Dorothea and Ferdinand aren't being COMPELLED to battle with the empire as the statute defined the element of compulsion as "coerced one or more persons, by act or threat." They return to service as foreign volunteer forces after having acted as resistance fighters in the time skip. Technically all the former black eagles are foreign volunteer forces.
@matmil5 Petra is compelled to serve the /black eagles/ under their prior leader. You don't force her to return to service when you launch the resistance campaign.
international law student here, that was amazing ! you were more cautious than people usually are when taking the geneva conventions into account so props to you. very impressed
Yeah, I think in a lot of cases he went much further than he had to (e.g. the militia, which would be considered combatants), and certainly following the law better than major contemporary nations like the United States who has spent significant resources on interpreting the law in such a way that allows them loopholes. Its both refreshing, and quite impressive. Do correct me if i got something wrong, im far from an expert on international law, and mostly just read through a lot of the relevant conventions and protocols out of interest and a certain feeling of civic duty to be informed
@@RepChris Doing a bit of reading, it seems like you’re absolutely right he was a lot more cautious than he needed to be. The way I’m interpreting things, he could’ve used the former Black Eagles students as they are volunteer forces in the Resistance Army against the Adrestian Empire during the war arc, same goes for the former Blue Lions against Gwendal in chapter 15.
@@dabbingperson9236 You could even make a compelling argument that the rampaging civilians in chapter 8 can be considered to be actively participating in hostilities, even if they are being supernaturally compelled by a third party.
To be clear the villagers picking up weapons and attacking other villagers probably makes those villagers out of the bounds of the rules of war, since you'd have to let villagers die by inaction (when you could take action) to save them.
Also of important note is that if they pick up weapons and they attack your military force and your military force is caused to defend itself from them to the point of lethality puts them out of bounds of that particular clause as well. So if you defend and they attack you and that results in their injury or death that is not a war crime committed by you.
@dragonstouch1042 that would also remove it from the list. I will be honest. It's been ages since I've seen any of the story stuff and I think some might have been skipped even then.
The moment when there’s no loopholes to justify attacking rampaging villagers in Remire Village despite how very inhumane the actual experimentation is
The units are marked as hostiles by the game and will attack you without provocation; I can't think of a more clear-cut case that they are participating in hostilites and therefore no longer civilians. Doesn't matter if they were compelled; It's legal to attack child soldiers, militias, and conscripts in the course of normal warfare.
@@jwil4286I suppose the question of what is “excessive” becomes the split hair, there. Rioters that charge at soldiers with makeshift weaponry are not mercilessly gunned down in an indiscriminate hail of gunfire, for example, but they ARE subdued with nonlethal tactics, weaponry and armor. Does Three Houses allow for nonlethal takedowns of combatants? If not… well shite. Come to think of it, the villagers were clearly coerced into attacking the soldiers (literally being turned “berserk”). In this case, they would be victims of the conflict, and not consciously taking part in the war. Therefore, they would not be combatants by definition, because they did not choose to fight that battle; the ones who turned them berserk would be the actual combatants.
As brutal and overkill of an attack as Atrocity is, I don't think it would count as a war crime, since it doesn't prolong pain, quite the contrary in fact. It would be akin to blowing a guy up with a granade.
Just to mention the flèche thing isn’t applicable. She joins the war effort directly before the battle and latterly the attack does count as being a combatant.
The "no quarter" is stipulated because it can imply "no prisoners" as is another stipulation. Obiously any sane peron will nevee trial this because is inane to investigate where any person surrender correctly or any other war crime implemented. Its also used to cover civilians, but this is a clear battlefield, so no participant cant be inbetween.
Makes sense that it's War Crime simulator though. It's like the Middle Ages in this game meanwhile the Geneva Convention happened in the Late 19th Century
Okay, Verdant Wind Analysis Time: Chapter 13: Sane as Silver Snow, just different students. Chapter 14: Same as Silver Snow, including blocking the Swordmaster to prevent the War Crime. Chapter 15: Same as Silver Snow. Chapter 16: Same as Silver Snow. It should be noted that Acheron used to be a lesser Alliance Noble before joining the Empire, so it would be the best if Geneva just kills him and his knights to not have countrymen fight fellow countrymen, even if only former. Chapter 17: One unique chapter, shifting every following chapter by 1. There is a Fire Bombing of the central ballista, but it's done by EDELGARD, not Claude. (+1 enemy War Crime) Chapter 18: Same as Chapter 18 from Silver Snow, however in the cutscene it shows Claude with parts of the Army IN YELLOW UNIFORMS! 100% War Crime Free, unless you somehow want to mark the involvement of a foraign power as one somehow... Chapter 19: Same as Chapter 18 of Silver Snow. Chapter 20: Same as Chapter 19 of Silver Snow. Chapter 21: Same as Chapter 20 of Silver Snow. Chapter 22: The other of only 2 chapters that are different between Silver Snow and Golden Deer. You even no longer need to apply any War Crime Rules, as all enemies are Agarthian Remnants and it basically becomes an EASIER final Mission than Silver Snow. Child Soilder Rulings: Golden Deer At the start of the game, Leonie, Hilda and Lorenz are over 18. For the Students that are 17, the birthdays are: 18.5 Raphael (Chapter 2) 24.7 Claude (Chapter 4) 23.11 Marianne (Chapter 8) 14.3 Ignatz (Chapter 12) Lysithea being 15 (turns 16 by chapter 11) means she has to wait till post Timeskip to be used if at all. Edit: I petition to release Claude from War Criminal Jail!
he uses poison unfortunately even if it is as a joke rather than a weapon considering the fact that the monastery is a military location for multiple nations poisoning his fellow students is a warcrime.
At the start of the battle for Fort Merceus they may be in yellow, but the nuke scene at the end still contains Byleth with soldiers in Imperial Uniforms that are clearly on Byleths side. And the point still is that Byleth is responsible for everyone. Also, just because we don't see the Alliance Troops in Imperial Uniform doesn't mean they didn't stick to the plan off cam.
Arguably, you can beat any path without committing war crimes, if you win in the end, but I guess its good to know you can beat white and yellow routes with a clear-ish conscience.
@@weepingdalek2568why is it then when anyone says that they're almost always mad their psycho murder empire lost. Seriously it's always used in the context of fucking world war 2 which is about as clear cut of a moral war as you can get, or the american civil war which a) has a losing side whose entire existence was to prolong slavery and b) has a losing side that very much created the most successful post war disinformation PR campaign to make itself sound good and justified
I love the idea that if you included Flayn, you would like have to display a sign in front of her saying “not a war crime she’s a 1000 year old dragon”
@@Estarile Yeah that's the biggest issue with 1000 year loli. Since they're always just fiction people the topic shifts to "why did the creators make this anicent being look like a preteen girl?"
@@DisplayThisOkay honestly, I think Dance in the Vampire Bund (+sequels) is the only series that did anything interesting with it. Mainly because it was an actual plot point that she looked so young and when she gets the opportunity to grow up she jumps on that.
@GRK_21387 Well don't I have news for you! Seteth can only marry F byleth though unfortunately :( and it IS actual romance, not the weird brother/family things some of the others do
@@Error403HRD arent they related as well? like i think seteth is related to rhea and rhea is kinda the daughter of byleth but also the grandmother of byleth(rhea did "make" sitri) as well. but tbf that isn't as weird as marrying rhea herself
@@GRK_2024Seteth and Flayn, who both can marry Byleth, are a bit tricky, since blood relation between all of them is a bit ambiguous and from what i have seen, people have different opinions about how much they are all related to each other. Biggest question here is, how much of Sothis is in Byleth. They are not literally her and not even a reincarnation or something similar. In a sense Byleth is still there own person. If we are only looking at DNA, they just got a heart transplation of Sothis and I normally wouldn't count organ or blood donations as reason for incest. Now the whole Byleth and Sothis fusion has also be taken to account. I don't know if there is an official statement about what exactly happened, but I have seen people Interpret it as more as fusion of Sothis's power that she lends Byleth, then them becoming one as a person. Still weird, especially while romancing Rhea, because her whole plan was to make them her mother and in turn she tries to see her in them. With Sethet and Flayn at least, they first of all didn't know about in and secondly they seem to see Byleth as their own identity and not Sothis. On the others site i have seen the argument that people don't see Rhea as her grandmother, since Sitri is not related by blood to her. In my eyes it still counts since she created her and if i for example adopted a child or created a Frankenstein creation, i would see me as a parental role, even If we technically don't share DNA. Which makes romancing Rhea weird for me, but Seteth and Flayn also didn't know about the whole Sitri thing (I think). At least we see Seteth beeing left in the dark by Rhea and not getting answers, after He suspected that she did something to Byleth. He also didn't seem to know Jeralt before he came back to the Academy with Byleth. Which is reason to suspect that he might even never met Sitri. Reason why i personally find this important is, that first while he is blood related to Rhea in a sense, he isn't to Sitri and secondly he also didn't have really a familiar relationship with her. (For example beeing her uncle or however else he is related to Rhea). So yeah, relation between them depends mostly in how you Interpret Byleth as Sothis. Also about Seteth beeing married once, his wife died thousand or more years ago, so him remarring shouldn't be the Problem.
16:36 Flayn: but, but im actually over 1,000 years old Lawyer: and it says here the age of majority for manaketes is 5,000. You are legally still a child.
Um, I think that it should be pointed out the choosing to use any of the blue lions will lead to a problem while still in the academy arc, which is that lord Lonato is a lord of their homeland which isn’t technically a civil uprising until demtri goes to fight him, which only happens in the blue lions route after being told to be the church, which is quite literally compelling a nationals to take part in hostile action against their own country, which means that slyven wouldn’t have been able to take part. It’s a point that you don’t bring in this segment and slyven can be seen here 9:51. I just thought I bring it up since there are multiple cases in which you took a rule that you could have avoided to make things easier such as limiting to 18 years old rather than 15, and not using Flayn since she looks like a child.
Would that still apply? I don't recall, but affiliations change if the support is high enough. So Sylvain's banner for Blue lions would turn to the Black eagles banner.
So, one question here that is never really answered is whether the Church of Seiros is a soveriegn subject of international law, or if the Monastery and the Central Church are legally in a country but treated as semi-autonomous or something. Even leaving that aside, I don't think the prohibition applies - they voluntarily joined the Church's military operations and weren't conscripted to fight, so where's the compulsion?
The post battle conversation event after the Great Bridge of Myrddin shows Byleth suggesting to Seteth that they use disguises to get into Fort Merceus. And while we're excusing the disguises because they're removed before combat, the same thing happens in Verdant Wind.
