In Fire emblem three houses, Claude’s story is just the church route. In three hopes, the second half is just Edlegard’s second half of her route. Claude never gets his own story
Rhea: You killed my men and Cyril. You'll regret this day, friend. Claude: I'm not not your friend, BUDDY. Rhea: I'm not your buddy, GUY Hilda: He's not your Guy, FRIEND Rhea: I'm not your friend, BUDDY Golden Deer: We're not your Buddy, GUY I don't like this route or the reasoning for pursuing Rhea and the church, because this is what any argument boils down to. Rhea does not know what he wants, only that he is killing her people. Claude also ignores the fact that Rhea was never in the Alliance yet Edelgard still invaded, even before taking Garreg Mach. Taking out Rhea will not end the war and he should know that. Like you said, he has the Bread Basket of the Empire he could sue for peace and use the captured lands as leverage.
I find Claude's change the most interesting in Hopes. Hopes is predicated on the students not learning under Byleth(and story wise of course the other houses still learn something from Byleth, we see various students all attend different lectures), and the nearly a year in school cut in half. And this is the result, this Claude trusts even less then his already untrusting Houses variant, and just seems to have less respect for people. More willing to be more cruel and to take power to do what he feels is "right". Houses Claude lasted 5 years without these kinds of petty power plays, but without learning from Byleth and more time with his classmates, Hopes Claude can't. He is a worse, and weaker person. Which is interesting as obviously all sides in Hopes are weaker then Houses, less training, less trust, less firm resolutions.
In Claude's Paralouge, you have him offcially reveal to judith that he's an almyrin prince with nadar there as well. Even still though I was really disappointed with Golden Wildfire mainly because I was expecting with a villain like Shahid we would actually go into almyra and reclaim claudes throne as both king of the federation and king of almyra before continuing our invasion of both the empire and then maybe the kingdom as he also wanted to be rid of the church. It just felt very underwhelming against the other two and I was hoping for more specifics on claude's backstory in his route rather than trying to find peace in fodlan. I've always felt the three lords should be the instigating princess, the righteous prince and the sketchy leader. Yet it feels like we got the opposite
personally I liked the route cause like it was the closest the game got to ironically a golden route, Claude had no quarrel with the kingdom and edelgards ideals aligned with his so it made sense for him to aim for the church he opposed.
Well I'd argue it's not really a golden round for the kingdom eldelgard doesn't have justification to continue the war but could just do it anyway She made it clear in zaharas that it's in her best interest to destroy the kingdom also twsitd aren't really delt with
@@cheesecheese6459 imo Azure Gleam is more of a golden route. Despite the darker turn it takes for the Empire, it honestly just makes the rest of the cast band together in a way that no other route does.
@@goregia764 I mean, they did kill off all the main leaders of twsitd. With Solon, Thales and Myson dead they have no real foundation anymore. Plus, isn’t edelgard’s whole point of the war is to be rid of the noble system and give the people a voice through democratic leaders?
@@gaama6050 while true golden wildfire still remains with the least amount of deaths and a glimmer of hope for a peaceful resolution like most of the deaths are side npcs like (spoilers lol) the margrave or caspars uncle with the only important one being catherine and even then the church was always too sussyspicious to me
Honestly they could’ve give Claude the crimson flower and silver snow treatment either side with edelgard or dimitri for example if you choose to help Catherine you side with serios and dimitri but if you choose Randolph you side with edlegard in my opinion I think that would be cool
@@Wrath9 honestly azure gleam is the only route that has three houses feelings which in my opinion the best route, the second is scarlet blaze it was wayyyyy better then crimson flower the ending which it was super weird but still beside the ending scarlet was amazing and golden wildfire it start off strong until the valley of death so yeah i really wish it give me the choice who should I side hell or add third option where Claude just destroy both of them lmao that would be dope lol
In the good ending, the route still just ends. It doesn't change. Boss dies, "and then maybe the war ended," roll credits. So, there isn't actually multiple endings to this route, just the secret chapters. Also, in the negotiations with Edelgard, Claude doesn't hold Bergliez territory. He had to make a full retreat to fight Shahid, so that land was still the Empire's.
I don’t think Claude was that strong as you imply in that video. He managed to repel the Empire however that didn’t give him the position to make demands. They did win the respect of Edelgard and Bergliez.
@@atrea Military wise no but during this point of the war, Dimitri was holding the western front against the Empire. The Empire could not send their main force to assist their Eastern front. If Almyra didnt attack, Leicester could have “choked” the Empire’s food source. Regardless, GW’s writing was just horse shit.
I was about to say, I just finished GW as my first Hopes route (same as I did for Houses) and recruited Byleth. The game does just end with no resolution to the Slitherers or the war.
Tbh i get why Claude wants to go after Rhea but I just cant over the moral implications that Claude would pour fuel over that sreng-faerghus conflict when he wanted less bloodshed, but how would tempting another foreign power to attack be the best solution...its crafty and a smart move to make but you have look at it also in a character perspectives especially since Claude faced descrimination because of his own heritage therefore he wants peace for Almyra and Fodlan. So fueling a border conflict would be like if Dimitri decided to abandon Duscur. Also Claude, please dont try to justify to Sylvain after murdering his dad and currently invading the capital by saying youre also risking your life ♡
They didn't lock defeating TWS behind Byleth. That's only a couple special chapters you can get. Claude's route always ends the same way. The bad ending/version of the route has Judith get killed by Byleth, but otherwise there's no major change to the events of the game. TWS is "officially" defeated in AG/SB as per Thales being killed, though Solon isn't killed if you didn't recruit Byleth as he's killed in the chapter prior to the Arval chapter. If you did recruit Byleth, TWS is basically wiped out in AG/SB, but GW always ends with Claude fighting Rhea. "Getting it through Dimitri's thick skull" was the dumbest line in the entire route. Dimitri wasn't being stupid - he was defending his country against an invasion (which Sylvian even makes it clear that he despises Claude/the Alliance now for invading so... good job Claude, one of the most prominent lords in Faerghus now hates you all!) I disagree with Claude being mischaracterized in Houses. Regardless of what they said they /wanted/ to do with him, what matters is the final product. What matters is what the consumers are going to experience. What they hoped to write out doesn't matter if it's not actually there. The real, canon, true version of the characters is what shows up in the game that everyone plays. While I agree with Claude's decision regarding Randolph, it was the stuff after that that I don't agree with. However, I actually believe even in Houses, Claude would've left Edelgard to die if that same option presented itself. For me at least that's part of why I didn't like what they did with Claude. I feel like they just wanted to write Claude the opposite of what he would've done in Houses at all times. That was... basically the route imo. As far as the whole backing Edelgard up goes, yeah, I think they should've just taken Lorenz's suggestion and left her to die. Realistically it was the best option for Fodlan, and despite all Claude's preaching in this game, leaving her to die would've ended the war and stopped causalities like he wanted. Meanwhile, he was saying if they killed Rhea he didn't actually know if Edelgard would stop the war (i.e. Rhea not being her only objective and they'd know if they killed Rhea and Edelgard didn't stop the war, which risks more people dying because he's leaving the possibility open that she'll keep the war going). The last few chapters after Edelgard could've died could've just been against TWS, thus stamping them out similarly to how they're defeated in the other routes.
From all the hate this route gets, I feel bad for people who like Claude in Three houses lmao. He's completely different (sorry for essay below, just need to get thoughts out lol) Yes I know it's not out of character 100% and I actually like that Claude fights Rhea since this is a sort of elseworld AU (canon? no idea) and it makes it interesting that Claude is the only lord to face off against both Agarthan and Nabatian legends and come out on top- while Nemesis was human was given Sothis blood to wield SoTC and became a semi-puppet leader for Agathans from his might while here he faces off against Rhea. I know Edelgard does this too in Thales and Rhea, but she never faces off against king of liberation so my point still stands Did I like his route? Yes and no, on one hand I appreciated that it focused more on Claude in a way- whereas Verdant wind was more of a bunch of misfits banding together here we focus on Claude's leadership, we even see more emotion here as he regrets decisions feels pressure to succeed and has a hard time leaning on others I as many others wished we got more Almyran elements as the route was advertised as such but seeing how they handled Shahid I'm sort of glad they didn't. He felt very one-note and was sorta just there? Like what did he add to the story other than confirming Claude's name as Khalid and being his brother who hates him? I didn't like how the route felt, there is just too many opposing factors that it just seems to be a string of disconnected events happening one after the other Almyra (Shahid at border before time skip), Bandits cool, got to keep Alliance in order before we head out to face empire, Holst vs Count Caspers dad cool! Oh wait Shahid's back, could we actually be going to Almyra? Nope, he's killed off and we just go see Edelgard to form an alliance neat Kingdom and church are our enemies now, random but I see why Claude's interest might align with wanting the church down. First battle as alliance and Randolph died, now his sister is seeking revenge and hired every merchenary under the sun (seriously, this 8 year old had on her payroll: Yuri, Byleth and Jeralt my god) About to take down the capital when (gasp) Ordealia is in trouble! Sounds dire is it Nemesis coming out of whatever slumber he was in early?! (recall how Nemesis is still a bandit, could've been a clever way to fit him into the story) Eh, just Solon, at least we get Dorothea out of the trouble, back to taking the capital. Zahara and then final boss Rhea It feels rushed as what happened in Ordealia could've happened before we went into the capital and it would've made the pace at least feel less back and forth Because at this point it's a theme, invading Empire about to get to the leader when suddenly something happens to Fodlans throat, about to win the war against kingdom when Ordealia is in trouble I don't know if they wanted this route to somehow tie in to the others? Because I too found it strange how Claude never bargained for anything, made any demands when he essentially won, like give us more Empire characters since Kingdom ones are impossible to get I haven't played Scarlet Blaze yet, but I've seen that you have the same alliance just under different circumstances in which it's reversed and Claude's on losing end so maybe that's why Claude talks like he had no choice afterwards??? I really don't get that. But seeing how drastically different SB and AG are, I don't see what the point of that is Just tell a story, I already know that if this route was entirely in Almyra people would find issue with it because Claude from three houses problem for many was how disconnected he was from plot, had they done that here it'd be x100 worse as he's literally being disconnected from plot. But you can't please everyone and making rash decisions like "Claude suddenly wants Anarchy when he was shown wanting peace in three houses" it's a surefire way to get backlash, but if it's something entirely new they can't hate as much. Because we'd be exploring somewhere not Fodlan, see Claude's parents, see the politics of Almyra. Two continents differing world view etc., it could've been executed horribly and still get less hate than making him what many dub 'Edelgard 2.0' and stealing her final boss. Since at least in this Almyra only route we can finally learn more about Claude himself Another rant I'm sorry, but people taking high hround on *"Claude was always like this, this one dialouge hints he always wanted Rhea dead"* need to fricken chill. Claude at his core is someone who wants peaceful resolutions, we see it in every route in three houses and is the reason he can live in any route outside his own. He isn't a saint, but he knows that peace between Fodlan and Almyra will never be reached if he forces it upon people it's why he fights for alliance when he has a home in Almyra until he literally can't anymore, it's why he's so against Edelgard's reason for war when he himself doesn't disagree with her methods. Seriously people need to give Claude more credit, the man is more complex than the memes the fanon made of him ffs
I read the whole thing, and I appreciate you leaving the comment first of all 😂 But honestly I know what you mean about him being disconnected from the plot, but I don't think a lot of people would mind, I've seen so many people hope for the same things we have, and I don't think I've seen anyone say they wouldn't be happy with Claude's route just being us discovering who he actually is and such. But EVEN IF people had a problem with that, I think a way to remedy the situation IF they decided to have him go to Almyra instead of what they actually did, lets say that while he left to go to Almyra, Edelgard ends up winning the war against the kingdom and church, and then Golden Wildfire is just Claude becoming king of both the Federation AND Almyra and for the finale two chapters of the game is just a Claude coming with a massive army to keep Edelgard at bay, or even get the Kingdoms territory back for them or something, honestly I feel like even that is better than whatever the hell Part II was but that's just me 🤷🏻♂️
I'm very split on Claude's 180 turn after Randolph. Yes I am glad you're relying on your allies more and being more open, Claude. But as was mentioned, instead of dancing the line on morally grey, he just went complete good guy for the rest of the game and uh.... There was so much potential!
