why do we like claude? he's the type of guy who waits until you're inside your house before driving away. He will pay for your dinner. he doesn't expect you to pay him back. he'll bring you home drunk and watch over you to make sure you don't choke on your vomit in your sleep, AND he'll put a glass of water and some tylenol next to you in the morning.
While Dimitri will try to support you but struggles to function with his own problems on the side - but he's trying. He's nervous and afraid of breaking apart but he tries And Edelgard leaves home early and just tells you to get over your drunk hungover state and trusts You to have everything under control at all times. You have no chances of not functioning or it's all over, no room for error Claude is the supportive functioning friend we all want
*correction, tylenol can raise your risk for alcohol poisioning depending on the amount consumed/time period. Claude knows this. That's why he leaves out advil cause better safe than sorry.
What's special about Claude is how 'not' special he is. He's smart, he's physically strong, he has a strong will to fight and is capable of handling different situations himself. He's outgoing because of his personality rather than his background, we like him because he relates to the little guys that don't have crests and refuses to put himself on a pedestal because of his crest. Reminds me alot of Alm, knowing his royal background and becoming a leader while understanding he doesn't see eye to eye with Royals and instead can relate to the commoner.
The fact that he is secrey Almyran nobility is legit a bad plot choice imo. I think it fits his personality much more that he's simply a half-Almyran who was legitimised.
Hubert? Did you read/listen to his letter to Claude? He did a ton of research on everybody in the story, and ended up pinpointing the location of those who slither in the dark. He just has vastly different motivations for why he does it, and methods.
Jonathan D Williams Hubert isn’t interested in truth or knowledge for its own sake. His entire motivation lies in serving Edelgard: Edelgard hates TWSITD and wants them dead, so naturally Hubert wants that too. Claude is the only one who tries to get all sides of the story: not just Edelgard’s, but Rhea’s.
@@JXZX1 And there's where Edelgard failed miserably she didn't even want to understand Rhea, she believed the twisted truth passed down by past emperors.
@@Zippyd00da132 Edelgard should've been the one questioning if she wanted crests gone so bad. She sides with the ones who not only made crests, but forced the crest of flames upon her, and she even lied to the other BE students about many things throughout her path.
I always saw Claude’s character growth as subtle! When you start with them he’s a very typical politician. To quote the game, “His smile does not reach his ears.” He’s charming, nice and kind and says the right things, but he’s totally okay with using people to help achieve his goals, and can come off as detached. But by playing through his route, and going through war with him, his goals become more grounded in the people and friends around him. A good indicator is that in part two of Golden Eagle he no longer calls you “Teach” but “My Friend.” You’re not a tool to help achieve his goals but rather somebody he wants to share his goals with. What a dude.
Yeah, exactly. In the first bit he’s trying to use you because you have the sword of the creator. He later forces Byleth to give up their father’s diary after he dies to further his own goals. It’s not until the second part of the story where he’s forming more genuine relationships with other people.
I heavily disagree with what that commentator said about how removing Claude would improve the story. While it would allow for a greater focus on Dimitri and Edelgard's dynamic, it would also remove one of the biggest narrative questions the game has to offers, does the ends justify the means? While Dimitri and Edelgard bounce off each other due to their personal history with one another, Claude and Edelgard bounce off each other due to having the same ideals as one another, but failing to agree on a common method for achieving those ideals and instead pursuing in their own ways. Since Dimitri can't fill Claude's role due to the majority of his story focusing on his decaying sanity and eventual rise back to the light, it's a necessity for Claude to exist to allow the player to chose their answer to the narrative question. Also memes.
Yes but no. The thing is that Claude doesn’t impact the story in a major at all. All he does in all of route that isn’t his own is that he is in monastery and talks, +5 years he then gets taken down and retreat almaya and is never see again. He has a little bit more in BL but that it. Like you said. Claude is needed for themes of story. He a important part as he is similar to Edelgard but also different being that he has got all time in world for his plan to help Fólden while Edelgard doesn’t. But he doesn’t play a major role in the story. And the problem is that you can take Claude out and replace his with a random other character and the plot would still be the same. This is the problem that needs to be fix with Claude characters as a whole. He supposed to be a character of importance but when he leaves. He barely leaves a impact on the player if you are playing any of route that isn’t his own. (There also a massive problem with his route as a well.)
@@lukestarford7608 Isn't the same true for Dimitri? In both Verdant Wind and Silver Snow, Dimitri hardly does anything before eventually dying and being forced out of the story. In Crimson Flower he has a bit more important but overall only really acts as an obstacle for Edelgard to get through to reach Rhea. Only Edelgard keeps consistent importance throughout each route but that's mainly because her ideals or actions clashes with each of the other Lords so it's inevitable that they themselves would clash. The purpose of each route is to give significance to each of the individual Lords, their roles are purposely reduced in every other route to shine light on the main Lord of that route. And again, I also have to disagree with being able to replace him altogether. His personality is purposely designed to be a clear opposite to Edelgard, even without knowing their ideals or goals at the beginning of the game, you can make the immediate observation that these two characters drastically oppose each other. His backstory gives reason behind why he's committed to changing the world so much and as mentioned before his actions to achieve that goal clashes with Edelgard. Unless you're replacing Claude for the exact same type of character, I don't see how you could possibly replace him without hurting his character.
I would like to say, that Claude does change. His changes are more subtle and normal, you can hear it in the sound of his voice post timeskip. He becomes more sincere, more serious, and even more caring. He becomes willing to make true, deep connections with people instead of surface level flattery like he was pretimeskip. This can be seen in his many supports.
@@piccolodaimojr.2986 No. Joe Zieja is a great guy and a great VA. In fact, one of my favorite in TH. BUT! He failed to express his anger at some times or his character development in after the Timeskip. I dislike that
@@jwil4286 He is a meme, but the voice actor uses these memes himself. For example, he was upside-down when he announced the he was the voice actor for Claude, simply for the meme. He is a meme Lord and we should be proud of what the community has done.
Claude does change over the course of his story with Byleth. It's subtle but he does. Note that Claude is the only Lord in the game who can have all his friends leave him. Even Hilda, his right hand and best friend, will leave him if better opportunities arise on other routes. Claude has the potential to he the lone member of the Golden Deer and to rule the Leicester Alliance without the support of any of his comrades. Except, of course, in his own route. Claude doesn't trust anyone. Ever. He even openly mocks Byleth for the lack of information they give him because of his distrustful nature. He acts friendly and moschevious but only to be seen as unassuming and unthreatening. He's after our sword for the first bit of the game, he's using us for the sword and it frustrates him to no end that he doesn't have direct control over Byleth and their situation. In the Golden Deer Route he eventually begins to trust Byleth so much that he believes they'll come back from 5 years of seeming death just because they said they would. If that's not a huge amount of character growth I don't know what is. By the end he's opened himself up to his allies as well. Before almost every major battle he asks if anyone wants out because he doesn't expect that anyone cares enough to risk their lives for him. By the end his friends ask if he even needs to be asking that question anymore, they say they'll see it all through with him. And he accepts that unflinchingly. Claude didn't make friends, not really, before learning to trust thtough Byleth. That's why his speech to Nemesis at the end is about friendship and opening your true heart up to others; that's the lesson he has been learning throughout his story. Just because he's the only Lord in the game who's arc isn't going from murdery to less murdery doesn't mean he doesn't have one. It's just more emotion based than the more visceral changes experienced by the other two.
I definitely noticed this, but only after the timeskip. It feels more abrupt and jarring than subtle since he's overtly distrustful of you right up to the end of part 1, and then in part 2 he's like "heeeeey I knew you'd come back wanna hunt some bandits while I exposition dump all of my intentions and plans for this country on you?"
Claude may not be the best FE character and his route may be pale in comparison to the Blue Lion route, but I believe he has the most satisfying and best ending in the game. He defeats Edelgard, Those Who Slither in the Dark, and Nemesis. He brings true peace to Fodlan, the world, and basically ends racism. You can't get more epic than that.
Arthur Pendragon the problem with edelgard’s route is that it feels like a fight with those who slither in the dark, which feels like it’s implied you’ll get to do with some of the dialogue, ends up done offscreen, after the story and it bothers me because of how it’s approached. It would be more reassuring to me personally if they never really made them that much a plot point in her route if they wanted to end it like that... or handle it like the lions: unintentionally dismantle them
@Arthur Pendragon Lowkey I wish Edelgard set aside her differences and try to work with Rhea and the other house leaders to take down Those Who Slither in the Dark when she already have them under her nose instead of starting a senseless war, but unfortunately it is left to interpretation or what-if endings. Despite her actions, I do like Edelgard and I believe she have good intentions; but she is solving them in the wrong methods. If only she reach out for help.
Im pissed off by the people saying hes a "Mary Sue" or "bland", cause he doesnt have a sad dramatic redemption arc or a major change in his character like the other two. Hes already a complete person and a great character from the start of act 2. He doesnt need to be changed to be compelling
Yeah not every great character needs a super tradgic past or to grow damaticly as a person over a short periode of time. Not all of us do that in real life so if every character was like Edelgard and Dimitri, it wouldn’t feel realistic
@Wil E Claude had a good amount of character growth in the time skip. The issue is that it's more subtle than the other two lords. However, it's easily noticeable when you actually bother to look for it.
@Wil E A good amount as in a realistic amount in terms of five years of growth. And it's done in a realistically subtle way, from the tone of speech he uses to the way he phrases his words. He becomes a lot more genuine with what he says, is willing to form actual bonds rather than using it as a means to an end, and even puts more trust in people as a result of all that. That being said, the way its done _does_ make it barely noticeable, but reading in between the lines does add a good amount of nuance to his character. Granted, it's not as much as other characters as you said, but it is still a realistic amount. In other words, people don't need to almost completely change in five years to be considered good character development. It also helps that Claude is actually one of the more mature characters in the game pre-timeskip, making drastic changes wholly unnecessary.
Because he's the most relatable. Majority of people in this world want to change the world for the better. Not to mention he's a very calculated thinker and that's something we need more of in this world. Also memes.
As a biracial person with a closer understanding of Claude's background...his outlook makes sense to me because....well...it mirrors my own. Aside from his cheesy anime friendship line in the final scene lol
Even his cheesy ending line is perfectly in line to him. He refuses to give a fair fight because its a logical, and reasonable thing to do to help his friend and mentor in that last scene. He's come so far by not playing entirely fairly and if it brings a new dawn why fight fairly at this crucial moment? More so if its a friend who's possibly in danger.
@@reilie9115 It fits his character beautifully - Claude proves that pushing for an ideal does not mean that we have to discard intelligence or pragmatism, which I think is a lesson that we all could benefit from learning! It's also a reconstruction of the archetypal Fire Emblem lord's traits, essentially doing the opposite of what Dimitri's characterisation does - to the point that I think I'd argue that Claude's a better foil to Dimitri than Edelgard.
Despite "needing" the Professor the least out of the three lords, I felt that the friendship that is formed is the most equal. With Dimitri, you are always his teacher and guide. Edelgard is similar, but closer to what could be considered a friend given she's an Emperor. Since she's an Emperor, there's an inherent power difference that changes their relationship slightly. Claude sees the professor as a friend since the end of part 1 at least (likely before). His conversation with them prior to the battle at the monastery seemed a bit much, as there was a power difference (teacher/student), but he didnt and still doesn't care about that boundary. During their reunion in part 2, I felt they stood as true equals for the first time. While he may have initially wanted to use them to accomplish his goals, it is clear by his supports that he eventually wanted them to see the world he dreamed of creating. Byleth's relationship with Dimitri and Edelgard is beautiful, but the friendship and/or possible romance with Claude feels like a real brotherhood (or relationship progression).
The part where Claude truly becomes your friend is probably just after the death of Jeralt. Giving him that diary solidifies his trust in his professor.
>"So we're going to believe that a kid who got bullied for being for not being like the others turned into a self-confident, open and positive guy? In my opinion this just doesn't make any sense" Aw crud, guess people like me don't exist :c Shame, I was enjoying existing. As someone who's gone from "Shy weirdo who was hated by pretty much his whole school" to "arguably the most popular guy in my new school due to finding support and those who liked me for me," I actually really found myself sympathizing with Claude the most when I learned his backstory, cuz it felt similar to my own experiences of becoming positive, open towards others, and hoping to dispel the mistaken views others held toward what made me different (mind, for me, it's Autism, not racial differences, but the point remains that I've made efforts to show to others that my Autism doesn't make me different in a bad way). I also think people who say Claude doesn't change at all A) miss the whole point of his character and B) miss what change he does have: A)For the first bit, Claude as a character isn't one who NEEDS much change, he's had his major character development before he arrived. He instead wants to be the one who is a catalyst in changing others. Most of his supports come from him trying to change others: he tries to get Lorenz to relax on his judgmental nature, he encourages Marianne to consider that others have also had their difficulties but found a group who'll accept her, he tries to convince Lysithea that she should understand others worry about her... the list goes on. As someone who wants to bring the world together through mutual understanding, he's trying to get others to overcome their own flaws as a part of his attempts to do so. B) For the second bit, it is a bit more subtle, but you can see Claude (mostly in the Deer route) come to understand needing to be more responsible about, well, his responsibilities - in routes outside the Deers, he's a lot less eager to take the initiative in choosing a side, something that results in a good deal of problems of Leicester (and a few headaches for Dimitri until he convinces Claude to unite them), so encouraging him to be more proactive is something I feel he learns. He also learns to trust others more, as a few of his post-time skip supports (Lorenz, for instance) and interactions with Byleth have him understand that he can place his trust in them and they won't betray him for it. That's just some of my thoughts on him, anyway. He's a lot more subtle of a character, but I really do appreciate that he really is a lot more honest about the type of person he is and truly seeks the best for everyone he can.
Yup I always say this. Claude is meant to be more subtle and less transparent. Heck everybody seems to call him a mystery throughout the game and it shows on different routes and a bit on his own until you read between the lines. His initial facade, and change aren't as drastic as Dimitri and Edelgard. I also feel like he really was needed in the story to keep things grounded. I honestly think that grounded dynamic was needed. Rhea and Edelgard 2 sides of the same coin in terms of be polarizing and their political ruling (depending on each route). Dimitri and Edelgard are mirrors in the sense where one you have to pull out of the darkness and the other you have to walk hand in hand with inside that darkness. Claude is a mirror to Edel in the sense of ideals. They are very similar to each other and they also share the mutual distrust for the Church and for good reason. Problem is that Edel's methods jump the gun and comes off as reactive, whereas Claude's assesses the situation and finds out what is advantageous. Claude is open to flexibility in his methods for change and tries to take the path with the least casualties while Edelgard is tunnel visioned by her own methods of force that she inadvertently causes more casualties in order to achieve her ambitions. Also while she does end up succeeding in her route, it's at the cost of the truth. Claude's a truth seeker. He's Persona 4. Jokes aside, he questions everything and eventually knows the reason to why he's fighting enemy x or enemy y. Meanwhile Edel unfortunately believed her persecutors of TWSID and with that route you get a happy ending, but also a warped view that all the dragons were monsters that needed to be stopped and you don't even bother to understand Rhea's viewpoint. Claude eventually gets Rhea to speak about the truth of the heroes relic and stones, basically finds out why Edel did what she did especially since they have Lysithea in GD, and defeats the roots, the ones who have been warping and pulling strings gradually throughout Fodlan's 1000 years. Not to mention he gets rid of their contingency plan. My interpretation of how Nemesis awoke was that incantation Thales did. He not only sent the dubstep missiles down on shamballa, but he also used that as a distraction to what he really was doing: Completing the Nemesis revival process.
I am going through my 2nd play through (BL while my first was GD) and he had the most genuine goals. He wants to avoid killing but will if it means saving those close to him, he wants everyone to be treated as equals, noble or not noble, crest or no crest, foreigner and not foreigner. While it seems that Edelgard and Dimitri have similar goals as Claude, (Edelgard wanting to get rid of crests to prevent families tearing apart and social class discrimination while Dimitri, well... throughout my play though I can't exactly tell what he wants lmao) they have very different ways of bringing it to light, like Edelgard basically using sheer force and bloodshed where Claude is just focused on keeping the Alliance stable through negotiations with outside lands and protecting his people. (Seems like to me Dimitri is protecting his Kingdom by fighting fire with fire but I haven't gotten to the timeskip yet oof) One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the human mind. It is often thought of that people who are being bullied and have overall a bad start in life come out as another bully, passing it on. That may be true but like the video stated, people handle things in different ways. Psychology is very interesting in that way. We all don't think the same thing and that is why we are different from everyone.
@@daemmadilemma I feel like they could have focused more on "show don't tell" with Claude. Most of his backstory is subtle, but is only at its most transparent through supports with Byleth, Marianne, Leonie, etc. Edel and Dimitri get natural story exposition and mini cutscenes. Like I sure one would have liked the visualization of the assassination attempts on his life because I know seeing a CG of a child Dimitri in a burning city "bumped my empathy up" since I was shown and told it (in pre timeskip). I still love Claude and believe him don't get me wrong, but I feel like other players would have benefited from being shown the details. Slight tangent: I've seen people hating on the church route, and for good reason. It's apparenty GD without the fun, without Claude, and possibly losing a well trained Edel and Hubie on your first playthrough if you didn't even know about the requirement for even being given a choice to side with the Empire or church. If I understand correctly, you can move a few things from the Church to Golden Deer since GD has the most info anyways in terms of routes. Without the Church route, it would also give Koei Tecmo and IS more time and resources to give Claude more dedicated scenes on his backstory, add 4 more chapters to Edel's true route, give us a Dimitri Gronder scene in Golden Deer... ya know what I'm referring too... etc. If they really wanted to have a Church/Byleth route they should have made Rhea still be relatively safe similar to Crimson Flower and not locked up for the whole back half of the campaign like in BL and GD. I know this alternate route of Black Eagles is referred to as Church, Byleth, or Rhea route considering the title of Silver Snow lines up with one of the 3.
I love the fact that Claude is a total wild card in the story, in the Black Eagle route you know Dimitri wants to kill Edelgard and Edelgard wants to unite Fodlan and destroy the church and those who slither in the dark. But Claude's goal is to improve relations between Almyra and Fodlan which he can do once he becomes its ruler. In every route the house leader becomes the ruler of Fodlan. Except in Claude's where he allows Byleth to rule as King/Queen and the church route where you reign as an Arch Bishop. Claude needs someone who can rule Fodlan in the Golden Deer route he personally nominates Byleth as someone who he can work with rather than letting things play out to a degree.
There was something about another comment speaking about Claude. It might've been in someone's community post, but they mentioned something along the lines of "Claude doesn't need his backstory spelled outside of support convos to have depth". This really resonated with me as someone who played Blue Lions first and Golden Deer second. As emotional of a ride BL is, it's just my 2nd favourite. The GD route is my favourite because Claude as a leader is amazing, he's entertaining to be around and is the most mentally stable. A breath of fresh air. You don't need a tragic backstory to have a great character. He's simply someone who's faced discrimination both from his home land and Fodlan and is mature enough to realize "I can complain all I want, but that won't change anything. If I want to change my situation, I need to make that step myself". People compare Edelgard to Rhea very often, but from my perspective, Claude does what Edelgard fails to do much better as they both have the essentially the same/similar goals. Difference is Edelgard doesn't care for Rhea's side of the story and believed the lies passed down from the previous Emperors (Thank TWSITD for that), but also put too much of an emphasis on Crests being the main problem and only focusing on Fodlan. Claude on the other hand knows that Rhea is telling lies but wants to know what it is she's hiding. He doesn't wanna "rip fodlan apart and force their ideals onto the continent" as I'll put exaggeratedly to an extent like Edelgard does in Crimson Flower. He wants to solve the problems diplomatically, because you can't force change in other countries without fixing your own country's problems first. He wants ideals set in stone WORLD-WIDE that no matter who you are or where you're from, everyone is human. No prejudges, no discrimination, and most of all, no racism. It's hard for me to explain everything in depth or I'll take twice as long as this comment is or more. Nonetheless, in both BE and GD they accomplish their goals and succeed, but I'd MUCH rather the outcome in Verdant Winds because THAT is a cause I can get behind.
