Fire Emblem: Three Genders

[@Rosencreutzzz]

Someone on Reddit pointed out an important correction which is that Ingrid was not 5 when Duscur happened. I looked over my notes again, and I have no idea how I got the dates wrong (Other than the general difficulty of accessing info in game and the way the wiki doesn't do a great job organizing dates), but alas. She was closer in age to Glenn than I say in the video, and to my understanding, closer to him personally. I think part of it is that the Tragedy of Duscur felt like a very present but also fairly distant memory that echoed into the present... not something that happened like 3 years prior to the game. But that was just my own impression. Sorry for any misleading caused there, and of course for any weird conclusions drawn through it. I think most of the point about her still stands despite it, but, ya know, the argument has a very clear flaw.

[@LoudWaffle]

Understandable. As someone who never looked that closely/deeply into the timeline, I am personally shocked to hear that the Tragedy happened only 3 years ago. Dmitri makes it seem like a childhood trauma, and Dedue doesn't feel like a survivor of a genocide that happened that briefly in the past.

[@leaffinite2001]

Yeah I had assumed it was at least around 5 years prior to the game, when the characters were preteens or older kids

[@HappyNBoy]

Yeah, when you said that, I was sure your numbers were off, but you also didn't harp on it in a "isn't this child bride situation very weird?" kind of way, so it didn't really impact your argument. Still, her being 12 and betrothed and him 15 and a knight is... Icky. But in the normal medieval way.

[@Gitshiver]

It is quite odd that so much of the worldbuilding is designed around gender not being a determining factor to your destiny, but then still had gender restricted endgame elements. It's almost like not all of the developers made it to the staff meetings or fully read the design documents.

[@hedgehog3180]

Maybe they wanted to have some narrative involving the classes themselves where this made sense. I'm thinking that perhaps it could have been used as part of some sort of methaphor for queer experiences in the same way that a lot of other Japanese media has done. Like you often see metaphors for gay love in the form of characters working together with classes they shouldn't be paired with for some reason or a character being the "wrong" class being a metaphor for being trans. Like it would be a way to still comment on sexism and patriarchy without actually explicitly including that in the game.

[@dominicjannazo7144]

I think it was mainly just a gameplay decision to make units a little more unique after letting anyone become anything with enough teaching. With how rushed many elements of the game were, it was probably a decision made at some point with no time to reconsider it holistically.

[@512TheWolf512]

oddly similar problem to starfield

[@Wormopera]

It's just there to make your choices matter more

[@gaberobison680]

Ehhh gender is arbitrary and stupid. It should be reduced to nothing because it’s just an arbitrary expression of humanity

[@Glass_Ninja]

With regard to the Ingrid section: It actually does make sense for her to specifically have tension between her being a knight and her having the duty to bear her house a Crest baby. Pregnancy and early child rearing are not physically easy and Ingrid is expected to bear children until she has a Crest baby. She obviously does not want to waste her time in the prime of her ability to be a fighter with dealing with pregnancy and children. She also can't guarantee easily that children she would have would have a Crest early on in her lineage. Therefore she is being pressured on the fronts of being a woman and being a physical fighter in a unique way. She doesn't arbitrarily put down the barrier between "marriage" and "knighthood;" she is analyzing her position as both a woman and fighter and seeing an obvious contradiction. To be the best knight she can be, she should not be taking years off of training and fighting to have and raise children. She should be fighting. To go even further, to get her chances of having a Crested baby higher, Ingrid would have to marry another Crested character, which puts sociopolitical pressure on her dating/social life. Any potential romantic or marital partners are going to be viewed through the lens of whether or not they maximize the chances of her bearing a Crest baby. This in turn poisons her views on the whole matter in a really unique way I'm glad the game did explore. In my opinion, it would be odd to *not* have a character who comments on this kind of pressure. As to why other women in FE3H don't have that same pressure, we can examine their status and expertise areas. Edelgard doesn't have pressure to have Crested babies because of her plan. Marianne doesn't even want to live, let alone care about passing her cursed Crest onto children. Annette and Mercedes can both raise children and study magic with less pressure on them than being a physical fighter would have. Petra is part of a different class system and doesn't care about Crests like the mainlanders do. Dorothea has similar expectations around marrying into nobility and having children and its often seen as a reflection of why and how she empathizes with Ingrid during her proposal storyline. Bernie was literally abused by her father to try and mold her into a perfect wife, which again places tension between her expectations and desires (or phobias, in this case). Hilda doesn't care about doing hard work in the first place. Lysithea doesn't have the time to worry about marriage. Leonie is a commoner who wants to be a knight and is again a reflection of how Ingrid could function without the nobility's expectations on her. Catherine has taken herself out of the nobility purposefully and doesn't have to care. What we see time and time again is that Ingrid is in a unique position of caring about the path put in front of her where others don't have to care. Her storyline is a perfectly rational one given her unique circumstances in this world and her story arc isn't unearned, in my opinion. While it's not common for people in Fodlan to worry about gender/sex and overcoming issues related to it, I think Ingrid's story still functions despite its surface-level oddity.

[@ShoesOnTheFreeway]

Very well-written!!

[@Purrpleb]

THANK YOU

[@JaikerMA]

You should've absolutely titled this video Fire Emblem: Sex

[@EightyFourThousands84000s]

Yesss, and make 9:51 the thumbnail

[@zenithquasar9623]

I mean, playing the 3 Houses was FE Sex for me!

[@Matty002]

​@@EightyFourThousands84000s🥵 i cant

[@breestb8061]

Skip the colon, even

[@Saoirse-dm7ut]

KZbin would love that

[@freddiet.rowlet525]

Talking about the gender-locked classes not making sense, it would be interesting if instead they had crest-locked classes designed to synergise with that character's relic, if they have one. Like Marianne and Anette having a class that encourages use of their relics instead of just using magic, or having reasons for Catherine and Lorenz to keep their relics instead of just giving them both to Lysithea.

[@Rosencreutzzz]

Yeah that's a decent solution I think. I also gave Lysithea thunderbrand even if she's got no reason to use it...probably because I carry the old game trauma of prepromoted units being bad and I fear I'll never trust them)

[@flygonkerel781]

gender locked classes have been a thing since at least fe3

[@Skasaha_]

I think they were aware of the effect of everyone having access to every class has on unit diversity and chose the dumbest way to solve it. Classes unlocked by crests would have been much more interesting, but also a much more labour intensive solution.

[@LoudWaffle]

YES that would be amazing, and a much better way to utilize Master Classes. As it is right now most characters don't have a reason to even leave Advanced Classes unless they're a flier or a female mage.

[@CharlotteNarukami]

You gave thyrsus to Lysithea?

[@starlitromance]

My only insight on the Ingrid issue, IMO, is that it isn't so much a 'marriage' thing as it is a 'baby factory' thing. 'You need to get married to carry on our crest' is a vastly, vastly different psychological weight than 'you need to have children to carry on our crest', but this is coming from a tokophobia angle that obviously isn't really there in fe3h.

[@WhiteScorpio2]

Regarding the word "emperor" vs "empress", I don't know what term was used in the game itself, but in history those few historical Japanese monarchs who were women carried the same title as the men - 天皇. There is no specific word for an empress in Japanese (at least for the Japanese emperors).

[@Rosencreutzzz]

The word used in game (I included it in an asterisk) is Kaiserin, in the Japanese version, which is the feminine version of Kaiser, so it's curiously one of those situations where the Japanese word doesn't really come up-- the Flame Emperor is just Entei, so that also avoids it.

