#my favourite is a non-existent time where all of the knight and the core four and all one big happy family

[anonarat]

Part 2 of my final thoughts on the Black Eagles route of Fire Emblem: Three Houses. This time covering the Black Eagles characters, I was going to include Shamir, but then remembered the church route existed.

Edelgard: She is one of my favourite characters, and with this game there is some stiff competition. Her drive and confidence are both believable and incredible. Certainly they are traits of hers that I envy a bit. She also has a well hidden cute side that helps to humanise her a bit. I was a bit saddened that she’s afraid of rats though. Further to this, that drive and confidence are what will doubtless help to make her a compelling villain in the other routes. It feels as though without Byleth to help temper these traits, she will go down more and more extreme paths. Her supports are also good at showing how she cares for those under her command.

I prefer her academy design to the post time-skip for two reasons, first is that I find loose, long hair attractive, the second is that post time-skip, she has far too much red. As a design, it could have stood to have a bit more black in to help the red pop some more and to break up the design a bit.

As expected from a lord, she is an absolute beast of a unit. Giving her the March Ring was definitely the best choice that I made. She was, by far, my best defensive unit except against really nasty axes where Petra could speed tank them more effectively.

Hubert: Probably my favourite male character. There is a good bit of comedy milked from his general demeanour and appearance, but it doesn’t detract from his seriousness as a character.

I do like both of his designs, though I think the post time-skip one is slightly better. It gives a bit more maturity to him, making his threats seem that much more credible.

Hubert ended up as my dancer. I wanted a ranged unit who had good defences and speed and wasn’t Linhardt. Also, it was hilarious. He turned out to be a good dancer too, though I did have to make the decision from time to time whether to have him attack with his strong magic or dance. But having to make choices in a tactical game is no bad thing.

Ferdinand: I found Ferdinand a little irritating at first, but his supports really helped out. The real turning point was when I realised how sincere he was about wanting to be better than Edelgard so that he was good enough to help guide her.

Not much to say design wise. They are both solid, but nothing that really stands out.

As a unit, Ferdinand ended up probably being the weakest of my core team. Not sure whether it was RNG cursed or just bad growths. Still, at least he was in the core team.

Caspar: Probably the least developed character, he has two main settings ‘I will fight for what’s right’ and ‘I feel bad about my dad killing your people’. For all that, I do think that both of these aspects were very well written for what they were, so he doesn’t fall as flat as, say, Arthur.

I feel as though Caspar’s designs work well in concert. At first, he looks like a typical brash anime youth, but the time-skip adds a level of maturity to that. It helps to highlight how the character has changed when thrown into a world at war.

Caspar ended up as one of my Wyvern Lords. As ever, fliers are extremely useful, and he was probably my best offensive unit. It was rare to come across a non-monster enemy that he didn’t one round.

Bernadetta: Of all the characters, Bernadetta is the one the time-skip benefited the most. It showed growth through a negative trait. As with Hubert, she has some funny supports which help, although these feel a bit more stale. Where Hubert’s comedy trait is proactive, getting different comedic reactions, Bernadetta’s trait is reactive. But yeah, post time-skip really helps her grow a lot.

In a similar vein, I prefer her post time-skip design. The way she’s gotten her bangs cut down really helps to show how she’s changed in those five years.

She ended up as a Bow Knight. Having Bow Range +2 combined with Canto makes Bow Knights extremely good, especially in the early-to-mid late game. She didn’t quite have the strength or speed to make it into the upper echelons in the last few chapters. Having said this, Bernadetta provided valuable ranged physical damage, because magic immune monsters are rubbish.

Petra: While Petra started as my favourite, she fell down the ranks a bit due to having some primary character traits that were good at first, but never really paid off. It would have been nice if, after five years, she had actually mastered speaking the language of Fodlan. It would have showed how her dedication had actually paid off. That said, there are enough smaller bits to her that add up to help make her much more rounded. I was also surprised to learn that she has a joint ending with Dorothea, which I didn’t expect.

I definitely prefer her pre-time-skip design. Post time-skip, her clothes feel out of place among the much more armoured clothes of some of her peers. The fact that she isn’t a fan of the cold really isn’t borne out either.

As a unit, she ended up as a Mortal Savant, and a good jack-of-all-trades. Now, I love me some speed tanking, and but she couldn’t do it too reliably except against axes with Axe Breaker. But the ability to have moderate, mixed damage, good crit rates and good hit meant that she always had a use.

Linhardt: Usually I find the lazy, but skilled archetype dull at best, but this is one time where the writing really helps the character. The fact that Linhardt will go out of his way to give tips to the other characters along with, after some cajoling, fully explaining them helps. I’ll be honest, after reading one of his supports, I was sorely tempted to try and have him go full pacifist, but magic damage is too useful in the late game. I genuinely like Linhardt quite a bit, showing the power of good writing.

Design-wise, he’s solid, both pre and post time-skip. It’s not too flashy, and it feels very in character for him.

As a unit, well, he’s your primary healer, so you gotta love him. He also has enough magic to make his Reason magic hit hard enough to make an impact. I think he came along to most, if not all maps purely for these reasons.

Dorothea: She is, by turns, witty, charming, cutting, flirty and caring. Her supports are excellent, being funny or shedding more light on her or other characters. Basically, she is my favourite character.

She is also the only character whose change in victory quotes post time-skip actually felt like they added to the character. Notably going from ‘Even roses have thorns’ to ‘Only thorns left on this rose’. It’s a badass line, it shows development and is just good writing.

Honestly, the colour of her hair and eyes reminded me of Four, which automatically predisposed me towards liking her. I also really like the hat she has pre-time-skip, which edges out the later outfit as my favourite.

Early game, she’s a great off-healer with her passive. Mid-game, she has enough magic to really blast enemies, though not as high or fast as some other units. Late game, she was my only siege magic using with Meteor. Throughout she is always useful and always strong, though never quite hitting that top tier. The fact that she learns Physic is one of the reasons why she’s so potent.