Most Weirdly Written FE Characters (3H Spoilers)

[Jingle Jangle]

There are hundreds for Fire Emblem characters over the years. Ranging from heroes villains and all that is in between. Most of which are solidly written characters. But some are well... are just plain bizarre. Perhaps they were killed abruptly, two-faced persona, or being completely inconsequential to the greater story. Note that this thread isn't for characters that you may dislike,  but there may be some overlay. For me, there are two candidates.

Silas:

On paper, Silas is not a bad person. He's loyal to Corrin and wishes to become a knight. Some of his supports are a different story. Where he tried to provoke people into giving a response, taunting their positions ( Hana and Kagero). The baffling idea that he wants a sister because of Corrin adds more fuel to the fire.   

Death Knight:

DK is the combination of a large number of villain traits in Fire Emblem but without the charm. Teleporting abilities, vague back story, and a side quest with cryptic requirements.  Despite reappearing time and time again there is little gained from each encounter. Is as if there was cut content elaborating his backstory and motives. How did Edelgard find him and get him to work for her?  What happened to him in House Bartels? It tells something about him he is most remembered for being trivialized by Lysithea.

[Etrurian emperor]

Death Knight

I agree that the Death Knight is a very weird character in how he has written. His ''secret'' identity, his ties to Edelgard, him mysteriously being so much more powerful than anyone else and his bond with Mercedes all suggest a great deal of thought went into him. This all not working out also suggest that at some point the budget ran out and they had to quickly write the disjointed mess the Death Eater eventually became. He seems like a character that was written with the best of intentions but just couldn't be created with the dev time the team had available. 

Yukimura:

Yukimura's reaction to Corrin's choices are incredibly bizarre. If Corrin betrays Mikoto's sacrifice and actively fights to take over Hoshido then Yukimura is very mellow about it. When fighting Corrin in chapter 5 he just shrugs it off and suggests Mikoto might have done the same. However if Corrin tries to stay neutral then Yukimura somehow reaches the conclusion that Corrin is an irredeemable monster spitting on everything Mikoto stood for. Its really strange. 

Kotaro:

The shady ninja lord draws some parallels to previous opportunistic villains. He wants more power for himself and his country, and he's willing to ally himself with anyone that can give him an advantage. But somehow this ruthless opportunist randomly decides to kill off the entire royal family of his allied kingdom just because they don't like him holding some girl prisoner. Rather than just releasing the prisoner Kotaro thinks killing them all is the best course of action to assure his rise to power. 

Garon:

Garon had every potential to have been a villain like Travant or Naesalla. He could have been a ruthless king willing to do whatever it took to decrease the suffering of his people. Pre release info telling us about Nohr's extreme poverty heavily suggested this was the case. Characters like Xander and Leo even tells us Garon used to be this. But for some reason they just threw this all away for a comically evil villain with no redeeming traits. Even if Gooron was absolutely necessary then there's no reason why Gooron wouldn't do a better job at impersonating the more honorable Garon. 

The Black Knight

Radiant Dawn really tries to paint him as a noble warrior and the last true knight. Radiant Dawn also revealed the only reason he murdered Greil was.....to find out if he could do it. Those things just don't combine well with each other at all. And that's not even going into how this last true knight wanted to torture Mist in the last game. 

[Fire Brand]

Rhea: Oh wow was her characterisation a completely inconsistent mess. Act 1 tries to push her as an ominous figure, manipulating and grooming the students from behind the scenes, suggesting some darkness beneath the surface. It was an excellent setup. And then... Act 2. She's treated as the hero of the story, for some bizarre reason? She is far worse than Edelgard in terms of actions, and would have made for an excellent main villain. But alas, all that setup was thrown out of the top of the Tower of Guidance. 

[Ottservia]

Peri:

I like Peri. I really do but even I can admit she’s a bit on the inconsistenct side of things. I find Peri’s character to be at its best when her sort of childlike innocence is allowed to fully shine through like in her supports with Kagerou and Laslow. It’s supports like these that really show how ignorant and close minded she is and just really needs to be nudged in the right direction. But then you have supports like her Kaden and Odin supports that kinda go against that idea because they both imply some kind of self-awareness on her part. It’s very weird honestly. 

