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An Extended Musing on Three Houses' Story


PeaceRibbon
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So way WAY back in August I beat Three Houses for the first time and did a big compilation of my thoughts and feelings on the game which you can read here (mind that you don't necropost!). Myriad typos aside I was very happy to have gotten to discuss the game from that particular viewpoint, but now I come today to discuss the game from a more common standpoint, as someone who has beaten every route. Reading the previous post is not required, but I don't want to repeat everything I said about Azure Moon for the sake of those who have read it already, so if your interested go read up. If I only touch on it lightly, that'll be why. Allow me to also preface that I played the game in this order: Azure Moon, Silver Snow, Crimson Flower, and Verdant Wind. I went into my follow up playthroughs with the knowledge that Silver Snow and Verdant Wind would be similar, so I ordered them in such a way that I could complete the other stories efficiently without playing those back to back. If you feel that some of my opinions are influenced by this play order, that's because they probably were.

Let's begin by talking about Silver Snow. This story wound up being my second favorite for one simple reason: Its emotional moments work really well. While obviously Azure Moon does the Flame Emperor reveal the best, it feels particularly weighty in the long term for Silver Snow, and I enjoyed traveling with the former Black Eagles in their quest to stop their power-hungry empress, and seeing them deal with the anxiety of attacking their former home. Another really strong element of this path is despite Byleth being a mostly silent protagonist, this route gives you the most options in cutscenes to flesh him/her out as the protagonist, particularly at the beginning and end of the time-skip where you can make Byleth filled with resolve to right the world's wrongs, or hesitant to point his blade at his former pupil, which pays off wonderfully at the conclusion to chapter 19. This also the most effective setup for the rescuing of Rhea because it truly feels like THE main goal in this route. And while the final battle against the archbishop and the berserk knights is about as comically contrived as it gets, I can't deny that it was a satisfyingly somber way to end the journey. All in all this was a fun route that served a lot of great drama and interesting character dynamics.

I'll talk about Verdant Wind next due to it's heavy similarities to Silver Snow. Simply put, I felt that Claude, while an interesting character in his own right, really felt like he overstuffed the plot with his ambitions. While being the outsider is kind of Claude's thing, it was really hard to play through that story without feeling like he was motivated almost entirely out of furthering his personal plans, and while I don't think him particularly immoral, he felt a little too manipulative for me to enjoy him to the fullest (though his schemes are also kinda the point so maybe I'm proof that their writing is better than we realize). The Golden Deer as a group are a pretty strong crew too, but I felt a couple of them in particular weren't all that great until after the time-skip so their version of White Clouds definitely felt the most iffy. In regards to the final bout against Nemesis, while it only happening in Verdant Wind feels a bit like cutting off content from Silver Snow for the sake of variety, I think it's one of the best final maps in series history since it tests you on game-play skills not particularly unique to that chapter while spicing it up just enough to keep it interesting. Ultimately, Verdant Wind is fun, but there are so many details from the banner the army flies to the group's actual end goal that feel so much more cohesive in Silver Snow, and it truly deserved to be its own thing and explore its own ambitions.

Finally we come to the ever lovely topic of Crimson Flower which definitely will not start a firestorm in the thread and everyone will just be friends sharing Ferdinand von Aiger and Bernadetta memes among one another. Jokes about this routes divisiveness aside, it probably comes as no surprise that I find this route to be the weakest, for two major reasons. The first being that the story tries way to hard to let Edelgard have her cake and eat it too, by which I mean it frames her as a hero through the whole tale even during her most insidious actions (*cough* covering for TWSITD's attack on Arianroad) and gives her none of the grim bravado that made her great as a villain. I 100% feel this story would have been a whole lot better if it just embraced the fact the player sided with the aggressor instead of trying to rationalize their actions. My main issue with the route however, is how jarring the character portrayals feel when put up against their counterparts in other routes. Before my point seems too contradictory in a discussion about a "player choices matter" game, think about my precious Dimitri for a minute. In every single route, his mental state always deteriorates into a vengeful shadow of his former, kinder self. While this is to a lesser extent in Crimson Flower, his character growth remains the same, and his personality fate is only altered significantly as the story progresses. Now take Edelgard, whose heart grows cold and detached from the idea of recourse as the war goes on in the other three routes. In Crimson Flower, Byleth chooses to side with her, and after being usrpers-in-arms for only a month before Byleth goes dark for five years, five long years where her heart had plenty of time to grow icy, teacher shows back up and surprise, she's a totally different, gentler, and more likable person now! Imagine if THIS was how they handled Dimitri in Azure Moon, a character you have to watch at his absolute lowest before he gets better. I understand that Edelgard frequently shows a certain kind of affinity for Byleth in particular, but if that's the only justification we have for her change in personality then we have to just accept her entire character is written around Byleth's allegiances, and I don't like that much at all. This also applies to all of the Black Eagles, who really should have fixed sidings with either the Resistance Army or the Adrestian Empire based on what they truly believe, rather than just moseying wherever their teacher goes (though there are exceptions to this). The only character who makes any sense at all in this whiplash of personalities is Rhea, and viewing this story as a "what if" scenario for her character development makes her screen-time interesting, but its just too little too late. Again, I stress that I know this is a choices matter game, but when the other routes give you time to see the consequences unfold, this route just feels way too inconsistent in its use of that premise.

