Fire Emblem B-Support POV: You just refused to let Flayn handle the fish during cooking for the last time (by me @psychaelum, inspired by u/Toedette's cosplay) |
- B-Support POV: You just refused to let Flayn handle the fish during cooking for the last time (by me @psychaelum, inspired by u/Toedette's cosplay)
- Happy Birthday to Claude! My favorite Fire Emblem lord!
- "Fire Emblem Big Band" Commission 6/30 - We got our Drummer! Leonie!
- 0 strength over 21 levels pog
- I drew Rhea in the Danganronpa style
- Summer Byleth and Hilda art I commissioned from @ddaalsegno on Twitter
- [Commission] F!Kana by OrenjiNoodle
- Dancer Claude! (oc)
- Happy Claude day! [OC]
- [OC] Redrew my year old summer Micapell designs
- I did an alternate version of Claude if he was in Edelgard's position, also his b'day is today. :)
- The Struggle between Cynicism and Idealism – Claude's Ambition and Wish
- Hooters Lucina (commission by @Patdarux on Twitter)
- Claude and Byleth as kids for Claude's birthday
- Just because I'm an indecisive piece of shit
- Who's your favourite myrmidon/swordmaster in FE?
- Finally made it through Lagdou Ruins on Hard in FE8!… Now only 2 more times to go ��
- Claude and his wyvern buddy Pasha are doing another birthday AMA, and this time they're giving advice. Comment with your questions and dilemmas and they might answer in the form of a custom drawing!
- Fire Emblem Fates Anna Wallpaper (OC)
- What would you rather use...
- "Fire Emblem Big Band" Commission 8/30 - Tsubasa on Piano! That's right, TMS#FE does count!
- Happy Birthday Claude, my beloved [OC/ @adynamiteboy on Twitter]
| Posted: 24 Jul 2021 01:23 PM PDT
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| Happy Birthday to Claude! My favorite Fire Emblem lord! Posted: 24 Jul 2021 06:06 AM PDT
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| "Fire Emblem Big Band" Commission 6/30 - We got our Drummer! Leonie! Posted: 24 Jul 2021 07:36 AM PDT
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| Posted: 24 Jul 2021 06:24 PM PDT
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| I drew Rhea in the Danganronpa style Posted: 24 Jul 2021 04:35 PM PDT
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| Summer Byleth and Hilda art I commissioned from @ddaalsegno on Twitter Posted: 24 Jul 2021 12:18 PM PDT | ||
| [Commission] F!Kana by OrenjiNoodle Posted: 24 Jul 2021 06:58 AM PDT
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| Posted: 24 Jul 2021 11:25 AM PDT
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| Posted: 24 Jul 2021 02:13 PM PDT
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| [OC] Redrew my year old summer Micapell designs Posted: 24 Jul 2021 04:34 PM PDT
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| I did an alternate version of Claude if he was in Edelgard's position, also his b'day is today. :) Posted: 24 Jul 2021 12:44 AM PDT
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| The Struggle between Cynicism and Idealism – Claude's Ambition and Wish Posted: 24 Jul 2021 11:56 AM PDT Spoilers for Verdant Wind/Golden Deer and Crimson Flower/Black Eagles Claude's goal in Three Houses is often described as breaking down Fodlan's walls or "ending racism." While not necessarily wrong, there is more to his goals than just that. In this analysis, I will shine a spotlight on Claude's goal, its evolution, and how it runs parallel with his one aspect of his character development – starting as a cynical person who buries his idealistic side out of determination to achieve his ambition to someone who does not let his cynical side impede on the sight he wishes to see. This essay is a section of a multi-part analysis about Claude's character. Reading my previous analysis on Claude's fate in non-Verdant Wind routes is not required, but all my points are connected and it does help contextualize my takeaways. Like in my previous analysis, I will be looking at both the English and Japanese version of Three Houses because I think the Japanese dialogue can sometimes show a new perspective. For each section that look at both in, I will specify in parentheses which version of the game I am referencing. "English" means that is the official English localization, "Japanese" means that is the Japanese version, and "Translation" means it is a unofficial translation. Translations will be as direct as possible. They will not be fancy by extension and might even have awkward flow because it is trying to keep the nuance of the original Japanese in mind. But if that is not possible, I will put italicized notes in brackets. Claude's Deepest Desire Claude talks about his goals many times throughout Three Houses. However, they are in slightly different contexts each time and the takeaways end up being different because his goals are quite complex. That being said, Claude's deepest, overarching desire is to have a place to belong for himself and to be accepted. This is articulated clearly in his A-support conversation with Marianne:
At the heart of this support, Claude explicitly states that his goals were born because he thought "he had no place to go." He then follows up, speculating that if he can achieve his goal, "people outside wouldn't have a reason to hate him anymore." These two lines show that he desires a place to belong and that he wants to be accepted. In general, Claude's A-support with Marianne stresses the effects that an isolating childhood rife with bullying and harassment had on him. His account of his backstory in his B-support with Byleth delves a little further into his motivations and how he approaches problems:
Honestly, this support is brimming with nuances about Claude's character (his use of third-person in Japanese, his emotional disconnection to his negative experiences, the usage of "abnormal thing," etc.) that I hope to delve into in the future, but the important takeaway for this analysis is that Claude's parents wanted him to overcome his challenges by himself. This led to Claude's self-reliant and cynical outlook at the start of the game because beforehand, even the people closest to him pushed the idea that he can only rely on himself. Other people close to Claude, Judith and Nader are also self-sufficient and headstrong characters and constantly reinforce that idea as well. And ultimately, these experiences shaped the nature of his ambition and made him believe it was something he had to achieve by himself. Claude's Cynical Ambition In order to satisfy his deepest desire, Claude has multiple goals – a cynical ambition that is meant to serve an idealistic wish. There is a pretty big distinction between the words "野望" (ambition) and "望み" (wish) considering that Claude mainly uses the former in White Clouds and mainly uses the latter in Verdant Wind in Japanese (though occasionally Claude will use "夢" (dream) in place of "望み" (wish)). And notably, "野望" (ambition) can have a sinister connotation in Japanese. The game suggests that these are two separate goals through several lines as well – one of which is in Claude's Goddess Tower conversation:
In Japanese, Claude clearly voices a separate prayer for his "望み" (wish) and "野望" (ambition) like they are two distinct goals that coexist side-by-side. The clearest picture of Claude's ambition can be found in Crimson Flower. If Claude is spared, he later appears in the cutscene and says the following (all credits to u/cyrismustang for this translation):
In Japanese, Claude distinctly does not say "lead Fodlan to peace" himself; therefore, Claude's objective was solely to become supreme ruler. While not overtly stated, I surmise that Claude's ambition was to become supreme ruler of Fodlan so that he instill his own values and then use his position in Fodlan to get the Almyran throne to change Almyra as well. Claude specifically looks toward Fodlan first because he has a claim to power in Fodlan with his Crest and Riegan bloodline (while he does not have a strong claim to the Almyran throne; an interpretation that I previously went in-depth with here). Without Byleth by his side, Claude is stuck in his cynical and self-reliant mindset. Thus, he commits to a cold approach towards satisfying his deepest desire. This is also his focus for a good portion of Verdant Wind and it is for this purpose that he actively seeks power and the Sword of the Creator. That is why he primarily uses "野望" or "ambition" to describe his goals in White Clouds. His Goddess Tower dialogue even implies the selfish aspect of his ambition:
Claude's Idealistic Wish However, even if Claude is focused on his ambition in non-Verdant Wind routes and for a good portion of White Clouds, his idealistic wish still coexists beside it. And these idealistic parts of him slowly become more prominent as he becomes more trusting of others because it runs parallel with that development. Previously when he mentioned his ambition in the Goddess Tower, Claude expressed a clear amount of doubt and omitted details, but by the To War Event in Chapter 12, Claude puts out his wish to Byleth more trustingly by mentioning something he had previously excluded – "景色" (scenery):
Claude begins the conversation about having an ambition before delving into the idea that there is a scenery that he absolutely must see. The English localization chose to translate all mentions of "景色" (scenery) into "dream" for this conversation. That is technically accurate in this instance because the scenery Claude wants to see is his wish and he explicitly describes it at the end of chapter 20 – "The sight I want to see lies beyond that. Honestly, it's a trivial thing to fixate on. Just people, gathered in their towns. Living out their lives together. Sometimes laughing. Sometimes fighting. But the people living there aren't just citizens of Fódlan. [...] All of those people living together, like it's nothing special at all. That's the sight I long to see." Overall, the English localization largely dances around this term but "景色"(scenery) is extremely important for Claude in Japanese and it increasingly has his focus as time passes. It is even the highlight of a special line that he only utters if he has an A-support with Byleth before chapter 19:
This dialogue is also interesting because Claude is expressing doubt towards his ambitions. He already laid out to Byleth in their A-support his plans – "To unify the Alliance, and then all of Fódlan, and to bring a new set of values to this new land of mine... After that, I'd expand that vision to the rest of the world. Break down the walls and let a new perspective come rushing in! Start all over!" – but he is now deliberating whether to be pragmatic and go through with all of that or if something more idealistic would be the better approach to fulfilling his wish. Claude even shows that he is still fairly cynical with the dialogue just prior to this:
None of the choices gives support points towards Claude. But his answers are as follows for each choice respectively:
The response to the first option is a bit different in Japanese:
