Always Striving

The pads of Alm’s digits press into dirtied stone as he searches for unusual lumps or ridges that could be hiding secrets the previous owners had hoped to keep away from the world for as long as humanly possible. When he finds nothing but dust particles, Alm wipes his hand off on his pants and repeats the process, this time pulling open the cabinet and rummaging through drawers. Rocks and torn cloth; nothing of interest for him, anyway, so he closes the drawer, eyes already searching for the next point of interest.

The corner, maybe.

He checks one of the corners, palms brushing away rubble and pebbles until he finds a piece of flint, certainly used and about the size of his palm. Then Alm returns to the fire place and crouches down, removing the dagger from his waist. No tinder, he thinks, taking one of the piece of wood from the chair that Lord Ferdinand from the pile. He starts carving into the wood, creating tinder shavings. Perfect for starting a fire. (He applauds himself for his pun by letting out a small chortle.)

Dagger meets flint then, striking again and again until sparks land on the wood shavings. He blows, gently, and the flames grow, licking at the wood. Alm sits back on his haunches. A job well done, if he does say so himself.

The two children behind the youngest are most reserved, keeping to themselves, hands clenched in small fists, and an arm on their forearms. One of the children’s arms, the young girl’s, is dirty and wrapped in a soaked and crimson-stained bandage.

An eyebrow quirks. The cloth from before could have another usage. He stands, removes the strip of cloth from the drawer, before holding his hand outside the door for several seconds. When he brings it back inside, the cloth is now damp.

Alm moves closer to the young girl—he had carried her on his back, and he hopes that she will be receptive to him. Fingers twitch, beckoning the young girl a bit closer. He holds up the strip of cloth and points to her bandage with his other hand, all the while brandishing a warm smile for her. The young girl understands, and though she hesitates, she eventually holds out her arm for him.

Unwrapping the bandage and cleaning her arm with the damp strip, Alm peers over at Lord Ferdinand as he converses with the youngest.

“Frederick!” The youngest chirps back, matching the same amount of energy as Ferdinand. He waddles over excitedly to Alm, watching intently as Alm removes dirt around the small cut on his sister’s arm. Wide eyes turn to look at the young king, as if expecting some sort of monologue.

Alm gives Frederick a friendly smile, murmuring, “Your sister’s cut is injured. I’m just cleaning it up.”

Frederick nods several times too many, before rushing to his older brother and slapping his knee. His brother yelps out in pain, before growling at his sibling for being careless. “My brother’s leg is hurt! Can you help, Ferdnan!?” Frederick exclaims, eyes still wide with awe.

“Well, Frederick, it is most certainly nice to meet you!” Ferdinand laughed, heartened by the small boy’s enthusiasm. Of course, the situation was still a very serious one -- multiple of the children were injured (though to Ferdinand’s relief, it seemed Alm was at least somewhat familiar with the arts of battlefield first aid), but the fact that --even among all of this-- such a young child could be so unwaveringly energetic was quite refreshing to Ferdinand. 

However, Frederick’s joyous innocence was quite possibly about to be Ferdinand’s downfall: when he toddled up to the oldest of the three present children, and asked Ferdinand to help out with his leg, Ferdinand froze up with an expression that was, initially, extremely awkward. (”Ferdnan”, oh, by the Goddess, how could Ferdinand say no?) Ferdinand’s life had been one of galas, balls, and learning to chart his path through life... but learning to chart his path through life when he could still always rely on his resources and upon skilled magical healers whenever he DID get hurt. He had only ever done any actual fighting for the Academy! In short, he had no idea what he was doing.

The headbutt had come with such surprise that Hubert doubled over and stumbled back from Ferdinand, coughing to regain the breath that had been knocked out of him. Surprise replaced the scowl and allowed Ferdinand his freedom before he could even notice.

“Boys, that’s quite enough,” someone in the crowd tried to intervene, but Hubert - still bent forward with one arm wrapped around his middle - barely even acknowledged him. Furious eyes were locked on Ferdinand, posture and disheveled hair both giving the impression of a wild animal ready to strike.

Then, abruptly, he began to laugh. A sharp, vicious laugh. A knife point made into sound.

“Friends? Is that what you think they are?” Another burst of laughter. “My father is not friends with yours. Your father manipulated mine. Your father manipulated the whole Empire! All so he could hold power and pocket our gold. And kidnap the princes and princesses to do who-knows-what with them!”

