How to Fix Crimson Flower 

We were all so disappointed with the immaculate One ‘Picture’

the fact we don't see ANY kid dimitri and kid edelgard in crimson flower is a travesty

I feel like dimitri could've had a bigger role in this route, seeing that he isn't messed up like in other routes, i think he would set up a meeting with edelgard as he did in azure moon and try to make her crack open her feelings, then we would have more dimitri screen time and a little hint of edelgard's true goal, after the convo, dimitri fails to convince edelgard against the war, and is forced even further to battle her.

The reason Edelgard gave for not allying with Claude was because he was an “outsider” who “didn’t know the truth”. That was frustrating and also ironic, because Claude ends up getting the closest to the truth out of all of the lords in Three Houses.

Honestly just replace this Eva girl with Patricia/Anselma von Aurendel. It'd build off the implications that she survived the tragedy of Duscur and add some nice dramatic irony to the plot that Edelgard was doing what she was doing for the sake of her and Dimitri's mother.

Hmmm... not sure I like the changes to Edelgard's backstory. Her morally-questionable choices should be just that--her choices, not a path that was forced on her. A character who does bad things in the pursuit of good ideals is more interesting than a character who does bad things because she has a metaphorical gun pointed at her head. I think if I was going to find a place to insert the Shambhala arc into CF, it would actually be earlier in the story, probably after Arianrhod, because Rhea is a thematically fitting final boss for Edelgard's route. Have Edelgard do what she does in canon--blame the destruction of the city on the church--but then take the Black Eagles aside and in secret inform them that she was lying to create a diversion. Her erstwhile "allies", the Agarthans, were the ones truly responsible--and now that they have inadvertently revealed the location of their home, she plans to take a small, trusted group to launch a sneak attack on it while the bulk of her army marches north in preparation for the final assault on the Kingdom. The attack on Shambhala catching the Agarthans by surprise would be a good excuse to have them fail to launch missiles like they did in the other routes (which is necessary if we don't want the story to suddenly become *very* dark, since there would be no Rhea there to intercept them). It would also justify making the map a bit easier (which again is probably necessary due to it coming earlier in the story). After the battle, Edelgard could discover something in Shambhala that sheds light on the true origin of the crests and heroes' relics, which could lead to her becoming more conflicted about killing Rhea. This could set up a more tragic tone for the final chapter, with Edelgard expressing empathy for Rhea and offering to spare her, but Rhea being too far gone at that point and going ahead with her plan to burn down the city, leading to essentially the same ending as in canon.

Seteth and Flayn were hugely wasted in CF. If I were to rewrite the route I would make them be the unexpected final boss'. That and I'd have Catherine be a more prominent rival to Byleth, pretty much like the Death Knight of CF.

i agree that her route needs a fix... but idk i feel theres something wrong about turning edelgard into such a passive character... She doesnt struggle out of zeal and belief anymore, but out of fear and worry... it kinda changes everything and doesnt make her nearly as a refreshing a character in my opinion

OH GOD! He's talking about Edelgard! Everyone get down, he's unleashed the proverbial Javelins of Light onto this comment section!!!

I feel like giving the Agarthans more leverage over Edelgard isn't what the story needed. Edelgard is such a strong and courageous character, and I feel like having her be bullied into conquering Fódlan would only weaken her as a character. In all honesty, all of FE3H plot would just be so much better if the Agarthans didn't even exist and the story just focused on the war and the church more.

I love this route because of two words. Raging storm

edelgard fighting her sister isn’t a bad idea for an ending, but the problem lies with the player’s perspective. rhea and edelgard are good characters and fighting them is rough because i feel bad for them. they went through so much shit and believe that what they’re doing is for the greater good. hell, in silver snow rhea went through so much physical and mental pain she lost control of her own body and was forced to be killed by her last remaining family. from edelgard’s perspective, eva is an emotional final battle but from the perspective of an audience member it would probably just feel dumb and a forced attempt at sadness because i barely know the first thing about the girl. there’s no nuance like with edelgard and rhea. that’s why i didn’t like the final battle of verdant wind (besides the music ofc), it was just a battle against some dirty old guy who’s evil because every villain is lemons, not because he has a legitimate reason (as far as we know anyway) also i think the walter white comparison is unfair. you see the story of breaking bad told from walter's perspective, and only his. you can play the story of three houses from four unique perspectives, one of which has edelgard as the main antagonist and not an evil dragon god or whatever, and another one of which has her portrayed as generally evil because you don't anything about her.

Instead of characters from other houses joining Edelgard due to Byleth being a good teacher during PTS, have Edelgard use her strong arguments, willpower and charisma to recruit some of her opponents throughout CF.

Ok, so wait. The game's _themesong_ is about Edelgard. So why in god's name is her route unfinished?! aside done, nice video.

While I like the fixes and understand why they were made, I’m not sure about changing Edelgard’s motivations so drastically. I think being forced into starting a war with Fódlan, rather than it being her own dream to make true, devalues her as a character.

I haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere in the comments but iirc the justification for Edelgard doing everything so violently is that she knows she is on a limited timer like Lysithea which should have been mentioned in the story. Similarly, for why Edelgard works with TWSITD, 1) she mentions multiple times that they are allies and are aiding her in the conflict, and 2) considering they made her to be a weapon to destroy the Nabateans (combined with the faulty story passed down by the Emperor's about Nemesis) as well as the fact the Empire was so throughouly infested with them that they were able to start the big coup that rendered her dad powerless and that Arundel was Thales, they basically had control of her/her Empire, its not like she could just tell them to go suck it immediately. Again, their relationship should have been explored/explained far far far better (probably in a Shambhala chapter(s)), but having Edelgard go from a committed idealist who was working with her previous torturers BECAUSE while circumstances may have gated her other options off, she really does believe in her ideals so much she would be able to put feelings of revenge aside made her feel way more powerful as a person/character. I feel that just having it so she only did everything because there was a gun to the head of her cute moe sister makes her way less powerful and interesting.

