History FireEmblemThreeHouses / TropesAToD

** There are two points in the game when Edelgard offers Byleth a chance to join her; first as the [[spoiler:Flame Emperor]] immediately after Remire Village, and a second time at the very start of Silver Snow. Both times there is an option that seems as though it may be a "yes", but Edelgard interprets it as a refusal. {{Downplayed}}, as the option to join her ''is'' available, but not at those times.

* TheComputerIsALyingBastard:
** In Petra and Bernadetta's Paralogue, the win condition is allegedly to get Petra to the goal in the southeast corner of the map or rout all enemy units. [[spoiler:''The game is lying''. Approaching the highlighted goal point or routing all enemies currently on the map triggers a wave of enemy reinforcements, accompanied either by Hubert (non-Crimson Flower routes) or Catherine (in Crimson Flower), in the middle of your turn no less, and the win condition changes so that you're required to wipe out all of the enemy units before they reach the goal square]].

* BalkanizeMe: A few centuries before the events of the story the entire continent of Fodlan was ruled by the Adrestian Empire but it was unable to maintain its hold on the continent as Faerghus and Leicester ended up declaring their independence from it. However, this gets [[spoiler:inverted]] by the end of the story as all routes end with [[spoiler:Fodlan being unified once more]].

* Balkanization: A few centuries before the events of the story the entire continent of Fodlan was ruled by the Adrestian Empire but it was unable to maintain its hold on the continent as Faerghus and Leicester ended up declaring their independence from it. However, this gets [[spoiler:inverted]] by the end of the story as all routes end with [[spoiler:Fodlan being unified once more]].

** Emperor Ionious IX of the Adrestian Empire ends up abdicating the throne in favour of his [[spoiler:only surviving]] child [[spoiler:Edelgard]] upon [[spoiler:her]] request to which he agrees due to his frail state and advanced age.

** Emperor Ionious IX of the Adrestian Empire ends up abdicating the throne in favour of his [[spoiler:only surviving]] child [[spoiler:Edelgard]].

** Several paired endings [[spoiler:Byleth]] can have on the Verdant Wind and Silver Snow routes mention that [[spoiler:Byleth]] ends up abdicating the throne once the situation in Fódlan is stable.

** The Abyssians, meanwhile, are treated with hostility and suspicion by some of the officers within the Church of Seiros for unexplained reasons as of yet. According to Balthus in the DLC Wave 4 Trailer, the people of the Abyss are comprised of merchants who were "chewed and spit out" by the nobility, along with orphans, lost souls, the elderly and the infirm; basically anyone who didn't belong. However, this could be potentially Justified, since Constance admits that besides the most vulnerable, criminals also live in Abyss.

** Crimson Flower is the shortest Part II route at only six chapters and those six are the only ones where [[spoiler:Jeritza]] is playable. To compensate for their LateCharacterSyndrome, they come equipped with the Mastermind skill (Lysithea's exclusive Personal Skill), which doubles skill experience so they can catch up in weapons and classes.

* AnyoneCanDie: Once Part II begins, any character not recruited before the timeskip that shows up as an enemy can potentially die, with the exceptions of Petra, Hubert, Hilda, and Dedue on non-Crimson Flower routes, who will retreat if defeated only to reappear later in the story as an enemy once again note or as an ally NPC.

** Recruiting all the students on a file without NewGamePlus benefits. While this gives you a wide variety of characters to use, it's also immensely difficult to actually accomplish without SaveScumming, and it can lead to experience being spread too thin if you try to use all the students.

** Desperation, the mastery skill of the Cavalier. While being able to strike twice before your opponent can retaliate does sound useful, it unfortunately forces the Unit to become a GlassCannon; like Vantage and Wrath, the Unit needs to be at half HP or under for it to activate, but unlike them, it only activates when the Unit is attacking. This means that to use it consistently each turn, you would need to have your units rely on their dodging ability to survive, which can be difficult for Cavalier units due to the speed penalty and -10 to their Speed Growth. The only natural Cavalier who it can potentially work for is Ingrid, and that's provided that you also put her through a speed-based class-line like Pegasus Knight and give her skills and stats to help her Evasion.