“Good guy” as well since he still fights a war that he had no business being a part of alongside a government that tried to destroy them not that long ago.
I personally thought of the 180 plan on edelgard instead. Same thing happens, lots of warriors die yada yada and Hubert doesn't agree with the idea instead and puts her back in the rightous path she was meant to follow and her path continues like normal.
I played all three routes and I just don't like how they end without anything being really solved. I think they said the people who wrote the story for 3 houses wanted to make sure there was no "happy" ending meaning whatever route you choose there was never gonna be any agreement between the 3 houses, even though all 3 of their major characters goal is to unite fodlan, this is where I think Edelgard is the worst because she wants to unite the country under the foot of the empire and that's not true unity, the worst part about 3 hopes is that we the players already know the real bad guys are and that's Those who slither in the dark and to some big extent Rhea herself simply due to her lying about who she really is not to mention her obsession with her mother Sothis. I know a lot of people give Fire Emblem fates a bad rap but I like the fact that even though Birthright and Conquest were their own thing, Revelation made a story to put an end to the conflict between Hoshido and Nohr. I honestly believe if Edelgard, Claude and Dimitri actually LISTENED and WORKED TOGETHER, the story would've been better and unfortunately I feel the 3 houses saga is gonna be that unsatisfying game simply because the writers wanted to make something unique
Just based off of where Azure Gleam looks like its going to end, and my experience with Golden Wildfire, I agree with it not really feeling resolved, but I'm guessing they are just gonna pull the classic move of "Buy the DLC to see the end of the story!" which is really lame, but unfortunately I'm probably gonna fall for it regardless because I love this game despite its flaws, and honestly I think Silver Snow's ending for 3 Houses was a satisfying enough ending, but with 3 Hopes I do agree that it may not be satisfying at all
@@Wrath9 Oh yeah of course the gameplay is great and Shez is by far one of my favorite characters because I like the fact that they are more open minded about voicing their opinion to the cast unlike Byleth in 3 houses who was just there, part of me thinks if Shez was in 3 houses I think the plot would've turned out better, there's even a paralouge in 3 hopes where you fight the 3 houses and they even mentioned if they worked together the world would be better for it
Yeah that's honestly my only gripe with 3 Houses, because as much as I love that game I hated that Byleth was just a fly on the wall for 99% of the game, and I agree, Shez is easily one of the best characters in this game and probably the best new character
I’m from the future, there’s still no DLC lol Gotta say for as much flak as Fates’s story incurs, each route’s ending actually feels like a CONCLUSION. All the routes in 3 Houses end with a cutscene and an S support and boom straight to the character endings, and 3 Hopes is even less helpful!
Since it was clear that they needed Edelgard to fight Dimitri, they needed Claude to fight someone else instead of just trying to be a third wheel again. I think the decision to have Claude go after Rhea makes sense, even with the information presented in three houses which shows Claude was distrustful of the church, I just don't think they handled it well. Claude and Leicester don't have any immediate quarrels with Rhea unlike Edelgard and the empire do. They pretty much just went, "well I guess we can kill Rhea cause we technically follow our own version of the church." If they provided a solid motive for Claude to go against Rhea, like maybe Rhea was trying to forcibly convert the eastern church after everything that happened with the western church, it would make a lot of sense.
I do like Claude's new look as he looks a lot handsome than his original design from Fire Emblem: Three Houses and I can't believe in this version of Golden Deer that Lady Rhea would be a villian in this story instead of the slither in the dark.
Another part I hate about GW is the whole mess of the Kingdom/Church trying to poach those three irrelevant houses from Leicester. Since they’re not even mentioned in AG it feels like they were only added to make it seem like Claude’s not a total ass for invading the kingdom
I kinda agree and disagree is some regards, plotwise, after much afterthought even though the second half of the game is definitely weaker, I don't feel any of the choices Claude made were really wrong. Claude, as much as he wants to end the war, he also wants to get rid of Rhea, and due to the information given to him by Edelgard, he knows that if he stops the war and doesn't take the chance to remove her, he won't be able to do the changes he really desires, so siding with the Empire was probably his best move at the moment, not to mention he was planning to an extent betray her after killing Rhea, since he was trying to do exactly what you described, he wanted to remove Rhea so Edelgard would stop the war, and if she refused, he would join forces with Dimitri. TWSITD making a conflict in Ordelia to draw Claude's forces back to the Federation and indirectly save Rhea also kinda makes sense, TWSITD's goal is not to just kill the Nabateans, they want to take over Fodlan, and at the moment the only thing that is stopping everyone from pointing their blades towards them is the fact that everyone is too busy trying to capture/kill/save Rhea (unlike 3 Houses, Edelgard doesn't keep the information of TWSITD to herself), they cannot afford the chance of the three lords actually joining forces, especially when they have basically lost like 90% of the influence they used to have with Cleobulus, Solon, and Thales. I will agree however, they should've not just paint the situation as a bandit attack, let demonic beast run rampant, that would be far more threatening and worth retreating. Also, just to point out, although Claude did invade the empire and got a hold of their farmlands, he lost them when they retreated to deal with the Almyrans. He basically gave up the territory he won, he didn't really had the upper hand when it came to making their truce/treaty, and the main reason he won against Count Bergliez was because he was just fighting Count Bergliez' forces, Edelgard had her main forces elsewhere (that's why they hired Jeralt's mercenaries as backup).
I do agree that not ALL of his choices were wrong, I apologize if I came across like that in the video, the problem I have with the second half isn't Claude himself, its the decision the writing team made to have him be guilt tripped into toning himself back, I just think that keeping the "darker" tones they were toying with (in the fight with Randolph & Catherine) going into the rest of the second half would've made it much more enjoyable to play through, even if it did end up tearing apart the Golden Deers themselves, I just think that would be more fun to experience (sort of a callback to Silver Snow). With TWSITD, I thought their goal was to kill the Nabateans because they were the only thing stopping them from taking over Fodlan? So with that logic letting Claude negotiate with Dimitri, so he will let Edelgard's forces along with the rest of the Golden Deers deal with Rhea makes the most sense, to me at least... I also don't necessarily think Edelgard would stop the war with Faerghas so them uniting (in my opinion) would never even be something to worry about, but I'm also basing that assumption off of Three Houses Dimitri & Edelgard's relationship lol Interesting, I must've missed the "Claude gave up the farm territory" part, I really thought that he still held on to that area until the conversation with Edelgard.
@@Wrath9 The Nabateans fail at containing the Agarthans. The Kingdom's founding is proof of that. Fuck, Rhea doesn't even know who the Agarthans really are.
@@Wrath9 It's actually part of the cutscene after the Alliance leaves. Count Bergliez comments on how they should let the enemy retreat because they haven't razed the farms while pulling back to the bridge.
I completely agree with this comment! Thanks for making it. IMO narratively, 3 hopes Claude and his route made way more sense than 3 houses Claude. I agree that all his choices were the most rational he could make. There were some choices that were perhaps not the ones we may have agreed with (not leaving Edelgard to die or leaving the kingdom right away to deal with TWSID when he had the win in the palm of his hand), but to me, those decisions that Claude made were less because of strategy and more because he wanted to turn away from his “any means necessary” realpolitik style of leadership (think Edelgard) and become a more empathetic, caring leader (like Dimitri). We may not agree with the choice, but it was the choice he made (and in that respect I think it was good writing).
I wanna see a video on the rest of the leaders. I also heard others say Claude was backed into a corner to constantly throughout the war so he didn't get to take the time to make some choices others would've seen. I also like 3 houses Claude better, but after watching this I could come to like three hopes Claude even better. Since it is showing a slight side of his true self. He did show some of his true colors with the professor in supports in three houses and during the story. Aside from that nice video, looking forward to seeing moreeee. I wanna hear more of people's opinions on Claude and his house including the rest of the game.
Nader should have been playable, who may be best to tell info of Almyra than someone that knows it the best? (also he's my favorite character and im pissed than they made him a recurring character than is just there)
Honestly golden wildfire feels like Claude forgot to do his homework and copied Edelgard’s. They couldn't use Nemesis or Shambala again so instead we got another Rhea battle. I also think Claude's just a bit to eager in his support for the Empire. He doesn't even try to play nice with the Kingdom in his route which means he only ever supports them if you choose Azure Gleam. Also even if you choose them, he still says he wants to abolish the church in his support with Dimitri in Zaharas. They couldn't be bothered to change his support for that specific route. Claude, just saying you don't want to destroy them after invading them is not enough!
Claude is very blatant in wanting Rhea gone in Verdant Wind. He just didn't do anything against her because of his route being a Church copy. Three Hopes changes that.
@@nuibaba280 but golden deer is supposed to be the neutral faction in the war. 3 hopes screws that up by making him a full blown empire supporter. Claude is supposed to be a schemer. Someone who's playing both sides of the conflict for his own benefit. But he's so blatantly in favor of Edelgard that it's totally off putting. If I wanted to side with Edelgard, I would have picked black eagles in the beginning. If I ever do play Claude's route again it'll only be so I can get his and Hilda's personal abilities from the merc whistle. I got Holst's ability on my first gw playthrough and since Holst Hilda, and Claude are the only gw route exclusives, that means i only have to play it 3 times. Which works for me because gw is my least favorite route.
@@dustinvance243 why should he side with the Kingdom though? Dimitri is very clear in wanting to preserve the Status Quo with both the Churches influence intact and the crest system preserved, due to his fear of rapid change. Without the game forcing an all out War between all three nations and introducing the possibility of alliances, Edelgard kind of makes more sense for him as an Ally, as their goals allign pretty well.
@@shizachan8421 it doesn't make sense for anyone to be siding with the Empire because Edelgard is attacking all of Fodlan indiscriminately so she can conquer the whole continent. And the last time I checked Claude's goal was to bring peace between Almyra and Fodlan. But for some reason he sees the church as an obstacle to that. Even though Rhea has an Almyran as one of her personal aides. It's obvious that the church isn't the problem and Claude is acting under his own preconceived notions towards them.
@@dustinvance243 The church is established as incredibly racist, have you ever played the monestary during chapter 6 of Three Houses? Rhea having a child slave who becomes one of her soldiers does not make the church not racist. I also would assume that a mixed race man who lived in Fodlan and knows the culture is a bigger authority on the matter than your headcanon? If Claude says the church discourages interactions with foreigners and nobody challenges it, we have no assume he is wrong, because it doesn't fits your headcanon. And I mean, The empire did enter Leicester territory invited and once they negotiate, Edelgard offers claude to pay reparations and proves herself to be a valuable and reliable ally, with Edelgard never betraying Claude in either Scarlet Blaze nor Crimson Flower. Dimitri on the other hand has nothing to offer because his own personal power and privelege relies on a xenophobic system of feudal eugenics. He says so much in their shared support.
I basically almost the opinion you have with a few disagreements though. I feel Golden Wildfire was MUCH BETTER than Verdant Wind simply for the fact that it was basically Silver snow just with the Golden Deer cast instead of the black eagles cast I really hated that lol. Two I definitely agree on is the lack of more Claude lore while did get some with Shahid and then actually revealing himself as the prince of Almyra in his paralouge but that's honestly it, we still didn't go to Almyra like I would have wished we heard so much about his mother and yet we still didn't even at least see her heck we didn't even see his father let alone his name so yeah I definitely feel yeah on that part. The other thing I agree is the bouncing around a lot and the ending. The thing with Dimitri would have been really cool see when invaded the capital but instead again when we so close SOMETHING popped up just like the battle at gronder field it's just like "really again?!?!" , and then of course the ending, the whole point was that if we off Rhea and the central church the war ends right?..... It didn't the Empire and Kingdom still want to throw down because both Edelgard and Dimtri are to stubborn to let it end especially Edelgard because she really wants to unify Fodlan so bad. All in all I still really enjoyed the route the character's obviously stood out and was still the best part and I REALLY liked Shez a lot.
