Look, Rhea is a tragic figure. I feel for her. Her trauma at the hands of Nemesis and the Agarthans is vast, and the slaughter in Zanado is completely unforgivable.

But until she's healed from that trauma and doesn't blame all of humanity for that nightmare, there's absolutely no reason she should be in charge of anything. Much less the very people she resents.

The Empire was created when the Church named Wilhelm its emperor, and the Kingdom is literally called the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus because it was founded by the Church as well. It's only by looking at the Alliance where you can see how the commoners especially feel about the Church's practices when they haven't been indoctrinated.

When the priest from The Eastern Church is trying to stress how they're different from the Central Church, he says:

Their church doesn't have an order of knights.

They don't believe in using force to chastise believers.

A noble house keeps order in their territory, and they have forbidden the use of any soldiers, even for self-defense.

You can reverse engineer these to describe how they see the Central Church in Leicester: Militant, violent towards its followers, and deceitful (claiming self-defense as a shield for its violent ways).

This is correct. The Church has a standing army and a school used to train child soldiers. It punishes criminals with execution more often than not. And it actively warps major events to make people see them in a certain light.

Yes, Rhea chose to keep the peace rather than openly hating humanity. That's not exactly a kindness when she 1) makes sure most people are reliant on the church for basic needs 2) restricts access to education based on who she can control (nobles vs. commoners) 3) bans advances in technology like the printing press so she can more easily prohibit the spread of knowledge and 4) creates clones and experiments on babies.

I understand she is traumatized. I understand she is in pain and trying to protect her people from another slaughter. But the simple fact is she's not even doing that well, because she's refused to heal. Everything she does against the Agarthans is basically whack-a-mole, and she only ever punishes who they manipulated.

Hubert found TWSD in 10 years! She's had centuries! I can't even say he's healed from his trauma to make that happen, but at least he directed it to something practical that got results. So no one would suffer like he had.

But Rhea? She's content to punish and oppress humanity for being manipulated by the Agarthans. Meanwhile, TWSD experiments on children too and the Church does nothing. When Lysithea and Edelgard are the sole survivors of murky circumstances, one would think that the Church would get involved. Even for aid. But no. They had their chance to make this right, and they chose to turn a blind eye.

I cannot rightly believe that she really cares about human beings when she treats the people most loyal to her so horribly. Even Seteth! She's telling Catherine to burn down a city with people inside in the Black Eagles route, she's never once tried to get anyone to teach Cyril to read and write (Seteth was the only one interested in doing that for him), and she hid all of her atrocities from Seteth because she knew that what she was doing was wrong.

Her compassion as the archbishop ultimately comes from a place of indoctrination and control. Understandable though it may be because of what she experienced, it's still wrong. And she shouldn't be in charge of anything because of that.

may I introduce to you:

Hans von Nilsson, protector of the Eastern Church, founder of the new Nilsson Academy of Military Sciences, and Carina‘s fabulous boss. Since there‘s so little known about him, I kinda claimed this canon FE3H character for myself lol

he still holds a grudge against duke Oswald von Riegan for enrolling his grandson to the central church‘s Officers Academy, his biggest competitor, instead of his own.

now he‘s trying to expand his business by agreeing into a temporary collaboration with the Officers Academy to advertise his innovative military approaches (and win some students for himself) (Carina has to do all that work as his representative) (she will beat his ass for pissing off and leaving her with their work behind at Garreg Mach)

FOR FE OC WEEK!!!!!!!!!! i shall introduce to you my fe3h oc!!!!! His name is Tavish!!

(art by sarenhale here on tumblr!)

ok so to summarize this succinctly. Tavish is from Dagda! in fact... he is a Prince from Dagda!!!!!!! but that is a secret...

after some strife in his homeland, he flees to Fodlan, undercover as a priest. he HATES fighting, in fact he doesn't really know how to fight. BUT he can heal extremely well!! in a gameplay situation, he can only be assigned as an adjutant, and he will keep the unit he is assigned with healed.

after coming to Fodlan, he stayed with the western church. unbeknownst to him, they planned an attack on the central church, and he got mixed up in it. he ended up being the only loyal one to Rhea in the conflict, and Seteth took him to the monastery. he was gravely injured in the conflict, but since he showed his loyalty to the central church, Seteth healed him by giving him his Special Nabatean Blood. giving him the crest of cichol.

he becomes Seteth's assistant at that point. this is still before the start of the game. he also discovers abyss and becomes an honorary ashen wolf. Yuri is his best friend.

he spends most of his time in Abyss, but he's also very close to seteth and flayn. Seteth and flayn know about his true identity, as do the wolves. byleth eventually does as well through supports.

he is 27 at the start of the game. 32 post timeskip! he is also about 5'9" (m!byleth's height).

he will feel betrayed if byleth aligns with the empire in cf, and disappears from the game completely if that route is chosen.

on all other routes, he has the opportunity to become close to byleth. he is aroace and doesn't like romance so he cannot be romanced. all his support bonds are platonic. he enjoys platonic bonds.

he also loves animals!!! he is fantastic with animals and can even ride a pegasus despite being male.

those are the basics of Tavish!!! ty for reading :D

I'm sorry I need to get this out to someone and I feel like you'd understand my frustration. I explained nicely to a friend actually El is a villain and linked to the interview. This was the response I want to tear my hair out I've had it with these people. This is really long sorry feel free to ignore

Here's the thing: Just because writers intend to do something doesn't mean they succeed in doing so. The original thought might have been to make Edelgard a villain, but that is not what came through in the final product. A villain, by definition, is a character whose evil motivations and actions drive the plot. Nothing about Edelgard's motivations are evil, and her actions are no more evil than any other Fire Emblem character, including Claude and especially Dimitri cont

To point, here are Edelgard's motivations / goals:1.) End Rhea's rule over Fódlan (Rhea's in specific; Edelgard says numerous times she has no qualms with the Church as a whole or people's belief in Sothis, but JUST the Central Church)2.) End the crest system and establish a meritocracy so nobles can no longer oppress commoners3.) Kill TWSITDThese are not evil goals. cont

Yes, she has to start a war in order to accomplish goal one, and War Is Bad, but unfortunately there is no such thing as a bloodless revolution. While Rhea was severely traumatized, her rule WAS going too far and she WAS running a dictatorship right down to having Seteth destroy any records that would reveal the truth behind the church. She needed to be stopped. And importantly, Edelgard never wanted to have to kill her. cont

Doing so at the end of CF was a last resort brought about by Rhea ordering Catherine to burn a city of innocents alive. This is why in the other three routes Edelgard merely imprisons Rhea, and in 3 Hopes is shocked when Claude asks her if she wants Rhea dead, saying, "Is it not enough to remove her from power?" It's also why Seteth, Flayn, Claude, Lysithea etc can be spared. Edelgard had to start a war for revolution, but she spares as many as she can. cont