[Ertrick36]

1 hour ago, Fire Brand said:

And then... Act 2. She's treated as the hero of the story, for some bizarre reason? She is far worse than Edelgard in terms of actions, and would have made for an excellent main villain. But alas, all that setup was thrown out of the top of the Tower of Guidance. 

In Crimson Flower she's kind of a real bastard who goes full psycho.  Though you don't actually see her do anything horrible until the very end.  But you do pretty much see right from the get-go that she's meant to be the villain of that path, and she plays that role right up to the bitter end.

Though even then, she still seems less villainous than TWSITD.

 

Anyway...

I think one of the strangest written characters in the series is Sothis.

Spoiler

She is the progenitor goddess - she walked the earth and blessed it with life in Nabatea, and then was killed.  Roughly a thousand years later, she's resurrected as basically a spiritual half of an unsuspecting human.

That's well and good, but that gets me really confused about Byleth's relationship with the likes of characters like Rhea or Seteth, whom they can become romantically involved with.  Like... can Byleth truly be considered the same as Seiros, and thus be considered the mother(?) of the Nabateans?  Or would Sothis be considered a completely separate entity?  And does that status just... disappear when Byleth's Crest of Flames shatters at the end of Crimson Flower?

It's also strange because the nature of Sothis is fairly enigmatic.  She's the goddess, yet she was killed... and then returned?  Does she still exist in the heavens as an actual god, or did she die when her planar-side form was killed?  Is her return in the form of a spirit within Byleth (and eventual merging with them) a true resurrection, or is it just Byleth receiving her power?  Also, why do you hear Sothis's voice after waking up after the time-skip even though she was assumed to be gone?

And don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the writing here.  On the contrary, I love when the idea of a god is messed with like this - when they're strange and enigmatic, without being too BS.

 

[Dandy Druid]

55 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

In Crimson Flower she's kind of a real bastard who goes full psycho.  Though you don't actually see her do anything horrible until the very end.  But you do pretty much see right from the get-go that she's meant to be the villain of that path, and she plays that role right up to the bitter end.

Though even then, she still seems less villainous than TWSITD.

 

Anyway...

I think one of the strangest written characters in the series is Sothis.

  Hide contents

She is the progenitor goddess - she walked the earth and blessed it with life in Nabatea, and then was killed.  Roughly a thousand years later, she's resurrected as basically a spiritual half of an unsuspecting human.

That's well and good, but that gets me really confused about Byleth's relationship with the likes of characters like Rhea or Seteth, whom they can become romantically involved with.  Like... can Byleth truly be considered the same as Seiros, and thus be considered the mother(?) of the Nabateans?  Or would Sothis be considered a completely separate entity?  And does that status just... disappear when Byleth's Crest of Flames shatters at the end of Crimson Flower?

It's also strange because the nature of Sothis is fairly enigmatic.  She's the goddess, yet she was killed... and then returned?  Does she still exist in the heavens as an actual god, or did she die when her planar-side form was killed?  Is her return in the form of a spirit within Byleth (and eventual merging with them) a true resurrection, or is it just Byleth receiving her power?  Also, why do you hear Sothis's voice after waking up after the time-skip even though she was assumed to be gone?

And don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the writing here.  On the contrary, I love when the idea of a god is messed with like this - when they're strange and enigmatic, without being too BS.

 

Spoiler

A part of me doesn't think Sothis is an actual goddess. Although she's known as the "progenitor god", her true nature is more similar to that of a divine dragon rather than a God. Divine dragons can still be killed. I think the main reason why she's known as the progenitor god is because Rhea spread that story when she was forming a church about her. It's not surprising that Rhea made her into such a figure, since she seems so obsessed with her. She's a powerful being, but still mortal.

 

[Troykv]

27 minutes ago, Dandy Druid said:

  Reveal hidden contents

A part of me doesn't think Sothis is an actual goddess. Although she's known as the "progenitor god", her true nature is more similar to that of a divine dragon rather than a God. Divine dragons can still be killed. I think the main reason why she's known as the progenitor god is because Rhea spread that story when she was forming a church about her. It's not surprising that Rhea made her into such a figure, since she seems so obsessed with her. She's a powerful being, but still mortal.

