Why Edelgard is an ABSOLUTE GENIUS in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes So Far. (Demo Story Review) 

*EDIT: Heads up, I know you're excited about the game but please don't accidentally spoil details revealed in the datamine in the comments. Be a good neighbor!* PHEWWWW I legitimately spent all night preparing this video before Friday! I absolutely love Edelgard so far in Three Hopes. I hope this video helps to convince skeptics and validate fellow SB fans! This is a very chunky video, and it took a lot out of me to finish in time, despite having been home at the farm helping with the chores for the last few days. ANd HUGE thank you to all of you. The channel just hit 96K subcribers and is now only 4000 away from 100k! Literally wild!!! If you are excited about 3 hopes and want to watch me stream the game and want more videos like this. Please consider subscribing and supporting me get to the ultimate goal! Question for you: What is your favorite route so far?

I think my favourite Edelgard moment in the demo is when she responds to Beradetta’s hopeful “did you arrest my father too?” with an “I’m afraid not”, followed by her and Hubert later heavily implying they assigned Count Varley to a dangerous, unpopular position on purpose because they hate him and hope he gets assassinated. Such a Hubert way of looking out for your friends - making sure their abusers’ death looks like an accident.

It should be noted that Monica said "I could tell from his gait, and how he held his staff" which implies that she didn't saw his face directly while being kidnapped and as other pointed out he doesn't want to reveal he's an agarthan and being a friendly trustworth librarian helps lures people

About the Dorothea part, she probably isn’t as impressive as the rest that Edelgard took along (probably), but Edelgard probably took her as well because if you remember, in Three Houses Dorothea told Bernadetta that she had to deal with kidnappers and attempted robbers and people trying to kill her and stuff, so she broke their arms, and in her support with Felix Dorothea already knew how to fight with a sword since she had to deal with bad people back in her opera days (and even Felix was impressed with her skill when he trained with her).

A beautiful comment that I saw perfectly explains the “Blood Smell” tracking ability Jeritza has; the Crest of Lamine gives the holder the ability to sense the pain of others. For Mercedes it lets her know who is in need of help the most and for Jeritza it lets him know where his suffering enemies are. Edit: I wasn’t sure about this so I was looking through Mercedes’s supports and sure enough in her B support with Byleth she claims sensing distress is like second nature and attributes it to her history at the church of Faerghus.

Edelgard: "And my new friend with glow-in-the-dark Agarthan powers." Shez: "Yep, that's me."

I started with El's route, and I audibly was praising her for how her plan fell together. Jeritza being their professor, being rid of Kostas in the beginning, and being able to take the leaps much quicker felt pretty natural, and I was really pleased to see the Black Eagles' response to what she did. It reminds me of what you said in your BIG Edelgard video, how you had wished there had been a moment where the Black Eagles called Edelgard out for her scheming and not telling them what she had been planning, and while not like, the biggest thing, it DID get brought up by the kids left behind and was a good moment. I'm really excited to see where Scarlet Blaze goes from here.

Really loved the video! As for Solon’s colossal mistake, on the Azure Gleam and Golden Wildfire routes Monica makes it sound like Solon wasn’t disguised as Tomas when she was kidnapped. She says “Well, the one who kidnapped me was Tomas the librarian. I’m certain of it. I could tell [it was Tomas] from his gait, and how he held his staff. I suppose he isn’t the simple scholar you think he is.” The biggest point is the second sentence. She’s not describing his appearance, but the way he carries himself. Also a minor note, she calls his cane a staff, which it technically is, but it appears more as a staff when he’s appearing as Solon, versus the cane he uses when disguised as Tomas. It’s strange she gives less of an explanation on Scarlet Blaze, but given what she says on the other routes I’d argue Solon did think it through. Maybe he had become too used to blending in as Tomas that his mannerisms carried over.

As someone who loved the scheming aspect of Edelgard in CF, her whole plan in 3 Hopes' demo alone was a delight to watch. It's super impressive how well thought out the whole thing is, to the extent you just feel the whole idea in-universe had been in Edelgard's mind for a while already.