That was an awesome video! I'd love to see this with other FE games too (or at least a "minimum crime counter" for the games where you can't avoid it due to unavoidable story reasons).
A better question becomes which FE game has the most War Crimes which being honest and slightly bias I believe to be Awakening or Fates ESPECIALLY Conquest on Fates
Man it feels weird to be watching three houses footage again. It's only been a couple years but it makes me feel "nostalgic" for when the game first came out. Sitting in my college dorm and watching a playthrough of Edelgard's route that someone who got the game early posted.
35:15 Edelgard (well, probably Hubert, actually, considering he's the one that handles the nasty parts of the work and would probably make a decent lawyer) could actually realistically defend this accusation at tribunal saying the Kingdom Army which allies itself with the Church of Seiros through thick and thin uses Crest Stones in their vaults in the Tailtean Plains map on Crimson Flower to voluntarily transform into Demonic Beasts, which is both a war crime and a tactic of war, meaning she could be in the right to destroy or remove the Crest Stones from them to ensure this doesn't happen. When it turns out the Crest Stones are actually the hearts of a sacred race of divine dragons, things get muddied a bit, and I think it could also be argued that she's pillaging a sacred place, which is definitely a no-no, but just thought I'd add that.
I personally consider the Empire's raid to be graverobbing, since the tomb's primary function is to be a resting place for the dragons who were robbed of their hearts to create the Crest Stones. It's called the Holy Tomb, not the Holy Weapon's Vault.
@@nataliecoronado4206 And yet Rhea is using those same stones to feed to Cardinals and power her Church Golems. Honestly the Nabteans just seem to have this weird cultural thing where they treat graves as their weapon stashes when convenient for them, while demanding humans keep their hands off; see the SotC, Seteth's wife, the Holy Tomb.
@@RichardOnADragon Rhea wasn't using the crest stones to give to the Cardinals or power the Golems, she was using her own blood. She only let Byleth have the Sword of the Creator because them being able to use it meant they were Sothis's host. And the spear Seteth gets after visiting his wife's grave is literally just the weapon he used during the war, no blood magic or anything.
@@nataliecoronado4206 Seteth says the Cardinals were given power both through Rhea's blood and through consuming fragments of Crest Stones; "White beasts... Are they the ones Rhea shared her blood and stones with?"/"In this rite, one pledges to serve the goddess and in return, receives a Crest Stone fragment and blood." The Church Golems are also all shown to be powered by a Crest Stone at the center once their armour is broken, and there's only one place Rhea would have had the dozen-odd Crest Stones to create all those golems. The spear doesn't have to be blood magic, the mere fact that Seteth sees no problem opening the grave to take the weapons stored there means that it is, effectively, a supply dump for him.
@@RichardOnADragon I actually didn't know that the Golems have a crest stone in them if you break their armor. They appear so rarely that I guess I never noticed it. Though, it is possible the Golems are actually Agarthan in origin and the Church simply repurposed them. As for Seteth, I would hardly call him taking the spear he buried with his wife as treating her grave like a supply depot. The point of that paralogue was to remind him that he can't keep clinging to the past forever, and that blaming himself for his wife's death and his daughter's injury won't change anything. Him taking the spear was supposed to represent him finally moving forward. Calling the location of that paralogue "Seteth's supply dump" is in really bad faith.
I really liked this video! You explained everything in a very easy to understand way and put a huge amount of thought into how you'd work around the story trying to stop you.
I'm just commenting for the algorithm. I was skeptical of this at first, but listened to the whole thing while I was at work, and it wasn't obnoxious like a lot of other more recent challenge vids I've seen so I give you props for being easy to listen to!
I mean, as far as Byleth is told for much of things, she _is_ human. Her being secretly a dragon has no bearing on things if Byleth wasn't made privy to that information _before_ deploying her onto the battlefield.
Wait, is it actually stated in the text that it only applies to humans? So we'll have to inevitably rewrite it in the future when sufficiently advanced AI gets recognized as people, or we run into aliens? x)
@@sleepysera I don't know if it's explicitly stated that it's only humans, but if it's not the case, then you can't use dogs at all in war for example, the few that live to 18 will be too old to be useful.
Even if she was a civilian, she's still a would be assassin struck down mid-attempt. Byleth responded with appropriate force to contain an imminent threat to life. The only crimes here are the ones Fleche herself committed.
I feel that the Blue Lions is still possible! Fleche is an enemy combatant and a card carrying member of the Imperial Army when she attacks Dimitri and while Dimitri technically does give the 'Kill every last one of them' command, I'd argue that at that point, he's more of a (homicidal) figurehead than a leader. Byleth and Gustave are the ones in charge of the actual running of the army at that point, and they can choose to ignore Dimitri - the actual mission objective is to defeat the enemy commanders rather than to rout everyone, suggesting that no one in Faerghus Army who's not insane actually has any intention of giving no quarter. I know Dimitri is the king, but I'd argue that Byleth can't be accountable for the rantings of a crazy person who DOES still listen to her commands regarding not killing everyone if gameplay is taken into account.
Any civilian entering in combat with soldiers, withouth soldier inciting the interaction, become clacified as a rougue unit. This can join a faction oficially. Until so they are concider soldier WITHOUTH ANY RIGHTS. As they are not with a faction surremder is not concider as long anything else I know as it come up while talking about ukrain and civilian joining forces in the field withouth being enlisted.
And the fact you can’t use any of them against lord lonato, and even then they are actively told to fight him by the church, which as so mind you includes the adopted son of said lord, Ash. (Adding on after the fact, I guess you could potentially get Ash killed before this point so that your byleth doesn’t have that talk with him.)
If Dimitri is under Byleth's lead, then certainly as the king of a nation Byleth would have to be held responsible for his declaration, regardless of his mental state. Regardless, Blue Lions should still be impossible because Dimitri mentions torturing several enemy soldiers of the Empire after the timeskip, and he then goes on to torture Randolph, an enemy general, which are both war crimes. This is followed up by Byleth then beheading Randolph, which is killing a Prisoner of War, which is also a war crime.
Following a homocidal figurehead who casually talks about warcrimes because "he's not really a leader" is not exactly going to fly in the war tribunal mate. It's "just following orders" level not gunna fly even. Additonally Dimitri ADMITS to you about his constant warcrimin during your nap. A truely warcrimeless Byleth would send him to jail, not support him in rebuilding his Kingdom.
All Flayn needs to do to show her actual age is transform into her natural form. She's thousands of years old. One of the statues in the church that you repair with renown is of her.
@@SapphicSara arguably seteth and flayn were lying to hide their descendants, but I Believe that they didn't have kids, and that those people with their crests are instead descendants of people who were given a blood transfusion, much like with Jeralt and Yuri. We know that the Difference that made Byleth a legitimate Sothis carrier was that they were a combination of a homunculus made from Rhea's blood and a human who had been infused with Rhea's blood. Plus I really Flayn would've married and had kids with her great however many times grandson (linhardt) and great however many times nephew (Ferdinand). I know it's incest emblem but I have to believe. Plus seteth is just SO overprotective of Flayn, who went into a coma while young and only recently awoke, I really doubt she's had kids as she's so enamored by the idea of innocent romance. Plus Seteth is still mourning his wife 1000 years later, and only remarries after the war (outside of his paired ending with Flayn). This says to me that he was focused on raising/protecting her, and didn't want to have another relationship while she was dependent on him.
@@nickelakon5369 yeah cool, as he said in the video even if you don't count that one Dmitri still commits a warcrime later on so that route is still off limits and this argument is irrelevant
I have never played a Fire Emblem before (clicked cause I'm a fan of videogame challenges) and honestly the way the video presents information is so clear and concise I felt like I understood everything I needed to. Great vid
Very interesting and well done run. Since you went with Black Eagles, it has me thinking about Petra's status in all this. I understand why you didn't use her out of caution, but she's not really an Adrestian national. From a very pedantic perspective, her entire status as a political hostage could be considered a violation of the Geneva Convention by Adrestia. An enduring war crime from the previous war.
"War crimes are never the answer. They are the question. And the answer is yes" - Seteth 'There Is No Geneva Convention Here Because There Is No Geneva' Fire Emblem
wow what a gem of a youtuber ive stumbled across. fantastic challenge and incredibly well done video! i expected way more subs... guess when you become famous i get to say i was an early viewer!!
I can't imagine the amount of time, energy and dedication that this video took, but boy did it pay off! What a fantastic run concept, brilliantly researched and so informative. Would love to see more of this kind of run in future. Thank you for all the effort!
@33:59 that Pokémon Colosseum jingle gave me whiplash. I love you so much for using that. Would love to watch you do a Colosseum playthrough of some kind.
Objection! In the cutscene following the battle at the fort, you can see Byleth being followed by her soldiers in Adrestian colors. You are guilty my good sir, guilty!
@@matthewbullion7935 Silver Snow was made first, so the cutscene was animated with it in mind. (And the other route it's in is Verdant Wind, where Byleth is with the Alliance, who wear yellow, so the Adrestian colours are still a false flag there)
This was extremely interesting it gives an entirey different thought process to how we play Fire Emblem it was beyond entertaining to think about and watch because it's really not something you'd ever consider
There were a couple of times where I was like, "Ah, but surely you could argue that they were willing/volunteers/engaged in combat," and then I realized...yes, but this is a CHALLENGE, and erring on the side of caution is extremely appropriate when it comes to avoiding war crimes, actually!
As I finished watching (as of posting), I’ve learned about the Geneva Conventions and all the intricacies about what’s considered a war crime while watching Three Houses. Entertaining, but certainly an interesting way to go about playing.
Couple things I kinda am unclear on. I understand the compelling nationals of a hostile party to take part in combat against their home country war crime but only up to a point. But the time skip when your Adrestian companions rejoin ready to take the fight to Edelgard with their allegiance firmly no longer to the Empire wouldn't they be allowed to deploy against imperial forces? Especially since you're not compelling them at that point, it's a choice they've made. Also do we think that dark magic with all it's debuffs should perhaps count as biological weapons?
I feel like some of their backstories might complicate things. Hapi comes to mind in particular with the whole "lied to by the church" thing. Not a Geneva expert, so have no idea if that would matter
We know of 3 of the wolves' affilliations, though. Balthus was from the Alliance, Constance was an Empire noble, and Yuri hails from the Kingdom. Hapi is from the village of Timotheos, with the rest of her backstory implying she's from the Kingdom as well. For this run, that would only mean Constance is excluded for the fights against the Empire, while the other three are fair game
@@foureyesisafish7968yeah, just like how Seteth was talking about using fire on the invading force, but he was just joking about that ... right, random green swordmaster?