[@hi-i-am-atan]

@@Rosencreutzzz i think it might just be a case of where localization distinguishes itself from translation. the japanese version of the game is, naturally, going to be primarily read and consumed by people in japan, where gendered titles as mentioned aren't really a thing. so, the writers are free to be grammatically correct with the foreign title without their primary audience subconsciously reading into the cultural implications of that grammar, because the cultural implications for that grammar is that it's foreign. anything deeper isn't likely to come up unless someone consciously analyzes it, and even then they have the easy out of "well, it's probably just a cool foreign word and the more important implications are that it's germanic" but then the game needed to be translated into languages that _do_ have all that baggage with feminine royal titles. now, i'm not familiar with how every european language decided to handle it, but it's clear the english team had concerns of people seeing edelgard as less powerful if they left her title feminine, as well as the very likely concerns they had with keeping the "kaiser" part considering her plotline. they could've also gone with "empress regnant" instead ... but also not really, because a. who even knows what that is and b. it's kinda just a tacked on thing going "no, guys, she's actually _really_ powerful, she's not like other empresses" while actively playing into the implications of the word, and also c. it's a whooooole lot more characters, and localizers have ( very justified ) deeply intrinsic anxieties about going large with this sorta thing not playing well with ui elements and dialogue pacing and all that stuff. so since they weren't exactly losing anything by just calling her emperor, they called her emperor and that's ... really more of a faithful localization than calling her empress would be language is a funny thing

[@CostabiIe]

@@hi-i-am-atan Sorry for the necro, but I actually have an answer about the Kaiserin part. English is the only language that changes her title to a masculine form. Japanese, Chinese, Korean and German all use Kaiserin and the other European languages use their respective equivalent of Empress. Personally I find that change strange honestly. I'm German and if the localization had changed Kaiserin to Kaiser it'd be pretty weird. I know that the original Japanese writers might not have been aware of all of the implications (though that's also just speculation), but it's still the exact word they used, so I don't really think changing it in German would be justified. And since German generally shares a similar cultural background to English when it comes to stuff like that I don't see why the word Empress wouldn't be justified either.

[@David-es4pi]

It’s also worth noting that Edelgard is the “flame emperor” throughout the first half of the game, a character that is assumed to be male until her identity is revealed, making the usage of the generic “emperor” fairly logical in the interest of preserving the integrity of the plot twist if nothing else

[@Sashitoge]

A Fire Emblem themed video from a channel that isn't >70% FE, a rare treat

[@MathMasterism]

I think the fact that crest don’t work perfectly as a metaphor for either gender or class is part of the point. It’s a thing that doesn’t have any parallels to real life other than perhaps genetics, and in some ways I think the dev’s did a good job of considering how literal marks of the divine would be used by the nobility. The fact the not having a crest doesn’t strip a family of their titles while a commoner having a crest doesn’t instantly elevate them to the status of nobility, makes a lot of sense when you consider how real life kings justified their rules. The divine right of kings was just a way of justifying the current king deserved to be king over someone else, rather than an actually set of rules to determine who leads the country. If a noble overthrew the king of England, he wouldn’t give up the thrown just because he doesn’t have right bloodline to rule, he would come up with a new reason, or convolute the old reason, to justify him now being king. In the same way, the crest system is not actually a hard rule the nobility operates on and nothing compels a family with no crest bearing heirs to give up their wealth and titles. Instead is just a way to justify way commoners and nobles are different and why the current families in power deserve to be in power forever.

[@Johnmaloney1962]

Really liked this explanation

[@MathMasterism]

I think it is worth pointing out that “knight” in the world of Three Houses is different from the real world knight. Knights in three houses are soldiers but not land owner. I would say it’s better to think of Ingrid’s goal as like joining a holy order (Templar’s or the Hospitalar). Her family on the other hand wants her focus noble politics (marriage, realm management, growing family wealth and status, etc). In this way her conflict with her family could be viewed as being a warrior versus being a noble or fighting for a land versus running a land. There’s also the fact to consider that her family’s plan is to marry up, so regardless of her gender, she would likely be the lesser of the union, potentially giving her less freedom.

[@PurpleShift42]

I thought there was only one knightly order in Fódlan and it's the Knights of Seiros? But yeah, I think you've definitely got Ingrid's conflict down, although I'd think a better comparison would be, well, a retainer (neither Hubert nor Dedue actually have land territories to administer, after all), or perhaps a household knight like in Game of Thrones, or maybe at a reach a chivalric order like if the Knights of the Garter actually did anything. Or maybe if we're really stretching and looking for a modern comparison it would be like signing up as an officer in the army (yes I know it's called the Officers Academy but there isn't necessarily an expectation that they would fight in their country's national armies). I wouldn't really compare it to a military crusading order because those seem more trans-national (because of their religious crusading basis) to me than Ingrid swearing herself to her liege and country. Basically, if she took up a position as a knight of Faerghus, she would be too busy with her duties to Dimitri's household to take care of running County Galatea as the next Count (by Crest-preference inheritance). Technically, she _could_ appoint a regent/castellan like how Rodrigue's brother and wife are running Fraldarius Dukedom in 3 Hopes, but we don't know if her brothers are just not very good at administration or if they are also all busy being knights of Faerghus.

[@robinhoodproductions5102]

@@PurpleShift42no a random NPC in the monastery says there are hundreds of knightly orders throughout the kingdoms but only 1 is allowed to wear the shield/crest/name/symbol of Saint Seiros

[@xuanathan]

I do have a little nitpick about Ingrid (Its not the age part, I saw that got addressed already) Ingrid's struggle absolutely is about crests and not gender. Its just so similar to irl gender issues it just can register as that. Ingrid is uniquely pressured to find a husband because she is the only member of house Galatea in generations who bears the crest of Daphnel, its mentioned in her support with Byleth, and is the reason her possible marriage is so lucrative for her house. There's a similar issue Sylvain deals with, although its less of a burden for Sylvain because house Gautier still bears crests. And rather than suitors he has to shut down, its rather just an issue of him feeling he's been objectified and ending up just playing into it. If anything I think this distinction really just proves this video's point more, Crests in many ways are to Fodlan what gender roles are to us, so much so its easy to mistake this crest related issue as an out of place gender issue.

[@cyncynshop]

9 month old comment response: But if Ingrid isn't a woman, she wouldn't have to worry about pregnancy getting in her way of becoming a knight. Childhirth still overwhelmingly hurts one gender than the other. As having a female relative that died from making as much crest children as possible is a constant plot point for many characters.

[@ozymantiasVI]

I think another factor in mono goddess theism in anime is Japan's emperor worship religion emphasis (especially since the Meiji restoration) on Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun and founder of the imperial house

[@lordnatu]

I think that influence would be minimal, as Shinto emphasises local gods rather than a pantheon or main god or anything. Probably the only shintoists really concerned with Amaterasu are priests or shintoists near the Japanese emperor or the royal house.

[@Shalakor]

@@lordnatu But fiction tends to focus on mythological/older structures over the common day modern perspective to craft fictional theological analogues.

[@lordnatu]

@Shalakor What I mean is "I don't think the prevalence of mono godess theism is explained by a subconscious association between femininity and god of gods, because for many Japanese people that religious association won't be there". I also do not think that your explanation explains it, as Shinto is polytheistic and usually the fictional monotheism is more aesthetically inspired by Christianity/other Abrahamic religions, so that shouldn't explain why there's so much in Japan specifically.

[@EXchoco]

I laughed so hard at the Marianne “god protect me” LMAO

[@sctoomon]

"And ultimately, I'm largely left imagining the Fodlan we didn't get more than I'm upset with the one we got." I think the fact that this game continues to fuel the discussions and imagination of passionate fans, even when that discussion includes criticisms and wistful longing for what could have been, shows how much of an impact it has made. It's my favorite game, and I'm so grateful that I can continue to consider it from new perspectives four years after launch by watching an insightful video like yours.

[@dominicjannazo7144]

I firmly hold that if Three Houses got another year or whatever it needed to be fully polished and complete, it would be a worse game. The version in your head can compensate for a mess or ambiguity, and even if something would be "better" for some viewers, it would be less interesting to discuss. There's been 4 years of discussion on 3H and there likely will be many more.

[@iguessthisismyworkaccountl8437]

I don't want 3 houses discourse too end

[@ChalkMuncher]

For real! I firmly hold that though it has its problems, its an AMAZING point of discussion. The amount of depth and nuance put into every aspect of the game, including its world building and characters is amazing. I have so much to say about this game that ill probably never get to say because I don’t have any friends into it the way i am. I just love this game so much

[@LadyAnagram]

@@iguessthisismyworkaccountl8437I do but only if we all agree I’ I’m right and everyone else is wrong.

