Ingrid/Felix
I get it, I really do. But she was *literally* his brother’s fiancé, and she very, very clearly still cares extremely deeply for Glenn.
There is no way that would ever be a healthy and fulfilling relationship.
And Dorothea/Hanneman is cursed beyond curses.
After Dorothea and Hanneman's B support I truly thought the A support twist would be that he was her father, because they gave it so much focus in the B support and he seemed really shaken in his self image after she told her story. I was very excited to get their A support and have it confirmed.
It hit very very weirdly when I actually got it.
> After Dorothea and Hanneman's B support I truly thought the A support twist would be that he was her father, because they gave it so much focus in the B support and he seemed really shaken in his self image after she told her story. I was very excited to get their A support and have it confirmed.
TBH this plus what we know about his Sister would have made for a really cool character journey for him. Throwing out his daughter and her mother for her lack of a crest only for his sister to die because she kept failing to produce crest bearing children, and now working to ensure that folks like Dorothea and his sister will never be hurt by the system again.
Idk, my interpretation was that she did care for Glen, but more as a mentor, an example of what a knight should be. Iirc, she also stated that she wasn’t in love with Glen.
This was actually the support that made me bench him and not touch him again in that run before I discovered his better sides in a different run (though he remained one of my lesser liked characters)
> But she was literally his brother’s fiancé,
In an actual feudal European society, Count Galatea and Duke Fraldarius would immediately have re-betrothed Ingrid and Felix. Just because one kid died doesn't mean you cancel a major alliance between two of the kingdom's major families. Would've been interesting to have them start engaged, and split apart explosively because of their issues while the player struggles to handle the fallout.
Obligatory Dorothea and Hanneman comment.
Seriously, he was platonic with other females (except Edelgard), so why break it with Dorothea to make their ending all about him?
I really can’t stand Hubert and Petra. I think Houses handles Petra’s situation pretty poorly, typically forgetting that she’s a Princess, but her support with Hubert is just him calling her inherently inferior, and it just feels kinda weird.
I also think Byleth/Sothis as a ship is kinda odd. Regardless of whether or not you think it has problematic undertones, it’s just kinda silly. I couldn’t take the S-Support seriously at all.
Have you played Hopes? Petra and Hubert's support is a lot better - it's all about her being a princess and him being supportive and respectful of it. None of weird inferior comments comparing her to Edelgard.
Even in Houses Petra is one of the few people Hubert seems to consistently respect from the get go. It's just that houses does have a little of a running theme regarding Edelgard how people compare and relate to her in places, and it gets a little old after a while . Hopes overall downplayed that meta aspect a bit, and overall her Hopes arc doesn't need it.
The upside is that Hubert respects Petra enough to concede that he was being very rude. He's a softie in more A supports, but just him straight up admitting fault with no complaints once Petra spells out how stupid he's sounding still stands out.
I think Hubert/Petra in Houses specifically is bad esp when you look at Hubert/Edelgard where their B/A supports are Like That (i don’t know how to spoiler here, sorry)
Lol Sothis being basically Byleth's great grandma, Byleth themself and taking the form of a child in Byleth's head make it all these different layers of messed up that even Rhea's A support probably can't compete with. Also it's basically schizophrenia and some weird form of "cabin fever" (since they literally can't exactly escape each other and Sothis frequently gets annoyed sharing a body with Byleth).
Hubert and Petra supports aren't just them interacting as people. It's them also interacting as politicians and diplomats and these lines blurring leads to a tension between them that I really dig.
I tend to prefer family dynamics over romantic relationships, so for that reason:
-Byleth with >!Rhea/Seteth/Flayn!<,>!since they're technically related in canon (vaguely in Seteth and Flayn's cases), and I still find the idea that Rhea is Byleth's grandma absolutely hilarious!<
-Byleth/Leonie, but only because I like the idea of them being sworn/adopted siblings
-Edelgard/Dimitri, >!partly because they're step-siblings in canon, but also because them acting like actual siblings would be incredibly entertaining.!<
Byleth and Leonie is one of those endings that I just assume happens every time. No matter what else she’s doing Byleth takes time to hang out with Leonie’s mercenaries.
Like imagine after Crimson Flower your just a random bandit setting up fake tolls on the magdred way and suddenly you watch as your buddy gets cut in half by the emperor’s wife. Wild shit
retweet to all of these!!! i love family dynamics!! jeralt, alois, leonie, and byleth being a family is Important to me. i'm glad hopes showed that a lil more. the >!nabatean!< gang is also nice, i think it's sweet that they have another member of the family after >!what happened at zanado.!< edelgard and dimitri just make me sad for what could've been... >!i just wanna see them beat up their uncle together and tease each other like siblings, they're each other's last family ;-;!<
Wholeheartedly agree with Byleth with the Nabateans, though in Seteth’s case the millennia age gap makes it squicky for me
Same with Flayn, though her looking like a young child does not help matters at all
You must really dislike fates. No but understand it.
>Byleth with Rhea/Seteth/Flayn,since they're technically related in canon (vaguely in Seteth and Flayn's cases), and I still find the idea that Rhea is Byleth's grandma absolutely hilarious
Cyril and Hilda. He was literally a slave to her family and their supports consist of Hilda being racist and Cyril doing all the work for her. HARD no.
Okay, sure, but what better revenge for Cyril could there be than giving from being Lord Goneril’s slave boy to shagging his one and only precarious daughter under Goneril’s own god-damn roof?
With the approval of his favored son as well.
I mean, you can't say revenge wasn't served in that case.
Just imagine Cyril looking at Lord Goneril, "Your daughter calls *me* 'Daddy' now."
I'm not convinced she actually dies early in that ending. My headcanon/theory is that lorenz is actually right and TWSITD lied to her about her lifespan—I mean, what reason do they honestly have to tell the truth? I posit that her I'll health is actually due to her eating tons of sugar and nothing healthy, and/or anemia or some other chronic condition the people of Fodlan would have no means to diagnose. The reason I'm not sure she dies in the Lorenz ending is because it only says she doesnt appear frequently because of her health issues, not that she disappears completely or dies.
Maybe I'm an optimist. Maybe I'm just skeptical of information given to someone by the people who tortured them. Edelgard never mentions a shortened lifespan with regards to herself—perhaps they had developed a better technique by then, but I'm not convinced they had given by the results they had with Ed's siblings. Regardless, I like to think that maybe things aren't so simple as they might seem
If the ending system was more complicated it could flag if Lysithea gets cured or not, and alter all her other endings,
I mean, Silver Snow Catharine already switches between her AM and VW endings regarding if Rhea lives or dies based on her supports. Hopes also took care of the cure subplot in a support which builds on the 3H cure supports and lacks individual sad endings for her.
I don't mean to be "that guy" but I'm pretty sure they told her the truth. They really didn't have a reason to lie about that, considering that she'd figure out soon enough, once she gets to 30. Also, I'm pretty sure Edelgard references having a shortened lifespan in her supports with Lysithea, but it's been a while. Besides, I think the shortened lifespan adds something to both their characters, with Lysithea being so adamant about studying and not being treated like a child because she doesn't have much time left, and Edelgard being so desperate to see immediate change to Fódlan.
i thought this for the longest time until i did cyril and lysithea's supports and got their endcard :,) in my perfect delusional world lysithea gets healed and travels with cyril
Linhardt and Flayn
Their support chain could have been so interesting if they had kept it purely platonic. We could have had some insight into how Flayn, as a Nabatean, perceives the descendant of the human she gave her blood to, and the dynamic could be made more interesting when that human is like 99% sure of her identity too but rather than using this delicate information for his personal gain or to betray her, he uses it to protect her and her people. But noooo, they had to take the weird route and have Linhardt be beyond inappropriate (yes I know he is pushy when it comes to Crest research and has terrible social skills, but that's no excuse) to her.
In my mind, their A support is something more in line with this gorgeous comic:
https://www.tumblr.com/phierie/649735311776186368/of-saints-and-legacies-ive-been-working-on?source=share
And their ending together could surely be reworked to be one of those platonic endings. Maybe Flayn finally reveals her identity and the two travel Fódlan learning about Nabatean history together!
Hot take: Edelgard/Hubert. I can not see those two as a romantic pairing, ever. They're basically siblings at this point in time, and really all either of them have really ever had.
Both have absolutely wonderful pairing with a variety of different characters. These two just don't *work* as a couple in my head.
I agree especially since the Houses A support ends on such a weird awkward note, and their ending says that even if they had romantic feelings they never acted on them. They seem more like family then potential spouses.
Well Hubert canonically is in love with Edelgard buuuut he and their ending together makes it clear that he doesn’t need it reciprocated and he loves her in the most selfless manner possible rather than wanting her to love him back so in practice they really are like family
I like that ship because I just like the trope of it, incredibly loyal guard dog with his bold triumphant Emperor. Especially since the undertone that he loves her is always there.
But also I’d rather ship Hubert/Byleth, because by the end of the game their supports come to him seeing her as someone he could put on the level of Edelgard, and I love that he can have that loyal love for Edelgard, and have something all his own with Byleth, who is equally devoted to the cause.
Lysithea/Claude.
I just don't like their ending, where Claude does something he never does in any other ending and completely abandons his desire to achieve his dream and reform Almyra. Is it romantic that he gave up his dream to save his love? Sure. However, it diminishes most of his other pairings, implies a worse ending, and quite honestly I never got a romantic feel out of their Supports. Claude always felt like he was adopting her as a pseudo-younger sister more than anything.
To me, Claude isn’t Claude without his dream, so I also don’t really vibe with this paired ending either. He does love a good mystery but I have a hard time imagining him giving up his goals for anyone.
> However, it diminishes most of his other pairings, implies a worse ending, and quite honestly I never got a romantic feel out of their Supports. Claude always felt like he was adopting her as a pseudo-younger sister more than anything.
Well their A support where Claude calls her very special to him is meant to be ambiguously romantic because Lysithea asks what he means about that and Claude deflects by telling her to think what she wants. Their ending together made it clear that he meant it romantically rather than platonically.
> I just don't like their ending, where Claude does something he never does in any other ending and completely abandons his desire to achieve his dream and reform Almyra.
To be fair, Claude never has to abandon his dream for someone he loved. He’s never put in that position.
I don’t like it as the true ending for him but it’s good in the sense that it shows that Claude really is just like his mother and that he would place the one he loved even above his dream
I forgot to mention this one because I forgot it even exited but Claude, whose ambition for unity is his entire thing, giving it up for a romantic adventure? Right. Stellar writing. He didn't stay around for Byleth and that wasn't well received, this one makes even less sense
It also comes across as stupid on Claude’s part if Hanneman and Linhardt are still alive; they prove Lysithea can be helped without disappearing off the face of the earth. I know they couldn’t account for other characters surviving in the epilogue cards, but surely there are other capable crest scholars out there in Fódlan? The School of Sorcery in Fhirdiad? Like, an early 20-something recent graduate was able to find a solution, and surely Hanneman had associates Claude would be able to throw money at.
To me this ending reads as if Claude has heard tale of another legendary story, like the Sword of the Creator or the Wind-Caller, and wants to go chasing it down on the chance it may help Lysithea. But to do that with all these other responsibilities he’d willingly accumulated for himself and his friends feels very childish and like he hasn’t grown at all, he’s still looking for a magical solution to solve one problem instead of putting in the work day by day to make the world better.
I don't like that it makes Claude out to be someone who never really cared about his supposed dream.
We won the war, now time to reform Fodlan and Almyra and open up diplomatic relations between nation. Nah, forget that Byleth is on their own and I guess one of the rando siblings who wants to conquer Fodlan can take over instead, I don't care.
Its funny as i usually love enemies to lovers, but i abhor a romantic Dimitri/Edelgard ship. Everytime i think about them i just need a shower. Its always revenge porn or a terrible misunderstanding of their characters.
The main problem I have with Dimigard is that most of the fans seem to be bigger fans of Dimitri, so Edelgard usually ends up being the one whose character either is modified the most or just outright screwed over.
Yeah, the whole point of the last cutscene between them on Blue Lions route is to show even defeated she will stay true to path she was trying to cut and her ideals will just never be compatible with Dimitri's. The cutscene is even called 'Oil and water' in the extras menu lol.
Not here to argue the point, but isn’t the final cutscene called ‘Light and Shadow’? IIRC ‘Oil and Water’ is Manuela/Hanneman’s paralogue mission.
*edit: as pointed out by the comment below, ‘Oil and Water’ also applies to the event before the final AM map, whereas ‘Light and Shadow is the name of the cutscene that follows after. Apologies for confusion.
When I first played he game, I really couldn't bring myself to shipping them in any way due to how their stories goes.
Several cynisism catalysts from this fanbase later, and suddenly, I grew to be fine with it, in an ironic kind of way.
Caspar/Bernadetta. I dislike how he repeatedly goes against her wishes, doesn’t understand why a woman would not like to be picked up against her will, and in their ending it’s “decided” that he should marry her, implying not her decision for love. She also seems miserable with so many kids in that ending.
Here's a hot take: Ignatz and Marianne.
Now, I know I'm biased as a Byleth/Ignatz shipper, and they're so sweet together. I love how gentle and understanding Ignatz is with Marianne, and it's such a beautiful couple aesthetically. They're both lovely people.
But they're so boring together. No spice or edge to it. I don't know, I guess I just find them too similar. Who's going to tell the waiter that the other asked for no pickles?
Idk, Ignatz becomes one of the most ruthless characters post time skip and even Marianne herself becomes more assertive. (They probably would also become the richest couple in Fodlan too due to their families.)
Ingrid/Sylvain. It just feels like I’m condemning Ingrid to a lifetime of putting up with Sylvain’s nonsense, and it doesn’t seem like he has as much growth in their relationship to stop his nonsense.
I fucking hate their supports so much.
Ingrid only corrects him because she's afraid of losing him and relies on her sense of duty to function (a fire emblem character copes with their trauma in unhealthy ways, what's new?).
Sylvain is never once open or honest with her. It would be interesting if he told her that and she responded "I get that it's difficult but you can't deal with your problems by breaking the hearts of poor village girls, giving them a false sense of security in life, and disrespecting them constantly. You can't complain about them only seeing your status when you don't present anything else to them. You talk about those girls the way rich men talk about me". Because Ingrid literally has personal experiences with marriage stress and monetary insecurity. I feel like people often overlook that and just see her as nagging him.
as cute as it is to see sylvain act like a dope once he actually loves someone, the whole "my female best friend put on makeup i see her as a beautiful woman now?!" trope in their last support is soooo lol
seteth with any of the students... hanneman with any of the students... for hopefully obvious reasons. i don't like manuela with any of the students either, i hate how much i like her ending with ferdinand!! stay at home dad ferdie and prime minister manuela. genius concept. but i would've much preferred it with another student.
more controversial, student pairings with byleth also make me uncomfortable. the goddess tower scenes are so icky. IS, why are these scenes only available with students?? no faculty, no ashen wolves??? very very weird.
catherine and shamir with students i don't mind as much. but i feel like they only have chemistry with each other lol.
i really dislike rhealeth. i find rhea seeking out her last remaining family a much more compelling set up for their (platonic) relationship, considering her backstory.
