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narukouzumakinamikaze · 4 years

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The problem with the Golden Deer route

Disclaimer: this is only based off of the Golden Deer Route. I did not play the Blue Lions Route or the Black Eagles Route.

So how do I start... the Golden Deer route was presented as a route that was going to be more Lore focused. It’s easy to pick up on with claudes character being heavily interested in fodlans history as well as his questioning of Rhea and the church. I have no problem with Lore being the main focus of this route... when I think more about the problems of this route, it all stems from a lack of relevancy. None of the characters are relevant to anything going on in this route.. Claude himself has many different aspects that have nothing to do with one another or the main focus that the route is about.

Problem One: The Alliance

The Alliance is there just to have a third house and legitimately nothing more. The idea is that the golden deer route is about lore, but the alliance is new and has nothing to do with the history of Fódlan at all. It’s not used for history and it’s not there because of history. Not only that, but during part 2, the most that Edelgard’s war did to the alliance, was cause infighting that hasn’t been shown or indicated to have affected anything going on in alliance territory. There’s no indication that the in fighting is affecting Leonie, Ignatz, or Raphaels villages. Hell, the only person who is affected is Lorenz, and he’s only slightly affected but it’s not given any focus and is solved extremely quick. There’s no focus on it, and it’s not important to anything going on

Problem Two: The Students

Much like the Alliance, the students are just there because they were part of the Golden Deer house and legitimately nothing more. Lysithea and Lorenz are given a small tidbit of being relevant, but it’s never expanded upon or is solved immediately. I don’t know why they’re all fighting this war, and None of the characters care about fodlans history or Lore or were affected by it for them knowing it to matter. They are just there to have units, but they don’t have any place in the story, because they don’t have anything to do with whatever is going on. Even if the idea is that they’re there for the generic reason that it’s not going to stop unless someone stops it, it just means that they can be replaced by legitimately anyone, and nothing will change because their motivation is just that bland.

Problem Three: Claude

There is so much about Claude that i like. But nothing about him is ever expanded upon or relevant to anything. His entire character is mixed up of different things that don’t matter to one another, so he comes off as disjointed.

He wants to know fodlans history, but his goal is to open fodlans borders because people are ignorant of other people which has nothing to do with the Lore or history of Fódlan as suggested when hildas brother and Nader had drinks and didn’t have to speak on the history between them to reconcile.

But then he doesn’t know anything about Almyra or it’s history besides they don’t like people from Fódlan so his talk with Cyril makes him come off as ignorant to what’s actually happening in his own country and it’s past and it’s never given any attention to his actual goals. He never talks about making Almyra a better place, or even making Fódlan a better place. All he talks about is opening boarders and nothing else as if that alone makes Fódlan and Almyra a better place. He has talk about peace but it’s never expanded upon at all besides, peace is good.

Almyra has no importance to the story whatsoever besides being where Claude is from and being his secret

He forgets about those that slither In the dark for some reason despite his character being curious, and his entire character in part two isn’t about wanting to know more about them or being curious about things that have been presented to him before like those who slither

He’s suspicious of the church for no real reason other than people worship the gods which has nothing to do with opening up borders. It’s one thing to challenge them for this, but it’s another to be suspicious of them when your suspicions is based on opening up borders. And then it never matters to his character after the first part

and then he leaves the country to someone who doesn’t know how to run a country, with the hopes that because they’re friends everything will work out in his favor, which is based on the fact that Byleth is a blank slate and has no opinion of their own.

There is so much to Claude, but none of these things matter at all to anything and they don’t work in the story even though they should work. It’s all disjointed and his thoughts are never expanded upon. His character boils down to, Im using you for my very generic goal that isn’t important to anything going on and I’m never going to expand on how I’m going to do it by knowing fodlans history or at all, but it’s a very noble goal and I’m fighting Edelgard because she’s in the way a bit. His goal is incredibly generic and it’s never given any attention in the story so it comes off as cheap.

