Jump to content

How well is the romance aspect handled in the game?


Recommended Posts

Topic and is this a good love stories for characters? For example, I heard the MC and Edelguard have a really good romance, is this true?

If I will be playing this game on a vacation with my parents, they may see the game/hear the game etc. Will there be anything to be embarrassed about? Basically, what I mean is are there any kissing scenes or holding hands which may be inappropriate. 

Finally, I would like to know if the romances are "fluffy", which I mean very true love and not the bad kind of way. How is the love depicted in this game? Does it end in marriage or is there "break up" if others discover?

Thxvm in advance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There's very little romance in Three Houses, and most of what's there is restricted to the post-game. There's a romance between Byleth and a character of your choice, but it only shows up as explicitly romantic in a single post-game scene, and only if you choose it; you can also choose to stay single and not do a romance at all if you prefer. Beyond that, there are a few supports throughout the game that have a little bit of ambiguous flirting. Some character endings refer to romances between the characters, but that's literally just a sentence or two of text. The only thing that I can think of in the game that is potentially embarrassing or cringeworthy is a gratuitous boob closeup in one of the opening cutscenes, but your mileage may vary.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, BrightBow said:

I suppose it depends on how you feel about teacher x student relationships.

 

Byleth and his/her former students are similar age and 5+ years removed being in an actual teacher/student relationship. So unless someone feels that having ever been in that position disqualifies two people from being a romantic pairing, I would say it's probably fine...   the series has done much worse - topic for another day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, traininggauntlets said:

Byleth and his/her former students are similar age and 5+ years removed being in an actual teacher/student relationship. So unless someone feels that having ever been in that position disqualifies two people from being a romantic pairing, I would say it's probably fine...   

It's very much not fine. I think the term for it is "grooming".

Not that it even matters. Considering Bylelth was just taking a nap for a few years, for all practical purposes they are not "5+ years removed from being in an actual teacher/student relationship".
As for the students themselves, do they ever even stop referring to Byleth as "teacher"?
 

Spoiler

the series has done much worse - topic for another day!

That's not much of an endorsement.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, BrightBow said:

I think the term for it is "grooming".

So you think if one person is ever in a position of authority over another and those two subsequently end up in a romantic pairing, any number of years after that imbalanced power dynamic no longer exists, it's automatically grooming?

Do you have any dialogue examples that Byleth was grooming his or her future partner during part 1? I'd love to hear those. There are certainly people who analyze every word of dialogue more thoroughly than I'd ever think to, so by all means, if you have any I'd love to ponder them.

Edited by traininggauntlets
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, traininggauntlets said:

So you think if one person is ever in a position of authority over another and those two subsequently end up in a romantic pairing, any number of years after that imbalanced power dynamic no longer exists, it's automatically grooming?

Do you have any dialogue examples that Byleth was grooming his or her future partner during part 1? I'd love to hear those.

Again, this hypothetical scenario is redundant because what happens in the game is that Byleth just gets transported into the feature. From his perspective, they are the same kids he was teaching yesterday. So it wouldn't be any less vile then if he did it during the days when he "officially" their teacher.

And also again, the students never stop calling him "teacher". If they are no longer in a teacher / student relationship, clearly no one told them.

Edited by BrightBow
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, traininggauntlets said:

So you think if one person is ever in a position of authority over another and those two subsequently end up in a romantic pairing, any number of years after that imbalanced power dynamic nunno longer exists, it's automatically grooming?

Do you have any dialogue examples that Byleth was grooming his or her future partner during part 1? I'd love to hear those. There are certainly people who analyze every word of dialogue more thoroughly than I'd ever think to, so by all means, if you have any I'd love to ponder them.

Does it really matter if it's in an medieval setting and he's more or less the same age as most of the students? No wait, he's actually an LOT older than the students, but it doesn't really shows or get mentioned because of plot reasons.

 

But still, he isn't really trying to do much of anything aside from being an counselor to nearly everyone and hardly anyone really points out that it's weird. Of course, the situation changes and he officially stops being a teacher at the monastery to being...The silent guy with a legendary sword who's powerful enough to shift the balance of power in the continent. To make it so weird, Robin actually shared his crackpot tactics and managed to be charismatic. Byleth doesn't really says much in terms of coming up with a way to breech Fort Mercius (Hilda wanted to sneak in and Dimitri used brute force), but everyone falls for the silent guy who occasionally gives them some valuable advice that could have came from anyone with a brain.

