I Filmed My King Whenever He Cried Or Was Nasty For 24 Hours

Did you know you can just BANG in a children's franchise-

(smut threads go here)

Player
Name: James
E-mail: trickeryandlies@yahoo.com
Preferred Contact: PM this journal, trilies at plurk
Timezone: PST
Current Characters in Victory Road: beep beep i'm empty

Character
Name: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd
Series: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Timeline: Azure Moon, Pre-Gronder Field, All Recruitment
Canon Resource Links: cutting soap for my king while he wears a turtle neck

Personality:
At the core of him, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd is a good person. He has a strong belief of what is right, believes the the situation of commoners in the midst of a huge war is Unacceptable, and has many times asked to be put on equal level like his peers instead of the heir to a whole kingdom.

He is also right in the middle of a long-time-coming mental breakdown.

The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, like many medieval fantasy type places, doesn't seem to believe in the concept of therapists. As one might imagine, this is a bit of a problem when you are a small child who witnesses a large number of people being violently murdered all around you, including your beloved father and a dear friend/bodyguard. Example A: sending that same PTSD-riddled kid a few years later to take charge of a campaign against an enemy country, where it's implied that he has his first instance of breaking down and is terribly violent in turn.

The Sreng incident is a good example of Faerghus' combative history and present, it's idea of duty above all else... and how that has imprinted strongly upon Dimitri, a traumatized young boy thrown into another traumatic situation. It didn't matter if the idea of going into battle again might have churned Dimitri's stomach, and it's highly likely no one simply thought how his experiences in a battle-torn and blood-soaked environment, not even Dimitri. He was the crown prince of Faerghus, and was thus duty-bound to lead his people and protect his kingdom. Faerghus has historically been a kingdom in a difficult land wrought by battle. There was no reason for him to shy away, right?

It certainly explains why Dimitri's reactions often end up so violent; it's not a him thing so much as it is a Faerghus thing. We get to know Dimitri's personality in a more stable setting for roughly half the game, during the 'Academy' stage. In that setting, he often presents himself as a more 'classic' kind of prince, or Fire Emblem lord. He has a strong sense of morals and plenty of kindness, to make up for what he might lack in cleverness (something another lord/protag, Claude von Riegan, dominates instead).

He's a good kid, what we see of him in the Academy setting. He's clearly doing his best to be a Good Prince (tm) that will be a Good King (tm) and, above all else, a good person. We see this in the expected ways, of course. In his support with Sylvain Gautier, a childhood friend, he confronts him on his skirtchasing ways not being exactly proper. (Fun fact: Dimitri's room is right next to Sylvain's. Sylvain asks for guidance in the notebox mechanic on this iirc, and basically implies that Dimitri is well aware of when he has a girl over, but only confronts Sylvain about it the morning after. You know, like a god damn gentleman.)

However, he also very clearly has some more progressive hints to him, or at least compared to the expected standard of most nobility or royalty. He insists that his title doesn't mean anything, and that people of all standings can just call him by his name, such as Ashe, another member of the Blue Lions house who is of common lineage. After a plot mission where Sylvain's disowned older brother steals a holy artifact and warps into a giant monster (y'know, as happens), Dimitri openly questions the importance of Crests and if it's truly right for something like that to be enough to discard your own family. This is a bit of a big deal for the future king to say, someone who has his position exactly because he managed to bear a crest, and the connection between Crests, one's standing in Faerghus, and how important the Church of Seiros (the reason it's the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus) finds Crests.

Yet one of the most telling things about Dimitri, especially during the Academy stage, is his relationship with Dedue Molinaro, who acts as his retainer and right hand man. Every protag/lord of the three houses has one, and Dedue is Dimitri's. Dedue is also from the country of Duscur. This is notable because the tragedy which left Dimitri an orphan and rocked Faerghus to its core was pinned on Duscur as a whole. It became commonly accepted fact that Duscur was responsible, and the Kingdom retaliated thusly.

Yet the sole survivor of that tragedy, Dimitri himself, knows for a fact that Duscur is not responsible. He may not know who the hell is, but he knows it Was Not Duscur, and he saved Dedue's life through this belief. Dimitri's station keeps Dedue alive, and Dedue stays with Dimitri because Dimitri made a promise to not only find out who was really responsible, but clear Duscur's name and help restore it. This on its own tells a great deal about Dimitri, how staunch he is in his beliefs, how much he wants to make up for what his kingdom did wrong, all of it.