His character is also underdeveloped. We don’t know anything about Claude besides the basics. He was othered in Almyra so he doesn’t like racism so he leaves Almyra to lead the alliance and wants to learn this history of Fódlan to open its borders so everyone can accept everyone. we don’t get anything else about Claude. We don’t know why he cares about fodlan, why he decided to lead the alliance, We aren’t told How he’s going to do it, how he was going to use blyeth, his relationship with his grandfather, his relationship with the alliance as a whole, his year in Fódlan after being accepted as his grandfathers heir, His thoughts on Almyra and them invading Fódlan. Everything about him is just generic and never expanded upon. It makes him come off as incredibly bland and generic because he’s never challenged as a character or goes through any character development. He’s simply a character that doesn’t have any actual flaws that affects anything or challenges the story.

His relationship with the other characters also comes off as impersonal. I never felt like any of his supports brought him closer to anyone. The only supoort that felt like Claude actually bonded with anyone, was Petra, and she wasn’t even part of his house

His ending is also a slap in the face. So after all this he just leaves Fodlan to go back to Almyra. for what? How did his time in Fodlan help him with whatever he wanted to do in Almyra? Did he become a better leader? I don’t know, they don’t show us or tell us anything about claudes plans in Almyra. Why didn’t he go back to Almyra when the war started when he knew he wasn’t going to stay?if he didn’t have plans of ruling fodlan, what problem did he have with Edelgard? How does Edelgard’s rule stop him from opening fodlans borders?(even looking up The black eagles route, Edelgard didn’t have any problem with opening up borders so others can come in, and when she beats him he just goes back to Almyra anyway)

Problem Four: Edelgard and Dimitri

For a story being told in three different parts, these two characters matter nothing to the golden deer route or Claude. And okay, people have told me that the characters aren’t supposed to matter to one another’s routes. so why should I care about them... Although Edelgard starts that war, we know nothing of her goals or her character, which puts the scene when you end up killing her as awkward. the scene feels out of place because why would she have wanted me to walk with her? Because I have the sword of creation? Why is it framed as it’s supposed to be personal, when I know nothing about this character at all. It doesn’t help that her ideals and goals are never set up in this route, so her entire character just comes off as an afterthought because the golden deer route has nothing to do with her.

It’s the same with Dimitri. His death was the most pointless thing in the entire route after your fathers. Why did Dimitri come back? People say he’s lost his mind, but there’s zero focus on Dimitri at all in this route for me to know this. How would I know he lost his mind? Because he showed up at gronder saying kill everyone when we’re in the way of his real target? We weren’t friends so him wanting to kill us as we are in the way of his real target doesn’t come off as out of his mind. There was zero narrative reason why Dimitri had to show up in this route, because he doesn’t serve a purpose. His death get no recognition at all, and just as soon a hilda says something, nobody reacts and nobody cares. Why have him pop up for absolutely no reason at all. This part pissed me off so much. Because as much as I didn’t care for Dimitri, he was presented as part of the main character lords. Why was he thrown away as if he was a side character

Problem Five: Irrelevant plot threads

What was up with the Death Knight? Why was he presented as this extremely strong threat when he wasn’t? Why was it presented as he had some vendetta against Byleth when there was nothing between these two characters? What was the point of this character, when he didn’t add anything to the story? He’s Mercedes brother, but unless you recruited her into your house, you wouldn’t have known. And even learning this, nothing is done with it.

Jeralt’s death... I’m sorry, but his death was pointless..... there was no reason for his death other than... Byleth needed to show emotion I guess and parents have to die.. was it so that Byleth would go after Kronya and then be trapped in that dimension and fuse with Sothis? Because there were infinite ways in which that could have happened without Jeralts death and the impact would be the exact same. his death didn’t actually need to happen for those events to transpire.

Sothis. So we know who she is, and how she came to Byleth and whatnot.. but what was the point of having her be awake inside Byleth? What purpose was that for? She didn’t reveal anything or have us question anything or do anything. So why did she have to be awake when her being awake didn’t serve an actual purpose. She didn’t know who she was, but why didn’t she have her memory? Maybe I missed something but I don’t remember that being explained.