Edited by Armchair General
Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, Armchair General said:

Does it really matter if it's in an medieval setting and he's more or less the same age as most of the students? No wait, he's actually an LOT older than the students, but it doesn't really shows or get mentioned because of plot reasons.

Byleth is 20-21 (depending on what date you set as your birthday). Mercedes is actually older than her. And the person you're quoting never even mentioned a medieval setting.

Edited by Florete
Link to comment
Share on other sites

51 minutes ago, Florete said:

Byleth is 20-21 (depending on what date you set as your birthday). Mercedes is actually older than her. And the person you're quoting never even mentioned a medieval setting.

Yeah, I misread Year 1159 as "something that happened 50 years ago" for some reason.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Regarding the OP's initial question, there isn't any romance to be worried about until the end of the game, and that's just an S-Support for Byleth (basically, who he/she chooses to marry/be with/platonically associate with). Even then, it's nothing explicit beyond characters voicing their love, a CG of the character you chose with Byleth('s hand), and then the typical end card for characters like all other Fire Emblem games have. Honestly, I'd be more worried about the fact that you're playing a game with anime girls in it if you're embarrassed about your parents seeing that, but I'm sure that's more easily avoidable.

~

Regarding the topic of teacher/student relationships that somehow came up, that's a real dodgy subject, but I'll share my thoughts.

The teacher/student relationship isn't necessarily just Byleth's; it's the player's.

In game, by the time Byleth and their chosen partner actually get together, they would both be at reasonable ages to consent to it just fine. That doesn't mean Byleth would have been grooming their partner since before the timeskip (gifts and teatime are mechanics meant to build support between units, unless you think a walking piece of cardboard can pull that off on their own; that's done by the player's hand). Also, Byleth's name is variable (since it can be chosen by the player just like their birthday), so the students still call them "professor" to give them something to call Byleth after the timeskip (a similar thing is in Persona 5; Joker's real name is determined by the player, but they're given a codename to be called). It's really for the sake of the voice actors and to keep things simple, but I guess you can really think of it more like a nickname (Claude calling Byleth 'Teach' even after the timeskip should be evidence of this).

If anything, the player controls Byleth's actions, so it'd be the player grooming the students.

TL;DR: from a story perspective, they're of-age, consenting adults in a different time, culture, and fictional universe; from a video game perspective (and my personal hot take perspective), it's the player that can make Byleth groom their students you sick dastard. How else are you gonna get that S-Support? Besides, I can guarantee you there is far, far worse stuff that happens in other FE games, but ya knowwwwwww

Can't wait to see what FBI watchlist I get put on with you folks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't really think much of any Byleth's pairings or the consequences regarding their position as their teacher.

Because ultimately any of Byleth pairings aren't real pairings. If you pair someone up with Byleth you just sacrifice that character's romantic prospect to a blank wall that hardly ever replies back to them. The complete lack of any romance(or dialogue) kinda takes the angle out of Byleth being their teacher. I can't see Byleth grooming anyone when they hardly ever speak to the person they're supposed to be grooming.

I think the romance is handled well enough in the sense that its in the background where it belongs. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I'm pretty sure some of the other players have set it already but

As mentioned no romance happens in the story just some platonic loyalty and relationships to certain alliances. 

The romance aspect is there to satisfy Fire Emblem's audience which I believe are mostly shippers and the marriage is just a choose your own ending. Nothing in canon thankfully happens because some ships are so weird. 

Spoiler

You can marry your students I'm not kidding about that, you can marry the staff as Byleth (I'm thankful that this isn't canon) Byleyh is better off not marrying anyone because they're the physical manifestation of a god or god themselves. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/28/2021 at 4:32 AM, HeartTranquil said:

Topic and is this a good love stories for characters? For example, I heard the MC and Edelguard have a really good romance, is this true?

Byleth and Edelgard is pretty good. Most Byleth x another character romances are hindered by Byleth being a blank slate that hardly shows expression and doesn't really have dialogue (well, they have dialogue options, but they don't amount to much and you don't actually see/hear Byleth say anything), but I think, with Byleth and Edelgard, they did sort-of manage to work around it and make the dynamic more mutual. By mutual, I mean that their dynamic and s-support are able to show that Byleth helps Edelgard learn to trust, and Edelgard helps Byleth learn how to feel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...