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Byleth Character Opinion Thread(Spoiler to Ch. 10)


Deathcon
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I have seen some mixed views on Byleth so far, and I created this thread to see everyone's opinion on the teal haired silent avatar of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Note this is not a "opinion thread" it is a "character opinion thread" so if you hate Byleth from Smash then go to the actual Smash forums not Three Houses.

First what do I feel about Byleth?

Personally I think he is the second best avatar only behind Robin, and yes all avatars have a character, as he... How do I put this?

He has a character arc.

When you first meet your avatar(mine is male so I will be using male pronouns) he is literally a blank face protag who shows no emotion even when he was a child. The one of the three leaders try to recruit you after you save them from a bandit attack, I am sure that won't come up later, and although you don't pick a house yet you can get favor points with the one you want to choose. After meeting Alois, who you can joke around with showing that there is humanity under Byleth's blank face, you arrive at Garreg Mach and choose a house.

Now, there isn't really all I can say as his personality can vary depending on the player's choices ie supports, house, random dialogue choices, etc. So let us jump to Ch. 8 where Byleth shows visible angry towards Solon and afterwords Jeralt notes that since you been around your students you showed more emotions like anger, happiness, etc. He even wonders if he should have ever left seeing the state your in and now trusting Rhea and her allies just a bit more and, if he was given the chance, would have likely explained the truth of your birth. Then comes Ch. 9...

After battling a horde of demonic beasts and saving four academy students. Monica, really Kronya, stabs Jeralt in the back. Byleth, clearly shocked and angry before using Divine Pulse, attempts to save Jeralt but is stopped by Thales. Knowing he can't save his father Byleth holds Jeralt's dying body as he the rains fall and the tears fall as well. The first time he cried in all his life...

Saddened by Jeralt's death Byleth broods and has to have their house leader bring them back from the brink even so it is clear that Byleth is still sad and puts his head down in the menu, has the option to cry on Sothis' shoulder, and have sad music play in the background. Then right before the end of the month Byleth and his house attempt to get revenge for Jeralt by killing Kronya. Kronya attepst to run away and Byleth chases wishing to kill their father's killer before falling into a trap.

Sothis, knowing there is no other way, sacrifices herself to fuse with Byleth and Byleth is saddened by this. After getting out of his trap Byleth delivers godly judgemnet on Solon and kills him.

Now, Byleth can have a second lesser character arc depending on the house but I think I am done. So what are your opinions?

Edited by Deathcon
Fixing 2
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I personally would have liked 3H better if it didn't have Byleth and showed the game through either the 3 lords eyes. Like literally when the war is driven into a stalemate Byleth just shows up and they are just able to win the war is complete BS. Like show what the 3 could have done to move the war on. but then again there would be a lot of plotholes if Byleth wasn't in the game.

Edited by PeonyofLeosa Dreamworld
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The game purposely avoids giving him any definitive personality traits so players can self-insert to their heart's content. He doesn't even really have memories to recount. He says just enough to keep the conversation and plot moving.

It's like Mark but with dialogue choices that essentially mean the same thing.

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Byleth bores me but that's inherent to his status as blank slate. Three Houses dealt with it as best as they could. Byleth's blank slate protagonist act is addressed as being really weird which helps him fit into the world. He's not some blank slates that weirdly exist in a sea of developed characters but a blank slate who has clearly defined reasons for being a blank slate and who's nature confuses and worries some people. 

As an avatar he's probably the best handled one because he really is a player avatar. That's not a plot device I find all that interesting but its a lot better handled than Corrin who was a player avatar despite having a very clear identity that doesn't align with the players he's supposed to represent. 

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Byeleth annoys me. They stand in a weird limbo between full fledged Lord in their own right, and a mere "nothing" character to allow the player to feel inside the game itself. I'd rather them be one of the two, not what they are in between.

If they were just another character, and not the "player character", it would afford them the ability to have more of a character arc. The whole aspect of them being emotionless and then coming into their emotions as the story progressed would've had more of an impact if they weren't tethered to being a conduit for us between the real world and the game's world.

On the other hand, if they were truly just an avatar, then let the character be fully customizable. Let the dialog choices actually be dialog choices that we can choose to represent whatever kind of personality that we would want to represent in the game. Let me change how I look and emote myself with the characters. Let the player truly represent themselves in the game.

