#I have NOT PLAYED ANY ROUTE EXCEPT CF

[likeabxrdinflight]

okay having now finished the crimson flower route I honestly don't know how I'm gonna do any of the others and have to side with the church like

obviously I realize this fictional church is not the actual catholic church but hoooo boy the similarities are clearly not accidental and hearing rhea scream at me for like 10 hours of gameplay about how I'm going to burn in hell for being a worthless sinner is...........yikes lady. I'm not gonna be able to unhear that on any of the other routes.

now I've gotten bits and pieces of her side of things- she's lost her family, she's obsessed with getting her mother back, I'm sure there's more to it that will look more sympathetic on other routes, but...I dunno, she struck me as bad news from the very start of the game. not only does jeralt not trust her from the get go, but she doesn't exactly start off in the most flattering light. what is it like, chapter two or three when she starts executing the western church "heretics"?

I just feel like I've seen this kind of person before. she looks sweet and gentle, she acts warm and loving to your face- and as long as you stay on her side, in her good graces, and faithful to her religion- she'll continue to be that way. it's not insincere, exactly, her moments of kindness and affection. she genuinely means it- but it comes with terms and conditions.

she's not very different than any other zealot I've known. put one foot wrong, step out of her good books, do something she considers a sin, and she turns on a dime. and now granted, what byleth and edelgard do in crimson flower isn't exactly a small thing, but still- rhea struck me right away as the type to smile or frown based on whether or not you're meeting her approval. do the right thing in her eyes and you're rewarded with kindness. do the wrong thing and she turns cold. and clearly she's quite unforgiving, that's made apparent well before the time skip.

and that is very familiar to me. I knew people like rhea. I've been hurt by people like rhea. and admittedly it's hard to look past that projection when the game didn't even try to make the church of seiros not look like a direct rip off the catholic church. but whether or not you think the church or edelgard are in the right (or neither, which is probably the correct answer), there's just no denying that rhea isn't exactly a good person- and I'd wager even in routes where she isn't blatantly playing the role of villain, she's not exactly the hero either. the game certainly doesn't set her up to be one.

and this isn't even getting into any of the shit with byleth and sothis, mind.

[fireemblems24]

Scarlet Blaze Ch 11

Sorry this is taking forever, but here's ch 11.

MAIN STORY

Oh, shit, do we have to fight Gilbert next? AND ANNETTE? This suuukkkkks. It especially sucks since you know they didn't have a choice but to risk their lives just defending themselves.

Annette is so precious. Fuck. I don't want to fight her.

Gilbert being a good daddy though 😭😭😭😭

At least CF was entertaining. SB is a giant snoozefest where I have to kill all my favorites.

Man, they all sound like psychopaths. They're all super excited to go kill people who are just defending themselves. Even Dorothea's only worried about marriage.

MAP/SIDE STUFF

Shez just said that everyone who gets killed in the war "is standing in our way." Imagine comparing self-defense to "getting in our way." Yikes for that characterization compared to how concerned GW!Shez is about Claude's aggressive decisions.

Lamo, Mercedes is like wtf am I doing here fighting the Kingdom and Annie? 

Aww, Marianne (and Dorothea) are like the only two who realize they're fighting other people and not just being all murder happy like the rest. 

Dimitri just got put on par with Holst and Caspars dad by Balthis, kind of, unofficially best Kingdom warrior? 

We're addressing the Ferdinand and Hubert subplot again. Which is good. It's by far the most interesting part of SB. Though, it's just a repeat of what we've seen from it before.

Ok, they're adding some different stuff which is interesting. Bringing up that even if Fredie's dad tried to retire and stay out of Edelgard's way, that he would still have to die because of what he symbolizes. Hubert and Ferdinand disagree on whether people like Mr. Aegir can get a second chance (as in, can you when you've become a symbol).

This is especially interesting to me in regards to what happens to Rhea, Dimitri, and Claude if they surrender to Edelgard and become her puppets. Basically, Hubert is saying that, no matter what, they'd have to die because anyone who would rebel would use (fill in here) as a symbol of their resistance. Claude may be the sole exception here because he can scoot off to Almyra, but it's very obvious that Rhea and Dimitri (and their staunch allies) are fighting for their lives, because even if we're generous and say Edelgard would spare them and give them life worth living (i.e. not locked up), Hubert would most certainly have them assassinated.

Which also brings up another point. People always talk about how it's wrong/bad for Dimitri to try and spare Edelgard at the end of AM because what kind of life would she live? But always praise Edelgard for trying to spare Rhea towards the end of CF but no one - not a single soul - asks what kind of life would Rhea live? I gotta make my own post about that.

SB is really gonna be - kill yo dad, the route. Ironic since I played this the day after Father's Day.

I have to fight Sylvain 😭

SHEZ & MANUELA A SUPPORT

Manuela is flirting with Shez lol. He said he liked her voice and she pushed him with like "is that all" until he talked about her looks lamo

Aww, Shez actually likes her hungover side. Saying he likes warrior her, singer her, healer her, and drunk her. That's kinda cute, actually

Shez said that he can't keep his eyes off her. Laying it on a bit thick. And said she's more attractive now than she was younger haha.

Yeah, Shez, I have no idea how she was supposed to see that in any other way lol.

HUBERT & LYSITHEA B SUPPORT

Hubert finds Lysithea studying at night and teases her about ghosts. She runs away.

The Imperial Army is a bunch of children who don't want to eat their veggies. This is 100% cannon. Hubert orders guards to sneak them into soups for the soldiers actually get their veggies. I cannot. (though, imagine the privilege, Faerghus could never)

Lysithea freaks out because she ate veggies.

Veggies are legitimately delicious though. I don't know what the Imperial Army's problem is.

EDELGARD & MONICA A SUPPORT

Guys, I'm so excited. A Monica support. I wonder what she'll talk about.

Monica counts how many times Edelgard worried about her and invited her to tea. I just . . . no.

This support was pure cringe.

I love how "Kingdom bad" because they're willing to die to defend their homes, family, friends, and everything and anything else they've loved from invaders, but Monica is to be admired because she's oh so loyal to Edelgard that even in when Edelgard leaves her for dead, it's a happy moment for Monica because it helps Edelgard's cause. Like . . . double standard much?

PETRA & CONSTANCE C SUPPORT

Constance is something else. She confronts Petra because Petra's dad invaded and it led to the demise of Constance's everything.

I enjoy supports that address conflict, but girl, that was not Petra's fault. Don't take it out on her.

Oh, good, she's not. She recognizes that Petra's people suffered, and that neither of them were involved, so there's no bad blood.

Then she hahahas and leaves. Lamo, this made me love Constance.

Petra doesn't get a chance to say she agrees and seeks out Constance, but finds her in the sunlight, and needlessly to say, is very confused.

MAIN BATTLE

Hubert and Edelgard just said submit or die.

Wow, Linhardt is like I wish the nobles would think about all the people who they're forcing to fight. The lack of self-awareness is astounding.

Ferdinand can join the "lack of self-awareness club" for acting like it's the Kingdom causing the violence.

Baron Dominic opened the gate, risking his defenses to rescue soldiers. Hubert judged him. But we're supposedly the good guys. I swear the writing goes out of it's way to make the Kingdom look good.

Fuck. I have to fight Gustave :( He dead :( Poor Annette.

FUCK. Now I have to fight Annette.

Fuck this route. Ingrid, Rodrigue, Gustave, and now Annette - all dead.

Even Baron Dominic's death is making me sad. None of the Empire generals get this kind of humanization when they die lol.

Edelgard and Hubert sound insane. Edelgard's acting like their deaths were inevitable because of their lineage (when they would've been just fine if not for her actions), and Hubert's like he's happy to die so it doesn't matter. What a bunch of looney tunes.

Edelgard just said whoever wins gets to decide what's right. I mean, victors do write the history but yikes at the implications.

So deep - "we're up against the world itself." Sounds like a teenage edge-lord wrote this lamo.

We got crusher. Joy. Did they pry it out of Annette's dead hands?

Oh, joy, more backtracking. Revolts in the Empire. I thought we were out of the backtracking era and into kill every Blue Lion era.

xxxx

[legofrans]

Fire emblem tier list based on my own personal enjoyment of the games. Don't ask what happened to the colors I'd like to know too. Tiers are ordered.

Obviously heavily biased towards my own tastes, but also to the expectations I had going into each game. This is in no way intended to indicate the actual quality of the games.

Short thoughts on my experience on all the games below. It adds up to a pretty long post.

Fates: I originally played it back in late 2016. Dumb as I was, I thought "oh hey if I just play revelation it'll kind of be like I get to experience both routes right?"

Well it turns out revelation sucks ass. I got to the final chapter but Soleil (I had an affinity for lesbians back then. Wondered why that was) got countered with a 3% crit, I ragequit, and I haven't touched any of the games since.

New years resolution is to play conquest. I've heard good things about it's gameplay so if I go in with 0 expectations for the story I think I'll be able to enjoy it.

Dark dragon and the blade of light, as well as Gaiden, have several problems that can be very neatly summarized: they're old. Not much here in terms of story to comment on.

. . . Engage. Let's start with the good: the gameplay is fantastic. One of the best in the series. Most games add some unique spin on the formula to make it their own, and for most it works out well. Engage takes that and goes above and beyond. Smashing weapons (forgot the term) is a fun addition. Engaging is also a really interesting strategic aspect. Skill management is really, really good. (although I wish weapon durability had also been a part of it.)

Problems start coming with the story. It's pretty much a stock standard Fe story. Evil dragon gets resurrected, we gotta stop him. This is considerably less interesting here than with Marth though. Marth was kind of a nobody (crown prince of a minor country but who is keeping track) while Alear is like. The Divine Dragon. Everyone knows them and loves them and is willing to bend over backwards or the nearest countertop for them. It just does not make for an interesting story for me.

There's also the Emblems! As said, fantastic gameplay addition. Story wise they first make no sense. Secondly, if you're going to put some of the most beloved characters from a franchise in a game, you should make sure they represent how they were in the game. Engage kinda falls flat here imo.

Then there's also the artstyle. I dont think Mika Pikazo is a good fit for fire emblem. It works for a few characters, but overall it leaves me wanting something else. Especially for the Emblems, I don't think I like how any of them look except like Roy and Camilla.

For most of the games in the series I can genuinely say that my critique comes from a love of the game. Im not sure I can say that in regards to Engage. It definitely comes from a love for the series as a whole, but I think engage is the only entry in the series which I actually dislike.

Shadow Dragon! Not too much to say here. It's Marth! You girls know Marth right?

The plot and gameplay are both very basic, and not much to write home about. Marth being s bit of an underdog makes him more interesting than Alear. The reclassing is interesting in concept, but I never really got into it.

New mystery of the emblem is kind of just more of the same, but with a larger cast and everything is happening again. It kind of works.

This entry and Shadow Dragon could kind of go either way, but ultimately the Gaiden chapters are enough of an interesting addition to put new mystery ahead.

Three houses was a pretty fun game! But I don't think it's a good fire emblem game. there's a lot I could say about the monastery and the class system, and the skill system and the grinding and the completely uncapped levels! I have a hard time considering it a mainline entry.

In short, around 70% of the game is either grinding or non-FE gameplay and I didn't enjoy that. What's more, I started with CF, and that route is straight up unfinished.

Three hopes isn't here because it's not a mainline entry but unironically enjoyed it more than Three houses.

Binding Blade! Good game. Good FE too. Pretty basic plot, but it's good enough. I'm not at all fond of the "true ending" stuff and also there's the hitrate issues for everything that's not swords. Roy as a protagonists is also one of the weaker ones in the series I think. Sorry man.

If I had played fe6 before 7 & 8 I'd probably have rated it higher. But all the GBA games are good, and everything that's C-tier and aboveis something I'd recommend.

Genealogy of the holy war is a very different fire emblem, but unlike 3H it is still distinctly Fire emblem. I didn't have much in terms of expectations going into this one. It has a lot of quirks, both good and bad.

The typical story formula has a very nice twist on it this time and keeps things interesting. Which is good since the story is one of the biggest draws, since the game offers a bit less in terms of challenge when compared to the other games in the series.

The gameplay quirks are very interesting, such as weapon kills, but because some units are extremely heavily favored in this game, it only ends up mattering for very few units or if you go out of your way to use other, worse units.

Shadows of Valentia is a game I really would've liked to put in high A-tier. It is probably the best remake of a game I've ever played.

But it's too faithful to the original. My problems with Gaiden were not just that the graphics actually hurt my eyes and that the menus were confusing and everything looked kind of weird. The maps. . . . also kind of suck.

There's too much weird terrain with too powerful bonuses. There's also too much open field. Enemy starting locations feel random. Many maps have one chokepoint to get through and that's all the features there is to it.

And then there's the story. One problem with having the script be about 300 times that of the original is that you can fit so much more misogyny in there. And they did.

Thats the negative stuff out of the way let's go to the positive. The class system rules. I'm a big fan of promotion bonuses going to a class base stat instead of adding flat numbers. The magic system with learned spells and HP cost is also really cool.

The weapon system is also great, with being able to promote certain weapons into other things with special features and skills. I like it! It's interesting! Items are kind of whatever though.

Radiant dawn is a mostly fantastic game with two very big problems and one major nitpick. The latter is that there's true ending bullshit again.

The problems are: the new support system. It's boring. Less opportunity for characterisation for everyone that's not a major player in the story.

The later chapters are also just a slog to get through. If you've been in the Fe fandom for a long time you've probably seen memes about RD enemy phases. It is like that.

Good things! The bonus XP system! It's fantastic. Being able to almost pick which stats you want a unit to grow in if you know what you're doing is great! Makes it so practically every unit can be good.

They did kind of screw over Laguz units though. And the Renning bullshit pisses me off so bad.

Blazing blade is a very good game and was many peoples first FE game. I don't have many thoughts on this. If Blazing blade was a dish it'd be bread dipped in olive oil. Simple. Fantastic. You don't need much more.

Awakening was also the introduction to fire emblem for a lot of people. According to some it saved the franchise, according to others it killed it.

Personally I had a lot of fun playing this. It has many well designed chapters, and a simple and fun skill and class system. Though, it has some issues in overleveling and access to grinding. The pair up mechanic is also somewhat of a double edged sword, which I really like. Do you want one stronger unit, or multiple strong ones? It's interesting! . . . . Until you get to A support or unlock dual guard+ at which point there's just one correct choice.

I really liked how silly the writing in awakening got. Very funny script, and a lot of memorable characters.

Mystery of the emblem turns 30 in a few days, and looks surprisingly good for its age. I started playing this a few months before three houses came out, and I had already played all the other games in the series ('cept fates) at that point. I had low expectations considering how bad DD/Gaiden felt to play, but mystery of the emblem feels almost good to play.

I don't miss weapon level being a stat like all the others. But I do miss the starshards (growth modifiers my beloved) and the very funny again staff.

S tier :)

Sacred stones was the first turn based strategy game I ever played and I've been hooked since. No, real chess does not count.

It has a really good tutorial, it's not that difficult of a game, and it has a very simple and easy to follow plot. It's definitely the best game to play if you want to get into fire emblem.

Chapters are well designed, the graphics are charming, and the characters are too.

Again, all the GBA games are very good. There's not too much to say here.

Path of Radiance features several of my favorite characters in the series. Titania, Ike, Soren, Lethe, Jill, "Eat rock" guy, Leanne, and Lucia.

This is probably the best the series ever got in terms of writing. It breaks of from the typical "oh no the evil dragon is being revived" formula and manages to have a plot that feels much more centered on the characters, which I love. The base conversations really help with that.

It's not just the story that's phenomenal the gameplay is also really good. The skill system is a bit limited, but the decisions feel all the more impactful because of it.

The class system has a pretty unique twist in that your units are promoted by leveling past level 20 this time around. The bonus XP system also helps a lot with that, although the Bonus XP system this time is just random stats, unlike in Radiant dawn.

While not the game I enjoyed the most, it's definitely the game I recommend the highest.

Thracia 776 is almost infamous in the fandom. Its known for being one of the hardest, if not the hardest game in the series. It has a lot of peculiarities, like capturing, leadership stars, movement stars, movement growths, magic and resistance being the same stat, stealing equipped weapons, forced dismounting, no Langes indoors, FUCC, Infinite duration statuses etc. . . Theres a lot going on.

But most of it is really good. And more importantly. Almost all of the bullshit goes both ways. Sleeping enemies sleep permanently. Enemies can capture your units, too.(which also has strategic value since it halves their stars) Your units have leadership stars. The fucking thief staff.

It also features one of my favorite mechanics, the crusader scrolls. It's essentially the same thing as the starshards but this time around they also help preventing crits. The modified growths together with thracias extremely low stat caps means effectively every unit can become very strong. Though there's still FUCC, movement stars, and skills to consider. All units are not created equal.

Thracia also has one of my favorite narratives. It is the smallest scale conflict (except Lyn mode) in the series and it makes for a very interesting change of pace. It's not a grand heroic adventure, but just about Leif trying to live to fight another day.

And that is also pretty well reflected in the gameplay. Thracia introduced both Escape and defense maps. It would've been a very different game if it had been all rout and seize maps.

All in all though, the game does at some points feature some actually unfair and unfun things too. Xavier's recruitment. 24x's warp tiles. Ch.4 if you don't know. Going into Thracia completely blind is a decision you'll have to make on your own. I tried doing that and had to hard reset upon hitting chapter 4. Then I opened a guide, and honestly, I don't regret it. But you should play the game if you haven't. It's good.

Also here's a tier list on how good of a game I think every game is, while trying to be impartial.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

What do you think about Azure Gleam's part II? I've seen many online discussions, mostly negative. The main issue is ofc how they handled Edelgard, the other Eagles and the Empire. There are also some who think it's boring/too predictable/less dynamic than the other two. And while I do think part I was indeed way better, I still did enjoy the rest while playing (though I felt really sorry for Edelgard). But when I read all the hate part II receives, I think maybe I'm part of a minority? lol

I loved all of AG tbh aside from a few forced writing choices like Literally Everyone Except Dimitri distrusting Claude for literally no reason whatsoever. I've talked a bit before regarding how I don't like how they handled Edelgard, but only to the extent that she was essentially literally woobified and couldn't knowingly take responsibility for her actions. Since those things don't actually affect the overall story though, they're more like... minor annoyances.

I don't feel like AG was predictable in any way tbh. Who expected Miklan to be part of the army and be hanging out at your camp as a friendly NPC? Who expected Dimitri to head to Fhirdiad only to get captured and need rescuing (because mind you a lot of people get annoyed about female damsel in distress tropes, and this was literally the opposite of the norm)? Who expected that NPCs would actually comment that Dimitri was more relaxed in the second half and was much easier to approach (which is a total contrast to AM where he's totally unapproachable then he's just back to his usual approachability. He didn't have the same support in AM to be able to relax in the same way)? Who expected that Thales was going to be the final boss of the route (seeing as most people would expect it to be Edelgard, and not woobified Edelgard)? Who expected to see Rodrigue being able to land the final blow against Thales because he can actually survive the entire game and kill his son's murderer-by-conspiracy? Who expected Rufus to be the big early game villain that you had to personally defeat and wasn't offed offscreen and told to us later?

There were a lot of things that weren't predictable in AG. It was also much more adrenaline based, whereas GW was more like looming dread for me. SB was just... eh. It was just alternate CF, so it wasn't anything new. All they really did was change who died in some regards and allowed the players to actually fight both Thales and Rhea instead of "and then after the war they fought and defeated TWS, the end"/

As far as the Empire went, I don't think it was made to look bad the way people seem to think? The Empire itself wasn't the issue. Thales and Ludwig were in charge of it, though Ludwig was mostly just Thales' puppet at that point like the rest of the army. What happened to the Empire wasn't because the people who ran the Empire allowed that to happen, and I actually liked that they really showed us the damage Thales could do. The whole country was a disaster and it was basically bandit central there. We've always been told how dangerous TWS is, but we've never really gotten to see the sheer amount of devastation they were capable of. What happened to the Empire would've been all of Fodlan if Thales was able to manage that. It was kind of annoying how TWS was supposed to be so powerful and terrifying but they were just laughable as villains in Houses. Hell, even Solon and Kronya lasted to nearly the end of the game. They actually felt tenacious and threatening.

Literally my biggest disappointment in all of AG is the fact that Miklan died lmfao. He would've been a great playable character and they even had playable quotes for him in Houses so at some point in Houses' development they considered making him playable (like, he had full voiced JP and Eng quotes as a playable ally).

When the game first came out I was really excited by all the things they filled the route with. Not only we did get closure on Duscur for so many characters and for the players (because it didn't feel all that satisfying killing Thales in AM, because nobody even knew he wasn't Arundel. The only satisfying part of it for me was killing the guy who was trying to hurt Claude ahjfghjsgdhf), but we even got to hang out with Duscur soldiers in camp! We even got a fleshed out paralogue in Duscur with some of the people affected by the Tragedy, which was a lot better than the one we got originally in Houses. There was also much better relationship development between Felix and Dedue, Ingrid and Dedue and Ingrid and other NPC Duscur soldiers. Felix's relationship with Dedue in Houses was just... minimal. Very, very minimal. They get a support arguing and then they get a support where all of a sudden now Felix is like >:/ don't die or I will kill u >:/ as if implying they'd grown a lot closer, when the only other conversation they really had was... their C support. Throughout the game in Hopes we actually get interaction and sometimes see them together at camp.

Honestly, playing AG and being at camp was super fun because there were people from everywhere. There were civilians there, the Knights of Seiros, people from the Empire, people from Leicester (and the people from Leicester were so sweet and kind when you get them in your army), you get Brigid rep through Petra if you recruit her, you have people from Duscur... It just felt like a really fun experience because not everyone you talk to while exploring camp came from Faerghus. On that note too, I feel like we learned a lot more about other locations through AG's expeditions, like Sylvain randomly throwing Morfis hair dye lore at us, or how Ingrid talks about Sreng's food problems. It feels like Faerghus is such an open space where you can learn so much, about so much more than just Faerghus.

Also, let's be real, it's the only route Seteth is playable in so it wins by default because we get Takehito Koyasu and Mark Whitten's wonderful voice acting (Koyasu voice being recruitable makes the route win by default, I don't make the rules, he's just the god of voice acting and he's everywhere gjksgjfgsjg). :) I'm kidding. Mostly! It does get a bonus for having Seteth though considering how unimportant the Church otherwise is is in this game, and Seteth actually gets a good chunk of screentime in AG and gets to have a friendship with Dimitri that we were completely stripped of in AM.

Then there's the dads! OH THE DADS. We got so much lore and information from Rodrigue in this game. Making him playable was probably really the best thing they could've done for the characters' relationships imo. Felix also really needed him to be playable for those supports. We got a lot of fun tidbits about Lambert too from Rodrigue's old man tea sipping gossip, and hearing all of that for the first time was so much fun for me. We also get to learn from about Matthias' relationship with Sreng considering he's been guarding against their invasions for so long, and in turn we get to learn that a Sreng commander is on pretty relaxed terms with Sylvain and seems to know Miklan equally as well, so it sounds like the man wasn't just talking with Matthias, but probably had some sort of friendship going on with the brothers, too. More than any other route, we learn more about the previous generation and how the kids are improving upon all the foundations started from their parents. AM left so much groundwork that it didn't build upon, but AG took all of that and more and had lore thrown at us from every direction.

AG was a huge to play, and I was SO relived that Claude was an ally in this route since I knew beforehand form the leaks about what would happen in GW and in SB. Also, Claude was actually on the map and fighting with you in two chapters which we were R O B B E D of in AM. I may be a lion, but I want my deer friends close by! And Ferdinand, but he went MIA. I refuse to say he died in that route. He was just hiding. He was waiting to come out of hiding. That's all. It was too dangerous! And Ludwig never mentioned anything about his son being dead so I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT HAPPENED! Sorry Hubert. You really did die offscreen, I can't help you there like I can cling to my weak little hope for Ferdinand...

OH OH and we got to have Cyril hang out at camp too sometimes! That was nice. It was like a quick hi and bye, but it was nice to see him sometimes.

When it comes to the few things I was meh about, I can look past them to an extent because there were way more good things in AG than bad things. My overall experience was positive and not me being bored or dreading whatever happened next.

I'M DISAPPOINTED WE DIDN'T GET YURI FOR HALF THE GAME but he does join you sooner in AG than either of the other routes if I'm not mistaken so I'll take that as a win. Sad tho that I gotta lose Miklan to reach him and my boy Lorenz.

OH and Matthias saying he would avenge Miklan and Sylvain being sad that he died (again lol...) was very nice. AG helped the characters and their relationships feel way more nuanced than just what we had in Houses alone.

Basically AG helped improve upon what we already had, which is why I loved it so much compared to the other two. There was so much information we could've gotten in GW and instead it focused on the same stuff it focuses on in the other routes (i.e. Fodlan war stuff, etc). GW was missed potential, and SB was just a rehash of what we already had. I mean, GW did do Lorenz justice which was severely needed based on the fandom's failure to recognize his character through Houses, and I did love basically everything Lorenz was a major part of, but that's really the only thing that kept me going in GW. AG instead always kept me excited and when Claude showed up in chapter 11 it was like YAAAAY HURRAAAAAY, and then we had basically all the armies in the game fighting together (also counting the Empire's people that you can recruit, since really even if those people once fought for Edelgard, they'd be fighting for Thales if they continued fighting for the Empire *COUGHCASPARCOUGH*. You had the Kingdom, Alliance, Empire, Church and Duscur all fighting together + Petra if recruited.

We're probably part of the minority of folks who liked AG, yeah, but I had very little to dislike compared to how much of it had my attention and enjoyment.

[jackienautism]

hi again! haven't played a ton since i last sent my ask lol because. well. i was putting off picking a house because i feel soso sad not picking my besties the eagles.... i think i'm gonna play quite a bit more tonight now that i've reached that point though! and yeah the second to last battle on CF is the dimitri one.

i'm definitely gonna get linhardt's a support next playthrough with the eagles! i'm gonna be more conscious of whose supports i'm getting next time because i didn't really realize what i was doing until like... halfway through the game?

the paired endings i ended up with were ferdinand and hubert, caspar and petra, and dorothea and sylvain. i really liked ferdinand and hubert's, caspar and petra's was pretty good, and while i didn't mind dorothea and sylvain's, if i knew what i was doing, i don't think i'd pair them up again lol.

speaking of which... i think i've decided i'm going to recruit petra this time as well instead of another lion.... i hear she and dorothea have a good paired ending and i only got up to their b support last time around. plus she has supports with claude which i'm interested to see. i say i'm going to recruit her instead of a lion but the more i think about it.... i'm probably gonna end up snagging ashe this time lol.

and. i think after i do a full playthrough of each route i'm gonna do a playthrough where i recruit everyone i can LMAO.

looking forward to seeing whatever it is that happens with marianne! she is such a fave for me honestly the more i think about her the more attached i get....

i have to be honest i have. no CLUE what classes my guys ended up as last time. sylvain and ferdie were on horses...... caspar was punching things by the end (i had him on a wyvern for a while but he was doing no damage and dying super easily so. i switched him over). uhhhh. and i'm blanking on everyone else. OH bernie was a sniper. i'll go check maybe? i think i have a save with everyone close to the end.

and thank you!!! i hope you have a good day/night as well :) will keep you posted on this playthrough as well lol

HELLOOOO sorry fo rtaking a day or two to respond! hope youve been doing well in the meantime! and yeah....i feel that so hard </3 took me also a bit to start up my verdant wind playthrough, let alone FINISH it. its just so hard not being w/ the black eaggles the beloveds.... it hurt esp knowing that i wouldn't be on edie's side too tbh ): wish you the best of luck going through this route jdfgndfg esp if you choose not to recruit all the BE. DO tell what happens later on w/ them if you don't recuit them though👀

YIPPEE have fun getting his A support! its obv gonna be a bit but! hopefully you see it as worth it :] and ah okay... you mean like. the supports you get between the other characters? or do you mean which characters you get A supports w/ byleth :o? regardless, thats what the first route is for yk? esp since you havent played a single fire emblem game prior... im sure you did just fine! the support mechanic is rly fun, but it can def be a bit much, esp if you dont rly know whats going on. atleast you know what youre doing now though!

dfkdfn fair enough on dorothea and sylvain. i cant say much bc i have yet to go thorugh their supports let alone see their ending, but yeah them being paired def is not my first choice. esp knowing how sylvain is and all... even dorothea w/ any noble is a bit like. eh? for me tbh. i guess an exception being edie i suppose. or maybe im mainly thinking of ingrid. either way. her or dorothea being paired w/ any noble guy is a bit......... iddk for me kfdngkfg i soroooort of enjoy dorothea and ferdie though. i remember rly liking ferdie and hubert's supports and ending... will def have to watch and get petra and caspar's!

OHH MAN I CANT REMEMBER MUCH OF IT BUT LIKE THE LAST LINE OR SO OF DOROTHEA AND PETRA'S MAKES ME SO ): BUT IN SUCH A GOOD WAY. THEYRE SO SWEET. getting petra and ashe seems like a good plan to me! esp if you wanna see petra and claudes suppports... i only got to their c support but i rly liked what was going on dfgndg petra was ina treee. and that is all i will say. but yeah </3 have fun fighting your besties later in th egame i guess<//3 esp if you only recruit petra and ashe<///3

YEAAAGH THOSEROUTES ARE ALWAYS FUN.... bc it truly is interesting to see everyone's thoughts and stuff regarding the current events post timeskip.... since i assume its unique depending on which route youre playing. and its fun seeing what they have to say. esp if theyre not from the route's original house. so have fun w/ that!!!! i personally always recruit everyone i can just cause (or atleast i try) bc. i hate fighting them later on. but once again. angst is good

were you able to do marianne's paralogue :o? bc i think that is where the bulk of her character and backstory explanation comes from... my route of verdant wind was split in half (since i took like a 2 year long break LOL) so i cant remember exactly what happenss w/ marianne specifically... but she is therr w/ the rest of the golden deer which is alll that matters<3

no worries if you cant remember or cant find out man! i was just curious ! since theres just SOOO much you can do yk? sylvain and ferdie were on horses for me as well... but tbh im w/ you here i cant remember what i did exactly for my crimson flower run fdgndfg i think i had caspar on a wyvern as well? he worked out ok i think for me so i wonder what happened hmmmm. i watched a video and read the comments and a bunch of ppl were saying to like put everyone on a horse or wyvern or pegasus dfkgndfg bc tbh.... the mobility is SOOOO important and good. but i understand not going for it since the classes are pretty limited if you wanna do mounted or flying. but it has personally worked out very well for me. esp if my non mounted classes have a large movement range (aka non mage or non heavy armored classes) i tend to avoid heavy armor stuff, esp when the rest of my team have high mobility, bc the slowness of the classes become sooooo obvious. before you know it theyre lagging behind everyone else and its just hnnnng yk

and thank you<3 and thank you again for sharing your progress w/ me! i feel honored. i will be gladly awaiting your next check in :D take your time though of course

[loregoddess]

finished SB finally, and can now officially say I still hate siding w/ the person who started a war, although it was nice to finally get to play as the SB-locked characters even if this is just an expansion of their CF characterization

some collected venting under the cut so I can get it out of my system

the motive for starting the war makes even less sense in Hopes than it does in Houses, although this is somehow the most consistent Edelgard's characterization has ever been (since it lines up w/ her characterization in GW) and that's honestly amazing, even if it doesn't amount to much since she's got like six other characterizations

I'm still super not loving the implications of "Ferdinand was in the wrong for wanting a fair trial for his father, which for some reason got put off 2+ years" and basically everything else about the reforms the war's supposed to bring since again, they're not explained at all and are very suspicious when they are. I was never a big fan of CF in general or the characterization therein (except Hubert if only bc he plays into the role of "cartoonishly evil sorcerer advisor" so well, and also his characterization is solidly consistent which is a rarity), so having all the characters essentially be expansions of CF wasn't quite my cup of tea, although I will admit all of Petra's writing is A+ and actually an upgrade in some regards to Houses. Despite my disappointment at not seeing Ferdinand's non-CF characterization explored, his character in SB at least builds up his relationship with Hubert in a far more convincing way, and we still get to see how his perfection-driven anxiety issues are very bad for him, so there was that. Caspar's still a delight, although Lin seemed a lot more apathetic in SB than in the other routes which is...interesting, I suppose. Bernadetta is Bernadetta still, I feel like her overall writing took a bit of a blow in Hopes since the writers played into her social anxiety as a character trait gag more than Houses did. I still love Hubert and his writing continued to be consistent, and it feels a lot more clear that he does care about his comrades a lot but is terrible at normal social behavior and therefore fails to show he actually does care in any normal way (and he still maintains the cartoonishly evil sorcerer advisor gimmick which is a trope I honestly love). Dorothea is...still eh for me, I think the writers actually did her worse in Hopes than in Houses as well, maybe bc Hopes focused a lot more on her being a diva than on her personal life aspirations? Manuela falls into the same trap of being written for her character joke traits, although her personal battle skill was so fun that it made me wish they'd allowed Hanneman to be playable all over again (even if it makes no sense for either of them to side w/ Edelgard, but again, anyone associated w/ the church at the start of Houses got their character assassinated in Hopes). Monica was fun and it was neat to see her not dead, but damn was her obsession w/ Edelgard like, super unhealthy. to the point where Faye's obsession with Alm almost seemed okay (almost). Like. Girl. Please get some therapy.

aside from the characters the story was really eh for me. the pacing was better than GW, if nothing else, and this is the only ending that doesn't feel like it ends abruptly like how AG and GW do, even with the "war still continues on" or whatever--and the ending cutscene was visually impressive even if it once again makes no damned sense for Rhea or Thales. Also really wish the writers would explain how all the different church factions' doctrines actually differed from each other, but expecting the writing team to consult religious studies scholars to worldbuild their story is too much to expect for a team that can't even manage consistent worldbuilding to start with. Alas.

still, all this aside the mechanics are insanely fun, enough that I'm tempted to start up a brand new AG playthrough on a harder difficulty so I can continue grinding out class mastery and achievements and stuff. Not sure if I'll do that, but the thought is there. I hope I have to eat these words later, but it doesn't look like there'll be DLC (and I hate that I want there to be DLC), which is a shame bc we could have gotten the characters who should have been playable (Cyril, Hanneman, Alois, maybe Judith and Nader if we were lucky, maybe Miklan if the writers weren't spineless cowards about trying to explore his character beyond the "death equals redemption" trope), and maybe some more (possibly better) story content.

Honestly overall there's actually a lot about Hopes that I enjoyed, even if parts of the story and characterizations were a mess. So, all my complaining and muttering aside, the game was fun as heck, and if I could combine aspects of Houses and Hopes into one game, I think I'd have a project that I'd really enjoy both mechanically and narratively.

[kyogre-blue]

No, I'm playing with English voices. I try to compensate for my years of watching subbed anime like a weeb by using dubs in games when they're available (and don't drive me up the wall like Genshin).

Also, just to mention it because it might come up at some point, if JP voices came as a download separate from the game cartridge, I don't have them. I haven't connected my Switch to the internet, so I don't have any DLC, whether free or paid. This includes the sauna or whatever and Rhea team time, because those were patched in post-release.

EN Judith just says it's a shame that Ignatz died, he was a good kid.

I just realized we haven't fought Raphael or Lorenz, hm. I recruited Leonie, and I know Marianne is implied to just... succumb to her curse depression or something if you don't have her as playable. And I get Lorenz is in the pro-Empire faction, so it's not surprising he wouldn't sortie. Kinda expected Raphael to be with Ignatz tho.

Apparently Rhea being in Faerghus means Cornelia can't pull the shit she does in the other routes, so Dimitri has both of his eyes, his friends and would be in a pretty good situation if someone didn't wake up and decided to Make Adrestia Great Again.

I love being evil stupid. "I must protect Edelgard"... the picking your girl over the fate of the world scenario except without the story being on your side about it.

In general, I guess I'll interpret the CF war status difference as coming down to 1) Rhea keeping the Kingdom from falling to Agarthan infiltrators and then Imperial troops, and 2) Edelgard having to commit troops to keeping the monastery under their control. It's a strategic location in a sense, but we're also told several times that there's no way to reach it from the Empire, so it probably presents a number of logistical issues for her.

I love Bernie's comment here - because while the game wants to make you feel very sad (tm) for dicing students, technically, your characters only spent around 1 year with the students who aren't from their house, and they were never seen talking/speaking to each other (bar some cross houses supports), so yes, Bernie being "who?" about Claude is oddly fitting - she never met or talked to him before!

For Bernie here, it's probably aimed more in regard to how she never came out of her room if she wasn't forced to, so she doesn't know Claude even though everyone else does.

She's kinda... the BE students do have a variety of takes on the war, with Dorothea being the most uncertain and concerned about the people die part (says she thinks maybe she should have stayed with the opera), Linhardt giving some lipservice to not liking blood but overall rather indifferent except that it's a hassle, Caspar and Petra being gung-ho about it, Ferdie... also bought into the coolaid, Hubert is Hubert, and Bernie... is the comic relief. Yup.

Edel's questions... are something, but yep, it's ultimately a huge sunk-cost fallacy explanation, if you're going to fight, fight until you die - but does this mean Edel makes no war prisoners or offers no mercy to defeated soldiers? If they fought, they should fight to death? It's not that well developed and only food for thought...

She definitely allows prisoners, and we go on for a bit about how Claude chose a strategy where both his victory and his defeat would allow for the least amount of casualties, especially among civilians (<3) because the Alliance surrenders entirely once he's gone. Plus we can spare certain units and all that.

But I guess Edelgard doesn't really respect people who fight, lose, and then give up. If you lost, then you're weak, right? At least keep some honor by sticking to your guns all the way, lol

Mostly, I think it's funny that I've seen the interpretation that Edelgard knifes Dimitri and chooses to die in AM because she was too remorseful, but currently it's looking like, no, this is just her mentality - either win or die, surrender is for chumps.

Methinks the Adrestia Tablet of Bullshit was tweaked by Agarthans - or Adrestian themselves, who are still salty about the entire "Church accepted Faerghus's independence".

I think this is the likeliest take. The Agarthans were working on Ionius for sure, but they probably have been chipping away at the Imperial line for a long time. Being full on card-carrying villain types, they probably specifically chose this at least in part because of the sweet sweet irony of making the descendants of Seiros's greatest ally turn on her one day. I appreciate the dedication to the bit. Pure evil villains can be very fun... if used right.

Linhardt's take is even stupider when you consider that his crest, Flayn's Crest, boosts his healing magic. So sure, it can be used on battlefield, but also, to heal random people who suffer from random accidents, like, idk, NPC #55 falling down her roof, or something like that. But I guess Lin doesn't find healing useful?

Linhardt's angle is specifically that he's worried that his Crest research won't be useful in peacetime because there is only limited use for Crests without war (he does call out healing and iirc engineering with Mt crests).

But that's just because he's weak. Is, like, quantum physics actually useful? Is deep space astronomy? Only in even more limited ways, but people still research that stuff! Just suck it up and dedicate yourself to your passions properly, Lin!

Claude's reaction make a bit more sense when you consider Nader's motto which seems to be a general Almyran MO : people run away instead of dying - but here, in this case, Hilda who would have been the epitome of running away to avoid danger (at least on a shallow first reading) wants to, instead, protect him even if it costs her life, something he comes to understand too late (yes, in this route, he is beloved by the people of the Alliance, but only realises it too late).

Everyone loves Claude, as they should <3

Lorenz even says he's fighting in SS (and AM) because he'd be killed otherwise <3

(This is the smart and unbiased commentary we're all here for.)

Second chapter of CF down. Bye, Claude <3

I powered through yet another month of boring monastery stuff with the single thought of seeing Claude again (and killing him <3). If nothing else, this route is much more amusing than SS because I can see characters I care about doing stuff... as the enemy... but they're there!

Which really just highlights again how much of a missed opportunity Academy phase really is. They have all your future enemy units in the same place with you and then do basically nothing to make you care about them. It's all left onto replay or presuming they have off-screen relationships.

Aside from that, Edelgard's narrative about the Relics, human superiority and anti-dragon people is... hm. Well, it sure is a thing! Given how blatantly misconstrued some of the stuff she's saying gets (eg, about the Relics), the writers had to have been intentionally writing her as being utterly misguided, and I get that you're buying into her coolaid in the CF route. But the fact that you can't ever confront her about it in other routes despite all the "if only we could have understood each other :(" is just so.... sigh. It's unsatisfying to put it mildly.

Live blogging:

Hubert and Ferdie B: Hubert goes against Edelgard's explicit orders for something.

Felix says he's killed tons of people for the empire in the last five years and has the same look in his eyes now as Dimitri. lol

Dimitri with both eyes <3

Hubert's pre-Bridge conversation is hilarious. We need to cooperate with the Agarthans (presented as Arundel's subordinates) because we need to topple the Church! This is a very painful decision for Edelgard because you see they used her father as a puppet and killed her siblings :( Why are we more opposed to the church than these assholes? Well, because, I guess.

Bridge mission - nothing interesting. We do fight Judith, who has a unique model but is never playable. She's holding the bridge because Acheron is useless. He shows up as a horse guy (I'm pretty sure he was a mage in another route?) and then ditches after only one turn.

Afterwards, everyone makes fun of Edelgard for doing a bad job running the war until now because she's been too into Byleth. I've heard this angle before, but I think the actual difference is kind of mixed. They made less progress in the Kingdom, but that was all on Cornelia anyway, so it comes down more to Rhea not getting captured, presumably because she didn't have Byleth weighing her down. And the Alliance situation was never a real invasion in the five year gap to begin with. SS did have Lorenz siding with the Empire, but the exact in and out is kinda... hard to track.

Anyway, now we're in the Claude killing month!

Talk about how Claude has been acting as intermediary between those that oppose the Empire and those who support it, keeping them from fighting each other. Since everyone is compromising to keep the Alliance united for now, no one has openly sided with the Empire either.

But now he's scheming something, as we know because people have been stopped from entering or leaving Derdriu.

Everyone else: Claude is a smart, tough opponent. Bernie: Who's Claude

Ladislava is tasked with managing the supply lines and keeping the Goneril territories under control.

Being betrayed by Byleth made Rhea crack. "She started laughing as if she was possessed and spouting complete gibberish..."

Edelgard: Why can't people admit defeat without fighting back first? If they're going to surrender after I crush them under my boot, why not surrender without fighting? (Logically collolary: If you choose to fight, die fighting and never surrender. Explains why she's Like That in Azure Moon: sunk cost fallacy)

Edie is "not disinterested" in romance lol

Caspar family drama: His older brother is lazy, greedy and skates by relying on his position as heir. Their grandfather was really obsessed with his second wife, Randolph's mom. And she really wanted Randolph to become the heir, but the grandfather had to step down "earlier than expected," so Caspar's dad took over the title. With all this, Caspar's brother is really worried about the possibility of I guess Randolph taking over as heir instead.

This has.... interesting implications, I guess.

First, this makes Randolph Caspar's uncle, lmao

Second, I really, really wonder if Randolph was the grandpa's biological child. His mom explicitly married in after he was already born, but she could just as easily have been the grandpa's mistress. Either way, we get a very funny inheritance situation because Randolph does not have a crest, we can see that in his battle stats. So either crest ownership just doesn't matter in this case (lol Edie), or even wilder, you can just pass on your title to a completely unrelated child. Even if they ARE related, that's likely unprovable without a crest. (lol Edie extra hard)

Third, I wonder what the exact timeline here is? Because if Caspar's dad took over recently enough, he might not have been the lord who took part in the Insurrection. That might explain why he's inexplicably so chill about helping Edie take the throne and gain a whole ton of military power.

Edie, of course, turns this around as "this is the price of taking your own desires into account when choosing an heir" and this is why "the concept of nobility is decaying" but isn't Edie opposed to nobility in the first place? And she doesn't plan to institute a democracy anyway, so isn't everyone just going to be choosing their heirs based on "their own desires"?

She goes on to say that she wants a world where the best rise to the top and succeed, "regardless of bloodline," but uuuuuh this entire situation is about how the grandpa did not follow bloodline properly...? And all this also means that Caspar's bro can absolutely be removed from his position as heir, regardless of his bloodline...?

Caspar is like "ok, so you're saying nothing would change for me in your world, right?" L M A O

The way Edie presents the history of the Relics is so... "Relics were created by the hands of mankind" imo I wouldn't really count the Agarthans as particularly human anymore, and also this wasn't exactly something triumphant. "Seiros manipulated the people of the world and defeated the all-powerful King Nemesis" Nemesis was indeed tough, but you don't need to lick his boots quite that much. "Should the one leading the people of the world by someone with humanity or a creature that can merely masquerade as a human at will?" Given that you turn into an inhuman monster when you feel like it, which side of this binary do you fall on, Edie? I personally feel that Flayn, Seteth and Rhea have plenty of humanity even if they aren't human...

"The Immaculate One and her family"... dang, this phrasing is really...

This knowledge is passed down from emperor to emperor, huh. I know this kind of thing! Naruto taught me all about it! I remember that Uchiha tablet full of bullshit!

Byleth has been compared to Nemesis now. Hm.

Claude scene <3 He's upset about Judith dying, and that many more people will die following his orders. But of course he also talks himself up "do you have any idea how much of the Alliance adores me and believes in in me?" How much? Hm... about half? I remember SS and Lorenz leading the other half.

Anyway, Nader is also here.

Linhardt stupid take: "It's as if Crests were designed to be used only in times of war." How can you use them in peace-time? My dude...

There are three gates that connect Derdriu proper to its naval port. It looks like the naval port is a reinforced, walled area where the ships must dock before any goods or people can move into the city itself.

Killed Lysithea with Caspar, but I still get the prompt to spare her. I don't like these, it's too easy!

lol Claude keeps being upset that people are too stubborn to retreat even though he tells them to. My man, this is what happens when the Alliance adores you, it's called ride or die for a reason

The Almyran King fighting on the front lines... as expected.

Nader has been a soldier for 30-odd years. Incidentally, he retreats rather than outright being killed like Judith and Hilda... and Claude. It seems he has no dialogue for if Claude is killed first. Too bad!

[dmclemblems]

ngl joe zieja saying “i hate this fucking route” about cf after seeing dimitri’s death scene with dedue is so cathartic

that man ain’t even played dimitri’s route yet and he still nopin’ out on seeing dimi die with a smile on his face and dedue being there for him as he dies

bless

[procrastinatingattorney]

god it's so fucking wild that folks found a/zure moon "the best thing theyve ever played!!!" have they played any story game in their life

[travelling-on-the-octopath]

I think you'd said that you've never played CF, hence the confusion re: why Dimitri became king early only in CF. This is me being curious but which routes did you play in 3H? I'm guessing AM and VW since you've had many discussion previously about Dimitri and Claude? What about SS? And if CF is the only exception, just wondering about why you decided against it? Was it just cuz you hate Edelgard or hate bad end route? Because you dislike playing as a villain? Or maybe cuz it's poorly written?

I've played them all save CF dglkdjfg

And I should make it clear: I don't hate Edelgard. Honestly genuinely I don't ldfgjkd. She has her moments for me, and the idea of a conqueror who's willing to do anything and everything to get the power she wants is a really good one. I love her most when she's pissing me the fuck off. The King of Delusion scene, while fucking nauseating, is one of her best; it encapsulates a lot of her more compelling qualities. So it's not hate, in any capacity. It's more that, to me, she and the whole concept of her route are such wasted potential. It's like everything that should force-feed you a cocktail of existential crises and moral dilemmas is treated . . . loosely. It shows you bad things and doesn't take the care to make you feel bad for them, because your route lord is enamoured with you and manifesting your destiny is your god-given right. Which is perhaps too harsh a comparison, but that's the sort of tone-deaf self-righteousness the route exudes to me. Grab your future by the horns! Except you're the highest power in the land, and you're trying to extend that power to places that don't answer to it . . . hm.

There's another ask in my inbox that I haven't answered because I wanna answer it properly, but it pertains to CF and how it clashes against the other routes. Mainly? Because there are no consequences here. Every bad thing you have to rally against and fight in other routes isn't a problem to the characters. People are hardly bothered by the depravity of their actions. No one becomes a turncoat. You do awful things, the LEAST of which is lying to those most loyal to you, and you suffer no consequences for it. It's what makes the route so insufferable. I know what happens in it--I've perused CF content on the datamine; I've had to, for fic purposes, so I know the route in a very distant way--but it's the idea of playing it that saps joy out of the experience for me. I've mentioned that playing SB left a bad taste in my mouth, and that was largely because yeah, I was slaughtering people whose only job was defending their home, but it was mainly because I knew this was being treated as some necessary step for the future when, sorry, it's not; it's just the path you WANT to take. I don't like morally bankrupt aggressors that are like "but this is what i HAVE to do :( don't you get it!"; I want aggressors that are like "Yeah, I could wait for this to change, but I've decided to cause problems on purpose, and the first item on my list is bleeding you dry."

Anyway. I have no moral objections to playing as the villain. It's when you're playing as a power-hungry asshole who's framed as being right about everything by the narrative that I'm lost. And CF is a power-fantasy route that spills blood and tells you it's red paint. not what I'm about .

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

To an extent I can see why Lysithea agrees with Edelgard and why she might side with her (Edelgard isn't directly responsible for anything Ionius took part of it). As far as she knows, Edelgard is planning to either change how the nobility works or outright remove it (which the latter is what she claims most, which checks out with her centering power on herself post CF, although she does end up putting her friends back in power and having them take their houses back so I guess it's kind of both?).

That said, it is irritating that Lysithea never asks her about Ionius and tries to bring up discrepancies with her. It's an issue in general that Edelgard's allies never argue against with her except Ferdinand, which is dropped almost if not actually entirely in CF (and only remains in non-CF routes). There's also just in general the fact that characters grieve at having to be at war but fight for her cause regardless, believing in her wholeheartedly and never doubting her.

It's just unrealistic character writing that nobody would doubt her. Claude, Dimitri and Rhea, and hell even Byleth at some points in the story, are doubted by someone throughout their stories. Edelgard should have allies who are still her allies but still not always believe her or trust in her. All her allies eat right from the palm of her hand, just like she does with Agarthans when it comes to whatever information they feed her about Nabateans.

In Lysithea's case I do get that she has a shared trauma of sorts with Edelgard and that they would bond over that. Edelgard also plans to defeat Agarthans, which Lysithea also wants, and Edelgard would try to save her life if possible (which seems to be the case in VW as well, where she wants Lysithea on her side for experiencing similar things but Lysithea is more, I guess, aware in VW). Edelgard's issues with Crests are the part of her war that Lysithea should be uncertain about, because that doesn't define nobility and Lysithea should know that.

CF Lysithea would make more sense to me if she didn't just swallow any pretty words she was given, because it's just... not... her? Also, when Edelgard does similar things to her that Claude does, she's happy to put up with it. If Claude does it, she gets angry. CF Lysithea works, but it does reduce her to being another one of Edelgard's unquestioning and foolishly faithful allies.

It's like OP said, the favoritism is there. All the characters allied with her (in any route) are completely devoted to her no matter what she does or says and will die for her never asking questions. That's not true of any other main character in any other route, including in Hopes. Edelgard always gets the favorite-of-the-devs pass and the characters I could swear are written the way they are because they're stand ins for the devs themselves and how they wanted to "walk with Edelgard".

And because Tea must be sold, no one, in the Fodlan games, will ever tell Supreme Leader her reasoning is bonkers, so everyone will just sort of agree or mention sandwiches instead of giving an adequate reply.

H-Hey, wait! Dimitri did!!! He did!!!

Overall the biggest problem with Edelgard's allies in terms of writing is just that, even if it makes sense for them to fight for her (I'd argue Dorothea absolutely would fight for her because she wholeheartedly believes in the same values Edelgard preaches and is fighting under the assumption that that's the future they're heading toward), all the characters on her side take her words at absolute face value with not a thought to spare.

It's literally just a harem. I guess if people wanted to play CF in place of a romance visual novel or something, they came to the right place, because that's basically what it is. Half the cast is in love with Edelgard if not close to it in CF/SB, which... again, the favoritism is blatant. It's like the devs just made characters' appearances and then shoehorned their own desires/biases into those characters.

Which like, the thing is, they do a good job generally speaking with AM/VW/SS in not catering to her completely and admitting she's the enemy. It's just that in CF the narrative is completely flipped on its head in terms of how characters see her. I guess fan reception led to them making it so that every Hopes routes treated Edelgard similarly, with some very few and far between exceptions (Rodrigue couldn't mcfuckin' care less and even wants to know Dimitri will be able to kill her when the time comes. Dimitri is conflicted but is still resolved to kill her if need be. Overall the Lions are the only ones among the playable characters who don't view her baaaasically as a human goddess, and ofc the playable Church characters who are very few in number in this game).

Back to Lysithea, her joining Edelgard or not makes sense either way to me depending on Lysithea's experiences beforehand, i.e. if she joins Edelgard in a BE run, her life experiences are not the same as what she learns in VW. VW Lysithea knows more about the truth and is more level headed about it. CF Lysithea has more of an emotional connection with Edelgard that may trump logic and reason because Lysithea did lose all her siblings, and she may be looking for something similar in Edelgard.

If she was recruited in BE prior to the war breaking out (aside from mechanics for the player, just in terms of story), it would make sense for her to have bias and faith in Edelgard. If she wasn't recruited, you can choose to spare her (and iirc only her in that route?), which is in line with Edelgard wanting to have Lysithea allied with her in VW.

Most people yeah, Edelgard would leave for dead, but Lysithea in particular she doesn't want that for, so it makes sense she'd let her live, and Lysithea from there would probably be more softhearted toward her for the spare, which would open her up to listening to Edelgard's reasonings and such for the war, giving her the proper incentive to truly side with her and not just side with her because the Alliance lost.

But again, all that said... any actual interesting dynamic between them got botched down with the regular issue CF has, with nobody really caring to doubt her the moment they're allies. It's like, as soon as they ally with her they're magically transformed into an immediate believer of everything she preaches with zero pushback.

There are characters I can understand siding with her in particular circumstances, but when they never have those characters start to think for themselves or even tell Edelgard she went too far (remember, absolutely none of her allies whatsoever questioned why she skipped over diplomacy about this stuff and went straight to war), it just becomes "we believe in it because Edelgard said so" and not "we believe in it because Edelgard has a point and we want to fight for that too", even if what Edelgard claims to want doesn't exactly pan out the way she claimed it would (and still, when it doesn't, literally nobody whatsoever cares and everyone vibes with it as per CF's endings, likely because they are the ones all benefitting from it).

I'm going to assume that Lysithea is Hopes Lysithea/Fallen Lysithea, either that or IS really have forgotten the game they wrote where there's contradictions to the whole "crests enable nobility" argument.

Yeah, I don't know when this alt was released, but it's likely she's supposed to be either CF Lysithea (So Liesithea...?), maybe in anticipation of Hopes, or Fallen Lysithea, as you said.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, KT did write a lot of the lore/story elements. Maybe someone at IS asked about Lysithea to a KT dev who happened to be a... not so objective Edelstan and this is what we got as a result? And... it's totally fine to have a fave even as a dev obviously, but when you create something that will then become at least a semi-canon element of a game, you can't play favourites like this.

Or maybe Edelgard always planned to snatch Lysithea and somehow managed to order a brainwash-helmet (well... hat in this case) from Zephia?

[fireemblems24]

Azure Moon - Final

Of all the routes I'm finishing, this one is by far the hardest to say goodbye too. Which is why I saved it for last. Also, Three Hopes and the DLC, so it's not really over yet!

More in-depth reviews and etc coming later. Below is just my thoughts while I played the last two chapters of AM.

Ok, so this is different from the other routes. I had another week AND I picked who I married before any cut scenes.

Also different in that Byleth, here at least, is allowed to say something negative about Edelgard. A breath of fresh air.

I will get to still pick who I marry, right? I didn't miss that. Because by God if I missed that for Dimitri . . .

It's been a while Edelgard.

I still can't believe Dimitri really went and is trying to solve this with diplomacy and understanding. We stan a King, guys.

Holy, shit, yes, Dimitri, preach "there had to be a way to change things in your territory without so many senseless casualties."

Edelgard - War leads to the least amount of casualties, duh. I mean, who wouldn't agree. It's not like war is literally the worst.

Did she seriously just say - ah, yes, the least bloody way to fix the Empire is conquering everyone else and war.

I get that her argument is that the longer she didn't put everyone under her control, the more people would've died, so her war killed less in the long run. Someone doesn't know much about war.

Edelgard really out here playing God, hunh.

Dimitri ain't wrong that Edelgard is a bit too gung-ho about her war. And, of course, she's deaf to the victims. If it's anything like CF, there isn't any acknowledgement of any victims. They might as well not exist except to make Edelgard the main victim of the war.

"You cannot change the cycle of the strong dominating the weak with a method like that."

Preach, Dimitri.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good "conqueror the world for it's own good" character, but damn it's nice to see the hypocrisy pointed out. Those characters are only ever interesting and good if there's a counterpoint and not CF's sanctification of Edelgard.

I think Edelgard really means to destroy the bad systems. I think she honestly believes she's the only one who can make those changes. I also think she's dumb as a box of rocks if she doesn't realize her "boostraps" like mentality isn't just going to increase her divide, and that the world she's creating will have just as many victims and not be conducive to a true post-war recovery.

Holy shit, Edelgard sounds like Fox News. "If after all of this you believe the weak will still be weak, that is only because they are too used to relying on others instead of on themselves."

That really is truly only two steps away from "welfare queens" and the poor are poor because they "don't work hard enough" and the rich are rich because "they just work that much harder."

"But you cannot force that belief onto others." Is really the crux of my issue with Edelgard's plan.

"There are those who cannot live without their faith . . . and those who cannot go one once they have lost their reason for living." - It's too bad he didn't just straight-up say - "What about mental illness, Edelgard? Or physical handicaps? Or people born uber poor? What are they supposed to do in your world?"

I'm betting Edelgard fans hate this conversation lol. It's the only time in the whole game so far that challenges Edelgard's convictions and points out all the problems with it.

"It is the path of the strong and could only benefit the strong." - 100% true.

Honestly, the BEST combination would be Edelgard + Dimitri, where she's busting big bad systems up, and he's there to make sure the new government takes care of its people rather than uses them.

I don't think Edelgard understands the importance of faith to a lot of people. It's not really about "the goddess" answering your problems. Most religions are very specific that they can't treat prayer/meditation/etc as a wish machine. It's more about finding comfort in the idea that there's a system to this universe, that there's someone or something out there dictating what's right and wrong, that there's something after death. It's not really about expecting everything you pray for to be answered the way you want, but about finding some way to accept that "everything happens for a reason" to help you get through rough things. That, if you're suffering, that there's a larger point to it all.

Interesting how she claims she's fighting for the silent and weak too. I don't see how though, since she expects them to magically not be weak anymore.

"The ones who can truly change the way of the world are not the rulers, but the people." - I firmly 100% believe the only stable change is one that's wanted by the majority and is often generational.

"Pushing your own sense of justice and your own ideals onto even one other person is nothing more than self-righteousness." - Again, 100% agree with Dimitri here.

Edelgard's not wrong either that for things to change, someone has to take action. But why THAT action?

It's really too bad there's no ending where these two meld their ideals together. But I'm betting Edelgard isn't willing to work with anyone else (unlike Rhea, Claude, and Dimitri who have all worked together in one route or another).

Why is Edelgard talking about high borns vs the poor??? Dimitri was just talking about people in general. And didn't he live on the run for like 5 years? Edelgard's way more removed from the poor than he is.

Like, why is she still going to fight him? Why not just work WITH him?

Ohhhh is this the dagger?

Yep, guessed it right.

So she's remembering him now.

Aww, baby Dimitri and Edelgard are so cute.

If only Rhea got this treatment in CF that Edelgard's getting in AM. It would've made CF soooooo much better.

Dimitri gonna regret those words he told Edelgard when she decides the future she's cutting through involves killing him lamo.

Edelgard's like WTF, this guy I've been trying to kill since the paralogue is that guy who inspired me to keep going?

Mannnn imagine an alternative storyline where she realizes who he is earlier on. The conflict and character development she missed out on :(

Man, this shit is tragic. I don't know how the same people who wrote this route wrote all the other ones.

I love how Byleth and Hubert just stood there saying nothing lamo.

OH THANK GOD, I get to pick who to marry.

This is the EASIEST choice of them all lol. Dimitri. 100%, Dimitri.

PRE-BATTLE & BATTLE #1

Maaan I'm so worried about how long this will get. Anyone who reads the whole thing, I'm amazed at your thoroughness.

Time to blast Enbarr's door down again lol.

LAMO Hubert again? I love him, but facing him is a meme at this point. How many times have I already toasted his ass?

Ugh, no, they split up my units again :( whyyyyyy Though is any route is suited for this, it's AM because Dimitri can take a whole area by himself.

Oh, I see Petra's back :( Bummed about killing her.

I really gotta question Edelgard here. A combined force of the Kingdom, Alliance, and Church is invading her innermost city area, but she still won't work with Dimitri and would rather keep trying to fight him? Even after she heard him out?

Why did Hubert call Dimitri the Savior King? I love that title though.

God, I love Hubert. He just owns it, you know?

Alright - time to fight.

Ingrid is such a queen - no one can touch her + mages can't hurt her anyways. She's like Dedue, but for mages.

"War is for the wealthy. We don't even have enough to eat." - when the random enemy thief's line about war hits harder than all of CF.

Petra was NOT easy to kill. All the fast ones (Dimitri, Petra, Catherine, pegasus knights, assassins) are the hardest to kill in this game.

Dimitri can one-shot Hubert. And by that I don't mean "single turn" I mean single hit.

Dimitri gave Hubert a chance to surrender :(

Why did Hubert say Dimitri had a "silver tongue?"

Man, Dimitri went into overkill with a crit. Poor Hubert.

Dimitri MVP. Not surprised.

POST BATTLE & BATTLE 2

See it's lines like this "there is to be no needless killing or pillaging, understand?" That made me wonder if one route mentions that sentiment more than another or if there's a different vibe or what not.

See, THIS is what was missing from CF. A place where the whole trope stands around and says their lines, even if they don't contribute much, it just feels so epic, you know?

I just love this group all so much: Dedue (swearing to Dimitri), Annette (being so chiper), Ingrid (being the badass knight she is), Mercie (praying for everyone), Ashe (awww, he's so proud to be a citizens of Faerghus in AM and CF, I think I'm over his stunt in VW and SS now. I love you), Sylvain (encouraging everyone, and I don't think I've mentioned this much but he's so fucking hot),

FELIX 😭 supporting Dimitri 😭😭 He even called him a "boar" but it's not an insult anymore 😭😭😭

Dimitri and the Blue Lions are just so 😭😭😭

Oh, so here's Edelgard - "It's far too late to second guess." Edelgard, I'm 100% sure if you surrendered now, Dimitri would make peace with you. It's actually not too late.

It's that hellbeast from FEH. I have PTSD from that thing. This version is wayyyy uglier. Not surprised. I got so tired of that in FEH.

Man, I love these images in between chapters. They all look so cool.

I'm betting we're not fighting TWSITD in this route either? But I think we accidentally already killed their leader so . . .

This route didn't have that giant bomb go off too. Does anyone know why? Like is it just "because plot" or some actual reason?

Edelgard HAS to know she's going to lose. Is it really just "kill everyone or die?" for her??

More Blue Lions imput 😭😭

Dedue is so loyal. I love him 😭😭😭 Felix being so supportive.

Guys we're so spoiled. Everyone gets two pep talks to say their bit.

Yep, it's that FEH thing.

"There can only be one ruler of the world." LAMO Edelgard. She is a bit of a my way or death kinda person.

That awful dubstep again though, make it go away.

Alright, guys, time for my last chapter in this whole thing. Let's go!

Holy shit! What is that range Edelgard has????

I take it Myson is TWSITD? And WTF is with that spell he has? How come I never got that. Anyways, Stride + Dimitri's a bitch and he's gone.

By "beasts" does he mean humans, Nabeteans, or all of the above?

OMG they all retreated LAMO. That makes things easier. Well, not all of them, but a few, nice. And mostly mages too, that makes my life easier.

Yikes, that first hit blasted poor Mercie hard.

Did Edelgard really just say "Facing you, I grow weak?" To Byleth?? They really went hard core pandering with her, hunh. Anyways, she had a 0, 0, 0 on Byleth so I'm far less intimidated.

Alright guys, Edelgard's going down. First Felix took one of her lives out, then Sylvain, then Byleth, now Dimitri for the final. She's going out in one round, though I think only SS took me longer? Maybe CF, but that's because I had no crutch characters there.

Yo, Dimitri telling Edelgard she deserves no compassion because she would rather turn herself into a demon than compromise. Seems a bit at odds with the rest of what he's said, tbh, but I get the sentiment.

He did a critical and took her out in one blow.

And we're done! Only 11 turns. Lol, Everyone just really loves their criticals in the Blue Lions. I also think those dudes retreating helped.

Dimitri MVP. No surprises there.

POST BATTLE & Wrap-Up

Cut scene, for some reason, I always forget lol.

So Edelgard's back to her legendary unit self.

Dimitri's giving her ANOTHER chance to surrender? He's wayyy more forgiving than I'd ever be.

And . . . she threw her dagger at him. Kinda a dick move there.

Byleth not letting Dimitri look back 😭😭😭 That's kinda sweet.

Alright, let's see the final picture for Dimitri.

Ugh, whhyyy the unification. But Rhea! Lives! Good!

I think I see Byleth and Dedue in that ending mural 😭😭😭

I love that mural. It's so happy after everything.

S-Support time!! Let's see if Dimitri can prove me wrong that the men won't be as lovey dovey as the women.

Two insomniacs in love (seriously, who sleeps a healthy amount in this game??)

He's apologizing for making Byleth work so much 😭😭😭 Did anyone else? I'd have to check.

"Do no worry about me" - a summary of Dimitri.

And yikes, that hit left Dimitri numb? Like permanently? Can't this game cut him ANY slack??

Uh, oh, he just so awkwardly switched to romantic shit lamo.

"How many years has it been since I was kept awake by hopes for the future, rather than by nightmares of the past . . ." Dimitri stop..... 😭😭😭😭

He really has Survivor's Guilt 101 😭😭

Geeze, I can't imagine hearing voices in my head like that.

They're still there 😭😭😭 I guess that's more realistic, and better than Byleth made it go away.

It's actually . . . really cool, I think, that he didn't just get "cured." Like, he's still hearing those voices, but found a way to deal with them, and have hope and happiness anyways. That's pretty inspiring, actually.

"But I wish to change this world in my own way." Yes, we stan a King, guys.

Oh shiiiittt Dimitri let that "My beloved" slip didn't he. LAMO.

Ohhh I like this confidence on him, not getting all blushy. Good for him. He's grown up a bit lol.

Ah, he's giving me his ring too, isn't he. And NOW he's blushing. Good.

"If you do not wish to accept it, please just tell me." Absolutely no way I'd say no lol.

Ahahahah, she popped the ring too. Good for her. Just like Rhea.

It's so fucking cute when they both have rings.

Wow, that is not subtle "I love you, Dimitri. Marry me."

Yeah, ok, maybe just Claude's the most unromantic person in the game, because this shit's romantic.

And he's talking about her hands again 😭😭😭 Guys, I'm a sucker for shit like this. OMG

How did I end up adding Sylvix and Dimileth into my "I legitimately ship it now" in the last few chapters of different routes.

And his picture isn't half bad. Poor Edelgard, though, WTF was that? Rhea, Claude, and Dimitri all looked fine.

OMG it's almost done, now just for the MVP list and paired endings.

Lots of trading around at first, then Dimitri takes over. So far it's been: Dimitri, Ingrid, Sylvain, Felix, Byleth, and Dedue who all got MVP at least a few times. With Dimitri getting it the most by far. Towards the end, it was Felix only once, rest of the time Dimitri.

OK, paired endings, like for the others, not going to say much about ones I've gotten before.

So ones that were basically the same: Anna solo, Cyril solo, Alois solo, Manuela solo, Hanneman solo, Flayn solo, Lorenz Solo,

Shamir solo, she becomes a Robin Hood, I like it lol.

Catherine and Rhea became lesbians together. 😭😭 Good for them. Catherine finally scored.

Bernie Solo - poor girl regressed :(

Caspar Solo - he basically did the same thing, but without Linhardt :(

Linhardt Solo - so he did research for the rest of his life. It suites him.

Gilbert Solo - Dimitri has a baby 😭😭😭 And he managed to stay and serve the realm this time. Good for him.

Ferdinand and Dorothea - They had babies too 😭😭 So cute. And Ferdinand went on to be a good leader, and Dorothea got the power to help the common folk. Not a bad ending.

YES! Raphael and Marrianne - I wanted this one! OK, but that ending was kinda lame though. It's all about Raphael and Marianne just talks to birds in it. Though, at least she seems happy.

Ashe and Annette - That's a cute couple, not gonna lie. But again, it's alllll about the dude, though at least here Annette gets to help the realm and write a book.

Ingrid and Seteth - Aw yeah, she became a knight. Good for her. So they both helped out Fodlan (Faerghus and the Church) and married (I mean, they did) much later on. I'm glad Seteth found someone. And way to go Ingrid for getting equal billing in a paired ending, if not the ending being mostly her story and how Seteth was also there.

Does this mean Felix and Sylvain got together - AGAIN? And Mercedes and Dedue (pleaseohpleaseohplease)?

YESSSSS Mercie and Dedue. They are so cute together. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 OMG That ending. I can't. It's perfect. They open a school together and restore Duscur culture. 😭😭😭😭😭 This might be my favorite one of all of them.

But, shit, I don't want Felix and Sylvain to get together. The last time was HORRIBLE. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't EXTREMELY curious to see how this goes, since Felix's endings have been so depressing so far.

Yep, Felix and Sylvain, lol, 😭😭😭😭😭 That's SOOOOOO much better. OMG. That's fucking hurts after seeing how it went in CF with Sylvain bringing up that they were supposed to die together and then in AM they actually do 😭😭😭😭😭 OK, ok, I 100% get Sylvix now. I'm converted. OMG I'm so happy Felix got a good ending.

So now for Dimitri and Byleth. Dimitri has 524 victories lol. I abused that boy.

Their ending is pretty sweet, not gonna lie. I think it's funny they mentioned the separation of work and marriage life. I can almost see someone in the writer's room going - but people will shit on them for this! - and adding that. That part of them going riding together and being desperately in love. It hurts, guys. 😭😭😭😭

OMG! I'm done! I finally finished 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 I can play Animal Crossing again (I banned myself until I finished this lol) And the DLC!

I don't know when I'll get to the DLC, but I will. I'll probably wait a few weeks, but I know I'm going to want to come back to this game.

[teaveetamer]

Unsure if you've ever addressed this before but what are your thoughts about the lack of route locked characters in 3H? Do you think having more route locked in Nopes was a good decision? Do you think there should have been even more route locked? For 3H, who would you lock by route (you can discuss all 4 routes here)? Who would you make an open recruitment? Some units can be recruited on some routes but not others (example, maybe AM, SS, VW but not CF). I'd like to hear your thoughts.

I think I have spoken about this before, but I don't mind talking about it again. I think 3H recruitment was stupid and if I were in charge of the game I would have scrapped it in its current form completely. From a narrative perspective I just think it's stupid, and that's only added to by all recruitment taking place before the war starts. It's one thing to transfer classes at school, and it's a completely different thing to side with another country in a war. It doesn't help that 90% of characters cite "IDK, cuz Byleth is here" as their motivation, which is paper thin at best.

I do think having more route locked characters in Hopes was a much better call, just because narratively it makes way more sense than 3H's "you can recruit basically anyone to any side". I also think recruitment was handled much better in that game, even if I do have problems with it still, just because IMO it makes way more sense for characters to surrender after they've nearly been killed rather than just flounce off to the enemy team before anything has even happened because a teacher they had at school for a year did it.

IF I had to keep 3H's mechanics the same then here's how I'd route lock characters:

I think the Lions should stay route locked to AM, VW, or SS. I think it makes sense for them to join the fight in VW/SS just because in those routes Dimitri is presumed dead and I think you could write it so they view siding with the Alliance/Church as the best way to protect their homeland. I have a hard time buying that any of them would actually be willing to side against their homeland to the point of murdering their family and friends in cold blood.

I think the Deer should similarly stay route locked to AM, VW, or SS, with exceptions. Since the Alliance plays neutral in VW, I could see the Deer characters viewing the Kingdom/Church as the best way to protect their homeland since they're actively fighting the Empire. I think Lorenz would be fine to recruit to CF. Everyone else makes no sense to me.

I think the Eagles should be up for grabs on any route. It just makes sense. They already have an entire route where they side against Edelgard, so it makes sense that they would be willing to side against her again in AM/VW for the same reasons they side against her in SS.

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

IS is using Female Alear more to make up for the fact that they're going to be using Male Alear for the Engage manga coming out. Makes sense though since they're putting the Engage manga in a Shonen magazine and the manga is more likely to catch on with a male audience if they can self-insert as a male protagonist rather than a female protagonist. If they did a Three Houses manga, you can bet that they'd use Male Byleth as well and have him end up with Edelgard or Rhea in CF and SS respectively and probably two different girls in VW and AM. But knowing IS, they'd only adapt CF or SS rather than VW or AM. : /

Oh, no, I didn't mean IS. I was referring to the players, between the reviewers and the current players with the game being officially out. I just noticed that every single player I've ever seen on any site except Tumblr (YT, Twitter, etc) uses female Alear. Byleth was more varied, and even if female Byleth was more popular, it wasn't too difficult to find players using male Byleth.

Honestly, I think the reason they didn't adapt Houses is because they'd get backlash no matter what route they chose, from everyone who wanted the other routes. It would be a lot of work to do four entries for each route, even if they split the work between four different groups of writers/artists/editors/etc. It would also cost them a fair bit of money I'm sure, because while afaik manga itself isn't too expensive on its own to create, having to pay the people working on it would get pricey if they actually did all four of them.

Generally they seem to consider SS their canon route when it comes to non-Houses material (like Engage, though it's only implied through Byleth iirc, because each house leader talks about Byleth as if Byleth was their house's teacher. The consistency is misty in that regard, but it makes sense to keep everyone playing the game happy).

Other than that, in terms of Houses and its marketing directly, they tend to lean toward CF being the "canon" (?) route, that being, they don't directly come out and say it is, but they market with EdeIgard harder than any other character in the franchise itself (including, yes, their actual most popular character in the entire franchise itself, Ike). Since they market her so heavily, they have to imply they're marketing her route for her, whereas when it's just Byleth and it's a situation like Engage when he can speak to other characters with no specific route mentioned, it's more implied to be SS for him (which also makes sense as the fourth route and him being the fourth main lord).

The thing that just bugs me with their marketing for Houses is that they originally did market it in the Direct trailers as specifically three routes. They were all marketed pretty fairly in the very beginning, but then people saw a hot "girlboss" with an axe and went with her route (and that's true for both people who ended up not liking her and people who did. It's just that people's first impressions were pretty much automatically hot chick mc with axe. I have friends who either went with CF first and hated it and some who considered it but haven't played the game itself yet, but decided not play her route if they ever play the game because they don't like EdeIgard herself).

Nowadays it's not marked anything like the original trailers that fairly expressed how it's a game of multiple routes and that none of them are the "true" route. Even now that's technically true and they have to stand by that for consistency, but they've definitely blurred the line for the sake of money. Tbh I'm not even sure how IntSys sees Houses' fame, because yes it's a very popular game, but it's also now the most infamous game in the series... which is a feat, considering Fates was the most controversial prior. Fates' stuff was nothing like Houses though and the amount of fandom wank that existed in that fandom wasn't even remotely like Houses'. It just makes me wonder if IS is aware that Houses is kinda looked down upon and is infamous now for its fanbase being literally disgusting and full of harmful individuals.

Of course, we're definitely likely to see an increase in FE7 fandom wank and the return of violent, aggressive Lyn ship wars and Eliwood ship wars. Now that they've announced it's coming to the Switch, I do totally expect that fandom to be up and at 'em with the wank and using it as an excuse to fight with other fans and toss around nasty comments to other players. I mean, it was bad enough originally, but now we have this new wave of crazy players who belong in a psych ward (and I'm not even saying that sarcastically, I'm saying that tons of idiots on the internet who behave the way they do literally need to be in a psych ward and I wouldn't make fun of that bc I've literally been in one for my own health some years ago). Can't expect the game to just bring in happy fans who are glad to see it return, since that will probably be buried by whacked out assholes.

Get ready for the stans to be like "Ninian evil, she dragon! Humans fought dragons in the past bc dragons evil!" and that will be our new Eliwood ship war starter line.

[lananiscorner]

3H route lords and/or Tim Drake? 👀

Thanks for your ask, writtendown-woundup!

Edelgard critical beneath the cut. Don't like, don't read.

Claude:

If you look up "wasted potential" in the dictionary, you will not find Claude's picture there, because the creators seem to be allergic to putting him where he belongs. Claude has such an interesting premise! He's a biracial person who has experienced discrimination from both sides of his heritage. He's got trust issues, but he wants to build a world based on trust. He is always seeking knowledge about the world, but refuses to let the world gain knowledge about him. He's a schemer and honestly a bit of an ass sometimes, but at the end of the day, he can be the most dependable and caring person. There are so many fascinating avenues you could explore with this guy! You could wave the most intricate, 5 dimensional Xanathos gambit chess plot with this dude... and yet somehow the writing staff at KT/IS looked at this man and decided what he really needs is a copy-pasted Black Eagles route. Twice. What a tragic waste.

Dimitri:

Dimitri is my favorite character in FE3H, no contest. I love how his greatest strengths are also his greatest weaknesses. I love how they did not shy away from depicting him at his darkest, while not denying him a hopeful ending. I love how you can see his gradual descent into psychotic breakdown happen just as clearly as his gradual recovery. I love how much he loves his country and its people while acknowledging their flaws. Also, he's the best enemy phase unit in the game. I just love Dimitri. It doesn't matter which route I play--if I play 3 Houses, I think of Dimitri, and if it's not his route, I think of what's happening to him in Faerghus while I'm busy elsewhere. As for "they got done dirty by the fans"--Dimitri fans are a mostly chill and wholesome bunch, as far as I have seen, but my GODDESS have I seen some rancid takes about him from Edelstans (calling him a conservative status quo centrist, an epitome of toxic masculinity, someone who had to be put down for his own good... ughhhh).

Edelgard

Okay, so this may come as a shock to some, but I don't actually hate Edelgard. I think she is a perfectly fine example of a nuanced and flawed character. As a villain. I don't know what kind of mental gymnastics must be involved in considering her a hero, because imo she lost any hope of being that (and instead went into "what's wrong with them" territory) the moment she gave her absolutely bonkers war speech and declared war on two sovereign nations. She definitely got done dirty by the writing, what with both CF and her supports refusing to let her suffer any meaningful consequences for her actions, and her attraction to Byleth being uncomfortably shoved into routes where it makes no sense (particularly Verdant Wind). If I were to meet her, I would probably try to deck her in the face, only to get Mired into oblivion by Hubert.

Tim Drake:

This was a tough one, because... who even is Tim? Which of his many volumes of depictions are we talking about? This is why I don't have much to say about him, except Tim is a character who works best when he has someone else to play off of, ideally Bruce, Dick, Jason, or Damian. He has certainly had a number of hair-raising wtf moments in his appearances (e.g. treatment of Stephanie in certain issues, his treatment of Jason in Teen Titans Vol. 3 #47, and that one mini series in New 52/Rebirth, the name of which I can't recall, where he went full megalomaniac psychopath and turned out to be the villain orchestrating some multi-dimensional shenanigans). That said, he can also be a massive, extremely likeable nerd sometimes.

[jackienautism]

fe3h update! well i just finished my first playthrough and i am just sitting here.... the second to last battle was SO hard for me and it was definitely made harder by the fact that i like. played it weird. bc i thought if i just completely avoided her i wouldn't have to kill mercedes so i took all my units on a really weird path and then once i finally killed everyone else turns out. i still had to kill her.

i managed to get to a support between byleth and all of the eagles except linhardt (still mad about that.... i wanted to get the whole set </3), as well as marianne, sylvain, ingrid, and felix (who yeah, i did end up recruiting).

as for my ranking of the eagles... it's really tough to pick! it's closer to tiers for me, bc some of these characters are so close to each other in my ranking. i'd probably go... dorothea, caspar, bernie/hubie/edie, petra, ferdie, linhardt. dorothea and caspar are probably my absolute favorites now. and because of that, i think they're gonna be the eagles i recruit on my VW playthrough (and maybe. all subsequent playthroughs too LMAO) . from the lions, i think i'm gonna take sylvain again bc he's easy to get and he grew on me, as well as mercedes. mighttt also recruit annette and maybe ashe? i barely interacted with them the first time around but i hear ashe is interesting in VW and annette has supports with claude, but i'm also trying to limit myself here lmao. i'm probably not gonna try to recruit both of them, if i even recruit one.

anyway! i'm genuinely sooo excited for claude.... also since i enjoyed marianne so much, i'm excited for her to be like.. more relevant LMAO.

i'm also gonna look into how to like... successfully build my guys this time around because i have a feeling i was NOTTT doing it well at all. which like... i don't need to have the best builds in the world or anything, as long as i'm having fun i don't need to be doing things "right", but like. i think i could maybe be having a bit more fun if i. knew what i was doing lol.

thanks for letting me give you these updates lol! i am having sooo much fun.

HIII OHOHO HAPPY TO HEAR YOUVE FINISHED YOUR FIRST RUN :D AND THAT YOU REALLY ENJOYED IT.... i lowkey forget the second to last battle ebut i assume it was the one w/ dimitri right? or was it the silver maiden one w/ rodrigue? forgive me its been a bit since ive played crimson flower dfgnfg but anyhow! SORRY THAT YOUR DIVERSION MADE THE BATTLE DIFFICULT FOR YOU....AND THAT YOU STILL HAD TO KILL MERCEDES ANYWAY ):

and damn </3 atleast you got thr A supports between the rest of the black eagles! i suppose theres always next route or next CF route that you can get linhardt's... i could tell you the gist of it if you want but im sure youd rather get it yourself. speaking of A supports, which endings did you get :o? like between the other characters i mean?

good tier list<3333 dorothea at the top as she shoudl be. and edie and hubie togehter as they SJOULD be. dorothea snd caspar as your faves are such good choices... quite the duo. and them being the eagles you recruit in your other routes is very respectable as well.. still cant believe that youre willign to Not recruit everyone but i totally understand the mindset as well. angst is good. but it also hurts. MERCEDES..... ooohhh i love her oh so much. she would def be a good choice. good luck limiting yourself btw dfgkdnfg annette and ashe are very good very goodd. im not particularly attached to them as ive talked abt before but theyre both very sweet characters. and have a lot of substance to them. plus their family situations and whatnot are very sad. so yeah! recruiting any of the blue lions to learn more abt them would be a good thing to do! esp if you didnt interact w/ them much in CF

YESSS CLAUDES ROUTE WAS VEYR GOOD.... AND I LOVE HIMS O MUCH ANDHIS RELATIONSHIP W/ BYLETH.... and yessss marianne ): my girl.... i will say that something that happens in verdant wind def shouldve been saved for edie's route but :/ soon enough you'll see what i mean. hope you enjoy verdant wind!!!!

and kfdngdkfg yeah i feel that. its quite overwhelming at times isnt it? as logn as youre having fun though thats all that matter sbut i totally understand wanting to like know what youre doing. a few videos and reading up on classes should help! what were your guys' final classes if you don't mind me asking? if you think youd habe more fun if you knew what you were doing, then id def go for it! good luck w/ everything!

and omg of course!!!! thank YOU for being so kind to keep me updated and whatnot! i always enjoy reading what you have to say and how you've been doing in game and otherwise :] hope you have a good day / night!!!!