#Fire Emblem Three Hopes Spoilers

[cometnoodle]

this dialogue

[cherrypikkins]

i hear that opinions were had when the azure gleam character designs came out

[lilshironeko]

I thougth that Three Hopes’s degins were a bit ridiculous or glamorous lol

[wenja45]

Edelgards legacy in the fandom

Since people are bringing up post launch Engage (looking at you Raxistachio) not creating much buzz whilst in comparison to Three Houses which is only kept alive by the Edelgard discourse it is time to talk about Edelgard's legacy.

Edelgard's legacy is not looked at fondly she isn't a famous character she is an infamous character that has created the worst discourse in the entire fandom and likely no future games will ever be able to overcome the toxic shithole that is Edelgard discourse.

Edelgard will not be remembered for her character, her route it anything she will just be remembered as the character that created the worst discourse in Fire Emblem history.

[star-arcana]

Why the Fire Emblem Three Houses/Hopes discourse surrounding Almyra is unfairly biased against them!

I expect everyone to know about Almyra and Fódlan, so I will not go over in great detail as to the history and mention all the bad points right away to be debunked, but first a little intro:

The continent of Fódlan is attacked from time to time by Almyra, a persian-coded empire that once tried to conquer Fódlan and was beaten only marginally by the combined effort of Adrestia, Fearghus, Leicester and the Church. Afterward a large fortification called Fódlan’s medallion was placed between the border of Leicester and Almyra. Then the Church of Seiros established the Officer's Academy and attempt to prepare the young nobles for a future of conflict. To the present day, we see small attacks from Almyrans on the border and that might make one think that they are pure evil and pretty much the bad guys from 300...wrong for following reasons:

1. We only get Fódlans view of things and never that of Almyra. Cyril doesn’t count because he himself admits to not know why Almyra attacks in his support with Hilda and would have been 5 years old when he was orphaned and as many of us know, our me memories of these early years is not clear, so he cannot be seen as completely reliable narrator on such matters, especially when he is wrong about some of Almyra’s stuff as I am mentioning now.

2. Almyra has no real incentive to conquer Fódlan. After a century, no real invasion took place with the exeption of some border raids that counts as nothing, since such small scale conflicts happened a lot in history, and they still persist even in Fódlan as Jeralt mentions battles taking place. Coming back to the Cyril point, the Almyrans have a powerful navy, more advanced than Fódlan (which casts doubts about Cyril mentioning how inferior Alymran tech is, because they appearently can’t build a structure as grand as the Bridge of Myrrdin). With that, they should have taken easily the Alliance capital, the Fraldarious territory as well as the Kingdom capital and debilitate the Empire, allowing them full control over most of Fódlan this way. One might say the hero relics, but how much good will it do against high advanced tech?

3. Another problem is that the King of Almyra has no interest in a invasion and many of his officers as well as many others do also not think of invading Fódlan. This led to Shahid being betrayed by Nader and before that having his soldiers fight with low morale to the point where the GD conclude that had the Almyrans been serious, they would have been in big trouble and presumably lost.

4. If really Almyra was such a big threat, why are there no long-term consequences for missing out on the paralouges in Three houses where you battle them. If we are meant to think that they are this dangerous, why is there no punishment? It makes no sense.

5. Finally, saying that all can be blamed on Almyra is also against the GD’s theme of Isolationism and ignorance clouding our senses as we see how aggressive Fódlan is to outsiders and even if Almyra is as bad as people say, not wanting peace with them is what would lead to more death and more hate and this is pretty much what the story criticizes; The Nabateans and Agarthans are unwillingly to let their past go and because of this, they burend the continent asunder and nearly wiped out all life on it. So for the sake of future generations, Almyra and Fódlan have to put aside their differences and work together for a new dawn.

If you have disagreements with me, tell me and I’ll answer gladly.

[zeeohyi]

hilda! hilda!

still in love with her outfit in 3hopes ahhh :c

[flower-of-knighthood]

Assassination of the Southern Archbishop

In Three Hopes, one of the inciting events of the attempted conquest of Fodlan by the Adrestian Empire is the attempted assassination of Lord Varley, the archbishop of the Southern Church appointed by Edelgard herself. Hubert and Edelgard both claim that the assassination was conducted by the Church of Seiros, however there is a decent amount of evidence pointing towards a false flag operation.