One idea for azure moon "fix". Make a completely new paralogue for dimitri. His current one doesnt add anything to his character. My idea is that after finding out that is kleinman was responsible for the tragedy of duscur as well as the genocide of dedues entire people and culture, dimitri, now king, goes to duscur to beg for forgivness for the kingdoms atrocities. He also tells them that he is going to attack kleinman, the true culprit, and tells them that they can join him. At first they are sceptic, but they agree to join him seeing his relationship with dedue. On the map, there are several soldiers on kleinmans side fighting you and several duscurian green units. You win by routing tge map. Kleinman is caught and dimitri hands him over to the duscurians. Ttey execute him and go, however, in going they say that with dimitri things might change. In my point of view a lot of people forget that dimitri has great ambitions (making a world without opression). Furthermore, tge duscur subplot is also kinda left hanging, we are only told that things worked out and that there are several duscur soldiers in you ranks who believe in dimitri. This paralogue i think warps up that subplot well while showing dimitri fighting for the opressed.

While I think the idea is good, I do have some comments on it. First, having the Javelins of Light on Arianrhod would have Hubert able to discover Shambala, just like Fort Merceus was used to discover Shambala in Verdant Wind/Silver Snow. Secondly, I think that Edelgard’s motivations lie on the suffering of not just her siblings, but also the people across Fodlan who have suffered because of the crest system and how the nobility treats people without crests. She wants to create a world where crests don’t matter, that merit is the best way to come into power, not just by inheriting it from ancient bloodlines. That’s why in her endings she leaves the throne to a successor that isn’t her child. I do like your thinking that Edelgard could be manipulated into cooperating with TWSITD because of Eva/Hegemon threats, but I also think she’s making it seem like they are manipulating her when she’s doing the same to them. She’s using their power to conquer Fodlan like she wants, then turns on them like they would her after they had no use for her anymore. I agree that a Shambala chapter would’ve been good for the end of the route and that more cutscenes/dialogue could’ve been better. I also think that if Edelgard opened up to the rest of the BE Strike Force about her intentions that they would have more of a purpose in the story as well as affirming their decision to side with her and Byleth. Also, it irks me that Ladislava, Randolph, and even Fleche weren’t playable to make up for Catherine, Seteth, and Flayn not being playable in the route, as well as the fact that Edelgard doesn’t have a unique Paralogue. I feel like IS could have done more with what they gave us, but it’s still my personal favorite route.

I wouldn't hate Edelgard as much if she left the Alliance and Brigid alone... But since she doesn't, it makes her look power-hungry as opposed to just desperate.

To quote a great man, "I've been waiting for this."

One thing I’d like to add with that final Eva fight if I may. The Crest of Cethleean is inherently a crest of healing. So I envision Eva healing the zombies over time in turn as well if you don’t kill them fast enough (and they have a LOT of HP), giving you even more incentive to kill them or Eva quickly. Maybe make her crest weapon a pseudo-Nosferatu as well. Also maybe throw in some lines about how it’s this crest specifically that could create the zombies, thanks to its properties of healing and life being able to create a twisted afterlife in the undead. For some flavor. I also really appreciate you designing Eva as a boss with constantly increasing stats. It reminds me of how Rhea would buff the golems with her roars, so that their Crit (> 50%) and accuracy would skyrocket to absurd levels over time and force out divine pulses or unit deaths. I think it’s so daring and even good design to create an obstacle that can become so punishing, encouraging you to either push forward quickly or get especially creative with your tactics, with failure being an inevitable game over or running out of divine pulses. Props to you for the Eva fight.

Imo I wouldn’t change that much of the story, I’d just include the invasion of Shambala, and maybe make it happen somewhere BEFORE you invade the Tailtean Plains (defeat Dimitri and Rhea). Like maybe after you take Arianrhod and kill Cornelia, the Slithers are angry and threaten to eventually invade the rest of Fodlan so Edelgard declares that they have a change of plans and take the Slithers down before defeating Rhea. That way, Rhea can still be the main antagonist while you deal with TWSITD too. During the chapter you deal with the Slithers, Edelgard can reveal some more about them, like the blood experiments they performed. And ofc Edelgard HAS to mention her shortened lifespan at some point, I don’t know why only Lysithea mentions it.

The changes with Eva really do help explain why Edelgard sought to conquer the continent, at least to the zealous extent that she did. I knew something was missing to tie it all together and this works for the most part. Personally I'm still not a fan of the Agarthans being more or less the secret evil org that must be defeated outside the main story like many other Fire Emblem games. I can picture a scenario where the conflict between the Agarthans and Nabateans is far more nuanced to where there is a genuine struggle to pick a side or a third way. That would require changing the story significantly but the secret evil org trope is getting old.

I would also like to point out how much Byleth apes out over Edelgard. Every other route Byleth feels bad for killing or even harming Edelgard, but it’s almost like Byleth doesn’t care about killing Claude or Dimitri in her route

I'm a bit mixed over your proposed changes honestly. While I kinda like your idea (though I think having Patricia involved rather than one of her siblings would've been a better choice), at the same time, I think having Rhea as the final boss fits better thematically due to the route's whole "throw the old social order into the trash" idea, while focusing on the Agarthans instead would not only be underwhelming (for the same reasons you stated), but also make it more about revenge. I do wanna say though, I very much disagree with Edelgard's route being unfinished, mostly because by definition, the word *rushed* (something done hastily and under limited time) fits it best if you account for everything, and recent datamine heavily suggests that's what it ended up happening. 7:12 Given the way the game ended up handling Rhea, I dare say that was fully intentional from the devs & writers's part. EDIT: Also, the part about reused dialogue isn't exactly a flaw exclusive to Crimson Flower, given the game absolutely adores to reuse its own stuff all over the place. For example: the Death Knight in SS/AM/VW Part 2 reuses dialogue from Chapter 4 and 6, Claude in Azure Moon Chapter 19 reuses lines from Verdant Wind's Reunion at Dawn, Alois in Silver Snow reuses an exact line twice in the story, etc. (and that's without accounting all the reused monastery dialogue).

I agree with a lot of this, but there’s a missed opportunity considering one of your criticisms. You mention how the side characters have little involvement in the CF story, and maybe you could have found a way to give them their “moment” in your how to fix section. The part where the characters show up at the beginning of the timeskip is cool, but it would be nice for them to have expanded roles, an example of this would be Ferdinand. To make up for the fact that he doesn’t get a paralogue in CF, you could include duke Aegir in the story and have a moment with ferdie along with that. I understand that making character moments like that happen in a game where characters can die at any moment is nearly impossible, but something like that would add a lot.

