General theorizing thread

[Corrobin]

Share youtmr theories here!

[Chopper...]

To be honest, I still think we're going to be fighting against the Church of Seiros at the end of the line, as the true villain or something. That guy who obviously looks like a villain strikes me more as an important lackey like Gangrel or Robin's daddy.

So I think the houses will unite against the Church and whatever Evil Dragon is there; if there will be disputes between the three countries it won't be that important. I also think that when we choose a house, the other two will become non-controllable allied units and/or temporary enemies turned allied units. I say this because in the trailers, the heads of the three houses (namely Edelgard, Spaghetti and Bambi) look like friends or at least it's clear they get along with each other enough to fight together, and even when they're shown individually commanding their armies to attack, you never see them actually battling against each other like in Fates. So I think IntSys just wants us to think the game is about the three houses fighting each other when it's not.

[dragonlordsd]

25 minutes ago, Chopper... said:

To be honest, I still think we're going to be fighting against the Church of Seiros at the end of the line, as the true villain or something. That guy who obviously looks like a villain strikes me more as an important lackey like Gangrel or Robin's daddy.

So I think the houses will unite against the Church and whatever Evil Dragon is there; if there will be disputes between the three countries it won't be that important. I also think that when we choose a house, the other two will become non-controllable allied units and/or temporary enemies turned allied units. I say this because in the trailers, the heads of the three houses (namely Edelgard, Spaghetti and Bambi) look like friends or at least it's clear they get along with each other enough to fight together, and even when they're shown individually commanding their armies to attack, you never see them actually battling against each other like in Fates. So I think IntSys just wants us to think the game is about the three houses fighting each other when it's not.

Frustratingly, you're probably right. I mean, I hope this goes all Geneology, and all of the houses are actually more morally grey, but this feels like more fates 2.0.

[Von Ithipathachai]

The Fighting weapon type is going to be used not just for gauntlets, but for other "miscellaneous" weapons that don't fit neatly into the primary four physical weapon types (e.g. Knives, Monster weapons, Dragonstones (not that I'm expecting any shapeshifters), maybe even Explosives).

Edited February 14, 2019 by Von Ithipathachai

[Shrimpica]

• This game is the first game in a series of games/duology
  
  That's the vibe i got from this Trailer. This game will mostly be light hearted with hints thrown here and there at some real suff happening. Then come the last 30% and it goes full epic, and then it ends with a cliffhanger with the last line being Edelgard's line from the first Trailer
  I have been playing too much Trails haven't i
• It will be less anime High school and more Hogwarts. That's how it feels like to me anyway
• The Accident at the start happens while you are escorting the 3 Heirs to the Church
• Sothis is a Troll. A Big one.

[Sleepy Tortoise]

The church feels kinda evil. That lady with the green hair gives me chills and bad vibes. But if the church ends up bad, welp. It's not the first time a church turns scary bad. Back then? In those times? Certain kingdoms would have churches placed above a King even! 

Byleth and their purple cloud...I wonder if the church is going to try and "eradicate" the evil and send people, old friends and students even, after Byleth :o 

 

[Onestep]

22 minutes ago, Sleepy Tortoise said:

The church feels kinda evil. That lady with the green hair gives me chills and bad vibes. But if the church ends up bad, welp. It's not the first time a church turns scary bad. Back then? In those times? Certain kingdoms would have churches placed above a King even! 

Byleth and their purple cloud...I wonder if the church is going to try and "eradicate" the evil and send people, old friends and students even, after Byleth :o 

 

I suspect not, at least at the beginning of the story. Byleth is a nobody. The royalty of the three continental superpowers wouldn't move to protect him unless there was a major political reason to do so. 

What I expect is the three factions being induced into open war as a result of the actions of hidden cult of the actual antagonist.

[Sleepy Tortoise]

2 minutes ago, Onestep said:

I suspect not, at least at the beginning of the story. Byleth is a nobody. The royalty of the three continental superpowers wouldn't move to protect him unless there was a major political reason to do so. 

What I expect is the three factions being induced into open war as a result of the actions of hidden cult of the actual antagonist.

I rather hope the three unite. They seem to be pals already at the beginning of the video in Direct. I would hate to have them end up fighting each other. 

