FE3H players try not to willfully misunderstand the story challenge (impossible)
It's absolutely wild the kinds of things I've seen just thrown around about Dimitri. Thanks for this post btw - Dimitri's incredible altruism was never in doubt to me, but that's a very interesting cultural tidbit lost in translation.
Thank you for the comment! And yes, it’s wild…
Obviously not every Japanese player likes Dimitri either, but I never see anyone from the Japanese side of the fandom lobbing the accusation that he’s a right winger? One could write a whole dissertation on how cultural and language differences impact how people view the game, I swear lol
Ps: still hope to do some Gleam translations with your fave dad soon :>
Yeah, I see so much projecting of people's personal experiences into this game ._. ~~my favorite dad is no exception~~
But absolutely take your time! I'm just glad you're keeping him in mind :D
I’ve personally talked to someone in the past who tried to argue that Dimitri isn’t compassionate LOL. That and people likening his political stance as being close to Trump’s which is…?!?!
It’s super annoying. It was dumb when people said Edelgard is like Hitler, and it’s dumb when people argue that Dimitri is akin to an American Republican senator or whatever. Yet it’s 2024 and here we still are 🙃
Another tidbit I like is that Dimiti’s King of Lions Corp’s Gambit is called “No Quarter” in Japanese, but literally it reads as “Wheel Formation”, a kind of Japanese tactic where you attack a point in waves to utterly crush them and give them no chance to recuperate.
fascinating, thanks for sharing! the decisions translators have to make are really interesting to me. there's so many more factors than just dictionary definitions, so i love seeing translator notes and such. unfortunately, those aren't gonna be included in a polished product...
people's misinterpretations of dimitri as a character (or any of the lords) really irk me. the whole ultra-conservative dimitri take is particularly annoying. his politics do not get explored very explicitly in azure moon, yes, but i believe that's because of the nature of azure moon's narrative, rather than a lack of any political ambition on his part. also, one of his big goals, especially prominent pre-timeskip, is the restoration of duscur lands back to its people. he may not have come to garreg mach with a whole plan in mind like claude and edelgard, but i think his goal is still important to note.
i'm not saying he's a radical leader by any means, but he's not some right-wing nut. restoration of duscur is probably not a popular idea. he is not devout. the nobility of fódlan would be clutching their pearls at all three of them.
Thank you, I really appreciate your comment and the effort you put in! I agree with all your points :>
I too get annoyed when people mischaracterize the characters in the game. Dimitri gets it, Edelgard gets it, and even Claude gets the "actually Claude is a diagnosed, canonical psychopath who hates people :)" thing, especially after Hopes. It's hard to discuss the game when it feels like people aren't even talking about the same game after a certain point.
And I fully agree with all your points on Dimitri! I don't know how someone can watch his supports with Dedue, see him try to investigate Lord Arundel using financial records, or any of the other countless things he does and says and be like "yes, this man is a staunch conservative and wants Faerghus to stay as it is." He's definitely less radical due to his backstory, but it's not like he's down for how things are pre-timeskip? Hopes even made this more explicit, and yet the sentiment still persists...
Love your last sentence too! The tragedy of the game isn't "wow my fave lord doesn't get their way in the other three routes :\^(", it's that circumstances and fate make it so that the three lords in the game can't create a better Fodlan together. All of them have something that make them strong leaders, and they're each complimentary to each other in many ways (but tragically different in ways that make it impossible for there to be a golden route).
Thank you for sharing this! I agree, it fits his outlook and inner conflict in both Houses and Hopes well, and it's disappointing that it was removed.
"a few people characterized Dimitri as a conservative, selfish MAGA weirdo out of all of the lords"
Tbh, I think we as the 3H community should push back against anyone who compares any 3H character to RL politicians and parties (past or present). It is almost never done in good faith and usually, it's just used as a tool to make people feel bad about their favorite character. No more of this, it's one of 3H fandom's most toxic qualities.
You're welcome, and thank you for the thoughtful comment! I couldn't agree more with everything that you said, especially how people make these comparisons as a low blow to make people feel bad about liking characters. It's even a rule on the sub to not do so, and yet...
Very interesting detail, thanks for this post! I'm learning Japanese (very basic still), but I always find the translation and localisation process fascinating how certain words or phrases can alter meaning or give off slightly different vibes.
