#dce ask

Dimitri was Dimitri in both games. Claude was not the same person with the same behaviors, and thus, people did not enjoy that.

You also seem to be missing the point where the people Claude is killing are innocent people. No, I do not find that interesting. If he chose to kill people who had done him harm and had done wrong by him, that would be interesting, like when he killed Shahid. If he finally had enough and killed his former assassins, that would be interesting. Invading a land that has done him no harm, goes against his entire character and makes no sense with all the given context, on top of that land being one he otherwise allies with or attempts to ally with in all existing routes except SB/GW? Not interesting, because it's no longer the same character people love.

There are a LOT of Claude fans who feel this way, so it's not a matter of "my favorite is doing something interesting" for them. It's a matter of "wow they completely altered my favorite's characterization and made him so different from the person I loved that I can't love this version of him".

Bad writing affects people's enjoyment of media. If it's bad enough to take you out of the game and have you questioning what the writers were thinking, that's not an enjoyable experience. The whole point of them not being real characters is for people to engross themselves in a good story, but when the story is no longer good, has racist undertones and uses an existing character and completely alters them in a way that makes the fandom waifu look better, yeah, there's an issue with that. It means the story/entertainment didn't serve its purpose, which is to entertain and bring joy to people. If this many people are aggravated by it and this many people are noticing that it's edging way too close to "why are the brown people so questionable", it goes outside the boundaries of “well this game just wasn’t fun for me”.

So yes, when the only brown main character behaves like that, it's really an issue because it reflects on irl standards and how people making the game perceive people irl.

And again, when you write a story and it's just not good because they can't give good reasoning as to the characters actions, it's not enjoyable. There's a point where you have suspension of disbelief, and there's a point where it's so poorly handled that your disbelief literally pulls you out of the game. In this case, it's reusing characters that exist already, had defined characterization and traits, and tossing most of that in the dumpster and giving him poor reasoning for his actions (wow, a country sure did do something our country didn't like 300 years ago! blame the people living today and invade their country for it! kill their people for something that happened before they were even born! yeah. very bad writing that takes you right out of the suspension of disbelief; especially when it's a character who has canonically said the literal exact opposite in his origin game).

What people don't want to see is their favorite kill in a war game when that character was very strictly opposed to war and killing in the first place. So no, a whole lot of people don't want to see that, which is pretty evident from the number of anons who have come to me expressing their distaste in how they handled Claude. When Dimitri kills people, we're given thorough and logical reasons for it that match his character. When Edelgard kills people, we're given her mindset and her reasons for doing it which match her character. Houses Claude and Hopes Claude have such extreme differences that it bothered people. Is there really an issue with that? Because I'm not seeing an issue with people not enjoying their favorite being written as someone he wasn't in his origin game.

Again, it's fiction. Media. Entertainment. When it's not entertaining, it's failed in its purpose. When people are angry with the content (justifiable in this situation no less because of a whole lot of reasons, some of which as I've mentioned leak into irl modern day issues that completely ruin some people's experiences because video games should be pulling you away from that), it's gone beyond failing. The whole game itself wasn't a total failure, but the GW route did make a lot of people unhappy with it.

Is it okay for characters to kill in a war game? Yeah. Do people want to see their favorites kill in a war game? Yeah, if that character has been established as someone who would do so and/or has writing to back it up when the game is story based. Do people want to see their favorites kill in a war game when it's a pre-established character who is the only main character who stands his ground when it comes to peace, not wanting war and to remove prejudice? No.

I'm not sure how you chalked everything we've discussed on this blog to "Claude killed people, what's the problem". If Dimitri suddenly turned around and told everyone they were invading the Alliance because ??? and had no story reasoning to back him up, i.e. he was not experiencing the worst of his mental illness and was not all alone with no support system, yes, his fans would be angry. His fans would be angry if Dimitri turned around and said "the Alliance started a fight with us and split off from us 300 years ago, starting a war against our people which killed thousands" and used that to justify warring with the Alliance, yes, his fans would be beyond pissed off... just like many Claude fans are very pissed off.

So yeah, there's an issue because it means at least some of the writers didn't do their job very well, and again, why Claude? He's plenty ambiguous, interesting and enjoyable as a character without killing. The fact is, he was interesting in Houses precisely because of his lack of motivation to kill. As it was, he was already perfectly interesting. His backstory, his behavior, his personality, his mannerisms, his goals, etc. All of it was interesting. He was the most peaceful person of the lords, yet he had a backstory that could've justified him growing up to becoming an angry, violent man. He didn't, and that was interesting.

Why does a character need to kill to be interesting? They don't. People like nuance. When you give us nuance and you take that away in a subsequent game, messing with something people already loved, they get aggravated.

Because yes, when you take something that people have grown to love and change it, people speak out. As it is, people already don't like things as simple as changing voice actors or live action actors because it changes something they already knew and loved. However, it's worse for people when you change something they love and make it the reverse of what they came to know that made them love the thing in question.

I also appreciate how Claude’s situation is complicated regarding his parents. Even abused children can still love their parents and it’s a very difficult situation. It’s a cycle of being abused then the parents will do something nice for the child, and that child believes they love them now and will be nice to them going forward. When that doesn’t happen, they remember the good things and try to tell themselves that their parents aren’t all bad and that there’s good in there. They love them for the nice things they do and tend to want more of it, so they stick around hoping to see that more.

Once Claude got old enough I’d imagine he probably realized it wasn’t normal and decided enough was enough. Even if he just wanted attention from his parents, I’m sure he could only take so much of what he went through between the assassinations and nobody really caring about him. Hilda was right to be shocked and horrified at what Claude went through, because that’s just... not normal. Also, if a child comes to believe they deserved the treatment, it’s because the parents made them think they deserved it and the child starts to accept it even if the punishment is reprehensible.

Even though Claude tends to brush this stuff off like it’s all in the past, it’s clearly affected him and his ability to trust people and form emotional connections. Like I said above, he remembers the good things fondly because it was the only positive attention he could get. He doesn’t fondly remember being punished and just speaks casually of it, but he shows no happiness for it. I’m sure Tiana does love him, but it also sounds like she either is afraid to go against her husband’s ways or just changed for the worse. Maybe the king does also love Claude, but it doesn’t excuse how terribly he treated him. Fact is, you’re only a child once and once you’re scarred from your childhood, you can’t just fix that.