I love how intelligent Edelgard is constantly portrayed to be. She’s always rolling with the punches, and making lemonade with the absolute lemons life gives her. Any other “intelligent” character in media is portrayed by their plans being these 5D chess moves where everything is perfect and they get to psychoanalyze their opponent while doing so, like some sort of magic trick. But Edelgard creates plans that make sense in the moment but can and will go awry when something she didn’t expect happens. But that doesn’t make her stupid, because she’s just able to alter course and adapt to overcome the obstacles in front of her. She’s able to deviate from a charted course based on the opportunities she sees appear or disappear in front of her, and I think that shows both her ability to adapt as well as her cognizance of the world around her It’s a breath of fresh air to see a protagonist/antagonist feel intelligent because of their actual problem solving abilities rather than because the plot says so and they use bigger words then everyone else

She gamble big and won big

I dont understand how anyone can say Edelgard is out of character. You're absolutely right. It's more about the circumstances that she's able to move so fast. This game has been wild so far, great video

People were genuinely shocked that Edelgard still started a war despite having gotten rid of the Agarthans from the Empire. But people forget that Edelgard wanted the war not because of them, but because she wants to completely dismantle the status quo. El was going to start a war against them with or without the Agarthans. However, now that they are gone, and El is in a far better space mentally and emotionally, there might be potential for her to propose a ceasefire in the war and make a compromise.

It is nice to see Edelgard and Hubert be themselves since there is no major need to keep secrets.

The Jeritza replacement theory always made more sense to me anyway, because if Edelgard wanted to kill Dimitri and Claude, why didn't she send someone more competent than common bandits? She has the likes of Hubert, the Death Knight, and TWSITD at her disposal and her best bet for killing her two rivals is Kostas? Why didn't she make any further attempts on their lives after Kostas failed? Even when Kronya, a literal assassin, infiltrated Garreg Mach, no moves are made.

The game basically tells you everything you need to understand its logic, and yet I can't have one day without someone calling Edelgard a mary sue, or making some other stupid comment about the game's story. It often feels like half the FE community only played Blue Lion and never anything else, so they somehow think Edelgard is just a power hungry fascist.

I expected a pure spin-off title, to be honest. I thought this game wanted to capitalize on Three Houses' success to boost the warriors franchise, like Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity did. But so far, this game impressed me, in a more than positive way. It doesn't feel like a parasyte and more like a continuation. It's amazing how well the developers understand the lore and the characters and how much they are willing to tell an interesting story. I guess it helped a lot that Koei Tecmo was already involved in the development of Three Houses, so it's reasonable to assume that their hearts are really in this. Either way, i really feel passion in this game and that alone elevates this game for me.

Regarding Solon kidnapping Monica as Tomas; this happened (likely) at the monastery, where "Tomas" lured Monica away and he was the last person she saw/remembered before being locked away. As to why he revealed himself, I'll chalk it up as hubris.

I’d argue the reason why Solon kidnapped Monica as Tomas was to be able to lure her out the Monastery, she trusts tomas so it was easier for him to kidnap her as Tomas And jeritza was probably let in on where Monica was at by edelgard in the cutscene right before he heads out Other than that great video

I will be honest, my opinion of Edelgard as a strategist shot way up with this demo because prior to it, I viewed her as an active, yet inflexible planner to a fault, in contrast to Claude's general flexibility and passivity. Now I'm not so sure. Also, I do hope that Claude is able to actively participate in the plot, even with valuable investigation time lost due to no Academy phase.

In regards to the whole "Solon outing himself as Tomas before Monica" thing, I personally believe it's most likely that Monica was whisked away by Solon in his Tomas disguise, as it is specifically mentioned she was kidnapped before her graduation, meaning she'd still be on academy grounds. My guess is that under the guise of Tomas, he lured Monica away from prying eyes before revealing himself where he wouldn't cause a stir, then using his magic to teleport the two of them away. This is of course under the assumption that he needs to be in his true form in order to use his magic abilities, which would also explain the scene where he teleports away from the Knights of Seiros. Solon doesn't strike me as the type to unnecessarily reveal his plans, as even in Remire Village he keeps his disguise until the very last possible moment when he needs to kill Byleth and the students.

14:05 I would argue solon captured Monica as Tomas as to not reveal agarthans to fodland. As Monica was rescued, which is worst, having your secret identity revealed or your alter ego?