Even though Claude COULD come back from Almyra with an army, and she KNOWS this, she lets him go. Because she doesn't want him dead. So no, she's not a villain, any more than Dimitri is a villain. Stopping Rhea's rule was just. Establishing a meritocracy is just. Killing TWSITD, the ACTUAL villains, is just. Edelgard's actions are morally gray, but she's not evil and therefore not a villain no matter what the writers' intentions were cont

Edelgard isn't a fascist because none of her actions hit the requirements for facism. In fact, again, the Central Church controlling what information people are allowed to have, entwining religon and the government, and also killing anyone who dares to stand up to them comes closer even if it's still not true facism. Edelgard isn't a dictator because she abdicates the throne IMMEDIATELY after establishing her meritocracy, as explicitly stated in her endings with Byleth and Lysithea. cont

She's not an attempted genocider because again she lets Seteth and Flayn go and only kills Rhea as a last resort, i.e. she never wanted to kill the Nabateans, she just wanted to remove them from power. So I don't want to argue either, but I've been dealing with this since FE3H released all those years ago and I'm tired of it. She's not any of the things her haters claim and I disagree that she's poorly written

How do you deal with this day in and day out? I actually want to die, thanks for letting me get that out

No worries anon. Truth be told I deal with it day in and day out by angrily typing up a post and then deleting it. Not saying you should do this or I'm bothered by the asks or anything! Just that, some times it helps writing shit out and just hitting delete before posting or replying or whatever. There's a looooot of shit that I've written about and to people that nobody has seen because it's just me venting and being angry, but having the self control to do away with it.

But onto the main topic: the person you were talking to in question is, like a lot of Edelgard's stans, looking at it in a remarkbly surface level way. And when they're not doing that, they instead are ignoring canonical lines that prove otherwise.

"Wants to stop Rhea's dictator like rule over Fodlan" sounds good on paper, but bringing in actual canon? Rhea is hardly doing anything. The Empire has not had major religious influence for over a century by Edelgard's time. The Alliance was created without any input from Rhea or the church. Faerghus is the only country that the church has any hand in assisting.

The censorship and banning of certain things? Fluff and window dressing that has no bearing on Edelgard's views because she doesn't know that the church banned shit and while she knows the church changed history, she is completely wrong on what was changed and why it was changed in the first place.

Not only that, Edelgard's campaign is fueled by ignorance and misaimed hatred towards a system that was already established before the church, since Nemesis in his incredibly long reign of terror, had these people called "The Ten Elites" who helped his ambition and conquering of the land, and the Elites offspring were already treated with prestiege because that's what happens when you're related to powerful warriors with shiny weapons that make you kill people faster or make you survive longer.

Rhea, as described by the writers, rewrote history for her benefit, but what's important is the details: she kept the Elites in a positive light because mass popular opinion was that they were good people, and-once again described by the writers-she didn't want to rule over Fodlan with an iron fist, she only wanted to keep the peace.

As for Edelgard "not wanting to kill Rhea", 1) the basis for this was one knockoff classroom question (that unfortunately Hopes tried to make canon cuz actual story consistency doesn't matter), when 2) she has a line before Rhea even sets fire to Fhirdiad about wanting to obliterate her and the other children of the goddess.

And sparing as many as she can? Edelgard? The person who victim blames people for fighting back until the end? The person who blames Dimitri for "keeping the war going" when he's merely defending his home? The person who orders you to kill a retreating commander who has already lost??? Never mind the fact that Edelgard herself isn't doing any of the sparing: it's Byleth. It's Byleth's choice to spare Claude, Lysithea, Seteth, and Flayn. Edelgard accepts that choice because Edelgard-in a Doylist sense-is written to defer to the player because you can't risk waifu marketability.

"Establishing meritocracy is just" is where I start taking this less seriously, at least from my position as a very left leaning person. Meritocracy is never just, because people shouldn't be judged on an arbitrary value of "how good they are at something" because it never works. It sounds all sunshine and rainbows, but once a bigoted person gets power? Merit becomes meaningless. The U.S. is technically a meritocracy in our social worksphere, yet a black man can work 10 times as hard as his white counterpart does but won't get hired because the man in charge is racist. That's what kind of environment a meritocracy can and will eventually fester: people's proven work ethic being snubbed in favor of the bias from the person up top. And given that Edelgard also has lines regarding her disdain for religious people in general (her words in regards to Almyra not "blindly following a goddess", her view of religious people being too weak), her disdain for people who can't do things by themselves, her disdain for people with no work ethic or drive to work... Yeah, she's gonna be a shit ruler.

To top it off, yeah her actions are fucking evil. Declaring war on independent nations with the purpose of assimilating them into your empire is evil. Utilizing monsters created from human experimentation is evil. Assisting in kidnapping is evil. Being complicit in regicide of another country and inciting coups in the same country in order to make it collapse, when that country did nothing to you, is evil. Having a serial killer be your attack dog and sating him with hunting grounds where he gets to kill people willy nilly is evil. Having Hubert as a retainer is evil (I'm only half joking on this last one too).

But yeah, all in all. Not surprised. Hope you have a good one anon, take a rest, if that person was your friend they... sound like a lot haha.

Hey Kynim, what reason could the Church of Seiros, the Central Church, to interfere with more positive relations with the outside world? Do they fear that different religions could make their role less important and eventually make them bo longer in control of Fódlan or even the most wierd idea; that new branches of the Seiros religion would develop in other countries like Almyra. The last one is a funny idea, but what is your idea on why they this is the case?

Gonna put this under the cut bc it got a bit long ;w;

FYI: I do not really enjoy FE3H/FEW3H discourse but I know topics like this will probably attract that sort of crowd. My bias is for Claude/Leicester/Golden Deer, and this includes the "dreaded" GW!Claude that people dislike. 3Hopes despite all the flaws in narrative I love over 3Houses in general. The other factions/lords, while interesting, I am not as invested. So please don't label me as some apologist for anyone that isn't my stated bias. 

BTW my answer to this ask will focus more on Seiros/Rhea so don't expect much Claude in this lol

In theory, I think the Church of Seiros would be ok with being friendly with the outside world. But the issue lies in Seiros/Rhea's priority of self-preserving 1) the remaining Nabateans and 2) the following that Sothis had with humans. And given how the Nabateans were nearly driven to extinction by Nemesis, I feel like Seiros/Rhea has a deep-seated suspicion of humans despite her image as the best holy woman since the goddess herself.