Honestly, my biggest issues with Edelgard is that she's too obstinate to accept that she's wrong about a lot of things. She isn't willing to accept new information if it contradicts her beliefs (which is why I don't think her and Claude would ever work together as allies, Claude wouldn't be able to accept what Edelgard takes at face value. He'd want to see the hard evidence for himself, but Edelgard really doesn't have that drive to know the truth, just the drive to accomplish her goals.) She's *wrong* about nemesis and seiros, she's *wrong* about Rhea and the nabateans, and she's wrong about the body count of crests when it compares to a war as widespread as the one she's starts. Not to say she's wrong about crests, plenty of evidence to prove that the crest system should be done away with, but it is ultimately an issue of the very *very* upper class, literally the less than one percent, not an issue of the masses. a lot of deaths in the class of less than one percent doesn't compare to the mass death of soldiers in her war And maybe that's because they wanted to keep uncovering the truth Claude's shtick, but I don't think any route makes her look as bad as VW does with all the new information you learn. Even Sylvain's ending makes her look bad, because he manages to dismantle the crest system peacefully and through political effort.

Speaking as someone who stumbled into Crimson Flower my first playthrough, 100% agree that things are poorly explained. "Rhea is bad and secretly a dragon!" Okay! So what bad things is she doing? "So we are going to topple the church." Okay, WHY? I expected some sort of reveal, but so many things in this route are implied but never fully revealed or just not mentioned at all. I had no idea what was going on with Edelgard and Dimitri, Edelgard just seemed weirdly emotional about killing him. Was Rhea pregnant with Dimitri's kid or something? (This feels so out of no where that I am sure I just misunderstood something but hard to tell with this route) There was some sort of implication that protecting her was key to protecting Dimitri's family line. I had no idea that Edelgard was dying, the epilogue didn't mention her dying soon, made it sound like she lived a long time, did killing Rhea shut off crests so that just didn't happen? Never explained in CF. This entire route makes no sense without having played the others, they aren't perfect sure (Looking at you Claude "But why are we fighting? :(" when he keeps sending troops at us and the reason why he was is never revealed) but you get most of what is going on. The game kinda assumes you have played the others before this one and no idea why, it's so easy to stumble on to this route.

ALSO!!!! we missed out on a huge opportunity to get more information on Shamir. Shamir isn't tied to the church in the same way that Catharine is tied to the church so there is interesting opportunities for Shamir to be explored a little bit more. Specifically, I think that we should've gotten an extra paralogue with her and Petra going to Dhagda and Bridgid to get more troops and explore the relationship with the empire.

I always get bugged whenever I hear somebody mention that Crimson Flower has three unique characters. Jeritza still counts, but I never really count Edelgard and Hubert. They aren't unique but rather have two of your best character removed from Silver Snow without a proper replacement. Sure you get the church people, bit they were already available in other routes. Nothing against the video, just a personal thing

Do you think you’ll do a “How to Fix Cindered Shadows”?

Remember when we thought Armads4Prez was going to realase a "How to fix Azure Moon" video? Me neither.

I think my biggest issue is that Edelgard keeps saying things that have no evidence to support it. "Omg Dimitri's so crazy, we need to put him down before he hurts anyone else"...meanwhile, he's far more sane in her route than he was in his own route. "I can't believe they'd stoop to such dishonorable tactics"...you're invading their homeland trying to kill them, why would they roll over for you? "My 5 year war will save more people in the end"...this is just stupid considering we don't see the atrocities she's claiming the church commits. The church clearly doesn't kill non-believers or people like Dedue, Petra or Lorenz would not ever be allowed in their academy. Also, it's really stupid to declare war against religion. If the game had illustrated it better, she should have easily lost the support of her own people. I'm not 'shocked' she would lie, it was just painful listening to her in the first place. Also it would've been nice to see her reaction after she started this bloody war for the wrong reasons...it would've humanized her in a way that I could get behind. I also don't understand why some of the black eagles would follow her. She strips Ferdinand's father of everything, and Bernadetta would not willingly join a war, same goes for Lindhardt. Petra is a political hostage of the Empire...why would she join their side? If anything, it would make more sense for Brighid to join the alliance or kingdom in order to overthrow their oppressors. There's so much wrong with it. Also, I think it would've been better if you recruited Marianne or Mercedes that they break from your ranks after Edelgard declares war on the Church, sine they are very devout and would not take a stand against the Church under any circumstances. I think people confuse "morally questionable" with "nonsensical" in this route. "Why did she attack the church with no evidence that they were doing what she said they were?" "Oh she's morally questionable". No, it makes no sense. Morally questionable is Dimitri in his own route when he's discussing torturing Randolph. You know why he's doing it and why Byleth killed him.

If your going to do a “how to fix azure moon” video here are some fixes 1. Make dedue mandatory. The original azure moon screwed him over because he could potentially be dead and now he could be much more involved. That’s it

Having watched the video, these all sound like good ideas (granted, Eva would require a substantial number of changes to Crimson Flower as she couldn't just be someone thrown in at the last minute), but one thing I would add (in addition to my previous comment about fixing Edelgard's character development train) is that when you think back it, there is really NO GOOD IN-UNIVERSE REASON for Byleth to side with Edelgard at the Holy Tomb. NONE. She just BETRAYED you, tried to KILL YOU AND ALL OF YOUR STUDENTS. Whenever I play Edelgard's rout I have Byleth S support her only because him being in love with her is the only reason I could possibly picture him siding with her after what she just did. And that's BAD storytelling. I would change this entire part of the story by either making it to where Byleth insists that Edelgard stand trial or that they try and figure out the cause for her betrayal rather than just executing her immediately and that Rhea THEN go batshit crazy, forcing Byleth to side with Edelgard. Or I would just redo that chapter entirely because as it stands now, it is easily the dumbest part of the ENTIRE GAME.

I agree with most of your points with Edelgard, and I also think that Byleth being a silent protagonist also adds to the issues, because they offer little to no input on the story unless Sothis tells them some vague quibblings.

>Adds reunion at dawn I thought this was supposed to be a video on how to make Crimson Flower better, not worse.