So in conclusion, do I still think this is the best Fire Emblem game with the best story out of any of them? Well, yeah, I really do. I know I was really critical of the other routes in this write-up but honestly I do it out of a genuine place of love for the game's setting and characters, and the gameplay is still my favorite in a Fire Emblem to date. Each route is worth playing in its own small way, and I have not written this article to say your favor for any one route is wrong. We can only hope that the writers of this game take note of both the triumphs and stumbles of Three Houses' story and make something even more special for the next non-remake entry, but this is definitely a high bar to follow up on. Let me know about your thoughts on the Three Houses story below, ask for any further opinions, and PLEASE let me know how bad my taste is! :KnollRoll:

Edited by PeaceRibbon
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An amazing write-up, I absolutely loved it! It was great to see someone else's full thoughts of their experiences, especially as someone who also wrote a full dissection of their time in Fodlan 🙂

I assume full spoilers are allowed in here, so I wanted to ask your opinion on the idea that Edelgard is "more evil" in the non-CF routes because she has to rely on TWSITD instead of her friends and Professor over its 5+yr duration. What do you think?

Second and third questions: What genders did you play as in your runs? Also, in your BL review you said you'd only recruit people who were forced on you; did you do that for these three runs as well?

How would you order the routes? It seems like Azure Moon was your first, followed by the others in the order in which you played them?

Last two questions:

These two points are never explicitly stated in the main narrative, so I'll spoiler them even though you probably figured them out:

Spoiler

When did you figure out who Seteth and Flayn are, and where Claude came from? What do you think of details being hidden away like this? I think it's pretty neat, myself 😄

And now the final most important? question: who were your S Supports? (Also, I agree with your earlier point: I love how they're implemented here too!)

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I just wanted to say I think you are 100% spot on regarding most of this, particularly the Crimson Flower route. That was my first route, so on my first playthrough it was a strongly written one, but having seen the rest now, it just feels... kind of schizophrenic in hindsight. 

Then again, I think - and this is positive criticism, what they did with the story of this game was exceptional - everyone feels like their whole purpose in life is to bend to the whims of Byleth. Fire Emblem in the MU era has always been Mary Sue/Gary Stu-ish, and it isn't as bad in this game as it was in the abominably written Fates games, but watching the reactions of each character to their situation is kind of jarring, especially comparing Silver Snow to Crimson Flower. Particularly with the noble classes, because Ferdinand von Aegir~ openly serves the woman who like KILLED HIS DAMN FATHER. They kind of papered over a lot of the background stuff in Crimson Flower to point out that Edelgard really likes the professor.

I get where they were going with it, I just don't think the results quite matched the ambitions. But that they came so close is to their credit.

Excellent write-up.

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1 minute ago, Superbus said:

Ferdinand von Aegir~ openly serves the woman who like KILLED HIS DAMN FATHER.

While Ferdinant seems among the more likely persons to turn against Edelgard that isn't entirely correct. Edelgard never murdered Ferdinant's father but instead gave him house arrest. That's....actually extremely lenient considering the guy not only humiliated her father but also tortured all of Edelgard's siblings to death and subjected her to the same torture. When the duke finally does get killed its not by Edelgard but by random bandits.

Ferdinant von Aegir has reasons to oppose Edelgard but his daddy isn't one of them. He doesn't even like his father and claims he wanted to overthrow him.

