User:Cukie Gherkin/Claude von Riegan

Claude von Riegan is a character in the 2019 video game Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Concept and creation
Claude von Riegan was created for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and is one of the three characters with whom the protagonist Byleth can choose to ally. He is a member of the Golden Deer house, and becomes the leader of the Leicester Alliance. The team designing him was inspired by multiple characters, including Yang Wen-li from The Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Rajendra from The Heroic Legend of Arsland, being described as a mixture of the two characters. While he goes by Claude, his real name is Khalid. This was intended to be revealed in the game's story, but they couldn't find the opportunity to fit it in, nor could they figure out how to make it work. There was also dispute over naming him Claude due to the name having been used for a character in the video game Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, but they decided it was fine due to it being a fake name and other characters in the series having shared names in the past. When discussing the theme of his story, producer Toshiyuki Kusakihara described it as being about fighting against those who are unwilling to accept people who are different from them, which they noted derived from his upbringing.

Reception
Claude was a popular character among fans, particularly becoming the subject of a series of memes. Fanbyte writer Kenneth Shepard criticized Claude's writing, suggesting that designer Intelligent Systems' handling was both queerbaiting and bad writing. He felt that the writer for Claude could not have intended for him to be straight, noting that despite how Intelligent Systems seems to want to design him, he was critical of the game for having no distinction between how he reacts to a male or female main character. He felt that Claude's dialogue, which he noted was the same regardless of gender, was flirtatious, particularly citing a scene where Claude dances with Byleth. The fact that he could not have Byleth romance Claude was inconsistent with how he was written.