Still my favorite route in the game despite probably being the second most flawed (most flawed being silver snow). I just think has the best maps, the most unique maps and the black Eagles are definitely my favorite house both unit wise and character wise.

i might have missed something, but i never understood the narrative reason why dimitri didn't lose his mind in this route or why cornelia sided with the kingdom besides that the writers wanted stronger allies for the church so they would be a greater threat

I was a bit iffy on the SS fix, but this is just a bridge too far. Robbing Edelgard of all agency in starting the war completely negates the main moral choice of picking her path, and making her final nemesis (no pun intended) personal rather than ideological fails to challenge the one aspect of Edelgard's character that needs to be challenged in her own route - her ideals themselves. She still spends her whole route misinformed, even though she'd absolutely oppose Rhea even if she knew her real motivation just because of how completely opposite their approaches truly are. And in this route those ideals don't even matter, because Edelgard has no choice in starting the war. Not even due to any complex politics (seeded cleverly throughout White Clouds, though yes, you do need to do quite a bit of work to put it all together) but because of simple hostage threats. Edelgard's route must be a "chaos" route, where you embrace the war as the (unfortunately) necessary tool for change. Some more explicit explanation of Edel's decisionmaking could be fine, but the reasons do exist, even if they're not always morally clean (for example, Leicester is invaded because the war has stalled badly on the western front and Edel needed to outmanuever the Kingdom's considerable defenses, and Edelgard is too paranoid to trust Claude). More content in defeating the Agarthans is welcome, but not increasing their role. Basically, every new addition here diminishes the main point of CF.

Two things: One, this is my favourite route and I love this, even though I completely understand your point. I love Edelgard but I understand the points you are making here. However, two, I swear it's Those Who Sliver in the Dark that killed her siblings not her, she... Wouldn't do that that sounds so out of character for her especially at like... 12... So I don't get that alpharad clip when does she say she ever killed her siblings

When the "How to fix CF" is twice as long as the other videos - that's about right. Every route could've had better writing, but CF's fundamentals need to change in order to make sense of anything. I strongly believe the reason literally no one (aside from a dying Dimitri) poses any counter arguments, any doubts, any challenges, any questions even about what Edelgard is doing and why is because the "why" is so convoluted and makes no sense whatsoever that it falls apart the second you start examining it - which is why CF never bothered.

Long story short. Crimson Flower should've been a DLC like Cindered Shadows. You can access this route before the battle of Chapter 13 where, regardless of what house you chose, the Flame Emperor will give you an option to join him.

One of my big issues with crimson flower is that Edelgard doesn't really grow throughout that route at all. She is never questioned or critiqued by any of her allies in a meaningful way. This works fine for someone like Claude, because his goals are something people can really get behind, and a lot of the chapters in verdant wind are you responding to things other characters have done. But for Edelgard this just thins out her character and those around her. Why would someone as averse to bloodshed as Linhardt not have any objections to a continent-wide war? He should be constantly trying to get Edelgard to choose paths with less bloodshed, and it would be a great chance to improve his character, he may usually take the path of least resistance so he can go take a nap, but when it comes to the deaths of thousands of people, he at least tries for once. Someone who is as broken down by the war as Dorothea would probably want some words with the one who started it. I'll admit, I'm biased against Edelgard here. Blue Lions was my first route and I've played through it more than all of the other routes combined. Dimitri is constantly questioned or held in absolute disgust even by his allies, and has personal growth to become a better person in the end, someone worthy of being followed. Edelgard has a lot of problems, her personal trauma and anecdotal experiences lead her to make vast conclusions about an entire religious system, and without stopping to think that maybe she was wrong about her assumptions, she starts a continent-wide war and there are no consequences for that. Though I understand why IS didn't do this, I think Byleth should've stayed dead at the end of crimson flower. The fake out death felt cheap, and I still don't understand why sothis had to die. It would be nice as far as themes go, if Edelgard is truly okay with sacrificing people for her goals, losing someone so close to her would be a nice way to prove she actually sticks to her goals even if it means losing someone so close to her. Her deciding to move on and not be held up by a sacrifice someone chose to make for her would be a great way to close her story off. Instead we get an extremely vague ending that says "yah so she destroys the ACTUAL bad guys later lmao happy ending no consequences for your actions" Again, I'm biased against Edelgard here, but CF feels paper thin to me, not only in production value, but the characters and story/themes as well. I also can't help but feel at least slightly uncomfortable hearing about the joy that killing brings Caspar, Hubert, and Jeritza. Caspar (a character we are supposed to like) is always going on about killing someone and it's supposed to be comedic. "Oh, reveling in the slaughter of his former friends and classmates, classic Caspar! Lmaooooo" it feels very unnerving to me. Even Dimitri, in his darkest point doesn't revel in the deaths of his enemies, he simply moves on to find the next one, with the exception of Randolf, who he gets in a semi-debate with at the end. Great vid though! I love your ideas for CF. It sounds a lot more interesting than we we actually got.

Been checking your Chanel every day for the past month for this Video.

this is my favourite ‘how to fix’ so far. probably because this route needed it the most

Ive actually had several discussions about Fe3h's story with some friends and we all sort of agreed it was kinda fucky to directly "fix" storylines and could possibly be easier to slot in some Bonus epilogue chapters I dont exactly remember all of our ideas, but I do remember that we decided S supports with Byleth would carry over and you'd get adorable lovey dovey dialogue with whoever you S supported after getting the dialog of the month out of the way, and also unlock the ability to get S supports between units and it'd mostly just change where they stand in the monastery together and if you chat with them you got dialogue with them being all complimentary or planning a date and get flustered or show off when they notice you depending on the characters Azure moon and verdant wind would both get 4 chapters, silver snow would get 5 and Crimson flower would get 6 sort of making everything equal-ish the AM route would be about snuffing the remaining resistance of the die hard Edelgard followers from Adrestia cus they aren't exactly pleased you offed their leader and stubborn lil church offshoots not being too pleased about their new Archbishop. basically Dimitri and Byleth have to deal with the fucky aftermath of a war, like sure you won but not everyone will agree with you or accept your new leadership lying down. SS's Epilogues are kind of the same but are more focused on the rebuilding parts, their chapters are mostly go here, clear out the ruin pickers and dispense relief supplies and prep places for rebuilding. the messy annoying cleanup before you can get back into some state of normalcy VW's starts similarly to Silver snow but then takes a nose dive as they have to fend off some of the not so friendly external forces who had the brilliant idea of sieging fodlan while she was still licking her wounds thinking she was easy pickings (that Claude to the rescue event you see in the end cards basically), dealing the whole second edge on the double-edged sword of power: theres always that one dude who will consider you a threat, regardless of your intentions. and finally CF's epilogue; which would sort of be the challenge chapters since they would be the ones without having access to divine pulses and the SotC gets a lil downgraded back it its base form or Byleth gets one of the Non-bone relic weapons as a gift which could basically function like the SotC (like Ike's sword type deal), the CF epilogues are all about the BESF's hidden battle against TWS, first couple of chapters are pretty much the scouting/info gathering where they find out where their hive is and the next couple are some pre hunt prepping to pump up their forces (the Breather chapter since this is the challange section )and an Ambush from the Tws ending with taking them down, first a race against time to shut off the javelins of light and the ye olde herobandits followed by a srs smackdown of Thales who then stabs himself with the last few drops of Sothis blood they have left in a last ditch effort to survive becoming the Pristine Beast (think immaculate one and the umbral beast combined) who has shitty AOE attacks that cause rubble to fall all over the field that you either have to stun to prevent or have then clear out to make sure you have any space to move at all.