 

Spoiler

Yeah, Sothis it's pretty much a Divine Dragon, she seems to be able to do the same kind of stuff the big ones like Naga are able to do; included time-manipulation abilities.

 

[Fabulously Olivier]

Okay, here's a positive example. My favorite character, in fact.

 

Bastian

Here we have a charismatic, flirtatious, lovably pompous and poetic diplomat who loves to hear himself talk, but contrary to all logic.... has one of the smallest support lists and one of the lowest amounts of dialogue in both of his games. Notably, he even lacks supports with Elincia and Geoffery. How is that even possible? You would think that this man would want to talk to (and form ties with) pretty much everyone. And one of the 3 characters he can support (Makalov) is literally the least useful person in the universe and would offer Count Reglay nothing as a diplomat.

 

I have to assume that he was just difficult to write dialogue for, because he deserved much better. Seeing him interact with a lot of characters would have been delightful.

Edited September 19, 2019 by Etheus

[NekoKnight]

22 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Kotaro:

The shady ninja lord draws some parallels to previous opportunistic villains. He wants more power for himself and his country, and he's willing to ally himself with anyone that can give him an advantage. But somehow this ruthless opportunist randomly decides to kill off the entire royal family of his allied kingdom just because they don't like him holding some girl prisoner. Rather than just releasing the prisoner Kotaro thinks killing them all is the best course of action to assure his rise to power. 

To be fair, the whole situation leading up to that conflict was bizarre. Kotaro has captured Kagero to use as a hostage and...Corrin and Co. think that's an unforgivable sin and decide he must be punished for it. For capturing enemy soldiers... Corrin, I'm not sure you get this 'war' thing.

But on the topic of Corrin, you have a character that bends over backwards to save Hoshidans in Conquest but he never attempts to use his non-lethal sword when cutting down Nohrians in Birthright. There is also that really weird S support with Peri where he decides the solution to Peri's extreme, unprovoked violence towards the working class is to hire servants who don't die as easily. Poor Felicia.

[Etrurian emperor]

34 minutes ago, NekoKnight said:

To be fair, the whole situation leading up to that conflict was bizarre. Kotaro has captured Kagero to use as a hostage and...Corrin and Co. think that's an unforgivable sin and decide he must be punished for it. For capturing enemy soldiers... Corrin, I'm not sure you get this 'war' thing.

But on the topic of Corrin, you have a character that bends over backwards to save Hoshidans in Conquest but he never attempts to use his non-lethal sword when cutting down Nohrians in Birthright. There is also that really weird S support with Peri where he decides the solution to Peri's extreme, unprovoked violence towards the working class is to hire servants who don't die as easily. Poor Felicia.

Oh definitely. No one came off right in that scene. Corrin being shocked that the concept of prisoners of war exist was really stupid. 

Then again Corrin is a massive bleeding heart and Xander spoils him so there's at least some reason for them to act like they do. 

[Thane]

On 9/19/2019 at 6:19 PM, Jingle Jangle said:

Silas:

On paper, Silas is not a bad person. He's loyal to Corrin and wishes to become a knight. Some of his supports are a different story. Where he tried to provoke people into giving a response, taunting their positions ( Hana and Kagero). The baffling idea that he wants a sister because of Corrin adds more fuel to the fire.   

Death Knight:

DK is the combination of a large number of villain traits in Fire Emblem but without the charm. Teleporting abilities, vague back story, and a side quest with cryptic requirements.  Despite reappearing time and time again there is little gained from each encounter. Is as if there was cut content elaborating his backstory and motives. How did Edelgard find him and get him to work for her?  What happened to him in House Bartels? It tells something about him he is most remembered for being trivialized by Lysithea.

I will agree with these two. Silas is a reptile masquerading as a human and Death Knight seems like a victim of cut development time or too many ideas thrown in at once. I mean Death Knight has several things going for him that could be explored but...they aren't. 

Spoiler

With the recent reveal of Jeritza being playable in upcoming DLC, perhaps some of these things will be cleared up. 

To add to this list...

Azura

I know Fates is a low-hanging fruit so I'll limit myself to Azura and one more, lest I fill the entire list with characters from that game.

