Let’s Talk: Characters in FE Three Houses

There's a giant fanbase growing around Fire Emblem Three Houses which includes both long-time fans and newcomers to the series. Whatever it is, wherever you go, you'll always see memes, fanart, analysis and 'best girl' topics trending around the larger FE discussion. I can't even begin to tell you the amount of recommended YouTube videos I get for Three Houses analysis, secrets, extended gameplay, outfit differences, post-game features, etc.

It's just so freaking overwhelming! But do I hate it? Not at all! I love the game and the discussion around it. It'll be great though if I had a lot of people around me to just head out and talk about the game over coffee. Instead, I see internet strangers discussing some of my favourite characters. Worse still, I see them sometimes slander their sacred names! SACRILEGIOUS!

Now, I admit, not every character is well written in Fire Emblem. I mean, you have fans for Hubert, Caspar, Lorenz, Ignatz, and the like but come on, some of them are just bland in comparison to others. I personally only played the Black Eagles house so far and so, I wouldn't really know ALL the characters fully but I can give you my read on some of the best ones the game has to offer.

Just FYI though, I haven't yet touched Dimitri, Dedue, Claude, Hilda and Raphael so I honestly can't talk about them because of that. Also, we can't forget about the other characters restricted for the Black Eagles route. Just don't expect them to come up in this article that much. I might write another one in the future once I've seen them through each route.

Obviously: MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW

Firstly, let's discuss my wife Edelgard. Literally. I chose to marry her. So she's my main girl. Not the best girl as I've previously revealed but still the main waifu.

I've been reading around that Edelgard is apparently the best written female Lord class character of the series. While I struggle to think of other female Lord class main characters, I can't complain about that notion. She is indeed a very endearing character. She's a girl with a tragic past that was 'groomed' to incite a war, hell bent on driving her ideals home and is willing to be drenched in the sins involving such grand schemes for the sake of the greater good. She is literally the female Le Louche but instead of overall peace, she believes her ideals are better than that of the others.

If you observe the game objectively, you honestly cannot refute her thinking. This ties in to the struggles of others like Sylvain or Lysithea or even Bernadetta which really gets you rooting for her if you do decide that she is in the right. Now, while killing is obviously not what anyone would prefer, it is the quickest solution. Which is what Edelgard is trying to do. She's trying to save the world from an ever growing 'threat' and if you have to take lives to do so, then so be it.

Outsiders think she's gone nuts! People think she's the main antagonist! But if you actually play her path, you can see that the her character actually goes down a darker path for the other routes. She doesn't have Byleth in those routes after all. And I know there isn't a canonical love interest but honestly, it seems like Edelgard is the first choice if there was one. She grows from wanting to use you to looking up to you for guidance. She's decisive in battle but extremely vulnerable to her closest allies. She may seem uptight but that's because it's required of her position.

She's probably the most morally grey character in the entire game and because of how she carries herself and how she progresses through the story, I honestly think she's the best written character in the game.

But of course, we shouldn't take the light away from other fantastic characters. I love Bernadetta and in fact, Bernadetta and Marianne both share a similar theme revolving around family trauma and how that affected them growing up. In Bernadetta's case, she was abused by her father for the sole purpose of training her to be an obedient wife so that they could marry into higher nobility. For Marianne, she was discriminated against and treated horribly for having a Crest which bears the sins of her ancestor. Due to these issues, Bernadetta grows up as a social recluse as she gets comfortable around the fact that she gets tied to a chair for hours on end or locked in a room just so she would learn to submit to the demands of her future husband. Marianne ends up having negative self esteem and constantly blames herself for the misfortune of others because people have constantly been gaslighting her into believing that everything bad that happens, happens because of her Crest.

It's a crazy thing to learn about their backstories and how it shaped them to be who they are and honestly, how creepy it is to see that they're actually FINE with the fact that they've gone through incredibly traumatic experiences. They don't blame anyone, they don't really complain. They've very accepting of their fates. Towards the end of their story arcs, Bernadetta experiences more of the world thanks to her friends and Marianne comes to realise her Crest is in fact, not cursed.

They go through a LOT and come up on top. Character arcs 101.

I realise now that the article is a little longer than I wanted it to be so I'll do a few quick fire rounds for some other characters.

Lysithea doesn't get to live a long life and her character traits are very much actually defined from that one fact. She demands people treat her like an adult despite being the youngest at the start of the game, she loves sweets but doesn't like admitting it and she absolutely hates when people write off her accomplishments as stemming from talent rather than hard work. She works hard and tries to live like an adult because she knows that she will never get to experience that life. She doesn't want to be treated as a child because she's mentally rushing into her adulthood due to her shortened lifespan. It's almost tear jerking to watch her story cutscenes knowing this because Lysithea has to bear this fate all on her own.

Which is why she's the only character that can actually be recruited to the Black Eagles house post timeskip as Edelgard shares a similar fate to her but is also actively working to prevent that from happening to anyone else moving forward. It's an ideal that Lysithea can honestly understand and get behind.

Placeholder image cause no one wants to see the male S supports apparently. On a side not, holy hell Hilda!

Sylvain constantly flirts with women because he believes that they're only ever interested in his status and Crest. I don't blame him. The guy's brother got disowned for being born without a Crest, tries to revolt against this status quo but ends up turning into a monster and gets felled by the Church. The drive for status, wealth and the Crests is so deeply rooted in society that Sylvain himself cannot tell fact from fiction. So how does he deal with it? Flirt with women and break their hearts; float through life like an expected noble.

How about Felix? He has a horrible relationship with his dad because his brother died defending the royal family. But instead of showing remorse or mourning his son's death, his dad simply said he died with honour and left it at that.

There's just too many characters to talk about! All of them are certainly great in their own right and if you love a character that most people hate, more power to you. You get to keep him/her to yourself!