As much as I love Edelgard and the Black Eagles I low key feel like the Crimson Flower Route is just the “evil” or “bad ending” type of a video game. You don’t really feel good when you finish it? You feel like you did a lot of violence for something that could’ve possibly talked over with Claude

I always felt like this route was added in at the last minute because IS realized “Some people might want to help anime Hitler instead of crazy Palutena.”

Plus "The Tradegy of Duscur" has missing contents in "Azure Moon Route"

Also it's a total shame that none of the Black Eagles students matter to Edelgard whatsoever. I'd genuinely rather face them as enemies (maybe with heartfelt recruitment challenges) in the War phase than have them hanging around as part of the Murder Squad "just cause Professy is here".

>Awakening wasn't bad Before, I would have settled for calling you "comrade". But now, I will settle for calling you "friend".

Why invade neutral territory? Because you need to knock him (Claude) off to claim the manpower/resources of the Alliance to help you to better fight against the Kingdom and the Church. Even with the (former) Alliance's numbers, the empire's total armed forces were over-stretched and out-matched (explaining both Ladislava's and Randolph Bergliez's deaths in CF Chapter 15), compared to the combined forces of the Knights of Seiros and the Kingdom army.

Having played through Crimson Flower on my first run of FETH, I relish in the idea of expanded backstory as well as the story after defeating The Immaculate One. It definitely allows for the player to be far more empathetic with Edelgard, showing her humanity and vulnerability. Props!

I think a minor touch they could have had in Crimson Flower is: Sothis' Crest stone disappearing is pretty narratively shaky. Instead, have it so that Edelgard says that her mages have been working on a way to extract it safely, and they believe that they can do so. Then, give the player the choice to remove it or not. In either case, it makes more narrative sense, and it potentially leaves that decision up to you. It also shows how much Edelgard cares about you. Edit: and as a sidenote, there's minimal resources needed for this, no prerenders, no extra S support scenes (they already did it for the base game)

I wouldnt say Crimson flower is bad. Its just VERY rushed. I mean... I defeat and capture the entire leister Alliance in 2 chapters, No battle of the eagle and Lion Version CF, some pretty boring Paralogues (Hubert and Edelgard) Edelgard is not that likeable as a lord IMO And The Final Map is a Slog. Its still better than Silver snow. And i know what you are gonna say "Verdant wind and Silver snow is the same!" Gameplay wise yes. But story wise Verdant wind is alot better with a much more likeable Lord and the best Final map in Fire emblem History. (IMO)

Hilda and Cereal I laughed at this way more than I should have

I love the weird stuff that npcs you put in the videos. Thx

When did Edelgard EVER say she KILLED her siblings? I've played Crimson Flower like four times, and that NEVER was stated for me. Can someone please tell when this happens?

Edelgard needs basically tooled up as a character. She can't pretend to be doing the right thing when she's mass murdering people who didn't massacre her family at the behest of people who DID massacre her family. And if she was under duress, then she should seem far more anguished by her issues rather than an ice queen who can say, "yeah get over it, B," after having done nothing to stop the assassination of the MC's dad (who, having betrayed the church at first due to mistrust of Rhea, could have been brought around to their side). Of course, that feeds into the other problem: Byleth needs to be a character, an actual character, who changes and influences Edelgard. Not 'we get told Byleth is her rock', but actual Byleth having opinions and saying things. Basically, we didn't need a persona protagonist here, we needed a traditional protagonist. Heaven forbid I reference the writing mess that is FE7, but at least Hector and Eliwood talked to each other and had differences in opinion. Byleth needed to be Edelgard's Hector. Or Eliwood. Instead of, well, Byleth watches as Edelgard does fucked up shit and says, "this is fine," because he's hardcore simping.

I really like this video! I might not agree with Edelgard but she definitely needed a better route. Also, what if there were green units in the new chapter 19 and there was a secondary objective to save them.

The king, he has returned to fix the game once again

I really like that tragedy ending, and not just because I don"t like Edelgard as a Verdant Wind lover. ( Golden Deer Gang! :P) It makes a perfectly sad ending for a very sad character and while I admit the ending where Eva lives is the ending Edelgard deserves, I personally love the ending where she has to face defeat and failure... I really don't hate Edelgard, I just mildly don't like her.

I have a different suggestion: make the final battle a three-way fight between Byleth/Edelgard, Rhea/Church of Seiros, and Thales/Agarthans. That would have allowed for a neat wrap-up of the Agarthans while presenting another memorable instance of the three-way battle mechanic. Also helps make up for having no post-timeskip Gronder's Fields battle in this route.

Crimson Flower 🤝 Edelgard Being unexpectedly short

I really like your thumb drawing of Hub.

They mentioned why Edelgard doesn't attack the kingdom first. They said that it was harder to move large groups of troops through the mountains to the west of Garreg Mach. Because of this, it was easier to go through the alliance's territory.

A big change needed is for all the characters to stop pretending they are the good guys and handwave every horrible thing edelgard does. Nobodys questions anything she does and its infuriating.