* BadassInANiceSuit: The Expansion Pass gives male characters Servants attire with them wearing suits, both regular and custom-made.

** Unlike ''Fates'', there is no GoldenEnding. [[spoiler:No matter what you do, at least one of the three lords will die and Edelgard and Dimitri die in every path except their own. Also, none of the story paths completely resolves all the lurking problems or issues. The Golden Deer and Silver Snow paths arguably come the closest to resolving most of the issues plaguing Fódlan (as they are the routes where Shambhala is located and destroyed during the game, whereas in Azure Moon and Crimson Flower the main battles against the Agarthans happen after the game's events), though it comes at the cost of both Edelgard and Dimitri losing their lives. Even then though, the Agarthan remnants continue to be a problem (as noted in certain character endings), and issues such as reforming Fódlan culture, the church, foreign relations, etc. all happen after the game itself ends and are noted to take years.]]

** In Classic Mode, if a unit is defeated in the skirmish battles that you can sometimes play as part of the quests where you have to train with the Knights of Seiros/Faerghus/Adrestia they won't be die and remain playable, just like regarding the mock battles. Not that the game tells you this, though.

** Generic NPCs have light brown hair and eyes to distinguish them from the more plot-important characters.

* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: The three nations of Fódlan (and thus, the three houses) are associated with a color: red for the Adrestian Empire, blue for the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, and yellow for the Leicester Alliance. The main color is present in the nations' banners and their soldiers' uniforms, and their future leaders are clad in that color. After the timeskip, the majority of former students of the Black Eagles and Blue Lions also have red and blue in their clothing, respectively, while the Golden Deer form a rainbow (with two yellow lads).

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: On the [[spoiler:Silver Snow route, when Rhea suddenly turns into her Immaculate One form and begins a mindless rampage, the high ranking members of the church who happen to bear her blood end up becoming crazy as well, with the ones with the highest amount of blood even [[FaceMonsterTurn transforming into White Beasts]]]].

** The Sacred Weapons, weapons wielded by the Four Saints during the same conflict. Most of these weapons were kept fittingly in the possession of the Church, but several characters do get possession of them, [[spoiler:including their original wielders]]. Interestingly, some of these weapons are linked to several members of the Ten Elites, [[spoiler:though given the truth of the relationship between the Elites and the Saints, it's more likely these particular Sacred Weapons were actually owned by the Nabateans who said Elites took the power of.]]

* BloodMagic: The power of Crests in general is heavily tied to one's blood [[spoiler:as it came from Nabatean blood transfusions in the first place]]. More specifically, the forbidden Rite of Rising introduced in ''Cindered Shadows'' is the straightest example in the game: a ritual using the Crested blood of the Four Apostles in order to bring the dead back to life, originally created in a desperate attempt to resurrect the Goddess.

* AdvancedAncientAcropolis: [[spoiler:Shambhala, the headquarters of "those who slither in the dark"]] is eventually revealed to be this in some routes, [[spoiler:featuring futuristing architecture and even modern technology (such as operating tables and monitors when inspecing Bias and Pittacus' rooms in Zoom View) which is seen nowhere else in the whole game]].

* AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Lockpicking and regular keys work just fine on the [[spoiler:ultra-modern metal sliding doors of Shambala.]]

** By default, any unit and character recruited during Part I who happens to be a mandatory boss in Part II - namely: [[spoiler:Ferdinand]] in Azure Moon/Verdant Wind; [[spoiler:Caspar and Linhardt]] in Verdant Wind (if certain conditions are met); and [[spoiler:Shamir, Alois, Felix, Ingrid, Sylvain, & Mercedes]] in Crimson Flower - is replaced with a generic enemy general which, while boasting a similar skillset and weapons, is overall weaker and more manageable than the original deal.