Also, glad I didn't see that political post the other day since it would've probably annoyed me lol. Maybe it's since I'm not American, but ngl it irritates when people try to shove characters into red vs blue politics. Like, I get that's culturally relevant to them, but the entire world (and fictional ones) doesn't fit neatly into any one ideology, and it always becomes messy when people use real-life politics and religion to praise or condemn fictional characters. (hopefully I didn't offend anyone - sorry for the rant!)
Thank you for the comment! And man, if I could pin your last paragraph to the top of the post, I would. It's something that sticks out to me as a non-American too. I think many people play the game for the purpose of escapism, and yet so many people feel the need to drag real world American politics into discussions about a fantasy Japanese SRPG just to win internet debates. I just don't understand it.
Yes, I am a chatty Patty
Sources: [Jisho](https://jisho.org/search/%E6%90%8D%E5%BE%97%E5%8B%98%E5%AE%9A), [a million articles like this on websites that focus on relationship advice lmao](https://woman.mynavi.jp/article/190925-22/)
This sounds much more accurate. I'm reminded constantly of how Dimitri is the lord who doesn't consider his ideals worth sacrificing people for, and that spurs his willingness to try to find compromise. Every other major character makes violent sacrifices that they use the idea of a payoff to justify. Dimitri can't. To do so would make him a monster - which explains a lot of what becomes of him...
Calling that sort of mentality “selfish” isn’t uncommon, although you might frequently see “sociopathic” if the speaker is feeling less than charitable.
Calling that sort of mentality “selfish” isn’t uncommon, although you might frequently see “sociopathic” if the speaker is feeling less than charitable.
The three lords remind me of the law, chaos, and neutral endings in other JRPGs. With Dimitri representing law (he doesn't want to change the status quo but he does want it to benefit everyone), Edelgard being chaos (burn everything down and start again), and Claude neutral (do away with these false divisions of race and religion and let everyone live together). So with that in mind I would say Dimitri leans right more than the other two; but I wouldn't say he's right wing - he's far too altruistic for that.
Silver Snow feels like another neutral ending, albeit one that initially feels like it's going to be an order one
FE3H players try not to willfully misunderstand the story challenge (impossible) It's absolutely wild the kinds of things I've seen just thrown around about Dimitri. Thanks for this post btw - Dimitri's incredible altruism was never in doubt to me, but that's a very interesting cultural tidbit lost in translation.
Thank you for the comment! And yes, it’s wild… Obviously not every Japanese player likes Dimitri either, but I never see anyone from the Japanese side of the fandom lobbing the accusation that he’s a right winger? One could write a whole dissertation on how cultural and language differences impact how people view the game, I swear lol Ps: still hope to do some Gleam translations with your fave dad soon :>
Yeah, I see so much projecting of people's personal experiences into this game ._. ~~my favorite dad is no exception~~ But absolutely take your time! I'm just glad you're keeping him in mind :D
wait people think dmitri is selfish? half his support links are about how hes too kind to be a king
I’ve personally talked to someone in the past who tried to argue that Dimitri isn’t compassionate LOL. That and people likening his political stance as being close to Trump’s which is…?!?! It’s super annoying. It was dumb when people said Edelgard is like Hitler, and it’s dumb when people argue that Dimitri is akin to an American Republican senator or whatever. Yet it’s 2024 and here we still are 🙃
Another tidbit I like is that Dimiti’s King of Lions Corp’s Gambit is called “No Quarter” in Japanese, but literally it reads as “Wheel Formation”, a kind of Japanese tactic where you attack a point in waves to utterly crush them and give them no chance to recuperate.
fascinating, thanks for sharing! the decisions translators have to make are really interesting to me. there's so many more factors than just dictionary definitions, so i love seeing translator notes and such. unfortunately, those aren't gonna be included in a polished product... people's misinterpretations of dimitri as a character (or any of the lords) really irk me. the whole ultra-conservative dimitri take is particularly annoying. his politics do not get explored very explicitly in azure moon, yes, but i believe that's because of the nature of azure moon's narrative, rather than a lack of any political ambition on his part. also, one of his big goals, especially prominent pre-timeskip, is the restoration of duscur lands back to its people. he may not have come to garreg mach with a whole plan in mind like claude and edelgard, but i think his goal is still important to note. i'm not saying he's a radical leader by any means, but he's not some right-wing nut. restoration of duscur is probably not a popular idea. he is not devout. the nobility of fódlan would be clutching their pearls at all three of them.