Just with the Solon rant, I’m 100% with you. However I don’t believe Monica’s kidnapping was described in detail. For example the kidnapping could’ve happened at the monastery and Solon would still be disguised as to not bring attention to himself when luring Monica. I think this is where the writers are trying to lead us with her kidnapping, without spelling everything out for us. If I am wrong about not having clear details, feel free to let me know and maybe I happened to miss them.

I actually agree wholeheartedly that this is truly a proper route and Edelgard’s plans definitely seem much more calculated and makes much more sense as opposed to 3H. (For most of the game she’s been cryptic the whole game) I joke the fact that Byleth is actually the true enemy of 3H, but the fact that they aren’t here definitely is something. Plus Shez as a character is much more fun and lively, kinda like an avatar of Ike sort of character, I like the dynamic of you being both students as opposed to being their professor, it falls into the flaw of some avatar’s biggest problem “avatar worship” and especially a little bit of taboo/grooming. Because as the professor the characters are forced to give you respect which definitely doesn’t do any favors, which is why I appreciate Shez more since some characters treat them like normal or worse (Lorenz)

Solon didn’t kidnap Monica as Tomas, he did it as himself whilst hiding his identity (probably with a hood), but she knew it was Tomas based on the way he walked and his staff (dialogue from the game)

I'd argue regarding Solon that he may well have been in his true form when he kidnapped Monica, he just didn't imagine she'd be able to identify him as Tomas. Note that Monica never says the person who took her looked like Tomas, rather she identifies them based on the way they moved and held their staff. Still risky for Solon to do, but less risky than using his disguise. And whether or not Solon could Warp away without transforming, my impression was he transformed in order to use the shock waves from it to keep the knights from interfering with him warping away.

I'm sure you will make videos on Dimitri and Claude as well, but I want to point out two very significant things here: First off, Rhea doesn't have the same grievances with Edelgard that she does in 3 Houses, and Rhea is in a far more composed and rational state since she never reunited with Byleth (or was subsequently betrayed by them). While the declaration of war will no doubt ruin Rhea's perception of and feelings towards Edelgard, Edelgard (to the best of our knowledge) never raided the monastery's crypt for crest stones. Additionally, she went the extra mile to sever her connection with the Agarthans before declaring war on the church. Rhea can no longer use that partnership against her. From Rhea's perspective, Byleth is not in the picture (yet). Rhea's entire motivations and outlook changed upon Byleth's return to the monastery; she once again had the rekindled hope that she could restore Sothis. Without that, she may not have the drive to keep fighting against losing odds and may therefore surrender. Alternatively, TWSITD may see this as an opportunity to pincer the church, upon which Edelgard could prove her intentions by siding with Rhea under the condition she formally surrenders once the Agarthans are dealt with. This would devalue any claims that Edelgard strictly had a vendetta against the Nabataeans, something Rhea, Seteth, and Flayn show concern about in 3 Houses (also something Edelgard tries to dispute when she launches her surprise attack on the monastery in her combat dialogue vs Flayn). The second point I'd like to similarly make is about Dimitri. This one is far shorter and is simply that in this timeline, Edelgard is not in the wrong place at the wrong time and therefore Dimitri doesn't project his blame onto her. He also seems to be far more in control of his emotions and actions, as well as not being driven by rage and grief. While I'm certain there will be fighting amongst the three lords + Rhea, I'm genuinely HOPEful that it won't end in bloodshed this time around.

I come back after a nap and like every comment is about Solon/Monica 😅

So far I have the feeling these new routes are like an improvement of the original timelines. Yet I can't shake the feeling Arval and Shez's existance may bring big and unexpected trouble in future...

One thing you forgot to mention is that while Leopold and Waldemar are proven allies of Edelgard now, they did actually participate in the insurrection. So it seems they may have been convinced by Aeiger at first that Ionius was going to ruin their lives but quickly realized they were in the wrong, especially once the experiments started. And their alliance with Edelgard is also a way of atoning for their past actions.

Perfect video for her birthday! Great video as always

I have to say the greatest thing I love about this story so far is that things are VERY different from how they ever were before. That was absolutely my biggest hope was that the story would completely divulge from Three Houses to be an all-unique timeline and so far that's exactly what we're getting!!!

As for the Tomas point, I 100% read it as either Monica was somewhat in on the plan (like Edelgard pulled her aside and told her what to say, though I'm realizing that was just an assumption I made) but also I'd believe that if Solan kidnapped Monica and she was like 'who are you', he'd take a moment to gloat and say he's Tomas. Like she's captured and going to die, so this is just a bit of a victory lap for him. But I do hope they provide some kind of actual answer!