To begin with, quite frankly, if it was the Church who attempted to assassinate Varley, then Varley would be dead. This is because during Scarlet Blaze, Shamir gets extremely close to assassinating Edelgard, only being stopped by Shez at the last moment. Additionally in Shamir and Hubert's B Support in Houses, Hubert is nearly assassinated by the Church of Seiros, barely surviving because of Shamir, so unless you think Varley is more competent then Hubert, there is no way for Varley to have survived an attempt by the Church of Seiros.

The next point of evidence is that Edelgard and Hubert both have a history of putting the blame on the church for actions done by a third party, such as Arianrhod in Three Houses where after Agartha destroyed the city with a Javelin of Light, Edelgard put the blame on the Church of Seiros for something that her allies did.

Yes, it is my belief that the assassination attempt on Varley was a false flag operation, and I do believe it was likely on the part of Edelgard and Hubert, based on their inclination to blame others for the actions of their allies established in Houses, and the general competency of the assassins of the Church of Seiros.

[warriorbrevi]

Hubert putting his friends abusive dad in a position of power knowing it would get him targeted for assassination in 2 years >>>

[dyaus-pita]

If there is one net positive to 3Hopes' existence, it's that it confrims that not only is KT responsible for most of the writing issues of 3Houses, but that KT is fundamentally incompatible with the themes and messages of FE in general.

While Houses did have a lot of KT devs on staff for Houses, it was IS staff that served as director and producer. Hopes was almost entirely a KT production, with Kusakihara only being credited as an illustrator and "consultant/supervisor" this time, KT staff in the director and the producer roles, and two of the writers being replaced. IS basically had almost nothing to do with Hopes; this is very apparent when you compare how the characters, themes and story are handled compared to other entries in the series (the Elibe and Tellius games in particular) and even Houses. I've written about issues I've had with how Houses handled its anti-war and anti-prejudice messages, but there was an actual attempt at communicating said messages. Compare how the relics and the Nabateans are framed in Houses vs Hopes. In Houses, the relics and crests are ultimately the product of human sin and folly, with scenes like Hilda noticing and being repulsed by how her relic seems almost alive existing to draw your attention to it. The big secret Claude learns at the end of his route is not that Rhea was responsible for crests or relics, but that they are the remnants of her family, and she lied about them not to control humanity but because she wanted to protect what was left of her race and couldn't bring herself to kill people for simply being related to her victims. It was not an accident that Rhea turns out to be the one person in Fodlan who understands more Claude's desire for people to live without hiding who they are more than anyone. In Hopes, not only is the nature of the relics and crests completely ignored, the game seems to go out of its way to imply that the Nabateans deserved what happened to them or are equivalent to the people who genocided them for power, which is extremely fucked up.

In fact, the morals of 3Hopes in general are very fucked up, because the messages it communicates basically seem to be the following:

War is a Good Thing to help the common man, and should be the first option. As long as you have a Good Reason, the devastation and death caused by it can be handwaved.

Power and authority should be completely centralized on one "enlightened" autocrat. They shouldn't have to listen to their people because they know best and therefore should be free to do what they want.

It is fine for the enlightened ruler to use religious organizations as puppets to indoctrinate people and lie to them to support your warmongering. It is not ok to lie to people to prevent bloodshed and protect the last members of a genocided race.

The ends ALWAYS justify the means. As long as a ruler SAYS they feel bad, it's completely ok for them to treat civilians as expendable.

Because invading countries is good, defending one's country is bad, and if someone dies trying to stop you, then it is their fault or the fault of their inferior culture. They should always roll over and let you do what you want. Offering surrender is optional.

It is perfectly fine to destroy another country's culture or system of government to impose your own culture's, because yours is obviously better and you're doing them a favor anyway.

If a continent has had a history of other countries trying to conquer them, then they're racist for keeping you out when you attack them for sport. Why should you have to put any effort to understand them?

A true friend will do whatever you say and want and will ignore their own morals and interests. Feel free to lie to them or abuse their trust.

All the social, international, and political issues in the world can be laid squarely at the feet of one person or religion. It doesn't matter what they actually say or do, the fact they exist at all is tyranny and lynching them will fix everything.

Ethnic cleansing is perfectly fine as long as you want their land or personally don't like them.