Azura is such a bizarre character. It's obvious Intelligent Systems tried really hard to make her the next breakout character like Lucina, though that fell short. Azura has connections to three kingdoms, just like Corrin, but we basically don't know her relationship with anyone beyond surface level interactions. She's an unfeeling exposition robot in the main story, not caring at all about who she kills, yet she can support all first generation guys and several female characters, where she's less distant. She knows everything worth knowing about the current conflict yet doesn't seem to try to stop it in Birthright or Conquest. The game tries to paint her as super mysterious even when playing Revelation, but there is no intrigue to be found beneath the smokescreen. Azura is a mess of a character where it seems like dozens of different writers handled her all at once, pulling her in different directions, and in the end she ended up being nothing, while in the main story only talking about the plot right in front of Corrin and telling them what to think and feel. She is a tool and not a character.

Lilith

Lilith is Corrin's kind of sister who's an "astral dragon" with access to a pocket dimension who served Corrin as a maid for a large portion of her life. One would think Lilith would be more important than she is, but no, in spite of a ridiculous backstory she's just there.

Nergal

Nergal might be more incompetent than weirdly written, but he's just such a bizarre villain. Behind very cryptic requirements there are hints of a tragic backstory that ends up going nowhere. Nergal can't keep two kids or a tortured man locked down in his own seat of power, and he almost dies to a knife in the gut, and yet not long after that he can teleport around the continent and can't even be scratched by legendary weapons, according to himself. He also lets the protagonists leave at more than one occasion, and at one point literally teleports to Eliwood to taunt him and then leave. Nergal reads like a typical shounen manga villain where his presence in the story is dictated by his power level, and the only way for us players to understand his current power level is to have other characters state it out loud, as his power is tied to an intangible, invisible supply of vaguely defined magical energy. To say he's inconsistent would be putting it mildly.

Claude (Golden Deer spoilers)

Spoiler

All that talk of being an outsider and having all these tricks and schemes up his sleeve was to...end racism? Why did he act like such an untrustworthy bloke for that? After the timeskip Claude is just a good guy without any real internal conflicts or objectionable traits, so that makes me wonder what the point was. Sure, you might argue people wouldn't take kindly to him being half Almyran if he revealed it, but...wouldn't that be more interesting than what we got? And it's not like we know much about Almyra besides that it's prone to try to invade Fódlan (chances are you personally fight off an invasion if you play the Golden Deer route), so it's hard to truly connect to Claude's goals.

 

Edited September 20, 2019 by Thane

[Flere210]

Considering the DLC, i am 90% sure that the DK was intended to be playble from the start, but he was moved to DLC because they run out of time. He is free so it's not greed.

[Timlugia]

On 9/19/2019 at 10:28 AM, Fire Brand said:

Rhea:  She's treated as the hero of the story, for some bizarre reason? She is far worse than Edelgard in terms of actions, and would have made for an excellent main villain.

That's pretty simple actually, because to Rhea the answer to every world problem is Sothis.

She grew up under Sothis' utopia when both dragon and human lived in peace and both civilizations were at it's peak, so to bring her back any cost worth it.

And she did succeed in 3/4 endings.

[Druplesnubb]

On 9/20/2019 at 5:34 PM, NekoKnight said:

To be fair, the whole situation leading up to that conflict was bizarre. Kotaro has captured Kagero to use as a hostage and...Corrin and Co. think that's an unforgivable sin and decide he must be punished for it. For capturing enemy soldiers... Corrin, I'm not sure you get this 'war' thing.

But on the topic of Corrin, you have a character that bends over backwards to save Hoshidans in Conquest but he never attempts to use his non-lethal sword when cutting down Nohrians in Birthright. There is also that really weird S support with Peri where he decides the solution to Peri's extreme, unprovoked violence towards the working class is to hire servants who don't die as easily. Poor Felicia.

