Fire Emblem: Three Houses was an overambitious game with amazing ideas it was never able to realize. Fortunately, we got a miracle rarely seen in the industry: The writers were given the chance at a do-over with Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, released a few years later. Rather than a sequel or straight remake, Three Hopes presents an alternate timeline where the house leaders never met Byleth, a want of a nail that changes the course of history.
I’ll be discussing the plot in detail this time, so once again I recommend playing or watching yourself. This time it’ll only take you a mere… (checks) …23 hours.
Three Hopes in many ways feels like a second draft of Three Houses and fixes most (but not all) of the problems I had with the plot. There are now only two shared chapters before the house plots diverge, Claude gets a unique plotline, Dimitri and Edelgard get to properly confront Thales, and the plotting as a whole is much more coherent.
Instead of playing as Byleth again, Three Hopes stars a new protagonist, Shez. Like Byleth, they are a mercenary bound to a god, but their god is Arval, an Agarthan. In the prologue, Shez’s mercenary company is slaughtered by Byleth and Shez survives due to the intervention of Arval; this results in them having a chance meeting with the three house leaders instead of Byleth. Shez is offered a position at the academy, not as professor, but as student, and chooses one house to join.
This is an immediately interesting setup that emphasizes how different things will be this go-around. The former protagonist is now an antagonist, cashing in on their reputation as the Ashen Demon (which was mostly informed in Three Houses since they started as a level 1 scrub) by showing us what it’s like to be on the receiving end of their prowess. In general, I think this is very well-done. Byleth is now fully voiced and gets more dialogue, but their characterization is still consistent with the stoic, taciturn portrayal they had in Three Houses. They recur several times as a recurring boss until you eventually take the role of FE dad slayer and kill Jeralt, leading to Byleth swearing their own oath of revenge. Byleth retaliates by killing the house leader’s own surrogate parent (Rodrigue, Judith, or, uh… Randolph) before facing you in a brutal duel just before the finale, both them and Sothis dying to your blade.
However, what makes this more interesting is that it is actually possible to recruit Byleth instead, though it requires some complex and unintuitive actions in a crucial chapter. In this case, Shez abandons their vow of vengeance and hires Byleth, which means we get to see more of Byleth’s character from an ally standpoint as well. Unfortunately, Byleth only has supports with Shez and Jeralt, which feels like a wasted opportunity. Those supports are very good, though, and Jeralt’s in particular is genuinely heartwarming and has big autistic feels surrounding Byleth’s difficulty expressing their love for Jeralt.
I thought the contrast between these two outcomes made for an interesting statement about cycles of revenge and violence. Byleth’s initial attack on Shez wasn’t personal, and when pressed by Shez insists they were just doing their job. By killing Jeralt, Shez believes they’re giving an eye for an eye, but instead, Byleth just escalates the conflict further, causing more death and necessitating more violence. By letting go of their grudge, Shez is rewarded with a less bloody outcome. It’s one of the few times in the series where you can make a real principled stand against violence.
Recruiting Byleth also adds extra chapters at the end of the story that resolve lingering questions about Arval and the Agarthans, but I honestly find that less interesting because I don’t care about the Agarthans. Arval is a brain copy of the Agarthan leader at the time of Nemesis, or something? Oh, but don’t think having an Agarthan ally means we’ll get more nuance with them, no, they’re still evil.
It has been a long, long battle. My race wavers at the brink of extinction. And so it falls upon me to reclaim this world, that what was stolen from my people might be theirs once more.
And this is wrong.
What’s more interesting about the bonus chapter is that it gets all three house leaders together for some delicious character interaction. It’s rare to see the house leaders interact outside of conflict, and we get some beautifully candid politicking and looks into how they could have been friends had circumstances been different. I particularly enjoyed the talks between Claude and Edelgard, as they probe the question of just how far Edelgard plans to go in her conquest and if she’s justified in doing so, which are crucial and interesting questions to her plotline.
The important part of all this, though, is how Shez’s existence changes the political plot. First, we finally get an answer to one of the big unanswered questions of Three Houses: Why did Edelgard direct Kostas to attack her and the house leaders in the prologue? This plot point is brought up early and then just vanishes without any follow-up. Here, it’s finally explained: Rather than trying to assassinate Dimitri and Claude (which was always a stupid theory), she was trying to scare off their professor to create an opening to install Jeritza, her mole, as replacement. Byleth ruined this by being Rhea’s special baby and getting appointed instead. Shez, however, is a nobody, so Rhea gives them no special treatment and Jeritza is appointed as planned.