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3 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

An amazing write-up, I absolutely loved it! It was great to see someone else's full thoughts of their experiences, especially as someone who also wrote a full dissection of their time in Fodlan 🙂

I assume full spoilers are allowed in here, so I wanted to ask your opinion on the idea that Edelgard is "more evil" in the non-CF routes because she has to rely on TWSITD instead of her friends and Professor over its 5+yr duration. What do you think?

Second and third questions: What genders did you play as in your runs? Also, in your BL review you said you'd only recruit people who were forced on you; did you do that for these three runs as well?

How would you order the routes? It seems like Azure Moon was your first, followed by the others in the order in which you played them?

Last two questions:

These two points are never explicitly stated in the main narrative, so I'll spoiler them even though you probably figured them out:

  Reveal hidden contents

When did you figure out who Seteth and Flayn are, and where Claude came from? What do you think of details being hidden away like this? I think it's pretty neat, myself 😄

And now the final most important? question: who were your S Supports? (Also, I agree with your earlier point: I love how they're implemented here too!)

Thank you for your support!

Question I: To me personally, the presence of the professor and/or the black eagles doesn't particularly lighten the severity of Edelgard's actions. She knows she shouldn't be working with TWSITD but she's too convinced she needs their power to achieve her goals regardless of the route, and if anything her selling her soul to them (even with the intent of taking it back later) is perhaps the greatest sin she commits.

Question II: I elected to play male on every run, mostly out of pure preference.

Question III: I did in fact do no recruitment on every path! A big part of the game's fun for me was seeing which characters would be played by default and seeing who the recruitment only characters are. My final finding s that only Manuela, Hanneman, and Alois are exclusive to people who pursue them, and all the other characters join the party automatically in a least one route. I also killed as few Blue Lions as possible in each subsequent play-through, which made CF particularly devastating for me emotionally because a whopping six of them are mandatory targets. :cry:

Question IV: The best way to play Three Houses is to pick the route you are interested in first, then to just make sure you do not play Silver Snow and Verdant Wind back to back. Ok in a less cop-out answer, I'd say go Blue Lions first for maximum impact during your first run of White Clouds, then play the other paths based on which mysteries you want elaborated on. SS for Byleth in particular, or VW for Fodlan's background as a whole. Sandwich CF between the two to keep the gameplay varied.

Question V: 

Spoiler

Seteth and Flayn's secret re-contextualized their relationship in a way that actually makes Seteth's protectiveness and doting really sweet in the long term and adds a lot of depth to the characters. Claude's heritage informs his motivations quite well and really lets his role in the story click into place. Overall, I appreciate that the game respects our intelligence and allows players to gather up things about the lore early. I even figured out early...

Spoiler

That the Heroes Relics are made out of Rhea's relatives.

 

The Big One: Picking an S support in Azure Moon was like trying to pick a favorite kid, and on subsequent playthroughs I'll likely mix it up a little, but on the first run I eventually chose Mercedes for being such a nice young lady I enjoyed spending time with. Black Eagles I probably had the least affinity for, but I found Dorothea to be really compelling as a love interest during SS, and I picked Bernadetta during CF for fun and Erica Mendez. Verdant Wind was a close race between Leonie and Marianne, but eventually I went with Marianne becuase while I found school phase Marianne to be frustratingly shy, her development in war phase really REALLY improved my perception of her.

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Interesting little write up here. Wanna know an interesting little running theme or motif I noticed about a lot of the major characters in this story. It's that all of them are hiding something about themselves. Edelgard and her tyranical ambitions, Dimitri and his dark animilistic tendencies, Claude and his past, Rhea and her goals and motivations, even Byleth with their emotions(it's not conscious mind you but still).  Every major character in this game has something hide and they do so by wearing a persona of sorts. A figurative mask if you will or in some cases it's a literal mask like Jeritza, Edelgard or TWSTID. It's all an attempt to hide who they truly are for various reasons. Everyone has some kind of secret that they don't wish to show others and it's only when the timeskip rolls around that those masks begin to wither way(both figuratively and literally). You can only keep up a facade like that for so long after all. It's an interesting point of commonality I noticed.

