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Well done! I really enjoyed VW as well, and a lot of your comments about unit playability are really insightful. I've heard FalcoByleth hyped a lot before, but this gets me really excited to play with that build! I had the exact same issue with Hilda on VW, to the point where I was wondering what I was doing wrong, that she was performing nowhere near as well as the Internet claimed she did. I did run her as a GK in VW (obviously completely different role to your run, GK is a worse class and less optimal for Hilda), but I also played her as a Peg Knight in CS and a Wyvern in SS (the SS run was incomplete though), and my feedback is exactly the same - she was a brilliant tank in VW, accuracy ring + hit battalions (and occasionally smash/spike) just about kept her in the running for hitting things, but she fell off in the late game and I'm not sure what I could have done. Being on Peg Knight in CS saved her accuracy/avoid, enough to be worth losing Axefaire, and she got enough speed to double a lot of the time, so I will definitely run her on a flier in the future and see what happens (I've scrapped my SS run because I let Ashe die in Ch.15 and accidentally saved over it, this was before the joy of 25 save files). As someone who has used Lysithea on every playthrough of 3H and will continue to, I'm happy to admit that she's flawed (awful speed, charm is meh, god forbid she's unprotected when reinforcements turn up) but she's never not been a cannon for me. I actually made her dancer on VW (just cos I felt like it, as you can tell I wasn't optimising on my VW play through) and gave her a march ring, and she's still throttling most things. Although her heavy magic wasn't doubling the elites, I think I just got lucky with her mag cos she's been ORKOing armours and cavalry from start to finish on literally every playthrough. Agreed, Ignatz is criminally underrated. On my NG+ chain he is the most qualified member of my army, and there is a lot to be said for someone who just about always hits, has good crit, physical and magical functionality as well as both rallies and seal abilities. I would say though that VW has no shortage of good crit units who can wipe out enemies, so I understand why he gets overlooked. I found Claude was critting so much it didn't matter. At all. Even on the endgame, elites were getting OHKO'd even though I was setting up for other units to have the kill. I accidentally finished the Edelgard chapter because of a Parthia crit. As a player who heavily favours player phase strategies, Claude was golden.

Yes and yes again, my bad. I got Agnea's Arrow and Meteor the wrong way round for Dorothea. She's by no means a bad unit, I just personally don't use her a lot. Didn't realise this about Edmund Troops, amazing (I don't think I had them fully levelled). Yep she's a massive pain with that magic ballista, though her replacement is still gonna be using it.

No they remain in their inventory fully repaired, but obviously minus any weapon uses they spend in the battle you recruit them in - you have to wait to recruit them back before you get those weapons/items back

It's not like I'm that opposed to this interpretation, but it would have been just as easy for her to kill herself with the dagger. The act of throwing it is inherently aggressive, even if it wasn't intended to kill, and off the back of turning into Hegemon (which I agree is not the level of burning Fhirdiad, but is still evil) does her no favours. My point about her dying was that her death wasn't a noble act and doesn't save lives, regardless of what she intended it to be. Her intentions are important, sure, but her dying doesn't redeem her life. The difference is in VW she has relatively less to atone for. Silver-Haired Maiden makes a point about mental breaks not counting as part of your alignment, which is arguably what has happened to Dimitri in AM. It's the same for Rhea in SS endgame. I think it's fair to excuse Dimitri from an evil alignment on those grounds (though obviously if there is evidence for him committing evil actions while completely grounded and sane, that's a different story). And yeah I would agree, very few characters in 3H are actually good-aligned, and that's OK, and I think that was the purpose of the writing - to get us to care about a bunch of flawed individuals, and understand all (or most) of their perspectives, regardless of how good we found them. Agreed. The alignments don't measure degrees of evil or good, just whether someone is evil or good. Kostas is nowhere near as evil as Thales, but both are evil-aligned. Yeah I said lawful neutral. You spend more time with her in CF than other routes, but I don't think that reveals that she's good-aligned, just that you understand more of her personal code and objectives etc. She's 'better' in that Byleth is with her, so she is more comfortable in letting down personal boundaries, but I don't think Byleth has made her morally better than she is in VW. I think she would have done the same in VW or SS (had she won) as CF, the only exception being AM where she would have been tearing everyone up as Hegemon till TWSITD put her down and made one of their own impersonate her. The fact that her personal code allows for betrayal, lying, and allowing evil to exist and act in her name is what stops her alignment from ever being good (DnD standards, not mine). Paladin makes sense to me based on Byleth's canon proficiencies (sword, faith, brawling), but maybe Byleth is neutral good? The epilogues have her become Archbishop/advisor to Edelgard/whatever, but if she takes a position of power it's normally because a partner has asked her to or she's felt forced into it, rather than voluntarily because she wants to change and lead the world. Which suggests to me neutral rather than lawful good? Although perhaps you could be creative with Byleth's race in order to allow for a Paladin class that is neutral good? I'm not too sure tbh.