Him not talking to his parents after leaving is a good step forward for him tbh. Cutting off contact regardless of how “sad” they might be is what you have to do in that situation. It’s like when toxic parents want their children to live with them to use them for selfish reasons, and they gaslight their kids so they can get what they want and be controlling. In that situation all you can really do is cut them out of your life. Of course, there’s always the whole giving them another chance in the future kind of thing, but if they continue acting like that then you cut them out permanently.

In Claude’s case I think he did the right thing to leave his father hanging like that, because boo hoo the king is so sad he can’t rule properly, but how do we not know that wasn’t intentional acting so that hopefully the information would reach Claude that he was acting like that? Maybe he could make Claude feel bad and come home... and the cycle would just continue. When parents act sad like that and “miss” their child despite having previously abused them in any form, it’s usually meant to manipulate the child’s emotions and make them come back. If your kids are trying to kill each other for whatever reason, how does that not make you more depressed than your most abused and bullied child running away from home and getting away from all that?

Personally I never found his stories about his life to be endearing. I found all of it to be depressing and upsetting. He may be older in the time of the game and know how to better manage that stuff, but it’s always worth noting that he was just a little boy when all this happened to him. Kids can get scared so easily and yet he acts like none of it actually really affected him, despite that any child being put through all that would traumatize them. All of that shows in his personality through his relationships and his inability to notice he’s pressing too hard on someone’s emotions until after it’s already done. He’s literally still in the learning process of how to understand other people’s emotions at the age of 18.

Having any fond memories of his abusers is exactly what a lot of abuse victims go through. I’m honestly shocked most of the fandom doesn’t look at his experiences as being legitimately terrible. His parents aren’t cool or badass. They’re terrible parents and not people who even deserve to call him their child. They certainly didn’t treat him like parents should treat their children. No child should be growing up in those circumstances.

The funny thing about the whole “bad parent” thing with Fodlan’s parents is that with Faerghus, they’re not only pretty decent parents, but then you get Matthias, who, well, more or less neglected his children (rather than abused them). Difference being, in Hopes he actually admits to knowing he was a bad father to Sylvain (and presumably Miklan who is still alive and well in that timeline as it’s GW he says this to Sylvain in). Then you have Lambert, who Rodrigue believes Dimitri losing would be horrible for Dimitri. Lambert decides that if he does die, he can safely leave Dimitri to Rodrigue. He had an idea, some sort of plan, if he were to die where his child would be safely in the care of someone who loved him. Rodrigue loved Glenn so much that he never stopped looking for answers about Duscur, coming across all kinds of valuable information about things that didn’t concern Glenn simply because he was distraught and had to know why his son had to die that day (and no, it wasn’t because he was a true knight. That was Rodrigue’s distressed way of coping. When he was in a better state of mind, he investigated the situation to get real answers. That’s the proof he wasn’t satisfied with the idea of leaving it at “Glenn was just doing his job”). Regarding Felix, Felix was the one who didn’t want to talk to Rodrigue, so Rodrigue backed off and let his son have space, but always looked out for him and tried to get closer to him. There was only so much he could do, but he did what little he could because he cared about Felix, even if Felix would walk away mad. Rodrigue just wanted his son in good hands.

That’s a pretty massive contrast to leaving your child vulnerable to assassins who are also partially your other children by not protecting him. Faerghus’ fathers would 110% absolutely have someone’s head for trying to harm their child, much less kill their child. No child deserves to have to fight their own battles, and no child deserves to have to rely on themselves to survive. Even with animals, you see the mother raise her young until they’re old enough to leave their home. Birds, cats, rabbits, you name it. They take care of their babies and keep them safe at home until they’re old enough to wander and get their own food and live outside of a confined area for their safety. It’s pretty much instinctual.

She definitely does look incapable in Hopes but I'm at least glad that they made results befitting that. For example, in SB she doesn't actually win the war at any point. She can't deal with the Alliance for one, so I'm not sure what made her think she'd be able to take on the Kingdom... but seeing as she couldn't do that either, it's another loss. Even though you fight against Rhea and Thales, she still doesn't actually defeat either of them.

In GW she not only loses to Claude but needs his army to help her (and again, still can't deal with the Kingdom), and basically leaves Claude to take care of the entire Church and not just Rhea. Mind you it's not like she lends him her personal aide like say, Claude does for Dimitri in two chapters of AG plus giving you several of his most trusted allies and helping Dimitri's army in the background. In fact, she also ends up needing to be legitimately saved by the weakest army in Fodlan.

Then in AG the whole Empire goes to shit because she, again for this route, attacks the western front (not sure why she was going after the most heavily defended area in the country in every route instead of looking for a weaker area to gain a foothold first?) with apparently (?) no regard for what Thales might be doing, so he gets a leg up on her and catches her off guard.

On one hand, the routes are definitely consistent with her, but on the other... I'm surprised they actually made her so outwardly incompetent. Then again, I kinda wonder if the point was also in part so that everyone else would come to save her or something, like how Dimitri defends her in AG when Thales shows up, or how Claude decides to save her because lelzies ig. Like, the game does kinda set it up where she's always in a bad position and in two routes could possibly die but has to be saved by her enemies. It makes it seem like everyone loves her, even her enemies, which is kinda dumb.

Not sure what they were trying to do there; if they were trying to make her seem oh so good by having everyone want to save her, or just making it a point to write her as just consistently unable to hold her own in her war.

On that note too, it's part of why attacking the Kingdom "worked" - because he didn't have any curiosity, thus no desire to learn about them. If he took the time to ask even a few questions, he could've solved a whole lot of misconceptions in just a few minutes. If he was interested in learning about Fodlan in Hopes, he would have wanted more information about the Kingdom before attacking. He wouldn't have just made assumptions about them/why they were helping Rhea/etc - not even White Clouds Claude would have been that one dimensional about it (that being, he hadn't been through his full year yet so he wouldn't have the same level of knowledge then either).