Amazing video! I just finished the Black Eagles part of the demo as well, and this video really helps put things into context.

I love 3hopes Edelgard's story and feel like they fixed all the problems people had with Crimson Flower. I'm hoping you'll make an analysis of Scarlet Blaze's full story.

It should be noted that her gamble only pays off in two of the three routes in this game in Azure Gleam it all horribly falls apart thanks to Shez siding with Dimitri he can keep the kingdom undercontrol and launch a counter offensive that gives the Agatharians a chance to take control of her and the empire. The fact that it pays off in the two scenarios where she has a masive advantage over the kingdom shows how well thought out a gamble it was

At first I thought Shez was a purple hair Kirito or Luke from tales but I'm glad to see that he's very unique in this game but let's not forget he's friends with side characters plus the house leaders

There is a saying in the military world that I think perfectly explains Edelgard's actions in both games "amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics, and the best study both". Her end goal hasn't changed, just the path leading up to it.

About the tomas/solon reveal, since Monica was abducted during the school year, I imagine Solon was the only one capable of doing the job since he was the only member of twsitd to have infiltrated the monastery. I bet the only reason to have infiltrated the monastery in the first place was to abduct the childrens of influentials nobles. So for me its not weird at all that Solon was the one doing the kidnapping. Tomas was trusted by both the students and the teachers and was in a prime position to kidnap someone. And I dont even think he revealed his Solon form to Monica. He just kidnapped her as Tomas

I love Edelgard's friendship and bond with Dorothea and Petra (and Monica, I guess). And I love Dorothea and Petra's loyalty to Edelgard.

I was confused and upset at first why she was appointing Bernadetta’s dad to such a lofty position as Bishop of the Southern Church when he’s such a terrible person. It wasn’t until later when I realized he would get so much backlash from Garreg Mach and the people at large and then I understood that this was his punishment.

Your video makes me more excited for the full game to come out, can't wait

I think you did such a good job! This was informative and entertaining

i think solon captured monica as thomas because he used deception to capture her. using a face monica knew, because after all she has a crest and can use magic to fight, or maybe even teleport just like hubert does ?

Brilliant video Ghast.

Another thing to note about Tomas and the kidnapping: (Three Houses: Dimitri and Hapi supports spoilers) In Dimitri and Hapi's supports, it is revealed that Cornelia was the one who experimented on Hapi, but she never reveals herself as Cleobulus during that time. I think this lends credence to Solon kidnapping her while masquerading as Tomas. Its a minor thing but maybe it helps support why he did it that way.

Loved this video! You sum up my feelings about Edelgard and her new plans very nicely. I'd be very interested to hear what you think about the BL and GD routes in this kind of detail as well; I have the feeling we're going to be getting a lot of REALLY good story and lore from this game!

Something you maybe overlooking for tomas kidnapping Monica. If your a bad guy walking around as a bad guy you'll never be able to accomplish your goal. If he goes as tomas on a journey then no one would be suspicious of a man from the church going around from town to town.

11:55 I was under the impression that Kronya needed Monica's blood to maintain her disguise, at least appearance-wise.

14:46 The only thing I can think of is that in 1179 Tomas (on one of his many expeditions outside the church) decided to invite Monica along for extra training. Considering that the Staff can teach and provide seminars. Maybe he was inviting Monica under the guise of teaching her new magic that compliments her crest. And during that time he kidnapped her

Looks like the writers learned from their crimson flower mistakes. Let’s hope it stays that way

Honestly, yeah, playing through the Black Eagle's route in Three Hopes is what sold me to the game. I was never a huge Warriors fan, but I was always interested to see how the story would shake up, and seeing that route really impressed and hyped me up for how the rest of the story and game would go!

Hyped for the game . Managed to get a limited edition :)

i think the reason why solon kidnapped monica as tomas was just to lure her away, it's true that he's definitely a lot stronger than her and could easily overpower her but her being a crest bearer and basically a graduate from the officers academy meant it would've been difficult for him to subdue her without seriously damaging her, so luring her away would've been a safer option to preserve the crest aswell as keep her mostly intact to be studied for kronya to easily pose as her

I'll be honest... I've never actually completed the Black Eagle's path in 3H, despite reading and watching its plots. After all, I personally saw that, despite the lore and her reasons, I couldn't see myself join her side as I saw her as an antagonist and her methods questionable But now, I think I may want to choose her route first as I don't feel as conflicted as before!

