Tear Jerker / Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

Warning: Spoilers Off applies to Moments pages

Even when slashing through an Alternate Timeline of Fódlan, Three Hopes shows that there is still room for tears in the midst of battle...

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Story

General/Other

• The game sees fewer characters be able to be recruited to other sides, and as a result of that, there is much greater potential for character death. This is especially true for characters from the Kingdom, where death is preferable to surrender, and as a result only two characters (Ashe and Mercedes^note Mercedes can only join on Scarlet Blaze, but Jeritza can appear to save her from death on Golden Wildfire) can leave the Kingdom.
• Similar to that of Three Houses, when a playable character is killed in battle, regardless of if they are on your side or not, the music cuts out and you only hear their death cry and their final words. The next announcement then bluntly states that this character has Died with the announcement bell as if it was a funeral bell. Ironically, while you expect this to happen when someone on your side is lost, when it happens to someone you are currently fighting against, it's rather sudden due to the hack and slash nature of the game.
  • It's all the more shocking as Never Say "Die" is usually in effect. Enemy generals have quotes implying they retreat when defeated. At first, even some of the named enemies will retreat. For a first-time player that doesn't feel they need a particular character and pass up recruiting them, it can be a sudden Player Punch when they simply drop dead.
• If Shez chooses to kill Byleth (and first killing Jeralt). Hey, good for them! They finally got their revenge on the Ashen Demon, so they should be happy, right? No. They are not happy at all, and they wonder if there was another way to resolve the conflict. It doesn't help that killing Byleth locks you out of the Golden Ending in your chosen route. This also means Jeralt and at least one other person ends up dying.
  • While Alois's reaction to Jeralt's death is shown quickly, he's obviously deeply impacted by it, and he sounds like he's about to cry.
  • Byleth's fate in general should Jeralt die. Having never arrived at the monastery, their only real close connection in life is with their father and Shez takes that away after they kill Jeralt. Having little else to live for, they allow Sothis control over their body in order to take revenge. Despite her earlier antagonism towards Byleth, even Sothis shows sympathy to them and seeks to kill Shez more than just to kill Arval but to also avenge Jeralt.
  • In addition, the cutscene shows exactly how Shez slays Jeralt, Jeralt's exhaustion catches up to him so in one moment of hesitation, Shez gets the upper hand and gets a clean slash against Jeralt. Upon reflecting on their victory, Shez senses something happening leading to the following cutscene. It's played out so that Shez is fighting Jeralt alone implying Shez is out of position and rushes back only to see the Ashen Demon take away another life close to them.
  • The resulting death that Sothis (through Byleth's body) retaliates with if you kill Jeralt gets special mention, especially in context to Three Houses:
    • In Scarlet Blaze, Randolph is shown losing his battle against the Ashen Demon with Fleche right there as he gets cut down, all while she breaks down in agony. Notably, this is the only route where Sothis does not get sudden resistance from Byleth to stop her from continuing: they’re perfectly willing to kill Fleche as well, but after Shez and Hubert arrive they just simply retreat leaving Shez to see just what happened from their choice to kill Jeralt.
    • On Azure Gleam, Rodrigue dies from getting stabbed in the back, but not before seeing his son Felix getting along with Dimitri and their humorous banter. He does not die to save his King like he does in Azure Moon, but rather dies from Sothis' Roaring Rampage of Revenge. He dies asking Felix, the very same son who can come to love his father again through their supports to continue protecting Dimitri. If there's any consolation, he dies knowing that Felix will always be there for Dimitri as he was for Lambert. Rodrigue's death notably has disturbing parallels with Jeralt getting killed by "Monica"/Kronya in Three Houses, except this time it's Byleth doing this because you killed Jeralt first. Even worse, Rodrigue's final moments are shown in a first person view with him looking up at Felix and Dimitri, and he dies in his son's arms.
    • Crossing over into Nightmare Fuel, Golden Wildfire has Claude correctly surmising that they cannot hope to beat the Ashen Demon. Judith quickly goes to try to defeat them while Claude calls everyone back. The ending result is shown through Shez running past several fallen soldiers, then seeing Judith get cut down as the Ashen Demon flashes a horrifying Psychotic Smirk from the kill. Claude even gets a brief scene of feeling when Judith dies. Judith then asks Shez in her dying moments to look after Claude. Shez also expresses regret over Judith's death, saying that if they'd just gotten there a bit sooner, she might still be alive.
