PE Proposal: Cleobulus and Solon from Fire Emblem (2024)

Hello, everyone and welcome back to my 2nd proposal. After the first proposal regarding Bryce Fairchild was a success (surprisingly), I decided to try my luck with a second proposal. And this time, I'm proposing two villains from a very popular video game franchise. Whom I'm very surprised wasn't proposed yet. And once again, big thanks to The Pro-Wrestler for allowing this proposal.

So without further ado, allow me to introduce: Cleobulus and Solon.

What's the Work?[]

Fire Emblem is a highly popular Nintendo video game franchise, known for its tactical strategies, wonderful role-playing stories, amazing cast of characters (heroes and villains alike), the support system, and so on. The franchise did previously have a near-cancellation, but thankfully the success of Fire Emblem: Awakening and many other positive factors ensured its survival. For this proposal, we're specifically talking about the 2017 video game, Fire Emblem: Three Houses and its 2022 spin-off sequel, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes (which I like to call the Fódlan Saga).

In this saga, we explore the story of Byleth Eisner, a highly renowned mercenary known as the Ashen Demon and the son of the mercenary leader Jeralt Reus Eisner, who gets recruited as a teacher for the Officer's Academy of Garreg Mach Monastery by Archbishop Rhea, the leader of the Church of Seiros. Accompanying the mercenary is a strange amnesiac girl known as Sothis, who appears in their dreams and can be heard only by them. At Garreg Mach Monastery, Byleth is given a choice to choose which of the three houses he will teach. These houses are:

• The Black Eagles House, led by Princess Edelgard von Hresvelg, the princess and heir of the Adrestian Empire, located in the south and west lands of Fódlan
• The Blue Lions House, led by Prince Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, the prince and heir of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, located in the north lands of Fódlan.
• The Golden Deer House, led by Prince Claude von Riegan, the prince and heir of the Leicester Alliance, located in the east lands of Fódlan.

Three Houses features two parts/phase: The first one being the Part I: White Clouds/The Academy Phase, in which explores Byleth teaching the assigned house they chosen while undertaking assignments to defeat a group of mysterious individuals led by the Flame Emperor and his deadly enforcer, the Death Knight. The second phase is Part II: The War Phase, which takes place after five years since the Academy Phase. In this phase, Byleth and the house leader (Edelgard, Dimitri, or Claude) must fight against their enemies to put an end to the five year conflict between the nations, and united Fódlan under their rule.

The sequel to the first installment of the saga, Three Hopes has a bit of similarity to that, but instead of playing as Byleth, you play as Shez, a mercenary who wants to kill Byleth to get revenge for their fallen comrades. They're accompanied by a mysterious individual who refers to himself as Arval, who gives him the power strong enough to combat Byleth. Shez is also recruited as a student for the Officers Academy and they chooses which house they like to become a student for.

The war's outcome heavily depends on Byleth's and Shez's decision on which house they support. And sadly, unlike Awakening and Fates: Revolution, there is no Golden Ending for this saga. Only one house must stand, while the other two must be defeated.

Who is Cleobulus? What has she done?[]

Three Houses[]

Cleobulus, also known as the woman she is impersonating Cornelia Armin, is a major antagonist of Three Houses, specifically being one of the secondary antagonists of the Azure Moon route, and a major antagonist of the Crimson Flower route. She's a member of Those Who Slither in the Dark, and one of Thales' confidants (For this moment, we'll just refer to her by her alias).

Cornelia Armin was once a researcher who studied in the Adrestian Empire. But following the departure of Hanneman von Essar, who was given a position as a teacher for Garegg Mach Monastery, she too left to serve under King Lambert Egitte Blaiddyd of the Kingdom of Faerghus, wanting to use her knowledge for good. The biggest achievement she ever done for the kingdom was improving Fhirdiad's infrastructure and ending a epidemic plague around the kingdom, being hailed as a saint.

However, Cornelia, all of the sudden, had a shift change in her personality, as she was far more sinister and ruthless, not caring about anyone else. Despite this change, Lambert chose to appoint her a high post as the royal family's mage. Which would turn out to be a fatal mistake.

