BlazingRant: What Is The BEST Path In Fire Emblem Three Houses? (Video Essay) 

Always feels important to note that Silver Snow was the original route and all others branch off from it - so any maps shared between them would always come back to Silver Snow. Still have no idea why they gave Nemesis to Claude's route and not the Church route.

The best path is the one bug in an older version of 3H that somehow allows you to start with two classes at the same time, allowing you to recruit Dimitri and Dedue into the Black Eagles.

My personal favorite is Crimson flower. It was my first playthrough and I just naturally did all of the requirements to unlock that route. That twist of being able to join Edelgard and fight the church was mind blowing at 4am.

Azure Moon. Next Question.

1:25:28 let’s not forget, that if you pay attention to the calendar progression, Dimitri visits Byleth relatively soon after Jeralt’s death, and Edelgard and Claude visit Byleth during early Chapter 10

I gotta give it to AM. I feel its very character driven, as far as its lord goes, which I love. Its veru focused which i also enjoy. Its not perfect. Yeah i wish the other students got to do more. I feel Dimitri does make changes to Fodlan but its never really discussed outside of his ending which is also an issue. Rhea ceasing to exist post time skip sucks too. But Dimitri and the lions are such compelling characters and Dimitri's story hits me so hard that i can forgive these, imo, minor issues. But in my opinion no route is BAD. I love CF a lot too. And SS/VW are good too. 3h is my 3rd favorite game for a reason. I respect how you ended this video a lot. There's so much toxic discourse about this game, i fully agree that each route appeals to different players and I love that. This game is very special.

someone appreciated leonie, I can be happy now

I love how whilst we all fight over which is the best route, pretty much everyone agrees that Silver Snow is the worst. It makes sense, Silver Snow is the route where you abandon your main lord halfway through

Great video. I personally rank the 4 routes in the same positions that you did.

There really ought have been a little more variation of chapters even in White Clouds, which literally forces you until Chapter 11 (on the Black Eagles’ path) to do everything the same; had I been asked, I would have adjusted things. For starters, Flayn’s kidnapping should have been the final week of a month *only* and thus made more urgent; this would have given us an additional chapter due to either the 5th or 6th month in the game having two fights (again, have one in the second-last week of it)… And from there, change how Jeralt dies for the love of all good in this world; that way you could overhaul those two (including making one route where you don’t fuse with Sothis) and still have the last two WC mostly the same afterwards… Then on every non-CF route, Ch13-16 are the same *again*, which feels like lazy game design even if 3H wasn’t an infamous time sink of a game. With… differences to different degrees after this; I definitely think that SS should either have done BOTEAL in some way, or something to replace it, maybe even rescuing Rhea earlier and throwing the second half into upheaval. And with the exception of AM, all of them should have had at least one more recruitable character: CF ought to have had Fleche *because why isn’t she our Cyril/Flayn* and maybe Ladislava and/or Randolph; SS needed Rhea, and VW should have made Judith and/or Nader… and if they had implemented my WC changes, I might have spared Kronya to make her playable later (am I insane? Probably, but eh… I would have changed Jeralt’s death so it might be more feasible; the chapter he died was terrible anyway and could have been overhauled). I have more but I’d go off on things I think so I’ll stop there…

It would have been best if Silver Snow was cut from the game so that Konami and Intelligent Systems would have extra time to work on it and release it as a DLC route I don’t think players would have taken issue with this because Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude were marketed as the main leads outsides of Byleth so it’s not like most fans would expect a route dedicated to Rhea at launch

How I'd rank the routes from Favourite to Least Favourite: 1st: Azure Moon 2nd: Silver Snow 3rd: Verdant Wind 4th: Crimson Flower How I'd rank the routes from Best to Worst: 1st: Azure Moon 2nd: Crimson Flower 3rd: Silver Snow 4th: Verdant Wind

Didn't watch the video but even after 5 years its still Azure moon. Just by far the best told story with by far the best character development of the cast.