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Honestly, the idea of the non talking protagonist sounded cool to me at first, since i dreaded Corrin and Kris (Robin was ok) I thought they were going to be like the Persona protagonists, they have a lot of personality and character despite barely speaking.

Sadly, Byleth was not like this, and them being so bland took away from the games story for me. They were the most tolerable on AM since that's arguably the route they're least important on since it's all about Dimitri, but SIlver Snow was terrible.

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Byleth is probably one of my least favorite lords in the series, which says a lot considering how good Three Houses is. He's not an awful character like Corrin mind you, but he's such a boring lifeless blank slate of a character that there really isn't anything to like about him. I know there's a reason for why he's such a blank slate, but still. The house leaders are way more interesting than Byleth, and him being basically the only lord in the Silver Snow route really highlights some of the problems I have with Byleth.

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"Both sides of time are revealed to you. What shall you do?"

Be a goldfish in all my scenes with the other Lords because I'm not allowed to challenge their viewpoints or influence their growth despite how much I supposedly mean to them.

Edited by Glennstavos
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I’d say that Byleth is... okay. They’re an improvement over Corrin and Alm, and, while I like their moments of emotion (which admittedly wouldn’t stand out as much if he wasn’t as blank/stoic as he was), I honestly think I would’ve preferred if Byleth had more personality.

Corrin and Robin had the issue of being custom protagonists with fixed dialogue, so the player can’t insert themselves in story moments, but their character still seems soulless for the most part. Byleth has the opposite problem: they’re a fixed protagonist with custom dialogue. This makes them seem less like a protagonist we’re supposed to insert ourselves into, and more of a protagonist we’re supposed to guide. That isn’t inherently a bad thing, and there are games that have pulled it off; most notably Breath of the Wild and The Witcher games. Here’s the difference: Link and Geralt are brimming with personality; they have their own goals and motivations, even with player choices. 

It says something that my favourite Byleth moments are chapters 9 and 10, and even those felt disappointing, though admittedly that has more to do with Kronya than Byleth. Kronya should’ve lasted more than the one chapter, and there should’ve been Byleth vs Kronya one-on-one where it is less of a fight and more of Byleth angrily tearing Kronya apart. With Kronya at their mercy, Byleth is about to make the finishing blow, but some of their students try to stop them. They all agree that Kronya needs to be executed, but, while some agree that Byleth should get vengeance, some of them suggest it should not be by Byleth’s hand. Ultimately, the player has to choose to have Byleth either kill Kronya or hand Kronya over to their students, and either choice has consequences. 

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29 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

I’d say that Byleth is... okay. They’re an improvement over Corrin and Alm, and, while I like their moments of emotion (which admittedly wouldn’t stand out as much if he wasn’t as blank/stoic as he was), I honestly think I would’ve preferred if Byleth had more personality.

Corrin and Robin had the issue of being custom protagonists with fixed dialogue, so the player can’t insert themselves in story moments, but their character still seems soulless for the most part. Byleth has the opposite problem: they’re a fixed protagonist with custom dialogue. This makes them seem less like a protagonist we’re supposed to insert ourselves into, and more of a protagonist we’re supposed to guide. That isn’t inherently a bad thing, and there are games that have pulled it off; most notably Breath of the Wild and The Witcher games. Here’s the difference: Link and Geralt are brimming with personality; they have their own goals and motivations, even with player choices. 

It says something that my favourite Byleth moments are chapters 9 and 10, and even those felt disappointing, though admittedly that has more to do with Kronya than Byleth. Kronya should’ve lasted more than the one chapter, and there should’ve been Byleth vs Kronya one-on-one where it is less of a fight and more of Byleth angrily tearing Kronya apart. With Kronya at their mercy, Byleth is about to make the finishing blow, but some of their students try to stop them. They all agree that Kronya needs to be executed, but, while some agree that Byleth should get vengeance, some of them suggest it should not be by Byleth’s hand. Ultimately, the player has to choose to have Byleth either kill Kronya or hand Kronya over to their students, and either choice has consequences. 

>Byleth better than Alm

You dissing my favorite lord?

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Seeing all the Corrin hate on here makes me sad. Y’all are far too harsh on them. Corrin is a good boy/girl. But that’s besides the point.

