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1 hour ago, Ether said:

Considering that FE has been really bad for sidelining female lords in favour of their male counterparts in pretty much every game that features both, if one of them has to be the "Main" lord this time around, it had better damn well be Edelgard. Some sort of mixed path or otherwise non-route locked path would be fine, but if this is just another game that gives us a female lord only to have her get shoved aside so that the male lord can be the "real" hero in the end, especially after giving us so much hope that Edelgard will actually be important, I don't know what I'll do.

Yes, this so much.

I get that some people don’t like favoritism, but this is arguably the first time in the entire damn series the woman is (supposedly) getting the spotlight. I’ll take it.

As long as she doesn’t end up like Azura.

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The real fact that everyone's ignoring is that the fourth route is still not House Pherae, making this game pointless and unplayable.

In all honesty, was anyone really not expecting some kind of hidden route after the last game where they tried to say your choices would matter? These are your only choices, except actually none of them are right because surprise here's the right one, and you can choose it for only three easy payments of $599.95! Seriously, FEH Anna, quit trying to sell Heroes swimsuit calendars, take a hint from Fates Anna and make OG-Veronica only accessible through microtransaction, the Order of Heroes will never worry about going bankrupt until Heroes itself crashes and burns.

Not to pick a fight with the Edelgard lovers, but...really, I don't like this shoehorning of the female Lord. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a fan of the Shafting Of Celica either, but I'm one of those paranoid folks who feels like this whole finally-having-a-prominent-female-Lord-take-that-you-misogynist-pigs thing is going to be poorly handled, like Fates and Azura, and we'll actually end up hating the lost potential Edelgard had more than we would have hated Dimitri or Claude had they been shoehorned into the prominent position over Edelgard. This is of course also assuming we're not actually going to see Edelgard get suddenly sidelined anyways, which, while very unlikely, is still possible, in which case the bait-and-switch will piss people off even more. Then again, see the first line in this post and you'll understand exactly how much I actually care about this game regardless of who gets to be in the spotlight. For those of you who don't know me, I've also thought the whole women-are-always-sidelined-in-FE thing has been ridiculous ever since a certain Exalt-to-be got sidelined in favor of making his future daughter more relevant to the plot than he was(not to mention her inclusion in Smash before his), so that should give you an idea of where I stand on this particular issue...and no, for those of you who want to pick a fight about that, I'm not interested, I just thought I'd establish why I'm saying what I am.

Edited by SoulWeaver
Florete reminded me of the example I'd forgotten, and I forgot Awakening exists lol
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True even though they're prominently featuring a "Female Lord" this time around again outside an Avatar(if Female is chosen) and Eirikas route. It depends how they develop her character and how consistent she'll stay into the story its a double edge sword where they can pull it off well but I'm confident.

Edited by Dorothea Joestar Arnold
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I'm kinda in a similar boat. I agree that a lot of female lords tend to get the short end of the stick. It's not really fair especially in the case of Celica and Erika. So as a standalone thing, I'm fine with Eldegard being the main-main lord.

Thinking about in terms of the big picture though I think the favouritism may be a bit of an issue. Eldegard gets the most attention in marketing, she gets the theme song, she gets to be a bi option, she appears more often in commercials and now she may get an additional route. Considering that the whole appeal/theme of the game is choice it's slightly irritating to see one of the options being pushed so much more heavily than the other 2. I'm a bit worried the Eldegard bias will undermine the other 2 paths.

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Regardless of the story, whether the extra routes are worth a damn to me will likely be determined by how blatant the map reuse will be. I bitterly remember how much I regret buying and playing Revelations, even as someone who enjoyed the other two paths, because it was just so bloody cynical with the reuse while having the temerity to charge equal price for the "privilege". Yeah, yeah, the story there was bad, but even if it were good, or even great, it doesn't mean I'm willing to slog through dozens of maps worth of filler to experience it - not anymore.

With that in mind, any plan to play *all* the routes would be setting myself up for disappointment and burnout, so I'll just pick one based on feel when the time comes to choose, and not necessarily commit myself to seeing the other paths anytime soon.

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I mean....I guess I understand where people are coming from when they express disappointment at Edelgard potentially having two endings, while the other routes only have one? Particularly if you have a strong attachment to the other houses/characters, or you somehow feel offended that Edelgard got more promotion than the other two lords (which is something I also don't really understand, but that feels like a different topic entirely).

 

But maybe we should all wait to play the game before deciding whether or not this fourth route was justified, and see if it really takes anything away from the Golden Deer and Blue Lions paths... 

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Hey man, choices matter. For real. But I think IS is losing sight of the potential of choosing...with your wallet. True Ending DLC all the way. Only by paying money do we find out the true villain behind everything.

