There Are Plenty Of Comments I Have About That Timeline Update, Because I Really Didn't Expect Them To

There are plenty of comments I have about that timeline update, because I really didn't expect them to play *that* hard into imperialist themes and holy emperors but for now I want to focus on Ganondorf.

The translation of the whole timeline page is here if you want to see for yourself but I want to focus on this part in particular.

So, let me get this straight.

The Zonai, technologically and divinely blessed as they are, flew too close to the sun (literally) because their collapse began in the sky. In the meantime, with the Zonai gone, the tribes kind of figure out how to govern themselves on the surface with the Gerudo particularly singled out as forming a sovereign country. Of their own. Without *forcing* other tribes to join them. Therefore, Ganondorf wasn’t just the chief of a tribe; he was a ruler of a country that precedes Hyrule. Here comes a Zonai upstart, a man whose race is dying out, and after having some enlightened holy pilgrimage (which is akin to a rich white boy doing yoga in the mountains of Asia and discovering Enlightment) decides to not only found a country but repeatedly press the country that borders his new country to join his *better* and *peaceful* country apparently.

If you think about it, can you imagine the kind of pressure Ganondorf was under? He is the long awaited legendary male Gerudo, a king by birth as Rauru called him. He is expected to be an exceptional ruler of the Gerudo. All of a sudden, during his rule, a new country is formed by this Zonai who has a vault of secret stones and is sending a number of invitations because he’s too stupid to understand that no answer means “no thanks”. Why should an established country have to negotiate its right to exist as its own entity to a new country? Did the Zonai not abandon the surface? Why should he cede power because a Zonai got spooked that his people died out and decided to come back to the surface and create his own kingdom as some weird last resort at peace? Do you think the Gerudo would have simply accepted that their king give up THEIR COUNTRY to this new, upstart country without a fight?

So, Ganondorf’s molduga army gets defeated in one sweeping attack from Hyrule. Putting aside Ganondorf’s personal motivations, this is already a sign of weakness to his people. Then after that, not only does he bring himself down to the level of the common people by kneeling before Rauru and offering his country to Hyrule, but he is “kept close” aka within Rauru’s watchful eye. The fact that Ganondorf was within Hyrule Castle when he attacked Sonia indicates that Rauru did, in fact, wrangle Ganondorf into staying at Hyrule Castle. Can you imagine how damaging this was to his reputation amongst his people, that he seemingly caved to this fledgling country and gave up the Gerudo's sovereignty? I wouldn’t be surprised if his people began turning on him at this point. It could explain Ganondorf’s resentment towards the Gerudo.

Anyways, no wonder Ganondorf bears so much hatred for Hyrule. He was born and raised a king, having spent his entire life proving himself to secure the position. In one fell swoop, his status as king, his respect amongst his people, his country, are taken away from him by this upstart kingdom. To dig the wound deeper, his people erase his existence entirely, no one ever remembering him as a Gerudo king, or even remembering he existed because they were made to feel shame for his existence and became complacent in their fealty to Hyrule. The thing that annoys me the most of all is that, even then, the lore still tries and continues to insist that Ganondorf is the aggressor, that he is a "lone warrior that acts on his own" and "will do anything to get what he wants even though he is king of the desert" (real explanations used to justify why he visually stands out amongst the Gerudo). SO Ganondorf is a selfish, power-hungry king for wanting to take Hyrule for himself when he has his own country and is repeatedly getting his arm twisted by Hyrule to give up the Gerudo's sovereignty to Hyrule "in the name of peace", but Rauru is a selfless hero king for starting a new country and sending repeated invitations to the Gerudo to join his kingdom because he decided this was the best solution for longterm peace on the surface and will not take no for an answer. Anyways Ganondorf yeah you're right burn this country to the ground.

There's something about Sacred Stones that, really, I feel was ahead of it's time. I feel like there was a definite focus on gender roles, especially when you look at how Ephraim's story diverges from Eirika's.