This sets up a chain of game-changing dominoes for Edelgard. With Jeritza as professor, he can direct the students to raid the compound where Monica — the real Monica — is being held under the guise of it being a regular church mission, rescuing Monica before she is killed and replaced by Kronya. The church obviously wants to know why one of their students was kidnapped, giving Monica the chance to finger “Thomas”, outing Solon and getting him expelled from the monastery. This in turn provides grounds for Edelgard to voice similar “suspicions” about “Arundel” to Rhea, giving the church probable cause to provide her the military support she requires to oust Thales from Enbarr and take back the Imperial throne. This is the exact kind of political genius and outmaneuvering of the Agarthans I so desperately wanted to see from her in Crimson Flower, and it immediately sets expectations for how different and action-packed this plot is going to be.
Already we’re able to answer the next of my questions: How much of Edelgard’s actions were her own vs. the Agarthans’? It was very unclear in Three Houses exactly how much power she actually had and what she was actually culpable for. Here, there’s no ambiguity: Edelgard frees herself of the Agarthans at the outset, so all of her actions during the war are definitely her own. Notably, she does not use demonic beasts this time, so you can cross that off her war crimes list.
While this is happening, Dimitri successfully ousts his own Agarthan usurper and ascends the throne at the beginning of the war instead of at the end, allowing us to see how he behaves as a ruler instead of as a creepy weirdo, a vast improvement. This also means he restores Duscur immediately… though he keeps it as a vassal state of the Kingdom so I’m not clear exactly what that “restoration” entails. (Dedue never points out what a betrayal this is and remains ride-or-die for Dimitri, of course.) At the same time, Claude repels an invasion from an Almyran prince, finally cashing in on Three Houses’ insistence that Almyra is a serious threat to the Alliance. After a timeskip of two rather than five years Edelgard once again declares war on the church, producing a similar conflict but with extremely different initial conditions.
Because each of the routes are unique and complete this time, I’ll be going over them individually.
Golden Wildfire (Leicester)
Claude has an actual plot now! As implied but never stated outright in Three Houses, Claude is a prince of Almyra, a kingdom neighboring Fodlan that often attempts to invade the continent through the Alliance. However, his mother really is a noble of House Riegen, making him biracial. His mixed heritage gives him an appreciation for both cultures, and so Claude wishes to end this conflict peacefully by making diplomatic inroads between Almyra and the Alliance. This is contrasted with his foil and half-brother, Shahid, who seeks to claim the throne by military conquest.
Relevant to this conflict, we get a new playable character: Holst, an Alliance general oft referenced but never seen in Three Houses. I love that he is just as aggressively pink as his sister Hilda and complements her extremely well, being a muscled giant who fights with skilled swordplay while Hilda is a petite girl who fights with a honking great axe. Sadly, however, we still don’t get playable Judith, which is a travesty, especially since it’s bizarrely uneven that only one Byleth victim is playable. Come on, devs, you couldn’t have sprung for two unique Alliance units to make up for zero in the last game?
However, after repelling Shahid in the prologue, Claude pivots to keeping the Empire off his turf, and unlike in Three Houses actually gives us insight into the Alliance’s politics. The campaign proceeds similarly to Crimson Flower (the Bridge of Myrddin followed by Derdriu), but from the opposite side, which I think is really interesting. In the process, Claude demonstrates some genuinely good leadership:
Claude: If [the bridge] falls into the Empire’s hands, there’ll be no keeping the war out of Alliance territory.
Ignatz: I’d hate to see innocent towns and villages getting caught in the fighting.
Claude: With the way things are going, though, I think we should be ready to abandon the bridge if necessary. If we go in determined to hold it at any cost, we could end up sacrificing a lot of lives in a battle we have no hope of winning.
Leonie: If worst comes to worst, it’ll be up to us to evacuate as many of our soldiers as we can.
Claude: The war with the Empire won’t end with the coming battle, so I want to keep our losses to the absolute minimum.
He is explicitly willing to compromise military objectives to save lives! Moreover, the battle actually ends with him doing so, which is genuinely surprising in this series where you almost always accomplish your main objective in a chapter. This results in the Alliance fracturing as the border lords defect to the Empire, something we were told but never really engaged with in Three Houses. Here, the danger of the Alliance’s fickle politics form the crux of the plot, showing us just how precarious Claude’s position really is.
Claude: The count’s greatest concern has always been keeping the people of his territory from getting swept up in the war. It only stands to reason that he’d prefer a noble surrender to a lengthy, bitter resistance.
I love what a contrast this is to Dimitri.
We also get to see Claude flex his strategic genius, something that was more of an informed attribute in Three Houses. After luring the invading force deep into Alliance territory, he convinces the border lords to switch sides again, retaking the Great Bridge and splitting the Imperial army in two. This is a genuinely smart play that shows how Claude is able to outmaneuver his enemy even from a disadvantage. Then, despite having his enemies over a barrel, he offers terms of surrender before engaging, because he’s once again better than Dimitri.
Claude then attempts to retaliate by striking at the Adrestian homeland, but is forced to retreat by another Almyran invasion. Unlike some people he doesn’t think twice before dropping everything and doubling back to protect his people.