I think it's intersting that you assigned the units specific roles but then judged them on versatility. For example when evaluating the healers you basically said Mercedes is the best healer (which I agree with) but then gave her last place based on her lack of versatility. I know this was a super long video already but it would be interesting to see a version where you judge them based off of how well they fit their assigned roles rather than how well they can be stretched outside of these roles.

One thing I believe that doesn't get talked about enough in CF, which is also my most enjoyable part of this game, is that people are PISSED that Byleth joins the Empire. So many characters are mad at them for that. And I love it. However, this also adds an annoying part where you recruit others from different houses to be in the Black Eagles when they have no legit reason to be there. Most of the Blue Lions fall into this. Mercedes and Sylvan have some legit reasons to join Edelgard's cause. But even then, it's really pushing it. It is really funny when the former blue lions get called out by the remaining ones and the former doesn't give a legit answer. It's "I'm following the Professor where ever they go!", who is following Edelgard.... 😅

Azure Moon, best writing. Verdant Wind, complete ending. Crimson Flower, favorite characters (also my first route, so my personal favorite). Silver Snow, exists.

I have the same "objective" ordered ranking of all the routes as BlazingKnight AND the same personal favorite? NOWAYING

CF for me, it the one that age best like wine compared to the others with SB works so well hand in hand. For it short amount of run time. It tries give as much depth to it character in comparison to the other route which fails to give the non-focus lord agency narrative but also a meaning role. Edelgard only works if you are enjoying Dimitri and his Arc or if you already care about Edelgard otherwise. She is does basically nothing as the Antagonist in AM The set up for the route is the best. It not Edelgard suddenly winning a way without explanation which in turn damages all character. By Byleth choosing to side with Edelgard and gain Agency. Rhea now wants their head and heart with Rhea being the one to nearly kill Byleth and sending them to the post timeskip. Claude and Dimitri works so well in CF because it then who prevents the continuation of war for 5 years. Claude manipulates the Alliance that benefits who own goal while preventing Edelgard from getting any further influence inside the alliance. Edelgard has to defeat Claude first because he is the more dangerous strategist out of the two. He is the one who wait till after Edelgard done with the Kingdom to strike. Due to this, Claude is built up to this Master Tactcian. Or rather the master of board games. Meanwhile, Dimitri puts himself and kingdom between Edelgard and Church. She has to go through him first which is what he wants. 3House suffer badly from mistranslation especially CF as Dudue battle dialogue makes it Clear that is Dimitri is out for genocide against the Empire. He want vengeance for Duscur and his father death is falling into TWISTED purpose lies by believing the wrong people. Dimitri has become a person who his WC self would despise and it why Edelgard ultimately has to put him down or otherwise he will continue to fight, continue to keep killing even if Edelgard dies. He has become delusional. Yet it does something brilliant with his death. CF is the route thematically close to the core of what FE and FE lords. In a route that follow the most Anti-FE Lord. Edelgard a female lord from the Empire who is forcibly working with one set of bad guys while is the most pro-active character in all of FE. Has the most realistic and most sincere portrayal of FE lord. The positive belief on people and their potential. Edelgard the person who only know pain and suffer for over the past 10 years of her life. A person who has betrayed by the people she loved and fear connection. Believe in the potential of humanity, believe that commoners, believers in people she has never met has the potential to do anything so as the system enables them. Edelgard unconditionally believes in people despite her appearance, see good in people. When it comes to Dimitri in CF, Edelgard blames the system. Edelgard takes the humanistic theory’s approach by Maslow and Roger. The idea that it the system or society that makes people do bad actions. Edelgard blames the system for the way Dimitri becomes both in CF and other route. As someone who had study Youth and said theory. It hard not to say that she right since Dimitri did get radicalised by Faerghus system. His tutorlige in the Jp by Gilbert, Rodrigue and his father was textbook believe. Edelgard is right here and yet she still believe that Dimitri had potential to be a good king if it wasn’t for the system. That the Dee in there would made by a kind ruler if it wasn’t for the system. CF is the best route because it one of the few FE story you can go back to. Analysis and learn something new.