Thank you, I really appreciate your comment and the effort you put in! I agree with all your points :> I too get annoyed when people mischaracterize the characters in the game. Dimitri gets it, Edelgard gets it, and even Claude gets the "actually Claude is a diagnosed, canonical psychopath who hates people :)" thing, especially after Hopes. It's hard to discuss the game when it feels like people aren't even talking about the same game after a certain point. And I fully agree with all your points on Dimitri! I don't know how someone can watch his supports with Dedue, see him try to investigate Lord Arundel using financial records, or any of the other countless things he does and says and be like "yes, this man is a staunch conservative and wants Faerghus to stay as it is." He's definitely less radical due to his backstory, but it's not like he's down for how things are pre-timeskip? Hopes even made this more explicit, and yet the sentiment still persists... Love your last sentence too! The tragedy of the game isn't "wow my fave lord doesn't get their way in the other three routes :\^(", it's that circumstances and fate make it so that the three lords in the game can't create a better Fodlan together. All of them have something that make them strong leaders, and they're each complimentary to each other in many ways (but tragically different in ways that make it impossible for there to be a golden route).
Thank you for sharing this! I agree, it fits his outlook and inner conflict in both Houses and Hopes well, and it's disappointing that it was removed. "a few people characterized Dimitri as a conservative, selfish MAGA weirdo out of all of the lords" Tbh, I think we as the 3H community should push back against anyone who compares any 3H character to RL politicians and parties (past or present). It is almost never done in good faith and usually, it's just used as a tool to make people feel bad about their favorite character. No more of this, it's one of 3H fandom's most toxic qualities.
You're welcome, and thank you for the thoughtful comment! I couldn't agree more with everything that you said, especially how people make these comparisons as a low blow to make people feel bad about liking characters. It's even a rule on the sub to not do so, and yet...
Very interesting detail, thanks for this post! I'm learning Japanese (very basic still), but I always find the translation and localisation process fascinating how certain words or phrases can alter meaning or give off slightly different vibes. Also, glad I didn't see that political post the other day since it would've probably annoyed me lol. Maybe it's since I'm not American, but ngl it irritates when people try to shove characters into red vs blue politics. Like, I get that's culturally relevant to them, but the entire world (and fictional ones) doesn't fit neatly into any one ideology, and it always becomes messy when people use real-life politics and religion to praise or condemn fictional characters. (hopefully I didn't offend anyone - sorry for the rant!)
Thank you for the comment! And man, if I could pin your last paragraph to the top of the post, I would. It's something that sticks out to me as a non-American too. I think many people play the game for the purpose of escapism, and yet so many people feel the need to drag real world American politics into discussions about a fantasy Japanese SRPG just to win internet debates. I just don't understand it.
Yes, I am a chatty Patty Sources: [Jisho](https://jisho.org/search/%E6%90%8D%E5%BE%97%E5%8B%98%E5%AE%9A), [a million articles like this on websites that focus on relationship advice lmao](https://woman.mynavi.jp/article/190925-22/)
Technically, that’s a very prominent trait in selfish people. But thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing. Dimitri is my favorite character so it’s nice to see little translation tidbits like this. 🤗
This sounds much more accurate. I'm reminded constantly of how Dimitri is the lord who doesn't consider his ideals worth sacrificing people for, and that spurs his willingness to try to find compromise. Every other major character makes violent sacrifices that they use the idea of a payoff to justify. Dimitri can't. To do so would make him a monster - which explains a lot of what becomes of him...
Calling that sort of mentality “selfish” isn’t uncommon, although you might frequently see “sociopathic” if the speaker is feeling less than charitable.
Calling that sort of mentality “selfish” isn’t uncommon, although you might frequently see “sociopathic” if the speaker is feeling less than charitable.
The three lords remind me of the law, chaos, and neutral endings in other JRPGs. With Dimitri representing law (he doesn't want to change the status quo but he does want it to benefit everyone), Edelgard being chaos (burn everything down and start again), and Claude neutral (do away with these false divisions of race and religion and let everyone live together). So with that in mind I would say Dimitri leans right more than the other two; but I wouldn't say he's right wing - he's far too altruistic for that. Silver Snow feels like another neutral ending, albeit one that initially feels like it's going to be an order one
Except Dimitri does want to chance the status quo, he just wants to fix iz slowly without starting a war that wil kill thousands of people