Count Bergliez: The enemy’s retreat takes them through our territory’s richest grainfields. If we engage them, the Empire’s breadbasket will go up in flames. What’s more, they’re leaving those fields untouched when they could just as easily set them ablaze. We’ll repay their decency in kind.
I am living for these delicious, delicious logistics. Look at the lovely nuance we get when both sides are decent people instead of cackling lunatics!
I also love how they emphasize Shahid as Claude’s foil by having him use the exact opposite tactics; Shahid believes victory comes down only to having superior numbers and demonstrates this by throwing a massive, yet disorganized army at Claude, which Claude once again outmaneuvers through diplomacy and superior tactics. This also demonstrates why Claude is the better leader: he cares about minimizing casualties, while Shahid thinks nothing of using soldiers as cannon fodder. Claude, true to his ideals, offers his brother mercy even after everything, but Shahid refuses, forcing Claude to kill him. I found this genuinely poignant, and a really effective demonstration of Claude’s ideals and the challenge he faces in reconciling the two nations.
After another timeskip, Claude allies with Edelgard this time instead of kowtowing to Dimitri for no reason! This was teased as a possibility in Three Houses, as their goals are broadly compatible, but neither feels safe enough to reveal their true ideals to the other. With Edelgard in a safer position she’s now able to take that leap of faith, and the result works much better for the overall plot. Edelgard shares her intel on the Nabateans and Agarthans, allowing Claude both to get vengeance for Lysithea and to open Fodlan’s isolationism by taking out Rhea, furthering his own goals of integration with Almyra. Opposing Rhea makes much more sense and engages more with Claude’s actual motivations, rather than the utterly random final boss he had in Three Houses.
Unfortunately, I think the writers ran out of steam here, because the second half of Claude’s plot is significantly less good. Almyra becomes pretty much irrelevant after this, and after such a strong initial showing Claude proceeds to clutch the idiot ball to a degree I can only describe as character assassination. See, according to the developers, Claude originally was going to be as shady as he looked, but they ended up toning this down for Three Houses. Here, they’ve dialed it up, leading to him taking a lot of very callous and dubious actions. While I’m normally supportive of pragmatic and morally nuanced characters — I love Edelgard, after all — the “pragmatic” actions Claude takes are actually really, really stupid and anyone of his supposed intelligence would know they would cause more problems than they solve.
The very first thing this genius diplomat does after Edelgard asks him to assist her army is to use the Imperial unit as bait and get them all killed. This should logically burn any goodwill the Empire has towards him and put him on Edelgard’s blacklist, but it inexplicably leads to zero consequences beyond forcing him to kill even more Imperial soldiers when Fleche finds out and tries to kills him. He did not need to do this, any commander with half a brain would know it would come back to bite him, and it flies in the face of his supposed ideals. Instead of being the smartest and most idealistic of the house leaders, he now looks like the stupidest and most callous.
But that’s far from the stupidest thing he does. It’s on another route, but in Scarlet Blaze, if you fail to recruit Byleth, they somehow convince Claude to betray the Empire in the absolute stupidest way possible: By loudly telling everyone he’s betraying them right before a pitched battle, then joining said battle himself to ensure he dies and the Alliance gets handed to Edelgard. This is the brilliant strategist’s master plan? Wade into battle wearing a giant “Kill Me” sign? This is even stupider than his “kill my ally for no reason” gambit in Golden Wildfire, to the point it feels like character assassination. Claude would never do this, I refuse to believe these lies. What’s especially infuriating is that the circumstances of the battle gave him the perfect opportunity to pull an actually clever betrayal: It’s a massive battle between three armies in the middle of extremely difficult terrain, which gives him and his wyvern riders a significant advantage. That would have been a great opportunity to use the Empire as bait and then mop up the survivors, and exactly what an actually smart strategist would have done. But no.
However, the absolute worst thing he does, which I will never forgive him for, is this:
Claude: As you know, the Leicester Alliance is governed through a council of representatives known as the Five Great Lords. As the Alliance Leader, it has been House Riegan’s responsibility to convene the roundtable and secure the approval of the other lords on matters of policy. The lords of the Alliance felt this was the best system to serve the welfare of their people. And in peacetime, maybe it was. But there’s no denying that the roundtables have hindered our ability to respond swiftly to emergency situations. And it doesn’t seem like Leicester’s current state of emergency is going to end anytime soon. Which is why I put forth an important proposal at today’s roundtable. One that’s since been approved. As of today, the Leicester Alliance will be reborn… as the Leicester Federation. All authority has been entrusted to the king of Leicester. And as it just so happens, I have been chosen to serve as the Federation’s first king.