Ephraim does the typical manly-man thing, where he sets off to fight the invading empire. However, it's pointed out how by doing so he abandoned his people and at the end the people aren't cheering for his return. They're cheering because the war is seemingly over. Trying to solve things through violence and force doesn't make him a good or beloved leader, especially with the reveal that everything Grado has been doing is an attempt to prevent the suffering of it's people through upcoming natural disasters.

And adding onto that, there's both Innes and Lyon's feelings of inadequacy because of Ephraim. In the case of the latter, it leads to him attempting to prove himself through any means such as harnessing the power of the Demon King. This belief that men have to be manly like Ephraim, with an added serving of having to handle their own problems rather than appear weak thanks to Emperor Vigarde nearly lead to the world's destruction.

Then there's a bit about treating women solely as a love interest. Lyon feels he needs to be worthy of Eirika's hand, in part fuelling his downfall, while at the same time being upset that she can kick his ass in a sparring match. Carlyle betrays Jehanna because of his “love” for the queen, blaming her for being “too beautiful” and she calls him out on it. Meanwhile Orson betrays Renais to revive his dead wife, leaving her as a mindless living body. After turning his beloved into an object, he lets Renais rot while he does nothing but spend time with her. And then there's Valter lusting after Eirika... Treating women solely as objects of affection, putting them on a pedastal rather than treating them like living, breathing people with their own minds and personalities, Sacred Stones is subtly calling that out.

In addition, women aren't there to simply support men. Eirika may have been searching for her brother, but she was also helping those in need as she came across them. In addition, her handing over her country's sacred stone under the belief it might be able to save Lyon also contributes to the final boss regaining his strength in her route. But Eirika also, rather than taking a supportive role like a healer, learned how to fight and shows that she's not soft when people mess with those she cares about. And I feel like the whole thing with her wanting to help Lyon serves as a foil to Selena, whose loyalty to Vigarde can't be swayed even when she learns that he's just a reanimated corpse. On the other hand, the game also gives us L'Arachel who takes a proactive role in trying to deal with the monsters and is essential for defeating the Demon King and can go on to be the queen of her own country.

And really, this whole “women are supposed to support men” feels really good when I remember the interview for Echoes commented about Celica.

Kusakihara: They each come to represent masculinity and femininity in their own ways. Alm pursues a path of power while Celica walks a path of love –and aims to save Alm with it, leading to a type of self-sacrifice. The scenario is built upon this.

It really stands out to me that Sacred Stones does have masculinity and femininity represented in their own ways, much like Echoes. But whereas Sacred Stones basically had a message about how dangerous subscribing to such views on gender was, Echoes was more about how the men and women needed to support each other. Celica may have been the first female lord character, but her story is one where it's all to save Alm and in the end he needs to save her after her self-sacrificing nature leads to her being controlled by Duma, who is also supposed to represent masculinity except in a more extreme manner. Meanwhile, Eirika isn't motivated by romantic love, just compassion in general.

Eirika is your starting lord like Lyn, but rather than demoting her from main character after the “tutorial” stages end in favor of her brother, she can remain the lead throughout the entire story. And really, look at the female lords since barring Player characters. Ike is the only one who can kill the final boss at the end of the Tellius games despite it happening in Micaiah's game, Lucina can die in Awakening without a game over, and joining Edelgard is meant to be a path of sin since she's a villain. Meanwhile, Eirika was used to represent Sacred Stones in Engage, and the big final SR card in Cipher for the lord character of Sacred Stones was of her.

No female lord since has been treated like Eirika.

I feel like Sacred Stones should, I dunno, be held more by the fandom for this. Yeah, Eirika makes that mistake but it's meant to be a mistake. She feels bad about what she did and works to fix things. She's also proactive and will kick ass if needed despite her being the diplomatic twin. Really, it's Ephraim that needs to be more like her. But instead, we have a fandom that glorifies Ephraim for the very things the game calls problematic about him while deriding Eirika as “girly”. It feels like one of those cases where people missed the point, like the Josie and the Pussycats movie, Starship Troopers or Martian Successor Nadesico, and ended up believing it was supporting what it was calling out. Sacred Stones feels more like a deconstruction of typical RPG gender roles in retrospect and how harmful they actually are. But, as I said at the start of this, I feel like the game was ahead of it's time because of this stuff.