[Enduin]

Academy setting and the various teacher mechanics will only be present in the first Act. You'll choose your House, teach your students until they pass their Certification Exam to go from Noble(aka Villager) to a regular base class. After that your students will graduate and the teacher mechanics will go away as class progression will operate in traditional way and the main inciting event will shift the plot towards the main conflict.

Edited February 15, 2019 by Enduin

[Onestep]

36 minutes ago, Sleepy Tortoise said:

I rather hope the three unite. They seem to be pals already at the beginning of the video in Direct. I would hate to have them end up fighting each other. 

I fully expect that in a Revelations style route. I suspect most story paths will have a split though.

[Chopper...]

23 minutes ago, Onestep said:

I fully expect that in a Revelations style route. I suspect most story paths will have a split though.

In my case, I don't think there will be much war between the three houses, not to the point in which it becomes central to the plot but more like temporary conflicts. I believe this because the three houses don't hate each other, they're in peace, and there's no resentment since the three heirs can be seen walking or fighting together at the beginning and at the end of the trailer, so they at the very least get along enough to go to this Academy together. Similarly, the houses have no problem studying under the same roof. That's not to say I don't expect conflict between them, but as I said, I think they will be temporary quarrels.

Now, to be honest, I'm not too happy with the amount of peace and camaraderie I saw in the trailer... I do want open war, haha 

[YingofDarkness]

I'm hoping that the story doesn't just center around the Church, or at least they aren't actually introduced as the big bad until the end part of the game. I'd like to see Edelgard, Dmitri, and Claude deal with some of the problems that would occur in their kingdoms. Even if those three are buddy buddy it doesn't mean everyone in the kindom is. By the sounds of the trailer, peace was only really obtained recently and maybe they are just the first, second, or third generation that has actually experienced it. This would leave room for some old grudges to pop up in the individual kingdoms (made worse by the big bad), and force the three heirs to learn what it means to actually rule over their kingdom. I expect at least one conflict in a border at the very least.

[domilea]

In the trailer we saw that the Black Beast wielded a "Crest Orb of Gautier". Gautier is an area to the far north of Faerghus; it seems to be the place Sylvain is likely the heir to.

Semi-baseless theory, but perhaps there are 21 Crest Orbs, one for each of the Crests that we saw encircling the Goddess here:

 

On each route, Byleth has the opportunity to collect 7 Crest Orbs: one presumably from the Head of House, and six others during the course of the campaign. These Crest Orbs are required to seal the darkness that emanates from the Fodlan Falchion (what I'm calling that whip sword for now). Here is a shitty 3-second picture I mocked up to back this claim: https://imgur.com/v3FTpjw

7 is the minimum to bring the Fodlan Falchion to a usable state, at which point the route proceeds to its final boss map.

After each route, these Crest Orbs can be viewed in a gallery from the main menu, and thus are in a sense "saved" between playthroughs. If the player's third playthrough (?!) would unlock all 21 Crest Orbs, however, the True Final Ending is unlocked. This is made possible because of Sothis - given how she seems to grant Byleth a Timewheel-esque power, she may have some sort of futuresight or other cross-dimensional manipulation at her disposal, allowing the combined efforts of these Byleths to complete the Fodlan Falchion.

Upon doing so, Sothis reveals that unlocking the Fodlan Falchion also breaks the seal that had kept her trapped within that night-black space within Byleth's mind. Surprise, surprise -Sothis is the Goddess.

That's all I've got for now. Maybe I'll add more later.

[Lodestar65]

These are just some general thoughts that I've had:

Sothis is most likely the goddess, and the goddess and the obligatory Fire Emblem dark god are one and the same. The evidence here is that Sothis has the same headgear as the Church lady, and yet her design also features the crest/symbol on the cape of the guy wielding the whip-sword.

Speaking of him, he's probably related to Byleth. My money is on that he's Byleth's true father, who gave him to Jeralt to raise for some reason. The evidence here is that Byleth seems to get his sword as a Prf eventually, and Fire Emblem Prfs are usually only able to be wielded by those who have a certain bloodline, with a few exceptions.

[HappyHawlucha.]