For her, the only way to prevent humans from causing another massacre is to make the current humans in Fodlan to believe in the goddess Sothis and never question her tenets. This meant hindering/banning things that could potentionally "reduce faith" in the goddess as mentioned by the Abyss text "The Encyclopedia of Fodlan's Insects" which you can read here. The title may be misleading but you can see some of the odd examples of Church banning things to maintain "peace" via preventing humans from questioning their religion with devices like telescopes, autopsy, and the like. We also see in GW that technology at least Almyra is far advanced compared to Fodlan, as seen here:

So it seems that Fodlan is an isolated area for Seiros/Rhea to feel safe over trying to spread its influence. It is important to note that the Seiros Church is a shelter for the archbishop. Keeping the area that houses her shelter safe is what she wants the most, which stated rather clearly in both games. Given that her first time she had to deal with the non-believers of Sothis ended in an extremely traumatic event, you can see why Seiros/Rhea is hesitant to reach out.

"But wait," you might say. "All these foreign nations seem to be intent on attacking Fodlan so they are a victim! Who wouldn't want to isolate themselves and distrust outsiders knowing that?"

The game unfortunately only shows the Fodlan point-of-view when it comes of past events...so it might seem that way at first. But it is also interesting how Fodlan despite being a "victim" of all these attacks, usually come out on top and end up subjugating/annexing nations, even claiming their superiority over them by calling their "foreign" neighbors as monster and savages. Given how Fodlan is sort of a loose parallel of Europe and how Eurocentric certain historical events are in academic books...I just don't personally buy Fodlan being completely innocent.

While Seiros/Rhea may not have actively supported these wars/conflicts in Fodlan, she still is their symbol whether she wants to be or not.Given how long her reign has been (either as Rhea or some other alias being archibishop), this weighted reputation precedes her. Yes, the game shows she isn't a cartoon villain and can do good. Her devout followers see it and fight for her.

While the game sucks at showing this, it is clear her long leadership is not perfect and has become stagnant, letting the nations abuse the system she had initially laid out (probably with good intentions?).  Insert joke of Rhea being the late Queen Elizabeth here. 

3Hopes glosses over this but in 3Houses we see her multiple times using the Church’s influence to do take action on things, like suppressing rebellions and ousting bandits (see: White Cloud events). Still, most of these are used to protect her establishment and the order she set for the continent. Other social matters, Rhea does not really do anything unless she herself is threatened. So people like Edelgard felt justified in waging her war to just...uproot all of that obsolete system to reset everything.

Is that a great idea? I am not really sure, but it did make for two fun FE games lol.

Since you seem to be following the Hopes playthrough of other Tumblr people, does that mean you don't know spoilers for it? If so, I will avoid discussing any so you can continue to enjoy their reviews as they post them. However I do have a question for you. You have a good outsider perspective as an audience who is not playing the game directly but still reading other reviews of Hopes. What are your thoughts about SB, GW and AG (assuming what you know by osmosis and thru reading reviews)?

Thanks for your ask, Anon.

I honestly don't mind spoilers, since I don't intend to play the game myself, nor will I use it as research for my writing.

As for what my thoughts on the routes are, I'm putting these below the cut, for those who are avoiding spoilers entirely. I should also preface this by saying that in 3 Houses Azure Moon was my favorite route, with Crimson Flower my least favorite, and Snow and Wind in the "meh" spot. I don't hate Edel, but I do think she's one of the villains of 3 Houses, so anyone who doesn't want to read any Edel criticism can bow out now, if desired.

Scarlet Blaze:

Monica's Edel simp personality has been retconned to be her actual character, rather than something weird that happened after she got Slithered. From what I've seen she even counts how often Edel sighs? If she were a guy, we'd slap a restraining order on him, so I can't take this seriously as good lesbian representation. Ferdinand apparently got even more shafted than before. Bernadetta's father supposedly has a similar personality to hers, which makes no sense with what we've learned of the man in FE3H. Linhardt's dad is... there. Caspar's dad has a crest he canonically is not supposed to have. Caspar has apparently been reduced from "I wanna grow taller and stronger and fight evil and injustice!" to "I wanna grow stronger and fight", which is sad to hear. I have not heard anything bad/OOC about Linhardt or Dorothea yet, so that's good. Petra's support with Dedue is about how he and Dimitri taught each other their respective languages, but Petra had no one, which only reaffirms my desire to recruit her out of her house asap.

Story-wise, I find it hilarious that Edel gets support from the church in routing the Slithers, gets to reform her country as she pleases... and then still goes on to declare war. Almost as if the imperialism had always been there. Apparently the church sent assassins after Count Varley once he became head of the Southern Church, which is super OOC for the Central Church (not so much the Western Church). I know the official summary talks of Edel looking to rout the Slithers, but apparently she doesn't even get to take out Thales--Rhea sacrifices herself to do so. The route ends with a high five from Edel and Shez, which... seems appropriate. I have heard nothing about this route that makes me think it's any more engaging than a high five. There are apparently two different endings, depending on if you recruited Byleth or not, but both of them leave the war open ended, which sucks. Overall, it sounds like Crimson Flower 2.0.

Golden WildTrashfire:

Poor Claude can't catch a break. In 3 Houses, the writers gave him a copy paste route, in 3 Hopes they decided to go against his established characterization for something closer to the first draft they originally had, and from there right into Edel Lite territory. I have not heard anything outrageous about the characterization of the rest of the Deer, so I can only imagine they got out relatively unscathed. Hilda is apparently even more bisexual in this than she was in 3 Houses, which I applaud. I am looking forward to hearing my mutuals talk about Leonie & Jeralt supports, if there are any.

Story-wise, the route touted itself as dealing with Almyra... which it apparently did for all of 8 chapters, before Claude suddenly decides to believe that Edel is right actually and killing Rhea will solve his problems. He then goes on to fan a border conflict between Sreng and Faerghus and ends up murdering Rhea. I think a Chinese reviewer put it nicely when he said it's like Claude spent three years hanging upside down, so all the blood rushed to his head and turned him stupid. Just like Verdant Wind, this route had SO MUCH POTENTIAL... and then they just decided "nah, fuck it, let's copy paste an Eagles route in the second half". It's tragic really. This route had the chance to be amazing for Claude and Almyra and instead just ended up being CF 2.Claude.

Azure Gleam:

The Blue Lions definitely drew the best straws, as far as I can tell. Dimitri is mostly in character, from what I hear (except for one weird line about how he started the war by sheltering Rhea and his super hedged response to Claude trying to get rid of the Church). His PTSD is still there, but never gets him has bad as it did in 3 Houses. Dimidue and Dimilix shippers get all the nice things, because these two in particular are actually there to support him. We get to see Sylvain's dad, who is much more fleshed out as a character, and Miklan gets to die defending a fort from the Empire, so Sylvain gets some juicy extra bits of family lore/characterization. Ingrid is apparently heir to her house. Other than that, I have not heard much about the girls. Oh, also Felix and Annette apparently only have one support conversation (but my OTP ... T_T) and Felix's mom exists, but still has no name.