I'm curious how this challenge would go in other Fire Emblem games. Notably in Fates half of the time after the map Corrin says something along "and we did it all without killing anyone!". There's also the capture mechanic allowing to subdue rather than kill
Question: how culpable would we be in Rhea’s academy phase war crimes such as the execution of prisoners of war? Do we get an attempted war crime for trying to kill Edelgard in the holy tomb? Is Rhea likewise committing an illegal order by ordering us to execute Edelgard in the tomb? Does the logic applied to absolve the Edelgard execution apply to the optional executing of Dimitri on Crimson Flower as it was pretty unambiguous that if he could he would keep fighting and trying to kill us?
Edelgard was not a prisoner, as she didn't surrendered nor was captured. And people should stop criticizing the order because Edelgard was the aggressor.
@@fandemusique4693 right so she just volunteered to be thrown in a dungeon tortured and experimented on and then spend the rest of life surrounded by everyone who did it? I am also sure that that incident during crimson flower where Thales nuked a city after she killed Cornelia was just a happy accident and not a warning shot. Just because she was the aggressor doesn’t change the situation at least as far as the Geneva convention which is what matters in regard to this video.
@@ranger24ff are you an idiot? It have no bearing on the situation, I didn't speak of the Agarthans. Edelgard invaded the holy tomb, so rhea was entitled to demand her execution since Edelgard did not intend to surrender and did this invasion without a prior declaration of war.
@@ranger24ff that's utterly stupid, it have nothing to do with the matter. Why the hell are you bringing the Agarthans? I was talking of what happened in the Holy tomb. Edelgard wasn't a prisoner of Rhea, so ordering her execution wasn't "ordering to kill a prisoner of war" or something
@@fandemusique4693 oh wrong part sorry, got confused because it wasn’t very specific and thought you were referring to something else. As for the situation itself, it seems to be implied from the context that Edelgard has been beaten and is in theory at least at the mercy of Rhea and Byleth. Mind you Edelgard escaped but the context still feels shaky to me from a legal standpoint given the framing of the scene.
I appreciate the thorough pains you took in attempting this, and the articles being presented on the screen along with some historical precedents really elevated the run! Your style of humor was implemented nicely too. I believe that a true no war crimes run might not be feasible though, whether due to Seteth's occasional no quarter lines or key events and conditions during or after certain missions, as follows: * In Silver Snow's final mission, the enemy combatants have all gone insane, Rhea included, and thus they might be fighting against their own will. This is further complicated by the source of the madness being Agarthan missiles, which might be designed to have similar effects as prior Agarthan technologies/sorceries, like those used to engineer the Remire incident. Even if being insane offers no protection, it's possible that the insane Rhea is controlling every other enemy, thus only she could be targeted, making the mission miserable, if even possible. * In Verdant Wind's final mission *spoilers if you've never played that route period* , nine major enemy commanders are arguably forced to fight against their will a la the Remire incident, even though they're more like stoic automatons as far as their physical appearance and demeanor are concerned. To counter claims that they're just recreations, their leader is the genuine article and thus the commanders are probably the real persons too. While their leader is consistent in his behavior, it can't be guaranteed what the commanders would do with their free will, particularly against certain persons. -- Without defeating these commanders, the boss is so absurdly resilient that it would take a hyper-optimized strategy to defeat him, and it might hinge on the DLC or being on NG+. Furthermore, I believe Lysithea is mandatory for that strategy, and because she can't be fielded until the war arc, she might not be able to become strong enough in time. Even if the strategy would be possible, there's the fact that the necessary spells/weapons might themselves be considered war crimes. * For the Lonato mission, Catherine is, IIRC, a national of Faerghus, yet she's mandatory for the mission, thereby being in a conflict against people from her own country. Additionally, you wound up using Sylvain for that mission. * In the Holy Tomb mission for the Black Eagles, the fact that you raised Edelgard's support level enough to change the text for the Silver Snow option possibly trapped you in a double war crime scenario. Because Edelgard is the leader of a sovereign nation and is defeated at the time, Rhea's order to have her killed would violate the Geneva Conventions. Edelgard would have to be captured and given a trial instead, and even though she can apparently teleport, one could argue that Edelgard was unable to teleport at the time and required Hubert's assistance. -- However, provided that you don't have a high enough rank with Edelgard or don't attend her coronation, there will be an option that says "..." instead of having to kill Edelgard. This ellipsis thereby lets you refuse Rhea's order without abetting Edelgard's war crimes. Now, while refusing to reprimand Rhea afterward might be considered enabling the ordering of a war crime, perhaps you could argue that the imminent Adrestian attack forces you to delay any such reprimand. If the lack (or any delay) of a reprimand is a war crime though, you might be found guilty. * Should you have hypothetically sided with Edelgard and tried to place the blame for her prior war crimes on the Agarthans, several key moments would still result in a guilty verdict at The Hague: -- First, a paralogue confirms that Adrestia is still working with Agartha to turn unwilling, possibly even kidnapped civilians into Crest beasts. -- Second, fighting Flayn is mandatory. Even if Byleth/Geneva spares Flayn, Geneva will have still harmed a child soldier. -- Third, the Arianrhod mission has Edelgard uniquely cause massive civilian casualties. Edelgard is already aware that Agartha's missiles exist and that they're willing to use them, hence why she works to become Rhea's jailer in every other route in case a freed Rhea will be an emergency anti-air defense. Upon killing the fake Cornelia, Edelgard knows that Arianrhod is liable to be bombed into dust, but she does nothing to evacuate the civilian population or even the battalion securing the city, thus resulting in their subsequent deaths. -- Fourth, Edelgard and Hubert then try to deny any knowledge that they knew of the missiles and Agartha's willingness to use them. -- Fifth, Edelgard and Hubert eventually agree to wrongfully blame the bombing on the church. -- Finally, the Tailtean Plains mission features Edelgard murdering Dimitri, the leader of a sovereign nation, on the battlefield after he's clearly unable to fight any longer and has several arrows sticking out of him. The only way to avoid this might be to defeat Dedue before he transforms and thus unlock an alternate cutscene. * Fort Merceus can provide a very puzzling situation regarding the cutscene of Geneva's forces reacting to the missiles. Because the troops are seen wearing red cloth with their armor, they appear to have never stopped wearing Adrestian uniforms, thereby violating the Geneva Convention. If this were a Verdant Wind route, you'd be up a creek. However, from what I recall, the church/rebel army uniforms seem to be naturally identical to Adrestia's uniforms. -- This means that Silver Snow might be in a nebulous area where it could be committing a war crime in every mission, Fodlan legally accepts these shared uniforms, or the people of Fodlan somehow can actually tell these uniforms apart. However, with the comments about having to dress in enemy uniforms, this sounds like a visual oversight instead, rather than everyone hypothetically joking or going insane for that mission only. Also, if they've gone insane, that means you fielding them could itself be a war crime. * Finally, as a possible Geneva Conventions violation in every route, Crest beasts are humans who have been turned into monsters. With the exception of Dedue and his forces in Crimson Flower's Tailtean Plains mission, none of them wanted to be Crest beasts, and this seems to be true even for Marianne's ancestor, Maurice. Furthermore, every Crest beast other than those mentioned in the prior sentence appear to be civilians who had procedures forced upon them and are now enslaved to fight against their will. -- What this means is that the mission where Kronya orchestrates a Crest beast outbreak might be impossible to complete without committing a war crime, and you might have also violated the Geneva Convention by doing Sothis' paralogue. Crest beasts were fought in the Holy Tomb mission and at Enbarr too. That list wound up being much more extensive than I expected it would be! Man, Three Houses can really be rife with war crimes, even if some routes greatly outnumber others in that regard. I had a great time watching this video, so thank you, Ali!
-The holy tomb is in a weird place, as, because of the nature of crest stones it could be argued to be a weapon depot. -Not all Demonic beasts are people, most are just wild beasts roaming fodlan. -Killing a child soldier in battle isn‘t a war crime. Also, flayn is physically 16, old enough to be a volunteer. -There is nothing suggesting, that Edelgard knew of TwSitD‘s missiles beforehand. -Since when is holding things under wraps a war crime. It‘s not even, like she lets TwSitD get away with it in the long run. -One event you forgot, is, „keep none of the enemy commanders alive“ could be argued to be „no quarters“. -I‘m not completely convinced, that Dimitri‘s death wasn‘t in battle, i know he was badly injured, but this is Dimitri we are talking about. Also, he spends his last moments just ranting delusional at Edelgard.
@@tirex3673 Rhea treated the Holy Tomb as a genuine burial ground, the only Crest Stone shards she ever seemed to distribute came from herself. A lot of demonic beasts are akin to giant birds, but some do have the models of the people who were turned into Crest beasts. Flayn was also in a coma for nearly a thousand years, so even if she was physically 16 for a Nabatean, she mentally might not be. Edelgard has been Rhea's jailer the entire time after Garreg Mach's fall, meaning she pressed hard to ensure she'd be the jailer from the same day Byleth fell into a coma. Hubert's letter ultimately reveals that keeping Rhea nearby is essential to having a means for stopping the javelins of light. The Death Knight, Edelgard's loyal servant, already knows that the javelins exist in the Fort Merceus mission despite them never being used in the war until that point, so Edelgard almost certainly knows they exist too. Blaming the annihilation of a city on an unrelated party unnecessarily enflames severe violence and hatred toward them and is liable to keep grudges boiling for years after the war. Dimitri was so thoroughly injured that he couldn't even stand, complete with several arrows in his body. Edelgard is already prepared to swing Aymr and kill him before he even begins speaking, and from the perspective of almost anyone in Fodlan other than Edelgard herself, the things Dimitri speaks of all sound like logical deductions based on the available information.
@@nightscout9979 -I agree with the Holy Tomb, I just wanted to note, that there is some basis for considering it a legitimate target. Also, does edelgard actually know of the origin of crest stones, (I‘m pretty sure she does, but I can‘t currently find prove). -I meant CF, there she never captured Rhea and clearly didn‘t know that TWSitD would attack Arianrhod with missiles. Especially, as they did it, to threaten her. Should have been more specific. -I wasn‘t talking about the blaming the church, I was talking about the keeping it under wraps for a while, to be able to deal with TWSitD later and not start a two front war. I do agree that it at least was morally wrong to blame the church, though I can‘t find anything, that suggests this being a war crime, could you say which treaty it violates? EDIT: -this depends on, if Dimitri needed to stand to fight. We basically see one frame of an entire scene of what could either be a death in battle, an execution or a coup de grace. Dimitri clearly didn‘t surrender. EDIT2: - about the demonic beasts, again, I forgot to mention I meant CF, where the closest thing to demonic beasts being used on your side, is Huberts paralogue, where you have to deal with TWSitD‘s birds. (And even then TWSitD≠Empire).