However, we are introduced to this in Dimitri and Dedue's first support together. It opens with a pair of Kingdom soldiers discussing the two's relationship... in not particularly positive terms. They, like so many other people, still believe Duscur to have been behind the murder of their previous king. Now the crown prince, the man who will soon be king in only a few years, is being followed around by another Duscur man and seems to trust him the most? Clearly something has to be wrong. Clearly that man is tricking their prince, or manipulating him, or something. Needless to say, it's pretty racist.

It immediately stops when Dimitri, having overheard this conversation, rams his way into it:

Dimitri, in the most passive aggressive tone you or God has ever heard: What a pleasant conversation you seem to be having. May I join? Please, continue.

Soldier, panicking: Oh! Um! Your Highness... I was just-

Dimitri, None Passive with Left Aggressive: I said continue.

And then both soldiers run away for fairly obvious reasons. What's more interesting and relevant to the personality section of a roleplay app is that Dedue turns to Dimitri and has a conversation where it's kind of implied this is a regular problem. How couldn't it be, after all? The situation, from the outside and with commonly believed knowledge, is just too suspicious. Dedue even tells Dimitri that this isn't necessary, that he doesn't have to do this.

But Dimitri still does it. Dimitri still does it, because Duscur is innocent. Dedue is innocent. And Dimitri cannot stand to the side while innocent people suffer, even if that actively harms him. This comes up in Dedue's paralogue quest, where Dimitri even helps him essentially chase off some insurgents from Duscur trying to take back their land. They're outnumbered terribly, and could be easily overpowered... which would be more death of innocent people. When Dedue hears about it, Dimitri makes sure to get him the help he needs with approaching their Professor.

Again, this is Dimitri at his most stable. The only hints we get that he has some underlying issues are three things: Byleth (the PC) noting in True Anime Fashion that he has some darkness behind his gaze, Felix Fraldarius (childhood friend there with him at Sreng) constantly calling him a violent 'boar' along with their Support conversations, and... Remire.

Remire comes up twice. It is the place where Byleth and the three lords meet, yes... but then it is a place Byleth returns to, along with their class. On that second occasion, Remire has been reduced to flaming ruins where its inhabitants have been either slaughtered or transformed into terrible monsters. It's horrific... and, clearly, sets off Dimitri's mental issues.

Dimitri has clearly been able to find some sense of stability, when he's not being sent off to fight in campaigns, thanks to his station and a vague sort of support network. Dedue helps gives him a purpose and direction to go in, and his father's best friend (and thus his best friend's father) Rodrigue Fraldarius has also clearly taken up some parenting slack whenever he's come to visit. As a prince, he's well protected generally (and no doubt even more after the tragedy) and he didn't have to worry about home or food. It's probably why he can deal with the usual day to day fighting off of bandits or the like.

But in the atrocity filled landscape of a war, like in Sreng? In the decimated bloody remains of a village? That clearly is too powerful a reminder of his memories from the Tragedy of Duscur, where he was only a child surrounded by mutilated corpses. It is in Remire that we see Dimitri snap for the first time, becoming violently aggressive as he calls for the heads of those responsible and sounds more than a little unhinged as he does so, a waver to his usual tone. This is clearly just a bit of what Felix saw in Sreng, and it pops up again in the second-to-last level of the Academy stage in the underground tomb beneath the church when Dimitri realizes who's betrayed all of them (and who he thinks is truly responsible for the Tragedy).

All of this might seem irrelevant, with Dimitri in his current state. All of that was around five years ago, after all. In that time since the war started, Dimitri got accused of murdering his uncle (the regent), managed to escape an execution thanks to Dedue (who he thought died), and spent those five years wobbling inbetween living in the poorest areas in the country and wandering the wilderness to violently murder Imperial patrols as they just tried to get from one place to another.

So, you know, a lot has happened.

Without a lot of the things that kept him stable, it's no surprise that Dimitri, well... isn't, at the present moment. It seems that he has two main modes when he is found again, first by Byleth after they wake from being in a coma and then by all of their friends in short order. Neither state makes him as palatable as he was in his youth, or anywhere near as friendly. Both are laser focused towards the one goal he has in life now: defeating Edelgard and making sure she can never do what he thinks she did to anyone else ever again.

