Fire Emblem Three Houses (Spoiler Thread)

I found it quite interesting that Claude has quite a low opinion on Ignatz of all people when they fight on Scarlet Blaze.

Even Lorenz gets more consideration.

Randolph and Judith being playable would make Byleth killing them have a lot more impact.

especially randolph, since he always dies in every timeline anyway

it was this more than anything else that made me really dislike Claude

Scarlet Blaze!Claude: -To Ignatz- As far as I'm concerned you're just a Mook with a name.

big talk from a flying unit who's facing down an archer

Having zero sympathy for anyone he considered an enemy is a consistent trait of Claude. He's the only one who didn't show any sympathy for Lonato.

It's more than that. Perhaps it's unintentional - perhaps not, as it's a Thing that is openly discussed by Lorenz and his father - but Hopes gives off the impression that Claude, fundamentally, does not care about the "little people". He views them as unimportant at best, and pawns to be used and discarded at worst. He can be friendly and charming, but the moment someone stops doing what he wants them to do, he drops all pretence.

It's an extremely unsavoury character trait.

In Houses, Edelgard says he has no real right to dictate Fodlan's future because he's unfamiliar with it and does not understand what the people want. And, frankly, Hopes proved that she was absolutely right.

At least he realizes it and works on it. And in Houses, he leaves the peoples' fate in Byleth's hands.

I do suspect that Claude knew that Byleth was a better people person than him when he made Byleth dictator for life.

That said, there's also the other can of worms that Claude is setting up a regime in a foreign country that's sympathetic to his own regime in Almyra.

Still think Byleth is a silly choice for being absolute leader. Some murderous hobo they dug out of a mudhole who has fancy hair.

It's funny because Fodlan is as much as Claude's home as Almyra, being a Child of Two Worlds.

I seem to recall that there was a support conversation or two that showcased how Claude isn't as knowledgeable about the commonfolk as he thinks he is. It does make sense; he is in a position of privilege, so it's not surprising that he isn't as in tune with the commonfolk.

As I've said before, one thing I appreciate about Verdant Wind is that Claude does get hit with the realization that quite a few of his initial assumptions were flat-out wrong, though it's a pity that Nemesis's revival means he doesn't really have time to let it sink in.

So this was something I shared on the Fire Emblem thread and the Shin Megami Tensei thread:

I've recently been playing a lot of Shin Megami Tensei games again, and I thought it'd be fun for myself to imagine the story of Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse using the Three Houses and Three Hopes characters.

A lot of my choices aren't meant to be a perfect 1-to-1 match, though some of them do have a bit more thought put into them compared to others. Since there will be some spoilers for IV Apocalypse, I'm putting these in folders.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Apr 20th 2024 at 10:58:25 AM

It's not every day you run into someone who can charm an entire room into adoration simply by staring blankly into their souls. Claude surely recognized the political advantage inherent in that kind of ability!

"Random mercenary takes over empire and leads to a golden age" sounds like something from Byzantine history.

It's his support with Leonie in Hopes and Cyril in Houses.

It also shows how much he underestimated what a divine/holy being is capable of.

Like he assumes that a good harvest would be solely because of the earth, cause the idea a Gods blessing can cause fertility and life to grow in places where it shouldnt(ala Mila and Duma) is beyond his understanding.

Edit: Also to be clear, a blessing from a deity can last long after they’re effectively dead too. Which Valentia also points out with its side materials. Valentia didn’t become a hellscape with their deaths cause they blessed it with their power one last time before they both fell into slumber via death.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Apr 15th 2024 at 4:41:42 AM

It's a neat parallel to Edelgard who in Heroes states that she firmly believes Mila's blessings would make people weak and dependent on her. She thinks a God's blessings are poison in the long term.

The funny thing was that it was because Mila went too far in the opposite direction of her brother when the two needed to compromise and meet in the middle. Whereas he was much more in line with Edelgards thinking. IE a good harvest is only produced when people work hard for it in Rigel, and even with his degeneration impacting it to the point famines could happen, some farmers were still working hard and getting rewarded for it via Dumas blessing. It’s why them falling off into merit made sense, Duma did award people for their hard work and effort in ways that a human system could not.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Apr 15th 2024 at 4:45:48 AM

Yeah, Edelgard would be ironically pro Duma I feel. They have such similar philosophies as Mila notes.

Duma believes that hardship and strife is what makes humanity strong. Edelgard wants more upwards mobility and opportunities for commoners to get better rights and positions for themselves, meritocracy would be ideal under Duma.

Dimitri would be more pro Mila.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 15th 2024 at 7:46:11 PM

Edelgard would be anti-Duma because he's a dragon, regardless of how similar their views are.

The scene that defined Claude for me was his B support with Leonie, where he felt the need to make her stop making mild expressions of religious faith, and the game evidently wanted us to see this as a positive development, as him "enlightening" her. It was the part where I started to genuinely dislike Claude.

I never thought about that way. Atheist Claude, then? (though I think he technically counts)

I believe Claude does explicitly say he doesn't believe in gods, and he dislikes the Church of Serious in particular.

During the support I mentioned, Leonie thanks the goddess for a successful hunt. Claude gets annoyed and tells Leonie that her Hunt didn't come from the goddess, it came from the earth. Leonie is persuaded to Claudes view with out pushing back at all.

Claude doesn't want to understand other people, he wants them to adopt a worldview that he personally approves of.

Given how Sothis literally brought the earth back to life after the Slithers nuked it, it is absolutely thanks to her that there's stuff to hunt

And it's a missed opportunity that Claude himself never really understands that.

And just for the sake of clarity; I don't dislike Claude for being an atheist. I dislike him for the attitude he has towards other people.

@asterism:

I suspect this may have something to do with how Three Hopes Claude never has to deal with Lonato's rebellion unlike Verdant Wind/Golden Deer, as he has this exchange during the mission:

Militia: Lord Lonato... Please, don't die...

Claude (sad expression): The nobles start the war, but it's the commoners who spill their blood first...

He's still somewhat non-affected about the whole rebellion compared to Edelgard & Dimitri mind you, but that can be argued that's just him keeping his poker-face always on for morale's sake, which both Houses and Hopes confirm he does a ton overall.

@Tambourine:

I'm kind on the middle tbh. While I agree with Red that Edelgard would want to implement Duma's way of doing things (as it goes against the status quo), I also think she would not allow him to get involved in Fódlan due to her core belief that things went wrong from the moment "gods" got directly involved with humanity's affairs.

When I said pro Duma, I meant it in that she would support ideals that would overlap with Duma's, not him literally.

Heck, she'd probably use his breakdown as an example of why Gods should not interfere with mortals.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Apr 15th 2024 at 11:47:17 PM

All I'm saying is, being an atheist is stupid in a setting where the gods provably exist. Hell, Claude can end up married to one.