That’s right, he destroys the only non-monarchic government in the setting to seize absolute power for himself, because democracies are for sissies. Can the fandom kindly stop insisting he’s more progressive than Edelgard now, please? While he makes a valid point about the need for more centralized power during wartime, the fact he calls himself the Federation’s “first” king pretty clearly indicates this is not going to be a war-only thing. Leicester is a permanent monarchy now. We’ll just have to hope Edelgard will reverse this terrible mistake.
(Charitably, it’s possible that succession will continue to be determined through election rather than primogeniture, but if the writers wanted that to be the implication, they should have used a different term than “king”. I know you know words for other types of rulers, you used them in past games.)
Overall, I get the sense that they did this route last and ran out of time before polishing it. The first half is great, but the plot of the second half is so haphazard and Claude’s behavior is so nonsensical. Though Claude’s opposition to Rhea makes sense in the abstract, I think it feels very rushed that he just suddenly says “BTW I want to destroy your religion and radically overturn your social structure” and everyone is inexplicably fine with this. Though it’s miles better than Verdant Wind, it still has the feel of a rough draft.
Azure Gleam (Faerghus)
But hey, it could be worse!
Dimitri has somehow gotten even worse in this rendition. They (rightly) ditched the schizophrenia aspect, but in my mind this just makes him worse, because now his actions can’t even be excused with an insanity defense. He is now the stone-cold realpolitik leader Claude wishes he could be, and everything he does is explicitly for his own self-interest. Like, you remember how in Crimson Flower he jumped to grant Rhea asylum? Did you consider that to be one of his few redeeming traits? Well, now we get to see how that actually went down:
Dimitri: As you’re aware, we have already begun accepting refugees from Garreg Mach. But a few days ago, I received a confidential request from Seteth asking us to protect the higher-ranking members of the church, including Lady Rhea herself. Of course, we’d only meet this eventuality were Garreg Mach to fall. As it stands, we find ourselves quite literally stuck between the Empire and the church. I’m not sure how much longer we can remain neutral.
Viscount Elidure: If I might, Your Majesty. Troubling as it may be, I believe it prudent for us to reject this proposal from the church outright. Offering them shelter will only serve to provoke an invasion from the Empire. This matter of the Southern Church concerns me as well, but I believe we have more important matters to be fussing over at the moment.
Margrave Gautier: Your counsel is much appreciated, Viscount Elidure, but I assure you things are not as cut and dry as you make them out to be. The mandate granted to the king of Faerghus and all the lords who serve under him is given legitimacy only by the grace of the church. Are we to renounce the very heart of this Kingdom simply because we shudder at the thought of invasion?[…]
Gustave: Your Majesty, we owe a great debt to the Central Church for their role in quelling the uprising two years ago. To not repay such generosity in kind would risk weakening the trust of your vassals.
Felix: And if that happens, we might find ourselves right back in the same mess as before. They lack the Crest of Blaiddyd, but there’s no small number of nobles who might crawl out of the woodwork claiming royal blood. The Kingdom’s already seen the turmoil and division such claimants can bring after the death of King Klaus.
Viscount Elidure: But Duke Fraldarius! Surely we are better served attempting to head off the very real and imminent war at hand instead of debating hypothetical unrest?
Dimitri: I don’t want my people to suffer the pain of conflict. But does anyone here really think the Empire will simply stop if we appease their every demand? Suppose we do let the Empire take the archbishop. And suppose we accept this new Southern Church. Then what?
Gustave: I imagine the Empire plans to install the bishop of the Southern Church, Count Varley, in Lady Rhea’s place. I fear I’ve heard nothing good concerning either the man himself or his teachings. They purport to be an arm of the church of Seiros, but the Southern Church is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Empire at large.
Margrave Gautier: In other words, rejecting the Central Church in favor of this new Southern one would be no different from flat out accepting Imperial rule. It’s hard to say just how they would treat our kingdom were such events to unfold. Though I imagine it would involve heavy taxation for the express purpose of bleeding Faerghus dry. And filling the Imperial coffers.
Dimitri’s council debates, at length, whether they should bother to help the church at all, and only choose to do so for purely selfish reasons. Not because they think the church is good, not to repay the church’s previous favors, but because it’s necessary to prop up the legitimacy of the crown. This is worth sending Kingdom citizens to die in droves in a completely avoidable war. Because somehow, the Empire gaining control of the church would give them the power to tax the Kingdom to oblivion, and that’s worse than risking the Kingdom’s very existence and all its people. (And if the church has the power to levy that much tax, that’s a pretty strong argument for Edelgard’s position!)
(Oh, and of course on the other routes, when supporting the church becomes inconvenient, he and his advisors agree to throw them under the bus; so much for knightly loyalty.)
Before the scene is even done, he kindly demonstrates why Edelgard is completely right that monarchies are terrible:
Dimitri: We’ve all been informed of the rapid reformation [the Empire] has undergone. Many aspects of which I admire, I’m not ashamed to say. But an old, stubborn land like ours isn’t suited for such tempestuous change. Radical new freedoms are not what the people of Faerghus need right now. They need stability. Steady improvement of their daily lives.