Fair enough.

With Mercedes in the mix, the only extra things Flayn brings to the table is her crest (which is basically just a Healing Staff on any other healer) and Rescue (which Constance gets earlier anyway if you bother with her) - her Mag growths are good but she will be edged out by your other mages by late-game anyway I imagine. Honestly even on Maddening her paralogue can be done without Flayn pulling her own weight, so don't stress about her too much. I actually remember having difficulty with getting Seteth to Wyvern Lord as well, though I think it was because I was running him through a really circuitous path (I think I wanted to make an EP build so wanted vantage and wrath, but also wanted Swift Strikes and for him to be a lance WL). But yeah I remember having a similar issue, though it was certainly sorted by endgame. I'm massively biased towards lance WL for Seteth, because he's the perfect player phase unit, although I didn't realise it until quite late on. His paralogue + Ferdinand's gives him two sacred weapons, that makes his heal per turn at over 40HP I think. Swift Strikes with Spear of Assal kills most things even without Lancefaire. So yeah Seteth is worth it, though I do get your concern Seal Defense is the exact skill you want on Ashe, and it's better than Aegis if that's the competition, but I normally run it on chippers just because on NG maddening I'd rather my fliers spend as many levels as possible in a Master flying class, for the growths primarily but also to get Defiant Avoid/crit (the time skip means you have fewer levels to master advanced classes before you get access to Master classes). The people mastering advanced classes are often those who aren't moving up to Master classes, or who aren't desperate for every additional point of damage/avoid (like Ashe) because it won't make a lot of difference for their job. That's just me though - it's a great skill, lovely on a dodge tank, and one of the most useful transferable skills that the Advanced tier has to offer. Yep of Mercedes, Annette, Hapi and Flayn, Flayn has the least use. If you care about using Crusher on Annette, then DF makes some sense for canto and increased movement, but Annette is perfectly fine without it. I'm quite fond of most of the BE members, so I recruit them whenever I can. Ferdinand is often quite out of the way though - Ochain Shield is nice for Seteth, but he can do without it or with Kadmos Shield (flying effect null) instead, and Ferdinand's paralogue is pretty unit-heavy, so you'd want to train him till Part 2 for it. He has a few different effective builds but his niches are already filled in your army, and it's a fair amount of extra effort to train him up as well, so I'd say no for him for this run. Bernadetta is a personal favourite of mine, and regardless of whether you focus on lances or bows you will get a great build out of her (vengeance paladin, sniper with encloser/hunter's volley/curved shot and hit+20, bk with deadeye/encloser/curved shot and hit+20). If you can get Tathlum Bow, Parthia, or even just Killer Bow+ and a Brave Bow for her (presumably you will leave Failnaught for Felix) that's more than enough to make her useful chip, and she can do serious damage for you late game. Getting both Petra and Bernadetta will net Varley Archers from their paralogue, which has IIRC the best hit bonus of any battalion in the game - I'd say she's worth it. I'd say no to Dorothea - combat-wise she's my least favourite of the BE, but she does get Thoron fairly early, and Meteor (although it's locked behind A+). She's supposed to run like Manuela as a physical/mag hybrid, but Hexblade is the only thing that saves any physical build, and even then she often can't OHKO with it. If you're on BL then you have automatic access to her paralogue without recruiting her, and you get a Goddess Ring from Sylvain's paralogue (which is the reward for having Dorothea in your army for her paralogue). I haven't used her as dancer before (and it sounds like Marianne is better for that anyway) and while Gremory/Warlock works fine (her faith list is pretty lacking, it stops at Physic) being a straight mage works mainly for the Linked Attack Meteor at 2 uses (I don't think she's worth a mage slot in your army for that). Will see how she runs as a Trickster (am testing that on my current run) but she's not worth it overall I think.

