Kiran_

...you don't really know what racism is, do you? If she hated the country she would just say, "I hate Duscur." But she doesn't. She says she hates the people of Duscur. There's a far cry difference from saying, "I hate China" and "I hate the people of China". One is considered racist, is it not? Your entire argument is rooted on the idea that you're personally unsure if Duscur is home to multiple ethnicities or not, but from what we know and what is implied, it isn't. It's not like America or England, so that's a pretty bad comparison. If you hated the people of India based on their actions, you'd be hating on Indians, which is ... lo and behold ... racism. Versus hating on the COUNTRY itself, has no effect on the people. I didn't say Islam, now did I? I said "Muslims", which is indeed ... a race. The point where people conflate Islam the religion and Muslims is a whole other issue. But Islamphobia quickly turned to racism against Muslims, so my point is actually perfectly valid. Second, we do see other people of Duscur in Dedue's paraologue, where they are generally designed to be darker. Almyra was also another allegory for race and racism. But by YOUR definition, Almyra isn't an allegory for race or racism either because it's ALSO a country. I'm not saying the game wrote it the best they could, but a lot of times in media (specifically video games and novels), use countries hand in hand with race. Not necessarily always correct, but it's what they do. In this case, the "people of Duscur" are referred to as a race/ethnicity. From what we see, people can define Dedue as someone from Duscur by his appearance alone. Which would suggest the people look like him. It's the same way people see a specific shade of dark skin and think (from appearance alone) they must be from India. Or they see angled eyes and assume, "Asian". I actually would argue that she is hating blindly. I never said her blind hatred WASN'T understandable. But it was indeed a blind hatred. Anger and tragedy do that to people. It can create a blind hatred that no longer sees people as individuals but as a group. And it's that lumping of an entire group of people that is racism. You act like racism is just black and white, when it's so much deeper and multi-faceted than that. Racism doesn't have to be petty or random. It can be rooted in things. Anger. Grief. Pain. But at the end of the day, racism IS blind hatred. And that's what Ingrid faced, and had to overcome. Racism can be overcome. People can change. I don't understand what's so wrong about admitting that she was racist and overcame her grief, sadness and the blind hatred she felt toward the people of Duscur (aka: racism).

Ummm ... this is literally what racism is. In her actual support she says "The people of Duscur..." Not the country, the people. That's exactly how Americans held a hatred for Muslims after 9/11. That hatred is called racism. So yes. She is racist. Look at her later support. "I thought the people cruel and heartless, deserving of the tragedy that befell them." It wasn't a joke because of his dark skin. It was the fact she clearly held hatred for a whole people without actually considering things. The entirety of Duscur is an allegory for racism, it's plain as day. People hate blindly. People are racist, blindly. Tragedy does not justify racism, which was the entire point of her supports and her overcoming it. So it's not an 'interpretation' that her mindset was racist. She just actually was. Wishing death and genocide upon an entire people is racist. For reasons mentioned above. And boring because I felt they didn't give her much in the way of being her own person beyond being the 'mom' friend of Sylvain, Felix and Dimitri. My favorite supports of her are with Ashe (and her moments with Mercedes). I just felt there was so much more that could have been done for her, and against the rest of the Blue Lions cast, she (and Dedue) fell flat to me.

OMG I forgot Ingrid even existed. She's definitely on my dislike list, but she is so forgettable. XD I dislike her mostly for how boring she is as a character. The racism also rubbed me wrong even though 'she got over it', it just was blah to me. Her best moments were her running away from Mercedes. Lol. I definitely was upset about it, because I love Ingrid's design, and I really wanted to like her!