[@dannyrussell7333]

As a MASSIVE fan of both historical strategy games and FE Three Houses, I almost screamed when I saw this video in my subscriptions. I’m surprised but very glad you made this. It’s refreshing to see a relatively thorough attempt at examining a specific aspect of the game’s vast worldbuilding and themes amid the continuous discussion that surrounds it. The lack of an ultimate “canon route,” the frequent lack of clearly apparent creator intention, and the game’s tendency to imply (if even that) rather than explicitly state key details undeniably make FE’s worldbuilding messy, complex, and occasionally in tension with itself, as you have expertly highlighted. Still, that same messiness has played a big part in making the game so interesting to discuss. Overall I certainly agree that the game’s handling of gender/sex does not fit well with its understanding of class through the crested nobility. But despite some similarities in how they function, I find it difficult to compare crests to sex/gender and crests because crests are explicitly hereditary, which neither gender nor sex are. Likewise, the relationship between crests and class, a categorization that can be seen as hereditary, is, as one would expect, extremely significant, even more significant than some points in this video seem to indicate Fodlan’s class system is unambiguously structured around crests and the known capacity to inherit them. Judith and House Daphnel may be nobles despite her family not displaying a crest for a long time, but her family is still descended from Daphnel and presumably can inherit Daphnel’s crest. At the same time, be it through some nature of crests or very selective breeding, the nobility of Fodlan appears to have effectively limited crests to not only the nobility, but the most important houses, as every human who is known to bear a crest, except for Yuri, Hapi, and Anna, either come from a noble lineage or, in the case of the Ten Elites, were themselves made nobles. Very rarely do you see smaller nobles, like Aacheron or Lonato, holding crests. Excluding Anna and the Crest of Ernest for being narratively irrelevant, both Yuri and Hapi are unusual edge cases. Hapi and the lineage of Timotheos were secluded from the rest of Fodlan’s society, while Yuri was adopted by Count Rowe, a noble, after receiving his crest, even if he was disinterested in the social roles of the nobility and only used the privileges afforded to him by the title to get into Gareg Mach. A similar case is Marianne, born with a crest to a very minor Leicester noble, before being adopted by Margrave Edmund to solidify House Edmund’s authority, an adoption in which she is far from an enthusiastic participant. You see a similar situation in Mercedes’ past, a larger and more ambitious noble house is eager to adopt crest-bearing individuals from minor or branch houses, indicating that crests do carry elevated social expectations for members of less prominent noble houses who possess them. Yuri and Marianne are two clear examples of individuals of lower social standing who, through being born with or gaining a crest, advance themselves socially, even if culturally they may feel out of place with the level of authority granted them. Ultimately, possessing a crest, in practice, does carry a significant amount of social responsibility, and clearly can allow significant social advancement, even class mobility, if they choose to take advantage of their inheritance. Because crests are both hereditary and concentrated in the highest echelons of the nobility, they function like class, and it would be strange for them to function so similarly to gender or sex, neither of which share those qualities. One final note on Ingrid: Ingrid ardently buys the romanticized chivalric ideal of the knight, a concept that seems especially pronounced in Faerghus’ culture. It is repeatedly referenced by Blue Lions, Dimitri and Ashe are influenced by it, while Sylvain and Felix view it with cynicism, with the latter openly rebelling against it. While it is never explicitly defined, the ideals of the knight are distinguished from Fodlan’s ideals of nobility exemplified by Ferdinand and Lorenz in that it defines the knight’s role as in military service to their lord and is independent of class, while nobles are also obligated to lead the common people, both politically and morally. Thus, Ingrid is faced with two competing desires. One is the obligations brought upon her by her birth, class, and her valuable crest, to marry well and improve the station of their small, weak house, the other is her personal desire to serve as a knight. Ingrid, the conscientious and dutiful person that she is, clearly recognizes and respects these obligations and does not resent her parents or her crest as so many other students do, but her parents' pressure to marry up was probably the biggest motivation behind her betrothal to Glenn of the powerful and prestigious house Fraldarius, placing her crest and the social mobility it requires of its bearers at the root of so many other aspects of her character’s development. In contrast, serving a lord (presumably Dimitri) as a knight is a role that transcends the obligations, circumstances, and trauma that surround her family, crest, and class, where she can find personal purpose and meaning in the service that she chooses, while marrying on her terms, not for status or power. Ultimately, Ingrid faces a very real dilemma in choosing between marriage and knighthood, but one that does not revolve around gender, but class and how crests are understood as extensions of class. Does any of this change the strange role gender plays in Ingrid’s character in relation to crests being gender-neutral? Not particularly. The writing does sometimes frame Ingrid's dilemma as one of gender, an angle they probably could have been better served to avoid. Still, her crest, especially viewed as intrinsic to class, still plays a strong role in shaping Ingrid’s narrative in a constructive, believable way that mirrors the struggles and dilemmas so many of the other young nobles of the game deal with.

[@EXchoco]

^^^This!!! Super interesting stuff.

[@israel120298]

I really like this take on Ingrid 👍

[@bugjams]

Im not reading all that until you change those walls of text into paragraphs. christ.

[@dannyrussell7333]

@@bugjams If you care enough to complain about how long my comment is but not enough to actually read it, I suppose I'll give you a TLDR: I like the video, but crests are hereditary and gender and sex are not, which makes comparing the two a lot less straightforward. It would then make more sense then if crests work a lot more like class, and they do, to the point where they are essentially synonymous in-game. Likewise, Ingrid's arc makes a lot more sense viewed through crests/class than the gender-focused perspective the game clumsily pushes onto it.

[@Girlboss5002]

@@dannyrussell7333​​⁠i feel like this video forgets how crest are a clear objectification of "God" and how royalty are chosen by thus "God" which makes Edelgard's route so much better cause you don't fight the idea of oppression , you actually fight the idea of religion . Yes the crests clearly makes the idea of gender power struggle fluid where a woman could have "more power" but it just doesn't make sense cause most people in this world still abide by the social cues of "get married and have kids" etc..., it's so bad that there are no queer views on the subjects bc they are a clear opposition to it and you end up with people being hating their situations but still participating in it bc "love" . This video also forgets for the most part how misogyny is not just about hating women and fem aligning but more about silencing and perpetrating the idea that women are not suited for masc activities and would rather have women be caregiver both in the idea of carrying children and take care of the household , here we encounter how archbishop and emperor "don't suit women" but you also have to remember how most women are not in a situation of power to gain these titles , if you want a comparison doctor only has one suffix bc it was male dominated same as lawyer , firefighter , writer , teacher... but then careers that clearly are non gendered have multiple ways to be said i.e. actress (it's very difficult to find examples bc men dominate the working world) .

[@goldenson4566]

I think it should be said that crests do actually have some magic powers. The Crest of Charon is explored to possibly linked to either sensing or being able to conjure(?) storms as explored in Lysethia and Catherine’s supports, Dimitri’s overwhelming strength and casual breaking of mundane objects, Marianne’s crest possibly helping her “speak” with animals, and POSSIBLY the Crest of Flames and Crest of Seiros both granting some power of persuasion/charisma that naturally works on other people (no explicit support, but every instance we see of these crests does imply something of the sort, though I may be reading into things.)

[@Chi-yj6nz]

With Ingrid I had the same thoughts. Though, I do think it can be explained. I think its less the marriage that prohibits her from being a knight and probably more having children. Which I would assume her father would want her to have. A knight could probably not be able to be in compromised state for 9 months and then as well as raising a small child. So i would say the real world gender role parallels are more thought of with biological reality. Alot of women in the present do not want to have children now/or ever because they know it would impact their career. Especially if they were essentially breeding for a crest baby. She would probably be out of commission for a couple years.

[@marzipancutter8144]

This is something that I think in general throws a wrench into the idea that there wouldn't be sex-based discirmination in Fodlan. By all means, a male crestbearer would have a way easier time spamming retry on getting a crested baby, essentialy by a factor of the amount of consorts he has. Unless Biology in Fire Emblem works very differently, female crestbearers would be limited to one attempt per year. Then again there's a lot of years in a life and it's not like it's common to need like 10+ tries where this difference would actually start mattering, so I don't know if it would be enough to impact social perceptions. So the main point would probably be that crested women specifically are expected to retire from combat roles for at least a couple of years during their lives.