I enjoyed Shez too, I was wondering how having a protagonist that wasn't just a brick wall of stoicism would change things whether it would be for better or worse. But I really enjoyed all of the interactions Shez had across the board and I think they are a great inclusion
I’m gonna rant a bit. This route annoyed me. It really was annoying as I felt like you could just cut half the deer out of the route and nothing would happen. Holst is great but seriously we can’t recruit anyone except Ashe, Linhardt, Dorothea, Petra, and Bernie. I dont count Jeralts mercs and the wolves. I wish Ferdinand could’ve been recruitable in other routes too. I wish we could’ve seen some more of my favorite of Billy’s Voiced characters. We could’ve had Judith and Nader. None of the recruitables are exclusive to GWF and it’s frustrating when Claude doesn’t stop conquering. I was really hoping to get to have all my favorites on the same side. I guess Azure Moon from 3H will have to do. I’m disappointed. Thank you for hearing my rant
Thank you for the rant 😂 I totally agree, it is unfortunate and I feel like its really weird that outside of Ashe (and Mercedes literally in the last chapter) you can't recruit any other Blue Lions, and I think Ferdinand, Judith and Nader should've been recruitable/playable as well. It was just a really big drop of the ball, and was such a let down.
@@Wrath9 It's an old comment, but it makes perfect sense why you can't recruit the Blue Lions here (and why Ashe is so miserable when you do). Everyone you can't recruit is either Dimitri's childhood friend, their dad is serving as a Kingdom general, or Dedue. Why would they ever join Claude and/or Edelgard in this game? Claude nor Edelgard give anyone from Faerghus any reason to even like them let alone turn against their families and fight for them. Rhea, who they both blame for everything, doesn't do anything wrong here. She just helps Faerghus. Dimitri's sane, (mostly) stable, and in charge (unlike in Houses). He's also making reforms already. All Claude and Edelgard are doing is attacking them and threatening all their friends and families and using Rhea as justification, even though they all know that's just an excuse. It wouldn't make sense for them to just turn around and start attacking their friends. Honestly, I don't think half of them should've been recruitable to CF either (SS and VW make sense, CF is a huge stretch). I mean, did we really expect Sylvain to become buddies with the guy who just killed his father, manipulated the situation to keep the war going on Gautier borders on forever (so much for wanting to unite cultures), and then tries to gaslight Sylvain into thinking he's unjustified in being upset because "he's risking his life too!" Yeahhhhh. It makes way more sense for the unrecruitable Lions to want nothing to do with Claude nor Edelgard in this game (and like I said, even Ashe hates it there in SB and GW).
Golden Wildfire's ending gave the ONE single ending where you might reach something never thought possible: peace between all three nations. In 3H, EVERY route led to the unification of the continent. Even in 3Hopes, SB and AG also strongly imply that the continent will still be unified, even if by different means. Yet Claude has created a scenario where he can actually maintain all three nations' independence and actually avoid unification. It's the miracle that made me love the ending of GW the most.
I was about to say… As confusing as Golden Wildfire is, it’s currently the closet we’ve gotten to a golden route. Sadly, Rhea, Catherine, and Cyril all died 😢
I feel like Claude invading the empire is something that could be after the games events, like he could propose an end to war and that’s him done or both sides refuse, Claude waits for Edelgard to face Dimitri and then conquers a weaker empire.
Yeahhhh I realized after starting my playthrough for Azure Gleam that I pronounced it wrong the whole video 😂 I'm used to pronouncing Leicester that way because of the soccer team 🤦🏻♂️
Well time to go on a little rant Character wise I'm not really all that surprised with his character development considering that he is a cunning tactician, so realistically him sacrificing Randolf & his Imperal army is the least unexpected, sure ppl can argue that his plan was beyond low & I can understand that, but keep in mind this is Claude we're talking about, he's may not be the best, but at least he's able to get the job done. As for his backstory there's not that much to say other than he's Almyran & "his brother" wants to take throne. Story wise I absolutely hate it mainly because he was this close, THIS CLOSE on toppling the Empire & defeating Edelgard only for him to do a 180 degree angle, join forces with her & going Rhea who literally did nothing wrong this whole route, like WTF HAPPEN?! And even when he & Shez does kill Rhea, nothing gets resolved, The Empire & The Kingdom are still going at each other throats & it's most likely the Argathen/Those who slither in the Dark remains.
I absolutely agree with your complaints when it comes to the story, they didn't do a good job whatsoever of painting Rhea as a villain for the route, and killing her didn't really change anything (as far as we see at least)
I know people like Claude but god could you remove both routes from three houses and hopes and it would effect NOTHING in the grand scheme of things. Shoulda just been a house member of one or another.
Claude is a huge hypocrite on his route. He talks down to Shahid for giving Almyra a bad name by launching attacks on Leicester. Yet he does the same literally 1 chapter later by launching an unprovoked invasion of the Kingdom WITH Almyran soldiers.
About Claude's decision to do the right thing instead of what is smartest : I agree the change might have been pretty fast (maybe too much) and born through only one consequence (they could have had more consequences to prove it wasn't /such/ a good idea), but I think what they wanted to do was show that being "smarter" is not always the best choice when it involves people's lives. Letting Randolph die gave Claude the opportunity to win the fight as a whole, but in doing so, he made a personal enemy of an Imperial officer (Fleche) who later tried to get revenge and that resulted in Judith's death. Had Claude /not/ abandoned Randolph to his fate, Judith would have lived. His choice might have been smarter when you consider only the outcome of the battle, but if you consider the longer term, Claude 1) made a personal enemy, 2) proved to his friends and allies from the Empire that he cannot be trusted to help if he's not sure he can win, making him unreliable, 3) is a consequence of point 2 but if Claude will let an ally die to win, who's to say he wouldn't betray the Empire if the tide of the war shifted ? And 4) his actions led to Judith being killed, at least in his mind (I haven't played the route myself, I'm only going off of your video) and considering how strong a warrior and talented an officer she was, on top of being a friend, that's a heavy loss. Points 2 and 3, from what I understand of your video, were simply not brought up in the game or with no lasting consequences, but if they had been, Claude's "smarter choice" would have put a big strain on his alliance with Edelgard who would have taken back the little trust she had placed in him and would have fought by his side with plans A, B and C prepared to deal with his betrayal if it ever happened. While they could still win the war like this, it would make diplomatic negotiations later a lot more tense than they would have needed to be, because Edelgard would have been unable to trust that Claude had the people's best interests at heart and wasn't just acting for his own gain and agenda. It's a lot of hypothesis, I know, but if you want a concrete example, take Lonato's case in Scarlet Blaze : the man disobeyed orders from the Empire, attacking Rhea recklessly with no hope of winning, and helping him meant forcing the Imperial troops to rush to his position and abandon what they were doing at the moment, with no guarantee to arrive fast enough to save him. Edelgard would have been more than justified to let Lonato die and saving him would have had little tactical benefits for her ; rushing to his position weakened her own defenses and interrupted her own plans. By all means, the smarter choice would have been to not move, maybe even use him as bait like Claude did with Randolph ; but Edelgard thinks further along and realises that not doing everything she can to save Lonato would send a terrible message about her to her allies, weaken her alliances and corrupt the moral values she's started this war for. So she goes to save him. I rambled a bit, but basically I agree with Claude's decision to do the right thing from then on and I think it was about more than his friends being pissed at him, but I also think the game could have done a better job at showing all the reasons why being compassionate, in this war and alliance, is sometimes smarter than just doing what needs to be done to win a battle.
Thank you for the rant first and foremost, and honestly I think if the reasons you had listed above were apart of why Claude decided to make this shift, then I'm all for it! But as you say in your last paragraph, the game didn't list any of those reasons as being why he changed. (Maybe its slipping my memory since its been over two months since I played the route 😂) But I remember Claude's decision to be more compassionate in his choices were literally ONLY because of the Golden Deer's reactions to him letting Randolph die and that alone, it had nothing to do with how Edelgard may have viewed him going forward, some of it probably had to do with Fleche... (but if I remember correctly, I think it was immediately after that fight that he promised them to change so Fleche wasn't even an issue yet) Which is why I had such a big gripe with it, and as I'm sure you saw (assuming you've watched the most of, if not the entire video) all of my issues with this route just come down to how the decisions I have problems with are all just written horribly, and the justifications for all of the decisions are so asinine.
I think this is the best route which I will explain later. If you are bothered by the full retreats.. Then with Edelgards route you are in for something.
@@Wrath9 yeh I guess I was forgiving the game at that point since I was so in awe of playing a warriors game with so many RPG aspects. I’ve gone through all routes and man.. I didn’t expect so many hours of fun! One obvious problem is that the devs expect you to play all routes, that is obvious. It is way too easy and it really needs even higher difficulty modes, also less invincible moments. Other than that they really did an awesome job with this game. As for why I enjoyed Claude greatly is playing as the amazing crafty tactician. He shares his insecurities about fighting the war. His character development was good. On the other routes the second half of the game felt like it was already over. As Claude that route felt better since he doesn’t have a huge army but his cunning makes up for that. I also enjoyed most paralogues especially Lysithia, where the 2 houses show a lot of respect. Another one is saving the village from bandits with Jeralts mercs, Claude’ original was decent with some extra background. The Randolph part was amazing where Claude made a mistake and he admits it. Then on the good ending he ends up outsmarting Jeralts mercs and recruit them. We only never get to know who was that priest that made Fleche angry. Also on the good path we don’t get to beat TWSID however we can assume the Empire took care of them. All routes have strengths and weaknesses, just play all of them. The gameplay is amazing.
I have to say Golden Wildfire is a MESS lol! There are a few interesting scenarios here and there, but they ultimately don't go anywhere for the story - just a bunch of half baked ideas that do nothing for no one.
Nice video. What's you opinion about the good ending? You also should have seen Claude's Paralogue (which requires Judith living and recruit Byleth), it's very interesting. Claude told her almost everything except for his real name.
I have read a bit about the good ending, and from what I've heard I don't really think it'll change my overall opinion that drastically on the route outside of the whole Lysithea/Shez situation I talked about, and the paralogue about Claude definitely fixes a lot with the whole Almyrian situation but again, because I still love the route so that won't change but the second half would still be a little all over the place But I'm planning on replaying this route and going for the good end, after I finish this little series to experience it myself, so we'll see if it does actually change anything for me or not
Not about to spoil anything outside of Golden Wildfire, but many problems with this route stem into the other two. The "bad ending" in all three isn't even a bad ending. It's just the ending. Whether or not you fight Jeralt is the good/bad ending because everything past that (save for one map and an insignificant battle) is nearly the exact same. And it shows how I feel that this story has better execution than Three Houses.
Yeah I don't really know why its considered a good/bad end depending on that, I'm guessing mostly because Byleth kills someone if you don't end up recruiting them?