Hmm only participating because I did the ones I liked. I think the only character I truly hate to the core is Rhea. And not even because I don't think she's well-written, because I think she's incredibly well-written which is WHY I hate her. Because I hate her motivations and have 0 sympathy for her, but I understand why she did everything she did. But I also just hate religious extremism, so I was pretty much destined to hate the church. Leonie, Seteth, and Catherine definitely round out my top 4 tho. I just really don't like their characters/archetypes/tropes. I will complain about them all the time and I took pleasure in killing them in-game. XD Is it surprising 2/3 are church loyalists? No. Did I almost add Cyril to this list because of his undying, boring devotion to Rhea? Yes. And then there's the characters I don't care about, because I just don't think they were well written or very nuanced. They didn't do anything for me personally. Ignatz. Raphael. Lorenz. I honestly forget these 3 were in the game (also they were just ugly designs, RIP). And then there's these characters who I don't hate or dislike, but I'm not exactly neutral. Linhardt, Cyril, Dedue, Flayn, Gilbert. Each had a few supports I liked and a few I didn't, which left me mixed neutral on them. Maybe we should call this group my "Lost Potential" characters.

Even if he doesn't want to risk it, there are still intercourse/sex methods you can do that do NOT result in a baby and are still sex, sooo....you're right. Sylvain confirmed to be kinky. XD This almost makes me wanna move him up a spot in my favorites list, because I just have such appreciation for him.

Well you can have recreational fun sex. Sex isn't only about making babies. And there are other methods of birth control that aren't condoms, and all manner of sexual things you can do that aren't directly related to intercourse. And condoms have existed for a very, very long time. Ancient Egyptians and Romans used condoms (they used to made out of animal skins and not rubber/plastic).

I think it's pretty heavily implied that yes, Sylvain definitely sleeps around. I mean I'm sure they only went so explicit given it's a game, but I'd agree that this was one of the many moments that stuck out to me to show that Sylvain f***s. XD My favorite character are (in relative order and separated by gaps in favoritism). 1. Edelgard 2. Dimitri 3. Sylvain 4. Dorothea 5. Felix 6. Hapi 7. Ashe 8. Yuri 9. Petra 10. I can't do it. I just can't choose. Claude/Annette/Mercedes/Lysithea. One of them.

You can't say it's not and then say 'except' and name 3, because that proves it's not a rule. Also, they don't look like Legendary Heroes, because clearly the Legendary Heroes for them would be their first tier time-skip promoted looks. When they've each done 'legendary' things. And then Edelgard's Legendary was exactly this. Her first time-skip look, as it should have been. Dimitri is also going to be in that look when he gets a Legendary Hero. So when they already have clear legendary hero forms, I'm not sure what's surprising about them using the next stage for CYL? Unless you want like 4 alts of the character? I could never see them making the 3 Lords first time-skip looks, just normal units.

It's my personal favorite of the CYL's so far. It's just a popularity contest, and 3 Houses was the newest shiny toy, so it's not really boring to me by any means. I am also a personal fan of canon when it comes to CYL units (aka: heroes wielding their most preferred weapon). I love Lucina for example, but I didn't love the fact she was wielding a Lance, I'd rather it have been a sword. I'm okay with alts (especially seasonal ones), giving characters uncharacteristic weapons and move types, but I've never *loved* CYL being them wielding different weapons. I didn't mind it, but seeing these classic characters with their classic weapons really gave me so much heart because they FEEL like their characters. So to me none of it felt 'lazy' or 'uninspired'. It felt truly top tier. These are their "final forms" so to speak. Their most powerful, at the top of their game outfits. So I guess I wanted to see them represented and CYL seemed like the perfect place for it. I think we can say we all have different preferences on how CYL is treated, but it feels a bit much to say because you don't like something it's 'lazy'. I hate this idea of an imposed limits on rep from the game. That completely takes away the point of CYL. It's a popularity contest. It's about who the fans think is most popular at that given moment. It's not truly fair if fans think one character is more popular, but they impose a limit that suddenly means that the one people voted for, doesn't get in. It could literally be all Fates (my least favorite game) and that still wouldn't make me say "Let's put a hard limit on rep", because if people voted for an all Fates sweep, that is entirely their prerogative and means those 4 characters are the most popular.

