Quick Question About Route Order?

[Marth von Riegan]

So my brother and I are playing Three Houses together, and we've already played Verdant Wind and Azure Moon, but we're debating over whether to go for Crimson Flower or Silver Snow next. We'd like to finish on the most canonical ending, which I think is Crimson Flower based on the promotional material and Edelgard being the featured Lord of the game and stuff, but my brother thinks Silver Snow is the more canon ending since it's sort of a "secret ending." Any input from those of you who have played both CF and SS? Which one seemed more final?

[Sooks]

Crimson Flower, both for being WAAAAAY better for Fodlan (like the closest you can get to objectivity in regards to opinions) and because the game is obviously pushing that Edelgard’s ideals are good. Crimson Flower is also the secret ending, in order to unlock the route you actually have to 

Spoiler

get a C+ support with Edelgard and talk to her while exploring the monastery in month 2 (like the month with the number 2 on the calendar, not the 2nd month- the one where you go to see the revelation at the holy tomb and try to stop Edelgard from stealing the crest stones), and when prompted say you will go with Edelgard. Then, during the after battle dialogue of that month’s mission, when you get the option select “I must protect Edelgard” and you’re good to go. If you miss the event with Edelgard while exploring, which is easy to do (it unfortunately happened to me), then you are locked into Silver Snow.

So I would definitely say that Crimson Flower is the more final ending, using the wording you used in the last question.

HOWEVER, if you were to ask me which route I think is canon, I think it’s Silver Snow, because it sees you picking the Black Eagles but not siding with Edelgard, both things the game obviously wants you to do. There’s also stuff like it being the only route that was planned originally, it seeing you sort of make your own team instead of joining another, when viewing cutscenes and events in the extras section from the menu, numerically, Silver Snow’s will come first, and when viewing supports from the extras menu if you try to change it to the part II version of a support being displayed from part I Silver Snow is the route it defaults to. Silver Snow is also the default Black Eagles route.

[Yexin]

i'd say you should play Silver Snow, it's the very first route they created so you could say it's the "original idea", but it actually doesn't matter, there's no "correct order" to play 3H

as for canonical endings, every route has Fodlan's best ending, for obvious reasons, so you shouldn't worry about them too much either

[LJ_Reflet]

I feel like most people have recommended the most ideal order to be Verdant Wind>Azure Moon>Crimson Flower>Silver Snow.

Honestly with a series like Fire Emblem, canon is a really difficult word to use and just play whichever one you think will appeal to you more.

[DriftingWaterBottle]

On the topic of secret ending, like Sooks1016 said, Crimson Flower is the secret one in Black Eagle house. It requires the player to do certain actions to be able to access the route split choice to begin with. If the requirements are not met beforehand, the player won't even have the choice to go CF, and will automatically default to Silver Snow. 

Between these two routes, Silver Snow has more similar progression with AM and VW. What I find most unique is that Seteth gains more screentime and has a mini-arc between his cutscene appearances, the information that Rhea shares with Byleth has a different focus than a similar scene in VW, the access to Rhea's full support chain, as well as a route exclusive final boss and a very beautiful battle theme in my opinion. 

Crimson Flower is shorter than the other three routes, but also has the most variance in story progression and gameplay (different map objective and terrain), as well as a route exclusive map and a climatic final boss. The theme song playing during the credit roll is also a different variation from the one played in the other three routes, for what it's worth. The other unique features are access to Edelgard's perspectives from cutscenes and several route exclusive support chains, as well as different personal arc and reactions from BE students and recruited units during monastery explore.

Personally, CF provided more finality and closure to me than SS, as it subverts the roles of a few symboles and historic figures in the game's lore during its final chapters. It feels like breaking the cycle instead of perpetuating it, which is a theme that I personally gravitate toward. But regardless of which route you eventually choose, I think replaying part 1 with Black Eagle can be a fun ride, as it's easier to get a grasp of the true meaning of Edelgard and Hubert's dialogues with some previous knowledge. Making them attack TWISTD and Death Knight also trigger some battle dialogues that flesh out a bit their relationship and the tension between them.

Edited October 20, 2020 by DriftingWaterBottle

[Marth von Riegan]

On 10/19/2020 at 2:55 PM, Sooks1016 said:

Crimson Flower, both for being WAAAAAY better for Fodlan (like the closest you can get to objectivity in regards to opinions) and because the game is obviously pushing that Edelgard’s ideals are good. Crimson Flower is also the secret ending, in order to unlock the route you actually have to 

  Reveal hidden contents

get a C+ support with Edelgard and talk to her while exploring the monastery in month 2 (like the month with the number 2 on the calendar, not the 2nd month- the one where you go to see the revelation at the holy tomb and try to stop Edelgard from stealing the crest stones), and when prompted say you will go with Edelgard. Then, during the after battle dialogue of that month’s mission, when you get the option select “I must protect Edelgard” and you’re good to go. If you miss the event with Edelgard while exploring, which is easy to do (it unfortunately happened to me), then you are locked into Silver Snow.

So I would definitely say that Crimson Flower is the more final ending, using the wording you used in the last question.

HOWEVER, if you were to ask me which route I think is canon, I think it’s Silver Snow, because it sees you picking the Black Eagles but not siding with Edelgard, both things the game obviously wants you to do. There’s also stuff like it being the only route that was planned originally, it seeing you sort of make your own team instead of joining another, when viewing cutscenes and events in the extras section from the menu, numerically, Silver Snow’s will come first, and when viewing supports from the extras menu if you try to change it to the part II version of a support being displayed from part I Silver Snow is the route it defaults to. Silver Snow is also the default Black Eagles route.

Ohhh okay, that makes much more sense that Crimson Flower is the secret ending! There's a lot of good info in here I didn't know, thanks so much!

[Marth von Riegan]

On 10/20/2020 at 8:25 AM, DriftingWaterBottle said:

On the topic of secret ending, like Sooks1016 said, Crimson Flower is the secret one in Black Eagle house. It requires the player to do certain actions to be able to access the route split choice to begin with. If the requirements are not met beforehand, the player won't even have the choice to go CF, and will automatically default to Silver Snow. 

Between these two routes, Silver Snow has more similar progression with AM and VW. What I find most unique is that Seteth gains more screentime and has a mini-arc between his cutscene appearances, the information that Rhea shares with Byleth has a different focus than a similar scene in VW, the access to Rhea's full support chain, as well as a route exclusive final boss and a very beautiful battle theme in my opinion. 

Crimson Flower is shorter than the other three routes, but also has the most variance in story progression and gameplay (different map objective and terrain), as well as a route exclusive map and a climatic final boss. The theme song playing during the credit roll is also a different variation from the one played in the other three routes, for what it's worth. The other unique features are access to Edelgard's perspectives from cutscenes and several route exclusive support chains, as well as different personal arc and reactions from BE students and recruited units during monastery explore.

Personally, CF provided more finality and closure to me than SS, as it subverts the roles of a few symboles and historic figures in the game's lore during its final chapters. It feels like breaking the cycle instead of perpetuating it, which is a theme that I personally gravitate toward. But regardless of which route you eventually choose, I think replaying part 1 with Black Eagle can be a fun ride, as it's easier to get a grasp of the true meaning of Edelgard and Hubert's dialogues with some previous knowledge. Making them attack TWISTD and Death Knight also trigger some battle dialogues that flesh out a bit their relationship and the tension between them.

Thank you so much for your input, this helps a lot! We're heading into a discussion based on this and I think it'll help us decide what we want to do 🙂