#afterthoughts

This entire page was so gut-wrenching

Started sobbing for real. I love Yellowfang so much. </3

Additional afterthoughts:

I'm fine with them cutting most of Cloudpaw 's twolegplace antics. I liked the condensed version of it, as well as the inclusion of Princess. (Although I did miss Ravenpaw's little appearance)

But I was shocked that they completely left out the whole thing with Cinderpelt secretly treating Whitethroat and Littlecloud! I think that's an incredibly important plot point - it shows Cinderpelt's courage and sense of justice as well as being a huge turning point in Littlecloud's life (prompting his decision to become a medicine cat).

As well as... Runningwind is still alive? So I'm really curious how that's gonna pan out in the next book.

1. Concept for Crimson Lion:

Crimson Lion is a sort play of titles on the ‘Crimson Flower’ route. Appropriately, it refers to Johann, a “Lion”(child of Faerghan descent/Blue Lion) but was raised in the Empire (Crimson Flower) route.

The initial idea is formed from when I was doing my first playthrough and was on the post TS phase. I was thinking how it sucked now that Dimitri is being mean and you know what would suck more? If they were somehow a thing before and Byleth was actually carrying his baby. It was a good first run, but the idea of wanting a pregnant Byleth while on the war phase stuck to my mind. I

added the timetravel aspect since I love that trope. Actually, I had a fic with a same plot for another fandom before this but it was stuck in wip hell forever, so I was hesitant in starting this fic initially. So I had to write the whole draft to ensure I won't abandon it. Made several drafts actually, until I had the guts to post it.

And to test the waters, I wrote supporting fics to build on the plot more, eventually giving me the courage to post this long fic. And it resulted in a collection of fics like my very own Blue Lions universe

2. Own Fic Rec Time:

If you are about to start or wanting a reread of this work entirely, I recommend going in this order:

1) Pickup Lines

2) Dining Together

3) First half of Our Time Together Collection in this order

Confession

Spa Day

Relationship Advice

Reach for my Hand

Gambling

Our Second First Time

Popsicles

Fundamentals of Strategy

Footsies in the Dark

Getting Spanked

Birthday Gift

Dancing with You

Exhibitionist in the Tower

Accidental Observer

Story Time

4) Then read Crimson Lion up to chapter 15

5) And read these pre-Gronder fics in Our Time Together Collection

Angry Sex

Garreg Mach Reading Club - Foundation

Unspoken Feelings

Caritas Romana

6) Then continue reading Crimson Lion while alternating the rest of the Our Time Together fics:

Horny in the Training Hall

Garreg Mach Reading Club - Meet and Greet

Consultation Committee

Garreg Mach Reading Club - Recruitment

Even as the Rain Stops

Cooking Together

A Dangerous Game 

Garreg Mach Reading Club - Final Mission

The Good King of Faerghus

Visiting Graves 

Honeymoon in Derdriu

Baby Shower 

First Time Father 

After the War

3. Dimileth Pregnancy/Time Travel Fic Rec Time

And now that I've promoted myself a bit, I wanna do a fic rec of the pregnancy/time travel fics I've devoured before or while I'm writing my own fics (and their links if possible)

Fell Star Fallen - I don’t remember how long I read this but it has consumed my entire time from start to finish. I don’t think I could write something as detailed as this. Currently being rewritten but I believe you can appreciate it as it is now

Flowers for you - I did not realize this was a hanahaki fic at first and it was so tragic what happened but I can’t stop reading it. There’s a sequel, don’t worry and it has a happy ending

(The sequel)

The Byleth pregnancy route (twitter fic) - there was a prologue on how Byleth got pregnant but the rest is written in twitter. I love how blunt Byleth is and how she keeps insisting it’s just baby fat.

Silver and Gold - this one has a twist of Claude in it, where instead of Dimitri being the one who met Byleth after 5 years, it was Claude, and they fought the Empire together.

This one I really enjoyed and helped me get to terms with the fact that I don’t have to rush the entire war just to perfectly time Byleth giving birth after it. She can totally give birth in the middle of fighting (after Gronder, I decided) and can recover quickly because of the crest of flames.

There would be no shortage of people wanting to take care of their kid and a bonus is that it might be good for morale. That said, I plotted Byleth’s pregnancy into the AM calendar to make sure she’s carrying her baby enough weeks until she gives birth. There would be no shortage of people wanting to take care of their kid and a bonus is that it might be good for morale. That said, I plotted Byleth’s pregnancy into the AM calendar to make sure she’s carrying her baby enough weeks until she gives birth.

