I am indeed still trying to find time to do these, mostly because it’s my only chance to draw fire emblem fanart amidst the harsh battle that is thesis.
But really I find rings in those giant battlefield chests all the time! What must people think when it’s a human sized chest and it’s holding a coin size ring?!
/I have a thing for chars that snapped so pls let me do this/
I’ll explain this AU-
An AU where Dedue was the one who made it out alive while Dimitri sacrificed himself. Not wanting to see Dedue die and not being able to live with the few remaining survivors of Duscur.
Dedue considers the death of Dimitri to be his fault and he blames himself for failing as a vassal. As his shield.
So- in a sense, instead of Dimitri being haunted by the death of those from the tragedy of Duscur.
It’s Dedue who is haunted by Dimitri, by failing to protect the one who swore to protect. Believing that if he kills Cornelia he’ll be forgiven by his highness.
I thought it’d be cool if dimitri got an antagonist form like [spoiler] and I wished that CF played more into some stuff they lightly imply w him so here are some loosely drawn Holy King Dimitris
some nerd story thoughts below for the design [FE3H AM & CF SPOILERS]
Some misc/clarifying notes bc while it would be cool & smart i’m unlikely to ever make a real reference style drawing of Holy King Dimitri - it’s his alt. hairstyle - his fur cape has a radial star/sword pattern around the collar - his cloak has a dragon wing-esque pattern and ribbing to it - circlet w classic church patterning and an eye-like jewel at the center - left side armor chest scar for his bleeding heart nature until someone tells me a good reason why it’s on the right - he’s loyal to Rhea for the normal canon reasons & also she saved his life w her blood after a particularly brutal and reckless battle. though his right eye appears to be healed he still cannot see through it - faerghus troops would be named something religious sounding and HK!Dimitri would lead them on Holy Crusades
now for the true nerd & spoiler stuff:
Sight and the lack of it is Holy King Dimitri’s theme. Dimitri is kind, full of emotion, and focused on what’s in front of him. With Rhea’s manipulation, Holy King Dimitri is all of the above to a fault. She capitalizes on his blind spots and direct nature, and gradually dictates everything he’s aware of. HK!Dimitri sees the war casualties and fallen innocents, but not the secret experiments and systematic inequalities that cause harm in the long term. Eventually, he would be blind even to the former, as long as it’s committed by the Church or one of his Holy Crusades. By the time something causes him to recognize the manipulations of the Church the corrupt masterminds around him, it’ll be too late - or maybe he’ll live forever in his delusion until he falls to the Emperor’s axe.
i thought about it but Holy King Dimitri would not have a monster form. Just like how Hegemon Edelgard is Dimitri’s worst fear (becoming a monster, estranged and out of touch w her subjects, ambition at a devastating cost), Holy King Dimitri is Edelgard’s worst fear. She is not afraid of becoming a monster; she’s afraid of becoming a puppet ruler, a king/emperor with all the bravado of one, but no real power or agency to protect what she truly values.
She’s afraid of being a shortsighted and gullible human being, overlooking the same hidden injustices that shaped her childhood and missing the unseen victims, just like how she was. If Dimitri fears the emotional distance between a ruler their subjects that can allow them to justify difficult choices over the body count of individuals, Edelgard fears being too close & too emotionally precious to see the bigger picture and the body count of those fallen prey to a larger system.
anyways fe3h doesn’t seem to be interested in truly presenting Dimitri as a possible antagonist but i think he has so much villain potential, and i mean that in the best way possible!! it’s all there man! and it’d make the duality of edelgard & dimitri that much more compelling asldkj thanks for coming to my ted talk
(also i love edelgard so if u really don’t like her that’s valid but i don’t need to know)
don’t think about the edge of dawn musical motifs in the Azure Moon final battle music, only thoughts about big monster lady hot, Do Not think about edge of dawn musical moti
don’t get me wrong though I am an edeleth stan first
But just the fact that:
They were both each other’s first loves
El confessing that her memories of their time together (in this route anyways) is what allowed her to “keep her heart” throughout all the terrible things that happened to her
Just the overall drama and tragedy of their relationship; we love to see it.
I’m down for it man.
We were robbed by the fact that Dimitri and Edelgard cannot co-exist together because of the war going on, the dodgy shit happening in Fodlan (and what happened to the both of them as a result), and Dimitri being the prince of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus .
Dimitri never had the chance to learn about the experiments that happened to the rest of the Hresvelg children (+ Lysithea) and the real reason why Edelgard wanted to start the war.
