Holder of the Heel

Thank you! Been saving up since the CYL results were released. Longest I ever went without spending an orb. But I managed it, even giving the ultimate bait that was the Summer 3H banner the cold shoulder. Two of the Blue Lion childhood friends and Female Byleth with Rhea as a duo would normally have been a no-brainer for me. My frugality was rewarded though! About 1k to get the nine copies I needed which I’m stoked about. Was expecting to lose much of the 2.2k I had saved. Instead I have over half of my savings still! Maybe this means I have enough to come back here and post again when Legendary Dimitri comes out lol. Fingers crossed for October.

This beautiful man is never leaving my party ever.

It was okay but what they needed to do was enhance the base game by improving segments that may be rushed, and putting in things that were cut due to deadlines. 3H is definite masterpiece material but it fails to reach that potential; adding in side content, even if done well, does not improve the base story which is what I actually care about. The time since release plus all the DLC goodies made playing through my fourth and final route, Silver Snow, bearable, so I am thankful for it enough I guess.

Story and role-playing, in the hopes of shaping stories and roles within myself to share one day in the future. Games with competition often devolve to repeatedly doing the same thing over and over with no narrative, no start or finish. Thus even something as lovely and hype inducing as Smash Bros. for me, after a while I just have to drop it like I would anything else. I don't stick around long enough to hone such skill. Nor do I have the mind set for it; ultimately I want to do what I want with the hope it works, but to compete you must do what is best and show restraint with what you want because of what your opponent wants to do. But I respect the people who thrive on that dynamic of conflict and problem solving.

Cindered Shadows was... okay. Very short, not much to do other than just move through the few chapters it has. Several of them were quite daunting at first just based on sheer quantity of enemies, but everything always turned out fine. The final battle comparatively was underwhelming, for it took only a few turns. When it was first announced that you could only have Linhardt, Ashe, and Hilda, I was disappointed because I would have liked making the dream team across the Houses. But I got to thinking that it could be perfect, since if the characters are tied to the story, they could actually bring something to the narrative. Honestly, if they did, I cannot even remember. I wouldn't recommend buying the dlc UNLESS you've not completed all four story routes. Because for me where I got the value was in encouraging me to start my fourth and final playthrough for Silver Snow that I couldn't bring myself to do at release. All the costumes and little extra things to do in the monastery helped a bit to make things fresh (also the long break since release helped too). Though biggest of all was the addition of the Ashen Wolves as recruitable allies. If there is one saving grace to Cindered Shadows, it is the students. Amusingly it had occurred to me that they resemble half of the Golden Deer House (a bit of a stretch, admittedly). But they are all at least solid, in particular Yuri, who even the side story seems to favor. His character is closer to what I had hoped for in Claude. Any fears that he was just a Leon clone were utterly demolished; I only wish he, with his long purple hair, didn't pose with his arm just like Lorentz (another GD student ironically lol). His supports are all great--even Bernie's (though C and B are a bit redundant); there's a rather interesting connection between the two. Also having looked up his S-Support, it ends on a frustratingly good moment lol. As an aside, sometimes on the map his voice will sound suddenly much deeper. Has anyone else noticed that? It sounds like legitimately a mistake. Balthus has connections as well, to Claude and Hilda. I found him to be quite funny. A bit of a meathead like Raphael, just not at all innocent, so I guess ultimately very different lol. My only complaint is that he suffers Ferdinand's war arc problem: his long hair awkwardly floats bent in the air and it looks god awful. Constance has a very pretty design, arguably like her hair better before the time skip so it's a bit of a Mercedes situation except they swap lengths... ironically they are both childhood friends lol. Unfortunately she is very gimmicky in personality. Away from the sunlight she is as loud and narcissistic as can be. Then out in daylight, she becomes extremely, gravely depressed. It's like Marianne's state of mind fused with Bernadetta's ability to twist any scenario into a delusional interpretation. It CAN be amusing every so often, seeing the mental gymnastics, and having looked up the Heron Cup (the personalities swap then swap back afterwards) it can create funny discrepancies. But... by and large, it can be a bit loathsome to listen to. Not unbearable though if you can tolerate/adore Bernie as I do, especially since she only does it half the time. As far as I know, it isn't ever explicitly explained why she has this affliction? A source was hinted at but not delved into. Presumably linked to what happened to the downfall of her House, I guess. Lastly there is Hapi, who like Lysithea, was forcibly altered and thus cursed in such a way that affects her ability to connect with people and have a future. Although personality wise she is a bit more mature in most aspects, without Lysithea's penchant for being very serious when sweets and "ghosts" aren't around. Her affliction is... rather silly. If she has a sigh, people will probably die. When it is brought up I suddenly feel very conscious of my own sighs, and depending on how strict the definition is, that seems like it would require constant vigiliance, just as she says. She has a connection with Dimtri, with regard to who it was that kidnapped her, so it is nice to give him an avenue for learning more about those people. It is hard for me to feel definitively positive or negative towards her. She is somehow very real despite her ridiculous circumstances, more so than many students. But I had detected a sort of condescending whim about her, or something hard to define, that didn't endear her to me. She's been compared to a cat before, which is odd because I LOVE cats. But I guess that's because they act that way as cats, not as people.