Ok, so it seems you misunderstood something about the assault on Bergliz territory. Due to the assault on Fodlan's Locket, Claude ordered a FULL Retreat. He even laments having to abandon taking the territory when they had essentially already won the battle in the after scene of that same mission. Claude still held the Bridge of Myrddin but they were unsuccessful in claiming any empire territory, basically the reason why claude still acts like he had to agree to the empires terms was largely due to the Alliance houses making the actual terms very difficult to work with. The Alliance also had difficulty with actually fighting a war due to their governing structure requiring a roundtable discussion before every battle, which would always put them on the back foot. So without that empire territory to use as powerful leverage he had nothing to negotiate with to have an edge over the empire on their alliance. The reasons why almyra is left as it is is due to the fact that it's ultimately irrelevant to the overarching plot. Its also strongly implied that dimitri chose to actively lead his forces away from Rhea's to show his acceptance of claude's goal since both the kingdom and empire forces were mainly involved in a controlled fight were few casualties were occurring. Golden wildfire is just in a really awkward place due to how they interact with the other two routes when doing them since claude sides with them on their routes, while having to commit to joining one on his. Scarlet Blaze is the only route where there is an actual different mission that plays out if you don't recruit Byleth that can result in claude's death due to byleth convincing him to betray his alliance with edelgard. But either way, minus the Scarlet Blaze worst end (since claude can also still survive that same mission), all three routes still end with Claude Dimitri and Edelgard still alive which might be due to possible DLC plans. We just don't know yet.
@@Wrath9 But it's pronounced Less-ter in the games. Plenty of times, too... Unless you are hard of hearing or don't pay attention, people will surely remind you a lot of times. (And Gloucester is pronounced Gloss-ter.)
Yeah I do actually think that there should have been a Ceasefire to deal with Rhea and Shambala. The Kingdom should work with Dethroning Rhea if she is only Abdicated not executed. Byleth gets involved with defending Rhea because the Stacks of Cash is INSANE enough for Jeralt to do this one last time (Rhea knows she went wrong in uniting them in a coup d'etat so her desperation is at an all time high and boy it shows) and incorporates the Progenitor God's backstory a bit and makes the Sword of The Creator Cannon in Hopes *with whip sword moveset. (plus the whole Serios thing etc) This way Claude don't have to sacrifice the truth but can still some choices. After the good ending of the fight where you recruit Byleth you get a condensed lore dump and some much-needed debate between Rhea and Edelgard Dimitri starts getting a little bit unhinged because of the Red Canyon tragedy. Something about eww dragon bones and the ten elites
I do want to know about Almyra, but i don't want your suggested bad endings. I think Shez didn't get taken over due to killing Byleth, so doesn't the recruiting Byleth then the body take over make more sense?
Claude wasn't playing 3d chess he was playing acid lazed hot patatoo until he had no allies at all Fully disagree with him being a better chackter in 3hopes he was just an other eldelgard The thing is with while Eddy and the Boar had there friendship with Byleth to grow (although honestly 3 hopes showed a better future for the latter) Claude in 3 house spend a lot more time with in the church in 3 houses removing a lot of Xenophobic ideas about them. Spending more with the knights, rhea relatives and the libary learning the church can and will change it's way as it had done in the past. and well not learning about the slithers ofcourse had made 3 hopes claude into a ass where al his deccesions helped the empire faaar more then is aliance
Idk how you say that Claude made any good decisions in this path. It was just a copy paste of SB plus the CF from the original game. They didn't give Claude a unique path. They just copy pasted 2 of Edelgard routes onto Claude and called it a day.
Claude letting Edelgard die would have been bold. But no. He has to save her despite such a death would have ended the war. Letting Randolph die is meaningless when he saves Edelgard. Claude also cannot claim he's trying to end the war when letting Edelgard die would have immediately ended said war.
Honestly, I really liked Claude allying with Edelgard and going against Rhea. I remember playing through Golden Deer in my very first three houses playthrough and being really confused because it didn't really seem like Rhea's ideals worked with Claude's which was important for his character. I LOVED the Almyran additions in 3 Hopes. The only thing that would have made it better was if Nader was a playable character and could have some support dialogues with Claude and Holst to fill in the last couple of gaps of in his background. As for the things I didn't like: I totally agree, turning around again to go after TWSITD was frustrating and unnecessary with the lack of context we were given. And the bad ending (and tbh the good ending too like tf) does not do enough to justify this story beat's inclusion other than to drive the last couple of chapters. Maybe something with the actual Almyran King bc Nader has been referenced to be sneaking a lot of their troops to Fodlan without the king's full awareness. I also liked your idea about fighting Dimitri more with the reinforcements that Annette had called. I also was SO let down by the good ending tbh. It doesn't really feel like anything was resolved from the whole thing and the extra chapter didn't have an effect on the plot either. I guess that was more a problem with all routes in the game but STILL!!!
Honestly I agree Nader being a playable character and having supports that explain Claude's background more would be great, and probably would redeem the rest of the route, for me? Idk And I agree the extra chapter doesn't really do much for the plot of all the routes, but at the same time I think at least it does kind of point to a more peaceful resolution of the war being possible as opposed to an all out fight to the death, with Dimitri and Edelgard specifically remembering *some* of their childhood memories together, as well as Claude and Dimitri/Edelgard coming to an understanding that they all want the same thing.
I was talking about Leicester, I played the game with the Japanese voice over, and there's a soccer team by the name Leicester that is pronounced Lie-chester, so it was purely me just scuffing the pronunciation, I apologize for any confusion 😂
I would say I agree with most of your opinions expected 1 big thing. I absolutely hated Claude's character starting specifically a Randolph's sacrifice. I understand the motivation. And this may stem from me playing the other 2 routes first. But it felt like just a Dick move from his character and I was honestly relive when I saw the rest of golden deer had the same opinion on the matter and called him out on it. Say I g that I also liked the 180 he did after that. Although I couldn't enjoy is because that event kind of sully a Claude who at that point I thought was the most interesting house leader out of the 3 of them and past the point of no return. Honestly if I wasn't for the rest of the golden deer's amazing cast I probably would have hated this route.
@@Wrath9 Oh for sure morally gray characters do usually offer some interesting story points(at least most of the time) I just feel like it wasn't done well with Claude's character. Not just in his route either. Which I think is such a shame because he was the most interesting to me in 3 houses even if he wasn't my favorite(that goes to Elugard).
It's hillarious that despite with a fully voice acted cast saying the name of the place constantly, Americans continue to be unable to pronounce Leicester properly.
It's even funnier to me because like a week or two after putting this video out I realized I was pronouncing it wrong the entire time 💀 And tbf, I set myself up for it because I played this route with the Japanese VAs so that's entirely my bad
@@Wrath9 You are forgiven for being a based JP voice chad. But for future reference, it is pronounced like "Lester" and "Gloster" for ease of reference. Blame the Normans.
I'll go so far as to say I outright hated this route and every single member of the Golden Deer, they were nothing but a bunch of self-righteous warmongers. The blatant hypocrisy on display as they whined about the cruelty of bandits as if they didn't just get home from a war of aggression was painful to watch. If I wanted a story that hands Edelgard the victory on a silver plate I'd just play Scarlet Blaze, ffs.
3 Hopes turned into 3 disappointments. The game starts strong from the beginning to the middle and they essentially just end up to the same ending. No resolutions to your companions support, just a text that says the war continues for the 3 routes. Why even call it 3 hopes when the title is so misleading when none of the endings were even hopeful.
I disagree with you on Claude's characterization. I don't want him to be a tyrant who ignores his friends and sacrifices people willy-nilly to win. I love Claude because he's NOT like Edgelard. I would hate for him to become "Edelgard, but a bit sillier".
Sorry, I just don't like Claud, he's 🤢🤮 these emojis about sum up my opinion. Every time I've played his rout in either game my brain just shuts off because I can't stand him. Both endings with him I got in House's he opens the borders to a historically war like people then cuts and runs. At least in every version of Edelgards story she makes a decision and stands by her beliefs for her brighter future. Also Claude just forests about Shez for 2 whole years with broken promises. Idk. His rout was the worst in 3 Hope's for me. Scarlet Blaze has the best ending so far. I put the game down before completing the third rout, but I'll probably like it more than the golden aholes rout honestly...
Three Hopes suffers from being way too damn long. It's like if Hyrule Warriors had like 10 battles with no story relevance you're forced to do before actually moving on to the next story battle. The game is ridiculously bloated, and the Warriors gameplay is far too repetitive for it to be interesting. I've done Claude and Edelgard's routes and I am currently doing Dimitri's. It's hard to keep going because the game is so goddamn long and it takes forever for anything story relevant to happen. The game has way too much filler.
Two points here. First, destroying the Church of Seiros and killing Rhea, who has held power over Fodlan for a very long time and upheld a social order that has led to both good things and terrible things while also preventing progress, does not mean destroying the Nabatean race. Let's just get that out there right now. Point the second: Azure Gleam is the worst route in Three Hopes, bar none.
It kind of does, they were evicted from their ancestral home and pursued when they fled to the kingdom. At that point death seems to be the only option when no one wants to parley.
@@hilgigas09 See. You can't separate the position of Archbishop with the Nabateans as a race. Neither Claude nor El care about the Nabateans one way or the other. However, their enemy is the Central Church, and its leader just happens to be a Nabatean. If Seteth and Flayn wanted to live in the Kingdom, few would know, and fewer would care. That's why Claude told Rhea to just "walk away". In other words, "walk away" from the responsibility of the Church.
@@DarkAdonisVyers They are in this situation because they can't. When they lived in Zanado, the Agarthan empire tried to nuke. Sothis hits them with her Atomic breath, says "oops gotta fix that" so the Nabataeans took over. Then Nemesis wipes them out. Then Rhea kills in retaliation, covers up the true history. Soon enough someone might find out that Nabataean blood makes you immortal. It's a never ending cycle of violence the one can not simply walk away from.
@@hilgigas09 You have the order mixed up. The incident that made Zanado "red" happened _after_ Sothis incinerated the Agarthans. Still, you also admitted that Sothis herself committed genocide. In either case, without the Agarthans, literally no one would care or even know about Nabateans. My point still stands that people in the present shouldn't have any vested interests one way or the other. It's like in Skyrim with the ancient Nords crushing the snow elves. As a Nord player character, should you have any guilt in killing Arch-Curate Vyrthur? I don't think so.
@@DarkAdonisVyers Red canyon was Nemesis, but before that the Agarthans attacked Sothis. She annihilated them and that lead to "wicked gods" that Nemesis Liberated the land from.
Claude:"Edelgard is busy chasing Dimitri around the continent, let's just steal her big showdown and kill the dragon, lol."
In Fire emblem three houses, Claude’s story is just the church route. In three hopes, the second half is just Edlegard’s second half of her route. Claude never gets his own story
Its really unfortunate too, with this game being the BEST chance at Claude getting his own story 😔
Welcome to the world of the aux black characters
Rhea: You killed my men and Cyril. You'll regret this day, friend.
Claude: I'm not not your friend, BUDDY.
Rhea: I'm not your buddy, GUY
Hilda: He's not your Guy, FRIEND
Rhea: I'm not your friend, BUDDY
Golden Deer: We're not your Buddy, GUY
I don't like this route or the reasoning for pursuing Rhea and the church, because this is what any argument boils down to. Rhea does not know what he wants, only that he is killing her people. Claude also ignores the fact that Rhea was never in the Alliance yet Edelgard still invaded, even before taking Garreg Mach. Taking out Rhea will not end the war and he should know that. Like you said, he has the Bread Basket of the Empire he could sue for peace and use the captured lands as leverage.
I find Claude's change the most interesting in Hopes. Hopes is predicated on the students not learning under Byleth(and story wise of course the other houses still learn something from Byleth, we see various students all attend different lectures), and the nearly a year in school cut in half.
And this is the result, this Claude trusts even less then his already untrusting Houses variant, and just seems to have less respect for people. More willing to be more cruel and to take power to do what he feels is "right". Houses Claude lasted 5 years without these kinds of petty power plays, but without learning from Byleth and more time with his classmates, Hopes Claude can't. He is a worse, and weaker person.
Which is interesting as obviously all sides in Hopes are weaker then Houses, less training, less trust, less firm resolutions.