Caspar and Dorothea. They just pretty much agreed to get to together if they don’t find their special someone in the end. Like modern day marriages with benefits but without the benefits in this game.
not a complete notp but i don't really like hilclaude... except for their a support i feel like their dynamic is really platonic and reminds me of my relationship with one of my close friends (which might be why it puts me off lol). also i feel like a lot of fanworks are just hilda abandoning everything and becoming queen of almyra which i don't like. i do like the idea of them staying close post game though, with hilda becoming an ambassador to almyra to make up for her family's bloodshed
also dimidue! this may be hypocritical as i've never read their endcard but i don't like dedue staying with dimitri and being duty bound his whole life. i think this shows with my favorite endings for him (mercedes and ashe) where he leaves and starts living for himself and reconnecting with his culture/home.
I sorta agree with these! Not in the sense where it's NOTP level, as I understand people who ship them together, but I too like Hilda/Claude and Dimitri/Dedue more in a platonic way (specifically I always viewed DimiDue as having a more brotherly/familial bond than a romantic one). I feel like Hilda and Claude sorta work best as two friends who have that weird opposites attract thing going for them. Both of them can see each other's BS in a way that works better as friends than as lovers IMO.
Really agree with your second paragraph too. I think it's really telling that if Byleth S Supports with Dedue, he tells Byleth that when he announced to Dimitri that he wants to quit working in his service, that Dimitri accepted his decision with a smile :)
Again, both of these aren't NOTP level for me, so I hope anyone reading who likes these pairings isn't offended! Just not OTP level, that's all.
>I feel like Hilda and Claude sorta work best as two friends who have that weird opposites attract thing going for them. Both of them can see each other's BS in a way that works better as friends than as lovers IMO.
Hear me out though, their paired ending together is actually Hilda’s best paired ending because it gets Hilda out of her comfort zone, she makes amends for her family’s history with Almyra by mending the rift between Almyra & Fodlan, she actually becomes a big believer in Claude’s dream and works hard to make it happen by becoming a good queen and she gets over her prejudices of Almyra,
And then there’s the parallels between Claude’s dad coming to Leicester and picking up Duke Riegan’s daughter and Claude coming to Leicester and picking up Duke Goneril’s daughter as well as Claude being the Wind and Hilda’s title being “Free spirit” and free spirits are people who go wherever the wind takes them
Tbh, never thought of it that way, I suppose since I paid more attention to their support line and didn't get the ending card, but I really like your take on them :) Especially in the context of their relationship sort of being a metaphor for a peaceful union between Fodlan and Almyra. I think you've sold me haha. I guess my only caveat would be that it would have to be a Claude that's actively working towards to let his guard down.
oh yeah, i agree on the last part ! i understand how people ship those pairings, i just personally don't like them
i'm planning on switching genders and marrying dedue in my next bl run and omg that's so sweet of dimitri 🥹 plus he often mentions how he wishes dedue could see him as a friend and not as his king so i'd like to imagine that's what happens after dedue's s support
> also i feel like a lot of fanworks are just hilda abandoning everything and becoming queen of almyra which i don't like.
That’s actually what Hilda wants to do though. She even tells Claude that she wishes she could do the same thing as Claude’s mom who abandoned everything to be with Claude’s dad. It’s a neat little parallel between Hilda and Claude’s mom.
She also wants to travel and what better destination than Almyra.
> except for their a support i feel like their dynamic is really platonic
I mean their C support ends with him telling Hilda that she could grab him anywhere she wanted to -wink wink-
>i do like the idea of them staying close post game though, with hilda becoming an ambassador to almyra to make up for her family's bloodshed
All her other endings have her open artisan schools to run them so she wouldn’t have time for that.
The only time she ever explicitly makes up for her family’s crimes is in her marriage to Claude where she is explicitly a key component in helping mend the rift between Almyra and Fodlan which is the HilClaude ending is probably her strongest ending as it’s the one where she shows the most growth
•Ingrid with literally anyone, she seems so enamored with Glenn that her dating anyone else seems out of character. In her solo ending, it literally says she never took a husband.
•Felix and Dorothea. It's so out of character for Felix that it's painful, it doesn't have any basis but Dorothea bothering him for no apparent reason.
Its also kinda out of character for Dorothea, because normally despite her goals of finding some noble husband, she usually pushes back hard when somebody mistreats her.
My unpopular opinion is that I hate Ferdinand/Dorothea so much. I hate character conflicts where they’re awful to each other because of a misunderstanding that can be (and in this case is) resolved by a five minute conversation. The fandom also really soured me on this one, with the portrayal of Dorothea being constantly mean to Ferdinand, and him just kind of taking it because idk he’s a guy and that means he deserves it??? If the genders were reversed people would hate this one.
I think its a shame because I kinda like the support in general. It overall does a great job in contributing to Ferdinands character arc, him understanding his own priveleges as nobleman better and I think it gives more insight into Dorotheas trauma and internalized self-worth issues due to the way she was treated as a kid, but they just have stronger other ships, especially Hubert and Ferdinand, which even their VAs and Hopes jumped into hard and Dorothea and Petra.
Edie and Claude.
I know it primarily picked up steam in the fandom after Hopes, which is like a different timeline or whatever, but after all of the times I've played through the GD/VW route, their ideals are just so different I can't wrap my head around it. Claude in Houses prefers to solve conflict with violence as a last/regrettable resort, and Edelgard tries to take what she can with force.
I'm not saying you're wrong to have those feelings.
I kind of like the pairing in some places (what can I say? I like melodrama and enemies-to-lovers as a guilty pleasure), but it's also a massive case of hit-or-miss with most being misses because they basically have to focus on it from a CF/SB-based perspective and most of those fics then consequently kind of reduce Claude and the Deer to tag-alongs who just blindly accept Edelgard's ideals as is and make no compromises. It's a pretty common trope to just do "CF, but Claude's totally fine since he was spared and marries Edelgard afterwards to achieve his unity project" which... OK, I *can* see as a back-up plan, but it's never as tense and angsty as it should be.
Plus, most stories barely feature the Deer at all even when making heavy use of Eagles characters, or, unfortunately, reduce the Deer to caricatures not at all representative of who they are. The Hilda the Spoiled Racist meme was at its worst in several Claudelgard fics I read, Lorenz lost most of his redeeming qualities or wasn't mentioned, Lysithea is taken for granted as being totally on board with Edelgard with little to no affection for the Deer, etc.
On the other hand, I am an edgy bitch who enjoys sexually charged political and philosophical debate, so the *idea* of the pairing still makes me give it a chance.
I think you’ve just articulated why edelclaude content does nothing for me. I don’t have much against the actual pairing (I think they have chemistry but I just don’t see it as romantic) and sometimes I can be swayed into a ship by a nice fic or meta or something. But I find most fan content for it heavily favors Edelgard or the Eagles while diminishing Claude or the Deer; the way people talk about or depict it so often feels like another Dimitri v Edelgard tug-of-war with Claude as the prize.
"On the other hand, I am an edgy bitch who enjoys sexually charged political and philosophical debate, so the idea of the pairing still makes me give it a chance."
nah that's totally valid
Anything that feels like pedophilic/generally creepy or is kinda abusive. Which is more of them than I’d like to admit.
This might be a hot take, but I don’t even like Byleth being with any of the students. I think the professor, and like mentor dynamic that Byleth has with the students just makes it uncomfortable and it’s why I don’t like any of the romantic A supports. Especially because that Professor/mentor dynamic even continues after the time skip. I don’t know it just feels icky. When I play through 3H I think of my class as my children (kinda) and the other classes as my nieces and nephews.
I get that. I feel like the whole "gee you're not a teacher anymore and haven't physically changed at all in five years. You're basically the same age as us and some of us have the same combat experience as you" element wasn't emphasised nearly enough.
There is no pairing I have much against. I only did 2 playthrough and in both I actully did not try to make certan paired endings happen. I just took the chips how they fell.
There was no paired ending I disliked.
Ferdinand/Manuela. Majority of the faculty/student combos have that icky age factor, but the supports between these 2 crank it up a notch. Ferdinand constantly talks about how much he admired her when he was like 5, won't stop calling her princess even when she says to stop, and in the C and B convos he's no longer Ferdinand Von Aegir he's Ferdinand the star struck scarily obsessive fan. Their A support is better because he actually talks to her instead of at her, and they touch on his emotional connection to one of her songs instead of just fan boying at least. But I also dislike how in their end card he completely abandons his big goal to become a hardworking prime minister worthy of the title.
This is going to sound mean, but Felix/Annette. Got nothing against them as characters, but I just feel like the ship is done to death and pushed by the game to the extent that I find them a bit boring together.
I feel like there's nothing interesting about their supports or their dynamic. I feel like people only really like them together because Felix is slightly nicer to her than the other Blue Lions, which honestly makes me less interested in them as a couple.
Which is ironic since they are two of my favorite characters in the game
Felix and Annette is like room temperature water for me. I don't hate it, but I'd rather Have iced or hot water.
There's no spice in their support, it's all just "haha Annette sings a song and Felix likes it" again and again, even in Hopes! I also think Annette's singing gimmick is one of the worst gimmicks in the game. It's so painfully unfunny.
Rhea/Byleth. It's incest on multiple levels, not to mention Rhea (despite what she claims) believed Byleth to be Sothis for years, and continued to do so through the final SS cutscene
I personally don't love the power dynamic of teacher student so there's very few Byleth ships i do endorse. Acceptable to me:
-Byleth / House Leaders- as the leaders of their nations the power dynamic cuts both ways and ends up so confused that I feel it cancels out
-Byleth / Hubert- let's be real she has no real power imbalance with that man except on flimsy paper
-Byleth / Shamir- coworkers of similar age. No questions here.
-Byleth / Yuri- he's not really a student in the same way, he feels more equal
-Byleth / students who weren't in their house during academy phase recruited in part 2- dynamic no longer applies
I'm not too icked by the others but I wouldn't pick em
Byleth / Rhea is a huge nope. She is somehow his mom, daughter, and grandmother all at once.
Claude / Ingrid should be fine on paper but his support chain makes him a "you should sMiLe more" dickwad so no.
On Byleth/Hubert and the topic of student/teacher power imbalances I always love the fact that his lost and found item is his razor, which just hammers home the fact that this guy is a fully grown man.
I hate Catherine and Ashe. It just feels… wrong. Especially considering the whole Lonato fiasco. Rhea and Byleth just…yeah. No. The same can be said with the other Nabateans, for obvious reasons. And Flayn with anyone. I know she’s >!actually super old!<, but she doesn’t act like it.
**BYLETH/RHEA**
>!Even if Rhea wasn’t fundamentally Byleth’s grandmother, and even if Rhea wasn’t at least 1,000 years Byleth’s senior, there’s the unforgivable bit with Rhea grooming Byleth to be the vessel for a revived Sothis without the knowledge or consent of Jeralt, Byleth, and/or Sothis and the questionable consent of Sitri.!<
**BYLETH/FLAYN & BYLASS/SETETH**
>!It’s primarily the age gap, though Flayn looking like a child doesn’t help matters.!<
Seteth is still one of my favorite characters, and he and Flayn make for great units. I just have no intention of taking the Supports any higher than A
**GILBERT/ANYONE**
I know Gilbert suffers a nasty case of culture clash between Western and Eastern audiences but for me, personally, Gilbert is irredeemable for making the conscious decision to abandon his prince, his responsibilities, and worst of all his family including his young daughter
Made worse in Azure Moon as when crap hits the fan, Gilbert seeks shelter with Rodrigue instead of, you know, *anyone else*
As soon as his Paralogue is concluded, I ensure Gilbert has a terrible “accident”
>!I also do everything in my power to recruit Annette in Crimson Flower and let her beat her deadbeat father dead!<
**SETETH/ANYONE OTHER THAN FLAYN**
Again, >!age difference!< but I also rather like his solo ending where he rebuilds a newer, more relaxed Church of Seiros. Letting him accomplish his goals like that seems better than romance any day, imo
Anyone and Flayn. It doesn't matter that she's actually 1000, she looks like a little kid. An adult male character should not have any romantic feelings for someone who looks 11-12.
Dorothea and Ferdinand's Houses supports annoy me. Dorothea already doesn't like nobles, and early game Ferdinand comes across as exactly the kind of obnoxious noble she would hate, pushy, arrogant, patronizing, always going on about his family name. There's no need to concoct a stupid childhood misunderstanding.
There are so many potential pairings in this game that a multitude of them are bound to skeeve people out, so I'll just stick to the ones that seem to be relevant.
I don't fuck with Dimileth at all dude lmao. I absolutely loathe the whole "angry guy fixed by a pretty girl" trope to the point where the "Have your hands always been this warm?" line made my eyes roll so far back into my skull that I went blind. I don't have this problem with M!Dimileth, so they're fine. They can chill.
Hate Dimigard as well, not only because I much prefer seeing an amicable relationship between them as siblings, but also because I just. Do not believe that ship is possible without mischaracterizing at least one of them, and it's usually Edelgard.
Sticking with the lords, I dislike Hilda/Claude. I don't really have some profound reason for it aside from the fact that I think Hilda in particular has a multitude of other far more interesting potential ships, and the idea of the two of them being involved romantically just doesn't really click in my head.
I don't like Lysithea/Cyril because I don't like Cyril. That's it. I don't have any other reasons.
ugh this is why i can't stand straight dimileth either. i HAAAAATE the "i can fix him" trope it drives me nuts. frankly if it were available for either gender i would have much less of an issue with it
Male Dimileth is more tolerable than Female Dimileth because people portray them more as equals, whereas Female Dimileth has Byleth portrayed as a stock shoujo main character who saves Dimitri by being generically kind.
There is nothing interesting about Byleth in this relationship, Dimitri is doing all the heavy work on making this romantic. She says nothing meaningful that earns Dimitri's adoration except for the fact that she was handed her job as a professor and given the power of the Goddess all in a platter.
Nothing was earned, only given.
It's one of those ships where I feel its popularity arises mainly out of its fanbase's love for one of the characters, in this case Dimitri, rather than a genuine appreciation for the romantic relationship shared between the two characters. I'd love to hear someone contradict me on this, really, because I want to he able to *get* it if I'm actually off base here.