    • What makes the above even worse is that back in Three Houses both Randolph and Rodrigue were guaranteed to die on every route, even if Byleth was on their side. Judith meanwhile survives on the Golden Deer route. Here, all three of their deaths are entirely your fault.
• In the alternate story routes where you manage to recruit Byleth, Arval suddenly takes over Shez's body and attempts to kill Byleth. While most of your allies are willing to let live and forget what happened since everything turns out fine, others aren't as forgiving. The most obvious example is in Scarlet Blaze where Hubert's trust in Shez takes a massive nosedive since Shez inadvertently proved his worst fears of them being a TWSITD sleeper agent and flat out says he wanted Edelgard to kill them back at Ailell. What makes this hurt more is that Hubert, by his own admission in his A-Rank Support with Shez, wants to trust Shez but can't because he cannot afford to take that risk because of paranoia, his duties as Edelgard's protector (and the almost religious zeal and effort he puts into that job), and the fact that those who slither in the dark have agents practically almost everywhere. While Edelgard forgives Shez, Hubert doesn't fully forgive them unless you give him the Merc Whistle and get his post-victory letter in the ending.
• In general, this is just not a good game for the remaining Nabateans, particularly in Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire. Scarlet Blaze ends with Rhea missing and presumed dead. In Golden Wildfire, there's no presumption about it; she's definitely dead. As for Seteth and Flayn, while they are allowed to retreat on both of those routes, both endings see them effectively exiled from their home at Garreg Mach. And even Azure Gleam, the one route that doesn't require the player to make an enemy of them, it's established that when the war against the Empire ends, they will likely be thrown headfirst into another war against the Alliance. It might not be so jarring if every moment of their screen time didn't go out of its way to show that they're good people who don't deserve this sort of treatment by the narrative. Even worse, the only Lord who actually wants any of them dead is Claude wanting Rhea dead. Everything else bad that happens to them is them just getting screwed over by circumstance or their position.
• In the second bonus chapter, the dialogue between the three lords and their phantoms summoned by Epimenedes can be either heartwarming or a tearjerker depending on interpretation, as it establishes that while the lords have come a long way in their development, they've still got a long way to go:
  • Dimitri is positively giddy that fighting his phantom gives him the chance to kill himself without actually killing himself. Compared to Edelgard and Claude, who are appropriately disturbed by killing themselves in any way, Dimitri shows he has a long way to go to reach stability and self-love.
  • Edelgard confides to her phantom that she isn't entirely willing to trust herself. This is especially troublesome on the Azure Gleam route.
  • Claude's phantom suggests that the real Claude is power-hungry and putting on a persona of kindness as an act. Claude also compares killing his phantom to killing his (twin) brother, after he already killed one of his brothers earlier on his own route.
• When Claude fights the Phantom Hilda summoned by Epimenides in the second bonus chapter, she tearfully begs him to stop, saying she can't believe he would hurt her. This actually causes Claude to hesitate and ask how they can be sure the phantoms aren't real, though he does still defeat the phantom in the end.
• Killing Epimenides causes Arval to disappear as well. Before they're defeated, Epimenides shifts back to Arval, and their tone softens a bit as Arval says how much stronger Shez has become. Despite being resolved to kill Epimenides so they can get out of Zahras, Shez is clearly sad when they get back to camp and note that they can't hear Arval anymore.

Scarlet Blaze

• In Scarlet Blaze, Ferdinand is forced to kill his own father after the latter betrays the Empire at Fort Merceus. While he tries to put on a brave face, it's clear through dialogue and several supports that he is wracked by crushing guilt over it, as while he can't forgive Duke Aegir's crimes, he was still his father. Worse, as he himself admits, it was his desire for his father to be judged fairly that resulted in the opportunity for his father to escape and stage a coup, a fact that very clearly upsets him.
• Recruiting Mercedes requires Jeritza to be deployed, and when you defeat her, the normally very stoic Jeritza begs his sister in a noticeably pained tone to stop fighting, with Mercedes's response implying that Jeritza was on the verge of crying.