Story-wise.... Dimitri's uncle was apparently involved in the tragedy, kept Dimitri locked up post Duscur, spied on him and even tried to kill him. I watched the cutscene where Dimitri gets to execute him and I have zero regrets. I have heard this game described as "Dimitri tries to reform his country while Edel and Claude play catch with the idiot ball in his yard". I know he ends up giving Duscur back to its people, arrest a few more people who were involved in the tragedy, and mostly defends his Kingdom from the Empire. Somehow this all ends with Edel being brainwashed by Thales, who gets killed by Dimitri? Ngl, as much as I like Dimitri getting revenge for his father, the last thing Edel needed was to lose even more of her agency. Aside from that though, Azure Gleam players seem to be happy.

Now as for everybody else: the wolves are there... I guess? Yuri apparently flirts with Sylvain, which just underscores his canon bisexuality. Sothis apparently got hit with the OOC hammer as well and is now acticely commandeering Byleth's body sometimes? Also, I hear she talks about the Heroes' Relics in titles (like Rhea's title as a dragon is The Immaculate One), which is super weird, since those are her kids. I mean, she never struck me as the best mother ever, but it still seems OOC. The church characters are... there, I guess. I haven't seen anyone talk about Alois yet. Catherine and Shamir are still gay for each other, which is good for them--they are my favorite sapphic couple in 3 Houses. Seteth and Flayn dye their hair at some point, and very badly so. Cyril gets some nice lines from Rhea during a paralogue which show that she really does care about him. Poor Rhea can't catch a break outside AG and dies in the other two routes, which sucks.

I also read the dev interview where they basically said "it's canon if you want it to be" and "we didn't want to invalidate the experience of 3 Houses" to justify their shitty cliffhanger endings, but ironically pissed off more fans than they made happy, from what I can see. I am curious to see what DLC they'll drop for this (because you just know they will).

i wanna know about your ocs 👀

VAR??? IN THE ASKBOX???

Aight well for now I got that fe3h house I've mentioned occasionally

I call them the Violet Vipers, because I like Violet and I like snakes, shut up

It's supposed to be a House just for commoners specifically, only one of them has a crest and that's only because she's a VERY distant relative of the Gloucester bloodline (Crest of Gloucester of course)

Everything below the cut sgfdfdoghbdfodpdsajiofkbjdf

(edit, VERY long post incoming)

So for more information on the house:

The church decided it wanted to bring in more students from all over, specifically commoners, to gain favor with the general populous. The Violet Vipers are having their first year, the year that the game takes place in The Vipers are very church-aligned, and if they had a "canon" path, it'd be Silver Snow, specifically for my house leader (more on her in just a second) A mass letter of sorts was sent out, and that's how students are picked. Students are still required to pay tuition, but because of their commoner status, they can take loans from the church. This is only so I can make Student Loan Debt jokes

For students, we have:

Ciel Izaac Aldis, the House Leader

Ciel was born a commoner in the Kingdom, but her family would travel around occasionally. She used to visit a church in the kingdom and showed extreme promise and skill. About a year before the start of the game, she was contacted by the Central Church who asked her if she would be the House leader for the commoner trial house. Ciel spent a year in Garreg Mach, leaning from the professors and training under them. She gained a special fondness for Rhea, because she was the person who made this all happen. After Ciel graduates from the Officers Academy, she is expected to become a student helper there, and then soon become a Professor But she doesn't actually want to be a Professor. This is just what is expected of her, she wants to make her family proud. She was gifted a wonderful opportunity, she shouldn't squander it. She THINKS becoming a professor is what she wants, but in a few of her supports she admits that it isn't

Chloe Gloria Benjamin-Frowe, the Retainer

Chloe is the only daughter of a merchant family from Fhirdiad, her family is very very rich. She has three older brothers and two younger ones, who kind of coddle her some. Chloe is very spoiled, she'd probably be good friends with Hilda. Chloe occasionally expects people around her to remind her to do things. She and Ciel became good friends at the class trip camp (like the one at the start of Hopes that's mentioned in Houses). They become very very close over the course of the game Chloe wanted to go to the Officers Academy just because she could. She didn't want to become a knight, she just wanted to go because it sounded fun. She's currently engaged to the minor noble of the kingdom, their wedding will take place after graduation. She's excited, but is this really what she wants? When the war kicks off, her engagement is put on hold until after the war. In her solo endings, she will be married to them

Silvestre Garrit

Silvestre was born to a mistress of some random guy in Hevring territory. When his mother realized she was pregnant, she fled to live with her sister in Alliance territory, where Silvestre was born. When Silvestre's father realized he had a child - because it was unlikely he would even be able to have one - he got into contact with Silvestre's mother and demand she send him back to Hevring territory Silvestre's father was always obsessed with the nobility and crests, he was a relative of nobles after all. He was most obsessed with the Hevring family, he idolized them. When Silvestre was 7, his aunt died in a bandit attack, and his mother couldn't provide a good life for him without her help. Reluctantly, she sent him to Hevring territory, to live with his father. Before he left, she gave him a small locket with a small portrait of the pair in it. As soon as Silvestre was in the care of his father, said father immediately cut all contact with Silvestre's mother, basically kicking her out of Sil's life completely. When Silvestre's father heard of the new commoner trial house, and that Linhardt von Hevring, the heir of Hevring, was attending the Academy, Silvestre's father knew right then that he had to get his son into the academy. He did everything in his power to get an offer from the Church, going so far as to steal the chance from another commoner of student age in the empire. Silvestre can't confirm he did this, but he suspects as much. While Silvestre was growing up, his father would constantly compare him to the Hevring heir. "Linhardt can do this, why can't you?" "The Hevring heir could do this better." Because of this, Silvestre gained a bad habit of constantly comparing himself to Linhardt, and it only got worse when they were schooling together

Ivor Riskin Foucher

Ivor was born in the same town that Silvestre lived in, in fact, they were childhood friends. Ivor was born to a single mother who died at his birth, but he was soon adopted by his two fathers When he and Silvestre were around 12, Ivor attempted to do magic, but a magical accident left him with scars all long the palms of his hands, miasma burns. He can do magic, but now it causes him extreme pain to do so. As a magic unit, his dialogue would change to grunts and groans to show this. Ivor works best when he's punching things however, at the core he's a brawling unit. When Ivor heard that Silvestre was getting into the academy, he showed interest in going as well, and his fathers agreed. Ivor's a big ol softy, literally. He's 6'4 and continues to grow, and will comment on this in passing. Another line of dialogue for him that I like it "Risk is my middle name! No, really, my middle name is Riskin."

