#i really really really hate how SS pushed for Byleth being the most important person to Rhea

[randomnameless]

Haha, that S rank is to me the stuff of nightmare lol

Apparently Sothis can only be half assed to talk to her daughter when she's dying and if Byleth wants to marry her, Rhea suddenly forgets all of the bonds and allies (counting her own family! Like Seteth!) she had before meeting Byleth because they had to shoehorn a "i was lonely before meeting you since zanado" - and we keep the general feeling of everyone self-flagellating to avoid putting any blame on Edel's shoulders for the war - when Rhea asks if she was the reason why this war started, there's no option to tell her "no of course not someone started the war because she was prompted to do so by the evil organisation who wanted to finish the genocide of your race and that same someone really really really doesn't like pointy ears".

About the route :

Shambala is in Goneril territory, iirc Hilda mentions it in VW.

Yes, much like the Nabatean themselves, they're mentionned in script only once or twice. But in the blurbs, you have more mentions, like Agarthan tech, or whatever.

I still don't know how to explain why Nemesis doesn't get out of his tupperware in this route, but I guess it was to make the "final boss" different between the routes.

Yep, Billy having one month to decide if they want to lead the world... well, symbolism was lost in the lolcalisation and wasn't even that developed to begin with, but Byleth was supposed to have ascended to someone who guides people - the role Rhea wanted Sothis to have - and from what the other materials about Fodlan say (aka not FE16 because Byleth has no voice in FE16) Byleth apparently takes the role because they like to guide/teach people. There's also the "someone has to take responsability" angle in the SS situation, since every other leader died.

But yeah, in the game, it feels like an ultimate way to say "and you, the player, become the uncontested ruler of the Fodlan! Yay!"

Sitri's nature was the source of a lot of discourse, some people were really disappointed that Rhea didn't kidnap people to put crest stones in them but made homonculi instead, and i think there are still some people out there who make a point of saying Sitri was a human (see CF). Tldr : Sitri was a construct, she didn't host Sothis' consciousness so Rhea let her live her life, she married Jeralt, had Byleth, and asked Rhea to put the crest stone in Byleth - killing her, but possibly saving her child.

FEH tried to bring an explanation for the final boss about Rhea's "despairing", but to be honest, if she knows Sothis was thre, gave her powers to Byleth and then apparently fucked away in all routes, Rhea should "despair" in all routes, but she only does so here...

With the worst faith take I can muster, we can nearly say Rhea grows berserk/her minds break because she realises her mother never gave a fuck about her, the world or her remaining children...

IDK if Nabateans have multiple crest stones, or if Rhea could shave hers, but honestly, the "they had her blood and part of her crest stone", especially given their numbers, felt like bullshit to explain why this nonsensical fight happens.

the crest of seiros should imo be more common, i mean, edel's dad got 11 children, if 11 children is the standard for Adrestian Emperors, we should have thousands of Hresvelg bastards in Fodlan!

Fodlan has an unification boner, and I really miss the time when Tellius or even Jugdral (depending on the end!) ended up with everyone returning home, multiple nations and some warped "and they were happy until the end of times". But in the Rhea ending, Rhea is the Archbishop, while Byleth is the "King/Queen" so I guess they're still separating politics from religion? At least in name?

Rhea's S support is basically her wondering if she should live, and while I like how she's reflecting on her past actions, talking to Byleth means talking to a wall, so no one can tell her that "you might have lied, but it was either that, or either Flayn being turned into a pair of shiny chopsticks".

As you said, it's still a nice support, where Rhea accepts and acknowledges Byleth is their own person and also, she realises she's happy she didn't die.

(well... a bit like Dimitri? They're pretty similar tbh).

I agree though, it should have been a gen support - but FE16 is allergic to having Rhea interact with her family and/or anyone who isn't Byleth aka a romantic interest (iirc FE16!Rhea has no lines with Flayn!). If there's one thing 3 Nopes did well, it's to have her, even for 1 paralogue and 3 lines in a +120 hours long game, interact with her family-friends.

Byleth being muted and Rhea being fridged means SS couldn't have the gravitas the devs might have been gunning for - you have to feel bad for fighting against Edel, but you cannot even think once or twice about why you are fighting against her, nor what she did (we still don't know what happened to Rhea during those 5 years, but she is weak enough that she has to go to sleep mode for 1 month, and even then, walking around is deemed as "unreasonable" for her!).

So how can this route explore Byleth, what they are, what actions they must take and what they finally accept to be, if you have to feel bad for "you are a nabatean you cannot rule over humans" and "I will get rid of the false goddess and her minions"?

On paper SS is more interesting than VW - but execution wise, it's definitely lacking.

SS is done.

The most standout part: I got the Rhea S rank. It was good. I support it, but I wish there was a gen version and also that it was available on VW. My general impression is that VW actually gives you more chances to ask after and worry for Rhea (plus Claude is a rather meh romance option), so it would be great if I could get with her there too.

In general, I wish VW and SS were just one route. Both have some nice small details, but given how similar they are, I feel like you'd get a better experience if they were just combined.

Checking my VW endgame notes, it seems VW gives you info dump about Agartha, which definitely feels missing in SS, and SS gives you a bit more detail about Byleth's deal from Rhea, which adds some nice details on the Rhea relationship front. Seriously, they should have just combined them.

(Hilariously, Catherine's endcard outright contradicts the paired Rhea one. They are incompatible, but I got both. Additionally, Ingrid's card seems to be written for Crimson Flower, since it mentions Galatea being "seized" and Ingrid needing to push strongly to be allowed to govern it, which comes across weirdly as a post-war in the Byleth-led United Kingdom, especially since the other Lions kids I recruited all got their lord positions without any apparent fuss.)

Overall, not much else to say about SS. Final take: SS and VW are really obviously the same route, but even though SS was supposedly written first, VW feels marginally better in its focus and I enjoyed it more. However, the Rhea stuff specifically is good, and I wish I could get it on VW. Yup.

Final save file time: 95:19. Minus the VW playthrough, it's 44:07, so a bit faster. Specifically post-route split, it's 20:16, so it seems like the part that I finished faster was actually just Academy phase, possibly because I just didn't care much for the BE kids.

Liveblogging notes:

Looking closely at the battle selection screen, it seems Shambhala is at the very eastern tip of the Empire. There's a bit of mountain that stretches down from the Throat across Airmid River, and it seems to be there.

Narration calls it a "sprawling underground city."

Thales was kind of a chump!

Ah, I just realized I forgot to check his X description blurbs. They probably weren't too interesting tho.

The Agarthans are super mad about living underground and not having "light." Thales also name drops Agartha in his battle line vs Seteth and in the cutscene afterwards. Aside from their ability description, I think this is probably the first time their proper name is mentioned. But we uh, don't seem to discuss this much?

Small scene with Nemesis's coffin is missing, I think. Well, obviously because he's not the final boss now. iirc the scene immediately after the month change, with everyone freaking out over Rhea is new instead. It's a little weird because iirc VW gives you more opportunities to express concern for her. Here, the Rhea focus feels a bit less supported.

Seteth didn't realize you already knew that Rhea is the Immaculate One (which you did, btw).

Seteth "long ago" lost the power to change form, but "it seems" Rhea has not. My dude, did you not know... He does confirm that he's also a child of the goddess, which Rhea keeps hidden in VW. Flayn is also counted as one of the children of the goddess, even though she's more like a grandchild. It's a general term for dragons.

Seteth and Flayn press Byleth about taking over as the leader of Fodlan in some capacity, now that Rhea's future is uncertain.

We find the Sword and Bow of Zoltan in Shambhala. I was wondering about whether these things existed, since Zoltan is a dude that got namedropped in a small quest item description a while back. I also have an Axe of Zoltan though I can't remember exactly where I picked it up. No spear?

Just noting that you use Arcane Crystals to repair magical weapons like the Bolt Axe, Mythril to repair sacred weapons like Cichol's Spear of Assal, and Umbral Steel for relics. Mythril is also used on forging the rusted weapons that require A+ professor rank. iirc they're legendary weapons from other games or something like that. Smithing Stones are for normal weapons of all rarities.

On VW, this month was about Nemesis appearing and us going to fight him, but here on SS, that doesn't happen, so the explore dialogue is all about Seteth telling us that we should become the new Ruler of Fodlan and us taking the month to think about it. Everyone around the monastery comments on this, how we should think about it carefully, how they believe in us, how they're thinking about the future, etc. It's... hm. I think it's okay, but it really highlights how much Byleth has not been setup for this role At All.

They're a mercenary who became a teacher via nepotism and while we do things in the story that you could probably read as proof of Byleth's ability to lead, they don't really feel that way, especially since Seteth can end up spending half the war refusing what we suggest. Byleth is also just... not a real character. So them becoming the big deal leader is kinda... yeah.

Anyway, I accidentally ended the month early. But whatever.

Before you tell Rhea your "decision," she gives you exposition about how she made you and Sothis's crest stone is in you. She wanted to see Sothis again and thought she could regain everything she had lost.

Sitri was Rhea's 12th attempt. She "grew up" without Sothis's consciousness and fell in love with Jeralt. But when she gave birth, the child was not breathing and she herself was also "in grave danger." Sitri told Rhea to take the crest stone from her and put it into her baby. Otherwise, both would have died.

Byleth is suggested to be able to house Sothis's consciousness because they have both the crest stone and a body born from a parent with Rhea's blood.

Rhea is aware that Sothis gave you her power and disappeared, which means Rhea's dearest wish did not come true, but she's accepting of that. She basically entrusts Fodlan and the future to you.

And she just flips out in the middle of that.

"White Beasts" appear all over the monastery. They are from priests and knights that Rhea shared her blood and "stones" with. Tho given how JP plurals work, it's impossible to tell if Rhea is meant to have one crest stone or several. Demonic Beasts also run in??

Enemies are Frenzied Church Soldiers with minor crests of Seiros, Altered Golems, White Beasts (cardinal that has transformed and gone mad due to the rage of the Immaculate One) with Blest Crest Stone Shards (bestowed by a saint and wielded as a weapon), and the Immaculate One herself. She has a crest stone of Serios, can recover HP when near a White Beast and is described as having been driven to an uncontrollable anger due to the power of the goddess.

This battle was annoying because of the Classic setting. The whole business with Rhea having a private army of people whom she shared blood with is, hm. But I get the feeling this was done purely to explain her battle having the same mechanics as with Nemesis and the 10 Elites. It's... an interesting tidbit that these cardinals and such exist, but kinda weird that the crest of Seiros is actually this common, especially since they can ALL presumably pass it down to their kids, and I would expect Rhea had done this for more than just one generation.

(funny concept: after a thousand years of Rhea just sharing her blood all over, a good three quarters of Fodlan has some Seiros crest blood and it manifests pretty much at random in people all over.)

Anyway, final blow by Flayn.

OK, enough screwing around. tbh I do like Rhea, so there's some emotional resonance in everyone being very worried about her and having little voicelines about how they want to pay back the debts they owe to her, and her sadness and suffering and all that. It's not the worst.

She mistakes Byleth for Sothis when collapsing in the cathedral.

They did make a mistake: Rhea transforms in her dressing gown without the mantle or headpiece, but she changes back in full archbishop regalia.

The post-battle exposition exposition is kinda... ah yes, all nations in Fodlan are gone, but you see the Church is leading people toward a new... nation? How does this work. Sorry, but I don't see a religious government (??) as a good thing.

Rhea says she had a vision of flying free and speaking with Sothis while near death. She's happy she survived... so am I.

Rhea's wish was for peace, but she admits fault in propagating a false history and deceiving the faithful. And she did a bit of forbidden experimentation on the side, obvs. We forgive her tho.

I wish there was a gen way to save her, without the romance. It's such a good coda, honestly, without the marriage.

I wish Byleth was a more concrete character. Not necessarily a super detailed one, but with at least some grounding traits.

Still, Rhea romance scene is pretty good. WAY better than Flayn. Why can't I do this on VW..........

Endings: Ashe takes over Gaspard as the new lord. Galatea was "seized" what the heck, though Ingrid did rule it. Felix still ended up Duke Fraldarius. Sylvain talked his way into peace with Sreng, good on him. Lindhart "escaped the Empire" but went missing. Dorothea fled with her troupe to a secret location. Petra went to Brigit. Caspar fell on a battlefield. Bernadetta because seriously ill and lived as a recluse. Ferdinand returned to his territory but went missing. Catherine became Guardian of Zanado, but why was she shaking up with MY wife in solitude? Because in the ending card with Byleth, Rhea is still archbishop and assists the leader of the new "United Kingdom of Fodlan." Shamir became Robin Hood. Alois became captain of the knights. Seteth became very tolerant lol

[ac-liveblogs]

I heavily apologise but rant incoming. TBH I kind of hate the BL route cause its too good. It's like the story (especially school phase which should be the most important phase to differentiate considering its 60-70% of the runtime) was written for the blue lions, so they all had a stake and then every other route was added as an afterthought. Like Golden Deer is nice, fluffy, and has a good bud, but it copies BL maps and seems more dedicated to filling in blanks than having an emotional story.

(each response got long, so I’m going to publish each ask separately, sorrry!)

3H is strange because each route doesn’t just have a different plot, but in some ways a different style of writing, and BL’s happens to be the best most emotionally fulfilling and presents a completer narrative. 

BL’s focus is emotional storytelling, but it does it fucking well. Claude’s is worldbuilding, and Edelgard’s is. Uh. Villain route waifu dating simulator I guess. Because of that, BL tends to be a lot better off, for various reasons. 

This isn’t completely an accident. The idea of Academy Phase is to present three different perspectives on the same events - BL, it being very personal, close to home and extremely emotional (like BL route itself), BE is meant to be looking in and judging (using these incidents as proof that Edelgard is right later on) and GD... fuck, man, they just go here. This isn’t their problem (the outsiders forced to deal with other people’s problems).

Theoretically and thematically this checks out. In practice, it’s absolutely no fun at all. 3H really doesn’t do enough to differentiate the Academy routes - I was really surprised that GD didn’t have it’s own personalised missions, and given GD offers nothing else other than Claude being vaguely suspicious (which never pays off in an especially interesting way) it tends to get off worse of the three. (Fuck, man, they even have the same quests in War Phase.) 

It also doesn’t help that you can see most supports regardless of if a character is in your house or not, so assuming you got most of them (which most players will) there’s very new content on that front either. Plus you already know the students so if they’re not giving you anything new in the story, why would you care now? 

As for the Black Eagles specifically...

Okay so Black Eagles (and Golden Deer’s) characterisation sucks and they have no plot stakes because of recruitment and the route splits?

I’m not joking.

The BE students CANNOT have a plot stake that would impact whether or not they would choose to side with or against Edelgard, because they have to be able to swing either way on a dime depending on Byleth’s decision. That’s a game design problem, and also why the BE students have very little presence in CF and SS. They can’t afford to contradict each other. This carries over into recruitment - i.e. they have to be so uninvolved they can be convinced one way or the other when you’re in another House. 

BL goes the opposite - BL characters have so many Feelings about Crests and the Church or Family Drama that if pushed they could swing to Edelgard’s side if they thought she was right or were searching for an illusive family member (Mercedes). This works in BL’s favour because it benefits their richer characterisation, but is to the detriment of the other houses.

Given the way the CF/Church route split works there’s no cure for the Black Eagles, but the Deer could’ve been saved.

*bangs gavel* This is a gameplay design problem! Recruitment was a mistake!

But tbh I would... generally agree that BL stands on it’s own two feet the best, despite being the route you get the least amount of information in. Which is weird, given how much the Black Eagles were played up as the Main Route.