Don't get me started on Corrin. All throughout Conquest a recurring theme is that they want to end the war with as few casualties as possible, except only they are allowed to do that and whenever anyone else tries to do the same thing Corrin will immediately murder them without fail. Kumagera wants to end the war as soon as possible by killing Garon? Corrin kills him and the war continues, claiming countless more victims. Kotaro makes the Hoshidans surender by capturing Kagero? Corrin kills him and all his men instead of just passing through peacefully and not killing anyone. Zola captures the Hoshidan royals, possibly ending the war then and there? Instead of using Xander's authority to postpone their executions, Corrin kills Zola and all his men, postponing the war, leading to all the massacres in the later chapters and killing half the Hoshido royals anyway. I don't think I've ever seen a character undermine their own goal to the same extent before or since, though I've heard things about Nergal and Mafroy that might beat even Corrin.

Edited September 22, 2019 by Druplesnubb

[NekoKnight]

On 9/22/2019 at 9:47 AM, Druplesnubb said:

Don't get me started on Corrin. All throughout Conquest a recurring theme is that they want to end the war with as few casualties as possible, except only they are allowed to do that and whenever anyone else tries to do the same thing Corrin will immediately murder them without fail. Kumagera wants to end the war as soon as possible by killing Garon? Corrin kills him and the war continues, claiming countless more victims. Kotaro makes the Hoshidans surender by capturing Kagero? Corrin kills him and all his men instead of just passing through peacefully and not killing anyone. Zola captures the Hoshidan royals, possibly ending the war then and there? Instead of using Xander's authority to postpone their executions, Corrin kills Zola and all his men, postponing the war, leading to all the massacres in the later chapters and killing half the Hoshido royals anyway. I don't think I've ever seen a character undermine their own goal to the same extent before or since, though I've heard things about Nergal and Mafroy that might beat even Corrin. 

You raise an excellent point. The game gets this weird notion in its head that the most moral way to conduct the war isn't to minimize casualties by striking hard at the leaders, rather the war should be fought "honorably". Which is probably a small consolation to all of the people who died because the war didn't end sooner. Killing Kotaro and Zola might have been horribly misguided but denouncing Kumagera was outright hypocritical considering that Corrin adopted that same plan of attack since chapter 15.

[Ottservia]

1 minute ago, NekoKnight said:

You raise an excellent point. The game gets this weird notion in its head that the most moral way to conduct the war isn't to minimize casualties by striking hard at the leaders, rather the war should be fought "honorably". Which is probably a small consolation to all of the people who died because the war didn't end sooner. Killing Kotaro and Zola might have been horribly misguided but denouncing Kumagera was outright hypocritical considering that Corrin adopted that same plan of attack since chapter 15.

I mean the fact that Corrin is a hypocrite is kind of the point though. The only path Corrin isn’t a hypocrite is in revelations and there’s a reason for that. The point of conquest and Birthright as stories is to explore the contradiction inherent to Corrin’s chosen path. It is only when he rejects both that he is able to absolve himself of those contradictions.

[NekoKnight]

Just now, Ottservia said:

I mean the fact that Corrin is a hypocrite is kind of the point though. The only path Corrin isn’t a hypocrite is in revelations and there’s a reason for that. The point of conquest and Birthright as stories is to explore the contradiction inherent to Corrin’s chosen path. It is only when he rejects both that he is able to absolve himself of those contradictions.

Eeeeeeeh

You're going to need some solid evidence to back that theory up. How is Corrin a hypocrite in Birthright? 

[Ottservia]

Just now, NekoKnight said:

Eeeeeeeh

You're going to need some solid evidence to back that theory up. How is Corrin a hypocrite in Birthright? 

Well Corrin goes against the trust that he has built between them and his Nohrian siblings but still expects them to listen to reason based on that very trust. This idea is actually pretty prominent throughout the game even as early as when you recruit Silas as he only joins you because of the trust he and Corrin once shared. It’s a contradiction on Corrin’s part because they openly denied that very trust with their Nohrian siblings in chapter 6 when they chose to side with Hoshido.

[NekoKnight]

Just now, Ottservia said:

Well Corrin goes against the trust that he has built between them and his Nohrian siblings but still expects them to listen to reason based on that very trust. This idea is actually pretty prominent throughout the game even as early as when you recruit Silas as he only joins you because of the trust he and Corrin once shared. It’s a contradiction on Corrin’s part because they openly denied that very trust with their Nohrian siblings in chapter 6 when they chose to side with Hoshido.