Claude running away from Almyra was probably both due to wanting to see Fodlan for himself and to get away from all the danger. Even for someone like him, there's only so much of that shit you can take before enough is enough. I don't mind whether his parents knew or not, though I find it odd for Nader to have said Claude was "the favorite child". In Houses Claude just kind of seemed to see his parents as a "that's the way it goes" kind of thing with their "tough love", but if Claude was "the favorite child", I'm not sure why he was constantly in so much danger. You'd think the king himself would have put a stop to it and threatened to do something to Claude's attackers, like, I don't know, threaten to execute anyone who dared to attempt to assassinate a literal prince. Regarding the other siblings, if they were so far gone that they were attempting to kill their own half sibling regardless of what their parent(s) said, I can't imagine his father was really all that close to Claude? If Claude was in as much danger as he implies in Houses, then it doesn't sound like daddy dearest did much to make sure he was always safe. It feels like he did some things, but just... not enough? I mean if my kid was in danger like that I'd be doing a lot more to make sure they weren't going to be killed. His dad loved him oh so much, yet he still ran away. He didn't just go to Fodlan - he didn't plan to go live with his grandfather for a while and send letters in his absence with everything being hunky dory. He ran away.

The opportunistic takes from some people are one my biggest NOPEs. Claude is an opportunist, but not to the point of siding with an enemy he was, canonically stated as (thank you Rodrigue dearest xoxo hugs kisses smoochies you always have the tea for all occasions) firmly against the Empire. In no route in Houses does he ever side with Edelgard. He says he doesn't want to kill her, but he'll do it if she won't stop fighting. Also, he explicitly said right to her face that because of her his long held ambitions were nearly ruined. That's not... something you say to someone you wanna side with in a war. A lot of people, including the writers, seem to believe that you have to pick a side: either Rhea or Edelgard. There's literally no "neither" option in either game. In Houses though, Dimitri and Claude both side with Rhea, or to be more exact, the Church under Seteth's command (i.e. not explicitly Rhea, but they were allying together as two losing sides). In Hopes, instead of letting Claude not pick a side since he didn't like Rhea, they just... forced him to side with Edelgard because ???

Also, I think it's important to consider that in Houses, Claude always sides with whoever is opposing Edelgard. In VW, he allies with Seteth and the Church and wants to side with the Kingdom, but because Dimitri dies in VW that didn't happen. In AM and VW both, Claude wanted to ally with the Kingdom before Gronder happened, which is clear when he says the Kingdom doesn't look like they're interested in joining forces. He went into that battle hoping they would want to (and he probably planned for it in AM seeing as he had previously sent an agreement to do so, thanks Rodrigue for the tea AGAIN bc you can't rely on anyone around here except Tea Spiller for vital information and happenings!!!). In other words, under no circumstances did he accept what the Empire was doing... and he could've surrendered to the Empire at any time in any route, but in CF he only does so once he's defeated and has his life spared, meaning he literally fought to his almost death and only didn't die because you/Byleth decided to spare him. In the event you don't spare him, he fights against the Empire even if it kills him. He is literally willing to die fighting them.

Claude doesn't like Rhea in VW and that's the extent of it by the end of the game, tops. At one point or two he thought about what if she did die, sure, but that doesn't equate to him wanting to personally kill her. His thinking is more along the lines of “well it’d be a shame if she died /s” and not “we should go kill her”. He located her whereabouts because he understood by then (whether it’s VW or AM) that regardless of his personal feelings about her, most of Fodlan either needed her or cared about her.

Attacking the Kingdom is bad enough, but seeing him justify it with “well they started it 300 years ago lolz” was such bullshit to me. Like, no, legit, if anyone told me we were going to war because whoever was in power 300 years ago sucked and “they started it”, I’d tell them they’re fucking stupid and should not be someone holding a weapon. That was the most brain dead thing Claude has ever said between both games. Not only was it completely against his character, but it was literally the most bogus reason to go to war with anyone ever. “Hey, you know those guys from 300 years ago who are so long dead that they didn’t even know in their lifetime that we’d exist one day? Yeah? Those people who are literally ancient history and have no say in our lives? We’re gonna go to war because long dead people from Leicester didn’t like some long dead people from the Kingdom and, you know, I really think the citizens of the Kingdom who are living now in the present should pay for that. We should go invade their home because we have to hold them accountable for what was out of their not-born-yet control from 300 years ago!””

I really cannot believe Claude pulled the “well they did it first!” card as if someone they knew personally or someone with a high position in the Kingdom living right then drew first blood. There would not be a single person alive in the Kingdom who had anything to do with any of that from back then, and here Claude is justifying his war with... that. It’s literally stupid to begin with, but to put those words in Claude’s mouth of all people is an insult to his entire existence, honestly. The whole Faerghus and Sreng thing was definitely a big side eye for me considering he’s from Almyra.

The Byleth excuse is just dumb to me because Claude doesn’t need Byleth. He’s the same person in every route of Houses. It’s also noteworthy that Claude gave Failnaught specifically to Dimitri, not Byleth. All the other characters give their relics to Byleth to “hold onto” (game mechanics and shit), but Claude doesn’t give Byleth Failnaught thinking it’s Byleth who is going to end the war, and it’s not Byleth he called on for help when the Alliance needed the Kingdom. In CF if he survives he just says hi and bye to Byleth and leaves, with no “wow I sure hope we can bring our nations closer together after the war”. He didn’t ask for Byleth’s help in CF. It never had anything to do with Byleth specifically that he was who he was. In fact, if nothing else he really only saw Byleth as a means to an end for a while and even wanted to use the Sword of the Creator. Byleth was a tool for him for at least half of WC, and he even sometimes in VW doesn’t really think about Byleth’s feelings? Fuck ‘em, he wants to read Jeralt’s diary. Byleth is worried about Rhea so they should hurry and find her? Fuck that, he just wants answers from Rhea. They became friends, yes, but his entire existence does not revolve around Byleth and I see so many Claude fans hellbent on insisting things that basically equate to “he’s only a good person because of Byleth”. No, he has an entire character outside of Byleth and I’d appreciate it if people stopped reducing him to eye candy for their self insert version of Byleth. :)

If Claude is actually seriously the favorite child, it doesn't surprise me that the other siblings were trying to kill him, because I mean... if he did those things to Claude, which were practically torture (and shocked Hilda when Claude brought them up to her), I can only imagine how badly he treated his other children. It makes sense that his father would be more hands off as an Almyran, since they seem to appreciate strength and want their people to grow up being the strongest they can be, but there should really be a line with that where he gets involved, such as, you know, his child being targeted for assassination. Repeatedly. Regularly.