It’s so weird to see you rate Mercedes last in terms of healers. She is the only unit in the game to have both Fortify AND physic. Plus her crest allows her to use both more times than usual.

good stuff, my good sir

Lysithia should at least be an A if not an S. She can drop the DK with one dark spike spell. In fact shes the ONLY character that can one shot him, and she can do so without any grinding....Not just him, but alot of demonic beasts and many others. Best mage in the game. Very good video though, and everyone will like what they like. But there are some who don't realize what a nuke that little lady actually is.

3:26 Personally, i think Awakening should be about on the same level as Shadow Dragon in terms of script, with Echoes being around the level of Sacred Stones.

I have to say, a lot of Seteth’s dialogue in Silver Snow creates a pretty unhealthy relationship dynamic that may not have been intentional but it really starts to feel like he doesn’t actually care what Byleth wants to do, thinks, or feels. Gets even more awkward when Edelgard straight up does the exact opposite even if it only does minor changes to scenes.

It's Claude path. Beware the deer

I’m gonna vehemently disagree with the personal skill comparisons of the archers. Ashe rarely makes any use of opening locks. Since chests are rare and often not worth it. While Ignatz having excellent accuracy is massive and Bernadetta does massive burst damage.

I agree, Azure Moon also is my favorite

Do you have plans for an making a video about engage?

Crimson flower for me! The strongest unit in all my playthroughs was edelgard as a wyvern lord, she just dunked on the maps. I want to replay it now and grab lysithea early and i never got to use jeritza yet. Maybe even try using hidden talents and make edelgard a mage for funsies!

Which part should i choose

It may be not be how most of you feel, but as far as Three Houses is concerned, and strictly in term of story narrative, I found Edelgard's character arc/development better in other routes than in her own, Crimson flower was a huge let down because keeping the agarthans around made her fight against the church far less genuine, the end of the Arianrhod episode where she lied to her comrades who fought alongside her for the last 5 years, the people whom she form genuine relationships with, without any form of pushback didn't sit well with me, (it didn't help the rest of the cast is this route is like "we will follow you no matter what you do professor") to me it was a wasted opportunity for extra content, maybe even chapters about a true schism within the eagles due to Edelgard's decision to keep the truth from them, and with the agarthans in the mix now that would have been a kick ass plot point! Ironically I believe it's in three hopes that Edelgard is exactly the revolutionary figure she was meant to be. She was able to route out Thales and his cronies out of the empire early, to apply some of the reformes she envisioned within Adrestia prior to her declaration of war. And the biggest Irony of all, is all of this is due to Byleth not being around to screw up her life more!😆

Are you going to do the same thing for 3 hopes

My rankings, 1) Azure Moon 2) Crimson Flower 3) Verdant Wind 4) Silver Snow Edit: I wasn’t simply agreeing- I felt this way before watching.

Black Eagles all the way. Sorry Hilda.