I might be mistaken, but can't male and female Byleth both S-support Claude?

Yep I had a completely different interpretation (especially in the fact of her throwing the dagger, rather than any other way of handing it back). Not to say yours isn't valid though - maybe if I play through the entirety of AM I might take it more in this manner. To be honest I'm still not convinced about turning into Hegemon being justifiable - she could have done it on VW too, but she only does it in AM. The point of her dying to end the war and save lives also doesn't work because Empire remnants actually rise up in the VW epilogue - her death might be symbolic, but whether she lives by surrendering or dies doesn't change the suffering Fodlan has already undergone or the fact that two sides of a war can't be reconciled so easily, and people she was responsible for will still die for her. I think the issue you're referring to is one I mentioned in my comment to Silver-Haired Maiden - DnD alignments are absolute, but 3H characters are not. So if Edelgard commits one evil action, she by default can't be a good character in DnD, and even her being lawful neutral is unlikely (if a lawful cause ever motivates you to take lives unnecessarily, that's a lawful evil action). Obviously feel free to disagree whether that's what she actually does, or talk about how moral you find her personally. But DnD alignments are pretty rigid, and if you allow that she has committed an evil action, then that is pretty likely to make her evil-aligned. To be clear, the reverse is not true - for someone to be DnD good-aligned, all their actions are supposed to be good. By 3H standards, that means the vast majority of actions have to be good rather than all of them, but it still means none of them can be evil. Similarly, neutral-aligned characters can only perform good-aligned or evil-aligned actions if they happen to match up exactly to whatever code they follow. That seems like the debate we're having, and all I'm saying is that transforming into Hegemon doesn't fit with a neutral outlook on that route, because it isn't a good idea, it actually doesn't help her fulfil her goals, and is motivated by a stubborn refusal to do the right thing/save her remaining soldiers and surrender when she's defeated the first time. Given that we've already established she isn't good-aligned in AM, that only leaves evil alignment. Whether it's fair to describe her as actually evil (in real terms, not DnD ones) is the sort of debate that's been done to death on these forums.

I think I'm in agreement with you that the DnD morality system is very inflexible. I would also say that it's really prescriptive - for a character to be aligned a certain way all of their actions must be governed by their alignment (or so I'm told). As in, because a character is lawful good, therefore they do X, and would only do X instead of Y or Z in a given situation. Not the other way round, where " because this character does X thing, and lawful good characters also do X, therefore this character must be lawful good". At least, that's how it's supposed to work in theory. Of course, real people never actually act like that, and everyone understands that, which is why no DM would nag a player about it unless something fell seriously outside of the alignment their character has. But the 'cosmic forces' that exist in DnD, and indeed the characters your DM plays as, are supposed to only act as their alignment dictates. 3H doesn't have those 'cosmic forces' that embody DnD alignments, and that's kind of the point - all their characters are flawed, good characters do bad things and vice versa, so DnD alignments in 3H are never gonna be completely accurate anyway, even if they are supposed to be in DnD. I can see that, but it's definitely up for debate. If the Agarthans hate the Nabateans and scheme against them because they aren't human, then that makes them lawful evil. If they are just using that as an excuse to grab power, that's neutral evil. But we never really find out exactly what kind of society the Agarthans wanted to make, or if they wanted a society at all - just that they hated Nabateans and loved tinkering with crests and magic items. Their villainous motivations and goals aren't very fleshed out on any route, but we have to assume they want control from the shadows in CF, and are willing/forced to fight for control in the open in VW. I'm leaning towards lawful evil for those routes at least, because it seems like their primary goal is eradicating Nabateans and their helpers from human society, and power over Fodlan is a secondary goal, or a means to their ends.