I have only played BL so far, but in that route at least, Claude is a TERRIBLE leader... Like, he's laughably bad... Aside from everyone gushing about how great he is (while never pointing to actual reasons or examples of leadership), Claude basically fails as a leader in basically everything we see him do. First, in the 5 year gap, under Claude's leadership, the Alliance is as broken an chaotic as the Kingdom, which literally had a conspiracy going which assassinated the King, then his Regent, then nearly the Prince, who has been out of the picture being a murder hobo. The Kingdom has to deal with a decades long planned out coup, AND the main focus of the Empire invading them, and they are doing about as well as Claude is... Next, Claude successfully gets his ass handed to him at Grounder Field. Getting his people slaughtered, and just getting in the way of Dimitri's forces, who are fighting his actual enemy, Edelgard. He could have just held back and done literally nothing, and it would have been better for both his forces, and worse for the Empire. He is even fully aware of this, mentioning it to Byleth in the battle if they fight, but his dumbass does it anyway... Next, he sends a message to Dimitri's forces at the Capitol, before you actually take it, anticipating that you will succeed in recapturing it. Good thing you didn't arrive a day late... In his message, he asks for help. Dimitri complies, as Claude expected, and rushes to his aid. Claude has put all the civilians who are still alive on some boats that his forces are defending, hoping to pincer the Imperial forces. Dimitri arrives in the nick of time, good thing you didn't show up an hour late, and defeats the Empire... Then... Oh my Sothis THEN... Claude tells you... He has convinced the other leaders of the Alliance to SUBMIT TO REJOIN THE KINGDOM!!! After 300 years of independence, Claude essentially just surrenders his entire NATION, for... ABSOLUTELY NO REASON! He could EASILY have simply formed, you know, and ALLIANCE, but no, he literally disbans his country... Then he hands over his hero's relic and rather than joining to help his people in the war, he nopes out to do Claude stuff and leaves it all to you... But it gets WORSE! Aside from the fact that rejoining the kingdom makes their entire war against the empire pointless, as they just surrendered to a different county instead, The fact is that he KNEW that this was going to happen, which means that A: That last battle where Dimitri came to Princess Claude's aid was completely pointless, as the Alliance was no more, and capturing Claude achieved nothing for the Empire. B: Putting the civilians on boats needlessly endangered their lives, as Claude could have just surrendered. C: Claude could have TOLD Dimitri everything that happened in the message he sent earlier, instead of asking for help and drawing Dimitri and his forces AWAY from the front lines and fighting the Empire, wasting weeks if not months worth of time and resources from the war effort. TL;DR In the Blue Lions route, Claude sucks as a leader, and Lorenz was 100% right in his all of his criticisms of Claude...
His biggest change hands down is Claude becoming more genuine in his thoughts and feelings; being able to say it how it is without tiptoeing around it. It's subtle but much welcomed compared to 2 characters that try to sledgehammer you in the feels.
AB54099 yeah, Hilda’s A support with him tells us that he doesn’t genuinely really smile a lot unless he is with Byleth, that means that he tries to be someone who encourages the others to be more positive while finding a person that helps him to stay that way (Byleth).
Claude is similar to Eliwood from Blazing Sword in that their character development is not entrenched a drastic personality change, but staying true to themselves despite their tragedies and hardships. And I think that's underrated.
Claude just might be my favorite lord in Fire Emblem right now because of how relatable and charismatic he is. Claude is basically fully grown from the moment you meet him, he knows what he wants and knows how far he is willing to go to get there. He doesn't need a moral compass or a hand to drag him back to the light, he just needs a rallying point and a frien. As much as he claims to be an outsider to Fodlan he's honestly the only one of the main lord's who keeps in mind the most important part of being a ruler, that the people you're in charge of are the most important. Without them, you have nothing so he strives to keep them safe as much as possible whether he wins or loses. Also, even though he is not really dark skinned, I have to stress the importance of having a darker skinned main character not turn into the villain and also being well written and relatable. I know people are tired of the diversity argument or whatever but Claude is a far step up from Niles and Danved/Devdan.
@@Lightningstrike1220 So me saying that Claude being well written and relatable as a main character and not a charicature like devdan or a sadist like Niles and how important that was for representation is racist?
You know how people if two people have a disagreement, they ask a third person for an unbiased opinion? That's exactly what Claude is. He even says it himself, "Don't look down on an outsider." Claude himself provides an outward view of the Dimitri vs Edelgard vs Rhea situation going on and doesn't exactly tell you how you should feel. Rather, you find new information out and act accordingly, even if unfavorably to your plans. You find new views and judge them based on what you have, and he's pretty objective and even a great leader without Byleth. He's a breath of fresh air, and after completing his route first I can finally see the lines between the three other routes that would have either been neglected or unexplored. His house also has top tier waifus, so this could very well be a biased commentary. And yes, just gag Leonie and she can join them too.
Nah, Leonie is waifu too. Just do a "Slither" and make sure you don't look like Byleth and take a different identity. Then she won't mention Jeralt. Ignatz, Lorenz, and Shamir supports are where I find examples where her personality truly shines without her constantly mentioning Jeralt.
@@michaelolegario6399 Leonie is top tier waifu if you skip b support with Byleth. Everything else about her makes her seem like honestly a pretty cool person.
Of the three lords, Claude's my favorite. Yes, I will admit Claude doesn't need a guiding hand to keep his morality and thus his route feels like the one the game designers intended people to play last (since it gives answers you wouldn't see in the other routes). Yes, Dimitri's story of revenge and redemption and Edelgard's ambition to unite Fodlan under the Imperial banner and break the caste system and Church are both much more enjoyable stories from a narrative standpoint compared to Claude's mystery-solving, but Claude's adventure has him actually give genuine answers that the two other lords don't care for (Edelgard wants Rhea and the Church of Seiros destroyed too much to even LOOK at Fodlan's history except to blame the Church for breaking Fodlan into three countries and creating the Crest System that she suffered under, while Dimitri is focused on finding Edelgard and cutting her head off for something completely not her fault (and worse, he's egged on by Those Who Slither in the Dark to continue the war so they have less resistance to take over Fodlan)), and there's a sweet fight that is a book-end to the game where Byleth and Claude fight Nemesis. Claude is also somewhat of a breath of fresh air in this series. A lord of two worlds that is fully aware of his ancestry, and is a full-fledged guile hero and surprisingly successful diplomat and survivor (in fact, he has an 87.5% chance of surviving the game regardless of what route you take and you have to make the conscious choice of killing him YOURSELF in Crimson Flower for that 12.5% chance he dies, you monster), who knows the system, and plays it to his favor, partially to stay alive and keep his allies from dying, and partially to make the world a better place, starting by breaking open Fodlan's Throat and making peace between Fodlan and Almayra, who have been enemies for centuries... with taking advantage of his mixed heritage and status as a "double outsider". I feel like they TRIED to do this with Corrin, but it fell flat, and the only reason Corrin gets allies at ALL is that their siblings like them enough to join Corrin on the front lines and bring with them their legions of retainers.
Wolftamer Wolfcorp That kind of factors in the 12.5% chance (I mean, you have to choose to either battle him with anyone other than Byleth or Edelgard OR you defeat him with Byleth or Edelgard and then CHOOSE to kill him instead of spare him). But since the battle ends with the Alliance defeated regardless, Claude has a fifty percent chance of getting out of that fight alive, but since that fight only occurs specifically on the Black Eagles route, which is one of four, that’s where his survival odds come from, in stark contrast to Edelgard and Dimitri’s mutual 25% percent chance (where you HAVE to side with them in order to save them, you don’t have to do so with Claude because he keeps a level head even without Byleth) and Rhea’s 37.5% (she’s the final boss of two routes, and can only survive the Church route if Byleth S-ranks her, and she sacrifices herself in Golden Deer… and she survives Blue Lions but is rendered ultimately unimportant).
Grant Brown I get your reasoning but that would imply byleth or edelgard get the kill half the time or better and people spare Claude almost every time. I don’t have the exact statistics but I’d be willing to bet that edelgard and byleth get the kill far less than half the time. Meanwhile your calculation on rhea’s survival also proves faulty with two different reasons: she survives 2 routes guaranteed and that rate would require half the people playing the church route to choose her as the S support
Grant Brown yeah I get that, I’m just stating without human influence that wouldn’t really be the case, yes looking solely at possible outcomes that would technically be the case but with your methodology you’re 1 step too shallow. To estimate Claude’s possibility for survival on that route you’d need to break it down into the events of what could possibly happen in which (because no player influence means no recruiting characters from other houses and nobody from the eagles has been lost ) there is a 2 in 9 chance that you get the choice and a 1 in 2 you spare him so in that situation there would be a 1 in 9 chance of him surviving which you’d then multiply by the chance of taking the route and add to the chance of him surviving the others which I would try to calculate but there are so many nuances that make the strike force the technically least likely route to appear on just sheer statistics
The point of Claude's character to me was to provides contrast. He's one of three perspectives when it comes to warfare. Pacifism exists, therefore his character was written to best reflect that. I just personally loved not having to play therapist to a traumatized co-dependent for an entire route lol
I'm a guy who cannot handle much angst. And though it may seem like I'm bragging... I tend to be really empathetic, especially because of lots of mental illness and depression and anxiety. So angst without a true purpose - or even suffering just for the sake of suffering - really tends to dig into me and wear me out in stories. Even if the characters struggle, I want for there to be a good, happy satisfying ending. Maybe that's cheesy! I don't know, but I certainly don't care about how others see that view in me. But that I feel like is why I love Claude so much. I can't say for what happens on the church/silver snow route, haven't gotten there yet and have been avoiding spoilers for what I don't know (except Edelgard's route, which was spoiled for me. Ugh, but at least I'm in the middle of it) but I know after completing the Golden Deer route first, it'll already be my favourite. I both feel like there's so much hidden depth people don't pick up on because they're so focused on him being a 'haha funny meme character!', but also a little bit of wasted potential, and not just talking about him being an option for male Byleth as well. Anyway, not AS much wasted potential as say, Chrom, but enough in him being overshadowed quite a bit in the story. You get plenty of time to know Edelgard, mostly in one way being the enemy of all the other routes except hers. And Crimson Flower brought a bit of a difference in how you view her, though I won't even get into anything that could spark yet another 'Edelgard's right!' 'No, everyone should hate Edelgard!' talk. Claude though... he both works well when he isn't some big tragic character with all his secrets out in the open, and also it feels like it's a bit of a narrative disappointment that he doesn't get that one BIg moment (other than say, timeskip reunion or Nemesis fight) in any kind of story that makes us all visibly and openly weep for him like the others. Like, I feel that people who solely praise Dimitri and disregard Claude are wrong, because Claude is a fantastic character, but I can also see why they would. Claude isn't given that moment like the others. That being said, I love the analogy of him being the person that initially seems open and warm, then you dig a little deeper to find a wall/hard shell up, then after digging deeper still you find the true, even warmer kinder open center. In line with the empathy, Claude has bounds of it. Which is why I love him. People can rag on and on about him not being 'deep', but I'd say that's a failure of what people view as being deep in the first place. Viewing Dimitri and Edelgard (and Rhea perhaps, but I cannot speak to anything there yet, want to play the church route still) as deep is accurate, because they are. But when I look back on a lot of initial thoughts people had about someone like Dimitri, he never looked 'interesting' to people until his depression and darker personality change became apparent. I remember the sudden surge of people that said that after seeing his timeskip design, they wanted to know what happened. He became 'more than the typical kindly lord', and now people all love him. Claude doesn't have that 'darkness', which is a lot of what people consider to be depth, sadly. And so Claude kind of fell to the wayside, unless you count memes. But even then, he seemed like 'only the memes character, never anything more' to a lot of people. And now you have people saying things like: "Oh! He isn't deep at all. He's boring, he's got no effect on the story," etc. (SOME) People are really pre-disposed to call very kind and empathetic characters 'naive' or say they have no depth, (perhaps after Fates/Corrin and his bad writing, but that's the fault of bad writing, not Corrin being bad for being kind) but I'd disagree. To hold on to ideals, to hold on to the attitude that you want things to change, that even someone who took nearly everything from you (Ex, Edelgard in her route storming the capital on the way to confront Dimitri and Rhea)? Or his upbringing, or knowing how much places like Almyra, Brigid, Dagda hate Fódlan, and how much the people of Fódlan look down on those places because of a misguided sense of prejudice and hatred? To retain that hope, that belief that people are good, worth saving, worth fighting for, worth something? It takes a lot of heart that Claude clearly has, and has always had, despite the somewhat aloof or mysterious front he puts on. The drive to look deeper, to do better, to have ideals and hope even when people are telling you that you shouldn't or can't achieve them. Claude did get shafted quite a bit in other routes, but then again who doesn't, when it isn't their own route? Play Edelgard's, and Dimitri looks like a mindless madman. Play Claude's, Edelgard's just a steppingstone to Nemesis, and Dimitri is just a minor casualty and someone to be briefly sad about and pity. I'd say people easily overlook other routes when considering another lord great, and they could and should for Claude's greatness. Claude doesn't angst just to have it, it's a story and a tale full of growth and warmth that makes you feel home, just like all the Golden Deer students. 💛🦌 Anyway, Golden Deer for life! Hopefully this wasn't too rambling with no point, lol.
This is my interpretation on Claude. Claude has character development but it’s so little compare to the other lords that I don’t blame people for missing. But from the beginning of part 1 Claude has trust issue as he seem to can’t trust byleth as he always try to squeeze info out of byleth about themselves. He even gets alittle frustrated when Byleth does not give him answers that he wants. I do personally believe he at first want to use Byleth’s power for his own gain. As he admits this in his S-support that he at first was using them. But over time it seems like towards the end of part 1 he starts to have faith in byleth when byleth had disappeared into the darkness. Then in part 2 Claude seem to trust people more and he full blown seem to have complete faith in Byleth as he starts to view them as a friend no longer a tool for him to use. Just someone he wants to see his dreams become a reality. Overall I like Claude he had a fun personality and I like his interactions with characters and his relationship with Byleth. And his dreams are very honorable we need more people wanting to stop racism 🤗
my thoughts exactly! He changed in little ways, but he still changes, he's more open and trusting to his comrades by the end (tho to really hit the nail on this, he really should have formally said he was the Almyran Prince to everyone right after that Fort battle when he brought in Almyran troupes)
The whole trust aspect of his character is also seen in his house dynamic as well. Unlike the other two houses who have members who can't be recruited, everyone in golden deer can be recruited because Claude doesn't have any close allies/friends in his house.
honestly I think they did a great job characterizing claude. Hes a trickster who wants to change the world for the better. Hes an ordinary guy with great ambitions who ended up in a role that allowed him to fulfill those ambitions. Hes route has the strongest feeling of comradery. While the other 3 routes feel like game of thrones, golden deer feels like a group of people playing a dnd campaign because of how down to earth it feels
Claude (and the rest of the Golden Deer for that matter) brings a bit levity to an otherwise dramatic and depressing story. While his plot may not be necessary, I certainly appreciate it. Golden Deer for life, baby!
Smash Boy Good to know. I just finished the Blue Lion route and I’m on my Black Eagle play-through, so I just assumed with how everyone was talking that the information we get from GD route was explained in BE at some point.
@Smash Boy I'd say the wrong foe for the right reasons, actually. Edelgard's intentions were entirely just, but her methods were--obviously--incredibly wrong.
@@jackripley3906 The Church may have their issues, but a good chunk of what Edelgard believes them to do is based on false information fed to her by TWSITD. As a result, I wouldn't call her campaign just.
Thank you for the video! I disagree with some comments about Claude being stagnant and always confident. His past DID affect him. He developed trust issues and hence created the facade of the "schemer" to throw people off. Yes, his growth is more subtle compared to someone like Dimitri, but he does show growth. Claude's growth is that he learns to finally trust someone with his lifelong dream. It's not until he opens up to Byleth that we learn anything about his true intentions and ambitions. I'm sure he had a few people he confided in (Narder) but he didn't really trust anyone from the academy until he met Byleth.
First time I played and went with GD, I assed what pretty much everyone felt to me. Claude really felt like he was nearly complete, but that he was just missing that bit of guiding and coaching, truly what a teacher would do and a real friend to see it through. I think that's why I liked him alot, he was indeed a schemer, but as I saw him develop as a unit, I saw him as a true lord-like unit. I dare say Eldy and Dimi are definitely train wrecks that need handholding, Claude just needed pointing to and go.
I don’t really get people saying Claude doesn’t need Byleth. As we all know Claude was victimised for being part Almyran and part Fodlian (?). He never had a true friend until he met ‘teach’ the first person who didn’t judge him in anyway. Whilst he finds a way to succeed in who he wants to be regardless of whether you choose his route or not the subtlety is that if you go GD he is truly happy, to have had an unconditional friendship rather than having to have had to fight for everything. Byleth gives him a security that he didn’t need to succeed but that he cherishes.
Claude has a tendency to ditch Fodlan when things don't go his way, which he does in every route but his own. One could argue that Byleth's support stops him from dropping everything and running off the second things stop going his way.
Some people don't realize that Claude isn't as great as he presents himself, I won't complain if they're biased either. All these characters have their flaws and that's perfectly fine, Claude is good at putting on a mask with a smile and make you feel like a friend as his real motivation comes out of using you, so yeah just because Claude doesn't need you emotionally, doesn't mean he's a golden boy without flaws as people make him out to be.
@@hjt091 if you truly think that, you are missing the entire point. The only time Claude leaves is when his only two choices are death or to continue chasing his dream in another country which is still in line with what he wanted and that was to spread his way of life to as much of the world as possible. Being the bigger person and realizing where your energy can be best spent.
@@KeaneKamina I think what he's trying to say is that Claude ends up giving up on a good chunk of the world when faced with defeat. He shirks away even when he isn't facing death as the only other option, as shown in AM, SS, and even CF when you spare him. But since he isn't the victor, he gives up on Fodlan. And that is very important to mention because his original dream was to unite the _entire_ world. Can't do that when you turn your back on a whole continent.
@@jackripley3906 this is a wholly incorrect way of looking at Claude all together. If you play any route in which he is completely cut off from rising to a point of power to effect global change within a country or face eventually being killed (because that is 100% what would happen if he tried to take power again against either future govt set up by any other Victor), he chooses the even harder path to not give up and continue to find the most effective way to bring about that change with his attempt of trying again in another country. There's not a single piece of information in game that has him writing off the country forever.
