Dirk Warhard
/slams hands down on table who's ready to hear about my favorite ship of all time?
Dirk Warhard
that's right it's time for all of you to sit and listen to me explain why Uther and Oswin from Fire Emblem 7 are totes married and why everyone should appreciate that about them, get comfy
Villain
Dirk Warhard
ok so first, the relevant setting background of FE7: like all the other pre-Awakening FE's, we're dealing with a medieval Europe styled fantasy setting. we've got magic users, we've got pegasi and wyverns, we used to have dragons but about a thousand years ago there was a big war between the humans and dragons
Dirk Warhard
that the dragons lost so they all fucked off to parts unknown and the heroes who won the war went on to found the various nations of Elibe, the continent on which FE7 takes place.
moontouched
hell yeah
Dirk Warhard
the most relevant nation to our tale here is the Lycian League, which rather than being a unified kingdom, is a collection of allied territories united under a single banner. the greatest territory and head of the League is Ostia, making Marquess Ostia the closest thing the League has to a king.
Dirk Warhard
which brings us to Uther, the current Marquess Ostia, having recently ascended to the throne! he's pretty young for the position, we don't have a canon age for him, but he's, like, mid-twenties.
Dirk Warhard
his younger brother, Hector, is one of the protagonists of FE7, and their parents died of an unspecified illness some number of years ago, leaving Uther as a kind of substitute father figure for Hector more than a brother
Dirk Warhard
Oswin, meanwhile, is a knight of Ostia, and takes great pride in this position, as the knights of Ostia are unique in being a full meritocracy instead of an inherited position. Oswin is a commoner by birth, so he damn well earned his position as a trusted knight
Dirk Warhard
so, the way FE7 is structured, each of the three protagonists has a "Story." Lyn's Story is the tutorial/prologue, taking place a year before Eliwood's Story, which is the main game. Hector's Story only unlocks once you've beaten Eliwood's Story, and it covers the same events, but with a few differences
Dirk Warhard
here and there and an additional subplot about Uther.
Dirk Warhard
the set-up for Eliwood's Story is that Eliwood's dad, the Marquess of Pherae, has gone missing, so he's venturing out to go look for him, and Hector leaves Ostia to come help, but Uther has sent a small retinue to accompany him, which includes Oswin.
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Hector is not thrilled to have Oswin babysitting him and Oswin is honestly not thrilled about it either. Hector is brash and opinionated and his personality clashes hard with Oswin's reserved knightly dignity
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Uther, we hear very little about in Eliwood's Story. he's observed to be cunning and dangerous, and he's caused a lot of waves by taking Ostia's throne and immediately decrying the gluttonous overspending of many other nobles, and he's got his plate full bolstering his position as Ostia's new leader
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while also ensuring that Lycia doesn't appear weak to the neighboring, much larger kingdoms who might just be looking to see if they can get away with doing a little conquering if it seems like there's some trouble within Lycia's borders
Dirk Warhard
so now, Hector's Story, this is where the good shit actually is! Hector's Story, of course, starts with Hector, before he goes to meet up with Eliwood. Hector argues with Uther that they should give Eliwood material support for his search, but Uther refuses, so Hector decides he's going to sneak out of the castle
Dirk Warhard
and go help Eliwood alone, fuck you, bro, you're not my real dad. on his way out, he's attacked by some assassins, which is weird, in that these aren't the usual assassins he expects, these guys are actually, like, competent??? I always get a kick out of how completely blase Hector is about people trying to
Dirk Warhard
kill him in his own goddamnned castle, it really says a lot about how hard Uther has pissed off the other nobles that people are trying to murder his little brother in his own house on the reg.
Dirk Warhard
anyway, Hector gets through just fine with the help of one of Ostia's spies, and meanwhile, Uther breaks out in a coughing fit while talking to Oswin, Oswin nags him about his health and how he hasn't been sleeping until he agrees to see a physician about it, and then he asks Oswin to go with Hector.