“That’s enough.” This time two guards broke through the crowd that had come to encircle the boys. Once again, Hubert ignored the order to lunge for Ferdinand, but he was caught by the upper arm and dragged back. The other restrained Ferdinand by his shoulder.

Hubert fought against the grip, jabbing an accusing finger at Ferdinand with his free hand.

“He’s the real traitor to the Empire! Him and all the Aegir filth!”

“Enough.”

Ferdinand had been standing in an aggressive (but very much still confused) posture, about to leap bodily at Hubert, when the first cry of ‘Boys, that’s enough.’ rang out, much of that posture deflated, leaving Ferdinand standing there looking a little bit forlorn and more than a little bit afraid of Hubert -- with the other boy laughing like he was, it was no surprise that the younger child was rather scared. But now the adults were coming in, so Ferdinand guessed that that was that.

But apparently, it wasn’t. Sharp laughter transformed into sharper speech, and Ferdinand was so awash in thoughts and questions and emotions that he couldn’t really do much of anything but just stare at Hubert as he launched into his accusations. Ferdinand didn’t fight the restraining hand on his shoulder... he couldn’t have, really. His world was busy having its top removed and having darkness injected into it -- a sea of conspiracies and crimes and charges that he did not have the capacity to understand, much less answer for.

“I...” the young boy paused, and his voice caught in his throat as he was forced to make a very frank admission, “I don’t get... what’s going on...” He didn’t get what all of this talk about betrayal was, or manipulation, or those kidnappings that Hubert was talking about... but now they were all he could think about.

Ferdinand sighed a touch playfully and shrugged ever so slightly at Caspar’s questions. “I am afraid that I simply have not found the time yet! I have filled my schedule with quite a bit of training, and all of the tasks that I normally take it upon myself to complete... but who knows, perhaps I will have some time indeed to demonstrate my ample talents to the academy.” Here he placed a hand at the side of his mouth in a mock-conspiratorial way, though the effect was a little ruined by the way his posture remained as rigid as ever. “In fact... I may have signed up for the White Heron Cup. You and all of the other students will be able to witness my profound dancing skills.”

Words hit their mark. Perceptive eyes caught the shimmer of restrained tears. Yes, cry, thought Hubert. Let this ballroom see how pathetic you truly are. Let your ugly emotions stain House Aegir.

But Hubert overestimated the other boy’s restraint. Surely he wouldn’t actually attack. Surely he was more noble than that.

And so the sudden lunge elicited a surprised yelp, a desperate back-pedal to regain balance while small fists swung at his chest. The momentum behind Ferdinand’s weight would have sent them both to the ground were it not for the pillar that Hubert slammed his back into instead.

“What are you–” He gasped as a second fist found his jaw. Surprise quickly gave way to a scowl far more ferocious than before and Hubert grabbed for Ferdinand’s wrists in desperation to make them stop.

“So this is the true nature of the Aegir bloodline.” Cool-headedness escaped him now, each word instead pushed out between gritted teeth. Anger smoldered behind his eyes. His thumbs pressed deeply into the tendons below Ferdinand’s wrists. The crowd was loud with whispers and worried glances. Before long the host of the ball would send their guards to break up the fight, but Hubert would not let Ferdinand best him in the meantime.

“You take things and shut others up by force.” A hard shove to knock Ferdinand away. A push-off from the column to follow, leveraging height for intimidation.

“And you don’t even know my name.” Another shove. “Hubert von Vestra. Son of the man your father manipulated into betraying His Majesty the Emperor.”

Ferdinand had kind of been surprised by his own power, initially; he really hadn’t expected to be able to knock the much larger boy right into a pillar, and honestly it was shocking too that he’d managed to connect the second blow. He’d started to let his own triumphant energy get the best of him when suddenly he felt his arms get grasped -- and then fingers dug painfully into the undersides of his arms, drawing a pained yelp and a couple of attempts to withdraw his arms which for now proved futile.