I’ve played through all the routes at this point, and I can confidently say that Claude is the most enjoyable character to learn about. Both Dimitri, Edelgard, and some other students are far deeper characters, but Claude is just enjoyable. When you play BE or BL it feels like you have to keep Edelgard or Dimitri in check so that they don’t go insane or something, but with Claude you just always feel at ease. Also King of Unification is an awesome title to have.
Claude is like cherry on the top for the Golden Deer route. Heck even the route's name kinda spelled it out since he is a breathe of fresh wind. He doesn't need to go through redemption route since his route is kinda his redemption for messing up in other route. If we go BL he was seen repeatedly trying to parley with Dimitri but failed outright. He also messed up big time during Golden Deer Plea until he needed to rely on Dimitri cleaning his mess. In GD, if we paired him up with everyone else but Byleth and Hilda, we know that he skipped the crown for love so he actually needed someone to ground him to his dream and actually make sure he didn't mess up on rulling people. If BL and the other paired ending is any hint, Claude is actually not a good Ruler compared to other Lord. It might be because I watched too much anime that I start thinking that drastic redemption is a bit overrated but Claude subtle redemption humor me much more. It also made me think that as a player I don't need to take charge of everything because my Lord is incompetent for reasons (Edelgard blatantly manipulated, Dimitri with his darkness, and Rhea for being almost Lunatic). With Claude I can enjoy watching him take the charge and give him the push he needed at times. We walked side by side like partner-in-crime and honestly, that was the best kind of VVIP seat for me. Even when I helped along the other routes and did my part, I can clearly sit down in Golden Deer and they would tell me to rest while they handle things.
I would also like to add that there is such a thing as Resilience. Yes, Claude's past wasn't anything nice but the guy is resilient AF and that is something that made me love him and appreciate him above all characters. Some may find him boring, but I found him inspiring, especially given the other characters in GD who would really benefit from that resilience and confidence that Claude learned to develop.
I think Claude's development is just much more subtle compared to Edelgard and Dimitri. At the beginning of the game, Claude virtually trusts no one and just puts on a friendly air around everyone he talks to. It's not that he doesn't care about them, but I think he thinks if he told them about his dream of uniting the whole world then they would turn on him, like the people who hated him because of where he was from. So to avoid this, he gains their trust so he knows they'll help him regardless of if he tell them his plan or not. Then, the more he gets to know Byleth/the player, the more he sees that he can learn to trust people again, and trust that they won't turn on him. You see that in the second half of the game, where he doesn't put on nearly as many false pretences, or smiles as Hilda points out, around the golden deer. You can even hear it in his voice; it's much calmer and softer than his younger self, it feels more genuine, which is a really subtle detail to throw in there (thank you Joe Zieja)
Claude was the lord i picked first. I wanted to pick the house that felt the most fitting for me, his thoughts and his attitude were so laid back in comparison to dimitri and edelgards. And im currently playing through blue lions, as i had finished golden deer a little bit ago and id be lying if i said i dont miss my interactions with him. He was so fun and it was easy to understand him and why he does what he does. After the time skip im glad he didnt change too much, seeing him again brought the same feeling to that of seeing an old friend after a long time and being able to reconnect instantly. I felt like byleth was walking along side him instead of infront of him. Like they were a real team. I adore the blue lions cast and their chemistry together, but in golden deer i felt more apart of something. I dunno
Oh, Claude gets plenty of character development. It's just not as obvious and world-shattering as Edelgard and Dimitri's arcs - which is a good thing, if you ask me. Claude's story is more subtle. It's hard to spot, since he's always wearing a smile on the surface anyway; what changes is what goes on behind that smile, which would be hard to spot if you don't care enough to actively look for it. Claude starts out not trusting anyone. He might not be willing to start a war for his ideals, but he's not above using his resources. He makes "friends" with the sole intent to use them for his own ambitions, carefully manipulating them as he moves his chess pieces into their correct positions. However, over the course of the game, those relationships become real. Claude learns to trust, and he learns to care, and he learns to be sincere with people. He learns to let them in, and be cared for in turn. As the game goes on, he stops using his allies and instead starts truly being their friend - in fact, his reactions to their deaths tend to be a lot more personal than those of the other lords if you face the Golden Deer in battle. This is Claude's arc: He learns that he doesn't have to exclude himself from his dream for the world. It goes from "I'm doing this so no one else has to suffer the same way that I did" to "I'm doing this so we can all reach out and extend our hands in friendship". And he finally includes himself in that dream, too. His walls come down little by little as he strides towards his ideals.
2:50 Benedict would be wrong here. Speaking from personal experience, I turned out to be a pretty positive person who still is trying to change the world for the better despite having a horrible childhood and being made fun of because I was different. Most people may not turn out to be alright in that scenario, but you have to consider that there are indeed people who turn things around for the better, and people who WANT to do so, likely looking up to Claude seeing him as something they could be or aspire to be. TL:DR Some people just have more willpower than others.
Honestly, this is also likely the reason why I didn't like Bernadetta or Felix, because they seem like such negative people, or people who could not recover from their trauma. It almost came off as being weak to me, though they are still well written. It's just I prefer to be positive and open rather than be negative or a shut in because of my past.
And for a final point to Jonathon (3:43), Claude remaining consistent makes him even more realistic than going through those drastic changes, especially at the age these people are at. Sure you change significantly going from child to adult. But once you hit the 18 - 20 mark, most people don't go through drastic changes, as there lives begin to stabilize a lot more. There's also the fact that there are 2 types of people: 1.Those who are affected greatly by the environment around them (when things are good, they are in high spirits, when it's bad, they become depressed) 2.Those who are affected little by the environment around them (when things are good, they are slightly happier, when things are bad they are slightly sad) Dmitri is an example of #1, while Claude is an example of #2 Going through more changes does not = better character or writing, it's simply how well they're written in the situations they are in, and what matches with their personality, which was done good for both.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 again not everybody is Strong. Claude had More Stable Childhood Compared to The Other Lords. Yes his parents had questionable parenting methods. They Were Both supportive of him... Keep In mind Many Of The Chracters Had Crappy Parents that Were Not Supportive of them in The Game. Bern's Father Was outright Abusive Towards Her. Mercedes and her Mom was Tossed Aside by A Man That Used Them.... Marriane.. Well We All Know Why. ..
@@elpopman2055 I already acknowledged that in my comment... And I actually was in a similar situation to Bernadetta, yet I turned out more like Claude, so it's not so much about how bad the situation is, but how strong the individual is.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 I like to think that the combination of the situation a Person is in and How Strong Will That Person Is.. And If That Will Is Encouraged By Supportive Parent as Well. There Are So Many Factors That It Shows How Each Chracters Copes With Their Issues. Spoiler: It is A Shame That Edelgard and Dimitri Can Not function without the professor guiding them.. can you imagine A route where 3 Lords survive and Rhea Surviving but at expense of the professor dying? Also my opinion I feel the professor should start as a crutch character as A Level 10 mercenary to make it more accurate.. I mean the game has established that the professor at is an experienced fighter.. Though i'am bit annoyed that he almost died to Fodder Bandit and Sothos had to save him.. I feel that should been more reserved for A more intense situation. Like introduce Divine pulse later in part. Where you use it to Save Jeralt.. His Death Serves no purpose and just makes him a Griel Expy.. Regarding Fusing With Sothis. Make it Where The Professor is Going through unexpected metamorphosis and Sleep within A cocoon like a barrier because they are in a Process of Merging with Sothis that will take 5 years.. Depending on what Route His allies Will Watch over The Proffesor. The professor will immediately realize their hair color amd eye color are different upon waking up..Because the professor just woke up they are reverted to Level 1 as an Enlighted One. But Have Extremely High Base Stats for a Level 1. And to reflect on their Newfound power their Base Growth is Enhanced and even if Change Class The benefits still apply even if you're on other classes. Just ideas.
Honestly though, to the people complaining that Claude’s character isn’t dynamic, not every character has to be a dynamic one in order for a character to be good. Claude’s character remains the same while opening up in subtle ways. Whereas Edelgard and Dimitri are filled with disbelief about Byleth’s return after the timeskip, Claude had complete and utter faith in the person he had come to call a friend only a little bit before he lost them for five years when he comes back to the monastery for the reunion. He had faith that Byleth would come back to honour the promise they made. Claude is also full of secrets, but as time goes forward he learns to entrust those secrets to people he cares about (e.g. Hilda A Support, Byleth A support, Marianne A support, etc.). Claude doesn’t outright trust people in the beginning, which is why he’s kinda pushy when it comes to revealing other people’s secrets. It’s so that he doesn’t have a reason to be afraid to trust them. Even though he thinks of himself as a little selfish for wanting to use other people to achieve his goals, it’s ultimately for the greater good. And he would never try to endanger the lives of anyone he cares about. Also, you notice how his crit line changes from “Don’t hold this against me” to a sort of “Hold a grudge if you must?”. 👌 Poetic cinema.
Little late to this discussion, but if I had to put it short.. I just love how he asks questions. He seems to be the only one that truly wants to know what´s going on. And I love that.
Claude is just a real bro kind of character. I never worried about choosing other routes, just because of how much he has already grown from his challenges. And I must disagree that Claude is a vital part of the story, even if he is the third wheel. He clashes with Edelgard with their similar ideals, while having different means to achieve them. Claude will always be one of my favorite Lord's in FE, because he strived to be friends first, and that is something I admire.
Also without him, Edelgard and Dimitri would have died in the prologue at the hand sof Kostas. It was his failed scheme to escape the fight that allowed Byleth to meet them and the story to happen.
I don't like how Claude is viewed in the community - viewed as a laid back, memey little guy, who's just there. And part of the reason why this character has that Reputation is his VA. Claude experienced an unspeakable amount of shit in Almyra. He was teased, beaten, tied to horses and dragged through the street, and in Fódlan his almyran roots are seen as something lower and animalistic. Keep in mind that he has to lead a fragile alliance that he can hardly hold. In which he is first antagonized by Lorenz, then sees the promoted xenophobia through the church and has no friends or whatsoever and the burdened childhood problems to don't really help him opening up to others - which causes this Distrust he has in others. With his past, his closedness, bandits, rebels, monsters, TWSITD, Lorenz and everyone suspecting him, war and Fódlan in chaos, he eats all his worries into himself and keeps them locked in. And then he sees how Rhea still doesn't want to unpack in the end of his route (where he questions her about the Nabeteans) and how Dimitri refuses to work together. Everything is piling up and that's why I think it's such a pity that Claude's grid - him losing his "cool" - has been removed in English. Because it is part of his character and development. The japanese voice of Claude nailed it. "Tearing down the walls" He does not only mean the borders of Fódlan, but the walls within him, so that he too can open up and at the end of GD he can do that, as he emphasizes in the fight against nemesis. That's what makes Claude great for me. It's too seldom talked about imo. He isn't the perfect lord who doesn't have any connections to the main story. He isn't someone whose removal wouldn't drastically change the story. He Is a mentally unstable person who needs the support of Byleth - someone to trust - to step ahead.
Claude! Yes, he feels like a friend, he's a positive person, he's nice to have around. He's the altruistic archetype. He's also smart, explains you the world, helps you figure out stuff about yourself, etc. He's just interesting like that, i never got bored around him, my GD playthrough was mainly about fun and laughter. I'm at Blue Lion now, honestly as the story goes Dim gets more interesting but i just can't relate to him that much. To me most of his team is more interesting than the houseleader, which saddens me a lot. I think i goofed up on the tower, he was appologizing and all (please don't, gosh i never know what to tell you dude, i'm the one who's sorry here), while then after laughing at Claude when he first appeared on screen because the others said he was fleeing, after a minute i wanted to join his team, he was that convincing to me! I'm glad i started as GD because honestly i'd have no idea at all of what is going on in this world. I'd get a decent love story though... Well, is that even a love story? Dmitri's so stoic, i have a hard time figuring if he has feelings for FByleth or if he's scared, he was very angry once in the beginning, i'm still pre timeskip and until very recently I couldn't read him at all. He started talking about Edelguard, that will be interesting at least.
Claude gives out that "light" factor to the "dark" world we're living in during 3H. Dimitri and Edelgard are constantly in quarrels with each other and with themselves, and all we see during these instances are them going more and more insane unless Byleth is there for them, Claude isn't like that. Darkness can't exist without light, and people like Dimitri and Edelgard's routes because they start off as "light," then "dark," and then "light" again. Claude, however, is an outsider, which clearly bothered him at some point. The main difference is how they handle their pain. Edelgard became a fascist, Dimitri just went insane and Claude? He turned his pain into strength. This is something I can relate to, and something that should be inspiring for others
I like claude because hes mature at a very young age but at the same time acts his age in part one. I can relate to him in a lot of ways since i was looked down on for being different. He adds a third point of view in the story sort of an outsiders prospective which allows you to see the story in a very different way
While benedikt lang is right that a lot of people who get bullied let it weigh them down and destroy them, Claude is still very believable. He lets his past drive him forward and become more accepting while putting on a bright, cheerful, carefree mask as he pursues this route.
IMO Claude is the best lord he never demand teach the least and teach would not be stressful with him (only GD ending the teach really smile from his/her heart) But in fact Claude succeed his dream because of Edelgard started the invasion
i have never regretted one second of choosing the golden deer house. Battling with claude and the golden deer house students is one of my proudest decisions ever.
I honestly feel like Claude and Robin from Awakening are relatively similar. If you were to remove Claude’s trickster personality and left him as a blank slate (as most FE protagonists are) he’d be the same untrusted yet genius tactician Robin is. I feel like IS could’ve looked back to Robin when they were designing Claude. Both experience distrust from their peers due to their ethnicity, Robin being thought of as a Plegian spy for a little bit of the game while Claude being distrusted because he’s half, but the way they deal with that distrust is so different. Robin befriends the Shepards and is accepted into the group but Claude actively seeks to either reroot that distrust or expand it. He tells people he’s scheming but never actually gives up any details, he makes stomach poisons that he doesn’t use in game, he’s making people believe he’s untrustworthy by giving them other reasons to believe it other than his race, which is ultimately what he wants (to be seen and judged equally regardless of race or ethnicity). Also this is just me but Fire Emblem doesn’t know how to make a good character without making them go through tragic deaths. Claude is as good as they can get.
Playing through the GD rout after blue lions. I do love Claude, he’s so funny but I sort of agree that doesn’t really change. In my opinion, Claude is too perfect, I wanted to see one of the schemes he promised in action, I wanted to see him mess up bad somewhere and go, ‘I’ve made a mistake, sorry.’ I wouldn’t want it to be a huge thing, like with Dimitri- just something relatively small that helps ground Claude in reality. Maybe in his quest for equality, he trusts someone he shouldn’t gets betrayed, and people get killed. Struck with grief, he starts to doubt his dream but then realises that this betrayal only makes his goals that much more important, and that they have to be realised so such an event won’t ever occur again. In the BL rout I also felt terrified by the Empire, I really felt like I was fighting a losing battle but Claude is just so chill about everything, his laid back nature sort of takes away from the gravity of the situation. In saying that, it is nice to have a change of pace from Dimitri. All in all, I think Claude lacks a little bit of depth, his backstory is rather interesting and he is a unique character- I just feel like something is missing.
That chill side especially during war is probably a facade though. I love him, but he did say a line if I recall that "We have to keep smiling and marching even when its hard to." He has the advantage too in keeping that facade since everybody already sees him as a mystery and an enigma. In all routes including his own, Claude keeps up the facade that the Alliance is united even though its in shambles. I feel like he's supposed to be laidback so that Byleth and their students can stay calm and collected especially on the battlefield and so that his region's people won't panic. Also his schemes do go bad, but its just not apparent at first. Most of Claude's schemes are good on paper, but Teach helps him execute them masterfully. Otherwise we have chapters like in BL where he screws up in that port town, and Claude despite doing it for personal gain, he has to ask the Kingdom for help during the Golden Deer Plea so that his allies of Judith and Hilda may survive unscathed. He also has to accept the situation that he needs to step down from his leadership position and leave it in ours and Dimitri's hands. By uniting the Kingdom and Alliance as one, it would prevent unnecessary bloodshed and help keep them focused on the Empire as the enemy. I mean heck, even in part 1 you see his scheme to fluster Dimitri during the mock battle was straight up terrible. Dimitri caught on and not to mention trying to fluster Blue Lion boy by saying his stepsister is cute wouldn't work. xD
It's easy to miss for a lot of people that Claude is at his "lowest" point at the start of the game, rather than the events around the timeskip like the BL route. He didn't trust people and he didn't care much for his inheritable role as the next leader of the Alliance. If you chose "Leicester Alliance" when prompted to pick a loyalty after the first battle, it's easy to tell that his lineage meant little to him and he was only complimenting out of obligation. Much of Claude's development lies in who he is and what he does. He brews poisons to protect himself. He wields a bow to distance himself from others. He hates blind faith in deities for miracles to happen and believes that it's the actions you take that would change your fate. As a leader, he's a natural speaker but he doesn't try to bond with anyone to avoid the risk of divulging his secrets. He even intended to use Byleth for their sword and prowess than who they are as a person before he really came around to start trusting them in full by the time Byleth fell into a deep slumber. It's significant for him, a person who grew up independent enough to push people away, to have kept so much faith in Byleth to return.
Michael Olegario That’s true, Claude does keep up a farce. It would just have been nice to see that farce break one time, show a real moment of weakness. And yeah I get that he’s supposed to be laid back, and I understand that some people really like that in a character and that’s good for them. I just personally look for growth and change in a character, as that’s what I enjoy. And by scheme, I mean that Claude actually does something bad/ unethical, worthy of truely being called a ‘scheme.’ Perhaps he’s been backed into a corner, and after doing it he realises that it was the wrong answer, and that he doesn’t want to ever resort to that sort of thing again. They always go on and on and onnnnnnn about Claude’s tricks and schemes when in reality, he just pats Teach on the back and says ‘do your thing,’ half the time. Don’t get me wrong, he does have plans, but I wouldn’t exactly call them ‘schemes.’
Aurora Skies I’ll be honest, I’ve never looked at it that way before. Playing GD, I did find myself enjoying Pre-time skip Claude more, but I could never figure out why, I guess you’ve just answered that question for me 😅Pre- trip skip Claude is flawed while post is almost a perfectly, good and just nice guy. Even though I believe what you’ve said is true, I still find issue with it. Claude finishes developing too soon, in my opinion. His change is quite subtle, as you’ve said - a lot people miss it as they don’t even realise when Claude was at his low point. I would have liked his development to have a tiny bit more focus. Of course, this is all just my personal opinion. I think the BL rout set standards very high in terms of characters for me, also- which must have not helped. It also kind of annoyed me how Claude very openly presented that he wears a mask, and has secrets- but I was never left with my mouth gaping in terms of something that was revealed about him. Dimitri, on the other hand- does not at all suggest he is wearing a mask and surprises you with things like how he and queen of evil are actually related. Obviously, I am biased as Dimitri is my favourite character, but he’s also my favourite for a reason. Some people really enjoy things aren’t so openly presented, and I think Claude fulfilled that role well and I’m glad for that. I’m just a more straight forward kind of person.
I feel like Claude seems to not change like Edelgard and Dimitri cause El and Dimitri hide a sense of who they are until after the time skip. Claude also has a confidence charismatic attitude and in his support with others expands on his difficulty growing up which I relate to a lot. If you lived through difficulty you don't want others to go through the same so you try to make change. Claude devote a lot of time in the library studying learning. If the war did not happen his goals would have not changed at all. Claude does a lot and is hard working.