I can only imagine Claude grew up bratty because his parents were so hands off. They obviously didn't teach him all that much, weren't there for him that often, and he probably sought attention from them. It's honestly really sad to think about, that he was always trying to survive and knew his parents didn't want him to die and were the only people who truly loved him, but even those people wouldn't really pay attention to him the way a child of that age would desire. Children are often bratty and misbehave when they seek attention, even if it's negative attention. Even if it was basically torture, Claude probably just wanted his parents to pay attention to him.

It's not to say that he's definitely not the favorite, because he could still be... but to me that just reeks of terrible parenting. For all the bullshit people say about Faerghus' parents, they're much more loving toward their children than Claude's parents, and one of his parents is from Fodlan on top of that. Gilbert may have left his family, but it was out of shame as a knight and he didn't believe he deserved them. It was never out of disdain for them, to the point he wrote loads of letters to them that he never sent, and always made dolls out of habit because he used to do that for Annette when she was a little girl. Even post timeskip, he still makes dolls out of habit and even gave her one. To me, that isn't bad parenting. That's love for his child, even if he thinks he doesn't deserve her. Claude's parents? They probably didn't ever make him anything by hand! That's depressing to think about.

Based on Claude's supports with Byleth, Hilda and Marianne, it honestly sounds like he holds some kind of lowkey resentment for his parents' treatment of him. While I wouldn't say he outright hates his parents, I can only imagine that after coming to Fodlan and seeing the parents there that he felt pretty awful about how he was raised. Like, sure, he probably doesn't feel too fond of Erwin... but he also probably saw the bond between Erwin and Lorenz and how Erwin was planning to proudly pass his inheritance to Lorenz. He also met Lysithea, who is very close to her parents and even plans to renounce her nobility to live a happy, quiet life with them when the war is over. After losing all her siblings, she and her parents are very tight knit and just want to live together in peace.

Tbh if this was a real life situation, it'd be pretty horrifying to hear about. Just the idea that the only attention Claude could really get from his parents was punishment is just pretty gross. :/ Like, they won't give him the time of day so he acts up, and because he acted up because they won't pay attention to him, he gets punished for his actions that are likely based on them not being good parents.

My sister used to work at daycares and I can tell you with certainty from her stories that most children who act up are doing it because they don't get enough love and attention at home. First of all, they're at daycare, so they spend a good chunk of five days a week without their family with a bunch of strangers as a very young child. Some parents do have legitimate need of daycare, but my sister has also expressed that several times, she's seen parents who show up late to pick their kid(s) up and that those parents seem to also be the ones who don't show much interest in their kids and would probably drop them off on weekends too if they could. Unsurprisingly? Those are most often the kids who act up during the day.

Unfortunately this really sounds like the same thing Claude experienced. What little attention he could get was horrible, but he was so desperate for it that he did whatever he knew would get a reaction.

Also it's worth noting how different Dimitri and Claude's situations were with similar experiences. Dimitri mentions things like training in the mountains, and in Hopes he even mentions training underwater with full armor and seems to not want to talk about it (implying he doesn't like the memories associated with that training and that it still bothers him). Overall his training sounds harsh to begin with, forget knowing that it was done in a snowy land that was very cold, and sometimes extremely freezing in the winter. It wasn't always Lambert who sent him out on that kind of training, and other people such as Gilbert were allowed to put him through harsh training like that, but generally the reason Lambert would've allowed that is because it's just commonplace training in Faerghus.

In other words, Faerghus is used to harsh training and it's a part of their lifestyle. They go through similar things Claude went through, just in a snowy and cold land, but it's never done out of hatred for the people who get put through that training. It's very unfortunate that children in Faerghus go through that, but it's expected that they'll need to learn to survive the harshest conditions - especially nobility who may need to one day fight to defend their home in such harsh conditions. It's very sucky training, but it's understandable why they do it and it's not just a punishment. I'm sure they have similar punishments, but it's not specifically done as such. Since it's something most if not all the nobility goes through, it was never done to Dimitri as a punishment by Lambert.

Then you have Claude, who is going through this shit as a punishment and not even for training, as a child. It wasn't because he needed to be trained and ready for the harsh climate. It wasn't because he was a noble/royal who needed to be ready for the absolute worst potential of the climate. It wasn't done to make him strong. It was specifically done to punish his "bratty" behavior, which again... was almost definitely because he just wanted mom and dad to pick him up and tell him they loved him and maybe personally cook him his favorite dinner.

I know Hopes tried to be all like lolzies about the King of Almyra being half asleep when he signed the agreement, but I can't help really wanting to not like him. Tiana, too, has a fair share of responsibility for not stopping the treatment and/or engaging in it. For being from Fodlan, it doesn't sound like she ever behaved anything like any of Fodlan's parents. Again, even if some of the Fodlan parents are a bit misguided, most of them do love their child(ren). Even if they suck at showing it, there's no attempt at cruel punishments. Even if they're not a stand up person, they still love their child(ren).

For example, Ludwig is one of the worst leaders in Fodlan, but Ferdinand loves him. He idolized his father when he was growing up, and even though he knew the kind of man his father became as a leader, he was still very upset when his father was killed in Houses in Ferdinand's paralogue. Regardless of how awful Ludwig could be, as far as being a father was concerned, he was obviously a pretty decent parent to Ferdinand, because otherwise Ferdinand wouldn't have given a fuck that his cruel father was killed. Ferdinand knew he deserved it and was still upset by the loss, so obviously there was a familial connection there.

On the other hand, the only person who seems completely disconnected from his parents in every way is Claude. Ashe had an adoptive father who was wiling to kill him for his revenge for his biological son, and yet... we do know that previously he'd been a good father and man to Ashe and Ashe's siblings. We know Ashe adored and idolized him. There was still something there. Claude? His parents are still alive, he was the favorite child, they tried to "help" him survive by letting him fight his own battles... and he ran away. Without a word to his father who "favored" him. I'm not sure if Nader actually knew where he was at first or if he contacted him after the fact, but Nader was far more of a parent figure to Claude than either of his actual parents were.

Judith was close to Tiana and it seems like Claude at some point told his mother where he was going so that she could vouch for his identity and get him Judith's support, but I don't feel like he would've told her immediately before he actually left Almyra. I feel like he would've run away first, contacted her after and gave some indication for proof that it was actually him, and got her support in taking over for Riegan territory. Still though, the king didn't have any idea where he went, so whatever he told his mother, she also kept it a secret from the king.