The other boy evidently wasn’t done with that though, because Ferdinand found himself shoved-- and shoved again-- the other boy was above him, and in front of him, and pressing in, and the still-bewildered boy found himself with little room to breathe, think, or speak. A few moments of this continued, with Ferdinand having little choice but to listen to the continual insults that came out of Hubert’s mouth and struggle to keep any space for himself. Then, however, Ferdinand grew desperate enough to take wild action to free himself from Hubert... which took the form of suddenly launching himself forwards and headbutting Hubert as hard as he could in the stomach.

o k a y last one

Pros:

-Well, Robin is certainly already used to dealing with dumbass highborn leadership figures hahahaha

-In all seriousness, I imagine that Robin’s experiences with Chrom would probably go a long way to allowing him some insight into Ferdinand’s thought process since him and Chrom are alike in a lot of ways; both of them are exceptionally straightforward people who are often quite dense and at the same time very on-the-ground and hardworking people, even if Ferdinand has... something of a different attitude about it than does Chrom.

-I think Ferdinand would probably surprise Robin positively, though. Not to say that Chrom is stupid, despite the memes, but I think Ferdinand has a sort of personal administrative acumen that Chrom doesn’t, and a lot of introspective ability -- we see the former from his lost items including land management paperwork and his endings, and of course the latter is all over his supports. Ferdinand’s actually a very smart guy, which Robin might appreciate as somebody very tactically minded, he really just takes time to get going and has to be jarred to think outside of the box.

Cons:

-Honestly, thinking about it, I really just can’t think of any reason for them to take interest in each other like that. While I could see, say, Chrom and Ferdinand ending up working together on some task, Robin really isn’t as hands-on of a person as either of them are, penchant for bear meat or no. They both do peruse the library, sure, but it’s for different interests: Ferdinand is interested in history and weaponry, whereas Robin is primarily interested in, of course, tactics. There’s just not a whole lot of common ground, especially since Ferdinand is a much more open person than Robin.

-Well, uh, the whole Grima thing is a problem, especially since Robin as you write him has a lot of difficulties with it. Like I noted with Constance, Ferdinand is perfectly capable of being sensitive and changing his demeanor, but it’s not really something that he’s capable of doing very quickly, so if Grima presents a consistent but unstable threat to Robin, it’s not something that Ferdinand would really have much of a meaningful way to deal with, especially since he’d be evry thoroughly over his head.

Verdict:

Pros:

-I was actually pretty excited to think about this one because the warmth of their interactions in the paralogue that they share, especially at its end, is really astounding... it kind of blew me away, honestly. Here is somebody that Lysithea has every reason to distrust, dealing with the death of a man that deeply, horrifically scarred Lysithea... and she is just shockingly nice to him about the whole thing. It was really something I enjoyed watching, and it does make me think that Lysithea really wouldn’t bear a grudge at all towards him.

-Relatedly, I feel like a relationship between the two would be exceptionally warm... honestly, I think it would be really lovely. Her soft and warm side comes out at its best with him in their paralogue, and as she really can be a very affectionate person to her loved ones, I think that it’s something that he would continue to benefit from. Ferdinand is also very affectionate in his own way; he’s not really a mushy person, but what he does do is constantly make gestures to express that he does care about people he cares about, from the grandiose (giant statue of Marianne, what were you THINKING Ferdinand lol) to the mundane (starting to drink and even appreciate coffee when befriending Hubert), so I think they’d actually be pretty lovely together. 

-They’re both extremely hard workers, and this is something that I think they could really admire in each other. This isn’t so much me going “POWER COUPLE” for the millionth time, since Lysithea isn’t as forward and out there with the things she works hard at as Ferdinand is, but nonetheless the fact that they’re both quite diligent probably means a lot considering how much they each make it clear that this is something that they value.

-This is of course pure speculation, and it’s a big deal, but I think that their theoretical ending would be one of the endings where Lysithea ultimately survives. This isn’t because of any personal capacity on Ferdinand’s part to remove her crests, as he doesn’t have that kind of specialty, but rather I think it would be something like her support with Edelgard -- I think Ferdinand could secure help from outside sources like Hanneman or Linhardt or others through unceasingly pursuing the removal of her Crests really god damned hard, to a very uniquely Ferdinand degree, even, combined with the massive resources he has at his disposal.

Cons:

-Well, as far as personalities go, I feel like their differing views of nobility would definitely cause some tension. This is a pretty obvious con: Ferdinand’s obsession with nobility and the way that he structures his entire life around it don’t really go away even when he matures post-timeskip, and Lysithea’s resolve to distance herself from nobility only intensifies with that timeskip. This is what I think the biggest personal tension between them would be, although I do think an understanding could be reached.