As a note, Claude is often indirect in Japanese, and in this response, his literal words are indirectly saying that "becoming King would be nice." There is also a fairly big emphasis on himself through his use of "この俺." Nonetheless, Claude explicitly shows interest in becoming Fodlan's king if he can do what he would like to it. These answers suggest that at this point in the story, Claude still had every intention of ruling over Fodlan to instill the values he hopes to see. If Claude had planned to have Byleth rule over Fodlan at this point, his reaction would not have been befuddlement to Byleth's eagerness to ascend Fodlan's throne. Therefore, when Claude says he has someone in mind, he cynically means himself. Having an A-support with Byleth by this point shows that the bonds he has forged are nudging him to change (as he is beginning to express doubt towards this approach), but he is not all the way there yet. However that all changes once Claude fights Edelgard during Chapter 20, Confrontation at the Palace. Before the chapter starts, Claude says that he will "not hesitate to kill [Edelgard]" if she puts his allies in danger. However, events in the actual palace sway this willingness. In a piece of cut dialogue, Claude says "we'll have to take out one of them if we're going to advance... Petra seems like the shortest route..." Here, Claude assessed the situation and rationally noted that killing Petra would be the fastest way to Edelgard since she holds a key and is in the way of the throne room. However, the ellipses in his dialogue betray his words and show that despite it being the most logical solution, he does not want to go down that path. And once Petra is killed, Claude expresses sadness while trying to mask it behind a pragmatic remark (this dialogue does play in the game):
Additionally, Claude worries about Dedue and says "I wonder how Dedue's doing... I hope I get to see him again." Despite how Claude carries himself, all of this death and potential to lose lives weighs on him. And it ultimately leads him to plead for Edelgard to give up if her HP drops below a certain threshold:
All these moments in this chapter show the development of Claude's idealistic and empathetic side and it directly contrasts with his pre-timeskip cynicism and coldness. Claude was initially the one that turned down a potential alliance with Edelgard when she approached him in the library. Back that early in White Clouds, Claude immediately built walls around himself because he distrusts others and believed that anything he says might be used against him. As a result, his response to Edelgard's questions was very vague and he wanted to exchange information for cooperation. It was an unreasonable request that stemmed from his distrust of Edelgard and Byleth. But now, his past cynicism has come here to bite him as the tables have reversed – Edelgard does not trust Claude when he tries to reach out to her. As such, he is ultimately forced to kill Edelgard in order to achieve his goals. Once again, death plagues Claude's path despite how much he tries to avoid it; however, Edelgard's death is the last catalyst to Claude's development. Up until Edelgard's defeat, Claude had been fighting for the sake of his ambitions and he probably saw Fodlan primarily as a stepping stone for his achieving them. This self-absorbed aspect of him forces Edelgard to maintain her conviction and she dies as a consequence. Hubert's letter also showed Claude that Edelgard and Hubert didn't care that they were unable to see through their ambition, they cared about Fodlan's future and were selfless in several ways. Seeing all that is why Claude lost his temper at Rhea in the following scene – he is upset that Rhea was still being selfish and secretive even when others had sacrificed so much (similar to how Claude was before). Afterwards, Claude speaks one-on-one with Byleth and laments how far away the "scenery" he wishes to see is. This is a point of deep reflection for Claude because he is finally seeing how selfish he had been up until that point and how that impedes on the realization of his wish. It is the final push he needed to change. That is why the chapters after the final fight with Edelgard – Shambhala and Nemesis – do not personally connect to Claude. He has changed to not do things just for himself. Claude is fighting TWSITD and Nemesis because they are dangerous to Fodlan's future. That is also why the last chapter's title is "フォドラを守るために" or "For the Sake of Protecting Fodlan" in Japanese. As such, Claude willingly risks his life for a ploy against Nemesis while bellowing out a line that is a culmination of his development in the final cutscene of Verdant Wind:
And upon this moment, a certain music track – Edge of Dawn – plays in the background. This song's connection with Edelgard reinforces the importance she had on Claude's development and how he is now considering others rather than himself. Naturally, Claude still has his goals and he still wants to see the scenery he often spoke about; however, that desire is no longer entirely fueled from the want for his own belonging and acceptance but out of pure altruism and care for others. He understands the cynical mindset he had before held him back and that people need each other to truly live. And at the end of Verdant Wind, Claude leaves Fodlan without becoming its ruler out of trust that his comrades will be accepting of others without him there imposing his own values. TL;DR/Conclusion In the backdrop of Verdant Wind is a tale about a cynical person who buried his idealistic side out of determination to achieve his ambitions developing into someone who will not let his cynical side impede