That's a pretty big reach for a very dubious theme. Birthright Corrin doesn't "go against the trust" of his Nohrian siblings, he sides with the moral party in the war and his birth family he was taken from, and hopes he can convince his Nohr sibs of his position. Also, Garon has tried to kill Corrin no less than three times since the game started so that's plenty of reason to not choose Nohr. His beef was always with Garon, not the siblings.

[Ottservia]

38 minutes ago, NekoKnight said:

That's a pretty big reach for a very dubious theme. Birthright Corrin doesn't "go against the trust" of his Nohrian siblings, he sides with the moral party in the war and his birth family he was taken from, and hopes he can convince his Nohr sibs of his position. Also, Garon has tried to kill Corrin no less than three times since the game started so that's plenty of reason to not choose Nohr. His beef was always with Garon, not the siblings.

That is true his beef was never with the Nohrian siblings only Garon but he still chooses to trust Hoshido over Nohr when all is said and done. It’s still a contradiction plain and simple. Cause while Corrin still trusts nohr to an extent he doesn’t fully trust them cause if he did he’d side with them instead and that’s where the contradiction lies.

Cause here’s the thing. Ask yourself what was the main argument Xander uses to try and persuade Corrin to side with Nohr? It was that they raised Corrin. Corrin knew them best. The bonds are stronger than any bloodtie they may share with Hoshido. So for Corrin to side with Hoshido means to(at least somewhat) deny that bond in favor of forging a new one. Corrin chose to trust strangers rather than the people they grew up with. However they still say they believe in that bond that they forged with their Nohrian siblings but they contradict that by siding with Hoshido because if they truly trusted Nohr they would not side with Hoshido.

Edited September 23, 2019 by Ottservia

[NekoKnight]

10 minutes ago, Ottservia said:

That is true his beef was never with the Nohrian siblings only Garon but he still chooses to trust Hoshido over Nohr when all is said and done. It’s still a contradiction plain and simple. Cause while Corrin still trusts nohr to an extent he doesn’t fully trust them cause if he did he’d side with them instead and that’s where the contradiction lies.

It isn't. Watch the scene again. (Time 1:50)
 

Spoiler

 

Corrin states her reasons for siding with Hoshido, explicitly denouncing Garon for the attack that killed Mikoto and nearly killed Corrin. She then asked Xander to join her, right there on the spot. She wanted to be allies against Garon. Xander threw her offer right back in her face. This isn't even a matter of trusting the Hoshidans over her Nohrian siblings. Xander confirms that Corrin is indeed a captured Hoshidan.

You're saying Birthright Corrin is a hypocrite because she continues to try to get the Nohrian sibs on her side even though that was her intention from the very beginning. And even if we did believe this crazy idea, you're saying this is on par with Conquest Corrin sabotaging every effort to end the war sooner.

Edited September 23, 2019 by NekoKnight

[Ottservia]

11 minutes ago, NekoKnight said:

Corrin states her reasons for siding with Hoshido, explicitly denouncing Garon for the attack that killed Mikoto and nearly killed Corrin. She then asked Xander to join her, right there on the spot. She wanted to be allies against Garon. Xander threw her offer right back in her face. This isn't even a matter of trusting the Hoshidans over her Nohrian siblings. Xander confirms that Corrin is indeed a captured Hoshidan.

You should also note what Xander says when Ryoma brings up the attack on the square within the conquest version of the scene to which Xander responds with disbelief as he had absolutely no knowledge of such an attack and neither did Camilla from her dialogue in BR chapter 13. Think about what’s happening here for a moment. This whole decision is based on the attack at the square which Corrin believes to have been orchestrated by Garon which is only half true. However her hoshidian siblings are quick to blame Nohr and Garon for it but we know from revelations that there’s more to it than just blaming Nohr. However in choosing Hoshido they agree and trust what her hoshidian siblings are saying in blaming Nohr or at the very least Garon. 

however, blaming Garon is not entirely the truth. It’s merely a distortion of the truth that is reflected on the water’s surface. Cause Garon isn’t really the enemy here. It’s Anankos and Anankos is the one who attacked the square not Garon(technically). 