• Scarlet Blaze has another major death in the form of Ingrid in the takeover of Arianrhod as she stays behind to save Dimitri and Dedue. To add to the pain, her fellow pegasus knights beg her to retreat as she reaches critical health, but Ingrid's last act is to have them deliver her Lúin as a memento to Dimitri. The aftermath of the battle has them grieve for her, Dimitri (one of her best friends) in particular.
  "She deserved so much happiness. Even after losing her betrothed, she faced life with strength and vigor, only to face the agony of death once more. It should have been me who died."
  • Dedue expresses regret that he didn't stay behind instead of Ingrid, only for Dimitri to point out that he'd then be grieving over him instead of Ingrid. It shows how the whole thing was basically a no-win situation for Dimitri, since he'd lose one of his closest friends either way.
  • Dorothea is also saddened by Ingrid's death when everyone regroups, and Ferdinand has to assure her that she simply had no other choice. If Ashe has been recruited, he will mournfully note in camp that now that his side has killed Ingrid, he knows his relationships with his old friends are dead as well and that he can never hope to be forgiven.
• If you fail to recruit Byleth, Fleche's agony in the cutscene where Randolph dies is very obvious. She begs Randolph not to leave her, and her pain is clear in her voice. Later, in camp, Monica awkwardly tries to help distract her, showing how everyone's concerned about Fleche. Meanwhile, Caspar doesn't directly talk to her but still expresses worry about her when he talks about what happened.
• Though they can be recruited and spared from death, Ashe and Mercedes have it rough on Scarlet Blaze, as while they do get something out of joining Adrestia, it comes at a heavy price.
  • Ashe doesn't have to watch his father Lonato die, and can even fight alongside him, but he ends up ditching his dream of becoming a knight of Faerghus, and has to fight his former allies and friends, several of whom insult him for his choice and the deaths of their loved ones the Empire's invasion leads to. He also spends much of his time dejected and clearly not looking forward to fighting his old comrades and friends. Dimitri, at least, gives Ashe a bittersweet compliment, and Rodrigue outright holds no ill will against him for his choice.
  • Mercedes gets to reunite with her long-lost little brother Jeritza/Emile and is clearly overjoyed about it, but she has to fight her closest friend Annette in the process, with the latter being very shaken up about it. Worse, if the player doesn't spare Annette from dying, Mercedes can be encountered in the camp after praying in the makeshift chapel, unable to speak to Shez and can only ask to be left alone, clearly distraught she could not avoid killing her friend. Even if you do spare Annette, the aftermath is still very sad, as Mercedes is convinced that Annette now hates her for the rest of her life.
    Annette: Mercie, how could you?! You're my best friend!
    Mercedes: I'm so sorry, Annie...
• The terms for recruiting Leonie are conditional but not guaranteed: You must spare and recruit Byleth and Jeralt several chapters earlier (itself a convoluted unlock requirement), then successfully recruit her by saving her from poison. If anything goes wrong, Leonie dies solely because the game wasn't more clear on how to unlock her:
  • If you fail to recruit Leonie, if you recruited Jeralt, he expresses lament that he was unable to save her. Looks like he cared more than he let on.
  • If you didn't recruit Byleth and Jeralt, you are still given the option to recruit Leonie and save her from poison... only for her to turn down her chance at survival, because while she's thankful for the help you give her in saving people, she won't accept direct help from the people who killed Jeralt.
• The exact same phrase can be either a tearjerker or heartwarming, depending on the context. In the mission to save Hrym, it's possible to either Spare Hanneman, or fail, and have him die. Manuela's reaction is telling either way:
  • If Hanneman dies, Manuela describes his passing as "a gaping hole in my heart." She thinks that if he was still alive, he'd comment on how such sadness is unlike her, and she wishes she could respond with usual banter, "That's none of your concern, you doddering old geezer!"
  • If he lives, she's instead annoyed he'd thank her for saving his life, and remarks "That's none of your concern, you doddering old geezer!"
  • If Hanneman dies, Hubert is the first person to respond, with a very somber and respectful tone: "Professor Hanneman... This loss will cost us dearly." Mourning and emotion are very rare from Hubert, so this reaction is telling for just how much Hanneman means to the Empire and to him personally.