"He seems quite sincere... But I sense darkness underneath..." A vague sentiment, but I imagine it to mean that while he seems very rigid in his mannerisms, it would seem that it is put on, as if one part of him is wrestling with another for dominance. The symbolism of Dimitri's idealistic side in contrast with his vengeful side, and how one leads to the other is deeply inspiring to me. He is soft-hearted. Too soft-hearted. He snaps at the Lonato battle, unable to fathom what reason a man can have to kill another man. Igrid points out that a king who is not willing to command others to their deaths on his behalf is too weak to rule. The act of killing is so horrific for his mind to understand that it leads to an overwhelming sense of rage that such things can happen and be gotten away with. How does his mind answer? He convinces himself that these terrible acts are indeed inhuman, and thus murderers are literally not humans but beasts pretending to be people. He dehumanizes those that prey upon others, and now are exempt from standard rules for right and wrong. He even ends up considering himself a beast, after all the "rats" and such he's slain, and no longer treats himself as a person worth caring about and taking care of. His crest reflects his personality--it provides him with incredible power that he cannot control very well. The Blue Lions have a theme that exemplifies Dimitri's struggle. The Kingdom's value of chivalry can often celebrate the death of good people (Felix's brother), the obsession of serving their will (Dedue), and foregoing life and obligations to those alive due to failing the deceased (Gilbert). "Ghosts" inhabit his mind and he sees them as angry and bloodthirsty, but really this is his memory being tainted with his own hate. If I remember correctly, we get a scene where it shows his past and it has his parents calling for Dimitri to avenge them, presented almost like a memory, but seems clearly not what they would have actually said, if anything. Interestingly, and perhaps only because the writers didn't think about it, the ghosts could in some sense be real. He never sees ghosts of Byleth and Dedue, and they were all thought to be dead by him (granted, they weren't family and he didn't suffer the trauma of seeing them die). Additionally, in Silver Snow we see Dimitri, seemingly as a ghost (a vexingly vague scene, but seems to be him as an apparition) to Byleth. Presumably, you could even say that the scorn any ghosts might show him is not because he hasn't gotten revenge, but because he is so obsessed with it in the first place, and a vicious cycle ensues. As he killed to appease the dead, as he puts it, rather fittingly, the dead only grew. The "ghosts" never leave him, even when he strives to move on, but they no longer hold control over them. Dimitri himself has said that he wishes to remember the past, including bad things, even if they are awful and cause him suffering (his headaches with Flayn, and him proud of his scars earned by protecting others). But he is no longer haunted by the hate, because he chose to forgive the person who was behind it: himself. In one of my favorite supports, he discusses with Marianne survivor's guilt and how he questioned himself often whether he should not be alive when others have fallen. The conversations began due to Marianne warning him to stay away because he foregoes his own well being for the sake of others, not placing proper value in his own life. Gilbert scolds him for fighting on the front lines recklessly when a king should be safe, and when Dimitri tries to convince Gilbert to kill him, when Gilbert pretends to follow through, he feels fear despite his expectation: he wants to live whether he believes it or not. At the end of Marianne's supports, Dimitri tells her to let her heart bleed when it wants to, and don't pretend to feel differently. He echoes this in the new DLC where he tells Hapi she has a right to feel as she wishes towards those that hurt her. He tells Dedue that when he saved him when they met, it at the same time was an act of saving himself, because he desperately needed a reason to not having been able to make a difference. His turning point in his madness is with Fleche. A young girl who had no business on the battlefield, but was given permission to fight because she wanted revenge like he did. But he did not know it was for revenge against him, for his vengeance breeds more vengeance. And when hate and bloodlust is built, people around you die, even when they don't deserve it, far less than Dimitri himself. So as a result of not only creating vengeance within Fleche, but by approving of her goal, someone important to him is lost yet again, all before he could really appreciate that he still had someone important in his life. Fortunately, Byleth is still alive to chase him from reacting the wrong way again. The dead are powerless to do anything, so unless the living carries those burdens, they are left behind and truly disappear. He even says afterwards that to move on from them is the logic of the living, meaningless, whereas the so-called logic of the dead is the only thing Dimitri can believe in--or rather, he is fighting for what he thinks the dead believe in, and not on his own behalf. So in a sense, the hate was his own that he was attributing to the dead, but also because he is acting on behalf of the "will" of the dead, he is not fighting for what he believes in. With that contradiction exposed, he receives the warmth of the living, Byleth's hands, and he seems to properly mourn, not with anger but with sorrow. This belief that the dismantling of the "cycle of the strong trampling the weak" through force inherently contradicts itself and in turn he dismantles his slavery to vengeance, which spins that very same bloody wheel. He is much more sympathetic to the weak on account of being ironically weak in contrast with his physical strength, and having depended heavily on finding reasons to go on, he feels protective of the faith of Fodlan. Curiously, Edelgard likens those who follow the faith of the Goddess as without purpose, lost souls, which reminds me of Dimitri and the ghosts of the dead. But Dimitri insists that removing it won't help the weak move on, only the strong. He also claims that the value system she replaces it with will be forced and akin to a kind of faith as well, of self righteousness. Dimitri is not convinced that her method will even work, for if things can be improved, it is through the people--implied to be the weak, not the strong. The one constant with Dimitri remains: while the Emperor thinks that war can be the most effective means of trying to improve society, the King of Faerghus claims that if people, even if they are weak, can get together and find a way without giving up by resorting to violence. This ended up taking a long time, going to stop it there. Perhaps a bit much and perhaps too dull to expect anyone to read through, but it was interesting for me to think about and type up. 🙂