While I don't feel like Tiana is anywhere near as bad as the king and while I do think she loved Claude to at least some degree, she definitely isn't good at parenting and probably didn't want to go against Almyran culture. Really though if that were me I would've taken my child and gone back to Fodlan if I saw the kid's father treating him like that. o.o

Still though, the king was a terrible parent and for being the favorite child, it doesn't even feel like the man loved his kid. If that is how he handled Claude, I can only guess how he treated his other kids if he even paid attention to them in the smallest fraction. Like, you ever wonder why Shahid ended up so terrible? Probably not hard to figure out lol. Dad sucks and mom probably wasn't much better if she liked that man enough to have a kid with him.

uh oh it got beeg

Things from the game itself:

I like that they hang out together sometimes (in the main story and in the DLC), when the lords don’t usually hang out together in their free time. Out of all the combinations of them, only Dimitri and Claude hang out together (with a story based exception during the DLC with Dimitri and Edelgard that never gets touched upon again even though it’s actually important and story relevant). There’s also the implication that they train/spar together in GD, with Dimitri saying “as ever” he has proven to be no match for Claude. During the “going to GM cutscene”, they’re walking together and talking together (a theme that Nintendo uses in their official art in almost every official of the three lords lmao).

Claude’s crest symbol is a moon, and Dimitri’s route is called Azure Moon (which is also coincidentally the only route they’re able to ally in because Dimitri dies in VW)

They’re a package deal in the game and in official art from Nintendo! Cipher promotions? Both of them got plastered on it together. The 2019 happy holidays artwork? Sitting down together while Edelgard is standing up (with Dimitri ??? staring at Claude with this oddly happy and dreamy look??? hey, Nintendo???). the artwork of Edelgard turning around while the lords are walking, but she’s behind the other two who are both walking together and talking? And... so on.

Another instance of “damn, how much time do you actually spend together where we aren’t aware of it” is Dimitri referring to Claude as his “friend” in the DLC to Aelfric. That point of the game is still very early on, but Dimitri doesn’t just toss the word “friend” around with everyone. He uses other terms like acquaintance, companion/companionship, etc. Rather than use any similar words for Claude, he just outright uses “friend”, and he doesn’t use that term unless he really believes it.

In the game itself, the start of it is Edelgard almost being killed and Byleth protects her, but with the other two nowhere to be seen for... some reason. When Edelgard is safe, suddenly they both come running up together and smile at each other like “lol sorry we got distracted by each other’s beauty but hey glad you’re both safe uwu”. Listen, it’s a tiny thing but WHEN IT ADDS up...!

Very cute moment for me when, if you’re playing GD, Dimitri takes a keen interest in Claude’s “schemes”. Most people consider his supposed schemes to be a bad thing and dread it openly. Dimitri is just out here like ooo tell me more, I wanna know! 

During the mock battle, Claude tries to tease him and fails miserably. By the time of the actual Battle of the Eagle and Lion (and Deer, wah wah), Dimitri is used to Claude’s teasing and jokes with him! Instead of a deadpan response where he just doesn’t know Claude well enough to know how he behaves, this time Dimitri is used to him and responds to him with a more “lol okay Claude” vibe. It’s much more apparent in the JP dialogue that he’s aware Claude is teasing/joking, but he goes along with it.

There’s a bit more of a rivalry between Dimitri and Edelgard, oddly. Even this early, he’s seeing her as more of an adversary (maybe to foreshadow, since the BotEaL had a boatload of foreshadowing) and seeing it as a more serious competition. With Claude, he’s much more relaxed and seeing their battle as more of a test of skill and mutual gain to learn from. He says he will “happily” battle Claude and urges him not to hold back. In contrast, he tells Edelgard that the thought of fighting her is “troubling at best” and is bothered by her “joke” (Claude jokes with him too and he’s much more receptive. Edelgard’s “joking” was more foreshadowing, but he doesn’t take well to it and that same joke/response happens again after the battle too). The direction of both conversations is the polar opposite, and he doesn’t feel at ease when fighting her.

Following that, his relationship with Edelgard is tense, and it’s a huge contrast to how he feels around Claude. That is, notably, whenever him and Edelgard interact there’s a wall between them (such as when she’s walking by with Manuela, going to their mission, and her and Dimitri have a misunderstanding that ends in a tense ending to their conversation) Due to their circumstances, their relationship is pretty rocky even during the first half of the game in BL. Throughout the first half of the game, this aspect of their relationship is static (until of course he finds out her identity as the Flame Emperor and it just goes downhill from there). Then we have him and Claude, where starting at the mock battle, Dimtiri misses Claude’s silly behavior and is more serious about the battle as mentioned before. Over time though he’s obviously learned what Claude is like, and during the official battle you can clearly see a difference in Dimtiri’s overall attitude when he hears Claude joke with him. This time he knows what to expect and is receptive to Claude’s behavior, going along with it and being glad to have this battle with him. His demeanor toward Edelgard, however, doesn’t change at all. He still doesn’t like the idea of fighting her seriously, nor takes well to her “jokes” and  yet seems to see her as more of an adversary to overcome. Around Claude, Dimtiri has more friendly vibes in both their routes and is pretty open to learning about Claude and talking to him casually.

Kind of a small instance but with a little more meaning to me?: them fighting side by side at Garreg Mach when the Empire invades. Dimitri was in his Very Nutty state, and even more so if you’re playing BL. He’s so out of it that Dedue has to direct everyone in his place. Due to the BLs knowing what he’s going through, you’d think at least one of them would be keeping an eye on him during the battle. Instead, it’s Claude he’s fighting alongside! Dimitri was very expressive about wanting to be the one to reach Edelgard in that battle, but the cutscene shows him with Claude, rather than rushing for Edelgard.

Gronder! Even though Dimitri gives out his famous, stolen-from-Miklan-because-Miklan-said-it-first-and-apparently-inspired-Dimitri-to-use-it-later-in-life line, “kill every last one of them”, his actual dialogue with Claude is very different from that (on both routes). All he says is that he wants Claude to move and has no time to talk. If he meant it that he really wanted to kill people from the Alliance or didn’t care about Claude as a person, he would have tried to run him down for getting in his way. Claude even said he wouldn’t budge, which normally would prompt Dimtiri at that point to attack him and kill him to get him out of the way. In AM Claude retreats when defeated, but Dimitri lets him escape and doesn’t mind at all that he’s fleeing. Because of that you can specifically clarify that Dimitri doesn’t think of him as an enemy, because he chases enemies down and kills them at that point (remember all those dead soldiers we were hearing about early into the timeskip?). When Edelgard tries to escape, Dimitri doesn’t just let her go without attempting to follow her. This clarifies that he sees her as an enemy, because again, he’ll chase down anyone considers his enemy. When Claude left, even though he can intentionally stand in Dimitri’s way, Dimitri won’t kill him even though he probably could.