@@tirex3673 I think something that never gets mentioned is what Edelgard will do with TWSitD after the war. Do they all get summarily executed, will there be a civil war, do they get tried for treason and locked away? Option 1 is genocide, option 2 will be bloody and have no justification because of the cover-up, option 3 gets messy, depending on the Adrestian court system.
@@hilgigas09 We know, it is Option 2, kinda, a shadow war against TWSitD is mentioned in like half of all character endings of CF and you raid Shambala in Jeritza‘s S-support. Also, it‘s not like this one event was all they did. They experimented on civilians and children on multiple occasions, most notably for Edelgard, they killed all of her 10 halfsiblings, they were behind the atrocity of Duscur, and they killed and replaced Lord Arundel and through this were a major driver of the Insurrection of the Seven.
It's worth mentioning that the 18 age thing, in America and a lot of counties if you are given writen consent from the guardian they can join and fight, while this wouldn't change a lot, The House leaders for example though, would now be aloud since we know that they were given consent from thire families to join the acadamy and fight.... others like Lysithia we don't know enough though
I'm impressed you managed to prevent the the "Seteth orders no quarter to be given" line and thus that ding against him, but despite that doesn't SS have two unavoidable War Crimes focused on Enbarr? The first is the plan Seteth comes up with to get the army close to Enbarr- "Under the guise of surrender, they secretly prepare for a surprise attack on the Imperial capital.” I'm fairly sure that false surrenders are war crimes. The second is how the Church starts organizing the mass summary execution of Imperial captives after Enbarr, up until Bergliez surrenders to be executed in place of all the captive soldiers. I also believe that planning to no-process mass-execute a whole bunch of helpless captives is a War Crime. I guess you can kinda avoid at least finding out about the second as it only is raised by Caspar and Dorothea in Exploration, but the first is unavoidably and directly said by the omniscient narrator.
22:20 or somewhere around there you talk about how you can’t get out of the combat but you can by pressing the quit option, unfortunate time waste but hey you overcame it well
Look, as far as Byleth(or rather, Geneva) knows when she joins, Flayn is human. By the time it is known Flayn is a thousand year old dragon, she's probably far too underdeveloped regardless.
I believe that based on your own rules it isn't possible to beat the game without commiting a war crime. Right after receiving the sword of the creator a scene plays in which Rhea has 2 POWs of the western church summarily executed without trial or right to appeal. There are several articles of the 3rd Geneva convention that pertain to this action, but I believe article 130 to be the most pertinent as it calls such an action a "grave breach". As your rules consider association with an entity which committed a war crime a fail condition, this challenge is not possible.
Personally, I believe the Church of Seiros has also been committing war crimes under your definition of child soldiers. During the academy arc, the classes Byleth does not teach are taught by Manuela and Hanneman. Those classes are also going on real combat missions assigned by the higher ups of Garreg Mach Monastery. Based on the strength of the opposing classes during the Battle of the Eagle and the Lion, we can assume that even the children were deployed on those missions to gain experience. At the same time, the Officers Academy run by the Church of Seiros has been in operation for a 200 years, from establishment in the Imperial Year 980 to the current class of Year 1180. We can reasonably assume that if violations are happening now, that at least one other violation has happened since the founding. On top of that, Catherine, unflinchingly affiliated with the Church of Seiros, wields the Thunderbrand, a Hero's Relic like the Sword of the Creator, exclusively - until she is under Byleth's command. Although you opted to be cautious regarding using the Relics, I'd argue that due to a Relic's ability to transform an incompatible wielder into a Demonic Beast, that would make deploying any Relic a violation of the Rome Statute.
i do wish to bring up that as the villagers attacked you, there are reasonable cases for the arguing of self defense as a soldier is still expected to not just let himself get murdered. And as this is a situation of active hostility with them trying to murder you and the soldiers under your command, as a commanding officer i would argue it is your job to ensure your men will be able to return to their families. After all the rule is intentionally directing attacks against civilians not taking direct part in hostilities. Even if against their will these civilians are clearly taking direct part and presumably have been issued viable warnings to immediately stand down or be counted as enemy combatants. Thus if all procedures have been followed properly this whole thing is pretty easy to argue as being not a breach of the word of spirit of article 8, section 2e, paragraph 1.
This is the kind of challenge run I’ve been waiting for! Very impressed by the research, that bit about the Germans changing uniform before attacking was particularly interesting.
14:15 I remember during my Silver Snow run of the game, I had Shamir snipe the Death Knight for fun to get some chip damage on him, and she accidentally crit and ended the whole chapter in the first turn This made me laugh so hard that I decided to keep that run of chapter 6 and continue on
This video is a work of ART, and a challenge to not nick myself cutting oranges while listening to it, and running on zero hours of sleep- Had a weekend that could have been nicer. As they say, laughter is the best medicine, and this had me cackling. Props to you! This should be a speedrun- 😂 I wonder if the other routes can also be categories, just with the clarification of..."As little war crimes as possible". Since it doesn't seem doable to do none at all.
Dorothea and Ferdinand aren't being COMPELLED to battle with the empire as the statute defined the element of compulsion as "coerced one or more persons, by act or threat." They return to service as foreign volunteer forces after having acted as resistance fighters in the time skip. Technically all the former black eagles are foreign volunteer forces.
Yeah, compulsion is forceing. If they volunteer...
Yeah nah it is Compulsion. And especially apparent for Petra, who is there as a political hostage to begin with 💀
@matmil5 Petra is compelled to serve the /black eagles/ under their prior leader. You don't force her to return to service when you launch the resistance campaign.
Very similar to what the Foreign Legion is in France
@@Stormthorn67 So, if someone develops a stockholm syndrome its not compulsion, got it chief
Alright time for fire emblem three houses but with as many war crimes as possible challenge
So as many poison weapons as possible?
@@viviblue7277 and fire magic
Excelblem: Allow me to introduce myself
@@viviblue7277 considering the series in question I think that would be the least "war crimey" thing we can do lmao 💀
@@kinga6347 sacrificing soldiers for nothing isn’t a war crime it’s just…a unique strategy.
international law student here, that was amazing ! you were more cautious than people usually are when taking the geneva conventions into account so props to you. very impressed
Yeah, I think in a lot of cases he went much further than he had to (e.g. the militia, which would be considered combatants), and certainly following the law better than major contemporary nations like the United States who has spent significant resources on interpreting the law in such a way that allows them loopholes. Its both refreshing, and quite impressive.
Do correct me if i got something wrong, im far from an expert on international law, and mostly just read through a lot of the relevant conventions and protocols out of interest and a certain feeling of civic duty to be informed
@@RepChris Doing a bit of reading, it seems like you’re absolutely right he was a lot more cautious than he needed to be. The way I’m interpreting things, he could’ve used the former Black Eagles students as they are volunteer forces in the Resistance Army against the Adrestian Empire during the war arc, same goes for the former Blue Lions against Gwendal in chapter 15.
@@dabbingperson9236 You could even make a compelling argument that the rampaging civilians in chapter 8 can be considered to be actively participating in hostilities, even if they are being supernaturally compelled by a third party.
is it even still a fire emblem game if nobody commits a single war crime?
Engage ?
@Echoes-dz2ur
Child soldiers, Jean is like 10 I believe.
@@RubyGaymingand killing unarmed medics (healers)
Nope,
Ezh4 or l
"The reason I'm not a child soldier."
1.) I'm a dragon.
2.) I ate the last prosecutor who asked.
Nom
To be clear the villagers picking up weapons and attacking other villagers probably makes those villagers out of the bounds of the rules of war, since you'd have to let villagers die by inaction (when you could take action) to save them.
Also of important note is that if they pick up weapons and they attack your military force and your military force is caused to defend itself from them to the point of lethality puts them out of bounds of that particular clause as well. So if you defend and they attack you and that results in their injury or death that is not a war crime committed by you.
@@Quandry1the scene before confirms the knights and the students aren’t even using lethal force I’m pretty sure
@dragonstouch1042 that would also remove it from the list. I will be honest. It's been ages since I've seen any of the story stuff and I think some might have been skipped even then.
The moment when there’s no loopholes to justify attacking rampaging villagers in Remire Village despite how very inhumane the actual experimentation is
im pretty sure they would be allowed to attack them if i was informed right. (big if in the misinformation age)
If they attack you first, you can easily claim self-defense.
The units are marked as hostiles by the game and will attack you without provocation; I can't think of a more clear-cut case that they are participating in hostilites and therefore no longer civilians. Doesn't matter if they were compelled; It's legal to attack child soldiers, militias, and conscripts in the course of normal warfare.
@@EuphemiaRem exactly! and (unless you respond excessively) self-defense usually wins out
@@jwil4286I suppose the question of what is “excessive” becomes the split hair, there. Rioters that charge at soldiers with makeshift weaponry are not mercilessly gunned down in an indiscriminate hail of gunfire, for example, but they ARE subdued with nonlethal tactics, weaponry and armor. Does Three Houses allow for nonlethal takedowns of combatants? If not… well shite.
Come to think of it, the villagers were clearly coerced into attacking the soldiers (literally being turned “berserk”). In this case, they would be victims of the conflict, and not consciously taking part in the war. Therefore, they would not be combatants by definition, because they did not choose to fight that battle; the ones who turned them berserk would be the actual combatants.
Dimitri using Atrocity: Whaaaaaa nooooooo war crimes? What war crimes? I've never seem a war crime around here!
As brutal and overkill of an attack as Atrocity is, I don't think it would count as a war crime, since it doesn't prolong pain, quite the contrary in fact. It would be akin to blowing a guy up with a granade.
@@hectorhernandezaleman3836 I’m more thinking about the name
@@thod-thod Oh, then yes, absolutely.
Just to mention the flèche thing isn’t applicable. She joins the war effort directly before the battle and latterly the attack does count as being a combatant.
but she's a child soldier, so doesn't she need to be protected even if she's clearly with the enemy? though then still it's just self-defense
i think Dimitri would still count as a warcriminal due to the no quarter thing and torturing an enemy genereal (Randolph)
The "no quarter" is stipulated because it can imply "no prisoners" as is another stipulation.