I got 3 hopes for Christmas and I could not BELIEVE how quickly the 3 houses whole like 1st year was resolved in like 3 weeks in hopes. I'm not entirely sure I love it, but I was enjoying feeling like I was freefalling through a plot I thought I knew how it would play out.

I picked Team Edelgard in original game and picked her in three hopes. Never disapointed!

It's actually weird to me to hear some people have major problems with Scarlet Blaze. To me, it was actually the route that made the most sense to me precisely because of how much changed from the beginning of Three Houses to the beginning of Three Hopes. Edelgard in Three Hopes is essentially pressing the advantage she gained by outing both Solon and Kronya. She is not giving, Those Who Slither in the Dark a chance to mobilize against her. She manipulates Rhea into having the church back her attack on her "uncle," and keeps her ultimate goals on a need to know basis. The fact that Shez is a student and not a teacher makes it so much easier for her to act as well because not only is Jeritza now their professor, Shez being a member of the Black Eagle house means that they kind of just have to go along for the ride. Shez is not in a position of authority over Edelgard like Byleth was and as a student is subordinate to any official mission given to his class by the church. Byleth was initially an impediment to Edelgard's plans as she could not be certain they were trustworthy until many months later while Shez is much more of an readily usable asset.

I really feel that 3 hopes added a lot that you already said but they really did Edelgard well here and covered so many gaps. Edelgard finally goes after the people that hurt her so much, and it’s not mentioned at the end.

Great video! I think a plausible reason for Solon capturing Monica as Thomas is two-fold. First, as a noble (even a minor house) if she is traveling she is going to be doing so with guards of some kind and a familiar face like Thomas is enough to throw Monica and everyone else off of their game and not suspect any danger from him until it was too late. For all we know, he appeared as Thomas, got Monica into a situation where she was alone and is in a different form at that time but Monica is smart enough to put two and two together that they are both him. Two, the Agarthans rightfully believe that once kidnapped there is almost 0 chance that someone is going to figure out where Monica is being held and attempt a rescue. This point is weaker than above, but between the two I don't find anything wanting for a story on the level of Fire emblem.

The thing about the idea that Edelgard set up the bandit attack to get Jeritza as her professor that confuses me is that there was a chance that Jeritza could have been assigned as professor to one of the other two houses (which happens on the other routes in Three Hopes), so she only had a 1/3 chance that she would have been able to work with him.

Edelgard is just such an interesting character to me, and I love people giving her the credit she deserves

I actually enjoyed Edelgard here far more than in 3Houses because her character was able to shine far brighter.

Hmm it might be a stretch but based on Monica's family location and Tomas being a knowledgeable villan with a hornable disguise. Would have the opportunity to teach or mentor Nobels ment to take over their estates. It didn't start as a instant kidnapping but a long game

About Tomas, my interpretation was he lured her as Tomas. Didn’t leave a trace because she went willingly with someone she trusted

Wait, I thought the purpose of Kostas' attack in the beginning was to scare off the unnamed professor so that Jeritza could take his place 🤔 Of course, this didn't exactly go as planned in the original 3 houses timeline as Rhea decided that Byleth would be the better replacement. I'm pretty sure that, even in the 3 hopes demo, Manuala and Hanneman comment on how there was a last-minute change in staff, implying that without Byleth, Edelgard's plans worked flawlessly EDIT-nevermind, commented too early lol

The game makes a point of Monica’s photographic memory. She could’ve been chosen as a target for this ability and it’s probable that Solon wasn’t disguised when he kidnapped her. He was pretending to be Tomas for her entire year at the Academy so her recognizing his gait and mannerisms isn’t out of the question.

The way I thought about it is that shapeshifting itself is a magic spell. So they would have to run two or more magic spells at the same time, and the only people we see kind of do that are crest bearers who can activate the magic of their crests and then whatever spell they were going to do intially. Shapeshifting might just be too powerful of a spell for them to combine with teleporting.

17:20 I’d like to add an additional note, we say that it removed all presence of a mole within the church from the perspective of the player but as characters, neither edelgard or hubert can be sure of that, which can be seen as plot convenience. I’d like to argue however that it literally doesn’t matter. See, solon being outed also likely set the church on high alert meaning that if there were additional moles in the church, their range of ability to communicate with other slitherers would prove extremely limited without outing themselves and legitimizing edelgard’s claim against thales. This would in turn give the church just cause to interfere on edelgard’s behalf and greatly increase the fighting force at her disposal while leaving the agarthans with even less info on the happenings inside the church. That’s not to say edelgard’s gambit didn’t have its risks but that wasn’t one of them

Well done video. I agree that Edelgard made brilliant use of the circumstances she was presented with in Three Hopes. However, I think the demo also opened up more avenues for criticism of her character and plan for war. In Three Hopes, we see that Rhea and Seteth were more than willing to cooperate with Edelgard and root out TWSITD - who Edelgard knows full well to be the real villains - while giving her legitimacy in performing the coup and taking the reins of the Empire. They mustn't have even raised much fuss about her recreating the Southern Church, which suggests to me that the Central Church was giving Edelgard's Empire all the latitude in the world for institutional/policy overhaul. So... Edelgard's whole ethos in going to war is built on much faultier pretenses, since she could likely have achieved her overhaul of at least the Empire entirely peacefully. Even Dimitri in AG expresses jealousy of her revolutionary reforms, even if he thinks the exact same pace wouldn't fit Faerghus due to its instability, so the Empire's reforms would naturally have permeated outward and affected the policy direction of their neighbors over time. Ultimately there's just a bit less believability to Edelgard not being able to sit down and talk with Rhea and the Central Church when they're cooperating so readily pre-skip, against a common foe in the Agarthans... who still exist and could still be cooperated against. It makes her feel more power hungry and contemptuous of the gargantuan human cost to her war plans, when there's a path for peaceful and diplomatic means right there, instead of going to war with a cooperative party.

My theory on Solen kidnaping as Tomas The corps disguise magic used to conceal him will be lost once he takes it off. Meaning if he tried to take off the Tomas suit to kidnap Monica he would need a new flesh suit for infiltrating the monastery

about solon capturing monica as tomas, and that being dumb, i have a theory, maybe he captured her as solon, but during her imprisonment she might have heard that solon was tomas and when sying she was kidnapped she used the name tomas so that people understand who she is talking about. this might also explain why when she says tomas kidnaped her she frases it as the one who kidnaped me(solon) was surely tomas(conecting what shea heard with what she knows).

Shez:*exists* Edelgard:*Death Note-opening 1* It's really amazing how entertaining they made her planning behind the scenes. And they actually made her a character who could be seen as a villain with a point much more convincingly to boot. Besides the Tomas-thing being a bit contrived and them skipping the academy phase outright, I really like the plot and writing for this game so far. Now's just to hope that it will continue like that in the full game.

I'd be willing to bet that Solon didn't look like Tomas upon Monica's capture. Isn't it possible that she simply implicated him to get the church suspicious? They went to arrest him after their own investigation, so plausible deniability is still maintained to an extent, no?

3 Hopes first few chapters certainly has piqued my interest. And I’m actually interested in where all three of the plot lines are heading at the moment. The Imperial war against the Church, the internal politics of the Kingdom and the ramifications for siding with the Church and the Alliance and especially Claude/Khalid contending with Almyra.

Ok I’m gonna bite, and maybe it’ll be explained in the full game, but Edelgard making two enemies at the same time still doesn’t make sense to me. I understand that she doesn’t like the Agarthans, but every move that she’s made makes her their enemy, and since none of them are dead or apprehended, she knows next to nothing about them and they’re at full strength. She doesn’t know where they are, what tools they have or what they’re willing to do for revenge. Declaring war on the church without the Agarthans backing her is one thing, but doing it after actively making an enemy of them feels like an entirely different disaster waiting to happen. I know you mentioned plausible deniability, but does she really have plausible deniability when the only person who knew that Arundel = Thales is Edelgard? Without Solon’s capture there’s no way that anyone else could’ve told Rhea, nor could she herself have known already. And considering that Edelgard killing Cornelia was met with extreme retaliation despite “plausible deniability,” I can’t believe that Edelgard is not an enemy of the Agarthans after completely stripping Thales of his power and kicking him to the side. Idk, without keeping the Agarthans, at least, within her sights I can’t see how she can formulate a plan against an enemy that she has no knowledge of or eyes on while she’s occupied with her war against the church. Maybe we’ll see her plan for dealing with them in the full game.