When Claude requests aid, he doesn’t ask for Byleth’s help. He doesn’t ask for Seteth or the Church’s help (which is working with Byleth/the Kingdom and the direct enemies of the Empire). He asks for the Kingdom’s aid. This Dimitri centric view continues through all of chapter 19, with him specifically believing in Dimitri and his mentality.

Hurray Failnaught! Normally characters give their Relics to Byleth (for game mechanic/convoy purposes), but Claude gives him specifically to Dimitri. Since he plans to leave Fodlan and return to Almyra where they don’t fight with these weapons, he likely feels he has no reason to bring it with him. Instead, he leaves it with someone he trusts both with his family heirloom and Fodlan itself. Claude doesn’t trust easily, but he had faith that Dimitri would finish the war and restore Claude’s second home.

In the same chapter, Claude... somehow knows a LOT about Dimitri. Obviously he learned everything offscreen and we don’t know how or why, but not only does he know that Dimitri can still be reasoned with (Teach will talk and he’ll listen), suggesting that he’s aware that the person Dimitri was is not gone despite the meeting they had in Gronder, but during the “here have my family heirloom” scene, he tells Dimitri that the dead cling to them without regard for their own/the living’s lives. During the Academy phase we don’t have any indication that he knows what’s going on with Dimitri... but then, I recall them fighting side by side during the invasion of the monastery, so perhaps Claude started to put the pieces together if he was able to see the state Dimitri was in. Canon? Not necessarily, but it’s something I consider when I want to answer why Claude knows this stuff about Dimitri when Dimitri didn’t tell him about it.

Yes, Teach will talk and he’ll listen, but by then Dimitri had already  made the decision to help the Alliance- er, well, Claude. The Alliance itself? Hm. Claude? Yes, let’s go help Claude-- er, the Alliance, he means! The Alliance! But... but also Claude! Okay, I’m kind of joking. Kind of. A lil bit. By which I mean, Dimitri is very vocal about saving Claude more than he is the Alliance. Leave the latter part to Lorenz, I guess. It’ll make him happy and that would make me happy!

So, on the topic of him already making the decision to go aid Claude, not only was Claude correct, but Dimitri literally went to begin their march to the Alliance the next day after they recaptured their own capital. They celebrated and then the very next day he’s like “uh yeah sorry for this guys, but Claude wants our help so we’re leaving. Now. Pack your things. If you’re not ready in ten I’m leaving without you. Claude needs help.” I’M JOKING. Mostly. A lil bit.

They reach the battle destination and Dimitri is uh, very specific that “they will not let Claude die”. He only recently came out of his nommy nom, chewy enemies state, and he’s already over here like hell nah we ain’t lettin’ Claude die. I didn’t spare him at Gronder for nothin’. Let’s go, let’s go!

Claude, who he doesn’t know nearly as well as the BLs, “crosses too many dangerous bridges for his liking”. For sure, Claude does some risky things, but he’s not someone who is within Dimitri’s immediate friend group. All the same, Dimitri worries about him (a lot in this chapter, too) and expresses that he doesn’t like Claude taking these kind of risks (that could endanger his life).

“This must be one of your jokes”. Not sure Claude was ever really one to often make jokes that we know of? The way it’s phrased, “one of your jokes”, sounds like more of an inside thing? As in, “I know you well enough to know you behave like this”, kind of thing. Doesn’t sound like much, until I start adding up all the times they’re together/talking to each other. For reference, times such as ones I’ve mentioned in this post (walking to GM with Byleth between them and Edelgard, if you’re playing GW Dimitri implies he’s sparred with Claude and uses “as ever” as if to say it happens often enough that it’s a familiar result, them hanging out during their free time after the mock battle, them fighting side by side during the invasion of GM even though Dimitri insisted he was going to basically rush the battle and ker-slice Edelgard’s head off and show up at Enbarr with it in hand...) Suddenly it doesn’t seem so odd that they might know each other a little bit more than the story that we get to see lets on. Even if it was small talk, enough of that and enough sparring/fighting alongside each other would add up enough for them to start learning things about each other.

Kudos to Dimitri for being the only person in the game that gets a pet name from Claude. Teach is just a casual way of saying “professor”, and “princess” is literally what Edelgard is. Princeliness is... Quite A Title I Guess. “Princess” is dropped and Claude refers to Edelgard as just Edelgard in the timeskip, but Dimtiri gets a nickname update! Now he’s “Kingliness” instead!

Some Hopes ones (I shipped them way  before Hopes was a thing but these made me happy!):

Background similarities! In Hopes if you play AG, they talk very early on (before the timeskip) about Dimitri’s life after the Tragedy. To sum it up, he was being targeted by his own family with murder attempts and he was very isolated (one NPC describes it as nearly being like house arrest with how isolated he was). Even if you don’t consider Hopes to be too much canon with its character background lore, the isolation part checks because in Houses, Dimitri says he didn’t have any friends left after the Tragedy. He only had Dedue for companionship after that in the castle itself, unable to see his other friends as often due to them living in different territories.

Another similarity from Your Hopes Truly is Dimitri being paranoid on expeditions. As he puts it, he “can't help but peer over his shoulder lest an assassin lodges his blade in his back”. He’s literally paranoid of assassins... a lot like how Claude sleeps with a knife under his pillow. :’( They both worry a lot about having to be vigilant because they could die at any time. Even though Edelgard is also royalty, her trauma expresses itself differently and she doesn’t worry about assassins as outwardly (possible also because she has Hubert around, who would be more likely to catch assassins lurking around than the people around Dimitri and Claude). I’m sure she knows people will be after her because she’s royalty, but she doesn’t worry about it in the same way.

This one is more recent and Hopes based, but in AG the game decides to be Big Dumb and is like “nobody in the BL house trusts Claude... for some... reason...” but Dimitri is gung ho adamant that they can trust Claude. His portrait even switches to his smiling portrait! “I’ve never known him to be a liar” despite how little time they had together at the Academy in this game is a big amount of trust imo.