-Ordelia territory... THIS would be a problem, and a big one. If they get together, Lysithea probably still withdraws from politics and noble life, but handing Ordelia territory off to Ferdinand (despite his probable willingness to govern it) probably is a very bad idea, ESPECIALLY if it involves Hrym as well, seeing as the people of Hrym literally killed Ferdinand’s father out of hatred for what they thought he’d done to them. But even otherwise, the political snarl that has been House Ordelia is enough to ensure that Lysithea would have to find another place to give the territory up to be governed, which could end up pretty difficult.

-Lysithea’s parents probably don’t much like Ferdinand at all, even if Lysithea herself doesn’t hold his father’s actions against him at all, and considering that Lysithea loves her parents very, very dearly that really isn’t something that can just be brushed aside -- I imagine that it would add a tangle to a relationship between them even at the same time as the Ordelia/Hrym territory would be very difficult. Still, if you accept my speculation that Ferdinand could ultimately get someone to help remove her crests, this is probably seriously softened, as I find it hard to imagine that they’d continue to begrudge him after he ensures that their only remaining child’s lifespan greatly gets extended.

Verdict:

i-- i think that’s why everyone sends these lilly

Pros:

-I think that they would probably both enjoy the parts of their relationship built on ambition, at least when Constance isn’t in her more subdued state. There’s a sort of friendly rapport of simultaneous competition and cooperation that I feel like their supports build up towards the end, and that could honestly be a pretty fun dynamic, especially considering that both people (at least at their best) have a focus on improving themselves. I think Ferdinand especially would really enjoy this sort of thing!

-Ferdinand probably provides one of the best ways for Constance to get back on her feet out of anybody in the game -- from a pragmatic perspective, the resources that she gains access to through House Aegir are very abundant, and if anything and anyone can help her achieve her dream of recreating House Nuvelle, it’s this and Ferdinand himself. Plus he would probably be pretty unwavering in doing his best to support her personally, as Ferdinand is rather wont to do, and that would probably be pretty nice.

-Yet another Ferdinand power couple -- when these two are at their most sharpened levels and given reason to push something, that thing is sure as shit getting a pushing. From their endings, we can see that they actually turn very constructive when they do so as well, either helping create the new social order in Crimson Flower or making serious magical progress in Ashen Wolves. I suspect that this is one of the most constructive turns that Constance can end up taking.

Cons:

-Oh dear God is Constance capable of ripping into Ferdinand... in their C support it is really just brutal. With how unstable Constance is, I think it’s probably inevitable that she would hit him with this on more than one occasion, and it would probably get pretty ugly when they get into fights... I cringe a bit just imagining the tongue-lashings Constance might deal, especially because I don’t think Ferdinand would be inclined to defend himself much.

-She’s honestly kind of inconsiderate sometimes... as we see, in their A support, Ferdinand is pouring his heart out to her after having experienced a lot of hardships of his own, and she does laugh at him for it. Now, this isn’t to say that she isn’t a lot more thoughtful in her more subdued form, but I think that this is probably also a sort of scenario that would pop up a lot between them... I think it would have to be fixed, too. I think Ferdinand would feel really seriously hurt by that being a consistent thing.

-Ferdinand, as we see in supports like the ones that he has with Bernadetta, is actually very much capable of adjusting to people and changing his approach... but the thing is that he’s pretty darned slow at it. He has to run face-first into a wall, back off, take a while to reconsider how he’s doing things, and then do it again. With the way Constance works, she changes the way that she needs to be approached very quickly, and I’m not really sure that Ferdinand could keep up.

Verdict:

eventually, yes

Pros:

-Well... I think Hilda would most certainly end up happy in a lot of the ways that she wants to be happy. There isn’t anything that Hilda would want for with Ferdinand working without halt by her side and for her, and he’d of course lavish her with affection just like he does anybody else he’s with -- she’d be spoiled rotten, hahaha, and I’m sure that on a lot of levels she’d be quite delighted by this. We do at least see that some of her talents are given room to be explored through how thoroughly she is cared for, as well.

-I have to admit that Ferdinand enrolling in her artisan academy and taking on accessory-making as a hobby is pretty cute. I think it might do him some good, too -- post-skip, Ferdinand is pretty well eclipsed by very serious and grim tasks, and I think his days of going around doing charming little errands to fill his time are probably gone even after the war, when he’s got a prime minister position to attend to and he’ll make himself worry and fuss over that position. Having something harmless to expend some of his energy on would actually probably be pretty good.