I like Claude because how full of positive energy he was. Edelgard was like...I had suffered so much because of crests and I want to destroy the current world. Dimitri was like..."Kill every last one on them!"...cough cough, I mean, he was like so gloomy and stuff. But Claude was always cheerful at least on the outside. And the way he is willing to relinquish power just to make the world closer to the way he dreamed of. That's pretty noble.
I'm mixed race myself and honestly Claude is the most positive, wholesome and fleshed out mixed fictional character I've come across in my 25+ years of reading, watching and gaming. He also has the best crew of the three lords too.
You know at first, the golden deer to me felt like the usual third path you take in rpgs. Similar to fates in a way. The story seemed so intent on foreshadowing the conflict between dimitri and edlegard. I mean really? "The battle of the eagle and lion? Super subtle. Made me feel like Claude was a bit of an extra. Soooo glad I was wrong. While his place in the story isn't quite as big as the others, its still enjoyable. I agree with everything else fir the most part. Compared to the others, he's just so chill. No thirst for vengeance, no desire to unite all of Fodlan under one flag. Just a desire to make a better future. #FeartheDeer
Like Dimitri and Edelgard, I’m an emotional wreck without a specific someone in my life, so in that way I’m more like them. But Claude really is much more real, and I can connect with him much more easily. Even if I were an emotional wreck, I wouldn’t kill anyone for it.
During the GD path, there is a scene where Edelgard overhears a discussion between Claude and Byleth and joins the conversation. But they don't trust each other enough to say what each is up to. It's a shame, because that conversation could have changed everything that happened after.
Dimitri is so angsty and dramatic that it feels too exaggerated to feel real. Edelgard is a traumatized psycho who starts a war against the kingdom, the alliance and the church instead of talking about why she wants to destroy the church with the other leaders in the first place, in which case at least Claude (idk about Dimitri) would have joined her as he already had his own fare share of suspicions towards the church, in this case the war would have been less violent and a lot more reasonable. Claude is a man who experienced injustice first-hand and having a very positive attitude he makes it his life mission to change things for the better with the power he has as head of house Riegan. Claude is no overly dramatic or tragic character and he feels so real because of it, that combined with the fact that his really charming immediately made him a fan favourite
There's a lot of reasons why we love Claude. One thing for sure, he beats the CEO of Racism. Yes, his story is realistic. I remembered when I'm kind of different from the other back then in elementary school. Not getting a lot of hates, but I'm just kind of left out by the others. Claude's dream is simple yet good, to make peace with others. Look, all of us from different race, nations, religion, others are having conflict. Why don't we just settle things out without spilling any blood. I know that kind of stuff is inevitable but we can pick the best way to solve the problems. I believe that's what Claude tries to do and I believe that problems like this are in the real world
Story wise, I understood the GD route as the most "Fire Emblem" route. Player joins up with a Noble with strong ideals of achieving/keeping peace, alongside his friends. After a tragedy caused by the game's villains, they must go and take back territory from the enemy, only to find a much darker evil(Nemesis and TWSITD) waiting to conquer the world, and you need to stop said evil.
Great Video! I personally love Claude for so many different reasons. His fun, his ever positive approach, the outsider perspective, his values towards all life and beliefs towards an equal world and of course the schemes 😂. His growth as minor as some see it was amazing imo, from the timeskip he had no choice but to become a real leader and a real stable, strong leader for the remaining resistance part of the alliance. you could also feel he had a completely new approach towards trusting you aka Byleth compared to the first half of the game. Claude/Khalid best lord and as always FeartheDeer 🏹🦌
Claude did change during the story. It was very subtle, but it did happen. At the beginning he had extreme trust issues and only made friends to be able to use them later on. He apears very fun and easy-going, when in reality he is calculating and paranoid a lot of the time. He doesn't need Byleth like the other two do, but Byleth teaches him a lot about friendship and trust. He learns to rely and trust By on the Battlefield, as well as off the battlefield
Claude was my very first route and I don't regret it one bit. I'll be honest, the reason I went with him was his laid back attitude (also, hot and charismatic af) The only negative aspect was that I wasn't able to grasp the game to it's full extent since it was also my first fire emblem game ever. Only after playing my second route I got way more into the story. Believe it or not, I hadn't recruited a single person from another house in my GD route... Idk if I was just too invested in my own house or I just missed that whole thing. Idk wtf happened there. Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is that: 300+ hours later, I'm about to play GD again and do everything I missed with this house
Claude wasn't being bullied for being different than the others. He was bullied because others believed he was different, even though Claude thinks they are more alike than everybody else seems to imagine (even Cyril is kind of racist towards Almyrans)
He's the only house leader who actually uncovers the truth about Fodlan and those who slitter in the dark,that's why I like him (even tough Dimitri is my favorite house leader)
3 certain someones come to my mind. Dimitri, Edelgard, and Rhea. Why is it that hardly anyone got the power players (Future Emperor, Future King, and Future Representative, and Archbishop) to sit down and talk diplomatically about their goals for their factions. TWSITD would have been BTFO'd before any war could even happen.
@@thenamedoesnotmatter yeah, I really wanted to talk some sense into Dimitri after the timeskip but was never given the option. Another person needed to die before he regained his senses.
I read through so many of these, and I’ll do my part. Claude indeed has a character arc, read the comments to get a better understanding, no need to repeat myself whenever everyone has said it before. He just manages his trust issues better Claude indeed has flaws, because of BL and him just leaving to take on Almyra instead of achieving what he started in Fodlan And I wish Claude was more vulnerable like Edel or Dimitri, which is what I personally wanted more than anything. While the five year time skip, and Claude waiting for Byleth was sweet and showcased his faith in the professor, I wish he instead started to shed a few tears and say, “I knew you’d come back” Because that would’ve showcased his faithfulness *and* the how much Byleth means to him. What Claude has is a striking character with a subtle development, but I personally think there was a few missed opportunities for Claude. He’s indeed cool and collected, but I wanted to see Claude make terrible mistakes and then rely on someone other than himself to help fix it. For instance, Nadar could possibly have fallen in battle and Claude’s grieving. While Claude doesn’t give a really good condolence to Byleth when their father died (he just wanted the stupid journal), Bylet’s stays by his side and this is a massive sign to Claude that Byleth has been there from the beginning. I was super excited to see Claude, and I still enjoyed his route a ton, but his super positive nature and dark past could’ve made a cool contrast if he just let some darkness seep into his heart just a bit like Dimitri, but not make that his character arc.
Claude is definitely my favorite lord (I haven't played the other routes yet) he is cool, charismatic and a great unit post tineskip. I also support his quest to bring equality to all regardless of background.
The thing about Dimitri and Claude is that they actually do change things, and Edelgard remains stagnant even in her route, never forgiving those who wronged her.
As you said in the video, even if you don't choose Golden Deer, Claude doesn't really go psycho or crazy for power like Edelgard or Dimitri. So #1. He legit feels so chill and awesome to be with and is truly a bro. #2. The prejudice and xenophobia that he's faced for most of his life is really fucked up to me. However instead of having those traumatic experiences boil up inside of them and just exploding, he developed a pretty solid personality and emotional habits that luckily don't hurt those around him. Yes, his greatest flaw is how uncomfortable he is regarding disclosing personal information about himself, and that stems from people most likely bullying and betraying him growing up once they learned that he was from Fodlan. A big theme/motif I took for Golden Deer is that everyone has their corrupt past and traumas that we are all trying to fight. But the important thing is to let those traumas motivate you to become kinder to yourself, and help those around you. You didn't deserve to experience such awful things in your life, but a promising life and happy tale is sadly never promised to us on day one. What is in our control though is finding those around us that we can trust, reach out our hand to each other, and remind ourselves that the future is bright for us all and that we will support each other (This is also a major reason why I love Dimitri's route). Plus, Claude is just funny and actually has a sense of humor and seems like that friend that loves quoting vines with you.
Why do we like Claude? 1. he's fucking hot. 2. "I'm hurt... but I'm with you." (and, yeah, all those other well-explained reasons that have been stated~)
I actually found him to be unique because he doesn't change much. He's already, even before the timeskip, really wise and clever. I'm having a really tough time choosing between Blue Lions and Golden Deer when choosing a favorite route. Because I loved how they did Dimitri's character development throughout the story, but I also loved Claude's happy, laid back, relatable behaviour.
Also, I chose Golden Deer first just because of Claude. I love the students but from the first time I saw the 3 lords I knew immediately that I wanted to choose Golden Deer. I have a lot of respect for the writers and designers for that.
I relate to Claude and that's not something that i say to alot of video game characters. while sure removing from the plot could happen to me claude is the person who trys to truly being peace to every one with out forcing people to believe what he wants people believe, but I could see how people think "your expecting me to believe he turned out fine as a person' Well I like to think claude before he was a kind hearted guy was a guy who had to use schemes to survive face the unjust world in harsh ways here's a fun little scenario I think about Claude is seeing a boy being chased by knights because they were informed he did not believen the church, at first claude didn't do anything but realized he could stop them, claude would craft a crud iron bow from scraps of steel wood and strings and use that bow to scare the knights away, when claude asked the boy why they were chasing him he replied "I told them I don't believen the church " Now this could take away some of that relatableness but thats how I think a character becomes who they are, may it be a mental realization or a event But that's how I look at it
Claude to me is what BOTH Edelgard and Dimitri aren't. Because Claude has Edelgard's beliefs and would go about it the way Dimitri would (he shares Dimitri's sense of duty to protect life if that makes sense) I wouldn't say Three Houses would benefit by removing Claude, I'd say it would rather benefit more if the writing expanded upon his past (I'm kinda mad that he never really fully told everyone he learned to trust that he was the Almyran prince and that's why he hopes to change the world, especially to Lorenz since Lorenz is always nagging at Claude because of his noble duty and such) and if the story were to actually go into all three territories in all the routes. (it's hard to explain... like if they put as much effort into including the Alliance in the Azure Moon run as much as the Empire, if Dimitri has more importance then dying off screen in Verdant Wind, stuff like that and Claude has a reason to go against both Edelgard and Dimitri.) The reason i really like Verdent Wind is because you hold Edelgard's beliefs of how corrupt the systems are and your not on the side of the ones who started the war (i still haven't started the Black Eagles route because I'm waiting on a friend to complete Verdant Wind which I won't anymore if she doesn't finish by the end of this month, but I'm still very very conflicted by recruiting anyone from Blue Lions (except for MAYBE Ashe) and while I share Eddie's beliefs I really REALLY hate how she goes about it as starting a war over beliefs is a very inhuman thing) ) and the fact that you find out the TRUE history of Fodlan. It's a route that's not really meant to be 1st, but rather a neutral run with lore about the history
Claude does have an arc. He goes from a hyperactive cloudy headed cynic chasing his ideals through selfish manipulation. But when I met him as an adult, he felt more level. He still joked, but it was clear he had grown into his own. He seemed to come to the conclusion that everyone wants peace in their heart but that it is those who seek war that will stoke the fires of division. So how better to break everyone free from that then being a safe place for those who want change and letting those who seek war destroy themselves. It is why I view GD as the objective “Best ending” for fodlan. That said, I don’t care what some say, Silver Snow is a poor man’s GD and was only out there so that people weren’t forced to support edelgard if they felt it was unacceptable. I’m actually surprised SS doesn’t give you the option to work with Claude or ally with him in any way, even as an NPC because I do feel Claude would be more than happy to form an alliance instead of more needless bloodshed.
Claude doent change because he as you said is already a complete character. He has no changing to do because he has fully realized what his goal in life is and has planned out the best way to get there. He wants to change the world for the better and he wants to go about it in a way that unlike the other two lords involved minimal death. I'm no saying that the other two at points are homicidal maniacs but they fucking are (especially Dimitri). Claude would even if given the chance spare the other two even though they are (especially Edelgard) responsible for countless deaths and the suffering of many. Basically what I'm saying is claude by comparison seems less interesting because his goal is already concise and he doesn't have a huge twist in the plot or a mental break down like Edelgard Dimitri or even Rhea which I guess makes them all more interesting characters but it also proves they are all fucking crazy.
I feel Claude was made to pull in new Fire Emblem fans. A veteran like myself immediately was pulled in by Edelgard and Dimitri who fits the traditional FE mold. As for Claude, he feels like he could exist in our world, like a really cool best friend who stands by your side.
I'm a veteran but I still chose my cool best friend over tradition haha. Also what do you know Part 2 Claude honestly ends up moreso traditional FE Lord than Edel and Dimitri in a certain regard. Edel and Dimitri's methods and character arcs are more unconventional, but Claude's methods and much smaller less transparent arc are more in line with traditional FE Lords. One's that aren't written to be questioned if they are an anti hero or anti villain in Dimitri and Edel's case. Things beforehand like Alm and Celica had villains so black and white (except Berkut) that there was no argument to whether Alm and Celica's actions are justified. They just were because they are heroes without the player questioning if their means were "evil".
I really vibe with Claude's character. He's seeking what the world's seems to need and as he tries to make things lighter and better. Without Claude I would really feel that something is missing, that what the story the game gives is just so tragic and, I might sound dramatic but don't how else to explain it, will kind of say that there's not really a safe, kind, and welcoming world. Dimitri and Edelgard are way too interesting actually, I tried so hard to connect and even feel bad for them sometimes because it was just ridiculous, but Claude is "real", he actually finds the reason of all the hatred and bad of Fodlan, he fights for a world I also want to see, a day without seeing his friends cry, suffer or die, a place where HE feels safe and happy, because just as he claims, Claude is kind of selfish (when he talks) but there's no wrong to seek what you want if everyone else will be happy bc of it tomorrow. That's why i like Claude, feels like a true hero, leader, and friend.
Claude is a chill guy who actually has a sense of humor and he’s very easy to relate to. For those who say he gets no character development it’s actually hidden quite well. His character development sees him becoming more serious and an expert tactician as well as a dependable leader. Besides he wants to open Fodlan to the outside world basically ending racism, and even when he is defeated he goes in a respectable way that make you regret beating him, especially if you choose to kill him in black eagles. I mean he actually hopes that Edelgard will make the world better and holds absolutely no resentment towards her. It’s like some of the characters say in the game, he may seem easygoing and carefree on the outside but behind the mask lies a tough and stern leader who is more than capable of leading an army to victory.
I like the comparison to Steve Rogers as captain America is my favorite avenger and I think both characters have a thing in common they are just really good people.
Its bizarre to me that people say claude doesn't have an arc when its right there: its about trust. His development and learning to trust people isn't as overt and in you face like Edelgard's and Dimitri's but its obvious from his behavior at the start of the game towards Byleth in that he holds them at a distance and isn't constantly seeking their validation like the other two. If you pick the alliance during the prologue, his response is a lackadaisical "Oh I suppose I should be happy". He doesn't trust Byleth at the start, believing that they're lying when they admit to not knowing much about themselves and clearly annoyed and wary when Byleth acquires the sword of the creator and learns about their crest. Heck this can be seen from the fact that he holds his ambitions so close to his chest for the entirety of part 1 until he opens up to Byleth as a friend and in part 2, despite the odd circumstances behind their 5 year disappearance, he believes them and opens up about his dreams. Its not a dramatic redemption arc because that's not what claude is or needs. Its a story of a boy who's been hurt in the past learning to trust again. This becomes more evident when contrasted to him in the CF route where is Hilda dies, he mourns for her, stating that he expected her to retreat, that he never even considered that she would be willing to die for him. He's a person with a big heart. He's just afraid of being hurt again so he hides it away with a charming facade.
We like Claude because he's the best boy. My first playthrough, I was convinced I would choose Black Eagles. One conversation with Claude was enough to change my mind, and I regret nothing. Fear the deer!
I like claude *because* he is the most realistic character He has his serious moments but he actually jokes around from time to time, specially in the first half of the game He has things that some people will relate to while others won't, like him being an outsider, and now I will get into golden deer spoilers so if you haven't finished that route you have been warned I love how claude has this battle victory saying "never underestimate an outsider" at first I didn't really understand since the game always kept claude's true identity a secret until the very end of the game when the credits roll, and when it was revealed that he gave the alliance leadership to Lorenz and disappeared after that I was confused, until I read that he later met up with Lorenz as the king of almyra, now it may have seemed obvious that he had ties to almyra since he had a friendship with Nader and he was an outsider and that his whole plan was to destroy fodlan's throat, but that reveal made so much since and just completed the puzzle with that final piece Now it made since why claude wanted to destroy fodlan's throat, why he had that victory cry and why his unique class was basicly him in an almyran armor riding a dragon... Yeah I think it was pretty easy to guess who claude was
why do we like claude? he's the type of guy who waits until you're inside your house before driving away. He will pay for your dinner. he doesn't expect you to pay him back. he'll bring you home drunk and watch over you to make sure you don't choke on your vomit in your sleep, AND he'll put a glass of water and some tylenol next to you in the morning.
While Dimitri will try to support you but struggles to function with his own problems on the side - but he's trying. He's nervous and afraid of breaking apart but he tries
And Edelgard leaves home early and just tells you to get over your drunk hungover state and trusts You to have everything under control at all times. You have no chances of not functioning or it's all over, no room for error
Claude is the supportive functioning friend we all want
@@emmareiman64 dimitri is the drunk friend who insists on sleeping on the curb
*correction, tylenol can raise your risk for alcohol poisioning depending on the amount consumed/time period. Claude knows this. That's why he leaves out advil cause better safe than sorry.
So husbandos material? Got it
Bloody Oath to that! 🏹🦌
What's special about Claude is how 'not' special he is. He's smart, he's physically strong, he has a strong will to fight and is capable of handling different situations himself. He's outgoing because of his personality rather than his background, we like him because he relates to the little guys that don't have crests and refuses to put himself on a pedestal because of his crest.
Reminds me alot of Alm, knowing his royal background and becoming a leader while understanding he doesn't see eye to eye with Royals and instead can relate to the commoner.
The fact that he is secrey Almyran nobility is legit a bad plot choice imo. I think it fits his personality much more that he's simply a half-Almyran who was legitimised.
Claude is like the only one who's trying to figure out all the important stuff going on in Fodlan
Hubert? Did you read/listen to his letter to Claude? He did a ton of research on everybody in the story, and ended up pinpointing the location of those who slither in the dark. He just has vastly different motivations for why he does it, and methods.
Jonathan D Williams
Hubert isn’t interested in truth or knowledge for its own sake. His entire motivation lies in serving Edelgard: Edelgard hates TWSITD and wants them dead, so naturally Hubert wants that too.
Claude is the only one who tries to get all sides of the story: not just Edelgard’s, but Rhea’s.
@@JXZX1 And there's where Edelgard failed miserably she didn't even want to understand Rhea, she believed the twisted truth passed down by past emperors.
@@lifeworker9550 There was no reason to question what she was told though. She trusts her father, so why question him?
@@Zippyd00da132 Edelgard should've been the one questioning if she wanted crests gone so bad. She sides with the ones who not only made crests, but forced the crest of flames upon her, and she even lied to the other BE students about many things throughout her path.
I always saw Claude’s character growth as subtle! When you start with them he’s a very typical politician. To quote the game, “His smile does not reach his ears.” He’s charming, nice and kind and says the right things, but he’s totally okay with using people to help achieve his goals, and can come off as detached. But by playing through his route, and going through war with him, his goals become more grounded in the people and friends around him. A good indicator is that in part two of Golden Eagle he no longer calls you “Teach” but “My Friend.” You’re not a tool to help achieve his goals but rather somebody he wants to share his goals with.