My idea:

Byleth is a descendant of Serios, and as a result is able to hear the voice of Sothis, as in the E3 trailer it said that Seiros "received a revelation from the goddess", the goddess being Sothis. Sothis' main goal is to be revived, so I presume that the 21 crests are seals to the goddess, and the Fodlan Falchion is required to break those seals. So Sothis tells Byleth to steal the Fodlan Falchion which is located with the Divine Lady in Garrag Mach, this being the catalyst for Byleth to travel to Garrag Mach. I have two ideas for how he becomes a teacher, either Byleth manages to protect the monastery from a bandit attack or something, catching the Officer's Academy'e eye, or the more interesting option, someone sided with Sothis is already inside the monastery, as for a particular person, I'd assume that the man standing next to the divine lady with similar hair colour to Byleth is a fellow descendant of Seiros(and can also hear her), so he manages to pull a few strings to get him inside the Monastery in a position of authority. Idk how all 21 crests would be destroyed in 1 playthrough, I like the idea above of Sothis manipilating time and space so that all 3 houses can be chosen, getting on the side of each nation, to destroy them all, but that's all I got atm.

I also find it very oddly specific that the number of students when you add up each house almost exactly correlates to the number of crests, it's almost like they come from noble houses who could hold the crests :/

[Guest Dmys]

There's been a lot of speculating about how central the academy theme will be to the game. I think people may be reading into the trailer a bit too much, as nearly all the footage seems like it's from the first 2-3 hours of the game. I think it's an intentional contrast in tone from the first trailer, which painted a more serious and grim overview of the world. It's pretty safe to say that, barring every scene of war being a flashback, war will break out between the three nations at some point, likely being the next act of the story. The 2nd trailer's world overview ends on the note of constant war and turmoil finally settling into "relative" stability, and taking the more negative interpretation of the game's Japanese title, of a 'romance' that is vapid and ostentatious, can be seen as a pretty direct parallel to a fragile peace on the continent. I even think the lyrics from the 1st trailer song could play into it as well:

Reach for my hand -- I’ll soar away -- into the dawn -- though I wish I could stay -- Here in cherished halls -- these peaceful days -- I fear the end of dawn -- born as my (whatever)

Not hard to see that as nostalgic waxing over simpler and happier times, probably from the viewpoints of the three Lords ("I will return here someday, my teacher", etc.). To me it seems like there's far more evidence supporting the school section being a smaller portion of the game than some people believe/fear than the other way around. I suspect your chosen house will mostly influence this beginning part of the game, with the split paths merging after full-scale war breaks out and the days of school hijinks come to an end. I hate saying there's a lot of potential because that's practically jinxing yourself with IS at this point, but I think that sets up a far more compelling emotional hook than what Fates tried to pull off.

[Enduin]

5 minutes ago, Guest Dmys said:

There's been a lot of speculating about how central the academy theme will be to the game. I think people may be reading into the trailer a bit too much, as nearly all the footage seems like it's from the first 2-3 hours of the game. I think it's an intentional contrast in tone from the first trailer, which painted a more serious and grim overview of the world. It's pretty safe to say that, barring every scene of war being a flashback, war will break out between the three nations at some point, likely being the next act of the story. The 2nd trailer's world overview ends on the note of constant war and turmoil finally settling into "relative" stability, and taking the more negative interpretation of the game's Japanese title, of a 'romance' that is vapid and ostentatious, can be seen as a pretty direct parallel to a fragile peace on the continent. I even think the lyrics from the 1st trailer song could play into it as well:

Reach for my hand -- I’ll soar away -- into the dawn -- though I wish I could stay -- Here in cherished halls -- these peaceful days -- I fear the end of dawn -- born as my (whatever)

Not hard to see that as nostalgic waxing over simpler and happier times, probably from the viewpoints of the three Lords ("I will return here someday, my teacher", etc.). To me it seems like there's far more evidence supporting the school section being a smaller portion of the game than some people believe/fear than the other way around. I suspect your chosen house will mostly influence this beginning part of the game, with the split paths merging after full-scale war breaks out and the days of school hijinks come to an end. I hate saying there's a lot of potential because that's practically jinxing yourself with IS at this point, but I think that sets up a far more compelling emotional hook than what Fates tried to pull off.