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7 hours ago, Ottservia said:

Interesting little write up here. Wanna know an interesting little running theme or motif I noticed about a lot of the major characters in this story. It's that all of them are hiding something about themselves. Edelgard and her tyranical ambitions, Dimitri and his dark animilistic tendencies, Claude and his past, Rhea and her goals and motivations, even Byleth with their emotions(it's not conscious mind you but still).  Every major character in this game has something hide and they do so by wearing a persona of sorts. A figurative mask if you will or in some cases it's a literal mask like Jeritza, Edelgard or TWSTID. It's all an attempt to hide who they truly are for various reasons. Everyone has some kind of secret that they don't wish to show others and it's only when the timeskip rolls around that those masks begin to wither way(both figuratively and literally). You can only keep up a facade like that for so long after all. It's an interesting point of commonality I noticed.

Great point! If this was a theme they aimed to pull off from the start, I'd say the story is pretty much tailor made to maximize the effectiveness of the masks falling away. Strong build up in school phase to get you curious about what the characters are hiding, and big payoffs in war phase, and the transition to the war as well. This certainly puts The Edge of Dawn's lyrics more into perspective for me, and as a singer any deeper understanding of a song's text always helps me fall in love with it all over again.

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10 hours ago, Ottservia said:

Interesting little write up here. Wanna know an interesting little running theme or motif I noticed about a lot of the major characters in this story. It's that all of them are hiding something about themselves. Edelgard and her tyranical ambitions, Dimitri and his dark animilistic tendencies, Claude and his past, Rhea and her goals and motivations, even Byleth with their emotions(it's not conscious mind you but still).  Every major character in this game has something hide and they do so by wearing a persona of sorts. A figurative mask if you will or in some cases it's a literal mask like Jeritza, Edelgard or TWSTID. It's all an attempt to hide who they truly are for various reasons. Everyone has some kind of secret that they don't wish to show others and it's only when the timeskip rolls around that those masks begin to wither way(both figuratively and literally). You can only keep up a facade like that for so long after all. It's an interesting point of commonality I noticed.

You know...this is a common theme, isn't it? I noticed both Edelgard and Claude were keeping secrets in Part 1, but I guess I was so shocked by Dimitri's transformation that I didn't realise the other two had theirs as well...

10 hours ago, PeaceRibbon said:

Interesting little write up here. Wanna know an interesting little running theme or motif I noticed about a lot of the major characters in this story. It's that all of them are hiding something about themselves. Edelgard and her tyranical ambitions, Dimitri and his dark animilistic tendencies, Claude and his past, Rhea and her goals and motivations, even Byleth with their emotions(it's not conscious mind you but still).  Every major character in this game has something hide and they do so by wearing a persona of sorts. A figurative mask if you will or in some cases it's a literal mask like Jeritza, Edelgard or TWSTID. It's all an attempt to hide who they truly are for various reasons. Everyone has some kind of secret that they don't wish to show others and it's only when the timeskip rolls around that those masks begin to wither way(both figuratively and literally). You can only keep up a facade like that for so long after all. It's an interesting point of commonality I noticed.

When did you figure that out, if I may ask?

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15 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

While Ferdinant seems among the more likely persons to turn against Edelgard that isn't entirely correct. Edelgard never murdered Ferdinant's father but instead gave him house arrest. That's....actually extremely lenient considering the guy not only humiliated her father but also tortured all of Edelgard's siblings to death and subjected her to the same torture. When the duke finally does get killed its not by Edelgard but by random bandits.

Ferdinant von Aegir has reasons to oppose Edelgard but his daddy isn't one of them. He doesn't even like his father and claims he wanted to overthrow him.

That wasn't my understanding from my CF playthrough, which is also the only one that didn't give me the Paralogue with Ferdinand and Lysithea. It was my first playthrough so I could have made some mistakes, though. 

Basically, I thought that in CF (and only CF?), Hubert basically killed everyone. His father, Count Varley, Duke Aegir, etc.

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1 hour ago, DefyingFates said:

When did you figure that out, if I may ask?

I pieced together most of it once I learned that the Nabateans were slain for the sake of acquiring weaponry . I thought it made sense of the odd, sinewy designs of the Heroes Relics.

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3 minutes ago, PeaceRibbon said:

I pieced together most of it once I learned that the Nabateans were slain for the sake of acquiring weaponry . I thought it made sense of the odd, sinewy designs of the Heroes Relics.