As for my opinion on Byleth. They’re alright. I still hold on to the opinion that Robin is the best Avatar in the series simply because of how well they were able to blend together fixed dialogue with being a self-insert. Byleth is probably the second best avatar I’ve seen the series do. They’re written exactly like a typical persona protagonist. They have their own past and something of their own personality and no real character arc to speak of(ok Byleth does have one but it’s a little more on the subdued side). They are very much so supposed to be a representation of the player in every regard and the depth of their character comes from how they affect the world around them not how the world effects them. Like I said they’re a persona protagonist so how they affect the other characters(negatively or positively) is what allows the story to really thrive. The focus isn’t really on them but more so how they affect other characters.

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I think the explanation for Byleth's blank-slatedness isn't terrible, tbh.

But, like, he didn't even have a definitive stance on whether or not Jeralt was his dad. If that isn't a bland attempt to emulate the player's own potential wishy-washyness, I don't know what is. I don't think there was ever a reason presented to explain significant memory loss?

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I haven't gotten all that far into the game, so my opinion is liable to change, but I found Byleth to be better handled than I expected, if still middle-of-the-road in quality. Even though the dialogue options rarely gave the opportunity to say what I wanted to if I was actually in that situation, I was surprised at how engaged I was whenever Byleth did had the chance to speak. Due to gaining support points depending on how you respond, it made me think about what each character would want to hear, which was encouragement to pay attention each of the units quirks as well as the main story. I was also surprised at how subtle their facial expressions could be at showing their emotions. It took a while to notice, but it was neat to see them change in the background.

I'm 50/50 on Byleth's support conversations. On the one hand, I'm a quiet guy in real life, and often listen more than I speak, so I actually relate to Byleth's situation during conversations and don't find the occasional one-sideness all that jarring. On the other hand, as a player, I wanted a few more opportunities to pipe in. I will say it's a pretty commendable first attempt, and I'm curious to see how a future game will improve upon them.

If I had a complaint about the dialogue options writing-wise, it would have to be that Byleth's lack of knowledge about the world of Foldan reminded me unfavorably of "what's a paladin?", where a character asks a question they should already know about in-universe just so the player gets an explanation. Robin had the excuse of amnesia (and I thought there was a solid variety in how the scenes where they asked a question played out) and Corrin was sheltered most of their life, while Byleth is a traveling mercenary. The writers could have at least have them say that they've heard of certain locations or factions, but either don't know the finer details or want a second opinion.

I also can't say I'm a fan of Byleths lack of customization and a voice, even if I do understand understand why both are limited (the former due to cutscenes being choreographed in such a way that they couldn't easily cheese the avatars appearance like they could in Awakening and Fates, and the latter because the sheer amount of lines Byleth has would add up very quickly in production costs, and that's not even getting into how they would have to record it twice for each gender. Considering they had to replace one of Byleths voice actors, that may have been a blessing in disguise for IS). Neither ruin the game for me, but every now and again I do wish that I could have chosen what Byleths mug would look like considering I'm going to be staring at it for 50+ hours. Considering how past avatars wore the same outfit and male Byleths cloak is pretty androgynous, I also wish female Byleth had a similar design instead of the weird costume she has now, but complaining about female Byleths odd fashion tastes is a dead horse at this point. Silent protagonists don't bother me, but the vocal talents of everyone else in the cast makes that Byleths lack of speech pretty glaring.

I know that could come off as negative, but I really do think Byleth is an okay avatar. I prefer Robin at the end of the day, since I enjoy their interactions more and while I don't think they're a great avatar, they do serve the role of being an audience surrogate surprisingly well. Again, I'm still on my first playthrough and haven't reached the timeskip yet, so maybe my opinion will change later on.

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4 hours ago, Gregster101 said:

>Byleth better than Alm

You dissing my favorite lord?

You quoted everything I said just to argue against the Alm point that was in the first paragraph?

Anyway; yes, Byleth is better. I'm not dissing your favourite lord; I'm just stating a writing fact. Before I begin, I would like to clarify that I have no intention of taking your enjoyment of your favourite lord character; that is subjective, personal, and I wouldn't want to take that away. That out of the way, let's begin. 