Humans are great and perfect and should be free from the divine, except when they face the consequences for their actions. In that case, humans are helpless and the divine should always bail them out.

All foreigners want to subjugate you. Their attempts at peace actually mean they want to infiltrate your culture and destroy your traditions so they can rule, so don't trust them. It is much more acceptable as long as they suck up to the culture of a native though.

Always except everything you're told at face value if it's something that confirms your bias. It doesn't matter who it comes from or their ulterior motives, and you don't need to do research or try to understand the full picture because you are Right.

It is perfectly acceptable to inflame centuries old grudges so you can make war, especially if it allows you to help the people who wronged you less than a year ago.

It is also fine to sabotage another nation's diplomatic relations and use a neutral country's soldiers as bait, especially if your goal is to improve international relations. It's all the church's fault anyway.

It is NOT ok to leave an ally of convenience who clearly wants to either control you or conquer you later to die to end a war quicker.

It's a pro-war, pro-imperialist game, and reads more like the manifesto of a Japanese nationalist, right down to the victim complex and refusal to accept responsibility. Edelgard and Claude in that game are not so much characters as they are mouthpieces, and Rhea and the church are standins for everyone the devs don't like. It's not the plot holes introduced or the continuity errors and retcons that should disown 3Hopes, but the thematic and tonal dissonance to both the series as a whole and the entry that it's supposed to serve in the first place.

[princessesaphi]

Page dividers I made for my Fire Emblem : Three Houses fic that's now rotting in oblivion...

It's unfinished but you can still read the first chapters here : Français, English

[puffballcat]

one thing that people rarely mention that would be really interesting to analyze is the fact that outside of the obligatory avatar supports, Jeritza only has supports with women. I just find it such an interesting detail about him.

[randomestfandoms]

[lilshironeko]

Hilda Hilda Hilda

[edelgard-was-right]

From the Edelgard character page on TV Tropes. Honestly this makes us wish that Three Houses had a route that combined Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind so that you could have the strengths of both. Edelgard and Claude teaming up to uncover the buried truth of Fódlan and to defeat the Church and TWSITD would've been absolutely epic. Imagine a musical medley remix of "Apex of the World" and "God Shattering Star" 🤯🤯🤯

Three Hopes already shows us that a pact between the Empire and the Alliance was always possible. Combining Edelgard's platform to end the nobility and Claude's platform to end racism would've been truly awesome. Each of their approaches would complement the other's too: Fódlan would need Edelgard's "Leninist oomph" to fully defeat the crest system and subdue those nobles who resisted their loss of power and prestige, but it would also need Claude's flexibility and internationalism and decentralist outlook. Plus the interactions between Edelgard and Claude are just really fun to watch in a personal sense!

It all ties into our belief that the core struggle in Three Houses ought to have been between two factions/ideologies: the disruptors (Edelgard and Claude) vs the status quo (Dimitri and Rhea). Due to circumstance (Faerghus being especially devout) and disposition (Dimitri being more traditional and wanting to fight for the present, as emphasized in Azure Moon), Dimitri would've probably always been most inclined to side with Rhea and the Church. But the worldviews of Edelgard are Claude were always reconcilable.

TLDR: What we're saying is that the people playing Crimson Flower correctly are the ones who choose to spare Claude.

[wenja45]

Edelgard has little to no character arc in Scarlet Blaze

Lets be honest here does anyone remember Edelgard having any big heroic moments in Scarlet Blaze no well you are correct in not remembering any heroic or any character growth and even if there is it is barely noticeable in comparison to Dimitri and Claude in their own routes in Three Hopes. What could have been a heroic moment for Edelgard was stolen away by Rhea which is good for Rhea by the way.

The Black Eagles have way more development than Edelgard does for example Ferdinand essentially carried the emotional weight of the route, Dorothea explains why she is fighting despite hating to fight, Jeritza is shown more character and Shez has growth.

Scarlet Blaze is just another Crimson Flower as in a rushed and incomplete mess I mean seriously Edelgard has little to no character development and has no heroic moments in her own route and it was given to Rhea.

I would like to say thank you to @faerytells on twitter and PK Gaming on twitter and yes Crimson Flower is a rushed and incomplete mess of a route that is poorly written and Scarlet Blaze is just more polished CF and also yes IS are the biggest antis of Edelgard and she deserves to be hate

[terderrer]

Manuela