I think the Solon taking Monica as Tomas. It could’ve been a kidnapping as Tomas to seem trustworthy to lure Monica, or maybe Monica found out somehow (maybe we could see it in a support in the full game) that she connected Tomas and Solon. So it would be less Solon being dumb and more Monica being smart

I'm thinking Solen used the Tomas disguise to lure Monica away and that is why he used it. She trusted him, it saved him a struggle, it's clean and simple

Congrats to Edelgard for somehow having the least controversial route in this game

My theory for why Monica wasn’t killed immediately and why Solon kidnapped her as Thomas is Because while the Agarth disguise Magic is functionally perfect and does not wear off unless consciously removed it cannot be reapplied meaning you only get one shot. It would explain why Monica wasn’t immediately killed because a situation could pop up or cranium would have to appear as kronya and not Monica and why Thomas didn’t kidnap Monica as Solon because he’s the skies are already applied and he couldn’t remove it without losing it entirely

Perhaps maintaining the disguise is a one-time thing, where dropping it means having to manually reapply it.

I'm confused as to how in 3 Houses she is so thoroughly convinced she NEEDS the agarthans help to defeat the church, which makes sense due to the provision of Demonic Beasts, and yet without them she still thinks she can take down the church.

I wish I understood why Edelgard was so convinced the church was “evil”. I constantly asked during 3houses why she didn’t just ally with the church and take down the Agarthans… and now that’s happened, but she still declared war on the church stating they’re “deceptive” and “corrupted”. But I still don’t understand what made her feel that way?

I know this won't happen till three hopes has been out for a while, but I really can't wait for the fanfics that combine the Three Houses and Three Hopes timelines into an AU. A combined timeline that has the best story and character arcs present in both games. That would be amazing, though tbh, it might not even be possible. Maybe in that case, Manuela would opt out of leading a house since she is already the nurse, or maybe Hanneman would opt out in order to focus more on his research. Either way the final teacher lineup would be Byleth, Jeritza, and Hanneman/Manuela. Jeritza can still get Shez's house and then Byleth and either Hanneman or Manuela would divide up the other two houses. There is also another option where both mercenaries end up as students in separate houses, Jeritza leads either Shez's house due to his personal interest in him/her, and Hanneman and Manuela divide the other two houses between each other. This is all just speculation and idea spouting for now. Maybe I'll give it a go once I've beaten all routes in both games. I've already beaten all four Three Houses routes at least once each, but I need to do a run of each where I'm not rushing through the story. I'm going to start Three Hopes with Golden Deer just like I did with Three Houses, but it will likely be a hard choice between which to do next between Blue Lions and Black Eagles, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. My Three houses completion was Verdant Wind(4 runs), Crimson Flower(1 run), Silver Snow(2 runs), Azure Moon(1 run).

Ok, so my thoughts on the Solon thing is that he would be outed anyways when brought to Rhea, they would press him for answers which likely would lead him to being found guilty so, after weighing the pros and cons, decided to out himself and teleport away to warn Arundel/Thales about what happened. That and he wasn’t expecting Monica to be rescued, he saw her rescue to be too risky and a very low chance to succeed with both Kronya and a Demonic Beast guarding her. Shez was a wild card and I think him outing himself was also a way to sow doubt into their ranks with Shez having the same power

Personally, I don’t think we know enough of the details about Monicas capture for the whole Solon-Tomas thing to bother me. Generally it could just have been easier to do the whole thing as Tomas, with Monica being unsuspecting. I don’t think its overly stupid or arrogant not to plan for the eventuallity of her being rescued as it would have seemed very unlikely.

My only complaint is the dissonance between Edelgard's stance towards the church and Houses with dialogue that has her referring to Sothis as a false goddess and her dialogue against Rhea in the final chapter of Crimson Flower saying she never believed in Sothis or Seiros.

I’m new here and just subscribed. I watched your vids on three hopes I to am playing the game and was looking for a good let’s play on the demo came across you and was like ok ok I like this guy so ya can’t wait to see how your play through goes. I may call off work just so I can chill and play along with you lol

Que buen video, tiene total sentido y no se como no me percate.