* TheComputerIsALyingBastard: In Petra and Bernadetta's Paralogue, the win condition is allegedly to get Petra to the goal in the southeast corner of the map or rout all enemy units. [[spoiler:''The game is lying''. Approaching the highlighted goal point or routing all enemies currently on the map triggers a wave of enemy reinforcements, accompanied either by Hubert (non-Crimson Flower routes) or Catherine (in Crimson Flower), in the middle of your turn no less, and the win condition changes so that you're required to wipe out all of the enemy units before they reach the goal square]].

* BossAlteringConsequence: During Crimson Flower Chapter 17's battle, Dedue will transform himself into a Giant Demonic Beast after a set number of turns pass, or if the player ends their turn within his attack range. With clever use of movement-boosting skills and Gambits, you can bring a unit close enough to kill him without triggering his transformation.

** The Azure Moon route plays this trope straight. late in the story, Dimitri starts once again seeking answers for the Tragedy of Duscur, which lead him to learn that [[spoiler:his stepmother Patricia may have not only had a hand in what happened, but that she actually went missing instead of being killed like everyone in the Kingdom had previously assumed, and could potentially be still alive somewhere]]. While Dimitri had already chosen by that point to stop dwelling on the past, which would justify the trope in question, the plot eventually brings it up again after [[spoiler:having taken over Fort Merceus]], as one of the servants of House Kleiman mentions that [[spoiler:all those involved with the incident were given the orders to not harm Patricia's carriage, reinforcing the idea she could've survived]]. In the end, this plotline is cut short and left unresolved as the storyline ends [[spoiler:right after Edelgard's defeat]].

* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:In Crimson Flower while Edelgard ultimately does away with Those Who Slither, she has nonetheless accomplished one of their main goals; The Nabateans have been completely wiped out of existence. Can be partially averted if the player defeats Flayn and Seteth with Byleth, who spares them, but they are otherwise executed on the battlefield if taken out with anyone else.]]

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: On the [[spoiler:Silver Snow route, when Rhea suddenly turns into her Immaculate One form and begins a mindless rampage, the high ranking members of the church who happen to bear her blood end up becoming crazy as well, with the ones with the highest amount of blood even [[FaceMonsterTurn transforming into White Beasts]]]]. Also [[spoiler:applies to Edelgard to various extents. Even in Crimson Flower, the route made to depict her as heroic as possible, Edelgard suffers from a critical flaw; She is completely indoctrinated by very the people she hates; Those Who Slither In The Dark. While she loathes and regrets that she has to work with them to achieve her own goal, a goal she believes to be righteous, Edelgard gives the Agarthans almost a complete and total victory, fulfilling their main goal of wiping out the Nabateans and destroying everything Rhea and Sothis built up. She fully believes ''their'' version of history and their propaganda and even uses it as her own, and to make matters worse, Edelgard spares ''no one'' in Crimson Flower by default. The only way to spare certain enemies is to defeat them with Byleth, otherwise they are killed.]]

* BrainwashedAndCrazy: On the [[spoiler:Silver Snow route, when Rhea suddenly turns into her Immaculate One form and begins a mindless rampage, the high ranking members of the church who happen to bear her blood end up becoming crazy as well, with the ones with the highest amount of blood even [[FaceMonsterTurn transforming into White Beasts]]]]. Also [[spoiler:applies to Edelgard to various extents. Even in Crimson Flower, the route made to depict her as heroic as possible, Edelgard suffers from a critical flaw; She is completely indoctrinated by the people she hates; Those Who Slither In The Dark. While she loathes and regrets that she has to work with them to achieve her own goal, a goal she believes to be righteous, Edelgard gives the Agarthans almost a complete and total victory, fulfilling their main goal of wiping out the Nabateans and destroying everything Rhea and Sothis built up. She fully believes ''their'' version of history and their propaganda and even uses it as her own, and to make matters worse, Edelgard spares ''no one'' in Crimson Flower by default. The only way to spare certain enemies is to defeat them with Byleth, otherwise they are killed.]]