They value the words of their “blood” siblings over the word of their bond siblings. That’s the very reason Xander threw Corrin’s recruitment back because if she won’t value their bond as much as he does then why should he continue to value it so highly? Or at the very least show that he still values it. Throughout all of BR, Corrin just chooses to trust what they think is the truth without really digging any deeper into it and any time they do they get into trouble for it(see chapters, 8, 9-12 and 16-17). Corrin still values that bond but their actions tell a different story so they have to prove that they do with their actions(as shown in chapters 13 and 18). 

33 minutes ago, NekoKnight said:

And even if we did believe this crazy idea, you're saying this is on par with Conquest Corrin sabotaging every effort to end the war sooner.

Never said one contradiction was better or worse than another just saying Corrin contradicting themselves is the point and shouldn’t really be criticized.

[NekoKnight]

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

Think about what’s happening here for a moment. This whole decision is based on the attack at the square which Corrin believes to have been orchestrated by Garon which is only half true. However her hoshidian siblings are quick to blame Nohr and Garon for it but we know from revelations that there’s more to it than just blaming Nohr. However in choosing Hoshido they agree and trust what her hoshidian siblings are saying in blaming Nohr or at the very least Garon. 

This is wrong. Corrin's decision to stand against Garon is rooted in a myriad of factors.
1. Garon showed his intention to put Corrin to the sword for disobeying an order to execute two POWs.
2. Garon assigns a subordinate to Corrin that later tries to kill her on Garon's orders.
3. The sword Garon gave Corrin apparently tried to kill her by throwing her into the Bottomless Chasm.
4. Corrin remembers Garon murdering Sumeragi.
 

With these 4 points in mind, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that Garon is evil and now wants her dead. Ryoma posits that Garon was behind the attack that killed Mikoto but Corrin isn't trusting this blindly. It all lines up perfectly with the things she has observed with her own eyes.

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

however, blaming Garon is not entirely the truth. It’s merely a distortion of the truth that is reflected on the water’s surface. Cause Garon isn’t really the enemy here. It’s Anankos and Anankos is the one who attacked the square not Garon(technically). 

This is irrelevant because all things point to Garon being responsible. This half-truth is still the basis of Corrin choosing Hoshido.

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

They value the words of their “blood” siblings over the word of their bond siblings. That’s the very reason Xander threw Corrin’s recruitment back because if she won’t value their bond as much as he does then why should he continue to value it so highly? Or at the very least show that he still values it. Throughout all of BR, Corrin just chooses to trust what they think is the truth without really digging any deeper into it and any time they do they get into trouble for it(see chapters, 8, 9-12 and 16-17). Corrin still values that bond but their actions tell a different story so they have to prove that they do with their actions(as shown in chapters 13 and 18). 

Corrin makes two claims to her siblings.
1. Corrin doesn't wish harm on her siblings (backed up by her plea that they join her against Garon)
2. Garon is evil (backed up with her testimony of a brutal attack on Hoshido)

Xander offers the same two claims but the second in reverse.
1. The Nohrian sibs love Corrin as family
2. Garon would forgive Corrin if she returned (the implication being that Garon is not evil)

Corrin accepts the first claim readily, stating that Garon is their true foe and tries to get the Nohrian sibs to join her. She rejects the second claim because apart from it contradicting character evidence that both Corrin and Xander should both be aware of, it also contradicts all of the observations Corrin has made since the start of the story. Corrin isn't looking at two parties with equally valid positions and choosing a side, she's weighing the evidence and sees it's stacked against Garon. Corrin doesn't "mistrust" Xander, she knows more than he does and is explaining it to him. She does value her siblings, through word and action, but the Nohrians are too dense to figure it out. 

The problem with your reading of this scene and the story as a whole is that the drama isn't about Corrin mistrusting the Nohrian siblings, it's her effort to get them to trust her.

1 hour ago, Ottservia said:

Never said one contradiction was better or worse than another just saying Corrin contradicting themselves is the point and shouldn’t really be criticized.

There is no contradiction unless you have the unreasonable standard that the only way to demonstrate good faith to your loved ones is to blindly follow anything they say, even if it contradicts your better judgment. And it's absolutely important that this alleged contradiction is comparable to the one made by Nohrrin. You're arguing the existence of a theme when one half of your argument is, charitably speaking, really flimsy. 

Edited September 23, 2019 by NekoKnight

[Etrurian emperor]

Ryoma is also a bit of a tragic case of a character who's weirdly written.