Alm had potential to be very interesting. However, he suffers from two major problems that impair his character:

The first problem is that Alm, like Corrin before him, is a Mary Sue. He and Corrin share so many different indicators of this:

  • Alm and Corrin are both fixed points in their fictional universe around which the narrative spins. For example, you thought that Celica's searching for Mila would be a separate yet interconnected part of the story that's all about her trying to show that there's more to be done than just fighting the opponents in front of them, only to have to learn that overdependency on Mila is a bad thing? Tricked you; it's actually all about how she can't go without Alm and will do anything to protect him and how she needs him to save her from her poor decisions that were all made for him, rather than for Zofia. He makes plots that aren't supposed to be strictly about him into plots that are strictly about him; the plot is unnaturally distorted around him. This is almost the definition of a Mary Sue. 
  • Alm and Corrin win all the time because the writers will accept no other option. Other lords suffer defeats in their respective games; defeats that hit them personally, force them to grow, etc. Alm and Corrin just don't; the story will go out of its way to ensure adversity can largely be brushed off and any challenge can be won... which, in objective terms, is stale, and, in subjective terms, is just plain boring. Case in point; Alm has never been in a real fight, yet he wins the first siege that he ever leads when the odds are very much stacked against them, he soundly defeats Berkut every time they fight, etc. 
  • Everyone is fawning over them. Every girl wants them, and every guy wants to be them. Alm has no less than 3 girls pining for him, and the ones that aren't doing so are either priestesses who don't seem interested in romance at all (Silque), or girls who are already in a romance (Matilda). Similarly, most of the guys can't seem to go a minute without comparing themselves unfavourably to Alm or gushing about how special and cool Alm is. We even have a main villain whose spiral is that he can't compete with Alm (Berkut), and the only person who objects to the idea of an inexperienced newbie being given complete command of the resistance solely for propaganda purposes is an irrational bigot who becomes an antagonist (Ferdinand). 
  • Their flaws aren't treated as actual flaws. For example, Alm is reckless; one to leap before he looks, and it never gets him into trouble; in fact, sometimes it's magically made out to have been the best course of action. Contrast this with Ike: another reckless FE protagonist. The difference is that Ike's recklessness lands them in trouble all the time. Ike rushing out upon hearing of Mist's kidnapping instead of waiting for Titania lands them all in hot water and nearly dooms the rescue mission. He and the others that left are all punished by Greil. Similarly, Ike tells off Empress Sanaki after she admits that she knew along that Elincia is indeed the princess of Crimea, and she was just messing with them for her own amusement. He does this right in front of her and the entire Begnion Senate, and it nearly gets him executed. 

And these are just a few examples. Overall, both are Mary Sues; glorification of the character takes precedence over actually writing the character. This feeds into Alm's other problem. I call it the Twilight Princess effect:

The main problem, as I see it, with Twilight Princess is that it was so concerned with emulating past Legend of Zelda games (particularly Ocarina of Time) that it forgot to stand out on its own, and, as a result, the things about it that were unique and interesting (Wolf Link, the Twilight Realm, Zant) went underdeveloped and underutilized.

Alm has a similar issue: in a game all about duality: the way of the sword vs the way of the heart and finding balance between the two, a generic FE lord does not fit. But the things about Alm that are given the most attention by the story are all things emulating previous FE lords; especially Marth, in such a way that they do not fit thematically, and the things about him that make him unique and stand out as well as fit thematically (his single-minded focus on the next battle to fight) is left underdeveloped and underutilized. I don't need to go into as much detail about this one, as this one is rather obvious. People were pointing this out when the game first came out; the only counterargument being that his personality still fits. It doesn't

 

Anyway; that's my little dissection of Alm as a character and his main problems. The reason I mention it is that Byleth largely doesn't have these issues: Byleth does have clear flaws that are treated like flaws, Byleth doesn't unnaturally distort the plot around themselves; basically, Byleth is not a Mary Sue. He is a bit derivative of Ike on the surface (reckless and raised by a mercenary leader that was once the greatest knight in the land), but overall does have a lot that stands out; namely their silence. 

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9 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

You quoted everything I said just to argue against the Alm point that was in the first paragraph?

Anyway; yes, Byleth is better. I'm not dissing your favourite lord; I'm just stating a writing fact. Before I begin, I would like to clarify that I have no intention of taking your enjoyment of your favourite lord character; that is subjective, personal, and I wouldn't want to take that away. That out of the way, let's begin. 

