s just not interested, likely because of the discomfort that built up spread across these supports. i’m nonbinary myself, and if someone did this to me, even a gorgeous wlw with good intentions, i’d be frustrated as fuck. these tweets sum this post up pretty well.

         ingrid plops down outside bernadetta’s door on the assumption that the purple - haired loner is in there.  if not, ingrid will simply look like an idiot.  she exhales, nervous to greet an old friend after so long apart.  “ bernadetta? ”  she calls softly.  she needs somewhere to be, away from the rest of the soldiers for now, away from her own thoughts of her family and betrayal, but not entirely alone.  “ it’s ingrid — i promise i won’t bang your door down, or make you spar with me or train with me.  i just... needed somewhere to clear my head. ”

dialogue starter  //  @shevalry​ .

❝   perhaps it is too candid of me to say this,   but if i may speak freely,   i just finished stable duty with sylvain and i must say i dislike him immensely.   ❞

                                                     𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜.

now wait a goddamn second.

THE OTHER GALATEA ( THE STATUE NOT THE SEA NYMPH ) COMES TO LIFE BY HER MASTERS HAND ?! WHICH CONNECTS TO INGRID WANTING HER WHOLE PURPOSE TO BE SERVING A MASTER SO BADLY ?! HEY WHAT THE FUCK

ingrid or link? YOU decide!