In the DLC expansion of Three Houses, Hapi, a member of Ashen Wolves, reveals her connection to Cornelia as Cornelia was responsible for giving her the ability to summon monsters. Hapi was used as a guinea pig by Cornelia after she tricked the young girl with a deal of good housing and food. This was mainly because Hapi possessed the Crest of Timotheos, which granted the ability to befriend animals and even monsters with ease. Because of her actions, this turn Hapi into a cynical person.

The Azure Moon Route[]

Following the start of the war, Cornelia suddenly decides to have Dimitri's uncle and the Grand Duke of the Kingdom, Rufus Thierry Blaiddyd assassinated, and framed it on Dimitri, making him a fugitive who had to escape the Kingdom. With Rufus dead and Dimitri gone, Cornelia took control of the Kingdom, with the support of the western nobles and became allies with the Adrestian Empire. She and her "Faerghus dukedom" later tries to crush the rebellious eastern houses (such as House Fraldarius) over the next four years, with her admitting to Gilbert that she sought the destruction of Faerghus.

In 1185, Dimitri and his Kingdom loyalist forces enters Fhirdiad, with hopes of killing Cornelia and reclaiming back his kingdom. She eventually battles him and his forces with every available soldiers and even uses deploys several Titanus as her last of defense, but all of her efforts to defeat ends up in vain, and she is defeated by him. Before dying, she reveals that Patrica (Dimitri's step-mother) was among those responsible for the Tragedy of Duscur, having personally killed King Lambert which led to the brutal massacre of countless people, as Patrica desperately wanted to see her daughter, Edelgard, no matter the cost.

The Crimson Flower Route[]

In this route, Dimitri ascended as the King of Faerghus, with Cornelia still serving under the Kingdom (with no doubt plans of betraying and killing Dimitri). Cornelia was placed in charge of Arianrhod, a city full of mages and full of secret magic weapons. Fearing the possibility of them being use on the Empire, Edelgard made Cornelia and the city the main target. Cornelia, alongside Duke Rodriuge Fraldarius (and possibly his son Felix, and Ingrid) battles the Empire forces and despite the protection from the Kingdom forces and her Titanus, she dies in the Siege of Arianrhod, but not before laughing her death off and stating that they played "accordingly" to their plans.

Displeased by her demise, "Volkhard" (who is actually Thales) confronts Edelgard right after the battle and gives her a vague threat about avoiding Arianrhod's fate before leaving. Immediately after, Edelgard is informed that Arianrhod was leveled by the "javelins of light" which instantly killed off a third of the Imperial forces stationed there.

Three Hopes[]

Cornelia's role remains the same, and once again, she serves as one of the secondary antagonists for the Azure Gleam route (That's the only route she appears in sadly).

In this timeline, Cornelia is serving under Grand Duke Rufus, supporting him in his rebellion, clearly manipulating the man's paranoia of his nephew (since he was among those responsible for causing the Tragedy of Duscur and killing King Lambert). She then gathers all the western lords to battle Dimitri (with her messenger revealing her name being Cleobulus). Despite her efforts, she is defeated but she unfortunately escapes.

In the post timeskip, she once again conspires with the western lords of Faerghus to rebel against Dimitri. They successfully manage to seize control of the capital and forces Dimitri to surrender, but thankfully, with the efforts of the Blue Lions House, Rodriuge, and Gustave rescue him and Duke Ifan, and mounts a resistance against Cornelia, who is supported by a mysterious third faction and strange weaponry. Dimitri and his forces besieged Fhirdiand and defeats Cornelia. When demanded by Dimitri to know why she betrayed him and what happened to his stepmother, while Cornelia doesn't really tell him the reasons behind her betrayal, but does reveal the answers behind what happened to Patricia by stating Edelgard has the answers. Afterwards, she later escapes from Dimitri and his forces.

She then conspires with Viscount Mateus and the other viscounts to muster up a rebellion against Dimitri, forcing Baron Dominic (Gustave's brother and Annette's uncle) into their service. However, during the battle, the baron quickly switch sides with Dimitri after Gustave successfully convince him to join them, and with his aid, the Kingdom forces eradicates the rebellion, with Cornelia mortally wounded. Before dying, she claims that Patrica participated in the Tragedy of Duscur, being the one who personally assassinated King Lambert, which left Dimitri shocked with the apparent truth of what happened at the tragedy.

Who is Solon? What has he done?[]

Three Houses[]

Solon is a major antagonist of Three Houses, specifically being one of the secondary antagonists of Part I: White Clouds/The Academy Phase, a role he shares with the Death Knight. Like Cleobulus, he is a member of Those Who Slither in the Dark, and one of Thales' confidants.