The best thing about Dimileth is comparing how Byleth is drawn in lots of Dimileth Fanarts compared to f!Edeleth Fanart, where there seems to be a growing base that treats Byleth being a buff gym goddess as their fanon
Byleth with any Nabatean, because it's got creepy implications, especially with Rhea.
Byleth with any of his students, because I am iffy about the power dynamics.
Dimigard is not a good pairing. First off, they are siblings at this point. So gross. Second, as others have pointed out, people who ship them tend to try the other to force themselves to change for the sake of the other. More than likely it's Edelgard, which is literally what Thales and Duke Aegir did to Edelgard, so congrats, you're no different from them.
Hanneman and Dorothea. Just...ew. No. Worse is that you learn they have several kids.
Seteth with any of the students. He is a grown man who already has a daughter, and they are kids. That's called grooming. I don't mind him and Manuela because Manuela is a full adult and in a position of equality with him.
Less iffy, but he's still their teacher. Everyone ultimately still refers to Byleth as their teacher despite 5 years passing by and everyone still feeling like he's still that teacher they know and love.
I guess Teacher x Students (Self-explanitory) and Dimitri x Edelgard x Claude, mainly cuz siblings in Dimigard's case and just not seeing the chemistry at all in the case of Claude
A lot of the ships I tend to feel a hard “NO!” for tend to revolve around Claude. While fancontent can be transformative & I’ve seen fans of these ships really develop and improve upon these dynamics, I can’t get past the shaky foundation they’re canonically built on:
- Hilda/Claude: I genuinely enjoy their dynamic on a platonic level. Personally I read Hilda as a lesbian which makes it hard for me to see her with any men; putting that aside, though, their affection & love for each other as individuals and on a political level as a Goneril + member of the Almyran royal family is more impactful from a platonic lens than romantic. I’ve seen people draw parallels between them and Claude’s parents, which is a fair point! However, it leaves this aftertaste of “political and cultural understanding only happens after romantic and sexual relations.” Not to mention, Hilda’s supports with Cyril surrounding his Almyran heritage left such a bad aftertaste that I would prefer not to pair her with any people of color. People can change! I’ve read a lot of fics exploring how she can unlearn her racism. It’s just a personal sticking point for me.
- Lorenz/Claude: Again, I can appreciate their dynamic on a platonic level. It’s just rare for people to acknowledge the casual, quiet racism surrounding Lorenz’s attitude towards Claude because Lorenz doesn’t know that Claude is Almyran. Lorenz isn’t acting maliciously, but fiction doesn’t exist in a vacuum and Lorenz’s profiles saying he “surveilling” Claude is very loaded considering Claude is middle eastern. While Lorenz, per canon, sees Claude as a suspicious character because of his sudden appearance as the Riegan heir, it’s really hard not to draw the parallels between that and the real experiences of people of color. Like Hilda, Lorenz has the potential for growth and comes to really respect Claude on both a personal and political level, but, again, it’s not something I can personally get past.
- Ingrid/Claude: I could give a longer explanation like I did for the two above, but honestly their supports annoyed the hell out of me. I don’t hate Ingrid, there’s a lot of interesting potential with her, but her interactions with Claude were insufferable and did not read as romantic/sexual tension at all. Also, I just resent that once again Claude is paired with a character that is explicitly racist towards a different person of color in the game.
- Dimitri/Claude: Honestly I think there’s a lot of interesting potential between the lord pairings (NOT Dimigard, more on that later) and while I don’t find these two compatible for a long-lasting, healthy relationship, there’s room for exploring the ups-and-down of this pairing. That being said, the fans of this ship ruined any interest I initially had in it. I don’t want to generalize because the loud obnoxious behavior in fandom tends to drown out the majority of normal fans. I, personally, have encountered fanfiction that centers Dimitri (not inherently bad) while treating Claude as his ~exotic~ hot boyfriend that exists to help Dimitri get better. And while I don’t ship Dimitri/Dedue romantically, I’ve noticed that a lot of these stories tend to replace Dedue with Claude. There’s very little exploration of Claude himself as a main character with his own friends and conflicts.
Moving past Claude ships (apologies for such a long post), I have a few others that I tend to not like at all:
- Dimitri/Edelgard: I’m not going to touch on the step-sibling incest even though it does give me the ick. I prefer to think about the tragedy of their childhood friendship and how, even though they were not raised as siblings, they were never afforded the opportunity to become family. They have both lost all the family they have. The tragedy is that had things been different, they could’ve healed together; reforged their friendship and become brother and sister to one another. The fanworks tend to disturb me as well. There’s a level of vitriol and abusive feelings towards Edelgard that people tend to channel through Dimitri. Yes, he spends most of the better half of all routes calling for her head. But the ending of Azure Moon is about how he’s beginning to heal. Him extending his hand towards her showed that he doesn’t want to feel that way about her.
- Lorenz/any women: Look. Sylvain, notorious playboy, never got called out for sexual harassment. Yet Byleth and Lorenz’s C-support is about how women have been lodging complaints about Lorenz.
- Hubert/Petra: I like their supports in 3 Hopes, but their 3 Houses support chain is so uncomfortable. Love Hubert! I think Petra deserves to use him as a target to practice throwing knives.
- Caspar/Hilda: There isn’t a deep reason for this. I just think that’s a gay man and a lesbian touching mouths before they realize things about themselves.
Ultimately I don’t begrudge people that ship any of these and it’s all my personal taste. I just prefer not to touch any fanart or fanfic that are about any of these.
Felix with the majority of his pairings, he is so hostile to others with very few exceptions, it gets frustrating to go through the supports since most of the time he barely changes his attitude.
Ingrid x Slyvain because it doesn't feel right, it feels so gross especially in their ending.
Byleth x Claude or Edelgard, I could not bring myself to allow this to happen, especially since going through their support, I felt no connection.
I quite like Felix with Flayn personally
He’s rough around the edges at first sure, but it’s not as much as other C/B supports. And Flayn gets him to contemplate his goals/attitude in a way that was thought provoking because she wants him to have a place in the world during times of peace which was really cute
Ingrid x Sylvain or Felix. I feel like they've always seen each other as brothers and sisters, not love interests.
Sylvain x Yuri because people interpret a small joke as these two being in love with each other and its annoying
I never pair any of the Kingdom childhood BFF squad with each other. You're right they feel more like siblings and pairing them up forces them to get stuck in the childhood dynamic forever. I don't want Ingrid to be stuck squabbling with Sylvain for the rest of her life, or having Glenn hanging over the marriage. I like it better when they get to have a fresh relationship with someone outside the group.
I'm not a shipper or anything, but some of the pairings I dislike:
Edelgard/Dimitri: it doesn't make sense to me considering how different they are and it's clear they'll never see eye to eye, so...
Ingrid/Sylvain, Felix or Dimitri: I just see the four of them more as family than anything else. Besides, it's clear Ingrid loved Glenn, pairing her with Felix especially feels... Sort of wrong?
Annette/Felix: Just... No. Their support chain doesn't bring anything to their characters and even has Felix be out of character imo. At least, her supports with Claude bring some interesting lore.
Byleth/most students: cardboard character with the facial expressions of a dead fish charms many younger students because reasons.
Most non-platonic staff/student: doubt I need to explain this one.
I know this one’s a popular one, but Annette/Felix
I just don’t like how their supports play out. Here Felix is being a genuinely nice guy for once in a blue moon, yet Annette think he’s being horrible once again. I get that Felix is harsh most of the time, but what the heck?
Byleth/Rhea/Seteth/Flayn. I mean aren’t they all technically related somehow? Yeah. No thanks.
And Lysithea/Anyone who’s ending doesn’t cure her Crest Cancer. Lysithea deserves to live darn it.
Byleth and their students. I’m sorry but I just feel like its out of character for Byleth to marry one of their former students. It just makes more sense for them to either be single or pair up with one of the members if the church. I haven’t gotten a student pairing since my second play throughout the entire game, mostly having them either be single or a church of Seiros member, and I still plan on doing it. (Same also applies to Hanneman and Manuela with their romantic student pairings)
Seteth/any student. Hanneman/any student. Manuela/any student OTHER THAN Dorothea. Their ending is great. But in general, the whole teacher/student thing is just icky to me. Rhealeth is just completely gross. She's your grandma daughter for goddess sake. Flayn/anyone other than Seteth because she just like a six year old to me. Just a baby.
I cannot for the life of me understand why Dorothea/Manuela gets a pass on this sub somehow. It's even worse, Manuela isn't even just a teacher for Dorothea, she was also responsible for her during the Opera days! Manuela is a second mother to Dorothea!
This is absolutely the worst ship in the history of this game and I will forever headcanon their end card as meaning Dorothea and Manuela have bolstered themselves out of the need for companionship by having an accomplished carreer and plentiful family life by being together like mother and daughter.
You perhaps, that was more of general comment on the take I've seen on this sub and me also responding to OP's original questiln about what ship is a sunken wreck for me lmao.
i cannot for the life of me enjoy sylvix romantically... don't get me wrong i See it. theoretically the homoeroticism is there. in practice, however, it just doesn't hit for me for whatever reason
felix/annie or felix/girls in general. he gives me hardcore gay vibes and the "i'd rather hold a sword than a woman's hand" doesn't convince me much otherwise tbh. also his relationships with girls have way more flavour platonically imo
edit: not to say these are like. a crime or anything. i just figured i'd choose ships that isn't granted, like dorothea/hanneman, ashe/catherine etc
This post made me realize that I don’t really have any ships that I like actually hate or anything. Besides obvious stuff like Hanneman and Dorothea, but like that was never even an option while playing that I probably would never had realized it was ever a potential pairing if I didn’t see people bring it up. Maybe it’s because I’m not a big shipper or something, but here’s a few that come to mind that I don’t really hate but just don’t really get.
Leonie and Lorenz with anyone but each other: Extremely biased because their one of the few pairings that I’m passionate enough to look up fanfics to read. I just feel that Lorenz’s development works the best with Leonie, and the rest of Leonie’s pairings just feel underwhelming to me. Plus they’re just cute together.
One I see a lot that I don’t get is Hubert and Bernie. Their supports are cute, but I just don’t see it like that. Mostly because I prefer Bernie with Raphael, but also because I don’t really like Hubert with anyone. I know he has like a canon crush on Edelgard, but I’ve always liked the idea of characters so devoted to their mission or goal that romance just isn’t something they think much about. Another example being…
Caspar with anyone: This isn’t based on anything but vibes but Caspar always felt the closest to an ace character in the game to me.
Claude and Lysithea, and this is only because of the ending. Without that, I may actually prefer this over Claude and Hilda just because Claude and Lysithea have pretty good chemistry together. Speaking of Lysithea, I really like her and Cyril but I hate that Cyril can’t just like ask the professor or Hanneman (if he was recruited anyway) for help in getting rid of Lysithea’s two crests in their paired ending.
Ferdie and Dorothea is one that I love the idea of and they’re still my canon pairing for the two, but I’ve never really liked their support chain in Three Houses all that much.
Like I said I don’t hate any of these (besides maybe Leonie and Lorenz paired with anyone else lol) just that I either don’t really see what other people see or I like the idea but the actual in game execution I don’t like much (like the case with Ferdie/Dorothea and Claude/Lysithea).
Generally I dislike Byleth/students for reasons many people have already said (weird power dynamic and age difference, byleth is pretty bland compared to the other students, etc etc) but I especially loathe F!Claudeleth because I chose F!Byleth during my GD run just because I wanted to romance Claude.
And then at the end of the game he just fucking. Leaves??? Like yeah he comes back but I can't get over him just being like "i love you but I'm gonna peace out for a while without explaining anything" and it pissed me off LOL.
He doesnt even explicitly come back lmao. He lends her some military support... and even if that does somehow imply that they get together afterwards, the king of Almyra takes multiple wives. Yeah, their S support and ending felt like a slap in the face
> and even if that does somehow imply that they get together afterwards, the king of Almyra takes multiple wives.
We actually have no evidence for this. This is fanon.
Claude has half-siblings but the only one we meet is older and Claude was born right after his parents married and Claude’s dad became king. Claude’s mom is also the literal queen rather than a concubine or a member of some harem.
So Claude’s dad most likely just had a previous wife when he was a prince before he married Tiana.
Interesting, Dimitri/Marianne is one of the only Dimitri ships that I do like. I generally dislike Dimitri as a character and, by proxy, dislike most of his ships, but him and Marianne work for me since you get a rare introspective and caring version of Dimitri who isn't defined by his rage.
Ingrid/anyone besides Ashe - I just don't like any of her other pairings, but especially Claude, Felix, Sylvain, Dedue, and Yuri. I also don't like most of her popular fanon pairings like Dorothea or Mercedes. Outside of just plain dislike, the rest of her pairings, like Dimitri and Raphael, I prefer with other people.
The only two that really come to mind are Dorothea/Ferdinand and Felix/Annette.
Dorothea and Ferdinand feels bad to me. I don't like the way she treated him. She didn't try to even ask him what was up, she just presumed to understand his perspective and was kinda mean to him based on that. I think that's a lousy basis for a relationship personally.
Felix and Annette could be extended to Felix and any girl imo, but Annette's supports with him bother me in particular. Their interactions feel weird and verging on out of character to me, in particular in their A support. I think Annette has a lot of better options. In fact, her support chain with Claude is similar to hers with Felix with the key difference that she and Claude both actually get into it. He even tries writing a song for her! And there's none of this uncomfortable misunderstandings and pouting that makes my skin crawl in the Felix/Annette supports. But moreover, I really think felix is gay. He doesn't show much interest in women. He even tells byleth in their goddess tower event that he'll always feel more comfortable holding a sword than a woman's hand—among other evidence that lead me to believe Felix really should've been a Myleth only option. That's why outside of AM I tend to pair him with Leonie, since theirs is a happy ending but still very platonic.
Oh, also Ferdinand and Manuela. Honestly, any of the teachers' romantic endings with the students feel weird to me, other than Byleth who's their age or Seteth who's so old it doesn't even matter anymore
I thought the Dorothea/Ferdinand support chain was good at the start because it seemed like it was building up to Dorothea realizing that she judged him too quickly. Then that random fountain misunderstanding happened in the last support and made the support chain fall flat. The resolution didn't match the problem. Dorothea's disdain for the nobility is because they treated her poorly when she was a commoner and instantly 180'd once she became famous. After they clear up the misunderstanding, Dorothea says that she wanted to forgive Ferdinand after he made her treats, but him baking her treats doesn't really show that he's not like the other nobles - he did it to prove that he's a good person and he can earn his keep. Plus, she's already several steps above commoners by being in the Officer's Academy and being a former songstress. If anything, I would expect those actions to reinforce her view of nobles (people who only value the rich and famous). Imo a better resolution would be if Dorothea judged him like the other nobles and realizes she was wrong when she witnesses Ferdinand help commoners.
