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Around a week ago, I did a thread in reddit about the gameplay intricacies Three Houses has + how CF’s identity is defined by those, and one person commented I neglected the distribution of all the movies present through all routes. In spite of the point brought up there not having any connection to the topic at hand, it did leave me thinking on something. While the idea itself - overall movie distribution - has potential for a breakdown, it would be also criminal to not factor in as well how the game also uses fullscreen CGs (short for computer graphics) to supplement its movies. So in the end, I ended up accounting both for my analysis. Truth be told, I wasn’t expecting to find much with it compared to my previous efforts (that, and sorting everything was kind of a pain). In spite of it, I do think what I noticed after comparing all the data has some merit worth sharing, which is why I ended up making this post and the titular theorem in the end. (Also, happy 4th 3H Anniversary everyone!) A Three Houses Animated Movie/Fullscreen CG Breakdown. (Click above to check the spreadsheet). Like always, context is king: Why are Animated Movies/Fullscreen CGs a Big Deal? Because they’re cool! They’re effective means for displaying important scenes and moments when used well. Those are also often used to argue just how much production values a game has (after all, hiring dedicated animation studios can’t be cheap), which in Three Houses’ case is a contentious topic due to their distribution and presence not being even. At all. Before moving on, please check first the movie/full screen CGs breakdown spreadsheet, as I’ll be talking about some notes listed in it explaining the Silver Snow Theorem. What IS The Silver Snow Theorem? As I was taking notes from how 3H spreads its animated movies and fullscreen CGs across the game, I began noticing that the game, intentionally or not, follows highly specific criteria to decide not only when specific movies/GCs would be used, but also which scenes would get them, and that’s highly relevant because Three Houses loves to recycle its own content whenever possible. It got so specific, as a matter of fact, that it reminded me of this quote the developers once made about the routes’ development, back in May’s 2020 Nintendo Dream issue: It was at that precise point that everything clicked to me. Thus, you can think of the Silver Snow Theorem as the unwritten rules Three Houses follows to a tee which determines how… cinematic, each of the four branching stories are by Part 2: If a story beat present in Silver Snow is shared with another route, then any animated movie used in SS, when possible, will also be present in it. If another route adds more content over the template Silver Snow provides, then it’s likely it will be able to secure an animated cutscene if required. If another route decides to deviate from Silver Snow and do its own thing however, then it won’t be able to get any animated movies for its unique moments unless those happen to be the route’s ending and the animated epilogue mural, thus forcing the path to rely on CGs instead. Thus, on broad terms, the Silver Snow Theorem consists on the following: The amount of movies and fullscreen CGs present in a route’s main story by Part 2, is directly and inversely proportional respectively, to how much the narrative follows Silver Snow’s story beats. Just so we’re all on the same page, let’s take a look at what Silver Snow - the base from which the other three stories spawned - does. Besides Part 1/White Clouds, from Chapter 12 onward, the key story beats which get their own animated movies, in sequential order, are the following: Ch. 12: The Empire invades Garreg Mach and Byleth protects it. Rhea turns into a dragon to help Byleth, gets overwhelmed, and Byleth is pushed down into a cliff. (Descent) Ch. 13: Byleth’s “reunion” with Edelgard. Both fight up until they reach a stalemate, and part their own ways (Reunion: Silver Snow). Ch. 17: Death Knight lures Byleth out of Fort Merceus after fleeing or being defeated. Then TWSITD blows up the fort with missiles (Javelins of Light). Ch. 19: Edelgard is defeated in her palace and Byleth gives her the coup de grâce (Death of the Flame Emperor). Ch. 20: After invading Shambhala and defeating Thales, dude blows up the base with missiles as a last-ditch effort to kill Byleth before debris crushes him. Rhea protects everyone, but gets lethally wounded in the process. (Courage and Tragedy). Besides these, there’s also the interesting case of the intro for the 2nd Gronder Field Battle (Rematch). While in Silver Snow, the battle does canonically happen but is skipped for story reasons, evidence points out the cutscene meant for it was conceived very early in development (to the point all 3 House Leaders used their endgame classes in its beta version), likely for the sake of having it used by the other routes in the future. Incidentally, the Chapter 13 Reunion scene (Reunion: Silver Snow) by concept can be tweaked/altered based on the fact Dimitri and Claude will be on it instead, so it was flexible enough for the 3H devs to do whatever they want with it. A relatively similar case can also be applied for Part 1‘s Flame Emperor reveal, mainly due to the mystery surrounding it needing slight changes in execution because either Dimitri and Claude will be your House Leader instead of Edelgard. Finally, the only CGs Silver Snow uses for Part 2, besides the Introduction Mural for each