Fodlan goodies: We also offer this sprite set of the characters except Rhea.

Theory time: I think IS is not so subtlety trying to move away from Three Houses.

An artbook with interviews? I'm definitely getting that! I know they announced it for just japan for now, but I'm hoping it won't take long before it gets here!

It sounds exactly like the Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together artwork I have right now!

You can find this artbook in any Books-a-million store, maybe in Barnes and noble stores too, and you can get Tactics Ogre: Reborn (a remaster of Let Us Cling Together) in any console

Unicorn Overlord goodies : an artbook with interviews from the devs, something like Jugdral's Treasure book !

Fodlan goodies : a teaset and a fork

What about the rest of the world who was zapped due to his whims? Why should I care about the feefees of someone who slaughters billions and not the feelings of the ones slaughtered?

Because those billions are nothing but background characters, and Thanos is a main one.

And I think this phenomenon is a natural consequence of not engaging with the story beyond a surface level. It creates a cognitive dissonance in which we know what Thanos did was bad but people who don't see deeper than the surface can't internalize the magnitude of how bad the things he did were, of all the people he's hurt, because those people aren't named characters, so it's easy to ignore.

And then, when his actions do affect a named character, Gamora for example, the story decides to frame this as a tragic moment for Thanos, who is oh just so willing to do what it takes for the right thing, rather than as a tragic moment for Gamora, whose life and story being tragically and undeservedly cut short. It's like a zero-sum game, either they focus on Gamora's death, so Thanos looks like the villain he is, or in Thanos' feefees for killing his own daughter so we don't focus on Gamora much, outside of using her as a prop for Thanos to have some more uwu sob moments.

Same with Naruto and his ninja hitlers. Same with AoT, Same with MHA and all its villains (though, to be honest, I don't think Hori really knows how to engage with consequences of a character's shitty actions, I do not like how he handled kacchan or endeavor)

If you only focus on a story on a surface level, you can easily eat up whatever sob story the writers serve you, while ignoring the ramifications of the actions of the villains. But at the same time, I do agree that content creators do have some responsibility for the message the viewers walk away with, because they're ultimately the ones who decided to put these sob stories at the foreground and the damage the villains cause at the background.

Which leads us to the big one.

Edelgard's actions as presented in game are hard to discuss because they're simultaneously at the front and center and not talked about at all. We know that nigh everything that happened in WC can be traced back to her, for she's the Flame Emperor. The Prologue, Lonato, Remire, the Chapel... We see firsthand the damage Edelgard is leaving on her wake to attack the church, but because almost all of these instances happen to NPCs, it's easy for players to move on without thinking too much, blame it on someone else, or straight up forget it happened. Because the game, for all intents and purposes, forgets that Edelgard was the flame emperor, made most apparent in Crimson Flower.

Three Houses has a unique problem of the narrative being laser focus despite having four chances to explore the world at large, which include the people living in it. After the time skip, the commoners are all but forgotten, because they're the most affected by Edelgard so focusing on them will make her look back. The only time in the war phase where we see firsthand the effects Edelgard's war has on commoners is on Ferdinand and Lysithea's paralogue, one of the most missable paralogues of the game, (the others being Caspar & Mercedes and Linhardt & Leonie) and that is not accessible in Crimson Flower.

Edelstands blame everything on the Slithers, insisting that their precious Eddie was helpless to stop them and would've never approved of their deeds, despite the fact that not only is she not exposing them, she's also covering for them, because those horrible things benefit her so it's not like she hates their actions enough to stop them. And she does plenty of horrible things on her own, such as waging a violent war of conquest on the continent for six years.

To take it even further, people would rather blame RHEA for her response to the shitty things Edelgard has done, such as accusing her of using the might of the knights to oppress commoners even though those commoners are launching an attack at her, hurting people along the way. They say she's making Ashe fight his own father as a sadistic move, even though Lonato is the one attacking the church while Ashe is there, and this logic doesn't even apply to the BL/GD versions of this map. They harp on Rhea not giving people a fair trial even though they were caught red handed in trying to assassinate her AGAIN. Everything Rhea does is wrong; Rhea is the only one who does anything wrong. Edelgard can do no wrong.