“I, the ruler with absolute power, have decided on the peoples’ behalf that they’re just not ready for a system of government where I don’t have absolute power.”
He really says this with a straight face. Just. Wow. You are awful, Dimitri.
He even reiterates this in Zaharas at the end of the game:
Dimitri: You’re going to do away with the church?
Claude: That’s right. Think about it. Who steals your freedom and gives you an endless list of duties and obligations simply because you have a Crest? Who forces you and your friends into a bunch of unwanted marriages and positions of power? […]
Dimitri: But to be clear, your quarrel is with the church, yes? Not with Faerghus itself?
Claude: Exactly. We have nothing to gain by fighting you. And really, our enemy isn’t the actual church so much as the people at the top who make all the decisions.
Dimitri: I understand where you’re coming from, Claude, and on a personal level I actually agree with you.
Claude: Buuut as a king you’re opposed?
Dimitri: Yes, for three reasons. First, abolishing the church would deny the king’s right to rule Faerghus. Without one, the people will descend into chaos and war. Would you be able to take responsibility for such a thing, once it came to pass? Second, recklessly discarding the church will only incite discord among the clergy and its supporters. And finally, a revolution of this nature will not only mean casualties among the commonfolk, but will endanger your own life as well.
He knows and even agrees the church is evil, but supports it anyway for political reasons. He not only admits this openly, he has the gall to pretend he’s doing it for the people after starting a war that killed tons of people. Oh, and he finishes with this:
Dimitri: But don’t you see? The people you wish to depose are human, just as you are.
BAHAHAHA. I mean, yes, for all intents and purposes the Nabateans should count as “human” in a moral sense, but this is still such a hilarious way of phrasing it that proves just how scummy Rhea is. The people Claude wants to depose aren’t human, Dimitri, they’re dragons who pretend to be human so they can use you like pawns to prop up their own power. Though now that I say that, monarchy works pretty similarly, so I can see why he’d be empathetic.
Having established that, guess what Dimitri says in public right after deciding to sacrifice people for his own power in private!
Dimitri: The blood spilled today will be a worthy sacrifice if it means keeping the people of Faerghus…the people of our home safe.
Just straight-up lying to everyone. Even Claude would blanche at this level of stone-cold realpolitik, wow.
So, guess what happens immediately after he starts a war to stop the lords from rebelling? One of his lords rebels, because oh right, the church killed Lonato’s son and he’s still pissed about that! So even that excuse was a lie. It’s not like the Kingdom nobles are all pro-church, they’re split between pro- and anti-church; a civil war was inevitable no matter which side he picked. Dimitri has to have known this, but he still picked the church.
Dimitri: Lonato must be found and put to the sword as soon as possible.
He says this in front of Ashe, after nobly offering Ashe the chance to defect to Lonato’s side and… what, get executed alongside him? Obviously Ashe doesn’t take this bait and just goes “I’m a royal knight so of course I exist only to serve you, Your Majesty! :D”
Lonato: You must reconsider, Your Majesty! The Central Church’s “blessing” is naught but a poisoned chalice!
Dimitri: Forgive me, Lonato, but I must grasp it all the same. This is the brightest future I can give my people.
Lonato was “your people” before you chose to side with the tyrants who murdered his son, you selfish prick. And we know this is a lie anyway because he just told us his real reason for supporting the church was to preserve his own power.
How does Ashe feel about this by the next chapter?
Ashe: Hey, it’ll be nice to strike first for once! It feels like we’ve been on the back foot for a while now.
Dimitri: Right you are. And remaining on perpetual defense would only lead to more meaningless, preventable deaths.
Shez: Offense is the best defense, I always say. We’ll crush anyone who has the gall to stand against us.
“Like your dad, who we just murdered yesterday.”
Next, Cornelia finally gets off her butt and captures the capital, and Dimitri continues to have zero self-awareness:
Dimitri: Just remember, the soldiers stationed here are not mere soldiers—they’re Kingdom citizens. And as such we have a duty to protect every last one of them.
Wow, I guess none of Lonato’s soldiers were Kingdom citizens! Who knew?
Dimitri walks into an obvious trap and gets captured (Dedue is fine with this betrayal of his promise), because he doesn’t understand how monarchies work even though his friends do:
Felix: Ngh… But if we move too rashly, the Imperial forces near the fortress will grow wise to our maneuvers.
Sylvain: As though any of that’ll matter if the king winds up dead. Losing Arianrhod would be the least of our worries then. We’d be trapped in a massive war of succession, and easy pickings for the Empire.
Wow, it’s almost like monarchy is a terrible form of government! Edelgard just keeps being so right.
But don’t worry, Cornelia inexplicably keeps him alive and unharmed and doesn’t even try to use him as a bargaining chip when his friends inevitably show up to save him.