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6 minutes ago, gangly369 said:

I mean....I guess I understand where people are coming from when they express disappointment at Edelgard potentially having two endings, while the other routes only have one? Particularly if you have a strong attachment to the other houses/characters, or you somehow feel offended that Edelgard got more promotion than the other two lords (which is something I also don't really understand, but that feels like a different topic entirely).

 

But maybe we should all wait to play the game before deciding whether or not this fourth route was justified, and see if it really takes anything away from the Golden Deer and Blue Lions paths... 

 

definitely agree on that overall, but its always interesting to speculate how its going to be handled.

also id just like to state for the record that sacred stones is far more eirikas story then it is ephraims story, regardless of how you feel about eirikas stupider decisions they arent fragrantly out of character and contribute to her growth which is honestly far more character and development then ephraim ever gets whos entire character and arc amounts to 'dense rock with angry face drawn on it gets less dense and less angry for no describable reason'

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I don't think the favor is about gender, is about story wise. FE3H should be a story about the crest, the church and Nemesis from what we know now. So there will be more potential story on the lord who bear the crest of Seiros. Yes, you could say the writer should place story components more evenly, but I think that a free choice for them. My point is that from the setting of FE3H, if more focus on Edelgard is not inevitable, is predictable or comprehensible at least.

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4 hours ago, Fenreir said:

or we could join the church of Seiros. who knows...

I was actually hoping for something like this instead of a Genocide Run,  something like ''Byleth against Edelgard'' (because, like someone pointed out) alongside ''Byleth helps Edelgard''  feels more entertaining than just killing everyone that opposes you (even though this might end up being ''Byleth helps Edelgard'').

However, aside from Ferdinand, I can't really see all the students wanting to help you out in the one you're against Edelgard, just like the other Houses won't have much of a purpose to fight you.

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It's crazy how there's no beard customisation in the FE series. I can just about let it go for Corrin, but it was criminal how Robin couldn't have one. The male versions, too. 😉

Especially if you're going to S-support someone, I think you should be able to drop hints about personal grooming. Playing as a straight F Byleth, I'd really want to see Gilbert grow out a Duessel-like beard. And for Alois to shave his moustache, because he's clearly incapable of growing it properly. Hanneman is perfect as-is though.

Dimitri needs a proper unkempt hobo beard, Felix needs a hipster one to go with his man-bun, and Seteth needs to commit one way or the other.

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I have mixed feelings about this. It is nice to see a female lord as the main highlight in a FE game but showing favoritism in a game marketed as your choice matter kind of defeat the point of making your choice in my opinion but if the reviewer said the existence of the fourth route doesn't undermined the other routes, I hope that it is so. 

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12 minutes ago, Ririn said:

I have mixed feelings about this. It is nice to see a female lord as the main highlight in a FE game but showing favoritism in a game marketed as your choice matter kind of defeat the point of making your choice in my opinion but if the reviewer said the existence of the fourth route doesn't undermined the other routes, I hope that it is so.  

 

Your choices still matter. Even MORE if you have more choices. A fourth route inside another route proves another choice that matters

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6 hours ago, Ether said:

Considering that FE has been really bad for sidelining female lords in favour of their male counterparts in pretty much every game that features both, if one of them has to be the "Main" lord this time around, it had better damn well be Edelgard. Some sort of mixed path or otherwise non-route locked path would be fine, but if this is just another game that gives us a female lord only to have her get shoved aside so that the male lord can be the "real" hero in the end, especially after giving us so much hope that Edelgard will actually be important, I don't know what I'll do.

This is my take on it as well.

If one lord was going to get more routes/a bigger role it should be the female lord.

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Gender hardly has any bearing on that. All I care about is if Edelgard is likable. Plenty of lead males have been bad in fire emblem, like Shadow Dragon Marth, Roy, and the avatars. Granted, we've had bad female lords too. 

Maybe I'm afraid we'll be stuck with another Azura. Though I doubt Edelgard will be remotely as uninteresting and stupid.

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I like Edelgard and I appreciate her design, but personally, I believe the reason she got more focus is more possibly that she could be paired with M!Byleth, rather than Int Sys suddenly realized that they portrayed less impressive female lords.

And M!Byleth has also been presented as the ”main” or ”true” self-insert protagonist. He definitely appears more often in trailers than F!Byleth. And his relationship with Edelgard got more emphasis than his relationship with other two lords, or the relationship between F!Byleth and Edelgard. In fact we seldom see F!Byleth in the trailer, and she is overshadowed by the M!Byleth in the promotion period. 