Yep my knowledge is definitely limited (have seen Youtube clips of a couple scenes/battles, but I haven't watched the whole route). As I understood it, she is only capable of reverting to her normal form through being defeated, as what happened with Miklan and Aelfric. Aelfric is the more relevant example, as he is a Crest-bearer like Edelgard. The fact that she throws her dagger at Dimitri suggests spite, and she isn't self-sacrificing because her goal of establishing a meritocracy dies when she does (as she herself and Hubert both say in their supports) - her monster transformation is a death-like state. EDIT: Just to clarify this point, because she is the leader, her self-sacrifice would only make sense if she were saving her subjects, which she isn't. Her soldiers are dying for her, not the other way around. For the record, I quite like Edelgard, and personally think she is both a great character and a moral one. And while I can't speak for what she does or doesn't do on AM as a whole, the rigid rules governing DnD alignments suggest to me that her endgame actions make her evil-aligned on that route. Redemption exists, and it's possible (also depending on what pairing you choose) that the epilogue redeems her to the people she has wronged the most, like Byleth. But it doesn't change her moral alignment in the actions of the game (which is what I assumed we were discussing). Even if she counts as lawful good when she is Emperor of Fodlan (which she probably does), that doesn't make her lawful good before that has happened, during the game itself. She isn't evil-aligned on CF, it's just that the bar DnD sets for the good alignment is fairly high.

To be honest you may not even need to bother with the rusted weapon exploit on Normal (I haven't played on Normal, so I don't know how much the exp growths are increased compared to other difficulties) - there's a decent chance that just by being strict about levelling up all your weapons efficiently, maximising supports and raising your prof level quickly, you can meet most requirements anyway. Using the method I outlined earlier should do it for sure, though, and recruitment will be quicker this way than just winging it.

Interesting question - I normally take it as a good-aligned character prioritises life before everything. So Edelgard is defeated once, and then uses the Crest Stone instead of surrendering. There is no future where she could continue to lead the Empire as a monster. So not only is she basically ceding power to TWSITD (losing sight of her own goals, and giving into to actual genocide-mongers) she is also choosing a kamikaze attempt to kill Byleth and Dimitri (and theoretically everyone else if she were to actually win), even though nothing productive can now come of this transformation. She has lost sight of her objectives at this point (CF reveals that she still preferred angry Dimitri to TWSITD) and decided to spitefully kill everyone. The action is evil-aligned, because it chooses destruction over being constructive. EDIT: Again I haven't played AM, so I can't vouch for whether she does anything else evil or not on that route. But even if Hegemon isn't on the same level as Fhirdiad (which it isn't), one significantly evil action is enough to make a character evil by DnD moral standards. Compare that with Dedue. He is not the only character in that chapter to pull a transformation (depending on how you play the level) and he may not even transform depending on what happens. But assuming that he does, he does it with Crest Stones passed to him by Rhea (Dimitri doesn't have any and expresses surprise when Dedue does this, showing it wasn't his order) for the sake of protecting Dimitri. I haven't played AM so I don't know a ton about how he appears on that route, but in CF his loyalty to Dimitri doesn't waver, and he transforms in an attempt to protect Dimitri/stall Edelgard. There is still potentially hope of them winning the battle at this point - Rhea and the Church of Seiros fighters are alive, and there is potential for plenty of reinforcements. Other Blue Lions aside from Dimitri may be alive too. Dedue is acting in self-sacrifice at this point, so it's pretty difficult to type him as evil here (even if you think CF Dimitri is evil, which I don't think he is). I think the key here is that for DnD good alignments, the ends do not justify the means. I agree with what you're saying, but you can't be retroactively 'good'. Edelgard's actions even in CF constitute plunging everyone into war, letting allies turn people into monsters, betraying a ton of people etc. etc. While a lot of it is justifiable (I don't wanna start the Edelgard debate again) it doesn't make her good in CF (by DnD standards).