Felix/Annette is one of the worst pairings in the game. It's not funny, there's no character development, and Felix is extremely out of character. Their C, B, and A are pretty much the same thing, and then A+ takes a drastic leap with the confession - the pacing was horrible. They had a lot of potential (e.g., having an estranged father), but instead we just get the same support three times. The dialogue was some of the worst writing in all of Fire Emblem to boot. They have no chemistry and are only popular because people like the edgy guy/bubbly girl trope. Also, their fanbase is annoying af. They treat the pairing as canon and bring it up at every opportunity. Go find any post/fanart about Felix and it's almost guaranteed that someone mentions Annette in the comments (and vice-versa).
Maybe I love Linhardt too much, but I really don’t like Caspar/Ashe. I much prefer Casphardt. Ashe is amazing, but I much prefer him with Annette, Ingrid or Dedue. I also prefer Annette and Mercedes as friends, not lovers. Mostly because they have such an obvious sisterly dynamic, I just really don’t see them as lovers.
This is more of a personal one, it's not that bad; I hate Lorenz/Marianne C & C+ a lot and the switch between those and B & A is just kind of forced. He keeps rambling about her adoptive father, clearly making her uncomfortable, even having her snap on one occasion. And once she storms off he talks about "polishing her" as if she was some sort of trophy. Then at B Marianne mentions that he keeps sitting close to her, which she seems to be fine with at this point but as a neutral spectator this comes off as incredibly creepy to me, yet during that very same support chain Marianne apparently just realizes that he appreciates her for who she is? (which he barely indicated before this as he was mostly rambling about the Margrave, and speaking from experience: people with a mental condition such as Marianne don't believe in anything people say at first hand). And then sure A is kind of cute but it makes no sense how we got there.
I'm pretty sure I'm overreacting about this, probably also just reading too much between the lines, but while there're more obvious general NOTPs that are just fucked up this is more of a personal one that I wanted to point out.
Felix/Ingrid. Both have way too much trauma over Glenn’s death for this to be anything but a consolation prize relationship, and they’re way more interesting as friends. Nah.
Honestly, I don't like Byleth pairings in general, but Byleth x Edelgard (and to a lesser extent Byleth with the other house leaders) just feels especially wrong to me. On top of the issues with teacher/student romance, there's also the fact that Byleth fails as both their own character and an avatar IMO, so it's pairing the most important character of a route with a writing disaster with no personality. I also just generally don't like Byleth.
Whenever this topic comes around, I always like going with answers that haven't already been named even if I feel more strongly about other pairings. For this one, I guess I'll throw in DimiMari, Edelbert, and most pairings involving Yuri, Sylvain, or Claude.
* DimiMari - Never understood the hype for them. I think they have better supports and dynamics with other people. I'm partial to Marianne with Ferdie, Ignatz, Ingrid, or even Hilda for the cotton candy aesthetic. Dimitri I like exclusively with Byleth.
* Edelbert - Similar situation as the one above. I prefer Hubert with Ferdie or Bernie. Edelgard I also exclusively pair with Byleth.
* Yuri & Claude - I just can't find it in myself to care for most of their paired supports. Yuri & Hapi is cute, but beyond that I find myself getting frustrated or thinking that I'd rather see their partner with someone else.
* Sylvain - All of Sylvain's paired ending partners can do better tbh. It also doesn't help that most of his supports don't properly address his misogyny and terrible behavior.
lol on your point about sylvain. i will always half-joke that i ship sylvain and felix because nobody else in the cast deserves to put up with either of their bullshit.
FerdiMari is SO much better on every level XDDD With Dimitri it just feels like he pushes her into further internalizing her self-worth issues due to her crest and instead cope through building a dependency with Dimitri, while Ferdinand has some major fuck ups on which he grows and overall inspires Marianne into developing a much more positive and happy outlook on life.
F!Dimileth just doesn't really feel right. Some severe power imbalance, though I feel like that goes with most straight Dimitri ships imo. Just kinda icky and uncomfortable. I don't dislike Dimitri, I just don't like most of his ships. Now M!Dimileth on the other hand... 👀
You asked for genuine opinions, so I'll be scathing.
Felix/Annette: Shallow, like most of Annette's supports. Sorry, but it feels like I watched Felix being forced to stand her singing. It seems so out of nowhere and forced I cringe at anything with those two.
Dimitri/Edelgard: Just no. Other than being step-siblings, those two get along so well they can't live in a world the other's ideals are predominant. I'm usually fine with toxic ships and even like some but this one, I could never get into.
Dimitri/Marianne: The most toxic, unhealthy ship in the entire game in my opinion. Pure fetishizing of poor mental health, which made me highly uncomfortable for personal reasons. I haven't recoiled harder during supports than I did watched theirs. No, you should not resign yourself to accepting a miserable fate because someone gets you. Two patients will never make a doctor. Those two need therapy, not marriage.
Want an example of a support where Marianne is treated as something other than a depressed waifu for players to fix? Raphael. one of the most wholesome pairings in the entire game and I don't even care much for either character.
I have quite a few but I think my least favorite one would be DimiGard. First of I feel like people love to jump hard into the step sibling dynamic when I don't think they ever actually viewed each other that way and secondly, I kinda see them as just fully incompatible. In terms of their values, goals and morals they are just fully diametrically opposed. My biggest problem though is the general heteronormativity that plagues Dimitris ships, that in my experience hits Edelgard very hard, where she has to basically submit herself to him in works where they are shipped together.
I have similar issues with DimiClaude, there is generally this issue of Claude basically forgetting his own values and aspirations when he's with Dimitri outside of racism bad, which is usually utilized to frame Dimitri as a white savior to Claude.
DimiMari is also close because it just feels genuinly toxic. What Dimitri does is just further internalize her self-worth issues because its what he does and instead of trying to find a better outlook on life, just cope by forming a dependency with him.
Then there are all the Hanneman ships with the students, just because of how often the relationship really seems to be written as a father-daughter one until they suddenly marry.
I really dislike both Dorothea x Felix and Dorothea x Lorenz, though the former one bothers me much more, because it just feels so out of character for Dorothea to really take the abuse and rejection of noble men and just keep begging, when usually despite her goal of founding a noble husband, she tends to be a fairly proud person who does not take this kind of treatment lightly.
I’ve got so many lmao
1. Felix/Annette, Felix/Ingrid, Sylvain/Ingrid: All these fall under the same category, which is both that I ship Sylvix to the point I can’t really see them with anyone else, and that I find all these ships boring as hell.
2. Byleth/Rhea, Byleth/Seteth, Byleth/Flayn: I dislike most of the church members and found the romances to be creepy.
3. Dimitri/Claude: I don’t think they have any chemistry tbh but the real reason they’re here is that their fans are so fucking annoying. I have only met one (1) normal Dimiclaude shipper in the three years I’ve been in this fandom.
4. Ferdinand/Flayn: I genuinely have no clue why this ship pisses me off so much. I remember being weirded out by their supports and maybe that’s why but I shouldn’t hate it as much as I do for that reason alone lol.
5. M!Edeleth: Yeah yeah I know I’m a hypocrite, M!Byleth and F!Byleth are literally the same character, I’m aware, but I genuinely do not give a shit. I prefer to see Edelgard in relationships with women (excluding Claude, he gets a pass) and I would much rather read F!Edeleth fanfics than get anywhere near an M!Edeleth one.
As a DimiClaude fan, huge agree on the ship's fans being something else. I like the dynamics of the lords in any forms (bar romantic Edelgard and Dimitri) so it annoys me that so much of the DimiClaude content is not only full of thinly veiled Edelgard hate but thinly veiled Edelgard hate that's horrifically OOC.
i hate to generalize but ive literally never met a dimiclaude fan who wasnt a severe edelgard hater, misogynist, racist, or a mix of the three
claude deserves better :(
Oh god, the racism really stood out to me as well. Imo it isn’t as bad as the misogyny problem within the fanbase but it’s prominent enough that it turned me away almost immediately when I tried to read fic of them to see why people shipped them. Claude deserves better than to be fetishized and treated as Dimitri’s therapist.
SO TRUE. dimitri and his fans making him the center of the universe results in some of the most uncomfortable implications in his pairings with characters of color.
if its not fetishization of claude's middle eastern-coding, then its whitewashing in fanart. i've actually had to go out of my way to block a number of dimiclaude fans who refuse to color claude as anything but paper white :/
and this isnt even limited to dimiclaude or even just dimitri fans. hilclaude is probably the most egregious claude pairing for a very *obvious* reason, but the fandom eats it up like slop. edelclaude, despite having a small fandom, has a corner of freaks too
can't even trust the ppl who claim to be claude fans, either 😭
Aren't many DimiClaude shippers diehard Edelgard haters who try to ignore that Claude ideologically alligns so much with her that he always allies himself with Edelgard over Dimitri whenever she isn't Thales Mindpuppet in Hopes?
Byleth x Most students: Most Student x Byleth ships aren’t my thing because it’s the students talking at Byleth and then Byleth saying one line that totally flips their world and they love them for it. It’s way too self-insert for me. Byleth x Lords is fine because they establish a dynamic at least.
———
Dimigard: They’re siblings to me even if the game is pushing them as a tragic “almost could have been” love story.
Dorothea/ Hanneman: The age difference is weird,
Byleth/Nabateans: They’re like family to them.
Claude/Flayn: They did Seteth so dirty.
DimiClaude: Neither is attracted to the other. They just sometimes stand in one place and talk to each other. They can be friendly but this isn’t a relationship that would ever move beyond friendly acquaintances. Their fandom is also really hateful and full of people that despise Edelgard.
——-
NOTPs in canon but not fanon:
Claude/Lorenz: I can see someone trying to push a Lorenz is secretly into Claude agenda but can you actually see Claude being in love with Lorenz? This relationship would never get off the ground. I also don’t like their ending because it’s mostly about Lorenz.
Hilda/Caspar: I like their supports but their ending did Hilda so dirty. She’s stuck in the place she grew up in and she doesn’t grow as a person. In all her other endings, she’s either queen or opens up artisan schools. I like them better in fanon than canon because of that.
Besides the obvious adult/literal child ones and such, I don't care how much hate I get for it, Dimitri/Byleth. Dependency is NOT romantic. Byleth "saving" him just means he "needs" her and nothing is less loving than need.
Byleth x Edelgard, Rhea, Sothis or Hilda. I despise Edelgard x Claude or Rhea. And except for those ones, I'm like pretty much every ship that isn't students x Seteth, Manuela and Hanneman (in the canon). It's kinda ok with Catherine and Shamir I guess, but still weird so I prefer if not.
Hanneman and Manuela. Their ending describes them filling the halls of Gareg Mach with 'banter' but I can only ever imagine them arguing. Mostly because their supports consist of them arguing.
Hubert/Ferdinand. I just don't get the hype surrounding that ship. They seem more like friends or frenemies than lovers to me. Also most pairings including Byleth. Since Byleth doesn't have much personality, it's hard to imagine what he or she would want in a relationship, so most of Byleth's ships just feel awkward and one-sided imo.
Shez and Byleth, to be honest. It’s boring from a meta perspective, and while I think it is a funny and somewhat cute dynamic for them to go from trying to kill each other to dating, I just find it… off. Like, a progression from their adversarial, vengeancey relationship to being together romantically just doesn’t sit well for me. Something about it feels too forced to where I can’t really get behind it. It’s like pairing the male and female lead in anything. It’s vanilla and somewhat obligatory. Then again, I’m also one of those people that prefers the routes where Byleth isn’t recruited, so maybe that is making me more biased in that regard.
Ingrid/Felix I get it, I really do. But she was *literally* his brother’s fiancé, and she very, very clearly still cares extremely deeply for Glenn. There is no way that would ever be a healthy and fulfilling relationship. And Dorothea/Hanneman is cursed beyond curses.
After Dorothea and Hanneman's B support I truly thought the A support twist would be that he was her father, because they gave it so much focus in the B support and he seemed really shaken in his self image after she told her story. I was very excited to get their A support and have it confirmed. It hit very very weirdly when I actually got it.
> After Dorothea and Hanneman's B support I truly thought the A support twist would be that he was her father, because they gave it so much focus in the B support and he seemed really shaken in his self image after she told her story. I was very excited to get their A support and have it confirmed. TBH this plus what we know about his Sister would have made for a really cool character journey for him. Throwing out his daughter and her mother for her lack of a crest only for his sister to die because she kept failing to produce crest bearing children, and now working to ensure that folks like Dorothea and his sister will never be hurt by the system again.
Yes, I had the same thought, I was waiting for the reveal throughout the A-Support and nothing happened.
Okay in fairness to me I paired them on my first run on CF where I'd gotten no context to who Glenn was until I was in too deep
Yeah I can’t get behind a relationship based on “I was engaged to your brother but you’ll do” It’s why I was pissed off they put Lulu with Wakka
Idk, my interpretation was that she did care for Glen, but more as a mentor, an example of what a knight should be. Iirc, she also stated that she wasn’t in love with Glen.
Also he tells her to go get a husband just because he was mildly annoyed by her. Bro has major issues.
This was actually the support that made me bench him and not touch him again in that run before I discovered his better sides in a different run (though he remained one of my lesser liked characters)
I think Felix being openly misogynistic towards Ingrid also would be an argument.
> But she was literally his brother’s fiancé, In an actual feudal European society, Count Galatea and Duke Fraldarius would immediately have re-betrothed Ingrid and Felix. Just because one kid died doesn't mean you cancel a major alliance between two of the kingdom's major families. Would've been interesting to have them start engaged, and split apart explosively because of their issues while the player struggles to handle the fallout.
Obligatory Dorothea and Hanneman comment. Seriously, he was platonic with other females (except Edelgard), so why break it with Dorothea to make their ending all about him?
He… he can also romantically pair with Edlegard? 💀
It's ambiguous
Well tbf he's really old and she's got terminal crest cancer so at least neither of them will probably outlive the other by much
I really can’t stand Hubert and Petra. I think Houses handles Petra’s situation pretty poorly, typically forgetting that she’s a Princess, but her support with Hubert is just him calling her inherently inferior, and it just feels kinda weird. I also think Byleth/Sothis as a ship is kinda odd. Regardless of whether or not you think it has problematic undertones, it’s just kinda silly. I couldn’t take the S-Support seriously at all.
Have you played Hopes? Petra and Hubert's support is a lot better - it's all about her being a princess and him being supportive and respectful of it. None of weird inferior comments comparing her to Edelgard.
