Discussion FireEmblemThreeHouses / TropesEToM

I made a big giant edit to this page.

Spoiler handling: Where possible, I replaced spoiler tags with careful wording. In particular, many can be rendered unnecessary by referring to Edelgard as the Flame Emperor. Furthermore, because Silver Snow is a default route available from the start and Silver Snow is a secret hidden villain route that has to be unlocked, spoiler-tagging SS while openly discussing CF is exactly backwards. I also reworded all non-spoilered references to the Flame Emperor to remove personal pronouns, since that's a spoiler.

Example ordering: As we discussed in the forum and related to the above, it is preferable to list examples in the order SS, AM, VW, CF, (CS).

I replaced "Nabatean" with "dragon" because they dragons are frequently called dragons, but are never referred to as Nabateans.

I also removed all quotation marks around those who slither in the dark, because that isn't their name, it's a description.

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I also removed some tropes:

• Earn Your Bad Ending: Downplayed example given it doesn't strictly lead into an actual bad ending. The story scene from the Black Eagles route in which Edelgard is coronated has an alternate version which can only be seen if her & Byleth's C+ support hasn't been seen, requiring the player to avoid gathering support points altogether and neglect unlocking the support conversations between both parties during multiple story chapters. In it, Edelgard briefly excuses herself to Byleth as she leaves to Enbarr alone, thus locking the player into the Silver Snow branch of said path.

I get where the troper is coming from, but this isn't an example of EYBE. Also you can make this happen even if you do have a C+ support by declining to go to Enbarr with Edelgard.

• False Prophet: Archbishop Rhea tells Byleth to sit on a throne in the Holy Tomb to receive a divine revelation from the goddess, Sothis. The real reason Rhea wants Byleth to sit on the throne is to complete her plan for them to "become" Sothis, to complete the change she believes started when their hair and eyes turned green. She apologizes to Byleth for this in the Silver Snow route. This trope is downplayed in that Rhea's goals, while selfish, are well-meaning, and her claim about a revelation was at least Metaphorically True. She also describes it to Byleth by saying she believes with the revelation they will understand everything about who they are, which is more directly true as to what she expects to happen (though her knowledge here is, at the time unknownst to her, flawed).

This isn't what the trope means.

• (Foreshadowing)
  • In the English dub, the Flame Emperor has a very peculiar speaking cadence, with enunciated S-sounds, and a very clipped tone. Rather like Edelgard.

This is just voice acting.

• During Edelgard's declaration of war in non-Crimson Flower routes, it's possible to notice some discrepancies between what history books in the monastery's library say about the historical events mentioned versus what it is claimed. Namely, she says that the Church of Seiros divided the Empire to make a Kingdom, and then divided said Kingdom to make the Alliance, yet the books mention the Church acted as a mediator between both sides after the War of the Eagle and Lion, and in the Alliance's case, at no point is it mentioned that the Church was involved during its founding. This contrast hints that there is one more version of the story only Edelgard seems to have access to, which paints Rhea's actions (and by extension, her kin and the Church's) in a completely different light compared to what most people believe in.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to be foreshadowing. In any case, Edelgard is using irredentist rhetoric to rally people into supporting a war. There's no evidence this is supposed to be remotely true, and indeed the narrative frames her speech as at best a biased inference. Furthermore, the DLC confirms that the Church's version of history is the correct one.

• (Gameplay and Story Integration)

  • Meanwhile, there's Hilda and Cyril's paralogue, "Dividing the World". It is straightforward enough if one chooses the Blue Lions and Golden Deer, as it's a simple pre-timeskip paralogue. It's when choosing the Black Eagles that it gets tricky. Hilda and Cyril cannot be recruited into the Black Eagles unless Byleth sides with the Church after the Holy Tomb Incident, which occurs very shortly before the timeskip. To allow players a chance to play the paralogue, it will transcend the timeskip on the Silver Snow route, making it the only paralogue to do so. And, of course, it's entirely unavailable on Crimson Flower.

This isn't GASI.