DISCOURSE

Ugh ok OK ill play fe3h again 🫡🥰

Ah, Three Houses... and countless maddening hours of jumping into "best house/route" online debates [and surprisingly, occasionally in the real world among friends] for the past 4-½ years so far. And these days, I can't help but think of the additional story beats added by _Three Hopes_ whenever I go back to this. I remain convinced that it's a toss-up between Azure Moon and Silver Snow for the "best" route of this game, both in terms of overall gameplay difficulty and the *story.* I'm more than willing to acknowledge the writing flaws of both routes (as the *_entire game,_* all routes & even DLC included, isn't the best-written of the franchise); still plenty compelling, though! ^ I struggle at times to say whether it's even helped by the fact that Blue Lions was the initial house I chose when playing for the very first time back in early August 2019, but it did motivate me to focus more closely on details gleaned from cutscenes & supports. Watching all the pre-release promotions of the game tricked me into believing Edelgard's would be the "best" route, but then that *_dagger_* scene happened. To this day, I still think _Azure Moon_ is the 2nd hardest route overall in terms of gameplay difficulty, despite having the _easiest_ final battle (even on Maddening, Hegemon Edelgard just isn't as dangerous as Rhea with swarms of White Beasts, or a _moving_ Nemesis); AM's versions of Fhirdiad & the "Silver Maiden" (Arianrhod) are still annoying, and Gronder is undeniably dangerous on Maddening. If I'm purely concerned with gameplay difficulty alone; Silver Snow takes the cake overall since you lose Edelgard and Hubert two maps before the timeskip even begins, and the final map features an even tougher Immaculate One fight [though the flame tiles from the CF version aren't present; replaced by _infinite_ White Beast reinforcements] in *two* phases. In my view, due to what I learned from Azure Moon beforehand, the _Crimson Flower_ route is only appealing as a "slay the dragon" story, making it the worst in the game for me. In this case, the quality here doesn't outshine its lesser quantity of chapters; because even though Edelgard _does_ have a sympathetic backstory & apparent relatable goal for her _conquest_ (NOT "revolution" as some fans have erroneously put it).... that's *not* enough to make me want to join her side outside of witnessing this route's story beats for _completion's_ sake. Especially when she willingly sides with the very group directly responsible for her own suffering [which I'm sure some will argue "realpolitik" for; but that's rendered moot by another game] ~ Speaking of which, the additional story details provided by *_Hopes_* in the Scarlet Blaze route unironically make her motivations _even worse,_ despite hamming her up & cutting off the accomplices she has in Houses. *Either way,* difficulty-wise Crimson Flower is a relatively easier route [than Azure Moon] overall, in my opinion, due to the only potentially-difficult/frustrating moments being within the final two maps of the route. Up until you get to the final battle of _Verdant Wind_ (which I'd say is the 2nd hardest final map), I personally think it's the *easiest* route overall, and Lysithea definitely carries you throughout the whole game if you train/use her properly. As for the story, while I am also lamenting that more wasn't done with Almyra [barely touched a bit more in Hopes], I'll just say that I still see it as "Silver Snow's half-brother"; and this is influenced from back in the days when many fans saw Claude as the "funny memelord" of 3H, even when also acknowledging he has a similar motivation to Edelgard, albeit _much_ more accepting of the Church once he learns more of its history.

I honestly wish we got to do what we could in Three Hopes, ally the Deer and Eagle

For me, it's clearly Blue Lions. Everything goes as it should. You punish Edelgard for causing a war, and Fodlan can be overseen by both the kingdom and the church, under the leadership of Dimitri and Byleth respectively.

Jeritza isn‘t part of the DLC, CF got him in an update.

Something worth considering is that a ton of A-rank supports have two different possible combinations, as most A-Ranks have different dialogue in Crimson Flower, with the other version being shared by all three of the other routes the units can be recruited in.

I started reading all supports and after seeing literaly everybody suffering because of crests, I knew helping edelgard was the right choice. Luckly I had chose to teach black eagles. I went with her and I was NOT disappointed. I don't care if the route is shorter or unfinished

THAT'S CLAUDE!!!! jkjk thank you again for having me! ^^

Before watching: it’s blue lions with Dimitri marrying Hapi and thus being aware of and actively combating Agartha

While my favorite class is Golden Deer, and Claude my favorite character, Azure Moon was easily my favorite route. All the characters feel like a close knit family, Dimitri is such a great protagonist, and I like the more zoomed in story of Azure Moon compared to the other routes.

I love the Azure Moon route, but my only complaint (a small one at that) is that it didn't give Byleth much closure. I know that wasn't the focus of the story, but it would have been great to see them take out Thales (not in his Arundel guise). It just felt like there was a piece missing from the story and it depended on a wiki dig to find out that they were the same person.

19:50: bro you did not just say Goody Basket is better than Born Fighter 💀

That was a really sweet message at the end of the video. When taking into account the magnitude of factors that contribute to each of the four paths the ultimate conclusion is that your favourite path is the one that is right for you. You have put a great amount of effort into this project and deserves a great deal of praise. Looking forward to seeing some Engage videos in the future.