Everett Wayne Heymer

Everett has lived on the streets ever since he could remember. along with his older sister. When Everett was still a toddler, a bishop of the church found them, and took them both in. After a year of living in the church, Everett was adopted out to the Heymer family (not canon) in Gideon territory, but his older sister was left behind and eventually became a bishop of the church herself Everett wanted to find his sister. As he grew up, he never stopped looking. He contacted churches, mayors, even other regions, but got nothing. When news about the Viper House swept Fodlan, he decided to go there, as the Central Church was housed at Garreg Mach, he'd have a better time finding her. He didn't care about schooling, he just wanted to find his sister Only in his solo ending will he ever actually find her Everett is an artsy student, he carries a sketchbook around with him wherever he goes. He's a fan of stuffed animals, he even has a teddy bear he keeps in his room. He's very shy, and prefers to be in places where the least people are

Juniper Eloise Ilberd

Juniper was born the only child to a couple in Gloucester territory. Before you ask, yes, she’s the one I mentioned earlier Her bloodline is a very very distant relative of Gloucester. In fact, it was thought no crests would ever show themselves ever, but here she is, born with one. When Juniper was 15, she was almost murdered. An assassin was sent after her, but she was able to survive and get away. Ever since then, she’s been hyper paranoid, and has been held up indoors most of her life and she’s never left home after dark. The stress of this event tore her parents apart, or rather, it was the straw that broke their camel’s back. They separated quickly, as they were never married. Juniper was bounced back and forth between their two houses, her parents were constantly fighting with each other. She was living with her mother when the news about the new trial house was sent out, and she decided to apply JUST so she could get somewhere else, away from the fighting. She thought that it would be the safest place in all of Fodlan, with so many knights there It’s implied that Count Gloucester sent this assassin after her because her existence was a threat to Lorenz becoming the next Count, somehow, but tbh this idea is a bit wobbly after Hopes’ release (yes, this was all thought about before the release of Three Hopes) She was two different paths depending on the Three Houses or Three Hopes universe, because yes, I made an entire other universe for Three Hopes. In Three Houses, she buddies up with Shamir and follows her around Fodlan. In Three Hopes, she becomes a knight under Lorenz, same as Ignatz

And now we have the last one, my favorite

Robin Galter

Robin’s origins are completely unknown. It’s not even stated on their student file where they’re from. Their birthday, their age, it’s all a mystery. They’re a fan of the stars, and love to go out at night to stargaze. While they’re in the Viper house, they tend to hang around Edelgard a lot. The two aren’t exactly friends, but they’re not strangers. Robin loves cats, one of their lost items is a cat toy that can be found in Felix’s room. They love the idea of going sailing, and have crafted small model boats, which is another possible lost item. They’re on course to become the most studious student of the academy to date, they do almost nothing but work and work and work. They’re not close with anyone, they don’t seem to have time for friends Their backstory is EXTREMELY long and would require a whole other post to get into, so I’m gonna cut off here. Let me know if you guys want that, I’d be happy to talk about them!

If something like a Golden Route in FE3H was possible, how would you personally like it to go/how do you think it would realistically go? (Feel free to read that as the same question or two separate ones lol)

after beating the game in its entirety, i don't think a "golden route" i.e. all the lords joining forces would be possible, no. dimitri and claude i could see forming a genuine, beneficial alliance. dimitri i think is a given since dimitri and edelgard's ideological differences are hashed out in the game itself but as for claude, he's against the system of nobility but not necessarily the existence of the central church itself and doesn't see them as evil or controlling humanity. i think he'd display more curiosity about the nabataens and their role in fodlan's past (and present) rather than having a desire to destroy them and wouldn't be on board with that idea, in-part due to his own life experiences. he doesn't seem to hate rhea per-se; his talk about how fodlan might be better off without her due to her doctrine shutting out the outside world and enforcing the system of nobility seems very impersonal, being less about rhea herself and who she is as a person so much as what role she plays in shaping fodlan and how its affected society. edelgard also is against her for that latter stuff but sees the nabataens as malicious figures in fodlan's history, and thusly sees the removal of the nabataens from...well...existence. claude, by contrast, doesn't cast rhea with that same malice. i don't think he cares for her very much but that seems like it has more to do with a combination of hailing from a nation where the church of seiros has no influence, his own thoughts about gods and religion, and his beliefs that do conflict with rhea. he's not fond of the church or its authority figures but he doesn't want to see it destroyed and i doubt he'd see it as beneficial to fodlan to do so.

on the other hand, i don't see claude agreeing whatsoever with edelgard's whole "pull yourself up by your bootstraps, if you're too weak to do that then you die i guess..?" thing. he displays himself to be a more compassionate person than that. that's where his beliefs are more in line with dimitri, i think. i don't see dimitri opposing claude's desire to open fodlan up to the outside world, for certain, especially considering dimitri's feelings about duscur. i dunno about whether they'd agree that the noble system is kinda fucked - i'd have to play through AM again to remember dimitri's thoughts on crests.

that's the fe3h-related thoughts. there's stuff that happens in few3h that's related to this that i feel like i should add on - though i'm not done with GW yet so it's incomplete thoughts i guess.

[ few3h spoilers ]

maybe my insistence that claude wouldn't be on board with edelgard seems silly in the face of him forming a pact with edelgard and going against the church in few3h, but he explicitly states it's a "we're using them just as much as they're using us" relationship and the stuff he says at the beginning of that conversation tells me claude really doesn't like or trust edelgard. as for him going against the church and kingdom - i think it's about context, not so much byleth's presence in his life (even when not in his house) so much as his time at the officer's academy and the events that play out in fe3h and the fact the church immediately allies with the alliance post-timeskip in VW (in the other routes though he's evidently more focused on preventing the empire's war from harming those in the alliance, a defensive position rather than an offensive one, so he has no reason to target the church. by contrast, in few3h, we're on the offensive.) those events don't happen in few3h. he doesn't have the same curiosity he does in fe3h because he's the king of a nation now and his mind is focused on that, whereas in fe3h as a student he evidently has the free time to be researching and otherwise be nosy (affectionate.) he becomes the grand duke in fe3h regardless of course but it's also evident his focus has shifted towards leadership post-timeskip, though obviously the "wtf is going on" part of him crops up again when rhea turns up. i'm hoping he turns around at some point in the story and realizes allying with the kingdom and supporting the church and fighting the empire is what the right thing to do would be, but i can only hope lol. catherine dying doesn't bode well for that though - at least, that's what it feels like.

fe3h claude and edelgard talks adapted from discord (discussion was before three hopes' release)

claude and edelgard have complimentary personalities, they cover each other's weaknesses and enhance their strengths, a friendship between them would help them both grow as people. I have rambled extensively on the subject if anyone wants to hear about it. also you know if they teamed up they'd be too powerful. they had to be nerfed for the sake of having a game to play.