Sword/lance/axe crit+10 certainly aren't , but Bow Crit +10 on a Sniper build is (which is pretty achievable because your Sniper won't need to train more than Bow and Authority, and great for Hunter's Volley), and maybe Brawl Crit +10 too (both Grappler and War Master are at their best with Killer Knuckles+, so anything you can do to aid that you should). Shanty Pete has made a lot of the same recommendations I would (though I can't speak for Dimitri or Dedue, haven't played AM yet). I'm trialling Ingrid in sword classes atm and she's playing well (I'm making her into a mag-type swordmaster with Fiendish Blow and Levin Sword+, but she could easily be a straight physical swordsman too, and still has good speed and avoid) but my gut feeling is that she was better when I used her with lances - if you wanna play it safe stick to them, although as I remember her strength does suffer a bit so Wyvern might be better than Pal. Falcon Knight will force you to get C swords, which is enough to use Levin Sword+ and make her range 3 spaces for linked attacks anyway. I'd personally switch in Hapi for Annette. Annette isn't bad per se, but Hapi's Faith list has far more utility (Warp, Physic, Seraphim), and her reason list gives her a 3 range spell at B and Banshee for movement sealing - the Caduceus staff on Hapi would work even better if you could get it. It isn't an easy trade-off though - Annette will be a faster mage (though that won't matter by late-game), she has the more accurate spell list, great Authority growth (unlike Hapi's disadvantage) and lots of Rallies to boot. Hapi is better as a primary magical attacker, but if that isn't the spot that these characters are competing for, then Annette is a good pick Also absolutely recruit Petra if you can - she does better than Ashe combat-wise as a WL, has better avoid and strength growths. Ashe is quite good as a flying shooter with lockpick, so he really appreciates Hit+20, but on Maddening he is still mostly gonna be chipping-and-Canto, so prepare for that.

I think the exact issue with DnD is that there aren't supposed to be subjectively good alignments. You can have personal codes, but if that personal code doesn't align with a specific idea of moral good (stuff like always be kind to others, all life is sacred, causing pain to others ought to be avoided at all costs etc.) then you're technically a neutral character. If anything, I swing the opposite to @Darkmoon6789 in that I'm wary of giving any character a good alignment unless they are genuinely uncontroversial goody two-shoes types, or show a very consistent commitment to helping people/saving lives because it is 'the right thing to do' (rather than because of taking orders etc.). I don't think that a character who believes that they are doing the right thing and does it is good-aligned, unless what they believe is right maps exactly onto DnD moral goodness. A lot of FE3H characters are 'good' that still don't fall into the DnD good alignment. So both Edelgard and Rhea are at best neutral on all routes, and potentially evil by my count. Their aspirations are certainly noble most of the time (which is what would keep them at neutral) although in their respective worst moments they choose to spite Byleth at the cost of more lives (Hegemon is a danger to everyone, Rhea burns Fhirdiad even though it's likely she loses). Even if you can justify those things, the actions themselves are evil-aligned. Their respective views of an ideal society also both inherently don't match the 'good' alignment - Edelgard basically creates a continent-wide junta, Rhea is a control-freak wielding religious doctrine. They are also both lawful, in that they both believe that a correct society springs from a correct ordering of societal hierarchy. The fact that they disagree on what that hierarchy entails doesn't change their lawful nature. So Edelgard and Rhea are lawful evil in AM/CF respectively. I think madness excuses you from the normal alignment system (unless the character is permanently insane) so SS Rhea might still be neutral (and is certainly neutral in VW), and Edelgard is lawful neutral in all routes apart from AM.