In Claude's Paralouge, you have him offcially reveal to judith that he's an almyrin prince with nadar there as well. Even still though I was really disappointed with Golden Wildfire mainly because I was expecting with a villain like Shahid we would actually go into almyra and reclaim claudes throne as both king of the federation and king of almyra before continuing our invasion of both the empire and then maybe the kingdom as he also wanted to be rid of the church. It just felt very underwhelming against the other two and I was hoping for more specifics on claude's backstory in his route rather than trying to find peace in fodlan. I've always felt the three lords should be the instigating princess, the righteous prince and the sketchy leader. Yet it feels like we got the opposite
personally I liked the route cause like it was the closest the game got to ironically a golden route, Claude had no quarrel with the kingdom and edelgards ideals aligned with his so it made sense for him to aim for the church he opposed.
Well I'd argue it's not really a golden round for the kingdom eldelgard doesn't have justification to continue the war but could just do it anyway She made it clear in zaharas that it's in her best interest to destroy the kingdom also twsitd aren't really delt with
@@cheesecheese6459 imo Azure Gleam is more of a golden route. Despite the darker turn it takes for the Empire, it honestly just makes the rest of the cast band together in a way that no other route does.
@@goregia764 I mean, they did kill off all the main leaders of twsitd. With Solon, Thales and Myson dead they have no real foundation anymore. Plus, isn’t edelgard’s whole point of the war is to be rid of the noble system and give the people a voice through democratic leaders?
@@gaama6050 while true golden wildfire still remains with the least amount of deaths and a glimmer of hope for a peaceful resolution like most of the deaths are side npcs like (spoilers lol) the margrave or caspars uncle with the only important one being catherine and even then the church was always too sussyspicious to me
Honestly they could’ve give Claude the crimson flower and silver snow treatment either side with edelgard or dimitri for example if you choose to help Catherine you side with serios and dimitri but if you choose Randolph you side with edlegard in my opinion I think that would be cool
I agree, honestly anything other than what ended up happening would've probably been better
@@Wrath9 honestly azure gleam is the only route that has three houses feelings which in my opinion the best route, the second is scarlet blaze it was wayyyyy better then crimson flower the ending which it was super weird but still beside the ending scarlet was amazing and golden wildfire it start off strong until the valley of death so yeah i really wish it give me the choice who should I side hell or add third option where Claude just destroy both of them lmao that would be dope lol
In the good ending, the route still just ends. It doesn't change. Boss dies, "and then maybe the war ended," roll credits. So, there isn't actually multiple endings to this route, just the secret chapters.
Also, in the negotiations with Edelgard, Claude doesn't hold Bergliez territory. He had to make a full retreat to fight Shahid, so that land was still the Empire's.
That's kinda garbage, I mean it makes sense, but that's still annoying
I don’t think Claude was that strong as you imply in that video. He managed to repel the Empire however that didn’t give him the position to make demands. They did win the respect of Edelgard and Bergliez.
@@atrea Military wise no but during this point of the war, Dimitri was holding the western front against the Empire.
The Empire could not send their main force to assist their Eastern front.
If Almyra didnt attack, Leicester could have “choked” the Empire’s food source.
Regardless, GW’s writing was just horse shit.
I was about to say, I just finished GW as my first Hopes route (same as I did for Houses) and recruited Byleth. The game does just end with no resolution to the Slitherers or the war.
Tbh i get why Claude wants to go after Rhea but I just cant over the moral implications that Claude would pour fuel over that sreng-faerghus conflict when he wanted less bloodshed, but how would tempting another foreign power to attack be the best solution...its crafty and a smart move to make but you have look at it also in a character perspectives especially since Claude faced descrimination because of his own heritage therefore he wants peace for Almyra and Fodlan. So fueling a border conflict would be like if Dimitri decided to abandon Duscur.
Also Claude, please dont try to justify to Sylvain after murdering his dad and currently invading the capital by saying youre also risking your life ♡
That Claude "we are risking our lives too!" line puts the much-mocked "must you continue to reconquer" line to shame imo lol it's so dumb and bad...
They didn't lock defeating TWS behind Byleth. That's only a couple special chapters you can get. Claude's route always ends the same way. The bad ending/version of the route has Judith get killed by Byleth, but otherwise there's no major change to the events of the game. TWS is "officially" defeated in AG/SB as per Thales being killed, though Solon isn't killed if you didn't recruit Byleth as he's killed in the chapter prior to the Arval chapter. If you did recruit Byleth, TWS is basically wiped out in AG/SB, but GW always ends with Claude fighting Rhea.
"Getting it through Dimitri's thick skull" was the dumbest line in the entire route. Dimitri wasn't being stupid - he was defending his country against an invasion (which Sylvian even makes it clear that he despises Claude/the Alliance now for invading so... good job Claude, one of the most prominent lords in Faerghus now hates you all!)
I disagree with Claude being mischaracterized in Houses. Regardless of what they said they /wanted/ to do with him, what matters is the final product. What matters is what the consumers are going to experience. What they hoped to write out doesn't matter if it's not actually there. The real, canon, true version of the characters is what shows up in the game that everyone plays. While I agree with Claude's decision regarding Randolph, it was the stuff after that that I don't agree with. However, I actually believe even in Houses, Claude would've left Edelgard to die if that same option presented itself. For me at least that's part of why I didn't like what they did with Claude. I feel like they just wanted to write Claude the opposite of what he would've done in Houses at all times. That was... basically the route imo.
As far as the whole backing Edelgard up goes, yeah, I think they should've just taken Lorenz's suggestion and left her to die. Realistically it was the best option for Fodlan, and despite all Claude's preaching in this game, leaving her to die would've ended the war and stopped causalities like he wanted. Meanwhile, he was saying if they killed Rhea he didn't actually know if Edelgard would stop the war (i.e. Rhea not being her only objective and they'd know if they killed Rhea and Edelgard didn't stop the war, which risks more people dying because he's leaving the possibility open that she'll keep the war going). The last few chapters after Edelgard could've died could've just been against TWS, thus stamping them out similarly to how they're defeated in the other routes.
From all the hate this route gets, I feel bad for people who like Claude in Three houses lmao. He's completely different (sorry for essay below, just need to get thoughts out lol)
Yes I know it's not out of character 100% and I actually like that Claude fights Rhea since this is a sort of elseworld AU (canon? no idea) and it makes it interesting that Claude is the only lord to face off against both Agarthan and Nabatian legends and come out on top- while Nemesis was human was given Sothis blood to wield SoTC and became a semi-puppet leader for Agathans from his might while here he faces off against Rhea. I know Edelgard does this too in Thales and Rhea, but she never faces off against king of liberation so my point still stands
Did I like his route? Yes and no, on one hand I appreciated that it focused more on Claude in a way- whereas Verdant wind was more of a bunch of misfits banding together here we focus on Claude's leadership, we even see more emotion here as he regrets decisions feels pressure to succeed and has a hard time leaning on others
I as many others wished we got more Almyran elements as the route was advertised as such but seeing how they handled Shahid I'm sort of glad they didn't. He felt very one-note and was sorta just there? Like what did he add to the story other than confirming Claude's name as Khalid and being his brother who hates him?
I didn't like how the route felt, there is just too many opposing factors that it just seems to be a string of disconnected events happening one after the other
Almyra (Shahid at border before time skip), Bandits cool, got to keep Alliance in order before we head out to face empire, Holst vs Count Caspers dad cool! Oh wait Shahid's back, could we actually be going to Almyra? Nope, he's killed off and we just go see Edelgard to form an alliance neat
Kingdom and church are our enemies now, random but I see why Claude's interest might align with wanting the church down. First battle as alliance and Randolph died, now his sister is seeking revenge and hired every merchenary under the sun (seriously, this 8 year old had on her payroll: Yuri, Byleth and Jeralt my god)
About to take down the capital when (gasp) Ordealia is in trouble! Sounds dire is it Nemesis coming out of whatever slumber he was in early?! (recall how Nemesis is still a bandit, could've been a clever way to fit him into the story) Eh, just Solon, at least we get Dorothea out of the trouble, back to taking the capital. Zahara and then final boss Rhea
It feels rushed as what happened in Ordealia could've happened before we went into the capital and it would've made the pace at least feel less back and forth
Because at this point it's a theme, invading Empire about to get to the leader when suddenly something happens to Fodlans throat, about to win the war against kingdom when Ordealia is in trouble
I don't know if they wanted this route to somehow tie in to the others? Because I too found it strange how Claude never bargained for anything, made any demands when he essentially won, like give us more Empire characters since Kingdom ones are impossible to get
I haven't played Scarlet Blaze yet, but I've seen that you have the same alliance just under different circumstances in which it's reversed and Claude's on losing end so maybe that's why Claude talks like he had no choice afterwards??? I really don't get that. But seeing how drastically different SB and AG are, I don't see what the point of that is
Just tell a story, I already know that if this route was entirely in Almyra people would find issue with it because Claude from three houses problem for many was how disconnected he was from plot, had they done that here it'd be x100 worse as he's literally being disconnected from plot. But you can't please everyone and making rash decisions like "Claude suddenly wants Anarchy when he was shown wanting peace in three houses" it's a surefire way to get backlash, but if it's something entirely new they can't hate as much. Because we'd be exploring somewhere not Fodlan, see Claude's parents, see the politics of Almyra. Two continents differing world view etc., it could've been executed horribly and still get less hate than making him what many dub 'Edelgard 2.0' and stealing her final boss. Since at least in this Almyra only route we can finally learn more about Claude himself
Another rant I'm sorry, but people taking high hround on *"Claude was always like this, this one dialouge hints he always wanted Rhea dead"* need to fricken chill. Claude at his core is someone who wants peaceful resolutions, we see it in every route in three houses and is the reason he can live in any route outside his own. He isn't a saint, but he knows that peace between Fodlan and Almyra will never be reached if he forces it upon people it's why he fights for alliance when he has a home in Almyra until he literally can't anymore, it's why he's so against Edelgard's reason for war when he himself doesn't disagree with her methods. Seriously people need to give Claude more credit, the man is more complex than the memes the fanon made of him ffs
I read the whole thing, and I appreciate you leaving the comment first of all 😂
But honestly I know what you mean about him being disconnected from the plot, but I don't think a lot of people would mind, I've seen so many people hope for the same things we have, and I don't think I've seen anyone say they wouldn't be happy with Claude's route just being us discovering who he actually is and such.
But EVEN IF people had a problem with that, I think a way to remedy the situation IF they decided to have him go to Almyra instead of what they actually did, lets say that while he left to go to Almyra, Edelgard ends up winning the war against the kingdom and church, and then Golden Wildfire is just Claude becoming king of both the Federation AND Almyra and for the finale two chapters of the game is just a Claude coming with a massive army to keep Edelgard at bay, or even get the Kingdoms territory back for them or something, honestly I feel like even that is better than whatever the hell Part II was but that's just me 🤷🏻♂️
I'm very split on Claude's 180 turn after Randolph. Yes I am glad you're relying on your allies more and being more open, Claude. But as was mentioned, instead of dancing the line on morally grey, he just went complete good guy for the rest of the game and uh.... There was so much potential!
“Good guy” as well since he still fights a war that he had no business being a part of alongside a government that tried to destroy them not that long ago.
I personally thought of the 180 plan on edelgard instead. Same thing happens, lots of warriors die yada yada and Hubert doesn't agree with the idea instead and puts her back in the rightous path she was meant to follow and her path continues like normal.
