solfi

Having the time of his life 😏

Thank you! 💖 Even at their horniest, I can't not make them a little silly, haha

They legit snuck up on me and became my new otp 💖

People got reaaaally pressed about him using Randolph as bait, attacking Faerghus to force Dim's hand, and allying with Edel. To me all these choices fit him as both a schemer and as someone who had to unwillingly bloody his hands to fulfill his ideals, but fandom wanted a smoother ride, it seems 🤷

Besides the academy, in VW he also had resources to fight a war thanks to Byleth bringing in the church army, didn't have to resort to a hail-mary ruse with Count Gloucester just to convince him to defend Leicester's interests, and didn't have to commit fratricide and kill a bit of his soul either 🥲

Ikr?? The hand-wringing about Randolph is hilariously overblown, even Edelgard doesn't give a shit about his death in her own routes!
But yeah, GW and the addition of Shahid (imperfect though it may be) changed my brain chemistry too. It certainly prolonged this fandom's shelf life for me haha

and simply project that fascination onto Claude. I've actually seen someone say Claude's role in the game is to be a spectator discovering that world alongside the player. Bitch that's Byleth's entire point 😭

Exactly!! Curiosity is one of his traits (imo manifested much more interestingly in his supports with Byleth, Marianne and Flayn) but I never saw it as his defining one. It honestly feels like some people are really enamored of Fodlan and its "native" characters and history

Pouring one out for the ones who left fandom that I would kill to see drawing Claude in one of his new looks 😞

When that one artist who always makes fanart of your fave worthy of the Sistine Chapel comes back for the occasional new content your fave gets

Play stupid games, win fantastic prizes

Ninja MShez/Wind Tribe Claude

Or they claim to understand and want that, but then treat it like a morality contest anyway 😐

Every time someone acts like Claude's defining trait is "being curious about Fódlan history" I die a little inside lmao. Hopes was vindicating in that sense, but it's telling of the writers' incompetence when the majority of players didn't pick up on the cues telegraphed in 3H.

Yeeep, this is the crux of the issue and smth that will always infuriate me, bc why pretend it's about 3 factions and why create a character with such great foundations when they clearly don't care to expand on it? Should've been FE2H and spared me all the money and time I spent on this franchise.

He would never, but it's what they deserve 😭

Genuinely the best compliment I have for VW's ending is that everyone is dead except Claude, the Deer and whoever is recruited.

There's a veeery clear double standard in what kind of characters fans allow (and actively want!) to be complicated and flawed and which ones have to be palatable and well behaved or else they're worse than the devil (and if they're palatable and well behaved they're just "bland and irrelevant").

VW established that he's opportunistic but never gave him the chance to actually grapple with that. I agree that people are weirdly invested in keeping him palatable and morally pure.

Lol no problem, you make interesting points!
> like have we forgotten the first part of the game? bro was literally going to let edelgard and dimitri die and go his way lmAO

I KNOW, the fact that he's so brazenly self interested is what made me like him right off the bat!

that were already telegraphed in 3H.

Yeah, above all I found his arc super compelling and entertaining to watch, which to me is far more important than whether I'd vote him for president. :P He's so pitiful when he's grappling with the weight of his own bad decisions. People ignore wiiiide swaths of his characterization

But like you said, Claude is human. He isn't perfect in 3H and there's no reason he'd be perfect when dealt a much worse hand. But all the good faith people lend to the white lords for being so morally grey and deep suddenly goes out the window the moment Claude does smth 40% as bad as what they do.

I enjoyed it A LOT lmao, GW is the only route I've ever replayed. I like my faves having a bad time. :P I don't think it's a bad end either; in some ways I think it's more positive than 3H (the fact that three independent territories aren't unified, for instance). 3H has a more fairytale ending imo.

Claude's tactics in VW "don't count bc Seteth does the same thing in SS" - but Claude's goal being "learn the secret Fodlan history" is accepted as a crucial part of his core, when it's obviously just a byproduct of retrofitting him into SS's plot and not his heart's motivation.

> assassination is when he’s reduced to a flawless meme guy
THIS. It's like they WANT him to be underdeveloped and sidelined, only to be smug about his undeveloped potential.
Also his characterization suffers a lot from VW being SS-but-better, but people only accept the parts that are convenient.

Saaaame lol. People get so pressed, you'd think Claude fans have an obligation to hate Claude or something

Exactly! I really don't get what's so hard to understand. In Houses quite a few characters act *completely* different depending on route, most notably Rhea and Dimitri, and they're never accused of mischaracterization. Only Claude isn't allowed that kind of breadth of psychology.

The serious answer? I was always immensely inspired by Edmund Dulac and studied and copied the way he draws drapery for a good while. XD

Thank youuuu! We really are eating, I still can't believe the feast we got ahaha

No need to apologize, health comes first always. I hope you feel better soon! Nobody deserves to live with constant pain 😢

I can accept that people don't like Hopes Claude (jk I can't, but I'd rather punch myself in the face than see discourse from those cretins in grand ol' 2026), but god do I take issue with the idea that "all Claude fans agree it's character assassination". Stfu you don't speak for all Claude fans ♥

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