it hard to imagine them ever teaming up in three houses exactly because those trust issues run so deep. edelgard has control issues shes very much my way or the highway although claude isn't the type to be controlled which forms an unstoppable force v. immovable wall paradox. it would sure take them some character development to become friends in the canon timelines. so i actually made up a whole college au a few years back because it'd be easier if those two didn't have quite as much baggage.

in fe3h its implied that the revelations with byleth were what pushed her to speed up her plans from the recovery of the sword of the creator and byleth's crest to rhea allowing people into the holy tomb and in few3h we do see that with edelgard starting her plans 2 years later.

i don't think dimitri would have made things better, if anything he's make things worse. for one he's so caught up in his own head that he can't see anyone else's problems. he would have just put the two on edge. dimitri's obsession with edelgard is also very one sided because he's projected all his complicated feelings about patricia/anselma and the tragedy of duscar on to her. ex: on yeah the 12 year old locked in a dungeon and tortured totally orchestrated the assassination and coverup of a foreign monarch. dimitri also very much runs on emotions while edelgard and claude run on logic with an idealistic core. while claude and edelgard are easily on the same wavelength, there's an inherent communication gap between them and dimitri which claude would be willing to cross because he's rather friendly and sociable but edelgard would not. they would both be so bad at it. you remember how it went with bernadetta and marianne? sure they got there but i was a very very rocky road. they're both so clumsy and dimitri is very sensitive (and murder-y)

I do think there is some limited potential for edelgard and claude in the fe3h like they both like boardgames. there's the questions of whether edelgard would be able to overcome her initial wall of seeing claude as a threat and instead see him as a potential asset and ally. you see this in most of her supports where she's evaluating her classmates as potential allies in her dream. a proactive approach if you will. while claude is always playing defensive trying to interact with other while deflecting about himself. a reactive approach. this is the base foiling aspect of their dynamic where edelgard is proactive and direct but bullheadedly stubborn and one she decides on something she will continue to pursue it to the end even when situations change and that original plan is no longer the ideal one. where as claude is constantly changing his plans in reaction to new information which makes him incredibly flexible and unpredictable but because he holds his cards so close to his chest theres a good chance that all his scheming will fall through and amount to nothing because he dosen't allow any of the work behind the scenes to be shown. Edelgard and Claude are at their cores very similar! its what makes them very compatible! different approaches but same heart.

as we see in edelgard's supports with manuela and others she doesn't necessarily hate all religion. at the beginning of their support she doesn't really get religion but her goal isn't to destroy all religion. she just hates how the central church has enabled and supported various injustices in fodlan and the unlimited power it and rhea wield. coupled with her buying into some agarthan propaganda about how monsters (nabateans) are secretly controlling the continent with no care for actual humans. Claude similarly is like agnostic, he doesn't really care about the personal beliefs of people, actively encourages a diversity in belief systems but he hates the central church for how it has enabled and supported various injustices in fodlan. Both don't really mind religion but want the central church gone and rhea dead. i read someone else's analysis a while back about how cf and vw are similar in that in both edelgard and claude must ally with a force they would rather be rid of (central church/agarthans) because they require their power for a greater purpose.

at heart claude and edelgard really are similar. both of them are dreamers and idealists who wish for a better more just and equitable world. which is the tragedy of it all, if only they'd talked they'd find that their dreams are quite compatible with each other. I think they'd even get along too since both are rather appreciative of both intellectual and cultural pursuits. In each others lives as friends edelgard wouldn't tunnel vision as much, claude brings a wider perspective to edelgard's drive and ambitions. edelgard brings a conviction and determinination, and while claude isn't necessarily lacking those i do think sometimes it'd do him good to pick a direction and stick with it openly. they compliment each other!

when it comes to trust edelgard has one big wall and claude has many smaller walls in layers like an onion. with edelgard its pretty cut and dry you're in or you're out. you see this in her byleth supports where after some initial distrust, after she left byleth in she relies on them quite a bit. oh and then there's her lapdog hubert. with claude its like he'll let you get a glimpse to deflect from something else. claude's actually very insecure. i think tina has brought it up before but if you saw claude among a normal group of people you be like wow what he went through was messed up and you'd see that he's hurting. its just that edelgard and dimitri are both so.... yeah... that claude looks well adjusted in comparison. they're ... mmm not loud... but more obvious with their trauma so its not quite as easily to see claude's insecurity and how many of his actions can be explained by it. its like edelgard with block an attack head on and claude will keep evading forever. neither know how to be open and emotionally intimate so they're clumsy as hell about it.

while claude isn't dead outside of his route like dimitri and edelgard are, he doesn't get off as scott free as a lot of people think. he more or less lost everything he had spent the last ~7 years building. and as i said he does all his scheming behind the scenes unlike edelgard who does more in the open, when he fails like this he has nothing to show. claude tried just as hard a edelgard he bet it all in the end and lost it all. (claude's habit of making increasingly risky bets the more dire it is another discussion). he lost most if not all his potential allies between gronder, myrdin, and derdriu, he lost his chance to be the head of change in fodlan, and he returns to a home that hates him with nothing to show for his efforts. that's crushing, he staked everything he had on his dream and he failed. because that wasn't just a literal battle for claude it was a test of his ideals, could a world free of hate like he dreamed really exist? and in addition in those 7 years he was in fodlan, he enemies have been amassing their power basses and expanding their connections and he comes back without any of that. claude outside of vw might have his life but he doesn't have much else, he's back to square 1. and can you imagine the strength it takes to keep smiling through that pain to get up again and not give up

oh yeah hubert is totally a bad influence and enabler in my (informed) opinion. he encourages all of edelgard's ego driven tendencies and ideas of grandeur like that she's special and chosen and fated to bring revolution to the world and be its Great Just Benevolent ruler. nevermind that the agarthans are likely encouraged some of those ideas as well. that she's the only one that can do this which drives her to never back down, never listen to anyone else opinion. because of course she is always 100% right and can never be wrong. not to mention all the stuff he does behind her back in her name. "he gave in completely to the idea of being her protector and hidden hand. ". hubert wants what's best for her but he too is only human and can only see things from his perspective

claude only knows how to interact with people in terms of exchanges so he feels that he has to give something. or like in marianne's support he offers up a secret of his in apology for prodding too much and oversteppingahh the long hard road of communication and mutual understanding~! claude's very well intentioned it says something that so many of his supports are about him trying to help people. even if he does it in a roundabout or clumsy way or like leonie's supports where he tries to help washing dishes even though he doesn't know how (one of the first signs he's someone important. i initially though he was from a hidden border town like balthus, but why does some commoner not know how to do dishes? and why would he have a personal battle instructor?). he's both scared of being vulnerable and yet also really wants to connect with people i think this part of him is interesting. "Hilda shatters that belief [that people only interact because they want thing out of him or to harm him] by sacrificing herself for him, since death is the ultimate end of anything being 'helpful' to you." yup and that claude failed to grasp that is very painful and very good. that he didn't realize how much he meant to others until it was too late. since judith and potentially others do the same. "if you think about how he sees 'connection' as asymmetric: he needs others to put trust in him while (as he thinks) they cannot really love him, while he can love but not trust. Vulnerability is something you'd be willing to show people that truly care for you, and he's worried about whether anyone really cares"

...