month in the War Arc, is the one where Rhea’s rescued (Event - Ambitions in the Dark), which is very fitting given the theorem. Thus, things for the Church route end up looking like this: Final animated movie count: 20 (+12, used for Ch. 1 - Ch. 12 intro murals). Exclusive animated movie count: 3 (Reunion Cutscene; Ending; and SS Epilogue Mural). Full screen CGs used: 8 (+ 8, used for Ch. 13 - Ch. 21 intro murals, as the route skips a month) Unique CGs used: Potentially 1, if the player assists to Edelgard’s coronation in Ch.11. Now it’s time to go over how things turned out for the other three routes. The winner of the theorem goes first: The Verdant Wind at Dawn As much flack Claude’s route gets in 3H over being “Silver Snow +”, the hilarious part of all is that building over its foundation paid dividends thanks to the theorem. Following Silver Snow’s template up until the second to last chapter meant that Verdant Wind: Could reuse every animated movie mentioned previously in Silver Snow (i.e: Descent; Javelins of Light; Death of the Flame Emperor; and Courage and Tragedy). In the case of “Courage and Tragedy”, this movie was also slightly tweaked for this route by having its name changed and the soundtrack used in it altered, both now going by the unifying name of “The Curse”. Could add its exclusive animated movies over SS’ story beats, namely*: one for Fort Merceus’ infiltration* (Citizens of the East); and another used after the “Shambhala + Thales go boom with Rhea getting wounded” scene (Resurrection). Add up Claude can also access the movie “Rematch” due to Gronder 2’s battle being visited for story reasons, and also get a proper reunion + ending movies for his final boss, and you get the most movie-tastic experience Three Houses offers. Lastly, Verdant Wind ends up not really having any need for fullscreen CGs besides the one where Rhea’s rescued. So… Final animated movie count: 23 (+12, used for Ch. 1 - Ch. 12 intro murals). Exclusive animated movie count: 5 (Reunion Cutscene; Almyran Reinforcements; Final Boss Awakens; Ending; and VW Epilogue Mural). Full screen CGs used: 7 (+ 9, used for Ch. 13 - Ch. 22 intro murals) Unique CGs used: 0 The negative is that Verdant Wind ends up coming across as too Silver Snow-eske, but as mentioned previously, that’s a big positive when accounting for the theorem. And since we’re done with the winner, it’s only natural to move towards the underdog: A Path of Crimson Flowers If there’s any proof of how much the Silver Snow Theorem can screw you over, it’s Crimson Flower. The source of the problems Edelgard’s route fares, as far the theorem's concerned, start with how it deviates from Silver Snow as early as Chapter 11, meaning: It can’t use “Descent” due to the story mandating the complete opposite scenario (Rhea’s the enemy now). It can’t use “Reunion: Silver Snow” because Edelgard isn’t the enemy. It can’t use “Rematch” due to story reasons. It can’t use “Javelins of Light” because the Death Knight isn’t an enemy, and due to story reasons. …You get the drill by now. Where does that leave it then? Well, besides having previously used a fullscreen CG for the Coronation scene (whose story event also has the same name), plus an unique ending and epilogue mural as movies, any other scene past Ch. 11 whose counterpart from other routes is an animated movie, end up using fullscreen CGs instead, meaning it goes by 5~ chapters without any animated movies. Not to mention, the route is also 18 Chapters long compared to the others paths, so any potential CF has for multiple story scenes worth having CGs is very much limited (case in point; the Edelgard’s route misses 4 fullscreen CGs the other routes get to introduce the months CF doesn’t use). As a result, its final count is the following: Final animated movie count: 15 (+12, used for Ch. 1 - Ch. 12 intro murals). Exclusive animated movie count: 2 (Ending; and CF Epilogue Mural). Full screen CGs used: 10 (+5, used for Ch. 13 - Ch. 18 intro murals, misses 4 months) Unique CGs used: 5 And with it done, only one path remains: Beneath the Azure Moon Azure Moon is by far our most fascinating case, as under the Silver Snow Theorem, Dimitri’s story does both right and wrong. Here’s what it does right: It built over Ch 11’s Flame Emperor’s reveal with its own animated movie: “Loathing”. It can use “Descent” for Chapter 12. It can get its own reunion movie. It can use “Rematch” due to story reasons. And here’s where it erred; It diverges from Silver Snow as soon Gronder 2 ends in late Chapter 17: It can’t use “Javelins of Light” because of story reasons. It can’t use “Death of the Flame Emperor” due to story reasons. It can’t use “Courage and Tragedy” because going to Shambhala isn’t part of the main story. As a result, the theorem impacts Dimitri’s path the following way: besides having 2 exclusive fullscreen CG which elaborate more on his past around Part 1, the route eventually goes 4~ chapters without any animated movies after Ch. 17’s main story mission, the second longest besides Crimson Flower’s. To fill this void, more fullscreen CGs were called upon, and this route stands from the others in how it uses slight variations of its illustrations twice to form a sequence of events, namely, during Rodrigue’s sacrifice (Event - Revenge), and the “Dimitri’s in the rain” scene (Event - A Reason to Live). So overall, for Azure Moon we have: Final animated movie count: 19 (+12, used for Ch. 1 - Ch. 12 intro murals). Exclusive animated movie count: 4 (Flame Emperor