• Petra's hatred of Count Bergliez can be considered rather tragic now that we get to know him better. He's a great father to Caspar, a strong fighter, an inspiring leader to his men, and an honorable warrior. Most importantly, he understands Petra's hatred of him for killing her father. Had Caspar not intercepted her challenge to Leopold in Petra and Caspar's A support, he would've gladly accepted her invitation and granted her a fair fight to avenge her father, which would have resulted in the death of either of them. It's a reminder about the tragedy of war and the cycle of hatred. Fortunately over the course of the route, Petra's hatred and desire for revenge lessens, as confirmed by her camp dialogue with Shez and the response she prefers. However, she never truly lets go, which is a shame since a central theme of Three Hopes is letting go of past hatred to build a better future.
• Sylvain sacrifices himself in an attempt to get revenge for Ingrid. This comes despite the fact that Felix ordered him to retreat if his life was in danger, and Felix, Dedue, Seteth, and Flayn all successfully retreat from the same battle.
• If Byleth was not recruited, they push Claude into breaking the terms of his pact with Edelgard and turns against both Adrestia and Faerghus. Shez is completely taken aback and Edelgard is quietly seething at Claude's sudden betrayal. When all three factions meet at Ailell, it turns not into a 2V1 scenario, but a brutal Mêlée à Trois, just like the Battle of the Eagle and Lion in Three Houses. When Claude is defeated, he dies if a specific strategy wasn't deployed, making him the only lord who can actually die in the story in this game. His death quote hammers in how he just threw away his alliance with Edelgard for nothing.
  Claude: It was a good strategy, but not good enough. And now look what I've done to all of you...
  • When fighting Claude, Shez doesn't bother hiding how pissed off they are at him.
    Shez: You'd be right here with us if you didn't decide to stab her in the back!
  • Edelgard, meanwhile, isn't as angry but feels personally betrayed. Given her longstanding issues of being betrayed by people she was close to, what could've been a true bond becomes bitter disappointment.
    Edelgard: This is a shame, Claude. And here I thought we'd forge a path to true friendship.
  • Even worse, the other Golden Deer can fight him and Hilda, and none of them are happy at their betrayal. Raphael is furious at Claude for endangering his little sister, and Marianne is completely heartbroken with Hilda, because she thought they were friends. Hilda apologizes to Marianne, but crudely tells her that she picked the wrong side. Claude's response to Ignatz in particular is incredibly cruel, saying that they "were classmates" and dismissing him as another "lousy knight" of Gloucester. Lysithea coldly mocks Claude for fighting a losing battle, and laments that he dragged Hilda into his selfish ambitions.
    Raphael: I can't believe you, Claude! By putting the Alliance in danger, you put Maya in danger!
    Ignatz: Why didn't you ask me about any of this first?! We were classmates! Fellow Golden Deer!
    Lysithea: It's not like you to pick a losing battle, Claude.
    Marianne: Why, Hilda?! We were allies... friends!
• If one has any sympathy for Rhea, her words near the end of the battle with her may be heart-wrenching. Having already lost Catherine and Cyril, she prays to Sothis for strength, affirms that for the sake of her people she can't fall here, and that the pain of this battle is nothing compared to the Red Canyon. No one on the Empire's side acknowledges her words.
• At the end of the game, the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus is decimated with the Golden Ending implying that Dimitri will surrender to keep the rest of his Kingdom safe. Not only that, Houses Galatea and Gautier lost their heirs with the potential to lose the heir to House Dominic, the Western Lords of the Kingdom successfully defected to the Empire with the knowledge that they will be taken care of, and whatever is left of those that stayed with the Kingdom will probably give their lives defending whatever is left. The Alliance in the Golden Ending will be fine, but the Kingdom as it once was, will never truly recover.

Azure Gleam

• The ending of Blue Lions Chapter 3, where Dimitri has to kill his uncle. He still loves him a lot despite Rufus trying to have him killed many times, and his face during that scene will hurt you.