Obiously any sane peron will nevee trial this because is inane to investigate where any person surrender correctly or any other war crime implemented.
Its also used to cover civilians, but this is a clear battlefield, so no participant cant be inbetween.
@@noelleabc8725doesn’t byleth kill Randolph before Dimitri can torture him
@@serpifeu5836 attacking child soldiers is not a war crime, but making use of them is afaik.
i think of them more of as geneva suggestion
I like to think of it as a Geneva checklist.
Guidelines
You mean the To-do list
We need a Geneva bingo card and see who completes theirs first :D
i see we found another Chuckles fan here
Aint no way he is being law abiding in war crime simulator 56
Makes sense that it's War Crime simulator though.
It's like the Middle Ages in this game meanwhile the Geneva Convention happened in the Late 19th Century
"We figured they were more like guidelines."
Okay, Verdant Wind Analysis Time:
Chapter 13: Sane as Silver Snow, just different students.
Chapter 14: Same as Silver Snow, including blocking the Swordmaster to prevent the War Crime.
Chapter 15: Same as Silver Snow.
Chapter 16: Same as Silver Snow. It should be noted that Acheron used to be a lesser Alliance Noble before joining the Empire, so it would be the best if Geneva just kills him and his knights to not have countrymen fight fellow countrymen, even if only former.
Chapter 17: One unique chapter, shifting every following chapter by 1. There is a Fire Bombing of the central ballista, but it's done by EDELGARD, not Claude. (+1 enemy War Crime)
Chapter 18: Same as Chapter 18 from Silver Snow, however in the cutscene it shows Claude with parts of the Army IN YELLOW UNIFORMS! 100% War Crime Free, unless you somehow want to mark the involvement of a foraign power as one somehow...
Chapter 19: Same as Chapter 18 of Silver Snow.
Chapter 20: Same as Chapter 19 of Silver Snow.
Chapter 21: Same as Chapter 20 of Silver Snow.
Chapter 22: The other of only 2 chapters that are different between Silver Snow and Golden Deer. You even no longer need to apply any War Crime Rules, as all enemies are Agarthian Remnants and it basically becomes an EASIER final Mission than Silver Snow.
Child Soilder Rulings: Golden Deer
At the start of the game, Leonie, Hilda and Lorenz are over 18. For the Students that are 17, the birthdays are:
18.5 Raphael (Chapter 2)
24.7 Claude (Chapter 4)
23.11 Marianne (Chapter 8)
14.3 Ignatz (Chapter 12)
Lysithea being 15 (turns 16 by chapter 11) means she has to wait till post Timeskip to be used if at all.
Edit: I petition to release Claude from War Criminal Jail!
he uses poison unfortunately even if it is as a joke rather than a weapon considering the fact that the monastery is a military location for multiple nations poisoning his fellow students is a warcrime.
@@michaell8000 He Jokes about it
Just like how Seteth Jokes About Giving no Quarter every chapter.
At the start of the battle for Fort Merceus they may be in yellow, but the nuke scene at the end still contains Byleth with soldiers in Imperial Uniforms that are clearly on Byleths side.
And the point still is that Byleth is responsible for everyone.
Also, just because we don't see the Alliance Troops in Imperial Uniform doesn't mean they didn't stick to the plan off cam.
@@shadoukoa5045 I think that's the same cutscene on both sides. So you could argue that it's an unavoidable crime
@@danelo13 oh my god do you think they wrote the Alliance using disguises so that cutscene could pull double duty for the routes
That'd be SO funny
Arguably, you can beat any path without committing war crimes, if you win in the end, but I guess its good to know you can beat white and yellow routes with a clear-ish conscience.
History is written by the winners after all
Yellow still kinda questionable because claude still poisoning people
@@littlekuribohimposte Does he ever deploy poison in combat? I'm not recalling an instance of that.
@@ejharris8667 I’d need to go back and play Three Houses, and given the Academy phase is boring AF, I probably never will
@@weepingdalek2568why is it then when anyone says that they're almost always mad their psycho murder empire lost. Seriously it's always used in the context of fucking world war 2 which is about as clear cut of a moral war as you can get, or the american civil war which a) has a losing side whose entire existence was to prolong slavery and b) has a losing side that very much created the most successful post war disinformation PR campaign to make itself sound good and justified
I love the idea that if you included Flayn, you would like have to display a sign in front of her saying “not a war crime she’s a 1000 year old dragon”
I thought we as a society decided that the "I swear, officer, this loli is actually 1000 year old" excuse isn't accepted 😂
@@sleepyseradepends, is there a narrative reason beyond "well shes 1k, lets make her look like a kid for fanservice?"
@@Estarile Yeah that's the biggest issue with 1000 year loli. Since they're always just fiction people the topic shifts to "why did the creators make this anicent being look like a preteen girl?"
@@DisplayThisOkay honestly, I think Dance in the Vampire Bund (+sequels) is the only series that did anything interesting with it.
Mainly because it was an actual plot point that she looked so young and when she gets the opportunity to grow up she jumps on that.
@@sleepysera 1000 year old teenagers are allowed to do war but not sex
Love how Seteth keeps suggesting war crimes. No regret on always marrying him 😂
Wish M Byleth could marry him 😔, sometimes you just want a War Crime committing husband...
wait i thought u couldn't marry seteth cause he already is married and has a daughter(even tho his wife died)
@GRK_21387 Well don't I have news for you!
Seteth can only marry F byleth though unfortunately :( and it IS actual romance, not the weird brother/family things some of the others do
@@Error403HRD arent they related as well? like i think seteth is related to rhea and rhea is kinda the daughter of byleth but also the grandmother of byleth(rhea did "make" sitri) as well. but tbf that isn't as weird as marrying rhea herself
@@GRK_2024Seteth and Flayn, who both can marry Byleth, are a bit tricky, since blood relation between all of them is a bit ambiguous and from what i have seen, people have different opinions about how much they are all related to each other.
Biggest question here is, how much of Sothis is in Byleth.
They are not literally her and not even a reincarnation or something similar.
In a sense Byleth is still there own person.
If we are only looking at DNA, they just got a heart transplation of Sothis and I normally wouldn't count organ or blood donations as reason for incest.
Now the whole Byleth and Sothis fusion has also be taken to account.
I don't know if there is an official statement about what exactly happened, but I have seen people Interpret it as more as fusion of Sothis's power that she lends Byleth, then them becoming one as a person.
Still weird, especially while romancing Rhea, because her whole plan was to make them her mother and in turn she tries to see her in them.
With Sethet and Flayn at least, they first of all didn't know about in and secondly they seem to see Byleth as their own identity and not Sothis.
On the others site i have seen the argument that people don't see Rhea as her grandmother, since Sitri is not related by blood to her.
In my eyes it still counts since she created her and if i for example adopted a child or created a Frankenstein creation, i would see me as a parental role, even If we technically don't share DNA.
Which makes romancing Rhea weird for me, but Seteth and Flayn also didn't know about the whole Sitri thing (I think).
At least we see Seteth beeing left in the dark by Rhea and not getting answers, after He suspected that she did something to Byleth. He also didn't seem to know Jeralt before he came back to the Academy with Byleth.
Which is reason to suspect that he might even never met Sitri.
Reason why i personally find this important is, that first while he is blood related to Rhea in a sense, he isn't to Sitri and secondly he also didn't have really a familiar relationship with her. (For example beeing her uncle or however else he is related to Rhea).
So yeah, relation between them depends mostly in how you Interpret Byleth as Sothis.
Also about Seteth beeing married once, his wife died thousand or more years ago, so him remarring shouldn't be the Problem.
16:36
Flayn: but, but im actually over 1,000 years old
Lawyer: and it says here the age of majority for manaketes is 5,000. You are legally still a child.
If we're going by the game code itself, she's actually 17.
CHECKMATE, GENEVA!
@@Demonboy007 HELL YEAH
"age of majority for manaketes is 5,000."
Me having married Tiki in FE Awakening: *@#$%*
@@cjvs1604bro is not living the allegations
Honestly I was surprised that you were able to complete the game without committing any war crimes, great job!
I mean Seteth did declare no quarter… but no one heard him say that so I guess we ignore it. Agreed MCL a very surprising and impressive run.
Um, I think that it should be pointed out the choosing to use any of the blue lions will lead to a problem while still in the academy arc, which is that lord Lonato is a lord of their homeland which isn’t technically a civil uprising until demtri goes to fight him, which only happens in the blue lions route after being told to be the church, which is quite literally compelling a nationals to take part in hostile action against their own country, which means that slyven wouldn’t have been able to take part.
It’s a point that you don’t bring in this segment and slyven can be seen here 9:51. I just thought I bring it up since there are multiple cases in which you took a rule that you could have avoided to make things easier such as limiting to 18 years old rather than 15, and not using Flayn since she looks like a child.
Would that still apply? I don't recall, but affiliations change if the support is high enough. So Sylvain's banner for Blue lions would turn to the Black eagles banner.
So, one question here that is never really answered is whether the Church of Seiros is a soveriegn subject of international law, or if the Monastery and the Central Church are legally in a country but treated as semi-autonomous or something. Even leaving that aside, I don't think the prohibition applies - they voluntarily joined the Church's military operations and weren't conscripted to fight, so where's the compulsion?
What is slyven?
I think Garreg Mach is like Vatican City in our own world
@@ThePsh07I think they're trying to say Sylvain lol
The post battle conversation event after the Great Bridge of Myrddin shows Byleth suggesting to Seteth that they use disguises to get into Fort Merceus. And while we're excusing the disguises because they're removed before combat, the same thing happens in Verdant Wind.
Can’t that be considered espionage
Excellent video! I enjoyed how much you went into detail and explained each instance of a potential violation. This deserves more interaction!!
Thank you!
The military: where did you learn your knowledge on the rules of war before this?
Recruit: it's complicated
the one villager ending his turn standing in fire is just my mental state in the middle of a challenge run
About the first mock battle:
Because it’s a mock battle, it’s not a war crime to have all students take part.
That was an awesome video! I'd love to see this with other FE games too (or at least a "minimum crime counter" for the games where you can't avoid it due to unavoidable story reasons).
A better question becomes which FE game has the most War Crimes which being honest and slightly bias I believe to be Awakening or Fates ESPECIALLY Conquest on Fates
Man it feels weird to be watching three houses footage again. It's only been a couple years but it makes me feel "nostalgic" for when the game first came out. Sitting in my college dorm and watching a playthrough of Edelgard's route that someone who got the game early posted.
