#yureibabe

This comes off a lot moreblunt/academically aggressive than I mean it to, but that’s just my writingstyle.

I think the first thing toconsider is how far Byleth and Sothis are considered separate entities. Theidea of Byleth and Sothis (literal god) not being ‘whole’ people (characters,but u get what I mean) in their own right gets a little zesty for tumblr dotcom, but it’s a really important theme to the whole arc of Byleth’s characterin CF, especially because it mirrors a theme of CF’s route itself of ‘humansdon’t need divine intervention of any kind to thrive, and in fact divinepresence hinders humanity.” (or at least, that’s edelgard’s party line and herprevailing supports it).

If we (and I do) considerByleth and Sothis inherently interwined then we can make the wrap-up conclusionthat Sothis does/can support edelgard’s choice because reasons not limited to1) Byleth brought Sothis along for the ride & Byleth’s opinion overrides thatof a literal god because of the theme above. 2) Sothis supported Edelgard’scause and influenced Byleth to side with Edie (here ignoring the player choicemechanic as a pure gameplay option). 3) Byleth’s opinion IS Sothis’ opinion,they cannot be separated and Byelth is a literal voice of god. (very interestingas the PC, but that’s a tangent).

I’m personally a fan ofrational 1) because of how it fits with the ‘humans vs gods’ theme (a theme I’mnot going into right now because OH GOOD HELL there’s a lot to unpack there andit’s not limited to CF, which this post is.)

But then we have toconsider if/and to what extent Sothis makes and asserts judgements on the worldoutside Byleth’s brain. And that’s where it gets sticky.

I don’t have the time,energy or patience to go back through the canon to see what kind of judgementsand opinions Sothis makes about the world, but as I remember it she doesincreasingly react to Byleth’s emotional state and internal thoughts/judgementsand actions. As I remember it, Sothis interacts a lot more with Byleth than shedoes with the outside world. (of course, I may be imagining this all, sosuspend ur disbelief of my analysis for a second)

I like to draw the conclusionthat Sothis would, in fact, support Byleth’s choice to support Edelgard becausewhatever choice Byleth makes is the one they support (again, ignoring playerchoice as pure gameplay mechanic alone and no impact on the making of a story).So, Sothis would agree with Byleth’s choice, because Byleth made the rightchoice in their opinion.

However we can defenestratethe above if we say (and again idk how much it’s supported in canon) thatSothis very much has her own opinions and judgements and does Not agree withByleth’s actions.

Even with the firstchapter when she suspended time because Byleth got axe’d. she didn’t agree withthe choice & called Byleth less than a child, but she Did support thechoice by allowing Byleth to do it again. (altho that was pure Byleth choice,with Sothis in tow. As I see it, anyway.) Either way, Sothis enabled Byleth to makethe choice to save Edelgard.

(I’m so bad with arguingthe opposite side.)

It’s entirely possibleSothis didn’t like Byleth’s choice to join the anti-dragon-god insurgentmilitia. Even if she doesn’t remember Seiros as her daughter, or much of herlife at all, her reaction to ‘Rhea’s’ song at least hinted that Sothis hadaffection and emotions about it all. (I really don’t remember honestly).

But if we say Sothis didn’twant Byleth to side with Edelgard, that just leads me to think how littleautonomy Sothis has as a character. And that is a WHOLE other debate because I thoughtabout character autonomy (in an academic sense) for 5 years straight – 2 yearsgcse with Cathy Morland and Northanger Abbey & 3 years of English Lit ALevel and all the shit I thought about through the years alongside. That’s adifferent post to this one!!!

Back on track.

I’m only just at thebattle of eagle and lion in my deers playthrough, and I’ve only completed CF,so I don’t know if Sothis expresses opinions on Edelgard’s actions outside herroute & honestly I don’t remember it if she did within CF. so I can’t give acanon supported answer there.

As for my own opinion onthe whole thing.. I like my thematicly-themed conclusion that as Byleth becomesless emotionless and more ‘human’ living at Garreg Mach, their opinions becomemore and more there at all, and more prominent, and they start having opinionsat all. And Sothis’/ the crest stone’s influence falls more and more by thewayside as Byleth becomes “human”* with their own emotions and all. By the timeByleth gets to the Holy Temple, it’s only Sothis’ power that remains, not heropinions.

* ”Human” in quotes todenote a) Byleth is a character, b) your definition of humanity may differ and Idon’t wish to make any comments on what humanity means in a real and/orphilosophical sense. For the purposes of this post, I’m generalising anddismissing massively.

It makes the confrontationof the immaculate one very clear cut in the human vs gods theme, which doesn’tbother me much, but adding in Sothis’ opinions to the mix, especially if wemuddy the waters with Sothis supporting Edelgard’s goals, is a really bloodyinteresting idea.

This is mostly headcanonand because I like interesting and convoluted things to think about (if y’all couldn’t tell). But I do reallylike the idea that Sothis supports Edelgard’s cause.

There’s a lot that itcould throw up, like who’s aligned as the villain and who’s right, who has theabsolute truth and if even literal in-game god does not or cannot provide anobjective perspective, then who’s to say what’s right and what’s moral.Especially when the archbishop, who is pretty much supposed to be promoting theright and moral to the world, isn’t even human like the people she preaches to.Sothis arguably takes physical form in Byleth (‘s hair) but in a scene socharged with changed in physical form – rhea>dragon, edelgard>flameemperor, hubert>teleporting in and out of the place, byleth physicallymoving to herself on Edelgard’s side of the line… Sothis doesn’t have physicalform or even a voice. And I really, really missed her commentary in that scene. The hole she leaves behind her in game is massive for so many reasons.

(And all that withoutconsidering the impact of player choice mechanic on the story. That’s a kettleof fish i’m going to ignore for now because this post is long enough)