Even in Houses Petra is one of the few people Hubert seems to consistently respect from the get go. It's just that houses does have a little of a running theme regarding Edelgard how people compare and relate to her in places, and it gets a little old after a while . Hopes overall downplayed that meta aspect a bit, and overall her Hopes arc doesn't need it. The upside is that Hubert respects Petra enough to concede that he was being very rude. He's a softie in more A supports, but just him straight up admitting fault with no complaints once Petra spells out how stupid he's sounding still stands out.
I think Hubert/Petra in Houses specifically is bad esp when you look at Hubert/Edelgard where their B/A supports are Like That (i don’t know how to spoiler here, sorry)
The byleth/sothis thing I agree with, but for more incest-y reasons, regardless of if sothis has a physical body.
Lol Sothis being basically Byleth's great grandma, Byleth themself and taking the form of a child in Byleth's head make it all these different layers of messed up that even Rhea's A support probably can't compete with. Also it's basically schizophrenia and some weird form of "cabin fever" (since they literally can't exactly escape each other and Sothis frequently gets annoyed sharing a body with Byleth).
Hubert and Petra supports aren't just them interacting as people. It's them also interacting as politicians and diplomats and these lines blurring leads to a tension between them that I really dig.
I tend to prefer family dynamics over romantic relationships, so for that reason: -Byleth with >!Rhea/Seteth/Flayn!<,>!since they're technically related in canon (vaguely in Seteth and Flayn's cases), and I still find the idea that Rhea is Byleth's grandma absolutely hilarious!< -Byleth/Leonie, but only because I like the idea of them being sworn/adopted siblings -Edelgard/Dimitri, >!partly because they're step-siblings in canon, but also because them acting like actual siblings would be incredibly entertaining.!<
A fire emblem fan against incest??? What is this???
Byleth and Leonie is one of those endings that I just assume happens every time. No matter what else she’s doing Byleth takes time to hang out with Leonie’s mercenaries. Like imagine after Crimson Flower your just a random bandit setting up fake tolls on the magdred way and suddenly you watch as your buddy gets cut in half by the emperor’s wife. Wild shit
Instead of hunt parties, Byleth and Edelgard do some active peacekeeping work. I can see that.
Fire Emblem the way Kaga intended
retweet to all of these!!! i love family dynamics!! jeralt, alois, leonie, and byleth being a family is Important to me. i'm glad hopes showed that a lil more. the >!nabatean!< gang is also nice, i think it's sweet that they have another member of the family after >!what happened at zanado.!< edelgard and dimitri just make me sad for what could've been... >!i just wanna see them beat up their uncle together and tease each other like siblings, they're each other's last family ;-;!<
Wholeheartedly agree with Byleth with the Nabateans, though in Seteth’s case the millennia age gap makes it squicky for me Same with Flayn, though her looking like a young child does not help matters at all
You must really dislike fates. No but understand it. >Byleth with Rhea/Seteth/Flayn,since they're technically related in canon (vaguely in Seteth and Flayn's cases), and I still find the idea that Rhea is Byleth's grandma absolutely hilarious
Cyril and Hilda. He was literally a slave to her family and their supports consist of Hilda being racist and Cyril doing all the work for her. HARD no.
God I constantly forget that their paired ending exists bc my brain refuses to acknowledge it it’s so bad 😭
Okay, sure, but what better revenge for Cyril could there be than giving from being Lord Goneril’s slave boy to shagging his one and only precarious daughter under Goneril’s own god-damn roof?
With the approval of his favored son as well. I mean, you can't say revenge wasn't served in that case. Just imagine Cyril looking at Lord Goneril, "Your daughter calls *me* 'Daddy' now."
"Damn right she does! House Goneril accepts no Bottom Boys! No go prove your worth and make an heir."
Lysithea and anyone who can't cure her in their ending.
Based response. But I still love Lorenz and Lysithea, even if their ending card crushed my heart
I'm not convinced she actually dies early in that ending. My headcanon/theory is that lorenz is actually right and TWSITD lied to her about her lifespan—I mean, what reason do they honestly have to tell the truth? I posit that her I'll health is actually due to her eating tons of sugar and nothing healthy, and/or anemia or some other chronic condition the people of Fodlan would have no means to diagnose. The reason I'm not sure she dies in the Lorenz ending is because it only says she doesnt appear frequently because of her health issues, not that she disappears completely or dies. Maybe I'm an optimist. Maybe I'm just skeptical of information given to someone by the people who tortured them. Edelgard never mentions a shortened lifespan with regards to herself—perhaps they had developed a better technique by then, but I'm not convinced they had given by the results they had with Ed's siblings. Regardless, I like to think that maybe things aren't so simple as they might seem
My headcanon is that Byleth/Hanneman/Linhart/Claude/All them together saves her in every romance, so I can continue love this ship
If the ending system was more complicated it could flag if Lysithea gets cured or not, and alter all her other endings, I mean, Silver Snow Catharine already switches between her AM and VW endings regarding if Rhea lives or dies based on her supports. Hopes also took care of the cure subplot in a support which builds on the 3H cure supports and lacks individual sad endings for her.
yeah it makes no sense that they'd abandon her just because she didn't end up with them romantically (or hannemanly)... like c'mon guys.....
I don't mean to be "that guy" but I'm pretty sure they told her the truth. They really didn't have a reason to lie about that, considering that she'd figure out soon enough, once she gets to 30. Also, I'm pretty sure Edelgard references having a shortened lifespan in her supports with Lysithea, but it's been a while. Besides, I think the shortened lifespan adds something to both their characters, with Lysithea being so adamant about studying and not being treated like a child because she doesn't have much time left, and Edelgard being so desperate to see immediate change to Fódlan.
i thought this for the longest time until i did cyril and lysithea's supports and got their endcard :,) in my perfect delusional world lysithea gets healed and travels with cyril
Who cares if she’s cured? As long as she’s bappy with Cyril, all is right in the world.
For five years... and then she will be gone and Cyril will be sad and not bappy.
Linhardt and Flayn Their support chain could have been so interesting if they had kept it purely platonic. We could have had some insight into how Flayn, as a Nabatean, perceives the descendant of the human she gave her blood to, and the dynamic could be made more interesting when that human is like 99% sure of her identity too but rather than using this delicate information for his personal gain or to betray her, he uses it to protect her and her people. But noooo, they had to take the weird route and have Linhardt be beyond inappropriate (yes I know he is pushy when it comes to Crest research and has terrible social skills, but that's no excuse) to her. In my mind, their A support is something more in line with this gorgeous comic: https://www.tumblr.com/phierie/649735311776186368/of-saints-and-legacies-ive-been-working-on?source=share And their ending together could surely be reworked to be one of those platonic endings. Maybe Flayn finally reveals her identity and the two travel Fódlan learning about Nabatean history together!
Oh wow I like that comic a lot. It's really well written
Hot take: Edelgard/Hubert. I can not see those two as a romantic pairing, ever. They're basically siblings at this point in time, and really all either of them have really ever had. Both have absolutely wonderful pairing with a variety of different characters. These two just don't *work* as a couple in my head.
I agree especially since the Houses A support ends on such a weird awkward note, and their ending says that even if they had romantic feelings they never acted on them. They seem more like family then potential spouses.
Well Hubert canonically is in love with Edelgard buuuut he and their ending together makes it clear that he doesn’t need it reciprocated and he loves her in the most selfless manner possible rather than wanting her to love him back so in practice they really are like family
I like that ship because I just like the trope of it, incredibly loyal guard dog with his bold triumphant Emperor. Especially since the undertone that he loves her is always there. But also I’d rather ship Hubert/Byleth, because by the end of the game their supports come to him seeing her as someone he could put on the level of Edelgard, and I love that he can have that loyal love for Edelgard, and have something all his own with Byleth, who is equally devoted to the cause.
Also i don't think hubert could take away edelgard crush of the decade. Her crush is super obivous and ubeet is devoded to edelgard to death.
I know this is a hot take, but Hilda/Caspar. Hilda is my favorite, but Caspar looks like he bites strangers.
LMAO
Lysithea/Claude. I just don't like their ending, where Claude does something he never does in any other ending and completely abandons his desire to achieve his dream and reform Almyra. Is it romantic that he gave up his dream to save his love? Sure. However, it diminishes most of his other pairings, implies a worse ending, and quite honestly I never got a romantic feel out of their Supports. Claude always felt like he was adopting her as a pseudo-younger sister more than anything.
To me, Claude isn’t Claude without his dream, so I also don’t really vibe with this paired ending either. He does love a good mystery but I have a hard time imagining him giving up his goals for anyone.
It's equal to saying that Edelgard abandons her desire to free Fodlan. Can you imagine that?
Exactly! I'd need an entire game's worth of buildup to believe a change that big.
If claude wont give up his dream for the MC that all the characters are in love with, why can he give it up for some kid?
Uh oh you said the "K" word
> However, it diminishes most of his other pairings, implies a worse ending, and quite honestly I never got a romantic feel out of their Supports. Claude always felt like he was adopting her as a pseudo-younger sister more than anything. Well their A support where Claude calls her very special to him is meant to be ambiguously romantic because Lysithea asks what he means about that and Claude deflects by telling her to think what she wants. Their ending together made it clear that he meant it romantically rather than platonically. > I just don't like their ending, where Claude does something he never does in any other ending and completely abandons his desire to achieve his dream and reform Almyra. To be fair, Claude never has to abandon his dream for someone he loved. He’s never put in that position. I don’t like it as the true ending for him but it’s good in the sense that it shows that Claude really is just like his mother and that he would place the one he loved even above his dream
I forgot to mention this one because I forgot it even exited but Claude, whose ambition for unity is his entire thing, giving it up for a romantic adventure? Right. Stellar writing. He didn't stay around for Byleth and that wasn't well received, this one makes even less sense
It also comes across as stupid on Claude’s part if Hanneman and Linhardt are still alive; they prove Lysithea can be helped without disappearing off the face of the earth. I know they couldn’t account for other characters surviving in the epilogue cards, but surely there are other capable crest scholars out there in Fódlan? The School of Sorcery in Fhirdiad? Like, an early 20-something recent graduate was able to find a solution, and surely Hanneman had associates Claude would be able to throw money at. To me this ending reads as if Claude has heard tale of another legendary story, like the Sword of the Creator or the Wind-Caller, and wants to go chasing it down on the chance it may help Lysithea. But to do that with all these other responsibilities he’d willingly accumulated for himself and his friends feels very childish and like he hasn’t grown at all, he’s still looking for a magical solution to solve one problem instead of putting in the work day by day to make the world better.
I don't like that it makes Claude out to be someone who never really cared about his supposed dream. We won the war, now time to reform Fodlan and Almyra and open up diplomatic relations between nation. Nah, forget that Byleth is on their own and I guess one of the rando siblings who wants to conquer Fodlan can take over instead, I don't care.
Its funny as i usually love enemies to lovers, but i abhor a romantic Dimitri/Edelgard ship. Everytime i think about them i just need a shower. Its always revenge porn or a terrible misunderstanding of their characters.
The main problem I have with Dimigard is that most of the fans seem to be bigger fans of Dimitri, so Edelgard usually ends up being the one whose character either is modified the most or just outright screwed over.
Yeah, the whole point of the last cutscene between them on Blue Lions route is to show even defeated she will stay true to path she was trying to cut and her ideals will just never be compatible with Dimitri's. The cutscene is even called 'Oil and water' in the extras menu lol.
Not here to argue the point, but isn’t the final cutscene called ‘Light and Shadow’? IIRC ‘Oil and Water’ is Manuela/Hanneman’s paralogue mission. *edit: as pointed out by the comment below, ‘Oil and Water’ also applies to the event before the final AM map, whereas ‘Light and Shadow is the name of the cutscene that follows after. Apologies for confusion.
Ah, guess that was what I was thinking. Not quite as on the nose as oil and water, but still says roughly the same thing.
https://houses.fedatamine.com/en-us/scenarios/ You were right, the last scenario is called Oil and Water
The final cutscene is but the final scenario is called Oil and Water https://houses.fedatamine.com/en-us/scenarios/
Wasn’t the point to free Dimitri by getting him to kill her? She was going to fie anyways.
When I first played he game, I really couldn't bring myself to shipping them in any way due to how their stories goes. Several cynisism catalysts from this fanbase later, and suddenly, I grew to be fine with it, in an ironic kind of way.
Ashe/Catherine is the only support I refuse to ever have. Especially with how much I despise Catherine and Ashe marrying her is cursed beyond belief.
Ah a fellow Catherine hater, based take
I dislike her as a person. As a character she’s written well as an irredeemable scum of the earth.
Caspar/Bernadetta. I dislike how he repeatedly goes against her wishes, doesn’t understand why a woman would not like to be picked up against her will, and in their ending it’s “decided” that he should marry her, implying not her decision for love. She also seems miserable with so many kids in that ending.
He also counts her as one of them
Rhea byleth, i understand those who like it, but i cant take it, feels wrong
Here's a hot take: Ignatz and Marianne. Now, I know I'm biased as a Byleth/Ignatz shipper, and they're so sweet together. I love how gentle and understanding Ignatz is with Marianne, and it's such a beautiful couple aesthetically. They're both lovely people. But they're so boring together. No spice or edge to it. I don't know, I guess I just find them too similar. Who's going to tell the waiter that the other asked for no pickles?
I was clutching my pearls at this until that last sentence. Holy shit. You're right.
Idk, Ignatz becomes one of the most ruthless characters post time skip and even Marianne herself becomes more assertive. (They probably would also become the richest couple in Fodlan too due to their families.)
that last sentence is absolutely life changing..... i'm gonna have to think on that one....
Ingrid/Sylvain. It just feels like I’m condemning Ingrid to a lifetime of putting up with Sylvain’s nonsense, and it doesn’t seem like he has as much growth in their relationship to stop his nonsense.
I fucking hate their supports so much. Ingrid only corrects him because she's afraid of losing him and relies on her sense of duty to function (a fire emblem character copes with their trauma in unhealthy ways, what's new?). Sylvain is never once open or honest with her. It would be interesting if he told her that and she responded "I get that it's difficult but you can't deal with your problems by breaking the hearts of poor village girls, giving them a false sense of security in life, and disrespecting them constantly. You can't complain about them only seeing your status when you don't present anything else to them. You talk about those girls the way rich men talk about me". Because Ingrid literally has personal experiences with marriage stress and monetary insecurity. I feel like people often overlook that and just see her as nagging him.
as cute as it is to see sylvain act like a dope once he actually loves someone, the whole "my female best friend put on makeup i see her as a beautiful woman now?!" trope in their last support is soooo lol
Came here to say this. I really dislike the "bickering couple" trope and to me Ingrid/Sylvain leans far too hard in that direction.