Alm had potential to be very interesting. However, he suffers from two major problems that impair his character:

The first problem is that Alm, like Corrin before him, is a Mary Sue. He and Corrin share so many different indicators of this:

  • Alm and Corrin are both fixed points in their fictional universe around which the narrative spins. For example, you thought that Celica's searching for Mila would be a separate yet interconnected part of the story that's all about her trying to show that there's more to be done than just fighting the opponents in front of them, only to have to learn that overdependency on Mila is a bad thing? Tricked you; it's actually all about how she can't go without Alm and will do anything to protect him and how she needs him to save her from her poor decisions that were all made for him, rather than for Zofia. He makes plots that aren't supposed to be strictly about him into plots that are strictly about him; the plot is unnaturally distorted around him. This is almost the definition of a Mary Sue. 
  • Alm and Corrin win all the time because the writers will accept no other option. Other lords suffer defeats in their respective games; defeats that hit them personally, force them to grow, etc. Alm and Corrin just don't; the story will go out of its way to ensure adversity can largely be brushed off and any challenge can be won... which, in objective terms, is stale, and, in subjective terms, is just plain boring. Case in point; Alm has never been in a real fight, yet he wins the first siege that he ever leads when the odds are very much stacked against them, he soundly defeats Berkut every time they fight, etc. 
  • Everyone is fawning over them. Every girl wants them, and every guy wants to be them. Alm has no less than 3 girls pining for him, and the ones that aren't doing so are either priestesses who don't seem interested in romance at all (Silque), or girls who are already in a romance (Matilda). Similarly, most of the guys can't seem to go a minute without comparing themselves unfavourably to Alm or gushing about how special and cool Alm is. We even have a main villain whose spiral is that he can't compete with Alm (Berkut), and the only person who objects to the idea of an inexperienced newbie being given complete command of the resistance solely for propaganda purposes is an irrational bigot who becomes an antagonist (Ferdinand). 
  • Their flaws aren't treated as actual flaws. For example, Alm is reckless; one to leap before he looks, and it never gets him into trouble; in fact, sometimes it's magically made out to have been the best course of action. Contrast this with Ike: another reckless FE protagonist. The difference is that Ike's recklessness lands them in trouble all the time. Ike rushing out upon hearing of Mist's kidnapping instead of waiting for Titania lands them all in hot water and nearly dooms the rescue mission. He and the others that left are all punished by Greil. Similarly, Ike tells off Empress Sanaki after she admits that she knew along that Elincia is indeed the princess of Crimea, and she was just messing with them for her own amusement. He does this right in front of her and the entire Begnion Senate, and it nearly gets him executed. 

And these are just a few examples. Overall, both are Mary Sues; glorification of the character takes precedence over actually writing the character. This feeds into Alm's other problem. I call it the Twilight Princess effect:

The main problem, as I see it, with Twilight Princess is that it was so concerned with emulating past Legend of Zelda games (particularly Ocarina of Time) that it forgot to stand out on its own, and, as a result, the things about it that were unique and interesting (Wolf Link, the Twilight Realm, Zant) went underdeveloped and underutilized.

Alm has a similar issue: in a game all about duality: the way of the sword vs the way of the heart and finding balance between the two, a generic FE lord does not fit. But the things about Alm that are given the most attention by the story are all things emulating previous FE lords; especially Marth, in such a way that they do not fit thematically, and the things about him that make him unique and stand out as well as fit thematically (his single-minded focus on the next battle to fight) is left underdeveloped and underutilized. I don't need to go into as much detail about this one, as this one is rather obvious. People were pointing this out when the game first came out; the only counterargument being that his personality still fits. It doesn't

 

Anyway; that's my little dissection of Alm as a character and his main problems. The reason I mention it is that Byleth largely doesn't have these issues: Byleth does have clear flaws that are treated like flaws, Byleth doesn't unnaturally distort the plot around themselves; basically, Byleth is not a Mary Sue. He is a bit derivative of Ike on the surface (reckless and raised by a mercenary leader that was once the greatest knight in the land), but overall does have a lot that stands out; namely their silence. 

Honestly it feels like whenever I say I have Alm as my favorite lord, people just start questioning me for it and pointing out his flaws, and as a result it just makes me feel really, really uncomfortable. Also, don't you dare lump Alm with fucking Corrin.