I gotta go with Golden Deer because obviously it's the one with a good ending all around, but honestly from a gameplay and narrative perspective I kinda liked Blue lions better. They are simply more involved in part 1.

Dude this was a fucking amazing video. Huge props to you for making this. 3 Houses is one of those games I never get tired of hearing about. Keep up with the great work, Lewis.

23:19 dude Bernie has one of the best personal skills in the game that is basically free plus 5 damage and pairs fantastically with her vengeance combat art

If we're talking story, it's easily Azure Moon. If we're talking gameplay, it's Crimson Flower by default, if we're talking about what I believe would lead to the best outcome after the fact, it's Verdant Wind in the longterm. What you pick as your favorite depends one what you're looking for.

Based, S rank Marianne!

Crimson Flower is my favorite route not just because Edelgard is my favorite character, but also it feels like the most unique route story wise not just in 3H, but also in FE with it being the first time the did a good job of showing a story from the perspective of the aggressor and what lengths they will go to achieve their goal (although not to high of a bar considering it's competition for that is Conquest)

I think all the routes have something the others lack. You could incorporate all the routes except crimson flower into one overall story and the story still has the same endpoint. It also makes no sense for Claude and Dimitri to not make an alliance to stop Edelgard from invading their territories but yada yada Byleth made choice so now everyone not in their class must die.

I remember being super excited to play every single route... then met with increasing levels of disappointment as I realized how many mirror maps there are, even ignoring Part 1. By my fourth run even the story wasn't saving the game in my eyes.

Crimson Flower is my fav route. I knew I was gonna choose Black Eagles from the trailers. Although I had the most fun playing Azure Moon

My counter skill activated so now I must thank you for this splendid video which was both entertaining and interesting. I have watched many of your Fire Emblem videos and whenever you upload I have a very good time. So many of your jokes have become iconic to me such as your "Blame Takumi" or "GOD DAMMIT KIRAGI THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT" or the Inigo laugh. I wish you the best and have a great year

For me, Lore and characters: Verdant Winds Themes: Crimson Flower Production: Azure Moon I personally enjoyed Crimson Flower the most, but I was more satisfied with Verdant Winds. Azure Moon was great, I just didn't find all of the Blue Lions as interesting. Overall, I enjoyed 100%'ing the game.

What a beast of a video... and BK STILL isn't done with Fodlan yet because he still needs to give a proper breakdown of Three Hopes too. As for Three Houses, Verdant Wind is my favorite route.

Best route IMO is AM. My favorite house, my favorite story, and I love the character driven narrative. CF has a bunch of writing issues, but I liked the Black Eagles second best of the houses. CF is shorter and the maps feel more unique in part 2 so it felt less repetitive (although many of the maps are just the same maps, at least your starting positions are different). Golden Deer were my least favorite house. I actually preferred SS over VW because I liked the Black Eagles more than the Golden Deer. Thus for me: AM > CF > SS > VW

Well damn, this really is a comprehensive breakdown. I was a little amused at you still doing the A-Z Rants style intro for this video despite Gigguk having abandoned that format a LONG time ago.

As someone who played Verdant Wind first, it pains me to say but I think making it Fire Emblem Two Houses would have been better. Golden Deer seems to have much less reason to exist in this story. Edelgard and Dimitri's stories are interwoven, Claude's is not. If you fight Edelgard with Claude, he outright says he wants to achieve the same things as her, just be less dickish about it. And the final boss is someone they have no connection to. I think the game would have been better off scrapping Verdant Wind, and moving its boss fight to Silver Snow, the use the spared resouces to flesh out the others. Though if you wanted to keep it Three Houses, perhaps they could have rotated the map 90 degrees, and made the people of Duscur and Almyra the same or at least related. If Claude had been personally affected by the tragedy of Duscur and the subsequent pogroms, it would tie him into the central conflict much better. Especially if Dimitri had been less open about disagreeing with the reprisals.