Cornelia: It’s always such a shame to see such promising young flames rush to be snuffed out before their time. I must admit, I went too easy on you. Perhaps I should’ve torn your eyes out and bound you in chains instead.
Cornelia helpfully points out her own plot hole.
Not to be outdone, Dimitri tries to interrogate the person he knows can teleport, which obviously results in her just taunting him before exiting stage left and setting up the next conflict.
Cornelia: Viscount. Your son, the one who married a distant relative of House Gautier. They’ll have his head. Same goes for the kin of all the other western lords.
Viscount Mateus: No…
Cornelia: This king is a fool, to be sure. But he’s not foolish enough—or kind enough—to forgive those who serve his betrayers. I guarantee you that. His army will begin their march to subdue western Faerghus any moment now. If you don’t want your territory stolen from you…or your life, then your only choice is to rise in revolt.
Viscount Mateus: Yes. Yes, I understand. We will mobilize at once!
I didn’t go into this in the Three Houses review, but just… look at this. Why are the Agarthans even here? We’re told that they’re secretly masterminding all these conflicts behind the scenes, but they barely have to even nudge their patsies to make it happen because the seeds for conflict are already there. Are we really supposed to believe the rebel lords were too stupid to come to this conclusion themselves? Are we supposed to look at the fact they don’t spend a moment questioning “The crown will kill your family for defying them,” and think they don’t have a valid reason for rebelling? You can cut the Agarthans entirely and just let the existing villains have actual agency! We don’t need another layer of secret masterminds!
Dimitri immediately proves Cornelia right by choosing to kill his own people over repelling the invaders.
Shez: We need to go help Arianrhod. If we don’t ride out soon, the fortress could fall.
Rodrigue: Now wait just a minute. What becomes of the uprising in the west if we do that? Of course, we can’t turn a blind eye to the Empire’s attack either, but taking the sword to these insurrectionists must be our top priority.
Dimitri: Indeed. Considering the relative urgencies of both situations, the trouble in the west takes precedence.
This is the exact opposite of that one mission in Last Scenario. How do decade-old RPG Maker games continue to have better writing that AAA games? Meanwhile, the Good Rebel™ explains that violent protest is very wrong:
Baron Dominic: Of course, aspects of Lambert’s reign troubled me as well. Yet one can never predict what may lie on the other side of a violent, radical revolution. With that understanding in mind, I decided to obey the late king’s wishes. If you took issue with his policy, you should have made a formal protest. Surely a dialogue is a more preferable outcome to cold-blooded murder.
Viscount Elidure: Any protest we made would never have drowned out the chorus of his blind devotees.
Baron Dominic: Wrong. His Majesty would have listened had you only explained your troubles. I’m sure of it.
YOU LIVE IN A MONARCHY. Hilariously, Dimitri proves him wrong as soon as the rebels try to explain themselves:
Viscount Gideon: This was our only option, Your Majesty! The western lords, we…
Dimitri: No words can spare you now. You may plead your case to my father beyond the veil of death.
Gee I wonder why they didn’t make a formal protest!!!
Cornelia inexplicably isn’t able to warp away this time and does actually die, but not before she plays Dimitri like a fiddle by blaming everything on Edelgard. Dimitri at least isn’t a total idiot and decides to get Edelgard’s side of the story before taking further action.
Ashe: You want to get answers from the emperor of the very region we’re at war with? Is that even possible? I mean, Edelgard is our enemy. She and her like have stamped the life out of so many of our allies.
“When we aren’t stamping them out ourselves, that is. Like you with my dad.”
There is also a subplot where Dimitri proves he does agree with Edelgard’s politics when it benefits him by hiring Miklan, the bitter noble who was disinherited for his crestless status.
Dimitri: Though I do see use in such a man. What he did in his time as a bandit was monstrous, I admit that. And I deserve no small amount of judgment for giving him command in spite of it. But I can’t help but wonder. Perhaps his life could’ve been dramatically different had he only possessed a Crest. Same as the uncle I murdered.
“Perhaps” his life could have been different! Perhaps! Gotta leave open the possibility it’s no one’s fault and the abused kid is just inherently terrible! We just don’t know.
You might think this means he’ll get a nicer fate than in Three Houses, but no, he sacrifices himself for his father, because that’s the only way abused kids can be redeemed.
Margrave Gautier: I may have disowned him as my son, but I see no reason not to avenge him.
…
Then Thales shows up, lobotomizes Edelgard, and takes back the Empire. This is a really weird twist that makes very little sense (why didn’t Thales do this earlier or on any other route), and I suspect it was done solely because Edelgard and Dimitri would have no reason not to join forces otherwise and that would resolve the plot too quickly. As a result of this, the Alliance joins the Kingdom instead of the Empire and the political conflict is put on hold while we fight the spooky demon men.