Exactly what I've thought. It doesn't make sense as the setting for an entire game, but it has great potential as an extended Prologue or first Act of sorts. I'd say the academy stuff last 10 hours max, but probably a couple less. It's all about establishing a more simplistic time and relatively peaceful setting for the core cast, but especially the three Lords, to bond and develop connections that will then be put to the test later on. I think the trigger point will come once all your students have progressed to a Base Class from their Noble Trainee-Class and then some transition even or inciting event can take place. It makes sense thematically that we help develop them to their first class as that marks them truly ready for battle. Anything really beyond that seems excessive.

Then there's Edelgard's lines in the E3 trailer which are very ominous and pretty much literally spell out she leaves at some point, likely at the conclusion of the Academy arc: 

• "Such a brutal, irrational world we live in. Some believe the Crests, tokens of the Goddess's power, are necessary to maintain order, but they're wrong Teacher. The Crests are to blame." 
• "Do you dare walk this path with me, one miss step and we'll fall to our ruin. So take your first step. It's now or never."
• "I will return here someday, my teacher. Promise me, you won't forget me."

Based on those lines it actually sounds as though they're out of order. The first one seems right and makes sense as Edelgard has for one reason or another become disillusioned with the current order of the world coming to realize the Crests are bad. But the second line is basically a call to arms and imploring us to make our choice and join her on a quest that will place us in great peril in opposition to those in power. While the last line sounds as though Edelgard is departing from the Academy as if there's somewhere she needs to go and something she needs to do with hope that she'll find the answers she needs and then return.

To me it sounds like during the Academy period one or more events are going to shed light on what the Church and Crests really are, or maybe are not. Edelgard will begin to question that and come to the conclusion "the Crests are to blame." Sometime after that realization she will leave the academy and presumably everyone else as well for one reason or another. Then some indeterminate time after some call to action will transpire that will reunite us and we'll join her on her quest to take on the wrongs in the world.

Question is whether this is 1. unique to Edelgard irregardless of our House choice, 2. something all 3 lords experience together and resulting in similar questioning of belief or 3. something that Dimitri or Claude will experience alone instead if we choose them as our House. If it's options 1 how will that then effect the plot for Dimitri and Claude if we choose either of their Houses.

It still seems like they're setting stuff up so one or more of the Three Lords will come into direct conflict with the others at some point to really stress and test those bonds they developed while at the academy to create a more personally tragic angle to things. That's kind of the brilliant potential of the Academy Arc, it gives us a meaningful first hand experience to these characters developing a friendship and bond. Are those potential roles within said hypothetical conflict fixed irregardless of our House choice and 1. we'll see things from their side of the conflict, viewing the other(s) as enemies and wrong doers, or 2. will the plot always stay the same and just change what's necessary to keep our House choice as the actual rightful protagonist and just slot in one or both of the other houses in as the antagonist?

[Shrimpica]

35 minutes ago, Enduin said:

But the second line is basically a call to arms and imploring us to make our choice and join her on a quest that will place us in great peril in opposition to those in power. While the last line sounds as though Edelgard is departing from the Academy as if there's somewhere she needs to go and something she needs to do with hope that she'll find the answers she needs and then return.

What if the line she says depends on the route we choose?
 

35 minutes ago, Enduin said:

"Do you dare walk this path with me, one miss step and we'll fall to our ruin. So take your first step. It's now or never."

If we choose Edelgard

35 minutes ago, Enduin said:

"I will return here someday, my teacher. Promise me, you won't forget me."

If we choose someone else?

37 minutes ago, Enduin said:

1. we'll see things from their side of the conflict, viewing the other(s) as enemies and wrong doers, or 2. will the plot always stay the same and just change what's necessary to keep our House choice as the actual rightful protagonist and just slot in one or both of the other houses in as the antagonist?

I really hope the route choices will be different enough to warrant different playthroughs (even if the customizability is looking like doing a good job of that already.). I don't want the difference between the routes to be just 2-4 Maps ala FE5/GBAFE. Didn't like that

[The DanMan]

In the screenshot with Akihiko Caspar, you see that he's fighting a Western Church Soldier.

The trailer also talks about the students and knights fighting insurrectionists.