With your path being decided before you even start up the game, I definitely disagree about choice, even if we don't make the House selection with a plot goal in mind. Especially since the plot choice in Fates was extremely underwhelming. They overhyped the writing hard. Pre-release I had the misconception that it was two nations of competing ideals, but foolish me, the games are literally black and white. Not to mention there's Revelations... just existing. Which is great in the sense that you can use all the characters you like, but the plot suffers for it. Admittedly, Three Houses also allows you to mostly get anyone you want, logical character motivations be damned. But ultimately a House driven story is told, anyone else is just tagging along. God I honestly can't contribute much because I can't even remember much of Fates. What I DO remember is that there were plot driven unit deaths in it, which touches on something that is perhaps my biggest complaint about this series as a whole. Fire Emblem is GREATLY limited in terms of narrative by the existence of Classic rules. The fact that any non-main lord character has to be allowed to die at any moment without changing the plot means that there life is as equally as meaningless as their death. We can't have permadeath matter in the story unless the game's plot is willing to factor in a LOT of cast combinations (or else the list of characters needs to drastically decrease, which would just save one FE signature aspect by upending another). I mean, characters do die in Three Houses in the plot, but never ones that you have. Arguably that's a good thing, because losing a character you've spent time and resources on because the plot killed them is going to ruffle feathers, and for good reason. And if no character you have can forcibly be killed, well then for the vast majority of people, no character is going to be killed because people won't allow it to happen. It's a complicated problem. ...Got side tracked a little there. All I can say is: Three Houses has issues, and they are big, whopping ones, that even inhibit the potential of its best qualities. But it's strong points all the same have impacted my way of thinking of and imagining, more than any of the 3DS games or Sacred Stones. Although someone can just as easily say, as I believe already has, that Fates fits that better. So ultimately that is just opinion.