On the same note, AG is like a mirror of AM’s chapter 19! Claude trusts Dimitri and that he will show up to help. In AG, they need the Alliance’s help and Dimitri trusts Claude to show up without question. When the Alliance shows up and Claude isn’t there, he wonders where Claude is, and when Claude does show up being the smart little sneaky not-literal-bastard-because-he’s-actually-a-legitimate-child bastard he is, Dimitri is like :D I knew you would come no matter what. This man literally implicitly trusts Claude. Sounds like someone had a crush when they were younger... Now his crush is helping them and he’s all bubbly and excited inside... uwu... uwu... UWU...

More Hopes stuff despite the bad writing moments. In SB, Claude confronts Edelgard because they were so focused on locating Rhea that they didn’t even consider Dimitri’s motivations for being part of that battle. His portrait is even his upset portrait for them “not even sparing a thought for Dimitri’s motivations”, in his exact words. He’s not all too happy that they were so determined by their goal that they didn’t consider Dimitri, specifically.

Similarly, if you get the Arval chapter, Dimtiri worries for Claude’s safety if Claude tries to take the Church out of power. Despite that Dimitri lists off reasons why That’s A Really Fucking Bad Idea, he also includes that he doesn’t want Claude to be in danger, and their discussion ultimately ends with Claude saying “you really are too good for me!”. Claude, that’s sus.

Not game specific, but motivated by the contents of the game:

Claude is a very casual person, and Dimtiri wants that in his relationships (of any kind). Actually, he repeatedly asks people to be casual with him and doesn’t want to be treated like a prince. In no way does Claude treat him like a prince and just treats him exactly the way Dimtiri would prefer, without even having to be asked to do so. This is part of what makes me wonder if the reason Dimitri is so receptive to Claude and why they bounce so well off each other’s personalities, despite seeming so different in demeanor, is because Dimitri experiences those kind of informal exchanges with him that most others won’t grant him.

More often than not, even in GD, Claude expresses being an outsider. That means that even though the people around him are mostly/generally pretty chill with him (i.e. his GD classmates just treat him like another classmate and not the foreigner in the class), he still doesn’t feel totally accepted there. Likely, it’s the little things he picks up about them, such as Hilda’s negative comments about Almyra. They’re pretty chill together, but he’s Almyran, and royalty at that, yet she doesn’t know that. For him, that could be like, okay so she’s one of the people I proooobably should definitely not tell my identity to, like, ever. I’m not saying Hilda specifically is the only person he would have to be wary of, but the problem is still there.

On the other hand, Dimitri... literally does not give a fuck who is a foreigner and who is not. More than anyone else besides, equally, Claude, he pushes to have people from other lands seen as equals to those in Fodlan and wants them to be just as accepted.

Also, Claude’s post timeskip advice box:

What did these two do, share notes? Pass notes in class? Skip class and hang out in the bathroom while they skipped?

To be specific, Dimitri highlights all aspects that Claude guns for too. He hates that he’s been hated all his life for his lineage and never saw it as fair. Dimitri wouldn’t see that as fair either. Claude doesn’t think his lineage or bloodline matters when it comes to being accepted and what relationships he has. That’s also Dimitri’s line of thinking when he insists he doesn’t want to be treated as a prince. He just wants normal relationships. This also applies to Crests, where in which he doesn’t believe having or not having one should decide a person’s, well, anything.

Being two races, Claude has struggled to feel accepted on either side. Meanwhile, Dedue has struggled a lot to get by in Garreg Mach because of the prejudice against Duscur’s people. Even if some of the people of Duscur did do what everyone accused them of, they’re dragging those accusations well beyond that and treating Dedue as if he had anything to do with it. In Dimitri’s B support with Dedue, he makes it extremely clear to his own soldiers that he’ll have nothing to do with that behavior. He sees Dedue as another human being, as he would anyone else. Even though most characters don’t care what race someone is, most of them don’t actively try to fight for justice for other races of people being mistreated in Fodlan. Dimitri is one of the only people who will walk up to someone and tell them to fuck off for being racist, and mind you, if this wasn’t a T rated game and more explicit curse words were allowed to be used, I am quite positive Dimitri would quite literally tell those people to fuck off. He acts all upstanding and polite, but he’d also curse at someone who deserves it and is definitely angry enough to be a semi-big curser lol.

Both of them discuss faith with Byleth, too. While Claude doesn’t like the idea of praying to gods and often talks about how he isn’t in with the whole Sothis religion, Dimitri says the same thing, basically. In his Goddess Tower conversation, he expresses his feelings about “the goddess”, and it pretty much equals that he couldn’t give a flying fuck about her because she doesn’t help those in need despite supposedly watching over their land. He feels that she’ll watch and do nothing to help, not even reach out a hand to people who need her. Dimitri firmly does not believe in the religion that Fodlan follows, even despite literally being the crown prince of a nation that was legitimatized by Rhea herself. Neither of them care about Fodlan’s religion personally, but they both accept people who do and don’t badmouth her in front of devout followers. For example, Claude talks to Ignatz about the goddess and jokes with him. He doesn’t try to tell Ignatz he’s wrong for being faithful to a goddess that Claude himself doesn’t believe in. Dimitri doesn’t care about the Seiros faith at all, but he’s very friendly with Seteth and on great terms with him (especially in Hopes! They’re very close in AG!). Even if Seteth personally is not very devout (which is actually the truth), he’s still Rhea’s second in command. You also have people like Mercedes, who are extremely if not almost excessively devout, but Dimitri never puts her down for that. That’s how Claude is with Ignatz, and Ignatz is very devout. Basically, both Dimitri and Claude hate the idea of believing in the goddess of Fodlan, but they never judge someone who does believe in that very goddess. In fact, after Duscur, I’m sure Dimitri felt he could never forgive the goddess for not saving his father, Glenn and all the others who died there. Even if she wasn’t from a goddess of Duscur, she didn’t even attempt to save Fodlan’s people, at the very very least. It’s not a surprise in that sense that Dimitri isn’t devout.

In the case of ideologies, both of them even use the exact same word here. No matter what someone believes or thinks should happen, no matter how people think lands should be managed, neither of them feel like that’s cause to judge someone. They both feel that people can have different ways of thinking no matter how vast those ways of thinking might be, and still get along just fine.

This basically sums up both of what they want tbh, and it’s something they both strive for as early as the first half of the game.

