The Real MC

I actually think that Hilda may in fact end up being the 'unrecruitable' unit in the Golden Deer, since we've seen everyone else in exception of Hilda to have that option in certain gameplay bits. A nit-pick of mine, but I also noticed a pattern in each of the House Introductions--this being that the 'retainer' of the leader is introduced first. Edelgard first introduced Hubert, while Dimitri introduced Dedue, whom are both known to be servants to the two heads. In this video Claude starts off with Hilda, which we can assume is the closest he has to a retainer. Perhaps a very close friend of his that refuses to leave?

With the new batallion and in-depth unit customization mechanics, I'm eager to give myself a challenge by playing Hard/Classic on my first playthrough to better immerse myself.

Likewise, I'll probably just see myself out if anything other than officially-released information--with the exception of some soundtracks--is dropped. I want to go as blind as I possibly can at this point, now that I spoiled myself months before. :') However, I am curious about where this information was found. Might I ask for a link, please?

Highest Rankings: Dimitri, Edelgard, Mercedes, Ingrid, Marianne, and Annette. Lowest Rankings: Lorenz, Ignatz ( I don't know much about him ), Dorothea ( Something about her just doesn't click for me ), Solon, and Kronya. I'm quite biased for placing most of the Blue Lions members pretty high on my rankings. :')

A bit random and impulsive, but I think that the last two remaining Saints may be the two male villains Famitsu just revealed today. I've little to no 'real' evidence of my claims, but based on the actual fact that both Thales and Solon (? I think that's what they're called) appear in the February direct as well as in the E3 2019 trailer with crests of their own, I'd say that they conserve enough plot-relevance to be considered major figures to the point of being former-Saints, perhaps. Of course, other than the idea that they both have their own crests, I don't have any more evidence as to back up my claim, and could very well be wrong. :') But I am sure of one thing: the 6 Saint figures couldn't have been a meager coincidence. As we've already noted with the UK Special Edition reveal (Steelbook and Byleth's Crest), they are illustrated there for a reason.

Hm. That's conflicting, now that I recall that Thani also explicitly stated that Hilda was Claude's retainer in a GameFaqs forum as MissCarriage (?)--without mentioning Lorenz, at that. ( Someone pointed this out the day Hilda was revealed, May 17th. ) https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/204445-fire-emblem-three-houses/77705292 In the end, this is just a minor detail, so I don't want to argue because of it.

Did Thani specifically point out that Lorenz--of all characters--was unrecruitable? I only recall her mentioning that retainers, such as Hubert or Dedue, couldn't be taken from their respective Houses. On top of that, she also claimed Hilda was Cluade's retainer(?), if I'm not mistaken.

Now that I watched the map scene a few more times, I do certainly agree on the speculation that the battle shown will most likely not be the last before the timeskip. However, I'm still wondering if the story segment shown occurred in the aftermath of Dimitri losing his eye, or is actually just furtherly deepening the tension--a prelude of the fate that's about to cross him. The latter seems more likely in my opinion, since I'd find it odd the House's main unit would be excluded from the battle that easily when in comparison previous entries locked protagonists' into participating in key battles, such as this one. I can totally see both being possible, but I just lean into Dimitri being unavailable to deploy for plot-related reasons. Just a gut feeling of mine. :')

Not really gameplay-related, but something really small ( or seemingly small, actually ) that I noted during the Livestream, was that in the Blue Lions story map segment, Dimitri was missing from the units deployed. I may sound like I'm just nitpicking, but I found it quite strange since he just casually manages to disappear in the battle that occurs right before the time skip. Not only that, but the key boss is also the Reaper Knight--an enemy emphasized for his tendency to kidnap students. Something really twisted may have happened to Dimitri regarding that chapter, but again, that's just my speculation.

Well, I don't know if I'm reading this correctly either, but if we're both looking at the same section of the screenshot with Ferdinand, Bernadetta, Mercedes, Ashe, Lysithea, and Raphael--it seems to me more like a showcase of personal skills than anything. If you look closely there are separate icons under each character named that don't look very similar to how the crests of the 3 House Leaders were introduced in the last issue. In fact Raphael's icon seems to be renewal(?), which is slightly odd to be noted as a personal skill, but is a skill nonetheless.

I believe Ignace is a male, based on the name of the character.

Well, according to our last reveals, only Ashe, Ingrid, Annette, Sylvain, and Mercedes haven't been shown yet, but if I was to choose who should be introduced next, I'd say Ingrid. Besides her one display in the most recent Famitsu article, she really hasn't appeared at all in any info that IS has given us about the entire game itself, so I've grown curious about the girl. To add on, I also think her design is quite decent, so I'll give her that.

This is a pretty small detail, but I noted that Hanneman mentioned that the students of each house are holding battles against each other, and in the way that he speaks of it slightly negatively--since he directs it to Byleth as if it was a widespread rumor--this probably foreshadows the eventual breakout of war among the Houses. One could say that they're having "practice" matches, but why then would a teacher that's supposed to be instructing the arts of war be looking down upon it? In my eyes, the only reason he'd be placing it under a negative light would be if the students are really having fights between each other-- and if they're already having complications with others in the Academy, who's to say it can't go into a more widely-scaled conflict, like war? Yet again, this is just a tidbit of dialogue that I may be reading into far too much :')

I just realized that I mistakened June for May. :') Thank you for helping me notice that.

Well, as fanservicey as she may be, her design is actually pretty decent, and mixes well with her background. I've come to be hesitant with these type of characters--especially with the coming if Camilla--but Manuela seems like an acceptable balance between appearance and personality, which is a bit refreshing after having a quite large amount of one-dimensional characters that look the part but barely act it. If I could name only one thing that Three Houses is doing good so far, that would be world-building. The little tidbits of information that hint at connections between Adrestea (hopefully I spelt that right) , Faerghus, and Leicester are pretty intriguing for someone who's primarily interested in the story that flows with the gameplay. But with that aside, I read somewhere that Nintendo is releasing its E3 direct today, so hopefully we get a demonstration of gameplay this time to balance out the lore we've gotten over these past few weeks.