I played all three routes and I just don't like how they end without anything being really solved. I think they said the people who wrote the story for 3 houses wanted to make sure there was no "happy" ending meaning whatever route you choose there was never gonna be any agreement between the 3 houses, even though all 3 of their major characters goal is to unite fodlan, this is where I think Edelgard is the worst because she wants to unite the country under the foot of the empire and that's not true unity, the worst part about 3 hopes is that we the players already know the real bad guys are and that's Those who slither in the dark and to some big extent Rhea herself simply due to her lying about who she really is not to mention her obsession with her mother Sothis. I know a lot of people give Fire Emblem fates a bad rap but I like the fact that even though Birthright and Conquest were their own thing, Revelation made a story to put an end to the conflict between Hoshido and Nohr. I honestly believe if Edelgard, Claude and Dimitri actually LISTENED and WORKED TOGETHER, the story would've been better and unfortunately I feel the 3 houses saga is gonna be that unsatisfying game simply because the writers wanted to make something unique
Just based off of where Azure Gleam looks like its going to end, and my experience with Golden Wildfire, I agree with it not really feeling resolved, but I'm guessing they are just gonna pull the classic move of "Buy the DLC to see the end of the story!" which is really lame, but unfortunately I'm probably gonna fall for it regardless because I love this game despite its flaws, and honestly I think Silver Snow's ending for 3 Houses was a satisfying enough ending, but with 3 Hopes I do agree that it may not be satisfying at all
@@Wrath9 Oh yeah of course the gameplay is great and Shez is by far one of my favorite characters because I like the fact that they are more open minded about voicing their opinion to the cast unlike Byleth in 3 houses who was just there, part of me thinks if Shez was in 3 houses I think the plot would've turned out better, there's even a paralouge in 3 hopes where you fight the 3 houses and they even mentioned if they worked together the world would be better for it
Yeah that's honestly my only gripe with 3 Houses, because as much as I love that game I hated that Byleth was just a fly on the wall for 99% of the game, and I agree, Shez is easily one of the best characters in this game and probably the best new character
I’m from the future, there’s still no DLC lol
Gotta say for as much flak as Fates’s story incurs, each route’s ending actually feels like a CONCLUSION. All the routes in 3 Houses end with a cutscene and an S support and boom straight to the character endings, and 3 Hopes is even less helpful!
Since it was clear that they needed Edelgard to fight Dimitri, they needed Claude to fight someone else instead of just trying to be a third wheel again. I think the decision to have Claude go after Rhea makes sense, even with the information presented in three houses which shows Claude was distrustful of the church, I just don't think they handled it well. Claude and Leicester don't have any immediate quarrels with Rhea unlike Edelgard and the empire do. They pretty much just went, "well I guess we can kill Rhea cause we technically follow our own version of the church." If they provided a solid motive for Claude to go against Rhea, like maybe Rhea was trying to forcibly convert the eastern church after everything that happened with the western church, it would make a lot of sense.
I swear the writers for part 1 and 2 were completely different people.
I do like Claude's new look as he looks a lot handsome than his original design from Fire Emblem: Three Houses and I can't believe in this version of Golden Deer that Lady Rhea would be a villian in this story instead of the slither in the dark.
Another part I hate about GW is the whole mess of the Kingdom/Church trying to poach those three irrelevant houses from Leicester.
Since they’re not even mentioned in AG it feels like they were only added to make it seem like Claude’s not a total ass for invading the kingdom
Yeah I think it was just to add in a reason for Claude to not join the Kingdom like in Three Houses or something
I kinda agree and disagree is some regards, plotwise, after much afterthought even though the second half of the game is definitely weaker, I don't feel any of the choices Claude made were really wrong. Claude, as much as he wants to end the war, he also wants to get rid of Rhea, and due to the information given to him by Edelgard, he knows that if he stops the war and doesn't take the chance to remove her, he won't be able to do the changes he really desires, so siding with the Empire was probably his best move at the moment, not to mention he was planning to an extent betray her after killing Rhea, since he was trying to do exactly what you described, he wanted to remove Rhea so Edelgard would stop the war, and if she refused, he would join forces with Dimitri. TWSITD making a conflict in Ordelia to draw Claude's forces back to the Federation and indirectly save Rhea also kinda makes sense, TWSITD's goal is not to just kill the Nabateans, they want to take over Fodlan, and at the moment the only thing that is stopping everyone from pointing their blades towards them is the fact that everyone is too busy trying to capture/kill/save Rhea (unlike 3 Houses, Edelgard doesn't keep the information of TWSITD to herself), they cannot afford the chance of the three lords actually joining forces, especially when they have basically lost like 90% of the influence they used to have with Cleobulus, Solon, and Thales. I will agree however, they should've not just paint the situation as a bandit attack, let demonic beast run rampant, that would be far more threatening and worth retreating.
Also, just to point out, although Claude did invade the empire and got a hold of their farmlands, he lost them when they retreated to deal with the Almyrans. He basically gave up the territory he won, he didn't really had the upper hand when it came to making their truce/treaty, and the main reason he won against Count Bergliez was because he was just fighting Count Bergliez' forces, Edelgard had her main forces elsewhere (that's why they hired Jeralt's mercenaries as backup).
I do agree that not ALL of his choices were wrong, I apologize if I came across like that in the video, the problem I have with the second half isn't Claude himself, its the decision the writing team made to have him be guilt tripped into toning himself back, I just think that keeping the "darker" tones they were toying with (in the fight with Randolph & Catherine) going into the rest of the second half would've made it much more enjoyable to play through, even if it did end up tearing apart the Golden Deers themselves, I just think that would be more fun to experience (sort of a callback to Silver Snow).
With TWSITD, I thought their goal was to kill the Nabateans because they were the only thing stopping them from taking over Fodlan?
So with that logic letting Claude negotiate with Dimitri, so he will let Edelgard's forces along with the rest of the Golden Deers deal with Rhea makes the most sense, to me at least... I also don't necessarily think Edelgard would stop the war with Faerghas so them uniting (in my opinion) would never even be something to worry about, but I'm also basing that assumption off of Three Houses Dimitri & Edelgard's relationship lol
Interesting, I must've missed the "Claude gave up the farm territory" part, I really thought that he still held on to that area until the conversation with Edelgard.
@@Wrath9 The Nabateans fail at containing the Agarthans. The Kingdom's founding is proof of that. Fuck, Rhea doesn't even know who the Agarthans really are.
@@Wrath9 It's actually part of the cutscene after the Alliance leaves. Count Bergliez comments on how they should let the enemy retreat because they haven't razed the farms while pulling back to the bridge.
@XTCARNAGEROCKS Yeah then I totally missed/forgot that dialogue lmao
I completely agree with this comment! Thanks for making it. IMO narratively, 3 hopes Claude and his route made way more sense than 3 houses Claude. I agree that all his choices were the most rational he could make.
There were some choices that were perhaps not the ones we may have agreed with (not leaving Edelgard to die or leaving the kingdom right away to deal with TWSID when he had the win in the palm of his hand), but to me, those decisions that Claude made were less because of strategy and more because he wanted to turn away from his “any means necessary” realpolitik style of leadership (think Edelgard) and become a more empathetic, caring leader (like Dimitri). We may not agree with the choice, but it was the choice he made (and in that respect I think it was good writing).
I wanna see a video on the rest of the leaders. I also heard others say Claude was backed into a corner to constantly throughout the war so he didn't get to take the time to make some choices others would've seen. I also like 3 houses Claude better, but after watching this I could come to like three hopes Claude even better. Since it is showing a slight side of his true self. He did show some of his true colors with the professor in supports in three houses and during the story. Aside from that nice video, looking forward to seeing moreeee. I wanna hear more of people's opinions on Claude and his house including the rest of the game.
It would have been cool to see Nader and Judith playable in this route.
Nader should have been playable, who may be best to tell info of Almyra than someone that knows it the best? (also he's my favorite character and im pissed than they made him a recurring character than is just there)
Honestly golden wildfire feels like Claude forgot to do his homework and copied Edelgard’s. They couldn't use Nemesis or Shambala again so instead we got another Rhea battle. I also think Claude's just a bit to eager in his support for the Empire. He doesn't even try to play nice with the Kingdom in his route which means he only ever supports them if you choose Azure Gleam. Also even if you choose them, he still says he wants to abolish the church in his support with Dimitri in Zaharas. They couldn't be bothered to change his support for that specific route. Claude, just saying you don't want to destroy them after invading them is not enough!
Claude is very blatant in wanting Rhea gone in Verdant Wind. He just didn't do anything against her because of his route being a Church copy. Three Hopes changes that.
@@nuibaba280 but golden deer is supposed to be the neutral faction in the war. 3 hopes screws that up by making him a full blown empire supporter. Claude is supposed to be a schemer. Someone who's playing both sides of the conflict for his own benefit. But he's so blatantly in favor of Edelgard that it's totally off putting. If I wanted to side with Edelgard, I would have picked black eagles in the beginning. If I ever do play Claude's route again it'll only be so I can get his and Hilda's personal abilities from the merc whistle. I got Holst's ability on my first gw playthrough and since Holst Hilda, and Claude are the only gw route exclusives, that means i only have to play it 3 times. Which works for me because gw is my least favorite route.
@@dustinvance243 why should he side with the Kingdom though? Dimitri is very clear in wanting to preserve the Status Quo with both the Churches influence intact and the crest system preserved, due to his fear of rapid change. Without the game forcing an all out War between all three nations and introducing the possibility of alliances, Edelgard kind of makes more sense for him as an Ally, as their goals allign pretty well.
@@shizachan8421 it doesn't make sense for anyone to be siding with the Empire because Edelgard is attacking all of Fodlan indiscriminately so she can conquer the whole continent. And the last time I checked Claude's goal was to bring peace between Almyra and Fodlan. But for some reason he sees the church as an obstacle to that. Even though Rhea has an Almyran as one of her personal aides. It's obvious that the church isn't the problem and Claude is acting under his own preconceived notions towards them.
@@dustinvance243 The church is established as incredibly racist, have you ever played the monestary during chapter 6 of Three Houses? Rhea having a child slave who becomes one of her soldiers does not make the church not racist.
I also would assume that a mixed race man who lived in Fodlan and knows the culture is a bigger authority on the matter than your headcanon? If Claude says the church discourages interactions with foreigners and nobody challenges it, we have no assume he is wrong, because it doesn't fits your headcanon.
And I mean, The empire did enter Leicester territory invited and once they negotiate, Edelgard offers claude to pay reparations and proves herself to be a valuable and reliable ally, with Edelgard never betraying Claude in either Scarlet Blaze nor Crimson Flower. Dimitri on the other hand has nothing to offer because his own personal power and privelege relies on a xenophobic system of feudal eugenics. He says so much in their shared support.
I basically almost the opinion you have with a few disagreements though. I feel Golden Wildfire was MUCH BETTER than Verdant Wind simply for the fact that it was basically Silver snow just with the Golden Deer cast instead of the black eagles cast I really hated that lol.
Two I definitely agree on is the lack of more Claude lore while did get some with Shahid and then actually revealing himself as the prince of Almyra in his paralouge but that's honestly it, we still didn't go to Almyra like I would have wished we heard so much about his mother and yet we still didn't even at least see her heck we didn't even see his father let alone his name so yeah I definitely feel yeah on that part.
The other thing I agree is the bouncing around a lot and the ending. The thing with Dimitri would have been really cool see when invaded the capital but instead again when we so close SOMETHING popped up just like the battle at gronder field it's just like "really again?!?!" , and then of course the ending, the whole point was that if we off Rhea and the central church the war ends right?..... It didn't the Empire and Kingdom still want to throw down because both Edelgard and Dimtri are to stubborn to let it end especially Edelgard because she really wants to unify Fodlan so bad.
All in all I still really enjoyed the route the character's obviously stood out and was still the best part and I REALLY liked Shez a lot.
I enjoyed Shez too, I was wondering how having a protagonist that wasn't just a brick wall of stoicism would change things whether it would be for better or worse. But I really enjoyed all of the interactions Shez had across the board and I think they are a great inclusion
Lester for Leicester
Glosster for Gloucester
Chester sounds better
The fact that we didnt get God Shattering Star (Wildfire/warriors mix) is a huge disappointment
I’m gonna rant a bit.