Edited by Gregster101
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14 minutes ago, Gregster101 said:

Honestly it feels like whenever I say I have Alm as my favorite lord, people just start questioning me for it and pointing out his flaws, and as a result it just makes me feel really, really uncomfortable

It really shouldn't; I even opened up with the statement that I have no intention of trying to take Alm being your favourite lord away from you. It's more than okay to like something and recognize that it has problems; we all do it.

My favourite Zelda game is Spirit Tracks, and I will be the first to point out that it has an overdependency on the touch screen and using the Spirit Flute is abysmal if you lack any embouchure for woodwind instruments, as you have to breathe on the touch screen to get it to work, and that's just stupid. It is still my favourite Zelda game, as there are plenty of things to like about it (such as Link and Zelda's relationship in the game being utterly adorable) and, ultimately, something being a person's favourite is very subjective; about as subjective as it gets. 

It's the same thing with you and Alm. My suggestion is this: don't feel uncomfortable when people point out Alm's flaws; embrace it instead, so that you ask yourself why it is that you like his character as much as you do. The answer is almost never "??"; there's almost always a reason, and you'll more greatly appreciate those things that you like about Alm. 

Anyway; that's just my advice. 

Edited by vanguard333
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3 hours ago, Gregster101 said:

Honestly it feels like whenever I say I have Alm as my favorite lord, people just start questioning me for it and pointing out his flaws, and as a result it just makes me feel really, really uncomfortable. Also, don't you dare lump Alm with fucking Corrin.

People disliking characters you like is not a personal attack and feeling uncomfortable about is not healthy. People have different opinions on characters, and that's okay.

Also, a thought: if you feel that strongly, how do you think a similarly passionate Corrin fan feels reading the statement you just made?

 

Anyway Byleth isn't very good. S/he's a silent main with not much personality and the game periodically stops to worship the ground s/he walks on (e.g. after Gronder 1); in a generally well-written game those scenes stand out as things I'm a bit embarrassed to watch. The one thing I will give Byleth is that by making this boring avatar that players who like to self-insert can gravitate to, the writers probably felt liberated to create the morally complicted characters the lords turned out to be rather than the usual annoyingly perfect Fire Emblem mains we've gotten so often. So their existence is probably a good thing, even if the character itself is problematic.

I did rather like the plot point about them having no emotions and slowly gaining them, would have made for a solid arc on a real character. I also think the game manages to write surprisingly good relationships between Byleth and all three lords despite their silence, so that's neat.

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10 hours ago, Ottservia said:

Seeing all the Corrin hate on here makes me sad. Y’all are far too harsh on them. Corrin is a good boy/girl. But that’s besides the point.

But maybe consider that's why people are so harsh. Corrin is too good in my opinion and that's what makes them boring. And the only reason Corrin works better as a girl is because we allow girls to be more naive/etc. I think it comes down to the actual flaws of the story/writing really, really impacting Corrin specifically, who maybe outside of that bad plot/writing might have been a good character.

But to Byleth...hmmm. I don't think he's very comparable to Robin OR Corrin. If we're ranking. Robin comes ins 1st. And Byleth falls pretty short of that at 2nd, but still ranks miles and miles and miles above the mess that is Corrin.

But in terms of his actual character, I think they did a great job keeping him just blank enough to self-insert, if anything almost to a detriment to the other characters who I feel like could have had MORE light to shine against a "real" character such as Robin or Corrin. Both R/C had defined personalities and growth in their games, which meant I couldn't self-insert. Or rather ... it's a toss-up. Robin I personally related to, and so naturally, even though I didn't self insert, I was VERY concerned about his growth and development. Versus Corrin was someone I would hate in real-life and generally don't like their personality in video games, it's grating, so I was forced to be SO distant from the game just to stomach the decisions "I" was making. 

Whereas we didn't get too much choice with Byleth (the dialogue options were pretty bare bones), but it did allow me to sorta imagine my own personality for him, which was good and bad. Good for the inevitable 'shipping' and having favorite characters. Bad for said development of 'shipping' and favorite characters. Even if I personally found Dorothea incredibly interesting and Sylvain in need of a desperate hug, Byleth's interactions with them were so distant, and so their characters shined much better when bounced off others, which made romancing Dorothea for example, feel .... not right. Like I was robbing her of someone she really needed.

