History NightmareFuel / FireEmblemThreeHouses

[[caption-width-right:350:[[PainfulTransformation This]] is just the start of the rabbit hole.]]

* Mercedes' and Jeritza's, Lysithea's and Edelgard's, and many other stories, show just how far Adrestian nobility will go to flaunt Crests as a form of power, and really puts into perspective why Edelgard despises the nobility of the Empire and its obsession with Crests, and why she's willing to fight a war: to make sure the forced breeding, experimentation, inequality, and condemned fates never happen again. Without drastic action, they very easily could happen to children for many years to come. Ironically, Edelgard's methods and circumstances mean that she has to ally with the very forces who enabled the worst of these experiments, "those who slither in the dark", including the ones on her, even if it comes with the conciliation that she will eventually turn on them one way or another.

* If you do not recruit [[ShrinkingViolet Bernadetta]] pre-timeskip, her fate is very likely this. In the second [[MeleeATrois Gronder Field battle]], Edelgard assigns her to hold the central hill, which allows a quick route to any faction's camp, including Edelgard's own wooden fortress. Should you try to spare her and attack the Black Eagles flank instead, Edelgard sets the hill on fire while the Leicester Alliance army subverts MookChivalry and attacks it with their whole force. As such, Bernadetta likely dies surrounded by enemies and flames with no chance to retreat.

--> '''Rhea:''' So, this is the choice you have made. You are just another failure. Your presence soils this Holy Tomb and disgraces my brethren. I will NOT allow one who would lend our enemies strength to wield the power of the goddess Sothis. I… have passed judgment, and now I shall rip your chest open, and '''''[[SuddenlyShouting TAKE BACK YOUR HEART MYSELF!]]'''''

* Mercedes' and Jeritza's, Lysithea's and Edelgard's, and many other stories, show just how far Adrestian nobility will go to flaunt Crests as a form of power, and really puts into perspective why Edelgard despises the nobility of the Empire and its obsession with Crests, and why she's willing to fight a war: to make sure the forced breeding, experimentation, inequality, and condemned fates never happen again. Without drastic action, they very easily could happen to children for many years to come. Ironically, Edelgard's methods and circumstances mean that she has to ally with the very forces enabling the worst of these experiments, "those who slither in the dark".

* Ingrid and Dorothea's paralogue contains a nasty dose of AdultFear, in the form of the merchant trying to kidnap Ingrid so he can force her to marry him, [[MaritalRapeLicense with all that it implies]], and with the secondary goal of killing everyone who has accompanied her to the battlefield so as to not leave behind any witnesses.

** What makes all this even worse is how much it calls back to previous titles in the series where dragons/Manaketes would degenerate into madness and have to be forcibly put down. She's got perhaps more rage to her than [[Characters/FireEmblemGaiden Duma]] or [[Characters/FireEmblemShadowDragonandtheBladeofLight Medeus]] did, but the obsessive quest for her goal is much the same. And, given her similarities in appearance to [[Characters/FireEmblemGaiden Mila]] and how ''quickly'' the previously kind and motherly Mila flew into a berserk rage when Rudolf attacked her, it can make one question if this might have been what Mila would have become had she not been defeated and killed literally as soon as her madness started hitting her...

* This route's final boss. It's a berserk Rhea, and halfway through the battle, she's so far gone that she degenerates into a form that not even ''Seteth'' has seen before, her portrait changing to look like her skin is practically ''rotting''. Seteth, someone who bears UndyingLoyalty to her normally, gives the order to MercyKill her with almost no hesitation. That should tell you something. Now bear in mind how crazy she is on the Crimson Flower route. She didn't show this form there, implying that her current mental state is ''even worse''. She doesn't even speak in this form, so it's possible that she's not even self-aware anymore. And unlike in Crimson Flower, this change happens [[JumpScare very suddenly]] with minimal {{foreshadowing}}.

-->'''Dimitri:''' '''''...I WILL CUT YOU TO SHREDS!!!'''''
** Even before this he's barely able to keep it together when watching the chaos unfolding around him, calling for the heads of those responsible and getting angrier from there.