Thunder without Rain - I would be remiss if I don’t recommend Bay’s fic here. It’s not exactly Byleth being pregnant during the war. But I like it and it’s a good break and a good reminder that in essence the two would be happy in the end

godspeed - this fic doesn't have pregnancy on it but rather time travel and it's a darn good m!byleth fic and most kudosed dimileth fic. I want to add this because it gave me an idea to use the Chalice of Beginnings in the final scene

4. Johann - name Origin

Ok, let’s talk about how I came up with the name Johann. You all probably have a hunch. While conceptualizing, I asked myself, what would be a name that’s not typically what either Dimitri or Byleth would think off, something completely out of nowhere?

Then it developed into, if Edelgard were to choose a name for Byleth’s kid, what would it be? Now, we know how El’s unique naming instincts, with the Beagles strike force and Jeritza, so she might stick to that pattern and now Johann would totally make sense.

I also thought of Johann, the antagonist in the anime/manga Monster, who was also blonde and raised in a not so ideal environment, who also had a twin and I thought this would be the appropriate name for my oc who would be raised by Jeritza and El, in the Empire while being from the kingdom

I initially wrote him as an angsty teen who knows about his ties with the Kingdom. Everyone there keeps urging him to ‘follow his father’s footsteps’ whenever they visit Dimitri’s grave. But it only made him double down and support the Empire and openly renounce his bloodline.

But then I opted out of it because it took a darker turn and I didn’t want Johann having strong opinions about Dimitri despite not knowing him personally, so that when they had that chance, they would be more open to know about each other

5. Art related to the fic:

Some sketches I made to visualize some of the scenes a bit (passwords are all lowercase):

Johann - password: who came up with Johann's name?

Dragon/Demonic Beast Byleth - password: who became a demonic beast in the bad timeline?

Berry - password: what is Bertrand's nickname?

6. Scrapped plotlines

Let's talk about the top 3 what could have beens:

1) Before knowing that Sothis can totally use Byleth's body without fully merging with her (in Hopes), the javelins scene would have happened much earlier in their retake of Arianrhod. Johann and Sothis would merge so that they can stop the attack.

But that means after the merge, Johann would be all alone. Also, the timeline is cut in half bc Byleth and Johann led 2 campaigns each in every month. So I'm happy that hopes came up and put so many possibilities on timetravel and the whole vessel thing

The 2 leaders/battles each month would halve the timeline tremendously, and end the war before Byleth gives birth. But it feels rushed. Also, at one point, Dedue suddenly knows blood transfusion and healed Johann so yeah, I know I had to edit that one out

2) Speaking of time travel, At first, I planned to have Johann either die or be merged with his kid self at some point, and baby Johann wouldn’t have memories of what happened. But that would be sad, so I thought of a way to make them two separate persons, with distinct fates and personalities.

It was funny to think now, how I actually overthought the mechanics of time travel versions when there was actual Fire Emblem Heroes (it took me a good while to learn about heroes) that had so many versions of every character already and how a lot of shows already introduced the multiverse haha.

3) The Shambala battle was initially led by Byleth, and Claude could only watch as driven by revenge, she destroyed the base. But after some thought, it was more appropriate for Rhea to do something like that haha. So she had to survive and be rescued earlier

Which meant that Johann had to be kidnapped earlier. A lot of things shifted after that. But I guess that's for the best. The only thing I regret having to cut was the golden deer's interaction with Byleth, where they spend time with Lorenz before the battle

7. Favorite Parts

1) Surprisingly, one is the scene in Gronder where Edelgard went half mad in confronting Dimitri and Byleth while demanding they give Johann back to her (because she’s afraid they won’t be able to protect him from the Agarthans)

2) The scene after the Blue Lions reunited and Byleth initially feels signs of pregnancy and they argue over who gets the last dosage of concoction. So Dimitri has to do that ‘pill kiss’ where he gulps it without swallowing and forcing the medicine on Byleth while they kiss.

I've been a sucker for pill kisses ever since I first saw it. So I wanted to see that pill kiss happening and I’d be willing to alter anything to make it happen, so yeah. Happy to see it there (but with the potion version)

3) There’s also the one where Raphael carries Byleth in a basket while defending GM. I thought I was a genius for figuring that out until I realize it’s been done in Demon Slayer and also Apothecary Diaries.

But it’s still funny imagining Byleth in a basket and later on, Dimitri gets jealous and wants to be the one to carry her instead. So I included that Marianne prologue and Dimitri has to carry her piggyback style all throughout. Needless to say, I enjoyed writing that a lot

8. Super Extra Bonus Plushie Content

Alright! Thanks for reading up to the end. Here's some dimileth plush pics I had during my recent trip as a treat: