Edelgard deserved better
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- čas přidán 2. 09. 2019
- Edelgard was the most popular lord and even the most popular Three Houses character before the game got out. But her "secret" route in the game is so, so much worse than the other campaigns.
This video obviously has spoilers for Three Houses, most notably Part 2 for Crimson Flower (Black Eagles). Also some FE4 spoilers, but those have warnings in front of them.
#fireemblem #threehouses #edelgard - Hry
Edelgard killing Dimitri in the rain should have been a cutscene. Don't @ me.
Absolutely. Seeing that he's one of the main forces, his death should've been cinematic
Soda Cans his death in GD is borderline criminal
@@jackielana9993 he isn't really integral to the story in GD. He is one of the main antagonists on BE.
Josh Evans but he deserves more than a text box I’d say
@@jackielana9993 Well. Think we can all agree the game could use more cutscenes.
I think her route should have ended with her actually defeating the people who slither in the dark, instead of just implying that she does defeat them. Hopefully we get this in the dlc.
I was honestly surprised her route didn't actually fight and kill them given how much her backstory is connected to them. I do find it amusing that the defeat of slither was just a passing mention in her epilogue.
Or as a free update. Or at least give us some cutscenes on Crimson Flower!
God I hope not, this game turned out too good. It's not a Fire Emblem game if fans don't hate this game. So we need to leave at least some bad taste in fans mouths, and if that bad taste is supposed to be Edelgard then so be it.
Expensively priced DLC that does the bare minimum to flesh out the characters. But hey it will add some extra loot that will be kinda meaningless because you naturally find better stuff by the time you get it.
At least it will have a useful shrine that makes your sacred weapons better, but the shrine will be locked until you've already finished the game, making it meaningless.
Yeah this is what I'm expecting of such a dlc.
@@Gatitasecsii you dont know the content lol
Mekkkahs laugh turns me into the Life Knight
mekkkah's laugh also cured serenes forest
Mequah’s laugh also restored Celica’s soul
Mekkah's laugh fixed Ferdinand's stats.
Mekkah's laugh makes the Gatekeeper playable
Mekkah's laugh compels me to become a Wyvern Knight
Wow Mekkah can't believe you made a whole video about Mangs not classing Edelgard into a Wyvern
You mean people DON'T leave her in her unique classes?
Wyvern was the obvious class for Edelgard, she is my queen after all
@@ZacChilds Ey dun wahn it
The fucker did _what!?_
@@ZacChilds When you don't ever class anyone into Wyvern riders cause their armors are so ugly.
Being married to mangs is a pretty bad way to end her story
What do you mean? Everybody wants to marry mangs.
@@GrayWilks id rather just end myself now than marry that manchild
@@matjaz5684 ooooooof
I quit watching Mangs when he claimed Marcus was the best unit in fe7 and if you disagreed you were the worst fe player ever.
@@matjaz5684 Ouch.
The cherry on top of this is that while Crimson Flower keeps missing cutscenes like part one, the church route has a many awesome cutscenes, including the Edelgard reunion one that CF lacked.
Thing is, all the cutscenes in the Church Route, other than seeing Edelgard again and the ending, are all already used in the GD Route.
The thing is that, even if repeated, they are there. Crimson Flower has one cutscene, Silver Snow has four, two exclusives. Even if they aren't only for Crimson Flower, it would have been nice to see some.
@@xinora3065 I would have at least liked a cinematic of Byleth falling into the ravine after being blasted by Rhea, and one showing Byleth and Edelgard's reunion after the timeskip rather than just a CG.
The real cherry on top is how we deal with TWSITD off screen. I felt robbed.
@@zachataxxii7126 It's more like the GD route reuses the Church route cutscenes. Take a look at them again.
The Javelin of Light? No showing/reference of Claude or the Almyran army.
Edelgard's execution? No showing/reference of Claude, why isn't he here, when Dimitri's route has him being in the cutscene. Not to mention that Edelgard calls you her "teacher" which is only true *if you picked Black Eagles at the beginning*.
Rhea tanking the Javelins of Light? Once again, Claude isn't present. It's only Rhea/Byleth.
These were cutscenes that were designed with the church route in mind, and planted in the GD route, regardless of whether or not they fit.
I swear her S rank confession picture to Byleth makes her look like the crazy girlfriend meme.
She technically is a crazy girlfriend
I dont get that impression at all, the game makes every female character's eyes look like that.
@@Sitarman345 it's not her eyes themselves, it's mostly the spacing
The spacing just changed the whole scene
The Crest was to blame.
"i destroyed the kingdom and the alliance. my country is the only one you can live in"
Your reaction to the Edelgard confession is GOLD
*Elmo laugh intensifies*
I come back just to see his reaction 🤣
God it’s weird hearing edelgards old voice
Yeaaaah, like, glad they put Tara platt for the role... Nothing against the old one, just, she does a mean "I'm a prestigious studious woman" voice well
Hard agree, Tara Platt is a perfect fit for the role.
Ye
CZcamsSaidToCreateAUsername Let that be a warning against breaking NDAs.
The old voice is too soft and feminine for a character like Edelgard. It might have suited Mercedes though.
It really says a lot when in the main game, you learn more about edelgard in dimitri's route than edelgard's own route.
Not really. Blue Lions only tells us about Edelgard's early childhood with Dimitri. Everything else about her past and motivations can only be found in BE.
Spoilers
Honestly it blew my mind when I found out they were cousins or siblings or whatever when I played through BL after BE
@@urfork1 step siblings
edelgard got married into the family
@@DevilHunter1994 her motives can be found on BL. The convo beetween Dimi and Edie before going to Enbarr.
@@yoran4067 Okay so I watched that scene again. It really doesn't give you anything in detail. Yes the player can infer from what Edelgard says that something caused her great suffering and made her lose all faith in Sothis, but she never explains what that something actually is. There's no mention of any experiments or her having to watch her siblings suffer and die right in front of her. She also gives no details about her plans for the future and the policies she wants to implement, just some vague rhetoric about breaking the cycle of the weak being dominated by the strong. It's a lot of dramatic flair without any real substance to it. Really all the scene confirms for the player is that this wasn't all just something that Edelgard decided to do out of nowhere, but In order to really understand what Edelgard is after in all this, you have to play Crimson Flower and go through her support conversations that actually explain her past and the kind of world she is hoping to create by the war's end.
“And this other girl called Ingree”
The main theme of the game is even about her. The Japanese title is called "Girl of Hresvelg". That's a pretty big point too lol
She is literally the central character of the whole game and she gets the shortest and laziest route. It's like if the main heroine of a Visual Novel got the worst possible romance.
A little too on point of you ask me.
@@Darkyan97 except edelgard isn't supposed to be a heroine. She's a good villain that has a really crappy route where you get to be the bad guys
She's not a heroine. The game is ABOUT HER. No matter the route,it's her game,but she's always the anti-villain
@@busbee247 Except she is still the central character of the plot and also an anti-hero protagonist on her own route. If the game gives us a route to be the so called "bad guys" at least flesh it out as much as the others.
Like Soul Nomad and the World Eaters.
Yeah the Demon route was more "Omnicidal Maniac" than "Evil for the Greater Good" but many people consider that Evil "non-canon" route as good as the normal route *or* even better.
The space between her eyes is how far we are from getting a genealogy remake.
That far huh?
Quick! Somebody Photoshop the image.
Far or close?
. .
_
@@NYEH-HEH-HEH I meant what I said. That's how far we are
When she becomes a cyclops it'll release.
I couldn't agree more with you. The fact that the endings says that they deal with Those who slither in the dark offscreen was an incredibly huge waste. Instead of having 18 chapters, dealing with them could have been a part of her route very easily.
Gonna change when the dlc BE story complete soon
@@therealjaystone2344 wait the dlc is for the black eagles
nick sanchez coming soon but maybe as a free update
@@therealjaystone2344 No it's not, the story DLC was confirmed to not be attached to the main plot and will be side story content.
YogurtRetzel I’m not talking bout the April update
Edelgard route was so different and looked like it was on a budget, like it could have had more chapters
Yeah, I feel like it kinda ended abruptly. I also wish we got a post war fight with Those who Slither in the Dark, it seemed like they were really setting up for that.
@@starranger4104 Agreed. Prett5y sure we were supposed to. The whole reason we joined with them was to use them, then kill them ourselves after Rhea, but I guess they forgot lol
Agreed, post timeskip way so quick, she literally conquered the world in 4 chapters
I feel like a budget was a big part of it, and the story DLC they've promised may expand on it slightly? Though perhaps that's wishful thinking.
@@sithguy20awesome I really hope that the dlc is that and more but I'm doubtful. Plus if it is, then it would feel like the story is kind of ripped off because it really should be in the original game
I know it has nothing to do with the main point of the video, but on the topic of Byleth falling asleep, (spoils for Seteth Flayn a support and Golden Deer)
the reason why Byleth falls asleep is because (s)he is a Nabatean. Nabatean’s are shown to sleep in order to heal injuries, like Flayn. Flayn (or Cethlean) was injured in the battle with nemesis and the 10 elites and thus went to sleep for an insanely long time, which is why Seteth is so protective of her, as he is scared if she were to get injured again she might go to sleep and never wake up. Some evidence of Byleth sleeping to recover is Resting restoring sword uses, and Byleth passing out after exerting him/herself
Well, that’s cool I guess.
That's also why it says in her notes that she hates sleeping.
Azure Triedge But is Byleth Nabatean? From Rhea’s explanation in the church route, they’re like some kind of imitation. The idea is the same though I think
@Ced von lewyn TBH The maps are very badly designed. Just breeze through them with Wrath/Vantage.
Hmm. What about Linhardt's borderline narcolepsy? I kinda always attributed that to his crest of Cethlean, but I admittedly don't understand the genetic implications of Crests. How does Linhardt even have a crest of Cethlean if Flayn has no descendants? It never was answered by their support
I love Edelgard's character but she really did deserve better. I'm going through the Blue Lions route right now, and I feel betrayed. A cutscene for the Flame Emperor reveal, a cutscene for the cause of the timeskip, and a cutscene for the reunion with your house's lord, meanwhile the last cutscene before Crimson Flower is when Byleth turns super saiyan and Crimson Flower's *only* cutscene is right after the final battle.
And yet it's not like the marketing or the beginning of the game were the only things putting Edelgard in the spotlight. The original japanese title of the full vocal version of the main theme is "Lady of Hresvelg" and the lyrics are clearly her feelings towards Byleth in CF since they mention a longing for the sun, which she mentions in her C+ support, and the light which El calls Byleth in their B support.
Not to mention, all non-remake Fire Emblem games since Radiant Dawn have had one blue-haired and one silver-haired protagonist. Ike and Micaiah, Chrom/Lucina and Robin, Azura and Corrin, hell, even Heroes is doing it now, changing Veronica's status from villain to ally.
It's baffling how her route got shafted compared to the other 3.
Yeah it's really heartbreaking. But I dare to say her *maps* post-timeskip are some of the best in the game next to GD's Final Map (especially Chapter 17 and 18). And while it's got only one cutscene, it's still my favourite in the game. Also overall my favourite ending to both Fódlan and Byleth.
I really hope we get some additional cutscenes/chapters in CF in DLC or as a free update though.
At the very least, a resolution with Those Who Slither in the Dark other than some blurbs of text...
Yet I'm picturing that final Cutscene on GD with Edelgard instead of Claude and it's too darn badass!
I agree the CF route needs more but it made me very satisfied either way.
I'm pretty sure the song is about her role in the war and you can get that C Support before you go on Silver Snow, right?
@@nuibaba280 The lyrics of the song imply also Byleth has already reached for her hand since she doesn't want them to take back their kind hand. There are also more lyrics that can be directly connected to Crimson Flower.
And as for the supports, C+ does happen before the split but it's also required to be able to support her at all, and B, where she calls Byleth the brilliant light happens only after you choose to support her.
It's funny that I did the "secret" Edelgard route by accident at first. I honestly thought it was just the regular canon lol.
It is regular though. Nothing secret at all. The japanese title has it Fire Emblem: Wind, Flower, Snow, Moon. So it was always supposed to have 4 routes.
@@EmojiMkII It is secret because you can miss the route without knowing it exists. Church Route is the default and you have to unlock Edelgard's.
@@night4345you wont really miss it if you do your professor job each month, you only need to speak with edelgard in the 11th chapter to unlock said route. But you do need to do 1 thing contrary to the other.
I just find it so strange that Byleth would just NEVER ask about why his dad was killed, or anything like that on Crimson Flower. So many plot points are just never dealt with on that route.
I mean Hubert told Byleth at chapter 13 they work with the guys who killed his father to use them for the war and after that, they will destroy them. But sadly, the last part isn't playable and just off-screen in the ending :/
I’m surprised you didn’t talk about how 90% of the loading screen tips in the game consist of screenshots of the Black Eagles as well.
Boy I love getting the tea tutorial right after the cutscene where Dimtiri goes bonkers from the flame emperor reveal.
"Here's how you have tea with Edelgard"
DIMITRI JUST KILLED A GUY WITH HIS BARR HANDS!
It really irks me that on Edelgard's route no one cares she was the Flame Emperor. As soon as you side with her the Flame Emperor fades out of existence.
NONE of the main characters question her actions as FE. None of them question her connection to Kronya/Solon/Death Knight. She flat out admits to Byleth that she's working with the other two and Byleth has no reason to keep that information to themselves. It feels like as soon as you pick "protect Edelgard" the whole of the Black Eagles turn into Edelgard's group of yes men.
Her being the Flame Emperor is less relevant in her own route than Dimitri's.
EDIT: It's been a year and I simply do not care about this mediocre game anymore please stop responding to this comment.
Yes, it pisses me to no end that there was a bigger emotional reaction from the Blue Lions campaign from Dimitri than there was from the Black Eagles on their own route (Don't get me wrong, that cutscene when Dimtri loses its awesome........but its disappointing is not addressed in the BE campaign nearly as close as this)
I think seeing the Immaculate One freaked them out enough to side with Edelgard. That's the only explanation I could give
Honestly, though, from everything you're told, there's little reason to care that she's the flame emperor.
'Cause what did the flame emperor do, exactly?
Tell the Death Knight to leave and state unequivocally that he didn't have anything to do with the human experiments?
@@MalevolentDivinity The flame emperor hired Kostas to assassinate Dimitri and Claude. Flame Emperor organizes terrorist attacks against the Church. Attempts to murder Byleth at the tomb and all of Byleth's students as well as soldiers of the church. I know it's a Fire Emblem game so murder isn't taken very seriously, but imagine finding out your house leader was a murderer and a terrorist in real life and not reacting lmao.
@@Paulkotsu
You're not aware of the fact that the Flame Emperor had anything to do with Kostas whatsoever. Those cutscenes don't include Byleth in any way. And, on top of that, Kostas was given the task of killing any nobles he came across.
You'll note that Edelgard was in that group.
Seems a bit odd that she'd make an attempt to get rid of her rivals which would also end with her own death. And that she wouldn't use a more substantial assassin than some no name bandit were her goal to actually get rid of such notable individuals.
There's literally no indication that the flame Emperor was organizing the attacks against the church. And even if there were, it's pretty easy to justify standing against the church. Atop that, no, Byleth's students aren't soldiers of the church. They're citizens of the Adrestian Empire, Faerghus, or the Leicester Alliance.
If my house leader reveals that they're this person who I've been told is totes mcgoats a bad person but hasn't really done anything scorn worthy, before saying they don't like the church and want some crest stones, Imma conclude that they probably have some reason for that.
Only thing I'm bothered by is that I wasn't allowed to join her side before that fight started, considering I had figured out who she was a few months before because Hubert drew attention to her absence.
Agreed. I’ll add that the Edelgard route takes multiple units away from you (Flayn, Seteth, Catherine) and doesn’t give any in return. Would have been a perfect opportunity to give you the Death Knight who is woefully underdeveloped even in other routes, and who Edelgard actually told you she’d reveal more info on but never actually does.
Edelgard’s route also lacks any meaningful three-way discussions between the main lords, which I had hoped pre-release would have been a more major part of the game. You knock out Claude in two measly chapters and four chapters later you’re done with Dimitri and Rhea. If anything, as the most important character in the game, she should have had the most developed route, but alas.
MetaNachos THANK YOU!!!!
I know you can spare Claude but idk if that actually does anything since I didn't know that you could spare him so I killed him...
I feel strong dispointment...
@@starranger4104 SPOILER: It does nothing. There is 0 difference, he never has any involvement past that chapter, thus the decision is entirely pointless other than to make the player feel less guilty by sparing him (if they choose to do so).
Yeah, i really thought you would get Ladislava, Randoplh & Fleche to make up for the loss of many of the faculty.
@@thetaintedbear4557 Actually, you DOES get a little discussion between Claude and Edel (btw it isn't so important) if you spare him
Mekkkah's laugh revived all herons from the serenes forest massacre.
And made Greil survive after the black knight hand slipped
I also noticed a Black Eagle bias in the little tips when the game loads
Yeah ever since the first trailer for the game, Eldegard and the black eagles house was the most promoted.
It's really depressing that her route git the short end of the stick
DMD00 you’d think church route would be the shortest especially with the marketing and when we heard about a bonus route but no Black Eagles gets the short end
Both church and edelgard's routes feel undercooked when compared to BL and GD
And the Japanese single for Edge of Dawn also have her at the main focus (I'm not even sure if teh other lords are here as anything other than shadows.)
JaDX Honestly splitting BE into two routes was a mistake. That was bound to believe to both being lacking. Church route being cut would have been for the best.
Honestly my only big issue with Edlegard besides how rushed Crimson Flower seems to be is that she gets a super good spell list and a great magic growth but she can’t use magic in her personal class.
Could see her in FEH CYL 4
Yeah it's weird a lit of units get great spell but suck at using them or are given a budding talent or weapon that don't help you. Take Annete she can use axes but her strengths maker her suited to a warlock why would she need an axe?
27Bayleefs Annette is weird cause she’s actually really good with her unique Axe even with minimal investment
True but even then by the time you can even do the paralogue she'll most definetly have been turned into a mage and sure her axe is a good sub but her magic is her strength.
@@27Bayleefs Exactly. Why use Crusher and get counterattacked, when Annette can attack from up to five spaces away (with Thyrsus and Black Magic Range +1)?
100% agree I wish they didn’t rush the Edelgard route and actually done it right
I have a theory that the reason Edelgard's rout seems rushed is because the development time was split between the two Black eagles routs. Which is also why the church rout has the same battles as Golden Dear. Edelgard's rout has more unique maps and battles but the Church has the cutscenes.
I think they intentionally made it shorter than the other routes because they plan to have extra stories on the DLC focused on the BE route.
@@spacepenguin3590 Where did you hear that from? I heard that dlc won't have anything to do with the game's story at all.
MaX Triumph the final wave of DLC will have story expansions.
I’ll be honest. The only problems I had were A) the route is the shortest, and B) Edelgard only fights Those Who Slither in the Dark in the epilogue.
I mean, I still love this route unlike most people in the comments section here, but even I agree that we should have been able to fight Those Who Slither in the Dark as Edelgard’s army. I mean, I want so desperately to see her reaction of “I’ve wanted to do this for years” when she betrays Those Who Slither in the Dark and avenges Jeralt, the people of Remire village, and everyone else that suffered because of them.
"Taken from Berniefan69's Let's Play"
Mangs needs his discord name changed.
Remember the C supports?
Joined Church route on accident and Edelgard stole my march ring.
good to know
Now I just hope she won't steal mine
Me too. I also made her my Dancer...so that also sucks.
(Yes, I figured Edelgard was the Flame Emperor but I could not have predicted they'd actually yoink your Lord character from you. Also, I did save before the branching point, did Crimson Flower, but now I'm trying to do Church route without a dancer. Fun.)
@@chaoticcranium no, what's really fun is doing CF as your first route on hard mode, and completely blind, and if you dont play right the final map of CF becomes basically impossible unless you lower the difficulty
Thadias Trip
Can feel ya bro
Thadias Trip Hmm, CF was my first route on Hard/Classic and I didn't really have any trouble with the final map. But I did make sure to do all of the Paralogues and many Auxiliary battles, and level my team pretty evenly.
I could see why it would be tough if you just blasted through the game without leveling or getting Advanced/Master classes.
I became woefully upset over the fact that she didn't get to use Magic as an Emperor class cause that would have really sealed the whole "Arvis parallel" bit perfectly
especially considering her promising magic growth and budding talent in reason
@@Underworlder5 And she is one of the only characters who use Dark Magic next to Hubie and Lysethia.
@@Underworlder5
And her unique classes even boost her magic growth and her personal battalion increases magic damage.
@@Ninjaananas starting to wonder if she was supposed to use magic in her unique classes and someone on the development team just forgot to check the "can use magic" tag
@@Underworlder5
Wouldn't they have added that later on then? Or they thought for some asinine reason that they had to stick with that lapsus.
Or maybe she is just supposed to use a bolting axe. And she learns a magical axe combat art.
I think the Crimson Flower route did an excellent job of providing a different perspective on things, and it's also the only route where we get to see Rhea go to such extremes. Which is of course really interesting.
At the same time though like you said, the route is simply too short and leaves too many things unattended to. The conclusion isn't overly satisfying, ESPECIALLY if you played Golden Deer first, but everything about TWSITD is relegated to the Epilogue... I don't know about you, but seeing Edelgard get to beat the shit out of her uncle, learn the actual truth of Fodlan's history like we do in the Golden Deer and have to come to terms that she killed Dimitri, along with countless innocent people for an ideology that is more or less built on falsehoods she grew up to believe would have been a heartbreaking character arc for her. Personally if this was the route they took, I'd give her the Golden Deer's final boss just for poetic irony.
All in all I don't dislike the Crimson Flower route, I just think there's a lot of missed potential there.
I agree it's so odd that the Lord they put so much promotion to got the short end of the stick in story
We got story DLC coming up so MAYBE it will give us something for the route.
@@AdeptKing we can only hope
Edelgard implies that she knows the truth about Fodlans history as she already knows some things,
like Reya being Sieros/immaculate one from the beginning
@@lizzytrip4560
She knew that, but she did not know everything that was explained near the end of the Golden Deer route. Nobody really did aside from the Children of the Goddess.
"Edelgard deserved better"
*Thumbnail is of her oddly creepy S support CG*
Me, who loves about 101% of Edelgard: I agree.
K.
Merciless Freak Absolute
Well I hope you aren't one of those fan people who attack others and call them homophobic because they don't like edelgard.
Kat uwu
Sounds like you’re spending too much time on FE Twitter lol.
But naw, I’m not like that. I’ve seen people call her dumb things and/or hate her for stupid reasons but there are also plenty of valid things to say about her too, just like all the other lords.
But god, being a fan of her means I’m almost always around the hypersensitive side of her fanbase and jeez, they’re ready to pounce on anyone for saying ANYTHING negative about her.
Honestly I could go on but I don’t wanna rant lol.
Worst lord
Agree. As a guy who started with Blue Lions, I was excited to go with Edelgard for my second playthrough. And even though Edelgard was still an expectedly awesome character, the story of crimson flower was much less thoughtful, even at times feeling less complete. It's still pretty good overall but it doesn't live up to the standards set by other routes. I missed the glorious animated cutscenes, the high emotional stakes and twists of the Blue Lions. If anything, I would want to see this game updated to be improved by the upcoming DLC and updates. Edelgard's route should get the chance to really shine.
Sir. William II adding a Paralouge battle where you deal with Slither people would be a good start.
Hopefully some of the new updates that add content to the game will add to Edelgard's shorter route.
I cannot believe my eyes! A BL first timer who doesn't bash Edelgard and wants to give her a chance as well? Hats off to you!
That's why I honestly think that the blue lions route is by far the best route to start the game. The way they reveal edelgard as the flame emperor with that cutscene, is just.... chilling, like, truly impactful
Martin Papos Actually they’re not rare at all. People like you are just salty.
Weird things i expected to see addressed:
1) Death Knight joins you... except not really. Maybe i missed on some method to recruit him, but i feel he should have been addressed more in the story itself on how he became the death knight that the Empire controls
2) Those that Slither in the Dark are your allies... except not really. It's clear the game is setting up a big confrontation with them. The Uncle gathers all legendary weapons from the alliance and even nukes a stronghold you just conquered. Not to mention that you are "allied" with them despite Byleth's father dying at their hands. They are defeated post credits.
3) There's no climatic free-for-all between the lords. You just spare Claude and... that's it. you don't see him again really. What was the point of choosing to spare him or not?
If they wanted to add those who slither in the dark, i feel like the uncle could have striked just as you defeated the immaculate one. Use some sort of stone to gain control of her and thus be forced to fight her a 2nd time... except this time you actually defeat all key figures.
Or if you wanted to address them before Rhea, you could have had them attempt to nuke Edelgard/Byleth/Dimitri/Rhea only to have the PC characters (and dimitri) teleported away with the help of Hubert, who anticipated the betrayal and basically had mages learn warp. Dimitri, seeing how he almost got light-nuked by those that slithered in the dark (who Edelgard implies basically brainwashed him into believing the Empire was evil) would have seen the attempt at Edelgard's life and agree to tell them where they hide
You would then go after them before you fight the final chapter, killing Edel's uncle, getting revenge for your father, and maybe even seeing what their master plan was all along (Specially if some of their units use legendary weapons previously taken from the Alliance to turn into super monsters).
He joins you now!
@@deriznohappehquite Yes, and they now explore his character during his supports with Mercedes.
Why edelgard was shown more in the trailers, WAIFUS SELL
Not anymore. Blue Lions is the most popular house (With the most dudes, no less) and Dimitri is the most popular lord.
TBH Blue Lions really got a lot of love story wise. Lonato, Miklan, Gilbert, Dimitri's radical change, many more special events and scenes, like at the dance ball, Rodrigue´s sacrifice, Dimitri´s snap at the reveal with even a cutscene...
It´s like they WANTED it to be the "best path".
I still like Golden Deer route more, though. Claude actually bothers in looking for answers instead of mindlessly cutting through everything he doesn´t agree with, like Edel, Dimitri and Rhea.
Pathetic wait fr? I kept hearing people saying the BE’s was still popular. I was sitting here chillin with the BL’s
Well
Edelgard got TWO death scenes. Claude and Dimitri deserved one as well
I’m too fixated on how weird that early crit animation at 4:16 is to comment on anything else.
Whipper T. Snapper also look at that early Mercedes portrait
Deal with it.
Logan's Login look at that early mercedes model. It didn’t exist.
It actually does exist, it's just a model not used by her.
I like that crit animation tbh
Edelgard did indeed deserve more than what she got.
Along with Jeralt... and Randolph... and Fleche... and Kronya...
I also suggest Holst making an appearance.
StarMeme Succ Get the game, you mean?
Yeah, what happened to Fleche in Crimson Flower route? I had seen the Blue Lions route before I played the Crimson Flower route, so to me, she just seemed like an unnecessarily creepy figure among everyone in the imperial army, and then for her to sort of just chill and hang out until the end and not do anything or have an ending? Weird. I thought she was going to die but she didn't... and yeah Kronya definitely deserved more, she seemed like she would be one of the primary antagonists but she was as lame as Solon, only Thales got anywhere near the amount of attention in the story that TWSITD should have gotten.
@@randomperson8571 Even then, Thales pretty much gets OHKO'd by anything.
...and Ladislava.
Yeah, they ran out of time. Since her route has 4 less chapters than the others, it leads me to believe they rushed through it to get the game out so they didn’t have to delay it again. They most likely always intended for there to be a route where you follow her, but it’s clear it got worked on last. They also had to cut Lunatic mode for DLC, so I wouldn’t be surprised if her route was shorter due to time constraints. Let’s just hope that extra story DLC does more for her route.
I would have thought, with so much focus on Edelgard and the Black Eagles in the marketing campaign, they'd want to focus on getting at least her route right rather than treating it like an afterthought.
ZimonZieClown That’s why it’s suspicious that it’s shorter. It’s either because of time constraints or some other reason we don’t know about. I don’t think it’s laziness.
@@gemlord1993 If I had to hazard a guess, I assume that you were never actually meant to follow Edelgard, the BE's route would always transition in the Church's one. But after some internal discussion at IS, they decided they needed and Edelgard route.
That would explain why we have three fairly complete routes and one that's lacking.
Another possibility is that they struggled to develop it. Since in every other route by the time Byleth awakens the Empire is winning. I imagine they just found it hard to extend the story.
@@zimonzieclown1633 Because her route is completely unique unlike the other three which all have strong overlap which makes it easier to reuse missions, storybeats and cutscenes(BL and GD share every mission till M18. GD/church share every mission except Gronders Field and the final map. The last three missions of BL is just GD M18-20 with the final map being a modified version of GD 20). It makes sense to save hers for last since they would have to build most of the route from scratch instead of just creating a few new cutscenes/CGs for unique moments in the other three.
XVGDylan I find that unlikely. The Church route is almost identical to the Golden Deer route, so that was probably the one with the least effort put into it.
I ALWAYS talk to everyone around the monastery so I just talked to Edelgard like it was a part of my normal routine, then the screen faded to black and started a dialogue sequence.
it is kind of weird that Edelgard barely tries too recruit the Mc and you join her only after killing all of her guys in the tomb.
Don't forget that you need a C+ support and you have to meet her on a specific day and month to unlock the event. The way Intelligent System did this was weird and cryptic in my opinion. They should have just allowed you to side with her or not at the Tomb chapter.
It's not a specific day, actually. It's the entire month, I tried it in my first run playthrough because I didn't want her to rob me of my precious teaching time
I think it ties well into her character, especially after analysing Edge of Dawn's lyrics. She basically has trust issues and is 100% convinced no one *wants* to stand beside her but actually really *hopes* that at least Byleth would join her. Eventually she tried to drown that speckle of hope after learning Byleth has blood-ties with the Church/Goddess since she saw it as impossible.
@@Darkyan97 I see what your saying but even with your god powers she still brings you too see her dad. You even join the girls coronation as the religious representative. But even with that she still trys too kill you and her classmates. You know what really pisses me off that scene with the Flame Emperor after Remire village. Your staring right at the dead villagers and the best she can give you is "hey wasn't me I swear" I mean come on give Byleth like a map too a TWSITD hideout or something anything.
Mandorain yeah honestly it was really weird to me that you have to fight her and idk what happens if you choose to just let them steal everything but that should maybe be an option?
I love Edelgard. She's a fantastic character.
I don't love Crimson Flower, and it's such a tragedy how rushed and unsatisfying it is. Edelgard is still one of my favorite characters in the franchise, but Crimson Flower did not do her justice.
Yeah CF was shafted hard. Even though Chapter 17 and 18 are some of my favourite maps.
If all other routes were more original in their content mais BE route wouldn't feel like that. But because we have 2 routes that are almost identical and 1 that has a lot in common with the 2 previously mentionned the uniqueness of BE goes awry because in comparaison a shitload more happen in the other 3.
GD: more TWSITD, Nemesis and the best cinematic IG, more world info (Almyra, Church sensorship...)
Church: again more TWSITD + another Rhea fight like normal BE and depending on your choice you get access to a new roster
BL: most of the kingdom lore is exclusivly in it (BE comparatively lacks Empire lore except for the creation part), retake your kingdom (only route where you have to do that), DAGGER
Honnestly, my favorite routes are GD then BE because without one of the 2 you don't understand the story fully and GD is the most complete story wise. Church and second part GD are basically the same for 80% of their chapters. BL being the worst I feel but even so it feels more satisfying (as a standalone) if you do the route blind you kill TWSITD without real knowledge about them hence not feeling discomfort of not dealing with TWSITD which is the case in BE.
I just hope DLCs will include extra maps of how BE dealt with TWSID as it feels truly lacking, Almyran conflict and coalision for GD, Stories of seteth and flayn for church and finally Durscur reintegration in BL. The game would really benefit from making the routes more unique that way. I know that honnestly it is a lot to ask but a boy can dream.
(I would also pay to redo the 300years old war and play with the existing fight model of Sothis but that could be kept for another game to be done properly. Also it would cut you off from other routes making it difficult to add in)
Personally I do still love Crimson Flower even though it was a few maps too short. To me the route felt like conquest if it were actually written well. It's just a shame that the Blood of the Eagle and Lion chapter and a couple maps dedicated to dealing with TWSITD weren't included. If they had those two elements, Crimson Flower would easily take its place as my favorite route. As it is I still really like it, but it is clearly flawed.
@@DevilHunter1994 I personally still like CF's ending the most. Feels as a natural conclusion to Byleth.
@@Darkyan97 Oh yeah. When you take all of the elements of the ending together it really does feel like the best possible ending for me. The church is overthrown, TWSITD are defeated and Byleth regains his humanity, which is incredibly fitting given how his development in every route is all about him regaining his emotions and finding who he is as a person. Him becoming what basically amounts to a god in the other three routes feels a bit off given that his growth is all about him learning to identify with and connect with others. Becoming a near immortal god would only make forming those connections more difficult. Him finally becoming human again though feels like a completely natural end to his character arc.
Crimson Flower was definitely not the route to start on. The lack of cutscenes and context is underwhelming almost like the game assumes you played the other routes first and this route exists to humanize her and clear up the misconceptions we have from the other routes.
My biggest gripe with 3H is that all the stories take characters on completely different moral trajectories. For the most part, characters should have the same convictions across all the routes. Students should not just abandon their beliefs because I recruited them. Best example for me is Lysithea or Mercedes. Mercedes is devout to the church but if recruited to BE she will point out how she can still believe in the goddess without accepting the church's teachings. Lysithea stands against Edelgard and her conquest, but if recruited to BE she admires her for making an enemy of the entire continent to dismantle the crest system, she even grows more hopeful of having her own crests removed in the process. Or how Acheron sides with the empire but only if you're not on Crimson Flower.
Acheron should always side with the Empire, Mercedes should always be either devout to the church or able to separate her beliefs from it, and Lysithea should always be on Edelgard's side to remove all the crests.
Also BE v twsitd dlc pls
Sean
if the story dlc just adds to the BE route that would be disappointing.
if they are adding to length of one route then they should do it to all routes .
@@chongwillson972 I didn't say they shouldn't but they should aboslutely prioritize Crimson Flower cause A. it's the shortest route by 4 chapters, and B. the story wasn't finished.
good thing i played her route last back then.
At least Mercedes has a better reason to side with edelgard now that Jeritza is a character
I just started playing this game for the first time this month and I didn't know anything about it. And my first choice of classes to teach was Black Eagle because I liked the name, logo, colors, and I thought Edelgard was awesome. So of course I sided with her! I dunno if I can do other playthroughs if I have to fight her hahaha!
I agree with pretty much everything in this video
I also can't help but feel like her imperialist and questionable methods (allying with dark mages) aren't properlerly addressed.
Too much of her "humanization" comes from her blushing/being cutesy, not introspection. We are never even shown defeating the Dark Mages, which were built up to be the main point of sympathy for Edelgard. The church also could have been shown as more morally gray as well to make Edelgards conflict more meaningful.
It really is an unfulfilling route on many fronts
I agree, I always found it difficult to sympathize with her when I couldn’t agree with her reasons OR her methods. She starts a war against the church under the pretense that they created and exploit crests to keep Fodlan under control, which isn’t entirely true. Rhea has in fact every reason to hate the existence of crests. Not to mention the more I thought about it, situations like disownment and being married off wouldn’t go away if crests didn’t exist. Those issues stem from the feudal/nobility system.
For example if Ingrid didn’t have a crest, she probably still would’ve been pressured into finding a husband due to being a noble.
Also, Edelgard wants a meritocracy, which sounds great in theory, but usually fails, with social classes forming based on the idea that people “earned” their wealth instead of being born into it, making it harder to easily refute.
I just find it hard to like her when she starts a war that kills a lot of innocent people, which she insists are necessary sacrifices, for a cause based on a falsehood, allying with the ones responsible for her suffering against a church that really hasn’t done anything to her personally even if she did think they created crests. I just don’t get her motivations, and in every other route Rhea steps down, acknowledging her faults in leading, and the church reforms with much less bloodshed.
Look at her allying with TWISTD this way. They were in control of her life from day one. She literally would have been executed by them if they found out she tried to rebel against them. She went along with TWISTD because that was literally the only way she could have lived to become emperor and cause real change. Hiring the bandits to assassinate Dimitri and Claude, starting the war, all of those were TWISTD's plans that she really didn't have much choice but to go along with. She didn't really trust anyone enough to confide in them what was really happening (besides Hubert), until she meets Byleth and tells him everything on her route. Honestly, in every other route, we're shown what happens to Edelgard when she doesn't have someone to help shoulder her burdens. In that regard, I find Edelgard's route very meaningful.
you calling her imperialist is a little weird since all the routes end with the lords conquering all of Fódlan into one unified nation lol.
@@LezbeOswald Dmirti and Claude didn't decide to overthrow centuries of peace. Edelgard is the aggressor. That said, the biggest problem with this story of Three Houses is that it is just Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
@@glass_knuckles i agree i do think that at least one of the routes should've had a differing ending regarding the unification of Fódlan. however i truly don't understand why the solution to defeating Edelgard is to unify Fódlan. that's not usually how winning wars works.
The Edelgard route feels like they made the other 3 routes first (assuming the church route is as well fleshed out as Golden Deer/Blue Lions), and threw in her route in a rush to give every lord a route. My biggest disappointment is that multiple times in the route Edelgard says, TO YOUR FACE, "We're working with the people that killed Jeralt. but once we're done with the Church we'll deal with them." Only to NEVER DEAL WITH THEM. A battle where Edelgard and Byleth take down Those who Slither in the Dark would be the perfect ending to her route. Edelgard would get to avenge the wrongdoings done to her, and Byleth avenge Jeralt. The emotional peak that kind of ending could hit would be amazing.
The church route isn't. It's basically a shortened Golden Deer route without the Gronder Field map and different final boss. I believe it's 18 chapters like Edelgard's. Overall, Golden Deer is my favourite route.
@@sparkybolt2085 Church is 21 chapters, but i don't think it has any exclusive map, and is a worst version of the GD history
@@joaogabrielwillerding4093 is the route you simply dismantle empire, kingdom and alliance and form a single unified kingdom and you can redeem rhea by marrying her since i think the only route she survives
@@xaviaxs you redeem your grandmother/dauther that made inumerous atrocities to a continent and its peoples by marrying her. 10/10
@@joaogabrielwillerding4093 at least she reflects about her actions while elde keeps thinking she doing things right until the end
Technically, Edelgard's route has the most number of unique maps. The map with Dimitri is unique and the final map is a heavily modified from another route. Claude's route has 1 unique map (the final map). Church's final map is heavily modified but this map is used 3 times in that route (2 times in all other routes). Dimitri's route has no unique maps.
Also, the reused maps in Edelgard's route generally have more variation than the other routes.
That's a great point. But for so many of us, her route is the first route we play so we wont realize this until later. Thanks for bringing that up.
Fhirdiad is technically unique. The final BE map is the modified version of it
Don't forget that Edelgard's route is the only one that the maps may have different endings(like killing or saving Claude, or let Flayn/Seteth die or spare them, or let Edelgard kill Dimitri or die with Dedue). It is also the route that is completely different from the rest since you play with the villains, while the rest since they have the same objective to defeat the Empire, they re-use the same maps and cutscenes.
Sorry if I’m wrong, but doesn’t GD also have Shambala or does that appear in another route? I’ve played all of GD and just got to BL post time skip so I’m not sure
@@nyxnsu Church route also has Shambala along with GD. Actually the Church route is almost identical to the GD route in a lot of aspects.
I love Edelgard, and honestly her route as well, but I feel like it being the "secret" route hurt it a bit. Not only is she the enemy in three of the four routes, but the one route you are with her is the shortest. I think most games take the secret route as being more or less the "oh here is a quick little thing" and they kept that for TH. If Church was the Secret Route, it would have been better tbh and hopefully more different than GD. I think even if it was the shortest still but went to chapter 20, it would have worked. I love how different it is, and you fight Rhea, and again I LOVE Edelgard. I love all three lords so much. But there should have been 2-3 chapters for Those Who Slither either before Rhea, as that is who Edelgard wanted revenge against as well.
i mean i did church route 2 times , BL 1 time and GD 3 times and CF route i watched on youtube and actively ignore elde and hubert to make all the other units i want better so they end up before me joining the church really underlevel and not really even promoted
I think the route where you side with Edelgard was added close to the end of development. As in Nintendo was advertising her as the main hero probably to, as much as I hate the phrase, subvert expectations by having us find out she’s the main villain instead. But after seeing how much her popularity grew with the fans, decided to add a route with her to the end so the fans wouldn’t feel betrayed. It would explain why it looks rushed and the fact that every route has a unique final battle theme EXCEPT Edelgard’s which reuses Blue Lions final boss theme.
I stand by my theory that the advertising of 3H was a clever stunt to make you think the Edelgard was the main lord when in actuality she was the main villain. Is then saw how everyone was waifuing over Edlegard and knew they couldn't take their waifu being evil so that scrambled together a route where she gets a happy ending.
Shes not evil lol. Shes the anti-hero of the story. She is the antagonist howerever. But being an antagonist does not make someone the villain.
Johnathan Era what i meant is she's the big obstacle the lords have to overcome. She might not be as evil as previous conquerors like Ashanrd or to a lesser extent, Zephiel but she's the reason the other two lords take up arms and the driving force of both their Part 2s.
@@CosmicToad5000 thats true. Im just saying edelgard isnt the villain of this story. Shes the primary antagonist. The villian is TWSIND, or rhea, depending on how you look at it.
I played the Crimson route as my first route (blindly) and I had the fealing the game didn't want me to pick it...
Not because it was shorter (didn't know that), but lack of cutcsenes post time-skip (while going to the "extra" on the menu and knowing there were alot of them missing), and the way ALL characters have lines saying: "you know, things could have been alot better if you didn't pick Eldergard"....
I guess the idea behind the Edelgard favoritism was for the purpose of a bait-and-switch; she comes off as the game's main lord but instead she stabs you in the back and becomes the game's primary villain. Then, the developers thought "Okay, but if we're going to put all this effort into baiting the player into liking Edelgard before we drop the reveal, people might still be attached enough to her that they want to follow her even after she turns out to be a villain." So they hastily threw together a route for her and didn't want to delay the game a fourth time to finish it.
That's my theory. I really think Edelgard was never meant to be a playable character after the timeskip. I think they had a "Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty" twist planned with the whole "Surprise! The character you were playing is gone now!" Guess they figured there would be enormous backlash if they did that to the most popular pre-release character lol
Surprisingly the Japanese title suggests there are four routes. 風花雪月 stands for wind, flower, snow and moon, the four paths.
There are. Ther fourth route is the church route found through siding with the Black Eagle
There are three things I have to point out.
1: Edelgard is a much better antagonist than Arvis IMO because Arvis is a person that from the beginning you're taught to distrust. His actions are also that of arrogance and manipulation whereas Edelgard is proactive, shows remorse for her actions but the resolve to see it through, and understands the risks of her own failure.
2: I'm pretty sure that choosing Edelgard as the lord you took an axe for is meant more for cosmic irony than anything. You saved Edelgard, the person who dragged all of Fodlan into chaos and war. You saved one life, and because of it, you took many, many more.
3: I'm pretty much where you are in terms of completion (Black Eagles and Golden Deer while currently working on Blue Lions) but I get the feeling that Edelgard's short route is for the sake of DLC. Since in the Black Eagles route you never conclude the conflict with Those Who Slither in the Dark due to their influence in the Empire and the shaky alliance you have with them it seems likely that any area to add story dlc to would come from there.
I highly, highly doubt that any DLC for the game would be locked to only one of the four routes. I'd assume that any DLC that they release will be playable no matter which house you picked, and Edelgard's will remain in its current state in the foreseeable future.
It's more likely that her route was cut due to budget/time/internal struggle because releasing DLC for one route that's not even guaranteed seems like a bad business decision.
1.Actually Edelgard isn't that far removed from Arvis where the arrogance is concerned, you can have Claude confront her in GD about not using diplomacy and she'll brush him aside and insist that she knows better than an outsider, and when Dimitri confronts her for her plans ultimately hurting commoners she tells him to check his privilege because he knows nothing about the poor (even though he's been homeless and destitute for 5 years and has friends that are poor). Both times she arrogantly insists that she knows better than everyone else. So yeah she is just as arrogant as Arvis.
3. I don't that they'll give DLC for just one route. Especially when said route wouldn't have the same gameplay mechanics of the other routes, due to Byleth losing their powers.
Just finishing CF now. I'd say the worst part about it is that there is no conflict with Edelgard's goals. Like, Dimitri's radically change from revenge to reconciliation after certain events, but Edelgard is basically just like "We're gonna overthrow EVERYTHING and start all over!" and everyone just goes along with it. There are some qualms in the supports, (Like Ferdinand) but nothing in the main story. Plus, we should have got 5 chapters dedicated to weeding out Those Who Slither In The Dark (Like maybe if you fulfilled certain requirements, like FE3/FE12), but Edelgard and Hubert are just like "yeah, we'll deal with they sometime later."
I honestly believe that they should’ve spent more time fleshing out a single storyline instead of trying to have four different stories to flesh out one world. I think a story in which you begin with the Blue Lions and end up working with the Golden Deer, after the timeskip, once the professor convinces Dimitri that Claude’s goal aligns with their own
nah, they should just remove Golden Deer and VW if that it the case. That is definitely the budget route since it copied everything from SS. Crimson Flower is the only route where you have 6 complete new maps with no copy and paste (7 if you count the battle at the monastery before timeskip)
@@LCardosed92 I would kinda like to still have nemesis as a final boss and I think a more focused on Crimson Flower route as a new game + "What if?" sort of route to see more of her side.
EmptyChannel I think I’d axing SS would he a better option since it’s conclusion is insanely half baked and garbage, as GD seems to do SS way better than SS does, has extra cutscenes and it has a good ending to boot. I haven’t bothered to see what VW has to offer so I can’t say anything about that route.
Just wait for the FE4 remake Mekkah, then we'll get Arvis whose character will be good and you won't have to read a bunch of manga to get the full picture about him.
Mekkah likes Edelgard so what are you talking about.
He's talking about Arvis, not Edelgard.
Hopefully they make him even better,(never played fe4,just taking what mekka said In that edel is a better arvis with a grain of salt.)
@@etherealmayhem8652 eh. The main thing is that Edelgard's ideas are made clear because she tells you them. Not in every route, sure, but it is there.
As Mekkah said, every time you see Arvis in game after his first appearance, he's scheming, and enacting his plans to become emperor.
The extended version of his backstory (that his father hung himself after his mother left him and Arvis was the first guy who saw him, when he was 10, then he became a noble and half-raised his brother) isn't actually in the game, and is instead, in a manga (which may not be canon).
That being said, I also find Arvis' thesis to be interesting, and, much more relatable.
Arvis watched everything around him fall apart, he was in just about as poor a position as someone who was still a noble could be in. He watched his father kill himself over a woman, was neglected by said father due to his father being a serial womanizer, he had his brother raises as a bastard, had to rule his court and land at age 13, and had nobles all around him attempt to deceive and manipulate him for their own personal, greedy, goals.
Arvis looked at all this and effectively said "Holy shit, if I wasn't a noble, I'd be dead, my brother would be dead, and no one would've batted an eye. And there are countless people at the top of society who are actively ignoring those people and making their lives worse. Fuck it. Someone has to change this. I will be that someone." Then, there's another fact about him, he has minor Loptyr (Loptous in the newest translation but I prefer Loptyr) blood, and if that were exposed, he'd probably lose his position of power, or worse, be executed.
Arvis saw his own privilege, recognized he'd be dead if it weren't for that, but then realized that he also had people would who kill him because of factors out of his control. He saw all this as being the fault of those on top, they were biased, and they taught bias. So, he actively attempted to make the world better by removing bias, in addition, helping out the little guy.
So, much like Edelgard did, in an attempt to make the world better NOW, he joined up with one of the most powerful, yet terrible groups in the continent, the Loptyrian Sect. He started a war, killed the legitimate heir to the empire of Grannvale, and left the rest of the nearby regions without leaders, letting Grannvale annex them. As well, he killed Sigurd and his crew, innocent people who had done nothing wrong but be decieved by Arvis himself.
There is an argument to be made tho that MAYBE Sigurd was a bit of a jackass going around killing people and their rulers without giving them a proper leader to fill the power vacuum, thusly leading to most surrendering their rule to Arvis when he ascended buuuuuuut he never would've been forced out of his home castle had it not been for Arvis branding them traitors under false pretenses.
So, their methods and downfall were ultimately quite similar. That being said, I find Edelgard's reasoning to be... solid, just not perfect. Meanwhile I find Arvis' reasoning to be compelling and relatable.
@@lumina3257 yeah I skipped everything about arvis since I haven't played FE4 and even tho I've spoiled myself on major plot points I'd still like to hold onto what little spoiler freeness I can lol.
I agree with everything else you had to say tho.
My completely baseless guesses why the BE paths are the way they are: too many delays, not enough time, internal conflict at IS (aka Fates 2.0 / executive meddling).
My guess is that the Edelgard route was never a thing and that may be the reason her path felt rushed, she was probably always meant to be the villain you kill in every path but probably a lot of internal disagreements at IS wanted her playable all the way in some form considering how much marketing she had. It probably would have been too bold to lock the player out of their main lord half the game so they scrambled together a path without cinematics and reused assets/scenes. The reallocation of development to this extra path away from the three main paths probably caused the delays and led to less development on the main paths. There is no basis for this, just my guess as to why the path is in the state it's in.
The GD route probably cannibalized most of the Church route as well for time constraints when it probably had more to do with TWSITD than it did initially and probably why Dmitri and Edelgard kinda just get thrown away in GD. Claude was probably always meant to unveil the past/history considering all his actions in story (reading in the library, researching, etc).
Also the part 1 was probably meant for only the Blue Lions initially but probably got copy pasted to the BE and GD due to time as well, and is probably why part 1 feels like a BL Story considering how many characters are closely linked to it (Ashe/Lonato, Dmitri and Dedue/Tragedy of Duscur, Sylvain/Miklan and the Lance of Ruin, Mercedes/Death Knight). Meanwhile, BE and GD are sorta just in for the ride.
To tie it altogether, there isn't really an epilogue to any of the three paths, mostly a Jeralt narration of what sorta happens, but no other closure or extended dialogue. Think back to RD where they kill God/Satan, everyone talks about it, Ike speaks to almost everyone and ties up a lot of story ends but in 3H, BL for example, the story just ends, you don't actually see Rhea, TWSITD disappear, etc. S Support Dmitri is the closest thing to closure outside of ending cards.
I feel a lot of the problems in 3H is probably due to the lack of time.
Now that you say it, that makes A LOT of sense. Part 1 does have a ton of BL story and effects its characters. Part one seems a lot more interesting from a BL's perspective. Now I've only played GD up to the final chapter and BL to the first post time Skip. But I did feel a lot more involved during the BL's. You can also see there's a lot of effort of building up Dimitri and Edelgard in the route and also the extra cutscene that happens for BL's players during chapter 11.
I keep looking at all the routes and trying to figure out what each one sets out to be or what it tackles.
BL - It's about Dimitri and Edelgard.
GD - It's about Claude and TwSitD
That's all I really can say right now. I assume that the Curch route is about Edelgard and TwSitD, and BE route is just...let's take over.
A lack of time, or bad management? Given how long this game spent in development, I think bad management had much more of an impact than time
I've had many similar thoughts to you. My personal theory, the game was originally a Blue Lions only thing (Dimitri is THE lord, Edelgard is THE Antagonist, Golden Deer may or may not have existed back at the start of development.), but as they went on, they started adding and tweaking, eventually deciding to do the 3-4 routes, and time constraints led to the game being as it is
Honestly I feel like this is all very accurate, but I think that the Church route cannibalized the GD route, not the other way around. Once you get past the timeskip, to me, the GD route is pretty tight--not as emotional as BL route, and I agree that the deaths for Edelgard and Dimitri absolutely should have been better (I also think that the Edelgard death scene in GD is meant to be specifically for Church route not GD route but they ran out of time to think of another one), but, it does its job and gets all of its cards out on the table (except for the fact that Claude never says out who and what he really is, aka the son of the King of Almyra, which I would have really appreciated since it would help with the lack of emotion/backstory problem a lot of people say the GD route has, but, you know, whatever, clearly we can't have it all), whereas the Church route just feels like the route that you're "supposed" to take if you pick Black Eagles, as you point out in your comment that Crimson Flower maybe wasn't even meant to be a thing initially, but they smacked on the stuff with Rhea and Those Who Slither in the Dark after chickening out on making Edelgard the final boss, which would have felt redundant to Blue Lions route and probably would not have sat well with players who spent a lot of time and effort into training up Edelgard only to have her leave the army and become a villain.
@@randomperson8571 between church and GD route the differences are that you can actually marry rhea on church route if you have S relationship with her and you simply dismantle the kingdom, the empire and the allianc, leaving only the church as an unified kingdom
I think it’s important for that Korea poll to also understand that a character who’s goal is to unify the country is controversial due to Korea’s history
Yeah... last time that happened to South Korea... there were a million North Korean and Chinese troops charging the border... lmao
czcams.com/video/ZTUv2Jh7p3A/video.html
That laugh at the end of the Mangs LP was legendary.
Am I the only one who picked black eagles on their first blind playthrough but ended up playing out silver snow? One of my biggest complaints about black eagles as a whole is the story really seems to push you hard in favor of the church route, and there's never really an effort made to convince you to join Edelgard in the holy tomb other than 'oh she has such a sad backstory and she's cute.' She was absolutely my favorite character in my first playthrough right up until that moment because it just felt wrong from Byleth's standpoint to be able to join forces (without any time to consider) with someone who associates with the people who murdered her father and who attacked her other students. Even in Crimson Flower (which was the last route I finished) there are several moments where people say things like "I never expected you to choose this" as if you're just straight up not supposed to play Crimson Flower. Very strange route in what's generally a masterpiece of a game.
Something just springed to my mind. Edelgard route was supposedly added later as a final thought... Just saying that if they wanted BE to only lead into Church route in the first place it's REALLY disappointing.
I honestly think that the reason they so heavily relied on Edelgard for the marketing is just because it was the most convenient way for them to market the game, not because her route was intended to be better in the first place.
Think about it, Dimitri was pretty much ignored by the community and considered to be dull and boring, and Claude only started to gain serious popularity closer to the game release, thanks to all details of his personality we got to know. It would only come natural for them to rely on Edelgard to have a chance to appeal to the wider audience: as you said, her design is killer and she strikes straight away as a very interesting character, plus a female lord with such a strong personality was something that we really never had in any fire emblem.
They didn't really went to any "trouble" to market the game with her image. They just did the most convenient thing to do.
I think the reason you feel Edelgard more morally gray than Arvis is the fact that we see her in a better light throughout her route. They don't portray her as a paragon of virtue, but she feels more relatable and just. This is a great point of 3H that FE4 simply couldn't have, as we see the story through Sigurd/Celice's eyes. But looking at both characters up close, I feel Arvis is a better villain, even if watered down by FE4's bad storytelling.
His drive feels more true, as he is trying to stop the oppresion the church posed on people with Loptyrian blood, like himself, and he sides with evil people with whom he shares that goal. Edelgard on the other side teams up with a group that destroyed her life to bring down a church that while questionable, is far more benign with her. Its feels like Stockholm syndrome, to be honest. I know her aim is to stop BOTH the church and TWSITD, but not seeing her do the latter cheapens it a lot, in my opinion. Also Arvis schemes his way through the throne, and while he commits some murders, he doesn't start a continent-large war that would damage more people.
I think Edelgard is a very good villain as well, and I'm glad we can see her side as well, but her character could have been handled better as well.
Snowball I mean, Arvis and Manfroy do manipulate people in order to start large-scale wars. Arvis just doesn’t do it directly.
Agreed on all accounts.
I was questioning everyone's "down with the church!" Mentality throughout my playthrough of golden deer.
Well, Edelgard didn't really have much choice but to go along with TWISTD, did she?
@@matthewa.whiting719 That's what she became convinced of, (thanks to hubert). The other routes won the war without their help.
Completely Agree. Not only is she a well designed character, but a well written one both from a protagonist AND antagonist perspective. If it weren't for her I'd have no faith in IntSys' ability to write villains.
I wonder if they just ran out of time during development or something.
The weird thing is that some of the lines she says in the E3 2018 trailer are said only after you choose to support her at the end of part 1. So it's clear they had the route planned at least a year before release.
@@Aska2468 Wow.
I feel that They only made Edelgard playable because they did not want to dissapoint people
Fun fact: The writers come from Koei Tecmo. All 3 of them.
@@Aska2468 Yeah that's really weird, if IS had to pick between fleshing out the BE or Church routes, BE is the most sensible choice since Edelgard basically pioneers Part 2 and is also who sings the Main Theme canonically. Instead it's the other way around, I wonder how that came into play.
Yeah, I pretty much agree with you wholeheartedly. I'd say all the routes had their disappointing moments (Black Eagles getting it the worst, obviously), and it's pretty clear this game was rushed to some extent, even with the delay. I still think this is a really great game, but it had the potential of being the best FE ever, IMO. I toyed with a couple of what-ifs in my head, and I'm really in a rambling mood, so here's some random ideas that I thought would've been cool. So... spoilers for basically the whole game and a lot of amateur-ish writing below.
Church: Might as well say it now, I don't think this route needed to exist at all. It's basically a rehash of the Golden Deers with a few differences. IMO, the decision between Rhea & Edelgard shouldn't be there because if you're playing the Black Eagles, you're probably more interested in knowing about Edelgard and the Empire than you are with the Church. I think that the details you learn in the Church (and GD, to a minor extent) should've been implied & spread over all the routes, so you can get an idea of the truth of Fodlan and the Crests once you've seen all 3 routes (Sort of a 100% reward, I guess). My main point, in the end, is that they should've just put more resources into the main 3 instead of spending time with a half-assed 4th route.
Part 1: One of my biggest gripes with the story, even though I understand why, is that aside from the conversations with the lords, Part 1 has the same story going on with all Houses. I mean, Manuela & Hanneman are still the professors of the other classes, so why are they, along with the other two Houses, not involved with what you are dealing with (Other than "Byleth has actual combat experience")? One of the many reasons why I reccomend Blue Lions as the first House to play is that they're the most connected to what's actually going on. So, and I know this sounds ambitious, but I feel like each House should've had their own Part 1. BL would have what is already in the game with a focus on the conflict between the Churchs, BE would've been more involved with Crests, Relics, and details about the conspiracy, and GD would exploring political affairs and exposing the true story of Fodlan (which would lead them to being the most direct enemy of TWSITD and still the only ones who find out their main motivations). Obviously, some plot points and battles would still be in all routes (Sorry, Jeralt), but this is just to give each route more flavor than having the same maps and main plot points.
Black Eagles: Might as well get the one that needed it most out now. As we all know, this route needs more cutscenes. The reunion with Edelgard on the Church route would play out here instead (with different context, of course), but there would also be a new one for when Byleth sides with Edelgard against Rhea. I remember someone making a comic strip that extended the scene by going through Byleth's thought process of the situation and having a more internal conflict, and it was great, not just because it should've been a cutscene, but it gave Byleth much more character (Avatar, I know, but that doesn't mean they can't have a stronger personality, and the Black Eagles would definitely have it more emphasized than the other 2 due to obvious reasons. I could've made a whole section on them, but I've already used up my creativity on what I have now). Other than cutscenes, the Death Knight, Ladislava, and Randolph could've been playable units (or at least given much needed presence in the story), Dimitri & Claude should've been bigger antagonists (Claude could even send some backup in later chapters if spared, because he & Edelgard have similar ambitions), and finally, TWSITD. While you won't get to know the main motivations of them on this route, there could've been one more battle after Rhea where Arundel would denounce Edelgard as a tyrant, garner popular support through underhanded means like bribery and kill & replace, and usurps the throne (My take on Arundel/Thales is that he's basically all the Lords in one, but without any of their positive qualities or virtues. Most importantly, Edelgard's decisiveness, Dimitri's hatred, and Claude's scheming). His original plan was to kill Edelgard once she got back home after the Leicester Alliance fell, make sure her death seemed like an accident or natural cause, become the next Emperor, and marry Cornelia so Adrestia & Fargheus become one. Obviously, that plan fell apart once Rhea got involved again and Edelgard decided to keep fighting, so now he's on his backup plan. Edelgard & the rest of the Eagles head back home to face Arundel, who is infuriated that some of TWSITD are actually against him because Edelgard had done more for the future of Fodlan than he ever did, causing only Arundel's biggest loyalists to stick with him (Needed an excuse for no Light Javelins or Nemesis). In the end, Edelgard wins and, while still having a shaky reputation with her people, still goes on to fulfill her vision, while Hubert investigates what happened to the remaining TWSITD.
I really wanted a more satisfying ending for the Black Eagles, as you can tell. It's still far from perfect, and I had some other ideas that possible could make this better, (Maybe the conflict with Arundel comes before the showdown with Rhea?) but this is just a general idea of how I wanted her route to end. Don't worry, the ideas I have for the other routes are nowhere near as complicated.
Blue Lions: Especially for this one, because there's not a whole lot I can add to this route (It's my personal favorite, without question). There was cut content, however, where Felix and Annette would betray you, which I think could've been left in (Maybe it would only happen if you didn't do their paralogues, like Dedue?). Also, I think it would've made more sense if Rhea was actually killed (maybe after Arundel's death), instead of almost not even existing. Other than that, I got nothing.
Golden Deer: Lot more things than I realized, probably way more than necessary. Firstly, I think Almyra, Brigid, and Dagda were vastly underutilized and, at least in the case of the former, should've been more involved in Claude's story. Speaking of Claude, while he has a fine backstory, it's not really as engaging as Dimitri's or Edelgard's, so I kinda wish they delve more into it (Reminded of that one comic where Claude's only real friend was the Wyvern he gets when he becomes Barbarossa, which in the comic, is actually the name of the Wyvern. Having a scene where they reunite and Claude realizes it was looking for him all this time would've been... pretty heartwarming). Also, I think the Leicester Alliance's internal conflict should've played a bigger role, since it's basically on cusp of being completely split. I believe that not only should Dimitri survive (but not able to reclaim Fargheus and still recovering from his PTSD), Edelgard is actually saved by Byleth & Claude faking her death. Before deciding to live the life of a citizen, she gives the coordinates of what she thinks is one of TWSITD's bases that Hubert theorized (Again, Edelgard & Claude have similar goals, so she's somewhat fine with this and wishes them luck). Finally, not only should Shambala had been a longer level, maybe even two (having a bigger confrontation against Thales), but Nemesis really needed more character and be shown how great of a threat he truly is. As in, literally pillaging most of the Leicester Alliance before the final battle (Can't think of what to do with Nemesis as a character, though, so I'll leave his motivations and all that up to interpretation for now). In the end, Fodlan, ravaged as it was, is United, and while at first it seems like much more of a downer ending compared to the other two, there is a silver lining afterwards. A couple of years later, Edelgard, who now simply wanders for a purpose, is contacted and is requested to be at a seemingly-random location (Specifically, a town that was a victim of Nemesis's onslaught, now with many people working to rebuild). Once she gets there, the person waiting for her there is Dimitri. Things get quiet and tense for a minute, until Claude appears to lighten the mood and calm them down. The two question why Claude would go out of his way to make up a reunion. His answer? "Wasn't me, this time." And right behind him... Byleth.
If you actually bothered to read all my nonsensical wishes for this game, congrats! I hope didn't bore you too much, because I am really tired right now and apparently, that's where most of my creativity comes from. There was just a lot more I wanted in this game, and I really wanted to share some of things I wish they did instead.
All I got left to say is: What did you wish was changed in the story?
Im with you, its a really great game but it lacked polish and time and you can see it clearly in that it almost never delves deeper in what is proposing to you, and this is coming from a guy that cried with the blue lions route ending and felt extremely satisfied by the end. But one can not turn off the brain and dismiss potential that is not used at all and there is a lot, it had the potential to be a fucking neato ass game but the writing just wasnt there. i was doing a golden deer walktrought but im afraid my love could fade so i think im waiting for dlc's to see if something can be fixed.
For me, the plot is interesting no doubts, but how the characters are written, the combat and music save this game from the obvious errors in its narrative and paths, blue lions is the best althought i would have liked a lot more interactions between the lords in part 1 to feel even more invested in dimitri and edelgard relationship, they almost dont talk at all
I like all your ideas black eagles deserved better
Zachataxx II
Wish your GD idea is true T_T
Awwww the ending you envisioned for the Golden Deer route is so cute! I mean, it's probably a little too Disney for what IntSys was probably trying to go for, but then again, it would have really fitted with the themes and message of that route and Claude's route is kind of Disney anyway except for the fact that Edelgard and Dimitri (and Hubert, rip) have to die. Speaking of which, you absolutely should have been able to spare Edelgard in Claude's route, the same way you're given the choice to spare or kill him in Edelgard's route. I think that the story could have taken a more interesting turn that way, and then maybe Edelgard's route wouldn't be the only one with the dramatic "this decision will have a drastic effect on the story" moment. As for Dimitri, if they weren't able to think of a better death for him, he should have also lived in GD route because Claude and Byleth would never try to kill him as there would never be any reason to (and I'm firmly in the conviction that Claude and Dimitri were quite friendly during their time in school), so, yeah, he should have either lived, or gotten a better death scene (obviously in the form of a cutscene), like maybe Edelgard kills him even though Claude and Byleth protest this, or something. My other issue with GD route: Claude never actually comes out and says that he's the son of the King of Almyra. You only learn about it depending on his ending. I wish that Claude had told Byleth and only Byleth (so like: "keep this a secret, ok Teach?") the truth of who and what he is, as I feel like that would've made their relationship a lot sweeter and more built on trust, and more of the "couple of outsiders who only understand each other" idea behind their friendship. Love your ideas for the Black Eagles route, especially for Claude providing backup, then it wouldn't have felt like the choice to spare or kill him was meaningless (your choices MATTER! Except when they don't). Church route WAS unnecessary--why would I want Seteth when I could have Claude? I mean, I like Seteth, but it's still a bit of a downgrade? And no Gronder Field battle? Lame--and every house SHOULD have had their own Part 1s. I did see Blue Lions route first so when I saw Ashe and Sylvain being personally connected to the missions, I thought initially that maybe every house would have essentially the same missions (or like having the same outcomes of each of the missions, so like an equivalent mission to the Lord Lonato one would be witnessing the power of a Hero's Relic for the first time, while the Miklan one would be seeing someone turn into a demonic beast for the first time) but with different characters being brought to the forefront... but, no, Ashe and Sylvain, every time. I love those two, but... Lame! Honestly, I would have been okay waiting a little longer for this game, if they had patched some of this stuff up at least. (And made Dimitri and Claude same-sex romance options but that's a whole other rant for another time.)
Wait, so the ending I got was the "secret" but disappointing one? I loved the way it ended, and you're telling me the other endings had way more work put into them? I need to play this game again
It wasn't totally secret but yes like me we started with the most 'bare bones" ending. 18 chapters compared to the 22 of the others. CF end cut scene is dope! Also a fun map but was expecting it to be harder on maddening.
@@SirCanuckelhead
CF's ending was by far the most climactic one. It may have come sudden and left some things a bit out, but it was still an emotional and catharic climax with great pacing and setup.
@@Ninjaananas I was hoping to see some TWSID getting bitch slapped as a filler to complete our quest about people who may after fodlan after fighting the Church or Rhea, aka there are more threat in the future rather than fully slapping it in the epilogue.
The poll you reference is from Korean and they have a distaste for agresive military dictators that's why she is hates in that poll.
I saw a comment online that perfectly sums up the route's problems.
"Crimson Flower feels like it was written with 'You get to romance Edelgard' as its priority and it really shows."
cool.
Oh my God, that really makes too much sense!
@@greendemon905 and its fine with me.
@@genericyoutubeaccount4756 Why would you when there's Annette, Hilda and Constance?
@@greendemon905 none of them are intereasting at all edelgard is best girl end of story.
"we gotta have her shove down her tragic backstory instantly so people know she not evil"
Is what it was for me. No chill, no mystery, no thinking she has more going on. She just straight up tells you "Omg tragic"
Doesn't the backstory feed into her motivations though?
She and her family was experimented on resulting in her siblings deaths and now wants to end the church and it's importance of Crests.
yes, it does, but it could have been after the story establishes it more. Lysithea doesn't instantly tell you either just because.
It's just... a little bit too convenient to feel for her if she instantly tells you about her trauma and all. Leaves nothing to think if you already feel bad for her.
@@Cheremia But she doesn't tell you until her B support, doesn't she?
Nope, it Starts at C and at C+, you know her backstory.
We've gone a long way from stone cold mekkah making content with no commentary.
But that laugh.
it scares me.
mekkah development similar to byleth development
*Thoughts on how to improve Edelgard's route:*
1) *First of all it needs to be completed. Arundel and Slitherers were very much set up as villains after Rhea but then they just die offscreen.* Edel also talk about Nemesis and looking up to him, so it seems obvious she should face him too and probably learn that the history she was taught was partly slitherer propaganda which also gave her a few wrong ideas like Nemesis being a good guy and the church wanting to enrich itself. Arundel too could have a revelation talk with her like Rhea does in the Claude campaign.
2) *Edelgard herself also shouldn't have her supports this rushed.* Her current A support is more like a B or B+ and too much central info is dropped too soon. Compare to how long Lisetheas identical situation was set up.
3) A good point for the church to be more of a threat would be when Randolph dies for them to break through and *Dimitri and/or Rhea doing a big massacre and then have a defending mission.*
4) *Randolph, that other woman and Fleche should be more than the non-entities they currently are.* Maybe also get one of them as a unit.
5) It needs to be mentioned that *Edelgard also has a shortened lifespan like Lysithea and that's also why she has to rush things* all the time.
6) *Edelgard* as a character would also be better imo if she had *more moments like before starting the war, where she regrets what she has to do but knows she has to do it,* shining through the whole time. A bit of *underlying sadness in the background for what she has to do.* The original, softer voice from the trailer also would have been a better choice for her and *she doesn't need extra traits like her injured pride when getting critizised. She's already doing villain stuff. She doesn't need further traits to make her unsympathetic.* Something that would also help understanding her view would be if she would *keep asking you hard choices questions like the trollly problem* during the academy phase.
7) *Some earlier mission or paralogue should also show more clearly how messed up the crest system is. Like some noble doing some messed up stuff in the empire.* We hear alot of stories about this but never really see it.
My biggest grip with Edelgard is the fact that her motivation comes mainly from misinformation that she's been fed by TWSITD.
Also for some reason she believes them seemingly without question even though their the most blatantly evil faction in the game (Jedah and Celica anyone?) and she quite obviously hates them.
And to top it all off that never actually gets resolved.
Arundel literally calls Nemesis a bandit to her face so he didn't feed her any misinformation. It's more likely the first Emperor was a dick and kept things to himself or things got lost over time.
It was resolved... But in the laziest way possible. I was really hopeing for El to realize she was been used and get a final battle against TWSID, there was even the build up with her uncle trowing the nuke to threat her and Rubert investigating.
they fed her a sort of cocktail of misinformation peppered with actual secret knowledge, so that as every secret that was true got revealed, she believed the lies more.
Rhea WAS an unstable rage monster. The relics DID cause people to turn into monsters. If Rhea hadn't built so much of the religion's foundation on lies, it wouldn't have been so easy to turn Edel against them.
But beyond all that, what happens, do you think, if Edelgard doesn't do what she does? Do you think Thales will just be cool with it? Because it seems obvious that he'd likely Monica her, and torture some other kid with a Crest in the next generation. Edelgard's in a no-win scenario.
Chris Check
Indeed, it’s the most clever type of brainwashing: lies peppered with the occasional amount of truth.
It’s still a flaw of Edelgard’s that she doesn’t question even her own knowledge, but that’s entirely within her character. Only Claude seems dedicated to learning all sides of the picture, because for the most part his life has taught him to consider all options and people as potentially useful.
@@JXZX1 Nobody else questions their own knowledge either. Dimitri and Rhea also operate based on misinformation or misconception.
To be honest I believe her route was so rushed because it was never meant to be at first... They probably came up with it later in development...
but thats so hard to swallow when the church route and golden deer routes are so similar
@@TheHDEpics
There are some signs to suggest that Church route may have been the one made first.... then GD copied several stuff from it.
Honestly, no, and you can tell that by looking at the earliest info for the game.
Church copied GD, not the other way around.
Airship Canon
Some cutscenes in GD seems to fit way better in Church route than GD one.
Still it's totally possible they originally were a single route that got divided in 2.
@@mattiaberti9160 Wasn't there a line from the Crimson Flower BE route in the early trailer? It was the line with Cristina Vee's Edelgard asking if everyone wanted to join her in her quest and warning them that one misstep would be the end of them. So it seems like this route was planned fairly early on. It's just that the game was either rushed, development time was utilized very poorly, or both.
One thing about her character that annoys me is how she deals with those who slither in the dark. She knows they're the ones that did the crest experiments on her as a child, yet she STILL seems to view them as the lesser of two evils when choosing between them and the church because...Rhea is a dragon? (I get it goes deeper than that). She is planning to deal with them later but we really should have had more about how she feels allying herself with the people that killed NINE of her siblings and put her through hell as a child.
The demon you know. She knows what these people want, shes using them to fight basically gods. Makes sense to me
@@johnathanera5863 Does she know what they want? All she knows about them is that they're a seemingly massive shadow organization that can force even the imperial royal family to submit to their whims and that they want more crests. But anyway I was more referring to the fact that we don't see her struggle with this alliance very much. We see her grumpy about it a few times pre timeskip but you'd think this would like eat her up.
Not fighting TWSITD is the most baffling thing for me in Edelgard's path. This could have at least added 2-3 more chapters. And yeah also things seems rushed with her, like they were on a budget or time limit, or even like at first we were not meant to be able to side with her at all and was a last minute added path. Edelgard is also my favorite character in the game and anyone who plays Black Eagles will certainly decide to side with her(unless you miss the chance). By the way, being able to miss the chance to go with her is another weird thing, why is it "hidden"?
I would really love for DLCs to adress that issue(adding more chapters to Edelgard's path) but I'm pretty sure this will never happen.
Fighting twisd without divine pulse good luck.
One problem I see with having the fight against TWSITD be playable is that is that is would make for an unsatisfying finale. TWSITD would always have to be dealt with after the main war. VW dealt with TWSITD, but after that it was left without a villain, so they had to pull a character that had been talked about during about three conversations before and make him the final boss, which is the main reason that VW's story was so bad. SS did this a bit better, but it's not the kind of thing that CF could copy, and AM just completely forgot about TWSITD altogether, which lead to it having a pretty satisfying finale.
Edelgard is my least favourite of the house leaders but they're all such great characters that it's not a slight against her. Ultimately, it does appear that she was designed to be 'the villain' and the fact that FE actually gave us a complex, interesting antagonist with clear (if not misguided) motivations and drives that brought her that point - which just makes me sadder that Crimson Flower seemed like such an afterthought.
It's like they created the first draft - then got distracted by Dimitri and Claude, built up their characters, designed their cutscenes - and then rushed to finish Crimson Flower and Silver Snow.
I get they had budget and time constraints but I can't help wondering what a few more months might have done to improve ALL
i disagree with her ebing the villian.
They did Silver Snow first. Then they had someone else do the other three routes.
If you really wanted to drive your point home you could have just made this entire video you laughing at Edelguard’s confession for 13 minutes extended
I can't help but think Crimson Flower was intended to be the last route you were meant to play.
Which doesn't make it any more fair.
Absolutely agree, she's my favorite character in this game because of that fine line she walks between protagonist and antagonist. So I'm at a bit of a loss when you have such an intresting character with such limited screen time with the shorter route, we could have gone into post battles after Rhea with Hubert starting a shadow campaign against 'Those who Slither in the Dark' attempting to kill them off in a desperate race before they unleash Nemesis on the world.
