Eltoshen

A lot of the discussion recently got me thinking that Edelgard's ideology reminds me of Malcolm X in some aspects. Edelgard is from a more privileged position of power, but the main comparison I'd make is that both believed that no change would ever come about unless people fought back against the violence and discrimination they were experiencing. People are complacent and are more comfortable with what they know and fear change of any sort, even if it's against their best interests. You can just look at the current state of the world. Uh...no she wasn't. Multiple students make remarks about her decision in every route. They were not even given a trial. That scene was literally there to show you that Rhea has a dark side, as cringy as that sounds (the face she makes, the creepy smile - read between the lines dude). Jeralt comments on this the moment you meet her. Like, you have got to be purposefully misunderstanding the source material to say something like this and mean it.

You don't need to say it twice. Anybody who isn't a misogynist would agree. Oops, I went there. Also, people who act like the crest system would just go away, I'd really like to see some examples of this in history. The French Revolution ring a bell to anybody? How peaceful was that?

Hanneman and Manuela also stay with Edelgard if you don't recruit them, so I think this list makes a lot of sense as to some biases the creators had. Shamir is a mercenary at heart, so it makes sense that she'd join either of them depending on where Byleth goes. See, you lost me on your first reasoning. How is loving nobility a good reason for joining the Empire? Edelgard especially detests incompetent nobles and believes the world should be run by the people who are most qualified for the job, regardless of their social status. I'd definitely say it's just a family reason. Also regarding Petra's reasoning, she specifically remarks about loving surprise attacks multiple times throughout the game (as it is akin to hunting), so even if she were to join the other houses, I doubt that'd be her reasoning.

Falcoknight Dorothea and Marianne running around with a Levin Sword and Magic Lance (separate runthroughs). Great Knight Lindhardt - Gets doubled by absolutely everything but doesn't take damage from any enemy without a Silver weapon. Dark/Holy Knight Ferdinand Dancer Felix Gremory Edelgard, Bernadetta and Ingrid, all 3 of them are great, Ingrid and Bernadetta both have Physic and Edelgard is an absolute monster (Hades, Luna and Seraphim aren't even necessary, but great boss killers). I see no point doing the same old builds past your 2nd or 3rd run through. Sounds absolutely boring.

The site has information on recruitment that you can check if you're unsure in the future, btw. Spoilers are marked, but you already completed the game once anyways.

He's a fucking mess for the majority of his own route. This is well established by the man himself. Literally only comes back to his senses when Dedue comes back.

Bro, both of them are and were more sane than Dimitri for a majority of the game, so let's just leave it at that.

I mean...Manuela and Hanneman aren't experts at combat. You can also do seminars during the weekend with various professors. Each house has their own homeroom professor/teacher but they received mentoring from all of them. It's ridiculous to expect 1 professor to be an expert at everything. That's literally not how anything past high school/college works. Besides, people like Hubert actually ask you 'What would you do if you are asked to teach something you're not an expert at?' or something to that affect and one option is 'I would study the topic myself before teaching' which is his preferential line of choice. This game does actually address what you're talking about. Many teachers who teach subjects they're not experts on do the exact same thing, studying the discussion topic beforehand either from their own research or through borrowing a colleague's notes or teaching material. In 3 Houses terms, that involves training Byleth's skills with the other professors during explorations and taking part in seminars.

Because Rhea is an authoritarian and makes the final decisions. That's a main part of the story.

Sylvain doesn't need to be a dark mage to use Physic, IDK why that person thought that was relevant.

Ugh, fuck Australia lol. No offense to Australians. Really though, what was the point?

FE4 is long overdue for being one of the most popular games in the series.

Edelgard lost all 10 of her siblings to crest experimentation also, so don't forget that. She describes watching them all die and yet she's still in touch with humanity. Given, Rhea's so fucking old it might make sense why she doesn't experience emotions the same way humans do but then that begs the question - should the supreme ruler of the Church that governs the entire continent be a person who is out of touch with the reality of human life and their emotions?

This and a lot of other bugs in this thread sound just like loading time issues but idk if they're actually bugs since it doesn't crash the game. I've experienced a few but it just seems like the assets took longer to appear and doesn't happen often.

I'm starting to think it is very likely you missed the ring on your first run through lol.