[@86fifty]

This is a really good point, and basically exactly what I paused the vid to come searching for in the comments b/c the vid's discussion of Ingrid seemed to miss some points. The 'having to go on leave' part of having tons of children to try and pass on the Crest, is probably the biggest hurdle Ingrid herself faces to her dream of knighthood. She doesn't just want the title, she wants TO SERVE, she legit wants to BE OUT THERE and doing her JOB. Plus, the years she would spend in a 'breeding program' for lack of a better term, would be the same ones that are her peak of physical fitness for knighthood battlefield experience. Plus, being a knight is potentially deadly, and I'm SURE her father wouldn't want to lose her... as a monetary investment. (I really disliked her father lol)

[@tuddeplarze5449]

three houses analisys vid in the year of our lord 2023, my boy Yuri on the thumbnail? this is my kind of content

[@БлейзЛега]

"Hresvelgist-Hannemanism" sent me flying, thank you

[@velvetgorge3844]

The metaphor of crests and gendered claimants is an observation I never considered and I think is an interesting way of looking things. But I do think you should have considered some perspective of this based on the country it's from. For example, when you mention that most of those in power are male I do think there's something to be said about how in Japan there's a much more stringent expectation of male authority than there is in western countries. There's even more inequality in women in power than there is here. But that is starting to change and you could look at these established male figures of power as being the "old ways" in contrast to the newer successors which is a lot more gendered. I think that definitely ties into the game's themes of breaking the establishment but not in a way that's intentional since I feel the game has a such a large female playable roster because it's more important for players to have characters they find appealing to play as than villains they find appealing to fight. It's actually a common thing in JRPG's, including this series, where you'll find that a lot of villains are male and have a rougher look to them than the heroes who are more colorful and have more females in the ranks. In that sense, I think the question in this case to be asked is what exactly are these characters designed for in terms of the audience they're made to appeal to? This isn't a negative thing persay but I do think that a lot of the gendered aspects were not considered because of a more vested interest in broad appeal. That aside, I do think it is worth noting older FE games were a bit more direct with gendered issues. I remember there being a plotline in FE7 where Isadora states she's a rare case of female knight amongst her ranks and this was has caused her particular strife while serving, but I don't think the narrative puts much weight on this and it's mostly just weird worldbuilding which... like 3 Houses... is pretty incongruous with what the world is granting us at face value. Nothing about FE7 implies the power structures are sexist, yet why do so few female knights exist within that setting? It's probably safe to say this weird inconsistency is common in FE and perhaps JRPGs in general. I think you could perhaps relate this to Japanese society wherein legally women are allowed to work in traditionally male occupations but generally don't for social reasons Japanese writers tend to not care or be cognizant of and this tendency is moreso a "norm" they work with than something they care to question.

[@Louigi36]

Awesome video. One quick note on the female monotheism thing: It can't be about how "god" or "the god" sounds, because all of these games are originally in Japanese. So unless the god's gender had been changed in the translation, it doesn't make sense that it's about how the word sounds in English. If anything, I would suspect 3 factors: 1. Female deities are not unusual in Japan. Their highest ranked deity is a woman (Amaterasu). She's supposedly the origin of the imperial family. 2. Gods usually take a passive role in the story, so their role is mainly about aesthetics. The aesthetics of female characters is generally more popular in anime culture. (As you said, boosts sales of figures). 3. One of the most common things Japan likes to do is play around and reverse things compared to what one would expect in the real world. This is why they like to have 5 year old preschoolers, who are secretly world class assassins, or why the most dangerous opponents at a fighting tournament are usually the people who don't look particularly strong. This may sound like it contradicts my first point, but ALMOST ALL churches in these fantasy settings are VERY CLEARLY modelled after christianity. Christianity has a very patriarchal depiction of god, so turning god into a woman is a simple subversion of that. That's also why I don't believe it's to distance themselves from real world religions. If that was the goal, why does every single fantasy church always look almost exactly like christianity?

[@Rosencreutzzz]

Yeah, I've considered the translation angle, and it's sort of challenging. But then there's the aesthetic trappings and how they do very much know they have a western audience (which tangentially reminds me, and others according to the comments, of the Kingdom Under Fire game that changed Pope to patriarch at the last second)-- and it leaves me wondering about the way so many of the major churches with a Western Aesthetic deviate on the point of "gendering" the god. I do think you're quite right to point out the love of inversion, of the "woah it's different from what you'd expect" angle of it all. Guess we'll see where it goes should I get around to ever talking about it in a *video* and actually bothering to really scrutinize the idea.

[@Louigi36]

@@Rosencreutzzz Thanks for the reply. You could be right. It's just that I can't shake the gut feeling that the trope dates back to the days when western markets were merely an afterthought. The time when RPGs were lucky if they even get a translation at all. But I don't really have concrete examples. The best I can think of is that the first Fire Emblem game already featured the explicitly gendered "Goddess Icon", but that's obviously not a core plot element. Either way, if you do decide to investigate the topic, I'd be interested to hear what you've found.

[@azure663]

​​@@Rosencreutzzz My understanding is that this is mostly just Dragon Quest influence, something that plagues all Japanese fantasy worlds due to it's sheer popularity there DQ does all these from it's first entry. Meanwhile FE 1 didn't explicitly gender Naga- the main goddess figure of the Archanaea and related series of FE games- until later in the series to my understanding, I would suggest the Goddess Icon was likely meant to just be a familiar sounding item, given it's status as a luck boosting item, Luck being something I'd expect someone Japanese to heavily associate with goddess, given the culture; not that I can claim that theory as superior to your own. Anyway, my understanding is that the trope was minor at best and largely related to the popularity of powerful female hierarchical figures in Shintoism like Izanami and, yes, Amaterasu- DQ however, I suspect, popularized the idea of mapping a Goddess onto a clearly Christian-style church for roughly, if not exactly the reasons you specified. The idea from there just never really faded, eventually becoming a proper trope being used for ot's own sake. Especially riding of the back of being used for cases to exemplify the Complicated relationship Japan has with organized religion; in which the Goddess helps familiarize- or rather localoze- the fantasy religion for the intended Japanese audience, while clearly existing in the shell of a Christian Faith, symbols and all- it's awfully convenient to use for that purpose because it helps them cast the church more in a light that feels more Japanese rather than European, so as to help keep the impact rather than trigger racism. That's roughly my guess at the situation anyway. If I sound confident, it's Duning-Krüeger striking me with the force of a thousand suns.

[@Mattwae]

There's another point to be made that even in Christianity, Maria is often the object of worship rather than Jesus or the lord. The why is beyond me at the moment (I think not actively asking the lord for boons is part of it) but it can be seen today in how in Mexico Santa Maria is the object of worship.

[@hedgehog3180]

I haven't played Three Houses but this does make me think of G-Witch. G-Witch also seems to exist in a world without sexism or homophobia, Miorine literally says the last part to the camera, however both of those things are actually still central themes in the story so it essentially constructs situations that mimic them, and uses explicitly gendered language like Witch. Like in the school the leaders of the three houses are all male, vying to marry a single powerless girl. And the central plot revolves around Suletta and Miorine trying to stay together despite the expectations of parents and society, however it's not because they're both women it's because Suletta is a poor nobody. The end result is that the show ends up making some very clearly explicit points about sexism and homophobia without needing to construct a universe where women or gay people are actually disadvantaged, this has the benefit of not needing to put all the female and gay characters in dis-empowered positions, giving them much more room to act and breathe. It allows the writers to operate on two levels, there's the level of the internal universe where these things are not a concern, and how the show is perceived in the real world where these parallels become obvious, thereby the show can make explicit points about real world issues. It also goes the other way where using clear references to sexism and homophobia in the real world lets the show have stronger writing, the use of terms like Witch and Princess instantly evoke strong associations and the show is using them intentionally. The show also has bodily autonomy as one of it's central themes and how class interacts with that and that has an extremely clear relevance to both feminist and queer issues irl. On the whole this means that even though in universe these issues don't exist this show could not have worked if it did not make the audience think of them and it seeks to do so. G-Witch could not have worked if the main character wasn't female and if the main relationship wasn't queer. This became a huge tangent but I guess my point slightly is that this could have made sense in some way, like there is a way to do something like this. In G-Witch you sorta get the impression that the current leaders of the houses and other things like that are just a temporary coincidence in universe, because whenever you look at other places things seem a lot more even, but it was still intentionally done by the writers.