They don't actually say that they knew who was coming in advance, it's just a statement acknowledging the arrival of enemies - it's a trap for anyone who enters the key tactical location of the map (similar to VW ch. 23 when you try to take down any of the control rooms). Besides, if Hubert attacks the Death Knight in that chapter, the Death Knight specifically says he doesn't take orders from Hubert - obviously they are pretending to be enemies at this point, but there's a kernel of truth here. Hubert tells him to leave, but Edelgard is the one who succeeds in making him. So if Jeritza doesn't acknowledge Hubert as a commanding officer, and bearing in mind that canonically very little time has passed between Flayn's kidnapping and our discovery of them, how and why would soldiers personally serving Jeritza be getting real-time information from Hubert? That's pretty conclusive in favour of Empire backing, but the link to Hubert specifically is still pretty tenuous. I agree that Hubert definitely has his own people working both for Edelgard and behind Edelgard's back (but still ultimately for her benefit), but I'm not convinced that Metodey is one of them. Apart from the fact that it seems quite unlikely that Hubert would get involved in Abyss affairs and endanger Edelgard in the process, there's the fact that Hubert's sphere of influence is within the Empire, specifically the Imperial household. His aims are to defend Edelgard from threats and carry out her will, and his methodology is normally discreet (extortion, assassination, as he mentions in his supports). There's no reason to think he would be behind a plot brewing beneath Garreg Mach for months, where his power and resources are smaller, that has nothing to do with Edelgard's protection or her goals. Also, Metodey is apparently the least subtle secret agent in history - sounds like classic TWSITD to me. In all seriousness, they have far more to gain from the Abyss than Hubert does, and they are the ones with interest in Crest Stones, not Hubert.

yeah the method I outlined above should theoretically work on a brand-new file - it will need a bit of planning, and I still wouldn't recommend it on Maddening though

As in on an NG+ save file but without spending renown, or on an NG save file? Even with first-hand game experience I'd say trying to recruit everyone on an NG save file is unreasonable on Maddening (mainly because you would be sacrificing a lot of other gameplay aspects in order to pull this off). If you just don't want to spend renown, then at least enjoying the passive benefits from NG+ (like keeping your progress on Renown statues) would help a little. There are ways to raise your professor level quite quickly - I remember someone talking about leveraging the random seed drops you get early on, as well as the usual fishing and monastery stuff, to boost your professor exp really quickly. I can't remember exactly where that info was from, but apparently they reached professor level A by ch.9 - I'm sure the Internet will help you with the details. All you really need, however, is access to adjutants and at least 2 battle points (which IIRC requires prof level C and C+ respectively), although every extra activity point helps too. You should be getting C rank fairly quickly with your primary weapon - then use the rusted weapon exploit in auxiliary battles, it should theoretically take you 5-8 aux battles to get your remaining weapon and spell ranks to C or thereabouts (remembering to make Byleth adjutant when training her magic). The sooner you get to level 10, the sooner Byleth (ideally F!Byleth so you can get peg knight too) can change into armour knight/cav/peg knight, which all passively train movement types as well. Before Byleth reaches level 10 you should be focusing on upping movement types to D rank. All this work, plus spamming gifts and lost items to everyone, should mean that you're evenly spread at C/C+ for all ranks by Ch.8-9, by which point your stats + supports lowering requirements should be more than good enough to get any and every student (with the potential exceptions of Mag and Charm - make sure to do every tea time you can, and try and utilise gardening for Mag stat boosters). If you're struggling, the Sothis paralogue that becomes available in Ch. 8 will give you a knowledge gem that should make grinding easier too. The above method (DISCLAIMER this is theory only I haven't tested it) should work on an NG save file, but you're putting yourself up for an insane amount of grinding, not to mention shortchanging all your recruited characters in favour of grinding up Byleth - it's still basically suicide on Maddening, especially since you'll want to have a little forethought to plan for Ch. 13, which is rough even on VW. Without using Renown, I don't think there's a more efficient way of recruiting every student. But if recruiting everyone is one of the main aims of the run, then doing this on Normal/Casual is achievable for sure.

I actually did recruit everyone possible for VW - the easiest way to do it is play as F!Byleth to insta-recruit Sylvain, then buy A+ prof level and as many support ranks as possible for whoever you got on your NG play through. It's pretty easy to reach C-rank early simply by dining a lot if you're worried about the Renown costs. If you buy B-rank for a student, they have a random chance to ask to join your house on weekdays, and if you buy A-rank then you can recruit them without meeting any recruitment conditions. Note that if you want Caspar and Ferdinand early in VW then you will have to buy their B-rank support because you can't get it by normal means. Then tailor your Byleth build so that you're training her in whatever proficiencies the remaining un-recruited students want from you. I think I had the entire student body by Ch.4 or 5, and my first play through was CF (which gives you less Renown than other routes). Good luck!