• Petra and Dorothea make it clear that they only joined the war in order to support Edelgard personally, and had no obligation otherwise. They can be recruited to the Kingdom and spared from death, but now they're pressed to keep fighting, and Dorothea makes it clear she's desperately searching for a reason to even bother (albeit both also make it clear they refuse to fight on Edelgard's side of the war any further). When they next can fight against Edelgard, she doesn't blame them, and instead expresses how badly she wants her friends to rejoin her side, even stating she'll defeat and drag Dorothea back. Similarly with Bernadetta, Edelgard expresses that she doesn't want her panicked and dropping her weapon leaving herself defenseless on a battlefield.
• Poor Edelgard suffers a lot in this route. She gets transformed into the Hegemon Husk by Thales against her will, gets mind-controlled by him into serving as his minion and forced to act as a mouthpiece for Duke Aegir, gets her mental state regressed back into when she was younger and had to go through the Agarthans' Crest experiments, her trusted subordinates Hubert and Ferdinand vanish and for all she knows are Killed Offscreen, and she's effectively left as isolated from true friends as she was when she was trapped in a dungeon. She has to get beaten into submission multiple times by Dimitri and co. in the final battle against Thales, who repeatedly revives her for this purpose, and after all of this, is left a physically and mentally broken wreck on the ground. The way she calls Dimitri "Dee?" at the end breaks Dimitri's heart. It's unclear if she can recover at all, or how long it may take.
  • Look at the expression on her face while she is mind-controlled. She looks very visibly terrified and is likely begging for someone to snap her out of it on the inside.
  • Dimitri's action after hearing that in the finale of Azure Gleam also serves as a contrast: unlike in Three Houses, where Dimitri tries to reach out to Edelgard one last time at the end of Azure Moon, Dimitri, instead, turns and beckons for Shez to leave with him without so much as giving Edelgard a glance. Though dialog during the previous fight has Dimitri imply he is going to come back for Edelgard later, and just wants her to stay put for a bit while he deals with the fallout of the battle.
  • It's tragically ironic too. The girl that fought so hard to liberate Fódlan from the shackles of its past, who believed so hard for a system to allow anyone the freedom to achieve greatness through their own merits, who freed herself and her country of its hidden demons for two years, and who would even lead her nation to war to achieve these goals for others... is stripped of her free will to be used as a puppet for those whose ambition would turn Fódlan into an oppressive land.
• Count Bergliez's dialogue after Thales takes the mind-controlled Edelgard to Garreg Mach has him clearly disdainful that Edelgard was taken out to the battlefield despite her current state. While a bit heartwarming, it also makes her situation even more depressing, since it means other characters notice how much she's been affected by the situation, and it drives in just how bad her condition is.
• Rodrigue's death as a result of Shez killing Jeralt is a very devastating moment. As Rodrigue looks on fondly at Dimitri and Felix's funny banter, he's suddenly stabbed in the back by a Sothis-possessed Byleth, as an enraged Felix immediately slashes at them. But he and Dimitri can't pursue the Ashen Demon, as they quickly have to run to Rodrigue's side. Rodrigue's dying words are to ask his son to keep protecting Dimitri, and apologizing to Lambert and Glenn before passing away. The aftermath of the battle has everyone in very low spirits, especially Shez, who blames themselves for Rodrigue's death and swears vengeance on the Ashen Demon. The last scene has Dimitri and Felix look back at a memory from their childhood while Felix notes that they wouldn't "begrudge them a few tears", heavily implying that Felix actually cries as the screen fades to black.
  • Sothis also has a brief but painful moment during the cutscene as well. She sees Felix's Aegis Shield and Dimitri's Areadbhar and refers to them as the Steadfast and the Vigorous respectively, all but outright stating that she knows that the Hero's Relics were made from her childrens' bones, and is very unhappy about it. She's more than willing to fight and kill the two men right then and there before Byleth shows resistance and forces them to flee.
    Sothis: The Steadfast... and the Vigorous... you would offer them as tribute?
  • To further rub salt in the wound, Felix and Rodrigue's A-support where they manage to reconcile is only unlocked if Rodrigue survives. Imagine how Felix must feel, being so close to making peace with his father, only to have that chance ripped away forever.