My favorite part of this is Rhea slowly piecing together that Arundel is Agarthan, in the process admitting she’s a complete idiot:
Rhea: Edelgard told me as much before she left to deal with the upheaval in Enbarr. Regent Volkhard von Arundel was colluding with Tomas and his fellow knaves. For many years, Lord Arundel was a pious adherent to the church and its teachings. Until one day, his contributions abruptly ceased. Speaking of it now, I realize such a sudden change ought to have raised suspicion.
YEAH. YEAH IT REALLY SHOULD HAVE. How did you survive 1000 years like this, you imbecile? Did the Agarthans only develop shapeshifting tech recently? I guess they must have, because if they had it from the start she’d have been dead within a century. It’s also hilarious that Rhea needs Edelgard to clue her in to the fact her ancient enemies are hiding in plain sight, once again proving why Edelgard is the better ruler.
Dimitri also admits to the fact he’s a terrible person:
Dimitri: In a way, [Edelgard] and I are no different. Starting wars of our own volition, sending countless innocent lives to the feet of the goddess. However noble one’s reasoning may be, a deed like that cannot go unpunished.
So you agree, you deserve to be punished? Will you take responsibility by, perhaps, removing yourself from power after this war is done? No? Then you and Edelgard are, in fact, quite different.
Ashe: There’s no turning back now, not after what we’ve done. But I don’t regret any of it.
Really, Ashe? Can’t think of even a single thing?
To be fair, the Adrestian characters exhibit plenty of idiocy too. Edelgard’s friends somehow fail to notice Edelgard has been lobotomized and continue to oppose the Kingdom, extending the war for no reason. This includes Caspar and Leopold fighting to the death to protect Duke Aegir after they backed Edelgard’s coup against him.
Randolph: And we’ve lost far too many of our most formidable generals, including Marquis Vestra. I’ve not the slightest idea what’s befallen our forces at the capital, nor in the east for that matter.
Jeralt: Yes, the whole army’s been feeling a little off lately. Thankfully you and your squadron still have your heads on straight.
Randolph: It’s a sad state of affairs out there. Hardly any dependable leaders remain. Instead we’re left with those who take pride in senseless looting and slaughter, or compete to see who can reduce more villages to ash. Each and every one of them handpicked by His Excellency, the regent. […] Should I perish in this fight, you can consider your contract terminated. You’ll be free to stop supporting the Empire in its foul descent into depravity.
“Everyone’s suddenly committing war crimes! I’m just going to complain about this instead of doing anything.” DEFECT, YOU IDIOT. (Bonus points to Fleche, who just abruptly performs a suicide charge at the start of the battle for no reason.)
Of course, it’s also pretty dumb that Dimitri never even tries diplomacy despite knowing there’s been a sudden power shift, especially after he just finished dealing with a civil war in his own territory. It’s also pretty arbitrary which ones retreat and which ones fight to the last, despite Dimitri very openly allowing them to retreat. This would have pathos if they were fighting for justified reasons instead of just being too stupid to realize they’re fighting for the baddies. It’s almost like cackling evil antagonists are a terrible addition to the plot and everything would be way better without them.
Rodrigue: Imperial nobles will battle to the bitter end to protect their homes, just as we would. I suggest you get used to it. Everyone we face from this point forward will strike at us with the same vigor.
Sylvain: I guess it’s kill or be killed, huh? It’s exhausting just thinking about the road ahead.
Ingrid: Do not complain. We are only doing this to restore peace to Fódlan, remember?
So you agree with Edelgard, the ends justify the means?
Dimitri: No doubt [the Agarthans] had a reason for what they did— a sense of justice that rationalized their savagery, even if to no one but themselves. But we have the right to seek our own justice for those actions in the way we see fit— by the sword.
…….
The bonus chapter if you recruit Byleth is a little different in this route — Edelgard gets cured of her mind control while in Zaharas in order to keep to the same script, but immediately goes back to being lobotomized when you return. Despite knowing she’s under mind control, Dimitri is still completely callous towards her in the ending. He does, at least, get to learn the truth about the Tragedy and confront Thales properly. We also learn that Patricia really was in on the Tragedy, which… okay? A character we never see was actually evil. This means nothing to me.
I laughed at the idea that Crimson Flower was the “villain route” of Three Houses, but this sure felt like a villain route. You’re fighting for someone who’s the final boss in every other route, the protagonist outright says he’s acting purely in his own self-interest, and you kill so, so many people. The only way they could make Dimitri look good was by pitting him against someone even worse.
Scarlet Blaze (Adrestia)
Saving the best for last. While Edelgard got shafted in Three Houses, this time it’s clear the designers polished her route above all the others, as well they should have.