Oh god she IS Clair. We’ve got her and Leon. I am concerned if I went back and looked at Shadows of Valencia I’d find Hapi and Balthus as well. Haven’t got far yet in the DLC and haven’t seen supports so hopefully it isn’t quite that simple lol.

Yeah there's the problem of having a character that is very well written in concept on paper, but then that piece of paper gets crammed into a restricted calendar plot structure, support system, an expendable classic mode cast, and who knows what production behind-the-scene changes that we are ignorant of--leaving behind a crumpled, torn narrative that needs some detailing, but then the company needs to ship the game out sooner rather than later so it is not as cleaned up as it could be despite having excellent, experienced writers that could do it.

Golden Deer is definitely the oddest of the three. The game's plot of the Church and its crests could have quite easily written out the existence of the Alliance and Almyra, keeping the focus on the Empire threatening change by force and the Kingdom rising up in defense. I'd say all three paths and main lords could use polishing to some degree, but the Golden Deer gang is probably the one that could have seen the biggest overhaul to integrate into the story better. Either cut out Almyra and make Claude's story actually take place in Fodlan, or bring Almyra more into the plot to fully explore Claude's backstory and motives. We learn a lot about Fodlan in Verdant Winds, but it is unnecessary if there is literally a path where you side with the Church directly. Although I'd wonder whether it would have just been better to have such lore revelations in Crimson and Azure, since there is really no legitimate reason to leave them out other than to encourage more playthroughs. As an aside, I'll always remain a little disappointed that the theories of Claude's schemes being deadly didn't pan out. It would have been infinitely more interesting than mole people being behind all the bad stuff happening. It also would have made him fit in more with the other two sociopath house leaders; him being a rational, temperate individual ironically just makes him and his path stick out more despite being a good thing lol.

Ahhh looking for that tweet online I see someone mentioning that "according to the datamine they have separate portrait and class model data for after the timeskip" and no one seems to be contradicting them. Very cool. Bought the DLC, hoping all the updates since launch will make the fourth playthrough in Silver Snow not just bearable but enjoyable. 🙂

Really worried there won't be War Arc versions of the DLC characters. Figured we would have seen them by now if they existed.

My view is that the hilarity angle is justifiable in that while anxiety can be highly debilitating, those feelings are absurd in nature. The feelings can be real, and the cause can be quite understandable. But the logical content of anxiety is, while very serious while experiencing it, from an objective standpoint not rational. People almost always aren't hostile towards you, and more likely thinking of all sorts of things that have nothing to do with the relatively tiny things that concern the mind of someone feeling anxious, and while it might appear to be insulting to seemingly trivialize it by playing it for laughs, I personally think it is healthy for people who suffer thoughts that trouble them to not cut out the ability to laugh at it, considering humor is often used to cope with things that are otherwise quite harrowing, and thus all the more fitting not despite of such concerns but precisely because of them. Those that take offense, in my opinion, further allow what is already a burden to only become heavier. This is coming from someone, like others broaching this subject, who can have bouts of dissociation, dread, or nausea born purely from social interactions or simply the anticipation of them.

Lol to be fair... the evil looking teammate already is played as a baddie. But I do agree with your general point. No, that's not what I'm saying I want, for I presume you include me given that I am quoted. I am just painting the picture of Hubert as the baddie for the topic at hand and how it could be done easily by shuffling who is to be blame for stuff. You can still have Edelgard be cold and sacrificial, though, especially post time skip if things go bad, in a similar yet different way with Dimitri. It just makes for an interesting contrast for the subordinate who is the hypothetical villain to contrast with the one they supposedly serve.

I disagree that he would just be a male Edelgard and that there'd have to be a major rewrite. A slight shift in actions, leaving everything else the same, and suddenly everything is different. Edelgard tries to achieve her goals as peacefully as possible, struggling in the process. Hubert loves her and wants her to achieve her goals, sees her difficulties, doesn't care about life as much as she does (already a fact), and is willing to work in the shadows behind her back (also already true). So the identity of the one causing the kidnappings and assassination attempts could have been swapped, pretty fittingly in my opinion, to him. Even have him be the one that colludes with TWSITD, with the promise of making her achieve what they want so long as they leave her alone. Pretty easy and fairly solid alteration.