Yeah you can buy/replenish battalion and forge/repair weapons (same as in any battle menu), but you won't have access to the specialised merchants. So if necessary stock up on smithing materials in Ch.17 EDIT: To be clear, Ch.18 functions like any other battle, you just don't get any monastery time in between 17 and 18

It's interesting you say that, because as I now understand it pretty much all characters who are happy to kill for any reason that isn't the protection of more lives, self-defence, or in service to an honourable cause (normally self-sacrifice/binding circumstances) belong to an evil alignment in DnD. So looking through FE3H characters there are: Part I minor villains like Kostas, Miklan and Metodey would be considered evil (neutral, chaotic and lawful respectively). Then there's VW Dimitri, who goes through a lot of the pain of AM Dimitri but with none of the salvation (and is pretty vicious along the way) - I'm not sure if he counts as an evil alignment, but there's a case for it. DnD evil alignments don't normally count failure to prevent evil as an evil itself, and that is arguably what preserves Catherine (who at least tries to stop Rhea) as neutral in CF. Cyril in CF is basically amoral - Rhea is his morality, but I'm still undecided on whether that's enough to treat him as evil-aligned or not. Gilbert is harder to judge on that route - he should have the most reason to stop Rhea, but isn't even in the cutscene where Rhea decides to burn Fhirdiad. So Cyril and Gilbert in CF could be argued as evil. Potentially Aelfric? I think he technically would count as an evil alignment, but depending on if his plan was to murder the Ashen Wolves or just drain a lot of their blood. Some of the parent characters, and paralogue villains? Gloucester might be (given Ignatz/Raphael paralogue), Mercedes' stepdad (he seems uncontroversially evil-aligned, but isn't TWSITD I'm pretty sure), Ingrid's suitor (Ingrid/Dorothea paralogue), arguably Maurice, and yeah the leaders of houses Aegir, Vestra and Varley. I've probably missed a few - are there others? EDIT: How would people type Nemesis? (I mean original, not VW) Does he count as an evil alignment?

Hmm I don't take Chapter 4 into consideration hugely, simply because in Maddening he acts like any other enemy and comes at you if you step in range (although in fairness he claims he doesn't take orders from the boss of that chapter, so his AI on Maddening is probably an example of gameplay mechanics trumping story reasoning). I take your point though, and I think it's fair to say Jeritza has layers, at least. On the one hand, there is his consistent desire to fight strong and interesting people, and his unbending loyalty to Edelgard. On the other, there is the (potentially fake) rumours of him kidnapping innocent village women (as well as actually kidnapping Flayn) and the stabbing of Manuela. The fact that you learn so much more about him and his interactions in CF (like apologising to Manuela), to the point where you may even want to type his personalities separately, means that CF may have to stand on its own. But I can definitely see lawful neutral for Jeritza on other routes, especially given his interaction with Caspar in his paralogue (assuming Caspar defeats him). One of my issues with 3H is the treatment of TWSITD as the big bad - their entire purpose is to be so unconscionably evil that the player finds nuance in all the other characters. As a result they are responsible for the vast majority of the bad things that happen across any route you take, directly or indirectly. But from the point of view of this thread, I'm wondering which non-TWSITD characters would be typed as evil. Who else in 3H would fall under the evil alignment?

I think CF Hubert is lawful neutral - if a servant is lawful evil, then the person he serves probably has to be evil. But for other routes where Edelgard's alignment is more controversial, I could definitely see him typed as lawful evil. I guess his typing depends on how you take Edelgard. Dorothea starts out chaotic neutral I'd say, but furthering her supports with certain people (like Ferdinand) turns her into chaotic good (she lets go of some of the hatred/pain of her past, and with it becomes fairer).