What a dude.
Correction: "His smile does not reach his eyes"
Yeah, exactly. In the first bit he’s trying to use you because you have the sword of the creator. He later forces Byleth to give up their father’s diary after he dies to further his own goals. It’s not until the second part of the story where he’s forming more genuine relationships with other people.
I heavily disagree with what that commentator said about how removing Claude would improve the story. While it would allow for a greater focus on Dimitri and Edelgard's dynamic, it would also remove one of the biggest narrative questions the game has to offers, does the ends justify the means? While Dimitri and Edelgard bounce off each other due to their personal history with one another, Claude and Edelgard bounce off each other due to having the same ideals as one another, but failing to agree on a common method for achieving those ideals and instead pursuing in their own ways. Since Dimitri can't fill Claude's role due to the majority of his story focusing on his decaying sanity and eventual rise back to the light, it's a necessity for Claude to exist to allow the player to chose their answer to the narrative question.
Also memes.
Fully agreed. To think the story would be better without him is likely them just disliking his character in general. Objectively, it's not true.
Yes but no. The thing is that Claude doesn’t impact the story in a major at all. All he does in all of route that isn’t his own is that he is in monastery and talks, +5 years he then gets taken down and retreat almaya and is never see again. He has a little bit more in BL but that it.
Like you said. Claude is needed for themes of story. He a important part as he is similar to Edelgard but also different being that he has got all time in world for his plan to help Fólden while Edelgard doesn’t.
But he doesn’t play a major role in the story. And the problem is that you can take Claude out and replace his with a random other character and the plot would still be the same. This is the problem that needs to be fix with Claude characters as a whole. He supposed to be a character of importance but when he leaves. He barely leaves a impact on the player if you are playing any of route that isn’t his own.
(There also a massive problem with his route as a well.)
@@lukestarford7608
Isn't the same true for Dimitri? In both Verdant Wind and Silver Snow, Dimitri hardly does anything before eventually dying and being forced out of the story. In Crimson Flower he has a bit more important but overall only really acts as an obstacle for Edelgard to get through to reach Rhea. Only Edelgard keeps consistent importance throughout each route but that's mainly because her ideals or actions clashes with each of the other Lords so it's inevitable that they themselves would clash.
The purpose of each route is to give significance to each of the individual Lords, their roles are purposely reduced in every other route to shine light on the main Lord of that route.
And again, I also have to disagree with being able to replace him altogether. His personality is purposely designed to be a clear opposite to Edelgard, even without knowing their ideals or goals at the beginning of the game, you can make the immediate observation that these two characters drastically oppose each other. His backstory gives reason behind why he's committed to changing the world so much and as mentioned before his actions to achieve that goal clashes with Edelgard. Unless you're replacing Claude for the exact same type of character, I don't see how you could possibly replace him without hurting his character.
@dark zeratul Low quality bait, try harder
@@lukestarford7608 He has a huge impact on the story in the Golden Deer route. So there's that.
I would like to say, that Claude does change. His changes are more subtle and normal, you can hear it in the sound of his voice post timeskip. He becomes more sincere, more serious, and even more caring. He becomes willing to make true, deep connections with people instead of surface level flattery like he was pretimeskip. This can be seen in his many supports.
@Wil E :(
Joe Zieja portrayed Claude perfectly.
@@o8055 No, he didn't. The Japanese VA did it greatly tho.
@@zio2329 how about both? Call it even maybe.....🤷♀️
@@piccolodaimojr.2986 No. Joe Zieja is a great guy and a great VA. In fact, one of my favorite in TH.
BUT! He failed to express his anger at some times or his character development in after the Timeskip. I dislike that
Because the voice actor is a meme Lord and we should all be proud.
David Magyar 69 likes. I want to like your comment but I won’t.
Claude himself is kind of a meme. There have been all sorts of memes about him and the Golden Deer.
@@jwil4286 He is a meme, but the voice actor uses these memes himself. For example, he was upside-down when he announced the he was the voice actor for Claude, simply for the meme. He is a meme Lord and we should be proud of what the community has done.
"we are the house of memes and we know it" Joe Zeija
Yuri's is too
Claude does change over the course of his story with Byleth. It's subtle but he does.
Note that Claude is the only Lord in the game who can have all his friends leave him. Even Hilda, his right hand and best friend, will leave him if better opportunities arise on other routes. Claude has the potential to he the lone member of the Golden Deer and to rule the Leicester Alliance without the support of any of his comrades. Except, of course, in his own route.
Claude doesn't trust anyone. Ever. He even openly mocks Byleth for the lack of information they give him because of his distrustful nature. He acts friendly and moschevious but only to be seen as unassuming and unthreatening. He's after our sword for the first bit of the game, he's using us for the sword and it frustrates him to no end that he doesn't have direct control over Byleth and their situation.
In the Golden Deer Route he eventually begins to trust Byleth so much that he believes they'll come back from 5 years of seeming death just because they said they would. If that's not a huge amount of character growth I don't know what is.
By the end he's opened himself up to his allies as well. Before almost every major battle he asks if anyone wants out because he doesn't expect that anyone cares enough to risk their lives for him. By the end his friends ask if he even needs to be asking that question anymore, they say they'll see it all through with him. And he accepts that unflinchingly.
Claude didn't make friends, not really, before learning to trust thtough Byleth. That's why his speech to Nemesis at the end is about friendship and opening your true heart up to others; that's the lesson he has been learning throughout his story.
Just because he's the only Lord in the game who's arc isn't going from murdery to less murdery doesn't mean he doesn't have one. It's just more emotion based than the more visceral changes experienced by the other two.
yes.
Thank you for this, I’ve been struggling to put it into words
I definitely noticed this, but only after the timeskip. It feels more abrupt and jarring than subtle since he's overtly distrustful of you right up to the end of part 1, and then in part 2 he's like "heeeeey I knew you'd come back wanna hunt some bandits while I exposition dump all of my intentions and plans for this country on you?"
THIS.
Crimson Flower: "Does the Ends justify the means?"
Azure moon: "Betrayal, Insanity and Mutual Understanding"
Silver snow: "Loyalty"
Verdant wind: "Friendship is Magic"
Claude may not be the best FE character and his route may be pale in comparison to the Blue Lion route, but I believe he has the most satisfying and best ending in the game. He defeats Edelgard, Those Who Slither in the Dark, and Nemesis. He brings true peace to Fodlan, the world, and basically ends racism. You can't get more epic than that.
Arthur Pendragon the problem with edelgard’s route is that it feels like a fight with those who slither in the dark, which feels like it’s implied you’ll get to do with some of the dialogue, ends up done offscreen, after the story and it bothers me because of how it’s approached. It would be more reassuring to me personally if they never really made them that much a plot point in her route if they wanted to end it like that... or handle it like the lions: unintentionally dismantle them
@Arthur Pendragon Edelgard's ending can't compare to Claude's.
@Arthur Pendragon Its not about connecting with Claude, I just feel his way of going about it was best.
@Arthur Pendragon Lowkey I wish Edelgard set aside her differences and try to work with Rhea and the other house leaders to take down Those Who Slither in the Dark when she already have them under her nose instead of starting a senseless war, but unfortunately it is left to interpretation or what-if endings. Despite her actions, I do like Edelgard and I believe she have good intentions; but she is solving them in the wrong methods. If only she reach out for help.
he doesn’t change the nobility/caste system tho, edelgard is the only lord who brings true equality fodlan
Im pissed off by the people saying hes a "Mary Sue" or "bland", cause he doesnt have a sad dramatic redemption arc or a major change in his character like the other two. Hes already a complete person and a great character from the start of act 2. He doesnt need to be changed to be compelling
People think hes a Mary Su (i guess in this case, a "Gary Stu")?? Thats the first ive heard of it.
Well, same thing. You know what i meant
Yeah not every great character needs a super tradgic past or to grow damaticly as a person over a short periode of time. Not all of us do that in real life so if every character was like Edelgard and Dimitri, it wouldn’t feel realistic
@Wil E Claude had a good amount of character growth in the time skip. The issue is that it's more subtle than the other two lords. However, it's easily noticeable when you actually bother to look for it.
@Wil E A good amount as in a realistic amount in terms of five years of growth. And it's done in a realistically subtle way, from the tone of speech he uses to the way he phrases his words. He becomes a lot more genuine with what he says, is willing to form actual bonds rather than using it as a means to an end, and even puts more trust in people as a result of all that.
That being said, the way its done _does_ make it barely noticeable, but reading in between the lines does add a good amount of nuance to his character. Granted, it's not as much as other characters as you said, but it is still a realistic amount.
In other words, people don't need to almost completely change in five years to be considered good character development. It also helps that Claude is actually one of the more mature characters in the game pre-timeskip, making drastic changes wholly unnecessary.
Because he's the most relatable. Majority of people in this world want to change the world for the better. Not to mention he's a very calculated thinker and that's something we need more of in this world. Also memes.
As a biracial person with a closer understanding of Claude's background...his outlook makes sense to me because....well...it mirrors my own. Aside from his cheesy anime friendship line in the final scene lol
Even his cheesy ending line is perfectly in line to him. He refuses to give a fair fight because its a logical, and reasonable thing to do to help his friend and mentor in that last scene. He's come so far by not playing entirely fairly and if it brings a new dawn why fight fairly at this crucial moment? More so if its a friend who's possibly in danger.
Treize Khushrenada : Nemesis didn’t fight fair either. He had the ten elites next to him.
Massive hypocrite
@@sithmaster4305 My favorite thing about that stupid cheesy line is that *it was a distraction* and yet he still wholeheartedly meant it.
@@reilie9115 It fits his character beautifully - Claude proves that pushing for an ideal does not mean that we have to discard intelligence or pragmatism, which I think is a lesson that we all could benefit from learning! It's also a reconstruction of the archetypal Fire Emblem lord's traits, essentially doing the opposite of what Dimitri's characterisation does - to the point that I think I'd argue that Claude's a better foil to Dimitri than Edelgard.
Biracial gang rise up 😭
Despite "needing" the Professor the least out of the three lords, I felt that the friendship that is formed is the most equal. With Dimitri, you are always his teacher and guide. Edelgard is similar, but closer to what could be considered a friend given she's an Emperor. Since she's an Emperor, there's an inherent power difference that changes their relationship slightly. Claude sees the professor as a friend since the end of part 1 at least (likely before). His conversation with them prior to the battle at the monastery seemed a bit much, as there was a power difference (teacher/student), but he didnt and still doesn't care about that boundary. During their reunion in part 2, I felt they stood as true equals for the first time. While he may have initially wanted to use them to accomplish his goals, it is clear by his supports that he eventually wanted them to see the world he dreamed of creating. Byleth's relationship with Dimitri and Edelgard is beautiful, but the friendship and/or possible romance with Claude feels like a real brotherhood (or relationship progression).
The part where Claude truly becomes your friend is probably just after the death of Jeralt. Giving him that diary solidifies his trust in his professor.
>"So we're going to believe that a kid who got bullied for being for not being like the others turned into a self-confident, open and positive guy? In my opinion this just doesn't make any sense"
Aw crud, guess people like me don't exist :c Shame, I was enjoying existing.
As someone who's gone from "Shy weirdo who was hated by pretty much his whole school" to "arguably the most popular guy in my new school due to finding support and those who liked me for me," I actually really found myself sympathizing with Claude the most when I learned his backstory, cuz it felt similar to my own experiences of becoming positive, open towards others, and hoping to dispel the mistaken views others held toward what made me different (mind, for me, it's Autism, not racial differences, but the point remains that I've made efforts to show to others that my Autism doesn't make me different in a bad way).
I also think people who say Claude doesn't change at all A) miss the whole point of his character and B) miss what change he does have:
A)For the first bit, Claude as a character isn't one who NEEDS much change, he's had his major character development before he arrived. He instead wants to be the one who is a catalyst in changing others. Most of his supports come from him trying to change others: he tries to get Lorenz to relax on his judgmental nature, he encourages Marianne to consider that others have also had their difficulties but found a group who'll accept her, he tries to convince Lysithea that she should understand others worry about her... the list goes on. As someone who wants to bring the world together through mutual understanding, he's trying to get others to overcome their own flaws as a part of his attempts to do so.
B) For the second bit, it is a bit more subtle, but you can see Claude (mostly in the Deer route) come to understand needing to be more responsible about, well, his responsibilities - in routes outside the Deers, he's a lot less eager to take the initiative in choosing a side, something that results in a good deal of problems of Leicester (and a few headaches for Dimitri until he convinces Claude to unite them), so encouraging him to be more proactive is something I feel he learns. He also learns to trust others more, as a few of his post-time skip supports (Lorenz, for instance) and interactions with Byleth have him understand that he can place his trust in them and they won't betray him for it.
That's just some of my thoughts on him, anyway. He's a lot more subtle of a character, but I really do appreciate that he really is a lot more honest about the type of person he is and truly seeks the best for everyone he can.
Yup I always say this. Claude is meant to be more subtle and less transparent. Heck everybody seems to call him a mystery throughout the game and it shows on different routes and a bit on his own until you read between the lines. His initial facade, and change aren't as drastic as Dimitri and Edelgard. I also feel like he really was needed in the story to keep things grounded. I honestly think that grounded dynamic was needed. Rhea and Edelgard 2 sides of the same coin in terms of be polarizing and their political ruling (depending on each route). Dimitri and Edelgard are mirrors in the sense where one you have to pull out of the darkness and the other you have to walk hand in hand with inside that darkness. Claude is a mirror to Edel in the sense of ideals. They are very similar to each other and they also share the mutual distrust for the Church and for good reason. Problem is that Edel's methods jump the gun and comes off as reactive, whereas Claude's assesses the situation and finds out what is advantageous. Claude is open to flexibility in his methods for change and tries to take the path with the least casualties while Edelgard is tunnel visioned by her own methods of force that she inadvertently causes more casualties in order to achieve her ambitions. Also while she does end up succeeding in her route, it's at the cost of the truth. Claude's a truth seeker. He's Persona 4. Jokes aside, he questions everything and eventually knows the reason to why he's fighting enemy x or enemy y. Meanwhile Edel unfortunately believed her persecutors of TWSID and with that route you get a happy ending, but also a warped view that all the dragons were monsters that needed to be stopped and you don't even bother to understand Rhea's viewpoint. Claude eventually gets Rhea to speak about the truth of the heroes relic and stones, basically finds out why Edel did what she did especially since they have Lysithea in GD, and defeats the roots, the ones who have been warping and pulling strings gradually throughout Fodlan's 1000 years. Not to mention he gets rid of their contingency plan. My interpretation of how Nemesis awoke was that incantation Thales did. He not only sent the dubstep missiles down on shamballa, but he also used that as a distraction to what he really was doing: Completing the Nemesis revival process.
I am going through my 2nd play through (BL while my first was GD) and he had the most genuine goals. He wants to avoid killing but will if it means saving those close to him, he wants everyone to be treated as equals, noble or not noble, crest or no crest, foreigner and not foreigner. While it seems that Edelgard and Dimitri have similar goals as Claude, (Edelgard wanting to get rid of crests to prevent families tearing apart and social class discrimination while Dimitri, well... throughout my play though I can't exactly tell what he wants lmao) they have very different ways of bringing it to light, like Edelgard basically using sheer force and bloodshed where Claude is just focused on keeping the Alliance stable through negotiations with outside lands and protecting his people. (Seems like to me Dimitri is protecting his Kingdom by fighting fire with fire but I haven't gotten to the timeskip yet oof)
One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the human mind. It is often thought of that people who are being bullied and have overall a bad start in life come out as another bully, passing it on. That may be true but like the video stated, people handle things in different ways. Psychology is very interesting in that way. We all don't think the same thing and that is why we are different from everyone.
@@daemmadilemma I feel like they could have focused more on "show don't tell" with Claude. Most of his backstory is subtle, but is only at its most transparent through supports with Byleth, Marianne, Leonie, etc. Edel and Dimitri get natural story exposition and mini cutscenes. Like I sure one would have liked the visualization of the assassination attempts on his life because I know seeing a CG of a child Dimitri in a burning city "bumped my empathy up" since I was shown and told it (in pre timeskip). I still love Claude and believe him don't get me wrong, but I feel like other players would have benefited from being shown the details.
Slight tangent: I've seen people hating on the church route, and for good reason. It's apparenty GD without the fun, without Claude, and possibly losing a well trained Edel and Hubie on your first playthrough if you didn't even know about the requirement for even being given a choice to side with the Empire or church. If I understand correctly, you can move a few things from the Church to Golden Deer since GD has the most info anyways in terms of routes. Without the Church route, it would also give Koei Tecmo and IS more time and resources to give Claude more dedicated scenes on his backstory, add 4 more chapters to Edel's true route, give us a Dimitri Gronder scene in Golden Deer... ya know what I'm referring too... etc. If they really wanted to have a Church/Byleth route they should have made Rhea still be relatively safe similar to Crimson Flower and not locked up for the whole back half of the campaign like in BL and GD. I know this alternate route of Black Eagles is referred to as Church, Byleth, or Rhea route considering the title of Silver Snow lines up with one of the 3.
Yeah Benedikt's comment really annoyed me because I feel the same as you. Well said!
Honestly that quote is hilarious to me because that's me
I love the fact that Claude is a total wild card in the story, in the Black Eagle route you know Dimitri wants to kill Edelgard and Edelgard wants to unite Fodlan and destroy the church and those who slither in the dark. But Claude's goal is to improve relations between Almyra and Fodlan which he can do once he becomes its ruler. In every route the house leader becomes the ruler of Fodlan. Except in Claude's where he allows Byleth to rule as King/Queen and the church route where you reign as an Arch Bishop. Claude needs someone who can rule Fodlan in the Golden Deer route he personally nominates Byleth as someone who he can work with rather than letting things play out to a degree.
not to mention, he let Lorenz lead the alliance
In The Church Route You Also Rule Fodlan Since All Other House Leaders Arent Around.
There was something about another comment speaking about Claude. It might've been in someone's community post, but they mentioned something along the lines of "Claude doesn't need his backstory spelled outside of support convos to have depth". This really resonated with me as someone who played Blue Lions first and Golden Deer second.
As emotional of a ride BL is, it's just my 2nd favourite. The GD route is my favourite because Claude as a leader is amazing, he's entertaining to be around and is the most mentally stable. A breath of fresh air. You don't need a tragic backstory to have a great character. He's simply someone who's faced discrimination both from his home land and Fodlan and is mature enough to realize "I can complain all I want, but that won't change anything. If I want to change my situation, I need to make that step myself".
People compare Edelgard to Rhea very often, but from my perspective, Claude does what Edelgard fails to do much better as they both have the essentially the same/similar goals. Difference is Edelgard doesn't care for Rhea's side of the story and believed the lies passed down from the previous Emperors (Thank TWSITD for that), but also put too much of an emphasis on Crests being the main problem and only focusing on Fodlan.