I agree with most of this post. But I am one of those people who thinks that Claude should have tried to just talk Dimitri into abandoning the Church instead of invading Fhirdiad.

I'm not saying 3Hopes Claude was necessarily wrong. Even I recognize that military pressure would have best facilitated Dimitri splitting from the Church. But I am SURE of that, only because I've seen how obstinate Dimitri has been in Azure Gleam, in falling back on traditional structures, through his fear of changing relationships with the Church, too quickly and too drastically. Do we know that Golden Wildfire Claude knows that? …He may have; he's smart. But 3Hopes Claude ultimately started a series of battles that killed lots of people, even to a degree that Claude himself regretted. Killing people, causing seemingly unnecessary deaths, is always bad...But it's kind of unavoidable in a war story...And yet, FE3H Claude seemed to avoid it more and set a standard, for pulling off seemingly "unrealistic", idealism. Consequently, a lot of us liked FE3H Claude BECAUSE he was able to pull off such "unrealistic" idealism. So when 3Hopes Claude did actions that went against the idealistic ethos of FE3H Claude, a clash with preferences should be expected. It seemed like he "lost" what we liked about him. Some went on the say that 3Hopes Claude was out of character (OOC)---though, I disagree with that, since I can believe Claude's trajectory changing, to even his 3Hopes characterization, given the unexpected trauma he experienced only in 3Hopes. I think what I'm saying is that 3Hopes Claude was objectively not wrong, but it FELT wrong, and that's a whole other issue that some people are ascribing to fault with the writing, instead of this new AU story having conflict with their personal tastes.

As someone who became a Claude fan from his FE3H version, I think we tend to be the type of people who want to believe in "unrealistically" idealistic solutions to conflict. We want to believe that if someone is smart enough, they would be able to talk people into understanding each other and resolving conflicts non-violently. That is what we want to see; that is the show we stuck around for. Otherwise, some of us wouldn't have become fans of Claude's ethos of negotiating vs warring, in the first place. The idea of Claude at least TRYING to resolve conflicts through negotiation and diplomacy, at least as first attempts, and recognizing through his military actions that war is too terrible to not avoid as much as possible, no matter how "unrealistic" or "impractical" it may seem, was important to me---even though I previously recognized (even before this post) that military pressure may have been the only way to get Dimitri on board with abandoning the Central Church.

From my 7:09 PM 7/14/2022 private post: "I wish they would have at least explained how forcing the Kingdom into a military corner could have given Dimitri an easier time cutting off the Church, or moving to combine forces in Firhdiad without the Empire getting suspicious."

Instead, we see a lot of scenes of Claude regretting killing people in these battles to invade Fhirdiad, apprehensive about all the people who are going to die in these battles to invade, and rushing to end the war quickly to prevent further deaths (which unfortunately may have implied a sense of brashness). I have been a defender of these scenes, because I think they really humanized Claude and emphasized the compassion that he was feeling (even when his actions failed to live up to it). I love this kind of angst, because it really gives a sense of the character feeling like they're stuck in a high-pressure corner, striving to maintain their compassion, and fighting their way out in any way they can see---even from a limited perspective. It's why I'm a fan of Lelouch vi Britannia, Devil Homura, and Micchy Kureshima. I love this type of angsty tragic story.

But at the same time, I understand that if you came here for semi-paragon FE3H Claude, fulfilling all your idealistic fantasies, but then were instead suddenly being presented with 3Hopes Claude, who didn't quite live up to that and didn't try harder for the "impractical", fantasy solutions through talking…Then disappointment is the expected result. Maybe it's just more noticeable, because we're all like a B movie horror audience, yelling at the screen, because "we know" what he "should" have done. I once heard a screenwriting critique that the audience wants protagonists who will come up with clever ideas that even the audience wasn't thinking of. So the opposite of that, the audience all having an idea to solve the conflict, that the character isn't enacting, puts a poor light onto a character.

…But maybe that was the point. Maybe the point was Tragedy. Tragedy in the character making mistakes or taking actions that lots of people in the audience saw as less effective, but the character themselves diegetically couldn't see any other option. I've been considering recently that maybe Golden Wildfire was intended from the beginning to be less paragon-catering than Verdant Wind, given the hints in 3Hopes Claude's costume design. Claude's 3Hopes costume is dark and even has intimidating, typically villainous elements, like that sharp pauldron and asymmetry. Elements that FE3H allowed Dimitri and Edelgard, but not Claude. Maybe 3Hopes wanted to flip things? It's looking more possible lately, that maybe Golden Wildfire was intended to be less of the idealistic "compassion solves everything" fantasy fulfillment than Verdant Wind. It's just unfortunate that the type of person (me included) that would love idealistic fantasy fulfillment, would be faced with its opposite, in Golden Wildfire.

(I'm just fortunate that I ALSO love the dark tragic opposite of idealistic "let's solve EVERYTHING through non-violence, talk, and sympathy for each other". "Let's solve everything through shameless violence" is also my guilty pleasure.)

Golden Wildfire isn't bad. It's just different. Different from the expectations that Verdant Wind may have set us up to expect from FE3H Claude. And thus, expect from Claude, in general. It's just divisive when expectations are subverted by the specific opposite of those expectations. (Though I don't think 3Hopes Claude was evil, he was certainly more an anti-hero, on parr with FE3H Dimitri and FE3H Edelgard.) 3Hopes kind of is the dark AU fic for Claude fans, and some of us didn't sign up for that...and some of us liked it anyway.

If I haven't made it clear though all my "I" statements and talking about my "personal feelings" to back up my arguments, I really think everyone is entitled to our own interpretations, and that's kind of the significance of media/art. I think of my posts like this, as more of processing my own thoughts, rather than telling the fandom "hey, you're wrong; I'm right and here's why!" nonsense. I am just offering my appetizer platter of food for thought, and if you don't want it, please dismiss the waiter without making a scene. So please, if you have a different take that's important to you, ignore what I've posted. And please confidently go on holding onto your interpretation that meant something to you. (Because I've run into some really defensive, insecure fandoms in the past, and that's never been fun for anyone.) But in actuality, it's because I have this whole philosophy about individualistic interpretation of art as a way to explore your values---That I will not prattle on more here!