At first, he was known as Tomas, the librarian for Garreg Mach Monastery. According to his info, Tomas was the librarian for the Monastery for over 40 years. He decided to retire, but eventually much to the surprise of several individuals, he would return to his position in 1179, a year prior to the beginning of Three Houses.

However, Solon later reveals himself during the Remire Village, where the villagers are going crazy and are attacking other innocent villagers, and burning down their houses, much to the shock of everyone presented there. Solon and his forces tries to fight back, but they are ultimately driven away. However, while Byleth and the houses try everything they could, even saving several survivors, Remire Village was left in a state that is possibly beyond repair.

Solon then returns during Byleth and the house's mission to hunt down and kill Kronya for her actions, including murdering Jeralt. At first, it was interpreted as a rescue, but much to everyone's horror and shock, he instead plunges his arm into Kronya's chest and rips out her heart to drain her life force to cast the Forbidden Spell of Zahras, putting Byleth into the void, while taunting their students who arrived too late. However, much to his shock, Byleth manages to escape, which led to the mad scientist correctly deducing that he has inherited the power of Sothis. He makes one final attempt to kill Byleth and his students with his mysterious forces and Demon Beasts, but he is ultimately killed in the process. Before dying, he declared that Thales will eventually accomplish their goals.

Three Hopes[]

His role in Three Hopes is rather small, compared to his role in Three Houses, but that doesn't really stop him from being as brutal as possible. In this timeline of Three Hopes, after Shez and the house manages to rescue Monica from being killed, she exposed Solon of being the kindly old librarian, which led to him escaping from the Church of Seiros soldiers.

Solon doesn't really appear in the Azure Gleam route (which makes him a Karma Houdini), but he does make a appearance in both the Scarlet Blaze and the Golden Wildfire routes, where he and his fellow Slithers are causing havoc and chaos in Hrym and Ordelia, which led to bandits like Pallardó and Metodey taking advantage of the chaos by stealing anything and killing anyone who stands in their way. He is thankfully stopped alongside the bandits, but he once again survives and escapes to live on more.

If the player manages to recruit Byleth and Jeralt, then Solon makes an appearance in all three routes, trying to assassinate Byleth and Sothis, watching the duel between them and Shez, who is suddenly possessed. When trying to escape after his failure to kill them, he is suddenly stabbed by Shez's mysterious sword, and Arval (who is revealed to be Epimenides) uses the dark magic drained from Solon's corpse a portal to the dark realm of Zahras (a rather karmic end for this guy).

Freudian Excuse? Mitigating Factors?[]

Absolutely not! Just like their fellow Argathans like Thales, Cleobulus is a cruel and sad*stic woman who's willing to destroy people's lives for her own gains and Solon is a power-hungry and hypocritical bastard who refers to the human race as "beasts", when he's done far more horrible things and just like Thales, he's willing to sacrifice one of his very own, as best seen with Kronya whom he murdered brutally just so he could use a spell. And their people are not really saints themselves, when they are nothing but a bunch of a racist and misanthropic scumbags.

One could say they have loyalty to Thales, as they often speak highly of him, but I'm pretty certain that's nothing but having a fanatic devotion to someone as evil and ruthless as him. Not to mention that Cleobulus does also speak ill of him, as she called him an "old doddering old fool", simply because she couldn't wait for Thales' order.

I also heard that they failed the "in story heinous standards", compared to Thales. And this is my honest reaction. Cause once you see my explanation of their heinous standards, you will see why I call that bullsh*t.

So in short: No.

Heinous Standards[]

Yeah, the heinous standards in Fire Emblem can be ridiculously high. From murder to destruction to torture to abuse to even other unique crimes like rape, Fire Emblem really doesn't hold back on its standards.

But dear god, the heinous standards in the Fódlan Saga is absolutely high and is arguably the most darkest storyline that has a ton of heinous standards (which is even arguably darker than Genealogy of the Holy War, which is still dated as the darkest installment of Fire Emblem history. And for good reasons).