This route annoyed me. It really was annoying as I felt like you could just cut half the deer out of the route and nothing would happen. Holst is great but seriously we can’t recruit anyone except Ashe, Linhardt, Dorothea, Petra, and Bernie. I dont count Jeralts mercs and the wolves. I wish Ferdinand could’ve been recruitable in other routes too. I wish we could’ve seen some more of my favorite of Billy’s Voiced characters. We could’ve had Judith and Nader. None of the recruitables are exclusive to GWF and it’s frustrating when Claude doesn’t stop conquering. I was really hoping to get to have all my favorites on the same side. I guess Azure Moon from 3H will have to do. I’m disappointed. Thank you for hearing my rant
Thank you for the rant 😂
I totally agree, it is unfortunate and I feel like its really weird that outside of Ashe (and Mercedes literally in the last chapter) you can't recruit any other Blue Lions, and I think Ferdinand, Judith and Nader should've been recruitable/playable as well. It was just a really big drop of the ball, and was such a let down.
@@Wrath9 It's an old comment, but it makes perfect sense why you can't recruit the Blue Lions here (and why Ashe is so miserable when you do). Everyone you can't recruit is either Dimitri's childhood friend, their dad is serving as a Kingdom general, or Dedue. Why would they ever join Claude and/or Edelgard in this game? Claude nor Edelgard give anyone from Faerghus any reason to even like them let alone turn against their families and fight for them. Rhea, who they both blame for everything, doesn't do anything wrong here. She just helps Faerghus. Dimitri's sane, (mostly) stable, and in charge (unlike in Houses). He's also making reforms already. All Claude and Edelgard are doing is attacking them and threatening all their friends and families and using Rhea as justification, even though they all know that's just an excuse. It wouldn't make sense for them to just turn around and start attacking their friends. Honestly, I don't think half of them should've been recruitable to CF either (SS and VW make sense, CF is a huge stretch). I mean, did we really expect Sylvain to become buddies with the guy who just killed his father, manipulated the situation to keep the war going on Gautier borders on forever (so much for wanting to unite cultures), and then tries to gaslight Sylvain into thinking he's unjustified in being upset because "he's risking his life too!" Yeahhhhh. It makes way more sense for the unrecruitable Lions to want nothing to do with Claude nor Edelgard in this game (and like I said, even Ashe hates it there in SB and GW).
Golden Wildfire's ending gave the ONE single ending where you might reach something never thought possible: peace between all three nations.
In 3H, EVERY route led to the unification of the continent. Even in 3Hopes, SB and AG also strongly imply that the continent will still be unified, even if by different means. Yet Claude has created a scenario where he can actually maintain all three nations' independence and actually avoid unification.
It's the miracle that made me love the ending of GW the most.
I was about to say… As confusing as Golden Wildfire is, it’s currently the closet we’ve gotten to a golden route. Sadly, Rhea, Catherine, and Cyril all died 😢
Definitely wanna see more of these, the Claude section of the video makes me really wanna play the game now
I'm glad you enjoyed it! And the game is definitely worth it, in my humble opinion
I feel like Claude invading the empire is something that could be after the games events, like he could propose an end to war and that’s him done or both sides refuse, Claude waits for Edelgard to face Dimitri and then conquers a weaker empire.
Most definitely, or even the DLC if they really wanted to, but that just leads to the question of what they would do for DLC for the other routes
oml it took me a bit to realise you were talking about Leicester from memory it’s pronounced like Lester
Yeahhhh I realized after starting my playthrough for Azure Gleam that I pronounced it wrong the whole video 😂 I'm used to pronouncing Leicester that way because of the soccer team 🤦🏻♂️
Well time to go on a little rant
Character wise I'm not really all that surprised with his character development considering that he is a cunning tactician, so realistically him sacrificing Randolf & his Imperal army is the least unexpected, sure ppl can argue that his plan was beyond low & I can understand that, but keep in mind this is Claude we're talking about, he's may not be the best, but at least he's able to get the job done. As for his backstory there's not that much to say other than he's Almyran & "his brother" wants to take throne.
Story wise I absolutely hate it mainly because he was this close, THIS CLOSE on toppling the Empire & defeating Edelgard only for him to do a 180 degree angle, join forces with her & going Rhea who literally did nothing wrong this whole route, like WTF HAPPEN?! And even when he & Shez does kill Rhea, nothing gets resolved, The Empire & The Kingdom are still going at each other throats & it's most likely the Argathen/Those who slither in the Dark remains.
I absolutely agree with your complaints when it comes to the story, they didn't do a good job whatsoever of painting Rhea as a villain for the route, and killing her didn't really change anything (as far as we see at least)
Why I like Golden Wildfire: Holst.
Valid
I think that the enemy got... THE POINT!!!
I know people like Claude but god could you remove both routes from three houses and hopes and it would effect NOTHING in the grand scheme of things.
Shoulda just been a house member of one or another.
Claude is a huge hypocrite on his route. He talks down to Shahid for giving Almyra a bad name by launching attacks on Leicester. Yet he does the same literally 1 chapter later by launching an unprovoked invasion of the Kingdom WITH Almyran soldiers.
About Claude's decision to do the right thing instead of what is smartest : I agree the change might have been pretty fast (maybe too much) and born through only one consequence (they could have had more consequences to prove it wasn't /such/ a good idea), but I think what they wanted to do was show that being "smarter" is not always the best choice when it involves people's lives. Letting Randolph die gave Claude the opportunity to win the fight as a whole, but in doing so, he made a personal enemy of an Imperial officer (Fleche) who later tried to get revenge and that resulted in Judith's death. Had Claude /not/ abandoned Randolph to his fate, Judith would have lived. His choice might have been smarter when you consider only the outcome of the battle, but if you consider the longer term, Claude 1) made a personal enemy, 2) proved to his friends and allies from the Empire that he cannot be trusted to help if he's not sure he can win, making him unreliable, 3) is a consequence of point 2 but if Claude will let an ally die to win, who's to say he wouldn't betray the Empire if the tide of the war shifted ? And 4) his actions led to Judith being killed, at least in his mind (I haven't played the route myself, I'm only going off of your video) and considering how strong a warrior and talented an officer she was, on top of being a friend, that's a heavy loss. Points 2 and 3, from what I understand of your video, were simply not brought up in the game or with no lasting consequences, but if they had been, Claude's "smarter choice" would have put a big strain on his alliance with Edelgard who would have taken back the little trust she had placed in him and would have fought by his side with plans A, B and C prepared to deal with his betrayal if it ever happened. While they could still win the war like this, it would make diplomatic negotiations later a lot more tense than they would have needed to be, because Edelgard would have been unable to trust that Claude had the people's best interests at heart and wasn't just acting for his own gain and agenda.
It's a lot of hypothesis, I know, but if you want a concrete example, take Lonato's case in Scarlet Blaze : the man disobeyed orders from the Empire, attacking Rhea recklessly with no hope of winning, and helping him meant forcing the Imperial troops to rush to his position and abandon what they were doing at the moment, with no guarantee to arrive fast enough to save him. Edelgard would have been more than justified to let Lonato die and saving him would have had little tactical benefits for her ; rushing to his position weakened her own defenses and interrupted her own plans. By all means, the smarter choice would have been to not move, maybe even use him as bait like Claude did with Randolph ; but Edelgard thinks further along and realises that not doing everything she can to save Lonato would send a terrible message about her to her allies, weaken her alliances and corrupt the moral values she's started this war for. So she goes to save him.
I rambled a bit, but basically I agree with Claude's decision to do the right thing from then on and I think it was about more than his friends being pissed at him, but I also think the game could have done a better job at showing all the reasons why being compassionate, in this war and alliance, is sometimes smarter than just doing what needs to be done to win a battle.
Thank you for the rant first and foremost, and honestly I think if the reasons you had listed above were apart of why Claude decided to make this shift, then I'm all for it!
But as you say in your last paragraph, the game didn't list any of those reasons as being why he changed. (Maybe its slipping my memory since its been over two months since I played the route 😂) But I remember Claude's decision to be more compassionate in his choices were literally ONLY because of the Golden Deer's reactions to him letting Randolph die and that alone, it had nothing to do with how Edelgard may have viewed him going forward, some of it probably had to do with Fleche... (but if I remember correctly, I think it was immediately after that fight that he promised them to change so Fleche wasn't even an issue yet)
Which is why I had such a big gripe with it, and as I'm sure you saw (assuming you've watched the most of, if not the entire video) all of my issues with this route just come down to how the decisions I have problems with are all just written horribly, and the justifications for all of the decisions are so asinine.
I think this is the best route which I will explain later. If you are bothered by the full retreats.. Then with Edelgards route you are in for something.
Its funny you say that, I literally JUST got to that point in Scarlet Blaze, and it drives me even more crazy than in Golden Wildfire...
@@Wrath9 yeh I guess I was forgiving the game at that point since I was so in awe of playing a warriors game with so many RPG aspects. I’ve gone through all routes and man.. I didn’t expect so many hours of fun! One obvious problem is that the devs expect you to play all routes, that is obvious. It is way too easy and it really needs even higher difficulty modes, also less invincible moments. Other than that they really did an awesome job with this game.
As for why I enjoyed Claude greatly is playing as the amazing crafty tactician. He shares his insecurities about fighting the war. His character development was good. On the other routes the second half of the game felt like it was already over. As Claude that route felt better since he doesn’t have a huge army but his cunning makes up for that. I also enjoyed most paralogues especially Lysithia, where the 2 houses show a lot of respect. Another one is saving the village from bandits with Jeralts mercs, Claude’ original was decent with some extra background. The Randolph part was amazing where Claude made a mistake and he admits it. Then on the good ending he ends up outsmarting Jeralts mercs and recruit them. We only never get to know who was that priest that made Fleche angry. Also on the good path we don’t get to beat TWSID however we can assume the Empire took care of them.
All routes have strengths and weaknesses, just play all of them. The gameplay is amazing.
I have to say Golden Wildfire is a MESS lol! There are a few interesting scenarios here and there, but they ultimately don't go anywhere for the story - just a bunch of half baked ideas that do nothing for no one.
Very well said lol, its really sad but very true
Nice video. What's you opinion about the good ending? You also should have seen Claude's Paralogue (which requires Judith living and recruit Byleth), it's very interesting. Claude told her almost everything except for his real name.
I have read a bit about the good ending, and from what I've heard I don't really think it'll change my overall opinion that drastically on the route outside of the whole Lysithea/Shez situation I talked about, and the paralogue about Claude definitely fixes a lot with the whole Almyrian situation but again, because I still love the route so that won't change but the second half would still be a little all over the place
But I'm planning on replaying this route and going for the good end, after I finish this little series to experience it myself, so we'll see if it does actually change anything for me or not
Omg your version of the bad ending would be so good and so heartbreaking!
Not about to spoil anything outside of Golden Wildfire, but many problems with this route stem into the other two.
The "bad ending" in all three isn't even a bad ending. It's just the ending. Whether or not you fight Jeralt is the good/bad ending because everything past that (save for one map and an insignificant battle) is nearly the exact same. And it shows how I feel that this story has better execution than Three Houses.
Yeah I don't really know why its considered a good/bad end depending on that, I'm guessing mostly because Byleth kills someone if you don't end up recruiting them?
How do you convince dimitri to abandon the church??? I tried several times but it doesn't work😭😭
Ok, so it seems you misunderstood something about the assault on Bergliz territory. Due to the assault on Fodlan's Locket, Claude ordered a FULL Retreat. He even laments having to abandon taking the territory when they had essentially already won the battle in the after scene of that same mission. Claude still held the Bridge of Myrddin but they were unsuccessful in claiming any empire territory, basically the reason why claude still acts like he had to agree to the empires terms was largely due to the Alliance houses making the actual terms very difficult to work with.