Man this video is making me want to play Three Houses again. It would be my favorite fire emblem game ever if not for the fact I'm forced to spend up to an hour in the monastery between each map.

Honestly Solon probably kidnapped Monica as Tomas was so he could slip in past guards easily as well as give Monica a false sense of security and was willing to take the risk of exposure

Question about the Agarthans: Are they able to go between disguise and true form freely, or is it gone for good when they discard it? Because if the ladder were the case, then it would make perfect sense why Solon would capture Monica without breaking disguise. We do see Thales in his true form in the cutscene when Jeralt dies, and in his disguise later in part 2, but that’s it. None of the Agarthans break disguise and then revert to their disguise afterward. Does it take time to return to disguised form? There’s a lot of questions to be asked here.

As for Solon I thought it was odd how quickly the church was ready to lock him up and how quickly he dropped the guise to peace out. However, sitting on it, and thinking about his plans and actions in three houses. I am starting to wonder if Solon wasn't always looking for an excuse to get out of there. I also thought it was odd in three houses he just chilling in the village, most likely, knowing full well the knights were coming to investigate with Byleth's class, he still stays and when recognize goes instantly into evil mode. Either hubris is getting the better of him or he just didn't want to be Thomas anymore. I loved three houses but I am really excited to see how much more room characters have to breath and behave in three hopes. As much as I fondly remember the events and the story they choose to tell in FE:TH, dropping Byleth so the lords aren't constantly flickering between teaching them basic strategy as apart of the game and leading their respective countries off screen. To utter fascination with them to the point they loose their own agency whenever Byleth around asking them to make decisions the leaders have no problem doing otherwise, especially when Byleth wasn't their teacher. Sorry for that mini rant, but Byleth running around acting like a master tactician touting "whats my strategy" when every group had a capable strategist in it. So happy to be playing as some random schmuck in FEW:TH and other characters have room to let their skills shine.

Thanks for explaining all this. I love the story but the prologue goes so fast you could miss things and just an understanding of Edelgard's original plan too

i can only imagine that Solon used the Tomas form to lower the guard of Monica and her guards if any. As a highly recognized figure they would know him and she may well have approached him herself (to help, if say the friendly old man collapsed etc) leaving his hidden troops to take out her guard and then he knocks her out as that distracts her (potentially while she tries to protect him). no clue if that holds up with what we know but it at least sounds somewhat justifiable.?

Have you ever considered making a follow up to this video?

It could be that Solon used the disguise of Tomas to catch Monica off guard or lead her somewhere when kidnapping her, after all he is disguised as a long-lived member of the church who is seen as trustworthy and helpful to most of the students (from Ashe and i think Lysithea s accounts, alongside his old Three houses scene with Claude in Golden deer and general statements on him.) going as Solon or some other agartan going would lead to either more suspicion (Cornelia/Cleobulus or Arundel/Thales suddenly visit garreg mach and a student goes missing? Doesn't seem like a good plan.) Or failing by being obviously suspicious as unfamiliar sights that would leave her either on guard or could be spotted as agarthans leaving the church more on guard.

In regards to Solon kidnapping Monica while still disguised as Tomas, I think there's a third option that you're missing. As others have already pointed out Tomas was someone that Monica you and therefore wouldn't have a reason to be guarded against especially since the man had a very good reputation in the academy. Let's be completely honest, most people wouldn't think it's very strange to run into an old professor especially if it was one they got along with. Most people if they had the time would be more than happy to accompany that Professor for a little bit, that's who Tomas was too many students.

Part of me hopes that one day we'll learn what happened to Shez in the original timelines. Did they die at Byleth's hands with the rest of their group or did something else happen?

14:00 Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the reason he stayed as Tomas was that he could not simply take the form and leave it ar will. I mean to polymorph into another person's form, they must transmute so much of their body that they cannot do so without killing the person... and they don't have enough left to do it again. That's why Monica is safe until it's time for Kronya to become Monica because Monica has to be kept fresh until it's time to transmut Kronya. ALSO this means once Solan becomes Tomas, he must STAY AS TOMAS as much as possible because every time ge changes back to Solan, he risks not being able to turn back into Tomas, because there's a finite supply of the material components necessary for the polymorph.