• While still being the closest one can get to an Everybody Lives route in Three Hopes, Hubert is Killed Offscreen and Ferdinand vanishes in this game's iteration of the Blue Lions route ^note In Three Houses, Ferdinand can be recruited into other houses and can be saved if you do so, while Hubert is Black Eagles exclusive. In Three Hopes, Ferdinand is "Scarlet Blaze" exclusive together with Hubert. Instead of dying in battle like in Three Houses, the two just vanish into thin air when Thales takes over Edelgard's inner circle to gain another upper hand for the Agarthans, with only Hubert's fate ever getting any clarification. It's never made entirely clear how Hubert died (as Randolph only confirms Hubert's death without elaborating on how or when it happened) or whether Ferdinand is dead, in hiding, in prison, or what (as no characters in the game who talk about him are sure of what happened to him), but to see two of your comrades in another life meet such ignoble fates is gut-wrenching.
• It's entirely possible for a recruited Linhardt to fight against his father. The only upside Count Hevring can think of is that way at least one of them will likely survive the war, though he expects if he's captured he'll face a harsh punishment by the Kingdom. Linhardt also expects they'll be stripped of their lands and titles if the side he's now on wins.
• The same requirement for saving Rodrigue, Jeralt, and Byleth also reveals that Claude plans on likely betraying and beginning another war against the Central Church as soon as the Empire (now under the complete control of Those Who Slither in the Dark) is dealt with.
• Fridge Logic suggests that the Azure Gleam route is arguably only good for the Kingdom, and nowhere else. The Alliance and Church may begin fighting as stated above, and Edelgard's reforms in the Empire have likely been revoked due to the resurgence of Duke Aegir and TWSITD.
• During the Azure Gleam route, Ingrid and Sylvain make it clear that they're not at all happy about having to fight Bernadetta (someone both of them can support with in Three Houses), but are resigned to having to kill her if necessary due to it being war. Luckily, it's possible to avoid having to kill her if you can recruit her.
• Related to Bernadetta, there's one sidequest in Chapter 6 where Count Varley shows up as an enemy boss and retreats when defeated, with the goal being to beat both him and a priest leading a 3rd faction. If you use the record keeper to replay this battle with Bernie on your team later (she joins after this), and use her to defeat Count Varley before defeating the Priest (beating the Priest first just starts the end-of-stage dialogue), then after Count Varley retreats, poor Bernie, sounding like she's on the verge of a panic attack, has this to say:
  Bernadetta: This all feels like a bad dream. It's hard to breathe...

Golden Wildfire

• Though more fitting with original creator intent, Claude's characterization in this continuity is quite tragic in hindsight to how he was in Three Houses. In contrast to Edelgard and Dimitri managing to go about their ambitions even without Byleth, Claude's actions are drastically different without Byleth to guide him and the monastery closing down early, which means he never got the drive to uncover the truths of Fódlan, and with that, leaving Rhea alive. In fact, Claude wanting to outright murder Rhea to destroy the Central Church shocks even Edelgard, who at most just wanted to restrain her and remove her authority. In short, Claude is worse off without Byleth and the relationships he had in the monastery.
  • Even worse, Byleth (If they are not recruited) in Scarlet Blaze would contribute to Claude betraying his alliance with the Empire. In other words, his beloved teach in another timeline would be the one to lead him down a path that causes his own downfall.
• If you kill Linhardt instead of recruiting him in Chapter 4, Caspar screams in pure agony, swearing to avenge him.
  Caspar: LINHARDT, NO!!! I... I'll finish this fight! I'll avenge you, I promise!
• Claude having to kill Shahid in order to stop the invasion. He tries to make one final plea for him to stop his plans, only to get a sword thrown at him and blocked by Shez. He tells him he never wanted it to come to this before bidding him farewell and shooting the arrow that drives him off a cliffside. This is the moment that leads Claude to become much more ruthless in his goals.
  Claude: I never wanted things between us to end this way. I'm so sorry... Brother.
• Randolph's death in Golden Wildfire is a painful shock. He and his forces are being overwhelmed by Catherine, and he regains some hope when Claude and the gang arrive. Except... Claude doesn't do anything to try and actually save him, all while Lorenz and Hilda are urging him to get over there and help the poor guy already. In the end, Catherine cuts him down, and she expresses utter disgust at the fact that Randolph was simply used as bait to kill her. When the battle ends, Shez and Judith make it very clear that what Claude did was not okay, and the rest of the Golden Deer aren't happy with him either. Even worse is that it leads to the moment below...