Hi Armads. I like the direction you went with for the redesign of CF for the biggest part. But Eva overcomplicates things and I really dislike her inclusion. I don't think she is necessary to develop Edelgard her personality and character more. But I will get into that later. Although never fully explained in the game, CF can be fixed with what we already know. - Edelgard is raised by the Hresvelg house and have shared the story about the church through out the generations. She hates barbarism and forced rules. Because those rules, she has suffered and want the world to be fixed and make a system based on merit instead of bloodlines. - While it is true that TWSITD are the true evil, Edelgard needs their power to realise her goals. They both know they use eachother to get their goals. We saw that Edelgard despises TWSITD for what they did im Duscur, to her family and what not in the convo pre time skip between her as the Flame Emperor and Thales around chapter 8 I think. It is true that TWSITD are the bigger evil, as Edel knows this. But the Church also has spread lies about the religion and the crests. If both the Church and TWSITD are your enemies, you first fight the common enemy in Edelgard's place. So about PTS, it is logical that Edelgard wants to retake the bridge of Myrddin. She said and explained in the game that she prefers to retake the birdge to have an easier enterance to Alliance territory to carefully plan and stategise the invasion of the Kingdom. I don't think a new chapter 13 is needed, and keep what makes CF unique there. But I 100% agree with the inclusion of Lorenz and Raphael in the story. To add to that, Randolph and Fleche are now playable units that replace Seteth and Flayn. Ladislava will replace Catherine. Fleche is a Mage (she said in AM that she can use magic). Ladi and Randolph remain the same classes. Lorewise I'd like to see Edelgard being more in touch with TWSITD in the earlier chapters of the route, see her despise them as they force her and Hubert to take orders which they disagree with. Example is killing Cornellia and nuking fort Ariahnrod as revenge. I'd want to see that more. After Rhea has been defeated, I'd love having a cut scene where Ferdihad gets nuked by javelins of light. Figures that Thales planned to nuke the empire and the Church. Arundel watching was just "a plan" to prepare the attack. Luckily they survive and Hubert traces where the missles came from clearer because they already witnessed fort Arianrhod blowing up. Edelgard shifts from calm and composed to unstable and angry. She comes clean to the black eagle strikeforce about the blood surgery and explains why she wanted the Church destroyed. But also acknowledges that TWSITD are guilty and the real evil. She explains that she needed their strength to opress the supporting factions of the Church, but they have been manipulating her and counter using her for her army and resources. She now assess everything and doubt her beliefs. The next chapters become focused on Shambalah and the agarthans. Chapter 19 will be in Shambalah like in VW/SS and like you said. But unlike those chapters, Thales flees instead of blowing it up, letting Hubert and co investigate the javelins of light and dismantle them In Chapter 20, Thales flees to Fodlan's throat (since it's close to Gonerill territory). And there you can either fight with or against Almyrans, based on if you kill or did not kill Claude in Chapter 14. Claude + Nader can be green units, or you have to face off Nader as a red/yellow unit. Thales now dies but transforms into a demonic beast as a desparate final attemps but either gets killed by Claude if he is still alive with the caption "I owe you Teach. Now go!" Or Ladislava sacrificing herself to it. Fascinated by the missles and their destructive powers, Hubert studies them and advices Edelgard to ban them if she becomes Emperor of a united Fodlan. Hubert will be focused on them for while and will share findings he and Linhardt found (if Lin is still alive). In the final chapter, Myson (who survived) gets to do a ritual and revives the Hresvelg family who had been killed by the experiements or lost their minds to attack the Monastery along with a revived Dimitri and maybe some other friends she killed. Struck with the realisation that her dead family are used as a weapon, and that they attack her breaks her heart. In the last preparation month, Edelgard is not herself, yet an emotional and enraged girl who is fearful in truth. She is angry about all what she has done and all what has been done to her. She swears to end this war, even if that means breaking her own heart. It is something she had started so she will finish it. Just like the SS final chapter, you have the Hresvelgs + Dimitri that are zombies who can't talk, ready to be killed by the player. Each sibling that dies gets a quote of Edelgard, revealing dark things. Example: "Sorry brother Edward... The rats surrounding your corpse is still engraved within my memory... May you finally find peace." The final boss is her Father, controlled by Myson. We finally get to know who Myson truely is and why he sneaks in every final chapter of every playthrough. He explains Edelgard that their real weapon was intended to be Edelgard herself, and all the prior experiments on her siblings have gave them additional weapons if she or the javelins of light would fail. He'd never give up on destroying Fodlan and rose an army of undead. The blood of Cethleann was used for the ritual to revive the dead and force them up to fight Edelgard if all other plans failed. Like Nemesis, the siblings form a barrier to protect the Emperor. Myson specialises in strong dark magic which he can also use from a far range. The emperor specialises in swords and carries a cloned sword of Seiros fused with some argathan tech. Edelgard, like Dimitri will have a final speach, where she confesses her pain and guilt for what she did. But that peace is lurking around the corner. The army supports her and agrees with her vision of creating a new Fodlan without lies, where people like Caspar can still be house leaders if they mean well, even if they have older siblings or bear no crests. As a bonus, I'd love Hubert to have the crest of Maucil, that will complete the 4 holy saints and their legacy who lived forth in the Empire (Cichol with Ferdie, Cethleann with Lin, Indech with Bernie and Maucil with Hubert). Maucil relic will be like a magic staff for all to use that will increase damage rather than range. Maucil crest wielders will deal extra damage compared to those who don't have it. It's a silver iconed relic. And I also would love Edelgard to have supports with Sylvain about Miklan and their shared hatred on crests (A support please), Mercedes/Jeritza (about house Bartels and Edelgard promising it to raise up again) and maybe Ignatz/Raphael about the demonic beasts that killed merchants. That way, we can see Edelgard boil and rage more about the Agarthans and the Bloodline system with her promising to change it in their cause, which will strengthen her beliefs. And of course supports with the Bergliezes and Ladi.

Wow this was a really good video! Your ideas make Edlegard seem like a more sympathetic character and gives her the characterization she needs!

Finally another Armads4Prez upload

Instead of wasting 3/4 of the dlc on costumes they could have added more chapters to crimson flower

Writer During Early Drafts of The Story: Yo what if Lysithea was evil?

One thing I do think causes a lot of the issues is the fact that people tend to compare how things played out in each route. Crimson Flower was just like; finish the war, and you're done.

Thank you for the "Spoilers for all routes" warning. I'll watch this later. Anime characters without noses look creepy in my opinion, so the thumbnail resonates with me.

