History NightmareFuel / FireEmblemThreeHouses

--> '''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!]]'''''

--> '''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 strenght 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!]]'''''

--> '''Rhea:''' So, this is the choice you have made. You are just ''another failure.'' (...) I… have passed judgment, and now I shall rip your chest open, and '''''[[SuddenlyShouting TAKE BACK YOUR HEART MYSELF!]]'''''

** Jeritza's support with Bernadette have each of them find a kindred, traumatized, loner spirit. Which is pretty disturbing on how common such experiences can be. But it's also a little heartwarming, as Bernadette not only willingly comes out of her shell, but drags Jeritza out of his.

* 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 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".

** And speaking of Mercedes, Jeritza reveals why he killed his father: Once Jeritza (Emile von Bartels) was born, his father became abusive and neglectful to Mercedes and their mother, until they fled for their own safety. When their father discovered that Mercedes and her mother were in a church, he wanted to bring them back in order to make more Crest babies. The problem? The mother was past the point of bearing children, so [[ParentalIncest the sick depraved bastard was going to make]] ''[[ParentalIncest Mercedes]]'' [[ParentalIncest into his new wife in order to have more Crest babies...]] bear in mind, Mercedes must have been in her early teens at this point. Understandably, Jeritza killed his dad and the rest of house Bartels, to maintain their safety. Even with this understandable motive in mind, Emile was still at ''most'' in his early teens when he killed them, and the trauma [[{{Understatement}} affected him]] and gave birth to the Death Knight personality, as he was so broken by what he had to do that he basically couldn't consciously do any of it, and doesn't remember it.
** In order to keep Jeritza safe from himself, and the world safe from him as a serial killer, Edelgard found Jeritza a new home, a place to hunt, and an army to focus his violent urges through, so that he could keep them as close to under control as possible. And even then that only ''mostly'' helps, and he's still quite dangerous to be around.

* 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.

** And speaking of Mercedes, Jeritza reveals why he killed his father: he discovered that Mercedes and her mother were in a church, and wanted to bring them back in order to make more Crest babies. The problem? The mother was past the point of bearing children, so [[ParentalIncest the sick depraved bastard was going to make]] ''[[ParentalIncest Mercedes]]'' [[ParentalIncest into his new wife in order to have more Crest babies...]] bear in mind, Mercedes must have been in her early teens at this point. Understandably, Jeritza killed his dad and the rest of house Bartels, but even with this understandable motive in mind, the trauma [[{{Understatement}} affected him]] and gave birth to the Death Knight personality, as he was so broken by what he had to do that he basically couldn't consciously do any of it, and doesn't remember it.

** Jeritza's support with Bernadette have each of them find a kindred, traumatized, loner spirit. Which is pretty disturbing on how common such experiences can be. But in a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming, Bernadette not only willingly comes out of her shell, but drags Jeritza out of his.

* The Death Knight. Take everything from the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Black]] [[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Knight]] and make him more demonic. Just like the Black Knight, he's an enigmatic figure (unless you play a certain paralogue) that's an absolute ''monster'' on the battlefield (though unlike the Black Knight, he's defeatable on the first encounter). While the Black Knight at least had some NobleDemon aura, the Death Knight has ''none'' of this. Complete with a scythe, he gives off the impression of a grim reaper.

* With the introduction of Jeritza AKA the Death Knight as a DLC Unit, we get a little more insight into his character. His battle lines and the delivery make him sound more traumatized than a bloodthirsty demon. It turns out that the Death Knight and Jeritza are two separate split personalities, and the Death Knight doesn't discriminate against friend or foe as long as his bloodlust is satiated; not even Mercedes is 100% safe as an ally. And speaking of Mercedes, Jeritza reveals why he killed his father: he discovered that Mercedes and her mother were in a church, and wanted to bring them back in order to make more Crest babies. The problem? The mother was past the point of bearing children, so [[ParentalIncest the sick depraved bastard was going to make]] ''[[ParentalIncest Mercedes]]'' [[ParentalIncest into his new wife in order to have more Crest babies...]] bear in mind, Mercedes must have been in her early teens at this point. Understandably, Jeritza killed his dad and the rest of house Bartels, but even with this understandable motive in mind, the trauma [[{{Understatement}} affected him]] and gave birth to the Death Knight personality, showing 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 the obsession with Crests.