I can only hope that because her route was shorter than everyone elses the Black Eagles will get some campaign extending missions in the DLC.
I finished the Golden Deer route recently to and in the short paragrapgh that F/Byleth and Claude get they describe a massive battle between the living members of 'Those who Slither in the Dark' with Byleth barely holding on until Claude saves her with an army he raised in Almyra... I wanna play that too! It's just unfortunate we never get a chance.
Honestly, if they had reused the Nemesis fight for Edelgard's path after killing Rhea, that would have made me happy. Throw in Thales into that fight and boom: major TWSITD leadership gone, Edie gets revenge on the leader, and the epilogue still makes sense. It would make CF the "harder route"
Oh. Wow. This is the route i chose for my new game+ after doing the Blue Lions route. After that really satisfying ending i was hoping for something similar for the Black Eagles route, especially because things are looking really good as of just before the time skip. I'm sad to hear it's the shortest route too.
I totally agree with this, when I was discussing this with my friend he started with the blue loins route, he keep talking about how there were a lot of cutscenes in the route and I was like I got a bunch of black screens and because I went black eagles, didn't even know about the route split and discovered it on my own made sure to go with Edelgard, making me reset the game for the first time just so I could do my explore first before the trip that asks you to go to the capital and causing a two day skip before you back at the monastery; then I told my friend done with only 18 chapters and it felt shorter then it should have been, then he was done a few days later and said it was 22 chapters I was mad, because I felt I was cheated out of 4 chapters which in the end is what happened. I honestly hope the dlc will be the final four chapters for that route and that they enhance the route to be more like the others with cutscenes and more details shown for the route than all that god damn black screen
Yeah she deserved me not m*ngs
Saves us Pete
the main problem with Edelgard, and likely why her route was rushed, is that she isn't the visionary she thinks she is. No one likes the crests. No one except Lorenz, Rhea, and a few villains. It's well established that all of the lords hate the crests and that the world would be better off without them. I couldn't tell you how intentional this is, but the main point is that Edelgard's route covers things every other route covers. She deserved a lot better, but that would require a fundamental rewriting of the world to make her more of a visionary than she is now.
not really the other routes do not voer crests.
i feel like that dimitri was wronged in golden deer
and edelgard in..her own route
claude was pretty well done in routes like blue lions and blacm eagles too even given his backstory he had a reason to leave fódlan
in golden deer claude is amazing i'd say
the sub plot dlc we are getting well. i hope its different depending which route you took like GD. BL and BE and hope they do something like after game sub plot were in the golden deer you help claude in almyra. dimitri fighting those who slither in the dark
and well an actual story for edelgard
Yeah, Dimitri makes no sense in GD route. "KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!"
Like, dude, what did Claude ever do to you?
I really wish there was a good option for her, instead of Crimson Flower's TWSITD patsy route. Her plan is just their plan, which is getting rid of everyone that can stop TWSITD, except she thinks they're normal enemies that can be dealt with without dragon back-up.
Edelgard bothered me a lot in Crimson Flower, but the final straw was right before the final battle. She says you "might have some connection to the Goddess," which was one of the main points of Part 1. There's no option to say "yes, I've known that all along," it's just treated as a mystery that isn't one.
Also, CF ends with Sothis' heart breaking after you murder her daughter. Still bothers me so much
Actually Sothis is still around. The crests just disappear. By that point the soul of Sothis is joined with yours completely. You can even still S support her in the Crimson Flower Path.
There is a obvious bias of Edelgard, even through the main song, the song is about her as the original name of the song is "Maiden of Hresvelg," and she is the red rose. It'd be really cool if they patched her route.
Thank heavens I'm not the only one who found her marriage picture...unsettling...
I mean, most of them are.
Her route deserved at least 3 more chapters with a resolution for Shambhala and Lord Arundel / Thales, also that showdown with Nemesis would be rad with her at Byleth's side!
My take on this is that Edelgard was developed as a villain and not really as a typical main lord that gets a happy ending. The secret route although should have received proper care as the other routes, it is more like an easter agg to me. You're basically allying yourself with the "bad guys" that are really close to winning. I think that this could have been solved by giving more cinematics and some extra chapters regarding TWSITD. Maybe delv a bit more into how Edelgard is close to turning insane because of all the people that have died because of her. I think that the secret route is fine but very weird, and I think that you see the best of her in BE part 1 and any other route other than Crimson Flower really. Despite all this I still think that she is one of the best villains in the series.
"hidden" route? literally 50% of the players went with the crimson flower (in the first playthrough)
I play BE second and was SO glad I didn't played that first. I felt sorry for all the poor sucker who did since it was clearly not designed to be played first. BL or GF are the ones that give you the complete Fire Emblem experience if you could only pick one.
@@nelsonw9483 ... There is no correct way to play FE3H. It's up to you on what you're gonna play first
@@yoran4067 Nah, there is definitely a optimal order to play the routes. Of course, it's up to you whether you choose to do it correctly or incorrectly, which will have an effect on the quality of your experience. BE pretty much assumes you already know all the common route plot twists and events, so they simply rushed through all the major scenes and provided the least impactful presentations for them. Hence it being the worst route to play first.
@@nelsonw9483 thats weird. Considering the game heavily marketed Edelgard in almost all of 3H trailers. They really pushed you to play BE first.
@@yoran4067 That's the only thing I find weird. Maybe the BE route was originally meant to be a lot longer and in-depth than what we actually got, but when they started developing it after having finished BL and GD, they already ran out of time/budget. It could also be that they used Edelgard for their marketing because they know their target audience are predominantly males. I admit I almost played BE first too just because she looks hot, but I was lucky enough to have come across warnings online from those who got burned by doing that, and thank God I took their advice. And unlike the marketing, the actual game locked the BE route behind three separate requirements - two of which are easily missable by first time players who get forced into the church route against their wishes.
IMO, BE should be played second. Not first or last, but second. As for why not last (after GD)? Because you definitely don't want the cringe from listening to Edelgard dropping an info dump of incorrect lore on you while she worships Nemesis as a hero after you finished GD. BE is a much better experience if you don't know about the lore and how sadly misinformed she is yet. There's an clear progression of history/lore revelation which goes from BL (minimal) to BE (false) to GD (truth). Going backwards results in inferior experience..
Best laugh ever.
(And Mangs reaction to Mekkkah's laugh is awesome!)
I get the impression Edelgard was originally supposed to be a tragic morally gray villain who you couldn't side with (the Black Eagles would automatically go into the Church route), but they decided to give her a route after seeing how popular she was. Naturally, this resulted in it being rushed, but I also feel like the writers just didn't know how to handle a morally gray route.
Funnily enough, I think Edelgard is at her most interesting when she's an antagonist, specifically on Church route since you'd still have Part One to get to know her and her backstory and motives. But on Crimson Flower, I felt like the writers were going out of their way to make her as morally "pure" as possible, finding ways to shift the blame of some of her actions onto other parties or just handwaving them in general, likely out of fear at the reception of a truly morally gray route. And that's a shame, because I vastly prefer the Edelgard of the other routes to the watered down version in her own.
There's also the fact that Edelgard's one of those characters who work better when they're not the main ones, and I don't mean that in a negative way at all. Edelgard's extremely driven and motivated, which makes her a great and sympathetic antagonist, but as a protagonist she doesn't really get any development. She faces no challenges in Crimson Flower and doesn't really change at all (also in part do to the above mentioned need to make her as morally flawless as possible), which just doesn't make her the most interesting protagonist. The writers could've had her start out more cold and ruthless following the timeskip, then shown her slowly softening up and not being so harsh in her methods, and that would've been way more interesting to watch and would've done much to bridge the gap between who Edelgard is on Crimson Flower vs. who she is on every other route.
That's just my 2 cents anyway.
Basically, you can begin with a Edelgard who wants to literally "rout the enemy" to "yeah, let's have a chat instead of butchering each other".
In fact, Edelgard fighting against TWSITD would make more sense, because of her backstory.
"And this other girl called Ingree"
Lmao
I appreciate this comment section for not completely crapping on Edelgard and giving reasonable opinions as to why they dont like her. She is my favorite character and I agree she should get more screentime given all the promotion.
We deserve a dlc that actually covers the black eagles taking out those who slither in the dark instead of some cutscene. Some new paralogues like mercedes and death knight reconciling.
Whatever new story dlc they're working on better be good
I've come to conclusion that Edelgard's character arc is not "visibly" fulfilled in her route. In fact the Plot of CF (Crimson Flower) left many thinking she's a conqueror when she's suppose to be a Liberator with all the parallels to Nemesis, the King of Liberation.
To understand this i will use a term from writing that is not a negative term. I AM NOT INSULTING EDELGARD.
Edelgard has a "Flat Character Arc."
A flat character arc is a story about one individual changing the world. Edelgard fits this description. The plot of CF though does not allow the player to see her effect. That is not to say we should have been able to see her United Fodlan. We could have seen her awaken class consciousness among the commoners for example. We don't see Edelgard talk to the noble kids and convince them the nobility is corrupt despite almost all kids being hurt by the system. There's many ways we could have seen her cause change throughout the plot. Just being able to fight TWSITD would have made it a lot better as we would have liberated the humans from both Dragons and the Aragothians. Instead all we have is at the end "She did it, she changed the world." We can only imagine her impact, not see it. Thus her character arc never visibly finished.
Well, we do see her going from someone who doesn't share her burdens with anyone, to the turning into the person who says, "the solitary reign of Edelgard is finally over"...makes me cry every time
It's been about a month since I've first seen that end CG and it still freaks me out. Those eyes are just...
That face says: "let us breed.....let us breed lots."
@@gojiboy69 Hey, I'm not complaining. I'd breed with the Empress any day of the week.
@@mikeisnotcool8360 It's a blessing if she consents to breed with her
It's Byleth, she'll consent to Byleth
@@mikeisnotcool8360 But Byleth in a way is an avatar character sooo....................
1.I actually enjoyed the way they reused locations, it was the so cool to re-visit Fodland's throat with a different mission, and with these places being so important, it makes sense that many battles would take place there.
2. I hated the way they treated Dimitri and Claude in Edelgard's route but I think they just couldn't bring themselves to show them so much as your enemies while still making them "good guy" because neither of them is truly in a "moral grey" and changing that would be a complete disservice to the characters
I think they marketed the game wrong. Edelgard shouldn't have been pushed as the "Main Character" she is an amazing villain and her route should have been used to develop her and her motives, but we hardly got that other then "The crests are to blame" when in reality Dimitri's route gives her so much more development.
I think they could've done a really good job at making her a morally grey anti-hero in her route, considering they already made get a great villain for the others, Dimitri especially.
I was amazed by the cut scenes from other routes after finishing BL, made me really hope all of the routes were treated equally.
Blue Lions and Golden Deer feel like two different but fun and fleshed out experiences, even if GD borrows a bit from the Church route. Edelgard's route felt like tacked on DLC.