Your changes to Edelgard's character miss what makes her appealing as a character: she's a powerful person who's willing to do evil things for the sake of the greater good. Pointing a gun to her head and making her motives personal take away that appeal and go in the opposite direction. Also Dmitri already goes in with a personal motive. Claude is going in with the goal of the alliance surviving. It would be redundant to also give Edelgard a personal motive. Like, I really like how the issue Edelgard's addressing affects every house. Crests were related to Sylvain's issues and Lysithea had the same thing happen to her as what happened to Edelgard, as the most obvious examples. Like, Edelgard works best if she's right. If her winning creates an objectively better world. Because then the question can be focused solely on "but at what cost?" rather than "but actually she was manipulated or her world was destined to fail" which dodges the question a bit. I also like how that contrasts with Dmitri's route, where he's more concerned with the personal impacts of war and trauma, which ends in him creating a stable kingdom that is not too different from the status quo. The route needed to make the answers to the most obvious questions clearer. Why didn't Edelgard try a more diplomatic approach? She has a reduced lifespan and probably wouldn't live through the negotiations. Maybe there was an attempt at that in the past and it didn't work. Maybe the fact that Rhea executes her descenders is enough to say "not a good idea." Why did she ally with the Agarthans? They're powerful and she needed their support to stand a chance. Edelgard was confident that she could handle them after the fact. The Empire already has a long history of working with the Agarthans and making enemies with them on top of everyone else would hurt the Empire's odds. Why attack the Alliance first? Controlling them means a bigger army to take to Rhea. Prevent potential flow of supplies from the Alliance to the Kingdom. She'll have to fight both either way and the Alliance is easier to deal with. Just having Edelgard explain herself better (maybe Bylethe or someone else asks her or Hubert). I think what would also be interesting and beneficial to her route is to force her to confront face first the horrors of what her campaign is doing. Like, Fleche trying to kill Dmitri in his route is a highlight for me because it shows the consequences of his actions and personal this is for people. Having a map where people try to overthrow Edelgard or something like that could cut deep in a way that fits her established character because it forces her to confront the fact that no matter how good her ideals may be or how many people her new world will benefit, she is still forcing people to die for her (yes she acknowledges this fact in the route, but saying and seeing aren't the same thing). As far as final boss goes, I think Thales or Rhea should be the final battle with the other one being the second to final battle. Both have their merits as a final battle, but I think Rhea would still be better because Edelgard's story is about the big picture while her conflict with Thales would have more personal motives. Therefore, Rhea being the final boss would be more thematically appropriate. Anyways, in summary: the biggest issue with Crimson Flower is it doesn't make Edelgard's decision making very clear (like you said), it doesn't really challenge her, and it doesn't emphasize her most interesting traits enough.

I think edelgard wants you to kill her for one reason. She thought her ideals and actions were just and was going to pursuit them until she died. Thats her duty. However she realizes that what she does is start a war, killing thousands. Thus, her death or her victory was the only way this could have ended, else how, she would have tried again and again

Yooo that final map idea sounds legit cooler than any of the canon maps.

The thing that I hate the most about this route is Edelgard growth as a character. FEH tries to tell us that Edelgard growth was about relying on others, which is reflected only with Byleth (and (s)he is a Mary Sue/Gary Stu avatar, so it doesn't count) but no one else, not even Hubert. She seems more open with the BE stike force, but it doesn't mean that she trust them.

reasons lorenz didn't appear in crimson flower 1: the game makers were too lazy to add him 2: stuck in his castle drinking tea

Tbh, I don’t understand how Edelgard could have killed Dimitri, he should have activated battalion vantage wrath and critted her to death

eva: did you do it? edelgard: yes eva: what did it cost? edelgard: everything

I know the story and cutscenes are bad, but I would first improve the characters. Give Ferdinand a paralouge with something to do about Duke Argir and make him and ally or something. I want Randolph to be a unit so he and Caspar can have supports. I want to see Dimitri as a bigger part of the story. Have Petra get Brigid involved or something. Jeritza gets a cutscene where he struggles with having to kill Mercedes if she wasn’t recruited , and she realizes it’s him like in the blue lions. Add Count Varley as a boss in Bernadetta’s paralouge so I can punch him in the face. I love the idea of this story so we should keep it. Eva would give us more info on the husks and the agarthans as a whole.

The Alliance claimed to be neutral, but in fact they were actually split down the middle, with half of the Alliance lords wanting to side with the empire, while the other half actively interfered with Edelgard. Then you had Claude who was trying to make it look like he wasn't picking a side and give off the impression that the Alliance was united under his command...even though it wasn't at all. Originally Edelgard wasn't planning to invade the Alliance. She just wanted to pass through Alliance territory because going through the Alliance was the fastest most reliable route to the Kingdom. She couldn't make her way through though because the Alliance lords who were against her would impede her progress by refusing to allow her troops safe passage. She had to stop their interference before she could even get to the Kingdom and deal with Rhea. So the invasion of the Alliance became necessary because half the Alliance lords essentially decided that they wanted to poke the bear and see what happened.

Ideas for how to fix Azure Moon: The story has a lot of effort in it than the other routes still, so we don’t need to change that much. Fix the whole Ashe dilemma. Have Rodrigue’s death be a cutscene. Have Dedue be more important in helping Dimitri being kind again. Maybe he could be standing out of view from Dimitri and Byleth in the “your hands are warm” part, smiling too. Like in this video, Myson should blackmail Edelgard. Hubert should have a bigger role and somehow be killed in the final battle by Myson, and then Myson is killed on the way to Edelgard, and being shocked at the hegemonic Eelgard. This would emphasize her death cutscene even more. Also I know cutting hair is a symbol of growth in Japan, but I hate the design of timeskip Mercedes. If her hair is cut, explain it or something. And maybe give Glenn a portrait and voice in the Dimitri flashback scene pre-timeskip. That’s how I would “fix” Azure Moon.