[@mousefire777]

It seems like the Japanese term most commonly used in 3H (outside of entei for flame emperor) is koutei 皇帝. And it seems like koutei is just used more gender neutrally than emperor. On the Wikipedia page for Anna of Russia, she’s only ever called empress in English, but she’s called both 皇帝 and 女帝 in Japanese. In my opinion, emperor was just a clumsy translation rather than some statement about gender. They probably wanted to match her title to the male-coded flame emperor she was disguised as

[@LockMatch]

Hear me out. The crest system should only reinforce conservative gender system, mostly because male heir can try to have a new baby every time their new kid is crestless while being fully active at their duty, while female heir faces real dangers to her health and plethora of different downsides of pregnancy in a case of being unlucky with crestless child

[@VioletSadi]

I've read a tumblr essay about class biological warfare and alpha/omega "secondary sex" fan fiction, and this is kinda in line with that train of thought

[@KerbalRocketry]

Fire Emblem: Sex and Violence

[@kokorowatari2993]

This is the first video of your's I have seen. I enjoyed the thoughtful analysis. However, you made me spit on my phone from laughing at the secret, and I am holding a grudge over that.

[@orionporion6284]

21:50 the ten elites' crests were inherited through corrupt means, but they still carry the bloodline of rhea's kin. from my perspective, rhea upholding the crest system for their descendants is like raising the child conceived from your sibling being SA'd. 24:00 i'm not sure if it's one-to-one with what you're arguing, but i'm pretty sure edelgard is motivated from being personally hurt by the crest system. crests signify power, and she and her siblings suffered immensely to be implanted with two of them. though, having two crests doesn't seem to correlate with political interests as much as trying to make a super soldier (unless double crest-bearers change the probability of children having crests or not, but who knows).

[@nickcalderon2637]

21:58 The entire continent of Fódlan already saw the Ten Elites as Heroes, well before Seiros helped to establish the Empire which fought against Nemesis’s own Kingdom. Simply put, she didn’t see much use in trying to rewrite a belief everyone already had prior to her popping up.

[@neoqwerty]

I think they wanted to bring back the Holy Bloodlines mechanics from the SNES Thracia Fire Emblem games... And did it really, really, really bad. Also I'm always mad about the Dark Mages getting genderlocked, given Sophia and Niime are a thing. Like sure, female dark mages and shamans are rare, but for the GBA period they were absolutely around, and I'm mad that they didn't get more TLC >:( Abolish gender gatekeeping in FE classes, let my male Robin ride an evil pegasus, dammit.

[@flygonkerel781]

*jugdral*

[@chargestone96]

Tharja is a female dark mage that was **very** popular

[@Gemini_Blessed_Boy]

About Ingrid I can see your point, however there are a few issues: -The tragedy ls Duscur was 4 years prior to the start lf the game, so Ingrid was around 13-14 years old, she admired her fiance and where close...so the trauma is more real than if she were 5 years old -Her position about knighthood, she basically wants to be a retainer serving a Prince because that's her ideal. Her conflict stans that she will be the next Leader of her house because she has a Crests someting rare in her family, however if she decides to make knoght vows she must forfeit her right to lead her house (something common in fantasy settings) -Her being r¿cist, to be honest...if someone you love is killed by a group of peope wouldn't you hate that group of people??? Even if you know it's not the fault of the entire group, we are humans getting rid of hatred is difficult

[@KarelPKerezman]

OK, you had me at Felix using his crest to speed-read his homework. Well done. I like that you emphasize throughout that it's not a matter of the game's writers doing an actually terrible job, just that they introduced an interesting societal mechanic without entirely thinking through all that well how it would line up with both the normal story tropes they're also leaning into but also the real-world parallels that being tapped. Good stuff overall!

[@janmelantu7490]

Re: “Archbishop” as the title: the English-speaking churches that ordain women and have bishops do not use the term “bishopess”. The current Presiding *Bishop* of the largest Lutheran church in America is Elizabeth Eaton. The current President of the United Methodist Church is *Bishop* Tracy Smith Malone.

[@ahumpierrogue137]

Man, I never even considered how common female goddess figures are in japanese media. I mean, part of it has to come down to familiarity with Amaterasu right? I am basically unqualified to talk about actual japanese culture but if I had to guess I'd assume thats probably where at least a bit of the inspiration comes from surely. But yeah, even Zelda's got a goddess(which they traded a somewhat more unique trinitiy of godesses for to boot).

[@mariopanczel8581]

As someone who is overall in the dark about the entirety of Fire Emblem as a series, this is such an interesting video on worldbuilding

[@Purrpleb]

Ingrid, Felix and dimitri were all 14 when the tragedy happened , not 5. And I think the ways in which she reflects the racism woven into the kingdom is good narrative tool to explain how the kingdom turned this event into a propaganda for their genocide and colonialism

[@lorewalkercho7291]

I appreciate that you acknowledge the lack of mothers as more of a creativity fault than a conclusion of its own. I don't think Ingrid doesn't fit I think she's partly our representation of the inequality that does exist between crested women and men! Crests DO hurt women more than men and its largely because of real world biology. IMO crested women are Fodlan's silent victims. The first and easiest example is Hanneman's sister, she was literally bred to death in pursuit of a crest. Then theres Mercedes who would've been -REDACTED- by her adoptive father. Bernadetta's pre patch support... this one would've been a better example than Ingrid as to not fitting in the world. Her father ties her to a chair to make her sit still and be an obediant wife?? that doesn't make sense, but it was patched out. A less perfect but very brushed over examples would be Edelgard's mother: Patricia / Anselma. In the goddess tower Edelgard tells Byleth about how the romantic goddess tower story started with her mother and father, they were truly in love but the emporer needed to have multiple consorts to produce crested children, thus they were denied a happy home together. Great video I never thought of crests as a 3rd gender but its a neat way of looking at things. hope you found my ramble interesting atleast lol

[@zk5228]

I'm so happy that a video on this topic exists

[@viothesheikah1018]

Really enjoyed this video. I really appreciate the critique of the game's world and the problems with many of its contradictions. I remember when I first played the game I found Ingrid's plot pretty compelling, but in hindsight I see how it's a bit of an blemish on the coherency of the world building. Love your videos ❤

[@MarineSquadDeployed]

Ah, the immortal science of Hresvelgist Haneumannism!

[@somethinguncreative2634]

First of all, I really liked the video (like basicly all your videos so far). Both the subjects you choose and your delivery are very enjoyable and engaging to me. Now for the unimportant part: Thanks to pax I recently found out about a really interesting upcomming release, a gsg called Espiocracy. It's not something that is immediatly interesting as a video subject, concidering it's not even out yet, but from what I've glipsed from the dev diaries, it has an interesting aproach to historicity. It's definitly something I want someone like you to have an eye on.

[@Rosencreutzzz]

I'm aware of Espiocracy and waiting to for it to materialize. Hooded Horse has been picking some interesting games to fund in the last while, like Terra Invicta and all that. We'll see where it goes.

[@Skyehoppers]

7 minutes in but damn out of everything i heard about this game when it came out i cant believe no one ever told me it was a fuckin omegaverse 🙃

[@EphemeralPseudonym]

omegaverse if it was about the social aspect instead of mpreg 🤯

[@RenaDeles]

@@EphemeralPseudonym You clearly haven't read a lot of fiction dealing with the subject, because honestly a good half of them i've seen *are* focused on the social aspect. The 'corny' is both/either part of that, or a bonus in those works while yeah having a lot of fun with looking at the world building one *can* do because much like vampires theres no set rules.