• After Byleth tries to use the Divine Pulse to stop Jeralt's assassination and fails, Sothis explains that if a Divine Pulse fails to change something, then it is determined by fate. In-game, the Divine Pulse cannot be used to reroll hit or crit chances without changing your strategy, and it retains the level-up rolls made; in other words, they're fated to happen.

They're not fated to happen, because you can take different actions. This mechanic simply means that if you take the exact same actions, you will get the exact same outcome.

• (Medieval Stasis)
  • On the Crimson Flower route, you also see how the Almyran warships that arrive to reinforce Claude have cannons and gunports, which were approximately 16th century inventions. With how wars on Fódlan are mostly fought using the same weapons and armor from a millenia ago with nary a firearm to be seen, Fódlan seems to be, technologically, strangely out of step with other nations. That said, characters from outside of Fódlan never refer to the outside world as having more advanced technology. Further, these same ships are seen in other maps used by pirates that are explicitly not Almyrans (indeed, ships with this design are seen in the background of the Aquatic Capital even when battles are not taking place, making it seem they and their weapons are not considered unusual in Fódlan).

One, Fódlan is Early Modern, not Medieval. Two, the example argues with itself.

• Mundane Utility: The availability of White Magic is great enough that a book in Abyss notes it decreases motivation to develop medical technologies that can do the same thing White Magic spells do.

That's not Mundane Utility. Indeed, this is White Magic being used for its intended purpose.

• My Country, Right or Wrong: Played with once the timeskip occurs and the war starts. Various characters loyal to their houses or the church will stay with their side even if they have doubts about the decisions the sides make and even if they're the antagonists of the route. However, most characters recruited by Byleth will be willing to go against said nations out of their loyalty to Byleth should they decide to oppose them. "Most" in that, depending on the route, even some recruited characters will leave, loyalty to Byleth be damned.

This is the opposite of MCROW.

• (Mythology Gag):
  • Quite a lot of the regional names within Fódlan are references to previous Fire Emblem games. Among them:
    • Dagda, Brigid, Derdriu, and the Tailtean Plains are named for characters from the Jugdral continent.
    • The Kingdom of Faerghus is likewise (though a little mangled) for Fergus, while the Leicester Alliance is usually pronounced as 'Lester'.
    • The Oghma Plateau is named for Ogma.
    • Sacred Gwenhyfar is one for Princess Guinivere.
    • To the east of Fódlan is a kingdom called Almyra.
    • The great Myrddin Bridge within the Alliance is named after the true identity of the bard Elffin.

These are just reused mythological references

• In reverse of the regional naming, you cannot spell the name 'Bernadetta' without spelling the militant region at Elibe, 'Bern'.

That's a stretch.

• This game's dragons are known as the dragons. In the Elibe duology, Arcadia, the last sanctuary of dragonkind on the continent, is located in the Nabata Desert.

No they're not, they're called Children of the Goddess.

• The relationship between Caspar and Linhardt is a throwback to the one between Ike and Soren. Both involve a Childhood Friendship between a blue-haired physical fighter with a sense of justice, and a green(ish)-haired anti-social mage. Post-timeskip, Caspar and Linhardt's appearances also possess more than a passing similarity to Ike and Soren. Both pairs of characters also happen to have a paired ending in which they Walk The Earth together.

This is also a stretch. And Caspar and Linhardt don't really resemble Ike and Soren at all.

• One of the main rewards for clearing the Cindered Shadows DLC is the Chalice of Beginnings, apparently crafted by Sothis; this item removes a unit's effective weaknesses and gives them the Counterattack skill. In Fire Emblem Heroes, this is almost the exact same effect of Sothis' own weapons, which remove her weakness to Dragon-effective weapons^* she is still weak to Anti-Infantry in her base form and Anti-Armor in her Christmas variant and gives her Distant Counter.

Cindered Shadows dropped four days before Sothis became available in Heroes; a mythology gag refers to something that came before. This might be a valid example on Heroes, but in that case it should be listed on Videogame.Fire Emblem Heroes.

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