* Seiros tossing away her sword, pummeling Nemesis with her bare hands, and stabbing him in a vengeance-fueled frenzy is both frightening and impressive. Her cradling his blood-soaked sword to her cheek while telling her mother her hated enemy is dead is more singularly disturbing, though. [[ReplayValue And looking at this while knowing the full context in the Verdant Wind route]] make this even worse because the Sword of the Creator was made of the bones and blood of her mother Sothis.

* Seiros tossing away her sword, pummeling Nemesis with her bare hands, and stabbing him in a vengeance-fueled frenzy is both frightening and impressive. Her cradling his blood-soaked sword to her cheek while telling her mother her hated enemy is dead is more singularly disturbing, though. [[ReplayBonus And looking at this while knowing the full context in the Verdant Wind route]] make this even worse because the Sword of the Creator was made of the bones and blood of her mother Sothis.

* Seiros tossing away her sword, pummeling Nemesis with her bare hands, and stabbing him in a vengeance-fueled frenzy is both frightening and impressive. Her cradling his blood-soaked sword to her cheek while telling her mother her hated enemy is dead is more singularly disturbing, though. And looking at this while knowing the full context in the Verdant Wind route make this even worse because the Sword of the Creator was made of the bones and blood of her mother Sothis.

* Seiros tossing away her sword, pummeling Nemesis with her bare hands, and stabbing him in a vengeance-fueled frenzy is both frightening and impressive. Her cradling his blood-soaked sword to her cheek while telling her mother her hated enemy is dead is more singularly disturbing, though.

** While minor compared to the other items on the page, Ashe's angry portrait can come as a shock to the unprepared, due to the lack of definition on his pupils combined with the heavier use of shadows compared to other characters. And yes, this portrait IS used during the above line.

* The chapter openings hold their own share of horror. Pre-timeskip, we get pleasant monologues about Fodlan and the various customs of her people as the months pass and the seasons change. Cue post-timeskip and those same bright pictures that accompanied said monologues are now a backdrop as embers of fire burn and the chapter describes the progress of the war now engulfing the world. It's unsettling when you witness the change and realize that now, the war is the primary thing on anyone's mind right now.

* With the introduction of Jeritza AKA the Death Knight as a DLC Unit, we get a little more insight into his character. His battle lines and the delivery make him sound more traumatized than a bloodthirsty demon. Turns out, that the Death Knight and Jeritza are two separate split personalities, and the Death Knight doesn't discriminate against friend or foe as long as his bloodlust is satiated; not even Mercedes is 100% safe as an ally. And speaking of Mercedes, Jeritza reveals why he killed his father: he discovered that Mercedes and her mother were in a church, and wanted to bring them back in order to make more Crest babies. The problem? The mother was past the point of bearing children, so [[ParentalIncest the sick depraved bastard was going to make]] ''[[ParentalIncest Mercedes]]'' [[ParentalIncest into his new wife in order to have more crest babies...]] bear in mind, Mercedes must have been in her early teens at this point. Understandably, Jeritza killed his dad and the rest of house Bartels, but even with this understandable motive in mind, the trauma [[{{Understatement}} affected him]] and gave birth to the Death Knight personality, showing 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 the obsession with Crests.

* This route's final boss. It's a berserk Rhea, and halfway through the battle, she's so far gone she degenerates into a form 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}}.

** As mentioned above, it calls back to other dragons in the series who degenerated into madness and had to be forcibly put down.

* The chapter openings hold their own share of horror. Pre-timeskip, we get pleasant monologues about Fodlan and the various customs of her people as the months pass and the seasons change. Cue post-timeskip and those same bright pictures that accompanied said monologues are now a backdrop as embers of fire burn and the chapter describes the progress of the war now engulfing the world. It's unsettling when you witness the change and realize that now, the war is the primary thing in anyone's mind right now.

