Fire Emblem Three Houses (Spoiler Thread)

Claude and Byleth trade off, duh. They just say it's Raphael to confuse people.

I say Lysithea. Because it's a hilarious image.

Meanwhile Hilda is the cheerleader.

Since there are two slots of DLC left, will they ever fill them?

Three Houses: The search for more money.

Well we are due a new costume for Sothis.

Judith Judith Judith Judith Judith.

Anna Supports, because otherwise what's the point of her being playable?

Maybe they could make Rhea actually playable and give her more than one support?

More Anime cutscenes.

Now I'm imagining Hilda doing her usual thing of not wanting to participate, and Claude being like, "Sure, Hilda! You can cheer us on from the sidelines. In fact, I have the perfect cheer uniform for you..."

Cut to a very unamused Hilda in the Golden Deer mascot costume.

But then an hour later at half-time the rest of the class comes back to the sidelines and sees Hilda in the cheerleader outfit and a person she suckered into wearing the mascot costume cheering beside her.

"Bwuh!? Who is this then!"

The head of the mascot comes off.

"I am Ferdinand von Aegir!"

It dawns on me the biggest reason Jeralt and Rhea’s relationship collapsed - he revered her too much, dedicating his life to her, and so when the circumstances of Sitri’s Death by Childbirth played out and Byleth was alive but lacked a beating heart, the disillusionment hit harder; he realised that despite how long they’d known each other, she didn’t really let him in, and it scared him. Ironically he saw her pretty clearly and evidently tried to see past the archbishop, but she didn’t let him know how losing Sitri affected her too, and he came to misunderstand her on that level... no wonder they couldn’t have gotten close like THAT.

Rhea’s inability to form strong connections, or at least to let down her barriers, is her biggest weakness and the reason Jeralt, Aelfric, and to a lesser degree even Seteth get pushed away. She’s too scared to let them down because she’s terrified of feeling the pain that losing Sothis, and the majority of her brethren at Zanado caused her. On at least some level, she DID believe that Byleth was Sothis reborn (not getting into the dispute of whether she knew or not they had their own individual soul/personality, please), which made her that little bit more willing to be honest with them... which might be a part of why she flipped so badly at the start of the CF path, as she emotionally couldn’t reconcile their choice to protect Edelgard (whose betrayal, as a descendant of her close friend Wilhelm, hurt), and it overrode her sense of reason - not least after potentially letting down those barriers with Byleth.

Rhea is her own worst enemy, and it’s almost fitting (almost, because the execution was shite-house) that she’s the Final Boss of SS, itself the closest to her own route.

So... these interviews, are they saying whether or not the four routes were always the plan? I’ve no doubt that by the time of the 2018 trailer, Edelgard’s route was a go (we have her Dare to Be Badass speech to the BESF sampled a bit), and at some point they chose to make CF easier to get (likely by telling us about the Point of No Return and possibly by making it less hard to reach), but is there any validity to the theory that CF was added later? I also ask because “Fates” was originally weitten with just the two standard routes, before the writer added Revelation/Invisible Kingdom due to having the time to do so... in that case, debatably for the worst (though I wonder if it came about because he came up with the explanation for them being at war, and built from there, because he was no good at writing Grey-and-Gray Morality, but that’s not here or there).

Edited by CaellachTigerEye on Mar 28th 2020 at 2:06:19 AM

Funny, I thought Lorenz would be Claude's first choice to go in the deer suit. I can totally see Ferdinand donning the suit though; heck, he'd probably outdo Edelgard in performing as a mascot.

Found a piece of fanart of Byleth and Rhea eating hot pot. The hot pot seems kind of small though, considering how much Byleth is said to eat.

This person's Animal Crossing: New Horizons character actually caught the attention of Mark Whitten himself. As did these pictures that also has someone dressed as Flayn.

Edited by dragonfire5000 on Mar 27th 2020 at 8:32:32 AM

Crimson Flower made it abundantly clear that Rhea is really just a one-dimensional evil shithead.

...Bwah?

She murders her own people for shits and giggles, gets the bloodiest death in the whole series, and absolutely no character suggests there was anything wrong with it. It's abundantly clear that Edelgard's view of her as an inhuman monster is objectively right and the perspective the writers intended.

Gotta justify working with the imperialist who likes to prance around with the child blood harvesting terrorists somehow.

Ah, right... wouldn’t say “shits and giggles” is quite accurate (she’s more literal fire and brimstone), but I get you now. Which is kind of strange, given the recent interview stating Edelgard fills the traditional villain role.

EDIT; I guess IS writers are still struggling with the idea of actually making their protagonists legitimately Grey, let alone the DARKER shade (as should have been the case with Nohr vs. Hoshido on CQ, but instead they just had the Unholy Trio to justify Hoshido being antagonistic yet still forgiving Nohr at the end, rather than daring to make the BR heroes sans Takumi in any way really flawed). Not that I mind having clearly-defined good and bad factions (or even a bigger, eviler side as impetus for people who normally clash to pull an Enemy Mine and become Fire-Forged Friends), but if you want to let us pick who we side with you need to be willing to justify it more. Edelgard is a step in the right direction, but I hope they build more on this in the future of the series... maybe someday The Empire will be A Lighter Shade of Grey to other Kingdoms causing trouble/being manipulated into attacking and dividing the Empire?

