Do you gravitate toward a male or a female Byleth?

[Darkmoon6789]

I like both of them for different reasons, the male version works better as a player insert as his lack of emotional reactions makes it easy to substitute them with my own emotions. He also have the advantage of being able to date more girls, which is my preferred gender when it comes to romantic partners. This doesn't really matter when it comes to my number one girl, Edelgard as she is available for either gender, but they do have two shoes. The male version if I plan to S rank my second favourite, Lysithea.

That being said, I think female Byleth somehow comes across as more emotional and more of an actual character in her own right, for some reason I ended up really liking her, especially when it comes to shipping her with Edelgard, they just seem to have natural chemistry for me, for whatever reason. One male Byleth is with Edelgard. I see Byleth as myself, when female Byleth is with Edelgard. I see her as a separate individual who have very good chemistry with the Emperor and is quite a cute couple.

Can someone explain what it is with female Byleth in particular that makes her likeable considering she doesn't actually have much character? I can't explain it, but it's definitely what I feel

[Etrurian emperor]

1 minute ago, Darkmoon6789 said:

Can someone explain what it is with female Byleth in particular that makes her likeable considering she doesn't actually have much character? I can't explain it, but it's definitely what I feel

Both are still emotionless but Fembeth has a certain cuteness to her that makes her more expressive. Male Byleth is just a boring guy but Fembeth has some charm. Her being very tiny gets you the cute result of her being bigger then her students at first but them growing past her after the timeskip. Her face also seems a bit more expressive in general but that could just be me.  

[BergelomeuSantos]

I had this discussion with a friend of mine some time ago.

The conclusion of our talk was:

'Male Byleth has more emotion, and genuinely seems to care more about the whole School Thing (..this was mainly because of voices and expressions). Female Byleth seems bored 70% of the time. On the other hand, Female Byleth looks like she's having a blast at Smash Bros.'

In other words, Female Byleth doesn't like Tactical Games and that's now my headcanon. 

And I'm also a bit gay and found Male Byleth way more attractive

Edit: I didn't finish my first impression of Female Byleth because I'm still at Part 1 of the Route I'm playing as her, so most of the stuff about FemByleth was from the perspective of my friend.

Edited March 30, 2020 by BergelomeuSantos

[Shadow Mir]

Male. Rune Factory 4 (and maybe some other games) aside, I have a hard time playing as a girl in relationship-heavy games. Also, the female Byleth looks like whoever designed her was on some serious drugs.

[Ashe02]

26 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Both are still emotionless but Fembeth has a certain cuteness to her that makes her more expressive. Male Byleth is just a boring guy but Fembeth has some charm. Her being very tiny gets you the cute result of her being bigger then her students at first but them growing past her after the timeskip. Her face also seems a bit more expressive in general but that could just be me.  

Also her outfit has more personality in my opinion. That is probably due to it being more messy overall, but still. 

[Gordin]

I prefer female because it just fits better storywise. You can't tell me SS final cutscene works better with Mbyleth for example.

[Mark the Tactician]

As with every avatar I play, I always pick male Byleth in this case.

[Hanes]

14 hours ago, lecongvu said:

but also because of how she acts to her students--she is more mother than teacher to them. She (the player) controls so much of their lives, as well as providing comfort to these mentally-troubled young men and women.

what does F!Byleth do differently than M!Byleth?

I pick Female for that easier acces to darting blow or Sylvain, I dunno. And when I pick Male it's for those skills like Hilda's.

Story-wise I really don't care lol

[Lief]

I like the male design more, so I go male all the time. Didn't help that I watched the first trailer enough times to burn Male Byleth's face into my mind. To me he looks way too cool and evil for a male avatar.

If female Byleth had a better design, I would use her more often. In games where you choose gender, I usually go male if both look good. If I ever play Fire Emblem Warriors, I would definitely go with Lianna since there's no way I'm using super saiyan Rowan.

[Dark Holy Elf]

I usually gravitate towards female avatars and Byleth is no exception. Unlike some other games, though, I haven't even been able to do a playthrough as male, I just hate how his expression always makes him look dead inside. To top it off, FByleth has notable gameplay advantages (Sylvain recruitment, Pegasus access) and my favourite characters in the game are, in some order, the three lords + Dorothea + Hubert, and FByleth can marry 'em all.

(I do play as male Byleth in his Dimitri outfit in Smash though.)

[Void Emperor]

I prefer male Bytheth. He simply has a better design. Although I do prefer lesbian Edelgard ending. I can imagine it, and it would be a very sweet relationship.

[ChickenBits]

I prefer Male Byleth's design so he's usually my go to choice and he can marry all of the girls :L. I did do a playthrough with F!Byleth to s-support Seteth.

[Shadow Mir]

23 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

I usually gravitate towards female avatars and Byleth is no exception. Unlike some other games, though, I haven't even been able to do a playthrough as male, I just hate how his expression always makes him look dead inside. To top it off, FByleth has notable gameplay advantages (Sylvain recruitment, Pegasus access) and my favourite characters in the game are, in some order, the three lords + Dorothea + Hubert, and FByleth can marry 'em all.

(I do play as male Byleth in his Dimitri outfit in Smash though.)