Devine pulse.. what was the point of this mechanic when it only served in two cutscenes and nothing else... we don’t see blyeth abuse it, we don’t see any consequence of using it, It’s never brought up after that one time... it’s never explained, when Thales was able to intercept it it’s glossed over... it’s just there for no reason.

Rheas kidnapping. What was the purpose of Edelgard kidnapping Rhea? She waged war on the church so why didn’t she kill Rhea when she had the chance? She worked with those who slither, did they know that Edelgard had Rhea? If they didn’t, why didn’t Edelgard tell them? If so, why didn’t the kill her or use her blood for their experiments? What was the point of Edelgard kidnapping Rhea, if it served no purpose. You can say it made blyeth join the war, but blyeth didn’t know that Edelgard had Rhea at this point and it was a speculation. It didn’t need to actually be a thing.

Lysithea being experimented on. Its important to her supports and brought up once in the actual games, but it ultimately doesnt matter. We never dwell on it, we dont address it, it's not a story beat. Its just a random fact about Lysithea that serves no purpose or goes anywhere

Problem Six: Purpose of the Story

When I say purpose of the story, I mean the purpose of the events that led to endgame nemesis. The game spent more time on Edelgard and her war, than it did setting up Those who slither and Nemesis, who are the real enemy of the game. And it’s not like the game couldn’t do that. In the first part, they show up a couple of times to do things.

Flayn was kidnapped for her blood, but it went nowhere..... Tomas gives Claude books that weren’t in the library, but that went nowhere.... Thales was able to interject when Blythe used divine pulse to save her dad, that went nowhere... Thales said they still needed Kronya alive, but that went nowhere... Tomas was able to trap you in another dimenssion with no escape, but that went nowhere... in the second part they drop javelins of light on the fort... that was pointless and also went nowhere...

What I’m getting at, is that when there was something regarding those that slither, nothing happened and nothing mattered. So what was the purpose of all these threads, when they ended up not mattering to the endgame goal of Nemesis?

On top of that, we spend so much time on Edelgard’s war, only for it to mean nothing. The real story was given to us by Rhea. the real enemies were those that slither, who wants to kill Rhea because she’s the last child of Sothis, who killed everyone except those who slither, because those who slither killed her children and turned their bones into weapons and their hearts into crests.. this has nothing to do with Edelgard’s war at all.

So how come nothing built up to this? Why did we spend so much time with Edelgard war instead of building up those who slither if they were going to be the real enemy of this route. Edelgard’s war served no real purpose to this route and spending so much time on it hindered the story that should have been told.

Problem Seven: Byleth

This one is hard to put into words because I know why Blyeth has a blank personality. I get it and I understand it, but it doesn’t work because blyeth comes off as having zero agency. All the relationships feels superficial and her being a teacher is contrived.

Blyeth as a teacher made no sense. Is this a nitpick? Probably. Should I accept that it’s a plot device? Yeah sure. but that doesn’t mean I can’t criticize that it was nonsensical.. I mean, you’re telling me that the only position that Rhea could think of to give blyeth was a teaching job without any credentials. I know Rhea wanted to keep blyeth close, but she couldn’t have been an assistant, or a guardian on missions or something. And not only is it contrived, but the fact that being a teacher is only relevant to the class she chooses instead of being an actual teacher to everyone else evaluate to point of blyeth being a teacher.

On top of that, I found it hard to really care about blyeth as a character, because they were a blank slate. When she wanted to find Rhea, it was Claude who had to tell us that we want to find her to know more about us. Why does Claude have to tell us something that we should have already known? I never got the impression that blyeth wanted to ask questions about herself, because blyeth herself is never presented as wanting to do something for herself. Everyone else is asking questions about blyeth, but blyeth herself is never the one asking relevant questions.

And that’s something I noticed. Blyeth never does anything for themselves, they always go along with others want of them. Why would blyeth accept being archbishop and ruling over Fódlan? That doesn’t seem like something that blyeth would want, but Claude just ups and leaves and she has no choice but to take it because reasons. If I’m just being forced to go along with what others makes me, I lose all agency as a character in the game. Because I never have a choice in the matter

Problem Eight: One note characters

Every character is one note. All the characters are based around one thing.. Ignatz and his painting, Raphael and his sister, Lorenz and being a noble, Marianne and her self pity, Hilda and her brother, Lysithea and her attitude, leonie and Jeralt, Claude and his secrets.