Reveal; Reunion; Ending; and AM Epilogue Mural). Fullscreen CGs used: 13 (+ 9, used for Ch. 13 - Ch. 22 intro murals, and excludes 2 slightly tweaked CGs used for sequences). Unique CGs used: 7 (see above for the multiple frames thing). And counting all four routes, their overall amount of movies and CGs look like this: It's intriguing how the theorem shows Silver Snow casts a lingering shadow over Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude’s stories, with some routes clearly benefiting more from its foundation than others. It’s highlighted as well just how narrative-driven Three Houses is overall, and how it will go above and beyond to have important scenes happen one way or another, regardless if turning them into animated movies is not an option for one reason or another, as seen with Crimson Flower and Azure Moon. And while jury’s up as for how intentional Silver Snow’s effects on the other routes were during the planning stages, I do believe KT learned something from 3H development given that for Warriors: Three Hopes, they wasted no time it getting rid of the Silver Snow foundation by swapping Byleth for Shez and using the pre-timeskip phase as just the prologue for all three routes (a genius move IMO, since it meant the stories wouldn’t need to be bound to any sort of structure established by a template, not unlike one certain route from 3H does). Before closing things up, I wanna briefly go into why skipping some animated movies in a route would be a big deal for the theorem, as I was admittedly a bit vague when stating omissions happen “because of story reasons”. Feel free to stop reading now if you don’t really care about it (many thanks for reading up until this point tho!), but if you wanna stick around, then… Let’s go!: Rematch: The Plot Reaper The Second Gronder Field Battle between all 3 factions as a plot point is vital to the Silver Snow theorem and the routes which benefit from it. The main reason is due the battle’s losers determining who will go and fight the Empire in the second half of Part 2: If the Alliance loses during the fight, then Dimitri & the Kingdom will get this responsibility (Azure Moon). if the Kingdom loses, then it’s all up to Claude and the Alliance to get the job done (Verdant Wind). If both the Alliance and the Kingdom lose, then Byleth’s Resistance Army is the only hope left (Silver Snow). In spite of the movie used for this scene being set in a way Byleth could support any of the three factions like it's Part 1 counterpart, as a plot point, the Empire winning doesn’t serve any purpose to the narrative. So in hindsight, it's not surprising the battle straight up never happens in Crimson Flower. Javelins of Light: The Ticket to Shambhala Long story short, in Silver Snow & Verdant Wind, the Death Knight - and by proxy, Hubert - being aware that TWISTD it will blow up Fort Merceus to smithereens serves as a way to have Byleth/Claude’s gang go to Shambhala after Edelgard’s death, thanks to Hubert’s foresight and unexplained futuristic-missile-detecting abilities. As a result, if going to Shambhala doesn’t have any narrative purpose in the story the route is trying to tell, then the movie just isn't gonna be reused. Faeghast went a bit more in-depth about how 3H uses the missiles in the plot for those interested, but this is more or less the gist of it. And finally: Death of the Flame Emperor: But Dimitri…? This one’s more easy to tell, but regardless: The main reason the movie isn’t reused thrice with Azure Moon is due to the heavy focus the Dimitri & Edelgard relationship gets in its main narrative. Plus, Dimitri vs Edelgard being set up as the very final fight of the story would require a different (and most importantly, “ending-like”) movie to take place instead, more so if Edelgard isn’t gonna be in her Emperor Class… And while there’s an enough solid argument to say the cutscene has no place in Verdant Wind (which I 100% support btw), the reality of the situation is that, as far the Theorem’s concerned, Claude’s route is not different enough to justify not using it. Like always, many thanks to everyone who reached the end of this post! Let me know if you think the Silver Snow Theorem might actually be onto something, if it’s just something I imagined one day, or if you have some feedback or anything to add to the topic. BONUS (since it doesn’t really have a place in the theorem post) Gonna mention this here since I couldn’t find a way to make it fit into the Theorem, but oh man Part 1 has so many animated cutscenes it's insane. There are 47 movie files in total, and from those, 27 are used only in White Clouds (with one being exclusive to Blue Lions).

The "Avatar" in this game has some interesting implications. The pre-rendered cutscenes that actually show Byleth's face really points toward signs that they will not be customizable. However, Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude also appear in this cutscene. Later in the trailer we see Edelgard reclass into a Brigand. Her outfit is very different from her student attire in that class. That would make any future cutscene that she is in very jarring. I think we can all agree that the cutscenes we've seen are all very early in the game. Maybe after a certain point we are able to customize Byleth. There was so much emphasis on "you" in the trailer, it seems odd that Byleth wouldn't be customizable except for the form when they are pushing that aspect so hard. How do you think the three house leaders will be affected by their classes and cutscenes?