Dirk Warhard
I want you all to know that I am actively resisting the impulse to go dig up the specific screencaps of this scene from my Tumblr because if I do that we will be here all night, but trust me, ok, the specific phrasing they use talking to each other here is just. they're married, okay, they're so married
Dirk Warhard
you can practically hear the exasperated "yes, dear" in Uther's voice when he agrees to see the doctor, yes this is wholly text dialogue on the GBA, but trust me, you guys, trust me
Dirk Warhard
anyway the search for Eliwood's dad leads the group to discover a brewing rebellion against Ostia being plotted by the Marquess of Laos, and allegedly Eliwood's dad was involved??? Oswin advises Hector that they should go home instead of continuing to aid Eliwood's search, lest this quickly turn into
Dirk Warhard
aiding a rebellion against Ostia, only for Hector to rebuff him because he knows that Eliwood's dad is a good and noble man who would never. He tells Oswin that he's free to go home, he's fulfilled his obligation to protect him, and then Oswin does something that completely blindsides Hector and
Dirk Warhard
swears fealty to Hector
Dirk Warhard
because Hector's right, and his obligation as a knight of Ostia is to leave, but what Uther wants is for Oswin to watch over his little brother for him, and Uther's wishes take precedence over doing the proper knightly thing, despite doing the proper knightly thing being Oswin's core personality trait
Dirk Warhard
so he brings the proper knightly thing back in line with Uther's wishes by swearing himself into Hector's personal service, it's honestly kind of genius
Dirk Warhard
things continue to escalate, turns out this whole rebellion thing is being manipulated by a guy whose ultimate goal is to bring dragons back to Elibe to wreck shit, the team meets with Uther in secret to discuss this, Uther still can't give them any official support without setting off the sharks circling
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in the waters, but he can point them towards someone who can help, and then he has a conversation with Hector where Hector's like, hey, are you okay, you look like shit, which Uther brushes off like, yeah, a maniac is trying to bring back dragons and our best bet of stopping him is you, I am
Dirk Warhard
kind of stressed out about it, to which Hector is like, wow, ok, fine, sorry for being worried about you, asshole
Dirk Warhard
this deserves better paraphrasing but as previously mentioned I am not going down the rabbit hole of digging up the accurate dialogue, I'll never stop
Dirk Warhard
as their adventures continue, there's a couple of scenes between Hector and Oswin where Oswin receives letters from Ostia, Hector asks what's up, and Oswin insists everything is fine, culminating in one where Hector is deadass just like, look, this is important, but if my brother needs me, I Will drop
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everything and go home right now, you understand? to which Oswin continues to insist that everything is fine at home despite being clearly distressed when he got the letter at the start of the scene
Dirk Warhard
near the end of the game, the group ends up in Ostia, so they decide to rest at the castle for a couple of nights before continuing on, but Uther isn't there, apparently he left for a conference just yesterday
Dirk Warhard
other stuff happens, but then that night, Hector confronts Oswin in front of Uther's empty throne. Hector is fed up with everyone lying to him and he wants the truth, but Oswin continues to insist that everything's normal. Hector gets so worked up that he threatens to strike Oswin down if he still refuses to confess,
Dirk Warhard
but Oswin remains resolute, and at that, all the fight leaves Hector.
Dirk Warhard
He'd figured that Uther was away recovering, that that was what everyone was hiding from him, but for Oswin to be willing to go that far to keep it secret, then Uther must already be dead
Dirk Warhard
they talk about it more the next day. Hector's decided to keep Uther's death a secret from the others so they can focus on the task at hand without worrying about it, but he tells Oswin that he can't forgive him or Uther for it. he's upset that his brother trusted him so little that he would keep this secret from him,
Dirk Warhard
to which Oswin is like, whoa, hey, you can hate me all you like, but don't misunderstand Uther like that. and he goes on to explain that Uther ordered him to keep it secret because he knew that if Hector had to choose between him and Eliwood, he'd hate himself no matter which he picked, so he made sure Hector wouldn't have to
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Hector stays pissed at Oswin until the final map where the final boss just drops that fun little nugget of information that Uther's dead in front of everybody, and then Eliwood goes to Hector like, have you cleared things up with Oswin yet? because he knows Hector isn't really mad at Oswin, he's mad
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at himself for not being there, and then Hector goes and gives Oswin the most indirect forgiveness of all time
Gay Be Crime Do
I think you're like 50% of the reason I tried to read a FE7 LP
Gay Be Crime Do
Purely so I could understand Uther and Oswin
Gay Be Crime Do
...Unfortunately I think I got lost in the structure of the LP and the supports and then never reached Hector's story, defeating that purpose
Gay Be Crime Do
I have read this though [eyes emoji]
Dirk Warhard
Oh noooo
Gay Be Crime Do
This is some fine pain right here
Dirk Warhard
it hurts so good 
Gay Be Crime Do
This but knights...
Dirk Warhard
I have written so many words about Oswin and loyalty and love and conflict in priorities
Dirk Warhard
the proper knightly thing to do would have been to tell Hector the truth and bid him to return to Ostia and take the throne and stop risking his life, and instead he honored Uther's wishes above all else and I just 
Gay Be Crime Do
TRULY MARRIED...
Dirk Warhard
get you a man who will sacrifice his knightly honor for you
Dirk Warhard
they're just fucking married
vered
/sits in this plurk