painting it gold this time

[mikogalatea]

Started my Golden Deer run yesterday! I've been itching for this since a while before I finished Azure Moon. ^^; Right now I'm about to do Chapter 2's story battle.

I'm playing as male!Byleth again this time, and I'll be having him marry Yuri. :3 I've already recruited all the Ashen Wolves plus Ferdinand, and I'll also be picking up Linhardt (hopefully next chapter!), Dorothea (as she's another favourite and I'm impatient to see her Yuri supports, though she might take longer to get because she wants a fairly high Charm stat), Ingrid (not straight away in her case, as she's meant to be stronger as a cross-house recruit if gotten later) and Cyril (the only non-automatic faculty recruit I'll have this time).

I've gotten a decent handful of C-ranks already, mostly thanks to abusing mealtime boosts, although not to the degree that I've properly gotten a feel for all the Deer yet. Still, I'm happy to offer my thoughts on most of what I've gotten so far.

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Hilda/Marianne C was the very first support I got on this run. It's a fairly popular f/f ship in the fandom from what I've seen, but for now I don't really know how I feel about it. I'm a bit worried their relationship might come across too much like Hilda pushing Marianne into things, though it's such early days right now that I wouldn't know either way for sure. As far as what I have seen goes, it seems notable that Hilda did end up helping Marianne organise the books (in other words, she actually did some work after all) when the latter messed up the library cleaning duty; I don't know yet if that's unusual coming from Hilda, as my only other points of reference so far are her C-ranks with Balthus and Ferdie, but if it is, it might be worth keeping an eye on this dynamic.

(Speaking of Marianne, one thing I'm particularly looking forward to in Verdant Wind is getting a better load of her character development. I did see her excellent paralogue and some lovely A-ranks and monastery dialogue when I had her in AM, so I'm expecting her growth to feel even better in the route where she gets screentime in the main script!)

Claude/Lorenz C is good and interesting, but I don't feel any shippy potential in their dynamic at this point. Meanwhile, although I don't ship Claude/Byleth either, I like the interactions they've had so far. I'm already enjoying Claude as a house leader more than Dimitri, to be honest. Edelgard's still my fave, though.

Constance/Ferdinand C is so good and sad. It speaks volumes when "Recollection and Regret" plays as early on in a support chain as the C-rank. Ferdie keeps hurting Coco without meaning to and the whole thing made me tear up. ;.;

Balthus/Lysithea C is quite amusing and nicely sets up the connection between him and her family. He also seems to decently respect her secret sweet tooth? Either way, I want to see more of this -- and I'm happy to say I still love Lysithea.

Ignatz/Leonie has been recommended to me as a good ship to go for; it hasn't grabbed me just yet -- their C-rank mostly has them talking about bows, to be fair -- but I could see it becoming nice later on, especially if she ends up being supportive of him.

Ignatz himself is a sweet kid and might actually be my favourite Deer boy at the moment, but he's got such terrible self-esteem. D: Makes me curious about his Marianne supports, so I'll aim to get started on those.

Yuri and Constance are pretty fun together, and Yuri/Hapi C is nice as well.

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I have pairings in mind for most of the recruited characters, but I've got fewer preconceptions about ships within the Deer themselves than I've had for the Eagles or the Lions, so I'll see what I end up liking.

For now, I'll keep playing on!

Comments

[sarajayechan]

Hilda/Marianne gets better as it goes on, and the A support is honestly really cute. :3 Hilda actually gets some amazing character development in this route.

Claude and Lorenz honestly have a good dynamic, shippy or not. Lorenz is like Claude's Ferdinand in a way.

YAY for Ignatz possibly being your favorite. :c The boy is sort of underappreciated but he's got such depth and he's kind of a woobie with his low self-image being a well-done character flaw. (Play "Death Toll" and get his C-B supports with Raphael, too, and bring tissues. The Deer may be more funny and lighthearted but they're not without their share of sads.)

Also, if you're in the market for trying new classes? Marianne makes a GREAT Dark Flier.

Hapi/Yuri has a pretty nice set from what I've seen so far. :3

[mikogalatea]

It's funny you call him that, true though it may be, because I happened to get Lorenz/Byleth C way back in my CF run and found him so insufferable that it made me realise how endearing Ferdie really was! ^^; I'm not knocking on Lorenz, though; he always seemed fairly interesting and I hear he gets some excellent character development post-skip. I should see the supports between Lorenz and Ferdie themselves, too.

Favourite Deer boy at the moment, I should point out. Lysithea's my favourite Deer in general for now. It's a shame Ignatz is so overlooked and even kind of unpopular, because he seems neat. D:

I was considering putting Marianne on that path! I did already make her a holy knight in AM, after all, and doing something a bit different never hurts. On the other hand, I want to put Hilda and Ferdie on wyverns, and between those two, Ingrid, Constance and post-skip Claude, I feel like I'll have an awful lot of fliers as-is; enemy bows are gonna be the bane of me! Marianne's neutral in leveling up her reason, too, even if she does have a strength in flying. I'll think about it.

[sarajayechan]

He can be insufferable, and Byleth is right in scolding him. But he gets better. Some of his supports make you want to swat him, but the girls call him out on it and to his credit, he does listen.

Aah. :3 Lysithea is great, too, interesting character with a lot of layers and some cute supports.

Dark fliers tend to have way lower defense and avoid too, in my experience. Poor Constance really benefited from that Aurora Shield, and I kept feeding her defense-boosting items. (I always make Ferdie a great knight, but you just gave me an idea for a new class for him...as for Coco, I'm gonna try Valkyrie with her this time.)

[mikogalatea]

I have no doubt that dark fliers have tissue-paper defences, as Coco certainly did in CS, but I would've thought their growths would let them have at least slightly better dodging ability on average -- or at the very least, leveling up the flying skill decently would give Alert Stance for a boost in dodging when the character just waits. I'm guessing they turned out worse at dodging in your experience?

I've decided I'm gonna aim for Marianne as a dark flier after all. It makes a change, it's quicker for her to get into, she's already got Physic now, I think I only used Aura once before and never bothered with Silence, she's got some decent reason spells... in other words, why the heck not? There'll be a lot of competition for the Aurora Shield when I eventually get that, though!

Ferdie kicked ass on a wyvern in my CF run, so I don't think you'll be disappointed if you do take him in that direction. :3

[sarajayechan]

Thinking back it might have just been a Constance problem. Marianne was more or less okay. (I didn't use her a ton past a certain point, she wasn't on my final team, but she still did pretty well.)

I think you can get a second Aurora Shield in the Abyss? But if not, Silver Shields are a decent second choice.

I'm definitely gonna do that, then. :3 I'll only have to level him up in three skills, too. (I love Great Knights, but they can be a chore to get every necessary skill up without cheating via renown!)