Are there any exceptions then? Like I said, RF4 is about one of the few relationship-heavy games where I'm okay with playing as a girl. At any rate, I just think whatever gameplay advantages female Byleth has are not nearly enough for me to ignore her design. It doesn't help that as usual, most of my favorite characters are female.

Bold: Considering the truth about Byleth, I think it kinda fits.

Edited March 31, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Dark Holy Elf]

8 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Are there any exceptions then? Like I said, RF4 is about one of the few relationship-heavy games where I'm okay with playing as a girl. At any rate, I just think whatever gameplay advantages female Byleth has are not nearly enough for me to ignore her design. It doesn't help that as usual, most of my favorite characters are female.

Bold: Considering the truth about Byleth, I think it kinda fits.

I guess a notable exception for me off the top of my head is Pokemon, where I usually play as a boy.

It fits Byleth's backstory, but not really the fact that other characters find Byleth approachable and likable. (Of course, self-insert characters do tend to result in inconsistent writing like this.) But even if I felt it more fitting, I just don't find it enjoyable to play as.

[Hawkwing]

Dude. I just plain don't like female Byleths outfit, and having to shell out some extra cash to give her a more modest costume doesn't help matters. It would probably bother me less if the monastery stuff didn't take as long, but that's a discussion for elsewhere.

[Shadow Mir]

17 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

I guess a notable exception for me off the top of my head is Pokemon, where I usually play as a boy.

It fits Byleth's backstory, but not really the fact that other characters find Byleth approachable and likable. (Of course, self-insert characters do tend to result in inconsistent writing like this.) But even if I felt it more fitting, I just don't find it enjoyable to play as.

Well, that's a coincidence. I've always preferred the girl in Pokemon. The girls always have better designs in those, from where I'm standing; most, if not all the boys look like Ash clones.

I'd consider the female's outfit to be a far bigger deterrent than that. I mean, even compared to Manuela, I can't help but consider that outfit off-putting.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Visually, I don't care for either Byleth, but male is less worse. Relationships are irrelevant.

If I were to make a strictly gameplay decision, it seems female the clear winner for Byleth (as it was with Corrin b/c early Jakob; Robin optimally was better female too for GF; only Kris prefers maleness for Knight/Fighter start on Maniac & Lunatic), so I'd go with that.

For Robin and Corrin, I usually alternated between the two genders, as I did Gold & Kris, Brendan & May, Red & Leaf, and whatever the DPP duo's names were the eons ago I played Pokemon. I've only done one NM run, but I used female Kris (who is fine visually) for another good Peg, and to save male Kris if ever do Lunatic (not very likely).

Edited April 1, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[tacticianwhite]

Female, because I'm a female and I like playing as my own gender in video games.

[Fire Emblem Fan]

I generally gravitate towards Male Byleth. MUCH better design, more charm and personality, and I found that the animations in the CG cutscenes and such just seemed more natural. Female Byleth is too animatronic, she doesn't ooze much character or charm in my opinion, and her design/outfit is...bleh.

[Slyfox]

I typically play as male characters in games that give you a choice, though from time to time I'll decide to play as a female character as well. I'll do the same with Three Houses.

HOWEVER! I am not looking forward to playing as Bylass (I will though, those S supports don't unlock themselves). I'm not that bothered by her outfit, but it does feels rather unfitting in Three Houses' setting. Like the Ashen Wolves, they can throw their school outfits in the dump, it's so incredibly jarring. Anyway, my main issue with Bylass are the eyes. Holy smokes, those eyes are some of the worst I've seen on any character. It utterly ruins any enjoyment I would have had otherwise. Jeralt's special cutscene is also ruined when Bylass does her shocked expression. They are too big and oddly shaped. That said, I may be biased, as in general I dislike the overly large eyes women tend to have in animation.

Bylad has a better outfit, and I actually like the "dead" look he sports, as it's quite fitting for the character. On a side note, our playable characters still aren't proper "avatars". One day, Intsys, one day...

[iavasechui]

Female at first just cause I’m a girl but later felt that female fit best though that might still be because I’m a girl XD playing male right now to get access to the male only skills for ng+ and i am really wanting to just hurry up and go back to being female.

[Ignister]

Male Byleth. Female Byleth is a horrible design and I don't get why people go for it other than because their hormones go wild or it being your own gender.

Edited April 1, 2020 by Ignister

[Crysta]

5 hours ago, Ignister said:

Male Byleth. Female Byleth is a horrible design and I don't get why people go for it other than because their hormones go wild or it being your own gender.

It's an insane concept, but there are weirdos like me who simply enjoy trying out new things.

[Ottservia]

12 hours ago, Ignister said:

Male Byleth. Female Byleth is a horrible design and I don't get why people go for it other than because their hormones go wild or it being your own gender.

I mean what can I say, she’s really cute. Also she has massive bazongas but my degeneracy aside, she’s simply a lot more expressive than her male counterpart in a lot of subtle ways that allows me to buy into her character better. Like I get Byleth is supposed to be an emotionless kuudere but I just think female Byleth pulls it off better simply by being more expressive than male Byleth

[TrafalaLaw]

Wasn't the entire point of SS is to prove that Byleth by no means has no history nor was never meant to be Sothis vessel? Let alone reincarnation?

Edited April 2, 2020 by TrafalaLaw