What else can i say aside from amazing video as always to the point i make it a priority to watch every new video coming out if this channel. Golden Deer is my favorite route the first one i played because of the characters and the final fight with Nemesis. But i personally feel that the final monastery explore segment before the final boss in silver snow is severely underrated and not talked about enough. Mainly due to the character interactions. I have played every route multiple times before doing S.S. I went into it recruiting every character. When i walked through the monastery and talked to the characters and hearing them talk about what they're going to do after the war and celebrating. Not gonna it felt heartwarming if it's the right word. Because in every other path your fighting and before every final maps/levels. There isn't a moment to breath. But here from the characters perspective it's over, yeah the player knows that this isn't the end but for them it is. With a game without a "true/golden route" it's the closest thing to seeing what happens after the war. And the tragic thing about it is that they you only get to see this by picking the route that they're house leaders are either dead or missing. Felix talks about visiting the graves before coming back to potentially serve Byleth. Shamir say this whole journey got her a bit sentimental towards the end. Leonie and Alois cry tears of joy for making it through it. According to my Switch, its says i have 1,510 hours on Three Houses.

My favorite route is Verdant Wind. I feel like Claude's Goal is the one I can personally get behind the most, and I feel like it gave the most character development for all of the students outside of their supports (as opposed to routes like Azure Moon mostly focusing on the main lord).

Ferdinand's recruiting is further hampered by his supports being chapter locked, in addition to the horrible skills he prefers. I've never managed to recruit him.

to me, the bast path is Verdent winds, and my favorite on too

While Azure Moon is still my favorite. After replaying Crimson Flower (first time I replayed a route since I did Crimson Flower first of the routes) it really grew on me with how unique it was to play after the constant repetitiveness of the other routes and gave me a sizable challenge in the last few maps. It went from 3rd to 2nd for me.

I find it hilarious hearing you talk down Anna (Which is 100% deserved) meanwhile my sister will never let me forget how she beat Nemesis with a Mortal Savant Anna.

Azure Moon will forever be my favorite in the game. While the other 3 are pretty much about freedom, AM is more so about healing and redemption. Azure Moon was more so about saving Dimitri from his pain and trauma so that he could redeem himself and be the king that he was meant to be. (Also yes it's biased, I hate the fact that he dies in every route but his own....like come on....)

I‘ll be the first to say it: Verdant Wind got SNUBBED by Judith not being playable 😢

"Ferdinand should be mounted, Bernie may be a sniper, and Petra a potential peg knight." God damn, the Internet has ruined my brain.

WAHOO BLUE LIONS WON!!!!! But seriously tho three houses is my favorite fire emblem game and you did an amazing job explaining literally everything of what each house has to offer along with gamplay and story. So thank you for the video blazingknight. Hope you will still be around for many years👍

Early Game: Blue Lions. Late Game: either Wyvernlord Edelgard or Golden Deers.😊

As a Black Eagle apologist, totally agree with your assessment here. Blue Lions is just the best complete package of a game and feels the most like a traditional FE to me. Amazing that 3 Hopes fumbled Blue Lions so hard though

G o l d e n D e e r Ngl tho, i'm partial to silver snow too bc seteth gets more screen time, tho having to pick black eagles makes me not want to do it bc i'm a deer through and through

Azure Moon for me, followed by Crimson Flower. I like Claude, but all the shared content sours the pucture for me :(

I’m surprised that you don’t mention how different Byleth’s position is at the end of the Crimson Flower route. It’s makes it even more unique than the other routes.

I'd argue you get 11 characters for free in Chrimson Flower, there's the 8 in house, byleth, (I assume were your 9) you'd have to go out of your way to delete an update to not get Jeritza, the wiki calls it "free dlc" but I think it's more accurately an update to the game because it's not like you have the choice to accept it, until they completely shut down the eshop for switch, 99% of players are gonna get him weather they want him or not. Heck, if it's anything like other switch games they start tacking on updates on the physical copies, and it's in 1.1! You also have to go out of your way to select no to not recruit Lysithea. I feel like not acknowledging those 2 completely disregards the whole point of of the minimum recruitment factor, being that you don't have to put any work in to recruit them, and it wouldn't even affect the rankings, but I still don't even know who's you're counting as the 14th for blue, 13th for church, and... the last 3 for golden deer are, there's probably some rando church members who joins automatically if you wait that isn't very well documented Not the minimum recruitment is a very big factor anyway lol

Well obviously the right path is the path I chose, because then why else did I pick it?