Claude on the other hand knows that Rhea is telling lies but wants to know what it is she's hiding. He doesn't wanna "rip fodlan apart and force their ideals onto the continent" as I'll put exaggeratedly to an extent like Edelgard does in Crimson Flower. He wants to solve the problems diplomatically, because you can't force change in other countries without fixing your own country's problems first. He wants ideals set in stone WORLD-WIDE that no matter who you are or where you're from, everyone is human. No prejudges, no discrimination, and most of all, no racism. It's hard for me to explain everything in depth or I'll take twice as long as this comment is or more. Nonetheless, in both BE and GD they accomplish their goals and succeed, but I'd MUCH rather the outcome in Verdant Winds because THAT is a cause I can get behind.
I have only played BL so far, but in that route at least, Claude is a TERRIBLE leader... Like, he's laughably bad... Aside from everyone gushing about how great he is (while never pointing to actual reasons or examples of leadership), Claude basically fails as a leader in basically everything we see him do.
First, in the 5 year gap, under Claude's leadership, the Alliance is as broken an chaotic as the Kingdom, which literally had a conspiracy going which assassinated the King, then his Regent, then nearly the Prince, who has been out of the picture being a murder hobo. The Kingdom has to deal with a decades long planned out coup, AND the main focus of the Empire invading them, and they are doing about as well as Claude is...
Next, Claude successfully gets his ass handed to him at Grounder Field. Getting his people slaughtered, and just getting in the way of Dimitri's forces, who are fighting his actual enemy, Edelgard. He could have just held back and done literally nothing, and it would have been better for both his forces, and worse for the Empire. He is even fully aware of this, mentioning it to Byleth in the battle if they fight, but his dumbass does it anyway...
Next, he sends a message to Dimitri's forces at the Capitol, before you actually take it, anticipating that you will succeed in recapturing it. Good thing you didn't arrive a day late...
In his message, he asks for help. Dimitri complies, as Claude expected, and rushes to his aid. Claude has put all the civilians who are still alive on some boats that his forces are defending, hoping to pincer the Imperial forces. Dimitri arrives in the nick of time, good thing you didn't show up an hour late, and defeats the Empire...
Then... Oh my Sothis THEN... Claude tells you... He has convinced the other leaders of the Alliance to SUBMIT TO REJOIN THE KINGDOM!!! After 300 years of independence, Claude essentially just surrenders his entire NATION, for... ABSOLUTELY NO REASON! He could EASILY have simply formed, you know, and ALLIANCE, but no, he literally disbans his country... Then he hands over his hero's relic and rather than joining to help his people in the war, he nopes out to do Claude stuff and leaves it all to you...
But it gets WORSE! Aside from the fact that rejoining the kingdom makes their entire war against the empire pointless, as they just surrendered to a different county instead, The fact is that he KNEW that this was going to happen, which means that A: That last battle where Dimitri came to Princess Claude's aid was completely pointless, as the Alliance was no more, and capturing Claude achieved nothing for the Empire. B: Putting the civilians on boats needlessly endangered their lives, as Claude could have just surrendered. C: Claude could have TOLD Dimitri everything that happened in the message he sent earlier, instead of asking for help and drawing Dimitri and his forces AWAY from the front lines and fighting the Empire, wasting weeks if not months worth of time and resources from the war effort.
TL;DR In the Blue Lions route, Claude sucks as a leader, and Lorenz was 100% right in his all of his criticisms of Claude...
His biggest change hands down is Claude becoming more genuine in his thoughts and feelings; being able to say it how it is without tiptoeing around it. It's subtle but much welcomed compared to 2 characters that try to sledgehammer you in the feels.
AB54099 yeah, Hilda’s A support with him tells us that he doesn’t genuinely really smile a lot unless he is with Byleth, that means that he tries to be someone who encourages the others to be more positive while finding a person that helps him to stay that way (Byleth).
Claude is similar to Eliwood from Blazing Sword in that their character development is not entrenched a drastic personality change, but staying true to themselves despite their tragedies and hardships. And I think that's underrated.
Claude just might be my favorite lord in Fire Emblem right now because of how relatable and charismatic he is. Claude is basically fully grown from the moment you meet him, he knows what he wants and knows how far he is willing to go to get there. He doesn't need a moral compass or a hand to drag him back to the light, he just needs a rallying point and a frien. As much as he claims to be an outsider to Fodlan he's honestly the only one of the main lord's who keeps in mind the most important part of being a ruler, that the people you're in charge of are the most important. Without them, you have nothing so he strives to keep them safe as much as possible whether he wins or loses. Also, even though he is not really dark skinned, I have to stress the importance of having a darker skinned main character not turn into the villain and also being well written and relatable. I know people are tired of the diversity argument or whatever but Claude is a far step up from Niles and Danved/Devdan.
Aaaaand we found a racist.
Excuse me? Please explain how anything I said was racist.
@@EvilAngel4116 don't be stupid. The 2nd half of your post was racism.
@@Lightningstrike1220 So me saying that Claude being well written and relatable as a main character and not a charicature like devdan or a sadist like Niles and how important that was for representation is racist?
@@EvilAngel4116 The idea you even brought up his skin color makes you racist. Liberal moron.
Nice liking your own posts.
You know how people if two people have a disagreement, they ask a third person for an unbiased opinion? That's exactly what Claude is. He even says it himself, "Don't look down on an outsider."
Claude himself provides an outward view of the Dimitri vs Edelgard vs Rhea situation going on and doesn't exactly tell you how you should feel. Rather, you find new information out and act accordingly, even if unfavorably to your plans. You find new views and judge them based on what you have, and he's pretty objective and even a great leader without Byleth. He's a breath of fresh air, and after completing his route first I can finally see the lines between the three other routes that would have either been neglected or unexplored.
His house also has top tier waifus, so this could very well be a biased commentary. And yes, just gag Leonie and she can join them too.
Nah, Leonie is waifu too. Just do a "Slither" and make sure you don't look like Byleth and take a different identity. Then she won't mention Jeralt. Ignatz, Lorenz, and Shamir supports are where I find examples where her personality truly shines without her constantly mentioning Jeralt.
@@michaelolegario6399 Leonie is top tier waifu if you skip b support with Byleth. Everything else about her makes her seem like honestly a pretty cool person.
Of the three lords, Claude's my favorite. Yes, I will admit Claude doesn't need a guiding hand to keep his morality and thus his route feels like the one the game designers intended people to play last (since it gives answers you wouldn't see in the other routes). Yes, Dimitri's story of revenge and redemption and Edelgard's ambition to unite Fodlan under the Imperial banner and break the caste system and Church are both much more enjoyable stories from a narrative standpoint compared to Claude's mystery-solving, but Claude's adventure has him actually give genuine answers that the two other lords don't care for (Edelgard wants Rhea and the Church of Seiros destroyed too much to even LOOK at Fodlan's history except to blame the Church for breaking Fodlan into three countries and creating the Crest System that she suffered under, while Dimitri is focused on finding Edelgard and cutting her head off for something completely not her fault (and worse, he's egged on by Those Who Slither in the Dark to continue the war so they have less resistance to take over Fodlan)), and there's a sweet fight that is a book-end to the game where Byleth and Claude fight Nemesis.
Claude is also somewhat of a breath of fresh air in this series. A lord of two worlds that is fully aware of his ancestry, and is a full-fledged guile hero and surprisingly successful diplomat and survivor (in fact, he has an 87.5% chance of surviving the game regardless of what route you take and you have to make the conscious choice of killing him YOURSELF in Crimson Flower for that 12.5% chance he dies, you monster), who knows the system, and plays it to his favor, partially to stay alive and keep his allies from dying, and partially to make the world a better place, starting by breaking open Fodlan's Throat and making peace between Fodlan and Almayra, who have been enemies for centuries... with taking advantage of his mixed heritage and status as a "double outsider". I feel like they TRIED to do this with Corrin, but it fell flat, and the only reason Corrin gets allies at ALL is that their siblings like them enough to join Corrin on the front lines and bring with them their legions of retainers.
Claude automatically dies if you don’t let edelgard or byleth land the finishing blow, easy to have happen blind really
Wolftamer Wolfcorp
That kind of factors in the 12.5% chance (I mean, you have to choose to either battle him with anyone other than Byleth or Edelgard OR you defeat him with Byleth or Edelgard and then CHOOSE to kill him instead of spare him). But since the battle ends with the Alliance defeated regardless, Claude has a fifty percent chance of getting out of that fight alive, but since that fight only occurs specifically on the Black Eagles route, which is one of four, that’s where his survival odds come from, in stark contrast to Edelgard and Dimitri’s mutual 25% percent chance (where you HAVE to side with them in order to save them, you don’t have to do so with Claude because he keeps a level head even without Byleth) and Rhea’s 37.5% (she’s the final boss of two routes, and can only survive the Church route if Byleth S-ranks her, and she sacrifices herself in Golden Deer… and she survives Blue Lions but is rendered ultimately unimportant).
Grant Brown I get your reasoning but that would imply byleth or edelgard get the kill half the time or better and people spare Claude almost every time. I don’t have the exact statistics but I’d be willing to bet that edelgard and byleth get the kill far less than half the time. Meanwhile your calculation on rhea’s survival also proves faulty with two different reasons: she survives 2 routes guaranteed and that rate would require half the people playing the church route to choose her as the S support
Wolftamer Wolfcorp
You have a point, really. Statistics are a bit more fluid than the percentages I gave.
Grant Brown yeah I get that, I’m just stating without human influence that wouldn’t really be the case, yes looking solely at possible outcomes that would technically be the case but with your methodology you’re 1 step too shallow. To estimate Claude’s possibility for survival on that route you’d need to break it down into the events of what could possibly happen in which (because no player influence means no recruiting characters from other houses and nobody from the eagles has been lost ) there is a 2 in 9 chance that you get the choice and a 1 in 2 you spare him so in that situation there would be a 1 in 9 chance of him surviving which you’d then multiply by the chance of taking the route and add to the chance of him surviving the others which I would try to calculate but there are so many nuances that make the strike force the technically least likely route to appear on just sheer statistics
The point of Claude's character to me was to provides contrast. He's one of three perspectives when it comes to warfare. Pacifism exists, therefore his character was written to best reflect that.
I just personally loved not having to play therapist to a traumatized co-dependent for an entire route lol
I'm a guy who cannot handle much angst. And though it may seem like I'm bragging... I tend to be really empathetic, especially because of lots of mental illness and depression and anxiety. So angst without a true purpose - or even suffering just for the sake of suffering - really tends to dig into me and wear me out in stories. Even if the characters struggle, I want for there to be a good, happy satisfying ending. Maybe that's cheesy! I don't know, but I certainly don't care about how others see that view in me.
But that I feel like is why I love Claude so much. I can't say for what happens on the church/silver snow route, haven't gotten there yet and have been avoiding spoilers for what I don't know (except Edelgard's route, which was spoiled for me. Ugh, but at least I'm in the middle of it) but I know after completing the Golden Deer route first, it'll already be my favourite.
I both feel like there's so much hidden depth people don't pick up on because they're so focused on him being a 'haha funny meme character!', but also a little bit of wasted potential, and not just talking about him being an option for male Byleth as well. Anyway, not AS much wasted potential as say, Chrom, but enough in him being overshadowed quite a bit in the story.
You get plenty of time to know Edelgard, mostly in one way being the enemy of all the other routes except hers. And Crimson Flower brought a bit of a difference in how you view her, though I won't even get into anything that could spark yet another 'Edelgard's right!' 'No, everyone should hate Edelgard!' talk.
Claude though... he both works well when he isn't some big tragic character with all his secrets out in the open, and also it feels like it's a bit of a narrative disappointment that he doesn't get that one BIg moment (other than say, timeskip reunion or Nemesis fight) in any kind of story that makes us all visibly and openly weep for him like the others. Like, I feel that people who solely praise Dimitri and disregard Claude are wrong, because Claude is a fantastic character, but I can also see why they would. Claude isn't given that moment like the others.
That being said, I love the analogy of him being the person that initially seems open and warm, then you dig a little deeper to find a wall/hard shell up, then after digging deeper still you find the true, even warmer kinder open center.
In line with the empathy, Claude has bounds of it. Which is why I love him. People can rag on and on about him not being 'deep', but I'd say that's a failure of what people view as being deep in the first place.
Viewing Dimitri and Edelgard (and Rhea perhaps, but I cannot speak to anything there yet, want to play the church route still) as deep is accurate, because they are. But when I look back on a lot of initial thoughts people had about someone like Dimitri, he never looked 'interesting' to people until his depression and darker personality change became apparent. I remember the sudden surge of people that said that after seeing his timeskip design, they wanted to know what happened. He became 'more than the typical kindly lord', and now people all love him.
Claude doesn't have that 'darkness', which is a lot of what people consider to be depth, sadly. And so Claude kind of fell to the wayside, unless you count memes. But even then, he seemed like 'only the memes character, never anything more' to a lot of people. And now you have people saying things like: "Oh! He isn't deep at all. He's boring, he's got no effect on the story," etc.
(SOME) People are really pre-disposed to call very kind and empathetic characters 'naive' or say they have no depth, (perhaps after Fates/Corrin and his bad writing, but that's the fault of bad writing, not Corrin being bad for being kind) but I'd disagree. To hold on to ideals, to hold on to the attitude that you want things to change, that even someone who took nearly everything from you (Ex, Edelgard in her route storming the capital on the way to confront Dimitri and Rhea)? Or his upbringing, or knowing how much places like Almyra, Brigid, Dagda hate Fódlan, and how much the people of Fódlan look down on those places because of a misguided sense of prejudice and hatred?
To retain that hope, that belief that people are good, worth saving, worth fighting for, worth something? It takes a lot of heart that Claude clearly has, and has always had, despite the somewhat aloof or mysterious front he puts on. The drive to look deeper, to do better, to have ideals and hope even when people are telling you that you shouldn't or can't achieve them.
Claude did get shafted quite a bit in other routes, but then again who doesn't, when it isn't their own route? Play Edelgard's, and Dimitri looks like a mindless madman. Play Claude's, Edelgard's just a steppingstone to Nemesis, and Dimitri is just a minor casualty and someone to be briefly sad about and pity. I'd say people easily overlook other routes when considering another lord great, and they could and should for Claude's greatness. Claude doesn't angst just to have it, it's a story and a tale full of growth and warmth that makes you feel home, just like all the Golden Deer students.
💛🦌 Anyway, Golden Deer for life! Hopefully this wasn't too rambling with no point, lol.
this is a beautiful and extremely well put answer! 😍 thank you for taking the time to share it
WONDERFULLLLLLLLL-
This is my interpretation on Claude. Claude has character development but it’s so little compare to the other lords that I don’t blame people for missing. But from the beginning of part 1 Claude has trust issue as he seem to can’t trust byleth as he always try to squeeze info out of byleth about themselves. He even gets alittle frustrated when Byleth does not give him answers that he wants. I do personally believe he at first want to use Byleth’s power for his own gain. As he admits this in his S-support that he at first was using them. But over time it seems like towards the end of part 1 he starts to have faith in byleth when byleth had disappeared into the darkness. Then in part 2 Claude seem to trust people more and he full blown seem to have complete faith in Byleth as he starts to view them as a friend no longer a tool for him to use. Just someone he wants to see his dreams become a reality. Overall I like Claude he had a fun personality and I like his interactions with characters and his relationship with Byleth. And his dreams are very honorable we need more people wanting to stop racism 🤗
my thoughts exactly! He changed in little ways, but he still changes, he's more open and trusting to his comrades by the end (tho to really hit the nail on this, he really should have formally said he was the Almyran Prince to everyone right after that Fort battle when he brought in Almyran troupes)
The whole trust aspect of his character is also seen in his house dynamic as well. Unlike the other two houses who have members who can't be recruited, everyone in golden deer can be recruited because Claude doesn't have any close allies/friends in his house.
@@chailatte1234 Except Hilda in Crimson Flower
honestly I think they did a great job characterizing claude. Hes a trickster who wants to change the world for the better. Hes an ordinary guy with great ambitions who ended up in a role that allowed him to fulfill those ambitions. Hes route has the strongest feeling of comradery. While the other 3 routes feel like game of thrones, golden deer feels like a group of people playing a dnd campaign because of how down to earth it feels
Claude (and the rest of the Golden Deer for that matter) brings a bit levity to an otherwise dramatic and depressing story. While his plot may not be necessary, I certainly appreciate it. Golden Deer for life, baby!
Smash Boy Good to know. I just finished the Blue Lion route and I’m on my Black Eagle play-through, so I just assumed with how everyone was talking that the information we get from GD route was explained in BE at some point.
Smash Boy he definitely has the least impact of the three lords personally, but his story is definitely not as pointless as Lyn’s was.
@Smash Boy I'd say the wrong foe for the right reasons, actually. Edelgard's intentions were entirely just, but her methods were--obviously--incredibly wrong.
@Smash Boy Sorry for this late reply. I never said he had no impact, I said he had the least impact of the three
@@jackripley3906 The Church may have their issues, but a good chunk of what Edelgard believes them to do is based on false information fed to her by TWSITD. As a result, I wouldn't call her campaign just.
Thank you for the video!
I disagree with some comments about Claude being stagnant and always confident. His past DID affect him. He developed trust issues and hence created the facade of the "schemer" to throw people off. Yes, his growth is more subtle compared to someone like Dimitri, but he does show growth. Claude's growth is that he learns to finally trust someone with his lifelong dream. It's not until he opens up to Byleth that we learn anything about his true intentions and ambitions. I'm sure he had a few people he confided in (Narder) but he didn't really trust anyone from the academy until he met Byleth.
Claude is witty and carefree. And definitely down to earth as far as his personality goes. Then again Joe Zieja is a legendary voice actor.
First time I played and went with GD, I assed what pretty much everyone felt to me. Claude really felt like he was nearly complete, but that he was just missing that bit of guiding and coaching, truly what a teacher would do and a real friend to see it through. I think that's why I liked him alot, he was indeed a schemer, but as I saw him develop as a unit, I saw him as a true lord-like unit. I dare say Eldy and Dimi are definitely train wrecks that need handholding, Claude just needed pointing to and go.
I don’t really get people saying Claude doesn’t need Byleth. As we all know Claude was victimised for being part Almyran and part Fodlian (?).
He never had a true friend until he met ‘teach’ the first person who didn’t judge him in anyway. Whilst he finds a way to succeed in who he wants to be regardless of whether you choose his route or not the subtlety is that if you go GD he is truly happy, to have had an unconditional friendship rather than having to have had to fight for everything.
Byleth gives him a security that he didn’t need to succeed but that he cherishes.
Claude has a tendency to ditch Fodlan when things don't go his way, which he does in every route but his own. One could argue that Byleth's support stops him from dropping everything and running off the second things stop going his way.
Some people don't realize that Claude isn't as great as he presents himself, I won't complain if they're biased either. All these characters have their flaws and that's perfectly fine, Claude is good at putting on a mask with a smile and make you feel like a friend as his real motivation comes out of using you, so yeah just because Claude doesn't need you emotionally, doesn't mean he's a golden boy without flaws as people make him out to be.
@@hjt091 if you truly think that, you are missing the entire point.
The only time Claude leaves is when his only two choices are death or to continue chasing his dream in another country which is still in line with what he wanted and that was to spread his way of life to as much of the world as possible. Being the bigger person and realizing where your energy can be best spent.
@@KeaneKamina I think what he's trying to say is that Claude ends up giving up on a good chunk of the world when faced with defeat. He shirks away even when he isn't facing death as the only other option, as shown in AM, SS, and even CF when you spare him. But since he isn't the victor, he gives up on Fodlan.