But imagine if they became good friends during their school days though, imagine if they became close enough to share their tragedies with one another. Would azure moon or crimson flowers end differently? Would there even be a need for Edelgard’s war? And not just a destroy-those-who-slither-in-the-dark campaign.
And those are the “what if’s” that will send me to ruins over dimigard…
Do y’all ever think about the fact that in the (fantastically voice-acted) scene in Azure Moon where Rodrigue dies, Dimitri isn’t just terrified to lose him because he’s the only father-figure he’s known since the Tragedy of Duscur, or because he blames himself for his death, but because he’s terrified that he’ll join the voices in his head screaming for revenge. Because if they pull that again in Three Hopes I’m out sis
Every day. EVERY DAY I’m thinking about the genius move in Azure Moon’s writing to have FELIX be the only one to warn Byleth about Dimitri’s darkside.
It’s genius because of its tragic futility. Felix is the absolute worst person out of the Blue Lions to reveal this knowledge, however, not because we won’t believe him. Except for perhaps about his feelings (textbook tsundere), Felix doesn’t lie—the game establishes straight out of the gate that he is a very blunt person. No, it’s not because we can’t believe him, it’s because both we the player and Byleth the character don’t want to believe him.
We the player are witness to Felix’s interactions with his fellow classmates, and with little insight into his backstory, his early supports paint him as an abrasive, unfeeling jerk who hates his dad and his friends and cares about nothing but fighting and…well, fighting. As most of the barbs and accusations we see him throwing at his friends are for the most part untrue (though he certainly himself believes them, so he’s not lying), we have no reason or desire to believe Felix’s claims about Dimitri.
The same goes for Byleth. The game establishes in White Clouds that she grows more attached to her students than she has to anyone before—in fact, by the end of the game, the implication is that they essentially restore her humanity to her, or even create it in her where it hadn’t existed before. If this is the case, and Byleth is learning from her students how to feel emotions, then why would she want to believe someone who not only tears her students down, but actively represents the philosophy she is trying to escape?
Furthermore, Byleth’s relationship with Dimitri is undoubtedly different from hers with anyone else in the monastery, even from the beginning. While the other students undoubtedly support her, Dimitri is one of the only ones to ask how she is doing as a professor. He’s always offering his assistance and support, canonically is the first to bring out her emotional side, and is the only one of the few to truly empathize with her after Jeralt’s death, even going so far as to offer his assistance in securing her revenge. As he is arguably the person she is closest to in this route, even from the beginning, why would she want to believe he is a soulless monster driven by nothing but bloodlust?
However, here’s the kicker—while Felix is the one she is least likely to believe due to her emotions, he’s the person she’s most likely to believe logically.As I briefly mentioned earlier, out of all the students, Felix most closely resembles the mercenary’s philosophy (no, not you, Leonie). He represents what Byleth used to be (this is kinda the reason I don’t ship Felileth, but that’s another story for another day). Felix even essentially says as much in their supports—much of those supports have a heavy emphasis on establishing their similarities.
Byleth tells Rodrigue mid-White Clouds that she understands Felix. She may not resemble him, or act like him, but she understands him, because she was him, once. She understands his logic, his reasoning—why he comes to the conclusions that he does. Logically, she shouldknow that if Felix is calling Dimitri a boar, it wouldn’t be based on something petty like childish jealousy.
But she doesn’t. She refuses to consider it—she shoves it down and makes excuses. Throughout White Clouds, for the first time in her life, Byleth is caught in a war between her head and her heart—her heart, newly beating, desperately wanting to cling to this strange sense of care and family that she’s never truly felt before, and her head, the voice of the mercenary, the voice of Felix telling her to stop being so blind, tolook up and see the evidence around her.
But that’s the tragedy of Felix, the true Cassandra of Three Houses. He knows the truth, but because he’s so bitter and jaded he can’t communicate, he will never be believed—and the one person who shouldbelieve him refuses.
WHY don’t we talk about hegemon husk Edelgard at all????
like, I get it, incredibly disturbing, and like, not at all cash money of her, but c'mon.
*slams books on the table* I WANNA TALK ABOUT CRESTS!!! I WANNA TALK ABOUT CREST STONES!!! I WANNA TALK ABOUT DEMONIC BEAST TRANSFORMATIONS!!!I WANNA TALK ABOUT HEGEMON HUSK EDELGARD!!!