Oh, during Verdant Wind then? That makes sense, I thought you figured it out before then 😛

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Just now, DefyingFates said:

Oh, during Verdant Wind then? That makes sense, I thought you figured it out before then 😛

I could have SWORN I heard something about it in Silver Snow or maybe Crimson Flower... maybe the fact I was writing up past 9 changed my memory a little? :Wrys:

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26 minutes ago, Superbus said:

That wasn't my understanding from my CF playthrough, which is also the only one that didn't give me the Paralogue with Ferdinand and Lysithea. It was my first playthrough so I could have made some mistakes, though. 

Basically, I thought that in CF (and only CF?), Hubert basically killed everyone. His father, Count Varley, Duke Aegir, etc.

I think Marques Vestra is the only one who actually got killed. Bernadetta mentions definitely not wanting to return home since her father will be around all the time now he's under house arrest. Vestra's death seems to stem mostly from Hubert really, really hating his father. 

Of course Varley and Aegir could still have been executed somewhere after the timeskip but its never really stated. 

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10 minutes ago, PeaceRibbon said:

I could have SWORN I heard something about it in Silver Snow or maybe Crimson Flower... maybe the fact I was writing up past 9 changed my memory a little? :Wrys:

Verdant Wind's the only route that explores the Heroes' Relics (partly because that's something Claude takes a special interest in) 🙂

1 minute ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I think Marques Vestra is the only one who actually got killed. Bernadetta mentions definitely not wanting to return home since her father will be around all the time now he's under house arrest. Vestra's death seems to stem mostly from Hubert really, really hating his father. 

Of course Varley and Aegir could still have been executed somewhere after the timeskip but its never really stated. 

Yep! Hubert killed his dad and the other dissenters were put under house arrest. This is one of the things that stays constant across all four routes.

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Congrats on beating all the routes pal! Your particular insights in to the story of 3 Houses have been very interesting to read. I don't know if I'll ever beat all 4 routes myself, but now I have an idea of which ones I should prioritize in the long haul.

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On 11/19/2019 at 4:48 PM, PeaceRibbon said:

Now take Edelgard, whose heart grows cold and detached from the idea of recourse as the war goes on in the other three routes. In Crimson Flower, Byleth chooses to side with her, and after being usrpers-in-arms for only a month before Byleth goes dark for five years, five long years where her heart had plenty of time to grow icy, teacher shows back up and surprise, she's a totally different, gentler, and more likable person now!

I really don't think this is what the game is trying to get across. Post-skip Edelgard isn't gentler or more likeable, she's... well, pretty much the same. Single-minded and uncompromising in her ambitions. Willing to lie, even to her friends, if it serves her goals. Brutal when she needs to be, lenient when she can afford to be. Level-headed, stoic, guarded in her feelings. If anything, there's a disconnect between her expressed dependence on Byleth, and how little the professor's absence actually appears to have affected her.

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On 11/22/2019 at 10:12 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I really don't think this is what the game is trying to get across. Post-skip Edelgard isn't gentler or more likeable, she's... well, pretty much the same. Single-minded and uncompromising in her ambitions. Willing to lie, even to her friends, if it serves her goals. Brutal when she needs to be, lenient when she can afford to be. Level-headed, stoic, guarded in her feelings. If anything, there's a disconnect between her expressed dependence on Byleth, and how little the professor's absence actually appears to have affected her.

I'm going back through the Edelgard routes now, and... much to @Etrurian emperor's point above, it's almost like i'm playing a different game. The things I'm noticing pre-timeskip compared to my first playthrough are exceptional. I just have an alarm in my head going off saying "this chick is not playing around". My first playthrough (CF), I picked Edelgard because I couldn't see myself going for an increasingly unhinged Rhea. Second time through (SS), I couldn't see myself going with someone who was so obviously working with the enemy (though I'm interested to see how a playable Jeritza works into this).

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11 hours ago, Superbus said:

I'm going back through the Edelgard routes now, and... much to @Etrurian emperor's point above, it's almost like i'm playing a different game. The things I'm noticing pre-timeskip compared to my first playthrough are exceptional. I just have an alarm in my head going off saying "this chick is not playing around". My first playthrough (CF), I picked Edelgard because I couldn't see myself going for an increasingly unhinged Rhea. Second time through (SS), I couldn't see myself going with someone who was so obviously working with the enemy (though I'm interested to see how a playable Jeritza works into this).