So glad I found this! Great editing, writing, and an interesting challenge! Hope you get more visibility, you did a great job!
Souls have no hit
Shooters have speedruns
Platformers have coin less
We tacticians have a convent.
And true madlads have all of the above AT ONCE
33:58
Claude is HITTIN that harmonica solo loolllll
35:15 Edelgard (well, probably Hubert, actually, considering he's the one that handles the nasty parts of the work and would probably make a decent lawyer) could actually realistically defend this accusation at tribunal saying the Kingdom Army which allies itself with the Church of Seiros through thick and thin uses Crest Stones in their vaults in the Tailtean Plains map on Crimson Flower to voluntarily transform into Demonic Beasts, which is both a war crime and a tactic of war, meaning she could be in the right to destroy or remove the Crest Stones from them to ensure this doesn't happen.
When it turns out the Crest Stones are actually the hearts of a sacred race of divine dragons, things get muddied a bit, and I think it could also be argued that she's pillaging a sacred place, which is definitely a no-no, but just thought I'd add that.
I personally consider the Empire's raid to be graverobbing, since the tomb's primary function is to be a resting place for the dragons who were robbed of their hearts to create the Crest Stones. It's called the Holy Tomb, not the Holy Weapon's Vault.
@@nataliecoronado4206 And yet Rhea is using those same stones to feed to Cardinals and power her Church Golems. Honestly the Nabteans just seem to have this weird cultural thing where they treat graves as their weapon stashes when convenient for them, while demanding humans keep their hands off; see the SotC, Seteth's wife, the Holy Tomb.
@@RichardOnADragon Rhea wasn't using the crest stones to give to the Cardinals or power the Golems, she was using her own blood. She only let Byleth have the Sword of the Creator because them being able to use it meant they were Sothis's host. And the spear Seteth gets after visiting his wife's grave is literally just the weapon he used during the war, no blood magic or anything.
@@nataliecoronado4206 Seteth says the Cardinals were given power both through Rhea's blood and through consuming fragments of Crest Stones; "White beasts... Are they the ones Rhea shared her blood and stones with?"/"In this rite, one pledges to serve the goddess and in return, receives a Crest Stone fragment and blood." The Church Golems are also all shown to be powered by a Crest Stone at the center once their armour is broken, and there's only one place Rhea would have had the dozen-odd Crest Stones to create all those golems.
The spear doesn't have to be blood magic, the mere fact that Seteth sees no problem opening the grave to take the weapons stored there means that it is, effectively, a supply dump for him.
@@RichardOnADragon I actually didn't know that the Golems have a crest stone in them if you break their armor. They appear so rarely that I guess I never noticed it. Though, it is possible the Golems are actually Agarthan in origin and the Church simply repurposed them.
As for Seteth, I would hardly call him taking the spear he buried with his wife as treating her grave like a supply depot. The point of that paralogue was to remind him that he can't keep clinging to the past forever, and that blaming himself for his wife's death and his daughter's injury won't change anything. Him taking the spear was supposed to represent him finally moving forward. Calling the location of that paralogue "Seteth's supply dump" is in really bad faith.
I really liked this video! You explained everything in a very easy to understand way and put a huge amount of thought into how you'd work around the story trying to stop you.
Prohibiting skirmishes feels silly when it’s almost strictly more advantageous to spend your weekend growing stat boosters.
I'm just commenting for the algorithm. I was skeptical of this at first, but listened to the whole thing while I was at work, and it wasn't obnoxious like a lot of other more recent challenge vids I've seen so I give you props for being easy to listen to!
Flayn should be allowed to participate, not because of her age, but because the "child soldier" thing only applies to humans, which she is not.
This implies Geneva have let a squad of foals or saplings alike as legal,
I mean, as far as Byleth is told for much of things, she _is_ human.
Her being secretly a dragon has no bearing on things if Byleth wasn't made privy to that information _before_ deploying her onto the battlefield.
@@brolytriplethreat You're right, it wouldn't be a war crime, but she can't be used as Byleth wouldn't know it isn't.
Wait, is it actually stated in the text that it only applies to humans? So we'll have to inevitably rewrite it in the future when sufficiently advanced AI gets recognized as people, or we run into aliens? x)
@@sleepysera I don't know if it's explicitly stated that it's only humans, but if it's not the case, then you can't use dogs at all in war for example, the few that live to 18 will be too old to be useful.
Wait hold on fleich isnt a civilian shes an empire soldier,she just disguises herself to avenge her brother
Even if she was a civilian, she's still a would be assassin struck down mid-attempt. Byleth responded with appropriate force to contain an imminent threat to life. The only crimes here are the ones Fleche herself committed.
@@Oscar_Milde Well, that and executing a prisoner of war.
I feel that the Blue Lions is still possible! Fleche is an enemy combatant and a card carrying member of the Imperial Army when she attacks Dimitri and while Dimitri technically does give the 'Kill every last one of them' command, I'd argue that at that point, he's more of a (homicidal) figurehead than a leader.
Byleth and Gustave are the ones in charge of the actual running of the army at that point, and they can choose to ignore Dimitri - the actual mission objective is to defeat the enemy commanders rather than to rout everyone, suggesting that no one in Faerghus Army who's not insane actually has any intention of giving no quarter. I know Dimitri is the king, but I'd argue that Byleth can't be accountable for the rantings of a crazy person who DOES still listen to her commands regarding not killing everyone if gameplay is taken into account.
What about what he did to Rudolph (aka torture).
Any civilian entering in combat with soldiers, withouth soldier inciting the interaction, become clacified as a rougue unit.
This can join a faction oficially.
Until so they are concider soldier WITHOUTH ANY RIGHTS.
As they are not with a faction surremder is not concider as long anything else
I know as it come up while talking about ukrain and civilian joining forces in the field withouth being enlisted.
And the fact you can’t use any of them against lord lonato, and even then they are actively told to fight him by the church, which as so mind you includes the adopted son of said lord, Ash. (Adding on after the fact, I guess you could potentially get Ash killed before this point so that your byleth doesn’t have that talk with him.)
If Dimitri is under Byleth's lead, then certainly as the king of a nation Byleth would have to be held responsible for his declaration, regardless of his mental state.
Regardless, Blue Lions should still be impossible because Dimitri mentions torturing several enemy soldiers of the Empire after the timeskip, and he then goes on to torture Randolph, an enemy general, which are both war crimes. This is followed up by Byleth then beheading Randolph, which is killing a Prisoner of War, which is also a war crime.
Following a homocidal figurehead who casually talks about warcrimes because "he's not really a leader" is not exactly going to fly in the war tribunal mate. It's "just following orders" level not gunna fly even. Additonally Dimitri ADMITS to you about his constant warcrimin during your nap. A truely warcrimeless Byleth would send him to jail, not support him in rebuilding his Kingdom.
Excellent video! Its a war crime that you don't have more subs
Your martial prowess is as informed as it is respectable, soldier! Another day another war crime avoided! o7 o7 o7
All Flayn needs to do to show her actual age is transform into her natural form.
She's thousands of years old. One of the statues in the church that you repair with renown is of her.
Okay the Edelgaurd did nothing wrong dissertation is actually pretty funny. Props to you.
33:59 Claude on the damn harmonica KILLS ME😂
Flayn being benched despite being hundreds of years old and provably so sure is a decision.
we know that, but does byleth? 🤔 not when she’s recruited at least
You try telling that government secret to the court
"hundreds of years old" is still a child by Manakete/Nabatean standards. They live longer and thus age & mature slower than humans.
@@SilverHairedFreak25 There are people who have her crest, seems like she passed it on.
@@SapphicSara arguably seteth and flayn were lying to hide their descendants, but I Believe that they didn't have kids, and that those people with their crests are instead descendants of people who were given a blood transfusion, much like with Jeralt and Yuri. We know that the Difference that made Byleth a legitimate Sothis carrier was that they were a combination of a homunculus made from Rhea's blood and a human who had been infused with Rhea's blood. Plus I really Flayn would've married and had kids with her great however many times grandson (linhardt) and great however many times nephew (Ferdinand). I know it's incest emblem but I have to believe. Plus seteth is just SO overprotective of Flayn, who went into a coma while young and only recently awoke, I really doubt she's had kids as she's so enamored by the idea of innocent romance. Plus Seteth is still mourning his wife 1000 years later, and only remarries after the war (outside of his paired ending with Flayn). This says to me that he was focused on raising/protecting her, and didn't want to have another relationship while she was dependent on him.
The best 3 Houses war crimes video imo. Very well done!
4:50 im fairly sure trying to kill a king is enough to promote you from civilian to assassin lol
Well he lied too, she isn't a civilian, she's a soldier disguised as one. You literally see her in an imperial soldier armor before.
@@nickelakon5369he kinda explained immediately after how that doesn't matter even if it's the case
@shadow-faye it doesn't matter, his argument doesn't hold up because she's not unarmed or a non-combatant.
@@nickelakon5369 yeah cool, as he said in the video even if you don't count that one Dmitri still commits a warcrime later on so that route is still off limits and this argument is irrelevant
@shadow-faye the argument is about what he counted as a war crime, not if that route has any.
A top notch video, good editing, this deserves more view with the work put in.
I have never played a Fire Emblem before (clicked cause I'm a fan of videogame challenges) and honestly the way the video presents information is so clear and concise I felt like I understood everything I needed to. Great vid
9:20
"Italians are unlocked throughout the game"
Very interesting and well done run. Since you went with Black Eagles, it has me thinking about Petra's status in all this. I understand why you didn't use her out of caution, but she's not really an Adrestian national. From a very pedantic perspective, her entire status as a political hostage could be considered a violation of the Geneva Convention by Adrestia. An enduring war crime from the previous war.
Thank you for making this! I really enjoyed watching it and I also learned a lot about military law
"War crimes are never the answer. They are the question. And the answer is yes" - Seteth 'There Is No Geneva Convention Here Because There Is No Geneva' Fire Emblem
wow what a gem of a youtuber ive stumbled across. fantastic challenge and incredibly well done video! i expected way more subs... guess when you become famous i get to say i was an early viewer!!
It would be neat to see a followup to this where the comments are taken into account and addressed.
👀
This was a wonderful video. I thoroughly enjoyed it
I can't imagine the amount of time, energy and dedication that this video took, but boy did it pay off! What a fantastic run concept, brilliantly researched and so informative. Would love to see more of this kind of run in future. Thank you for all the effort!