Cons:

-The foundation of their relationship as seen in their supports is honestly terrible; it’s a series of manipulations where Hilda tricks Ferdinand into doing things for her and then... eventually Ferdinand pulls a 180 and decides that he likes it? Honestly, it seems to me to be pretty well counter to the rest of his established character, where he’s already established that using noble status to help people and perseverance are key traits to him. That in and of itself bothers me a lot when I consider their supports, but this is more OOC complaining than strict IC consideration, hahaha.

-What ISN’T just OOC complaining is the fact that their support chain really is terribly one-sided. Like, it’s kind of awful -- she’s tricking him constantly, and all of the work that goes between them in that support chain pretty much comes from him to her. If their supports are at all indicative of how their later relationship would go, I would suspect it to have a nasty case of “all take and no give” where Ferdinand is pouring his time and energy into her and really not receiving all that much in return. And I think that could damage both of their perspectives of each other: Ferdinand could become frustrated and just short of resentful, whereas Hilda could come to discount a lot of his intelligence and the real philosophy behind his drive because of how easily directed he is.

-It’s not like Hilda isn’t capable of better -- she throws herself to her death defending Claude because she’s capable of profound acts of determination and even sacrifice, even though she claims the very opposite to be the case. She’s capable of being truly wonderfully caring and thoughtful, as we see in some of her other supports... but with the dynamic that their supports set up, she doesn’t get challenged at all, and a lot of this probably never rises to prominence (at least in regards to Ferdinand) because of that, meaning that she herself is probably denied some character development should she come to live with him for the rest of their lives.

Verdict:

(For reference, this is an answer to that “send ۞ to get pros and cons to a relationship with my muse” question from a while back, it’s just been FOUR MILLION YEARS because March has been a bit rough)

Pros:

-There should be no doubt that Ferdinand would be very loyal to Edelgard -- while he may have his moments of ego (to say the least), and while her actions do throw him into a lot of internal turmoil, when he’s not recruited, he stays with the Empire even when she’s taken everything from the family and noble lineage that he holds very, very dear. I have to imagine this would translate to him being very faithful in a romantic context.

-The two have a long history to work off of, and while this history certainly hasn’t been always positive, by the time that they’re in a position to be in a relationship, they would have to have worked through a lot of that history and come to better understand it, at least in the Crimson Flower route. While I have to imagine that Edelgard would take a long time to reveal everything to Ferdinand, if she would ever, the two would most definitely know how to work around each other fairly intimately. I also like to think of their A support, where Edelgard says she’s always considered him a friend -- even if they’ve had their negative moments, there’s a lot of things to like about each other to draw off of as well, which I think they’d be capable of doing when they’ve both matured.

-Ferdinand is actually more flexible than he might often seem long-term, and he’s very affectionate as well, which I think means that in the circumstances when they work he would be a lot more tolerable than one might think as a partner, and willing to provide Edelgard with quite a bit of affection at that, something I think she might appreciate -- I get the feeling that given her past and her position, and especially after having really listened to Edge of Dawn, bonds and affection are something that she desperately desires but had assumed she’d lose (which becomes pretty true outside of Crimson Flower).

-Holy hell, talk about a power couple. With their forces combined, I’m pretty sure that there’s absolutely no obstacle that can stand in their way. These two would (well, in Crimson Flower at least) together change the world for the better, far better -- you’d probably be hard-pressed to find as consistent a combination of ambition and the hard work and drive to put that ambition together in any other Three Houses couple, since I think maybe only Claude compares there. Edelgard’s vision would probably take front seat, but I have to imagine as well that Ferdinand would alter it for the better, considering his very consistent dedication to working with Edelgard and honestly (and, as he matures, constructively) criticizing and presenting alternatives to the worse things she comes up with. (Also, They Who Slither in the Dark are super going to get their asses kicked.)

Cons

-Ohhh, boy. Okay, so here’s one that has to be addressed right off, a healthy relationship between the two is only possible at all in the Crimson Flower route, as I’ve repeatedly alluded to here. In any other route, Edelgard is growing increasingly unhinged without any real moderating influence, and Ferdinand is extra lost and confused and conflicted about the situation of his family plus the gaping inferiority complex he has about her. These two instabilities would, when paired, make any relationship between the two inherently horrifically inequal, and I suspect that it would potentially become downright abusive from Edelgard to Ferdinand when you factor in how much agony and heartbreak Ferdinand’s father has caused her, which she’s probably not going to be inclined to forgive on most routes given how vengeful she becomes.

