Isn't this contradicted in his Byleth C support? We see him with a girl he's dating and said girl finds out he's been dating other girls. It doesn't help that this line of dialogue is in there:
Forgot, so thank you, and yes Byleth is the one support that looks at his character disfavorably, which is why I placed it in with Lorenz. Byleth seems to bring up the worst in most of the cast as just something about his/her presence seems to trigger something in the characters. Leonie being a fine example of a character that is decently likeable, then has a Byleth freakout. Bernadette also had the weird complete character turn around in the Byleth S support, Lorenz was more creepy in his weird invitations, Hubert is more hostile, even Dorothea seems off and sort of pulls a “I am a terrible person and you are looking into my soul thing.”
To comment, what Sylvain did was completely unjustifiable in Byleth’s supports. He was a complete jerk and his wanting to murder Byleth for having it easy is way out of line. I guess I sort of just brush it off though as the supports with other characters mean more to me. Characters like Hubert, Leonie, Lorenz, Bernadette, Edelgard, and Sylvain all seem to act differently around Byleth than with others, and I just find it best to separate it as a one time instance. Maybe not the best way of looking at characters, but if what 11/12 supports have them behaved, then should I fault the one?
It's one thing to have a casual relationship in a medieval setting, it's an entirely different thing when you're leading people on. Again, Byleth's C support. Lorenz at least is pretty straightforward and doesn't leave a lot to fill in the gaps for interpretation.
Agreed, though how many instances of Sylvain’s flirting even came up? I only remember Manuela, Lorenz and Byleth’s supports having them. Diving even deeper then that, it seems like Bylet’s was the only one to show a girl get hurt by him, otherwise he is just getting into getting into “one-night-stands” or doing basic flirting for a phone number. Maybe a bit jerkish, but hardly any real damage. It is like seeing how many girls’ numbers you can get.
once again, Byleth just seems to be the exception.
It's fine if you like Sylvain and all, but for me, him being a nice guy on top of him being douchy towards women makes his character a little incoherent. It's not good enough for the writers that he's a nice guy who's hopelessly a flirt. He needs to be given a somber backstory as a means to promote that crests are bad. And just for shits and giggles, we can have that be a reason as to why he inconsistently treats women like shit.
The thing is, he only seems mean to npc women, and only in Byleth’s support. All of the game’s main cast women seem to be fine around him and he seems genuinely kind. Like I said before, He carried Manuela to her room, helped Annette with an equation, tried to make Leonie feel more valued as a women, helped Marianne cheer up a bit (which she actually appreciates as she brings it up in Ashe’s A support), and he seems to be the one who truly understands and shows sympathy towards Dorothea and Mercedes. He is nice to all women he has supports with. The only exception for this is Byleth for whatever reason, but seeing as characters undergo personality changes for Byleth, like Edelgard turning into a weird waifu, I typically just kind of ignore it and judge the other actions.
I think the inconsistent writing in this game just comes from Byleth. Sylvain makes sense when not taking in Byleth’s support. I feel the point of Byleth’s support was to show how the crests have messed up his perception of the world, but both Mercedes and Dorothea do that without him being cruel. Mercedes and him are in a similar situation, so they bond over how the crest they have dictates their lives, while Dorothea gets his insecuritit’s about only being valued for something one is born with. With Byleth, it is out of nowhere resentment in a vein attempt to make an already well thought out character deep.
Except that Dorothea completely misinterpreted the situation as him being disgusted by her, thus, reinforcing her dislike of nobles. Ferdinand ran-off because he thought that he was hallucinating a water nymph not necessarily because of some sort of politeness or decency. You might want to re-read their support because this reads more like a bad game of telephone.
I get that she misread, but that doesn’t make the situation better on her end. She is literally showering publicly and gets offended when someone turns away at her being naked. That seems like a completely justifiable action to take in that scenario. I see what you are saying in that Ferdinand had a different motive, but still, this seems like a very self-made issue. I wouldn’t even be that mad about it, but even outside supports she treats Ferdinand bad, and she also withholds any reasoning from him for 5 years. At this point, it is just a petty grudge. He shows nothing but respect and hard work, yet she kicks him down with no chance to even know or amend what he did wrong. You get annoyed by Sylvain leading people on, but that is essentially the Dorothea x Ferdinand support.
To finish up..
Dorothea adopting a more somber attitude is pretty sensible considering she's been through five years of war. I would say that Sylvain remaining rather static is a bit inorganic.
Real talk, everyone remains static through the time skip. The only exceptions are Dorothea and Dimitri, and Dimitri arguably changed prior to it as his snap came at El’s reveal. Every other character is essentially the same with maybe some minor differences like Ferdinand worrying about his lost title. Dorothea is so bizarre post-Time Skip as they never alluded to any sense of dread, making her doomer personality random. It’s like they had no idea where to take her. What makes it worse is that the supports don’t even reflect the change, she is upbeat with Caspar and others, and seems ready to fight and unchanged in pre-battle dialogue, yet monastery and battle quotes have her entirely different.
I don't like Dorothea that much, but I don't think she's nearly as bad as some make her out to be.
I...actually agree. While I rant on her, I think she can be good and has potential, I just don’t think the game went about it the best.
Dorothea going after noblemen is rooted in the near inevitability of poverty and obscurity. That's part of the reason why she's even in the Officers Academy. She grew up with nobles scoffing at her than having them admire her beauty once she became an opera singer. It's reasonable to assume that her distrust of nobles and her treatment of others is a character flaw fueled by a rough upbringing.
This is probably the biggest wasted potential. It feels like her noble hatred is more inconsistent than Sylvain’s sexism. She only seems to hate men, making the whole Noble thing rather odd. It is also strange that her experiences do not come up much with Edelgard or Hubert, you know, the people fighting the nobility. Edelgard literally asks everyone about the unfairness of nobility, but the one with a genuine issue is instead relegated to singing songs for her lesbian queen. The Black Eagles writing is rough in general, which is likely why Dorothea does not get the same love as Sylvain. Each house had a theme, but Black Eagles seems off. The Blue Lions were supposed to be the character driven house, the Golden Dear the lore/world building house, and Black Eagles should have been a debate of El’s ideals. Dorothea and Bernadetta work perfectly as justification, yet her and Hubert’s supports just forget the interesting part of the characters exist. Ferdinand seems to be the only conversation piece for El as he challenges her ideals. The other characters should have done what Ferdinand did in his A support, but they do not. Lindhart should have aided Ferdinand in being against as his Crest research conflicts and he sees the dangers of El’s plan for crests. In addition I cannot even think of what Caspar and Petra could have done to add to the debate as they seem unimportant. I think this element damages Dorothea as there is no set theme in the house for characters to work off of, or atleast no commitment.
I can try to explain further if you like, but this post is too long. Ultimately, I think Sylvain just got the better deal. He feels far more integrated into his house than Dorothea, leaving a bigger lasting impression. They are similar, but one feels more well utilized and purposeful than the other.