Other aspects I love:

Other than that, I like to think about their personalities too! They’ve been through a lot of the same things and have a lot of the same feelings, so I think they would understand really well how to help each other. While Claude doesn’t think he deserves the treatment he gets, Dimitri tends to think he deserves all sorts of bad things. I feel like Claude could teach Dimitri to care about himself more and to stop thinking so poorly about himself. For Claude, I think he’d have “might get killed at any moment” ingrained into him, but I think he’d feel safe around Dimitri but also accepted and loved. Dimtiri is extremely straightforward and honest, and I think Claude would know for a fact that he can trust that Dimitri is honest about his feelings. He wouldn’t have to question if Dimitri actually loves him and if he secretly hates that he’s half Almyran. Because of how Dimitri has always been, I don’t think he’d actually worry about that and any worry that might nag him in passing he’d be able to tell himself is only a paranoid habit.

Also, Almyra loves strength! Pretty sure if Claude walked back into Almyra with a 6′2 superhuman-strength Blaiddyd on his arm that Almyra would be, to say the least, impressed lol. Not only would Dimitri be on par with their strongest generals, but if he got the attention of royalty, regardless of their feelings on that royalty, I think they’d have to take notice. I have headcanons about how the Almyran children would love learning from Dimitri and eventually run around pretending to be as strong as him when he starts helping them train. 🥺 Most of the adults wouldn’t like Dimitri at first because he’s from Fodlan, and even more than that a royal form Fodlan, but I think they’d come around after seeing how much the kiddos respect him and how kind he is to them. Even if they were meh about him being with Claude, I think they would start to respect Dimitri as an individual and not only appreciate when he’s around, but enjoy having him there for competitions, because Dimitri also loves being competitive and training.

You also get the silly opposites aspect with their homelands! Claude would be freezing in Faerghus, especially Fhirdiad. You know he’d be stealing all the blankets and be a Claude burrito by morning. Dimitri would have to accommodate him with lots of warm clothes because poor Claude would be shivering in full armor! It gives lots of room for cuddles and snuggies tho!!! !!! !!! 6′2 warm man and lots of blankets means lots of warmth and comfy sleep zzzzz...

Then you have Dimitri in Almyra and he hates hot weather (specifically, hates, so he says in an advice box letter). Claude would have to tend to him to keep him cool, sure, but I think Dimitri would whine a lot about the heat and I think it’d be rly cute and I think Claude would also think so. He’d have to bring Dimitri to the sea to let him stay in the water for a while, and then struggle to get him out of the water.

Something else I like to consider is how Dimitri would probably love to learn Almyran since he’s bilingual as it is, and I feel like he’d love to learn their culture and whatnot as well. Like I said, he’s really big on people from different places mingling, and he’s been trying really hard to get Duscur to be seen as an intendent land again. In Hopes, he’s trying to fix relations with Sreng (which Claude even considers Sreng in VW when mentioning his dream in full toward the end of the game). Getting to learn about Almyra would be something I feel that Dimitri would love experiencing.

Personality wise Dimitri’s a lot more on the formal speaking side, but they can absolutely both joke and be little shits! I’d love to see them banter with each other because they both have it in them. In fact, I think it would lead to lots of laughs and silly times and I think after everything, they both really need that!

tap tap am i missing something am i missing anything from this fic-sized essay tap tap my cat was staring at me for at least 50% perfect of this. i mean, straight up just staring and watching me from my bed and i just think that’s something i should share

OH YEAH I also love the interracial aspect because it really drives home their desire about race and everyone getting along. 🥰

During the timeskip and for a while post timeskip, Dimitri is completely closed off and stopped behaving like a normal human. He reached the point where he decided it wasn’t worth it and that he only needed to focus on revenge. Like Gilbert said, he was left alone too long with just himself and his guilt. Eventually the voices he hears drove him into so much guilt that he couldn’t handle it without killing the people who killed his family and the people from Duscur. After going through so much, he just snapped.

Similarly, Rhea had things happen to her just because. Just because she existed and wasn’t the same race as the Agarthans. Just because she existed and had been a child of Sothis’. Once the battle against Nemesis was over, she rewrote history, but it was at the detriment to herself, her family and other dragons. Nemesis was labeled a hero (meaning Edelgard believes the false history Rhea decided to put out into the world) and she left out the fact that the Relics are the bones of her siblings. When she was able to rule and had influence over people, she was quick to eliminate potential threats (ex. the Western Church). She reacts out of fear, similarly to Claude worrying after his own life because he knows if his heritage gets out, people will target him. Rhea, in the same vein, would be targeted if people knew her identity and hated for her race. With not many dragons still alive, she wanted to keep the last few innocent dragons left safe, and to do that she was willing to do shady things to prevent more tragedy.

People don’t like Rhea so they don’t compare her to the other lords or want to recognize that she’s very similar to them. Her story is a mash of Dimitri and Claude’s, effectively. It’s just a bit less in the forefront because she’s not a main lord. SS is “her” route (really more Byleth and Seteth’s route, but you know), and Dimitri’s ghost shows up to explain his feelings and regret to Byleth (Byleth specifically, who has a deep connection to Rhea).

In VW, Claude defeats Nemesis just like she once did, basically clearing Fodlan of her lie that Nemesis was a hero and in a sense, freeing the dragons from the forced lie she had to tell for the dragons’ safety. If Byleth and Claude have leadership over the new world that Claude was making, the dragons would no longer be outsiders and wouldn’t have to fear for their lives, even if the truth got out (especially because Claude understands what it’s like to be different and thus targeted).

In AM, Rhea retreats to Zanado and leaves Fodlan in Dimitri’s hands. Byleth only controls the Church, ultimately. If Rhea thought Dimitri’s rule would bring problems about, she wouldn’t have just left and lived quietly. Rhea was kind of like the guide for Fodlan to most of its people, and Dimitri strongly believes that a king is a guide for his people, not someone who is specifically meant to rule and have all the say. He believes the people are the future and should be protected, so his role is to be a guide for them to find the future they’re looking for. Rhea acted in a similar way, but her leadership was different because of her fear.

The only chance you have for Rhea to rule the same way as Dimitri is by S supporting her in SS, i.e. she reaches the conclusion of her story the same way Dimitri does in his own route (as otherwise she dies so the full, proper conclusion of her story changes slightly. She either dies in redemption or steps down and lets Byleth rule while ruling on the side with Byleth but in presumably a new way).