Before the war, Edelgard makes the interesting choice to restore the Southern Church, smartly providing an alternative to the Central Church to avoid alienating the faithful, and chooses none other than Count Varley, Bernadetta’s abusive father, to wear the “Please Kill Me” sign I mean miter. Dialogue makes it clear she knows exactly what she’s doing and it’s great. In the final chapter you’re tasked with protecting him, but unlike most other “defend” missions, this one is optional and you can in fact let him die with minimal consequences. Even during the mission, everyone is just dripping with contempt for him:
Hubert: We should rescue Count Varley if at all possible. It will not be easy to find another man to wear the miter.
[…]
Yuri: I’m tempted to ignore [Varley], but we’ll have a mess on our hands if the cretin actually dies.
[…]
Bernadetta: My father’s been killed? Oh.
Delightful.
The first chapter has you invade Garreg Mach, an event referenced but not shown on the other routes. Rhea makes sure to establish her villain chops right out of the gate:
Rhea: Edelgard is already using the Southern Church to erode our legitimacy, and now she has the gall to try and remove us by force? There can be no mercy for tyrants. So help me, I would to put her entire army to the sword myself.
LOL. Edelgard, in contrast, quickly establishes why she is The Best:
Shez: We’re gonna smash the place to rubble!
Edelgard: While I appreciate the enthusiasm, we need to keep it in one piece. The Empire has use for the monastery once we’re done here. Understood?
She also likes you better if you say you have reservations about fighting your former school than if you’re totally gung-ho about murdering them. But tell me again how Edelgard is the real evil.
You then get to actually save Lonato this time! Not only that, you can recruit Ashe instead of forcing him to kill his dad! This is so cathartic after how badly this situation went down in Three Houses. After the timeskip Edelgard allies with Claude as in Golden Wildfire, and we get an interesting parallel to Azure Gleam where Edelgard must hunt down her own faction of rebel lords, this one headed by Duke Aegir, the man who sold Adrestia out to the Agarthans. Unlike Dimitri, she does not gloat over killing them, and Ferdinand voluntarily kills his father instead of being forced to. Also unlike Dimitri, Edelgard offers him more than token platitudes and gives him autonomy to decide the fate of Aegir’s subordinates. We’re also reminded the only reason this happened at all was that Edelgard was keeping Aegir alive to give him a fair trial. I found this a very satisfying beat for Ferdinand’s character arc, and fully explores his family plotline instead of unceremoniously dropping it after the timeskip as in Three Houses. The route ends with an epic three-way fight with both Rhea and Thales, allowing Edelgard to defeat both of her enemies at once, as it should be.
I also love Edelgard’s conversation with Claude in Zaharas:
Claude: Hold on. You’re just looking to capture Rhea? You’re not gonna… You know, get rid of her?
Edelgard: Is it not enough to subdue a foe and remove them from power?
Claude: I’m just surprised. I would’ve expected you to be more… thorough.
But tell me again how Edelgard wants to genocide the Nabateans.
This route felt the most solid and satisfying overall, and is the full plot Edelgard deserves: She acts under her own power instead of under the Agarthans’, allies with the lord most similar to her, and gets to confront her tormentor properly. Excellent job, writers, you have redeemed yourselves for the mess that was Crimson Flower.
However, the writers really struggled to come up with who should get death-by-Byleth on this route, given that Edelgard has no positive surrogate parents. They settled on… Randolph, which I honestly suspect may have been a joke given his memetic status as “the guy who always dies” in Three Houses. Rodrigue and Judith’s deaths are heartbreaking (well, Judith’s is, anyway), but this is nothing. I maintain that the victim should have been Monica, which would have been absolutely brutal. Imagine how painful that would be: Edelgard risks so much and tries so hard to save Monica, the action that sends the entire story spiraling down a different path, only to lose her anyway. Come on, writers, this was so obvious!
Unfortunately, the ending is the weakest part of the story, as after you beat the final boss the writers remember, oh right, there’s still a war going on, so you just get a phoned-in ending scroll pretending the result isn’t a foregone conclusion. In principle I don’t actually mind this, given Thales and Rhea were the real villains and their defeat is the emotional climax of the story, but it’s still really disappointing in a series where we normally get detailed epilogues. I think it would have been viable to add one last denouement chapter where you kill or spare the opposing rulers so we could get a proper ending. Byleth could be integrated into this, too — say that the moment of shared camaraderie in Zaharas makes the rulers more willing to sue for peace after their mutual enemy is defeated, while otherwise they fight to the bitter end. I think it would also be clever if killing Claude resulted in you getting sniped by Almyra because whoops, you killed the one guy who could have stopped that! Civil wars are all well and good but you gotta watch out for foreign threats too!
But even though there are still rough edges, I’m overall very pleased by what we got here, and it really demonstrates the value of giving these massive media projects more time to cook. They rushed Three Houses out the door and left us with a half-baked mess, but with Three Hopes they were able to give this fantastic cast and setting the plot they deserved. I just wish they had made it another strategy RPG instead of this sword-juggling silliness.