During the chapter where Corrin makes the choice between Nohr and Hoshido Ryoma is very strongly claims that the Nohrian's who raised Corrin can't possibly be his real family because they aren't related. He says this while always having known that he and the other Hoshidan siblings aren't really Corrin's relatives either. It kinda makes him seem like a scumbag that he dismisses all the time the Nohrians spend on Corrin while giving himself a pass despite having the same problem. 

What's tragic about this is that this problem likely never was supposed to be an issue. This scene was likely written when Ryoma was still Corrin's actual brother and was kept even when the Hoshidans were demoted to just a bunch of strangers so that Corrin could date them. 

[Ottservia]

6 hours ago, NekoKnight said:

This is wrong. Corrin's decision to stand against Garon is rooted in a myriad of factors.
1. Garon showed his intention to put Corrin to the sword for disobeying an order to execute two POWs.
2. Garon assigns a subordinate to Corrin that later tries to kill her on Garon's orders.
3. The sword Garon gave Corrin apparently tried to kill her by throwing her into the Bottomless Chasm.
4. Corrin remembers Garon murdering Sumeragi.
 

With these 4 points in mind, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that Garon is evil and now wants her dead. Ryoma posits that Garon was behind the attack that killed Mikoto but Corrin isn't trusting this blindly. It all lines up perfectly with the things she has observed with her own eyes.

This is irrelevant because all things point to Garon being responsible. This half-truth is still the basis of Corrin choosing Hoshido.

Corrin makes two claims to her siblings.
1. Corrin doesn't wish harm on her siblings (backed up by her plea that they join her against Garon)
2. Garon is evil (backed up with her testimony of a brutal attack on Hoshido)

Xander offers the same two claims but the second in reverse.
1. The Nohrian sibs love Corrin as family
2. Garon would forgive Corrin if she returned (the implication being that Garon is not evil)

Corrin accepts the first claim readily, stating that Garon is their true foe and tries to get the Nohrian sibs to join her. She rejects the second claim because apart from it contradicting character evidence that both Corrin and Xander should both be aware of, it also contradicts all of the observations Corrin has made since the start of the story. Corrin isn't looking at two parties with equally valid positions and choosing a side, she's weighing the evidence and sees it's stacked against Garon. Corrin doesn't "mistrust" Xander, she knows more than he does and is explaining it to him. She does value her siblings, through word and action, but the Nohrians are too dense to figure it out. 

The problem with your reading of this scene and the story as a whole is that the drama isn't about Corrin mistrusting the Nohrian siblings, it's her effort to get them to trust her.

There is no contradiction unless you have the unreasonable standard that the only way to demonstrate good faith to your loved ones is to blindly follow anything they say, even if it contradicts your better judgment. And it's absolutely important that this alleged contradiction is comparable to the one made by Nohrrin. You're arguing the existence of a theme when one half of your argument is, charitably speaking, really flimsy. 

All really good points and ones I will agree with especially the bolded portion. Now the question there becomes why doesn’t her plea work? Why does her plea fall on deaf ears? It’s because she places her belief in the evidence shown to her that Garon is evil. I never said she mistrusts Xander cause she doesn’t. She just values this truth over that trust where as with conquest it’s the opposite. She would rather believe that Garon is evil(based on the surface level evidence she’s been given) than put complete faith in her Nohrian siblings. This in turn creates friction as her Nohrian siblings feel betrayed as if Corrin had abandoned that trust they worked so hard to build. They believe Corrin does not value that trust when she does but words are not enough to sway them. She must prove it with her actions as shown in chapter 13 when she temporarily able to sway Camilla by sparing her though this fails due to Leo’s intervention. The whole idea of BR as a narrative is to look beyond what the surface tells you cause the surface can and will lie and distort the truth. Corrin believing Garon to be the true enemy is the basis for this theme. Cause Garon isn’t the true enemy. He’s just the distorted image of the enemy reflected on the water’s surface. I suppose contradiction isn’t really the right word here though. Even still the fact that Corrin is wrong or hypocritical on either route only really serves to accentuate the idea that siding with either Nohr or Hoshido is indeed wrong which is what the narrative is going for.