The Alliance also had difficulty with actually fighting a war due to their governing structure requiring a roundtable discussion before every battle, which would always put them on the back foot. So without that empire territory to use as powerful leverage he had nothing to negotiate with to have an edge over the empire on their alliance.
The reasons why almyra is left as it is is due to the fact that it's ultimately irrelevant to the overarching plot. Its also strongly implied that dimitri chose to actively lead his forces away from Rhea's to show his acceptance of claude's goal since both the kingdom and empire forces were mainly involved in a controlled fight were few casualties were occurring.
Golden wildfire is just in a really awkward place due to how they interact with the other two routes when doing them since claude sides with them on their routes, while having to commit to joining one on his. Scarlet Blaze is the only route where there is an actual different mission that plays out if you don't recruit Byleth that can result in claude's death due to byleth convincing him to betray his alliance with edelgard. But either way, minus the Scarlet Blaze worst end (since claude can also still survive that same mission), all three routes still end with Claude Dimitri and Edelgard still alive which might be due to possible DLC plans. We just don't know yet.
As an English person, your butchering of 'Leicester' pains me so deeply 😭😭😭 IT'S LESS-TER NOT LIE-CHESTER
Imma be honest, I was convinced that's how you pronounce Leicester 😭 I even watched the EPL religiously a few years ago, I apologize 😭
@@Wrath9 But it's pronounced Less-ter in the games. Plenty of times, too... Unless you are hard of hearing or don't pay attention, people will surely remind you a lot of times. (And Gloucester is pronounced Gloss-ter.)
Yeah I do actually think that there should have been a Ceasefire to deal with Rhea and Shambala. The Kingdom should work with Dethroning Rhea if she is only Abdicated not executed.
Byleth gets involved with defending Rhea because the Stacks of Cash is INSANE enough for Jeralt to do this one last time (Rhea knows she went wrong in uniting them in a coup d'etat so her desperation is at an all time high and boy it shows) and incorporates the Progenitor God's backstory a bit and makes the Sword of The Creator Cannon in Hopes *with whip sword moveset. (plus the whole Serios thing etc)
This way Claude don't have to sacrifice the truth but can still some choices. After the good ending of the fight where you recruit Byleth you get a condensed lore dump and some much-needed debate between Rhea and Edelgard
Dimitri starts getting a little bit unhinged because of the Red Canyon tragedy. Something about eww dragon bones and the ten elites
I do want to know about Almyra, but i don't want your suggested bad endings. I think Shez didn't get taken over due to killing Byleth, so doesn't the recruiting Byleth then the body take over make more sense?
Exactly, it makes no sense for Shez to be taken over after killing Byleth when Shez even stated that they felt empty after killing Byleth.
Claude wasn't playing 3d chess he was playing acid lazed hot patatoo until he had no allies at all
Fully disagree with him being a better chackter in 3hopes he was just an other eldelgard
The thing is with while Eddy and the Boar had there friendship with Byleth to grow (although honestly 3 hopes showed a better future for the latter)
Claude in 3 house spend a lot more time with in the church in 3 houses removing a lot of Xenophobic ideas about them.
Spending more with the knights, rhea relatives and the libary learning the church can and will change it's way as it had done in the past.
and well not learning about the slithers ofcourse had made 3 hopes claude into a ass where al his deccesions helped the empire faaar more then is aliance
Idk how you say that Claude made any good decisions in this path. It was just a copy paste of SB plus the CF from the original game. They didn't give Claude a unique path. They just copy pasted 2 of Edelgard routes onto Claude and called it a day.
Claude letting Edelgard die would have been bold. But no. He has to save her despite such a death would have ended the war. Letting Randolph die is meaningless when he saves Edelgard. Claude also cannot claim he's trying to end the war when letting Edelgard die would have immediately ended said war.
I kinda disagree, for me in 3 houses the church route is basically a worse version than of the golden deer route,
That's fair
Honestly, I really liked Claude allying with Edelgard and going against Rhea. I remember playing through Golden Deer in my very first three houses playthrough and being really confused because it didn't really seem like Rhea's ideals worked with Claude's which was important for his character. I LOVED the Almyran additions in 3 Hopes. The only thing that would have made it better was if Nader was a playable character and could have some support dialogues with Claude and Holst to fill in the last couple of gaps of in his background.
As for the things I didn't like: I totally agree, turning around again to go after TWSITD was frustrating and unnecessary with the lack of context we were given. And the bad ending (and tbh the good ending too like tf) does not do enough to justify this story beat's inclusion other than to drive the last couple of chapters. Maybe something with the actual Almyran King bc Nader has been referenced to be sneaking a lot of their troops to Fodlan without the king's full awareness. I also liked your idea about fighting Dimitri more with the reinforcements that Annette had called.
I also was SO let down by the good ending tbh. It doesn't really feel like anything was resolved from the whole thing and the extra chapter didn't have an effect on the plot either. I guess that was more a problem with all routes in the game but STILL!!!
Oh also the whole character arc of his was like "meh" like I don't think I hated it but I agree it definitely limited Claude's potential
Honestly I agree Nader being a playable character and having supports that explain Claude's background more would be great, and probably would redeem the rest of the route, for me? Idk
And I agree the extra chapter doesn't really do much for the plot of all the routes, but at the same time I think at least it does kind of point to a more peaceful resolution of the war being possible as opposed to an all out fight to the death, with Dimitri and Edelgard specifically remembering *some* of their childhood memories together, as well as Claude and Dimitri/Edelgard coming to an understanding that they all want the same thing.
Haven't touched this game yet, but did they change the pronunciation of Leicester to Lie-chester? Or were you talking about a different thing?
I was talking about Leicester, I played the game with the Japanese voice over, and there's a soccer team by the name Leicester that is pronounced Lie-chester, so it was purely me just scuffing the pronunciation, I apologize for any confusion 😂
15:13 Ep-e-men-e-deez Epimenides
Thank you, I tried to pronounce it several times and I just gave up 😂
@@Wrath9 I only know it because some guy pulled a deez nuts joke on me lmfao
Thanks for the recap before I get into fe engage
Any time, hope you enjoy it!
I would say I agree with most of your opinions expected 1 big thing. I absolutely hated Claude's character starting specifically a Randolph's sacrifice. I understand the motivation. And this may stem from me playing the other 2 routes first. But it felt like just a Dick move from his character and I was honestly relive when I saw the rest of golden deer had the same opinion on the matter and called him out on it. Say I g that I also liked the 180 he did after that. Although I couldn't enjoy is because that event kind of sully a Claude who at that point I thought was the most interesting house leader out of the 3 of them and past the point of no return. Honestly if I wasn't for the rest of the golden deer's amazing cast I probably would have hated this route.
That's fair, I personally really like morally grey characters so its just my preference, but I'm sorry that the event ruined Claude for you 😕
@@Wrath9 Oh for sure morally gray characters do usually offer some interesting story points(at least most of the time) I just feel like it wasn't done well with Claude's character. Not just in his route either. Which I think is such a shame because he was the most interesting to me in 3 houses even if he wasn't my favorite(that goes to Elugard).
I can see that, and Edie was my favorite in 3 Houses too! 😂
It's hillarious that despite with a fully voice acted cast saying the name of the place constantly, Americans continue to be unable to pronounce Leicester properly.
It's even funnier to me because like a week or two after putting this video out I realized I was pronouncing it wrong the entire time 💀
And tbf, I set myself up for it because I played this route with the Japanese VAs so that's entirely my bad
@@Wrath9 You are forgiven for being a based JP voice chad. But for future reference, it is pronounced like "Lester" and "Gloster" for ease of reference. Blame the Normans.
I'll go so far as to say I outright hated this route and every single member of the Golden Deer, they were nothing but a bunch of self-righteous warmongers. The blatant hypocrisy on display as they whined about the cruelty of bandits as if they didn't just get home from a war of aggression was painful to watch. If I wanted a story that hands Edelgard the victory on a silver plate I'd just play Scarlet Blaze, ffs.
3 Hopes turned into 3 disappointments. The game starts strong from the beginning to the middle and they essentially just end up to the same ending. No resolutions to your companions support, just a text that says the war continues for the 3 routes. Why even call it 3 hopes when the title is so misleading when none of the endings were even hopeful.
I'd prefer the "toned down" verison then.
The problem is not claude being a scheming douche, the problem is everybody, including the cast and the player, knows he is a scheming douche.
GW part 1 is best, GW part 2 is worst
And that's on Sothis
I disagree with you on Claude's characterization. I don't want him to be a tyrant who ignores his friends and sacrifices people willy-nilly to win. I love Claude because he's NOT like Edgelard. I would hate for him to become "Edelgard, but a bit sillier".
Sorry, I just don't like Claud, he's 🤢🤮 these emojis about sum up my opinion. Every time I've played his rout in either game my brain just shuts off because I can't stand him. Both endings with him I got in House's he opens the borders to a historically war like people then cuts and runs. At least in every version of Edelgards story she makes a decision and stands by her beliefs for her brighter future. Also Claude just forests about Shez for 2 whole years with broken promises. Idk. His rout was the worst in 3 Hope's for me. Scarlet Blaze has the best ending so far. I put the game down before completing the third rout, but I'll probably like it more than the golden aholes rout honestly...
leichester😭
Yeah I fumbled the pronunciation pretty hard 😭
Three Hopes suffers from being way too damn long. It's like if Hyrule Warriors had like 10 battles with no story relevance you're forced to do before actually moving on to the next story battle. The game is ridiculously bloated, and the Warriors gameplay is far too repetitive for it to be interesting. I've done Claude and Edelgard's routes and I am currently doing Dimitri's. It's hard to keep going because the game is so goddamn long and it takes forever for anything story relevant to happen. The game has way too much filler.
bruh, there has been 2 games you should know how to pronounce Leicester properly
Two points here. First, destroying the Church of Seiros and killing Rhea, who has held power over Fodlan for a very long time and upheld a social order that has led to both good things and terrible things while also preventing progress, does not mean destroying the Nabatean race. Let's just get that out there right now.
Point the second: Azure Gleam is the worst route in Three Hopes, bar none.
It kind of does, they were evicted from their ancestral home and pursued when they fled to the kingdom. At that point death seems to be the only option when no one wants to parley.
@@hilgigas09 See. You can't separate the position of Archbishop with the Nabateans as a race. Neither Claude nor El care about the Nabateans one way or the other. However, their enemy is the Central Church, and its leader just happens to be a Nabatean. If Seteth and Flayn wanted to live in the Kingdom, few would know, and fewer would care. That's why Claude told Rhea to just "walk away". In other words, "walk away" from the responsibility of the Church.
@@DarkAdonisVyers They are in this situation because they can't. When they lived in Zanado, the Agarthan empire tried to nuke. Sothis hits them with her Atomic breath, says "oops gotta fix that" so the Nabataeans took over. Then Nemesis wipes them out. Then Rhea kills in retaliation, covers up the true history. Soon enough someone might find out that Nabataean blood makes you immortal. It's a never ending cycle of violence the one can not simply walk away from.
@@hilgigas09 You have the order mixed up. The incident that made Zanado "red" happened _after_ Sothis incinerated the Agarthans.
Still, you also admitted that Sothis herself committed genocide.
In either case, without the Agarthans, literally no one would care or even know about Nabateans.
My point still stands that people in the present shouldn't have any vested interests one way or the other. It's like in Skyrim with the ancient Nords crushing the snow elves. As a Nord player character, should you have any guilt in killing Arch-Curate Vyrthur? I don't think so.
@@DarkAdonisVyers Red canyon was Nemesis, but before that the Agarthans attacked Sothis. She annihilated them and that lead to "wicked gods" that Nemesis Liberated the land from.
If you played 3 Houses. You know that Claude agrees with Edelgard. So like your pronunciation I just guess you weren’t listening.