I love this idea! It's a miracle you could complete this challenge, so hats off to you!
Hoh boy that Remire Village chapter was tense, huge kudos for getting through it!
@33:59 that Pokémon Colosseum jingle gave me whiplash. I love you so much for using that. Would love to watch you do a Colosseum playthrough of some kind.
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This is a brilliant and unique concept. I never thought about the Geneva Convention when playing a Fire Emblem game.
Seteth repeatedly throwing Geneva under the bus for his war crimes is peak Fire Emblem. Maybe he was the player character analogue all along.
Objection! In the cutscene following the battle at the fort, you can see Byleth being followed by her soldiers in Adrestian colors. You are guilty my good sir, guilty!
The cutscene seems to just be reused from another route so I chalk that up to lazy programming
@@matthewbullion7935 Silver Snow was made first, so the cutscene was animated with it in mind. (And the other route it's in is Verdant Wind, where Byleth is with the Alliance, who wear yellow, so the Adrestian colours are still a false flag there)
This was extremely interesting it gives an entirey different thought process to how we play Fire Emblem it was beyond entertaining to think about and watch because it's really not something you'd ever consider
There were a couple of times where I was like, "Ah, but surely you could argue that they were willing/volunteers/engaged in combat," and then I realized...yes, but this is a CHALLENGE, and erring on the side of caution is extremely appropriate when it comes to avoiding war crimes, actually!
As I finished watching (as of posting), I’ve learned about the Geneva Conventions and all the intricacies about what’s considered a war crime while watching Three Houses.
Entertaining, but certainly an interesting way to go about playing.
"Ferdinand, you're a hero!"
Yes, yes he is ;w; we salute Ferdinand von Aegir!
Question. About child soldiers. People are usually considered as adults at the age of 15 in medieval ages. These students might be legal soldiers.
He explained that they are to the Geneva convention too and then explained why he's going with 18 anyway
Alternative title : fire emblem 3 houses but im specialized in damage control of my geneva suggestion pile allied
Couple things I kinda am unclear on. I understand the compelling nationals of a hostile party to take part in combat against their home country war crime but only up to a point. But the time skip when your Adrestian companions rejoin ready to take the fight to Edelgard with their allegiance firmly no longer to the Empire wouldn't they be allowed to deploy against imperial forces? Especially since you're not compelling them at that point, it's a choice they've made. Also do we think that dark magic with all it's debuffs should perhaps count as biological weapons?
Yeah. They're foreign volunteers, not combat slaves
Wouldn't chapter 8 be considered a riot?
Also the ashen wolves would have helped out a lot as they are not really affiliated and are all over 18
I feel like some of their backstories might complicate things. Hapi comes to mind in particular with the whole "lied to by the church" thing.
Not a Geneva expert, so have no idea if that would matter
We know of 3 of the wolves' affilliations, though. Balthus was from the Alliance, Constance was an Empire noble, and Yuri hails from the Kingdom. Hapi is from the village of Timotheos, with the rest of her backstory implying she's from the Kingdom as well.
For this run, that would only mean Constance is excluded for the fights against the Empire, while the other three are fair game
Happy to see 3houses still being played and getting views on UA-cam, been hungry for more 3h content
49:00 does those mean Claude’s actually in the clear?
Of the three house leaders, he's definitely got the best argument for it, yeah!
@@TheOneandAli just get him out of his poison fixation and we’re solid!
@@Blackacre438 i mean I don't think he ever actually uses it so we're good all around.
@@foureyesisafish7968yeah, just like how Seteth was talking about using fire on the invading force, but he was just joking about that ... right, random green swordmaster?
I'm curious how this challenge would go in other Fire Emblem games. Notably in Fates half of the time after the map Corrin says something along "and we did it all without killing anyone!". There's also the capture mechanic allowing to subdue rather than kill
Funny enough there is actually a video here on UA-cam where someone goes through a pacifist run on Conquest.
I’m a simple man. I see Ferdinand in a birthday hat + Claude playing harmonica in prison & I click like. 😄
Question: how culpable would we be in Rhea’s academy phase war crimes such as the execution of prisoners of war? Do we get an attempted war crime for trying to kill Edelgard in the holy tomb? Is Rhea likewise committing an illegal order by ordering us to execute Edelgard in the tomb? Does the logic applied to absolve the Edelgard execution apply to the optional executing of Dimitri on Crimson Flower as it was pretty unambiguous that if he could he would keep fighting and trying to kill us?
Edelgard was not a prisoner, as she didn't surrendered nor was captured.
And people should stop criticizing the order because Edelgard was the aggressor.
@@fandemusique4693 right so she just volunteered to be thrown in a dungeon tortured and experimented on and then spend the rest of life surrounded by everyone who did it? I am also sure that that incident during crimson flower where Thales nuked a city after she killed Cornelia was just a happy accident and not a warning shot.
Just because she was the aggressor doesn’t change the situation at least as far as the Geneva convention which is what matters in regard to this video.
@@ranger24ff are you an idiot? It have no bearing on the situation, I didn't speak of the Agarthans.
Edelgard invaded the holy tomb, so rhea was entitled to demand her execution since Edelgard did not intend to surrender and did this invasion without a prior declaration of war.
@@ranger24ff that's utterly stupid, it have nothing to do with the matter.
Why the hell are you bringing the Agarthans? I was talking of what happened in the Holy tomb.
Edelgard wasn't a prisoner of Rhea, so ordering her execution wasn't "ordering to kill a prisoner of war" or something
@@fandemusique4693 oh wrong part sorry, got confused because it wasn’t very specific and thought you were referring to something else. As for the situation itself, it seems to be implied from the context that Edelgard has been beaten and is in theory at least at the mercy of Rhea and Byleth. Mind you Edelgard escaped but the context still feels shaky to me from a legal standpoint given the framing of the scene.
I appreciate the thorough pains you took in attempting this, and the articles being presented on the screen along with some historical precedents really elevated the run! Your style of humor was implemented nicely too. I believe that a true no war crimes run might not be feasible though, whether due to Seteth's occasional no quarter lines or key events and conditions during or after certain missions, as follows:
* In Silver Snow's final mission, the enemy combatants have all gone insane, Rhea included, and thus they might be fighting against their own will. This is further complicated by the source of the madness being Agarthan missiles, which might be designed to have similar effects as prior Agarthan technologies/sorceries, like those used to engineer the Remire incident. Even if being insane offers no protection, it's possible that the insane Rhea is controlling every other enemy, thus only she could be targeted, making the mission miserable, if even possible.
* In Verdant Wind's final mission *spoilers if you've never played that route period* , nine major enemy commanders are arguably forced to fight against their will a la the Remire incident, even though they're more like stoic automatons as far as their physical appearance and demeanor are concerned. To counter claims that they're just recreations, their leader is the genuine article and thus the commanders are probably the real persons too. While their leader is consistent in his behavior, it can't be guaranteed what the commanders would do with their free will, particularly against certain persons.
-- Without defeating these commanders, the boss is so absurdly resilient that it would take a hyper-optimized strategy to defeat him, and it might hinge on the DLC or being on NG+. Furthermore, I believe Lysithea is mandatory for that strategy, and because she can't be fielded until the war arc, she might not be able to become strong enough in time. Even if the strategy would be possible, there's the fact that the necessary spells/weapons might themselves be considered war crimes.
* For the Lonato mission, Catherine is, IIRC, a national of Faerghus, yet she's mandatory for the mission, thereby being in a conflict against people from her own country. Additionally, you wound up using Sylvain for that mission.
* In the Holy Tomb mission for the Black Eagles, the fact that you raised Edelgard's support level enough to change the text for the Silver Snow option possibly trapped you in a double war crime scenario. Because Edelgard is the leader of a sovereign nation and is defeated at the time, Rhea's order to have her killed would violate the Geneva Conventions. Edelgard would have to be captured and given a trial instead, and even though she can apparently teleport, one could argue that Edelgard was unable to teleport at the time and required Hubert's assistance.
-- However, provided that you don't have a high enough rank with Edelgard or don't attend her coronation, there will be an option that says "..." instead of having to kill Edelgard. This ellipsis thereby lets you refuse Rhea's order without abetting Edelgard's war crimes. Now, while refusing to reprimand Rhea afterward might be considered enabling the ordering of a war crime, perhaps you could argue that the imminent Adrestian attack forces you to delay any such reprimand. If the lack (or any delay) of a reprimand is a war crime though, you might be found guilty.
* Should you have hypothetically sided with Edelgard and tried to place the blame for her prior war crimes on the Agarthans, several key moments would still result in a guilty verdict at The Hague:
-- First, a paralogue confirms that Adrestia is still working with Agartha to turn unwilling, possibly even kidnapped civilians into Crest beasts.
-- Second, fighting Flayn is mandatory. Even if Byleth/Geneva spares Flayn, Geneva will have still harmed a child soldier.
-- Third, the Arianrhod mission has Edelgard uniquely cause massive civilian casualties. Edelgard is already aware that Agartha's missiles exist and that they're willing to use them, hence why she works to become Rhea's jailer in every other route in case a freed Rhea will be an emergency anti-air defense. Upon killing the fake Cornelia, Edelgard knows that Arianrhod is liable to be bombed into dust, but she does nothing to evacuate the civilian population or even the battalion securing the city, thus resulting in their subsequent deaths.
-- Fourth, Edelgard and Hubert then try to deny any knowledge that they knew of the missiles and Agartha's willingness to use them.
-- Fifth, Edelgard and Hubert eventually agree to wrongfully blame the bombing on the church.
-- Finally, the Tailtean Plains mission features Edelgard murdering Dimitri, the leader of a sovereign nation, on the battlefield after he's clearly unable to fight any longer and has several arrows sticking out of him. The only way to avoid this might be to defeat Dedue before he transforms and thus unlock an alternate cutscene.
* Fort Merceus can provide a very puzzling situation regarding the cutscene of Geneva's forces reacting to the missiles. Because the troops are seen wearing red cloth with their armor, they appear to have never stopped wearing Adrestian uniforms, thereby violating the Geneva Convention. If this were a Verdant Wind route, you'd be up a creek. However, from what I recall, the church/rebel army uniforms seem to be naturally identical to Adrestia's uniforms.
-- This means that Silver Snow might be in a nebulous area where it could be committing a war crime in every mission, Fodlan legally accepts these shared uniforms, or the people of Fodlan somehow can actually tell these uniforms apart. However, with the comments about having to dress in enemy uniforms, this sounds like a visual oversight instead, rather than everyone hypothetically joking or going insane for that mission only. Also, if they've gone insane, that means you fielding them could itself be a war crime.