So, here's my theory: said "Western Church" are heretics that you're tasked with dealing with. But of course, the "heretics" actually know the truth of the matter and that's what will kick off the plot in earnest.

Rather straightforward and simple, but that's what has come to me.

[Enduin]

35 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

What if the line she says depends on the route we choose?
 

If we choose Edelgard

If we choose someone else?

 

That's certainly an interesting idea and possibility. 

35 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

I really hope the route choices will be different enough to warrant different playthroughs (even if the customizability is looking like doing a good job of that already.). I don't want the difference between the routes to be just 2-4 Maps ala FE5/GBAFE. Didn't like that

Option 1 definitely offers the most potential for uniqueness per route, especially if everyone's role is fixed irregardless of House choice. But that would also be a tremendous amount of work which may be unrealistic to expect, even if Fates exists(which is probably a good thing to avoid something of that size and complexity again). But man it would be great to have a well written campaign from the perspective of the objectively wrong guy.

Option 2 would probably not offer a whole lot outside of the initial call to action events needed to get them on the main path which would likely be the same for all 3 after that point.

I mean there's a thousand ways they could go about this which could result in varying degrees of uniqueness per route. So it's really hard to say. And that's all depending on whether there really are routes to begin with. Despite the appearances maybe we'll be stuck in the Academy the whole time, all three Houses present, or even if we do leave we all leave together and never part and there's only a super minor difference based on what's the primary House.

1 minute ago, The DanMan said:

In the screenshot with Akihiko Caspar, you see that he's fighting a Western Church Soldier.

The trailer also talks about the students and knights fighting insurrectionists.

So, here's my theory: said "Western Church" are heretics that you're tasked with dealing with. But of course, the "heretics" actually know the truth of the matter and that's what will kick off the plot in earnest.

Rather straightforward and simple, but that's what has come to me.

Yeah that made the most sense. As well because I think Caspar was still a Noble and hadn't graduated to a Base Class yet. I get the feeling that conflict with the Western Church could be the event(s) that start to expose the truth behind the Church and Crests.

Edited February 16, 2019 by Enduin

[Nivek]

There will be a limited 'route choosing' as choose your future nation and help against all other two and evil church(tm) like fates 'invading hoshido to save hoshido' style twist, less harsh previous game but will face your other students and will be climaticThere will be a limited 'route choosing' as choose your future nation and help against all other two and evil church(tm) like fates 'invading hoshido to save hoshido' style twist, less harsh previous game but will face your other students and will be climatic

[Chopper...]

19 hours ago, domilea said:

After each route, these Crest Orbs can be viewed in a gallery from the main menu, and thus are in a sense "saved" between playthroughs. If the player's third playthrough (?!) would unlock all 21 Crest Orbs, however, the True Final Ending is unlocked. This is made possible because of Sothis - given how she seems to grant Byleth a Timewheel-esque power, she may have some sort of futuresight or other cross-dimensional manipulation at her disposal, allowing the combined efforts of these Byleths to complete the Fodlan Falchion.

This sounds cool c:  and reminds me of the Zero Escape games. I hadn't thought about it, but it really was made clear in the trailer that Sothis can rewind time (and maybe she gives this ability to Byleth but limited or something). I really hope that means IntSys has some cool plot twists or some interesting dynamics in store for us.

[Jayvee94]

The Master Knight class will return, as sugested by /u/AnonymousTrollLloyd from Reddit, but as a DLC.

[MagicCanonBalls]

On 2/15/2019 at 7:09 AM, Shrimperor said:

• This game is the first game in a series of games/duology
  
  That's the vibe i got from this Trailer. This game will mostly be light hearted with hints thrown here and there at some real suff happening. Then come the last 30% and it goes full epic, and then it ends with a cliffhanger with the last line being Edelgard's line from the first Trailer
  I have been playing too much Trails haven't i

Trail games took almost (or over) 10 years to finish filling their plots, lets hope IS don't go down that road.

[EJ107]

I think that the identity of Byleth's mother will be important. I don't think it's a coincidence that Sothis, the head of the church and Byleth all have green hair and green eyes. 

I have a feeling that Sothis and Byleth are related in some way through the head of the church, and that is why he is able to see and interact with her. Or, if they want to go a slightly more unexpected route, maybe Sothis herself is Byleths mother.