So in this way I don't see how if Edelgard is the ”main” lord it is more justified than other situations, because I believe they are not purely more focused on her, but more focused on M!Byleth, his relationship with a female character, and as a result this female character. Considered that, the truth that she is the only confirmed bi lord is quite suspicious. Maybe it means that her relationship with the M!Byleth & F!Byleth is more openly and explicitly romantic. 

But still it depends on the actuall story and how they execute it. I just prefer that three routes get equal focus. 

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4 minutes ago, genagi said:

And M!Byleth has also been presented as the ”main” or ”true” self-insert protagonist. He definitely appears more often in trailers than F!Byleth. And his relationship with Edelgard got more emphasis than his relationship with other two lords, or the relationship between F!Byleth and Edelgard. In fact we seldom see F!Byleth in the trailer, and she is overshadowed by the M!Byleth in the promotion period. 

Marketing =/= Canon. Assassin's Creed Odyssey focused A LOT on the Male protagonist in marketing. But in written books, so the canon in the books, the female main character is the canon choice

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11 minutes ago, genagi said:

And M!Byleth has also been presented as the ”main” or ”true” self-insert protagonist. He definitely appears more often in trailers than F!Byleth. And his relationship with Edelgard got more emphasis than his relationship with other two lords, or the relationship between F!Byleth and Edelgard. In fact we seldom see F!Byleth in the trailer, and she is overshadowed by the M!Byleth in the promotion period.

That worked so well for male Corrin, didn't it?

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28 minutes ago, genagi said:

I like Edelgard and I appreciate her design, but personally, I believe the reason she got more focus is more possibly that she could be paired with M!Byleth, rather than Int Sys suddenly realized that they portrayed less impressive female lords.

And M!Byleth has also been presented as the ”main” or ”true” self-insert protagonist. He definitely appears more often in trailers than F!Byleth. And his relationship with Edelgard got more emphasis than his relationship with other two lords, or the relationship between F!Byleth and Edelgard. In fact we seldom see F!Byleth in the trailer, and she is overshadowed by the M!Byleth in the promotion period. 

So in this way I don't see how if Edelgard is the ”main” lord it is more justified than other situations, because I believe they are not purely more focused on her, but more focused on M!Byleth, his relationship with a female character, and as a result this female character. Considered that, the truth that she is the only confirmed bi lord is quite suspicious. Maybe it means that her relationship with the M!Byleth & F!Byleth is more openly and explicitly romantic. 

But still it depends on the actuall story and how they execute it. I just prefer that three routes get equal focus. 

Welcome to video game marketing, where avatar characters are almost always portrayed as being male because men are the primary audience.

Three Houses marketing has actually been better than Awakening and Fates as far as showing both genders of the avatar.

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19 minutes ago, Duke of Dozel said:

That worked so well for male Corrin, didn't it?

I actually expect MByleth to be the more popular one this time around if only because of their design compared to FByleth.

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46 minutes ago, Hauke said:

Marketing =/= Canon. Assassin's Creed Odyssey focused A LOT on the Male protagonist in marketing. But in written books, so the canon in the books, the female main character is the canon choice

I wouldn't mind if the made the Byleths into distinct people and had them co-exist in the gameworld like that. They'd be wholly different people, that is, like Jeralt would only be M Byleth's dad and F Byleth would have a completely different backstory. Or just have Shamir or someone like that as the female protagonist.

I'm not only doing this so I can romance M Byleth on my F Byleth playthrough but he is the most eligible bachelor in Fodlan.

 

As for Edelgard and her relative prominence, it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. It makes complete sense for her path to be the most prominent because the nation she represents is the most significant in the region. But was that decided before or after she was designed? Regardless, I see it as being a similar situation to the birth of say, modern Spain, where Leon is the first and most prominent kingdom that arose from Visigothic Asturias over the course of the Reconquista, and the other two houses therefore being similar in status as the kingdoms of Portugal and Castile.

I view this setup as being far more interesting than if the titular three houses were all coincidentally equal in power and influence. That way lies the boring worldbuilding of Sacred Stones where it's basically "hey, here's a map, and there are a bunch of equally powerful proforma kingdoms that coexist in peace and harmony (for now)". I don't believe the houses were ever meant to be equal and they should not be treated as such for the sake of a sense of fuzzy egalitarianism.

Edited by Humanoid
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I dunno. I think it'll be pretty even this time around. I've noticed some people like F!Byleth's emotional expression range compared to M!Byleth's more stoic appearance.In turn, some people like M!Byleth's overall design and lack of large eyes They both look okay to me. 

I do wonder though if there will be any saltiness of only F!Byleth being able to romance all 3 lords though(IS pandering)... I've seen a lot of resentment for the lack of Claude/M!Byleth.

Edited by mrwanton
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