I'm having a hard time parsing this, not sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing with me? Fine either way, haha.

My first was VW, then CF, currently on AM. I didn't feel hugely different about Edelgard from one route to the next. It felt like she was consistent in personality, if not in situation or role, and the key difference was just whether I was playing with her, or against her. Maybe that'll change once I beat AM, or finally get to SS.

I generally agree with the notion that CF tends to sweep the bad stuff Edelgard does under the rug - both pre-skip (Flame Emperor shenanigans), and post-skip (lying to her classmates about the ICBMs). But I think it's a necessary evil, or a "positive failure", if there is such a thing. Compare with Conquest, which hammered home the point that "you're fighting for the bad guys. Look, Hans is stomping on a sack full of kittens, and you ain't gonna do shit about it." I couldn't stand it, because I hated the notion of Corrin (who is supposed to represent my choice) spinelessly serving a blatantly evil cause. I think obscuring the flaws in Edelgard's morality makes for a more enjoyable route - one in which we're seeing "her side of the story", and that I'm feeling good about my cause, even if it means fighting old friends. And in any case, the other 3 routes do an excellent job of showing Edelgard in a villain's light.

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People seem to love bringing up the "Edelgard lies to her team about Arianrhod's destruction" despite the fact if you think it through, it makes sense.

At this point we're into the war, we can't afford to reveal the existence of TWS precisely because they're so deeply embedded in the Empire it would spark paranoia and distrust, possibly even a civil war when we're already at war with the rest of the continent. CF Edelgard and Hubert are clear that dealing with TWS is a post-war thing, when they don't have to worry about the Empire potentially fracturing mid-war effort. Telling ANYONE, even those close to us (classmates) about TWS is a serious risk, especially with personalities like Caspar's or backgrounds like Lysithea's.

By the time Arianrhod is destroyed, we're at the cusp of victory, with just Dmitri and Rhea left to defeat. Revealing that we've been working with monsters, no matter how grudgingly, will destroy morale, spark strife and unrest and promote paranoia and distrust in our army's ranks.

 

The entire CF route is basically Edelgard saying "I want to destroy TWS, but they're in every nation, so conquer the whole continent (which some people, nobles especially, are totally on board with anyways because it used to all be Adrestia anyways) so we can hunt them down without international border issues getting in the way, not to mention I'll have people loyal to me everywhere by this point. Rhea is also a tyrant who has stymied human advances, and bound us to a Crest-obsessed system, so to hell with her, not to mention if I conquer the continent she'll get in my way anyways, so take Garreg Mach, then go to war with everyone else."

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I do honestly think Crimson Flower trivializing Edelgard's actions as the Flame Emperor by leaving all of its repercutions happen offscreen was a huge missed opportunity, though it's not something that's a huge deal breaker for me in particular since Jeritza's finally present after the timeskip (his absence in the base game just didn't make any sense).

On 11/19/2019 at 6:48 PM, PeaceRibbon said:

In Crimson Flower, Byleth chooses to side with her, and after being usrpers-in-arms for only a month before Byleth goes dark for five years, five long years where her heart had plenty of time to grow icy, teacher shows back up and surprise, she's a totally different, gentler, and more likable person now!

Is it such a jarrying change tho? Compared to the other lords (which is more noticeable if you've done their routes earlier), Edelgard never truly opens up to Byleth during most of the timeskip until the latter makes the choice of joining her side. Granted, she confides her past and what drives her onward, but as far revealing herself off-the-clock goes, she always keeps the appereance of her cool and collected persona until the very end because she sees their eventual conflict with Byleth a foregone conclusion.

 

On 11/19/2019 at 6:48 PM, PeaceRibbon said:

Imagine if THIS was how they handled Dimitri in Azure Moon, a character you have to watch at his absolute lowest before he gets better.

Dimitri has the advantage of having the seeds of his redemption already there, namely: his group, childhood friends and the parental figure that is Rodrigue, so it's no wonder Byleth's able to bring him out of his darkness eventually. By comparison, pulling a conventional redemption arc with Edelgard would mean getting her out of her mindset with none of those elements around, which is both unrealistic and night-impossible, so it's hard to blame the writers for simply embracing her anti-villain mentality all the way through from the Holy Tomb onward (there's also the fact she already has an idea how to make peace with herself which consist of simply winning the war in her own terms, which muds the issue even further).

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