BORED

Location: Repayment Festival

Season: Spring, the following year

Rei: ……

Local vampire enthusiast, Hubert von Vestra investigates recent rumours about the strange new noble in town…

But now? Now I realize that this masterpiece of a scene is an incredibly vital piece to Claude’s character development.

Let me explain to you why.

Aside from Byleth's S Support he only has two A Supports with women, and two A+ Supports which are with Felix and Ingrid.

He's loyal to a fault but has commitment and trust issues a mile long and isn't actually actively looking for a a serious relationship despite being a notorious skirt chaser who can't go a single conversation without being bad at flirting

The only ones he will actually commit to are woman who don't take any of his bullshit like Dorothea and Byleth, the absolute sweetheart Mercedes who also doesn't let the facade fool her and his childhood friends, notably only two of them instead of all three

By contrast, Felix has a whooping 10 paired ending options if you play Blue Lions, 5 of which I think are A+ Supports and of course Byleth's S Support

It really shows that for all his flirting, Sylvain really doesn't truly want any attention unless it's 100% genuine while Felix, despite his constant grumbling and complaining, is actually a much bigger people person than Sylvain

Felix inadvertently draws people in by being exactly who he is from the beginning without any false pretenses or facades, while Sylvain actively pushes them away with a carefully constructed mask of "you can't trust this"

And that may be why they get along so well. Sylvain never has to worry about Felix's intentions. Felix is by and large a horrible liar who wears his heart on his sleeve but is ridiculously good at seeing through liars too.

Is Sylvain being a pest? Felix will tell him, no bullshit or minced words, just the truth in its most blunt form. Is Sylvain putting himself down over the stupid expectations about crests he's forced to bear? Felix sure as shit doesn't care about any of that.

With Felix there's no need to pretend but even if he does, Felix knows him well enough to see through him. And when Sylvain is being especially annoying, hell Felix will just give him a quick reality check by telling him exactly what he thinks.

Felix is someone Sylvain can trust completely and that's why Sylvain has no problem settling down with him in the end. Felix is exactly what he's been looking for.

I’m about halfway through my first route in Fire Emblem Three Houses. I forced Dimitri to dance and I must say it was the best choice I’ve made so far.

Bonus:

but Bylaude just gives me the vibe of being like this couple in this post:

I just listened to the Sylvain/Felix A+ support with dual audio on and noticed times where the English dialogue actually downplays the gayness going on in Japanese.

*disclaimer: all of this was transcribed by ear, so there may be minor inconsistencies with the actual script.

First off, I’d like to point out that the wording used in their promise (”死ぬ時は一緒だって”) brings to mind loads of anime dramas where this exact wording is used between lovers to mean they’ll spend their whole lifes (and dying moments) with each other. A comparable saying in English would literally be “Till death do us part”, except obviously even death is meant to be experienced together. The English gets the general meaning right (”We’ll stick together until we die together”), but doesn’t quite hit the same romantic referance.

Then Sylvain says “だからさ、俺はお前を置いて、先に死んじまうわけがないんだよ Or “That’s why there’s no way I’d leave you by dying first.”

English has this as: “Well, I’m really not trying to get myself killed before you. You know that, right?” Which leaves out the implication about the whole “spending our lifes together” thing.

Then, the biggest change. English!Felix says “You can die whenever you please, but I’m not going down with you.” while in Japanese, the line is actually “お前がうっかり命を落とすものなら、一緒に死んでやることを出来ぬからな.” Which actually translates to “Because if you throw away your life carelessly, we won’t be able to die together.”. He isn’t being tsun at all here.

But the crowning line? Whereas Sylvain in English pulls out a no-homo “That’s what friends are for” phrase at the very end, Japanese Sylvain just says “おう、気にすんだって.” or “Yeah, don’t mention it.”.  

I just don’t get why they changed it and downplayed these lines in their intensity. It’s a real shame most western gamers won’t even know about this.

—-