[@EphemeralPseudonym]

@@RenaDeles My exposure is primarily through manhwa because I don't generally read YA/NA enough to buy a book 😔

[@kaiserphoenix2038]

A great video, though I do have some minor objections to the Ingrid section, specifically about her becoming a knight and defying the gender expectations part. You're not wrong that women openly being allowed to fight is indicative of Fodlan being a setting w/o much gender expectations, but Ashe and Ingrid's A support implies that this probably isn't the case, specifically for Faerghus and its royal family. Keeping in mind how much Ingrid obsesses over knighthood, a few of things can be extrapolated from how surprised Ingrid is that there's a legend based on a real female Faerghan knight, unknown even to Ingrid and Ashe. It's indicative that the knight's story was not very widely published, certainly compared to Loog's story, despite her service to the King. Why else would this be the case? Because though they accepted that women could fight, becoming a knight that serves at the right hand of the King of Faerghus was more frowned upon for crested women, which for me was always Ingrid's dilemma and the expectation she was trying to defy. The fact that this unknown female knight as she's described essentially parallels Ingrid's circumstances perfectly is very intentional, and I don't think it's unfair to say Ingrid's plot is not as contrived as you're making out to be (but also still kinda is b/c of a lack of focus).

[@Supahpowahnerd890]

I'm not familiar with the Fire Emblem franchise but I vaguely recall drama about Three Houses having a route where you and Edelgard can be lesbian fascist demagogues.

[@davidvaldez1093]

Not even finishing the intro but you could argue FE does disadvantage women in the GBA games, because in those they tend to have lower constitution stat (which can't be leveled up and works as a second speed stat for certain mostly better weapons) than the adult male characters, and are instead on par (or even below) the child soldiers.

[@thatonearanara]

36 minutes and 14 seconds well spent, great video

[@MAD22324]

Hell yeah yuri firee emblem

[@augustcross2305]

I quite enjoyed the video, but I want to quickly object to a comment made about Path of Radiance. Describing Daein as "THE racism country" in an attempt to contrast how Three Houses "doesn't have a sexism country" makes it sound like Daein was the only racist nation in Path of Radiance. That's just not true. I'll mention a couple examples below, but both Tellius games make a point out of how basically every nation except Goldoa holds prejudice and disdain for the other race. In just Path of Radiance, Ranulf is separated from Ike's party in Ch. 11 because the former gets assaulted by a mob in a CRIMEAN port town. Despite Ramon and Caineghis forming an alliance between their nations, Caineghis himself says "he still [does] not fully trust the beorc" in Ch. 9 and describes the alliance as a respect between the rulers more than the two peoples as a whole. Ranulf getting jumped shows the Crimean side of this claim, but the Gallian side of this anger is shown over those chapters (9-11) too, especially through the character of Lethe. As for more examples, Radiant Dawn's nature as a sequel obviously means it can further demonstrate this trend. In a info conversation from Ch.9 of Part 3, Crimean citizens are divided on if Crimea should side with Begnion or Gallia in the war. The villagers see themselves as having a debt to both nations: to Begnion for their military aid towards Crimea's liberation and to Gallia for helping rebuild afterwards. However, one of the young villagers makes an argument to support Begnion just becuase they're a beorc nation, to which at least one of the others seems to agree. As a final note, the most interesting case is Bengion's populace. I could have sworn there was a similar moment where Begnion's people were swayed against the laguz alliance by their own prejudices, but I actually couldn't find a conclusive example. I scoured scenes from Part 3, and despite there being multiple mentions of how Begnion's people were divided on opinion about the war, I couldn't find anything that tied this ambivalence to racial reasons. While the senators are overtly genocidal towards the laguz, the only examples I could find for common Begnion people holding onto bad blood with the laguz were generic soldiers using the term "sub human."

[@vincentroy-robert4029]

0:42 is now my favorite quote about fire emblem lol

[@Fenrisson]

I am a complete ignorant when it comes to Fire Emblem, and loved this video a lot. That's a great analysis! Much respect, and Please Come to Brazil.

[@yurisonovab3892]

I do remember shouting at the screen whenever Ingrid laments not being able to become a knight that she already was and was one of the most fierce warriors in the largest war the continent has known in a century. Inverse with Ignatz, who seems to think that being a knight precludes the ability to do art. Like... art is one of those things that was fell squarely into the archetype of the noble warrior poet.

[@this-is-how-i-cope]

I, for one would watch a video on fire emblem: sex

[@techneti_um]

Interestingly Sothis, despite being referred to by the Church as the Goddess, calls herself the progenitor god

[@gaberobison680]

Glad you are talking about such a spectacular game with excellent storytelling

[@mads_in_zero]

You should play Fire Emblem 4, because a _lot_ of 3H's concepts are actually borrowed from FE4. For instance, the game has a system similar to the Crests in Holy Blood, including having Major and Minor Holy Blood. However, unlike Fodlan, in Jugdral's system, you _require_ Major Blood to wield the associated Holy Weapon. In addition, if a couple has multiple children, only one child will inherit Major Holy Blood, any succeeding children will have Minor Holy Blood, (if either one parent has Major Blood, or both parents possess the same Minor Blood, their child will have Major Blood). While for gameplay purposes, player-controlled child units basically always have siblings with the brother inheriting Major Blood, and the sister inheriting Minor (FE4's inheritance system is very complicated for a SNES game, and they had to streamline it), this isn't actually a hard fact, with several second gen NPCs (and one specific player controlled Gen 2 unit from a preset pairing) show it's possible for women to inherit Major Blood just the same. Inheritance of a Noble House explicitly favors Major Holy Blood, as it guarantees the next generation down will also possess it, without having to rely on arranging a marriage between two people of Minor Blood. After all, Major Holy Blood is tied to a very powerful weapon that should be passed down and kept within the Family.

[@Kuudere-Kun]

I'd definitely like to see more people go in depth on the Anime/JRPG Goddess fixation. I think an aspect you've maybe overlooked is Ameterasu being the central deity of Shintoism while in post Polytheist cultures the lead god is male. I've been thinking in my head about constructing a fantasy world that has a 5 gender based culture even though their biology is the same as ours. But there are a lot of kinks I still haven't worked out.

[@mateuspedrosadasilva884]

This video is great and a fun exploration on how gender and it's expectations affects how we write fiction, it's pretty much impossible to make a fictional political system that lives divorced from the context we have in real life even when the fictional political system straight up says that things like gender don't work how it historically has on the real world! I see things like Homestuck that has an alien species that doesn't have the same gender roles we have but they still "make excuses" for gender still affect the characters so we can understand it through what we perceive gender to be in real life as well, I wonder what a fictional setting where gender really does not matter would look like, and if it would be reality breaking to readers or something (which is altogether really curious bc why are we more willing to accept things like dragons existing in fiction than gender not mattering, and what does that say about how we write and understand fiction in general!) Anyways just loved the video, it got my gears turning!

[@brianhowe201]

I bet it wouldn't matter in a society of hermaphrodites or shapeshifters.

[@Syngrafer]

The voice transition at 32:12 is a really neat editing choice!

[@CoobyPls]

0:38 my brain blue screened when i realized that someone has unironically used the word "smang" *in a real statement, in real, actual life* , that they want taken seriously from other people.

[@CaptainThief]

@35:09 It’s probably a real song, but I remember this from Mission Impossible on the Nintendo 64.

[@hakkesho12]

22:54 Such a good point, I’m glad this stuck out to you too 😆. Considering how Rhea’s hatred for Nemesis has persisted for over a millennium, it’s kinda crazy to me that she let the descendants of his allies survive, let alone operate with such high social status in what’s ostensibly **her** country 🤔. I’m so happy to have found a whole essay on a topic like this. The conspicuous lack of female nobles, unexplored intersections of sex and crests, and absurdity of Ingrid’s subplot are things I’ve been ruminating on since I finished the game 😂. I look forward to seeing more of your essays, this was so well done!

[@EphemeralPseudonym]

The weird divergence between Rhea upholding the nobility and her ostensibly hating its origin isn't capitalized on enough for most people to notice that it's a way to, in shorthand, suggest that while Rhea is the most powerful person on the continent, she herself feels powerless. She doesn't even necessarily want to keep the current system, she just fears what would happen if she changed anything. She's got mommy issues out the wazoo, I don't get how people got the impression she's like solely this evil megalomaniac. The Ashen Wolves DLC was a mistake

[@dearcrowns]

I only ever played the Eagle route of 3H, but this was a cool video imo

[@Salamander_falls]

In my limited research, i actually think the depiction of monotheistic goddesses in JRPGs is more likely tied to Shintoism. The highest kami (or nature spirits) is Amaterasu-Omakami, the kami/goddess of the sun. Early shinto beliefs revere divine femininity, with many features of Shinto temples being said to related to the female body and reproduction.