Which is why we end up where we are now. Edelgard's fee fees take priority over the damage she's done, because that's what the narrative chose to prioritize. And the fans, rather than thinking they may be wrong about her, decide to double down and even shift blame away from her.

Not to bring irl shit but when you consider that there are people who believe in their own moral superiority, that everything should burn to the ground, people should die for their cause and those they don't like deserve to die for justice, it makes sense why there would be Agarthan stans despite how comically evil they are in the games. Not saying it's good (it's not), but it's the same sort of edgelord doomer nihilist mentality. Or maybe I'm thinking way too hard about this and they just support them because their waifu is working with them and they can't be bad if she's "purely good" despite their actions in game saying otherwise.

Uh...

I guess everyone knows there are people who are pos around, but what became more and more annoying with the years is how some of those beliefs have been romanticed for X and Y reason (marketing purposes because earl grey sells) and if you add to that the performative era - where being a fan of a character means you have to endorse everything this character says or does, we end up with some mess.

And I think while the devoted fans we all know and love have their part of responsability in this - as you say - supporting characters no matter what to the point of swallowing their nauseabond rhetoric because waifu allies with them before backstabbing them offscreen...

I still believe content creators are sort of also to blame with this, see the earlier earl grey marketing reasons.

IIRC, in the Marvel movies the purple guy who erases half of the universe is/was/got a cup bcs sad uwus he's ready to sacrifice his daughter for the greater good?

Cry me a fucking river !

What about the rest of the world who was zapped due to his whims? Why should I care about the feefees of someone who slaughters billions and not the feelings of the ones slaughtered?

Take Kishimoto : trying too hard to make people sympathise with his anti-heroes ultimately means that their victims have no voice to any chapter, Ramen Guy will never be able to express anger (if he wasn't dead when Konoha was flattened) at Nagato turning his daughter in a pancake, or Sakura will never weep for her parents, etc etc... but we get a long FB about Nagato's sad backstory with, what can be summed up as "the world fucked me over so I'll fuck over the world and you can't stop that unless you decide to fuck me over too" without anyone telling him that his reasoning is puerile and quite frankly stupid.

Madara being very sad not being elected big boss so he takes out his salt by launching repeated attacks at the village and its inhabitants? "Who cares, he was very sad (tm) when Hashirama decided to kill him to protect the village, what a hypocrite !!!"

The less is said about AoT, the better we all are lol, but in honor of MHA ending I'll just say that... I fucking loved the panels at the end (or last chapters?) where randoms civilians are shitting on Shigaraki, even if the panel with the old lady who blames herself for not helping him back then or taking his hand was hilarious, considering that in his FB, he said he would have killed her too "oh poor him if only i died for his sake he might not have grown up as a vilain" come on that's too much earl grey i'm out of this.

As for FE Fodlan, given how earl grey was used to sell and advertise the game, I guess you can't talk to Garcias or Nathalies and ask what they're thinking about the war that is razing their homes because someone wants to unify the world and is willing to sacrifice them to do so, or hell, we can't even listen to Merlinus voice his thoughts about the strange plague in Remire and how horrible it is, to Amy wonder why the fuck her parents transformed in demonic beasts and tried to kill her.

So when even content creators believe that their vilains have to get a pass regardless of the amount of shit they pulled off - I can't exclusively blame devoted fans for going very very far with their takes to support the bae.

Special mention to Miura (rip) who never lost an occasion to portray Griffith as manipulative and conniving, and yet some people really believed (and some still do?) he did nothing wrong...

I'd say another shitty fanfic that goes out of its way to shit on Rhea as much as it can is A Vow Remembered

At least it focuses on the Golden Deer (sans Raphael, of course) so there isn't as much Edelgard wank, just it focuses on her.

vomit is going to ooze out of my pores

Unicorn Overlord goodies : an artbook with interviews from the devs, something like Jugdral's Treasure book !

Fodlan goodies : a teaset and a fork