The most noticeable and immediately worrying part is how Dimitri's temper bursts through. Bits and pieces of it were noticeable when he was younger, such as when he confronted the knights talking ill of Dedue, or in more humorous situations like if you choose him the take part in the dance competition... But as an adult, in his current state, it's become a lot more nasty, and prevalent.

When things aren't going the way he thinks they need to go, the way he needs them to go in order to fulfill what he believes to be his twisted duty, Dimitri's temper blows up. He glares, and snaps, and won't listen to what might be more logical. It can be intimidating to weather out, or frustrating to yell at a brick wall.

The alternate and most common state to find him in is simple... stagnation. When not in a cutscene, or on a battlefield, the only place Byleth can find Dimitri is in the chapel of what was once the Garreg Mach church. There, he just... sits. And waits. On a meta level, during this time, you can't engage Dimitri with any of the skill-and-support raising activities such as putting him on a chore duty, or having a meal with him, or raise a skill during a lesson. None of his supports can be activated, because no one can raise their level with him even during battle.

Even during fights, he often makes comments that clearly extend this attitude to his emotions. He tells his opponents that he'll essentially see them in hell, because he's going there too, and dismisses allies' attempts to heal him. There was always an underlying sense of depression behind some of Dimitri's actions and words, but now it's because painfully obvious just how far deep it affected him.

Things that probably aren't helping: actively and regularly hallucinating.

Neither canon nor the developers ever explicitly say just what is going on with Dimitri's mental state, but the hallucinations are clearly something Dimitri has been struggling with for some time (worsening, likely, with stress such as when he was trying to come to terms with Edelgard) and canonly states, at the end of the Azure Moon route with Byleth as a romantic partner, that he'll probably always struggle with his mental health for as long as he lives. And in his current state? That's at the height of how Shit it is.

This is also, interestingly enough, where Faerghus' strong imprint onto Dimitri comes into play again. Dimitri makes a couple of references to it... but we actually learn about this interesting bit of lore from a conversation on an entirely different route, between one Claude von Riegan and Annette (another default Blue Lion). There, they discuss how it's a common cultural belief in "Northern Fodlan" (aka Faerghus) that, if you die while with regret, you can't move on. You're left trapped in a realm you don't belong in, suffering, miserable, angry.

So yes: Dimitri believes he is hearing the voices of everyone that was lost during the Tragedy, clamoring for vengeance so that their regrets can be satisfied and they can move on. He's not in this revenge hunt for himself. Dimitri believes he has numerous people all relying on him, and only him, to get to a better place. And if he fails at that... Well. Survivor's guilt. Faerghus duty. This kingdom took a perfectly fine himbo and gave him like so much mental illness.

Yet the Dimitri in the midst of this huge mental breakdown in the middle of a war is still the same Dimitri that was known during the Academy stage. His passion to protect has shifted into an impatient rage to fulfill the wishes of the dead. The trauma that made him quiet and somber on occasion has stagnated him with depression and apathy.

Even his strong morals have become amplified and stretched. Dimitri often tried to see things from other people's points of view... but for things so violent and cruel that he couldn't understand them, Dimitri's trauma often demanded that they become monsters to be put down. In Dimitri's view, he's become that same kind of monster, just as much as the enemy Imperial soldiers. They're all sinners together here, so why should he care about them? Why should he care about himself? Shouldn't they all suffer?

But even if things have been taken to a form of their extremes, even if other parts of him have been buried by depression and rage... It's still Dimitri. That shows in how he never actually harms his allies and friends on his side, never forces an order onto them. Instead, he storms away from the matter, pulls himself out of it, says he'll do something himself. It shows in how he responds to Rodrigue, going soft and respectful and awkwardly grateful when he hears of the risks the older man took for him.

Dimitri will ultimately always be himself. That's true whether he's the repressed prince doing his best for his loved ones and kingdom, or the temperamental ghost desperate to quiet the undead voices he hears in his own skull while having given up on his own self. It all just depends on where he is, and who he's with, and if he's been thrown into another highly stressful situation reminiscent of past betrayals filling a bloody field.

TL;DR:Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd is a good person with good goals, ultimately. He is also just extremely traumatized, and all of that kind of burst out at once, and has stayed burst due to a combination of further betrayals, lack of resources/support, and him having to lead an underdog army in the midst of a war.

Let's give him a pig and a cellphone and see if that helps him at all.

Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Tepig
Password: Atomic Fireball

Samples
RP Sample: Two feral idiots walk into a pokecenter...

Victory Road Sample: Let! Him! Fight! A! Murder! Wasp!