Overall it didn't detract from my enjoyment. If anything it was when they gave Byleth too much personality. For instance on Claude's route, there's a few dialogue options about Rhea (who I literally wanted to kill from the beginning of the game), and there's no option to dismiss her or not care! It's all about "saving her" or "being worried", when in reality, I was just as skeptical about her as Claude was, and I wanted to share in that skepticism with him. So in those cases, it brought me out of the game because suddenly my self-insert was showing their own characteristics. 

I definitely found myself wishing they just gave him a defined personality, but that was always mitigated by Corrin existing and how much I disliked their personality and yet how much we were supposed to BE Corrin, so I'm pretty satisfied by how they handled Byleth.

As a character? Idk. I wouldn't call him that. But as a ... vessel? I enjoyed him.

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Better than My Butt, Robin and OMG I can tell you that much, not that it's hard but shhhhh.

Byleth doesn't have a shitty personality or dialogues like those three morons, but he has enough to be interesting and without taking over everything, it's not perfect but it's there.
...It also help that the story is flat out better, again, not that it's hard.

Mind you, it might be because the previous My Unit, their game and story just destroyed my brain cells. 😛

1 hour ago, Mikethemaster2018 said:

He probably saying they have the same issue bring dick sucked by every character.

I don't understand where this come from. Alm doesn't really get worshiped all that much, 😕

He's fairly normal. I mean he does have three persons pining for him and the commoner/noble angle wasn't perfect, but it's still miles away from before.

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20 minutes ago, B.Leu said:

Better than My Butt, Robin and OMG I can tell you that much, not that it's hard but shhhhh.

Byleth doesn't have a shitty personality or dialogues like those three morons, but he has enough to be interesting and without taking over everything, it's not perfect but it's there.
...It also help that the story is flat out better, again, not that it's hard.

Mind you, it might be because the previous My Unit, their game and story just destroyed my brain cells. 😛

I don't understand where this come from. Alm doesn't really get worshiped all that much, 😕

He's fairly normal. I mean he does have three persons pining for him and the commoner/noble angle wasn't perfect, but it's still miles away from before.

You must remember different. In my playthrough get his junk sucked so much it not annoying but he get so much priased it funny. I like Alm but yeah he get to much player/insert priased. Not as much as Corrin does but alot.

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Byleth is necessary for the story to function. There are four routes and there'd be a plot hole if Edelgard won in one route but lost in the others despite all the characters being the same as well as the military and political situation. Byleth, is the one who changes the state of the war in the routes he chooses. 

So story wise, he's good, but his character is pretty boring. 

On 1/22/2020 at 9:41 PM, vanguard333 said:
  • Alm and Corrin win all the time because the writers will accept no other option. Other lords suffer defeats in their respective games; defeats that hit them personally, force them to grow, etc. Alm and Corrin just don't; the story will go out of its way to ensure adversity can largely be brushed off and any challenge can be won... which, in objective terms, is stale, and, in subjective terms, is just plain boring. Case in point; Alm has never been in a real fight, yet he wins the first siege that he ever leads when the odds are very much stacked against them, he soundly defeats Berkut every time they fight, etc. 

Where did Seliph and Roy suffer defeats in their respective games? 

Edited by Icelerate
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26 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

Where did Seliph and Roy suffer defeats in their respective games? 

  1. I never said all the other lords, but most FE lords do suffer defeats, failures and/or losses, including: Marth, Celica, Sigurd, Eliwood, Ike, Micaiah, Chrom, Lucina, and Byleth at least. 
  2. I have never played Seliph's or Roy's games, so I can neither confirm nor deny that they ever suffer defeats in their respective games. However, I've heard enough about Roy's game to know that it at least established a character limitation for Roy: namely that he's a poor fighter and more of a strategist. In the case of Seliph, even if he doesn't, his dad suffers more than enough for the both of them (this last part is a joke)
Edited by vanguard333
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6 hours ago, Icelerate said:

Where did Seliph and Roy suffer defeats in their respective games? 

Seliph got his sister kidnapped by the big bad cultist guy, Roy existed. Thought we were talking about El;iwood at first.

Edited by CyberNinja
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