Azure Moon is my favorite but I'm glad to see that Crimson Flower gets second for despite being the shortest, it is definitely the most unique. The only thing I will debate on is Crimson Flower being the most difficult. The use of Edelgard's Raging Storm, Lindhart's Warp, and no Hunting by Daybreak map makes Crimson Flower probably second easiest from my perspective. I agree Verdant Wind is easiest, since your only real weak link is Raphael, and therefore most will have a solid role with Ignatz, Leonie, and Claude at range, and Lorenz, Marianne, and Lysithea at magic, and Hilda has Wyvern Lord down to a T. Azure Moon is probably second hardest since Dimitri has quite probably the most devastating combo in the game in the form of Battalion Vantage + Battalion Wrath, while Silver Snow comes in first for having Hunting By Daybreak with lots of high speed and bow units against Seteth, and Endgame that's downright oppressive, and no real standout units outside of Byleth, Seteth, Flayn, Catherine, and Petra, and even some of these are backups and not the strongest tools like a Dimitri or an Edelgard.

Used Edelgard with War Cleric for my whole Crimson Flower run. She deleted enemies.

Also: Silver Snow getting to fight Those who slither, and Crimson Flower doesn't? And the whole reason you get to fight it is: Hubert left a note. Man that's such a cop out. Why not have Silver Snow be the somewhat bitter sweet ending. Where the Church is "reformed" under Byleth, but Those who Slither are never uncovered, so they go on causing issues in the future.

This may be your magnum opus, milord. I’m a Golden Deer for life💛, but Dimitri has the best arc of almost any Fire Emblem lord in my opinion💙.

“And substitutes one of the best final battles in the series with a level so bad it gave one of my friends night terrors…” Oh hey Fera. You still alive bro? 😂💀 But yeah very splendid video! Incredibly thorough, lots of laughs, and just puts a big smile on my face given this is one of my favorite video games of all time. Amazing job my guy! Keep up the hard work! ❤️

It baffles me how little effort the Crimson Flower route got. And, why not just cut down on the effort, and make Silver Snow just part of Verdant Wind? Heck, them being so similar how difficult would it be to just say "You go Verdant Wind or Azure Moon, without the build up - depending on who you had the higher Support with before declining Edelgard.

My favorite one is Verdant Wind, but story wise Azure Moon is the better one

I didn’t watch it but it is definitely blue lions I’ve never cried as much as I did during a game as with this route. Especially if you did the Mercedes & Caspar paralogue and then defeat the death knight… this game is so heartbreaking

Pretty sure you can do the Jeritza professor training with the base game btw. And he’s free update playable in CF, not DLC. Anna was also free update but who paid attention to that lmao

Phenomenal Video Mate! For Me: GD is my favorite way to play this game. Love the cast & the world given to me there & I feel like has the best ending. AM has a great story & I love Dimitri’s arc. Sadly has even tho 3H might be my favorite FE…I can’t get into BE & SW due to the leaders giving me angerism or not giving me to latch onto. & in the case of BE feeling like it just stops while SW having great ideas feels too far & too little. As for my best boys & girls: Ferdie, Bernie, Dimitri, Annie, Mercie, Raphael, Marianne, Constance, & my tops being Claude, Yuri, Nuke Queen Lysithea & Fish Goddess Flayn makes me smile brightly.