And that is very important to mention because his original dream was to unite the _entire_ world. Can't do that when you turn your back on a whole continent.
@@jackripley3906 this is a wholly incorrect way of looking at Claude all together. If you play any route in which he is completely cut off from rising to a point of power to effect global change within a country or face eventually being killed (because that is 100% what would happen if he tried to take power again against either future govt set up by any other Victor), he chooses the even harder path to not give up and continue to find the most effective way to bring about that change with his attempt of trying again in another country. There's not a single piece of information in game that has him writing off the country forever.
Claude was my first route threw three houses and by playing the other ones so far I'm definitely happy with my choice of going golden deer first
Golden deer is perfect to be played first
I’ve played through all the routes at this point, and I can confidently say that Claude is the most enjoyable character to learn about. Both Dimitri, Edelgard, and some other students are far deeper characters, but Claude is just enjoyable. When you play BE or BL it feels like you have to keep Edelgard or Dimitri in check so that they don’t go insane or something, but with Claude you just always feel at ease. Also King of Unification is an awesome title to have.
Hes HOT
Claude is like cherry on the top for the Golden Deer route. Heck even the route's name kinda spelled it out since he is a breathe of fresh wind.
He doesn't need to go through redemption route since his route is kinda his redemption for messing up in other route. If we go BL he was seen repeatedly trying to parley with Dimitri but failed outright. He also messed up big time during Golden Deer Plea until he needed to rely on Dimitri cleaning his mess. In GD, if we paired him up with everyone else but Byleth and Hilda, we know that he skipped the crown for love so he actually needed someone to ground him to his dream and actually make sure he didn't mess up on rulling people. If BL and the other paired ending is any hint, Claude is actually not a good Ruler compared to other Lord.
It might be because I watched too much anime that I start thinking that drastic redemption is a bit overrated but Claude subtle redemption humor me much more. It also made me think that as a player I don't need to take charge of everything because my Lord is incompetent for reasons (Edelgard blatantly manipulated, Dimitri with his darkness, and Rhea for being almost Lunatic). With Claude I can enjoy watching him take the charge and give him the push he needed at times. We walked side by side like partner-in-crime and honestly, that was the best kind of VVIP seat for me. Even when I helped along the other routes and did my part, I can clearly sit down in Golden Deer and they would tell me to rest while they handle things.
I would also like to add that there is such a thing as Resilience. Yes, Claude's past wasn't anything nice but the guy is resilient AF and that is something that made me love him and appreciate him above all characters. Some may find him boring, but I found him inspiring, especially given the other characters in GD who would really benefit from that resilience and confidence that Claude learned to develop.
I think Claude's development is just much more subtle compared to Edelgard and Dimitri. At the beginning of the game, Claude virtually trusts no one and just puts on a friendly air around everyone he talks to. It's not that he doesn't care about them, but I think he thinks if he told them about his dream of uniting the whole world then they would turn on him, like the people who hated him because of where he was from. So to avoid this, he gains their trust so he knows they'll help him regardless of if he tell them his plan or not. Then, the more he gets to know Byleth/the player, the more he sees that he can learn to trust people again, and trust that they won't turn on him. You see that in the second half of the game, where he doesn't put on nearly as many false pretences, or smiles as Hilda points out, around the golden deer. You can even hear it in his voice; it's much calmer and softer than his younger self, it feels more genuine, which is a really subtle detail to throw in there (thank you Joe Zieja)
Claude was the lord i picked first. I wanted to pick the house that felt the most fitting for me, his thoughts and his attitude were so laid back in comparison to dimitri and edelgards. And im currently playing through blue lions, as i had finished golden deer a little bit ago and id be lying if i said i dont miss my interactions with him. He was so fun and it was easy to understand him and why he does what he does. After the time skip im glad he didnt change too much, seeing him again brought the same feeling to that of seeing an old friend after a long time and being able to reconnect instantly. I felt like byleth was walking along side him instead of infront of him. Like they were a real team. I adore the blue lions cast and their chemistry together, but in golden deer i felt more apart of something. I dunno
Oh, Claude gets plenty of character development.
It's just not as obvious and world-shattering as Edelgard and Dimitri's arcs - which is a good thing, if you ask me.
Claude's story is more subtle.
It's hard to spot, since he's always wearing a smile on the surface anyway; what changes is what goes on behind that smile, which would be hard to spot if you don't care enough to actively look for it.
Claude starts out not trusting anyone.
He might not be willing to start a war for his ideals, but he's not above using his resources.
He makes "friends" with the sole intent to use them for his own ambitions, carefully manipulating them as he moves his chess pieces into their correct positions.
However, over the course of the game, those relationships become real.
Claude learns to trust, and he learns to care, and he learns to be sincere with people.
He learns to let them in, and be cared for in turn.
As the game goes on, he stops using his allies and instead starts truly being their friend - in fact, his reactions to their deaths tend to be a lot more personal than those of the other lords if you face the Golden Deer in battle.
This is Claude's arc: He learns that he doesn't have to exclude himself from his dream for the world.
It goes from "I'm doing this so no one else has to suffer the same way that I did" to "I'm doing this so we can all reach out and extend our hands in friendship".
And he finally includes himself in that dream, too.
His walls come down little by little as he strides towards his ideals.
Honestly I just love the personality of Simultaneously the Smartest and Dumbest person in any room at any time
2:50 Benedict would be wrong here. Speaking from personal experience, I turned out to be a pretty positive person who still is trying to change the world for the better despite having a horrible childhood and being made fun of because I was different. Most people may not turn out to be alright in that scenario, but you have to consider that there are indeed people who turn things around for the better, and people who WANT to do so, likely looking up to Claude seeing him as something they could be or aspire to be.
TL:DR Some people just have more willpower than others.
Honestly, this is also likely the reason why I didn't like Bernadetta or Felix, because they seem like such negative people, or people who could not recover from their trauma. It almost came off as being weak to me, though they are still well written. It's just I prefer to be positive and open rather than be negative or a shut in because of my past.
And for a final point to Jonathon (3:43), Claude remaining consistent makes him even more realistic than going through those drastic changes, especially at the age these people are at. Sure you change significantly going from child to adult. But once you hit the 18 - 20 mark, most people don't go through drastic changes, as there lives begin to stabilize a lot more.
There's also the fact that there are 2 types of people:
1.Those who are affected greatly by the environment around them (when things are good, they are in high spirits, when it's bad, they become depressed)
2.Those who are affected little by the environment around them (when things are good, they are slightly happier, when things are bad they are slightly sad)
Dmitri is an example of #1, while Claude is an example of #2
Going through more changes does not = better character or writing, it's simply how well they're written in the situations they are in, and what matches with their personality, which was done good for both.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 again not everybody is Strong. Claude had More Stable Childhood Compared to The Other Lords. Yes his parents had questionable parenting methods. They Were Both supportive of him... Keep In mind Many Of The Chracters Had Crappy Parents that Were Not Supportive of them in The Game. Bern's Father Was outright Abusive Towards Her. Mercedes and her Mom was Tossed Aside by A Man That Used Them.... Marriane.. Well We All Know Why. ..
@@elpopman2055 I already acknowledged that in my comment... And I actually was in a similar situation to Bernadetta, yet I turned out more like Claude, so it's not so much about how bad the situation is, but how strong the individual is.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 I like to think that the combination of the situation a Person is in and How Strong Will That Person Is.. And If That Will Is Encouraged By Supportive Parent as Well. There Are So Many Factors That It Shows How Each Chracters Copes With Their Issues.
Spoiler: It is A Shame That Edelgard and Dimitri Can Not function without the professor guiding them.. can you imagine A route where 3 Lords survive and Rhea Surviving but at expense of the professor dying?
Also my opinion I feel the professor should start as a crutch character as A Level 10 mercenary to make it more accurate.. I mean the game has established that the professor at is an experienced fighter.. Though i'am bit annoyed that he almost died to Fodder Bandit and Sothos had to save him.. I feel that should been more reserved for A more intense situation.
Like introduce Divine pulse later in part. Where you use it to Save Jeralt.. His Death Serves no purpose and just makes him a Griel Expy..
Regarding Fusing With Sothis. Make it Where The Professor is Going through unexpected metamorphosis and Sleep within A cocoon like a barrier because they are in a Process of Merging with Sothis that will take 5 years.. Depending on what Route His allies Will Watch over The Proffesor. The professor will immediately realize their hair color amd eye color are different upon waking up..Because the professor just woke up they are reverted to Level 1 as an Enlighted One. But Have Extremely High Base Stats for a Level 1. And to reflect on their Newfound power their Base Growth is Enhanced and even if Change Class The benefits still apply even if you're on other classes. Just ideas.
Honestly though, to the people complaining that Claude’s character isn’t dynamic, not every character has to be a dynamic one in order for a character to be good. Claude’s character remains the same while opening up in subtle ways. Whereas Edelgard and Dimitri are filled with disbelief about Byleth’s return after the timeskip, Claude had complete and utter faith in the person he had come to call a friend only a little bit before he lost them for five years when he comes back to the monastery for the reunion. He had faith that Byleth would come back to honour the promise they made. Claude is also full of secrets, but as time goes forward he learns to entrust those secrets to people he cares about (e.g. Hilda A Support, Byleth A support, Marianne A support, etc.). Claude doesn’t outright trust people in the beginning, which is why he’s kinda pushy when it comes to revealing other people’s secrets. It’s so that he doesn’t have a reason to be afraid to trust them. Even though he thinks of himself as a little selfish for wanting to use other people to achieve his goals, it’s ultimately for the greater good. And he would never try to endanger the lives of anyone he cares about.
Also, you notice how his crit line changes from “Don’t hold this against me” to a sort of “Hold a grudge if you must?”. 👌 Poetic cinema.
Little late to this discussion, but if I had to put it short.. I just love how he asks questions. He seems to be the only one that truly wants to know what´s going on. And I love that.
Claude is just a real bro kind of character. I never worried about choosing other routes, just because of how much he has already grown from his challenges.
And I must disagree that Claude is a vital part of the story, even if he is the third wheel. He clashes with Edelgard with their similar ideals, while having different means to achieve them.
Claude will always be one of my favorite Lord's in FE, because he strived to be friends first, and that is something I admire.
Also without him, Edelgard and Dimitri would have died in the prologue at the hand sof Kostas. It was his failed scheme to escape the fight that allowed Byleth to meet them and the story to happen.
I don't like how Claude is viewed in the community - viewed as a laid back, memey little guy, who's just there. And part of the reason why this character has that Reputation is his VA.
Claude experienced an unspeakable amount of shit in Almyra. He was teased, beaten, tied to horses and dragged through the street, and in Fódlan his almyran roots are seen as something lower and animalistic. Keep in mind that he has to lead a fragile alliance that he can hardly hold. In which he is first antagonized by Lorenz, then sees the promoted xenophobia through the church and has no friends or whatsoever and the burdened childhood problems to don't really help him opening up to others - which causes this Distrust he has in others.
With his past, his closedness, bandits, rebels, monsters, TWSITD, Lorenz and everyone suspecting him, war and Fódlan in chaos, he eats all his worries into himself and keeps them locked in.
And then he sees how Rhea still doesn't want to unpack in the end of his route (where he questions her about the Nabeteans) and how Dimitri refuses to work together.
Everything is piling up and that's why I think it's such a pity that Claude's grid - him losing his "cool" - has been removed in English. Because it is part of his character and development. The japanese voice of Claude nailed it.
"Tearing down the walls"
He does not only mean the borders of Fódlan, but the walls within him, so that he too can open up and at the end of GD he can do that, as he emphasizes in the fight against nemesis.
That's what makes Claude great for me. It's too seldom talked about imo. He isn't the perfect lord who doesn't have any connections to the main story. He isn't someone whose removal wouldn't drastically change the story. He Is a mentally unstable person who needs the support of Byleth - someone to trust - to step ahead.
Claude! Yes, he feels like a friend, he's a positive person, he's nice to have around. He's the altruistic archetype. He's also smart, explains you the world, helps you figure out stuff about yourself, etc. He's just interesting like that, i never got bored around him, my GD playthrough was mainly about fun and laughter.
I'm at Blue Lion now, honestly as the story goes Dim gets more interesting but i just can't relate to him that much. To me most of his team is more interesting than the houseleader, which saddens me a lot. I think i goofed up on the tower, he was appologizing and all (please don't, gosh i never know what to tell you dude, i'm the one who's sorry here), while then after laughing at Claude when he first appeared on screen because the others said he was fleeing, after a minute i wanted to join his team, he was that convincing to me!
I'm glad i started as GD because honestly i'd have no idea at all of what is going on in this world. I'd get a decent love story though... Well, is that even a love story? Dmitri's so stoic, i have a hard time figuring if he has feelings for FByleth or if he's scared, he was very angry once in the beginning, i'm still pre timeskip and until very recently I couldn't read him at all. He started talking about Edelguard, that will be interesting at least.
I'm leaving a like and dipping... I'm taking fe3h really slow. I'll come back later. Thanks for the future content. I'm loving this channel!
Claude gives out that "light" factor to the "dark" world we're living in during 3H. Dimitri and Edelgard are constantly in quarrels with each other and with themselves, and all we see during these instances are them going more and more insane unless Byleth is there for them, Claude isn't like that. Darkness can't exist without light, and people like Dimitri and Edelgard's routes because they start off as "light," then "dark," and then "light" again. Claude, however, is an outsider, which clearly bothered him at some point. The main difference is how they handle their pain. Edelgard became a fascist, Dimitri just went insane and Claude? He turned his pain into strength. This is something I can relate to, and something that should be inspiring for others
I like claude because hes mature at a very young age but at the same time acts his age in part one. I can relate to him in a lot of ways since i was looked down on for being different. He adds a third point of view in the story sort of an outsiders prospective which allows you to see the story in a very different way
Wait... but aren’t you Claude?
@@crystalyyy5853 going a bit out of character
Claude was already a developed character that's why his personality didn't change
Because Claude is the only sane lord and he has a goam that doesn't need bloodshed nor his own death. Also, he's not obsessed with the protagonist.
Look mom, I've made It into youtube fame
Congratulations!
@@CRValtierra Gracias mi lord ;w;
@@javierquinterosurzua2767 no hay necesidad de "mi lord"
While benedikt lang is right that a lot of people who get bullied let it weigh them down and destroy them, Claude is still very believable. He lets his past drive him forward and become more accepting while putting on a bright, cheerful, carefree mask as he pursues this route.
IMO Claude is the best lord he never demand teach the least
and teach would not be stressful with him (only GD ending the teach really smile from his/her heart)
But in fact Claude succeed his dream because of Edelgard started the invasion
i have never regretted one second of choosing the golden deer house. Battling with claude and the golden deer house students is one of my proudest decisions ever.
I honestly feel like Claude and Robin from Awakening are relatively similar. If you were to remove Claude’s trickster personality and left him as a blank slate (as most FE protagonists are) he’d be the same untrusted yet genius tactician Robin is. I feel like IS could’ve looked back to Robin when they were designing Claude. Both experience distrust from their peers due to their ethnicity, Robin being thought of as a Plegian spy for a little bit of the game while Claude being distrusted because he’s half, but the way they deal with that distrust is so different. Robin befriends the Shepards and is accepted into the group but Claude actively seeks to either reroot that distrust or expand it. He tells people he’s scheming but never actually gives up any details, he makes stomach poisons that he doesn’t use in game, he’s making people believe he’s untrustworthy by giving them other reasons to believe it other than his race, which is ultimately what he wants (to be seen and judged equally regardless of race or ethnicity).
Also this is just me but Fire Emblem doesn’t know how to make a good character without making them go through tragic deaths. Claude is as good as they can get.
Playing through the GD rout after blue lions. I do love Claude, he’s so funny but I sort of agree that doesn’t really change. In my opinion, Claude is too perfect, I wanted to see one of the schemes he promised in action, I wanted to see him mess up bad somewhere and go, ‘I’ve made a mistake, sorry.’ I wouldn’t want it to be a huge thing, like with Dimitri- just something relatively small that helps ground Claude in reality. Maybe in his quest for equality, he trusts someone he shouldn’t gets betrayed, and people get killed. Struck with grief, he starts to doubt his dream but then realises that this betrayal only makes his goals that much more important, and that they have to be realised so such an event won’t ever occur again. In the BL rout I also felt terrified by the Empire, I really felt like I was fighting a losing battle but Claude is just so chill about everything, his laid back nature sort of takes away from the gravity of the situation. In saying that, it is nice to have a change of pace from Dimitri. All in all, I think Claude lacks a little bit of depth, his backstory is rather interesting and he is a unique character- I just feel like something is missing.
That chill side especially during war is probably a facade though. I love him, but he did say a line if I recall that "We have to keep smiling and marching even when its hard to." He has the advantage too in keeping that facade since everybody already sees him as a mystery and an enigma. In all routes including his own, Claude keeps up the facade that the Alliance is united even though its in shambles. I feel like he's supposed to be laidback so that Byleth and their students can stay calm and collected especially on the battlefield and so that his region's people won't panic. Also his schemes do go bad, but its just not apparent at first. Most of Claude's schemes are good on paper, but Teach helps him execute them masterfully. Otherwise we have chapters like in BL where he screws up in that port town, and Claude despite doing it for personal gain, he has to ask the Kingdom for help during the Golden Deer Plea so that his allies of Judith and Hilda may survive unscathed. He also has to accept the situation that he needs to step down from his leadership position and leave it in ours and Dimitri's hands. By uniting the Kingdom and Alliance as one, it would prevent unnecessary bloodshed and help keep them focused on the Empire as the enemy. I mean heck, even in part 1 you see his scheme to fluster Dimitri during the mock battle was straight up terrible. Dimitri caught on and not to mention trying to fluster Blue Lion boy by saying his stepsister is cute wouldn't work. xD
It's easy to miss for a lot of people that Claude is at his "lowest" point at the start of the game, rather than the events around the timeskip like the BL route. He didn't trust people and he didn't care much for his inheritable role as the next leader of the Alliance. If you chose "Leicester Alliance" when prompted to pick a loyalty after the first battle, it's easy to tell that his lineage meant little to him and he was only complimenting out of obligation. Much of Claude's development lies in who he is and what he does. He brews poisons to protect himself. He wields a bow to distance himself from others. He hates blind faith in deities for miracles to happen and believes that it's the actions you take that would change your fate. As a leader, he's a natural speaker but he doesn't try to bond with anyone to avoid the risk of divulging his secrets. He even intended to use Byleth for their sword and prowess than who they are as a person before he really came around to start trusting them in full by the time Byleth fell into a deep slumber. It's significant for him, a person who grew up independent enough to push people away, to have kept so much faith in Byleth to return.
Michael Olegario
That’s true, Claude does keep up a farce. It would just have been nice to see that farce break one time, show a real moment of weakness. And yeah I get that he’s supposed to be laid back, and I understand that some people really like that in a character and that’s good for them. I just personally look for growth and change in a character, as that’s what I enjoy.
And by scheme, I mean that Claude actually does something bad/ unethical, worthy of truely being called a ‘scheme.’ Perhaps he’s been backed into a corner, and after doing it he realises that it was the wrong answer, and that he doesn’t want to ever resort to that sort of thing again. They always go on and on and onnnnnnn about Claude’s tricks and schemes when in reality, he just pats Teach on the back and says ‘do your thing,’ half the time. Don’t get me wrong, he does have plans, but I wouldn’t exactly call them ‘schemes.’