[@basedeltazero714]

10:00 What if the inheritance rule is based on having a crest, but *also* secondarily agnatic? A female with a crest would inherit over a male without, but a male without a crest inherits over a female without. (A male with a crest vs female with a crest... could go pure primogeniture or favor the male, I dunno if we see that situation). Given, as you point out, that crests are rare and most noble houses will go without for generations, you'd expect to see mostly male heirs. The fact that, despite this trend, the society is relatively 'equal' between men and women would tend to lead to a lot of women doing the things non-inheriting sons traditionally do. Like, for instance, joining the church-militant/mercenaries that is Garreg Mach. Why would it be this way? Eh... got nothing, other than convenience - patrilineal inheritance is a good way to preserve and concentrate power? Maybe it's not so much a rule as a trend that tends to establish itself. 13:40 Leicester is the 'merchant prince' option as opposed to the others being more classic 'warrior nobility'. (Though, you are, of course, at a school for warriors so that gets minimized a bit). 29:25 I suspect that a male pegasus rider made the Weird Part of the fanbase extremely upset.

[@Todesnuss]

The whole "female emperor" thing is interesting. There is a very deliberate example of that in mtg with The Wanderer or "Wandering Emperor of Kamigawa". Her being from a world inspired by japan makes me wonder if that concept has additional relevance there that doesn't quite translate.

[@marinary1326]

Of all the things I didn't expect for a video topic on this channel, this sure was one of them, but maybe I shouldn't be surprised. There's a lot to pick into when it comes to the worldbuilding in this game, good and bad and just plain weird. And gender is one of the weirdest of all. I find another interesting intersection of gender and crests to be Bernadetta. She's the singular crest bearing heir of her house, should therefore have been expected to rule and there's not supposed to be a prejudice against that in this world on the basis of gender, and yet the way she has been treated by her father is... Particularly Gendered.

[@moth4457]

as soon as this finds its way to the rest of the fire emblem fandom it is OVER for your comments section

[@SharurFoF]

It is interesting how seldom game magic systems (and I would say crests count as part of a magic system) concern themselves with anything anyone would want to do with their magic other than combat. It makes sense from a purely game mechanical standpoint, but from a worldbuilding standpoint... not so much.

[@isaacsmith3998]

I can't finish this video because I've only completed 2 routes of 3h, but wow. I love this so much. I need more feminist video game video essays in my life. Subscribed.

[@Flameo326]

A side note, but I've always found it interesting that both Ashe and Mercedes are put in the Commoner class despite the fact that Ashe is the adopted son of Lore Lonato (a minor noble) and Mercedes was born a Noble (House Martritz), later adopted into another Noble house (Bartels), and then fled with her mother to a Church in Eastern Faerghus. Like both of them are arguably nobles in different ways and the fact the game refuses to see either of them as Nobles reinforces the exclusivity of the aristocracy. To the Nobility, Crests are just another means of being superior to others, a way of setting them apart from the masses.

[@Lady_Rhea]

As a person who has read a *lot* of FE3H fanfic, I firmly disagree with the sentiment that sexism doesn’t make sense in the universe. Because of the overwhelming importance of crests, it makes a terrible amount of sense for noble women (either crest bearing or crestless) to be made to bear children until they die. It also makes sense given that sexism existed in universe prior to the inception of crests a millennium ago. Because for commoners and lower nobility crests aren’t relevant, it makes a great deal of sense for sexism to carry through in upper contexts in the name of pragmatism. I would argue that crests actually support sexism rather than eliminate it but I can accept that this isn’t the case. I don’t know, I think the writers (and especially the translators) made many mistakes organizing this game, it is definitely my favourite narrative in this genre. Perhaps my enjoyment of how fucked up the characters are is blinding me to the horrors… I very very much enjoy listening to your analysis, but I think there is a cultural difference between Faerghus and Adrestia, and I do not recall female knights being married in game… Essentially I am willing to write headcanons around and in support of Ingrid’s story in my head even if the game writers didn’t do the best job of explaining the sexism she experiences coherently… Fundementally thank you for taking the time to write and edit this video, it has been interesting to listen to a critical deconstruction of gender in this game, where previously I have viewed it’s consideration of gender dynamics so highly (especially relative to the greater realm of video games) You presented arguments I would never have considered past a hand wave and I’m glad I got to watch this video to hear them.

[@zanai2805]

I absolutely agree about there being differences between Faerghus and Adrestia. Faerghus is pretty clearly more patriarchal and sexist than Adrestia (though Adrestia still isnt good). Like the simple statement that Ingrid was the heir sent me down a rabbit hole because I could have sworn she wasn't the heir and the conclusion I came to was that at the point the games is at (unmarried student) she is technically the heir but realistically the house would get passed to one of her brothers if/when she marries into another noble family. All of her dialogue seems to indicate she's not ever really expecting to administer anything or take control of Galatea. That her father's only expectation and goal for her is to just marry for the bride price and pop out kids, not for her to become Countess Galatea with any authority. Glenn was heir of House Fraldarius so its not like it was expected for him to then administrate Galatea too, so the plan must have initially been for her brothers to take over.

[@Willwantstobeawesome]

Some comments (I don't mean to be too critical) 1:00 obviously we understand sex to be anatomical and gender to be something more immaterial through 'performance' though I think this stems from a conflation of grammatical gender, the social role (gender roles), and what people such as Freud called "psychical sex" (or something like it, idr). ultimately we don't yet fully understand what we're dealing with and the acceptance of transgender people implies both a social performative aspect and a non-performative aspect. 4:04 combat *does* have much to do with running a country - at least that would be the opinion of someone in a pre-modern era. countless times royal lines have descended from warlords and warriors. it's a more modern view to see things in terms of policy, national-economy, optimization etc. obviously those prototypes aren't the only two but it's a way to make sense of it. it also neatly ties things back together since gender *does* have something to do with combat. men produce more testosterone than women. testosterone is important for physical strength and also has something to do with aggression. 7:45 the implication of "noble blood versus noble inheritance" adds an interesting dynamic. historically there were nobles without land and even today there are royals without any power due to republican revolutions. I'm also reminded of the Indian caste system and how there's more of an ethnic element to social class. ethnicity is a lot less tangible in real life than crests seem to be in game. fantasy worlds in games (unfortunately) often have racialism as a feature. fantasy creatures get different bonuses and abilities by an accident of birth. this is a criticism I've seen more recently of DND 8:03 this reminds me of how the European royal families would marry each other. you'd have German kings of England and Danish kings of Greece 15:10 this is mistaken but in a way which validates your point. His title was not king but prince. He was the prince consort. While time and place affect everything in this discussion, Britain very clearly has prince below king or queen. This is why the rajas of India were known as Indian princes. To make them princes was to say clearly they were below Queen Victoria, the Empress of India. 19:57 I would credit this to Shinto which has Amaterasu as the chief deity good video. makes me interested to play the games myself

[@asmrtpop2676]

Even sex isn’t strictly anatomical. Please do more research. You’re only thinking of outward presentation when there’s phenotypes, chromosomes, etc. And none of it is binary lol.

[@leaffinite2001]

I always want to watch FE 3h videos but everytime i spend the whole video thinking "its cuz of the development crunch"

[@Idkpleasejustletmechangeit]

I have never played a Fire Emblem game(closest to that would be the fact that I watched 1.5 Let's Plays), but this was still very interesting.