-Taking these other cons from the perspective of Crimson Flower where this is a more palatable concept, I think there would still be some level of issues with secrecy and trust for a long time in the relationship. Edelgard, of course, has some very deep-seated and extraordinarily painful issues she’s been sitting on, and with Ferdinand’s father so prominent a figure in these issues, it’s to be expected that she would be very hesitant to divulge them to him. Now, I do think that the Crimson Flower route ameliorates this -- it involves Ferdinand sacrificing what he’s always known to stick hard by her side and fight for and alongside her for the entirety of the route, and that process pretty much has to build trust between them, but even though it does set them up to fix the most critical points of distrust, there will probably always be at least be some mysteriousness from Edelgard.

-This is a lot more minor than the other two, but I have to imagine that even in the ideal scenario where they’ve really come to adapt to each other and break down the barriers that do exist between them, Ferdinand would still annoy the hell out of Edelgard from time to time, hahaha. I did say that he’d be more tolerable than he might seem, and I’m sure that he’d apologize later, but he’s still Ferdinand, so moments of too much bombast are to be expected, especially because I think he would still want to go out of his way to impress her even after having gotten over some of his insecurities.

Verdict:

Pros (they ARE genuinely there haha):

- As their ending and their first couple of supports make just blindingly clear, they have the potential to moderate each other’s worldviews in serious ways -- Hubert could probably get Ferdinand to be more flexible in his problem-solving and with his own experiences he could probably shake some of Ferdinand’s noble arrogance. Ferdinand, on the other hand, would really force Hubert to think with shockingly frequent insight about just why he does some of the things he does, and if he really should be doing them, as well as bringing out his surprisingly charitable side further.

- They’re both devoted to Edelgard (even if Hubert moreso) and as such they have common goals and a common duty that would bring them together... and both being in Edelgard’s court and being around each other all the time with them as Edelgard’s advisors mean that they avoid the problem I mentioned with Caspar of having very little to do together, and leads to the fun little situation in their ending.

- They’re both extraordinarily diligent people, but they approach their diligence in different ways which means that they actually not only are going to get just about everything that needs to get done and will be on top of life’s problems as they come, but they also will avoid the problem of reinforcing each other’s bad habits about the usage of their time. In particular, Hubert can probably convince Ferdinand to be a lot smarter about the way he uses his time instead of just doing things because he’s terrified of sitting idle.

- If they’re in a position where they’re at all in a relationship, it is completely impossible for them to not have figured out a way to healthily discuss and work through their problems with each other. It’s for this reason that I’m not actually thinking abuse would be a potential problem in a relationship like it is to a concerning degree in a lot of these “formerly hated” types of relationships. They HAVE to have healthy mechanisms to even have reached this point in the first place, and a Ferdinand Hubert relationship is actually probably Ferdinand’s best overall for dealing with and moving past problems in relationships.

Cons:

- Full disclosure, I’m not really a fan of the hate-to-love types of ships, if it isn’t already apparent, haha. But even though Hubert and Ferdinand would avoid some of the problems inherent to these after the relationship has become a thing, the fact that they despise each other is a serious obstacle that they have to surmount. It takes a lot of maturity to be able to move past a grudge like this, and neither one is guaranteed to reach that level of maturity.

- This goes DOUBLE for TOA, like holy hell. They have a longer and more acrid history here than is ever stated in the game, since we did elect to think about their past, and they also hate each other even more here than in the game. This isn’t actually to say that I think they’ll never move past it, as I’m definitely trying to leave hooks for them to have to face up to the consequences of the enormity of their feud, haha, but I do think that there will probably be a limit to how friendly they get.

- Their moral dispositions DO genuinely conflict. They might moderate each other, sure, but I don’t think Ferdinand ever becomes fully okay with Hubert’s brand of scheming and threatening and assault and, uh, well, the murder. The murder is definitely a downside. (Although I’m curious if you think he’s ACTUALLY done the kind of direct homicide he exudes the aura of pre-skip. He’s got his knives and chloroform, but I don’t know if it’s explicitly stated anywhere or not if he actually not only kills people but murders the,.) Introducing the timeskip into the formula affects this directly: in post-skip routes outside of Crimson Flower, Edelgard goes off of the deep end and so does Hubert -- this becomes insurmountable. In Crimson Flower or, probably, a hypothetical post-TOA route, Edelgard has moderating influences, and Hubert in turn is probably a lot more open to moderation.

Verdict: