#they had to illustrate Adrestia' decadence?

[randomnameless]

Yep, in 3 Hopes, we have at least confirmation that Thales was around (and apparently the leader of the Agarthans? Even if there was some "dissent"?) 1000 years ago, so given her behaviour and general sprite, it'd make sense that Kronya is a newbie, or a "disciple".

Agarthans and shapeshifting is odd, maybe it's a new trick they learnt in those 1 000 years?

Seteth doesn't know, and Sothis who still had her wonky memories (she remembers everything at the time she fusion dances, but before it's a fog?) doesn't seem to know about it either.

Yes, Alois has a family, they're referenced in his supports (especially with Manuela) so that could be a reason why his S support with both Byleths aren't... romantic at all.

Linhardt hating blood while have a THE crest meant to heal people could have been a fascinating issue to explore, like people expecting Lin to heal them because he is supposed to be one of the best healers, but Lin doesn't like the sight of blood, so he refuses to heal said people... but instead we got... what we've got.

The lack of camaraderie between the Eagles is also interesting, in SS they're more close knit together than in CF for "reasons" but yes, at this point in the story, it's mostly just the children of the current Ministers of the Empire being in the same class because they are from Adrestia, and bar some pairs, they don't have any chemistry or links or stories with each other (as opposed to the Lions!).

The experimental Demonic Beasts (I think we have 3 experimental demonic beasts? Agarthans are trying to refine their new weapons!) being part "dragon" is also a nod to the crest stone being draconic in essence - but again, bar being a nod, this will never be brought up (iirc no one in the script wonders what is the difference between monsters and dragons, nor even wonders what are dragons or monsters...)

What do you mean by Sothis's paralogue not making sense? Imo, Remire was a first attempt but the human hosts couldn't "morph" yet, they just became violent and lost their minds - After being expelled from GM (within a month?) Solon refined his gaz/poison/whatever he uses to turn humans in demonic beasts and this time it worked !

The Blue Demonic Beast in Sothis's paralogue is a "natural" one, not an experimental one like the ones Agarthans are trying to craft.

I think the devs at first had the idea of making Edel able to mess with Sothis's time powers - but the idea was scrapped in the final release, so maybe that's a leftover?

Granted, given how Sothis reacts in 3 Hopes when she learns people close to her died, her "it's fate you can't do a thing" in Houses feels very weird - especially since, by then she most likely remembers what she used to be (there was that moment when she nearly connected the dots with Rhea singing the lullaby after the Goddess Tower's events...)

Edel's "toughen up" speech is a bit callous, but maybe she thinks by giving Byleth a goal they can, idk, put aside their grief and move on? It's weird, but again, Edel and self-awareness aren't a good match.

IDK about Thales's plan regarding Edel to begin with, yes she has the Crest of Flames so could theoretically be super OP, like OP enough to beat Rhea... but Rhea bodied Nemesis, who had the same crest of flames 1000 years ago, so what makes Edel stronger than Nemesis - who had the Sword of the Creator? Her Minor Crest of Seiros?

---

Edel's reasons for targetting the Church are all over the place - but in CF, in some of her exclusive events, she has some, hm, opinions on Nabateans. The localisation tried to smooth the edges of her words, but I'll let you see by yourself!

(if you're playing SS first, she has interesting lines against Seteth and Flayn!)

Flamey dissing Thales for what happened in Duscur is hilarious when you consider the reveal cutscene in the Lion routes, where she dismisses Dimitri - who has told the world he wants to know and find the truth about Duscur. I had the feeling the devs wanted to highlight how Flamey knows she associates with people who are dangerous and amoral, but she accepts this association to get rid of the Church because somehow the Agarthans/Thales are the lesser of two evils in her mind?

From both doylist and watsonian POVs I can't see how that makes sense, but the game completely drops this angle post timeskip so...

So her reasons for targetting the Church are a mix of "they're not humans" + "it's their fault if Adrestia doesn't control the world anymore" + "they put value on crests" + "they make people believe in a goddess who doesn't answer their prayers" -

I don't think she targets the Church to keep Thales in her pocket, but rather, the inverse, Agarthans have been working in the Empire for some time now to create a gap between the Church and the Empire.

---

Sylvain's lines and, well, all the "lore" we get about people being tested for crests or what not is wildly inconsistent in this game - as you pointed out, Ingrid is the heir but was supposed to be married out, and what Sylvain says most likely only applies to the Kingdom - in his situation, having a crest and being able to use the Relic is mandatory to protect the border.

But in the Alliance, Holst is the heir of House Goneril, fights against Almyrans and has no crest.

Hubert trying to make sense of Kronya's murder impulses lol - but it indeed helped them in the long run, with the knights scattered, their infiltration + invasion plan worked wonders.

Ah, Dorothea's backstory!

Through various supports (Yuri and Dorothea! or even Flayn and Manuela) it's heavily implied rising stars at the opera were subjected to sexual abuse to become "divas"... and checking the ages of both Doro and Manuela when they became divas, it's actually quite somber and a background information which reveals a bit about how much Adrestia currently* sucks.

*in 3 Hopes, the Doro'n'Manuela paralogue's description mentions the Mittelfrank Opera company going to "comfort" the imperial army, which of course generated the shitstorm you can guess in several places of the world (a japanese game? with an imperial army? being "comforted"?) but the "comfort" angle was nuked out in the localised version, which is one of the good thing this localising team did.

IDK what the Sealed Forest was supposed to be, a junkyard for broken golems or a real forest, but yeah, that bigass stone with the crest of flames on it really seems like it'd be important... but it actually isn't, because the game didn't give a fuck.

I supposed the Holy Mausoleum is used for worship and some religious ceremonies, but the Holy Tomb (which predates Garreg Mach!) is the true resting place of the dead nabateans?

OK, up to the coronation (aka route split), but I couldn't include the coronation notes without hitting char limit.

I don't actually have too much to say here, since it's just the Kronya stuff, which... doesn't really reveal much. I'll just note that Kronya's sword has her as "Disciple Kronya" which I guess is interesting.

Since there's nothing else, I guess there's the point regarding what people know about each other going into the big part one finale:

Solon referred to Byleth as "Fell Star" already when casting Zahras, so the Agarthans had cottoned on about Byleth's situation at least in part, likely due to the Sword of the Creator.

As mentioned before, Edelgard and Hubert know that Demonic Beasts can be created artificially, and I would even say that some artificial ones already exist.

It is mentioned by several characters that Byleth's minty green color is "familiar" or "like someone else" and Flayn even directly says they match now. This is a super easy connection to make.

Seteth seems to not know that Agarthans can shapeshift, which works with Thales not wanting Kronya's body to be taken so that the specifics of their shapeshifting aren't discovered. iirc Seteth does obliquely refer to the Agarthans as being the likely culprits.

The Flame Emperor and the Death Knight being antagonists is at least known to Dimitri even though he theoretically wasn't around for the missions when we see them. Monica being an imposter is common knowledge after the fact. You doing a ceremony to receive a revelation from the goddess is common knowledge.

Anyway, the most interesting part starts after this.

Live blogging notes:

The Blue Sea star is not visible in winter. I kind of headcanon it as a planet in the same solar system, not an actual star in a different star system, but it being visible Jul to Dec and then invisible the rest of the year matches more with actual stars.

Alois doesn't like it when you blush at him lol

Alois has a wife and daughter???

Linhardt: I hate blood and killing :( (is friends with Hubert somehow)

Manuela: you need 13 charm to win; Sylvain: has 21 (albeit after the +5)

Full names: Alois Rangeld, Manuela Casagranda, Shamir Nevrand

The contestants are Sylvain (from me, because I think he's cute), Dimitri (who forced him into this?? he's so desperate NOT to get picked and yet??), and Raphael (Claude apparently showing his sense of humor).

I do not understand why the "dance competition" is doing waltz movements... alone. Especially when the dancer outfit is like that...? That's not a waltz outfit. And why are they dancing alone?! Listen, I've only seen AMVs of dancing animes but, it was definitely way cooler.

Shamir votes for Dimitri lol

You know, when GD made the promise to meet in 5 years, it was kind of cute. Not terribly meaningful, since their relationships were quite casual on the whole, but cute. Having Edelgard suggest it, knowing what she's planning barely months from now, is...... it's pretty messed up. It doesn't help that the Eagles don't really have a sense of camaraderie either.

Same cinematic for the ball. It was kind of one thing when Claude takes you by the hand and pulls you onto the dance floor (?) in GD, though the focus on Edelgard and Dimitri was pretty pointless, but here, it's just weird.

It's vaguely annoying that you can't choose who you meet at the Goddess Tower. I got Marianne on GD, and I got Ashe here... presumably because I recruited him by getting his B rank.

The chapel is within the monastery's walls.

OK, poking at the Demonic Beasts in the chapel, they are "Experimental Demonic Beasts" with "A shard from a shattered Crest Stone" embedded in their foreheads. They are a "more resilient variation." Although this won't be unique to them, they're also labelled as both "monsters" (unnatural beings wielding magic) and "dragons" (born or descended from the goddess herself).

There are 4 beasts and 3 students in trouble.

Jeralt suggests that the students being turned into beasts has "something to do with Remire," but I have come to doubt that Remire was a test run or directly related to the same research. The timeline is just too tight, and the Sothis paralogue won't make sense.

Bye, Jeralt (again).

Thales tells Kronya she must survive because there's a role he needs her to fulfil, but then Solon will kill her in like a month. In a scene later, he says that his only aim was actually to keep the mystery of their bodies from being revealed, which would happen if Kronya died (her body could be taken by the Church, I guess).

Worth noting that Seteth is very confused about Tomas and clearly does not know that Agarthans can shapeshift.

The explanation for why Byleth accepts Jeralt's death is still so weak. "It's fate," says Sothis. OK, but like, why. Because Thales said so??

Guardian Moon (January) is named after Seiros, who first appeared during this month.

The scene with Edelgard after Jeralt's death is a bit... She starts with a very tough love "have you lost the will to act" approach and discusses how no one can understand your sadness. Others can only offer the tears of an outsider. So she won't cry for you or stand still with you, she can only promise to offer her hand when the time comes for HER to move forward. Which is such a weird direction to take? What does this promise have to do with Byleth grieving?

Thales describes the Flame Emperor as their greatest creation, powerful enough to "burn even the gods." So it seems like they experimented on Edelgard specifically to create a powerful soldier who could face Rhea.

Based on this, it does seem like Edelgard targeting the church is a combination of needing to keep the Agarthans cooperating with her by going along with their aims and getting rid of the Knights in case their interfere (since the Knights supported Loog's separation from the empire). Very impersonal, despite how she sometimes frames it.

Edelgard directly tells Thales that there will be no salvation for their kind and blames them for Duscur (and the shit they caused in Enbarr, presumably the Insurrection of the Seven?).

Sylvain says that most noble children are tested at birth to see if they have a crest. Of course, he also says you can't be the heir without one, but like... Ingrid's family wants to marry her out and she's specifically the only one with the crest, so...

The dancer animation is killing me. It's so stupid.

Hubert suggests that the real aim behind Jeralt's murder was to provoke the Knights into spreading themselves thin hunting his killer.

Manuela says the dagger that killed Jeralt wasn't made of iron or steel and the wound it caused wasn't ordinary.

A lot of the named Church people are out of the monastery this month. Which means you can't train with them, which is annoying...

Dorothea casually drops how she had to survive kidnappings, attempted murders, and who knows what while at the opera. Girl, what??

Linhardt mentions, as we're entering the Sealed Forest, that we have no official mission this month. I guess things were too chaotic to assign us anything.

Kronya is using a sword called Athame, which is described as being crafted with archaic methods. Kronya herself is referred to as "Disciple Kronya." She also has a passive called "Agarthan technology" which makes adjacent foes deal 3 less damage. Is this the weird tentacles she has behind her?

Regarding the Sealed Forest itself, there's some ruins, the platform Kronya waits on (where Solon casts Zahras, which uses the pillars on the edges), a glowing red stone embedded in a sigil on a ruin wall, and the remains of mechanical weapon (I think the kind Rhea keeps in the Tomb in her paralogue?).

It snows on the Locket, I guess because the Throat is a mountain range.

The Holy Mausoleum vs Holy Tomb thing is SO confusing that Rhea has a dialogue line that uses the wrong one lmao

Everyone at the monastery knows we're going to receive a revelation, but Manuela mentions that this is the first time she's heard of the Holy Tomb.

One of the Knights at the monastery mentions that he noticed more people in town than usual. Edelgard's hidden troops are on the move...

Dimitri mentions "this month's mission," so it seems Blue Lions have one, which should NOT be going down into the Tomb with Byleth... I would say this, but Felix's dialogue expects you to do something about Dimitri and like... he's not in my class, dude...