* At the end of the route, [[OhCrap Nemesis is unsealed in Shambhala]] after the "[[FantasticNuke javelins of light]]" destroy it. Along with the 10 Elites, he approaches Garreg Mach, destroying entire villages along the way. Not even Hilda's brother Holst can do anything to stop them, even though he has been described as a powerful general who has been able to fend off the Almyrans. [[TheWorfEffect He ends up at death's door]], almost dying from his injuries.
* Then there's [[FinalBoss Nemesis]] himself. He's not even a RevenantZombie, but a vengeful, near-mindless warrior with [[WorldsStrongestMan the strength to match]]. With glowing [[RedEyesTakeWarning red eyes]] and the VoiceOfTheLegion, Nemesis wouldn't stop at anything to kill Rhea/Seiros, being an unstoppable force that only Byleth and Claude together could bring down.

%%
!!Per troping policy, all spoilers are unmarked. Administrivia/YouHaveBeenWarned.

* Dimitri and the Blue Lions as antagonists fall into this. Despite seemingly being more sane and composed in this route, with both eyes intact, Dimitri is still a broken man who willingly works with a deranged Rhea to get at Edelgard (note that even Seteth, Flayn, and several members of the Church see how far she's fallen, to the point where some [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere are eager to bail out]]). But that's nothing to the other Blue Lions; Dedue convinces several soldiers loyal to Dimitri to turn themselves into Demonic Beasts just to have a chance to win, and Dedue himself is willing to turn too. What's worse is that the other Blue Lions on the map, like Sylvain, are fully complicit in the action, and he even calls the transformation a chance for revenge despite the fact he saw his own brother painfully transform into one. [[EveryoneHasStandards Even Dimitri is horrified at what Dedue and the others did]], and can only [[YouCantThwartStageOne accept it since the stones will turn them no matter what, if they aren't killed in one quick strike]]. On the final map, the two surviving Lions, Annette and Ashe, two of the sweetest members of the Lions, are letting Fhirdiad burn despite it being their own capital, not even trying to save anyone, are focusing on killing the Black Eagles, and are willingly fighting alongside a deranged Seiros despite her actions, because they believe it's the only way they can protect their people and Kingdom. To see the otherwise most heroic house turn to fallen heroes, trying to save their homeland, is just terrifying and a tearjerker.

* Dimitri's FreakOut in Chapter 11 is ''terrifying'' to watch. It starts when the Flame Emperor's mask breaks, and he realizes her identity is Edelgard, his own step-sister. Upon being faced with evidence that she (in his mind) is complicit with the Tragedy of Duscur, which has tormented him for four years, he starts [[LaughingMad laughing maniacally]] and puts on [[https://66.media.tumblr.com/972a9269578884e3cda75daf3e901483/e8cb62f091b4b425-c7/s500x750/c963570090fe327a31af9f1ca76fd4c0257cf708.jpg this]] NightmareFace. Then he outright ''screams'' about the colorful way he's going to kill her before charging in. Several of her soldiers step in, and we witness Dimitri pummeling them with his bare fists in an utterly brutal fashion, including grabbing one by the face and ''snapping their neck''. '''With one hand''' (or possibly '''crushing''' the soldier's skull with said hand, in a GoryDiscretionShot). He then glances up, splattered with blood, and gives the deranged grin pictured above.

** 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 gettimg angrier from there.

* The Holy Tomb mission. No matter what house you are with, it will be pure terror; even the level's atmosphere is oppressive. To start, Rhea is at her least trustworthy, when she convinces Byleth to sit on the Throne, which we later learn was meant to enable them to merge their mind with Sothis', which ''could (in theory) override Byleth's soul'', and she is quite eager to see this happen (granted, Rhea is a tad unclear if she sees Byleth as a host or Sothis reincarnated or something in-between). Then all of a sudden, the Flame Emperor arrives and orders a raid for the Crest Stones in the tombs. What happens next depends on the route; for Blue Lions, Dimitri has a [[FreakOut mental breakdown]] when he learns who the Flame Emperor really is, while for the Black Eagles, it's revealed that their house leader, Edelgard, was behind the attacks on the monastery, and ''is'' the Flame Emperor. Eventually, provided that they witnessed Edelgard's coronation earlier, Byleth is forced into a SadisticChoice: execute the teen student they have grown to become attached to over the year and has shown herself willing to commit atrocities for her vision of a better Fódlan, despite your time together, or refuse and become the enemy of the Church and thus the rest of Fódlan. With the Golden Deer, the reactions of Claude and Byleth would seem much more subdued but they certainly [[EtTuBrute feel betrayed]] that Edelgard, someone they thought was a friend over the course of the year, had been involved with many of the atrocities occurring in the past few chapters.