[@Justowner]

Maybe crests being more combat oriented is the reason for some of the weirdness. Perhaps you are more likely to be sent to fight when you have the crest, thus making crests more rare also. And also cause the "equalizer" of the male/female split to become a non-factor. On the titles: I could be wrong, but Im pretty sure gendering the ruling title is less common, then not. I suspect women in authority positions historically took the same title that the men would. I think it was less common to do things the other way, and part of the reason for the British royalty specifically keeping Queen as the title for regnancy (or whatever the word should be) was because originally women weren't supposed to be in charge, and the only reason that queen took and kept power in the British kingdom was because of political shenanigans. Personally i think ruling titles shouldn't be gendered as i feel like its sexist when they are. Like "Oh you cant be real Emperor you're a women, so here's your consolation title". This argument was probably used verbatim in history to keep women who didn't hold the traditionally male title off the big seat also. But Im a man so what do I know. I think a more likely explanation for the lack of gendered titles in the game may be that japan doesn't gender titles. I could be wrong, but a quick google supports this hypothesis. Except for -kun, i cannot find evidence of Japanese honorifics being gendered either. Tenno is apparently the Japanese word for emperor (specifically of Japan. Not generically emperor) and means "heavenly soverign", and female rulers would also have this title though it was sometimes modified to josei tenno. The consort title for women is Kogo. I think it is significant that the Wikipedia entry lists all the past Empresses regnant of japan as Tenno and not the modified term.

[@EphemeralPseudonym]

-kun isn't explicitly gendered either. As far as I can tell it's just an honorific you use for someone who is essentially a disciple in some way; female students will still sometimes refer to their male peers with -kun because historically these male teenagers will be disciples or something. Conjecture, but given how often girls are referred to as -kun by older men that sounds right to me

[@dreamwolfnektovich1944]

I didn't get your argument. Maybe it's because I didn't play the game or I missed something in the video. So, sorry if I mischaracterised it. Are you saying that since there are crests in this world and people organise hierarchy around them, there shouldn't be sexism? If that's the case, then I just don't see why. Since the heir is determined by the crest (which is randomly inherited regardless of sex), they must have the ability to have many children to have their own heirs. And having a child as a woman still puts you at a disadvantage relative even with magic. Especially if you are a knight, which would explain that racist girl plotline. As a man, you can have a child while still being active and gaining capital at the same rate, which would lead to a material disadvantage for women down the line. And that would lead to less political power and naturally to discrimination. I dont see crests as sex at all. It is definitely more like property rights status (class). Like in real life, individual women could hold onto power by having property. Here they can have it, by having a crest. In both cases, women as a class would still have inferior material conditions to men. The only different part is that a crest is determined only by birth, while property can be earned as well as inherited. If there would be a choice between a boy and a girl both with a crest, the heir would ideally be male (from the point of view of the house senior). The random nature of having a crest would just increase the chances of women to be heirs. Meaning there would be more women in positions of power, but they would still have less of it on average. No egalitarianism, unfortunately.

[@deathpigeon2]

The Goddess thing might also relate to Amaterasu being the main deity of the imperial family.

[@SoberGin]

Oh hey, I caught this early! Love this video, really good comparison. Also, not the main point but I totally agree that gendered classes is dumb, lol. Gimmie customization or gimmie full flavor, both would be more interesting than only *kinda* limiting my options in a way that's more annoying than interesting. =/

[@trejkaz]

IRL we never really had any classes about managing finances either.

[@bm4604]

This video essay was fire cent hold you.. I might just have to check out more of your stuff

[@SilentVinyl]

Fire Emblem Sex not to be mistaken with Fire Emblem Rule 34

[@YusufSahin-dg7il]

Fredda Jumpscare 32 minutes in, you love to see it.

[@NowiGreen]

People forgot fates had gender locked classes because of the DLC Great Lord, Grandmaster, Vanguard, Lodestar, Witch and Balistitian where all gender locked. Also the church doesn't seem to care about the crest or nobility system outside of no non crest havers can use the relics. They have little power by themselves in any country and the one they do have the most in has the local church turn against them that being the western one.

[@spuriusbrocoli4701]

Hresvelgist-Hannemanian solidarity w/ my crestless comrades.

[@chellybub]

I was denied my inheritance for being a gay polygamist... If only I had a crest 😢 lol ❤ cool video 🎉

[@essixthefalcon8657]

wAIT WHAT INGRID WAS 5 AND GLEN WAS 15 WHEN THE TRAGEDY STRUCK???

[@Rosencreutzzz]

Nope. I was wrong, there's a pinned about it. Sad, if only cause I thought the designers were genuinely that unhinged for a bit.

[@essixthefalcon8657]

@@Rosencreutzzz Ah got it! And yeah VRHEGEHEJJ THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN MENTAL

[@Iggy_Dogg]

you switched to the crusader kings map and I just went "of course"

[@muse5722]

I think the real reason the plot still features characteristic consequences of sexism with men being in most positions of power, or female characters' stories focusing on sexism they face is much simpler than a case of a diverse and decentralised leading team, or inconsistent game direction. I think it is a simple natural consequence of the writers being Japanese. Japan, in comparison to other "economically developed" countries or the "global west", is far more culturally regressive and sexist. Naturally, it's cultural products have such leanings in the narrative and class design regardless of the background built for the world by the writers.

[@Speederzzz]

Reminds me a bit about secondary gender in Omegaverse logic

[@fallingphoenix2341]

This is an interesting observation, I wonder if you could take it further to say something about the whole Fantasy genre. It does tend to pick up ideas with sociopolitical implications and real world analogs. The Lord of the Rings elves could be seen as analogs for nobility. Magic users are akin to inequality, through accident of nature or divinity some people get to exercise their will to a much greater extend than others, what is that if not wealth Inequality? But those ideas, they rarely run with them. Like your example of an analog for sex, that just goes nowhere and critiques nothing. What is it like to be a proletarian in a world where half a dozen mages call the shots and anybody who gets in their way is like to die by fireball? Or a political philosophy and social arrangement that deals with the fact that elves are better, live longer, and are prettier than all humans, not as an option, but as a fact of life? But Fantasy isn't about that....

[@rashkavar]

Honestly, I would have assumed that "archbishopess" was not a word to default to but a word that would have to be constructed for the purpose of this game's translation, were they to have used it. The Roman Catholic clergy is exclusively male; male dominance in the RCC is very much a thing, whether or not you want it to be. Bishop and archbishop are titles that are used mostly by that institution. Ergo, there would be no need for a female gendered version of the words. And yes, there are many other denominations of Christianity that use the term bishop, and a subset of those that use the term archbishop. I am by no means sufficiently aware of all of those denominations, let alone what their stance is on women in the clergy, but the apparent existence of "archbishopess" as a word implies at least one of them uses it (and furthermore, one that is relevant enough to the English speaking world to have been translated at a time when use of the -ess suffix to coin new words was standard practice) But the male-exclusive clergy idea seems to be fairly common among the more hierarchical denominations, and I'd assume most if not all denominations that have bishops and archbishops have a fairly strict hierarchy, simply by virtue of those being inherently hierarchical titles.

[@ShoesOnTheFreeway]

21:46 I used to think about that fact often :O

[@heim8099]

Comment for the algorithm, because this content is great and I REALLY want to see that "female-monotheism in anime" video you mentioned wanting to do.

[@Skasaha_]

Relic weapons (like the one used by the doomed Mikalis) are pretty poorly designed in terms of world building despite being interesting on the surface. Even down to the gameplay penalty for non-crest holders using them being... 10 damage. The same as Devil Axe recoil in this game. A lot of the situation tends to lean on Rhea being, well, mad. For example, you brought up the rebellious crest holders becoming noble houses being kind of odd, but I think the odd part is the church letting anyone using a relic weapon at all - Rhea is fully aware of the origin of the relic weapons. This is especially weird considering that there exists a counterpart series of dragon-wrought sacred weapons that aren't effectively the remains of the archbishop's dead family from a coup against them. Also on a different note, the maps you used at the start remind me how disappointed I am still about TH doing very little with the world surrounding Fodlan.

[@OrdonWolf]

-what's your gender? -Riegan -yeah but what's in your pants? -Failnaught

[@1ironfist1]

Fredda cameo for the breadtube tie in!

[@Tyler-ob4qp]

Having read, watched and played quite a lot of Japanese fantasy media I find this is a common occurence in most of it. The world is extremely open about gender and sexism is never shown to be at work.... until a character needs a tragic backstory, then yeah suddenly it's a huge deal. At this point I'd rather they just go full on with the Grimdark gender dynamics of western fantasy then the wild inconsistency they have here

[@marcoasturias8520]

There's only two genders: Good Units and Bad Units.

[@bomba1905]

32:12 Fredda jump scare

[@Hell_O7]

Hmm, the caption seems to end on 25:18. odd.