Edited by CaellachTigerEye on Mar 28th 2020 at 5:08:38 AM

I think it's more like she's been driven absolutely mad because her "mom" has left her behind for the woman who wants her dead.

That is but a pipe dream. Empires are nearly completely evil in fiction. A lighter empire is only possible if the enemy is an anarchist organization hellbent on chaos or a monstrous, Blue-and-Orange Morality force. An empire is never a good guy against a kingdom or republic unless it's an empire In Name Only, because by modern sensibilities, colonialism and imperialism are amoral.

I think that the way Three Houses deals with its empire in CF is flawed in the opposite way Conquest is flawed. In CF, the empire is portrayed as righteous despite all the awful things we do. We go full "the ends justify the means" and aside from some small acknowledgements here and there about the path being "bloody," the only people who call us out are meant to be deranged, blinded by vengeance or so cartoonishly evil that they will immolate their own people for no discernible reason.

Conquest went the opposite way, where Corrin joining Nohr fills them with angst as they're going against what they believe is right for familial love. The player is supposed to feel bad for joining the invading army, and the "happy ending" is conquering Hoshido, killing the king, and giving Hoshido back to the remaining royals, making the path unnecessarily bloody from a storytelling perspective. A good "joining the empire" route should be able to find a balance between these two takes, imo.

Edited by DemonDamian on Mar 27th 2020 at 11:23:03 AM

Historical empires generally failed to live up to their own rationales for why imperialism was okay.

Normally i'd join in, but a certain plot has been making me think. Like the whole Lonato-Holy Mausoleum plot.

Okay, so one thing that got me thinking is that Arundel expresses disappointment that Rhea is alive, and yet repeatedly Edelgard and Hubert note that Lonato and any other attempts at assassinating the Pope is doomed to fail, plus the real goal was to raid Seiros's tomb, not kill Rhea, since all the soldiers and Death Knight are at the Mausoleum. Additionally assuming Edelgard knew that Rhea was Seiros from the stories passed down, she should know that Seiros is still alive. Hmmmm i'm going to have to review, but i think the main goal of all those plots was for Edelgard to steal the Sword of the creator and Sothis's crest stone right under Arundel's nose. How Ruthless.

Edited by RedHunter543 on Mar 27th 2020 at 10:03:04 AM

The mage in Chapter 4 who was breaking the seal on Seiros’ coffin definitely didn’t expect to find the Sword of the Creator, which given he’s from TWSITD does raise questions as to how much, exactly, they knew for a fact about Rhea and her relation to Seiros. Of course, the Doylist reason for Arundel and FE talking like that is to not spoil us on the lore too early, but it’s impossible to ignore these crucial details and implications therein, so - like Edelgard having hired Kostas - you need to wonder how much the writers intended certain implications and whether there was an overlooked discrepancy or something.

Going back to the reveal trailer, it’s strange to think of how Edelgard was treated like the protagonist with the knowledge that she was heir to The Empire... oh, and her colouring, although I’d argued that such wasn’t a giveaway either (Eirika and to an extent Ike had notable red in their clothing, Micaiah was ultimately heroic, and other sympathetic/major characters like Lilina and Guinevere also dressed in red at least). I honestly thought the FE would be from one of the surrounding countries at first (and until release expected some content outside Fodlan itself), so I’d say the trick was done effectively.

I will point out, Grado in FE 8 is a sympathetic depiction of The Empire, even if it’s In Name Only (it’s functionally a kingdom, only expanding when the plot kicks off, although it IS a larger country than all the others on Magvel).

The dark mage is not Agarthan. Agarthan has dark mages but not all dark mages are Agarthans. You literally fight Dark Bishop in Ashe and Catherine's paralogue but they are not Agarthans, they are Western Church.

Edited by mariovsonic999 on Mar 27th 2020 at 11:14:13 AM

Yeah, Arundel calls the troops swine from the Western Church, so they ain't the mole people.

As for Edelgard being promoted as the hero, i've come to a conclusion: They were trolling the audience.

It's like how Snake was hyped up to be the protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2 but then we got Raiden.

Both games do play around with audience expectations of the series.

Seteth: I hear its amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Hari Kiri Rock. I need scissors! 61!

Rhea: The Fission is a Mailure, press the back button on your browser right now!

Edited by RedHunter543 on Mar 27th 2020 at 11:20:27 AM

Ah, that makes sense... I think? I know not all mages with the masks are TWSITD, but the fact they bothered to mask him seems silly if he’s just another Western Church a**hole - it’s jarring when the enemy commanders aren’t named, even more if it’s a main story chapter (I know that DK is there, but unlike Chapter 6 he’s NOT commanding the enemy forces here).

Dark Mage wears mask by default. Unless stated, everyone is generic. Even the named one.