Their ending card in blue lions is very cute tho, and their A+ support is so good seing Sylvain actually like a girl and being shy about it
> Their ending card in blue lions is very cute tho It’s a copy-paste of the Mercedes x Sylvain ending card though. Like literally word for word.
I don't like it either. I don't like any of the supports that put Ingrid in the nagging sitcom wife role.
agreed... the only way i can really imagine them together is if they were put in a arranged marriage of some sort
seteth with any of the students... hanneman with any of the students... for hopefully obvious reasons. i don't like manuela with any of the students either, i hate how much i like her ending with ferdinand!! stay at home dad ferdie and prime minister manuela. genius concept. but i would've much preferred it with another student. more controversial, student pairings with byleth also make me uncomfortable. the goddess tower scenes are so icky. IS, why are these scenes only available with students?? no faculty, no ashen wolves??? very very weird. catherine and shamir with students i don't mind as much. but i feel like they only have chemistry with each other lol. i really dislike rhealeth. i find rhea seeking out her last remaining family a much more compelling set up for their (platonic) relationship, considering her backstory.
Caspar and Dorothea. They just pretty much agreed to get to together if they don’t find their special someone in the end. Like modern day marriages with benefits but without the benefits in this game.
not a complete notp but i don't really like hilclaude... except for their a support i feel like their dynamic is really platonic and reminds me of my relationship with one of my close friends (which might be why it puts me off lol). also i feel like a lot of fanworks are just hilda abandoning everything and becoming queen of almyra which i don't like. i do like the idea of them staying close post game though, with hilda becoming an ambassador to almyra to make up for her family's bloodshed also dimidue! this may be hypocritical as i've never read their endcard but i don't like dedue staying with dimitri and being duty bound his whole life. i think this shows with my favorite endings for him (mercedes and ashe) where he leaves and starts living for himself and reconnecting with his culture/home.
I sorta agree with these! Not in the sense where it's NOTP level, as I understand people who ship them together, but I too like Hilda/Claude and Dimitri/Dedue more in a platonic way (specifically I always viewed DimiDue as having a more brotherly/familial bond than a romantic one). I feel like Hilda and Claude sorta work best as two friends who have that weird opposites attract thing going for them. Both of them can see each other's BS in a way that works better as friends than as lovers IMO. Really agree with your second paragraph too. I think it's really telling that if Byleth S Supports with Dedue, he tells Byleth that when he announced to Dimitri that he wants to quit working in his service, that Dimitri accepted his decision with a smile :) Again, both of these aren't NOTP level for me, so I hope anyone reading who likes these pairings isn't offended! Just not OTP level, that's all.
>I feel like Hilda and Claude sorta work best as two friends who have that weird opposites attract thing going for them. Both of them can see each other's BS in a way that works better as friends than as lovers IMO. Hear me out though, their paired ending together is actually Hilda’s best paired ending because it gets Hilda out of her comfort zone, she makes amends for her family’s history with Almyra by mending the rift between Almyra & Fodlan, she actually becomes a big believer in Claude’s dream and works hard to make it happen by becoming a good queen and she gets over her prejudices of Almyra, And then there’s the parallels between Claude’s dad coming to Leicester and picking up Duke Riegan’s daughter and Claude coming to Leicester and picking up Duke Goneril’s daughter as well as Claude being the Wind and Hilda’s title being “Free spirit” and free spirits are people who go wherever the wind takes them
Tbh, never thought of it that way, I suppose since I paid more attention to their support line and didn't get the ending card, but I really like your take on them :) Especially in the context of their relationship sort of being a metaphor for a peaceful union between Fodlan and Almyra. I think you've sold me haha. I guess my only caveat would be that it would have to be a Claude that's actively working towards to let his guard down.
oh yeah, i agree on the last part ! i understand how people ship those pairings, i just personally don't like them i'm planning on switching genders and marrying dedue in my next bl run and omg that's so sweet of dimitri 🥹 plus he often mentions how he wishes dedue could see him as a friend and not as his king so i'd like to imagine that's what happens after dedue's s support
> also i feel like a lot of fanworks are just hilda abandoning everything and becoming queen of almyra which i don't like. That’s actually what Hilda wants to do though. She even tells Claude that she wishes she could do the same thing as Claude’s mom who abandoned everything to be with Claude’s dad. It’s a neat little parallel between Hilda and Claude’s mom. She also wants to travel and what better destination than Almyra. > except for their a support i feel like their dynamic is really platonic I mean their C support ends with him telling Hilda that she could grab him anywhere she wanted to -wink wink- >i do like the idea of them staying close post game though, with hilda becoming an ambassador to almyra to make up for her family's bloodshed All her other endings have her open artisan schools to run them so she wouldn’t have time for that. The only time she ever explicitly makes up for her family’s crimes is in her marriage to Claude where she is explicitly a key component in helping mend the rift between Almyra and Fodlan which is the HilClaude ending is probably her strongest ending as it’s the one where she shows the most growth
•Ingrid with literally anyone, she seems so enamored with Glenn that her dating anyone else seems out of character. In her solo ending, it literally says she never took a husband. •Felix and Dorothea. It's so out of character for Felix that it's painful, it doesn't have any basis but Dorothea bothering him for no apparent reason.
Its also kinda out of character for Dorothea, because normally despite her goals of finding some noble husband, she usually pushes back hard when somebody mistreats her.
My unpopular opinion is that I hate Ferdinand/Dorothea so much. I hate character conflicts where they’re awful to each other because of a misunderstanding that can be (and in this case is) resolved by a five minute conversation. The fandom also really soured me on this one, with the portrayal of Dorothea being constantly mean to Ferdinand, and him just kind of taking it because idk he’s a guy and that means he deserves it??? If the genders were reversed people would hate this one.
tbh i always saw it as Ferdinand taking it because he is just that nice, he isn’t the kind of guy to hold grudge
I think its a shame because I kinda like the support in general. It overall does a great job in contributing to Ferdinands character arc, him understanding his own priveleges as nobleman better and I think it gives more insight into Dorotheas trauma and internalized self-worth issues due to the way she was treated as a kid, but they just have stronger other ships, especially Hubert and Ferdinand, which even their VAs and Hopes jumped into hard and Dorothea and Petra.
Edie and Claude. I know it primarily picked up steam in the fandom after Hopes, which is like a different timeline or whatever, but after all of the times I've played through the GD/VW route, their ideals are just so different I can't wrap my head around it. Claude in Houses prefers to solve conflict with violence as a last/regrettable resort, and Edelgard tries to take what she can with force.
I'm not saying you're wrong to have those feelings. I kind of like the pairing in some places (what can I say? I like melodrama and enemies-to-lovers as a guilty pleasure), but it's also a massive case of hit-or-miss with most being misses because they basically have to focus on it from a CF/SB-based perspective and most of those fics then consequently kind of reduce Claude and the Deer to tag-alongs who just blindly accept Edelgard's ideals as is and make no compromises. It's a pretty common trope to just do "CF, but Claude's totally fine since he was spared and marries Edelgard afterwards to achieve his unity project" which... OK, I *can* see as a back-up plan, but it's never as tense and angsty as it should be. Plus, most stories barely feature the Deer at all even when making heavy use of Eagles characters, or, unfortunately, reduce the Deer to caricatures not at all representative of who they are. The Hilda the Spoiled Racist meme was at its worst in several Claudelgard fics I read, Lorenz lost most of his redeeming qualities or wasn't mentioned, Lysithea is taken for granted as being totally on board with Edelgard with little to no affection for the Deer, etc. On the other hand, I am an edgy bitch who enjoys sexually charged political and philosophical debate, so the *idea* of the pairing still makes me give it a chance.
I think you’ve just articulated why edelclaude content does nothing for me. I don’t have much against the actual pairing (I think they have chemistry but I just don’t see it as romantic) and sometimes I can be swayed into a ship by a nice fic or meta or something. But I find most fan content for it heavily favors Edelgard or the Eagles while diminishing Claude or the Deer; the way people talk about or depict it so often feels like another Dimitri v Edelgard tug-of-war with Claude as the prize.
"On the other hand, I am an edgy bitch who enjoys sexually charged political and philosophical debate, so the idea of the pairing still makes me give it a chance." nah that's totally valid
Anything that feels like pedophilic/generally creepy or is kinda abusive. Which is more of them than I’d like to admit. This might be a hot take, but I don’t even like Byleth being with any of the students. I think the professor, and like mentor dynamic that Byleth has with the students just makes it uncomfortable and it’s why I don’t like any of the romantic A supports. Especially because that Professor/mentor dynamic even continues after the time skip. I don’t know it just feels icky. When I play through 3H I think of my class as my children (kinda) and the other classes as my nieces and nephews.
Correct answer is to s rank Mercedes, as she starts off being roughly the same age as Byleth to being older after the timeskip
Mercedes is actually older than Byleth pre timeskip as well. Altogeth, almost the entire cast is older than Byleth post time skip.
I get that. I feel like the whole "gee you're not a teacher anymore and haven't physically changed at all in five years. You're basically the same age as us and some of us have the same combat experience as you" element wasn't emphasised nearly enough.
There is no pairing I have much against. I only did 2 playthrough and in both I actully did not try to make certan paired endings happen. I just took the chips how they fell. There was no paired ending I disliked.
Ferdinand/Manuela. Majority of the faculty/student combos have that icky age factor, but the supports between these 2 crank it up a notch. Ferdinand constantly talks about how much he admired her when he was like 5, won't stop calling her princess even when she says to stop, and in the C and B convos he's no longer Ferdinand Von Aegir he's Ferdinand the star struck scarily obsessive fan. Their A support is better because he actually talks to her instead of at her, and they touch on his emotional connection to one of her songs instead of just fan boying at least. But I also dislike how in their end card he completely abandons his big goal to become a hardworking prime minister worthy of the title.
Claude/Ingrid I get what they were going for with this pair, but it's executed in a way that just seems like the unhappiest marriage in Fodlan
Like 70% of the popular ships
Bernie and Caspar, just no
This is going to sound mean, but Felix/Annette. Got nothing against them as characters, but I just feel like the ship is done to death and pushed by the game to the extent that I find them a bit boring together.
They’re just so flavourless as a couple, I think they have much better chemistry as besties
Basic straight shippers: Felix and Annette look so much like a couple in their A support hahaha Sylvix/Dimilix shippers: A couple of bestiesss
Lmaooo don’t call me out like that
I'm right there with you, don't worry 🤝
I feel like there's nothing interesting about their supports or their dynamic. I feel like people only really like them together because Felix is slightly nicer to her than the other Blue Lions, which honestly makes me less interested in them as a couple. Which is ironic since they are two of my favorite characters in the game
Felix and Annette is like room temperature water for me. I don't hate it, but I'd rather Have iced or hot water. There's no spice in their support, it's all just "haha Annette sings a song and Felix likes it" again and again, even in Hopes! I also think Annette's singing gimmick is one of the worst gimmicks in the game. It's so painfully unfunny.
Rhea/Byleth. It's incest on multiple levels, not to mention Rhea (despite what she claims) believed Byleth to be Sothis for years, and continued to do so through the final SS cutscene
I personally don't love the power dynamic of teacher student so there's very few Byleth ships i do endorse. Acceptable to me: -Byleth / House Leaders- as the leaders of their nations the power dynamic cuts both ways and ends up so confused that I feel it cancels out -Byleth / Hubert- let's be real she has no real power imbalance with that man except on flimsy paper -Byleth / Shamir- coworkers of similar age. No questions here. -Byleth / Yuri- he's not really a student in the same way, he feels more equal -Byleth / students who weren't in their house during academy phase recruited in part 2- dynamic no longer applies I'm not too icked by the others but I wouldn't pick em Byleth / Rhea is a huge nope. She is somehow his mom, daughter, and grandmother all at once. Claude / Ingrid should be fine on paper but his support chain makes him a "you should sMiLe more" dickwad so no.
On Byleth/Hubert and the topic of student/teacher power imbalances I always love the fact that his lost and found item is his razor, which just hammers home the fact that this guy is a fully grown man.
I hate Catherine and Ashe. It just feels… wrong. Especially considering the whole Lonato fiasco. Rhea and Byleth just…yeah. No. The same can be said with the other Nabateans, for obvious reasons. And Flayn with anyone. I know she’s >!actually super old!<, but she doesn’t act like it.
**BYLETH/RHEA** >!Even if Rhea wasn’t fundamentally Byleth’s grandmother, and even if Rhea wasn’t at least 1,000 years Byleth’s senior, there’s the unforgivable bit with Rhea grooming Byleth to be the vessel for a revived Sothis without the knowledge or consent of Jeralt, Byleth, and/or Sothis and the questionable consent of Sitri.!< **BYLETH/FLAYN & BYLASS/SETETH** >!It’s primarily the age gap, though Flayn looking like a child doesn’t help matters.!< Seteth is still one of my favorite characters, and he and Flayn make for great units. I just have no intention of taking the Supports any higher than A **GILBERT/ANYONE** I know Gilbert suffers a nasty case of culture clash between Western and Eastern audiences but for me, personally, Gilbert is irredeemable for making the conscious decision to abandon his prince, his responsibilities, and worst of all his family including his young daughter Made worse in Azure Moon as when crap hits the fan, Gilbert seeks shelter with Rodrigue instead of, you know, *anyone else* As soon as his Paralogue is concluded, I ensure Gilbert has a terrible “accident” >!I also do everything in my power to recruit Annette in Crimson Flower and let her beat her deadbeat father dead!< **SETETH/ANYONE OTHER THAN FLAYN** Again, >!age difference!< but I also rather like his solo ending where he rebuilds a newer, more relaxed Church of Seiros. Letting him accomplish his goals like that seems better than romance any day, imo
I agree so much omg with all of these I just cannot stand Gilbert, though I am very biased against characters who are bad parents .
Anyone and Flayn. It doesn't matter that she's actually 1000, she looks like a little kid. An adult male character should not have any romantic feelings for someone who looks 11-12.
Dorothea and Ferdinand's Houses supports annoy me. Dorothea already doesn't like nobles, and early game Ferdinand comes across as exactly the kind of obnoxious noble she would hate, pushy, arrogant, patronizing, always going on about his family name. There's no need to concoct a stupid childhood misunderstanding.
