#alcryst fe

In his supports with Diamant, he realizes his brother has weaknesses and isn’t the flawless superhuman he initially thought. I see some people claim the support having him lose the archery match to Diamant hurts his development and only reinforces his preconceptions, but I disagree. Alcryst does initially mope over losing BUT rather than just accept he’s inferior and give up, he resolves to get better and stop creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. He even says he will work to surpass Diamant when earlier he would consider such a notion impossible.

In his supports with Ivy, he unlearns his hatred for Elusians and gains a better understanding of how much harm Brodia’s invasions and conquests has done to them. He also admits to the harm Brodia has done to Elusia in his supports with Hortensia, in contrast to their first meeting where he defended their invasions as completely justifiable.

In his supports with Pandreo, he learns to open up and not feel restricted by arbitrary rules that don’t exist for Solm’s parties. It’s not even an “introvert becomes an extrovert” thing so much as “quiet extrovert gains courage to hang out with others” sort of thing.

In his supports with Seadall, he gains a better understanding of the hardships poor people undergo, after starting out with a sheltered and naive perspective where he doesn’t get why an orphan would live on the streets or thinking caravan life is 100% fun and free.

In his supports with Lapis, he realizes his willingness to throw his life away is in some ways cruel to those who love and care about him so he agrees on a compromise where he and Lapis vow to protect each other unlike earlier where he felt he should do all the protecting (despite Lapis being the retainer here).

In his S-Support with Alear, HE is the one to give his token first. You cannot tell me he would’ve had that initiative at the point we meet him in the game. Also, when Alear responds by offering the Pact Ring in exchange, Alcryst acknowledges he has been outshone, but not in his usual mopey self-deprecating way, instead happily proclaiming he does not even mind. He says he will get stronger and “Despite how I seem, I am a prince of Brodia. As a son of the kingdom of warriors, I will become someone you can rely on.”

'We may never bear our own crowns, but we can certainly bear each other’s burdens.'