on seeing his wish realized. Claude's wish is to see a mundane scenery of people from all over the world mingling together like it is no big deal. But what he does not understand for a good portion of Three Houses is that his wish is ultimately altruistic and idealistic; thus, it requires trust and belief in the best of others. Throughout Three Houses, Claude mainly focuses on accomplishing his ambition, which is to be becoming the Supreme Ruler of Fodlan to likely instill his own values on the continent while keeping people at arm's length. This is a cynical and cold approach that largely stems from how much reinforcement Claude got in his childhood to be self-reliant and strong. Claude pursues his ambition because both Almyra and Fodlan had been hostile places for him to reside in and he wants to carve out a place to belong for himself and be accepted. But as Claude forges stronger bonds throughout Verdant Wind and through notable events like Edelgard's death, he eventually realizes that being cynical is not the way to see his wish come true. Additionally, he also sees what some people in Fodlan are willing to die for and how important Fodlan is to them. This causes him to re-evaluate his stance on his goals and ultimately why he leaves Fodlan at the end of Verdant Wind despite expressing interest in ruling over it before. As someone who initially saw Fodlan as a stepping stone towards achieving his wish, Claude eventually feels that someone who calls Fodlan their home should be the one to shape it and he trusts that they will be accepting of others regardless of whether he is there imposing his own values. But that is not all there is to Claude's character and development and not all there is to Verdant Wind and the themes of the Golden Deer class. Stay tuned until next time! I want to end on a huge thank you to u/esterve and u/cyrismustang for verifying and/or translating the Japanese portions I wrote about! This essay would not have been possible without their help since I am self-taught in the language and learning. u/cyrismustang has also been translating the entirety of Three Houses's main story as a personal project so please take a look if you're interested in the differences between the English and Japanese dialogue of Three Houses. And another huge thank you to u/esterve and u/Thanni44 for discussing with me! [link] [comments] | ||
| Hooters Lucina (commission by @Patdarux on Twitter) Posted: 24 Jul 2021 04:37 PM PDT | ||
| Claude and Byleth as kids for Claude's birthday Posted: 24 Jul 2021 06:43 PM PDT
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| Just because I'm an indecisive piece of shit Posted: 24 Jul 2021 06:38 PM PDT
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| Who's your favourite myrmidon/swordmaster in FE? Posted: 24 Jul 2021 09:05 AM PDT Hi I'm back again with another instalment of 'who's your favourite?' This time it's the sword units time to shine... I've decided to split all non-lord ground sword units into 3 main categories, myrmidon, mercenary and thief as there are so many sword units in FE and I have favourites in all 3 of those categories that I couldn't pick just one to represent them all. (Honestly I'm just really nosey and wanna see some love for the edgy, sassy and speedy crit lads and ladies of Fire Emblem!) if your favourite is from Echoes or 3H where the names are used interchangeably, feel free to list them anyway in both when I do mercs [link] [comments] | ||
| Finally made it through Lagdou Ruins on Hard in FE8!… Now only 2 more times to go �� Posted: 24 Jul 2021 06:53 PM PDT | ||
| Posted: 24 Jul 2021 10:11 AM PDT
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| Fire Emblem Fates Anna Wallpaper (OC) Posted: 24 Jul 2021 12:04 PM PDT
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| Posted: 24 Jul 2021 07:47 PM PDT A unit with good bases but mediocre growths Or a unit with good growths but mediocre bases. I personally tend to use more growth-oriented units such as Donnel Or Ross, since it can be really fun and rewarding to see a weak units grow into an absolute monster by the end of the game. However, i don't deny the usefulness of units like Jagen Or Frederick, who i enjoy using during the early Game but end up falling behind the rest. Anyway, what's your opinion? [link] [comments] | ||
| "Fire Emblem Big Band" Commission 8/30 - Tsubasa on Piano! That's right, TMS#FE does count! Posted: 24 Jul 2021 08:17 PM PDT
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| Happy Birthday Claude, my beloved [OC/ @adynamiteboy on Twitter] Posted: 24 Jul 2021 05:14 PM PDT
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![[Commission] F!Kana by OrenjiNoodle](https://preview.redd.it/1u97rx6d26d71.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=56db878fc8d2d539cea0b59eeb616f8d8b8ec49a "[Commission] F!Kana by OrenjiNoodle")
![Happy Claude day! [OC]](https://preview.redd.it/8fktbg1688d71.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=62a3e39ca35a08852ee8b0ea72e8727e975c4ec0 "Happy Claude day! [OC]")
![[OC] Redrew my year old summer Micapell designs](https://preview.redd.it/h4tdxwmbx8d71.png?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=06dbe6c058e7c3bc8520a0380eabe12c0eaaf5e6 "[OC] Redrew my year old summer Micapell designs")
![Happy Birthday Claude, my beloved [OC/ @adynamiteboy on Twitter]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/Pnus0NFO1iOdMiyIctGIE-vgBVyfeO4ijikX_kTeGKQ.jpg "Happy Birthday Claude, my beloved [OC/ @adynamiteboy on Twitter]")
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