* The Holy Tomb mission. No matter what house you are with, it will be pure terror; even the level's atmosphere is oppressive. To start, Rhea is at her least trustworthy, when she convinces Byleth to sit on the Throne, which we later learn was meant to enable them to merge their mind with Sothis', which ''could (in theory) override Byleth's soul'', and she is quite eager to see this happen (granted, Rhea is a tad unclear if she sees Byleth as a host or Sothis reincarnated or something in-between). Then all of a sudden, the Flame Emperor arrives and orders a raid for the Crest Stones in the tombs. What happens next depends on the route; for Blue Lions, Dimitri has a [[FreakOut mental breakdown]] when he learns who the Flame Emperor really is, while for the Black Eagles, it's revealed that their house leader, Edelgard, was behind the attacks on the monastery, and ''is'' the Flame Emperor. Eventually, Byleth is forced into a SadisticChoice: execute the teen student they have grown to become attached to over the year and has shown herself willing to commit atrocities for her vision of a better Fódlan, despite your time together, or refuse and become the enemy of the Church and thus the rest of Fódlan. With the Golden Deer, the reactions of Claude and Byleth would seem much more subdued but they certainly [[EtTuBrute feel betrayed]] that Edelgard, someone they thought was a friend over the course of the year, had been involved with many of the atrocities occurring in the past few chapters.

* 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 polite demeanor, even when calmly informing the Ashen Wolves that they will be sacrificed, is not only jarring but downright unsettling.
* The FinalBoss. ''Dear. '''God.''''' The Umbral Beast is the result of Aelfric failing the Rite of Rising. The Chalice of Beginnings absorbs and fuses the corpse of Byleth's mother Sitri with Aelfric, using his and the Ashen Wolves' blood, and the end result is not pretty. The rite transforms Aelfric into the Umbral Beast, which makes him look like a disgusting zombified version of The Immaculate One, with a dragon-like skull, veins strewn about his body, and he even spews out globs of blood whenever he attacks anyone close to him. While the screen mercifully fades to black for the actual fusion, the sound effects combined with the appearance of the resulting monstrosity make ''amply'' clear that it's a GoryDiscretionShot.
* Tying with the Umbral Beast, Rhea's reaction to it appearing is along the lines of "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.

* The Holy Tomb mission. No matter what house you are with, it will be pure terror; even the level's atmosphere is oppressive. To start, Rhea is at her least trustworthy, when she convinces Byleth to sit on the Throne, which we later learn was meant to enable them to merge their mind with Sothis', which ''could override Byleth's soul'', and she is quite eager to see this happen (granted, Rhea is a tad unclear if she sees Byleth as a host or Sothis reincarnated). Then all of a sudden, the Flame Emperor arrives and orders a raid for the Crest Stones in the tombs. What happens next depends on the route; for Blue Lions, Dimitri has a [[FreakOut mental breakdown]] when he learns who the Flame Emperor really is, while for the Black Eagles, it's revealed that their house leader, Edelgard, was behind the attacks on the monastery, and ''is'' the Flame Emperor. Eventually, Byleth is forced into a SadisticChoice: execute the teen student they have grown to become attached to over the year and has shown herself willing to commit atrocities for her vision of a better Fódlan, despite your time together, or refuse and become the enemy of the Church and thus the rest of Fódlan. With the Golden Deer, the reactions of Claude and Byleth would seem much more subdued but they certainly [[EtTuBrute feel betrayed]] that Edelgard, someone they thought was a friend over the course of the year, had been behind many of the atrocities occurring in the past few chapters.

** 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!