#mhmhmhm

Costume Bond: The Dreaming Dead

What if, during Dream a Little Dream of Me, White Lily Cookie failed?

What if she reached into dream after dream, called her friends’ names until her voice broke, and still could not pull them free? One by one, they sank deeper into the lives their hearts wanted most, while far above them, in the City of Wizards, the Ultimate Cookie drew closer to Moonlight Cookie, closer to the World of Dreams, closer to the Shards of Freedom sleeping just within reach.

With the city collapsing around her and Moonlight Cookie’s strength nearly spent, White Lily is given a final choice.

She can take what remains of Moonlight Cookie’s power as a Guardian of Dreams, becoming the last shield between the Ultimate Cookie and every sleeping soul she can still reach. She can protect her friends inside their dreams, preserve the dreamers scattered throughout Earthbread, and seal the City of Wizards behind a barrier strong enough to keep Unity from breaking through.

Or she can refuse, and allow the Ultimate Cookie into the heart of the city.

If it consumes Moonlight Cookie’s power, it will not merely claim the World of Dreams. It will devour the Shards of Freedom, destabilize the already fragile timeline, and tear open paths into other realities, spreading Unity beyond the boundaries of their world.

White Lily accepts.

She takes the burden into herself, knowing exactly what it means. She will protect her friends, and every dreamer she can find, but she will never wake again. Her journey to find the Ancient Heroes will end unfinished. Her body will remain in the waking world, silent and still, while her mind becomes the keeper of a city that was never meant to be hers.

In the waking world, the Shards of Freedom rise around the City of Wizards, forming a radiant barrier of red light and fractured hope. The Ultimate Cookie is kept out. Moonlight Cookie fades away, her power no longer keeping her alive. The World of Dreams survives.

But even this cannot save them from the inevitable.

Even the power of Soul Jams was never meant to sustain life forever, not alone, and certainly not five lives caught between waking and sleep. White Lily and her friends remain untouched within the barrier, dreaming their happiest endings, safe from Unity, safe from grief, safe from the war they could no longer win.

Their bodies will crumble in time.

Their dreams will not.

I am not even going to look and see what was saved

Just closing the computer

It's bedtime

I'm playing Crimson Flower as the 2nd route after Azure Moon, and it just absolutely drives me insane & scratches that exact itch in my brain 😩

The way Edelgard and Dimitri fill the exact same role narratively for their respective routes and the themes of their nations & houses.

The way they both have strong feelings about the status quo and wish to change it, yet at the same time still clearly bounded by the customs and traditions of their homeland at first.

The way they are both the cumulation of of everything wrong and right in Adrestia & Faerghus, both the victims and the unknowing advocators for these nations' worst aspects.

The way they are both about "moving on from the past to fight for a better future" yet their paths to that goal are so vastly different.

Ultimately, the solutions they offer to Fódlan are shaped by their backgrounds, and as such, neither are the perfect golden paths (a fact which the game acknowledges). Edelgard's vision works better for Adrestia, and Dimitri's vision works better for Faerghus.

Though "burning the system to the ground to build it back up better" & "pushing everyone to understand each other and work together" sound about as equally idealistic and the exact sort of things that jrpgs love :))))))))))))

I do so adore the way 3Houses highlights the stark differences in their perspectives by giving them similar events to react to in White Clouds:

Edelgard's knowledge of House Gautier was limited to what Gilbert could tell her, while Dimitri had never had to lead a ridiculously uphill battle like Lonato before.

But their upbringings aren't the only thing dividing them, are they?

On a meta level, Eddie and Dima are foils. They are written explicitly to be compared and contrasted.

Our house leaders are not only given opposite background, but also conflicting personalities and reversed gender stereotypes. They look for different things and express themselves in different ways.

They also framed Byleth in different lights.

One of them so desperately wanted somebody to accompany her on the lonely throne. The other believed that everybody should be as far away from him as possible.

🌹🌕🌹🌕🌹🌕

Anw I'm a little obsessed with contrast between the routes, how classmates treat each other, how they treat their house leaders, how they feel about their fathers, etc.

On that last point, the Blue Lions feel very Asian, they don't agree with their father, but they still deeply respect him and thus cannot fully dismiss him (even Felix) (except Mercedes who was very recently adopted at the age of 19-20). They are generally either lost, stuck with unhealthy coping mechanisms, or both.

Meanwhile, the Black Eagles overall have really strong opinions about what they want to do, how they're gonna build their place in the world, and how the older men in their life are wrong. Those opinions clashed noticeably in the early supports.

I really love that Eddie's story involved human experimentation & body mutilation :))) I feel like it's the pinnacle of how the nobles violate and dehumanize others for vainglory. Imperial nobles don't have Heroes' Relics, nor do they have frequent invaders to fight, them having Crests is literally just for show! And it's that vainglory that would come back to bite Duke Aegir's ass, when his finest creation usurp him.

I will defend neither Edelgard nor my boi Dimitri, cuz as I've said before, the game makes it known that neither of them are correct about Fódlan. But I feel like "the Crest system" are sometimes looked at as like, the be-all-end-all of who's right & wrong. Even if you are on Eddie's side, doing that would be a disservice to her ideals.

The Crest system IS the nobility in Adrestia. Toppling the Central Church of Seiros is thus seen in the same light as leading a revolution to oust the Royal Family.

The linchpin of Adrestia's story is "nobility"; it's of the same importance as "chivalry" in Faerghus's story.

It's about a rigid class system, about vainglory, exploitation, dehumanization, misogyny, and indifference (Faerghus also has all these problems btw they just have a different packaging for them).

It's about a culture that brutalizes others to worship empty, meaningless artifacts.

Faerghus's chivalric culture, by contrast, encourages the brutalization & dehumanization of oneself, while evaluating Crests much more utilitarianly as a means to make up for their lack of number & resources.

It's not that there are things each route disregards, but more so that they interpret wider societal issues through either a nobility lens (needless worshipping of Crests), or a chivalry lens (different views of "justice").

Ugh if I delve into either perspective deeper it would be way too long.

Hopefully I'll remember to return to these subjects one day, whenever I can stop feeling lazy 🥲

But anw my brain is having a blast with the Eagles rn (though I dearly miss Ashe and his Locktouch)