Aside from the corrupted and selfish aristocrats (who tends to do a lot of horrible things for the sake of getting power and fame, especially thanks the Crest System) and minor antagonists like bandits, the major antagonists of the saga are rather grey-zone characters. Despite their questionable actions and methods, they are too sympathetic and they were Byleth's former friends as well, a sentiment they deep down share. Edelgard and Rhea are the biggest examples, as despite being one of the main antagonists in the saga, they have well-intentional motives and have a lot of tragedy that affects them.

But Those Who Slither in the Dark are without a doubt the most evilest and vile people in this saga. They are power-hungry and cruel people who are willing to hurt many innocent people and cross any moral length to get what they desire, even inducing wars and massacres. And these two are the worst among them, besides Thales himself. Let's go over the two of them, shall we?:

• Cleobulus definitely passes the heinous standards for many reasons. Firstly, she is among the main conspirators in the Tragedy of Duscur, having manipulated Patricia to murder King Lambert, all so she could see Edelgard (which she really doesn't). This led to countless deaths in Duscur, and led to the hate and discrimination against them, with the Kingdom exterminating nearly all of the Duscur people since she and the Slithers framed them for the crime (though as Dedue pointed out, some of his people may have been involved in the tragedy). She also has tried to kill Dimitri and his allies and led Faerghus to its destruction. In the Azure Moon route in Three Houses, she has control of the Kingdom, making herself a Regent, just after she assassinated Rufus and framed Dimitri for his death, leading to him becoming a fugitive for five years. She then leads her "Faerghus dukedom" forces to crush the loyalists of Dimitri, with her true intentions on wanting to destroy the entire kingdom of Faerghus, which would lead to countless deaths in the nation. In the Azure Gleam route in Three Hopes, she tries to kill Dimitri and his forces, while manipulating the western lords to join her "rebellion". Now, let's talk about her personal standards: First, there's Dimitri. She plays a major role in Dimitri's monstrous nature, as her role in the Tragedy of Duscur and framing the prince for killing his uncle led to him becoming more ruthless and inhumane, with no regard for his life and treating his friends like tools. As for Hapi, Clebulus was responsible for experimenting on the girl due to her crest, giving the ability to summon monsters with her sigh. This led to her being slightly emotionless and also quite cynical, which only got worse when the Church of Seiros tried to put her in an underground prison to prevent her "gift" from running amok.

• And Solon? "Where does Solon stand out in terms of his heinous?" you may ask? Well, Solon stands out for many reasons. Firstly, it is revealed that Solon was responsible for kidnapping and having Monica killed, so he could have Kronya infiltrated Garegg Mach. So in this case, the students who were forcefully transformed into beasts by Kronya? Her murder of Jeralt? All thanks to Solon. And then there's his moral event horizon in Three Houses: His massacre at Remire Village. He drove many villagers insane through his blood experiments, having them inflict violence upon other innocent villagers and burning the village to the ground. Oh, and if Byleth and the houses don't save all the villagers, Solon will declare his experiment a success, right before having every villager who was not driven mad killed in the spot. An absolute kick the dog moment right there, folks. And he did all this pointless massacre just to see what his "experiment" does. Later on, he betrays and kills Kronya, using her as a way to unleash the Forbidden Spell of Zahras to trap Byleth in the void (even if Kronya deserved it, this was a rather brutal fate to received. Even Byleth was shocked by these actions). In Three Hopes, he doesn't get to do much, but in the later chapters of the Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire routes, he caused chaos in both the Hrym and Ordelia territories, which led to bandits taking advantage of the chaos. In the "Into the Chasm" mission which takes place in all routes should Byleth and Jeralt be recruited, he attempts to assassinate Byleth and Sothis, while they and a possessed Shez are fighting. And honestly, the man doesn't really have much resources compare to Thales (who is the leader of the slithers and the false Lord Regent of the Empire) and Cleobulus (who managed to take control of the majority of the Kingdom, until Dimitri managed to kill her to reclaim back his home nation), but he still manages to cause so much chaos and murder, all because of his desire to see what his "experiments" can do and in his own twisted words, to "save" the world from those that he calls "beasts".

Yeah, I knew that the Slithers were terrible people (especially Thales and Kronya), but Cleobulus and Solon are without a doubt the worst bastards among the psychotic manipulative snakes. And to say they fail the heinous standards is honestly ridiculous to say the very least.

Final Verdict[]

Cleobulus is definitely a big yes. As for Solon, he's not the strongest contender, but I feel like he stands out as well. So a honest big yes to this beast as well.