I'm not an expert on DnD (my first game got a few sessions in but then corona hit) but as I understand it, the morality compass in D&D is absolute, and quite rigid. By that I mean there is such a thing as objectively good and objectively evil, and what is good and evil roughly corresponds to what Christian morality has as good and evil (and the neutral alignments cover personal codes). And certain characters will behave differently depending on route, and very occasionally on recruitment. So, based on their behaviour in one route, they may have a different DnD alignment to what we see of them in a different route. A good example might be Nader (am gonna avoid big controversial names, don't need rehashes of the same arguments) who is also from Almyra, a nation not subject to the faux-Christianity of Fodlan. If you're on VW, he's chaotic good - committed to fighting, and so doesn't take advantage of Claude, but not above trickery and deceit for his aims, as well as being brash and disrespectful to other potential authority. If you play CF and kill Claude, he's technically lawful neutral - he fulfils his agreement with Claude, but commits himself to avenging Claude's death. If you don't kill Claude, he's chaotic neutral - his personal relationship with Claude means he fights for him, but will act for his own benefit at all times, and does not display any 'traditional' kind of honour. Anyway, other less controversial alignments: Shamir - true neutral Manuela - chaotic good Hanneman - neutral good

I think it's been mentioned before that the Leicester Alliance has a lot to do with King Lear. The legend of Leir of Britain on which the Shakespeare play is based has it that the king founds the area of Leicester. Regan (Riegan), Goneril (Goneril) and Cordelia (Ordelia, but in the Japanese the family name is Cordelia) are his three daughters, Gloucester (Gloucester) is his ally and a high-ranking noble, and Edmund (Edmund) is Gloucester's cunning and shrewd illegitimate son. The relationships and natures of those characters seem to come through a little bit in 3H as well: Regan and Goneril are close at the beginning of the play (as Claude and Hilda are throughout the story). The sisters also often get their way with trickery and flattery (as Claude and Hilda are characterised, though both of them are far more good-natured than their Lear characters). The Earl of Gloucester is short-sighted when it comes to what benefits him (as Lorenz describes his father in his paralogue). Marianne's guardian has plenty of business savvy, which he uses to leverage his position in the Alliance and is considered something of a rising star, and Edmund in the play regularly displays his cunning in his attempt to get to the top of the hierarchy and gain land and power. Cordelia is impoverished for large parts of the play (as House Ordelia is) and is punished and captured as a result of a war between England and France (she married the King of France). Which is like how House Ordelia helped House Hrym and suffered dearly for it. It's also interesting that, just as Cordelia receives nothing from her father, House Ordelia has no natural Crest-bearers that we know of (Lysithea's are implanted), but the Riegan and Goneril families do. Lysithea being younger than her peers at the Academy reflects too that Cordelia is the youngest sibling, and both are similarly straight talkers that are sometimes misunderstood.

Sacred weapons are forged by adding the blood of a Nabatean to metal blessed by Sothis (Mythril). Sothis originally created Mythril for general use, but its toughness and power meant it would end up being smelted down for weapons and hoarded. Making sacred weapons is a pretty exhausting process, and only the Nabateans most committed to helping/being involved with humanity (Seiros and Cichol) bothered to make two of them. Cichol, however, gave up war when he buried his wife, and gives away his shield to his dead wife's family (where it eventually drifts into Hrym territory). It was only the inner circle of Seiros who were allowed to have sacred weapons at all (the Four Saints, and the Nabateans killed by Riegan, Fraldarius, Gloucester and Lamine) - most of the Nabateans weren't fighters and didn't have their own weapons anyway. The regalia weapons were created from leftover Mythril discovered here and there, and combined with normal metals (which is why these rust, but the sacred weapons do not). The Blessed Lance/Bow have monster effectiveness due to being separately blessed by white magic - they were originally created by the Church with the Mythril they had as an exclusive resource to make nobles reliant on them for help in killing monsters, and are normally kept locked away in Garreg Mach. The process of creating Agarthium involves dark magic, and is what gives it a purplish dark miasma - it is discovered that without stabilising the material with Crest technology, this miasma harms its user over time (where the Devil Sword and Axe come from). They discover, however, that by decreasing the proportion of Agarthium used in forging (thus lightening the weapon) it can be made safe to handle. Experiments on this first created the prototype Crescent Sickles, and then eventually the more refined Scythe of Sariel.