Easy. Men: Robin - He's still my favorite character, so I love him. I'd love him wearing Chrom (that one cipher card with him as king with the long cape/crown) garb, wielding the (first) Levin Sword. Some alt timeline where he and Chrom get married and both become kings. XD OR artwork of him in his Grandmaster outfit, but with his special being him (full red eyes/marks), tapping into the power of Grima. Yuri - He's a Lord-adjacent character. I also just really liked him in Cindered Shadows, so he could be 2nd place. They could design him however they want. Women: Hapi - I adore her. Her personality consistently made me laugh, her supports made me love her even more. Also I share her disdain and hatred of the Church, and I loved how she didn't even try to hide it. Edelgard was (relatively) subtle, but Hapi was like, "These guys suck and I should say it." I literally don't care who is second - I can't think of any other girl character I want in the game/alt, tbh. Others I would want to see: Ashe. That's it. That's all.

Yeah, I can see this, but I also disagree. CYL was and has always been, just a popularity contest. Of course it was split between different games originally. There weren't any brand new games out, and there weren't that many alts. CYL4 came at the heels of Three Houses, so the clean sweep was expected and completely in line with what a popularity contest is. This CYL feels just like the other ones to me, just with 'grouped' heroes so to speak. And with the nature of Three Houses having all these promotions/looks, I kinda thought it was a very smart way to incorporate those final looks, since it was pretty obvious we'd get their timeskip ones as Legendary Heroes. I agree maybe it's not 'exciting', but when has a popularity contest ever been exciting? And with a shrinking pool of top contenders, I think every year is bound to get less exciting, barring a remake. But then again (personally) I don't think a sweep from any game is boring. I'd be fine with other games sweeping in similar fashions for CYL5. I'd even be fine with another 3H sweep. I feel like when Chrom finally gets it (if we're still doing it by then), Robin will probably be with him, for an Awakening Male sweep. - And on 'topic', YES to Hapi. XD Was literally not interested by her at all, and then was like, "Oh, I love her". I'd love to see her win. Yuri too. I'd be fine with Cindered Shadows taking home a win with either of them in the next one.

Broke that awful pity rate with another pull and got Lysithea! So now officially have all 4 CYL heroes! Done pulling, though if I gather enough orbs in the next 20 days and nothing else interesting comes out, I might dip back in for the 80 pull spark in hope of some merges!

Okay, well I ended up with all 3 of my bby's, so that's good, but now have a 4.75% pity rate I need to break and I'm out of orbs. Gah. Pulled L!Dimitri in one of the original 40 pulls (round 4) (+Atk/-Def), and then because I had maybe a total of 2 green orbs in ALL of the 40 pulls, chose L!Edelgard as my first spark pull. And then went to the free summon to choose Claude! Now I need to break this unfortunate pity rate...hopefully I get a merge for one of the three...

No, I do not take criticism. I just grinded to get all the summoning tickets, but I think all their different convos are very interesting (Claude's is unfortunately the weakest imo). But I like when they're all together interacting!

I agree with this mostly. Robin was the least 'avatar' character because he had a very distinct personality and just felt like a character to the game, rather than "my" character. I got to control him a bit more than the other characters but he wasn't "me". So in that respect he's actually my favorite, because it felt okay that story did end up revolving around him at the end. Whereas Corrin was written to be specifically 'me' and had a weak, grating personality in turn and the story revolved around them from start to finish, which made them an even worse character. Byleth (as a silent protag) was fine, because he lacked ANY personality, which to me is better than a character that has a bad one, but out of the ones mentioned, I think Byleth does the whole avatar thing the best in terms of being a literal blank slate, because if we're going to have an avatar character, I think it works the best. The weird part about Byleth was that their decision essentially determines the outcome of everything and the 'bonds' they create, which seems silly since they have 0 personality. That being said, I definitely just want a customizable strategist character who participates in the wars/battles, but isn't even CLOSE to the main focus. So Mark, but playable essentially. Then the silent part would be fine for me, and it would feel like an impassive observer where they ask my advice. Overall though, I think 3 Houses teeters on being my favorite FE game for sure. I've been replaying Dimitri's route again, and I still see the same flaws I did a year ago, but I think I appreciate the fullness and depth of the story even more this time around. I think the only thing that I don't particularly love IS Byleth, even though I think he was done the best he could have been with them making him essential to the plot.