* Finally, as a possible Geneva Conventions violation in every route, Crest beasts are humans who have been turned into monsters. With the exception of Dedue and his forces in Crimson Flower's Tailtean Plains mission, none of them wanted to be Crest beasts, and this seems to be true even for Marianne's ancestor, Maurice. Furthermore, every Crest beast other than those mentioned in the prior sentence appear to be civilians who had procedures forced upon them and are now enslaved to fight against their will.
-- What this means is that the mission where Kronya orchestrates a Crest beast outbreak might be impossible to complete without committing a war crime, and you might have also violated the Geneva Convention by doing Sothis' paralogue. Crest beasts were fought in the Holy Tomb mission and at Enbarr too.
That list wound up being much more extensive than I expected it would be! Man, Three Houses can really be rife with war crimes, even if some routes greatly outnumber others in that regard. I had a great time watching this video, so thank you, Ali!
-The holy tomb is in a weird place, as, because of the nature of crest stones it could be argued to be a weapon depot.
-Not all Demonic beasts are people, most are just wild beasts roaming fodlan.
-Killing a child soldier in battle isn‘t a war crime. Also, flayn is physically 16, old enough to be a volunteer.
-There is nothing suggesting, that Edelgard knew of TwSitD‘s missiles beforehand.
-Since when is holding things under wraps a war crime. It‘s not even, like she lets TwSitD get away with it in the long run.
-One event you forgot, is, „keep none of the enemy commanders alive“ could be argued to be „no quarters“.
-I‘m not completely convinced, that Dimitri‘s death wasn‘t in battle, i know he was badly injured, but this is Dimitri we are talking about. Also, he spends his last moments just ranting delusional at Edelgard.
@@tirex3673 Rhea treated the Holy Tomb as a genuine burial ground, the only Crest Stone shards she ever seemed to distribute came from herself. A lot of demonic beasts are akin to giant birds, but some do have the models of the people who were turned into Crest beasts. Flayn was also in a coma for nearly a thousand years, so even if she was physically 16 for a Nabatean, she mentally might not be.
Edelgard has been Rhea's jailer the entire time after Garreg Mach's fall, meaning she pressed hard to ensure she'd be the jailer from the same day Byleth fell into a coma. Hubert's letter ultimately reveals that keeping Rhea nearby is essential to having a means for stopping the javelins of light. The Death Knight, Edelgard's loyal servant, already knows that the javelins exist in the Fort Merceus mission despite them never being used in the war until that point, so Edelgard almost certainly knows they exist too.
Blaming the annihilation of a city on an unrelated party unnecessarily enflames severe violence and hatred toward them and is liable to keep grudges boiling for years after the war.
Dimitri was so thoroughly injured that he couldn't even stand, complete with several arrows in his body. Edelgard is already prepared to swing Aymr and kill him before he even begins speaking, and from the perspective of almost anyone in Fodlan other than Edelgard herself, the things Dimitri speaks of all sound like logical deductions based on the available information.
@@nightscout9979
-I agree with the Holy Tomb, I just wanted to note, that there is some basis for considering it a legitimate target. Also, does edelgard actually know of the origin of crest stones, (I‘m pretty sure she does, but I can‘t currently find prove).
-I meant CF, there she never captured Rhea and clearly didn‘t know that TWSitD would attack Arianrhod with missiles. Especially, as they did it, to threaten her. Should have been more specific.
-I wasn‘t talking about the blaming the church, I was talking about the keeping it under wraps for a while, to be able to deal with TWSitD later and not start a two front war. I do agree that it at least was morally wrong to blame the church, though I can‘t find anything, that suggests this being a war crime, could you say which treaty it violates?
EDIT: -this depends on, if Dimitri needed to stand to fight. We basically see one frame of an entire scene of what could either be a death in battle, an execution or a coup de grace. Dimitri clearly didn‘t surrender.
EDIT2: - about the demonic beasts, again, I forgot to mention I meant CF, where the closest thing to demonic beasts being used on your side, is Huberts paralogue, where you have to deal with TWSitD‘s birds. (And even then TWSitD≠Empire).
@@tirex3673 I think something that never gets mentioned is what Edelgard will do with TWSitD after the war. Do they all get summarily executed, will there be a civil war, do they get tried for treason and locked away?
Option 1 is genocide, option 2 will be bloody and have no justification because of the cover-up, option 3 gets messy, depending on the Adrestian court system.
@@hilgigas09 We know, it is Option 2, kinda, a shadow war against TWSitD is mentioned in like half of all character endings of CF and you raid Shambala in Jeritza‘s S-support. Also, it‘s not like this one event was all they did. They experimented on civilians and children on multiple occasions, most notably for Edelgard, they killed all of her 10 halfsiblings, they were behind the atrocity of Duscur, and they killed and replaced Lord Arundel and through this were a major driver of the Insurrection of the Seven.
Great video! This actually makes Silver Snow entertaining and not incredibly painful to watch.
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear noble, happy birthday to you. Now, off to WAR!
I’d like to see other games completed without war crimes, not anytime soon, but eventually a return to this theme would be fun.
Now time to do Tracia 776 while commiting the most amount of Warcrimes possible?
It's worth mentioning that the 18 age thing, in America and a lot of counties if you are given writen consent from the guardian they can join and fight, while this wouldn't change a lot, The House leaders for example though, would now be aloud since we know that they were given consent from thire families to join the acadamy and fight.... others like Lysithia we don't know enough though
I'm impressed you managed to prevent the the "Seteth orders no quarter to be given" line and thus that ding against him, but despite that doesn't SS have two unavoidable War Crimes focused on Enbarr? The first is the plan Seteth comes up with to get the army close to Enbarr- "Under the guise of surrender, they secretly prepare for a surprise attack on the Imperial capital.” I'm fairly sure that false surrenders are war crimes. The second is how the Church starts organizing the mass summary execution of Imperial captives after Enbarr, up until Bergliez surrenders to be executed in place of all the captive soldiers. I also believe that planning to no-process mass-execute a whole bunch of helpless captives is a War Crime.
I guess you can kinda avoid at least finding out about the second as it only is raised by Caspar and Dorothea in Exploration, but the first is unavoidably and directly said by the omniscient narrator.
22:20 or somewhere around there you talk about how you can’t get out of the combat but you can by pressing the quit option, unfortunate time waste but hey you overcame it well
Looking at Flayn, veteran of the war 1,000 years ago, and deciding she's a child soldier is... something
Look, as far as Byleth(or rather, Geneva) knows when she joins, Flayn is human. By the time it is known Flayn is a thousand year old dragon, she's probably far too underdeveloped regardless.
(Character turns 18): CONGRATULATIONS you have been drafted.
I didn't realize we were in China
I believe that based on your own rules it isn't possible to beat the game without commiting a war crime. Right after receiving the sword of the creator a scene plays in which Rhea has 2 POWs of the western church summarily executed without trial or right to appeal. There are several articles of the 3rd Geneva convention that pertain to this action, but I believe article 130 to be the most pertinent as it calls such an action a "grave breach". As your rules consider association with an entity which committed a war crime a fail condition, this challenge is not possible.
Nothing did very very wrong! You might want to reign them in. Wonderful!
There’s so many reasons why this video is simply incredible
Personally, I believe the Church of Seiros has also been committing war crimes under your definition of child soldiers. During the academy arc, the classes Byleth does not teach are taught by Manuela and Hanneman. Those classes are also going on real combat missions assigned by the higher ups of Garreg Mach Monastery. Based on the strength of the opposing classes during the Battle of the Eagle and the Lion, we can assume that even the children were deployed on those missions to gain experience.
At the same time, the Officers Academy run by the Church of Seiros has been in operation for a 200 years, from establishment in the Imperial Year 980 to the current class of Year 1180. We can reasonably assume that if violations are happening now, that at least one other violation has happened since the founding.
On top of that, Catherine, unflinchingly affiliated with the Church of Seiros, wields the Thunderbrand, a Hero's Relic like the Sword of the Creator, exclusively - until she is under Byleth's command. Although you opted to be cautious regarding using the Relics, I'd argue that due to a Relic's ability to transform an incompatible wielder into a Demonic Beast, that would make deploying any Relic a violation of the Rome Statute.
i do wish to bring up that as the villagers attacked you, there are reasonable cases for the arguing of self defense as a soldier is still expected to not just let himself get murdered. And as this is a situation of active hostility with them trying to murder you and the soldiers under your command, as a commanding officer i would argue it is your job to ensure your men will be able to return to their families.
After all the rule is intentionally directing attacks against civilians not taking direct part in hostilities. Even if against their will these civilians are clearly taking direct part and presumably have been issued viable warnings to immediately stand down or be counted as enemy combatants.
Thus if all procedures have been followed properly this whole thing is pretty easy to argue as being not a breach of the word of spirit of article 8, section 2e, paragraph 1.
This is the kind of challenge run I’ve been waiting for! Very impressed by the research, that bit about the Germans changing uniform before attacking was particularly interesting.
I have watched a lot of challenge videos over the years and this one is by far the most compelling and interesting.
Happy birthday Ferdinand Von Aegir. 🎉 Here's a Lance, now go fight your fellow students.
Watching this while visiting Geneva. It came up in my recommendations at the best time.
14:15 I remember during my Silver Snow run of the game, I had Shamir snipe the Death Knight for fun to get some chip damage on him, and she accidentally crit and ended the whole chapter in the first turn
This made me laugh so hard that I decided to keep that run of chapter 6 and continue on
5:46 Heck yeah! Happy birthday to the best boy 😄
I appreciate that you continued to animate Claude on the harmonica even when he was mostly off-screen
Great video. Doesn't stop Edelgard from doing nothing wrong, though :P
Ah the Geneva guidelines. Don’t get me wrong, I love rules. But in the same way that a brick loves a window, or me to your mother’s hymen
this is such a fantastic video, it's insane that you have so few subscribers! youve gained one more with me, this is great
I like to think that whenever Geneva adds someone to her team, she hands them a copy of the Geneva conventions.
This video is a work of ART, and a challenge to not nick myself cutting oranges while listening to it, and running on zero hours of sleep-
Had a weekend that could have been nicer. As they say, laughter is the best medicine, and this had me cackling. Props to you! This should be a speedrun- 😂
I wonder if the other routes can also be categories, just with the clarification of..."As little war crimes as possible". Since it doesn't seem doable to do none at all.