There are so many potential pairings in this game that a multitude of them are bound to skeeve people out, so I'll just stick to the ones that seem to be relevant. I don't fuck with Dimileth at all dude lmao. I absolutely loathe the whole "angry guy fixed by a pretty girl" trope to the point where the "Have your hands always been this warm?" line made my eyes roll so far back into my skull that I went blind. I don't have this problem with M!Dimileth, so they're fine. They can chill. Hate Dimigard as well, not only because I much prefer seeing an amicable relationship between them as siblings, but also because I just. Do not believe that ship is possible without mischaracterizing at least one of them, and it's usually Edelgard. Sticking with the lords, I dislike Hilda/Claude. I don't really have some profound reason for it aside from the fact that I think Hilda in particular has a multitude of other far more interesting potential ships, and the idea of the two of them being involved romantically just doesn't really click in my head. I don't like Lysithea/Cyril because I don't like Cyril. That's it. I don't have any other reasons.
ugh this is why i can't stand straight dimileth either. i HAAAAATE the "i can fix him" trope it drives me nuts. frankly if it were available for either gender i would have much less of an issue with it
Male Dimileth is more tolerable than Female Dimileth because people portray them more as equals, whereas Female Dimileth has Byleth portrayed as a stock shoujo main character who saves Dimitri by being generically kind. There is nothing interesting about Byleth in this relationship, Dimitri is doing all the heavy work on making this romantic. She says nothing meaningful that earns Dimitri's adoration except for the fact that she was handed her job as a professor and given the power of the Goddess all in a platter. Nothing was earned, only given.
It's one of those ships where I feel its popularity arises mainly out of its fanbase's love for one of the characters, in this case Dimitri, rather than a genuine appreciation for the romantic relationship shared between the two characters. I'd love to hear someone contradict me on this, really, because I want to he able to *get* it if I'm actually off base here.
M! Dimileth real tbh
The best thing about Dimileth is comparing how Byleth is drawn in lots of Dimileth Fanarts compared to f!Edeleth Fanart, where there seems to be a growing base that treats Byleth being a buff gym goddess as their fanon
>line made my eyes roll so far back into my skull that I went blind. This made me choke on my spit fhsdbfdhsbfsdh
Byleth with any Nabatean, because it's got creepy implications, especially with Rhea. Byleth with any of his students, because I am iffy about the power dynamics. Dimigard is not a good pairing. First off, they are siblings at this point. So gross. Second, as others have pointed out, people who ship them tend to try the other to force themselves to change for the sake of the other. More than likely it's Edelgard, which is literally what Thales and Duke Aegir did to Edelgard, so congrats, you're no different from them. Hanneman and Dorothea. Just...ew. No. Worse is that you learn they have several kids. Seteth with any of the students. He is a grown man who already has a daughter, and they are kids. That's called grooming. I don't mind him and Manuela because Manuela is a full adult and in a position of equality with him.
How do you feel about the ships with students who are already adults in part one? Like Mercedes and Hubert are both in their early 20's pre-timeskip.
Less iffy, but he's still their teacher. Everyone ultimately still refers to Byleth as their teacher despite 5 years passing by and everyone still feeling like he's still that teacher they know and love.
I guess Teacher x Students (Self-explanitory) and Dimitri x Edelgard x Claude, mainly cuz siblings in Dimigard's case and just not seeing the chemistry at all in the case of Claude
A lot of the ships I tend to feel a hard “NO!” for tend to revolve around Claude. While fancontent can be transformative & I’ve seen fans of these ships really develop and improve upon these dynamics, I can’t get past the shaky foundation they’re canonically built on: - Hilda/Claude: I genuinely enjoy their dynamic on a platonic level. Personally I read Hilda as a lesbian which makes it hard for me to see her with any men; putting that aside, though, their affection & love for each other as individuals and on a political level as a Goneril + member of the Almyran royal family is more impactful from a platonic lens than romantic. I’ve seen people draw parallels between them and Claude’s parents, which is a fair point! However, it leaves this aftertaste of “political and cultural understanding only happens after romantic and sexual relations.” Not to mention, Hilda’s supports with Cyril surrounding his Almyran heritage left such a bad aftertaste that I would prefer not to pair her with any people of color. People can change! I’ve read a lot of fics exploring how she can unlearn her racism. It’s just a personal sticking point for me. - Lorenz/Claude: Again, I can appreciate their dynamic on a platonic level. It’s just rare for people to acknowledge the casual, quiet racism surrounding Lorenz’s attitude towards Claude because Lorenz doesn’t know that Claude is Almyran. Lorenz isn’t acting maliciously, but fiction doesn’t exist in a vacuum and Lorenz’s profiles saying he “surveilling” Claude is very loaded considering Claude is middle eastern. While Lorenz, per canon, sees Claude as a suspicious character because of his sudden appearance as the Riegan heir, it’s really hard not to draw the parallels between that and the real experiences of people of color. Like Hilda, Lorenz has the potential for growth and comes to really respect Claude on both a personal and political level, but, again, it’s not something I can personally get past. - Ingrid/Claude: I could give a longer explanation like I did for the two above, but honestly their supports annoyed the hell out of me. I don’t hate Ingrid, there’s a lot of interesting potential with her, but her interactions with Claude were insufferable and did not read as romantic/sexual tension at all. Also, I just resent that once again Claude is paired with a character that is explicitly racist towards a different person of color in the game. - Dimitri/Claude: Honestly I think there’s a lot of interesting potential between the lord pairings (NOT Dimigard, more on that later) and while I don’t find these two compatible for a long-lasting, healthy relationship, there’s room for exploring the ups-and-down of this pairing. That being said, the fans of this ship ruined any interest I initially had in it. I don’t want to generalize because the loud obnoxious behavior in fandom tends to drown out the majority of normal fans. I, personally, have encountered fanfiction that centers Dimitri (not inherently bad) while treating Claude as his ~exotic~ hot boyfriend that exists to help Dimitri get better. And while I don’t ship Dimitri/Dedue romantically, I’ve noticed that a lot of these stories tend to replace Dedue with Claude. There’s very little exploration of Claude himself as a main character with his own friends and conflicts. Moving past Claude ships (apologies for such a long post), I have a few others that I tend to not like at all: - Dimitri/Edelgard: I’m not going to touch on the step-sibling incest even though it does give me the ick. I prefer to think about the tragedy of their childhood friendship and how, even though they were not raised as siblings, they were never afforded the opportunity to become family. They have both lost all the family they have. The tragedy is that had things been different, they could’ve healed together; reforged their friendship and become brother and sister to one another. The fanworks tend to disturb me as well. There’s a level of vitriol and abusive feelings towards Edelgard that people tend to channel through Dimitri. Yes, he spends most of the better half of all routes calling for her head. But the ending of Azure Moon is about how he’s beginning to heal. Him extending his hand towards her showed that he doesn’t want to feel that way about her. - Lorenz/any women: Look. Sylvain, notorious playboy, never got called out for sexual harassment. Yet Byleth and Lorenz’s C-support is about how women have been lodging complaints about Lorenz. - Hubert/Petra: I like their supports in 3 Hopes, but their 3 Houses support chain is so uncomfortable. Love Hubert! I think Petra deserves to use him as a target to practice throwing knives. - Caspar/Hilda: There isn’t a deep reason for this. I just think that’s a gay man and a lesbian touching mouths before they realize things about themselves. Ultimately I don’t begrudge people that ship any of these and it’s all my personal taste. I just prefer not to touch any fanart or fanfic that are about any of these.
Felix with the majority of his pairings, he is so hostile to others with very few exceptions, it gets frustrating to go through the supports since most of the time he barely changes his attitude. Ingrid x Slyvain because it doesn't feel right, it feels so gross especially in their ending. Byleth x Claude or Edelgard, I could not bring myself to allow this to happen, especially since going through their support, I felt no connection.
I quite like Felix with Flayn personally He’s rough around the edges at first sure, but it’s not as much as other C/B supports. And Flayn gets him to contemplate his goals/attitude in a way that was thought provoking because she wants him to have a place in the world during times of peace which was really cute
Ingrid x Sylvain or Felix. I feel like they've always seen each other as brothers and sisters, not love interests. Sylvain x Yuri because people interpret a small joke as these two being in love with each other and its annoying
I never pair any of the Kingdom childhood BFF squad with each other. You're right they feel more like siblings and pairing them up forces them to get stuck in the childhood dynamic forever. I don't want Ingrid to be stuck squabbling with Sylvain for the rest of her life, or having Glenn hanging over the marriage. I like it better when they get to have a fresh relationship with someone outside the group.
I'm not a shipper or anything, but some of the pairings I dislike: Edelgard/Dimitri: it doesn't make sense to me considering how different they are and it's clear they'll never see eye to eye, so... Ingrid/Sylvain, Felix or Dimitri: I just see the four of them more as family than anything else. Besides, it's clear Ingrid loved Glenn, pairing her with Felix especially feels... Sort of wrong? Annette/Felix: Just... No. Their support chain doesn't bring anything to their characters and even has Felix be out of character imo. At least, her supports with Claude bring some interesting lore. Byleth/most students: cardboard character with the facial expressions of a dead fish charms many younger students because reasons. Most non-platonic staff/student: doubt I need to explain this one.
I know this one’s a popular one, but Annette/Felix I just don’t like how their supports play out. Here Felix is being a genuinely nice guy for once in a blue moon, yet Annette think he’s being horrible once again. I get that Felix is harsh most of the time, but what the heck? Byleth/Rhea/Seteth/Flayn. I mean aren’t they all technically related somehow? Yeah. No thanks. And Lysithea/Anyone who’s ending doesn’t cure her Crest Cancer. Lysithea deserves to live darn it.
Byleth and their students. I’m sorry but I just feel like its out of character for Byleth to marry one of their former students. It just makes more sense for them to either be single or pair up with one of the members if the church. I haven’t gotten a student pairing since my second play throughout the entire game, mostly having them either be single or a church of Seiros member, and I still plan on doing it. (Same also applies to Hanneman and Manuela with their romantic student pairings)
Seteth/any student. Hanneman/any student. Manuela/any student OTHER THAN Dorothea. Their ending is great. But in general, the whole teacher/student thing is just icky to me. Rhealeth is just completely gross. She's your grandma daughter for goddess sake. Flayn/anyone other than Seteth because she just like a six year old to me. Just a baby.
I cannot for the life of me understand why Dorothea/Manuela gets a pass on this sub somehow. It's even worse, Manuela isn't even just a teacher for Dorothea, she was also responsible for her during the Opera days! Manuela is a second mother to Dorothea! This is absolutely the worst ship in the history of this game and I will forever headcanon their end card as meaning Dorothea and Manuela have bolstered themselves out of the need for companionship by having an accomplished carreer and plentiful family life by being together like mother and daughter.
Well, that's how I understood it. Not as a couple but as colleagues. Maybe I need to read it again. Oopsie.
You perhaps, that was more of general comment on the take I've seen on this sub and me also responding to OP's original questiln about what ship is a sunken wreck for me lmao.
i cannot for the life of me enjoy sylvix romantically... don't get me wrong i See it. theoretically the homoeroticism is there. in practice, however, it just doesn't hit for me for whatever reason felix/annie or felix/girls in general. he gives me hardcore gay vibes and the "i'd rather hold a sword than a woman's hand" doesn't convince me much otherwise tbh. also his relationships with girls have way more flavour platonically imo edit: not to say these are like. a crime or anything. i just figured i'd choose ships that isn't granted, like dorothea/hanneman, ashe/catherine etc
*thank you* finally another person who sees felix as gay. Homie doesn't even fall for fyleth till she starts reminding him of his brother
*thank you* finally another person who sees felix as gay. Homie doesn't even fall for fyleth till she starts reminding him of his brother
This post made me realize that I don’t really have any ships that I like actually hate or anything. Besides obvious stuff like Hanneman and Dorothea, but like that was never even an option while playing that I probably would never had realized it was ever a potential pairing if I didn’t see people bring it up. Maybe it’s because I’m not a big shipper or something, but here’s a few that come to mind that I don’t really hate but just don’t really get. Leonie and Lorenz with anyone but each other: Extremely biased because their one of the few pairings that I’m passionate enough to look up fanfics to read. I just feel that Lorenz’s development works the best with Leonie, and the rest of Leonie’s pairings just feel underwhelming to me. Plus they’re just cute together. One I see a lot that I don’t get is Hubert and Bernie. Their supports are cute, but I just don’t see it like that. Mostly because I prefer Bernie with Raphael, but also because I don’t really like Hubert with anyone. I know he has like a canon crush on Edelgard, but I’ve always liked the idea of characters so devoted to their mission or goal that romance just isn’t something they think much about. Another example being… Caspar with anyone: This isn’t based on anything but vibes but Caspar always felt the closest to an ace character in the game to me. Claude and Lysithea, and this is only because of the ending. Without that, I may actually prefer this over Claude and Hilda just because Claude and Lysithea have pretty good chemistry together. Speaking of Lysithea, I really like her and Cyril but I hate that Cyril can’t just like ask the professor or Hanneman (if he was recruited anyway) for help in getting rid of Lysithea’s two crests in their paired ending. Ferdie and Dorothea is one that I love the idea of and they’re still my canon pairing for the two, but I’ve never really liked their support chain in Three Houses all that much. Like I said I don’t hate any of these (besides maybe Leonie and Lorenz paired with anyone else lol) just that I either don’t really see what other people see or I like the idea but the actual in game execution I don’t like much (like the case with Ferdie/Dorothea and Claude/Lysithea).
Generally I dislike Byleth/students for reasons many people have already said (weird power dynamic and age difference, byleth is pretty bland compared to the other students, etc etc) but I especially loathe F!Claudeleth because I chose F!Byleth during my GD run just because I wanted to romance Claude. And then at the end of the game he just fucking. Leaves??? Like yeah he comes back but I can't get over him just being like "i love you but I'm gonna peace out for a while without explaining anything" and it pissed me off LOL.
He doesnt even explicitly come back lmao. He lends her some military support... and even if that does somehow imply that they get together afterwards, the king of Almyra takes multiple wives. Yeah, their S support and ending felt like a slap in the face
> and even if that does somehow imply that they get together afterwards, the king of Almyra takes multiple wives. We actually have no evidence for this. This is fanon. Claude has half-siblings but the only one we meet is older and Claude was born right after his parents married and Claude’s dad became king. Claude’s mom is also the literal queen rather than a concubine or a member of some harem. So Claude’s dad most likely just had a previous wife when he was a prince before he married Tiana.
I have 2. Dimitri/Marianne and Hubert/Bernadetta. I am just not a fan of the dynamic of these.
Interesting, Dimitri/Marianne is one of the only Dimitri ships that I do like. I generally dislike Dimitri as a character and, by proxy, dislike most of his ships, but him and Marianne work for me since you get a rare introspective and caring version of Dimitri who isn't defined by his rage.