-->'''Fleche:''' ''[[LaughingMad AHAHAHAHA!]]'' Have I caught you off guard, Your Highness? Aww, does it hurt? I bet it hurts reaaal bad, doesn't it?! But it's ''nothing'' compared to what my brother felt! You will ''never'' be forgiven, you know. I ''will NEVER FORGIVE YOU!'' '''[[YouMonster YOU FILTHY MONSTER!]]''' '''''[[PrepareToDie IT'S TIME TO DIIIIIIIIE!!!]]'''''
* In one of her supports with Dimitri, Flayn will confide that she has to deal with a deep-seated fear of sleep. Namely the fear that she will fall into a sleep so deep that when she awakens so much time will have passed that everyone she loved will be dead and gone. This fear is due to her having experienced such a scenario, having slept through much of the last thousand years in order to heal her body from injuries she suffered in the war with Nemesis.

* During the battle of Fort Merceus, the [[BloodKnight Death Knight]] [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness begins to run away from the fight]], giving an ominous warning for Byleth to do the same. As he escapes he points to the sky, to which Byleth and the nearby soldiers witness '''modern-day ballistic missiles''' raining down from afar. These "javelins of light" completely destroy the famously-impenetrable fortress, leaving giant craters where the crumbled remains of the town are. Barely getting missed by such overwhelming power, all Byleth and the soldiers can do is stare in shock at the aftermath (one even [[LaughingMad begins to laugh]]), completely dumbfounded and horrified. While it also happens in the Silver Snow route, it's arguably more effective in Verdant Wind because of how relatively more lighthearted it had been compared to the other routes, making the contrast all the more jarring.

* Aelfric's character. At first, he seems like a pretty nice person and even reveals he knew Byleth's mother...but him finding her well-preserved corpse and discovering the records about the Rite of Rising led to him attempting to bring her back. And by that, we mean sacrifice the Ashen Wolves - the descendants of the Four Apostles that once attempted to perform the ritual 995 years ago - all the while acting as pleasant as when we were first introduced to him. His [[AffablyEvil polite demeanor, even when calmly informing the Ashen Wolves that they will be sacrificed]], is not only jarring but downright unsettling.

* Tying with the Umbral Beast, Rhea's reaction to it appearing is along the lines of "[[OhNoNotAgain it's happened again]]." It's safe to assume she is referring to the attempt she and the Four Apostles made after the War of Heroes to resurrect Sothis. While officially the attempt merely failed and the Apostles left out of shame, it's possible that the failure was more a disaster than the records told, turning whatever body they made or procured for Sothis to inhabit into an Umbral Beast.

--->'''Seiros:''' I have no patience for foolish questions. I shall sacrifice as many lives as it takes! That ''apostate'' who insists on taking everything from me '''WILL BE CRUSHED BY MY OWN HANDS!!!'''

* Rhea's behaviour towards the player. Her tendency to speak in [[MetaphoricallyTrue half truths]] and way she switches from mothering them, to flirting with them, to threatening them on a dime and without warning can come across as extremely unnerving.
* A few of the supports.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5436a2fb_3a3a_49c3_9ff9_652efc6ae54e.jpeg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Dimitri’s dark side, everybody.[[note]][[FromBadToWorse And this isn’t even his lowest point mentally...]] [[/note]]]]

** Ferdinand's C support. Sure it's meant for laughs but he's facing off with demonic beasts. In the very same support, Byleth saves him before he becomes their lunch.
** Bernadetta and Sylvain's C support. Bernadetta entertaining the idea of murder by arson. She even has to talk herself out of it.
** The first few Leonie supports. With the first support, at the end, she yells at Byleth for not appreciating Jeralt and storms off in a huff. It only gets worse from there when it borderlines Stalker With a Crush.

** They didn't just do that. Their remnants, those who slither in the dark, ''killed Sothis in her sleep and took her body apart to use as weapons to genocide her children.'' If it wasn't for [[AbusivePrecursors these assholes]], the Crest system likely wouldn't have existed to begin with!

* The screams of the students and units as they die when not heartbreaking can be downright terryfing, especially in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgvT6jrKXs4 the Japanese version]].