This was indeed an incredibly well made video. A lot of debates in text or video form ever take a unbiased approach and just straight up tell the facts as they are and take into account not just the story, but how optimal from a gameplay perspective too. Hats off to you for that. I’ve been and always will be, a die hard Azure Moon fan. I can respect Edelgard for being written as a villain that can become a hero depending the circumstances, but it just can’t beat Dimitri’s redemption of hitting his lowest and forgiving the very person he was hellbent on killing and not having a “My way or the highway” attitude towards clashing ideologies. While your analysis comes down to agreeing, I can 100% accept the flaws of the route. The Lions students have screen time rough, they can’t shine like the Deer students can, it’s more lore history, than lore world building. Also if anyone knows that final specific Edge of Dawn version, that’d be great thanks

One issue you didn't address surrounding Azure Moon's tunnel vision is that it also affects lore and events not involving the Blue Lions directly, which causes the side effect of the story straight up ignoring pretty blatant stuff going on behind the scenes - which hilariously, also leads to Dimitri and co. steamrollering over TWSITD without anyone really paying attention. For Crimson Flower, while I agree it's the 2nd best experience the game offers in a vacuum, I feel it's also one of those stories that's strengthened greatly when you also know the context the other provides. Namely, while the Agarthans being dealt with off-screen comes off as wasted potential, this also becomes completely recontextualized when the other stories show you how fighting them onscreen looks like (they are... surprisingly *pathetic* without the Empire backing them up and with their "mystery enemy we have no clue where they are" shtick becoming a non-factor). In that sense, Three Hopes' Scarlet Blaze handled them at their best and - in my opinion - in a way Crimson Flower never could have even if it had been given extra chapters in some alternate reality to ours. Verdant Wind and Silver Snow being third and fourth respectively was to be expected, though as far I'm concerned, Verdant Wind's got Church's route beaten by a wide margin due to its in-house character interactions, Claude being pretty underrated character once you understand the gist of him, and it's overall chill vibe story-wise (which admittedly, is both a pro and a con as you pointed out). Silver Snow meanwhile is shoot down a ton to me due to be a quintessential example of a fantastic idea for a story being helluva underutilized, and for having a borderline nightmarish final map. As for your question; my favorite is Crimson Flower. By a wide margin.

storywise id chose golden deer route. gameplaywise id chose blue lions for the MAIN reason you get the dancer gambit. IMO one of the top gambits in the game..

In golden deer, cornelia is still out and about but twsd is destroyed completely. In Blue Lions, most of the leaders of twsd is destroyed and fodlan is most likely more unified than they were in golden deer. Black eagles basically razed everyone to the ground, twsd is still in good shape (minus cornelia) and the secret war between them and the empire isn’t stated as a win or a lost. Blue lions may have the best ending when it comes to fodlan’s future. Twsd’s leaders are dead, cornelia dead, the empire stopped, and the remnants of Twsd are unlikely to be able to revive nemesis without the help of the leaders considering what was said in the final battle when you kill Myson where the grunts said they cannot ket everything go to waste even more, meaning that they are in an already terrible condition after their leaders were eliminated. Even lets say, nemesis and his elites get revived, Dmitri and Byleth would put an end to their onslaught much like in golden deer with claude. Rhea also lives in this timeline to help keep the statues quo of fodlan.

Dude, I literally just started playing this game again today, after years of not doing it. My reasoning for choosing the Golden Deer house is way less elaborate than yours: I just like the characters better. 😂

I repeat again that Edelgarde is almost completely right because merit and self determination are crucial to existence. As well as the fact that not only is Rhea a manipulative narcissist but also a literal giant monster.

Honestly, Ive owned Three Houses for years but everytime I start a playthrough I get hit with major choice paralysis ☠️ Not so much in terms of the houses, but more in how I want to play like should I "go in blind" vs hard min-maxing and getting as many units as possible etc.

The right answer is: none. Be homeless

ranking the units combat wise was such a mess... the magic stat and spellcasts of the lords dont really matter when the lords are never going down a magic route, edelgard has ragin storm to sweep maps, dimitri has batt vantage/wrath to also sweep maps in enemy phase, and claude is a low investment battwrather who gets into the good classes without much trouble

This is one hell of a big one. Nice job man. Very nice job.

in my opinion there is no best path, I have a preference but in terms of being objectively the best each route has its own pros and cons both in story and in gameplay.