#dimileth ask

The next few months

Mitya and Edie: 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

Claude: she's great but I wouldn't like do anything for her

Post timeskip

Mitya and Edie: my feelings don't matter you're my enemy now

Claude, the weird uncle: not without a blanket, it's cold up there

Ah, well...hm...how do I put this...

Okay, let's just pull an Edie and forge right ahead

My take on those three relationships is that they all start of at different places.

Claudeth distinguishes itself by being a friendship first and foremost. Claude is the only one out of the three who doesn't develop a crush on Byleth early on. Instead he takes his time to really get to know her, tries to earn her trust and eventually returns that trust wholeheartedly. He builds a friendship with her, then a partnership. They both lead the army, they both decide what happens, he confides in her, she in him, he makes an effort to show her she's appreciated by helping her achieve her goals on the side while she does the same. It's an equal relationship from start to finish and them becoming a couple seems like another small step, a logical conclusion. He also doesn't keep nearly as many secrets as he pretends to. He even comes right out and says he's using her and makes up for it by being absolutely supportive of her the entire time. They stand on the same level the whole game, which is not something that can be said about the others.

Dimileth starts out with a pretty obvious crush on Dimitri's part. He's eager to please and support her while she doesn't seem to realize that at all. He's very open about his trauma, about his past and his goals. But he does keep some pretty heavy secrets, like his hallucinations and chronic nightmares and inability to taste. While they both trust each other he doesn't like himself enough to open up completely and that's what leads to the eventual fallout in a way. By keeping secrets and not letting Byleth in on what he's actually doing for most of the Academy Phase, he deprives himself of the mental support. And come the war phase he hates himself so much he can't even fathom why she would stick around. Meanwhile she abandons her own goals, her hunt for answers, to be there for him no matter how much he tries to push her away. Their relationship is a lot of pushing and pulling and tightrope walking because there's trust and appreciation there but it all gets buried under tragedy for a long time. They do eventually manage to find common ground, but getting there requires a lot of effort. On both ends. Letting someone see you at your lowest and then grabbing their hand is incredibly hard, speaking from experience.

Edeleth...well, that's a tricky one cuz while Edie very obviously has a huge crush on Byleth during the Academy Phase, she doesn't make an effort to build trust between them at all. She lies and manipulates and evaluates and actually kind of demands Byleth trust her without really giving a good reason. To me it feels like Edie is the driving force behind the relationship, that there's again a push and pull there but Edie does all the pushing and Byleth let's herself be pulled. To me, it doesn't feel equal. It feels like Edie has all the power there and drags Byleth along with her. That's not necessarily bad, some people are passive and let their more dominant partners lead them, but considering Byleth never keeps secrets and Edie keeps a lot of them - and big ones, like planning a war - but doesn't bother to let Byleth in on them, it doesn't get me nearly as invested in it as Claudeth or Dimileth

That's not to say I don't like Edeleth, I just don't like it nearly as much as the other two. It's not build oh mutual trust because Edie doesn't give me a single reason to trust her. The other two...they give me reasons. And I trust them.

Dimitri: WHY ARE YOU ON THE ROOF?!

Claude, from a tree next to him: she likes to be tall!

That is absolutely exactly how it goes and you can't convince me otherwise.

When Byleth is finally super done with his refusal to hold the baby she just crowds him into a corner and gently places the baby in his arms

Dimitri is close to panicking but then the baby looks at him, big blue eyes and tufts of blonde hair, and laughs