  • Having to kill Fleche in the next chapter afterwards is heartbreaking. She learns how her brother died from a surviving bishop (who is all but stated to actually be Myson in disguise), so she hires Jeralt and Byleth to kill Claude as revenge. So now you have no choice but to kill this 14-year old girl who's only doing this because of the very morally questionable act that Claude committed. Even Claude feels horrible about it, and this incident becomes a major wake up call that convinces him to reign in his ruthlessness. If you chose not to recruit Byleth, Claude feels even worse because his sacrifice of Randolph ended in Judith's death.
  • In the next chapter, Marianne expresses her thoughts on what Claude did, and while she admits that Claude did what was necessary to minimize losses on their end, she's still upset at how they had to sacrifice someone's life in the process.
• Leonie obviously feels conflicted during the campaign, and for good reason, Jeralt and his mercenaries are sent in to take out your army several times. She understands that mercenaries may have to fight each other, but she doesn't have to like it. It gets worse when she is forced to contribute to Jeralt's death if the Alliance fails to recruit Byleth.
• Margrave Gautier ends up dying to cover Rodrigue and Felix's retreat late in the route. Everyone feels guilty about this later, and Sylvain just sounds resigned as he talks about how he has to be the margrave now. Even worse, there's a flashback to just before the previous fight where Matthias apologizes to Sylvain for not being the best dad, which really hammers in the tragedy of the situation.
• Unless you really hate Rhea, killing her with her own sibling’s bones in her destroyed homeland in Golden Wildfire isn’t going to be an enjoyable experience. As many things wrong as she might have done, she doesn’t deserve that, but sadly Claude never finds that out in this timeline.
• It's possible for Token Religious Teammate Marianne to get the last word in before killing the Archbishop. And if she does, she can express worry and doubt on if they're doing the right thing.
  • Even worse, you can have Jeralt be the one to fight Rhea. Both of them acknowledge that they don’t want to fight each other and even after everything, they still consider each other friends, but there’s sadly no way to stop the battle.
• "Melody of Clarity (Part I and II)", the music for the final stage and fight against Rhea is, like "God Shattering Star" for Nemesis, vocal tracks seemingly sung from the point of view of the boss, and appears nowhere else in the game. Unlike "God Shattering Star", "Part I" seems to be less full of proud bombast, and is more of a lamenting last stand. "Part II" sees much less of the lead voice, while themes and elements of "A Funeral for Flowers" are implemented. The net effect is that while some parts pump you up for one final victory, you're constantly reminded that you're killing a tragic character, unlike the final boss themes of the other routes.

Supports

• Edelgard's B-Support with Monica has her reveal that, if not for Shez's actions allowing her the justification to attack the base Kronya was hiding Monica at, her death and defilement of her corpse at Kronya's hands would have been a unfortunate necessity for Edelgard's own plans. It's obvious she feels guilty about having to admit to it, and is disturbed at how accepting of it Monica is.
• Ferdinand's C-Support with Edelgard is this two-fold. He's about to visit his imprisoned father for the first time, and while he doesn't like his father, he's still incredibly despondent about the whole scenario. Edelgard mentions there's a worse prison than the one Duke Aegir is staying in, which she has visited... And apparently rats gather quite frequently, hinting that this is the same prison she herself was once imprisoned and experimented on there since rats are one of her biggest fears.
• Dimitri's C-Support with Shez has him going to a village where a battle happened to bury the corpses himself. While Shez reminds him that his people love him and that there was no other decision he could make, it's obvious he feels incredibly guilty and thinks the deaths of his people due to the war are all his fault.