They try to give theses characters some variety to their one note features, like Ignatz in being a knight over being a painter. But all of Ignatz supports revolve around painting and the goddess, so it seems like all Ignatz have to his character is just painting and wanting to paint the goddess. Is there nothing else? And I like Ignatz character, and I would have liked to see more of it outside of his love to paint. Even when they try to do something other than the one note aspects of the characters like lysithea and her sweets, they overplay it so much that it nds up becoming just another one note trait about the characters.

(And this isn’t a bad thing because Felix is the best character in the game. All his supports are fundamentally different from one another despite the fact that he brings it all back to training.. his support with lysithea is about how he doesn’t like sweets. His support with Annette is sweet and how he likes her singing. His support with Bernadetta was hilarious. His support with Sylvain was cute. His support with Mercedes was sweet and talked about their brothers. His supoort eith Ashe is about how he is as a knight and also talked about his brother. Like despite his character being one note, they give us different aspects to Felix as a character, that I feel the golden deer characters lacked. Even Sylvain had something more even though it revolves around girls and his hatred of crests. Because that all boils down to a bigger problem.)

Problem Nine: Set Up

So part one was a set up to Edelgard’s war, but Edelgard’s war wasn’t a set up to those that slither. I already explained in purpose of the story that what was presented in part one of those who slither, amounted to absolutely nothing to the golden deer route. And this is a problem I have.

The set up in this game was terrible. Because the big bad are those who slither for this route, it should have set them up as the big bad. Yes we get a glimpse of them in part one, but nothing comes out of those glimps’s of them. Instead, we waste our time dealing with Edelgard, instead of focusing on those in the background.. how am I supposed to feel, when those who slither are announced through a random letter from Hubert? That it was built up and earned? Because we were presented with these people in part one. The fact that Claude never factored the idea that Edelgard was working with peoooe in the background makes no sense as someone who is a schemer and curious about fodlans history.

for a route that’s presented as the Lore Route, there’s hardly any Lore being told. Instead of us learning things through the story, we have to go through a war that doesn’t matter, and then be told these things once Rhea comes back. Someone said this game suffers from tell don’t show. And the set up for the slithers are ruined because the game would rather tell us through Rhea exposition, than show us throughout the game.

Problem Ten: World Building

This world feels incredibly small. For a game that has one of its characters main motivation be another country, that country feels insignificant in the way that it didn’t need to be included because there was zero focus on it in the story. Why should I care about Almyra, when I know nothing about Almyra. Why should I care that Claude wants to unite fodlan and Almyra, when we’re not shown that people from fodlan have a hatred against those from Almyra. (Maybe I wasn’t paying attention to the NPC’S because I remember one of them talking about staying away from people like Dedue). What is the point of focusing on this country, when said country doesn’t serve the plot in any way. Hell even though Edelgard is threatening petra, because we don’t see anything being affected except for fodlan, the story feels contained.

I recruited petra on my team, and her paralogue was about getting her countries backing. But getting that supoort doesn’t add to the story in any way. We don’t see those soldiers at the monestary. Claude doesn’t mention their support. It’s like there was no point of doing the paralougue because it doesn’t add or change anything. Why have petra be from another country, but have said country not matter to fodlan?

If the game wanted to focus predominantly on fodlan, then it shouldn’t have tried to incorporate other countries that weren’t going to get any type of relevance to the plot. Fodlan is the focus and Edelgard war only affects fodlan and those who slither only affects fodlan. So why try to branch out and then do nothing with it for the story.

Anyway, these are my ten problems that I found within the golden deer route. Of course these we just mere opinions of how I took the game so I’m not presenting this as a fact. I don’t think I’m going to play the other routes because I don’t care about Dimitri or Edelgard and I don’t feel like I’m missing anything regarding the story for me to feel like I need to know their sides.

#fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #fe3h

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