What I would have liked to see is that Rhea barely survives and escapes the final confrontation in an extremely injured state whether from allies sacrifice or last minute intervention from Sothis not wanting to kill her child. She is then captured by the Agarthins and used to complete one final experiment. The Agarthins I feel at this point would already know Edelgard was going to betray them and would have gathered up Rhea and possibly Flayn and Seteth. Now we've seen that Byleth's mom didn't decompose after her death possibly due to either the crest of flames or crest of Seiros and the Agarthins have the corpse of nemesis which is probably what they were using to experiment on Edelgard and her siblings. I want to say that the Agarthins would kill Rhea in her weakened state and make new relics from her bones the same as how they made Aymr. Then using the corpses and/or potentially mad siblings of Edelgard that all have varying amounts of the crest of Seiros, the Agarthins form new ten elites wielding Rheas bones. Then we get to see Edelgard completely break down as she is forced to face the past she left behind her, the past we know still haunts and motivates her. At this point there could also be scene before this final battle where when Rhea is killed by the Agarthins Byleth loses his powers as his crest stone shatters further crushing Edelgard by removing her strongest pillar of support at her weakest point. Byleth will come back but the final battle must be faced without the wheel of time, razing the steaks and furthering the point that the power of the crests shouldn't be relied upon and proving thats it is possible if you defeat the ten siblings. The final boss of this fight could just be amalgamation of all ten siblings and Rhea and the final cut-scene will end with Edelgard defeating it with Byleth while wielding the sword of Saint Seiros rather than Aymr.

I might be in the minority, but I'm alright with the proposed changes here, for the most part. I think it would've been better to just explain things better in the story, and have the BEs give Edelgard some push back on her ideas but that would be a less interesting video. Also personal thing but plot holes don't matter, unless they're really egregious.

Fixing Azure Moon?! Yeah right, that's pretty much a perfect story. Good video though think I'll check out the other two

I think it’s about time Nintendo hired you my guy

Meh I don’t have a lot of problems with Crimson Flower or Edelgard’s character (although her motives and redemption could be better), but I do think they should’ve added a Gronder 2.0. It makes sense for your army not to join Gronder in Silver Snow, but it could have easily been implemented in CF. They could have made the influence of the Alliance reach further into Empire territory after the timeskip, explaining why Edelgard and Claude would clash, Dimitri could be there to hope to end the war quickly after Byleth returns. Alternatively, you could make the battle take place after Myrddin, so that the player has had time to get used to the growths of their units. It would only take place on a different map and maybe lose some of its symbolism. A Reunion at Dawn map would also still work on this route, maybe having Pallardo be bold enough to invade an old town around Garreg Mach despite the imperial army being at the monestary. Alternatively, you could use Judith as an invader, which would make declaring war against the Alliance more believable, like you said. I would also add the fight against the Agarthans before Rhea, as she makes too much sense to be the final boss of the route. After Arianrhod gets destroyed, Edelgard decides against blaming the attack on the church, at Byleth’s insistence. This would make the others question Edelgard and would make her have some vulnerability, because she’s forced to hold herself accountable. Naturally, the Strike Force would not desert her, but they would demand her to reveal all her cards, which would give them some extra characterization during monestary days during the month. Hubert has in the meantime discovered the location of Shambhala, like he is able to in SS/VW after Merceus, so the Black Eagle Strike Force takes a small detour to Alliance territory to destroy Thales. This would make the map a repetition of others, but maybe it could be changed a little by making Thales more deranged, as the betrayal of Edelgard comes at a surprise. Edelgard would declare there is no need for their alliance anymore, as she has since received more troops from Alliance and some Kingdom territories, and she wants to win the war for her ideals by her own means and merits. After Those Who Slither in the Dark are vanquished, they return their sights on Tailtean and Fhirdiad. This comment was way too long and not at all pleasing to read, but I’ve had these two ideas in my head for a while now and just wanted to throw them out there. It would only make the route 2 chapters longer, but they’re such easy solutions I can’t believe the developers didn’t think of them themselves.

Damn, that was great, I really wish the writers thought of things more coherently than what came out, a mix-mash of ideas.

But byleth didnt revive him, they reversed time, but not so he was suddenly back

I liked CF despite how obviously rushed it was but i agree with your opinion and changes, edelgarde deserved better than a rushed route

Plus the theme is literally told from the perspective of at least crimson flower, if not then silver snow at least

Is there gonna be a "How to fix Azure Moon" video? Or if you feel like the route doesn't need that, maybe a "What makes Azure Moon so great" video?

Honestly, she's more like Lelouch from Code Geass. They both had 2 different personas, tragic history, and they rebelled against a system they hate, and will do anything to get their hands dirty even if it means looking like a villain at the end of the day.

"Edelgard has a lot in common with Walter White from Breaking Bad" I'll hear you out but I'm sorry W h a t

20:30 that genuinely happy Edelgard activated my fight or flight response

I liked your new story quite a bit, but Byleth should get her crest stone removed from her heart. It just fit with the story the most.

Edelgard is a communist, and a bad one at that. She wants the poor and working class to be in power and both the rich. She is contradictory though because a the empress she is the most rich and powerful. She also declares war on a religious institute because she thinks it corrupts the people of Fodland. The USSR also had the goal of elimination of religion and even enforced that atheism be taught in schools, which is something Edelgard would probably if or after she won the war. Since she wouldn’t want the church to get more power. But Edelgard fell even before the revolution started unlike Vladimir Lenin who became a dictator after the revolution. So with that being said Edelgard is essentially a Stalinist because she wants there to be no lords or rich people as well as the end of the church. Then finally one last thing to mention is that the Adrestian Empire has already tried to go along the path of an ethnostate. If you don’t remember the Empire wiped out the Dagda people with no justifiable cause. Even the Kingdom had some justification to attack the Duscir people even though it was overkill. Also Brigid is a puppet state to the Empire much like how Tanna Tuva and Mongolia were puppets of the Soviet Union. I know that Edelgard does not have the goal of creating an ethnostate since she gets along with Petra but who would be her successor and what were there goals be? After her death it would probably be a Stalin-Trotsky type of situation where it would be two warring factions that are both closley related. Now if you are going to say that Edelgard’s child would just become the next leader then that further proves that Edelgard is hypocritical and would just be installing an absolute monarchy. The last thing I have to say is that the Empire is so clearly based on Russia. In one of the books on the library I believe, it describes the Empire as having a lot of land that is mostly icy as well as having a Dagda population and culture inside of it, which is like how Russia was is even now. A lot of icy land with a lot of ethnic minorities in it. Edelgard is hypocritical and contradictory. She claims that she is for the working class but she instead conscripts her people to fight a war on a church that they probably believe in. Edeldard is nothing but a selfish dictator that exploits her people to further her own goals. If you still support her and her goals you are essentially supporting Joseph Stalin. But I guess if you still support her after all of that then you must be ready to starve to death just like the people of every communist country there has ever been.