• There's something sad to be said about the limited supports Byleth has in this game. In Three Houses, Byleth was the beloved professor of whatever class the player chose. No matter what they did, or what path they chose, they would always have a large support circle who would walk through the bowels of hell with them. They also served as the most trusted confidante to their chosen Lord and changed them into a better person, whether by reigning in Edelgard's more destructive tendencies, helping Dimitri through a trauma-induced mental breakdown that lasted for five years, or helping Claude open up and trust other people. If the player chose to do so, Byleth also might've found love after the war and enjoyed a happy life with their beloved spouse. Here? Byleth never gets that chance - by the time you recruit them, they're simply a mercenary doing their job and have no reason to open up to anyone in the army. It's depressing to think that in another timeline, Byleth is ultimately just a footnote in history as a legendary mercenary, but nothing more, and that nothing they achieved in Three Houses comes to be, all because someone else was in their place at the time. That said, in the supports they do have in Three Hopes, Byleth makes it clear that they are quite happy with the life they're leading and the bonds they have formed.
  • If there is one thing to mitigate this, it’s that Byleth can still reach A-support with every character, albeit with no conversations. They are the only character who can do this, as everyone else without support conversations can only make it to C-support. This implies that Byleth is forming bonds with people after all, and the player just isn’t seeing them.
• A subtle detail from Dedue's support conversations with Shez is that the people of Faerghus still gave Dedue a hard time and discriminate against him for being Duscurian. Even after it is later revealed that the Western lords of Faerghus, Dimitri's uncle, and Cornelia were actually the ones who were behind the Tragedy and that the people of Duscur were actually innocent, Dedue still deals with prejudice from the people of Faerghus partly because of his race. This shows that racism and xenophobia don't go away as easily as one would think. Mitigated in that the main focus of the supports is that Dedue and Shez are not nobles, and their powerful positions in the army are seen by some as not having been earned compared to people who were raised to fill such positions, with Shez and Dedue deciding they must prove they are worthy of their rank.
• Jeritza and Mercedes' support has Jeritza refusing Mercedes' proposal that they meet up with their mother after the war is over. Not just because he's afraid he'll lose control of the Death Knight and kill them both, but also because he's too ashamed of massacring House Bartels to look his mother in the eye.
• Jeritza and Edelgard's support has Edelgard suggest that Jeritza's path to redemption can come from doing good deeds to atone for his crimes. Jeritza on the other hand insists on only facing punishment by jail, and suspects that he should die in jail before he's ever forgiven.
• In Felix and Rodrigue's C-Support, the former asks for advice about how to better be a duke. Things are seemingly going well up until Rodrigue makes the mistake of saying he did a good job raising two sons. Felix gets angry and asks if he's glorifying Glenn's death yet again, bitterly saying he hoped he could better understand his father now that he was duke before storming off. Rodrigue, for his part, understands his mistake and wonders what Glenn would say in his position.
• Ferdinand and Lysithea's A-support has Ferdie try and convince Lysithea to keep on fighting for her life no matter what, causing Lysithea to snap about how she gave up on false hope long ago. For how fiery she normally is, Lysithea's delivery of the line sounds like she's just about to burst into tears. Thankfully, the support turns very sweet near the end. It can even be a Tear Jerker in the heartwarming sense.
  Lysithea: And what "action" can I possibly take, Ferdinand?! I stopped clinging to false hope long ago!
  • As an out-of-universe, Harsher in Hindsight tearjerker, Ferdinand's voice actor Billy Kametz was likely recording his lines around the time of his stage IV colon cancer diagnosis, which eventually claimed his life before the release of the game.
• In Petra and Dedue's supports, it's revealed that Petra couldn't speak a word of the Fodlan language when she was first taken to the Empire as a hostage, and no one bothered to help her learn it. She had to teach herself, and most of the nobles made fun of her clumsy speech. It becomes a bit more heartwarming when Dedue agrees to help her and mentions that Dimitri helped him learn the language after the Tragedy of Duscur. Still, it's quite depressing and scary to think about how much difficulty Petra had when she first arrived.
• Shez and Byleth's A support unlocks after clearing the two bonus chapters. Shez comes up to apologize for almost killing Byleth while under Epimenides's control, clearly feeling extremely guilty about it. Thankfully, Byleth doesn't take it personally, realizing it wasn't their fault, but the thought of almost killing an ally while having no control over it is still depressing. Shez is also still sad over the fact that Arval's gone, though it takes a turn for the heartwarming when a comment from Byleth implies that Sothis is trying to cheer up Shez as well.

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