Post Verdant Wind byleth canonized edelgard as patron saint of like revolution or something after a few conversations with claude and lysithea abt hubies letter and how the church's doctrine needed revising for Claudes dream to work and how fucked the crest system was I just decided

Question, do you think FE3H could've gotten a lot of its point with the Church across better had there been multiple Archbishops besides Rhea? Like, have Rhea be the Archbishop of the Central Church, and then have Archbishops for the Western and Eastern Churches as well, and then the Archbishop of the Southern Church is either gone or stuck at Garreg Mach. It could've helped draw some of the fandom's ire away from Rhea, and would've helped emphasize that the Central Church can only do so much to fix things when the rest of the continent is a mess.

Personally? Doooon't really think it'd help much tbh.

Cuz like, unless all the Archbishops were named, important characters of 3H, they'd just be forgettable no-names. which Edelstans would then use as evidence that Rhea is still the "head of the Church." May be a bit uncharitable of me to assume they'd do that, but these are also the same folk that make the arguments that the Church both 1) doesn't respect the sovereignty of the three nations by continually meddling in their affairs and 2) never helps the other three nations of its own accord.

Never mind the fact that Church does respect the sovereignty of the nations by only helping out - which it does do, regularly - when asked to... those are two inherently contradictory statements. "This institution tramples on the sovereignty of Fodlan's nations by... giving aid to them. Specifically when asked to. But also they never give aid in the first place."

Plus, Rhea would still be Nabatean, and Edelstans genuinely don't believe they have a right to rule over the people in any way. Rhea still being Archbishop, even if just an Archbishop of many, would still rile these people up simply because she's Nabatean. And that's not me just throwing shit at them either! They literally say it themselves that this is one of the main reasons they have an issue with Rhea being in charge of anything. They think "Oh well she can live a long time therefore she can't be trusted with any power at all ever." To hell with not saying a race should be disallowed from having positions of power, "they're not human so it doesn't count."

Plus, Edelgard is the main one painting Rhea in a bad light. She's the one that calls her a creature, a monster, part of the enemy that's plagued humanity, vile, cruel, someone who has no depth she wouldn't sink to - putting in a few more Archbishops wouldn't fix the narrative focus of Rhea being a villain for CF players. And since she's the one being given the most focus (which she still would be even with more Archbishops, because she's Nabatean and Edelgard hates Nabateans), Edelstans would still throw all their ire at her

For all the jokes about pope Rhea....... Since she isn't a pope, but an Archbishop, we are missing on the hilarious potential of anti-popes in Fodlan

Well the Western Church already calls the Central Church heretical, maybe they have an anti-Archbishop. The hierarchy isn't too clear

oh my god lmao i mean the western church wanted supreme power over the all the churchs and they had a head bishop that needed to be put down so maybe the considered him an anti-archbishop so to speak?

from what we know here’s the church of seiros hierarchy:

archbishop. oversees large areas of churches called archdiocese. basically just a district like garreg mach.

cardinals. they’re higher than archbishops irl and are the leading bishops and members of the college of cardinals which elect the popes. but in fe3h they seem to be right below the archbishop and their identities are hidden. some people don’t even believe that they exist. they also agree to have a crest fragment that is used as a last ditch effort to protect the church.

bishops. those who hold the full sacrament of holy orders. this includes baptism, confession, communion, confirmation, marriage, and anointing of the sick. in 3h they seem to be ministers of the faith and healers.

priests. a baptised man who has received the sacrament or holy orders. in 3h they’re low level healers and teachers.

nuns. unsure where to place them. they’re only seen as female in the game and the only named one is sitri. it’s not a class that can be used by the player so stats and function are unknown.

the whole catholicism motif really confounds my read of the central conflict of fe3h mostly because if the irl clergy of the catholic church was secretly a race of endangered ancient dragons i still don’t feel like i could forgive the shit they’ve pulled

Verdant Wind is my favorite. FE3H route. it is less involved in the Edelgard Dimitri rivalry. it doesn’t focus much on the corruption of the church. It does, however, have a greater focus on the history and scale of the game. The countries of Fodlan are not the only countries in the game. The stories of Fodlan’s Lockett, the need to protect the border, while also working with Almyran troops to invade for Mercius. What would be the central, and perhaps only, primary conflict in any other Fire Emblem game receives some attention, but neither Edelgard, or Dimitri are the final boss. The inclusion of Nemesis may seem random, but no other route allows you to fight the villain introduced in the opening cut scene. The inclusion of the Ten Elites and Nemesis show that the breath and depth of Three houses goes beyond the three houses themselves.

Spoilers for Ashe’s character on various FE3H routes

I'm still trying to puzzle out inheritance rules in FE3H. Considering Ashe's endings, it's clear that he has claim to Gaspard, which is a landed title. So why does he end up serving under House Rowe during the time skip? Was Rowe his regent since he hadn’t reached his age of majority? 

(Who has hold of Gaspard after Lonato’s death? It’s clearly not Ashe. The Central Church while they investigate the Western Church? Did Ashe think pre-time skip that he was basically disinherited and that Gaspard had been usurped by Rhea?)

Do we know what the age of majority is in the FE3H world? By the end of the Academy phase, Dimitri is 18 and still has a regent, so clearly he wasn’t old enough to rule on his own yet. Felix and Claude are both old enough to rule without regents post-time skip. So--sometime between 18 and 23 must be the tipping point. (In that age range, 20 seems like a reasonable, round number? But we don’t have an exact timeline from what I can tell as to when Claude got his title, and everyone else who had their title before him overthrew/usurped their parents, so they’re not a good guide. XD)

If so, that means that means the odds are in Ashe’s favor that he came of age during the time skip. So why is he not head of Gaspard?

It makes sense in the Azure Moon route/unrecruited Crimson Flower route that Ashe would serve under Rowe (if Rowe were his regent) prior to Rowe falling in line with the Empire, and then abandoning the lot of them afterwards. He wouldn’t be leading Gaspard then. I don’t have any problems with that.

But on Verdant Wind/Silver Snow, when Ashe shows up as an enemy regardless of recruitment, why isn’t he head of Gaspard? He most likely was of age, he’s on the side of the Empire, and the Church has fallen apart.

(And in the chaos of war, why didn't Rowe just murder Ashe in his sleep and annex Gaspard? And if Rowe DIDN'T do that, why not, and what happens to Rowe after the war? 

Not that I want Ashe murdered in his sleep--though an assassination attempt or two would be fun--I'm just questioning why it didn't happen and why he spends at least some time in every route pledged to Rowe when he should have inherited a landed title.)