Aurora Skies I’ll be honest, I’ve never looked at it that way before. Playing GD, I did find myself enjoying Pre-time skip Claude more, but I could never figure out why, I guess you’ve just answered that question for me 😅Pre- trip skip Claude is flawed while post is almost a perfectly, good and just nice guy.
Even though I believe what you’ve said is true, I still find issue with it. Claude finishes developing too soon, in my opinion. His change is quite subtle, as you’ve said - a lot people miss it as they don’t even realise when Claude was at his low point. I would have liked his development to have a tiny bit more focus. Of course, this is all just my personal opinion.
I think the BL rout set standards very high in terms of characters for me, also- which must have not helped.
It also kind of annoyed me how Claude very openly presented that he wears a mask, and has secrets- but I was never left with my mouth gaping in terms of something that was revealed about him. Dimitri, on the other hand- does not at all suggest he is wearing a mask and surprises you with things like how he and queen of evil are actually related. Obviously, I am biased as Dimitri is my favourite character, but he’s also my favourite for a reason.
Some people really enjoy things aren’t so openly presented, and I think Claude fulfilled that role well and I’m glad for that. I’m just a more straight forward kind of person.
I feel like Claude seems to not change like Edelgard and Dimitri cause El and Dimitri hide a sense of who they are until after the time skip. Claude also has a confidence charismatic attitude and in his support with others expands on his difficulty growing up which I relate to a lot. If you lived through difficulty you don't want others to go through the same so you try to make change. Claude devote a lot of time in the library studying learning. If the war did not happen his goals would have not changed at all. Claude does a lot and is hard working.
I like Claude because how full of positive energy he was. Edelgard was like...I had suffered so much because of crests and I want to destroy the current world. Dimitri was like..."Kill every last one on them!"...cough cough, I mean, he was like so gloomy and stuff. But Claude was always cheerful at least on the outside. And the way he is willing to relinquish power just to make the world closer to the way he dreamed of. That's pretty noble.
I'm mixed race myself and honestly Claude is the most positive, wholesome and fleshed out mixed fictional character I've come across in my 25+ years of reading, watching and gaming. He also has the best crew of the three lords too.
You know at first, the golden deer to me felt like the usual third path you take in rpgs.
Similar to fates in a way. The story seemed so intent on foreshadowing the conflict between dimitri and edlegard.
I mean really? "The battle of the eagle and lion? Super subtle. Made me feel like Claude was a bit of an extra.
Soooo glad I was wrong. While his place in the story isn't quite as big as the others, its still enjoyable.
I agree with everything else fir the most part. Compared to the others, he's just so chill. No thirst for vengeance, no desire to unite all of Fodlan under one flag. Just a desire to make a better future.
#FeartheDeer
Like Dimitri and Edelgard, I’m an emotional wreck without a specific someone in my life, so in that way I’m more like them. But Claude really is much more real, and I can connect with him much more easily. Even if I were an emotional wreck, I wouldn’t kill anyone for it.
During the GD path, there is a scene where Edelgard overhears a discussion between Claude and Byleth and joins the conversation. But they don't trust each other enough to say what each is up to. It's a shame, because that conversation could have changed everything that happened after.
Valerie McDonald I mean she had already tried to have him assassinated by that point soooo no
@@Ulysses_-vv5uh Lol That's a decent point
Claude = Friend = Best Boi = Best House
Dimitri is so angsty and dramatic that it feels too exaggerated to feel real.
Edelgard is a traumatized psycho who starts a war against the kingdom, the alliance and the church instead of talking about why she wants to destroy the church with the other leaders in the first place, in which case at least Claude (idk about Dimitri) would have joined her as he already had his own fare share of suspicions towards the church, in this case the war would have been less violent and a lot more reasonable.
Claude is a man who experienced injustice first-hand and having a very positive attitude he makes it his life mission to change things for the better with the power he has as head of house Riegan. Claude is no overly dramatic or tragic character and he feels so real because of it, that combined with the fact that his really charming immediately made him a fan favourite
claude and dimitri would never go against the church.
There's a lot of reasons why we love Claude. One thing for sure, he beats the CEO of Racism.
Yes, his story is realistic. I remembered when I'm kind of different from the other back then in elementary school. Not getting a lot of hates, but I'm just kind of left out by the others. Claude's dream is simple yet good, to make peace with others. Look, all of us from different race, nations, religion, others are having conflict. Why don't we just settle things out without spilling any blood. I know that kind of stuff is inevitable but we can pick the best way to solve the problems. I believe that's what Claude tries to do and I believe that problems like this are in the real world
He’s like a role model to me ✨
Story wise, I understood the GD route as the most "Fire Emblem" route. Player joins up with a Noble with strong ideals of achieving/keeping peace, alongside his friends. After a tragedy caused by the game's villains, they must go and take back territory from the enemy, only to find a much darker evil(Nemesis and TWSITD) waiting to conquer the world, and you need to stop said evil.
Great Video! I personally love Claude for so many different reasons. His fun, his ever positive approach, the outsider perspective, his values towards all life and beliefs towards an equal world and of course the schemes 😂. His growth as minor as some see it was amazing imo, from the timeskip he had no choice but to become a real leader and a real stable, strong leader for the remaining resistance part of the alliance. you could also feel he had a completely new approach towards trusting you aka Byleth compared to the first half of the game. Claude/Khalid best lord and as always FeartheDeer 🏹🦌
Claude did change during the story. It was very subtle, but it did happen. At the beginning he had extreme trust issues and only made friends to be able to use them later on. He apears very fun and easy-going, when in reality he is calculating and paranoid a lot of the time. He doesn't need Byleth like the other two do, but Byleth teaches him a lot about friendship and trust. He learns to rely and trust By on the Battlefield, as well as off the battlefield
Claude was my very first route and I don't regret it one bit. I'll be honest, the reason I went with him was his laid back attitude (also, hot and charismatic af)
The only negative aspect was that I wasn't able to grasp the game to it's full extent since it was also my first fire emblem game ever. Only after playing my second route I got way more into the story. Believe it or not, I hadn't recruited a single person from another house in my GD route... Idk if I was just too invested in my own house or I just missed that whole thing. Idk wtf happened there.
Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is that: 300+ hours later, I'm about to play GD again and do everything I missed with this house
Claude wasn't being bullied for being different than the others.
He was bullied because others believed he was different, even though Claude thinks they are more alike than everybody else seems to imagine (even Cyril is kind of racist towards Almyrans)
2:50
Naruto: Am i a joke to you.
He's the only house leader who actually uncovers the truth about Fodlan and those who slitter in the dark,that's why I like him (even tough Dimitri is my favorite house leader)
Lol I did golden deer route first and at Blood of the Eagle and Lion I was like “Why is Dimitri here?!?!”
Because he is willing to change Fodlan without spilling blood unlike a certain someone.
3 certain someones come to my mind. Dimitri, Edelgard, and Rhea. Why is it that hardly anyone got the power players (Future Emperor, Future King, and Future Representative, and Archbishop) to sit down and talk diplomatically about their goals for their factions. TWSITD would have been BTFO'd before any war could even happen.
@@thenamedoesnotmatter yeah, I really wanted to talk some sense into Dimitri after the timeskip but was never given the option. Another person needed to die before he regained his senses.
I read through so many of these, and I’ll do my part.
Claude indeed has a character arc, read the comments to get a better understanding, no need to repeat myself whenever everyone has said it before. He just manages his trust issues better
Claude indeed has flaws, because of BL and him just leaving to take on Almyra instead of achieving what he started in Fodlan
And I wish Claude was more vulnerable like Edel or Dimitri, which is what I personally wanted more than anything.
While the five year time skip, and Claude waiting for Byleth was sweet and showcased his faith in the professor, I wish he instead started to shed a few tears and say, “I knew you’d come back”
Because that would’ve showcased his faithfulness *and* the how much Byleth means to him. What Claude has is a striking character with a subtle development, but I personally think there was a few missed opportunities for Claude. He’s indeed cool and collected, but I wanted to see Claude make terrible mistakes and then rely on someone other than himself to help fix it. For instance, Nadar could possibly have fallen in battle and Claude’s grieving. While Claude doesn’t give a really good condolence to Byleth when their father died (he just wanted the stupid journal), Bylet’s stays by his side and this is a massive sign to Claude that Byleth has been there from the beginning.
I was super excited to see Claude, and I still enjoyed his route a ton, but his super positive nature and dark past could’ve made a cool contrast if he just let some darkness seep into his heart just a bit like Dimitri, but not make that his character arc.
Just remember
Fear the deer
Claude is definitely my favorite lord (I haven't played the other routes yet) he is cool, charismatic and a great unit post tineskip. I also support his quest to bring equality to all regardless of background.
The thing about Dimitri and Claude is that they actually do change things, and Edelgard remains stagnant even in her route, never forgiving those who wronged her.
false that is such a lie.
As you said in the video, even if you don't choose Golden Deer, Claude doesn't really go psycho or crazy for power like Edelgard or Dimitri. So #1. He legit feels so chill and awesome to be with and is truly a bro. #2. The prejudice and xenophobia that he's faced for most of his life is really fucked up to me. However instead of having those traumatic experiences boil up inside of them and just exploding, he developed a pretty solid personality and emotional habits that luckily don't hurt those around him. Yes, his greatest flaw is how uncomfortable he is regarding disclosing personal information about himself, and that stems from people most likely bullying and betraying him growing up once they learned that he was from Fodlan. A big theme/motif I took for Golden Deer is that everyone has their corrupt past and traumas that we are all trying to fight. But the important thing is to let those traumas motivate you to become kinder to yourself, and help those around you. You didn't deserve to experience such awful things in your life, but a promising life and happy tale is sadly never promised to us on day one. What is in our control though is finding those around us that we can trust, reach out our hand to each other, and remind ourselves that the future is bright for us all and that we will support each other (This is also a major reason why I love Dimitri's route). Plus, Claude is just funny and actually has a sense of humor and seems like that friend that loves quoting vines with you.
Why do we like Claude?
1. he's fucking hot.
2. "I'm hurt... but I'm with you."
(and, yeah, all those other well-explained reasons that have been stated~)
There actually is a reason Claude was at Grondor in Blue Lions if you look.
why do we like Claude? Bc he’s Best Boy
Claude, No Matter The Route, Is The Most Stable Lord In The Game.
I actually found him to be unique because he doesn't change much. He's already, even before the timeskip, really wise and clever.
I'm having a really tough time choosing between Blue Lions and Golden Deer when choosing a favorite route. Because I loved how they did Dimitri's character development throughout the story, but I also loved Claude's happy, laid back, relatable behaviour.
Also, I chose Golden Deer first just because of Claude. I love the students but from the first time I saw the 3 lords I knew immediately that I wanted to choose Golden Deer. I have a lot of respect for the writers and designers for that.
I relate to Claude and that's not something that i say to alot of video game characters. while sure removing from the plot could happen to me claude is the person who trys to truly being peace to every one with out forcing people to believe what he wants people believe, but I could see how people think "your expecting me to believe he turned out fine as a person'
Well I like to think claude before he was a kind hearted guy was a guy who had to use schemes to survive face the unjust world in harsh ways here's a fun little scenario I think about
Claude is seeing a boy being chased by knights because they were informed he did not believen the church, at first claude didn't do anything but realized he could stop them, claude would craft a crud iron bow from scraps of steel wood and strings and use that bow to scare the knights away, when claude asked the boy why they were chasing him he replied "I told them I don't believen the church "
Now this could take away some of that relatableness but thats how I think a character becomes who they are, may it be a mental realization or a event
But that's how I look at it
I feel that Claude was better because he wasnt driven by vengance or emotions, he just wanted a bettee future for his people and all of the world.
Claude to me is what BOTH Edelgard and Dimitri aren't.
Because Claude has Edelgard's beliefs and would go about it the way Dimitri would (he shares Dimitri's sense of duty to protect life if that makes sense)
I wouldn't say Three Houses would benefit by removing Claude, I'd say it would rather benefit more if the writing expanded upon his past (I'm kinda mad that he never really fully told everyone he learned to trust that he was the Almyran prince and that's why he hopes to change the world, especially to Lorenz since Lorenz is always nagging at Claude because of his noble duty and such) and if the story were to actually go into all three territories in all the routes. (it's hard to explain... like if they put as much effort into including the Alliance in the Azure Moon run as much as the Empire, if Dimitri has more importance then dying off screen in Verdant Wind, stuff like that and Claude has a reason to go against both Edelgard and Dimitri.)
The reason i really like Verdent Wind is because you hold Edelgard's beliefs of how corrupt the systems are and your not on the side of the ones who started the war (i still haven't started the Black Eagles route because I'm waiting on a friend to complete Verdant Wind which I won't anymore if she doesn't finish by the end of this month, but I'm still very very conflicted by recruiting anyone from Blue Lions (except for MAYBE Ashe) and while I share Eddie's beliefs I really REALLY hate how she goes about it as starting a war over beliefs is a very inhuman thing) ) and the fact that you find out the TRUE history of Fodlan.
It's a route that's not really meant to be 1st, but rather a neutral run with lore about the history
Claude does have an arc. He goes from a hyperactive cloudy headed cynic chasing his ideals through selfish manipulation.
But when I met him as an adult, he felt more level. He still joked, but it was clear he had grown into his own. He seemed to come to the conclusion that everyone wants peace in their heart but that it is those who seek war that will stoke the fires of division. So how better to break everyone free from that then being a safe place for those who want change and letting those who seek war destroy themselves.
It is why I view GD as the objective “Best ending” for fodlan. That said, I don’t care what some say, Silver Snow is a poor man’s GD and was only out there so that people weren’t forced to support edelgard if they felt it was unacceptable. I’m actually surprised SS doesn’t give you the option to work with Claude or ally with him in any way, even as an NPC because I do feel Claude would be more than happy to form an alliance instead of more needless bloodshed.
Claude doent change because he as you said is already a complete character. He has no changing to do because he has fully realized what his goal in life is and has planned out the best way to get there. He wants to change the world for the better and he wants to go about it in a way that unlike the other two lords involved minimal death. I'm no saying that the other two at points are homicidal maniacs but they fucking are (especially Dimitri). Claude would even if given the chance spare the other two even though they are (especially Edelgard) responsible for countless deaths and the suffering of many. Basically what I'm saying is claude by comparison seems less interesting because his goal is already concise and he doesn't have a huge twist in the plot or a mental break down like Edelgard Dimitri or even Rhea which I guess makes them all more interesting characters but it also proves they are all fucking crazy.
I feel Claude was made to pull in new Fire Emblem fans. A veteran like myself immediately was pulled in by Edelgard and Dimitri who fits the traditional FE mold. As for Claude, he feels like he could exist in our world, like a really cool best friend who stands by your side.
I'm a veteran but I still chose my cool best friend over tradition haha. Also what do you know Part 2 Claude honestly ends up moreso traditional FE Lord than Edel and Dimitri in a certain regard. Edel and Dimitri's methods and character arcs are more unconventional, but Claude's methods and much smaller less transparent arc are more in line with traditional FE Lords. One's that aren't written to be questioned if they are an anti hero or anti villain in Dimitri and Edel's case. Things beforehand like Alm and Celica had villains so black and white (except Berkut) that there was no argument to whether Alm and Celica's actions are justified. They just were because they are heroes without the player questioning if their means were "evil".
I really vibe with Claude's character. He's seeking what the world's seems to need and as he tries to make things lighter and better. Without Claude I would really feel that something is missing, that what the story the game gives is just so tragic and, I might sound dramatic but don't how else to explain it, will kind of say that there's not really a safe, kind, and welcoming world. Dimitri and Edelgard are way too interesting actually, I tried so hard to connect and even feel bad for them sometimes because it was just ridiculous, but Claude is "real", he actually finds the reason of all the hatred and bad of Fodlan, he fights for a world I also want to see, a day without seeing his friends cry, suffer or die, a place where HE feels safe and happy, because just as he claims, Claude is kind of selfish (when he talks) but there's no wrong to seek what you want if everyone else will be happy bc of it tomorrow. That's why i like Claude, feels like a true hero, leader, and friend.
Even putting aside all the themes he embodies as a character and his use fleshing out the world: he's hot (sincerly, a lesbian)
Claude is a chill guy who actually has a sense of humor and he’s very easy to relate to. For those who say he gets no character development it’s actually hidden quite well. His character development sees him becoming more serious and an expert tactician as well as a dependable leader. Besides he wants to open Fodlan to the outside world basically ending racism, and even when he is defeated he goes in a respectable way that make you regret beating him, especially if you choose to kill him in black eagles. I mean he actually hopes that Edelgard will make the world better and holds absolutely no resentment towards her. It’s like some of the characters say in the game, he may seem easygoing and carefree on the outside but behind the mask lies a tough and stern leader who is more than capable of leading an army to victory.
I like the comparison to Steve Rogers as captain America is my favorite avenger and I think both characters have a thing in common they are just really good people.
Its bizarre to me that people say claude doesn't have an arc when its right there: its about trust. His development and learning to trust people isn't as overt and in you face like Edelgard's and Dimitri's but its obvious from his behavior at the start of the game towards Byleth in that he holds them at a distance and isn't constantly seeking their validation like the other two. If you pick the alliance during the prologue, his response is a lackadaisical "Oh I suppose I should be happy".
He doesn't trust Byleth at the start, believing that they're lying when they admit to not knowing much about themselves and clearly annoyed and wary when Byleth acquires the sword of the creator and learns about their crest. Heck this can be seen from the fact that he holds his ambitions so close to his chest for the entirety of part 1 until he opens up to Byleth as a friend and in part 2, despite the odd circumstances behind their 5 year disappearance, he believes them and opens up about his dreams. Its not a dramatic redemption arc because that's not what claude is or needs.
Its a story of a boy who's been hurt in the past learning to trust again. This becomes more evident when contrasted to him in the CF route where is Hilda dies, he mourns for her, stating that he expected her to retreat, that he never even considered that she would be willing to die for him. He's a person with a big heart. He's just afraid of being hurt again so he hides it away with a charming facade.
Claude is my favorite Fire Emblem character period!
Claude is just sexy and attractive, that’s why I like him
We like Claude because he's the best boy. My first playthrough, I was convinced I would choose Black Eagles. One conversation with Claude was enough to change my mind, and I regret nothing. Fear the deer!
I like claude *because* he is the most realistic character
He has his serious moments but he actually jokes around from time to time, specially in the first half of the game
He has things that some people will relate to while others won't, like him being an outsider, and now I will get into golden deer spoilers so if you haven't finished that route you have been warned
I love how claude has this battle victory saying "never underestimate an outsider" at first I didn't really understand since the game always kept claude's true identity a secret until the very end of the game when the credits roll, and when it was revealed that he gave the alliance leadership to Lorenz and disappeared after that I was confused, until I read that he later met up with Lorenz as the king of almyra, now it may have seemed obvious that he had ties to almyra since he had a friendship with Nader and he was an outsider and that his whole plan was to destroy fodlan's throat, but that reveal made so much since and just completed the puzzle with that final piece
Now it made since why claude wanted to destroy fodlan's throat, why he had that victory cry and why his unique class was basicly him in an almyran armor riding a dragon... Yeah I think it was pretty easy to guess who claude was