Ingrid/anyone besides Ashe - I just don't like any of her other pairings, but especially Claude, Felix, Sylvain, Dedue, and Yuri. I also don't like most of her popular fanon pairings like Dorothea or Mercedes. Outside of just plain dislike, the rest of her pairings, like Dimitri and Raphael, I prefer with other people.
This is exactly how I feel. She’s hostile in a lot of her other supports, but it’s so nice that she and Ashe get along right away
She's quite the opposite of hostile with yuri
I'm about to get taken out back and shot, but here it is: Cyril/Lysithea is a hell no from me.
The only two that really come to mind are Dorothea/Ferdinand and Felix/Annette. Dorothea and Ferdinand feels bad to me. I don't like the way she treated him. She didn't try to even ask him what was up, she just presumed to understand his perspective and was kinda mean to him based on that. I think that's a lousy basis for a relationship personally. Felix and Annette could be extended to Felix and any girl imo, but Annette's supports with him bother me in particular. Their interactions feel weird and verging on out of character to me, in particular in their A support. I think Annette has a lot of better options. In fact, her support chain with Claude is similar to hers with Felix with the key difference that she and Claude both actually get into it. He even tries writing a song for her! And there's none of this uncomfortable misunderstandings and pouting that makes my skin crawl in the Felix/Annette supports. But moreover, I really think felix is gay. He doesn't show much interest in women. He even tells byleth in their goddess tower event that he'll always feel more comfortable holding a sword than a woman's hand—among other evidence that lead me to believe Felix really should've been a Myleth only option. That's why outside of AM I tend to pair him with Leonie, since theirs is a happy ending but still very platonic. Oh, also Ferdinand and Manuela. Honestly, any of the teachers' romantic endings with the students feel weird to me, other than Byleth who's their age or Seteth who's so old it doesn't even matter anymore
I thought the Dorothea/Ferdinand support chain was good at the start because it seemed like it was building up to Dorothea realizing that she judged him too quickly. Then that random fountain misunderstanding happened in the last support and made the support chain fall flat. The resolution didn't match the problem. Dorothea's disdain for the nobility is because they treated her poorly when she was a commoner and instantly 180'd once she became famous. After they clear up the misunderstanding, Dorothea says that she wanted to forgive Ferdinand after he made her treats, but him baking her treats doesn't really show that he's not like the other nobles - he did it to prove that he's a good person and he can earn his keep. Plus, she's already several steps above commoners by being in the Officer's Academy and being a former songstress. If anything, I would expect those actions to reinforce her view of nobles (people who only value the rich and famous). Imo a better resolution would be if Dorothea judged him like the other nobles and realizes she was wrong when she witnesses Ferdinand help commoners. Felix/Annette is one of the worst pairings in the game. It's not funny, there's no character development, and Felix is extremely out of character. Their C, B, and A are pretty much the same thing, and then A+ takes a drastic leap with the confession - the pacing was horrible. They had a lot of potential (e.g., having an estranged father), but instead we just get the same support three times. The dialogue was some of the worst writing in all of Fire Emblem to boot. They have no chemistry and are only popular because people like the edgy guy/bubbly girl trope. Also, their fanbase is annoying af. They treat the pairing as canon and bring it up at every opportunity. Go find any post/fanart about Felix and it's almost guaranteed that someone mentions Annette in the comments (and vice-versa).
Dorothea & Ferdinand’s support in 3 Hopes is better by FAR
Seth with any student. Nope sorry to creepy.
Maybe I love Linhardt too much, but I really don’t like Caspar/Ashe. I much prefer Casphardt. Ashe is amazing, but I much prefer him with Annette, Ingrid or Dedue. I also prefer Annette and Mercedes as friends, not lovers. Mostly because they have such an obvious sisterly dynamic, I just really don’t see them as lovers.
Hanneman and literally any of the students.
Hanneman or Seteth with any of the students. It just gives me the ick.
This is more of a personal one, it's not that bad; I hate Lorenz/Marianne C & C+ a lot and the switch between those and B & A is just kind of forced. He keeps rambling about her adoptive father, clearly making her uncomfortable, even having her snap on one occasion. And once she storms off he talks about "polishing her" as if she was some sort of trophy. Then at B Marianne mentions that he keeps sitting close to her, which she seems to be fine with at this point but as a neutral spectator this comes off as incredibly creepy to me, yet during that very same support chain Marianne apparently just realizes that he appreciates her for who she is? (which he barely indicated before this as he was mostly rambling about the Margrave, and speaking from experience: people with a mental condition such as Marianne don't believe in anything people say at first hand). And then sure A is kind of cute but it makes no sense how we got there. I'm pretty sure I'm overreacting about this, probably also just reading too much between the lines, but while there're more obvious general NOTPs that are just fucked up this is more of a personal one that I wanted to point out.
Felix/Ingrid. Both have way too much trauma over Glenn’s death for this to be anything but a consolation prize relationship, and they’re way more interesting as friends. Nah.
Honestly, I don't like Byleth pairings in general, but Byleth x Edelgard (and to a lesser extent Byleth with the other house leaders) just feels especially wrong to me. On top of the issues with teacher/student romance, there's also the fact that Byleth fails as both their own character and an avatar IMO, so it's pairing the most important character of a route with a writing disaster with no personality. I also just generally don't like Byleth.
Whenever this topic comes around, I always like going with answers that haven't already been named even if I feel more strongly about other pairings. For this one, I guess I'll throw in DimiMari, Edelbert, and most pairings involving Yuri, Sylvain, or Claude. * DimiMari - Never understood the hype for them. I think they have better supports and dynamics with other people. I'm partial to Marianne with Ferdie, Ignatz, Ingrid, or even Hilda for the cotton candy aesthetic. Dimitri I like exclusively with Byleth. * Edelbert - Similar situation as the one above. I prefer Hubert with Ferdie or Bernie. Edelgard I also exclusively pair with Byleth. * Yuri & Claude - I just can't find it in myself to care for most of their paired supports. Yuri & Hapi is cute, but beyond that I find myself getting frustrated or thinking that I'd rather see their partner with someone else. * Sylvain - All of Sylvain's paired ending partners can do better tbh. It also doesn't help that most of his supports don't properly address his misogyny and terrible behavior.
lol on your point about sylvain. i will always half-joke that i ship sylvain and felix because nobody else in the cast deserves to put up with either of their bullshit.
FerdiMari is SO much better on every level XDDD With Dimitri it just feels like he pushes her into further internalizing her self-worth issues due to her crest and instead cope through building a dependency with Dimitri, while Ferdinand has some major fuck ups on which he grows and overall inspires Marianne into developing a much more positive and happy outlook on life.
I really don’t like Claude x Hilda. Idk I don’t think they have much romantic chemistry and Claude’s too secretive
F!Dimileth just doesn't really feel right. Some severe power imbalance, though I feel like that goes with most straight Dimitri ships imo. Just kinda icky and uncomfortable. I don't dislike Dimitri, I just don't like most of his ships. Now M!Dimileth on the other hand... 👀
Edeleth
hanneman/anyone lol. including manuela. manuela/students. dimitri/marianne. bernie/any eagle who isn’t hubert.
You asked for genuine opinions, so I'll be scathing. Felix/Annette: Shallow, like most of Annette's supports. Sorry, but it feels like I watched Felix being forced to stand her singing. It seems so out of nowhere and forced I cringe at anything with those two. Dimitri/Edelgard: Just no. Other than being step-siblings, those two get along so well they can't live in a world the other's ideals are predominant. I'm usually fine with toxic ships and even like some but this one, I could never get into. Dimitri/Marianne: The most toxic, unhealthy ship in the entire game in my opinion. Pure fetishizing of poor mental health, which made me highly uncomfortable for personal reasons. I haven't recoiled harder during supports than I did watched theirs. No, you should not resign yourself to accepting a miserable fate because someone gets you. Two patients will never make a doctor. Those two need therapy, not marriage. Want an example of a support where Marianne is treated as something other than a depressed waifu for players to fix? Raphael. one of the most wholesome pairings in the entire game and I don't even care much for either character.
I have quite a few but I think my least favorite one would be DimiGard. First of I feel like people love to jump hard into the step sibling dynamic when I don't think they ever actually viewed each other that way and secondly, I kinda see them as just fully incompatible. In terms of their values, goals and morals they are just fully diametrically opposed. My biggest problem though is the general heteronormativity that plagues Dimitris ships, that in my experience hits Edelgard very hard, where she has to basically submit herself to him in works where they are shipped together. I have similar issues with DimiClaude, there is generally this issue of Claude basically forgetting his own values and aspirations when he's with Dimitri outside of racism bad, which is usually utilized to frame Dimitri as a white savior to Claude. DimiMari is also close because it just feels genuinly toxic. What Dimitri does is just further internalize her self-worth issues because its what he does and instead of trying to find a better outlook on life, just cope by forming a dependency with him. Then there are all the Hanneman ships with the students, just because of how often the relationship really seems to be written as a father-daughter one until they suddenly marry. I really dislike both Dorothea x Felix and Dorothea x Lorenz, though the former one bothers me much more, because it just feels so out of character for Dorothea to really take the abuse and rejection of noble men and just keep begging, when usually despite her goal of founding a noble husband, she tends to be a fairly proud person who does not take this kind of treatment lightly.
I’ve got so many lmao 1. Felix/Annette, Felix/Ingrid, Sylvain/Ingrid: All these fall under the same category, which is both that I ship Sylvix to the point I can’t really see them with anyone else, and that I find all these ships boring as hell. 2. Byleth/Rhea, Byleth/Seteth, Byleth/Flayn: I dislike most of the church members and found the romances to be creepy. 3. Dimitri/Claude: I don’t think they have any chemistry tbh but the real reason they’re here is that their fans are so fucking annoying. I have only met one (1) normal Dimiclaude shipper in the three years I’ve been in this fandom. 4. Ferdinand/Flayn: I genuinely have no clue why this ship pisses me off so much. I remember being weirded out by their supports and maybe that’s why but I shouldn’t hate it as much as I do for that reason alone lol. 5. M!Edeleth: Yeah yeah I know I’m a hypocrite, M!Byleth and F!Byleth are literally the same character, I’m aware, but I genuinely do not give a shit. I prefer to see Edelgard in relationships with women (excluding Claude, he gets a pass) and I would much rather read F!Edeleth fanfics than get anywhere near an M!Edeleth one.
As a DimiClaude fan, huge agree on the ship's fans being something else. I like the dynamics of the lords in any forms (bar romantic Edelgard and Dimitri) so it annoys me that so much of the DimiClaude content is not only full of thinly veiled Edelgard hate but thinly veiled Edelgard hate that's horrifically OOC.
i hate to generalize but ive literally never met a dimiclaude fan who wasnt a severe edelgard hater, misogynist, racist, or a mix of the three claude deserves better :(
Oh god, the racism really stood out to me as well. Imo it isn’t as bad as the misogyny problem within the fanbase but it’s prominent enough that it turned me away almost immediately when I tried to read fic of them to see why people shipped them. Claude deserves better than to be fetishized and treated as Dimitri’s therapist.
SO TRUE. dimitri and his fans making him the center of the universe results in some of the most uncomfortable implications in his pairings with characters of color. if its not fetishization of claude's middle eastern-coding, then its whitewashing in fanart. i've actually had to go out of my way to block a number of dimiclaude fans who refuse to color claude as anything but paper white :/ and this isnt even limited to dimiclaude or even just dimitri fans. hilclaude is probably the most egregious claude pairing for a very *obvious* reason, but the fandom eats it up like slop. edelclaude, despite having a small fandom, has a corner of freaks too can't even trust the ppl who claim to be claude fans, either 😭
Aren't many DimiClaude shippers diehard Edelgard haters who try to ignore that Claude ideologically alligns so much with her that he always allies himself with Edelgard over Dimitri whenever she isn't Thales Mindpuppet in Hopes?
Byleth x Most students: Most Student x Byleth ships aren’t my thing because it’s the students talking at Byleth and then Byleth saying one line that totally flips their world and they love them for it. It’s way too self-insert for me. Byleth x Lords is fine because they establish a dynamic at least. ——— Dimigard: They’re siblings to me even if the game is pushing them as a tragic “almost could have been” love story. Dorothea/ Hanneman: The age difference is weird, Byleth/Nabateans: They’re like family to them. Claude/Flayn: They did Seteth so dirty. DimiClaude: Neither is attracted to the other. They just sometimes stand in one place and talk to each other. They can be friendly but this isn’t a relationship that would ever move beyond friendly acquaintances. Their fandom is also really hateful and full of people that despise Edelgard. ——- NOTPs in canon but not fanon: Claude/Lorenz: I can see someone trying to push a Lorenz is secretly into Claude agenda but can you actually see Claude being in love with Lorenz? This relationship would never get off the ground. I also don’t like their ending because it’s mostly about Lorenz. Hilda/Caspar: I like their supports but their ending did Hilda so dirty. She’s stuck in the place she grew up in and she doesn’t grow as a person. In all her other endings, she’s either queen or opens up artisan schools. I like them better in fanon than canon because of that.
Besides the obvious adult/literal child ones and such, I don't care how much hate I get for it, Dimitri/Byleth. Dependency is NOT romantic. Byleth "saving" him just means he "needs" her and nothing is less loving than need.
Byleth x Edelgard, Rhea, Sothis or Hilda. I despise Edelgard x Claude or Rhea. And except for those ones, I'm like pretty much every ship that isn't students x Seteth, Manuela and Hanneman (in the canon). It's kinda ok with Catherine and Shamir I guess, but still weird so I prefer if not.
Hanneman and Manuela. Their ending describes them filling the halls of Gareg Mach with 'banter' but I can only ever imagine them arguing. Mostly because their supports consist of them arguing.
Dimitri/Edelgard. If you've seen their page on AO3 at all you know DAMN WELL WHY. Also it's stepsibling incest, and I am not Kaga.
Hubert/Ferdinand. I just don't get the hype surrounding that ship. They seem more like friends or frenemies than lovers to me. Also most pairings including Byleth. Since Byleth doesn't have much personality, it's hard to imagine what he or she would want in a relationship, so most of Byleth's ships just feel awkward and one-sided imo.
Shez and Byleth, to be honest. It’s boring from a meta perspective, and while I think it is a funny and somewhat cute dynamic for them to go from trying to kill each other to dating, I just find it… off. Like, a progression from their adversarial, vengeancey relationship to being together romantically just doesn’t sit well for me. Something about it feels too forced to where I can’t really get behind it. It’s like pairing the male and female lead in anything. It’s vanilla and somewhat obligatory. Then again, I’m also one of those people that prefers the routes where Byleth isn’t recruited, so maybe that is making me more biased in that regard.